Argument XXIII
Although other resemblances of the Indian rites and customs to those of the Hebrews, might be pointed out; not to seem tedious, I proceed to the last argument of the origin of the Indian Americans, which shall be from their own traditions,—from the accounts of our English writers—and from the testimonies which the Spanish writers have given, concerning the primitive inhabitants of Peru and Mexico.
The Indian tradition says, that their forefathers in very remote ages came from a far distant country, where all the people were of one colour; and that in process of time they moved eastward, to their present settlements. So that, what some of our writers have asserted is not just, who say the Indians affirm, that there were originally three different tribes in those countries, when the supreme chieftain to encourage swift running, proposed a proportionable reward of distinction to each, as they excelled in speed in passing a certain distant river; as, that the first should be polished white—the second red—and the third black; which took place accordingly after the race was over. This story sprung from the innovating superstitious ignorance of the popish priests, to the south-west of us. Our own Indian tradition is literal, and not allegorical, and ought to be received; because people who have been long separated from the rest of mankind, must know their own traditions the best, and could not be deceived in so material, and frequently repeated an event.87 Though they have been disjoined through different interests, time immemorial; yet, (the rambling tribes of northern Indians excepted) they aver that they came over the Missisippi from the westward, before they arrived at their present settlements. This we see verified by the western old towns they have left behind them; and by the situation of their old beloved towns, or places of refuge, lying about a west course from each different nation. Such places in Judea were chiefly built in the most remote parts of the country; and the Indians deem those only as beloved towns, where they first settled.
This tradition is corroborated by a current report of the old Chikkasah Indians to our traders, “that about forty years since, there came from Mexico some of the old Chikkasah nation, (the Chichemicas, according to the Spanish accounts) in quest of their brethren, as far north as the Aquahpah nation, about 130 miles above the Nachee old towns, on the south side of the Missisippi; but through French policy, they were either killed, or sent back, so as to prevent their opening a brotherly intercourse, as they had proposed.” And it is worthy of notice, that the Muskohgeh cave, out of which one of their politicians persuaded them their ancestors formerly ascended to their present terrestrial abode, lies in the Nanne Hamgeh old town,88 inhabited by the Missisippi-Nachee Indians, which is one of the most western parts of their old-inhabited country.
I hope I shall be excused in reciting their ancient oral tradition, from father to son to the present time. They say, that one of their cunning old religious men finding that religion did not always thrive best, resolved with himself to impose on his friends credulity, and alter in some respects their old tradition; he accordingly pretended to have held for a long time a continual intercourse with their subterranean progenitors in a cave, above 600 miles to the westward of Charles-town in South-Carolina, adjoining to the old Chikkasah trading path; this people were then possest of every thing convenient for human life, and he promised them fully to supply their wants, in a constant manner, without sweating in the field; the most troublesome of all things to manly brisk warriors. He insisted, that all who were desirous of so natural and beneficial a correspondence, should contribute large presents, to be delivered on the embassy, to their brethren—terræ filii,—to clear the old chain of friendship from the rust it had contracted, through the fault of cankering time. He accordingly received presents from most of the people, to deliver them to their beloved subterranean kindred: but it seems, they shut up the mouth of the cave, and detained him there in order to be purified.
The old waste towns of the Chikkasah lie to the west and south-west, from where they have lived since the time we first opened a trade with them; on which course they formerly went to war over the Missisippi, because they knew it best, and had disputes with the natives of those parts, when they first came from thence. Wisdom directed them then to connive at some injuries on account of their itinerant camp of women and children; for their tradition says, it consisted of ten thousand men, besides women and children, when they came from the west, and passed over the Missisippi. The fine breed of running wood horses they brought with them, were the present Mexican or Spanish barbs. They also aver, that their ancestors cut off, and despoiled the greatest part of a caravan, loaded with gold and silver; but the carriage of it proved so troublesome to them, that they threw it into a river where it could not benefit the enemy.
If we join together these circumstances, it utterly destroys the fine Peruvian and Mexican temples of the sun, &c.—which the Spaniards have lavishly painted from their own fruitful imaginations, to shew their own capacity of writing, though at the expence of truth; and to amuse the gazing distant world, and lessen our surprise at the sea of reputed heathenish blood, which their avaricious tempers, and flaming superstitious zeal, prompted them to spill.
If any English reader have patience to search the extraordinary volumes of the Spanish writers, or even those of his catholic majesty’s chief historiographer, he will not only find a wild portrait, but a striking resemblance and unity of the civil and martial customs, the religious rites, and traditions, of the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, and the North-Americans, according to the manner of their moresque paintings: likewise, the very national name of the primitive Chikkasah, which they stile Chichemicas, and whom they repute to have been the first inhabitants of Mexico. However, I lay little stress upon Spanish testimonies, for time and ocular proof have convinced us of the laboured falshood of almost all their historical narrations concerning every curious thing relative to South America. They, were so divested of those principles inherent to honest enquirers after truth, that they have recorded themselves to be a tribe of prejudiced bigots, striving to aggrandise the Mahometan valour of about nine hundred spurious catholic christians, under the patronage of their favourite saint, as persons by whom heaven designed to extirpate those two great nominal empires of pretended cannibals. They found it convenient to blacken the natives with ill names, and report them to their demi-god the mufti of Rome, as sacrificing every day, a prodigious multitude of human victims to numerous idol-gods.
The learned world is already fully acquainted with the falsehood of their histories; reason and later discoveries condemn them. Many years have elapsed, since I first entered into Indian life, besides a good acquaintance with several southern Indians, who were conversant with the Mexican Indian rites and customs; and it is incontrovertible, that the Spanish monks and jesuits in describing the language, religion, and customs, of the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, were both unwilling, and incapable to perform so arduous an undertaking, with justice and truth. They did not converse with the natives as friends, but despised, hated, and murdered them, for the sake of their gold and silver: and to excuse their own ignorance, and most shocking, cool, premeditated murders, they artfully described them as an abominable swarm of idolatrous cannibals offering human sacrifices to their various false deities, and eating of the unnatural victims. Nevertheless, from their own partial accounts, we can trace a near agreement between the civil and martial customs, the religious worship, traditions, dress, ornaments, and other particulars of the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, and those of the present North American Indians.89
Acosta tells us, that though the Mexicans have no proper name for God, yet they allow a supreme omnipotence and providence: his capacity was not sufficient to discover the former; however, the latter agrees with the present religious opinion of the English-American Indians, of an universal divine wisdom and government. The want of a friendly intercourse between our northern and southern Indians, has in length of time occasioned some of the former a little to corrupt, or alter the name of the self-existent creator and preserver of the universe, as they repeat it in their religious invocations, YO He a Ah.90 But with what show of truth, consistent with the above concession, can Acosta describe the Mexicans as offering human sacrifices also to devils, and greedily feasting on the victims!
