SECTION II.
THE VOYAGE AND LANDING IN ANCIENT AMERICA.
THE MEANS EMPLOYED TO CONCEAL THEIR DISCOVERY FROM THE ASIATICS AND EUROPEANS—THE BUILDING OF THE FIRST ALTAR, &c.—THE PROPHECIES.
We wish distinctly to be understood that we do not state, or even infer, that in the intended voyage, the Tyrians had any positive pre-knowledge of the existence of a Western Continent,—but this we do believe, that from their knowledge of Astronomy, they may have had the supposition that such might be the case, from the then known globular character of the Earth: and in their desperate situation they must have felt the sentiment of the African Prince, who to his favourite, in reflecting upon the deaths that threatened them, exclaimed in consolation, "Whatever world we are next thrown upon, it cannot be worse than this!" With the same feeling, in the second month of autumn, following the last summer of their Country's fate, they gathered all on board, lowered sail, and dipped their oars; they paused only, to cast their straining gaze upon the horizoned Sons of Sidon, now about to be lost for ever from their sight; for the solitary and home-bound bark, with clued-up sail, and propelled by oar alone, (for the Eastern wind would oppose their return,) seemed but a darkened speck upon the distant circle of the Sea. The same wind opposed to the Sidonian's return, now filled the Tyrian sails, and bore their Galleys from that Isle,—an emblem of human life,—where the tints of Spring, Summer, and Autumn ever reign,—and Winter, with his snow-crowned Peak rises above them all! Being borne on Westward by the constant current of Wind and Wave,—and without an effort of their own,—and ignorant of the cause (they experienced only the effects), and yet their speed perceptible from the gradual sinking of the Island-base, they must have felt the same sentiment as subsequently Columbus did, and upon the identical via acqua,—that, the Great Guardian of a good cause, must have issued His mandate for their especial advancement and protection!
Upon leaving the Island of the Seasons, the Tyrian Pilots would naturally obey the direction of the friendly breeze, and head their Galleys in accordance with it; and this would be the more pleasing, as in their minds it would appear ominous of their future safety,—for it would direct them daily towards the Setting-Sun,—the visible God of their Religion—and, therefore, as a consequence, in the direct track for the Western Hemisphere.
The Ocean-Titan of the Silver Crown,—Teneriffe,—gradually falling beneath the horizon of the East, would suggest to the "wise men" of the Galleys, to note his bearing with the Stars of Night,—that the astral chart might guide them for a return voyage, should their expedition be prolonged beyond their means of sustenance: for amid all the desolation, misery, and ruin of their country, in which the savage Conqueror revelled during his slaughter-banquet, although he triumphed over the dead, he could not destroy the visionary minds of the living—their knowledge of Astronomy made each rescued Tyrian a Prophet of the deep! God's handwriting on the wall of Heaven (where the dazzling Stars are His letters) was read correctly by these Ocean-Daniels of Tyrus. That nation was indeed like ancient Babylon, numbered and finished; weighed in the balances and found wanting, and the kingdom divided and given to the Conqueror; for her fate was sealed, and by the Macedonian Signet, whose owner solved the Gordian problem by the Sword alone!
"MENE MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
appeared not only to the chief Son of Babylon;—the "Daughter of Sidon" had it branded on her brow; and in vain she wandered through her streets, striking with trembling fingers the loosened chords of her once-loved harp, to remind the passer-by of her former beauties; the diapason of her heart could never more awake an echo,—for God had spoken to the Sea Queen—"I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard!"—but, the Chaldean language of the Skies was not learnt by her Daniels in vain: it had taught them in a former age, to guide their bold prows from Pharaoh's fatal Sea; and coasting around all Afric's burning land, enabled them to pass the Herculean boundary Pillars, and so homeward to the Nile and Tyrus, which after two score Moons received them: and now, when the remorseless Conqueror—not Science—drove their descendants forth upon "great waters" where "the East-Wind could have broken them in the midst of the Seas,"—that constant gale from the Orient point, created with Time, and will only cease with his decay,—that earth-circling and never-varying gale from East to West,—as if to COMPEL Discovery of the other Hemisphere, and thence praise the works of God!—that onward breeze, which alone wafted the bold Genoese and turned the reported vision to reality;—when the Tyrian Sons were again upon these Seas, but now before that Orient gale;—still the star-tracery on the azure wall of the eternal Dome, and their Apollo daily sinking on his Western couch, and with his last glance, beckoning them, as it were, still to follow on his path,—this knowledge and their Religious adoration, directed them in safety to that Virgin land where the glorious Sun from Creation's dawn, had never beamed upon a human foot-print, until their own had kissed the untouched Floridian Shore! There Flora and her attendant Nymphs in all their peerless beauty, and Nature's own attire, were grouped on every hill; from their coloured lips smiling Welcome breathed forth, her ceaseless incense from every mound and valley, which waft on Zephyr's wings enrapt with health and gladness the approaching Sons and Daughters of a distant Sea, whose wild songs of praise to gorgeous Apollo were borne by their Orient and faithful envoy to the wave-clad Shore:—Echo caught the subduing chorus of the heart, and bore it to her favourite haunts in mountain or in cave,—the human voice now first heard, aroused the reposing animals from glade and glen;—the feathery tribes in all their rainbow tinted plumage, arose high in air,—played their circles, and rested—music breathing—on "the fruit tree-tops," as in the Day of Innocence, to receive their names from the Adams and the Eves, of a new-found Eden in another Hemisphere!
