Around 1734, during his stay on the Caroline isle of Ponape, Captain Abner Exekiel Hoag discovered the original manuscript of the Ponape Scripture. Hoag was unable to read the hieratic Naacal the book was written in, but with the help of his servant Yogash and many years of study, he managed to translate it. Ecclesiastical outcry over references to Dagon kept the book from being published until after his death, but it had circulated surreptitiously through occult circles for quite some time. Abner’s granddaughter, Beverly Hoag Adams published his translation in a slightly abridged and erroneous edition. The original copy, written on parchment made from palm leaves and bound in the wood of a long-extinct cycad, can still be found at the Kester Library in Salem.
According to legend, the high priest of Ghatanothoa, Imash-Mo, and his successors wrote this book in the hieratic Naacal tongue of the lost continent of Mu. The book seems to preach conversion to the service of Cthulhu, father to Ghatanothoa, and tell of the mighty wizard-priest Zanthu. Along with influencing the Esoteric Order of Dagon, the book was of special interest to Professor Harold Hadley Copeland, who offered his own translation in 1907.
