| Show additional ON THE MEXICAN MESSIAH IN tuesday ys issue we partially reviewed an article entitled the mexican messiah which first appeared in the gentleman and Is ie cepro deuced in the may number of the popular didominick Dominiok Dr daly the author of the paper clearly showed that the fair god of the mexicans was no myth but a real per conage who had visited and taught the ancients on this continent and who had promised to visit them again the writ writers erPs inference that quetzal coati was st brendan an irish bishop however rests upon a basis so airy as to be logically imperceptible dr daly almost admits this himself as he be thus cautiously conjectures ures ant but in looking loo kina for a country in western bur europe ae possibly an island which from A W D to A D might have sent out a missionary on a wild transatlantic expedition one is soon struck with the possibility of ireland being such a country could ireland have been the or holy Is landof the mexican tradition the speculative tendency of the gentleman leads him to an afflit affirmative native inference his premises are however glaringly defective because there is nothing in the tradition so far as he himself has explained it which makes it at au all pertain that the Tia of the mexican tradition was located in western europe and it is much more likely that it was palestine or the holy liand land to which the tradition points as the place from whence came the definition of the word admitting of this supposition to pay the least this view to is strengthened by the fact that the land of abraham is the cradle of christianity which must as stated have been taught among the ancient peoples of this continent the strength of the article is still further diminished by the following admission V this curious account of st brendans brendano Bren dans voyage may be altogether a romance as it has long been held to be but the remarkable thing about it Is the singularity of its general concurrence with the mexican tradition of 11 the st brendan story la Is as an follows from the eminence now called after him brendan mountain the saint sain t had haa long gazed upon the atlantic at his feet and speculated on the perilous condition of the souls of the unconverted peoples who possibly inhabited unknown countries on the other side at length in the cause of christianity and for the glory of god he resolved upon a missionary expedition across the ocean altho although tigh he was then well advanced in years with this purpose he caused a stout bark to be constructed and provisioned for a long voyage a portion of his supplies supplee witz consisting of live swine taking with him some trusty companions he sailed from strawlee 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 I 1 I 1 there is no relevance between this sto storsand story and the mexican tradition 1 the idea of making such a voyage in a bark to which oars were attached as a means of propulsion to is not feasible on its face 2 the tradition says nothing of being accompanied by companions 8 there to is not the slightest thread by which to connect the great american continent with the part of the world alleged to have been visited by father brendan and his trusty companions A point made by dr daly in favor of being no myth but a real person was the fact of the tradition bringing down through the ages a minute cand and no doubt correct description of the appearance of the great teacher who established christianity on this land he was white tall ana bearded in the sixth century as now the monks shaved their fame faces clean as a religious observance and in addition also shaved the crowns of their heads beads it will be seen therefore that unless st brendan had disi carded the regulations of his bis order he would present an appearance the directly opposite of that ascribed in the mexican tradition to the fair god who visited taught the people and assured them that he would revisit them in the future one of the weakest phases of dr dalys theory to is that st brendan and his trusty companions could have visited this taj most important section or of the globe labored seven years among its interesting inhabitants established christianity in their midst returned home and created not a ripple in europe it is Bear scarcely fielY poo poe sible bible to imagine a more unlikely result of a discovery and labor so vast in I 1 n attempting to identify st brendan the irish bishop with the mexican messiah he endeavors to set up a new European discoverer of amer lc aThia utopian idea is advanced in the face of the fact that the finally success ful efforts of columbus were based on an inspiration and upon the absorbing conviction in the mind of the eminent spaniard that there must bean be an immense body of land where this continent proved to be situated he was waa not guided by any intimation that the existence of this land had been demonstrated by former discovery we have taken occasion to criticize dr dalys daly Is theory as to the identity of in in whose reality he has expressed a strong belief because we propose to make an attempt to give our own explanation on the subject before doing so it is in point to dispose of such speculative fabrics as that from which the inference of the writer of the article in the Gent lemans to is drawn it is evident however that the mind of dr daly was enveloped in doubt an the interesting theme upon which he has treated this will be at once observed by his concluding paragraph which is herewith introduced it would be pro sumptuous presumptuous to claim that the identity of quel with st brendan has been completely established in this essay but it may reasonably be 00 submitted that there la Is rio no violent inconsistency sis tency involved in the theory herein ad advanced danced and an examination of the evidence upon which it is based discloses many remarkable coincidences in tavor favor of the opinion that the mexican messiah may have been the irish saint beyond this it would not be safe to go and it ig IB not probable that future discoveries will enable the identity of to be more cearly traced we take issue with dr dalys concluding sentence and hold that the identity of the mexican messiah can be traced with remarkable clearness clearo ees with the aid of well authenticated records which do d not con conflict filet with the tradition on the subject |
