Mormon Classics | Spalding Library | Bookshelf | Newspapers | History Vault
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Rudolph Etzenhouser (1856-1918) From Palmyra to Independence (Independence: Ensign Pub., 1894) pp. 1-150 | pp. 151-300 | pp. 301-445 |
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1903 Etzenhouser Article | 1910 Etzenhouser Engravings | 1901 H. A. Stebbins book
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FROM PALMYRA, NEW YORK, 1830, TO Independence, Missouri, 1894, PART I. The Book Unsealed, Revised and Enlarged. PART II. Eleven Works Against Mormonism, Six United States School Histories, Four Leading Encyclopedias and Reissues Compared with Each Other and Reviewed in the Light of Facts on the Subject Treated. PART III. A Compendium of Evidences of Material Value Mainly from Outside Parties and Embracing Three Court Decisions. By ELDER R. ETZENHOUSER. OF THE Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. INDEPENDENCE, Mo ENSIGN PUBLISHING HOUSE. 1894. |
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[ not in original text ]
03 PREFACE
PART I. CHAPTER II. 17 Continents and Nations --CHAPTER III. 21 The Jaredites from Babel --CHAPTER IV. 29 Two Distinct and Highly Civilized Peoples.CHAPTER V. 41 Books, Weaving and Dyeing --CHAPTER VI. 48 Israel in America --CHAPTER VII. 63 Hebrew Relics, Customs and Language in AmericaCHAPTER VIII. 74 Egyptian Resemblance and Language in America --CHAPTER IX. 87 Plates & Records --CHAPTER X. 96 Metals, Implements and Instruments ---CHAPTER XI. 111 Dates of American Antiquities, when Published --CHAPTER XII. 116 Joseph Smith's Object: A Vision --CHAPTER XIII. 119 The Sealed Book to Come Forth --- Fulfillment of Psalm 85 and Isaiah 29 -- Palestine Restored --CHAPTER XIV. 136 An Admission: Witnesses Testify -- Prof. Anthon's Admission -- The Testimony of Three Witnesses -- The Testimony of Eight Witnesses -- The Death of The Three Witnesses --CHAPTER XV. 141 Conclusions --
PART II. 156 02. Female Life Among the Mormons 159 03. The Mormon Prophet and His Harem 168 04. P. Tucker's Rise and Progress of Mormonism 196 05. Life in Utah 204 06. Rocky Mountain Saints 211 07. Tell It All 217 08. Wife Number Nineteen 220 09. J. D. Lee's Mormonism Unveiled 226 10. Smucker's History of the Mormons 236 11. M. T. Lamb's Golden Bible 247 12. E. A. Allen's Prehistoric Races 255 13. Clark Braden's Mistakes 265 Contradictory Statements 273 Histories Compared 278 Encyclopedias Examined 287 References Relative to RLDS
PART III. CHAPTER II. 322 Accounts of Col. Pitcher and Gen. Doniphan, from Missouri NewspapersCHAPTER III. 334 1880 Joseph Smith III Interview -- 1893 Samuel Murdock Letter -- 1881 Kelley Brothers' Interview in PalmyraCHAPTER IV. 379 The Spalding Manuscript and Book of Mormon Authorship Claims, In BriefCHAPTER V. 386 Testimony: Katherine Salisbury, 1881 -- Bronson Family, 1872 -- William B. Smith, 1891 -- John Rigdon, 1891 -- E. L. Kelley's Rigdon Chronology, 1894 -- Emma Smith's Last Testimony, 1879CHAPTER VI. 404 Extracts: Thomas Ford, 1854 -- H. H. Bancroft, 1890 -- Emily M. Austin, 1882CHAPTER VII. 411 Court Decisions: Kirtland Temple Suit, 1880 -- Canadian Court, 1893 -- Temple Lot Case, 1893429 INDEX 445 NOTES |
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"Wherefore, my brothers, hear me, and harken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife: and concubines he shall have none, for I the Lord God delighteth in the chastity of women." -- Book of Mormon, p. 116 . (All 2. THE BOOK UNSEALED. citations from Plano edition except where other's works are quoted). The time the Book of Mormon covers is divided into two periods; the first, from the confusion of languages at Babel, from whence the first colony, the Jaredites came to the western continent, to the time they became extinct, which was wrought through a series of bloody wars before the Nephite colony came over from Jerusalem, which migration occurred during the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, about 600 B. C. This colony having become possessed of the Jaredite record, and having completed their own, added the record of the former people in an abridged form. The second colony, some years after their arrival here, divided, each party taking the name of its respective leader, and so were known as Nephites and Lamanites. The Jaredites, like the Nephites and Lamanites, were of the white race. The Lamanites, because of their rebellion against God and his appointments, were cursed with a dark or copper colored skin, their descendants being the American Indians of today. Both of the colonies were a highly civilized, enlightened and religious people, and attained excellence in art, science, architecture and agriculture. The Nephites lost their national existence in war with the Lamanites about the year 420 of the Christian era; the remnant of that people were then merged into the Lamanites. Their records were hidden in the place from which they were taken in 1827 by Joseph Smith, the translator of the book. From the preface to Delafield's work entitled u An inquiry into the Origin of the Antiquities of America," THE BOOK UNSEALED. 3. which was published in 1839, at New York, London and Paris, by the Right Reverend Chas. P. McIlvaine, D. D., bishop of the diocese of Ohio: "Suppose that in searching the TUMULI that are scattered so widely over this country, the silent, aged, mysterious remembrance of some populous race, * once carrying on all the business of life where now are only the wild forests of many centuries, a race of whom we ask so often, who they' were, whence they came, whither they went; suppose that under one of those huge structures of earth which remain of their works, a book were discovered, an alphabetic history of that race for a thousand years, containing their written' language, and examples of their poetry and other literature, and all undeniably composed many hundreds of years before any of the nations now possessing this continent were here! What a wonder would this be! What intense interest would attach to such a relic! What price would not the learned be willing to give for it!" The Book of Mormon, published ten years before Mr. McIlvaine wrote, gave the facts he asked and sighed for. Josiah Priest, in American Antiquities, edition of 1838, p. 361, says: "But what has finally become of these nations, and where are their descendants, are questions which, could they be answered, would be highly gratifying." Mr. Wm. Pidgeon, in his Traditions of De-coo-dah and Antiquarian Researches, edition of 1853, p. 11, says: "But it yet remains for America to awake her story from sleep, to string lyre, and nerve the pen, to tell the tale of her antiquities, as seen in the relics of nations, coeval perhaps with the oldest works of man." 4. THE BOOK UNSEALED. These men, with all others who have written on American antiquity, while setting aside the Book of Mormon as a matter of nonsense, pile up the evidences of its divinity as the reader will see as he proceeds. Rev. John McCalman, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, preached in the Middle Street Christian church in that place, Sunday, March 4th, 1894, in the course of which sermon he said: "The word of the Lord is divine communication, teaching his children what to do under circumstances in which they find themselves at a given time and place. Sometimes we call it confidence. If today your hearts are open to receive divine communication, the word of the Lord will be present. You ask, how shall 1 know it is the word of God? Joseph Smith published to the world at large that he had received a divine communication. Now, what right have I to say that that communication was not a divine one?" "God moves in a mysterious way" in many things. The Book of Mormon he caused to come forth before the Antiquities of America were known, and in their discovery by those who did not accept the book he secures a cloud of witnesses. The Book of Mormon has been criticised on two lines: First, its literary inelegance, and second, that it is not a true record. Is Peter's part of the New Testament untrue because not so elegant as the writing of the learned Paul? Here is what some of the writers in the Book of Mormon say of this work: "And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge." B. of M., p. 1, par. 1. The THE BOOK UNSEALED. 5. record was made according to Nephi's knowledge, not according to the knowledge of God, but the things recorded are true. "And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge." B. of M., p. 131, par. 8. "And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. Behold, I am Moroni; and were it possible, I would make all things known unto you." B. of M. p. 495, par. 1. The same admission is made by Moroni on page 500, paragraph 8. The prophets and apostles were inspired of God to write and speak; and yet each one has his distinctive style of expression. This seems to plainly indicate that, as a rule, God gave the sentiment, the ideas but these men were left to express these ideas according to their own language, and their own knowledge. "Horne's Introduction," p. 115: "When it is said, that Scripture is divinely inspired, we are not to understand that God suggested every word or dictated every expression. From the different styles in which the books are written, and from the different manner in which the same events are related and predicted by different authors, it appears that the sacred penmen were permitted to write as their several tempers, understandings, and habits of life, directed; and that the knowledge communicated to them by inspiration on the subject of their writings, was applied in the same manner as any knowledge acquired by ordinary 6. THE BOOK UNSEALED. means. Nor is it to be supposed that they were even thus inspired in every fact which they related, or in every precept which they delivered. They were let-t to the common use of their faculties, and did not, upon every occasion, stand in need of supernatural communications; but whenever, and as far as divine assistance was necessary, it was always afforded." Also, page 521: "But with respect to the choice of words in which they wrote, I know not but they might be left to the free and rational exercise of their own minds, to express themselves in the manner that was natural and familiar to them, while at the same time they were preserved from error, in the ideas they conveyed. If this were the case, it would sufficiently account for the over observable diversity of style and manner among the inspired writers. The Spirit guided them to write nothing but truth concerning religion, yet they might be left to express that truth in their own language." Quoted by Home from "Parry's Inquiry into the Nature and Extent of the Inspiration of the Apostles." A few facts are now presented in a miscellaneous manner in the remainder of this chapter. "For sure it is the earth that moves and not the sun." -- B. of M., Helaman, 4:8. "The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion; yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form, doth witness that there is a Supreme Creator." -- B. of M., Alma, 16:7. Now let a voice from the World's Fair confirm this, for the Book of Mormon has been charged with having THE BOOK UNSEALED. 7. claimed to contain knowledge of the rotary motion of the earth before it had been discovered, and now it is authenticated:
"ANCIENT AMERICANS.
