This  distinguished  Americaniste  goes  farther  than  his  fel
lows,  however,  in  that  he  attempts  to  prove  that  all  civi
lization  originated  in  America,  or  the  Occident,  instead
of  in  the  Orient,  as  has  always  been  supposed. This  the
ory  he  endeavors  to  substantiate  not  so  much  by  the
Old  World  traditions  as  by  those  of  the  New  World,  us
ing  as  his  principal  authority  an  anonymous  manuscript
written  in  the  Nahua  language;  which  he  entitles  the  Co
dex  Chimalpopoca. This  work  purports  to  be  on  the  face
of  it  a  "  History  of  the  Kingdoms  of  Calhuacan  and  Mex
ico"  and  as  such  it  served  Brasseur  as  almost  his  sole
authority  for  the  Toltec  period  of  his  Historic  des  nations
Civilisees. At  that  time  the  learned  Abbe  regarded  the
Atlantis  theory,  at  least  so  far  as  it  referred  to  any  part
of  America,  as  an  absurd  conjecture  resting  upon  no  au
thentic  basis. In  a  later  work,  however,  he  more  than
retracts  this  assertion;  from  a  skeptic  he  is  suddenly
transformed  into  a  most  devout  and  enthusiastic  believer,
and  attempts  to  prove  by  a  most  elaborate  course  of
reasoning  that  that  which  he  before  doubted  is  indubi
tably  true. The  cause  of  this  sudden  change  was  a  strange
one. As  by  constant  study,  he  became  more  profoundly
learned  in  the  literature  of  ancient  America,  the  Abbe
discovered  that  he  had  entirely  misinterpreted  the  Codex


ii4  Appendix

Chamalpopoca. The  annals  recorded  so  plainly  upon  the
face  of  the  mystic  pages  were  intended  only  for  the  un
derstanding  of  the  vulgar;  the  stories  of  the  kings,  the
history  of  the  kingdoms,  were  allegorical  and  not  to  be
considered. literally,  deep  below  the  surface  lay  the  true
historic  record — hidden  from  all  save  the  priests  and  the
wise  men  of  the  West — of  the  mighty  cataclysm  which
submerged  the  cradle  of  all  civilization. Excepting  a
dozen,  perhaps  of  the  kings  who  preceded  Montezuma,
it  is  not  a  history  of  men,  but  of  American  nature,  that
must  be  sought  for  in  the  Mexican  manuscripts  and  paint
ings. 