The Battle and the Ruins of Cintla

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 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 appa