New Witnesses for God (Volume 2 of 3)

by B. H. Roberts

[9]. On this point Mr. Baldwin says: "To understand the situation of most of the old ruins in Central America, one must know something of the wild condition of the country. Mr. Squier says: 'By far the greater proportion of the country is in its primeval state, and covered with dense, tangled, and almost impenetrable tropical forests, rendering fruitless all attempts at systematic investigation. There are vast tracts untrodden by human feet, or traversed only by Indians who have a superstitious reverence for the moss-covered, and crumbling monuments hidden in the depths of the wilderness. * * * For these and other reasons, it will be long before the treasures of the past, in Central America, can become fully known.' A great forest of this character covers the southern half of Yucatan, and extends far into Guatemala, which is half covered by it. It extends also into Chiapa and Tabasco, and reaches into Honduras. The ruins known as Copan and Palenque are in this forest, not far from its southern edge. Its vast depths have never been much explored. There are ruins in it which none but wandering natives have ever seen, and some, perhaps, which no human foot has approached for ages. It is believed that ruins exist in nearly every part of this vast wilderness." Ancient America, pp. 94, 95.

CHAPTER XXV.

INDIRECT EXTERNAL EVIDENCES—AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.—Continued.

III.

Of the Probability of Intercourse Between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres During Jaredite and Nephite Times.

Another remark should be made in these preliminary observations, viz.: It cannot possibly be in conflict with the Book of Mormon to concede that the northeastern coast of America may have been visited by Norsemen in the tenth century; or that Celtic adventurers came to America even at an earlier date, but subsequent to the close of the Nephite period. It might even be possible that migrations came by way of the Pacific Islands to the western shores of America. I think it indisputable that there have been migrations from northeastern Asia into the extreme north parts of North America, by way of Behring straits, where the continents of Asia and North America are separated by a distance of but thirty-six miles of ocean. The reasons for this belief are first, a positive identity of race between the Esquimaux of North America and the Esquimaux of northern Asia; and, second, a very clear distinction of race between the Esquimaux and the American Indians of all other parts of North America.^[[1]]

None of these migrations are impossible or even improbable, though it must be stated in passing that the proofs for at least some of them rest on no historical evidence. Whether the theory that in ancient times the Phoenicians and their colonists, the Carthagenians, had intercourse with the shores of America is true or not I cannot determine. The historical evidence is insufficient to justify a positive opinion; neither does my treatise on the subject in hand require an extended consideration of this question. It will be enough to say that if there were such intercourse, both Nephite and Jaredite records in the Book of Mormon are silent with reference to it. Yet it must be conceded that the records now in hand, especially that of the Jaredites, are but very limited histories of these people. All we can say is that no mention of such intercourse is made in these records, and yet it is possible that Phoenician vessels might have visited some parts of the extended coasts of the western world, and such events receive no mention in the Jaredite or Nephite records known to us.^[[2]]

Equally unnecessary is it for me to inquire whether or not the ancient inhabitants of America "discovered Europe," as some contend they did.^[[3]] It is not impossible that between the close of the Nephite period and the discovery of the western world by Columbus, American craft made their way to European shores. And even should further investigation prove that in Nephite or even in Jaredite times such voyages were made, it would not affect the Book of Mormon and the inquiry we are making concerning it. As stated in respect of Phoenicians and other people making their way to America's extended coasts, so it may be said, with reference to this other theory that Americans "discovered Europe," no mention is made of such an event in the Book of Mormon. But it should be remembered that for the history of the Jaredites we have but Moroni's abridgment of Ether's twenty-four plates. Had we Ether's history of the Jaredites in full, it could be but a very limited history of so great a people, and for so long a period—sixteen centuries—barely an outline, and wholly inadequate to give one any clear conception of their national greatness, the extent of their migrations, or the grandeur of their civilization. And yet, even of this brief history we have but an abridgment, of which Moroni informs us he has not written a "hundredth part."^[[4]] Hence our very limited knowledge of the Jaredites and their movements. While our knowledge of the Nephites is more extensive than our knowledge of the Jaredites, we have to confess its narrow limits also. The Book of Mormon is, in the main, but an abridgment of the larger Nephite records; and at the point where Nephite civilization reached its fullest development, Mormon informs us that "a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, yea, the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites, and their wars, and contentions, and dissensions, and their preaching, and their prophecies, and their shipping, and their building of ships, and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries, and their righteousness, and their wickedness, and their murders, and their robbings, and their plunderings, and all manner of abominations and whoredoms, cannot be contained in this work."^[[5]] I repeat, then, even in Jaredite and Nephite times voyages could have been made from America to the shores of Europe, and yet no mention of it be made in Nephite and Jaredite records now known.

I know of but one utterance in the Book of Mormon that would in any respect be against the probability of intercourse between the old world and the new, in Nephite times; and that is found in the following passage: