^^<^::/i^x^<rz ^ /fc^tv^^- 
 
 THE 
 
 BATTLE AND THE RUINS 
 
 OF CINTLA 
 
 BY 
 
 DANIEL G. BRINTON, M. D., LL. D.. D. Sc. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF 
 
 AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS IN THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 [REPRINTED FROM THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. SEPTEMBER, 18% | 
 
 CHICAGO 
 1896
 
 THE 
 
 BATTLE AND THE RUINS 
 
 OF CINTLA 
 
 BY 
 
 DANIEL G. BRINTON, M. D., LL. D., D.Sc. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF 
 
 AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS IN THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 [REPRINTED FROM THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN, SEPTEMBER, 1896] 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 1896
 
 
 THE BATTLE AND THE RUINS OF CINTLA. 
 Bv Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 
 
 The first battle on the American continent in which horses 
 were used was that of Cintla in Tabasco, March, 1519, the 
 European troops being under the leadership of Hernando 
 Cortes. 
 
 This fact attaches something more than an ordinary historic 
 interest to the engagement, at least enough to make it desirable 
 to ascertain its precise locality and its proper name. Both of 
 these are in doubt, as well as the ethnic stock to which the 
 native tribe belonged which opposed the Spanish soldiery on 
 the occasion. I propose to submit these questions to a'^re- 
 examination, and also to describe from unpublished material 
 the ruins which, — as I believe — , mark the spot of this first im- 
 portant encounter of the two races on American soil. 
 
 The engagement itself has been described by all the his- 
 torians of Cortes' famous conquest of Mexico, as it was the first 
 brilliant incident of that adventure. We have at least four 
 accounts of it from participants. One prepared under the eye 
 of Cortes himself, one by the anonymous historian of his expe 
 dition, a third by Cortes' companion-in-arms, the redoubtable 
 Bernal Diaz del Castillo, and a fourth by Andres de Tapia. ' 
 
 The most satisfactory narrative, however, is given by the 
 chaplain of Cortes, Francisco de Gomara, and I shall briefly 
 rehearse his story, adding a few points from other contemporary 
 writers. '" 
 
 Cortes with his armada cast anchor at the mouth of the River 
 Grijalva in March, 15 19. The current being strong and the bar 
 shallow, he with about eighty men proceeded in boats up the 
 river for about two miles, when they descried on the bank a 
 large Indian village. It was surrounded with a wooden pali- 
 sade, having turrets and loopholes from which to hurl stones 
 
 1 The authorities are : 
 
 Carta de la Justicia de la Rica Villa de la Vera Cruz, July lo, 1519. This is sometimes re- 
 ferred to as Cortes' first letter. 
 Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Historia de la Conquista de la Ntieva Espana. 
 Andres de Tapia. kelacion Sobre la Conquista de la Nueva Espana. 
 Relacion Anonyma de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana. 
 
 2 Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Conquista de Mexico. I follow the Madrid edition of 
 1852.
 
 and darts. The houses within were built of tiles laid in mortar, 
 or of sun-dried brick (adobes), and were roofed with straw or 
 split trees. The chief temple had spacious rooms, and its de- 
 pendences surrounded a court yard. 
 
 The interpreter Aguilar, a Spaniard who had lived with the 
 Mayas in Yucatan, could readily speak the tongue of the vil- 
 lage, which was therefore a Mayan dialect. The natives told 
 him that the town was named Potonchan, which Aguilar trans- 
 lated " the place that smells or stinks," an etymology probably 
 correct in a general way. 
 
 The natives were distrustful, and opposed the landing of 
 the Europeans rather with words and gestures than with blows. 
 Their warriors approached Cortes in large boats, called in their 
 tongue taJuiciip, and refused him permission to land. 
 
 After some parleying, Cortes withdrew to an island in the 
 river near by, and as night drew on, he sent to the ships for re- 
 inforcements, and despatched some of the troops to look for a 
 ford from the island to the mainland ; which they easily found. 
 
 The next morning he landed some of his men by the boats, 
 and attacked the village on the water side, while another de- 
 tachment crossed the ford and making a circuit assaulted it in 
 the rear. The Indians were prepared, having sent their women 
 and children away. They were in number about four hundred, 
 and made at first a brisk resistance, but being surprised by the 
 rear assault, soon fled in dismay. No Spaniard was killed, 
 though many were wounded. 
 
