They Found Atlantis Read online

  “See here,” he opened up, “that darned British ex-Naval Captain doesn’t believe in your lost Continent. He told his tale to Sally last night and she got at the Duchess after, so the whole party has been called off. Maybe the fool’s right but whether he is or not I don’t give a dime. What matter’s is that this show’s got to go on.”

  The Doctor’s sandy eyebrows shot up into two arches, his fat red face showed surprise and dismay. “But I thought it was all settled,” he protested. “I brought my ship to Madeira—I promised to close my eyes to what may happen when the Duchess is on board. … I need the wages for my crew. I shall be sent to prison if I cannot pay.”

  “You’ve said it,” agreed Slinger laconically, suppressing for his own purposes the handsome offer of financial compensation which Camilla had charged him to make the little man when he broke the news.

  “But this is terrible!” exclaimed the Doctor. “And what case have I, for nothing is signed yet.”

  “No nothing’s signed yet,” Slinger repeated with an unhelpful stare.

  “The Captain is a liar and a fool,” burst out the Doctor suddenly. “The continent is there—sunk beneath the ocean—also the gold. I will talk with the Duchess and give her proof.”

  “Can you?” asked Slinger with apparent scepticism.

  “Proof and again proof! I can convince anyone who will listen.”

  “Well you’ll be in a fine mess if you fail. But you know I’m out to help you and I’ve been counting on it that you’d be able to put up a show so I’ve fixed a meeting for eleven-thirty in Camilla’s private sitting-room upstairs. Are you prepared to come and say your piece?”

  “Ja! I will come and she will be convinced.”

  “That’s the idea. Don’t make it too long though or too mighty scientific. Just think up a few really telling facts.”

  “Leave it to me. I haf argued with damn fools before.”

  Slinger at last permitted himself the shadow of a smile. He felt that he had manœuvred the little Doctor into fighting trim and could trust him to do his utmost to persuade Camilla. He nodded encouragement.

  “That’s the stuff—but remember if you fail to put it over the expedition is definitely off.”

  “That must not be. To save my exploration I have already agreed to things which my conscience hates.”

  “Sure,” Slinger agreed and they turned to stroll back to the hotel.

  In the lounge at that moment four disappointed men were holding an unofficial conference. The McKay and Camilla’s “circus”. He found that all three of them had received similar notes to his own cancelling their invitation for the trip and, although Count Axel was the only one among them who understood the scientific possibilities of the venture and had been looking forward to it on that account, Nicky Costello, and Prince Vladimir were equally dismayed that the expedition appeared to have fallen through.

  The two latter were now saying that, after all, the Doctor was a very clever man and, wild as his theories might be, it was a darned shame not to give him a chance to try them out since Camilla could well afford it.

  The McKay was generally regarded as an interfering fool, as it was in the nature of the man to confess that his scepticism the night before had been mainly responsible for the party falling through. He still stoutly maintained his complete disbelief in the whole fantastic story, but readily agreed to adopt a benevolent neutrality if the matter was reopened.

  When they were summoned to the presence an hour later therefore, the Doctor had everybody’s sympathy and backing. Even Sally’s interest had been reawakened, for she had just received an unexpected parcel from the town. It contained a table cloth and a dozen mats embroidered in the local Madeira work. A strange gift, to be sure, for a girl who always lived in hotels, but enclosed was a scribbled note from the McKay, “Souvenir of some very pleasant hours you were kind enough to devote to an old man in Madeira.”

  It must have cost him a lot she knew, probably more than he could really afford, and on thinking it over she saw that his choice of a gift was a subtle suggestion that she would soon be married, a pretty compliment. He evidently felt very contrite about the night before to go to such lengths to make his peace.

  The Doctor gave a jerky little bow and addressed Camilla with a certain awkward dignity.

  “Gnädige Hertzogin. It was with great distress that I heard the reversal of your decision yesterday.”

  Camilla smiled her golden smile. “I’m sure I owe you an apology, Doctor, but things were fixed up in such a hurry. When it was pointed out to me last night that, after cancelling lots of engagements to which I’ve been looking forward, maybe we’d be weeks at sea without finding anything after all, I felt I’d rather not go, but I’m willing to hear anything you have to say.”

  “Thank you. I hope to convince you that my proposition is no dream but a practical exploration which will bring results.” As the Doctor plumped himself down in an arm chair the others settled themselves, then he began:

  “The principal historical evidence for the one time existence of Atlantis is based on an account by Plato. He lived in Greece during the fourth century B.C. and received his particulars via his compatriot Solon who had travelled to Egypt half a century earlier.

  “While in Egypt, Solon visited the city of Sais which lies in the Delta. There he conversed with an Egyptian priest and recounted to him something of Greek beliefs and what we now term their mythology; upon which, to quote if you permit, the Egyptian replied:

  “‘Oh Solon, Solon, you Greeks are but children … in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, or science which is hoary with age.’