"The interpretation was made by a woman, Mrs. Zelia Nuttal, one of the judges of ethnology at the Fair, who explained the wonderful calendar to the anthropological congress. Dr. Daniel G. Drinton, A. B., president of the congress, said it would eventually lead to a translation of the hieroglyphics carved on the ruins of Mexico and Central America and thus reveal the history of the wonderful people who built them. "The accuracy and perfection of the calendar is convincing evidence of the civilization and mathematical attainments of the ancient inhabitants of America. It was estimated that no less than 4,000 years of astronomical observations would have been necessary to perfect the calendar. A complete cycle of the calendar referring to the revolution of the moon and earth about the sun covers a period of 1,094 years. It shows that the ancient inhabitants of America were familiar with the movements of the planets, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and perhaps Mars, as well as those of the Earth and Moon." The above clipping is from the St. Joseph, Missouri, weekly News, of September 1st, 1893. 8. THE BOOK UNSEALED. Book of Mormon, Nephi, 4th chapter, sets forth in a graphic manner the convulsions that took place on this continent of North America and says: "But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward: for behold, the whole face of the land was changed." (The reader is referred to the entire chapter.) John T. Short, in his American Antiquities page 233, writing of a race of giants says: "A great convulsion of nature which shook the earth, and caused the mountains and volcanoes to swallow up and kill them." On page 125, "In 1857, a portion of a human cranium was found associated with bones of the mastodon at the depth of one hundred and eighty feet below the surface in a mining shaft at Table Mountain, California." Baldwin, in his Ancient America, page 176, says of Central America: "The land was shaken by frightful earthquakes, and the waves of the sea combined with volcanic fire to overwhelm and engulf it." Josiah Priest describes three wells near Cincinnati, Ohio, the shallowest being eighty feet deep, in each of which when dug, the stump of a tree was taken out at that depth. The citations are given in chapter ten of this book. And in addition to the above a very singular discovery was reported in the Leadville, Colorado, papers in March, 1891. A man by the name of John Sunger had brought to the city an arrowhead, made of tempered copper, and a number of human bones, which were found in a mine, four hundred and sixty feet below the surface of the earth, imbeded in a vein of silver bearing oar. Over one hundred dollars worth of ore clung to the bones when they were removed from the mine. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 9. The arrowhead is four inches long, and one and one half inches wide at the widest part. The shank is one and one half inches long and has a hole pierced through the center by which the shaft was fastened to the spike. The oar clung to it when taken from the vein, and was with some difficulty removed." Any one who has crossed Wyoming on the Union Pacific railroad in day light has seen what is by many believed to have been the bottom of a great inland sea, which it appears clearly to have been. All who have seen the famous Salt Lake Valley of Utah, could trace what is called the water line. It is far up the Wasatch mountains, and is to be seen all around the valley and marks where the lake waters once stood. "The face of the land was changed." A number of works on Antiquity relate similar facts. See chapter nine of this work, citation from Pittsburg Leader, telling of brick and a coin found at the depth of one hundred and twenty five feet in a well at Helena, Arkansas. A remarkable corroboration of the above is found in a paper written by Dr. D. L. Yates, the same having been read by T. H. Hittel before the Historical Society, in a meeting of that body held in San Francisco. The same appeared in the Bulletin in March, 1888, as follows: "It was said that California possessed some of the oldest known relics on the continent. The first authenticated record of the original occupants was found on the table mountain region in Tuolumne county, and is of an age prior to the great volcanic outburst. Fossil remains of the rhinoceros and an extinct horse are found under the lava layers forming the table 10. THE BOOK UNSEALED. mountains which are 1,400 feet thick, 1,700 feet wide * * * where the river beds have been washed out, and have been covered again to the depth of from three thousand to four thousand feet more since the flow of the lava. This lava rests on a bed of detritus, which is often entered by running tunnels (in mining). The human relics and stone implements found in these formations give evidence of human habitants differing from any known since. There have been found spear- heads, a pipe of polished stone, two scoop of stalactite rock (resembling the grocer's scoop), an implement of aragonite, resembling an unbent bow, but the use of which is unknown and cannot be conjectured, a stone needle with notches at the larger end, and the finest charmstones that have ever been found. "There have been brought to light the fossils of nine mastodons, twenty elephants, various pachyderms in the Table Mountains, numerous evidences of animal life in the calcareous formations in the Texas flats, obsidian spearheads, fossils of the elephant, horse and camel about Hornitos, bones and evidences of prehistoric human industry in Tulare, and in Trinity and Sisklyon many proofs of the contemporaneous existence of man and extinct mammals. "In the San Jose Valley are deep layers of coniferous trees in such a carbonized state that they crumble into dust when exposed to the air. They are of the pliocene period, and show that the entire topography of the region has changed, and that where now the valleys and mountains are destitute of timber, they were once coniferous and deciduous trees, affording food and shelter to monster mammals in comparison to which, man was but an insignificant mite. In the layers THE BOOK UNSEALED. 11. of the miocene period are found in California the remains of amphibious animals not to be found elsewhere." Thus it is seen, that east, west, north and south, unmistakable evidences abound to show that "the face of the land was changed," as stated in the Book of Mormon. On pages 399, 408, 426-428, Book of Mormon, the Gadianton robbers are described and their strongholds in their mountain home in the cliffs. Any one who was at the World's Fair could well appreciate the account, having seen the exhibit of the Cliff Dwellers. The Independent Patriot of September 14th, 1893, contains the following: "In this exhibit may be seen what is intended to represent the mountain homes of the cliff dwellers; the methods by which they obtained ingress and egress: the rugs, mats, implements of war and peace which they had; some of the corn they raised, with cob, grain and husk quite well preserved. When we reached this point in the exhibit the lecturer was asked how long ago he supposed this race to have lived upon this continent. He answered, 'From two to four thousand years.''From what part of the earth, and what branch of the human family do you suppose these people to have come?' 'From the ancient Aryan branch of Asia, which sent out portions of its descendants to Africa. Europe, and I think also to America.' "The skulls of the cliff dwellers were exhibited in profusion, and presented, as we were told by the lecturer, the appearance of having belonged to a highly intelligent and well developed race of people. Some days previous to our visit, he informed us, a professional 12. THE BOOK UNSEALED. phrenologist had visited the room, and to him had been handed an Indian skull along with a cliff dweller's. He at once stated that the latter was a well developed type of a highly civilized and intelligent race; while the former looked more like the skull of an American Indian than anything else. These were handed the professor, as we were told, without his being. informed as to what race or races they belonged." All who saw the hair on skulls, and several bunches besides, will attest it was of fine texture and of various shades of brown and auburn. Very unlike Indian hair; but like that of the white race. Being there, I saw it. Baldwin, on page 173, says: "Tradition of the native Mexicans and Central Americans ^described the first civilizers as "bearded white men," who "came from the east in ships." This accords with the Book of Mormon, pages 502-505. Bancroft, volume 5, page 24, says: "There are numerous vague traditions of settlements -- or nations of white men who lived apart from the other people of the country, and were possessed of an advanced civilization." Josiah Priest, in his edition of 1838, page 390, American Antiquities, gives headlines for a chapter thus: "Traits of white nations in Georgia and Kentucky before Columbus' time and the traditions of the Indians respecting them." Donnely says of the Peruvians: "The native traditions said this city was built by bearded white men, who came there long before the time of the Incas, and established a settlement." -- Atlantis, p. 393. The Jaredites and Nephites were both white. