THE PROBABILITIES THAT AMERICA WAS PEOPLED FROM THE OLD WORLD,
CONSIDERED GEOGRAPHICALLY AND PHYSICALLY.
Legends of Atlantis — Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Theory — The Subject
Examined Scientifically — Retzius’ View — Le Plongeon’s
Observations — Identity of European and American Plant Types
— Revelations of the _Dolphin_ and _Challenger_ Expeditions —
The Atlantic Floor — Challenger and Dolphin Ridges — Challenger
Plateau probably once Dry Land — Identity of European and South
American Fauna — Elevation and Depression of Coast Level of
Greenland, United States, and South America — Gulf Stream —
Equatorial Current — The Trade-Winds — Accidental Discovery of
Brazil — America Probably Reached by Ancient Navigators — The
Caras — Atolls of the Pacific Ocean — A Pacific Continent —
Contiguity of the Continents at the North — Aleutian Islands
— Kuro-Suvo — Behring’s Straits — Inviting Appearance of the
American Shore — Remoteness of the Migration — Prof. Grote’s
View — Prof. Asa Gray’s Observations — Conditions Favorable to
a Migration — John H. Becker’s Observations.
We have observed that traditional and linguistic evidence seems to
point to a trans-Atlantic origin for some of the American peoples.
In a preceding chapter (iii), we quoted the story of the Platonic
Atlantis, as recorded in the _Critias_, and alluded to the advocacy by
the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg of the hypothesis that the submerged
continent of Egyptian tradition was a reality. In support of this
view, the Abbé has cited the opinions of geologists and the remarkable
traditions preserved by the Central Americans, the Mexicans, and the
Haytians, concerning the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which
submerged beneath the ocean a continent, of which the Antilles are but
its mountain summits. Attach as little importance as we may to these
ancient legends, which no doubt refer to some extraordinary cataclysm,
the memory of which was preserved for ages by periodic feasts and
religious celebrations,[756] in which the gods were besought by princes
and people for security against a similar calamity, still our minds
naturally associate them with the story of the Platonic Atlantis.[757]
Until recently the mere expression of belief in the former existence
of an Atlantic continent has been the signal for criticism, and has
called forth the smile of pity, if not of contempt. Such, however, is
no longer true, since scientific investigation, consisting chiefly in
deep-sea soundings and the study of the fauna and flora of the opposite
shores of the Atlantic, call for the respectful attention of all who
are interested in the ancient history of this continent. Prominent
among the men of science who have expressed confidence in this
hypothesis is Prof. Andres Retzius of Stockholm, who was convinced from
a study of comparative craniology, that the primitive dolichocephalic
skulls of America, especially of the ancient Caribs of the Antilles,
were nearly related to the _Guanches_ of the Canary Islands.[758]
Dr. Le Plongeon observed that the sandals upon the feet of the statue
of Chaacmol, discovered at Chichen-Itza, and of the statue of a
priestess found on the island of Mugeres, “are exact representations
of those found on the feet of the _Guanches_, the early inhabitants of
the Canary Islands, whose mummies are yet occasionally met with in the
caves of Teneriffe and the other isles of the group.”[759] The great
number of American plant-types in the Miocene flora of Switzerland,
led Prof. Unger to espouse the view that a continent formerly existed
in the present Atlantic ocean.[760] Professor Heer, the celebrated
botanist of Zurich, for the same reasons promulgated this hypothesis,
and in his _Flora Tertiaria Helvetiæ_, defines the location of the
continent, which he believes to have been as wide as Europe.[761] In
opposition to this view, it is urged by Professors Oliver and Asa Gray,
that the flora of America and Europe are united by means of a former
overland communication at Behring’s Straits.[762] The conformation
of the ocean-bed is the next matter of importance in examining the
subject. The deep-sea soundings taken for the submarine cable between
Newfoundland and Ireland, led to the impression that the Atlantic
floor was comparatively a level, forming but one great trough between
the continents. The United States exploring ship _Dolphin_, however,
subsequently dispelled this illusion, by revealing the fact that a
great submarine plateau or mountain chain which has been denominated
the “Dolphin Rise,” divided the North Atlantic into two longitudinal
troughs running north and south. This is described as a seal-shaped
ridge with its tail joining a connecting ridge at the south in 15°
North Lat. and 45° West Long., while its body widens as it runs towards
the north, reaching its maximum width under the forty-fifth parallel,
and finally tapering to a narrow isthmus at 52° North Lat. and 30° West
Long., which connects the ridge with the great northern submarine
table-land.[763]
This work was prosecuted further by the German frigate _Gazelle_,
and by H. M. ships _Lightning_ and _Porcupine_, with confirmatory
results.[764] The most thorough and satisfactory work of this
character, however, was performed during the cruise of H. M. ship
_Challenger_, from December 30, 1872, until May 24, 1876, inclusive.
