Wonders in the Sky

by Jacques Vallee

  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, Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, 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 Pérez 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-17th century France.

  Fig. 53: French jeton

  It is said that on March 1st, 707 BC, during the outbreak of a plague, the second king of 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.

  November 1661, Chaldan Monastery, Tibet Flying double hat

  This case was mentioned by researcher W. Raymond Drake in 1975, based on the diary of a Jesuit father, Albert d’Orville:

  D’Orville, a Belgian, wrote about a fascinating sighting at Lhasa, Tibet: “1661 November. My attention was attracted by something moving about in the heavens. I thought it was some unknown species of bird which lived in that country, when the thing on approaching took an aspect of a double Chinese-hat (the classical conical straw-hats) and flew rotating silently as if borne on invisible wings of the wind. It was surely a prodigy, an enchantment. That thing passed above the city, and as if it wished to be admired, it completed two circles, then surrounded by mist it vanished, and no matter how one strained its eyes it could no longer be seen.

  “I asked myself whether the altitude where I was had not played some trick, however perceiving a lama not far away I asked whether he had seen it. After assenting by nodding his head, he said to me, ‘My Son, what you have seen is not magic. Beings from other worlds have for centuries sailed the seas of space, they brought intellectual illumination to the first people populating Earth, they banished all violence and taught men to love one another, but these teachings are like seed scattered on stone, which does not germinate. These Beings, all light, are well received by us and often descend near our monasteries teaching us and revealing things lost for centuries during the cataclysms which have changed the aspect of the world.’”

  This would be a most interesting event if it had happened. Unfortunately the diary of Albert d’Orville does not seem to exist. We have come to the conclusion that the case is likely to be a hoax, first mentioned by a man named Alberto Fenoglio in a 1966 magazine entitled Non è Magia. It is quoted as authentic by several contemporary ufological writers and is widely reproduced all over Internet sites.

  1663, Montréal, Québec, Canada

  The language of Heaven

  This case is based on a relation of what occurred in the Mission of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in the country of New France, from the summer of 1662 to the summer of 1663:

  Heaven and Earth have spoken to us many times during the past year, and that in a language both kind and mysterious, which threw us at the same time into fear and admiration. The Heavens began with Phenomena of great beauty, and the Earth followed with violent upheavals, which made it very evident to us that these mute and brilliant aërial voices were not, after all, mere empty words, since they presaged convulsions that were to make us shudder while making the Earth tremble.

  As early as last autumn we saw fiery Serpents, intertwined in the form of the Caduceus, flying through mid-air, borne on wings of flame. Over Québec we beheld a great Ball of fire, which illumined the night almost with the splendor of day—had not our pleasure in beholding it been mingled with fear, caused by its emission of sparks in all directions. This same Meteor appeared over Montréal, but seemed to issue from the Moon’s bosom, with a noise like that of Cannon or Thunder; and, after traveling three leagues in the air, it finally vanished behind the great mountain whose name that Island bears.

  But what seemed to us most extraordinary was the appearance of three Suns. Toward eight o’clock in the morning, on a beautiful day last Winter, a light and almost imperceptible mist arose from our great river, and, when struck by the Sun’s first rays, became transparent,—retaining, however, sufficient substance to bear the two Images cast upon it by that Luminary. These three Suns were almost in a straight line, apparently several ‘toises’ distant from one another, the real one in the middle, and the others, one on each side. All three were crowned by a Rainbow, the colors of which were not definitely fixed; it now appeared iris-hued, and now of a luminous white, as if an exceedingly strong light had been at a short distance underneath.

  This spectacle was of almost two hours’ duration upon its first appearance, on the seventh of January, 1663; while upon its second, on the 14th of the same month, it did not last so long, but only until, the Rainbow hues gradually fading away, the two Suns at the sides also vanished, leaving the central one, as it were, victorious.

  These are classic descriptions of what we recognize today as natural atmospheric phenomena.

  Source: The Jesuit relations and allied documents: travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791: the original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes. Reuben Gold Thwaites, 1853-1913. (Cleveland: Burrows, 1899.)

  19 January 1665, Québec, Canada

  Fireballs, preceded by explosions

  “About a quarter to six in the evening, there was heard to come from beneath the ground a report so loud as to be taken for a cannon-shot. This sound was heard by persons distant three and four leagues from one another; while our Savages, knowing that the cannon is not fired toward evening, except to give warning of the appearance of the Iroquois, left the woods where they were, and came all through the night to ask us why we had fired such a terrible cannon shot.