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 13. AN ACCOUNT OF RELICS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. Don McGuire, Chief Dept. Mines and Archaeology of Utah, contributing to Salt Lake Tribune, in its issue for October 29th, 1893, says."In the department of anthropology at Jackson Park, man has an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the remains and relics of many races. * * * In the Wisconsin state collection there is a fine lot of copper implements and arms, consisting of axes, chisels, lance heads, arrow points, needles, combs, cups, crowns, armlets, finger rings, and hundreds of articles, the use of which is wholly a mystery to us. From the same state comes stone axes and stone lance heads. The copper was taken from the present copper mines of Lake Superior; it was hammered into form, and this hammering rendered it quite hard. The tools are very well fashioned and show considerable skill. "There is a fine exhibit from south, central and northern Illinois, which comes from the mounds of this state. The work is well done and it is varied in its makeup. Flint, steatite, clay, limestone and copper were used as in Wisconsin, and amongst the Illinois collection we are struck with the beauty of the great array of pipes found in the mounds, some of which are exceedingly beautiful. "But when the collection of the Ohio Valley is reached we are before the greatest find, and at the same time most varied collection that has been made for many years from the mounds of that region, and one that surpasses in many ways all that we found in any of the state exhibits east of the Missouri river. 14. THE BOOK UNSEALED. One Charles Morehead for the two past years has been engaged in excavating in the great mounds of Central Ohio, around Marietta and through the Sciota valley. From a few mounds of that state we see here a collection of copper tools of every description, also of tools of obsidian and also of flint, and beautiful ornaments of abalone shell, and mother of pearl, and thousands of pearls, along with articles of bone, stone and copper, long since perished. There was cloth and feather work, but it is now in dust. "The fortress in which these were found would conveniently contain forty thousand people, and when we see the articles of agriculture we have little doubt but that this people who occupied this land in remote ages were a great commercial and far travelling race of men" Writes of Colorado relics; "These relics and discoveries consist of fifteen very well preserved mummies of the ancient cliff-dwellers, and a great variety of their pottery, stone weapons and wooden implements, cotton cloth, feather cloth, cordage, tanned leather, bone and shellwork, haircloth, hair cordage, and husk matting and carpets, corn, cotton seed, squash, pumpkin and gourd seed; in a word, it represents that ingenious and lost people as they were, and the mummies are. as they lie there, about as interesting, repulsive and ill-odored a lot of human junk as ever startled a weak-nerved mortal of this world." Of a Utah skeleton and relics: "It is the finest specimen of desiccated humanity ever discovered on the American continent, and with him were found the most interesting and valuable lot of relics yet brought THE BOOK UNSEALED. 15. forth from a cliff-dweller's tomb. They consist of pottery, corn, beans, cotton cloth, feather cloth, cordage of various kinds, wooden implements, pipes, arrow and lance heads." Of Central American ruins: "These remains were taken from the desolate and long abandoned cities that are buried deep amid the forests of Central America, where beyond question at one time remote in the bygone years a great city and a proud nation nourished As we look out of the building we behold sections of those old palaces that were built here as fac-similes of the architecture of these races that are found in Yucatan. Old palaces represented here show wonderful architecture, which even in our own day of great buildings compare favorably with the most substantial of man's work. There is a mystery, dark, deep, unfathomable in all these traces of a lost race, those altars rich in sculptured relief work, these raised inscriptions in an unknown and lost tongue, all are as a wild, undistinguishable voice coming back from vanished generations that have crossed the flood." Of Peruvian relics: "There is here also from Peru a large number of pots, vases, cups, dishes of very fine workmanship by the artisans of the Inca empire. Their cotton, their vicuna wool, their tanned leather, their corn, dried fruit, their weapons, arms and jewels of obsidian, jasper, copper, gold and silver. "No such exhibit was ever made outside of Peru, and as one gazes spellbound upon this rich and ancient lot of skeletons, mummies, pottery, gold and silver from Peru, he regrets that the fair is not to last twelve months longer." "The uniform and constant report of Peruvian tradition places the beginning of this old civilization 16. THE BOOK UNSEALED. in the valley of Cuzco, near lake Titicaca." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, page 236. "Those who criticise Montesinos admit that 'his advantages were great,' that 'no one equaled him in archaeological knowledge of Peru,' and that 'he became acquainted with original instruments which he occasonally transferred to his own pages * * * difficult to meet elsewhere.'" -- Ibid 263. Of Peruvian civilization he says: "'It was originated,' he says, 'by a people led by four brothers, who settled in the Valley of Cuzco. * * * The youngest of these brothers assumed supreme authority and became the first of a long line of sovereigns.'" -- Ibid 264. The above agrees exactly to the Nephite colony as any one will discover by reading the Book of Mormon. Laman, Lemuel, Samuel and Nephi were the brothers, and position, no doubt, that of Peru. Nephi. the youngest of the four was the first of a long line of rulers. The Marqueis De Nadaillac in his work "Prehistoric People," on pages 268-9 and elsewhere, sets forth that the ancient American's trepanned skulls, tells of the skulls being fonnd showing the operation, he suggests it was done with stone. His imagination must be strong, trepanning is by no means a common piece of surgery with the instruments of to-day. The steel instruments of the ancient Americans all having decayed by rust, therefore stone would do for anything is concluded. The wonderful and extensive buildings of Central America, are passed by many in silence as to what the tools were that were used in their construction. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 17. It is recently admitted that the builders of Egyptian pyramids had some tools, possibly it will be, some day, that the Americans had also. "TOOLS OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS. "A two years study at Gizeh has convinced Mr. Flinders Petrie that the Egyptian stone workers of four thousand years ago had a surprising acquaintance with what have been considered modern tools. Among the many tools used by the pyramid-builders were both solid and tubular drills and straight and circular saws. The drills, like those of to-day, were set with jewels (probably corundum, as the diamond was very scarce), and even lathe-tools had such cutting edges. So remarkable was the quality of the tubular drills and the skill of the workmen, that the cutting-marks in hard granite give no indication of wear of the tool, while a cut of a tenth of an inch was made in the hardest rock at each revolution, and a hole through both the hardest and softest tnaterial was bored perfectly smooth and uniform throughout" -- American Analyst, New York.
