THE
FIRST DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
AND ITS EARLY CIVILIZATION,
TRANSLATED AND ENLARGED FROM THE GERMAN OF
DR. F. KRUGER,
BY
W. L. WAGENER,
PROFESSOR OF LATIN AND GERMAN IN PACKER COLLEGIATE
INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN.
"Nescite autem, quid antequam natus sis acciderit id est, semper esso
puerum." —CIcERO (Orator).
NEW YORK:
SHELDON & COMPANY,
335 BROADWAY, COR. WORTH ST.
1 863.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
W. L. WAGENER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.




TO
THE TRUSTEES
OF
PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN,
THIS LITTLE WORK
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED AS A
TOKEN OF ESTEEM
BY THE
AUTHOR.








PREFACE.
THERE appeared several years ago, in the city
of Dresden, two Archaeological Essays in a German newspaper of the highest literary and scientific character, written by Dr. F. Kruger, and re-,published in 1858 in the well-known New York
Belletristic Journal.
As there does not exist a reproduction of them
in the English language, I have endeavored to
supply the deficiency. To the material contained
therein large additions —the results of my own
researches - have been made. 5My grateful acknowledgments are due to a lady of Brooklyn for
kindly revising the manuscript.
That this little work may meet with a favorable
reception from the classical reader, is the earnest
wish of the writer.








CONTENTS.
ESSAY I.
PAGu
THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF AMERICA,............   11
ESSAY   II.
THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF ANCIENT AMERICAN
AND ORIENTAL CULTURE....................... 57








ESSAY  I.
THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.








I.
THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
THERE are, as is well known, two opinions
entertained by literary men concerning the
origin of the Aborigines of this country; the
one, that they emigrated from the old continent, the other, that they originated in
America. The former has been generally
received as the true one, and especially relied upon by -religious writers; the latter
belongs only to modern times. We consider
the former the only rational one. The old
and the new continents are so near each other,
separated only by Behring's Straits, that the
necessity of an independent creation of a race
on this continent does not exist. And this is
more distinctly visible when we take into
consideration the fact that the animal and
11




12        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
vegetable productions are undeniably American in their origin, until we ascend the scale
to human beings, we find the latter bearing
a close resemblance to the wild and roving
tribes of the old world. The inferior animals,
even those which most nearly approach humanity-the apes-are different from the
same species in the old world. Apes differ
in the number and structure of the teeth,
which form a significant and striking zoological mark. In all the American varieties we
find thirty-six teeth, both in living specimens
and in the remains of those of primitive ages,
while on the old continent they have but
thirty-two, the same number that is found in
human beings. An immigration by way of
Behring's Straits is not only natural in itself,
but has received the corroboration of strong
probability by ethnographical studies and
Indian legends. The Esquimaux, who live
on both sides of the straits from Kamtschatka
to Greenland, and carry on a considerable
commerce between the two countries, furnish




OF AMERICA.           13
another significant fact. There is preserved
in the Dacotah Indian tribe, on the Mackenzie River, an old tradition that their forefathers came across the ocean from Asia. The
Indians of the Mississippi Valley have likewise a tradition which refers to an origin
from the north-west.
Important in this connection is the wellknown typical resemblance between the great
mass of American aborigines and the Mongolian race. On account of this resemblance
some of the most learned naturalists have
included both races in one. The position
here assumed finds additional support when
we examine the evidences of early civilization found throughout the whole continent,
especially in Central and South America.
The great variety of languages in America,
as well as in the remaining parts of the world,
has raised the question whether the emigrants from Asia brought their language and
culture with them, or whether they were
wholly barbarous, and by their own mental




14        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
power were able to bring themselves to that
state of cultivation in which they were found
when conquered by the Spaniards. Against
the latter opinion there have been for a long
period eminent objections.
First of all deserves to be mentioned the
opinion of Alexander von Humboldt, the
prince of learned men, at which he arrived
about sixty years ago, while engaged in scientific pursuits in America, and explained in
one of his most interesting works.*  He refers to the most surprising relations existing
between the culture of Eastern Asia and ancient America, especially seen in the arrangement of the calendar, which could not possibly depend on mere casualty, and judges that
there must have been an emigration from
Japan- and Eastern Asia generally. This
opinion is considered the more tenable one
because it entirely agrees with the abovementioned typical affinity between the Amer* Vues des CordillMres et Monumens des Peuples indigenes de
l'Amerique (Paris, 1810).




OF AMERICA.            15
ican aborigines and the inhabitants of Eastern Asia.
In the course of the last five decades, however, there appears a victorious opinion in
historical science-i. e., of a self-creation of
culture from the nation's own mind, which,
however, we consider exaggerated.
There was found in America a wide difference in the degrees of culture which characterized the aboriginal inhabitants, a portion
or whom were wild, rude, and barbarous,
without knowledge of law or form of government, while others were more mild in
character, reproducing somewhat the conditions of' pastoral life in the old country, or
of that transition state from the pastoral to
the agricultural life. Yet, strange as it may
seem, the ancient Mexicans had no knowledge of domestic animals.
It is most improbable that the ancient
Americans raised themselves by their own
power from the entirely rude condition of
wild Indians to such a high degree of culture,




16        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
Accordingly, therefore, the opinion of Humboldt is to be retained as of value, and indeed we see no reason why we should contradict its important arguments.
The mode of civilization in America was,
however, so varied, that the adoption of the
theory of an origin from but one region is
entirely unnecessary.  There exists, also,
among the inhabitants a typical contrast,
which renders a scientific solution necessary.
Besides the resemblance to the Mongolian
race, which is considerable, there exists, according to the observation of people who
have resided for a long time in the northern
part of South America, but a slight difference
between the immigrated Chinese Coolies and
the native Indians in regard to their physiognomy and structure of the body. So, also,
there appears in the once highly-cultivated
Central American a type in its purity quite
contrary to the Mongolian, which learned
men, who observed it in that part of the continent, have pronounced "Semitic."  To this




OF AMERICA.           17
Semitic race belonged also the very ancient
people of Babylonia, which possessed the
whole plain of Middle Asia. Their language
was spoken in many dialects on that side of
the ialys River (now called Kisil-Irmark)
on the western coast of Asia Minor, prevailing from the Tigris as far as the Caucasian
Mountains and the southern point of Arabia.
The Phoenicians, as well as their Carthaginian
descendants, belonged to this Semitic race.
This observation caused an opinion to circulate, in itself childlike, referring to a
Judaical origin of the Indians. This opinion
prevails among the North American people,
and, according to the reports of Scherzer,
among the cultivated inhabitants of Central
America and Mexico. It is not only one of
the most important dogmas of the Mormon
religion, but even English scholars used much
diligence and sagacity to make it appear
that the lost ten tribes of Israel arrived in
America in some natural manner, and there
became the fathers of the Indians.




18        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
While we intend to solve this ethnographical problem, we pronounce it from the begin-,
ning as our opinion that, as well in early
antiquity as since the fifteenth century, the
Atlantic Ocean offered the way of communication which made possible a mingling of
both systems of culture of the old and new
continents. This opinion is not at all new;
but as its former defenders cited only a few
points in their arguments, they did not succeed in giving to them sufficient strength.
As we intend to investigate this question
thoroughly, we will undertake a new comparison of both the witnesses of.the ancients
concerning a large continent beyond the Atlantic Ocean, and also the mutual accordance
of the two continents in religion and culture-finally, the traditions of the American
aborigines, and we trust to be able to adduce
in favor of our opinion arguments not only
new but by their interior harmony convincing also. We commence with the witnesses
of the ancients.




OF AMERICA.                19
The opinion that large masses of land are
hidden in the Western Ocean, was so often
pronounced by the authors of antiquity, that
in the days of reviving literature the minds
of the first discoverers were most actively
incited and determined. Especially by the
saying of Seneca in his tragedy " Medea:"
" Late centuries will appear,
When the ocean's vails will lift
To open a vast country.
New worlds will unvail Thethys.
Thule will not remain the earth's boundary."
Thethys is the poetical name for "the
Atlantic Ocean," and Thule for "Iceland."
The old Romans called  it also  "Ultima
Thule," i. e. " the last, the remotest Thule."
Alexander von Humboldt proved this influence in the most unequivocal way, and
analyzed from this point of view many
ancient judgments.
While we are giving this point of view a
similar examination, we must distinguish first
of all between such passages as, relying upon
the theory of the spherical form of the earth,




20        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
declare only a scientific conviction, and those
which contain a distinct tradition of a discovery by the maritime nations. Such reports can, of course, have the authority of
real traditions only when they
Firstly, show geographical communications which agree with the real condition of
the new world; and
Secondly, if they in themselves contain
sufficient historical probability.
For such witnesses we are indebted to the
Greek authors, Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus,
and Aristotle. It shall be our endeavor to
show how far they can claim scientific consideration.
We commence with a passage from Plutarch, in his treatise, "De Facie in Orbe
Lunav," which is very important, since it
seems to contain an unequivocal description
of America.
Plutarch is citing a Sylla speaking in the
following manner:




OF AMERICA.            21
1. "When there is no objection to it I
begin Homeric:
* "An island is lying far Ogygia (far in the
ocean), five days' voyage from Britain, as
one sails westward.
2. " Three others stand at equal distances
from each other, and lie very far toward the
hot sunset.
3. "On one of them, the barbarians have
the fable, Chronos was once confined, having
his son as watchman. He now lives beyond
those islands and the ocean, which is called'Chronic Ocean.'
4. " The vast continent, which is surrounded
by the large ocean, lies not far from the
island-from Ogygia about 5,000 stadia (one
stadium equal to 6064 English feet). Only
rowing vessels are used to approach it, for
the ocean is penetrable with difficulty, and
muddy, on account of the continent washing
down slime, so that the ocean is sluggish and
earthy, for which reason one imagines it as
dense.




22        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
5. "On the continent Hellenians live
around the bay, which is not smaller than
the'Palus Masotis' (now called the Sea of
Azof). Those people call and consider
themselves'Continentals;' the inhabitants
of our country, however, since it is encircled
by the ocean, they call' Islanders.'
6. "They believe the attendants of Hercules had mixed themselves with the people
of Chronos, and having been left behind,
had again inflamed, invigorated and enlarged
the Greek character, which was almost expired-well-nigh extinguished by barbarian
language, laws, and manners of living.
Therefore Hercules has the greatest honors,
but Chronos the next ones.
7. "When the constellation of Chronos,
which the Hellenians call the fire constellation, they, however,'Nycturos,' enters the
Taurus, which happens every thirty years,
they send on a voyage persons previously
chosen by lot, who have been preparing themselves for a long time for this sacrifice and




OF AMERICA.           23
journey. The vessels, servants, and equipments are the same as if they were going to
cross a vast ocean with the oar, and had resolved to remain abroad a long time.
8. " Those who have departed have now a
different destiny; those who are spared by
the ocean, land at first at the foremost islands
inhabited by Hellenians, where, for thirty
days, the sun disappears less than one hour,
and the night brings only slight darkness, as
if surrounded with twilight.
9. "After a sojourn of ninety days, and
having been treated honorably and friendly,
they are conveyed home again by the winds,
after having been considered and announced
as' saints.' No other people live there
besides themselves and those who were
before sent thither. For those who have
served out the thirty years to the god are
allowed to sail homeward.  The greatest
part of them prefer to remain, some of them
because they are acclimated, others because
they are relieved from labor and occupation,




24        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
and every thing exists in abundance for
immolations, choragi, and for engaging in
sciences or in philosophy.
10. "For the island is worthy to be
admired for the beauty of its natural scenery
and the mildness of the encircling breeze.
To some of the voyagers the tutelary god
becomes an impediment. When they are
about to depart, he shows himself to them
and to their relatives and friends, for many
of them, not only by dreams and omens, but
also publicly, by vision and voice, have intercourse with the spirits.
11. "In deep cavities slumbers Chronos
on the godlike rocks, watched because Zeus
has made the sleep like a fetter upon him.
Over the top of the rock birds flutter, bearing
to him in their bills' ambrosia.' The whole
island is filled with the fragrance of it.
12. " Those are spirits waiting upon Chronos and serving him, since they have been
during his government over mankind and
gods his joys. Many things they divine from




OF AMERICA.             25
their own prophetic inspiration, the sublimest, however, they announce as dreams of
Chronos.
13. " For whatever Zeus foresees appears
to Chronos in a dream. When he awakes,
then rises his Titanic rage and the passions of
his soul, which were oppressed by sleep, so
his royal and divine character appears again
pure and clear.
14.' After having arrived here, as he said,
the guest, who served the god at leisure, acquired such a knowledge of astrology as it
would be possible for an astronomical scholar
of the highest proficiency, since among other
philosophical branches the natural sciences
were cultivated.
15. "He departed after thirty years had
passed away, and the successors had arrived
from home with the desire to see the large
island, as our continent is said to be called;
having been dismissed by his friends without
much baggage, but with a strong traveling
provision of golden goblets, i. e., wine.
2




26      THE FIRST DISCOVERY
16. "What occurred to him now, how
many people he met, what he thought of the
holy sciences, into how many mysteries he
was initiated, and with what else he became
acquainted, can not be related in one day;
neither can that which entered into the particulars of his recollection. What, however,
concerns the present subject you shall hear.
17. "In Carthage he spent the longest
time, and found some parchment rolls buried
among the ruins of the ancient city, for a
long time concealed in the earth. He recommended me to entertain a distinguished
veneration for those gods appearing in the
universe, for instance,' Selene' (the Greek
name for'moon'), since she has the greatest
right of our life." Those are the passages of
Plutarch.
According to our promise we will submit
them point after point to an examination,
and also compare the traditions of the Mexicans with many of the intimations contained
therein.




