Note 111 — Chapter XX · Conjectures respecting the descendants of the tribes who built the Temples.—Knowledge and education of the Caciques and Priests.—Traditions of the arrival of white strangers from the East.—Las Casas.—Quetzal-Coatl.—Crosses found in Yucatan.—Gomara.—Legend of the flight of Spaniards by sea towards the West after the conquest of Spain by the Saracens.—Fabulous island of Antilia.—Columbus on his outward voyage steers for Antilia.—Trade-winds.—Considerations upon the probabilities of vessels being driven across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans towards America.
Reading edition
With respect to the ancient Indian structures it is expedient to give a brief consideration to those that were raised at Copan and Quirigua. The earliest account of the sculptures existing at Copan was given by Palacio in 1576. In his Report to the King of Spain he mentions that within the ruins was a stone cross three palms high, and beyond it “There was a statue more than four yards high, sculptured like a bishop in his pontifical robes with his mitre well worked and with rings in his hands.”
After describing other large statues and the ruins overlooking the river, Palacio observes, “I enquired with all possible attention for any traditions from the ancient people as to what people lived here, and if anything was known of their ancestors, and whether there were any books concerning these antiquities ... They say that anciently there came there a great chief of the province of Yucatan who made these edifices, and after several years he went back to his country, and left them solitary and unpeopled.... It also appears that the style of the said edifices is like what was found in other places by the Spaniards who first discovered Yucatan and Tabasco, where figures of bishops were seen and armed men and crosses, and since such things have not been found in other regions it can be believed that those that made them were probably of one nation.” (Report of the Licentiate Dr. Don Diego Garcia de Palacio to the King of Spain, 1576.)
It is recorded by Juarros that in the year 1700, Fuentes, who wrote the Chronicles of Guatemala, stated with respect to Copan, that the figures, “both male and female were of very excellent sculpture, which then retained the colours they had been enamelled with; and what was not less remarkable, the whole of them were habited in the Castilian costume.” The same author relates that at “a short distance, there was a portal constructed of stone, on the columns of which were the figures of men likewise represented in Spanish habits, with hose, ruff round the neck, sword, cap, and short cloak”....
“All the circumstances,” observes Juarros, “lead to a belief that there must have been some intercourse between the inhabitants of the old and new world at very remote periods.”
The information given traditionally by the Indians living at Copan, is singularly in accordance with the traditions of the priests and caciques in Mexico and Yucatan with respect to the arrival of a stranger who commanded temples and pyramids to be built and then went away and never returned.
It is remarkable that, in the first interview between Montezuma and Cortes, a singular tradition was mentioned by that Emperor. Cortes in his second letter (Segunda carta-relacion) dated 30th October, 1520, relates that Montezuma spoke to him as follows:—“We know from our writings that we received from our ancestors, that I and all those who live in this land are not the natives of it. We are strangers and came into it from very distant regions. We also know that our nation was led here by a chief whose vassals all were. He afterwards went back to his native country. Afterwards he returned and found that those he had left had married the native women (mujeres naturales) and had many children, and had built villages where they lived, and when he wished them to proceed with him they did not want to go, or even receive him as their chief and therefore he went away.”