The Book of Mormon Confirmed (13 January 1898)

THE BOOK OF MORMON CONFIRMED.

From time to time there have appeared in the Star articles that confirm the Book of Mormon in many of its statements. The articles of this character extend through many volumes of this journal, and cannot be referred to readily. To present some of the principal items recorded in past issues in a more compact form we have decided to classify as many important facts as can be gleaned from these articles, as well as from other sources and publish them in a series of papers under the above heading.

The principal statements contained in the Book of Mormon concerning which there is a possibility of confirmation or corrobation in the annals of modern exploration and research are these:

1. That America was once peopled by a colony who went from Asia at the time of the confusion of tongues, when the inhabitants of the earth undertook to build the Tower of Babel; and that these colonists and their descendants flourished for a period of some sixteen or seventeen centuries, being a highly civilized race, but finally became extinct.

2. That America was again peopled, this time by a colony of the Hebrew race which came from Jerusalem 600 years B.C. That they observed the laws of Moses, had a record of the creation, the flood, etc.

3. That they too developed into a great and highly civilized common­wealth.

4. That they had a knowledge of the coming of Christ, and that He appeared unto them and taught them the Gospel.

5. That terrible convulsions and destruction of life and property took place at the time of Christ’s crucifixion.

COLONISTS FROM THE TOWER OF BABEL.

The Book of Mormon states that a man named Jared, and his brother, and their families, with some other men and their families, being led by the Lord, went from the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and crossed over to America in barges. There they multiplied and became a great nation, spreading over the land north­ward, or North America. Finally, about 600 years before Christ the nation became extinct through internal warfare. (See Book of Ether).

Josephus, the Jewish historian, speaking of the events at the time of the dispersion from the Tower of Babel says:

“After this they were dispersed abroad, on account of their languages, and went out by colonies everywhere; and each colony took possession of that land which they light upon, and unto which God led them; so that the whole continent was filled with them, both the inland and maritime countries. There were some also who passed over the sea in ships, and in­habited the islands: and some of those nations do still retain the denom­inations which were given them by their first founders; but some have lost them also; and some have only admitted certain changes in them, that they might be the more intelligible to the inhabitants; and they were the Greeks who became the authors of such mutations; for when, in after ages, they grow potent, they claimed to themselves the glory of antiquity,—giving names to the nations that sounded well (in Greek) that they might be better understood among themselves; and setting agreeable forms of government over them, as if they were a people derived from themselves.”—Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, Chapter 5.

This account of course does not state specifically that any colony went to America, but it says that colonies went everywhere and that some of the people went in ships to distant lands, and to places where God led them.

That two distinct races of civilized beings inhabited ancient America is to by a number of archaeologists and explorers. A correspondent to the St. Louis (Missouri) Globe Democrat writing from Tombstone, Arizona, in 1895, says:

‘‘The remarkable picture rocks and boulders, with strange symbols upon them, left by the pre-historic races of Arizona, have been the cause of much discussion among those who have seen them as to who these ancient hieroglyphic-makers were. These rock records may be divided into three different kinds, which, it is thought, were made by two different races. The first, or very ancient race, left records on rocks, in some instances of symbols only, and in other instances of pictures and symbols combined. The later race, which came after the first race had vanished, made only crude representations of animals, birds or reptiles, not using symbols or combinations of lines.

“The age of the most ancient pictographs and hieroglyphics can only be conjectured, but all give certain indications that they are many centuries old, and the difference between the ancient and the later race leads the observer to believe that the older hieroglyphics were made by a people far superior to those who came after them, and who left no record in symbols, as we have said with the exception of crude representations of animals and reptiles.

“In many instances it is quite evident that the same rock or cliff has been used by the two different races to put their markings upon, the later or inferior race often making their pictographs over or across the hiero­glyphic writings of the first race. Of the superiority of the first people who left their writings on the rocks or boulders found in the ancient mounds, ruins, and graves there can be no doubt, for their writings show order and a well defined design in symbols which were evidently intended to convey their history to others, and it is quite probable that those who made the great mounds, houses, and canals were the authors of those writings. It may be truthfully asserted that the cliff-dwellers of the rock houses in the deep canyons of the mountains were of the same race as the mound builders of the valleys, for exactly the same class of hieroglyphics found on boulders from the ancient ruins of the valleys are found on the rocks near the houses of the cliff-dwellers.

“If this superior race was so distinctive from all other ancient races of Arizona in their work—being so far advanced as to solve what would be called, even at the present day, difficult engineering problems; to dig great canals many miles in length, the remains of which can be seen at the present time, and to bring them to such perfection for irrigating purposes; to build such great houses and to live in cities—may it not have been, as many who have studied this subject now contend, that this superior race were white people instead of a copper-colored race, as has generally been supposed?

“The hieroglyphics of the more ancient race are often found on sheltered rocks on the slopes of the mountains leading up from the valleys. Generally protected from the elements by overhanging cliffs, the dry climate has kept the writings from wearing away, and being in most instances picked into rocks which have a black, glistening surface, but of a lighter color underneath, the contrast is very noticeable, and when in prominent places these hieroglyphics can be seen several hundred feet away.”

