But although there is no ancient record to contradict or confirm the book in question, yet, when what is known of America since its discovery, is compared with the history of Mormon, it makes it appear just what it is, a complete fiction. The Book of Mormon, page the 53rd, says, “We did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts of every kind, both the cow, and the ox, and the ass, and the horse, and the goat, and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals.” This cannot be true, because there were neither oxen, nor asses, nor goats, on all the continent of America, when it was first discovered, a few hundred years ago. These kind of animals which are now in such abundance in that country, have been introduced by Europeans, since its discovery. Such strangers were the native Americans to a horse, that when the Spaniards first went among them on horseback, they imagined that both horse and man were but one animal; or that such a strange looking being could not be much less than a god, or the son of a god. Nor are these a kind of animals which would be likely to become extinct. Before we can suppose that these animals, which are said to have been in such numbers, could become extinct, we must believe that all the inhabitants of America ran mad together, and slaughtered all these useful animals which they had in their possession. Or we must believe that all these kind of animals, which were wild in the vast savannas, ran mad, and made war upon one another, until not one was left alive. Or else we must believe that some epidemic disease fell upon all these animals together, and swept away every one from the whole continent of America. And, supposing such dreadful disasters had taken place among them, then their remains would have been found; and I am not aware that any geologist has found in America, bones, as fossils, which were likely to have belonged to any such animals as those of which I am speaking, and which lived and died in those ages of the world, to which the Book of Mormon refers. They who wish to pursue this part of the subject any further, are welcome to go and dig, in the extensive woods and savannas of America, for old horses’ heads, and old asses’ heads, and old cows’ horns, and goats’ bones, and prove that they belonged to animals which lived and died upon the continent of America, between the time that the people left off building the tower of Babel, and the year of our Lord 1492. And suppose such fossils were found, who would choose to build their faith upon such a rotten foundation as old horses’ and old asses’ heads? Nor are there “all kinds of wild animals” in America; the lion, the zebra, the horned horse, and many others, are not now, and it is likely never were, inhabitants of America.