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That this is clearly admissable, is evident from Acts 17: 24-27. "God that made the world, and all things * * * hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath deterrnined the times before appointed, and the bounds 18. THE BOOK UNSEALED. of their habitation. That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not very far from every one of us." The following points are clear: 1st. -- All nations were from one source. 2d. -- By God's decree they were to inhabit "All the face of the earth." 3d. -- Their distribution as to "times" and bounds" God directs. 4th. -- "They should seek the Lord." He would not command them to seek unless it were possible that he should be found. Peter said, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respector of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." -- Acts 10:34. As the nations of the eastern continent sought and found God, and had revelation and covenant relation with him, so could the nations of the western continent, in fulfillment of God's covenant to Abraham: "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." -- Gen. 22:18. The Prophet Ezekiel, in chapter 37, mentions two "sticks," (records), one for Judah and the children of Israel his companions, "another stick (record) for Joseph and for all the house of Israel, his companions." The stick for Judah being the Bible, a similar record or "another stick" should appear for Joseph. This is realized in the Book of Mormon, which is a record of the dealings of God with the descendants of Joseph on the western continent. It is therefore of equal authority with other sacred writings, and throws light upon doctrine, promise and prophecy. For as THE BOOK UNSEALED. 19. Paul says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished in all good works." -- 2 Tim. 3:19. It does not in any sense supplant the Bible or take its place, but is a companion volume thereto. We quote Bishop McIlvaine again from preface to Delafield's work. He is right that American Antiquity is to confirm the Scriptures. The gospel of Christ had been taught here as the PRIESTS SUPPOSED. The universal and uniform traditions of the nations of both continents are strong evidence of a common origin as set forth in this chapter from the Bible: "Traditions have been distinctly traced, in opposite regions of the globe, and in the most unconnected nations of the creation; of the production of all living creatures out of water by the power of the Supreme mind; the formation of man, last, in the image of God, his being invested with dominion over all other animals; the primitive state of innocence and happiness; Paradise; the Sabbath; the division of time into weeks; the fall of man; (the mother of mankind is represented in American tradition as fallen and accompanied by a serpent); the promise of a deliverer; Cain and Abel; the general degeneracy of mankind; the longevity of the Patriarchs; the general deluge; the escape of only a single family in an ark; the dove sent out by Noah; the rainbow as a sign; the number of persons in the ark: the Tower of Babel; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah -- these with divers circumstances and details illustrating the main particulars. So remarkable were the traditions of several of these facts, among 20. THE BOOK UNSEALED. the inhabitants of America, at the time of the Spanish conquest, that the priests, who accompanied the army, were induced to suppose that Christianity, or at least Judaism, had been inculcated among them at some very distant period. Humboldt, however, sees no need of such explanation 'since similar traditions, (he says) of high and venerable antiquity, are found among the followers of Brama, and among the Shamans of the eastern steppes of Tartary.' "The traditions of the deluge are particularly numerous. They are derived from the oldest nations of antiquity -- the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks (and mentioned by Berosus, Hesiod, Plato, Plutarch, Lucian, &c ), as well as from people the most recently discovered; as the natives of North and South America and of the islands of the South Sea. The antipodes of the earth unite in testimony to the deluge. Chinese and Sanscrit literature concurs with Chilian and Peruvian and Mexican tradition in bearing witness to that catastrophe. Among the natives of America it is commemorated by a fable similar to that of Pyrrha and Deucalion. 'These ancient traditions of the human race (says Humboldt) which we find dispersed over the surface of the globe, like the fragments of a vast shipwreck, are of the greatest interest in the philosophical study of our species. * * * "The Antiquities of America are an immense field for inquiry, hardly entered; abounding in promise of reward for the most devoted investigations. Let it be thoroughly explored for the truth's sake. The Scriptures have yet to gather a richer cabinet of illustrative and corroborating collections from the long buried and. unknown depositories of American antiquity. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 21. "In reference to the question, whether all the races of men have descended from one common stock, the antiquities of this continent are especially interesting, and may prove of very great value. It is a question, indeed, forever settled by the researches of Bryant, Faber and Sir William Jones: "The dark Negro, the white European, and the swarthy Asiatic, being plainly traced to their respective ancestors in the family of Noah.' But much confirmatory testimony may yet be obtained. The contingent of America to the host of evidence already in array is yet to take its entire place in the line. If the present volume shall only increase -the ardor of investigation and the number of minds turning their energies upon the disinterment of the buried antiquarian treasures of this continent, it will do a good work and deserve the thanks of all lovers of truth. -- Kenyon College, Ohio, January, 1839."
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22. THE BOOK UNSEALED. at Babel. It is written: "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." -- Gen. II:8, 9. Opinions of many old Spanish writers were expressed in substance by Father Duran in 1585 on his history, "New Spain." "Adair the expert, and Emanuel De Moraes, agree that the Quichees by tradition affirm that they made a long journey by land and crossed the sea from the east. The tradition of their origin states that they came from the far east across immense tracts of land and water." It is scarcely presumable that from the year 1492 A. D. to the year 1585 A. D., only ninety-three years having elapsed, that the Indians could have had such a tradition created and received among them as coming down through their sages, by their limited contact with the treacherous Spaniards, who had from the very beginning betrayed all confidence reposed in them. "In Yucatan the traditions all point to an EASTERN AND FOREIGN origin for the race. The early writers report that the natives believe their ancestors to have crossed the sea by a passage which was opened for them." -- Landa's Relacion, p. 28. Atlantis 167. Dr. Le Plongeon, in a newspaper article states: "Of the Nahan predecessors of the Toltecs in Mexico the Olmecs and Xicalancans were the most important. They were the forerunners of the great race that followed. According to Ixtlilxochitl, these people -- which are conceded to be one -- occupied the world in THE BOOK UNSEALED. 23. the third age; they came from the East in ships or barks to the land of Potonchan, which they commenced to populate." Atlantis, p. 167. From Josiah Priest: "If so, then it is clear that the inhabitants of America who had the knowledge of this kind of fabrication, did indeed belong to an era as ancient as the first people of Asia itself, and even before the settlement of Europe; this is not a small witness in favor of our opinion of the extreme antiquity of those ancient works of the west." -- Priest's American Antiquities, p. 258. Pidgeon says: "That the present Indians and the ancient Mound Builders were of distinct national origin, is equally evident." -- Traditions of Dee-Coo-Dah, p. 101. Equally as positive upon the distinct race, is MacLean: "An ancient race, entirely distinct from the Indian, possessing A CERTAIN DEGREE OF CIVILIZATION, once inhabited the central portion of the United States." -- Mound Builders, p. 13. Bancroft says: "Most and the best authorities deem it impossible that the Mound Builders were even the remote ancestors of the Indian tribes; and while inclined to be less positive than most who have written on the subject respecting the possible changes that have been effected by a long course of centuries, I think that the evidence of a race locally extinct, is much stronger here than in any other part of the continent." -- Nat. Races of Pacific States, Vol. 4, p. 787. Stephens, writing of the antiquity of Palenque, says: "Here were the remains of a CULTIVATED, POLISHED AND PECULIAR PEOPLE WHO had passed through ALL THE STAGES incident to the rise and fall of nations, 24. THE BOOK UNSEALED. reached their golden age and PERISHED ENTIRELY UNKNOWN." -- Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. 