a MS! BBBH EkH Ml H&H I mam BB AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, AND DISCOVERIES IX THE WEST i BEING AN EXHIBITION OF THE EVIDENCE THAT AN ANCIENT POPULATION OF PARTIALLY CIVILIZED NATIONS, DIFFERING' ENTIRELY FROM THOSE OF THE PRESENT IN- DIANS, PEOPLED AMERICA, MANY CENTURIES BEFORE ITS DISCOVERY BY COLUMBUS. ■ AND. inquiries into their okiuii* WITH A COPIOUS DESCRIPTION Of many of their stupendous Works, now in ruins* WITH CONJECTURES CONCERNING WHAT MAY HAVE BECOME OF THEM, COMPILED 3FROM TRAVELS, AUTHENTIC SOURCES, AND THE RESEARCHES OF antiquarian Sotietf tn> — /•/ • * BY JOSIAH PRIEST Third Edition Revised. ALBANY: ... ' PRINTED BY HOFFMAN AND WHITE; ' No. 71, State-Street;. - 183& NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, To wit : Be it remembered, that on the twenty-first day of March, Anno Domini, 1833, Josiah Priest, of the said district, hath deposited in this office a book, the title of which is in the words following, to wit : " American Antiquities, and Discoveries in the West : Being an exhibition of the evidence that an ancient Po- pulation of partially civilized Nations, differing entirely from those of the present Indians, peopled America, many centuries before its discovery by Columbus. And Inquiries into their Origin, with a copious description of many of their stupendous works, now in ruins. With Conjectures concerning what may have become of them. Compiled from travels, authentic sources, and the Researches of Antiquarian ^Societies. By Josiah Priest." The right whereof he claims as author and proprietor — In conformity with an Act of Congress, entitled An Act to amend the several Acts respecting Copy Rights. RUTGER B. MILLER, Clerk U. S. J). C. A*. D. JV. Y. PREFACE The volume now laTd before the public, is submitted with the pleas- ing hope that it will not be unacceptable, although the subject of the An- tiquities of America is every where surrounded with its mysteries ; on which account, we have been compelled to wander widely in the field of conjecture, from which it is not impossible but we may have gathered and presented some original and novel opinions. We have felt that we are bound by the nature of the subject, to treat wholly on those matters which relate to ages preceding the discovery of America by Columbus ; as we apprehend no subject connected with the history of the continent since, can be entitled to the appellation of Antiquities of America. If we may be permitted to judge from the liberal subscription this work has met with, notwithstanding the universal prejudice against subscribing for books, we should draw the conclusion, that this curious subject, has not its only admi- rers within the pales of Antiquarian Societies. If it is pleasing as well as useful to know the history of one's country, if to feel a rising interest as its beginnings are unfolded ; its sufferings, its wars, its struggles, and its victories, delineated ; why not also, when the story of its an- tiquities, though of a graver and more majestic nature, are attempted to be rehearsed. The traits of the antiquities of the old world are every where shown by the fragments of dilapidated cities, pyramids of stone, and walls of wondrous length ; but here are the wrecks of empire, whose beginnings it would seem, are older than any of these, which are the mounds and works of the west, towering aloft as if their builders were preparing against another flood. We have undertaken to elicit arguments, from what we suppose evidence, that the first inhabitants who peopled America, came on by land, at certain places, where it is supposed once to have been united with Asia, Europe, and Africa, but has been torn asunder by the force of earthquakes, and the irrup- tions of the waters, so that what animals had not passed over before this great physical rupture, were for ever excluded ; but not so with men, as they could resort to the use of boats. IV PREFACE. We have gathered such evidence as induces a belief that America was, an- ciently, inhabited with partially civilized and agricultural nations, surpassing in numbers, its present population. This, we imagine, we prove, in the disco- very of thousands of the traits of the ancient operations of men over the entire cultivated parts of the continent, in the forms and under the character of mounds and fortifications, abounding particularly in the western regions. We have also ventured conjectures respecting what nations, in some few in- stances, may have settled here ; also what may have become of them. We have entered on an examination of some of those works, and of some of the articles found on opening some few of their tumuli ; which we have compared with similar articles found in similar works in various parts of the other continents, from which very curious results are ascertained. As it respects some of the ancient nations who may have found their W3y hither, we perceive a strong probability, that not only Asiatic nations, very soon after the flood, but that, also, all along the different eras of time, different races of men, as Polynesians, Malays, Australasians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks. Komans, Israelites, Tartars, Scandinavians, Danes, Norwegians, Welch, and Scotch, have cok>nized different; parts of the contiaent. We have also attempted to show that America was peopled before the flood ; that it was the country of Noah, and the place where the ark was erected. The highly interesting subject of American Antiquities, we are inclined to be- lieve, is but just commencing to be developed. The immensity of country yet beyond the settlements of men, towards the Pacific, is yet to be explored by cultivation, when other evidences, and wider spread, will come to view, afford- ing, perhaps, more definite conclusions. As aids in maturing this volume, we have consulted tire works of philosopher . historians, travellers, geographers, and gazetteers, with miscellaneous notices on this subject, as found in the periodicals of the day. The subject has proved a? difficult as mysterious ; any disorder and inaccuracies, therefoie, in point of in- ferences which we have made, we beg may not become the subjects of the se- verities of criticism. If, however, we should succeed in awakening a desire to a farther investiga- tion of this curious subject, and should have the singular happiness of set any degree of public respect, and of giving the subscriber an equivalent fo patronage, the utmost of the desires of the author will be realized. JOSTAH PRIEST CONTENTS. Page Location of Mount Ararat, % • . • • . • 9 Traits of the history of the Chinese* before the flood, and their account of it, with other curious matters, 10 The supposed origin of human complexions, with the ancient significations of the names of the three sons of Noah, see pages, 14, 291, 294, 351 Respecting a division of the earth by Noah among his three sous,* 21 Supposed identity and real name of Melchisedec of the Scrip- tures — of qualifications for the Jewish priesthood — and of the location of Paradise, 23 Division of fhe earth in the days of Peleg, and of the spread- ing out of the nations from Ararat, with other curious mat- ters, • 31 Antiquities of the west, consisting of mounds, tumuli, and for- tifications, qfi7 Ruins of a Roman fort at Marietta, with conjectures how they may have found this country, 41 Discovery of a subterranean cavity of mason work, supposed to have been erected by one of the admirals of Alexander, in ^merica, 300 years before Christ, 44 Ireland known to the Greeks 200 years before Christ, 48 Discoveries of subterranean hearths and fire places, on the shores of the Ohio, with conjectures about their origin,. • • • 49 Discovery of a curious cup of earthen ware, 52 Course of the Ten lost Tribes of Israel, with conjectures about the land of Asareth, and convulsions of the globe, • . •. 55 Traits of Israelites in Lapland, with accounts of their theology, resembling that of the Jews, ■• • 02 Traits of the Jews found in Pittsfield, Mass. • • • 66 A late discovery of a vast body of Jews in India,* • • • • « 6? Vi CONTENTS. Page. A farther account of the convulsions of the globe, with the re- moval of islands, &c 79 Of the island Atalantis, of the ancients, supposed to have been situated between Europe and America, . • • • . 80 Evidences of an ancient population in America, different from that of the Indians, • • • • 83 Discoveries on the Muskingum, of the traits of ancient nations, consisting of mounds, tumuli, a vault, brass rings, a large skeleton, stone abutments of ancient bridges, a tesselated pavement, with articles denoting a Hindoo population,* • • • 87 Origin of houses among men, 97 Great works of the ancient nations at Zanesville, Ohio, 99 Discovery of a quantity of metallic balls hidden by the an- cient nations, supposed to have been gold, with conjectures concerning their use, 101 Use of the sling by the ancient nations in America, &c • • • • 104 Remains of ancient pottery in the west, 106 A catacomb of embalmed mummies found in Kentucky, sup- posed to be of Egyptian origin, with suppositions how they may have found America, • 110 A fac simile of the true Phoenician letters, 116 Ancient letters or alphabets of Africa and of America, with a <£ac simile of their shapes, showing them to be one in origin, 118 A further account of western antiquities, with antediluvian traits, the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, and of the building of the ark of Noah in America, 125 The skeleton of a whale recently found in Virginia, near an hundred miles from the sea, 133 Discovery of an ivory image in a bone mound at Cincinnati, with conjectures respecting it, 135 Sculptured hieroglyphics found in a cave on the Ohio, and of the banditti who] inhabited it, 138 Accounts of the bones of 'the mammoth in the west, 144 Tracks of men and animals in the rocks of Tennessee and elsewhere, i* 150 Cotubamana, the giant chief of an American island, his tragi- cal end, with other curious notices, , 153 A further account of discoveries in the west, as given by the Antiquarian society at Cincinnati, 158 CONTENTS. Vll Vast works of the ancient nations on the east side of the Mus- kingum, with a map of three fortifications as they now appear in ruins,. 161 Ruins of ancient works at Circleville, Ohio, 163 Ancient works on Paint Creek, Ohio, 166 Ancient wells found in the bottom of Paint Creek,. . 168 A recent discovery of one of those ancient works among the Alleghanies, 169 Description of western tumuli and mounds, 170 A copper cross found on the breast of a skeleton, also traits of a Hindoo population in the west, 180 Great works of the ancient nations on the north fork of Paint Creek, 1S3 Traits of ancient cities on the Mississippi, 187 Tradition of the native Mexicans, respecting their migrations from the north, « 189 Supposed uses of the ancient roads found connected with the mounds, 193 Traits of the Mosaic history found among 'the Azteca Indians, with an engraving, which represents men, receiving the languages from a bird, and Noah in his ark, 196 Ceremonies of the worship of fire as practised by certain In- dian tribes on the Arkansas, 209 Origin of the worship of fire, 212 A further account of western antiquities, , 214 Discovery of America by the Norwegians, Danes and Welch before the time of Columbus, 224 Traditions of the Florida Indians, that Florida was once in* habited by white people, before Columbus, with evidences of the same, 234 Specimens of mason-work of the ancient nations, . * 238 Ruins of the city of Otolum, in America of Peruvian origin 241 Great stone calendar of the Mexicans, with an engraving, .... 246 Great stone castle of Iceland, * 249 A further account of the evidence of e^tonies from Europe be- fore Columbus, ; 251 Large quantity of brass found in Scipio in a field once belong- ing to the ancient nations, ♦ 254 k further account of western antiquities,. , , , 256 vlii CONTENTS Pagi. A discijptioli ol articles found in the tumuli, 260 Great size of some of the Mexican mounds, ■, 267 Predilection of the ancients to pyramid building, 268 Shipping and voyages of the Mongol Tartars, and their set- tlements on the western coast of North America, 273 A further account of western antiquities, « 279 Various opinions respecting the original inhabitants of Ame- rica, 282 Further remarks on the subject of human complexions,.... 291 Still further remarks on human complexions, 294 Canibals in America, 299 Ancient languages of the first inhabitants of America, 304 A fac simile, or engraving of the glyphs of Otolum, a city, the ruins of which is found in South America, 307 Languages and nations of North America, 309 Languages and nations of South America, 310 The Atlantic nations of America, 312 Further accounts of colonies from Europe before the time of Columbus,. . . , * * 316 Primitive origin of the English language, 325 Colonies of the Danes in America, 333 Chronology of the the Iroquois Indians, 346 African tribe found in South America, 349 Disappearance of many of the western lakes, and of the for- mation of sea coal, . . * 352 Further remarks on the draining of the western country of its ancient lakes, « ........... 367 Causes of the disappearance of the ancient nations, 373 Lake Ontario formed by a Volcanoe, 376 Resemblance of the western Indians to the ancient Greeks,. .. 383 Traits of the ancient Romans in America, 389 American Indian languages, 393 Languages of Oregon Chopunish and Chinuc, 395 Gold mines in the Southern States, , , 397 These mines known to the^tncients by the instruments dis- covered, ,....•; 398 AMERICAN. ANTIQUITIES AiNB DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST, A lofty summit on a range of mountains, called Ararat, in Asia, furnished the resting place of the Ark, which contained the progenitors of both man and animals, who have replenished the Globe since the era of the Deluge. Ararat is a chain of mountains, running partly round the south- ern end of the Caspian, and is situated between the Caspian and Slack Seas ; in latitude north, about 38 deg. agreeing with the middle of the United States, and is from London a distance of about two thousand four hundred miles, in a southeasterly course, and from the city of Albany, in the United States, is nearly six thou- sand, in an exact easterly direction, and the same latitude, except a variation of but three degrees south. We have been thus particular to describe the exact situation, as generally allowed, of that range of mountains; because from this place, which is nearly on the western end of the Asiatic continent, Noah and his posterity descended, and spread themselves over ma- ny parts of the earth, and, as we suppose, even to America, re- newing the race of man, which well nigh had become extinct from the devastation and ruin of the universal flood, But that the flood of Noah was universal y is gravely doubted ; in proof of which, the abettors of this doubt, bring the traditional his- tory of the ancient Chinese- Professor Rafinesque, of the city of Philadelphia, confessedly a learned and most able antiquarian, has recently advanced the following exceedingly interesting and cu- rious matter. 10 AMERICA!* ANTIQUITIES " History of China before the Flood. The traditions preserved by many ancient nations of the earliest history of the earth and man- kind, before and after the great geological floods, which have deso- lated the globe, are highly interesting ; they beloDg at once to geology, archeology, history and many other sciences. They are the only glimpses to guide us where the fossil remains or medals of nature, are silent or unknown. Ancient China was in the eastern slopes and branches. of the mountains of Central Asia, the hoary Imalaya^ where it is as yet very doubtful whether the flood thoroughly extended." But though this is doubted, we cannot subscribe to the opinion, however great our deference may be for the ability and research of those who have ventured to doubt We feel by far a greater de- ference to the statement of the author of the Hebrew Genesis ; a historian of the highest accredited antiquity. This author says plainly, that " all the high hills under the whole heaven were cover- ed;" and that " fifteen cubits," and upwards, did the waters pre- vail; and the mountains were covered. But not so, if we are to believe these doubters. A very large tract of country of Central Asia was exempt from the flood of Noah, as also a part of South America. This opinion, which contradicts the Bible account of that flood, is founded on " the traditional history of China, which speaks of two great floods which desolated, but did not overflow the land. They answer, says Mr. Rafinesque, to the two great floods of Noah and Peleg, recorded in the Bible. " The latter, the flood of Peleg, or Yao, in China, was caused, he says, by volcanic paroxysms all over the earth ;" but " much less fatal than the flood of Noah, or Yu-ti, in China." Respecting this flood, " the following details are taken chiefly from the Chinese historians, Liu-yu and Lo-pi, whose works are called Y-tse, anclUai-ki, as partly translated by Leroux." These says, that " the first flood happened under the 8th Ki, or period called Yu-ti, and the first emperor of it," was " Chin-sang, about 3,170 years before Christ," 826, before the flood. But neither can this be, as the flood of Noah took place 1,656 years from the creation, which would, therefore, be but 2,344 years before Christ ; being a mistake of about 826 years. And, therefore, if there is any truth in the Chinese history at all, those AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 11 historians must ha\e alluded to some flood before that of Noah; an account of which may have been received from Noah himself, and preserved in the Chinese histories 'written after the flood. The flood alluded to, by the above named historian, did not, it is true, overflow the whole earth, but it was such as that the waters did not return to their usual channels for a long time ; " the misery of mankind was extreme ; the beasts and serpents were very numerous ;" being driven together by the pursuit of the wa- ters, and also " storms and cold " had greatly increased. Chin-sang collected the wandering men to unite against the wild beasts, to dress their skins for clothing, and to weave their fur into webs and caps. This emperor was venerated for these benefits, and be- gan a Shi, or dynasty, that lasted 350 years." This account would suit very well to the character of Nimrod, whom we are much inclined to think the Chinese historians point out, instead of any king before the era of the flood of Noah. But to the research of this highly gifted antiquarian, Rafinesque, we are greatly indebted in one important respect : It is well known that persons in the learned world have greatly admired the boasted antiquity of the Chinese nations, who, by their records, make the earth much older than does Moses. But this philosopher on this subject writes as follows : " The two words, Ki and Shi, trans- lated period and dynasty, or family, are of some importance. As they now stand translated, they would make the world very old ; since no less than ten Ki, or periods, are enumerated, (we are in the 10th;) wherein 232 Shi, or dynasties of emperors, are said to have ruled in China, during a course of 276,480 years before Christ, at the loivest computation ; and 96,962,220 before Christ, at the highest; with many intermediary calculations, by various authors. But if Ki, he says, may also mean a dynasty, or division, or peo- ple, as it appears to do in some instances, and Shi, an age, or a tribe, or reign, the whole preposterous computation will prove false, or be easily reduced to agree with those of the Hindoos, Persians and Egyptians ;" and come within the age of the earth as given in the Scriptures. If the central region of Asia, and parts of South America, may have been exempted from that flood, we may then safely inquire, whether other parts of the globe may not also have been exempt ; where men and animals were preserved ; aad thus the account of 12 AMERICAN ANTTQUITIl the ark, in which, as related by Moses, both men and animate were saved, is completely overturned. But the universal traditions of all nations, contradict this, while the earth, every where, shows signs of the operations of the waters, in agreement with this uni- versal tradition. If such a flood never took place, which rushed over the earth with extraordinary violence, how r , it may be inquired, are there found in Siberia, in north latitude 60 and 70 deg., great masses of the bones of the elephant and rhinoceros — animals of the hot regions of the equator. From this it is evident that the flood which w r afted the bodies of those animals, rolled exactly over all China and the Hindoo regions. In all parts of the earth, even on the highest regions and mountains, are found oceanic remains Whales have been found in the mountains of Greenland, and also in other parts, as in America, far from the ocean. Chinese history, it is true, gives an account of many floods, which have ruined whole tracts of that country, as many as sixty- five, one of which, in the year 185 before Christ, it is said, formed that body of water called the Yellow Sea, situated between Corea and China. But were the history of American floods written, occasioned bv similar causes ; such as rivers rupturing their mountain barriers ; the shocks of earthquakes, since the time of Noah's flood ; who could say there would not be as many. We shall have occasion to speak of this subject before we close this volume. It is said that the history of China gives an account of the state of mankind before the flood of Tuti, or Noah, and represents them as having been happy, ruled by benevolent monarchs, who took no- thing and gave much ; the world submitted to their virtues and good laws ; they wore no crowns, but long hair ; never made war. and put no one to death. But this is also contrary to the account of Moses ; who says the earth before the flood was corrupt before God, and was filled with violence. But they carry their descrip- tion of the happiness of men so high, as to represent perfect har- mony as having existed between men and animals ; when men liv- ed on roots and the fruits of the earth ; that they did not follow hunting ; property was common, and universal concord prevailed. From this high wrought account of the pristine happiness of man, we are at once referred to the original state of Adam in Paradise, and to his patriarchal government after his fall ; and it is likely also aj*d DiscovEttrfis in the west. 13 to that of his successors, till men had multiplied in the earth ; so as to form conflicting interests, when the rapine and violence com- menced, as spoken of by Moses, which it seems, grew worse and worse, till the flood came and took them all away. That the central parts of Asia were not overflown by the deluge, appears of vast importance to some philosophers of the present day to be established. For if so, we see, say they, at once, how both men and animals were preserved from that flood ; and yet this does not, they say, militate against the Mosaic account ; for the very word ark, is, in the original language, Theba, and signifies, refuge, and is the country of Thibet. So that when Moses talked about an ark, he only meant the central part of Asia, or Thibet, in which men and animals were saved, instead of a vessel. Theba or Thibet, situated in what is called Central Asia, and is in size equal to three-fourths of the area of the United States, is indeed the highest part of that continent, and produces mountains higher than any other part of the earth ; yet Moses says, that the flood prevailed fifteen cubits and upwards above the highest moun- tains. Thibet is situated in latitude 30 deg. north, exactly between farther India, Hindostan and Siberia, where banks of the bones of equatorial animals are found, as we have noticed ; by which we as- certain that the deluge rolled over this very Thee a, the country supposed to have been left dry at the time of Noah's flood- But it will not do ; for the Mosaic account plainly says, that God said to Noah, make thee an ark of gopher wood. Surely Noah did not make the central parts of Asia, called Theba, or Thibet; neither w r as he called upon to do so, as it would have taken much gopher wood to have formed the whole or a part of so large a coun- try. But respecting the word, which is translated ark, in the Scriptures, it is said by Adam Clarke, to be in the original Tebath, and not Theba. The word Tebath, he says, signifies vessel, and means no more nor less than a vessel, in its most common acceptation, a hollow place, capable of containing persons, goods, &c The idea, there- fore, that the word ark, signified the central parts of Asia, called Theba, or Thibet, falls to the ground ; while the history as given by Moses, respecting the flood of Noah, remains unshaken, 14 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES The same author has also discovered that a race of ancient peo- ple, in South America, called the Zapotecas, boast of being ante- diluvian in America, and to have built the city of Coat-Ian, so named, because this city was founded at a place which swarmed with serpents ; therefore named Snake-city, or Coat-Ian, built 327 years before the flood ; and that, at the time of the flood, a remnant of them, together with their king, named Pet-ela, (or dog,) saved them- selves on a mountain of the same name, Coat-Ian. But we consider this tradition to relate only to the first efforts at house building after the flood of Noah, round about the region of Ararat, and on the plains of Shinar. The very circumstance of this tribe being still designated by that of the Dog tribe, is an evi- dence that they originated not before the flood as a nation, but in Asia, since that era; for in Asia, as in America, tribes of men have also been thus designated, and called after the various animals of the woods. The Snake Indians are well known to the western explorers in America, as also many other tribes, who are named after various wild animals. SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF HUMAN COMPLEXIONS, WITH THE ANCIENT SIGNIFICATION OF THE NAMES OF THE THREE SONS OF NOAH, AND OTHER CURIOUS MATTER. The sons of Noah were three, as stated in the book of Genesis ; between whose descendants the whole earth, in process of time, became divided. This division appears to have taken place, in the earliest ages of th^ first nations after the flood, in such manner as to suit, or correspond with the several constitutions of those na- tions, in a physical sense, as well as with a reference to the various complexions of the descendants of these three heads of the human race. This preparation of the nations, respecting animal constitution and colour, at the fountain head, must have been directed by the hand of the Creator, in an arbitrary manner ; by which not only his Sovereignty, as the Governor of our earth with all its tribes, is mani- fest, but also his Wisdom ; because the same constitution and com- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 15 plexion, which is suited to the temperate and frigid zones of the globe, could not endure the burning climates of the torrid ; so nei- ther are the constitutions of the equatorial nations so tempered as to enjoy the snowy and ice-bound regions in the high latitudes north and south of the equator. The very names, or words Shem, Ham, and Japheth, were in the language of Noah, which was probably the pure Hebrew ; in some sense, significant of their future national character and pros- perity. We proceed to show in what sense their names were de- scriptive, prospectively, of their several destinies in the earth, as well also as that Ham was the very name of his color, or com- plexion. The word Shem, says Dr. Clarke, signifies renown, in the language of Noah ; which, as that great man, now no more, remarks, has been wonderfully fulfilled, both in a temporal and spiritual sense. In a temporal sense, first, as follows. His posterity spread them- selves over the finest regions of Upper and Middle Asia — Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, Persia, and the Indus, Ganges, and possibly to China, still more eastward. The word Japheth, which was the name of Noah's third son, has also its meaning, and signifies, according to the same author, that which may be exceedingly enlarged, and capable of spreading to a vast extent. His posterity diverged eastward and westward from Ararat, throughout the whole extent of Asia, north of the great range of the Taurus and Ararat mountains, as far as the Eastern Ocean ; whence, as he supposes, they crossed over to America, at the Straits of Bhering, and in the opposite direction from those moun- tains, throughout Europe, to the Mediterranean Sea, south from Ar* arat ; and to the Atlantic Ocean west, from the same region ; whence also they might have passed over to America, by the way of Ice- land, Greenland, and so on to the continent, along the coast of La- brador, where traces of early settlements remain, in parts now de- sert. Thus did Japheth enlarge himself, till his posterity literally encompassed the earth, from latitude 35 deg. north and upward, toward the pole. The word Ham, signified that which was burnt, or black. The posterity of this son of Noah, peopled the hot regions of the earth r on either side the equator. 