American Antiquities: Corroborative of the Book of Mormon (5 March 1859)

AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES,
CORROBORATIVE OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

(Continued from page 66.)

(From the Edinburgh Evening Courant, Oct. 16, 1848.)

“The papers received from the United States by the last mail contain several very curious and important matters deserving particular notice. Amongst these we notice— first, the pointed and remarkable account given, that at Durango, the capital of the province of that name, in Mexico, (say lat. 24 deg. 30 min., and long. 103 deg. 35 min. W.,) caverns have been discovered and entered, containing hundreds of thousands of mummies, similar to those of ancient Egypt. This is a most remarkable point and fact in the history of man, and the further development of these ancient remains will be awaited with impatience by ourselves and an inquiring public. In the meantime, the discovery clearly points out these remains to be of Egyptian or Phoenician extraction, or more properly of both. There are many reasons, from recent discoveries, to believe that the continent of America was known to the nations of the ancient world; and a nation who, like the Egyptian, circumnavigated Africa, as the Egyptians certainly did, may readily be supposed to have crossed the Atlantic and got to America. At any rate, if once they got to the southward, and clear of land, within the sphere of the trade wind, they had no alternative but to run before it to the western world. The Red Charibs of the Windward Islands, Grenada, and St. Vincent (now, we believe, extinct,) were most certainly, from their manner, customs, and religion, of the Phoenician and Carthagenian race. But, from the discovery above alluded to, and those some time ago made in Central America by Stephens, it would appear that all the western portion of the American continent had been discovered and peopled by Eastern Asiatic nations. It would exceed our limits to quote references to show this fact. We shall here simply remark that whoever looks at the able drawings in Stephens's book on Central America will perceive them to be covered with Egyptian hieroglyphics and Hamyarctic letters, such as those lately discovered in Southern Arabia, and at once perceive that the figures and lineaments are those of superior civilized Asiatic nations, in which portion of the world vast civilized empires were found in very ancient times, aa also in Egypt, one of the most ancient and powerful of the whole, and which, though strictly speaking an African power, yet her sway extended both in Africa and in Asia; and, above all, was, in the African portion, comprehended in what was called the Land of Cush or Ethiopia, in its early and most extended sense, including both Arabia and Africa, from the Red Sea to the banks of the Nile throughout its course.”

(From the National [Michigan] Democrat.)

“Upper Peninsula, National Mine.
“A. Kingsbury, Esq. Dear Sir, — You requested me to write you what success attended our labours in excavating the ancient works on which we were engaged when you were here; and, so far as time will permit, I will endeavour to comply with that request. After opening the shaft on which we were engaged, 18 feet deep, the loose rock in the bottom gave way and sank, leaving nothing but water to be seen at the bottom. We drained this out, and continued our excavations to the depth of 32 feet, where we found the loose dirt full of copper, one piece of which weighed 30 pounds. The opening at this depth is 31 inches wide, 19 inches of the vein being left standing next the head wall, and has been worked away 15 feet on the course of the vein. In either end of this opening is a sheet of pure copper; that in the east being two, and that in the west one-and-a-half inches thick. The lode here changes from the north to the south wall, and is 18 inches thick, bearing, in addition to the above- named sheet, a large amount of barrel-copper—i.e, small masses. This opening extends 18 feet deep, which, added to the 32 feet already named, makes the whole depth of the work 50 feet. No place in the country has ever been opened showing their operations to an equal extent; and, in the course of excavation, numerous hammers and a large quantity of timber have been taken out. The latter, though apparently sound, is so soft as to be readily crushed by the pressure of the hand. The timber consists principally of oak and ironwood, and in some instances is deeply charred, the coal having, when dried, all the consistence of recently-burned charcoal. Whether it will ignite I could not say, for I have not yet tried to re-light these long-extinguished fires, and the experiment remains to be tried when I have more leisure. The first of these works was opened at the Minnesota Mine in 1848, and from one of them was taken a mass of pure copper weighing over six tons, ‘pure as a penny, and bright as gold.’ This mass was 10½  feet long, and in  parts three feet wide. It had been raised some 12 feet by means of wedges and rollers, and bore unmistakeable evidences of years of toil in trying to detach sundry projections from its sides. Since 1848 numerous discoveries of ancient works have been made, till in length they are known as extending over more than 100 miles of the country from N.E. to S.W.; and the assurance of having them on a mineral tract is considered very good evidence of its being valuable. The tools used in these works consisted entirely, so far as we are able to judge, of bowlders of hard stone, weighing from two to 40 pounds, some with single, some with double grooves cut round them by which fasten a withe for a handle. They evidently heated the rock, and then applied water to soften it before working; and all this was accomplished by these simple means. When this was done it is impossible to determine; but conclusive evidence exists of its being a work of a very remote period. Trees of several hundred years’ growth are found extending their roots on the surface of an earth and soil that has required ages to accumulate over some of their deepest works. As yet no trace has been found of their authors—nothing to throw the remotest light on their origin. They evidently belong to a race and age passed away long before the inhabitants of Europe dreamed of the existence of a Western Continent.—I remain, sir, with much respect, very truly yours,    P. B. EASTMAN.”

