Part 4 (1/2)

With great exertion, aided by levers, my ten men again put these bas-reliefs in the place they anciently occupied, and which plate No. 1 shows.

Resolved to make an excavation at this spot, I commenced my work at the upper part of the heap. I was not long in comprehending the difficulty of the task. The pedestal, as in all the later monuments which were raised in Chichen, was of loose stones, without mortar, without cement of any kind. For one stone that was removed, a hundred fell. The work was hence extremely dangerous. I possessed no tools, nor machines of any description. I resorted to the _machete_ of my Indians, the trees of the forest, and the vines that entwine their trunks. I formed a frame-work to prevent the falling of the stones.

This frame-work appears in plates 6, 7 and 8. It is composed of trunks of trees of two to two-and-a-half inches in diameter, secured with vines. In this way I was able to make an excavation two meters, fifty centimeters square, to a depth of seven meters. I then found a rough sort of urn of calcareous stone; it contained a little dust, and upon it the cover of a coa.r.s.e earthen pot, painted with yellow ochre. (This cover has since been broken). It was placed near the head of the statue, and the upper part, with the three feathers that adorn it, appeared among loose stones, placed around it with great care. Colonel D. Daniel Traconis, who had that day come to visit, and bring me a few very welcome provisions, was present when it was discovered. I continued the work with precaution, and had the satisfaction, after excavating one-and-a-half meters more, to see the entire statue appear.

Contemplating this admirable specimen of ancient art, seeing the beauty of the carving of its expressive face, I was filled with admiration! Henceforth the American artists could enter into compet.i.tion with those of a.s.syria and Egypt! But, on considering its enormous weight, its colossal form (it is half as large again as the natural size), I felt myself overwhelmed with dismay. How to raise it from the profound bed where it had been deposited, five thousand years ago, by its friends and the artificers, who with excessive care raised the pedestal around it! I had no machines, not even ropes. Only ten Indians accompanied me. The enterprise was difficult; but when man wishes, he conquers difficulties, and smooths all obstacles.

After some sleepless nights (the idea of being unable to present my discoveries to the world did not let me rest), I resolved to open the pedestal on the east side, form an inclined plane, construct a capstan, make ropes with the bark of the _habin_ (a tree that grows in these woods), and extract, by these means, my gem from the place where it lay.

Plate 6 represents the opening made, and the inclined plane, the lower part of which only reaches to the shoulder of the statue, which is seen in the bottom of the excavation. Its depth is known by comparing the height of the Indian standing near the statue, and the one who is placed at a third part of the inclined plane.

Plate No. 7 represents the statue of Chaacmol at the moment of its arrival at the upper part of the plane on the surface of the earth; the cables of the _habin_ bark which served to extract it; the construction of the capstan; and the profundity of the excavation.

Plate No. 8 represents the capstan that served me to raise the statue, the size of which you may know, Sr. President, comparing it with your servant and the Indians who aided at the work. The trunk of a tree, with two hollowed stones, were the fundamental pieces of the machine. These rings of stone were secured to the trunk with vines. Two forked poles, whose extremities rest at each side of the excavation, and the forked sticks tied up to the superior ring embracing it, served as _arc-boutant_ in the direction where the greatest force was to be applied. A tree-trunk, with its fork, served as a fulcrum around which was wound the cable of bark. A pole placed in the fork served as lever. It is with the aid of this rustic capstan that my ten men were able to raise the heavy ma.s.s to the surface in half an hour.

But my works were not to end there. True, the statue was on the surface of the earth, but it was surrounded by debris, by ponderous stones, and trunks of trees. Its weight was enormous compared with the strength of my few men. These on the other hand worked by halves. They always had the ear attentive to catch the least sound that was perceived in the bush. The people of Crecencio Poot might fall upon us at any moment, and exterminate us. True, we had sentinels, but the forest is thick and immense, and those of Chan-Santa-Cruz make their way through it with great facility.

Open roads there were none, not even to carry the statue of Chaacmol to civilization if I had the means of transport.

