Let it be remembered also that this is a tradition concerning the "Nahuatl" tribes. Is this very name "Nahuatl" but a variation of the Hebrew root whence the word Nephi is derived, as undoubtedly the following words are: Nepheg,[[48]] Nephish,[[49]] Nephishesim,[[50]] Nephusim,[[51]] Naphtali;[[52]] and Nephtoah?[[53]]
This Nahuatl tradition very much resembles one among the Peruvians concerning their migration to Peru; but which still more closely resembles some of the facts of the Nephite migration, except as to the matter of the time of it, which is placed at five hundred years after the deluge. The tradition is thus related by Rivero and Tschudi, following Montesinos:
Peru, says Montesinos, was populated five hundred years after the deluge. Its first inhabitants flowed in abundantly towards the valley of Cuzco, conducted by four brothers. * * * The eldest of the brothers mounted to the summit of a ridge, and threw with his sling a stone to each of the four quarters of the world, thus taking possession of the soil for himself and his family. He afterward gave a name to each one of the quarters which he reached with his sling, calling that beyond the south, Colla; beyond the north, Tahua; beyond the east, Antisuyu; beyond the west, Contisuyu, and for that reason the Indians called their kings Tahuantin-Suyu-Capac, i. e., lords of the four quarters of the globe. The younger of the brothers, who, according to tradition, was at the same time the most skilful and hardy, wishing to enjoy alone the plenitude of power, rid himself of two of his brothers, by enclosing one of them in a cave, and throwing the other into a deep hole and thus caused the third to fly to a distant province. The fratricide consoled his sisters, and told them that they must consider him as the only child, or son of the sun, and obey him as such. He commanded his kinsmen to level the ground and make houses of stone; such was the origin of the city of Cuzco. * * * For sixty years did this first king govern (whom Indian tradition also called Puhua-Manco), leaving the throne to his eldest son.[[54]]
Here we have undoubted reference to historical events, but the tradition in which they are held has assumed a form somewhat childish. That, however, does not prevent one from seeing in the tradition some of the main facts of the Nephite migration. The migration is conducted by four brothers, as was the Nephite migration—for Lehi, the patriarchal head of the Nephite colony, seems to have influenced the migration after its departure into the wilderness of Arabia but very little; the eldest of the brothers seeks for the leadership on arrival in the new world, by asserting his dominion over the four quarters of the land, in which one may see reflected the claims which the unworthy Laman, the eldest of the four Nephite brothers, made to leadership over the Nephite colony. In the younger brother of the Peruvian tradition being the more worthy of leadership, and finally attaining it, one may see the Book of Mormon historical fact of the youngest of the four sons of Lehi, taking his leadership of the colony, though arriving at undisputed leadership of his people not by the means described in the Peruvian tradition, but by the blessing and favor of God, and by separating from his brothers and their following, and removing his people a long distance from the place of the first landing of the colony in America.
In that part of the tradition where the youngest brother is represented as commanding his kinsmen "to level the ground and make houses of stone," we have the evidence that he taught them the arts of civilization; a circumstance which corroborates the Book of Mormon fact that the first Nephi did the same thing. It is thus recorded by him:
And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance. * * * * And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people to be industrious, and to labor with their hands. [[55]]
This youngest brother of the tradition—after reigning sixty years, (the first Nephi's reign was also long, but the exact number of years may not be ascertained,[[56]]) bequeathed his throne to his eldest son; so also did Nephi. At least that he did so is a most reasonable conclusion from the Book of Mormon data. In his old age, seeing death approaching, Nephi "anointed a man to be a king * * * over his people, according to the reign of kings."[[57]] Being anxious to revere the name of this first ruler, the people provided that those who came to the throne should be called First Nephi, Second Nephi, Third Nephi,[[58]] etc. Of course this does not prove that Nephi chose his eldest son to succeed him; but a later writer than Jacob, speaking of the Nephite kingdom, makes the statement that "the kingdom had been conferred upon none but those who were descendants of Nephi."[[59]] Hence it must have been that the man whom Nephi anointed king when his own career was closing, was his own son, and most likely his eldest son.
Thus every item of the native Peruvian tradition under consideration, is met by the facts of the Book of Mormon; and the tradition gives strong presumptive evidence of the truth of the Book of Mormon statement, and hence also to the book itself.
Nadaillac has a passage which wonderfully confirms the possibility of the Nephites being able to make the journey from the coast of Arabia to South America. After discussing the probability of migrations from Asia via Behring Strait, he says:
On the other hand, a knowledge of navigation no better than that possessed at present by the lowest people of Melanesia would have enabled a migration on the line of the thirtieth parallel, south, to reach the coast of South America, and, in time, to give it a considerable population. A different distribution of land and water from that at present existing, is a possible factor in the problem, but of which it is too early in ocean exploration to avail ourselves. Squier, Gibbs, and numerous other American ethnologists believed in a migration from the west to South America.[[60]]