"When and whence, then, did they come? Albert Galatin, one of the profoundest philologists of the age, concluded that, so far as language afforded any clue, the time of their arrival could not have been long after the dispersion of the human family. Dr. Morton, after a series of investigations of many of the human crania found in the sepulchral mounds concluded that they must have dated back at least 2000 or 3000 years. It would not seem that all the family to which they belonged came with them, as they were but representatives of a people still in existence in the Old World, or who had become extinct since they emigrated. This people could not have been created in Africa, for its inhabitants were widely dissimilar to those of America; nor in Europe, which was without a native people agreeing at all with American races: then to Asia alone could they look for the origin of the American."
Not only does the above quotation express the opinion of scholars that the race referred to originated before the Christian era, but that it originated in Asia, which agrees with the statements in the Book of Mormon.
The following is taken from the Abbé Don Lorenzo Hervas' Letter to the Abbé Clavigero upon the Mexican Calendar, translated by Cullen and published in England in 1787:
"This Calendar has not been the discovery of the Mexicans, but a communication from some more enlightened people; and as the last are not to be found in America, we must seek for them elsewhere, in Asia or in Egypt. This supposition is confirmed by your affirmation, that the Mexicans had their Calendar from the Toltecas (originating from Asia), whose year, according to Boturini, was exactly adjusted by the course of the sun, more than a hundred years before the Christian era."
Dr. Wendell Mees, of Ithaca, New York, in an article published in a Scandinavian paper, Verdens Gang, sets forth his views in regard to the origin of the Aztecs, or ancient inhabitants of Mexico. He is of the belief that they went over to America "as early as the fourth century before Christ."
OF HEBREW ORIGIN.
The evidences that the American Indians are of Hebrew origin are quite numerous and most conclusive.
The following is from Adair's "History of the American Indians," published in London, in 1775:
"All the various nations of Indians seem to be of one descent. They call a buffalo, in their various dialects, by one and the same name, 'Yanasa.' And there is a strong similarity of religious rites and of civil and martial customs among all the various American nations of Indians we have any knowledge of on the extensive continent, as will soon be shown. Their language is copious and very expressive, for their narrow orbit of ideas, and full of rhetorical tropes and figures, like the orientalists. . . . From the most exact observations I could make in the long time I traded among the Indian Americans, I was forced to believe them lineally descended from the Israelites, either while they were a maritime power or soon after the general captivity: the latter, however, is the most probable. ... As the Israelites were divided into tribes, and had chiefs over them, so the Indians divide themselves. Each tribe forms a little community within the nation; and as the nation hath its particular symbol, so hath each tribe the badge from which it is denominated. The sachem of each tribe is a necessary party in conveyances and treaties, to which he affixes the mark of his tribe, as a corporation with us doth their public seal. If we go from nation to nation among them, we shall not find one who doth not lineally distinguish himself by his respective family. . . . Every town has a state-house, or synedrion, as the Jewish sanhedrim, where, almost every night, the head men convene about public business. . . . These Indian Americans pay their religious devoir to Loak Ishtohoollo-Aba, 'the great, beneficent, supreme, holy spirit of fire,' who resides (as they think) above the clouds, and on earth also with unpolluted people. He is with them the sole author of warmth, light, and of all animal and vegetable life. They do not pay the least perceivable adoration to any images, or to dead persons, neither to the celestial luminaries, nor evil spirits, nor any created being whatsoever. . . . They flatter themselves with the name hottuh oretoopah, 'the beloved people,' because their supposed ancestors, as they affirm, were under the immediate government of the Deity, who was present with them in a very particular manner, and directed them by prophets, while the rest of the world were aliens and outlaws to the covenant. . . . The Indian language and dialects appear to have the very idiom and genius of the Hebrew. Their words and sentences are expressive, concise, emphatical, sonorous, and bold, and often, both in letters and signification, synonymous with the Hebrew language. . . They use many plain religious emblems of the Divine names, Yohewah, Yah, and Ale; and these are the roots of a prodigious number of words through their various dialects. . . In conformity to, or after the manner of the Jews, the Indian Americans have their prophets, high priests, and others of a religious order. As the Jews had a sanctum sanctorum, or most holy place, so have all the Indian nations. . . . . The Indian tradition says that their forefathers were possessed of an extraordinary divine spirit, by which they foretold things future, and controlled the common course of nature; and this they transmitted to their offspring, provided they obeyed the sacred laws annexed to it. . . . As the prophets of the Hebrews had oracular answers, so the Indian magi (who are to invoke Yo He Wah and mediate with the supreme holy fire, that he may give seasonable rains), have a transparent stone of supposed great power in assisting to bring down the rain. . . . The Hebrews offered daily sacrifice. . . . The