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THE DIVINITY OF 
 
 THE BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 PROVEN BY ARCH/EOLOOY 
 
 A series of papers formerly published 
 in the "Arena" Department of the 
 Autumn Leaves, jl Jt J* 
 
 BY LOUISE PALFREY 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ZION'S RELIGIOLITERARY SOCIEH 
 
 AT THE HERALD PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 LAMONl, IOWA 
 
i II>IW\InV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In submitting this little volume to the public, it is not so much 
 with the thought of presenting new discoveries and new theories, 
 as it is that we may take the discoveries already made, and 
 theories already formed, and bring them together into one 
 volume in convenient form for the use of the increasing number 
 of students of this interesting subject of ever growing impor- 
 tance. 
 
 These papers were originally prepared to be used as required 
 readings in connection with the study of the Book of Mormon in 
 Religio locals and were published serially in the "Arena" 
 department of Autumn Leaves. They are the result of a num- 
 ber of years of careful study and research of the best authors 
 and writers of American Archaeology, many of whose works are 
 now out of print, and hence out of reach of a large part of 
 would-be students. The author of this volume has collected the 
 best from such sources and made application of the same in 
 proof of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, in such manner as 
 to make it a hand-book of ready reference upon this subject. 
 
 It is confidently believed that The Divinity of the Book of Mormon 
 Proven by Archaeology will prove a source of pleasure, as well as a 
 means of great helpfulness, to the Religians and all investiga- 
 tors of American Antiquities as related to the latter-day work. 
 
 Grateful acknowledgment is here made to the author, Sister 
 Louise Palfrey, for the gift of the fruit of her labor, and to all 
 others who have rendered assistance in other ways. 
 
 The Publishers. 
 
I ?! /' 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 FIRST PAPER. 
 WHAT CIVILIZATION IS. 
 
 In our effort to ascertain if civilization existed on 
 the American continent previously to the civilization 
 introduced since the discovery, we will remeqaber 
 that centuries have elapsed with their destructive 
 forces, and expect that the evidences left us by which 
 we are to judge are very scarce. It is necessary that 
 we understand what civilization is, what the signs are 
 that betoken it, that we may perceive the significance 
 in the traces of an ancient people, and gain from 
 their mute testimony some idea of the degree of 
 advancement to which the people rose. We must 
 know the limitations of the savage before we are able 
 to appreciate the work that bespeaks the civilized 
 man. 
 
 The savage has few wants beyond the animal. His 
 aspirations do not go higher than to desire good 
 hunting-grounds and well -watered forests where 
 nature will spontaneously furnish him enough to 
 appease his appetite. If he finds enough to eat and 
 drink he is happy. He lives principally upon what 
 wild nature produces without any effort of his own. 
 The savage is an idler. He does not cultivate or 
 develop. The resources of nature are wasted with 
 him. Sealed are the possibilities of existence to him. 
 He does not spin or weave; he does not till the soil, 
 work the mines, quarry the rock, or convert the 
 
6 BOOK OF MORMON . 
 
 forest trees into building material. Hence, we find 
 after the savage, no ruins of buildings ; no relics of 
 manufactories ; no traces of orchards and mines ; no 
 evidence of art, science, or culture; no signs of 
 books, schools, or churches. God created man, gave 
 him dominion over the earth, and told him to subdue 
 it. The savage does not do this. He is at the mercy 
 of the forces around him. He does not know how to 
 become master of the situation and overcome the 
 difficulties he meets. As has been said, he is a 
 "pitiable creature" indeed. **He is exposed unpro- 
 tected to the blasts of winter and the heats of sum- 
 mer. A great terror sits upon his soul; for every 
 manifestation of nature — the storm, the wind, the 
 thunder, the lightning, the cold, the heat — all are 
 threatening and dangerous demons. The seasons 
 bring him neither seed-time nor harvest. . . . He is 
 powerless and miserable in the midst of plenty." 
 
 Leaving savagery, there are degrees of civilization. 
 Man's first attention is necessarily directed to over- 
 coming the wilderness, converting the forest into 
 homes, and procuring the material comforts of life. 
 **Every step towards civilization is a step of conquest 
 over nature." As man advances in the scale of 
 ciyiHzation his wants increase; his longings reach 
 out and above material needs. The common indus- 
 tries of fife are elevated from mere drudgery to 
 science. In agriculture, for instance, the quality of 
 the soil is studied, and how to improve it, what 
 grow in it, how to get the best results from it. If the 
 natural water-supply be insufficient, irrigation turns 
 vast acres into fruitful fields. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 7 
 
 The material needs supplied, the higher instincts of 
 man assert themselves. He begins to cultivate the 
 beautiful. He is no longer satisfied with a home that 
 will protect him from the weather and afford him bare 
 comfort. He wants a home fair for the eye to look 
 upon, and architecture, carving, and painting blossom 
 into life. There comes the desire for greater knowl- 
 edge, to know what is in the heavens above and the 
 earth beneath ; to know what other men think about 
 the problems of Hfe; to know how other men feel, 
 and what their experiences are. Schools are bom, 
 philosophy is delved into, astronomy is developed, 
 books are written. "The thoughts travel into a 
 nobler region than that of the senses; and the appli- 
 ances of art are made to minister to the demands of 
 an elegant taste and a higher moral culture." 
 
 Civilization reaches its higher degrees when 
 humanity, the sense of brotherhood, the responsi- 
 bility for the welfare and elevation of the fellow 
 creature is felt, and laws, systems, institutions, and 
 means are devised of protecting, enlightening, and 
 making man happy. Superstition fades before the 
 permeating light of higher reason and truer faith. 
 Idol -worship and the multifarious gods of mytholog- 
 ical traditions are supplanted by monotheism, belief 
 in the one true God, creator of heaven and earth, who 
 rewards the good and punishes the wicked. Egypt, 
 Greece, and Rome were the most highly civilized 
 nations of historic antiquity; but how far short they 
 fell we may judge when we learn that even the Greeks 
 and the Romans had no conception of that which we 
 call sin. Geikie says: "To the Greeks the word 
 
8 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 'humanity,* as a term for the wide brotherhood of 
 all races, was unknown." In considering the forces 
 that mould civilization, it is impossible to pursue the 
 inquiry independently of the effect that religion has 
 upon it, or without investigating the quality of the reli- 
 gion, so close is the relationship between man's works 
 and his motives and ideals. Guizot deiSnes civilization 
 to be **the development of human society and that of 
 man, himself; on one hand, political and social 
 development; on the other, internal and moral 
 development." The religion of a nation has ever 
 been the test of the genius of its civilization. We 
 find, in the course of history, that the refinement of 
 man's nature has been in proportion as his religious 
 ideas were spiritual and based upon truth, while the 
 heights to which nations have risen compare as the 
 degrees to which they approached Christian concep- 
 tions in their ethics and practice. 
 
 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF MORMON. 
 
 Did civilization exist on this continent in ancient 
 times? To those who have informed themselves of 
 the results of research and discovery of later years, 
 this question will seem very behind the times. Nev- 
 ertheless, the reading public, generally, is woefully 
 ignorant on the subject; and many of the makers of 
 books, even so pretentious as professing historians, 
 are not likely to enlighten the public by their inade- 
 quate or unreliable works. The higher authorities, 
 however, such historians, for instance, as Bancroft 
 and Prescott; such archaeologists as Baldwin and 
 Short; such travelers and explorers as Charnay, 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 9 
 
 Stephens, or Squier declare that there did exist a 
 civilization here long before Columbus opened the 
 gate of the Western World to the importation of 
 European culture. As to how high that ancient 
 civilization attained, authorities differ. They have 
 no guide to show them beyond the relics and ruins 
 they have found. Eastern civilization of prehistoric 
 times would be as undeterminable to-day were the 
 facts dependent, only, on such evidences as anti- 
 quarians have been able to find. 
 
 The following is from an eassay in a current 
 periodical : *'In the first quarter of this century there 
 were writers who did not hesitate to boldly deny the 
 authenticity of the biblical account of the origin of 
 Babylon, and to declare that it was impossible such 
 a city should have existed in very ancient times, 
 from the fact that it had passed so completely out of 
 mind that no one could positively assert where it 
 stood. Nineveh was only a name; even the site of 
 the city was in dispute; there were writers who 
 claimed that the name was only another designation 
 of Babylon." " Then the essay goes on to state that 
 "not until excavations had been made in the great 
 mound of Nimrod was it plain that one of the earliest 
 centers of population had been discovered;" and 
 later discoveries have revealed the fact of a conquer- 
 ing nation and two cities, which are recognized in the 
 Old Testament history, and thereby identified. Sup- 
 pose, on the other hand, these discoveries being 
 made, there were no Bible to throw Hght on them, 
 how much would science have ventured to conclude 
 about the history and civilization of those ancient 
 
10 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 people? How should we have known what cities 
 those ruins were the remains of ; and while certain 
 symbols indicated a conquering nation, what should 
 we know about the circumstances of that ancient 
 conquest? There are the ruins of an ancient nation, 
 of ancient cities — that is all we should know about it. 
 "The most valuable discoveries in antiquity must 
 appeal to the Bible for interpretation," says Dr. 
 Mcllvaine. * 
 
 When we come to the remote past of this "Western 
 World, without an inspired guide-book, we are in 
 exactly the same position as we should be concerning 
 the dim morning of the Eastern World were it not for 
 the Bible. We could only gaze upon the wonderful 
 ruins that have been found upon this continent, and 
 wonder. The world believes that the ancient history 
 of America is in this situation ; that there is nothing 
 to throw any Hght upon its pages beyond the remains, 
 themselves. The writer whom we have before quoted 
 expresses the general idea when he says: ** Just as 
 we now wander among the mysterious remains of the 
 race which once possessed all this land, and pausing 
 beneath some lofty mound, crested with sturdy oaks, 
 which have stood for centuries and are now nourished 
 with the decayed materials of a former generation; 
 or, measuring the exact angles and regular outlines 
 of some vast system of warlike defense, for which 
 the traditions of no race now known among us have 
 the least explanation, are deeply impressed with the 
 evidence that we are constantly walking over the 
 
 * See Preface to Delafield's "Antiquities of America." 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 11 
 
 graves of an immense population, and pained with a 
 sense of utter darkness, as to everything connected 
 with them, except that they bequeathed to posterity 
 those existing and confounding traces of their exist- 
 ence ; so precisely should we be situated, with regard 
 to all the human race, and all the mightiest changes 
 in the surface of the globe, were we . . . destitute 
 of all that history for which we are exclusively 
 indebted to the Old Testament Scriptures."^ 
 
 WhUe the Bible has done such service for the 
 science of antiquity on the one hand, on the other 
 hand the ruins and relics of antiquity have rendered 
 great service to the Bible, in return, by removing 
 doubt concerning its truthfulness, and disarming the 
 skeptic and critic of their weapons against it. To 
 quote Dr. Mcllvaine again: "But exceedingly insig- 
 nificant as are all resources for the earhest history of 
 the world independently of the Bible, they may be 
 of great consequence in connection with the Bible. 
 They may add no facts to what it contains; but 
 they may contradict or confirm what it contains. A 
 single line of inscription upon a Theban tomb; a 
 bone dug from the depths of the earth ; a stratum of 
 rock, or rubbish, discovered in the interior of a 
 mountain, may add very little to our knowledge of 
 facts, illustrating the history of the globe; but it will 
 become of great importance, if it conflict, or harmo- 
 nize, with any statements which Moses, professing to 
 write under divine inspiration has recorded."^ 
 
 If a book were presented to us claiming to be an 
 
 * See Preface to Delafield's "Antiquities of America." 
 
12 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 inspired record of the ancient people of America, 
 might it not be subjected to the same test as the 
 Bible, and would not the results of investigation be 
 entitled to the same rights, i, e., to speak for or 
 against the book, whether it were true, or false, 
 according as they verified or contradicted its asser- 
 tions? We have such a book in the Book of Mor- 
 mon, and it will be our endeavor, in this series of 
 papers, to help our young readers and students to an 
 acquaintance with the discoveries that explorers 
 have made in America, and the facts that scholars 
 have gained by delving into the traditions and 
 records of the native races. We live in a day more 
 eminently scientific than any period of the world's 
 history before, and it is not enough that we have 
 faith and convictions, if we would be as useful as we 
 might be. There never was a time when it was so 
 necessary to be broadly versed, and able, on every 
 side, to give a reason for the hope we have. It is 
 also a day of many and varied ideas and opinions, 
 and we need to know facts for ourselves, and not be 
 dependent upon others' version or interpretation of 
 them. While we shall, in these papers, that we may 
 be more fully posted, notice the theories of scientific 
 men, occasionally, it is our purpose to direct atten- 
 tion chiefly to the original material. We desire to 
 learn, rather, what science has found, than what 
 scientific speculation thinks about its findings; to 
 be independent in our investigations; to compare, 
 weigh, and measure for ourselves the significance of 
 archaeological evidences that have accumulated. It 
 is not presumed to make this series an exhaustive 
 
AND ARCILEOLOGY. 13 
 
 review or treatise, at all. It is only hoped that it 
 may stimulate in our young people interest in the 
 scientific relations of the Book of Mormon, and serve 
 as an introduction to the archseological phases of 
 study in connection with this record. To present, 
 in systematic manner, general information on this 
 line for the general reader ; to cause closer attention 
 to be given to discoveries that are being made right 
 along in American antiquities; to make such devel- 
 opments appear in more intelligent and useful light, 
 sums up the aim of these papers. 
 
SECOND PAPER. 
 
 DATE OF ARCH^OLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE 
 ANCIENT CIVILIZATION OF AMERICA. 
 
 All that we have learned of the remote past of this 
 continent has come to light in comparatively recent 
 times. **One hundred years ago,'* says Donnelly, 
 "the world knew nothing ... of the marvelous civ- 
 ilization revealed in the remains of Yucatan, Mexico, 
 and Peru." ^ *'The publication of the valuable works 
 of Squier and Davis," says Mr. Short, and '*of Dr. 
 Lapham and those of Mr. Squier alone, in which the 
 remains of those regions are described, was like a 
 revelation which brought to light the wonders of ar 
 entombed civilization." * How recently this informa- 
 tion has been given to the world the reader must 
 know. All these works have come to the public since 
 1830. 
 
 Europeans used to say, with a superior air, that 
 America had no past. The Indian warriors of our 
 forests excited some curiosity, as to who they were, 
 and whence they came; but being unable to solve the 
 problem, it was either put down as an impenetrable 
 mystery, or the Indians were believed to be merely 
 natives of the country. The stimulated activity in 
 scientific investigation in the latter part of the cen> 
 tury just passed revealed important discoveries in 
 many parts of the world, and as for America, has 
 
 •Atlantis, p. 480. 
 
 •North Americans of Antiquity, pp, 27, 28. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 15 
 
 proven that it has a history that even vies with the 
 antiquity of the hoary nations of the East. The fame 
 and possibilities of American antiquities have spread 
 among the scholars of the world, and European scien- 
 tific societies send delegates to explore our forests. 
 
 REGIONS EXPLORED AND REGIONS UNEXPLORED. 
 
 But notwithstanding so much has come to light, 
 there are still wide fields for the work of exploration. 
 Speaking of the great sections in which are Icrcated 
 important remains of the ancient civilization, Baldwin 
 says: "These regions have all been explored to 
 some extent," but "not completely."^ He further 
 says: "To understand the situation and historic 
 significance of the more important antiquities in 
 Southern Mexico and Central America, we must keep 
 in view their situation relative to the great unex- 
 plored forests to which attention has been called. 
 Examine carefully any good map of Mexico and 
 Central America, and consider well that the ruins 
 already explored or visited are wholly in the northern 
 half of Yucatan, or far away from this region, at the 
 south, beyond the great wilderness, or in the south- 
 ern edge of it."* "To understand the situation of 
 most of the old ruins in Central America, one must 
 know something of the wild condition of the country. 
 Mr. Squier says : *By far the greater proportion 
 the country is in its primeval state, and coverec Nvith 
 dense, tangled, and almost impenetrable forests, ren- 
 
 • Ancient America, p. 14* 
 
 * Ibid., p. 103. 
 
16 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 dering fruitless all attempts at systematic investiga- 
 tion. There are vast tracts untrodden by human 
 feet, or traversed only by Indians who have a 
 superstitious reverence for the moss -covered and 
 crumbling monuments hidden in the depths of the 
 wilderness. . . . For these, and other reasons, it will 
 be long before the treasures of the past, in Central 
 America, can become fully known.' " ^ Even in the 
 region of Lake Titicaca, in South America, generality 
 recognized to be the starting point of the ancient civ- 
 ilization of that continent, it is said, '*The antiquities 
 on the islands and shores of this lake need to be more 
 completely explored and described."' 
 
 Since the writers quoted made these statements, 
 there have been practically no new fields opened, so 
 that the territorial range of our knowledge is not 
 more extended. True, discoveries are being made 
 right along, but they are mostly in the same regions 
 traversed by the famous travelers and explorers 
 mentioned. A map of North and South America, 
 made for the purpose, shows large patches of solid 
 black, indicating regions that have not yet been 
 explored, and even in the vicinities believed to be 
 centers of the ancient civilization, unexplored parts 
 are marked. It was remarked by a writer, recently, 
 in one of the current periodicals of the day: **It is a 
 singular fact that, in spite of the diligence of explor- 
 ers, large tracts of the earth's surface are quite 
 unknown to the civilized world. • • • In South 
 
 ■Ibid., p. 94. 
 •Ibid., p. 231. 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 17 
 
 America the head waters of the Orinoco, the fabled 
 home of El Dorado, are as mysterious now as when 
 the Spaniards first heard the tradition of the * Gilded 
 Man.' " The same writer goes on to state that there 
 is a great territory to the north of Hudson's Bay, on 
 our own continent of North America, concerning 
 which nothing is known, and that the western and 
 southern shores are none too well known, for the 
 snows of winter, the dense forests, undergrowth and 
 marshes of summer, have thus far baffled all attempts 
 at exploration. Henry M. Stanley marks it out as a 
 task for the twentieth century to unlock the secrets 
 of the world's unexplored regions, and what revela- 
 tions may not America yet reveal? 
 
 EXTENT OF THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION AND CHAR- 
 ACTER OP THE REMAINS. 
 
 Civilization thrived in both North and South 
 America in ancient times. In South America, so far 
 as exploration has gone, remains are found on the 
 west side, reaching from Chili northward to the first 
 and second degrees of latitude. In North America 
 ruins are scattered over all Central America, Mexico, 
 and the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.*^ 
 
 All authorities agree that these ancient people were 
 very numerous. Short says: **It is a question 
 whether the antiquarian is more surprised at the 
 greatness of their number than in many instances 
 at the immensity of their proportion."® Charnay 
 
 ^ Ancient American, p. 14. 
 
 » North Americans of Antiquity, p. 27. 
 
18 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 quotes that in Mexico and Central America **the 
 population was so dense as to cause the soil to 
 be cultivated on the highest mountains."^ Often, as 
 he goes along, describing the ruins he found on his 
 trip of exploration, Charnay pauses to comment that 
 the population must have been **dense," or to quote 
 from other writers, * 'There is no doubt that this 
 region has been inhabited by a cultured and mighty 
 nation." ^ ^ In South America it was the same. There 
 are **not half as many people now,'* says Baldwin, in 
 the region comprising Peru, as there was in the time 
 of the Incas,^^ while in the territory of tlie United 
 States, "The entire valley region of the Missouri, 
 Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers, with that of their 
 affluents, was occupied by this remarkable people- 
 presenting us with a parallel to the ancient civiliza- 
 tion which flourished in the earliest times on the 
 watercourses of the Old World." ^^ 
 
 In Mexico, Central America, and South America 
 the remains are represented by ruins of buildings, 
 temples, and cities; but in the Ur-ited States, in the 
 valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries, no ruins 
 of buildings are found. The remains that represent 
 the ancients in the valleys mentioned of the United 
 States are elevated earthworks, of varying shapes 
 and sizes — '*mounds," they are commonly called. 
 Not having any clew as to who the ancient builders 
 were, the historian of to-day calls them * 'Mound - 
 
 •Ancient Cities of the New World, p. £ 
 10 Ibid., pp. 206, 221, and other places. 
 *' Ancient America, p. 276. 
 12 North Americans of Antiqity, p. 27. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 19 
 
 builders," after the mounds they left. In the 
 northern part of the republic of Mexico; in our 
 territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and the States 
 of Colorado and Utah, **ruins of great buildings" are 
 found, but of a style of architecture different from 
 the other regions mentioned, and very peculiar in 
 themselves. The ruins are now inhabited by Indians 
 called Village Indians, or Pueblos, sometimes called 
 '* Cliff -dwellers," the term being descriptive of the 
 strange edifices inhabited by these people, but which 
 were built by a people before them. The grandest 
 ruins are found at the south, in Mexico, and, more 
 especially, in Central America, also in the previously 
 mentioned region of South America. 
 
 WHO WERE THE ANCIENTS OP AMERICA? 
 
 "Who were those ancient people — ^were they ances- 
 tors of the wild Indian, do archaeologists say? It is a 
 profound mystery to the science of the world, but 
 leading authorities do not believe that those ancient 
 people were the ancestors of the Indian tribes of 
 to-day. Baldwin says, "There is no trace or proba- 
 bility of any direct relationship."^^ 
 
 "No savage tribe found here by Europeans could 
 have undertaken such constructions." "To make 
 such works possible under any circumstances there 
 must be settled life, with its accumulations and 
 intelligently organized industry. Fixed habits of 
 useful work, directed by intelligence, are what bar- 
 barous tribes lack most of all." "These barbarous 
 
 *• Ancient America, p. 60. 
 
20 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 Indians gave no sign of being capable of the system- 
 atic application to useful industry which promotes 
 intelUgence, elevates the conditions of life, accumu- 
 lates wealth, and undertakes great works." ^* 
 
 Professor Baldwin further says: ''Some inquirers, 
 not always without hesitation, suggest that the 
 Indians inhabiting the United States two hundred 
 years ago were degenerate descendants of the 
 Mound -builders. The history of the world shows 
 that civiHzed communities may lose their enlighten- 
 ment, and sink to a condition of barbarism; but the 
 degraded descendants of civilized people usually 
 retain traditional recollections of their ancsstors, or 
 some traces of the lost civilization, perceptible in 
 their customs and legendary lore. The barbarism 
 of the wild Indians of North America had nothing 
 of the kind. It was original barbarism. There was 
 nothing to indicate that either the Indians inhabiting 
 our part of the continent, or their ancestors near or 
 remote, had ever been ci-vilized, even to the extent of 
 becoming capable of seir^led life and organized indus- 
 try."i« 
 
 Short, also, declares that the ancient civilized peo- 
 ple of America could not have been ancestors of the 
 wild Indian. "Only under the fostering care of the 
 white man has he shown any improvement, and thai- 
 has been of such an uncertain character as to amount 
 to proof of his incapability for self -civilization."^* 
 
 1* Ibid., pp. 33, 34. 
 "Ibid, pp.58, 59. 
 *«Nortli Americans of Antiquity, p. 22. 
 
THIRD PAPER. 
 THE CHICHIMECS. 
 
 In our reading concerning the ancient history of 
 America, we find frequent mention of a race called 
 Chichimecs. The people that have inhabited America 
 previously to our era are divided into three classes; 
 viz., the civilized, the semi- civilized, and the savage. 
 The civihzed class belonged to the oldest period. 
 The period of the semi- civilized nations followed. 
 They were flourishing in Mexico, Central America, 
 and South America when Columbus discovered this 
 land. Our modern historians call those nations — of 
 Mexico, the Aztecs, and the people immediately 
 before them, the Toltecs; of Central America, the 
 Mayas, and of South America, the Incas, or Peru- 
 vians. 
 
 The Chichimecs belonged to the savage class, or 
 the wild Indian. "We recognize them as no other than 
 the Indian we know ; the Indian whom the discoverers 
 found wandering through our forests. They were 
 scattered out in the country around the semi -civilized 
 nations of Mexico, Central America, and Peru. The 
 traditions of these nations show that the Chichimecs 
 lived and were the tormentors of the civilized nations 
 as far back as the traditions go. 
 
 Baldwin says: "This term Chichimecs appears to 
 have been the generic appellation for all uncivilized 
 aborigines."* They are spoken of as a numerous 
 
 » Ancient America, p. 198. 
 
22 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 and powerful people, and always as fierce and 
 savage. Bancroft tells us that they were mostly 
 "dependent on the chase for their subsistence."^ 
 
 Baldwin was quoted in a former paper as saying 
 that the Indians are ''original barbarians." The 
 Toltec traditions spoke of the Chichimecs as being 
 their neighbors from their earliest history. Short 
 says: *'In the Toltec traditions we read of the 
 Chichimecs being their neighbors in Hue hue Tlapa- 
 lan."3 Hue hue Tlapalan, in the native traditions, 
 signifies the starting point of the national history. 
 The Chichimecs are further represented "as having 
 pursued and annoyed the Toltecs, to have followed 
 them in their wanderings."* They were the torment- 
 ors of the civilized nations. We shall find that the 
 native records and traditions show that the Chichi- 
 mecs finally succeeded in overthrowing the civilized 
 nation. Compare the description and history of the 
 Chi3himecs with the Book of Mormon account of the 
 Lamanites, as we go along, and see if you can come 
 to any other conclusion than that they were the same 
 people. 
 
 WHENCE OUR ARCH^OLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE 
 ANCIENT AMERICANS IS DERIVED. 
 
 Before we pursue our studies further, it may make 
 the subject more comprehensive to know how science 
 
 •See Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 1, p. 617, also 
 vol. 5, p. 218, and Conquest of Mexico, vol. 1, chap. 1, pp. 16, 17, 
 footnote. 
 
 ■North Americans of Antiquity, p. 255. 
 
 ^Ibid. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 23 
 
 has derived such knowledge as it has of the ancient 
 peoples of America. One way, of course, that needs 
 but little explanation, has been by exploration. 
 Scientists, either acting independently, or sent out by 
 colleges, scieiitific societies, or governments, search, 
 dig for, and study ruins and remains. 
 
 Another source of information was the traditions of 
 the semi- civilized nations found here by the Span- 
 iards, as recorded by Spanish scholars and writers of 
 that time. Notwithstanding the great injury the 
 Spanish priests did to the cause of the world's 
 enlightenment by their destruction of the native 
 books and records, there were intelligent Spaniards 
 who came afterwards and studied the people, their 
 customs and traditions, and such manuscripts and 
 copies of manuscripts as had not been destroyed. 
 
 At the time when those Spanish students wrote 
 there was not the interest taken in the past history of 
 America that there is now, and their works were 
 placed in libraries in Central America and Spain, and 
 forgotten till antiquarians of our day searched for 
 and found some of them. It is supposed that there 
 are manuscripts of importance that were written and 
 collected by those early Spanish writers that are yet 
 unknown, hidden somewhere in old libraries. 
 
 An important native book that was preserved is 
 called the Popol-Vuh. It was written in the Quiche 
 dialect, a branch of the Maya lanuage. The Popol- 
 Vuh was translated into the Spanish language two 
 hundred years ago, by Ximenes, and his translation 
 remained in Guatemala, unprinted and unknown, 
 until it was discovered in our day, and a better trans- 
 
24 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 lation made into the French, by Brasseur de Bour- 
 bourg, who was a master of the Quiche language, and 
 a profound student of the monuments, writings, and 
 traditions left by the ancient civilized peoples of this 
 continent. The Popol-Vuh is a legendary account, 
 OP outline, of the * 'history, traditions, religion, and 
 cosmogony" of the higher civilization that preceded 
 the Quiches or Mayas, the Quiche family of Mayas 
 being the dominant people in Central America at the 
 time of the Spanish conquest. 
 
 Professor Baldwin says: '*It is known that book 
 or manuscript writings were abundant ... in the 
 ages previous to the Aztec period."^ The books 
 belonging to the older ages, however, were destroyed 
 in wars and revolutions, or by the "wear of time." 
 "The later books, not otherwise lost, were destroyed 
 by Aztec and Spanish vandalism," except that there 
 were a few Spanish priests, less narrow-minded 
 and fanatical than the most of them, who quietly 
 secured and secreted some of the manuscripts, as 
 mentioned before, while the people obtained and hid 
 some copies. It is said that the Spanish priests 
 burned piles of books and manuscripts, making great 
 conflagrations. This destruction has called forth the 
 most bitter expressions from antiquarians. It is cer- 
 tainly to be greatly regretted from a scientific stand - 
 ' point, and yet we think those ecclesiastics entitled to 
 some charity. They were so shocked at the heathen- 
 ish religious practices and revolting human sacrifices 
 they witnessed, that they considered no sacrifice too 
 
 "Ancient America, p. 287. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 25 
 
 great a cost to remove anything which they believed 
 would keep such ideas alive in the minds of the peo- 
 ple. They thought, by destroying everything that 
 could possibly be suggestive, to more quickly wean 
 the people away from their horrible, bloody practices. 
 They never stopped to inquire whether the writings 
 they were destroying gave any incentive to such 
 practices or not. 
 
 Of the older and more superior stages of the 
 ancient civilization there is no record left in the 
 shape of writing, except inscriptions on the ruins, 
 and no one has yet been able to translate them. 
 There was a time when Egyptian archaeology was 
 likewise a sealed book to the world, but a stone, 
 covered with inscriptions, was discovered in Rosetta, 
 a town in Egypt, in 1799, by M. Boussard, a French 
 officer of engineers. The stone was found in an 
 excavation made near the town of Rosetta. In 1822, 
 Champollion, a great scholar, discovered the key to 
 the inscriptions, and was able to translate them. It 
 was a great achievement for science. It unlocked 
 the mysteries of ancient Egyptian writings, and since, 
 inscriptions have been deciphered that have added 
 rich contributions to our knowledge of the remote 
 past in the East, and have borne confirming testi- 
 mony to historical declarations in the Old Testament 
 Scriptures. As antiquarians have contemplated the 
 inscriptions on the wonderful ruins of Central 
 America they have cried, *'0, for another Champol- 
 lion! to unlock the mysteries of America's past," 
 more mysterious to the learning of the world than the 
 prehistoric history of any other land. 
 
26 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 For our archaeological knowledge of South Ameri- 
 can civilization we are indebted to the ruins, and to 
 the old manuscripts of Spanish writers. *'The Peru- 
 vians, like most other important peoples in all ages, 
 had mythical wonder- stories of authentic ancient 
 history to explain the origin of their nation. These 
 were told in traditions and legends preserved and 
 transmitted from generation to generation." **In 
 addition to these, they had many historic traditions 
 of more importance, related in long poems and pre- 
 served in the same way." But no books existed in 
 South America at the time of the Conquest, nor were 
 any inscriptions found on the ruins. We shall see 
 more about this later on. 
 
 The fact has been deplored that having the oppor- 
 tunities they had then, none of the earlier Spanish 
 writers studied the history of Peru farther back than 
 the time of the Incas. Fernando Montesinos was the 
 only Spanish writer that tried to do so, but he went 
 there a century after the Conquest, and his oppor- 
 tunities were not so favorable. But it is to Monte- 
 sinos that science is indebted for the most of what is 
 known about Peruvian civilization. He made a dili- 
 gent study of Peruvian antiquity, devoting fifteen 
 years to it. He learned the native language so that 
 he was able to communicate with the Peruvians 
 freely. He collected their historic poems, narratives, 
 and traditions. There were natives called amautas, 
 men whom the Inca government educated to memo- 
 rize and transmit the national history to posterity by 
 means of songs, poems, and narratives; oral histori- 
 ans, they might be called. Montesinos got the assist- 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 27 
 
 ance of these men, and learned much from them of 
 Peruvian history. 
 
 It will be seen that what knowledge has been 
 gained of American antiquities, excepting what the 
 ruins have contributed, has come from the semi-civil- 
 ized races of Mexico, Central America, and Peru, the 
 Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas. Nothing in the way of 
 direct account remains of the civilized people before 
 them. Nothing of importance, has been derived from 
 the wild Indian tribes. They have some traditions, 
 and some significant ones, but, as Professor Baldwin, 
 whom we quoted in a previous paper, says, nothing 
 such as they would have if they had once been civil- 
 ized, or were descended from the civilized ancients. 
 As for writings or records, they have contributed 
 nothing to the store of knowldege. So it has been in 
 such ways, and from such sources as have been 
 described, that science has derived what is known to 
 it of America's prehistoric pasU 
 
Divinity of the Book of Mormon Proven by 
 Archeology. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 AZTEC CIVILIZATION. 
 A REFLECTED CIVILIZATION. 
 
 The Book of Mormon claims that the originator of 
 the civilization of which it gives a brief record were 
 men of enlightened minds who accomplished advanced 
 results because they worked under divine inspiration. 
 The civilization did not begin low and end high, but 
 on the contrary, it is described to have been at its 
 best in its earlier history, and to have declined till it 
 was no longer able to resist its enemies, and was 
 finally overcome and superseded by a rude, savage 
 people. 
 
 The first thing that strikes one who has any 
 acquaintance with history, ininvestigating ancient 
 American civilization, is the strange and peculiar 
 order of its course. In Europe civilization began at 
 the lower stages and worked upward, and wherever 
 we may look, in whatever land, we might expect to 
 find that the course of progress had been the same. 
 But it was not so in America. Short says: "The 
 eras or ages which have been observed to rxiark the 
 different stages of the development of prehistoric 
 man in Europe are apparently reversed in 
 America."^ Here, instead of the latter days being 
 
 * North Americans of Antiquity, p. 27. 
 
30 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 the grander, the earlier periods were superior. 
 Ruins that, by having been rebuilt and repaired, 
 indicate successive periods of occupation, exhibit 
 cruder ideas and less skillful workmanship in the 
 later builders. 
 
 The Spaniards were amazed at the people they 
 found when they came over here, the Aztecs, the 
 Mayas, and the Incas; amazed at their govern- 
 ment, the extent of their empires, their manner 
 of living, and the luxury and grandeur of their 
 chief cities. No wonder, when the explorers 
 returned to the mother country, and spread reports 
 of what they had seen which they substantiated by 
 specimens of rare materials and fine workmanship 
 which they had taken with them, that such fanciful 
 ideas and expectations were excited as poor old 
 Ponce de Leon and others came over here with. 
 One writer remarks that the facts about the Aztec, 
 Maya, and Inca Empires read almost like a fairy 
 story. It is because those primitive Americans were 
 so mysterious, their civilization so little to be 
 looked for on a continent whose very existence had 
 been unknown to the rest of the world, and it is a 
 problem which science is no nearer accounting for 
 to-day. 
 
 Unexpected and startling, however, as it was to 
 find such people here, living in such a manner as 
 were these nations, it was still more marvelous to 
 find that their civilization was but the fading raya 
 of a glorious civilization that had preceded them, 
 of a mighty and enlightened people that was dead 
 and gone. Archaeological evidence is abundant to 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 31 
 
 show that there had been earlier and grander 
 periods of progress; that before the Aztecs, Mayas, 
 or Incas there had lived a people of a higher order, 
 and superior attainments. ^ 
 
 It was from those earlier people that the Aztecs, 
 Mayas, and Incas had borrowed what civilization 
 they had. Prescott says, "Their civilization, such 
 as it was, was not their own, but reflected, per- 
 haps imperfectly, from a race whom they had 
 succeeded in the land."^ Hence, it will enable us 
 to form a better idea of what that older civilization 
 must have been, if we know something about the 
 history of the people who followed it. 
 
 WHO THE AZTECS WERE. 
 
 The two most advanced nations on the American 
 Continent when the country was discovered by the 
 Europeans *'were those of Mexico and Peru," we 
 are told, so we will look at these nations briefly, 
 taking Mexico first. Ancient Mexico, or Mexico at 
 the time of the discovery, did not comprise so 
 much territory as the Republic of Mexico does 
 to-day, because Mexico of to-day reaches further 
 north, and takes in more of Central America. Then, 
 Central America belonged to the Mayas, and formed 
 the Quiche-Cakchiquel Empire. 
 
 Another name for Mexico was Anahuac. Anahuac 
 was a general name, while Mexico was either a gen- 
 
 * See chapter 3, "The Civilization Before the Aztecs and the 
 Incas." 
 
 3 Conquest of Mexico (Universal edition), vol. 3, book 6, chap. 
 
 » uonq 
 J, p. 201, 
 
32 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 eral term, or might apply in a restricted sense to tl">e 
 state of Mexico, only, for the Aztec or Mexican 
 Empire was a confederacy of the states of Mexico, 
 Tezcuco, and Tlacopan. It is common to speak of 
 the Mexicans (using the term in the general sense 
 which is most often implied) as Aztecs, when, in 
 reality, there were other branches of people, besides 
 them, living in Mexico. The Mayas of Central 
 America were made up of different nations, or 
 branches, also, and yet, in general, these people 
 were all practically the same, though each branch 
 had its peculiar characteristics, and differed from the 
 others more or less. The Indians commonly kno^^m 
 to-day will illustrate the idea. They are composed 
 of various tribes, differing one from another, and yet, 
 as a race, are the same people. 
 
 The Aztecs belonged to the Chichimec or Indian 
 race of which we have before spoken, and so do the 
 Tezcucans, the Cholulans, and the other peoples 
 of Mexico. From this the reader will suppose there 
 must have been a mixture of the savage in the 
 Mexicans, notwithstanding whatever tbe/y might have 
 had of civilization, and so there *;^as, as we shall see, 
 and this peculiar compound of savage axjd civilized 
 has perplexed the learning of -^he ^orld. But the 
 Book of Mormon makes it very plain. It tells us, in 
 the first place, that there were apostates or dissent- 
 ers who left the civilized government (the Nephite) 
 from time to time, and joined with the uncivilized 
 people (the Lamanites). The superior intelligence of 
 these Nephite rebels always had influence with the 
 Lamanites, who were glad to be initiated in the sci- 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 33 
 
 ence and arts of the Nephites, that they might be 
 more effectual in combating them, and the dissent- 
 ers were given prominent positions among the 
 Lamanites. Noah's priests, Book of Mormon stu- 
 dents will remember, were made teachers among 
 the LamaniteR. Amnion was made a ruler over cer- 
 tain territory. Amalickiah joined the Lamanites and 
 was elevated among them. His brother, Ammoron, 
 succeeded him upon AmaU.ckiah's death, and was 
 made a- king and led the Lamanite armies. Amlici 
 drew av/e-j/ many people, who, with him, united 
 iheii' forrjas with the Lamanites. And there were 
 othei disser.ters that joined with the Lamanites, all 
 taking theiv following with *them, which, in cases 
 whor^ the numbers are mentioned, were numerous. 
 Befcjides, it is natural to suppose, and it is often the 
 case in other instances where invading armies terrify 
 the people, that many go over to the conquering 
 side for safety; or, when the usurpers have estab- 
 lished themselves, growing tired of resisting the 
 dominant power, and being persecuted and unpopu- 
 lar, the subjugated will gradually blend themselves 
 with their victors. It must have been the same with 
 the Nephite people, in those dark last days, when 
 they realized there was no hope for them, and the 
 horrors of war were devastating their land, and the 
 pitiless, cruel enemy was hewing their numbers down 
 by the thousands. In time, the conquering people, 
 and those that were left of the conquered, would 
 ceaae to be socially distinct, and the blood would 
 become mixed. In fact, prophecy indicates as much 
 in regard to the preservation of the Nephites. It 
 
34 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 was said that the Lord would *'not utterly destroy 
 the mixture of thy seed which are among thy breth- 
 ren."* This amalgamation of enlightened people 
 with ruder classes would result in the degeneration 
 of the former, while the latter would be gainers of 
 intelligence transmitted to them, and these circum- 
 stances, we think, explain the peculiar, complex 
 character of the Mexicans which all writers note. 
 
 Again, the conquering people would establish 
 themselves, in succession, in the richest, most impor- 
 tant, and convenient sites, as a conquering people 
 always does, and here would gather those classes 
 representing the highest culture, in whose veins was 
 the largest admixture of the blood of the superior 
 people. The lower classes, those having less incli- 
 nation for civilization, would be scattered out remote 
 from the cities and central regions, just as the 
 wild tribes of Indians were found to be, wandering 
 through the forests of North and South America, 
 when the Europeans came. 
 
 But, to take up the story of Aztec history again. 
 Belonging to that older, more highly civilized period 
 before the Aztecs, the Tezcucans, the Cholulans, 
 or any of the other contemporary branches, there 
 lived in Mexico a people known to modern history 
 as the Toltecs. Some historians apply this name 
 to the predecessors of the Aztec era, in general, 
 while other historians use it to designate but one 
 branch of the earlier people; but popularly, the 
 
 * 1 Nephi 3: 120, large edition; 3: 40, small edition. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 36 
 
 predecessors of the Aztec period are indiscrimi- 
 nately spoken of as Toltecs. 
 