 Cortes established himself in the village and landed most of 
 his troops and ten out of his thirteen horses. When his men 
 were rested and the injured had had their wounds dressed with 
 fat taken from dead Indians^ (!) he sent out three detach- 
 ments on foot to reconnoitre. 
 
 After marching a distance which is not stated, but which 
 could not have been many miles, they came to an extensive 
 plain covered with maize fields, temples and houses. This was 
 Cintla. There were many warriors gathered there, and after a 
 sharp skirmish the Spaniards fell back. 
 
 Having thus learned the ground, Cortes prepared for a decis- 
 ive battle, as also did the natives. The latter gathered at 
 Cintla in five divisions of eight thousand men each, as the chron- 
 iclers aver. 
 
 Cortes had about five hundred men including some Cuban 
 Indians. The main detachment proceeded on foot by the high 
 road, the cavalry along a path in the woods, and another de- 
 tachment by a third route. The country was swampy and cut 
 with canals, offering serious obstacles to the horses. It was 
 not until the infantry had been for some time closely engaged 
 with the enemy on the plain of Cintla, and rather severely 
 handled, that the cavalry reached the spot. Their appearance, 
 together with the noise and fatal effect of the musketry, soon 
 
 I This delectable surgical item is added by Captain Bernal Diaz.
 
 struck terror to the hearts of the natives — their ranks broke 
 and they fled. Gomara estimates that there were about three 
 hundred of them killed, which is likely enough ; while Bishop 
 De las Casas puts the slain at thirty thousand ! ' 
 
 Such was the battle of Cintla. It broke the spirits of the 
 natives, and soon their chieftain, named Tabasco, from whom 
 the river and the province were later called, came in, and offered 
 his submission. Cortes took possession of the land in the name 
 of the King of Spain, and erected a large cross in the chief 
 temple of Potonchan. He remained there several days longer 
 before proceeding on his voyage. 
 
 The Name Cintla. — Of the contemporary authorities, only two 
 give the name of the place at or near which the battle was 
 fought. 
 
 One of these is Bernal Diaz, who writes it twice, spelling it 
 both times Cintia. '^ The other is Gomara, who gives Cintla, the 
 form which I believe to be correct. Through following some 
 less reliable authorities a number of writers, among them Pres- 
 cott and his editor Mr. J. F. Kirk, Orozco y Berra, etc., and 
 their copyists, have deformed this word into Ccutla. 
 
 The most obvious derivation of Cintla is from the NahuatI 
 language, in which Cintla means a dried ear of maize ; Cintlan, 
 a place where dried ears are, a cornfield. Most of the places c^Teiti^T^ 
 in Tabasco became known to the Spaniards under their NahuatI ''' 
 appellatives through interpreters in that tongue, and because 
 most of the territory had been subjected to the powerful sway 
 of the Montezumas. 
 
 Still, Cintla may also be a Mayan word. It may be a nominal 
 form from the verb tzen-tah, and would then have the significa- 
 tion, "a built-up place," or one well stocked with provisions; 
 or, it may be a patronymic from the Tzentals, the tribe which 
 occupied this region at the time, as I shall proceed to show. 
 
 The Native Tribe. — There is no question -bet that the native 
 tribe which took part in this combat belonged to the Mayar> 
 stock. All the accounts agree that Aguilar, the Spaniard whom 
 Cortes found in Yucatan as a captive, and who had learned to- 
 speak the Mayan tongue, communicated with the natives with- 
 out difficulty. This is conclusive as to their ethnic position. 
 
 Further evidence, if needed, is offered by the native names 
 and words preserved in the accounts. The term for their large 
 canoes, tahnciip, is from the Maya tahal, to swim, and kop., that 
 which is hollow, or hollowed out. The name potonclian^ Aguilar 
 translated as, " the place that stinks" (lugar que hiede). He 
 evidently understood it as derived from the Maya verb tunhal^ 
 to stink, with the intensive prefix /<?/ (which is not unusual in 
 the tongue, as pot-hokan, very evident, etc.). The historian 
 Herrera, on some authority not known to me, further explains 
 
 1 Historia de las Indias. Lib. XIV. 
 
 2 I have consulted both the original edition (1632) and the Madrid reprint of 1852. It is 
 thus spelled in both, though Dr. Jourdanet, in his excellent French translation (Paris, 1877/ 
 gives Cintla.
 
 this term as one of contempt applied to the people there, 
 meaning rude and barbarous ; ' as we should say, using the same 
 metaphor, "stinkards." 
 
