THE MEXICAN MESSIAH. 103 



advanced in years. With this purpose he cansed a stout bark to 

 be constructed and provisioned for a long voyage, a portion of his 

 supplies consisting of live swine. Taking with him some trusty 

 companions, he sailed from Trawlee Bay, at the foot of Brendan 

 Mountain, in a southwesterly direction. The voyage lasted many 

 weeks, during several of which the vessel was carried along by a 

 strong current without need of help from oars or sails. In the 

 land which he ultimately reached the saint spent seven years in 

 instructing the people in the truths of Christianity. He then left 

 them, promising to return at some future time. He arrived safely 

 in Ireland, and in after-years (mindful of the promise he had 

 made to his transatlantic converts) he embarked on a second voy- 

 age. This, however, was frustrated by contrary winds and cur- 

 rents, and he returned to Ireland, where he died in 578, at the 

 ripe age of ninety-four, and in " the odor of sanctity ." 



It would be idle to expect a plain, matter-of-fact account of St. 

 Brendan's voyage from the chroniclers of the sixth century. The 

 narrative is, in fact, interwoven with several supernatural occur- 

 rences. But, eliminating these, there remains enough of appar- 

 ently real incident worthy of serious attention. The whole story, 

 as already suggested, may be a mere pious fable promulgated and 

 accepted in a non-critical and ignorant and credulous age. If 

 substantially true, the fact could not be verified in such an age ; 

 if a pure invention, its falsity can not now be demonstrated. All 

 that can be said about it is that it is in wonderful agreement with 

 what is known, or may be inferred, from the Mexican legend. 

 The story of St. Brendan's voyage was written long before Mexico 

 was heard of, and, if forged, it could not have been with a view to 

 offering a plausible explanation of a singular Mexican tradition. 

 And yet the solution which it offers of that tradition is so com- 

 plete and apropos on all material points as almost to preclude 

 the idea of accidental coincidence. In respect to epoch, personal 

 characteristics, race, religion, direction of coming and going, the 

 Mexican Quetzatcoatl might well have been the Irish saint. Both 

 were white men, both were advanced in years, both crossed the 

 Atlantic from the same direction of Europe, both preached Chris- 

 tianity and Christian practices, both returned across the Atlantic 

 to an insular home or Holy Island, both promised to come back, 

 and failed in doing so. These are certainly remarkable coinci- 

 dences, if accidental. 



The date of St. Brendan's voyage the middle of the sixth cent- 

 ury is conveniently within the limits which probability would 

 assign to the period of Quetzatcoatl's sojourn in Mexico, namely, 

 from about the fifth to the eighth centuries. The possibility of 

 making a voyage in such an age from the western shores of Eu- 

 rope to Mexico is proved by the fact that the voyage was made 



