The New World had a legend of someone known as Quetzalcoatl, the plumbed serpent, God of wind and water.

Quetzalcoatl was a Toltec prince of Tollan, 40 miles north of the later Aztec capital of Tenochititlan (Mexico City). Who reigned in the 10th century AD. Secluded in his palace, never gazing into a mirror, Quetzalcoatl aroused anger by offering butterflies as sacrifices to the gods instead of human beings. Wizards tempted him to drink and to seduce a priestess, then gave him a mirror to study his corrupted or aged face. His royal mystery destroyed, Quetzalcoatl rushed to the coast, near modern day Veracruz and sailed away on a raft, vowing to reappear one day to recover his hoard of treasure and to rule his people.

Many think that he was a foreigner who supplanted an aloof ruler but who was later discovered and fled.

From the Incas, Royal Commentaires of the Incas, Garcilaso de la Vega (1540 - 1616) a son of an Inca princess tells of the tradition of giants arriving by sea many centuries before. A large number of cane rafts appeared one day, maned by males so tall that a normal person hardly came to their knees thought hey were very well proportioned. All of them were bearded, wore their hair hanging down to the shoulders and had eyes as big a saucers."

Some think these were norsemen. But the mention of cane boats sound strange. Cane (woven) boats were from the Red Sea. The tall men may have been black Africans who helped sail the boats. (See our article on the Dhow)