resemblances. See also _Ampère_, _Prom. en Amér._, tom. ii., p. 301;
_Prescott's Mex._, vol. iii., p. 396; _Faliés_, _Études Hist. sur les
Civilisations_, tom. i., pp. 380-1. Molina found (in Chili?)
inscriptions resembling Chinese. _M'Culloh's Researches on Amer._, pp.
171-2. Bossu found some similarity between the language of the Natchez
of Louisiana, and the Chinese. _Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes
Occidentales_, tom. i., let. xviii.; cited by _Warden_, _Recherches_,
p. 121. The last mentioned author also quotes a long list of analogies
between the written language of the Chinese and the gesture language
of the northern Indians, from a letter written by Wm Dunbar to the
Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and comments thereon.
_Recherches_, p. 176. Of the value of these philological proofs the
reader may judge by the following fair sample: 'the Chinese call a
slave, shungo; and the Naudowessie Indians, whose language from their
little intercourse with the Europeans is the least corrupted, term a
dog, shungush. The former denominate one species of their tea,
shousong; the latter call their tobacco, shousassau.' _Carver's
Trav._, p. 214. The supposition of Asiatic derivation is assumed by
Smith Barton on the strength of certain similarities of words, but
Vater remarks, these prove only partial migrations. _Malte-Brun_,
_Précis de la Géog._, tom. vi., p. 290. 'On the whole, more analogies
(etymol.) have been found with the idioms of Asia, than of any other
quarter. But their amount is too inconsiderable to balance the
opposite conclusion inferred by a total dissimilarity of structure.'
_Prescott's Mex._, vol. iii., p. 396. Barton, _New Views_, gives a
comparative vocabulary to show that Asiatic traces have been
discovered in the languages of South as well as North America. Latham,
_Man and His Migrations_, p. 185, has proofs that 'the Kamskadale, the
Koriak, the Aino-Japanese, and the Korean are the Asiatic languages
most like those of America.' 'Dans quatre-vingt-trois langues
américaines examinées par MM. Barton et Vater, on en a reconnu environ
cent soixante-dix dont les racines semblent être les mêmes; et il est
facile de se convaincre que cette analogie n'est pas accidentelle,
qu'elle ne repose pas simplement sur l'harmonie imitative, ou sur
cette égalité de conformation dans les organes, qui rend presque
identiques les premiers sons articulés par les enfans. Sur cent
soixante-dix mots qui ont des rapports entre eux, il y en a trois
cinquièmes qui rappellent le mantchou, le tungouse, le mongol et le
samojède, et deux cinquièmes qui rappellent les langues celtique et
tschoude, le basque, le copte et le congo.' _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom.
i., pp. 27-8. Prichard, _Nat. Hist. Man_, vol. ii., pp. 512-13, thinks
that the Otomí monosyllabic language may belong to Chinese and
Indo-Chinese idioms; but Latham, _Varieties of Man_, p. 408, doubts
its isolation from other American tongues, and thinks that it is
either anaptotic or imperfectly agglutinate.
[I-88] _Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes Occidentales_, tom. i., lettre
xviii. Cited by _Warden_, _Recherches_, p. 121.
[I-89] _Trav._, p. 213.
[I-90] _Hist. of Louisiana_, London 1774.
[I-91] Speaking of the ruins of Central America, Stephens says: 'if
their (the Chinese) ancient architecture is the same with their
modern, it bears no resemblance whatever to these unknown ruins.'
_Cent. Amer._, vol. ii., p. 438.
[I-92] _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., p. 236. Speaking of the Popol Vuh,
Viollet-le-Duc says: 'Certains passages de ce livre ont avec les
histoires héroïques de l'Inde une singulière analogie.' In _Charnay_,
_Ruines Amér._, p. 40. See also, _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre
Lettres_, pp. 212-13, 236-42.
[I-93] _Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi_, tom. i., p. 426. Quoted
in _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., p. 256.
[I-94] _Vues_, tom. i., p. 257. Tschudi, again, writes: 'As among the
East Indians, an undefined being, Bramah, the divinity in general, was
shadowed forth in the Trimurti, or as a God under three forms, viz.,
_Bramah_, _Vishnu_, and _Sciva_; so also the Supreme Being was
venerated among the Indians of Mexico, under the three forms of _Ho_,
_Huitzilopoctli_, and _Tlaloc_, who formed the Mexican Trimurti. The
attributes and worship of the Mexican goddess Mictanihuatl preserve
the most perfect analogy with those of the sanguinary and implacable
Kali; as do equally the legends of the Mexican divinity Teayamiqui
with the formidable Bhavani; both these Indian deities were wives of
Siva-Rudra. Not less surprising is the characteristic likeness which
exists between the pagodas of India and the Teocallis of Mexico, while
the idols of both temples offer a similitude in physiognomy and
posture which cannot escape the observation of any one who has been in
both countries. The same analogy is observed between the oriental
Trimurti and that of Peru; thus Con corresponds to Bramah, Pachacamac
to Vishnu, and Huiracocha to Siva. The Peruvians never dared to erect
a temple to their ineffable God, whom they never confounded with other
divinities; a remarkable circumstance, which reminds us of similar
conduct among a part of the inhabitants of India as to Bramah, who is
the Eternal, the abstract God. Equally will the study of worship in
the two hemispheres show intimate connection between the existence and
attributes of the _devadasis_ (female servants of the Gods) and the
Peruvian virgins of the Sun.
All these considerations, and many others, which from want of space we
must omit, evidently prove that the greater part of the Asiatic
religions, such as that of _Fo_, in China, of _Buddha_, in Japan, of
_Sommono-Cadom_, in India, the _Lamaism_ of Thibet, the doctrine of
_Dschakdschiamuni_ among the Mongols and Calmucs; as well as the
worship of _Quetzalcoatl_, in Mexico, and of _Manco-Capac_, in Peru,
are but so many branches of the same trunk; whose root the labors of
archæology and modern philosophy have not been able to determine with
certainty, notwithstanding all the discussion, perseverance, sagacity,
and boldness of hypothesis, among the learned men who have been
occupied in investigating the subject.' After remarking upon the
marvelous analogy between Christianity and Buddhism as found to exist
by the first missionaries to Thibet, he goes on: 'Not less, however,
was the surprise of the first Spanish ecclesiastics, who found, on
reaching Mexico, a priesthood as regularly organized as that of the
most civilized countries. Clothed with a powerful and effective
authority which extended its arms to man in every condition and in all
the stages of his life, the Mexican priests were mediators between man
and the Divinity; they brought the newly born infants into the
religious society, they directed their training and education, they
determined the entrance of the young men into the service of the
State, they consecrated marriage by their blessing, they comforted the
sick and assisted the dying.' Finally, Tschudi finds it necessary to
'insist on this point, that Quetzalcoatl and Mango Capac were both
missionaries of the worship of Bramah or Buddha, and probably of
different sects.' _Peruvian Antiq._, pp. 17-20. Domenech, _Deserts_,
vol. i., p. 52, has this passage, nearly word for word the same as
Tschudi, but does not mention the latter author's name. There is 'a
remarkable resemblance between the religion of the Aztecs and the
Buddhism of the Chinese.' _Gentleman's Magazine_; quoted in
_Washington Standard_, Oct. 30, 1869. In Quetzalcoatl may be
recognized one of the austere hermits of the Ganges, and the custom of
lacerating the body, practiced by so many tribes, has its counterpart
among the Hindoos. _Priest's Amer. Antiq._, p. 211. Quetzalcoatl, like
Buddha, preached against human sacrifice. _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i.,
p. 265.
[I-95] 'Il est très-remarquable aussi que parmi les hiéroglyphes
mexicains on ne découvre absolument rien qui annonce le symbole de la
force génératrice, ou le culte du _lingam_, qui est répandu dans
l'Inde et parmi toutes les nations qui ont eu des rapports avec les
Hindoux.' _Vues_, tom. i., p. 275.
[I-96] _Recherches Asiatiques_, tom. i., p. 215.
[I-97] _Vues_, tom. i., p. 276.
[I-98] See vol. iii., p. 501, et seq.; see also _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 202-8.
[I-99] See vol. iv., p. 163, for cut of this ornament. 'D'abord j'ai
été frappé de la ressemblance qu'offrent ces étranges figures des
édifices mayas avec la tête de l'éléphant. Cet appendice, placé entre
deux yeux, et dépassant la bouche de presque toute sa longueur, m'a
semblé ne pouvoir être autre chose que l'image de la trompe d'un
proboscidien, car le museau charnu et saillant du tapir n'est pas de
cette longueur. J'ai observé aussi que les édifices placés à l'Est des
autres ruines offrent, aux quatre coins, trois têtes symboliques
armées de trompes tournées en l'air; or, le tapir n'a nullement la
faculté d'élever ainsi son museau allongé; cette dernière
considération me semble décisive.' _Waldeck_, _Voy. Pitt._, p. 74.
'There is not the slightest ground for supposing that the Mexicans or
Peruvians were acquainted with any portion of the Hindoo mythology;
but since their knowledge of even one species of animal peculiar to
the Old Continent, and not found in America, would, if distinctly
proved, furnish a convincing argument of a communication having taken
place in former ages between the people of the two hemispheres, we
cannot but think that the likeness to the head of a rhinoceros, in the
thirty-sixth page of the Mexican painting preserved in the collection
of Sir Thomas Bodley; the figure of a trunk resembling that of an
elephant, in other Mexican paintings; and the fact, recorded by Simon,
that what resembled the rib of a camel (la costilla de un camello) was
kept for many ages as a relic, and held in great reverence, in one of
the provinces of Bogota,--are deserving of attention. _Kingsborough's
Mex. Antiq._, vol. viii., p. 27. 'On croit reconnoître, dans le masque
du sacrificateur (in one of the groups represented in the _Codex
Borgianus_) la trompe d'un éléphant ou de quelque pachyderme qui s'en
rapproche par la configuration de la tête, mais dont la mâchoire
supérieure est garnie de dents incisives. Le groin du tapir se
prolonge sans doute un peu plus que le museau de nos cochons; mais il
y a bien loin de ce groin du tapir à la trompe figurée dans le _Codex
Borgianus_. Les peuples d'Aztlan, originaires d'Asie, avoient-ils
conservé quelques notions vagues sur les éléphans, ou, ce qui me
paroît bien moins probable, leurs traditions remontoient-elles jusqu'à
l'époque où l'Amérique étoit encore peuplée de ces animaux
gigantesques, dont les squelettes pétrifiés se trouvent enfouis dans
les terrains marneux, sur le dos même des Cordillères mexicaines?
Peut-être aussi existe-t-il, dans la partie nord-ouest du nouveau
continent, dans des contrées qui n'ont été visitées ni par Hearne, ni
par Mackensie, ni par Lewis, un pachyderme inconnu, qui, par la
configuration de sa trompe, tient le milieu entre l'éléphant et le
tapir.' _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 254-5.
[I-100] _Squier's Observations on Memoirs of Dr Zestermann_, in _Amer.
Ethno. Soc., Transact._, April, 1851; _Atwater_, in _Amer. Antiq.
Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 196-267.
[I-101] In this, as in all other theories, but little distinction is
made between the introduction of foreign culture, and the actual
origin of the people. It would be absurd, however, to suppose that a
few ships' crews, almost, if not quite, without women, cast
accidentally ashore in Peru in the thirteenth century, should in the
fifteenth be found to have increased to a mighty nation, possessed of
a civilization quite advanced, yet resembling that of their mother
country so slightly as to afford only the most faint and far-fetched
analogies.
[I-102] Manco 'afterwards received from his subjects the title of
"Capac," which means sole Emperor, splendid, rich in virtue.'
_Ranking's Hist. Researches_, p. 56. He cites for this, _Garcilasso de
la Vega_, book i., chap. xxvi., a work on which he relies for most of
his information.
[I-103] _A relation of two Russe Cossacks trauailes, out of Siberia to
Catay_, &c., in _Purchas his Pilgrimes_, vol. iii., p. 798.
[I-104] _Ranking's Hist. Researches_, pp. 171-2.
[I-105] Quoted by Ranking, _Hist. Researches_, p. 183, from Abul Ghazi
Bahadur, _History of the Turks, Moguls, and Tartars_, vol. i., p. 11.
[I-106] _Du Halde_, _Empire of China_, vol. i., p. 275. Quoted by
Ranking, _Hist. Researches_, p. 197-8.
[I-107] Concerning the Mongolian origin of the Peruvians, see:
_Ranking's Hist. Researches_. Almost all other writers who have
touched on this subject, are indebted to Mr Ranking for their
information and ideas. See also _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii.,
p. 67, et seq.; _Malte-Brun_, _Précis de la Géog._, tom. vi., pp.
