cJla^ /fJ-^ Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/divinityofbookofOOpalfrich 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.