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government or individuals, come not from purchase or treaty with the red man, but are identical with that original power or right-call it whichever men may-of civilized humanity over the savage race-the right by which the European was justified in first setting foot on American shores, and European sovereigns justified in giving grants of lands within it. "Even be it conquest," says Marshall, "it is not for the courts of this country to question the validity of this title, or to sustain one which is incompatible with it." See "Johnson and Graham's Lessee vs. McIntosh," February term, 1823, (8 Wheaton's Reports, 543-605.) See also, "The Cherokee Nation vs. State of Georgia," January term, 1831, (5 Peters's Reports, 1-80.) Also, "Worcester vs. State of Georgia," January term, 1832, (6 Peters's Reports, 515–597.)

Now the study of these ruled cases we commend to the authors of this unruled "case" before us, in order that henceforth their zeal may be, as St. Paul recommends, "coupled with knowledge ;" and that the good and Christian women,* doubtless, whose names stand first in the address to the Seneca nation, and who, by sub-committee, go on to instruct the president of the United States, "the house of representatives, and the governors of the states of New York and Massachusetts," as to their duty under this proclaimed treaty, may at least thus become somewhat better fitted for their task; and if they will not "keep silence" in halls of teaching, as their best friend recommends to them, at any rate that they may speak "discreetly," and not lay down the law in open contradiction to one whom the public have, hitherto, at least, distinguished as THE EXPOUNDER OF THE CONSTITUTION CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL.

In this light, then, do we find ourselves compelled, as faithful reviewers, to hold up to public condemnation the Quaker "case" before us-as a plan of Indian benevolence, ill-judged, contrary to all experience, and as such condemned over and over again by the nation for these thirty years past

* Their " Address," dated, "Farmington, New York, 6th month 19th, 1840," thus concludes: "We have at this time concluded to address the governor of Massachusetts, the governor of New York, and the house of representatives of the United States, on your behalf, etc.

(Signed,)

Rachel Hicks, jr., etc. etc.
Maria Farrington,
Dorothy Golden,
Deborah Wharton."

+"His proudest epitaph may be written in a line: Here lies the expounder of the constitution of the United States.'"- Story's Discourse.

as a question of law, unconstitutional in the last degree— as a measure of public policy, utterly revolutionary and lastly, as a specimen of reasoning, unsound from the foundation, in substituting, whether ignorantly or wilfully, the "Ogden Company," as those with whom they are contending in the question of Indian emigration, instead of their real antagonist, whom they have hitherto found too strong for them—THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT; and in this position, a false one, surely, for candid men and peaceful citizens, we cannot but leave them.

ART. X.- Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. By JOHN L. STEPHENS, Author of "Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petræa, and the Holy Land." Illustrated by numerous engravings. New York: 1841. Harper and Brothers. 2 vols. 8vo.*

"BEING intrusted by the president with a special confidential mission to Central America, on Wednesday, the third of October, 1839, I embarked on board the British brig Mary Ann, Hampton, master, for the Bay of Honduras ;" such is the concise account given by Mr. Stephens of the time and circumstances of his departure on the tour of which the work now before us is the result. What this "special confidential mission," with which he was intrusted, may have been, is of no moment, so far as respects his work; but that the author was invested with an official character, is a most important circumstance, since without it he would have been stopped in the very beginning of his enterprise, and the public would have been deprived of a great amount of most valuable information, long needed by all who take any interest in the aboriginal history of our vast continent. As the author remarks, "volumes without number have been written to account for the first peopling of America," but very few descriptive works, deserving full credit, have as yet been published, and of these the best are too costly to be much known in our country; nor, in fact, does any one exist to be compared to this of Mr. Stephens, which unites both literary and scientific

*The appearance of this work but a few days only before the publication of the Review, must be our apology for not devoting more of our pages to an account of its most interesting contents.

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merit of a higher order. From the preface we learn that it "embraces a journey of nearly three thousand miles in the interior of Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, including visits to eight ruined cities, with full illustrations, taken from drawings on the spot by Mr. Catherwood."

But Mr. Stephens does not content himself with giving us descriptions of those wonderful remains of a past civilization; he does not merely place a panoramic view of them before our eyes; he takes us by the hand, and leads us into the midst of the ruins themselves, through a country whose actual condition does not less excite our curiosity, by the splendor of nature, and the bounties she has lavished upon it, and the ignorance and misery of its inhabitants, than by the mysterious cloud which is drawn over the origin of its ancient cities and the constructers of their mighty edifices.