16 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES But as it respects the complexions of these heads of the nation? of the earth, we remark as follows : Shem was undoubtedly a ied or copper colored man, which was the complexion of all the Ante- diluvians. This conclusion is drawn from the fact, that the nations inhabit- ing the countries named as being settled or peopled by the descend- ants of Shem, have always been, and now are, of that cast. We deem this fact as conclusive, that such was also their progenitor, Shem, as that the great and distinguishing features and complexion - of nations change not, so as to disappear. Shem was the Father of the Jewish race, who are of the same hue, varying, it is true, some being of a darker, and some of a lighter shade, arising from secret and undefinable principles, placed beyond the research of man ; and also, from amalgamation by marriage with white, and with the dark- er nations, as the African. But to corroborate our opinion, that the I Antediluvians were of a red, or copper complexion, we bring the well known statement of Josephus, that Adam, the first of men, was a red man, made of red earth, called virgin earth, because of its beauty and pureness. The word Adam, he also says, signifies that colour which is red. To this account, the tradition of the Jews corresponds, who, as they are the people most concerned, should be allowed to know most about it. Shem, therefore, must have been a red man, derived from the complexion of the first man, Adam. And his posterity, as above described, are accordingly of the the same complexion ; this is well known of all the Jews, unmixed with those nations that are fairer, as attested by history, and the traveller of every age, in the coun- tries they inhabit. The word Ham, which was the name of the second son of Noah, is the word which was descriptive of the color which is black, or burnt. This we show from the testimony of Dr. Hales, of Eng- land, who was a celebrated natural philosopher and mathematician, of the 17th century, who is quoted by Adam Clarke, r to show that the word Ham, in the language of Noah, which was that of the Antediluvians, was the term for that which was black- It is not possible, from authority so high and respectable, that doubts can exist respecting the legitimacy of this word, and of its ancient application , Accordingly, as best suited to the complexion AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 17 of the descendants of Ham, the hot regions of the equator were allotted to those nations. To the Cushites, the southern climes of Asia, along the coast of the Persian Gulf, Susiane, or Cushistan, Arabia, Canaan, Pales- tine, Syria, Egypt, and Lybia, in Africa. These countries were settled by the posterity of Ham, who were, and now are, oFa glossy black. But the vast variety of shades and hues of the human face, are derived from amalgamations of the three original complexions, red, black, and white. This was the act of God, giving to the three persons, upon whom the earth's population depended, by way of perpetuity ; such complexions, and animal constitutions, as should be best suited to the several climates, which he intended, in the progress of his providence, they should inhabit. The people of these countries, inhabited respectively by these heads of nations, Shem, Ham, and Japhet 1 :, s.'S// retain. ; n full force, the ancient, pristine red, white, and black complexions, except where each have intruded upon the other, and became scattered, and mingled, in some degree, ovsr the earth. Accordingly, among the African nations, in their own proper countries,. now and then a colony of whites have fixed their dwellings. Among the red na- tions are found, here and there, as in some of the islands of the Pacific, the pure African ; and both the black and the red are found among the white natiois ; but now, much more than in the earliest ages, a general amalgr ^nation of the three original colors exists. Much has been written to establish the doctrine of the influence of climate and food, in producing the vast extremes between a fair and ruddy white, and a jet black. But this mode of reasoning, to establish the origin of the human complexion, we imagine, very in- conclusive and unsatisfactory; as it is found that no distance of space, lapse of ages, change of diet, or of countries, can possibly " remove the leopard's spots, or change the Ethiopian's skin." No'lapse of ages has been known to change a white man and his posterity to the exact hue or shape of an African, although the hottest rays of the burning clime of Lybia, may have scorched him ages unnumbered, and its soil have fed him with its roots and ber- ries, an equal length of time. It is granted, however, that a white man with his posterity will tan very dark by the heat of the sun ; but it never can altar, as it never has, materially altered, the shape 3 Y& AMERICAN ANTJQUiTIES' of his face ffoni that which was characteristic of his nation* of people, nor the form of his limbs, nor his curled hair, turning it to a woolj provided always, the blood be kept pure and unmixed by marriages with the African. Power in the decomposition of food, by the human stomach, does not exist of sufficient force to overturn the deep foundation of causes established in the very germ of being, by the Creator. The cir- cumstance of what a man may eat, or where he may chance to breathe, cannot derange the economy of first principles. Were it so, it were not a hard matter for the poor African, if he did but know this choice trait of philosophy, to take hope and shake off entirely his unfortunate skin, in process of time, and no longer be exposed, solely on that account, to slavery, chains, and wretch- edness. But the inveteracy of complexion against the operation of climate is evinced by the following, as related by Morse. On the eastern coast of Africa, in latitude 5 deg. north, are found jet, black, tawny, olive, and vjhite inhabitants, all speaking the same language, which is the Arabic. This particular part of Africa is called the Maga- doxo kingdom : the inhabitants are a stout, warlike nation, of the Mahometan religion. Here, it appears, is permanent evidence, that climate or food have no effect in materially changing the hues of the complexion, each retaining their own original texture ; even the white is found as stubborn in this torrid sky, as the black in the northern countries. The whites found there, are the descendants of the ancient Ro- mans, Carthagenians, Vandals, and Goths ; w r ho were, it is asserted by John Leo, the African, who wrote a description of Africa in Ara- bic, all anciently comprehended under the general name of Mauri or Moors, as well as the black Moors themselves. (Morse's Unir versal Geo. vol. ii. pp. 754. 781.) Shem, according to the commonly received opinion, was the eld- est son of Noah ; and as the complexion of this child did not differ from that of other children born before the flood, all of whom are supposed to have been red, or of the copper hue, on the ground oi Adam's complexion ; Noah did not, therefore, name the* child at first sight, from any extraordinary impulse arising from any singu- lar appearance in the complexion, but rather, as it was his first born son, he called him Shem, that is renown , which name agrees, in a AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST> 19 "mrprising manner, with what we have hereafter to relate, respect^ ing this character. The impulse in the mind of Noah, which moved him to call this first son of his Shem, ox renown, may have been similar to that of Ihe patriarch, Jacob, respecting his first born son. He says, Reu- ben, thou art my first born, my might, and the beginning of my .strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power . The ideas are similar, both leading to the same consequence ; in one case, it is renown; in the other, the excellency of power, which is equivalent to renown ; all which, in both cases, arise from the mere circumstance of those children being the first born. It is not unusual for parents to feel this sensation, on the birth of a first child, especially if it be a son; however, it is not impossible but the prophetic spirit moved Noah so to name this son by the ex- traordinary appellation, renown, or Shem ; and the chief trait of ce- lebrity which was to attach itself to the character of Shem was to arise out of the fact of his being the type of the Messiah ; and the time was to come when this person, after the flood should have passed away, would be the < wily antediluvian survivor ; on which account, all mankind must, of necessity, by natural and mutual consent, look up to this man with extraordinary veneration. By examining the chronolgical account of the Jewish records, we find the man Shem lived five hundred years after the flood, and that he over-lived Abraham about forty years. So that he was not only the oldest man on the earth at that time, but also the only sur- viving antediluvian, as well as the great typical progenitor of the adorable Messiah. Here was a foundation for renown, of sufficient solidity to justify the prophetic spirit in moving Noah to call him Shem, a name full of import, full of meaning, pointing its signification, in a blaze of light, to Him whose birth and works of righteousness were to be of consequences the highest in degree to the whole race of Adam, in the atonement. But at the birth of Ham, it was different. When this child was born, we may suppose the house or tent to have been in an uproar, on the account of his strange complexion ; the news of which, we may suppose, soon reached the ear of the father, who, on beholding it, at once, in the form of exclamation, cried out, Ham ! that is, it is black! and this word became his name. 20 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES It is believed, that in the first ages of the world, things were named from their, supposed qualities ; and their supposed qualities arose from first appearances. In this way, it is imagined, Adam named all the animals at first sight ; as the Lord God caused them to pass before him, a sudden impulse arising in his mind, from the appearance of each creature ; so that a suitable name was given. This was natural ; but not more so than it was for Noah to call his second son Ham, because he was black; being struck by this uncommon, unheard of, complexion of his own child, which impelled him at once to name him as he looked. We suppose the same influence governed at the birth of Japheth ; and that at the birth of this child, greater surprise still must have pervaded the household of Noah, as white was a cast of complex- ion still more wonderful than either red or black, as these two last named complexions bear a stronger affinity to each other, than to that of white. No sooner, therefore, as we may suppose, was the news of the birth of this third son carried to Noah, than being anxious to em- brace him, saw with amazement, that it was diverse from the other two, and from all mankind ; having not the least affinity of com- plexion with any of the human race ; and being in an ecstacy, at the sight of so fair and ruddy an infant, beautifully white and tran- sparent of complexion, cried out, while under the influence of his joy and surprise, Japheth ! which word became his name ; to this, however, he added afterwards, God shall greatly enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan ; that is, Ham shall be his servant ; so that, in a political sense, he was higher than the other tv, -o. But if our opinion on this subject is esteemed not well support- ed, we would add one other circumstance, which would seem to amount to demonstration, in proving Ham and his posterity to have been black at the outset. The circumstance is as follows : At two particular times, it ap- pears from Genesis, that Noah declared, Ram, with his posterity, should serve or become servants to both the posterity of Shem and Japheth. If one were to inquire whether :his has been fulfilled or not, what would be the universal answer ? It would be — it has been fulfilled. But in what way? Who ere the people? The universal answer is, The African race are the people. But how is AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 21 this proved, unless we allow them to be the descendants of Ham ? If, then, they are his descendants, they have been such in every age, from the very beginning ; and the same criterion, which is their color, has distinguished them. This proves their progenitor, Ham, to have been black j or otherwise, it had been impossible to distinguish them from the posterity of the other two, Shem and Japheth ; and whether the denunciation of Noah has been fulfilled or not, would be unknown. But as it is known, the subject is clear; the distinguishing trait by which Ham's posterity were known at first, must of necessity have been, as it is now, black. We have dwelt thus far upon the subject of human complexions, because there are those who imagine the variety now found among men, to have originated purely from climate, food, and manner of living ; while others suppose a plurality of fathers to have been the cause, in contradiction of the account in Genesis, where one man is said to have been the father of all mankind. But on this curious subject, respecting the variety of complexions, see, toward the close of this voliime, the remarks of Professor Mitchell, late of New-York. RESPECTING A DIVISION OF THE EARTH, BY NOAH, AMONG HIS SONS. It cannot be denied but the whole earth, at the time the ark rested on mount Ararat, belonged to Noah, he being the prince, patriarch, or head and ruler of his own family ; consequently, of all the inhabitants of the earth, as there were none but his own house- This is more than can be said of any other man since the world be- gan, except of the man Adam. Accordingly, in the true character of a Patriarchal Prince, as related by Eusebius, an ecclesiastical writer of the fourth century, and by others, that Noah, being com- manded of God, proceeded to make his will, dividing the tvhole earth between his three sons, and their respective heirs or descend- ants. To Shem he gave all the East ; to Ham, all Africa; to Japheth, the continent of Europe, with its Isles, and the northern parts of 22 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Asia, sfs before pointed out. And may we not add America, which, in the course of Divine Providence, is now in the possession of the posterity of Japheth, and it is not impossible but this quarter of the earth may have been known even to Noah, as we are led to sus- pect from the statement of Eusebius. This idea, or information, is brought forward by Adam Clarke, from whose commentary on the Scriptures, we have derived it. That a knowledge of not only Africa, Asia, and Europe, was in the, possession of Noah, but even the islands of Europe, is probable, or how could he have given them to the posterity of his son Japheth, as' written by Eusebius. It may be questioned, possibly, whether these countries, at so early a period, had yet been explored, so as to furnish Noah with any degree of knowledge respecting them. To this it may be re- plied, that he lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and more than a hundred and fifty after the building of the tower of Babel and the dispersion of the first inhabitants, by means of the confusion of the ancient language. This was a lapse of time quite sufficient to have enabled explor- ers to have traversed them, or even the whole earth, if companies had been sent out in different directions, for that express purpose, and to return again with their accounts to Noah. If the supposition of Adam Clarke, and others, be correct ; which is, that at that time $ie whole land of the globe was so situated that no continent was quite separate from the others by water, as they are now ; so that men could traverse by land the whole globe at their will : if so, even America may have been known to the first nations, as well *s other parts of the earth. This doctrine of the union of continents, is favored, or rather founded on a passage in the Book of Genesis, 10th chap. 20th ver., where it is stated that one of the sons of Eber was Peleg, so named, because, in his days, the earth was divided; the word Peleg, prob- ably signifying division, in the Noetic language. The birth of Peleg was about an hundred years after the flood, "the very time when Babel was being built. But we do not im- agine this great convulsionary division of the several quarters of the globe took place till perhaps an hundred years after the birth of Peleg, on account of the peculiar latitude of the expression, " in the days of Peleg." Or, it may have been even two hundred AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 23* years after the birth of Peleg, as this person's whole life was but two hundred and thirty -nine years, so that Noah over-lived' him eleven years. "In the days of Peleg," therefore, may as well be argued to mean, near the close of his life, as at any other period ; this would give time for a very considerable knowledge of the earth's coun- tries to have been obtained ; so that Noah could have made a judicious division of it among the posterity of his sons. This grand division of the earth, is supposed by some, to have been only a political division ; but by others, a physical or geogra- phical one. This latter opinion is favored by Adam Clarke. See his comment on the 25th verse of the 10th chapter of Genesis, as follows: " A separation of Continents and islands from the main land, the earthy parts having been united in one great continent, previous to the days of Peleg." But at this era, when men and animals had found their way to the several quarters of the earth, it seemed good to the Creator to break down those uniting portions of land, by bringing into action the winds, the billows, and subtera- nean fires, which soon, by their repeated and united forces, removed- each isthmus, throwing them along the coasts of the several con- tinents, and forming them into islands ; thus destroying^ for wise purposes, those primeval highways of the nations. SUPPOSED IDENTITY AND REAL NAME OF MELCHIS-EDE.C 3 OF THE SCRIPTURES. This is indeed an interesting problem, the solution of which has perplexed its thousands ; most of whom suppose him to have been the Son of God, some angelte^or mysterious supernatural person- age, rather than a mere man. This general opinion proceeds on the grouud of the Scripture account of him, as commonly under- stood, being expressed as follows : " Without father, without mo- tner, without descent, having neither beginning of days 3 nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continu- ally." Hebrews vii. 3 24 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES But, without further circumlocution, we will at once disclose our opinion, by stating that we believe him to have been Shem, the eldest son of Noah, the immediate progenitor of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Jews, and none other than Shem, " the man of name, or renown." We derive this conclusion from the research and critical com- mentary of the learned and pious Adam Clarke, who gives us this information from the tradition of the Jewish Rabbins, which, with- out hesitation, gives this honor to Shem. The particular part of that Commentary to which we allude as being the origin of our belief, on this subject, is the preface of that author to the Book of Job, on page 716, as follows : " Shem lived five hundred and two years after the deluge ; being still alive, and in the three hundred and ninety-third year of his life, when Abra- ham was born ; therefore, the Jewish tradition, that Shem was the Melchisedec, or my righteous king of Salem," which word Mel- chisedec, was " an epithet, or title of honor and respect, not a pro- per name, and therefore, as the head and father of his race, Abra- ham paid tithes to him. This seems to be well founded, and the idea is confirmed by these remarkable words, Psalms, 110, Jehovah hath sworn and will not repent, or change, at tah cohenleolam al di- barte Malkitsedek. As if he had said, Thou, my only begotten Son, first born of many brethren, not according to the substituted priest- hood of the sons of Levi, who, after the sin of the golden calf, stood up in lieu of all the first born of Israel, invested with their forfeit- ed rights of primogeniture of king and priest : the Lord hath sworn and will not repent, (change.) Thou art a priest for ever, after the (my order of Melchisedec, my own original primitive) order of primogeniture : even as Shem, the man of name, the Shem that stands the first and foremost of the sons of Noah. The righteous Prince, and Priest of the Most High God meets his descendant, Abraham, after the slaughter of the kings, with refreshments ; and blessed him, as the head and father of his race ; the Jews in particular ; and, as such, he received from Abraham, the tithe of all the spoil. How beautifully does Paul of Tarsus, writing to the Hebrews, point, through Melchisedec, (or Shem, the head and father of their race,) invested in all the original rights of primogeniture, Priest of the most High God, blessing Abraham as such, before Levi bad AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 25 existence, and as such, receiving tithes from Abraham, and in him from Levi, yet in the loins of his forefathers : Moses, on this great and solemn occasion, records simply this : — Melchisedec, king of Salem, Priest of the Most High God, sine genealogia ; his pedi- gree not mentioned, but standing, z&Adamm St. Luke's genealogy, without father, and without mother, Adam of God. Luke iii. 38. How beautifully, I say, doth St. Paul point, through Melchisedec, to J ehoshua, ou* Great High Priest and King, Jesus Christ, whose eternal generation who shall declare ! Ha Mashiach, the Lord's Anointed High Priest and King, after the order of Melchisedec ; only begotten, first born son." Thus far for the preface on the subject of Melchisedec, showing that he was none other than Shem, the son of Noah. We shall now give the same author's views of the same supposed mysterious character, Melchisedec, as found in his notes on the 7th of Hebrews, commencing at the third verse. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life. " The object of the Apostle, in thus producing tha example of Melchisedec, was to show— 1st. That Jesus was the person prophesied of in the 110th Psalm ; which psalm the Jews uniformly understood as ^TC^ietirg the Messiah. 2d. To answer the objections of the Jews against the legitimacy of the priesthood of Christ, arising from the stock from which He proceeded. The objection is this : if the Messiah is a true Priest, he must come from a legitimate stock, as all the Priests under the law have regularly done ; otherwise we cannot acknowledge him to be a Priest. But Jesus of Nazareth has not proceeded from such a stock ; therefore, we cannot ar knowledge him for a Priest, the Antitype of Aaron. To this obje -lion the Apostle answers, that it was not necessary for the Priest to come from a particular stock ; for Mel- chisedec was a Priest of the Most High God, and yet was not of the stock either of Abraham (for Melchisedec was before Abraham/* or Aaron, but was a Canaamf.:. It is well known that the ancient Jews, or Hebrews, were ex- ceedingly scrupulous in choosing their High Priest ; partly by di- vine command, and partly from the tradition of their ancestors, who always considered this office to be of the highest dignity. 1st God had commanded, Lev. xxi. 10, that the High Priest should be 4 26 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES chosen from among their brethren ; that is, from the famrly of Aaron. 2. That he should marry a virgin. 3d. He must not marry a widow. 4th. Nor a divorced person. 5th. Nor a harlot. 6th. Nor one of another nation. He who was found to have acted contrary to these requisitions, was, jure divino, excluded from the pontificate, or eligibility to hold that office. On the contrary, it was necessary that he who desired this honor, should be able to prove his descent from the family of Aaron : and if he could not, though even in the Priesthood, he was cast out ; as we find from Ezra, ii. 62, and Nehem. vii. 63. To these divine ordinances, the Jews have added, 1st. That no proselyte could be a Priest : 2d. Nor a slave : 3d. Nor a bastard : 4th. Nor the son of a Nethinnim ; these were a class of men who were servants to the Priests and Levites, (not of their tribe,) to draw water, and to hew wood. 5th. Nor one whose father exercised any base trade. And that they might be well assured of all this, they took the utmost care to preserve their genealogies, which were regularly kept in the archives of the temple. When, if any person aspired to the sacerdotal function, his genealogical table was carefully in- spected ; and if any of the above blemishes was found in him, he was rejected." But here the matter comes to a point, as it respects our inquiry respecting Melchisedec's having no father or mother. " He who could not support his pretensions by just genealogical evidences, was said to be without father. Thus in Bereshith Rabba, Sect, xviii. fol. 18, are these words, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother. It is said, if a proselyte to the Jewish religion have married his own sister, whether by the same father, or by the same mother, they cast her out, according to Rabbi Meir. But the wise men say, if she be of the same mother, they cast her out ; but if of the same father, they retain her, shein ab la gai, for a Gentile has no father, that is, his father is not reckoned in the Jew- ish genealogies. In this way, both Christ and Melchisedec were without father, and without mother, had neither beginning of days, descent of line- age, nor end of life, in their books of genealogies, which gave a man a right to the Priesthood, as derived from Aaron ; that is, were not descended from the original Jewish sacerdotal stock. Yet Mel- chisedec, who was a Canaanite, was a Priest of the Most High AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 2*7 "God. This sense, Suid as* confirms, under the word Melchisedec, where, after stating that he reigned a prince in Salem, i. e. Jeru- salem, 113 years, he died a righteous man. To this he adds, " He is, therefore, said be without descent or genealogy, because he was not of the seed of Abraham, (for Abraham was his seed,) but of Canaanitish origin." We think this sufficient to show the reason why he is said to have had no father or mother, beginning of days, nor end of life, as stated in Hebrews. But this is not said of him in the Book of Oenesis, where we first become acquainted with this truly won- derful character. It should be recollected, that the Jewish genealogies went no far- ther back, for the qualifications of their priestly credentials, or eligibility to the pontifical office, than to the time and family of Aaron ; which was more than four hundred years after that of Abraham and Melchisedec. No wonder, then, that Christ's gene- alogy was not found in their records, so as to give him a claim to that office, such as they might approve. But inasmuch as Melchisedec was greater than Abraham, from whom the Jewish race immediately originated, he argues from the authority of the 110th Psalm, where Melchisedec is spoken of, which the Jews allowed to be spoken of Christ, or the Messiah who was to come, and was, therefore, a Priest after the order of that extraordinary Prince of Peace, and King of Salem ; because, neither had he such a claim on the Jewish genealogies, as required by the Jews, so as to make him eligible to their priesthood, for they knew, or might have known, that Christ did not come of the Aa- ronic race, but of the line or tribe of Judah. That he was a man, a mere man, born of a woman, and came into the world after the ordinary manner, is attested by St. Paul's own extraordinary expression. See Hebrews, vii. 4 : — " Now con- sider how great this man was, unto whom Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils." However wonderfully elevated among men, and in the sight of God ; however powerful and rich, wise, holy, and happy ; he was, nevertheless, a mere man, or the tenth of the spoils he would not have received. * Sticks, a Greek Scholar of eminence, who flourished A. D. 975, and was an ecclesiastical writer of that age. 28 AMERICAN ANTQU1TIES But the question is, what man was he, and what was his name ? " Now consider how great this man was," are words which may possibly led us to the same conclusion, which we have quoted from the preface of the Book of Job. There are not wanting circumstances to elevate this man, on the supposition that he was Shem, in the scale of society, far above a common level with the rest of the inhabitants of his country, of suf- ficient importance to justify St. Paul in saying, ■* now consider how great this man was." We shall recount some of the circumstances : and first, at the time he met Abraham, when he was returning from the slaughter of the kings who had carried away Lot, the half brother of Abra- ham, with all his goods, his wife and children, and blessed him ; he was the oldest man then on the earth. This circumstance alone was of no small amount, and highly calculated to elevate Shem in the eyes of mankind ; for he was then more than five hundred and fifty years old. Second : He was then the only man on the earth who had lived before the flood ; and had been conversant with the nations, the in- stitutions, the state of agriculture and the arts, as understood and practised by the antediluvians. Third : He. was the only. man who could tell them about the lo- cation of the garden of Eden ; a question, no doubt, of great curi- osity and moment to those early nations, so near the flood ; the manner in which the fall of Adam and Eve took place. He could tell them what sort of fruit it was, and how the tree looked on which it grew ; and from Shorn, it is more than probable, the Jews received the idea that the forbidden fruit \ *.s that of the grape vine* as found in their traditions. Shem could tell them what sort of serpent it was, whether an Ourang Outang, as believed by some, that . le evil spirit made use of to deceive the woman ; he could tell hem about the former beauty of the earth, before j* had become ruined by the commo- tion of the waters of the flood : the form and situation of countries, and of the extent and amount of human population. He could tell them how the nations who filled the earth with their violence and rapine, used to ^o about the situation of the happy garden to which no men was allowed to approach nor enter, on account of the dread- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 29 ful Cherubim and the flaming sword ; and how they blasphemed against the judgments of the Most High on that account. Fourth : Shem could inform them about the progress of the ark, where it was built, and what opposition and ridicule his father Noah met with while it was being builded ; he could tell respect- ing the violent manners of the antediluvians, and what their pecu- liar aggravated sins chiefly consisted in — what God meant when he said, that rt all flesh had corrupted its way before Him," except the single family of Noah. There are those who imagine, from that peculiar phraseology, u all flesh hath corrupted its way on the earth," that the human farm had become mingled with that of ani- mals. If so, it was high time they were drowned, both man and beast, for reasons too obvious to need illustration here ; it was high time that the soil was purged by water, and torn to fragments and buried beneath the earthy matter thrown up from depths not so oolluted. It is not at all improbable but from this strange and most hor- rible practice, the first ideas of the ancient statuaries were derived, of delineating sculpture which represents monsters, half human and half animal. This kind of sculpture, and also paintings, abounded among the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, as well as other nations of the early ages. Of these shapes were many of their gods ; being half lion, half eagle, and half fish ; according to the denomination of paganism who adored these images. Fifth : Shem was the only man in the days of Abraham, who could tell them of the promised Messiah, of whom he was the most glorious and expressive type afforded the men, before his coming, as attested by St. Paul. It is extremely probable, that with this man, Abraham had enjoyed long and close acquaintance, for he was descended of his loins, from whom he learned the knowledge of the true God, in all probability, in the midst of his Chaldean, idolatrous nation, and became a convert to the faith of Melecbise- dec. From the familiar manner with which Melchisedec, or Shem, who, we are compelled to believe, was indeed Melchisedec, met Abraham, and blessed him, in reference to the great Messiah, we are strongly inclined to believe them old acquaintance. Sixth : It appears that Shem, or Melchisedec, had gotten great possessions and influence among men, as he had become king of Salem, or ancient Jehus, where Jerusalem was afterwards built, and 30 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES' where mount Zion reared her alabaster towers, and was the only temple, in which the true God was understanding^ worshipped, then on the earth. It is not impossible but the mountainous region about Mount Horeb, and the mountains round about Jerusalem, were, before the flood, the base or foundation of the country, and exact location of the region of the garden called Eden, the place where Adam was created. But when the waters of the deluge came, they tore away all the earthy matter, and left standing those tremendous pinnacles and overhanging mountains of the region of Jerusalem and Mount Horeb. By examining the map on an artificial globe, it will be seen, the region of country situated between the eastern end of the Mediter- ranean Sea, the Black and Caspian Seas, and the Persian Gulf, there are many rivers running into these several waters, all head- ing toward each other ; among which is the Euphrates, one of the rivers mentioned by Moses, as deriving its origin in the garden, or country of Eden. Mountainous countries a/e the natural sources of rivers. From which we argue that Eden must have been a high region of country, as intimated in Genesis, entirely inaccessible on all sides, but the east ; at which point the sword of the Cherubim was placed to guard the way of the tree of life. Some have ima- gined the Persian Gulf to be the spot where the garden was situated. But this is impossible, as that the river Euphrates runs into that gulf, from toward Jerusalem, or from north of Jerusalem. And as the region of Eden was the source of four large rivers, running in different directions, so also, now the region round about the present head waters of the Euphrates, is the source of many rivers, as said above ; on which account, there can be but little doubt, but here the Paradise of Adam was situated, before the deluge. If the Euphrates is one of the rivers having its source in the garden or country of Eden, as Moses has recorded, it is then proved, to a demonstration, that the region as above described, is the ancient and primeval site of the literal Paradise of Adam. There is a sort of fitness in the ideas we are about to advance, although they are not wholly susceptible of proof, nor of verv convincing argument ; yet, there is no impropriety nor incongruity- while there is an imperceptible acquiescence steals over the mind, as we contemplate the subject. We imagine that the very spot where Jesus Christ was crucified AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 31 may have been the place where Adam and Eve were created* At whatever place it was, it is certain, that not far from the identi- cal place, he fell, by means of the devil, or rather his own sin, as the time from his creation till he fell, was very short. Itis believed that the hill of crucifixion was also the hill called Mount Moriah, to which God sent Abraham to slay his son Isaac, who was also a type of the Messiah. Here it appears Melchisedec had the seat of his kingly and pontifical government. The place appears to be marked with more than ordinary precision, as the theatre where God chose to act, or cause to be acted, from age to age, the things which pointed to the awful catastrophe — the death of his Son. What is more natural than to suppose, that the Redeemer would choose for the scene of his victory over the enemy of man, the very spot where he caused his fall. Here, too, it is believed, Christ will, at his second coming, appear, when, with the sound of the first trumpet, the righteous dead will arise. The spot has been marked as the scene of wonders, above all other places on the earth ; and on this account, is it not allowable to imagine, that here all nations shall be gathered, filling the" whole region, not only of Jerusalem, but also the whole surrounding heaven, with the quickened dead, to attend the last judgment, while the Son of God shall sit on his triumphant throne in the mid air, exactly over the spot where he suffered, and, probably, where man fell. Thus far we have treated on the subject of Melchisedec, show- ing reasons why he is supposed to have been Shem, the son of Noah, and reasons why St. Paul should say, " Now consider how great this man was." We will only add, that the word Melchisedec is not the name of that man so called, but is only a term, or appel- lation, used in relation to him, by God himself, which is the same as to say, my righteous king. So that Melchisedec was not the name he received at his birth, but was Shem, as the Jews inform us in their traditions. 