Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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ALL ROADS LEAD T0 TIIULE. 31 language, was one of the richest ever brought together. I-Ie wrote many volumes upon these themes, drawing from aborigi- nal sources. At the time of his recent death, he was probably regarded the world over as the most eminent and able of that class of archaeologists and antiquarians known in Europe as Americanists. I-Iis last great work was his H Four Letters upon Mexico. 1 In this he claims to have unlocked the profound symbolism of the ancient hicroglyphies of Mexico, and to have found the Cradle of the Human Race. On the basis of indigenous texts, he sets forth the theory that this cradle was in Central America, and that from this centre, in the world's morning, the first pio- neer settlers of Egypt and Asia and Europe went forth. To him, therefore, the New World was older than the Old. t In fuller form his doctrine is, that originally the American con- tinent was almost twice as large as at present. It filled all the space now covered by the vast Gulf' of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and adjacent portions of' the Atlantic Ocean. It reached far out toward the west coast of Africa and Europe. It was the Atlantis of Plato. All parts were Eden-like, but the pre-emi- nently Paradisaic centre' was the primitive capital-city, Tollan 01' Tulan, situated-as the Abbe believed -to the south-east of Mexieof in the region now covered by the Caribbean Sea, not far from the inner shore of the Antilles? In one of the great geologic catastrophes of' the early world, all this immense tract was volcanically upheavedg then, in the sudden collapse, sunken and submerged beneath the waters of the ocean. Echoes of, the stupendous disaster live on in Plato, and in the 1 Quatre Leltres sur le Mcatique .' Exposition absolue du Systeme hierogly- phique mexicaing la Fin de l'Age dc Pierre. Epoque Glaciaire temporaire. Commencement dc l'Age ole Bronze. Origines de la Civilisation et des Religions de l'Ant'iqutte2 cl'aprEs le Yeo-Amoxtli et autre documents mexicains. Con- stituting the fourth volume of his Uoltection de Documents dans les Langue.: Indigenes. Paris,18tS8. 2 Au sud-est du Mexiqne, p 110. 3 The old Spanish writers give us many spellings : Tula Tulan, Tullan, Tnlha, Tulla, Tollan, etc. H. H. Bancroft tin Native Races, vol. v. p. 1825 refers to the variety. Dr. Brinton tin his Library of Aboriginal American Literature, vol. vi. p. Ill says the word is properly Yhnatlan. But he most unscientiilcally denies all historic basis to the Aztec myths, resolving them into pure creations of the fancy. 1

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30 BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. stood the polar Pillar, which upheld the world. Roads with such finger-posts, all lead to Thule. Not less striking and significant are the difiiculties encoun- tered by the learned Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, in his at- tempt to demonstrate the true location of the cradle of the human race from the traditions and literature of' the Mexican and Central American aborigincs. First, a word respecting the man. Even before his life-work was finished, and before the publication of what he considered his crowning literary monument, it was said of him, by as good an authority in his own field as Daniel G. Brinton, M.D., The Abbe is the most learned living writer concerning the ancient things of America. 1 The praise was none too high. In Europe his works were welcomed and reviewed by such schol- ars as Professor Max Miiller, and others of the very first rank. His private collection of books, manuscripts, hieroglyph-copies, maps, relics, etc., relating to Indian mythology, tradition, and 1 From an article on the Abbe, by Dr. Brinton, published in Lryapincotfs Magazine, vol. i., Phil. 1868. Charles Edward Brasseur was born in 1814, in the Flemish village of Bourbourg, near Dunkirk. NVhen a boy of ten a stray copy of the Journal des Savanls fell in his way. In it there was a brief sketch of some of the ruins of Palenque in Central America, with speculations as to their origin. This was to his boyish soul what the lays of Horner were to the youthful Schliemann. He cherished the wild dream that it was for him to unlock the mystery of those wonderful works of an unknown past. Just at this thne all Europe was in joyous excitement over Champollion's success in deciphering.the long battling hieroglyphs of Egypt, and this roused his ambition the more. His powers and scholar- ship attracted the attention of his teachcrsg he was called into the service of the Church, and thoroughly educated. In 1845, after induction into holy orders, he was sent to Quebec, and was allowed to advance himself in English and other studies in Boston. Here, the perusal of l'rescott's new work on the Conquest of Mexico fired his zeal afresh. The next year he returned to Europe, went to Rome, and then gave himself to diligent studies until the outbreak of the revolution in 1848. Then, as alxncner of the French legatlon, he again visited the United States, and commenced those explorations and studies of Mexico and Central America and their antiquities which became his life-work. As administrator of the Indians at Rablnal, he resided for several years in Guatemala, learning meantime, in a. thorough manner, the Nahualt and other aboriginal languages. In the former he was taught by a University professor, who was a descendant of a brother of Montezuma. For fuller details of his active life, the reader is referred to the chatty autobiographic prefaces prefixed to his diffei-eng works. '

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32 BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. diluvian traditions of all ancient peoplesg while, in the sacred books of the Mexicans, the true history has been preserved with it all the episodes, even to their smallest details. Such is the theory, and fascinating was the enthusiasm with which through hundreds of pages he devoted himself to its elaboration and illustration. ' To a believer in a primeval Arctic Eden the result is full of interest. In a field where the traditions of prehistoric times 'arc so confused, as they confessedly are in the case of the Aztecs, one must not expect too mucl1. Mr. H. H. Bancroft has warned us against that? But, on the other hand, when it is an enthu- siastic advocate of a south-eastern Caribbean Paradise, who, in his descriptions, repeatedly brings out points which evidently and of 'necessity belong to a north-polar one, the force of the evidence is signally enhanced. In H Paradise Found, in the chapter on t' The Quadrifurcate River, striking facts are adduced, sl1owing that many peoples, in their traditions, mark the spot of their earliest home, by connecting it with the spot where the divine river descending from heaven, divides, parting into four earthly rivers for the watering of the whole earth. It is at least an interesting fact, that, in the traditions ofthe prehistoric Americans, the mother- region ofthe human race was also precisely at 'f the place where the waters in falling divide. The strangeness of the expres- sion leads our learned guide to devote a foot-note to itg but he declares himself uncertain as to whether it if can -be under- 1 The migration of the Aztecs is described much more fully than that of the tribes that preceded them: but in the details of this journey, so far as dates, names, and events are concerned, the traditions are inextricably confused .... We have no means of determining in a manner at all satis- factory, whether Aztlan and Chicomoztoc were in Central America, or in the region of Zacatecas and Jaliscog nor indeed of proving that they were not in Alaska, New Mexico, or on the Mississippi . . . The record, as a whole, is exactly what might be expected were the traditions of half a, dozen kindred bands respecting their wanderings about the central plateau, and efforts to establish themselves in permanent homes, united in one con- secutive narrativeg and I have little doubt that such was substantially the process by which the Spanish version of the Aztec migration was formed. . . . It is utterly useless to attempt its clearing np tTlte Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. v. p. 322J. The same suggestion is made by Brassenr de Bourbourg in note 1 to p. 232 of his Popul Vuh. See also his preface, p. lxv.