Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THAT AN ANCIENT POPULATION OF PARTIALLY CIVILIZED NATIONS,
DIFFERING ENTIRELY FROM THOSE OF THE PRESENT IN-

DIANS, PEOPLED AMERICA, MANY CENTURIES BEFORE

4

ITS DISCOVERY BY COLUMBUS.

AND

INQUIRIES INTO THEIR ORIGIN,

WITH A

COPIOUS DESCRIPTION

Of many of their stupendous Works, now in ruins.

WITH

CONJECTURES CONCERNING WHAT MAY HAVE

BECOME OF THEM.

COMPILED

FROM TRAVELS, AUTHENTIC SOURCES, AND THE RESEARCHES

OF

Antiquarian Societies.

BY JOSIAH PRIEST.

Second Edition Revised.

ALBANY:

PRINTED BY HOFFMAN AND WHITE,

No. 71, State-Street,

1833,

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, To wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twenty-first day of March Anno Domini, 1833, JOSIAH PRIEST, of the said district, hath deposited in this office a book, the title of which is in the words following, to wit: "American Antiquities, and Discoveries in the West Being an exhibition of the evidence that an ancient Population of partially civilized Nations, differing entirely from those of the present Indians, peopled America, many centuries before its discovery by Columbus. And Inquiries into their Origin, with a copious description of many of their stupendous works, now in ruins. With Conjectures concerning what may have become of them. Compiled from travels, authentic sources, and the Researches of Antiquarian Societies. By JOSIAH PRIEST." The right whereof he claims as author and proprietor-In conformity with an Act of Congress, entitled An Act to amend the several Acts respecting Copy Rights. RUTGER B. MILLER,

Clerk U. S. D. C. N. D. N. Y.

:

ERRATA TO THE PLATE.

Letter A. page 215 and 262.

Letter E. page 216.

Letter B. page 217, 218.

Letter C. page 219.

Letter D. pages 180, 181, 182.

Letter G. page 398.

Plate referring to pages 244, 245, described on page 238.

No. 35, on the plate at page 196, płaced there by mistake.

[ocr errors]

PREFACE.

THE volume now laid before the public, is submitted under the pleasing hope that it will not be unacceptable, although the subject of the Antiquities of America is every where surrounded with its mysteries; on which account, we have been compelled to wander widely in the field of conjecture, from which it is not impossible but we may have gathered and presented some original and novel opinions.

We have felt that we are bound by the nature of the subject, to treat wholly on those matters which relate to ages preceding the discovery of America by Columbus ; as we apprehend no subject connected with the history of the continent since, can be entitled to the appellation of ANTIQUITIES of America.

If we may be permitted to judge from the liberal subscription this work has met with, notwithstanding the universal prejudice against subscribing for books, we should draw the conclusion, that this curious subject, has not its only admirers within the pales of Antiquarian Societies.

If it is pleasing as well as useful to know the history of one's country, if to feel a rising interest as its beginnings are unfolded; its sufferings, its wars, its struggles, and its victories, delineated; why not also, when the story of its antiquities, though of a graver and more majestic nature, are attempted to be rehearsed.

The traits of the antiquities of the old world are every where shown by the fragments of dilapidated cities, pyramids of stone, and walls of wondrous length; but here are the wrecks of empire, whose beginnings it would seem, are older than any of these, which are the mounds and works of the west, towering aloft as if their builders were preparing against another flood.

We have undertaken to elicit arguments, from what we suppose evidence, that the first inhabitants who peopled America, came on by land, at certain places, where it is supposed once to have been united with Asia, Europe, and Africa, but has been torn asunder by the force of earthquakes, and the irruptions of the waters, so that what animals had not passed over before this great physical rupture, were for ever excluded; but not so with men, as they could resort to the use of boats.

We have gathered such evidence as induces a belief that America was, an ciently, inhabited with partially civilized and agricultural nations, surpassing ⚫in numbers, its present population. This, we imagine, we prove, in the discovery of thousands of the traits of the ancient operations of men over the entire cultivated parts of the continent, in the forms and under the character of mounds and fortifications, abounding particularly in the western regions.

We have also ventured conjectures respecting what nations, in some few instances, may have settled here; also what may have become of them. We have entered on an examination of some of those works, and of some of the articles found on opening some few of their tumuli; which we have compared with similar articles found in similar works in various parts of the other continents, from which very curious results are ascertained.

As it respects some of the ancient nations who may have found their way hither, we perceive a strong probability, that not only Asiatic nations, very soon after the flood, but that also, all along the different eras of time, different races of men, as Polyneslans, Malays, Australasians, Phœnicians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Israelites, Tartars, Scandinavians, Danes, Norwegians, Welch, and Scotch, have colonized different parts of the continent.

We have also attempted to show that America was peopled before the flood; that it was the country of Noah, and the place where the ark was erected. The highly interesting subject of American Antiquities, we are inclined to believe, is but just commencing to be developed. The immensity of country yet beyond the settlements of men, towards the Pacific, is yet to be explored by cultivation, when other evidences, and wider spread, will come to view, affording, perhaps, more definite conclusions.

As aids in maturing this volume, we have consulted the works of philosophers, historians, travellers, geographers, and gazetteers, with miscellaneous notices on this subject, as found in the periodicals of the day. The subject has proved as difficult as mysterious; any disorder and inaccuracies, therefore, in point of inferences which we have made, we beg may not become the subjects of the severities of criticism.

If, however, we should succeed in awakening a desire to a farther investigation of this curious subject, and should have the singular happiness of securing any degree of public respect, and of giving the subscriber an equivalent for his patronage, the utmost of the desires of the author will be realized.

JOSIAH PRIEST.

CONTENTS.

Page.

9

....

Ruins of a Roman fort at Marietta, with conjectures how they

may have found this country,....

Discovery of a subterranean cavity of mason work, supposed
to have been erected by one of the admirals of Alexander,
in America, 300 years before Christ,.
Ireland known to the Greeks 200 years before Christ,.....
Discoveries of subterranean hearths and fire places, on the
shores of the Ohio, with conjectures about their origin,....
Discovery of a curious cup of earthen ware,

.....

Course of the Ten lost Tribes of Israel, with conjectures about
the land of Asareth, and convulsions of the globe,...

Traits of Israelites in Lapland, with accounts of their theology,

resembling that of the Jews,....

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Traits of the Jews found in Pittsfield, Mass........

A late discovery of a vast body of Jews in India,....

67

« AnteriorContinuar »