Chapter XV: Front Matter (15)

"It is found in the histories of the Toltecs, that this age and
first world, as they call it, lasted seventeen hundred and sixteen
years; then men were destroyed by tremendous rains and lightnings
from the sky, and even all the land, without exception of anything,
and the highest mountains were covered up and submerged in water
'caxolmoletli' or fifteen cubits, and here they add other fables
of how men came to multiply from the few who escaped from this
destruction in a toptlipetlacali, this word signifies a close
chest."

{278} "No tradition has been more widely spread among nations than
that of a Deluge. . . . It was the received notion under some
form or other, of the most civilized people in the Old World, and
of the barbarians of the New. The Aztecs combined with this some
particular circumstances of a more arbitrary character, resembling
the accounts of the east. They believed that two persons survived
the Deluge, a man named Coxcox and his wife. Their heads are
represented in ancient painting, together with a boat floating on
the waters at the foot of a mountain. A dove is also depicted,
with a hieroglyphical emblem of language in his mouth, which he is
distributing to the children of Coxcox, who were born dumb. The
neighboring people of Michoacan, inhabiting the same high plains
of the Andes, had a still further tradition, that the boat in
which Tegpi, their Noah, escaped, was filled with various kinds of
animals and birds. After some time, a vulture was sent out from it,
but remained feeding on the dead bodies of the giants which had
been left on the earth, as the waters subsided. The little humming
bird, _huitzitzilin_, was then set forth, and returned with a twig
in his mouth. The coincidence of both these accounts with the
Hebrew and Chaldean narratives is obvious."--"Conquest of Mexico,"
by W. H. Prescott, (pages 463-4).

LED BY YOUNGEST BROTHER.

Fernando Montesinos, the Spanish historian of Peru says of the Peruvians:

"That nation was originated by a people led by four brothers, the
youngest of these brothers assumed supreme authority, and became
the first of a long line of sovereigns." (See Book of Mormon, Book
of Jacob, 1: 9-11).

ENGRAVED ON PLATES OF METAL.

A writer by the name of C. W. Wandell says:

"There can be no well-founded objection to the Nephite record, from
the material on which it is engraved; for the gold plate worn on
Aaron's head, on which was written 'Holiness to the Lord,' proves
that the idea was known to them. Bishop Watson says: 'The Hebrews
went so far as to write their sacred books in gold, as we may learn
from Josephus compared with Pliny.' (Watson's Bib. and Theo. Dic.
Art. Writings).

"Nor is the modern, book-like form of the volume any argument
against its antiquity; for Bishop Watson in the same place says:
'Those books which were inscribed on tablets of wood, lead, brass
or ivory were connected together by rings at the back, through
which a rod was passed to carry them.'"

EGYPTIAN WRITINGS.

A writer in the _Foreign Quarterly Review_ for October, 1836, says:

"Lastly, the eye of the antiquarian cannot fail to be both
attracted and fixed by evidences of the existence of two great
branches of the {279} hieroglyphical language--both having striking
affinities with the Egyptian, and yet distinguished from it by
characteristics perfectly American. One is the picture-writing
peculiar to the Mexicans, and which displays several striking
traits of assimilation to the anaglyphs, and the historical tablets
of the Egyptian temples. The second is a pure hieroglyphical
language, to which little attention has hitherto been called, which
appears to have been peculiar to the Tultecan or some still more
ancient nation that preceded the Mexicans; which was as complete
as the Egyptian in its double constituency of a symbolic and a
phonetic alphabet, and which, as far as we can judge, appears to
have rivalled the Egyptian in its completeness, while in some
respects it excelled it in its regularity and beauty."

Dr. August Le Plongeon, the eminent archaeologist of New York, in
the _Review of Reviews_ for July, 1895, announces the discovery of
the _sacred alphabet_ of the Mayas (the Indian tribe of Central
America) is practically identical with that of the Egyptians, and
that the grammatical structure of the two tongues is strikingly
similar, many words and characters having the same meaning in
both. His conclusion is that both these people acquired the art of
writing from a common source.

This is in strict harmony with the statements made in the Book of
Mormon. Nephi states in the first chapter of his book (Book or
Mormon, page 1) that he made his record, which was sacred, in "the
language of the Egyptians." Mosiah confirms this statement (Mosiah
1: 4); and Mormon says that it was written in characters which his
people called "reformed Egyptian," (Mormon 9: 32).

