The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-22
THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
An Expedition Will Be Made in Search
of Its Location.

The following letter has been addressed
to the editor of the London Times:
Sir-I learn from the press that the dis
tinguished explorer, Major Seton Kari has
just left Alden for SOmaliland. in order to
discover the precise position of the Garden
of Eden, which he places in that locality.
And 1 think therefore that it may not be
without use if 1 allowed briefly to re-
count the reasons which induced me as
that very spot, but the Immediately adjon-
ing plateau of Central Africa the
cradle OF the human race described in
q book now out of print, and afterward
incidentally before the oxford University
extension in a lecture on the hieratic alpha
bet of Egypt. the territory of Eden was
not a district through which four rivers
had their full course, but was essentially
a watershed containing a single river and
four heads. And thus 1t exactly CORE,
spends with the great basin of central
Africa containing the single river, the
great rivers-Zambesi, Niger, Nile and
Congo-as described by Mr.. Stanley in his
paper before the Berlin conference. Again,
self. with which it is so frequently con-
founded, but was situated in the eastern
with the magnificent paradise or park
covering 5000 square miles OF the most
gloriously beautiful lands in the world" full
OF all kinds Of animal life. which the same
author describes as beheld from the rocky
eminences which lie to the eastward of the
central basin. Among all the Vulnerable
these three simple but absolutely essential
features, the single river, the watershed,
and the eastward position of the garden,
even recognized, far less fulfilled? Nor are
the minor characteristics less obviously sat
isfied. Thus to contine ourselves to two ex-
amples. Beyond the Zambesl lies the land
of gold where the mines of the highest an
tiquity are to be found, while the Niger en-
compasses the whole land of the blacks
These points may, 1 think, be of some I'M
portance in regard to the present eXpedi-
ton, and of some curiosity, also in the light
of present events. But the matter would
be, comparatively speaking. of little more
than academic interest were it not that, if
this spot be the true starting point of man,
we are enabled to connect it at once with
the subseQU.nt history of his never-ending
migrations. According to the scriptural ac-
count, the parents of our race went forth
from Eden toward the East, and this would
just correspond with the course that
would be taken If they followed, as would
most naturally be the case, the course of
the Bahr-el- Ghazal, since that stream
trends slightly to the eastward before 1T
turns toward the north. Hence, then, as the
migration continued and the human family
began to multiply and spread in every di-
rection, the parts about Somaliland would
soon be reached. And this, again, harmon
ICES with the territory which PSYCHOLOGISTS
are now generally agreed Though nine
years ago this was by no means the case) in
Identifying with the land of Poont, that
sacred country to which the Egyptians
themselves ever looked back as the land OF
their own origin. And further down the
Nile again we come to the Island of Meroe,
over whlcn, ACCORDING TO Josephus, Moses
was once the victorious general, on behalf
of the King of Egypt. in his contest with
the inhabitants of the Sudan, and where the
famous French explorer, Caillaud, discov-
cred the venerable ruins of ASsur. If this
view be correct-and every discovery since
first I wrote has tended to confirm 1.-THE
matter, / submit, is one Of the very last inn
portance to ell those who concern them
selves either with history or scripture. Nor
is its attractiveness diminished by the sin
gular reflection that our own general in the
name OF Egypt holds the same position and
has conquered the same territory as once
was held and conquered by Moses, and that
while the two empires which count their
armed subjects by the hundred thousand
are sending forth Il message of universal
peace we ourselves and all the world with
ing 10 blows over the right to seize upon
the land of Paradise. L am. sir, your obe-
dent servant, w. MARSHAM ADAMS.