32 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES DIVISION OF THE EARTH IN THE DAYS OF PELEG, AND OF THE SPREADING OUT OF THE NATIONS, WITH OTHER CU- RIOUS MATTER. But to return to the subject respecting the division of the earth in the days of Peleg. If, then, the division of the earth was a physical one, consequently such as had settled on its several parts before this division became forever separated towards the four quar- ters of the globe. If this position be true, the mystery is at once unriddled, how men and animals are found on all the earth, not excepting the islands, however far removed from other lands by in- tervening seas. But of this matter we shall speak again towards the close of this work, when we hope to throw some degree of light upon this ob- scure, yet exceedingly interesting subject. We here take the opportunity to inform the reader, that as soou as we have given an account of the dispersion of the inhabitant of the earth, immediately after the flood, from whom sprang the several nations mentioned in sac'rH. and profane ancient history, we shall then come to our main subject, namely, that of the An- tiquities of America. In order to give an account of those nations, we follow the Com- mentary of Adam Clarke, on the 10th chapter of the Book of Genesis ; which is the only book to which we can resort for in- formation of the kind ; all other works which touch this point, are only illustrative and corroboratory. Even the boasted antiquity of the Chinese, going back millions of ages, as often quoted by the sceptiCj is found, when rightly understood, to come quite within the account given by Moses of the creation. This is asserted by Baron Humboldt, an historian of the first order, whose mind was embellished with a universal knowledge of the manners, customs, and traits of science, of the nations of the earth, rarely acquired by any man. Their account of their first knowledge of the oldest of their gods, shows their antiquity of origin to be no higher than 'the creation, as related in Genesis. Their Shastrus, a book which gives an ac- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 33 count of the incarnation of the god Vishnoo, states, that his first in- carnation was for the purpose of bringing up the Vedus, [sacred books,] from the deep. This appearance of Vishnoo, they say, was in the form of a fish. The books, the fish, and the deep, are all derived from Noah, whose account of the creation has furnish- ed the ground of this Chinese tradition. In his second incarna- tion, he took the newly created world on his back, as he assumed the form of a tortoise, to make it stable. This alludes to the Mosaic account, which says, God separated the water from the dry land, and assigned them each their place. In his third incarna- tion, he took the form of a wild boar, and drew the earth out of the sea, into which it bad sunk during a periodical destruction of the world. This is a tradition of the deluge, and of the subsiding of the wa- ters, when the tops of the mountains first appeared. A fourth incarnation of this god, was for the rescue of a son, whose father was about to slay him. What else is this but the ac- count of Abraham's going to slay his son Isaac, but was rescued by the appearance of an angel, forbidding the transaction. In a fifth incarnation, he destroyed a giant, who despised the gods, and committed violence in the earth. This giant was none other than Nimrod, the author of idolatry, the founder of Babel, who is called, even by the Jews, in their traditions, a giant. The inhabitants of the Tonga Islands, in the South Pacific ocean, have a similar opinion respecting the first appearance of land, which evidently points to the flood of Noah. They say, that at a certain time, the god Tangaloa, who was re- puted to preside over arts and inventions, went forth to fish in the great ocean, and having from the sky let down his hook and line into the sea, on a sudden he felt that something had fastened to his hook, and believing he had caught an immense fish, he exerted all his strength, and presently there appeared above the surface seve- ral points of rocks and mountains, which increased in number and extent, the more he strained at his line to pull it up. It was now evident, that his hook had fastened to the very bot- tom of the ocean, and that he was fast submerging a vast continent; when, unfortunately, the line broke, having brought up only the Tonga Islands, which remain to this day. 5 34 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES The name of this fishing god, was Tangaloa, which we imagine: is a very clear allusion to the summits of Ararat, which first ap- peared above the waters of the flood in Asia. " Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, — Shem r Ham, and Japheth ; and unto them were sons born after the flood." Genesis x. 1st verse, and onward. The sons of Japheth : " Japheth is supposed to be the same with Japetus of the Greeks, from whom, in an extreme remote antiquity, that people were supposed to have derived their origin. On this point most chronologists are pretty well agreed. Gomer is sup- posed to have peopled Galatia ; this was a son of Japheth. So Josephus, who says that the Galatians, (or French people, derived from the ancient Belgiac tribes,) were anciently named Gomerites* From him the Cimmerians, or Cimbrians, are supposed to have de- rived their origin. Bochart, a learned French protestant, born at Rouen, in Normandy, in the 16th century, has no doubt that the Phrygians sprung from this person ; and some of our principal com- mentators are of this opinion. Madai, one of the sons of Japheth, is supposed to be the progen- itor of the ancient Medes. Javan, was another of his sons, from whom, it is almost universally believed, sprung the Ionians of Asia Minor. Tubal, is supposed to be the father of the Iberians, and that a part, at least, of Spain was peopled by him and his descend- ants; and that Meschech, who is generally in Scripture joined with him, was the founder of the Cappadocians, from whom proceeded the Muscovites, or Russians. Tiras : From this person, according to general consent, the Thra^ cians derived their origin. Ashkenaz ; from this person was de- rived the name Sacagena, a province of Armenia. 'Pliny , one of the most learned of the ancient Romans, who lived immediately after the commencement of the Christian era, mentions a people called Ascanticos, who dwelt about the Tannis,oi Palus-Maeoticus , and some suppose, that from Ashkenaz the Euxine or Black t Sea derived its name ; but others suppose, that from him the Germans derived their origin. Riphath : The founder of the Paphiagonians, which were cal- led anciently, Riphatoel. Tog arm a ; the inhabitants of Sauromate*. or of Turcomania. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 35 Elishah : As Javan peopled a considerable part of Greece, it is in that region we must look for the settlements of his descend- ants. Elishah probably. was the iirst who settled at Elis, in Pelo- ponnesus. Tarshis : He first inhabited Cilicia^ whose capital, anciently, was the city of Tarsus, where St. Paul was born. Kittim : Some think, by this name is meant Cyprus ; others, the isle of Chios ; and others, the Romans ; and others., the Mace- donians. Dodanim, or Rodanim : Some suppose, that this family settled at Dodana ; others, at the Rhone, in France ; the ancient name of which was Rhodanus, from the Scripture Rhodanim : u By these, were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands." Europe ; of which this is allowed to be a general epithet, and comprehends all those countries to which the Hebrews were obliged to go by sea; such as Spain, Gaul or France, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. Thus far we have noticed the spreading out over many countries, and the origin of many nations, arising out or from Japheth, one of the sons of Noah ; all of whom are white, or at least come under that class of complexions. The descendants of Ham, another of the sons of Noah, and some of the nations springing from him, we shall next bring to view " Cush, who peopled the Arabic nome y or province, near the Red Sea, in Lower Egypt. Some think the Ethiopians sprung from him. Mizram : This family certainly peopled Egypt, and both in the east and the west, Egypt is called Mizraim. Phut : Who nrst#peopled an Egyptian Dome, or district, bor- dering on Lybia. Canaan ; he who first peopled the land so cal- led; known also by the name of ih& Promsed Land. These were the nations which the Jews, who descended from Shein^ cast out from the land of Canaan, as directed by God, because of the enor- mity and brutal nature of their crimes ; which were such as nu man of the present age, blessed with a Christian education, would ex- cuse on a jury, under the terrors of an oath, from the punishment of death. They practised, as did the antediluvians and the Sodom- ites, those things which were calculated to mingle the human with the brute. Surely, when this is understood, no man, not even a disbeliever in the inspiration of the Bible , will blame Moses for his 36 • AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES seeming severity, in cutting off those nations with the besom of entire extermination. ." Seea, the founder of the Sabeans : There seems to be three different people of this name, mentioned in this 10th chapter of Genesis, and a fourth, in chapter 25 of the same book." The queen of Sheba was of this race, who came, as it is said, from the utter- most parts of the earth, to Jerusalem, to know the wisdom of Solo- mon, and the Hebrew religion ; she was, herefore, being a de- secendant of Ham's posterity, a black woman. Ha vi-la, Sabtah, Ramah, Sabtechah, Sheba, Dedan; these are names belonging to the race of Ham, but the nations to whom they gave rise, is not interesting to our subject. Nimrod, however, should not be omitted, who was of the race of Ham, and was his grandson. Of whom it is said, that he was a mighty hunter before the Lord ; meaning not only his skill and courage, and amazing strength and ferocity, in the destruction of wild animals which in- fested the vast wilds of the earth at that time, but a destroyer of men's lives, and the originator of idolatry. It was this Nimrod, who opposed the righteous Melchisedec ; and taught, or rather compelled, men to forsake the religion of Shem, or Melchisedec, and to follow the institutes of Nimrod. " The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Acad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Gen. x. 10. The tower of Babel, and city of Babylon, were both built on the Euphrates. Babel, how- ever, was first built by Nirarod's agency, whose influence, it ap- pears, arose much from the fierceness of his disposition, and, from his stature and great muscular powers ; qualifications, which ig- norant and savage nations, in every age, have been found apt to re- vere. The Septuagint version of the Scriptures, speaks of Nimrod as being a surly giant ; this was a colored man, and the first mon- arch of the human race since the flood. But whether monarchical or republican forms of government obtained before the flood, is un- certain. Probability would seem to favor neither ; but rather that thf» Patriarchal government should then have ruled. Every father, to the fourth and fifth generation, must have been, in those davs, the natural king or chief of his clan. These, after a while, spreading abroad, would clash with each other's interest, whence petty wars would arise, till many tribes being, by the fortune of war, weakened, that which hsd been most AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 37 fortunate, would at once seize upon a wider empire. Hence mo- narchies arose. But whether it so fell out before the flood, can- not now be ascertained. A state, however, of fearful anarchy seems to be alluded to in the Scriptures ; where it is said, that the earth was "filled loith violence." This, however, was near the time of the flood. Popular forms of government, or those called republican or de- mocratical, had their origin when a number of distant tribes or clans invade a district or country so situated as that the interests of different tribes were naturally somewhat blended ; these, in order to repel a distant or~strange enemy's encroachments, would natur- ally unite under their respective chiefs or patriarchs. Experience would soon show the advantage of union. Hence arose republics. The grand confederacy of the five nations, which took place among the American Indians, before their acquaintance with the white man, shows that such even among the most savage of our race, may have often thus united their strength — out of which civi- lization has sometimes, as well as monarchies and republics, arisen. Since the flood, however, it is found that the descendants of Japheth originated the popular forms of government in the earth ; as among the Greeks, the Romans, and more perfectly among the Americans, who are the descendants of Japheth. We shall omit an account of the nations arising out of the de- scendents of Shem, (for we need not mention the Jews, of whom all men know they descended from him ;) for the same reasons as- signed for the omission of a part of the posterity of Ham, because they chiefly settled in those regions of Asia, too remote to answer our subject any valuable purpose. il In confirmation, however, that all men have been derived from one family, let it be observed, hat there are many usgaes, both sacred and civil, which have prevailed in all parts of the world, which could owe their origin to nothing but a general institution, which could not have existed, had not mankind been of the same blood originally, and instructed in the same common notions before they were dispersed" from the mountains of Ararat,, and the family of Noah. Traits of this description, which argue to this conclusion, wili, in the course of this work, be made to appear ; which to such as believe the Bible, will afford peculiar pleasure and surprise. 38 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES ANTIQUITIES OF THE WEST There are no parts of the kingdoms or countries of the old world, .but have celebrated in poetry and sober history, the mighty relics and antiquities of ancient empires, as Rome, Babylon, Greece, Egypt, Hindostan, Tartary, Africa, China, Persia, Europe, Russia, and many of the islands of the sea. It yet remains for America to awake her story from its oblivious sleep, and tell the tale of her Antiquities — the traits of nations, coeval, perhaps, with the eldest works of man this side of the flood. This curious subject, although it is obscured beneath the gloom of past ages, of which but small reeord remains ; beside that which is written in the dust, in the form oT mighty mounds, tumuli, strange skeletons, and aboriginal fortifications ; and, in some few instances, the bodies of preserved persons, as sometimes found in the nitrous caves of Kentucky, and the west ; affording abundant premises to prompt investigation and rational conjecture. The mounds and tumuli of the west, are to be ranked among the most wonderful antiquities of the world, on the account of their number, magnitude, and obscurity of origin. " They generally are found on fertile bottoms and near the rivers. Several hundreds have been discovered along the Valley of the Mississippi ; the largest of which stands not far from Wheeling, on the Ohio. This mound is fifty rods in circumference, and ninety feet in perpendicular height. This is found filled with thousands of human skeletons, and was doubtless a place of general deposite of the dead for ages ; which must have been contiguous to some large city, where dead were placed in gradation, one layer above another, till it reached a natu- ral climax, agreeing with the slope commenced at its base or foun- dation. It is not credible, that this mound was made by the ancestors of the modern Indians. Its magnitude, and the vast number of dead deposited there, denote a population too great to have been sup- ported by mere fishing and hunting, as the manner of Indians has always been- A population sufficient to raise such a mound as this. AND discoveries in the west. 39 of earth, by the gradual interment of deceased inhabitants, would necessarily be too far spread, to make it convenient for the living to transport their dead to one single place of repository. The modem Indians have ever been known, since the acquaintance of white men with them, to live only in small towns ; which refutes the idea of its having been made by any other people than such as differ exceedingly from the improvident and indolent native ; and must, therefore, have been erected by a people more ancient than what is commonly meant by the Indian aborigines, or wandering tribes. Some of these mounds have been opened, when, not. only vast quantities of human bones have been found, but also instruments of warfare, broken earthen vases, and trinkets. From the trees growing on them, it is supposed, they have already existed at least six hundred years ; and whether these trees were the first, second, or third crop, is unknown ; if the second only, which, from the old and decayed timber, partly buried in the vegetable mould and leaves, seems to favor, then it is all of twelve hundred years since they were abandoned, if not more. Foreign travellers complain, that America presents nothing like ruins within her boundaries ; no ivy mantled towers, nor moss cov- ered turrets, as in the other quarters of the earth. Old Fort War- ren, on the Hudson, rearing its lofty decayed sides high above West-Point ; or the venerable remains of two wars, at Ticonderoga, upon Lake Champlain, they say, afford something of the kind. But what are mouldering castles, falling turrets, or crumbling ab- beys, in comparison with those ancient and artificial aboriginal hills, which have outlived generations, and even all traditions ; the work- manship of altogether unknown hands. Place these monuments and secret repositories of the dead, to- gether with the innumerable mounds and monstrous fortifications, which are scattered over America, in England, and on the conti- nent of Europe, how would their virtuosi ermine, and their anti- quarians fill volumes with their probable histories. How would their fame be conveyed from learned bodies, and through literary volumes, inquiring who were the builders, of what age of the world, whence came they, and their descendants ; if any, what has be- come of them ; these would be the themes of constant speculation and inquiry. 40 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES t At Marietta, a place not only celebrated as being the first settle- ment on the Ohio, but has also acquired much celebrity, from the existence of those extensive and supposed fortifications, which are situated near the town. They consist of walls, and mounds of earth, running in straight lines, from six to ten feet high, and nearly forty broad at their base. There is also, at this place, one fort, ol this ancient description, which encloses nearly fifty acres of land. There are openings in this fortification, which are supposed to have been, when thronged with its own busy multitude, " used as gateways, with a passage from one of them, formed by two parallel walls of earth, leading towards the river. This contrivance was undoubtedly for a defence against surprise by an enemy, while the inhabitants dwelling within should fetch water from the river, descend thither to wash, as in the Ganges, among the Hindoos. Also the greatness of this fort is evidence, not only of the power of its builders, but also of those they feared. Who can tell but they may have, by intestine feuds and wars, ex- terminated themselves ? Such instances are not unfrequent among petty tribes of the earth. Witness the war between Benjamin and his brother tribes, when, but a mere handful of their number re- mained to redeem them from complete annihilation. Many na- tions, an account of whom, as once existing, is found on the page of history, now, have not a trace left behind. More than sixty tribes which once traversed the woods of the west, and who were known to the first settlers of the New-England states, are now extinct. " The French of the Mississippi have an account, that an exter- minating battle was fought in the beginning of the 17th century, about one hundred and thirty-two years ago, on the ground where Fort Harrison now stands ; between the Indians living on the Mis- sissippi, and those of the Wabash. The bone of contention was, the lands lying between those rivers, w^hich both parties claimed. There were about 1000 warriors on each side. The condition of the fight was, that the victors should possess the lands in despute. The grandeur of the prize was peculiarly calculated to inflame the ardor of savage minds. The contest commenced about sunrise. Both parties fought desperately. The Wabash warriors came off conquerors, having seven men left alive at sunset, and their adver- saries, the Mississippians, but five This battle was fought nearly AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 41 fifty years before their acquaintance with white men." (Webster's Gazetteer, 1817, page 69.) It is possible, whoever the authors of these great works were, or however long they may have lived on the continent, that they may have 3 in the same way, by intestine feuds and wars, weak- ened themselves, so that when the Tartars, Scythians, and descend- ants of the ten lost tribes, came across the Straits of Bhering, that they fell an easy prey, to those fierce and savage northern hordes. It is not likely, that the vast warlike preparations which extend over the whole continent, south of certain places in Canada, were thrown up, all of a sudden, on a first discovery of a strange enemy ; for it might be inquired, how should they know of such a mode of defence, unless they had acquired it in the course of ages, arising from necessity or caprice ; but it is probable, they were constructed to defend against the invasions of each other ; being of various origin and separate interests, as was much the situation of the an- cient nations in every part of the world. Petty tribes of the same origin, over the whole earth, have been found to wage perpetual war against each other, from motives of avarice, power, or hatred. In the most ancient eras of the history of man, little walled towns, which were raised for the security of a few families, under a chief, king, or patriarch, are known to have existed ; which is evidence of the disjointed and unharmonious state of human society ; out of which, wars, rapine, and plunder, arose : such may have been the state of man in America, before the Indians found their way here ; the evidence of which is, the innumerable fortifications, found every where in the western re- gions. Within this fort, of wriich we have been speaking, found at Marietta, are elevated squares, situated at the corners; some an hundred and eighty feet long, by an hundred and thirty broad, nine feet high, and level on the top. On these squares, erected at the corners of this great enclosure, were, doubtless, placed some modes of annoyance to a beseiging enemy ; such as engines to sling stones with, or to throw the dart and spear, or whatever might have been their modes of defence. Outside of this fort, is a most singular mound, differing in form from their general configuration : its shape is that of a sugar loaf, the base of which is more than an hundred feet in circumference , 6 42 AMERICAN ANTI QUITIES its height thirty, encompassed by a ditch, and defended by a para- pet, or wall beyond the ditch, about breast high, through which is a way toward the main fort. Human bones have been taken from many of these mounds, and charcoal, with fragments of pottery ; and -what is more strange than all the rest, in one place, a skeleton of a man, buried east and viest after the manner of enlightened nations was found, as if they understood the cardinal points of the compass." On the breast of this skeleton was found a quantity of isinglass, a substance sometimes used by the ancient Russians, for the' purposes that glass is now used. RUINS OF A ROMAN FORT AT MARIETTA. But respecting this fort, we imagine, that even the Romans may have built it, however strange this may appear. The reader will be so kind as to have patience till we have advanced all our reasons for this strange conjecture, before he cast- it from him as im- possible. Our reasons for this idea, arise out of the great similarity there is between its form and fortifications, or camps, built by the an- cient Romans. And in order to show the similarity, we have quo- ted the account of the forms of Roman camps from Josephus's de- scription. of their military works. See his works, Book v. -chap. 5, page. 21 9, as follows: "Nor can their enemies easily surprise them with the sudden- ness of their incursions, for as soon as they have marched into an enemy's land, they do not begin to fight till they have walled their camp about j nor is .the fence they raise, rashly made, or uneven ; nor do they all . abide in it ; nor do those that are in it, take their place at random : but if it happens that the ground is uneven, it is first levelled." " Their camps are also four square by measure ; as ;for what space is Within the camp, it is set apart for tents, but the outward circumference hatfithe resemblance to a wall 5 and is adorned with towers at equal distances, where, between the towers stand the en- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST, 43 gines for throwing arrows and darts, and for slinging stones, where they lay all other engines that can annoy the enemy, all ready for their several operations. "They also erect four gates, one in the middle of each side of the circumference, or square, and those large enough for the en- trance of beasts, and wide enough for making excursions, if oc- casion should require. They divide the camp within into streets, very conveniently, and place the tents of the commanders in the middle ; in the very midst of all, is the general's own tent, in the nature and form of a temple^ insomuch that it appears to be a city, built on the sudden, with its market place, and places for handi- craft trades, and with seats for the officers, superior and inferior, where if any differences arise, their causes are heard and deter- mined. " The camp and all that is in it, is encompassed with a wall round about, and that sooner than one, would imagine, and this by the multitude and skill of the laborers. And if occasion require, a trench is drawn round the whole, whose depth is four cubits, and its breadth equal," which is a trifle more than six feet in depth and width. •The similarity between the Roman camps and the one near Ma- rietta, consist's as follows: They are both four square; the one standing near the great fort, and is connected by two parallel walls, as described ; - has also a ditch surrounding it, as the Romans some-, times encircled theirs ; and doubtless, when first constructed, had •a fence of timber (as Joseph as says, the Romans had,) ail round it, and all other forts of that description ; but. time has destroyed them. If the Roman camp had its elevated squares at its corners, for the purposes of overlooking the foe" and of shooting stones, darts, and arrows ; so had the fort at .Marietta, of more than an hundred .feet square, on an average, of their forms, and nine feet high. Its parapets ana" gateways are similar ; also the probable extent of the Roman encampments agrees well with the one at Marietta,* which embraces near fifty acres* within its. enclosure'; a" space sufficient to have contained a great army ; with streets and elevated squares at its corners, like the Romans. Dr. Morse, the geographer,' says, the war camps of the ancient Danes, Belgae, and Saxons, as found in England'} were universally of the circular,. while those of the 44 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Romans, in the same country, are distinguished by the square form \ is not this, therefore, a trait of the same people's work in America^ as in England ? .'Who can tell but during the jour hundred years the Romans had all the west of Europe attached to their empire, but they may haye found their way to America, as weil'as other nations, the Welch, and the Scandinavians, in after ages, as we shall show, before we* end the volume. Rome, it must be remembered, was mistress of the known world, as they, supposed, and were in the possession of the arts and scien- ces ; with a knowledge of navigation sufficient to 'traverse the oceans of the globe, even without the compass, by means of the stars by night, and the sun by day. The history of England informs us, -that as early as fifty-five years before the- Christian era, the' Romans invaded the island of Britain, and that their ships were so large and heavy, and. drew such a depth of water, that their soldiers were obliged to leap into the sea, and fight their way to the shore, struggling with the waves and the enemy, both at once, because they could not bring their vessels near the shore, on account of -their size. America has not yet been , peopled from Europe .so long, by an hundred years, as the Romans were in* possession of the Island of Britain. Now what has not America effected in enterprise, during' this time ;' and although her advantages are superior to those of the Romans, when they held England as a province, yet, we are not to suppose they Were' idle, especially when their character at' that time, was a. martial' and a maratime one. In this character, .there- ' fore, were they not exactly fitted to make discoveries about in the northern and western parts of the ^Atlantic, and may, therefore, have found America ; made partial settlements in yarious places j may have, coasted along down the shores of this . country, till- they came to "the mouth of the Mississippi, and thence up that stream, making here arid there a settlement: This supposition is as natural, and as possible, for the Romans to have done, as that Hudson. should find the mouth of the North River, and explore it as far north as to where the .city of Albany is now standing. It was equally in their power to have 'founo 1 this coast by chance, as the Scandinavians in the vear 1000 or thereabouts, who made a AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 45 settlement at the mouth of the St. Lawrence ; but more of this in due time. To show the Romans did actually go on voyages of discovery, while in possession of Britain, we quote from the history of Eng- land, that when Julius Agricola was governor of South Britain, he sailed quite around it, and ascertained it to be an island. This was about an hundred years after their first subduing the country, or fifty-two years after Christ. But they may have had a knowledge of the existence of this country, prior to their invasion of Britain. And lest the reader may be alarmed at such a position, we hasten to show in what man- ner they might have attained it, by relating a late discovery of a , planter in South America. " In the month of December, 1827, a planter discovered in a field,, a short distance from Mont- Video, a sort of tomb stone, upon which strange, and to him, unknown signs, or characters, were en- graved. He caused this stone, which covered a small excavation formed with masonry, to be'raised, when he found two exceeding- ly ancient swords^ a helmet, and shield, which had suffered much .from rust; also an earthen vessel of large capacity. The planter caused ihe swords, the helmet, and earthen amphora, together with the stone slab, which covered the. whole, to be re- -moved to Mont -Video, where, in spite .of the effect of time, Greek words were easily made out ; which, when translated, read as follows : " During the dominion of Alexander the son of Philip, King of Macedon, in the sixty-third Olympiad, Ptolemais," — it was impossible to decipher the rest,- on account of the ravages of time on the engraving of the stone. On the handle of one of the swords, was the portrait of a man, supposed to be Alexander the Great. On the helmet there is sculp- tured work, that must have been- executed by the most exquisite skill, representing Achilles, dragging the corpse of Hector round the walls of Troy > an account of which is familiar to every -classic scholar'. • This " discovery was similar to the Fabula Hieca, the bass relief stucco., found in the ruins of the Via Appia, at Fratachio, in Spain, belonging to the Princess of Colona, which represented all the prin- cipal scenes in Iliad and Odyssey. 