 We have to refer to the Toltecs when dealing with 
 Aztec history, because it was from their predecessors, 
 call them. Toltecs or whatever name historians may 
 call them, that the Aztecs derived their civilization. 
 It was this way: The Chichimeo tribes had been 
 gradually encroaching on the Toltecs for a long 
 time. Bancroft says: **Now, for a great number 
 of years a harassing system of border warfare had 
 been carried on between the Chichimecs and the 
 Toltecs."* This state of things kept on, and, to 
 make matters worse, tradition says that there were 
 internal troubles arising among the Toltecs, and 
 altogether, they were at last compelled to succumb, 
 and their enemies, the Chichimecs, took their place. 
 Among the Chichimec tribes to enter Mexico first 
 were the Cholulans and the Tezcucans, who are 
 recorded by the early Spanish writers to have been 
 much more refined, gentle peoples than the Aztecs 
 were. They came in contact with the original resi- 
 dents of the country, and, **receiving the tincture of 
 civilization which could be derived from the few 
 Toltecs that still remained,"* says Prescott, it is 
 apparent why they were superior to the Aztecs. In 
 time, however, the Aztecs became the dominant 
 Chichimec family in Mexico, though they were ever 
 in awe of the Tezcucans socially, and ambitious to 
 marry into aristocratic Tezcucan families, while 
 
 • Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 5, p. 290. 
 « Conquest of Mexico, vol. 1, chap. 1, p. 16. 
 
Se BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 they copied, in turn, their arts, manners, and cus- 
 toms, as the Tezcucans had copied from the Toltecs. 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The beginning of the Aztec reign dated from about 
 1426.'' Their empire had reached its zenith just 
 before the arrival of the Spaniards, in the begin- 
 ning of the sixteenth century. The government was 
 monarchial, and nearly absolute. Personal rights 
 and property were protected by strict laws which 
 were strictly administered. The power to make the 
 laws belonged wholly to the monarch, but there were 
 courts and officers to see that the laws were properly 
 kept. A person charged with any disobedience of 
 the law was given a fair trial in court, and, we are 
 told, the courts were conducted with order and 
 dignity. There were different orders of courts, and 
 the privilege of appeal from lower to higher courts. 
 The utmost honesty and impartiality were required 
 of the judges, who were made entirely independent 
 even of the monarch, so that there could be no 
 temptation for them to consider policy. Provision 
 was made to try them, however, should they be 
 found in trickery or violation of the rules to which 
 they must conform. For a judge to "receive pres- 
 ents, or a bribe, to be guilty of collusion in any way 
 with a suitor," was punished with death.® 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 Slavery existed, but in a very mild form, evidently, 
 loT poor people, not able to support their children, 
 
 7 Charaay's Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 387. 
 « Conqiiest of Mexico, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 2. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 87 
 
 'Voluntarily resigned their freedom." We are told 
 that "the slave was allowed to have his own family, 
 to hold property, and even other slaves. His chil- 
 dren were free. No one could be born to slavery in 
 Mexico, an honorable distinction," observes Prescott, 
 "not known, I believe, in any civilized community 
 where slavery has been sanctioned."^ The institu- 
 tion of marriage was held in reverence, and ^he 
 ceremony was celebrated "with as much formality 
 as in any Christian country." The position of 
 women was respected among the Aztecs. When 
 we remember that it is only where heaven -given 
 laws have gone, where the light of Christianity has 
 permeated, that women are honored, it is one of the 
 features about Aztec civilization we want to note for 
 our final conclusions about these people. Prescott 
 tells us that women enjoyed equal social freedom 
 with men, that wives were treated with consideration 
 by their husbands, and in the division of labor, 
 woman did the lighter part. "Indeed," he says, 
 "the sex was as tenderly regarded by the Aztecs 
 in this matter, as it is in most parts of Europe at 
 the present day."^^ 
 
 Polygamy was permitted to some extent among 
 the Aztecs, being practiced chiefly by the princes 
 and the wealthier classes, it seems, and yet it is 
 significant to note what Prescott calls a "remarkable 
 declaration," which was recorded by the Spanish 
 writers, that a father, in counseUng his son, would 
 
 •Ibid., p. 39. 
 
 10 Ibid., chap. 5, pp. 154, 137. 
 
38 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 tell him that, in **the multiplication of the species, 
 God ordained one man only for one woman." ^^ No 
 wonder the historian calls this a **remarkable dec- 
 laration." Here is a scriptural tradition the Aztecs 
 had, though they were transgressed from it. How 
 did they get hold of that idea? is the question. 
 Again, we learn that the Aztecs had charitable insti- 
 tutions, when such things were not known among 
 people so enlightened as the ancient Greeks and 
 Romans. The following, from Prescott, is signifi- 
 cant: **I must not omit to notice here an institution 
 the introduction of which in the Old World is ranked 
 among the beneficent fruits of Christianity. Hos- 
 pitals were established in the principal cities for the 
 cure of the sick and the permanent refuge of the 
 disabled soldiers." ^ ^ 
 
 We are told that in social life the Aztec frequently 
 displayed "all the sensibility of a cultivated nature," 
 "consoling his friends under affliction," "congratu- 
 lating them on their good fortune," "on occasion of 
 a marriage," "the birth or baptism of a child." 
 Children were brought up with the greatest care, 
 parents displaying tender solicitude for the welfare 
 of their sons and daughters. The girls were taught 
 modesty "as the great adornment of a woman," and 
 the morals in schools of both sexes were pure. ^ ^ 
 
 AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Industry was held in high esteem, as this advice of 
 an old chief will show: "Apply thyself, my son, to 
 
 i» Ibid., chap. 5, p. 154, footnote; also see chap. 3, p. 68. 
 12 Ibid., chap. 2, p. 49. 
 18 Ibid., chap. p. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 39 
 
 agriculture, or to feather-work, or some other honor- 
 able calling. Thus did your ancestors before you. 
 . . . Never was it heard that nobility alone was able 
 to maintain its possessor." Up to the time of the 
 last emperor, Montezuma II, trade was no bar to 
 social position, but Montezuma sought to draw a 
 line between the nobility, and the merchants and 
 common people, and this was one cause of making 
 himself unpopular with the people, and preparing 
 the way for the overthrow of the empire by the 
 Spaniards, because his subjects would not stand 
 unitedly with him. The people were advanced in 
 agriculture. They made canals and irrigated the 
 soil. They built great granaries for the products of 
 the harvest, while their green houses or nurseries 
 "were more extensive than any existing in the Old 
 World." They mined silver, lead, and tin. Their 
 smiths excelled the workmanship of European 
 smiths. They knew how to mix metals so to make 
 a hard substance called bronze, of which they 
 manufactured tools. The Tlascalans manufactured 
 pottery "which was equal to the best in Europe," 
 while the Cholulan pottery rivaled "that of Florence 
 in beauty." They wove thread and cloth, some 
 grades of which were of great beauty. An exquisite 
 fabric was their famous feather -work, the art of 
 making which writers deplore should have been 
 allowed to have been lost. The people did rich 
 coloring, and fine embroidery of flowers, birds, and 
 fanciful designs.^* 
 
 **Ibid., chap. 5; also see book 3, same volume, chap. 5, p. 
 464; vol. 2, book 3, chap. 6, p. 4. 
 
10 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 BARBER SHOPS AND MARKETS. 
 
 It is said that there were barbershops, that the 
 Mexicans had scanty beards, ^^ though the wild 
 Indians have not, — another evidence that the Mexi- 
 cans were not of pure Chichimec or Indian blood. 
 There were no stores or shops in Mexico. Every- 
 thing was "brought together for sale in the great 
 market-places of the principal cities.*' The Span- 
 iards were astonished at the market of the city of 
 Mexico. A Spanish writer, Diaz, is quoted as say- 
 ing, **There are among us soldiers who had been 
 in many parts of the world, — ^in Constantinople and in 
 Rome and through all Italy, — and who said that a 
 market-place so large, so well ordered and regulated, 
 and so filled with people, they had never seen." ^* 
 
 MECHANICAL SKILL, ENGINEERING, BUILDING AND 
 MASONRY. 
 
 Objects of great size and weight were moved from 
 one place to another which, says Prescott, "suggests 
 to us no mean ideas of their mechanical skill and of 
 their machinery." The Mexicans built great cause- 
 ways, aqueducts, and other public works. They 
 erected magnificent temples. "Twelve acres of the 
 great enclosure of the Aztec temple were taken for 
 a Spanish plaza, and are still used for this purpose, 
 while the site of the temple is occupied by a cathe- 
 dral. The plaza is paved with marble. Like the 
 rest of the great enclosure, it was paved when the 
 
 " Ibid., vol. 2, book 4, chap. 2, p. 132. 
 »« Ibid., pp. 135, 137. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 41 
 
 Spaniards iSrst saw it, and the paving was so per- 
 fect and so smooth that their horses were liable to 
 slip and fall when they attempted to ride over it." 
 Bancroft desciribes a great dike built by the Tezcu- 
 cans, of which he says, "This work may be consid- 
 ered a great triumph of aboriginal engineering, 
 especially when we consider the millons spent by 
 the Spaniards under the best European engineers in 
 protecting the city, hardly more effectually, against 
 similar inundations." Baldwin says: **The uniform 
 testimony of all who saw the country . . . shows 
 that the edifices of towns and cities, wherever they 
 went, were most commonly laid in mortar, or of 
 timber, and that in the rural districts thatch was 
 frequently used for the roofs of dwellings. More- 
 over, we are told repeatedly that the Spaniards 
 employed 'Mexican masons,' and found them very 
 expert in the arts of building and plastering. There 
 is no good reason to doubt that the civilized condition 
 of the country, when the Spaniards found it, was 
 superior to what it has been at any time since the 
 Conquest." ^"^ 
 
 ADVANCEMENT OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 
 
 The city of Mexico, which was the capital of ancient 
 Mexico as it is the capital of modem Mexico, was a 
 much greater city then, than it is now. Parts of 
 the city, now, we are told, are built on the ancient 
 foundations. On their march to Mexico, the army 
 
 »^Ibid., vol. 1, book 5, chap. 5, page 145; Native Races of the 
 Pacific States, vol. 5, p. 413; Ancient America, pp. 214, 216. 
 
42 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 of Cortez, the Spanish conqueror, passed through 
 orchards and cultivated fields. *' Everywhere the 
 conquerors beheld the evidences of a crowded and 
 thriving population." Waters were spanned by 
 bridges, and swarms of canoes filled with busy peo- 
 ple, were plying to and fro. Here was a busy 
 population which "obtained a good subsistence 
 from the manufacture of salt, which they extracted 
 from the waters of the great lake." "At a dis- 
 tance of half a league from the capitol, they encoun- 
 tered a solid work or curtain of stone. ... It was 
 twelve feet high, was strengthened by towers at 
 the extremities, and in the center was a battle - 
 mented gateway, which opened a passage to the 
 troops. It was called the fort of Xoloc." Entering 
 the city "they found fresh cause for admiration in 
 the grandeur of the city and the superior style of 
 its architecture." They passed up a great avenue 
 lined with the houses of the nobles which were 
 built of a "red porous stone drawn from quarries 
 in the neighborhood." The eye "ranged along 
 the deep vista of temples, terraces, and gardens." 
 The "iron tramp" of the Spanish horses rung upon 
 streets "which were coated with a hard cement." "A 
 careful police provided for the health and cleanli- 
 ness of the city. A thousand persons are said to 
 have been daily employed in watering and sweeping 
 the streets." "In appearance of the capitol, its 
 massy yet elegant architecture, its luxurious accom- 
 modations, its activity in trade, he (Cortez) recognized 
 the proofs of the intellectual progress, mechanical 
 skill, and enlarged resources of an old and opulent 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 43 
 
 community."*® Thus Prescott describes Mexico as 
 the Spaniards found it, only we have been com- 
 pelled to give but brief extracts. 
 
 LITERATURE AND SCHOOLS. 
 
 The Aztecs had a literature; they had schools, and 
 sciences. The Tezcucan literature was more pol- 
 ished, and their writing more graceful looking, but 
 the system of all the peoples was the hieroglyphic, or 
 picture-writing. Their laws were written. They 
 kept a record of their history, and these manuscripts 
 were preserved in Hbraries, or national archives. 
 There were poets and philosophers among the people. 
 In the writings of Nezahaulcoyotl, a Tezcucan prince, 
 there are thoughts and sentiments that are not 
 inferior to the intelligence and feehng of our own 
 literature, and his style has beauty and refinement. 
 Speeches on public occasions showed appreciation of 
 oratorical effect. There were public schools in which 
 the songs and hymns of the nation were taught. 
 These songs and hymns served as history, and, we 
 are told, were "the most authentic record of events." 
 For the wealthier classes there were higher schools. 
 Girls were taught, in the seminaries, weaving, 
 embroidery, and needlework. In the colleges, young 
 men were instructed in the national language, and 
 in the hieroglyphic writing. Besides, history, 
 astronomy, mythology, and other branches were 
 taught. *» 
 
 i« Conquest of Mexico, vol. 2, book 3, chap. 9, pp. 67, 68, 89; 
 also book 4, chap. 1, pp. 106, 110. 
 
 i»Ibid., vol. 1, book 1, chap. 4, pp. 93-112; chap. 6, pp. 174- 
 177; vol. 2, book 4, chap. 1, p. 148. 
 
44 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 SCIENCE — THE MEXICAN CALENDAR. 
 
 But in science, we are told, the people surpassed 
 their literary attainments. Their system of arith- 
 metic was so complete that "they were enabled 
 to indicate any quantity," even fractions. All 
 writers unite in admiration and wonder of the 
 Mexican calendar. They counted 365 days to the 
 year, adding five intercalary days and six hours to 
 arrive at the time exactly, and once every four 
 years they counted 366 days a year. Short, com- 
 menting on the subject, says: "The fact that 
 Cortez found the Julian reckoning, , employed by his 
 own and every other European nation, to be more 
 than ten days in error when tried by the Aztec 
 system — a system the almost perfect accuracy of 
 which was proven by the adjustments which took 
 place under Gregory XIII, in 1582 A. D. — excites our 
 wonder and admiration." Our thoughtful young 
 student will also note this observation, from Pres- 
 cott: "But that they should be capable of accu- 
 rately adjusting their festivals by the movements 
 of the heavenly bodies, and should fix the true 
 length of the tropical year, with a precision unknown 
 to the great philosophers of antiquity, could be the 
 result only of a long series of nice and patient 
 observations, evincing no slight progress in civiliza- 
 tion. But whence could the rude inhabitants of 
 these mountain regions have derived this curious 
 erudition?" 2 
 
 *o North Americans of Antiquity, p. 519; Conquest of Mexico, 
 vol. 1, book 2, chap. 4, po. 112-127. 
 
MEXICAN CALENDAR STONE. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 46 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE AZTECS. 
 
 By this time the student begins to wonder, per- 
 haps, where the marks of savage nature in the 
 Aztecs were. But we have been looking at the 
 brighter side, the side that was probably inherited, 
 and that was not Chichimec, or Indian, at all. It 
 was the combination of inherited graces and the 
 Chichimec that made up the Aztec. If a question 
 has been raised in the mind of the young student 
 as to why historians have classed the Aztecs under 
 the head of Chichimecs, we shall see the reason 
 when we turn to the Aztec religion. And yet, the 
 religious side of their national life was not wholly 
 representative of the heathen and barbarian. On 
 the contrary, nowhere do we find more striking 
 contrasts in Aztec character than in their religion. 
 As Fresco tt made a special study of Aztec civiliza- 
 tion, and later writers and investigators have been 
 confirming the verity of his accounts; and as his 
 works are so easily accessible to the general reader, 
 we refer principally to him. Mr. Prescott says: 
 **In contemplating the religious system of the Aztecs, 
 one is struck with its apparent incongruity, as if some 
 portion of it had emanated from a comparatively 
 refined people, open to gentle influences, while the 
 rest breathes of a spirit of unmitigated ferocity. 
 Tt naturally suggests the idea of two distinct sources, 
 and authorizes the belief that the Aztecs had inher- 
 ited from their predecessors a milder faith, on which 
 was afterwards engrafted their own mythology.'** 
 
 * Conquest of Mexico, Universal Edition, volume 1, book 1, 
 
46 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 The Aztecs were an idolatrous people, and yet 
 they beHeved in a Supreme Creator. They prac- 
 ticed the most horrible human sacrifice, and at the 
 same time they had, we are told, **some remarkable 
 traditions, bearing a singular resemblance to those 
 found in the Scriptures." They beHeved in a future 
 state of existence, and in two places, one of reward, 
 and one of punishment. Their conceptions of these 
 places were vague, to be sure, and yet, Prescott says, 
 the heaven of the Aztecs was "more refined in its 
 character" — in other words, more nearly the true 
 idea, than that held by the "more polished pagans" 
 of antiquity in the Old World, — the Greeks, for 
 instance. The Aztecs had a tradition of the Deluge. 
 They believed that two persons were saved from the 
 flood, a man and his wife. "A dove is also 
 depicted." There was a further tradition "that the 
 boat in which Tezpi, their Noah, escaped, was filled 
 with various kinds of animals and birds." 
 
 "Another point of coincidence" with the Scrip- 
 tures, Prescott says, "is found in the goddess 
 Cioacoatl, *our lady and mother' ; *the first goddess 
 who brought forth' ; *who bequeathed the sufferings 
 of childbirth to women, as the tribute of death' ; *by 
 whom sin came into the world.' Such was the 
 remarkable language applied by the Aztecs to this 
 venerated deity. She was usually represented with a 
 serpent near her; and her named signified the 'ser- 
 pent-woman.' In all this we see much to remind us 
 
 chapter 3, page 57. The rest of the references in this paper will 
 be found in same volume, book, and chapter; also in volume 3, 
 Appendix, part 1, except where different sources are given. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 47 
 
 of the mother of the human family, the Eve of the 
 Hebrew and Syrian nations. But none of the deities 
 of the country suggested such astonishing analogies 
 with scripture as Quetzalcoatl." "He was the white 
 man, wearing a long beard," "came from the East," 
 "disappeared as mysteriously as he had come," but 
 "promised to return at some future day," and "his 
 reappearance was looked for with confidence by 
 each succeeding generation." In a future chapter 
 we shall show how the confidence of the people in 
 the reappearance of this Quetzalcoatl helped to pre- 
 pare the way for the conquest of Mexico. All that 
 was good in their institutions and life they attributed 
 to Quetzacoatl; he taught them. Modern writers 
 speak of him as the "culture-hero." "The curious 
 antiquaries of Mexico found out, that to this God 
 were to be referred the institutions of ecclesiastical 
 communities, reminding one of the monastic socie- 
 ties of the Old World ; that of the rites of confession 
 and penance; and the knowledge even of the great 
 doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation ! " Some 
 saw, "in his anticipated advent to regenerate the 
 nation, the type, dimly veiled, of the Messiah!" So 
 wonderful and significant is the fuller description of 
 Quetzalcoatl, given by other writers, and so promi- 
 nent was he in the traditions of all the nations, that 
 we shall devote a future chapter to the subject. 
 
 The Spaniards found the cross here. It was sculp- 
 tured on the waUs of Palenque. It was represented 
 in various ways, and in different parts of the country. 
 "That the reader may see for himself how Like, yet 
 how unlike, the Aztec rite [of baptism] wa8 to the 
 
48 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 Christian, I give the translation of Sahagun's 
 account, at length. 'When everything necessary for 
 the baptism had been made ready, all the relations of 
 the child were assembled, and the midwife, who was 
 the person that performed the rite of baptism, was 
 summoned. At early dawn, they met together in the 
 courtyard of the house. When the sun had risen, the 
 midwife, taking the child in her arms, called for a 
 little earthen vessel of water, while those about her 
 placed the ornaments which had been prepared for 
 the baptism in the midst of the court. To perform 
 the rite of baptism, she placed herself with her face 
 towards the west, and immediately began to go 
 through certain ceremonies. . . . After this she 
 sprinkled water on the head of the infant, saying, *'0 
 my child ! take and receive the water of the Lord of 
 the world, which is our life, and is given for the 
 increasing and renewing of our body. It is to wash 
 and to purify. I pray that these heavenly drops may 
 enter into your body, and dwell there; that they may 
 destroy and remove from you all the evil and sin 
 which was given to you before the beginning of the 
 world; since all of us are under its power, being all 
 the children of Chalchivitlycue" [the goddess of 
 water]. [The wife of Noah, descended from Eve.] 
 She then washed the body of the child with water, 
 and spoke in this manner: *'Whencesoever thou 
 comest, thou that art hurtful to this child; leave 
 him and depart from him, for he now liveth anew, 
 and is born anew," ' " etc., etc. 
 
 An analogy with the "Christian communion": 
 The Aztecs made a mixture '*of the flour of maize, 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 49 
 
 mixed with blood, and, after consecration by the 
 priests, was distributed among the people, who, as 
 they ate it, 'showed signs of humility and sorrow, 
 declaring it was the flesh of the deity!' " *'We are 
 reminded of Christian morals in more than one of 
 their prayers, in which they used regular forms. 
 *Wilt thou blot us out, O Lord, forever? Is this pun- 
 ishment intended, not for our reformation, but for 
 our destruction?' Again, 'Impart to us, out of thy 
 great mercy, thy gifts, which we are not worthy to 
 receive through our own merits.' 'Keep peace with 
 all,' says another petition; 'bear injuries with 
 humility; God, who sees, will avenge you.' But the 
 most striking parallel with Scripture is in the remark- 
 able declaration that 'he who looks too curiously on 
 a woman commits adultery with his eyes.' " . 
 
 "When the Spanish missionaries saw the cross here, 
 found the rite of baptism practiced, and discovered 
 other scriptural resemblances in the religious tradi- 
 tions and practices of the people, it all looked to 
 them like indications that somehow, at sometime, a 
 knowledge of Christianity and the Scriptures had 
 been taught on this continent. But this idea is 
 derided by scientific writers who point out, for 
 instance, that the cross was represented in coun- 
 tries of the Old World long before the time of Christ; 
 also, that baptism was practiced by pagan nations 
 "on whom the light of Christianity had never 
 shone," hence, it is argued, the discovery of these 
 things among the primitive Americans could not be 
 significant of Christianity. These scientific writers 
 evidently do not know, however, that the doctrine 
 
50 BOCK OP MORMON 
 
 of Christ was taught our first parents, Adam and 
 Eve, and that all peoples that have lived upon this 
 world originally came in contact with these ideas; 
 hence, Christian emblems have been found among all 
 the nations of antiquity, and hence, again, these 
 emblems are not without significance of Christianity 
 when found in the Old World, even, though existing 
 prior to the Christian era chronologically. But pass- 
 ing by scientific reasoning for the existence of these 
 emblems in the Old World, how came they in the 
 so-called New World? Would it not be remarkable, 
 to the point of unreasonableness, that the peoples in 
 separate parts of the world, having no communica- 
 tion with each other, should accidentally hit upon 
 the same figure as the cross, and represent it on their 
 buildings, and in various other ways, and that so 
 much attention should be given it ; that it should be 
 so generally exhibited in both hemispheres? When 
 we learn, however, that there was not only this one 
 idea held in common between the ancient peoples of 
 the Old and New Worlds, but two; that the people 
 in the New World stumbled on the same thing again, 
 in baptism, as the people in the Old World, is it not a 
 little strange, indeed, that two such coincidences 
 should have occurred, and become so wide -spread, 
 on such important points? 
 
 But these were not the only resemblances with the 
 doctrine of the Scriptures and the belief of God's 
 people in the Old World that were found in the reli- 
 gious ideas of the Mexicans. Short says: "It is a 
 matter of surprise how much has been written to 
 establish the theory that the Mexicans were descend- 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 51 
 
 ants of the Jews both in race and religion," and he 
 proceeds to give a list of what has been claimed to 
 be analogies with Jewish doctrine.^ Again we find 
 skepticism on the part of scientific writers, who think 
 that that which is beyond their understanding, must 
 be accidental or imaginary — in this case, that the 
 early Spanish writers saw imaginary resemblances in 
 accidental analogies. We are warned that we must 
 be cautious in making deductions from analogies. 
 That is true. At the same time, however, the fadt 
 that so much has been written about the Mexicans 
 being descendants of the Jews, because of similarities 
 in their traditions and customs, is very simple evi- 
 dence that so much has been found; and this fact, 
 again, leaves small room for the idea that the early 
 writers could have imagined it all. Besides, what 
 motive could they have had for doing so? Those 
 early Spanish writers were mostly Catholic priests, 
 for in that day the priests comprised about all of the 
 learned or literary class, and those priests came over 
 here as missionaries, to bring Christianity to this 
 land. They did not expect to find that it had already 
 been here. It was the last thing in the world they 
 would have looked for, for how could it be, when this 
 **new land," as it was called, had been cut off from 
 the Old World from which only could Christianity 
 and scriptural knowledge possibly have come, they 
 beheved then, and the world believes to-day. But 
 those early writers had more simplicity and less 
 science than writers have to-day. They did not try 
 
 •North Americans of Antiquity, pages 459-465. 
 
52 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 to make themselves to not believe that which their 
 eyes saw, because it conflicted with, or could not be 
 accounted for by their theories. Happily for the 
 cause of knowledge to-day, they did not have so 
 much scientific bigotry then, so when those early 
 missionaries discovered things, though they did not 
 understand them, they just indulged in honest sur- 
 prise, and wrote down what they found. We quoted 
 Doctor Mcllvaine's remark in our opening chapter, 
 **But exceedingly insignificant as are all resources 
 for the earliest history of the world independently of 
 the Bible, they may be of great consequence in con- 
 nection with the Bible." If no traces of scriptural or 
 Christian resemblances had been found among the 
 nations that were here when the discoverers came, 
 nor signs of there having been any among the people 
 before them, it would have left the Book of Mormon 
 unsupported in its most important claim, because it 
 teaches that the ancient inhabitants of this continent 
 had the Old Testament scriptures, and that Christ, 
 and the plan of salvation through him, was revealed 
 unto them, before which, they obeyed the Mosaic 
 law. But when these accounts of the early Spanish 
 writers are considered "in connection" with the 
 Book of Mormon, and found to coincide with that 
 record, does not the fact that the one bears wit- 
 ness to the other give the former significance and 
 importance, and place the latter in a position 
 demanding respectful hearing of its claims to be 
 divinely inspired? 
 
 We come now to the Chichimec, or Indian side of 
 Aztec character. The sacrifice of human life by the 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 53 
 
 Aztecs was revolting and horrible in the extreme. 
 They procured their victims from neighboring prov- 
 inces which they subjugated. When the captives 
 they had on hand were not sufficient in number to 
 satisfy their ceremonials, armies were sent out to war 
 against unconquered tribes, to bring back victims for 
 the sacrifice. The great object of war with the 
 Aztecs, we are told, "was quite as much to gather 
 victims for their sacrifices as to extend their empire." 
 An enemy was never slain in battle if he could bo 
 taken alive. Human sacrifice was carried on to 
 greater and greater extent till in the time of Monte- 
 zuma, at the coming of the Spaniards, * 'thousands 
 were yearly offered up, in the different cities of 
 Anahuac, on the bloody altars of Mexican divini- 
 ties." Bancroft tells us that on one occasion, in 
 dedicating a new sacrificial stone, twelve thousand 
 captives were offered up. In case of any calamity, 
 drought, famine, etc., they importuned their gods 
 by human sacrifice to turn the affliction away. 
 Even women and little children were offered up. 
 Sacrifice formed a part of all public ceremonies and 
 festivals. It is no wonder that the Spaniards were 
 so horrified when they visited the great Mexican 
 temple that they called the place **hell." The inte- 
 rior walls, says Diaz, one of Cortez's soldiers, "were 
 stained with human gore.'* "The stench was more 
 intolerable than that of the slaughter-houses in 
 Castile." 
 
 Bancroft tells us that preceding the Aztec period, 
 in the last days of the Toltec period, human sacrifice 
 began to be practiced. It was strongly opposed by a 
 
54 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 sect that were spoken of as followers of Quetzalcoatl, 
 but in time they were overpowered by general senti- 
 ment, which was wandering further and further away 
 from the pure teachings of Quetzalcoatl.^ Very sig- 
 nificant is this account *'in connection with" the Book 
 of Mormon, for that is the same sad story it tells, of 
 the decline and transgression of the Nephites, how 
 heresies, idolatry, and bloody practices were intro- 
 duced among them. Prescott says that human sacri- 
 fice was rare at the beginning of the Aztec reign, and 
 that there were still some influences left that tried to 
 restrain it. Nezahualcoyotl, an early Tezcucan 
 prince, and the grandest ruler of the Aztec period, 
 ''strenuously endeavored to recall his people to the 
 more pure and simple worship of the ancient Tol- 
 tecs." **These idols of wood and stone can neither 
 hear nor feel," he told the people; "much less could 
 they make the heavens and the earth, and man, the 
 lord of it. These must be the work of the all-power- 
 ful, unknown God, Creator of the universe, on whom 
 alone I must rely for consolation and support."* 
 
 The lowest and most savage feature of Aztec life 
 was cannibalism. They **were not cannibals in the 
 coarsest acceptation of the term. They did not feed 
 on human flesh merely to gratify a brutish appetite, 
 but in obedience to their religion. Their repasts were 
 made of the victims whose blood had been poured 
 out on the altar of sacrifice." As illustrating the 
 anomaly presented in Aztec character the following 
 
 •Native Races, pages 268, 482. 
 
 ^Conquest of Mexico, volume 1, book 1, chapter 6, page 193. 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 55 
 
 description of a banquet is given: * 'The halls were 
 scented with perfumes, and the courts strewed with 
 odoriferous herbs and flowers, which were distributed 
 in profusion among the guests, as they arrived. Cot- 
 ton napkins and ewers of water were placed before 
 them, and they took their seats at the board; for the 
 venerable ceremony of ablution before and after eat- 
 ing was punctiliously observed by the Aztecs." 
 "The table was ornamented with vases of silver, and 
 sometimes, gold, of delicate workmanship. The 
 drinking cups and spoons were of the same costly 
 material, and likewise of tortoise-shell.'* The menu 
 comprised meats, which were kept warm in chaf- 
 ing-dishes, and vegetables and fruits. **The differ- 
 ent viands were prepared in various ways, with 
 delicate sauces and seasonings. . . . Their palate 
 was still further regaled by confections and pastry 
 for which their maize -flour and sugar supplied ample 
 materials." But there was another dish, "of a dis- 
 gusting nature," which "was sometimes added to the 
 feast, especially when the celebration partook of a 
 religious character." "On such occasions a slave 
 was sacrificed, and his flesh, elaborately dressed, 
 formed one of the chief ornaments of the banquet." 
 In the latter days of the Aztec reign it is said that 
 "almost every festival was closed with this cruel 
 abomination." 
 
 "Surely," observes Prescott, "never were refine- 
 ment and the extreme of barbarism brought so 
 closely in contact with each other." "In this state 
 of things," the same writer at length says, "it 
 was beneficently ordered by Providence that the 
 
S& BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 land should be delivered over to another race, who 
 would rescue it from the brutish superstitions that 
 daily extended wider and wider with extent of 
 empire." The Book of Mormon records a prophecy 
 which declares that this land was designed by God 
 "a choice land," "above all other lands; wherefore, 
 I will have all men that dwell thereon, that they shall 
 worship me, saith God."^ **And if it so be that they 
 shall keep his commandments, they shall be blessed 
 upon the face of this land." *'But behold, when the 
 time Cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, . , . 
 the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon 
 them; yea, he will bring other nations unto them, 
 and he will take away from them the lands of their 
 possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered 
 and smitten."^ This is exactly what took place in 
 history. Europeans came over here, and wrested 
 the lands of their possession away from the Indians. 
 The governments of the Aztecs, and of the Incas, in 
 South America, were broken up. Truly were the 
 people "scattered and smitten," and "other nations" 
 came in upon them. 
 
 INCA CIVILTZATION. 
 INCAS NOT THE ORIGINAL CIVILIZERS. 
 
 Peru was not the native name of the ancient nation 
 in South America. It was the name the Span- 
 iards gave it. "The empire of Peru, at the period of 
 the Spanish invasion, stretched along the Pacific from 
 
 »2 Nephi 7: 16, large edition; 7: 2, small edition. 
 •2 Nephi 1: ll-13t large edition; 1: 2, small edition. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 57 
 
 about the second degree north to the thirty -seventh 
 degree of south latitude." This boundary line took 
 in the modern republics of Chili, Peru, Bolivia, and 
 Ecuador. ^ 
 
 Like the Aztecs, the Incas were not the original 
 civilizers of Peru. We are told that the "character of 
 the Peruvian mind led to imitation, in fact, rather 
 than invention. "2 Prescott says: "On the shores 
 of Lake Titicaca extensive ruins exist at the present 
 day, which the Peruvians themselves acknowledge to 
 be of older date than the pretended advent of the 
 Incas, and to have furnished them with the models of 
 their architecture."^ Baldwin says: "That the civ- 
 ilization found in the country was much older than 
 the Incas can be seen in what we know of their his- 
 tory."* 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF THE INCAS. 
 
 The Incas, or Peruvians, were a branch of the 
 same race as the Mexicans. They were all Indians. 
 At the time of the discovery of America it seems 
 that the Mexicans and the Peruvians had no knowl- 
 edge of each other. Baldwin offers this explanation : 
 "The first migration of civilized people from South 
 America (to North America) must have taken place 
 at a very distant period in the past, for it preceded 
 not only the history indicated by the existing antiq- 
 uities, but .also an earlier history, during which the 
 
 » Conquest of Peru (Universal edition), volume 1, book 1, chap- 
 ter 1, page 4. 
 
 2 Ibid., chapter 5, page 154. 
 »Ibid., chapter 1, pages 11, 13. 
 * Ancient America, page 270. 
 
58 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 Peruvians and Central Americans grew to be as (lif- 
 erent from their ancestors as from each other. "^ 
 
 The Incas were quite different in character from 
 the Aztecs; they were more like the Tezcucans and 
 the Mayas. The Aztecs were a fierce, determined 
 people, while the Incas were of a milder, more refined 
 disposition. Prescott says: **The intellectual char- 
 acter of the Peruvians, indeed, seems to have been 
 marked rather by a tendency to refinement than by 
 those hardier qualities which insure success in the 
 severer walks of science," and Delafield describes 
 them as being behind the Mexicans in * 'prowess and 
 energy of character." The Aztecs were ahead of 
 the Peruvians in science, but the Peruvians were 
 superior in their social polity. The Peruvians were, 
 like the Aztecs, a warlike people, but their methods 
 were very different, as was their treatment of the 
 conquered. Prescott says that the Aztec monarchy 
 **was only held together by the stern pressure, from 
 without, of physical force," but the Peruvians, by 
 their kind and considerate treatment of the people 
 they conquered, made friends of them, granting them 
 all the advantages of citizenship, and providing for 
 their welfare. The vanquished learned to **appreci- 
 ate the value of a government which raised them 
 above the physical evils of a state of barbarism, 
 secured to them protection of person, .and a full 
 participation in all the privileges enjoyed by the 
 conquered."^ The most considerate care was taken 
 
 "Ibid., page 246. 
 
 •Conquest of Peru, volume 1, book 1, chapter 3, page 86. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 59 
 
 to provide for the comfort of their soldiers, and the 
 soldiers, in turn, were strictly forbidden to molest or 
 plunder or commit any depredation to the inhabitants 
 through whose territory they passed. *'Any violation 
 of this order was punished with death.'* They went 
 through the country causing as little inconvenience 
 to the inhabitants as "holiday soldiers for a review." 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 The Peruvian worship was not of so revolting a 
 character as was that of the Aztecs. They offered 
 sacrifices which consisted mostly of **animals, grain, 
 flowers, and sweet-scented gums." On rare occa- 
 sions, as the great festival Cachahuaca^ they "cele- 
 brated with human sacrifices." Prescott says that 
 the Peruvians never indulged in cannibal repasts 
 like the Mexicans. The Peruvians worshiped the 
 planets, chief among them, the sun. They built 
 temples to the sun, the most famous one being at 
 Cuzco. The interior of this temple was "literally a 
 mine of gold." It was called Ooricancha, or "the 
 Place of Gold." "All the plate, the ornaments, the 
 utensils of every description, appropriated to the 
 uses of religion, were of gold and silver." The ewers 
 which held water for sacrifice, the pipes which con- 
 ducted water to the temple, and the reservoirs that 
 received it ; the agricultural implements used in the 
 gardens of the temple, "were of the same rich mate- 
 rial." "The gardens, like those described belong- 
 ing to the royal palaces, sparkled with flowers of 
 gold and silver, and various imitations of the vege- 
 table kingdom. Animals, also, were to be found 
 
TO ^ Bo«rK OF MORMOI^ 
 
 th^re, among which the llama, with its golden fleece, 
 . . . executed in the same style."'' 
 
 There were signs that the people before the Incas 
 had believed in and worshiped the one true God, but 
 while the Peruvians had some idea of a Supreme 
 Being, they did not worship him. Prescott says: 
 "No temple was raised to this invisible Being, save 
 one only in the valley which took its name from the 
 deity himself, not far from the Spanish city of Lima. 
 Even this temple had existed there before the coun- 
 try came under the sway of the Incas. "^ 
 
 Like the North Americans, the Peruvians had a 
 tradition of the. Deluge, and the same authority 
 tells us : "Among the traditions of importance is one 
 of the Deluge, which they held in common with so 
 many of the nations in all parts of the globe, and 
 which they related with some particulars that bear 
 resemblance to a Mexican legend." "They related 
 that, after the Deluge, seven persons issued from a 
 cave where they had saved themselves,' and by them 
 the earth was repeopled." "They admitted the exist- 
 ence of the soul hereafter, and connected with this a 
 belief in the resurrection of the body. They assigned 
 two distinct places for the residence of the good and 
 of the wicked."^ 
 
 Delafield says that there were regularly occurring 
 periods which were observed as Sabbaths. He says 
 there is some obscurity as to whether the period was 
 of seven or of nine days, but that "a Sabbath was 
 
 »Ibid., chapter S, pages 108, foot-note on 109; 99-102. 
 sibid., pages 93, 94. 
 
 •Thirl T^ao-AH on Q1 
 
 Bibia., pages ys, y4 
 •Ibid., pages 90, 91 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 61 
 
 observed — a day of rest was appointed and kept." 
 He asks, ** Whence could this custom have derived 
 its origin?"^ ° That mysterious personage, the Cul- 
 ture Hero, like the Quetzalcoatl of the Mexicans, 
 appears in Peruvian traditions, also. He has the 
 same characteristics attributed to him ; he came mys- 
 teriously; taught the arts of peace, and was white. 
 He was called Viracocha and Boohica. ^ * 
 
 WRITING. 
 
 The Peruvians, when the Europeans found them, 
 did not have the art of writing. They had a means of 
 keeping records, however, by the quippus, a curious 
 method or contrivance consisting of a cord, com- 
 posed of different colored threads, **from which a 
 quantity of smaller threads were suspended in the 
 manner of a fringe. The threads were of different 
 colors, and were tied into knots." By this curious 
 contrivance the revenues, property, supplies, census, 
 births, deaths, and marriages were kept account of , 
 and forwarded annually to the capitol, at Cuzco. 
 There the *' skeins of many colored threads" were 
 preserved, and **constituted what may be called the 
 national archives." Officers were appointed in each 
 district, called "keepers of the quipims,^* whose duty 
 it was to get and record this statistical information, 
 and report it to the capitol. Besides, the quippus 
 was used for arithmetical calculations with, the 
 
 i^Delafield's Antiquities of America, page 50. 
 
 11 Conquest of Peru, volume 1, book 1, chapter 3, pages 89, 93; 
 also see foot-notes on same pages. Antiquities of America, 
 page 16. 
 
62 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 Spaniards said, remarkable accuracy and rapidity of 
 execution.^* 
 
 The difference between the Peruvians, and the 
 Mexicans and Central Americans may seem strange, 
 at first thought. History furnishes numerous illus- 
 trations, however, of how different people may become 
 when separated from each other, and situated amid 
 new scenes, under different conditions. Indeed, it is 
 said that there are strong contrasts in dialect, man- 
 ners, and customs in people of the same nation 
 to-day. But it will be remembered that in the Book 
 of Mormon account, the Lamanite occupation of 
 South America, especially of the region of Peru, was 
 much older than in Central America and Mexico, 
 hence, in the centuries that elapsed after the Nephites 
 were driven out, there was plenty of time for their 
 arts to have been forgotten in South America. This 
 circumstance may be significant in relation with the 
 fact that the Discoverers found writings and books in 
 Mexico and Central America, but found none in Peru, 
 and at the same time, offers a very reasonable expla- 
 nation for the difference between the people of the 
 two geographical divisions in the features of their 
 civilization. 
 
