Category Archives: James Churchward

Llakoff’s Island – A Challenge Declined

Posted on June 20, 2016 | 2 comments

The Great Uighur Empire during the Tertiary Era

On May 1st, (2016) I set out a challenge to fellow researchers to answer two questions about James Churchward’s use of the Llakoff Island in his description of the Great Uighur Empire:

Provide the real name of the island (the easy part,) and,
Provide the name of the earliest written account that James may have used as a reference in his description of the island, as well as author’s name, publisher (if known,) and page numbers.

I allowed a month for the answer to be emailed and received no responses.

The first question was answered and posted in a Facebook group and in a comment to the blog posting- it is the Lyakhovsky Islands, also spelled:

Lachow Island from Narrative of an Expedition to Siberia and the Polar Seas (1840) edited by Major Edward Sabine
Laechow Island from The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science And Art Vol X (1840)
Lachoff Island from Overland Through Asia (1870) by Thomas Knox
Ljachoff’s Island from The Voyage of the Vega Around Asia and Europe (1885) by A.E. Nordenskiold
Liachof Island from The Mammoth and the Flood (1887) by Henry H. Howorth
Liakhov Island from the novels Waif of the Cynthia (1885) and César Cascabel (1890) by Jules Verne

The second question, where could James have read about an island made up of the bones and tusks of mammoths and other forest creatures? Or that ice was not involved in the flooding since it would have mashed up all the bones.

The novels by Jules Verne say the islands are made of whale and mammoth bones, but nothing about a flood.

Several of the books listed above quote from the account of Sannikow (Sannikov), a companion of the explorer Hedenstrom,

In quantity, however, these bones increase wonderfully to the northward, and, as Sannikow expresses himself, the whole soil of the first of the Lachow Islands appears to consist of them.
Narrative of an Expedition to Siberia and the Polar Seas

and

In the words of Sannikow, one of Hedenström’s companions, “the first of the Laechow Islands is little more than one mass of mammoth’s bones,” and though for upwards of eighty years the Siberian traders have been bringing over annually large cargoes of them, there appears as yet to be no sensible diminution in the apparently inexhaustible store.
The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science And Art Vol X

In The Living Age Vol. 204 (1895), a story (Treasure Islands in the Polar Sea) discusses the presence of the bones as follows:

We cannot fully answer these questions. It seems probable, however, that great floods of rushing water must poured over these lands, and great invasions of the waters of the ocean must have inundated them. In these tremendous deluges the elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffaloes were destroyed and their carcasses were piled up in heaps in the places where they had congregated to take refuge from the rising waters. When these deluges subsided and the waters retired, the lands were covered with remains of the drowned animals, in some as yet unexplained manner the climate changed and northern Siberia which was formerly a beautiful and verdant region became an icy wilderness and a land of death.

In The Mammoth and the Flood (1887), Howorth states as follows:

So it is clear that at the time when the elephants and trunks of trees were heaped tip together, one flood extended from the centre of the continent to the furthest barrier existing in the sea as it now is. That flood may have poured down from the high mountains through the rocky valleys. The animals and trees which it carried off from above could sink but slowly in the muddy and rapid waves, but must have been thrown upon the older parts of Kotelnoi and New Siberia in the greatest number and with the greatest force, because these islands opposed the last bar to the diffusion of the waters.”

Is there a smoking gun to provide the precise wording? Maybe, but I didn’t find one complete passage to match what James wrote.

It is clear that Howorth in The Mammoth and the Flood wrote about a north-bound flood and also quotes Sannikow about the composition of the islands being comprised of mammoth and other animal bones.
Maybe The Mammoth and the Flood is the smoking gun being sought and the answer to the second question.
Of course, if anyone is interested and comes up with a better answer, I am all ears.

Have a great day.

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Posted in Great Uighur Empire, James Churchward, Miscellaneous, References to James' work

The Madrid Codex

Posted on February 7, 2016 | 1 comment

When discussing ancient documents, on many occasions mention is made of the Troano Manuscript and the Codex Cortesianus, and how the translation of these documents lends credence to the existence of ancient advanced civilizations. Included on that list are the theories of Augustus Le Plongeon (1825-1908) and James Churchward (1851-1936,) purveyors of ancient civilizations in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and the now sunken continent of Mu in the Pacific Ocean, respectively.

Augustus Le Plongeon (1825-1908)

Augustus Le Plongeon was born on the island of Jersey and at the age of 19 found himself shipwrecked off the coast of Chile. Five years later, he sailed to San Francisco and worked as a surveyor. His subsequent travels to England and Peru lead him to study photography and start a studio in Lima. He also visited and photographed ancient ruins there. In 1870 he went back to San Francisco and gave a number of lectures on Peruvian archaeology and the causes of earthquakes. From there he traveled to New York City and then on to London where he studied Mesoamerican manuscripts. One of the manuscripts was a translation by Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (1814-1874) that lead him to believe that civilization had originated in the New World. After marrying Alice Dixon in New York City, the couple traveled to the Yucatan in 1873 where they stayed until 1885 searching for connections between the Maya and the ancient Egyptians. Le Plongeon’s photographs, including 3D images, of the ancient ruins were an important part of his research.
Le Plongeon describes the Troano manuscript in an appendix (Note III. (Page xxxi)) of the 1896 Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx on page 174. He identifies the owner of the manuscript as Señor Dn. Juan Tro y Ortelano, a professor of palaeography at Madrid University and mentions the Abbé Brasseur’s efforts to copy and translate the document. The document is named the Troano Manuscript after the owner. The Abbé’s research and interpretations were published in 1869 or 1870 under the name Manuscrit Troano, études sur le système graphique et la langue des Mayas. Le Plongeon wrote of the document:

