From Ruysch’s Map of the World (1508).
(Nordenskiöld’s Facsimile Atlas.)
In the early part of the sixteenth century, several expeditionary fleets were fitted out and sailed across the seas towards the New World. Many islands were seen, but Antilia was not found. Thus when it became known that Yucatan had been discovered and that a cross placed within a stone temple was worshipped by the Indians, and that other crosses had been seen placed over graves, it was surmised that the bishops must have finally reached that distant land.
Such an event may be thought to be improbable, but as, in consequence of the trade-winds, it is not impossible, it is expedient to consider in what manner it might have happened. It has to be assumed that the legend, so far as it relates to Christian fugitives escaping from the tyranny of Mahometan conquerors, may be considered as being within the limits of reasonable historical inquiry. Men deliberately leaving their own country to seek a place of refuge where they would be free to establish their religion, would, before embarking upon unknown seas, take with them supplies of provisions and water, and thus, by proper precautions, secure themselves from the risk of starvation. It is also probable that they were informed by the pilots or other navigators acquainted with the adjacent shores, that there were islands situated beyond the Mauritanian coasts within a distance not too great for them to undertake the voyage with a fair prospect of reaching land.
In the eighth century the Canary Islands had not been discovered by Europeans, but their position was known to the Arabs and Moors and rumours concerning them and their proximity to the coast of Morocco were doubtless familiar to the sea-faring men living near Cadiz. The pilots would, therefore, have shaped a course for the Canaries. They would have expected to reach those islands within eight or ten days. But a slight error in their course would have taken the vessels into the trade-winds and, in that case, they would have been driven across the Atlantic in the direction of Florida, whose coasts might easily have been reached in less than six weeks from the date of the departure from Spain. It is also possible that they may have been chased by some of the armed vessels which had conveyed the Saracens from Mauritania.
It is not, however, necessary to pursue this investigation to any greater length. It is sufficiently clear that if the event, as recorded by tradition, actually happened, there is no difficulty in accepting the conclusion that several of the bishops and their companions may have reached America in safety.[118] Thus the statements of the Indian priests, that white strangers wearing beards and dressed in cassocks had arrived from the East, would be confirmed.
Upon an examination of the laws that govern the direction of the trade-winds in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, it is found that there is a strong easterly wind continuously blowing across the Atlantic towards Florida, Mexico and Yucatan. There is also a strong westerly wind invariably blowing across the North Pacific, over the regions between the fortieth and fiftieth parallels of latitude, from Japan towards the north-west coast of North America. In consequence of this prevailing wind several junks have been driven out of their course and have reached the American seacoasts. In 1833 a junk was wrecked near Vancouver island and several of the crew landed and were received by the Indians. In the previous year a Japanese junk laden with fish arrived at the Sandwich islands. She had been driven across the seas by a violent storm which had caught her off Japan. Four of her men were alive and they were taken to Honolulu.
Taking therefore into consideration the prevalence of trade-winds blowing towards America, and the peculiar conditions of architectural and astronomical intelligence possessed by the Mexican Indians, there are certain inferences which may be accepted. It is not improbable that men belonging to European, Moorish, or Asiatic races arrived in Central America during a period between the sixth and eleventh centuries. There is not sufficient evidence to determine in what manner this may have happened; but after giving due weight to the statements of the Indian priests and caciques, and the traditions of the circumstances under which their knowledge was introduced into Mexico, together with the adoption of monastic institutions, and the systems of education, it is reasonable to conjecture that the comparative civilisation of the Toltecs and Aztecs was originally caused by the influence and instruction of strangers who came to their land in vessels which had crossed the Atlantic.
London: Stanford’s Geogl. Estabt.