Sailing from Egypt, out of the Mediterranean, passing through the straits of Gibraltar, would throw a vessel, in case of an eastern storm, aided by the current, as high north as opposite the Bahama islands. A blow of but a few days in that direction, would be quite sufficient to have driven an Egyptian vessel, or boat, or whatever they may have sailed in, entirely on the coast of the West Indies. The trade winds sweep westward across the Atlantic, through a space of fifty or sixty degrees of longitude, carrying every thing within their current directly to the American

coast.

If such may have been the case, they were, indeed, in a manner, on the very continent itself, especially if the opinion of President Jefferson and others be allowed, that the gulf of Mexico, which is situated exactly behind those islands, west, has been scooped out by the current which makes from the equator toward the north.

Kentucky itself, where we think we have found the remains of an Egyptian colony, or nation, as in the case of the works and catacomb at Lexington, is in latitude but five degrees north of Egypt; so that whether they may have visited America on a voyage of exploration, or have been driven on the coast against their will, in either case, it would be perfectly natural that they should have established themselves in that region.

Traits of Egyptian manners were found among many of the nations of South America, mingled with those who appeared to be of other origin; of which we shall speak again in the course of this work.

But at Lexington, the traits are too notorious to allow them to be other than pure Egyptian, in full possession of the strongest complexion of their national character, that of embalming, which was connected with ther religion.

The Mississippi, which disembogues itself into the Mexican gulf, is in the same north latitude with Egypt, and may have, by its likeness to the Egyptian Nile, invited those adventurers to pursue its course, till a place suited to their views or necessities may have presented.

Other tokens of the presence of an Egyptian population, are not wanting in North America; as in the vale of Mexico, a few years since," several curious specimens of sculpture have been

discovered, and sent to Charleston, South Carolina, by the Ame-rican Minister at Mexico, Mr. Poinsett; which articles are now in the Museum of the Literary and Philosophical Society, at Charleston. The collection consists of several images, and a large figure of a snake, which was doubtless a favorite object of adoration. These images are well worthy attention, as they bear the evident marks of antiquity; and though the sculpture is rude, it is impossible for any one who has examined the remains of ancient times, not to be struck with the strong resemblance they bear to the workmanship of the ancient Egyptians."-The Escritoir, vol. 1, p. 358, for 1827.

Ancient Letters of the Phoenicians and Americans.

THE ancient Punic, Phoenician, or Carthaginian language, is all the same; the characters called Punic, or Phoenician, therefore, are also the same. A fac simile of those characters, as copied by Dr. Adam Clarke, are herewith presented. See No. 4.

They were discovered in the island of Malta, in the Mediterranean, which was anciently inhabited by the Phoenicians, long: before the Romans existed as a nation. These characters were found engraved on a stone, in a cave of that island, in the year 1761, which was a sepulchral cave, so used by the earliest. inhabitants. These characters, being found in this ancient repository of the dead, it is believed, marks the place of the burial of that famous Carthaginian general, HANNIBAL, as they expli

citly allude to that character. The reading in the original is as follows:

"Chadar Beth olam kabar Chanibaal Nakeh becaleth haveh, rachm daeh Am beshuth Chanilaal ben Bar melec."

Which, being interpreted, is: "The inner chamber of the sanc tuary of the sepulchre of Hannibal, Illustrious in the consummation of calamity. He was beloved. The people lament, when arrayed in order of battle, Hannibal, the son of Bar-melec."

This is one of the largest remains of the Punic or Phoenician language now in existence. Characters of this description are also found on the rocks of Dighton, Massachusetts, near the

sea.

In a chain of mountains between the rivers Oronoco and Amazon, South America, are found engraved in a cavern, on a block of granite, characters supposed also to be Punic letters, a fac simile of which is presented at No. 5. These were furnished by Baron Humboldt, in his volume of Researches in South America; between which and those given us above, by Dr. Clarke, it is easy to perceive a degree of similarity.

But if the Phoenician letters shown at Nos. 4 and 5 are highly interesting, those which follow at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are equally so. These are presented to the public by Prof. Rafinesque, in his Atlantic Journal for 1832, with their meaning.

Under figures 1 and 2 are the African, or Lybian characters, the primitive letters of the most ancient nations of Africa. Under figure 3 are the American letters, or letters of Otolum, an ancient city, the ruins of which are found in North America, being, so far as yet explored, of an extent embracing a circumference of seventy-five miles, of which we shall again speak in due time.

The similarity which appears between the African letters and the letters of America, as in use perhaps two thousand years before Christ, is almost, if not exact; showing, beyond a doubt, that the same nations, the same languages, and the same arts, which were known in ancient Lybia, or Africa, were also known in America; as well also as nations from old China, who came to the western coast in huge vessels, as we shall show in this work.

We here subjoin an account of those characters, numbered 1,

2, 3, by the author, Prof. Rafinesque; and also of the American glyphs, which, however, are not presented here, but on another page of this work. They are formed by a combination of the letters numbered 1, 2, 3, and resembling very much, in our opinion, the Chinese characters, when grouped or combined, with a view to express a sentence or a paragraph in their language. The account is as follows:

Letter to Mr. Champollion, on the Graphic Systems of America, and the Glyphs of Otolum, or Palenque, in Central America.

ELEMENTS OF THE GLYPHS.

I have the pleasure to present you here a tabular and comparative view of the Atlantic alphabets of the two continents, with a specimen of the groups of letters, or glyphs, of the monuments of Otolum, or Palenque; which belong to my seventh serious of graphic signs, and are, in fact, words formed by grouped letters, or elements, as in Chinese characters, or somewhat like the cyphers now yet in use among us, formed by acrostical anagrams, or combinations of the first letters of words or names.

When I began my investigation of these American glyphs and became convinced that they must have been groups of letters, I sought for the elementary letters in all the ancient known alphabets, the Chinese Sanscrit, but in vain. The Chinese characters offered but few similarities with the glyphs, and not having a literal but syllabic alphabet, could not promise the needful clue. The Sanscrit alphabet, and all its derived branches, including even the Hebrew, Phoenician, Pelagic, Celtic and Cantabrian alphabets, were totally unlike in forms and combinations of grouping. But in the great variety of Egyptian form of the same letters, I thought that I could trace some resemblance with our American glyphs. In fact, I could see in them the Egyptian cross, snake, circle, delta, square, trident, eye, feather, fish, hand, &c., but sought in vain for the birds, lions, sphynx, beetle, and a hundred other nameless signs of Egypt.

However, this first examination and approximation of analogy in Egypt and Africa,was a great preliminary step in the inquiry. I had always believed that the Atlantes of Africa have partly colonized America, as so many ancient writers have affirmed. This belief led me to search for any preserved fragments of the alphabets of Western Africa and Lybia, the land of the African Atlantes, yet existing, under the names of Berbers, Tuarics, Shelluhs, &c. This was no easy task The Atlantic antiquities are still more obscure than the Egyptian. No Champollion

* A late discovered city of North America, nearly equal to the Egyptian Thebes.