 But there were signs indicating that the people 
 before the Incas must have had the art of writing. 
 Baldwin tells us: "Some of the Peruvian tongues 
 had names for paper; the people knew that a kind of 
 paper or parchment could be made of plantain leaves, 
 and, according to Montesinos, writing and books 
 
 12 Conquest of Peru, volume 1, book 1, chapter 4, pages 122, 
 123. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 63 
 
 were common in the older times, that, is to say, in 
 ages long previous to the Incas. It is not improbable 
 that a kind of hieroglyphical writing existed in some 
 of the Peruvian communities, especially among the 
 Aymaras. Humboldt mentions books of hieroglyph- 
 ical writing found among the Panoes, on the River 
 Ucayali, which were bundles of their paper resem- 
 bling our volumes in quarto. A Franciscan mis- 
 sionary found an old man sitting at the foot of a 
 palm-tree and reading one of these books to several 
 young persons. ... It was seen that the pages of 
 the book were covered with figures of men, animals, 
 and isolated characters, deemed hieroglyphical, and 
 arranged in lines with order and symmetry. The 
 Panoes said these books were transmitted to them by 
 their ancestors. . . . There is similar writing on a 
 prepared llama skin found among other antiquities 
 on a peninsula in Lake Titicaca, which is now in the 
 museum at La Paz, Bolivia."^' 
 
 SCHOOLS AND SCIENCE. 
 
 Schools were not so general, it seems, nor so 
 important in Peru as in Mexico. The curriculum was 
 not so extended. The Peruvians were behind the 
 Mexicans in writing and book -making. Neither were 
 they so advanced in science as the Aztecs, especially 
 in astronomy. * 'Nevertheless they had an accurate 
 measure of the solar year," says Baldwin, and had 
 "some knowledge of the planets." But just how 
 much they did know of astronomy is uncertain. He 
 says that there is reason to believe that they used 
 
 » ■Ancient America, pages 255, 256. 
 
64 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 "aids to eyesight in studying the heavens." Short 
 says: **A silver tube found in Peru represents a 
 man in the act of studying the heavens through one 
 of these tubes." ^* 
 
 Such science as the Peruvians possessed, how- 
 ever, was taught in their schools, the advantages of 
 which were accessible to the youth of the nobility 
 only. **They studied the laws, and the principles 
 of administering the government." **They were 
 initiated in the peculiar rites of their religion." 
 *'They learned also to emulate the achievements of 
 their royal ancestors by listening to the chronicles 
 compiled by the amautas." *'They were taught to 
 speak their own dialect with purity and elegance, and 
 they became acquainted with the mysterious science 
 of quippus, which supplied the Peruvians with the 
 means of communicating their ideas to one another, 
 and of transmitting them to future generations."^^ 
 In Mexico, priests taught in the schools, but not so in 
 Peru. Their teachers were called amaw^as, meaning 
 learned men, or **wise men," who were trained for 
 the professions of teaching, and their memory was 
 educated to **retain and transmit to posterity songs, 
 historical narratives, and long historical poems." 
 The history of the empire, which was chiefly the 
 history of the reigning Inca, and his achievements, 
 was handed down in this way. Men were appointed 
 to keep record of events, the amautas memorized the 
 accounts, and taught them to the youth. Thus his- 
 tory was conveyed, **partly by oral tradition and 
 
 1* Ibid., piges 253, 254; North Americans of Antiquity, page 98. 
 *» Conqucbt of Pevu, volume 1, book 1, chapter 4, page 122. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 65 
 
 partly by arbitrary signs," suggested by the quippus, 
 which aided the memory. ^ ^ 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Prescott says, **the Incas must be admitted to have 
 surpassed every other American race in their domin- 
 ion over the earth. "^"^ * 'Husbandry was pursued by 
 them on principles that may be truly called scien- 
 tific."^ ^ *'A11 accounts of the country at the time of 
 the Conquest agree in the statement that they cul- 
 tivated the soil in a very admirable way and with 
 remarkable success, using aqueducts for irrigation, 
 and employing guano as one of the most important 
 fertilizers. Europeans learned from them the value 
 of this fertilizer.'*^" Donnelly says they carried 
 irrigation and agriculture **to a point equal to that of 
 the Old World."^^ We can not go into particulars at 
 such length, in this series, as to describe their 
 achievements in agriculture, but all writers are 
 enthusiastic in speaking on the subject. They turned 
 waste places into fruitful gardens. It was seen that 
 the water furnished by irrigation was equally distrib- 
 uted, and there were strict laws protecting the rights 
 of each farmer and gardener to his share of the water 
 supply. Prescott gives this comprehensive picture: 
 "By a judicious system of canals and subterraneous 
 aqueducts, the waste places on the coast were 
 refreshed by copious streams, that clothed them in 
 
 i« Ibid., page 121; Ancient America, page 265. 
 
 1^ Conquest of Peru, volume 1, book 1, chapter 4, page 133. 
 
 18 Ibid., page 133. 
 
 i» Ancient America, page 247. 
 
 «•> Atlantis, page 395. 
 
66 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 fertility and beauty. Terraces were raised upon the 
 steep sides of the Cordillera; and as the different 
 elevations had the effect of difference of latitude, they 
 exhibited in regular gradation every variety of vege- 
 table form, from the stimulated growth of the tropics 
 to the temperate products of a northern clime ; while 
 flocks of llamas — the Peruvian sheep — wandered with 
 their shepherds over the broad snow -covered wastes 
 on the crests of the sierra, which rose above the 
 limits of cultivation. An industrious population set- 
 tled along the lofty regions of the plateaus, and 
 towns and hamlets, clustered amidst orchards and 
 wide -spreading gardens, seemed suspended in the 
 air far above the ordinary elevation of the clouds." ^^ 
 
 MANUFACTORIES. 
 
 **They had great proficiency in the arts of spin- 
 ning, weaving, and dyeing," says Baldwin. ^^ 
 **Their works in cotton and wool exceeded in fine- 
 ness anything known in Europe at that time," says 
 Donnelly.^*' They manufactured cloth from wool 
 and cotton, and were also expert in the beautiful 
 feather work "which they held of less account than 
 the Mexicans, from the superior quality of the mate- 
 rials for other fabrics which they had at their com- 
 mand." The finest variety of their wool cloth was 
 the vicuna, and none but an Inca noble could wear 
 this fabric. So beautiful was this cloth, so delicately 
 and richly colored, that the "Spanish sovereigns," 
 
 21 Conquest of Peru, volume 1, book 1, chapter 1, page 7. 
 2 2 Ancient America, page 247. 
 2 8 Atlantis, page 395. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 67 
 
 we are told, "with all the luxuries of Europe and Asia 
 at their command, did not disdain to use it."^* 
 Again, Prescott tells us: **The Peruvians showed 
 great skill in the manufacture of different articles for 
 the royal household from this delicate material, 
 which, under the name of vigonia wool, is now 
 familiar to the looms of Europe. It was wrought 
 into shawls, robes, and other articles of dress for the 
 monarch, and into carpets, coverlets, and hangings 
 for the imperial palaces and the temples. The cloth 
 was finished on both sides alike; the delicacy of the 
 texture was such as to give it the lustre of silk; and 
 the brilliancy of the dyes excited the admiration and 
 the envy of the European artisans." ^^ 
 
 They manufactured jewelry and ornaments; "uten- 
 sils of every description, some of fine clay, and many 
 more of copper; mirrors of a hard, polished stone, or 
 burnished silver, with a great variety of other arti- 
 cles, . . . evincing as much ingenuity as taste or 
 inventive talent. " ^ * 
 
 Mr. Kirk, in an editorial foot-note,*** says that 
 Prescott does not even do Peruvian pottery justice, 
 highly as he speaks of it. Baldwin says: "They 
 had great skill in the art of working metals, espe- 
 cially gold and silver. Besides these precious metals, 
 they had copper, tin, lead, and quicksilver.'* "Their 
 goldsmiths and silversmiths had attained very great 
 proficiency. They could melt the metals in furnaces, 
 
 ** Conquest of Peru, volume 1, book 1, chapter 1, page 31. 
 26 Ibid., page 152. 
 *» Ibid., page 154. 
 " Ibid., 163. 
 
68 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 cast them in molds of clay and gypsum, hammer 
 their work with remarkable dexterity, inlay it, and 
 solder it with great perfection." ^^ Their skill in the 
 cutting of gems was "equal to that of the Old 
 World," says Donnelly. ^^ They made a metal by 
 mixing tin and copper that was almost as hard as 
 steel, which material was largely used for tools. ^^ 
 
 "The remains of their works show what they were 
 as builders," says Baldwin. "Their skill in cutting 
 stone and their wonderful masonry can be seen and 
 admired by modern builders in what is left of their 
 aqueducts, their roads, their temples, and their other 
 great edifices. "^ * Prescott says that the architecture 
 
 81 Ancient America, page 247. 
 of the Incas was characterized "by simplicity, sym- 
 metry, and solidity." Commenting on what Prescott 
 has to say on Peruvian architecture, the editor, Mr. 
 Kirk, in a foot-note, declares: "In the foregoing 
 remarks the author has scarce done justice to the 
 artistic character of the Peruvian architecture, its 
 great superiority to the Mexicans, and the resem- 
 blances which it offers, in style and development, to 
 the early stages of Greek and Egyptian art."^* 
 
 WEALTH OF PERU. 
 
 The wealth of Peru is never overlooked by writel's. 
 So common was gold that "temples and palaces were 
 covered with it, and it was very beautifully wrought 
 
 2« Ancient America, pages 248, 249. 
 *» Atlantis, page 395. 
 
 so Conquest of Peru, volume 1, book 1, chapter 5, page 155. 
 SI Ancient America, page 247. 
 
 '^Conquest of Peru, volume 1, book 1, chapter 5, page 163, 
 foot-note. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 69 
 
 into ornaments, temple furniture, articles for house- 
 hold use, and imitations of almost every object in 
 nature. In the course of twenty -five years after the 
 Conquest, the Spaniards sent from Peru to Spain 
 more than four hundred million ducats ($800,000,000) 
 worth of gold." ^^ **The value of the jewels which 
 adorned the temples was equal to one hundred and 
 eighty millions of dollars. "^^ When the Spaniards 
 held the Inca ruler prisoner he promised them, if 
 they would give him his freedom, that he would 
 cover the floor with gold (it is stated that the room 
 was seventeen feet broad, by twenty -two feet long). 
 The Spaniards smiled incredulously, at which the 
 monarch declared that he would fill the room with 
 gold as high as he could reach, and a line was drawn 
 around the wall which was nine feet from the floor. 
 He also agreed to fill a small room, adjoining, with 
 silver. The gold and silver were not to be melted 
 into ingots, but to retain the original form of the 
 articles into which the metals had been manufac- 
 tured. The monarch forthwith sent out messengers 
 to the principal places of his kingdom to collect the 
 precious metals. He fulfilled his promise, but the 
 Spaniards did not keep theirs, and he was put to 
 death.3* 
 
 PUBLIC WORKS. 
 
 Prescott says: "Those who may distrust the 
 accounts of Peruvian industry will find their doubts 
 
 8 3 Ancient America, p. 250. 
 
 8 4 Atlantis, p. 346. 
 
 ■» Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 3, chap. 5, pp. 421, 423. 
 
70 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 removed on a visit to the country. The traveler still 
 meets, especially in the central regions of the table- 
 land, with memorials of the past, remains of temples, 
 palaces, fortresses, terraced mountains, great military 
 roads, aqueducts, and other public works."^* No 
 feature of Peruvian civilization is more famous in 
 history than their roads. "Humboldt pronounced 
 these Peruvian roads 'among the most useful and 
 stupendous works ever executed by man,' " says 
 Donnelly. 3 "^ **One of these roads passed over the 
 Grand Plateau." "It was conducted over pathless 
 sierras buried in snow ; galleries were cut for leagues 
 through the living rock; rivers were crossed by 
 means of bridges that swung suspended in the air ; 
 precipices were scaled by stairways hewn out of the 
 native bed; ravines of hideous depth were filled up 
 with solid masonry." "The length of the road . . . 
 is estimated at from fifteen hundred to two thousand 
 miles." Its breadth was about twenty feet. "It 
 was built of heavy flags of freestone, and in some 
 parts at least, was covered with a bituminous cement, 
 which time has made harder than the stone itself. 
 In some places, where the ravines had been filled 
 up with masonry, the mountain torrents, wearing on 
 it for ages, have gradually eaten a way through the 
 base, and left the superincumbent mass — such is the 
 cohesion of the materials — still spanning the valley 
 like an arch!"^® Where it was necessary to carry 
 their roads over streams they built suspension bridges 
 
 8« Ibid. , book 1, chap. 2, p. 64. 
 
 8 7 Atlantis, p. 141. 
 
 »8 Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 2, pp. 65, 66. 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 71 
 
 to do so.^® Donnelly says that they also built **mag- 
 nificent bridges of stone," and that their suspension 
 bridges were * 'thousands of years" before the idea 
 *Vas introduced into Europe. "**• 
 
 Scattered along Peruvian highways were places of 
 accommodation for the soldiery and traveler like our 
 *'taverns," or ''hotels, " as Donnelly speaks of 
 them.*^ There were also storehouses or magazines, 
 from which the troops were supplied as they passed 
 through the country, so well was every demand met 
 and everything systemized. 
 
 SAILBOAT AND POSTS. 
 
 The Peruvians used a sailboat, called balsas, with 
 which they navigated the larger streams and bodies 
 of water.** 
 
 The Peruvian posts, or system of communication, 
 was like the Mexican system, only more extended. 
 Prescott comments that "it is remarkable that this 
 important institution should have been known to both 
 the Mexicans and the Peruvians,"*^ since there was 
 no communication between the nations, nor even 
 knowledge of each other when the Europeans found 
 them. We shall see in a future chapter, however, 
 the evidence there is to show that such a condition 
 had not always existed. Their system of posts was 
 equal to that of the Persians and the Romans, says 
 Donnelly,** and Prescott remarks that "while the 
 
 89 Ibid., p. 66. 
 
 *o Atlantis, p. 141; also see Conquest of Peru, p. 75. 
 
 *»Ibid. 
 
 *2 Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 2, p. 67. 
 
 <8lbid., pp. 70, 71. 
 
 *<Atlantis, p. 141. 
 
72 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 Capitols of Christendom, but a few hundred miles 
 apart, remained as far asunder as if seas had rolled 
 between them, the great capitols Cuzco and Quito 
 were placed by the high roads of the Incas in imme- 
 diate correspondence."*^ It would take too much 
 space to describe this system of posts here. The 
 reader is referred to "Conquest of Peru," and **Con- 
 quest of Mexico," for accounts of this system of the 
 Peruvians and the Mexicans. 
 
 SOCIAL POLITY. 
 
 It is when we come to the social polity of the 
 Peruvians that we meet with the most remarkable 
 features of their civilization, perhaps. Consider such 
 statements as, there were no poor among them; all 
 were provided with the necessities of life; all had 
 homes. There was no famine, *'so common at that 
 period in every country of civilized Europe." Nev- 
 ertheless, this is declared to have been the case, and 
 the following description is from the account given 
 by Prescott.*^ 
 
 After certain lands, reserved for the support of the 
 Inca and the state, "the remainder of the lands was 
 divided, per capita, in equal shares among the people. 
 It was provided by law . . . that every Peruvian 
 should marry at a certain age. When this event 
 took place the community or district in which he lived 
 furnished him with a dwelling. ... A lot of land 
 was then assigned to him sufficient for his own 
 maintenance and that of his wife. An additional 
 
 *^ Conquest of Peru, p. 71. 
 *«Ibid., pp. 51,53,55-60. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 73 
 
 portion was granted for every child. . . . The divi- 
 sion of the soil was renewed every year, and the 
 possessions of the tenant were increased or dimin- 
 ished according to the numbers in his family." 
 
 There was corresponding division of labor. Each 
 one did not attend to his own interests, only, but 
 each one did his share in the common work to be 
 done. First the people, all the people, turned out 
 and cultivated the lands reserved for the support of 
 the temples and religious worship. These lands are 
 referred to as belonging to the Sun, because the 
 people were Sun worshipers. Next, they "tilled the 
 lands of the old, of the sick, of the widow and the 
 orphan, and of soldiers engaged in actual service.'* 
 **The people were then allowed to work on their own 
 ground, each man for himself, but with the general 
 obligation to assist his neighbor when under any 
 circumstances — the burden of a young and numerous 
 family, for instance — might demand it. Lastly, they 
 cultivated the lands of the Inca." 
 
 When time came to shear the sheep the wool was 
 **dealt out to each family in such quantities as suf- 
 ficed for his wants." "When the clothing for the 
 family was made, "the people were required to labor 
 for the Inca." Officers kept oversight, from time to 
 time, to see that the work was faithfully done, to see 
 "that each household should employ the materials 
 furnished for its own use in the manner that was 
 intended, so that no one should be unprovided with 
 necessary apparel." 
 
 "Occupation was found for all, from the child five 
 years old to the aged matron not too infirm to hold a 
 
74 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 distaff." "The different provinces of the country- 
 furnished persons peculiarly suited to different 
 employment." "No one was required to give more 
 than a stipulated portion of his time to the public 
 service," when another took his place, and so on. 
 "By this constant rotation of labor it was intended 
 that no one should be overburdened," nor have to 
 neglect his own needs. While employed for the 
 government on any work, the artisan was maintained 
 at public expense. Famine was avoided by storing 
 the surplus products of the field and manufacture in 
 magazines, in times of plenty, to be distributed 
 among the people in time of misfortune. The Span- 
 iards found these magazines stored with supplies of 
 all kinds. 
 
 The criticism has been made of the Peruvian social 
 system that it permitted little or no scope for indi- 
 viduality, and interfered with personal freedom. 
 "They could follow no craft," we are told, "could 
 engage in no labor, no amusement, but such as was 
 specially provided by law. They could not change 
 their residence or their dress without a license from 
 the government." Their whole life was a fixed rou- 
 tine. A man could not advance from the station in 
 which he was born. The people were treated as 
 dependencies of the government. "The sovereign 
 was placed at an immeasurable distance above his 
 subjects." "As the representative of the Sun, he 
 stood at the head of the priesthood, and presided 
 at the most important of the religious festivals. He 
 raised armies." "He imposed taxes, made laws, and 
 provided for their execution by the appointment of 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 75 
 
 judges, whom he removed at pleasure. He was the 
 source from which everything flowed, — all dignity, 
 all power, all emolument. He was in short, . . . 
 'himself the state.' "^"^ The Inca was believed to be 
 incapable of crime, and was regarded with supersti- 
 tious reverence. He was the ruler, spiritually and 
 temporally. Prescott says: * 'We shall look in vain 
 in the history of the East for a parallel to the absolute 
 control exercised by the Incas over their subjects; 
 that there is no precedent in history, to such an 
 extent, of combined authority of opinion and posi- 
 tive power" in the ruler. *^ 
 
 Between the nobility and the people there was a 
 wide gulf. "They were distinguished by many exclu- 
 sive privileges." They lived in a pomp and style 
 high above the common people. They "filled every 
 station of high trust and emolument." Knowledge 
 and education were the privileges of the aristocracy. 
 "Science was not intended for the people, but for 
 those of generous blood," was a favorite maxim of 
 one of the Incas. Yet, the Spanish writers testify, 
 the common people were contented and happy. 
 "The laws were carefully directed to their preserva- 
 tion and personal comfort. The people were not 
 allowed to be employed on works pernicious to their 
 health, nor to pine . . . under the imposition of tasks 
 too heavy for their powers. They were never made 
 the victims of public or private extortion; and a 
 benevolent forecast watched carefully over their 
 necessities, and provided for their relief in seasons 
 
 *'' Ibid., chap. 1, p. 26. 
 
 *« Ibid., chap. 5, pp. 168, 171. 
 
76 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 of infirmity, and for their sustenance in health. The 
 government of the Incas, however arbitrary in form, 
 was in its spirit truly patriarchal."*® We are 
 informed that the Spanish government sent men **of 
 high judicial station and character" to South America 
 to study the institutions of Peru.*° 
 
 Writers speak of the Peruvian system as being 
 "remarkable." It was all of that at the least, and 
 certainly presents an interesting subject for study. 
 It was of a heterogeneous character as was the rest of 
 the civilization found here by the Europeans. Good 
 institutions are not inherited from bad ones, but good 
 systems, left to an inferior people, will become cor- 
 rupted and mixed with their imperfections. The 
 blending in the same government, of such kindly 
 consideration with such despotism is without prece- 
 dent in history. Under other governments as des- 
 potic, and where the classes have been as widely 
 separated, enjoying as unequal opportunities and 
 privileges, there has been, ... at the same time, no 
 such thought or provision for the material welfare of 
 the common people. On the other hand, a govern- 
 ment that is framed for the good of all the people, 
 irrespectively, acknowledging no hereditary claims 
 to distinction, is based upon the sovereignty of 
 the individual. But in the Peruvian system we find 
 that a condition of general physical welfare existed 
 that is not had under the most liberal and enlightened 
 governments to-day, and at the same time, as indif- 
 erent an estimate of the moral rights and dignity of 
 
 *» Ibid., p. 170. 
 
 »o Ibid., chap. 2, p. 61. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 77 
 
 the individual as was ever held under the most des- 
 potic and aristocratic government. Such a state of 
 things could only point back to a time, a people, that 
 must have been more consistently and symmetrically 
 developed, as antiquarians declare was the case; to 
 a people directed by principles, the genius of which 
 must have been the spirit and philosophy of true 
 brotherhood. 
 
 WHO WERE THE INCAS? 
 
 The Incas, in themselves, present an interesting 
 subject for study, and such information as scientific 
 investigation has been able to gain about them but 
 contributes added evidence on the side of the Book 
 of Mormon. Prescott stops to ask, in wonderment, 
 who the Incas were; whence they came. The inter- 
 pretation of Inca is "lord, ruler," but, we are 
 informed, the name was applied to all males 
 descended from the rulers, from the founder of the 
 monarchy. As the Peruvian monarchs were polyga- 
 mists, leaving behind them families of **one or even 
 two hundred children," the descendants became very 
 numerous, and constituted the first order of the 
 nobility. ^^ 
 
 The Peruvian empire was made up of different 
 families, or tribes of people, but the Incas were an 
 exclusive class, holding themselves above all the 
 others. "Distinguished by a pecuUar dress and 
 insignia, as well as by language and blood," says 
 Prescott, "from the rest of the community, they were 
 never confounded with the other tribes and nations 
 
 •» Ibid., chapter 1, pages 23, 36, 37. 
 
78 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 who were incorporated into the great Peruvian mon- 
 archy. After the lapse of centuries they still retained 
 their individuality as a peculiar people." *'They 
 possessed, moreover, an intellectual preeminence 
 which, no less than their station, gave them authority 
 with the people. Indeed, it may be said to have been 
 the principal foundation of their authority."^ ^ It 
 will be remembered that in a previous chapter, we 
 called attention to the influence that Nephite seces- 
 sionists always had with the Lamanites for these 
 very reasons, and there was no doubt a large admix- 
 ture of Nephite blood in the families of South 
 America. The account reads that when Mosiah left 
 the city Nephi, it was only the righteous that went 
 with him. The unfaithful remained behind, in 
 Lamanite dominion, as that part of the country now 
 become. Besides these, at intervals along the sub- 
 sequent course of their history, there were other 
 acquisitions from the ranks of the Nephites, as was 
 explained about in the previous chapter referred to 
 before. 
 
 In these circumstances, we believe, the mystery of 
 the Incas is solved ; at least, it is a better theory for 
 their origin than science has been able to hit upon ; 
 a theory that meets every requirement in the case, 
 and if the skeptic does not want to credit it, what 
 reasons will he give for the merits of it — that the sup- 
 position deduced from the Book of Mormon narrative 
 should so remarkably account for the character of 
 the Incas? Investigation about the Incas, however, 
 
 »2 Ibid., pp. 39, 40. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 79 
 
 has revealed more than simply the manner of people 
 that they were. We have some clue to their origin 
 which, though little, is very significant. They spoke 
 the Quichua language, *'the richest and most com- 
 prehensive of the South American dialects,"^ ^ we 
 are informed. The Quichuas, Donnelly tells us, were 
 a superior people, belonging to the period of higher 
 civilization that preceded the Incas. The Incas suc- 
 ceeded the Quichuas, and were an **off shoot" from 
 them. We are given the further important intelli- 
 gence that the Quichuas were a * 'fair- skinned race, 
 with blue eyes and light and even auburn hair." 
 The Incas are described as having been a lighter 
 people than the average Indian. Donnelly says that 
 the descendants of the Quichuas "are to this day an 
 olive -skinned people, much lighter than the Indian 
 tribes subjugated by them."** 
 
 -3 Ibid., chip. 2, p. 81. 
 6 4 Atlantis, pp. 391, 392, 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE CIVILIZATION BEFORE THE AZTECS AND 
 THE INCAS. 
 
 rr WAS A HIGHER CIVILIZATION. 
 
 In the study of the people whom the Discoverers 
 found here, and their civilization — the incongruous 
 nature of it; the inconsistent mixture of refinement 
 and barbarism ; the fact that the people did not create 
 or develop the arts they enjoyed; that they could not 
 give account of the origin of the more superior of the 
 institutions among them; the traditions they pre- 
 served of other days and greater power; the traces 
 found among them of lost arts and a superior culture 
 — all these things point backwards, and argue that 
 before the Aztecs and the Incas there must have been 
 a people of a higher type ; a civilization that was of a 
 finer character and more advanced in arts, skill, and 
 industry. 
 
 The ruins of North and South America, however, 
 present the most important evidence, without which 
 antiquarians would be slow to form conclusions about 
 the more remote civilization of America from the 
 accounts of the nations discovered by the Spaniards 
 in Mexico, Central America, and Peru. Whatever 
 has been found in the character and the institutions 
 of these nations indicating an earlier and higher civi- 
 lization has been borne out by the silent testimony 
 of the ruins. Through centuries they have stood as 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 81 
 
 indisputable witnesses to declare to the world that 
 there had been a civilization in America older than 
 that of the Aztecs and the Incas, and superior to it. 
 
 We are told of cities in Central America that were 
 deserted long before the beginning of the Aztec 
 period; that were hidden in dense forests, and had 
 been forgotten by the time the Spaniards came. Of 
 the famous cities of Palenque, Ococingo, and Copan, 
 Bancroft says: *'The natives of the neighboring 
 region knew nothing of their origin even if they were 
 aware of their existence, and no notice whatever of 
 the existence of such cities appears in the annals of 
 the surrounding civilized nations during the eight or 
 nine centuries preceding the Conquest." Mr. Ban- 
 croft further says that the nation that built Palenque 
 "was not one of those found by Europeans in the 
 country," but was a nation whose **greatness had 
 practically departed before the Quiche, Cakchiquel, 
 and Yucatan powers," Maya nations of the Aztec 
 period.* All archaeologists agree with Professor 
 Baldwin who tells us that the older ruins were of 
 superior character to those of the latter period.^ 
 
 Speaking of the people before the Aztec era, Ban- 
 croft says of the Toltecs, that the name came to be 
 ** synonymous with all that is excellent in art,"^ while 
 of another people whom modern historians rank as 
 older, and call Colhuas, Baldwin says, *'They seem to 
 
 * Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 5, p. 167; also see 
 Ancient America, p. 93. 
 
 2" Some of the oldest and most mysterious monuments seem- 
 ing to indicate the highest development." Ancient America, p. 
 78; also see p. 156. 
 
 3 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 240. 
 
82 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 have been, in some respects, more advanced in civili- 
 zation than the Toltecs."* "We have caught tradi- 
 tional glimpses far back in the misty past of a mighty 
 aboriginal empire in these tropical lands,'' says Ban- 
 croft, which the material ruins of Palenque, Copan, 
 **and their companions in ruins," prove to be "no 
 mere creation of the imagination."^ "A nation has 
 passed away," says Prescott, "powerful, populous, 
 and well advanced in refinement, as attested by their 
 monuments, but it has perished without a name. It 
 has died and made no sign."^ 
 
 Down in South America, we are told by Prescott, 
 there were "extensive ruins" on the shores of Lake 
 Titicaca "which the Peruvians, themselves, acknowl- 
 edge to be of older date than the pretended advent of 
 the Incas, and to have furnished them with the models 
 of their architecture.""" The name by which some 
 writers speak of the civilization that preceded the 
 Incas is Quichua. "They were a great race," says 
 Donnelly. "Peru, as it was known to the Spaniards, 
 held very much the same relation to the ancient 
 Quichua civilization as England in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury held to the civilization of the Caesars." "The 
 Quichua nation extended at one time over a region 
 of country more than two thousand miles long." 
 Speaking of the ruins at a place called Gran-Chimu, 
 Donnelly informs us that there were found the 
 
 * Ancient America, p. 199. 
 ^ Native Races, vol. 5, p. 157. 
 
 6 Conquest of Mexico, vol. 2, book 5, chap. 4, p. 379. (Uni- 
 verspJ edition.) 
 
 7 Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 1, p. 11. (Universal 
 edition.) 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 83 
 
 remains of tombs, temples, palaces, water-tanks, 
 shops, municipal edifices, dwellings, prisons, fur- 
 naces for smelting metals, *'and almost every con- 
 comitant of civilization,"^ and this is but one 
 instance. 
 
 DIFFERENT PERIODS. 
 
 Thus we see that the Book of Mormon is amply- 
 supported in its general historic claim that there was 
 an ancient civilization in America. But the book 
 describes different civilizations by different peoples; 
 there was the Jaredite era, and then the Nephite 
 era, after which the conquering Lamanites reigned 
 supreme. The Jaredites confined themselves to 
 North America, while the Nephites occupied both 
 divisions, as did also their successors. This last 
 period we have recognized in the times of the Aztecs 
 and the Incas, and while, as we have seen, the evi- 
 dence clearly shows that both North and South 
 America had a history anterior to the Aztec and the 
 Inca period, our young students must be prepared to 
 find much difference of opinion among scientific gen- 
 tlemen in regard to the divisions of that history. It 
 should be remembered that there is so little, if any- 
 thing, to speak directly for that remote stretch of 
 time, that all that scientists can do is to speculate 
 about it, and it is not strange that there should be 
 diversity of opinion among them. It will be seen, 
 however, further on, that in the very reason why 
 theories differ, there is remarkable vindication of 
 Book of Mormon assertions. Leading authorities do 
 
 • See Atlantis, pp. 391-393. 
 
84 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 not hesitate to declare that there were different peo- 
 ples and correspondingly different periods of civiliza- 
 tion preceding the Aztec and the Inca period, and 
 those who oppose this position are unable to maintain 
 their ground. Take, for instance, Charnay, and 
 notice how the evidence he presents contradicts his 
 own theory, and he is often compelled, himself, to 
 admit the fact, indirectly. 
 
 Because of the similarity in the ruins of North 
 America, Charnay thinks they must all be attributed 
 to the same people whom, he says, were the Toltecs, 
 and indeed, he is both right and wrong, according 
 to the Book of Mormon. The Nephites reinhabited 
 the regions of the Jaredites, built upon the ruins of 
 their predecessors, no doubt, and Nephite individu- 
 ality was spread through the country. The anti- 
 quarian who, because of the difference he finds in 
 the ruins says that they did not belong to *ii^ same 
 people is right, to be sure, while the one whc because 
 of the resemblances he finds, says the ruins represent 
 one people, is right in a sense also. This is why we 
 remarked, a while ago, that there is harmony with 
 the Book of Mormon in the seeming discord among 
 authorities on this question. Charnay himself, how- 
 ever, points out that there are striking differences in 
 the ruins. He often notes the mixture of styles in 
 the same buildings, as, for instance, speaking of a 
 ruin called the * 'Nunnery," at Chichen-Itza (in the 
 northeastern part of Yucatan), he says: *'In this 
 building are curious traces of masonry out of charac- 
 ter with the general structure, showing the place to 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 85 
 
 have been occupied at two different epochs."' 
 Again, although this writer would have us to believe 
 that the ancient ruins belonged to the same people, 
 and accounts for the contrasts that occur as marking 
 different stages of advancement of the same people, 
 yet he tells us that the ruins of Mitla bear no resem- 
 blance to those of Mexico or Yucatan, *' either in their 
 ornamentation or mode of building."^" Speaking of 
 Lorillard town, he is forced to admit that the ''differ- 
 ences of type" may point to **two different races." ^ ^ 
 This much will do as an illustration to show the 
 inconsistencies of the position that assumes that the 
 civilization prior to that of the Aztecs and the Incas 
 belonged to the same people. In South America, 
 there was the Inca period, and the pre-Inca period. 
 Baldwin says: *'It is now agreed that the Peruvian 
 antiquities represent two distinct periods in the 
 ancient history of the country."^ ^ In North 
 America, leading authorities generally acknowledge 
 three distinct periods, namely, the Aztec period, the 
 
 » Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 333; see also p. 475. 
 
 10 Ibid., p. 504. 
 
 11 Ibid., p. 443; also see p. 501. 
 
 12 Ancient America, p. 226. 
 
 "Moreover, these old ruins, in all cases, show us only the 
 cities last occupied in the periods to which they belong. Doubt- 
 less others still older preceded them; and, besides, it can be 
 seen that some of the ruined cities which can now be traced 
 were several times renewed by reconstruction." — Ibid., p. 152. 
 "In Peru, the people who followed the earliest races used extant 
 remains for the foundations of their monuments, as, for instance, 
 at Cuzco; whereas in Mexico and Central America monuments 
 were repaired and restored on the same plan as that on which 
 they had been erected." — Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 
 134. 
 
86 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 Toltec period, and the pre-Toltec period.*' Some 
 writers designate the pre-Toltec period as the Colhuas 
 period.^* 
 
 We think it would be well if we pause here to call 
 the attention of the young student to certain theories 
 that he may be prepared for them when he meets 
 them. Mr. Bancroft divides the people of the differ- 
 ent periods of American antiquity into the Nahua and 
 the Maya races, classing the Toltecs and the Chichi- 
 mecs as Nahua peoples, while the Mayas, though 
 contemporary with the Aztecs, descended from the 
 first period, he says, — and he is not alone in this idea, 
 — and were a distinct people. One weak point in this 
 theory is the classing of the Toltecs and the Chichi - 
 mecs in the same racial division. Mr. Short expresses 
 surprise that so careful a reasoner as Bancroft should 
 
 18 Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 157, 158. 
 
 "It is a point of no little interest that these old constructions 
 belong to different periods in the past, and represent somewhat 
 different phases of civilization. Uxmal, which is supposed to 
 have been partly inhabited when the Spaniards arrived in the 
 country, is plainly much more modern than Copan or Palenque. 
 This is easily traced in the ruins. Its edifices were finished in 
 a different style, and show fewer inscriptions. Round pillars, 
 somewhat in the Doric style, are found at Uxmal, but none like 
 the square, richly carved pillars, bearing inscriptions, discovered 
 in some of the other ruins." 
 
 "Among the edifices forgotten by time in the forests of Mexico 
 and Central America, we find architectural characteristics so 
 different from each other, that it is as impossible to attribute 
 them all to the same people as to believe they were all built at 
 the same epoch." — Ancient America, pp. 155, 156. 
 
 "VioUet le Due is of the opinion that the builders of the 
 great remains in Southern Mexico and Yucatan belonged to two 
 different branches of the human family, a light-skinned and 
 dark-skinned race respectively." — Short's North Americans of 
 Antiquity, p. 110. 
 
 14 Ancient America, pp. 198, 199. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 87 
 
 do so, when there is known to have been such a radi- 
 cal difference between the Toltecs and the Chichimecs 
 as that the former people were originators and devel- 
 opers of civihzation, while the latter people could 
 only imitate. 
 
 The reasons for the belief held by Bancroft and 
 other authorities, namely, that the Mayas descended 
 from the pre-Toltec period are, that the Mayas 
 appeared to be a distinct and an older people than 
 any other found here by the Spaniards. They kept 
 themselves exclusive from all of the other tribes. 
 They were of a more refined nature than the Aztecs, 
 superior to them in culture, and their religion was 
 not of the horrible, cruel character that the religion 
 of their Mexican neighbors was. They were the only 
 race found here by the conquerors that were using a 
 phonetic system of writing. They had a language of 
 their own, the "most ancient on the continent," says 
 Short, and to-day but one language is spoken by the 
 Mayas in Yucatan. "No people in America show 
 less indications of admixture with foreign tribes," it 
 is said. Their exclusiveness and tenacious individu- 
 ality remind us of the Incas of South America. 
 
 While noting the contrasts between the Nahuas and 
 the Mayas, Bancroft also remarks the resemblances 
 which, he says, are so many that they "may be con- 
 sistently accounted for by the theory that at some 
 period long preceding the sixth century the two peo- 
 ples were practically one."^^ He says that it was 
 after their separation in their ancient empire that 
 
 "Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 167, 168. 
 
88 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 they became **practically distinct peoples," **hence 
 the analogies" between them, and the differences, 
 resulting *'from development and progress in differ- 
 ent paths, during the ten centuries that elapsed 
 before the coming of the Spaniards."^ ^ Mr. Ban- 
 croft's reasoning, to an extent, borders on the con- 
 clusion that would be inferred from the Book of 
 Mormon, and that is, that in the Mayas was a larger 
 admixture of the superior blood of the Nephites than 
 was in the other tribes; a blood that had, indeed, 
 descended from a grand and ancient empire. Hence 
 the superiority of the Mayas over the other native 
 American tribes is easily accounted for, while at the 
 same time there was such a similarity in physical 
 appearances and in other respects as to cause all the 
 families or tribes of native Americans to be classed 
 as Indians in the history and geography of to-day, 
 or, as the Book of Mormon believer would call them, 
 Lamanites. Again we have to note how a peculiar 
 situation, perplexing to science, becomes clear and 
 simple, and finds an adequate explanation in the 
 Book of Mormon. 
 
 Going back to the point where we left off, Mr. 
 Bancroft is not clear about the history back of the 
 Toltec period. As we have cited to show, he asserts 
 that there was a pre-Toltec period. He thinks that 
 the traditions of the Mayas point back to that period. 
 On one hand he identifies the Mayas with the oldest 
 history and ruins in the country, and then on the 
 other hand says that there was another period, far 
 
 i« Ibid., pp. 235, 236. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 89 
 
 older than the Mayas. **Doubtless the Votanic was 
 not the first period of American civilization and 
 power,"^'' he observes, but the "pre-Votanic nations 
 have left absolutely no record."^ ^ *'Who were these 
 people ... and what was their past history?" he 
 asks. 
 
 Out of all the confusion of scientific opinion on the 
 question of the divisions of the ancient history of 
 America, we wish the young student to see that 
 there is one great fact to be derived, namely, that 
 there were different periods of civilization. Because 
 worldly-wise men do not agree with one another in 
 their opinions as to the number of the ancient periods, 
 or the people who made the history of those periods, 
 and get tangled, themselves, in the web of their own 
 theories, it does not detract from the confirmatory 
 importance that the archaeological fact has in its 
 bearing on the claims of the Book of Mormon. 
 
 REGIONS OF OLDEST ANTIQUITY. 
 
 It is very important to know to what localities 
 archaeology points as the starting places, or the oldest 
 seats of America's ancient civilization. The Book of 
 Mormon says that the first civilization, that of the 
 Jaredites, started in Central America; that the second 
 civilization, that of the Nephites, was planted on the 
 west side of South America. Let us see what archaeo- 
 logical evidence has to offer on this question. 
 
 Short says: *'The most ancient civilization on this 
 continent, judging from the combined testimony of 
 
 17 Ibid., p. 165. 
 "Ibid., p. 231. 
 
90 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 tradition, records, and architectural remains, was 
 that which grew up under the favorable climate and 
 geographical surroundings which the Central Ameri- 
 can region southward of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec 
 afforded." (a) Baldwin tells us: "To find the chiei 
 seats and most abundant remains of the most 
 remarkable civilization of this old American race, we 
 must go still further south into Central America and 
 some of the more southern states of Mexico. Here 
 ruins of ancient cities have been discovered, cities 
 which must have been deserted and left to decay 
 in ages previous to the beginning of the Aztec 
 supremacy." (b) Bancroft says: **The oldest civi- 
 lization in America which has left any traces for our 
 consideration, whatever may have been its prehistoric 
 origin, was that in the Usumacinta (Central Ameri- 
 can) region represented by the Palenque group of 
 ruins." (c) We might go on multiplying the evidence 
 on this point, but it is not necessary. Enough has 
 been given to show that archaeology places the oldest 
 civilization of America where the Book of Mormon 
 describes it to have flourished. 
 
