A Detailed Chronology of LDS Thought on the Geography of the Jaredite Journey to the New World

Beginnings to 1920

 Copyright 2003 by Alan C. Miner. All rights reserved

     Statements by Church Authorities

     Significant Books, “Articles,” & Events

     [Significant Theoretical or Illustrated Models, or Illustrations Related to Book of Mormon Geography]

     Notes*

YEAR1            PERSON                  PRIMARY SOURCE2

                ( 3 )

Note 1: The mark ^ after the year is purely a research tool indicating that a copy of the article or book is on file in the author’s personal library.

Note 2: The year (listed on the left) for the event or quote is not always the same as the date of the primary source (listed on the right) from which the information was taken. If the source information (the later publication of the information) was significant, in and of itself, to the later time period in which it came forth, there will also be a separate listing for that later year. When appropriate, additional sources will be listed.

Note 3: When the article or book represents scholarly theory of the time, such theory may be noted in parenthesis in small caps below the name of the author.

     There were a number of books and articles that were written prior to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon concerning the New World being inhabited by people either from the time period just after the Flood of Noah or from the Tower of Babel. I have treated these books and articles along with other associated ideas and theories in my volume concerning “Indian Origins and the House of Israel.” Although this present volume will specifically focus on the chronological development of LDS ideas concerning the geographical route of the Jaredites to the New World as recorded in the Book of Mormon story, I have included some of these pre-1830 writings because they contain ideas which undoubtedly had some influence on how early members of the LDS Church viewed the Jaredite journey to the New World.

     In 1930, an LDS student at BYU named Alvah Fitzgerald would submit a Thesis dealing with the overall “Progressive Opinion of the Origin and Antiquity of the American Indian.” In his Thesis (see the 1930 notation) Fitzgerald defined, evaluated, and listed the books published about, the evidence cited in support of, and the credence given to the various different theories which were advocated in succeeding periods from the time of the discovery of America by Columbus until 1930. In regards to the pre-1830 theories he writes:

     The coming of man to America shortly after the flood was a favorite belief at an early date. Shem, Ham, and Japheth were respectively designated as certain progenitors of the American race by different authors. (Shem: L. Estrange, Americans No Jews, 1652; Ham: Orrio, Solucion del gran Problem, 1763; Japheth: Author Unknown, Inquiry into the Origin of the Cherokees, 1763). The dispersion at Babel after the confusion of tongues as related in Genesis II was quoted as conclusive evidence of origin. No agreement exists as to the route followed to America. A land route by way of Northeastern Asia, traversed in a comparatively short time, is highly favored. Ulloa suggests that experience in navigation acquired during the Flood may have developed adventurousness and skill sufficient to account for transportation by water. (Ulloa, A. de, Noticeas Americanes, Madrid, 1772.)

     I will now proceed to give a chronological representation of those ideas that might have influenced early Mormon interpretations of the Jaredite beginnings at the “great tower” (presumably Babel) and more specifically the subsequent Jaredite journey to the New World.

1650^      Menasseh Ben Israel, The Hope of Israel, Written by Menasseh Ben Israel, An Hebrew

     (ISRAELITISH) Divine, and Philosopher. Newly extant, and Printed at Amsterdam, and Dedicated by the Author, to the High Court, the Parliament of England, and to the Council of State. The Second Edition corrected and amended. Printed by R. I. for Liwewell Chapman at the Crowne in Popes-Head Alley, 1652.

     The following comes from the actual text: Menasseh Ben Israel, To the Courteous Reader

     There are as many minds as men, about the original of the people of America, and of the first Inhabitants of the new World, and of the West Indyes; for how many men soever they were or are, they came of these two, Adam, and Eve; and consequently of Noah, after the Flood, but that new World doth seem wholly separated from the old, therefore it must be that some did passe thither out of one (at least) of the three parts of the world sc. Europe, Asia, and Africa; but the doubt is, what people were those, and out of what place they went. Truly, the truth of that must be gathered, partly out of the ancient Hystories, and partly from conjectures; as their Habit, their Language, their Manners, which yet due vary according to mens dispositions; so that it is hard to finde out the certainty.

1652^      Hamon l-Estrange, Americans No Jewes, or Improbabilities that the Americans are of that

     (BABEL-Shem)                  race, London: Printed by W. W. for Henry Seile, 1652.

     In 1652 Hamon L’Estrange, an English theologian wrote a critical response to Jewes in America, or Probabilities that the Americans are Jewes. He offered another theory that the Indians were descendants of Noah’s son Shem, who came to America at the dispersion from the tower of Babel. He writes:

     To the Reader,

     Not long since a Book (entitled Jews in America or Probabilities that the Americans are of that race) was sent unto me by the Author thereof, a Divine, whom I do much esteem and reverence for his gravity and learning: I read the same with more diligence and delight for the Authors sake, but I failed through the discourse, I fell upon many Sands and Rocks and reluctance to me sense, and thereupon soon after I committed mine observations [criticisms] to writing . . .

     [pp. 2-3] After the Flood (which continued 180 daies) the Ark rested upon mount Ararat, . . . Noah went out of the Ark with his children in the land of Armenia which is in the Province of Scythia; . . . from Armenia where the Ark rested, is no very long way to Cathay . . .

     [pp. 9-13] . . . what hinders to believe but that Sem [Shem] and his children who were the true believers and children of God, and lived quietly and peaceably and were blessed with great increase and multiplication, and kept their Hebrew language, and were not engaged in the action of Babel Tower, and suffered no interruption by that confusion, but travelling to the East, ampliated and grew very numerous? . . . they removed still more East, and soon after planted and peopled the nearest, and more parts of America, and so verified that in Gene. 9. 19. The three Sonns of Noah overspread all the Earth.

     It is not my meaning to infer out of my quotation of Diodorus a like generall planting and populacy all the world over, but I suppose that mankind having then (as wee use to say) all the world before them, and room enough, spread, dilated, and extended into that same moderate and temperate clymate, Eastward, declining the hotter regions to the South, and colder to the North . . .

     Now touching the Dispersion of the Jewes by the carriing away of the Ten tribes by Salmanaser King of Asyria, which is supposed by some to be the Fountain and origine of the people of America, although learned Brerewood (in his 13. Chap. of Enquiries, &c.) makes a solid confutation of the vaine and capricious phancy (as he calls it) of the Tartars to be descended of the ten Tribes, as also the quotation out of Esdras touching Asareth, yet if wee should admit the wandring of the Jewes into Tartarie after the Captivity, neverthelesse since that Captivity was about 1500 yeares after the Flood, wee cannot but suppose that those East parts of Asia were peopled long before that Captivity, and consequently America also.

     And to induce it and confirm what I have before declared, I further offer, that Jerome quest.Heb g. Lib. 6. and he happilly out of Joseph; lib. 1. Antiq. cp. 7 both say that the Sonns of Sem (who was Noahs second Sonne, and came out of the Arke) travailed from Sinaar and possessed and Inhabited the part of Asia from Euphrates to the Indian Sea or Ocean, and the East part then of Asia remaining entire with the Globe of the Earth; for the streight of Anian (pernavigated onely in words) is yet to me but a fable . . .

     I am more persuaded that soon after the dispersion of Nations at the Confusion of tongues, Noahs Sonns and Offspring came and inhabited that part of the world, and . . . I am of opinion that we are not the think America to have bin peopled not above 500 or 1000 yeares since, but forth with after the Confusion of tongues; now the Flood was Anno mundi 1656. and the confusion of tongues about 140 years after, as I have laid down before. . . .

     And if there were a Free or Streight betweixt the two Continents, though certainly very narrow, and yet a necessity of passing over by boate, ship, or other vessell, wee may assure our selves that at the time of the said Captivity of the ten Tribes, and long before, ships and shipping were well known and in use; . . .

     And besides what I find argued by that learned and ludicious Brerewood, that the Americans are the race of the Tartars, wherein (should I recede from my former argument and opinion, I should concur with his) he much presseth one reason from the known discover, that the West parts of America next to Asia (by a fit implication from the more general, ancient, and constant confluence of the Tartars out of Asia) the most plentifully peopled of any part of America, where they have the best records of the series and succession of their Kings, and where are to be seen goodly buildings, and magnificent monuments of Antiquity, far exceeding and excelling all other parts of the West Indies, all which also rather proves and confirmes than confutes my former arguments.

     There was another Dispersion of the Jews from the passion of our Saviour, but that was only of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin who were harassed and canvassed by the Romans after the expugnation of Jerusalem, and wee gather from history that those Jews were most scattered West, North, and South into Europe and Afrique, but from thence we cannot ground any plantation of America.

     If the Jewes had gone over into America, by themselves, or with the Tartarians, then the commixture of Nations would have produced a diffusion of promiscuous and medly manners and customes, and the more Jewes the deeper die and influence of their rights and customes had also pierced and possessed those parts, & with it an inundation of the peoples rights, customes had also followed and overflowed, but we see they differ . . . as appears by Acosta, Maffeius, Pe. Mart. Je de Laei and others.

     Thus far have I offered my weak conceptions, first how America may be collected to have bin first planted, not denying the Jews leave to go into America, but not admitting them to be the chief or prime planters thereof; for I am of opinion, that the Americans originals were before the Captivity of the Ten tribes, even from Sems near progeny (of which I have spoken enough already) besides that from the Confusion of Languages, to that Captivity, there is a distance of about 13 or 1400 years, which is time sufficient for the plantation of America out of Asia before the Captivity.

     Now I come to enquired into the harmony and agreement together of the Jewes and Americans, in manners, customs, language and religion.

      [He then discusses a number of conjectures in the pages that follow]

1671      Nortmanus Montanus, New World. Paris

     (POST FLOOD)

     America peopled soon after the Flood

1684^      Thomas Burnet, The Theory of the Earth: Containing an Account of the Origin of the Earth, 2 vols., London, 1684.

     (INDIGENOUS)                  

     Burnett is of the opinion that all mankind was not destroyed by the flood of Noah, and hence there was no need to repopulate the earth. He discounts all the stories of people going to America. He brings up the existence of many animals that are unique to America (thus obviating the need for someone to transport them over to America from the Old World. On pages 305-307 he writes:

     Amongst other difficulties arising from the form of this present earth, that is one, how America could be peopled, or any other continent, or island remote from all continents, the sea interposing? This difficulty does not hold in our theory of the first earth, where there was no sea. And after the flood, when the earth was broken, and the sea laid open, the same race of men might continue there, if settled there before. For I do not see any necessity of deducing all mankind from Noah after the flood. If America was peopled before, it might continue so; not but that the flood was universal. But when the great frame of the earth broke at the deluge, Providence foresaw into how many continents it would be divided after the ceasing of the flood; and accordingly, as we may reasonably suppose, made provision to save a remnant in every continent, that the race of mankind might not be quite extinct in any of them. What provision he made in our continent we know from sacred history; but as that takes notice of no other continent but our’s, so neither could it take notice of any method that was used there for saving of a remnant of men; but it were great presumption, methinks, to imagine that Providence had a care of none but us, or could not find out ways of preservation in other places, as well as in that where our habitations were to be. Asia, Africa, and Europe, were repeopled by the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japhet; but we read nothing of their going over into America, or sending any colonies thither; and that world, which is near as big as our’s, must have stood long without people, or any thing of human race in it, after the flood, if it stood so till this was full, or till men navigated the ocean, and by chance discovered it. It seems more reasonable to suppose that there was a stock providentially reserved there, as well as here, out of which they sprung again; but we do not pretend in an argument of this nature to define or determine any thing positively. to conclude; as this is but a secondary difficulty, and of no great force, so neither is it any thing peculiar to us, or to our hypothesis, but alike common to both; and if they can propose any reasonable way whereby the sons of Noah might be transplanted into America, with all my heart; but all the ways that I have met with hitherto, have seemed to me mere fictions, or mere presumptions. Besides, finding birds and beasts there, which are nowhere upon our continent, nor would live in our countries if brought hither; it is fair conjecture that they were not carried from us, but originally bred and preserved there.

     Thus much for the illustration of antiquity in some points of human literature, by our theory of the primeval earth.

Source: ^Bishop Burnett, The Sacred Theory of the Earth, in Which Are Set Forth the Wisdom of God

Displayed . . . , London: T Kinnersley, 1816.

1761^      Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix      Journal of a Voyage to North-America. 2 vols. London, 1761

           (BABEL)                        

     Charlevoix makes one of the most exhaustive reviews of various ideas and theories concerning Indian origins that I have come across. In the “Preliminary Discourse on the Origin of the Americans,” he writes:

     After reading almost every thing that has been writ on the manner in which America might have been peopled, we seem to be just where we were before this great and interesting question began to be agitated; notwithstanding, it would require a moderate volume to relate only the various opinions of the learned on this subject For most part of them have given so much into the marvellous, almost all of them have built their conjectures on foundations so ruinous, or have had recourse to certain resemblances of names, manners, customs, religion and languages, so very frivolous, which it would, in my opinion, be as useless to refute, as it is impossible to reconcile with each other.

     It is not, perhaps, to be wondered at, that those who have first treated this matter should wander in a way which had not as yet been marked out, and in which they must travel without a guide. But what I am surprized at is, that those who have gone deepest into this affair, and who have had the advantage of helps beyond all those who have gone before them, should have been guilty of still greater mistakes, which at the same time they might easily have avoided, had they kept to a small number of certain principles, which some have established with sufficient judgment. . . .

     Those of our hemisphere were, no doubt, much surprized, when they were told of the discovery of a new world in the other, where they imagined nothing was to be seen, but an immense and dangerous ocean. Notwithstanding, scarce had Christopher Columbus found out some islands, and amongst others that of Hispaniola, in which he discovered gold mines, but he was presently of opinion, sometimes that this was the Ophir of Solomon . . . Vatablus and Robert Stephens were likewise persuaded, that it was to America that Solomon sent fleets in quest of gold, and Columbus thought he saw the remains of his furnaces in the mines of Cibao, by much the finest and richest of the islands of Hispaniola, and perhaps of all the new world.

     [p. 3-4] Arias Montanus not only places Ophir and Parvaim in the new world; but likewise makes Jectan, the son of Heber, the founder of Juctan, a chimerical city in Peru; and also pretends, that the empire of Peru and that of Mexico, which he will have to be the same with Ophir, were founded by a son of Jectan of the same name. . . . The authority of this learned interpreter of the scriptures has drawn Postel, Becan, Possevin, Genebrard, and many others, into the same opinion. . . .

     [pp. 6-7] Augustine Torniel is of opinion, that the descendants of Shem and Japhet have passed to America, and from thence to the countries lying onto the southward of the streights of Magellan, by the way of Japan, and the Continent, to the Northward of the Archipel, or cluster of islands. . . .

     [Charlevoix follows the above with page after page of point-counterpoint, intermingling the cultural evidences brought forth by so many various authors that I tended to get confused to the point that I am not confident in who was saying what]

     Charlevoix then concludes with an emphasis on the idea of ancient navigation of the seas to be the source of the origins of the American Indians, and that the study of American Indian languages is the only way to sort out the specific origins. He writes:

     [p. 52-63] This is a part of what has been written on the present question; and I am much mistaken if the bare setting down of so many different opinions is not sufficient to furnish the attentive reader with all the lights necessary to lead him to the choice of the proper side in this great controversy, which, by endeavoring to explain they have hitherto rendered only more obscure. It may be reduced as appears to me to the two following articles. 1. How the New World might have been peopled? 2. By whom and by what means it has been peopled.

     Nothing it would seem may be more easily answered than the first. America might have been peopled, as the three other quarters of the world have been. Many difficulties have been formed upon this subject which have been deemed insolvable, but are far from being so. The inhabitants of both hemispheres are certainly the descendants of the same father. This common father of mankind received an express order from heaven to people the whole world, and accordingly it has been peopled. To bring this about, it was necessary to overcome all difficulties in the way, and they have also been got over. Were those difficulties greater with respect to peopling the extremities of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and the transporting men into the islands, which lie at a considerable distance from the Continents, than to pass over into America? Certainly not. Navigation which has arrived at so great perfection within these three or four centuries, might possibly have been still more perfect in those first times than at this day. At least, we cannot doubt, but it was then arrived at such a degree of perfection as was necessary for the design which God had formed of peopling the whole earth.

     Whilst those authors whom I have cited, have kept to this possibility which cannot be denied, they have reasoned very justly; for it has not been demonstrated, that there is a passage into America over land, either by the north of Asia and Europe, or by the south, the contrary has not been made appear; besides, from the coast of Africa to Brazil; from the Canaries to the western Islands, from the western Islands to the Antilles; from the Britannic isles, and the coast of France to Newfoundland, the passage is neither long nor difficult; I might say as much of that from China to Japan, and from Japan and the Philippines to the Isles Mariannes, and from thence to Mexico. There are islands at a considerable distance from the Continent of Asia, where we have not been surprized to find inhabitants. Why then should we wonder to find people in America? And it cannot be imagined that the grandsons of Noah, when they were obliged to separate and to spread themselves in conformity to the designs of God over the whole earth, should be in an absolute impossibility of peopling almost one half of the globe?

     They ought therefore to have kept to this; but the question was too simple and too easy to be answered. The learned must make disquisitions, and they imagined they were able to decide how and by whom America has been peopled; and as history furnished no materials for this purpose, rather than stop short they have realized the most frivolous conjectures. The simple resemblance of names, and some slight appearances, seemed, in their eyes, so many proofs, and on such ruinous foundations they have erected systems of which they have become enamoured, the weakness of which the most ignorant are able to perceive, and which are often overturned by one single fact which is incontestable. Hence it happens, that the manner in which the New World has received its first inhabitants remaining in very great uncertainty, they have imagined difficulties where none really were, and they have carried this extravagance to such a height, as to believe, that the Americans were not the descendants of our first parents; as if the ignorance of the manner in which a thing hath happened, ought to make us look upon it as impossible, or at least as extremely difficult.

     But what is most singular in this, is, that they should have neglected the only means that remained to come at the truth of what they were in search of; I mean, the comparing the languages. . . .

     . . . I have already observed, that it is an arbitrary supposition that the great grandchildren of Noah were not able to penetrate into the New World, or that they never thought of it. In effect, I see no reason that can justify such a notion. Who can seriously believe that Noah and his immediate descendants knew less than we do; that the builder and pilot of the greatest ship that ever was, a ship which was formed to traverse an unbounded ocean, and had so many shoals and quicksands, to guard against, should be ignorant of, or should not have communicated to those of his descendants who survived him, and by which means he was to execute the order of the great Creator, to people the universe, I say, who can believe he should not have communicated to them the art of sailing upon an ocean, which was not only more calm and pacifick, but at the same time confined within its ancient limits?

     Is it even determined on sufficient grounds, that America had not inhabitants before the deluge? Is it probable, that Noah and his sons should have been acquainted with only one half of the world, and does not Moses inform us, that all, even the remotest Continents and islands were once peopled? How shall we reconcile this with the supposition of those who maintain, that the first men were ignorant of the art of navigation; and can it seriously be said, contrary to the authority of so respectable a testimony, as John de Laet has done, that navigation is an effect of the temerity of mankind; that it does not enter into the immediate views of the Creator, and that God has left the land to the human species, and the ocean to fishes? Besides, are not the islands a part of the earth, and are there not many places on the Continent, to which it is much more natural to go by sea, than by long circuits frequently impracticable, or at least so very difficult, as to induce men to undertake almost any thing in order to avoid them.

     It is certain, that the art of navigation has shared the same fate with may others, of which we have no proof that our early ancestors were entirely ignorant, some of which are now lost, and others again preserved only among a few nations; but what does this prove? We must always return to this principle, that the arts necessary to the designs of God have never been unknown to those who business it was to put them in execution. . . . Need we then be surprised, if men, for want of practice, lost the secret of making long voyages on an element so inconstant, and so frequently tempestuous.

     Who can ever affirm that it was lost so soon? Strabo says in several places, that the inhabitants of Cadiz, and all the Spaniards, had large vessels, and excelled in the art of navigation. Pliny complains, that in his time, navigation was not so perfect as it had been for several ages before; the Carthaginians and Phenicians were long possessed of the reputation of being hardy and expert maritmers. Father Acosta allows, that Vasco de Gama found, that the use of the compass was known among the inhabitants of Mozambique. The islanders of Madagascar have a tradition, importing, that the Chinese had sent a colony into their country. And is it not a meer begging of the question, to reject that tradition on account of the impossibility to sail so far without the help of the compass. . .

1763      F. X. de Orrio, Solucion del gran Problema. London

     (POST FLOOD-Ham)

1772      A. de Ulloa, Noticeas Americanes. Madrid

     (POST FLOOD)      

     Favors the settlement of America by venturesome seamen following the experience of the Flood.

1773^      Samuel Mather, An Attempt to Shew, that America Must Be Known to the Ancients. Boston, 1773

     (ISRAELITISH)             

     [p. 14] But we are rather most inclined to think, that the primary Americans were the Descendants of Magog and Japhet. And, when we say the primary Americans, we mean after the Flood: For there is Reason to believe, that the People, who resided in the Western World, as well as the other Continent, were swept away from the Face of the Earth; because all Flesh had corrupted their Way. Both Joseph Acosta and Antony Herrera acquaint us, that they found the Memory of the Flood preserved among the Indians of Cuba and Mechoachan and Nicaragua: And Coraca tells us, that, among the Peruvians, there was a Tradition, that all their Lands were plunged and laid hid in the Waters.–And if we mistake not, all the Evidences in the natural World, which are commonly brought on the other Side of the Water to prove the general Innundation over that Continent, may be fairly produced to prove the general Prevalence of it over this Continent.

     But, as we are now treating of the primary Inhabitants of America after the Flood; so we say, that These appear to have descended from Japhet. As God, or Elohim, as it is in the Hebrew Text, i.e. the Covenanting Ones, or the Interposers by Oath, had promised to enlarge Japhet; in which Promise there is a plain Allusion to his Name, as indeed there is a like Allusion to Names very frequently to be found in the Holy Scriptures; so this Promise was most remarkably fulfilled: For there fell to Japhet’s Share, not only all Europe, so full of People, and Asia the less and Media and Part of Armenia and Iberia and Albania; but also all those vast Northern Regions, inhabited once by the Scythians, who descended from Magog, one of the Sons of Japhet, as he is said to be in Gen. x. 2. And probably this Western World, land that to a considerable Degree, came to his Share: For it is most likely, that This was at first much peopled by the Scythians: These, originally from Magog, were afterwards called Tartars; and so called, as some suppose, from the Name of the River Tartar or Tatar.

       As We find that the Earth was divided in the Days of Peleg; so we read, in Gen. ix. 19, that as there were three Sons of Noah; so of or from them the whole Earth was overspread or scattered. Nor is there any Reason to doubt, but that this Scattering was according to the direction of Noah, and from a Divine Warrant given him for this purpose: So then the Posterity of Japhet, by Magog, according to the Will of heaven, took the primary Possession of this new World: And how greatly, how amazingly, was Japhet enlarged by this vast Acquisition?

     But, after this first dispersion to the Western World, we readily grant, that there might be various Removals to it from various Nations: For after the Scythians or Tartars, were settled here; the Norwegians and Icelanders might come; and so might some of the Sinensians from the East.

     But some perhaps may say here, And how came they to this Separate World? To which we answer, that there was no need at all of any Navigation for it: For it is apprehended by many, that the northern Part of Asia may be joined to America; or if they be divided at all, it must be by a very narrow Channel, which may be passed over easily in Boats or Canoes; or perhaps, as it is frozen over for a great Part of the year, they might have a Passage across on Foot. Laet judged it most probable, that it was by the Straits of Anian, that the Tartars in ancient Times passed out of Asia into America. But it is beyond all doubt, that, from the northern Parts of Europe, there might be an easy passing to America for at least three Quarters of a Year on a Bridge of substantial Ice.

     Thus it looks as if the Northern Parts of America were first of all occupied and improved; and the inhabitants of These might probably remove both to the Westward and to the Southward, as Occasion required. . . .

     Some have thought and suggested, but we think injudiciously, as John Lerius and others, that the Americans were originally Canaanites, descended from Ham, the Son of Noah; and the Descendants of those, whom Joshua drove from their Seats in Canaan; who, being constrained to seek out new Regions, at length came and sat down on this Continent.

     Here we shall readily allow, that the Phoenicians, who were originally Canaanites, in the Days not much later than Moses’s, did sail into Spain: And as Part of these dispossessed Canaanites fled thither, so a Part of them went into Baetia, and another Part into Africa: And Procopius informs us of the Pillar to be seen about Tangier, which had inscribed on it, that they were of the Posterity of those who fled from the Face of Joshua the Son of Nun, the Robber. And it is not at all improbable, that, as these Phoenicians, or Canaanites, might mingle with Japhet’s Posterity in Europe; so some of them might in Process of Time come to America by the Way of the Sea and settle here: For they were mightily for navigation and Trade and Commerce.