The Book of Mormon states that the descendants of the colonists
from the Tower of Babel and of those from Jerusalem attained to
a high degree of civilization, were acquainted with many arts;
and also that they became very wicked, and destroyed each other
in fiercely-fought battles. (See Mormon, chapter 6; also Ether,
15: 2). The record gives the information that the first nation
cultivated all kinds of fruit and grain; that they manufactured
silk and fine linen, and possessed gold, silver and other precious
things; that they had domestic animals, such as cattle, sheep,
goats, swine, horses, elephants and others. (See Book of Ether,
9: 17, 18, 19). The second nation found these same animals in the
country (see I Nephi 18: 25). It is also recorded that the latter
people built cities (Alma 21: 2) and temples (II Nephi 5: 16); that
they had coins of gold and silver (Alma 9: 4-19), and used these
and other metals in the arts, (Jarom 1: 8); and that many records
were kept by the people, (Helaman 3: 13).

The evidences that the ancient peoples of America were {280} highly
civilized are numerous and undisputable. Only a very few of the
many descriptions of ancient ruins discovered in various parts of
America are given in the following extracts:

EVIDENCES OF ADVANCED CIVILIZATION--RUINS DISCOVERED.

"Much has been done in recent years to throw light upon the history
of the ancient races of the east, but comparatively little interest
has been taken, even by American archaeologists and scientists,
in the ancient and marvelous civilization whose traces are to be
found scattered over our continent, particularly in Central America
and Mexico. That a civilization once flourished in these regions,
much higher than any of the Spanish conquerors found upon their
arrival, there can be no doubt. By far the most important work
that has been done among the remains of the old Maya civilization
has been carried on by the Peabody Museum of Harvard College,
through a series of expeditions it has sent to the buried city
now called Copan, in Spanish Honduras. In a beautiful valley near
the borderland of Guatemala, surrounded by steep mountains and
watered by a winding river, the hoary city lies wrapped in the
sleep of ages. The ruins at Copan, although in a more advanced
state of destruction than those of the Maya cities of Yucatan, have
a general similarity to the latter in the design of the buildings
and in the sculptures, while the characters in the inscriptions
are essentially the same. It would seem, therefore, that Copan
was a city of the Mayas; but if so it must have been one of their
most ancient settlements, fallen into decay long before the cities
in Yucatan reached their prime. The Maya civilization was totally
distinct from the Aztec or Mexican; it was an older and also a much
higher civilization.

"So far the Peabody expeditions have confined their attention to
the temples and palaces, and though for several seasons quite a
little army of natives has been engaged in excavating, yet the work
that has been accomplished amounts to little in comparison with
that which remains to be done. To clear the main structure alone
will be the work of years. Could the vast structures be restored,
our greatest buildings would seem as pygmies in comparison;
and certainly no city of the modern world could boast such a
profuseness and richness of carved and sculptured ornamentations."
--Henry C. Walsh, _in Harper's Weekly, October_, 1897.

INDIANS ALL OF ONE ORIGIN.

Mr. Bradford in his researches into the origin of the red race, adopts the following conclusions in regard to the ancient occupants of North America:

"That they were all of the same origin, branches of the same race
and possessed of similar customs and institutions.

"That they were populous and occupied a great extent of territory.

"That they had arrived at a considerable degree of civilization,
were associated in large communities and lived in extensive cities.

"That they possessed the use of many of the metals, such as lead,
copper, gold, and silver, and probably the art of working in them.

"That they sculptured in stone and sometimes used that material in
the construction of their edifices.

{281} "That they had the knowledge of the arch of receding steps;
of the art of pottery, producing urns and utensils formed with
taste and constructed upon the principles of chemical composition;
and the art of brick-making.

"That they worked the salt springs, and manufactured salt.

"That they were an agricultural people, living under the influence
and protection of regular forms of governments.

"That they possessed a decided system of religion, and a mythology
connected with astronomy, which, with its sister science, geometry,
was in the hands of the priesthood.

"That they were skilled in the art of fortification.

"That the epoch of their original settlement in the United States
is of great antiquity; and

"That the only indications of their origin to be gathered from
the locality of their ruined monuments, point toward Mexico."
--_Baldwin's Ancient America_.

RUINS IN YUCATAN.

