Graham guardian., 1895-10-11
Ancient Ruins.
EDITOR GUARDIAN


are in doubt as to the origin of
these ruins and the time when
these ancient and enlightened peo-
pie occupied this continent, ask
space in your columns to offer a
few facts for the enlightment OF all
including the Sentinel. In order to
bring the subject properly before
your readers / will take an extract
from the article referred to.
After referring to these ruins,
the Sentinel says:
"Thousands of years have gone
down in the oblivion of the un-
unknown past since these plainly
written volumes were closed. No
one is left even to repeat the le-
gends connected with their begin
ning, existence and downfall,
when and by whom these vast re-
gions were peopled, their length OF
abode and the cause or fate which
drove them away or banisbed
them from their homes, are mys-
teries buried in the graves OF by
gone days, the records ofwhich are
now scarcely traceable, though
once written in plainest lines in
the fertile valleys and on the ad-
amantine rocks of the hillside and
mountain tops, where today only
faint line tracings are to be found,
still enough to know that these an
cient settlers and farmers were in
telligent, wealthy and powerful,
and that their numbers were al
most as countless as the grass in
the verdant fields. No evidences
are left that floods, famines, plaques
pestilence or wars banished them
from the face of the soil. But
they are gone and no one is left to
tell the tale"
Those events, which to the world
are so clouded in mystery, are we'll
understood by the Latter Day
Saints. A few facts CLEANED from
the history of these mysterious
races, their origin, rise and fall,
may be interesting to some ofyour
readers.
Now the fact of the matter is,
that instead of this being the new
world, as 1t is generally styled, il
is the old world. For nearly 100
years what is now North America.
was occupied by Adam and his
posterity, and when the inhabi
tants wero destroyed by the flood
their cities and temples were left
in ruins.
The ark rested on what is now
termed the eastern hemisphere and
that portion of the earth was popu
lated by the descendants of Noah
In the days Of Peleg, the great
grandson of Noah, tho earth was
divived, and thus the eastern and
western hemispheres appeared.
The first colonlst to the western
hemisphere left the land of Sinner
Just after the confounding of the
languare at the tower of Babel
They multiplied in the land and be-
came mighty nation, but event
ually they were destroyed by in
ternal wars.
Again the lord led few families
from Jarusalem about the time the
Jews were carried away captive to
Babylon. They landed in South
America. These were descendants
of Joseph, who was sold into
Egypt, and their coming from the
eastern to the western hemisphere
was in direct fulfllment of the
blessing of Jacob upon Joseph
when he said "Joseph is a fruitful
bough, even fruitful bough by a
we'll, whose branches run over the
WALL" They multiplied and spread
abroad in the land, and cultivated
the arts and sciences for over one
thousand years, during which time
the whole of South and North
America became densely populated
with a rich and prosperous people,
skilled in the arts of husbandry,
architecture and fine workmanship
in the fine arts. But party divi-
sion became so pronounced that
wars were very frequent between
the two parties. The Nephites,
which were inclined to peace, and
the Lamanites, who lived by max
ing war ON the prosperous Nephites.
llIiie ffeAGit was that the Lamanites
Ferseedted The Nephites until they
I'werS fatally destroyed and the
ILamanites were left in possession
of the land. But instead of occu-
pying the possessions of the pros
porous Nephites, they destroyed
their cities and desolated the coun-
try, after which they divided into
bands and tribes and lived by the
chase and making war on eachoth-
er. Hence the American Indian, las
found when Columbus discovered
America, and the mysterious signs
of the presence Of an enlightened
but extinct race both in North and
South America, question which
scientific men have been vainly
trying for years to solve.
The proof of their origin, their