Sir C. Wyville Thomson, the director of the expedition, in his
excellent work, _The Atlantic_, has contributed much exact information
relative to the contour of the sea-bed. The frontispiece to his second
volume is a chart illustrative of the relative depths of different
localities in the Atlantic ocean. Almost its entire length from north
to south, the great chain whose loftiest summits tower above the sea
in the Azores Islands, St. Paul’s Rocks, Ascension and St. Helena
Islands, is indicated by a white irregular belt representing a depth
of one thousand fathoms, but shading off into the blue, indicative
of the depths on either hand. Professor Thomson says, “Combining our
own observations with reliable data which have been previously or
subsequently acquired, we find the mean depth of the Atlantic is a
little over 2000 fathoms. An elevated ridge rising to an average height
of about 1900 fathoms below the surface, traverses the basin of the
North and South Atlantic, in a meridional direction from Cape Farewell,
probably as far south, at least, as Gough Island, following roughly
the outlines of the coasts of the old and new worlds. A branch of this
elevation strikes off to the south-westward, about the parallel of 10°
North, and connects it with the coast of South America at Cape Orange;
and another branch across the eastern trough, joining the continent of
Africa, probably about the parallel of 25° South.”[765]
The width of the great land ridge as well as its relation to the
North Atlantic islands is indicated in the following: “One of the
most remarkable differences between the Azores and Bermuda is, that
while Bermuda springs up an isolated peak from a great depth, the
Azores seem to be simply the highest points of a great plateau-like
elevation, which extends for upwards of a thousand miles from west
to east, and appears to be continuous with a belt of shallow water
stretching to Iceland in the north and connected probably with the
‘Dolphin Rise’ to the southward, a plateau which in fact divides the
North Atlantic longitudinally into two great valleys, an eastern and
a western.”[766] A member of the _Challenger_ staff, in a lecture
delivered in London soon after the termination of the expedition,
expressed the fullest confidence that the great submarine plateau is
the remains of the “lost Atlantis,” citing as proof the fact that the
inequalities, the mountains and valleys of its surface, could never
have been produced in accordance with any laws for the deposition of
sediment nor by submarine elevation, but, on the contrary, must have
been carved by agencies acting above the water level.[767] The volcanic
character of the Azores and Philippines, together with the prevalence
of volcanic deposits found upon the entire ridge by the officers of the
_Challenger_, lend probability to the Egyptian and American legends of
a tremendous catastrophe in which a continent was submerged beneath the
waves.[768]
Sir C. Wyville Thomson found that the fauna of the coast of Brazil
brought up in his dredging machine, were similar to that of the western
coast of South Europe.[769] This is of particular interest, since
at a short distance north of the Amazon an arm of the central ridge
connects the sunken plateau with the coast of South America. Mr. J.
Starke Gardner, the eminent English geologist, is of the opinion that
in the Eocene period a great extension of land existed to the west of
Cornwall. The extraordinary mingling of American, Asiatic, Australian
and African genera in all European floras of the Tertiary period leads
him to the conviction that at a remote time they were all connected.
