better you will feel."
The sick man swallowed considerable more and then he was drunk. It was
not medicine at all that the wizard gave him, but a white wine made
from the maguey plant and the powder he put in it was to make the
Golden Hearted believe that he must go away.
For days after he was very sad and wept continuously, but he began to
get ready to leave Tulla. No matter what was said to dissuade him, he
could never get rid of the idea that he must take all of his followers
and go as quickly as possible.
The wise men, seeing that he was determined, gathered up all the
picture writings they had made as a record of their journeys, and
putting them into an ark, carried it swung on a pole with them. Before
leaving, they called the people together and said:
"Know that the Golden Hearted commands you to remain here in these
lands of which he makes you master and gives you possession. He goes
to the place whence he and we came, but he will return to visit you
when it shall be time for the world to come to an end. You must await
him in these lands, possessing them and all contained in them since
for this purpose came we hither. Remain, therefore, for we go with the
Golden Hearted."
The Departure of the Golden Hearted
The poisoned wine worked in the brain of the Golden Hearted and caused
him to do many singular things. For instance he burned all the
beautiful houses built for him by the wise men and ordered much of his
treasure to be buried in the mountains and ravines. When he left
Tulla, he took all the bright-plumaged singing birds with him, and
would only allow nineteen of the wise men to go with him.
Two of these knew all about fishing, and two knew about farming, and
one was a weather prophet who studied the clouds and winds, and could
foretell storms, while all the rest were priests who kindled the
sacred fires and taught the people the Good Law.
As soon as the King of Tulla found he was leaving, he took an army and
followed after him, laying the country waste and taking captive as
many of the people as he could find.
"Good prince, why do you not let us make war upon your and our enemy?"
the warriors often asked him, but he always put his fingers in his
ears and replied sadly:
"You do not understand the Good Law, my friend. The only way to
overcome hate is with love. It is fully time for me to return to
Tlapalla."
He traveled on until he came to a place where there was a great tree,
high and very thick. Here he sat down to rest.
"Bring me a mirror," he said to his servant, and when he saw his face
reflected in it, he cried out:
"Take it away. I am already old." Then the wise men knew that the drug
in the wine was making him mad again and they did not try to hinder
him when he began throwing stones at the tree.
"I will make these stones stick into your bark until you look like a
porcupine and the wind cannot blow them out," he said, and for a long,
long time, the tree was pointed out to travelers as being enchanted,
because the god of wind had hurled his wrathful breath upon it. From
all accounts the tree was full of sharp rocks from top to bottom and
must have looked very queer indeed.
The flute players tried to divert his attention as they marched along
the wood, but he was very weary and finally sat down to rest on a
stone by the roadside.
"O, Thou of infinite mercy and compassion, dry the hot tears that
flood and burn my face," he said brokenly as he looked toward Tulla.
People now say that his tears marked and ate into the stone, and that
the print of his hands is still to be found on it.
After he had reached a very wide river and had commanded his followers
to help build a bridge across it, he was met by some men who tried to
stop him.
"Where are you going?" they asked, "and why do you leave your city? To
whose care will you commend it, and who will do penance in it?" The
Golden Hearted answered them firmly:
"You can in no wise hinder me, for I must go."
"But where are you going?" they insisted.
"To Tlapalla," he answered.
"For what purpose are you going?"
"The sun calls me," he said.
"Go then," they replied, "but leave behind all the mechanical arts,
the melting of silver, the working of precious stones and of masonry,
picture writing, feather work and other crafts." And then they would
have robbed him, but he threw all his rich jewels into a fountain.
Among his tormentors was the pretended old wizard who tried to induce
him to drink more wine.
"No, I can not drink it. I can not even taste it again," he said, and
that night in his sleep he turned his head from side to side and tore
his hair with his hands.
The next morning in passing between a volcano and the snowy mountain
tops, all his servants being hunchbacked, died of cold, and he had no
way to get down the steep mountain side except to slide in a squatting
position with his feet close together.
