Genre:

Introduction; Essay

Relevant illustrations:

photo. [9]

Subjects:

Human Species, Archaeology, Discovery, Heterodoxy, Imposture, Publishing, Race, Comparative Philology, Cosmogony, Creation

Publications cited:

[Le Plongeon 1896]

    Prints an 'anticipatory account of a work' that 'at present only exists in ms.', but 'which, when it does appear, will undoubtedly create a profound sensation'. There is, indeed, 'a certain pleasurable feeling in publishing so ingenious and audacious a speculation' as that of the American archaeologists Augustus Le Plongeon and Alice D Le Plongeon, who claim to have discovered incontrovertible evidence in the Yucatan region of Mexico that 'America is the real cradle of the race, and that Europe, Asia, and Africa must humbly fall in behind their elder sister'. According to the Le Plongeons, 'Egypt [...] was colonised from Yucatan [...] the ancient Egyptian mysteries were transplanted bodily from Yucatan; and the Greek alphabet is simply a Yucatanese version of the destruction of the lost Atlantis'. Admits, however, that 'speaking seriously, the sooner M. Le Plongeon gets the results of his astonishing researches published, with all the illustrations, diagrams, and confirmatory matter, the better. At present the reader will half suspect that he is being made the victim of a stupendous practical joke'. (271)