293-4; _Forster's Voyage Round the World_. Grotius thinks that the
Peruvians must be distinct from other American people, since they are
so acute, and believes them, therefore, to be descended from the
Chinese. Wrecks of Chinese junks have been found on the coast. Both
adore the sun, and call the king the 'son of the sun.' Both use
hieroglyphics which are read from above downwards. Manco Capac was a
Chinaman who gave these settlers a government founded on the Chinese
system. _Montanus_, _Nieuwe Weereld_, pp. 32-3. De Laet, replying to
these arguments, considers that the acuteness of the Peruvians does
not approach that of the Chinese. Nowhere in Peru have the cunning and
artistic works of Chinese artificers been seen. The Chinese junks were
too frail to withstand a storm that could drive them across the
Pacific. And if the voyage were intentional they would have sought
nearer land than the coasts of Mexico or Peru. The religion of the two
countries differs materially; so does their writing. Manco Capac was a
native Peruvian who ruled four hundred years before the coming of the
Spaniards. _Novus Orbis_, in _Id._, pp. 33-4. Mr Cronise, in his
_Natural Wealth of California_, p. 28, et seq., is more positive on
this subject than any writer I have yet encountered. I am at a loss to
know why this should be, because I have before me the works that he
consulted, and I certainly find nothing to warrant his very strong
assertions. I quote a few passages from his work. 'The investigations
of ethnologists and philologists who have studied the Hindoo, Chinese,
and Japanese annals during the present century, have brought to light
such a chain of evidence as to place beyond doubt that the inhabitants
of Mexico and California, discovered by the Spaniards, were of
Mongolian origin.' Hindoo, Chinese, and Japanese annals all agree that
the fleet of Kublai Khan, son of Genghis Khan, was wrecked on the
coast of America. 'There are proofs clear and certain, that Mango
Capac, the founder of the Peruvian nation, was the son of Kublai Khan
... and that the ancestors of Montezuma, of Mexico, who were from
Assam, arrived about the same time.... Every custom of the Mexicans,
described by their Spanish conquerors, proves their Asiatic origin....
The strange hieroglyphics found in so many places in Mexico, and from
California to Canada, are all of Mongolian origin'.... 'Humboldt, many
years ago, conjectured that these hieroglyphics were of Tartar origin.
It is now positively known that they are.... The armor belonging to
Montezuma, which was obtained by Cortez and is now in the museum at
Madrid, is known to be of Asiatic manufacture, and to have belonged to
one of Kublai Khan's generals.' It is unnecessary to multiply
quotations, or to further criticise a work so grossly misleading. The
following unique assertion is a fair specimen of Mr Cronise's vagaries
when treading on unfamiliar ground: '"Alta," the prefix which
distinguishes Upper from Lower California, is a word of Mongolian
origin, signifying "gold."' The most superficial knowledge of Spanish
or of the history of California, would have told Mr Cronise that
'alta' simply means 'high,' or 'upper,' and that the name was applied
to what was originally termed 'New' California, in contradistinction
to 'Baja' or 'Lower' California.
[I-108] This relation, says Ranking, 'has naturally enough been
considered by Robertson and others as a ridiculous fable; and any
reader would be inclined to treat it as such, were it not accounted
for by the invasion of Japan, and the very numerous and convincing
proofs of the identity of the Mongols and the Incas.' _Hist.
Researches_, p. 55. He thinks that the giants were the Mongolian
invaders, mounted upon the elephants which they brought with them.
'The elephants,' he says, 'would, no doubt, be defended by their usual
armor on such an extraordinary occasion, and the space for the eyes
would appear monstrous. The remark about the beards, &c., shows that
the man and the elephant were considered as one person. It is a new
and curious _folio_ edition of the Centaurs and Lapithæ; and we cannot
wonder that, on such a novel occasion, Cape St. Helen's did not
produce an American Theseus.' _Id._, pp. 53-4.
[I-109] See _Ranking's Hist. Researches_, p. 56, et seq.; _Warden_,
_Recherches_, pp. 187-9.
[I-110] _Origin of the Japanese Race, and their Relation to the
American Continent_, MS.
[I-111] See report of a lecture read by Charles Wolcott Brooks before
the California Academy of Science, in _Daily Alta California_, May 4,
1875; _San Francisco Evening Bulletin_, same date.
[I-112] See report of paper submitted by Mr Brooks to the California
Academy of Sciences, in _San Francisco Evening Bulletin_, March 2,
1875. In this report the details and date of each wreck are given. The
author of the paper assures me that he has records of over one hundred
such disasters. Every one of these wrecks, when examined, proved to be
Japanese, and not one Chinese. See also _Irving's Bonneville's
Adven._, p. 427; _Smith's Human Species_, p. 239; _Roquefeuil_, in
_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1823, tom. xviii., pp. 248-9;
_Anderson_, in _Hist. Mag._, vol. vii., pp. 80-1; _Lassepas_, _Baja
Cal._, pp. 45-6.
[I-113] _Id._ _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 216-7. 'Looking only at the
_forms_ and endings of the words, their _ring_ and _sounds_ when
uttered, we could not but notice the striking similarity, in these
respects, between the proper names as found on the map of Japan, and
many of the names given to places, rivers, etc., in this country.'
(America.) _Rockwell_, in _Hist. Mag._, n. s., vol. iii., p. 141.
[I-114] There were in California at the time of the Conquest, Indians
of various races, some of the Japanese type. _Vallejo_, _Hist. Cal._,
MS., tom. i., p. 3; _Vallejo_, _Remin. Cal._, MS., p. 6. The Aleutian
Islanders resemble the Japanese in various respects. _Simpson's Nar._,
vol. ii., p. 228. Priest, _Amer. Antiq._, p. 214, thinks that
Quetzalcoatl may be regarded as a Japanese, as comparatively white and
bearded.
[I-115] Introduction to _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, pp. 28-31.
[I-116] _Nieuwe Weereld_, p. 39.
[I-117] _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 217.
[I-118] See: _Ampère_, _Prom. en Amér._, tom. ii., pp. 300-4;
_Atwater_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 212-14,
338-42; _Montanus_, _Nieuwe Weereld_, pp. 38-42; _Priest's Amer.
Antiq._, pp. 58-9; _Religious Cer. and Cust._, vol. iii., pp. 4-10;
_Robertson's Hist. Amer._, vol. i., pp. 277-81; _Vigne's Travels_,
vol. ii., pp. 37-8; _Gage's New Survey_, p. 162; _Domenech's Deserts_,
vol. i., pp. 7-9; _Farcy_, _Discours_, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. i., div.
i., p. 45; _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, tom. i., pp. 79-80; _Adair's
Amer. Ind._, pp. 12-13; _Norman's Rambles by Land and Water_, pp.
215-16; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., p. 267; _Vater_, _Ueber Amer.
Bevölkerung_, pp. 155-69, cited in _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., p.
175; _Laplace_, _Circumnav._, tom. vi., p. 156; _Warden_,
_Recherches_, pp. 201-2; _Josselyn's Two Voyages_; _Williamson's
Observations on Climate_; _Hill's Antiq. of Amer._; _Ixtlilxochitl_,
_Relaciones_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix., pp. 392-3,
450; _Foster's Pre-Hist. Races_, pp. 334-5; _Volney's View_; _Bossu_,
_Nouveaux Voy._; _Slight's Indian Researches_; _Carver's Trav._, pp.
187-96, 208-19; _Fontaine's How the World was Peopled_, pp. 241-5;
_Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, cap. ccix., quoted in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. viii., pp. 398-9; _Delafield's
Antiq. Amer._, pp. 13-104; _Malte-Brun_, _Précis de la Géog._, tom.
vi., pp. 293-4; _Monglave_, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. i., div. i., p. 60;
_Heylyn's Cosmog._, p. 947; _Norman's Rambles in Yuc._, p. 174.
[I-119] _Ensayo de un Estudio comparativo._
[I-120] _Delafield's Antiq. Amer._, p. 57.
[I-121] _Ranking's Hist. Researches_, p. 356.
[I-122] See vol. iv., pp. 88, 95-6, for further description, also plan
of Copan ruins, p. 85, for location of vault. Jones, commenting on the
above, remarks: 'This last sentence brings us to a specimen of Gem
engraving, the most ancient of all the antique works of Art. Not only
is the death "Chamber" identical with that of Egypt, but also the very
way of reaching it--viz., first, by ascending the pyramidal base, and
then descending, and so entering the Sepulchre! This could not be
accidental,--the builders of that pyramidal Sepulchre must have had a
knowledge of Egypt.' _Hist. Anc. Amer._, pp. 116-17. Stephens, who in
his first volume of travels in Central America, p. 144, describes this
vault, writes in vol. ii., pp. 439-40: 'The pyramids of Egypt are
known to have interior chambers, and, whatever their other uses, to
have been intended and used as sepulchres. These (American pyramids),
on the contrary, are of solid earth and stone. No interior chambers
have ever been discovered, and probably none exist.' Mr Jones
criticises Mr Stephens very severely for this apparent contradiction,
but it is customary with Mr Jones to tilt blindly at whatever
obstructs his theories. Stephens doubtless refers in this passage to
such chambers as would lead one to suppose that the pyramid was built
as a token of their presence. Löwenstern is very positive that the
Mexican pyramid was not intended for sepulchral purposes. _Mexique_,
p. 274. Clavigero is of the same opinion: 'quelli degli Egizj erano
per lo più vuoti; quelli de' Messicani massiccj; questi servivano di
basi a' loro Santuarj; quelli di sepolcri de' Re.' _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. iv., pp. 19-20. Foster, on the other hand, writes:
'There are those who, in the truncated pyramids, see evidences of
Egyptian origin. The pyramids, like the temple-mounds, were used for
sepulchres, but here the analogy ends.' _Pre-Hist. Races_, p. 187.
[I-123] See vol. iv., p. 474.
[I-124] _Stephens' Cent. Amer._, vol. ii., p. 440.
[I-125] The reader can compare the various accounts of pyramidal
structures given in vol. iv. on this point. See heading 'pyramid,' in
Index.
[I-126] _Stephens' Cent. Amer._, vol. ii., p. 439.
[I-127] _Antiq. Amer._, p. 56.
[I-128] Humboldt reviews the points of resemblance and comes to the
conclusion that they afford no foundation upon which to base a theory
of Egyptian origin. _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 120-4. 'There is much in the
shape, proportions and sculptures of this pyramid (Xochicalco) to
connect its architects with the Egyptians.' _Mayer's Mex. as it Was_,
p. 186. Bradford finds that some 'of the Egyptian pyramids, and those
which with some reason it has been supposed are the most ancient, are
precisely similar to the Mexican Teocalli.' But he only sees Egyptian
_traces_ in this; he shows that similar pyramidal structures have been
found in very many parts of the world; and he believes the Americans
to have originated from many sources and stocks. See _Amer. Antiq._,
p. 423.
[I-129] See vol. iv., chap. v., vii., and x. Quoting from Molina,
_Hist. Chili_, tom. i., notes, p. 169, M'Culloh writes: 'Between the
hills of Mendoza and La Punta, upon a low range of hills, is a pillar
of stone one hundred and fifty feet high, and twelve in diameter.'
'This,' he adds, 'very much reminds us of the pillar and obelisks of
ancient Egypt.' _Researches_, pp. 171-2. Jones, _Hist. Anc. Amer._,
pp. 122-3, is very confident about the obelisk. He asks: 'What are the
Obelisks of Egypt? Are they not square columns for the facility of
Sculpture? And of what form are the isolated columns at Copan? Are
they not square, and for the same purpose of facility in Sculpture
with which they are covered, and with workmanship "as fine as that of
Egypt?"... The columns of Copan stand detached and solitary,--the
Obelisks of Egypt do the same, and both are square (or four-sided) and
covered with the art of the Sculptor. The analogy of being derived
from the Nile is perfect,--for in what other Ruins but those of Egypt,
and Ancient America, is the square sculptured Column to be found?'
[I-130] _Essai Pol._, tom. i., p. 265. Notwithstanding certain points
of resemblance, says Prescott, 'the Palenque architecture has little
to remind us of the Egyptian, or of the Oriental. It is, indeed, more
conformable, in the perpendicular elevation of the walls, the moderate
size of the stones, and the general arrangement of the posts, to the
European. It must be admitted, however, to have a character of
originality peculiar to itself.' _Mex._, vol. iii., pp. 407-8.
[I-131] There is a plate showing an Aztec priestess in Delafield's
_Antiq. Amer._, p. 61, which, if correctly drawn, certainly presents a
head-dress strikingly Egyptian. The same might almost be said of a cut
in vol. iv. of this work, p. 562, and, indeed, of several other cuts
in the same volume. Mr Stephens, _Cent. Amer._, vol. ii., p. 441,
gives, for the sake of comparison, a plate representing two specimens
of Egyptian sculpture; one from the side of the great monument at
Thebes known as the Vocal Memnon, and the other from the top of the
fallen obelisk at Carnac. 'I think,', he writes, 'by comparison with
the engravings before presented, it will be found that there is no
resemblance whatever. If there be any at all striking, it is only that
the figures are in profile, and this is equally true of all good
sculpture in bas-relief.' He happens, however, here, to have selected
two Egyptian subjects which almost find their counterparts in America.
In the preceding volume of this work, p. 333, is given a cut of what
is called the 'tablet of the cross' at Palenque. In this we see a
cross, and perched upon it a bird, to which (or to the cross) two
human figures in profile, apparently priests, are making an offering.
