penetrating further into the interior, when appearances of the same nature became of daily occurrence,"

From the peninsula of Corea Moses and his followers crossed over to the beautiful island of Japan, in the North Pacific Ocean, not far distant from the continent of Asia. The people inhabiting the numerous isles which compose the kingdom of Japan were savages-ignorant and superstitious, like the rest of the children of Nature, whom the Lawgiver had met in his journey, and whom he reclaimed from the darkness of ignorance to the knowledge of God and His commandments.

Here he taught the Japanese as he had other people; and after giving laws and ordinances for their guidance, he departed, leaving a colony to govern the country.

123

CHAPTER VIII.

MISSION OF MOSES IN THE WEST.

PROCEEDING still further eastward Moses landed on the western coast of North America. He found the natives inhabiting this vast tract of land as savage as those he had left on the continent and the adjacent islands of Asia-profoundly ignorant of God, living like the animals around them, and going about as nude as in the day when they were first created. The god-like Lawgiver founded an extensive empire in this wilderness, and brought these savages under subjection, and taught them all things necessary for their happiness and well-being. This empire was

Mexico.

In this new empire he constructed monuments resembling those of Upper and Lower Egypt, Nubia and Ethiopia; he set up statues, built pyramids, aqueducts, palaces, and bridges. His works he embellished with sculpture portraying the battles his forces had fought with the different nations that opposed their landing to occupy the country. And he brought his new subjects to the same state of civilization as the ancient Egyptians of his time. The following extracts are from the work of a modern

traveller, concerning the pyramids and other ruins of Mexico :-*

"We arrived at Chollula after a pleasant ride over plains covered with corn-fields, interspersed with plantations of the Agava Americana. This city was, before the conquest, one of the most considerable belonging to the ancient Mexicans. It was famed for its idols, its sanctity, and its pagan worship.

"The Teocalli or temple is composed of alternate layers of clay and sun-burnt brick, forming an immense pyramid, divided into regular stages, or platforms; but time, and the growth of the prickly pear, the tuna, or nopal, and other vegetables, have left but little of its original form visible, and it now resembles a natural hill; the high road from Puebla is cut through a part of it, which serves to show its internal structure.

"We ascended by a steep winding road, partly cut into steps, to a level area of 140 (one hundred and forty) feet long, on which stands a very neat church, ninety feet in length, with two towers and a dome ; from this exalted platform the spectator enjoys a most lovely landscape. We descended with reluctance the side of this pyramid, whose base is more extensive than that of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. It is covered with trees of great variety, some species of which I had never before seen; but they had evidently been planted there.

"On our descent to the plains we visited two detached masses, constructed, like the great pyramid, of unburnt brick and clay. The one to the northeast had been cut or taken away; its broken sides

* W. Bullock, Six Months' Residence and Travels in Mexico.

were so perpendicular as to prevent access to its summit. The other detached piece has been engraved by Humbolt, whose figure of the great pyramid conveys an idea of its ancient rather than its present state, nor is the church on its summit like the original.

"The corner-stone of the building now occupied by the lottery-office, and fronting the market for shoes, is the head of the serpent-idol, of great magnitude, which I should judge was not, when entire, less than seventy-feet in length. Under the gateway of the house, nearly opposite the entrance to the mint, is a fine statue, in a recumbent posture, of a deity, bearing the human form, and ornamented with various symbols; it is about the size of life, and was found a few years since in digging a well.

"The house at the corner of a street at the southeast of the great square is built upon and in part supported by a fine circular altar of black basalt, ornamented with the tail and claws of a gigantic reptile. In the cloisters behind the Dominican Convent is a noble specimen of the great serpent idol, almost perfect, and of fine workmanship; this monstrous divinity is represented in the act of swallowing a human victim, which is seen crushed and struggling in its horrid jaws.

"The only works of art of the inhabitants of the city of Mexico before the conquest, then called Tenochtitlan, now publicly seen, are the great Calendar Stone, popularly called Montezuma's watch, and the Sacrificial Stone, or the grand altar, once standing in the great temple before the principal idol. The former measures twelve feet in diameter, and is cut

from one large block of porous basaltic stone. It is supposed to have been placed in the roof of the great temple in the same manner as the Zodiac was in the temple of Tentyra in Upper Egypt.* It now stands against the north-west wall of the cathedral, and is an attractive object of antiquarian research, and a striking proof of the perfection the nation to which it belonged had attained in some of the sciences; few persons, even of the most enlightened cities of Europe, of the present day, would be capable of executing such a work.

"From the first moment I beheld it I determined, if possible, to convey to Europe a fac-simile of so fine a specimen of Aztec skill. Through the influence of Don Lucas Alarman, the prime minister, I obtained permission of the clergy to erect a scaffold against the cathedral, and took an impression of it in plaster, which was afterwards carefully packed up, and with some difficulty conveyed to Vera Cruz. It has fortunately arrived safely in England, and now forms one of the subjects of the exhibition of Ancient Mexico to be seen in the Egyptian Hall.

"The Sacrificial Stone, or altar, is buried in the square of the cathedral, within a hundred yards of the Calendar Stone. The upper surface only is exposed to view, which seems to have been done designedly. As I had been informed that the sides. were covered with historical sculpture, I applied to the clergy for the further permission of having the earth removed from around it, which they not only

* And the Zodiac in the Hindoo Temple at Benares in India.-J. V. G.