Memoir Of An Eventful Expedition In Central America

IN the second volume of his travels in Central America—than which no
work ever published in this country, has created and maintained a higher
degree of interest, both at home and abroad—Mr. Stevens speaks with
enthusiasm of the conversations he had held with an intelligent and
hospitable Padre, or Catholic priest, of Santa Cruz del Quiche, formerly of
the village of Chajul; and of the exciting information he had received from
him, concerning immense and marvellous antiquities in the surrounding
country, which, to the present hour, remain entirely unknown to the world.
The Padre told him of vast ruins, in a deserted and desolate region, but
four leagues from Vera Paz, more extensive than Quiche itself; and of
another ruined city, on the other side of the great traversing range of the
Cordilleras, of which no account has been given. But the most stimulating
story of all, was the existence of a living city, far on the other side of the
great sierra, large and populous, occupied by Indians of the same
character, and in precisely the same state, as those of the country in
general, before the discovery of the continent and the desolating conquests
of its invaders.