^

STAR IN THE WEST

OR,

A HUMBLE ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER

THE LONG LOST

TEN TRIBES OF ISfcAEL,

PREPARATORY TO THEIR RETURN TO THEIR BELOVED CITY, JERUSALEM.

BY ELIAS BOUDINOT, L L. D.

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things ? Prudent, and he shiill know them ? For all the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them ; but the transgressors shall fall therein. — Hosea.

And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, and make it plain, upon a (writing) table, that he may run who readeth it : for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie ; though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry, — Habbak.

TRENTON, N. J.

PUBLISHED BY D, FENTON, S. HUTCHINSON, AND J. DUNHAM.

George Sherman, Printer.

1816.

tt

V

District of New-Jersey, ss«

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the thirteenth day of January, in th fortieth year of the Independence of the United States of Ameria Daniel Fenton, Sylvester Hutchinson, and Johnson Dunham, of the sai District, have deposited in this Office the Title of a Book, the rigl: whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following', to wit :

" A Star in the West ; or, a humble attempt to discover the Ion lost Ten Tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloi ed city, Jerusalem. By Elias Boudinot, L L. D."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, ent tied " An act for the encouragement of learning1, by securing the copi« of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copie during the times therein mentioned." And also, to the act entitled " A act supplementary to the act entitled An act for the encouragement c learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the ai thors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentior ed, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engra ing and etching historical and other prints."

ROBERT BOGGS, Clerk of the District of New-Jen

Library

CONTENTS.

WVVWWV

PREFACE, 1

INTRODUCTION, » 23

CHAPTER I.

Of the state of the Jews, - 33

CHAPTER II.

An enquiry into the question, on what part of the globe is it most likely, that these descendants of Israel may be now found, arising from late discov eries and facts, that have not come to the knowl edge of the civilized world, till of late years, 81

CHAPTER III.

An enquiry into the language of the American In dians, 89

CHAPTER IV,

The Indian traditions as received by their nations, 109

CHAPTER V.

Their general character and established customs and habits, 125

CHAPTER VI.

The known religious rites and ceremonies of the Indians, 187

if. CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.

Their public worship and religious opinions, 205

CHAPTER VIII.

Or miscellaneous facts omitted, 229

CHAPTER IX.

The testimony of those who had an opportunity of judging, from the appearance and conduct of the Indians at the first discovery of America, as well as of some who have seen them since, in a state of nature, 245

CHAPTER X.

The Indians have a system of morality among them that is very striking. — They have teachers to in struct them in it — of which they have thought very highly, till of late years, they begin to doubt its efficacy, 259

CHAPTER XL

Separation of the Indian women, 277

CHAPTER XII.

The conclusion, 279

APPENDIX, - 303

THE PREFACE.

A. VERY bright and portentous Star having arisen in the East, making glad the hearts of God's people and urging the friends of Zion to unusual and almost miraculous exertions in spreading the glad tidings of salvation among the distant na tions of the earth ; the compiler of the following sheets, ani mated by this blessed eastern prospect, can no longer with hold the small discovery that has been made of a rising Star ; in the West, from the knowledge of those who are zealous and anxious to behold the returning Messiah coming "in his own glory and the glory of the Father," attended by all the saints ; which star may in the issue, turn out to be Hie star of Jacob9 and become a guide to the long suffering and despised descendants of that eminent patriarch, to find the once hum ble babe of Bethlehem ; as the wise men of the east W7ere of old directed in their distant course, to discover in the stable and the manger, the great object of their adoration, joy and hope, even him who " was born king of the Jews."

For more than two centuries, have the aborigines of Ameri ca engaged the avarice and contempt of those who are com monly called the enlightened nations of the old world. These natives of this wilderness have been always considered by

them as savages and barbarians, and therefore have given

B

them little concern, further than to defraud them of their lands, drive them from the fertile countries on the sea shores, engage them in their wars, and indeed destroy them by thou sands with ardent spirits and fatal disorders unknown to them before. But these enlightened nations have seldom troubled themselves to enquire into their origin, their real circum stances or their future hopes. Great pains have heen taken by traders and others to promote among them every Europe an vice, which has been enforced both by precept and ex ample.

Some exertions indeed, have been made of late years by private societies and individuals, to counteract these unchris tian practices, by endeavouring to teach them the things that belong to their everlasting peace ; but this was not attempted till they were disgusted and soured with the general charac ter and conduct of white men, by which they concluded, that no one bearing their name or appearance, could be actuated by any other principles, than those of misleading, deceiving and betraying them, for the sake of their lands and peltry.

Wherever honest and upright intentions have prevailed to convince their judgments and engage their confidence, though these have, comparatively, been few and feeble, they have generally succeeded, notwithstanding the opposition they often met with from those, who from the worst motives, have thought themselves greatly benefited by their ignorance, humiliation and misery, and who feared that by their reformation, these opposers might be despoiled of their unjust gain.

Blessed be God, that there is yet hope that the day of their visitation is near — -that the day-star from on high, begins to appear, giving joyful hopes that the sun of righteousness will

TKEPACE. iii

soon arise upon them, with healing under his wings. — There is a possibility, that these unhappy children of misfortune, may yet he proved to he the descendants of Jacob and the long lost tribes of Israel* And if so, that though cast off for their heinous transgressions, they have not been altogether forsaken ; and will hereafter appear to have be«n, in all their dispersions and wanderings, the subjects of God's divine pro tection and gracious care.

The following pages are an humble attempt to investigate this important subject, which has been the object of the wri ter's attention for a long time. If he has cast but a mite into the common treasury, he hopes it will not be despised. If it shall lead abler hands and wiser* heads to engage as labourers in the master's vineyard, though it should be at the eleventh hour, he will rejoice, so that God alone may at last receive all the glory.— -He claims no merit in this labour, but that of integrity, attention and industry, in searching after the truth, and preserving the facts which have come to his knowledge^ that others may have all the aid he can afford them in the further pursuit of this interesting investigation*

Yet though he is not entitled to any credit, but as a regis ter of facts, yet he has been much gratified since the comple tion of this work, to find that he is not alone in his sentiments on this unpopular subject.

The following publication taken out of the Analectic Maga zine for February last, is written so much in the style and on the same principles of the following compilation, that the writer of it could not withstand the advantage that might be derived from inserting a copy of the publication in this little

IV PREP ACE.

tract.* — He was rejoiced to know that such despised sufferers, however degraded, had found compassion in other breasts be- - sides his own. Had these unfortunate out-casts from society, been favoured from the first discovery of their country by Europeans, with inquisitive, learned and disinterested his torians, who would have represented them and their cause fully and fairly to posterity, they would have been considered in a very different point of light, from that in which they now appear. That some of their established customs and especial ly their manner of carrying on war, must appear exceedingly barbarous, and even brutal at the present day, to civilized people, the writer cannot doubt, yet if compared with the conduct of the civilized nations of Europe, Asia and Africa, in ten thousand instances, the balance would be greatly in their favour.f Indeed it is an extraordinary fact, that in all the wars in this country between the English and French — Spaniards and Americans, every one in their turn, have uni formly exerted every nerve to engage the Indians to take part with them, and to fight in their own way, on their side. And those who make the greatest cry against their barbari-

* This is done by express permission of the editor of that work, who very po litely consented thereto.

f Plutarch in his Morals, 1 vol. 96, saysthat the Lacedemonians murdered their children who were deformed or had a bad constitution.

The Romans were allowed by Romulus to destroy all their female children, ex cept the eldest. Humau sacrifices were ottered up in almost all the eastern coun tries.

Children were burnt alive by their own parents, and offered to Baal, Moloch, and other pretended deities. Mr. Hume says in his Essay on Political Science; " the most illustrious period of the Roman history considered, in a political >iew, is that between the beginning of the first and the end of the lastpunic war; yet at this very time, the horrid practice of poisoning was so common, that during part of a season, a prcetor punished capitally, for this crime, above three thousand persons in 'A part of (enlightened) Italy, uud fouad informations of this uatui-e still multiplying.

PREFACE. V

ty and inhumanity in carrying on war, are the most forward to furnish them with tomahawks, scalping knives, muskets, i; powder and ball, to increase their detestable mode of warfare. Nay, they have employed every mean in their power, by rum, feasts, harangues, and every provocative, to rouse their un bridled passions, increase their thirst for blood, and force them on to the destruction of their fellow men. They have forgotten the conclusive adage, " qui /adt per alium facit per se."* Must not such people be answerable to the great judge of all the earth for this conduct.

I shall not further detain the reader, but give him the pub lication in the writer's own words.

f

TRAITS OF ItfDIAN CHARACTER.

" In the present times, when popular feeling is gradually be- | coming hardened by war, and selfish by the frequent jeopar- i dy of life or property, it is certainly an inauspicious moment to speak in behalf of a race of beings, whose very existence has been pronounced detrimental to public security. But it is good at all times to raise the voice of truth, however feeble; to endeavor if possible to mitigate the fury of passion and prejudice, and to turn aside the bloody hand of violence. Lit tle interest, however, can probably be awakened at present, in favor of the misguided tribes of Indians that have been drawn into the present war. The rights of the savage have- seldom been deeply appreciated by the white man — in peace he is the dupe of mercenary rapacity ; in war he is regarded as a ferocious animal, whose death is a question of mere pre caution and convenience. Man is cruelly wasteful of life when

* He \vl>o does a thing by another, docs it by himself.

VI PREFACE,

his own safety is endangered and he is sheltered by impunity — and little mercy is to be expected from him who feels the sting of the reptile, and is conscious of the power to destroy.

" It has been the lot of the unfortunate aborigines of this country, to be doubly wronged by the white men — first, driven from their native soil by the sword of the invader, and then darkly slandered by the pen of the historian. Tli€ former has treated them like beasts of the forest ; the latter has written volumes to justify him in his outrages. The former found it easier to exterminate than to civilize; the latter to abuse than to discriminate. The hideous appellations of savage and pagan, were sufficient to sanction the deadly hostilities of both ; and the poor wanderers of the forest were persecuted and dishonored, not because they were guilty, but because they were ignorant. V

« The same prejudices seem to exist, in common circula tion, at the present day. We form our opinions of the Indian character from the miserable hordes that infest our frontiers. These, however, are degenerate beings, enfeebled by the vices of society, without being benefited by its arts of living. The independence of thought and action, that formed the main pil lar of their character, has been completely prostrated, and the whole moral fabric lies in ruins. Their spirits are debased by conscious inferiority, and their native courage completely daunted by the superior knowledge and power of their en lightened neighbours. Society has advanced upon them like a many- headed monster, breathing every variety of misery. Before it, went forth pestilence, famine and the sword; and in its train came the slow, but exterminating curse of trade. \Vhat the former did not sweep away, the latter has gradually

PREFACE. V

blighted. It lias increased their wants, without increasing the means of gratification. It has enervated their strength, multiplied their diseases, blasted the powers of their minds, and superinduced on their original barbarity the low vices of civilization. Poverty, repining and hopeless poverty — a cank er of the mind unknown to sylvan life— corrodes their very hearts.-^rhey loiter like vagrants through the settlements, among spacious habitations replete \vith artificial comforts, which only render them sensible of the comparative wretch edness of their own condition. Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes, but they are expelled from the ban quet. The forest which once furnished them with ample means of subsistence has been levelled to the ground — waving fields of grain have sprung up in its place; but they have no participation in the harvest; plenty revels around them, but they -are starving amidst its stores; the whole wilderness blossoms like a garden, but they feel like the reptiles that in fest it.

" How different was their case while yet the undisputed lords of the soil. Their wants were few, and the means of gratifying them within their reach. They saw every one around them sharing the same lot, enduring the same hard ships, living in the same cabins, feeding on the same aliments, arrayed in the same rude garments. No roof then rose, but what was open to the houseless stranger; no smoke curled among the trees, but he was welcome to sit down by its fire, and join the hunter in his repast. " For," says an old his torian of New-England, « their life is so void of care, and they are so loving also, that they make use of those things they . enjoy as common goods, and are therein so compassionate that

Yin PREFAB.

rather than one should starve through want, they would starve all : thus do they pass their time merrily, not regarding our pomp, hut are better content with their own, which some men esteem so meanly of." Such were the Indians while in the pride and energy of primitive simplicity : they resemble those wild plants that thrive best in the shades of the forest, but which shrink from the hand of cultivation, and perish beneath the influence of the sun. '.'

" In the general mode of estimating the savage character, we may perceive a vast degree of vulgar prejudice, and pas sionate exaggeration, without any of the temperate discussion of true philosophy. No allowance is made for the difference of circumstances, and the operations of principles under which they have been educated. Virtue and vice, though radically the, same, yet differ widely in their influence on human con duct, according to the habits and maxims of the society in which the individual is reared. No being acts more rigidly from rule than the Indian. His whole conduct is regulated according to some general maxims early implanted in his mind. The moral laws that govern him, to be sure, are but few, but then he conforms to them all. The white man abounds in laws of religion, morals, and manners ; but how many does he violate ?

« A common cause of accusation against the Indians is, the iaithlessness of their friendships, and their sudden provoca tions to hostility. But we do not make allowance for their peculiar modes of thinking and feeling, and the principles by which they are governed. Besides, the friendship of the whites towards the poor Indians, was ever cold, distrustful, oppressive, and insulting. In the intercourse with our fron-

PREFACE. IX

tiers they are seldom treated with confidence, and are fre quently subject to injury and encroachment. The solitary savage feels silently but acutely; his sensibilities are not dif fused over so wide a surface as those of the white man, hut they run in steadier and deeper channels. His pride, his af fections, his superstitions, are all directed towards fewer ob jects, but the wounds inflicted on them are proportionably se vere, and furnish motives of hostility which we cannot suf ficiently appreciate. Where a community is also limited in number, and forms, as in an Indian tribe, one great patri archal family, the injury of the individual is the injury of the whole; and as their body politic is small, the sentiment of vengeance is almost instantaneously diffused. One council fire is sufficient to decide the measure. Eloquence and su perstition combine to inflame their minds. The orator awak ens all their martial ardour, and they are wrought up to a kind of religious desperation, by the visions of the prophet and the dreamer.

" An instance of one of these sudden exasperations, arising from a motive peculiar to the Indian character, is extant in an old record of the early settlement of Massachusetts. The planters of Plymouth had defaced the monuments of the dead at Passonagcssit, and had plundered the grave of the sachem's mother of some skins with which it had been piously decorated. Every one knows the hallowed reverence which the Indians entertain for the sepulchres of their kindred. Even now, tribes that have passed generations, exiled from the abodes of their ancestors, when by chance they have been travelling, on some mission, to our seat of government, have been known to turn aside from the highway for many miles distance, and

X PREFACE.

guided by wonderful accurate tradition, have sought some tumulus, buried perhaps in woods, where the hones of their tribe were anciently deposited; and there have passed some time in silent lamentation over the ashes of their forefathers. Influenced hy this sublime and holy feeling, the sachem, whose mother's tomb had been violated, in the moment of indignation, gathered his men together, and addressed them in the follow ing beautifully simple and pathetic harangue — an harangue which has remained unquoted for nearly two hundred years — a pure specimen of Indian eloquence, and an affecting monu ment of filial piety in a savage. *"~

« When last the glorious light of all the sky was underneath this globe, and birds grew silent, I began to settle, as my custom is, to take repose. Before mine eyes were fast closed, methought I saw a vision, at which my spirit was much troubled, and, trembling at that doleful sight, a spirit cried aloud — behold my son, whom I have cherished ; see the breasts that gave thee suck, the hands that lapped thee warm and fed thce oft I canst thou forget to take revenge of those wild peo ple, who have defaced my monument in a despiteful manner, disdaining our antiquities and honorable customs. See now, the sachem's grave lies like the common people, defaced by an ignoble race. Thy mother doth complain, and implores thy aid against this thievish people, who have newly intruded in our land. If this be suffered I shall not rest quiet in my everlasting habitation. — This said, the spirit vanished, and I, all in a sweat, not able scarce to speak, began to get some strength and recollect my spirits that wrcre fled, and deter mined to demand your counsel, and solicit your assistance.""

TR-EtfACJG. XI

'" Another cause of violent outcry against the Indians, is their inhumanity to the vanquished. This originally arose partly from political and partly from superstitious motives. Where hostile tribes are scanty in their numbers, the death of several warriors completely paralyzes their power ; and many an in stance occurs in Indian history, where a hostile tribe, that had long been formidable to its neighbour, has been broken up and driven away, by the capture and massacre of its principal fighting men. This is a strong temptation to the victor to be. merciless, not so much to gratify any cruelty of revenge, as to provide for future security. But they had other motives, originating in a superstitious idea, coi»mon to barbarous na tions, and even prevalent among the Greeks and Romans— that the manes of their deceased friends, slain in battle, were soothed by the blood of the captives. But those that are not thus sacrificed are adopted into their families, and treated with the confidence and affection of relatives and friends; nay, so hospitable and tender is their entertainment, that they will often prefer to remain with their adopted brethren, rather than return to the home and the friends of their youth.

" The inhumanity of the Indians towards their prisoners has been heightened since the intrusion of the whites. We liavc exasperated what was formerly a compliance with policy and superstition into a gratification of vengeance. They cannot but be sensible that we are the usurpers of their ancient do^ minion, the cause of their degradation, and the gradual de stroyers of their race. They go forth to battle, smarting with injuries and indignities which they have individually suffered from the injustice and the arrogance of white men, and they are driven to madness and despair, by the wide-spreading

Xli PREFACE.

desolation and the overwhelming ruin of our warfare. We set them an example of violence, by burning their villages and laying waste their slender means of subsistence; and then wonder that savages will not show moderation and magna nimity towards men, who have left them nothing but mere ex istence and wretchedness.

66 It is a common thing to exclaim against new forms of cruelty, while, reconciled by custom, we wink at long estab lished atrocities. What right does the generosity of our con duct give us to rail exclusively at Indian warfare. Witli all the doctrines of Christianity, and the advantages of cultivated morals, to govern and direct us, what horrid crimes disgrace the victories of Christian armies. Towns laid in ashes ; cities given up to the sword; enormities perpetrated, at which man hood blushes, and history drops the pen. ; Well may we ex claim at the outrages of the scalping knife ; but where, in the records of Indian barbarity, can we point to a violated female ?

" We stigmatize the Indians also as cowardly and treach erous, because they use stratagem in warfare, in preference to open force ; but in this they are fully authorized by their rude code of honor. They are early taugbt that stratagem is praiseworthy; the bravest warrior thinks it no disgrace to lurk in silence and take every advantage of his foe. He tri umphs in the superior craft and sagacity by which he has been enabled to surprise and massacre an enemy. Indeed., man is naturally more prone to subtlety than open valor, owing to his physical weakness in comparison with other animals. They are endowed with natural weapons of defence; with horns, with tusks, with hoofs and talons; but man has to depend on his superior sagacity. In all his encounters, therefore, with

PKEFACjE. Xlii

these, his proper enemies, lie has to resort to stratagem ; and w hen he perversely turns his hostility against his fellow man, he continues the same suhtle mode of warfare.