  “About seven minutes after this report, there appeared over Québec a ball of fire which merely passed by, coming from the mountains toward the North and emitting so bright a light that houses two leagues from Québec was
seen in broad day. In the course of the year there were seen several other similar fireballs, not only at Québec, but below Tadoussac, and on the way to Three Rivers.”

  Source: The Jesuit relations and allied documents: travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791: the original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes. Reuben Gold Thwaites, 1853-1913. (Cleveland: Burrows, 1899.)

  31 March 1676, Florence, Tuscany, Italy: Fiery globe

  An Italian magazine called Alata Quaderni (No. 1, Feb 1979), mentions an ancient source which says “there appeared in the Tuscan sky a luminous thing in the shape of a disc or bag of grain or sheaf.” However, an authentic document describes it as a globe.

  Fig. 54: Phenomenon in Tuscany

  The object was undoubtedly a meteor, seen over much of Italy. It is mentioned by Father Louis Cotte in his Traité de Météorologie (Paris, 1784, p. 83) as “a luminous globe that crossed the Adriatic Sea,” and was seen all the way from Livorno to Corsica.

  Source of the illustration: Notizie Diverse di Firenze—anno 1676, 406-407, found by a researcher in the Magonia Internet group. The original belongs to the Marquis Alessandro Loteringhi della Stufa, Calcione castle in Arezzo (Italy).

  1685, Hatfield, Yorkshire, England: Fearful unknowns

  Objects turning in the sky, frightening men and cattle. One destroyed some trees, fell into a river.

  This phenomenon, like the following in Rutland, may relate to a weather anomaly, such as a mini-tornado, but its duration and behavior do place it within the literature of unusual aerial phenomena.

  Source: Philosophical Transactions 281 (1702):1248, and 284 (1702): 1331.

  24 March 1718, Island of Lethy, India Globe of fire with residue

  A globe of fire appeared to drop a load of gelatinous substance. The strange object came out of the sky and touched the ground on Lethy Island in the East Indies. Witnesses who approached the site found a “jelly-like mass, silvery and scaly.”

  Until the nature of “shooting stars” was understood in the 19th century, people thought that any blobs of jelly-like material found in their fields were related to meteors.

  Source: A Catalogue of Meteorites and Fireballs, from A.D. 2 to A.D. 1860, compiled by R. P. Greg, Esq., F. G. S, for the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1860.

  19 October 1726, Ath and Liège, Belgium Circles of light

  Large glowing clouds collide: fireballs and circles of light: “About 7:30 at night that Saturday, large clouds of fire arose from our horizon, pushed by the southern wind towards the north. They seemed to collide in an extraordinary manner, yet soundlessly. The sky, although calm, was all afire. Among these volumes of fire one could notice large luminous circles, open at the bottom, pushing one another like the waters of an agitated sea. About 11 o’clock these phenomena passed over the city, continuing long into the night, creating panic and wonder everywhere.”

  This case and the next one are part of a local “wave” of terrifying observations probably caused by a spectacular auroral display over Northern Europe.

  Source: Gilles Joseph de Boussu, L’histoire de la ville de Ath (Mons, 1750).

  19 October 1726, Echilleuses, France

  “Pyramids” in the sky and unexplained rays of color

  Pyramids in formation in the sky, with red and blue rays, seen in Echilleuses and at Villefranche du Rouergue.

  The incident was recorded by a witness as follows: “About 8 hours of the evening an extraordinary sign in the stars; it looked like sorts of pyramids that made spears sometimes red, sometimes blue in color, and seemed to move in ranks like an army in the air.” The spectacle, probably caused by the same aurora noted above, seemed so horrible that parishes in the region rang their bells. It lasted until 11 P.M.

  Source: Departmental archives of Loiret, courtesy of Merrs. Franck Marie and Pierre-Valéry Archassal.

  1743, Holyhead near Peibio, Anglesey, Wales

  Ships in the sky

  Mr. Morris, an experienced mining engineer, master of many languages and eminent antiquarian, had a report from Anglesey. This was made by a farmer named William John Lewis whose steading lay near Peibio, a little place only a stone’s throw from Holyhead.

  “Plowing” (as it was written) “with his servant boy in ye fields”, he saw bearing down upon him a ship of 90 tons, rigged like a ketch, with its fore-tack at the cat-head and its pennant and antient flying. The day was described as indifferent and cloudy, but the detail of the ship could be clearly seen. It was “coming from ye mountains of Snowdon”, not by sailing on the waves around Holy Island, but moving “about a Quarter of a mile High from ye Ground”.