"Yucatan is the grave of a great nation that has mysteriously
passed away and left behind no history. Every forest embosoms the
majestic remains of vast temples, sculptured over with symbols of a
lost creed, and noble cities, whose stately palaces and causeways
attest in their mournful abandonment the colossal grandeur of
their builder. They are the gigantic tombs of an illustrious race,
but they bear neither name nor epitaph. The conscience-stricken
awe with which the Indian avoids them as he relates a confused
tradition of a whole people extinguished in blood and fire by his
forefathers--a ferocious and cannibal race delighting in human
sacrifices--are all that even conjecture can say of the manner in
which the ancient occupants of Yucatan were blotted, en masse,
from the page of existence. The barbarous exterminators remained
the masters of the country, and built them rude huts under the
shadow of those immense edifices which are still the marvel and the
mystery of Yucatan. On many of these singular edifices is stamped
the blood-red impress of a human hand--a fit symbol of the rule of
blood to which it has so constantly been the victim. This 'bloody
hand' was imprinted with evident purpose on the still yielding
stucco of the new-built walls, and presents every line and curve
in life-like distinctness; but the explanation of the symbol is
unknown."--_New York Sun, June 8_, 1848.

ANCIENT GLASS JAR.

"In the shaft of J. L. Duncan and Co., on the ridge between the
Middle and South Yubas, in this county, at the distance of 176 feet
below the surface of the ground, was found, on the 26th December, a
curiously-fashioned glass bottle or jar, which was dug up in hard
cement. After removing the reddish coating, an eight of an inch
thick, which attached to the outside, and thoroughly washing it,
it was found to be of a light color and perfectly transparent. It
somewhat resembled a small-sized pickle-jar, but has a longer neck
and a flat bottom. It must have been lying in the silent spot where
it was found for many hundred years."--_Nevada Journal_.

A RUINED CITY.

"I must not, however, forget to mention that there has lately been
discovered, in the province of Vera Paz, 150 miles north-east
{282} of Guatemala, buried in a dense forest, and far from any
settlements, a ruined city, surpassing Copan or Palenque in extent
and magnificence, and displaying a degree of art to which none of
the structures of Yucatan can lay claim."--_From a letter by Mr. E.
G. Squier, read before the American Ethnological Society, October_
17, 1849.

ANCIENT COINS AND IMPLEMENTS.

"While some hands were digging out a cellar in Botetourt County,
Va., they came upon a quantity of coin, consisting of some eight
pieces, in an iron box about 14 inches square. The coin was larger
than a dollar, and the inscription in a language wholly unknown
to any person in the vicinity. Upon digging down some 16 inches
lower, they came to a quantity of iron implements of singular and
heretofore unseen shape. Several scientific gentlemen have examined
into the matter, and have come to the conclusion that the coins,
together with the other curiosities, must have been placed there at
an extremely early date, and before the settlement of the country."
--_New York Despatch_.

The Book of Mormon states that at the time of the Savior's crucifixion a great and terrible destruction took place upon the continent of America. It also contains a record of the Savior's appearance and ministry on that continent after His resurrection. (See III Nephi).

DESTRUCTION AT THE TIME OF THE CRUCIFIXION.

Concerning the destruction that occurred at the time of the crucifixion, the record says:

"And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first
month, in the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm,
such an one as never had been known in all the land;

"And there was also a great and terrible tempest; and there was
terrible thunder, insomuch, that it did shake the whole earth as if
it was about to divide asunder;

"And there were exceeding sharp lightnings, such as never had been
known in all the land.

"And the city of Zarahemla did take fire;

"And the city of Moroni did sink into the depths of the sea, and
the inhabitants thereof were drowned;

"And the earth was carried up upon the city of Moronihah, that in
the place of the city thereof, there became a great mountain;

"And there was a great and terrible destruction in the land
southward.

"But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the
land northward; for behold, the whole face of the land was changed,
because of the tempest, and the whirlwinds, and the thunderings,
and the lightnings, and the exceeding great quaking of the whole
earth;

"And the highways were broken up, and the level roads were spoiled,
and many smooth places became rough,

"And many great and notable cities were sunk, and many were {283}
burned, and many were shook till the buildings thereof had fallen
to the earth, and the inhabitants thereof were slain, and the
places were left desolate;

"And there were some cities which remained; but the damage thereof
was exceeding great, and there were many in them who were slain."
(Ill Nephi 8: 5-15).