" The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy, with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to he effected by cunning. That cbivalric kind of courage which teaches us to despise the suggestions of pru dence, and to rush in the face of certain danger, is the off spring of society, and produced by education. It is honorable, because in fact it is the triumph of lofty sentiment over an in stinctive repugnance to pain, and over those selfish yearn- ings after personal ease and security which society has con demned as ignoble. It is an emotion kept up by pride, and tiie fear of shame; and thus the dread of real evils is over come by the superior dread of an evil that exists but in the mind. This may be instanced in the case of a young British officer of great pride, but delicate nerves, who was going for the first time into battle. Being agitated by the novelty and awful peril of the scene, he was accosted by another officer of a rough and boisterous character — " What, sir," cried he, « do you tremble ?" " Yes sir," replied the other, « and if you were half as much afraid as I am you would run away." This young officer signalized himself on many occasions by his gallantry, though, had he been brought up in savage life, or even in a humbler and less responsible situation, it is more than probable he could never have ventured into open action.

" Besides we must consider how much the quality of open and desperate courage is cherished and stimulated by society. It has been the theme of many a spirit-stirring song, and chival- ric story. The minstrel has sung of it to the loftiest strain

XIV PREFACE.

of his lyre — the poet has delighted to shed around it all the splendours of fiction— ^and even the historian has forgotten the sober gravity of narration, and hurst forth into enthusiasm and rhapsody in its praise. Triumphs and gorgeous pageants Lave heen its reward — monuments, where art has exhausted its skill, and opulence its treasures, have been erected to per petuate a nation's gratitude and admiration. Thus artificial ly excited, courage has arisen to an extraordinary and facti tious degree of heroism ; and, arrayed in all the glorious <•' pomp and circumstance" of war, this turbulent quality has even been able to eclipse many of those quiet, but invaluable virtues, which silently ennoble the human character, and swell the tide of human happiness. — ^

" But if courage intrinsically consist in the defiance of dan ger and pain, the life of the Indian is a continual exhibition of it. He lives in a perpetual state of hostility and risk. — Peril and adventure are congenial to his nature, or, rather, seem necessary to arouse his faculties and give an interest to existence. Surrounded by hostile tribes, he is always equip ped for fight, with his v/eapons in his hands. VHe traverses vast wildernesses, exposed to the hazards of lonely sickness, of lurking enemies, or pining famine. Stormy lakes present no obstacle to his wanderings 5 in his light canoe of bark, he sports like a feather on their waves, and darts with the swift ness of an arrow down the roaring rapids of the rivers. — Trackless wrastes of snow, rugged mountains, the glooms of swamps and morasses, where poisonous reptiles curl among the rank vegetation, are fearlessly encountered by this wan derer of the wilderness. lie gains his food by the hardships and dangers of the chase ; Ue wraps himself in the spoils of

PREFACE. XV

the bear, the panther, and the buffalo, and sleeps among the thunders of the cataract.

« No hero of ancient or modern days can surpass the In dian in his lofty contempt of death, and the fortitude with which he sustains all the varied torments with which it is fre quently inflicted. Indeed we here behold him rising superior to the white man, merely in consequence of his peculiar edu cation. The latter rushes to glorious 'death at the cannon^ mouth ; the former coolly contemplates its approach, and tri- nmphantly endures it, anfid the torments of the knife and the protracted agonies of fire. He even takes a savage delight in taunting his persecutors, and provoking their ingenuity of tor ture ; and as the devouring flames prey on his very vitals, and the flesh shrinks from the sine\vs,j he raises his last song of triumph, breathing the defiance of an imconquered heart, arid invoking the spirits of his fathers to witness that he dies without a groan.

66 Notwithstanding all the obloquy with which the early his torians of the colonies have Overshadowed the characters of the unfortunate natives, some bright gleams will occasionally break through, that throw a degree of melancholy lustre on their memories. Facts are occasionally to be met with, in their rude annals, which, though recorded with all the colouring of prejudice and bigotry, yet speak for themselves ; and will be dwelt on with applause and sympathy, when prejudice shall have passed away.

" In one of the homely narratives of the Indian wars in New-England, there is a touching account of the desolation carried into the tribe of the Pequod Indians. Humanity shud* ders at the cold-blooded accounts given, of indiscriminate

XVI PKEFACE.

butchery on the part of tke settlers. In one place we read of Hie surprisal of an Indian fort in the night, when the wigwams were wrapped in flames, and the miserable inhabitants shot down and slain, in attempting to escape, « all being despatch ed and ended in the course of an hour." After a series of similar transactions, " Our soldiers," as the historian piously observes, " being resolved by God's assistance to make a final destruction of them," the unhappy savages being hunted from their homes and fortresses, and pursued with fire and sword, a scanty but gallant band, the sad remnant of the Pequod warriors, with their wives and children, took refuge in a swamp.

"Burning with indignation, and rendered sullen by des pair — with hearts bursting with grief at the destruction of their tribe, and spirits galled and sore at the fancied ignominy of their defeat, they refused to ask their lives at the hands of an insulting foe, and preferred death to submission.

« As the night drew on they were surrounded in their dis mal retreat, in such manner as to render escape impracticable. Thus situated, their enemy « plied them with shot all the time, by which means many were killed and buried in the mire." In the darkness and fog that precedes the dawn of day, some few broke through the besiegers and escaped into the woods : « the rest were left to the conquerors, of which many were killed in the swamp, like sullen dogs who would rather, in their self-willedness and madness, sit still and be shot through, or cut to pieces," than implore for mercy. When the day broke upon this handful of forlorn, but dauntless spirits, the soldiers, we are told, entering the swamp, « saw several heaps of them sitting close together, upon whom they discharged

PREFACE* XVli

their pieces, laden with ten or twelve pistol hullets at a time ; putting the muzzles of their pieces under the houghs, within a few yards of them ; so as, besides those that were found dead, many more were killed and sunk into the mire, and never were minded more by friend or foe."

" Can any one read this plain unvarnished tale, without ad miring the stern resolution, the unbending pride, and loftiness of spirit, that seemed to nerve the hearts of these self-taught heroes, and to raise them above the instinctive feelings of hu man nature ? When the Gauls laid wraste the city of Rome, they found the nobles clothed in their robes, and seated with stern tranquility in their curule chairs ; in this manner they suffered death without an attempt at supplication or resistance. Such conduct in them was applauded as noble and magnani mous ; in the hapless Indians it was reviled as obstinate and sullen. How much are we the dupes of show and circum stance ! How different is virtue, arrayed in purple and en throned in state, from virtue, destitute and naked, reduced to the last stage of wretchedness, and perishing obscurely in a wilderness.

" Do these records of ancient excesses fill us with disgust and aversion ? Let us take heed that we do not suffer ourselves to be hurried into the same iniquities. Posterity lifts up its hands with horror at past misdeeds, because the passions that urged to them are not felt, and the arguments that persuaded to them are forgotten ; but we are reconciled to the present perpetration of injustice by all the selfish motives with which interest chills the heart and silences the conscience. Even at the present advanced day, when we should suppose that en lightened philosophy had expanded our minds, and true reji-

XVill PREFACE.

gion had wanned our hearts into philanthropy — when we have been admonished by a sense of past transgressions, and in structed by the indignant censures of candid history — even now, we perceive a disposition breaking out to renew the per secutions of these hapless beings. Sober-thoughted men, far from the scenes of danger, in the security of cities and popu lous regions, can coolly talk of " exterminating measures," and discuss the policy of extirpating thousands. If such is the talk in the cities, what is the temper displayed on the borders ? The sentence of desolation has gone forth — " the roar is up amidst the woods ;" implacable wrath, goaded on by interest and prejudice, is ready to confound all rights, to trample on all claims of justice and humanity, and to act over those scenes of sanguinary vengeance which have too often stained the pages of colonial history.

« These are not the idle suggestions of fancy ; they are wrung forth by recent facts, which still haunt the public mind. "We need but turn to the ravaged country of the Creeks to be hold a picture of exterminating warfare.

" These deluded savages, either excited by private injury or private intrigue, or by both, have lately taken up the hatch et and made deadly inroads into our frontier settlements. — Their punishment has been pitiless and terrible. Vengeance has gone like a devouring fire through their country — the smoke of their villages yet rises to heaven, and the blood of the slaughtered Indians yet reeks upon the earth. Of this merciless ravage, an idea may be formed by a single exploit, boastfully set forth in an official letter that has darkened our public journals.* A detachment of soldiery had been sent un-

* Letter of gen. Coffee, dated Nov. 4, 1 81-3.

PREFACE.

der the command of one general Coffee to destroy the Tallus- liatches towns, where the hostile Creeks had assembled. The enterprise was executed, as the commander in chief* express es it, in stijte—* but, in the name of mercy, in what style ! The towns were surrounded before the break of day. The inhabi tants, starting from their sleep, flew to arms, with beat of drums and hideous yellings. The soldiery pressed upon them on every side, and met with a desperate resistance — but what was savage valour against the array and discipline of scientific warfare ? The Creeks made gallant charges, but were beat en back by overwhelming numbers. Hemmed in like savage beasts surrounded by the hunters, wherever they turned they met a foe, and in every foe they found a butcher. "The ene my retreated firing," says Coffee in his letter, « until they got around and in their buildings, where they made all the resistance that an overpowered soldier could do ; they fought as long as one existed, but their destruction was very soon completed; our men rushed up to the doors of the houses, and in a few minutes killed the last warrior of them ; the enemy fought with savage fury, and met death with all its horrors, without shrinking or complaining ; not one asked to be spar ed, but fought so long as they could stand or sit. In conse quence of their flying to their houses, and mixing with the families, our men in killing the males, without intention, kill ed and wounded a few of the squaivs and children"

" So unsparing was the carnage of the sword, that not one of the warriors escaped to carry the heart-breaking tidings to the remainder of the tribe. Such is what is termed execut ing hostilities in style ! — Let those who exclaim with abhor-

* Gen. Andrew Jasksdn.

XX PREFACE.

rence at Indian inroads — those who are so eloquent about the bitterness of Indian recrimination — let them turn to the hor rible victory of general Coffee, and be silent.

" As yet our government has in some measure restrained the tide of vengeance, and inculcated lenity towards the hap less Indians who have been duped into the present war. Such temper is worthy of an enlightened government — let it still be observed — let sharp rebuke and signal punishment be inflict ed on those who abuse their delegated power, and disgrace their victories with massacre and conflagration. The enormi ties of the Indians form no excuse for the enormities of white men.; It has pleased heaven to give them but limited powers of mind, and feeble lights to guide their judgments; it be comes us who are blessed with higher intellects to think for them, and to set them an example of humanity. It is the na ture of vengeance, if unrestrained, to be headlong in its ac tions, and to lay up, in a moment of passion, ample cause foi1 an age's repentance. We may roll over these miserable be ings with our chariot wheels, and crush them to the earth ; but when war has done its worst — when passion has subsided, and it is too late to pity or to save — we shall look back with unavailing compunction at the mangled corses of those whose cries were unheeded in the fury of our career. ^

" Let the fate of war go as it may, the fate of those igno rant tribes that have been inveigled from their forests to min gle in the strife of white men, will be inevitably the same. In the collision of two powerful nations, these intervening parti cles of population will be crumbled to dust, and scattered to the winds of heaven. In a little while, and they will go the way that so many tribes have gone before. The few hordes

PREFACE. XX*

that still linger about the shores of Huron and Superiour, and the tributary streams of the Mississippi, will share the fate of those tribes that once lorded it along the proud banks of the Hudson ; of that gigantic race that are said to have existed on the borders of the Susquehanna, and of those various nations that flourished about the Potowmac and the Rappahanoc, and that peopled the forests of the vast valley Shenandoah. They will vanish like a vapour from the face of 'the earth — their very history will be lost in forgetfulness — and " the places that now know them, will know them no more forever."

" Or if perchance some dubious memorial of them should survive the lapse of time, it may be in the romantic dreams of the poet, to populate in imagination his glades and groves, like the fauns, and satyrs, and sylvan deities of antiquity. But should he venture upon the dark story of their wrongs and wretchedess — should he tell how they were invaded, corrupt ed, despoiled— driven from their native abodes and the sepul chres of their fathers — hunted like wild beasts about the earth, and sent down in violence and butchery to the grave — poster ity will either turn with horror and incredulity from the tale, or blush with indignation at the inhumanity of their forefath ers. — " We are driven back," said an old warrior, " until we can retreat no further — our hatchets are broken — our bows are snapped — our fires are nearly extinguished — a little lon ger and the white men will cease to persecute us — for we will cease to exist !"

INTRODUCTION.

JH.OWEVER despised the nation of the Hebrews were among the Greeks, Romans and others 'of their neighbours, during the existence of their civil government, and by all the nations of the earth ever since, there can be no doubt now, that they have been and still are the most remarkable people that have existed since the first century after the flood.

It does appear from their history, and from the holy scrip tures, that the great Governor of the Universe, in his infinite* wisdom and mercy to our fallen race, did select this nation, from all the nations of the earth, as his peculiar people, not only to hand down to mankind at large, the great doctrine of the unity of his divine nature, with the principles of the wor ship due to him by intelligent creatures — the universal de pravity of man by the fall of Adam, with the blessed means of his restoration to the favour of God, by the shedding of blood, without which there could be no forgiveness of sin. But also that through them the means and manner of the atone ment for sin by the promised Messiah, who was to be sent in to our world in the fulness of time, for this invaluable purpose, and who was to be A divine person and literally become the desire of all nations, should be propagated and made known to all mankind, preparatory to his coming in the flesh. And that afterwards, this people should be supported and proved in all ages of the world, by means of their miraculous preser-

24 INTRODUCTION.

vation against all the experience of other nations. For wliile dispersed through the world without a spot of land they could properly call their own, and despised and persecuted in every part of it, yet they have continued a separate people, known hy their countenances, while their enemies and conquerors have wasted away and are, as it were, lost from the earth, in ful filment of the declarations of their prophets, inspired by God, to the astonishment of all nations.

This people was also a living example to the world of the dealings of Divine Providence towards the workmanship of his hands, hy rewarding their obedience in a very extraordinary manner, and punishing their wilful transgressions hy the most exemplary sufferings.

Though he often declared them his peculiar — Ms chosen — his elect people — nay that he esteemed them as the apple of his eye, for the sake of his servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their pro genitors, yet he has fully shewn to the world, that however dear a people might be to him as their governor and king, or by adoption, that no external situation or special circumstan ces would ever lead him to countenance sin, or leave it unpun ished, without a suitable atonement and deep repentance.

They also answered, but in a stronger manner, the use of hieroglyphics and figures, as a universal language, to in struct all mankind in the mind and will of God, before letters were in general use, and had this knowledge been properly improved, would have been more effectual, than instruction by word of mouth or personal address.

God has acknowledged them by express revelation — by prophecies, forewarning them of what should befall them in fhe world, accordingly as they kept his commandments, oi»

INTRODUCTION. 25

were disobedient to them, until their final restoration to the promised land. In short, their long dispersed state, with their severe persecutions, and still continuing a separate people among all nations, are standing, unanswerable and miraculous proofs of their sacred writings, and a complete fulfilment of the many prophecies concerning them, some thousands of years past.

Another essential purpose, in the coarse of God's providence with his people is also to be produced. The restoration of this suffering and despised nation to their ancient city and their former standing in the favour of God, with a great in crease of glory and happiness, are expressly foretold by Christ, his prophets and apostles, as immediately preceding the se cond coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to this our earth, with his saints and angels, in his own glory as media tor, and the glory of the father, or of his divine nature, plainly distinguished from that humility and abasement attending his first coming in the flesh* Of course, whenever this restora tion shall come to pass, it will be so convincing and convict ing a testimony of the truth and certainty of the whole plan and predictions of the sacred record, as powerfully to affect all the nations of the earth, and bring them to the acknow ledgment of the true God, even our Lord Jesus the Christ.

For, as Bishop Warburton justly asks, « Is the explanation of the ceconomy of grace, in which is contained the system of prophecy ; that is, the connection and dependance of the pro phecies of the several ages of the church of God, of no use ? Surely of the greatest, and I am confident nothing but the light which will arise from thence, will support Christianity

under its present circumstances. But the contending for sin-

E

26 INTRODUCTION.

gle prophecies only, by one who thinks they relate to Christ in a secondary sense, only, and who appears to have no high opinion of secondary senses, looks very suspicious."

Had all the great facts of revelation happened several thou sand years ago, and the proof of their reality been ever so conclusive at the time, and nothing more done, hut barely to hand them down to posterity as then believed in the testimo ny for their support at a given period from their fulfilment, would have lost all its weight; and the world might justly have been excused for doubting of their credibility. But God, in his great mercy, has now left the children of men without excuse ; because he has so ordered it, in his infinite wisdom, that the farther we recede from the facts, the more do the ev idences increase upon us. And this existence of the Jews, as a separate people, under all their afflictions and distresses, and that scattered among almost every nation on earth, is not among the least conclusive ; but is like the manna, kept in the ark in a str*te of purity, which was undeniable evidence of the facts related in their history to the succeeding generations, while the temple lasted. So that now, no reasonable man of common abilities, who studies that history, and their present circumstances in the world, with impartiality, care and close attention, attended by a real desire of knowing the truth, can long doubt the divinity of the sacred volume.

To investigate then the present state and circumstances of this extraordinary people — to examine into their general his tory, in as concise a manner as may answer our general plan — and to enquire after the ten tribes, which formerly constitut ed the kingdom of Israel, that now appear to be lost from the earth, must be an undertaking (however difficult and unprom-

INTRODUCTION. 27

ising) worthy the time and labour, which may be necessari ly expended therein.

The writer of these sheets must acknowledge himself une qual to the task ; but having been for years, endeavouring, but in vain, to urge more able hands to turn their attention to this important subject, he has at last determined to attempt it, under all his difficulties and deficiencies, on the principle, that he may possibly, by drawing the outlines, call the aid of some learned and more able pen into this service, being in his opin ion of the utmost consequence to the present generation in par ticular, as that era in which the latter times, the last times of the scriptures, or the end of the Roman government, seem to be hastening with rapifl strides.

This subject receives great additional importance from its prophetic connection, as before mentioned, with the second ad vent of the glorified Messiah, as son of God, to this our world, in fulfilment of his own gracious promises in his holy word : the signs of the approach of which, lie has expressly command ed us to watch, lest wiicn he comes, as he will, in as unex pected a manner as a thief in the night, we may be found sleeping on our post with the foolish virgins, without oil in our lamps.

