Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1894-02-09
ANCIENT AMERICA.
supposed to Hevo Been Atlanta
a Powerful Umpire.
Aee"rdi-s to nm Egyptian Legend the
WI1.e Continent Was EaguIfcd
In the Sea by . Convulsion
Of Nature.

=" the res ny CONFUSION
Of Nature.
Ina volume entitled THE Lest At
fantis, by the late Sir Daniel Wilson.
president Ut the university Of Toronto.
an Interesting study is made of the
LEGENDS which suggest chat America
was known TO the ancients In two Of
Piato's dialogues. the Timaeus and
Iritics- it is related that Scion, the
great Athenian law-giver. during a
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 At
lantic ocean, says the baltimore Sun.
This continent, Atlantis, the seat Of
powerful empire, according to the
story, was engulicd in the sea by some
convulsion of nature. with the result,
OF course. Of Gcstr wing its hundreds Of
cities and millions Of inhabitants AL
ready in S,lons time the destruction of
Atlantis was described as a remote
event, white with age"
has this legend q basis of fact? II
cannot be accepted as a whole. It ap-
pears, because the Atlantis, in the opip-
Ion OF biologists. has been substantial
~ 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
icl accordingly feels compelled TO reject
? the sinking of Atlantis as a detail Of
tire story invented to account for tho
cessation Of intercourse with IL. The
b<N<lx - h.. H. =
.ccpt Atlantis was America, which con-
tinent the earlier Egyptians had discos-
cred during their period of-sdventurous
maritime enterprise. There are many
80 evidences of Egyptian domination
&4In W 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 thSA. equator in search of gold.
Their vessels might readily have been
carried we st,vard by ocean currents to
Brazil and Central America IN the
y year 1900 of our era Pedro Alvares de
.Cabral, the Portuguese admiral, while
ealing southwark along the west coast
of Africa, was carried 10y the equatorial
current so far OUT Of his course that he
accidentally diAeovered Brazil What
befell the Portuguese admiral in 1900
might readily, Sir Daniel thinks. have
befallch Egyptian admirals thousands
49, of years before Egypt when first re-
a. yesled to US in history was already far
gone in its decline Its people had lost
4 the spirit which impelled them to their
first discoveries and tn their acquisition
OF the greatest il not tho first of the
anoicn. empires.
Sir Daniel af.irins that the ancient
maritime races Of the Orient frequently
made voyages far out US, the Atlantic
In the reign of Pharaoh- Necho. 61l-
COS H. c., after the decline of Egyptian
maritime er terprise. Phoenician feet
aus employed to circumnavigate Africa
Hsnno, the Cartharinian. is said 70
have reached the Indian ocean by the
route around the cape, as Vasco de
Cana did later, in l497 Enterprise has
It's pulsstions-its periods of expansion
and contraction. There are, it is seen.
indications that the discovery of Amer
lea was within the reach of the Egyp-
s&ians Mt the period to which the story OF
s Atlantis refers Ff.tt L.f
"A When the Egyptians ceased TO rove
the sea Atlantis was lost to view at Sais
and became q dim legend. Evidences OF
Egyptian intercourse with it are to be
sought. according to the author, among
the ruined cities of Central America
Such evidences may yet be Forthcoming
1T would not" he says. lin any degre,
surprise me to learn of the discovery OF
4 genuine Phoenician or other inscrip
ton or .scpe hoard Of Assyrian CRY
= rnldas or she,Sels jof the merchant
princes of Tyre. that had knowledge OF
3. the Sea being recovered among the
=, still unexplorcd treasures of the buried
empire of Montczuma or the long-de-
serted ruins Of Central America Such
discovery would arcely be more sur
prising than that Of the Punic boards
d, found at Coreo. the most westerly islanc
of the Acres. Yet it would furnish &
substantial basis for the legend of At
lantis. There is nothing improbable in
- the idea that il rests on some historit
basis in which the fall of an Iberian o.
other aggressive power in the western
Mediterranean has mingled with othel
and equally vague traditions Of inter
course with vast continent lying be
yond the pillars of Hercules" TIT
speculation is an attractive one aut
adds interest to the study of the antiqui
lies of Central America