d
an ancient prophecy which his father Huayna Capac had repeated on his
dying bed, to the effect that in the reign of the thirteenth Inca, white
men (_viracochas_) of surpassing strength and valor would come from
their father the Sun and subject to their rule the nations of the world.
"I command you," said the dying monarch, "to yield them homage and
obedience, for they will be of a nature superior to ours."[188-2]

The natives of Haiti told Columbus of similar predictions long anterior
to his arrival.[188-3] And Father Lizana has preserved in the original
Maya tongue several such foreboding chants. Doubtless he has adapted
them somewhat to proselytizing purposes, but they seem very likely to be
close copies of authentic aboriginal songs, referring to the return of
Zamna or Kukulcan, lord of the dawn and the four winds, worshipped at
Cozumel and Palenque under the sign of the cross. An extract will show
their character:--

"At the close of the thirteenth Age of the world,
While the cities of Itza and Tancah still flourish,
The sign of the Lord of the Sky will appear,
The light of the dawn will illumine the land,
And the cross will be seen by the nations of men.
A father to you, will He be, Itzalanos,
A brother to you, ye natives of Tancah;
Receive well the bearded guests who are coming,
Bringing the sign of the Lord from the daybreak,
Of the Lord of the Sky, so clement yet powerful."[189-1]

The older writers, Gomara, Cogolludo, Villagutierre, have taken pains to
collect other instances of this presentiment of the arrival and
domination of a white race. Later historians, fashionably incredulous of
what they cannot explain, have passed them over in silence. That they
existed there can be no doubt, and that they arose in the way I have
stated, is almost proven by the fact that in Mexico, Bogota, and Peru,
the whites were at once called from the proper names of the heroes of
the Dawn, _Suas_, _Viracochas_, and _Quetzalcoatls_.

When the church of Rome had crushed remorselessly the religions of
Mexico and Peru, all hope of the return of Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha
perished with the institutions of which they were the mythical founders.
But it was only to arise under new incarnations and later names. As well
forbid the heart of youth to bud forth in tender love, as that of
oppressed nationalities to cherish the faith that some ideal hero, some
royal man, will yet arise, and break i