This subject has occupied tjie attention of the writer, at times, for more than forty years. He was led to the consider ation of it, in the first instance, by a conversation with a very worthy and reverend clergyman of his acquaintance, who, having an independent fortune, undertook a journey (in com pany with a brother clergyman, who was desirous of. attend- ing him) into the wilderness between the Alleghany and Mis- sisippi rivers, some time in or about the years 1765 or 0, be-

28 INTRODUCTION.

fore the white people had settled beyond the Laurel Mountain, His desire was to meet with native Indians, who had never seen a white man, that he might satisfy his curiosity by know ing from the best source, what traditions the Indians yet pre served relative to their own history and origin. This, these gentlemen accomplished with great danger, risque and fa tigue. On their return one of them related to the writer the information they had obtained, what they saw, and what they heard.

This raised in the writer's mind such an idea of some for mer connection between these aborigines of our land, and the Jewish nation, as greatly to increase a desire for further in formation on so interesting and curious a subject.

Soon after, reading (quite accidentally) the 13th chapter of the 2d apochryphal book of Esdras, supposed to have been written about the year 100, of the Christian era, his ardour to know more of, and to seek further into the circumstances of these lost tribes, was in no wise diminished. He has not ceas ed since, to improve every opportunity afforded him, by per sonal interviews with Indians — reading the best histories re lating to them, and carefully examining our public agents res ident among them, as to facts reported in the several histories, without letting them know his object, so as not only to gratify his curiosity, by obtaining all the knowledge relating to them in his power, but also to guard against misrepresentation as to any account he might thereafter be tempted to give of them. His design at present is, if by the blessing of Almighty God his life, now far advanced, should be spared a little longer, to give some brief sketches of what he has learned, in this im portant inquiry, lest the facts he has collected should be en-

INTRODUCTION. 29

tirely lost, as he feels himself culpable for putting off this bu siness to so advanced a period of life, as to leave him but small hopes of accomplishing his intentions.

He does not mean to attempt to solve all the difficulties, or answer all the objections that may very probably attend this investigation. It must be obvious to every attentive reader, who considers the length of time since the first dispersion of the ten tribes of Israel — the wandering and destitute state of the Indian nations — their entire separation from all civilized society — their total want of the knowledge of letters or of writ ing — the strange inattention of most of the Europeans, who first settled among them, to record facts relating to them, and the falsehood and deception of many of the few who did at tempt it — the difficulties attending the obtaining a critical knowledge of their language, customs and traditions, arising from a prudent, though a violent jealousy and fear of the white people, from whom they have received little else but irre parable injuries, wanton destruction and extreme sufferings. It must be allowed that under such untoward circumstances, many unsurmountable difficulties must arise, that cannot be avoided.

In the prosecution of this compilation, the writer will avail himself of the best accounts given by the Spanish writers, lie can meet with-— the histories written by our own people who first visited this land, or have since made themselves acquaint ed with the native inhabitants, and recorded any thing rela tive to their languages, customs, manners and habits, such as Golden, Adair, Brainerd, Edwards, jun. on the language of the Mohegans— also of the information received from the Rev.

30 INTRODUCTION.

Dr. Beatty, Bartram, and others, of their personal observa tions, while with the Indians.

The writer is aware that sir William Jones, whose charac ter stands so high in the literary world, has endeavoured to shew that lie has discovered the tribes of Israel in the Afghans of the eastern world, and he produces the account given by Es- dras in proof of it — And although the writer would pay the utmost respect to the learning and judgment of that excellent man, and would not dispute the Afghans being of Jewish de scent; yet sir William himself, in his abridgement of a Per sian work, entitled The secrets of the Afghans, transmitted to him by Mr. Vansittart, informs us, that this people, in rela ting their own story, profess to be descended from king Saul. And they say, that Afghan lived in the time of David and Solomon, and finally retreated to the mountains, where his descendants became independent, and exterminated the infi dels, meaning the heathen. Now, in the first place, Saul was not an Israelite, but the son of Kish, a Benjamite, and there fore may well be found in the east; but not of the tribes of Is rael.* Secondly. — If we look carefully into the account given by Esdras (and sir William has given authenticity to his ac count) we find that the ten tribes he speaks of, were carried away by Salmanazar, and it is agreed on all hands, that he sent them unto the countries near the Euxine sea. And Es dras says they determined to go to a place where they might keep their laws and remain undisturbed by the heathen ; but if they had gone eastward, they would have been in the midst of them. Thirdly. — They travelled a great way to an unin habited country, in which mankind never yet dwelt, and

* Vid. I Samuel, 9th chap. I & 2. (

INTRODUCTION. 31

passed a great water, but the eastern country, even in that early day, was well inhabited. These facts do not agree with the account given of the Afghans, who from their own state ment, belong to another tribe and lived in Persia, from whence they can return to Jerusalem without passing by sea or from the coasts of the earth.

STAR IN THE WEST,

CHAPTER I. Of the slate of the Jews.

would imagine, from reasoning on the importance of this nation to the world at large — from the many clear and precise histories of them from the time of Abraham their great progenitor, and from the many great and glorious promises made to them and their posterity by a God of truth and faith fulness, on condition of strict obedience to his laws as contain ed in the divine scriptures, that every person of leisure and observation would wish to become intimately acquainted with the minute circumstances attendant upon them from age to age. But such is the nature of man— .such his indolence arid inattention to things, however important, that relate to distant objects and not present enjoyments, that judging from actual experience, the state of this people, and their hastening res toration to their beloved city, and to more than their former celebrity and happiness, engages but (comparatively) few, even of those whose constant business in propagating the gos pel, ought to have led them, with peculiar energy, to have

made them their diligent study.

F

3* A STAR IN THE WEST.

Indeed, the delays the writer himself has made in this busi ness, under a full conviction of the necessity of it, is pretty good evidence of the tendency of the human heart to avoid active usefulness. It is well known to all historians and read ers of the old testament, that God brought this nation of the Jews from the land of Egypt in a miraculous manner, with many signs and wonders, through a barren and desolate wil derness, in the space of forty years. That he went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. That he gave them laws, written by the finger of God, and prom* ised them glorious things in case of obedience ; but pronounced the most awful threatenings of misery and destruction in case of disobedience and forsaking his laws. That he became their political king and governor by express, personal consent, and mutual compact, in a different sense from that in which he stood to the rest of mankind, by which they were put under a complete theocracy. This continued till Shiloh came, accord ing to the prophetic declaration, when the government of the universal church of both Jews and Gentiles descended upon him.

It may be said, that the Jews were long governed by judges and kings after their possession of Canaan. But these were not of their appointment, but of the appointment of God under him, as his substitutes or vicegerents. — See 2 Chron. ix. and 8 — « Blessed be the Lord thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on his throne to be king for the Lord thy God." — 1 Sam. viii. and 7. — " And the Lord said unto Samuel, heark en unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee; but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.'5 Also Chron. xiii. and 8.

A STAR IN THE WEST. Sir

*»'And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord, in the hands of the sons of David." Yet such was their consti tutional ohstinacy and hardness of heart, that after experi encing the most unbounded favors from God, hy the fullest and most miraculous protection and signal interpositions in their favor, by driving out the Canaanites before them and placing them in the promised land, which is described as flowing with milk and honey, they continually broke their solemn cove nant and opposed the express and positive commands of God himself, givem and enforced in all the majesty of Jehovah, through the instrumentality of Moses and Aaron. Moses though the meekest man on earth, became wearied out by their perverseness and rebellion. In the words of an excel lent writer,* " there is nothing deserves more particular at tention than the spirit and behaviour of the Israelites in the wilderness. A very remarkable instance of the wretched effects of servitude upon the human soul. They had been slaves to the Egyptians for about 140 years 5 their spirits were debased, their judgments weak ; their sense of God and religion very low ; they were defective in attention, gratitude and generosity ; full of distrust and uneasy suspicions ; com plaining and murmuring under the most astonishing displays of divine power and goodness, as if still under the frowns and scourges of their unjust task-masters ; could scarce raise their thoughts to prospects the most pleasing and joyous. They knew not how to value the blessings of liberty — of a taste so mean and illiberal that the flesh and fish, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, garlic, and such good things of

* Taylor's scheme, Watsons Col. 1 Vol. 114

36 A STAR IN THE WEST.

Egypt, weighed more with them, than the hread from heaven, (Numb. xi. 4 — 6) And all the divine assurances and demon strations that they should he raised to the nohlest privileges, the highest honours and felicity, as a peculiar treasure to God above all people in the world. In short nothing would do. The ill qualities of slavery were ingrained in their hearts— a grovelling, thoughtless, sturdy, dastardly spirit, fatigued the divine patience, counteracted and defeated all his wise and beneficent measures; they could not be worked up to that sense of God ; that esteem of his highest favours ; that grati tude and generous dutifulness ; that magnanimity of spirit which were necessary to their conquering and enjoying the promised land ; and therefore the wisdom of God, determin ed that they should not attempt the possession of it, till that generation of slaves, namely, all above 20 years of age, were dead and buried. However, this did not lie out of the divine plan. It served a great purpose, namely, to warn that, and all future ages of the church, both Jewish and Christian, that if they despise and abuse the goodness of God, and the noble privileges and prospects they enjoy, they shall forfeit the benefit of them. And the apostle applieth it to this very im portant use, with great force and propriety, in his epistle to the Hebrews." — ii. chap. 15, to the end — iv. 1 — 12.

Thus it was that Moses being thoroughly acquainted with their untoward dispositions, and tendency to revolt to the wicked and ridiculous inventions of the nations around them, and being inspired with a spirit of prophecy, he in very sub lime language, warned them of their danger, plainly telling them, if they would obey the voice of the Lord their God in deed, and keep his covenant, -then they should be a peculiar

A STAR 1ST TIIE WEST. S7

treasure to him above all people, for that the whole earth was his. And that although God had thus kindly chosen them as his own people, yet their continuing to enjoy his protection and favour^ depended on their ohedience to the laws he had given them. And after recapitulating the many special and unheard of mercies and extraordinary dealings of the Lord God of their fathers towards them from the beginning, and then giving them many excellent rules for their conduct, he proceeded — « Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God hath forbidden tliec. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. When thou shalt beget children and children's children, and shalt have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shalt do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger ; I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whcre- unto ye go over Jordan to possess it ; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And the Lord God shall scatter you among the nations; and ye shall he left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. And ye shall serve other gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if /ram thence, tliou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things arc come upon thce, even in the latter days^ if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shall be obedient to his voice : for the Lord

38 A STAR IN THE WEST.

thy God is a merciful God, he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thec, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he swear unto them." Deut. iv. 23 — 32. And Moses after giving them a most excellent system of laws (as he had re ceived them from God) in the 26th chap. 30th verse, enu merates a number of extraordinary blessings that God would confer on them, in case of their hearkening diligently to the voice of the Lord their God, to observe and do all his com mandments, and then passes the following awful sentence upon them, in case « it should come to pass, that they would not hearken to the voice of the Lord their God," that the extra ordinary arid dreadful curses, mentioned in the 45th to the 66th verses, which he recapitulates, should come upon them, and then concludes in the 29th chap. 10th verse, " ye stand this day, all of you before the Lord your God — your captains of your tribes, your elders and your officers, 'with all the men of Israel, that thou sliouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day, that he may establish thee this day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; but with him who standeth here with us this day, before the Lord thy God, and also with him who is not here with us this day. Lest there should be vlith you man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turnetli away this day, from the Lord your God to go and serve the gods of the nations ; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and worm-wood, and it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse and he bless

A STAR IN THE WEST. 39

himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness* of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst; the Lord will not spare him ; but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall sm'oke against that man, and all the curses written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil, out of all the tribes of Israel ac cording to all the curses of the covenant that are written in the hook of the law. And it shall come to pass when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thce, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart and with all thy soul : that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and have com passion on thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven unto the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee. And the Lord thy God Witt bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed) and thou shalt possess it : and he will do to thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all* thy soul, that thou mayest live. And the Lord thy God will put all these curses on thine enemies, and on them ivho hate thee, who persecuted thce. And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord to do all his commandments, which I com-

* As in the iftaran of the bible.

*Q A STAR IN THE WEST.

mand thee this day. And the Lord thy God will make the plenteous in every work of thine hand; in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good ; for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers. Jffthou shall hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes 'which are written in the book of the law; and ifthou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul." — But these promises, and particularly that of being received by and placed under the particular and visible protection and government of Almighty God, necessarily required their separation from the nations round about them, who were one and all sunk in the most stupid idolatry. To increase the obligations of this peo ple to God, he had actually condescended (as before observed) to become their king and head, and promised to attend them through the wilderness, during all their travels, as a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. Their govern ment thus became a complete theocracy, both in their civil and ecclesiastical establishments. So that afterwards, whether they had Moses and Aaron, judges or kings for their immedi ate rulers, they were but inferior magistrates in their govern ment, appointed by and under him as their supreme head and sovereign.

They were necessarily and expressly to be separated from all the people of the earth, as a nation -, by which the nature of their political and religious institutions, thus united, was made known to the world at large, and by the exclusive na ture of their principles and practices, however obnoxious and offensive to other nations, who universally held in an intercom munion of gods and divine worship $ yet their attention was

A STAR IN THE WEST, 41

thereby strongly drawn to consider them as the peculiar char acteristic complexion of the Jewish government. Thus Moses understood it when he said to God, " for wherein shall it he known here, that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not that thou goest with us? So shall we he separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are oh the face of the earth.**

After the death of Moses, and Joshua his successor, and the Congregation of the Jews having partially enjoyed the land in tolerable peace and quietness, the succeeding generations with their kings and their princes, forgot the covenant of the Lord their God, agreeably to the prediction of Moses, and went af ter the inventions of the neighbouring nations. Yet God kind ly sent kis prophets from time to time, to refresh their memo ries and to warn them of their danger, in case they persisted hi their rebellion, and did not repent and return to the Lord their God, with all their heart and with all their soul, but continued in their disobedience. About 700 years before the Christian era, near the time of the invasion of Salmanazar, king of Assyria, Isaiah the prophet of God, was sent to them, with this solemn and awful message. " The Lord sent a word unto Jac©b and it hath lighted upon Israel, and all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Sa maria, who say in the pride and stoutness of their heart, the bricks are fallen down; but we will build with hewn stones. The -sycamore trees are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together: the Syrians before and the Philistines behind, and they shall de vour Israel with open mouth 5 for all this his anger is not turn*

G

*2 A STAR Iff THE WEST.

ed away, but his hand is stretched out still. For the people turneth not unto him who smiteth them, neither 'do they seek the Lord of Hosts, Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel, head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honourable, he is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies, is the tail. For the leaders of this people make them to err, and they who are led of them are destroyed. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows. For every one is an hypocrite and an evil doer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For wickedness burneth as the fire ; it shall devour the briars and the thorns, and shall kindle in the* thickets of the forest : and they shall mount up, like the lifting up of the smoke. Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire ; no man shall spare his brother. Isaiah ix. 8— -19.

" 0 Assyrian ! the rod of mine anger ; and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him (the Assyrian) against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the street." Isa. x. 5 — 6,

After grievous sufferings as above described, God in his great mercy, shewed that he would still be gracious to them in all their distress and apparent abandonment, in this con solatory language — « And it shall come to pass in that day (the latter day) that Jehovah shall again, the second time, put forth his hand to recover the remnant of his people who re- maineth from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros* and

* A country bordering on Egypt.

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from Cushf and from Elam^ and from Shinar§ and from Ha- Riah^f and from the western regions, (as it should have been translated, instead of the islands of the sea*) Isaiah xi. 11 — 15 Lowth's translation. And he shall lift up a signal to the na tions, and shall gather the outcasts of Israel, and the dispersed^ of Judah shall he collect from the four extremities of the earth. And the jealousy of Ephraim shall cease, and the en mity of Judah shall be no more ; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be at enmity with Ephraim. But they shall invade the borders of the Philistines, west ward ; they shall spoil the children of the east together. They shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And " Jehovah shall smite witli a drought the tongue of the Egyptian sea ; and he shall shake his hand over the river with his vehement wind, and he shall strike it into seven streams, and make them pass over it, dry shod, and there shall (also) be a high way, for the remnant of his people ; which shall remain from Assyria, as it was unto Israel, in the day when he came up from the land of Egypt." By this representation it plainly appears — 1st. That the people of the Jews, however scattered and lost on the face of the earth, are in the latter day to be recovered by the mighty power of God, and restored to their beloved city Jerusalem in the land of Palestine.

2d. That a clear distinction is made between the tribes of Juda^i, in which Benjamin is included, and the ten tribes of

f Or Arabia.

J Meaning Persia.

$ Where Babylon formerly stood.

I In Assyria, to the east of the mountains forming the boundaries of Media.

* Lowth.

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Israel, agreeably to their particular states. The first is, des cribed as dispersed among the nations in the four quarters of the world — The second as outcasts from the nations of the earth. 3d. Thus they shall pass through a long and dreary wil derness from the north country, and finally enter into Assyria, (it may possibly be) by the way of some narrow strait, where they will meet together in a body and proceed to Jerusalem. 4th. That this restoration is said to be accomplished a se cond time. The first was from Egypt— the second is to be similar to it, in several of its remarkable circumstances.

5th. The places from whence they are to come, are ex pressly designated. They are to come first from Assyria and Egypt, where it is well known, many of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were carried captive, and are now to be found in considerable numbers, and from Pathros bordering on Egijpt — and from Cush and from Elam, different parts of Persia, where the present Jews are undoubtedly of the same tribes, and perhaps mixed with a few of the ten tribes who remain ed in Jerusalem and were carried away by Nebuchadnezzar. And from Shinar still more east and where some of the same tribes are now found. And from H amah near the Caspian sea, where some of the ten tribes have remained ever since the time of Salmanazar ; and from the western regions.*

6th. Thus we have the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin well known to be dispersed throughout the three quarters of the world — But as to the majority of the ten tribes, although every believer in divine revelation has no doubt of their be ing preserved by the sovereign power of God in some un known region ; yet as the w;hole globe has been traversed by

*SeeLovvth.

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one adventurer or another, it is a little astonishing that they have not hitherto been discovered. By the representation above, it is clear that we must look for them, and they will un doubtedly, at last be found, in the western regions, or some place answering this description as the place of their banishment.

God proceeds in his encouraging prospects, in language of the greatest affection. « But now saith the Lord, who cre ated thee 0 Jacob, and lie who formed thee O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed thee ; I have called thee by thy name ; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not over flow thee ; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the holy one of Israel, thy saviour. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou was precious in my sight, thou hast been honour able, and I have loved thee, therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee, I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west; I will say to the nortJi give up, and to the south keep not back; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth." Isaiah xliii. ± — -6.

