"The city is indeed of vast extent . . .
the whole ground, over a space of five or six miles in diameter, is
covered with heaps of ruins--ruins which at first make no impression, so
complete is their dilapidation." He asserts the great antiquity of these
ruins, because he found the very highways of the ancient city to be
composed of broken bricks and pottery, the debris left by earlier
populations. "This continent," he says (page 43), "is the land of
mysteries; we here enter an infinity whose limits we cannot estimate. .
. . I shall soon have to quit work in this place. The long avenue on
which it stands is lined with ruins of public buildings and palaces,
forming continuous lines, as in the streets of modern cities. Still, all
these edifices and balls were as nothing compared with the vast
substructures which strengthened their foundations."
We find the strongest resemblances to the works of the ancient European
races: the masonry is similar; the cement is the same; the sculptures
are alike; both peoples used the arch; in both continents we find
bricks, glassware, and even porcelain (North American Review, December,
1880, pp.
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