  “The priest then went on to say that the reason for this was that there had been many partial destructions of mankind both by fire and flood, which had wiped out whole races and their histories with them; leaving nothing to prove that they had ever existed except vague legends among the distant peoples who had escaped these calamities. He instanced the story of Phaeton who, unable to manage the steeds of his father’s chariot, the Sun, was said to have burnt up all that was upon the earth, and explained that this Greek myth was really a memory of a distant time when a declination of the bodies moving round the earth and in the heavens had caused a great conflagration.”

  “What’s all that got to do with Atlantis though?” Nicky asked.

  “Be patient please,” the Doctor reproved him gruffly. “This Egyptian Priest then gave Solon an account of the last great natural occurrence which had decimated a large portion of the human race, the Atlanteans, nine-thousand years before; and I shall now give you the salient facts which emerge from Plato’s written version of the story which came to him from Solon.

  “There was once an island situated in front of the Straits of Gibraltar. It was larger than Lybia and Asia Minor put together and was the way to other islands from which one could pass through the whole of the opposite continent surrounding the true ocean. By that he meant America of course and he actually refers to the Mediterranean as being no more than an inland sea.

  “In this island there was a great and wonderful Empire, founded so legend relates, by the god Poseidon—or Neptune if you prefer—who begat children by a mortal woman. The centre of the island was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all places and very fertile. Near the plain was a small mountain and this was enclosed with alternate zones of water and land equidistant every way and turned, as with a lathe, out of the centre of the land. This district the god gave to his eldest son named Atlas; and to his twin brother, Gadeirus, who was born after him he gave the extremity of the island nearest the Straits of Gibraltar, and to others of his children other regions were given.

  “Atlas was made King over them all, giving his name to the whole island continent and the surrounding ocean; and the royal line descended from him direct for many generations. The wealth of these kings and their kingdom is stated to have been greater than that of any known before or since�
�that is, to Plato’s time. The Atlanteans were great miners and dug out of the earth every kind of mineral including orichalcum, of which there were large deposits, and this they considered more valuable than any other metal except gold. There were great forests which supplied them with all sorts of woods and sheltered many species of wild animals including elephants which furnished them with ivory. Flowers, cereals and fruits both wild and cultivated grew in great abundance and variety including one fruit which is spoken of as having a hard rind and providing drink, flesh and ointment.

  “They employed themselves in building temples, palaces, and docks and bridged over the zones of water which surrounded the ancient metropolis; also they dug a canal three-hundred feet in width and a hundred feet deep which they carried about six miles in order to link up the capital with the open sea, thus making the circular zones of water into a great inland harbour.

  “The central island upon which the Palaces and Temples stood was surrounded by a high stone wall with towers flanking its approach across the bridges, and the two zones of land also had stone walls protecting the whole length of their outer circuits. The stone which was used in the work was of three colours, white, black and red. It was quarried from underneath the outer as well as the inner sides of the land zones and they removed it in such a fashion as to hollow out covered docks having roofs formed out of the native rock. The wall which went round the outermost canal they covered with a coating of brass; the next wall they coated with tin, and the third which encompassed the citadel flashed with the red light of orichalcum.

  “Within the citadel was the great temple of Poseidon and this was ornamented with increasing splendour by many generations until the whole of the outside, with the exception of the pinnacles, had been plated with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory adorned everywhere with precious metals, and the temple contained many solid golden statues, together with that of the god himself which was of such a size that it touched the roof of the building with its head. This huge statue of Poseidon represented him standing in a chariot drawn by six winged horses and surrounded by a hundred nereids riding on dolphins.

  “Between the buildings of the capital there were pleasure gardens containing fountains of both hot and cold water supplied from underground springs; also cisterns, some open to the heavens and others roofed over which were used in winter as warm baths. In the grove of Poseidon, which appears to have been a very beautiful park, many rare trees flourished owing to the excellence of the soil. The surplus water was carried off by means of aqueducts passing over the bridges to the outer canal. There were many places set apart for exercise and in the centre of the larger land zone there was a race course a stadium in width which circled the whole island.

  “The country outside the capital is described as a level plain surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea. Those to the north were very lofty and precipitous, but to the south the plain spread out through the centre of the land measuring at its broadest 3,000 stadia in one direction and 2,000 in the other, which is about 345 miles by 230. The whole region of the island was said to lie towards the south and be sheltered from the north.

  “There were many villages in the mountains with rivers, lakes and meadows which supported them independently of the towns, and the great plain had been scientifically cultivated during many ages by many kings. The plain was entirely surrounded by a circular ditch and Plato says of this:

  “ ‘The length and width of this ditch were incredible, and gave the impression that such a work, in addition to so many other works, could hardly have been wrought by the hand of man. But I must say what I have heard.’

  “It was a 100 feet deep, 220 feet wide and about 1,150 miles in length. It received the streams which came down from the mountains, wound round the plain, and was then let off into the sea. Smaller canals a hundred feet in width intersected the plain at intervals of a hundred stadia, roughly eleven and a half miles, and by these wood was brought down from the mountains to the city and the fruits of the earth were conveyed in ships from one place to another. Twice a year the crops were gathered since in winter they had the benefit of the rains and in summer they were able to irrigate the whole plain by means of their canals.

