Volume Three—Chapter Twelve.
Discourse on the Evidences of the American Indians being the Descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel.
Those who study the Scriptures, either as a matter of duty or pleasure—who seek in them divine revelations, or search for the records of history, cannot be ignorant of the fact that the Jewish nation, at an early period, was divided into twelve tribes, and occupied their ancient heritage under geographical divisions, during the most splendid periods under the kingdoms of Judah and of Israel.
Their early history—the rise, progress, and downfall of the nation—the proud distinction of being the chosen people—their laws, government, and wars—their sovereigns, judges, and temples—their sufferings, dispersions, and the various prophecies concerning this ancient and extraordinary people, cannot be unknown to you all. For their history is the foundation of religion, their vicissitudes the result of prophecy, their restoration the fulfilment of that great promise made to the Patriarch Abraham, almost I may say in the infancy of nature.
It is also known to you that the Jewish nation was finally overpowered, and nine and a half of the tribes were carried captives to Samaria; two and a half, to wit: Judah, Benjamin, and half Menassah, remained in Judea or in the transjordani cities.
The question before us for consideration is, what has become of the missing or dispersed tribes—to what quarter of the world did they direct their footsteps, and what are the evidences of their existence at this day?
An earthquake may shake and overturn the foundations of a city—the avalanche may overwhelm the hamlet—and the crater of a volcano may pour its lava over fertile plains and populous villages—but a whole nation cannot vanish from the sight of the world, without leaving some traces of its existence, some marks of habits and customs.
It is a singular fact that history is exceedingly confused, or rather, I may say, dark, respecting the ultimate dispersion of the tribes among the cities of the Medes. The last notice we have of them is from the second Book of Esdras, which runs thus:
“Whereas thou sawest another peaceable multitude: these are the ten tribes which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea, whom Salmanazar, king of Assyria, led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, so they came unto another land.
“They took this counsel among themselves that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go into a further country wherein never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land (Assyria), and there was a great way to go, namely, a year and a half.”