Το χειρογράφο 512

Αγγλική μετάφραση (το πρωτότυπο είναι στα Πορτογαλικά) του περίφημου χειρογράφου "512" το οποίο βρίσκεται στην Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη του Ρίο Ιανέϊρο της Βραζιλίας και περιγράφει τη θέση χαμένης πόλης στη ζούγκλα της ενδοχώρας, στην οποία βρέθηκαν ελληνικές επιγραφές, κατά τη διάρκεια εξερευνητικής απόστολής του 1753.


Historical
Relation of a hidden and great city of ancient date, without
inhabitants, that was discovered in the year 1753.

In America............nos interiores (we
inland).......contiguous aos (next to the)....Mestre de Can (Master
of Can).............................and his band (commitiva), having
for ten years journeyed in the wilds (sertoes) to see if we could
locate the famous silver mines of the Great Moribecca (who, by the
wickedness (culpa) of a Governor, was not granted letters patent,
because the Governor wanted to take the silver mines for himself and
the glory thereof, and he, the Moribecca, was kept prisoner in Bahia,
till he died, which was done to worm out of him the location of the
silver mines. This account came to Rio de Janeiro, in the beginning
of the year 1754..."

"After long and wearisome wanderings, incited by the
insatiable lust for gold, and almost lost cordillera of mountains, so
high that they drew near the ethereal region (chegavdo a regido
etherea), and served as a throne of the winds, under the stars; their
lustre, from afar, excited our wonder and admiration, principally
when the sun shining on them turned to fires the crystals of which
the rocks were composed. The view was so beautiful that none could
take their eyes from the reflections. It began to rain before we came
near enough to take note of these crystalline marvels, and we saw
above...The spectacle was bare and sterile rocks, the waters
precipitated themselves from the heights, foaming white, like snow,
struck and turned to fire by the rays of the sun, like thunder-bolts.
Delighted by the pleasing vistas of that....blended....shone and
glistered....of the waters and the tranquility....of the day or
weather (do tempo), we determined to investigate these prodigious
marvels of nature, spread out before us, at the foot of the
mountains, without hindrance of forests or rivers that would make it
difficult for us to cross them. But when we walked round the foot of
the cordillera we found no open way or pass into the recesses of
these Alps and Pyrenees of Brazil. So there resulted for us, from
this disappointment, an inexplicable sadness.

"We grew weary and intended to retrace our steps, the
next day, when it came to pass that one of our negroes, gathering
dried sticks, saw a white deer (hum veado branco), and, by that
accident, as it fled away, he discovered a road between two sierras,
that appeared to have been made by man and not the work of Nature. We
were made joyful by this discovery and we started to ascend the road,
but found a great boulder that had fallen and broken all to pieces at
a spot where, we judged, a paved way (calcada) had been violently
upheaved in some far-off day. We spent a good three hours in the
ascent of that ancient road, being fascinated by the crystals, at
which we marvelled, as they blazed and scintillated in many flashing
colours from the rocks. On the summit of the pass through the
mountain, we came to a halt.

"Thence, spread out before our eyes, we saw in the open
plain (campo raso) greater spectacles (demonstracoes) for our vision
of admiration and wonder. At the distance of about a league, as we
judged, we saw a great city (povoacao grande), and we estimated, by
the extent and sight of it, that it must be some city of the court of
Brazil; we at once descended the road towards the valley, but with
great caution.....would be, in like case, ordered to explore......by
quality and...............if so well as they had
noticed........smokes (fumines (?)), that being one of the evident
signs or vestiges of the place (povoacao).

"Two days we waited, wondering whether to send out
scouts, for the end we longed for, and all alone, we waited till
daybreak, in great doubt and confused perplexity of mind, trying to
guess if the city had any people in it. But it became clear to us
thee were no inhabitants. An Indian of our bandeirantes determined,
after two days of hesitation, to risk his life in scouting by way of
precaution; but he returned, amazing us by affirming he had met no
one; nor could discover foot-steps or traces of any person whatever.
This so confounded us that we could not believe we saw dwellings or
buildings, and so, all the scouts (os exploradores) in a body,
followed in the steps of the Indian......."