     [p. 18] But some may ask: Where learned They the Art of navigation? And how came they to understand the Use and Application of the Magnet?–Panormitan indeed would have it, that Amalphis first discovered the use of the Loadstone to mariners: And there is a Latin Line made to record the Discoverer, Prima dedit Nautis usum Magnetis Amalphis:–By which we are to understand an Italian City, where one John Goa, it is said, found out the Use of the Mariner’s Compass, about the Year of our Lord 1302–But the Phoenicians were generally thought to be the Inventors of the Mariner’s Art; and, from These, the Greeks received it; and, of these, the Cretans first of all, as Pliny acquaints us. But as the Phoenicians first tried the Seas among the Nations at Hand, and then afar off; so Thucydides tells us, that the Corinthians were the first among the Greeks, who performed Voyages: . . .

     The Voyage of Hanno, the Carthaginian, round the Coast of Africa, has already been mention’d: And surely this must discover no small Skill in Navigation. Nor have we any Doubt, that many of the Phoenicians were well skilld in the Mariner’s Art: Nor yet is it any unreasonable Supposition, that they might sail to America, and make Settlements here.

     Thus it appears with sufficient Probability, that America not very long after the Flood was settled; and that, after the first Settlement of it, there were successive Removals to it, especially from the Northern Parts of Europe and Asia: And then, after some Ages had revolved, the Phoenicians might arrive and trade and settle here. And, by these various Ways, America became very well settled; and vast Numbers of People were found in this Western World, when Columbus, Americus and succeeding Voyagers came to it: And perhaps the Inhabitants here might, for their Numbers, vie with those of the other Continent.

     But some may be ready to enquire, Whether we have any Proofs from the sacred Writings, that this Western World was known to the Ancients? And what Evidences can be offered from them, to shew that it was so?

     Now we do not presume to declare, that there is a clear, full and express Discovery of this Western Continent in the holy Writings.–But we may safely venture to affirm, that there are various Passages to be found in them, from which attentive and considerate Minds might form a Judgment, that there were Regions and great ones beyond those that were known to them in Asia, Africa and Europe. . . .

     [Simon then discusses a number of biblical passages, some of which are the following:Psalm xxii. 27, Psalm lxvii. 2. 5. 7. Psalm xcviii. 3. Isaiah xlii. 10. Isaiah xlv. 22. Isaiah lix. 19. Malachi i. 11. ]

1775      Bernard Roman (1720-84), A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida. 2 vols. New York, 1775, 1776.

           (INDIGENOUS)                   

     Dan Vogel writes:

     Romans, a cartographer sent to North America by the British government, believes the Indians were a separate creation and not descended from Adam (1:38-39). Consequently, he rejects any theory which has American natives originating in the Old World, including the ten tribe theory (1:46-49). He also argues for a partial flood at the time of Noah, thus accounting for Indian survival in the New World (1:57-58)

Source: ^Dan Vogel, “Bibliography” in Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon, Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1986, pp. 105-144.*(126)

1777^      William Robertson, The History of America 2 vols. London, 1777. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1835.

     (INDIGENOUS-Natural evolution + MIXED)       

     William Robertson, D. D., was the Principal of the University of Edinburgh, Historiographer to His Majesty for Scotland, and Member of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid. In the 1835 edition, Volume 1, Book IV, pp. 129-140 we find the following:

     Having thus surveyed the state of the New World at the time of its discovery, and considered the peculiar features and qualities which distinguish and characterize it, the next inquiry that merits attention is, How was America peopled? By what course did mankind migrate from the one continent to the other? And in what quarter is it most probable that a communication was opened between them?

     We know, with infallible certainty, that all the human race spring from the same source, and that the descendants of one man, under the protection, as well as in obedience to the command of Heaven, multiplied and replenished the earth. But neither the annals nor the traditions of nations reach back to those remote ages, in which they took possession of the different countries where they are now settled. We cannot trace the branches of this first family, or point out with certainty the time and manner in which they divided and spread over the face of the globe. Even among the most enlightened people, the period of authentic history is extremely short; and every thing prior to that is fabulous or obscure, It is not surprising, then, that the unlettered inhabitants of America, who have no solicitude about futurity, and little curiosity concerning what is passed, should be altogether unacquainted with their own original. The people on the two opposite coasts of America, who occupy those countries in America which approach nearest to the ancient continent are so remarkably rude, that it is altogether vain to search among them for such information as might discover the place from whence they came, or the ancestors of whom they are descended. Whatever light has been thrown on this subject is derived not from the natives of America, but from the inquisitive genius of their conquerors.

     When the people of Europe unexpectedly discovered a New World, removed at a vast distance from every part of the ancient continent which was then known, and filled with inhabitants, whose appearance and manners differed remarkably from the rest of the human species, the question concerning their original became naturally an object of curiosity and attention. The theories and speculations of ingenious men with respect to this subject, would fill many volumes; but are often so wild and chimerical, that I should offer an insult to the understanding of my readers, if I attempted either minutely to enumerate or to refute them. Some have presumptuously imagined, that the people of America were not the offspring of the same common parent with the rest of mankind, but that they formed a separate race of men, distinguishable by peculiar features in the constitution of their bodies, as well as in the characteristic qualities of their minds. Others contend, that they are descended from some remnant of the antediluvian inhabitants of the earth, who survived the deluge, which swept away the greatest part of the human species in the days of Noah; and preposterously suppose rude uncivilized tribes, scattered over an uncultivated continent, to be the most ancient race of people on the earth. There is hardly any nation from the north to south pole, to which some antiquary, in the extravagance of conjecture, has not ascribed the honour of peopling America. The Jews, the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, the Carthagenians, the Greeks, the Scythians in ancient times, are supposed to have settled in this western world.; The Chinese, the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Welsh, the Spaniards, are said to have sent colonies thither in later ages, at different periods, and on various occasions. Zealous advocates stand forth to support the respective claims of those people; and though they rest upon no better foundation than the casual resemblance of some customs, or the supposed affinity between a few words in their different languages, much erudition and more zeal have been employed, to little purpose, in defence of the opposite systems. Those regions of conjecture and controversy belong not to the Historian. His is a more limited province, confined to what is established by certain or highly probable evidence. Beyond this I shall not venture, in offering a few observations, which may contribute to throw some light upon this curious and much agitated question.

     1. There are authors who have endeavoured, by mere conjectures to account for the peopling of America. Some have supposed that it was originally united to the ancient continent, and disjointed from it by the shock of an earthquake, or the irruption of a deluge. Others have imagined, that some vessel being forced from its course by the violence of a westerly wind, might be driven by accident towards the American coast, and have given a beginning to population in that desolate continent. But with respect to all those systems, it is vain either to reason or inquire, because it is impossible to come to any decision. Such events as they suppose are barely possible, and may have happened. That they ever did happen, we have no evidence, either from the clear testimony of history, or from the obscure intimations of tradition. . . .

     4. We may lay it down as a certain principle in this inquiry, that America was not peopled by any nation of the ancient continent, which had made considerable progress in civilization. The inhabitants of the New World were in a state of society so extremely rude, as to be unacquainted with those arts which are the first essays of human ingenuity in its advance towards improvement. Even the most cultivated nations of America were strangers to many of those simple inventions, which were almost coeval with society in other parts of the world, and were known in the earliest period of civil life, with which we have any acquaintance. From this it is manifest, that the tribes which originally migrated to America, came off from nations which must have been no less barbarous than their posterity, at the time when they were first discovered by Europeans. For, although the elegant and refined arts may decline or perish, amidst the violent shocks of those revolutions and disasters to which nations are exposed, the necessary arts of life, when once they have been introduced among any people, are never lost. None of the vicissitudes in human affairs affect these, and they continue to be practiced as long as the race of men exists. If ever the use of iron had been known to the savages of America, or to their progenitors, if every they had employed a plough, a loom, or a forge, the utility of those inventions would have preserved them, and it is impossible that they should have been abandoned or forgotten. We may conclude then, that the Americans sprung from some people, who were themselves in such an early and unimproved stage of society, as to be unacquainted with all those necessary arts, which continued to be unknown among their posterity, when first visited by the Spaniards.

     5. It appears no less evident that America was not peopled by any colony from the more southern nations of the ancient continent. None of the rude tribes settled in that part of our hemisphere can be supposed to have visited a country so remote. They possessed neither enterprise, ingenuity, nor power, that could prompt them to undertake, or enable them to perform, such a distant voyage. That the more civilized nations in Asia or Africa are not the progenitors of the Americans is manifest, not only from the observations which I have already made concerning their ignorance of the most simple and necessary arts, but from an additional circumstance. Whenever any people have experienced the advantages which men enjoy, by their dominion over the inferior animals, they can neither subsist without the nourishment which these afford, nor carry on any considerable operation independent of their ministry and labour. Accordingly, the first care of the Spaniards, when they settled in America, was to stock it with all the domestic animals of Europe; and if, prior to them, the Tyrians, the Carthaginians, the Chinese, or any other polished people, had taken possession of that continent, we should have found there the animals peculiar to those regions of the globe where they were originally seated. In all America, however, there is not one animal, tame or wild, which properly belongs to the warm, or even to the more temperate, countries of the ancient continent. The camel, the dromedary, the horse, the cow, were as much unknown in America as the elephant or the lion. From which it is obvious, that the people who first settled in the western world did not issue from the countries where those animals abound, and where men, from having long been accustomed to their aid, would naturally consider it, not only as beneficial, but, as indispensably necessary to the improvement, and even the preservation, of civil society.

     6. From considering the animals with which America is stored, we may conclude that the nearest point of contact, between the old and new continents, is towards the northern extremity of both, and that there the communication was opened, and the intercourse carried on, between them. All the extensive countries in America, which lie within the tropics, or approach near to them, are filed with indigenous animals of various kinds, entirely different from those in the corresponding regions of the ancient continent. But the northern provinces of the New World abound with many of the wild animals which are common in such parts of our hemisphere as lie in the similar situation. The bear, the world, the fox, the hard, the deer, the roebuck, the elk, and several other species frequent the forests of North America, no less than those in the north of Europe and Asia. It seems to be evident, then, that the two continents approach each other in this quarter, and are either united, or so nearly adjacent, that these animals might pass from the one to the other.

     7. The actual vicinity of the two continents is so clearly established by modern discoveries, that the chief difficulty with respect to the peopling of America is removed. While those immense regions which stretch eastward from the river Oby to the sea of Kamchatka were unknown or imperfectly explored, the north-east extremities of our hemisphere were supposed to be so far distant from any part of the New World, that it was not easy to conceive how any communication should have been carried on between them. But the Russians, having subjected the western part of Siberia to their empire, gradually extended their knowledge of that vast country, by advancing towards the east into unknown provinces. . . .

     Thus the possibility of a communication between the continents in this quarter rests no longer upon mere conjecture, but is established by undoubted evidence. Some tribe, or some families of wandering Tartars, from the restless spirit peculiar to their race, might migrate to the nearest islands, and, rude as their knowledge of navigation was, might, by passing from one to the other, reach at length the coast of America, and give a beginning to population in that continent. The distance between the Marian or Ladrone islands and the nearest land in Asia, is greater than that between the part of America which the Russians discovered, and the coast of Kamchatka; and yet the inhabitants of those islands are manifestly of Asiatic extract. . . .

1778^      Jonathan Carver, Three years Travels through the Interior Parts of North-America, Philadelphia, 1784.

     The full title of this 217-page book is, Three Years Travels through the Interior Parts of North-America, for More than Five Thousand Miles, containing, An Account of the great Lakes, and all the Lakes, Islands, and Rivers, Cataracts, Mountains, Minerals, Soil and Vegetable Productions of the North-West Regions of that vast Continent; with a Description of the Birds, Beasts, Reptiles, Insects, and Fishes peculiar to the Country. Together with a Concise History of the Genius, Manners, and Customs of the Indians Inhabiting the lands that lie adjacent to the Heads and to the Westward of the Great River Mississippi; and an Appendix, Describing the uncultivated Parts of America that are the most proper for forming Settlements. In it Carver reviews various theories concerning Indian origins.

     In Chapter 1 entitled “Of the Origin, Manners, Customs, Religion and Language of the Indians,” Carver writes:      

     [p. 84] . . . John De Laet, a Flemish writer, has controverted the opinions of these Spanish fathers, and of many others who have written on the same subject. The hypothesis he endeavours to establish, is, that America was certainly peopled by the Scythians or Tartars, and that the transmigration of these people happened soon after the dispersion of Noah’s grandsons. He undertakes to show, that the most northern Americans have a greater resemblance, not only in the features of their countenances, but also in their complexion and manner of living, to the Scythians, Tartars, and Samoeides, than to any other nation. . . .

     . . . Pierre De Charlevoix, a Frenchman, who, in his journal of a voyage to North America, made so lately as the year 1720, has recapitulated the opinions of a variety of authors on this head, to which he has subjoined his own conjectures. But the latter cannot without some difficulty be extracted, as they are so interwoven with the passages he has quoted, that it requires much attention to discriminate them.

     He seems to allow that America might have received its first inhabitants from Tartary and Hircania. This he confirms, by observing that the lions and tigers which are found in the former, must have come from those countries, and whose passage serves for a proof that the two hemispheres join to the northward of Asia. . . .

     He quotes . . . Mark Pol, a Venetian, who, he says, tells us, that to the northeast of China and Tartary there are vast uninhabited countries which might be sufficient to confirm any conjectures concerning the retreat of a great number of Scythians into America. . . . Charlevoix concludes, that there is at least room to conjecture that more than one nation in America had a Scythian or Tartarian original.

     He finishes his remarks on the authors he has quoted, by the following observations: It appears to me that this controversy may be reduced to the two following articles; first, how the new world might have been peopled; and secondly, by whom, and by what means it has been peopled.

     Nothing, he asserts, may be more easily answered than the first. America might have been peopled as the three other parts of the world have been. Many difficulties have been formed on this subject, which have been deemed insolvable, but which are far from being so. The inhabitants of both hemispheres are certainly the descendants of the same father; the common parent of mankind received an express command from heaven to people the whole world, and accordingly it has been peopled.

     To bring this about it was necessary to overcome all difficulties that lay in the way, and they have been got over. Were there difficulties greater with respect to peopling the extremities of Asia, Africa, and Europe, or the transporting men into the islands which lie at a considerable distance from those continents, than to pass over into America? certainly not.

     Navigation which has arrived at so great perfection within these three or four centuries, might possibly have been more perfect in those early ages than at this day. Who can believe that Noah and his immediate descendants knew less of this art than we do? That the builder and pilot of the largest ship that ever was, a ship that was formed to traverse an unbounded ocean, and had so many shoals and quick-sands to guard against, should be ignorant of, or should not have communicated to those of his descendants who survived him, and by whose means he was to execute the order of the Great Creator; I say, who can believe he should not have communicated to them the art of sailing upon an ocean, which was not only more calm and pacific, but at the same time confined within its ancient limits?

     Admitting this, how easy is it to pass, exclusive of the passage already described, by land from the coast of Africa to Brazil, from the Canaries to the Western Islands, and from them to the Antilles? From the British Isles, or the coast of France, to Newfoundland, the passage is neither long nor difficult; I might say as much of that from China to Japan; from Japan, or the Philippines, to the Isles Mariannes; and from thence to Mexico.

     There are islands at a considerable distance from the continent of Asia, where we have not been surprised to find inhabitants, why then should we wonder to meet with people in America? Nor can it be imagined that the grandsons of Noah, when they were obliged to separate, and spread themselves in conformity to the designs of God, over the whole earth, should find it absolutely impossible to people almost one half of it.

1792^      Daniel Gookin, Historical Collections of the Indians of New England: Of Their Several Nations, Numbers, Customs, Manners, Religion and Government, Before the English Planted There. Boston, 1792.

     This 140-page book begins with Chapter 1 (5 pages) on the basic theories of Indian origins. Daniel Gookin writes the following:

     Chapter I: Several Conjectures of their Original

     #1. Concerning the original of the Savages, or Indians, in New England, there is nothing of certainty to be concluded. But yet, as I conceive, it may rationally be made out, that all the Indians of America, from the straits of Magellan and its adjacent islands on the south, unto the most northerly part yet discovered, are originally of the same nations or sort of people. Whatever I have read or seen to this purpose, I am the more confirmed therein. I have seen of this people, along the sea coasts and within land, from the degrees of 34 unto 44 of north latitude; and have read of the Indians of Magellanica, Peru, Brasilia, and Florida, and have also seen some of them; and unto my best apprehension, they are all of the same sort of people.

     The colour of their skins, the form and shape of their bodies, hair, and eyes, demonstrate this. Their skins are of a tawny colour, not unlike the tawny Moors in Africa; the proportion of their limbs, well formed; it is rare to see a crooked person among them. Their hair is black and harsh, not curling; their eyes, black and dull; though I have seen, but very rarely, a grey-eyed person among them, with brownish hair. But still the difficulty yet remains, whence all these Americans had their first original, and from which of the sons of Noah they descended, and how they came first into these parts; which is separated so very far from Europe and Africa by the Atlantick ocean, and from a great part of Asia, by Mar del Zur, or the South sea . . .

     There are divers opinions about this matter.

1799^      Charles Crawford, An Essay upon the Propogation of the Gospel, Philadelphia, 1799.

     (NOAH + TEN TRIBES)

     Charles Crawford writes the following:

     It seems to be at this time particularly required of the disciples of Christ, that there should not be a nation, from the North to the South pole, without having the Gospel preached to them. . . . The Principal places, however, where the Gospel might at this time be propagated with great prospect of success, are, in India, among the Hindoos, in Africa among the Negroes, and in America among the Indians. . . .

     [pp. 16-19] There is a strong argument in favour of the Indians being converted to Christianity, their being descended from the Jews. St. Paul says that “all Israel shall be saved.” As this is a subject of great importance, it may be necessary to give it considerable attention.

     “Aborigines of America were probably the descendants of Noah, that is, America was first peopled by the sons of Noah, before the division of the globe. The sons of Noah are said to have wandered over the earth. We read in scripture, that the division of the globe was made in the days of Peleg, who was the seventh from Noah. (See Genesis, X. 25.) The Hebrew word Peleg signifies a division. It is a strong argument in favor of the division of the earth being a fact of great notoriety, that a man of eminence obtained his name from the circumstance. . . .

     Carver, in his Travels, says, that at Beering’s Straits (which are now sometimes called Cook’s Straits) the continents of Asia and America, on both sides, appear as if they had formerly been united.

     Afterwards, it is probable that America was further peopled by the ten tribes, who were taken captive by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. . . . (2 Kings xvii. 6.) . .

1804      Alexander [Von] Humboldt, Researches Concerning the Institutions and Movements of the Ancient Inhabitants of America. London, 1804

     Humboldt links the mortar used by the Incas with that found on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates river in Mesopotamia. He writes:

     We do not find in the ruins of Cannar those stones of enormous size, which we see in the Peruvian edifices of Cuzco and the neighboring countries. Acosta measured some at Traquanaco, which were twelve metres, (thirty-eight feet) long, five metres eight tenths (eighteen feet) broad, and one metre nine tenths (six feet) thick. Pedro Cieca of Leon saw some of the same dimensions in the ruins of Tiahuanaco. In the citadel of Cannar I saw no stones that exceeded twenty-six decimetres (eight feet) in length. They are in general much less remarkable for their bulk, than the extreme beauty of their shape; the greater part are joined without any appearance of cement. We nevertheless recognized cement in some of the buildings surrounding the citadel, and in the three houses of the Inca at Pullal, each of which is more than fifty-eight metres long. This cement is formed of a mixture of small stones and argillaceous marl, which effervesces with acids; it is a true mortar, of which I detached considerable portions with a knife, by digging into the interstices which were left between the parallel courses of the stones. This fact deserves some attention; because the travellers who preceded us have all asserted, that the Peruvians were unacquainted with the use of mortar in the great edifices of Pacaritambo, but made of a cement of asphalt (betun); a mode of construction, which on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris may be traced back to the remotest antiquity.

1806      Francisco Javier Clavijero, Ancient History of Mexico, Charles Cullen, trans., 3 vols.Richmond, Virginia: William Prichard, 1806. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1817, 3:93-102..

     David Palmer writes:

     Francisco Javier Clavijero (1731-1787) was the most successful of the early Mexican historians in terms of publication. He was born in Veracruz, Mexico, and as a Catholic monk learned Nahuatl, Otomi (?), and Mixteca, the native Mexican languages. He had early access to the library of Siguenza y Gongora, so was well acquainted with the manuscript of Ixtlilxochitl. . . .

     Siguenza y Gongora (1645-1700) is practically a forgotten figure among Mexican historians, despite his great efforts to preserve Mexican history. He spent a fortune collecting manuscripts and ancient codices including those of Ixtlilxochitl. He wrote a great deal of ancient Mexican history, including the preaching of the life God, Quetzalcoatl. When he died, however, his manuscripts were lost by his heirs before being published. The historian Mariano Veytia says, “At his death it seems as if a surprise attack upon his papers had been sounded and everyone got possession of what he could.” A few years later no trace could be found of his Quetzalcoatl manuscript, reportedly titled “Fenix del Occidente.” . . .

     [Clavijero] went to Italy in 1767 and did his writing in Bologna. His works were translated from Spanish for publication in Italian, and comprise the first comprehensive history of Mexico. It has subsequently been printed in many editions. Of primary interest are the English editions. These were printed in London in 1887, in Richmond, Virginia in 1806, and in Philadelphia in 1817. The book mentions an eclipse in 34 A.D., but aside from that Clavijero chose to ignore the period covered by the Book of Mormon, preferring instead to concentrate on descriptions of flora, fauna, customs, and later history, even though he had information on the early history available to him.

     Dan Vogel notes:

     [Clavigero] mentions that “those who question the authority of the sacred writings say the Americans derive not their origin from Adam and Noah” and goes on to argue that the Mexican tradition of a flood was proof that the Americans were descendants of Noah. . . . Josiah Priest quoted from Clavigero in The Wonders of Nature and Providence, Displayed (Albany, 1825), 569-93. Priest’s book was listed in the Manchester Library under accession number 208.

Source: Dan Vogel, Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon: Religious Solutions from Columbus to Joseph Smith, U.S.A: Signature Books, 1986, pp. 35-44, 48

     Abbe D. Francesco Saverio Clavigero writes in Volume 1 concerning first the variety of theories proposed by the writers on Indian origins, and second concerning the lack of certainty in the methods of their investigation:

     [p. 141] The Chiapanese have been the first peoplers of the New World, if we give credit to their traditions. They say that Votan, the grandson of that respectable old man who 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 heaven, went, by express command of the Lord, to people that land. They say also that the first peoplers came from the quarter of the North, and that when they arrived at Soconusco, they separated, some going to inhabit the country of Nicaragua, and others remaining in Chiapan.

    In Volume 3, Section 1 (pp. 89-102) we find the following:

     At What Period America Began to Be Peopled

     Betancourt, and other authors, are persuaded, that the new world began to be peopled before the deluge. That certainly might have happened, because the space of one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years elapsed from the creation of the first man until the deluge, according to the chronology of the Hebrew text of Genesis, and our common reckoning; and still more, the space of two thousand tow hundred and forty-two, or two thousand two hundred and sixty-two years, according to the computation of the Seventy, was certainly enough to people all the world, as has been already demonstrated by some writers; at least after ten or twelve centuries, some of those families which scattered themselves towards the most eastern parts of Asia, might pass to that part of the world which we call at present America, whether it was, as we believe, united to the other, or separated by a small arm of the sea from it. But how do those authors prove that America was peopled before the deluge? Because they say there were giants in America, and the race of giants was antediluvian. Because God, others will say, did not create the earth to remain uninhabited; and it is not probable that, after creating America for that purpose, he would leave it so long without inhabitants. Admitting the sacred text to be taken in the vulgar sense, and that the giants were men of extraordinary size and bigness, this would by no means confirm such opinion, because we read in the sacred writings also of giants posterior to the deluge. Neither does the text of Isaiah prove anything in favor of that opinion, because although God created the earth to be inhabited, no one can divine the time prefixed by him for the execution of his designs. . . .

     It is therefore useless to investigate whether America was peopled before the deluge, because on one hand although we were able to discover it, on the other we are certain, that all men perished in the deluge. We are therefore obliged always, after that general inundation, to seek for new peoplers of America. We know that some writers circumscribe the deluge to a certain part of Asia; but we know also that that opinion is contrary to the Sacred Writings, to the traditions of the Americans, and physical observations.