Chambers’ Encyclopaedia, under the subject heading “Nicaragua” con­tains this statement:

“Nicaragua, like the states north of it, was a centre of Aztec civilization; but the Aztecs were preceded by another race, likewise civilized, who have left stone sculptures and monumental remains.”

The following is from a paper “On the Antiquities of the Old and the New World,” read by E. Getty, Esq., before the Natural History and Philosophical Society of Belfast, February, 1850; being a Review of Messrs. Squier and Davis’s work on “The Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley:”

“The monuments of which it treats consist almost entirely of extensive earthworks and hill fortifications, bearing indubitable proofs of being the works of a very remote age and of a people of whom no trace is now sup­posed to be found in the present inhabitants of the New World, but who had attained a considerable advanced state of civilization.”

That the origin of the extinct race which formerly inhabited North America is believed by students of American antiquity to date back to the time of the building of the Tower of Babel the following gives evidence:

“One of the arts known to the builders of Babel was that of brick­making. 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 ankle or wrist. … On the shores of the Mississippi, some miles below Lake Pekin, 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.”—Priest’s American Antiquities, 1833).

The following is from Rev. D. Lowry’s Reply to Official Inquiries res­pecting the Aborigines of America, written in 1848, and given in School­craft’s “Ethnological Researches,” &c., vol. iii., published in 1853.

“In view of the best light and information which I have been able to collect on the subject, my opinion is that the earliest inhabitants of America were the descendants of Ham, the youngest son of Noah; and that the first settlement was made shortly after the confusion of tongues at the building of the Tower of Babel. Moses tells us that about that period ‘the Lord scattered the people abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ (Gen. 2:8, 9). America, then, according to this portion of sacred history, was at that time re-occupied by man; for the writer could not have meant by ‘all the earth’ only about one-half of it. It may be thought that the mechanic arts and maritime skill were, at that age of the world, too much in their infancy to admit of the emigration supposed. I see no difficulty on this ground. The ark had recently been built, which outlived a storm of forty days. In view of such a pattern, there was certainly mechanical genius enough to construct a ship that would be able to contend with the waves of a summer sea for a few weeks or months. The Hamites were a seafaring people, and, it is believed, understood the use of the compass in traversing the pathless deep. The remains of cities and various other monuments, evidently the work of the primitive race of the country, show no want of intellect or mechanical skill.”

Professor T.H. Lewis, an archaeologist of St. Paul, Minnesota, (U.S.A.), who, a few years since, made some explorations among the mounds and earthworks of North Dakota, is of the opinion that there were two separate races in Ancient America. He derived this opinion from examining mounds and their contents, which are found in that locality and in many other parts of North America. (Correspondent to Denver News, 1890.)

Professor F. W. Putnam, in an article in the Century Magazine for March, 1890, on “Prehistoric Remains in the Ohio Valley,” advocates his belief, based upon discoveries and observations in ancient burying grounds, that two races have inhabited America in olden times, and that one originated from the north and the other from the south. He further states his con­clusion that the broad-headed race from the south spread out “towards the east and north-east, while the long, or narrow-headed race of the north has sent its branches southward down both coasts, and towards the inte­rior by many lines from the north as well as from the east and west. The two races have passed each other here and there. In other places they have met, and probably nowhere is there more marked evidence of this meeting than in the Ohio Valley, where have been found burial-places and sepulchral mounds of different kinds and of different times.”

The Book of Mormon makes it clear that the Jaredites occupied that part of the country known as North America, (See Book of Omni, 1:23), while the race that succeeded them originated in South America, but spread towards the north. (See Book of Alma, 22:30–34).

A correspondent writing to the New York Herald from San Diego, California, under date of December 10, 1849, says:

“Unlike anything heretofore discovered on this continent, or indeed in the whole world, we here have presented to our views, as we now firmly believe, the unbroken history of a people that existed not only for a great length of time since the building of the Egyptian pyramids, but contem­porary with them, and, what is more wonderful still, far back and yet still farther into the mazes of antiquity.”

In Harper’s Weekly for October, 1897, (published in New York), is an article by Henry C. Walsh, entitled “Copan: a City of the Dead.” In it he says:

“During the progress of the excavations made by the last Peabody expedition Mr. Gordon discovered a stone pavement at the southern end of the great plaza. By digging downward he came to the walls and chambers of a building more ancient than and of a different character from those now above the surface. Here were found tablets inscribed with characters varying materially from those on the known monuments. In the adjoining structures above ground were found blocks of stone, used in the construction, which had evidently been cut from older sculptures. All this points to successive periods of occupation, of which there are other evidences; but for the present such questions must be left for more extended exploration and study to determine. If the structures now above ground are so ancient as to be lost to the memory of man, what must be the age of those that in all probability had been buried and lost to sight when the former were constructed?”

[To be continued.]