Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1894-04-06
ANCIENT AMERICA.
Supposed to Esve Beoa Atlantis,
EOWor.uI Epiro.
6eeor6:i to an Egyptian Legend the
Whole Continent Nss Engulfed
In pae Sep by = CoHvulsion
Of Nature.

In a volsrle entitled The Lost At
hAntis," Iy the late Sir Daniel Wilson,
president VI the university Of Toronto,
an interesting study is made of the
Legends which suggest that America
cas- known To the ancients. In two Of
Plato's dialogues, the Timaeus and
Crltias, II Ia related that Scion, the
great Athenian law-givcr, during .
whit 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 At
iantic ocean, says the Baltimore Sun.
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 q remote
event. white with age"
Has this legend basis of fact? II
cannot be accepted ~ whole, it ap-
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
lei accordingly feels compelled to reject
the sinking of Atlantis as a detail of
the story invented to account for the
cessation of intercourse with it. The
body of the story he is disposed to &C
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 westward by ocean currents to
Brazil and Central America In the
year 1900 Of our era Pedro Alvares de
Cebral, 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-
vsaled TO US In history was already far
gone In its decline. It's people had lost
the spirit which impelled them to their
6rst discoveries and to their acquisition
OF the greatest II not the Rrst of the
ancient empires.
Sir Daniel affirms that the ancient
m--itime races Of the Orient frequently
made voyages far out into the Atlantic
In the reign of Pharaoh Necho. oil
COS b. c., after the decline of Egyptian
maritime enterprise, Phoeniciau feet
'Has employed to circumnavigate Africa.
Hanno, the Carthaginian, is said to
have reached the Indian ocean by the
route around the cape, as Vasco de
Cana did later, In 1897. Enterprise has
It's pulsations-its periods of expansion
cod contraction. There are, it is seen,
indications that the discovery OF Amer
ica was within the reach of the Egyp-
taans at the period to which the story of
Atlantis referA
When the Egyptians ceased to rove
The see Atlantis was lost to view at sails
and became dim legend. Evidences Of
Egyptian intercourse with 1t are to be
sought according TO the author, among
the ruined cities Of Central America.
6uoh evidences may yet be Forthcoming.
1T would not" he says, Tin any degree
surprise me TO learn of the discovery Of
. genuine Phoenician or other inscrip-
ton or come hoard Of Assyrian cry
phons or shekels Of the merchant
princes Of Tyre, that had knowledge Of
the sea- being recovered among the
still unexplored treasures of the buried
empire Of Montezuma or the long-de-
serted ruins Of Central America Such
. discovery would scarcely be more sur
prising than that of the Punic boards
found at Corvo. the most westerly island
Of the Acres. Yet it would furnish Q
substantial basis for the legend of At
lantiA There Is nothing improbable in
the Idea that 1t rests on some historic
basis In which the fall of an Iberian or
other aggressive power in the western
Mediterranean has mingled with other
and cqunlly'vague traditions Of inter
course with vast continent lying be-
yond the pillars of Hercules" The
speculation Is an attractive one aud
adds interest to the study of the antiqui-
TICS of Central America