2, p. 356. "The most ancient civilization on this continent. judging from the combined testimony of tradition, records, and architectural remains, was that which grew up under the favorable climate and geographical surroundings which the Central American region southward of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec afforded. The great Maya family with its numerous branches, each in time developing its own dialect, if not its own peculiar language, at an early date fixed itself in the fertile valley of the river Usumasinta, and produced a civilization which was old and ripe when the Toltecs came in contact with it. Here in this picturesque valley region in Tabasco and Chiapas, we may look for the cradle of American civilization. Under the shadow of the magnificent and mysterious ruins of Palenque a people grew to power, who spread into Guatemala and Honduras, northward toward Anahuac and southward into Yucatan, and for a period of, probably twenty-five centuries, exercised a sway, which at one time, excited the envy and fear of its neighbors. "We are fully aware of the uncertainty which attaches itself to tradition in general, and of the caution with which it should be accepted in treating of the foundation of history; but still, with reference to the origin and growth of old world nations, nothing better offers itself in many instances than suspicious legends. The histories of the Egyptians, the Trogens, the Greeks, and even of ancient Rome rest on no surer footing. Clavigero says, the Chiapanese have been the first peoplers of the new world, if we give credit to their traditions. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 25. They say that Votan, the grandson of that respectable old man that built the great ark to save himself and family from the deluge, and one of those who undertook the building of that lofty edifice, which was to reach up to heaven, went by express command of the Lord to people that land. "The tradition of Votan, the founder of Maya culture, though somewhat warped, probably having passed through priestly hands, is nevertheless one of the most valuable pieces of information which we have concerning the Ancient Americans. Without it our knowledge of the Mayas would be a hopeless blank and the ruins of Palenque would be more a mystery, than ever. "According to this tradition, Votan came from the East, from Valum Chivim, by the way of Valum Votan, from across the sea, by divine command, to apportion the land of the new continent to seven families which he brought with him." -- North Americans of Antiquity, John T. Short, pages 203-4. Short says, of Francisco Nuñes de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who had read a book or document discovered by him and which is mentioned as a Votanic document, "He fails to give any definite information from the document except the most general statements with reference to Votan's place in the calendar, and his having seen the tower of Babel, at which each people was given a new language." -- Ibid. 206. "While some of the details of Votanic tradition are not worthy of a moment's consideration, it is quite certain that in the general facts we have a key to the origin of what all Americanists agree in pronouncing the oldest civilization on this continent, one which was already gray and 26. THE BOOK UNSEALED. declining when the Toltecs entered Mexico. There is not the slightest evidence that it originated in any other place than in Chiapas where it is found, and extended itself into Guatemala, Yucatan. and probably branched northward in a colony as remote as Culhuacan." -- Ibid. 210. "It is found in the history of the Toltecs that this age and first world, as they call it, lasted 1716 years, that men were destroyed by tremendous rains and lightnings from the sky, and even all the land, without the exception of anything, and the highest mountains were covered up and submerged in water * * * fifteen cubits * ** and how, after men multiplied, they erected a very high * * * tower * * * in order to take refuge in it, should the second world (age) be destroyed. Presently the language was confused, and not able to understand each other, they went to different parts of the earth. The Toltecs, consisting of seven friends and their wives, who understood the same language, came to these parts, * * * 520 years after the flood." -- Ibid. 238. In the introduction to his History General, (Sahagun) in speaking of the origin of this people, expresses the opinion that it is impossible to definitely determine more than that they report, "That all the natives came from seven caves, and that these seven caves are the seven ships or galleys in which the first populators of the land came. This people came in quest of the terrestrial paradise, and were known by the name of Tamoanchan, by which they mean, 'We seek our home.'" -- Ibid. 242. Delafield says: "A tradition exists among the native Mexicans bearing close analogy to the Semitic account THE BOOK UNSEALED. 27. of the flood, the building of the tower of Babel and its destruction." -- Antiquities, p. 33. And still more important from the same author: "Still farther and more important evidence, however, renders the point conclusive that southern Asia was the birth-place of this people, as we detect among them actual traditions of the flood, the building of Babel and the death of Abel; and from their cosmogony we think we trace farther traditions of the famine and the destruction of the cities of the plain. These historical facts stamp their origin conclusively, as they are peculiar to those who have been once residents of the country where the transactions occurred." -- Ibid., p. 41. Bancroft says: "They believed the rainbow was not only a passive sign that the earth would not he destroyed by a second deluge, but an active instrument to prevent the recurrence of such a catastrophe." -- National Races, Vol. 5, p. 17. Again he says: "Many of these hood myths are supplemented with an account of an attempt to provide against a second deluge, by building a tower of refuge, resembling more or less closely the Biblical legend of the tower of Babel." -- Ibid., p. 17. He extends his remarks as follows: "These myths have lead many writers to believe that the Americans had a knowledge of the tower of Babel, while some think that they are the direct descendants of the builders of that tower, who, after the confusion of tongues, wandered over the earth until they reached America." -- Ibid., p. 18. Speaking of Votan, Bancroft says; "Votan, another mysterious personage, closely resembling Quetzalcoatl in many points, was the supposed founder of 28. THE BOOK UNSEALED. the Maya civilization. He is said to have been a descendant of Noah, and to have assisted at the building of the tower of Babel. After the confusion of tongues, he lead a portion of the dispersed people to America." -- Nat. Rac. Pac. States, Vol. 5, p. 27. "The polished nations of the new world, and particularly those of Mexico; preserve in their traditions and in their paintings the memory of the creation of the world and of the building of the tower of Babel. the confusion of language and the dispersion of the people." -- Short's American Antiquities, p. 140. All of the above citations are very confirmatory of the account cited in the Book of Mormon, respecting the migration of the Jaredites to the western continent. as to the peculiar construction of the vessels of the Jaredite colony, (which are eight in number, seven of which were used for the people, the remaining one specially for their cargo), the following is very interesting: "The little steamer Norton, which is to sail from Long Island Sound for Southern France to-morrow, is, it is claimed by her builder and captain, a craft that cannot sink. She is only fifty-eight feet in length, but the most conspicuous feature about her is that she has a double bottom and six ballast compartments water is admitted through holes in the outer bottom. When the boat careens, the body of water between the bottoms presses the air in the compartments and acts as a ballast, the air serving as a cushion. This prevents the boat from capsizing or from diverging far from its center, even in the roughest seas. It is claimed that the double bottom and air tight compartments make it impossible to sink should the boat be cut in two. If the builder's theory be correct, its application will revolutionize THE BOOK UNSEALED. 29. naval architecture. The result of the Norton's first voyage will be awaited with great interest." -- Philadelphia Record, December 13, 1891. "If Victor Hugo were now alive he would have a new field, or new light on one of his old fields of work. Navigating the sea has always been supposed to mean plowing the surface, whatever the motor might be. But we can now travel under the sea as well as on the surface. Recent experiments have been made at Toulon with a submarine boat, that proves to be a great success. It runs from nine to ten knots, while the light is good and respiration easy. The boat can be moved in any direction, either vertically or horizontally. It will carry five persons. Of course its purport is warfare, but there is no reason why such a boat may not be applied to purposes more peaceful, especially to aid scientific research." -- Globe-Democrat, February 3d, 1889.
