American Antiquities: Corroborative of the Book of Mormon (3 December 1859)

AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES,

CORROBORATIVE OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

(Continued from page 738.)

These remains lie upon the common lands of the village of Nohcacab, and their very presence was unknown until the opening of a road to Bolanchen disclosed them in the bosom of the wood. The ruins of Chichen, being situated on both sides of the great road which leads to Valladolid, one of the principal modern cities of Yucatan, and full in sight of all passers-by, are, in consequence, more generally known to the people of the country, and the name of this city is recorded in history as that of the first place in the interior when the Spaniards halted. Whether the town was then inhabited, ana in the full blaze of that splendour which the magnificent remains indicate, or whether it were already then deserted, is, however, unsettled; for the Spanish chronicler merely mentions the locality as a favourable and strong position for defence against the Indians, on account of the great buildings that were there. … Without attempting to go as far back as the first settlement of the red race on the continent of America, and to enter the regions of pure speculation, we may, however, trace its civilization back at least a thousand years before the Conquest. The Mexicans, it will be remembered, admitted that in their pyramidal structures they had imitated the earlier works of the Toltecs. This race is the earliest of which any knowledge can be derived from the traditions and picture-writings of the Mexicans. According to these, this people, constituting a powerful nation, arrived from a country somewhere to the north-east of Mexico, whence they emigrated, for some unknown cause, at the commencement of the sixth century of our era; and after about 104 years’ wandering through the intervening countries, made an irruption upon the great table-land and valley of Mexico, territories bearing, in the language of the country, the name of Anahuac. Having established an empire under a monarchical form of government, they ruled the country during four centuries, built large cities, and spread civilization around them. After the expiration of this period, they were smitten by pestilence and famine; their numbers dwindled; some portions of the population migrated southwards towards Yucatan and Guatemala; and in Anahuac they were superseded in power by other tribes coming from the same direction as they, and of whom the Aztecs or Mexicans of the time of the Spanish Conquest were the last. Each of these tribes, in its turn, seems to have adopted as much of the civilization of the Toltecs as was extant on its arrival; and as the remains in Mexico, though evidently of different dates, do not present characteristics of any distinct civilization, it is probable that the archetype, of which the remains throughout the whole of the southern part of North America are but slight modifications, has been that of the Toltecs, or of the people from whom they had borrowed it; that it is their architecture, their astronomical division of time, their mythology, and their religious observances and customs, which prevailed throughout these regions. It cannot, however, be maintained with any certainty, notwithstanding the records of the Toltec migration from the north-west, that the territories situated in that direction were the first seat of population and civilization on the American continent. There is, on the contrary, reason to believe that the population and civilization of Yucatan, Guatemala, and Chiapas had been anterior to those of Mexico; and that thence they have been diffused through the north, whence the populations have again returned southwards by one of those refluxes which are common in the early history of nations. That civilization has at one period extended far to the north-east of Mexico into the territories which at the period of the discovery of America by Columbus were inhabited by rude and savage tribes, modern research has sufficiently established. From the Gulf of Mexico to the southern shores of the great lakes in the United States, earthworks and fortifications have been traced entirely distinct from the works of the Indians, giving evidence of a state of civilization greatly surpassing theirs, yet proving much affinity between the two, and at the same time exhibiting features that show them to be links of the great chain which extends southward also. In the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, the Teocalli-shaped structures, of large dimensions, continue to form the leading feature. Further northward, however, in the region watered by the Ohio and its tributaries, though the ancient earthworks are still of considerable magnitude, and in numerous instances of the pyramidal form, terraced, and with a graded ascent to the top, yet a divergence from the system pursued in Mexico is visible in the greater prevalence of the conical-formed mound, as also in the existence of numerous enclosures formed by embankments of earth and stone. By their number, the regularity of their form, and the vastness of their dimensions, these embankments give an imposing idea of the number and capabilities of the people who raised them. In the State of Ohio alone, the number of tumuli raised by the hand of man is estimated at no less than 10,000, and the enclosures are rated at from between 1,000 to 1,500. Some of these are, of course, of minor dimensions, while others are of extraordinary magnitude. Enclosures of 100 or 200 acres are said not to be unfrequent, and works are occasionally found enclosing as many as 400 acres. On the Missouri, indeed, there is an enclosure embracing an area of 600 acres, while embankments varying in height from five to thirty feet, and enclosing areas of from one to fifty acres, are of common occurrence. However, the amount of labour expended on the works cannot always, we are told, be calculated according to the extent of the area enclosed; for a fortified hill in Highland County, Ohio, has one mile and five-eights of heavy embankments, which enclose an area of no more than forty acres. On the little Miami River, in Warren County, in the same State, are similar works, presenting upwards of four miles of embankment, enclosing little more than a hundred acres; and a group at the mouth of the Scioto present an aggregate of about twenty miles of embankment, while the extent of the space enclosed hardly amounts to two hundred acres. The mounds are likewise of various dimensions, some being only a few yards in diameter, and a few feet in height; while others—as, for instance, one at the mouth of Grave Creek, Virginia; another at Miamisburg, Ohio; and the truncated pyramid at Cahokia, Illinois—have respectively a perpendicular altitude of 70, 69, and 90 feet, and measure in circumference at the base respectively 1,000, 352, and 2,000 feet. The area on the truncated summit of the latter measures several acres, and that of Miamisburg is calculated to contain 311,353 cubic feet. At Selzerstown, Mississippi, there is another great mound, said to cover six acres of ground. With regard to these gigantic structures, an American writer observes—‘We have seen mounds which would require the labour of a thousand men employed on our canals, with all their mechanical aids and the improved implements of their labour, for months. We have more than once hesitated, in view of these prodigious mounds, whether it were not really a natural hill. But they are uniformly so placed in reference to the adjacent country, and their conformation is so unique and similar, that no eye hesitates long in referring them to the class of artificial erections.’