In Mr Stephens' representation from the Vocal Memnon we find almost
the same thing, the differences being, that instead of an ornamented
Latin cross, we have here a _crux commissa_, or _patibulata_; that
instead of one bird there are two, not on the cross but immediately
above it; and that the figures, though in profile and holding the same
general positions, are dressed in a different manner, and are
apparently binding the cross with the lotus instead of making an
offering to it; in Mr Stephens' representation from the obelisk of
Carnac, however, a priest is evidently making an offering to a large
bird perched upon an altar, and here, again, the human figures occupy
the same position. The hieroglyphs, though the characters are of
course different, are, it will be noticed, disposed upon the stone in
much the same manner. The frontispiece of Stephens' _Cent. Amer._,
vol. ii., described on p. 352, represents the tablet on the back wall
of the altar, casa No. 3, at Palenque. Once more here are two priests
clad in all the elaborate insignia of their office, standing one on
either side of a table, or altar, upon which are erected two batons,
crossed in such a manner as to form a _crux decussata_, and supporting
a hideous mask. To this emblem they are each making an offering.
[I-132] Delafield, it is true, discerns a distinct analogy between the
hieroglyphs of Egypt and America. And the evidence he adduces is
absurd enough. 'Hieroglyphic writings,' he says, 'are necessarily of
three kinds, viz: phonetic, figurative, and symbolical.' He then goes
on to show at great length, that both in Egypt and in America all
three of these systems were used: hence, the resemblance. _Antiq.
Amer._, pp. 42-7. 'Les monumens du Palenque présentent des
inscriptions hiéroglyphiques qui ne paraissent pas différer des
hiéroglyphes de l'ancienne Thèbes.' _Giordan_, _Tehuantepec_, p. 57.
Jomard pronounces an inscription found at Grave Creek to be Lybian.
_Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 411-12. Says M'Culloh: 'The _Game
of the Flyers_, we notice in this place, as M. Denon in the plates to
his Travels in Egypt, has given the copy of some figures taken from
the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which have every appearance of a similar
design with this Mexican amusement or ceremony.--The similarity of
device will be best seen, by comparing the plate given by Clavigero,
with the (lxiii. plate) of Denon's Atlas, &c.' _Researches on Amer._,
pp. 170-1. Priest, _Amer. Antiq._, p. 122, gives a comparative table
of Lybian characters, and others, which he affirms to have been found
at Otolum, or Palenque: the whole statement is, however, too
apocryphal to be worthy of further notice. See, also, a long letter
from Prof. Rafinesque to Champollion, 'on the Graphic Systems of
America, and the Glyphs of Otolum, or Palenque, in Central America,'
in _Id._, pp. 123-9. The hieroglyphics of Palenque and Tula encourage
the idea that they were founded by an Egyptian colony. _Juarros_,
_Hist. Guat._, p. 19.
[I-133] In a letter by Jomard, quoted by Delafield, we read: 'I have
also recognized in your memoir on the division of time among the
Mexican nations, compared with those of Asia, some very striking
analogies between the Toltec characters and institutions observed on
the banks of the Nile. Among these analogies there is one which is
worthy of attention. It is the use of the vague year of three hundred
and sixty-five days, composed of equal months, and of five
complementary days, equally employed at Thebes and Mexico, a distance
of three thousand leagues. It is true that the Egyptians had no
intercalation, while the Mexicans intercalated thirteen days every
fifty-two years. Still farther: intercalation was proscribed in Egypt,
to such a point that the kings swore, on their accession, never to
permit it to be employed during their reign. Notwithstanding this
difference, we find a very striking agreement in the length of the
duration of the solar year. In reality, the intercalation of the
Mexicans being thirteen days on each cycle of fifty-two years, comes
to the same thing as that of the Julian calendar, which is one day in
four years; and consequently supposes the duration of the year to be
three hundred and sixty-five days, six hours. Now such was the length
of the year among the Egyptians, since the sothic period was at once
one thousand four hundred and sixty solar years, and one thousand four
hundred and sixty-one vague years; which was, in some sort, the
intercalation of a whole year of three hundred and seventy-five days
every one thousand four hundred and sixty years. The property of the
sothic period--that of bringing back the seasons and festivals to the
same point of the year, after having made them pass successively
through every point--is undoubtedly one of the reasons which caused
the intercalation to be proscribed, no less than the repugnance of the
Egyptians for foreign institutions. Now it is remarkable that the same
solar year of three hundred and sixty-five days, six hours, adopted by
nations so different, and perhaps still more remote in their state of
civilization than in their geographical distance, relates to a real
astronomical period, and belongs peculiarly to the Egyptians.... The
fact of the intercalation (by the Mexicans) of thirteen days every
cycle, that is, the use of a year of three hundred and sixty-five days
and a quarter, is a proof that it was either borrowed from the
Egyptians, or that they had a common origin.' _Antiq. Amer._, pp.
52-3. 'On the 26th of February, the Mexican century begins, which was
celebrated from the time of Nabonassor, seven hundred and forty-seven
years before Christ, because the Egyptian priests conformably to their
astronomical observations had fixed the beginning of their month
_Toth_ and the commencement of their year at noon on that day; this
was verified by the Meridian of Alexandria, which was erected three
centuries after that epoch. Hence it has been contended there could
exist no doubt of the conformity of the Mexican with the Egyptian
calendar, for although the latter assigned twelve months of thirty
days each to the year, and added five days besides, in order that the
circle of three hundred and sixty-five days should recommence from the
same point; yet, notwithstanding the deviation from the Egyptian mode
in the division of the months and days, they yet maintained that the
Mexican method was conformable thereto, on account of the superadded
five days; with this only difference, that upon these the Americans
attended to no business, and therefore termed them Nemontemi or
useless, whereas the Egyptians celebrated, during that epoch, the
festival of the birth of their gods, as attested by Plutarch de Feide,
and Osiride. Upon the other hand it is asserted, that though the
Mexicans differed from the Egyptians by dividing their year into
eighteen months, yet, as they called the month Mextli Moon, they must
have formerly adopted the lunar month, agreeable to the Egyptian
method of dividing the year into twelve months of thirty days; but to
support this assertion no attempt has been made to ascertain the cause
why this method was laid aside. The analogy between the Mexican and
the Egyptian calendars is thus assumed to be undeniable. Besides what
has been here introduced, the same is attempted to be proved in many
other works which I pass over to avoid prolixity, and therefore only
mention that they may be found in Boturini, in La Idea del Universo,
by the abbé don Lorenza de Hervas, published in the Italian language,
in Clavigero's dissertations, and in a letter addressed to him by
Hervas, which he added to the end of his second volume.' _Cabrera_,
_Teatro_, in _Rio's Description_, pp. 103-5. See also: _Humboldt_,
_Vues_, tom. i., pp. 344, 348; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_,
tom. iv., p. 20; _Malte-Brun_, _Précis de la Géog._, tom. vi., p.
295.
[I-134] I follow, chiefly, M. Warden's résumé of these accounts, as
being the fullest and clearest. _Recherches_, p. 406, et seq.
[I-135] _Hist. du Commerce_, cap. viii.
[I-136] Acosta compares the gold of Ophir with that of Hispaniola. He
entertains the opinion that Tarshish and Ophir are distant imaginary
places and not distinct countries, but imagines them to be somewhere
in the East Indies. 'Cur autem in Orientali potius India quam in hac
Occidentali Ophir fuisse existimem, illud caput est, quod ad nostrum
Peru non nisi infinito circuitu tota India Orientali & Sinarum regione
enauigata Salomonia clasis peruenire poterar.' _De Novi Orbis_, p. 36.
Ophir is supposed to be in India or Africa. _Robertson's Hist. Amer._,
vol. i., p. 7. Crowe, _Cent. Amer._, p. 65, considers the probability
of Ophir and Tarshish being on the west coast of America. The
Phœnician '_Ophir_, or _Ofor_, which means, in their ancient language,
the _Western country_, was Mexico and Central America, the land of
gold.' _Fontaine's How the World was Peopled_, pp. 259-60. On p. 162,
he says that the best authorities, Volney, Bochart, Michaelis, and
Forster, suppose Ophir to have been situated on the Persian Gulf. The
Phœnician Ophir was Hayti, for Columbus thought that he could trace
the furnaces in which the gold had been refined. _Carver's Trav._, p.
192. Kingsborough, _Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 184-5, considers the
position of Ophir, but is undecided as to its position. Ens, _West und
Ost Indischer Lustgart_, pp. 5-8, disagreeing with Vatablus and
Stephanus, can find no resemblance to Ophir in Hayti or Peru, and
comes to the conclusion that Ophir lay somewhere in the Old World,
most likely in the East Indies. This seems to be a plagiarism of
Acosta. See also _Gottfriedt_, _Newe Welt_, p. 3. Humboldt, _Exam.
Crit._, tom. ii., pp. 40-5, discusses the position of Ophir in
Veragua. Piñeda, _De Rebus Salomonis_, believes Ophir to have been
America. _Warden_, _Recherches_, p. 196. See also _Id._, pp. 106-7.
[I-137] _De Origine Gentium Americanarum_, lib. ii., cap. vi., vii.,
viii.
[I-138] 'Sur le cap Mollabat, au pied duquel on bâti ensuite le vieux
Tanger.' _Gosselin_, cited by Warden, _Recherches_, p. 107, note 8.
[I-139] 'Le cap Spartel, qui forme l'extrémité occidentale du
détroit.' _Id._, note 9.
[I-140] The Greek text of the _Periplus_ is printed in _Hudson's
Geographiæ veteris Scriptores Græci Minores_. It was also published by
Falconer, with an English translation and many notes--8vo., Lond.
1797. Many remarks upon Hanno's voyage are made by Compomanes,
_Antigüedad Marítima de la República de Cartago_, Madrid 1756;
Bougainville, _Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions_, tom. xxvi.,
xxviii.; Gosselin, _Recherches sur la Géographie des Anciens_;
Rennell, _Geography of Herodotus_, vol. ii., pp. 409-43, 8vo.; and
Heeren, _Researches on the Ancient Nations of Africa_, vol. i., pp.
492-501.
[I-141] Or _Tiphysque_.
[I-142] 'Which is expressed by repeating four times from Valum-Votan
to Valum-Chivim, from Valum-Chivim to Valum-Votan.' _Cabrera_,
_Teatro_, in _Rio's Description_, p. 34. 'Valum-Votan, ou Terre de
Votan, serait suivant Ordoñez l'île de Cuba. Mais dans mon dernier
voyage, en contournant les montagnes qui environnent le plateau élévé
où est situé _Ciudad-Real_ de Chiapas, j'ai visité de grandes ruines
qui portent le nom de _Valum-Votan_, à deux lieues environ du village
de _Teopixca_, situé à 7 l. de Cuidad-Real, et où Nuñez de la Vega dit
avoir encore trouvé, en 1696, les familles du nom de Votan.' _Brasseur
de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. lxxxviii.
[I-143] Brasseur's account, which is, he says, taken from certain
preserved fragments of Ordoñez' _Hist. del Cielo_, differs at this
point; it reads: 'il alla à Valum-Chivim, d'où il passa à la grande
ville, où il vit la maison de Dieu, que l'on était occupé à bâtir.'
This 'house of God,' he remarks in a note, was, 'suivant Ordoñez et
Nuñez de la Vega, le temple que Salomon était occupé à bâtir à
Jérusalem.' After this, he goes on, Votan went 'à la cité antique, où
il vit, de ces propres yeux, les ruines d'un grand édifice que les
hommes avaient érigé par le commandement de leur aïeul commun, afin de
pouvoir par là arriver au ciel.' In another note he remarks, 'Ordoñez
commentant ce passage y trouve tout naturellement la tour de Babel:
mais il s'indigne contre les Babyloniens, de ce qu'ils avaient eu la
mauvaise foi de dire à Votan que la tour avait été bâtie par ordre de
leur aïeul commun (Noé): "Il faut remarquer ici, dit-il, que les
Babyloniens n'ont fait que tromper Votan, en lui assurant que la tour
avait été construite par ordre de leur aïeul Noé, afin d'en faire un
chemin pour arriver au ciel: jamais certainement le saint patriarche
n'eut la moindre part dans la folie arrogante de Nemrod" (_Mémoire MS.
sur Palenqué_.) Nuñez de la Vega rapporte la même tradition sur Votan
et ses voyages (_Constitut. Diœces_, in Præamb., n. 34).' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. lxxxviii.
[I-144] _Cabrera_, _Teatro_, in _Rio's Description_, p. 34. I have
followed Cabrera's account because, unfortunately, Ordoñez' work is
not to be had. Brasseur gives a fuller account of Votan's adventures
than Cabrera, but he professes to draw his information from fragments
of Ordoñez' writings, and it is impossible to tell whether his extra
information is the result of his own imagination or of that of his
equally enthusiastic original. The learned Abbé relates that the men
with whom Votan conversed concerning the tower of Babel, assured him
'que cet édifice était le lieu où Dieu avait donné à chaque famille un
langage particulier. Il affirme qu'à son retour de la ville du temple
de Dieu, il retourna une première et une seconde fois à examiner tous
les souterrains par où il avait déjà passé, et les signes qui s'y
trouvaient. Il dit qu'on le fit passer par un chemin souterrain qui
traversait la terre et se terminait à la racine du ciel. A l'égard de
cette circonstance, il ajoute que ce chemin n'était autre qu'un trou
de serpent où il entra parce qu'il était un serpent.' _Popol Vuh_, p.
lxxxix. See farther, concerning Votan: _Carbajal Espinosa_, _Hist.
Mex._, tom. i., p. 165; _Juarros_, _Hist. Guat._, p. 208; _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 150-1; _Boturini_, _Idea_, p.
115; _Levy_, _Nicaragua_, p. 4; _Tschudi's Peruvian Antiq._, pp.