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30. THE BOOK UNSEALED. possessed of a respectable knowledge of geometrical principles." -- North Americans of Antiquity, (Short), p. 27. Pidgeon says: "From these facts in connection with the traditions of De Coo Dah, respecting the ancient inhabitants of these regions, as of various languages, customs and color, we are led to the conclusion that at least TWO DISTINCT RACES of men have occupied this territory at different eras, and that both became nationally extinct anterior to the occupation of the present Indian race." -- Traditions of De Coo Dah, pp. 176-7. Bancroft says: "The resemblance in the different groups of ruins in Chiapas, Yucatan and Honduras, are more than sufficient to prove intimate connection between the builders and artists. The differences pointed out prove just as conclusively that the edifices were not all erected and dedicated by the same people, under the same laws and religious control, at the same epoch." -- Native Races, Pacific States, Vol. 4, p 359. "It is a point of no little interest that these old constructions belong to different periods in the past, and represent somewhat different phases of civilization " * * * "The attention of investigators has lingered in speculation. They find in them a significance which is stated as follows by Brasseur de Bourbourg: "Among the edifices forgotten by time in the forests of Mexico and Central America, we find architectural characteristics so DIFFERENT from each other, that it is impossible to attribute them to the SAME PEOPLE as to believe they were all built at the same epoch."' -- Baldwin's Ancient America, pp. 155, 156. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 31. We have now presented Short, Pidgeon Bancroft and Baldwin, four eminent authorities on there having been two distinct peoples, and who preceded the aborigines of .America, in the possession of this land, which supports the claim of the Book of Mormon for the Jaredite and Nephite colonizations. These four authorities agreeing as to the "two distinct" peoples, and Mr. Short classing them as having `'capacity" for the "exercise of government," "erection of magnificent architectural monuments," and possessed of a "respectable knowledge of geometrical principles," we shall now present evidences of high civilization without classification. Pidgeon says: "It cannot any longer be denied that there has been a day when this continent swarmed with millions of inhabitants, when the arts and sciences flourished." -- Antiquarian Researches, p. 5. Of ancient America's knowledge of astronomy, Donnelly says: "It will be conceded, that a considerable degree of astronomical knowledge must have been necessary to reach conclusively that the true year consisted of 365 days and six hours, (modern science has demonstrated that it consists of 365 days, five hours, less ten seconds), and a higher degree of civilization was requisite to insist that the year must be brought around by the intercalation of a certain number of days in a certain period of time, to its true relation to the season. Both were the outgrowth of a vast ancient civilization of the highest order." -- Atlantis, p. 368. That Abraham was an astronomer, appears from a statement made by Josephus: "Berosus," says he, "mentions our father Abraham, not by name, but after this manner: 'In the tenth generation after the flood there were among the Chaldeans a righteous man, who was 32. THE BOOK UNSEALED. also skilled in the knowledge of the heavens.'" -- Josephus, Book I, Chapter 7. Abraham's posterity in Egypt first, then in America, were versed in astronomy: "The Egyptians were the first land surveyors, mathematicians and astronomers of the old world. They calculated the eclipses and periods of the planets and constellations from a remote antiquity." -- Beginnings of Civilization, p. 35, and Atlantis, p. 364. The proficiency of the Aztecs in astronomy is thus spoken of by Prescott: "That they should be capable of accurately adjusting their festivals by the movements of the heavenly bodies, and should fix the true length of the tropical year with a precision unknown to the great philosophers of antiquity, could be the result only of a long series of nice and patient observations, evincing no slight progress in civilization." -- Atlantis, p. 35a. Delafield says: "The investigations of Mons Bailey in the astronomy of the ancients generally, of Mons. Jomard in that of Egypt, and of Baron Humboldt in that of Mexico and South America, present most striking incidents of coincidence, not only their division of time, but also in the Zodiacal signs." -- Delafield, p. 48. Mr. Jomard says: "I have also recognized in your memoir on the division of time among the Mexican nations, compared with those of Asia, some very striking analogies between the Toltec character, and institutions observed on the banks of the Nile. Among these analogies is one worthy of attention. It is the use of the vague year of three hundred and sixty-five days, composed of equal months, and of five complementary THE BOOK UNSEALED. 33. days equally enjoyed at Thebes and Mexico, a distance of three thousand leagues " -- Ibid., p. 52. Mr. Schoolcraft gives this account of a discovery made in West Virginia: "Antique tube; telescopic device. In the course of excavations made in 1842 in the easternmost of three mounds of the Elizabethtown group, several tubes of stone were disclosed, the precise object of which have been the subject of various opinions. The longest measured twelve inches, the shortest eight. Three of them were carved out of steatite, being skillfully cut and polished. The diameter of the tube, externally, was one inch and four-tenths. The bore eight-tenths of an inch. The caliber was continued until within three-eighths of an inch of the sight end, when it diminishes to two-tenths of an inch. By placing the eye at the diminished end, the extraneous light is shut from the pupil and distant objects are more clearly discerned." * * "An ancient Peruvian relic found a few years since, shows the figure of a man wrought in silver, in the act of studying the heavens through such a tube." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 42. "It has been already stated that finely wrought telescopic tubes have been found among remains of the Mound Builders. They were used, it seems, by the ancient people of Mexico and Central America, and they were known also in ancient Peru, where a silver figure of a man in the act of using such a tube has been discovered in one of the old tombs." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 123. "Montesinos gives a list of sixty-four sovereigns who reigned (in Peru) in the first period. * * * The twenty-first Manco-Capac-Amauta, being addicted to 34. THE BOOK UNSEALED. astronomy, convened a scientific council. * * * Amauta, the thirty-eighth of the line, Yahuar-Huquiz, the fifty-first were 'celebrated for astronomical knowledge,' and the latter 'intercalated a year at the end of four centuries.'" -- Ibid., pp. 264-6. "From the earliest ages, we find skill and knowledge in astronomy, and the more we examine, the more we are surprised at the extent of astronomical science in the earliest history of the world." -- Delafield's American Antiquity, p. 48. "This is no slight analogy, to find the system of intercalation and the number of complementary days identical between Mexico and Egypt." -- Ibid., p. 50. "In the sanctuaries of Palenque are found sculptured representations of idols which resemble the most ancient gods, both of Egypt and Syria; planispheres and godiacs exist, which exhibit a superior astronomical and chronological system to that which was possessed by the Egyptians." -- Ibid., p. 50. Priest, quoting Atwater: "'On the whole,' says Atwater, I am convinced from an attention to many hundreds of these works in every part of the west which I have visited, that their authors had a knowledge of astronomy.'" -- American Antiquity, p. 273. Le Plongeon, says: "The Troano, (Maya Book) is a very ancient treatise on geology." -- Sacred Mysteries, p. 70. So it will certainly appear that at that day the science of geology was not without its devotees and propagators in ancient America. Of "Chimu?" a city of South America, built by the ancients, Donnelly says: "Tombs, temples and palaces arise on every hand, ruined but still traceable, immense pyramidal structures, some of them a half mile in circuit; vast THE BOOK UNSEALED. 35. areas shut in by massive walls, each containing its water tank, its shops, municipal edifices, and the dwellings of its inhabitants, and each a branch of a larger organization; prisons, furnaces for smelting metals, and almost every concomitant of civilization existed in the ancient Chimu capital." -- Atlantis, p. 393. Baldwin says: "To find the chief seats and most abundant remains of the most remarkable civilization of this old American race, we * * * go * * * into Central America and * * * Mexico. * * * Many ancient cities have been discovered. * * * The chief peculiarity of these ruins, * * * is the evidence they furnish that their builders had remarkable skill in architecture and * * * ornamentation. * * * The rooms and corridors in these edifices were finely and often elaborately finished; plaster, stucco, and sculpture being used. * * * "Throughout," he again says, (quoting Stephens), "the laying and polishing of the stones are as perfect as under the rules of the best modern masonry. * * * The ornamentation is no less remarkable than the masonry and architectural finish." -- Ancient America, pp. 93, 99. The Marquis de Nadaillac, author of Prehistoric America, says of the old civilization of Peru: "Nowhere in the world, perhaps, has man displayed greater energy. It was in these desolate regions that arose the most powerful and most highly civilized empire of the two Americas, * * * imposing ruins, * * * fortresses defending it, * * * roads intersecting it, * * * canals conducting the water for fertilizing the fields, * * * houses of refuge in the mountains for the use of travelers, * * * potteries, linen and cotton cloth, ornaments of gold and silver, which are sought for by the Tapadas, with in satiable zeal." -- Prehistoric America, p 388. 