I just love the stories from before the oppression of Smithsonian and stories that can't be blamed as a hoax perpetrated by some religious organization trying to give credability to their belief. There is nothing like the reports of those who were there without the rationalizing comments of those of several generations later who claim to know as if they were there.
In the course of the year 1847, Mr. Benjamin
E. Styles, when sinking a cistern on the banks of the Ohio, at Cincinnati,
found, at a depth of nine feet ten inches, a gold plate with wavy edges, from
three to four inches in length, and very nearly an inch wide, a little more
than the tenth of an inch thick, and covered entirely over with engravings
representing a variety of objects. The narrow frame which surrounds the plate
is also in gold. Dr. Wise, the Rabbi of the synagogue of Cincinnati, has examined this valuable plate,
and fancied he recognized forms which for the most part belong to Egyptian art.
It is quite certain that we are struck at the first glance with the resemblance
of these figures to Egyptian hieroglyphics, but it is equally certain that there
is a marked difference between them, and that the learned in hieroglyphics
declare that they do not at all comprehend them. They are Mexican glyphs, which
cannot be explained in the present state of our knowledge. The print we have
given of this very curious American antiquity, is copied from an engraving published
by Drake and Co., printers, at St.
Louis, Missouri.
Innumerable Phoenician
inscriptions have been reported and discredited by archaeologists. Six bronze
plates inscribed with unknown characters, found in Illinois on the breast of a human
skeleton 9 FEET LONG discovered in a tumulus at a depth of six and a half
feet, are also mentioned by Brenchley, but the relies discovered in America seem
generally to bear the strongest affinity to the Chinese. Mr. Southall gives the
following interesting fact as having been laid before the New York Geographical
Society in January 1873 by Dr. A. le Plongeon.
"In searching among the ruins
of the Grand Chimu's city, situated between Trujillo and the pool of Huanchaco, some
silver idols have been found inscribed with very ancient Chinese characters.
Some have been likewise dug up from the mounds in the valley of Chinca Alta,
four hundred miles to the southward. I have examined these idols carefully.
They bore marks of being very ancient. Two that were in my possession re presented
a man sitting cross-legged on the back of a tortoise. The head was shaved, except
the top, from which depended, hanging on the back, a lock of hair braided Chinese
fashion. The arms of the figure were ex tended, the hands rested on short
pillars ; and notwithstanding this relic was very much eaten by rust and the
salts contained in the earth, where for centuries it had lain undisturbed, some
signs were plainly visible on the pillars. They somewhat resembled the Chinese
writing, but seemed somewhat different from those in use to-day. The finding of
these relies was quite important in my estimation. I set forth in search of a
person who could interpret them for me and dispel my doubts. 1 knew a very
intelligent Chinaman, acknowledged to be by his countrymen a gentleman of great
literary attainments. He examined the queer object for a long time without speaking
a word ; looked at me, looked at my relic again, his features betraying
astonishment, nay, veneration not altogether free from awe. He was evidently
overcome by a strange feeling. ' Very odd,' said he at last. '”These are very
ancient characters, used in China
thousands of years ago, before the invention of those now employed. They mean Fo-hi
(Recent Origin of Man) Hence he believes a small colony at Eten, on the
Peruvian coast, who still speak a language understood by Chinese coolies, to be
the descendants of those who brought to Peru these silver idols.
This discovery, however, does not
stand alone; here is an in stance from Ashe's “Travels in America " (1809),
which has always appeared to us of peculiar interest. " Near Marietta,
under huge blocks of stone, was found a beautiful tessellated pavement,
representing a warrior with a snake under his feet, the figure composed of dyed
-wood, bone, and small pieces of terreous and testaceous substances, which
crumbled to dust when exposed to the air. The actual pavement was composed of
flat stones one inch deep, two inches square, and the pre vailing colours,
white, green, dark blue, and pale spotted red, all peculiar to the lakes, and not
t o be found nearer. The whole, fixed in a thin layer of sand over a large
piece of beech bark covering a skeleton of great size, extended in a bark
shell, which also contained 1. an earthen urn or pot of earthenware, in which
were several small broken bones and some white sediment. The urn appeared to be
made of sand and flint vitrified, which rings like a rumer glass, holds about
two gallons, has a top or cover of the same material, and resists fire as
completely as iron or brass. 2. A stone hatchet with a groove round the pole, by
which it was fastened with a with to the handle. 3. Twenty-four arrow points
made of flint and bone. 4. A quantity of beads, round, oval, and square ;
coloured green, black, white, blue, and yellow. 5. Conch shell, decomposed into
chalk, fourteen inches long and twenty-three in circumference. 6. Under a heap
of dust and tenuous shreds of feathered cloth and hair, a parcel of brass rings,
cut by an art unknown to me out of a connection had ceased before the discovery
of iron.
It is commonly asserted that all
the American races are of one stock, yet the monuments of Central America and Mexico reveal races
as distinct as those represented in Egyptian paintings. If, however, the
civilization of America is
not indigenous, the question arises whether it was derived from Egypt or from China, and which of those two can claim
to be the original birthplace of civilization. We believe neither, but that the
origin of all alike must be sought in that almost submerged continent now
represented by the numerous Polynesian groups, stretching, as Mr. Southall
says, diagonally across the Pacific in the direction of Peru, in many of which
islands are found megalithic monuments of a pyramidal character not traceable to
the present inhabitants, The submergence of this great continent is noted by
Mr. Southall as a proof of the great changes which have taken place on the
globe in recent times, and justifying his theory that similar changes in the
northern hemisphere have been recent and cataclysmal ; but he surely could not
have been aware that Darwin has demonstrated beyond a doubt, by the natural history
of the coral polype, that the rate of the submergence has been regular, and so gradual
as to allow the growth of coral to keep pace with the subsidence. If this was
solid piece of that metal, and in such a manner in the southern hemisphere, we
may reason that the rings are suspended from each other without the aid of
solder or any other visible agency whatever. Each ring is three inches i ii
diameter, and has a horizontal circumference half an inch wide, on both sides
of which are strongly etched a variety of characters resembling Chinese. It
appears, there fore/' adds the discoverer, "that these ancient Indians did
not know the use of iron ; that they had a communication with the sea, although
now 2000 miles from it, and knew the manufacture of cloth now unknown to any
nation north of Mexico.