102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the best claim, to be the Tlapallan of the Mexicans. It is the most 

 western part of Europe ; it is insular, and in the earlier centuries 

 of the Christian era was known as the " Holy Island " ; between 

 a. d. 500 and a. d. 800 it was the most active center of missionary- 

 enterprise in Europe, and its missionaries were conspicuous above 

 all others for their daring maritime adventures. It is natural, 

 therefore, to suspect that Ireland may have been the home of 

 Quetzatcoatl, and, if that were so, to expect that early Irish rec- 

 ords would contain some references to him and his extraordinary 

 voyage. Upon this the inquiry suggests itself, Do the early Irish 

 chronicles, which are voluminous and minute, contain anything 

 relating to a missionary voyage across the Atlantic at all corre- 

 sponding to that which Quetzatcoatl must have taken from some 

 part of western Europe ? 



To one who, step by step, had arrived at this stage of the pres- 

 ent inquiry, it was not a little startling to come across an obscure 

 and almost forgotten record, which is, in all its main features, in 

 most striking conformity with the Mexican legend of Quetzatcoatl. 

 This is the curious account of the transatlantic voyage of a cer- 

 tain Irish ecclesiastic named St. Brendan, in the middle of the 

 sixth century about a. d. 550. The narrative appears to have 

 attracted little or no attention in modern times, but it was widely 

 diffused during the middle ages. In the Bibliotheque at Paris 

 there are said to be no fewer than eleven MSS. of the original 

 Latin narrative, the dates of which range from the eleventh to 

 the fourteenth centuries. It is also stated that versions of it in 

 old French and Romance exist in most of the public libraries of 

 France ; and in many other parts of Europe there are copies of it 

 in Irish, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. It is 

 reproduced in Usher's Antiquities, and is to be found in the Cot- 

 tonian collection of MSS. 



This curious account of St. Brendan's voyage may be alto- 

 gether a romance, as it has long been held to be ; but the remark- 

 able thing about it is the singularity of its general concurrence 

 with the Mexican tradition of Quetzatcoatl. 



St. Brendan, called the " Navigator " from his many voyages, 

 was an Irish bishop, who in his time founded a great monastery 

 at Clonfert on the shores of Kerry, and was the head of a confra- 

 ternity, or order, of three thousand monks. The story of his 

 transatlantic voyage is as follows : From the eminence now called, 

 after him, Brendan Mountain, the saint had long gazed upon the 

 Atlantic at his feet, and speculated on the perilous condition of 

 the souls of the unconverted peoples who possibly inhabited un- 

 known countries on the other side. At length, in the cause of 

 Christianity, and for the glory of God, he resolved upon a mis- 

 sionary expedition across the ocean, although he was then well 