RUINS ON THE RIDGE OF A MOUNTAIN,

Mr. William Niven, a well-known American mineralogist of New York gives the following account of discoveries he made in the mountains of the state of Guerrero, Mexico. His exploring trip was taken in the year 1894:

"About noon we camped at a spring in a deep canyon. The guide
promised to show us the first sign of ruins at a place called Yerba
Buena. We soon saw the first evidences of pre-historic structures,
which, however, were little more than foundations. But the surprise
at the top of the hill removed all doubts of the Indian's veracity,
for there before us was what was once evidently a great temple,
occupying a space of 200x300 feet. Climbing to the top of one tower
I found it covered with charcoal dust to the depth of eighteen
inches. Then we mounted our horses and traveled till dusk, nearly
ten miles, among the ruins of what was at one time a great city.
The houses, substantially built of stone and lime, had been from
fifty to eighty feet square. The ruins were found only on the
ridges of the mountains, while on the sides near the summit were
visible many foundations. After descending from the summit 400 or
500 feet there were no signs of ruins of any description. . . .
The ruins which I was fortunate enough to discover in Guerrero are
very extensive--much more so than I at first supposed. At a rather
rough estimate I should say that territory of over 900 square miles
was literally covered, foot by foot, with sections of ruins. Every
ridge and hilltop bore the remains of ancient temples, some of them
mammoth in proportions. . . . The ruins have the appearance of
belonging to one vast city, and subsequent investigations bore out
my first impressions on the matter. During the time I was occupied
in excavating I visited the ruins of twenty-two temples, with
altars in the centre of all of them from five to twenty feet high
and from ten to fifteen feet square."

Mr. Niven, in giving his opinion about the destruction of the great city says:

"Who were these people and how came they to disappear I cannot
answer. My impression is that once upon a time the country was one
vast plain. It was probably _submerged by a titanic convulsion of
nature_, and with it disappeared its people and their primitive
civilization. Later the _land was thrust up again_, as we see it
now, a barren, desolate waste. As the nearest water supply is
several miles distant, and that only a small spring, it is evident
that some great transformation in nature has taken place since the
land was populated."

How the ruined city visited by Mr. Niven came to be located upon mountain ridges can be understood from what is {284} recorded in the Book of Mormon. The city of Moronihah is mentioned as one which was destroyed by being covered with earth and a mountain being raised in place of it. It is quite probable that this pre-historic city situated in the interior of Mexico met a similar fate to that of Moronihah, and was thrown up into its present position by some mighty upheaval of the earth's crust, for it is not at all likely that the city was originally built upon a mountain. Mr. Niven's impression that the country was once a vast plain is consistent with what may be inferred from the account given in the Book of Mormon; and his belief that the remarkable transformation of the country was caused by some great convulsion of nature is also in harmony with the statements made in the sacred book, and goes to confirm the truth of it.

DESTROYED BY THE ACTION OF HEAT.

Another testimony to the destruction that took place, evidences of which still remain, is given in the following extract from the _San Francisco Herald_:

"Captain Walker assures us that the country from the Colorado to
the Rio Grande, between the Gila and San Juan, is full of ruined
habitations and cities, most of which are on the table-land. . . .
On that occasion he had penetrated about midway from the Colorado
into the wilderness, and had encamped near the Little Red River,
with the Sierra Blanca looming up to the south, when he noticed at
a little distance, an object that induced him to examine further.
As he approached, he found it to be a kind of citadel, around which
lay the ruins of a city more than a mile in length. It was located
on a gentle declivity that sloped towards Red River, and the lines
of the streets could be distinctly traced, running regularly at
right angles with each other. The houses had all been built of
stone, but _all had been reduced to ruins by the action of some
great heat, which had evidently passed over the whole country_. It
was not an ordinary conflagration, but must have been some fierce,
furnace-like blast of fire, similar to that issuing from a volcano,
as the stones were all burnt--some of them almost cindered, others
glazed as if melted. This appearance was visible in every ruin he
met with. A storm of fire seemed to have swept over the whole face
of the country, and the inhabitants must have fallen before it. In
the centre of this city we refer to rose abruptly a rock of 20 or
30 feet high, upon the top of which stood a portion of the walls of
what had once been an immense building. The outline of the building
was still distinct. . . . All the south end of the building seemed
to have been burnt to cinders and to have sunk to a mere pile of
rubbish. Even the rock on which it was built appeared to have been
partially fused by the heat."

REMAINS FOUND UNDER LAVA BEDS.