"They now saw for themselves that it was true the great
city was uninhabited. We, all, therefore, now decided to enter the
place, our arms ready for instant use, at daybreak. At our entry we
met none to bar our way, and we encountered no other road except the
one which led to the dead city. This, we entered under three arches
(arcos) of great height, the middle arch being the greatest, and the
two of the sides being but small; under the great and principal arch
we made out letters, which we could not copy, owing to their great
height above the ground.

"Behind, was a street as wide as the three arches, with,
here and there, houses of very large size, whose facades of
sculptured stone, already blackened with age;
alone........inscriptions, all open to the day (todos
aberias).....decreases of.......observing, by the regularity and
symmetry with their terraces open to the day, without one tile; for
the houses had, some of them, burnt floors; others large flagstones.

"We went, with fear and trembling, into some of the
houses, and in none did we find vestiges of furniture, or moveable
objects by which, or whose use, we might guess at the sort of people
who had dwelt therein. The houses were all dark, in the interior, and
hardly could the light of day penetrate, even at its dimmest, and, as
the vaults gave back the echoes of our speech, the sound of our
voices terrified us. We went on into the strange city and we came on
a road (street: rua) of great length, and a well set-out plaza (uma
praca regular), besides, in it, and in the middle of the plaza a
column of black stone of extraordinary grandeur, on whose summit was
a statue of a man (homen ordinario: not a god, or demi-god) with a
hand on the left hip and right arm out-stretched, pointing with the
index finger to the north pole; and each corner of the said plaza is
an obelisk like those among the Romans, but now badly damaged, and
cleft as by thunderbolts.

"On the right side of the plaza is a superb building, as
it were the principal town-house of some great lord of the land;
there is a great hall (saldo) at the entrance, but still being awed
and afraid, not all of us entered in the hou.......being so many and
the retre......ed to form some.........ed we encounter a.....mass of
extraordin........it was difficult for him to lift it................

"The bats were so numerous that they fluttered in swarms
round the faces of our people, and made so much noise that it was
astonishing. Above the principal portico of the street is a figure in
half-relief, cut out of the same stone, and naked from the waist
upward, crowned with laurel, representing a person of youthful years,
without beard, with a girdle (banda) around him, and an under-garment
(um fraldelim) open in front at the waist, underneath the shield
(escudo) of this figure are certain characters, now badly defaced by
time, but we made out the following:


"On the left side of the plaza is another totally ruined
building, and the vestiges remaining well show that it was a temple,
because of the still standing side of its magnificent facade, and
certain naves of stone, standing entire. It covers much ground, and
in the ruined halls are seen works of beauty, with other statues of
portraits inlaid in the stone, with crosses of various shapes, curves
(arches (?) corvos) and many other figures that would take too long
to describe here.


"Beyond this building a great part of the city lies
completely in ruins, and buried under great masses of earth, and
frightful crevasses in the ground, and in all this expanse of utter
desolation there is seen no grass, herb, tree, or plant produced by
nature, but only mountainous heaps of stone, some raw (that is,
unworked), others worked and carved, whereby we
understood........they......because again among......of......corpses
that..........and part of this unhappy...........and overthrown,
perhaps, by some earthquake.

"Opposite this plaza, there runs very swiftly a most
deep (caudaloso) and wide river, with spacious banks, that were very
pleasing to the eye: it was eleven to twelve fathoms in width,
without reckoning the windings, clear and bared at its banks of
groves, as of trees and of the trunks that are often brought down in
floods. We sounded its depths and found the deepest parts to be
fifteen or sixteen fathoms. The country beyond consists wholly of
very green and flourishing fields, and so blooming with a variety of
flowers that it seemed as if Nature, more attentive to these parts,
had laid herself out to create the most beautiful gardens of Flora:
we gazed, too, in admiration and astonishment at certain lakes
covered with wild rice plants from which we profited, and also at the
innumerable flocks of geese that bred in these fertile plains
(campos); but it would have been difficult to sound their depths with
the hand, in the absence of a sounding-rod.

