Ultima Thule."
Or that Silenus knew of the continent of America because Ælianus makes him tell Midas, the Phrygian, that there was another continent besides Europe, Asia, and Africa? A continent whose inhabitants are larger and live longer than ordinary people, and have different laws and customs. A country where gold and silver are so plentiful that they are esteemed no more than we esteem iron. Are we to suppose that St Clement had visited America when he wrote, in his celebrated epistle to the Corinthians that there were other worlds beyond the ocean? Might we not as well argue that America was certainly not known to the ancients, or Tacitus would never have written: "Trans Sueones aliud mare, pigrum ac propè immotum ejus cingi cludique terrarum orbem hinc fides." Would the theological view of the flat structure of the earth have gained credence for a moment, had antipodes been discovered and believed in?
VOTAN'S TRAVELS.
The mysterious traveler, Votan, is once more made to do service for the theorist here. In his somewhat doubtful manuscript, entitled "Proof that I am a Serpent," Votan asserts that he is a descendant of Imox, of the race of Chan, and derives his origin from Chivim. "He states that he conducted seven families from Valum Votan to this continent and assigned lands to them; that he is the third of the Votans; that, having determined to travel until he arrived at the root of heaven, in order to discover his relations the Culebras (Serpents), and make himself known to them, he made four voyages to Chivim;[I-142] that he arrived in Spain, and that he went to Rome; that he saw the great house of God building;[I-143] that he went by the road which his brethren the Culebras had bored; that he marked it, and that he passed by the houses of the thirteen Culebras. He relates that in returning from one of his voyages, he found seven other families of the Tzequil nation, who had joined the first inhabitants, and recognized in them the same origin as his own, that is, of the Culebras. He speaks of the place where they built their first town, which, from its founders, received the name of Tzequil; he affirms the having taught them refinement of manners in the use of the table, table-cloth, dishes, basins, cups, and napkins; that, in return for these, they taught him the knowledge of God and of his worship; his first ideas of a king and obedience to him; and that he was chosen captain of all these united families."[I-144]
THE TZENDAL TRADITIONS.
Cabrera supposes Chivim to be the same as Hivim or Givim, which was the name of the country from which the Hivites, descendants of Heth, son of Canaan, were expelled by the Philistines some years before the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt. Some of these settled about the base of Mount Hermon, and to them belonged Cadmus and his wife Harmonia. It is probably owing to the fable of their transformation into snakes, related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, that the word Givim in the Phœnician language signifies a snake.[I-145] Tripoli of Syria, a town in the kingdom of Tyre, was anciently called Chivim. "Under this supposition, when Votan says he is Culebra, because he is Chivim, he clearly shows, that he is a Hivite originally of Tripoli in Syria, which he calls Valum Chivim, where he landed, in his voyages to the old continent. Here then, we have his assertion, I am Culebra, because I am Chivim, proved true, by a demonstration as evident, as if he had said, I am a Hivite, native of Tripoli in Syria, which is Valum Chivim, the port of my voyages to the old continent, and belonging to a nation famous for having produced such a hero as Cadmus, who, by his valour and exploits, was worthy of being changed into a Culebra (snake) and placed among the gods; whose worship, for the glory of my nation and race, I teach, to the seven families of the Tzequiles, that I found, on returning from one of my voyages, united to the seven families, inhabitants of the American continent, whom I conducted from Valum Votan, and distributed lands among them."[I-146]
The most enthusiastic supporter of the Phœnician, or Tyrian, theory, is Mr George Jones. This gentleman has devoted the whole of a goodly volume to the subject, in which he not only sustains, but conclusively proves, to his own satisfaction, whatever proposition he pleases. It is of no use to question, he demolishes by anticipation all possible objections; he "will yield to none," he says, "in the conscientious belief in the truth of the startling propositions, and the consequent historic conclusions." The sum of these propositions and conclusions is this: that after the taking of the Tyrian capital by Alexander, B.C. 332, a remnant of the inhabitants escaped by sea to the Fortunate Islands, and thence to America. The author does not pretend that they had any positive foreknowledge of the existence of a western continent; though he believes "that from their knowledge of astronomy, they may have had the supposition that such might be the case, from the then known globular character of the earth." But they were mainly indebted for the success of their voyage to the favoring east winds which bore them, in the space of a month straight to the coast of Florida.[I-147] "There arrived in joyous gladness, and welcomed by all the gifts of nature,—like an heir to a sudden fortune, uncertain where to rest,—the Tyrians left the shore of Florida and coasted the gulf of Mexico, and so around the peninsula of Yucatan and into the Bay of Honduras; they thence ascended a river of shelter and safety, and above the rapids of which they selected the site of their first city,—now occupied by the ruins, altars, idols, and walls of Copan!"
The more effectually to preserve the secret of their discovery and place of refuge, they subsequently destroyed their galleys and passed a law that no others should be built. At least, this is Mr. Jones' belief—a belief which, to him, makes the cause "instantly apparent" why the new-found continent was for so many centuries unknown to Asiatics or Europeans. It is possible, however, the same ingenious author thinks, that, upon a final landing, they burned their ships as a sacrifice to Apollo, "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."[I-148]
MR JONES' REASONING.