 Passing on, now, to the second civilization, if we 
 should learn that discovery and research had proven 
 that the east side of South America, for instance, 
 gave evidence of the greatest antiquity of that divi- 
 sion; or that, on the other hand, no evidences of 
 an ancient civilization had been found in South 
 
 (a) Short's North Americans of Antiquity, p. 203. 
 
 (b) Ancient America, p. 93. 
 
 (c) Native Races, vol. 5, p. 168; also see p. 230. See Char- 
 nay's preface to Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 26. 
 
AND ARGHJEOLOGY. 91 
 
 America, at all, it would prove that, whatever other 
 merits the Book of Mormon might have, it could not 
 be depended on for absolute accuracy of historical 
 statement. But what do we find? Prescott tells us 
 that the source of the pre-Inca civilization ''is traced 
 to the Valley of Cuzco, the central region of Peru;" 
 a conclusion that is confirmed by "nearly every tra- 
 dition," he says, and "by the imposing architectural 
 remains which still endure, after the lapse of so many 
 years," on the borders of Lake Titicaca. (d) "The 
 uniform and constant report of Peruvian tradition," 
 says Baldwin, "places the beginning of this old civi- 
 lization in the Valley of Cuzco, near Lake Titicaca. 
 There appeared the first civilizers and the first civi- 
 lized communities." (e) 
 
 Let us not be understood as meaning to convey 
 the idea that scientific writers agree in their opinions 
 as to the ancient civilizations of America having 
 originated in the localities that have been pointed 
 
 (d) Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 1, pp. 8, 13, 14. 
 Baldwin gives the discoveries of James S. Wilson: **At various 
 points along the coast of Ecuador, in 1860, he found ancient or 
 fossil pottery, vessels, images, and other manufactured articles, 
 all finely "wrought. Some of these articles were of gold. The 
 most remarkable fact concerning them is that they were taken 
 from a stratum of ancient surface earth which was covered with 
 a marine deposit six feet thick. . . .The ancient surface earth 
 or vegetable mold, with its pottery, gold-work, and other relics 
 of civilized human life, was, therefore, below the sea when that 
 marine deposit was spread over it. This land, after being occu- 
 pied by men, had subsided and settled below the ocean, remained 
 there long enough to accumulate the marine deposit, and again 
 been elevated to its former position above the sea level. Since 
 this elevation forests have been established over it which are 
 older than the Spanish Conquest, and now it is once more sub- 
 siding." — Ancient America, p. 274. 
 
 (e) Ancient America, p. 236. 
 
32 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 out. Some antiquarians so believe, and some do 
 not. To be sure none can deny that these locahties 
 are the most ancient seats to which civilization can be 
 traced **by traditional, monumental, and linguistic 
 records," to quote Bancroft. Why are the scientific 
 gentlemen unsettled, then? asks the young student. 
 We try to show the reason in a future chapter, but as 
 the query naturally rises here, we answer briefly, 
 that it is because they make the mistake of applying 
 the traditions of the Maya 7'aces to the people who 
 began their national career in Central Amey'ica. The 
 untenability of this idea, and the irreconcilable diffi- 
 culties in which it involves antiquarians, will be 
 explained in the future chapter referred to. So far 
 as all existing traces are concerned, all facts that 
 have been proven to be such, they are in perfect 
 accord with the Book of Mormon in designating the 
 regions of the oldest American civilizations to have 
 been where that book outlines those civilizations to 
 have started and developed. 
 
THE RUINS OF ANCIENT AMERICA. 
 PREFACE. — DIVISIONS OF AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 No division is made in the ruins of South America. 
 In North America, because of peculiarities about dif- 
 ferent sections, it is found more convenient to divide 
 the remains into three classes; namely, those of 
 Central America and Mexico; the Mound -builders 
 of the United States in the valleys of the Mississippi, 
 the Missouri, the Ohio, and their tributaries; the 
 Pueblos, or Cliff-dwellers, of Northern Mexico, and 
 of our States and Territories, of Utah, Colorado, 
 Arizona, and New Mexico. 
 
 Much of what archaeological information there is 
 about the remote people of Mexico and Central 
 America has been derived from the institutions and 
 traditions of the people occupying the ancient sites, 
 the Mayas, the Aztecs, and other contemporary 
 nations. But the works of the Mound -builders were 
 deserted when the Discoverers came, deserted and 
 overgrown with forests, and only wild Indian tribes 
 roamed through the wilderness of the United States. 
 There were no buildings left of the Mound -builders 
 when the country was discovered; nothing, in fact, 
 but the mysterious earthworks after which modern 
 history has called the vanished people. 
 
 "While the regions of Mexico and Central America 
 were occupied more recently than the territory of the 
 Mound-builders, apparently, yet there is a principal 
 
94 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 feature of architecture that runs through all the ruins 
 of both sections. It is the mound, or pyramid. It is 
 found in the valleys mentioned of the United States, 
 and it is found in Mexico and Central America. 
 
 The ruins of the Pueblos, or Cliff-dwellers, how- 
 ever, differ from all the rest of the remains of 
 America. The mode of building was peculiar to the 
 people. As in the case of the Mound -builders, 
 though, there are no traditions about the Pueblos to 
 amount to anything, because, since the people van- 
 ished, their ruins have been inhabited by uncivilized 
 Indian tribes, after whom, partly, the ancient builders 
 are called. The other name. Cliff-dwellers, is signifi- 
 cant of the manner of their living, the situation of 
 their homes. 
 
 CHANGES THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE. 
 
 Any attempt to say, exactly, from the ruins, what 
 the ancient civilization of America was, would be 
 unfair, since so much time elapsed between the dis- 
 covery of the ruins, and the disappearance of the 
 people who inhabited them. According to the Book 
 of Mormon it has been fifteen hundred years since 
 the latter people, the Nephites, disappeared. The 
 earliest that Europeans made any study of the 
 ancient civilization was in the sixteenth century, and 
 the Nephites had been gone more than a thousand 
 years, then, for their career came to an end four 
 hundred years after Christ. Archaeological esti- 
 mates, though they differ, yet all place the close of 
 the pre- Aztec -Inca period in the early centuries of 
 the Christian era. Bancroft says that the end of the 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 95 
 
 Nahua power (he means the empire before the 
 Aztecs) was "at some period probably preceding the 
 fifth century. "1 Baldwin quotes Montesinos as 
 asserting that the original civilization of Peru began 
 to go down in the "first or second century of the 
 Christian era," when a "period of disintegration, 
 decline, and disorder" set in.^ 
 
 It matters not which we take; whether the time 
 given in the Book of Mormon, or the approximations 
 of archaeological writers, it had been hundreds of 
 years, up to the time when inquiry concerning them 
 was first made, since the ancient people vanished. 
 When it is remembered that during all that time their 
 remains were in the possession of other peoples, it 
 can be seen how little there must have been to speak 
 directly for the ancient civilizers when modern inves- 
 tigation sought to unlock the mysteries of the past, 
 and how could it be known what was purely of their 
 authorship or workmanship? Of course the best that 
 was found in the remains would be credited to them, 
 but even then, how could it be known to what extent 
 that represented the true culture or highest attain- 
 ments of the ancient people? A current writer, 
 speaking about Asiatic ruins, remarks, "It is a fact 
 that when an ancient city was completely deserted 
 and the site abandoned, much more remains of its 
 edifices and in a far better state of preservation than 
 when the locaHty was continuously occupied." "The 
 explanation is easy. Succeeding generations employ 
 
 « Ancient America 
 
 1. 5, p. 2 
 , p. 264. 
 
90 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 the materials of their own dwellings. Temples 
 become quarries, the walls of palaces are storehouses 
 of stone and brick for the construction of dwellings, 
 of embankments, of fortifications. Sculptured mar- 
 bles find their way into the walls of hovels, inscribed 
 monuments become foundation stones, the new city 
 is being continually rebuilt and renovated at the 
 expense of the old." This will apply with equal 
 truth, of course, to the ruins of any other part of 
 the world, and hence it is plain to be seen how dim 
 must be the traces of the ancient Americans after 
 hundreds of years of occupancy of their ruins by 
 another, and numerous people. "We can not do bet- 
 ter than to quote from the "Report of the Committee 
 on American Archaeology," here: "Their countries 
 and chief places of settlement, after being long 
 inhabited by themselves, were overrun by a foe 
 stronger than they, who occupied and built upon 
 their ruins; and they in turn were vanquished by 
 others; nation rising after nation, and conflict fol- 
 ioAving conflict, until the work of the older civihza- 
 tion, except the most enduring, became effaced and 
 destroyed ; and these even have fallen, more or less, 
 into decay, been worked over and inwrought into 
 later and even modern superstructions ; or left to the 
 wilds, hidden by overgrown forest, until the tooth of 
 time has greatly obscured even the most enduring." 
 Another factor of destructive nature has been 
 physical changes in the country. Quoting the 
 "Report" again: "Wind, wave, and earthquake 
 have united to change the face of nature also as the 
 history of modern times shows as being most proba- 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 97 
 
 ble. No doubt where once existed beautiful plains, 
 plateaus, and landscapes, containing cities and ham- 
 lets filled with a numerous and thrifty population, are 
 now to be found but hills and mountains, volcanoes, 
 and lakes of water ; great rivers have changed their 
 course by reason of upheavals and depressions in the 
 land, and highways raised upon the mountain top, 
 or become buried in the bowels of the earth. All of 
 this is within the range of probabilities, judging from 
 what is known to have occurred in the history of 
 many of these countries in recent years. Markham 
 says: 'The whole Peruvian coast is subject to fre- 
 quent and severe earthquakes, more especially the 
 southern sections. The most terrible in its effects 
 was that of 1746, which destroyed Callao (kal-ya-o). 
 Callao was overwhelmed by a vast wave which rose 
 eighty feet, and the shocks continued until the fol- 
 lowing February. On August 13, 1868, a fearful 
 earthquake nearly destroyed Arequipa and leveled 
 the cathedral, and great waves rolled in upon the 
 ports of Arica (a-re-ka) and Iquique (e-ke-ka). An 
 equally terrible visitation took place on May 9, 1877, 
 in the extreme south of Peru, when all the southern 
 ports were overwhelmed. These fearful catastrophes 
 are connected with volcanic action, and they are in 
 greatest force in the neighborhood of volcanoes, 
 whether extinct or active. Since 1570 there have 
 been seventy violently destructive earthquakes 
 recorded on the west coast of South America, but 
 the record is of course very incomplete in its earlier 
 part.' "3 
 
 » Report of Committee on American Archaeology, p. 6. 
 
98 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 In the Sunday's Globe- Democrat , August 14, 1898, 
 Frank G. Carpenter, writing from South America of 
 "The Nitrate Deserts of Chili," says: "For the past 
 three weeks I have been traveling through a vast 
 chemical laboratory of the gods. I have ridden over 
 miles of plains covered with salt, have visited lakes 
 of whitest borax, have wound in and out among 
 mountains rich in tin, coppej, and silver, and now 
 write almost in the midst of the vast nitrate fields of 
 Chili like unto which there is nothing on the face of 
 the earth." Mr. Carpenter goes on to say that these 
 vast nitrate fields are a source of wonder and specu- 
 lation as to their origin. Among different theories 
 aiming at a solution of the mystery he mentions one 
 that supposes that "the desert was once the bed of 
 an inland sea." Professor Baldwin says: "Wilson 
 has traced six terraces in going up from the sea 
 through the province of Esmeraldas toward Quito, 
 and underneath the living forest, which is older than 
 the Spanish invasion, many gold, copper, and stone 
 vestiges of a lost population were found. In all 
 cases these relics are situated below the high-tide 
 mark, in a bed of marine sediment, from which he 
 infers that this part of the country formerly stood 
 higher above the sea." "At various points along 
 this coast (the coast of Ecuador) he found 
 *ancient or fossil pottery, vessels, images,' and 
 other manufactured articles, all finely wrought. 
 Some of the articles were made of gold. The 
 most remarkable fact connected with them is that 
 they were taken from 'a stratum of ancient sur- 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 99 
 
 face earth' which was covered with a marine 
 deposit six feet thick.*** 
 
 RUINS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 For purposes of comparison we shall consider first 
 in order those sections of American antiquities 
 affording traditions as well as ruins. These sections 
 are the regions of Central America and Mexico, and 
 of Peru, in South America — ancient Peru, we mean, 
 which comprised the territory of the modern repub- 
 lics of Chili, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, remember. 
 We shall leave those divisions which are represented 
 by ruins, only, — namely, the sections of the Mound- 
 builders and of the Cliff-dwellers, — to come last. 
 Let us look at the ruins before we do the traditions, 
 and begin with the territory of ancient Peru. 
 
 The mound, or pyramid, the characteristic feature 
 of the ancient architecture of North America, is not 
 found in South America, at all. Cuzco was the cap- 
 ital city of the Incas and, Baldwin says, "appears to 
 have occupied the site of a ruined city of the older 
 period.'** Ruins are strewn in the neighborhood of 
 the city and on the shores and islands of Lake 
 Titicaca. Some of the ruins, we are told, bear "more 
 resemblance to some of the great constructions in 
 Central America than to anything peculiar to the 
 later period of Peruvian architecture." There are 
 remains of "ancient fortress walls," and "the whole 
 neighborhood is strewn with immense blocks of stone 
 
 * Ancient America, p. 274. 
 
 • Ibid., 226. 
 
100 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 elaborately wrought, equaling, if not surpassing, in 
 size, any known to exist in Egypt or India. "^ "The 
 walls of many of the Cuzco houses have remained 
 unaltered for centuries," quotes Prescott; "The 
 great size of the stones, the variety of their shapes, 
 and the inimitable workmanship they display, give to 
 the city that interesting air of antiquity and romance 
 which fills the mind with pleasing, though painful 
 veneration."'^ The ideas of a heathenish, idolatrous 
 people, however, are everywhere chiefly in evidence. 
 Idols, carving, and statuary representing distorted 
 forms and heathenish conceptions adulterate the 
 grandest ruins. But we could only expect such to be 
 the case from the account the Book of Mormon gives 
 us. It was in the very early centuries of Nephite 
 history that the Lamanites gained the site of the first 
 great Nephite city, and all that region, and before 
 the time of Christ they were in possession of a large 
 portion of the territory over which the Nephites had 
 built towns and cities. Then, too, the last days of the 
 Nephites were days of transgression and wickedness, 
 and of idolatry, to some extent. "The otherwise 
 inviting picture of ancient American civilization," 
 says Mr. Short, in reference to the latter stages of it, 
 "is marred by the introduction of human sacrifices 
 which in each instance occurred in the period of the 
 political decadence of the people practicing it, and no 
 doubt was the most potent factor in the downfall of 
 
 •Ibid., 231, 235, 234. 
 
 7 Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 1, pp. 17, 18, foot- 
 note. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 101 
 
 both Toltec and Aztec monarchies."* Here and 
 there, probably, in the older ruins, undefiled speci- 
 mens of Nephite art and skill, belonging to the best 
 stages of the nation's history, are represented, but 
 side by side with it, in the same buildings, are the 
 evidences of heathenism. The ruins at Tiahuanaco, 
 a few miles from Lake Titicaca, consisting of great 
 edifices, walls, gateways, stone slabs, columns, plat- 
 forms, and porches, are said to have been **very 
 imposing" when first seen by the Spanish conquer- 
 ors, but great statuary idols were found there, also.* 
 
 There is one place recorded where no signs of idol 
 worship were found. It was twenty-five miles south 
 of Lima, near the sea, where the * 'remains of a now 
 'wholly deserted city, and of a great temple," were 
 discovered. The religion of this place is thought 
 to have been a **pure Theism," "for when the Peru- 
 vians of Cuzco carried their victorious arms across 
 the Cordilleras to this district, they beheld this tem- 
 ple (the doors of which are said to have been of gold 
 inlaid with precious stones) with astonishment, not 
 only because it rivalled if not surpassed in splendor 
 the famous Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, but because 
 it contained no image or visible symbol of a god. It 
 was raised in honor of an invisible and mysterious 
 deity, whom the inhabitants called Pachacamac, the 
 Creator of the world." The city is called Paohaoa- 
 mao, after the invisible deity.** 
 
 • North Americans of Antiquity, p. 520. 
 
 •Ancient America, pp. 231-233. 
 
 >« Chambers' Encyclopedia, article Peru. 
 
102 • BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 In connection with the Book of Mormon story of 
 the colony of Zeniff, the accounts of the ruins of 
 Gran-Chimu are very interesting and significant. 
 These ruins were situated in the northwestern part of 
 Peru, near Truxillo, and covered "not less than 
 twenty square miles." This territory formed an 
 * 'independent state" before the time of the Incas, 
 says Baldwin. "Tombs, temples, and palaces arise 
 on every hand, ruined, but still traceable," Donnelly 
 tells us. "Immense pyramidal structures, some of 
 them half a mile in circuit; vast areas shut in by 
 massive walls, each containing its water tank, its 
 shops, municipal edifices, and the dwelling of its 
 inhabitants, and each a branch of a larger organiza- 
 tion; prisons, furnaces for smelting metals, and 
 almost every concomitant of civilization existed in 
 the ancient Chimu capitol." We are further told that 
 "The Spaniards took vast quantities of gold from the 
 huacas, or tombs at this place," and that from the 
 indications the city "contained a great population."^ ^ 
 
 Other "remarkable" ruins are at Cuelap, also in 
 Northern Peru. A great wall is described built of 
 "wrought stones 3,600 feet long, 560 broad, and 150 
 high, constituting a solid mass with a level summit. 
 On this mass was another 600 feet long, 500 broad, 
 and 150 high, making an aggregate of three hundred 
 feet. In it were rooms and cells which were used as 
 tombs. "^* The ruins called "Old Huanuco," further 
 
 "Ancient America, pp. 237, 238; Atlantis, 39S, 393. 
 »a Atlantis, 393. 
 
AND ARCHJaOLOGY. 103 
 
 south, are famous, and near them are the **faded 
 traces of a large town."^^ 
 
 "Ruins of towns, castles, fortresses, and other 
 structures are found all about the country," we are 
 old. There are very ancient ruins of a city near 
 Huamanga which, "native traditions" said, was built 
 by "bearded white men, who came there long before 
 the time of the Incas." ^* These ancient ruins were 
 built of hewn stone and brick. Baldwin speaks of 
 the "large use of aqueducts" by the ancient people, 
 "which they built with notable skill, using hewn 
 stones and cement, and making them very substan- 
 tial. Some of them are still in use. They were used 
 to carry water to the cities and to irrigate the culti- 
 vated lands. A few of them were very long. There 
 is mention of one which was a hundred and fifty 
 miles long, and of another which was extended four 
 hundred and fifty miles across sierras and over rivers, 
 from south to north." ** The great Peruvian roads 
 of which it is said, "No ancient people has left traces 
 of works more astonishing than these, were not built 
 by the Incas, we are informed, but by the ancient 
 people who preceded the Incas in the country." i* 
 
 •^UINS AND RELICS OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 Allen Thorndike Rice, in his introduction to Char- 
 nay's work, speaking of the ruins of Mexico and 
 Central America, exclaims, "These monuments of 
 surpassing grandeur." . . . "Yet how few Ameri- 
 
 i« Ancient America, pp. 239, 240. 
 
 '* Ibid., 243; Atlantis, 393. 
 
 1^5 Ibid. 
 
 '« Ancient America, 245, 246; Atlantis, 393, 394. 
 
104 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 cans of our day have any adequate conception of 
 the stately edifices of monumental Mitla, or of Pal- 
 enque, with its magnificent palace, its terraces and 
 temples, its pyramids and sculptured ornaments?*'^ 
 
 As was mentioned in a previous paper, the most 
 famous regions of North and South America have 
 not been fully explored yet, and Professor Baldwin 
 says that "it is not unreasonable to assume that 
 Copan and Palenque are specimens of great ruins 
 that Jie buried" in the forests. Stephens and Cath- 
 erwood, two famous travelers, found forty ruined 
 cities in Yucatan.^ Charnay gives us detailed 
 description of over twenty -five ruined cities that he 
 visited, while other cities, known to history, have 
 entirely gone to decay. ^ 
 
 The most celebrated ruins of the region we are 
 now considering are those of the cities of Palenque, 
 in Chiapas; Copan, Quirigua, and Utatlan, in Hon- 
 duras and Guatemala; Mayapan, Uxmal, Kabah, 
 Labna, and Chichen-Itz^. in Yucatan; Mitla, Xochu- 
 calco, and Teotihuacan .n states of the Republic of 
 Mexico. 
 
 As in the ruins of South America, the prevalence 
 of sculptured idols and distorted, unnatural human 
 shapes in even the grandest ruins repeats the sad 
 story of diversified skill and intellectual advancement 
 sacrificed to debased uses through spiritual decline 
 and the spread of heathen dominion. The distin- 
 
 1 Rice's Introduction to Ancient Cities of the New World, 
 pp. 10, 11. 
 
 2 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 347. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 368, 374, 375. 
 
COURT AND TOWER OF THE PALACE, PALENQUE 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 105 
 
 guishing architectural feature of the ruins of 
 Mexico and Central America is the mound, or 
 pyramid, which is supposed to have been used as 
 a foundation for their principal buildings.* *'The 
 summit of these mounds are usually of sufficient 
 extent to furnish space for extensive terraces or 
 grounds, as well as room for the buildmgs." The 
 pyramids were * 'foundations of earth, faced with hewn 
 stone, and provided with great stone stairways." 
 
 The material used in the edifices was '*hewn 
 stone, laid in a mortar of lime and sand, the 
 masonry being admirable." It is supposed that che 
 ordinary dwellings were built chiefly of wood, or 
 some other perishable material, since no traces of 
 them are left.^ '*The chief peculiarity of these 
 ruins," says Professor Baldwin, "that which espe- 
 cially invites our attention, is the evidence they fur- 
 nish that their builders had remar^vable skill in archi- 
 tecture and architectural ornamentation." **The 
 rooms and corridors in these edifices were finely 
 and elaborately finished, plaster, stucco, and sculp- 
 ture, being used." "The ornamentation is no less 
 remarkable than the masonry and architectural fin- 
 ish. It is found on the walls within and without, 
 and appears in elaborate designs on the heavy cor- 
 nices. The exterior ornamentation is gen^raUy 
 carved or sculptured on a smooth surface of stone, 
 and must have required a vast amount of time and 
 labor, as well as skillful artists."* 
 
 * Ibid., p. 381; Ancient America, 96. 
 •Ancient America, p. 96. 
 •Ibid., pp. 99, 100. 
 
106 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 "In some of the ruins inscriptions are abundant, 
 being found on walls, tablets, and pillars."'' Inscrip- 
 tions are especially plentiful at Copan and Pal- 
 enque. ^ 
 
 One of the most famous of the ruined cities is 
 Palenque. Baldwin quotes an explorer who says: 
 **For five days I wandered up and down among 
 the crumbling monuments of a city which, I hazard 
 little in saying, must have been one of the largest 
 ever seen." The floors of an edifice known as the 
 "Palace" were of cement, "as hard as the best seen 
 in the remains of Roman baths and cisterns."* Mr. 
 Short says: "The stuccoed roofs and piers of both 
 the temples — Crodd and Sun — may be truly pro- 
 nounced works of art of a high order. On the 
 former, Stephens observed busts and heads approach- 
 ing the Greek models in symmetry of contour and 
 perfection of proportion. M. Waldeck has preserved 
 in his magnificent drawings some of these figures, 
 which are certainly sufficient to prove, beyond con- 
 troversy, that the ancient Palenqueans were a culti- 
 vated and artistic people."^" "The cross is one of 
 the most common emblems in all the ruins." ^^ 
 
 Of Copan, another famed city, we are told: "Here, 
 as at Palenque, the ornamentation was rich and 
 abundant. The ruins, greatly worn by decay, still 
 show that architecture, sculpture, painting, and all 
 
 » Ibid., 100. 
 
 •North Americans of Antiquity, p. 405; Ancient America, 
 p. 137. 
 » Ancient America, pp. 96, 99. 
 1 o North Americans of Antiquity, 392, 393. 
 » 1 Ancient America, 109. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 107 
 
 the arts that embellish life had flourished in that 
 overgrown forest. Some beautifully executed sculp- 
 tures were found buried in the earth, and there can 
 be no doubt that extensive excavation, if it were 
 possible in that almost invincible forest, would lead 
 to important and valuable discoveries."^^ Short 
 calls attention to striking differences of architec- 
 ture and workmanship at Copan, which, he says, 
 causes "astonishment." There is one example of a 
 structure in which **there is no appearance of the 
 component parts being joined together." Not far 
 away, a temple, "adorned with columns having 
 bases, pedestals, capitals and crowns, all accu- 
 rately adjusted according to architectural princi- 
 ples." ^^ 
 
 At Kabah, Mr. Short says, "We meet with an 
 entirely new feature in Maya architecture." He 
 quotes the explorer, Stephens, who said that the 
 decorations of the building were "equal to those of 
 any known era, even when tried by the severest 
 rules of art."i* 
 
 Uxmal, we are told, is the most important ruined 
 city in Yucatan. "The area covered by its remains 
 is extensive."^* "Uxmal statuary approximates 
 more closely to what properly may be called 
 statuary, being cut more nearly in the round, and 
 having less unfinished back surface than the Pal- 
 en que statue. The elegant square panels of grecques 
 
 12 Ibid., 113. 
 
 18 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 857. 
 
 i*Ibid., p. 353. 
 
 *• Ancient America, 131. 
 
108 BOOK OF MORMOM 
 
 and frets which compose the cornice of the Casa 
 del Gobernador . . . are a marvel of beauty."^ ^ 
 A. T. Rice tells us that "According to Stephens, 
 the carved work is equal to the finest of the 
 Egyptian." !■» 
 
 Charnay says about the monuments of Tula: **We 
 are filled with admiration for the marvelous build- 
 ing capacity of the people who erected them; for, 
 unlike most primitive nations, they use every mate- 
 rial at once. They coated their inner wall with 
 mud and mortar, faced their outer walls with baked 
 bricks and cut stone, had wooden roofs, and brick 
 and stone staircases. They were acquainted with 
 pilasters (we found them in their houses), with cary- 
 tides, with square and round columns; indeed, they 
 seem to have been familar with every architectural 
 device. That they were painters and decorators, we 
 have ample indications in the house we unearthed, 
 where the walls are covered with rosettes, palms, 
 red, white, and gray geometrical figures on a black 
 ground.'' I picked out of the rubbish many curious 
 things; huge baked bricks, from one to nine inches, 
 by two and two and a half, in thickness; filters, 
 straight and curved water-pipes, vases and fragments 
 of vases, enameled terra-cotta cups, bringing to mind 
 those at Tenene-panco; seals, one of which (an 
 eagle's head) I had engraved for my personal use; 
 bits which were curiously like old Japanese china ; 
 moulds, one having a head with a huge plait, and 
 
 i« North Americans of Antiquity, 393. 
 
 » 7 Rice's Introduction to Ancient Cities of the New World 
 p. 21. 
 
AND ARCKLEOLOGYc 109 
 
 hair smoothed on both sides of her face, like an old 
 maid; besides innumerable arrow-heads and knives 
 of obsidian strewing the ground. In fact, a whole 
 civilization."^® 
 
 Mitla, in the Mexican state of Oxaca, is one of the 
 most wonderful of all the ancient ruined cities, and 
 one of the most celebrated. Baldwin says: "Four 
 of the standing edifices are described by Dupaix as 
 palaces, and these, he says, were erected with lavish 
 magnificence; . . . they combine the solidity of the 
 works of Egypt, with the elegance of those of Greece. 
 And, he adds, *But what is most remarkable, inter- 
 esting, and striking in these monuments, and which 
 alone would be sufficient to give them the first rank 
 among all known orders of architecture, is the exe- 
 cution of their mosaic relievos, very different from 
 plain mosaic, and consequently requiring more inge- 
 nious combination and greater art and labor.' '**» 
 
 Charnay quotes a distinguished architect, Viollet-le- 
 Duc, who thus describes one of the halls of Mitla: 
 "The three doorways, opening into the great apart- 
 ment with columns, were partly walled up after the 
 erection of the building, but are plainly visible. 
 Over the doorways are four round holes, into which 
 were probably fixed hooks supporting a portiere. 
 The monuments of Greece and Rome, in their best 
 time, can alone compare with the splendor of this 
 great edifice. The ornamentation is arranged with 
 perfect symmetry, the joints are carefully 'cut, the 
 
 »» Ancient Cities of the New World, pp. 107, 108, 100. 
 »»Ancient America, pp. 118, 121. 
 
110 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 bed and arris of the cornices faultless, showing 
 
 that the builders were masters of their art. " ^ <» 
 
 We are given another view by Charnay, himself, 
 illustrating how, through all the ancient remains, the 
 lines are crossed by a grosser civilization, or by the 
 fallen stage of the same civilization. '*The next, in 
 our general view of Mitla," he says, "is the first 
 edifice to the slope of the hill, consisting of a con- 
 fusion of courts, buildings, and mosaic work in 
 relief of beautiful and graceful patterns. Below are 
 found traces of very primitive paintings representing 
 rude fugures of idols and lines forming meanders, the 
 meaning of which is unknown. The same rude paint- 
 ings are found throughout the palace in sheltered 
 places which have escaped the ravages of time. That 
 such immature drawings should be found in palaces 
 of beautiful architecture decorated with panels of 
 exquisite mosaic work, are facts which, at first sight, 
 make it difficult to ascribe them to the same peo- 
 ple."^ ^ Other instances might be cited showing 
 the conflicting marks of different orders of civiliza- 
 tion, but sufficient has been given on this point in a 
 previous chapter. 
 
 It will be interesting to notice, briefly, some of the 
 smaller relics that afford rays of light upon the ques- 
 tion of what that ancient civilization might have been. 
 A panel was found on one of the walls of a palace, 
 a *'Beau Relief," in stucco, which in idea, design, 
 and sculptured execution is declared ** worthy to be 
 
 2oAnclent Cities of the New World, pp. 503, 504. 
 
 »' Ibid., p. 501. 
 
i 
 
 h 
 
 ^^B^^^p^' 
 
 
AND ARCHJSOLOGY. Ill 
 
 compared to the most beautiful works of the age of 
 Augustus." 2 2 At another place "Several are orna- 
 mented with life-sized human figures, while each 
 panel contains a human face, some of which are as 
 beautiful as the Greek models." ^^ 
 
 **In the gymnasium at Chichen-Itza, Stephens 
 grew enthusiastic over the exceeding fine series of 
 paintings in bright colors, which cover the walls of 
 one of the chambers. Many of the pictures have 
 been destroyed by the falling of the plaster upon 
 which they were painted. In this series of pictures, 
 battles, processions, houses, trees, and a variety of 
 objects are represented — blue, red, yellow, and green, 
 are the colors employed, though the human figures 
 are painted reddish brown." 2* 
 
 Of some specimens of terra -cotta work we are 
 told, **No description can convey any idea of their 
 beauty." Short speaks of a vase that was found, 
 "equal to many Etruscan or Greek vases in grace- 
 fulness of outline."^* 
 
 A mosaic knife is described to be of exceeding 
 beauty, and so wonderful is the workmanship of it 
 that Mr. Bancroft is amazed that a people who, he is 
 so sure, were in the stone age, should be "able to 
 execute so perfect a piece of work as the handle 
 exhibits." 2 « 
 
 *» North Americans of Antiquity, p. 388. 
 
 " Ibid, 395. 
 
 ** Ibid, 396. 
 
 »» Ibid, p. 413. 
 
 ««412. 
 
112 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 DID THE ANCIENT AMERICANS USE IRON? 
 
 Nothing about the ancient Americans excites more 
 wonderment than does the supposed fact that they 
 had no iron tools. Every antiquarian asks the same 
 question, how could they do the work they did with 
 such tools, only as they are supposed to have had? 
 How could they get along without iron? Of course 
 those acquainted with the Book of Mormon know 
 it says that the people did have iron. But archaeolo- 
 gists have believed, until quite recently, that iron 
 was not known to the American ancients because 
 none had been found in their ruins. Now, however, 
 there are some who are not so sure about it, and there 
 are writers who boldly assert that iron was known 
 back there. Donnelly gives, us the following inter- 
 esting information from Foster's Prehistoric Races. 
 '*In the *Mercurio Peruano' ... it is stated that 
 anciently the Peruvian sovereigns worked magnifi- 
 cent iron mines at Ancoriames, on the west shore of 
 Lake Titicaca." He cites us to another testimony : 
 " 'It is remarkable,' says Molina, 'that iron, which 
 has been thought unknown to the ancient Americans, 
 had particular names in some of their tongues. In 
 official Peruvian it was called quillay, and in Chilian 
 panilic. The Mound-builders fashioned implements 
 out of meteoric iron.' " (a) 
 
 In a mound that was opened at Marietta, Ohio, 
 among other things, "Two or three pieces of copper 
 tube were also found, filled with iron rust,^\b) 
 
 a) Atlantis, p. 451. 
 
 b) Ibid., p. OT. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 113 
 
 Other relics are mentioned which, Squire is quoted as 
 saying, "If Doctor Hildreth is not mistaken, oxydized 
 iron or steel was also discovered in connection with 
 the above remains, from which, also, follows the 
 extraordinary conclusion that the Mound -builders 
 were acquainted with the use of iron," if, he says, 
 the articles found "are genuine relics of the Mound- 
 builders." (c) "We find the remains of an iron 
 sword and meteoric iron weapons in the mounds of 
 the Mississippi Valley, "(d) 
 
 The weather has most destructive effect on iron. 
 Any one may observe for himself how soon a piece 
 of iron, exposed to the weather, will rust, and become 
 rust eaten. It can be easily understood that after 
 the course of centuries there would be very few traces 
 of iron to be found, and only, at all, where the metal 
 had been protected from the weather. There has, 
 recently, been a report widely circulated in the news- 
 papers, of archaeological finds in New Mexico, and 
 -Southern Colorado, from which we give this extract : 
 "In one of these old ruins a smelter was found, 
 and near the old furnace was a large iron bar, cov- 
 ered with rust. "(e) 
 
 (c) Ibid., p. 378. 
 
 (d) Ibid., p. 462. 
 
 (e) Saints' Herald, Sept. 19, 1900, or Chicago Tribune, Aug. 
 26, 1900. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE ANCIENT AMERICAN CIVILI- 
 ZATION AND COLOR OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION. 
 
 Antiquarians differ widely in their estimates of 
 the ancient civilization of Mexico, Central America, 
 and Peru. One writer says the people were a *'semi- 
 barbarous race." The writer to whom we refer for 
 illustration is Charnay, and Charnay, the student 
 will discover, is to be valued more for the things he 
 saw and describes, than for his opinions about them, 
 or the penetration and consistency of his reasoning. 
 He speaks of the monuments as "rude manifesta- 
 tions," forgetting that he has called our attention to 
 architecture, to some specimen of workmanship, to a 
 piece of mosaic, or an example of sculpture, that 
 others, as well as himself, have declared to be equal 
 to the best of Egypt, Greece, or Rome. It is not to 
 be denied that the ruins exhibit *'rude manifesta- 
 tions" abundantly, but why pass by the marks of a 
 higher culture and truer conceptions that shine out of 
 the darkness like gleams of light? 
 
 How shall we account for the strange indications of 
 exalted moral ideas and fine sense of humanity among 
 a people of the barbaric nature of the Aztecs, as 
 exhibited in such facts as that no one was born 
 in. slavery among them, **an honorable distinc- 
 tion not known in any civilized oommunity where 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 115 
 
 slavery has been sanctioned;" hospitals for the sick 
 and wounded, "ranked among the beneficent fruits 
 of Christianity;" the respected position of women, 
 another advanced civilization mark; such a doc- 
 trine as "for the multiplication of the species God 
 ordained one man only for one woman"? 
 
 Or, what shall we say about such a social system 
 as the Peruvians had, that permitted no individual to 
 suffer for the necessities of life? What shall we say 
 about that wonderful development of intellectual and 
 scientific progress, the Mexican calendar? Again, 
 Mr. Short tells us: "In the study of American lan- 
 guages it has often been a matter of surprise that 
 their structure and expression indicate a degree of 
 perfection far in advance of the civilization out of 
 which they sprang."^ 
 
 It might be convenient for a class of theorists to 
 ignore these things, but they remain as stubborn 
 facts, and have to be taken into account. The Aztecs 
 and the Incas can not be rated lower than semi- 
 barbarians" — they are not rated lower -and yet it is 
 admitted that these advanced results were not of their 
 producing. They did not create those remarkable 
 institutions, the "imperfect reflections" of which were 
 found among them. How manifestly absurd, then, 
 to call the people who did originate and develop these 
 things "semibarbarians!" 
 
 The Aztecs and the Incas are ranked in the class of 
 semicivilized nations; shall the people from whom 
 they borrowed the best of all they had be ranked no 
 higher? It is a scientific principle that a fountain 
 
 * North Americans of Antiquity, p. 470. 
 
116 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 can not rise higher than its source. We have seen, 
 from what their inferior successors displayed, that 
 the ancient people must have been an agricultural, a 
 scientific, an educational, and a literary people. They 
 must have had government, laws, and arts. The 
 remains evince the powers of the people in archi- 
 tecture, building, workmanship, engineering, and 
 mechanics. All the departments of civilization were 
 known to them. As to how high their progress 
 reached, thej*e is little left to speak for them, to be 
 sure, but that little is significant. A people who 
 could produce results that were equal to the best of 
 the most polished nations of Eastern antiquity, — and 
 some of the work displayed in the ruins, we are told, 
 **can not be excelled by the best of our constructors 
 and decorators,"^ were not inferior to their own crea- 
 tions. The ability of a nation can not be less than its 
 achievements. A people who were capable of what 
 little there has remained for us to see were capable of 
 more of the same order, at least. These signs indi- 
 cate to some degree, what the possibilities of the peo- 
 ple must have been. They are hints of the high 
 marks to which their civilization must have attained. 
 
 COLOR OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 
 
 We have previously, in referring to the predeces- 
 sors of the Incas, cited to an authority who says that 
 they were "a fair-skinned race, with blue eyes and 
 light and even auburn hair."^ We now wish to pre- 
 sent other evidence in regard to the identity of the 
 
 ^Ancient America, p. 101. 
 « Atlantis, p. 391. 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 117 
 
 original civilizers of ancient America, that it may be 
 seen whether the Book of Mormon states an improb- 
 able thing when it says that the authors of the 
 ancient civilization of this continent were a branch of 
 the white race. 
 
 Speaking of the ruins near Huamanga, in Peru, 
 Baldwin says, *'The native traditions said this city 
 was built by 'bearded white men,' who came there 
 long before the time of the Incas."* Prescott says, 
 "Another legend speaks of certain white and bearded 
 men who, advancing from the shores of Lake Titi- 
 caca, established an ascendency over the natives 
 and imparted to them the blessings of civilization."^ 
 "The ancient Peruvians appear, from numerous 
 examples of hair found in their tombs, to have been 
 an auburn-haired race." Speaking of three mum- 
 mies found in a cave on the south side of the Cum- 
 berland River, Short says, "They were buried in 
 baskets, as Humboldt has described some of the 
 Peruvians to bury, and the color of their skin was 
 said to be fair and white, and their hair auburn and 
 of fine texture."^ 
 
 "That the population of Central America (and in 
 
 this term I include Mexico) was at one time very 
 
 dense," says Donnelly, "and had attained to a high 
 
 degree of civilization, higher even than that of 
 
 Europe in the time of Columbus, there can be no 
 
 question; and it is also probable, as I have shown, 
 
 that they originally belonged to the white race."' 
 
 * Ancient America, p. 243. 
 
 B Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 1, p. 10. 
 
 •North Americans of Antiquity, p. 187. 
 
 » Atlantis, p. 349. 
 
