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.

REFLECTIONS.
ever visited them, or cared to brave the dangers naturally
following an attempt to penetrate into the home of the bar barous tribes who roam over this immense range of terri tory, together with the fact that there is absolutely no scrap
of written history to be found in existence, previous to tihe
year 1680, made my attempts quite futile.
The whole subject is shrouded in all impenetrable veil of
mystery, although upon an examination of the ruins them selves, I became fully convinced that they were of undoubted
Aztec origin. There is but little question that those found
upon the Gila, and upon the Casas Grandes, in Chihuahua,
are more ancient than the others described in this work, and
were probably erected by the Toltecs or their contemporaries. This opinion was founded more upon conjecture and
speculation than upon any tangible proofs which the examination afforded; nor have I ever, since my return, learned
anything to cause me to change the opinion then formed.
There they stand, magnificent, though decaying monuments
of the energy, skill, and civilization of a mighty people who
flourished but a few hundred years since, yet have now no
history save the crumbling evidences of their works, to tell
us of their rise and fall.
Does not the sad fate of these nations furnish us who
to-day journey over the deserts which their civilization and
industry caused to "blossom as the rose," ample material
for reflection?
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