  “Plato goes on to say that for countless generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, the Atlanteans were obedient to the law, rejoicing in all the blessings that sacred island, lying beneath the sun. brought forth in such abundance, and that their wealth did not deprive them of their self control; but that the divine portion of their nature began to fade away by becoming diluted too often, so that human nature got the upper hand. They became base, corrupt and evil. Then the father of the gods wished to inflict punishment upon them that they might be chastened—”

  “Here to our great loss Plato’s story abruptly ends and it is believed that he died before the completion of his manuscript.”

  “It sounds almost too wonderful to have been true,” said Camilla doubtfully. “Is all that you’ve told us in Plato’s book?”

  “Every point that I have touched upon,” the Doctor assured her with his little bow. “Also many other marvellous descriptions. I have a copy here if you would care to verify.”

  “No, no, Doctor, we’ll take your word. Go on please do.”

  “Very well then.” He sat forward with his pudgy hands planted firmly on his fat bent knees. “Consider please the following facts.

  “How could Plato have invented a story correctly describing the opposite continent of America which he speaks of as surrounding the true ocean, meaning of course its semi-circle from the Cape of St. Johns, Newfoundland to the north eastern point of Brazil.

  “Atlas’s brother Gadeirus was given the extremity of the island towards the Straits of Gibraltar, which in Plato’s time was still called the region of Gades. We still have a memory of this in the Spanish city of Cadiz. Moreover, it is a curious fact that the Basque people differ from all other European races. Their language, which has preserved its identity in this western corner of Europe between two mighty kingdoms, resembles in its grammatical structure no other language of the old world in any respect, but it has incontestable affinities with the aboriginal languages of America and those alone.

  “The fruit, having a hard rind, affording drinks, flesh and ointment, which Plato speaks of, is obviously the cocoanut, and the existence of Atlantis and other islands could alone account for the migration of it, and countless other examples of semi-tropical flora from one continent to the other.

  “In all the hundreds of systems of writing which have been evolved by different races all are based upon picture drawings with two exceptions only, these are the Phoenician alphabet and the Maya alphabet of Central America. Both of these are based upon the expression of vocal sounds by written signs. These correspond to such a remarkable degree that it is impossible to doubt their common origin.

  “In view of that it is particularly interesting to note that when the Phoenicians founded their great colony at Carthage they constructed their harbour upon precisely the same principle as that which Plato tells us was the Atlantean plan used many thousands of years before. Both were inland and circular in formation, both had islands in their centre containing the most important buildings of the city. Moreover, we find that both peoples used covered docks for their shipping so that each harbour must have presented the appearance of a great ring of airship hangars right down on the waterline.

  “Plato speaks of three kinds of stone being used in the construction of the Atlantean fortifications. In the Azores we find rocks red and white in colour and also great lumps of black lava. He also mentions hot springs and these too are abundant in the Azores.

  “The metal termed by Plato ‘orichalcum’ is undoubtedly pure red copper. The importance of the stress which is laid upon this metal is enormous. In both hemispheres we have ample evidence of a Bronze Age and in both, weapons and utensils formed from this compound of approximately nine
parts copper and one part tin are almost identical in appearance. The tin is added to give hardness and durability, but it is inconceivable that this fact should have been discovered in both continents simultaneously. The Bronze Age must have been preceded by a Copper Age of several thousand years during which men worked copper alone without the addition of tin.

  “Where are the traces of this Copper Age? There is no evidence to be found of its existence in any portion of the known world. The explanation therefore is that it developed in Atlantis, and the barbarous peoples of the outer continents passed straight from Stone to Bronze upon the arrival of the cultured survivors from the Atlantean disaster.”

  “Just as the Arab countries to-day are passing straight from the horse to the aeroplane having entirely missed the era of roads and motor cars,” put in Count Axel.

  “Exactly—you make my point Count,” the Doctor agreed with a throaty chuckle. “Now, to proceed:

  “In Plato’s description of Poseidon’s temple he tells us that the god was represented as standing in a chariot with six winged horses. In every representation of Neptune we see him thus. Why should the god of the sea always be pictured driving a chariot or mounted upon horseback? Because he was not, in fact, a sea king but a landsman, who ruled the great island in the centre of the ocean, the survivors of which filled all other peoples with awe because, when they came up out of the ocean, they had already achieved the domestication of the horse.

  “Further, in connection with this domestication of wild animals. In all our history we have no evidence of fresh species of animals being tamed and made to serve human convenience. Such a development would take many thousands of years experiment and practice. Atlantis, safe in its island security from invasion by barbarians, alone supplies a satisfactory territory in which this tremendous work for humanity could have taken place.

  “This also applies to the conversion of wild plants and grasses into cultivated flowers, orchards, and reapable crops. It is a singular fact, that despite their great range of species, we owe hardly a dozen useful plants to Australia, South Africa, America north of Mexico, New Zealand, or America, south of the River Plate. What is even more strange is, that of more than one third of our cultivated species we have no trace whatever of the wild originals. All our great cereals—wheat, oats, barley, rye and maize—must have been first domesticated in a vast antiquity or in some portion of the globe which has disappeared carrying many of their parent wild plants with it.