66

SO

the prophecy seem to be accomplished respecting them, where it says that they should borrow and not lend, should be the tail and not the head. We cannot refrain from inserting in this place, a passage from the 42 page of the 5th volume of the present work, because the expression outcasts, (desechados) as applied by the Mexicans to themselves, is there so singularly introduced, and savours strongly of the tone of complaint, in which the Hebrews, wherever residing, and however well off in their temporal concerns, have been accustomed to indulge ever since the fall of their empire. Remember the words which I now address to thee, my son; let them be a thorn in thy heart, and a cold blast to afflict thee, that thou mayst humble thyself, and betake thee to inward meditation. Consider, my son, that it has been thy lot to be born in a time of trouble and sorrow, and that God has sent thee into the world at a period of extreme destitution. Behold me, who am thy father see what a life I and thy mother lead, and how we are accounted as nothing, and the memorial of us has passed away. Although our ancestors were powerful and great, have they bequeathed unto us their power and greatness? No truly, cast thine eyes upon thy relations and kindred who are outcasts.1 Wherefore, although thou

1 The Jews themselves, as has been elsewhere observed, have entertained a strong belief that America has been colonized by their race; grounding their belief on what is said in certain chapters of the Old Testament, of the people of the Isles, to which Isles, a Hebrew appellative word, signifying the west, has been given, (evidently shewing that they could not have been Ceylon, or the Isles of the Indian Archipelago,) as also on many analogies in the laws, rites, customs, and ceremonies of the Indians; but more especially in the following passages of the 13th chapter of the 2nd book of Esdras, "And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable multitude unto him: those are the ten tribes which were carried away prisoners out of their own land, in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river. For the

thyself art noble and illustrious, and of famous lineage; it becomes thee to have ever present before thine eyes how thou oughtest to live."―p. 385.

The commentator on the Mexican Antiquities observes," the 1st reason for concluding the Indian tribes to be of Hebrew descent, is in their belief in the symbolical purification of water: the inhabitants of Utican gave to water, with which they baptised their children, the title of the water of regeneration. The Indians of Utican invoked HIM, whom they believed to be the living and true God, of whom they made no graven image. The 2nd reason for believing that the religion of the Indians was Judaism, is that they used circumcision. 3rd. That they expected a Messiah. The 4th, that many words connected with the celebration of their religious rites, were obviously of Hebrew extraction. 5th. That Las Casas, the bishop of Chiapa, who had the best means of verifying the fact was of this opinion. 6th. That the Jews themselves, including some of the most eminent Rabbis, such as Menasse Ben Israel, and Montesinos, maintained it both by verbal statement and in writing. 7th. The dilemma in which most of the Spanish writers, such as Acosta and Torquemeda, have placed their readers, by leaving them no alternative, than to come to the decision, whether the Hebrews colonized America, and established their rites amongst the Indians; or whether the Devil had counterfeited in the New World the rites and ceremonies which God gave to his chosen people. The 8th is the resemblance which many ceremonies and rites of the Indians bear to those of the Jews. The 9th is

Most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to go; namely, of a year and a half: and same region is called Arsareth. Then dwelt they there until the latter time; and now when they shall begin to come, the Highest shall stay the springs of the stream again, that they may go through."

the similitude which existed between the Indian and Hebrew moral laws. The 10th is the knowledge which the Mexican and Peruvian traditions supplied, that the Indians possessed the history contained in the Pentateuch. The 11th is the Mexican tradition of the Teo-moxtli, or Divine Book of the Toltics. 12th. Is the famous migration from Azltan, or (Asia). 13th. The traces of Jewish history, traditions, laws, customs, manners, which are found in the Mexican paintings. 14th. The frequency of sacrifice amongst the Indians, and the religious consecration of the blood and fat of the victims. 15th. The style of the architecture of their Temples. 16th. The fringes which the Mexicans wore fastened to their garments. 17th. A similarity of the manners and customs of the Indian tribes far removed from the central monarchies of Mexico and Peru, to those of the Jews, which writers who were not Spaniards, have noticed, such as Sir William Penn,1 &c." pp. 115, 116.

1 "Their eyes are black like the Jews-they reckon by moons-they offer the first-fruits-they have a feast of Tabernacles-their altar stands on twelve stones -their mourning lasts a year.-Their customs of women are like those of the Jews, their language is concise, masculine, full of energy, resembling the Hebrew; one word serves for three, and the rest is supplied by the understanding of the hearers. Lastly, they were to go into a country which was neither planted nor sown; and he that imposed that condition upon them, was well able to level their passage thither, for we may go from the Eastern extremity of it, to the West of America.-Penn's Letter on the present state of the lands in America," p. 156.

27

MIGRATION.

'AMERICA had been discovered nearly two hundred years before reflecting minds had begun to inquire into the peculiarities of its first inhabitants, and as they, instead of collecting evidence from corresponding facts, gave at once their own speculations as the end of inquiry, we have only a mass of contradictory theories. To their amazement they discovered no negroes, although every temperature of other parts of the globe are to be found in America, and although the powerful operation of heat produces a striking variety in the human race. The colour of the natives of the Torrid Zone in America is slightly darker than that of the people of the more temperate parts of the continent. Accurate observers who have viewed the Aborigines in very different climates, and provinces far removed from each other, have been struck with the amazing similarity of their figure and aspect. Pedro de Cicca de Leon, who had an extensive acquaintance with the tribes, observes, 'The people, men and women, although they are such a vast multitude of tribes or nations, in such diverse climates, appear nevertheless like the children of one family?'

The Abbe Clavegero says of the (Aztecs or) Mexicans'They were the last people who settled in Anahuic—they formerly dwelt in Aztlan, a country north of the gulph

of California; judging by the rout of their emigration, according to Boturini, a province of Asia.'1

Montezuma evidently refers to the remote tradition of their landing when he informed Cortez that they had arrived on the continent with a mighty lord. 'We have,' said he, 'ruled these tribes only as viceroys of Quetzalcoatl our God and lawful Sovereign.'

The Abbe Clavegero observes-'Their ancestors came into Anahuic from the countries of the north and north west.' This tradition is confirmed by the many ancient edifices built by these people in their migration.' Torquemeda and Betancourt mention having seen these most ancient edifices.'

Boturini says" that in the ancient paintings of the Toltics were represented the migration of their ancestors through Asia, and the northern countries of America, until they settled in the country of Tullan, and even endeavours in his General history to ascertain the rout they pursued in their journey." 1 "The countries in which the ancestors of those nations established themselves being where the most westerly coast of America approaches the most easterly part of Asia, it is probable that they passed either in canoes or on ice, if the continents were then not united by land. The traces which these nations have left lead us to that very strait. This latter is the opinion of Acosta, Grotius, Buffon, and others. We have examples of the same kind of revolutions in the past century. Sicily was united to the continent of Naples as Eubia, now to the Black Sea, and to

2

"There is an

1 In the ancient paintings of this migration, Torquemeda says, arm of the sea represented which I believe to represent the deluge!! Accordingly we find its fac simile in the migration, in the work of Clavegero, bearing the title of "The Deluge."

2 Clavegero says, the conclusion (viz. that the ancestors passed from the most eastern parts of Asia to the most westerly of America) is founded on the constant and general tradition of those tribes, &c.