Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1850-05-15
COM M u NICATION.
For the Times.
MAJOR NOAH VS.. JOSEPHUS.

MAJOR NOAH VS.. JOSEPHUS.
In recen, article published, Major N oah
has said, that he has never entertained a
<loub, bu, that the Indians Of this continent
are the true descendants of the missing (as
he is pleased to call them) tribes Of Israel
and that they are patiently awaiting the ad-
vent of their redemption. very much sus-
pect it would not little puzzle the Major
to carry back the Indians, as true Israelites.
to Judea, and through them in part to re-
build their ancient government and religion.
II is singular historical fact, indeed abso-
]utely singular, that the Jews are the only
nation Of the earth that has preserved their
identity; and it is certainly miraculous
fact, that they are the only nation of the
earth that can be rebuilt; or that is capable
Of undergoing The first resurrection. Have
not the eight million, Of whom he speaks,
preserved their distinct integral identity,
notwithstanding the fac. !ha. they have been
depressed, over,rodden and degraded for al
most eighteen hundred years. Blu, is it not
passing strange that the Indians, the missing
tribes, should have forgot,en the paramount
purpose of their departure into foreign
land-the fact Of their ultimate recall-and
also the advent of the Messiah; and above
and high over all, that the name and char
ac,er of Moses, their great founder, should
have been utterly oblitera,ed from their me-
mory.
But again, where was it ever known tha,
civilized nations by emigration and coloni-
zation have relapsed into barbarism and Of
all that have lived the Jews were the las, up
on whom such a change could have been
uery object Of the institutions of Moses was
SO 10 fix the identity of the Jew that it could
never be obli,eraled. The wi, and ingenu-
ity and skill and cunning and power of all
chrisendom, have been exerted for almost
eighteen hundred years to extnguish it, and
yet it is as fresh as i. was with Adam the
day after he fell.
Behring's Straits are, believe, forty miles
wide, and, ! suppose, for the greater par. Of
the year, blocked up with ice. should
judge, standing on the Asia,ic shore, you
could hardly see over TO the American. One
thing is certain, that the Jew was the las,
man on earth, with his wife and little ones,
to have passed over such body Of ice with
out knowing anything about it. But that
nation was raised unoer mild climate and
peculiarly domesticaled and peculiarly at
tached to their homes; and for this reason
the least likely to search for home on the
North Pole.
But the Major says California is the Ophr
OF old, and he seems to have no doubt of it,
Solomon's fleet was built in an arm of
the Red Sea, and would it not have been an
undertaking for the navigation of that day,
to have sailed around the southern extre-
nifty Of Africa, across the Atlantic and a.
round the southern extremity of South A.
merica. The task, at that day, of sailing
from the Red Sea, across the Pacific to
California, was Of equal, if not greater diff
Guilty; and very much think the Major.
upon due examination, will find it much
easier to think from the Red Sea to Califor-
MIA, than 10 make an ancient fleet perform
the voyage.
The following is an extract from very
learned and correct writer: "The most CO.
RIoUs opinion, however, is certainly tha. of
Arius Montanus, who finds Ophir in Peru;
the gold of Parvam being the gold of that
country. It's Of this that Scaliger remarks,
Puto .4rius .Montanum illus joculatorig
interpretations auctorem esse. Perhaps
after careful examination Of the whole
subject, we shall find reason to agree with
Suthun, who makes Ophir to have been
situate on the coast Of Oman; at the OPEN