Again, « Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in a day of salvation helped thee, and I will- preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heri tages. That thou mayest say to the prisoners go forth : to them who are in darkness, show yourselves.* They shall

* Mr. Paber translates this "to them who are in darkness," "Be ye discovered." This is peculiarly applicable te the present state of the Israelites, as we hereinafter them to be.

46 A STAR IN THE WEST.

feed in the ways, arid their pastures shall he in all high places. They shall not hunger rior thirst; neither shall the heat or sun smite them ; for he who shall have mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of 'water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way,*and my high ways shall be exalted. Behold these shall come from far : and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of 8'tnim." Isaiah xlix. 8 — 13. Here again they are described as passing mountains from far, or a great distance, and that from the north and west, or north-west; and others are to come from the land of Sinim, or the eastern coun try. " Moreover, thou son of man, take thce a stick and write upon it, for Judah and for the children of Israel his com panions. And then another stick, and write upon it, for Jo seph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions." Ezekiel xxxvii. 16.

It appears by this chapter, that there are some few of the Israelites still with Judah; but all are again to become one people at a future day. It also appears that the body of the house of Israel are remote from Judah, and are to be brought from distant countries to Jerusalem, when they are to become one nation again.

Their approach to their own land, is so joyous an event, that Isaiah breaks forth in language of exultation. " Sing O heavens ! and be joyful 0 earth, and break forth into sing ing O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted/'

" Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, behold ! I will save my peo ple from the east country (the tribes of Judah and Benjamin) and from the west country (the ten tribes ;) and I will bring

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them* and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall he my people and I will he their God in truth and in righteousness." Zeeh. viii. 7 — 8. Ezekiel, also refers to the same event : "As I live saith the Lord, with a mighty hand and an stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out will I rule over you. And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you, face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you saith the Lord. And I will cause you to pass under the rod ; and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant ; and I will purge out from among you the rebels and them who transgress against me. I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord/' Ezekiel xx. 35 — 43.

Here wre see that they are distinguished again, by those of the east country and those of the west country, and that they arc finally to be united under one government again, when they shall be restored to Jerusalem, yet they must suffer greatly by the way, for their sins and continued obstinacy, which would require God's fury to be poured out upon them, for the reluctance with which they will attempt the journey back to Jerusalem. In short their restoration again to the city of God. will in many things be similar to their Exodus from Egypt to Canaan. They will be obstinate and perverse in their oppo sition to the journey : and on the way will shew much of the same spirit as their fathers did in the wilderness, as they will

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be attached to the land of their banishment, as their fathers were to that of Egypt. Many of them will have a wilderness to pass through, as Israel of old had. God also will have a controversy with them by the way, and will destroy many of them, so that they shall never see Jerusalem, the beloved city. But those who hold out to the end, in their obedience to the heavenly call and submission to the divine will, shall be accept ed, and these shall sincerely repent of their past transgres sions. Again "I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered, and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country, for the which I lifted up my hand, to give it to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled, and ye shall loath yourselves in your own sight for all the evils that you have committed." Bishop YFarburton's observations on this passage are worthy of notice. — He says, " It is here we see denounced, that the extraordinary providence under which the Israelites had always been preserved, should be with drawn, or in scripture phrase, that God would hot be enquired of by them. That they should remain in the condition of their fathers in the wilderness, when the extrordinary providence of God, for their signal disobedience, was, for sometime, suspend ed. And yet that though they strove to disperse themselves among the people round about, and projected in their minds to be as the heathen and the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone, they should still be under the government of a tlieocracy, which when administered Without an extraordi-

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nary providence, the blessing naturally attendant upon it, was, and justly, called the rod and bond of the covenant."

Every serious reader, who takes the divine scriptures for his rule of conduct, must believe that these people of God are yet in being in our world, however unknown at present to the nations — and as God once had seven thousand men, who had not bowed the knee to Baal in the days of Elijah, when he thought that he was the only servant of God, left in Israel, so God has preserved a majority of his people of Israel in some unknown part of the wrorld, for the advancement of his own glory. And we plainly see in the quotations above, that they are distin guished again, by those of the east country, and those of the west country, and that though they were finally to be united into one government, when they shall be restored to Jerusa lem, yet they must suffer greatly by the way, for their sins .and continued obstinate provocations of the divine majesty, who was their king and governor, which would require his fury to be poured out upon them and particularly for the re luctance with which they they should be prevailed on to at tempt a return to Jerusalem, when God should set up his standard to the nations for that purpose. In short, their suf ferings and perverse conduct on their Exodus from Egypt to the land of Canaan, seems to be a type of their final return to Jerusalem. They will be obstinate and perverse in their setting off and on their way, as they will be greatly attached to the land of their banishment — They, at least a great part of them, will have a wilderness to pass through, as their fath ers had. God will have a controversy with them by the way, on account of their unbelief and the customs and habits indulg ed among them contrary to the divine commandments, as he

II

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had with their fathers, and will destroy them in like manner, so that they shall never arrive at their beloved city, as was done to the rebels in the camp of Moses and Joshua. They are to pass through waters and rivers and be baptized there in as their fathers were in the red sea, and will receive the same divine protection. — Those who shall hold out to the end in a line of obedience and submission to the divine will, shall be accepted and safely returned to the land promised to Abra ham, Isaac and Jacob, and their seed after them, where they shall sincerely repent and mourn for all their former trans gressions.*

We arc not left to the predictions and encouraging declara tions of one or two prophets of God ; but Ezekiel also con firms and continues the divine interference in their favour, for he says, " Thus saith the Lord, behold ! I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them in to their own land ; and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel : and one king shall be king to them all, and they shall no more be two nations, neith er shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their trans gressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling pla ces, wherein they they have sinned, and will cleanse them, so they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them ; and they all shall have one shepherd, they shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes to do them. And they shall dwell in the

* Some of them are to be carried in ships, by seafaring nations, as a present to the Lord at Jerusalem.

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land that I have given unto my servant Jacob, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children's children forever. And my servant David, shall be their prince forever.

" Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them ; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle shall also be with them, yea, I will be their God and they shall be my peo ple. And 'the heathen shall know, that I the Lord, do sanc tify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forever more."

From this representation it appears, that the posterity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are still God's peculiar people- That he brought them with a mighty arm from Egypt, by the way of the wilderness and through the red sea. That he gave them laws and ordinances to which he commanded the most strict obedience. And in case of failure and wilful diso bedience, the severest curses were denounced upon them. They were to be divided into two nations — to be scattered among the gentiles, to the north and the south, to the east and the west. They were to be driven by the hand of God, to the utmost parts of the earth — Into Assyria — Egypt — Pathros — Cush — Elam — Shinar — >Hama — and into the western regions and the land of Sinim. They were to serve gods, the work manship of men's hands, of wood and of stone. Israel is heav ily charged with stubborn disobedience, and is threatened with being cut off suddenly, as in one day, and with great and accumulated distress and anguish. They are expressly charg-

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ed with the sin of drunkenness, as adding drunkenness to thirst, as their prevailing sin.

On the other hand, the promises to them are very great, in case of obedience, or on sincere repentance in case of fail ure. After great sufferings, in the latter days, that is about the end of the Roman government, if they shall seek the Lord their God, they shall not be entirely forsaken, or totally des troyed.

Moses also, by the command of God, instituted the offices of high priest and priests to preside over and govern their re ligious rights and sacred services. He consecrated Aaron and his sons to these important offices, and vested them with the most extraordinary powers, that were ever conferred on a mere' man. Philo, the famous Jewish writer, speaking in a lofty rhetorical way, gives this character of the high priest — • « He was something more than human. He more nearly re sembled God, than all the rest. That he partook of the di vine and human nature. That he was, on the day of expia tion, a mediator between God and his people."

The high priest was the greatest person in the state, next to the king or judge, and represented the whole people. His business was to perform the most sacred parts of the divine service, which consisted in offering up the appointed sacrifi ces, with many washings and carnal ordinances, as particular ly established by Moses. He was clothed with the priestly garments, besides those used by the other priests. 1st. The , robe of the Ephod, in the hem of which were 72 bells. 2d. The Ephod* itself, which was like a waistcoat without sleeves,

* The Ephod was considered as essential to all the parts of divine worship, and •without it, none ever enquired of God.— -Clarke.

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the hinder part of which reached down to the heels, and the fore part came but a little below the stomach. It was fasten ed on the shoulders. To each of the shoulder-straps was fas tened a precious stone, on which was engraven the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 3d. He wore on his breast a piece of cloth doubled of a span square, which was termed the breast plate, and in it were set twelve, precious stones, which had the names of the twelve patriarchs engraven on them. 4th. He wore a plate of gold on his forehead, which was tied on the lower part of his tiara, with purple and blue ribbands : and on it was engraven, Holiness to the Lord. He wore these only when he ministered in the temple.

Moses also gave them special injunctions with regard to circumcision,^ and all the furniture of the temple, particular- ' ly respecting the ark, which was to be made of shittim wood, or accasia, called an incorruptible wood in the Septuagint. This ark was a kind of chest or box, about four feet five inch es long and two feet six inches wide, in which the two tables of the covenant, or law (called the testimony or witness) written by the finger of God himself, with Aaron's rod and the pot of manna were to be laid up. Exodus xxv. 10. On the top of this, was placed the mercy seat, at the ends of which were the two cherubim of gold, between whom the -vi sible appearance of the presence of God, as seated on a throne, was. The ark was the principal of all the holy things be longing to the tabernacle. 2d Samuel, vi. ±2. It gave a

* Some of the Jewish doctors observe, " that the number of proselytes in the great day of the Messiah, will be so great that the church, omitting the ceremony of circumcision, will receive them into its bosom by ablution or baptism. 4th voL Leighton's works, 157.

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sanction of holiness to every place where it was brought.* 2d Chronicles viii. 11. Moses also commanded them to keep a continual Jtre upon the altar, of that which first was given from heaven, and to keep the candles burning on the altar. He also appointed three grand, annual religious festivals, in addition to the weekly sabbath, and daily and other sacrifices, which were to be religiously attended by the maks at Jerusalem, on pain of being cut off from the congregation.! ls** Tne Passover or feast of unleavened bread. It continued seven days from the 15th day of March till the 21st. On the eve of the feast, or the 1st day of unleavened bread, being the 14th day of the month, the paschal lamb was killed and eaten. On the seven following days were offered the paschal sacrifices, and they eat unleavened bread. The first and last days were sabbaths, on which they held their holy convocations. On the tenth day of their first month, Abib, every man took a lamb or kid of the first year, without blemish, according to the house of his fath ers, unless the household was too small, then two neighbours joined together. It was kept four days till the 14th day, when it was killed. They eat the flesh that night roast with fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs ; but not a bone of it was to be broken ; and nothing of it was suffered to remain until morn ing ; but if any did, it was to be burned with fire. During the seven days of unleavened bread, no leaven was to be found in their houses, and none was to be eaten on pain of death.

* After their return from the captivity of Babylon, they had synagogues through out the land; and at the east end of each synagogue, they placed an ark or chest in commemoration of the foregoing ark of the covenant in the temple ; and in this they lock up the pentateuch written upon vellum with a particular ink. Predeaux Con. 2d. vol. 534.

f But the women did not go up, and seem to have been altogether excluded. Vid. 2d vol. 63—68.

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« To meet the letter of this precept in the fullest manner pos sible, the Jews, on the eve of this festival, institute a most rig orous search through every part of their houses, not only re moving all leavened bread, but sweeping every part clean, that no crumb of bread should be left that had leaven in it — leaven was an emblem of sin, because it proceeded from cor ruption. (Note on the 19th verse, of the 12th Exodus, by Dr. Clark.) The next day after, they offered to God, a handful of barley, being the first fruits of the year, which the high priest ground, and putting some oil and frankincense upon it, he presented it to God — Then they offered a lamb for a whole burnt offering — A meat offering was also made, of fine flour mingled with oil — Also a drink offering of wine — And tliey were forbidden to eat eitJier bread or parched corn, or green ears, until the offering 'was brought unto God.

2d. The/east of weeks or pentecost or harvest, being the first fruits of their labours. It was held seven weeks or fifty days af ter the Passover, or 14th March. The first fruits of the harvest were now offered up to God. They offered up two cakes made of the new wheat. Deuteronomy xvi. 16. This oblation was accompanied with a great number of sacrifices, and sev eral other offerings and libations.

3d. The feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, and was the great day of atonement for sin. This was held on the 10th day of the 7th month Tizri, answering to our September and October. This was the first month of the civil year, and the 7th of the ecclesiastical.^ On the 1st day of this month was held the memorial of blowing of trumpets. On the 15th

* On it was held a holy convocation unto the Lord, to afflict their souls and offer am offering made by fire unto the Lord- Liviticua 23— 27.

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day of the month was the feast of Tabernacles — it was kept under booths or green tents and arbors made of small limbs of trees, in memory of their dwelling in tents on their journey through the wilderness. All the males wrere bound to appear at Jerusalem before the Lord, and this was one of their great est solemnities? The nation was also divided into twelve tribes, governed by a chief of each tribe, under Moses and Aaron. They were again arranged in their encampments in four divi sions, under four standards, of a man, an eagle, a lion and an ox. He also established six cities of refuge, for the protection of the man-slayer, who was guilty through accident, or igno rance. " He appointed an avenger of Uood. This was founded on what God says to Noah, Genesis ixth chap. 5 — 6 ver. " Surely your blood of your Hves will I require — at the hand of man — at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man." And therefore " whosoever killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past, he shall flee into one of these cities and live, lest the avenger of blood pursue the slayer while his heart is hot and overtake him, and slay him."

Moses chose seventy assistants or counsellors, who were af terwards called the great Sanhedrim, or council of the nation. When met in council, the high priest sat in the middle, and the assistants, or elders, on each hand in a semi circular form. He also appointed, by the command of God, Aaron and his sons, priests to the congregation of Israel ; It was the duty of the priests, among other important objects, publicly to bless the people in the name of Jehovah — to attend the daily wor ship by sacrifice in the tabernacle— to attend the religious

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festivals — to keep up the sacred fire on the altar, and to attend the army, when going to war, with the ark of the covenant, to ask counsel of the Lord,* to sound the trumpet and encourage the troops. Once in a year the high priest, cloathed in his pon tifical dress, went into the holy of holies, when he had on the holy linen coat and the linen breeches on his flesh, and was girded with the linen girdle and attired with the linen mi tre. Moses also gave them laws as to clean and unclean heasts, birds and fishes ; the clean of which, alone, should be eaten or sacrificed. They were particularly and solemnly forbidden to eat of swines flesh, or the blood or fat of the beast. The fat and entrails of the sacrifices were to be burned on the altar, which was to be made of earth, or stones of the brook, on which . an instrument was not to come, that is, it was not to be of hewn stone.

In process of time the people grew weary of being govern ed by their judges, and not only murmured but grew very turbulent and rebellious. They tumultuously demanded a king to rule over them, like the nations round about them. God in his righteous judgment gave them a king, at the same time, by his prophet, foretelling them of their fate under him. However, their change of government made no change in their dispositions. They still continued their transgressions and perverse disobedience, till God wearied, as it were, with their obstinacy, and the gross iniquities of their kings, divid7 ed their nation into two distinct kindoms, in the time of Re- hoboam, the son of Solomon, to wit, the kingdom of Judah, to which the tribe of Benjamin was united ; and the kingdom of

* Vide Numbers x. 3.3—35-6, and quote it at large. Joshua, vi. 8—13. A 1. Samuel, iv, 5—7. 2 Samuel vi. 6--7.

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Israel, consisting of the remaining ten tribes. Even this did not alarm them so as to prevent their rebellious spirit. But they continued for some hundred years in the most stubborn opposition to the laws God had given them by his servant Mo ses, and idolatry seemed to become a more desirable object with them as the threatenings of God, by his prophets, were pointed with greater severity against it. They went so far as to invite Tiglah Pilnezer, king of Assyria, to aid them against the king of Syria, though so positively forbidden by God; and at Ahaz, king of Israel's particular request, they united with him and took Damascus, and carried the -people of it captives to Ker or Keor, the ancient Charboi;as or Chabar. — 2 Kings, xvi. 9. And such was their obstinacy and rebellion, that it i» worthy of observation, that Israel had not one single king from the commencement to the end of their kingdom, who- feared the Lord or governed agreeably to his commandments. The fate of Israel was fixed. God, in his righteous displea sure, at length cast them offV and gave them into the hands of that very Tiglah Pilnezer who, it is probable, was the same with Arbaxes,^ the first king of Assyria after the revolt of the Medes, about seven hundred and forty years before the ehristian* era, who, with Jfliaz, king of Judah, as we have al ready mentioned, took Damascus ami annexed it to the As syrian empire ; thus removing the barrier between that em pire and Palestine, so that both kingdoms, Syria and Pales tine, became an easy prey to this powerful monarch. He cap tured the Iieubenit.es, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Ma- nassch, who dwelt on the east side of Jordan, and carried them captives, and placed them in Halfih and Harbor, and Sarah?

* Vide 1st. vol. Predeaux, page 2-13,

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and to the river Gozan.* — ± Chronicles, v. 26* It is scarcely possible that the king of Assyria would have placed so turbu lent a people, whom he had led away captive from so distant a land, and whom he had reason so greatly to dislike, in any fertile part of his kingdom ; it is most likely that be sent the greatest part of them on his northern frontier, as far as possi ble from a probability of doing him any harm by their restless dispositions. This is confirmed by the express words of the sacred historian, as will appear hereafter. About twenty years after this, or one hundred and thirty-four years before the Bab ylonish captivity, the remaining tribes, persisting in their im penitence, and neglecting to take warning by the miserable fate of their brethren, and not discovering the least sign of reformation, God raised up Shalmanazar, the successor of Tig- lah Pilnczer, who besieged Hoshea, the king of Israel, in Sa maria, and after taking the city, and victoriously conquering

* Harsh, or as it 5s called by some, Ham, which in Hebrew signifies bitter, is the root from whence it is used to signify a mountainous tract, and thus gave that name to the country north of Assyria, near to Media, and perhaps ran through it. On the north of this tract runs the river Araxis, now called Aras. — Obarius, 29C. Obarius, on whom much dependence may be placed, describes the source of the I'iver Araxis to be in the mountains of Ararat, of Armenia, on the south of which river lies the little province of Arsea, erroneously supposed by him to be the Ar- sareth of Esdras ; so that Harah is no other than the province of Iran, situate -be tween the rivers Chai;borns or Araxis, as it is called in the Anabasis of Xenophon and Cyrus, now called Aras and Kur. Kur or Ker was the place Tiglah Pilne- zer sent the captives of Damascus, and was td the south east of Media.— Prideaux, vol. 1, p. 15. This is mentioned also in Arnos, i. 5, and seems -to be a distant place even from Syria, and where captives were usually sent— Gozan, and the river of Gozan. 1'tolemy places the region of the -Gauzanites in the north east of Mesopo tamia, with the city Gizswin m ar the river Charboras, at the foot of the mountain Masins, and another region called Gauzania, in Media, in the latitude 40, 15, near the river Cyrus or Ker, mentioned above. The learned Bocliurt asserts the ci ty Gauzania to lie in the midway bt?t\veen the mountain Chnborasand the Caspian, sea, and between the two streams of the river of Cyrus, and says that probably it gave the name of Gozan both to the river and country ; ami thK he takes to ie liwe scripture place, as being the <:iiy of <ke Mrdes.