46 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES From this, it is quite clear, says the editor of the Cabinet of In- struction and Literature, from which we have extracted this ac- count, vol. 3, page 99, tha't the discovery of this monumental altar is proof that a cotemporary of Aristotle, one of the Greek philoso- phers, has dug up the soil of Brazil and La Plata, in South America. It is conjectured that this Ptolemaios, mentioned on the stone, was the commander of Alexander's fleet, which is supposed to have been overtaken by a sto m at sea, in the g "eat ocean, (the Atlantic,) as the ancients called it, and were driven on to the coast of Brazil, or the South America i coast, where they doubtless erected the above mentioned monument, to preserve the memory of the voyage to so distant a country ;" and that it might not be lost to the world, if any in after ages might chance to find it, as at last it was per- mitted to be in the progress of events. The above conjecture, however, that Ptoiemaios, a name found engraved on the ston^ slab which covered the mason work as be- fore mentioned, was one of Alexander's admirals, is not well found- ed, as there is no mention of such an admiral in the employ of that emperor, found on th ; page of the history of those times. But the names of Nearehus and Onesicritus, are mentioned as being admirals of th 3 fleets of Alexander the Great ; and the name of Pytheas, whc hV:J at the same time, is mentioned as being a Greek philosopher iographer, and astronomer, as well as a voy- ager, if not an admi al, as he made several voyages into the great Atlantic ocean ; whi^h are mentioned by Eratosthenes, a Greek philosopher, mathematician and historian, who flourished two hun- dred years before C 'irist. Strabo, a celebrate d geographer and voyager, who lived about the time of the commencement of the Christian era, speaks of the voyages of Pytheas, ' y way of admission ; and says that his know- ledge of Spain, Gau\ Germany, and Britain, and all the countries of the north of Europe, was extremely limited. He had indeed voyaged along the coasts of those countries, but had obtained but an indistinct knowledge of their relative situations. * During the advent' res of this man at sea, for the very purpose of ascertaining the geography of the earth, by tracing the coasts of countries, there was *» great liability of his being driven off in a western direction, noi only by the current which sets always to- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 47 wards America, but also by the trade winds, which blow in the same direction for several months in the year. Pytheas, therefore, with his fleet, it is most probable, either by design or storms, is the man who was driven on the American coast, and caused this subterranean monument of masonry to be erected. The Piolemaios, or Ptolemy, mentioned on the stone, may refer to one of the Jour generals of Alexander, called sometimes Ptolemy Lagus, or Soter. This is the man who had Egypt for his share of the conquests of Alexander ; and it is likely the mention of his name on the stone, in connexion with that of Alexander, was caused either by his presence at the time the stone was prepared, or because he patronised the voyages and geographical researches of the philosopher and navigator Pytheas. Alexander the Great flourished about three hundred years before Christ ; he was a Grecian, the origin of whose nation is said to have been Japetus, a descendant of Jipheth, one of the ^ons of Noah, as before shown Let it.be observed, the kingdom of Macedon, of which Alexan- der was the last, as well as the greatest of its kings, commenced eight hundred and fourteen years, before Ch ist, which was sixty- one years earlier than the commencement of the Romans. .Well, what is to be learned from all this story about the Greeks, respecting any knowledge in possession of the Romans about a con- tinent west of Europe ? Simply this, which is quite sufficient for our purpose : That an account of this voyage, whether it was an accidental one, or a voyage of discovery, co Id not but be knoiun to the Roman's, as well as to the Greeks, and entered on the records of the nation on their return. But where, the 1 !, is the record? We must go to the flames of the Goths and Vam'als, who overran the Roman empire, in which the discoveries, both of countries and the histories of antiquity, were destroyed ; casting over those countries which they subdued, the gloom of barbarous ignorance, congenial with the shades of the dreadful forests of the north, from whence they originated. On which account, countries, and the knowledge of many arts, anciently known, were to be discovered over again and among them, it is believed, was America. When Columbus discovered this country, pud had returned to Spain, it was soon known to all Europe. 1 1 e same we may sup- pose of the discovery of the same country by the Greeks, though AS AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES with infinite less publicity ; because the world at the time had not the advantage of printing ; yet, in some degree, the discovery must have been known, especially among the great men of both Greeks and Romans. The Grecian or Macedonian kingdom, after the death of Alex- ander, maintained its existence but a short time, one hundred and forty-four years only ; when the Romans defeated Perseus, which ended the Macedonian kingdom, one hundred and sixty-eight years before Chri st. At this time, and thereafter, the Romans held on their course of war and conquest, till four hundred and ten years after Christ ; — amounting in all, from their beginning till Rome was taken and plundered by Alaric, king of the Visigoths, to one thousand one hundred and sixty-three years. Is it to be supposed the Romans, a warlike, enlightened, and enterprising people, who had found their way by sea so far north from Rome as to the island of Britain, and actually sailed all round it, would not explore farther north and west, especially as they had some hundred years opportunity, while in possession of the north of Europe? Morse, the geographer, in his second volume, page 126, says, — Ireland, which is situated west of England, was probably discover- ed by the Phoenicians ; the era of whose voyages and maritime exploits commenced more than fourteen hundred years before Christ, and continued several ages. Their country was situated at the east end of the Mediterranean sea ; so*that a voyage to the Atlantic, through the Strait of Gibralter west, would be a dis- tance of about 2,300 miles, and from Gibralter to Ireland, a voy- age of about 1,400 miles ; which, in the whole amount, is nearly four thousand. Ireland is farther north, by about five degrees, than Newfound- land, and the latter only about 1,800 miles southwest from Ireland - r so that while the Phoenicians were coasting and voyaging about in the Atlantic, in so high a northern latitude as Ireland and England, may well be supposed to have discovered Newfoundland, (either by being lost or driven there by storm,) which is very near the coast of America. Phoenician letters are said to be engraven on some rocks on Taunton river, near the sea, in Massachusetts ; if so, this is proof of the position. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST.* 49 Some hundreds of years after the first historical notice of the Phoenician voyages, and two hundred years before the birth of • Christ, the Greeks, it is said, became acquainted with Ireland, and was known among them by the name of Juverna. Ptolemy, the Egyptian geographer, who flourished about an hundred years after Christ, has given a map of that island, which is said to be very correct. — Morse. Here, we have satisfactory historical evidence, that Ireland, as well, of course, as all the coast of northern Europe, with the very islands adjacent, were known — first to the Phoenicians — second, to the Greeks — third to the Romans — and fourth, to the Egyptians — ■ in those early ages, from which arises a great probability that Amer- ica may have been well known to the ancient nations of the old world. On which account, when the Romans had extended their conquests so far north as nearly to old Norway, in latitude 60 deg. over the greater part of Europe — they were well prepared to ex- plore the North Atlantic, in a western direction, in quest of new countries ; having already sufficient data to believe western coun- tries existed. It is not impossible, the Danes, Norwegians, and Welsh, may have at first obtained some knowledge of western lands, islands and territories, from the discoveries of the Romans, or from their opin- ions, and handed down the story, till the Scandinavians or Norwe- gians discovered Iceland, Greenland, and America, many hundred * years before the time of Columbus. But, however this may be, it is certain those nations of the north of Europe, did visit this countr}-, as we have promised to show in its proper place. Would Columbus have made his attempt, if he had not believed, or conjectured, there was a western continent; or by some means obtained hints respecting it, or the probability of its existence ? It is said, Columbus found, at a certain time, the corpse of two men, of a tawny complexion, floating in the sea, near the coast of Spain, which he knew w 7 ere not of European ori- gin ; but had been driven by the sea from some unknown western country ; also timber and branches of trees, all'of which confirmed him in his opinion of the existence of other countries westward. If the Romans may have found this country, they may also have attempted its colonization, as the immense square forts of the west, would seem to suggest. 7 5$ AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES In 1821, on the bank of the river Despeies, in Missouri, was • found, by an Indian, a Roman coin, and presented to Gov. Clarke. - — Gazetteer of Missouri, p. 312. This is no more singular than the discovery of a Persian coin near a spring on the Ohio, some feet under ground ; as we have shown in another place of this work ; all of which go to encourage the conjecture respecting the presence of the ancient Romans in America. The remains of former dwellings, found along the Ohio, where the stream has, in many places, washed away its banks, hearths and fireplaces are brought to light, from two to six feet deep below the surface. Near these remains are found immense quantities of muscle shells and bones of animals. From the depths of many of these rem- nants of chimnies, and from the fact that trees as large as any in the surrounding forest, were found growing on the ground above those fire places, at the time the country was first settled by its present inhabitants, the conclusion is drawn, that a very long period has elapsed since these subterraneous remnants of the dwellings of man were deserted. Hearths and Fire Places : Are not these evidences that build- ings once towered above them ; if not such as now accommodate the millions of America, yet they may have been such as the an- i cient Britons used at the time the Romans first invaded their country. These were formed of logs set up endwise, drawn in at the top, so that the smoke might pass up at an aperture left open at the summit. They were not square on the ground, as houses are now built, but set in a circle, one log against the other, with the hearth zxAfire place in the centre. At the opening in the top, where the smoke went out, the light came in, as no other window w r as then used. There are still remaining, in several parts of England, the vestiges of large stone buildings made in this way, i. e. in a circle. —t-Blahh Hist, of England, p. 8. At Cincinnati there are two Museums, one of which contains a great variety of western antiquities, many skulls of Indians, and more than an hundred remains of what has been dug out of the aboriginal mounds. The most strange and curious of all, is a cup, made of clay, with three faces on the sides of the cup, each present- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 51 iiig regular features of a man, and beautifully delineated. It is the •same represented on the plate. See letter E. A great deal has been said, and not a little written, by antiqua- rians about this cup. It was found in one of those ^mysterious mounds, and is known by the name of the triune cup ; and there are those who think the makers of it had an allusion to the Trinity of the Godhead. Hence its name, " Triune cup." In this neighborhood, the Yellow Springs, a day's ride below Cincinnati, stands one of those singular mounds. Whenever we view those most singular objects of curiosity and remains of art, a thousand inquiries spring up in the mind. They have excited the wonder of all who have seen or heard of them. Who were those ancients of the west, and when, and for lohat purpose, these mounds were constructed, are questions of the most interesting nature, and have engaged the researches of the most inquisitive antiquarians. Abundant evidence, however, can be procured, that they are not of Indian origin. With this sentiment there is a general acquiescence ; however we think it proper, in this place, to quote Dr. Beck's remarks on this point, from bis Gazetteer of the States of Illinois and Missouri. See page 308. " Ancient works exist on this river, the Arkansas, as elsewhere. The remains of mounds and fortifications are almost every where to be seen. One of the largest mounds in this coun- try has been thrown up on this stream, (the Wabash,) within the last- thirty or forty years, by the Osages, near the great Osage vil- lage, in honor of one of their deceased chiefs. This fact proves conclusively the original object of these mounds, and refutes the theory that they must necessarily have been erected by a race of men more civilized than the present tribes of Indians. Were it necessary, (says Dr. Beck,) numerous other facts might be adduced to prove that the mounds are no other than the tombs of their great men. That this is one of their uses, there is no doubt, but not their ex- clusive use. The vast height of some of them, which is more than an hundred feet, would seem to point them out as places of look- out, which if the country, in the days when their builders flourish- ed, was cleared and cultivated, woulB overlook the country to a great distance; and if it were not, still their towering summits, would surmount even the interference of the forests. 52 „ . AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES" Bat although the Osage Indians have so recently thrown up one such mound, yet it does not prove them to be of American Indian origin ; and as this is an isolated case, would rather argue that the Osage tribe have originally descended from their more ancient pro- genitors, the inhabitants of this country, prior to the intrusions of the late Indians from Asia. Before we close this work, we shall attempt to make this appear from their own traditions, which have of late been procured from the most ancient of their tribes, the Wyandots, as handed down for hundreds of years, and from other sources. The very form and character which Dr. Beck has given the Osage Indians, argues them of a superior stock, or rather a different race of men, as follows : " In person, the Osages are among the largest and best formed Indians, and are said to possess fine military capacities ; but residing, as they do, in villages, and having made considerable advances in agriculture, they seem less addicted to war than their northern neighbors." The whole of this character given of the Osage Indians, their military taste, their agricultural genius, their noble and command- ing forms of person, and being less " addicted to war," shows them, it would seem, exclusively of other origin than that of the com- mon Indians. It is supposed, the inhabitants who found their way first to this country, after its division, in the days of Pei g, and were here long before the modern Indians, came not by the way of Bhering's Strait from Kamskatka, in Asia, but directly from China, across the Pa- cific, to the western coast of America, by means of islands which abounded anciently in that ocean between Chinese Tar^ary, China, and South America, even more ihan at present, which are, how- ever, now very numerous ; and also by the means of boats, of which all mankind have always had a knowledge. In this way, without any difficulty, more than is common, they could have found their way to this, as mankind have to ei r ery part of the earth. We do not recollect that any of those peculiar monuments of an- tiquity appear north of the United States ; Mackenzie, in his over- land journey to the Pacific, travelling northwest from Montreal in Canada, does not mention a single vestige of the kind, nor does Carver. If, then, there are none of these peculiar kinds, such as mounds and forts, farther north than about the latitude of the Cana- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 53 das, it would appear from this, that the first authors of these works, especially of the mounds and tumuli, migrated, not from Asia, by way of Bhering's Strait, but from Europe, east — China, west — and from Africa, south — continents now separated, then touching each other, with islands innumerable between, affording the means. If this supposition, namely, that the continents in the first age, immediately after the flood, were united, or closely connected by groups of islands, is not allowed, how then, it might be inquired, came every island, yet discovered, of any size, having the natural means of human subsistence, in either of the seas, to be found in- habited ? In the very way this can be answered., the question relative to the means by which South America was first peopled, can also be answered, namely ; the continents, as intimated on the first pages of this work, as quoted from E)r. Clarke, were, at first, that is, im- mediately after the flood, till the division of the earth, in the days of Peleg, connected together, so that mankind, with all kinds of animals, might pass to every quarter of the globe, suited to their na- tures. If such were not the fact, it might be inquired, how then "did the several kinds of animals get to every part of the earth from the ark ? They could not, as man, make use of the boat, or ves- sel, nor could they swim such distances. From Dr. Clarke's Travel's, it appears, ancient works exist to this day, in some parts of Asia, similar to those of North America. His description of them, reads as though he were contemplating some of these western mounds. The Russians call these sepul- chres logri ; and vast numbers of them have been discovered in Si- beria and the deserts bordering on the empire to the south. His- torians mention these tumuli, with many particulars. In them were found vessels, ornaments, trinkets, medals, arrows, and other ar- ticles ; some of copper, and even gold and silver, mingled with the ashes and remains of dead bodies. When, and by whom, these burying places of Siberia and Tar- tary, more ancient than the Tartars themselves, were used, is ex- ceedingly interesting. The situation, construction, appearance, and general contents of these Asiatic tumuli, and the American mounds, are, however, so nearly alike, that there can be no hesitation in ascribing them to the same races, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America ; and also to the same ages of time, or nearly so, which 54 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES we suppose, was very soon after the flood ; a knowledge of mound building was then among men, as we see in the authors of Babel. " The Triune Cup (see plate — letter E.) deposited in one of the museums at Cincinnati, affords some probable evidence, that a part, at least, of the great mass of human population, once inhabit- ing the Valley of the Mississippi, were of Hindo origin. It is an earthen vessel, perfectly round, and will hold a quart, having three distinct faces, or heads, joined together at the back part of each, by a handle. The faces of these figures strongly resemble the Hindo counte- nance, which is here well executed. Now, it is well known, that in the mythology of India, three chief gods constitute the acknow- ledged belief of that people, named Brahma, Vishnoo, and Siva. May not this cup be a symbolical representation of that belief, and may it not have been used for some* sacred purpose, here, in the Valley of the Mississippi ? In this country, as in Asia, the mounds are seen at the junction of many of the rivers, as along the Mississippi, on the most eligible positions for towns, and in the richest lands ; and the day may have been, when those great rivers, the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Illi- nois, and the Muskingum, beheld along their sacred banks, count- less devotees assembled for religious rites, such as now crowd in superstitious ceremonies, the devoted and consecrated borders of the Indus, the Ganges, and the Burrampooter, rivers of the Indies. Mounds in the west are very numerous, amounting to several thousands, none less than ten feet high, and some over one hun- dred. One opposite St. Louis measures eight hundred yards in circumference at its base, which is fifty rods. Sometimes they stand in groups, and with their circular shapes, at a distance, look like enormous hay staeks, scattered through a meadow. From their great number, and occasional stupendous size, years and the labors of tens of thousands must have been re- quired to finish them. Were it not, indeed, for their contents, and design manifested in their erection, they would hardly be looked upon as the work of human hands. In this view, they strike the traveller with the same astonishment as would be felt while beholding those oldest monuments of wordly art and industry, the-Egyptian pyramids ; and like them, the mounds have their origin in the dark night of time, beyond even the history of Egypt itself. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 65 Whether or not these mounds were used at some former period, as " high places " for purposes of religion, or fortifications, or for national burying places, each of which theories has found advocates, one inference, however, amidst all the gloom which surrounds them, remains certain : the Valley of the Ohio, was once inhabited by an immense agricultural population. We can see their vast funeral vaults, enter into their graves, and look at their dry bones ; but no passage of history tells then tale of life ; no spirit comes forth from their ancient sepulchres, to answer the inquiries of the living. It is worthy of remark, that Breckenridge, in his interesting travels through these regions, calculates that no less than five thousand villages of this forgot- ten people existed ; and that their largest city was situated between the Mis- sissippi and Missouri, not far from the junction of those rivers, near St. Louis. In this region, the mighty waters of the Missouri and Illinois, with their un- numbered tributaries, mingle with the "father of rivers," the Mississippi; (Mississippi, the word in the Indian language means Father of Rivers ;) a situ- ation formed by nature, calculated to invite multitudes. of men, from the good- ness of the soil, and the facilities of w T ater communications. The present race, who are now fast peopling the unbounded west, are ap- prised of the advantages of this region. Towns and cities are rising on the very ground where the ancient millions of mankind had their seats of empire. Ohio now contains more than six hundred thousand inhabitants ; but at that early day, the same extent of country, most probably, was filled with a far greater population than inhabits it at the present time. Many of the mounds are completely occupied with human skeletons, and millions of them must have been interred in these vast cemeteries, that can be traced from the Rocky Mountains, on the west, to the Alleghenies on the east, and into the province of the Texas and New Mexico on the south : revolutions like those known in the old world may have taken place here, and armies, equal to those of Cyrus, of Alexander the Great, or of Tamerlene the powerful., might have flourished their trumpets, and marched to battle, over these exten- sive plains, filled with the probable descendants of that same race in Asia. whom these proud conquerors vanquished there. COURSE OF THE TEN LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL. There is a strong resemblance between the northern and inde- pendent Tartar, and the tribes of the North American Indians, but not of the South American. Besides this reason, there are others for believing our aborigines of North America were descended from the ancient Scythians, and came to this country from the eastern part of Asia. 56 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES This view by no means invalidates the opinion, that many tribes of the Indians of North America, are descended of the Israelites, because the Scythians, under this particular name, existed long be- fore that branch of descendants of the family of Shem, called Is- raelites ; who, after they had been carried away by Salmanasser, the Assyrian king, about 700 years B. C.,went northward, as stated by Esdras, (see his second book, thirteenth chapter, from verse 40 to verse 45, inclusive,) through a part of Independent Tartary. During this journey, which carried them among the Tartars, now so called, but were anciently the Scythians, and probably became amalgamated with them. This was the more easily effected, on account of the agreement of complexion and common origin. If this may be supposed, we perceive aTonce, how the North American Indians are in possession of both Scythian and Jewish practices. Their Scythian customs are as follows: "Scalping their prisoners, and torturing them to death. Some of the Indian nations also resemble the Tartars in the construction of their canoes, imple- ments of war, and of the chase, with the well known habit of marching in Indian file, and their treatment of the aged ;" these are Scythian customs. Their Jewish customs are too many to be enumerated in this work ; for a particular account of those customs, see Smith's View of the Hebrews. If, then, our Indians have evidently the manners of both the Scythian and the Jew, it proves them to have been, anciently, both Israelites and Scythians ; the latter being the more ancient name of the nations now called Tartars,* with whom the ten tribes may have amalgamated. That the Israelites, cajled the ten tribes, who were carried away from Judea by Salmanasser, to the land of Assyria, went from that country, in a northerly direction, as quoted from Esdras, above, is evident, from the Map of Asia. Look at Esdras again, 43d verse, chap. 13, and we shall perceive, they tC entered into the Euphrates by the narrow passes or heads of that river," which runs from the north into the Persian Gulf. It is not probable, that the country which Esdras called Arsareth, could possibly be America, as many have supposed, because a vast company, such as the ten tribes were at the time they left Syria, *The appellation of Tartar was not known till the year A. D. 1227, who were at that time, considered a new race of barbarians Morse. AND discoveries in the west. 57 ^ which was about an hundred years after their having been carried away from Judea, nearly 3000 years ago,) could travel fast enough to perform the journey in so short a time as a year and a half. We learn from the map of Asia, that Syria was situated at the southeasterly end of the Mediterranean Sea, and that in entering into the narrow passes of the Euphrates, as Esdras says, would lead them north of Mount Ararat, and southeasterly of the Black Sea, through Georgia, over the Concassian mountains, and so on to As- tracan, which lies north of the Caspian Sea. We may, with the utmost show of reason, be 'permitted to argue, that this vast con> pany of men, women, and their little ones, would naturally be com- pelled to shape their course so as to avoid the deep rivers w T hich it cannot well be supposed they had the means of crossing, except when frozen. Their course would then be along the heads of the several rivers running north after they had passed the country of Astracan. From thence over the Ural mountains, or that part of that chain running along