Treasure Seekers: Code of the Maya Kings Page #2

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Stephens secured a post

as a Confidential Agent.

He figured his diplomatic coat would

protect him in dangerous territory.

So in October 1839,

Catherwood bid farewell to

his wife and two young boys,

and now they were here,

deep in the jungles of Central America.

The ruins of Copan was

their first goals.

But when they found

the little village of the same name,

no one there had ever head

of nearby ruins.

Finally, a knowledgeable Indian

offered to guide them.

But that was hours ago.

Now they were beginning to think that

the ruins were nothing but a legend.

When suddenly, there they were,

grander than their wildest dreams,

the Ruins of Copan.

Pyramids rose majestically

out of the jungle.

Great stone faces peered at them

from intricately carved monuments,

twice the size of a man.

Stephens noticed hieroglyphs

and judged them

to be as fine

as any he'd seen in Egypt,

yet his experience told him

that these carvings were unique.

The silence of the once

majestic city overwhelmed him:

Copan lay before us like a shattered

bark in the midst of the ocean,

her masts gone, her crew perished,

and none to tell whence she came.

I think the description of Copan

is the single most poetic description

of a place he visits,

for it is though he is walking

around inside the Titanic,

and he's looking at the shipwreck

of a civilization.

He walks from monument to monument.

It is through he's looking into

the faces of those

who have recently been

ruling this place:

America, say historians,

was peopled by savages.

But savages never reared

these structures,

savages never carved these stones,

architecture, sculpture and painting,

all the arts which embellish life,

had flourished

in this overgrown forest,

and yet none knew that

such things had been,

or could tell of

their past existence.

He's the first who is

really able to say,

Look at these stone figures;

these must be portraits of

their kings and queens.

And he uses the word queen

which is really quite astonishing,

in seeing men and women in the

monuments, for 100 years later,

all the men and women that Stephens

saw will have been reduced

by 20th century archeologists to

a group of anonymous calendar priests.

Stephens has this kind of Yankee

can-do observation.

The best part of many of

Stephens' insights is that

they prove to be absolutely true.

Yet Stephens was deeply puzzled

by the mystery at the heart of Copan.

Who could have built

this extraordinary city?

The local Indians didn't seem to know.

Stephens needed their help

to explore the ruins,

but the owner of the land interfered.

Finally, it seemed that the only

solution was to buy Copan.

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