Extensive mural remains are scattered over the immense plain, from the southern shore of Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico, and may be traced around the Gulf, across Texas into New Mexico, increasing in size and splendor as they advance toward the south. The student who desires to examine the subject more minutely, may refer to the before-mentioned volume of the Archæologia Americana, where he will find a long and interesting treatise by Mr. Attwater;—the plates of which will illustrate the size and character of these works more satisfactorily than any mere verbal descriptions.
I have thus traced a continuous chain of structures, chiefly of earthen mounds, and trifling relics pertaining to the necessaries of life, defence, and worship, throughout the greater portion of our western territory until it joins the soil of Mexico. I will now proceed with the account of such antiquities, of an architectural character, besides those already described by me, as have come to my knowledge in the latter Republic.
In the year 1773, the Padre Francisco Garcés, accompanied by Padre Font, in the course of their travels in the northern departments of Mexico, arrived at a vast and beautiful plain on the south bank of the river Gila, running westwardly from the great chain of the Rocky mountains, and falling into the Gulf of California between the thirty-third and thirty-fourth degrees of north latitude. There the travellers discovered remains of extensive works and ruins, covering a square league of ground, in the midst of which was an edifice, called by them the "Casa Grande."
Like most of the Indian works, it was built of unburned bricks, and measured about four hundred and fifty feet in length, by two hundred and fifty in breadth. Within this edifice they found traces of five apartments. A wall, broken at intervals by lofty towers, surrounded the building, and appeared to have been designed for defence. The remains of a canal were still perceptible, by which the waters of the Gila had been conveyed to the ruined town.
The neighboring plains were covered (like the ruins I have recently described at Tezcoco and Tezcosingo,) with fragments of obsidian, and glazed and painted pottery; the Indians of the vicinity were found by the explorers to be mild, civil, and intelligent people, devoted to the cultivation of the soil and possessing in no degree the ferocity or savage habits of the Cumanchés or Apachés.
Northwestwardly from Chihuahua, and southwestwardly from these ruins, near the thirtieth degree of latitude, are similar remains; and in the mountains in the latitude of 27° 28', there is a multitude of caverns excavated from the solid rocks, on the sides and walls of which are painted the figures of various animals, and of men and women, in dresses by no means unlike the habiliments of the ancient Mexicans, as depicted in drawings and pictures that have been preserved until our day.
