BOTH rabbies differ only in this one point, that Luzatti Opinion of gives up the ten tribes as long fince ioft, or fo blended, that the ten they cannot be difcovered with any tolerable certainty; the tribes beother affirms them to be concealed in America, and other ing in America parts, where they have been miraculously preferved, by the Divine Providence, against this glorious recall, when they fhall come forth from their respective settlements, and be reunited to the rest of their brethren, in Affyria, whence the whole nation fhall take their flight to Jerufalem, as birds to their nefts. He grounds his opinion on feveral probable conjectures; as first, that fome of the people of America are unknown to us, and feem to have no relation with the other nations of it. Secondly, the Spaniards affirm, that upon their landing in Peru, they found a large ftately edifice, dedicated to the Creator of the world; which cannot be fupposed to have been built by the Indians, who were idolaters, and wholly then unacquainted with the use of iron tools, fuch as appeared to have been used in the building of it; fo that it muft of course be supposed to have been a fynagogue, erected by the Jews. And, thirdly, this seems farther confirmed by a tradition of the Indians, that this palace, as they termed it, had been built by a whole nation, that worê beards, and were ancienter than their Incas '. zores. R. MENASS E doth likewife quote an infcription found A Jewish on a tomb in the island of St. Michel, which is one of the infcription Azores, and mentioned by Genebrard m, and which, though at one of fomewhat difficult to be decyphered, unless it be by the tranf- the Apofition of letters; yet, by the character and words, appears plainly enough to have been done by fome Jews, who were come into this ifland. To all which he adds the sentiments of a good number of Christians, who have helped to confirm him in his conjecture, concerning the ten tribes". But all Esperanza de Ifrael, p. 114, & feq. " Ibid. p. 26, & feq. & 116. earth, and among the Gentiles; but as to the Jews, the prophet fays, that God will recall them from the four corners of the world; because, in fact, the tribe of Judah is difperfed into divers countries; and as it hath fynagogues in America, it will return from all parts of the world; tho' there will then be Ibid. p. 44 no divifion or jealoufy between (33) Esperanza de Irach. p. 103, 65 Jeg, B. XVI. this put together will never out-weigh what is urged against His motion it (P). We have fhewn in a former volume +, that thofe confuted. tribes were fettled in the Eaft, and in the neighbourhood of Ten tribes, where. the river Euphrates, or rather along the Chaboras that falls into it; fo that God feems to have brought them back into the very country whence he brought out their patriarch. We have likewife taken notice formerly, that a great number of them came back into Judea, along with the Jewish captivity of Babylon, tho' they were from that time blended with them; and a late learned author, who hath endeavoured to vindicate Ariftea's hiftory of the Septuagint verfion, hath proved it ftill more fully. As for thofe that ftaid behind, they not only fpread themselves ftill farther as they multiplied, but kept conftantly fending their deputies and oblations at proper seasons to Jerufalem, as long as the temple stood. They appear to have † See vol. iv. p. 314, & feq. fub not. (F). 317, & feq. fub not. vid. & vol. x. p. 180. of the Septuag. p. 121, & feq. (P) Much lefs will that which he adds of their being there concealed by a miracle, and their being conducted thither by the ftreights of Anian, which were not formed till after their paffage, and in order to divide them from the reft. His pretending that they have had their kings, ancient laws, and are in poffeffion of vaft territories, &c. may be justly reckoned a few ih fable, invented on purpofe to raise the glory of their nation; and their being thus miraculoufly preferved and conceal ed from other nations till the coming of the Meffiah, as an evafion against the univerfal teftimony of travellers and hiftorians to the contrary. For whatever ftrefs he may put on fome of thofe he quotes, there is scarce one of them that speaks of the ten tribes, or of this pretended Jewish colony paffing into America. The Spaniards who have been fo long maiters of the greatest part of * Ibid. p. • Vindication it, mention nothing of it, or, at most, offer only fome dark and vague conjectures about it. In a word, this fettlement of theirs hath been fought for in vain hitherto, fome placing it in Pera, others in Brafil, others along that long ridge of mountains called las Cordelleras; and whereever they have found any people that differed ever so little from the native Indians, they have imagined them to be the Jews we are fpeaking of. So that we may fafely conclude, that it is in the East, and not there, that we must feek for thefe tribes. Jews there are, indeed, in feveral parts of Ame rica; but as they form no body, but are difperfed in every place where gain invites them, they must be supposed to have come thither, fince the difcovery of that continent; for it would be ftrange, if the Jews, of all others, fhould have overlooked fo rich a country, and not tried to share in the fpoils of that new world. continued continued there till the 11th century; fince, as we have seen thro' the course of this chapter, they had all that time their. chiefs of the captivity, fynagogues, and academies; and tho' they have fince been greatly decayed thro' the various perfecutions that were raised against them, and revolutions of that empire, yet they did still subsist in great numbers, during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, and do fo ftill to this day. So that we need not to go to America to seek them out, nor suppose them either loft or concealed in fome remote quarter of the globe. And if they are fo blended one tribe with another, that they cannot now be poffibly diftinguished, it could hardly, without a miracle, have happened otherwise, during fo long a series of ages, and such various viciffitudes as they have undergone (Q). SEVERAL authors, both Jews and Chriftians, have like- Jews in wife affirmed that the ten tribes were ftill preferved in Chi- China not na P. And one of the former tells us that there was a fyna- of that gogue at Peking, the repairing of which