118 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 **Viollet le Due is of the opinion that the builders of 
 the great remains in Southern Mexico and Yucatan 
 belonged to a light -skinned and a dark-skinned race 
 respectively."® He thinks it certain that Mitla and 
 Palenque were influenced by a white race." ** Bald- 
 win says that the advocates of the Phoenician theory 
 for the origin of the aboriginal Americans tried to 
 support their theory by "an old tradition of the native 
 Mexicans and Central Americans describing the first 
 civilizers as *bearded white men.'"^** Bancroft 
 quotes Garcia — "The builders of the Central Ameri- 
 can cities, he says, are reported to have been of fair 
 complexion and bearded."^ ^ 
 
 It was the color of the Spaniards, we learn, no less 
 than their power, that awed the nations that were 
 discovered here. The natives had traditions about 
 the original possessors of the land having been white, 
 and the great Culture -heroes, about whom we shall 
 speak more in a future chapter, figured in vague 
 myths as being white. When they saw the Span- 
 iards, the natives, in their pitiable superstition, at 
 once connected the powerful, pale-faced strangers 
 with the traditions. The following is from a speech 
 which it is recorded that the Aztec emperor, Monte- 
 zuma, made to the Spanish conqueror, Cortez: 
 *' 'For a long time,' said Montezuma at his first 
 interview with Cortez, *has it been handed down that 
 we are not the original possessors of this land, but 
 came hither from a distant region under the guidance 
 
 8 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 190. 
 
 « Ibid., p. 382. 
 
 1" Ancient America, p. 173. 
 
 1 1 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 77. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 119 
 
 of a ruler who afterwards left us and returned. We 
 have ever believed that some day his descendants 
 would come and resume dominion over us. Inas- 
 much as you are from that direction, which is toward 
 the rising sun, and serve so great a king as you 
 describe, we believe that he is also our natural lord, 
 and are ready to submit ourselves to him.' "^^ 
 
 There was evidently the same confused idea in 
 Peru. "When Hernando de Soto on landing in Peru 
 first met Inca Huascar, the latter related an ancient 
 prophecy which his father, Huayna Capac, had 
 repeated on his dying bed, to the effect that in the 
 reign of the thirteenth Inca, white men (viracochas) 
 of surpassing strength and valor would come from 
 their father the sun and subject to their rule the 
 nations of the world. *I command you,' said the 
 dying monarch, *to yield them homage and obedi- 
 ence, for they will be a nation superior to ours.' "^^ 
 
 Nor is this all the evidence there is on this subject. 
 It is surprising, to one who learns of it for the first 
 time, to know how wide -spread were the traditions 
 about an early pale-faced people. We remember, 
 when a child at school, the stories we read in our 
 United States history which the Indians told Colum- 
 bus about *'a *white man's land' to the southward, 
 where fair-faced processions marched in white 
 robes," etc., etc.^* 
 
 Dr. Brinton gives us the following information : 
 
 **The Maryland Indians said the whites were an 
 
 " Myths of the New World, p. 220. 
 
 i«Ibid.,p. 221. 
 
 ^* Electic History of the United States, p. 11. 
 
120 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 ancient generation who had come to life again, and 
 had returned to seize their former land." The 
 natives of Haiti had similar ideas, also the Lenape 
 and Delaware Indians.^* *'The Algonkins with one 
 voice called those of their tribes living near the rising 
 sun Abnakis, our ancestors at the east, or at the 
 dawn; literally, our w;Ar7e ancestors."^® The Shaw - 
 nees are said to have claimed that the ancient inhab- 
 itants of Florida were white. ^ "^ 
 
 Indeed, so much has been found in traditions to the 
 effect that the predecessors or ancestors of the natives 
 were white, that writers can not overlook the circum- 
 stance. Some writers frankly admit that there must 
 have been a substantial basis for such a wide -spread 
 idea. Other writers endeavor to argue away from 
 this conclusion and invent the most vapory supposi- 
 tions to undermine the idea that substantial facts 
 were the foundation for the traditions. Doctor Brin- 
 ton presents an exhaustive array of legendary evi- 
 dence referring to white predecessors, and then 
 attempts to spiritualize it all with the theory that the 
 native idea of whiteness was only symbolic — **the 
 propensity of -the human mind to attribute its own 
 origin and culture to that white -shining orient where 
 sun, moon, and stars are daily born in renovated 
 glory, to that fair mother who, at the cost of her own 
 life, gives light and joy to the world, the glowing 
 bosom of the Dawn." (Myths of the New World, p. 
 209.) What silly extremes some learned minds will 
 
 " Myths of the New World, p. 221. 
 
 i«Ibid.,p. 207. 
 
 ^"^ Prehistoric America, p. 17. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. .121 
 
 go to, will they not, m an endeavor to evade a little 
 simple, practical logic? It will be seen that the wis- 
 dom of some of these erudite gentlemen is not a for- 
 midable thing to meet, and yet the young student 
 might be annoyed to come across it unprepared; and 
 besides, we do not wish to be understood as present- 
 ing evidence with only one side, the favorable opinion 
 of the writers, always, who furnish it. As we have 
 suggested to the young student before, it is our privi- 
 lege to search for evidence and facts and use them 
 independently of the construction that speculative 
 theory may place upon them. 
 
 Facts presented by Donnelly about the varied com- 
 plexions and types among the Indian tribes are sig- 
 nificant in connection with the Book of Mormon 
 declaration to the Nephites that they should never be 
 utterly destroyed, but that their blood should be 
 mixed with the blood of their brethren, the Laman- 
 ites.^^ Says Donnelly, **When we turn to America 
 we find that the popular opinion that all Indians are 
 *red men,' and of the same hue from Patagonia to 
 Hudson's Bay, is a gross error." He quotes Prich- 
 ard: "It will be easy to show that the American 
 races show nearly as great a variety in this respect 
 as the nations of the old continent; there are among 
 them white races with a florid complexion, and tribes 
 black or of a very dark hue; that their stature, 
 figure, and countenance are almost equally diversi- 
 fied." John T. Short is quoted: *'The Menominees, 
 sometimes called the White Indians^ formerly occu- 
 rs INephi, 3:120; Alma 21:10, large edition; lNephi3:40; 
 Alma 21 : 2, small edition. 
 
122 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 pied the region bordering on Lake Michigan, around 
 Green Bay. The whiteness of these Indians, which 
 is compared to that of white mulattoes, early 
 attracted the attention of the Jesuit missionaries, 
 and has often been commented on by travelers." 
 
 Another reference given tells us; — *'Many of the 
 Indians of Zuni (New Mexico) are white. They have 
 a fair skin, blue eyes, chestnut or auburn hair." 
 Catlin says: ** A stranger in the Mandan village is 
 first struck with the different shades of complexion 
 and various colors of hair which he sees in a crowd 
 about him, and is at once disposed to exclaim, *these 
 are not Indians.' There are a great many of these 
 people whose complexions appear as light as half- 
 breeds ; and among the women particularly there are 
 many whose skins are almost white, with the most 
 pleasing symmetry and proportion of feature; with 
 hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes ; with mildness 
 and sweetness of expression and excessive modesty 
 of demeanor, which render them exceedingly pleasing 
 and beautiful. Why this diversity of complexions I 
 can not tell, nor can they themselves account for 
 it."^® There is no theory, no book, no authority 
 that does offer an explanation for these singular cir- 
 cumstances except the Book of Mormon, and in it we 
 find an explanation that meets the case exactly. 
 
 TRADITIONAL HISTORY. 
 
 As we have mentioned before, the more advanced 
 nations that were found here by the discoverers made 
 an attempt to tell the story of their history in written 
 
 »» See Atlantis, Part 3, chap. 5, pp. 183-193. 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 123 
 
 accounts which they preserved. Two Maya records 
 which were secured were the Tzen Jal and the Quiche, 
 the Quiche record being one of the most important 
 traditional sources. This record, or book, is called 
 the Popol Vuh. Then there were the Mexican rec- 
 ords, one of which was the Codex Chimalpopoca. 
 These traditional records were written in the respec- 
 tive languages of the native peoples from whom they 
 were obtained, and our knowledge of th^ records has 
 been given to us through the translations which were 
 made into modern languages by European scholars 
 soon after the Conquest. **The books preserved fur- 
 nish little more than vague outlines of the past," says 
 Professor Baldwin, *'with obscure views of distant 
 periods in the history," yet it must be understood 
 that ''the legendary history of any nation may be con- 
 fused, exaggerated, and besides full of breaks, still 
 there are some main and fundamental facts out of 
 which it has grown," as Mr. Short tells us. 
 
 THE BIBLE -LIKE STORY FOR THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 
 
 The story that all these traditions tell are very 
 much the same in many important respects, and they 
 endeavor, besides giving an account of their own his- 
 tory from the beginning, to give an account of the 
 origin of the human race which is very much like the 
 Genesis story, and let the skeptic consider how that 
 could be if the ancient Americans had no knowledge 
 of the Old Testament scriptures as the Book of Mor- 
 mon says they had. Translations of the traditions 
 give the story of the creation like this, **a time when 
 all was silent and there was yet no earth, and no liv- 
 
124 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 ing thing, only the immobility and silence of a 
 boundless sea, on the surface of which floated the 
 Creator and his companion deities, . . . including 
 Gucumatz, the 'plumed serpent.' Then the light 
 appeared, and the earth with its vegetation was 
 created by Gucumatz and the Dominator at the 
 word of Hurakan, Heart of Heaven, the Thun- 
 derbolt. Life and fecundity were distributed as 
 guardians of the forests and mountains, and called 
 upon to speak and praise the name of those that 
 had made them," etc., etc. Then follows the story 
 of the creation of man. This is the translation Ban- 
 croft gives us from the Popo? Vuh,^ 
 
 In due course man **became very numerous on 
 the face of the earth, but the gods were wroth, and 
 sent upon them a flood, "^ ^e are told, and some of 
 the traditions refer to Babel, or the confusion of 
 tongues, when mankind was scattered over the 
 earth. A very ancient tradition tells how it was 
 undertaken to build a tower that should reach to 
 the sky. The *'Lord of Heaven" became "enraged, 
 and said to the inhabitants of the sky, *Have you 
 observed how they of the earth have built a high 
 and haughty tower to mount hither, being enam- 
 ored of the light of the sun and its beauty? Come! 
 and confound them ; because it is not right that they 
 
 1 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 171; North Americans of Antiquity, 
 pp. 212, 213. For accounts of the creation in other traditions, 
 see Native Races, vol.5, pp. 193,209; Ancient America, pp. 194, 
 195; North Americans of Antiquity, p. 236. 
 
 2 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 172; also see pp. 193, 209; North 
 Americans of Antiquity, pp. 213, 214, 229, 235; Atlantis, pp. 
 98-118; Conquest of Mexico, vol. 3, Appendix, Part 1, p. 363. 
 
AND ARCHJB30L0GY. 125 
 
 of the earth, living in the flesh, should mingle with 
 us.' Immediately, at that very instant the inhabi- 
 tants of the sky sallied forth like flashes of lightning; 
 they destroyed the edifice and divided and scattered 
 its builders to all parts of the earth. "^ 
 
 THE STORY OF THE ANCIENT NATION. 
 
 Then the records take up the story of the national 
 history, beginning from the time that the ancient 
 people left their first home, which is called Tulan 
 in Maya tradition, and Huehue Tlapallan in some of 
 the Mexican traditions — Atzlan in the Aztec legends.* 
 There is an account of long wanderings by land 
 and sea after they left their first home, which was 
 toward the "rising sun." In the early part of the 
 story a lamentation is chanted which *'has consid- 
 erable historic importance," says Mr. Bancroft. 
 " 'Alas,' they said, 'we were ruined in Tulan, we 
 were separated, and our brothers still remain 
 behind.' "5 
 
 Enemies, struggles with a rival or antagonistic 
 people occupy an important place in all the traditions. 
 They live for a time in one place, then their enemies 
 force them out and they must seek new homes. One 
 of the traditions tells how they were counseled by 
 a great astrologer **to forsake the land of their mis- 
 fortunes and journey toward the rising sun, where 
 there was a happy land formerly occupied by 
 
 8 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 237; Rice's Introduc- 
 tion to Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 16; Native Races, 
 vol. 5, pp.209, 17, 18. 
 
 * See Atlantis, pp. 165-170. 
 
 "Native Races, vol. 5, p. 182. 
 
126 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 Quinames, but now depopulated."' Mr. Bancroft 
 notes, among the '* resemblances in general features," 
 in all the traditions, "the ancient settlement and 
 growth to power;" **the destruction of a rival 
 power," the **forced migration to new homes. ""^ 
 
 The Maya records speak of enemies existing way- 
 back in the time of the Votanic empire, the empire of 
 ancient glory and greatness. The Nahua or Mexi- 
 can traditions say that these enemies who are called 
 Chichimecs were their neighbors from the misty dawn 
 of their history.® These Chichimec enemies are 
 referred to so far back that some antiquarians think 
 they were the most ancient people on this continent, 
 and that they must have been found here by the 
 oldest civilized nation.^ They are described as hav- 
 ing been outside nations or tribes, ''a barbarous peo- 
 ple who lived by hunting and fishing, and had 
 neither towns nor agriculture."^*' They continually 
 tormented the civilized nations, **raided upon their 
 rich and powerful neighbors for purposes of plun- 
 der,"^ ^ Mr. Bancroft tells us, and carried on "har- 
 rassing warfare" with them. 
 
 An important event is described in the traditions 
 of Yucatan about the coming of a **peaceful, highly 
 cultivated people from the south," who are called 
 the Tutul Xius. These people, we are told, were 
 most kindly received by the residents of the coun- 
 
 « North Americans of Antiquity, p. 245. 
 7 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 216. 
 eibid., p. 218. 
 
 9 Ancient America, p. 198. 
 
 10 Ibid. 
 
 1 1 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 390. 
 
AND ARCHJSOLOGY. 127 
 
 try, which was not necessarily Yucatan, and they 
 soon became the leading element in the nation, 
 the ruling power. They were opposed to all oppres- 
 sion and injustice. Theirs was a "liberal policy to 
 all classes,'* and Bancroft says that the reign of 
 the Tutul Xius **was doubtless the most glorious 
 period of Maya history."^ ^ In the Book of Mormon 
 we read that a people called Nephites came up 
 from the south to Zarahemla, in the northern part of 
 South America ; that these immigrants were the most 
 righteous portion of the people from whom they had 
 separated, and that they were gladly received and 
 welcomed to make their homes among the Zara- 
 hemlaites. Their leader, Mosiah, was chosen to be 
 the ruler; indeed, the national name was called 
 after the newcomers, and the era which followed 
 the confederation of the Nephites and the Zara- 
 hemlaites was the grandest in Nephite history. 
 
 There was a wonderful personage who made a 
 deep impression in the history of the ancient Ameri- 
 can peoples. Archaeologists call this personage the 
 **Culture-Hero." He marks an epoch in all the 
 traditions, but as we have devoted a future chapter 
 to this subject, we will not describe this remarkable 
 character here, nor tell of the effect his appearance 
 and teachings had in the life and ideas of the 
 people. 
 
 Writers observe that there must have been a 
 close connection between church and state in the 
 ancient empire because the traditions indicate that 
 the spiritual head was also, to a considerable extent, 
 
 "Ibid., pp. 227,631, 632. 
 
128 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 a leader in temporal affairs. Religious principles 
 were understood to apply to the duties of life, and the 
 spiritual leaders were also counselors in national 
 transactions, and in the dealings of men with their 
 fellow men. They were advisers and shepherds 
 in all things. We are told that when their fathers 
 crossed the sea, they were "guided by a priest/* 
 and that never did they cease to have "their wise 
 men, or prophets." ^^ In the days of the Aztecs 
 the patriarchal plan had degenerated into priest- 
 craft. The Aztec priests tyrannized and dominated 
 in everything. It only affords another example of 
 the fact that history repeats itself. It was the same 
 in the apostasy that took place after the introduction 
 of Christianity. Upon the divinely ordained plan 
 of prophets and apostles, popery and priestcraft 
 reared their stifling, tyrannical rule, and molded the 
 long era of the Dark Ages. It has ever been the 
 object of the adversary to degrade and pervert God's 
 means and plans, and whenever people have yielded 
 to Satanic persuasion they have been led in much 
 the same way. 
 
 Professor Baldwin says, "Brasseur de Bourbourg 
 claims that there is in the old Central American 
 books a constant tradition of an immense catastro- 
 phe." "The land was shaken by frightful earth- 
 quakes, and the waves of the sea combined with vol- 
 canic fires to overwhelm and ingulf it."^* Mr. 
 Bancroft probably refers to the same event. It 
 lasted for several days, he says, "and all this time 
 
 laibid., pp. 249, 189. 
 
 »< Ancient America, p. 176. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 129 
 
 they were in darkness, seeing neither sun nor 
 moon."^^ Other writers, also, describe these cir- 
 cumstances, which correspond remarkably with the 
 calamitous demonstrations of nature recorded by the 
 Book of Mormon to have taken place on this con- 
 tinent at the time of the crucifixion of Christ.* 
 
 The Nahua traditions tell about a divine book, 
 the Teoamoxtli, or "hook of God." Mr. Bancroft 
 describes it thus: "In its pages were described the 
 Nahua annals ^rom the time of the deluge, or even 
 from the creation; together with all their religious 
 rites, governmental system, laws and social customs ; 
 their knowledge respecting agriculture and all the 
 arts and sciences, particular attention being given 
 to astrology; and a complete explanation of their 
 modes of reckoning time and interpreting the hiero- 
 glyphics. To the divine book was added a chap- 
 ter of prophecies respecting future events and the 
 signs by which it should be known when the time 
 of their fulfillment was drawing near." There was 
 reference to prophecies about "great calamities" 
 that "Tloque Nahuaque, the great God," would 
 send upon the people, "like unto which their ances- 
 tors were afflicted in the remote past," and that the 
 kingdom would be destroyed and the people perish.*^ 
 Is it unreasonable to suppose that in this tradition 
 about a "book of God," we have a clouded memory 
 of the Book of Mormon, which record was kept from 
 
 i» Native Races, vol. 5, p. 209; also see Delafield's Antiquities 
 of America, pp. 34-41. 
 ♦ See Book of Nephi (son of Nephi), Chapter 4. 
 »« Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 251, 252. 
 
130 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 one generation to another by the church in the 
 ancient nation? 
 
 The last chapters of the traditions tell a sad story 
 of wickedness, troubles, and strife. The people had 
 so far departed from God that they began to wor- 
 ship idols and offer up human sacrifices. The ele- 
 ment **belonging to the sect of QuetzalcoatF' (that 
 great, good man to whom we have referred as called 
 the *' Culture -Hero" by archaeological writers) tried 
 to "restrain the practice of human sacrifice if not 
 altogether abolish it in the temples,'***^ Mr. Bancroft 
 tells us, but to no avail. **The leaders of the rival 
 sect, followers of the bloody Tezcatlipoca and bitter 
 enemies to all followers of Quetzalcoatl, although 
 now in the minority were constantly intriguing for 
 the fall of Huenac,"^^ a ruler who was at this time 
 championing the cause of the followers of Quetzal- 
 coatl. "Vice took complete possession of society in 
 all its classes, spreading to cities and provinces."^* 
 The traditions speak of plagues and afflictions that 
 were visited upon the Toltecs, — "calamitous inun- 
 dations, tempests, droughts, famine, and pestilence," 
 says Charnay,^*' which the traditions attributed to 
 the wickedness that was being done. Mr. Bancroft 
 sums up the traditions on this point thus: "All 
 we may learn from the confused accounts, is that 
 the Toltec empire at this period was afflicted with 
 war, famine, and pestilence."^ ^ 
 
 • i^ibid., pp. 267, 268. 
 isibid., p. 268. 
 i^Ibid., p. 277. 
 
 2 Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 125. 
 ^^ Native Races, vol. 5, p. 275. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 131 
 
 The last century of the Toltecs, Mr. Bancroft says, 
 was *'a century whose annals form a continuous rec- 
 ord of civil and religious strife."*^ But Mr. Ban- 
 croft can not credit that the destruction of the 
 people could have been so great as the traditions 
 say it was even after the **many years of strife, 
 famine, and pestilence,"^ ^ as he interprets the rec- 
 ords, yet it is significant that the traditions agree 
 exactly on this point with the statements of the 
 Book of Mormon, All this resulted, however, Mr. 
 Bancroft informs us, "in the utter overthrow of 
 the Toltec empire,"** leaving the country "broken 
 up into small states," says Professor J. D. Bald- 
 win, "two OP three centuries before the Aztecs 
 appeared."** 
 
 The Maya traditions tell the same story. They 
 are summed up as follows, by Bancroft: The tra- 
 ditions "point clearly to 1st, the existence in ancient 
 times of a great empire," and of course he places it 
 in Central America; '"2d, the growth of a rival 
 power; 3d, a long struggle extending through several 
 generations at least, and resulting in the downfall of 
 the Xibalban kings; 4th, a subsequent scattering, 
 the cause of which is not stated, but was evidently 
 war, civil and foreign." ^^ 
 
 Compare this account with the account of the 
 decline of the ancient nation of Peru. Montesinos, 
 who is said to be the best authority we have on the 
 
 »*Ibid.,p. 266. 
 
 *8 Ibid., p. 287. 
 
 »< Ibid., p. 266; Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 125. 
 
 «« Ancient America, p. 198. 
 
 »« Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 185, 186. 
 
132 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 ancient civilization of Peru, divides Peruvian history 
 into ** three distinct periods.'' "First, there was a 
 period which began with the origin of civilization, 
 and lasted until the first or second century of the 
 Christian era. Second, there was a period of disin- 
 tegration, decline, and disorder, introduced by suc- 
 cessive invasion from the east and southeast, during 
 which the country was broken up into small states 
 and many of the arts of civilization were lost." 
 **Third, and last, came the period of the Incas."^'' 
 
 2^ Ancient America, p. 264. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 
 THE "CULTURE -HERO." 
 
 The great reason the Book of Mormon gives for 
 its existence is that it is another witness that Jesus is 
 the Son of God. It is the testimony of another people 
 — a separate people — the ancient people of the West- 
 ern World confirming the testimony of the ancient 
 people of the Eastern World that Jesus is the Christ, 
 the Savior of the world. It is also a testimony to the 
 fairness and impartiality of God in that he gives all 
 his children equal opportunities of salvation, not 
 revealing the way of life everlasting to one portion of 
 mankind, and withholding it from another. In this 
 paper we endeavor to point out to the young student 
 some of the signs from archaeological sources that 
 indicate that Christ did appear unto the ancient 
 Americans, and established his teachings among 
 them. 
 
 All authorities agree that the religion of the ancient 
 civilized nations was very different from that of the 
 Aztecs and the Incas. "The religion of the Toltecs," 
 says Charnay, "was mild, like their disposition; no 
 human blood ever stained their altar." ^ He further 
 says that "all writers agree that the monuments 
 devoted to this horrible practice (human sacrifice) 
 date from the fifteenth century (1440), and are of 
 
 1 Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 88. 
 
134 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 Aztec origin."* "While it is true, in a national sense, 
 that the Toltecs did not offer human sacrifice, we 
 have seen that in the later days there was a faction 
 that began to teach idolatry, and the evil that usually 
 follows, human sacrifice, but that this movement was 
 an apostasy from the religion of the Toltecs, and 
 that the followers of Quetzalcoatl, who belonged to 
 the representative Toltec church, labored hard to 
 restrain the evil tendencies. A ruler of the Aztec 
 period, Nezahualcoyotl, acknowledged the pure char- 
 acter of the Toltec religion, and ** strenuously 
 endeavored to recall his people to the pure and sim- 
 ple worship of the ancient Toltecs."^ "It is conjec- 
 tured," Charnay goes on to tell us about the Toltecs, 
 **with what evidence is uncertain, that they wor- 
 shiped *an unknown god.' "* 
 
 The young student must be careful not to get con- 
 fused when he refers to some of these writers. 
 Charnay, for instance, attributes much that belonged 
 to the Aztecs, to the Toltecs. He acts on the general 
 supposition that everything of a more refined charac- 
 ter came from the Toltecs, even though it might be 
 an idolatrous notion. He describes the native idea 
 of heaven, and calls attention to the superiority of 
 the idea over that of other barbarous or semicivi- 
 lized nations of antiquity, even so advanced as the 
 Greeks, and calls it the Toltecs' heaven,^ while the 
 
 *Ibid.,p. 406. 
 
 8 See chapter on "Aztec Civilization," under "Religion of the 
 Aztecs.'* 
 * Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 83. 
 » Ibid., p. 121. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 135 
 
 more logical and precise Prescott says, "Such was 
 the heaven of the Aztecs."^ Doubtless the idea rep- 
 resented the Toltecs in this way, that in its pure form 
 it originated with them, but when it was found among 
 the Aztecs these people had "engrafted their own 
 mythology" on it, as Prescott observes in explaining 
 the strange incongruity of the Aztec religious system, 
 which "naturally suggests the idea of two distinct 
 sources,'* he says, "and authorizes the belief that 
 the Aztecs had inherited from their predecessors a 
 milder faith, on which was afterwards engrafted their 
 own mythology.'' "^ 
 
 Whatever may have been the notions or the prac- 
 tices of other nations contemporary with the Aztecs — 
 they all beHeve in idols, and some may have prac- 
 ticed human sacrifice to some extent, though none of 
 the other nations ever went to the excess that the 
 Aztecs did — there is evidence that the ancient people 
 before the period of the Aztecs and the Inoas were 
 superior to all such practices, and that they did not 
 believe in, or worship idols. The Quiche worship 
 "was at first purely spiritual," says Short.® The 
 Quiche traditions said that way back in the past they 
 worshiped "no graven images," • In a previous 
 chapter we cited the instance of a temple that was 
 found near Lima, in Peru, which exhibited no trace 
 of having ever been used for idol-worship. The 
 natives were astonished because they found no image 
 
 « Conquest of Mexico (Universal edition) vol. 1, book 1, chap. 
 2, p. 65. 
 
 7 Ibid., p. 57. 
 
 8 North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 214, 215. 
 » Native Races, vol. 5, p. 20. 
 
136 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 or visible symbol of a god in this sanctuary, and 
 writers have concluded that the temple was raised to 
 Pachacamac, the invisible deity, Creator of the 
 earth; that the religion must have been a *'pure The- 
 ism." *® Prescott says, **It is a remarkable fact that 
 many, if not most, of the rude tribes inhabiting the 
 vast American continent, however disfigured their 
 creeds may have been in other respects by a childish 
 superstition, had attained to the sublime conception 
 of one Great Spirit, the Creator of the Universe." ^ ^ 
 De Salcar says: **The chiefs and men of Chiapa 
 were acquainted with the doctrine of the Holy 
 Trinity. They call the Father, Icona, the Son, 
 Bacab, and the Holy Ghost, Estruach." ^* 
 
 We have called attention, in previous papers, to 
 the remarkable scriptural analogies in some of the 
 ideas and customs of the nations found here by the 
 Spaniards. We are given the following as an illus- 
 tration of how like the Christian forms some of the 
 native prayers and addresses were: **Son, your 
 earthly hardships and sufferings are over. We are 
 but mortal, and it has pleased the Lord to call you to 
 himself. We had the privilege of being intimately 
 acquainted with you; but now you share the abode 
 of the gods, whither we shall all follow, for such is 
 the destiny of man. The place is large enough for 
 
 *o See chap, on the "Ruins of Ancient America," under 
 "Ruins of South America." 
 
 1 1 Conquest of Peru (universal edition), vol. 1, book 1, chap. 3, 
 p. 88. 
 
 12 Kings borough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. 6, p. 166, quoted 
 by Elder H. A. Stebbins in his Book of Mormon Lectures, p, 
 156, old edition. 
 
AND ARCILEOLOGY. 137 
 
 every one; but although all are bound for the gloomy 
 bourn, none ever return."*' This was a speech that 
 was addressed to the dead, which the writer thinks 
 so remarkable that he believes the reporter **uncon- 
 sciously added something of his own," and this is a 
 doubt often expressed in regard to the early chroni- 
 clers. But if it were the case that the missionaries 
 invented some part of these accounts, as Donnelly 
 sensibly observes, why did they not make the stories 
 agree more closely with the Bible ; why leave points 
 in dealing with the same subject, to differ from the 
 scriptural account? 
 
 The natives of both Norih and South America had 
 flood-myths. "It is a remarkable fact," says Alfred 
 Maury, "that we find in America traditions of the 
 Deluge coming infinitely nearer to that of the Bible 
 and the Chaldean religion than any people of the Old 
 Worid."** There were traditions of the Creation, of 
 the temptation of Eve, the Tower of Babel, the con- 
 fusion of tongues, and the scattering of the people 
 to different parts of the earth. Donnelly says: 
 "Scarcely a prominent fact in the opening chapters 
 of the book of Genesis that can not be duplicated 
 from the legends of American traditions."** The 
 Mexicans beheved in a future life, in reward and 
 punishment. The Peruvians believed in the exist- 
 ence of the soul hereafter. Their faith in a resurrec- 
 tion was evinced in their custom of embalming their 
 dead. In previous chapters we have referred to cus- 
 
 «» Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 148. 
 1* Atlantis, p. 98. 
 ii'Ibid., p. 198. 
 
138 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 toms that show striking resemblances with the Chris- 
 tian ordinances of baptism and communion, to ideas 
 and beliefs that could only have originated, at some 
 time, through contact with scriptural teachings.^® 
 But one writer thinks the height of fanaticism was 
 reached when the early missionaries saw in the great 
 Culture-Hero characteristics that were like those of 
 Christ. Another writer of no less importance, Doctor 
 Brinton, thinks it not absurd to quote a historian who 
 says that **nothing was wanting" in the culture- 
 heroes, **save the name of God and that of his Son, 
 Jesus Christ."^' But, as in other instances, opinion 
 differs so much on this subject as to who the Culture - 
 Hero could have been, that we shall have to learn the 
 facts and judge for ourselves. 
 
 Referring to Mexico and Central America, Charnay 
 says, "The worship of Quetzalcoatl extended on the 
 plateaux and in the peninsula."^* A similar charac- 
 ter was worshiped in Peru, also, and not only these 
 more civilized nations, but many of the wild Indian 
 tribes revered a being to whom they attributed the 
 highest qualities of which they could conceive. 
 **Such to the Algonkins was Michabo or Manibozho, 
 to the Iroquois loskeka, Wasi to the Cherokees, 
 Tamoi to the Caribs ; so the Mayas had Itzamna, the 
 Nahuas Quetzalcoatl, the Muyscas Nemqueteba; 
 such among the Quichuas was Viracocha, among the 
 Mandans Numock-Muckenah, among the Hidatsa 
 
 18 For further analogies with the Scriptures see Native Races, 
 vol. 5, pp. 85-91; North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 459-465; 
 Atlantis, part 3, chap. 6. 
 
 17 Myths of the New Worid, p. 337. 
 
 18 Ancient Cities of the New Worid, p. 85. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 139 
 
 Itamapisa, and among the natives of the Orinoko 
 Amalivaca; and the catalogue could be extended 
 indefinitely."^* Because the traditions of all these 
 nations spoke of this personage whom writers call 
 the Culture -Hero, we refer to the character in plural 
 form, sometimes, and say culture- heroes, but it is 
 evident that one and the same personage was referred 
 to by all the traditions. In fact, it is not reasonable 
 to suppose that there existed so many characters 
 having the same attributes as are ascribed to the 
 Culture-Hero by the legends of each nation. This 
 very remarkable similarity in such a multiplicity of 
 instances is logical evidence of the strongest nature 
 that it was some one wonderful character that was 
 referred to by all the traditions. Bancroft says: 
 ** Although bearing various names and appearing in 
 different countries, the American culture-heroes all 
 present the same general characteristics.. . . . They 
 are all described as white, bearded men, generally 
 clad in long robes; appearing suddenly and mysteri- 
 ously upon the scene of their labors, they at once set 
 about improving the people by instructing them in 
 useful and ornamental arts, giving them laws, exhort- 
 ing them to practice brotherly love and other Chris- 
 tian virtues, and introducing a milder and better form 
 of religion; having accomplished their mission they 
 disappear as mysteriously and unexpectedly as they 
 came; and, finally, they are apotheosized and held in 
 great reverence by a grateful posterity. In such 
 guise or on such mission did Quetzalcoatl appear in 
 Cholula, Votan in Chiapas, Wixepeoooha in Oajaoa, 
 *• Myths of tbeTSTew World, p. 192. 
 
140 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 Zamna, and Cukulcan with his nineteen disciples, in 
 Yucatan, Gucumatz in Guatemala, Viracocha in 
 Peru, Sume and Paye-Tome in Brazil, the mysterious 
 apostle mentioned by Rosales, in Chili, and Boohica 
 in Colombia.*' The most celebrated of these are 
 Quetzalcoatl and Votan. 
 
 These culture -heroes, as we shall more fully see 
 as we go along, partake of the nature of divine and 
 human. They are worshiped as a god, and they are 
 reverenced as a great earthly teacher. They are 
 spoken of as founders, but in reality all the culture- 
 heroes found the country peopled, we are told.*® 
 They were not founders of the ancient nation, but 
 were founders of an era in the history of the nation. 
 The Culture-Hero brought about a new order of 
 things, gave the people a pattern to go by, and 
 ** established his own ideas of religion and govern- 
 ment," as Bancroft says.^* This great personage 
 came by divine command, we are further informed 
 concerning him, and he came from the east, from the 
 Old World. 2* He was "venerable, just, holy, who 
 taught by precept and example the paths of virtue.'* 
 He also prophesied things that would happen in the 
 future.** 
 
 Other characteristics and description of the Cul- 
 ture-Hero are given us by Mr. Short. Quetzalcoatl 
 was the * 'patron god and high priest of the ancestors 
 of the Toltecs.'* His long, white robe was ''covered 
 
 20 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 159. 
 •tibid. 
 2 2 Ibid. 
 2sibid., p. 201. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 141 
 
 with red crosses." "His habits were ascetic; he 
 never married, was most chaste and pure in life, and 
 is said to have endured penance in a neighboring 
 mountain, not for its effects upon himself, but as an 
 example to others. Some have here found a parallel 
 for Christ's temptation. He condemned sacrifices 
 except of fruit and flowers," which are figurative of 
 peace, and he was known as the "god of peace."^* 
 
 "Quetzalcoatl was bom of a virgin in the land of 
 Tula or Tlapallan, in the distant Orient," says Brin- 
 ton.^* "Many of the great gods of the race, as 
 Quetzalcoatl, Mambozho, Viracocha, and loskeha, 
 were said to have been born of a virgin. Even 
 among the low Indians of Paragua the early mis- 
 sionaries were startled to find this tradition of the 
 maiden mother of the god, so similar to that which 
 they had come to tell."^® Everything that was good 
 was ascribed to the teachings of the Culture -Hero, 
 and he was believed to have divine power and influ- 
 ence. He was "endowed with every virtue and 
 deified," says Charnay.^'' To Zamna, of Yucatan 
 tradition, were brought "the sick, the halt, and the 
 dead, and he healed and restored them all to life 
 by the touch of his hand, hence the appellation 
 Kab-Ul, the Miraculous Hand, applied to him."^^ 
 
 It has been a matter of wonderment to some how 
 Cortez with his handful of an army was able to 
 
 2 4 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 268. 
 
 2 5 Myths of the New World, p. 214. 
 
 2 6 Ibid., p. 172. 
 
 2 7 Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 84. 
 
 28 Ibid., p. 308. 
 
142 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 conquer the powerful Aztec empire. One chief 
 cause was closely associated with our subject. It 
 was a general belief that the great and mysterious 
 Quetzalcoatl would some day return, and that when 
 he did, he would come as a mighty ruler and take 
 the reign of government in his own hands. Prescott 
 says : **I have noticed the popular traditions respect- 
 ing Quetzalcoatl, that deity with a fair complexion 
 and flowing beard, so unlike the Indian physiog- 
 nomy, who, after fulfilling his mission of benevolence 
 among the Aztecs, embarked on the Atlantic Sea for 
 the mysterious shores of Tlapallan. He promised, 
 on his departure, to return at some future day with 
 his posterity and resume the possession of his 
 empire. That day was looked forward to with hope 
 or with apprehension, according to the interest of 
 the believer, but with general confidence through- 
 out the wide borders of Anahuac. Even after the 
 Conquest it still lingered among the Indian races, 
 by whom it was fondly cherished, as the advent 
 of their king, Sebastian, continued to be by the 
 Portuguese, or that of the Messiah by the Jews."*^ 
 Again, Prescott tells us: "The Mexicans looked 
 confidently to the return of the benevolent deity ; and 
 this remarkable tradition, deeply cherished in their 
 hearts, prepared the way, as we shall see hereafter, 
 for the future success of the Spaniards.'"" 
 
 When the white men, Cortez and his followers, 
 arrived, they were regarded as the great Quetzal - 
 
 *» Conquest of Mexico, vol. 1, book 2, chap. 6, p. 308; also see 
 Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 15. 
 «o Conquest of Mexico, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 3, p. 61. 
 
AND ARCILEOLOaY. 143 
 
 coatl and his followers, returned according to the 
 ancient promise. The native mind was excited with 
 superstitious fear. The emperor, Montezuma, fierce 
 warrior though he was, feared this white man was his 
 rival, Quetzalcoatl, whom he believed to be more 
 than human man, hence thought it useless to resist 
 him. When his less credulous brother urged him to 
 fight Cortez, *'With downcast eye and dejected 
 mien, he exclaimed, *0f what avail is resistance, 
 when the gods have declared themselves against 
 ygP>>>8i ip^Q young lords of Tezcuco presented 
 themselves to Cortez, saying that their father, the 
 cacique, had heard of him, and had greatly desired, 
 with his last breath, to see him. "He believed that 
 the white men were the beings predicted by the ora- 
 cles as one day to come from the east and take 
 possession of the land; and he enjoined it on his 
 children, should the strangers return to the valley, to 
 render them their homage and allegiance." This the 
 young lords expressed their willingness to do.^* De 
 Soto heard the same tradition in Peru. The father 
 of the then ruling Inca, on his death-bed, had com- 
 manded his son to yield "homage and obedience" to 
 the prophesied of white men, who "would come from 
 their father, the son, and subject to their rule the 
 nations of the world," for, said the old Inca, "they 
 will be of a nature superior to ours."'^ 
 
 Bancroft asks concerning Votan (representing 
 the character of the Culture-Hero in any tradition), 
 "Who or what was Votan, man or mythic creator, 
 
 «i Ibid., vol. 2, book 3, chap. 8, p. 54. 
 8 2 Ibid., vol. 3, book 6, chap. 1, p. 13. 
 »8 Myths of the New World, p. 221. 
 
144 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 populator, colonizer, missionary, conqueror, foreign 
 or native born? Who were the people among whom 
 he wrought his mighty deeds, and what was their 
 past history? . . . His teachings, according to the 
 traditions, had much in common with those of Christ 
 in the Old World." ^4 Again, Bancroft tells us: 
 "Quetzalcoatl has been identified by some with 
 St. Thomas, by others with the Messiah." 3* While 
 we have quoted from Doctor Brinton for the value 
 of the evidence he presents, independently of his 
 views about it, his purpose is to argue that this won- 
 derful character, the Culture -Hero, had no personal 
 significance, but was a creature of religious fancy 
 and sentiment. John Foster Firk, in criticising this 
 theory, shows that the Culture-Hero was no myth, 
 but had been a personal, living reality. "The grand 
 and distinguishing characteristics of these figures," 
 he says, **is the moral and intellectual eminence 
 ascribed to them. They are invested with the highest 
 qualities of humanity — attributes neither drawn from 
 the external phenomena of nature nor born of any 
 rude sentiment of wonder or fear. Their lives and 
 doctrines are in strong contrast with those of the 
 ordinary divinities of the same or other lands, and 
 ih3y are objects not of propitiatory worship, but 
 of pious veneration. Can we, then, assent to the 
 conclusion that under this aspect, also, they were 
 * wholly mythical,' ^creations of the religious fancy,' 
 *ideals summing up in themselves the best traits, the 
 most approved virtues of the whole nations?' This 
 
 »* Native Races, vol. 5, p. 201. 
 88 Ibid., p. 25. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 145 
 
 would seem to imply that nations may attain to 
 lofty conceptions of moral truth and excellence by a 
 process of selection, without any standard or point 
 of view furnished by living embodiment of the ideal. 
 But this would be as impossible as to arrive at con- 
 ceptions of the highest forms and ideas independ- 
 ently of the special genius and actual productions of 
 the artist. . . . The mere fact, therefore, that the 
 Mexican people recognized an exalted ideal of purity 
 and wisdom is a sufficient proof that men had existed 
 among them who displayed these qualities in an emi- 
 nent degree. The status of their civilization, imper- 
 fect as it was, can be accounted for in the same 
 way."3« 
 
 The early Catholic missionaries were astonished to 
 find the cross here. It was a common feature of 
 architecture in Central America and Mexico, nor was 
 it unknown in Peru, although, according to the Book 
 of Mormon, heathen occupations of that country was 
 older. Bancroft tells us that "the Incas possessed a 
 cross of fine marble, or jasper, highly polished," 
 etc.^'' We are aware that the cross was represented 
 and reverenced by different nations in ages prior to 
 the Christian era. The fact is often presented to 
 meet the circumstance of the cross being found in 
 America, and the argument is made that because of 
 the prevalence and antiquity of the cross it could 
 have had no Christian significance. Writers are 
 divided in their opinions as to the meaning of the 
 
 »« Conquest of Mexico, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 3, pp. 62-64, foot- 
 note. 
 3 7 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 48. 
 