OF AMERICA.            27
In the beginning it is said: " Ogygia lies
toward the west from  Britain, three other
islands in front of it very far toward the hot
sun." The last passage gives us a hint where
we must look for those islands-evidently in
the tropical Central America. Here, among
many islands, four are especially observable,
which in their magnitude and beauty excel
all the others, i. e., Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti,
and Porto Rico. They are from each other
almost equidistant, just as Plutarch reports.
The five days' voyage is an error upon which
nobody will lay any stress who is acquainted
with and has examined the statements which
Greek geographers make in regard to distances. As for instance, Onesicrotos, in giving the distance of Ceylon from the Indian
continent, makes it twenty days' voyage, a
ridiculous statement to us, since we know
that the real distance is thirty-two English
miles. But as an intelligent man will draw
from this a conclusion that the ancients knew
nothing about Ceylon, so little, also, is the




28        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
above five days' voyage a counterproof
against the acquaintance of the ancients with
America.  According to paragraph third,
Chronos was confined by Zeus on one of the
islands. As is known, there was in all antiquity, and also in America, a common belief
that earthquakes are generated by giants and
gods who have been confined by other superior beings and buried under mountains. So
Zeus is said to have heaped Etna upon the
Titans; so was the Persian Zobac fettered by
Feridun under the Demawend; so the German Loce conquered and tied in a cavern of
the interior of the earth by the power of the
twelve Asen (deities of both sexes). We
have, therefore, in the above passages nothing but an allegorical rendering of the sentence: " One of these islands is of a volcanic
character, exposed to earthquakes and eruptions."  These latter are common, as is
known, in the whole of Central America.
Active volcanoes exist, especially on the
Caribbean Islands, in abundance, and various




OF AMERICA.            29
hints in the writers of antiquity show us
that they were never missed in the four
islands mentioned, where they are yet to be
found.
Still more distinctly, yes, as distinctly as
one can describe, is stated in the fourth paragraph:
"A large continent is here spoken of,
which is surrounded by a large ocean; it is
at a less distance from the other islands, but
from Ogygia it is 5,000 stadia. By the multitude of streams which wash down mud and
slime the ocean  is rendered  thick and
earthy."
It is certainly impossible not to perceive
in this a description of the American continent.  That embraces a large archipelago,
the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea.
It sends forth many rivers-as the Mississippi,
the Rio del Norte, the Magdalene River, the
Orinoco, which together are heaping up an
alluvial deposit more important than the celebrated delta formations of the Nile. Not




30        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
only by these alluvions but by many banks,
as that of the Honduras and the large ones
of Bahamas, is the navigation rendered difficult in manifold ways.
How exact altogether the whole descriptions are one can perceive by reading Voelcker's "Book of Geography."  There stands,
for instance, in the second volume:
"The continual current of the sea along
the coast from the Peninsula of Yucatan as
far as the Straits of Florida, heaps up great
masses of sand which are increased by the
wash of the rivers that flow into the sea. All
the harbors, therefore, along the eastern
Mexican coast are utterly unsafe and are
exposed to all storms."
Astonishing indeed is the statement of the
distance of Ogygia from a spot easily to be
recognized as upon this continent.  Five
thousand stadia are five hundred and fifty
English miles, or eight and a half degrees,
which is exactly the distance of Cuba from
the mouth of the Mississippi River. That




OF AMERICA.            31
this point only can be fixed upon, and not
another, appears distinctly in consequence of
the mention of large masses of slime washed
down and impeding greatly the navigation,
by which the delta of the Mississippi River is
to be understood. It follows from this that
the island which is called by Plutarch " Ogygia," is one and the same with "Cuba" of
our day, which deserves of course, as it is -by
far the largest island of Central America, to
be rendered especially prominent.
In paragraph fifth Plutarch reports that
the maritime countries of the continent are
inhabited by Hellenians settled around a gulf
not smaller than the Sea of "Azof."  Without doubt this is the Gulf of Mexico, on
whose coasts at the time of Cortez still existed
the empire of the Aztecs, who immigrated
to Anahuak (Mexico) in 1160, A.D., from the
unknown northern countries "Aztlan."  It
is well known what a high degree of culture
these people had attained at that period.
The ancient scholars supposed this nation to




32        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
be derived from the Toltec race, who probably immigrated in the seventh century, A.D.,
from northern countries, and after having
conquered almost the whole of Central America reared there many gigantic works of
architecture. The newer investigations have
proved an existence anterior to the Toltec
culture, and doubtless of great age. The
Toltec nation existed very probably in Guatemala, Nicaragua, on the Great Antilles,
etc., until the time of discovery and later by
the name of the " Maja people." The relics
likewise of their culture to be found in the
territory of the Mississippi -River are, according to certain marks, very old.
The statement of Plutarch of a nation already highly cultivated, and living on that
gulf of the new world, is in itself not at all
improbable. In regard to the additional
clause, that the nation was Greek,% it is a
well-known fact, that the vain Greeks, whenever an unknown cultivated nation was mentioned, always thought at first of themselves.




OF AMERICA.            33
Their Boe otic Hercules is said to have conquered India, and even more.
Plutarch proceeds to religious expeditions
toward the north, to islands where the sun
during thirty days disappears less than one
hour.  The nights are described as polar
nights with slight twilight. The whole statement is confused, as it could hardly fail to
be, since Plutarch speaks of that of which he
has not had the least observation.  Afterward he reverts to the island " Chronos,"
picturing it as a genuine paradise (and what
glowing impression the Antilles made upon
the Spaniards!)  Wonderful are the natural
characteristics of the island; the mildness
of the breeze, the brilliant birds, sweet
aromatics; nothing, indeed, is forgotten which
a ravished describer of travels would relate
concerning the charms of tropical countries.
Mingled with this there is much of mythology, which, however, is spoken of in Mexican legends. Plutarch introduces a native
of America who, animated by a desire to see
2*




34        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
the large island (as Plutarch's Americans
called the eastern continent), had sailed with
a great store of golden goblets, i. e., wine,
toward the east, and had landed in Carthage,
where he staid for a long time.  That an
American native could, at Plutarch's day,
arrive in Carthage by way of the Atlantic
Ocean is so little conformable to our prejudices, that it appears quite ridiculous. Nevertheless, when we candidly contemplate the
relation of Plutarch we find nothing which is
absolutely untrue. Among all the deities of
the universe he makes his guest pay veneration to the goddess of the moon. Throughout ancient America the moon was highly
prominent above all others. It is. remarkable that Carthage is also mentioned in connection with two other statements about a
large country lying in the Atlantic Ocean.
The first of these references is to be found
in the author Diodorus Siculus. In the nine.
teenth and twentieth chapters of the fifth
book he says: "After describing the islands




OF AMERICA.            35
within the columns of Hercules, we pass to
those in the ocean.  Opposite to Africa
lies an island, in the midst of the ocean,
which on account of its magnitude is
worthy to be mentioned.   It is several
days' voyage distant from  Africa, has a
fertile soil, many mountains, and not a few
plains unexcelled in their beauty.  It is
watered by navigable rivers, possesses many
paradises planted with various kinds of trees,
and also gardens in abundance, intersected
by sweet streams. There are to be found
farms adorned with artistic buildings, and
in the gardens are cottages, in which the
inhabitants spend the hot season of the year.
The hilly country has thick and extensive
forests and various fruit-trees, and the valleys
between the mountains offer refreshing and
copious fountains.  The chase is rich in
every kind of game, and therefore the inhabitants are not in want of any thing which
may contribute to revels and pomp. The
sea, which washes the shores is crowded with




36         THE FIRST DISCOVERY
fish, like in character to those of the ocean,
which also contains them in abundance.  A
multitude of hard-rinded and other fruits
are to be had through the greater part of
the year.  Indeed it appears, on account of
the great abundance of its charms, as if
it were the sojourn of gods and not of human
beings."
These and the following passages are so
precise, that they can not be called either
mythic or trite. The question reduces itself
to this, whether the island of Diodorus be
America, or whether it be one of the Canaries or Azores.  The latter opinion meets
with decided objections. In the first place
Diodorus calls it considerably large, and the
Azores and Canaries are but small.  Diodorus attributes to the island navigable
rivers, while on the Azores there are only
brooks. The Canaries, on account of their
well-known aridity, still less permit this
interpretation. Besides, the island of Diodorus has very extensive plains, and the




OF AMERICA.            37
islands of the Atlantic Ocean are-as is wellknown-without exception mere peaks of
submarine mountains. In every respect the
description of Diodorus agrees with that one
of Plutarch of the Island " Ogygia." The
statement of both authors respecting the
distance from Africa refers to the relations
of that far Western country with the neighboring cluster of islands, of which the Canaries were certainly known in remote antiquity.
The coincidence between Plutarch and Diodorus nearly confines the interpretation to
the largest island of Central America.
Cuba has a hundred and fifty running
streams, among which Sagua Grande and
Rio Cauto are in fact navigable. The greater
part of the surface of the country consists
of mountains, which rise to the altitude of
8,400 feet. A not less noticeable part extends itself in plains especially in those river
valleys near the ocean. The condition of
that Western country as here described corresponds sufficiently well with that of Amer



38         THE FIRST DISCOVERY
ica, for a precise analysis in such reports
can never be expected. Those farms adorned
with magnificent buildings also indicate
" America."   The degree of civilization,
which at the time of the discovery existed
on the large Antilles, was only the relic of a
declining and formerly far higher culture,
as is seen from certain marks. The expressions which Diodorus uses about the
richness of the soil, fitting the country for
a habitation of gods rather than of human
beings, occur likewise in passages of the
first Spanish discoverers and missionaries,
whose reports relate:
"The multitude of paradises with all sorts
of trees planted therein, gardens with sweet
rivulets intersecting them, the frequent and
luxuriant tropical forests, the wonderful
mildness of the climate, which causes the
earth to produce through the longest part
of the year a multitude of hard-rinded and
other fruits, can not sufficiently be praised."
In the following chapter of Diodorus the




OF AMERICA.            39
way of the discovery by the Phoenicians is
related:
"In early antiquity it was unknown
through its remoteness from the whole habitable world, at a later day it was discovered in
consequence of the following circumstances:
The Phoenicians having from the most ancient times incessantly made commercial
journeys, established in Africa many colonies
no less than in Europe, and in the regions
toward the sunset.  As their enterprises
succeeded to their wish, they gained great
riches. Afterward they ventured to sail,
passed the columns of Hercules into the
ocean, after having founded on the straits
between the columns a city, and called it
Gadeira  (Cadiz).   Besides some others
suitable to the locality, they erected a
splendid temple to Hercules, and sacrificed
gorgeous victims conformably to their rites.
This temple was highly venerated in ancient
times, and also in later centuries, even till
our days. While exploring the coast of