     Dr. Siguenza believed the population of America began not long after the dispersion of nations. As we have not the manuscripts of that celebrated Mexican, we are ignorant of what foundation he rested his opinion, which was very conformable to the tradition of the Chiapanese. Other authors, on the contrary, believe that population very modern, because the writers of the history of the Mexicans and Peruvians did not find among those nations any memory of their particular events farther back than eight centuries. But those authors confound the population of Mexico made by the Chichimecas and the Aztecas, with that which their ancestors had made many ages before in the northern countries of America, nor distinguished the Mexicans from other nations who occupied that country before them. Who can ascertain when the Otomies, Olmecas, Cuitlatecas, and Michauacanese entered into the country of Anahuac? It is not surprising that some writers of Mexico could not find any memorials more ancient than eight centuries; since, besides the loss of the greater part of the historical monuments of those nations, as they did not know how to adjust the Mexican years with ours, they frequently committed gross anachronisms; but they who had procured greater abundance of the ancient and select paintings, and knew a little better how to trace the chronology of those people, such as Siguenza and Istlilxochitl, found records certainly more ancient, and used them in their valuable manuscripts.

     We do not doubt that the population of America has been very ancient, and more so than it may seem to have been to European authors. (1) because the Americans wanted those arts and inventions, such, for example, as those of wax and oil for light, which, on the one hand, being very ancient in Europe and Asia, are on the other most useful, not to say necessary, and when once discovered, are never forgotten. (2) Because 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, the building of the tower of Babel, the confusion of languages, and the dispersion of the people, though blended with some fables, and had no knowledge of the events which happened afterwards in Asia, in Africa, or in Europe, although many of them were so great and remarkable, that they could not easily have gone from their memories. (3) Because neither was there among the Americans any knowledge of the people of the old continent, nor among the latter any account of the passage of the former to the new world. These reasons, we presume, give some probability to our opinions.

     Sect. II

     Who Were the Peoplers of America

     Those who question the authority of the sacred writings say the Americans derive not their origin from Adam and Noah, and believe, or feign to believe, that as God created Adam that he might be the father of the Asiatics, also made before or after him other men, that they might be the patriarchs of the Africans, Europeans, and Americans. This does not arraign the authority of the sacred writings, says a modern author, because although Moses makes mention of no other first patriarch than Adam, it was owing to his having undertaken to write the history of no other people than the Israelites. But this is contrary to the tradition of the Americans, who in their paintings and in their hymns called themselves the descendants of those men who escaped from the general deluge. The Toltecas, Mexicans, Tlascalans, and all the other nations were agreed on this point. They all said that their ancestors came from elsewhere into those countries; they pointed out the road they had come, and even preserved the names, true or false, of those their first progenitors, who, after the confusion of languages, separated from the rest of men.

     F. Nunez de la Vega, bishop of Chiapa, says, in the preface of his Synodal Constitutions, that in the visit which he made to his diocess towards the end of the last century, he found many ancient calendars of the Chiapanese, and an old manuscript in the language of that country, made by the Indians themselves, in which it was said, according to their ancient tradition, that a certain person named Votan, was present at that great building, which was made by order of his uncle, in order to mount up to heaven; that then every people was given its language, and that Votan himself was charged by God to make the division of the lands of Anahuac. The prelate adds afterwards, that there was in his time in Teopixca, a great settlement of that diocess, a family of the surname of Votan, who were the reputed descendants of that ancient populator. We are not here endeavouring to give antiquity to the populator of America on the faith of the Chiapanese, but merely to show that the Americans conceived themselves the descendants of Noah.

     Of the ancient Indians of Cuba several historians of America relate, that when they were interrogated by the Spaniards concerning their origin, they answered, they had heard from their ancestors that God created the heavens, the earth, and all things; that an old man, having foreseen the deluge with which God designed to chastise the sins of men, built a large canoe, and embarked in it with his family, and many animals; that when the inundation ceased, he sent out a raven, which, because it found carrion to feed on, never returned to the canoe; that he then sent out a pigeon, which soon returned bearing a branch of Hoba, a certain fruit of America, in its mouth; that when the old an saw the earth was dry he disembarked, and having made himself some wine of the woo-grape, he became intoxicated and fell asleep; that then one of this sons made ridicule of his nakedness, and that another son piously covered him; that, upon waking he blessed the latter, and cursed the former. Lastly, that they drew their origin from the cursed son [Ham], and therefore went almost naked; that the Spaniards as they were well clothed, descended perhaps from the other.

     The Mexicans used to call Noah Coxcox, and Teocipactli; and the Michuacenese, Tezpi. They used to say, that there was once a great deluge, and that Tezpi, in order to save himself from being drowned, embarked in a ship formed like an ark, with his wife, his children, and many different animals, and several seeds of fruits; and that as the water abated, he sent out that bird which bears the name of aura, which remained eating dead bodies, and then sent out other birds, who did not return either, except that little bird (the flower-sucker) which was much prized by them on account of the variety of the colours of its feathers, that brought a small branch with it; and from this family they all believed they drew their origin. If therefore we refer to the sacred writings, or the traditions of those Americans, we must seek for the peoplers of America among the descendants of Noah.

     But who were they? Which of the sons of Noah was the root of the American nations? D. Siguenza, and the very ingenious Mexican Sister J. Agnes de la Cruz, believed or conjectured, that the Mexicans, and other nations of Anahuac, were the descendants of Naphtuhim, son of Mezraim; and nephew of Cham. Boturini was of opinion, that they descended not only from Naphtuhim, but likewise from his other five brothers. The learned Spaniard Arias Montano was persuaded that the Americans, and particularly the Peruvians, belonged to the posterity of Ophir, fourth son of Shem. The reasons of this author are so weak that they do not merit mention. Of those of Siguenza we shall speak presently.

     The other authors, who have not been willing to carry their inquiries so far into antiquity, have sought for the origin of the Americans in different countries of the world. Their opinions are so numerous and different, it is not easy to recite them.

Source: Fitzgerald, pp. 56-73.

See the other notations referring to this story: 1823, 1824, 1875, 1876, 1902

1809^      Washington Irving, A History of New York . . . , 2 vols. New York, 1809. Reprint

     Washington Irving became popular by looking at history in a critical but humorous manner. In his History of New York he reviewed the various theories on Indian origins. In Book I, Chapter III, we find the following:

     [pp. 33-35] Noah, we are told by sundry very credible historians, becoming sole surviving heir and proprietor of the earth, in fee simple, after the deluge, like a good father, portioned out his estate among his children. To Shem he gave Asia; to Ham, Africa; and to Japhet, Europe. Now it is a thousand times to be lamented that he had but three sons, for had there been a fourth, he would doubtless have inherited America; which, of course, would have been dragged forth from its obscurity on the occasion; and thus many a hard-working historian and philosopher would have been spared a prodigious mass of weary conjecture respecting the first discovery and population of this country. Noah, however, having provide for his three sons, looked in all probability upon our country as mere wild unsettled land, and said nothing about it; and to his unpardonable taciturnity of the patriarch may we ascribe the misfortune, that America did not come into the world as early as the other quarters of the globe.

     It is true, some writers have vindicated him from this misconduct towards posterity, and asserted that he really did discover America. Thus it was the opinion of Mark Lescarbot, a French writer, possessed of that ponderosity of thought, and profoundness of reflection, so peculiar to his nation, that the immediate descendants of Noah peopled this quarter of the globe, and that the old patriarch himself, who still retained a passion for the sea-faring life, superintended the transmigration. The pious and enlightened father, Charlevoix, a French Jesuit, remarkable for his aversion to the marvellous, common to all great travelers, is conclusively of the same opinion; nay, he goes still farther, and decides upon the manner in which the discovery was effected, which was by sea, and under the immediate direction of the great Noah. “I have already observed,” exclaims the good father, in a tone of becoming indignation, “that it is an arbitrary supposition that the grandchildren of Noah were not able to penetrate into the new world, or that they never thought of it. In effect, I can see no reason that can justify such a notion. Who can seriously believe, that Noah and his immediate descendants knew less than we do, and that the builder and pilot of the greatest ship that ever was, a ship which was formed to traverse an unbounded ocean, and had so many shoals and quicksands to guard against, should be ignorant of, or should not have communicated to his descendants the art of sailing on the ocean?” Therefore, they did sail on the ocean–therefore, they sailed to America–Therefore, America was discovered by Noah!

     Now all this exquisite chain of reasoning, which is so strikingly characteristic of the good father, being addressed to the faith, rather than the understanding, is flatly opposed by Hans de Laet, who declares it a real and most ridiculous paradox, to suppose that Noah ever entertained the thought of discovering America; and as Hans is a Dutch writer, I am inclined to believe he must have been much better acquainted with the worthy crew of the ark than his competitors, and of course possessed of more accurate sources of information. It is astonishing how intimate historians do daily become with the patriarchs and other great men of antiquity. As intimacy improves with time, and as the learned are particularly inquisitive and familiar in their acquaintance with the ancients, I should not be surprised if some future writers should gravely give us a picture of men and manners as they existed before the flood, far more copious and accurate than the Bible; and that, in the course of another century, the log-book of the good Noah should be as current among historians, as the voyages of Captain Cook, or the renowned history of Robinson Crusoe.

     I shall not occupy my time by discussing the huge mass of additional suppositions, conjectures and probabilities respecting the first discovery of this country, with which unhappy historians overload themselves, in their endeavors to satisfy the doubts of an incredulous world. It is painful to see these laborious wights panting, and toiling, and sweating under an enormous burthen, at the very outset of their works, which, on being opened, turns out to be nothing but a mighty bundle of straw. As, however, by unwearied assiduity, they seem to have established the fact, to the satisfaction of all the world, that this country has been discovered, I shall avail myself of their useful labors to be extremely brief upon this point.

On pages 36-40 we find the following:

     Chapter IV

     Showing the great difficulty philosophers have had in peopling America-And how the aborigines came to be begotten by accident-To the great relief and satisfaction of the author

     The next inquiry at which we arrive in the regular course of our history is to ascertain, if possible, how this country was originally peopled-a point fruitful of incredible embarrassments; for unless we prove that the Aborigines did absolutely come from somewhere, it will be immediately asserted in this age of skepticism that they did not come at all; and if they did not come at all, then was this country never populated- a conclusion perfectly agreeable to the rules of logic, but wholly irreconcilable to every feeling of humanity, inasmuch as it must syllogistically prove fatal to the innumerable Aborigines of this populous region. . . .

     Of the claims of the children of Noah to the original population of this country I shall say nothing, as they have already been touched upon in my last chapter. The claimants next in celebrity, are the descendants of Abraham. Thus Christovallo Colon (vulgarly called Columbus) when he first discovered the gold mines of Hispaniola, immediately concluded, with a shrewdness that would have done honor to a philosopher, that he had found the ancient Ophir, from whence Solomon procured the gold for embellishing the temple at Jerusalem; nay, Colon even imagined that he saw the remains of furnaces of veritable Hebraic construction employed in refining the precious ore.

     So golden a conjecture, tinctured with such fascinating extravagance, was too tempting not to be immediately snapped at by the gudgeons of learning; and accordingly, there were divers profound writers, ready to swear to its correctness, and to bring in their usual load of authorities, and wise surmises, wherewithal to prop it up. Vetablus and Robertus Stephens declared nothing could be more clear–Arius Montanus, without the least hesitation, asserts that Mexico was the true Ophir, and the Jews the early settlers of the country. While Possevin, Becan and several other sagacious writers, lug in a supposed prophecy of the fourth book of Esdras, which being inserted in the mighty hypothesis, like the keystone of an arch, gives it, in their opinion, perpetual durability.

1810      Adam Clarke            The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: . . . with a Commentary and Critical Notes . . ., Volume 1. [Genesis] , 1810. Republished in Baltimore: by John J. Harrod, Book Agent of the Methodist Protestant Church, Stereotype edition, 1834.

     The most important of Adam Clarke’s numerous works was his series of Bible Commentaries. Starting with Volume I (The Old Testament – Genesis) they were originally published in eight volumes from 1810 to 1826. Clarke makes the following comments regarding the Genesis story that may be pertinent to the Jared story in the Book of Ether:

     5: 32      And Noah was Five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japeth

     Genesis Chapter VI

     The children of God, among whom the true religion was at first preserved, corrupt it by forming matrimonial connections with irreligious women, 1, 2. God, displeased with these connections and their consequences, limits the continuance of the old world . . . 3. The issue of these improper connections termed giants, 4. , , , Noah is forewarned of the approaching destruction of the human race, 13; and is ordered to build an ark for the safety of himself and household, the form and dimensions of which are particularly described, 14-16. The deluge threatened, 17.

     1. And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

     2. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

     . . .

     3. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh . . .

     4. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mightymen which were of old, men of renown.

     5. And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth . . .

     7. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth

     11. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

NOTES ON CHAP. VI . . .

     Verse 1. When men began to multiply]

     Verse 4. There were giants in the earth]

     nephilim, from naphal, “he fell.” Those who had apostatised or fallen from the true religion. The Septuagint translate the original word by [ ] which literally signifies earth-born, and which we, following them, term giants, without having any reference to the meaning of the word, which we generally conceive to signify persons of enormous stature. But the word when properly understood makes a very just distinction between the sons of men and the sons of God; those were the nephilim, the fallen earth-born men, with the animal nd devilish mind. These were the sons of God, who were born from above; children of the kingdom. Hence we may suppose originated the different appellatives given to sinners and saints; the former were termed earth-born, and the latter saints . . .

     Verse 4. The same became mighty men–men of renown]

     gibborim,which we render mighty men, signifies properly conquerors, heroes, . . . the same as we render men of renown, renominati, twice named, as the word implies, having one name which they derived from their fathers, and another which they acquired by their daring exploits and enterprises.

It may be necessary to remark here that our translators have rendered seven different Hebrew words by the one term giants . . . by which appellatives are probably meant in general persons of great knowledge, piety, courage, wickedness, &c and not men of enormous stature, as is generally conjectured.

     13. And God said unto Noah, . . .

     14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

     15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

     16. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

     17. And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth . . .

     18. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

     19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.

     Verse 15. The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits]

     . . . Strabo and others give the length of a cubit to be . . . nearly twenty-two inches. . . . And from this it will appear that the three hundred cubits of the ark’s length make five hundred and forty-seven feet; the fifty for its breadth, ninety-one feet two inches . . .

     Verse 16. A window shalt thou make]

     What this was cannot be absolutely ascertained. The original word tsohar signifies clear or bright; the Septuagint translate it by “collecting, thou shalt make the ark,” which plainly shows they did not understand the word as signifying any kind of window or light. Symmachus translates it [ ] a transparency; and Aquila, [ ] the noon. Jonathan ben Uzziel supposes that it was a precious luminous stone which Noah, by Divine command, brought from the river Pison. It is probably a word which should be taken in a collective sense, signifying apertures for air and light.

     Chapter VII

     17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

     19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

     23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were desstroyed from the earth; and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

     24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

     . . .

     Chapter VIII

     . . .

     4. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

     13. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.

     14. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

     15. And God spake unto Noah, saying,

     16. Go forth of the ark . . .

     18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him.

     Verse 4: The mountains of Ararat]

     That Ararat was a mountain of Armenia is almost universally agreed. . . . As there is a great chain of mountains which are called by this name, it is impossible to determine on what part of them the ark rested; but the highest part, called by some the finger mountain has been fixed on as the most likely place. . . .

     Verse 14: And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month]

     From this it appears that Noah was in the ark a complete solar year or three hundred and sixty-five days.

     Chapter IX

     8. And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

     9. And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

     11. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

     12. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

     13. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

     18. And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth . . .

     19. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

     Chapter X

     The generations of the sons of Noah . . .

     1. Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah; Shem, Ham, and Japheth . . .

     . . .

     5. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.

     6. And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

     . . .

     8. And Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

     9. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

     10. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel . . . in the land of Shinar

     21. Unto Shem also, (the father of all the children of Eber, the brother Japeth the elder), even to him were children born.

     22. The childrlen of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram.

     24. And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber.

     25. And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.

     26. And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,

     27. And Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah,

     28. And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba

     29. And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab: All these were the sons of Joktan.

     30. And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.

     31. These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.

     32. These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

     Verse 8 & 9: Nimrod . . . He was a mighty hunter before the Lord]

     Of this person little is known, as he is not mentioned except here and in 1 Chron. i. 10, which is evidently a copy of the text in Genesis. he is called a mighty hunter before the Lord; and from ver. 10, we learn that he founded a kingdom which included the cities of Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Though the words are not definite, it is very likely he was a very bad man. His name Nimrod comes from marad, he rebelled; and the Targum, on 1 Chron. 1. 10, says: Nimrod began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord. The Jerusalem Targum says: “He was mighty in hunting (or in prey) and in sin before God, for he was a hunter of the children of men in their languages; and he said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem, and cleave to the institutes of Nimrod.” The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzaziel says: “From the foundation of the world none was ever found like Nimrod, powerful in hunting, and in rebellions against the Lord.” The Syriac calls him a warlike giant. The word tsayid, which we render hunter, signifies prey; and is applied in the Scriptures to the hunting of men by persecution, oppression, and tyranny. Hence it is likely that Nimrod, having acquired power, used it in tyranny and oppression; and by rapine and violence founded that domination which was the first distinguished by the name of a kingdom on the face of the earth. . . .

     Verse 10: The beginning of his kingdom was Babel]

     babel signifies confusion; and it seems to have been a very proper name for the commencement of a kingdom that appears to have been founded in apostasy from God, and to have been supported by tyranny, rapine, and oppression.

     In the land of Shinar]

     The same as mentioned chap. xi. 2. It appears that, as Babylon was built on the river Euphrates, and the tower of Babel was in the land of Shinar, consequently Shinar itself must have been in the southern part of Mesopotamia.

     Chapter XI

     All the inhabitants of the earth, speaking one language and dwelling in one place, 1, 2, purpose to build a city and a tower to prevent their dispersion, 3, 4. God confounds their language, and scatters them over the

whole earth, 5-9. . . .

B.C. cir. 2247      1. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

     2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

     3. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

     4. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the fact of the whole earth.

     5. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

     6. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing twill be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

     7. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

     8. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

     9. There 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.

     Verse 2. As they journeyed from the east]

     Assyria, Mesopotamia, and the country on the borders and beyond the Euphrates, are called the east in the sacred writings. . . .

     Noah and his family, landing after the flood on one of the mountains of Armenia, would doubtless descend and cultivate the valleys: as they increased, they appear to have passed along the banks of the Euphrates, till, at the time specified here, they came to the plains of Shinar, allowed to be the most fertile country in the east. See Calmet. That Babel was built in the land of Shinar we have the authority of the sacred text to prove; and that Babylon was built in the same country we have the testimony of Eusebius, Praep. Evang., lib. ix., c. 15; and Josephus, Antiq. lib. i. c. 5. . . .

     Verse 4. Let us build us a city and a tower]

     On this subject there have been various conjectures. Mr. Hutchinson supposed that the design of the builders was to erect a temple to the host of heaven–the sun, moon planets, &c.’ and, to support this interpretation he says [ ] should be translated, not whose top may reach unto heaven for there is nothing for may reach in the Hebrew, but its head or summit to the heavens, i.e., to the heavenly bodies; and, to make this interpretation the more probable, he says that previously to this time the descendants of Noah were all agreed in one form of religious worship. for so he understands [ ] according to him, they had one litany; they began to disagree in their religious opinions, and branched out into sects and parties, each associating with those of his own sentiment; and thus their tower or temple was left unfinished.

     It is probable that their being of one language and of one speech implies, not only a sameness of language, but also a unity of sentiment and design, as seems pretty clearly intimated in ver. 6. Being therefore strictly united in all things, coming to the fertile plains of Shinar they proposed to settle themselves there, instead of spreading themselves over all the countries of the earth, according to the design of God; and in reference to this purpose they encouraged one another to build a city and a tower, probably a temple, to prevent their separation, “let,” say them, “we be scattered abroad, upon the face of the whole earth:” but God, miraculously interposing, confounded or frustrated their rebellious design, which was inconsistent with his will; see Deut. xxxii 8; Acts xvii. 26; and, partly by confounding their language, and disturbing their counsels, they could no longer keep in a united state; so that agreeing in nothing but the necessity of separating, they went off in different directions, and thus became scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. The Targums, both of Jonathan ben Uzziel and of Jerusalem, assert that the tower was for idolatrous worship; and that they intended to place an image on the top of the tower with a sword in its hand, probably to act as a talisman against their enemies. Whatever their design might have been, it is certain that this temple or tower was afterwards devoted to idolatrous purposes. Nebuchadnezzar repaired and beautified this tower, and it was dedicated to Bel, or the sun.

     An account of this tower, and of the confusion of tongues, is given by several ancient authors. Herodotus saw the tower and described it. A sybil, whose oracle is yet extant, spoke both of it and of the confusion of tongues; so did Eupolemus and Abydenus. See Bochart Geogr. Sacr. lib. i., c. 13, edit. 1692. On this point Bochart observes that these things are taken from the Chaldeans who preserve many remains of ancient facts; and though they often add circumstances, yet they are, in general, in some sort dependent ont he text. 1. They say Babel was built by the giants, because Nimrod, one of the builders, is called in the Hebrew text gibbor, a mighty man; or, as the Septuagint, a giant . . . 4. These giants are said to have raised a tower up to heaven, as if they had intended to have ascended thither. This appears to have been founded on “whose top may reach to heaven” which has been already explained. 5. It is said that the gods sent strong winds against them, which dispersed both them and their work. This appears to have been taken from the Chaldean history, in which it is said their dispersion was made to the four winds of heaven, [ ] to the four quarters of the world. 6. . . . hence they supposed the whole work was broken to pieces and overturned.

     Verse 9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel]

     babel from bal, to mingle, confound, destroy; hence Babel, from the mingling together and confounding of the projects and language of these descendants of Noah; and this confounding did not so much imply the producing new languages, as giving them a different method of pronouncing the same words, and leading them to affix different ideas to them.

     Besides Mr. Hutchinson’s opinion, (see on ver. 4) there have been various conjectures concerning the purpose for which this tower was built. Some suppose it was intended to prevent effects of another flood, by affording an asylum to the builders and their families in case of another general deluge. Others think that it was designed to be a grand city, the seat of government, in order to prevent a general dispersion. This God would not permit, as he had purposed. . . .

Note* As long as the Biblical account of the Flood and the Tower has been broached, I would like quote the pertinent scriptures and include the following ideas of my own relative to the story of Jared. The text says that during the lifetime of Peleg (or “in his days”) was “the earth divided.” (10: 25) But it doesn’t say what divided it. If my interpretation of the above is correct, at some point in time after leaving the Ark, the nations were “divided in the earth” by “these,” (10: 32) which refers back to “families” and “tongues.” (10: 32, 31) If the tongues were confused at the time of Babel, then Babel was built and the tongues were confused during the lifetime of Peleg. One of the natural ways in which “tongues” are confused is by people becoming separated from one another and become subject to cultural influences which corrupt their language. For instance, the word “God” can mean anything from a glorified resurrected celestial man to a golden calf. “Language” can define morality and eventually a society. Thus I can postulate that during the lifetime of Peleg, one or more of the families of the sons of Noah became separated from their brethren to the point that their language (i.e. morality and society) was fundamentally different. In another part of the text it says that “the isles of the Gentiles” were divided by “these” meaning the sons of Noah and their sons (10:1, 5). If so, and if I add this assumption to the one previous, then I might postulate that after the Flood and at the time of the Tower of Babel (or the time of Peleg), the “isles of the Gentiles” or the earth were given by covenant to the children of NOah (or covenant children of the earth). One of those covenant families (or children of Noah) was headed by “Jerah” (Jared?) and another by “Ophir” (the brother of Jared?) These families traveled to an “isle” of the “gentiles” ( America) which had been given to them as a covenant inheritance.

     Starting in chapter 11, verse 1, “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech,” the author or narrator, after having given an extensive genealogy covering many years, is going back in time–back to the time of Noah’s Ark and the land of Shinar to retell the story of how the covenant nations were divided in the earth. The covenant gospel or true gospel is to be taken to all the earth. Failure to heed that commandment or to embrace false doctrine and false worship breaks that covenant and subjects the covenant people to destruction.

1812^      DeWitt Clinton, Discourse Delivered before the New-York Historical Society. [6 Dec. 1811]. New York, 1812.

     On pp. 314-322 of Governor Clinton’s Discourse we find a discussion of “Indian Antiquities,” with a more special focus on the Mound Builders. On pages 320-321, after describing the location and character of a number of these mounds, he writes:

     . . . on the south shores of Lake Erie, these ancient fortresses exist in great number, there can be no doubt but that these works were erected, when this ridge was the southern boundary of Lake Ontario, and, consequently, that their origin must be sought in a very remote age.

     A great part of North America was then inhabited by populous nations, who had made considerable advances in civilization. These numerous works could never have been supplied with provisions without the aid of agriculture. Nor could they have been constructed without the use of iron or copper; and without a perseverance, labour, and design which demonstrate considerable progress in the arts of civilized life. A learned writer [Morse, 1795] has said, “I perceive no reason why the Asiatic North might not be an Officina virorum as well as the European. The overteeming country to the east of the Riphoean Mountains must find it necessary to discharge its inhabitants. The first great wave of people was forced forward by the next to it, more restless and more powerful than itself. Successive and new impulses continually arriving, short rest was given to that which spread over a more eastern track; disturbed again and again, it covered fresh regions. At length, reaching the farthest limits of the old world, it found a new one, with ample space to occupy unmolested for ages.”

