The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1859-01-29
BY G. w. BROWN & co.

Il
But has not the grand difficulty existed
in the fact that all searchers for the spot
where our first parents were placed, have
conducted their explorations in the East q?
Now here in that region-not in Asia,
Europe or Africa-is to be found a place
answering to the description given by
Moses of the Garden of Eden.
And yet, it evidently was the intention
of the sacred historian to describe the
country by fixed and positive land marks
That he did SO, no one will deny or doubt
We must still seek, then, for Eden, where
four rivers have their source, and flow out
in different directions.
Such spot has been found in the IN
happy Territory of Kansas. l is put
down on the maps by the name of "South
Park" and is the western-most and great
mountain valley of Kansas. My friend
Max Greene, who lectured on the politics
OF Kansas year or two ago, in Philadel-
phia, gave this rather well written descrip.
ton of the locality:
We stand here in an unrivaled region.
Beautiful open grades, verdant meadows,
picturesque clumps of pine, cottonwood,
walnut and quaking asp, and pretty level
prairies, diversified with steep hills, and
stocked with deer, elk and bison, and bor-
dered with dense forests, and enclosed by a
circumvallent mountainous range, crested
with rock peaks.
This natural park is large circular val
ley, thirty miles across. 1t is a curious
birth place of rivers. Here we find inter-
locked, the head streams of four of the
giant rivers of the continent. The Ar
kansas rises here, and flows in a southern
ly direction, fourteen hundred miles, into
the Mississippi. The South Fork of the
Platte starts here, and running first to the
North and then easterly, thousand miles,
empties into the Missouri. The Rio
Grande rises here, and flowing due south,
along the borders of Texas, empties into
the Gulf of mexico. The Colorado of
the west has its headsprings in this val
ley-a river which flows eighteen hundred
miles, through the Gulf of California, in
to the Pacific Ocean.
This is the only valley in the world
which, with its four rivers, and in other
respects answers to the sacred geography
Of the Garden of Eden. Four rivers
proceeded therefrom-"the name of the
first is Pison that is it which compasseth
the land of Havilah, where there is gold.
[Gen. ii, H. This answers to the des-
cription of the Colorado of the west !;
gold and the "onyx- stone," a species of
quartz, are there in abundance. Two
other rivers, bearing the name of Havilah,
are mentioned in Genesis, but each is ev-
identity distinct from this, which explor-
ers have hitherto been unable to find
"The name of the second river is Gihon !;
the same is it that compasseth the whole
land of Ethiopia" Gen. ii, 12.1 This
answers to the Platte, which "com passeth'
a large portion of Kansas, although it is
probable that by Ethiopia" no allusion
was intended to the Ethiopian question
which has long distracted the country in
relation to that Territory. "The name of
the third river is Hiddeked; that is it
which goeth toward the east of Assyria"
[Gen. ii, IA. This, by the course indi-
Gated, answers to the Arkansas; no river
in Asia can be found to fulfill the descrip-
ton as well. "And the fourth river is
Euphrates." Gen. il, IA 1t was long
since incontestibly settled that the Garden
of Eden could have been nowhere on the
banks of the river in Asia, which has
borne the name Euphrates for ages. The
fourth river, beyond question, was the Rio
Grande.
The sacred historian plainly says that
the rivers of paradise arose from one
source, and flowing out of one garden,
divided into four great rivers, running in
different directions. Nowhere but in the
valley 1 have named, is such thing
known on earth.
Upon their expulsion from Paradise,
Adam and Eve, it is probable, passed
southwark into the valley of the Rio
Grande, down which stream, and along
the coast, their descendants continued to
migrate, marking the way with vast
structures aud cities whose sites are silt
pointed out by the mounds and earth-for-
nations to which ages ago they crumbled.
But the descendants of Cain did not ac-
company them. Driven out from among
them for his crime, Cain went to dwell in
the Land of Nod, ION the east of Eden"
Gen. iv, 16.] By reference to the map
you will observe that this was axactly the
region now known in the language Of
mercenary gold-diggers, as Pixies Peak,
and which is separated from Eden on the
west and also from the country ~
ing to the southwark, by lofty mountain
ranges. But toward the north the way i:
unobstructed. Doubtless the descend
ants of Cain were spread abroad in that
direction. 1t is fact worthy of mention
that all the legends which in any way
relate to the origin of the Indian tribes
indicate their coming from the north, Of
northward. After the deluge, the whole
country was open for their occupancy.
Ages upon ages have rolled away, bu
the land marks, placed by the Almighty
power where man was created, remain a!
when creations dawn began. The verna
glories of Paradise are no more but thu
golden sands that sparkled in its crysta
streams, the precious gems that flashed il
native brilliancy among its rocks, yet re
main, with lustre undimmed by time
"And the gold of that land is good" ex
claimed the sacred historian, whose clair
voyant vision, piercing the veil of tim
, and space, beheld the reality of tina
truth which the world has, until now, Ia
bored in vain to find. Upon the obscur
page Truths rediant light streams from
the portals of Paradise regained.
8 Mails for the Gold Regions
r ~,