Independent Tartary. Then, after having passed over this mountain near the northern boundary of Indepen- dent Tartary, they would find themselves at the foot of the little Altain mountains, which course w T ould lead them, if they still wished to avoid deep and rapid rivers, running from the little Altain moun- tains northward, or north-westerly, into the Northern Ocean, across the immense and frozen regions of Siberia. The names of those rivers beginning on the easterly side of the Ural mountains, are first, the river Obi, with its many heads, or little rivers, forming at length the river Obi, which empties into the Northern Ocean, at the Gulf of Obi, in latitude of about 67 degs. north. The second, is the river Yenisei, with its many heads, havino- their sources in the same chain of mountains, and runs into the same ocean, further north, towards Bhermg's Straits, which is the point we are approximating, by pursuing this course. A third river, with its many heads, that rises at the base of anoth- er chain of mountains, called the Yablonoy ; this is the river Lena. There are several other rivers arising out of another chain of mountains, farther on northward towards Bhering's Straits, which have no name on the map of Asia ; this range of mountains is cal- led the St. Anovoya mountains, and comes to a point or end, at the 8 58 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Strait which separates Asia from America, which is but a small distance across, of about forty miles only, and several islands be- tween. Allowing the ten tribes, or if they may have become amalgama- ted with the Tartars as they passed on this tremendous journey toward the Northern Ocean, to have pursued this course, the dis- tance will appear from Asyria to the Straits, to be some hundreds over six thousand miles. Six thousand two hundred and fifty-five miles, which is the distance, is more, by nearly one-half, than such a vast body, in moving on together, could possibly perform in a year and a half. Six miles a day would be as great a distance, as such an host could perform, where there is no way but that of forests untraced by man, and obstructed by swamps, mountains, fallen trees, and thousands of nameless hindrances. Food must be had, and the only way of procuring it, must have been by hunting with the bow and arrow, and by fishing. The sick must not be forsaken, the aged and the infant must be cherished ; all these things would delay, so that a rapid progress cannot be admitted. If, then, six miles a day is a reasonable distance to suppose they may have progressed, it follows that nearly three years, instead of a year and a half, would not have been more than sufficient to carry them from Syria to Bhering's Straits, through a region almost of eternal snow. This, therefore, cannot have been the course of the Ten Tribes to the land of Arsareth, wherever it was : and that it was north from Syria, we ascertain by Esdras, who says, they went into the narrow passes of the Euphrates, which means its three heads, or branches, which arise north from Syria. From the head waters of this river, there is no way to pass on, but to go between the Black and Caspian Seas, over the Concassian mountains, as before stated. From this point they may have gone on to what is now called Astracan, as before rehearsed ; but here we suppose they may have taken a west instead of a north direction, which would have been toward that part of Russia]] which is now called Russia in Europe, and would have led them on between the rivers Don and Volga ; the Don emptying into the Black Sea, and the Volga into the Cas- pian. This course would have led them exactly to the places where Moscow and Petersburgh now stand, and from thence in a north- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 59 westerly direction, along the south end of the White Sea, to Lap- land, Norway ', and Siueden, which lie along on the coast of the North Atlantic Ocean. Now, the distance from Syria to Lapland, Norway, and Sweden, on the coast of the Atlantic, is scarcely three thousand miles ; a dis- tance which may have easily been travelled in a year and a half, at six miles a day, and the same opportunity have been afforded for their amalgamation with Scythians or Tartars, as in the other course towards Bhering's Strait. Norway, Sweden, and Lapland, may have been the land of Arsareth. But here arises a question ; how then did they get into America from Lapland and Norway ? The only answer is, America and Europe must have been at that time united by land, or they may have built boats. " The manner by which the original inhabitants and animals reached here, is easily explained, by adopting the supposition, which doubtless is the most correct, that the north-western and western limits of America were, at some former period, united to Asia on the west, and to Europe on the east. This was partly the opinion of Buffon and other great naturalists. That connection has, therefore, been destroyed, among other great changes this earth has evidently experienced since the flood. We have examples of these revolutions before our eyes. Florida has gained leagues of land from the Gulf of Mexico ; and part of Louisiana, in the Mississippi Valley, has been formed by the mud of rivers. Since the Falls of Niagara were first discovered, they haye receded very considerably ; and it is conjectured, that this sublimest of nature's curiosities was situated originally where Queenstown now stands. Sicily was united formerly to the continent of Europe, and an- cient authors affirm, that the Straits of Gibralter, which divide be- tween Europe and Africa, were formed by a violent irruption of the ocean upon the land. Ceylon, where our missionaries have an establishment, has lost forty leagues by the sea, which is an hun- dred and twenty miles." Many such instances occur in history. Pliny tells us, that in his own time, the Mountain Cymbotus with the town of Eurites, which stood on its side, were totally swallowed up. He records the like of the city Tantelis in Magnesia, and of the mountain Sopelus, 60 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES both absorbed by a violent opening of the earth, so that no trace of either remained. Galanis and Garnatus, towns once famous in Phoenicia, are recorded to have met the same fate. The vast pro- montory, called Phlegium in Ethiopia, after a violent earthquake in the night, was not to be seen in the morning, the earth having swallowed it up and closed over it. Like instances we have of later date. The mountain Picus, in one of the Moluccas, was so high 3 that it appeared at a vast dis- tance 3 and served as a landmark to sailors. But during an earth- quake in the isle, the mountain in an instant sunk into the bowels of the earth, and no token of it remained, but a lake of water The like happened in the mountainous parts of China, in 1556 when a whole province, with all its towns, cities, and inhabitants, was absorbed in a moment ; an immense lake of water remaining in its place, even to this day. In they year 1646, during a terrible earthquake in the kingdom of Chili, several whole mountains of the Andes, one after another^ were wholly absorbed in the earth. Probably many lakes over the whole earth, have been occasioned in this way. Lake Ontario is supposed to have been formed in this way. The greatest earthquake we find in antiquity, is that mentioned by Pliny, in which twelve cities in Asia Minor w r ere swallowed up in one night. But one of those most particularly described in his- tory, is that of the year 1693. It extended to a circumference of two thousand six hundred leagues, chiefly affecting the sea coasts and great rivers. Its motions were so rapid, that those who lay at their length were tossed from side to side as upon a rolling billow The walls were dashed from their foundations, and no less than fifty-four cities, with an incredible number of villages, were either destroyed or greatly damaged. The city of Catanea, in particular, was utterly overthrown. A traveller, who was on his way thither, at the distance of some miles, perceived a black cloud hanging near the place. The sea all of a sudden began to roar : Mount iEtna to send forth great spires of flames ; and soon after, a shock ensued, with a noise as if all the artillery in the world had been at once discharged. Although the shock did not continue above three min- utes, yet near nineteen thousand of the inhabitants of Sicily per- ished in the ruins. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST, 6] We have said above, that Norway, Lapland, and Sweden may liave been the very land called the land of x\rsareth, by Esdras, in his second book, chapter 13, who may, with the utmost ceTtainty,be supposed to know the very course and place where these Ten Tribes went to, being himself a Jew and an historian, who at the present day is quoted by the first authors of the age. We have also said, it should be considered impossible for the Ten Tribes, after having left the place of their captivity, at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea, which was the Syrian country, for them to have gone in a year and a half to Bhering's Strait, through the frozen wilderness of Siberia. In going away from Syria, they cannot be supposed to have had any place in view, only they had conferred among themselves that, as Esdras says, " that they would leave the multitude of the hea- then, and go forth into a country where never mankind dwelt ;" which Esdras called the land of Arsareth. Now, it is not to be supposed, a land, or country, where no man dwelt could have a name, especially in that early age of the world, which was about seven hundred years before the Christian era ; but on that very account we may suppose the word Arsareth, to be de- scriptive only of a vast wilderness country, where no man dwelt, and is probably a Persian word of that signification, for Syria was embraced within the Persian empire ; the Israelites may have, in part, lost their original language, having been there in a state of captivity for more than an hundred years before they left that country. Esdras says, that Arsareth was a land where no man dwelt; this statement is somewhat corroborated by the fact, that the country which we have supposed was Arsareth, namely Norway, &c, was anciently unknown to mankind. On this point, see Morse's Geo- graphy, 2d vol. p. 28 : " Norway ; a region almost as unknown to the ancients as was America." But, in this he is mistaken, as will appear by and by, in the course of this work. America was known to the ancients. Its almost insular situation ; having on the west the Atlantic Ocean, on the south end the North Sea, and on the east the Baltic and the Gulf of Bothnia— these waters almost surrounding it ; there ?3eing a'narrow connexion of land with the European continent only on the north, between the Gulf of Bothnia and the White Sea, 62 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES which is Lapland, and was a reason quite sufficient why the an- cients should have had no knowledge of that region of country which we have supposed to have been the country called by Esdras, the land of Arsareth. Naturalists, as before remarked, have supposed that America was at some remote period before the Christian era, united to the con- tinent of Europe ; and that some convulsion in nature, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, or the irruptions of the ocean, has shaken and overwhelmed a whole region of earth, lying between Norway and Baffin's Bay, of which Greenland and Iceland, with many other islands, are the remains. But suppose the American and European continents, 700 years before the Christian era were not united ; how then did such part of the Ten Tribes as may have wandered to that region from Sy- ria, get into America from Norway ? The answer is easy : They may have crossed over, from island to island, in vessels or boats, for a knowledge of navigation, and that of the ocean too, was known to the Ten Tribes ; for all the Jews and civilized nations of that age were acquainted with this art, derived from the Egyptains. But it may be said, there are no traces that Jews were ever residents of Norway, Lapland, or Scandinavia. From the particu- lar shape of Norway, being surrounded by the waters of the sea, except between the Girf of Bothnia, and the White Sea, we per- ceive that the first people, whoever they were, must have approach- ed it by the narrow pnss between those two bodies of water of only about forty-five miles in width, if they would go there by land. Consequently the place now designated by the name of Lapland, which is the northern end of Norway, was first peopled before the more southern parts. An inquiry, therefore, whether the ancient people of Lapland had any customs like those of the ancient Jews, would be pertinent to our hypothesis respecting the route of the Ten Tribes, as spoke.i of by Esdras. Morse, the geographer, says, that of the original papulation, of Lapland very little is known with certainty. Some wi iters have supposed them to be a colony of Fins from Russia ; ( thers have thought that they bore a stronger resemblance to the £ inoeids of Asia. Their language, however, is said by Leems, to Lave less similitude to the Finnish, than the Danish to the/ Germs i ; and to be totally unlike any of the dialects of the Teutonic, or ancestors of the ancient Germans ; but accord- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 63 ing to Leems, as quoted by Morse, in their language are found many Hebrew words 3 also Greek and Latin. Hebrew words are found among the American Indians in consid- erable variety. But how came Greek and Latin words to be in the composition of the Laponic language ? This is easily answered, if we supposed them to be derived from the Ten Tribes ; as at the time they left Syria, the Greek and Latin were languages spoken every where in that region, as well as the Syrian and Chaldean. And on this v±ry account, it is likely, the Ten Tribes had in part lost their ancient language as it was spoken at Jerusalem, when Salmanasser carried them away. So that by the time they left Syria, and the region thereabouts, to go to Arsareth, their language had become, fro a this sort of mixture, an entire new language, as they had been enslaved about an hun- dred years. So that allowing the ancient Laplanders derived their tongue from a part of these Ten wandering Tribes, it well might be said by Leems, as quoted by Morse, that the language of Lapland, com* monly called the Laponic, had no words in common with the Gothic or Teutonic, except a few Norwegian words, evidently foreign, and unassociated with any of the languages of isia or Europe ; these being of the Teutonic or German origin, which goes back to with* in five hundred years of the flood, several centuries before the Ten Tribes were carried away by Salmanasser. This view would seem to favor oiir hypothesis. We shall now show a few particulars respecting their religious notions, which seem to have, in some respects, a resemblance to those of the Jews. Their deities were of four kinds. First : * Super-celestial, named as follow : Radien, Atzihe, and Kiedde, the Creator. Radien and Atzihe, they considered the fountain of power, and Kiedde or Radien Kiedde, the Son, or Creator; these were their Supreme gods, and would seem to be borrowed from the Jewsih doctrine of the Trinity. Second : Celestial Deities, called Beiwe, the sun, or as other an- cient nations had it, Apollo, which is the same, and Ailekies, to whom Saturday was consecrated. May rot these two powers be considered as the shadows of the different orders of angels as held by the Jews ? Third : Sub-celestial, or in the air, and on the earth : Moderak- 64 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES ka, or the Lapland Lucina ; Saderakka, or Venus, to whom Fri- day was holy ; and Juks Akka, or the Nurse. These are of hea- then origin, derived from the nations among whom they had been slaves and wanderers, the Syrians. Fourth : Subterranean Deities, as Saiwo and Saiwo-Olmak, gods of the mountains ; Saiwo-Guelle, or their Mercury, who conducted the shades, or wicked souls, to the lower regions. This idea would seem to be equivalent with the doctrine found in both the Jewish and Christian religions, namely, that Satan con- ducts or receives the souls of the wicked to his hell in the subter- ranean fire of the earth. They have another deity, belonging to the fourth order, and him they call Jabme-Akko, or he who occupied their Elisium ; in which the soul was furnished with a new body, and nobler priv- ileges and powers, and entitled, at some future day, to enjoy the right of Radien, the fountain of power, and to dwell with him for- ever in the mansions of bliss. This last sentiment is certainly equivalent to the Jewish idea of heaven and eternal happiness in Abraham's bosom. It also, under the idea of a new body, shows a relation to the Jewish and Chris- tian doctrine of the resurrection of the body at the last day ; and is indeed wonderful. Fifth : An Infernal Deity, called Rota, who occupied and reign- ed in Rota-Abimo, or the infernal regions ; the occupants of which had no hopes of an escape. ' He, together with his subordinates, Fudno, Mubber, and Paha-Engel, were all considered as evil dis- posed towards mankind. This is too plain not to be applied to the Bible doctrine of one supreme devil and his angels, who are, sure enough, evil disposed towards mankind. Added to all this, the Laplanders were found in the practice of sacrificing to all their deities, the reindeer, the sheep, and some- times the seal, pouring libations of milk, whey, and brandy, with offerings of cheese, &c This last item of their religious manners, is too striking not to claim its derivation from the ancient Jewish worship. The Lap- landers are a people but few in number, not much exceeding twelve hundred families ; which we imagine is a circumstance favoring our idea, that after they had remained a while in Arsareth, or Lap- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 65 .and and Norway, which is much the same thing, that their main body may have passed over into America, either in boats, from island to island ; or, if there then was, as is supposed, an isthmus of land, connecting the continents, they passed over on that, leaving, as is natural, in case of such a migration, some individuals or fami- lies behind, who might not wish to accompany them, from whom the present race of Laplanders may be derived. Their dress is much the same with that of our Indians ; their complexion is swar- thy, hair black, large heads, high cheek bones, with wide mouths; all of which is strikingly national. They call themselves Same, their speech Same-giel, and their country Same-Edna. This last w r ord sounds very much like the word Eden, and may be, inasmuch as it is the name of their country, borrowed from the name of the region where Adam was created. When men emigrate from one region of the earth to another, which is very, distant, and especially if the country to which they emigrate is a new one, or in a state of nature, it is perfectly natural to give it the same name or names which distinguished the country and its parts, from which they emigrated. Edessa, was the name of an ancient city of Mesopotamia, which was situated in the country, or land of Assyria, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. In this region the Ten Tribes were held in bondage, who had been carried away by Salmanasser, the Assy- rian monarch. We are, therefore, the more confirmed in this con- jecture, from the similarity existing between the two names Edna and Edessa, both derived, it is likely, from the more ancient word Eden, which, from common consent, had its situation, before the deluge, not far from this same region where Turkey is now, be- tween the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and the Persian Gulf, as before argued. If such may have been the fact, that a part of the Ten Tribes came over to America, in the way we have supposed, leaving the cold regions of Arsareth behind them, in quest of a milder climate, it would be natural to look for tokens of the presence of Jews of some sort, along countries adjacent to the Atlautic. In order to this, we shall here make an extract from an able work, written ex- clusively on the subject of the Ten Tribes having come from Asia by the way of Bhering's Strait, by the Rev. Ethan Smith, Pultney, Vt, who relates as follows: "Joseph Merrick, Esq., a highly re- 9 65 AMEEICAN ANTIQUITIES spectable character in the church at Pittsfield, gave the following account : That in 1815, he was levelling some ground under and near an old wood shed > standing on a place of his, situated on Indian HiU. He ploughed and conveyed away old chips and earth to some depth. After the work was done, walking over the place, he dis- covered, near where the earth had been dug the deepest, a black strap, as it appeared, about six inches in length, and one and an half in breadth, and about the thickness of a leather trace to a harness* He perceived it had at each end a loop of some hard substance, probably for the purpose of carrying it. He conveyed it to his house, and threw it into an old tool box. He afterwards found it thrown out of doors, and he again conveyed it to the box. After some time, he thought he would examine it ; but in attempting to cut it, found it as hard as bone ; he succeeded, however, in getting it open, and found it was formed of two pieces of thick raw-hide* sewed and made water tight, with the sinews of some animal ; and in the fold was contained four folded pieces of parchment. They were of a dark yellow hue, and contained some kind of writing. The neighbors coming in to see the strange discovery, tore one of the pieces to atoms, in the true Hun and Vandal style. The other three pieces Mr. Merrick saved, and sent them to Cambridge, — where they were examined, and discovered to have been written with a pen in Hebrew , plain and legible. The writing on the three remaining pieces of parchment, was quotations from the Old Testament. See Deut. vi. chap, from the 4th to the 9th verse, inclusive — also, xi. chap. 13 — 21, inclusive — and Exodus, chap. xiii. 11—16, inclusive, to which the reader can refer, if he has the curiosity to read this most interesting discovery, These passages, as quoted above, were found in the strap of raw- hide ; which unquestionably had been written on the very pieces of parchment now in the possession of the Antiquarian Society, before Israel left the land of Syria, more than 2,500 years ago ; but it is not likely the raw-hide strap in which they were found en- closed, had been made a very great length of time. This would be unnatural, as a desire to look at the sacred characters, would be very great, although they could not read them. This however, was done at last, as it appears, and buried with some Chief, on the place where it was found, called Indian Hill UND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST* 6? Dr. West, of Stockbridge, relates, that an old Indian informed Ihim, that his fathers in this country, had, not long since, been in the possession of a book, which they had, for a long lime, carried with them, but having lost the knowledge of reading it, they buried it with an Indian chief. — View of the Hebrews, p. 223. It had been handed down from family to family, or from chief to chief, as a most precious relic, if not as an amulet, charm, or talis- man, for it is not to be supposed, that a distinct knowledge of what was contained in the strap could have long continued among them, in their wandering condition, amid woods and forests. * It is said by Calmet, that the above texts are the very passages of Scripture, which Jhe Jews used to write on the leaves of their phylacteries. These phylacteries were little rolls of parchment, whereon were written certain words of the law. These they wore upon their forehead, and upon the wrist of the left arm." — Smith's View of the Hebreivs, p. 220. This intimation of the presence of the Israelites in America, is too unequivocal tp be passed unnoticed ; and the circumstance of its being found so near the Atlantic coast, and at so vast a distance from Bhering's Straits, we are still inclined to suppose, that such of the Israelites as found their way to the shores of America, on the coast of the Atlantic, may have come from Lapland, or Norway; — seeing evident tokens exist of their having once been there, as we have noticed some few pages back. But there is a third supposition respecting the land of Arsareth ; which is, that it is situated exactly east from the region of Syria. ThisMs thought to be the country now known in Asia by the appel- lation of Little Bucharia. Its distance from Syria is something more than two thousand miles ; which, by Esdras, might very well be said to be a journey of a year and an half, through an entire wilderness. Bucharia, the region of country of which we are about to speak, us being the ancient resort of a part of the lost Ten Tribes, is in distance from England, 3,475 miles ; a little southeast from the latitude of London ; and from the State of New- York, exactly double that distance, 6,950 miles, on an air line, as measured on an artificial globe, and in nearly the same latitude, due east from this country. It is not impossible, after all our speculation, and the speculations 68 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES of others, that, instead of America, or of Norway, this same Bucha- ria is, in truth, the ancient country of Arsareth; although in the. country of old Norway, and of America, are abundant evidence of the presence of Jews at some remote period, no doubt derived from this stock, the Ten Tribes. The country of Bucharia is situated due east from Syria, where the Ten Tribes were placed by Salmanasser, as well as farther east on the river Gozen, or Ganges, of Hindostan. The distance is about two thousand five hundred miles, and at that time, was a vast desert, lying beyond the settlements of men, in all probability ; and in order to go there, they must also pass through the narrow passes of the river Euphrates, or its heads, near the south end of the Cas- pian Sea, and then nearly due east, inclining, however, a little to the north. Two circumstances lead to a supposition that this Bu- charia is the Arsareth mentioned by Esdras. The first is, at this place is found a great population of the Jews : Second ; the word, Arsareth is similar to the names of other regions of that country in Asia ; as Ararat, Astracan, Samarcand, Yarkund, Aracan, Ala Tau, Alatanian, Aral, Altai,. Amu, Korassan, Balk, Bactriana, Bucharia, Argun, Narrat, Anderab Katlan: (this word is much like the Mex- ican names of places, as Aztalan, Copallan, and so on ;) Anderab, Aktau, AiJak. Names of countries and rivers might be greatly multiplied, which bear a strong affinity in sound and formation to the. word Arsareth, which is probably a Persian word, as well as the rest we have quoted, as from these regions, ancient Bucharia, the foundations of the Persian power was derived. The reader can choose between the three, whether America, Norway, or Bucharia, is the ancient country calkd Arsareth, as one of the three is, beyond a doubt, the place alluded to by Esdras, to which the Ten Tribes went ; and in all three, the traits of Jews are found. In this country, Bucharia, many thousand Jews have been dis- covered, who were not known by the Christian nations to have ex- isted at all till recently. It would appear from this circumstance, that the Ten Tribes may have divided, a part going east, to the country now called Bucharia ; and a part west, to the country now called Norway ; both of which, at that time, were the region of almost endless solitudes, and about equal distances from Syria: and from Bucharia to Bhering's Strait is also about the same distance. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 69 In process of time, both from Bucharia in Asia, and Norway in Europe, the descendants from these Ten Tribes may have found their way into America. Those from Norway, by the way of islands, boats or continent, which may then have existed, between America and north of Europe ; and those from Buch; ria, by the way of Bhering's Strait, which, at that time, it is likely, was no Strait, but an isthmus, if not a country of great extent, uniting Asia with America. The account of the Bucharian Jews is as follows: " After haviDg seen, some years past, merchants from Tiflis, Per- sia, and Armenia, among the visitors at Leipsic, we ha.e had, for the first time, (1826,) two traders from Bucharia, with sh mis, which are there manufactured of the finest wool of the goats of Thibet and Cashmere, by the Jewish families, who form a third part / tlie pop- ulation. In Bucharia, (formerly the capitolof Sogdiana ) the Jews have been very numerous ever since the Babylonian captivity, and are there as remakable for their industry and manufacti res, as they are in England for their money transactions. It was not till 1S26, that the Russian government succeeded in extending its diplomatic mission far into Bucharia. The above traders exchanged their shawls for coarse and fine woollen cloths, of such colors as are most esteemed in the east." Much interest has been excited by the informatior which this paragraph conveys, and which is equally novel and important. In none of the geographical works which we have consulted do we find the least hint as to the existence in Bucharia of such a body of Jews as are here mentioned, amounting to one third of the whole population ; but as the fact can no longer be doubted, she next point of inquiry which presents itself is, whence have they proceeded, and how have they come to establish themselves in a region so re- mote from their original country ? This question, we think, can only be answered by supposing that these persons are the descend- ants of the long lest Ten Tribes, concerning the facts of which, theologians, historians, and antiquarians, have been j> like puzzled : and however wild this hypothesis may at first appear, there are not wanting cireu Distances to render it far from being improbable. In the 17th chapter of the second book of Kings, it is said, u In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and car- ried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Helah and in Haber by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes :" and 70 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES in the subsequent verses, as well as the writings of the prophets, it is said, that the Lord then u put away Israel out of his sight, and carried them away into the land of Assyria unto this day." In the Apocrypha, 2d Esdras, xiii., it is said, that the Ten Tribes were carried beyond the river, (Euphrates,) and so they were brought into another land, when they took counsel together, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further coun- try, where never mankind dwelt ; that they entered in at the nar- row passages of the river Euphrates, when the springs of the flood were stayed, and " went through the country a great journey, even a year and a half;" and it is added, that " there will they remain, until the latter time, when they will come forth again." The coun- try beyond Bucharia was unknown to the ancients, and it is, we believe, generally admitted, that the river Gozan, mentioned in the book of Kings, is the same as the Ganges, which has its rise in those very countries in which the Jews reside, of which the Liep- sic account speaks. The distance which these two merchants must have travelled, cannot, therefore, be less than three thousand miles ; and there can be but little doubt that the Jews, whom they repre- sent as a third part of the population of the country, are descend- ants of the Ten Tribes of Israel settled by the river Gozan. The great plain of Central Asia, forming four principal sides, viz : Little Bucharia, Thibet, Mongolia, and Mantehous, contains a sur- face of 150,000 square miles, and a population of 20,000,000. This vast country is still very little known. The great traits of its gigantic formation compose, for the most part, all that we are certain of. It is an immense plain of an excessive elevation, in- tersected with barren rocks and vast deserts of black and almost moving sand. It is supported on all sides by mountains of granite, whose elevated summits determine the different climates of the great continent of Asia, and form the division of its waters. From its exterior flow all the great rivers of that part of the world. In the interior are a quantity of rivers, having little declivity, or no is- sue, which are lost in the sands, or perhaps feed stagnant waters. In the southern chains are countries, populous, rich and civilized ; Little Bucharia, Great and Little Thibet. The people of the north are shepherds and wanderers. Their riches consist in their herds. Their habitations are tents, and towns, and camps, which are trans- ported according to the wants of pasturage. The Buchanans en- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 71 joy the right of trading to all parts of Asia, and the Thibetians cultivate the earth to advantage. The ancients had only a con- fused idea of Central Asia. " The inhabitants of the country," as we learn from a great authority, " are in a high state of civiliza- tion ; possessing all the useful manufactures, and lofty houses built with stone. The Chinese reckon (but this is evidently an exag- geration) that Thibet alone contains 33,000,000 of persons. The merchants of Cashmere, on their way to Yarkland in Little Bu- charia, pass through Little Thibet. This country is scarcely known to European geographers." The immense plain of Central Asia is hemmed in, and almost inaccessable by mountain ranges of the greatest elevation, which surround it on all sides, except China ; and when the watchful jealousy of the government of the Celestial Empire is considered, it will scarcely be wondered at, that the vast region in question is so little known. Such is the country which these newly discovered Jews are said to inhabit in such numbers. The following facts may perhaps serve to throw some additional light on this interesting subject. In the year 1822, a Mr. Sargon, who had been appointed one of the agents of the London Society, communicated to England some interesting accounts of a number of persons resident at Bombay ? Cinnamore, and their vicinity, who are evidently the descendants of the Jews, calling themselves Beni Israel, and bearing almost uniformly Jewish names, but with Persian terminations. This gentleman, feeling very desirous of obtaining all possible knowledge of their condition, undertook a mission for this purpose to Cinna- more ; and the result of his inquiries was, a conviction that they were not Jews of the one tribe and a half, being of a different race to the white and black Jews at Cochin, and consequently, that they were a remnant of the long lost Ten Tribes. This gentleman also concluded, from the information he obtained respecting the Beni Israel, or sons of Israel, that they existed in great numbers in the countries between Cochin and Bombay, the north of Persia, among the hordes of Tartary, and in Cashmere ; the very countries m which, according to the paragraph in the German paper, they exist in such numbers. So far, then, these accounts confirm each other ? and there is every probability that the Beni Israel, resident on the west of the Indian peninsula, had originally proceeded from Bu- charia. It will, therefore, be interesting to know something of their 72 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES moral and religious character. The following particulars are col- lected from Mr. Sargon's accounts : 1. In dress and manners they resemble the natives so as not to be distinguished from them, ex- cept by attentive observation and inquiry. 