11-15; _Priest's Amer. Antiq._, pp. 248-9; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,
_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 43-5, 68-76; _Domenech's Deserts_,
vol. i., pp. 10-7. This last is merely a literal copy of Tschudi, to
whom, however, no credit is given.
[I-145] 'Ordoñez tire un argument du mot _chivim_, qu'il écrit aussi
_hivim_, pour rappeler le _chivim_ du pays des Hévéens de la
Palestine, d'où il fait sortir les ancêtres de Votan. Dans la langue
tzendale, qui était celle du livre attribué à Votan, la racine du mot
_chivin_ pourrait être _chib_ ou _chiib_, qui signifie _patrie_, ou
_ghib_ qui veut dire armadille.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_,
p. lxxxviii., note.
[I-146] _Cabrera_, _Teatro_, in _Rio's Description_, pp. 47-53. It
seems that the supposed Phœnician descent of the Americans has served
as an excuse for the tyranny their conquerors exercised over them.
'Cursed be Canaan!' said Noah, 'A servant of servants shall he be unto
his brethren.' Montanus says that it is a mistake to term the
Phœnicians descendants of Canaan, for they are a Semitic people.
_Nieuwe Weereld_, p. 25.
[I-147] 'The strong Galleys, with sails and oars, and always before
the constant East-Wind and onward wave-current, would accomplish ten
miles an hour by day, and during the night, without the Rowers, six
miles an hour, and, equally dividing the twenty-four hours, would make
a run of 192 miles per day. Nautical proofs will show that in the
above calculation the power of the Trade-Winds [_i. e._ the
East-Winds] are _underrated_. The distance from Teneriffe to Florida
is about 3300 miles, which by the foregone data they would traverse in
seventeen and a quarter days. The Voyage may therefore with safety be
said to have been accomplished during an entire month, and that,
consequently the first landing of a branch of the human family in
Ancient America would be in the last month of Autumn, three hundred
and thirty-two years before the Christian Æra.'
[I-148] It would be impossible to give here the entire evidence with
which Mr Jones supports his theory. Suffice it to say that the
analogies he adduces are far-fetched in the extreme, and that his
premises are to a great extent grounded upon certain vague utterances
of Isaiah the prophet. His unbounded dogmatism, were it less strongly
marked, would render his work offensive and unreadable to those who
disagree with his opinions; as it is, it is simply ludicrous. I cannot
better express my opinion of the book than by using the words of the
distinguished _Américaniste_ Dr Müller: 'Ganz ohne Werth soll die in
London 1843 erschienene Schrift eines Engländers, George Jonas, über
die Urgeschichte des alten America sein.' _Amerikanische
Urreligionen_, p. 3.
[I-149] _Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer._, pp. 168-72.
[I-150] According to Mr Jones, Solomon's temple was built by Tyrian
workmen.
[I-151] Gebelin affirms enthusiastically: '"que cette inscription
vient d'arriver tout exprès du nouveau monde, pour confirmer ses idées
sur l'origine des peuples, et que l'on y voit, _d'une manière
évidente_, un monument phénicien, un tableau qui, sur le devant,
désigne une alliance entre les peuples américains et la nation
étrangère, arrivant, par des _vents du nord_, d'un pays riche et
industrieux."' Humboldt, however, commenting upon this, writes: 'J'ai
examiné avec soin les quatre dessins de la fameuse pierre de Taunton
River.... Loin d'y reconnoître un arrangement symétrique de lettres
simples ou de caractères syllabiques, je n'y vois qu'un dessin à peine
ébauché, et analogue à ceux que l'on a trouvés sur les rochers de la
Norwège.' _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 181-2. 'The history of this inscription
is scarcely surpassed, in the interest it has excited, or the novel
phases it has exhibited at successive epochs of theoretical
speculation, by any Perusinian, Eugubine, or Nilotic riddle. When the
taste of American antiquaries inclined towards Phœnician relics, the
Dighton inscription conformed to their opinions; and with changing
tastes it has proved equally compliant. In 1783 the Rev. Ezra Stiles,
D.D., President of Yale College, when preaching before the Governor
and State of Connecticut, appealed to the Dighton Rock, graven, as he
believed, in the old Punic or Phœnician character and language: in
proof that the Indians were of the accursed seed of Canaan, and were
to be displaced and rooted out by the European descendants of
Japhet!... So early as 1680 Dr. Danforth executed what he
characterized as "a faithful and accurate representation of the
inscription" on Dighton Rock. In 1712 the celebrated Dr. Cotton Mather
procured drawings of the same, and transmitted them to the Secretary
of the Royal Society of London, with a description, printed in the
_Philosophical Transactions_ for 1741, referring to it as "an
inscription in which are seven or eight lines, about seven or eight
feet long, and about a foot wide, each of them engraven with
unaccountable characters, _not like any known character_." In 1730,
Dr. Isaac Greenwood, Hollisian Professor at Cambridge, New England,
communicated to the Society of Antiquaries of London a drawing of the
same inscription, accompanied with a description which proves the
great care with which his copy was executed. In 1768, Mr. Stephen
Sewall, Professor of Oriental Languages at Cambridge, New England,
took a careful copy, the size of the original, and deposited it in the
Museum of Harvard University; and a transcript of this was forwarded
to the Royal Society of London, six years later, by Mr. James
Winthrop, Hollisian Professor of Mathematics. In 1786 the Rev. Michael
Lort, D.D., one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society of Antiquaries
of London, again brought the subject, with all its accumulated
illustrations, before that learned society; and Colonel Vallency
undertook to prove that the inscription was neither Phœnician nor
Punic, but Siberian. Subsequently, Judge Winthrops executed a drawing
in 1788; and again we have others by Judge Baylies and Mr. Joseph
Gooding in 1790, by Mr. Job Gardner in 1812; and finally, in 1830, by
a Commission appointed by the Rhode Island Historical Society, and
communicated to the Antiquaries of Copenhagen with elaborate
descriptions: which duly appear in their _Antiquitates Americanæ_, in
proof of novel and very remarkable deductions.' _Wilson's Prehist.
Man_, pp. 403-5. See also _Pidgeon's Trad._, p. 20.
[I-152] 'Il est assez remarquable que, sur sept caractères, aucun ne
s'y trouve répété plusieurs fois.' _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 183-4, with
cut of part of inscription.
[I-153] See _Schoolcraft_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i.,
pp. 386-97, for full account of this stone, with cuts. See also
_Wilson's Prehist. Man_, pp. 408, et seq.
[I-154] For this statement I have only newspaper authority, however.
'Die "Amerika," ein in Bogota, Neu Granada, erschienenes Journal,
kündigt eine Entdeckung an, die so seltsam ist, dass sie der
Bestätigung bedarf, ehe man ihr Glauben schenken kann. Don Joaquim de
Costa soll danach auf einem seiner Güter ein steinernes Monument
entdeckt haben, das von einer kleinen Colonie Phönizier aus Sidonia im
Jahre 9 oder 10 der Regierung Hiranus, eines Zeitgenossen Salomons,
ungefähr zehn Jahrhunderte vor der christlichen Aera errichtet wurde.
Der Block hat eine Inschrift von acht Linien, die in schönen
Buchstaben, aber ohne Trennung der Worte oder Punctation geschrieben
sind. In der Uebersetzung soll die Inschrift besagen, dass jene Männer
des Landes Canarien sich im Hafen Apiongaber (Bay-Akubal) einschifften
und nach zwölfmonatiger Fahrt von dem Lande Egypten (Afrika) durch
Strömungen fortgeführt, in Guayaquil in Peru landeten. Der Stein soll,
wie es heisst, die Namen der Reisenden tragen.' _Hamburg Reform_, Oct.
24, 1873. See farther, concerning inscriptions: _Torquemada_, _Monarq.
Ind._, tom. i., p. 29; _Stratton's Mound-Builders_, MS., p. 13;
_Priest's Amer. Antiq._, p. 121.
[I-155] See particularly _Melgar_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da
época, tom. iii., p. 112, et seq.; and _Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer._, p.
154, et seq.; _Baldwin's Anc. Amer._, pp. 185-6.
[I-156] See vol. iv. of this work, p. 118.
[I-157] _Melgar_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iii.,
pp. 110-11.
[I-158] See farther, concerning Phœnician and Carthaginian theories:
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 28-9, 255; _Hill's Antiq.
Amer._; _Melgar_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iii.,
p. 111; _Lescarbot_, _Hist. Nouv. France_; _Dally_, _Races Indig._,
pp. 5, 8; _Religious Cer. and Cust._, vol. iii., pp. 3-4; _Domenech's
Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 9-21; _Vigne's Travels_, vol. ii., pp. 41-56;
_Sheldon_, in _Am. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 366-8;
_Lizana_, _Devocionario_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 354; _Levy_,
_Nicaragua_, pp. 10, 208; _Kennedy's Probable Origin_; _Baldwin's Anc.
Amer._, pp. 171-4, 200, 207; _Du Pratz_, _Hist. Louisiane_, tom. iii.,
pp. 75-86; _Chateaubriand_, _Lettre aux Auteurs_, p. 87; _Stratton's
Mound-Builders_, M.S.; _Carver's Trav._, pp. 188, 191-2; _Montanus_,
_Nieuwe Weereld_, pp. 16-22, 27-8; _De Costa_, _Pre-Columbian Disc.
Amer._, p. xiv.; _Ritos Antiguos_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. ix., p. 10; _Revue Amér._, tom. i., p. 3; _Farcy_, _Discours_, in
_Antiq. Mex._, tom. i., div. i., pp. 43-4: _West und Ost Indischer
Lustgart_, p. 4; _Drake's Aborig. Races_, pp. 20-2; _García_, _Orígen
de los Ind._, pp. 41-77, 192-239; _Priest's Amer. Antiq._, pp. 250-1,
333-4; _Adair's Amer. Ind._, p. 16; _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol.
viii., p. 84; _Fontaine's How the World was Peopled_, pp. 254-61.
[I-159] _Orígen de los Ind._, pp. 79-128.
[I-160] 'Yo hice grande diligencia en averiguar esta verdad, y puedo
afirmar, que he trabajado mas en ello, que en lo que escrivo en toda
la Obra; i asi de lo que acerca de esta he hallado, pondre tales
fundamentos al edificio, i maquina de esta sentencia, i opinion, que
puedan mui bien sufrir su peso.' _Id._, p. 79.
[I-161] Anian was the name given to the strait which was supposed to
lie between Asia and America, and which, after its actual discovery,
was named Bering Strait. The unknown northern regions of America were
also called Anian.
[I-162] The worthy Father's geographical knowledge was somewhat vague;
thus in the next section he writes: 'Tambien pudieron ir las diez
Tribus desde la Tierra, que dice Esdras, à la China.... De la China
pudieron ir por Mar à la Tierra de Nueva-España, para donde no es mui
larga la navegacion, viniendo por el Estrecho, ò Canal, que està,
entre la China, i el Reino de Annian, i de Quivira.' _Origen de los
Ind._, p. 81.
[I-163] Among several instances given by García to show the cowardice
of the Jews, is this: 'dice la Sagrada Escritura, por grande
incarecimiento, que no les quiso llevar Moises por la Tierra de
Philistim, conociendo su pusilanimidad, i cobardia, porque no
temiesen, viendo los Enemigos, que venian en su seguimiento, i de
cobardes se bolviesen à Egipto.' With regard to the cowardice of the
Americans, he writes: 'Cuenta la Historia, que entrò Cortès, en la
Conquista de Nueva-España con 550 Españoles, i de estos eran los 50
Marineros: i en Mexico tuvo, quando lo ganò, 900 Españoles, 200,000
Indios, 80 Caballos: murieron de los Nuestros 50, i de los Caballos 6.
Entrò Piçarro en el Perù con pocos mas de 200 Españoles, con los
quales, i con 60 Caballos tuvo Victoria contra el Rei Atanualpa.' Not
only at the time of the Conquest, he adds, did the Americans scatter
and run on the discharge of a musket, but even at the present day,
when they are familiar with firearms, they do the same. _Orígen de los
Ind._, pp. 85-6.
[I-164] Immediately afterwards he says that the Jews and Americans
were alike, because they both bathed frequently.
[I-165] This scarcely seems to be a parallelism, and certainly would
not be, had the worthy Father written, as he well might: 'freedom and
_the hardships of the desert_,' instead of 'manna and the promised
land'.
[I-166] To show García's style and logic, which are, indeed, but
little different from the style and reasoning of all these ancient
writers, I translate literally, and without embellishment of any kind,
his attempts to prove that whatever differences exist at the present
day between the Jew and the American, are due to the special act of
God. 'It was divinely ordained that men should be scattered throughout
all countries, and be so different from one another in disposition and
temperament, in order that by their variety men should become
possessed of a different and distinct genius; of a difference in the
color of the face and in the form of the body; just as animals are
various, and various the things produced by the earth, various the
trees, various the plants and grasses, various the birds; and finally,
various the fish of the sea and of rivers: in order that men should
see in this how great is the wisdom of Him that created them. And
although the variety and specific difference existing in these
irrational and senseless beings causes in them a specific distinction,
and that in men is only individual, or accidental and common; the Most
High desired that this variety and common difference should exist in
the human species, as there could be none specific and essential, so
that there should be a resemblance in this between man and the other
created beings: of which the Creator himself wished that the natural
cause should be the arrangement of the earth, the region of the air,
influence of the sky, waters, and edibles. By which the reader will
not fail to be convinced that it was possible for the Indians to
obtain and acquire a difference of mental faculties, and of color of
face and of features, such as the Jews had not.' _Orígen de los Ind._,
p. 105.