36. THE BOOK UNSEALED. Priest says: "The Americans were equal in antiquity, civilization and sciences, to the nations of Europe and Africa; like them the children of the Asiatic nations." -- Antiquities, p. 305. Speaking of a portion of the ruins of Labna, Stephens says: "Above the cornice of the building rises a gigantic perpendicular wall to the height of thirty feet, once ornamented from top to bottom and from one side to the other with colossal figures and other designs in stucco, now broken into fragments, but still presenting a curious and extraordinary appearance, such as the art of no other people ever produced." -- Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. 2, p. 51. Baldwin says: "At Palenque are remains of a well built aqueduct; and near the ruins, especially in Yucatan, are frequently found the remains of many finely constructed aguadas or artificial lakes. * * * These antiquities show that this section of the continent was anciently occupied by a people admirably skilled in the arts of masonry, building, and architectural decoration. Some of their works can not be excelled by the best of our constructors and decorators." -- Ancient America, p. 101. Short says of Mexico: "Here the silver-smith, the sculptor, the artist and the architect, we are led to believe, from the testimony of both tradition and remains, flourished." -- American Antiquities, p. 270. Baldwin, of Central American ruins, says: "As to the ornamentation, the walls, piers, and cornices are covered with it. Everywhere the masterly workmanship and artistic skill of the old constructors compel admiration, Mr. Stephens going so far as to say of sculptured human figures found in fragments, 'In justness THE BOOK UNSEALED. 37. of proportion and symmetry, they must have approached the Greek Models. * * * Dupaix says: 'It is impossible to describe adequately the interior decorations of this sumptuous temple.' "Stephens states, in the Preface to his work on Yucatan, that he visited forty-four cities or places." -- Ancient America, pp. 108-9, 125. Baldwin says: "Here, (Copan) as at Palenque, the ornamentation was 'rich and abundant.' The ruins, greatly worn by decay, still show that 'architecture, sculpture, painting and all the arts that embellish life, had flourished in this overgrown forest.'" -- Ancient America, p. 113. Of ruins at Mitla, "Their beauty," says M. Charney, "can be matched only by the monuments of Greece and Rome in their best days." -- Ibid., p. 121. Of the ruin called "Kabbah," the author says: "The cornice running over the doorways, tried by the severest rules of art recognized among us, would embellish the architecture of any known era." -- Ibid., p. 137. "Many ages must have been required to develop such admirable skill in masonry and ornamentation." --Ibid., p. 153 In the late work of John T. Short, published in 1882, he tells the following concerning the city of Palenque: "The accompanying cut shows Waldeck's drawing (employed by Mr. Bancroft). Four hundred yards south of the palace stands the ruins of a pyramid and temple, which at the time of Dupaix's and Waldeck's visits were in a good state of preservation, but quite dilapidated when seen by Charney. The temple faces the east, and on the western wall of its inner 38. THE BOOK UNSEALED. apartment itself facing the eastern light, is found, (or rather was, for it has now entirely disappeared), the most beautiful specimens of stucco relief in America. M. Waldeck with the critical insight of an experienced artist declares it worthy to be compared to the most beautiful works of the age of Augustus. He therefore named the temple Beau Relief. The above cut is a reduction from Waldeck's drawing used in Mr. Bancroft's work, and is very accurate. However, the peculiar beauty of Waldeck's drawing is such that it must be seen in order to be fully appreciated. It is scarcely necessary for us to call the reader's attention to the details of this picture, in which correctness of designs and graceful outlines predominate to such an extent, that we may safely pronounce the beautiful youth who sits enthroned on his elaborate and artistic throne, the American Apollo. In the original drawing the grace of the arms and wrists is truly matchless, and the chest muscles are displayed in the most perfect manner." -- North Americans of Antiquity, p. 387. The same author further writes of Palenque: "The stuccoed roofs and piers of both the temples -- Cross and Sun -- may be truly pronounced works of art of a high order. On the former, Stephens observed busts and heads approaching Greek models In symmetry of contour and perfectness of proportion. Mr. Waldeck has preserved in his magnificent drawings some of these figures, which are certainly sufficient to prove beyond controversy that the Ancient Palenqueans were a cultivated and artistic people. In passing to Uxmal the transition is from delineations of the human figure, to the elegant and exterior superabundant ornamentation of edifices, and from stucco to stone as the material THE BOOK UNSEALED. 39. employed. The human figure, however, when it is represented, is in statuary of a high order. The elegant square panels of grecques and frets which compose the cornice of the Casa del Gobernador, delineated in the works of Stephens, Baldwin and Bancroft, are a marvel of beauty which must excite the admiration of the most indifferent student of the subject." -- Ibid., p. 392. Bancroft says in regard to the Peruvian antiquities: "The Peruvians seem to have had a more abundant supply of metals than the civilized nations of North America, and to have been at least equally skillful in working them. The cuts show specimens of copper cutting implements, of which a great variety are found. Besides copper, they had gold and silver in much greater abundance than the northern artisans, and the arts of melting, casting, soldering, beating, inlaying and carving these metals, were carried to a high degree of perfection." -- Native Races, Vol. 4, p. 792. Bancroft says: "Closely enveloped in the dense forests of Chiapas, Guatemala, Yucatan and Honduras, the ruins of several ancient cities have been discovered, which are far superior in extent and magnificence to any seen in Aztec territory, and of which a detailed description may be found in the fourth volume of this work. They bear hieroglyphic descriptions apparently identical in character; in other respects they resemble each other more than they resemble the Aztec ruins, or even other and apparently later works in Guatemala and Honduras. All these remains bear evident remarks of great antiquity. Their existence and similarity, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, would indicate the occupation of the whole country, at some remote period, by nations far advanced in civilization, 40. THE BOOK UNSEALED. and closely allied in manners and customs, if not in blood and language. Furthermore, the traditions of several of the most advanced nations point to a wide-spread civilization, introduced among a numerous and powerful people by Votan and Zamna, who, or their successors, built the cities referred to, and founded great allied empires in Chiapas, Yucatan and Guatemala. And moreover, the tradition is confirmed by the universality of one family of languages or dialects spoken among the civilized nations, and among their descendants to this day. I deem the grounds sufficient, therefore, for accepting this Central American civilization of the past as a fact." -- Native Races of Pacific States, Vol. 2, p. 116. In regard to the ruins of Palenque, Stephens says: "The intermediate country is now occupied by races of Indians speaking many different languages, and entirely unintelligible to each other; but there is room for belief that the whole of this country was once occupied by the same race, speaking the same language, or at least having the same written characters." -- Travels in Central America' Chiapas and Yucatan, Vol. 2, p. 343. William Hosea Bullou, in Scientific American for January 26th, 1889, quoting Le Plongeon, says: "Here (at Chichen) were many beautiful mineral paintings, probably the only vestiges now existing of ancient American art." With regard to the calendar stone of Mexico, Bancroft says: "The calendar stone was a rectangular parallelopipedon of porphyry, 13 feet, 1 1/2 inches square, 3 feet, 3 1/2 inches thick, and weighing in its present mutilated state, 24 tons." -- Native Races, Vol. 4, p. 506. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 41. The concentric circles, the divisions, and the subdivisions, without numbers are traced with mathematical exactitude." -- Ibid., p 508. Of this stone Short says: "Thus it is that the stone speaks and testifies to the astronomical knowledge of the Aztecs, the accuracy of which casts into the shade the imperfect Julian Calendar in use by Europeans at the time of the conquest." -- American Antiquities, p. 455. Thus it will be seen that these various authors clearly and distinctly affirm that the ancient denizens of America possessed high culture, polish and civilization. And so do they add their testimony in support of the Book of Mormon, for that is in line with its statements touching these things.