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the remaining tribes, took all the chief men, with the hulk of the nation, now lost to every principle of gratitude to God, and carried them also captives into Assyria, and placed most of them with their brethren, who had been formerly taken by Tiglah Pilnezer, in Halah, and in Harbor, by the river Go- zan, in the cities of the Medes ; leaving only some poor re mains of the people, who continued in the land in a miserable condition, till Ezzarhaddon afterwards removed them to Bab ylon and other eastern countries which he had conquered. — And to prevent danger from their numbers, part of them were removed into an adjoining district. This was about seven hundred and twenty-one years before the Christian era, and nine hundred and forty-seven after their coming out of Egypt. The king of Assyria also replaced in the cities of Samaria in habitants from Babylon, and from Cutha, a river of Persia,^ and Ava, Hamah and Sepharvin — 2 Kings, xvii. 2*.

Thus it appears, that the ten tribes, except a few who took refuge in Jerusalem, with the tribe of Judab,f were wholly de prived of their goodly land, and transferred into the northern parts of Assyria, between the Euxine and Caspian seas, among the cities of the Medes, except a part of them, who were settled something more to the south, in Persia, which was then a part of the Assyrian monarchy.

The two tribes and an half on the east side of Jordan, in the days of Jeroboam, king of Israel, amounted to eight hundred thousand mighty men of valour— ~2 Chronicles, xiii. 3 — so that the whole people at the time of their captivity, including those tribes, being about two hundred and thirty-six years after Jer oboam, must have amounted to a very large number indeed,,

^ Joqephus, vol. 2, page It 5, 2 Chronicles, si. 16.

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Here, then, in all likelihood, they must have remained a long time. Besides the scriptures mentioning their being in the cities of the Medes <« to this day/' as in 2 Kings, xxiii. 41, and in ± Chronicles, v. 26. Josephus mentions them in his book De Bell. lib. 2, ch. 28, of the Greek— in the Latin 808 * — and in his preface 705 — -in his Antiquities, lib. 20, *ch. 9 — and lib. 11, ch. 5, page 368. And* Sulpitius Severus, as quot ed by Flemming from lib. 2, ch. 16, page 321, and who wrote about the year 400, says, « the ten tribes dispersed among the Partisans, Medes, Indians and Ethiopians, never returned to their ancient inheritance* but are subject to the sceptres of barbarous princes. The scriptures, however, declare in the most express terms that they shall return and be wholly re stored, with the other tribes, to Jerusalem. If, then, the re turn of these tribes, wherever they may be, should be by the way of the Euxine sea, which is north from Judea, they need not pass over the Euphrates, which lies across and in the mid dle between these countries. To accomplish this, if they come from the north east, they may pass over the Straits of Kam- schatka, cither by a literal fulfilment of the promise, as in the case of the Red sea and Jordan, to bring more declarative glory to God, or they may pass from island to island in bark boats, or in ships, or perhaps, as the most likely way, they may cross on the ice. They will be a long time in travel ling, perhaps, to prepare them for their, so great a change in life, as in the forty years in the wilderness, during which all the rebellious among them may perish, as they did under like circumstances on their way to Canaan.

The geographical situation of this part of Assyria is worth attending to. Media lay on the northern side of the Caspian

€2 A STAR IN THE WEST,

sea, bounded by the mountains of Araxis, or Chaboras, or Aras, as it is now called, which separate Media on the north from Armenia, and then bounded by the southern shore of the Cas pian sea, which is far north, having on the west the river Halys, running into the Black sea, 'which territory has been since possessed by the Tartars. Persia and Susiana are contig uous on the south.* The country is mountainous on the side of Assyria, and a ridge of mountains that runs to the south of the Caspian sra, hounds a vast plain, a great part of which being covered with salt, is uncultivated and desart. Persian Irak extends at present over a great part of ancient Media. There was a time when the Medes shook off the Assyrian yoke, and ruled over that part of Asia which extended to wards the west, as far as the river Halys. That part of Me dia contiguous to Armenia, was distinguished by the name of Atropatena, the capital of which is named Gaza, or Gazaca, since called Ganzak. Persia extends from the frontier of Media on the north, to the Persian Gulph on the south, and westward to the river Halys. The mountains separating Per-

* Ptolemy mentions a mountain, a city and a river, by the name of Charboras, •which divides Assyria from Media towards the north west. The river arises out of the mountain Massius, in the north of Mesopotamia, and appears to be the same as E'/rkiel, i. 1 — 3, calls Chebar. Habor, or as it is called in Hebrew, Chabor, must fiare been the city of this name. Ammianus calls the river by the name of Abo- 'ra<5. Benjamin of Tudela, the Jewish traveller, who lived in the latter end of the Twelfth century, says, that passing east, he came to -the river Chebar, where he found sixty synagogues. He asserts that the prophet Ezekiel was buried here, and tils tomb is there to be seen. Itabbi Pelakich gives an 'account of some Jews he found in Tartary, who did not observe the traditions of the fathers. Upon en quiring why they neglected them, they answered that they had never heard of f.'iem. He complains that the Jews were greatly diminished on the banks of the Euphrates, and in the ancient cities, where they were formerly computed to have amounted to nine hundred thousand.— Modern Universal History. Basnage C20. Jn Thebes he found two thousand Jews engaged in the silk and dying business,— 'Chiiibriand Introd. 15. Perhaps the number of synagogues is exaggerated.

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3ia from Media, were called Halzardera, or the thousand mountains* The above is supposed to have given naine to the river Gozan, which ran still farther north; but the sound has been changed by length of time, which has been the fate of most places in that country.

Soon after the removal of the ten tribes to this country, and about seven hundred years before Christ, the Mcdes over ran the Assyrian empire, which, from remote antiquity, had extended over a great part of Asia. The Scythians, who lay still farther north, about one hundred years afterwards, conquered the Median empire in Upper Asia, who retained the government but about twenty-eight years. — Herodotus, lib. ±f 157. — 1 Predeaux, 25, 35-6. Even this was long enough to promote an acquaintance between the northern parts of Me dia and the stiil more northern country of Seythia.. The an cient Scythia was the general name given to Tartary, which then extended from the mouth of the Obey, in Russia, to the Dnieper; from thence across the Euxine, or Black sea; thence along the foot of mount Caucasus, by the rivers Ker or Kur, and Aras, to the C&spian sea ; thence to the White Mountains, including part of Russia, with the districts tlnu: lie between the Frozen sea and the Japan sea. — Sir William Jones, Dissert, vol. 1, 142, and onward. It extended farther north than was known to the then neighbouring nations, liv ing to the southward and eastward. From the mouth of the Danube to the sea of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia* is about one hundred and ten degrees, which, in that parallel, are equal to (rather more) five thousand miles. The latitude reaches from the fortieth degree, which touches the wall of China, above one thousand miles northward- to the frozen re-

6ii A STAR IX THE WEST.

gions of Siberia.- — Robinson's View of the progress of society in Europe, page 335. Mr. Bryant conjectures that the name Scythia, was derived from Cuthai, and if so, it casts more light on the prophetic declarations hereinafter mentioned. Sir Wil liam Jones, speaking of the language of the Tartars, says, "that their language, like those of America, was in perpetual fluctuation, and that more than fifty dialects, as Mr. Hyde was credibly informed, were spoken between Moscow and China, by the many hundred tribes and their several branch es." Yet he doubts not but that they all sprang from one common source ; excepting always the jargon of such wan dering mountaineers as, having long been divided from the main body of the nation, must, in a course of ages, have fram ed separate idioms for themselves. But need we go farther than the Assyrians and Persians themselves, who conquered the ten tribes ?~They had an original language of their own ; but their successors, if we may believe the best historians, having become a mixture of several different nations, as Sara cens, Tartars, Parthians, Medcs, ancient Persians, become Mahometans, Jews, and women from Georgia and other coun tries, transplanted into Persia, have now a debased language, compounded of those of all these different nations. — Hyde. The country into which the ten tribes were thus transplanted, was very thinly inhabited, and extended farther north than we are yet much acquainted with. Those captive Israelites must have greatly encreased in numbers, before their migration more northward and westward. This is confirmed by the names of the towns in that country, which to tin's day bear witness to their founders. Samarcand, plainly derived from Samaria, is a very large and populous place. They have a

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city on a very high hill, called Mount Tabor. A city built on the river Ardou, is named Jericho, which river runs near the Caspian sea, upon the north and north east. There are two cities, called Choraziu the great and the less. The Tartar chiefs are called Morsoijes, very like Moyses, as Moses is called hy the ancients.

The Tartars boast their descent from the Israelites, and the famous Tamerlane took a pride in declaring that ho descend ed from the tribe of Dan.— Vide note in page 62*

The tribes of Judah and Benjamin are dispersed not in the north east country, from whence the passage towards Syria and Palestine lies along the eastern borders of the Euxine sea, but in the western and southern parts of Asia and Africa* from whence the passage to Syria and Palestine lies far wide and distant from it. But all who are in, or come through the north west parts of Persia, near the western shore of the Caspian sea,* and to the eastward in Mesopotamia, must pass the Euphrates to get to Palestine.

After this we have no account of these tribes, except what is mentioned in 2 Kings, xvii. 23 — 41, and 1 Chronicles, v. 26, wherein it is said, these tribes were carried out of their own land into Assyria, to this day, &c.— *-until the time of Jo- sephus, the Jewish historian, who mentions them " as then being somewhere beyond the Euphrates," and calls them Adiabenians.f The other two tribes of Judah and Benjamin^

* The Caspian straits are placed by Ptolemy between Media and Parthia. Vide page 67.

f The river Lyens, which runs a little west of Hala, was anciently called Zaba,

Or Diava, by Ammianus, which signifies a wolf ; whence this portion of Assyria

!>| was called Adiabane, and the river Lyens was called sometime Ahavab or Adia-

r. It may cast some light on this subject to know that Josephus, in his An- "

66 A STAB IN THE WEST.

together with a few of the ten trihes interspersed among- them, heing in Asia and Europe, living in subjection to the Romans." One of the late Jewish writers says, " the Jews relate that the ten tribes were carried away, not only into Media and Persia, but into tlie northern countries leyond the BospJwrus." — The next author who mentions them is Ortelius, who speaks of them as being in Tartary — Vide note of Benjamin of Tudela, in page 62.

The famous Giles Fletcher, L L. D. in his treatise on this subject, printed in 1677, observes, « as for two of those colo nies of the Samaritan Israelites, carried off by Salmanazer, which were placed in Harak and Harbor, they bordered both on the Medians, (where the others were ordered on the north and north east of the Caspian sea, a barren country.) So that those tribes might easily meet and join together when oppor tunity served their turn, which happened unto them not long after, when all the provinces of Media, Chaldaran, and Mes opotamia, with their governors, Mcrodach, Baladin and Dejo- ces, called in the scriptures Arphaxad, by desertion, fell away from the Assyrians, in the tenth year of Esar-haddon. And that these tribes did, not long after, reunite themselves and join in one nation, as they were before, being induced partly by their own desires, as disdaining even to live commixed with other people, especially such abandoned idolaters, and partly by the violence of the Medians, who expelled them thence."

tiquities, Book 20. ch. 5, says, that Helena, queen of Adiabene, who had embraced the Jewish religion, sent, some of her servants to Alexandria, to buy a great quan tity of corn ; and others of them to Cyprus, to buy a cargo of dried figs, which she distributed to the Jews that were in want. This was in the time of the famine, mentioned by Agabus, Acts xi. 28, and took place in Anno Domini 47, or therea bouts. This shews that there were muny Jews in that country.

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That the ten tribes were transported into some of the north ern provinces of the then Assyrian empire, bordering on the Caspian and Euxine seas, and to the northward and north east of them, is universally admitted, and fully proved by the sacred records. And that they continued there a very con siderable time, and became very numerous, can scarcely be doubted ; but that they cannot now be found there, in any great numbers, is also very certain. That there should be found some remnant still in that country, adds to the proba bility of the account already given. In the sudden removal or migration of a nation from one country to another, it is not probable that every individual would be included. Many at tached to the soil by long habit, or taste, or birth, or connected with the natives by domestic circumstances, or from various other causes, would naturally remain behind, and their pos terity as naturally encreasiag by time, would thus prove the fact of their first existence there as a nation. Thus it was in Samaria and Jerusalem,, when Salmanazer carried them away captive ; some few were left behind, who continued wTith Judah and Benjamin, and were finally carried away by Ezzarhaddon or Nebuchadnezzar.* It therefore becomes an important question, what became of them ? For no believer in revelation, as already observed, can admit that they are lost to the world, while God has made so many promises that he will bring them in the latter days from the ends of the earth, and that they, together with the other two tribes, shall be reinstated in their beloved city." Now, as we know them to have been exposed in the place of their captivity, at differ-

* Josephus, in his enumeration of the Israelites carried away with Juf'ah and Benjamin, to Babylon, says they amounted to six hundred and fifty -two.- Vol. 2, 171.

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cut periods, to oppression and the severest calamities ; par ticularly to the continual blasphemous worship of idolaters, it certainly seems reasonahle to conclude, independently of any positive testimony which may he alledged on the subject, that so discontented and restless a people, suffering under so severe a captivity, woidd strive to change their condition, and endea vour to remove as far as possible from their oppressors. This resolution was greatly promoted by the facility with which such a measure might be effected, on so distant a frontier, while the kingdom was involved in desolating wars with the nations around them, and when the people with whom they sojourned, must have rejoiced at their leaving them, being such troublesome inmates. They must have known the suc cess, first of the Scythians, then the Medes, and then the Persians, under Cyrus, which was followed by the easy con quest of the whole of Media and Persia, as Herodotus has shewn in his history, and by which they must have been encouraged in so important a business. The power of the kingdom was also comparatively weak, at so great a distance from the capital, and distracted with political cabals and in surrections against Astigages, who reigned over both Media and Persia, and who was conquered by his grandson, Cyrus, And it is not improbable but that a removal more north, by which such restless subjects would leave their improvements and real property to the other inhabitants, and extend the territory of their governors, would not have been disagreeable cither to the princes or people of that country. Again, " the usual route from the Euxine sea to the northward of the Cas pian sea, through Tartary and Scythia, to Serica and the northern parts of China, by which the merchants carried oji

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a great trade, might enable the tribes to travel northward and eastward, towards Kamschatka." At least this is the assertion of that able geographer D'Anville, in his ancient geography, written before the late discoveries of Cook and others.-~Vol. 2, 521-3.

But the most minute and last account WTC have of them, is in the thirteenth chapter of the second apochryphal book cf Esdras, 39 — 50. Esdras had a dream or vision — An angel appeared and interpreted it to him, in the following detail : *s And whereas thou sawest that he, Jesus the Christ, gath ered another peaceable multitude unto him ; those are the ten tribes, wrho were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Hosea, the king, wrhom Salmanazar, the king of Assyria, led away captive. And he carried them over the waters, and so they came into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the mul titude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never manJdnd dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river ; for the Most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over ; for through that country there- was a great way to go, namely, of a year and an half. And the same region is called Arsarcth." Here was a great river to go through, called Euphrates, as all great rivers were call ed by the Jews. It could not be the river of the east known by that name, because it was in a further country, where mankind never dwelt. But the river Euphrates lay to the southeastward of them, and runs through an inhabited country. They were also put to great difficulties to pass this

70 A STAR IN THE WEST.

river, until God shewed signs to them, and held still the flood, which is a very expressive term for the passage being frozen over, to enable them to pass in safety. But to proceed with the vision : « Then dwelt they there, until the latter times. And now when they shall begin to come, the Highest shall stay the springs of the stream again, that they may go through — therefore sawest thou the multitude in peace. But time who le left behind of thy people, are they who are found within my borders. JVow, when he destroyeth the multitude of the nations that are gathered together, he shall defend his people who remain. Jlnd then he shall shew them great wonders." Hear the words of Isaiah, xi. 15, 16, and compare them with the above. " And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and with hks mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod. And there shall be an high way for the remnant of his people, who shall be left from As syria ; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt/' This sea and river cannot mean the Euphrates, the Nile, or the Red sea, as neither is in the way from the northern parts of ancient Media, which were once part of Assyria, where these tribes dwelt. The Caspian or Cir- casian strait, through the mountains of Caucasus, lies about midway between the Euxine sea to the west, and the Caspian sea to the east, through Iberia. After passing through the strait from the north, by keeping a little west, you pass on in the neighbourhood of the Euxine sea, through Armenia Minor, into Syria Proper, and by the head of the Mediterra nean sea to Palestine, without going over the Euphrates. But all who are in Persia, in Armenia Major, and to the

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eastward in Mesopotamia, and beyond Babylon, must pass the Euphrates to get there. But as before observed * the Jews called all great rivers by the name of the Euphrates, or of some large river well known to them. Nay, they called the invasion of a formidable enemy by the name of a large river, when they came from the north. "Now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up upon them ihe waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory — and he shall come up over all his channels and go over all his banks." « Thus saith the Lord, behold waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein, the city, and them who dwell therein ; then the men shall cry, and all the inhab itants of the land shall howl, at the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots." — Isaiah viii. 7. — Jeremiah xlvii. 2, 3.

By the above story out of Esdras, it appears, as it does in the bible, that these tribes were taken by Salmanazar, in the time of Hoshea, their king, and carried away over the waters into a strange land, that is, transplanted into Media and Persia. There, after suffering a long time, how long is not known, but it is pretty clear that it must have been for some hundred years, they repented of their former idolatry, and became discontented and restless, being distressed and wearied out with the folly and wicked practices of their idol atrous neighbours around them. They consulted with their brethren in the northwestern parts of Persia, in the cities of the Medes, who were not far from them, and took counsel together, and resolutely determined to leave the multitude of the heathen, and travel farther north, in search of a country

72 A STAR IN THE WEST.

uninhabited and not claimed by any one, and of course free from the troublesome, dangerous neighbourhood and example of the heathen — nay, a country, wherein mankind never yet dwelt. It is not uncommon for men to run into extremes ; though it is not improbable but that they might have had some divine direction in the business. They resolved to risk every danger and inconvenience, to avoid opposition to, and tempta tion from, keeping the statutes of the Lord, which they had so totally neglected in their own holy land, having been led away by the awful examples of the nations around them.

