The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-01-18
ANCIENT AMERICA.
Supposed to Have Been Atlantis,
a Powerful Empire.
According TO an Egyptian Legend the
Whole Continent Was Engulfed
In the Sea by ConvulSion
OF Nature.


OF Nature.
In a volume entitled 1.-THE Lost At
lantis," by the late Sir Daniel Wilson,
president of the university of Toronto,
an interesting study is made Of the
legends which suggest that America
was known to the ancients. In two OF
Plato's dialogues, the Timaeus and
Critias, it is related that Solon, the
great Athenian law-giver, during
visit he made to Sais, In Egypt, some
thirty-four hundred years ago, was in
formed by the priests of the former
existence, west of the strait of Gibral-
tar, of an island continent in the Al
lantic ocean, says the Baltimore Sun.
This continent, Atlantis, the seat Of
a powerful empire, according to the
story, was engulfed in the sea by some
convulsion OF nature, with the result,
of course, Of destroying its hundreds OF
cities and millions of inhabitants. Al
ready in Solon's time the destruction of
Atlantis was described as remote
event, white with age"
Has this legend basis of factP II
cannot bo accepted as whole, it ap-
pears, because the Atlantic, in the opin-
ion Of biologists, has been substantial
ly what it is for many millions Of years.
Geology shows evidences of local up
heavals, but none OF the submergence
of extensive continental areas. Sir Dan
iel accordingly feels compelled to reject
the sinking of Atlantis rs a detail of
the story invented TO account for the
cessation of intercourse with IL. The
body of the story he is disposed to ac-
cept. Atlantis was America, which con-
tinent the earlier Egyptians had discov-
cred during their period of adventurous
maritime enterprise. There are many
evidences Of Egyptian domination
around the Mediterranean before. the
Trojan war Their ships sailed the At
lantic, visiting England for tin and ex-
ploring the coast of Africa toward and
beyond the equator in search Of gold.
Their vessels might readily have been
carried we stward by ocean currents to
II
Nsar 1900 Of our era Pedro Alvares de
Cabral, the Portuguese admiral, while
sailing southwark along the west coast
of Africa, was carried by the equatorial
current so far out of his course that he
accidentally discovered Brazil What
befell the Portuguese admiral in 1900
might readily, Sir Daniel thinks, have
befallen Egyptian admirals thousands
of years before. Egypt when first re-
vcaled 10 us in history was already far
gone in It's decline. Its people had lost
the spirit which impelled them to their
first discoveries and to their acquisition
of the greatest if not the first of the
ancient empires
ST. Daniel affirms that the ancient
me. time races of the Orient frequently
mad. voyages far out into the Atlantic
In The roign of Pharaoh-Necho, 6ll-
COS u. c., after the decline of Egyptian
maritime enterprise, Phoenicinn fee
was employed TO circumnavigate Africa
Hanno, the Carthaginian, is said y
have reached the Indian ocean by th
route around the cape, as Vasco d
CANA did later. in 1897. Enterprise ha
its pulsations-its periods OF expansion
and contraction. There are, 1t is seer
indications that the discovery OF Amei
hca was within the reach Of the EgyI
tians at the period TO which the story c
Atlantis refers
When the Egyptians ceased to roV
the sea Atlantis was lost to view at Sa
and became dim legend. Evidences
Egyptian intercourse with 1t are to
sought. according TO the author, anon
! lhe ruined cities Of Central Americ
: such evidences may yet be forthcomin
!. .'It would not" he says, "in any degr
surprise me TO learn Of the discovery
a genuine Phoenician or other inscri
tion or some hoard OF Assyrian gr
nhons or shelSels OF the mercha
princes Of Tyre, that had knowledge
the sea- being recovered among I
still unexplored treasures OF the ouri
empire of Montezuma or the long-t
serted ruins of Central America su
a discovery would scarcely be more 81
prising than that Of the Punic hoai
4onnd al Corvo, the most westerly isla
Of the Azores. Yet 1t would furnish
,s,,bstautial basis for the legend OF
lantis. There is nothing improbable
the idea that IL rests on some histo
basis in which the fall Of an lberian
other aggressive power In the west
Mediterranean has mingled with OF
and equally vague traditions OF in
course with vast continent lying
vond the pillars Of Hercules"
Speculation is an attractive one
adds interest TO the study OF the anti
ties Of Central America