Yucatan

“Yucatan.—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 New York Sun, June 8th.

The writer of the above article on “Yucatan” is greatly mistaken. He says, “Yucatan is the grave of a great nation that has mysteriously passed away, and left behind no history." This is not so. The first great nation that anciently inhabited Yucatan, passed away about 2,440 years ago; but their prophets left a history, an abridgment of which has been translated into the English language, called the “Book of Ether,” and tens of thousands of copies have been published in the Book of Mormon, and circulated both in America and in England for many years. The last great nation that inhabited that country and passed away, have also left their history which was discovered, translated, and published in the English language nearly 20 years ago by Mr. Joseph Smith, who has since fallen a martyr to the truth, instead of being rewarded by man for having unfolded the ancient history of one half of our globe from the earliest ages after the flood. This seems to be the common lot of the benefactors of the human race. They live and die neglected, or are persecuted to death by their contemporaries, and their worth is not appreciated until they are gone, and not always then.

The writer acknowledges the discovery of “vast temples," "noble cities," and “stately palaces," embosomed in “every forest." He then refers to a confused tradition of the Indians, who say that their “forefathers—a ferocious and cannibal race delighting in human sacrifices,”—exterminated a whole people by “blood and fire." He supposes that this is “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.”

How correctly this Indian tradition agrees with the history given in the Book of Mormon. Mr. Mormon says, that in the 367th year after Christ, “the Lamanites” —the forefathers of the American Indians—“took possession of the city of Desolation,”—which was in Central America, near to or in Yucatan—“and this because their number did exceed the number of the Nephites”—the Nephites being the Nation who inhabited the cities of Yucatan.—“And they”—the Lamanites—“did also march forward against the city of Teancum, and did drive the inhabitants forth out of her, and did take many prisoners, both women and children, and did offer them up as sacrifices unto their idol gods." In the 375th year, large numbers of the Nephite women and children were taken prisoners, and were also sacrificed unto idols. (Book of Mormon, page 566 and 567.)

Mormon in one of his epistles to his son Moroni, shows their awful wickedness and cannibal-like dispositions. He says—

“The Lamanites have many prisoners which they took from the tower of Sherrizah; and there were men, women, and children. And the husbands and fathers of those women and children they have slain; and they feed the women upon the flesh of their husbands, and the children upon the flesh of their fathers; and no water, save a little, do they give unto them. And notwithstanding this great abomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue; and after they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts, because of the hardness of their hearts; and they do it for a token of bravery. O my beloved son, how can a people like this, that are without civilization: (and only a few years have passed away, and they were a civil and delightsome people;) but O my son, how can a people like this, whose delight is in so much abomination, how can we expect that God will stay his hand in judgment against us? Behold, my heart cries wo unto this people. Come out in judgment, O God, and hide their sins, and wickedness, and abominations from before thy face.”

In the 384th year, the occupants of Yucatan and Central America, having been driven from their great and magnificent cities, were pursued by the Lamanites to the hill Cumorah in the interior of the state of New York, where the whole nation perished in battle. During the protracted wars which resulted in the overthrow of a great nation, many hundreds of towns, villages, and cities were burned by the conquerors. Desolation and ruin marked the footsteps of the contending millions Though fourteen centuries have passed away, these historical facts are still recorded in the breast of the Indian. The cannibal acts of their forefathers—the extinguishing of a whole nation by “fire and blood,” and the offering of thousands of prisoners—women and children as sacrifices to idol gods—are events in Indian tradition not easily forgotten. Well might the conquering nation imprint upon the stately edifices of their fallen foe—“the blood-red impress of a human hand!” This truly seems to be a fit symbol of the terrific wars which had drenched that land in the blood of millions. Were it not for the faithful record of Mormon, written in Egyptian hieroglyphics, the history of Ancient America would have remained an untold mystery to all future generations, until the slumbering millions of that vast continent should burst their ancient tombs, and appear with all the assembled nations in judgment.