The foregoing extract from the apochryphal book of Esdras, is not quoted as having divine authority 5 but merely as the historic work of some Jew of an early day. Bengelius and Basnage, both assert that it is generally admitted by the learned, that those books of Esdras were written in the begin ning of the second century. They are held uncanonical by all protestants, not having been ever quoted by the fathers* or any early Christian writer, as of divine authority. The Church of England, by her sixth article, permits them to be read for example of life and instruction of manners ; but does not allow them to establish any doctrine of religion. The Ro man Catholics consider them as of divine authority. This quo tation from the first book of Esdras is used here, as any other account of an early transaction, by an author living near the time of the event, would be. This Jew seems to be a serious and devout writer, on a subject he appears to be acquainted with, and from his situation and connections, might be suppos- ed to know something of the leading facts. And whether he wrote in a figurative style, or under the idea of similitudes, dreams or visions, he appears to intend the communication of

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events that he believed had happened, and as far as they are corroborated by subsequent facts, well attested, they ought to have their due weight in the scale of evidence.

These Israelites, then, accordingly executed their purpose, and left their place of banishment in a body, although it is hardly to be doubted but some, comparatively few, from va rious motives, as before observed, remained behind ; although their places may have been filled up by many natives, who might prefer taking their chance with them in their emigra tions, which were common to the people of that region, espe cially the old inhabitants of Damascus removed to the river Kcr, by Tiglah Pilnezcr, some time before the taking of Sa maria, and the removal of the ten tribes. They proceeded till they came to a great water or river, which stopped their pro gress, as they had no artificial means of passing it, and reduc ed them to great distress and almost despair. How long they remained here, cannot now be known ; but finally, God again appeared for them, as he had done for their fathers of old at the Red sea, by giving them some token of his presence, and encouraging them to go on ; thus countenancing them in their project of forsaking the heathen. God stayed the flood, or perhaps froze it into firm ice, and they passed over by the narrow passages of the river, which may have been occasion ed by the islands, so that they might go from island to island, till they landed on the opposite side in safety. They might have been a long time exploring the banks of this water, as some of the nations of Europe, with all their means of knowl edge, have since done, before they discovered these narrow passages, which gave them hopes of success.

L

7i A STAR IN THE WEST.

Here, then, they found a desart land, of a better soil and climate, and went on, and in process of time travelled so far as to take a year and an half, which, construed according to the prophetic rule of their ancestors, a year for a day, would make upwards of five hundred years, and thus literally found a country wherein mankind never yet dwelt.

But although these Children of Israel might have passed over the straits of Kamschatka, and peopled the northeast parts of America, and so wTent on to the southward and east ward, and left some settlers wherever they remained any time ; yet it does not follow that they might not have been attended by many of the inhabitants of Scythia or Tartary, who were willing to try their fortunes with them. Neither does it follow, that some persons of other nations might not have been driven by storms at sea on the American coasts, and made settlements there. All these might have contribut ed to establish customs among them, different from their own, and also might adulterate and change their language in some instances, as was done in Babylon.

In this land, then, they are to remain till the latter time, when Jehovah will " put forth his hand again a second time, to recover the remnant of his people that remaineth from Assyria, from Hamah or Hcda, and the western regions ;* and he will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel.*- " And the Lord with his mighty wind will shake his hand over the river, and will strike it into seven streams, and make them pass over dry shod, and there shall be a high way for the remnant of his people, who remain from Assyria, as it was unto Israel in the day that he came out of

* Lowth's translation-

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the land of Egypt." — Isaiah xi. 16— as we have before men tioned.

These trihcs have been thus lost for more than two thousand years. Those of Judah and Benjamin being, a considerable time after the cpnqucst of Samaria, carried away captives to Babylon, by Nebuchadnezzar, and perhaps with some of their brethren of the ten tribes, who might have remained with them in Jerusalem, were settled in Babylon during seventy years, when they returned to Jerusalem again by the consent <»f their conquerors, and remained in possession of their belov ed country till the coming of the Messiah, whom they per versely put to death on the cross, and voluntarily imprecated that his blood might rest on them and their children; \\hich has since been awfully verified, by their misery and disper sion, having been led away again into captivity by the Romans, who burned their city and made their land a desolation and a curse. From this awfid and tremendous fate, the ten tribes, by their previous captivity and banishment, have been happi ly delivered, having had no hand in this impious transaction.

It was about forty years after the crucifixion, that the con quest of the Romans, and the burning of their temple and city- took place. The Romans ploughed up the scite of the city according to the Messiah's prediction, and drove the tribes of Judah and Benjamin as slaves and criminals into every coun try of the east. They sold thousands of them as they do cat tle, and they literally became a bye-word and a hissing with all nations. But at this time their brethren the ten tribes of Israel, were in their state of banishment on the frontiers of Persia and Media, from whence they have disappeared and are generally supposed to be lost. And were it not for the

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promises of that God, \yJio cannot deceive, a God of holiness and truth, we should give up any enquiry after them as hope less. But he whose word is truth itself has said, " that in the latter days, he will bring again the captivity of his people Israel and Judah, and will cause them to return to the land that he gave to their fathers, that they should possess it. Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord. And all the nations shall he gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem ; neither shall they walk any more after the stub bornness of their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall walk witli the house of Israel, and they shall come togeth er out of the land of the north, to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers." Jeremiah iii. 12 — 18. " For thus saith the Lord, sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations — publish yc — praise ye — and say, O Lord save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold ! I will bring them from the north country, and gather them/ro?n tlie coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travaileth with child together, a great company shall return thither." Jere miah iii. 7 — 8.

" Therefore behold ! the days come saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt ; but the Lord liveth who brought up and led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I have driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land." Jeremiah xxiii. 7U-8, "Behold! the days come saith the Lord, that the

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ploughman shall overtake the reaper; and the trcader of grapes, him who sowctli seed : And the mountain shall drop new wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. And they shall plant vine yards and drink of the wine thereof : they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit thereof, and I will plant them upon their land, and they no more shall be pulled up out of the land, which I have given them saith the Lord thy God." Amos ix. 13, &c. " For they shall abide many days without a king and without a prince, without a sacrifice and without an image (the word means a pillar, or chief support, and may be transla ted, an altar, which suits the context) and without an ephod and without a teraphim ; but afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness, in the latter days." Hosea, iii. 4 — 5.

" God calls to his people— Ho ! Ho ! come forth and flee from the land of the north, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, saith the Lord." Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, behold ! I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, or the country of the going down of the sun." Zechariah, ii. 6 — viii. 7, as it is in the mar gin of the bible.

We say, if it was not for these and such like promises, it might be thought presumption and folly, for any one to waste his time in enquiring after this long lost people, as it would then have been most natural to conclude that they had passed into oblivion, with the nations of the cast and the west, thek* conquerors, as Babylon, Nineveh, Assyria and Egypt. But

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as Jehovah cannot deceive, hut is the same yesterday, to day arid forever, whose words are yea, and amen, who hath said, ** yet now thus saith Jehovah, who created thee 0 Jacoh ! and who formed thee O Israel ! fear tliou not, for I have redeemed thee — I have called thee hy thy name — tliou art mine — fear thou not for I am with thee — from the east I will bring thy children, and from the west I will gather thee togeth er. I will say to the north give up, and to the south withhold not, hring my sons/row afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.-9 Isaiah, xliii. 1 — 6.

From all this it plainly appears from whence the Jews are to he gathered a second time, when they shall he brought home again. They are to come from Assyria and Egijpt9 where it is well known very many of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin are now to be found, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, (different parts of Persia, where they are of the same tribes, with perhaps a small remnant of the Israelites) and from Shinar, still more east, consisting wholly of the two before mentioned tribes, and may include the black Jews, and from Hamah near the Caspian sea, where some of the ten tribes may have remained behind, on the departure of their brethren to the northward, and from the western regions.

Thus we are to look to some western region, for a number, rather for the main body, of this dispersed nation. Now as tto other part of the world has yet been discovered where the body of the Israelites as a nation, have been found, it may be justly concluded, that they must at last be discovered in some western region, not yet taken notice of, where they are kept till the day of their deliverance.

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To a believer in the divinity of the bible, there can he no hesitation, hut that all this will most assuredly come to pass in the most literal and extensive sense. These lost tribes must he some where on our earth, answerable to the north and the west from Jerusalem — a far off, even in the ends of the earth. ,A And as from the present signs of the times, particu larly of the Roman government and the reign of antichrist, we may rationally conclude that these are the latter times, the last times of the Roman government, and that the great things foretold in the word of God, are fast accomplishing, it becomes a duty now, to search diligently into these great subjects of Christian consideration, and attend to what the spirit of God has revealed of these eventful times, lest the language of Christ to the Pharisees, may become applicable to us — " Ye hypo crites ! ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth ; hut how is it, that (notwithstanding all your light and know ledge from revelation) ye do not discern this time." Luke, xii. 56.

We will therefore proceed in the attempt, to collect togeth er what may he yet known of this favoured, though sinful and suffering people, once so dear to the God of all the earth, and who still remain a standing and unanswerable monument and pooof of the truth of prophecy to all nations. And if we can do no more than call the attention of Christians, of learning and leisure, to this important subject, it will not he lost labour.

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CHAPTER II.

An enquiry into the question, on wJiat part of the globe is it most likely, that these descendants of Israel may be now found, aris ing from late discoveries and facts, that have not come to the knowledge of the civilized world, till of late years.

EVERY quarter of the world has been so traversed and explored by the hardy and adventurous seamen of modern Europe and America, as well as by travellers whose curiosity and indefatigable labours, have scarcely left any considera ble tract of the globe unnoticed, that we can scarcely pre sume on making the least discovery in any hitherto unknown part of the world. We must look to the histories of coun tries already known to the geographer and traveller, and apply to the divine scriptures for the compass which is to direct our course. Hence it must answer to the following particulars —

±. It must be a country to the north and west from Judea. Jeremiah, iii. 17—18, xxiii. 7 — 8. Zechariah, ii. 6.

2. It must be a far country from Judea. Isaiah, xliii, 6— xlvi. 11.*

* Remember the former things of old time, verily I am God and nOne else ; I ajm God and there is none like unto me. From the beginning, making known the end, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my council shall stand, and whatever I have willed I will effect. Calling from the east, the eagle, and from a land far distant the man of my council. As I have spoken, so will I bring it to pass ; I have formed the design and I will execute it. Lowth'* translation.

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3. It must answer the term, from the ends of the earth. Isaiah, xliii. 1 — 6.

4. It must he in the western regions, or the country of the going down of the sun. Zecharia, viii. 7.

5. It must be a land, that at the time of the tribes going to, was without inhabitants, and free from heathen neighbours. 2 Esdras, xiii. M.

6. It must be beyond the seas from Palestine, the country to which part of them are to return in ships. Isaiah, Ix. 9 — xvii. 2.

The scriptures are very positive in four of the above par ticulars, the fifth is founded on the text from 2cl Esdras, and although it is not pretended that the apochryphal books bear any comparison as to divine inspiration, with the bible, yet as that book was written by a Jew, somewhere about the year 100, it may, as has already been observed, be used as evidence of an historic fact, equally with any other historian, and if cor roborated by other facts, will add to the testimony.

As to the sixth particular, this is not only supported by the text, but it is the opinion of that great and judicious writer, the Rev. Mr. Faber, on the whole representation of the scriptures, who certainly deserves the attention of every serious Christian. He seems very positive " that some prevailing maritime pow er of faithful worshippers, will be chiefly instrumental in con verting and restoring a part of the Jewish nation. This seems to be declared in scripture, more than once, witli suffi cient plainness." " Who are these ? like a cloud they fly, and like doves to their holes. Surely the Isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish, among the first, to bring thy sons from afar : their silver and their gold with them, unto

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the name of the Lord thy God, unto the holy one of Israel, be cause he hath glorified me." Isaiah, Ix. 8 — 9. Again it is expressly said, they are to he gathered from the coasts of the earth, implying that they were to have some connection with the sea, and the address which God makes to them puts it out of doubt. " Ho ! land spreading wide the shadow of thy wings, which are beyond the rivers of Cush, or Cuthai, accus tomed to send messengers "by sea, even in Bulrush vessels upon the surface of the waters. Go swift messengers unto the nation dragged away and plucked ; unto a people wonder ful from the beginning hitherto ; a nation expecting, expect ing and trampled underfoot ; whose lands the rivers have spoiled. Isaiah, xviii. 1 — 2. At that season, a present shall be led to the Lord of Hosts ; a people dragged away and pluck ed ; even a people wonderful from the beginning hitherto ; a nation expecting, expecting and trampled under foot ; whose land, rivers have spoiled, unto the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts, Mount Zion." Isaiah, xviii. 7. Mr. Faber bas given a paraphrase of part of the foregoing texts, thus, (3d vol. 94) « Go swift messengers, unto ti nation, long appa rently forsaken by God ; a nation dragged away from their own country and plucked; a nation wonderful from their beginning hitherto ; a nation perpetually expecting their pro- mised Messiah, and yet trampled under foot ; a nation whose land the symbolical rivers of foreign invaders have for ages spoiled. Go swift messengers ! You who by your skill in nav igation, and your extensive commerce and alliances, are so qualified to be carriers of a message to people in the remotest countries ; go with God's message unto a nation dragged away : to the dispersed Jews; a nation dragged away from its pro-

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per seat, and plucked of its wealth and power $ a people won derful from its beginning to this very time for the speeial pro vidence which has ever attended them and directed their for tunes ; a nation still lingering in expectation of the Messiah, who sd long since came and was rejected by them and now is coming again in glory ; a nation universally trampled under foot ; whose land, rivers, armies of foreign invaders, the Assy rians, Babylonians, Syromacedonians, Romans, Saracens, and Turks, have over-run and depopulated." Letter on Isa iah, 18.

" My worshippers beyond the river Cush, (which must be to the northward and westward of Jerusalem) shall bring as an offering to me, the daughters of my dispersion." Zeph. iii. 10. And Zechariah treating on the same subject, says, « I will hiss for them (the tribes of Ephraim and his children, mentioned in the former verses) for I have redeemed them ; and they shall increase as they have (heretofore) increased. And I will sow them among the people, and they shall remem ber me in far countries, and they shall live with their children and turn again. And I will bring them again also (that is besides those from far countries) out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria, and I will bring them into the land of Giliad and Lebanon, and place shall not be found for them. And he (that is Ephraim) shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the wares in the seaf and all the deeps of the river shall dry up, and the pride of Assy ria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall pass away, and I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord," Zechariah, x,

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Here is an explicit difference made between the return of Judah and Ephraim, that is, between the Jews and Israel ites — -the latter is to come from a far country — he is to pass through a great water, or over the seas, or both. The words here made use of, may be very applicable, to people, who have no knowledge or experience of passing over the sea in ships, whose sickness is generally extremely distressing.

Mr. Faber supposes that the land spreading wide the sha dow of her wings, may be some maritime nation, the sails of whose ships, and the protection given by them, are here pro phesied of. He seems to think, this may refer to Great Bri tain, in like manner, as she may be designated by Tarshish, which was formerly a great trading and maritime country. Yet he thinks it possible it may refer to some other maritime nation — but it is asked, why not to a union of maritime nations, on so important and difficult an undertaking.

From a serious consideration of all the foregoing circum stances, we seem naturally led to have recourse to the late discovered continent of America, which the first visitants found filled with inhabitants, and though called savages, dif fered essentially from all the savages ever known to the peo ple of the old world before. In the first place they resem bled (considerably) in appearance, the people of the oriental nations. Mr. Penn, who saw and communicated with them in a particular manner, on his first arrival in America, while in their original, uncontaminated state, before they were debased and ruined by their connection with those who called themselves civilized and Christians, was exceedingly struck with their appearance, j In one of his letters to his friends in England, he says, «I found them with like countenance with

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the Jewish race ; and their children of so lively a rcsemhlance to them, tli at a man would think himself in Duke's-place or Berry-street, in London, when he seeth them.'5 (Penn's AVorks. 2d vol. 70i, year 1682.) They wore ear-rings and

*imse jewels ; bracelets on their arms and legs ; rings on their fingers ; necklaces made of highly polished shells found in

.their rivers and on their coasts. Their females tied up their hair behind, worked hands round their heads, and ornamented them with shells and feathers, and are fond of strings of heads round several parts of their bodies. They use shells and tur key spurs round the tops of their mocasins, to tinkle like lit tle bells, as they walk." Isaiah proves this to have been the custom of the Jewish women, or something much like it. " In that day, says the prophet, the Lord will take away the bra very of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon. The chains and the bracelets and the muflers. The bonnets and the orna ments of the legs, and the head-bands, and the tablets, and the car rings ; the rings and the nose jewels." Isaiah, iii. 18. > They religiously observed certain feasts, and feasts very similar to those enjoined on the Hebrews, by Moses, as will hereinafter more particularly be shewn.' In short, many, and indeed, it may be said, most of the learned men, who did pay any particular attention to these natives of the wilderness at their first coming among them, both English and Spaniards, were struck with their general likeness to the Jews. The Indians in Newr-Jersey, about 1681, are described, as persons straight in their limbs, beyond the usual proportion in most nations ; very seldom crooked or deformed ; their features regular; their countenances some times fierce, in common

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rather resembling a Jew, than a Christian. (Smith's History ( of New-Jersey, 14.)

It shall now he our business to collect those facts in their history, that are well attested, with those which may he known of them from personal knowledge of men of character, or from their present manners, customs and habits ; although we are well advised, and it should be constantly borne in mind, that the corruption of both principle and practice, introduced amongst them, by their connection with Europeans, has so debased their morals and vitiated all their powers of mind, that they are quite degenerated from their ancestors.

An old Cliaribbee Indian, in a very early day, thus address ed one of the white people. « Our people are become almost as bad as yours. We arc so much altered since you came among us, that we hardly know ourselves, and we think it is owing to so melancholy a change, that hurricanes are more frequent than formerly. It is the evil spirit, who has done all this — who has taken our best lands from us, and given us up to the dominion of christains. Edward's History West-Indies, 1 vol. 28. And yet we very gravely assert that we have bene fited the Indian nations, by teaching them the Christian reli gion. —

The Indians have so degenerated, that they cannot at this time give any tolerable account of the origin of their religious rites, ceremonies and customs, although religiously attached to them as the commands of the great spirit to their forefath ers. Suppose a strange people to be discovered, before wholly unknown to the civilized world, and an enquiry was instituted into their origin, or from what nation they had sprung, what

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mode of examination would be most likely to succeed and lead to a rational solution of the question ?

In our opinion, a strict enquiry into the following particu lars, would be the best means of accomplishing this valuable purpose.