14S BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 cross in ancient America. One assumes that it was a 
 symbol of the four winds. Another says it was a 
 symbol of rain. In the East, we are told that the 
 cross was an emblem of the life to come; it was the 
 key of the Nile; it was emblematic of creative power 
 and eternity; it symbolized the happy abode of our 
 ancestors in the garden of Eden; it represented foui 
 sacred streams that divided off the earth, or the 
 stream that ran through the garden of Eden, and 
 parted into four heads. Through these various 
 heathen conceptions the cross is interpreted to rep- 
 resent: **In Egypt, Assyria, and Britain it was 
 emblematic of creative power and eternity; in India, 
 China, and Scandinavia, of heaven and immortality; 
 in the two Americas, of rejuvenescence and freedom 
 from physical suffering ; while in both hemispheres it 
 was the common symbol of the resurrection, or the 
 sign of the life to come; and, finally, in all heathen 
 communities, without exception, it was the emphatic 
 type, the sole enduring evidence of the Divine 
 Unity." 3 8 
 
 It must be evident to the philosophical reasoner 
 that a symbol so wide- spread among mankind could 
 not have had its origin in accident, or been a circum- 
 stance of coincidence. It must have sprung from a 
 vital principle of highest importance to the children 
 of men.^* While the confused ideas to which we are 
 referred were held by the heathen nations of the 
 past, it is not reasonable to think that these ideas 
 
 »8Atlantis, pp. 317-326. 
 
 39 See chapter on "Aztec Civilization," under "Religion of 
 the Aztecs." 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 147 
 
 represented the original meaning of the cross. One 
 writer has wisely observed: **It8 undoubted antiq- 
 uity, no less than its extraordinary diffusion evi- 
 dences that it must have been . . . emblematical of 
 some fundamental doctrine or mystery." It is evi- 
 dent that the different peoples had forgotten, strayed 
 away from, and lost the knowledge of the true mean- 
 ing of the symbol which they perpetuated as a matter 
 of tradition or habit. As to the cross in America, 
 there is but one or the other of two conclusions to 
 come to : either the ancients came in contact with it 
 in the Old World, and the principle for which it stood 
 — certainly they would not have made the cross such 
 a prominent and general feature in their monuments 
 unless they had, at one time, an intelligent under- 
 standing of the important meaning of it — or the 
 knowledge of the cross and its story was brought 
 here to the people. Science is no more able to dis- 
 prove one supposition than it is the other. It is not 
 able to say when or how the cross got here. Until 
 proof to the contrary can be found, the fact that the 
 cross existed here is an evidence that does not con- 
 tradict, but stands on the side of the Book of Mormon 
 assertions that Christ and the atonement were taught 
 to the ancient Americans. 
 
 A temple was discovered at Palenque that was 
 called the "Temple of the Cross."*® Charnay says 
 it is his opinion that this temple was dedicated to 
 Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl. He tells about another 
 temple in a Lorillard town that he believes was dedi- 
 
 <« Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 252. 
 
148 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 oated to Cukulcan*' (another name for the same 
 character as Quetzalcoatl). He assumes a joint pro- 
 prietorship in the cross between Tlaloc and Quetzal- 
 coatl. He says that the cross was an attribute of 
 Tlaloc,* 2 also of Cukulcan.*^ Now, Tlaloc was the 
 Aztec god of rain, and as a sequence, the harvest 
 was associated with him. He is said to have been the 
 oldest god of Aztec mythology, derived from the 
 idolatrous portion of the Toltecs, and to whom they 
 begun to offer human sacrifices in those degenerate 
 last days of their history.** What his significance 
 might have been to them is only conjectural. He 
 may have represented the Creator, from which idea 
 the Aztecs came to look to him as having the power 
 to produce rain, upon which so much of their physical 
 well-being depended. While in all the traditions 
 descended from the ancestors of the people, the char- 
 acter of Quetzalcoatl figures as a distinct personality, 
 yet we find to the clouded Aztec mind he finally came 
 to be regarded as the god of air, a mythical crea- 
 tion.** Hence it will be seen that it can not be told, 
 from the latter idea entertained of him, who Tlaloc 
 originally represented. It is significant, however, 
 that these two characters were the oldest and most 
 important deities, and it seems that in the beginning 
 of idolatry there were but these two — "The cult of 
 Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc was spread by the Toltecs in 
 
 «ilbid., pp. 450, 454. 
 
 *Mbid., p. 449. 
 
 «Ibid., p. 454. 
 
 ** Conquest of Mexico, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 3, p. 
 
 *« Myths of the New World, pp. 114, 141, 214. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 149 
 
 their long wanderings."*' It is evident that these 
 two gods represented two supreme ideas, and, from 
 the fact that they were so closely associated that the 
 same attribute was sometimes ascribed to them both, 
 there must have been a close relationship, in reality, 
 between them. If we succeed in showing that 
 Quetzalcoatl, or Cukulcan (also spelled Kukulkan), 
 was indeed Christ, the Son of God, is it not reason- 
 able to suppose that Tlaloo represented God, the 
 Father? 
 
 But no doubt is left as to which character the cross 
 was distinctly the attribute of. Compared with the 
 descriptions we have connecting the symbol with 
 Quetzalcoatl, we find no balancing rival claims in the 
 case of any other character in all the traditions. 
 Doctor Brinton says: ** Quetzalcoatl, as god of the 
 winds, bore as his sign of office *a mace like the cross 
 of a bishop;' his robe was covered with them strown 
 like flowers, and its adoration was throughout con^ 
 nected with his worship^^*''^ [the italics are ours]. 
 The traditions all represent Quetzalcoatl as dressed 
 in a long, flowing mantle, adorned with crosses,^ ^ 
 Elder H. A. Stebbins quotes from the works of Lord 
 Kingsborough as follows: **The interpreter of the 
 Vatican Codex says that the Mexicans had a tradition 
 that Quetzalcoatl (like Bacab) died upon the cross, 
 
 "*• Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 454. 
 
 <^ Myths of the New World, p. 114; Ancient Cities of the New 
 World, p. 85. 
 
 *8 See "Was St. Thomas the Apostle of the Aztecs," in Rocky 
 Mountain News^ December 14, 1900, published in Saints* Herald 
 for December 26, 1900; Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 85; 
 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 268; Atlantis, p. 165; Myths 
 of the New World, p. 114. 
 
150 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 and he seems to add, that it was, according to their 
 belief, for the sins of mankind. This tradition ac- 
 quires the most authentic character from the cor- 
 roboration which it receives from several paintings 
 in the Codex Borgia, which actually represents Quet- 
 zalcoatl crucified and nailed to the cross. These 
 paintings are contained on the fourth, seventy -sec- 
 ond, seventy-third, and seventy-fifth pages of the 
 above-mentioned manuscript. On the seventy-sec- 
 ond page, Quetzalcoatl is painted in the attitude of a 
 person crucified, with the impression of nails both in 
 his hands and feet, but not actually upon a cross. 
 His body seems to be formed out of a resplendent 
 sun. On the seventy -fifth page he is again repre- 
 sented as crucified, and one of his hands and both 
 feet seem to bear the impression of nails." Kings- 
 borough refers to an early writer who says: *'In 
 these Mexican paintings many analogies may be 
 traced between the events to which they evidently 
 relate and the history of the crucifixion of Christ as 
 contained in the New Testament. The subject of 
 them all is the same, being the death of Quetzalcoatl 
 upon the cross as an atonement for the sins of man- 
 kind."** The same authority informs us that 
 the Indians who dwelt on the coast of the Caribbean 
 Sea had ancient paintings on long pieces of leather 
 which they told the Spaniards they received from 
 their ancestors. A virgin was pictured who should 
 give birth to a son who would permit himself to be 
 
 <»See Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. 6, p. 166, 
 quoted bv Elder Stebbins in Book of Mormon Lectures, p. 156, 
 old edition. 
 
AND ARCILEOLOGY. 151 
 
 put to death. "Accordingly he was represented in 
 the painting as crucified, with his hands and feet 
 tied to the cross, without nails."' • 
 
 Much more evidence could be presented as show- 
 ing the striking parallels between this character, the 
 Culture -Hero, referred to in the traditions by differ- 
 ent names, and Jesus Christ. We have purposely 
 chosen, for illustration, only some of the features 
 that skepticism has tried to divest of due significance, 
 to show how lacking of proof, good logic, and har- 
 mony such efforts are, and to show how wonderfully 
 these controverted evidences testify in favor of the 
 central truth of the Book of Mormon, The book 
 declares that Christ visited this continent and taught 
 the people the object of his mission to mankind; that 
 he performed miracles, healed the sick, and raised 
 the dead. He gave the people a new set of com- 
 mandments, a higher law, as he had done in the other 
 part of the world. He chose apostles, established his 
 church, and promised the people that he would 
 return. Clearly these things are commemorated in 
 the traditions, and the great character referred to 
 could have been none other than Christ. What 
 other adequate explanation can be offered to account 
 for the similarity, in all the traditions, of the descrip- 
 tions of the Culture-Hero; the presence of this char- 
 acter in the annals of all the peoples, and the 
 profound and lasting impression he made, the great 
 part he took? Even the wild Indian tribes, as we have 
 seen, shared in the idea of such a personage. Myths 
 
 ••Ibid. 
 
152 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 of a ** Savior and benefactor of the human race 
 extends to the Alaskan tribes," we are told, ^^ while 
 it is commonly known that the Indians look forward 
 to the coming or return of a Savior, and our news- 
 papers have told about the * 'Messiah craze" that 
 occurs at periods among some of the tribes. Doctor 
 Brinton remarks: **It is but a few years since the 
 Indians on our reservations, in wild despair at the 
 misery and death of those dearest to them, broke out 
 in mad appeals, in furious ceremonies, to induce 
 that longed-for Savior and friend to appear. The 
 heartless whites called it a *ghost dance,' and shot 
 the participants in their tracks, hastening the implac- 
 able destiny against which the poor wretches prayed 
 in vain." ** 
 
 Mohammed, Buddha, and Confucius left a far- 
 reaching impression upon the people among whom 
 they appeared. But no man ever came into this 
 world to whom were ascribed attributes so superior 
 and so opposed to the carnal promptings of human 
 nature; who accomplished results so unequaled in 
 their effect on human thought and action as those 
 described of the American culture-heroes, save the 
 Christ, only. The cross was not a symbol of any of 
 nature's elements, but a witness of the goodness and 
 justice of nature's God, testifying that the privilege 
 of salvation through knowledge of Christ and his 
 atoning mercy had been impartially extended unto all 
 men. When we admit the possibility that Christ 
 visited the ancient Americans and made known unto 
 
 •1 Prehistoric America, p. 531. 
 
 •2 Myths of the New World, p. 225. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 163 
 
 them his mission to mankind, we striL j. key-note 
 with which all those strange Scriptural analogies 
 chord. It is the only theory with which all the evi- 
 dence will harmonize, and furnishes an explanation 
 in the light of which the remarkable resemblances 
 that have proven such a perplexing mystery to sci- 
 ence become clear and simple, each circumstance 
 agreeing with all the others, the whole forming one 
 grand bulwark of evidence in defense of the claim of 
 the Book of Mormon that the religion of the ancient 
 Americans was the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 « 
 
ORIGIN OP THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 
 THE DIFFERENT SCIENTIFIC THEORIES. 
 
 The origin of the ancient Americans is a question 
 that to science is shrouded in mystery. Numerous 
 theories and no end of speculation have been 
 indulged in as to who they were and whence they 
 came. t)ne theory holds that America was peopled 
 from China; that in remote times a Chinese expedi- 
 tion stumbled across this continent while on a voy- 
 age. Even the Japanese come in for some of the 
 honors of peopling America anciently. The Phoeni- 
 cians were the most adventurous navigators of their 
 day. It is argued that they planted a colony on 
 American shores. The Atlantis idea has its advo- 
 cates. It supposes that where the Atlantic Ocean is 
 now there was once land, a beautiful and fertile land 
 that was sunk by some great convulsion of nature; 
 that America was settled by these Atlantic people, 
 who, so the story runs, formed the first civilization of 
 the world. And again, "much has been written to 
 prove that the northwestern part of America was dis- 
 covered and peopled by Scandinavians long before 
 the time of Columbus." Welsh, Scotch, and Irish 
 theories have their friends. 
 
 In the array of suppositions, a prominent one is 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 165 
 
 that of Egyptian origin ; that the ancient Americans 
 "derived their arts and culture from Egypt." The 
 pyramidal feature in architecture has furnished the 
 basis for the idea, mostly; but without reason, it is 
 argued, since the pyramid was not confined, among 
 ancient nations, to Egypt and America, but is found 
 in China, India, and other parts of Asia, and was 
 not used for the same purpose, as a rule, in America, 
 as it was in Egypt, nor made in the same way. Other 
 features of resemblance are pointed out in the hiero- 
 glyphics, in the custom of embalming and other 
 practices which the opposition claims on the other 
 hand, are insufficient to give the Egyptian theory 
 precedence over all the rest.^ 
 
 The most prominent theory, however, one which 
 has the largest number of advocates, is that which 
 traces the Americans to Jewish origin. The early 
 Spanish writers were mostly of that belief. The mis- 
 sionaries were struck with the resemblance they 
 found in the customs, and especially in the religious 
 ideas and practices, of the natives with the Jewish. 
 Lord Kingsborough, a scholar who spent his life and 
 his fortune in studying the question, was very decided 
 in his belief; and the chief objections to the results 
 of his researches seem to be that he found too many 
 Hebrew resemblances, hence he must have imagined 
 a good many of them, been too enthusiastic, etc., 
 etc., etc. Mr. Short says, *'It is a matter of surprise 
 how much has been written to establish the theory 
 
 *See Native Races, vol. 5, chap. 1; also North Americans 
 of Antiquity, pp. 131-201. 
 
156 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 that the Mexicans were descendants of the Jews both 
 in race and religion."* 
 
 But there are some who do not believe that the 
 ancient Americans came from anywhere; were 
 related to anybody. This is called the **Autoch- 
 thonic Theory." Topsy expressed the idea in sim- 
 pler fashion, though: **Just growed up." They 
 were not brought here ; they did not come here ; they 
 just sprung to life here. However, this theory is not 
 very widely believed. "There is no evidence fur- 
 nished by the measurement of crania that an Ameri- 
 can race, as unique initself and distinct from the rest 
 of mankind, ever existed," Mr. Short tells us,^ and 
 gives his conclusions thus: **The fact that civiliza- 
 tions having such analogies are developed in isolated 
 quarters of the globe, separated from each other by 
 broad seas and lofty mountains, and thus indicating 
 a uniformity of mental operation and a unity of 
 mental inspiration, added to the fact that the evi- 
 dence is of a preponderating character that the 
 American continent received its population from the 
 Old World, leads us to the truth that God *hath made 
 of one blood all nations of men.' "* 
 
 EASTERN ORIGIN. 
 
 All the more enlightened nations found here by 
 the Spaniards, besides many of the wild Indian 
 tribes, had traditions about a foreign origin. Father 
 Duran **was convinced that the natives had a foreign 
 
 2 North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 459, 560: also see pp. 
 134-143. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 165. 
 * Ibid., p. 521, 
 
AND ARCILEOLOGY. 167 
 
 origin, and that they performed a long journey of 
 many years duration in their migration to the New 
 World. He arrived at these conclusions on account 
 of several considerations, some of which are as fol- 
 lows : The natives had no definite knowledge of their 
 origin, some claiming to have proceeded from foun- 
 tains and springs of water, others that they were 
 created by the gods, while all admit that they had 
 come from other lands. Furthermore, they pre- 
 served in their traditions and pictures the memory 
 of a journey in which they had suffered hunger, 
 thirst, nakedness, and all manner of afflictions.'"^ 
 So prevalent were these traditions about a foreign 
 origin and long wanderings, that the father and other 
 early missionaries and writers were led to think 
 the Americans must have been the lost tribes of 
 Israel. 
 
 The Quiches, in the Popul Vuh, give an account of 
 the long, weary journeying. They started from 
 Tulan. **The tradition of their origin states that they 
 came from the far East, across immense tracts of 
 land and water.*'" They endured much hardship, 
 and traveled a long time. They tell about cold, rain, 
 scarcity of food, dense forests, high mountains, a 
 long sea passage. At last their tribulations were at 
 an end. They came to a country where everything 
 was "beauteous and gladdening," and "the four pro- 
 genitors of the race, and all the people rejoiced." "^ 
 
 "Ibid., p. 135. 
 •Ibid., p. 211. 
 ^Ibid., pp. 211-216; Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 21, 181, 182. 
 
158 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 The Nahua or Mexican tradition is similar. "Seven 
 
 families speaking the same language kept together in 
 
 their wanderings for many years ; and after crossing 
 
 broad land and seas, enduring many great hardships, 
 
 they reached the country of Huehue Tlapallan or 
 
 *01d* Tlapallan; which they found to be fertile and 
 
 desirable to dwell in.*' ^ 
 
 The Tzendal tradition said that Votan came from the 
 
 East, from across the sea. "He conducted seven 
 
 families from Valum to this continent." " The Cak- 
 
 chiquel MS. says: "Four persons came from Tulan, 
 
 from the direction of the rising sun — that is one Tulan . 
 
 There is another Tulan in Xibalbay, and another 
 
 where the sun sets, and it is there that we came; and 
 
 in the direction of the setting sun there is another, 
 
 where is the god, so that there are four Tulans; and 
 
 it is where the sun sets that we came to Tulan, from 
 
 the other side of the sea, where this Tulan is; and 
 
 it is there that we were conceived and begotten by 
 
 our mothers and fathers."*® Bancroft says of the 
 
 Mayas of Yucatan, "Their idea of the most primitive 
 
 period of their history, like the idea entertained by 
 
 other nations whose annals have been presented, was 
 
 connected with the arrival of a small band from across 
 
 the sea." * * The Aztecs said they came from Aztlan, 
 
 and spoke of their ancestors in connection with the 
 
 regions where the "sun rises." ** 
 
 8 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 209; also see North Americans of 
 Antiquity, pp. 23S-245. 
 » North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 204, 208. 
 
 10 Atlantis, p. 166. 
 
 11 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 616; also see p. 22. 
 
 1* North Americans of Antiquity, p. 257; Conquest of Mexico, 
 Universal edition, vol. 2, book 3, chap. 9, p. 86. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 159 
 
 "An Okanagan myth relates that they were 
 descended from a white couple who had been sent 
 adrift from an island in the Eastern ocean." *'The 
 Chepewyans have a tradition that they came from a 
 distant land, where a bad people lived." "The 
 Algonquins preserve a tradition of a foreign origin 
 and a sea voyage." "The Olmec traditions relate 
 that they came by sea from the East." ^ ^ "Same, the 
 great name of BraziHan legend, came across the 
 ocean from the rising sun.**^^ 
 
 Thus, we see, the traditions clearly indicate, 1st, a 
 foreign origin; 2d, long wanderings before the des- 
 tined home was reached; 3d, that the first starting 
 point was across the sea; 4th, that Tulan, Huehue 
 Tlapalan, and Atzlan, were simply different names 
 for that starting point, which was in the East, where 
 the "sun rises, "^* as the natives expressed the idea. 
 The Book of Mormon says that the three colonies 
 that came to this continent, the Jaredites, the 
 Nephites, and the Zarahemlaites, came from the 
 Eastern Hemisphere, traveling through parts of Asia 
 till the ocean was reached, when they crossed in 
 ships. They came from "across the sea;" they came 
 from that part of the world where the "sun rises." 
 
 SHIPS. 
 
 It would seem hardly necessary to make a point 
 of the means by which the ancient colonists reached 
 this continent, when we are given to understand that 
 
 i» Native Races, vol. 5, p. 22. 
 
 14 Atlantis, p. 168. 
 
 1^' See Ibid., pp. 165-168. 
 
160 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 they came by water. The voyage could only have 
 been accomplished by ships of some sort. However, 
 specific mention on this point is not wanting. Saha- 
 gun, one of the early Spanish writers, said, **Count- 
 less years ago the first settlers arrived in New Spain, 
 coming in ships by the sea," etc.^* Professor Bald- 
 win speaks of an old tradition of both Mexico and 
 Peru that said that the people came in ships. ^"^ The 
 circumstance is also mentioned in the Quiche and 
 Nahua traditions, but as it is included in the state- 
 ments that the ancestors of the ancient people came 
 from across the sea, more space will not be taken 
 to present further evidence that could be given. 
 
 BOTH COASTS WERE VISITED. 
 
 The **Chilian8," Mr. Bancroft tells us, "assert that 
 their ancestors came from the west."^® Professor 
 Baldwin states it more exactly: "According to the 
 old traditions of both Mexico and Peru, the Pacific 
 Coast in both countries was anciently visited by a 
 foreign people who came in ships." ^* There were 
 traditions among the Mayas that the country was 
 settled anciently by two peoples, "one from the east, 
 the other from the west."^° These traditions do not 
 conflict with the statements made by other traditions 
 that the ancestors of the ancient Americans came 
 from the east, as a moment's reflection will show. 
 The Book of Mormon says that the Jaredites, the 
 
 i« Native Races, vol. 5, p. 189. 
 1^ Ancient America, p. 170. 
 18 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 22. 
 I » Ancient America, p. 170. 
 'o Native Races, vol. 5, p. 223. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 161 
 
 Nephites, and the Zarahemlaites came from the east- 
 ern part of the world, but taking different routes, they 
 landed on opposite shores of the American Continent, 
 the Jaredites on the east, or Atlantic Coast, the 
 Nephites on the west, or Pacific Coast, while it is not 
 so clearly indicated on which coast the Zarahemlaites 
 landed. Again, standing on the American Continent, 
 the directions are east and west of it; so we speak of 
 them, and so the ancients spoke of them, while at the 
 same time the termini of both directions meet in the 
 Eastern Hemispere. As to the traditions in Mexico, 
 Central America, and Peru, all saying that the Pacific 
 Coast was visited: it will be remembered that the 
 ancestors of the people who lived in the two former 
 sections had once lived in Peru. Wherever their 
 descendants went they took their history with them ; 
 hence in the traditions of Mexico and Central America 
 there are confused memories of what happened in 
 Peru, or South America. 
 
 THE COURSE OF THE NATION. 
 
 The traditional account of early migrations is the 
 cause of much difference of opinion among antiqua- 
 rians on the point of the distance that was required 
 to accommodate the itinerary. 
 
 It is quite a prevalent idea that the ancient empire 
 referred to in the traditions was located in Central 
 America; in other words, that the traditions refer to 
 the nation which had its center or oldest settlements 
 in Central America. When antiquarians attempt to 
 harmonize the traditional accounts with this idea, 
 they are led to pretty straits. If they locate the 
 
162 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 second Tulan, the place at which the ancient immi- 
 grants landed on this continent, in Central America, 
 and tracing the course of travel along north, and east, 
 as described in the traditions, by the time sufficient 
 distance has been allowed to carry out the itinerary, 
 it will not keep within the geography of Central 
 America and Mexico, but leads far out upon the 
 Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 That will not do. To get out of this difficulty, one 
 antiquarian bethinks himself that civilization is a 
 course of evolution; it climbs upward step by step. 
 The height of culture attained in Central America 
 could only have been reached after the early strug- 
 gles of the nation were passed ; that they made their 
 beginning in another part of the country, and went 
 to Central America to display the climax of their 
 attainments. It would seem, however, that such 
 reasoners forget to apply their own argument. It is 
 for the very reason that it requires time to build such 
 cities and develop such culture as the ruins and relics 
 of Central America give evidence of that we find that 
 in those parts of any country where the people have 
 attained to the highest culture, there their settlements 
 are the oldest. But this view of the subject is incon- 
 venient. It does not suit the theory that certain 
 antiquarians have fixed upon for escape out of the 
 Gulf of Mexico. They take a survey of the upper 
 regions of North America, and they find in the West, 
 and in the Mississippi Valley, ruins that do not indi- 
 cate so much culture as do the ruins of Central 
 America. Ah, here, somewhere, then, they settle 
 upon for the beginning point of the storied wander- 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 163 
 
 ings. feome place it somewhere on the Californian 
 coast ; others say it is more reasonable to place it up 
 somewhere in the Mississippi Valley. ^^ Now they 
 run the itinerary along till they reach Central 
 America. This course certainly gives them distance 
 enough. 
 
 But other antiquarians come along and point out 
 that, however convenient such a theory might be so 
 far as the point of distance is concerned, there are 
 important features which it overlooks; facts with 
 which it will not harmonize at all. Mr. Bancroft 
 calls attention to a few things. He says, "Material 
 relics of any great empire are wanting in that 
 region," referring to the Northwest, or on the Gulf of 
 California,*^ and in answer to the argument that 
 the course of progress was southward, reaching its 
 highest development in Central America, he shows 
 that there is "utter want of resemblance" between 
 the ruins of that region and those of Mexico and 
 Central America. As to the starting-point being 
 somewhere in the Mississippi Valley, he calls atten- 
 tion to the fact that the monuments of Central 
 America indicate too great antiquity to have been 
 built by the people after their migration from the 
 North. After summing up his reasons, Mr. Bancroft 
 says: "The general theory alluded to of a great 
 migration from north to south . . . will find few 
 defenders in view of the results of modern re- 
 search,"*' and as agreeing with him in the conclu- 
 
 2» See North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 24&-253. 
 ** Native Races, p. 215. 
 "Ibid.,pp. 167, 168. 
 
164 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 sion that the Nahua culture was of Southern origin, 
 not of Northern, he mentions Bradford, Squier, 
 Tylor, Viollet-le-Duc, Bartlett, MuUer, and on gen- 
 eral principles, Brasseur de Bourboug, also.®* 
 
 But while Mr. Bancroft exposes the fallacy of the 
 theory of a migration from north to south, he is, in 
 a share, to blame for it by connecting the traditions 
 with the civilization which had its center in Central 
 America. He seeks to find a theory that will fit the 
 ruins, and overlooks the traditions. A sea voyage 
 can not be reconciled, at all, with the idea of Mr. 
 Bancroft that the first Tulan was in Central America. 
 He recognizes this himself, and is driven to the 
 resort of suggesting that perhaps the sea voyage was 
 an interpolation. The other theories we have 
 referred to endeavor to harmonize the traditions, but 
 as Mr. Bancroft shows, are unsound in reasoning, 
 and at variance with facts the monuments present. 
 By this time the young student no doubt begins to 
 see where the secret of all the trouble the scientific 
 gentlemen have over this question lies, and perceives, 
 as a matter of consequence, that the traditions could 
 not have reference to the first period of civilization, 
 the civilization which began in Central America. 
 Since the theories referred to will not stand the test 
 of logic, traditions, and monuments, and they are 
 popular theories with scientists on this question, too, 
 suppose we take the Book of Mormon and subject 
 it to the same test, to see how it will compare with 
 all the evidence. 
 
 «<Ibid., p. 236. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 165 
 
 Let us, first, briefly summarize the account the 
 Book of Mormon gives of the origin of the ancient 
 Americans. In the first place we are told that there 
 was a people, the Jaredites, who were dead and gone 
 before the second people, the Nephites and the Zara- 
 hemlaites, came, and that it was the first people who 
 began their civilization in Central America and car- 
 ried it to its highest point there. The second people 
 (the Nephites and the Zarahemlaites came at about 
 the same time, but the Nephites took precedence in 
 civilization and power, and to them we refer) came 
 from the Eastern Continent, as did the first people, 
 voyaged across the sea, and landed down on the west 
 coast of South America, somewhere on the coast 
 of Chili, it is believed. Here they settled for a time, 
 then took up their wanderings again and traveled 
 till they reached a place where they were satisfied 
 to make their homes. They now founded their first 
 city, Nephi. Hundreds of years they lived in that 
 region, then — because of wickedness, and the perse- 
 cution of their enemies — under Mosiah, the more 
 righteous take up their wanderings again and jour- 
 ney till they reach the Zarahemlaites, in the northern 
 part of the country, by whom they are gladly 
 received. A great empire is built up in Zarahemla 
 and flourishes for centuries, then the sad story is 
 repeated. Their enemies keep driving them further 
 and further north, and they spread upward into Cen- 
 tral America and Mexico, perhaps further, their ene- 
 mies following them wherever they go. In the fourth 
 century the nation was entirely destroyed, and the 
 people who remained, in time lost their identity and 
 
166 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 became mixed with the conquering people. The his- 
 tory of the Nephites, from the time they left Jeru- 
 salem till the downfall of the nation, covered a space 
 of about a thousand years. Now we will compare 
 this narrative with archaeological sources. 
 
 Donnelly interprets the Maya tradition thus : **The 
 birthplace of the race was in the East, across the sea, 
 at a place called Tulan; and when they emigrated 
 they called their first stopping-place on the American 
 Continent Tulan, also.''^^ The Mexican tradition is 
 similar. They start out from Hue hue Tlapalan "in 
 search of a suitable country in which to live." After 
 **traversing broad lands and seas, they arrived in a 
 country called Hue hue Tlapalan." ^^ We will 
 remember that down in Peru — ancient Peru — the 
 natives have a tradition that people had come to 
 their west coast in ships. We have learned that there 
 had been a civilization older than that of the Incas, 
 and that *'the source of this civilization is traced to 
 the valley of Cuzco, the central region of Peru;"^'^ 
 that here the oldest ruins in South America were 
 found. ^^ Let us, then, place the first Tulan, or Hue 
 hue Tlapalan, in the Eastern Hemisphere, and the 
 second Tulan, or Hue hue Tlapalan, the starting- 
 point of the land journey, down on the coast of Chili, 
 a ways. Now let us trace the itinerary along, going 
 in the direction the traditions indicate, north, and 
 
 «■ Atlantis, p. 166. 
 
 *« North Americans of Antiquity, p. 244. 
 •^Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 1, p. 8. (Universal 
 Edition.) 
 *«Ibid., p. 11; Ancient America, p. 236. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 167 
 
 east, until we reach Central America — that is where 
 this course would take us, anyhow — and have we not 
 distance enough? If from some point near the Gulf 
 of California, or somewhere in the upper part of the 
 Mississippi Valley, to Central America, affords dis- 
 tance sufficient to meet the requirements of the 
 itinerary, we have certainly been as well accommo- 
 dated by placing our land starting-point in Peru. 
 
 Again, if there had been no other people in 
 America anciently than those who began their civili- 
 zation in Central America, how came the natives 
 down in Peru to have traditions like the natives in 
 Central America? How came they to have that one 
 about their coast being visited by people who came 
 in ships? It will not do to say that perhaps sailing 
 vessels of some foreign people drifted out of their 
 course and ran upon the Peruvian coast. Such an 
 accidental happening would not be preserved in tra- 
 ditions for centuries, neither would the memory of it 
 be found to be of such wide-spread prevalence as this 
 tradition was. The natives in both North and South 
 America, as we have seen, had the idea, and the 
 early Europeans heard it frequently. For an idea 
 to have been so widely held, so tenaciously clung 
 to, it must have had its origin in an event of great 
 consequence in the history of the people. No acci- 
 dental happening would have survived in traditional 
 memory through centuries and changing circum- 
 stances. It was a vital event, and the fact thafc it 
 was commemorated in the traditions of the natives of 
 both North and South America is in itself a strong 
 suggestion of relationship between the people of the 
 
168 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 two sections, besides other similarities we have noted, 
 notwithstanding the dissimilarities. We are not told, 
 to our knowledge, that the people of Central America 
 extended their civilization into South America. We 
 know that wild theories are not a new thing, but we 
 hardly believe that any reputable antiquarian would 
 advocate such an idea, because the essential differ- 
 ence between the ruins of North and South America 
 forbid such a conclusion. If the Central Americans 
 had extended their civilization into South America, 
 the pyramid, which was the characteristic feature of 
 their architecture, would be found in the latter divi- 
 sion also, but it is not. Professor Baldwin is of the 
 opinion that the starting-point of the civilization 
 from which the Mayas and the Toltecs were descended 
 was in South America. He says: **The civilized 
 life of the ancient Americans may have had its 
 beginning somewhere in South America, for they 
 seem more closely related to the ancient South 
 Americans than to the wild Indians north of the 
 Mexican border. I find myself more and more 
 inclined to the opinion that the aboriginal South 
 Americans are the oldest people on this continent."** 
 The greatest difficulty that Mr. Baldwin seems to 
 have encountered in his speculations is the difference 
 between the architecture of North and of South 
 America. Perhaps this seeming difficulty has been 
 the greatest obstacle in the way of other archaeolo- 
 gists to hinder them from taking the position that 
 the early history of the people who were found in 
 
 2» Ancient America, p. 125. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 169 
 
 Central America and Mexico had its beginning in 
 South America. But the Book of Mormon clears 
 away any difficulty resulting from the situation, and 
 in turn receives confirming testimony in the very fact 
 that the situation is as it is. The book explains that 
 the original Central Americans were the earliest peo- 
 ple, and that they did not extend their civilization 
 into South America, hence the pyramid is not found* 
 in the latter country. It says that the people who 
 began their civilization in Peru were a distinct people 
 who came to the country about five hundred years 
 after the North Americans had disappeared. When 
 in the course of time they went up into Central 
 America, the **narrow neck of land," as it is 
 described, they were astonished to find ruins and 
 human bones there, and from these evidences that 
 the country had been formerly inhabited, but was 
 now desolate indeed, they called the land "Desola- 
 tion.'*3® It will be remembered that the Mexican 
 tradition speaks about journeying up to a land "for- 
 merly occupied by Quinames, but now depopu- 
 lated,"^* and, as we have seen in previous chapters 
 or papers, there is an abundance of evidence to show 
 that the ruins of this region had been inhabited by 
 successive peoples who **repaired and restored'* the 
 ruins, says Charnay and others, *'on the same plan 
 as that on which they had been erected. "^ 2 j^ would 
 not have been very easy for the new people to take 
 
 «oMosiah 5: 45; 9: 148; Alma 13: 64, 67, large edition; Mosiah 
 5:9; 9:26; Alma 13: 11, small edition. 
 
 3 1 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 245. 
 
 » 2 Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 134; also see Ancient 
 America, p. 152. 
 
170 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 down those pyramids. It is considered too trouble- 
 some a task to-day, and, besides, great and populous 
 as we have become, it has not been found necessary 
 to do so yet. It is only reasonable to suppose that 
 the ancient second comers adapted themselves to the 
 conditions they found. 
 
 Mr. Woodhead refers to a Maya tradition given 
 by Professor Le Plongeon in which the ancient 
 empire is traced to South America. The nation "was 
 symbolized by a tree," which was planted in the 
 northern part of South America. Again, the nation 
 was symbolized by a serpent. **The serpent's head 
 reaches into the Yucatan peninsula; its long body 
 is stretched out at full length through Central 
 America and eastward down and through the 
 Panama Isthmus, with its tail resting in the northern 
 part of South America."^ ^ In the traditions of the 
 early wanderings it will be noticed that Tulan evi- 
 dently marks an important place in the ancient his- 
 tory each time it is mentioned.- The first Tulan was 
 the birthplace of the people. The second Tulan was 
 where they landed. The name seems to convey the 
 meaning of home, or of important landmarks in their 
 history; places where they lived and flourished for 
 considerable periods of time. Besides the two Tulans 
 mentioned, there were two other Tulans. We suggest 
 the historical outline of the Nephites for comparison. 
 Their birthplace was in Asia. They came across the 
 ocean and landed down on the coast of South 
 America. They established their first great city, and 
 
 ssjSfamte' Herald, issue May 2, 1900, article, "Myths of the 
 New World.— No. 3." 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 171 
 
 spread out in the regions of Lake Titicaoa. Here 
 they lived for centuries, then migrated to the 
 northern part of South America, which was called 
 the land of Zarahemla. There they established their 
 great empire whose power at one time extended 
 through all the land, and colonies went up into North 
 America. It was to this region, where the grandest 
 era of Nephite history was developed, that the Maya 
 tree and serpent symbols point. The Mexican tradi- 
 tion, also, is marked by four important points, called 
 Huehue Tlapalan, which represent, in corresponding 
 order, the same circumstances as the Maya traditions 
 do. The skeptic might like to scorn these traditions 
 as evidence, but it will be remembered that "the 
 histories of the Egyptians, the Trojans, the Greeks, 
 and even ancient Rome rest on no surer footing,*' 
 and that there are always **some main and funda- 
 mental facts" out of which traditions grow. ^* 
 
 It has been asserted by some that the Aztecs and 
 the Mayas knew nothing of the Peruvians, and on 
 the other hand, that the Incas knew nothing of their 
 neighbors in the Northern country. We have spoken 
 of the characteristic difference between the archi- 
 tecture of North and South America, respectively, 
 and yet, if the remote ancestors of the Mexicans 
 and the Central Americans originally came from 
 South America, we should expect that archaeological 
 investigation would discover some resemblances 
 between the two sections, and some signs of early 
 relationship ; though it must not be forgotten that at 
 
 »* North Americans of Antiquity, p. 204; Native Races, pp. 
 136, 137, 141; Ancient America, p. 262. 
 
172 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 the beginning of the Columbian era over a thousand 
 years had passed since the time when the Nephite 
 empire extended its civilization into Central America 
 and Mexico, and hence that we could not expect to 
 trace the relationship clearly. But various writers 
 inform us of similarities that did exist in different 
 respects between the two divisions of country. Pro- 
 fessor Wilson says: ^'Whilst there seems little room 
 for doubt that those two nations were ignorant of 
 each other at the period of the discovery of America, 
 there are many indications in some of their arts of 
 an earlier intercourse between the northern and 
 southern continent."^' It will be remembered that 
 Prescott observes, when speaking about the Peruvian 
 post system, that *'It is remarkable that this impor- 
 tant institution should have been known to both the 
 Mexicans and the Peruvians without any correspond- 
 ence with one another."^' On the island of Coati, 
 in Peru, we learn from Mr. Baldwin's work, there 
 are ruins that, except for the absence of the pyra- 
 mid, *'has more resemblance to some of the great 
 constructions in Central America than to anything 
 peculiar to the later period of Peruvian architec- 
 ture."*' Professor Foster, as quoted by Elder Steb- 
 bins, * 'claimed that the evidences were that the 
 ancient Peruvians carried on commerce with distant 
 parts of the American continent."*® Delafield says: 
 "No annals have been found proving direct connec- 
 
 •• Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 5, foot-note, p. 166. 
 
 •«Ibid., book 1, chap. 2, p. 71. 
 
 «^ Ancient America, p. 231. 
 
 »8 Book of Mormon Lectures, p. 133, first edition. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 173 
 
 tion between Mexico and Peru; yet their languages, 
 and manners and customs, as well as their anatomical 
 developments and equal advance in the progress of 
 civilization indicate a common origin."^* Baldwin 
 says: "Some have assumed that the Peruvians had 
 no communication with the Mexicans and Central 
 Americans, and that the two peoples were unknown 
 to each other. This, however, seems to be contra- 
 dicted by the fact that an accurate knowledge of 
 Peru was found among the people inhabiting the 
 Isthmus and region north of it. The Spaniards heard 
 of Peru on the Atlantic Coast of South America, but 
 on the Isthmus, Balboa gained clear information in 
 regard to that country from natives who had evi- 
 dently seen it.^'*» 
 
 THE FOUNDERS OP THE NATION. 
 
 "We have yet some other evidence to examine, but 
 before we can make an intelligent comparison with 
 the Book of Mormon account on the phase of the 
 subject we now come to, we must know what that 
 account is. It says that there were eight men in the 
 Nephite party, Lehi and his four sons, the two sons 
 of Ishmael (father Ishmael died in Asia), and Zoram. 
 This was the number of men that left Jerusalem for 
 the "promised land." Of these eight men, seven 
 were young men and married on the way, hence there 
 were seven young families, but eight families in all, 
 since Lehi and Sariah, though getting old, had 
 children born to them in the course of the journey. 
 
 »• Antiquities of America, p. 16. 
 *" Ancient America, p. 272. 
 