We are told also that the Nauatalcas believe, they dwelt in another region before they settled in Mexico; that they wandered eighty years in search of it, through a strict obedience to their gods, who ordered them to go in quest of new lands, that had such particular signs;—that they punctually obeyed the divine mandate, and by that means found out, and settled the fertile country of Mexico. This account corresponds with the Chikkasah tradition of settling in their present supposed holy land, and seems to have been derived from a compound tradition of Aaron’s rod, and the light or divine presence with the Israelites in the wilderness, when they marched. And probably the Mexican number of years, was originally forty, instead of eighty.
Lopez de Gomara tells us, that the Mexicans were so devout, as to offer to the sun and earth, a small quantity of every kind of meat and drink, before any of themselves tasted it; and that they sacrificed part of their corn, fruits, &c. in like manner; otherwise, they were deemed haters of, and contemned by their gods. Is not this a confused Spanish picture of the Jewish daily sacrifice, and first-fruit-offering, as formerly observed? and which, as we have seen, are now offered up by the northern Indians, to the bountiful giver, the supreme holy spirit of fire, whom they invoke in that most sacred and awful song, YO He Wah, and loudly ascribe to him Hallelu-Yah, for his continued goodness to them.
The Spanish writers say, that when Cortes approached Mexico, Montezuma shut himself up, and continued for the space of eight days in prayers and fasting: but to blacken him, and excuse their own diabolical butcheries, they assert he offered human sacrifices at the same time to abominable and frightful idols. But the sacrifices with more justice may be attributed to the Spaniards than to the Mexicans—as their narratives also are a sacrifice of truth itself. Montezuma and his people’s fastings, prayers, &c. were doubtless the same with those of the northern Indians, who on particular occasions, by separate fastings, ablutions, purgations, &c. seek to sanctify themselves, and so avert the ill effects of the divine anger, and regain the favour of the deity.
They write, that the Mexicans offered to one of their gods, a sacrifice compounded of some of all the seeds of their country, grinded fine, and mixed with the blood of children, and of sacrificed virgins; that they plucked out the hearts of those victims, and offered them as first-fruits to the idol; and that the warriors imagined, the least relic of the sacrifice would preserve them from danger. They soon afterwards tell us of a temple of a quadrangular form, called Teucalli, “God’s house,” and Chacalmua, “a minister of holy things,” who belonged to it. They likewise speak of “the hearth of God,—the continual fire of God,—the holy ark,” &c. If we cut off the jesuitical paintings of the unnatural sacrifice, the rest is consonant to what hath been observed, concerning the North American Indians. And it is very obvious, the North and South American Indians are alike of vindictive tempers, putting most of their invading enemies that fall into their power to the fiery torture. The Spaniards looking upon themselves as divine embassadors, under the imperial signature of the Holy Lord of Rome, were excessively enraged against the simple native South-Americans, because they tortured forty of their captivated people by reprisal, devoting them to the fire, and ate their hearts, according to the universal war-custom of our northern Indians, on the like occasion. The Spanish terror and hatred on this account, their pride, religious, bigotry, and an utter ignorance of the Indian dialects, rites, and customs, excited them thus to delineate the Mexicans;—and equally hard names, and unjust charges, the bloody members of their diabolical inquisition used to bestow on those pretended heretics, whom they gave over to be tortured and burnt by the secular power. But it is worthy of notice, the Spanish writers acknowledge that the Mexicans brought their human sacrifices from the opposite sea; and did not offer up any of their own people: so that this was but the same as our North-American Indians still practice, when they devote their captives to death; which is ushered in with ablutions, and other methods of sanctifying themselves, as have been particularly described; and they perform the solemnity with singing the sacred triumphal song, with beating of the drum, dances, and various sorts of rejoicings, through gratitude to the beneficent and divine author of success against their common enemy. By the description of the Portuguese writers, the Indian-Brasilian method of war, and of torturing their devoted captives, very nearly resembles the customs of our Indians.
Acosta, according to his usual ignorance of the Indian customs, says, that some in Mexico understood one another by whistling, on which he attempts to be witty—but notwithstanding the great contempt and surprise of the Spaniards at those Indians who whistled as they went; this whistle was no other than the war-whoop, or a very loud and shrill shout, denoting death, or good or bad news, or bringing in captives from war. The same writer says they had three kinds of knighthood, with which they honoured the best soldiers; the chief of which was the red ribbon; the next the lion, or tyger-knight; and the meanest was the grey knight. He might with as much truth, have added the turky-buzzard knight, the sun-blind bat knight, and the night-owl knight. His account of the various gradations of the Indian war-titles, shews the unskilfulness of that voluminous writer, even in the first principles of his Indian subject, and how far we ought to rely on his marvellous works.
The accounts the Spaniards formerly gave us of Florida and its inhabitants, are written in the same romantic strain with those of Mexico. Ramusius tells us, that Alvaro Nunes and his company reported the Apalahchee Indians to be such a gigantic people, as to carry bows, thick as a man’s arm, and of eleven or twelve spans long, shooting with proportional force and direction. It seems they lived then a sober and temperate life, for Morgues says, one of their kings was three hundred years old; though Laudon reckons him only two hundred and fifty: and Morgues assures us, he saw this young Indian Methusalah’s father, who was fifty years older than his son, and that each of them was likely by the common course of nature to live thirty or forty years longer, although they had seen their fifth generation. Since that time they have so exceedingly degenerated, in height of body, largeness of defensive arms, and ante-deluvian longevity, that I am afraid, these early and extraordinary writers would scarcely know the descendants of those Apalahche Anakim, if they now saw them. They are at present the same as their dwarfish red neighbours; sic transit gloria mundi.