In one place he stopped and built a square stone court for ball play,
and taught the people how to play the game. Now it is said that he
drew a line through the center of the court, and that made the deep
gash in the mountains still to be seen.
In another place he threw a dart at a tree and pierced it in such a
manner that it looked like a cross, and after that a cross was called
"The Tree of Our Life," in memory of this event. Some say that he
built houses with certain underground passageways where he hid picture
writing and records of his teachings, and just before arriving at the
water's edge, he set up and balanced a great stone so that it could be
moved with one's little finger, but a whole multitude could not
displace it.
No doubt you remember the village chief where the Golden Hearted went
when he first arrived from the Happy Island, and also that he sent
this chief a cross with a hand in the center. Now that he was going
home again, the Golden Hearted thought he would visit the chief and
see how he and his people were progressing.
Imagine his surprise in finding that they had dedicated a temple to
him, and that in the middle of the square tower was a terra cotta
statue of himself dressed as a warrior holding an arrow in his hand,
and because the statue was hollow they thought it was an oracle. His
name in their language was Cukulcan, but the common people called him
"The Working Hand," and had great respect for a huge stone cross
erected in the turreted courtyard in front of the temple, which had a
big red hand in the center.
When the Golden Hearted went among the people, he found that they
remembered everything he had told them, and that on the anniversary of
his coming great crowds of people came on a pilgrimage to the oracle
statue in the temple. It did no good for him to tell them that he was
simply an elder brother and teacher come to give them aid in a simple,
kindly way. They believed he was sent by God, and for ages after the
people made pilgrimages to this shrine, and held it in very great
esteem.
Realizing that it was time for him to go down to the sea coast among
the fishermen he had first seen, he went to the temple service one
morning, and after praying before the altar, picked up a sacred Tunkel
and sang them a prophetic song of farewell:
"Ye men of Itza hearken to the tidings
Listen to the forecast of this cycle's end,
Four have been the ages of the world's progressing
Now the fourth is ending and its end is near,
A mighty lord is coming, see you give him honor,
A potent lord approaches to whom all must bow
I, the prophet, warn you, keep in mind my boding,
Men of Itza mark it, and await your lord."
[Illustration: "A PROPHETIC SONG OF FAREWELL"]
"Waste not your time in idle repining," he said in farewell, "I go for
purification, but will surely come again."
He only spent time enough on the seashore to build and provision a
balsa, or boat with sails, and then he said "good bye" to the
fisherfolk, and sailed away toward the east with a few of the wise men
for companions. Just before he stepped into the boat he turned to the
wise men, who were to remain and said:
"It wrings my heart to part from you, but there is need for you to
stay here in order to complete the tasks already begun." As he
embraced and kissed each one on the cheek he named their special duty,
and had no fear that his orders would not be fully carried out.
"You must go to the son of Guatamo, and tell him my work is finished."
To another he said:
"You must go about and teach in my stead. I will come again, but at
another time."
It was difficult for him to persuade the fisherman not to accompany
him.
"Have no fear. Mine is a staunch bark capable of riding the storm and
stress of the angry sea. Farewell, beloved, I will return to you, when
the time and seasons are propitious."
The people on shore turned again and again to throw kisses to him,
while the fishermen in their little boats put out to sea with him, and
strained their vision to catch a last glimpse of his flower-laden
balsa.
The wise men and priests in the temples where-ever he had been, began
at once to guard the sacred fires and to watch and pray for his safe
return. Lest they should forget his sayings they engraved them on
stone, and taught them to the people so that his name was a household
word for generations. His was the only civilization known in the
Americas before the advent of the white men.
[Illustration: "THE SNAKE-SKIN CANOE"]
El Dorado, the Golden
We have read somewhere that "in 1492 Columbus sailed the waters blue,"
and we know that the big Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 was to
commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of
America, but no one can possibly tell how long it was after the Golden
Hearted sailed away, until Columbus came.
And nobody knows where the Golden Hearted went.