This Maya Manuscript is, indeed, a most precious document, for it is a brilliant light that, besides the monumental inscriptions, now illuminates the darkness which surrounds the history of the ancient inhabitants of the peninsula of Yucatan. The second part after describing the events that took place during the awful cataclysms that caused the destruction of ten different countries, one of which, called Mu, was probably Plato’s Atlantis, is mostly dedicated to the recital of meteorological and geological phenomena that occurred in the “Land of the Serpent,” also called Beb (tree), of which Mayab formed a part.

The translation by Abbe Brasseur is quoted to provide the existence of a land of “Mu” in Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx, in a footnote on page lvi, the figure below is translated.

The figures are anthropomorphous representations – the kneeling, supplicating female, of the “Land of Mu;” the male, of the “Lord of Seven Fires” (volcanoes), Men kak uuc. Mu, in an imploring posture comes to inform him that the one of his volcanoes has caused the basin at the edge of her domains to rise, and has converted the country into a marshy ground. She speaks thus: “Ak ha pe be be imik Kaan” (that is, “The basin has risen rapidly, and the land has become marshy”). Men Kak uuc, for all consolation, replies “Imix be Ak Mu?” So, the basin in rising has caused the land to become marshy, Mu?) This is evidently the record of a geological event – the rising of the part of the ocean near Mu.
Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx, page lvi, footnote 1

However, Le Plongeon’s Mu resides in the Atlantic as the mystical lost continent of Atlantis as shown in this passage:

In our journey westward across the Atlantic we shall pass in sight of that spot where once existed the pride and life of the ocean, the Land of Mu, which, at the epoch that we have been considering, had not yet been visited by the wrath of Homen, that lord of volcanic fires to whose fury it afterward fell a victim. The description of that land given to Solon by Sonchis, priest at Sais; its destruction by earthquakes, and submergence, recorded by Plato in his ” Timaeus,” have been told and retold so many times that it is useless to encumber these pages with a repetition of it.
Queen Moo & The Egyptian Sphinx Chapter VI, page 66

James Churchward’s also mentions the Troano Manuscript in his books, Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men (1926), Lost Continent of Mu (1931), Children of Mu (1931) and Sacred Symbols of Mu (1933.) In the Children of Mu, James states, according to the Troano Manuscript, that Queen Moo lived 16,000 years ago (page 92) and that the first people to settle in the Nile delta were Mayas and since these settlers came from Atlantis, there were Mayas that lived in Atlantis as well (page 108.) A complete discussion of James’ use of the Troano Manuscript would be very lengthy.

James Churchward (1851-1936)

Described in the August 1881 edition of the American Naturalist by Cyrus Thomas, the Troano Manuscript was found by Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in the Library of the Historical Academy in Madrid, Spain in 1865. The fourteen-foot long and 9-inch wide document painted on tree bark is seventy pages in length. The translation by the Abbé de Bourbourg used the notes and writings of the infamous Bishop of Yucatan Diego de Landa. The Abbé used the deLanda’s notes to create an alphabet used to translate the document. Unfortunately, this was the wrong approach as discovered by scholars in the 20th century; the symbols represented syllables in the language as opposed to characters. Rather than a book about the destruction of lost continents, the contents has today been translated to reveal it’s true purpose, as a repository of mostly almanacs and horoscopes to be used by the Mayan priests to perform rituals and ceremonies.

Another ancient document referenced is the Cortesianus Codex, another of the Mayan documents. Le Plongeon in Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx uses an unacknowledged translation as the third of three narratives concerning the destruction of his Mu (Atlantis.) The first is a carved slab in Chichen Itza in a chamber in the Akab-Dzid (the awful, tenebrous record) building and the second is the Troano Manuscript previously discussed. The discussion of the existence and it’s destruction by earthquakes and fire begins on page 145.