Nicholaus Challusius paints Florida full of winged serpents; he affirms he saw one there, and that the old natives were very careful to get its head, on account of some supposed superstition. Ferdinando Soto tells us, that when he entered Florida, he found a Spaniard, (J. Ortez) whom the natives had captivated during the space of twelve years, consequently he must have gained in that time, sufficient skill in their dialect to give a true interpretation and account—and he assures us, that Ucita, the Lord of the place, made that fellow, “Temple-keeper,” to prevent the night-wolves from carrying away the dead corpse; that the natives worshipped the devil, and sacrificed to him the life and blood of most of their captives;—who spoke with them face to face, and ordered them to bring those offerings to quench his burning thirst. And we are told by Benzo,91 that when Soto died, the good-natured Cacique ordered two likely young Indians to be killed according to custom, to wait on him where he was gone.—But the Christian Spaniards denied his death, and assured them he was the son of God, and therefore could not die. If we except the last sentence, which bears a just analogy to the presumption and arrogance of the popish priests and historians, time and opportunity have fully convinced us, that all the rest is calumny and falshood. It must be confessed however, that none, even of the Spanish monks and friars, have gone so deep in the marvellous, as our own sagacious David Ingram—he assures us, “that he not only heard of very surprising animals in these parts of the world, but saw elephants, horses, and strange wild animals twice as big as our species of horses, formed like a grey-hound in their hinder parts; he saw likewise bulls with ears like hounds; and another surprising species of quadrupeds bigger than bears, without head or neck, but nature had fixed their eyes and mouths more securely in their breasts.” At the end of his monstrous ideal productions, he justly introduces the devil in the rear, sometimes assuming the likeness of a dog; at other times the shape of a calf, &c. Although this legendary writer has transcended the bounds of truth, yet where he is not emulous of outdoing the jesuitical romances, it would require a good knowledge of America to confute him in many particulars: this shews how little the learned world can rely on American narrators; and that the origin of the Indian Americans, is yet to be traced in a quite different path to what any of those hyperbolical, or wild conjectural writers have prescribed.
The Spaniards have given us many fine polished Indian orations, but they were certainly fabricated at Madrid; the Indians have no such ideas, or methods of speech, as they pretend to have copied from a faithful interpretation on the spot: however, they have religiously supported those monkish dreams, and which are the chief basis of their Mexican and Peruvian treaties.
According to them, the Mexican arms was an eagle on a tunal or stone, with a bird in his talons,—which may look at the armorial ensign of Dan. And they say, the Mexicans worshipped Vitzliputzli, who promised them a land exceedingly plenty in riches, and all other good things; on which account they set off in quest of the divine promise, four of their priests carrying their idol in a coffer of reeds, to whom he communicated his oracles, giving them laws at the same time—teaching them the ceremonies and sacrifices they should observe; and directed them when to march, and when to stay in camp, &c. So much might have been collected from them by signs, and other expressive indications; for we are well assured, that the remote uncorrupted part of the Mexicans still retain the same notions as our northern Indians, with regard to their arriving at, and settling in their respective countries, living under a theocratic government, and having the divine war-ark, as a most sacred seal of success to the beloved people, against their treacherous enemies, if they strictly observe the law of purity, while they accompany it. This alone, without any reflection on the rest, is a good glass to shew us, that the South and North American Indians are twin-born brothers; though the Spanish clergy, by, their dark but fruitful inventions, have set them at a prodigious variance.
Acosta tells us, that the Peruvians held a very extraordinary feast called Ytu,—which they prepared themselves for, by fasting two days, not accompanying with their wives, nor eating salt-meat or garlic, nor drinking Chica during that period—that they assembled all together in one place, and did not allow any stranger or beast to approach them; that they had clothes and ornaments which they wore, only at that great festival; that they went silently and sedately in procession, with their heads veil’d, and drums beating—and thus continued one day and night; but the next day they danced and feasted; and for two days successively, their prayers and praises were heard. This is another strong picture of the rites of the Indian North-Americans, during the time of their great festival, to atone for sin; and with a little amendment, would exhibit a surprising analogy of sundry essential rites and customs of the Northern and South American Indians, which equally glance at the Mosaic system.
Lerius tells us, that he was present at the triennial feast of the Caribbians, where a multitude of men, women, and children, were assembled; that they soon divided themselves into three orders, apart from each other, the women and children being strictly ordered to stay within, and to attend diligently to the singing: that the men sung in one house, He, He, He, while the others in their separate houses, answered by a repetition of the same notes: that having thus continued a quarter of an hour, they all danced in three different rings, each with rattles, &c. And the natives of Sir Francis Drake’s New Albion, were desirous of crowning him Hio, or Ohio, a name well known in North America, and hath an evident relation to the great beloved name. Had the former been endued with a proper capacity, and given a suitable attention to the Indian general law of purity, he would probably have described them singing Yo He Wah, Hallelu-Yah, &c. after the present manner of our North American red natives; and as giving proper names to persons and things from a religious principle, to express the relation they bore to the sacred four-lettered name.
These writers report also, that the Mexicans sacrificed to the idol Haloc, “their God of water,” to give them seasonable rains for their crops: and they tell us, that the high-priest was anointed with holy oil, and dressed with pontifical ornaments, peculiar to himself, when he officiated in his sacred function; that he was sworn to maintain their religion, rights, and liberties, according to their ancient law; and to cause the sun to shine, and all their vegetables to be properly refreshed with gentle showers. If we throw down the “monkish idol god of water,” we here find a strong parity of religious customs and ceremonies, between the pretended prophets, and high-priests of the present northern Indians, and the ancient Mexicans.