Referring to the locations of the _Dolphin_ and _Challenger_ ridges,
he asserts that a great tract of land formerly existed where the sea
now is, and that Cornwall, the Scilly and Channel islands, Ireland and
Brittany are the remains of its highest summits.[770] The question at
once arises, “What ground have we for believing that the great Atlantic
ridges ever occupied a higher altitude than at present?” The answer is
found in the comparison of facts with the following theory set forth by
Prof. Joseph Le Conte: “Any increase in the height and extent of the
whole amount of land on the globe must be attended with a corresponding
depression of the sea-bottoms, and therefore an actual subsidence
of the sea-level everywhere. Hence if it be true, as is generally
believed, that the continents have been, on the whole, increasing in
extent and in height, in the course of geological history, then it is
true also that the seas have been subsiding, and that therefore the
relative changes are the sum of the two.”[771] It cannot be denied that
the processes of elevation and depression are now actively going on
along the eastern coast of both the Americas. The coast of Greenland
is sinking along a distance of 600 miles so markedly that ancient
buildings on low rock-islands are now submerged, and the Greenlander
has learned by experience never to build near the water’s edge.[772]
The subsidence along our Atlantic seaboard is slowly going on, being
most marked on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, while on the
other hand the elevation of the eastern coast of South America has
been accomplished by the hidden forces, volcanic or otherwise, on a
stupendous scale. “Raised beaches” have been traced 1180 miles down
the eastern shore and 2075 miles along the western, ranging from
100 to 1300 feet above the sea, and Alexander Agassiz has recently
identified them at a height of 3000 feet above the present sea-level
by means of corals found adhering to the rocks.[773] In view of these
facts, so familiar to any student of geology, it is not difficult to
conceive of the former existence of Atlantis where the _Dolphin_ and
_Challenger_ locate the mid-Atlantic ridge, described as 1000 miles
in width in the latitude of the Azores. Supposing the existence of an
Atlantic continent in the Tertiary period conceded, we have no means at
present of determining the approximate time of its subsidence, unless
we associate it with the dim and uncertain legends of the Egyptian
priests and the ancient Americans. Whether the Atlantidæ who threatened
to overthrow the earliest Greek and Egyptian states, but who were
swallowed up by the sea in the engulfment of their island continent,
were the inhabitants of the _Dolphin_ and _Challenger_ ridges and the
colonists of Eastern America, must for the present at least remain in
doubt, though strong probabilities point to the conclusion that they
were.[774]
The colonization of America by transatlantic peoples, it seems to us,
did not depend upon the existence of a land bridge at a remote period,
but could have been accomplished without the aid of the compass, either
intentionally or accidentally, through the agency of the equatorial
current and the trade-winds, two mighty forces perpetually tending
toward the shores of the new world. The return current of the Gulf
Stream which describes a semicircle in the east Atlantic washes in
its sweep the Azores, the Madeira, the Canary and Cape Verde Islands,
approaching in its southern course the shores of Portugal, Morocco, and
the Sahara Desert, and finally uniting with the stronger equatorial
current which rushes up the coast of Africa, crosses the Atlantic under
the equator, and skirts the coast of South America until it reaches the
Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.[775] The north-east trade-winds
blowing perpetually from the coast of Europe in a belt from eighteen to
twenty degrees in width (or from 1245 to 1275 miles) reach the coasts
of the American continent over an area which extends from the mouth of
the Amazon to the northern boundary of Florida. Through the agency
of these mild but almost unvarying forces Columbus was steadily borne
on to the accomplishment of the greatest event of modern history. The
companions of the Admiral were dismayed by the persistency with which
they were wafted beyond the bounds of the known world, and ascribed the
unceasing east wind, which they supposed offered them no hope of return
to their homes, to a device of the devil. In one of the houses on the
island of Guadaloupe Columbus on his second voyage saw the stern-post
of a vessel, supposed to have been the fragment of some ship that had
drifted across the Atlantic and been cast, together with the crew, upon
unknown shores. How often and how long this same process had operated
it is impossible to conjecture.[776] The accidental discovery of Brazil
by Cabral furnishes an additional reason for believing that anciently
vessels may have reached the new world. Pedro Alvarez de Cabral was
dispatched by the Portuguese on the 9th of March 1500, with a fleet of
thirteen vessels on a voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, to Calicut.
After passing the Cape Verde Islands he bore away to the west, in
order to avoid the calms prevailing on the Guinea coast. On the 25th
of April, to his surprise he discovered what proved to be the South
American continent, at a point which he named Porto Securo.[777] When
we consider that the distance from the coast of Africa to Cape Frio,
Brazil, is but 1530 miles, and realize that twelve centuries B. C. the
Phœnicians and probably other maritime peoples of the Mediterranean
visited Britain at the north and coasted Africa to the south, the
probabilities are strong that, through the natural agency of the