In an article which appeared in the San Francisco _Bulletin_ several years ago, Dr. D. L. Yates, says:

{285} "It was said that California possesses some of the oldest
known relics on the continent. The first authenticated record of
the original occupants was found on the Table Mountain region in
Tuolumne County, and is of an age prior to the great volcanic
outburst. Fossil remains of the rhinoceros and an extinct horse
are found under the lava layers forming the Table Mountains,
which are 1,400 feet thick, 1,700 feet wide and many hundreds of
feet high, where the river beds have been washed out and have
been covered again to the depth of from three thousand to four
thousand feet more since the flow of the lava. This lava rests on
a bed of detritus, which is often entered by running tunnels. The
human relics and stone implements found in these formations give
evidence of human habitants differing from any known since. There
have been found spear heads, a pipe of polished stone, two scoops
of steleitic rock (resembling the grocer's scoop), an implement
of aragonite, resembling an unbent bow, but the use of which is
unknown and cannot be conjectured, a stone needle, with notches
at the larger end, and the finest charmstones that have ever been
found.

"There have been brought to light the fossils of nine mastodons,
twenty elephants, various pachyderms in the Table Mountains,
numerous evidences of animal life in the calcareous formations in
the Texas flats, obsidian spear heads, fossils of the elephant,
horse and camel about Hornites, bones and evidences of pre-historic
human industry in Tulare, and in Trinity and Siskiyou many proofs
of the contemporaneous existence of man and extinct mammals."

DISCOVERY OF A HIDDEN CITY.

The Philadelphia Record, z, few years ago published the following despatch from Fort Davis, Texas:

"A strange discovery has been lately made by a surveying party
of the Kansas City, El Paso and Mexico Railroad, at a point in
Southern Mexico, not very far from Las Cruces. Here, amid a
tremendous lava flow, a veritable sea of obsidian or black glass, a
hidden city has been discovered. . . .

"The obsidian, molten or black glass at the moment of cooling
evidently became agitated, for it now lies in ragged waves and
billows of fantastic shape, some of the ridges from twelve to
fourteen feet high and capped like the sea waves with a combing
crest of greenish white. The action of the winds and elements have
literally burned some parts of this region into powdered dust.

"At the northern extremity, where the unknown city lies partly
uncovered, the ruins of gigantic stone buildings peer forth
into the light of day. Some of these buildings are simply
tremendous. . . .

"The whirlwind and sand augers have scooped out the dust, and thus
exposed the city. No legend or story exists to show how or when it
was founded, or whether it was abandoned or destroyed. The latter
seems most likely, and probably, too by an earthquake, at some
remote period which threw the lava and fire up. No volcano is known
to exist in the neighborhood."

EVIDENCES OF GREAT ERUPTIONS.

Many discoveries have been made that give evidence of great eruptions in America. The _San Francisco Herald_ stated {286} some years ago that Mr. Butterfield, in running a tunnel in Table Mountain, near Sonora, California, found a trunk of a large pine tree, one hundred and ten feet from the surface of the ground.

Morse's Universal Geography states that in Cincinnati the stump of a tree was found ninety-nine feet below the surface of the ground, and another stump containing marks of an axe and iron rust was found ninety-four feet deep in the earth. Ancient implements have been found at various depths in the earth, and in widely separated parts of the country, which all go to confirm the account given in the Book of Mormon concerning what happened upon the American continent at the time of the crucifixion.

THE MESSIAH KNOWN TO THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF AMERICA.

James Wells, D.D., in the _Sunday Magazine_, says:

"_A Savior, at once human and divine_, has a supreme place in the
creed of the Red-man. The thoughtful Indians also felt the pressure
of the solemn facts and needs of life. They groped in the darkness,
and stretched forth hands of entreaty to God. In their deep need,
they yearned for a teacher and helper; and somehow or other, they
believed that he had come, or would yet come to them. They had dim,
confused suggestions and cravings that could find their realization
only in Christ. Their traditions are rich in myths and legends
which cluster round Hiawatha, the messenger and representative of
God. They regard Hiawatha as the relative of the Great Spirit and
they call him 'uncle,' that is, kinsman. Schoolcraft has collected
the Hiawatha legend in a very interesting book.

"Hiawatha was a sort of Red Indian Messias. Though a heavenly being
he was born a child on earth, and his birth was wondrous. He came
into the world long ago and instituted 'the Grand Medicine.' He had
super-human powers, and used them all to bless men. In sending him,
the Creator smiled upon His helpless children. All the evil spirits
strove against him, but he conquered them and gained strength from
the struggle. He used to spend days in fasting and prayer, and he
went about continually doing good. He prophesied that, after he had
left them, they would take to quarreling and fighting, and that
they would be driven from their hunting-grounds far westward. He
told them of the isles of the blest and the land of the hereafter.
They also believe that he conducts souls to the other world; and
they expect him to come again to the earth."

THE CROSS AS AN EMBLEM.

