American Antiquities: Corroborative of the Book of Mormon (14 January 1860)

AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES,

CORROBORATIVE OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

(Continued from page 14.)

(From the Penny Cyclopaedia, published in 1833.)

“The great number of separate languages proves that a considerable portion of the American tribes have long existed in that savage solitude in which they are still plunged. Dr. Von Martius (London Geographical Journal, vol. ii.,) has ascertained the names of more than two hundred and fifty tribes, some of them consisting of very small numbers, in the interior of Brazil. Many of these numerous subdivisions are, no doubt, closely related to one another; but the present splitting up of the Brazilian Indians is a curious phenomenon. The want of a common language among so many tribes may be the effect of some great political convulsion; and it is, at the same time, a cause of gradual decay and extinction of races. Traditions, monuments, manners, and customs seem to indicate some affinity with Asia; but the communications, if any, must have been anterior to the development of the state of things prevailing in the present day. … America presents, both in the northern and southern continents, traces of the labour of man, which perhaps belonged to no race that inhabited the continent at the time of its European discovery. In the valley of the Ohio, and indeed in numerous other parts of the United States, are found mounds of earth, and fortifications undoubtedly of high antiquity. Some of these mounds are overgrown with ancient trees, like a part of the primeval forest,—a fact indicating an antiquity of at least many hundred years.”

(From the Abbe Don Lorenzo Hervas’ Letter to the Abbé Clavigero upon the Mexican Calendar, translated by Cullen and published in English in 1787.)

“This Calendar has not been the discovery of the Mexicans, but a communication from some more enlightened people; and as the last are not to be found in America, we must seek for them elsewhere, in Asia or in Egypt. This supposition is confirmed by your affirmation, that the Mexicans had their Calendar from the Toltecas (originating from Asia), whose year, according to Boturini, was exactly adjusted by the course of the sun, more than a hundred years before the Christian era.”

(From the Abbé Clavigero’s History of Mexico, translated by Cullen, and published in London in 1787.)

“Amongst the monuments of ancient architecture which are extant in the Mexican empire, the edifices of Mictlan in Mizteca, are very celebrated. There are many things about them worthy of admiration, particularly a large hall, the roof of which is supported by various cylindrical columns of stone 80 feet high, and about 20 in circumference, each of them consisting of one single piece. … The gems most common among the Mexicans were emeralds, amethysts, cornelians, turquoises, and some others not known in Europe. Emeralds were so common, that no lord or noble wanted them. … An infinite number of them were sent to the Court of Spain in the first year after the Conquest.’’

(To be continued.)