[I-167] 'Y finalmente, si nos dixeren, que solos aquellos siete
generos de Gentes, que he nombrado, que son Colcos, Egypcios, Etiopes,
Fenices, Syros de Palestina, i Syros de los Rios Termodon, i Pantenio,
i sus vecinos los Macrones fueron los que vsaron en el Mundo la
circuncision.... A Herodoto, i à los que alegaren lo referido, se
responde, que sin duda los Hebreos fueron los primeros que la vsaron,
por mandado de Dios.' _Orígen de los Ind._, p. 110.
[I-168] See _Orígen de los Ind._, pp. 119-23, for examples of
linguistic resemblances.
[I-169] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. viii., pp. 19-20, vol. vi.,
p. 536.
[I-170] _Id._, vol. viii., p. 21.
[I-171] _Id._, pp. 25-7, 30-1.
[I-172] _Id._, p. 39.
[I-173] _Id._, p. 58.
[I-174] _Id._, pp. 67, 218-19, 240.
[I-175] _Id._, p. 135.
[I-176] _Id._, p. 154.
[I-177] 'Y el Ynga Yupangue entraba solo, y él mismo por su mano
sacrificaba las ovejas y corderos.' _Betanzos_, _Historia de los
Ingas_, lib. i., cap. xi., quoted in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. viii., p. 156.
[I-178] _Id._, pp. 157, 236, 389, vol. vi., pp. 273-5.
[I-179] _Id._, vol. viii., p. 160.
[I-180] _Id._, p. 174.
[I-181] _Id._, p. 176.
[I-182] _Id._, pp. 174-82. He presents a most elaborate discussion of
this point. See also vol. vi., pp. 512, 523.
[I-183] _Id._, vol. viii., p. 238.
[I-184] _Id._, p. 248.
[I-185] _Id._, p. 257.
[I-186] _Id._, p. 258, vol. vi., p. 236.
[I-187] _Id._, pp. 164-6.
[I-188] _Id._, p. 208. 'Representations of the lifting up of serpents
frequently occur in Mexican paintings: and the plagues which Moses
called down upon the Egyptians by lifting up his rod, which became a
serpent, are evidently referred to in the eleventh and twelfth pages
of the _Borgian Manuscript_. An allusion to the passage of the Red Sea
... seems also to be contained in the seventy-first page of the
_Lesser Vatican MS._; and the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, and
the thanksgiving of Moses, may perhaps be signified by the figure on
the left, in the same page, of a man falling into a pit or gulf, and
by the hand on the right stretched out to receive an offering.'
[I-189] _Id._, p. 222.
[I-190] _Id._, p. 232, et seq. Kingsborough reasons at some length on
this point.
[I-191] _Id._, p. 361.
[I-192] _Id._, p. 406.
[I-193] _Id._, pp. 272-3, 333-5, 392-3; vol. viii., pp. 121-2, 142-3,
391.
[I-194] _Id._, vol. vi., pp. 300-1; vol. viii., p. 137.
[I-195] _Id._, vol. vi., p. 504, vol. viii., p. 18.
[I-196] _Id._, vol. vi., p. 125.
[I-197] _Id._, p. 45.
[I-198] _Id._, p. 142.
[I-199] _Id._, p. 246. Duran sustains the theory that the Indians are
the descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel. After giving several
reasons founded on the Scriptures, he refers to the traditions
obtained by him from the old people of the country. They related that
their ancestors, whilst suffering many hardships and persecutions,
were prevailed upon by a great man, who became their chief, to flee
from that land into another, where they might have rest; they arrived
at the sea-shore, and the chief struck the waters with a rod he had in
his hands; the sea opened, and the chief and his followers marched on,
but were soon pursued by their enemies; they crossed over in safety,
and their enemies were swallowed up by the sea; at any rate, their
ancestors never had any further account of their persecutors. Another
tradition transmitted from generation to generation, and recorded in
pictures, is, that while their first ancestors were on their journey
to the promised land, they tarried in the vicinity of certain high
hills; here a terrible earthquake occurred, and some wicked people who
were with them were swallowed up by the earth opening under their
feet. The same picture that Father Duran saw, showed that the
ancestors of the Mexican people transmitted a tradition, relating that
during their journey a kind of sand (or hail) rained upon them. Father
Duran further gives an account furnished him by an old Indian of
Cholula (some 100 years old) concerning the creation of the world: The
first men were giants who, desirous of seeing the home of the sun,
divided themselves into two parties, one of which journeyed to the
west, and the other to the east, until they were stopped by the sea;
they then concluded to return to the place they started from, called
_Vztacculemjueminian_; finding no way to reach the sun, whose light
and beauty they highly admired, they determined to build a tower that
should reach the heavens. They built a tower; but the Lord became
angry at their presumption, and the dwellers of heaven descended like
thunderbolts and destroyed the edifice; the giants on seeing their
work destroyed, were much frightened, and scattered themselves
throughout the earth. _Duran_, _Hist. Indias_, MS., tom. i., cap. i.
[I-200] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 246.
[I-201] _Id._, p. 248.
[I-202] _Id._, p. 253.
[I-203] _Id._, p. 254.
[I-204] _Id._, p. 312.
[I-205] _Id._, p. 361.
[I-206] _Id._, p. 382.
[I-207] _Id._, p. 401.
[I-208] To enter into details on all these subjects would require
volumes as large, and I may add, as unreadable, as those of Lord
Kingsborough. The reader who wishes to investigate more closely, will
find all the points to which I have referred in volumes vi. and viii.
of the noble writer's work, _Mexican Antiquities_. Mr James Adair, 'a
trader with the Indians, and resident in their country for forty
years,' very warmly advocates the Hebrew theory. As his intercourse
with the Americans was confined to the wild tribes, the genuine 'red
men' inhabiting the south-eastern states of North America, his
argument and analogies differ in many points from those of
Kingsborough and García, who treated chiefly of the civilized nations
of Mexico and Central America. Here are some of his comparisons: 'The
Israelites were divided into Tribes and had chiefs over them, so the
Indians divide themselves: each tribe forming a little community
within the nation--And as the nation hath its particular symbol, so
hath each tribe the badge from which it is denominated.' If we go from
nation to nation among them we shall not find one individual who doth
not distinguish himself by his family name. Every town has a state
house or synedrion, the same as the Jewish sanhedrim, where almost
every night the headmen meet to discuss public business. The Hebrew
nation were ordered to worship Jehovah the true and living God, who by
the Indians is styled _Yohewah_. The ancient heathens, it is well
known, worshiped a plurality of Gods: but these American Indians pay
their religious devoir to Loak Ishtohoollo Aba, The Great Beneficent
Supreme Holy Spirit of Fire. They do not pay the least perceptible
adoration to images. Their ceremonies in their religious worship
accord more nearly with the Mosaic institutions, which could not be if
they were of heathen descent. The American Indians affirm, that there
is a certain fixed time and place, when and where every one must die,
without the possibility of averting it; such was the belief also of
the ancient Greeks and Romans, who were much addicted to copying the
rites and customs of the Jews. Their opinion that God chose them out
of all the rest of mankind as his peculiar and beloved people, fills
both the white Jew and the red American, with that steady hatred
against all the world, which renders them hated and despised by all.
We have abundant evidence of the Jews believing in the ministration of
angels, during the Old Testament dispensation, their frequent
appearances and their services on earth, are recorded in the oracles,
which the Jews themselves receive as given by divine inspiration, and
St Paul in his epistle addressed to the Hebrews speaks of it as their
general opinion that "angels are ministering spirits to the good and
righteous on earth." The Indian sentiments and traditions are the
same. They believe the higher regions to be inhabited by good spirits,
relations to the Great Holy One, and that these spirits attend and
favor the virtuous. The Indian language and dialects appear to have
the very idiom and genius of the Hebrew. Their words and sentences are
expressive, concise, emphatical, sonorous, and bold, and often both in
letters and signification synonymous with the Hebrew language. They
count time after the manner of the Hebrews, reckoning years by lunar
months like the Israelites who counted by moons. The religious
ceremonies of the Indian Americans are in conformity with those of the
Jews, they having their Prophets, High Priests, and others of
religious order. As the Jews had a sanctum sanctorum or most holy
place, so have all the Indian nations. The dress also of their High
Priests is similar in character to that of the Hebrews. The festivals,
feasts, and religious rites of the Indian Americans have also a great
resemblance to that of the Hebrews. The Indian imitates the Israelite
in his religious offerings. The Hebrews had various ablutions and
anointings according to the Mosaic ritual--and all the Indian nations
constantly observe similar customs from religious motives. Their
frequent bathing, or dipping themselves and their children in rivers,
even in the severest weather, seems to be as truly Jewish as the other
rites and ceremonies which have been mentioned. The Indian laws of
uncleanness and purification, and also the abstaining from things
deemed unclean are the same as those of the Hebrews. The Indian
marriages, divorces and punishments of adultery, still retain a strong
likeness to the Jewish laws and customs on these points. Many of the
Indian punishments resemble those of the Jews. Whoever attentively
views the features of the Indian, and his eye, and reflects on his
fickle, obstinate, and cruel disposition will naturally think of the
Jews. The ceremonies performed by the Indians before going to war,
such as purification and fasting, are similar to those of the Hebrew
nation. The Israelites were fond of wearing beads and other ornaments,
even as early as the patriarchal age, and in resemblance to these
customs the Indian females continually wear the same, believing it to
be a preventive against many evils. The Indian manner of curing the
sick is very similar to that of the Jews. Like the Hebrews, they
firmly believe that diseases and wounds are occasioned by divine
anger, in proportion to some violation of the old beloved speech. The
Hebrews carefully buried their dead, so on any accident they gathered
their bones, and laid them in the tombs of their forefathers: thus,
all the numerous nations of Indians perform the like friendly office
to every deceased person of their respective tribe. The Jewish records
tell us that the women mourned for the loss of their deceased
husbands, and were reckoned vile by the civil law if they married in
the space of at least ten months after their death. In the same manner
all the Indian widows, by an established strict penal law, mourn for
the loss of their deceased husbands; and among some tribes for the
space of three or four years. The surviving brother by the Mosaic law,
was to raise seed to a deceased brother, who left a widow childless to
perpetuate his name and family. The American law enforces the same
rule. When the Israelites gave names to their children or others they
chose such appellatives as suited best their circumstances and the
times. This custom is a standing rule with the Indians. _Amer. Ind._
[I-209] _Amer. Antiq._, pp. 68-70.
[I-210] 'See Deut., chap. vi., from 4th to 9th verse, inclusive; also,
chap. xi., verse 13 to 21, inclusive; and Exodus, chap. xiii., 11 to
16, inclusive, to which the reader can refer, if he has the curiosity
to read this most interesting discovery.... It is said by Calmet, that
the above texts are the very passages of Scripture which the Jews used
to write on the leaves of their phylacteries. These phylacteries were
little rolls of parchment, whereon were written certain words of the
law. These they wore upon their forehead, and upon the wrist of the
left arm.' _Id._
[I-211] _Antiquities of Licking County, Ohio_, MS.
Brasseur de Bourbourg, although he rejects Kingsborough's theory,
thinks that some Jews may have reached America; he recognizes a Jewish
type on certain ruins, and calls attention to the perfectly Jewish
dress of the women at Palin and on the shores of Lake Amatitlan. _Hist.
Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 17. Customs and relics seem to show that the
Americans are of Hebrew descent, and that they came by way of the
Californias. _Giordan_, _Tehuantepec_, p. 57. The theory of descent
from the ten tribes is not to be despised. On the north-west there
are many beliefs and rites which resemble the Jewish; circumcision
obtains in Central America, and women wear Jewish costumes. Father
Ricci has seen Israelites in China living according to Moses' laws,
and Father Adam Schall knew Israelites who had kept the Old Testament
laws, and who knew nothing of the death of the Savior. This shows that
the ten tribes took this direction, and as an emigration from Asia to
America is perfectly admissible, it is likely that the Jews were among
the number who crossed, probably by the Aleutian islands. _Rossi_,
_Souvenirs_, pp. 276-7. Jones, as might be expected, 'will not yield
to any man in the firm belief that the Aborigines of North America
(_but North America only_) and the ancient Israelites are identical,
unless controverted by the stern authority of superior historical
deductions.' _Hist. Anc. Amer._, pp. 2, 11-26, 188-90. Parker does
not accept the Jewish theory, chiefly because of the great variety of
distinct languages in America, but he points out several resemblances
between north-west tribes and Jews. _Explor. Tour_, pp. 194-8. Meyer
finds many reasons for regarding the wild tribes of the north as
Jews; such as physical peculiarities; numerous customs; the number of
languages pointing to a Babylonian confusion of tongues. Most Indians
have high-priests' temples, altars, and a sacred ark which they carry
with them on their wanderings. They count by four seasons, celebrate
new-moon and arbor festivals, and offer first fruits. In September,
when the sun enters the sign of the scales, they hold their feast of
atonement. The name Iowa he thinks is derived from Jehova. They work
with one hand and carry their weapons in the other. The pillars of
cloud and pillars of fire which guided the Israelites, may be volcanoes
on the east coast of Asia, by whose aid the ten tribes reached America.