He said he was going to Tlapalla, which we know meant the Happy
Island, but no one can find it any more, and there are traditions
which say that the island, with all its inhabitants, sank in the
ocean. This may be why the Golden Hearted never came back again. Of
course the wise men and the primitive people in the Americas believed
that he would return because he said he would, and they watched and
waited all the long years from one generation to another. Many times
bright and promising young men, just out of the universities, or fresh
from victories on the battle fields, would take the vows of a priest,
and give up all their hopes and ambitions to serve in the temples
erected in honor of the Golden Hearted. They did not know anything
more about him than we do, but they had faith in him.
They said:
"All the good we know comes from him, and when he returns all wrongs
will be righted and every heart made to rejoice. He will give us
everything we wish for."
Several times during the year whole nations would fast and do severe
penance to induce him to come quickly. Not one of them could be made
to believe that he was dead.
"No, no," they said, "he is asleep in the bosom of the sun. He will
surely come again; he promised us he would."
Then they would get the idea that he was offended, and the kings would
order great sacrifice to be made to appease him. In some places I am
sorry to say they offered the quivering, bleeding hearts of human
beings by the hundreds, but still he did not come. In other places
they remembered his gentleness and only laid fruit, flowers and
perfumes on the sacred fire altars which they still kept burning.
There were many places where they carefully preserved his sayings by
cutting them in sign language on the stones of the temples, and every
child was taught to imitate his virtues and follow his example.
For several years before Columbus arrived the priests and wise men had
been prophesying that the Golden Hearted was soon to return, that the
sun was bringing him back, accompanied by companions like himself, who
would rule over them. Not even the great-great-grandfathers of the men
then living had seen the Golden Hearted, so they did not know how he
looked, but their traditions said that he was a bearded white man, and
we shall see by and by what a curious mistake this led them to make
about the first white men who came to them after the discovery of
America.
Before we can understand how such things could happen, we must
remember that the people in Europe did not know there was an America,
and that many of them had very queer ideas about the shape of the
earth. Some said it was four-cornered and square like a dry goods box,
and others thought it was round and flat like a plate, surrounded by
water which finally changed into vapor and mist, and that whoever
ventured far out into the misty clouds fell through and went--heaven
knows where!
In the quaint old Italian city of Genoa was born a little boy named
Christopher Columbus, who was to change all this, and be the innocent
cause of much suffering to the descendants of the races who had been
visited by the Golden Hearted. When a mere lad at school, he was
greatly interested in boats, and he not only studied geography and
history, but read all the books of travel he could find, and dreamed
night and day of a great long voyage he was going to make on the ocean
some time. He did not waste his time fishing and playing on the beach
like other boys, but picked up the chips that washed ashore and
examined them very carefully, because he believed that if there was an
unknown land some where in the west, that the waves would bring
something ashore from there. He was really quite an old man before he
found anything, but one day he picked up some strange chips at Cadiz
that had been cut by hand, and then he knew he was right.
Sailors always do have wonderful tales to tell about the sea, and in
those days they were so superstitious that they were sure that there
were huge monsters living in the distant waters just waiting to eat up
any sailor foolish enough to venture near them. There was not one of
them willing to listen to Columbus, when he tried to explain that the
earth is round like an orange, and that we live on the outside of it.
He said to them repeatedly:
"If we sail west steadily, we shall in time arrive back at the place
from which we started." Finally, not only the sailors, but the people
in the streets pointed their fingers at him and said:
"There goes the crazy old man, who thinks the world is as round as an
apple."
The more he talked and reasoned and argued and even drew maps to prove
that he was right, the more everybody shook their heads and called him
crazy.
Columbus was about to give up in despair because he was very poor, and
there seemed to be no way by which he could demonstrate that his
theory of the shape of the earth was correct.
And now comes a curious coincidence.
He was a very devout Christian, and felt certain that the inhabitants
of this strange country in the west had never heard of our God nor of
his beloved son Jesus, and his heart was fired with zeal to reach
these poor heathens and tell them the story of the Christ.