Acosta tells us, that the Peruvians acknowledged a supreme God, and author of all things, whom they called Viracocha, and worshipped as the chief of all the gods, and honoured when they looked at the heavens or any of the celestial orbs; that for want of a proper name for that divine spirit of the universe, they, after the Mexican manner,92 described him by his attributes,—as Pachacamac, “the Creator of heaven and earth.” But, though he hath described them possessed of these strong ideas of God, and to have dedicated a sacred house to the great first cause, bearing his divine prolific name; yet the Spanish priesthood have at the same time, painted them as worshipping the devil in the very same temple. Here and there a truth may be found in their writings, but if we except the well-designed performance of Don Antonio de Ulloa, one duodecimo volume would have contained all the accounts of any curious importance, which the Spaniards have exhibited to the learned world, concerning the genuine rites and customs, of the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, ever since the seisure of those countries, and the horrid murders committed on the inhabitants.
But among all the Spanish friars, Hieronimo Roman was the greatest champion in hyperbolical writing. He has produced three volumes concerning the Indian American rites and ceremonies;—he stretches very far in his second part of the commonwealths of the world; but when he gets to Peru and Mexico, the distance of those remote regions enables him to exceed himself: beyond all dispute, the other writers of his black fraternity, are only younger brethren, when compared to him in the marvellous. His, is the chief of all the Spanish romances of Peru and Mexico.93
He says, the Indian natives, from Florida to Panama, had little religion or policy; and yet he affirms a few pages after, that they believed in one true, immortal and invisible God, reigning in heaven, called Yocahuuagnamaorocoti; and is so kind as to allow them images, priests, and popes, their high-priest being called papa in that language. The origin of images among them, is accounted for in a dialogue he gives us, between a shaking tree and one of the Indian priests: after a great deal of discourse, the tree ordered the priest to cut it down, and taught him how to make images thereof, and erect a temple. The tree was obeyed, and every year their votaries solemnized the dedication. The good man has laboured very hard for the images, and ought to have suitable applause for so useful an invention; as it shews the universal opinion of mankind, concerning idols and images. With regard to that long conjectural divine name, by which they expressed the one true God, there is not the least room to doubt, that the South-Americans had the divine name, Yohewah, in as great purity as those of the north, especially, as they were at the fountain head; adding to it occasionally some other strong compound words.
He says also, that the metropolis of Cholola had as many temples as there were days in the year; and that one of them was the most famous in the world, the basis of the spire being as broad as a man could shoot with a cross bow, and the spire itself three miles high. The temples which the holy man speaks of, seem to have been only the dwelling-houses of strangers, who incorporated with the natives, differing a little in their form of structure, according to the usual custom of our northern Indians: and his religious principles not allowing him to go near the reputed shambles of the devil, much less to enter the supposed territories of hell, he has done pretty well by them, in allowing them golden suns and moons—vestry keepers, &c. The badness of his optic instruments, if joined with the supposed dimness of his sight, may plead in excuse for the spiral altitude, which he fixes at 15,480 feet; for from what we know of the northern Indians, we ought to strike off the three first figures of its height, and the remaining 40 is very likely to have been the just height of the spire, alias the red-painted, great, war-pole.
The same writer tells us, that the Peruvian pontifical office belonged to the eldest son of the king, or some chief lord of the country: and that it devolved by succession. But he anoints him after a very solemn manner, with an ointment which he carefully mixes with the blood of circumcised infants. This priest of war dealing so much in blood himself, without doubt, suspected them of the like; though at the same time no Indian priest will either shed, or touch human blood: but that they formerly circumcised, may with great probability be allowed to the holy man.
The temples of Peru were built on high grounds, or tops of hills, he says, and were surrounded with four circular mounds of earth, the one rising gradually above the other, from the outermost circle; and that the temple stood in the center of the inclosed ground, built in a quadrangular form, having altars, &c. He has officiously obtruded the sun into it; perhaps, because he thought it dark within. He describes another religious house, on the eastern part of that great inclosure, facing the rising sun, to which they ascended by six steps, where, in the hollow of a thick wall, lay the image of the sun, &c. This thick wall having an hollow part within it, was no other than their sanctum sanctorum, conformably to what I observed, concerning the pretended holiest place of the Muskohge Indians. Any one who is well acquainted with the language, rites, and customs of the North-American Indians, can see with a glance when these monkish writers stumble on a truth, or ramble at large.
Acosta says, that the Mexicans observed their chief feast in the month of May, and that the nuns two days before mixed a sufficient quantity of beets with honey, and made an image of it. He trims up the idol very genteelly, and places it on an azure-coloured chair, every way becoming the scarlet-coloured pope. He soon after introduces flutes, drums, cornets, and trumpets, to celebrate the feast of Eupania Vitzliputzli, as he thinks proper to term it: on account of the nuns, he gives them Pania, “feminine bread,” instead of the masculine Panis; which he makes his nuns to distribute at this love-feast, to the young men, in large pieces resembling great bones. When they receive them, they religiously lay them down at the feast of the idol, and call them the flesh and bones of the God Vitzliputzli.
Then he brings in the priests vailed, with garlands on their heads, and chains of flowers about their necks, each of them strictly observing their place: if the inquisitive reader should desire to know how he discovered those garlands and flowery chains; (especially as their heads were covered, and they are secret in their religious ceremonies) I must inform him, that Acosta wrought a kind of cotton, or woollen cloth for them, much finer than silk, through which he might have easily seen them—besides, such a religious dress gave him a better opportunity of hanging a cross, and a string of beads afterwards round their necks.
Next to those religious men, he ushers in a fine company of gods and goddesses, in imagery, dressed like the others, the people paying them divine worship; this without doubt, is intended to support the popish saint-worship. Then he makes them sing, and dance round the paste, and use several other ceremonies. And when the eyes are tired with viewing those wild circlings, he solemnly blesses, and consecrates those morsels of paste, and thus makes them the real flesh and bones of the idol, which the people honour as gods. When he has ended his feast of transubstantiation, he sets his sacrificers to work, and orders them to kill and sacrifice more men than at any other festival,—as he thinks proper to make this a greater carnival than any of the rest.
