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Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan) _Frontispiece_

Imaginary Continent, South of Africa and Asia 12

Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland 21

Map of Vinland 24

The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts 27

The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2 28

Cipher Autograph of Columbus 46

Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians 87

Quetzalcoatl 93

Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco 100

Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices 105

Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1 173

Image over the Doorway shown in Fig. 1. Near Lake
Titicaca. Fig. 2 175

The Quipu 180

Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco 182

EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST

INTRODUCTION

Throughout all the periods of European history, ancient or modern, no
age has been more remarkable for events of first-rate importance than
the latter half of the fifteenth century. The rise of the New Learning,
the "discovery of the world and of man," the displacement of many
outworn beliefs, these with other factors produced an awakening that
startled kings and nations. Then felt they like Balboa, when

with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

It was at this historical juncture that the "middle ages" came to an
end, and modern Europe had its beginning. (See Chapter II.)

Why was Europe so long in discovering the vast Continent which all the
time lay beyond the Western Ocean? Simply because every skipper and
every "Board of Admiralty" believed that this world on which we live and
move is flat and level. They did not at all realize the fact that it is
_ball_-shaped; and that when a ball is very large (say, as large as a
balloon), then any small portion of the surface must appear flat and
level to a fly or "mite" traveling in that vicinity. Homer believed that
our world is a flat and level plain, with a great river, Oceanus,
flowing round it; and for many ages that seemed a v