But they
were not so gloomy to the minds of his down-trodden subjects, for that
day was to liberate them from the thralls of servitude. Therefore when
they first beheld the fair complexioned Spaniards, they rushed into the
water to embrace the prows of their vessels, and despatched messengers
throughout the land to proclaim the return of Quetzalcoatl.[188-1]
The noble Mexican was not alone in his presentiments. When Hernando de
Soto on landing in Peru first met the Inca Huascar, the latter related
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.
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