More Evidence to Establish the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon

MORE EVIDENCE TO ESTABLISH THE DIVINE AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

From the Edinburgh Evening Courant, October 16, 1848.

Discoveries in America.

“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 mean time 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 so 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 shew 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 linaments are those of superior civilized Asiatic nations, in which portion of the world vast civilised empires were found in very ancient times, as 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.

“In corroboration of what we have stated regarding America, in its western parts, being discovered and peopled from the Eastern world, we may state that we had lately the pleasure of conversing with a very intelligent gentleman, long resident in the Sandwich Islands (Hinololu), who states that it is not unusual for vessels from Japan to be driven by the western winds upon, or to be picked by the whaling ships off, these islands, and landed in them, he himself having been the means of relieving and sending back some of their crews to their own country through the Russian settlement at Kamskatscka. The prevalence of strong south-west winds from all the coasts of Eastern Asia beyond the northern tropic will just as certainly drive vessels, when blown off the coast, before them to the coast of America, as the trade wind on the Atlantic would carry vessels from Africa to America. But what is more important, and to the point, he told us that the natives of the Sandwich Islands are daily in the habit of rehearsing, in songs, the traditions of the exploits of their ancestors, and tracing these back through a period of 180 reigns or kings (at 12 years to a reign, this would give 2160 years); they describe them as issuing in swarms, by fleets, from the southern points of Eastern Asia, mentioning especially the Malay coast, and thence coming along by the southern points of Japan, giving the very names of the headlands as stated by the earliest Dutch navigators, till they gained the coast of America on the Oregon or Columbian territory; thence descend­ing the western coast of America into the tropical division thereof, they returned home through the islands in the North Pacific Ocean, giving to some of them the names as known at the present day. From this we perceive how America could be peopled from Asia, and also how Asiatic manners, and a people like Asiatics could be found in it. The Anglo-Saxon race having now got a firm footing and power in the more central portions of the American continent, may speedily prepare us for learning other important discoveries, which will go to connect the ancient inhabi­tants of the Old World with those of the New.

“Amongst the important discoveries made in California, coal has been found on the borders of the Bay of San Francisco. This will greatly facilitate the proposed steam communication between that port and China, to which latter country a good steamer may go from San Francisco in a little more than three weeks. It will also be of great service to the line of steamers determined on by the American Government, to run from Panama to the Columbia River. A short time also will, we doubt not, see a railroad made from the more western borders of the United States, as known before the peace with Mexico, across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific at San Francisco. That active officer, Colonel Fremont, has already set out on a journey to explore a route for the purpose, and should he find, as he most probably will find, a practicable passage through the Rocky Mountain chain, about the bead-waters of the Arkansas, which runs into the Mississippi, and the Green River, a great and head branch of the Colorada, which runs into the Gulph of California, or in lat. 41 deg. by the Platte or Kansas rivers, which run into the Missouri, then a commu­nication by steam on the eastern rivers and by rail to the Pacific, will speedily be effected. The head-waters of the Arkansas, the Kansas, the Platte, and the Colo­rado come very near to, in fact almost interlock with each other, and there is every probability that a railroad may be found practicable, keeping to the north of the Coloroda, and to the south of the connecting range, which runs from the Rocky Moun­tains to the Sierra Nevada, or, more properly speaking, the eastern wing of that chain, and running along by the foot of the most southern point of that last named chain, in about the lat. 34 30 N., and Ion. 117 30 W., and thence running N.W. into the Rio Joaquim, and along it to the Bay of San Francisco. This effected would complete a very rapid line of commercial communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and add prodigiously to the wealth, power, and influence of the United States. We are confident a few years will see such a communication com­pleted.”

The speculations of the learned have at last come to a focus. Stephens’s late dis­covery in Central America of Egyptian hieroglyphics, great numbers of which he has given in his drawings, and published in his able book of that curious region, and the still later discovery of many thousands of mummies in the caverns of Mexico, similar to those of Ancient Egypt, are evidences so pointed, that Ancient America must have been peopled from the highly civilized nations of Asia, that the learned are at last convinced of the fact. The unlearned, however, have got the start of the learned in this instance, for they found it out about nineteen years ago, through the medium of the Book of Mormon. Moroni, who lived over fourteen centuries ago, in closing up the history of his nation says, (page 580), “Now, behold, we have written this record, according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech?’ Joseph Smith has given us the his­tory of ancient America, translated from Egyptian hieroglyphics, showing that America was peopled by colonies from one of the most enlightened nations of Asia, even from Jerusalem, a nation of Israelites, who were well acquainted with Egyptian hieroglyphics, embalming mummies, &c.; for their forefathers had dwelt in Egypt upwards of 400 years, and at a period too, when the art of embalming was known— Jacob and his son Joseph both being embalmed. No wonder, then, that they should introduce these Egyptian arts into America. But the learned antiquarians will speculate on their new discoveries, and try to find some clue as to the origin of the ancient nations of that continent, while the unlearned will have them in derision, and laugh at their folly for not believing in the plain and pointed history contained in the Book of Mormon, and published years ago. Let them alone; they cannot make any discoveries but what will establish the divine authenticity of that excellent and most precious record.—Ed.