Jim Allen, author Atlantis: the Andes Solution
Atlantis: Lost Kingdom of the Andes

"The Conquest of New Spain" an account by Bernal Diaz, one of the soldiers or "Conquistadors" who acccompanied Hernando Cortez on his overthrow of the Aztec civilisation (Penguin Classics 1963 - English translation of the original work written in Spanish in 1576) makes an interesting statement on page 91. "It appears that one of our soldiers had a helmet that was half-gilt but somewhat rusty. This Tendile (emissary of Montezuma, the Aztec emperor) noticed, and being of a more inquiring disposition than his fellow Cacique he asked if he might see it, since it was like one that they possessed which had been left them by their ancestors of the race from which they sprang and placed on the head of their god Huichilobos."

That might help explain why the Spanish invadors were intitially thought to be Gods as the native inhabitants also had legends about gods who would return one day from the East.

But since for the Spanish, it was the first time they had set foot on what to them was a "New World" and which they audaciously claimed as territory belonging to the King of Spain, even going as far as to name it "New Spain", it opens up the question as to who might have been the race of people the Mexicans thought their race sprang from?

Various suggestions have been put forward in the past, such as that Mexico might have been visited by Egyptians, or Phoenicians or originally survivors from Atlantis, but one of the more interesting possibilities very much overlooked these days, is the idea that Mexico might have been visited by Greeks after the Trojan war.

This idea although dismissed by modern archaeologist, occurs with many classical writers.

Such as Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, the great Spanish navigator and classical scholar writing in his "History of the Incas" (written in 1572 but after sending to the spanish court was subsequently lost for over 300 years.")

This is what Sarmiento de Gamboa has to say about the original inhabitants of the Americas, which he says was also called "New Castille or Western Indies of Castille", "New Spain" or "the island of Atlantis." "The land, which we read of as having existed in the first and second age of the world, was divided into five parts. The three continents, of which geographers usually write, Asia, Africa, and Europe, are divided by the river Tanais, the river Nile, and the Mediterranean Sea, which Pomponius calls "our" sea. Asia is divided from Europe by the river Tanais[22], now called Silin, and from Africa by the Nile, though Ptolemy divides it by the Red Sea and isthmus of the desert of Arabia Deserta. Africa is divided from Europe by "our" sea, commencing at the strait of Gibraltar and ending with the Lake of Meotis. The other two parts are thus divided. One was called, and still ought to be called, Catigara[23] in the Indian Sea, a very extensive land now distinct from Asia. The fifth part is or was called the Atlantic Island, as famous as extensive, and which exceeded all the others, each one by itself, and even some joined together. The inhabitants of it and their description will be treated of, because this is the land, or at least part of it, of these western Indies of Castille.

III. DESCRIPTION OF THE ANCIENT ATLANTIC ISLAND.
The cosmographers do not write of this ancient Atlantic Island because there was no memory, when they wrote, of its very rich commercial prosperity in the second, and perhaps in the first age. But from what the divine Plato tells us and from the vestiges we see which agree with what we read, we can not only say where it was and where parts of it were, as seen in our time, but we can describe it almost exactly, its grandeur and position. This is the truth, and the same Plato affirms it as true, in the Timæus, where he gives its truthful and marvellous history.

V. INHABITANTS OF THE ATLANTIC ISLAND. We have indicated the situation of the Atlantic Island and those who, in conformity with the general peopling of the world, were probably its first inhabitants, namely the early Spaniards and the first Mauritanian vassals of the King Atlas. This wonderful history was almost forgotten in ancient times, Plato alone having preserved it, as has already been related in its place, and which should again be consulted for what remains. Plato, in Critias, says that to Neptune's share came the Atlantic Island, and that he had ten sons. He divided the whole island amongst them, which before and in his time was called the empire of the floating islands, as Volaterranius tells us. It was divided by Neptune into ten regions or kingdoms. The chief one, called Venus, he gave to his eldest son named Atlantis, and appointed him sovereign of the whole island; which consequently took the name of Atlantica, and the sea Atlantic, a name which it retains to this day.
The second son, named Gadirun, received the part which lies nearest to Spain and which is now Caliz. To the third son Neptune gave a share. His name was Amferes, the fourth's Eutoctenes, the seventh's Alusipo, the eighth's Mestores, the ninth's Azaen, the tenth's Diaprepem. These and their descendants reigned for many ages, holding the lordships, by the sea, of many other islands, which could not have been other than Hayti, which we call Santo Domingo, Cuba and others, also peopled by emigrants from the Atlantic Island. They also held sway over Africa as far as Egypt, and over Europe to Tirrenia and Italy.

It may be assumed that these very numerous nations of Atlantis were sufficient to people those other lands of the Western Indies of Castille. Other nations also came to them, and peopled some provinces after the above destruction. Strabo and Solinus say that Ulysses, after the fall of Troy, navigated westward to Lusitania, founded Lisbon, and, after it had been built, desired to try his fortune on the Atlantic Ocean by the way we now go to the Indies. He disappeared, and it was never afterwards known what had become of him. This is stated by Pero Anton Beuter, a noble Valencian historian and, as he mentions, this was the opinion of Dante Aligheri, the illustrious Florentine poet. Assuming this to be correct we may follow Ulysses from island to island until he came to Yucatan and Campeachy, part of the territory of New Spain. For those of that land have the Grecian bearing and dress of the nation of Ulysses, they have many Grecian words, and use Grecian letters. Of this I have myself seen many signs and proofs. Their name for God is "Teos" which is Greek, and even throughout New Spain they use the word "Teos" for God. I have also to say that in passing that way, I found that they anciently preserved an anchor of a ship, venerating it as an idol, and had a certain genesis in Greek, which should not be dismissed as absurd at first sight. Indeed there are a sufficient number of indications to support my conjecture concerning Ulysses. From thence all those provinces of Mexico, Tabasco, Xalisco, and to the north the Capotecas, Chiapas, Guatemalas, Honduras, Lasandones, Nicaraguas, Tlaguzgalpas, as far as Nicoya, Costa Rica, and Veragua.

It may thus be deduced that New Spain and its provinces were peopled by the Greeks, those of Catigara by the Jews, and those of the rich and most powerful kingdoms of Peru and adjacent provinces by the Atlantics who were descended from the primeval Mesopotamians and Chaldæans, peoplers of the world."

So it was the opinion of Sarmiento de Gamboa that Greeks after Troy had travelled to Mexico ...