About this time some influential friend secured an audience for him
with the King of Portugal, but it did no good to tell his story to the
rich monarch, who was neither of a scientific nor a religious turn of
mind, and he might as well have talked to the wind. Utterly
discouraged Columbus decided to go to Spain, which is a near neighbor
of Portugal, and see if he could not induce the famous King Ferdinand
and Isabella, the queen, to give him boats to make his longed-for
voyage. The queen especially was very pious and was much interested in
Columbus' story about the heathens, but the ministers of her court
laughed at Columbus and said:
"It is a foolish dream which can never be carried out."
Almost heart-broken Columbus silently turned his back on the Spanish
capital and walked a long way to a seaport called Palos, where there
was a queer old convent in which strangers were made welcome by the
kind monks living in it. Knocking upon the gate, he said to the
porter:
"Will you please give me a bit of bread and a drink of water."
Fortunately, the prior, a learned man and an intimate friend of Queen
Isabella came along, and was quick to see that Columbus was no common
beggar. He invited him in, and after listening quietly and
thoughtfully to his visitor's plan of crossing the ocean to convert
the heathen to Christianity, he borrowed a mule and rode miles across
the country to the castle where the Queen was staying and persuaded
her to help Columbus.
"It is your duty," he said. "God has given you riches and many
blessings that you may assist your fellow men, and these strange
people know nothing of our God, and they need teachers to help them
find the right way of living."
Queen Isabella was so impressed with what he said that she immediately
petitioned the Royal Treasurer to give Columbus money to make his
voyage of discovery.
"Your majesty, there is no money to spare," was the polite answer of
the Treasurer, who, like all the rest of the court, thought Columbus
was a visionary dreamer if not crazy.
"Very well," she said. "I will pawn my crown jewels," and she did.
This was a most noble and courageous act on her part, for a queen in
those days was scarcely considered dignified or respectable without
splendid crown jewels to wear on public occasions, but she was bent
upon sending the gospel of Christ to the heathen in America. Does it
not seem strange that the Golden Hearted and the Queen of Spain should
be credited with the same desire to help the people of the Americas,
and that they lived hundreds of years apart and could never have known
of each other, and that one incident is a fact of history and the
other only a legend?
But as soon as Columbus secured the money another difficulty arose. No
sailor could be found who would risk his life on an unknown sea with
such a crazy old man. Finally Queen Isabella had to promise liberty
and full pardon to the convicts in the prisons before Columbus could
get any one to go with him. It was a terrible thing for him but he had
a brave heart, and the monks from the convent at Palos sent some of
their number with him to teach the natives.
On and on, the three caravels, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and Nina,
sailed without finding land, until their provisions were getting low
and the crews of convicts were about to mutiny and kill Columbus. In
order to keep them quiet he told them wonderful stories of the riches
of this land they were trying to find.
"You can have all the gold, and silver, and precious gems you can
carry," he promised them. In an instant you could see the cunning and
greed in their wicked faces. They did not care whether the earth was
round or flat, nor what became of the natives, if they only had gold,
and then they would gather around Columbus and question him closely
about the size of the nuggets and precious stones. Of course he could
only guess at it, but he knew that to save his life he must say
something, so he replied:
"I firmly believe that there are immense pieces of solid gold to be
found there, and that it is abundant."
[Illustration: "ON AND ON THE THREE CARAVELS SAILED."]
Some thought they would find it in lumps as big as a house, and they
all expected to pick up hands full of gems just anywhere. Columbus had
strained his eyes looking for the land until he was nearly blind, but
one night he imagined he saw a glimmer of light ahead. Where there was
light there must be land, he thought. So he called one of the sailors
to him and asked him what he saw.
[Illustration: "LAND! LAND AHEAD!"]
"A light! a light!" cried the sailor joyfully. But it was not until
nearly two o'clock in the morning that the commander of one of the
other boats started the cry:
"Land! Land ahead!"
