friend" William Penn, may be given as a peculiar and powerful authority. After his first and celebrated interview with the Northern natives, he wrote to England the following sentences in reference to them: "I found them with like countenances to the Hebrew race, and their children of so lively a resemblance to them," &c. At this, and no other time did the thought of their being of the Lost Tribes of Israel enter his imagination. The sentences, therefore, are of great importance, from the fact that they were not originally written by him to support any theory in reference to the Aborigines; but merely asserted in his letter from a strong impression of apparent truth, and which fact, to the Founder of Pennsylvania, was a subject of astonishment, and there it rested; for to him, were they Hebrew or Gentile, his kind and philanthropic heart, taught him to view them as a branch of the human family, and that to him was sufficient for forming a bond of amity! His memory is cherished by the Aborigines to this day—as "the good friend." The reader may remember the historical painting by West, of this celebrated interview, it is worthy of the subject represented.

The bold style and metaphorical character of their Oratory, is essentially Hebrew,—an attempt to illustrate their eloquence will be found in the historical tragedy of "Tecumseh."

Their undaunted and chivalric personal courage, is the very counterpart of that evinced upon the plains of Jericho, or in aftertimes before the walls of Jerusalem. Then their god-like love of perfect freedom,—the spirit of Jeroboam, did not die in the first rebellion and victory against tyranny,—it lives in his nation's descendants in the North; at invasions or encroachment, they rise as one man, to crush their oppressor, and which fact, every record from the Pilgrim Fathers to the present day, will testify. In all their battles (and their name is legion) they have disputed the ground, inch by inch, and even their women have fought and fallen in their ranks. Every chief was a Judas Maccabæus, or an Eleazer Savaran!

Now in every physical characteristic of the Northern, did the Mexican differ; they bore no analogy as being of the same race, either in feature, courage, endurance, or general religion. In Mexican America, Cortez, with only 500 Spanish soldiers, and those worn and dispirited, drove 50,000 Mexicans from the field of Otumba,—they fled like snow-flakes before the wind, when their standard was seized by a Spaniard; but, in the North, the fight was man to man, and no retreat—death or victory—Jerusalem or the grave! Every chieftain of the North, even upon a supposition of flight from a superior foe (either in number or prowess), may be imagined to have uttered the last words of Judas Maccabæus, when in his final battle he was opposed by twenty times his own force: "God forbid that I should do this thing, and flee from them; if our time be come, let us die manfully for our brethren, and not stain our honour!"

Some of the Mexican nations worshipped idols, and knew not God!—for they sacrificed human beings to propitiate their savage Deities; not so the noble Northerns, they worship The One God, who declared to the first Lawgiver, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me," and their only human sacrifice is the invader of their lands and birthright.

The only two analogies that existed between the North and Mexican America, and which might apparently destroy or prevent the proof of this theory, are, first, Circumcision; and second, the similitude of Language. In the North, circumcision, as we have shewn, is a religious custom only; in the Mexican territories, it was both optional and religious. This strange and apparent stumbling-block in the way of proving that they are of a different race, will be removed as we proceed; for so far from injuring the proofs of the theory, it absolutely supports them, as does also the analogy in language. These important points—viz., Circumcision and Language, will be met in their respective places, and in an original manner of application; for they form two of the most substantial evidences, and were the primitive causes for our belief in the subject contemplated by this work, and especially in reference to that portion having Christianity for its basis.

As an essential contrast between the Aborigines, is the fact that in the North they have (as already stated) no tradition of the Crucifixion, while in the other portion of the Continent (and for centuries before the rediscovery by Columbus) they had a perfect knowledge of every particular of the Life and Death of Christ. Again;—in this part of the Continent there are Stone architectural Ruins:—in the North there are none; they possess there but embankments, Marathonian mounds or tumuli. These undeniable and characteristic opposites in Northern and Mexican America, increased by the late discovery of the Ruined Cities in Guatamala and the adjacent provinces, together with fifteen years of personal observation in America; to which may be added a practical knowledge of the Fine Arts, enthusiasm in research, and mature reflection upon the entire subject, have authorized the formation of (as we believe) an Original Theory, concerning the History of the Aborigines of the two great divisions of the Western Hemisphere; and for the unfolding of the present volume, we state,

1. That they consist of TWO distinct races, or people. This will be, without doubt, admitted, from the facts in the previous pages.

2. That South America (nationally speaking) included what is at present called Central America; and, as a consequence, the Ancient Cities, now in Ruins, belonged to the same general Empire.

3. That South, or (as we have termed it in the preceding pages) Mexican America, was inhabited ANTERIOR to that of the North.

4. That the Aborigines of Mexican America, and the West India Islands, were the ancient Tyrians of Phœnicia, and that they landed on the Western Continent, from their native country, more than two thousand years ago! This is confirmed by Tradition, Analogies, History, and Prophecy!

Reasoning upon the causes that have led to the new Historical Theory, and the conclusions arising therefrom, a new Chronological or Epochian Table, as a necessity, is required for the History of the Western Hemisphere and its Inhabitants, at least to the time of Columbus. Not desiring, however, to anticipate any interest derivable from the investigation of this work, the progressive Epochs will be given in the volumes devoted to their illustration. The present volume contemplates the first Epoch only, and is announced in the following page, and the reader will do himself but justice (apart from the author) by not rejecting the startling Theory until (at least) the proofs and arguments have been received and analyzed. Upon which investigation the writer will submit with all humility to the decision of the public, and of their all-powerful champion—the Press.

CHAPTER III.

FIRST EPOCH.
THE TYRIAN ÆRA;
BEFORE CHRIST 332 YEARS.
THE LANDING IN MEXICAN (i. e. Central) AMERICA

OF
THE ANCIENT TYRIANS OF PHŒNICIA,
AND
THE BUILDING OF THE CITIES, TEMPLES, AND PYRAMIDS,
THE RUINS OF WHICH
HAVE LATELY BEEN DISCOVERED.
———
Arrangement of Facts and