Indians have a similar religious service. . . . The Indians have among them the resemblance of the Jewish sin offering and trespass-offering. . . . The Indians observe another religious custom of the Hebrews in making a peace-offering. . . . They always celebrate the annual expiation of sins in their religious temples. The red Hebrews imagine their temples to have such a typical holiness, more than any other place, that if they offered up the Annual Sacrifice elsewhere, it would not atone for the people. . . . The Hebrews had various ablutions and anointings, according to the Mosaic ritual, and all the Indian nations constantly observe similar customs from religious motives. . . . In the coldest weather, and when the ground is covered with snow, against their bodily ease and pleasure, men and children turn out of their warm houses or stoves, reeking with sweat, singing their usual sacred notes, Yo, Yo, &c., at the dawn of day, adoring Yo He Wah, at the gladsome sight of the morn; and thus they skip along, echoing praises, till they get to the river, when they instantaneously plunge into it. . . . This law of purity (bathing in water) was essential to the Jews, and the Indians to this day would exclude the men from religious communion who neglected to observe it. . . . 'Tis well known that oil was applied by the Jews to the most sacred as well as common uses: their kings, prophets, and priests, at their inauguration and consecration, were anointed with oil. . . . Like the Jews, the greatest part of the Southern Indians abstain from the most things that are in themselves, or in general apprehension of mankind, loathsome, or unclean. . . . They reckon all birds of prey and birds of night to be unclean and unlawful to be eaten. . . None of them will eat of any animal whatsoever, if they either know or suspect that it died of itself. . . . They reckon all those animals to be unclean that are either carnivorous or live on nasty food, as hogs, wolves, panthers, foxes, cats, mice, rats. . . . The Indians, through a strong principle of religion, abstain in the strictest manner from eating the blood of any animal. . . . The Indian marriages, divorces, and punishments of adultery still retain a strong likeness to the Jewish laws and customs in these points. . . . . Many other of the Indian punishments resemble those of the Jews. . . The Indians strictly adhere more than the rest of mankind to that positive, unrepealed law of Moses, 'He who sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' . . . There never was any set of people who pursued the Mosaic law of retaliation with such a fixed eagerness as these Americans. . . They forgive all crimes at the Annual Atonement of sins, except murder, which is always punished with death. . . . The Israelites had cities of refuge, or places of safety, for those who killed a person unawares and without design. . . . According to the same particular divine law of mercy, each of these Indian nations have either a house or town of refuge, which is a sure asylum to protect a manslayer, or the unfortunate captive, if they can once enter into it Before the Indians go to war, they have many preparatory ceremonies of purification and fasting, like what is recorded of the Israelites. . . . The Indian ark is deemed so sacred and dangerous to be touched, either by their own sanctified warriors or the spoiling enemy, that they durst not touch it upon any account. . . . The warriors consider themselves as devoted to God, apart from the rest of the people, while they are at war accompanying the sacred ark with the supposed holy things it contains. . . . When they return home victorious over the enemy, they sing the triumphal song to Yo He Wah, ascribing the victory to him, according to a religious custom of the Israelites, who were commanded always to attribute their success in war to Jehovah, and not to their swords and arrows.
"The Indian manner of curing their sick is very similar to that of the Jews. They always invoke Yo He Wah a considerable space of time before they apply any medicines, let the case require ever so speedy an application. The more desperately ill their patients are, the more earnestly they invoke the Deity on the sad occasion. . . . The Indians deem the curing their sick or wounded a very religious duty, and it is chiefly performed by their supposed prophets and magi, because they believe they are inspired with a great portion of divine fire. . . . The surviving brother, by Mosaic law, was to raise seed to a deceased brother who left a widow childless, to perpetuate his name and family, and inherit his goods and estate, or be degraded. The Indian custom looks the very same way; yet it is in this as in their law of blood—the eldest brother can redeem. . . Emanuel de Moraes and Acosta affirm that the Brazilians marry in their own family or tribe. And Jo. de Laet says they call their uncles and aunts 'fathers and mothers,' which is a custom of the Hebrews and of all our North American Indians; and he assures us they mourn very much for their dead, and that their clothes are like those of the early Jews. . . Acosta writes that the clothes of the South American Indians are shaped like those of the ancient Jews. . . Laet, (in his description of America), and Escarbotus assure us they often heard the South American Indians to repeat the sacred word Halliluiah, which made them admire how they first attained it. And Malvenda says that the natives of St. Michael had tombstones, which the Spaniards digged up, with several ancient Hebrew characters upon them. Peter Martyr writes that the Indian widow married the brother of her deceased husband, according to the Mosaic law. . . . Robert Williams, the first Englishman in New England, who is said to have learned the Indian language, in order to convert the natives, believed them to be Jews."