gems, jade, pyroxene jade, fei cui, mesoamerica, Guatemala, Mexico, Aztec, Olmec, archaeology, Honduras, Belize

LATE one January the “little yellow horse,” as our station wagon had been christened four years before, pulled into the plaza of the picturesque town of Tehuantepec, Mexico. Richard H. Stewart, Mrs. Stirling, and I had just driven across the rugged mountains which separate Oaxaca from Tehuantepec on the route of the Pan American Highway. The road was under construction and as yet hardly to be recommended for cars other than those equipped with oversized wheels and tires such as ours. We careened over narrow rocky roadbeds scratched along precipitous mountain sides. We forded rivers and crossed wide boulder-strewn beds where the water came well over our running boards. But bridges were being built and construction was proceeding on the main road at such a pace that soon motorists will be able to glide over this scenic route on a modern roadbed. We were started on our seventh archaeological expedition to southern Mexico under the auspices of the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution. Tuxtla Gutiérrez, picturesque capital of the State of Chiapas, was our immediate objective.