  The farmer called his wife. She ran from the farmhouse in time to see the ship in the sky retreating, its pennant lowered to the deck and all sails furled. It was steering stern foremost, making for whence it had come, the mountains of Snowdonia.

  Mr. Morris hastened to Holyhead and interviewed first the wife and then the husband, separately. Neither had any doubt about the circumstances. The wife had not acquaintance with sea terms, but was quite sure of what she had seen; her only doubt was what the neighbours might think if she allowed Mr. Morris to publish the affair. He found the husband at an inn, visiting Holyhead on farm business. He had no doubt that the man was sober and sincere, with no trace of the “melancolick” disposition that might have led him to exaggerate or imagine.

  The ship had been plain to see, exact in every detail; the keel could be observed from below; the sails were distended with the wind; when the foresail was lowered it hung in a natural way over bow. In the end a cloud hid the vessel from sight, but not before the farmer, his wife, and his boy had had their observation supported by a flock of birds that assembled to examine the phenomenon and flew round it from all directions. When the vessel began its backward journey, the birds with one accord flew from it northwards in the opposite direction.

  What finally persuaded Mr. Morris was the way in which the farmer – William John Lewis – assured him that he had seen another such ship exactly ten years earlier in much the same place, and that, ten years before then again, he had seen just such another. The ships were in each case very like the old packet-boats that plied between Holyhead and Ireland; the very ropes of the rigging could be counted one by one.

  He concluded: “Since the hill at Holyhead is the only height in Anglesey to face the distant loftiness of Snowdon, some trick of refraction may have been responsible for picking up vessels plying the Menai Straits and setting them, pennant and antient and all, to steer the skies above Peibio.”

  Source: Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and Alun Llewellyn, The Shell Guide to Wales (Michael Joseph Ltd, 1969). The account is found under ‘Holyhead’ in the Gazetteer section of the book.

  31 August 1743, Castel Nuovo, Italy A light follows Casanova

  Casanova saw a “pyramid-shaped flame” 50 cm high, 1.2 m above ground, 3 meters away. It followed him all day:

  “An hour after I had left Castel Nuovo, the atmosphere being calm and the sky clear, I perceived on my right, and within ten paces of me, a pyramidal flame about two feet long and four or five feet above the ground. This apparition surprised me, because it seemed to accompany me. Anxious to examine it, I endeavoured to get nearer to it, but the more I advanced towards if, the further it went from me. It would stop when I stood still, and when the road along which I was travelling happened to be lined with trees, I no longer saw it, but it was sure to reappear as soon as I reached a portion of the road without trees. I several times retraced my steps purposely, but, every time I did so, the flame disappeared, and would not shew itself again until I proceeded towards Rome. This extraordinary beacon left me when daylight chased darkness from the sky.”

  Casanova’s reaction is interesting. First he dismisses the event as a skeptical scientist: “What a splendid field for ignorant superstition, if there had been any witnesses to that phenomenon, and if I had chanced to make a great na
me in Rome! History is full of such trifles, and the world is full of people who attach great importance to them in spite of the so-called light of science.” But then he adds, more humbly:

  “I must candidly confess that, although somewhat versed in physics, the sight of that small meteor gave me singular ideas.” And he concludes with the same words as so many witnesses of unusual phenomena: “I was prudent enough not to mention the circumstances to anyone.”

  Fig. 55: Giacomo Casanova

  Source: Giacomo Casanova, The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, trans. Arthur Machen (New York: Putnam’s, 1959), Vol. I, 222.

  15 September 1749, Rutland, England Watering intruder

  An object created a sprout that roared, took water from a river, shot light beams to the ground, and broke rocks. Although this case sounds similar to that of Hartfield in Yorkshire, the two locations are separated by a fair distance.

  The weather was calm, warm and cloudy with some showers. The witnesses described “great smoke with the likeness of fire” either as a single flash or as multiple arrows darting down to the ground, whose “whirling, breaks, roar and smoke frightened both Man and Beast.”

  The phenomenon went down the hill, took up water from the river Welland, and ran over fields and trees, tearing branches. The Royal Society correspondent reports: “I saw it pass from Pilton over Lyndon lordship, like a black smoky Cloud with bright Breaks; an odd whitling Motion, and a roaring Noise, like a distant Wind, or a great Flock of Sheep galloping along on hard Ground…”