Mr. Ranking on the Ruins of Palenque, 141 



** Father Jacito Garrido, a Dominican friar, who was in 

 these parts in 1638, where he taught theology, and was well 

 versed in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages ; cosmo- 

 graphy, arithmetic, and music ; has left a Latin manuscript, in 

 which he states his opinion, that the northern parts of America 

 had been discovered by the Greeks, English, and other na- 

 tions, a supposition he deduces from the variety of languages, 

 and some monuments in the village of Ocojingo, twenty-four 

 leagues from Palenque ; but these are the mere conjectures of 

 the reverend writer, nor does he define the period when these 

 alleged strangers arrived." — Page 12. 



The result of Dr. Cabrera's disquisition regarding the 

 peopling of America, which he says is an *' historical obscurity 

 that has hitherto fatigued the greatest talents in the world" 

 (page 35) is this — " That Atlas made the first voyage to 

 America; that Votan, a Hivite, third in descent from Hercules 

 Tyrius, led a colony from Syria to Hispaniola, which is the 

 island Atlantis ; and from the capital of that island he em- 

 barked his first colony for the continent of America, and founded 

 Palenque, from which city he visited the old world four times ; 

 that his port of arrival was Tripoli, in Syria ; that he was in 

 Spain, and that he visited Rome, and witnessed the building 

 of the * House of God,' by which is meant the temple that, 

 during the consulate of Publius Cornelius Rufinus, was erected 

 in honour of Romulus and Remus, B.C. 291 ; that it was 

 from Votan that the Romans and Carthaginians obtained their 

 first knowledge of America ; and that Carthaginians emigrated, 

 and founded the kingdom of Amaquemacan, (the original region 

 from whence the Toltecs, Mexicans, and other tribes, arrived 

 in Anahuac, and which Clavigero places in the north of Ame- 

 rica ;) but that so many inhabitants emigrated, that the Car- 

 thaginian Senate passed a decree, commanding their return, as 

 mentioned by Diodorus, and confirmed by Montezuma, in his 

 discourses with Cortez ; that the Carthaginians, fearing some 

 disaster from the Roman arms, kept from those conquerors 

 the secret of their having this secure refuge ; that, accordinoj 

 to Indian tradition, Votan wrote his own history, which was 

 taken from a cave by an Indian lady, who gave up the histo- 

 rical tract, and that it was publicly burnt in the square at 