     After the north of Asia had thus exhausted its exuberant population by such a great migration, it would require very long period of time to produce a co-operation of causes, sufficient to effect another. The first mighty stream of people that flowed into America, must have remained free from external pressure for ages. Availing themselves of this period of tranquility, they would devote themselves to the art of peace, make rapid progress in civilization, and acquire an immense population. In course of time, discord and war would rage among them, and compel the establishment of places of security. At last, they became alarmed by the irruption of a horde of barbarians, who rushed like an overwhelming flood from the north of Asia . . .

     The great law of self-preservation compelled them to stand on their defence, to resist these ruthless invaders, and to construct numerous and extensive works for protection. And for a long series of time the scale of victory was suspended in doubt, and they firmly withstood the torrent; but like the Romans in the decline of their empire, they were finally worn down and destroyed, by successive inroads, and renewed attacks. And the fortifications of which we have treated, are the only remaining monuments of these ancient and exterminated nations.

1812^      Elijah Parish, A New System of Modern Geography, 2nd ed. Newburyport, MA: E. Little & Co., 1812

     As appears on the title page, this was “A New System of Modern Geography: or a General Description of all the Considerable Countries in the World, compiled from the Latest European and American Geographies, Voyages, and Travels. Designed for the use of the seminaries, schools and academies of the United States.” Some pertinent information found in this book is as follows:

     [pp. 22-23] Inhabitants–At first glance we are struck with the general resemblance in the features of the tribes from the islands of Terra del Fuego to the waters of the St. Lawrence. (Humboldt) How the first inhabitants could reach the continent is not, since the late discoveries in geography, considered a problem of difficult solution. They might easily cross Behring’s strait to the N.W. part of America from the N.E. part of Asia; or they might doubtless reach the N.E. part of America from the N.W. part of Europe. One remarkable fact renders it highly probable, that the principal emigrations to this continent were in the high latitudes of these cold regions. Not one animal, which belonged to the warm latitudes of the eastern continent, is found in any part of America. (Heron, Encyclopedia) They could not have survived such a cold journey. Neither is it very improbable that some persons might have been driven by accident from the western coast of Africa to the eastern shores of South America. Others following the clusters of islands which rise in the southern ocean, might probably reach Peru or Chili from the south eastern part of Asia. Some facts have rendered it probable that America has been peopled from all these points.

     Those traditions of the Indians, which relate to events of the eastern continent, are of remote antiquity. They have traditions, which evidently refer to the creation, the fall of man, the flood, the tower of Babel, and the longevity of the early ages. . . .

1816^      Henry Ker, Travels through the Western Interior of the United State, from the Year 1808 up to the Year 1816 with a Particular Description of a Great part of Mexico, or New-Spain. Elizabethtown, New Jersey, 1816.

     In Chapter XII, Henry Ker writes the following:

     [pp. 150-153] The Indians which we had just left, are called the Yorotecs. They are small in stature, but well built, and their women handsome. . . .

     The traditions of this tribe relative to events of the eastern continent, and of remote antiquity, are curious and deserving attention. They have traditions which evidently refer to the creation, the fall of man, the flood, the tower of Babel, and the longevity of antediluvian ages. They say that in ancient times, their ancestors lived till their feet were worn out with walking, and their throats with eating.

     From these observations it may be seen there is a nearer affinity between the nations of the new continent and the old than has been generally imagined; and that the speculations of different writers relative to the peopling of our continent, and their conjectures that it was accomplished in part by the way of Asia, is not without foundation.

1817^      James Haines McCulloh, Jr., Researches on America; Being an Attempt to Settle Some Points Relative to the Aborigines of America &c. Baltimore, 1817.

     (ATLANTIS)                  

     James McCulloh discusses problems with the various theories that have been proposed to explain Indian origins. He then proposes the Atlantis theory. He also discusses the idea that the Mound Builders were different than the current Indians. He writes:

     [Preface: pp. v-vii ] As the first edition of this work was printed with many inaccuracies, and under several disadvantages, it appears proper that the author should here state, the causes of the defects in that impression.

     The principal part of this essay was written previous to the year 1813; under the disadvantages of youth, occupation, and a limited library. . . . A year of greater leisure, has, however, enabled the author to revise, correct, and add certain facts and considerations, esteemed important to his first work. . . .

     So much has been written on the origin of the American Indians, that it is scarcely possible for an opinion to be now given, which would not, in some manner or other, have coincidences with some preceding hypothesis. This has often been experienced by the author of this essay; and sometimes with chagrin, for, after believing himself the original framer of certain opinions, he has afterwards found, that the same idea had been promulgated many years ago; and perhaps there may be other opinions, advanced in this work, that are similarly situated. However, as far as possible, I have done justice to every writer I have met with. . . .

     [pp. xi-xii] I have not thought it necessary to examine the opinion, which supposes two or more different creations of men or animals. The best naturalists have agreed in the identity of the human race, and that animals have descended in like manner, from certain original pairs; these observations concurring with the Pentateuch, should be considered conclusive. . . .

     [p. xviii] Perhaps no event in the history of the world, ever excited such interest among the philosophick and inquiring, as the discovery of America; almost every circumstance connected with this continent was the subject of infinite debate and speculation. In process of time many of these obscure and difficult points were explained away, and settled to the general satisfaction of the literary world; but other questions, and some of them of the greatest importance to philosophers, ave been left nearly if not wholly in their original obscurity. Among these is the origin of the American Indians. Whence come they? In what age did they arrive, and in what manner? A curiosity to understand or explain the difficulties attending the peopling of America, first led the author of this essay to make some research on the subject, the result of which is now given, and in the manner and general order in which the investigation proceeded.

     In Chapter 1 we find the following:

     [pp. 20-24] [Proposed Theory] In latitude sixty-six degrees north, the two coasts [of Asia and the Americas] are only thirteen leagues asunder, and about midway between them lie two islands, the distance from which to either shore is short of twenty miles; at this place the natives of Asia could find no difficulty in passing over to the opposite coast, which is in sight of their own; they might have also traveled across on sledges or on foot, for we have reason to believe, from the accounts of captain Cook and his officers, that the strait is entirely frozen over in the winter, so that the continents during that season, with respect to the communication between them, may be considered as one land.

     “We may therefore conclude, that the Asiatics having settled in those parts of America, where the Russians have discovered the proximity of the two continents, spread gradually over its various regions.” (See Robertson’s Hist. America.)

     [Comment] This proposed route for the emigration of mankind from Asia to America, is, in the very commencement, opposed by the striking fact, that about Behring’s Straits, the precise spot where Dr. Robertson believes man to have crossed over from one continent to the other, there is a very widely extended race of men interposed, who are utterly dissimilar to either Asiatics or Americans. This race is the Esquimaux, who, as Dr. Robertson himself acknowledges, bear a near resemblance to the northern Europeans, and none to the American Indians.

     This fact, so directly adverse to the doctor’s general theory, obliges him to form a new opinion as to the origin of the Esquimaux; whom he supposes to be descendants from the Norwegians and Icelanders. But is it probable, I was near saying, possible, that within the time that has elapsed since the fourteenth century, the Norwegians could have been degraded from their lofty stature down to that of Esquimaux? Can we suppose, moreover, that any people used to the comforts of civilized life, would stay in the most dreary, desolate, and unfruitful region on earth–in a tract of country where the cold is so excessive, that ten degrees farther to the south than Behring’s Straits, every aqueous and fermented liquid is frozen, not withstanding the efforts of man, and where even spirits of wine are reduced by the frost to the consistence of oil?

     Besides, the Norwegians landed in Greenland; now the Esquimaux extend across the whole continent of America, along the circle of latitude sixty-five degrees north; a distance greater than 4500 miles; or from Greenland to Behring’s Straits; for captain Cook found them at Norton Sound, Oonelashka, and Prince William’s Sound. (See his third voyage) This statement must close the absurdity of giving an European origin to this people; for who can believe, that a colony of civilized men, would confine their migrations exclusively along the Arctic circle*

     Note* The Greenlanders and Esquimaux are certainly the same people; this is evident from Crantz’ History of Greenland; but that they are perfectly dissimilar to any nation of Europe, or Asia, is also certain. Rees’s Cyclopaedia, see article Greenland . . .

     Mr. Pennant, though the most able defender of Dr. Robertson’s opinion, observes that the Norwegians, when they first landed in America, found the Esquimaux already there, and gave them the name of Skraelingues, or dwarfish people, from their small stature. (See Arctic Zoology, Introdouc. vol. i. p. 164.)

     But the facts most strongly opposed to a migration to America by way of Behring’s Straits, may be deduced from the utter impossibility of animals ever reaching this continent by that route; and if they could not arrive in this way, the theory is indefensible; for we must believe, that men and animals did come by the same passage, wherever such passage may have lain. To admit the contrary, would abe a libel on the proceedings of the Deity, who, without a deviation from his uniform wisdom and simplicity of design, could not have provided two ways where one only was necessary. This must be obvious to the lowest capacity.

     Some persons, however, have the hardihood to contend, that men and animals did pass by Behring’s Straits to America. Such an allegation as this, supposes that animals living now only in the hottest parts of America, such as the guanas, alligators, monkies, parots, and a vast number more, actually past in the winter, within the Arctic circle, through a cold that congeals spirits of wine! For the writers who maintain this hypothesis, have been necessarily obliged to make them pass in the winter, in order that they may avail themselves of a bridge of solid ice, forty miles in length, which, during this season, connects the two worlds together. Besides, is not all herbage either killed or covered with snow for hundreds of miles, both on the Asiatic and the American side of the strait, during the inclemencies of winter?

     This brief examination of Robertson’s theory, is all I conceive necessary; the more so, as he himself simply advances it without attempting its permanent establishment. Several writers have, indeed, endeavoured to confirm it, but without success. Neither has the laboured and curious essay of Dr. Barton, or the shorter attempt of Mr. Pennant, eventuated more favourably to their respective writers. Their arguments I shall pass over without notice. Dr. Barton’s arguments may be found in his New Views of the Origin of our Aborigines, and those of Mr. Pennant in the introduction to his Arctic Zoology, vol. i. p. 161.

     [p. 24] [Proposed Theory] Some theories have suggested an opinion, that Asiatics have been forced to sea in boats, and driven by storms or currents afterwards upon the American continent; and in this manner they account for the peopling of the new world.

     [Comment] The most invincible arguments are opposed to this hypothesis. Without considering the disastrous and unprovided state of persons who may have been thus unexpectedly driven to sea; and who, without water or provisions, in open boats, had to perform a dangerous navigation of several thousand miles; – such an opinion will not account for the appearance of animals in America; of animals not only useless to mankind, but in many instances fierce, intractable, or poisonous; or what must completely destroy the theory, the fact, that there are many animals found in America utterly unknown to any part of the old world.

     Chapter III.

     On the Islanders of the Pacific Ocean

     [pp. 36-41] . . . According to the learned Jackson, and many ingenious and sensible commentators on the Mosaic writings, the language of man at Babel was not divided into radically different languages, but into dialects of some few original and distinct languages. Now as the settlements of the children of Shem were towards the East, &c. the languages over its extent may have been mere dialects from one common root, belonging to that branch of Noah’s family only: of course, when the division of the earth took place, these dialects, of one or two roots, would be found in those islands; the remains of land, once settled or travelled over, to the descendants of Shem; and thus the great extent of sea, where we find this extraordinary diffusion of one language and its dialects, may be explained and accounted for.

     From the subjoined observation, this appears to be undeniable. In Sir William Jones’s Disquisitions on the Nations of the East, he introduces the observations of a distinguished author, (Mr. Marsden,) on the insular dialects of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, which he decidedly affirms to be all dialects of the Sanskrit, the original language of the East, and from which the languages of the Eastern world may even now be generally derived. (See Sir W. Jones’s Works, iii 175)

     Dr. Barton, (see New Views, &c.) says, that strong analogies may be pointed out between the languages of the Pacific Islanders and the American Indians.

     How can we explain these striking facts, unless by the theory we have advanced; for we can now trace a language originating in Eastern Asia, diffusing itself throughout the great Pacific, and afterwards spreading into America.

     For certain analogies between the language of the Malays, and that of the Islanders of the Pacific Ocean, it has been supposed, that the Malays colonized or settled these Islands. . . . but even supposing that it was proved the Malays were the original settlers of these islands, how were the animals transported, or who carried those animals, such as the Ornithorincus or the Kanguroo, which are found in these Islands, not only unknown in Malacca, but to the remainder of the world. . . .

1820^      Samuel Farmar Jarvis, Discourse on the Religion of the Indian Tribes of North America, Delivered Before The New-York Historical Society, December 20, 1819. New York: C. Wiley & Co., 1820

     In this “Anniversary Discourse” delivered by the “Reverend Doctor Jarvis” we find the following:

     [pp. 61-62] I have now, gentlemen, finished the view which I proposed to take of the Religion of the Indians. . . .

     It is already been observed, however, that their religious system can afford no clue by which to trace them to any particular nation of the old world. On a subject so obscure as the origin of nations there is great danger of expatiating in conjectures. In fact, the view here taken, in some measure cuts off these conjectures, by tracing the Aborigines of America, to a higher source than has usually been assigned to them. If the opinion I have advanced be true, it will, I think, appear rational to believe, that the Indians are a primitive people; –that, like the Chinese, they must have been among the earliest emigrants of the descendants of Noah; –that, like that singular nation, they advanced so far beyond the circle of human society, as to become entirely separated from all other men;–and that, in this way, they preserved a more distinct and homogeneous character than is to be found in any other portion of the Globe. Whether they came immediately to this western continent, or whether they arrived here by gradual progression, can never be ascertained and is, in fact, an inquiry of little moment. It is probable, however, that, like the Northern hordes who descended upon Europe, and who constituted the basis of its present population, their numbers were great; and that from one vast reservoir, they flowed onward in successive surges, wave impelling wave, till they had covered the whole extent of this vast continent. At least, this hypothesis may account for the uniform character of their religion and for the singular fact which has lately been illustrated by a learned member of the American Philosophical Society, that their languages form a separate class in human speech, and that, in their plans of thought, the same system extends from the coasts of Labrador to the extremity of Cape Horn.

1821^      Timothy Dwight, Travels; in New-England and New-York, 4 vols. New Haven, 1821-22, vol. 1, pp. :126.

     In the Preface of his book, Timothy Dwight writes:

     In the year 1795 I was chosen President of Yale College. The business of this office is chiefly of a sedentary nature, and requires exertions of the mind almost without interruption. In 1774, when a tutor in the same Seminary, I was very near losing my life by inaction, and a too intense application to study. A long course of unremitted exercise restored my health. These facts, together with subsequent experience, had taught me, that it could not be preserved by any other means. I determined, therefore, to devote the vacations, particularly that in the autumn, which includes six weeks, to a regular course of travelling.

     Letter [Chapter] IX is a “General account of the Indians of New-England–Divisions of their Nations or Tribes-Their character, passions, and manners-Their Weekwams, Agriculture, Wars, Treatment of Captives, Government, Knowledge of Medicine, Religion, Morale, and Language–Considerations relative to their Origin. On pages 124-129 we find the following:

     After investigating their Character and Manners, the question is naturally asked, Whence came these people to America; and whence did they derive their origin? To these questions, as you know, several answers have been given. I shall not here enter into an examination of them. Permit me, however, to present you a few remarks on the subject; which I will briefly make, and then leave it to your own consideration.

     1. The distance between the East Cape of Asia, and Cape Prince of Wales in America, across the straits of Behring, is about forty miles. Capt. Cook found a body of Savages in their canoes, six hundred miles from home; (i.e. fifteen times this distance) on a military enterprize. It is plain therefore, that the breadth of these straits could present no obstacle to their emigration from the Eastern continent. It may be proper further to observe, that the people of both continents now cross them familiarly; and that the people of America, bordering on the great Western lakes [the Great Lakes] customarily pass over them in their batteaus. I need not tell you, that this navigation is both more dangerous, and extends through many times the same distance.

     2. The Colonization of the world by the descendants of Noah must necessarily have conducted them, within a period, whose utmost limit terminated from two to three thousand year ago, to the North-Eastern shore of Asia. From this shore the next step was to the American Continent. To a people, habitually fond of a roving live, an excursion to this Continent could not, in the circumstances, fail of being an alluring object, and would present not a single serious difficulty.

1823      Timothy C. Strong, ed., Palmyra Herald, Vol. 2, Palmyra, New York, 19 Feb. 1823.

     Dan Vogel notes that in 1823 the Palmyra Herald speculated that there were two successive migrations to the New World:

     The first settlers of North America were probably the Asiatics, the descendants of Shem. . . . The Asiatics, at an early period, might easily have crossed the Pacific Ocean, and made settlements in North America. . . . The descendants of Japheth [Europeans] might afterwards cross the Atlantic, and subjugate the Asiatics, or drive them to South America.

Source: ^Dan Vogel, “Bibliography” in Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon, Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1986, pp. 44, 90, 105-144.

Note* In view of the general theories of the time, one must consider that the phrase “crossed the Pacific Ocean” might here tend to imply a short crossing near the Behring Straits rather than an extended voyage. The same short crossing might be implied in the descendants of Japheth that “cross the Atlantic.”

1823^      Domingo Juarros, A Statistical and Commercial history of the Kingdom of Guatemala. Translated by John Baily. London, 1823.

     Dan Vogel writes:

     Juarros claims his history of Guatemala was taken from ancient manuscripts. He rejects the pre-Adamite theory, argues the Indians originated in the Old World (118), and mentions the Indian-Israelite theory (162). According to him, the original inhabitants arrived in the New World shortly after the dispersion from the tower of Babel, since the Indians retain stories both of the tower and of the Flood (208-9). Juarros also describes Guatemalan fortifications, buildings, temples, and palaces, including the ruins of Palenque (18-19, 171-72, 187, 383).

Source: ^Dan Vogel, “Bibliography” in Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon, Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1986, pp. 105-144.

     Note* The reader should note that Vogel omits from his summary the idea that the original populators of America [Votan] were said to have come to Soconusco {Mesoamerica]. [pp. 207-209]

      Chap. IX

     Of the Southern Provinces of Guatemala.

     The Province and Intendancy of Ciudad Real de Chiapa

     The native authors do not agree in their accounts of the origin of the Indians of this district. Antonio de Remesal, in his History of the Province, of St. Vincent de Chiapa and Guatemala, (lib. 5, cap. 13,) positively asserts, that the people of Chiapa originally came from the province of Nicaragua. The Quiche’ manuscript, already spoken of, says, that the Quelenes and Chapanecos are descendants of a brother of King Nimaquiche’, who accompanied him from the city of Tula. Nunez de la Vega, bishop of Chiapa, in the preface to his Diocesan Constitutions, states, that he met with certain calendars in the language of these Indians, in which mention was made of 20 lords, or heads of families, from whom it appears this people derived their origin. The names were Nidus, or Mox, Ygh, Votan, Ghanan, Abagh, Tox, Moxic, Lambat, Molo, or Mulu, Chic, Chinax, Cahogh, and Aghual. Of all these magnates, Votan seems to have been the most celebrated personage, as a separate work is devoted to his particular history In this he is said to have seen the great wall (by which the tower of Babel is meant) that was built by order of his grandfather No, from the earth to the sky; and that, at this place, to every people a different language was given. It farther says, that Votan was the first person whom God sent to this country, to divide the lands, and apportion them among the Indians; and adds, that Votan as at Huehueta, a town of Soconusco, where he introduced Dantas, and concealed a treasure. This treasure was discovered in a cave by Nunez de la Vega; it consisted of some earthen jars, on which were represented figures of the ancient Gentile Indians. If credit be given to the manuscripts, it follows that we must consider these regions to have been peopled shortly after the deluge; since Votan, who was at Babel when they were building the tower, and the human race was dispersed and separated by different languages, was one of the founders of the Indian population. By parity of reasoning we must also admit, that the languages of these provinces are some of the primitive dialects, into which the Almighty divided the language of the post-diluvian patriarchs. From the same cause we shall be led to believe, that the first inhabitants of America did not, according to the most generally received opinion, arrive at it by way of the straits of Anian; for had that been the fact, many years, and many generations, must have passed away before they could have extended thence into these regions under the torrid zone, at a distance so immense from the straits.

     One fact, however, is beyond controversy, viz. that this province was inhabited by a powerful and polished people, who maintained an intercourse with the Egyptians, as the sumptuous cities of Culhuacan and Tulha, vestiges of which yet remain near the towns of Palenque and Ocosingo, evidently demonstrate. In the first, some remaining buildings are objects of admiration, and rivalled in magnificence the most celebrated capitals of the old world. Stately temples, in which many hieroglyphics, symbols, devices, and traces of fabulous mythology, have resisted the effect of time: portions of superb palaces still remain; and an aqueduct, of sufficient dimensions for a man to walk upright in, yet exists almost entire. Previous, however, to the arrival of the Spaniards, this province had so much declined from its ancient splendour, that they found neither inhabited city nor building worthy of their attention, nor civilization or polity in the inhabitants  

See the other notations referring to this Votan story: 1806, 1875, 1876, 1902

1824^      John Van Ness Yates, Joseph White Moulton, History of the State of New York. vol. 1, New York: A.T. Goodrich, 1824.

     (MIXED)

     Dan Vogel writes:

     Two prominent members of the state [of New York] had also been at work on a book exploring Indian origins. John Van Ness Yates, lawyer, secretary of state of New York, and member of the New York Historical Society, and Joseph White Moulton, lawyer and member of the state historical society, had sent out a circular asking for information about the aboriginal and colonial history of New York. The circular appeared in various newspapers around the state including the Wayne Sentinel, which was published near Joseph Smith’s home in Palmyra, New York. The newspaper reported back to its readers by announcing the publication of the book, History of the State of New York, on 20 April 1825: “The traditions and speculations relative to the aborigines are laid down at large . . . The work abounds with historical references, and is evidently a production of great research and industry. It will no doubt be extensively patronised, for no library in the state can be complete without it.”

     Note* In regard to the writings of Yates and Moulton I would like to say that because of the excellent extent of their scholarly research and the detail and reasoning given to the various Indian Origin theories with respect to the State of New York, and because they wrote at this time period (early 1820’s) and in this place (New York) which times and place correlate so well with the birth of Mormonism and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, I will try to include a good portion of their text. They write as follows:

     [p. 12] . . . four questions have been agitated by the learned world, with more or less warmth, extravagance, and pertinacity, as national interest, national vanity, or literary pride predominated:

     First, By what means was America originally peopled?

     Secondly, Was America known to Europe before Columbus?

     Thirdly, Who first explored the North American coasts, and discovered those and the harbours of New York?

     Fourthly, What principle of international law should interchangeably govern the powers of Europe in their partition of this continent, and regulate them in respect to their right of its original proprietors or native occupants. . . .

     . . . The first and second will be examined principally to illustrate the inquiry, whence originated the artificial remains of antiquity and the aborigines of this State. . . .

     [p. 13] First. By what means was America originally peopled?

     The controversy from the discussion of this question, which for nearly three centuries has elicited the talents of writers in almost every tongue and nation, is too diffuse to admit, in its present application more than a condensed sketch of the various hypotheses of the learned. The question involves a problem, the solution of which (if solvable) must become the result of a more profound philosophy than has yet been displayed upon it. And still analysis might be tasked for a binaean classification of the multifarious theories which have confounded the subject. Some authors have deduced the ancestors of the Americans from Europe, and fancied that they had discovered them among the Grecians, the Romans, the Spaniards, the Irish, the Welsh, the Courlanders, or the Russians. Others have traced them to Asia, alternately to the Israelites, Canaanites, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Tartars, East Indians, Chinese, Japanese; each of which nations has had its advocates among philosophers and historians. A third species of writers look to Africa as the original cradle of the American race, and make them the descendants of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, or Numidians; while a fourth believe the Americans to have been descendants of all the nations in the world. (5)

     Before we enter into any investigation of these theories a delineation of the antiquities of this state and sketches of the traditions of its aboriginal people, might become an interesting preliminary in the development of the main question. . . .

     [pp. 19-20] These remains of art may be viewed as connecting links of a great chain, which extends beyond the confines of our state, and becomes more magnificent and curious as we recede from the northern lakes, pass through Ohio into the great vale of the Mississippi, thence to the Gulf of Mexico, through Texas into New Mexico and South America. In this vast range of more than three thousand miles, these monuments of ancient skill gradually become more remarkable for their number, magnitude, and interesting variety, until we are lost in admiration and astonishment, to find, as Baron Humboldt informs us, in a world which we call new, ancient institutions, religious ideas, and forms of edifices, similar to those of Asia, which there seem to go back to the dawn of civilization.