Their language.

Their received traditions.

Their established customs and habits.

Their known religious rites and ceremonies.

And, lastly, their public worship and religious opinions and prejudices.

Therefore to commence this enquiry, with some degree of method, we shall confine ourselves to these five particulars, as far as we can find well authenticated data to proceed upon.

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CHAPTER III.

An enquiry into the language of the American Indians.

WHEN we consider how soon the family of Noah, scattered throughout Asia, Africa and Europe, lost almost every trace of the!r original language, so far at least, as not to he easily understood by the nations into which they became divided — established different manners and customs peculiar to each nation or people — and finally formed for themselves respective ly, such absurd and wholly differing modes of religious wor ship, as well as principles and doctrines, and finally became, at different times, to bear the most inveterate hatred to each other, we could no longer, at this remote period, hope for much success in looking for convincing testimony to prove the fact very satisfactorily, though we should stumble on the actual descendants of those children of Abraham, the lost ten tribes of Israel, after so long a dispersion and entire separation from the rest of the world. And if we do find any convincing tes timony on this subject, we must attribute it to the over-ruling providence of that God who is wonderful in council, and true to all his promises. Hear Sir William Jones, whose author ity will have great influence on all who know his character. In his discourse on the origin of the East Indians or Hindoos, Arabs, Tartars, &c. he says, "hence it follows, that the only family after the flood, established itself in the northern parts of Iran, now Persia. That as the family multiplied,

they were divided into three distinct branches, each retaining

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little, at first, and loosing the whole by degrees, of their com mon primary language ; hut agreeing severally on new expressions for new ideas." \

Father Charlevoix, a famous French writer, who came over to Canada very early, and paid particular attention to the Indian natives, says, " that the only means (which others have neglected) to come at the original of the Indian natives, are the knowledge of their languages, and comparing them with those of the other hemisphere, that are considered as primitives. Manners very soon degenerate by means of com merce with foreigners, and by mixture of several nations unit ing in one body — and particularly so, amongst wandering tribes, living without principle, laws, education or civil gov ernment, especially where absolute" want of the necessaries of life takes place, and the necessity of doing without, causes their names and uses to perish together. From their dialects, we may ascend to the mother tongues themselves. These are distinguished by being more nervous than those derived from them, because they are formed from nature, and they contain a greater number of words, imitating the things where of they are the signs. Hence he concludes that if those cliar- acteristical marks which are peculiar to any oriental nation arc found in the Indian languages, we cannot reasonably doubt of their being truly original, and consequently, that the peo ple who speak them, have passed over from that hemisphere.*'

This then must be an enquiry into facts, the investigation of which, from the nature of the subject, muft be wholly founded on well authenticated accounts recorded by writers of charac ter, who may be consulted on this occasion ; or from the information of such persons who have been long domesticated

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with particular nations, suspected to have originated from the other hemisphere ; or of persons whose occupation or mode of life has led them to visit parts of the globe, the most likely to afford some light on this ahstruse subject. And even hero our assistance cannot be expected to be great ; but whatever we are able to discover, we will put together, in hopes that by pursuing this enquiry, though we should arise no farther than bare rudiments, 'the curiosity of the more learned and persevering, may produce some further and more adequate discovery, to enlighten mankind. Th^ difficulties attending this attempt must be great. The Indian languages, having never been reduced to any certainty by letters, must have been exposed to great changes and misconceptions. They are still a wandering people, having no knowledge of gram mar or of the arts and sciences. No monuments of antiquity — no mechanical trades — oppressed and distressed on all hands — driven from their original residence into a wilder ness, and even there not suffered to remain stationary ; but still driven from place to place — debased and enervated b\ the habitual use of intoxicating spirits, afforded them by tra ders for the double purpose of profit and imposition — vitia ted by the awful example of white people, we are at this day confined to the few traces of their original language, their religion, rites and customs, and a few common traditions that may yet with labour be collected, to form our opinions upon. The Indian languages in general, are very copious and expres sive, considering the narrow sphere in which they move; their ideas being few in comparison with civilized nations. They have neither cases nor declensions. They have few or

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no prepositions — 'they remedy this, by affixes and suffixes, and their words are invariably the same in both numbers.

All this, if the writer's information be correct, is very simi lar to the Hebrew language. He has been informed from good authority, and the same is confirmed by a writer well acquainted with the subject, that there is no language known in Europe, except the Hebrew, without prepositions ; that is, in separate and express words. The Indians have all the other parts of speech, except as above. They have no com parative or superlative degrees of comparison more than the Hebrews. They form the last, by some leading vowel of the divine name of the great spirit, added to the word. It is observed by some Jewish, as well as Christian interpreters, that the several names of God, are often given as epithets by the Hebrews to those things which are the greatest, the strongest, and the best of their kind, as ruach elohim, a migh ty wind. 1 vol. Stackhouse's History of the Bible, page 8, in a note. " Both languages are very rhetorical, nervous and em- phatical. Those public speeches of the Indians, that the wri ter of these memoirs has heard or read, have been oratorical and adorned with strong metaphors in correct language, and greatly abound in allegory. About the year 168*, the gov ernor of New- York, sent an accredited agent to the Ononda- gos, on a dispute that was likely to arise with the French. The agent (one Arnold) behaved himself very haughtily towards the Indians, at delivering his commission. One of the chiefs then answered him in a strain of Indian eloquence, in which he said among other things, " I have two arms — I extend the one towards Montreal, there to support the tree of yeace j and the other towards Corlacr, (the governor of New-

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York) who has long been my brother. Gnonthis (the governor of Canada) lias been these ten years my father. Corlaer has been long my brother, with my own good will, but neither the one or the other is my master. He 'who made tlie world, gave me this land I possess. / am free. I respect them both ; but no man has a right to command me, and none ought to take amiss, my endeavouring all I can, that this land should not be troubled. To confclude, I can no longer delay repairing to my father, who has taken the pains to come to my very gate, and who has no terms to propose, but what are reasonable/' 1 Wynne's History America, 402 — 3.

At a meeting held with the President, General Washing ton, in 1790, to prevail upon him to relax the terms of a trea ty of peace, made with commissioners under the old confede ration, relative to an unreasonable cession of a large part of their country, which they had been rather persuaded to make to the United States, for the sake of peace, and which after wards they sincerely repented of, Cornplant who had long been a steady friend to the United States, in the most perilous part of the revolutionary war, delivered a long, persuasive and able speech, which the writer of this preserved, and has now before him, and from which are extracted the following sentences, as a proof of the above assertion. " Father, when your army entered the country of the six nations, we called you the town destroyer, and to this day, when your name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale ; our chil dren cling close to the necks of their mothers ; but our coun cillors and warriors being men, cannot be afraid ; but their hearts are grieved by the fears of our women and children, and desire that it may be buried so deep, as to be heard of no

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more. Father, we will not conceal from you, that the great spirit and not man, has preserved Cornplant from the hands of Jus own nation. For they ask continually, where is the land, on which our children and their children, are to lie down upon ? You told us, say they, that a line drawn from Penn sylvania to Lake Ontario, would mark it forever on the east ; and a line running from Beaver Creek to Pennsylvania, would mark it on the west. But we see that it is not so. For first one and then another comes and takes it away by order of that people, who you told us, promised to secure it to us forever. Cornplant is silent, for he has nothing to answer. When the sun goes down, Cornplant opens his heart before the great spirit ; and earlier than the sun appears again upon the hills, lie gives thanks for his protection during the night, for he feels, that among men become desperate by the injuries they sus tain, it is God only that can preserve him. Cornplant loves peace — all he had in store, he has given to those, who have been robbed by your people, lest they should plunder the inno cent, to repay themselves.

66 The whole season which others have employed in providing for their families, Cornplant has spent in endeavors to preserve peace, and at this moment, his wife and children are lying on the ground, and in want of food. — His heart is in pain for them ; but he perceives, that the great spirit, will try his firmness, in doing what is right. Father ! innocent men of our nation are killed one after another, though of our best families ; but none of your people, who have committed these murders, have been punished. \Ve recollect that you did promise to punish those who should kill our people; and we ask, was it intended that your people should kill the Seneca's, and not only remain un-

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punished, but be protected from the next of kin. Father! these to us are great things. We know that you are -very strong — We Itave heard that you are wise, but we sluill wait to hear your answer to this, that we may know thatijou are just."

Adair records a sentence of a speech of an Indian captain to his companions, in his oration for war. Near the conclusion of his harangue, he told the warriors, « he feelingly knew that their guns were burning in their hands — their tomahawks were thirsty to drink the blood of their enemy, and their trusty arrows were impatient to be upon the wing ; and lest delay should burn their hearts any longer, he gave tbem the cool re freshing word, "join the holy ark" and away to cut off the de voted enemy."

But a speech made by Logan, a famous Indian chief, about the year 1775, was never exceeded by Demosthenes or Cicero. In revenge for a murder committed by some unknown Indians, a party of our people fired on a canoe loaded with women and children, and one man, all of whom happened to belong to the family of Logan, who had been long the staunch friend of the Americans, and then at perfect peace with them. A war im mediately ensued, and after much blood-shed on both sides, the Indians were beat, and sued for peace. A treaty was held, but Logan disdainfully refused to be reckoned among the suppliants; but to prevent any disadvantage from his ab sence, to his nation, he scut the following talk, to be delivered to lord Dunmore at the treaty. « I appeal to any white man to say, if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat—if ever he came cold and naked, and Lo gan clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his eabin, an advocate for

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peace. Such was his love for the white men, that my coun trymen pointed as they passed, and said, Logan is the friend of white men. I had thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel — = — the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan. not sparing even my woman and children. There runs not a drop of his blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan ? No, not one."

Great allowance must be made for translations into another language, especially by illiterate and ignorant interpreters. This destroys the force as well as beauty of the original.

A writer (Adair) who has had the best opportunities to know the true idiom of their language, by a residence among them for forty years, has taken great pains to shew the similarity of the Hebrew, with the Indian languages, both in their roots and general construction ; and insists that many of the Indian words, to this day, are purely Hebrew, notwithstanding their exposure to the loss of it to such a degree, as to make the preservation of it so far, little less than miraculous.

Let any one compare the old original Hebrew, spoken with so much purity by the Jews before the Babylonish captivity, with that spoken by the same people on their return, after the comparatively short space of seventy years, and he will find it had become a barbarous mixture of the Hebrew and Chal- daic languages, so as not to be understood by an ancient

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Hebrew, and in a great measure, has continued so to this day. We say such a consideration will show an almost miraculous intervention of Divine Providence, should a clear trace of the original language he discoverable among the natives of our wilderness at this day. " Their words and sentences are ex pressive, concise, emphatical, sonorous and bold." Father Charlevoix, in his history of Canada, paid more attention to the Indian languages than most travellers before him, and indeed he had greater opportunities, and was a man of learn ing, and considerable abilities. He says, " that the Algonquin and Huron languages, have, between them, that of almost all the savage nations of Canada we are acquainted with. Who ever should well understand both, might travel without an interpreter, more than fifteen hundred leagues of country, and make himself understood by an hundred different nations, who have each their peculiar tongue. The Algonquin especial ly has a vast extent. It begins at Acadia and the Gulph of St. Lawrence, and takes a compass of twelve hundred leagues, twining from the south-east by the north, to the south-west. They say also, that the Wolf Nation, or the Mohegans, and the greatest part of the Indians of New-England and Virginia, speak the Algonquin dialects. The Huron language has a copiousness, an energy, and a sublimity, perhaps not to be found in any of the finest languages we know of; and those whose native tongue it is, though now but a handful of meii, have such an elevation of soul, as agrees much better with the majesty of their language, than with the state to which they are reduced. Some have fancied they found a similarity with the Hebrew, others have thought it had the same origin with

the Greek." "The Algonquin language has not so much

O

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force as the Huron; but lias more sweetness and elegance. Both have a richness of expression, a variety of turns, a pro priety of terms, a regularity which astonishes — -hut what is more surprising, is, that among these barbarians, who never study to speak well, and who never had the use of writing, there is never introduced a bad word, an improper term, or a vicious construction. And even their children preserve all the purity of the language in their common discourse. On the other hand, the manner in which they animate all they say, leaves no room to doubt of their comprehending all the worth of their expressions, and all the beauty of their language."

Mr. Golden, who wrote the History of the Wars of the Five Nations, about the year 1750, and was a man of considerable note, speaking of the language of those nations says, " they arc very nice in the turn of their expressions, and that a few of them are so far masters of their language, as never to offend the ears of their Indian auditory by an impolite expression. They have, it seems, a certain urbanity or atticism in their language, of which the common ears are very sensible, though only their great speakers attain to it. They are so given to speech-making, that their common compliments to any person they respect, at meeting or parting, are made in harangues. They have a few radical words, but they compound them with out end. By this their language becomes sufficiently copious, and leaves room for a good deal of art to please a delicate ear. Their language abounds with gutturals and strong aspirations, which make it very sonorous and bold. Their speeches abound with metaphors, after the manner of the eastern nations." It should be noted, that Mr. Colden, though a sensible man, and of excellent character, could not speak their language, and

A STAR IN THE WEST. 99

not having any considerable communication with them, took his information from others.

The late Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, of Connecticut, son of the late President Edwards, who was a man of great celeb rity, as a well read, pious divine, and of considerable erudi tion, was intimately associated with the Indians at Stock- bridge, of the Mohegan tribe in that state, from the age of six years. He understood their language equally with his mother tongue. He also had studied that of the Mohawks, having resided in their nation about six months for that purpose. He informs us that the name Mohegan is a corruption of Mukke- kaneaw, arising from the English pronunciation. This is a very common thing, and occasions much confusion, and great difficulties, in tracing the languages of the different tribes. For we have not only to contend with a different pronuncia tion and spelling of both English and French, but the corrup tion and ignorance of interpreters and traders, especially in an early day; and also the different modes of writing the same word by different people, arising from their different concep tions of the word as pronounced by the Indians.* As for in stance, in the same words by the English and French — English. French.

Owcnagunges. Abenaguies.

Maques. Aniez.

Odistastagheks. Mascoaties.

Makihander. Mourigan.

* The different sounds given by different tribes to the same letters, is also a source of difficulty. Those who write, often use the letter a, where the sound is oh, so that owoh is used in the Mohegan where a or au is used in other languages, as Moquoh for Mauquah,a bear. The sound of these two arc alike, when spoken fey an Indian. The e final, is never sorunded in any word, but a monosyllable.

100 A STAll IN THE WEST.

English. Frencfi,

Oneydoes. Oneyonts.

Utawawas. Outawies.

Todericks. Tateras.

Satana's. Shaononons.

The Mohcgan language was spoken by all the various tribes of New-England. Many of the tribes had a different dialect, but the language was radically the same. Mr. Elliot, called the Indian Apostle, who was among the first settlers of Massachusetts, and died in 1691, translated the bible into Indian, which is found to be in a particular dialect of the Mo- hegan language. Dr. Edwards says it appears to be much more extensive than any other language in North- Am erica. The language of the Delawares, in Pennsylvania, of the Penob- scots, bordering on Nova- Scotia, of the Indians of St. Francis, in Canada, of the Shawanese, on the Ohio, and of the CMppewas, at the westward of Lake Huron, were all radically the same with the Mohegan. The same is said of the Ottowas, Nanii- cokes, Munsees, Menomomes, Messisagas, Saukies, Ottagawnies, Killistinoes, Nipegons, Jllgonk'ms, Winmbagoes, &c.

Dr. Edwards asserts, that for the pronouns common in other languages, they express the pronouns both substantive and adjective, by affixes or letters, or syllables added at the begin nings or ends, or both, of their nouns. In this particular, the structure of their language coincides with that of the Hebrew, in an instance in which the Hebrew differs from all the lan guages of Europe, ancient and modern, with this only differ ence, that the Hebrews always joined the affixes to the ends of the words, whereas the Indians, in pronouns of the singular number, prefix the letter or syllable ; but hi the plural mini-

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ler, they add others as suffixes. Also as the word is in creased, they change and transpose the vowels, as in tmohhe- can, an hatchet ; ndumhemn, my hatchet : the o is changed into u, and transposed after the manner of the Hebrews; likewise in some instances, the t is changed into d.

Besides what has heen ohserved concerning prefixes and suffixes, there is a remarkahle analogy, says Dr. Edwards, hetween some words of the Mohegan language, and the cor respondent words in the Hebrew. In the Mohegan niah is T. In Hebrew it is aniy which is the two syllables of niah trans posed. Keah, thou or thee. The Hebrews use Ka the suffix. UwoJi9 is this man, or this thing ; very analagous to the He brew Hu9 or Huah, ipse. Necaunuh is we : in Hebrew it is naclmu or anachnu. In Hebrew m is the suffix for me, or the first person. In the Mohegan, n, or ne, is prefixed to de note the first person, as nmeetseh, or nimeetseh, I eat. In Hebrew k or ka, is the suffix for the second person, and is indifferently either a pronoun, substantive or adjective, l^or ka, has the same use in the Mohegan language as kmeetseh or kameetseh, thou eatest. Knish, thy hand. In Hebrew the van, and the letter u and hu, are the suffixes for he or them- In the Indian the same is expressed by u, or uw, and by oo* as in uduhwhunnw, I love him. Pumissoo, he walketh. In Hebrew, the suffix to express our, or us, is nu. In Mohcgan, it is nuh, as nogknuh, our father. Nmeetschnuh, we eat, &c.

To elucidate this subject still farther, a list of a few words in the different Indian dialects shall be added, with the same words in Hebrew and Chaldaick.

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English. Charibbee. Greeks.

His wife My wife Come hither

Liani

Yene-nori

Hace-yete

The heavens Chemim

Jehovah Jocanna

Woman Ishto

Man or chief Ish I

Thou or thee This man We

Assembly or

•walled house

Necklace or

collar

My necklace Wood My skin I am sick Good be to you To blow Roof of the

house

Go thy way Eat To eat The nose Give me nourishment* The great first

Moihegan,

and Northern Languages.

Y. He. Ho. wah

Ishte

Niah

Keah Uwoh

Necaumdi

Kurbet Enca

Yene kali Hue

Nora

Nane guaete Halea tibou Phoubac Toubana ora

Bayou boorkaa Baika Aika Nichiri Natoni boman

Yo hewah

Hebrew.

Li hene

Hene herranni

Aca-ati (Samari tan)

Shemim

Jehovah

Ishto

Ish

Ani, the 2 sylla bles transposed as ahni

Ka

Huah

Nachnu

Guir, or gra bit

Ong

Von gali

Oa (Chaldaic)

Ourni

Nanceheti

Ye hali ettuboa

Phouhe

Debona our

Boua Bouak Bge Chaldaic Akl do. Neheri Natoui bamen

Jehovah

* Edward's West-Jndias

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103

English. Charibbee. Creeks.

