The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1873-05-15
GAe, 9rlnune.
ANCIENT vOYAGEKs,
Monumental Record of a Visit of f,he-
nfcians 10 BraxiI Five and - half
Centuries before the lhrfsfiaR
Era,

Rio Janeiro Letter to the New York Herald.
There are g"od grounds for the belief
has just been achieved 10 Brazil. no less
than au engraved stone, bearing Phs-
nccian inscription, cunmemoralug a VS.
it to Brazil some five centuries before the
birth of Christ. Fisconde de Sapei caby,
a member of the ElnDerors Council ct
State, received three months ago let
ter from Parahyba, InclOsiug drawing
of the inscription upon stone which the
writer slaves had come upon during
their agricultural labors on his farm,
and which drawing had been made Dy
the writer sou. :, young man who could
draw a little. This copy vas turned over
To the Historical Suciety OF Rio, and by
IL to Senior Ladislo Netto, director vi
the Rio Museum, for an examination.
On examining 1t he was surprised TO hDa
that the characters were pure Phenec;an
will now quote from the letter Of this
geurl man:
After inmense labor l have been able
20 interpret this inscription with such
good fortune that only Two or three words
have proved beyond my powers.
The inscription l. ut commemorate
stone-a rough monument erected by
,ne Pheuicians of SiduLia. apparently
ayiias mr. ratuuaes frf,;., b.,i
between the ninth aud tenth years OF the
reign Of a King named Hiram. These
rash or uuf,rtuuate Canaanites-rhe
patrouymic which they have used TO de-
nominate themselves-lefL the port OF
Aziongaber (now Akaba), port upon
the Red Sea, and sailed for twelve (?l
noviunes (luuar monthsl along the land
Of Egypi-that is, Africa. The number
OF vessels they had and the mum Del OF
the males and females composing the adj
venturous expedition are all set forth, |
these particulars being placed intermedi- |
ate between the invocation-une al tie |
beginning and the other ut the end of the !
inscription of the Alonim Valonu,h-
4 e., gods and goddesses, or superOs 81
pc, as9ue, as is the Latin translation by |
Ges-nius of those welI-known Phenecian |
words. The inscription is ia eight lines |
of most beautiful Phenieian characters, |
but without separation of the words. |
without the vowel points and without |
quiescent letters-three great obstacles |
to the interpI citation, fer hose overcou
ing mere knowledge of Biblical Hebrew
is insufficient
A certain ararism. not slightly mani |
fest in the emphatic termination in aleDh |
and in the fen mime one ip than, and |
more than this the forms of the letters |
mem and shin, induce me to believe that
the reign of the second of the two Hi.- |
ans was the epoch of the adventure, and |
that the yoy age was therefore made in the |
years 5i3 and SAG B. c.: that IL, twenty |
six years after the seige ofTyrc by Neb, :
chadnezzar and four years before Cyrus |
reipned.
The inscription Ices not declare which |
of the two Phenieian monarchs * referr- |
ed to as the Hiram of the epoch. The |
first Hiram Of the two hi storiai ones was |
the Hiram the ally of Solomon, and he |
reigned in $50 TO 947 B. g. The seconi !
was obscure prince who reiened i,
55S tn $50 b g., under the pressure Of !
Babylon and Egypt. But whichever tn.
one. this inscription is one of the oldes, |
and evidently the most notable record |
and enlightened people to whom, it wuuiei |
seem. the whole of the seas we:e known. |
Leaving apart thrilling matters, Will
proceed to treat of the crossing of The
Phericians from Africa to Brazil. To
explain this crossing of which they them
selves appeared to he unaware, | hav.
resorted to the beautiful and classic stu
dies of Maury cceacic currents. anc
| gather hat the same bal pened to our
Sidonians rs did to Pedro Alvarez e.
bral 1000 years later, when. knowing
nothing of Brazil. he found himself NV
exreci eddy off ITS shore. The only diff
e-ence is, that Cabfal sailed from north
to south. while the Pheucians voyaged
from south 10 north. Like Cabral, 10 fee
in. from the storms reiRning frum he
Cape of Good Hope Up to near SenePam-
bia. they steered into the high sea. aud
81 d By the famous equatorial current.
which sometimes flows with extraordina-
ry swiftness. they unexpectedly cam,
upon the Brazilian shores