The last battles of the great and long continued war which ended in the destruction of the Nephite party, took place south of the great lake region, about Cumorah; and to this part of the land had been drawn if not the bulk, then certainly a very large proportion of the inhabitants of the land. [8] These moved southward in time, tribe pressing upon tribe, as ocean wave presses on ocean wave towards the shore; and doubtless this movement of population southward after the disaster at Cumorah, accounts for those universal traditions found among the natives of Mexico and Central America of successive migrations from the north of powerful tribes or races who so much affected the political history of those countries. [9] As these tribes from the north reached the old centers of population and civilization they revived settled orders of government, fastened themselves upon the weaker inhabitants as their rulers, compelled industry among the lower orders, gave encouragement to the arts that ministered to their ease and vanity, encouraged learning at least among the sacerdotal orders, and received the credit of founding a new order of civilization, when in reality it was but a partial reviving of a former civilization, upon which they fastened the dark and loathsome Lamanite superstitiuous idolatry, with its horrors of human sacrifice and cannibalism. I believe these conjectures to be warranted by the fact that in several parts of the American continents, viz.: in Mexico, Central America, and Peru, a civilization of no mean degree of advancement was found to exist at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards; and, indeed, there are not wanting authorities who assert that the civilization found in America by the Spaniards, both in Mexico and Peru, was equal to their own. Such is the assertion of Dr. John W. Draper who says, in speaking of the crimes of Spain: From Mexico and Peru a civilization that might have instructed Europe was crushed out. * * * * It has been her [Spain's] evil destiny to ruin two civilizations, Oriental and Occidental. * * * In America she destroyed races more civilized than herself. [10] Nadaillac remarks: To sum up, every thing goes to prove that the ancient races of Central America possessed an advanced culture, exact ideas on certain arts and sciences, and remarkable technical knowledge. As pointed out in 1869, by Morgan, in the North American Review, the Spanish succeeded in destroying in a few years a civilization undoubtedly superior in many respects to that which they endeavored to substitute for it. [11] Prescott places scarcely less value upon it. He says: