CHAPTER XIII.
(332 B. C.)
THE FIRST MIGRATION ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN,
AND
THE LANDING OF THE TYRIANS
UPON
THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. &c.
NOW 2175 YEARS SINCE, AND CONSEQUENTLY 1824 YEARS BEFORE THE RE-DISCOVERY BY COLUMBUS.
THE FULFILMENT OF THE SEVENTH AND LAST TYRIAN PROPHECY, BY ISAIAH.
SECTION I.
"THE MEANS AND APPLIANCES" FOR THE VOYAGE.
In the endeavour to establish the fact contemplated by the title of this chapter, it will be necessary to bring to the memory of the reader some of the material points having reference to the Voyage around the continent of Africa. [Vol. i., Book ii., ch. vi., § 2.] Other points of proof will be given, and for convenience in numerical order.
1st. _The Galleys._ The larger Galleys were double-masted, and they had not only the large square sails which were exactly suited for running before the wind, from their central and balanced position; but they had also the powerful adjunct of the Rowers, whose services were rendered with or without reference to the assistance of the sails. The extraordinary power of the Rowers is recorded by nearly every ancient Historian, and from Scripture we have the character of their strength and fearlessness, especially of the Tyrians. EZEKIEL writes in his description of Tyrus,--
"And thy Rowers have brought thee into great waters."
The fitness or the capacity of the Galleys will not be questioned, when thought is given to the previous expedition around Africa, and especially at the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope, which is far more dangerous than crossing the Atlantic.
2d. _The locality of the Fortunate Isles_ (_i. e._ Canaries). This is important. These are situated on the North-West coast of Africa, in the Atlantic ocean, and _within_ thirty degrees of North latitude, and, consequently, directly under the influence of the celebrated Easterly Wind.
3d. _The East-Wind, and its proof of the truth of History._ The reader will remember the detailed account given of this constant current of air, in the sixth chapter of this book. [Vol. i., Book ii., ch. vi., § 2.] We may, however, be permitted to repeat, that it blows perpetually from East _to_ West, consequently over and from the Fortunate Isles _directly towards America_,--those Islands being within the degrees over which this orient gale has, and will for ever pass.
The direct opposite land to these Islands, on the American Continent, is Florida, it being, like the Isles, within the thirty degrees North latitude. Now any vessel or Galley to set sail before the wind from Teneriffe (the Isle upon which the Tyrians were), and place the rudder or helm fore and aft (_i. e._ not obliquely, but central), then the East-Wind would drive that vessel _directly on to Florida_. This fact is not more certain (as the map will prove) than the historical tradition of the Mexican Aborigines is extraordinary in reference to this fact, and to the original Theory forming the basis of this volume.
We stated in the Analogies, and it is now repeated with peculiar force and interest, that the Spanish Historian, Sahagan, who lived on friendly terms with the Aborigines for sixty years, and wrote only fifteen years after the Cortezian Conquest (1520), relates, that on the authority of Montezuma the Emperor, and his People, and the tradition from the remotest times,--handed down from sire to son,--and also from their historical paintings,--that their ancestors, as a colony, _first touched at Florida_!--that they crossed or coasted the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan, and then finally landed and settled _somewhere in the Bay of Honduras_! Now the _Copan_ river is a branch of the Montagua, which empties itself into the Bay of Honduras!
The reader will not be more startled at the above historic facts than was the present author at their discovery; for he had already formed in his mind (sanctioned by Prophecy) the Tyrian Æra of this History _before_ his research brought to light this direct evidence from Sahagan,--whose accuracy of relation is, in this instance, on a level with Herodotus,--for both accounts are proved to be true by that powerful and incorruptible witness--Nature! The shadow of the Tyrians as a necessity changed from left to right in crossing the Equatorial line of the Indian Ocean;--and the East-Wind would compel the Galleys in coming from "the East," and upon sailing due West from Teneriffe, to "touch at Florida." The statement of Sahagan is the more valuable from the fact that it was not given to establish or forward any historic Theory, but like the words of Herodotus given only as a truth,--related by those of whom he was writing. "Somewhere in the bay of Honduras" brings the final place of landing (as stated) near the locality of Copan. We had already, from analyzing the ruins and altar, placed that city in our plan as being the _first_ built in Ancient America. It was an additional source of confirmation to our artistical judgment in regard to the arrangement of the architectural data of the Ruins, when the tradition of the Aborigines, as given by Sahagan, was, that their ancestors finally landed "in the Bay of Honduras," and consequently on passing up the Montagua, the Tyrians would approach to the direct locality of Copan!