_Nach dem Sacramento_, pp. 241-5. If the Toltecs were Jews, they must
have visited the Old World in the year 753 of the Roman era, to obtain
the Christian dogmas apparent in their cult. _Waldeck_, _Voy. Pitt._,
p. 45. The Navajo tradition that they came out of the water a long way
to the north; their peaceful, pastoral manner of life; their aversion
to hogs' flesh; their belief that they will return to the water whence
they came, instead of going to hunting-grounds like other tribes; their
prophets who prophesy and receive revelation; their strict fast-days,
and keenness in trade; their comparatively good treatment of women--are
Jewish similarities, stronger than any tribes can present. 'Scalping
appears to have been a Hebrew custom.... The most striking custom of
apparently Hebraic origin, is the periodical separation of females,
and the strong and universal idea of uncleanness connected therewith.'
_Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., pp. 60, 62. The Tartars are probably
descended from the ten tribes; they boast of being Jews, are divided
into tribes, and practice circumcision. The separation of women at
certain times, and the expression Hallelujah Yohewah, are proofs of
Jewish descent; scalping is mentioned in Bible (68th Psalm, ver. 21).
_Crawford's Essay._ According to various manuscripts the Toltecs are of
Jewish descent. Having crossed the Red Sea, they abandoned themselves
to idolatry, and fearing Moses' reprimand, they separated from the
rest and crossed the ocean to the Seven Caves, and there founded Tula.
_Juarros_, _Hist. Guat._, tom. ii., pp. 7-8. Juarez, _Municipalidad
de Leon_, p. 10, states that Leon de Cordova is of the same opinion.
Em. de Moraez, a Portuguese, in his History of Brazil, thinks nothing
but circumcision wanting to form a perfect resemblance between the
Jews and Brazilians. He thinks that America was wholly peopled by
Jews and Carthaginians. _Carver's Trav._, pp. 188-9. Catlin thinks the
North Americans are a mixed race, who have Jewish blood in them. The
mixture is shown by their skulls, while many customs are decidedly
Jewish. Probably part of tribes scattered by Christians have come
over and intermarried. He gives analogies in monotheism, sanctuaries,
tribeship, chosen people belief, marriage by gifts, war, burial,
ablutions, feasts, sacrifices, and other customs. Any philological
similarity is unnecessary and superfluous. The Jew element was too
feeble to influence language. _Catlin's N. Amer. Ind._, vol. ii., pp.
231-5. Melgar gives a list of the Chiapanec calendar names, and finds
fourteen agree with suitable Hebrew words. He concludes, therefore,
that ancient intercourse with the Old World is proven. _Soc. Mex.
Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iii., p. 108. Jarvis, _Religion Ind.
N. Amer._, pp. 71-87, compares words in Hebrew and American languages.
Ethan Smith, _Views of the Hebrews_, presents eleven arguments in
favor of the Jewish theory. Beatty, _Journal of Two Months' Tour in
America_, gives a number of reasons why the Hebrew theory should be
correct. See further, for general review of this theory: _Crowe's
Cent. Amer._, pp. 64-8; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 46-9;
_Simon's Ten Tribes_, which is, however, merely a cheap abridgement of
Kingsborough; _Dally_, _Races Indig._, pp. 5-6; _Thorowgood's Jewes in
America_; _Worsley's Amer. Ind._, pp. 1-185; _L'Estrange_, _Americans
no Jewes_; _Spizelius_, _Elevatio Relationis_, a criticism on _Menasse
Ben Israel's Hope of Israel_; _Tschudi's Peruvian Antiq._, pp. 8-11.
In opposition to the Hebrew theory we read that Wolff, the Jew
traveler, found no Jewish traces among the tribes of North America.
_Fontaine's How the World was Peopled_, p. 157. 'The strong trait
in Hebrew compound words, of inserting the syllable el or a single
letter in the names of children, derived from either the primary or
secondary names of the deity, does not prevail in any Indian tribes
known to me. Neither are circumstances attending their birth or
parentage, which were so often used in the Hebrew children's names,
ever mentioned in these compounds. Indian children are generally
named from some atmospheric phenomenon. There are no traces of the
rites of circumcision, anointing, sprinkling, or washing, considered
as consecrated symbols. Circumcision was reported as existing among
the Sitkas, on the Missouri; but a strict examination proved it to
be a mistake.' _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 61. The Rev. T.
Thorowgood in 1650, published a work entitled _Jewes in America, or
Probabilities that the Americans are of that Race_. This was answered
in 1651, by Sir Hamon L'Estrange, in a book entitled, _Americans no
Jewes_. L'Estrange believes that America was peopled long before the
dispersion of the Jews, which took place 1500 years after the flood. A
strong mixture of Jewish blood would have produced distinct customs,
etc., which are not to be found. The native traditions as to origin
are to be regarded as dreams rather than as true stories. The analogous
customs and rites adduced by Thorowgood, L'Estrange goes on, are amply
refuted by Acosta and other writers. The occasional cannibalism of
the Jews was caused by famine, but that of the Americans was a regular
institution. The argument that the Americans are Jews because they have
not the gospel, is worthy only of ridicule, seeing that millions of
other pagans are in the same condition. Of the Hebrew theory Baldwin,
who devotes nearly two pages to it, writes: 'this wild notion, called
a theory, scarcely deserves so much attention. It is a lunatic fancy,
possible only to men of a certain class, which in our time does not
multiply.' _Anc. Amer._, p. 167. Tschudi regards the arguments in
favor of the Jewish theory as unsound. _Peruvian Antiq._, p. 11. Acosta
thinks that the Jews would have preserved their language, customs, and
records, in America as well as in other places. _Hist. de las Ynd._,
pp. 79-80. Macgregor argues that the Americans could not have been
Jews, for the latter people were acquainted with the use of iron as
far back as the time of Tubal Cain; they also used milk and wheaten
bread, which the Americans could and would have used if they had once
known of them. _Progress of Amer._, vol. i., p. 24. Montanus believes
that America was peopled long before the time of the dispersion of
the Jewish tribes, and raises objections to nearly every point that
has been adduced in favor of a Hebrew origin. _Nieuwe Weereld_, p.
26, et seq. Torquemada gives Las Casas' reasons for believing that
the Americans are of Jewish descent, and refutes them. _Monarq.
Ind._, tom. i., pp. 22-7. The difference of physical organization is
alone sufficient to set aside the question of Jewish origin. That so
conservative a people as the Jews should have lost all the traditions,
customs, etc., of their race, is absurd. _Democratic Review_, vol.
xi., p. 617. Rafinesque advances, as objections to Jew theory, that
the ten tribes are to be found scattered over Asia; that the Sabbath
would never have fallen into disuse if they had once introduced it into
America; that the Hebrew knew the use of iron, had plows, and employed
writing; that circumcision is practiced only in one or two localities
in America; that the sharp, striking Jewish features are not found in
Americans; that the Americans eat hogs and other animals forbidden to
the Jews; that the American war customs, such as scalping, torturing,
cannibalism, painting bodies and going naked, are not Jewish in the
least; that the American languages are not like Hebrew. _Priest's Amer.
Antiq._, pp. 76-9.
[I-212] I translate freely from Bertrand, _Mémoires_, p. 32, et seq.,
for this account.
[I-213] In the State of New York.
[I-214] The discovery was in this wise: 'Près du village de
Manchester, dans le comté d'Ontario, État de New York, se trouve une
éminence plus considérable que celle des environs, et qui est devenue
célèbre dans les fastes de la nouvelle Église sous le nom de Cumorah.
Sur le flanc occidental de cette colline, non loin de son sommet, et
sous une pierre d'une grande dimension, des lames d'or se trouvaient
déposées dans un coffre de pierre. Le couvercle en était aminci vers
ses bords, et relevé au milieu en forme de boule. Après avoir dégagé
la terre, Joseph (Smith) souleva le couvercle à l'aide d'un levier, et
trouva les plaques, l'Urim-Thummim, et le pectoral. Le coffre était
formé de pierres reliées entre elles aux angles par du ciment. Au fond
se trouvaient deux pierres plates placées en croix, et sur ces pierres
les lames d'or et les autres objets. Joseph voulait les enlever, mais
il en fut empêché par l'envoyé divin, qui l'informe que le temps
n'était pas encore venu, et qu'il fallait attendre quatre ans à partir
de cette époque. D'après ses instructions, Joseph se rendit tous les
ans le même jour au lieu du dépôt, pour recevoir de la bouche du
messager céleste, des instructions sur la manière dont le royaume de
Dieu devait être fondé et gouverné dans les derniers jours.... Le 22
septembre 1827, le messager des cieux lui laissa prendre les plaques,
l'Urim-Thummim et le pectoral, à condition qu'il serait responsable,
et en l'avertissant qu'il serait _retranché_, s'il venait à perdre ces
objets par sa négligence, mais qu'il serait protégé s'il faisait tous
ses efforts pour les conserver.' _Bertrand_, _Mémoires_, pp. 23-5.
[I-215] Though the question of the Scandinavian discoveries would seem
to merit considerable attention from one who wrote a 'colonial
history' of America, yet Mr George Bancroft disposes of the entire
subject in a single page: 'The story of the colonization of America by
Northmen,' he writes, 'rests on narratives, mythological in form, and
obscure in meaning; ancient, yet not contemporary. The chief document
is an interpolation in the history of Sturleson, whose zealous
curiosity could hardly have neglected the discovery of a continent.
The geographical details are too vague to sustain a conjecture; the
accounts of the mild winter and fertile soil are, on any modern
hypothesis, fictitious or exaggerated; the description of the natives
applies only to the Esquimaux, inhabitants of hyperborean regions, the
remark which should define the length of the shortest winter's day,
has received interpretations adapted to every latitude from New York
to Cape Farewell; and Vinland has been sought in all directions, from
Greenland and the St. Lawrence to Africa.' _Bancroft's History_, vol.
i., pp. 5-6. Irving says that as far as he 'has had experience in
tracing these stories of early discoveries of portions of the New
World, he has generally found them very confident deductions drawn
from very vague and questionable facts. Learned men are too prone to
give substance to mere shadows, when they assist some preconceived
theory. Most of these accounts, when divested of the erudite comments
of their editors, have proved little better than the traditionary
fables, noticed in another part of this work, respecting the imaginary
islands of St. Borondon, and of the Seven Cities.' _Columbus_, vol.
iii., p. 434. All of which would certainly be true enough of most
theories, but that it was erroneous as far as the Northmen's visits
are concerned, has, I think, been conclusively shown in later years.
[I-216] 'It might also be argued, if it were at all necessary, that,
if these Sagas were post-Columbian compositions drawn up by Icelanders
who were jealous of the fame of the Genoese navigator, we should
certainly be able to point out something either in their structure,
bearing, or style, by which it would be indicated. Yet such is not the
case. These writings reveal no anxiety to show the connection of the
Northmen with the great land lying at the west. The authors do not see
anything at all remarkable or meritorious in the explorations, which
were conducted simply for the purpose of gain. Those marks which would
certainly have been impressed by a more modern writer forging a
historical composition designed to show an occupation of the country
before the time of Columbus, are wholly wanting. There is no special
pleading or rivalry, and no desire to show prior and superior
knowledge of the country to which the navigators had from time to time
sailed. We only discover a straightforward, honest endeavor to tell
the story of certain men's lives. This is done in a simple, artless
way, and with every indication of a desire to mete out even handed
justice to all. And candid readers who come to the subject with minds
free from prejudice, will be powerfully impressed with the belief that
they are reading authentic histories written by honest men.'
_Pre-Columbian Disc. Amer._, pp. xli.-xlii.
[I-217] Vol. viii., p. 114, et seq.
[I-218] The exact dates in these relations I cannot vouch for; but the
several authors who have written on the subject differ by only a year
or two.
[I-219] 'Helluland, from _Hella_, a flat stone, an abundance of which
may be found in Labrador and the region round about.' _De Costa's
Pre-Columbian Disc. Amer._, p. 28. 'From data in the Landnama and
several other ancient Icelandic geographical works, we may gather that
the distance of a day's sailing was estimated at from twenty-seven to
thirty geographical miles (German or Danish, of which fifteen are
equal to a degree; each of these accordingly equal to _four_ English
sea-miles). From the island of Helluland, afterwards called Little
Helluland, Biarne sailed to Heriulfsnes (Ikigeit) in Greenland, with
strong south-westerly gales, in four days. The distance between that
cape and _Newfoundland_ is about 150 miles, which will correspond,
when we take into consideration the strong gales. In modern
descriptions it is stated that this land partly consists of naked,
rocky flats, where no tree, not even a shrub, can grow, and which are
therefore usually called _Barrens_; thus answering completely to the
_hellur_ of the ancient Northmen, from which they named the country.'
_Abstract of Hist. Evid._, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. viii.,
p. 123.
[I-220] 'Markland was situate to the south-west of Helluland, distant
about three days' sail, or about from eighty to ninety miles. It is
therefore _Nova Scotia_, of which the descriptions given by later
writers answer to that given by the ancient Northmen of Markland.'