You can imagine what excitement there was on all the caravels, and how
thankful Columbus was. The padres gathered around him, and as he
sprang ashore, he dropped on his knees and stooped and kissed the
ground. Even the sailors forgot about the gold while he and the padres
prayed and thanked God for giving mankind a new world.
Immediately the flag of Spain was planted and the land claimed for
King Ferdinand and Isabella, but wonderful indeed were the things
surrounding them. Men and women of a bronze color crowded around them
and offered them strange, but delicious fruits and flowers and brought
them food and water. In his first letter to Queen Isabella, Columbus
said of them:
"There is not in all the world a better people nor a better land.
Their converse is ever sweet and gentle, and is accompanied by a
smile. They truly love their neighbor as themselves."
Finding them docile and kind the padres set about teaching them, and
the simple natives were very willing listeners. It was quite a long
time before they could understand each other well, but the padres told
the story of the Christ the first time they held a service, which was
on a Sunday. Remembering the precepts of the Golden Hearted, the faces
of the natives lighted up understandingly when they heard the words of
Jesus which bade them be loving and kind to each other, and they
nodded their heads and exclaimed:
"El Dorado! El Dorado!"
At least that is what the ignorant convict sailors thought they said.
The words "El Dorado" in Spanish, which was their mother tongue, meant
"The Golden," or "The Gilded One." We know they were eager and greedy
to find gold and that they had been told to help themselves freely to
all they could get, so they immediately began to question the simple
natives.
"Yes, yes; we have plenty of gold," the natives said, in surprise,
because they did not value it at all, except for ornaments, and they
ran to fetch some for their visitors. When they saw how glad it made
the sailors, they were happy and content as a lot of children, and
they not only brought all they had, but told where there was plenty
more to be found.
[Illustration]
"Bimini, the Fountain of Youth"
When Columbus sailed back to Spain and told the story of his wonderful
discoveries the people did not believe him at first, but when he
showed them the gold and silver ornaments, and the strange red men,
they were so amazed that they forgot even to ask questions.
The news was so startling that it simply took their breath away and
they stared at each other stupidly. Then they said in awe-stricken
whispers:
"How can such things be? Is the world coming to an end? Are we going
to die? Or are _we_ crazy? Maybe our ears and eyes are fooling us."
But Columbus only smiled and said:
"My friends, you see I was right. The earth is round, and I have not
only found India with its untold riches, but I have brought some of
its people home with me."
And that is why today we call the red men Indians. Columbus did not
know that he had discovered a new continent, so it was natural for him
to speak of the natives as Indians. And I am sure you will pity him
when I tell you that he died without ever knowing the difference.
All Europe was in a fever of excitement over his voyage, and it was
not long before he fitted out other vessels and sailed across the
ocean again to find the northwest passage which he believed would
shorten the route to India. Rich men, and learned ones, were ready to
go with him, and the sailors expected to find gold and precious stones
scattered all over the ground. Every word that the convicts told them
about El Dorado they thought meant gold, and the wildest and most
exaggerated stories were soon in everybody's mouth.
The padres, too, were enthusiastic over the prospect of converting the
heathen, but nobody took the trouble to find out what the Indians
believed about God. Every one misunderstood the meaning of El Dorado
and never dreamed that there had been such a teacher as the Golden
Hearted, or that the Indians already knew how to be brotherly and
kind.
Even the most learned men in those days were ready to accept the
existence of a mythical city called Cathay as true.
They thought it was situated somewhere between the island of
Newfoundland and Florida, where they expected to find the spice
groves. Another story very common in Europe said that there was among
the beautiful summer isles of the west, one that conferred immortality
and was spoken of as the Island of Perpetual Youth. Among those whose
imagination was fired by this romance was a brave knight named Ponce
de Leon, who was Columbus' companion on his second voyage. He did not
care for the gold of the new world, for he was already rich, but he
was old, and he wanted to renew his youth. King Ferdinand commissioned
him Governor of Porto Rico, but he soon tired of it, and was
determined to discover the magic spring.