Atlantic currents and the trade-winds, some ancient mariners reached
the American coast.[778]
Brasseur de Bourbourg, on the authority of Baron de Eckstein and
his own researches, points to the fact that the Barbarians who are
alluded to by Homer and Thucydides, are a race of ancient navigators
and pirates called _Cares_ or _Carians_, who occupied the islands of
Greece and a part of the coast of the Peloponnesus, Arcanania and
Illyria, before the Pelasgi. They ruled in Phrygia and other states
of Asia Minor, antedating the Phœnicians in their sovereignty of the
sea and the Indo-European peoples in their domination of the land. The
same people extended their borders into Nubia and Libya and became
the ancestors of the nations of the Barbary States. The Abbé, to all
appearances, easily identifies them with _Caracars_ or _Caribs_ of
the Antilles, the _Caras_ or _Cariari_ of Honduras, and even with the
_Gurani_ of South America. We submit the question for the investigation
of the student, rather than with our endorsement.[779] Whether a great
continent ever existed in the Pacific Ocean since man’s appearance
on the earth, or whether the great area occupied by Oceanica and
the Coral Islands of the Central Pacific was once a continent, are
questions which cannot now be determined. It is certain, however, as
Professor Dana has shown in his study of the atolls and barriers of
the Pacific, that if not a continent, at least a great archipelago
measuring 6000 miles in length by from 1000 to 2000 miles in breadth,
has subsided to a depth ranging from 3000 to 6000 feet. Professor Dana
states that two hundred islands have thus been lost.[780] Professor Le
Conte estimates the loss of land to equal 20,000,000 square miles, and
defines its boundaries by the Hawaiian and Feejee groups, north and
south, and the Paumotu group and Pelews, east and west. He fixes the
extreme subsidence at 1000 feet, since the average height of the high
islands of the Pacific at present is not less than 9000 feet above the
sea level, while some of them reach 14000 feet.[781] Professor Dana is
of the opinion that this vast area has subsided since the _Tertiary
age_. Whether such is the case or not is a matter of conjecture, but
it is certain that much of it has been accomplished within the human
era. That a higher civilization once prevailed throughout Polynesia
we need only cite the remains found on Easter Island by Captain Cook,
and refer to the Appendix of Mr. Baldwin’s work, where ruins of a high
order are named as existing on Ascension, Marshall, Gilbert, Kingsmill,
Ladrones, Swallow, Strong’s, Navigators and Hawaiian Islands. A
quadrangular tower forty feet high and several stone-lined canals are
to be seen at the harbor at Strong’s Island. On the adjoining isle
of Lele, cyclopian walls forming large enclosures are overgrown by
forests. “These walls are twelve feet thick, and within are vaults,
artificial caverns, and secret passages.” “Not more than five hundred
people now inhabit these islands; their tradition is that an ancient
city formerly stood around this harbor, mostly on Lele, occupied by a
powerful people whom they called ‘Anut,’ and who had large vessels, in
which they made long voyages east and west, ‘many moons’ being required
for these voyages.”[782] It is altogether probable that not only a
higher civilization once prevailed in Polynesia, but that within the
history of man, the greater extent of land, now submerged, made the
passage to America comparatively easy. If we turn to the North Pacific,
all doubts vanish in the presence of the most favorable conditions for
a migration from our continent to the other. With Latham, we believe
that if America had first been discovered from the west, and Alaska
and the north-west coast been as well known as our Atlantic coast,
North-eastern Asia would have naturally passed for the _fatherland_ of
North-western America.[783] It is scarcely necessary to occupy space
in pointing out the facilities which the Aleutian Islands offer for a
migration even in inferior boats, and at all seasons of the year. The
climate, though cool, is not severe, owing to the proximity of the warm
current of the Kuro-suvo, and it only requires an inspection of the map
to convince the most conservative. Col. Barclay Kennon, formerly of
the United States North Pacific Surveying Expedition, after referring
to the conspicuousness of the volcano Petropaulski on the shores of
Kamtschatka, says: “Proceeding along this coast to Cape Kronotski,
which lies north of Petropaulski, the distance to Behring’s Island is
about one hundred and fifty miles—course east. Fifteen miles only from
it is Copper Island, and about one hundred and fifty miles south-west
of it is Attou Island, the most westerly of the Aleutian group, which
is an almost unbroken chain, connecting the American continent to the
peninsula of Alaska.”[784] It is evident that the voyage from the
Asiatic to the American coast can be made as far south as the Aleutian
Islands without losing sight of land but a few hours at a time—a matter
of no consequence to the intrepid navigators found everywhere among
the aborigines upon the islands and coast.[785] The Kuro-suvo or Japan
current sweeps along the Asiatic coast, bears away to the east, and
describing a semicircle, bends its course southward to the shores of
California and Mexico, until it reaches about the tenth parallel of
north latitude, when it returns to the Japanese coast.
This Gulf Stream of the Pacific, which nearly every season casts
wrecks of Japanese junks upon our shores, no doubt has been an
active agent in giving character to our ancient population.[786]
Added to these twofold facilities for communication—of currents and
an almost continuous chain of islands—we have a third in the narrow
channel at Behring’s Straits. These straits, according to Sir John F.