40        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
Africa on that side of the columns, the Phoenicians were driven by heavy winds far out
into the ocean. Tossed about for many days
by storms they were carried finally to the
aforesaid island, and after investigating its
charms, carried home the account.  But
when the sea-mighty Tyrians were going to
send thither a colony, the Carthaginians prevented them, partly out of fear that many
would emigrate thither from Carthage, partly
in order to keep an asylum in case of some
misfortune occurring.  In that event they
wished to accomplish a universal emigration
to that island." This testimony is completed
and enlarged by the already-mentioned passage from a work generally ascribed to Aristotle, "'De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus Liber." This work is certainly not genuine,
but it is at all events older than our chronotogy. Here it is said:
"In the ocean on the further side of the
columns of Hercules have the Carthaginians
discovered a waste island distant several




OF AMERICA.            41
days' voyage, provided with woods, navigable rivers, and admirable on account of
its productions." Both witnesses, to which
a certain historical character can not be
denied, agree perfectly in the principal
matter.  The navigable rivers mentioned
by Aristotle prove that he did not refer to
the small islands of the Atlantic Ocean.
Diodorus says: "That country, so remote
from others, is said to have been discovered
by the Phoenicians, but it was known also
to the Carthaginians."  This does not contradict the report of Aristotle, of its discovery by the latter; it may be that he
refers to an after-discovery. Aristotle, however, calls the island, to which Diodorus
ascribes a cultivated population, a "waste
one."  Without doubt he confounds the
island (of which Plutarch also speaks) with
the continent.  There are-as is knownimmense tracts of lands, especially in the
south, which may be called uninhabited.
The Carthaginian rulers forbade the voyage




42        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
to this newly discovered country under pain
of death, and killed all the emigrants, in
order that they might not promulgate the
knowledge of its existence, lest that then the
island should gain the predominance, and
injure the prosperity of the mother country.
The rulers of the Carthaginians were-as is
known-rich, moneyed aristocrats, whose authority and importance, as everywhere in
our own days, depended on the work of an
enormous multitude of paupers. Therefore
by an emigration in mass their prosperity
would be ruined as well as that of the state
itself, whose power was founded upon the
density of its population. The matters of
fact which are contained in the reports of
Diodorus and Aristotle certainly contradict
all our prejudices. But when they are submitted to investigation, they appear not improbable. They are moreover sustained by
important historical and geographical arguments.
That the -Phoenicians in ancient time navi



OF AMERICA.            43
gated the Atlantic Ocean is a well-known
fact. It is hardly less certain that they had
a not inconsiderable commercial intercourse
with the western coast of Africa, which
continent they had completely circumnavigated, according to an entirely reliable
report of Herodotus.  The Greek author
Strabo relates also that the Carthaginians
possessed on the African coast a hundred
colonies, which is an evidence of an active
commerce with tropical Africa. There are
in the Atlantic ocean-currents and also currents of air north of the equator; they are
of such a character, that an active navigation
in those regions hardly can take place without leading by mere accident to America.
It is known that it was a tradewind, in connection with equatorial currents, which
opened Brazil to the Portuguese under
Cabral in 1500 A.D., without any intention
on their part.  Is it then surprising if a
similar eastern storm should have driven,
according to Diodorus, a Phoenician, and




44        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
according to Aristotle, a Carthaginian vessel
toward the west, and opened to it the
American continent? One is accustomed to
lay too great stress upon the lack of the
compass.  In the above case this would
rather favor the discovery, when the navigators, driven away from the land, and having
entirely lost their course, sailed perhaps
toward the west, while the compass would
have directed them eastward.
In pleasant weather heaven is the best
leader, therefore was the return not a difficult matter.  When they perceived that
they had been carried toward the west,
they had only to sail back in a plain eastern
direction, in order to reach Spain again.
(Columbus in his voyage of discovery kept
an almost straight direction.)
It is highly improbable that the discovery
of a country so rich in resources of all kinds
should not have stimulated to the utmost
activity a nation of so much boldness and
enterprise  as the  Phoenician  Carthagin



OF AMERICA.           45
ians!  Our excellent Movers has clearly
shown in the last volume of his Phoenician
Archaeology, how little foundation there is
for our prejudices in regard to the shipbuilding of the ancients. He proves positively that the ship-building of the Phoenicians was much more perfect and practical
than that of the Romans, Greeks, and of
the Europeans before the latest discovery
of America.  Surely their ships were not
worse than those three infirm vessels with
which Columbus sailed from the Spanish
harbor Palos near Cadiz. For the rest one
must not attach too much importance to such
technical auxiliary means, since the chief
lever for great actions is found in the power
and activity of the people. The Northmen
discovered in their open boats, without any
other leader than the heavens, not only Iceland in the year 861 A.D., but even America
in the tenth century, as it is stated in the
archives of the city of Copenhagen. There
was some years ago in the neighborhood of




46        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
the town of Fall River, R. I., dug up a skeleton in complete Scandinavian armor. It is
a certain historical fact, that Greenland and
Vinland (probably Labrador of our'days)
were known at that time, and even the
coast of Massachusetts (Boston), and Florida
also. (There existed there a bishopric, which
had sent teeth of river-horses [hippopotami]
as tribute to Rome.) Since the end of the
fourteenth century this know.ledge had been
lost, and in the fifteenth century, the century of voyages and discovery, nothing was
thought of but how to find a passage to the
East Indies by way of the Western Ocean.
The Northmen navigated on all southern
seas, as far as the Canary Islands.  There
is also the circumnavigation of Africa by
the Phoenicians, of which we possess such
respectable proof.  This is by no means
easier than the voyage to America, as we
may see by considering the expeditions of
Columbus and his followers.  Again, the
voyage of the Phoenicians to America is




OF AMERICA.            47
not to be compared to the circumnavigation
of the globe by Magellan, 1519-1522, even
if we lay peculiar stress upon the real or
pretended inferiority of nautical auxiliary
means in Phoenician antiquity. The Portuguese were obliged with very slender equipment to cross the Pacific, to which the
Atlantic, as regards extent and fearful solitude, can not be compared.
For the rest the relations of the Phoenicians to the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean were
like those of the northern Europeans to the
Atlantic and Pacific.
Among all the accounts in history concerning the large western country lying beyond
the Atlantic Ocean, none is more interesting
and important than the account of Plate, the
pupil of Socrates, of the " Atlantis."
In his dialogues, "Timoeus and Critias,"
the great philosopher relates that Solon had
during his stay in Egypt conversed much
with the Saitic priests upon the most prominent questions of human science, and the




48        - THE FIRST DISCOVERY
priests had told him of a nation which in
the most ancient times, before the iellenians,
had dwelt in Greece and also in Africa.
Concerning it they spoke thus:
" The books report of a mighty power
which had once well-nigh destroyed your
state. At that time the sea was navigable;
it had an island lying before its mouth,
which you call as you assert,' the Columns
of Hercules.' From this island, which was
larger than Africa and Asia together, one
could reach other islands, and from those
the whole opposite continent around that
real ocean.   On this island,'Atlantis,'
existed a great and memorable royal power,
which governed also many islands and parts
of the continent. Besides it ruled over the
countries within the straits over the coasts
of Africa as far as Egypt, and over Europe
as far as Etruria. This power once undertook to reduce to slavery the inhabitants
of our, your, and all the remaining countries within the straits, which design, how



OF AMERICA.           49
ever, was frustfated by the Uratenians
through a heroic fortitude excelling that
of all their contemporaries. In later times
however, by great earthquakes and inundations, in one day and one night of misfortune,
your whole army was devoured by the earth,
and the island'Atlantis' by the ocean. Therefore the sea is now inaccessible and unexplored, since the deep morass left behind
by the disappearance of the island prevents
all navigation."
There is no sufficient cause for doubting the
Egyptian origin of the myth, which was transmitted by Solon to Timeus and the Critias,
and by them to a contemporary of Plato, or
even to Plato himself. The Egyptians could
however easily have obtained news of the
remote West from their Phoenician neighbors.
As a prominent point in the dialogue we
notice the mention of an immense morass in
the Atlantic Ocean as an impediment to the
navigation.  "Critias" argues that the ancient Egyptians, and accordingly the Phoeni3




50       THE FIRST DISCOVERY
cians, were well acquainted with the vast
Fucus Banks lying in the midst of the ocean,
and indeed north-west of the Azores. We
are almost constrained to this belief when
we examine Columbus' report of his first
expedition.  He says: "I found the sea
covered with such a mass of weeds, that I
was forced to believe the vessels would come
upon a shallow for a lack of water. No
trace, however, was to be perceived of such
sea-plants anywhere else."
The idea that the ancients in their voyages
only skirted the coasts is therefore refuted
by this statement, which forms likewise an
evidence that they were acquainted with the
much nearer Azores, for Plato says:
"One can pass over from that great island
to the remaining islands, and from these to
continent."
The remaining islands can be no others
than the Azores, and perhaps also the Canaries, which are still intermediate stages between the old and the new continents. It




OF AMERICA.            51
follows not less from the account of Plato
than from those of Plutarch, Diodorus, and
Aristotle, that this large western country
can not be any of the minor islands of the
ocean, but simply the American continent.
The story of the destruction of the island
"Atlantis" (after which the western ocean
was probably named by the ancients, "Atlantic Ocean") can be explained thus:
There existed perhaps in the primitive time
an island of moderate extent, which was
destroyed by such a catastrophe.  Since
such an intermediate stage would have
facilitated the intercourse with America, the
opinion might easily arise after its destruction, that the continent lying behind had
been also destroyed. From a scientific point
of view such a catastrophe is not improbable.
The island of Ferdinandea arose suddenly
between Africa and Sicily, but afterward
was swept away. At the mouth of the Indus, after an earthquake in 1819, a tract of
land of almost a hundred square miles dis



52        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
appeared, and the spot is now occupied by
a large lake.   The bed of the Atlantic
Ocean is decidedly of volcanic character.
The islands which it contains, the Azores,
Canaries, and Cape Verde, have burning
volcanos. The volcanos of the Caribbean
Islands are in constant activity. That horrible earthquake which destroyed Lisbon in
1755, stirred up the whole ocean from the
Antilles as far as Greenland. The American
earthquakes in 1811-13 were felt as far as
the Azores.
This interpretation disagrees however with
the above-discussed testimonies of three
Greek authors, Plutarch, Diodorus, and Aristotle, who mention no destruction of the
islands of which they speak.
More probable therefore may be the following explanation:
"The Phoenicians, endowed above other
nations with intelligence, energy, and enterprise, had in the early days of their greatness (1000-600 B.c.) discovered America.




OF AMERICA.            53
The following generations, encouraged by
reports of that old intercourse, attempted
likewise the great navigation across the
Atlantic Ocean. They went, however, only
as far as the vast Fucus prairies.  Since
they did not venture to sail beyond them,
they invented after their return the fiction
of the destruction of that large western
country, and of the morass left behind by
its sinking. With respect to the great political power of those islands, which are said
to have subjugated whole empires in Europe
and Africa, we can find no mention of it
in any historical tradition. It is, however,
remarkable that in the most ancient times
a highly cultivated nation has inhabited the
whole of North America as far as the five
lakes, i. e., Lake Superior, Michigan, Huron,
Erie, and Ontario, and that many remains
of fortified cities, temples, and pyramids
prove its existence and greatness.  There
was discovered in 1787, near the large Indian village Palenque (in Southern Mexico,




54        THE FIRST DISCOVERY
in the State of Chiapa), the considerable
ruins of the ancient city of Colhuacan,
which must have had an extent of over
twelve miles. There are still to be seen
ruins of palaces, temples, walls with semirelief of sculpture and human beings portrayed of quite another race than that found
by the Europeans in 1500. There were also
found hieroglyphics which were unmistakably
Egyptian in their character.  In the States
of Georgia, Kentucky (in the Mammoth
Cave even mummies were discovered), Iowa,
Ohio, and many others exist fortifications of
earth dating from an ante-Indian period, and
many other monuments of very primitive
ages. It is also certain that this culture
did not arise in the valley of the Mississippi,
but was introduced from the South. This
is to be seen by the representations on monuments of southern animals and plants not
existing in North America.
We have therefore to distinguish three
different discoveries of America:




OF AMERICA.          55
The first one during the period from
1000-600 B.c., by the Phoenicians and their
Carthaginian descendants.
The second one in the tenth century A.D.,
by the Northmen and Scandinavians, and
The third one in 1492, by the Genoese
Christopher Columbus.








