a Spanish soldier suddenly appeared in the Main Square in Mexico City. He — 1593
belonged to a regimental unit stationed in Manila in the Philippines, some 9,000 miles
away. The soldier, whose name is not stated, was not merely lost: he was unable to explain how he had reached the other side of the Pacific Ocean! Following his arrest he was ordered by the Inquisition to return to Manila. This story has been published in a number of versions since Father Gaspar de Agustin included it in his 1698 book Conquista de las Islas Filipinas. Here is the original paragraph, in English: “It is worthy of reflection that on the same day that the tragedy of Gomez Perez occurred, the art of Satan had already made it knowledge in Mexico. With [Satan’s help] some women inclined to performing such acts transported a soldier, who was in the sentry box on the walls of Manila, to the main square in Mexico City. This was carried out without the soldier’s even being aware of it, and in the morning he was found walking about the square in Mexico with his weapons, asking everyone who passed by to give him their name. But the Holy Inquisition of the city ordered him to return to these Islands, where many who knew him assured me of the truth of this event. ” Many details were added later. It is often claimed, for example, that to prove that he had actually been in Manila the night before, the soldier told Mexican authorities that His Excellency the Governor of the Philippines, Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, had just been assassinated with a blow to the head. In this version two months pass before a galleon arrives in Acapulco bringing an important message from Manila: Governor Dasmarinas has indeed been murdered by the Chinese during a military mission against the Molucas Islands. The date of the assassination is given as October 24th. However, no such incident is described in Father Gaspar’s book. The name of the soldier is sometimes said to be Gil Perez and we are told he has been charged with desertion. These claims are also later accretions. The origin of the story is not known, and there are legitimate doubts about its authenticity. Father Gaspar cites Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas as his source but the story does not appear there, so we are left wondering whether the priest invented it himself. The legend is mentioned by UFO writers (such as Morris Jessup) to support theories of abduction or teleportation. Mid-17th century, France: A controversial “jeton,” a flying disk? The token shown below, which experts believe was struck around 1656, shows a disk with light or a beam emanating from it. This object (“jeton” in French) has been mentioned in numerous books and magazine articles as a commemoration of an event in which a flying object was observed in the clouds, passing over a wide landscape. The object is the size of a U.S. quarter or a one-euro coin and similar to thousands of other tokens that were produced in Europe around that time for religious and educational purposes. Rather than a flying saucer, it is likely to represent the “Shield of Numa.” In fact jetons bearing very similar images have been found dating to mid-17 century France. th Fig. 53: French jeton It is said that on March 1st, 707 BC, during the outbreak of a plague, the second king o f Rome, Numa Pompilius, witnessed the fall of an oval shield from the sky during a ceremony. Somewhat astonished, he sought advice from the nymph Egeria and the nine Muses, who assured him that Jupiter had dropped it as a sign of his benevolence. The pestilence soon came to an end, so the grateful king had eleven identical copies made by an armourer, and those were used in dances and celebrations every year. Around 60 AD the Roman poet Lucanus composed a long work in which he proposed an explanation for the event, suggesting that a stormy wind had whisked the shield out of a soldier’s hand and sent it spinning across the sky. The story was long remembered in the literature and is likely depicted on this token, where the inscription reads: Oportunus Adest, “it arrives in time.” The same “flying disk” design appears on many jetons from different periods.
Source: Case: W505