The reason given for this is that if not, many nations would overrun the land, and there would be no place for an inheritance. 2
We recognize the hand of the Lord in the discovery of America by Columbus, and its subsequent settlement by so many people of all races. We also see the hand of Providence in the fact that detailed knowledge of this country was for centuries withheld from the rest of the world, notwithstanding the marvelous civilizations and millions of people who lived here. At sundry times it looked as if a discovery might have been made. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian, who lived during the time of Julius Csar (102-44 B.C.), relates that the Phoenicians discovered a large island in the Atlantic, several days' journey from the coast of Africa. Tyrians wanted to colonize the island, hearing of its wonderful clime and resources, but they were prevented by a decree of the senate at Carthage. Homer, Plutarch, and others are said to mention this "island." And yet, it remained, practically, an unknown land. Clement, supposedly a disciple of the Apostle Peter, wrote epistles to the Saints at Corinth, which have been preserved among the apocrypha of the New Testament. In the first of these letters (9:12-16) he says:
"The ocean, inaccessible to the human race, and the worlds beyond, are governed through the same laws of their grand master. Spring and summer, autumn and winter, peacefully succeed one another. The particular directions of the winds fulfil their work at all times without offending each other. The fountains, always flowing, made for pleasure and for health, always offer their bosoms, to sustain the life of man, and the smallest creatures are living together in peace and harmony."
"Worlds that are beyond" the ocean can refer only to countries on the American side of the globe, and the reference to its seasons, its directions of the wind, its fountains and its living creatures prove a rather astonishing information of this country, at that time. Without actual knowledge, how could Clement, or anybody, know that the natural laws operated here as in the Old World, and not in some other way?
Then, there is the myth about Votan, who is said to have conducted seven families from his country to America. According to Cabrera, quoted by Bancroft in Native Races (vol. 5, p. 69):
"Votan asserts that he is a descendant of Imox, of the race of Chan, and derives his origin from Chivim. He states that he conducted seven families from Valum Votan to this continent and assigned lands to them; that he is the third of the Votans; that, having determined to travel until he arrived at the root of heaven, in order to discover his relations to the Culebras (Serpents), and make himself known to them, he made four voyages to Chivim; that he arrived in Spain, and that he went to Rome; that he saw the great house of God building; that he went by the road which his brethren the Culebras had bored; that he marked it, and that he passed by houses of the thirteen Culebras. He relates that in returning from one of his voyages, he found seven other families of the Tzekil nation, who had joined the first inhabitants, and recognized in them the same origin as his own, that is, of the Culebras."
This is, of course, myth; but even a myth must have an historical basis, be it ever so weak; otherwise it would be mere Munchausenian balderdash. This historical basis of the Votan-myth is, no doubt, actual intercourse between the Old World and the New in the dim past of the history of mankind. Some students of American history believe that Tyrians, after their city had been destroyed by Alexander the Great, went to the Fortunate Island and from there to the coast of Florida; further, to the Gulf of Mexico around Yucatan and into the bay of Honduras, where they ascended a river, and, finally, founded the city of Copan. Garcia, Kingsborough, and many others, favor the theory that the Indians are of Jewish origin, a theory that we know, from the Book of Mormon, to be true as far as some of them are concerned.
When we come down to historical times, we find Greenland, geographically considered, a part of America, settled toward the end of the 10th century, and afterwards the North American coasts explored by Leif Ericson and other Icelanders, some of whom penetrated to the interior, how far is not yet fully known. But the route to America was again closed, as if by a Supernatural power, and history lost all knowledge of this part of the world.
Just how the intercourse was broken off, may not be fully known. But we know that during the 14th century, "black death" carried off twenty-five million people in Europe, and almost as many in China and other parts of Asia, and that, during the fifteenth century, Greenland was devastated, presumably by Indians from the mainland, who left only the ruins on the sites of numerous settlements. No wonder if, after such devastations, the children of men for a long time lost all ambition to explore and colonize unknown lands.