ESSAY  IlI
THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS
OF ANCIENT AMERICAN AND
ORIENTAL CULTURE.








THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL
CULTURE.
THE testimony of the authors of antiquity,
which we considered in the preceding
essay, furnishes a complete solution of the
problem, how it is possible that one part of
the ancient inhabitants of America should
exhibit a typical affinity with the Semitic
race.
To this Semitic race belonged the most
ancient inhabitants of Babylonia, who possessed the whole plain of Middle Asia.
Their language was spoken in many dialects,
from the ialys River to the Tigris, and
from the Caucasian Mountains to the southern point of Arabia. The Phoenicians and




60 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
their Carthaginian descendants belonged
also to the Semitic race.
It is now the question, whether the ancient culture of America is of a kind that
can be referred to a partially Semitic origin
or not. It is a matter of fact that in the
whole mode of civilization, and also in the
mythology, there is such analogical proof
of relation to the Phoenicians, and especially
to the ancient Egyptians, that even the most
zealous defenders of the theory of an indigenous culture are obliged to concede its importance.
Before we investigate this conformity in
detail, we may be permitted to cast a glance
at those nations of antiquity to which first
of all we must refer. It is a wrong custom
with modern historians, to search for the
origin of human culture among the ancient
Greeks. It arises from the want of historical
knowledge of other nations of antiquity, and
from the influence of prejudice.  By the
more recent investigations in Oriental litera



ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 61
ture it is seen that the Greek mode of civilization was the only one possible to a nation
whose prosperity commenced when that of
the whole remaining world presented the
spectacle of an immense decay, and that
that age, contemplated as a whole, can be
esteemed only as a period of decay or decline. It was preceded by other ages of a
most flourishing condition of Western Asia,
during which that part of the world exerted
no less influence on the commercial and
national relations of the globe than Europe
now does. Just as Europe does now, so
Western Asia manifested its superior force
for two thousand years B.C. One proof of
this is seen in the European languages which
almost all evince an Oriental origin. Rome,
Carthage, Etruria, and Hispania were, as we
know from certain tradition, colonies of
Western Asia. The Phoenicians established
and ruled colonies on almost all the coasts
of the Mediterranean Sea. The culture of
this sacerdotal age of the world became far




62 THE.COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
extended by the Britons and others, who in
the earliest historical age emigrated, partially
by way of Egypt, to the western countries.
Fifteen or sixteen centuries B.C. the Egyptians waged wars of conquest which, according to several authors, extended their power
as far as Bactria, and even India. Their
culture had already advanced in a remarkable degree, and their monuments give proof
that many of the hostile nations were hardly
lower in the scale of intellectual development.
In later times the Iranic nation, consisting of the Aledians and the Persians, threw
off the Egyptian yoke, and undertook a
campaign toward the northern part of
Africa, by means of which they left behind,
as Sallust reports-quoting from Carthaginian books-colonies in Spain and Africa.
The Greek author, Diodorus Siculus, reports that Egypt from the most ancient
times was not spared by foreign conquerors.
He speaks of the Hycsos, pastoral kings, who




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 63
residing in Memphis, governed for centuries,
and erected the great pyramid near Cairo,
which reached the altitude of 450 feet. At
that time the Jews were captives in Egypt.
These Hycsos are said to have been of
Arabian descent. Then Diodorus speaks of
the Ethiopian Sabaco, whose prey Egypt
became for a long time. Sabaco invaded
Egypt in 750 B. C., and kept it for fifty
years.
To the Semitic culture belongs as a capital branch the very ancient hierarchical
culture of Etruria. Not less similar to it is
that of ancient Spain. The Etruscans possessed the country from the Tiber as far as
the Alps about 1490 B.C., had established
coloties in Southern Italy and on the smaller
islands of the Mediterranean Sea, and at the
time of the Trojan war were noted for their
commerce, navigation, and knowledge of
other secular as well as religious affairs. The
Romans borrowed many of their institutions
from them. But before they were able to




64 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
develop the beautiful shoots of their culture,
the Gauls from beyond the Alps invaded
and took from them the whole valley of the
Po. Their settlements in the South became
the prey of the Samnites, and at last they
were subjugated by the Romans. Like the
most of the nations of that time they had not
organized themselves into separate states.
When they came in contact with the Romans,
they possessed twelve cities, each with a
dependent territory in Etruria.  Each of
these had a Lucumo, which means "a man
of the laws." These Lucumos are analogous
to the Carthaginian Suffetes. At an early
age the arts and sciences flourished among
them. Their tasteful vases still serve our
artists as models. Their flourishing condition lasted from 1077-670 B.c., when Rome
arose, and took away one city after another.
In modern times were dug up in Tarragona (Spain) walls of very ancient buildings,
which prove by their sculpture that in Spain
as well as in Egypt hieroglyphics supplied




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 65
the place of written letters. On the Canary
Islands, especially on Teneriffe, there existed
laws and sacerdotal institutions quite similar
to those of the Egyptians.  In particular
the embalming of the dead was a striking
feature.
Mr. Jones in his excellent history of Ancient America (London, 1843, Vol. I.),
speaks of the mummies found on the Canaries as follows:
"Mummies have been discovered (but
without the sarcophagi) at Arico, in the
island of Teneriffe, and at Arica in Peru-a
similitude is discernible even in the local
name given to the districts, where the
mummy-pits were found. Analogy is at
once perceptible in analyzing the ancient
word Guanches (the aborigines of Teneriffe).
It is derived from Guan-i. e., man, consequently in his natural and uncontrolled
state-therefore Freemen-this fact is sanctioned by their escape from thralldom or
slavery, when they first arrived on the island.




66 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
Again, in ancient America the places where
mummies are found are called Guacas, i. e.,
the abode of man in his decayed state. The
reader will instantly perceive that in the
construction of the word as used in both
localities, there is a direct similitude. The
first land also re-discovered by Columbus in
the western hemisphere, was called by the
natives Guanahani-.the Genoese named it
St. Salvador.
The word "Teneriffe" in the original language of the ancient inhabitants — the
Guanches-signifies White Mountains (Thanar, mountain, and Iffe, white), from the
celebrated peak being (from its altitude)
always covered with snow.  The word
" mummy" was originally applied to a drug so
called, which was probably used by the Egyptians as one of their ingredients in embalming or preserving the dead. It may appear
strange at the first glance that there should
be any connection between the mummies of
Teneriffe and those of Peru toward establish



ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 67
ing that the American aborigines were
originally Tyrians; but there is a connection, and as certain as that a chain of three
links owes its utility to the connecting power
of the central one, Teneriffe forms that
central link between Tyrus and the western
continent.  The natural question then isWere the Guanches (ancient Canarians) of
the Tyrian family? — This we  distinctly
answer in the affirmative.
Mr. Pettigrew, in his valuable "History
of Egyptian Mummies," has the following
remark upon those discovered at Teneriffe:
" That the inhabitants of the Canary Islands
should have adopted a practice of embalming in some measure similar to that of the
Egyptian is rather singular, seeing that they
were separated from each other by the entire breadth of North Africa."  Now the
above author assumes as a necessity that the
ancient Guanches (Canarians) must have
emigrated by land; otherwise the sentence
" entire breadth of Northern Africa" is use



68 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
lessly brought forward to express the barrier
between the islands and Egypt. The theory
of the emigration by land cannot be sustained, but it is absolutely rejected and interdicted by the fact that the Guanches must
have had means of navigation in order to
have reached the chief islands, even after
their arrival upon the shores of the continent
-which are nearly one hundred and fifty
miles from Teneriffe. This fact, then, points
to a nation having acquaintance with Egypt
and the means of navigation; and also of one
"advanced in civilization," for such were
the now extinct nation of Guanches; as described by the Spanish historians. Truth
seems at once to point to the Tyrians as the
aborigines of those islands. Mr. Pettigrew
probably forgot that Herodotus has recorded
the celebrated Egypto-Tyrian expedition
around the continent of Africa, which occurred 609-606 years B.c. It is apparent
that the Fortunatae Insult, as the Canary
Islands were called by the ancients, were




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 69
discovered during the three years' voyage
related by the Greek historian, for they were
known to the Tyrians centuries before the
Christian era. After the direful event (i. e.,
the destruction of Tyre by Alexander the
Great) which drove the Tyrians forever
from the Mediterranean, we believe that their
first resting-place was among the Canary
Islands-and as the Peak of Teneriffe arose
as a welcome beacon-that island became to
them the chief place of temporary residence
after their fortunate escape. It appears quite
evident that the group was then named by
the Tyrians-for as the Fortunate Isles they
are known in ancient geography.
That the aborigines of the islands and
those of ancient America were the same will
be admitted from the fact that mummies were
discovered in the two countries. They are
exactly similar, and they are not Egyptianfor they lack the stone sarcophagi, the
hieroglyphics, and the mummy-cloths. The
mummies of Peru and Teneriffe are bound in




70 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
skins of animals (a custom nowhere else
found, although it is recorded of the Scythians)-those of the former in the skin of the
lama, those of the latter in the skin of the
goat, an animal in which the island abounded,
and with the skins of which the original inhabitants clothed themselves. The mummies
of both countries are also bound within the
skins by leather thongs and straps, made
from the hides of the respective animals.
Such facts can not be accidental-they must
be identical. The manner ascribed above
may have been the custom in MexicanAmerica. That they are only discovered at
Arica, in Peru, may arise from natural causes,
viz., that at Arica the rain never falls (as
in Egypt) and the soil is calcareous. The
dryness of the atmosphere, with the saline
qualities of the earth, produce natural embalming, thus preserving the bodies for ages
from decomposition; while in other portions
of the continent, from the moisture and the
absence of preserving qualities, the bodies




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 71
would gradually decay and return and mingle with the undistinguished dust of centuries.
There are points of similarity to the Tyrians observable in the details and decorations
of the Peruvian mummies, both of the rich
and the poor. Those of the poor are invariably found resting upon beds of broken fishshells; those beds are supposed.to have been
placed there from religious motives. May
not the purple murex (i. e., dye-shellfish) of
Tyrus (as on the altar of Copan) be here
alluded to? In the same mummy pits (and
they extend over a mile) are found models
of boats, lines, and fish-hooks. These are
buried with the mummies, and evidently are
witnesses of the occupation or the religious
motives of the departed! Is not Tyrus here,
also? Her fisheries were her national emblems. And that this custom (whereby the
means of sustenance were obtained) was
practised in South America by the aborigines
is distinctly stated by Dr. Robertson upon




72 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
the authority of Berrere. The statement
also shows that the distinction between the
aborigines of the north and south, or Mexican America, is apparent; those of the former depended upon hunting for their sustenance, those of the latter, or the Tyrian descendants, as did their ancestors, upon their
fisheries. Robertson says: " In this part of
the globe (i. e., South America) hunting
seems not to have been the first employment
of men, nor the first effort of their invention
and labor to obtain food. They were fishers
before they became hunters." —Vol. V., Book
IV., p. 318.
The boat model is directly emblematical
of a religious custom of Tyrus-copied from
the Egyptian —viz., the belief that the soul
has to pass through various stages and transitions before it reaches its final destination or
happiness.  To accomplish this, the body
must pass over a river in a sacred barge or
boat; the helmsman was called by the Egyptians, in their own language, Charon.  The




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 73
classic reader will instantly trace the mythological fable of Greece concerning the ferryman of the River Styx-probably introduced
into Grecian Thebes by the Tyrian Cadmus.
The mummies of the rich discovered in
Peru are invariably wrapped in cloth, crimson (purple) colored. Here, then, is the national color of Tyrus (derived from the shellfish) and which made that country so renowned. This color is found enveloping the
bodies of the rich, while the useless and
" broken shells" of the fish are found beneath
those of the poor-the same national tribute
to both (though in degree according to the
wealth of the deceased), for the Tyrians, like
the Egyptians, admitted no distinction in the
grave based upon rank or title-but held
that good deeds alone constituted the true
claim to distinction.
In a notice of the ancient mummies of
Teneriffe, Alexander von Humboldt states
that they differ from the Egyptians in physiognomy, and that the ornaments resemble




