"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!