The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-01-17

| historical record OF IQo urSG dS6S VI nhL, OOA-
inc us how the sons of Japhet occupied the
islands and lands of the Gentiles, and then, in
the testimony of Tacitus. who sum mmed up the
knowledge OF the heather literature On this
| subject, declaring that originally 'man MI
| grated from land to land by water rather than
by land" There is always an impulse IN man
| governing the migration Of masses, whereby,
if circumstances allow it, they always move
westward-not 70 the north or south, and much
less to the east. When did they come
The original record OF man already referred
O. informs us that in the beginning, the nor
nal life Of man was nine hundred years; that
after the deluge, owing possibly to changes in
| troduced by that cataclysm in the atmosphere
or in physical conditions, mans life was gradu-
| ally shortened until it reached the term which
has since been established. During this inter-
mediate TRANSITIONAL period, the human system
WAS in plastic stage, which I can only COM
pare to the frame of youth that will yield in O
measure to accident or disease, and take on
new forms, even to distortion, without dying;
while the same accidents or diseases, If endur-
ed by full grown man, would either be cast
| off without permanent injury, or he would die
under them. So, in that TRANSITIONAL period;
the varied influences of CLINE and the different
modes of life in different lands, might and
would have produced in the men various modi-
fications and changes which the same influences
could not produce il mans system hsd taken
its normal state.
Considering the similarity of the Indians in
| America with the aboriginal inhabitants OF
either shore of the Mediterranean, and with
| the Europeans at it's eastern end, the lecturer
| thought that the first settlers cf America COM
| ing from those portions had migrated towards
| the end Of the transitional period, when but
| little time was left to work changes in the type
| of man. He further saw that all OF the Indians
| of America are essentially OF the same type,
Il m
| these regions had taken place after rhe close
| of the time when the various cimes and con-
| ditions had power to change the human sys-
| tenn.
| The Bishop went on to say that among the
nations OF the East OF Asia, there was no au-
| thentic record that in ancient times they had
| no memory Of the existence OF America or of
men having passed fr r,m other lands to that
distant continent. On the contrary, in Europe
and Africa such traditions are found.
He spoke of the Phenicians, of their charac-
| ter, their works, their adventurous commerce,
| and the secrecy with which they kept especially
| their knowledge of navigation and ofge geography
from the surrounding peoples. They had
sailed along either coast Of the Mediterranean
and planted colonies. Issuing from the Straits
of Gibraltar, they had planted still ether colo
nies on the coasts Of Spain and Portugal. They
had breasted the storms of the Bay Of Biscay.
| landed in Ireland, in Cornwall, and the Ork-
neys, and turning south. they he'd passed
along the western coast OF Africa, and sought
gold where merchants seek it to-day. They
had sailed around the Cape of GOOD Hope,
| trading as they wandered, and wintering, when
necessary, would land at some port Of their
own in the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf.
Did any Ph9nician mariner issuing from the
Straits of Gibraltar ever dare to breast the AZ
lantic and seek what could be found in the far
West? OF Ph@nician records we have none,
but there is twilight of their literature
left to US in Egyptian, Grecian and Ro-
man literature, and by that twilight we
dimly see in the far West q land termed
Ogygia or Atlantis, of vast extent, watered by
grand rivers, exceeding in extent the Nile.
| having many settlements and governmental
connection with Lydia; and Diad0rus Securus,
Plato, Origen, Porphyry and others, mention
this fact. The tradition was that i'll some con
yulsion of nature Atlantis had sunk beneath
the waters of the Atlantic, and could no more
| be found BY men. This was probably but o
fancy of the Greciar mind, based on the fact
that some Grecian or Egyptian mariner, sail
| ing in the track Of the Ph9nicians, had reach
| ed Mare Sargosso, the vast plain Of sea-weed
| in mid-Atlantic which Columbus found, and
which frightened his sailors, but which every
mariner still finds in the same latiGudes. This
the Greek took to be the relics Of the sunken
Atlantis, and was turned back in despair.
| But If the Phenicians came, where are their
|
| ments that will stand the storms and winters
of three thousand years; yet there are many
mysteries in America that turn our thoughts
| towards the Ph9nician commerce.. The gold
mines of North Carolina were worked before
Columbus came. Those OF Alabama were work
ed. The copper mines OF Lake Superior were
worked on q large scale. Trench as were open
| ed, galleries cut, vast amounts Of ore taken
away, and other large masses partially moved
towards the entrance and left behind
Who did all this work? Certainty, not
the Indians. No one dreams that they
were such miners. Certainly, none came
| from the west-from Asia, crossing the
Pacific, and then the Rocky Mountains and
the desert to reach Lake Superior, extrl-
cate this ore, and bear back thu material by
the route they came. These miners must,
therefore, have come from the east, and who
could they be, if not the Phenicans.
Tyre and Sidom, and afterwards Carthage
fell with such suddenness as to lelye Ph9nican
colonies throughout the world abandoned like
the fragments OF wreck. What was the fate
OF this colony which we suppose to nave been
here. Its chief focus was, Of course, these
miners of Lake Superior. AS doubt and ap-
prehension stole over their minds, because of
the long continued cessation OF intercourse,
the outstanding points may havs been gather
ed into the centre. Messengers may have been
sent to the shore who returned without IT,
dings. Others may have embarked upon the
ocean to seek their fatherland, and have never
returned. At least, the vast multitude moved
on together, slowly marching by the route by
which they had come.
In fact, starting from these mines of Lake
Superior, we find down the Scioto, and Ohio
and Mississippi, through Missouri and Ken.
lucky, all the way to Natchez, remnants OF
mounds, Notifications, affairs and sepulchres
of such character as to show that they are the
work of vast mass of people having COM
mon government, a common religion, much
military skill, and knowledge of agriculture.
Reaching Natchez, this colony may have lost
all hope, and giving themselves up to the uni
vorsal human instinct, may have turned their
faces westward. and we follow them by the
tracing of their mounds and works through
Texas and Chihuahua and Ariz Qua and Sonora,
where they touched the Gulf Of California and
shores of the Pacific. Forced to turn westward,
we follow them to Mexico and Yucatan,
where Cortez found their descendants in a
state of civilization Which filed him ard his
people with astonshment.
Yet, great as was his wonder, that Of the
arch@ologst is still greater; Tor, in these ruins
and vcstiges of Mexican and Central American
civilization, he finds remarkable traits OF coin
cidence with the PhGnician type in the form
o. building, in the form OF temples, IN the
rites of sacrifices, and in their astronomical
measurement of time-coicidences which
made the learned Humboldt declare this to bo