74 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
those used in Mexican America. When the
illustrious traveler wrote those facts (as
shown in the following quotation) there was
no theory in his mind in reference to the
Tyrians-yet his remarks will support this
present history, and they are too important,
as to undeniable authority, to be passed by
indifferently by the reader. Humboldt says:
" On examining carefully the physiognomy
of the ancient Canarians, able anatomists
have recognized in the cheek-bones and the
lower jaw a perceptible difference from the
Egyptian mummies. The corpses are often
decorated with small laces (necklaces) to
which are hung little disks of baked earth
(clay) that seemed to have served as numerical (religious?) signs; and resemble the
quippoes of the Peruvians and Mexicans."
Here, then, upon the high authority of
Humboldt, is an analogy traced both by the
ornaments of the mummies of the Guanches
(Tyrians) and the ancient inhabitants of
Mexican America.  Upon every considera



ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 75
tion of the subject, the mummies discovered
at Teneriffe and in Peru are identical, the
same kind are not found in any other parts
of the world, and Teneriffe (as chief of the
Fortunate Isles) was known, visited, and inhabited by the Tyrians.
After this long extract from Mr. Jones'
history of ancient America, we will in the following lines consider the state of culture in
ancient America as a relic of the ancient culture of mankind, which was preserved by its
withdrawal from the development of the rest
of the world to the fifteenth century.
When the Spaniards discovered America,
they found people there, especially in three
States, who were in some respects more cultivated than themselves, i. e., the Aztecs, in
Mexico or Anahuak; the Muyscas, on the
high table-lands of Bogota, and the Peruvians in Peru. The latter state, and also the
Mexican, had suffered many revolutions; that
of the Muyscas, on the contrary, was of great
antiquity in its existent condition.  There




76 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
immigrated into Mexico from the north, according to tradition, about the year 648, A.D.,
the nation of Toltec, who subjugated the former cultivated inhabitants and adopted their
civilization, but finally was almost destroyed
by internal dissension, pestilence, and other
disasters.  Afterwards there invaded Anahuak, about 1170, from the same region, the
hunting nation of the Chichimecs, who had
affinity with the Toltecs in language, and
drove the remainder of their predecessors in
government toward the south.  These were
followed by the Nahuatlacs, a family of Aztecs, established in 1325, on an island in the
Lake Tezcuco the city of Tenochtitlan or
Mexico. (The name Mexico drenotes the
residence of Mexitli or Huitzilopochtli, the
mighty god of war of the Aztecs.)  It was
surrounded by five lakes and volcanoes. The
Aztecs, gaining immense strengh, conquered
all the southern countries as far as Guatemala,
and the northern as far as Sonora. The last
empire of the Peruvians is said to have arisen




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 77
only in the twelfth century. All nations and
empires mentioned here left behind them remarkable monuments of architecture and
other arts. But all the rest are not to be
compared to those of the most ancient and
the most cultivated nation, the Maja people,
who, long before the invasion of the Toltecs,
were diffused over the continent and the
islands. Their cities, whose prodigious ruins
we find in Yucatan, Chiapa, Guatemala, and
other countries, existed partially at the time
of the Spanish dominion.  The Teocallis
(houses of God) and arched constructions
near Kabah, the ruins of Labnah, with double
columns, those of Zayi, with columns of
almost Doric order, and those of Chiche, with
large ornamental pilasters, were a certain
proof of a high culture. It was owing to
that circumstance that they were preserved
from total destruction, because they differed
especially in the fine arts, architecture and
sculpture, from the Aztec cities. In regard
to the similarity of these artificial works




78 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
with those of the ancient Oriental, we
will cite several observations of a decided
opponent of a foreign origin of ancient
American culture mentioned by Professor
Miiller.  He says: "It is astonishing to
every one to contemplate in the images the
similiity in regard to decoration with the
Egyptian, Etruscan, and Pelasgian ones."
Tiedeman classes these monuments of architecture with the Egyptian, Syrian, Persian,
and Indian. Stephens found near Palenque
a statue eleven and a half feet high, which in
appearance was completely Egyptian. This
latter is certainly a remarkable witness to the
assumed fact that America was very early
settled by a strange nation.
In Peru, especially on the banks of the
large lake of Titicaca, which has an extent
of over two hundred and forty square miles,
existed a very ancient culture, whose monuments were lately examined by D'Orbigny.
Among them were great statues of basalt,
with heads like those of the Egyptians. In




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 79
fact, one has only to look at the different
American sculptures, as represented in the
works of Squier, to be instantly struck with
the similarity to the Egyptian statues, as well
in the form of the pedestals as in the posture
of the figures and the whole manner of representation. Especially prominent in this respect are the Teocallis (the houses of gods),
or ancient Mexican pyramids, which were at
once temples and monuments. They differ
very much in magnitude and style, but resemble in their general features the pyramids
of the Babylonians and Etruscans. In almost
every age, until the Mexican race was conquered, such Teocallis existed. Some of
them, and indeed precisely the most magnificent ones, are of the earliest age; for example, the pyramid of Cholula, which, according to tradition, was reared by the aborigines
of Otomies.
Of this Alexander von Humboldt says:
"It is impossible to read the descriptions
which Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus have




80  THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
left us of the Temple of Belus, without being
surprised at the similarity between it, as
there described, and the Teocallis of Anahuak."
On the Mexican pyramids, as well as on
the Bel temple, the workmanship of the inte*rior-Naos-can be distinguished from that
on the platform of the pyramid. This is
plainly stated in the letters of Cortez.
Diodorus relates: "The Babylonian temple was used by the Chaldeans as an observatory."  The Mexican priests likewise observed the position of the heavenly bodies
from the turrets of the Teocallis, and proclaimed with hoarse cries through their trumpets the watches of the night.
Humboldt writes: "It does not appear
from the ancient authors whether the sides
of the temple of Bel, like the pyramids of the
Egyptians and Americans, faced the four
quarters of heaven." This matter is now,
however, through the late investigation of
Fresnels in Babylonia, reduced to a certainty.




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 81
The temple of Bel is by Diodorus called
"the monument of Bel." By the Mexicans
as by the Egyptans the pyramids were used
as monuments.
In regard' to magnitude, the pyramid of
Cholula was very similar to that of the
Egyptians. It was higher than the pyramid
of Myserinos-twice as high as the one of
Cheops.
It may be interesting to introduce a description of these monuments of architecture
from Mr. Jones' "History of Ancient America."-Vol. I., pp. 51-54.
"The several discoveries of the ruined
cities will now be reviewed and established.
In the ancient capital of the Mexican Empire
it has been stated that the Spaniards acted
the character of incendiaries. In 1520, every
available specimen of Mexican art was consumed by Cortez and the priests. Paintings,
the only manuscripts of the Mexican nation1
were destroyed and became a bonfire for the,
soldiery —every palace and temple of the




82 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
capital was leveled to the earth, and the
foundation of the first cathedral of the invaders was laid with thousands of statues-the
idols of the aborigines. Every vestige of
the Mexican records was supposed to have
been consumed, broken, or burned. After a
lapse of two hundred and seventy years, two
statues were dug up in the grand plaza of
the modern city of Mexico; but from the interest felt for those religious relics by the
poor descendants of the aborigines, the Spaniards secretly buried them, it was said, in the
garden-court of a convent. At the same
time (1790) was exhumed a circular piece
of sculpture, having reference to the astronomical calendar of the ancient inhabitants,
which is still preserved in Mexico."
A brief review of the discovery of the
ruins and their locality will now be required.
From a record by Huarros of Guatemala, and
that on the authority of Fuentes, the ruins of
Copan were known in 1700. Palenque was
visited by Del Rio and by Dupaix about




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 83
1805. In the beginning of the nineteeth
century the scientific Humboldt visited Mexico; he obtained drawings of the ruins of
Mitla, in the province of Oaxaca, and others
of a similar character, but especially of the
terraced pyramid of Cholula, which he visited. The investigations were published by
the same scholastic traveler. At a later period Uxmal (Yucatan) was explored under
commission of the Spanish government, by
Waldeck; his work (folio) is most beautifully
illustrated. In compliment to the nobleman
who published the great work of ancient
Mexican paintings, he called one of the ruins
"The Pyramid of Kingsborough"-an anachronism, perhaps allowable, when the motive is considered. Copan was visited by
Galindo in 1836; but he lacked the perseverance necessary for a perfect exploration.
This latter desideratum was fully evinced
by Stephens and Catherwood, who, in
1839-40, visited and explored all of the
above (excepting those seen by Baron Hum



84  THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
boldt), and several cities before unknown in
general history. As a geograpical position
the localities of these dead cities are between
the capital of Mexico and the Isthmus of Darien, but chiefly in Guatemala, on the borders of Yucatan and on that peninsula; they
therefore occupy the narrow part of the continent between the two great oceans. A reference to the map of Central America will
aid the following remarks:
The River Montagua empties itself into
the Bay of Honduras, at or near Omoa; approaching the source of this river, it branches
off to the south, which branch is called Copan
River; above the rapids of this branch river
is situated, on the banks, the now celebrated
ruined city of Copan, over two miles in extent, parallel with the stream. Palenque is
nearer Mexico. The ruins of Uxmal are in
Yucatan. From the architectural characteristics of the edifices, we find no difficulty in
arranging the order of their being built;
which, with all due respect for the opinion




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 85
of others, we submit to be as follows, viz.:
first, the city of Copan, then Cholult, followed
by Quirigua, Tezpan, Gytatemala, Quiche,
Gueguetinanga, Ocosingo, Mitla, Palenque,
and lastly Uxmal; and about the same period
of building, the cities of Chi-Chen, Zayi, Kabah, Espita and Ticol-these being in the
peninsula of Yucatan.
The ruins necessary to be described for the
illustration of our present subject, will be
those of Copan, Palenque, and Uxmal, and
for this purpose extracts will be quoted from
the lately-published work on Central America by Mr. Stephens. These extracts will be
given as unquestionable authority, and the
engravings in the work will be received as
accurate representations of the ruins, and
upon which many of our results have been
founded. On the subject of their accuracy,
the fascinating traveler writes as follows:
" I will only remark, that from the beginning our great object and effort was to procure true copies of the originals, adding




86 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
nothing for effect as pictures.  Mr. Catherwood mate the outline of all the drawings
with the camera-licida, and divided his paper into sections, so as to preserve the utmost
accuracy of proportion.  The engravings
were made with the same regard to truth,
from drawings reproduced by Mr. C. himself,
the originals being also in the hands of the engraver. Proofs of every plate were given to
Mr. C., who made such corrections as were
necessary: and in my opinion, they are as
true copies as can be presented, and except
the stones themselves the reader can not have
better materials for speculation and study."
Not only the monuments in stone testify
to great antiquity, but also the hieroglyphic
book. Like those of the Egyptian, the letters of the Mexicans denoted either things or
ideas. They had also phonetic signs. There
is in Dresden a still entirely inexplicable
hieroglyphic writing, which resembles only
the lapidary inscription discovered in Palenque, which Prescott regards as a phonetic




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 87
writing. This kind of writing had attained
among the Mexicans such a degree of perfection that even the proceedings at law (as by
the Egyptians) were recorded thereby, and
under the Spanish government public papers
in hieroglyphic writing long obtained a legal
value.
We have before mentioned (page 64) the
lately discovered hieroglyphics in Taragona.
Alexander von Minutoli gives pictures of
them. These have certainly a similarity to
the Egyptian ones, and in form resemble so
much the Mexican, that we are compelled to
regard them as a medium between the two
species of hieroglyphics. The hieroglyphics
of the ancient Mexicans give us an explanation of their tolerably perfect chronology.
They had a solar year more perfect than that
of the modern Europeans before the calendar
reform. Like the Egyptians, they completed
the year by five complementary days, and besides this intercalated after each cycle of
fifty-two years, twelve and a half, or after one




88 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
hundred and four years, twenty-five days,
which brought them almost to the exact
length of the tropical year.
In the same manner the old Persians, as
Alexander von Humboldt affirms, inserted
after the expiration of one hundred and
twenty years (each of 365 days) a month of
thirty days. The Etruscans had corresponding cycles of one hundred and ten years. A
remarkable conformity between the Egyptian and ancient American calendar, Iomard
proved in his letters, to which Alexander
von Humboldt refers in his " Vues de Cordilleres."
Still more marked is the coincidence between the oldest forms of government on the
old and new continents.
It is known that the foundation of both
was a hierarchy or sacerdotal monarchy. In
Peru as well as in Egypt the king was worshipped as the Sun-God. In Mexico the nobility possessed the greatest power after the
king. On their vast estates they ruled over