had coft them 10,000 number. crowns, and that they had been fettled in that province above 500 years, and still kept one of the volumes of the law, He adds, that in the city of Ham-cheu, capital of the province of Che-kyang, they had a great number of synagogues, and Ifraelitifh families; for that is the name they call themfelves by; because, fays he, being defcended from the ten tribes, they know nothing of that of Jews. Alvarez, who 'Alvarez's had lived in China a confiderable time, affirms that they had account of been fettled there above 600 years, and had obtained feveral them. privileges, on account of their fervices and fidelity to king P MENASSE. Efperanza de Ifrael, Trigant de Chriftiana expeditione, apud Sinas fufcepta. (Q) The two Jewish travellers we have quoted under the 12th century, have indeed reprefented thofe eaftern Jews, and their princes, or chiefs, as defcended from the tribe of Judah, rather than from the ten tribes; and it is not unlikely, that great numbers of them might not only feek fhelter there, among their brethren, after the deftruction of Jerufalem, but in procefs of time, gain fome kind of fuperiority over the reft, on account of the MOD. HIST. VOL. XIII. fceptre and other prerogatives G g Hun Hun that they were very numerous in fome provinces, and have fynagogues in most of their great cities, but more efpecially in that of Ho-nan, and in its metropolis Kai-tong-fu, where they have a fair fynagogue, a repository for the facred volume, adorned with rich curtains, and in which they preferve an ancient Bible in Hebrew characters, but refuse to let any one fee it. Thefe Jews, however, we are told, know nothing of Hebrew, and only mention the names of David, Abraham, and Ifaac; are very ignorant and remifs in their law, even to the neglecting of circumcifion, because the Chinese upbraid them with the cruelty of performing that ceremony on innocent babes (R). ALVAREZ's Hift. of China, parti. (R) It is not easy to reconcile this with what he there adds, that though they marry with Chinese women, they do not give their daughters to the Chinefe, for fear they fhould follow the religion of their hufbands; that they live at a diftance from flaughter houfes and butchers fhops, on account of their felling of fwine's flesh; and that they have their own butchers to kill their beafts after the Jewish manner, and keep a ftrict eye over them. An other author tells us, that they neither ufe ftatues or pictures, but worship the deity under the title of Tien Chumlin, the name by which the Chinese express the Creator of the univerfe (34). This is not the only thing they have taken from the Chinese; for they do, like them, pay fome honours to their Chimghims, or great doctors of their law, and burn perfumes to their memory, but do not use images or ftatues of them, as being forbid by their religion; but have only a kind of incenfe pots of differ THAT ent fizes, the biggest of which are for Abraham, Isaac, Jaacob, Mofes, and David. A table likewife they have over the chair, on which is written the emperor's name, and is instead of his picture or arms. They do moreover pay an honour to the great Confucius, as all the Chinese do; and, when queftioned about it, readily own'd, "That they honoured "him in the fame manner, as "all the literati of China did, "and that they affifted with "them at the folemn ceremo"nies, which are performed in "the hall of their great men. 66 They added, that they like"wife paid honour to their an"cestors, as the Chinese were used to do, in fpring and au"tumn; but that they did not "offer to them any fwine's “flesh, but that of other creatures; and that in their ordinary ceremonies, they con"tented themselves with pre 66 fenting them with china vef"fels full of fweet-meats, and “ other such refreshments; and (34) Lettres curceuses & edifiantes, ubi fup. THAT author tells us moreover, that they have no notion That of of the Chriftian Meffiah : whence he infers, that they were other aufettled there before the time of Chrift; though this rather thors. proves their ignorance, than their boasted antiquity, if it was not rather a Jewish evasion, and fuch as they have fince made ufe of to another of the fame fraternity, who had the curiosity to go and visit that fynagogue, an. 1704. This last, whose account we shall subjoin in the next paragraph, having asked one of their chiefs, whether they had ever heard of the promised Meffiah, who, he told them, was called Jefus Christ? received this illufory answer: Our Scriptures mentioned only one holy man of that name, viz. Jefus the fon of Sirach; and that they knew of no other but him. The reader may find not only the like equivocating answer given to the fame Jefuit, úpon his asking them, how numerous they were in that empire, in a former volume †; but such an one as not only contradicts all the other accounts we have hitherto quoted from other authors; and was, beyond all question, defigned to conceal from him their flourishing state in that country, whether out of fufpicion, or hatred to his society, we will not determine. THE farther account he gives of thofe of this city is, that Jews nuthey had a stately fynagogue with divers apartments, in merous in the heart of which was a high defk, on which they placed Honan. the volume of the law on festival days. They pretended to him, that they had a very ancient copy of it; but that the river Hoembo, or, Yellow River, one of the largest in China, having overflown the city of Caifom, capital of that province, they had, with much difficulty, faved it; but the leaves of it being wetted, and the letters effaced, they had caufed twelve new copies to be written, which were preserved in twelve different tabernacles. There is no room to doubt, but that these were real Jews, fince they not only distinguished the five books of Mofes by their Hebrew titles, but mentioned likewife the ancient judges and monarchs of their nation; and the testimony of that miffionary is the less to be fufpected, fince, being ignorant of the Hebrew tongue, he relates those matters exactly as they were told to him. But ↑ ALVAREZ'S Hift. China, c. 30. p. 212. tres edifiantes & curieufes, vol. vii. let. i. ad fin. vol. viii. p. 139. s Recueil de let + See before "hall adjoining to it." as to those that are accompa" in the fynagogue, but in the "nied with profound bowing, &c. they were not performed Gg 2 those |