Taking the statement of the Spaniard, therefore, to be a fact (sustained as it is by nature) in relation to the place _first_ landed on or "touched" by the Aborigines,--viz., Florida,--another strange incident is arrived at,--viz., that Columbus must have followed nearly the identical track of the Tyrians,--for the same East-Wind propelled his vessels, and himself and crew expressed their wonder and astonishment at its continuance; and it is an authenticated fact that he first lauded at St. Salvador (_i. e._ Cat Island). Now the Fortunate Isles, St. Salvador, and the first point "touched at Florida," are all within thirty degrees North latitude, and nearly on an exact line with each other,--St. Salvador and Florida Point are directly so, and only about 100 leagues from each other. The Tyrians, therefore, passed by this Island and landed on the Continent,--Columbus landed on the Island, and reached the Continent in his third voyage.
4th. _The collective means for the Migration._ Under this head may be included the "appliances" of both Art and Nature. Their Galleys were of sufficient strength and capacity,--their provisions ample,--derived from Carthage, the Sidonians, and the fruitful Isle of Teneriffe: their skill and courage as Pilots, Mariners, and Rowers unequalled,--the season of the year propitious, and a constantly favourable wind and flowing sea (although to them unknown as such) of sufficient power to drive them quickly westward, and compel them to reach the "afar off" land "to sojourn."
5th. _The probable time and duration of the Voyage._ The remnant of the Tyrian Nation, through the instrumentality of the Sons of Sidon, escaped from their naming Capital, August 20th [332 B. C.], and in allowing for time in reaching the Fortunate Isles, and preparing for their departure thence, it will, we think, be acceded that by October of the same year, and the equinoctial gales of the autumn having then passed, opened to them "fair weather ahead,"--they were then prepared to seek another home, however distant. The strong Galleys, with sails and oars, and always before the constant East-Wind and onward wave-current, would accomplish ten miles an hour by day, and during the night, without the Rowers, six miles an hour, and equally dividing the twenty-four hours, would make a run of 192 miles per day. Nautical proofs will shew that in the above calculation the power of the Trade-Winds [_i. e._ the East-Winds] are _underrated_. The distance from Teneriffe to Florida is about 3300 miles, which by the foregone data they would traverse in seventeen and a quarter days. The Voyage may therefore with safety be said to have been accomplished during an entire month, and that, consequently the first landing of a branch of the human family in Ancient America would be in the last month of Autumn, three hundred and thirty-two years before the Christian Æra.
And 6th. _The Fugitive Founders of_ (what we think may now be justly termed) _Tyrian-America_, _i. e._ the Southern moiety of the Continent.
The Female portion of the Fugitives were in all probability (from the peculiar character of the rescue) the Wives, Sisters, and Daughters, of the Tyrian Husbands, Brothers, and Fathers, who escaped with them,--thus forming a "colony,"--and if there were among them any Strangers or Orphans from the general carnage, protection would naturally be given, as to companions and children of misery and misfortune.
The Fugitives being Tyrians, and of the great Sidonian family, which, in the language of Homer, comprehended every thing that was ingenious and accomplished, to the exclusion of their opposites, puts us at once in possession of the distinct _intellectual_ character of those about to seek another land; and where, after 2000 years have passed, Time removes his veil of mystery, and discovers the truth of the Homeric tribute,--while over their Asiatic home of a more ancient day, Oblivion with her Lethean flood, has swept even their epitaph and their tomb away!
