gospel among the Gentile nations, for they are mingled with the house of Israel, and when we send to the nations we do not seek for the Gentiles, because they are disobedient and rebellious. We want the blood of Jacob, and that of his father Isaac and Abraham, which runs in the veins of the people. There is a particle of it here, and another there, blessing the nations as predicted.

"Take a family of ten children, for instance, and you may find nine of them purely of the Gentile stock, and one son or one daughter in that family who is purely of the blood of Ephraim. It was in the veins of the father or mother, and was produced in the son or daughter, while all the rest of the family are Gentiles. You may think that is singular, but it is true. It is the house of Israel we are after, and we care not whether they come from the east, the west, the north or the south; from China, Russia, England, California, North or South America, or some other locality; and it is the very lad on whom father Jacob laid his hands, that will save the house of Israel. The Book of Mormon came to Ephraim, for Joseph Smith was a pure Ephraimite, and the Book of Mormon was revealed to him, and, while he lived he made it his business to search for those who believed the gospel. * * *

"You understand who we are; we are of the house of Israel, of the royal seed, of the royal blood."

CHAPTER II.

Israel a Maritime Nation—Tyre and Sidon—The Lacedemonians Claim Relationship with Israel—The Ionians, Etrurians, Danes, Jutes, etc.—The various Captivities of Israel and Judah—Media.

The idea, though not until lately widely diffused, that many of the races inhabiting Europe are impregnated with the blood of Israel, is by no means a new one. Many writers, in their researches into the early history of that continent, have been forcibly struck with the similarity that existed between the laws, manners, customs, etc., of the ancient inhabitants of its northern and northwestern portions and those of ancient Israel. These writers have endeavored to account for this peculiarity in two ways. First by the supposition that Israelitish colonies for various causes, left the land of their inheritance and gradually worked themselves north and northwestward over Europe; and second, by the argument that remnants or branches of the lost Ten Tribes had emigrated from Media into Europe, and through the ignorance of historians, disguised under other names, they had remained unknown until the present, their habits, customs, traditions, etc., having in the meanwhile become so greatly changed by time and circumstance, as to render them unrecognizable at this late day.

We will take up the first of these ideas, and present a few of the arguments advanced by those who support it. It is asserted by them that Israel early became a maritime nation, that its location on the Mediterranean Sea admirably adapted its people for such pursuit. By means of the Red Sea in its rear, it also had undisturbed access to Africa, India, and the isles beyond. As early as the days of the Judges (say B. C. 1,300) we find that Deborah and Barak, in their song of triumph, complain that Dan came not up to the aid of Israel in the hour of need, but remained in his ships while his fellows were contending with Sisera and his hosts. "Why did Dan remain in ship?" (Judges v: 17) is the exact question asked. This shows that thus early in Israel's history it had commenced to hold commercial relations with its neighbors.^[A] The tribes whose inheritances bordered on the Mediterranean, commencing at the north, were Asher, Manasseh, Ephraim, Dan and Simeon. Asher's inheritance lay contiguous to the great ports of Tyre and Sidon, while Simeon's bordered on Egypt, and contained within its confines other seaports of the Philistines or Phoenicians, to whom, we think, profane writers have given credit for many of the commercial ventures undertaken by the Israelites.

[Footnote A: We have seen a translation of an ancient Danish history, in which it is asserted that Angul of Issacher, a brother of Tola, who judged Israel about 1,225 years B.C., invaded England, and was assisted by Tola in so doing. In the name of Angul we find another derivation of the word Angleland (England).]

It must not be supposed that these maritime tribes were the only ones that would be found spreading abroad. The members of the various tribes did not strictly confine themselves to the boundaries assigned their tribe by Joshua, but they intermingled for trade, etc., and many men of other tribes resided within the borders of Judah's inheritance, and vice versa. We have a notable example of this (B. C. 600) in the case of Lehi and Laban, who were of the seed of Joseph, yet were residents of Jerusalem, and Nephi incidentally remarks that his father, Lehi, had dwelt in that city "all his days." The children of Ephraim, from their great enterprise and force of character, seem to have early spread, not only among other tribes, but also into foreign nations, notably to Egypt, and the anger of the Lord is repeatedly expressed through His prophets at His people's disregard of His law in mixing with the heathen. In Isaiah's time, Ephraim had, like a "silly dove," mingled himself among the people to the displeasure of his God.

But it was not only for trade and commerce that Israel spread abroad; her children were sometimes forced to foreign lands against their will. Two hundred years before Lehi left Jerusalem, the Lord upbraided Tyre and Sidon through Joel his servant (Joel iii: 6), telling them, among other things, "The children also of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians" [or Gentiles], "that ye might remove them far from their border." Here we obtain a glimpse of the policy of these two cities; they sought to weaken Israel by deporting her children as captives to other nations afar off, and with true commercial instincts endeavored to make the transaction a profitable one. And if Judah and Jerusalem, at the other end of the land, thus suffered at the hands of Tyre and her sister city, is it not a certainty that other tribes, living nearer, would suffer from this same cause, and probably more severely?

We are of the opinion that this wholesale slave trade of the Phoenicians is greatly under-estimated as a factor in the diffusion of Israelitish blood throughout the world. So great was the number of slaves held by these people, that at one time in their chief city, the slaves exceeded the freemen in number, and their maritime enterprise was such that they established colonies or depots on all the islands of the Mediterranean Sea, in France, Spain, Italy, Britain, and probably in Germany. The whole coast of northern Africa was studded with their colonies, which they carried south as far as Timbuctoo and the Niger, while by way of the Red Sea they reached eastern Africa, Persia, India, and some suppose China; in fact, they traded with, and established colonies all over the then known world.^[B]

[Footnote B: "Although the ancient Jews were mainly an agricultural nation the geographical position of Palestine and the contiguity of some of the tribes of Israel to the Mediterranean Sea, induced the Jewish people to make common cause of their friendly neighbors, the sea faring Phoenicians. There were two causes which conduced to render the Jews well acquainted with navigation on high seas. Many of them were carried away as captives in their frequent, and often unsuccessful, warfare with more powerful nations. The prisoners of war were forced to serve on land and sea. Allusions to redeemed prisoners, returning from the Islands of the Sea and from the "four corners of the earth," occur in many parts of the Hebrew Scripture and the experiences of the Jews in sea voyages are graphically depicted in the Bible (Psalm 107). Then there were missionary voyages of the Jews for the inculcation of monotheistic teachings. The Jewish missionaries visited many lands