For ages before the landing of Columbus on its shores, the inhabitants of ancient Mexico worshiped a "Saviour"--as they called him--(_Quetzalcoatle_) who was _born of a pure virgin_.[129:4] _A messenger from heaven announced to his mother that she should bear a son without connection with man._[129:5] Lord Kingsborough tells us that the annunciation of the _virgin Sochiquetzal_, mother of Quetzalcoatle,--who was styled the "_Queen of Heaven_"[129:6]--was the subject of a Mexican hieroglyph.[129:7] The embassador was sent from heaven to this virgin, who had two sisters, Tzochitlique and Conatlique. "These three being alone in the house, two of them, on perceiving the embassador from heaven, died of fright, Sochiquetzal remaining alive, to whom the ambassador announced that it was the will of God that she should conceive a son."[130:1] She therefore, according to the prediction, "conceived a son, _without connection with man_, who was called Quetzalcoatle."[130:2] Dr. Daniel Brinton, in his "Myths of the New World," says: "The Central figure of Toltec mythology is _Quetzalcoatle_. Not an author on ancient Mexico, but has something to say about the glorious days when he ruled over the land. No one denies him to have been a god. _He was born of a virgin_ in the land of _Tula_ or _Tlopallan_."[130:3] The Mayas of _Yucatan_ had a virgin-born god, corresponding entirely with Quetzalcoatle, if he was not the same under a different name, a conjecture very well sustained by the evident relationship between the Mexican and Mayan mythologies. He was named _Zama_, and was the only-begotten son of their supreme god, Kinchahan.[130:4] The _Muyscas_ of Columbia had a similar hero-god. According to their traditionary history, he bore the name of _Bochica_. He was the incarnation of the Great Father, whose sovereignty and paternal care he emblematized.[130:5] The inhabitants of _Nicaragua_ called their principal god Thomathoyo; and said that he had a _son_, who came down to earth, whose name was Theotbilahe, and that he was their general instructor.[130:6] We find a corresponding character in the traditionary history of _Peru_. The Sun--the god of the Peruvians--deploring their miserable condition, sent down his son, _Manco Capac_, to instruct them in religion, &c.[130:7] We have also traces of a similar personage in the traditionary _Votan_ of _Guatemala_; but our accounts concerning him are more vague than in the cases above mentioned. We find this traditional character in countries and among tribes where we would be least apt to suspect its existence. In _Brazil_, besides the common belief in an age of violence, during which the world was destroyed by water, there is a tradition of a supernatural personage called _Zome_, whose history is similar, in some respects, to that of Quetzalcoatle.[130:8]