Well, then, I had resolved that, cost what it might, the world should know my statue--my statue, that was to establish my fame forever among the scientific circles of the civilized world. I had to carry it, but, alas! I calculated without the prohibitive laws.... Sr. President, to-day, with grief I write it, it is buried in the forests, where my wife and myself have concealed it. Perhaps the world will only know it by my photographs, for I have yet to open three long leagues of road to conduct it to ?itas, and the moment is already approaching when the doors of the American Exhibition will open.

With all that, I have faith in the justice, intelligence, and patriotism of the men who rule the destinies of the Mexican Republic.

Will the man who, to place his country at the height of other civilized nations, has known how to improvise, in less than three months, an astronomical commission, and send it to j.a.pan to observe the transit of Venus, will he permit, I ask, the greatest discovery ever made in American archaeology, to remain lost and unknown to the scientific men, to the artists, to the travellers, to the choicest of the nations that are soon to gather at Philadelphia? No! I do not believe it! I do not wish to, I cannot believe it!

These difficulties, I had conquered! Plate No. 9 proves how, having found the means of raising the statue from the depth of its pedestal, I knew also how to make it pa.s.s over the debris that impeded its progress. My few men armed with levers were able to carry it where there was a rustic cart made by me with a _machete_.

With rollers and levers I was able to carry it over the sculptured stones, its companions, that seemed to oppose its departure. But with rollers and levers alone I could not take it to Piste, four kilometers distant, much less to ?itas, distant from Piste sixteen kilometers; it needed a cart and that cart a road.

Sr. President, the cart has been made, the road has been opened without any expense to the State. In fifteen days the statue arrived at Piste, as proved by plate 11. Senor D. Daniel Traconis, his wife and their young son, who had come to visit us, witnessed the triumphal entrance of the Itza Chieftain Chaacmol, at Piste, the first resting place on the road that leads from Chichen to Philadelphia. I have opened more than three kilometers of good cart road of five to six meters in width, from Piste toward ?itas; but for reasons that it is out of place to refer to here, and which I have not been able up to the present time to alter, for they do not depend on me, I have seen myself compelled to hurriedly abandon my works on the 6th of the present month of January.

I have come with all speed to Merida, from which place I direct to you the present writing; but until now, having to contend against inertia, I have obtained nothing.

In view of the preceding relation, and finding myself in disposition to make, before the scientific world, all the explanations, amplifications and reports, that may be desired, upon the grand discoveries that I have made in my investigations in the ruins of Chichen;--among others, the existence of long-bearded men among the inhabitants of the Peninsula 12,000 years ago, plate 12;--I conclude, asking you, Sr. President, to be pleased to concede to me:--

1st. To carry the statues of Chaacmol, and some bas-reliefs that have relation to the story of that Chieftain, and are represented in the plates 4 and 5, together with my mural tracings, plans and photographs, to the approaching Exposition of Philadelphia.

2nd. To name me one of the members of the Mexican Commission to that Exposition, for I am the only person who can give the information and explanations that may make known the celebrated monuments of Chichen-Itza, and the importance that they have in the prehistoric history of the human race in America.

3rd. To authorize my work and investigations in the ruins of Yucatan, where I hope to make other discoveries equally and even, perhaps, more important, than those made by me up to the present date, ordering that the aid of armed force be afforded me for my protection and that of my wife, whenever our investigations are made in places where life is endangered by hostile Indians.

4th. That among the objects which the Mexican nation have to send to the Exposition of Philadelphia, a place be reserved to me, sufficient for the statues, bas-reliefs, drawings, photographs and plans that have caused this pet.i.tion.

5th. That in consequence of the short time that remains before the opening of said Exposition, and the amount that yet remains for me to do, particularly the opening of a cart road of 13 kilometers in a thick forest in a country where all resources are wanting, you may have the goodness to consider this pet.i.tion at your earliest convenience, which grace I doubt not to obtain from the ill.u.s.trious Chief Magistrate of the Nation to whom I have the honor of subscribing myself.

AUG^{TUS} LE PLONGEON, M. D.

MeRIDA, January 27, 1876.

NOTE. The references to plates in this paper do not agree with the numbers on the helioscopic ill.u.s.trations.

Before leaving Chichen-Itza, at about the date of the above _Memorial_, the statue, as has been already stated, was concealed in the forest near the town of Piste, carefully protected from the weather by Dr. and Mrs.