     Over the great secondary region of the Ohio, are the ruins of what once were forts, cemeteries, temples, altars, camps, towns, villages, race-grounds and other places of amusement, habitations of chieftains, videttes, watch-towers, and monuments. . . .

     In the valley of the Mississippi, the monuments of buried nations are unsurpassed in magnitude and melancholy grandeur by any in North America. Here cities have been traced, similar to those of ancient Mexico, once containing hundreds of thousands of souls. Here are to be seen thousands of tumuli, some a hundred feet high, others many hundred feet in circumference . . . Similar mounds are scattered throughout the continent, from the shores of the Pacific into the interior of our state, as far as Black river, and from the lakes to South America.

     [p. 21] Philosophers and antiquaries concur in opinion, that these remains of art evince the remote existence of nations far more civilised than the indigenes of the present race; than, at least, of any known tribes of North America.

     The antiquities of this state are, in the opinion of Mr. Clinton, (9) demonstrative evidence of the existence of a vast population settled in towns, defended by forts, cultivating agriculture, and more advanced in civilization than the nations which have inhabited the same countries since the European discovery. . . .

     [p. 22] The inquiries now arise:–Who erected these works? Whence originated these wonderful people? Were they the primitive ancestors of the indigenes of our state? What is the story of their first migration and settlements; their progress from rudeness to comparative refinement; their retrogression into barbarism? What terrible disasters precipitated their ruin, exterminated their national existence, and blotted out their name, perhaps for ever? In reply–while there are a few remnants of tradition to guide inquiry, and volumes of conjectures to bewilder, not one authentic record remains of even the name of any of these populous and powerful nations.

     [pp. 89-91] That America had received emigrants from other parts of the globe before Columbus, we have no doubt; and were we disposed to theorize, without possessing that indubitable evidence from authentic history, observation, and analysis, which would be necessary in order to sustain a bold hypothesis, we should say, that in the remotest ages of the world, this continent was connected with the old continents by others which have sunk. Between the north-west of this, and the north-east of Asia, the mountainous remains of this union, are the islands that are discoverable in the strait which now divides them. Between the northeast of this, and the north-west of Europe, Greenland, the submerged island of Friesland and Iceland, were parts of the connexion with the European continent. Between the eastern part of Brazil, and the western part of Africa, and between the most western part of America, and the most eastern part of Tartary, (or southern Asia in the range of those numberless islands that seem to have been the highlands of a connecting continent) territorial unions existed between this continent and those of Africa and Asia. In obedience to the will of the Creator, the earth was filled with living creatures, and in the progress of multiplication and dispersion anterior to the deluge, no reason can be assigned, why this vast continent should have been exempted from the operation of this general law. The deluge (which is traditionary on this continent) impaired, but did not destroy all these connexions. The earth was again replenished, and this continent remained sufficiently connected to receive once more the vivifying influence of this second birth of men and animals. In the slow round of age after age, the chemical combination and effecting of the elements, the constant agitation and conflict of the fluids and solids, the tremendous agency of volcanoes and earthquakes, have combined to complete the destruction of those connexions, which the deluge had impaired. In the meantime, however, men and animals had spread over the surface of this continent, and they gradually became naturalized in habit, to the varieties and changes of its climate, and to the resources which were found to sustain life. Accessions to this original population, were made in the succession of ages since the separation, by the various means which we may imagine have contributed to disperse animal life in every habitable part of the world. Navigation in some ages, has been in a higher stage of improvement than in others. The commercial enterprise of some nations far transcended that of others. An ancient knowledge of the magnet may have occasioned its adaptation to maritime purposes, in those remote ages of the world, of the advents of which we have neither profane nor sacred record. But independently of this conjectural assistance, the spirit of bold and fearless adventure may have occasionally impelled men to trust themselves from land, or men less fearless, may have been driven to sea by storms, and in either case, they may have accidentally arrived on this continent. In this manner, individuals from different parts of the world, and even from the middle latitudes of the old continents, may have been conveyed in this, and , consequently, have introduced the peculiar traits of their respective national characteristics. Nevertheless, since the separation, the facilities of intercourse in modern ages, having remained at the north from Asia, far superior to those elsewhere, the predominant race of the aborigines has consequently been Asiatic, of the Tartar and Malay stocks. . . .

1829, “Aborigines of America,” pt. 2, in American Monthly Magazine, vol. 1, May 1829, pp. 80-81.

     In 1829, the Boston American Monthly Magazine printed an article on the “Aborigines of America,” in which was argued that the first settlers of America had crossed the Bering Strait and traveled to the warmer climates of Mexico and then Peru before building their mighty cities. Only later did they migrate to the Great Lakes region seeking more fertile lands.

Source: ^Dan Vogel, Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon, Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1986, pp. 46, 91.

1830      The Book of Mormon Is Published. Palmyra: E. B. Grandin, 1830.

     Note* For an analysis of the geographical ideas, origins and migration accounts & cultural descriptions of the peoples related to the Jaredites, see my other volumes: The Covenant Story, vol. 7; Commentary , vol. 7; Indian Origins and the House of Israel, vols. 1-3; Chronology of Geographical statements, vols. 1-3.

     The following comes from the Title Page of the 1830 edition:

     . . . Wherefore it is . . . . an abridgment taken from the Book of Ether.

     Also, which is a Record of the People of Jared, which were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people when they were building a tower to get to Heaven: which is to shew unto the remnant of the House of Israel how great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever . . .

Note* It is interesting that in the Book of Mormon and the Title page, nothing is ever said of the “Tower of Babel,” only “a tower.” However, in 1842 he wrote a ltter to Chicago editor John Wentworth, describing, among other things the content of the Plates (see Dean C. Jessee, ed. The Papers of Joseph Smith, vol. 1, Autobiographical and Historial Writings (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book 1989, 432-33.). The following is ascribed to Joseph Smith:

     In this important and intenresting book the history of ancient America is unfolded, from its first settlement by a colony that came from the Tower of Babel, at the confusion of langauges to the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian Era. We are informed by these records that America in ancient times has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first were called Jaredites and came directly from the tower of Babel. . . .

1833^      W. W. Phelps, Editor, “A Bee Story,” in the Evening and Morning Star, vol. 2, no. 14, July, 1833, p. 107

     In Wythe county, in Virginia, in a spur of the Alleghany Mountains, called the “Tobacco Row,” is a perpendicular ledge of rock fronting the southeast, about fifty feet high–an open sunny situation. About thirty feet from the base, a horizontal crack or fissure opens in the rock, from half an inch to six inches in width, and extending near eighty feet in length. How deep this fissure extends into the mountain is not known, as no one has ever examined it. This fissure is full of bees! . . .

     My informant saw it in the month of June, when immense numbers of bees were out on the surface, making great patches of rock black with their swarming masses. The oldest inhabitants say that the first settlers found the bees there, and the Indians told them that their oldest traditions knew nothing of its origin. “It was always there.” . . .

     Remarks– To them that believe in the revelations of the Lord, this bee story is no great mystery. The bees may have been there more than three thousand years. When Jared and his brother came from the tower of Babel, to settle the continent of America, they brought bees, as it is written in the book of Ether. . . . Before the flood, bees might have been in every part of the world, but since Noah left them on the other side of the Atlantic, unless brought by man they would not have been able to cross it.            

     Note* Although it is not certain here, W. W. Phelps might be implying that Jared journeyed across the Atlantic. He also implies that America was wiped clean of all life by the Flood. This is significant in view of the fact that the Behring Strait theory was so prevalent in pre-1830 non-LDS writings concerning Indian origins.

1834^      Josiah Priest, American Antiquities and Discoveries in the West, Albany: Hoffman & White, 1834. (4th ed.)

     (non-LDS)                   

     In the Preface we find the following:

     Although the subject of American antiquities is everywhere surrounded with its mysteries; yet we indulge the hope, that the volume we now present the public, will not be unacceptable . . .

     We have felt that we are bound by the nature of the subject, to treat wholly on those matters which relate to ages preceding the discovery of America by Columbus . . .

     We have undertaken to elicit arguments, from what we suppose evidence, that the first inhabitants who peopled America, came on by land, at certain places, where it is supposed once to have been united with Asia, Europe, and Africa, but has been torn asunder by the force of earthquakes, and the irruptions of the waters, so that what animals had not passed over before this great physical rupture, were forever excluded; but not so with men, as they could resort to the use of boats.

     We have gathered such evidence as induces a belief that America was, anciently, inhabited with partially civilized and agricultural nations, surpassing in numbers its present population. This, we imagine, we prove, in the discovery of thousands of the traits of the ancient operations of men over the entire cultivated parts of the continent, in the forms, and under the character of mounds and fortifications, abounding particularly in the western regions.

     We have also ventured conjectures respecting what nations, in some few instances, may have settled here; also what may have become of them. . . .

     As it respects some of the ancient nations who may have found their way hither, we perceive a strong probability that not only Asiatic nations, very soon after the flood, but that also all along the different eras of time, different races of men, as Polynesians, Malays, Australasians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Israelites, Tartars, Scandinavians, Danes, Norwegians, Welsh, and Scotch, have colonized different parts of the continent.

     We have also attempted to show that America was peopled before the flood; that it was the country of Noah, and the place where the ark was erected. The highly interesting subject of American antiquities, we are inclined to believe, is but just commencing to be developed. The immensity of country yet beyond the settlements of men, towards the Pacific, is yet to be explored by cultivation, when other evidences, and wider spread, will come to view, affording, perhaps, more definite conclusion.

     As aids in maturing this volume, we have consulted the works of philosophers, historians, travellers, geographers, gazetteers, the researches of antiquarian societies, with miscellaneous notices on this subject, as found in the periodicals of the day. The subject has proved as difficult as mysterious; any disorder and inaccuracies, therefore, in point of inferences which we have made we beg may not become the subjects of the severities of criticism. . . . JOSIAH PRIEST

     The following is found under the heading: “Supposed Origin of Human Complexions, with the ancient signification of the Names of the three Sons of Noah and other curious matter,” (pp. 14-24). It reveals the thinking of the great theologian Adam Clarke [Clarke’s Commentary 1810] in regards to Indian origins:

     The sons of Noah were three, as stated in the book of Genesis; between whose descendants the whole earth, in process of time, became divided. This division appears to have taken place in the earliest ages of the first nations after the flood . . . The very names, or words, Shem, Ham and Japheth, were, in the language of Noah, (which was probably the pure Hebrew,) in some sense, significant of their future national character. . . .

     {Shem’s] posterity spread themselves over the finest regions of Upper and Middle Asia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, Persia, and the Indus, Ganges, and possibly to China, still more eastward.

     [Japeth’s] posterity diverged eastward and westward from Ararat, throughout the whole extent of Asia, north of the great range of the Taurus and Ararat mountains, as far as the Eastern ocean; whence, as [Dr. Clarke] supposes, they crossed over to America, at the straits of Behring, and in the opposite direction from those mountains, throughout Europe, to the Mediterranean sea, south from Ararat, and to the Atlantic ocean west from that region; whence also they might have passed over to America . . .

     The word Ham signified that which was burnt or black. The posterity of this son of Noah peopled the hot regions of the earth, on either side [of] the equator.

     Shem was undoubtedly a red or copper colored man, which was the complexion of all the antediluvians . . . to corroborate our opinion that the antediluvians were of a red, or copper complexion, we bring the well-known statement of Josephus, that Adam, the first of men, was a red man, made of red earth, called virgin earth, because of its beauty and pureness. The word Adam, he also says, signifies that color which is red. . . . Shem, therefore, must have been a red man, derived from the complexion of the first man, Adam. And his posterity, . . .

     The word Ham, in the language of Noah, which was that of the antediluvians, was the term for that which was black. . . . To the Cushites, the southern climes of Asia, along the coast of the Persian gulf, Susiane, or Cushistan, Arabia, Canaan, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt and Lybia in Africa. These countries were settled by the posterity of Ham, who were, and now are, of a glossy black. . . . When we speak of the original, or pristine complexions, we do not mean before the flood, except in the family of Noah, as it is our opinion that neither the black or the white was the complexion of Adam and all the nations before the flood, but that they have been produced by the power and providence of the Creator in the family of Noah only. [pp. 14-17]

     To Shem [God] gave all the East; to Ham, all Africa; to Japheth, the continent of Europe, with its isles, and the northern parts of Asia, as before pointed out. And may we not add America, which , in the course of Divine Providence, is now in the possession of the posterity of Japheth, and it is not impossible but this quarter of the earth may have been known even to Noah, as we are led to suspect from the statement of Eusebius. This idea, or information, is brought forward by Adam Clarke, from whose commentary on the Scriptures, we have derived it. . . . [Noah] lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and more than a hundred and fifty after the building of the tower of Babel and the dispersion of the first inhabitants, by means of the confusion of the ancient language. . . .

     If the supposition of Adam Clarke, and others, be correct; which is, that at that time the whole land of the globe was so situated that no continent was quite separate from the others by water, as they are now; so that men could traverse by land the whole glove at their will: if so, even America may have been known to the first nations, as well as other parts of the earth.

     This doctrine of the union of continents, is favored, or rather founded on a passage in the book of Genesis, 10th chap. 20th ver., where it is stated that one of the sons of Eber was Peleg, so named, because, in his days, the earth was divided; the word Peleg, probably signifying division, in the Noetic language. The birth of Peleg was about an hundred years after the flood, the very time when Babel was being built. . . . [pp. 22-23]

1840^            Orson Pratt, A Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records, Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, 1840. pp. 15-21

     Orson Pratt writes:

     We learn from this very ancient history, that at the confusion of languages, when the Lord scattered the people upon all the face of the earth, the Jaredites, being a righteous people, obtained favour in the sight of the Lord and were not confounded. And because of their righteousness, the Lord miraculously led them from the tower to the great ocean, where they were commanded to build vessels, in which they were marvellously brought across the great deep to the shores of North America. . . .

1868^      George A. Smith, “Ancient American History,” in The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, Vol. XXX.3, No. 2, January 11, 1868, pp. 22-23.

[We commend the following synopsis of ancient American History no less to the perusal of our general readers, than to all historians, antiquarians, and ethnologists, who have from time to time manifested an interest in the history of the American Aborigines, but who, in their varied speculations, have surrounded the subject with doubts which have hitherto remained undispelled from the popular mind. Elder Smith’s diligent research has rendered him familiar, not only with modern history, but with ancient American Records, and is an authority upon this subject. It is the most comprehensive compend of ancient history of the American continent we have ever seen–Ed(itors).]

     SEVENTIES’ HALL LECTURES.–Yesterday evening (Dec. 4th), Elder George A. Smith delivered a most interesting lecture in the Seventies’ Hall, on the Ancient History of this Continent.

     After some preliminary remarks, he entered upon the history of the Jaredites . . . They landed on the west coast of Mexico, and they called North America the land of Moron. . . .

1868^            Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses (Liverpool) 1869, vol. 12, pp. 340-342

     By the command of the Lord they [the Jaredites] collected seeds and grain of every kind, and animals of almost every description, among which, no doubt, were the elephant and the curelom and the cumom, very huge animals that existed in those days. . . they eventually came to the great Pacific ocean, on the eastern borders of China or somewhere in that region. . . .

     But the most wonderful thing concerning the first colonization of this country after the flood was the way that they navigated the great Pacific Ocean. Only think for a few moments of the Lord our God taking eight barges, launched on the eastern coast of China, and bringing them on a voyage of three hundred and forty four days and landing them all in the same neighborhood and vicinity at the same time. . . .

     They landed to the south of this, just below the Gulf of California, on the western coast. They inhabited North America, and spread forth on this Continent, and in the course of some sixteen hundred years residence here, they became a mighty and powerful nation. . . .

Note* John Sorenson says the following:

     We must also realize that the Book of Mormon was not an object of careful study in the early days of the Church, in fact it was referred to surprisingly little (see Grant Underwood, “Book of Mormon Usage in Early LDS Theology,” Dialogue 17 (3, Autumn 1984): 35-74). The scripture anchored faith and clarified aspects of theology, but it was not studied systematically, let alone critically, as history or geography. For example, even Orson Pratt, who was one of the best informed and had one of the most logical minds among Latter-day Saints of his day, was unaccountably cavalier in these matters. Still in 1868 he supposed that the Jaredites brought “elephants, cureloms and cumoms [very large animals]” with them across the Pacific Ocean on their barges! He also taught that Omer (Ether 8) and a few families alone from among the Jaredites “were saved, while all the balance, consisting of millions of people, were overthrown because of their wickedness.” . . . More exacting reading of the scriptural text shows us today that the text justifies none of these ideas. (The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: Source Book, FARMS, 1990, Part 1. “A History of Ideas,” pp. 10-11)

1870^      Orson Pratt, “Discourse delivered in the Tabernacle,” Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot,Salt Lake City, April 10, 1870, 1854-1886, vol. 13, p. 130.

     Pratt writes:

     From [the Book of Mormon] we learn that two great and powerful nations formerly dwelt on this continent. One nation, or rather the colony which founded it, came from the Tower of Babel soon after the days of the Flood. They colonized what we call North America, landing on the western coast, a little south of the Gulf of California, in the south-western part of this north wing of our continent.

1872^      H. A. Stebbins, “Antiquarian Researches,” No. 1-13 in The True Latter Day Saints’ Herald, Plano, Ill., vol. 19, No. 16, August 15, 1872 — June 15, 1873.

     (RLDS)            

     After quoting extensively from evidences about the ancient cultures of the Americas from a book by J. D. Baldwin called Ancient America, H. A. Stebbins says the following::

     The history of the Book of Mormon plainly teaches that Central America was settled first; that the Jaredites, a thousand years or more before the Nephites built up South America. . . .

     The isthmus of Panama is mentioned six times in the Book of Mormon, being called the “narrow pass between the land northward and the land southward,” and from all the other descriptions, it is apparent that the Jaredites were most numerous in Central America north of the isthmus, and from there in time of Civil War certain people under Omer’s leadership, and guided by the Lord, fled north-east to what are now the Middle States of the Union,” by the place where the Nephites were destroyed . . .

1875^      G. M. Ottinger, “Old America,” in Juvenile Instructor 10-11 (9, 23 January, 6, 20 February, 6, 20 March, 3, 17 April, 1, 15, 29 May, 12, 26 June, 10, 24 July, 7, 21 August, 4, 18 September, 2, 16, 30 October, 13, 27 November, 11, 25 December 1875; 1, 15 January, 1, 15 February, 1, 15 March, 1, 15 April, 1, 15 May, 1, 15 June 1876.

     “Jared’s people landed on the coast of Mexico. They named the country (North America) the “land of Moron.” They flourished on this continent for at least 1800 years “. . .

1875^      George M. Ottinger, “Old America: Jared,” in the Latter-day Saints Millennial Star 37, Jan 1875, pp. 3-4, 14-15,

     G. M. Ottinger writes:

     Leaving the eastern hemisphere to be re-peopled by the numerous tribes and families radiating from Babel, we turn our thoughts to the long un-explained mystery–the re-peopling of America. Until the appearance [FINISH]

     In the midst of all these conflicting and jarring accounts and statements let us examine the simple, plain, unvarnished record of Ether, as we find it in the Book of Mormon. Here we learn that when the Lord confounded the language at Babel He led forth a colony under the leadership of Jared and his brother. As He had guided the ark across the stormy waters before, as He led the children of Israel over the burning sands of Arabia afterwards, so He guided the few people chosen to repopulate a land “choice above all the earth.” The record informs us that after a journey in the wilderness, compelling them at times to build barges on which they crossed many rivers, they finally, after a four years’ sojourn, constructed vessels and sailed–we infer from some point on the Mediterranean coast of Africa, possibly from the Atlantic coast now called Morocco–to America, and established themselves as colonists in the central part of the western continents.

     The ancient Indians of Cuba, called Caribs, learned from their ancestors that God created heaven and earth and all things: that an old man, having foreseen the deluge, built a canoe and embarked in it, with his family and many animals. When the waters abated he sent forth a raven, which never returned; he then sent a pigeon, which soon returned with a branch of the hoba tree. The old man and family then desembarked, and, having made wine of grapes produced after the flood, became intoxicated. While in this condition, one of his sons exposed his nakedness, and another covered him. When he awoke, the Lord blessed the latter, and cursed the former. The Caribs held that they were the descendants of the son who was cursed.

     The Zapotekas, of South America, boast of being antediluvian in America, and to have built the city of Coatlan, so called because it was founded at a place which swarmed with serpents, Coat-lan meaning snake-city. It was built, according to their tradition, three hundred and twenty-seven years before the flood. At the time of the flood a remnant of their people, together with their king, named Petela, saved themselves on a mountain. . . . [Ottinger goes on to tell Aztec and Mandan traditions related to the Flood]

     These traditions and paintings go far to prove the truthfulness of the book of Genesis, and sustain and verify the record of Ether. . . . Here, for some fifteen hundred years, the Jaredites flourished and grew into a great nation, building cities , cultivating the land and drifting into wickedness, until they were destroyed by the Lord, some six hundred; years before Christ. . . .

See the other notations referring to this Votan story: 1806, 1823, 1876, 1902

Note* This is the first time that “the Mediterranean coast of Africa” or “Morocco” has been proposed as the Jaredite route to America. By extension, this is also the first time that an LDS author has proposed an Atlantic crossing by the Jaredites, although see the 1833 notation by W. W. Phelps.

1876^      G[eorge] M. O[ttinger], “Old America,” in The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, Vol. 38, No. 33, August 14, 1876, pp. 517-519.

     Conclusion: . . . Without following the many minor facts, or tracing out and analyzing the numerous circumstantial evidences comparing so harmoniously between the writers of the Book of Mormon and the old historical records and traditions of America, we have aimed (and we hope successfully) to establish the following great points of indisputable evidence:

     First, that the deluge as described by Moses, the greatest and oldest writer we possess, is entertained on record or in traditionary belief, by nearly every tribe or nation of Old America. . . .

     Second, that although the Quiche records do not give us a clear record of Jared’s settlement in the country, we may reasonably infer from the account given of Votan that such an event had taken place. In fact the Votan of American tradition may have been the Jared of Mormon; but we are inclined to the belief that Votan was Mulek, who left Jerusalem 589 years before the coming of Christ, during the reign of Zedekiah, or about the time that king was taken a captive to Babylon. It was one of the sons of Zedekiah who commanded this colony, and they eventually landed somewhere north of the Isthmus of Darien, and journeyed southward into the country now called the United States of Colombia. There they built their capital city Zarahemla, near the Magdalena river, called by them the river of Sidon. Jared’s people landed on the coast of Mexico. They named the country (North America) the “land of Moron.” They flourished on this continent for at least 1800 years . . .

     Their general tendency of colonization seems to have been northward, forming the settlements in the great valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio. ruins of their cities are now referred to as the “works of the Mound Builders.” When Votan (Mulek) landed in America he found, says the Quiche manuscripts, the country already inhabited by a people having the same religion, rites, laws, eruditions, and common blood with the people whom he took there himself.

See the other notations referring to this Votan story: 1806, 1823, 1875, 1902

1876^            Orson Pratt, “The Book of Mormon–What It Is,” in The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, Vol. 38, No. 44, October 30, 1876, pp. 691-693.

     “The following is an extract from an article concerning the Book of Mormon, written by Orson Pratt, Church Historian, in December, 1874, for insertion in the Universal Cyclopedia.”

     The Prophet, Moroni, after the destruction of his nation, kept himself hid from the Lamanites, thirty-six years, during which he wrote a short sketch of the history of a still more ancient nation, called Jaredites, whose ancestors came from the Tower of Babel. This colony crossed the great western ocean in eight barges, being three hundred and forty-four days upon the water. They landed on the western coast of Mexico, and extended their settlements over all the North American portion of the continent, where they dwelt until about six centuries before Christ, when, because of wickedness, they were all destroyed. . . .

                                                           Orson Pratt, Sen.

     —Deseret News

1878^      James A. Little, “Book of Mormon Sketches,” in Juvenile Instructor vols. 14-15 (1, 15 January, 15 September 1878–15 December 1880); pp. 8-9, 14-15, 209, 218-19, 232, 249, 256-57, 266-67, 284-85, 10-11, 20-21, 35, 39-40, 57-58, 62-63, 75-76, 86-87, 98-99, 116-17, 124-25, 134-35, 152-53, 164-65, 178, 189, 201-2, 212-13, 221, 237-38, 244-45, 262-63, 266-67, 281.                   

     In this serialized article extending over two years in the semi-monthly Juvenile Instructor, of which George Q. Cannon was editor, James A Little essentially paraphrases the narrative of the Book of Mormon, telling the story in his own words. This publication was “designed expressly for the education and elevation of the young.” Although the vast majority of geographical references in Little’s articles are only mentioned in an internal sense, there are some external geographical comments that place the story in a hemispheric setting. James A. Little writes the following:

     [1879, p. 209] The Juvenile Instructor of January 15th 1878, under the head of “Book of Mormon Sketches,” completed a historical sketch of the Jaredites. They were the first people who colonized America after the flood. They emigrated from the tower of Babel, in the land of Shinar, in Asia, at the time of the confusion of languages. . . .

