The Gardens of Ancient South America [pp. F1-F8]

S UPPLEMENT-APPLETONS' JO URNAL.
THE GARDENS OF ANCIENT AMERICA.
__________________-rHEN Christopher Columbus landed on the shiores of the New World, he
m_~~ ~ VY was so enchanted with the exuberant fertility of the soil, that he looked
~W~~ i ~~~ 7 upon these till then unknown regions as the true land of promise, where the
most poetic dreams were destined to be realized.
supplied by the labor and art of man. In giving this name to these little half submerged, but ever-verdant islets, he doubtless thought of his generous pa g 1 > Wtroness, Isabella the Catholic, and of her innate love for flowers.
___011~~ By\\1The innocent people whom Columbus visited on the island of Hayti, and who
ggM, ii!: ~were divided into two distinct races, were not without gardens. Those of
NAB; Ad ~' ~Guacanagari could not certainly be compared with those of the terrible Cao nabo, the warlike chief of the Caribbees; nevertheless, these blooming gardens
of the Igneries were more like vegetable than ornamental gardens. A great
variety of edibles was cultivated in them, including several kinds of sweet po q~~tilllgl ~ ~tatoes, all of which were interspersed with palm and plum trees. They were,
anti~~~~~ t g gindeed, not really gardens in the usual acceptation of the word.
The early American accounts of the country mention the beautiful Anacaona,
t i,|lllll Queen of the Igneries, the Golden Flower, as she was called by the Spaniards,
who advanced to meet the conquerors in her fertile country, surrounded by a
numerous train of followers, but neither her habitation nor her gardens are de ~'"':'~-.~'-~~" scribed.
~:!t~l'~ - It was somewhat different when the Spaniards penetrated Yucatan, the seat
of an aboriginal civilization, that long since disappeared. The naive Bernal
> / /'x ~ W m Diaz, one of the companions of Cortez, verifies the accounts we have from other
-,~Kj m ~ ~sources of the ancient culture of the people of Yucatan who, besides, have
/7 i j X~ ~ ~everywhere left vestiges of an advanced state of civilization. Without doubt,
Q: the palaces of Izamal, Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, Labua, Copan, and Palenque, had
7 1 Amp ~gardens attached to them. The venerable trees frequently met with among the
i]~J~'J- Ad~ i imposing ruins of these structures fully justify this conclusion. They still robe
I~I 02/XX~ Add themselves with a luxuriant foliage, to shade and adorn the works of man,
4 i11~/ luff which are daily crumbling away, and soon will have entirely ceased to exist.
~ ~iKi7/11ii~.. We see to-day that these people, with whose remote origin we are begin
G. RDEN OF THE INCA.
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