Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1873-07-05
WHOLE NUMBER 1925.
An Interesting Discovery

logical research in Palestine, Jerusalem
the Island Of Cypress aud the ruins OF
Nineveh, have been recently supplement-
ed by the discovery in Brazil Of stone
or slab on which is engraved in unmis-
takably Phoenician characters, an nc.
court Of a visit made 10 that country
either in the time Of Hiram, King of
Tyre, the friend aud ally ofSolomon the
great King If Israel, or in the time OF
later monarch Of that name, who lived
between five and six centuries before
the Christian era. The inscription sets
forth, as at present dpciphered, and that
n number of "Cana- ties" as they
term themselves, male and female, EN-
barked in their vessels at Axiom Gaber,
a Port on Of the Red Sea, and sailed for
twelve months along the coast Of
! Africa. Whether they were refugees
or banished persons, or explorers in
search Vi new countries, IL would seem
that they must have doubled the Cape
Of Good Hope, and thence sailing north.
ward they were probably driven by
winds into the equatorial current aud
drifting with that same at length to
the shores OF Brazil without las sugges-
ted by the learned Senior, Lodisian Net
10, pirector Of the Rio, museum, who
made the rongh translaIion) being aware
that they had passed an ocean or landed
upon a new continent. The stone or
fac-simile Of it, is TO be sent to the great
linguist Of Europe, aud it is probable
that when the inscription is fully deci-
phered 1t may prove a key to unlock
the mystery of the ancient settlement of
the American continent, aud the origin
and history of the vast ruins of ancient
| cities which are the wonders Of Central
America, aud of which no record has
hitherto been ob'ainablc.
We have long been Of the opinion
that this great continent was known
TO the historic nations of remote antiqui-
ty and that voyages were made to and
from the ports OF Phoenicia, and per-
haps to those of other maritime people.
! We know that the Phoenicians were ex-
tremelv jealous Of their commerce and
knowledge of navigation, and would not
communicate it, SO guarded were they TO
the localities they visited that an an-
cient writer aflrms the captain OF a
Phoenician vessel finding he was follow.
ed by Roman galley, evidently with a
view Of discovering the port to which
he was bound, ran his vessel upon the
rocks, sooner than show the way to his
pursuers and that ON his return he was
rewarded by his countrymen as having
performed an act OF patriotism and pub
lie service These Phoenicians thought
nothing Of passing the Pillars OF Hercules
as they termed the straits of Gibralter,
and being once upon the ocean 1t is pre-
sumed that they pushed westward as
well as sOuthward and the recently dis
covered tablet may be merely the record
of an ordinary voyage safely accomplish
ed, not TO an unknown but the known
and previously visited country. The
minds OF ancient gtographers and his
torians were full Of sierra incognita" or
unknown land, which is either conjured
up the fabled Atlantis, or else such an
Island existed and was lost sight of in
the darkness OF the ages which followed,
and thus the story ot its sudden disap-
: pearance in anight gained credence and
. became wonl,rto be related by the sto-
, ry-tellers of Athens or the supersticious
l scribes of Italy and Asia. An early ge-
e ographer of Alexandria in Egypt two
, hundred years before Christ conjectur ed
: that there existed continents and Islands
: which could be reached by sailing west
| ward. Strabo and Ptolemy favor the
| same idea: the Northmen it is now known
: discovered it and voyaged hi,herward,
, and it was centuries, before their discov-
cries became known 10 the rest of Eu'
rope. Columbus did not in our opinion
f sail upon theory, but was cognizan,
D of facts which have not come into the
t possession of his biographers, which
/ brought him TO the shores of what
;. was to the then existing nation "new
| world" but had been known 10 at least
| some of the nations of the earth two
. thousand years before.
We are yet without information t.
, the exact locality and circumstance oi
: the finding of this valuable contribution
: to American Antiquities. The director
of the RIO Museum has no doubt of Its
authenticity and the learned and sci
ehtifc world will look with deep inter
est tor full exposition Of its meaning
5 which may open the pool and indicate
II the origin of the prehistoric nations
/ who built aud occupied the cities as wei
t as those mound builders whose traces arr
II scattered throughout the great west ant
the Mississippi valley.