     [vol. 13, no. 18, September 15, 1878, pp. 208-209, “The Jaredite Colony to America”] The Jaredites were the pioneer settlers of the American continent after the flood. According to generally received chronology, they left the Tower of Babel at the confusion of tongues, of which a short account is given in the 11th chapter of Genesis.

     The Tower of Babel was in Western Asia, near the junction of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The remains of it are supposed to be near the modern town of Havilleh.

     The departure of the Jaredites from the Tower of Babel took place about 2,247 years before Christ, or over 4,000 years ago. . . .

     They traveled to the valley of Nimrod, as directed. This fertile valley, between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, in a century after the flood, was doubtless well stocked with animal life; and while affording Nimrod an excellent opportunity for the display of his prowess as a hunter, answered as well for this early colony to make the needful additions to their stock of animal life for future use, and with which to propagate their new home. There they constructed a vessel in which to carry fish to stock the waters of the land of promise, and also carried from there swarms of bees to gather the sweets from its flowers.

     As the Lord had promised, He appeared to the brother of jared, in the valley of Nimrod, and talked with him from a cloud. He commanded them to “go forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been.” And “the Lord did go before them, and did talk with them as he stood in a cloud, and gave directions whither they should travel.”

     It appears from the foregoing quotations that the section of Asia through which they were to travel, to its eastern coast, had never yet been inhabited, and that the Lord led them in a cloud, directing their journey from day to day.

     They built barges, in which to “cross many waters.” from the context, this was evidently in the first part of their journey. From the expression “that the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness,” it is evident that the previous phrase “many waters” referred to a large body of water, and not to numerous streams.

     After crossing this sea they were required to go on to the land of promise. It is a strong point made in the history of this first colony to the western hemisphere, that it was especially set apart as a heritage for the righteous, and, that although the wicked might occupy it for a time, in the end they would be swept off.

     That the “many waters” and “the sea,” spoken of in the Book of Ether, was the same body of water as that now known as the Caspian Sea, is the most direct indication the narrative affords of the route traveled by these primitive colonists. If this conclusion be correct, the Jaredites traveled up the valley between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, northward until west of the Caspian sea, built barges to cross the sea and continued their journey eastward.

     From the narrative, and the geographical features of the country, the inference is reasonable that the Jaredites crossed Asia somewhere near the parallel of 40o north latitude, and north of the Kuenlon and Peling mountains, on a great continental plateau which divides the headwaters of the rivers emptying into the Indian Ocean from those flowing into the Arctic Sea. This route would be free from streams of any considerable magnitude, and at present has a mean temperature of about sixty degrees.

     Camp Moriancumer, the terminus of their land journey, on the shore of “that great sea which divideth the lands,” was doubtless somewhere on the coast of either the Japan or Yellow Sea.

     Burdened as these colonists were with a great variety of animals and birds, and also with a vessel containing fish, and with swarms of bees, their progress must have been very slow. It being too soon after the flood for animals to have spread much over the vast continent of Asia, they must have lived on the increase of their flocks and herds, occasionally economized by wild fruits, or by grain raised by cultivating the soil. It would also take some time to build barges to cross the great inland sea. With these and many minor difficulties they must have been many years in accomplishing this journey to the eastern shore of Asia.

     Our next paper will give some account of the building of the Jaredite vessels and of their voyage to America.

     [Nov. 1, pp. 248-249] The Jaredites were four years at camp Moriancumer before they began to build vessels for crossing the sea. . . .

     These vessels appear to have been mere hulks, without sails or rudders–floating shells, in which, from their peculiar construction, those on board were well protected from the elements. They must have had considerable storage capacity, to have carried the people with their goods and chattels, a great variety of animals, an aquarium, hives of bees, and the necessary food and water for a long voyage. It is probable, however, that they replenished some of their stores from islands in the Pacific Ocean. . . .

     As the hulls of these barges could have presented but little surface to the action of the wind, reflection almost forces the conclusion that, int he beginning of the voyage, they were taken up by some ocean current, which, imperceptibly to the voyagers, but none the less unerringly, carried them on their course. By examining a sea chart, we discover that one of these mighty ocean rivers, called “the great Japan current,” sweeps out of the China and Japan seas across the Pacific Ocean, and spends its force against the western coast of Central America, below the gulf of California. Unless there has been some change in ocean currents since this voyage of the Jaredites, this one, doubtless, indicates their course from the eastern to the western hemisphere. . . .

     The land, subsequently called Moran, is designated as that of their first inheritance. It doubtless comprised the southern portion of what is now known as Mexico, and probably extended to the Isthmus of Darien. As yet, we can obtain no very definite idea of its extent and boundaries. The narrative leaves this, as well as the number of the Jaredite colony, very indefinite. The number of the latter might have been fifty or sixty persons. . . .

     As all animal life, except what was with Noah in the ark, had been destroyed in the deluge, the Jaredites landed in a vast continental wilderness, rich in forests, wild fruits, grasses and flowers, but destitute of animal life.

Note* This is the first time a somewhat detailed route to the Caspian Sea and through China had been proposed for the Jaredite journey.

1879^      G. M. Ottinger, “Votan, the Culture-Hero of the Mayas,” in Juvenile Instructor 14 (1 March 1879): pp. 57-58.

     George Ottinger writes:

     In the year 1857, in the city of Vienna, a book now generally known under the title of Popol Vuh (national book) was first placed before the public in its modern translation, under the following heading: “A History of the Origin of the Indians of the Province of Guatemala, Translated from the Quiche Language by R. P. F. Francisco Ximenez,” etc. . . .

     The learned Abbe, Brasseur de Bourbourg, dissatisfied with the translation, settled himself, in 1860, among the Quiches, and, helped by the natives and his own practical knowledge of the language, he elaborated a new and literal translation which was published in Paris, in 1861.

     From this and other important works relating to the ancient Americans, written by Bourbourg, whose indefatigable researches and labors deserve the greatest praise, we are indebted for much of our knowledge relating to the American culture-hero and voyager, Votan.

     “By some writers this early colonizer 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 led a portion of the dispersed people to America. There he established the kingdom of Xibalba, and built the city of Palenque.” (Bancroft, Native Races, Vol. 5, 27)

     Ordonez, a native and resident of Chiapas, [and using another document purported to be a copy of a work written by Votan] says Votan proceeded to America by divine command and apportioned out the land, or laid the foundation of civilization. He founded the city of Nachan, or Palenque. . . . The name Tzequils, applied to Votan’s followers by the aborigines, or families who joined him after his arrival is said to mean, “men with petticoats,” from the peculiar dress worn by the newcomers. . . .

     The personage whose name appears first in [another] Maya tradition is Zamna, who taught the people writing (the hieroglyphic alphabet) and gave a name to each locality in Yucatan. “His role, so far as anything is known of it, was precisely the same as that of Votan, in Chiapas. (Bancroft, Vol. 5, p. 224) . . .

     Sahagun, justly esteemed one of the best authorities, says: “Countless years ago the first settlers came in ships, by sea, from the east. They had with them their wise men and prophets.” The first homes of these colonizers are located by Sahagun in the province of Guatemala. The arrival Gucumatz and his companions and their settlements somewhere near the Usumasinta river agrees with the founding of Xibalba and the Votanic empire as related in the other narrative. . . .

     We find here in these secular histories and traditions a remarkable confirmation of the historical portion of the Book of Mormon. A careful reading of the Book of Omni (Book of Mormon) will give a correct version of the early settlement of Yucatan by the colony led by Mulek (Votan, or Zamna) from Jerusalem, and we see plainly wherein modern writers become confused, by confounding the two histories, that of the people of Zarahemla and that on the engraved stone, recording the history of the Jaredites who came to America shortly after the confusion of tongues at Babel, which is fully related in the Book of Ether (Book of Mormon) . . .

     Here also rises an important question from the definite location given by the secular narratives of the ancient city of Zamna. Is it not possible that the great Rio Usumasinta, “flowing north into the sea,” may be the ancient river Sidon. Those remarkable and world-famous ruins known under the name of Palenque may yet be proven to be the remains of that “great city and religious center” of the aboriginals, called Zarahemla. “This city may have been identical with Xibalba; the difficulty in disproving the identity is equaled only by that of proving it.” (Bancroft, Vol 5, p. 295.)

     The ruins are found on a branch or tributary of the Usumasinta, and their extent is undefined. Several travelers have written descriptions of these remarkable ruins. Possibly the best are by Waldeck, with drawings, who visited the ruins in 1832, and that of Stephens, with Catherwood’s drawings, who visited and explored the ancient city in 1840.

     All the old traditions and records relating to the early colonizers are unamious [sic] in describing them as white men with beards.

     But the so called Palenque is not the only city in the old Maya dominion; the whole country is dotted with ruins, and there are unmistakable evidences of its having at one time been inhabited by a dense and industrious population.

     Note* Ottinger did not mention the editorial in The Times and Seasons which appeared in October 1842 and which stated the following:

     Central America, or Guatimala [sic] is situated north of the Isthmus of Darien and once embraced several hundred miles of territory from north to south–The city of Zarahemla, burnt at the crucifixion of the Savior, and rebuilt afterwards, stood upon this land . . . We are not agoing [sic] to declare positively that the ruins of Quirigua are those of Zarahemla, but when the land and the stone and the books tell the story so plain, we are of the opinion that it would require more proof than the Jews could bring to prove the disciples stole the body of Jesus from the tomb, to prove that the ruins of the city in question, are not one of those referred to in the Book of Mormon. . . . It will not be a bad plan to compare Mr. Stephens’ ruined cities with those of the Book of Mormon . . .

     Ottinger’s article reinforces the idea that Zarahemla and the river Sidon might have been located in Guatemala. It would be almost 50 years until someone would even attempt to elaborate on this geographical idea–it was in 1917 when first the RLDS Louis Hills and subsequently the LDS Willard Young would finally publish their Mesoamerican approaches to Book of Mormon geography. (see the notations).

1879^      Orson Pratt, Book of Mormon (Geographical Footnotes), 1879-1920

     Orson Pratt’s philosophy became very influential during pioneer days in the Church. This was the result of his years spent in publishing Church materials used in spreading the gospel. In 1879 a new edition of the Book of Mormon was printed which contained Pratt’s footnotes describing geographical features and places mentioned in the text. For the next 40 years these geographical notes would have an enormous impact in the minds of the general LDS members. The footnotes were patterned after Pratt’s hemispheric view of Book of Mormon lands. These footnotes were not deleted until 1921. Thus his ideas for the most part became a standard of Book of Mormon geography. Some of the geographical statements that were written in the footnotes are as follows:

     17. The Jaredites were brought to a land that was choice above all other lands. The 1979 footnotes state that the Lord brought them “on the Western coast [of North America], and probably South of the Gulf of California , and North of the Land of Desolation, which was North of the Isthmus [of Darien].” (Ether 1:42, 6:12)

1882      Myron H. Bond, “The Book of Mormon,” in Saints Herald 29, February 15, 1882, pp. 49-51.

     (RLDS)

     A testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon. The author briefly tells the story of the Jaredites, finds the Book of Mormon to be a fulfillment of the prophesy in Genesis 48:13-26, Psalm 85, and Ezekiel 37, and relates the story of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. [A.T.]

1883^      Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: The Native Races of the Pacific States, 5 vols., San Francisco, CA: A. L. Bancroft, 1883.

     (non-LDS)             

     In chapter 1 entitled, “On the Origins of the Americans” (5:96-102), Hubert Bancroft writes the following:

     The account given by the Book of Mormon of the settlement of America by the Jews, is as follows: (he notes here: “I translate freely from Bertrand, Memoires, p. 32, et seq., for this account. Vol. V. 7)

     After the confusion of tongues, when men were scattered over the whole face of the earth, the Jaredites, a just people, having found favor in the sight of the Eternal, miraculously crossed the ocean in eight vessels, and landed in North America,

1886^            ??            Plain Facts for Students of the Book of Mormon with a Map of the Promised Land, SLC: N.p., 1886.

     John Sorenson writes:

     Plain Facts for Students of the Book of Mormon, with a Map of the Promised Land. n.p., n.d. (A four-page pamphlet preceded by an “Outline Map of the Occidental Promised Land.” A photocopy of the dog-eared original exists at BYU.) The text cites a letter from President John Taylor, dated 1886, to a nameless addressee in Logan, Utah, giving permission to undertake missionary work among Maya Indians but warning that only a single wife was to accompany anybody going. The text, which emphasizes the importance of preaching to the “genuine” Lamanites found in Yucatan, indicates that Pres. Taylor was alive at publication; since he died in 1887, the pamphlet is taken as published that year. (John L. Sorenson, The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book , Provo: FARMS, 1992, p. 137)

     Although the details of this “model” are not plainly spelled out, and although it might seem to be (at least in the beginning) somewhat similar to the 1880 Heber Comer and Karl G. Maeser, which follows a somewhat traditional hemispheric model–see notation and map), nevertheless there are some huge implications–implications that are revolutionary.

     The Jaredites came to the promised land from the Black Sea, and stopped four years in Morocco, or Mauritania Corian-Cum-er. (The monosyllable “Cum” occurs in most places where water or sea is implied, so we have Riplian-cum, Tean-cum, Morian-cum-er, Cum-eni, etc.) Land by the sea of Morocco. . . . From Morocco they came through the tropical current, and through the Caribbean sea, and probably landed in Yucatan or Guatamala.

[1886      Illustrated Model      Possible Limited: Northern South America—> Mesoamerica]

L.S.=Northern South Amer. / N.N.=Panama / L.N.=Mesoamerica and Central America / H.C.= Unclear

Source: Plain Facts for Students of the Book of Mormon, with a Map of the Promised Land, (n.p., n.d.)–a four-page pamphlet preceded by an “Outline Map of the Occidental Promised Land.”

     Note* Although W. W. Phelps implied a Mediterranean-Atlantic crossing in 1833, this is the first distinct LDS proposal for a “Black Sea” route. And while “Morocco” has already been proposed by Ottinger (see the 1875 notation), this is the first time that “Yucatan or Guatemala” have been specifically proposed as the landing site of the Jaredites, although see the 1875-1876 Ottinger notations.

1887^      M. T. Lamb, The Golden Bible; or, The Book or The Book of Mormon. Is it From God? New York: Ward & Drummond, 1887, pp. 204-206.

     (anti-LDS)      

     Reverend M. T. (Martin Thomas) Lamb was a Baptist minister living in Salt Lake City. In 1885 he presented a multi-part seminar on the Book of Mormon to overflow crowds of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The seminar was so successful he presented it throughout the West, often in Mormon Church buildings. He said the crowds always treated him civilly, even though his message was clear–The Book of Mormon is not from God!

     Eventually the Governor of the Territory of Utah and leading Utah citizens asked Rev. Lamb to publish his lectures in book form. The result is The Golden Bible. The following are some pertinent excerpts:

     What Then, Is the Book of Mormon? [pp. 5-9]

     This book [of Ether] tells us of a party numbering between twenty and thirty, under the direction of the brother of Jared, leaving Asia at the command of God, about one hundred years after the flood, just after the confusion of tongues, as related in the Book of Genesis. They embark in eight strangely constructed arks or barges; and after drifting 344 days across the Atlantic Ocean they land upon this North American Continent, where they and their descendants remained for fifteen hundred years; became very numerous, spread over the greater portion of the continent and developed a somewhat advanced civilization.

Note* It is difficult to assess M. T. Lamb’s source material. The authoritative LDS view up until this time was a Pacific crossing. There had been no RLDS written viewpoint (although check the 1882 notation).

1888^      H. A. Stebbins, “The Story of the Book of Mormon.” Autumn Leaves, Vol. 1, No 1(Jan), pp. 22-26      (RLDS)            

     [p. 23] (Chapter 1. The Tower of Babel-The Jaredites’ Origin . . . ) When all things were ready, the people of Jared went on board their boats, taking with them a variety of beasts and birds, also sufficient provisions to last them on their journey across the deep, over those great bodies of water now known to us as the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The Lord caused the wind to blow upon them to waft them across the sea. He also preserved them in safety that none of them were lost; and they thanked and praised him for his care. After three hundred and forty-four days upon the water they arrived at their destination, landing, as we understand from the narrative, upon the western coast of what is now called Mexico.

Note* This is the first time that an “Indian Ocean” route has been proposed. It is also the first RLDS proposal (although check the 1882 notation). H. A. Stebbins would amplify this route in later publications: See 1994, 1999, 1901.

1888^      George Reynolds, The Story of the Book of Mormon, SLC: J. H. Parry, 1888. Reprinted in 1898, 1957, 1980.

     In the excerpts below we find Reynolds beginning to explain Orson Pratt’s theoretical hemispheric model. In addition to relating the lands and cities to one another (internal geography), Reynolds made the following external geographical identifications:

      (Introduction) America the first inhabited of all lands–its ancient peoples–the Garden of Eden–the antediluvians . . . when the flood was over and the waters sank, [Noah’s] ark, by the winds and waves, had been carried far away to a new land, until it rested on the Mountains of Ararat. Then for a short time America was without inhabitants.

     But not long after the deluge the wicked tried to build a tower . . . This is called the Tower of Babel. . . . In his anger [the Lord] confounded their language . . . he scattered them abroad upon the earth.  

     (Chapter 75, pp. 1-2) . . . The ancestors of the Jaredites were engaged in the attempt ot build the Tower of Babel. It is probable they were of the family of Sheml, as they were worshipers of the true God, and he conferred ujpon tem his preisthood. How far they had wondered from the tower, it at all, when the Lord commenced to revelation of his will to theml, is not apparent from the sacred text. . . .

     The valley into which the Lord led the Jaredites was called Nimrod, after that mighty hunter of the early ljpost-diluvian age. Here they tarried for a time, while they prepared for the long journey which was before them. . . . Everything tthat could lpossigbly be of use to them they appear to have collected. They were going to a land that had been swept clean by the waters of the Deluge; it had been bereft of all its animal life; the seeds of grains and fruits no longer germinated in its soil; and the colony had to replenish the continent with the animal and vegetable life, necewssary for their comfort and sustenance, as though it was a new earth. . . .

     [The Lord] directed tthat the company should go forth into the silvderness, into that quarter where man had never yet been. As they journeyed the Heavenly presence went befoe them in the cloud and instructed them and gave directions which way they should travel. In the course of their journey they had many waters–seas, rivers, and lakes–to cross, on which occasions they built barges, as directed by the Lord. . . .

     We shall not attempt to trace the wanderings of the company on their way to the promised land. The account given in the Book of Ether is entirely too meagre for that purpose.

     Some suppose that they went as far north as the Caspian Sea, which they crossed; then turning eastaward slowly journeyed along the central Asia plateau; thence to the Pacific seaboard, most probably on the caost of China. Thesse suppositions may be correct; the writer does not know enought to either affirm or deny theml; but one thing is certain, the journey must ahve been a very longa nd tedious one. The region thorugh which they passed was one in ewhich no man dwelt, they could puiirchase no supplies, and if they did not live entirely on wild fruit, fish and small game, it is probable that ehy tarried now and again, at favorable points, long enough to plant and reap a crop.

     (Chap. 76, p 1) Led by the Lord personally . . . the colony, of which; Jared’s brother appears to have been the prophet and leader at last reached the borders of the great sea which divides the continents. To the place where they tarried they gave the name of Moriancumer. . . . The brother of Jared was then commanded by the Lord to build eight barges . . . All things being prepared, Jared and his people, with their animals, fishes, bees, seeds and multitudinous other things, went on board; a favorable wind wafted them from shore, and they gradually drifted to the American coast. At the end of the voyage of three hundred and forty-four days the colony landed on this continent. It is generally understood that the place where they landed was south of the Gulf of California and north of the isthmus of Panama.

     Here [in America] he made them a great nation; and they filled the land for many hundreds of years.

1889^      John H. Kelson, “Unwitting Witnesses,” in Deseret Weekly 38, January 5, 12, 19, 26 1889; February 2, 23 1889; March 16, 23, 30 1889; May 4, 1889: pp. 33-35, 66-68, 102-104, 134-135, 169-170, 198-200 257-259, 355-357, 391-393, 421-423, 577-580.

     In this series of articles, John Kelson defends the Book of Mormon from the negative perspectives of science– evolution, philology, anthropology, archaeology, etc. In the process he makes statements concerning the geography of the Book of Mormon, quoting from Orson Pratt’s footnotes and also The Compendium regarding Lehi’s travels. He writes the following:

     [p. 103] The landing place of the Jaredites was, probably, what is now known as Mexico. In the opinion of Professor O. Pratt, “It was on the western coast, and probably south of the Gulf of California, and north of the land of Desolation, which was north of the Isthmus.” See Book of Mormon, lp. 582, note h.

     The settlers thence spread north, south and east, over a vast extent of country. . . .

1891      John H. Kelson      “Ancient Fortifications: A Testimony to the Truth of the Book of Mormon,” Deseret Weekly 43 (19 September 1891, 3 October 1891): pp. 385-86, 449-50.

     In 1891, on page 449 of The Deseret Weekly, the “Official Organ of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” published in Salt Lake City, Utah by The Deseret News Co. we find the following:

     The Book of Mormon relates that under the direct command and guidance of the Almighty a small colony of the ancient inhabitants of eastern Asia emigrated to America about the time of the building of the Tower of Babel. After peopling a vast area of the American continent, extending through a period of seventeen hundred years, the people became exceedingly low and depraved . . . and resulted in the total destruction of the race. These exterminating wars carried off not less than fifteen million souls.

     These early inhabitants of America were named Jaredites, after the name of the founder of the colony. They lived principally in North America.

1891^      George Reynolds, The Dictionary of the Book of Mormon, SLC: Jos. Hyrum Parry, 1891

     The first serious attempt to work out the geography of the Book of Mormon was made by George Reynolds. His two publications, A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon (1891) and The Story of the Book of Mormon, outline his ideas as to where important Book of Mormon lands, rivers, cities and hills were located. Maps of the Americas which indicated these places were published and widely circulated. According to this theory, the most southern area mentioned in the record was near Valparaiso in Chili where the Lehi colony was supposed to have landed. The northern point was the Hill Cumorah in New York. Consequently the intermediate territory would be known and occupied by these people.

     Reynolds says the following:      

     Moron. The land where the Jaredites made their first settlements. It was north of the land called Desolation by the Nephites, and consequently in some part of the region which we know as Central America. It appears to have been for a lengthy period, if not during the whole of their existence, the seat of government, the residence of the reigning monarch, and the centre of Jaredite civilization. . . . (p. 245)

1892^      Edward Stevenson, “Historic Scenes Around Cumorah Hill,” in The Utah Monthly Magazine 8

                       (April-May 1892): pp. 242-46, 289-91.

     He writes:

     The third nation that fell around this beautiful and historic Hill called Ramah were Jaredites, who came from the great tower 2,000 years before Christ, when God confounded the languages and scattered them upon all the face of the earth. “The heavens and the earth may pass away, but my words shall not fail.” In this case they did not, for by revelation and inspiration we find them on their journey at the great sea, which as they said divided the lands, where they remained four years and built eight ships in which they successfully crossed the great sea in 344 days, landing near the Gulf of California. . .

1892      George Reynolds, Juvenile Instructor, May 1, 1892, p. 284, note.

Elder George Reynolds suggested: “It is evident that they first traveled northward, but whether they turned east or west is not so apparent. The general idea is that they turned eastward and crossed Central Asia.” Elder Reynolds also wrote, “We have no direct information in regard to the locality of Moriancumer, but those who believe that the Jaredites traveled eastward through Central Asia, are of the opinion that it was near the mouth of one of the great rivers that flow though the Chinese empire into the Pacific Ocean.”

Note* See the Jackson notation for 1988.

1894      Henry A. Stebbins, “Book of Mormon Lectures,” in Zions Ensign. Publication of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Revised and published in book form in 1901, 1908.

     (RLDS)                                               

     In the Preface of his revised 1901 Book of Mormon Lectures, Henry A. Stebbins writes the following:

     This book is a revised and enlarged copy of the Book of Mormon Lectures that were delivered by the author in the Saints’ chapel, Independence, Missouri, on nine successive evenings during February, 1894. They were given by the joint invitation of the Religio-Literary Society and the Sunday-school of that branch of the church. Sister Belle Robinson (now James) reported them in shorthand and their publication was immediately begun in Zion’s Ensign. . . .

     Since doing this the author has revised and corrected the original, and also added much more to the book from the great store of antiquarian and historical material that has been piling up during the past sixty years, especially the past thirty years, in favor of the book that has been advocated for more than seventy years as a book of divine truth. . . .

                                               Henry A. Stebbins

                                               Lamoni, Iowa, December 14, 1901.