 Tabasco is said by Bernal Diaz to have been the name of the 
 principal chief of the eight provinces or tribes, who together 
 opposed the Spaniards. For this reason I would reject the 
 derivation from the Nahuatl, proposed by Rovirosa, — tlalli, 
 e.dir\.\\, paltic, wet or swampy, <:<?, in,- — however appropriate it 
 would be geographically ; and also that from the Maya, tazcoob, 
 *' deceived," referring to the deceptions practiced on the 
 Spaniards, — which is defended by Orozco y Berra^ ; and I 
 should accept that which I find suggested by Dr. Berendt in his 
 manuscript work on Mayan geographical names. He reads 
 Tabasco as a slightly corrupt form of the Maya T ah-iiaxac-coh, 
 " our (or the) master of the eight lions," referring to the eight 
 districts or gentes of the tribe. This is significant and appro- 
 priate, the jaguar, the American lion, being a very common 
 emblem in the ruins of Cintla. 
 
 The branch of the Mayan stock which occupied the litoral of 
 the province of Tabasco at that time were those later known as 
 the Tzentals (otherwise spelled Zendal or Tzeltal). By some 
 writers they have been called the Chontals of Tobasco, chontal^ 
 as is well known, being merely a common noun in Nahuatl to 
 express foreigners or barbarians. Their identity with the 
 modern Tzentals of Chiapas has been established by the re- 
 searches of Dr. Berendt. 
 
 The Tzental is a dialect closely akin to pure Maya, though 
 it was believed by Dr. Berendt to present nearer relations than 
 the Maya proper to the dialect of the Huastecas, a segregated 
 idiom of the Mayan family, spoken near Tampico. 
 
 The Locality. — Until M. Desire Charnay brought out the re- 
 sults of the Lorillard expedition in his handsome work, "The 
 Ancient Cities of the New World," * no one, so far as I know, 
 had expressed any doubt that Cintla was situated near the 
 mouth of the great river, the Rio de Tabasco, formed by the 
 confluence of the Usumacinta and the Rio de Grijalva, and 
 emptying into the bay of Campeche, i8° 35', north latitude. 
 
 M. Charnay did not visit the ruins of Cintla nor the site of 
 Potonchan, which I am about to describe ; but he did make an 
 examination of the ruins of Comalcalco, about thirty miles west 
 of Cintla ; and as they are of notable magnitude, he proceeds 
 to argue that they represent the ancient Cintla, of the victory 
 of Cortes. 
 
 The arguments on which he founds this contention may be 
 briefly stated. They are that the accounts refer to two 
 entrances to the river i^dos bocas) while the Tabasco has but one ; 
 
 1 Herrera, Histaria de las Indias Occidentales. Dec. Ill, lib. vii, cap. iii. 
 
 2 Jose N. Rovirosa, Nombres Geogtaphicos de Tabasco, (Mexico, 1888). 
 
 3 Orozco y Berra, His/oria AttiigKa de Mexico, Tom. XIV, Lib. 1, cap. V. 
 
 4 I use the French edition, Les Anciennes Villes dit Nouveau Monde, pp. 159, 160 
 (Paris, i88s).
 
 that the bar of Tabasco now admits vessels of 300 tons, whereas 
 Cortes speaks of it as too shallow for his caravels ; that Herrera 
 says Cortes retired to a small island, whereas there is none in 
 the Rio de Tabasco ; that Herrera further speaks of a ford by 
 which the soldiers of Cortes "crossed the river," which would 
 have been impossible in the Tabasco ; and finally that the 
 same writer mentions cacao plantations, though at present none 
 exist near Frontera. For these reasons he thinks both Grijalva 
 and Cortes entered the embouchure now known as the Barra 
 de Dos Bocas, some twenty-five miles west of the mouth of the 
 Rio de Tabasco. 
 
 A slight examination dissipates these objections. Both Gri- 
 jalva and Cortes note the powerful current of the Rio de Tab- 
 asco, carrying fresh water six miles out to sea, as is observed 
 to-day,^ and this is not in the least applicable to the insignifi- 
 cant stream flowing out of the Dos Bocas. M. Charnay was 
 misinformed when he stated there is no island at the mouth of 
 the Rio de Tabasco. There are in fact two, one, long and nar- 
 row, known as the Isla de Grijalva, the other quite small, close 
 to the plantation of Dolores (see the map). The latter was 
 probably that to which Cortes retired. None of the accounts 
 say that the soldiers " forded the river," but only the short dis- 
 tance between the island and the mainland. These islands 
 give to the entrance of the river the appearance of two em- 
 bouchures or mouths. The depth of the bar varies of course 
 with the seasons and with the tides. 
 