2. They have Hebrew names of the same kind, and with the same local termination as the Sepoys in the ninth regiment Bombay native infantry. 3. Some of them read Hebrew, and they have a faint tradition of the cause of their original exodus from Egypt. 4. Their common lan- guage is the Hindoo. 5. They keep idols and worship them, and use idolatrous ceremonies intermixed with Hebrew. 6. They cir- cumcise their children. 7. They observe the Kipper, or great ex- piation day of the Hebrews, hut not the Sabbath, or any of the feast or fast days. S. They call themselves Gorah Jehudi, or white Jews; and they term the black Jews CollaJehudi. 9. They speak of the Arabian Jews 'as their brethren, but do not acknowledge the European Jews as such. They use, on all occasions, and under the most trivial circumstances, the usual Jewish prayer — " Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." 10. They have no cohen, (priest) levite, or kasi among them, under those terms ; but they have a kasi, (reader,) who performs prayers, and conducts their religious ceremonies : and they appear to have elders and a chief in each community, who determine in their religious concerns. 1 1 . They expect the Messiah, and that they will one day return to Jerusalem. They think that the time of his appearance will soon arrive, at which they much rejoice, believing that at Jerusalem they will see their God, worship him only, and be despised no more. These particulars, we should presume, cau scarcely fail to prove interesting, both in a moral and religious, as well as in a geograph- ical point of view. The number of the scattered members of the tribes of Judah, and the half tribe of Benjamin, rather exceed than fall short of five millions. Now, if this number be added to the many other millions to be found in the different countiies of the east, what an immense power would be brought into action, were the spirit of nationality once roused, or any extraordinary event to occur, which should induce them to unite in claiming possession of that land which was given to them for an heritage forever," and to which, in 2very other clime of the earth, their fondest hopes and their dearest aspirations never cease to turn." But although the opinion, that the American Indians are the de- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 73 scendants of the lost Ten Tribes, is now a popular one, and gene- rally believed, yet there are some who totally discard this opinion. And among such, as chief, is Professor Rafinesque, whose opinions on the subject of the flood of Noah not being universal, and of the ark, we have introduced on the first pages of this work. This gentleman is decidedly, we may say severely, opposed to this doctrine, and alleges that the Ten Tribes were never lost, but are still in the countries of the east about the region of ancient Sy- ria, in Asia. He ridicules all those authors who have attempted to find in the customs of the Indians, traits of the Jews, and stamps them with being egregiously ignorant of the origin of things per- taining to this subject. This is taking a high v stand, indeed, and if he can maintain it, he has a right to the honor thereof. Upon this notion, he says, a new sect of religion has arisen, namely, the Mormanites, who pretend to have discovered a book with golden leaves, in which is the history of the American Jews, and their leader, Merman, who came hither more than 2,000 years ago. This work is ridiculous enough, it is true ; as the whole book of Morman "bears the stamp of folly, and is a poor attempt at an imi- tation of the Old Testament Scriptures, and is without connection, object, or aim ; shewing every where language and phrases of too late a construction to accord with the Asiatic manner of composi- tion, which highly characterises the style of the Bible. As reasons, this philosopher advances as follows, against the American nations being descended from the Ten Tribes of ancient Israel : " 1st. These Ten Tribes are not lost, as long supposed ; their descendants, more or less mixed with the natives, are yet found in Media, Iran, Taurin, Cabulistan, Hindostan, and China, where late travellers have traced them, calling themselves by various names. 2d. The American nations knew not the Sabbath, nor yet the Sabbattical weeks and years of the Jews. This knowledge could never have been lost by the Hebrews. The only weeks known in America, were of three days, five days, and half lunations, (or half a moon ;) as among the primitive nations, before the week of seven days was used in Asia, which was based upon the seven planets, long before the laws of Moses." Here is another manifest attempt of this philosopher to invali- date the Scriptures, in attempting to fix the origin of the ancient 10 74 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Jewish and present Christian Sabbath, on the observances of the ancient nations, respecting the motions of the seven primary planets of the heavens ; when it is emphatically said, in the Hebrew Scriptures, that the week of seven days was based on the seven days' work of the Creator, in the creation of the world. And as the Creation is older than the astronomical observations of the most ancient nations of the earth, it is evident that the Scripture account of the origin of the seven-day week ought to have the precedence over all other opinions since sprung up. 3d. He says, " The Indians hardly knew the use of iron, although common among the Hebrews, and likely never to be lost ; nor did they, the Indians of America, know the use of the plough." "4th. The same applies to the use of writing; such an art is never lost when once known." " 5th. Circumcision was unknown, and even abhorred by the Americans, except two nations, who used it— the Mayans, of Yu- catan, in South America, who worshipped an hundred idols, and the Calchaquis, of Chaco, of the same country, who worshipped the sun and stars, believing that departed souls became stars. These beliefs are quite different from Judaism ; and besides this, the rite of circumcision was common to Egypt, Ethiopia, Edom, and Chalchis." But to this we reply, supposing circumcision was practised by all those nations, and even more, this does not disprove the rite to be of pure Hebrew or Jewish origin, as we have an account of it in the Scriptures written by Moses, as being in use quite two thou- sand years before Christ ; long enough before Abraham or his pos- terity knew any thing of the Egyptians; it was therefore, most un- doubtedly introduced among the Egyptians by the Jews themselves, or their ancestors, and from them the custom has gone out into many nations of the earth. Again, Mr. Rafinesque says, one tribe there was, namely, the Calchaquis, who worshipped the sun and the stars, supposing them to be the souls of the departed. This notion is not very far removed from, or at least may have had its origin with the Jews ; for Daniel, one of their prophets, who lived about 500 years before Christ, expressly says, respecting the souls of the departed righteous : " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 75 righteousness, as the stars, for ever and ever." A sentiment of such transcendant beauty and consequence is not easily lost. This tribe, therefore, as above named, may they not have been of Jew- ish origin ? " 6. None of the American tribes have the striking, sharp, Jew- ish features, and physical confirmation. " [But other authors, of equal celebrity, have a contrary opinion.] " 7. The American Indians eat hogs, hares, fish, and all the for- bidden animals of Moses, but each tribe abstain from their tutelar animals," (which, as they imagine, presides over their destinies,) "or badges of families of some peculiar sort." But to this we reply, most certainly the Jews did use fish ; as in all their history, even in the Bible, frequent reference is had to their use of fishes, and to their fish markets, where they were sold and bought. " 8. The American customs of scalping, torturing prisoners, can- nibalism, painting their bodies, and going naked, even in very cold climates, are totally unlike the Hebrew customs." Scalping, with several other customs of the sort, we have elsewhere in this work shown to be of Scythian origin ; but does not, on that account, prove, nor in any way invalidate the other opinion, that some of the tribes are indeed of Jewish origin. " 9. A multitude cf languages exists in America, which may perhaps be reduced to twenty-five radical languages, and two thou- sand dialects. But they are often unlike the Hebrew, in roots, words, and grammar; they have, by far, says this author, more an- alogies with the Sanscrit" (the ancient Chinese,) Celtic, Bask, Pelasgian, Berber," (in Europe ;) " Lybian, Egyptian," (in Afii- ca;) u Persian, Turan, &c," (also in Europe;) "or in fact, all the primitive languages of mankind." This we believe. " 10. The Americans cannot have sprung from a single nation, because, independently of the languages, their features and com- plexions are as various as in Africa and Asia." " We find in America, while, tawny, brown, yellow, olive, cop- per, and even black nations, as in Africa. Also, dwarfs and giants., handsome and ugly features, flat and aquiline noses, thick and thin lips," &c [Among the Jews is also as great a variety.] The Rev. Mr. Smith, of Pulteney, Vt, a few years since, pub- lished a work, entitled " A view of the Hebrews," in which he 76 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES labors to establish that the American Indians worshipped but one God ; the great Yohewah, or Jehovah of the Scriptures. This is vehemently opposed by Philosopher Rafinesque, as follows, in re- ply to him. " You say, all the Americans had the same God Yohewa; this is utterly false. This was the god of the Chactas and Florida In- dians only ; many other tribes had tripple gods, or trimurtis, as in Hindostan, having names nearly Sanscrit." [But neither does this disprove that some of these tribes are of Jewish origin.] " Polytheism," (a plurality of wives,) " idolatry, and a complex mythology, prevailed among all the most civilized nations" of this country. " All the ancient religions were found in America," which have prevailed in the old world, in the earliest ages, as " Theism, Sa- baism, Magism Hindooism, Shamanism, Fetichism, &c, but no Judaism" He says, the few examples of the affinity between the Indian languages and the Hebrew, given by Mr. Smith, in his work, be- long only to the Floridan and Caribbean languages. Mr. Rafin- esque says, he could show ten times as many in the Aruac, Gua- rian," (languages of South America,) " but what is that compared with the 100,000 affinities with the primitive languages." " All the civilized Americans had a priesthood, or priestly caste, and so had the Hindoos, Egyptians, Persians, Celts, and Ethiopians. Were they all Jews ? " 4. Tribes are found among all the ancient nations, Arabs, Ber- bers, Celts, Negroes, &c, who are not Jews. The most civilized nations had castes, instead of tribes, in America ?■.% well as Egypt and India ; the Mexicans, the Mayans, Mi iizcas, the Peruvians, &c, had no tribes. The animal badges of tribes, are found among Negroes and Tartars, as well as our Indians." " 5. Arks of covenant and cities of refuge are not peculiar to the Jews ; many Asiatic nations had them, also the Egyptians, and nine-tenths of our Indian tribes have none at all, or have only holy bags," (for an ark) somewhat like a talisman, a charm, or as the " Fetiches, of the Africans." But we reply, there is no evidence that other nations than the Jews had cities cf refuge and imitations of the ark of the cov- enant, prior to the time of Moses, which was full sixteen hundred AND DISC0VERIE3 IN THE WEST- 77 years before Christ, and from whom it is altogether probable, that all the nations among whom such traits are found, derived them at first from the laws of that Hebrew Legislator. Those nations, therefore, among whom, at this distance of time, those traits are found most resembling the Jews, may be said, with some degree of propriety, to be their descendants ; and among many tribes of the western Indians, these traits are found, if we may believe the most credible witnesses. " 6. The religious cry of aleluya, is not Jewish, says this au- thor, but primitive, and found, among the Hindoos, Arabs, Greeks, Saxons, Celts, Lybians, &c, under the modification oihulili, yuluht, tulujah, 8$c. Other Americans call it ululaez gualulu, aluyah, §c." All this being true, which we are willing to allow, does not dis- prove, but that these forms of speech, which are directed in praise and adoration of a Supreme or Superior Being of some nature, no mat- ter what, may all have originated from the Hebrew Jews, as this name of God, namely, Jehovah, was known among that nation, be- fore the existence as nations, by those names, of either the Hindoos, Arabs, Greeks, Saxons, Celts, or Lybians ; for it was known in the family of Noah, and to all the patriarchs before the Hood. The original word, translated God, was Jehova, and also Elohim, which are generally translated Lord and God. In the 2d chapter of Genesis, at the 4th verse, the word Jehovah first occurs, says Dr. Clarke, in the original as written by Moses; but was in use long before the days of Abraham, among the ances- tors of that patriarch. From this word, Jehovah, and Elohim, the words alleluia, &c, as above, it is admitted on all hands, were at first derived ; and are in all nations, where known and used, di- rected to the praise and adoration of the Almighty, or other objects of adoration. * * This most exalted form of praise, it appears, was known to John the Revelator, for he says in chapter 19, " I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, alleluia ; and again, they said, Alleluia" This form of praise, says Dr. Clarke, the heathen bor- rowed from the Jews, as is evident from their Pazans, or hymns, sung in honor of Apollo, which began and ended with eleleuie, a mere composition of the Hebrew words alleluia and hallehtjh. It is even found among the North American Indians, and adapted by them to the same purpose, viz., the worship of God or the Great Spirit. 78 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES From what we have been able to show on this subject, as above, we cannot subscribe to the opinion that those words are not of He- brew and Jewish drigtns; consequently being of Hebrew origin, it must follow, that where they are found in the most pure and unadulterated use, that the people so using them are most likely to be of Jewish descent ; and this is found among the American In- dians. Among some of tr?ir tribes they have a place denominated the beloved square. Here hey sometimes dance a whole night ; but al- ways in a bowing or worshiping posture, singing continually, hal- lelujah Ye-ho-wah, Ye-ho-vah ; which fast word, says Clarke, is probably the true pron jnciation of the ancient Hebrew word Jehovah. It is no marvel, then, that these Jewish customs are found " a- mong nearly all the indent nations of Asia, Africa, Europe and Polynesia, nay, even among the wild Negroes to this day," since they were in use at the very outset of the spread of the nations from Ararat, and are, therefore, of Hebrew primitive origin, but not heathen primitive origin, as asserted by Rafinesque. We are not tenacious, however, whether the Ten Tribes were lost or not, nor do we disagree to the opinion, that they are found in almost all parts of the old world, having mingled with the various nations of Asia ; but if so, we enquire, why may they not, therefore, be found in America ? could they not as easily have found their way hither, as the other nations of the east ? Most assuredly. It is not the object of this volume, to contend on this point ; but when we find attempts to overturn the Scriptures, and, if possible, to make it appear, if not by so many words, yet in the manner we understand this writer's remarks, that the Bible itself is no- thing else than a collection of heathenism placed under the plausible idea of primitive words, primitive usages and primitive religion ; we think this is placing the (currus bovem. trah'tt) cart before the horse, and should not be allowed to pass without reproof. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 79 A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE CONVULSIONS OF THE GLOBE, WITH THE REMOVAL OF ISLANDS. If the supposition of naturalists may obtain belief, it follows, that there may have been a whole continent, reaching from the north of Europe to Bhering's Strait; uniting, not only Europe wilh America, on the east, but also Asia, on the north, and may have continued on south from Bhering's Strait, some way down the Pa- cific, as Buffbn partly believed, uniting America and China on the west. It was contended by Clavigero, that the equatorial parts of Afri- ca and America were once united. By which means, before the connexion was torn away by the irruption of the sea on both sides, the inhabitants from the African continent came, in the earliest ages, to South America. Whether this be true or not, the two countries approach each other, in a remarkable manner, along the coast of Guinea, on the side of Africa, and the coast of Pernam- buco, on the side of South America. These are the places which, in reality, seem to stretch towards each other, as if they had been once united. The innumerable islands scattered all over the Pacific ocean, populous with men, more than intimates a period, even since the flood, when all the different continents of the globe were united to- gether, and the sea so disposed of, that they did not break this har- mony so well calculated to facilitate the migrations of men and an- imals. Several tribes of the present Southern Indians, as they now are called, have traditions, that they came from the east y or through the Atlantic ocean. Rafinesque says, it is important to distinguish the American nations of eastern origin from those of northern, who, he says, were invaders from Tartary, and were as different in their manners as were the Romans and Vandals. The southern nations, among whom this tradition is found, are the Natchez, Apalachians, Talascas, Mayans, Myhizcas, and Hay- tians. But those of the Algonquin stock, point to a northwest ori- gin, which is the way from the northern regions of Asia- 80 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES It is not likely, that immediately after the era of the deluge, there was as much ocean which appeared above ground as at the present time ; but instead of this, lakes were more numerous. Conse- quently, on the surface of the globe there was much more land than at the present time. But from various convulsions, more than we have spoken of, whose history is now lost, in past ages, many- parts, nay, nearly all the earthy surface is sunken to the depths below, while the waters have risen above; nearly three-fourths of the globe's surface is known to be water. How appalling is tfeis reflection ! The currents of sea running through the bowels of the earth, by the disposition of its Creator, to promote motion in the waters, as motion is essential to all animal life, have, doubtless, by subterra- nean attrition affected the foundations of whole islands, which have sunk beneath the waters at different periods. To such convulsions as these, it would seem, Job has alluded in his ninth chapter, at the 5th verse, as follows: "Which removeth the mountains, and they know not ; which overturneth them in his anger." Adam Clarke's comment on this verse is as follows : "This seems to refer to earthquakes. By these strong convulsions, mountains, valleys, hills, even whole islands, are removed in an instant: and to this latter circumstance the words, " they know notf* most probably refer. The work is done in the twinkling of an eye ; no warning is given ; the mountain that seemed to be as firm as the earth on which it rested, w T as in the same moment both visible and invisible ; so sud- denly was it swallowed up." It can scarcely be supposed, but that Job was either personally, or by information, acquainted with occurrences of the kind, in order to justify the thing as being done by God in his anger. It is not impossible but the fact upon which the following story is founded may have been known to Job, who was a man suppos- ed in possession of every species of information calculated to inter- est the nobler faculties of the human mind, if we may judge from the book bearing his own name. The story is an account of a cer- tain island, called by the ancients At a hint is ; and for ought that can be urged against it having existed, we are inclined to believe it did, as that all learning, uninspired, and general information, was anciently in possession of heathen philosophers and priests, to whom it was the custom even for princes to resort to, and learn of, be- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 81 fore they were considered qualified to sit on the thrones of their fathers. Such were the Egyptian priests to the Egyptians, and the Druids to the Celtic nations; the Brahmins to the Hindoos ; the Magi to the Persians ; the Philosophers to the Greeks and Romans ; and the Prophets of the Indians, to the western Tribes. " This island is mentioned by Plato, in his dialogue of Timaeus. Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, is supposed to have travelled into Egypt," about six hundred years before Christ. Plato's time was three hundred years nearer the time of Christ, who has mentioned the travels of Solon into Egypt. '" He arrives at an ancient tem- ple on the Delta, a fertile island formed by the Nile, where he held a conversation with certain learned priests, on the antiquities of re- mote ages. When one of them gave Solon a description of the island Atalantis, and also of its destruction. This island, said the Egyptian priest, was situated in the Western Ocean, opposite the Straits of Gibralter f* which would place it exactly between a part of Europe, its southern end, and the northern part of Africa and the continent of America. a There was, said the priest, an easy passage from this to other islands, which lay adjacent to a large continent, exceeding in size all Europe and Asia." Neptune settled in this island, from whose son Alias, its" name was derived, and divided it between his ten sons, who reigned there in regular succession for many ages." From the time of Solon's travels in Egypt, which was six hun- dred years before Christ, we find more than seventeen hundred years up to the Hood; so that time enough had elapsed since the flood to justify the fact of the island having existed, and also of having been inhabited and destroyed even six hundred years be- fore the time of Solon ; which would make the time of its destruc- tion twelve hundred years before Christ ; and would still leave more than five hundred years from that period back to the flood. So that if King Neptune had not made his settlement on the island Atalantis till two hundred years after the flood, there would have been time for the successive reigns of each of the regal lines of his sons, amounting to three hundred years, before the time of its en- velopement in the sea; so that the priest was justified in using the term antiquities, when he referred to that catastrophe. " They made, i. e. the Atalantians, irruptions into Europe and Africa ; subduing all Lybia, as far as Egypt, Europe, and Asia ii 82 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Minor. They were resisted, however, by the Athenians, and driven back to their Atlantic territories." If they were resisted and diiven back by the Athenians, the era of the existence of this island is easily ascertained ; because the Athenians settled at Athens, in Greece, fifteen hundred and fifty-six years before Christ, bring a colony from Egypt, under their conductor Cecrops. One hundred years after their establishment at Athens, they had be- come powerful, so as to be able to take a political stand among the nations of that region, and to defend their country* against invasions. Accordingly, at the time the Atalantians were repulsed and com- pelled to return from whence they came, was in the year fourteen hundred and forty-three, before Christ. " Shortly after this," says Plato, " there was a tremendous earth- quake and an overflowing of the sea, which continued for a day and a night ; in the course of which the vast island of Atalantis, and all its splendid cities and warlike nations, were swallowed up, and sunk to the bottom of the sea, which, spreading its waters over the chasm, added a vast region to the Atlantic Ocean. For a long time, however, the sea was not navigable, on account of rocks and shoals of mud and slime, and of the ruins of that drowned coun- try." This occurrence, if the tradition be true, happeued about twelve hundred years before Christ, three hundred years befoie the time of Job, and seven hundred and fifty years after the flood. At the period, therefore, of the existence of this island, a land passage to America, from Europe and Africa, was practicable ; also by other islands, some ot which are still situated in the same direc- tion—the Azores, Madeiras, and Teneriffe islands, about twenty in number. For this story of the island of Atalantis, we are indebted to Ir- ving's Columbus, a popular work, of recent date ; which cannot be denied but is exceedingly curious, and not without some foundation of probability. Was not this island the bridge, so called, reaching from America to Europe, as conjectured by Dr. Robertson, the his- torian, but was destroyed by the ocean, as he supposes, very far back in the ages of antiquity. An allusion to this same island, Atalantis, is made by Euclid, who flourished about three hundred years before Christ, in a con- Tersation which he had with Anacharsis, a Scythian philosopher of the same age ; who had, in search of knowledge, travelled from AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 53 the wilds of his own northern regions, to Athens, where he became acquainted with Euclid. Their subject was the convulsions of the globe, The sea, ac- cording to every appearance, said Euclid, has separated Sicily from Italy, Eubaa from Bceotia, and a number of other islands from the continent of Europe. We are informed, continued the philoso- pher, that the waters of Pontus Euxinus, (or the Black Sea,) having been long enclosed in a basin, (or lake,) shut in on ail sides, and continually increasing by the rivers of Europe and Asia, rose at length above the high lands which surrounded it, forced open the passage of the Bosphorus and Hellespont, and impetuously rushing into the iEgean or Mediterranean Sea, extended its limits to the surrounding shores. If we consult, he says, mythology, we are told that Hercules* whose labors have been confounded with those of nature, separated Europe from Africa ; by which is meant, no doubt, that the Atlan- tic Ocean destroyed the isthmus, which once united those two parts of the earth, and opened to itself a communication with the Medi- terranean Sea. Beyond the isthmus, of which I have just spoken, said Euclid, existed, according to ancient traditions, &n island as large as Africa, which, with all its wretched inhabitants, was swallowed up by an earthquake. Here, then, is another witness, besides Solon, who lived 300 years before the time of Euclid, who testifies to the past existence of the island Atalantis. EVIDENCES OF AN ANCIENT POPULATION IN AMERICA, DIF FERENT FROM THAT OF THE INDIANS. We shall now attend more particularly to the evidences of an ancient population in this country, anterior to that of the present race of Indians, afforded in the discovery of forts, mounds, tumuli, and their contents, as related by western travellers, and the re- searches of the Antiqnarain Society, at Cincinnati. But before we proceed to an account of the traits of this kind of population, more 84 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES than already given, we will remark, that wherever plats of ground, struck out into circles, squares and ovals, are found, we are at once referred to an era when a people and nations existed in this coun- try, more civilized, refined, and given to architectural and agricul- tural pursuits, than the Indians. It is well known, the present tribes do not take the trouble of ' materially altering the face of the ground to accommodate the erec- tion of their places of dwelling ; always selecting that which is al- ready fashioned by nature to suit their views; using the earth, where they build their towns, as they find it. In a deep and almost hidden valley among the mountains of the Alleghany, on the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, is one of those solitary memorials of an exterminated race. It is hid amidst the profoundest gloom of the woods ; and is found to consist of a regular circle, an hundred paces in diameter. This is equal to six rods and four paces; and twenty -two rods in circumference. The whole plat is raised above the common level of the earth around, about four feet high ; which may have been done to carry or! the water, when the snows melted, or when violent rains would otherwise, have inundated their dwellings from the surrounding hills. The neighborhood of Brownville, or Redstone, in Pennsylvania, abounds with monuments of antiquity. A fortified camp, of a very complete and curious kind, on the ramparts of which is timber of five feet in diameter, stands near the town of Brownville. This camp contains about thirteeen acres, enclosed in a circle, the ele- vation of which is seven feet above the adjoining ground ; this was an herculean work. Within the circle a pentagon is accurately described ; having its sides four feet high, and its angles uniformly three feet from the outside of the circle, thus leaving an unbroken communication all around. A pentagon is a figure, having five angles or sides. Each side of the pentagon has a postern, or small gateway, opening into the passage between it and the circle ; but the circle itself has only one grand gateway outward. Exactly in the centre stands a mound about thirty feet high, supposed to have been a place of lookout. At a small distance from this place, was found a stone, eight feet by five, on which w r as accurately engraved a representation of the whole work, with the mound in the cen- tre ; whereon was the likness of a human head, which signified ■ AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 85 that the chief who presided there, lay buried beneath it. The en- graving on this stone, is evidence of the knowledge of stone cut- ting as it was executed with a considerable degree of accuracy. On comparing the description of this circular monument with a description of works of a similar character, found in Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland, the conclusion is drawn, that at some era of time the authors of this kind of monumental works, in either of those countries, have been the same. "They are called Domh-ringr, by the Danes; that is, literally, Doom Ring, or CmcLE of^udgment; being the solemn place where courts were held." The celebrated stonehenge in England, is built after the same fashion, that is, in a circle, and is of Belgic origin ; the second class of English antiquities, the era of which precedes that of the Romans in England; which would throw the time of their first erection back to a period of some hundred years before Christ. " Stonehenge : This noble and curious monument of early times, appears to have been formed by three principal circles of stone, the outer connected together by an uniform pavement, as it were, at the top, to which the chiefs might ascend and speak to the surrounding crowd. A second circle consists of detached upright stones, about five fleet in height, while the highest are. eighteen. Within this is a grand oval, consisting of five huge stones, crossed by another at the top, and enclosing smaller stones, which seem to have been seats, and a large flat stone, commonly called the al- tar, but which seems to have been the throne or seat of judgment. The whole of the above described monument, with all its appara- tus, " seems to be enclosed in the midst of a very extensive circle, or embankment of earth, sufficiently large to hold an immense num- ber ; a whole tribe or nation."