174 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 Lehi died soon after arriving in America. Of the 
 eight men, there were four that were brothers and 
 were principally influential; they were Nephi and 
 Sam, Laman and Lemuel. Nephi, however, took 
 precedence over all his brethren; he was the leader, 
 and the founder of the civilization of the nation 
 which was called after him, the Nephites. He was a 
 righteous man and a prophet. We have shown that 
 there were women and children in the party, but the 
 eight men designated were the heads, or chiefs, from 
 whom the population sprang. 
 
 Now, turning to the traditions, what do we find? 
 We learn that the natives traced their descent back 
 to seven families, sometimes to eight, and to four 
 brothers. The Tzendal (a Maya) tradition, says that 
 Votan came from the East, across the sea. "He con- 
 ducted seven families from Valum Votan to this con- 
 tinent."*^ The Mexican tradition says: "Seven 
 families" crossed "broad lands and seas, enduring 
 many hardships," till they reached the country of 
 Huehue Tlapalan, "fertile and desirable to dwell 
 in."*^ "The Nahuas of Mexico much more fre- 
 quently spoke of themselves as descendants of four 
 or eight original families."*^ "The Ottoes, Pawnees, 
 *and other Indians' had a tradition that from eight 
 ancestors all nations (natives) and races were 
 descended."** 
 
 <i North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 204, 208. 
 * 2 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 209; North Americans of Antiquity, 
 p. 238. 
 <3 Myths of the New World, p. 101, note 1. 
 **Ibid. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 175 
 
 It is to the four brothers, however, that we find the 
 most frequent allusions. Says Mr. Brinton, "Hardly 
 a nation on the continent but seems to have some 
 vague tradition of an origin from four brothers, to 
 have at some time been led by four leaders or princes, 
 or in some manner to have connected the appearance 
 and action of four important personages with its ear- 
 liest traditional history."*^ It is interesting to note 
 also, that the disposition of the brothers, and the 
 antipathy that existed upon the part of the two elder 
 brothers towards the younger in the Book of Mormon 
 account, has not been forgottea by the traditions. 
 Nephi, though a younger son, by his obedience to his 
 father, and faith in the divinity of the message his 
 father bore, became a favorite with his father, like 
 Joseph, of Bible fame, and was chosen of God. This 
 aroused the jealousy and anger of his elder brothers, 
 Laman and Lemuel, Laman being the leader, who 
 rejected their father's teachings, finally rebelling 
 against him and their younger brothers, Nephi and 
 Sam, who were of the same spirit, Sam looking up 
 to his brother, yet younger than himself, with love 
 and confidence. A Guatemalan legend, though con- 
 fused in detail, as legends are, yet tells a story very 
 similar in substance, to this of the Book of Mormon. 
 They came from four brothers, of whom "the eldest 
 was puffed up in his own conceit." He tried to do 
 things **against the will of his parents." "The 
 younger sons, who exhibited quite a different spirit," 
 were granted the favors and honors the elders would 
 
 ^6lbid., pp. 94,96,97. 
 
176 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 have ambitiously gained. *• Mr. Brinton gives tradi- 
 tions conveying a similar idea. *'Tupi, highest god 
 and first man of the Tupis of Brazil," is depicted with 
 horns; **he was one of four brothers, and only after 
 a desperate struggle did he drive his fraternal rivals 
 from the field. "^"^ "Another similar Tupi myth is 
 that of Timindonar and Aricoute. They were broth- 
 ers, the one of fair complexion, the other dark. They 
 were constantly struggling, and Aricoute, which 
 means the cloudy or stormy day, was worsted."*^ 
 
 The Quiche tradition says their ancestors came 
 from Tulan, across the sea, led by four leaders.*® 
 The Algonkins and Dakotas '*both traced their lives 
 back to four ancestors."^" "Peru was populated 
 about five hundred years after the deluge. Its first 
 inhabitants flowed in abundance towards the valley 
 of Cuzco, conducted by four brothers, Ayer-Manco- 
 Topo, Ayar-Cachi-Topa, Ayar-Auca-Topa, and 
 Ayar-Uchu-Topa, who were accompanied by their 
 sisters and wives, named Mama-Cora, Hipa-Haucum, 
 Mama-Huacum, and Pilca-Huacum. . . . The young- 
 est of the brothers, according to the tradition, was at 
 the same time most skillful and handy." ^ ^ It will be 
 noticed that the youngest brother is represented in 
 the tradition as he is described in the Book of Mor- 
 mon record; the same qualities are ascribed to him, 
 
 *8 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 228. 
 *'' Myths of the New World, pp. 183, 184. 
 "Ibid., pp. 218, 219, note 3. 
 
 *9 Native Races, pp. 181, 182; North Americans of Antiquity, 
 p. 215. 
 60 Myths of the New World, p. 94. 
 B 1 Peruvian Antiquities, by Rivero and Tschudi, p. 52. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 177 
 
 the same importance of position. He is represented 
 as the founder of the national history, the teacher 
 of the arts of civilization. Montesinos declared that 
 the Peruvian civilization *'was originated by a people 
 led by four brothers, who settled in the valley of 
 Cuzco and developed civilization there in a very 
 human way. The youngest of these brothers assumed 
 supreme authority, and became the first of a long 
 line of sovereigns." ^^ Then, there was another tra- 
 dition about a Manco Capac and his wife. Mama Oello, 
 who founded the ancient civilization of Peru in the 
 valley of Cuzco, **Manco Capac teaching the men the 
 arts of agriculture, and Mama Oello initiating her 
 own sex in the mysteries of weaving and spinning."* * 
 Montesinos accepts the story about four brothers, of 
 whom the youngest was the leader, in preference to 
 this later one, but we believe the later tradition is 
 related to the former one; that the only difference 
 is that in the latter tradition the principal actor is 
 singled out and immortalized as the hero in the 
 national drama, the father of the national history. 
 This idea is encouraged by the interpretation of the 
 terms. *'Mama," we are told, signifies mothers 
 "Inca*' signified king or lord. *'Capac" meant great 
 or powerful, ^ * 
 
 THE LOGIC OF THE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Other traditions might be given : the Muyscas of 
 Bogota, and the Quarani^ of Paraguay, all of South 
 America, also traced their descent back to the four 
 
 « 2 Ancient America, p. 264. 
 
 »» Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, book 1, chap. 1, pp. 8, 9. 
 
 •* Ibid., foot-note, p. 9 
 
178 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 brothers,"* but sufficient has been given, we believe, 
 to show the trend of the native idea. We are now 
 ready to sum up the conclusions to which the evi- 
 dences we have examined point. First, that the 
 ancient Americans were of Old World origin. Sec- 
 ond, that the only theory that will agree with all the 
 facts and circumstances of archaeological source, and 
 that is compelled to invent no excuses, overlook or 
 discard no prominent feature of tradition, relic, or 
 ruin, is that there were two distinct civilizations 
 before the time of the Aztecs and the Incas, one pre- 
 ceding the other and confining its limits to North 
 America, while the seat of its highest development, 
 hence its greatest age was in Central America. 
 Third, that the second civilization began in the Cuzco 
 region of South America and extended upward into 
 Central America and Mexico, and that it was to this 
 people that the traditions refer. These conclusions, 
 so satisfactory from an archaeological stand -point, 
 and taken in connection with the traditional accounts 
 of the national founders, identify the ancient prede- 
 cessors of the Aztecs and the Incas as no other than 
 the Nephites of Book of Mormon history. 
 
 »» Myths of the New World, p. 101, note 1. 
 
THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 
 
 We now come to the oldest period of American his- 
 tory, not that we have not referred to this period 
 before in the chapters on the pre- Aztec civilization of 
 Mexico and Central America, but in the latter coun- 
 tries the first period could hardly be considered by 
 itself, since its remains had become so mixed and 
 confused with those of the succeeding periods, and 
 the descendants of the latter people were in posses- 
 sion of the regions. But in the United States the 
 antiquities, such as there are, stand distinct. Per- 
 haps among the smaller relics succeeding peoples are 
 represented to more or less extent, but the principal 
 class of the antiquities, the ruins, or mounds, stand 
 silent and alone. If the latter people who came into 
 Central America and Mexico spread over the United 
 States, their buildings have vanished entirely, and 
 only the earthworks of the mysterious Mound -build- 
 ers remain. It is not to be expected that there is 
 much that can be presented to speak for the civiliza- 
 tion of the Mound- builders' age. If the direct traces 
 of the period following this first period, and preced- 
 ing the Aztec period, were so scarce in Mexico and 
 Central America even so early as when Europeans 
 first came, it can be easily understood how much 
 more scarce must have been the traces of the people 
 that lived in the first period, before the second people 
 ever came, by the time that modern investigation 
 was begun; how much more difficult, indeed, how 
 impossible, to arrive at any just idea of what their 
 
180 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 civilization might have been from such scanty evi- 
 dence as is left to speak for these most ancient people 
 of America. 
 
 The mounds are divided into two classes. First, 
 mounds proper, ** described as solid pyramidal masses 
 of earth, cased with brick or stone, level at the top, 
 and furnished with ascending ranges of steps on the 
 outside;" Second, enclosures "formed by heavy 
 embankments of earth and stone." "There is noth- 
 ing to explain these constructions so clearly as to 
 leave no room for conjecture and speculation," says 
 Baldwin, though it is generally accepted that they 
 were used for purposes of defense, and as founda- 
 tions for some kind of structures. Of the first class, 
 the solid mounds, Baldwin says: **I find it most 
 reasonable to believe that the mounds in this part of 
 the continent [he means the United States] were 
 used as similar structures were used in Mexico and 
 Central America. The lower mounds, or most of 
 them, must have been constructed as foundations of 
 the more important edifices of the mound -building 
 people. Many of the great buildings erected on such 
 pyramidal foundations, at Palenque, Uxmal, and 
 elsewhere in that region, have not disappeared, 
 because they were built of hewn stone, laid in mortar. 
 
 "For reasons not difficult to understand, the Mound - 
 builders, beginning their works on the Lower Miss- 
 issippi, constructed such edifices of wood, or some 
 other perishable material; therefore not a trace of 
 them remains. The higher mounds, with broad, flat 
 summits, reached by flights of steps on the outside, 
 are like the Mexican teocallis, or temples. In Mexico 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 181 
 
 and Central America these structures were very 
 numerous. . . . The resemblance is very striking, 
 and the most reasonable explanation seems to be that 
 in both regions mounds of this class were intended 
 for the same uses."^ 
 
 Of the second class of works, those supposed to 
 have been used for military purposes, Squier and 
 Davis say: "There seems to have existed a system 
 of defenses extending from the sources of the Alle- 
 ghany and Susquehanna in New York, diagonally a 
 cross the country, through Central and Northern 
 Ohio to the Wabash." 
 
 Fort Ancient, on the Little Miami River, in Ohio, 
 forty-two miles northeast of Cincinnati, covered a 
 circuit of five miles, the embankment measuring, in 
 many places, ** twenty feet in perpendicular height," 
 and, it is said, could have held a garrison of 60,000 
 men with their families and provisions.* Villages 
 and towns were encircled by great embankments for 
 protection.^ Signal- stations were ^'exceedingly 
 numerous on all the watercourses;" they seem to 
 have been employed "throughout the entire extent" 
 of the military works. Short says: "Only a few 
 minutes were necessary by means of such a per- 
 fected system in which to transmit a signal fifty or 
 one hundred miles," and that the system rivaled the 
 signal -systems in use at the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century.* 
 
 1 Ancient America, pp. 17-20; Also see North Americans of 
 Antiquity, pp. 51, 52. 
 
 2 North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 51, 52, 53. 
 " Ancient America, p. 20. 
 
 * North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 52, 63, 100. 
 
182 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 The outlines of the embankments were "designed 
 in the forms of animals, birds, serpents, and even 
 men." There were squares and circles that, though 
 they enclosed great areas, were designed so per- 
 fectly, Professor Baldwin says, **with a geometrical 
 precision which implies a knowledge in the builders 
 that may be called scientific." * Short says: "The 
 discovery of these geometrical combinations — exe- 
 cuted with such precision — in many parts of the 
 country, led to the belief that the Mound-builders 
 were one people spread over a large territory, pos- 
 sessed of the same institutions, religion, and perhaps 
 one government. These facts are highly important 
 as shedding light upon the degree of their civiliza- 
 tion. The evidence is ample that they were pos- 
 sessed of regular scales of measurement, of the 
 means of determining angles, and of computing the 
 area to be enclosed by a square and circle, so that 
 the space enclosed by these figures standing side by 
 side might exactly correspond. In a word, their 
 scientific and mathematical knowledge was of a very 
 respectable order." • Baldwin, in reviewing the 
 works of the Mound-builders, observes that "To 
 make such works possible under any circumstances 
 there must be settled life, with its accumulations and 
 intelligently organized industry." ** 
 
 From what little remains of the manufacturies of 
 the Mound -builders there is "proof," Mr. Short says, 
 
 "Ancient America, pp. 27, 39. 
 •North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 49, 50. 
 7 Ancient America, p. 33; North Americans of Antiquity, 
 foot-note, p. 54. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 183 
 
 "that they had attained a respectable degree of 
 advancement, and show that they understood the 
 advantages of the division of labor.'* * 'Their 
 domestic utensils, the cloth of which they made their 
 clothing, and the artistic vessels met with everywhere 
 in the mounds point to the development of home cul- 
 ture and domestic industry." ® Matting, made of 
 coarse, vegetable, cane-like fiber; cloth, the thread 
 of the warp double and twisted ; jars and vases, some 
 of them beautiful, of * 'strange and artistic forms," 
 beautifully ornamented with etchings and graceful 
 lines; articles of pottery, ''elegantly designed and 
 finished;" ornaments, a beautiful imitation of tor- 
 toise shells, made of copper, the "workmanship 
 evincing a delicate skill;" "a beautiful shell neck- 
 lace;" bracelets, pendents, beads; stone pipes of 
 "excellent workmanship," in animal designs; axes, 
 single and double; adzes, chisels, drills or gravers, 
 lance-heads, knives, hammers, and needles are some 
 of the things which have been found in the mounds 
 of the United States." Stone, flint, copper, bone, 
 silver, obsidian, mica, are among the substances that 
 were used, of which relics have been found. Speak- 
 ing of the fine workmanship of the articles of stone, 
 Baldwin remarks: "Tools of some very hard mate- 
 rial must have been required to work the porphyry 
 in this manner." ^° 
 
 "But their intelligence, skill, and civilized ways 
 are shown not only by their constructions and manu- 
 
 • North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 97, 98. 
 
 » Ibid., pp. 37-66; Ancient America, pp. 40, 41, 61. 
 
 *o Ancient America, pp. 40, 41. 
 
1»4 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 facturies, but also by their mining works,**** the 
 same authority goes on to say. Short tells us that 
 "They mined copper, which they wrought into imple- 
 ments of war, into ornaments and articles for domes- 
 tic use. They quarried mica for mirrors and other 
 purposes. They furthermore worked flint and salt- 
 mines." **One of the best evidences we have of the 
 systematic government and habits of the Mound - 
 builders, together with the comparatively advanced 
 state of the practical arts among them, is found in 
 the ancient copper mines of the Lake Superior 
 regions so extensively operated by them at quite a 
 remote period." ^^ It is said that in the Ontonagon 
 region traces of these ancient miners are to be seen 
 for thirty miles. Baldwin says: **The area covered 
 by the ancient works is larger than that which 
 includes the modern mines, for they are known to 
 exist in the dense forests of other districts, districts 
 which have not yet been fully explored, and he 
 observes that the ancient miners showed "remarkable 
 skill in discovering and tracing actual veins of the 
 metal." *^ Short says that the use of copper was 
 common all the way from the regions of the mines 
 to the Gulf, which shows that the people carried on 
 a commerce with all parts of the country, and we 
 are assured that they did. Short says their trade was 
 wide-spread; that "they constructed canals by which 
 lake systems were united."** 
 
 iilbid., p. 61. 
 
 i» North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 89, 98. 
 
 *« Ancient America, pp. 44-46. 
 
 ^* North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 98, 100. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 185 
 
 The same authority declares that the Mound- 
 builders '*were an agricultural people, as the exten- 
 sive ancient garden-beds found in Wisconsin and 
 Missouri indicate." Ancient garden-beds have been 
 found in different states. We are told that **their 
 presence may always be detected in fields of growing 
 grain by its luxuriant growth and deeper green." ^* 
 
 Mr. Short asserts that '*this remarkable people was 
 possessed of the beginnings of science," at least, 
 and he goes on to say that if the Davenport and 
 Cincinnati tablets are genuine, "astronomy must 
 have received considerable attention at their 
 hands." ^' These tablets were taken from mounds in 
 the vicinity of the cities after which the tablets are 
 named. The division of time indicated by the Dav- 
 enport tablet is so modern as to make writers suspi- 
 cious that the tablet might not be genuine. The year 
 is divided into twelve months, or three hundred sixty- 
 eight days. But the Maya calendar was just as 
 advanced; it was ahead of European science at that 
 day, yet the genuineness of its origin is certain, 
 for it was found in use here by the Europeans. 
 Instruments have been found which are supposed to 
 have been used for astronomical purposes. There 
 are tubes carved out of steatite, "skillfully cut and 
 polished." The diameter diminished towards the 
 sight end, and by placing the instrument to the eye 
 distant objects could be more clearly discerned. 
 Taking these devices in connection with the carved 
 
 *» Ibid., p. 97; Ancient America, p. 34. 
 *« North Americans of Antiquity, p. 94. 
 
186 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 figure of a man in the act of studying the heavens 
 through a tube similar, — such carvings were found in 
 Mexico and Peru — antiquarians are led to believe 
 that they were used for telescopic purposes.*' 
 
 Short and other writers say that the people became 
 "extremely populous" in the United States, and that 
 their "settlements were wide-spread.'* It is interest- 
 ing to learn that those ancient people had as good 
 judgment in choosing advantageous sites for their 
 cities as we have to-day. Baldwin says that "it is 
 found that Marietta, Newark, Portsmouth, Chilli - 
 cothe, Circleville, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and 
 Frankfort, Kentucky, were favorite seats of the 
 Mound-builders. This leads one of the most intelli- 
 gent investigators to remark that the centers of 
 population are now where they were when the mys- 
 terious Mound-builders existed."** The same writer 
 says again: "The magnitude of their works, some 
 of which approximate the proportions of Egyptian 
 pyramids, testify to the architectural talent of the 
 people and the fact that they had developed a system 
 of government which controlled the labor of multi- 
 tudes, whether of subjects or slaves." 
 
 WHO THE MOUND -BUILDERS WERE. 
 
 We are told that remains of the Mound -builders 
 extend over the region of the United States, espe- 
 cially in the valleys of the Mississippi, Missouri, and 
 the Ohio Rivers, and their tributaries, being most 
 
 i^Ibid., pp. 94, 96; Ancient America, 42. 
 * 8 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 97; Ancient America, 
 pp. 30, 31. 
 
AND ARCILEOLOGY. 187 
 
 numerous in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Mis- 
 souri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, 
 Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Texas."** But why 
 not include Mexico and Central America in the 
 regions of the Mound -builders, the young student 
 may ask; was not the mound found in those sec- 
 tions also? It was, but it will be remembered that 
 the territory now occupied by the United States 
 was deserted when Columbus discovered this conti- 
 nent, save only for wandering tribes of wild Indi- 
 ans, and all traces of buildings were gone; the 
 mounds were overgrown with forest trees. But in 
 Mexico and Central America nations flourished, as 
 we know, and many of the ruins of earlier peoples 
 had not been allowed to go to decay. Because of 
 this difference between the two sections, writers have 
 divided the antiquities of the respective regions for 
 the sake of convenience. 
 
 The opinion prevails among leading authorities, 
 however, that relationship did exist between the 
 ancient people of the United States, and of Mexico 
 and Central America. Bancroft says of the Mound- 
 builders: *'We know nothing of their language or 
 manners and customs, since they have become 
 locally extinct; but their material monuments . . , 
 bear a very strong resemblance to those of the civil- 
 ized nations of the South." "I am inclined to believe 
 that the most plausible conjecture respecting the ori- 
 gin of the Mound-builders is that which makes them 
 
 ^» North Americans of Antiquity, p. 27; Ancient America, 
 pp. 31, 32. 
 
188 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 a colony of the ancient Mayas, who settled in the 
 North during the continuance of the great Maya 
 empire of Xibalba in Central America several cen- 
 turies before Christ." **It is not at all unlikely 
 that a colony of these people passed northward along 
 the coast by land or water, and introduced their 
 institutions in the Mississippi Valley." ^° Of course, 
 here is the confusion of idea to which we referred 
 in our paper on **Origin of the Ancient Americans." 
 The earliest civilization is attributed to the remote 
 ancestors of the people found here by the discover- 
 ers, because it is not known to the learning of the 
 world that a distinct people lived and died here 
 before the ancestors of the Mayas ever came. But 
 however far from the mark any of these theories may 
 be, they recognize kinship in the remains of the 
 regions referred to, it will be noticed, and that is the 
 important thing. 
 
 The point to which we here wish to call the young 
 student's attention particularly is, first, the fact that 
 the characteristic feature of ancient architecture was 
 the same in the United States, and in Mexico and 
 Central America; second, the significance of this 
 fact, which can point to but one conclusion, and 
 that is, that the ancient Mound -builders of all these 
 regions must have been the same people, or they 
 would not have built alike wherever they went. 
 Baldwin says: **Consider, then, that elevated and 
 terraced foundations for important buildings are 
 peculiar to the ancient Mexicans and Central Ameri- 
 
 •• Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 538, 539. 
 
AND ARCILEOLOGY. 189 
 
 cans; that this method of construction which, with 
 them, was the rule, is found nowhere else, save the 
 terraced elevations, carefully constructed, and pre- 
 cisely like theirs in form and appearance, occupy a 
 chief place among the remaining works of the 
 Mound -builders.'* "This method of construction 
 was brought to the Mississippi Valley from Mexico 
 and Central America, the ancient inhabitants of that 
 region and the Mound -builders being the same peo- 
 ple in race, and also in civilization, when it was 
 brought here."** 
 
 Mr. Short says that the civilization of the Mound - 
 builders "unfolded in its fuller glory in the valley of 
 Anahuac,"^* Mexico and Central America. Speak- 
 ing of the resemblances between the antiquities of 
 these regions and those of the United States, he 
 says further: **It is needless to discuss the fact that 
 the works of the Mound -builders exist in consid- 
 erable numbers in Texas, extending across the Rio 
 Grande into Mexico, establishing an unmistakable 
 relationship as well as actual union between the trun- 
 cated pyramids of the Mississippi Valley and the 
 Tocalli of Mexico and the countries further south. 
 There can be no doubt as to the unity of the origin 
 of the works in both countries." ^^ As indicating 
 that commercial intercourse was carried on between 
 the two regions Mr. Short cites us to the fact that 
 Mexican obsidian has been discovered in the mounds 
 
 »» Ancient America, p. 71. 
 
 «2 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 100. 
 
 " Ibid., p. 78. 
 
190 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 of the Mississippi Valley.** Other circumstances 
 referred to hereby the writer may represent the 
 Mound- builders, or they may represent another 
 people who came after. Mr. Short speaks of the 
 similarity of ** sculptured portraitures of the facial 
 type" found in the two sections, and quotes another 
 who says: **A11 around the lakes of Mexico there 
 are traces of ancient potteries, and I noticed that 
 the bits of broken red earthenware scattered about 
 them are identical in composition and color with 
 those I have picked up in the valley of the Miss- 
 issippi, and supposed to be relics of the ancient 
 Mound -builders."** 
 
 Professor Baldwin says again: "Their [the 
 Mound -builders] constructions were similar in design 
 and arrangement to those found in Mexico and Cen- 
 tral America. Like the Mexicans and Central 
 Americans, they had many of the smaller structures 
 known as teocalHsy and also large, high mounds, with 
 level summits, reached by great flights of steps. 
 Pyramidal platforms or foundations for important 
 edifices appear in both regions, and are very much 
 alike. In Central America important edifices were 
 built of hewn stone, and can still be examined in 
 their ruins. The Mound -builders, like some of the 
 ancient people of Mexico and Yucatan, used wood, 
 sun-dried brick, or some other material that could 
 not resist decay. There is evidence that they used 
 timber for building purposes. In one of the mounds 
 
 »*Ibid.,pp. 253, 254. 
 2»Ibid., p. 254. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 191 
 
 opened in the Ohio Valley two chambers were found 
 with remains of the timber of which the walls were 
 made, and with arched ceilings, precisely like those 
 in Central America, even to the over lapping stones. 
 Chambers have been found in some of the Central 
 American and Mexican mounds, but there hewn 
 stones were used for the walls. In both regions the 
 elevated and terraced foundations remain, and can 
 be compared." *• 
 
 We have been particular to show the evidence of 
 relationship between the ancient people of the United 
 States, and of Mexico and Central America, because 
 it is so important in its bearings upon the question 
 of the identity of the Mound- builders, whether they 
 were, or were not, the Jaredites of the Book of Mor- 
 mon, who began their civilization in Central America 
 and spread into the upper regions of America. And 
 there is another reason, or it is comprehended in the 
 one just mentioned. Were evidence wanting to show 
 that at one time, anciently, the same people had 
 inhabited the whole of North America; or if the evi- 
 dence was to the contrary, it would be a serious 
 reflection on the claims of the Book of Mormon to 
 being a truthful account of the early history of this 
 continent. Mr. Short suggests that the Mound- 
 builders may have *' en grafted a new life upon the 
 wreck of Xibalba;" in other words, that the empire 
 of Xibalba, the name given by science to the ancient 
 empire of the supposed ancestors of the Mayas, pre- 
 ceded the Mound-builders in Central America. But 
 
 '•Ancient America, pp. 70, 71. 
 
192 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 the mounds of Central America indicate too great an 
 age to admit of such a theory. They were built by 
 the earliest people, and the ruins these people left 
 were repaired and restored by succeeding peoples, as 
 we have seen, but were not originally built by a later 
 people. The ruins of Central America are older than 
 the ruins of any other part of the continent because 
 the Mound -builders began their civilization there, 
 and not somewhere at the North. If Mr. Short had 
 not fixed upon the theory for the course of migration 
 that he has, he would not have to go to such imagi- 
 nary extremes to make archaeological facts harmo- 
 nize. If there was a non- mound style of ruins in 
 Central America which was older than the mound 
 style, then it would be plausible to talk about an 
 empire there before the Mound -builders came. But 
 as the mound architecture represents the oldest ruins 
 of Central America, it identifies, the Mound-builders 
 as the oldest people, and establishes it to be a fact 
 that the Mound -builders of Central America and of 
 the United States were the same people. 
 
 As to how long ago these first civilizers of America 
 vanished, and how long they were here, it seems to 
 us not worth while to give more than an idea of sci- 
 entific opinion, since scientific gentlemen are so 
 divided among themselves on this question, and on 
 the question of the antiquity of the human race, gen- 
 erally. One professor tells us that man lived in the 
 Tertiary Age; that the race is **hundreds of thou- 
 sands, perhaps millions of years old.*' Another pro- 
 fessor, just as learned, denies the theory of man's 
 extreme antiquity on the earth. So it is not sur- 
 
AND ARCHJEOLOGV. 193 
 
 prising if there is a variety of opinions about the age 
 of the ancient Americans. Professor Baldwin tells 
 us that "some investigators who have given much 
 study to the antiquities, traditions, old books, and 
 probable geological history of Mexico and Central 
 America, believe that the first civilization the world 
 ever saw appeared in this part of ancient America, or 
 was immediately connected with it. They hold that 
 the human race first rose to civilized life in America, 
 which is, geologically, the oldest of the continents."* "^ 
 Short thinks that "a thousand or two years may have 
 elapsed since they [the Mound-builders] vacated the 
 Ohio Valley."** Baldwin says that "far more than 
 two thousand years, it may be, must have elapsed 
 since they left the valley of the Ohio."** The time 
 of man's residence on this continent, as estimated 
 by Sir John Lubbock, is three thousand years.*® 
 
 Since scientific opinion is so discordant, we think it 
 would be better to point the investigator to some of 
 the facts and circumstances, and let him form his 
 own conclusions as to the age they indicate, and 
 judge for himself whether the evidence is in accord- 
 ance with Book of Mormon statements. Mr. Short 
 says: "It is a well-known fact that no tradition was 
 ever found among the Indians as to the origin or 
 purpose for which the mounds were constructed."^^ 
 He says further : "The annual rings of a tree pre- 
 sent us indisputable evidence as to its age. It is evi- 
 
 2 7 Ibid., pp. 159, 160. 
 
 2 8 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 106. 
 
 *» Ancient America, p. 73. 
 
 •0 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 130. 
 
 •1 Ibid, p. 102. 
 
194 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 dent that forests which cover these remains have 
 grown up since they were vacated, as no difference 
 exists between them and the surrounding vegetation 
 — no breaks exist in the immediate vicinity of the 
 works. The oldest of the trees found upon the works 
 present eight hundred annual rings, indicating as 
 many years growth. "^^ Mr. Short reminds us that 
 this does not represent the actual time since the 
 abandonment of these ancient works ; that it must be 
 taken into consideration the time that is required 
 "for the slow encroachment of a forest." Professor 
 Baldwin makes us acquainted with the decayed state 
 in which skeletons of Mound -builders have been 
 found, — **in such a state of decay as to render all 
 attempts to restore the skull, or, indeed, any part of 
 the skeleton, entirely hopeless," while "sound and 
 .well-preserved skeletons, known to be nearly two 
 thousand years old, have been taken from burial- 
 places in England, and other European countries 
 less favorable for preserving them," showing, Pro- 
 fessor Baldwin observes, that "these decayed skele- 
 tons of the Mound -builders are much more than two 
 thousand years old."^' 
 
 But there is a circumstance which, "in connection 
 with" the Book of Mormon, is one of the most 
 important and significant things we have to consider 
 in relation to this question as to the age of the 
 ancient North Americans, we think; and one which 
 does more to locate their time in history than any 
 
 •» Ibid., p. 104. 
 •» Ibid., pp. 48, 49. 
 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 195 
 
 other single circumstance. We refer to the fact of 
 their having been mound -builders. It is well known 
 that the **mound-building habit," as a current writer 
 puts it, was universal among the primitive peoples of 
 Europe and Asia. In other words, the characteristic 
 feature of the architecture of all the nations that rose 
 after the flood is the mound, or pyramid. The rea^ 
 son for this is plainly evident. It is the old Bible 
 story that after the flood all of humanity that 
 remained belonged to one large family, as it were, 
 speaking the same language, having the same aims, 
 inclined to the same habits. Then came the Tower 
 of Babel tragedy. The family was broken up into 
 different branches according to their respective 
 tongues, and the colonies scattered out hither and 
 thither on the face of the earth. The people were 
 not changed in anyway only that their language was 
 not the same, now. Otherwise they retained all the 
 characteristics they had before in common with one 
 another, hence the branch that went to Egypt built 
 pyramids like the branch that went to India, and the 
 branch that -went to China built pyramids like thf 
 colonies of Egypt and of India. In whatever part 
 of Asia or Europe that parent family scattered, the 
 wanderers all built pyramids, or mounds. 
 
 The Book of Mormon says that one branch of the 
 Tower of Babel family, the Jaredites, came to North 
 America. If that were true, the people would have 
 built pyramids here as their brethren did in other 
 parts of the world. The fact that they did so identi- 
 fies the Mound-builders of North America with the 
 primitive peoples of the East; identifies them as a 
 
196 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 branch of the Tower of Babel family, and hence the 
 resemblance in the architecture of the ancient North 
 Americans with the architecture of the early nations 
 of Asia and Europe. The logic of these circum- 
 stances forces itself upon the minds of some who 
 view the subject from a scientific standpoint only. 
 Mr. Short says: **The fact that civilizations having 
 such analogies are developed in isolated quarters of 
 the globe, separated from each other by broad seas 
 and lofty mountains, and thus indicating a uniformity 
 of mental operation and a unity of mental inspira- 
 tion, added to the fact that the evidence is of a pre- 
 ponderating character that the American continent 
 received its population from the Old World leads us 
 to the truth that God *hath made of one blood all 
 nations of men.' "^* 
 
 ** North Americans of Antiquity, p. 521. 
 
THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 
 
 We now come to another division of the American 
 antiquities, which, because of the peculiarity of the 
 remains, has been classed by itself by archaeological 
 writers. The Pueblos, or Cliff-dwellers, who inhab- 
 ited the state of Chihuahua, in Mexico, and our own 
 states and territories of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and 
 New Mexico ^ were a people whose habits and mode 
 of living were different from any of the other ancient 
 peoples of America. Their monuments were not like 
 those of the Aztecs, nor like those of any other peo- 
 ple, Bancroft asserts.* Their remains are "wholly 
 unlike those of the Mayas, Nahuas, or Mound-build- 
 ers," says Short, though in minor respects there are 
 some resemblances. "The style of architecture is 
 unlike that of any other people on either continent."^ 
 
 These strange people of the past are called by 
 modern writers after the Indians who inhabit their 
 ruins to-day, while the most common appellation, 
 "Cliff-dwellers," is given to them because of the 
 manner of their buildings, the peculiar locations 
 which they chose — "the most remarkable habita- 
 tions," says Mr. Short, "ever occupied by man."^ 
 Those Cliff-dwellers were not an inferior people, all 
 evidence goes to show. The H. Jay Smith Exploring 
 
 * North Americans of Antiquity, p. 275. 
 2 Native Races, vol. 5, p. 537. 
 » North Americans of Antiquity, p. 276. 
 Mbid., p. 293. 
 
198 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 Company, in their pamphlet on the Cliff-dwellers, in 
 connection with their exhibit in the Anthropological 
 Building at the World's Columbian Exposition at 
 Chicago, in 1893, says: **From bones and mummies 
 found in the ruins it is proved that they were a large, 
 well-developed race, fully equal in size to the men 
 to-day. The heads were well formed, and denote 
 more than ordinary degree of intelligence, with 
 rather refined faces, fair skin, and fine hair, often 
 light and totally different from most of the modern 
 Indian races now known, excepting, perhaps, the 
 Zuni Pueblo Indians — the most remarkable living 
 representatives of the native tribes of America"'' 
 (The reader will remember that we have before 
 referred to these Indians, who so astonish and puzzle 
 all who see them, because of the unmistakable evi- 
 dence in them of white ancestry.^ The same source 
 tells us that the Cliff-dweller buildings were **pecul- 
 iarly advanced for such primitive people."** 
 
 It is difficult to give the reader an adequate idea 
 of the strangeness of these cliff -dwellings by any 
 written description. As some one has said, it can 
 be done better by pictures than by words. Mr. 
 Short, in his work, **North Americans of Antiquity," 
 gives many fine illustrations that convey, at a glance, 
 the queer style of these habitations. The ancient 
 
 8 See pamphlet, "The Cliff-dwellers," for World's Columbian 
 Exposition, 1893, p. 5. 
 
 « See chapter on "Character of the Ancient American Civili- 
 zation, and Color of the People." 
 
 ^ See pamphlet, "The Cliff-dwellers," p. 3. 
 
Cliff Dwellers' Home. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 199 
 
 builders chose the most seemingly impossible sites, 
 where no one would ever think of looking for human 
 habitations. "Way up in the mountains, among the 
 cliffs, frightful to look at, when, indeed, they can be 
 seen at all, the structures are hidden in niches of the 
 rock. And it was not a house here and there, only ; 
 there were villages and towns. Here is one descrip- 
 tion given: *'There, in the deserts of Arizona, on 
 well-nigh unapproachable isolated bluffs, they built 
 new towns.'* We are told that on a stream known as 
 the Hovenweep, a Mr. Jackson and his party discov- 
 ered the ruins of a city. Mr. Jackson's description is 
 as follows: **The stream referred to sweeps the foot 
 of a rocky sandstone ledge, some forty or fifty feet in 
 height, upon which is built the highest and better 
 preserved portion of the settlement. Its semicircular 
 sweep conforms to the ledge, each little house of the 
 outer circle being built close upon its edge. Below 
 the level of these upper houses some ten or fifteen 
 feet, and within the semicircular sweep, are seven 
 distinctly marked depressions, each separating the 
 other by rocky debris, the lower or first series proba- 
 bly of small community houses. Upon either flank, 
 and founded upon rocks, are buildings similar in size 
 and in other respects to the large ones on the line 
 above. As paced off, the upper or convex surface 
 measured one hundred yards in length. Each little 
 department is small and narrow, averaging six feet 
 in length, the walls being eighteen inches in thick- 
 ness. The stones of which the entire group is built 
 
200 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 are dressed to nearly uniform size and laid in 
 mortar."^ 
 
 Describing the peculiarity about these towns and 
 buildings it is said : **The whole front of this portion 
 of the town is without aperture, save very small 
 windows, and is perfectly inaccessible. . . . Admit- 
 tance was probably gained from near the circular 
 building in the center, or by ladders or any well- 
 guarded approach over the rocks."* We have as 
 further description of how difficult it was to reach 
 these cliff -dwellings, the following, by a recent 
 explorer. Doctor George L. Cole.*® Doctor Cole's 
 discoveries were in New Mexico. He says: *'To 
 reach the *Cliff Palace' one must have sinew and grit, 
 and a steady head. One may stand in the canyon 
 bottom, seven hundred feet below, and look up at 
 the bench on which the ruins stand, but only bal- 
 loons or kites would make the direct ascent possible. 
 To reach the lofty rock balcony, one must descend 
 several hundred feet from the mesa above it. So 
 there must be a farewell to that skyward glimpse, 
 only seven hundred feet away, and yet unattainable, 
 and then a detour of fifteen miles, up the canyon to a 
 practicable bit of canyon wall, and then back along 
 the mesa until the 'Cliff Palace' can again be seen, 
 nestled in its deep niche in the precipice. When the 
 attempt to descend begins, realization comes of the 
 wisdom with which the Cliff-dwellers chose the site 
 for their home. Only by a single difficult trail can 
 
 8 North Americans of Antiquity, pp. 304, 305. 
 » Ibid., p. 315. 
 . 10 St. Louis Globe- Democrat J issue October 1, 
 
\-'. ' 
 
 ^ "-^/v- ^ 
 
 Cliff Dwellers' Ruins. 
 
AND ARCILEOLOGY. 201 
 
 the *Ciiff Palace' be even distantly approached. At 
 last the crumbling walls are well in sight — but then 
 comes the rub. A smooth rock surface, tilted at an 
 angle of seventy-five degrees, must be passed. Once 
 there were well defined finger and toe holes, but wind 
 and rain erosion have worn smooth the edges, and 
 it is no easy matter to cling to the insufficient foot- 
 hold. For one hundred feet this is the only highway. 
 Keep your face to the cliff; don't look down, else 
 the knowledge that eight hundred feet of almost 
 sheer declivity lies below may unsettle your nerves, 
 and a slip may be fatal; creep cautiously along, 
 working on from hole to hole; cling to the finger 
 holes until your nails are worn — and now at last the 
 platform is reached.*' This description is but an 
 illustration of other instances. Doctor Cole says: 
 **The impossibility of reaching the *Cliff Palace' is a 
 circumstance common to these ruins. On the cliffs 
 of Walnut Canyon, fronting each other across the 
 narrow interval, are two lofty -perched dwellings. 
 The inhabitants of one could listen to the voices of 
 the people of the other, but to pay a neighborly call 
 meant a journey of thirty miles each way." Doctor 
 Cole also describes what he calls an ''aboriginal 
 city," OP a "vast communal dwelling," measuring 
 two hundred forty by three hundred feet, which in its 
 prime, he says, **must have contained at least six- 
 teen hundred rooms, and perhaps two thousand. 
 Between five and six thousand people may well have 
 dwelt in that single building." He says the cliffs of 
 the canyon were honey combed with cliff- dwellings 
 for about fourteen miles. Doctor Cole tells of a 
 
202 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 building on the top of a cliff one thousand feet high. 
 Mr. Short describes some houses to reach which he 
 says, ** Access to the summit of the bluff, a thousand 
 feet high, was obtained by a circuitous path through 
 a side canyon, and the houses themselves could only 
 be reached at the utmost peril of being precipitated 
 to the bottom of the dizzy abyss by crawling along a 
 ledge twenty inches wide and only high enough for a 
 man in a creeping position." ^* Doctor Cole thinks 
 that the inhabitants of some of the more inaccessible 
 places must have had ladders of some sort, perhaps 
 of yucca rope, which they put out and took in, and 
 by means of which they left or returned to their 
 homes on dizzy heights. Sometimes there was a sort 
 of stairway made by small niches in the rock, just 
 large enough to put the toes in and fasten the fingers 
 in, and by this means the house-owner climbed up 
 the steep incline to his home, while sometimes all 
 natural niches and irregularities in the rock that 
 could have afforded assistance in making ascent were 
 filled in, presenting a smooth surface, to make ascent 
 impossible, it is supposed. ^^ A murderer does not 
 seek to hide from his pursuers, nor a thief to conceal 
 his plunder more carefully than these people evi- 
 dently tried to conceal themselves. There were sub- 
 terranean and hidden chambers in some of the 
 houses, ^^ with only small apertures for windows, 
 mere ''peep-holes," they have been called;^* some- 
 
 11 North Americans of Antiquity, p. 299. 
 » 2 Ibid., p. 302. 
 
 »3 Ibid., pp. 287, 296, 299, 314, 322. 
 tMbid., pp. 312, 319. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 203 
 
 times there were none at all. Walls, surrounding 
 villages or single dwellings or a group of dwellings, 
 had no openings whatever. It is supposed they were 
 scaled by means of ladders. In fact, every conceiv- 
 able means and device for concealment was resorted 
 to. There were storerooms in which, writers sup- 
 pose, the people stored garden produce for winter 
 use.^^ There were watch-towers perched on high 
 elevations, as if the people expected attack or pur- 
 suit, and from these towers they could survey the 
 surrounding country and give alarm if enemies were 
 approaching.^^ The people evidently engaged in 
 some sort of fighting or skirmishing, either in offense 
 or defense as the case might be, for among the ruins 
 of an isolated village shut in by **hundreds of miles 
 of granite walls," there were found **so many beau- 
 tiful flint chipg," Mr. Short tells us, *'that discover- 
 ers conjectured that it might have been the home of 
 an ancient arro w - maker. "^"^ 
 
 The skillful workmanship of these curious people 
 is noted. Whoever they were, they were an intelli- 
 gent people, and a people who knew what civilization 
 was. We are told that in their building, **The stones 
 were laid in mortar with much regularity," and 
 again, another method, **The fine, hard, gray sand- 
 stone blocks are quite uniformly three inches in 
 thickness and laid without mortar, always breaking 
 joints." One room had a floor of **8mooth cedar 
 
 314, 319-324; also see pamphlet, "The Cliff- 
 dwellers," p. 3. 
 