When he comes to finish his bloody sacrifices, he orders the young men and women into two rows, directly facing each other, to dance and sing by the drum, in praise of the feast and the god; and he sets the oldest and the greatest men to answer the song, and dance around them, in a great circle. This with a little alteration, resembles the custom of the northern Indians. He says, that all the inhabitants of the city and country came to this great feast,—that it was deemed sacrilegious in any person to eat of the honeyed paste, on this great festival-day, or to drink water, till the afternoon; and that they earnestly advised those, who had the use of reason, to abstain from water till the afternoon, and carefully concealed it from the children during the time of this ceremony. But, at the end of the feast, he makes the priests and ancients of the temple to break the image of paste and consecrated rolls, into many pieces, and give them to the people by the way of sacrament, according to the strictest rules of order, from the greatest and eldest, to the youngest and least, men, women and children: and he says, they received it with bitter tears, great reverence, and a very awful fear, with other strong signs of devotion, saying at the same time,—“they did not 94 eat the flesh and bones of their God.” He adds, that they who had sick people at home, demanded a piece of the said paste, and carried and gave it to them, with the most profound reverence and awful adoration; that all who partook of this propitiating sacrifice, were obliged to give a part of the feed of Maiz, of which the idol was made; and then at the end of the solemnity, a priest of high authority preached to the people on their laws and ceremonies, with a commanding voice, and expressive gestures; and thus dismissed the assembly.
Well may Acosta blame the devil in the manner he does, for introducing among the Mexicans, so near a resemblance of the popish superstitions and idolatry. But whether shall we blame or pity this writer, for obscuring the truth with a confused heap of falshoods? The above is however a curious Spanish picture of the Mexican passover, or annual expiation of sins, and of their second passover in favour of their sick people,—and of paying their tythes,—according to similar customs of our North-American Indians. We are now sufficiently informed of the rites and customs of the remote, and uncorrupt South-Americans, by the Missisippi Indians, who have a communication with them, both in peace and war.
Ribault Laudon describing the yearly festival of the Floridans, says, that the day before it began, the women sweeped out a great circuit of ground, where it was observed with solemnity;—that when the main body of the people entered the holy ground, they all placed themselves in good order, stood up painted, and decked in their best apparel, when three Iawas, or priests, with different paintings and gestures followed them, playing on musical instruments, and singing with a solemn voice—the others answering them: that when they made three circles in this manner, the men ran off to the woods, and the women staid weeping behind, cutting their arms with muscle-shells, and throwing the blood towards the sun; and that when the men returned, the three days feast was finished. This is another confused Spanish draught of the Floridan passover, or feast of love; and of their universal method of bleeding themselves after much exercise, which according to the Spanish plan, they offered up to the sun. From these different writers, it is plain that where the Indians have not been corrupted by foreigners, their customs and religious worship are nearly alike; and also that every different tribe, or nation of Indians, uses such-like divine proper name, and awful sounds, as Yah-Wah, Hetovah, &c. being transpositions of the divine essential name, as our northern Indians often repeat in their religious dances. As the sound of Yah-wah jarred in Laudon’s ear, he called it Java, in resemblance to the Syriac and Greek method of expressing the tetra-grammaton, from which Galatinus imposed it upon us, calling it Jehowah, instead of Yohewah.
The Spanish writers tell us, that the Mexicans had a feast, and month, which they called Hueitozolti, when the maiz was ripe; every man at that time bringing an handful to be offered at the temple, with a kind of drink, called Utuli, made out of the same grain.—But they soon deck up an idol with roses, garlands, and flowers, and describe them as offering to it sweet gums, &c. Then they speedily dress a woman with the apparel of either the god, or goddess, of salt, which must be to season the human sacrifices, as they depicture them according to their own dispositions. But they soon change the scene, and bring in the god of gain, in a rich temple dedicated to him, where the merchants apart sacrifice vast numbers of purchased captives. It often chagrines an inquisitive and impartial reader to trace the contradictions, and chimerical inventions, of those aspiring bigoted writers; who speak of what they did not understand, only by signs, and a few chance words. The discerning reader can easily perceive them from what hath been already said, and must know that this Spanish mountain in labour, is only the Indian first fruit-offering, according to the usage of our North-American Indians.
It is to be lamented that writers will not keep to matters of fact: Some of our own historians have described the Mohawks as cannibals, and continually hunting after man’s flesh; with equal truth Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and others report, that in Britain there were formerly Anthropophagi, “man-eaters.”
Garcillasso de La Vega, another Spanish romancer, says, that the Peruvian shepherds worshipped the star called Lyra, as they imagined it preserved their flocks: but he ought first to have supplied them with flocks, for they had none except a kind of wild sheep,95 that kept in the mountains, and which are of so fætid a smell, that no creature is fond to approach them.
The same aspiring fictitious writer tells us, the Peruvians worshipped the Creator of the world, whom he is pleased to call Viracocha Pachuyacha ha hic: any person who is in the least acquainted with the rapid flowing manner of the Indian American dialects, will conclude from the wild termination that the former is not the Peruvian divine name. Next to this great Creator of the universe, he affirms, they worshipped the sun; and next to the solar orb, they deified and worshipped thunder, believing it proceeded from a man in heaven, who had power over the rain, hail, and thunder, and every thing in the ærial regions; and that they offered up sacrifices to it, but none to the universal Creator. To prefer the effect to the acknowledged prime cause, is contrary to the common reason of mankind, who adore that object which they esteem either the most beneficent, or the most powerful.
Monsieur Le Page Du Pratz tells us, he lived seven years, among the Nachee Indians, about one hundred leagues up the Missisippi from New-Orleans; and in order to emulate the Spanish romances of the Indians, in his performance, he affirms their women are double-breasted, which he particularly describes: and then following the Spanish copy, he assures us, the highest rank of their nobles is called suns, and that they only attend the sacred and eternal fire; which he doubtless mentioned, merely to introduce his convex lens, by which he tells us with a great air of confidence, he gained much esteem among them, as by the gift of it, he enabled them to continue their holy fire, if it should casually be near extinguished. According to him, the Chikkasah tongue was the court language of the Missisippi Indians, and that it had not the letter R.—The very reverse of which is the truth; for the French and all their red savages were at constant war with them, because of their firm connection with the English, and hated their national name; and as to the language, they could not converse with them, as their dialects are so different from each other. I recited a long string of his well-known stories to a body of gentlemen, well skilled in the languages, rites, and customs of our East and West-Florida Indians, and they agreed that the Koran did not differ more widely from the divine oracles, than the accounts of this writer from the genuine customs of the Indian Americans.
