20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



and there have been great abuses in this matter, the Supreme Coun- 

 cil of the Indies, with sainted zeal, passed regulations to remedy 

 them; and although there was some improvement, they are carry- 

 ing the burdens (not to stultify the prophecy of the holy Patriarch). 

 In the days of their heathendom they were always tribute payers, and 

 that the prophecy may hold in every respect, they keep paying tribute, 

 though Christians. So that all the peculiarities and characteristics 

 mentioned are possessed by the Indians, without a single one missing, 

 and thus it appears quite certain that the Indians come from the Ten 

 Tribes, and in particular, from that of Issachar, since they have the 

 qualities mentioned ; in addition, their temperament, customs, rites, 

 ceremonies, superstitions, and idolatries are those of the Hebrews. 



52. This truth or statement is supported by the words of Esdras, 

 book IV, chapter XIII, which are to the following effect: For you 

 saw thus gathered together another peaceful multitude ; those are the 

 Ten Tribes which were led captive in the days of King Hoshea (as 

 is related in II Kings, chapters XVII and XVIII) by Shalmaneser, 

 King of the Assyrians, uprooting and transplanting them from 

 Samaria to other countries, uninhabited and remote, and he took 

 them over to the other side of the river, and they were transferred 

 to another country ; and they, seeing they were deprived of their 

 natural home, entered into council to abandon communication with the 

 Gentiles, and departed from there to another distant region, where 

 the human race had never dwelt, to see if there they could keep the 

 law and customs of their ancestors, which they had not kept in their 

 own country. They made their way into some narrow passages of 

 the River Euphrates, where the Most High performed miracles, 

 holding back the current of the river till they had crossed (as He did 

 in the Red Sea when that same people of Israel went out of Egypt, 

 fleeing from the tyranny of Pharaoh and his Egyptians), for their 

 journey through that region was a very long one, of a year and a 

 half. That region is called Arsareth, and they lived there until a 

 very late period. And so, since this exile and emigration of the Ten 

 Tribes took place about 3,228 years after the Creation, the date when 

 Shalmaneser took Samaria, and 774 years after the Flight out of 

 Egypt, which occurred in 2454, i.e., 739 B.C., by this calculation it 

 would appear that from the settlement of the Indies by the Ten 

 Tribes to the present year, 1630, there have elapsed 2,369 years. 



53. After crossing the River Euphrates they were able to go on 

 and they kept traveling slowly across Great Tartary, some stopping 

 in the cities of the Medes, and others in the course of so long a jour- 

 ney among the Tartars and other peoples through whom they passed ; 