(From the New Orleans Picayune.)

“About three weeks since, a gentleman, who had recently returned from Tehuantepec, placed in our hands a volume composed of a number of layers of parchment, bound together with brazen clasps, and presenting appearances of great antiquity. It was obtained from an Indian curate—there are many such in that part of Mexico—and the history of it, as related by himself is this:—He said that he had purchased it from a native trader, who once a-year was in the habit of visiting a city among the mountains towards the south, which is inhabited exclusively by Aztecs. The name of this city is Coaxchencingo, which, in the language of the tribe to which the curate belongs, signifies, ‘The mystery of the mountains.’ Within an inner apartment of the grand temple of Coaxchencingo are kept about fifty volumes similar in appearance to the one referred to, which, it is said by the priests, were preserved from the extensive collection of records known to have existed in Mexico at the time of the conquest, and which were destroyed by Cortez in the heat of his intemperate zeal against the paganism of the Aztecs. The volumes preserved at Coaxchencingo are regarded as holy things, and are only to be seen on days of great public rejoicing or solemnity. It was on an occasion of this kind that the Indian trader succeeded in abstracting one of them. This volume, which we have now before us, is filled with hieroglyphical characters, almost all of which are of course perfectly unintelligible to us. But one circumstance connected with it is of the highest importance, and tends to confirm the theory that the Aztecs are the descendants of a race which migrated to this continent from the eastern shores of Asia, about twenty centuries ago. It is remarkable that on one or two pages of the volume, immediately beneath the hieroglyphics, there are inscriptions in Greek characters, forming words in that language, but written backwards, in the Oriental style. On the first page these Greek inscriptions run thus (we give English characters for want of Greek):—'Notnap not sogol,’ which, reversed, reads, 'O logos ton panton,’—literally, ‘world of all,’ or ’of all things.’ It is to be presumed from this that the book is a history of the mysterious people among whom it was found; and, could it be thoroughly deciphered, it would no doubt thoroughly solve the problem of our aboriginal archaeology. On another page there is a picture of water, and under it is the word ‘sessalaht,’ which is evidently ‘thalasses,’ Greek for ‘the sea.’ A representation of a vessel full of men accompanies this, and conveys the impression that it refers to a voyage or emigration from beyond the sea. The existence of these Greek words in this volume is a very singular circumstance, and proves conclusively that it must have been the work of some nation from the old continent, which held sufficient communication with Greeks to learn the language. That it is Asiatic is proved by the fact of the reversed writing, which method is used by all the Oriental nations. A coincident fact with this one is the discovery lately made of a Hebrew volume, found in the possession of a western tribe of Indians; an account of which has already been given in almost all the newspapers, and will doubtless be remembered by our readers. To what nation the authors of this Aztec volume belonged is yet a mystery, though the facts would seem to indicate a Jewish origin; for although there are no Hebrew characters in the book, the known fact of the disappearance of the Ten Tribes, the many similarities between the customs, rites, and ceremonies of the Aztecs and those of the ancient Jews, and other circumstances of the same nature, lend plausibility to the theory of a Hebrew origin. The Elders and Priests among the Jews were well acquainted with Greek. In fact, it was the polite language of that era; and it is not surprising that, with a certain affectation of erudition, they should have made use of it in their writings. However, this is a point which we leave to those more learned than we are to decide. We may remark, nevertheless, en passant, that the physiognomy of the Aztec children, as described by the northern papers, is essentially Jewish. We understand that it is the intention of the proprietor of the strange volume referred to to submit it to the inspection of Professor Gliddon, whose hieroglyphic attainments may enable him to make some interesting discoveries in this new field of investigation.”

(To be continued.)