ioo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Accepting this as established, the possibility of fixing the 

 European identity of Quetzatcoatl presents itself as a curious but 

 obviously difficult question. To begin with, the era of Quetzat- 

 coatl is not known with any precision. It has a possible range 

 of some six and a half centuries from before the beginning of 

 the fourth century to the middle of the tenth century; that is, 

 from about A. D. 400 to A. D. 1050, which is the longest time as- 

 signed to Toltec domination in Mexico. The era of Quetzat- 

 coatl may, however, be safely confined to narrower limits. The 

 Toltecs must have been well settled in the country before Quetzat- 

 coatl appeared among them, and he must have left them some 

 considerable time before their migration from Mexico. The ref- 

 erences to Quetzatcoatl's visits to the Toltec cities prove the for- 

 mer, and the time which would have been required to arrange for 

 and complete the great pyramid built at Cholula in honor of the 

 departed Quetzatcoatl proves the latter. From a century to two 

 centuries may be allowed at each end of the period from a. d. 400 

 to a. d. 1050, and it may be assumed with some degree of proba- 

 bility that Quetzatcoatl's visit to Mexico took place some time 

 between (say) a. d. 500 and A. D. 900. 



If attention is directed to the condition of Europe during that 

 time, it will be found that the period from about a. d. 500 to a. d. 

 800 was one of great missionary activity. Before the former date 

 the Church was doing little more than feeling its way and devel- 

 oping its strength in the basin of the Mediterranean, and making 

 extensions in settled states. After the latter date the incursions 

 and devastations of the northern barbarians paralyzed European 

 missionary efforts. But from the beginning of the fifth to the 

 beginning of the eighth century there was no limit to missionary 

 enterprise, and, if ever a Christian missionary had appeared in 

 Mexico, all the probabilities favor the theory that he must have 

 gone there within those centuries. The era of Quetzatcoatl may 

 therefore be narrowed to those three hundred years, and the task 

 of tracing his identity thus simplified to some slight extent. 



It may now be asked, Is it reasonable to expect that there are, 

 or ever were, any European records of the period from a. d. 500 to 

 A. D. 800 referring to any missionary who might have been Quet- 

 zatcoatl ? It is a long time since Quetzatcoatl, whoever he was, 

 sailed from the shores of Europe to carry the truths of Christian- 

 ity into the unknown regions beyond the Atlantic, but the literary 

 records of his assumed period are numerous and minute, and 

 might possibly have embraced some notice of his undertaking. 

 It seems unlikely that his enterprise would have escaped atten- 

 tion altogether, especially from the ecclesiastical chroniclers, who 

 were not given to ignoring the good works of their fellow-re- 

 ligionists. Moreover, the mission of Quetzatcoatl was not one 