— Morse. After the introduction of Christianity into the west of Europe, which was sixty years after Christ, these circles of judgment, which had been polluted with human sacrifices and other pagan rites, were abandoned, and other customs, with other places of re- sort, were instituted. This sort of antiquities, says Morse, the geo- grapher, which are found all over Europe, are of this character, that is, of the tumular kind, such as are found in the west of our country ; belong entirely to the first era of the settlements of Eu- rope. &6 AMERICAN ANTmumEa The Druidig temples in Europe were numerous, and some of them immense, especially one in the Isle of Lewis ; in these the gods Odin, Thor, Freyga, and other Gothic Deities, were adored ; all such structures were enclosed iu circles, some greater and some less, according to their importance, or the numbers of those who supported them. These are of the first order of Antiquities found in Europe ; or, in other words, the eldest, and go back very far to- ward the flood, for their commencement. The same kind of antiquities are found in Ireland, and are allow- ed to be of Druidic origin, always enclosed in circles, whether a simple stone, or a more spacious temple, be the place where they worshipped. The Scandinavians, who preceded the Norwegians some hundred years, enclosed their rude chapels with circular in- trenchments, and were called the Dane's Raths,oi circular intrench- EjentSo " In the first ages of the world, the worship of God was exceed- ingly simple ; there were no temples nor covered edifices of any kind. An altar, sometimes a single stone ; sometimes it consisted of several ; and at other times merely of turf, was all that was ne- cessary ; on this the fire was lighted, and the sacrifice offered. "— Adam Clarke. Such were the Druids of Europe, whose name is derived from the kind of forest in which they preferred to worship"; this was the oak, which, in the Greek, is expressed by the w T ord Druid, whose worship and principles extend even to Italy, among the Celtic na- tion*, and is celebrated by Virgil, in the sixth book of the JEneas, where he speaks of the Misletoe, and calls it the golden branch, with- out which, no one could return from the iufernal regions. The Misletoe; — a description of which may please the reader, as given by Pliny, who flourished about A. D. 23, and was a cele- brated writer of natural history, and most learned ot the ancient Romans. " The Druids hold nothing more sacred than the Misle- toe, and the tree on which it grows, provided it be the oak. They make choice of groves of oak, on this account ; nor do they per- form any of their sacred rites, without the leave? of those trees. And whenever they find it on the oak, they think it is sent from Heaven, and is a sign that God himself has chosen that tree ; and whenever found, is treated with great ceremony. " They call it by a name, which, in their language, signifies the AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 87 curer of ills ; and having duly prepared their feasts and sacrifices under the tree, they bring to it two white bulls; the priest dressed in a white robe, ascends the tree, and with a golden, prunning hook, cuts off the Misletoe, which is received in a Sagum or white, sheet. Then they sacrifice the victims, praying that God would bless his own gift to those on whom he has bestowed it." — Clarke* DISCOVERIES ON THE MUSKINGUM. In the neighborhood of Fort Harme^ on the Muskingum, op- posite Marietta, on the Ohio, were discovered, by Mr. Ash, an En- glish traveller, 1826, several monuments of the ancient nation. " Having made, (says this traveller,) arrangements for an ab- sence of a few days, I provided myself with an excellent tinder box, some biscuit and salt, and arming my Indian travelling com- panion with a good axe and rifle, taking myself a fowling piece, often tried, and my faithful dog, I crossed the ferry of the Musk- ingum, having learned that the left hand side of that river was most accessible and the most abundant in curiosities and other objects of my research. [In another part of this work we shall describe works of a similar sort, on the opposite side of the Muskingum, as given by the Antiquarian Society of Ohio.] " On traversing the valley between Fort Harmer and the moun- tains, I determined to take the high grounds, and after some diffi- culty, ascended an eminence which commanded a view of the town of Marietta and of the river up and down, displaying to a great distance, along the narrow valley of the Ohio, cultivated plains, the gardens, and popular walks of that beautiful town. " After a very short inspection and cursory examination, it was evident, that the very spot, or eminence on which I stood, had been occupied by the Indians, either as a place of observation, or a strong bold. The exact summit of the hill I found to be artificial ; it ex- pressed an oval, forty-five feet by twenty-three, and was compose 1 apparently of earth and stone, though no stone of a similar char- acter appeared in that place- 88 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES " The base of the whole was girded round about, by a wall of earth in a state of too great decay to justify any calculation, and the whole was so covered with heavy timber, that I despaired of gaining any further knowledge, and would have left the place, had I not been detained by my Indian companion, whom I saw occu- pied in endeavoring to introduce a pole into a small opening be- tween two flat stones, near the root of a tree 5 which grew on the very summit of this eminence. " The stones we found were too heavy to be removed by the mere power of hands. Two good oak poles were cut, in lieu of levers and crows. Clapping these into the orifice first discovered, we weighed a large flag stone, tilting it over, when we each as- sumed a guarded position, in silent expectation of hearing the his- sing of serpents, or the rustling of the ground hog's litter ; where, the Indian had supposed, was a den of one sort or the other. " All was silent. We resumed our labor, casting out a number of stones, leaves, and earth, soon clearing a surface of seven feet by five, which had been covered, upwards of fifteen inches deep, with flat stones, principally lying against each other, with their edges to the horizon. " On the surface we had cleared, appeared another difficulty, which was a plain superfices, composed of but three flat stones of such apparent magnitude that the Indian began to think that we should find under them neither snake nor pig, but having once be- gun, I was not to be diverted from my task, " Stimulated by obstructions, and animated with other views than those of my companion, I had made a couple of hickory sho- vels with the axe, and setting to work, soon undermined the surface, and slid the stones off on one side, and laid the space open to view. a I expected to find a cavern : my imagination was warmed by a certain design, I thought I discovered, from the very beginning; the manner the stones were placed led me to conceive the existence of a vault filled with the riches of antiquity, and crowded with the treasures of the most ancient world. " A bed of sand was all that appeared under these flat stones, which I cast off, and as I knew there was no sand nearer than the bed of the Muskingum, a design was therefore the more manifest. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 89 which encouraged my proceeding ; the sand was about a foot deep, which I soon removed. " The design and labor of man was now unequivocal. The space out of which these materials were taken, left a hollow in an obloug square, lined with stones on the end and sides, aud also, paved on what appeared to be the bottom, with square stones, of about nine inches diameter. " I picked these up with the nicest care, and again came to a bed of sand, which, when removed, made the vault about three feet deep, presenting another bottom or surface, composed of small square cut stones, fitted with such art, that I had much difficulty in discovering many of the places where they met. These dis- placed, I came to a substance, which, on the most critical examin- ation, I judged to be a mat, or mats, in a state of entire decomposir tion and decay. My reverence and care increased with the progress already made ; I took up this impalpable powdisr with my hands, and fanned off the remaining dust with my hat, when there ap- peared a beautiful tesselated pavement of small, colored stones ; the colors and stones arranged in such a manner as to express har- mony and shades, and portraying, at full length, the figure of a war- rior under whose feet a snake was exhibited in ample folds. " The body of the figures was composed of dyed woods, bones, and a variety of small bits of terrous and testaceous substances, most of which crumbled into dust on being removed and exposed to the open air. "My regret and disappointment were very great, as I had flat- tered myself that the whole was stone, and capable of being taken up and preserved. Little more, however, than the actual pave- ment could be preserved, which was composed of flat stones, one inch deep, and two inches square. The prevailing colors were white, green, dark blue, and pale spotted red; all of which are pe- culiar to the lakes, and not to be had nearer than about three hun- dred miles. "The whole was aifixed in a thin layer of sand, fitted together with great precision, and covered a piece of bark in great decay, whose removal exposed what I was fully prepared to discover, from all previous indications, the remains of a human skeleton, which was of an uncommon magnitude, being seven feet in length. With 12 90 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES the skeleton was found, first, an earthen vessel, or urn, in which were several bones, and >some white sediment. "The urn appeared to fye made of sand and flint vitrified, and rung, when struck, like glass, and held about two gallons, had a top or cover of the same material, and resisted fire as completely as iron or brass. Second ; a stone axe, with a groove round the pole, by which it had been fastened with a withe to the handle. Third ; twenty-four arrow points, made of flint and bone, and lying in a position which showed they had belonged to a quiver. Fourth ; a quantity of beads, but not of glass, round, oval, and square ; color- ed green, black, white, blue and yellow. Filth ; a very large c&uch shell, decomposed into a substance like chalk ; this shell was fourteen inches long, and twenty-three in circumference. The Hindoo priests, at the present time, use this shell as sacred* It is blown to announce the celebration of religious festivals. Sixth ; under a heap of dust and tenuous shreds of feathered cloth and hair, a parcel of brass rings, cut out of a solid piece of metal, and in such a manner, that the rings were suspended from each other, without the aid of solder or any other visible agency whatever. Each ring was three inches in diameter, and the bar of the rings an half inch thick, and were square ; a variety of characters were deeply engraved on the sides of the rings, resembling the Chinese characters." <\ Ward's History of the Hindoos, page 41 and 56, informs us, that the god Vishnoo, is represented holding a sea shell in his hand, called the " sacred shell ;" and, second, he states, that " the uten- sils employed in the ceremonies of the temple, are several dishes to hold the offerings, a hand bell, a lamp, jugs for holding water, an incense dish, a copper cup, a seat of Kooshu grass for the priests, a large metal ptate, used as a bell. Several of the articles found buiied in this manner, resemble these utensils of the Brahmin priests, while some are exactly like them. The mat of Kooshu grass resembles the mat of hair and feathers; the earthen dish, the conch shell, are the very same in kind ; the brass chain might an- swer instead of a bell, or iron plate to strike against, which would produce a gingling sound. A quantity of round, oval, and square beads, colored variously, were found ; although Mr. Ward does not say, that beads were a part of the utensils of the Hindoo priests, AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST* 91 yet we find them on the necks and arms of both their gods and their mendicants. Pottery of the same kind found in those ancient works, have al- so the quality of enduring the fire. The art of making vessels of clay, is very ancient ; we find it spoken of by Jeremiah the pro- phet, nearly three thousand years ago. The art of coloring wood, stones, and shells, with a variety of beautiful tints, was also known, as appears from the pavement above described, and the colored beads. In many parts of the west, paints of various colors have been found hidden in the earth. On the Chenango river, in the sta-e of New- York, has recently been found, on opening of one of those ancient mounds, though of but small dimensions ; three kinds of paint, black, red, and yellow, which are now in the possession of. a Doctor Wiilard, at the village of Greene, in the county of Che- nango. The Indians of both China and America, have, from time imme- morial, used paints to adorn themselves and their gods. But the brass rings and tesselated pavement are altogether the most to be wondered at. A knowledge of the method of manufac- turing brass was known to the Antediluvians. This we learn from Genesis iv. 22. Tubal Cain was an artificer in brass and iron about eleven hundred years before the flood* But how this article, the brass chain, of such curious construc- tion, came in the possession of the chief, interred on the summit of the mountain, is a question to be answered, it would seem, in but two ways. They either had a knowledge of the art of making brass, or the article was an item of that king's peculiar treasure, and had been derived either from his ancestors from the earliest ages, or from South America, as an article of trade, a gift from some fellow king, or a trophy of some victorious battle over some southern nation ;. for, according to Humboldt, brass was found a- mong the native Mexicans, in great abundance. But how the Mexicans came by this art in mineralogy, is equally a question. Gold, silver, copper, &c, are the natural product of their respective ores ; and accident may have made them acquaint- ed with these ; as iron was discovered among the Greeks, by fire in the woods having melted the ore. But brass is farther removed 92 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES from the knowledge of man, being a composition of copper and the calamine stone, or ore of zinc. However, it is said by Morse, that in Chili, in the hills of Huilquilemu, are found mines of native brass, of a fine yellow color, and equally maleable with the best artificial brass ; yet this is no common product of mineralogy, and would seem to be an exception, or rather a product extraordinary ; and, in a measure, induces a belief, that it is not proper brass, but a metal similar only in complexion, while perhaps its chemical pro- prieties are entirely different, or it may have been produced by the fusion of copper and the ore of zinc, by the fire of some volcano. Brass was the metal out of which the ancient nations made all their instruments of war, and defensive armor. The reason of this preference above copper and iron, even by the Greeks and Romans, was probably on account of the excessive bright polish it was capable of receiving ; for the Greeks and Romans used it iong after their knowledge of iron. Iron was discovered by the Greeks 1406 years before Christ. T-ie ancient Americans must have de- rived a knowledge of brass from their early' acquaintance with na- tions immediately succeeding the flood, who bad it from the Antedi- luvians, by way of Noah ; and having found their way to this con- tinent, before it became so isolated as it is at the present time, surrounded on all sides by oceans, made use of the same meta! Lere. But the tesselated or spotted pavement is equally curious with the brass chain, on account of its resemblance to the Mosaic pave- ments of the Romans; being small pieces of marble, of various colors, with which they ornamented the fronts of their tents in time of war, but were taken up again whenever they removed. This sort of pavement is often dug up in England, aild is of Roman origin. We find the history of the ancient Britons, mentions the currency ' of iron rings, as juonev ? which was in use among them, before the invasion of Julius Caes* >\r. Is it not possible, that the brass chain, or an assemblage of tho,3 e rings, as found iu this mound, may have been held among tho.se ai ^cients of America in the same estimation ? The chain, in their moje 0. f reckoning, being perhaps of an immense amount ; its being founr); de£ os i tea * w ^ tn lts owner, who was a chief or king, is the evider ce of iU ? peculiar value, whether it had been used as an article in, £ ra de, or > ls a sacred implement AND DISCOVERIES IH THE WEST. 93 This maculated pavement, arranged in such a manner as to re- present in full size, the chief, lung, or monarch, who was interred beneath it, shows the knowledge, that people had of painting, sculp- ture, and descriptive delineation : but most of all, the serpent which lay coiled at his feet is surprising, because we suppose this transaction could not have happened from mere caprice, or the sport of imagination. It must have been a trait of their theology, and, possibly, an allu- sion to the serpent, by whose instrumentality Satan deceived the first woman, the mother of us all : and its being beneath his feet, may also have alluded to the promised seed, who was to bruise the Serpenth head ; all of which may easily have been derived from the family of Noah, and carried along with the millions of mankind, as they diverged asunder from Mount Ararat, around the wide earth. The Mexicans are found to have a clear notion of this thing, and of many other trait of the early history of man, as re- lated in the Hebrew records and '.he Scriptures, preserved in their traditions and paintings, as we shell show in another place. The etching on the square sides of those rings of brass, in char- acters resemb'ing Chinese, shows the manufacturer, and the nation of which he was a member, to have had a knowledge of engrav- ing, even on the metals, equal with artists at the present time, of which the common Indian of the west knows nothing. The stone hatchet, flint, and bone arrow points, found in this tomb, are no exclusive evidence that this was all done by the mod- ern Indians : because the same are found in vast profusion in all parts of the old world, particularly in the island of England ; and have been in use from remotest antiquity. We are very far from believing the Indians of the present time to be the aborigines of America ; but quite contrary, are usurpers; have, by force of bloody warfare, exterminated the original inhabi- tants, taking possession of their country, property, and in some few instances, retaining arts learned of those very nations. The immense sea shell, which was fourteen inches long, and twenty-three inches in circumference, found in this tomb, is evi- dence of this people's having an acquaintance with other parts of the world, than merely their own dwellings, because the shell is a marine production, and the nearest place where this element is $4 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES found from the Muskingum, is nearly a thousand miles in a strait line east to the Atlantic. If the engraving on this chain be, in fact, Chinese, or if they bear a strong and significant analogy to them, it justifies the opinion that a communication between America and Asia, by means of land on the west, once existed, but has been destroyed by some convul- sion in nature. And also the characters on those rings show the ancient Americans to have had a knowledge of letters. A knowl- edge of letters, hieroglyphics, pictures of ideas, and of facts, was known among men, 200 years before the time of Moses, or 1822 years before the Christian era, among the Egyptians. Nations of men, therefore, having, at an early period, found their way to this continent, if indeed it was then a separate continent ; consequently, to find the remains of such an art, scattered here and there in the dust and ashes of the nations of America, passed away, is not surpris- ing. The mound which we have described, was apprehended by Mr. Ash, to be only an advanced guard post, or a place of lookout, in the direction of the Muskingum and the valley of the Ohio ; accordingly, he wandered farther into the woods, in a northwesterly direction, leaving on his right the Muskingum, whose course was northeast by southwest. His research in that direction had not long been continued, be- fore he discovered strong indications of his conjecture. He had come to a small valley between two mountains, through which a small creek meandered its way io the Muskingum. On either side of the stream were evident traits of a very large settlement of antiquity. They consisted, first, of a wall oi ram- part of earth, of almost nine feet perpendicular elevation, and thirty feet across the base. The rampart was of a semicircular form, its entire circuit being three hundred paces, or something over eigh- teen rods, bounded by the creek. On the opposite side of the stream was another rampart of the same description, evidently an- swering to the first; these, viewed together, made one grand circle, of more than forty rods circumference, with the creek runing be- tween. After a minute examination, he perceived very visibly the re- mains of elevated stone abutments, which being exactly opposite each other, suggested the belief, that these bridges once connected AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 95 the two semicircles ; one in the centre, and one on either side, at the extreme edges of the ring. The timber growing on the ram- part and within the circle, was principally red oak, of great age and magnitude, some of the trees, being in a state of decay, were not less than seven feet in diameter, and twenty-one in circum- ference. Some considerable farther up the brook, at the spot where the beautiful vale commences, where the mountain rises abruptly and discharges from its cleft bosom the delightful creek, are a great number of mounds of earth, standing at equal distances from each other, forming three grand circles, one beyond the other, cut in two by the creek, as the one described before, with streets situated be- tween, forming, as do the mounds, complete circles. Here, as at the other, the two half circles were united, as would appear, by two bridges, the abutments of which are distinct, so perfect are their remains. At a considerable distance, on the sides of the mountain, are two mounds or barrows, which are nearly thirty feet long, twelve high, and seventeen wide at the base. These barrows are com- posed principally of stone taken out of the creek, on which are growing also very heavy timber. Here were deposited the dead, who had been the inhabitants of the town in the vale. From which it appears that the mounds forming those circles, which were sixty in number, are not tumuli, or the places where chiefs and dis- tinguished warriors were entombed, but were the houses, the actu- al dwellings of the people who built them. However, the distin- guished dead were interred in tumuli of the same form frequently, but much more magnificent and lofty, and are fewer in number, situated on the highest grounds adjacent to their towns. But it may be enquired, how could those mounds of earth have ever been the dwellings of families? There is but one way to ex- plain it- They may have, at the time of their construction, re- ceived their peculiar form, which is a conical or sugar loaf form, by the erection of long poles or logs, set up in a circle at the bottom, and brought together at the top, with an opening, so that the smoke might pass out. Against this the earth, (being brought from a dis- tance, so as not to disturb the even surface of the spot chosen to build on ? ) was thrown, till the top and ■ide* were entirely enveloped. / 96 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES ■ This operation would naturally cause the bottom, or base, to be of great thickness, caused by the natural sliding down of the earth, as it was thrown on or against the timbers ; and this thick- ness would be in exact proportion with the height of the poles, at the ratio of an angle of forty-five degrees. In this way, a dwelling of the most secure description would be the result ; such as could not be easily broken through, nor set on fire ; and in winter would be warm, and in summer cool. It is true, such rooms would be rather gloomy, compared with the mag- nificent and well lighted houses of the present times, yet ac- corded well with the usages of antiquity, when mankind lived in clans and tribes, but few in number, compared with the present populousness of the earth, and stood in fear of invasion from their neighbors. Such houses as these, built in circles of wood at first, and lastly, of stone, as the knowledge of architecture came on, were used by the ancient inhabitants of Britain, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and on the continent, as in Norway. No mode of building which can be conceived of, would more effectually shutout the wind. "Houses of this form, made with upright stones, are even now common over all the Danish dominions." See Morse's Geography, vol. l,p- 158. In the communication of Mr. Moses Fiske, of Hillham, Tennes- see, to the American Antiquarian Society, 1815, respecting the re- mains and discoveries made relative to antiquities in the west, but especially in Tennessee, says, that the description of mounds, whe- ther round, square or oblong in their shapes, which have flat tops, were the most magnificent sort, and seem contrived for the purpose of building temples and castles on their summits ; which being thus elevated, w r ere very imposing, and might be seen at a great distance. " Nor must we," he continues, " mistake the ramparts or fortifica- tions, for farming inclosures ; what people, savage or civilized, ever fenced their grounds. so preposterously; beariug no proportion in quantity necessary for tillage ;" from which the support of a whole country was expected; and further, there "were many neighborhoods which had no such accommodations. He has also discovered, that within the areas encompassed by these ramparts, are whole ranges of foundations, on which duelling AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 97 houses once stood, with streets running between, besides mounds and other works. " The houses generally stood in rows, nearly- contiguous to each other," as in all compact towns and cities, though sometimes they stood in an irregular and scattered manner. These foundations " are indicated by rings of the earth, from three to five fathoms in diameter," which is equal to eighteen and thirty feet ; the remains of these rings or foundations are from ten to twenty inches high, and a yard or more broad. But they were not always circular ; some of which he had noticed, were square, and others al- so, of the oblong form, as houses are now built by civilzed nations. " The flooring of some is elevated above the common level, or surface ; that of others is depressed. These tokens are indubita- ble, and overspread the country ; some scattered and solitary, but oftener in groups, like villages, with and without being walled in." From which it is clear, that whoever they were, the pursuits of agriculture were indispensable, and were therefore in use with those nations. From the forms of the foundations of dwellings discovered and described by Mr. Fiske, we conclude, they were the efforts of man at a very early period. We