The filiation of the text being thus established as far back as 1550 to 1600, it remains to investigate the question: how much of it was originally Indian;--if all of it or not? There is no doubt but that the greater part of it is Indian songs, preserved for centuries, and Indian myths and tales--historical traditions--which were recorded by the compiler in the form now before us. But this compiler, or rather--recorder--has given to these tales a chronological sequence,--at least in the first part,--which may hereafter prove conjectural.--Actions are made to succeed to each other, which may yet prove to be without any connection at all.--I do not insist upon this point--since a new translation of the "Popol Vuh" should precede its investigation--but I particularly insist upon a careful and critical study of its first so-called "Chapters."
These first chapters give us cosmological Ideas and Notions, purporting to be originally Indian, which, at their very inception, show a singular admixture of foreign elements. The first sentences appear to be transcriptions from the book of Genesis. They are not aboriginally American.--We are therefore led to investigate whether, prior to 1550, European influences could have been brought to bear upon the recollection and the imagination of the natives.--There is very positive evidence to that effect.--The monks, at the earliest stages of conversion, used paintings of their own, to impress upon the natives the notions of a creation of the world, of the deluge and salvation of a single pair therefrom, &c., &c.--The Dominican Father Gonzalo Lucero travelled about with painted charts representing such striking events, which he displayed in confirmation of his teachings. Fray Jacobo Testera (he died Aug. 8, 1543) used similar means. Fray Pedro de Angulo, who went with Las Casas to Guatemala and was made Provincial of Chiapas in 1561, wrote three dissertations in the Zutuhil language, one on the Creation of the World, one on Adam's Fall, and one on the Expulsion of our first fathers from Paradise.--Fray Luis Cancer wrote similar pages in the language of Oajaca, previous to 1546.--Fray Domingo Vico, who was killed by the Indians of Lacandon, in 1555, wrote his "Teologia para los Indios," in the Quiché language, also a dissertation on the "Eternal Paradise," in the language of Vera-Paz.--But there is also indisputable proof that _songs were composed on the subject of the creation of the world_ and other parts of the Hebrew Genesis, in the Quiché language, which songs were used as the means of conversion of the natives of Vera-Paz in 1537. (Remesal. Lib. III., Cap. XI., p. 124.) They had been composed by Las Casas, Fray Rodrigo de Ladrada, Fray Pedro de Angulo, and probably Fray Luis Cancer. Many other similar ones were composed afterwards.