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Of writing in Central America, Baldwin says: "The ruins show that they had the art of writing, and that at the south this art was more developed, more like a phonetic system of writing than that found in use among the Aztecs. * * * It is known that books or manuscript writings were abundant among them in the ages previous to the Aztec period." -- Ancient America, p. 187. 42. THE BOOK UNSEALED. It is evident then that these books were not the fruits of association with the Spaniards, for the Aztec period antedated the Spaniards by some centuries. Baldwin says: "These chroniclers had likewise to calculate the days, months and years, and though they had no writings like ours, they had their symbols and characters through which they understood everything, and they had great books, which were composed with such ingenuity and art, that our characters were really of no great assistance to them. Our priests have seen those books, and I myself, * * * many were burned at the instigation of the monks. * * * Books, such as those here described by Las Cassas must have contained important historical information." -- Ancient America, p. 188. Again: "We learn from Spanish writers that a still greater destruction of the old books was effected by the more ignorant and fanatical of the Spanish priests who were established in the country as missionaries after the conquest. This is said by Las Cassas, himself, one of the missionaries" -- Ibid., 188-9 "There are existing monuments of an American ancient history which invites study, and most of which might, doubtless, have been studied more successfully in the first part of the sixteenth century, before nearly all the old books of Central America had been destroyed by Spanish fanaticism, than at present." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 14. "They were highly skilled, also, in the appliances of civilized life, and they had the art of writing, a fact placed beyond dispute by their many inscriptions." -- Ibid., 101. "Sahagun wrote such a history, which shows that he had studied the traditions and some of the old THE BOOK UNSEALED. 43. books; this work is printed in the great collection of Lord Kingsborough." -- Ibid., 191 Delafield says: "Their buildings, particularly the sacred houses, were covered with hieroglyphics. Each race, Egyptian, Mexican and Peruvian recorded the deeds of their gods upon the walls of their temples." -- American Antiquities, p. 60. Speaking of a sculptured figure at Uxmal, Stephens says: "Around the head of the principal figure are rows of characters. We now discovered that these characters were hieroglyphics." -- Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I, p. 167. "In Peru a paper was made of plantain leaves, and books were common in the earlier ages. Humboldt mentions books of hieroglyphical writings among the Panoes, which were 'bundles of their paper resembling our volumes of quarto.'" -- Atlantis, p. 451. Of the Aztec writing, Baldwin says: "Their skill in architecture and architectural ornamentation did not enable them to build such cities as Mitla and Palenque, and their 'picture writing' was a much ruder form of the graphic art than the phonetic system of the Mayas and the Quiches." -- Ancient America, p. 221. From the above we are led to believe that a wide contrast existed in the writings of the Ancient Americans. Some were elegant in their artistic appearance, while some were rude. Bancroft describes one of them (the Troano) in these words. "The original is written on a strip of maguey paper about fourteen feet long and nine inches wide, the surface of which is covered with a white varnish, on which the figures are painted in black, red, blue, and brown. It is folded fan-like in thirty-five 44. THE BOOK UNSEALED. folds; presenting, when shut, much the appearance of a modern large octavo volume. The hieroglyphics cover both sides of the paper, and the writing is consequently divided into seventy columns, each about five by nine inches, apparently having been executed after the paper was folded, so that the folding does not interfere with the written matter. * * * The regular lines of written characters are uniformly black, while the pictorial portions of what may perhaps be considered representative signs are in red and blue, chiefly the former, and the blue appears for the most part as a background in some of the pages." -- J. T Short, p. 422 This description of the Troano will probably be a fair description of the "many" ancient Maya books said to have been "destroyed by the vandalism of Landa and other early Fathers." Desire Charney says: "Documents were not wanting, and had the religious zeal of the men of that time been less ill-judged, they would have found in the various multiform manuscripts, in the charts or maps, in the idols, in the pottery and living traditions, ample and reliable materials from which to write an exhaustive history of the Maya civilization." -- Ancient Cities, p. 270. "Some of the Peruvian tongues had names for paper, and according to Montesino's writing, books were common in the older times, that is to say, in ages long previous to the Incas." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 255. "Humboldt mentions books of hieroglyphical writings found among the Panoes, on the river Ucayli. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 45. * * * A Franciscan missionary found an old man * * * reading one of these books to several young persons." -- Ibid., 255-6. Boudinot says: "There is a tradition related by an aged Indian of the Stockbridge Tribe, that their fathers were once in possession of a SACRED BOOK, which was handed down from generation to generation, and at last HIS IN THE EARTH, since which time they have been under the feet of their enemies." † -- Star of the West." Baldwin says of Mound Builders: "They manufactured cloth, but their intelligence, skill and civilized ways a re shown not only by their constructions and manufactures, but also by their mining works." -- Ancient America, p. 6I. McLean says: "The Mound Builders * * * for their principal raiment used cloth regularly spun with a uniform thread, and woven with a warp and woof. Fragments of clothing have been taken from a low mound near Charleston, Jackson county, Ohio. In constructing the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton R. R., a mound was cut through near Middleton, Ohio, and in it * * * was found cloth connected with tassels and ornaments. -- Mound Builders," p. 73. Donnelly says: "Their works in cotton and wool exceed in fineness anything known in Egypt at that time " (Time of conquest). -- Atlantis, p. 395. Of cloth made from the wool of Peruvian sheep Prescott says: "The cloth was finished on both sides alike; the delicacy of the texture was such as to give to it the lustre of silk; and the brilliancy of the dyes excited the admiration and envy of the European artisan." -- Prescott's Conquest of Peru, Vol. I, p. 149. 46. THE BOOK UNSEALED. Desire Charney says: "Toltecs * * * had sculptors, Mosaists, painters, and smelters of gold and silver; and by means of molds, knew how to give metals every variety of shape; their jewelers and lapidaries could imitate all manner of animals, plants, flowers, birds, etc. Cotton was spun by the women, and given a brilliant coloring, both from animal and mineral substances; it was manufactured of every degree of thinness so that some looked like muslin, some like cloth and some like velvet. They had also the art of interweaving with these the delicate hair of animals and birds' feathers, which made a cloth of great beauty." -- Ancient Cities, p. 88. Fragments of such cloth were to be seen at the World's Fair. There are also some on exhibition at the Chamber of Commerce Library, Denver, Colorado. Baldwin in speaking of the Peruvians says: "They had great proficiency in the arts of spinning, weaving and dyeing. For their cloth they used cotton and wool of four varieties of the llama, that of the vicuna being the finest. Some of their cloth had interwoven designs and ornaments very skillfully executed. * * * They possessed the secret of fixing the dye of all colors, flesh-color, yellow, gray, blue, green, black, etc., so firmly in the thread, or in the cloth already woven, that they never faded during the lapse of ages, even when exposed to the air, or buried (in tombs) under the ground. Only the cotton became slightly discolored, while the woolen fabrics preserved their primitive lustre. It is a circumstance worth remarking that chemical analysis made of pieces of cloth of all the different dyes prove that the Peruvians extracted all their colors from the vegetable and none of the mineral THE BOOK UNSEALED. 47. kingdom. In fact, the natives of the Peruvian mountains now use plants unknown to Europeans, producing from them bright and lasting colors." -- Ancient America, pp. 247-8. "The American nations manufactured woolen and cotton goods, they made pottery as beautiful as the wares of Egypt. They manufactured glass, they engraved gems and precious stones." -- Atlantis, p. 142. "In both continents we find brick, glassware and even porcelain." -- Ibid., p. 350. Priest mentioning a Mr. Brown says: "He discovered in one mound an article of glass, in form resembling the bottom of a tumbler, weighing five ounces; it was concave on both of its sides. It is true that although glass is said not to have been found out till 644 of the Christian era, yet it was known to the ancient Romans, * * * Pompeii and Herculaneum buried by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Among the vast discoveries * * * has been found one bow window, lighted with glass of a green tinge, or color." -- American Antiquities, p. 280. Chambers says: "The invention of glass dates from the earliest antiquity, and the honor of its discovery has been contested by several nations. As the oldest known specimens are Egyptian, its invention may with great probability be attributed to that people." (1445 B. C.) -- Chambers' Encyclopedia, Article, Glass. I give one citation of many in the Book of Mormon which are amply sustained by the above mentioned authorities on weaving: "Behold their women did toil and spin and did make all manner of cloth of fine twined linen, and cloth of every kind." -- Plano Edition, Book of Mormon, p. 394. |