     In the 1898 the RLDS Committee on Book of Mormon Archaeology proposed that the Jaredites traveled westward crossing the Atlantic. However in 1899 in the RLDS Religio-Literary Society’s “Study Corner,” in “The Religio’s Arena,” in Autumn Leaves, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan), pp. 24-26 we find the following:

     There is another theory set forth on pages 11 and 12 of “Book of Mormon Lectures” which suggest that “the many waters” were the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean. The place where the Jaredites camped for four years is presented as the Malayan Peninsula, or else the island of Borneo; that they crossed the Pacific Ocean and landed on the west coast of Central America.

Note* The “Indian Ocean” route was first proposed by Stebbins in 1888–see notation, which was the first RLDS viewpoint. The reader is also referred to the 1899 Autumn Leaves reference and the 1901 Book of Mormon Lectures reference for more extensive quotations.

1898^            W. A. Sinclair, “The Jaredites,” in Autumn Leaves, Vol. 11, No. 5 (April, 1898), pp. 191-192.

           (RLDS)            

     [pp. 191-192] Jared was the founder of the Jaredite race. he was apparently one of those engaged in the building of the Tower of Babel. It is assumable that he was a descendant of Shem, as he and most certainly his brother held the holy priesthood, although his brother seems to have been the leading spirit in their toilsome journey to this continent. They left Jerusalem about 2247 B.C., and came to America. . . . They appear to have collected everything that could possibly be of use to them. They were going to a land that had been swept clean by the waters of the deluge; it had been bereft of all its animal life; the seeds of grains and fruits no longer germinated in its soil; and the colony had to replenish the continent with the animal and vegetable life necessary for their comfort and sustenance, as though it was a new earth. . . .

     In the course of their journey they had many waters, seas, rivers, and lakes to cross, on which occasions they built barges, as directed by the Lord. . . . As they advanced to a great distance from the center of population in Western Asia, it is possible they traveled beyond the limits to which the larger animals had by that time scattered . . .

     . . . at last [they] reached the borders of the great sea which divides the continents. . . . The brother of Jared was then commanded by the Lord to build eight barges, after the same pattern as those he had previously constructed. . . . The vessels were small, tight in construction, and water tight. They landed south of the Gulf of California and north of the land Desolation, which was north of the Isthmus of Panama. . . . the race became exterminated just before the Nephties landed on this continent.

1898      RLDS,  A Report of the Committee on American Archaeology, 1898

     The 1898 report by the RLDS Committee on American Archaeology represented the most extensive efforts by any LDS group to date to correlate published scholarly ideas with the Book of Mormon story. It also represented the most scholarly approach ever attempted to support a North America-South America setting for Book of Mormon geography. A number of maps by George F. Weston were included. The maps reflect a Hemispheric perspective. However, there is one map in particular worthy of note. It illustrates the Mulekite journey parallelling that of Lehi through Arabia, and then crossing the Pacific to land in Central America. Interestingly, this represents the only example to date of the Mulekites taking this route.

     Some of a multitude of excerpts which I have found pertinent are the following:

     Publishers’ Preface

     At the General conference of the Reorganized church held at Lamoni, Iowa, April 6-19, 1894, a “Committee on American Archaeology” was appointed to outline and prepare a map of Book of Mormon history–the record of the ancient inhabitants of North and South America.

     For a number of years those especially interested in the subject of ancient American history and archaeology have been urging the preparation of a work of this kind. It is now given to the public, after much time and labor upon the part of the members of the committee, who have devoted themselves untiringly to the work of research and criticism assigned them. This labor has been rendered the more arduous because involving consideration of various theories held concerning locations of civilizations, land, boundaries, rivers, etc., with other problems connected with the settlement, migration, and general vicissitudes of the various nations mentioned; and has required close and diligent study. In the examination of the evidences adduced from archaeology and other lines of evidence those comprising the committee reached conclusions which they consider to be substantially correct, in the leading points involved.

     The work is so arranged that its general plan will readily be comprehended by the reader. The maps are reproduced from the large maps prepared at direction of the committee by George F. Weston, of Buchanan, Michigan.

     Part 1 outlines the history of the Nephites. Part 2 is a synopsis of Jaredite history, which is followed by a summary of the conclusions reached, with statement of evidences upon which said conclusions are based. Part 3 is an addenda. It includes a list of early authors on American antiquities, including opinions concerning the origin of the ancient Americans; also a list of authors quoted; the whole systematically indexed for ready reference.

     The report is presented with the conviction that it will prove materially helpful to every student of Book of Mormon history and American archaeology.

           Lamoni, Iowa, February 1, 1898.

     Part 2. The Jaredites

[p. 67]      The Jaredites as a separate people began at the Tower of Babel, twenty-two centuries before the birth of Christ. . . . they came “down into the valley of Nimrod,” which was “north” of Babel. ( ) . . . Being commanded to “go forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been,” would indicated that their course of travel lay to the west; for the people of Babel had “journeyed from the east” (Genesis 11:2). So these countries had been traversed by man and could not have been the ones referred to as the ones “where there never had man been.” It appears that the countries to the east, north, and also to the west, as far as to Sidon, in Canaan, or the great sea (the Mediterranean), had been divided, at this time, and assigned to the various tribes. (Genesis, chap. 10) then for the Jaredites to have “gone forth into the wilderness” from Babel, and “into that quarter where there never had man been,” the natural course for them to have taken, if not the only one, was to the west. so “the Lord did bring Jared and his brethren forth even to that great sea which divideth the lands” ( ); that is, to the Atlantic Ocean.

[p. 68]      There “they pitched their tents; and they called the name of the place Moriancumer; and they dwelt in tents . . . upon the seashore for the space of four years” ( ). Here they were commanded to prepare to “cross this great deep.” The phrase, “this great deep,” would indicate that they were encamped by the very waters that it was required that they should cross, in order to reach the promised land. This position seems much better sustained than the one can be that assumes that the Mediterranean Sea was the “great sea that divideth the lands” referred to, and that Moriancumer was on the northern coast of the Mediterranean, near the Alps, not far from Genoa. For if they put to sea at Genoa, they did not cross “this great deep” ( ).

[p. 69]      It appears, then, that the Jaredites left the valley of Nimrod, which lay “north” of Babel, probably near the southeast border of the Black Sea, and to the northeast of the head of the Tigris River (see map), and passed through Asia Minor south of the Black Sea (or possibly passed around the Black Sea to the east and along the northern coast westward, we are not so certain), crossed the Bosporus at Constantinople, and moved along westward, south of the River Danube, through Servia, along the River Drave, in the southern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the north of the head of the Adriatic Sea, and Italy, through Switzerland, or northern Italy, into France; and so on down through southeastern and southern France into northern Spain, and along to the south of the Cantabrian Mountains west to the seashore, and camped not far from the mouth of the Minho River, near the northern boundary line of Portugal. (see map)

[Map———The Jaredite journey from the Tower of Babel to the Great Sea]

     From this place, which they called Moriancumer, where they lived in tents for four years, they “set forth into the sea.” ( ) . . . “They were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the water; and they did land upon the shore of the promised land.” ( )

     They most likely passed down to the west of the west coast of Africa, until within the regions of the equator, and then followed the course of the ocean currents and trade winds westward, and finally landed upon the east coast of Central America, near the mouth of the River Motagua. They may have landed a distance up that river. (see map) From here “they began to spread upon the face of the land, and to multiply and to till the earth; and they did wax strong in the land” ( ), and finally fixed their capital (Moron) at what is now known as the ruins of Copan on the Copan River, Honduras; possibly it was at Quirigua, on the Motagua River, Guatemala. These two cities are not far apart–about twenty-five miles–and with our present knowledge of them it is difficult to determine certainly which one was the ancient capital of the Jaredites. (see map)

[Map———The Jaredite journey Across the Great Sea to the Promised Land]

[p. 77]      The Jaredites no doubt landed in the latitude where one of the first and chief cities (Moron) was located, and Moron (if not the first) was one of the first places settled, and it was near the land that was “called Desolation by the Nephites.” ( ) This Desolation was but the local land by that name. The Nephites had, prior to this, settled up the Jaredite country, and given new names to certain parts of it, retaining the old name “Desolation” to apply to the most southern part of it. At this point it joined on the Bountiful, at which place it was but “a day and a half’s journey for a Nephite,” across the neck, from sea to sea. (Alma )

[1898      Map #1: Map of the World Showing Probable Course of the Ancient Colonies Across the Ocean. Drawn for the Archaeological Com. by G. F. Weston, Buchanan, Mich. Report of the Committee on American Archaeology: Appointed by the General Conference of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1894. Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing Co., 1898.]

[1898      Map #2: Map of the Eastern and Western Continents Showing Ocean Currents and General View of the Ancient Lands. Drawn for the Com. on Archaeology by G. F. Weston, Buchanan, Mich. Report of the Committee on American Archaeology: Appointed by the General Conference of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1894. Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing Co., 1898.]

[1898      Map #3: Map of the Lands of the Jaredites. B. C. 2234 to A.D. 600. with Modern Names to Aid Student. Drawn for the Com. on Archaeology by G. F. Weston, Buchanan, Mich. Report of the Committee on American Archaeology: Appointed by the General Conference of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1894. Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing Co., 1898.]

Note* A Black Sea route was first proposed by the author of Plain Facts (see the 1886 notation) but this RLDS proposal is far more detailed.

1899^      ??                  “Study Corner,” in “The Religio’s Arena,” in Autumn Leaves, Vol. 12, No. 1, (Jan), pp. 24-26

     (RLDS)            

     Notes on Lesson 19

(Jar)      The Jaredites came from the region of the Tower of Babel twenty-two centuries before the birth of Christ, according to commonly accepted chronology, or sixteen hundred years before the Nephites colony left Jerusalem.

     Babel was included in Babylon, which nation was founded by Nimrod. Babylon, Chambers’s Encyclopedia tells us, “was situated along the lower course of the Euphrates, called in our times, Irak-Arabi. In Old Testament times Babylon was called Shinar, also “land of the Chaldees'”

     If we look on one of our maps of modern times, we shall see that this region of Babel was in the western part of Asia, int he valley of the Euphrates, in the southern part of Turkey in Asia, or Asia Minor, bordering on the western part of Persia, above the Persian Gulf.

     The “valley of Nimrod” was probably so called because it contained the nation of Babylon, founded by Nimrod, and the Jaredites journeyed “downward into the valley,” going “northward” of Babel. See map in this issue of Leaves.“

     Notes on Lesson 20

     After the flood, “It appears that the countries to the east, north, and also to the west, as far as to Sidon, in Canaan, or the Great Sea (the Mediterranean), had been divided, at this time, and assigned to the various tribes. (Genesis, chap. 10)”–Committee’s Report, p. 68. . . .

     “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.” -Genesis 11:1, 2.

     Here they started to build the Tower of Babel, and God confused their language, and that Jared was commanded to “go forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been,” “would indicated that their course of travel lay to the west; for the people of Babel had ‘journeyed from the east.'”

     It appears, then, that the Jaredites left the valley of Nimrod, which lay “north” of Babel, probably near the southeast border of the Black Sea, and to the northeast of the head of the Tigris River (see map), and passed through Asia Minor south of the Black Sea (or possibly passed around the Black Sea to the east and along the northern coast westward, we are not so certain), crossed the Bosporus at Constantinople, and moved along westward, south of the river Danube, through Serbia, along the river Drave, in the southern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the north of the head of the Adriatic Sea, and Italy, through Switzerland, or Northern Italy, into France; and so don down through Southeastern and Southern France into Northern Spain, and along to the south of the Cantabrian Mountains west to the seashore, and camped not far from the mouth of the Minho River, near the northern boundary line of Portugal. (See map)

     They most likely passed down to the west of the west coast of Africa, until within the regions of the equator, and then followed the course of the ocean currents and trade winds westward, and finally landed upon the east coast of Central America, near the mouth of the river Motagua. They may have landed a distance up that river. (see map)–Committee’s Report, pp. 69, 70.

     There is another theory set forth on pages 11 and 12 of “Book of Mormon Lectures” which suggest that “the many waters” were the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean. The place where the Jaredites camped for four years is presented as the Malayan Peninsula, or else the island of Borneo; that they crossed the Pacific Ocean and landed on the west coast of Central America.

     Both theories are presented that you may judge for yourself, as to the course of travel most probable. It will be noticed the agreement of opinion that Central America was the place of landing. Each theory finds the winds and currents favorable to its support.

[1899      Map: Map of the World-Probable Course of the Ancient Colonies Across the Ocean. G.F. Weston, Buchanan, Michigan, in “The Religio’s Arena,” in Autumn Leaves, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan), p. 26]

Note* Although the other theory (Indian Ocean) for the Jaredite journey is found in A. H. Stebbins’ “Book of Mormon Lectures” of 1894, it was first proposed by him in 1888–see notation.

1899^            James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1899, chap. 14. Reprinted and revised in more than 42 editions up to the present.

     Articles of Faith is considered one of the classics in Latter-day Saint literature. It is the outgrowth of a series of lectures in theology given by Dr. James E. Talmage, commencing in October of 1893. At that time Dr. Talmage was serving as the president of the LDS College in Salt Lake City. The First Presidency of the Church invited Dr. Talmage to prepare a text for use in Church schools and religion classes. The book was first published in 1899. It has since been published in thirteen foreign languages and been through more than fifty English editions. . . . On December 7, 1911, he was called as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, where he served faithfully until his death on July 27, 1933.

Source: ^Missionary Reference Library: Articles of Faith, SLC: Deseret Book, 1990, Publisher’s Preface and pp. 234-235.

     Note* The contents of chapter 14 have been edited over the years from the 1899 edition. Those phrases lined through have been edited out since 1899, and those phrases underlined have been added since 1899. 

[Chapter 14: “The Book of Mormon”] . . .

     The Jaredite Nation— Of the two nations whose histories constitute the Book of Mormon, the first in order of time consisted of the people of Jared, who followed their leader from the Tower of Babel at the time of the confusion of tongues. . . .

     . . . Their course of travel is not given with exactness; we learn only that they reached the ocean and there constructed eight vessels, called barges, in which they set out upon the waters. . . . After a passage of three hundred and forty-four days, the colony landed on the western shore of North America, probably at a place south of the Gulf of California, and north of the Isthmus of Panama American shores.

     Here they became a flourishing nation; but, giving way in time to internal dissensions, they divided into factions, which warred with one another until the people were totally destroyed. This destruction, which occurred near the Hill Ramah, afterward known among the Nephites as Cumorah, probably took place at about the time of Lehi’s landing, — near 590 B.C. The last representative of the ill-fated race was Coriantumr, the king, concerning whom Ether had prophesied that he should survive all his subjects and live to see another people in possession of the land. This prediction was fulfilled in that the king, whose people had become extinct been exterminated, came, in the course of his solitary wanderings, to a region occupied by the people of Mulek, who are to mentioned here as the third ancient colony of emigrants from the eastern continent.

1900^      William Woodhead, “Myths of the New World–No. 1–12,” in The Saints’ Herald, 47, April 18, 25; May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; June 6, 13, 20, 27; July 4, 1900,  pp. 259-260, 276-279, 286-288, 308-311, 319-321, 334-337, 352-353, 369-371, 383-385, 398-401, 416-418, 431-432.

     (RLDS)                             

     Note* This article is important because it links the traditional Hemispheric Book of Mormon perspective with early New World myths cited by early scientific writers. On the other hand, the perspectives of these early authors and writings cited were to be challenged by a later group of archaeolgical and anthropological authors–see the Shook notation for 1910. This article can also be found in the “External Evidences” section of this project.

     William Woodhead writes the following:

     Seven Families from the Tower of Babel

     Clavigero, explaining a Chiapanese myth, says:

     There was a Votan who was the grandson of the man who built the ark to save himself and family from the Deluge; he was one of those who undertook to build the tower that should reach to heaven. The Lord ordered him to people America. “He came from the East.” He brought seven families with him. He had been preceded in America by two others, Igh and Imox. He built a great city in America called “Nachan.”–Atlantis, p. 313.

     This Nachan is supposed by De Bourbourg to be Palenque . . . This explanation of this myth would make it appear that a colony came from the tower of Babel and made a settlement in Central America.

     The oldest people in this region are called the Colhuas, and Donnelly says:–“the Mayas succeeded to the Colhuas whose era terminated one thousand years before the time of Christ”–Atlantis, p. 217.

     This Colhuan kingdom embraced in its ancient dominions, Baldwin says, Honduras, Guatemala, Yucatan, Tabasco, Tehuantepec, Chiapa, and other districts in Central America (See Ancient America, p. 199). . . .

     The Colhuas’ “first settlements,” Baldwin thinks, were “on the Gulf coast in Tabasco” (Ancient America, p. 200) In Central America and Mexico we read of stone, cement, and stucco “hard as marble.” (Ibid. p. 157) Making due allowance for exaggeration, it is safe to say that in the ruins of Quirigua, Copan, Mitla; and Palenque are found the footprints of one of the earliest civilizations of our race this side of the flood. But the exact time when the Colhuas era ceased, or the exact time when the Toltecs were nearly exterminated, is mere guesswork. . . .

     The earliest was the Colhuas; contemporary with them was the Chichimec and, strange yet true, we read of Chichimecs from the remotest times down till after the Conquest, so that in prehistoric times America was never without Chichimecs. They occupy about the same place in the new world myths that the Turanian means do in the old. Turanian means “outside,” or “barbarian.” So the Chichimecs seem as a rule “outside,” or “barbarian.” The name Chichimec became “a general term to designate the unconquered tribes of New Spain.” (Prehistoric America, p. 12) Bancroft says:–“Of the tribes that are known to have possessed no civilization . . . I will only mention the people denominated Chichimecs . . . (Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 1, p. 617.

     From this we see what the historians mean by Chichimecs. Yet this is the kind of people that put an end to the “golden age” in Mexico and Central America. (Prehistoric America, pp. 274, 275) . . .

     No. 4 The Jaredite, or Colhuas Era

     According to the myths the Colhuas and Chichimecs were the first people in Central America and Mexico. According to the Book of Mormon it was the Jaredites divided into two factions. (See Ether 1:1; 3:7; 4:1; 6:4)

     The Colhuas era terminated, it is said, about nine or ten centuries B.C. The Jaredite era, according to the Book of Mormon, ended about 600 B.C.

     The seven families in the myths and the Jaredite colony came from the tower of Babel; both were directed by Providence, and both located in Central America. The Colhuas were succeeded by the Mayas, and the Jaredites were succeeded by the Nephites. The Mayas came from the northern part of South America, according to Le Plongeon’s reading of the Troano and his serpent chart; and the Nephites moved up into the north country (Desolation) from the land of Zarahemla (northern part of South America) before the Christian era.

1901^      Henry A. Stebbins, Book of Mormon Lectures, Lamoni, Iowa: Published by the Board of Publication of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1901, reprinted in 1908.

     In the Preface of the 1901 book we find the following:

     This book is a revised and enlarged copy of the Book of Mormon Lectures that were delivered by the author in the Saints’ chapel, Independence, Missouri, on nine successive evenings during February, 1894. They were given by the joint invitation of the Religio-Literary Society and the Sunday-school of that branch of the church. Sister Belle Robinson (now James) reported them in shorthand and their publication was immediately begun in Zion’s Ensign. . . .

     Since doing this the author has revised and corrected the original, and also added much more to the book from the great store of antiquarian and historical material that has been piling up during the past sixty years, especially the past thirty years, in favor of the book that has been advocated for more than seventy years as a book of divine truth. . . .

                                               Henry A. Stebbins

                                               Lamoni, Iowa, December 14, 1901.

     Starting on page 20 we find the following:

     The Book of Mormon claims that from the Tower of Babel the Lord led a people to this continent; that they traveled until they came to the great sea, and that they crossed the Pacific Ocean in barges, under the care and protection of God. Babel was about four hundred miles from the Persian Gulf, and from there they passed down the river Euphrates. The Book of Mormon (page 502) tells us of the starting as follows: [ Ether 1:2-5, small edition is quoted]

     Continuing on page 22:

     Now these many waters [“many waters”] spoken of were evidently the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean. The travelers were several years upon their journey,–we do not know exactly how long,–and the book says that they stayed four years upon the land when they reached the great sea that divides the continents. This place I believe, from the account of it, to have been the Malayan Peninsula, or else the island of Borneo, for this reason: In an atlas that contains what is called Mercator’s Projection, you will see illustrated the great ocean currents. Also you may read of Lieutenant Maury’s theory of the trade winds, which he demonstrated and published in 1856 or 1857. If our map here had upon it an illustration of the great rivers of the sea (as they are called), you would find that east of Borneo one of these currents sets across north of the Equator, directly towards Central America. See also Johnson’s Encyclopedia, volume 2, page 341. You will discover that it is between ten and eleven thousand miles across, or nearly one half way around the earth. There are the great ocean currents and there blow the trade winds; and the book itself tells us that the Lord caused great winds to blow upon these barges, and thus they were driven day and night across the sea, and the time occupied was three hundred forty-four days, for this journey of ten or eleven thousand miles. . . .

     Of the fact that boats are still carried across the Pacific to America by natural causes alone, Mr. Bancroft says:

     There have been a great many instances of Japanese junks drifting upon the American coast, many of them after having floated helplessly about for many months. Mr. Brooks gives forty-one particular instances of such wrecks. . . . A drifting wreck would be carried towards the American coast at an average rate of ten miles a day by this current.–Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 5, pp. 42, 53.

     Starting on page 40 we find the following:

     It is more than ten thousand miles across the Pacific and they [the Jaredites] were three hundred and forty-four days in passing over it. . . . I believe that he [the Creator] caused to be placed in use the great current of the sea that sets across north of the Equator from Asia to America, and that he also used the power of the winds that blew then in their regular circuits and order as much as they do to-day. (p. 40)

     Now comes the important question, “Where did the people of Jared land? We claim that they landed upon the west coast of Central America. We do not know exactly where, but in that region of country where exist the countries now called Guatemala, Honduras, and Yucatan. Possibly they landed as far south as Costa Rica.

     Modern investigation shows that in those regions are found the most ancient remains of the people that once dwelt on this continent. . . . (pp. 41-42)

Note* This is the first time that Honduras and Costa Rica have been proposed for a Jaredite landing. See the 1894 reference and the 1899 reference.

1902^            Julia N. Dutton, “A Review of the Book of Mormon,” in Autumn Leaves, Vol. 15, No. 2, (Feb), pp. 60-66.

           (RLDS)             

     From a careful reading of the Book of Ether, which is the Jaredite record, we find that they moved westward across Europe and the Atlantic Ocean to Central America at the time of the confusion of tongues.

1902^      Anthony W. Ivins, “Are the Jaredites an Extinct People?” in Improvement Era 6, November 1902, pp. 43-44.

           Anthony W. Ivins, President of the Juarez Stake of Zion in Mexico writes the following:

     The antiquities, mythology and traditions of the American Indians, have always been interesting studies to the writer; and, in his investigations, many corroborative evidences of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon have been encountered. . . .

     While searching for the facts which relate to the early history of the Indians, the writer recently encountered the following:

     Don Francisco Munoz de la Vega, bishop of the diocese of Chiapas, certifies that an ancient manuscript, of the primitive Indians of that province, was in his record office, which states that the father and founder of their nation was named Te-po-na-hu-ale, which signified, “Lord of the Hollow Piece of Wood,” and that he was present at the building of the great tower, and beheld with his own eyes the confusion of languages, after which event, God, the Creator, commanded him to come to these extensive regions and divide them among mankind.

     Was the writer of this manuscript a Jaredite? Jared was present at the building of the Tower of Babel, and witnessed the confusion of languages. God did call him to come to America, and the long sea voyage which was necessary to reach this continent was made in a hollow piece of wood, or rather two hollow pieces of wood, fitted together so that they were tight like a dish.

     Coriantumr was found by the people of Zarahemla, and lived for the space of nine moons among them. During this period, he may have begotten children; in fact, more so, when we consider the high estimate placed upon posterity by the ancients, and the further fact that Coriantumr, being the last of his race, he would be desirous that this name be perpetuated; and would take wives and beget children, thus preserving the race of which he was the sole representative.

     His descendants would undoubtedly teach their children the story of the origin of their fathers, and thus preserve the tradition to which reference has been made.

     These were the reflections which forced themselves upon the mind of the writer, when he read the interesting statement of Father Munoz, which is here quoted. Would the Lord permit a nation like the Jaredites to be left without a representative? Can anyone answer the question,–Are the Jaredites an extinct people?

     Note* It is interesting that while Elder Ivins refers to the manuscript in the hands of bishop de la Vega, he says nothing of Votan or of a Central American landing which seems to be implied. See the other notations referring to this story: 1806, 1823, 1875, 1876

     Note* This article seems to imply that the Church-wide perception was that ALL the Jaredite people were exterminated.