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 89
the peasantry, who belonged to them. Sentence was pronounced by regular judges, and
wholly independent courts of justice held by
them. The priests shared this power. Of
these Prescott (Vol. I., p. 54) says:
"The sacerdotal order was very numerous,
as may be inferred from the statement that
five thousand priests were, in some way or
other, attached to the principal temple in the
capital. The various ranks and functions of
this multitudinous body were discriminated
with great exactness. Those best instructed
in music took the management of their choirs.
Others arranged the festivals conformably to
the calendar.   Others superintended the
education of the youth, and others had
charge of the hieroglyphical paintings and
oral traditions, while the dismal.rites of sacrifice were reserved for the chief dignitaries
of the order. At the head of the whole
establishment were two high-priests, elected
from the order, as it would seem, by the king
and principal nobles, without reference to




90 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
birth, but solely for their qualifications as
shown by their previous conduct in a subordinate station.  They were equal in dignity
and inferior only to the sovereign, who rarely
acted without their advice in weighty matters of public concern.
" The priests were each devoted to the service of some particular deity, and had quarters provided within the spacious precincts
of their temple, at least while engaged in immediate attendance there-for they were
allowed to marry and have families of their
own. In this monastic residence they lived
in all the stern severity of conventual discipline. Thrice during the day and once at
night they were called to prayers. They
were frequent in their ablutions and vigils,
and mortified the flesh by fasting and cruel
penance-drawing blood from their bodies
by flagellation and piercing them with
the thorns of aloe;  in short, by practising all those austerities to which fa.
naticism (to borrow  the strong language




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 91
of the poet) has resorted in every age
of the world,
"' In hopes to merit heaven by making earth a hell.'
The great cities were divided into districts,
placed under the charge of a sort of parochial
clergy, who regulated every act of religion
within their precincts. It is remarkable that
they administered the rites of confession and
absolution. The secrets of the confessional
were held inviolable, and penances were imposed of much the same kind as those enjoined in the Roman Catholic Church.
There were two remarkable- peculiarities in
the Aztec ceremony. The first was, that as the
repetition of an offense, once atoned for, was
deemed inexpiable, confession was made but
once in a man's life, and was usually deferred
to a late period of it, when the penitent unburdened his conscience, and settled at once
the long arrears of iniquity. Another peculiarity was, that priestly absolution was received in place of the legal punishment of




92  THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
offenses, and authorized an acquittal in case
of arrest. Long after the conquest the simple natives, when they came under the arm
of the law, sought to escape by producing
the certificate of their confession.
"One of the most important duties of the
priesthood was that of education, to which
certain buildings were appropriated within
the inclosure of the principal temple. Here
the youth of both sexes of the higher and
middling orders were placed at a very tender
age. The girls were intrusted to the care of
priestesses, for women were allowed to exercise sacerdotal functions except those of
sacrifice. In these institutions the boys were
drilled in the routine of monastic discipline;
they decorated the shrines of the gods with
flowers, fed the sacred fires, and took part in
the religious chants and festivals. Those in
the higher school —the Calmecan, as it was
called —were initiated in their traditionary
lore, the mysteries of hieroglyphics, the principles of government, and such branches of




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 93
astronomical and natural science as were
within the compass of priesthood. The girls
learned various feminine employments, especially to weave and embroider rich coverings
for the altars of the gods. Great attention
was paid to the moral discipline of both
sexes. The most perfect decorum prevailed,
and offenses were punished with extreme
rigor, in some instances with death itself.
Terror, notlove, was the spring of education
with the Aztecs. At a suitable age for marrying, or for entering into the world, the pupils were dismissed with much ceremony from
the convent, and the recommendation of the
principal often introduced those most competent to responsible situations in public life.
Such was the crafty policy of the Mexican
priests, who, by reserving to themselves the
business of instruction, were enabled to
mould the young and plastic mind according
to their own wills, and to train it early to
implicit reverence for religion and its ministers; a reverence which still maintained its




94 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
hold on the iron nature of the warrior, long
after every other vestige of education had
been effaced by the rough trade to which he
was devoted.
"To each of the principal temples lands
were annexed for the maintenance of the
priests. These estates were augmented by the
policy or devotion of successive princes, until
under the last Montezuma, they had swollen
to an enormous extent, and coNered every
district of the empire. The priests took the
management of their property into their own
hands, and they seem to have treated their
tenants with the liberality and indulgence
characteristic of monastic corporations. Besides the large supplies drawn from this
source, the religious order was enriched with
the first-fruits, and such other offerings as
piety or superstition dictated. The surplus
beyond what was required for the support of
the national worship was distributed in alms
among the poor; a duty strenuously prescribed by their moral code. Thus we find




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 95
the same religion inculcating lessons of pure
philanthropy, on the one hand, and of merciless extermination on the other. The inconsistency will not appear incredible to
those who are familiar with the history of the
Roman Catholic Church in the early ages of
the Inquisition."
All this agrees substantially with what
Diodorus, Herodotus, and others, relate of
the authority, the duties, manners of living
of the Egyptian priests.  There is one difference, i. e., the Mexican priests formed no
caste. Therein, as in almost all things, they
agreed with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, who were likewise without any hereditary caste except that of the nobility.
No greater difference exists in the mythology.  Stress has been laid upon the idea that
the names of the ancient American gods are
entirely different from those of the deities of
Oriental antiquity. It may be proved that
this is not exactly so, and even if the conformity had been brought about by accident,




96  THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
we can demonstrate that the counterproof
resting upon the pretended variety is not a
valid one.
The word for God-" teo"-teot —teotlbelongs to the primitive Indo-Germanic
tongue, and with other Aric constituent
parts of the ancient American languages, can
be traced also in the above-mentioned Iranic
colonies in North Africa and Spain. With
the word "teo" many words are compounded-for instance, their holy book,'"teoamoxtli" - the temple, "teocalli," etc.
Their religion was founded, as among all nations of hierarchical proclivities, on the adoration of "Nature." They believed in an
invisible and infinite Spirit, who was worshiped since the oldest times, though not
by the mass of the people. The name of this
highest god was, in the Mexican language,
"Teotl;" in the Nicaraguic, "Teot," almost
the same with the Phoenician "Taaut," and
the Egyptian "Toit," "Teit," or "Tot."
The author Philo Judaeus  regards the




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 9 7
"Taaut" as heaven or world, and the author
Varro calls him  "the highest god."  The
next deity among the Aztecs and Maja people was the goddess " Centeotl."  Mr. Milller describes her (p. 491) in the following
manner: " The Centeotl, an old oracle deity
-she is the Ceres of the people, the goddess of maize at first, then, on account of the
high appreciation of this cereal in America,
the goddess of agriculture generally"-therefore the deity of culture of the aborigines.
It is not to be wondered at, that this goddess of culture obtained a great cosmological
estimation. She was called plainly " Toncajohua"-the nourisher of mankind.  This
cosmological appreciation led necessarily to
a cosmogonic origin. So, also, "Centeotl"
— the great progenitor-was not only the
goddess of humanity, but she was " great, or
primitive goddess."   Therefore Clavigero
considers her, without reason, identical with
the goddess "Tonautzin." The best Spanish
authors consider her identical with " Teteio5




98 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
nan" —the mother of gods. Who would not
be reminded hereby of the mother of all the
gods, "Cybele." With this goddess.and
" Teteionan," the goddess " Taauthe" (likewise called mother of gods), was identical
among nations cognate to the Phoenicians,
i. e., the Babylonians.  She was represented
standing upon a lion. In Carthage, "the
heavenly origin," "the mother of gods," was
a goddess of Nature, and especially of rain
and procreation. Like the Centeotl in America she gave oracles, which were highly honored till the victory of Christianity. Centeotl
is identical with "Astaroth" of the Phoenicians, whom Varro calls "the goddess of
earth," and joins to the heavenly god
"Taautes." The sacrifices offered to her
were ears of corn and human beings.  Human sacrifices were common through the
whole of America, especially among the
Aztecs.
As among the ancient Asatics, so also in
ancient America were the moon (Tona or




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 99
Meztli), and the Sun (Tonatiuh) the chief
gods. Corresponding to them are the Phoenician deities "Baalmoloch," and Tanais or
Tanat. The worship of the former god is
notorious on account of its abominable character. In Carthage and Phoenicia were statues of the god " Moloch," of ore, having in
their interior a large excavation. Upon the
extended red-hot hand of the idol, children
were laid to roll down into the burning
mouth. In 1518 the Spaniards, under Juan
de Grijalva, found in Central America quite
similar statues, erected for the purpose of
human sacrifices.  Humboldt says: "The
god Tonatluh is represented with an opened
mouth with armed teeth. This open mouth,
widely extended tongue, remind us of KalaChronos, who swallowed his children, and
whom we recognize among the Phoenicians
under the name of Moloch."  Tonatiuh,
placed in the midst of the signs of the day,
when the year was measured by the motions
of the solstices and equinox, is the genuine




100 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
symbol of time. That Tonatiuh is identical
with the Phoenician " Moloch" appears also
from the fact that to the one as well as the
other were stone columns erected (as symbols
of the ascending flames) in order to indicate
the position of the " Sun." Next to the Sungod appears the " Moon," among the Phoenicians and Carthaginians as well as on the'Antilles. Among the former nations it was
worshiped by the name of Tanat or Tanit, in
America by the name of Tona. This close
verbal resemblance between the names is the
more important, as Mr. Miiller places the
"Tona" by herself as a primitive goddess of
the Maja people.
The Caribbeans, who represented the Phoenicians in America, were a widely diffused'race, a vigorous although rude nation. They
frequented all the coasts of Central America
ill large vessels, and even carried on some
commerce. They possessed a whiter skin
and nobler features than most of the other
aborigines.  This was, perhaps, in conse



ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE.101
quence of a mingling of Semites with the
aborigines of the Guarani race (an afterward
degenerated nation). This race believed in
a supreme god, "Chemun" or " Chemeen,"
of whom it is related that he destroyed
his worshipers by a deluge because they
offered him only meagre sacrifices. This
fact likens him to the Phoenician Baal-Chamman, whom Philo calls "Pontus," or god of
the ocean.
By no other nation, not even by the ancient Egyptians, were the dreams of the
astrologer so blindly relied upon. He was
immediately called in at the birth of a child.
The time of the event was accurately ascer-'
tained, and the family was waiting with trembling attention, while the servant of heaven
unfolded the destiny of the infant from the
dark book of fate. Who does not call to
mind here the astrology of the Chaldeans
and the later Asiatics?
As with us the signs of the zodiac bear the
names of animals, so also in ancient America.




