| Show RUINED CITY CI TY OF MEXICO carthage tenn march 14 1898 Is the book of mormon a divine history of the ancient inhabitants of america this question has long loner been settled in the minds of thousands of latter day saints who can testify to its divinity and ere long loner scientific eap exp borers will prove it beyond all doubt to the world and also prove that joseph smith was a prophet of god and an instrument in his hands in bringing to light this all important record some time ago I 1 in company with elder ray V wentz visited a number of mounds about eleven miles southeast of jackson city in madison county tenn the surroundings of which evidently have been a great battle field about two by three miles square the southside south sout side haide of this battle field was protected by the forke deer river on the east north and west by heavy breast works which are now plainly visible the east side is in a good state of preservation six or seven feet high and about twenty feet wide there are five mounds in all ranging from 15 to 90 feet high all built after the same plan in the form of a pyramid each covering an area of about square rods their sides are very steep almost impossible to climb but at the north corner the incline is more gradual showing that from this point the dirt was conveyed to the top two of the largest of these mounds are covered with large oak trees three or four feet through farmers have found many ancient war relies relics while plowing around these mounds and through the battle field I 1 in the center of which these mounds are standing A few days ago a friend who is interested te in the book of mormon handed us a clipping from the new york weekly TrIb tribune of nov ath 1996 which also goes to prove the divinity of the book of mornion mormon it itis is Js as as follows the ruined city in mexico something about william niven its discoverer william niven the new york mineralogist era logist whose discovery of a ruined city with temples pyramids and the remains of dwellings of a great population in the mountains of 0 the state of guerrero mexico has been announced to is well known in the scientific world the story of his finds of rare and valuable minerals on manhattan island and at west paterson N J in 1895 and 1896 has been told in the tribune mr niven is a native of glasgow scotland and prospected from 1879 1979 to 1884 in colorado new mexico arizona a and nd mexico he was assistant commissioner of arizona at the worlds fair at new orleans in 1884 he discovered the minerals thoro and in llano county texas in 1889 and agull arite at Gauna mexico in 1891 all of which were new to science and is a life member of the american museum of natural history and a member of the new york academy of science and of the brooklyn institute A letter from mr niven dated september ath Chilpan chilpancingo cingo state of guerrero and received here october 2 says 1 I have taken photographs of the ruins of which cover a much wider area than I 1 had at first supposed something like 1000 square miles and instead of three temples there are more than twenty I 1 have photographs of them and of objects which I 1 found in the ruins in fact my trip has been highly successful the discovery of the ruined city was made by mr niven in the summer of 1894 although at that time he did not know that it covered so wide an area as his letters now say the discovery has been known to a few par persons sons for some time but was waa not made widely known pending negotiations with the mexican government tor for the right of exploration this concession to archaeologists was granted last summer as was published in the tribune of july 12 in the course of a prospecting tour through the state of guerrero in the fall of 1891 mr niven visited the state museum at chilpancingo Chilpan cingo the capital the display of archaeological objects particularly of jade was re and he was surprised to learn that the locality where they had been discovered was an unknown field to the explorers in 1894 mr niven interested morris K X jesup president of the american museum to fo natural natura ir history in the matter and was as an engaged by him to make a trip of about fifty days on on horseback through the territory As a result of the trip mr niven got more than archaeological objects which ate are now on exhibition at the museum on may 23 28 1894 mr niven left the town of cuautla and forded corded the I 1 la balsas river into the state guerrero with a servant and five riding and pack animals in the following 1 three weeks every town visited had some prehistoric ruins mostly mounds xochipala was reached on june 29 and the next day at yerbabuena Yerba buena were found evidences of prehistoric structures among them what must have been a great temple covering a space of by feet an altar of solid masonry was in the center etwas if waa ton ten feet square well preserved and twenty feet high the foundations and part dart of the walls of circular towers six feet thick at each corner were plainly visible for ten miles mr niven rode among the ruins of what he was oon convinced must have been a great cuy city the houses of stone and lime had been from eight to fifty feet square many of their walls were standing and were from three to eight feet high their thickness varying from two to five feet the next day the party went to the north on another foothill of the sierra madre mountains and after a rough journey found selves riding over the ruins of prehistoric dwellings the use of jhb pack showed that they were the foundations of houses which had been substantially built of stone and lime another temple was found similar to the one at buena with a larger alter and part of the stairs still remaining about yards further on was waa another building nearly as large as the first and on its corners were circular towers the walls about four feet high there were quantities of broken pottery found around it enough to load a dozen mules from this point until the party reached a place where the ridge abruptly terminated in a perpendicular wall to the canyon 1500 feet below the ruins were scattered every hundred yards altogether mr niven found the ruins to fo three temples about by feet each within a radius office of five miles mile s w with I 1 th a alters I 1 t era standing in two of them twenty feet high and ruins houses and mounds thickly covering an area of twenty four miles this was waa in a part of the country five days ride on horseback from the railroad the book of mormon III nephi 8 9 and 10 chapters gives an account of many cities that wire we re destroyed at the crucifixion of the savior a few of which are being discovered occasionally by scientific explorers in south america central america and north america the work of the lord is progressing and people are becoming more and more interested in this great latter day work our sunday schools are one of the important features since june 5 1897 1 I have organized eleven sunday schools in this the middle benu tennessee coee conference corn ference with from twenty to sixty live five members enrolled in each the ten book of mormon charts that were presented to us by the deseret sunday school union have been received and we highly appreciate the same and in behalf of our sunday schools we tender a note of thanks for them there are three or four other places where sunday schools can be organ teed as soon as we can get around to liked we remain your brethren in the gospel of peace JOHN L BENCH JR supt bupt of S S in middle tenn con ROBERT Q G LOWE aa aaen supt bupt mission address smyrna rutherford co tenn |