1902^      William H. Kelley, Presidency and Priesthood, Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing House and Bookbindery, 1902, p. 253.

     (RLDS)                   

     William H. Kelley writes:

     The “Book of Mormon” asserts that a colony of people came from the tower of Babel, crossed the ocean, and settled in Central America. They were called Jaredites. This migration from the Old World took place upwards of two thousand years previous to the birth of the Saviour. From Central America they spread into North America, but they never inhabited South America. . . .

     This position is supported by the scientific findings made in Central Ameriaca, revealing traditions of Noah, the flood, the ark, and the creation of the world, together with stupendous superstructures of vairous kinds, and great pyramids that rival any found in the Old World, and abundant evidence of various kilnds, showing that at one time there existed in that country an intelligent and powerful nation of people. . . .

1903^            Louise Palfrey, “American Archaeology-No. 8-Origin of the Ancient Americans,” in “The Religio’s Arena,” in Autumn Leaves, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Jan.), p. 43   

           (RLDS)             

     The Book of Mormon says that the Jaredites, the Nephites, and the Zarahemlaites came from the eastern part of the world, but taking different routes, they landed on opposite shores of the American Continent, the Jaredites on the east, or Atlantic Coast, the Nephites on the west, or Pacific Coast, while it is not so clearly indicated on which coast the Zarahemlaites landed.

1903^      Walter M. Wolfe, “Modern Research and the Book of Mormon,” in Millennial Star 65 (6 August 1903): pp. 501-3, 507-9.

       The Book of Mormon gives an account of two distinct settlements of America by Asiatic peoples. The first followed the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, and hence was contemporaneous with the development of the Euphrates and Nile valleys. Concerning the exact locality where this part, known as the Jaredites, landed, I know of no definite statement, but it is generally conceded to have been on the coast of North America; while the Nephites, more than fifteen hundred years later, landed on the west coast of South America. . . .

     Between the ruins of Yucatan and those of ancient Egypt and Chaldea a very strong resemblance exists. There are the same prevailing types of pyramids and towers in each. The pyramids of Central America, with the exception of possibly one or two, were not discovered until long after the publication of the Book of Mormon. In fact the Book of Mormon is the pioneer work on American archaeology, if we omit a few of the early publications of the Spanish monks. But the early explorers of such ruins as those of Palenque and Copan regarded the Central American civilization as subsequent to that of Egypt.

     Note* Walter Wolfe was a member of the 1900 BYU Expedition. However, he was addicted to alcohol, misappropriated the Expedition’s funds because of it, desired to return home before the expedition was completed, and upon arriving home, spread rumors and misinformation about the character of Benjamin Cluff and the spirit of the Expedition. (see the full transcript of the 1900 notations)

1903      B. H. Roberts, 1903-1906 YMMIA Manual, No. 7, New Witnesses for God, Vol. II, Part 1, (3 Volumes), Salt Lake City: General Board of the YMMIA, Deseret News Press, 1903. Copyright Joseph F. Smith, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

     Chapter X [pp. 86-95]

     Migrations to the Western Hemisphere (note)

     Note* Roberts notes the following here: “It is to be understood that in this chapter I deal merely with the migrations spoken of in the Book of Mormon; and by no means enter upon a consideration of the migrations to the western hemisphere during the last two thousand years.”      

     According to the Book of Mormon there have been three migrations from the old world to the new. these, in their chronological order, are, first, the colony of Jared; second, the colony of Lehi; and third, the colony of Mulek. . . .

     I. Colony of Jared

. . . Under divine direction [the Jaredites] departed from Babel northward into a valley called Nimrod, and thence were led by the Lord across the continent of Asia eastward until they came to the shore of the great sea–Pacific Ocean–which divided the lands. (Such is the theory of the late Orson Pratt. See foot note “h” Book of Ether, Chap. 2.) There is nothing in the Book of Ether which positively determines the course of their travel, but as there is some reason for believing that the Jaredite colony landed on the western shores of North America, there seems to be some grounds for the belief that they were led eastward across the continent of Asia to the shores of what is to us the Pacific Ocean.) . . .

     After a severely stormy passage–continuing for 344 days, the colony landed on the western coast of North America, “probably south of the Gulf of California.” (According to Orson Pratt, see foot note “h” Book of Ether, Chap. 6: 12. Also Book of Ether, Chap. 7: 6.) . . .

     The first capital of the kingdom was Moron, the location of which is unknown except that it was near the land called by the Nephites “Desolation,” supposed to include the modern states under the general title of Central America. (Ether 7: 6. Also Reynolds’ Dic. of B. of M., article Desolation, Land of.) How long this continued to be the capital of the kingdom may not be determined; but the region of country, or province, to which its name also applied, “the land of Moron,” seems to have been the seat of government as late as the time of Coriantumer, the last king of the Jaredites, whose reign was in the closing years of the seventh century B. C. (Ether 6: 6, 11) . . .

     Again in the reign of the sixteenth monarch, Lib, it is said that the people occupied “the whole face of the land northward,” which means the continent of North America; “and that they built a great city by the narrow neck of land by the place where the sea divides the land;” by which is meant part of the isthmus connecting South and North

1904^      Joel Ricks, Brigham Young College, Bulletin: Society Report: Book of Mormon Geography, Logan: Brigham Young College, vol. III, No. 2, December 1904, pp. 1-19.

     In a very detailed and textually referenced report on Book of Mormon Geography by the Brigham Young College Society of American Archeology at Logan, Joel Ricks, the Society Secretary and Chairman of the Book of Mormon Geography Committee laid out a specific hemispheric plan based on exploration of some of the areas involved and intensive study of the text itself. He writes: After a careful reading of the events of the last great war seems to us to indicate clearly that the Nephites were gradually driven northward through the expanding territory of Central America. In this region the Jaredites had flourished, and Moron, the city of their first inheritance, was near to the land Desolation (Ether 7:6-16). He writes:

     It is certain that Guatemala and Honduras were populous Jaredite lands. Here we wish to say that while it is usually thought that the Jaredites reached this region from the west, it has always seemed to us that the strongest reasons exist for believing that they came from the east and landed on the east coast, just as Mulek did. The comparatively short journey to be made and the prevailing winds and currents are all in favor of this idea.

Note* This is not the first time that an LDS author has proposed an Atlantic route for the Jaredites. See the 1875-1876 Ottinger notations. See also the 1898 RLDS notation. See the 1940 Ricks notation.

1905^      James X. Allen, “Mound Builders and American Antiquities,” in Improvement Era 8 (April 1905): pp. 436-440.

     James Allen writes:

     According to the Bible account, Abraham was reared in the valley of the Tigris. . . . The Jaredites, according to the Book of Mormon, left Babylonia three hundred years before Abraham took his departure. The Jaredites did not sojourn in Egypt, as did Abraham, but came directly to the western continent, landing in Central America.

1907^      Louise Palfrey, “The Archaeology of the Book of Mormon” in Autumn Leaves, Elbert A. Smith, ed., Vol. 20, No. 4 (Apr), pp. 148-157

     (RLDS)                   

     [p. 148] The Bible tells us of God’s dealings with his people in the eastern part of the world. The Book of Mormon tells us of God’s dealings with his people in the western part of the world. It tells us about a people, called the Jaredites, whom the Lord directed to this land two thousand years before Christ, according to Bible chronology. They came from the land of Babel, when the Lord scattered those primitive people abroad “upon the face of all the earth.” Mr. Bancroft, the eminent historian, in his great work, “Native Races,” calls attention to this statement of the Scriptures, and thinks its fulfillment made it necessary that a branch of the human family come to America.

     The civilization of the Jaredites, and we are given to understand that they were a highly civilized people, radiated out from Central America, and spread northward into the United States. . . .

     On general lines, then, the Book of Mormon claims no absurdity when it represents this most ancient American people as a civilized nation.

1907^      Walter W. Smith, “Normal Lessons on the Book of Mormon-Part 2” in “The Religio’s Arena” in Autumn Leaves, Elbert A. Smith ed., Vol. 20, No. 8 (August), pp. 379-381.

     (RLDS)                         

     [p. 379]The Lord heard their petition, and led them out of the land by way of the north. After traveling through a quarter not inhabited, they came to the sea, where, at the direction of the Lord, they made boats and crossed the sea, probably the Atlantic Ocean, and landed in Central America.

1908      A. A. Reams, “Modern History and the Book of Mormon,,” in Saints Herald 55, February 26, 1908, pp. 203-5.

     (RLDS)             

     Includes a report from the History of Iowa stating that man and horses were in Iowa, Nebraska, soon after the glaciers melted. These people built homes, made cloth, and built mounds. The author notes similarities between the History of Iowa report and the account of the Jaredites. [A.T.]

1909^            B. H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God , Vols. II & III (3 Volumes), Deseret News: Salt Lake City, 1909                                   

     Chapter X [pp. 139-168]

     Migrations to the Western Hemisphere and the Nations that Arose from Them

       Note* In comparing Roberts’ revision of Chapter 10 which follows with his 1903 version, he expands his discussion of the Jaredites, tending to focus a little bit more on the idea of Central America being the major lands of the Jaredites, even though he still has them fighting their final battles in New York. He writes:

     . . . Under divine direction they [the Jaredites] departed from Babel northward into a valley called Nimrod, and thence were led by the Lord across the continent of Asia eastward until they came to the shore of the great sea–Pacific Ocean–which divided the lands. . . . After a severely stormy passage–continuing for 344 days, the colony landed on the western coast of North America, “probably south of the Gulf of California.”

     [The land of Desolation] was a local province, and bounded on the north by what the Jaredites called the land of Moron, the land of the Jaredites’ first inheritance (Ether 7:6, 16, 17). According to the late Elder Orson Pratt the place of the Jaredites’ “first inheritance” [Moron] or landing, was “on the western coast, and probably south of the Gulf of California,” though he gives no reason for his statement.

1909^      Alvin Knisley, Dictionary of the Book of Mormon, Independence, Missouri: Zion’s Ensign, 1909.

     (RLDS)            

           Note* This edition was revised in 1945. I have included some of the revised material in italics for the benefit of comparison.

     Preface

     The manuscript was prepared during some months preceding, close to the old Mexican frontier, at intervals during a missionary campaign. This work is definitive-not simply compilatory. It is a dictionary – not a concordance.

E’ther, Book of

     It gives an account of the first company, estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty souls, who came to America from the Tower of Babel at the beginning of the period indicated; crossing the Atlantic ocean and landing on the eastern coast of C.A. and N. A. and finally being destroyed in New York State about 600 B.C. . . .

     E’ther, Book of

     It gives an account of the first company, estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty souls, who came to America from the Tower of Babel at the beginning of the period indicated; crossing the Atlantic ocean and landing on the eastern coast of C.A. and N. A. and finally being destroyed in New York State about 600 B.C.

     Note* The following is found in the “revised” 1945 edition:

E’ther, Book of

     . . . It gives an account of the first company, estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty souls, who came to America from the Tower of Babel at the beginning of the period indicated; crossing the Atlantic ocean and landing on the eastern coast of, probably Mexico, and finally being destroyed about 600-200 B.C.

Ja’red-ites

     . . . They came from the tower of Babel, retaining by the providence of God their Adamic speech. They journeyed in a westerly direction until they eventually reached the coast of what was evidently the Atlantic ocean, perhaps on the sea-board of Portugal. Here they dwelt for four years, upon the expiration of which the Lord directed them to prepare for the voyage. Eight barges were built in which they crossed with their seeds and animals of every kind, coming to a land that had been made vegetationless and germless by the deluge. After a passage of 344 days they debarked on the eastern coast of C. A..

Note* The following is found in the “revised” 1945 edition:

Ja’red-ites

     . . . They came from the tower of Babel, retaining by the providence of God their Adamic speech. They journeyed in a westerly direction until they eventually reached the coast of what was evidently the Atlantic ocean, perhaps on the sea-board of Africa or Spain near the strait of Gibralter. Here they dwelt for four years, upon the expiration of which the Lord directed them to prepare for the voyage. Eight barges were built in which they crossed with their seeds and animals of every kind, coming to a land that had been made vegetationless and germless by the deluge. After a passage of 344 days they debarked on the eastern coast of probably northern Mexico. . . .

1910^      Charles A. Shook, Cumorah Revisited or “The Book of Mormon” and the Claims of the Mormons Re-examined from the Viewpoint of American Archaeology and Ethnology. Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Company, 1910

     (anti-Mormon)                   

     Note* Cumorah Revisited, a 589-page treatise by Charles Shook, represented a landmark book in the case against not only the Hemispheric Theory of Book of Mormon geography, but the poor scientific methods used by those who supported and defended this theory. Certain ideas upheld by early Mormon authors that were attacked were (1) that the New World was pristine or void of any people when the Jaredites first landed and also when the Nephites first landed (the Jaredites having become “extinct”); . . .

     Preface [pp. 7-8]

     Having been taught in childhood to believe that the antiquities of America are the work of those accomplished races described in the Book of Mormon, I early acquired an interest in the study of American archaeology and ethnology that has not abated, but has increased as the years have gone by.

     It was while living at Jeffersonville, Indiana, in the year 1900, that I conceived the idea of making a special study of the Book of Mormon from this viewpoint for the purpose of putting out a small pamphlet on the subject. As I entered deeper and deeper into the study, the work grew until it reached its present proportions, and as discrepancy after discrepancy between the claims of the Book of Mormon and the facts of science were discovered, I became more and more surprised that this ground had not been more thoroughly worked by the anti-Mormon polemic before, while I became more and more convinced that in the data acquired by archaeological and ethnological research the opponent of this system has a mass of evidence which, if rightly used, will completely demolish the claim of the historical credibility of the Book of Mormon.

     For the last half century, at least, the Mormons have put out works on American archaeology, but most of these have been mere collations of passages from scientific writers, taken here and there without a consideration of the context and often so arranged as to give an entirely different impression to the reader than their authors sought to convey. My plan has been to state fairly the Book of Mormon, or the Mormon, position on a certain point, and then to refute it by bringing to bear against it the latest and best authority obtainable. As the reader will notice, the later writings of Nadailac, Brinton, Powell, Moorehead, Dellenbaugh, Shaler, Thomas, Peet, Henshaw, Holmes and Russell have been given precedence over the earlier writings of Adair, Boudinot, Priest, Baldwin, Foster and others. American archaeology is a growing science, and many of the old opinions have had to be given up as research has progressed.

     I wish here to acknowledge my indebtedness to the authors from whom I quote, and to disclaim any intention of posing as an authority on American anthropology. All that I have done, for which I can justly ask credit, is to marshal the facts of archaeology, already gathered, against the citadel of Mormon error. . . .–Charles A. Shook. Buchanan, Michigan, August 19, 1908.

           [pp. 48-59]

[48]      According to the Book of Mormon, the first inhabitants of America came from the Tower of Babel under Jared and his brother, the latter a prophet of the Lord. With their following they journeyed from Babel northward into Armenia, from thence westward over southern Europe to Spain (the Book of Mormon, Land of Moriancumer), where they dwelt on the seashore for four years. At the close of this period, by the command of God, they built eight peculiarly shaped “barges” and put to sea, landing, after a voyage of 344 days, upon “the east coast of Central America, near the mouth of the river Motagua.”–Report of the Committee on American Archaeology, p. 70

     [1910      Map: Jaredite Lands. (according to the Book of Mormon). Charles A. Shook, Cumorah Revisited or “The Book of Mormon” and the Claims of the Mormons Re-examined from the Viewpoint of American Archaeology and Ethnology. Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Company, 1910, p. 48]

1915^      Janne Sjodahl, Authenticity of the Book of Mormon, Lliverpool: Millennial Star Office, 1915?,  pp. 21               

     The Book of Mormon tells us that the Brother of Jared and his company came from the tower of Babel, in eight barges, which were blown across the Pacific. They landed on the western coast of North America, a little south of the Gulf of California. Their descendants flourished about 1,600 years.

     According to press reports, Mrs. Harriet Chalmers Adams, one of America’s foremost women explorers, in a communication to the National Geographic Society, Washington, has expressed the opinion that the ancient inhabitants of America came by sea, possibly in broken stages, from Asia. This immigration took place, she thinks, very far back. She says:

     This earlier immigration, however, was at a very remote period, for our pre-historic monuments point to an indigenous culture. A branch of an old world race, these “early Americans” evolved to their highest civilization on new world soil.

     She adds:

     In olden days, great war canoes were paddled by many oarsmen from one south sea island to another. It seems likely that in this fashion men set sail from Malay peninsula, with their wives and children, food, household goods and domestic animals aboard, and, aided by wind and tide, reached the promised land, some palm-fringed isle in the tropic sea.

     Mrs. Adams has records of many small boats that apparently were blown across the Pacific, one of them a Japanese fishing boat which landed its unwilling immigrants alive and well on California soil a few years ago. This shows that voyages such as that described in the Book of Mormon across the Pacific can be made and have been made in recent years. What is possible now can not have been impossible in more remote times.

     In passing, it is interesting to compare the voyage of Noah with that of the Brother of Jared. Noah started from somewhere in North America and landed on Mount Ararat, in Armenia. He spent one year in the ark, from the 17th of the 2nd month of the 600th year of his life, till the 27th of the 2nd month the following year. If the year at that time consisted of 354 days, it took him just one of our years to complete the journey, but much of this time was spent waiting for the water to recede and the surface of the earth to dry up. The actual voyage lasted five months (Gen. 7:11; 8:4), or, if the shorter year be the true year, 1471/2 days. The Brother of Jared started from some point on the Arabian sea, which he had reached from the land between the rivers, where the tower of Babel had been reared. His voyage lasted 344 days (Ether 6:11). We know not the exact point from which Noah started; nor the point at which Jared’s brother embarked, or exactly where he landed. Detailed calculations are, therefore, out of the question, but if anyone will consult the map, he will find that the voyage of the Brother of Jared was much longer than that of Noah, especially if he, as is probable, took advantage of the currents and the west wind drift. This is so striking as to preclude the supposition that the time given, 344 days, is merely guesswork. Noah’s voyage along, say the 30th parallel, would cover about 120 degrees of longitude, while that of Jared’s brother would cover more than double, at least 280 degrees.

Note* Although somewhat vague in what he says, and although he prefaces his remarks with the traditional view of the Jaredites moving eastward across China and then across the Pacific, Sjodahl is the first LDS writer to broach the idea of an Indian Ocean route for the Jaredites. The only previous author to do so was RLDS H. A. Stebbins – see the 1888, 1894 notations.

1916^      Joel E. Ricks, Helps to the Study of the Book of Mormon, Independence, MO, Zion’s, 1916

     In addition to the text, this publication included photos, maps, and a chronology. Joel Ricks writes:

     The Evidence of Geography

     The Jaredite colony came from Babel about 2200 years before Christ. This colony landed on the coast of Central America in the vicinity of the bay of Honduras, where they built their capital city, and developed their civilization. Their history, which covered a period of about two thousand years, is given in such brevity, that it is not possible to locate definitely most of their lands and cities. It is pretty certain that they occupied all of Central America, Mexico, and the greater part of the United States East of the Rocky Mountains. Since they came from Babylon, they would naturally build up a similar civilization in their new home. This fact should help us to trace the limits of their influence just as the remains of the Old romans enable us to trace the limits of their civilization in various parts of the world.

Note* It is unclear what the author means by “the bay of Honduras.” If it is equated with the Gulf of Honduras, then this proposal would parallel the RLDS view that the Jaredites came across the Atlantic Ocean and landed near the mouth of the Montagua River. This would be the first time that an LDS author would agree with the authoritative RLDS view on the Jaredite journey. It might also imply that LDS writers were reading what the RLDS writers had to say about Book of Mormon geography..

1917^      J. Bert Sumsion, “The Book of Mormon: The Light of the Western Hemisphere,” in Liahona The Elders’ Journal, Vol. 14, No. 33, February 13, 1917, pp. 517-519.

     Bert Sumsion writes:

     According to the history of the Book of Mormon, we learn that Jared and his brother, with their families, left the tower of Babel at the confusion of languages, from which they were spared; being led by the Divine Providence to a promised land–this American Continent, landing somewhere near lower California or Mexico. The colony grew, “waxed strong” into a great nation which extended all over the greater part of North America. . . .    

1917^      Curtis W. Clark, “The Mound Builders and the Indians,” in Saints Herald 64 (14, 21 November 1917): pp. 1085-89, 1109-14.

     (RLDS)            

     [The following article was written by Brother Clark for the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, and published in the April, 1917, number. It is reproduced here by kind permission of the editors of that publication, and though written primarily for those who have not espoused our faith, will be of much interest to our readers–Editors]

      . . . The Book of Mormon tells of three groups of population that inhabited the continents of North and South America in times past. These groups were first, the Jaredites who came to this continent in boats or barges shortly after the building of the tower of Babel. This division traversed Southern Europe, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and landed at or near the Yucatan Peninsula. On account of wars among them, this civilization became extinct about 600 B.C. but during the time of their sojourn they built many cities and traveled in a northerly direction, and this northern travel may account for one class of mounds, a few of which we find in Ohio, and large numbers in the State of Wisconsin. These mounds are known as effigy mounds . . .

1917^            Louis Edward Hills, The Geography of Mexico and Central America from 2234 B.C. to 421 A.D. (Independence, Missouri), pp. 5-6.

           (RLDS)                  

     A member of the RLDS Church, Louis Edward Hills is credited with being the first to develop a Book of Mormon geography model that was strictly limited to Mexico and Central America (see illustration below). He apparently seems to correlate Lehi’s landing with the Nahuas and Mayas on the Pacific coast of El Salvador. It is also interesting the he apparently correlates the Jaredites with the Quinames and the Mulekites with the Olmecs and has them both coming across the Atlantic Ocean and landing in the Veracruz area of Mexico bordering the Gulf of Mexico. He wrote a number of books which derived their geography from the traditional histories of the ancient Americans written by Ixtlilxochitl and others, and the Popol Vuh.

     The Coming of the Jaredite Colony

     In the Book of Ether, the Jaredite record, it tells of eight vessels prepared by the brother of Jared, as the Lord directed him, for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. . . .

     In their journey across the Atlantic we notice that trade-winds and the Gulf Stream combined would have brought them into the Gulf of Mexico, where the strongest indications are that they landed. With this idea a Quiche legend or tradition agrees.

     According to a Quiche tradition, the primitive portion of Nahuas were in the distant east beyond immense seas and lands. Canub and Tlocab were the first who determined to leave their country. They sailed in seven barques, or ships, and it was at Panuco, in the Panuco River, near Tampico, Mexico, where they disembarked. It is not stated from whence they came, but merely that they came out of the region where the sun rises. (“Native Races,” vol. III, p. 276)

     Bancroft cites Torquemada as follows:

     “Certain people came by way of Panuco, passed on by degrees [up the Panuco River] to Tula, from where they passed on to Cholula [Moron].” (Traditions of the Mexican Indian,” vol. III, p. 258, “Native Races,” footnote.)

     In Cholula these people remained and multiplied, and sent colonies to people Upper and Lower Mixteca, and the Zapotecan country; and these, it is said, raised the grand edifices whose remains are still to be seen at Mictlan, or Mitla, the great city of the Jaredites; Mictlan meaning Place of the Dead, or City of Desolation.

     “Cholula was one of the most ancient settlements in the country, with traditions reaching far back into the misty past.” (“Hist. of Mex.,” Bancroft, p. 236)

     “The Mexicans around Cholula had a special legend connecting the escape of a remnant from the great deluge with the often-mentioned story of the origin of the people of Anahuac.” (“Native Races,” vol. III, p. 67)

     These legends are very remarkable ones, as the Jaredites had eight barques, or vessels, and the colony was led by two men, Jared and his brother. A map showing the ruins of Mexico shows one great ruin across the river from Panuco, and then many other ruined cities along down the coast south and by the eastern lakes near the present site of the city of Mexico, and a ruin now called Tula, a short distance north of the city of Mexico.

[1917      Illustrated Model: Geographical Locations Made From Ancient Historical Records and Traditions of the Indians. Louis E. Hills, Geography of Mexico and Central America from 2234 B.C. to 421 A.D., n.p.: Independence, Missouri, 1917. Also Hills’ A Short Work on the Popol Vuh and the Traditional History of the Ancient Americans by Ixt-lil-Xochitl, Independence, MO; Also A Study of the Geography of the Book of Mormon, n.p., 1920. Also A Friendly Discussion of the Book of Mormon Geography, n.p.: Independence, Missouri, 1924. See also Hills’ Historical Data from Ancient Records and Ruins of Mexico and Central America, 1919. Note* Copyright on map is dated 1923, so it might have been added to a later edition.

[1917      Illustrated Map: Probable Course of the Ancient Colonies across the Ocean, Louis Edward Hills, Historical Data from Ancient Records and Ruins of Mexico and Central America, 1919, ]

Note* This is the first time that a Jaredite landing site at Veracruz, Mexico has been specifically proposed, either RLDS or LDS.