The Spanish artists have furnished the savage war-chieftain, or their Emperor Montezuma, with very spacious and beautiful palaces, one of which they raised on pillars of fine jasper; and another wrought with exquisite skill out of marble, jasper, and other valuable stones, with veins glistening like rubies,—they have finished the roof with equal skill, composed of carved and painted cypress, cedar, and pine-trees, without any kind of nails. They should have furnished some of the chambers with suitable pavilions and beds of state; but the bedding and furniture in our northern Indian huts, is the same with what they were pleased to describe, in the wonderful Mexican palaces. In this they have not done justice to the grand red monarch, whom they raised up, (with his 1000 women, or 3000 according to some,) only to magnify the Spanish power by overthrowing him.
Montezuma in an oration to his people, at the arrival of the Spaniards, is said by Malvendar, to have persuaded his people to yield to the power of his Catholic Majesty’s arms, for their own fore-fathers were strangers in that land, and brought there long before that period in a fleet. The emperor, who they pretend bore such universal arbitrary sway, is raised by their pens, from the usual rank of a war chieftain, to his imperial greatness: But despotic power is death to their ears, as it is destructive of their darling liberty, and reputed theocratic government; they have no name for a subject, but say, “the people.” In order to carry on the self-flattering war-romance, they began the epocha of that great fictitious empire, in the time of the ambitious and formidable Montezuma, that their handful of heaven-favoured popish saints might have the more honour in destroying it: had they described it of a long continuance, they foresaw that the world would detect the fallacy, as soon as they learned the language of the pretended empire; correspondent to which, our own great Emperor Powhatan of Virginia, was soon dethroned. We are sufficiently informed by the rambling Missisippi Indians, that Motehshuma is a common high war-name of the South-American leaders; and which the fate he is said to receive, strongly corroborates. Our Indians urge with a great deal of vehemence, that as every one is promoted only by public virtue, and has his equals in civil and martial affairs, those Spanish books that have mentioned red emperors, and great empires in America, ought to be burnt in some of the remaining old years accursed fire. And this Indian fixed opinion seems to be sufficiently confirmed by the situation of Mexico, as it is only about 315 miles from south to north; and narrower than 200 miles along the northern coast—and lies between Tlascala and Mechoacan, to the west of the former, and east of the latter, whence the Mexicans were continually harassed by those lurking swift-footed savages, who could secure their retreat home, in the space of two or three days. When we consider the vicinity of those two inimical states to the pretended puissant empire of Mexico, which might have easily crushed them to pieces, with her formidable armies, in order to secure the lives of the subjects, and credit of the state, we may safely venture to affirm, from the long train of circumstances already exhibited, that the Spanish Peruvian and Mexican empires are without the least foundation in nature; and that the Spaniards defeated the tribe of Mexico (properly called Mechiko) &c. chiefly, by the help of their red allies.
In their descriptions of South-America and its native inhabitants, they treat largely of heaven, hell, and purgatory; lions, salamanders, maids of honour, maids of penance, and their abbesses; men whipping themselves with cords; idols, mattins, monastic vows, cloisters of young men, with a prodigious group of other popish inventions: and we must not forget to do justice to those industrious and sagacious observers, who discovered two golgothas, or towers made of human skulls, plaistered with lime. Acosta tells us, that Andrew de Topia assured him, he and Gonsola de Vimbria reckoned one hundred and thirty-six thousand human skulls in them. The temple dedicated to the air, is likewise worthy of being mentioned, as they assert in the strongest manner, that five thousand priests served constantly in it, and obliged every one who entered, to bring some human sacrifice; that the walls of it were an inch thick, and the floor a foot deep, with black, dry, clotted blood. If connected herewith, we reflect, that beside this blood-thirsty god of the air, the Spaniards have represented them as worshipping a multitude of idol gods and goddesses, (no less than two thousand according to Lopez de Gomara) and sacrificing to them chiefly human victims; and that the friars are reported by a Spanish bishop of Mexico, in his letters of the year 1532, to have broken down twenty thousand idols, and desolated five hundred idol temples, where the natives sacrificed every year more than twenty thousand hearts of boys and girls; and that if the noblemen were burnt to ashes, they killed their cooks, butlers, chaplains, and dwarfs[LII]—and had a plenty of targets, maces, and ensigns hurled into their funeral piles: this terrible slaughter, points out to us clearly from their own accounts, that these authors either gave the world a continued chain of falsehoods, or those sacrifices, and human massacres they boastingly tell us of, would have, long before they came, utterly depopulated Peru and Mexico.
LII. With regard to Indian dwarfs, I never heard of, or saw any in the northern nations, but one in Ishtatoe, a northern town of the middle part of the Cheerake country,—and he was a great beloved man.
I shall now quote a little of their less romantic description, to confirm the account I have given concerning the genuine rites, and customs, of our North-American Indians.
The ornaments of the Indians of South and North America, were formerly, and still are alike, without the least difference, except in value. Those superficial writers agree, that the men and women of Peru and Mexico wore golden ear-rings, and bracelets around their necks and wrists; that the men wore rings of the same metal in their nose, marked their bodies with various figures, painted their faces red, and the women their cheeks, which seems to have been a very early and general custom. They tell us, that the coronation of the Indian kings, and installment of their nobles, was solemnized with comedies, banquets, lights, &c. and that no plebeians were allowed to serve before their kings; they must be knights, or noblemen. All those sounding high titles are only a confused picture of the general method of the Indians in crowning their warriors, performing their war-dances, and esteeming those fellows as old women, who never attended the reputed holy ark with success for the beloved brethren.