102 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
The Great Bear was known among the Indians by the very same name.
The worship of animals has always been
combined with the worship of the stars.
Ever since the names of animals were given to
the stars, the veneration of these has been
transferred to the animals diffused over all
parts of ancient America.
Very remarkable it is, that on both continents almost the same animals were considered sacred. In America the Ape was venerated, as it was among the Carthaginians.
The Scorpion, the Eagle, the Lion, the
Bear, as in nearly all ancient Asia. On both
continents the gods were represented with
heads of animals. In Egypt " Toit," with that
of a sparrowhawk. The Phoenician " Moloch"
with that of an ox; and among the Mexicans
the god of war, " Huitzilipochtli," bore the
head of a sparrow. The Serpent was especially venerated. The mythologies of both
continents embrace a multitude of serpentine
gods. Among the Egyptians the " Kneph;"




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 103
among the Aztecs the "Coatlicon;" among
the Olemians "Mixcoatl," their principal
god. "Wotan," of whom we shall speak
hereafter, had a serpentine body and hawk's
head, like " Kneph" and "'Agathodemon."
There are numerous monuments of a primitive civilization, which perished long ago,
scattered over America in the form of animals. One of the most remarkable of these
is a mound in the State of Ohio, which Andree describes in the following manner:
" In Adams county, Ohio, stands, near the
Brush Creek, on a hill one hundred and fifty
feet above the level of the sea, a large mound
of a snake-like appearance, the head on one
end of the elevation, the body wound in a
pleasing manner, having a length of seven
hundred feet, the end of the tail in a threefold curl. The mouth is wide open, before
and partially in it lies an oblong figure resembling an egg."  This mysterious monument can only be explained and accounted
for in the light of Oriental antiquity.  The




104  THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
Egyptians and Phoenicians believed that the
world proceeded out of the mouth of the
creator, and was symbolized by them as an
egg. The American hill represents, therefore, nothing else than the creation of the
world. The world-snake was called among
the Egyptians " Kneph," by which they also
meant the galaxy, which, like a boa-constrictor, embraces the celestial globe. Beside the galaxy appears also the constellation
of the dragon; clasping the heavens as a sign
of the serpentine worship. The snake signified, symbolically, Time. Among the Egyptians Sevac, or Chronos, was represented as
a snake, and was sometimes called "Dahaka," which means a serpent. It is remarkable that with the Mexicans, also, the hieroglyphic sign for the idea of Time was a
snake.
The American aborigines, like the nations
of the old world, held the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul. They believed in a
future condition of joy, and also in an infe



ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 105
rior state, where souls wandered through
strange constellations or lived in bodies
either of noble or common animals, ruled by
governors both male and female.
Our frequent references have already
shown that the similarity of the American
and Oriental antiquities has not remained
unperceived.  It strikes even those who
agree with those scholars, Mfiller and Andree, whom we have often quoted, who pertinaciously maintain the dogma of the indigenous origin of the American culture. They,
however, find the cause of. that conformity
in the unity of the human race and the common nature of the human spirit. This theory we believe to have been refuted.
One can readily conceive that the veneration of the sun, moon, and the whole order
of nature, might have originated and existed
with nations having no connection with each
other; that these nations might independently have given names of animals to constellations, and have had hieroglyphic and




106 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
phonetic writings-but we can not understand why, by reason of mere unity of the
race and the common origin of human spirit,
the gods in America and Asia should bear
the very same names, the constellations be
represented by the very same animals, and
the serpent be the symbol of Time on both
sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Mr. Miiller repeats an account, according
to which the companions of Juan de Grijalva, in 1518, found a marble lion on an
island, to which were offered fumigations and
human sacrifices; he forgets, however, that
in Central America there are no lions, and
that in South America there exists only a
single species of lions, i. e., the Pumas, which
still more resemble cats than the lions 6f the
old continent. It is well known, however,
that the lion among all people of the hierarchical period, especially among the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, was very highly
honored. These legends belong partly to
the oldest period of the ancient traditions of




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 107
mankind, and became, as it frequently is
with traditions, connected with their local
legends; partly they are certain reports of
ancient immigrations from a far country beyond the Atlantic Ocean.
The well-known Greek myth of the Son of
Apollo setting the globe on fire by misdriving his father's chariot, symbolizes a disturbance of the constellations, which, according to their idea, revolved around the earth,
and a consequent destruction of the world by
fire. The Greeks had also a tradition of the
ocean deities sweeping it with a deluge.
Among all the nations of the old world we
find like beliefs, and also the one concerning
the four periods of the world. In America
we meet with them likewise. The Etruscans, Persians, and East Indians considered
these periods to be of three thousand years'
duration.
Humboldt gives, in his " Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des peuples indigenes
de l'Amerique" (Paris, 1810), the duration




108 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
of the world as 18,028 years, divided
into four cycles. The first cycle, or the age
of giants, of 5,206 years; the second cycle,
or the age of fire, of 4,804; the third cycle,
or the age of winds, of 4,010; the fourth
cycle, or the age of water, of 4,008.
The Mexican tradition of the deluge says:
"The grandfather of Wotan saved himself
and his family in a boat, and afterward his
grandson, Wotan, assisted in the erection of
a huge building by which it was proposed to
reach heaven. This scheme was interrupted.
Each family took a different language, and
the Great Spirit commanded Wotan to go to
Anahuak (Mexico) and people it." Here
we have the exact Biblical account.
Humboldt calls attention to the fact, that
Buddha in the Indian-Wodansday in Germany-both denote the first day of a small
period, (week), and among the inhabitants of
Chiapa the Wednesday (after Wotan) was
the first day of a cycle of five days.
The Indian Buddha and the German Wodan




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 109
bear a similar relation to the deluge with
that of the Mexican Wotan. The German
Wodan himself caused the deluge by slaying
a giant whose blood overflowed the world.
The Indian Buddha is the son of Manu, who,
with the seven Rishis, escaped in a vessel.
This legend resembles the American one
mentioned by Humboldt. He tells us: "The
people were metamorphosed into fish, except seven who fled into caverns. When
the waters disappeared one of these giants,
named Xelhua-the architect-went to Cholula, where he erected for a memorial on the
mountain Tlaloc, that had served him and
his companions as a refuge, an artificial hill
of pyramidal form. He caused bricks to be
made in the province of Tlamanalca, and in
order to transport them to Cholula placed a
row of men between these places, who passed
them from hand to hand. The gods saw with
anger this building, which was intended to
reach to heaven, and threw fire upon it. Many
laborers perished, and for the future it was




110 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
consecrated to the god of air, Quetzalcoatl."
According to the tradition of Edda (a collection of poems exhibiting the Runic or
Scandinavian mythology, philosophy, etc.),
all the giants of lrimitive times were
drowned in the blood of the Ymir, except
Bergelmir, who was saved.in a chest. We
have here as well as in Mexico giants flourishing at the time of the deluge. The giants
who escaped, Bergelmir and Xelhua, show
even similarity of name, as "gelmir" is a
word by itself, signifying "ancient." In the
tradition of Cholula, Xelhua rears the gigantic building with Wotan for his assistant.
In like manner, the Germanic Wodan builds
after the deluge the god's castle "Asgard"
from the eyebrows of the slain giant. The
coincidence of the number seven of the persons saved with the seven "Rishis" of the
Ihdian legend, is also very striking. Such
manifold analogies certainly can not arise
from mere accident. In fine, without distorting the most simple and undeniable facts




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 111
we can not deny the identity of the American Wotan with the German Wodan and the
Indian Buddha. They agree,
1. In name.
2. In giving a name to a day of the week.
3. In their connection with the great deluge.
4. In assisting in the the erection of- magnificent buildings after its subsidence.
Lastly —Being genealogic chiefs.
It is known that from the Indian Buddha
the whole, so named, moon sect was derived.
In Germany princes and nobles boasted of
their descent from Wodan; and in America
there existed, even in the sixteenth century,
professed descendants of Wotan. In the discussion of the Indian word "Teo" for God,
we called attention to a possible origin of
various Aric elements in the language and
culture of ancient America from Aric colonies of Northern Africa, mentioned by Sallust and others. The religious myths indicate, also, a Phoenician origin.




112  THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
Traditions of the deluge are common to
both continents. The European discoverers
of America met them everywhere. Even
the wild hordes of the Iroquois and Ojibeways preserved a tradition of a great flood,
in which the Great Spirit had destroyed all
the human race except a single family.
Among these legends is one especially re;
markable, of which Mr. Mfuller gives the following abstract: "The ancient nation of
Nahuatlacs, denominated as Tezpi (their
Noah) him who escaped the deluge. According to them he filled his boat with various animals. As the waters decreased he
sent out a vulture, which did not return, because it found nourishment in the corpses of
the giants. Afterward he sent a hummingbird, who came back with a twig in his
beak." The resemblance of this legend to
the Asiatic ones appears clearly. Of those
of the Phoenicians we know little but that
they were analogous to those of the cognate
Jews and Babylonians. As we have seen,




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 113legends of both continents assert the erection
after the deluge of a great tower. The
Babylonian one, Alexander Eratosthenes, the
polyhistorian, relates in this way: "All the
people assembled and built a great tower in
order to ascend to heaven. The Almighty
God however destroyed the tower by storms,
and allotted to every man a different language, for which reason their city was called
Babylon."
We have already narrated the Mexican
legend, according to which the giant Xelhua
having reared the great pyramid of Cholula
in order to reach heaven, the gods became
enraged at his audacity, threw fire upon his
work, and gave to each human family a separate language. In connection with this must
be remembered the similarity of the pyramidal temple, which we must believe to be
the tower mentioned by the polyhistorian,
and to which the Mexican pyramids, especially those of Cholula, had the greatest similarity.




114 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
The most important, however, of the
American traditions are those which speak
distinctly of an immigration from the East.
Mr. Jones says: "The Spanish historian, Sahagan, who lived on friendly terms with the
aborigines for sixty years, and wrote only
fifteen years after the Cortezian conquest, relates, on the authority of Montezuma, who
gave the tradition as from the remotest times
-it was also proved by historical paintings
-that their ancestors, as a colony, first
touched at Florida, then crossed or coasted
the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan, and finally
landed and settled somewhere on the shores
of the Bay of Honduras." The same author,
moreover, writes: " The wreck of an ancient
galley has been found in Mexican America,
deeply imbedded in the sands.  Now, this
must have been the remains of a Phoenician
vessel, for the Greeks and Romans had no
galleys on the Atlantic waters, or even the
Indian Ocean, until the time of Alexander,
but the Tyrians had, and nearly one thousand




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE.115
years before the Christian era." The ancient
Americans were very modest in regard to
their intellectual possessions, for they did not
pretend to have acquired their culture by
themselves, but on the contrary, positively
affirmed that they owed it to foreigners of
white complexion. Since the Indians, like
the Moguls, are copper-colored, their obligation to immigrants of the Caucasian race is
plainly expressed by this story. Mr. Muller
gives the Peruvian tradition as follows:
"In the beginning men lived as barbarians, without law and social order, or desire
for other nourishment than that which Nature offered. The Sun had pity on people
in this miserable condition, and sent two of
his children, Manco Capac (Capac signified
great or powerful) and his sister Mamma
Oello, to introduce civilization and the worship of the Sun among them. A' golden
perch was to go before Manco and his sister
and enter into the ground at their proper
place of residence. The perch pointed out




116 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
the region of Cuzco, a place whose name
signifies'navel.' After this Manco Capac
and Mamma Oello went out in all directions,
ordered the worship of the Sun, abolished
human sacrifices and cannibalism, and persuaded the wild hordes to accept civilization,
to study the arts and sciences, to enter. into
matrimony, to establish laws, build cities and
villages, make roads and aqueducts," etc.
Montesinos, a distinguished antiquarian who
lived fifteen years in Peru, puts Manco Capac
in the most ancient times, while others fix
upon the eleventh century as the period of
his flourishing. The opinion of Montesinos,
however, is confirmed by numerous monuments.
The legend of the Muyscas, on the tableland of Bogota, relating to this runs thus:
"In the first times, when the moon did not
yet exist, the people of Muyscas were barbarians, without agriculture, without religion,
without manners, without government. Then
appeared a bearded and very aged man from




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 117
the East who had three names,'Bochica,'' Namquethala,' and' Zuhe,' and three heads.
He taught the barbarians how to wear
clothes, how to cultivate the fields, how to
worship gods, how to form states."
The belief in an immigration of foreigners
from across the Atlantic Ocean as at the time
of the Spanish conquest was so common
among the Mexicans, that it even exerted a
great influence on the destruction of their
empire at that time, for they believed the
Spaniards to be the descendants of the hero
"Quetzalcoatl," come again to claim their
own. He was a white and bearded man
from the East, like the Bochica of the Muyscas, a lawgiver, and high-priest at Tula. After having governed for a long time in Tula,
and then in Cholula, in such a way that the
time of his rule was remembered by the people of Anahuak as the golden age, he embarked at the mouth of the Goazocoalcos
River (which still forms the single safe
harbor on the Mexican coast) and departed




118  THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
with the promise to return one day with his
descendants.
Prescott says: " That day was looked forward to with hope or with apprehension,
according to the interest of the believer, but
with general confidence throughout the wide
borders of Anahuak."
Just at the time of Montezuma this conviction was strengthened by preternatural signs
-the appearance of comets, the conflagration of a temple, the overflow of the great
lake of Tezcuco, etc. Fernando Cortez made
use of this belief with great ingenuity. The
white skin of his followers, their long beards,
the thunder and lightning in their hands, and
especially their arrival in wonderful vessels
from countries beyond the ocean, so strengthened even Montezuma in the opinion of their
descent from Quetzalcoatl, that he, thus far
the sovereign master of the richest and most
beautiful empire of the continent, yielded
almost voluntarily to Cortez. During his interview with the Spaniard he himself said to




