FIND OF IMPORTANCE

Evening Star, Issue 20481, 12 May 1930, Page 12

FIND OF IMPORTANCE

AM ANCIENT CITY Following an animal trail through {thick juggle oh a huge mesa in the State of, Vera Cruz Jed Charles M. Drayton, pilot of the Mexican Aviation Company, and his companions, J. G. ■Philen, jun., and I’’. 0. Willy, ot ißrownsville, to the discovery of two pyramids abont 80ft high, says the a Christian Science Monitor.’ The pyramids were six miles _ apart, pud connected with a broad highway , Topping straight across the mesa. ' "Near-by was the ruin of an edifice which might have been an ancient Aztec temple or one of the first jungle churches constructed by the conquerors. .Its state and the fact that the jungle I had almost reclaiitie&it, as well as the ■ pyramids and highway, kept the men ; from determining whether, it was Aztec '©r Spanish. , v ’ The discoverers of the ruins believe ! they rare- the first white men ever to i see- them, inasmuch as none of the ’ Indians resident there had any know- - ledge of them. The men . stumbled upon ' the ruins by pure accident, as jungle . growth hid them even within a yard of 1 jtho base. . , . ■ They were chopping their way • (through the jungle when suddenly they - kamq to a low stone wall. Just ahead mr. fe fee a;S“ all

hill, hut examination disclosed that it was a pyramid of seven terraces, about 200 ft along the base, and 80ft high. On top were several sacrificial stones and a shaft which had been idled with Loading from the pyramid they found a highway paved with cut stone whicli led for six miles across the mesa, at tho other end of which they found another pyramid, almost identical. On the open spaces- of the mesa, whicli is completely uninhabited, they discovered hundreds of burial mounds, some of which were 20ft high, there tver© also innumerable wells, lacecrwuli stone and still serviceable. The number of burial mounds and walls on the open surface of the mesa kept the men from landing their aeroplane on top of the table-land, and they had to set up camp "six hours distant by horseback. The ruins are 125 miles south-west of Tampico, about-80 miles irom the gulf, and only 100 miles in an aeroplane from Mexico City. _ . When the men told Indians living on lower pldtcans of their find, the Indians recalled a legend of how their predecessors had discovered an edifice on the pateau many years before, and bad uncovered a golden image which, had been lost when a terrific tropical storm and nightfall preyed on their superstitions, causing: them to throw away the treasure. The legendary edifice had never been discovered by the modern Indians. The story led the explorers to believe that perhaps more gold objects be buried about the ruins or in the mounds. . . The men are planning an organised expedition to the ruins within a low months,.