As to the number of the Tyrian Fugitives (more or less), it is immaterial to the proof, or denial, of the truth of this historical work,--for nothing is so deceptive, and yet so certain, as the numerical demonstration in regard to population, and of the human beings that have lived. For instance,--the reader will scarcely believe, that in tracing back his own family only _twenty-five_ generations, there were then living _at that time_, sixty-seven millions, one hundred and eight thousand, eight hundred and sixty-four of his Ancestors,--and that there had lived, _during_, and _at_ that time, one hundred millions, six hundred and sixty-three thousand, three hundred and ninety-six! These apparent incredible results are instantly proved upon the following data of facts and argument; viz., each child must have two parents, each parent had two,--and so on _ad infinitum_,--the result is, therefore, obtained by simply multiplying by two, from each of the first Father and Mother, and then add them together, and each sum total will represent a generation,--the 25th will give the first result,--viz., 67,108,864;--to ascertain _all_ that have lived _during_, and at that period,--the several sums total must be added together, which will prove the second result,--viz., 100,663,396. Therefore,--by the data of this last calculation the 30th generation only, in the ancestral line, has the following result,--3,221,228,672!--(and this but of _one_ person) four times as much as the present population of the Globe, which is estimated at 800,000,000. The great earthly Monarch, Death, has indeed an empire of his own!
The metaphysical, or anti-Biblical reader will find in the above results, a high theme for speculative reasoning:--but in tracing back to the Parents of Eden, or to the Diluvian Æra, in order to _sustain_, and not deny, the truth of the Bible, he must remember that,--but, no,--we will not anticipate our own secret for unravelling the above sphinx-like conclusions.
In the next Volume, devoted to the Israel Æra, the subject will be investigated with that due consideration, which every proposition demands; having an apparent tendency to question the truth and authority of Scripture.
SECTION II.
THE VOYAGE AND LANDING IN ANCIENT AMERICA.
THE MEANS EMPLOYED TO CONCEAL THEIR DISCOVERY FROM THE ASIATICS AND EUROPEANS--THE BUILDING OF THE FIRST ALTAR, &c.--THE PROPHECIES.
We wish distinctly to be understood that we do not state, or even infer, that in the intended voyage, the Tyrians had any positive pre-knowledge of the existence of a Western Continent,--but this we do believe, 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: and in their desperate situation they must have felt the sentiment of the African Prince, who to his favourite, in reflecting upon the deaths that threatened them, exclaimed in consolation, "Whatever world we are next thrown upon, it cannot be _worse_ than this!" With the same feeling, in the second month of autumn, following the last summer of their Country's fate, they gathered all on board, lowered sail, and dipped their oars; they paused only, to cast their straining gaze upon the horizoned Sons of Sidon, now about to be lost for ever from their sight; for the solitary and home-bound bark, with clued-up sail, and propelled by oar alone, (for the Eastern wind would oppose their return,) seemed but a darkened speck upon the distant circle of the Sea. The same wind opposed to the Sidonian's return, now filled the Tyrian sails, and bore their Galleys from that Isle,--an emblem of human life,--where the tints of Spring, Summer, and Autumn ever reign,--and Winter, with his snow-crowned Peak rises above them all! Being borne on Westward by the constant current of Wind and Wave,--and without an effort of their own,--and ignorant of the cause (they experienced only the effects), and yet their speed perceptible from the gradual sinking of the Island-base, they must have felt the same sentiment as subsequently Columbus did, and upon the identical _via acqua_,--that, the Great Guardian of a good cause, must have issued His mandate for their especial advancement and protection!
Upon leaving the Island of the Seasons, the Tyrian Pilots would naturally obey the direction of the friendly breeze, and head their Galleys in accordance with it; and this would be the more pleasing, as in their minds it would appear ominous of their future safety,--for it would direct them daily towards the Setting-Sun,--the visible God of their Religion--and, therefore, as a consequence, in the direct track for the Western Hemisphere.