 ^•Ibid., pp. 296, 299, 300. 
 inbid., pp.286, 287. 
 
204 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 boards, seven inches wide, and three-quarters of an 
 inch thick. The edges were squarely cut, and their 
 smooth surfaces indicated that they were pohshed by 
 being rubbed with flat stones." "A remarkable fea- 
 ture of the construction is the presence of the Yuca- 
 tan arch, formed of overlapping stones.'* In another 
 instance we are told, **The workmanship of the 
 structure was of a superior order; the perpendiculars 
 were true ones and the angles carefully squared. 
 The mortar used was of a grayish white color, very 
 compact and adhesive. Some little taste was evinced 
 by the occupants of this human swallow's nest. The 
 front rooms were plastered smoothly with a thin layer 
 of firm adobe cement, colored a deep maroon, while 
 a white band, eight inches wide, had been painte] 
 around the room at both floor and ceiling !" Speaking 
 of the feat of making such buildings as these cliff- 
 dweller habitations were, a writer says that when 
 one considers that the building materials **must have 
 been brought from far below by means of ropes, or 
 carried in small quantities up the dangerous stair- 
 way, the only wonder is that the people accomplished 
 what they did, and with such a degree of finish."** 
 Among the Pueblo ruins have been found fragments 
 of pottery "superior to that now manufactured by 
 the Mexicans," **graceful and artistic vases," taste- 
 fully painted, the figures geometrical; and other 
 relics indicating refinement of taste, however the 
 people came in possession of them. ^* 
 
 t«Ibid.,pp. 287, 291, 296,324. 
 »» Ibid., pp. 278, 282, 284. 287. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 205 
 
 Who were these people? The Indians who now 
 inhabit the ruins have a tradition about enemies who 
 foraged upon their ancestors, devastated their farms, 
 massacred the people, and that finally their ancestors 
 were compelled to leave their homes and seek shelter 
 among the mountains and hide in the cliffs, where 
 they could store food and hide away from the raid- 
 ers.^® An explorer is quoted by Mr. Short who 
 says: "It was also a source of wonder to us why 
 these ancient people sought such inaccessible places 
 for their homes.'* **Surely the country was not so 
 crowded with population as to demand the utilization 
 of a region like this."^^ In the H. Jay Smith pam- 
 phlet on the Cliff-dwellers, before referred to, it says: 
 * 'Their homes were fortresses; they built no stairs, 
 cut no steps, simply hollowed out slight foot and 
 hand holes, by means of which, and ladders, they 
 ascended and descended to their dwellings."^* The 
 existence of **small, unlightened rooms where grain 
 was stored;" the "com, beans, pumpkin and squash 
 seeds found in their houses," which seemed to be 
 "their chief articles of food," so the writer thinks; 
 and the presence of "granaries," lead the anti- 
 quarian to believe that they were an agricultural 
 people, while at the same time the same writer tells 
 us that the people "cultivated only small gardens," 
 and that their time was "probably too much taken 
 up in defending themselves against their enemies to 
 to admit of their engaging in extensive out-doop 
 
 «o Ibid., pp. 302, 303. 
 
 21 Ibid., foot-note, p. 286. 
 
 22 See pamphlet, "The Cliff-dwellers," p. S. 
 
206 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 work,"*' however agriculturally inclined. To the 
 critical reader it will appear strange that the people 
 should have been able to fill store- houses and grana- 
 ries, to have supported themselves, in fact, from their 
 own products, when they cultivated only * 'small gar- 
 dens," and did not engage in "extensive outdoor 
 work." It looks pretty much as if the Pueblo 
 Indians have the circumstances reversed in their 
 tradition, and that instead of their ancestors being 
 raided on, they were the raiders, and preyed upon 
 the fields of other people, bringing their stolen plun- 
 der to these hiding places to conceal, as well as to 
 secrete themselves. 
 
 When we turn to the Book of Mormon we find just 
 such a people described as the remains indicate the 
 ancient Cliff-dwellers to have been. Antiquarians 
 are forced to the conclusion that the homes of the 
 Cliff-dwellers were fortresses; that the people built 
 in the peculiar manner they did for protection. That 
 is just what the Book of Mormon says,but instead of 
 being a persecuted people to be pitied, they were an 
 army, as it were, of outlaws and brigands who sought 
 and made such hiding-places to escape outraged 
 justice. The Gadianton robbers became very numer- 
 ous in the days of the Nephites, and their homes are 
 described by the Book of Mormon to have been of 
 that character, and situated where the remains of the 
 Cliff-dwellers have been found. We are told of these 
 Gadianton hordes that they did commit murder and 
 plunder; and then they would retreat back into 
 
 "Ibid., p. 5. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 207 
 
 mountains, and into the wilderness and secret places, 
 hiding themselves that they could not be discov- 
 ered. 2* In the Book of Nephi, son of Nephi, we are 
 told that the robbers became such a trial to the peo- 
 ple that they petitioned the governor to send **up" 
 armies against them; to **go upon the mountains and 
 into the wilderness" to hunt them down. But the 
 governor replied as a wise man would have done 
 who had any idea of how the robbers were intrenched. 
 He told the people that to go up against the robbers 
 would mean great loss to them (the Nephites), per- 
 haps destruction, and he commanded the people to 
 remain on their own territory and wait for attack 
 when the robbers sallied forth to forage upon fields 
 and store -houses. The governor evidently referred 
 to difficulties that would have to be met if an attempt 
 were made to attack the robbers on their own ground, 
 and that the chances would not be fair for the 
 Nephites. The exact character and situation of the 
 robbers' homes, however, is more clearly designated 
 in the account that follows. The Nephites massed 
 themselves together in an armed body to await the 
 coming of the robber bands. There was not a great 
 while to wait, for the robbers had been getting very 
 bold. We are told that they came **down;" they 
 sallied forth "from the hills, and out of the moun- 
 tains, and the wilderness, and their strongholds, and 
 their secret places."^ ^ 
 A class similar to these Gadianton robbers is said 
 
 2* Book of Mormon, Nephi 1: 37, large edition. 
 "Ibid.,2: 16-50; also seel: 26, 34r-37; Helaman 2: 121-145; 4: 
 30-38. 
 
206. BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 to have existed among the first people of America, the 
 Jaredites,^^ but the account is too abridged to give 
 us any description of how they lived and where they 
 made their homes. Whether they preceded the 
 Nephite brigands in the mountains and wilds, and 
 built homes which the Nephite brigands discovered 
 and took possession of, repaired and rebuilt, we are 
 not justified in saying. But should such have been 
 the case it would make no difference in the bearings 
 upon each other between archaeological discoveries 
 and the Book of Mormon. The facts would remain 
 just the same, and they are these: first, that the 
 Book of Mormon describes just such a people as it is 
 evident the Cliff-dwellers were; second, that discov- 
 ery has revealed the ruins of exactly such a people 
 as the Book of Mormon describes the Gadianton rob- 
 bers to have been. As we have noted so many times 
 before in this series of papers, the Book of Mormon 
 reconciles archaeological evidences much better than 
 any scientific theories that men have been able to 
 reach, so again in this case, we see that the Book of 
 Mormon account offers a more consistent explanation 
 of why grain and other field products were found in 
 Cliff-dweller cellars and storehouses when the people 
 cultivated only small garden patches. People who 
 took such caution to protect themselves and conceal 
 their hiding places would not be likely to expose 
 themselves and their whereabouts as they would have 
 had to do if they had engaged in farming to any 
 considerable extent. 
 
 »« See Ether 3: 86, 89-92; 4: 2, 5, 79, 86,96; 6: 36, large edition. 
 Also see Helaman 2: 128, 129; Alma 17: 38-47, large edition. 
 
IN CONCLUSION. 
 
 The Book of Mormon makes the following lead- 
 ing historical claims : 
 
 1. That the American continent was peopled by 
 civilized nations centuries before the Columbian era. 
 
 2. That there were different periods of civilization, 
 and different races of people upon this continent. 
 
 3. That the ancient colonists came from the eastern 
 world. 
 
 4. That Christ visited the ancient Americans, and 
 established his church among them. 
 
 5. That the prehistoric civilizations of this land 
 went into moral, social, and spiritual decline. That 
 the first people was entirely destroyed by pestilence 
 and war, and that the second people was overcome, 
 and for the most part destroyed by a hostile race. 
 
 6. That the Indian was not the author of the 
 ancient civilization of America, but only successor 
 to it. 
 
 In this series of papers it has been our endeavor 
 to deal with only the leading claims of the Book of 
 Mormon. We have acted on the supposition, well 
 founded, we believe, that if these chief claims can be 
 substantiated, they carry minor claims with them. 
 It used to be thought that before the introduction of 
 European culture America had known no more 
 enlightened people than the Indian races. The Book 
 of Mormon came forth. It made the staggering 
 assertion that civilized nations had dwelt upon this 
 land in the misty past, and gave a record of those 
 
210 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 nations. Except a few religious fanatics, simple 
 enough to believe in faith, who would give any 
 credence to a history of a people, the mere fact of 
 whose existence was not known. By and by, though, 
 America began to receive a share of the antiquari- 
 ans' interest. Scholars went to making research; 
 explorers set out to see what they could find; dis- 
 coveries were made by those not looking for them, 
 and lo! it was heralded to the scientific world that 
 America, north and south, had been densely inhab- 
 ited, and by civilized peoples, long before the dis- 
 covery. 
 
 *'But the Book of Mormon says the people could 
 work iron," the skeptic cries, "and iron relics have 
 not been found." What of it, we ask; does the 
 truthfulness of the record's claim in regard to the 
 character of the ancient civilization depend upon 
 some detail of its history, or upon general evidences 
 of enlightenment? It is not to be supposed that we 
 shall find proof of every particular of what their his- 
 tory says about a people who lived so long ago, nor 
 that time has saved direct proof of a great deal. By 
 logical deduction, though, from knowledge that has 
 come to us, we may judge as to claims of which no 
 traces remain. For instance: it is a disputed ques- 
 tion among antiquarians whether prehistoric Ameri- 
 cans understood the use of iron. The Book of 
 Mormon declares they did. Discovery has revealed 
 achievements the accomplishment of which, without 
 tools of iron and steel, scientists themselves wonder 
 at, and can not explain. We see there is very 
 plausible likelihood, then, that the ancient Americans 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 211 
 
 did know how to work the metal, and that the circum- 
 stantial evidence is in favor of the Book of Mormon. 
 
 To notice all the points of that record upon which 
 evidence could be given was not our intention. We 
 have chosen, rather, to take up the most important 
 propositions, those which are the most far-reaching, 
 and show that archaeology bears eloquent testimony 
 confirming these. In doing this, another object is 
 accomplished. If it can be shown that these claims 
 are worthy of belief it inspires confidence in the 
 others, because when the leading claims are proven, 
 strong probability is established for those connected 
 with them. We have endeavored to point out to the 
 young student what seems to us to be the fairest and 
 strongest line of defense. To show that the divinity 
 of the record does not depend upon having evidence 
 for every point in the representation of the people, 
 but that the test of the Book of Mormon lies in 
 whether, so far as evidence has been found, it agrees 
 with that record on corresponding lines, and makes 
 possible and reasonable claims for which direct evi- 
 dence has not been found. 
 
 An important thing to remember in all our search 
 for information is that there is a distinction to be 
 made between theory and fact. In no department is 
 this caution more called for than in that pertaining 
 to archaeology. That the student might have some 
 sort of general idea of all connected with the object 
 of our discussion we have referred somewhat to the 
 conclusions of writers, but we have not chosen the 
 opinions, only, that are favorable to our position, nor 
 have we sought to sustain the claims of the Book of 
 
212 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 Mormon by these. It has been a feature of our pur- 
 pose to show how contradictory the theories are, and 
 we have constantly tried to impress upon the young 
 student the wisdom of ascertaining, of knowing facts 
 for himself, and the right he has of making his own 
 comparisons, and drawing his own conclusions. 
 
 If the evidences of archaeology are to be of service 
 to us, this is the course that we shall have to take. 
 Scientific opinion is changing, inventing something 
 new, and crossing itself all the time. The findings 
 are made to fit this or that professor's notions. The 
 same spirit of skepticism that has sought to detract 
 from the Bible would rob the Book of Mormon of the 
 benefits of research and discovery. As in the case 
 of the Bible accounts, the history of which the 
 Book of Mormon is a record, has been so largely 
 directed and overruled in the mysterious ways of the 
 Omnipotent One, that the wisdom of man, failing to 
 comprehend the wisdom of God, tries to evade it, and 
 substitutes the ideas of worldly savants, instead. It is 
 simply an extending of the old conflict between 
 learned assumption and the simplicity, yet wonderful- 
 ness of truth. 
 
 In this series we have tried to show that the tradi- 
 tions, monuments, and relics are independent of any 
 construction that may be placed upon them, and 
 that scientific theory is not essential to the value of 
 the evidence; that it speaks for itself. It matters 
 not what the wise men think about the starting point 
 of the ancient civilization of this continent, whether 
 they would have it to have begun in California, or 
 somewhere up north in the Mississippi Valley. The 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 213 
 
 facts are that the oldest ruins are found in Central 
 America, the region indicated by the Book of Mor- 
 mon as the cradle and center of the oldest civiliza- 
 tion in America. No amount of speculation will make 
 those old ruins grow less ancient, and all the argu- 
 ment that can be produced can not destroy the har- 
 mony between the silent testimony of those witnesses 
 and the assertions of the Book of Mormon. 
 
 Science may be able to throw but little light on 
 the matter, but all the same, on the western coast 
 of South America there are older ruins than have 
 been found elsewhere in that division which speak 
 for another ancient center from which the Book of 
 Mormon describes a second civilization to have 
 spread. The mounds, or pyramids of North America 
 say, in their dumb language, "You can see that we 
 were built by a distinct people from the South Ameri- 
 cans, because you do not find constructions like us 
 down there." It has been flippantly remarked that 
 the monuments of American antiquity were only 
 the product of the Indian, but the charge is put to 
 shame by the simple question, Were uncivilized peo- 
 ple ever known to do the works of civilized people? 
 Popular belief may deride the idea that Christ visited 
 any other people than those in Palestine, but it is 
 certain that the cross in ancient America does not 
 contradict the Book of Mormon when it says that 
 Christ came to this land. Those widespread tradi- 
 tions of a Culture -hero, so Christlike in his character, 
 do not contradict the Book of Mormon. The strange, 
 stray religious practices and ideas resembling scrip- 
 tural and gospel teachings, which were found among 
 
214 BOOK OF MORMON 
 
 the natives, do not contradict the Book of Mormon. 
 The demand of the hour is that we arm ourselves 
 with a knowledge of the evidences that have been 
 coming to light, for we are helpless to meet scientific 
 objections that skepticism may present to us, if we 
 are not thus prepared. Having armed ourselves, we 
 need to know how to use our weapons most effec- 
 tively. To court prestige by holding up influential 
 opinion that happens to favor the claims of the Book 
 of Mormon — to make such matter principal, instead 
 of incidental, is to invite humiliation, because the 
 opposing side can bring a negative declaration for 
 every affirmative one that we can produce. "We 
 repeat what we have said before. Let us become 
 acquainted with the original, for ourselves, and then 
 let us use the evidence independently, upon its own 
 merit. "We must beware of efforts that strike at the 
 very basis of our defense, that would not only deny 
 the significance of the evidence, but detract from 
 the evidence, itself. For example, some one is say- 
 ing now that the mounds, or earthworks, do not 
 bespeak more ability in the people who constructed 
 them than the Indian displays. It is easy to doubt, 
 to contradict, though; but to disprove is entirely 
 another thing. Before this can be done, something 
 else is necessary. It will have to be shown that the 
 host of witnesses who have placed themselves on 
 record did not have the intelligence to make proper 
 observation, and that they were lacking of veracity in 
 describing for us what they saw. It is apparent how 
 out of reason such an idea is, how improbable that 
 so many testimonies could be proven to be wrong. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 215 
 
 In conclusion, we know not what revelations the 
 future may have in store, what light it may throw 
 on the Book of Mormon if the regions now unex- 
 plored are delved into ; if manuscripts that may now 
 be forgotten in old libraries and monasteries are 
 found, and if the hieroglyphics of Mexico and 
 Central America, that have so long kept their secrets, 
 are induced to speak by some Champollion. But this 
 we know, that what archaeology has done for the 
 Book of Mormon would be considered a great triumph 
 for the Bible, if the testimony had concerned some of 
 the misty historical accounts of the Old Testament. 
 When it is considered that the Book of Mormon made 
 its advent before those corroborating disclosures 
 came to the knowledge of the public, it makes the 
 claims to divinity of that record entitled to increased 
 respect. It came forth proclaiming new, strange 
 things, and proof has been following it. 
 
THE BOOK OF MORMON IN THE LITERATURE 
 OF THE WORLD. 
 
 [When I read this paper at the General Convention of the 
 Religio Society at Independence, last spring, so many requested 
 me to have it published, that to conform with their wishes, I 
 do so. Louise Palfrey.] 
 
 Carlyle said of the drama of Job that it is "one of the grandest 
 things ever written with a pen." Poets of all succeeding ages 
 have drawn inspiration from the Psalms. Baron Humboldt 
 exclaimed of the fortieth Psalm, "We are astonished to find in a 
 lyrical poem of such a limited compass the whole universe — the 
 heavens and the earth— sketched with a few bold touches." The 
 depths of sorrow, the soarings of joy, the swelling of sublime 
 feeling all find their language in the Bible. That great orator, 
 Daniel Webster, is recorded to have said, "If there be anything 
 in my style or thoughts to be commended, the credit is due to 
 my kind parents in instilling into my mind an early love of the 
 Scriptures." It is reported of Hall Caine that all his characters 
 are derived from the Old and New Testament. The greatest 
 writers and speakers have taken the Bible as a model. Youth- 
 ful aspirants for honors in literature or on the rostrum are 
 always advised to study the Bible for insight into life and 
 human nature; for wealth of words, loftiness of conception, 
 perspicuity, variety, and native grandeur and beauty of expres- 
 sion. Sir William Jones says that the Scriptures contain, inde- 
 pendently of its divine origin, more sublimity, and finer strains, 
 "both of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected within 
 the same compass from all other books that were ever com- 
 posed in any age or in any idiom," while Kitto declares that 
 "no production whatever has any pretensions to rival it in dig- 
 nity of composition." Take away from, or deny its inspiration, 
 and still the Bible would hold a place of its own in the first 
 ranks of literature. 
 
 But these are not the strongest claims of the Bible to the posi- 
 tion it occupies in the literature of the world. It has a far more 
 important, more essential value. The Bible is the greatest 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 217 
 
 gfuide-book to the antiquity of man. It is the oldest history in 
 the world, written some eight hundred years before the writings 
 of the oldest book of which we have any authentic knowledge. 
 Some one has said, '*What should we know of the history of the 
 world, and its nations, for three thousand years, if all that has 
 been derived exclusively from the Bible were obliterated from 
 all memories and all books? Where should we go for knowledge 
 of all that immense extent of time — one half of the age of the 
 world?" The past would indeed be shrouded in darkness and 
 mystery to us. The ruins of Egypt and Babylon and Assyria 
 would but be revealed to mutely mock us. We should be 
 launched upon this scene of action knowing not when or how 
 our species originated, nor what the progress of man had been 
 before the dawn of secular history. The antiquarian might dig, 
 and the scientist might speculate, but without this great inter- 
 preter to throw light upon those ancient relics, how much wiser 
 would their discovery make us than to increase our bewilder- 
 ment and confusion? Doctor Macllvaine drew a vivid picture of 
 what our condition would have been without the Bible when he 
 said, "Just as we now wander among the mysterious remains of 
 the race which once possessed all this land (North and South 
 America), and are deeply impressed with the evidence that we 
 are constantly walking over the graves of an immense popula- 
 tion, and pained with a sense of utter darkness as to everything 
 connected with them, except that they bequeathed to posterity 
 those existing and confounding traces of their existence; so pre- 
 cisely should we be situated, with regard to all the human race, 
 and all the mightiest changes in the surface of the globe, were 
 we . . . destitute of all that history for which we are exclusively 
 indebted to the Old Testament Scriptures." I have referred to 
 the Bible to illustrate, and show the need for another book, the 
 book my subjuct assigns to me to speak upon. 
 
 Two summers ago, I chanced to be walking, one evening, just 
 behind several persons who were discussing this very book, and 
 I could not help hearing their remarks. One lady in the party 
 said, "But I should like to know what is the use of this Book of 
 Mormon. Why do we need it?" Perhaps that is a question 
 that is asked oftener than any other in connection with this sub- 
 
218 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 ject. A book making the pretensions the Book of Mormon does, 
 should have a merit distinct from its inspirational claims, be 
 defensible from other points than that of faith, and it is my duty 
 to show whether, independently of its claims to be divine, the 
 book is needed in the literature of the world; whether it fills a 
 vacancy and want in history and science. 
 
 You noticed, in the remarks of the writer whom I quoted, he 
 spoke of the "mysterious remains of the race which once pos- 
 sessed all this land,'* and said that we are "constantly walking 
 over the graves of an immense population." While it is a sub- 
 ject with which the public is not much acquainted, it is an estab- 
 lished fact, however, that long before our era there existed on 
 this continent a vast population and a wide spreading civiliza- 
 tion. There are not more ruins to speak for the ancient civiliza- 
 tion of the East than are here to proclaim that America has had 
 an ancient civilization. Indeed, some of our scientists to-day 
 are declaring that there are no other fields in the world richer, if 
 so rich for archaeological and ethnological investigation as our 
 own land affords. Yet I am aware that there are frivolous 
 writers who convey a very inadequate, or altogether inaccurate 
 idea on this subject. I had occasion, not long ago, to call atten- 
 tion to the unreliability of statements along this line in one of 
 the historical text-books used in our public schools, at home, 
 and show that the author had evidently not sought to make him- 
 self acquainted with the works of authorities on the subject. 
 But when we consider the careful preparation made by such his- 
 torians as Ridpath, for instance, who was engaged for ten years 
 in only getting the material ready for one of his works, we may 
 not expect much of those productions that come into existence 
 like mushrooms. 
 
 When Prescott described the Aztec and the Inca civilizations, 
 the accounts were so wonderful to a world accustomed to believ- 
 ing that all antiquity was confined to the East, that the stories 
 were doubted. But in the light of subsequent investigation and 
 exploration it has been proven that Prescott wrote, not fiction, 
 but truth. Some years ago a prominent English ethnologist 
 and a well-known collector of old relics made a trip through 
 Mexico. After they had seen the antiquities of the country Mr. 
 
AND ARCHEOLOGY. 219 
 
 Tylor and Mr. Christy gave out this report: "When we left 
 England we both doubted the accounts of the historians of the 
 Conquest, believing that they had exaggerated the numbers of 
 the population, and the size of the cities. . . . But an examina- 
 tion of Mexican remains soon induced us to withdraw this accu- 
 sation, and even made us inclined to blame the chroniclers for 
 having had no eyes for the wonderful things that surrounded 
 them." And yet, those civilizations of Mexico, Central America, 
 and Peru, of which the Conquerors gave such startling accounts, 
 are admitted to have been but shadows of the civilization that 
 preceded them. We are told that all they had that was best they 
 derived from the grander eras of progress before them, whose 
 light they but imperfectly reflected. 
 
 Who were the Actecs and the Incas? Prom whom descended 
 the Mayas, and who was that greater people before them, that 
 had vanished long before the Discoverers came, of whom the 
 Mexicans, the Central Americans and the Peruvians preserved 
 only misty traditions of glorious memories? Who were the 
 Cliff-Dwellers of the West, whose ruins are receiving so much 
 attention of archaeologists at present, and who were the Mound 
 Builders? We have with us, scattered in various quarters of our 
 land, thousands of living representatives of the past — the Indian 
 — who is he, from where, and when did he come? Ah, when we 
 get to this point, the scientists and the scholar can tell us noth- 
 ing. They concede that it is all a dense mystery to them. They 
 point out to us the evidences that bespeak a populous people and 
 an enlightened civilization in the ancient past; they teU us of 
 the magnificant ruins of Palenque and Uxmal and Mitla and 
 dozens of other crumbling, moss-grown cities in Mexico and Cen- 
 tral America— two famous travelers found sixty down there. We 
 are referred to the wonderful ruins that cluster around old sites 
 in South America; to the strange, deserted habitations hidden 
 in the mountain perches of our West; to the mounds and earth- 
 works scattered over the extent of the United States. Science 
 conducts us to these silent monuments, but as Professor Edward 
 Fulmer, of Chicago, admits, "Whence came the builders and 
 occupants, and how, when, and whither the mysterious race dis- 
 appeared, are pTotrlems that have so far baffled scfentiffts," It is 
 
220 • BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 to this state of things that Dr. Macllyaine refers to illustrate 
 what our general ignorance of the early history of man would be 
 without the Bible, leaving it to be seen that what the Old Test- 
 ament has done for our knowledge of the race in the Eastern 
 World, was yet to be done that we might know something con- 
 cerning man's history in this Western World. 
 
 Some years ago I met a gentleman eminent in professional cir- 
 cles, and of considerable repute as a writer and lecturer. He 
 prided himself upon being broad-minded and fair. In the course 
 of our conversation we drifted upon religious topics, and he made 
 inquiry about the Book of Mormon. "Doctor," said I, "you are 
 no doubt aware that this land of ours has a history that reaches 
 farther back than modem times?" He was, of course. "Then," 
 I resumed, "when you consider that the vast expanse of North 
 and South America once teemed with a people who evidently 
 were as capable of comprehending the principles of higher life 
 as the civilized nations of their brethern in the other hemisphere, 
 do you think it would be an impartial God that would favor one 
 people and withhold the same opportunities from another? 
 Would not the infidel have good excuse to fling back to us the 
 claim that the mission of Christ extended to all mankind if he 
 could point to nations that had been bom and died without ever 
 having had a witness of a Savior?" The doctor admitted that 
 the argument was a reasonable one. 
 
 The progress of man has been so dependent upon his knowl- 
 edge of his Creator, so interlinked with it, that it is impossible to 
 know much about one, without understanding something of the 
 other. The Bible was not given to us for the purpose of history, 
 primarily, but for a record that men might see and profit by the 
 examples of God's goodness towards his creatures, and the his- 
 torical part was strung on the story of salvation that has been 
 running through the ages. Men conceive that the vital part of 
 the book is its message to the soul, and yet when a stick or a 
 stone is found bearing out the historic assertions the news is 
 quickly heralded abroad, and a thrill goes through the Christian 
 world because it is another evidence that the book is true. The 
 Book of Mormon was presented to the world claiming to be the 
 testimony of the people of another hemisphere that Jesus is the 
 
AND ARCILEOLOGY. 221 
 
 Christ; it gives an account of God's dealings with the humanity 
 that anciently dwelt upon this continent, and, incidentally, a 
 history of the people, affording man a fuller knowledge of his 
 race. That there is need for such a book, and that there was a 
 place in literature waiting for it, science indirectly acknowledges. 
 The question can not be, surely, is such a book superfluous; is 
 our knowledge complete without it, but, is the Book of Mormon 
 the book to meet the demand, as it claims to be? 
 
 Sixty years ago, when the Book of Mormon came forth, the 
 fact of an ancient American civilization, now so well estab- 
 lished, was then unknown. The book was denounced as a fraud 
 for asserting a thing of which science had not dreamed. 
 "Absurd!*' the world cried. It was ten or fifteen years after- 
 wards that Prescott made his researches, and when his histories 
 of Mexico and Peru came out, as I have mentioned before, they 
 were believed to be largely imaginative. But how things have 
 changed since then I It has been said that thirst for knowledge 
 dominates the age. The scientific spirit permeates everywhere. 
 Man digs and delves to know more. Investigation is busy, and 
 in the light of astonishing discoveries that recent years have 
 piled up, the scholar of Europe no longer says to the citizen of 
 America, "You have no antiquities." "America! *» exclaims 
 one writer, '*a. land thought to be so new, which is indeed so 
 old." "These ruins of surpassing grandeur," cries the French 
 explorer, Charnay, speaking of the monuments of Central 
 America; "I seem to myself to be carried back a thousand years 
 amidst that grand old race whose ruins I am here to study." 
 The Book of Mormon asserts that the center of the older civiliza- 
 tion was in Central America; that great cities were built there. 
 Last summer a western college professor returning from his vaca- 
 tion with an exploring party in Central American regions made 
 the statement in a western journal that it was remarkable how 
 the ruined cities he saw fitted the Book of Mormon. Within the 
 past year discoveries in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Wis- 
 consin, Texas, and Old Mexico have contributed added testi- 
 mony. 
 
 Truth does not seek the protection of popularity. It seldom 
 waits until the world is ready to welcome it. It leads the world. 
 
222 BOOK OP MORMON 
 
 is ahead of its time, and waits for developments to prove it. 
 The Book of Mormon came forth to the world in the face of ridi- 
 cule and opposition which it had to meet because it was at vari- 
 ance with commonly accepted ideas. It declared things that 
 were as yet hidden from the wise men ; secrets that science had 
 not yet found out. Would anything but inspiration have dared 
 to place itself at such a risk, subjected itself to such a trial? 
 Would any book but one of which God was the author have thus 
 exposed itself to attack, and placed itself in a position where 
 future researches might award it glorious vindication, or con- 
 demn it to ignominious defeat? The wise Gamaliel spoke 
 an immutable principle when he said, "if this work be of men, 
 it will come to naught; but if it be of God, ye can not overthrow 
 it." Through the storms of criticism and skepticism that have 
 beat upon it, the Book of Mormon has stood firm. The results 
 of investigation have shown old ideas to be wrong, but have 
 corroborated the statements of this book, and have been building 
 a solid fortress around it. Each new find only strengthens the 
 defense, and the accumulating evidence, of research, exploration, 
 and discovery are proclaiming in louder tones the essentiality 
 and integrity of this message to men in the latter days. 
 April, 1901. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Art.— Embroidery, 39; mosaic, 
 109-111; painting, 106, 111; 
 relics, 105-111; sculpture, 
 103, 106, 107, HI. 
 
 Aztecs, 21, 30-56; civilization 
 inherited, 35, 36; govern- 
 ment, 36; incongruity of 
 character, 45, 54-56; social 
 life, 36-38. 
 
 Agriculture, 38, 39, 65, 66, 185; 
 granaries, 39; irrigation, 39, 
 65, 66: nurseries, 39. 
 
 Books, 24, 62, 63. 
 
 Bible and Book of Mormon 
 compared, 9-11; 216-222. 
 
 Barber shops, 40. 
 
 Building andArtsConnected. — 
 Architecture, 68, 99, 105-110, 
 186; cement, 42, 106, 204; 
 decoration, 105, 109; great 
 buildings, 40, 42, 102; ma- 
 sonry, 40, 41, 68, 105, 108, 
 203, 204; mosaic, 109-111; 
 mortar, 41, 108; plastering, 
 41, 103; stucco, 103. 
 
 Civilization, defined, 1-8. 
 
 Civilization, Ancient Ameri- 
 can.— Regions, 17, 18; dif- 
 ferent periods, 83-89, 93, 
 107-110, 209; character of 
 ruins, showing different 
 degrees and periods of civi- 
 lization, 84, 94, 99, 100, 104, 
 105, 107-110, 169; different 
 races and peoples, 32-34, 35; 
 older civilization than Az- 
 tecs, Mayas, and Incas, 30, 
 81, 59, 181, 182, 209; oldest 
 civilizations highest, 29-31, 
 85, 36, 56, 80-83, 99-103; 
 regions, 84, 82, 89-91> 99, 
 
 186; seat of oldest civiliza- 
 tion, 89; seat of second civi- 
 lization, 90, 91, 99; Indians 
 not authors, 209; founders, 
 173-177; origin, 19, 20, 
 77-79, 103, 117-122, 209, 
 154-178, 186-192, 195, 196; 
 cause of downfall, 209. 
 
 Chichimecs, 21, 22, 32, 35, 126. 
 
 Changes affecting ruins, 94-99. 
 
 Course of nation, 161-173. 
 
 Children loved, 38. 
 
 Charitable institutions, 38. 
 
 Cliff-dwellers, 197-215; char- 
 acter of ruins, 205; hidden 
 chambers, 202; origin, 
 205-208. 
 
 Date of archaeological works, 
 IS. 
 
 Density of population, 17, 18, 
 42, 102, 186. 
 
 Difference between theory and 
 fact, 211-214. 
 
 Estimates of ancient civiliza- 
 tion, 106, 114-116. 
 
 Founders of ancient nation, 
 173-177. 
 
 Gem cutting, 68. 
 
 Gran-Chimu ruins, "every 
 concomitant of civilization 
 found," 102. 
 
 Great Works.— Aqueducts, 40, 
 70; causeways, 40; canals, 
 39; dike, 41; irrigation, 39; 
 roads, 70; bridges, 70, 71; 
 lifting great weights 100. 
 
 Human sacrifice, 52-55. 
 
 Indians, not authors of an- 
 cient civilization, 209. 
 
 Inscriptions, 106. 
 
 Iron, 112, 113. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 225 
 
 Ineas, 21, 80, 31, 56-97; civili- 
 zation inherited, 56; Inca 
 character. 58, 77-79; incon- 
 
 ?Tuity, 74-77; social polity, 
 2-77; origin, 72, 79, 103. 
 Judging the unknown by the 
 
 known, 209, 210. 
 Locality of ruins, 17-19, 93, 94, 
 
 99, 104, 197. 
 Language, 87, 115. 
 Literary.— Books, literature, 
 
 24, 43, 62, 63; writing, 24, 61, 
 
 62,63; inscriptions, 106. 
 
 Mayas, 21, 30, 31, 87. 
 
 Military works, fortresses, etc., 
 42, 70, 99, 181. 
 
 Municipal edifices, 102. 
 
 Mexico, grandeur of, 41-43. 
 
 Market, 40. 
 
 Mound -builders, 179-196; 
 
 mounds, 178-180; found only 
 in North America, 188, 199; 
 city sites, 186; relationship 
 of mound-building peoples, 
 189-192; origin, 186-192, 195, 
 196; age, 192-196. 
 
 Metals. — Bronze, 39; lead 39, 
 67; silver, 39, 67; gold, 67; 
 tin, 39, 67; copper, 67; quick- 
 silver, 67; smelting-fur- 
 naces, 67, 68, 102; metal al- 
 most as hard as steel, 68; 
 mines, 39; copper mines, 184; 
 mica, 184; salt mines, 184; 
 flint mines, 184; iron, 112, 
 113. 
 
 Manufactories, 38, 39, 67, 68, 
 183; cloth, 39, 66, 67, 183; 
 coloring, 39; feather work, 
 39; pottery, vases, 39, 111, 
 183, 204; thread, 39; wonder- 
 ful cloth, 66, 67; dyeing, 66, 
 67; tools, 183; ornaments, 
 67, 68, 183; needles, 183; 
 baked bricks, 108; filters, 
 108; water pipes, 108; seals, 
 108; water tank, 102. 
 
 Origin of Ancient Americans, 
 19, 20, 77-79, 154-178, 186- 
 192, 195, 196; eastern origin, 
 157-159, 166: white ances- 
 tors, 79, 103, 117-122, 209; 
 scientific theory of origin, 
 154r-156. 
 
 Pyramid, not found in South 
 America, 169. 
 
 Police, 42. 
 
 Posts, 71. 
 
 Prisons, 102. 
 
 Polygamy, discouraged by pre- 
 cepts, 37, 38. 
 
 Regions, explored, 16; unex- 
 plored, 15-17. 
 
 Relationship between archae- 
 ology and Book of Mormon, 
 11, 12, 217-222. 
 
 Roads, 103. 
 
 Resemblances between Incaa 
 and Aztecs and Mayas, 99, 
 171-173. 
 
 Religion, 59-61, 45-52; tradi- 
 tions qf creation, 46, 47; 
 deluge, 46, 47, 60; Tower of 
 Babel, 137; evidences of an- 
 cient worship of true God, 
 60, 101, 130, 134, 135, 136; 
 Sabbath, 60, 61 ; resurrection 
 and future life, 60, 137; re- 
 ward of good, punishment 
 of evil, 60; Quetzalcoatl or 
 Culture-hero (Christ-char- 
 acter). 47, 61, 138-145, 149- 
 153, 209; Cross, 47, 106, 145- 
 150; baptism and Christian 
 communion, 48, 138; Chris- 
 tian resemblances in teach- 
 ing and practices, 48-52; 
 Christian form of prayer, 
 136; knowledge of scripture, 
 137; religion of the Toltecs, 
 133, 134; idolatry belonging 
 to later periods, 100, 104; 
 Quetzalcoatl opi)osed to 
 idolatry, ISO; begrinning of 
 
INDEX. 
 
 of human sacrifice, 133; 
 Aztec teachings regarding 
 polygamy, 37, 38; priest- 
 hood, 128. 
 
 Savagery, defined, 1-8. 
 
 Sources of archaeological 
 knowledge, 22-27, 123. 
 
 Ships, 156, 160. 
 
 Sailboat, 71. 
 
 Storehouses, 71. 
 
 Shops, 102. 
 
 Slavery in modified form, 36, 
 37. 
 
 Skilled workmanship, 41, 99, 
 100, 105, 107-110, 112, 199, 
 200, 203. 
 
 Smithery, 39, 67. 
 
 Science. — Mexican calendar, 
 44; Davenport tablet, 185; 
 astronomy, 64, 185; tele- 
 scope, 64, 186. 
 
 Schools, 43, 63, 64. 
 
 Time estimates, 94. 
 
 Time of oldest civilization, 
 192-196. 
 
 Taverns, 71. 
 
 Tula, a whole civilization, 109. 
 
 Toltecs, 21, 34, 35, 81. 
 
 Traditions. — Origin of man, 
 123; flood, 137; tower of 
 Babel, 124; wanderings, 
 125-166; enemies, 125, 126; 
 Tutul Xius, 126; Culture 
 Hero, 127; terrible phe- 
 nomena of nature, 128, 129; 
 book of God, 129; causes of 
 national downfall, 130, 131, 
 132; nationalstory, 131, 132; 
 seven families, 158; four 
 leaders, 158, 175, 176; jeal- 
 ousy towards youngest 
 brother, 175, 176; youngest 
 brother leader, 176, 177 
 eastern origin, 157-159, 166 
 both coasts visited, 160 
 Quinames, 169; Maya nation 
 symbolized by tree and 
 snake, 170. 
 
 Traditions do not refer to the 
 first civilization, 92, 161-164 
 
 Wealth, 68, 69, 102. 
 
 Women respected, 37, 38. 
 
 Writing, 24, 61-63.