Mohegan,

and Northern Languages.

Hebrew.

Praise the first	Halleluwah	Hallelujah
cause
Father	Abba	Abba
Now, the pres	Na	Na
ent time
Very hot, or	Ileru, hara, or	Hara haft
bitter upon	hala
me «,
To pray	Phale	Phalac
The hind parts	Kesh	Kish
One who kills	Abe, derived	Abel
another	from Abele
	Gruf
The war name	Noabe, com
who kills a	pounded of
rambling en	Noah & Abe
emy
Canaan	Kenaai	Canaan
Wife	Awah	Eve or eweh
Winter	Kora	Cora
Another name	Ale	Ale or alohim
for God
Do	lennois*	lannonf
	Indians of Pe-
	nobscot
Arrarat,a high.	Arrarat, a high	Arrarat, a high
mountain	mountain.	mountain

As the writer of this does not understand either the Hebrew or Indian languages, so as to be a judge of their true idioms or spelling, he would not carry his comparisons of one language with the other, too far. Yet he cannot well avoid mentioning, merely as a matter of curiosity, that the Mohawks, in confed eracy with the Five Nations, as subsisting at the first arrival

* Barlow.

t Litterally he shall be called a son, Christian Observer for June IS13, p 349.

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of the Europeans in America, were considered as the law givers, or the interpreters of duty, to the other tribes. Nay, this was so great, that all paid obedience to their advice. They considered themselves as supreme, or first among the rest. Mr. Colden says, that he had been told by old men in New-England, that when their Indians were at war, formerly, with the Mohawks, as soon as one appeared, their Indians raised a cry from hill to hill, a Mohawk ! a Mohawk ! Upon which all fled like sheep before a wolf, without attempting to make the least resistance. And that all the nations around them, have for many years, entirely submitted to their advice, and pay them a yearly tribute of wampum. The tributary nations dare not make war or peace, without the consent of the Mohawks. Mr. Colden has given a speech of the Mo hawks, in answer to one from the governor of Virginia, com plaining of the other confederate nations, which shows the Mohawks superiority over them, and the mode in which they corrected their misdoings. Now it seems very remarkable, that the Hebrew word Mhhokek, spelled so much like the Indian word, means a law-giver, (or leges interpres) or a superior.

Blind chance could not have directed so great a number of remote and warring savage nations to fix on, and unite in so nice a religious standard of speech, and even grammatical con struction of language, where there was no knowledge of letters or syntax. For instance, A, oo, E A, is a strong religious Indian emblem, signifying, I dinib9 ascend, or remove to another place of residence. It points to A-rio-wah, the first person singular, and 0 E A, or Yah, He, Wah, and implies putting themselves under the divine patronage. The beginning of that most

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sacred symbol, is by studious skill, and a thorough knowledge of the power of letters, placed twice, to prevent them from being applied to the sacred name, for vain purposes, or crea ted tilings.

Though they have lost the true meaning of their religious emblems, except what a very few of the more intelligent tra ders revive in the retentive memories of the old inquisitive magi, or, beloved man; yet tradition directs them to apply them properly. They use many plain religious emblems of the divine name, as Y, 0, he, wah — Yah and Ale, and these are the roots of a prodigious number of words, through their various dialects. It is worthy of remembrance, that two Indians, who belong to far distant nations, without the knowl edge of each other's language, except from the general idiom, will intelligibly converse together, and contract engagements Without any interpreter, in such a surprising manner, as is scarcely credible. In like manner we read of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, travelling from country to country, from Chaldea into. Palestine, when inhabited by various differing nations — thence into Egypt and back again, making engage ments, and treating with citizens wherever they went. But we never read of any difficulty of being understood, or their using an interpreter.

The Indians generally express themselves with great vehe mence and short pauses, in their public speeches. Their periods are well turned, and very sonorous and harmonious. Their words are specially chosen, and well disposed, with great care and knowledge of their subject and language, to show the being, power and agency of the great spirit in all

that concerns them.

P

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To speak in general terms, their language in their rootsy idiom and particular construction, appears to have the whole genius of the Hebrew,, and what is very remarkable, and well worthy of serious observation, has most of the peculiarities of that language, especially those in which it differs from most other languages; and "often, both in letters and signification^ synonimous with the Hebrew language." They call the light ning and thunder, Eloha, and its rumbling noise Rowah, which may not, improperly, be deduced from the Hebrew word Enoch, a name of the third person in the holy Trinity, originally signifying " the air in motion, or a rushing wind." —Faber. ^

The Indian compounded words are generally pretty long? but those that are radical or simple, are mostly short; very few, if any of them, exceed three or four syllables. And as their dialects are guttural, every word contains some conson ants, and these are the essential characteristics of language*. Where they deviate from this rule, it is by religious emblems, which obviously proceeds from the great regard they pay to the names of the Deity, especially to the great four lettered, divine, essential name, by using the letters it contains, and the vowels it was originally pronounced with, to convey a vir tuous idea; or by doubling or transposing them, to signify the contrary. In this all the Indian nations agree. And as this general custom must proceed from one primary cause, it seems to assure us, that this people was not in a savage state when they first separated, and varied their dialects with so much religious care and exact art*

Souard, in his Melanges de Literature, or Literary Mis cellanies, speaking of the Indians of Guiana, observes, ""-on

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the authority of a learned Jew, Isaac JVasc?, residing at Suri nam/' we are informed that the language of those Indians, which he calls the Galibe dialect, and which is common to all the tribes of Guiana, is soft and agreeable to the ear, abound ing in vowels and synonims, and possessing a syntax as regu lar as it would have been, if established by an academy. This Jew says that all the substantives are Hebrew. The word expressive of the soul in each language, means breath. They have the same word in Hebrew to denominate God, which means master, or lord."

It is said there are but two mother tongues among the north ern Indians, and extending thence to % the Missisippi, the Huron and Algonquin, and there is not more difference be tween these, than between the Norman and French. Dr. Edwards asserts that the language of the Delawares, in Penn sylvania — of the Penobscots, bordering on Nova-Scotia — of the Indians of St. Francis, in Canada — of the Shawanese, on the Ohio — of the Chippewas, to the westward of Lake Huron —of the Ottawas, Nanticokes, Munsees, Minoniones, Messina- gues, Saasskies, Ottagamies, Killestinoes, Mipegoes, Algon- quins, Winnebagoes, and of the several tribes in New-Eng land, are radically the same, and the variations between them are to be accounted for from their want of letters and of com munication. Much stress may be laid on Dr. Edwards' opin ion. He was a man of strict integrity, and great piety. He had a liberal education — was greatly improved in the Indian languages, which he habituated himself to from early life, having lived long among the Indians.

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CHAPTER IV.

The Indian Traditions as received by their Nations.

AS the Indian nations have not the assistance afforded by the means of. writing and reading, they are obliged to have recourse to tradition, as Du Pratz, 2 vol. 169, has justly ob served, to preserve the remembrance of remarkable transac tions or historical facts $ and this tradition cannot be preserv ed, but by frequent repetitions ; consequently many of their young men are often employed in hearkening to the old belov ed men, narrating the history of their ancestors, which is thus transmitted from generation to generation. In order to pre serve them pure and incorrupt, they are careful not to deliver them indifferently to all their young people, but only to those young men of whom they have the best opinion. They hold it as a certain fact, as delivered down from their ancestors* that their forefathers, in very remote ages, came from a far distant country, by the way of the west, where all the people were of one colour, and that in process of time they moved eastward to their present settlements.

This tradition is corroborated by a current report among them, related by the old Chickkasah Indians to our traders, that now about 100 years ago, there came from Mexico, some of the old Chickkasah nation, or as the Spaniards call them Chichemicas9 in quest of their brethren, as far north as the Aquahpah nation, above one hundred and thirty miles above fte Natchez, on the south-east side of the Missisippi river ;

110 A STAR IN THE WEST.

but through French policy, they were either killed or sent back, so as to prevent their opening a brotherly intercourse with them, as they had proposed. It is also said, that the Nauatakas believe that they dwelt in another region before they settled in Mexico. — That their forefathers wandered eighty years in search of it, through a strict obedience to the commands of the great spirit ; who ordered them to go in quest of new lands, that had such particular marks as were made known to them, and they punctually obeyed the divine man date, and by that means found out and settled that fertile coun try of Mexico.

Our southern Indians have also a tradition among them which they firmly believe, that of old time, their ancestors lived beyond a great river. That nine parts of their nation, out of ten, passed over the river, but the remainder refused, and staid behind. That they had a king when they lived far to the west, who left two sons. That one of them, with a num ber of his people, travelled a great way for many years, till they came to Delaware river, and settled there. That some years ago, the king of the country from which they had emi grated, sent a party in search of them. This was at the time the French were in possession of the country on the river Alleghany. That after seeking six years, they found an Indian who led them to the Delaware towns, where they staid one year. That the French sent a white man with them on their return, to bring back an account of their country, but they have never been heard of since.

It is said among their principal, or beloved men, that they

. have it handed down from their ancestors, that the book which

the white people have was once theirs. That while they

A STAR IN THE WEST. 114

had it they prospered exceedingly ; but that the white people bought it of them, and learnt many things from it; while the Indians lost their credit, offended the great spirit, and suffer ed exceedingly from the neighbouring nations. That the great spirit took pity on them and directed them to this coun try. Tli at on their way they came to a great river, which they could not pass, when God dried up the waters and they passed ovejr dry shod. They also say that their forefathers were possessed of an extraordinary divine spirit, by which they foretold future events, and controuled the common course of nature, and this they transmitted to their offspring, on con dition of their obeying the sacred laws. That they did by these means bring down showers of plenty on the beloved people. But that this power, for a long time past, had entire ly ceased.

The reverend gentlemen mentioned in the introduction, who had taken so much pains in the year 176* or 5, to travel far westward, to find Indians who had never seen a white man, informed the writer of these memoirs, that far to the northwest of the Ohio, he attended a party of Indians to a treaty, with Indians from the west of the Missisippi. Here he found the people he was in search of — he conversed with their beloved man who had never seen a white man before, by the assistance of three grades of interpreters. The Indian inform ed him, that one of their most ancient traditions was, that a great while ago, they had a common father, who lived towards the rising of the sun, and governed the whole world. That all the white people's heads were under his feet. That he had twelve sons, by whom he administered his government. That his authority was derived from the great spirit, by virtue of

112 A STAR Iff THE WEST.

some special gift from him. That the twelve sons behaved very had and tyrannized over the people, abusing their pow er to a great degree, so as to offend the great spirit exceed ingly. That he being thus angry with them, suffered the white people to introduce spirituous liquors among them, made them drunk, stole the special gift of the great spirit from them, and by this means usurped the power over them, and ever since the Indians heads were under the white people's feet. But that they also had a tradition, that the time would come, when the Indians would regain the gift of the great spirit from the white people, and with it their ancient power, when the white people's heads would be again under the In dian's feet.

Mr. M'Kenzie in his History of the Fur Trade, and his journey through North-America, by the lakes, to the South- Sea, in the year , says, " that the Indians informed him,

that they had a tradition among them, that they originally came from another country inhabited by wicked people, and had traversed a great lake, which was narrow, shallow and full of islands, where they had suffered great hardships and much misery, it being always winter, with ice and deep snows — at a place they called the Copper-mine River, where they made the first land, the ground was covered with copper, over which a body of earth had since been collected to the depth of a man's heighth. They believe also that in ancient times their ancestors had lived till their feet were worn out with walking, and their throats with eating. They described a deluge, when the waters spread over the whole earth, ex cept the highest mountain, on the top of which they were pre-

A STAR IN THE WEST. 113

served. They also believe in a future judgment." M'Ken- zie's history, page 113.

The Indians to the eastward say, that previous to the white people coming into the country, their ancestors were in the habit of using circumcision, but latterally, not being able to assign any reason for so strange a practice, their young peo ple insisted on its being abolished.

M'Kenzie says the same of the Indians he saw on his route, even at this day. History, page 34. Speaking of the nations of the Slave and Dog-rib Indians, very far to the northwest, lie says, " whether circumcision be practised among them, I cannot pretend to say, but the appearance of it was general among those I saw/5

The Dog-rib Indians live about two or three hundred miles from the straits of Kamsehatka.

Dr. Beatty says, in his journal of a visit he paid to the In dians on the Ohio, about fifty years ago, that an old Christian Indian informed him, that an old uncle of his, who died about the year 1728, related to him several customs and traditions^ of former times ; and among others, that circumcision was practised among the Indians long ago, but their young men making a mock at it, brought it into disrepute, and so it came to be disused. Journal, page 89. The same Indian said, that one tradition they had was, that once the waters had overflowed all the land, and drowned all the people then liv ing, except a few, who made a great canoe and were saved in it. Page 90. And that a long time ago, the people went to build a high place. That wrhile they were building of it, they lost their language, and could not understand one anoth er. That while on<?» perhaps, called for a stick, another

Q

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brought him a stone, &c. £c. and from that time the Indians began to speak different languages.

Father Charlevoix, the French historian, informs us that the Hurons and Iroquois, in that early day, had a tradition among them that the first woman eame from heaven and had twins, and that the elder killed the younger.

In an account published in the year 164.4, by a Dutcli min ister of the gospel, in New- York, giving an account of the Mohawks, he says, " an old woman came to my house and told the family, that her forefathers had told her that the great spirit once went out walking with his brother, and that « dispute arose between them, and the great spirit killed his brother." This is plainly a confusion of the story of Cain and Abel. It is most likely from the ignorance of the minister in the idiom of the Indian language, misconstruing, Cain being represented as a great man, for the great spirit. Many mis takes of this kind are frequently made.

Mr. Adair, who has written the History of the Indians, and who deserves great credit for his industry and improving the very great and uncommon opportunities he enjoyed, tells us, that the southern Indians have a tradition, that when they left their own native land, they brought with them a sanctified rod, by order of an oracle, which they fixed every night in the ground ; and were to remove from place to place on this con tinent, towards the rising stm,«till it buded in one night's time. That they obeyed the sacred oracle, and the miracle at last took place, after they arrived on this side of the Missisippi, on the present land they possess. This was the sole cause of ih?ir settling there — of fighting so firmly for their reputed

A STAR IN THE WEST. 115

holy land and holy tilings — that they may be buried with their beloved forefathers."

This seems to be taken from Aaron's rod.

Col. James Smith, in his Journal of Events, that happened while he was prisoner with the Caughnewaga Indians, from 1755 to 1759, says, " they have a tradition that in the begin ning of this continent, the angels or heavenly inhabitants, as they call them, frequently visited the people, and talked with their forefathers, and gave directions how to pray, and how to appease the great being, when he was offended. They told them they were to offer sacrifice, burn tobacco, buflfaloe and deer's bones, &c. &e." Page 79.

The Ottawas say, « that there arc two great beings that rule and govern the universe, who are at war with eacli other ; the one they call Maneto, and the other Matchemaneto. They say that Maneto is all kindness and love, and the other is an evil spirit that delights in doing mischief. Some. say that they are equal in power ; others say that Mamto is the first great cause, and therefore must be all powerful and supreme, and ought to be adored and worshipped ; whereas Jlfatchemaneto ought to be rejected and despised." " Some of the Wyandots and Caughnewaga's profess to be Roman Catholics ; but even these retain many of the notions of their ancestors. Those who reject the Roman Catholic religion, hold that there is one great first cause, whom they call Owaheeyo, that rules and governs the universe, and takes care of all his creatures rational and irrational, and gives them their food in due sea* son, and hears the prayers of all those who call upon him ; therefore it is but just and reasonable to pray and offer sacri fice to this great being and to do those tilings that are pleas-

116 A STAR IN THE \VEST.

ing in his sight. But they widely differ in what is pleasing or displeasing to this great heing. Some hold that following nature or their own propensities is the way to happiness. Others reject this opinion altogether, and say, that following their own propensities in this manner is neither the means of happiness, or the way to please the deity. My Mend, Te- caughretanego, said, our happiness depends on our using our reason, in order to suppress these evil dispositions ; hut when our propensities neither lead us to injure ourselves nor others, we may with safety indulge them, or even pursue them as the means of happiness. Page 80.

Can any man read this short account of Indian traditions, drawn from tribes of various nations, from the west to the east, and from the soutli to the north, wholly separated from each other, written by different authors of the best characters, both for knowledge and integrity, possessing the best means of information, at various and distant times, without any possi ble communication with each other, and in one instance from occular and sensible demonstration 5 written on the spot in several instances, with the relators before them ; and yet sup- pose that all this is either the effect of chance, accident or de sign, from a love of the marvellous or a premeditated inten tion of deceiving, and thereby ruining their own well estab lished reputations ?

, Charlevoix was a clergyman of character, who was with the Indians some years, and travelled from Canada to the Missisippi, in that early day.

Adair lived forty years entirely domesticated with the southern Indians, and was a man of learning and great obser vation. Just before the revolutionary war he brought his

A STAR IN THE WEST. 117

manuscript to Elizabeth-Town, in New-Jersey, to William Livingston, Esq. (a neighbour of the writer) to have it exam ined and corrected, which was prevented by the troubles of a political nature, just breaking out. The Rev. Mr. Brainerd was a man of remarkable piety, and a missionary with the Crosweek Indians to his death. Dr. Edwards was eminent for his piety and learning, and was intimately acquainted with the Indians from his youth. Dr. Beatty was a clergyman of note and established character. Bartram was a man well known to the writer, and travelled the country of the south ern Indians as a botanist, and was a man of considerable dis cernment, and had great means of knowledge ; and M'Ken- zie, in the employment of the northwest company, an old tra der, and the first adventurous explorer of the country, from the lake of the woods to the southern ocean.

It is now asked, can any one carefully and with deep 'reflec tion, consider and compare these traditions with the history of the ten tribes of Israel, and the late discoveries of the Rus sians, capt. Cook and others, in and about the peninsula of Kamschatka and the northeast coast of Asia and the opposite shore of America, of which little was before known by any civilised nation, without at least drawing strong presumptive inferences, in favour of these wandering nations being descen ded from some oriental nation of the old world, and most prob ably, all things considered, being the lost tribes of Israel.

Let us look into the late discoveries, and compare them with the Indian traditions.

Kamschatka is a large peninsula on the north eastern part of Asia — It is a mountainous country, lying between fifty-one tind sixty-two degrees of north latitude, and of course a very

118 A STAK IN THE WEST.

cold and frozen climate. No grain can be raised there, though some vegetables arc. Skins and furs are their chief exports. The natives are wild as the country itself, and live on fish and sea animals, with their rein-deer. The islands in this sea, which separate it from the northwest coast of AmerK ca, are so numerous that the existence of an almost continued chain of them between the two continents is now rendered extremely probable. The principal of them are the Kurile Islands, those called Bherings and Copper Islands, the