In the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men, James cites the Codex Cortesianus as being the same age as the Troano Manuscript and written confirmation of Mu (page 21.) On page 56, the readers are schooled further:

Codex Cortesianus.—The Codex Cortesianus is another of the old Maya books that escaped the eyes of the fanatical Bishop Landa. This book is now in the National Museum of Madrid, Spain. The characters, figures and writings would indicate that it is about the same age as the Troano Manuscript. The language of the Codex Cortesianus, however, is much more symbolical than that of the Troano Manuscript. Here are some extracts from it, bearing on our subject:
“By his strong arm Homen caused the earth to tremble after sunset and during the night Mu, the country of the hills of earthy was submerged.”
“Mu, the life of the basin (seas), was submerged by Homen during the night.”
“The place of the dead ruler is now lifeless, it moves no more, after having twice jumped from its foundations: the king of the deep, while forcing his way out, has shaken it up and down, has killed it, has submerged it.”
“Twice Mu jumped from her foundations; it was then sacrificed by fire. It burst while being shaken up and down violently by earthquakes. By kicking it, the wizard that makes all things move like a mass of worms, sacrificed it that very night.”
It is self-evident that both the Codex Cortesianus and the Troano Manuscript were written from the same temple record. The Codex Cortesianus gives the land its hieratical name only, while the Troano Manuscript gives both its hieratical and geographical names.

All but the first paragraph and last sentence is copied word for word from Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx on page 148. Le Plongeon’s take on the Codex Cortesianus, as opposed to the Troano Manuscript is contained in the following passage.

“His style is more prolix, less terse, more symbolic than that of the writer of the Troano.”
Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx; page 147.

The Codex Cortesianus was discovered in Spain in 1867, when a Madrid resident tried to sell it. It ended up in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum (Museo Arqueológico Nacional) in 1872. It was named the Cortesianus after Hernan Cortes, thinking that he had brought it back from the new world.

In 1880, French scholar Léon de Rosny, after careful study, revealed that the Troano Manuscript and the Codex Cortesianus were two parts of the same document. The Cortesianus has pages 1-21, 55-77 and the Troano contains pages 22-56, and 78-112. The separate parts were reunited in 1888 and a faithful copy is on display today Museo de América in Madrid, Spain; the reason the document is called the Madrid Codex today.

The latest translations indicate the contents to be mostly almanacs and horoscopes used by Mayan priests in their rituals and ceremonies. The Madrid Codex also contains astronomical tables and appears to be copied from older Mayan books. It is not a book on history and does not describe the sinking of a either an Atlantic or Pacific ocean continent.

James Churchward also used other references to the destruction of his lands of Mu, such as the Ramayana, the Troano Manuscript, and the existence of ruins in certain locations, decorated with the correct symbols. The fourth item on his list from the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men are the ‘universality of certain old symbols and customs as discovered in Egypt, Burma, India, Japan, China, South Sea Islands, Central America, South America and some of the North American Indian tribes and other seats of ancient civilizations.”

The Troano Manuscript, as a reference for the sinking of Mu, must be removed from the list, if there is to be any legitimacy accorded to an evaluation of Churchward’s theories on Mu. Furthermore, other works that rely on the early mistranslations of the Troano Manuscript, Codex Cortesianus, or the Madrid Codex, should be scrutinized as well. The pieces of this single document were reunited in 1888 and it had been known that they were parts of the same document for eight years prior. Individual references to them with the mistranslations have been published one hundred years later in an attempt to ignore reality and maintain the myth of a non-existent reference to a lost continent.

If you find references to the Troano Manuscript or the Codex Cortesianus that claim these documents to be other than almanacs, horoscopes, or astronomical tables, the author is basing their work on a fraudulent translation and is not to be believed.

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Posted in James Churchward, Lost continent of Mu

Dedication of “The Children of Mu” Part 4

Posted on November 21, 2015 | Comments Off

Part 1 with the complete dedication is here.

William Niven (1850-1937)

Was a Scottish born archaeologist and mineralogist that explored the American Southwest and Mexico.

As noted in Lifting the Veil on the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men, Chapter 11 (“NIVEN’S MEXICAN BURIED CITIES”) is taken from an article contained in one of James’ scrapbooks. The entire article has been transcribed and is contained therein.

James did not quote as much from Niven in the Children of Mu.

As documented in his biography, Buried Cities Forgotten Gods: William Niven’s Life of Discovery and Revolution in Mexico and the American Southwest,” the first correspondence between William Niven and James Churchward was after the publication in 1926 of The Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Man. [September 1927] The same source indicates that William and James continued their correspondence for a number of years, although probably not as cordial in 1932 after the incident with the altar when it abruptly ended.

There is what appears to be a letter from William Niven to James Churchward in one of James’ scrapbooks, however, there are difficulties. The first being that the letter is sliced through and it is evident that what was on back is now on the front. I contacted William Niven’s grandson (Roland Harrison) after the publication of the Niven’s biography to ask him about it and he wrote back:

WN frequently included copies of letters from others to him when he was writing to someone else.

I sent him a scanned copy and his reply was:

The letter that you sent me was indeed written by WN but it was mainly a mixed up copy of a letter from George Fox to WN. Your copy seems to be missing a portion between “My dear friend” and “them – who replied” Very few of the words were those of WN. WN apparently skipped around when copying from the 4 page letter.

Two articles appear in James’ scrapbook, Niven’s Buried Cities appears in Lifting the Veil on the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men and The Stone Tablets of Mu. An edited version is contained in Chapter 11 of both the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men (1931) and Lost Continent of Mu (1931).

Another article from the scrapbook, Tracing the First Love Story Back to Ancient Mexico, an article from the Newspaper Feature Service (1931) is contained The Stone Tablets of Mu.