American Antiquities: Corroborative of the Book of Mormon (11 February 1860)

(From Rivero and Von Tschudi’s “Peruvian Antiquities,” translated from the original Spanish by Dr. Hawks, and published in New York in 1854.)

“Like the Jews, the Indians offer their first-fruits; they keep their new moons, and the feast of expiations at the end of September, or in the beginning of October; they divide the year into four seasons, corresponding with the Jewish festivals. According to Charlevoix and Long, the brother of a deceased husband receives his widow into his house as a guest, and after a suitable time considers her as a legitimate consort. In some parts of North America circumcision is practised, and of this Acosta and Lopez de Gomara make mention. There is also much analogy between the Hebrews and Indians in that which concerns various rites and customs, such as the ceremonies of purification, the use of the bath, the ointment of bear’s grease, fasting, and the manner of prayer. The Indians likewise abstain from the blood of animals, as also from fish without scales; they consider divers quadrupeds unclean, as also certain birds and reptiles, and they are accustomed to offer as an holocaust the firstlings of the flock. Acosta and Emanuel de Moraer relate that various nations allow matrimony with those only of their own tribe or lineage, this being, in their view, a striking characteristic, very remarkable, and of much weight. But that which most tends to fortify the opinion as to the Hebrew origin of the American tribes, is a species of ark, seemingly like that of the Old Testament: this the Indians take with them to war; it is never permitted to touch the ground, but rests upon stones or pieces of wood, it being deemed sacrilegious and unlawful to open it or look into it. The American priests scrupulously guard their sanctuary, and the High Priest carries on his breast a white shell adorned with precious stones, which recalls the Urim of the Jewish High Priest; of whom we are also reminded by a band of white plumes on his forehead. … The Mexicans . . used hieroglyphics painted on paper, or graved on stone. … The indefatigable zeal of some among the learned has sought to find an explanation of the hieroglyphics; and it is not improbable that what is desired might be attained, if we had these characters in greater abundance; but the immense collection of Mexican writings was destroyed almost entirely by the fanaticism of the Spanish conquerors, and particularly of the Dominican friars who accompanied them, so that nothing has been saved but a few isolated fragments. … The hieroglyphics of the Mexicans were very distinct, and graved on stone or metal. In Southern Peru there has not yet been discovered any vestige of hieroglyphics painted on paper; but, according to the observations of Don Mariano de Rivero, at the distance of eight leagues north of Arequipa there exist a multitude of engravings on granite, which represent figures of animals, flowers, and fortifications, and which doubtless tell the story of events anterior to the dynasty of the Incas. In the province of Castro-Vireyna, in the town of Huaytara, there is found, in the ruins of a large edifice, of similar construction to the celebrated palace of Huanuco, a mass of granite many square yards in size, with coarse engravings like those last mentioned near Arequipa. None of the most trustworthy historians allude to these inscriptions or representations, or give the smallest direct information concerning the Peruvian hieroglyphics; from which it may plausibly be inferred that in the times of the Incas there was no knowledge of the art of writing in characters, and that all these sculptures are the remains of a very remote antiquity. … In many parts of Peru, chiefly in situations greatly elevated above the level of the sea, are vestiges of inscriptions very much obliterated by time. … In the last century, a European missionary among the Panos, who dwell on the banks of the Ucayali, found, in the pampas of Sacramento, manuscripts, on a species of paper made of the leaf of the plantain, with hieroglyphics joined together as well as in simple characters, containing, according to the statements of the Indians, the history of the events of their ancestors. … The Peruvians knew of gold, silver, copper, tin, and quicksilver; but iron was completely unknown to them, although very abundant in their country. The gold, although it was among them the most esteemed metal, they possessed, according to the best calculations, in a quantity greater than any other. Upon comparing its abundance, in the time of the Incas, with the quantity which, in the space of three centuries, the Spaniards have been able to extract from the mines and rivers, it becomes certain that the Indians had a knowledge of veins of this precious material, which the conquerors and their descendants never succeeded in discovering; and we do not believe that it would be a hazardous prognostication to predict that the day will come when Peru will withdraw from her bosom the veil which now covers more wonderful riches than those which are offered at the present day in California. In the second half of the sixteenth century, in the short space of twenty-five years, the Spaniards exported from Peru to the mother country more than four hundred millions of ducats of gold and silver; and we may be well assured that nine-tenths of this quantity composed the mere booty taken by the conquerors. In this computation we leave out of view the immense masses of precious metals buried by the natives, to hide them from the avarice of the foreign invaders.”

(From Priest’s “American Antiquities,” published in 1833.)

"One of the arts known to the builders of Babel was that of brick-making. This art was also known to the people who built the works in the West. The knowledge of copper was known to the people of the plains of Shinar; for Noah must have communicated it, as he lived an hundred and fifty years among them after the flood. Also copper was known to the antediluvians. Copper was also known to the authors of the western monuments. Iron was known to the antediluvians. It was also known to the ancients of the West. However, it is evident that very little iron was among them, as very few instances of its discovery in their works have occurred; and for this very reason, we draw a conclusion that they came to this country very soon after the dispersion, and brought with them such few articles of iron as have been found in their works in an oxydized state. … Gold ornaments are said to have been found in several tumuli. Silver, very well plated on copper, has been found in several mounds besides those at Circleville and Marietta. An ornament of copper was found in a stone mound near Chilicothe: it was a bracelet for the ancle or wrist. … On the shores of the Mississippi, some miles below Lake Pepin, on a fine plain, exists an artificial elevation of about four feet high, extending a full mile, in somewhat of a circular form. It is sufficiently capacious to have covered 5,000 men. Every angle of the breastwork is yet traceable, though much defaced by time. Here, it is likely, conflicting realms, as great as those of the ancient Greeks and Persians, decided the fate of ambitious monarchs. … Weapons of brass have been found in many parts of America, as in the Canadas, Florida, &c., with curiously sculptured stones, all of which go to prove that this country was once peopled with civilized, industrious nations, now traversed the greater part by savage hunters.”

(To be continued.)