The Ocean-Titan of the Silver Crown,--Teneriffe,--gradually falling beneath the horizon of the East, would suggest to the "wise men" of the Galleys, to note his bearing with the Stars of Night,--that the astral chart might guide them for a return voyage, should their expedition be prolonged beyond their means of sustenance: for amid all the desolation, misery, and ruin of their country, in which the savage Conqueror revelled during his slaughter-banquet, although he triumphed over the dead, he could not destroy the visionary minds of the living--their knowledge of Astronomy made each rescued Tyrian a Prophet of the deep! GOD'S handwriting on the wall of Heaven (where the dazzling Stars are His letters) was read correctly by these Ocean-Daniels of Tyrus. That nation was indeed like ancient Babylon, numbered and finished; weighed in the balances and found wanting, and the kingdom divided and given to the Conqueror; for her fate was sealed, and by the Macedonian Signet, whose owner solved the Gordian problem by the Sword alone!
"MENE MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
appeared not only to the chief Son of Babylon;--the "Daughter of Sidon" had it branded on her brow; and in vain she wandered through her streets, striking with trembling fingers the loosened chords of her once-loved harp, to remind the passer-by of her former beauties; the diapason of her heart could never more awake an echo,--for GOD had spoken to the Sea Queen--"I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard!"--but, the Chaldean language of the Skies was not learnt by her Daniels in vain: it had taught them in a former age, to guide their bold prows from Pharaoh's fatal Sea; and coasting around all Afric's burning land, enabled them to pass the Herculean boundary Pillars, and so homeward to the Nile and Tyrus, which after two score Moons received them: and now, when the remorseless Conqueror--not Science--drove their descendants forth upon "great waters" where "the _East-Wind_ could have broken them in the midst of the Seas,"--that constant gale from the Orient point, created with Time, and will only cease with his decay,--that earth-circling and never-varying gale from East to West,--_as if to_ COMPEL _Discovery of the other Hemisphere, and thence praise the works of_ GOD!--that onward breeze, which alone wafted the bold Genoese and turned the reported vision to reality;--when the Tyrian Sons were again upon these Seas, but now before that Orient gale;--still the star-tracery on the azure wall of the eternal Dome, and their Apollo daily sinking on his Western couch, and with his last glance, beckoning them, as it were, still to follow on his path,--this knowledge and their Religious adoration, directed them in safety to that Virgin land where the glorious Sun from Creation's dawn, had never beamed upon a human foot-print, until their own had kissed the untouched Floridian Shore! There Flora and her attendant Nymphs in all their peerless beauty, and Nature's own attire, were grouped on every hill; from their coloured lips smiling Welcome breathed forth, her ceaseless incense from every mound and valley, which waft on Zephyr's wings enrapt with health and gladness the approaching Sons and Daughters of a distant Sea, whose wild songs of praise to gorgeous Apollo were borne by their Orient and faithful envoy to the wave-clad Shore:--Echo caught the subduing chorus of the heart, and bore it to her favourite haunts in mountain or in cave,--the human voice now first heard, aroused the reposing animals from glade and glen;--the feathery tribes in all their rainbow tinted plumage, arose high in air,--played their circles, and rested--music breathing--on "the fruit tree-tops," as in the Day of Innocence, to receive their names from the Adams and the Eves, of a new-found Eden in another Hemisphere!
There arrived in joyous gladness, and welcomed by all the gifts of Nature,--like an heir to sudden fortune uncertain where to rest,--the Tyrian left the Shore of Florida and coasted the Gulf of Mexico, and so around the peninsular 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!
After their first sacrifice to Apollo, they would naturally erect a Chief Altar, around which the Tyrian Pilgrims who had come from "afar off to sojourn," might gather in remembrance of the vital act from Sidonian friendship.
As we firmly believe, so we repeat that belief,--that the sculpture of the Chief Altar of Copan (as seen at this day) portrays, from the hands of National Gratitude, a Religious tribute to Sidon, who, amid the desolating hurricane, had safely gathered the human "gleanings" from the last field of their ill-fated country; who had lifted up her prostrate "Daughter," and given her renewed strength and power, whereby--
"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]
[16] Sculpture found in buried Ruins at Mexico; _i. e._ the Calendar mentioned by Baron Humboldt.
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!