In his character of author, Mr. Stephens is well known by his former works as a delightful travelling companion; he possesses in an extraordinary degree the power of imparting to his reader that charm of his own disposition which enables him to make every occurrence a pleasant one. Unlike most travellers in the tropical regions, whose spirits sink under privation of comforts beneath a vertical sun, and from the contrast, perhaps, which is ever before them, of the grandeur of nature with the wretchedness of man, of the vigor of plants with the languor of animals, Mr. Stephens is never disheartened, nor ever out of humor-whatever may be the désagremens, when once over, they are remembered only to be laughed at. Preserving that happy temper of mind which characterizes the school-boy age, and which finds a bright side in every adventure, however adverse, he reminds us of Beranger's "le petit homme gris," who, happen what may, is always singing his refrain:

"Et dit, moi je m'en

Et dit, moi je m'en

Ma foi; moi je m'en ris."

In the same good humor, Mr. Stephens takes us along, now, in his British brig, to Balize, and thence towards Copan; now, in a steamer, along a coast covered with a dense forest to the water's edge, and up the "Rio Dolce," which, as its name imports, was a Rio dolce-a fairy scene of Titan land; and now, on a mule, over mountains and through streams him, a journey all fatigue and danger to his readers, one

to

all beauty and delight; the hardships and wants which he suffered are told in a manner that denotes an unwillingness even to appeal to our compassion, while we are admitted to a full share of his pleasures and enjoyments. When a respect is paid to him, he assumes nothing for himself, personally, but puts it all to the account of his official station; thus, in speaking of a salute, fired at the time of his departure from Balize, he says, "The reader will perhaps ask how I bore all these honors. I had visited many cities, but it was the first time that flags and cannon announced to the world that I was going away. I was a novice, but I endeavored to behave as if I had been brought up to it, and, to tell the truth, my heart beat and I felt proud; for these were honors paid to my country and not to me."

But we cannot follow Mr. Stephens and his companion through all their "Incidents of Travel;" we must hasten to the examination of those subjects of his book, of which its title gives no promise, but, on account of which, our most anxious wishes accompanied him through his tour. After surmounting numerous difficulties, the travellers arrived at the ruins of Copan, near which there is now a village of the same name, consisting of half a dozen miserable "huts thatched with corn;" the existence of these ruins, and scarcely any thing more than that, was known before the publication of these volumes. In the "Atlas Ethnographique du Globe," mention is made of several of these antiquities. The great circus is described as a circular enclosure, surrounded by stone pyramids beautifully fluted, having at their feet figures of men and women of a colossal size, perfectly chiselled and dressed in the Castilian fashion. These descriptions, which seem to have been furnished by native writers, do not exactly agree with the beautiful engravings published from Mr. Catherwood's drawings, in the first volume of Mr. Stephens's book; the reason of it may be, that since they were described, the ruins themselves have fallen into a further state of ruin. Mr. Stephens enters into no speculations about the when, and how, and by whom this city was either built or destroyed; but he furnishes his readers with all the historical and antiquarian data which he could collect; among the latter are a plan of the ruins, and some twenty-four excellent engravings, which the author assures us are accurate and faithful representations, and so we believe them to be.

It might naturally be expected, that grand and solemn

thoughts must have arisen in the mind of our traveller at the first view of these mysterious ruins; and we have only to introduce a short passage from his book, describing the impressions they made upon him, to show that they were so in reality:

"There were," says he, "no associations connected with the place; none of those stirring recollections which hallow Rome, Athens, and

'The world's great mistress on the Egyptian plains,'

her

But architecture, sculpture, and painting-all the arts which embellish life, had flourished in this overgrown forest; orators, warriors, and statesmen- beauty, ambition, and glory had lived and passed away; and none knew that such things had been, or could tell of their past existence. Books, the records of knowledge, are silent on this theme. The city was desolate. No remnant of this race hangs round the ruins, with traditions handed down from father to son, and from generation to generation. It lay before us like a shattered bark in the midst of the ocean; her masts gone, name effaced, her crew perished, and none to tell whence she came, to whom she belonged, how long on her voyage, or what caused her destruction - her lost people to be traced only by some fancied resemblance in the construction of the vessel, and, perhaps, never to be known at all. The place where we sat, was it a citadel from which an unknown people had sounded the trumpet of war? or a temple for the worship of the God of peace? or, did the inhabitants worship the idols made with their own hands, and offer sacrifices on the stones before them? All was mystery-- dark, impenetrable mystery, and every circumstance increased it. In Egypt, the colossal skeletons of gigantic temples stand, in the unwatered sands, in all the nakedness of desolation; here, an immense forest shrouded the ruins, hiding them from sight, heightening the impression and moral effect, and giving an intensity and almost wildness to the interest."-Vol. i. p. 104.

As the antiquities of Copan are less known than most others in Central America, it may not here be out of place to give a short account of them. The ruins extend along the river Copan more than two miles. The plan which represents that part of the ruins surveyed by Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood, exhibits a principal edifice, which we must call a block, composed of various parts, which seem to have been connected together, and surrounded by walls on three sides, with the river on the other. On the north and east sides the block is limited by straight lines, and the outer walls run

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