"Three days we journeyed down the river, and we stumbled
on a cataract (uma catadupa) of such roaring noise and commotion of
foaming waters, that we supposed the mouths of the much talked of
Nile could not have made more trouble or booming, or offered more
resistance to our further progress. Afterwards, the river spreads out
so much from this cascade that it appears to be a great Ocean (qui
parece a grande Oceano). It is all full of peninsulas, covered with
green grass, with groves of trees, here and there, that
make.........pleas..................Here, we
find.........................for want of it,
we...............................the variety of
game...............many created beings without hunters to hunt and
chase them.

"On the eastern side of this cataract, we found various
subterranean hollows (subcavoes) and frightful holes, and made trial
of their depths with many ropes; but, after many attempts we were
never able to plumb their depths. We found, besides, certain broken
stones, and (lying) on the surface of the ground, thrown down, with
bars of silver (crevadas de prata) that may have been extracted from
the mines, abandoned at the time.

"Among these caverns (furnas) we saw some covered with a
great flagstone, with the following figures cut into it, that suggest
a great mystery. They are as follows:


"Over the portico of the temple, we saw, besides, the
following forms:


"Distant a cannon-shot from the abandoned city is a
building like a country house (casa de campo), with a frontage of 250
feet. It is approached by a great portico, from which a stairway
built with a door communicating with the said great chamber. Each
room has its waterspout (or fountain: bica de
agua)......................the which water meets..................in
the exterior courtyard..............colonnades in the
sur............squared and fashioned by hand, overhung with the
characters following:


"Thence, leaving that marvel, we went down to the banks
of the river to see whether we could find gold, and without
difficulty, we saw, on the surface of the soil, a fine trail
promising great riches, as well of gold, as of silver: we marveled
that this place had been abandoned by those who had formerly
inhabited it; for, with all our careful investigations and great
diligence we had met no person, in this wilderness, who might tell us
of this deplorable marvel of an abandoned city, whose ruins, statues
and grandeur, attested its former populous ness, wealth, and its
flourishing in the centuries past; whereas, today, it is inhabited by
swallows, bats, rats and foxes, that, fed on the innumerable swarms
of hens and geese, have become bigger than a pointer dog. The rats
have the tails so short that they leap like fleas and do not run or
walk, as they do in other places.

"At this place, the band separated, and one company,
joined by others, journeyed forward, and, after nine days long
marchings, saw, at a distance, on the bank of a great bay (enseada)
into which the river spreads, a canoe with some white persons, with
long, flowing, black hair, dressed like Europeans................a
gunshot fired as a signal to....................for they had escaped.
They had...........................shaggy and
wild......................their hair is plaited and they wear
clothes.

"One of our company, named Joao Antonio, found in the
ruins of a house a piece of gold money, of spherical shape, greater
than our Brazilian coin of 6,400 reis: on one side was an image, or
figure of a kneeling youth; on the other, a bow, a crown, and an
arrow (setta), of which coins we doubted not to have found many in
the abandoned city; since it was overthrown by an earthquake, which
gave no time, so sudden was its onset, to take away precious objects;
but it needs a very powerful arm to turn over the rubbish,
accumulated in so many long years, as we saw.

"This news is sent to you Honour from the interior of
the province of Bahia and from the rivers Para-oacu and Una, and
assuring you that we shall give information to no person, whatsoever;
for we judge the villages are empty of people and boat owners. But I
have given to your Honour the mine we have discovered, reminded of
the great deal that is owed to you.

"Supposing that from our band, one of our company went
forth, at this time, with a different pretense.....he may, with great
harm to your Honour, abandon his poverty and and come to use these
great things for his own benefit, taking great care to bribe that
Indian (therefore), so as to spoil his purpose and lead your Honour
to these great treasures, etc...............................would
find, in the entrances..........flagsones.............."