 But what is conclusive is that in 1525 the Spaniards founded 
 the city Nuestra Sefiora de la Victoria, on the site of Poton- 
 chan. In 1646, it had a cura and a vicar, and counted 2000 
 parishioners, and the abundance of its cacao harvest is espe- 
 cially noted." At some later day it was attacked and destroyed 
 by filibusters ; but the remains of the churelT and the cemetery 
 are still visible at Dolores, and pilgrimages are yet made to 
 them on certain holy days by the faithful of the parish of Fron- 
 tera, on the opposite shore. This record places the scene of 
 the conflict beyond all doubt. 
 
 Condition of tlie Natives. — The various accounts agree in de- 
 scribing the province as highly cultivated and thickly settled. 
 Maize and cacao were the principal crops. Temples and edi- 
 fices are repeatedly referred to. A few years afterwards (1524) 
 Cortes traversed Tabasco some miles inland, and has left a de- 
 scription of its industries. The people were active merchants, 
 and the list of their commodities which he gives includes cacao, 
 maize, cotton, dye-stuffs, feathers, salt, wax, resins, paints, gum 
 copal, pottery, beads, shells, precious stones, woven stuffs and 
 gold of low alloy. The richer citizens had numerous wives and 
 female slaves, which accounted for the rapid increase in popu- 
 
 1 Requena says ths current from the river is visible " from ten to twelve leagues from the 
 shore in every season and in high water much further." Pedro Requena, Informe sobre 
 Tabasco, p. 52 (S. Juan Bantista, 1847, Imprenta del Gobierno). 
 
 2 These facts are given in the Memoria of Diaz de la Calle, printed at Madrid, 1646, ex- 
 tracts from which 1 hnd in Dr. Berendt's manuscripts.
 
 8 
 
 lation.^ The chronicler Gomara furnished a long list of the 
 native articles which Grijalva brought back in 15 19 from Poton- 
 chan and the neighboring coast. They reveal a high degree of 
 artistic culture, and leave no doubt but that the tribes of the 
 vicinity were as developed in the arts as any in America. 
 
 Ruined Cities. — Writing about 1875, ^f- H* ^- Bancroft says : 
 *'On the immediate coast (of Tabasco) some large towns and 
 temples were seen by the early voyagers ; but I have no infor- 
 mation that relics of any kind have been discovered in modern 
 times." ^ 
 
 In fact, although it is doubtful if there are any ruins directly 
 on the coast, there are many but a short distance inland. 
 Those at Comalcacalco have been figured and described by M. 
 Charnay, and his work is so well known that a reference to it 
 is sufficient. 
 
 At the locality called Pedrito, about fifteen miles from the 
 mouth of the Tabasco, there are many mounds, embankments, 
 piles of pottery and other signs of an ancient town. Among 
 the relics is a large circular stone, ''like a round table," with 
 figures in relief engraved on its sides, and with holes drilled in 
 its surface, in which pegs or wooden nails are said to have been 
 fitted.^ About ten miles north of this spot is another group of 
 mounds on the left bank of the Rio de San Pablo y San Pedro. 
 Doubtless many others exist unknown in the dense forests. 
 
 TJie Ruins of Cintla. — The ruins of Cintla were visited and 
 surveyed by the late Dr. C. H. Berendt in March and April, 
 1869, and, so far as I know, neither before nor since have they 
 been seen by any archaeologist. Nor can I learn that Dr. 
 Berendt ever published the results of his researches. The only 
 reference I can find to them in any of his published writings is 
 in a paper which he read, July loth, 1876, before the American 
 Geographical Society, and which was published in its Bulletin, 
 No. 2, for that year. The title of this address was, " Remarks 
 on the Centers of Ancient Civilization in Central America and 
 their Geographical Distribution." He certainly prepared a 
 much more extended paper especially on Cintla, with illustra- 
 tions and maps, fragments of which I have found among the 
 documents left at his death ; but if published, I have been un- 
 able to trace it. Nor can I discover what became of the 
 considerable archaeological collection which he made at Cintla 
 and brought away with him, a memorandum about which is 
 among his papers. 
 