_Id._
[I-221] 'Vinland was situate at the distance of two days' sail,
consequently about from fifty-four to sixty miles, in a south-westerly
direction from Markland. The distance from Cape Sable to Cape Cod is
stated in nautical works as being W. by S. about seventy leagues, that
is, about fifty-two miles. Biarne's description of the coasts is very
accurate, and in the island situate to the eastward (between which and
the promontory that stretches to eastward and northward Leif sailed)
we recognize Nantucket. The ancient Northmen found there many shallows
(_grunnsæ fui mikit_); modern navigators make mention at the same
place "of numerous riffs and other shoals," and say "that the whole
presents an aspect of drowned land."' _Id._, pp. 121-2. 'The leading
evidences serve to attest that Vinland was the present very marked
seaboard area of New England. The nautical facts have been carefully
examined by Professors Rafn and Magnusen, and the historical data
adapted to the configuration of the coast which has Cape Cod as its
distinguishing trait. All this seems to have been done with surprising
accuracy, and is illustrated by the present high state of the arts in
Denmark and Germany.' _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. i., p. 111.
[I-222] 'Kialarnes (from Kiölr, a keel, and _nes_, a cape, most likely
so named on account of its striking resemblance to the keel of a ship,
particularly of one of the long ships of the ancient Northmen) must
consequently be _Cape Cod_, the Nauset of the Indians, which modern
geographers have sometimes likened to a horn, and sometimes to a
sickle or sythe.' _Id._, p. 122.
[I-223] 'The Straumfiördr of the ancient Northmen is supposed to be
_Buzzard's Bay_, and Straumey, Martha's Vineyard; although the account
of the many eggs found there would seem more precisely to correspond
to the island which lies off the entrance of Vineyard Sound, and which
at this day is for the same reason called _Egg Island_.' _Id._
[I-224] See _Abstract of Hist. Evid._, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._,
vol. viii., p. 114, et seq., and _De Costa's Pre-Columbian Disc.
Amer._, p. 11, et seq.
[I-225] In the year 983, according to _Abstract of Hist. Evid._, in
_Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. viii., p. 125. De Costa makes it 928.
_Pre-Columbian Disc. Amer._, p. 86.
[I-226] 'Professor Rafn in, what seems to the author, his needless
anxiety to fix the locality of the White-man's land in America, says
that, as this part of the manuscript is difficult to decipher, the
original letters _may_ have got changed, and vi inserted instead of
xx, or xi, which numerals would afford time for the voyager to reach
the coast of America, in the vicinity of Florida. Smith in his
_Dialogues_, has even gone so far as to _suppress_ the term _six_
altogether, and substitutes, "by a number of days sail unknown." This
is simply trifling with the subject. In _Grönland's Historiske
Mindesmœrker_, chiefly the work of Finn Magnussen, no question is
raised on this point. The various versions all give the number six,
which limits the voyage to the vicinity of the Azores. Schöning, to
whom we are so largely indebted for the best edition of Heimskringla,
lays the scene of Marson's adventure at those islands, and suggests
that they may at that time have covered a larger extent of territory
than the present, and that they may have suffered from earthquakes and
floods, adding, "It is likely, and all circumstances show, that the
said land has been a piece of North America." This is a bold, though
not very unreasonable hypothesis, especially as the volcanic character
of the islands is well known. In 1808, a volcano rose to the height of
3,500 feet. Yet Schöning's suggestion is not needed. The fact that the
islands were not inhabited when discovered by the Portuguese does not,
however, settle anything against Schöning, because in the course of
five hundred years, the people might either have migrated, or been
swept away by pestilence. _Grönland's Historiske Mindesmœrker_, (vol.
i., p. 150), says simply, that "It is _thought_ that he (Are Marson)
ended his days in America, or at all events in one of the larger
islands of the west. Some think that it was one of the Azore
islands."' _De Costa's Pre-Columbian Disc. Amer._, p. 87.
[I-227] _Abstract of Hist. Evid._, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol.
viii., p. 125; _De Costa's Pre-Columbian Disc. Amer._, p. 89, et seq.
[I-228] See _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. i., pp. 110, et seq., for
plate and discussion of Dighton Rock.
[I-229] It bore the following inscription: _Elligr. Sigvaps: son: r.
ok. Bjanne. Tortarson: ok: Enripi. osson: laugardag. in: fyrir gagndag
Holpu: varda te. ok rydu: M. C. XXXV_; or, _Erling Sighvatssonr, ok
Bjarne Pordarson, ok Endridi oddsson laugardaginn fyrir gagndag hlodu
varda pessa ok ruddu 1135_; 'c'est-à-dire: Erling Sigvatson, Bjarne
Thordarson, et Endride Oddson érigèrent ces monceaux de pierres le
samedi avant le jour nommé Gagndag (le 25 avril) et ils nettoyèrent la
place en 1135.' _Warden_, _Recherches_, p. 152.
[I-230] 'We have noticed the discovery of a place called Estotiland,
supposed to be Nova Scotia, in 1354, the inhabitants of which were
Europeans, who cultivated grain, lived in stone houses, and
manufactured beer, as in Europe at that day. Now, from the year 1354,
till the time of the first settlements made in Onondaga county, by the
present inhabitants, is about 400 years. Is it not possible,
therefore, that this glass bottle, with some kind of liquor in it, may
have been derived from this Estotiland, having been originally brought
from Europe; as glass had been in use there, more or less, from the
year 664, till the Scandinavians colonized Iceland, Greenland, and
Estotiland, or Newfoundland.' _Priest's Amer. Antiq._, pp. 260-1.
[I-231] 'Malgré les réclamations que mes suppositions soulevèrent de
divers côtés et les sourires incrédules qu'elles appelèrent sur les
lèvres de plusieurs de nos savants dont je respecte et honore les
connaissances, je persiste plus que jamais dans l'opinion que
j'exprimais alors; plus j'avance dans mes études américaines plus je
demeure convaincu des relations qui existèrent, antérieurement à
Christophe Colomb, entre le Nouveau-Monde et les contrées situées à
l'orient de l'autre côté de l'océan Atlantique, et plus je suis
persuadé que les Scandinaves ont dû, à une période même plus reculée
que celle dont vos (Prof. Rafn's) intéressants mémoires rapportent le
souvenir, émigrer vers le continent américain.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1858, tom. clx., pp.
261-92.
[I-232] 'Il est impossible de ne point être frappé de l'analogie qui
existe entre les idées bramaniques sur la divinité et les passages du
_Popol-Vuh_ cités plus haut. Mais si nous consultons les traditions
beaucoup plus récentes, conservées même après l'établissement du
christianisme en Suède, nous trouverons encore, entre les coutumes
religieuses des populations de ces contrées et celles qui nous sont
retracées dans le Popol-Vuh, plus d'un rapport.' _Viollet-le-Duc_, in
_Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._, pp. 41-2. See farther concerning emigration
to America from north-western Europe: _Mitchill_, in _Amer. Antiq.
Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 341, et seq.; _Priest's Amer. Antiq._,
scattered notices, pp. 88-9, 234-329; _Robertson's Hist. Amer._, vol.
i., pp. 278-80; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. i., pp. 110-11, 120-4;
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1855, tom.
cxlvii., pp. 157-8; _Viollet-le-Duc_, in _Charnay_, _Ruines Amér._,
pp. 11, 18-19, 23-4, 42-3; _Warden_, _Recherches_, pp. 146-54;
_Montanus_, _Nieuwe Weereld_, pp. 28-30, 117; _Tschudi's Peruvian
Antiq._, pp. 3-7, 21-2; _Malte-Brun_, _Précis de la Géog._, tom. i.,
pp. 197-8; _Davis' Discovery of New England by the Northmen_;
_Baldwin's Anc. Amer._, pp. 279-85; _Davis' Anc. Amer._, pp. 13-31;
_Tylor's Anahuac_, pp. 278-9; _M'Culloh's Researches on Amer._, pp.
21-2; _Brinton's Abbé Brasseur_, in _Lippincott's Mag._, vol. i., p.
79, et seq.; _Smith's Human Species_, p. 237; _Deuber_, _Geschichte
der Schiffahrt_; _Hermes_, _Entdeckung von Amer._, pp. 1-134;
_Foster's Pre-Hist. Races_, pp. 399-400; _Hill's Antiq. of Amer._;
_Wilson's Prehist. Man_, pp. 394-420; _Kruger's Discov. Amer._, pp.
1-134; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 53-64, 404, 411-12;
_Beaufoy's Mex. Illustr._, p. 322; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist.
Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 18-22; _Id._, _Popol Vuh_, pp. li.-liv.,
lxxxix.-xcii.; _Hist. Mag._, vol. ix., pp. 364-5; _Gondra_, in
_Prescott_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, tom. iii., p. 15; _Humboldt's Exam.
Crit._, tom. ii., pp. 83-104, 105-20; _Irving's Columbus_, vol. iii.,
pp. 432-40; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., p. 239; _Klemm_,
_Cultur-Geschichte_, tom. v., pp. 164-71; _Rafinesque_, _The American
Nations_; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, p. 17;
_Williamson's Observations on Climate_; _Zesterman's Colonization of
America by Northwestern Europeans_; _Farcy_, _Discours_, in _Antiq.
Mex._, tom. i., div. i., pp. 48-9; _Simpson's Nar._, p. 159;
_Schoolcraft_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 391-6.
[I-233] About 1169-70.
[I-234] 'All this is related in old Welsh annals preserved in the
abbeys of Conway and Strat Flur.... This emigration of Prince Madog is
mentioned in the preserved works of several Welsh bards who lived
before the time of Columbus. It is mentioned by Hakluyt, who had his
account of it from writings of the bard Guttun Owen. As the Northmen
had been in New England over one hundred and fifty years when Prince
Madog went forth to select a place for his settlement, he knew very
well there was a continent on the other side of the Atlantic, for he
had knowledge of their voyages to America; and knowledge of them was
also prevalent in Ireland. His emigration took place when Henry II.
was king of England, but in that age the English knew little or
nothing of Welsh affairs in such a way as to connect them with English
history very closely.' _Baldwin's Anc. Amer._, p. 286. See also
_Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii., pp. 142-9; _Farcy_, _Discours_,
in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. i., div. i., pp. 49-50. 'Before wee passed
these ilands, under the lee of the bigger iland, we anchored, the wind
being at north-east, with intent to refresh ourselves with the fowles
of these ilands. They are of divers sorts, and in great plentie, as
pengwins, wilde duckes, gulles, and gannets; of the principall we
purposed to make provisions, and those were the pengwins; which in
Welsh, as I have beene enformed, signifieth a white head. From which
derivation, and many other Welsh denominations given by the Indians,
or their predecessors, some doe inferre that America was first peopled
with Welsh-men; and Montezanna, king, or rather emperour of Mexico,
did recount unto the Spaniards, at their first comming, that his
auncestors came from a farre countrie, and were white people. Which,
conferred with an auncient cronicle, that I have read many yeares
since, may be conjectured to bee a prince of Wales, who many hundreth
yeares since, with certaine shippes, sayled to the westwards, with
intent to make new discoveries. Hee was never after heard of.'
_Hawkins' Voy._, in _Hakluyt Soc._, p. 111.
[I-235] Written in Welsh, translated into English by Humphrey Llwyd,
and published by Dr David Powel in 1584.
[I-236] Dedicated to Prince Charles, and published in 1613.
[I-237] See _Warden_, _Recherches_, pp. 154-7.
[I-238] They are 'made of _raw-hides_, the skins of buffaloes,
stretched underneath a frame made of willows or other boughs, and
shaped nearly round, like a tub; which the woman carries on her head
from her wigwam to the water's edge, and having stepped into it,
stands in front, and propels it by dripping her paddle _forward_, and
_drawing it to her_, instead of paddling by the side.' _Catlin's Amer.
Ind._, vol. ii., p. 261.
[I-239] See comparative vocabulary. _Id._
[I-240] As a good deal of importance has been attached to it, it will
be as well to give Jones' statement in full; it is as follows: 'These
presents certify all persons whatever, that in the year 1660, being an
inhabitant of Virginia, and chaplain to Major General Bennet, of
Mansoman County, the said Major General Bennet and Sir William
Berkeley sent two ships to Port Royal, now called South Carolina,
which is sixty leagues southward of Cape Fair, and I was sent
therewith to be their minister. Upon the 8th of April we set out from
Virginia, and arrived at the harbor's mouth of Port Royal the 19th of
the same month, where we waited for the rest of the fleet that was to
sail from Barbadoes and Bermuda with one Mr. West, who was to be
deputy governor of said place. As soon as the fleet came in, the
smallest vessels that were with us sailed up the river to a place
called the Oyster Point; there I continued about eight months, all
which time being almost starved for want of provisions: I and five
more traveled through the wilderness till we came to the Tuscarora
country. There the Tuscarora Indians took us prisoners because we told
them that we were bound to Roanock. That night they carried us to
their town and shut us up close, to our no small dread. The next day
they entered into a consultation about us, and, after it was over,
their interpreter told us that we must prepare ourselves to die next
morning, whereupon, being very much dejected, I spoke to this effect
in the British [Welsh] tongue: "Have I escaped so many dangers, and
must I now be knocked on the head like a dog!" Then presently came an
Indian to me, which afterward appeared to be a war captain belonging
to the sachem of the Doegs (whose original, I find, must needs be from
the Old Britons), and took me up by the middle, and told me in the
British [Welsh] tongue I should not die, and thereupon went to the
emperor of Tuscarora, and agreed for my ransom and the men that were
with me. They (the Doegs) then welcomed us to their town, and
entertained us very civilly and cordially four months, during which
time I had the opportunity of conversing with them familiarly in the
British [Welsh] language, and did preach to them in the same language
three times a week, and they would confer with me about any thing that
was difficult therein, and at our departure they abundantly supplied
us with whatever was necessary to our support and well doing. They are
settled upon Pontigo River, not far from Cape Atros. This is a brief
recital of my travels among the Doeg Indians.
