El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-28
.E PAS0. TEXAS. FRIDAY. DECEMBER 28, 1900
MORMONS SEEKING
FOR EvIDENG E IN MEXICO OF
THE AUTHENTICITY.

Brought Down in the Book OF Nor
mon and That Form the Foundation
of the Mormon Belief.
Special Correspondence of The Herald.
PHOENIX, A. T., Dec. 26-Benjamin
Clun, of a party Of Aormons, which
three months ago left Utah and pass
ed through the Mormon districts of
Arizona on an exploration trip, writes
to a friend in Mesa City, A. T., from
Central America telling of important
antiouary discoveries made by the par
ty in southern Mexico and Central
America. Benjamin Clun is president
of the Brigham Young academy In
Provo. Utah, and is in charge OF the
expedition. He is accompanied by
twenty-four students who are search
ing for traces of the last of the Neo-
phites. whom the Mormons believe
were the first people in this country.
By the discovery of ancient cities in
ruin in South America, built years ago
by the descendants of Lehi, the Nor
mons hape to demonstrate to the gen
tiles of the world that the first inhap-
itants of the American continents were
of the Mormon faith. Cluff says:
Many prehistoric ruins have been
examined by the party and evidences
have been unearthed. which tend plain
Iy to uphold the Mormon traditions.
At one place in the south part of the
state of Durango, we found the re-
mains of what appeared to have once
been a very large city, and from the
largest ruin we jug out a stone cask-
ct. in which were found hieroglyphics
corresponding with those in the brass
tablets said to have been found in New
York. and which we're translated into
the Book of Mormon. Further exca-
vations revealed burial place, where
a large number of human bones were
found. some of the skeletons in an ex-
ceilent state of preservation. Stone
tablets were found and marked in such
a manner and with such figures as are
found on the Painted Rocks in Ari-
zona.
'Tn one large chamber isolated from
the others, we found a great stone
casket, in which were the bones OF
what had been a very large man. On
the stone were engraved the figures of
a ruler. tending to show that the dead
man once ruled over the people. A
large pile of tablets, probably records
80 in the
rear of the casket, and many will be
sent to the United States for examina-
ton by expert antiquarians."
The party will slowly move south
and calculates to spend about three
years in unearthing evidences of the
prehistoric man of America
The Mormon traditions referred to
by Cluff date back to 600 years B. c.,
when Lehi and Ishmael, accompanied
by their families, built Doats and sailed
north from Jerusalem toward this con-
tinent, disembarking on the Pacific
coast of South America at point now
thought to be where the nation of Chilli
is now formed. According to tradi-
ton the patriarch, Lehi, had two sons
-Nephi and Laman-who were lead
ers. The first was an obedient son
and the latter recalcitrant. The popu-
lation of the small colony increased
and the two factions rallied around
Naphi and Lamar. The race multi
piled rapidly until it numbered many
thousands who built cities and set up
governments at many points
in South America and Central Ameri-
ca and in Mexico and Arizona and
New Mexico in this country. Within
two hundred years after the landing
at Chilli the Nephites were extermin-
ated by the Lamans with whom they
had been engaged in unceasing war
fare The American indians are said
to be the descendants of the Lamans,
the people who followed the belliger-
ent brother. Maroni, the last of the
buried the records of his
people, written on a brass plate in
the hill called "Cumorah," in New
York state, and the angel revealed
these plates to Joseph Smith, who
the Book Of Mormon from the
Lloyd Damron.