 The passage in his address before the Geographical Society 
 touching on Cintla is as follows : 
 
 "It was by mere chance that in the year 1869 I discovered 
 the site of ancient Cintla, buried in the thick and fever-haunted 
 forests of the marshy coast, and unknown until then to the 
 Indians themselves. In the course of the excavations which I 
 
 I Cortes' description is given in his " fourth letter." His route is extremely difficult to 
 locate accurately. 
 
 2 The Native Races of the Pacific States, Vol. IV, p. 287. 
 
 3 MSS. Notes of Dr. C. H. Berendt.
 
 caused to be made, antiquities of a curious and interesting 
 character were laid bare. 
 
 " Prominent among these ruins, and presenting a peculiar 
 feature of workmanship, are the so-called teocallis, or mounds, 
 which here are built of earth, and covered at the top and on the 
 sides with a thick layer of mortar in imitation of stone work. 
 On one of these mounds I found not only the sides and the 
 platform, but even two flights of stairs, constructed of the same 
 apparently fragile but yet enduring material. One of the latter 
 was perfectly well preserved. I likewise saw clay figures of 
 animals covered with a similar coating of mortar or plaster, 
 thus imitating sculptured stone and retaining traces of having 
 been painted in various colors. 
 
 "^Scu/ df Gampeche 
 
 Torderit 
 
 Fig. I, — Map of the Ruins of Ctntla. 
 
 "The reason for this singular use of cement probably is that 
 in the alluvial soil of this coast, no stones occur within a dis- 
 tance of fifty miles and more from the sea shore ; stone imple- 
 ments, such as axes, chisels, grinding stones, obsidian flakes, 
 etc., which are occasionally found, can have been introduced 
 solely by trade. The pottery and the idols made of terracotta 
 show a high degree of perfection. 
 
 " Regarding the period down to which such earthenware was 
 made, a broken vase disinterred from one of the mounds in my 
 presence may give a clue. Its two handles represent Spaniards, 
 with their European features, beard, Catalonian cap, d^ndpolainas, 
 or gaiters." 
 
 There is also among his papers the commencement of an
 
 16 
 
 address or essay upon these ruins, written in Spanish, and this, 
 when completed, may have been printed in some Mexican peri- 
 odical. I translate from it the following passage, the remainder 
 having been lost : 
 
 " Having learned that in the forests of the coast between the 
 barras of Chiltepec and Grijalva various mounds, idols and 
 . other remains of an earlier population had been discovered, I 
 proceeded to that part of the country called Del Cajete, and 
 devoted six weeks to its exploration. I soon found numerous 
 mounds and embankments from which the present inhabitants 
 had gathered fragments of idols and milling stones of a form 
 unknown now in the vicinity. 
 
 " It very soon became apparent that these mounds were not 
 such as those isolated ones which are found in various parts of 
 this country, but were arranged in groups surrounding open 
 spaces, /'/^^(T^.s, and forming streets, extending over an area three 
 leagues in length by one in breadth. 
 
 Fig. 2. — The Great Temfile. l''S-3- — Cross Section of Fig. 2, B. 
 
 " Not a gingle tradition, not a single native name survives to 
 cast any light upon these ruins. The whole of this coast was 
 depopulated m the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries owing 
 to the slave-hunting incursions of the filibusters and man- 
 hunters. The Indians who are now found in the neighborhood 
 have removed there from the interior since the beginning of 
 the present century, and are absolutely ignorant of the origin 
 or builders of this city, hidden in the tropical forest." 
 
 The locality referred to as Del Cajete was a settlement (ran- 
 cheria) of Indians, now better known as San Jose de la Bellota, 
 on a large pond into which drains the Rio de la Bellota. It 
 was founded in 1815 by a cura who brought the Indians thereby -y ^ _^ 
 from the other side of the river, back of Frontera. aSh41^^i 
 
 The general position of the ruins will be seen from the above / 
 
 map. It is drawn to the scale of the Mexican league, which 
 contains 5000 yards (varas) each 838 mm. One league is there- 
 fore approximately two and three quarters of our miles. No 
 ruins or mounds were located immediately on or near the coast. 
 
 Almost a continuous line of mounds, embankments and 
 heaps of debris extends from near Bellota for about nine miles 
 in a general west-south-west direction over a plain which is now 
 densely covered by a tropical forest. 
 
