Brazil, thinks nothing but circumcision wanting to form a perfect resemblance between the Jews and Brazilians. He thinks that America was wholly peopled by Jews and Carthaginians. Carver's Trav., pp. 188-9. Catlin thinks the North Americans are a mixed race, who have Jewish blood in them. The mixture is shown by their skulls, while many customs are decidedly Jewish. Probably part of tribes scattered by Christians have come over and intermarried. He gives analogies in monotheism, sanctuaries, tribeship, chosen people belief, marriage by gifts, war, burial, ablutions, feasts, sacrifices, and other customs. Any philological similarity is unnecessary and superfluous. The Jew element was too feeble to influence language. Catlin's N. Amer. Ind., vol. ii., pp. 231-5. Melgar gives a list of the Chiapanec calendar names, and finds fourteen agree with suitable Hebrew words. He concludes, therefore, that ancient intercourse with the Old World is proven. Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da época, tom. iii., p. 108. Jarvis, Religion Ind. N. Amer., pp. 71-87, compares words in Hebrew and American languages. Ethan Smith, Views of the Hebrews, presents eleven arguments in favor of the Jewish theory. Beatty, Journal of Two Months' Tour in America, gives a number of reasons why the Hebrew theory should be correct. See further, for general review of this theory: Crowe's Cent. Amer., pp. 64-8; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 46-9; Simon's Ten Tribes, which is, however, merely a cheap abridgement of Kingsborough; Dally, Races Indig., pp. 5-6; Thorowgood's Jewes in America; Worsley's Amer. Ind., pp. 1-185; L'Estrange, Americans no Jewes; Spizelius, Elevatio Relationis, a criticism on Menasse Ben Israel's Hope of Israel; Tschudi's Peruvian Antiq., pp. 8-11.
In opposition to the Hebrew theory we read that Wolff, the Jew traveler, found no Jewish traces among the tribes of North America. Fontaine's How the World was Peopled, p. 157. 'The strong trait in Hebrew compound words, of inserting the syllable el or a single letter in the names of children, derived from either the primary or secondary names of the deity, does not prevail in any Indian tribes known to me. Neither are circumstances attending their birth or parentage, which were so often used in the Hebrew children's names, ever mentioned in these compounds. Indian children are generally named from some atmospheric phenomenon. There are no traces of the rites of circumcision, anointing, sprinkling, or washing, considered as consecrated symbols. Circumcision was reported as existing among the Sitkas, on the Missouri; but a strict examination proved it to be a mistake.' Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 61. The Rev. T. Thorowgood in 1650, published a work entitled Jewes in America, or Probabilities that the Americans are of that Race. This was answered in 1651, by Sir Hamon L'Estrange, in a book entitled, Americans no Jewes. L'Estrange believes that America was peopled long before the dispersion of the Jews, which took place 1500 years after the flood. A strong mixture of Jewish blood would have produced distinct customs, etc., which are not to be found. The native traditions as to origin are to be regarded as dreams rather than as true stories. The analogous customs and rites adduced by Thorowgood, L'Estrange goes on, are amply refuted by Acosta and other writers. The occasional cannibalism of the Jews was caused by famine, but that of the Americans was a regular institution. The argument that the Americans are Jews because they have not the gospel, is worthy only of ridicule, seeing that millions of other pagans are in the same condition. Of the Hebrew theory Baldwin, who devotes nearly two pages to it, writes: 'this wild notion, called a theory, scarcely deserves so much attention. It is a lunatic fancy, possible only to men of a certain class, which in our time does not multiply.' Anc. Amer., p. 167. Tschudi regards the arguments in favor of the Jewish theory as unsound. Peruvian Antiq., p. 11. Acosta thinks that the Jews would have preserved their language, customs, and records, in America as well as in other places. Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 79-80. Macgregor argues that the Americans could not have been Jews, for the latter people were acquainted with the use of iron as far back as the time of Tubal Cain; they also used milk and wheaten bread, which the Americans could and would have used if they had once known of them. Progress of Amer., vol. i., p. 24. Montanus believes that America was peopled long before the time of the dispersion of the Jewish tribes, and raises objections to nearly every point that has been adduced in favor of a Hebrew origin. Nieuwe Weereld, p. 26, et seq. Torquemada gives Las Casas' reasons for believing that the Americans are of Jewish descent, and refutes them. Monarq. Ind., tom. i., pp. 22-7. The difference of physical organization is alone sufficient to set aside the question of Jewish origin. That so conservative a people as the Jews should have lost all the traditions, customs, etc., of their race, is absurd. Democratic Review, vol. xi., p. 617. Rafinesque advances, as objections to Jew theory, that the ten tribes are to be found scattered over Asia; that the Sabbath would never have fallen into disuse if they had once introduced it into America; that the Hebrew knew the use of iron, had plows, and employed writing; that circumcision is practiced only in one or two localities in America; that the sharp, striking Jewish features are not found in Americans; that the Americans eat hogs and other animals forbidden to the Jews; that the American war customs, such as scalping, torturing, cannibalism, painting bodies and going naked, are not Jewish in the least; that the American languages are not like Hebrew. Priest's Amer. Antiq., pp. 76-9.