Don Antonio de Ulloa 96 informs us, that some of the South-American natives cut the lobes of their ears, and for a considerable time, fastened small weights to them, in order to lengthen them; that others cut holes in their upper and under lips; through the cartilege of the nose, their chins, and jaws, and either hung or thrust through them, such things as they most fancied, which also agrees with the ancient customs of our Northern Indians.
Emanuel de Moraes and Acosta affirm, that the Brasilians marry in their own family, or tribe. And Jo. de Laet. says, they call their uncles and aunts, “fathers and mothers,” which is a custom of the Hebrews, and of all our North-American Indians: and he assures us they mourn very much for their dead; and that their clothes are like those of the early Jews.
Ulloa assures us, that the South American Indians have no other method of weaving carpets, quilts, and other stuffs, but to count the threads one by one, when they are passing the woof;—that they spin cotton and linnen, as their chief manufacture, and paint their cloth with the images of men, beasts, birds, fishes, trees, flowers, &c. and that each of those webs was adapted to one certain use, without being cut, and that their patience was equal to so arduous a task. According to this description, there is not the least disparity between the ancient North-American method of manufacturing, and that of the South Americans.
Acosta writes, that the clothes of the South-American Indians are shaped like those of the ancient Jews, being a square little cloak, and a little coat: and the Rev. Mr. Thorowgood,97 anno 1650, observes, that this is a proof of some weight in shewing their original descent; especially to such who pay a deference to Seneca’s parallel arguments of the Spaniards having settled Italy; for the old mode of dress is universally alike, among the Indian Americans.
Laet, in his description of America, and Escarbotus, assure us, they often heard the South American Indians to repeat the sacred word Halleluiah, which made them admire how they first attained it. And Malvenda says, that the natives of St. Michael had tomb-stones, which the Spaniards digged up, with several ancient Hebrew characters upon them, as, “Why is God gone away?” And, “He is dead, God knows.” Had his curiosity induced him to transcribe the epitaph, it would have given more satisfaction; for, as they yet repeat the divine essential name, Yo He (ta) Wah, so as not to prophane it, when they mourn for their dead, it is probable, they could write or engrave it, after the like manner, when they first arrived on this main continent.
We are told, that the South American Indians have a firm hope of the resurrection of their bodies, at a certain period of time; and that on this account they bury their most valuable treasures with their dead, as well as the most useful conveniences for future domestic life, such as their bows and arrows: And when they saw the Spaniards digging up their graves for gold and silver, they requested them to forbear scattering the bones of their dead in that manner, lest it should prevent their being raised and united again[LIII].
LIII. Vid. Ceuto ad Solin. Benz. & Hist. Peruv.
Monsieur de Poutrincourt says, that, when the Canada Indians saluted him, they said Ho Ho Ho; but as we are well assured, they express Yo He a Ah, in the time of their festivals and other rejoicings, we have reason to conclude he made a very material mistake in setting down the Indian solemn blessing, or invocation. He likewise tells us, that the Indian women will not marry on the graves of their husbands, i. e. “soon after their decease,”—but wait a long time before they even think of a second husband. That, if the husband was killed, they would neither enter into a second marriage, nor eat flesh, till his blood had been revenged: and that after child-bearing, they observe the Mosaic law of purification, shutting up themselves from their husbands, for the space of forty days.
Peter Martyr writes, that that Indian widow married the brother of her deceased husband, according to the Mosaic law: and he says, the Indians worship that God who created the sun, moon, and all invisible things, and who gives them every thing that is good. He affirms the Indian priests had chambers in the temple, according to the custom of the Israelites, by divine appointment, as 1 Chron. ix. 26, 27. And that there were certain places in it, which none but their priests could enter, i. e. “the holiest.” And Key says also, they have in some parts of America, an exact form of king, priest, and prophet, as was formerly in Canaan.
Robert Williams, the first Englishman in New-England, who is said to have learned the Indian language, in order to convert the natives, believed them to be Jews: and he assures us, that their tradition records that their ancestors came from the south-west, and that they return there at death; that their women separate themselves from the rest of the people at certain periods; and that their language bore some affinity to the Hebrew.98
Baron Lahontan writes, that the Indian women of Canada purify themselves after travail; thirty days for a male child—and forty for a female: that during the said time, they live apart from their husband—that the unmarried brother of the deceased husband marries the widow, six months after his decease; and that the outstanding parties for war, address the great spirit every day till they set off, with sacrifices, songs, and feasting.
We are also told, that the men in Mexico sat down, and the women stood, when they made water, which is an universal custom among our North-American Indians. Their primitive modesty, and indulgence to their women, seem to have introduced this singular custom, after the manner of the ancient Mauritanians, on account of their scantiness of clothing, as I formerly observed.
Lerius tells us, that the Indians of Brasil wash themselves ten times a day; and that the husbands have no matrimonial intercourse with their wives, till their children are either weaned, or grown pretty hardy; which is similar to the custom of these northern Indians, and that of the Israelites, as Hos. i. 8. He says, if a Peruvian child was weaned before its time, it was called Ainsco, “a bastard.” And that if a Brasilian wounds another, he is wounded in the same part of the body, with equal punishment; limb for limb, or life for life, according to the Mosaic law;—which, within our own memory, these Indian nations observed so eagerly, that if a boy shooting at birds, accidentally wounded another, though out of sight, with his arrow ever so slightly, he, or any of his family, wounded him after the very same manner; which is a very striking analogy with the Jewish retaliation. He likewise tells us, that their Sachems, or Emperors, were the heads of their church: and according to Laet. Descrip. America, the Peruvians had one temple consecrated to the creator of the world; besides four other religious places, in resemblance of the Jewish synagogues. And Malvenda says, the American idols were mitred, as Aaron was. He likewise affirms, as doth Acosta, that the natives observed a year of jubilee, according to the usage of the Israelites.