 Dr. Berendt did not attempt to survey but a few of these 
 numerous monuments. The plan of one of the largest, called 
 by the natives El Cuyo Grande^ " The Great Temple," is shown 
 in the following, figure 2.
 
 II 
 
 The principal mound B is terraced about half way up and 
 was 82 feet in height. A cross section of it is shown in Fig. 3, 
 A-B. 
 
 A series of constructions is connected with this, the whole 
 running in a direction east-north-east to west-south-west. 
 They consist of a rectangular embankment six to eight feet 
 high, Fig. 2, A ; an isolated circular mound, D ; and two small 
 mounds at the eastern confers of the great mound, from which 
 parallel embankments, E, extend easterly, inclosing an open 
 space, which at the extremity is terminated by a long low 
 mound, C. The total distance from A to C is 1140 feet. 
 
 The great mound and most of the others in the vicinity are 
 faced with mortar made of sand and lime from burnt oyster 
 shells. On one or both sides are flights of steps which lead up 
 to the summit. These are constructed of layers of mortar, 
 tiles and hard-pounded earth, distributed in the manner repre- 
 sented in, Fig. 4. 
 
 g^^ 
 
 i 
 
 ■eoHA 
 
 "ssjjj-t; 
 
 Fig-. 4.— Construction of Stairways. 
 
 Fig-. J. — Los City OS de la Canada. 
 
 The earth is either black or red, and is mixed with sand from 
 the coast to give it consistency. The tiles or bricks are rec- 
 tangular in shape, well made and regular in outline, and laid 
 one against another as in a pavement. 
 
 Another group is called Los Ciiyos de la Catiada, Fig. 5. It 
 consists of two mounds on a low platform, adjoining each 
 other. The larger, a, is twenty feet in height, the lower, b, 
 about fifteen feet. Their sides are oriented exactly to the true 
 north. A section is shown in Fig. 5, g. Two small oblong 
 mounds, c and d, about six feet high, and a square altar-like 
 heap, / appear to be in relation to the group. Numerous 
 pieces of mortar and terra cotta occur in the vicinity, and 1500 
 feet directly west there is a large mound of moderate height. 
 
 Almost anywhere in the area of this ancient city, the soil 
 abounds in fragments of mortar, pottery and images of earthen- 
 ware. Very frecjuently the latter are represented seated on a 
 bell-shaped support, apparently that they might be stiJ.ad jap . . 
 upon a flat surface. Two of these are shown from Dr. Berendt's'^^j)- 
 drawings in Figs. 6 and 7. The handles of utensils were often 
 decorated in fantastic forms as that shown in Fig. 8. 
 
 h:
 
 12 
 
 Fig. b— Image -with 
 Bell-shaped Bot- 
 tom and Handle. 
 
 Ftg. ". — [mage of a 
 Warrior on Bell- 
 shaped Sup-port. 
 
 Fis- S. — Decorated 
 
 Handle of 
 
 Utensil, 
 
 An abundance of metates, or corn-stones, of a shape not now 
 usual in the neighborhood were exhibited. Some of these were 
 quite graceful, having several feet and highly ornamented. 
 The vases of pottery were occasionally noteworthy for their 
 symmetry and beauty, as that shown in Fig. 9. 
 
 Fig. Q.—Jar of Pottery. 
 
 At the foot of the stairways to the summit of the mounds on 
 each side were frequently the remains of tigers' heads, well 
 moulded in burnt clay. 
 
 Here and there the remains of wells were discovered, or of 
 excavations which apparently were intended for the purpose 
 of obtaining water. 
 
 Dr. Berendt mentions several tombs, but unfortunately does 
 not specify their location or construction. He states that they 
 usually contained several bodies, in a sitting posture, placed 
 side by side with their arms and ornaments. 
 
 No trace of metal whatever was discovered, neither copper 
 nor gold, which is rather unexpected, as the natives in the time 
 of Grijalva were acquainted with both these substances. 
 
 Such is the brief account I am able to give of these extensive 
 and interesting ruins from the fragmentary papers of their ex- 
 plorer. If any reader of these notes can inform this journal 
 of the disposition Dr. Berendt made of his collection and the 
 full memoranda of his surveys and excavations, the cause of 
 American archaeology will be further benefited. 
 
 Media, Penna.
 
 UCSOUTHIHI 
 
 l/'-IU l-AULlTi' 
 
 A A 000 242 478 6 
 
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