212
I translate freely from Bertrand, Mémoires, p. 32, et seq., for this account.
213
In the State of New York.
214
The discovery was in this wise: 'Près du village de Manchester, dans le comté d'Ontario, État de New York, se trouve une éminence plus considérable que celle des environs, et qui est devenue célèbre dans les fastes de la nouvelle Église sous le nom de Cumorah. Sur le flanc occidental de cette colline, non loin de son sommet, et sous une pierre d'une grande dimension, des lames d'or se trouvaient déposées dans un coffre de pierre. Le couvercle en était aminci vers ses bords, et relevé au milieu en forme de boule. Après avoir dégagé la terre, Joseph (Smith) souleva le couvercle à l'aide d'un levier, et trouva les plaques, l'Urim-Thummim, et le pectoral. Le coffre était formé de pierres reliées entre elles aux angles par du ciment. Au fond se trouvaient deux pierres plates placées en croix, et sur ces pierres les lames d'or et les autres objets. Joseph voulait les enlever, mais il en fut empêché par l'envoyé divin, qui l'informe que le temps n'était pas encore venu, et qu'il fallait attendre quatre ans à partir de cette époque. D'après ses instructions, Joseph se rendit tous les ans le même jour au lieu du dépôt, pour recevoir de la bouche du messager céleste, des instructions sur la manière dont le royaume de Dieu devait être fondé et gouverné dans les derniers jours… Le 22 septembre 1827, le messager des cieux lui laissa prendre les plaques, l'Urim-Thummim et le pectoral, à condition qu'il serait responsable, et en l'avertissant qu'il serait retranché, s'il venait à perdre ces objets par sa négligence, mais qu'il serait protégé s'il faisait tous ses efforts pour les conserver.' Bertrand, Mémoires, pp. 23-5.
215
Though the question of the Scandinavian discoveries would seem to merit considerable attention from one who wrote a 'colonial history' of America, yet Mr George Bancroft disposes of the entire subject in a single page: 'The story of the colonization of America by Northmen,' he writes, 'rests on narratives, mythological in form, and obscure in meaning; ancient, yet not contemporary. The chief document is an interpolation in the history of Sturleson, whose zealous curiosity could hardly have neglected the discovery of a continent. The geographical details are too vague to sustain a conjecture; the accounts of the mild winter and fertile soil are, on any modern hypothesis, fictitious or exaggerated; the description of the natives applies only to the Esquimaux, inhabitants of hyperborean regions, the remark which should define the length of the shortest winter's day, has received interpretations adapted to every latitude from New York to Cape Farewell; and Vinland has been sought in all directions, from Greenland and the St. Lawrence to Africa.' Bancroft's History, vol. i., pp. 5-6. Irving says that as far as he 'has had experience in tracing these stories of early discoveries of portions of the New World, he has generally found them very confident deductions drawn from very vague and questionable facts. Learned
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