It is generally understood that
the place where they landed was south of the Gulf of California and north of
the land called Desolation by the Nephites, which was north of the Isthmus of
Panama. . . . To this land the Jaredites gave the name of Mormon. It was a
portion of the region known to us as Central America. (George Reynolds and
Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake
City: Deseret Book, 1977], 6:208)
ANCIENT RUINS FOUND IN AMERICA
We now come to the consideration
of the question, Are any of the ruins found upon this continent the remains of
Jaredite cities and buildings? Individually, we think that few, if any, of the
ruined cities of ancient America are of Jaredite origin; indeed, we will go
farther and say we believe but few of them date as far back as the days of the
Nephites. This conclusion will doubtless surprise many of our readers, it is
therefore due to them that we give our reasons,
The writers and explorers to whom
English speaking people are indebted for their information regarding the ruins
of this continent, the largest, best preserved and most important of which are
to be found in Central America and contiguous regions, drew their conclusions
from conditions which do not exist in the regions where these ruins most
largely exist. The vast overgrowth of vegetation conveyed to their minds an
idea of antiquity which the facts did not warrant, an error to which they were
predisposed from the prevailing tendency among modern students to dabble in
eons instead of centuries, and to give every thing and every event whose date
was not determined a remote and indistinct antiquity. When in this frame of
mind an explorer from the temperate zone discovered in Yucatan a tree which had
five hundred rings, growing on a house-top, he argued that that tree must be at
least five hundred years old, as in his native land the trees only added one
ring a year to their growth, and if the tree was five hundred years old the
house underneath must be much older. But the mistake made was this, that in
that heated climate, some trees added ten or twelve rings, instead of one, a
year, and consequently were only one-tenth or one-twelfth as old as he
imagined.
Professor John Fiske, of Harvard
College, cites the following example:
"The notion of their
antiquity was perhaps suggested by the belief that certain colossal mahogany
trees growing between and over the ruins of Palenque must be nearly two
thousand years old. But when M. de Carnay visited Palenque in 1859, he had the
eastern side of the 'palace' cleared of its dense vegetation in order to get a
good photograph; and when he re-visited the spot, in 1881, he found a sturdy
growth of young mahogany the age of which he knew did not exceed twenty-two
years. Instead of making a ring once a year as in our sluggish and temperate
zone, these trees had made rings at the rate of about one a month; the trunks
were already more than two feet in diameter; judging from this rate of growth
the biggest giant on that place need not have been more than two hundred years
old, if as much."
M. Charnay himself speaking on
this subject says:
"I may here remark that [the]
virgin forests have no very old trees, being destroyed by insects, moisture,
lianas, etc., and old monteros tell me that mahogany and cedar trees, which are
most durable, do not live above two hundred years."
Another reason is that cities of
the same class and description, having the same characteristics and style of
architecture as the neighboring ruins, were inhabited at the time of the
Spanish invasion by the people who built them. Some indeed were decaying, others
were growing cities. This fact is attested by the Spanish Chroniclers. But more
than this, some of the now ruined cities, generally supposed to be very
ancient, have lately been proven to have also been inhabited at this period. A
native chief of Yucatan, named Nakuk Peoh, wrote about the year 1562, a brief
history of the Spanish conquest of that country. This chronicle, which has been
translated into English, refers directly to Chichen-Itza and Izamal as
inhabited towns during the time of the Spanish invasion, from 1519 to 1542. Mr.
Fiske is inclined to consider the highest probable antiquity for most of the
ruins of Yucatan and Central America as the twelfth or thirteenth century of
our era; while M. Charnay says, "Copan and Palenque may be two or three
centuries older, and had probably fallen into ruins before the arrival of the
Spaniards."
A third reason is that ruins found
in Central America, etc., in no wise agree with what we should naturally expect
would be built by a people such as the Jaredites or the Nephites are
represented to have been in the sacred writings of their prophets, but they are
not inconsistent with a barbarous, idolatrous race of builders such as the
Lamanites, after the destruction of the Nephites undoubtedly were. The Nephites
were of the house of Israel and Christians. As Israelites they were forbidden
by God Himself to make to themselves the likeness of any thing in the heavens
above, on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. These ruins are
full of images and representations of human beings and other animate things. As
Christians, the Nephites would not indulge in the class of grotesque statuary
and reliefs that so largely abound in many of these cities, especially in those
that clearly point to idolatry and idolatrous customs. The occasional
appearance of an ornament that somewhat resembles a cross carries no weight in
our mind. The cross was used as an ornament, and with no reference to
Christianity long before Jesus was crucified, and today is more the symbol of
the apostate churches of Christendom than the original Church established by
God Himself. The appearance of such a symbol would appeal more readily and have
greater weight with Roman Catholics than with members of the true Church. The
heathen has adorned his edifices with crosses for the reason that it was a
natural, easy and becoming style of ornament.
The civilization of the Jaredites
very much resembled that of the Nephites and to our mind was greatly in advance
of that of the builders of Copan, Palenque and their sister cities. It should
here be observed that the greater portion of the cities built by the Nephites
before the crucifixion of Christ were destroyed by the convulsions that
attended that most momentous event, others so badly shattered that it would not
pay to repair them. The Nephite remains, therefore, that we would expect to
find would be those that were erected during the universal reign of peace that
followed the ministry of the risen Redeemer. Is it not also consistent to
believe that if any Jaredite ruins remained at the time of the Savior's death
they also were destroyed by the universal convulsions? It must likewise be
remembered that in the last great war the Lamanites took great delight in
destroying everything Nephite. (Ibid., 228-31)