Prescott, in his "Conquest of Mexico," page 465, speaks of the astonishment of the Catholic priests, who accompanied the expedition of Cortez, and found Christian rites practiced by Indians. He says:

{287} "They could not suppress their wonder, as they beheld the
cross, the sacred emblem of their own faith, raised as an object
of worship in the temples of Anahuac. They met with it in various
places; and an image of a cross may be seen at this day, sculptured
in bas-relief on the walls of one of the buildings of Palenque,
while a figure bearing some resemblance to that of a child is
held up to it, as if in adoration. Their surprise was heightened,
when they witnessed a religious rite which reminded them of the
Christian communion. On these occasions, an image of the tutelary
deity of the Aztecs was made of flour of maize mixed with blood,
and, after consecration by the priests, was distributed among
the people, who, as they ate it, 'showed signs of humiliation
and sorrow, declaring it was the flesh of the Deity.' How could
the Roman Catholic fail to recognize the awful ceremony of the
eucharist? . . . . . With the same feeling they witnessed another
ceremony, that of the Aztec baptism. . . . The Jewish and Christian
schemes were strangely mingled together, and the brains of the
good fathers were still further bewildered by the mixture of
heathenish abominations, which were so closely intertwined with the
most orthodox observances. In their perplexity they looked on the
whole as the delusion of the devil, who counterfeited the rites of
Christianity and the traditions of the chosen people, that he might
allure his wretched victims for their own destruction."

KNOWLEDGE OF THE GODHEAD.

"Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, relates in his apology, which is in
Ms., in the convent of St. Dominic, that when he passed through
the kingdom of Yucatan, he found there a respectable ecclesiastic,
of mature age; he charged him to proceed into the interior of
their country, giving him a certain plan of instruction, in order
to preach to them: at the end of a year, thus he wrote to the
bishop--he had met with a principal lord, who informed him that
they believed in God, who resided in heaven, even the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father was named Yeona, the Son
Bahab, who was born of a virgin, named Chibirias, and that of the
Holy Spirit was called Euach. Bahab, the Son, they said, was put
to death by Euporo, who scourged Him, and put on His head a crown
of thorns, and placed Him with His arms stretched upon a beam of
wood, and that on the third day He came to life, and ascended
into heaven, where He is with the Father; that immediately after
the Euach came in His place as a merchant, bringing precious
merchandise, filling those who would with gifts and graces,
abundant and divine."--_Antiquities of Mexico_.

"The virgin is represented by the Indian paintings, of whom the
great Prophet should be born, and that His own people would
reject and meditate evil against Him, and would put Him to death;
accordingly He is represented in the paintings with His hands and
feet tied to the tree."--_Monarquia Indiana_.

TRADITION OF CHRIST.

Rosales in the "History of Chili," says,

"The inhabitants of this extreme southern portion of America,
situated at the distance of so many thousand miles from New Spain,
and who did not employ paintings to record events, accounted for
their knowledge of some doctrines of Christianity by saying, that
in {288} former times they had heard their fathers say, a wonderful
man had come to that country, wearing a long beard, with shoes
and a mantle such as the Mexicans carry on their shoulders, who
performed many miracles, cured the sick with water, caused it
to rain that their crops of grain might grow, kindled fire at a
breath, healing the sick, and giving sight to the blind, and that
he spoke with as much propriety and elegance in the language of
their country, as if he had always resided in it, addressing them
in words very sweet and new to them, telling them that the Creator
of the universe resided in the highest place of heaven, and that
many men and women resplendent as the sun dwelt with Him."

BAPTISM KNOWN.

Herrera, a Spanish historian of the sixteenth century, in his history of America, volume 4, page 172, says, "Baptism was known in Yucatan; the name they gave it signified to be born again."

#STRONG PROOFS OF THE TRUTH OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. # The foregoing testimony taken from the works of secular writers confirms in a remarkable manner the historical part of the Book of Mormon, and is a strong proof that that record is authentic. Much more evidence of a similar character is to be had, but space will not admit of it here. The proof adduced in support of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon by the discoveries and observations of modern explorers is made the more forcible by the fact that they who have furnished it were not believers in the divinity of the book. Many, if not all of them, published to the world the results of their researches, and their conclusions respecting them, without knowing anything about the contents of the book, and therefore they had no predilection for it. It might be truthfully added that among all the discoveries made that furnish any information respecting the ancient Americans nothing has been found to conflict with or disprove any assertion contained in that most remarkable volume, the Book of Mormon.