New Witnesses for God (Volume 2 of 3)

by B. H. Roberts

CHAPTER XXVI.

INDIRECT EXTERNAL EVIDENCES—AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES—Continued.

The Book of Mormon, as already stated, requires the evidence of the existence of a very ancient civilization in the north continent of America, with its central and most enduring monuments in our Central American states. Also the evidences of a later civilization somewhat overlaying and intermixed with the former; the monuments of these two civilizations, however, may be somewhat confused by the rise of another, though inferior civilization, during the thousand years immediately preceding the advent of the Spaniards in America, which had begun to raise itself out of that chaos of confusion into which things were thrown by the destruction of the Nephites and their government. Under these circumstances it may be extremely difficult to separate these antiquities and assign each group to its proper division. But this much we feel confident can be done; evidence can be adduced that such ancient civilizations did exist; that the monuments of one has overlaid and intermixed with the others; that the central location of the first was in our Central States of America, and so far as such evidence is adduced, to that extent the claims of the Book of Mormon will be sustained. In the presentation of such evidence I can only take the humble part of compiler of it from the writings of others, since I lay no claim to original investigation of the matter; and even in the work of presenting the utterances of conceded authorities upon the subject, one stands momentarily confused, not because of the lack of matter to present to the reader, but in the matter of selecting from the great mass those passages suitable for our limited space, and which shall be most direct and convincing. With so much by way of introduction, then, I present first of all:—

I.

The Evidence of the Existence of Ancient Civilizations in America.

Considering the vast extent of these remains, [i. e. of ancient cities, pyramids and temples] spreading over more than half the continent, and that in Mexico, and South America, after the lapse of an unknown series of ages, they still retain much of ancient grandeur which "Time's effacing fingers" have failed to obliterate. It is certainly no wild flight of the imagination to conjecture that in ancient times, even coeval with the spread of science in the east, empires may have flourished here that would vie in power and extent with the Babylonian, the Median, or the Persian; and cities that might have rivaled Nineveh, and Tyre, and Sidon; for of these empires and these cities, the plains of Asia now exhibit fewer, and even less imposing relics, than are found of the former inhabitants of this country.^[[1]]

We venture to say that the aboriginal inhabitants of our hemisphere have not till this day received their meed for ancient bravery, nautical skill, and wonderful attainments in geography and in every branch of material advancement and of civilization generally. Ancient prehistoric America was, indeed, a civilized world. * * * * * Proceeding from north to south, we find from distance to distance unmistakable traces of mighty, skilful, and learned nations that had either wholly disappeared from the face of the earth, or had become degenerated and degraded to such an extent as to be irrecognizable at the time of not only the Spanish, but even of the Northman [tenth century] discoveries. * * * * * The Mayas [Central America] were intellectual giants, indeed. The ruins of their vast public works, of their costly edifices, of their sculptures and paintings, and of their finely carved symbolic writings attest the height of a civilization of which we might well be proud today. And yet all these evidences of a glorious past lay buried for long centuries before Columbus' discovery in the virgin forests of Yucatan. Palenque, Uxmal, Copan, and several other ruined cities of Central America are as grand and beautiful monuments on the cemeteries of the New World as are Troy, Babylon, and Thebes on those of the Old; and their antiquity does not seem to be less venerable. They certainly pertain to America's remotest period. They were ruins more than they are now, in the sixteenth century; the native of the neighboring region knew nothing of their origin, and no notice whatever of the existence of such cities appears in the annals of the surrounding civilized nations during the eight or nine centuries preceding the Spanish conquest. Bancroft is even of the opinion that the Maya grandeur was already at its height several centuries before Christ.^[[2]]

After speaking of various evidences of civilization in America, Nadaillac remarks:

But we need not give any further account of these great discoveries. We must return to the companions of Cortez to tell of the new wonders which awaited them. Even in the most remote districts in the primeval forests covering Chiapas, Guatemala, Honduras, and Yucatan, where, through the dense undergrowth a passage had often to be forced, axe in hand, statues, columns, hieroglyphics, unoccupied villages, abandoned palaces, and stately ruins, rose on every side, mute witnesses of past ages and of vanished races. Everywhere the conquerors were met by tokens, not only of a civilization even more ancient and probably more advanced than that of the races they subjugated, but also of struggles and wars, those scourges of humanity in every race and every clime.^[[3]]

Continuing further on in his admirable work, the same writer says: