American Antiquities: Corroborative of the Book of Mormon (22 January 1859)

(From the New York Sun, June 9,1848.)

“Yucatan is the grave of a great nation that has mysteriously passed away and left behind no history. Every forest embosoms the majestic remains of vast temples, sculp­tured over with symbols of a lost creed, and noble cities, whose stately palaces and cause­ways attest in their mournful abandonment the colossal grandeur of their builders. They are the gigantic tombs of an illustrious race, but they bear neither name nor epitaph. The conscience-stricken awe with which the Indian avoids them as he relates a confused tradition of a whole people extinguished in blood and fire by his forefathers—a fero­cious and cannibal race delighting in human sacrifices—are all that even conjecture can say of the manner in which the ancient occupants of Yucatan were blotted, en masse, from the page of existence. The barbarous exterminators remained the masters of the country, and built them rude huts under the shadow of those immense edifices which are still the marvel and the mystery of Yucatan. On many of these singular edifices is stamped the blood-red impress of a human hand—a fit symbol of the rule of blood to which it has so constantly been the victim. This ‘bloody hand' was imprinted with evident purpose on the still yielding stucco of the new-built walls, and presents every line and curve in life-like distinctness: but the ex­planation of the symbol is unknown.”

(From the National Intelligencer.)

[Extract from a correspondent’s letter on a ruined budding found by Judge Neito, at Cenlap, in the province of Chichapoyas.]

“This edifice being solid in the interior for the whole space contained within 5,376,000 feet circumference, which it has to the before-mentioned height of 150 feet, is solid and levelled; and upon it there is another wall of 300,000 feet in circum­ference in this form, 600 feet in length, and 500 in breadth, with the same elevation (150 feet) of the lower wall, and, like it, solid and levelled to the summit. In this elevation, and also in that of the lower wall, are a great many habitations or rooms of the same hewn stone, 18 feet long and 15 wide; and in these rooms, as well as be­tween the dividing walls of the great wall, are found neatly-constructed niches, a yard broad or deep, in which are found bone3 of the ancient dead, some naked and some in cotton shrouds or blankets of a firm texture, though coarse, and all worked with borders of different colours. If this description is authentic, (and we have no reason to doubt it,) this must be the greatest building in the world in point of size. We know of nothing in Egypt or Persia to equal it. From the description, it must have been a vast tomb; but whether erected by the Indians before the Spanish discovery, or by remoter gene­rations, cannot be decided. Yet the Judge says that the ingenious and highly-wrought specimens of workmanship, the elegance of the cutting of some of the hardest stone, the ingenuity and solidity of the gigantic work, all in stone, the elegant articles of gold and silver, and the curiously-wrought stones found in the mounds, all satisfy him that that territory was occupied by an en­lightened nation, which declined in the same manner as others more modern, as Babylon, Balbec, and the cities of Syria; and this, he says, is evidently the work of people from the old world, as the Indians have no instru­ments of iron to work with.”

(From the Buffalo Pilot.)

[Extract from a correspondent's letter on some ruins, called “the Military Post," found in Allegan county, Michigan.]

“It consists of a wall of earth, running north-west and south-east, being about the height of a man’s head in the principal part of its length, but varying in some places, as if it had been degraded either by the hands of assailants or the lapse of time. Fronting the road, which runs parallel with the work, is the glacis, presenting a gentle 'slope to the summit of the wall, which extends for about the fourth of a mile. Along the entire face of the fortification is a cleared space of equal breadth in its whole extent, covered with a fine grass; but beyond the edge of this the forest is still standing. Such was the aspect of the remains when the first white settler emigrated to Michigan, and it has remained without perceptible change to the present time. The mound is covered with monstrous trees of a wood slow in its growth, showing its great antiquity, but furnishing no clue to its origin. The popular theory seems to be that the French, who early traversed our country, were the build­ers; but this, of course, is erroneous. It must have been either the work of a large body of men or the painful toil of a few. If the former, they might have conquered and subdued any tribe of Indians then in exist­ence; if the latter, a solitary line of breast­work, without a fosse or other defence, could have been no protection: and it seems still more mysterious that it should have been placed here, at the distance of a mile from any spring, and with a heavy wood of a date more ancient than the trees upon the mound in its rear. If the neighbouring Indians are questioned upon its tradition­ary history, the invariable answer is that it was there when they came: more they either do not or cannot say. That it was the labour of an extinct race is pretty evi­dent, and it probably dates from the same era with the extensive works at Rock River. These latter are, however, of brick; a spe­cimen of which material, taken from beneath the roots of an oak tree of great size, the writer has in his possession.”

(From the San Francisco Herald.)

“Captain Walker assures us that the country from the Colorado to the Rio Grande, between the Gila and San Juan, is full of ruined habitations and cities, most of which are on the table-land. Although he had frequently met with crumbling masses of masonry and numberless specimens of antique pottery, such as have been noticed in the immigrant trail south of the Gila, it was not until his last trip across that he ever saw a structure standing. On that occasion he had penetrated about midway from the Colorado into the wilderness, and had encamped rear the Little Red River, with the Sierra Blanca looming up to the south, when he noticed, at a little distance, an object that induced him to examine fur­ther. As he approached, he found it to be a kind of citadel, around which lay the ruins of a city more than a mile in length. It was located on a gentle declivity that sloped towards Red River, and the lines of the streets could be distinctly traced, running regularly at right angles with each other. The houses had all been built of stone, but all had been reduced to ruins by the action of some great heat, which had evidently passed over the whole country. It was not an ordinary conflagration, but must have been some fierce, furnace-like blast of fire, similar to that issuing from a volcano, as the stones were all burnt—some of them almost cindered, others glazed as if melted. This appearance was visible in every ruin he met with. A storm of fire seemed to have swept over the whole face of the country, and the inhabitants must have fallen before it. In the centre of this city we refer to rose abruptly a rock 20 or 30 feet high, upon the top of which stood a portion of the walls of what had once been an immense building. The outline of the building was still distinct, although only the northern angle with walls 15 or 18 feet long and 10 feet high were standing. These walk were constructed of stone, well quarried and well built. All the south end of the building seemed to have been burnt to cinders and to have sunk to a mere pile of rubbish. Even the rock on which it was built ap­peared to have been partially fused by the heat. Captain Walker spent some time in examining this interesting spot. He traced many of the streets and the outlines of the houses, but could find no other wall standing. As often as he had seen ruins of this character, he had never until this occasion discovered any of the imple­ments of the ancient people. Here he found a number of hand-mills, similar to those still used by the Pueblas and the Mexicans for grinding their corn. They were made of light porous rock, and con­sisted of two pieces about two feet long and ten inches wide—the one hollowed out, and the other made convex like a roller to fit the concavity. They were the only articles that had resisted the heat. No metals of any kind were found. Strewn all round might be seen numerous fragments of crockery, sometimes beautifully carved, at others painted. This, however, was not peculiar to this spot, as he had seen antique pottery in every part of the country, from San Juan to the Gila. Captain Walker continued his journey, and noticed several more ruins a little off his route next day; but he could not stop to examine them. On this side of the Colorado he has never seen any remains except of the present races. The Indians have no traditions relative to the ancient people once thickly settled in this region. They look with wonder upon these remains, hut know nothing of their origin. Captain Walker, who, we may remark, is a most intelligent and close ob­server, far superior to the generality of the old trappers, and with a wonderfully retentive memory, is of opinion that this basin, now so barren, was once a charming country, sustaining millions of people, and that its present desolation has been wrought by the action of volcanic fires.”

(To be continued.)