Morgan Jones, the son of John Jones, of Basateg, near Newport, in the
County of Monmouth. I am ready to conduct any Welshman or others to
the country.
New York, March 10th, 1685-6.' _Gentleman's Mag._, 1740.
[I-241] _Chambers' Jour._, vol. vi., p. 411.
[I-242] 'These accounts are copied from manuscripts of Dr. W. O.
Pughe, who, together with Edward Williams (the bard of Glamorgan),
made diligent inquiries in America about forty years ago, when they
collected upwards of one hundred different accounts of the Welsh
Indians.' _Id._ 'It is reported by travellers in the west, that on the
Red River ... very far to the southwest, a tribe of Indians has been
found, whose manners, in several respects, resemble the Welch.... They
call themselves the McCedus tribe, which having the Mc or Mac attached
to their name, points evidently to a European origin, of the Celtic
description.... It is well authenticated that upwards of thirty years
ago, Indians came to Kaskaskia, in the territory, now the state of
Illinois, who spoke the Welch dialect, and were perfectly understood
by two Welchmen then there, who conversed with them.' _Priest's Amer.
Antiq._, pp. 230-2.
[I-243] _Recherches_, p. 157. Griffiths related his adventures to a
native of Kentucky, and they were published in 1804, by Mr Henry
Toulmin, one of the Judges of the territory of Mississippi. See
_Stoddard's Sketches of Louisiana_, p. 475; _Philadelphia Medical and
Physical Journal_, vol. i., 1805.
[I-244] _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 305.
[I-245] We read farther: 'But what is still more remarkable, in their
war song he discovered, not only the sentiments, but several lines,
the very same words as used in _Ossian's_ celebrated majestic poem of
the wars of his ancestors, who flourished about thirteen hundred years
ago. The Indian names of several of the streams, brooks, mountains and
rocks of Florida, are also the same which are given to similar
objects, in the highlands of Scotland.' All this, could we believe it,
would fill us with astonishment; but the solution of the mystery lies
in the next sentence: 'This celebrated metaphysician (Monboddo) was a
firm believer in the anciently reported account of America's having
been visited by a colony from Wales long previous to the discovery of
Columbus.' _Priest's Amer. Antiq._, p. 230. It is this being a 'firm
believer' in a given theory that makes so many things patent to the
enthusiast which are invisible to ordinary men.
[I-246] _Monastikon Britannicum_, pp. 131-2, 187-8, cited in _De
Costa's Pre-Columbian Disc. Amer._, p. xviii.
[I-247] See _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 188-90; _De
Costa's Pre-Columbian Disc. Amer._, pp. xviii.-xx.
[I-248] _Mœurs des Sauvages Amériquains Comparées aux Mœurs des
Premiers Temps._ Paris, 1724.
[I-249] _García_, _Orígen de los Ind._, pp. 189-92.
[I-250] _Pidgeon's Trad._, p. 16.
[I-251] _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. lxx.-lxxx.
[I-252] _Hist. Anc. Amer._, p. 107. In the Greeks of Homer I find the
customs, discourse, and manners of the Iroquois, Delawares, and
Miamis. The tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides paint to me almost
literally the sentiments of the _red-men_, respecting necessity,
fatality, the miseries of human life, and the rigour of blind destiny.
_Volney's View of the Climate and Soil of the United States of
America._ London, 1804.
[I-253] See _Priest's Amer. Antiq._, pp. 385-90; _Torquemada_,
_Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 255; _Scenes in Rocky Mts._, pp. 199-202;
_Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 6; _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 184, 527-8.
[I-254] See _Baldwin's Anc. Amer._, p. 177; _Foster's Pre-Hist.
Races_, pp. 394-5.
[I-255] _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 6.
[I-256] 'Imaginez un livre entier écrit en calembours, un livre dont
toutes les phrases, dont la plupart des mots ont un double sens, l'un
parfaitement net et distinct de l'autre, et vous aurez, jusqu'à un
certain point, l'idée du travail que j'ai entre les mains. C'est en
cherchant l'explication d'un passage fort curieux, relatif à
l'histoire de Quetzal-Coatl, que je suis arrivé à ce résultat
extraordinaire. Oui, Monsieur, si ce livre est en apparence l'histoire
des Toltèques et ensuite des rois de Colhuacan et de Mexico, il
présente, en réalité, le récit du cataclysme qui bouleversa le monde,
il y a quelques six ou sept mille ans, et constitua les continents
dans leur état actuel. Ce que le _Codex Borgia_ de la Propagande, le
_Manuscrit de Dresde_ et le _Manuscrit Troano_ étaient en images et en
hiéroglyphes, le _Codex Chimalpopoca_ en donne la lettre; il contient,
en langue nahuatl, l'histoire du monde, composée par le sage Hueman,
c'est-à-dire par la main puissante de Dieu dans le grand Livre de la
nature, en un mot, c'est le Livre divin lui-même, c'est le
_Teo-Amoxtli_.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg._ _Quatre Lettres_, p. 24.
[I-257] _Id._, p. 39.
[I-258] In the Codex Chimalpopoca, Brasseur reads that 'à la suite de
l'éruption des volcans, ouverts sur toute l'étendue du continent
américain, double alors de ce qu'il est aujourd'hui, l'éruption
soudaine d'un immense foyer sous-marin, fit éclater le monde et abîma,
entre un lever et un autre de l'étoile du matin, les régions les plus
riches du globe.' _Quatre Lettres_, p. 45.
[I-259] _Id._, p. 108.
[I-260] See farther, concerning Atlantis: _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,
_MS. Troano_, tom. i., pp. 29-32, 199; _Irving's Columbus_, vol. i.,
pp. 24, 38, vol. iii., pp. 419, 492-4, 499-512; _Baril_, _Mexique_, p.
190; _Dally_, _Races Indig._, p. 7; _Farcy_, _Discours_, in _Antiq.
Mex._, tom. i., div. i., pp. 41-2; _De Costa's Pre-Columbian Disc.
Amer._, p. xiii.; _Heylyn's Cosmog._, pp. 943-4; _Sanson d'Abbeville_,
_Amérique_, pp. 1-3; _Willson's Amer. Hist._, pp. 90-1; _Warden_,
_Recherches_, pp. 97-113; _Carli_, _Cartas_, pt i., p. 1; _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. xviii.-cxii.; _Davis' Anc.
Amer._, p. 13; _Malte-Brun_, _Précis de la Géog._, tom. i., pp. 28-30,
213-15; _Wilson's Prehist. Man_, pp. 392-3; _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 181-4; _Foster's Pre-Hist. Races_, pp. 394-9;
_Larrainzar_, _Dictamen_, pp. 8-25; _Stratton's Mound-Builders_, MS.;
_Bradford's Amer. Antiq._, pp. 216-22; _Baldwin's Anc. Amer._, pp.
174-84; _Mitchill_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc._, _Transact._, vol. i., p.
340; _Faliés_, _Études Hist. sur les Civilisations_, tom. i., pp.
185-93, 218; _M'Culloh's Researches on Amer._, pp. 26-32; _Humboldt_,
_Exam. Crit._, tom. i., pp. 42, 130-206, tom. ii., pp. 46, 163-214;
_Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., pp. 14-18, 22; _Monglave_, in _Antiq.
Mex._, pp. 57-60; _Cabrera_, _Teatro_, in _Rio's Description_, p. 126;
_Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, pp. 5-6; _Purchas his Pilgrimes_,
vol. v., pp. 799-801; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 29;
_West und Ost Indischer Lustgart_, pt i., pp. 4-5; _Montanus_, _Nieuwe
Weereld_, pp. 18-19; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. iv.,
p. 31; _Despréaux_, in _Museo Mex._, tom. ii., pp. 84-6; _Major's
Prince Henry_, p. 83; _Rafinesque_, in _Priest's Amer. Antiq._, pp.
123-4; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 42-6, 413-14; _Fontaine's
How the World was Peopled_, pp. 256-7; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
i., lib. i., cap. ii.; _Smith's Human Species_, p. 83; _Soc. Géog.,
Bulletin_, tom. iv., p. 235.
[I-261] Davis, _Anc. Amer._, p. 12, thinks that a portion of the
animals of the original creation migrated west. 'If this idea,' he
says, 'is new to others, I hope it may be considered more reasonable
than the infidel opinion, that men and animals were distinct creations
from those of Asia.' 'Think you,' he adds sagely, 'they would have
transported venomous serpents from the old to the new world?'
[I-262] Concerning unity or variety of the American races, see:
_Prichard's Researches_, vol. i., p. 268, vol. v., pp. 289, 374, 542;
_Morton's Crania Amer._, p. 62; _Bradford's Amer. Antiq._, pp. 197-98;
_Baldwin's Anc. Amer._, pp. 66-7; _Maury_, in _Nott and Gliddon's
Indig. Races_, p. 81; _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, tom. i., p. 83;
_Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 21-36; _Willson's Amer. Hist._, p.
89; _Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer._, p. 4; _Smith's Human Species_, p. 251;
_Catlin's N. Amer. Ind._, vol. ii., p. 234; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol.
i., pp. 3-4.
[I-263] 'I am compelled to believe that the Continent of America, and
each of the other Continents, have had their aboriginal stocks,
peculiar in colour and in character--and that each of these native
stocks has undergone repeated mutations, by erratic colonies from
abroad.' _Catlin's N. Amer. Ind._, vol. ii., p. 232; _Bradford's Amer.
Antiq._, pp. 224-5, thinks it consonant with the Bible to suppose
'distinct animal creations, simultaneously, for different portions of
the earth.' A commentator on Hellwald who advocates autochthon theory
remarks that: 'the derivation of these varieties from the original
stock is philosophically explained on the principle of the variety in
the offspring of the same parents, and the better adaptation and
consequent chance of life.' _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 345. 'That
theory is probably, in every point of view, the most tenable and exact
which assumes that man, like the plant, a mundane being, made his
appearance generally upon earth when our planet had reached that stage
of its development which unites in itself the conditions of the man's
existence. In conformity with this view I regard the American as an
autochthon.' The question of immigration to America has been too much
mixed with that of the migration in America, and only recently has the
opinion made progress that America has attained a form of civilization
by modes of their own. Neither the theory of a _populating
immigration_ or a _civilizing immigration_ from the old world meet any
countenance from the results of the latest investigations. _Hellwald_,
in _Id._, p. 330. All tribes have similarities among them which make
them distinct from old world. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.
Civ._, tom. i., p. 23. Dr. Morton says the study of physical
conformation alone, excludes every branch of the Caucasian race from
any obvious participation in the peopling of this continent, and
believes the Indians are all of one race, and that race distinct from
all others. _Mayer's Observations_, p. 11. We can never know the
origin of the Americans. The theory that they are aborigines is
contradicted by no fact and is plausible enough. _Morelet_, _Voyage_,
tom. i., pp. 177-8. The supposition that the Red Man is a primitive
type of a human family originally planted in the western continent
presents the most natural solution of the problem. The researches of
physiologists, antiquaries, philologists, tend this way. The
hypothesis of an immigration, when followed out, is embarrassed with
great difficulties and leads to interminable and unsatisfying
speculations. _Norman's Rambles in Yuc._, p. 251. God has created
several couples of human beings differing from one another internally
and externally, and these were placed in appropriate climates. The
original character is preserved, and directed only by their natural
powers they acquired knowledge and formed a distinct language. In
primitive times signs and sounds suggested by nature were used, but
with advancement, dialects formed. It requires the idea of a miracle
to suppose that all men descend from one source. _Kames_, in _Warden_,
_Recherches_, p. 203. 'The unsuccessful search after traces of an
ante-Columbian intercourse with the New World, suffices to confirm the
belief that, for unnumbered centuries throughout that ancient era, the
Western Hemisphere was the exclusive heritage of nations native to its
soil. Its sacred and sepulchral rites, its usages and superstitions,
its arts, letters, metallurgy, sculpture, and architecture, are all
peculiarly its own.' _Wilson's Prehist. Man_, p. 421. Morton concludes
'that the American Race differs essentially from all others, not
excepting the Mongolian; nor do the feeble analogies of language, and
the more obvious ones in civil and religious institutions and the
arts, denote anything beyond casual or colonial communication with the
Asiatic nations; and even these analogies may perhaps be accounted
for, as Humboldt has suggested, in the mere coincidence arising from
similar wants and impulses in nations inhabiting similar latitudes.'
_Crania Amer._, p. 260. 'I am firmly of opinion that God created an
original man and woman in this part of the globe, of different species
from any in the other parts.' _Romans' Concise Natural Hist. of E. and
W. Florida._ 'Altamirano, the best Aztec scholar living, claims that
the proof is conclusive that the Aztecs did not come here from Asia,
as has been almost universally believed, but were a race originated in
America, and as old as the Chinese themselves, and that China may even
have been peopled from America.' _Evans' Our Sister Rep._, p. 333.
Swan believes that 'whatever was the origin of different tribes or
families, the whole race of American Indians are native and indigenous
to the soil.' _N.W. Coast_, p. 206.