Explanations of the circumstances under which the priests became acquainted with their sciences were given to the Spaniards by the chief priests attached to the temple of Quetzalcoatl at Cholula and also by certain caciques in Yucatan.
Mexican Calendar Stone.
Las Casas relates that when he was making a journey within his diocese, he met one of his missionaries named Francisco Hernandez, who had been for some years living in Yucatan, and had become acquainted with the language. Thinking that this ecclesiastic would be useful for the work of converting the Indians to the faith, he made him his vicar and sent him into the interior to preach amongst the natives. After a lapse of several months he received a letter from the vicar stating that he had been told by one of the principal caciques, that it was known that, anciently, there had arrived in Yucatan twenty strangers. They were dressed in long robes, had sandals upon their feet, and taught religion. It was also mentioned that these men wore long beards,[109] and that they had a leader who was named Cucul-can (Quetzalcoatl).
Las Casas concludes by observing that “Certainly the land and kingdom of Yucatan gives us to understand most especial things, and of the greatest antiquity with regard to the grand, admirable and exquisite styles of ancient edifices, and writings of certain characters which are in no other place. Finally, these are secrets which God only knows. (Finalmente, secretos son estos que sólo Dios los sabe).”[110]
But the most explicit statements with regard to Quetzalcoatl were those which were given by the chief-priests of the temples raised to his memory at Cholula.[111] They affirmed the tradition of the arrival of strangers of a white race and foreign origin coming by sea in vessels from the east. These strangers were said to have taught the Indians to build monasteries, and maintain seminaries for religious instruction. According to Clavigero, they taught certain natives the methods of arranging the divisions of time and the use of the calendar. The priests also showed the Spaniards some ornaments which they said had been worn by the chief of these strangers.
The positive declarations about white people having landed upon the shores of the Mexican Gulf have been carefully investigated. It has been usually considered that they were the result of a myth, or that they were based upon vague traditions relating to events which, if they had any foundation, must have happened at a period exceedingly remote and possibly referred to early migrations from Asia. But it has to be remembered that the facts reported by the caciques and priests invariably related to a period when their tribes were established in Yucatan or Mexico; and the arrival of the strangers was always said to have taken place on the eastern seaboard of those lands. As the Toltecs according to the Indian records were not established there before the sixth century the event, if it occurred, must have happened after that date.
There are also other circumstances connected with this legend which appear, to some extent, to remove it from a mythical character and to place it within the limits of legitimate inquiry and investigation. The Indians who described the events spoke of them in a manner which was not vague, but was clear and decided, and as being within the personal knowledge of their ancestors. They also always gave a description of the monuments of the strangers or of their chief. Thus, in Yucatan, the leader was said to have left that region for the coast of Mexico. At Cholula, it was the tradition that Quetzalcoatl, with several of his companions, went away to the sea shore near Goascoalco, in the direction of Yucatan and never returned. In the regions of the interior of Chiapas and Guatemala, it was stated that in several of the native manuscripts accounts were given of a great leader or chief named Votan who was believed to have arrived in that country with nineteen companions or other chiefs. Votan was supposed to have landed in America near the Laguna de Terminos and to have established his first settlement near Palenque.[112]
The most singular circumstance relating to the worship of Quetzalcoatl is the fact that a cross should have been the chief emblem in the temple especially dedicated to him at Palenque. The fact of this symbol being worshipped by the Indians in the New World may perhaps not be deemed particularly strange, but it has to be taken into consideration that there is no record of any figure in the shape of a cross having been an object of devotion in any part of America, except in the regions that had been occupied by the Toltecs.
When the Spaniards arrived in Yucatan they reported that they saw in the court of a temple at Cozumel a cross made of lime and stone which was worshipped by the natives. There were some doubts about the precise meaning assigned to this image, possibly owing to the difficulties of understanding the Maya language, but it was afterwards ascertained that it represented the god of rain.