The marvellous country, or, Three years in Arizona and New Mexico.: Containing an authentic history of this wonderful country and its ancient civilization ... together with a full and complete history of the Apache tribe of Indians .../ By Samuel Woodworth Cozzens. Illustrated by more than one hundred engravings.

THE DECAY OF THE AZTE.CS.
tures as we have described are to be found in the valley of
the Rio Grande, is thus easily accounted for.
The Abbe6 Domenech is of the opinion that many of these
ruins show an undoubted Toltec origin, and that they were
built before the invasion of their land, some time about the
twelfth century. He says: -
"All these towns are so ancient that no Indian traditions
of the present races make any mention of them. The banks
of the Rio Verde and Salinas abound in ruins of stone
dwellings, and fortifications which certainly belong to a
more civilized people than the Indians of New Mexico. They
are found in the most fertile valleys, where traces of former
cultivation and of immense canals for artificial irrigation are
visible. The solidly-built walls of these structures are
twenty or thirty yards in length, by forty or fifty feet in
height; few of the houses are less than three stories, while
all contain small opellings for doors and windows, as well
as loopholes for defence from attacks."
His theory in relation to the disappearance of the immense
population that formerly inhabited the country is, that it
was owing in a great degree to a wonderful change in the
configuration of the soil; moist and fertile valleys becomilng
barren solitudes, thus forcing the inhabitants to emigrate to
other regions.
After indulging in many theories and much speculation
regarding these wonderful ruins stretching over the vast
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