Benzo 99 says, that the men and women incline very much to dancing; and the women often by themselves, according to the manner of the Hebrew nation; as in 1 Sam. xxi. 11. especially after gaining a victory over the enemy, as in Judg. xi. 34.-xxi. 21, 23, and 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7. Acosta tells us, that though adultery is deemed by them a capital crime, yet they at the same time set little value by virginity, and it seems to have been a bewailable condition, in Judea. He likewise says, they wash their new born infants, in resemblance of the Mosaic law; as Ezek. xvi. 9. And the Spaniards say, that the priests of Mexico, were anointed from head to foot; that they constantly wore their hair, till they were superannuated; and that the husband did not lie with his wife, for two years after she was delivered. Our northern Indians imitate the first custom; though in the second, they resemble that of the heathen by polling or trimming their hair; and with regard to the third, they always sleep apart from their wives, for the greater part of a year, after delivery.100
By the Spanish authorities, the Peruvians and Mexicans were Polygamists, but they had one principal wife to whom they were married with certain solemnities; and murder, adultery, theft, and incest, were punished with death.—But there was an exception in some places, with regard to incestuous intercourses: which is entirely consonant to the usage of the northern Indians. For as to incest, the Cheerake marry both mother and daughter, or two sisters; but they all observe the prohibited laws of consanguinity, in the strictest manner. They tell us, that when the priests offered sacrifice, they abstained from women and strong drink, and fasted several days, before any great festival; that all of them buried their dead in their houses, or in high places; that when they were forced to bury in any of the Spanish churchyards, they frequently stole the corpse, and interred it either in one of their own houses, or in the mountains; and that Juan de la Torre took five hundred thousand Pezoes out of one tomb. Here is a long train of Israelitish customs: and, if we include the whole, they exhibit a very strong analogy between all the essential traditions, rites, customs, &c. of the South and North American Indians; though the Spaniards mix an innumerable heap of absurd chimeras, and romantic dreams, with the plain material truths I have extracted.
I lately perused the first volume of the History of North America, from the discovery thereof by Sylvanus Americanus, printed in New Jersey, Anno 1761, from, I believe, the Philadelphia monthly paper—and was not a little surprised to find in such a useful collection, the conjectural, though perhaps well-intended accounts of the first adventurers, and settlers, in North America, concerning the natives: and which are laid as the only basis for inquisitive writers to trace their origin, instead of later and more substantial observations. Though several of those early writers were undoubtedly sagacious, learned, and candid; yet under the circumstances in which they wrote, it was impossible for them to convey to us any true knowledge of the Indians, more than what they gained by their senses, which must be superficial, and liable to many errors. Their conjectural accounts ought to have been long since examined, by some of that learned body, or they should not have given a sanction to them. However, they are less faulty than the Spanish accounts.
I presume, enough hath been said to point out the similarity between the rites and customs of the native American Indians, and those of the Israelites.—And that the Indian system is derived from the moral, ceremonial, and judicial laws of the Hebrews, though now but a faint copy of the divine original.—Their religious rites, martial customs, dress, music, dances, and domestic forms of life, seem clearly to evince also, that they came to America in early times, before sects had sprung up among the Jews, which was soon after their prophets ceased, and before arts and sciences had arrived to any perfection; otherwise, it is likely they would have retained some knowledge of them, at least where they first settled, it being in a favourable climate, and consequently, they were in a more compact body, than on this northern part of the American continent.
The South-American natives wanted nothing that could render life easy and agreeable: and they had nothing superfluous, except gold and silver. When we consider the simplicity of the people, and the skill they had in collecting a prodigious quantity of treasures, it seems as if they gained that skill from their countrymen, and the Tyrians; who in the reign of Solomon exceedingly enriched themselves, in a few voyages. The conjecture that the aborigines wandered here from captivity, by the north east parts of Asia, over Kamschatska, to have their liberty and religion; is not so improbable, as that of their being driven by stress of weather into the bay of Mexico, from the east.101
Though a single argument of the general subject, may prove but little, disjoined from the rest; yet, according to the true laws of history, and the best rules for tracing antiquities, the conclusion is to be drawn from clear corresponding circumstances united: the force of one branch of the subject ought to be connected with the others, and then judge by the whole. Such readers as may dissent from my opinion of the Indian American origin and descent, ought to inform us how the natives came here, and by what means they formed the long chain of rites, customs, &c. so similar to the usage of the Hebrew nation, and in general dissimilar to the modes, &c. of the Pagan world.
Ancient writers do not agree upon any certain place, where the Ophir of Solomon lay; it must certainly be a great distance from Joppa, for it was a three years voyage. After the death of Solomon, both the Israelites and Tyrians seem to have utterly discontinued their trading voyages to that part of the world. Eusebius and Eupolemus say, that David sent to Urphe, an island in the red sea, and brought much gold into Judea; and Ortelius reckons this to have been Ophir: though, agreeably to the opinion of the greater part of the modern literati, he also conjectures Cephala, or Sophala, to have been the Ophir of Solomon. Junius imagines it was in Aurea Chersonesus; Tremellius and Niger are of the same opinion. But Vatablus reckons it was Hispaniola, discovered, and named so by Columbus: yet Postellus, Phil. Mornay, Arias Montanus, and Goropius, are of opinion that Peru is the ancient Ophir; so widely different are their conjectures. Ancient history is quite silent, concerning America; which indicates that it has been time immemorial rent asunder from the African continent, according to Plato’s Timeus. The north-east parts of Asia also were undiscovered, till of late. Many geographers have stretched Asia and America so far, as to join them together: and others have divided those two quarters of the globe, at a great distance from each other. But the Russians, after several dangerous attempts, have clearly convinced the world, that they are now divided, and yet have a near communication together, by a narrow strait, in which several islands are situated; through which there is an easy passage from the north-east of Asia to the north-west of America by the way of Kamschatska; which probably joined to the north-west point of America. By this passage, supposing the main continents were separated, it was very practicable for the inhabitants to go to this extensive new world; and afterwards, to have proceeded in quest of suitable climates,—according to the law of nature, that directs every creature to such climes as are most convenient and agreeable.
Having endeavoured to ascertain the origin and descent of the North-American Indians—and produced a variety of arguments that incline my own opinion in favour of their being of Jewish extraction—which at the same time furnish the public with a more complete Indian System of religious rites, civil and martial customs, languages, &c. &c. than hath ever been exhibited, neither disfigured by fable, nor prejudice—I shall proceed to give a general historical description of those Indian nations among whom I have chiefly resided.102