Jones ingeniously makes use of the similarities which have been thought to exist between the American and Egyptian pyramids, and architecture generally, to prove his Tyrian theory. The general character of the American architecture is undoubtedly Egyptian, he argues; but the resemblance is not close enough in detail to allow of its being actually the work of Egyptian hands; the ancient cities of America were therefore built by a people who had a knowledge of Egyptian architecture, and enjoyed constant intercourse with that nation. But some of the ruins are Greek in style; the mysterious people must also have been familiar with Greek architecture. Where shall we find such a people? The cap exactly fits the Tyrians, says Mr Jones, let them wear it. Unfortunately, however, Mr Jones manufactures the cap himself and knows the exact size of the head he wishes to place it on. He next goes on to prove "almost to demonstration that Grecian artists were authors of the sculpture, Tyrians the architects of the entire edifices, – while those of Egypt were authors of the architectural bases." The tortoise is found sculptured on some of the ruins at Uxmal; it was also stamped upon the coins of Grecian Thebes and Ægina. From this fact it is brought home at once to the Tyrians, because the Phœnician chief Cadmus, who founded Thebes, and introduced letters into Greece, without doubt selected the symbols of his native land to represent the coin of his new city. The tortoise is, therefore, a Tyrian emblem.149
The American ruins in some places bear inscriptions written in vermilion paint; the Tyrians were celebrated for a purple dye. Carved gems have been found in American tombs; the Tyrians were also acquainted with gem-carving. The door-posts and pillars of Solomon's temple were square;150 square obelisks and columns may also be found at Palenque. But it is useless to multiply quotations; the absurdity of such reasoning is blazoned upon the face of it.
At Dighton, on the bay of Narraganset, is, or was, an inscription cut in the rock, which has been confidently asserted to be Phœnician. Copies of this inscription have been frequently made, but they differ so materially that no two of them would appear to be intended for the same design.151
In the mountains which extend from the village of Uruana in South America to the west bank of the Caura, in 7° lat., Father Ramon Bueno found a block of granite on which were cut several groups of characters, in which Humboldt sees some resemblance to the Phœnician, though he doubts that the worthy priest whose copy he saw performed his work very carefully.152
The inscribed stone discovered at Grave Creek Mound has excited much comment, and has done excellent service, if we judge by the number of theories it has been held to elucidate. Of the twenty-two characters which are confessedly alphabetic, inscribed upon this stone, ten are said to correspond, with general exactness, with the Phœnician, fifteen with the Celtiberic, fourteen with the old British, Anglo Saxon or Bardic, five with the old northern, or Runic proper, four with the Etruscan, six with the ancient Gallic, four with the ancient Greek, and seven with the old Erse.153 An inscribed monument supposed to be Phœnician was discovered by one Joaquin de Costa, on his estate in New Granada, some time since.154 The cross, the serpent, and the various other symbols found among the American ruins, have all been regarded by different authors as tending to confirm the Phœnician theory; chiefly because similar emblems have been found in Egypt, and the Phœnicians are known to have been familiar with Egyptian arts and ideas.155 Melgar, who thinks there can be no doubt that the Phœnicians built Palenque, supposes the so-called Palenque medal156 to represent Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides, attacked by the dragon. Two thousand three hundred years before the worship of Hercules was known in Greece, it obtained in Phœnicia, whither it was brought from Egypt, where it had flourished for over seventeen thousand years.157
García quotes a number of analogies, giving, after his fashion, the objections to each by the Spaniards. The builders of the Central American cities, he says, are reported by tradition to have been of fair complexion and bearded. The Carthaginians, in common with the Indians, practiced human sacrifices to a great extent; they worshiped fire and water, adopted the names of the animals whose skins they wore, drank to excess, telegraphed by means of fires, decked themselves in all their finery on going to war, poisoned their arrows, offered peace before beginning battle, used drums, shouted in battle, were similar in stratagems and exercised great cruelty to the vanquished. The objections are that the language of the Indians is not corrupt Carthaginian; that they have many languages, and could not have sprung from any one nation; Satan prompted the Indians to learn various languages in order to prevent the extension of the true faith. But why are the Indians beardless if they descended from the Carthaginians? Their beards have been lost by the action of the climate as the Africans were changed in color. Then why do they not lose their hair as well, and why do not the Spaniards lose their beard? They may in time. And so he goes on through page after page.158
The theory that the Americans are of Jewish descent has been discussed more minutely and at greater length than any other. Its advocates, or at least those of them who have made original researches, are comparatively few; but the extent of their investigations and the multitude of parallelisms they adduce in support of their hypothesis, exceed by far anything we have yet encountered.
Of the earlier writers on this subject, García is the most voluminous. Of modern theorists Lord Kingsborough stands preëminently first, as far as bulky volumes are concerned, though Adair, who devotes half of a thick quarto to the subject, is by no means second to him in enthusiasm – or rather fanaticism – and wild speculation. Mrs Simon's volume, though pretentious enough to be original, is neither more nor less than a re-hash of Kingsborough's labors.
García,159 who affirms that he devoted more attention to this subject than to all the rest of his work,160 deals with the Hebrew theory by the same systematic arrangement of 'opinions,' 'solutions,' 'objections,' 'replies,' etc., that is found all through his book. A condensed résumé of his argument will be necessary.
The opinion that the Americans are descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel, he says, is commonly received by the unlettered multitude, but not by the learned; there are, however, some exceptions to this rule. The main support of the opinion is found in the fourth book of Esdras, according to which these tribes, having been carried into captivity by Salmanassar, separated from the other tribes and went into a new region, where man had never yet lived, through which they journeyed for a year and a half, until they came to a land which they called Arsareth, where they settled and have dwelt ever since.
The most difficult question is: how did they get to America? to which the most reasonable answer seems to be, that they gradually crossed northern Asia until they came to the straits of Anian,161 over which they passed into the land of Anian, whence they journeyed southward by land through New Mexico into Mexico and Peru.162 That they were able to make such a long journey is amply attested by parallel undertakings, of which we have historical proof. It is argued that they would not travel so far and through so many inhabited countries without finding a resting-place; but we read in the Scriptures that when they left the country of the Medes, whither they had been carried by Salmanassar, they determined to journey beyond all the gentile nations until they came to an uninhabited land. It is true some learned men assert that they are still to be found in the cities of the Medes, but a statement that disagrees with the book of Esdras is unworthy of belief; though of course some of them may have