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 119
him: "We know through our books that
our ancestors were not aborigines, but were
led here by a great Being who afterward
withdrew to the regions of the sunrise.
When he returned to seek those who had
settled here, he found them married to the
women of this country, having a numerous
posterity and living in cities built by themselves.  They did not wish longer to obey
their former master, and he departed alone;
but we have always trusted that his descendants would come to assume his empire. As
you come from the Orient, I can not doubt
that the king who has sent you is our natural
lord."
These words one may compare with the
passages of Plutarch, which we again quote
(page 22).
~ 5. "On the continent Hellenians live
around the bay which is not smaller than the
Palus Moeotis (Sea of Azof.)
~ 6. " They believe that the attendants of
Hercules had allied themselves with the peo



120 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
ple of Chronos, and had reinflamed, invigo.
rated, and enlarged the Greek character,
which had been almost extirpated by barbarian language, laws, and manner of living.
Therefore Hercules has the greatest honors,
but Chronos the next."
Here are two accounts of the same matter
coming from two different nations separated
by a space of more than fourteen hundred
years. Both speak of America as before inhabited, and as having been taken possession
of by a nation coming from the East. Both
mention a great chieftain of the colonists,
whom Plutarch calls "Hercules."  Hercules
left behind his companions on the western
continent as the Mexican hero left the forefather of Montezuma. According to Plutarch, the companions of Hercules mingled
with a so-called nation of Chronos, and
revived a rapidly declining culture.  According to the Mexicans, the chief of
the emigrants on his return found his people married to the women of the coun



ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 121
try, with numerous descendants in cities
built by themselves.
This perfect coincidence determines the
truth of both traditions. Plutarch's gulf, not
smaller than the Palus Maeotis, and surrounded by. a continent tallies exactly with
the Gulf of Mexico.  We said already that
those settlers called Greeks by Plutarch were
undoubtedly another race.
It is especially remarkable that both traditions assert not only a discovery of America,
but also a colozination, which agrees with the
proved similarity of the systems of culture
of the old and new continents, and with the
typical affinity of many American nations
with the Semitic race. The Phoenicians alone
must not be considered in this connection,
but also the remaining people on the shores
of the Mediterranean; as, for instance, the
Etruscans (who are mentioned by Strabo in
relating the Great Atlantic discovery), and
especially the Spaniaras. Not to speak of
the hieroglyphics discovered in Tarragona,
6




122 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
already mentioned (page 64), we notice the
similarity of the development of the Basque
language to that of the American original
languages, to which Vater refers in "Mithridates, oder allgemeine Sprachenkunde"
(Berlin, 1812), and which is spoken in the
Spanish Basque provinces Alava, Guipuscoa,
and Biscaya.
From the eleventh till near the seventh
century B.C., the greater part of Spain was a
province of Tyre, whose merchants ruled
there as the English once did in India.  To
this, the most prosperous period of Phoenician power, is to be referred, according to
the intimations of Diodorus, the ancient discovery of America. The Carthaginian discovery of which Aristotle speaks can consequently be understood as induced by the recollection of the first discovery. This is not
to be dated later than the sixth century B.c.
At that time the power of the Etruscans decreased very much, and the country now
called Cisalpine Gaul, which had belonged




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 123
entirely to them, was conquered by the
Gauls. By the same nation, perhaps, their
dominion in Spain was destroyed. Since the
pouring of such a mass of Celts into Spain
and Italy was doubtless followed by the flight
of many of the former inhabitants, an immigration on their part to  a far western country is rendered at least probable. Some such
measure was almost a necessity after the
over-populating of the countries near the
Mediterranean Sea.
The statement of Diodorus is also worthy
of note, that the Carthaginians had intended,
in case of a great misfortune, to emigrate to
that island. Perhaps- the story of Plutarch
concerning the American who visited the
eastern continent and remained for a long
time among the ruins of Carthage, so far as
it deserves any consideration, may refer to a
descendant of such an emigrant Carthaginian.
We now turn to examine briefly several
arguments against an immigration to America.




124  THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
The most prominent is the great variety of
languages showing no similarity with the
known elements of tongues, and having
substantial differences among themselves.
The Basque language forms only an isolated
exception. There are eight hundred and
sixty languages spoken on the globe, enumerated by a philologist, and four hundred and
twenty-three of them were counted in America. The American languages are, however,
far from having been completely investigated,
and the investigation loses much of its importance in consequence of the tradition that
at the time of the Phoenician settlement in
America there were already inhabitants there.
That the language of these primitive people
would gain the superiority in the amalgamation is the easier to believe as, according to
Plutarch and Montezuma, the immigrants
having no women married the aboriginal
women. The children of these marriages
would incline to the language of their mothers rather than to that of their fathers, as




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 125
may be observed in our day. At the present time in America, the European languages are frequently subdued by the Indian
-the Spanish in Bolivia and Peru, the Portuguese in San Paolo by the indigenous Guarani. Besides, even Plutarch says (page
22, par. 6), that the attendants of Hercules
mingled themselves with the people of Chronos, and being left behind, inflamed, invigorated, and enlarged again the Greek character, which had been almost extinguished by
barbarian language, laws, and manners of
living. Other arguments are drawn from the
Indian ignorance of iron and draught animals. But throughout the ancient world
iron was little used, and in its place were
employed copper and the more precious
metals. Domestic animals were not easily to
be conveyed in the vessels of the ancients
across the ocean. America possesses only
two original kinds of cattle, the " bison" and
the "musk ox," which are brought under
the yoke with great difficulty, and in spite




126 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
of the luxuriance of pasture yield but little
milk. Finally, it is urged that when a savage and a civilized race are brought face to
face in a country, the former may be crushed
or melt away before the latter, but never becomes civilized. But we must remember
the great distinction between the Europeans
of our day, who, by reason of their too high
culture, have lost the ability to treat barbarians in the proper way, and these hierarchical nations of antiquity.
According to the Indian traditions, it was
priests who brought them their culture, and the
example of the Jesuitical state, "Paraguay,"
furnishes us proof from modern history that
through the influence of priests barbarians
have been known to acquire civilization.
Besides, it is by no means necessary to adopt
the opinion that at the time of the arrival of
the Phoenicians only savages existed in America.  There are no objections to the theory
of a prior immigration of the semi-cultivated
Eastern Asiatics of the Mongolian race.




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 127
The people of ancient America and their
culture offer among themselves such varieties, that the adoption of a theory of several
immigrations from various regions of the
world does not so much create as solve difficulties. Giitzlaff, in his " History of the
Chinese Empire," says, that just as a few
years ago some miserable Japanese dshunkens, without oars or masts, were thrown by
a storm upon the coast of California, so it
could also have happened thousands of years
ago. Chinese annals, at the time of the Emperor " Shihoangti" (the builder of the great
wall, 246-210 B.C.), tell of islands far away
in the ocean, on which grows the herb of
immortality; and a few years ago the
Chinese interpreter in San Francisco, a Mr.
James Hanley, published in the journal " The
True Union," extracts translated from  Chinese histories, concerning a vast country by
the name of "Fusang," lying twenty thousand leagues east of Japan, beyond the great
ocean, and of which accounts were brought




128 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
in 459 by five mendicant friars, who. had visited it and distributed Buddhistic tracts and
pictures among the inhabitants.  The descriptions of the Chinese historians agree remarkably with those of the Spanish conquerors, both in regard to the state of the country
and of the culture.  Mr. Hanley directs
attention to the similarity of many Chinese
words to Indian ones-as Nang-hand, in Indian Nanga; Keok-foot, in Indian Keoka;
Yuet-moon, in Indian Yueta; Yat, sun, in
Indian Yeeta.; Azpa, father-Ama, mother
— in Indian also Azpa and Ama.  Prescott
maintains for the Mexican people called
Othomies or Othomi (from I" otho," stationary,
and " mi," nothing), a similarity of language
with the Chinese.
The most prominent proofs, however,
Alexander von Humboldt draws from the
mode of culture of ancient America. The
Aztecs called, for instance, days and years
after the same animals whose names are
applied to the zodiac.  This use of the




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 129
names of animals was current in Eastern
Asia.
Prescott says here: "A correspondence
quite as extraordinary is found between the
hieroglyphics used by the Aztecs as signs of
the days, and those zodiacal signs which the
Eastern Asiatics employed."  We call the
attention of the reader to an extract of Jones'
" History of Ancient America," proving that
the Mexican aborigines were originally from
the Tyrians.  He says, in Vol. I., pages
200-203:
"The following powerful analogies prove
that the Mexican aborigines were originally
from the Tyrians. The summary is as follows, viz.: Religious idolatry; the worship
of, and sacrifice of human lives to the god of
war; the worship of Saturn, and consequent
infanticide to propitiate the remorseless deity; the long cross (and others) of the goddess Astarte; in the sculpture; the sacrifice
to Hygeia by optional circumcision; the
chief worship of Apollo or the sun; the gor6*




130 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS' OF
geous temples erected to his glory; human
sacrifices upon the dedication of the temples,
and the sacred fire guarded by the virgins
of the sun; the comparative mummies of the
Tyrian Isles and Peru; the traditional story
concerning swans; the tortoise and serpent
in sculpture; the dye-shell or purple murex;
navigation, with its attendant maps and
charts; the aborigines coming from the East
and by navigation; their landing or touching atTlorida and before the Christian era;
then the discovery of a wreck of a Tyrian
galley; the knowledge of painting and the
general application of colors and gem engraving; (as the sculpture contains only hieroglyphics and not one cypher or letter, consequently the spoken language of Phoenicia is
not found, nor is there any other language
discovered, and for a proof of its antiquity
the Tyrian temple-sculpture should be only
hieroglyphical;) the political character in
the formation of monarchies and republics,
as shown at Tyrus and Carthage, Mexico and




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 131
Toltecas; military character and knowledge
of defensive locality, with analogous architecture in the sea and river walls of Tyrus
and Copan; the last event in the history of
Tyrus sculptured upon the chief altar of the
most ancient ruin (Copan), and from the
character of that event it would naturally become the first subject of record in the country to which they had emigrated —every
detail of that altar is essentially Tyrian;
painted sculpture and the stuccoing of the
walls of Tyrus and Palenque; the architecture, as to its square-columned style, identified as Tyrian, and proved to be analogous
from the temples of Jerusalem and Palenque
and from the square pillars of Copan; while
the pyramidal base produced the compound
term, Egypto-Tyrian.
"These absolute analogies have been
traced from Holy Writ (and from that
source others are to follow), histories and
traditions; from sculpture, coins, and architecture, and the entire range of the arts;




132 THE COINCIDENCES AND RELATIONS OF
earth and ocean have rendered their records
to establish that the same knowledge and
customs were possessed by both nations;
nor will the proof of identity stop there;
their mutual knowledge was also found in
that science where heaven itself was and is
the illuminated map of study; where the
stars are as letters of fire from the language
of the skies-God himself being the Alpha
and the Omega!
" The sublime science of astronomy claims
both Tyrus and Tyrian-America for her
children and pupils. The latter viewed and
solved the problem of the annual course of
the glorious sun (the chief worship) with as
much accuracy (save a diurnal fraction) as
the later and more accomplished scholars
and disciples-Italy, Germany, and England.
"We submit to the opinion even of a
sceptical reader, whether he does not, with
the foregoing proofs, believe our historical
proposition, viz.: That Tyrians were the first




ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE. 133
inhabitants of ancient America, and the original builders of the now ruined cities and
temples?"
It would be the greatest discovery in the
history of mankind to find idioms which,
with certain modifications, are used both
in America and in the interior of Asia, or
in which at least an old affinity could be
perceived. Indeed, such a discovery would
be received with the greatest enthusiasm.
Analogies of languages deserve only to
be relied upon when they consist not
in similarities of sound of the radical
words, but show themselves in the organic
formation, in the etymological richness, and
especially in that which is the production of the intellectual power of the human spirit, i. e., the philosophy of the
language.  Let us confidently hope and
trust that this philological discovery will
ere long be made. For although sceptres
break, weapons rust, the arms of heroes
moulder, and even whole nations disap



134 ANCIENT AMERICAN AND ORIENTAL CULTURE.
pear from the theatre of life, that intellectual power with which our great Lord
and Maker has gifted the human soul is
forever new, forever progressing and creating.
THE END.