There arrived in joyous gladness, and welcomed by all the gifts of Nature,—like an heir to sudden fortune uncertain where to rest,—the Tyrian left the Shore of Florida and coasted the Gulf of Mexico, and so around the peninsular of Yucatan and into the Bay of Honduras; they thence ascended a River of shelter and safety, and above the rapids of which they selected the site of their first City,—now occupied by the Ruins, Altars, Idols, and Walls of Copan!
After their first sacrifice to Apollo, they would naturally erect a Chief Altar, around which the Tyrian Pilgrims who had come from "afar off to sojourn," might gather in remembrance of the vital act from Sidonian friendship.
As we firmly believe, so we repeat that belief,—that the sculpture of the Chief Altar of Copan (as seen at this day) portrays, from the hands of National Gratitude, a Religious tribute to Sidon, who, amid the desolating hurricane, had safely gathered the human "gleanings" from the last field of their ill-fated country; who had lifted up her prostrate "Daughter," and given her renewed strength and power, whereby—
"Her own feet could carry her afar off to Sojourn."
Another Altar (sacred to Apollo) would be erected to that Heavenly Science, the knowledge of which had aided them over their watery track in safety and to freedom. Their children would fail not to cherish the altar-fire of Astronomy; the flame of which has, to the human eye, not only illuminated the Earth, but unfolded the Mechanism of the Heavens! It became the ever-burning lantern to their feet, until they could trace in Sculpture the annual glory of that refulgent Orb, which, in their Father-land, had been for a century of ages, the divine emblem of their Religion and their God![16]
In preserving the secret of their discovery (their ancient precept) there was one incident only to be dreaded, and that was the possibility, at a future day, of a portion of the colony becoming disaffected, and thereupon resolving to return to the Fortunate Isles, and so betray them. There was but one way to prevent this, and that was, by the destruction of their Galleys,—and added to this, the passing of a law, that no others should be built, and for the same reason. If this did take place (as we believe it did) the cause is instantly apparent, why their new-found Continent was for so many centuries unknown to Asiatics or Europeans; and it should be remembered, that the East-Wind, which, like a friend, had wafted them to that Continent, would oppose, as an enemy, any return from whence they came.
Another cause may have led them to destroy their vessels,—viz., a Religious offering to Apollo,—and consequently fire would be the instrument of sacrifice. It would be their first thought, upon a final landing, to present to their deity the most precious offering in their possession; and what had they so inestimable in value as the very means whereby their lives had been rescued?—and having made that sacrifice to Apollo, fanatical zeal may have led them to abhor the future use of means, which, as a grateful offering, had been given to their deity. Thence may be traced the gradual loss of Nautical practice, on an enlarged scale; and the great Continent now possessed by them, would also diminish by degrees the uses of Navigation.
The destruction of a fleet to prevent the return of followers, was actually practised by Cortez, the conqueror of the descendants of these Tyrians, and in the Gulf of Mexico. He may have received from tradition in the country, that such an act had been accomplished by their Aboriginal ancestors: and when he repeated the device, and for a similar purpose, he would, for the sake of his own fame, conceal the secret of his intelligence, and thereby increase his character for dauntless resolution. The Tyrians may have obtained their idea from the act of Alexander of Macedon, who, only THREE years anterior to their landing in Ancient America, dismissed his Fleet before the great battle with the Persians at Issus,—that his troops should have no nautical means of returning.
We conclude this Chapter with the following solemn belief, founded upon years of study and reflection: viz.—As truly as a man in Europe or North America, when he gazes upon the Sun's rising, will have his shadow fall from his left side,—or if in Southern Africa or South America, and in so looking at the orb of day, that his shadow must fall from his right side; so truly do we believe—(and with humility we write, and in hope of Divine pardon, if in error)—that the five additional Prophecies by Isaiah have been justly (though newly) applied by us to the fate of the Daughter of Sidon; and especially the final one to the Last of the Tyrians, rescued by the Sidonians at the Alexandrian Siege;—and that the entire Fulfilment of the great Prophecy was accomplished by their landing and remaining on the Western Hemisphere.
"Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn!" And that that event took place three hundred and thirty-two years before the Birth of that Saviour,—whose Advent was especially foretold by the same Prophet!