Herschel, are now “only thirty miles broad where narrowest, and only
twenty-five fathoms in their greatest depth.”[787] Sir Charles Lyell,
in alluding to the above fact, remarks: “Behring’s Straits happen to
agree singularly in width and depth with the Straits of Dover, the
difference in depth not being more than three or four feet.”[788] With
this statement before us while standing upon the deck of a vessel
midway between Calais and Dover, with the shores of France and England
in full view, we felt, as never before, how absurd is the opinion
which has been advanced more than once, that no general migration
was likely to take place across Behring’s Straits. As well say that
no general migration was likely to take place across the Straits of
Dover; yet we learn that Britain was known to be inhabited as early
as the twelfth century B. C.[789] The weather at Behring’s Straits,
though cold even in summer, is not nearly as cold as the winters of
Japan.[790] In winter the waters of the straits are frozen over
generally as late as April, furnishing a continuous connection between
the continents, while in summer the communication at present between
the aborigines inhabiting opposite shores is continuous.[791] Frederick
von Hellwald furnishes an argument for the naturalness of a migration
to the American shores the fact that, “while the Asiatic projection
near Behring’s Straits is almost a sterile rocky waste, the opposite
coast presents a much more inviting appearance, abounding in trees and
shrubs. Moreover, the climate when we pass southward of the peninsula
of Alaska, is of a genial character, the temperature continuing nearly
the same as far down as Oregon.”[792] The difference in the two shores
is owing to the fact that the cold current from the Arctic Ocean passes
southward along the Asiatic coast, while a portion of the water of the
warm current passes up the American shore.[793] It is impossible to
approximate the period of the world’s history in which the migration
must have taken place. No doubt it was in a remote age, before the
old world peoples had developed their present or even historic
peculiarities and types of civilization. If this be true, the futility
of all old world comparisons, and the unceasing search for analogies
which has been going on since the discovery of the continent, is at
once apparent.[794]
Prof. Grote thinks the first migration may have taken place in the
Tertiary period in Pliocene time, and that the subsequent advent
of the ice period cutting off all communication with the old world
until recent times, produced a modification in the race, and that man
retired with the glacier on its return to the north, where we see his
descendants in the Eskimo.[795] If Prof. Croll’s theory of climatic
change resulting from the maximum eccentricity of the earth’s orbit be
true, or even if the ordinary time at which the American glacial period
is supposed to have occurred be taken into consideration, we hardly
think the evidences of man’s pre-glacial residence on this continent
are sufficient on which to base a safe hypothesis.[796] Of course Prof.
Grote would assign a comparatively recent migration to the civilized
nations. Whether a continuous land communication ever existed between
the continents at the Aleutian Islands[797] or at Behring’s Straits
cannot be determined, though the probabilities seem to favor the view
that they were once united.[798]
Prof. Asa Gray has satisfactorily shown the intimate relationship
between the North American and Asiatic vegetation, while many of our
fauna are clearly of Asiatic origin.[799] However, it is of little
moment in this discussion whether the land bridge ever existed; the
conditions for migration from one continent to the other are now,
and no doubt ever have been favorable, and that different peoples at
different times have availed themselves of those conditions is equally
certain. We have already alluded to the climatic conditions south of
Alaska which would naturally allure a migrating tribe down the coast
to Oregon and the Columbian region. Once there, however, a tribe of
considerable numbers and enterprise would soon be stimulated to push
farther, because of the demands for a more ample support than could be
found on the Pacific coast in the region of the Columbia and Frazier
Rivers. Still, progress to the south is practically cut off, since
the dryness and sterility of the Californian coast, the ice-capped
mountains intervening between the north and the Sacramento and San
Joaquin rivers and the desert highlands which rise with bleak and
forbidding aspect between the Sierra Nevada and the eastern Rocky
Mountains, combine in forming a barrier sufficient to turn the course
of a migration.[800] Add to this the fact that the country south
of Oregon rises over 2000 feet above the head of the waters of the
Columbia and Missouri rivers, and it is apparent that an outlet must be
sought in another direction. Nature has provided the highway. Alluding
to this fact and to the unbroken line of mounds from the north and west
down the Missouri valley, Mr. Becker remarks: “On the head of (canoe)
navigation we have what is known as ‘portages.’ These are depressions
in the continuous range of the Rocky Mountains of such a nature that
they fairly invite a travelling tribe to cross from the river system
of the upper Columbia, emptying into the Pacific Ocean to that of the
Missouri, on which a canoe need but be floated in order to arrive in
the far distant Gulf of Mexico. Canoes can easily be carried from
one river system to the other. Nothing like it exists in the whole
mountain range southward, until we arrive at Nicaragua Lake in Central
America.”[801] It will not require long for the matter of fact reader,
who comprehends the well-nigh insurmountable difficulties which lie in
the way of populating America in tropical or southern latitudes, and
compares with them the facilities which the proximity of the continents
and the topography of our country afford, to determine from what
quarter America received the greater part of its inhabitants.