are directed to this conclusion by the writings of Vetruvius, who lived in the time of Julius Caesar, and is the most ancient writer on the subject of architecture that anti- quity can boast of- His account is as follows : " At first, for the walls, men erected forked stakes, and disposing twigs between them, covered them with loam ; others pulled up clods of clay, binding them with wood, and to'avoid rain and heat, they made a covering with reeds and boughs : but finding that t.his' roof could not resist the winter rains, they made it sloping, pointed at the top, plastering it over with clay, and by that means discharg- ing the rain water. "To this day, says Vetruvius, some foreign na- tions construct their dwellings of the same kind of materials, as in Gaul, Spain, Lusitania, and Aquitain. The Colchins, in the king- dom of Portugal, where they abound in forests, fix trees in the earth,, close together in ranks, to the right and left, leaving as much space between them, from corner to corner, as the length of the trees will permit ; upon the ends of these, at the corners, others are laid transversely, which circumclude the place of habitation in the middle ; then at the top, the four angles are braced together with alternate beams. The crevices, which are large, on account of- the 13 98 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES coarseness of the materials, are stopped with chips and loam. The roof is also raised by beams laid across from the extreme angles, or corners, gradually rising from the four sides to the middle point at the top, (exactly likj a German barrack;) and then covered with boughs and earth. In this manner the barbarians, says this author, made their roofs to their towers." By the barbarians, he means the inhabitants of Europe, at the time when he wrote these re- marks, which was in the reign of Julius Caesar, a short time before Christ. The Phrygians, who inhabit a champaign country, being destitute of timber, select natural hills, excavate them, dig an en- trance, and widen the space within as much as the nature of the place will permit ; above, they fix stakes in a pyramidal form, bind them together, and cover them with reeds or straw, heaping there- on great piles of earth. This kind of covering renders them very warm in winter and cool in summer. Some also cover the roofs of their huts with weeds of lakes ; and thus, in all countries and nations, primeval dwellings are formed upon similar principles." — Blake's Atlas, p. 145. The circular, square, and oblong form of foundations, found in the west, would seem to argue, the houses built thereon to be made in the same way this author has described the mode of building in his time among the barbarous nations ; and also furnishes reason to believe them to have been made here in America, much in the same ages of the world. Having this knowledge of the mode of ancient building, we are led to the conclusion, that the town which we have just given an account of, was a clan of some of the ancient Celtic nations, who, by some means, had found their way to this part of the earth, and had fixed their abode in this secluded valley. Celtic or Irish, as Mr. Morse says, who were derived from Gaul, or Galatia, which is now France, who descended from Gomer, one of the sons of Ja- pheth, a son of Noah ; to whose descendants Europe, with its isles, was given. And whether the people who built this town were of Chinese or of Celtic origin, it is much the- same ; because if we go far enough back in ages of past time, we shall find they were of the same origiu, and had equal opportunities to perpetuate a remembrance of the arts, as known among men immediately after the flood, and might therefore resemble each other in their works. Here we may suppose the gods Odin, Thor, and Friga, were AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 89 adored under the oaks composing American forests, as taught by the Druids ; here their victims, the deer and buffalo, sent up to the skies their smoking odour, while the priests of the forests invoked the blessing of the beneficent Being upon the votaries of the mys- tic Misleto. Here were the means of mutual defence and safety discussed ; the sighs of the lover breathed on the winds ; parents and children looked with kindness on each other; soothed and bound the wounds of such as returned from the uncertain fate of clanular battles ; but have been swept with the besom of extermi- nation from this vale, while no tongue remains to tell the story of their sufferings. At the distance of about three miles higher up, and nottfar from the Muskingum, says Mr. Ash, he perceived an eminence very similar to the one just described, in which the brass chain was found, to which he hastened, and immediately perceived their like- ness in form. On a comparison of the two, there could be but one opinion, namely, that both were places of lookout for the express protection of the settlement in the valley. He says he took the pains of clear- ing the top of the eminence, but could not discover any stone or mark which might lead to a supposition of its being a place of inter- ment. The country above was hilly, yet not so high as to intercept the view for a presumed distance of twenty miles. . On these eminences the " beacon fires " of the clan, who resided in the valley, may have been kindled at the hour of midnight, to show those who watched the portentous flame, the advance or de- struction of an enemy. Such fires, on the heights of Scotland, were wont to be kindled in the days of Bruce and Wallace, and ages before their time, originated from the Persians, possibly, who wor- shipped in this way the great Or amaze, as the god who made all things. The idea of a Creator, was borrowed from Noah, who re- ceiyed the account of the creation from Seth, who had it from. Adam ; and Adam from the Almighty himself. From this excursion our traveller, after having returned to Mari- etta, pursued his way to Zanesville, on the Muskingum river where, learning from the inhabitants that the neighborhood was surrounded with the remains of antiquity, he proceeded to the ex- amination of them, having obtained a number of persons to accom- pany him with the proper implements of excavation. They perie- 100 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES trated the woods in a westerly direction, to a place known to those who accompanied him, about five miles distance, where the ruins of ancient times were numerous and magnificent in the highest degree ; consisting of mounds, barrows and ramparts, but of sueh variety and form, and covering so immense a track of ground, that it would have taken at least ten days to have surveyed them minutely. These immense works of the ancients, it appears, were, in this place, encompassed by outlines of an entirely different shape from any other described, being of the triangular form, and occupying the whole plain, situated as the one before described, in a place nearly surrounded by mountains. But we pass over many incidents of this traveller, and come im- mediately to the object of his research, which was to open such of those mounds as might attract his attention. His .first operation was to penetrate the interior of a large barrow, situated at one ex- tremity of the vale, which was its southern. Three feet below the surface was fine mould, underneath which were small flat stones, lying in regular strata or gravel, brought from the mountain in the vicinity. This last covered the remains of a human frame, which fell into impalpable powder when touched and exposed to air. Toward the base of the barrow, he came to three tier of sub- stances, placed regularly in rotation. And as these formed two rows four deep, separated by little more than a flag stone between the feet of one and the head of another, it was supposed the barrow contained about two thousand skeletons, in a very great state of de- cay, which shows their extreme antiquity. In this search was found a well carved stone pipe, expressing a bear's head, together with some fragments of pottery of fine tex- ture. Near the centre of the whole works, another opening wasl affected, in a rise of ground, scarcely higher than a natural undu- lation, common to the general surface of the earth, even on ground esteemed to be level. But there was one singularity accompany- ing the spot, which attracted the attention of the company, and this was, there was neither shrub nor tree on the spot, although more than ninety feet in circumference, but was adorned with a multi- tude of pink and purple flowers. They came to an opinion that the rise of ground was artificial, and as it differed in form and character from the common mounds , AICD DISeOVlRIES IN TH1 WEST. 101 they resolved to lay it open, which was soon done, to a level with the plain, but without the discovery of any thing whatever. But as Ash had become vexed, having found nothing to answer his ex- pectations in other openings on the spot, he jumped from the bank, in order to take a spade and encourage the men to dig somewhat deeper. At this instant the ground gave way, and involved the whole company in earth and ruin, as was supposed, for the moment ; but was soon followed by much mirth and laughter, as no person was hurt by the fall, which was but about three feet. Ash had great difficulty to prevail on any person to resume the labor, and had to explore the place himself, and sound it with a pole, before any man would venture to aid him further, on account of their fright. But they soon resumed their courage, and on examination found that a parcel of timbers had given way, which covered the orifice of a square hole seven feet by four, and four feet deep. That it was a sepulchre, was unanimously agreed, till they found it in vain to look for bones, or any substances similar to them, in a state of decomposition. They soon, however, struck an object which would neither yield to the spade, nor emit any sound ; but persevering still further, they found the obstruction, which was uniform through the pit, to proceed from rows of large spherical bodies, at first taken to be stones. Several of them were cast up to the surface ; they were exactly alike, perfectly round, nine inches in diameter, and of about twenty pounds weight. The superfices of one, when cleaned and scraped with knives, appeared like a ball of base metal, so strongly im- pregnated with the dust of gold, that the baseness of the metal it- self was nearly altogether obscured. On this discovery, the cla- mour was so great, and joy so exuberant, that no opinion but one was admitted, and no voice could be heard, while the cry of " 'tis gold ! 'tis gold !" resounded through the groves. Having to a man determined on this important point, they formed a council respecting the distribution of the treasure, and each indi- vidual, in the joy of his heart, declared publicly the use he intend- ed to make of the part alloted to his share. The Englishman concluded that he would return to England, be- ing sure, from experience, that there was no country like it. A German of the party said, he would never have quitted the Rhine, 103 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES had he had money enough to rebuild his barn, which was blown down by a high wind ; but that he would return to the very spot from whence he came, and prove to his neighbors that he loved his country as well as any man, when he had the means of doing well. An Irishman swore a great oath, the day longer he'd stay in America ; and the Indian who accompanied Ash, appeared to think, that were he to purchase some beads, rum and blankets, and return to his own nation, he might become Sachem, and keep the finest squaws to be found. Even Ash himself saw in the treasure the sure and ample means of continuing his travels in such parts of the earth as he had not yet visited. The company returned to Zanesville with but one ball of their riches, while they carefully hid the residue, till they should subject it to the ordeal of fire. They soon procured a private room, where 3 while it was receiv- ing the trial of fire, they stood around in silence almost dreading to breathe. The dreadful element, which was to confirm or con- sume their hopes, soon began to exercise its various powers. In a few moments the ball turned black, filled the room with sulphurous smoke, emitted sparks and intermitted flames, and burst into ten thousand pieces; so great was the terror and suffocation, that all rushed into the street, and gazed on each other, with a mixed ex- pression of doubt and astonishment. The smoke subsided, when they were able to discover the ele- ments of the supposed gold, which consisted of some very fine ashes, and a great quantity of cinders, exceedingly porous ; the balls were nothing but a sort of metal called spririte or pyrites, and abounds in the mountains of that region. The triangular form of this enclosure, being different from the general form of those ancient works, is perhaps worthy of notice, merely on the account of its form; and might be supposed to be of Chinese Origin, as it is well known that the triangular shape is a favorite one of the nations of Hindostan ; it is even in the Hindoo theology, significant of the Trinity, of their great Brahmah, or god ; and on this account, might even characterise the form of national works such as we have just described, under the notion, that the divine protection would the more readily be secured. " One of the missionaries at Pekin," says Adam Clarke, "takes it for granted, that the mystery of the Trinity was known among the ancient Chi- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 103 nese, as that this A character was its symbol. It is remarkable that Moses and the prophets, the ancient Chaldee Targumists, the au- thors of the Zend Avesta, a Chinese book, Plato, a celebrated phi- losopher of antiquity, who died at Athens, 348, B. C, and also the first philosopher of Greece, and Philo the Jew, should all coincide so perfectly in their ideas of a Trinity in the Godhead. This could not be the effect of accident. Moses and the prophets received this from God himself; and all others have' borrowed from this first origin." For what use the balls of which we have given an account were designed, is impossible to conjecture, whether to be thrown by means of engines, as practised by the Romans, as an instrument of warfare, or a sort of medium in trade, or were used as instruments, in athletic games, either to roll or heave, who can tell ? But one thing respecting them is not uncertain, they must have been of great value, or so much labor and care would not have been expended to secure them. Colonel Ludlow, of Cincinnati, a man, it is said, who was well versed in the history of his country, though now deceased, was indefatigable in his researches after the antiquities of America, discovered several hundreds of those balls of pyrites, weighing generally about twenty pounds each, near an old Indian settlement, on the banks of the Little Miami, of the Ohio, and also another heap in an artificial cave, on the banks of the Sciota, consisting of copper pyrites, or quartz. In that division of South America, called Patagonia, which ex- tends nearly to the extreme southern point of that country, is found a people, denominated Patagonians, who are' of a monstrous size and height, measuring from six to seven feet, many of them ap- proaching to eight. Among this people is found an instrument of war, made of heavy stones, wore round by friction ; so that in ap- pearance, they are like a cannon ball. These they contrive to fasten in a sling, from which they throw them with great dexterity and force.— Morse'' s Geo. This kind of ball was used, though of a smaller size, to capture and kill animals with. The manner of using them, is as follows : They take three of those balls,, two of them three inches, and one of them two inches in diameter. The hunter takes the small ball in his right hand, and swings the other two, (which are connected by a. thong of a proper length, fastening also to the one in his hand) 104 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES round his head, till a sufficient velocity is acquired, at the same time taking aim, when it is thrown at the legs of the animal he is pursuing, in such a manner as to entangle its feet by the rotary mo- tion of the balls ; so that its capture is easy. Conjecture might go on to establish it as a fact, that these balls of pyrites, found in many parts of the west, were indeed a war- like instrument, thrown by a sling, out of which, a force almost equivalent to that of powder, might be acquired ; and from the top of mounds, or from the sides of their elevated forts, such a mode of defence would be very terrible. This mode of righting was known to the Hebrews. David slew Goliath with a stone from a sling. Seven hundred chosen men out of Gibea, could sling a stone at an hair's breadth. Job speaks of this manner of annoying wild beasts, where he is recounting the strength of Leviathan : " Slinged stones are turned with him into stubble." Dr. Adam Clarke's observations on the use and force of the sling, are very interesting, and pertinent to the subject. They are found in his Commentary, 1st. Samuel, chap. xvii. verse 40, u The sling, both among the Greeks and Hebrews, has been a most powerful, offensive weapon. It is composed of two strings and a leather strap ;" (or as among the Patagonians, of raw-hide/) " the strap is in the middle, and is the place where the stone or bullet lies. The string on the right end of the strarj is firmly fastened to the hand ; that on the left, is held between the 'thumb and middle joint of the fore finger. It is then whirled two or three times round the head ; and when discharged, the finger and thumb let go their hold of the string. The velocity and force of the sling is in proportion to the distance of the strap to where the bullet lies, from the shoulder joint. Hence, the ancient Balleares, or inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca, islands in the Mediterranean Sea, near the coast of Spain, are said to have had three slings of different lengths ; the longest they used when the enemy was at the greatest distance ; the mid- dle one on their nearer approach, and the shortest, when they came into the ordinary fighting distance in the field. The shortest is the most certain, though not the most powerful. " The Balleareans are said to have one of their slings constantly bound about their head ; to have used the second as a girdle ; and to have carried the third always in their hand. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 105 *' In the use of the sling, it requires much practice to hit the mark ; hut when once this dexterity is acquired, the sling is nearly ^as fatal as the ball thrown by the explosion of powder. " David was evidently an expert marksman ; and his sling gave him greatly the advantage over Goliah ; an advantage of which the giant does not seem to have been aware. He could hit him within any speaking distance ; if he missed once, he had as many chances as he had stones ; and after all, being unincumbered with armor, young and athletic, he could have saved his life by flight. But David saved himself the trouble of running away, or the giant from throwing his spear or javelin at him, by giving him the first blow. " Goliah was terribly armed, having a spear, a shield, and a sword; 'besides, he was every where invulnerable, on account of his hel- met of brass, his coat of mail, which was made also of brass, in little pieces, perhaps about the size of a half dollar, and lapped over each other, like the scales of fishes, so that no sword, spear, nor ar- row could hurt him." This coat of mail, when polished and bright, must have been very glorious to look upon, especially when the sun, in his bright- ness, bent his beams to aid the giant warrior's fulgent habiliments to illumine the field of battle, as the wearer strode, here and there, among the trophies of death. The only spot left, where he could be hit to advantage, was his broad giant forehead, into which the stone of David sunk, from its dreadful impetus [received from the simple sling. To some, this has appeared perfectly improbable ; but we are assured by ancient writers, that scarcely any thing could resist the force of the sling. Diodorus Siculus, an historian who flourished in the time of Julius Caesar, a short time before Christ, and was born in the island of Sicily, in the Mediterranean, says, " the people of the islands of Minorca and Majorca, in time of war, could sling greater stones than any other people, and with such force, that they seemed as if projected from a capult," an engine used by the ancients for this purpose. Therefore, in assaults made on fortified towns, they grieviously wound the besieged, and in battle, they break in pieces the shields, helmets, and every species of armor, by which the body is de- fended. It would seem, from the expertness* of the Patagonians, 14 106 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES J evinced in the use of the sling, that they may have been derived from the ancient inhabitants of those islands, who could as easily have found their way out of the Mediterranean by the Strait of Gibralter into the Atlantic Ocean, and be driven across to South America, by the winds from the east, or by the current of the. sea, as the Egyptians, as we have before shown. The sling was a very ancient warlike instrument ; and in the hands of those who were skilled in the use of it, it produced as- tonishiDg effects. The people of the above named islands were the most celebrated slingers of antiquity. They did not permit their children to eat till they had struck down their food from the top of a pole, or some distant eminence. Concerning the velocity of the leaden ball thrown out of the sling, it is said by the ancients, to have melted in its course. Ovid, the Roman poet, has celebrated its speed, in the following beauti- ful verse : " Hermes was fired, as in the clouds he hung ; So the cold bullet that with fury slung From Balearic engines, mounts on high, Glows in the whirl, and burns along the sky." This is no poetic fiction. Seneca, the stoic philosopher of Rome, born A. D. 12, says the same thing ; " the ball projected from the sling, melts, and is liquified by the friction of the air, as if it were exposed to the action of fire." Vegetius, who lived in the 14th century, and was also a Roman, tells us, that " slingers could, in general, hit the mark at six hun- dred feet distance," which is more than thirty rods. From this view we see what havoc the western nations, using the sling or engine, to throw stones from their vast forts and mounds with, must have made, when engaged in defensive or offensive war. DISCOVERY OF THE REMAINS OF ANCIENT POTTERY. On the subject of pottery we remark, that the remains of this art are generally found, especially of any extent, in the nighbor- hood of salt springs. It is true, that specimens of earthen ware AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 107 are frequently taken out of the ancient barrows of the dead, and also are frequently brought to sight on the shores of rivers, where the earth has been suddenly removed by inundations. A few years since, an instance of this sort occurred at Tawanda, in Pennsylvania. The Susquehannah had risen very high, at the time we are speaking of, and had undermined the bank on the Tawanda shore, to a considerable extent, at the high water mark. On the receding of the waters, the bank was found to be carried away for the distance of about six rods, when there appeared sev- eral fire places, made of the stones of the river, with vessels of earthen, of a capacity about equal with a common water pail, in a very good state of preservation. Between those fire places, which were six in number, were found the skeletons of several human beings, lying in an undis- turbed position, as if they, when living, had fallen asleep, and ne- ver waked ; two of these, in particular, attracted attention, and excited not a little surprise ; they were lying side by side, with the arm of one of them under the neck of the other, and the feet were mingled in such a manner as to induce the belief that when death came upon them, they were asleep in each other's embraces. But in what manner they came to their death, so that they appear- ed not to have moved, from the fatal moment till the bank of Ta- wanda was carried away, which had covered them for ages, is strange indeed. It cannot be supposed they died all at once, of some sickness, or that an enemy surprised them while sleeping, and, silently pass- ing from couch to couch, inflicted the deadly blow ; because, in any of these ways, their bones, in the convulsions of' dissolution, must have been deranged, so that the image and peaceful posture of sleepers could not have characterised their positions, as they were found to have. It was conjectured, at. the time of their discov- ery, that the period of their death had been at the season of the year when that river breaks up its ice ; in March or April, the riv- er they supposed, may have been dammed up below them, where, it is -true, the stream narrows oh the account of the approach of the mountains. Here the ice having jammed in between, caused a sudden rise' of the river, and setting back, overflowed them. But this cannot be possible, as the noise of the breaking ice would never allow them to sleep ; this operation of nature is accompanied 108 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES with a tremendous uproar and grandeur, tearing and rending tne shores and forests that grow on them, multiplying crash on crash? with the noise of thunder. Neither can it be well supposed, the waters came over them in the way suggested, even if they had slept during the scene we have just described, beeause on the first touch of the waters to their bodies, they would naturally spring from their sleep in surprise. Something must have happened that deprived them of life and motion in an instant of time. This is not impossible, because at Herculaneum and Pompeii, are found, where, in digging, they have penetrated through the lava down to those ancient cities, laying bare streets, houses and temples, with their contents, such as have survived the heat which ruined those cities — skeletons, holding between their fingers something they had in their hands at the moment of their death, so that they do not appear even to have struggled. ' Something of the same nature, as it respects suddenness, must have overtaken these sleepers ; so that their natural positions were not disturbed. If the place of their dwellings had been skirted by a steep bank or hill, it might then have been supposed that a land slip or mine spring, had buried them alive, but this is not the case. They were about four feet under ground, the soil which covered them was the same alluvial with the rest of the flat ; it is a myste- ry, and cannot be solved, unless we suppose an explosion of earth, occasioned by an accumulation of galvanic principles, which, burst- ing the earth near them, suddenly buried them alive. Dr. Beck, the author of the Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri,. suggests the cause of the earthquakes in the valley of the Missis- sippi, in 1811 and 1812, which, in many places, threw up in an instant vast heaps of earth, to have been the principle of galvan- ism bursting from the depths beneath, in a perpendicular direction, overwhelming, in a moment of time, whatever might be asleep or awake, wherever it fell. Further down the Susquehannah, some thirty or forty miles be- low Tawanda, at a place called the Black-walnut Bottom, on the farm of a Mr. Kinney, was discovered a most extraordinary speci- men of pottery. Respecting this discovery, the owner of the farm relates, as we are informed by a clergyman, who examined the article on the AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 109" spot, though in a broken state, that soon after the first settlements on that river, and especially on that farm, a great freshet took place which tore a channel in a certain direction across the flat, when the vessel which we are about to describe, was brought to light. It was twelve feet across the top, and of consequence, thirty-six feet in circumference, and otherwise of proportionable depth and form. Its thickness was three inches, and appeared to be made of some coarse substance, probably mere clay, such as might be found on the spot, as it was not -glazed. Whoever its makers were, they must have manufactured it on the spot where it was found, as it must have been impossible to move so huge a vessel. They may have easily effected its construction, by building it up by degrees^ with layers put on in' succession, till high enough to suit the enor- mous fancy of its projectors, and then by piling wood around, it might have been burnt so as to be fit for use, and then propped up by stones, to keep it from falling apart. But who can tell for w r hat use this vast vessel was intended ? Conjecture here is lost, no ray of light dawns upon this strange rem- nant of antiquity. One might be led to suppose, it was made in imitation of the great Laver in the court of Solomon's Temple, which was seventeen feet two inches in diameter, and fifty two feet six inches in circumference, and eight feet nine inches deep. — 2 Chron. iv. 2. The discovery of this vast specimen of earthen ware, is, at any rate, a singularity, and refers to some age of the world when the in- habitants used very large implements of husbandry. If there had been in its neighborhood a salt spring, as there are often found farther west, we should not be at a loss to know for what purpose it was constructed. Remarkable specimens of pottery are often brought up from very great depths at the salt works in Illinois. Entire pots of a very large capacity, holding from eight to ten gallons, have been disin- terred at the amazing depth of eighty feet ; others have been found at even greater depths, and of greater dimensions. — Schoolcraft. Upon this subject, this author makes the following remarks: u If these antique vessels are supposed now to lie in those depths where they were anciently employed, the surface of the Ohio, and con- sequently of the Mississippi, must have been sixty or eighty feet lower than they are at present, to enable the saline water to 110 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES drain off; and the ocean itself must have stood at a lower level, or extended in an elongated gulf up the present valley of the Mis- sissippi." Many are of the opinion, that much of this region of country once lay beneath large lakes of water, and that the barriers between them and the ocean, by some means, are broken down, when a rush of water swept the whole country, in its ecurse to the sea, burying all the ancient nations, with their works, at those depths beneath the surface, as low as where those fragments of earthen ware are found. The bottom of those lakes is also supposed to be the true origin of the immense prairies of the west ; and the rea- son why they are not, long since, grown over with forest trees, is supposed to be because, from the rich and mucky soil found at the bottom of those lakes, a grass of immense length, (ten and four- teen feet high,) peculiar to the prairies, immediately sprung up before trees could take root, and therefore hindred this effort of nature. And as a reason why forest trees have not been able to gain upon the prairies, it is alledged, the Indians barn annually these boundless meadows, which ministers to their perpetuity. Some of these praries are hundreds of miles in length and breadth, and in burning over, present, in the night, a spectacle too grand, sublime and beautiful for adequate description ; belting the horizon with a rim of fire, the farthest ends of which seem dipped in the immeas- urable distance, so that even contemplation, in its boldest efforts, is swallowed up and rendered powerless. A CATACOMB OF MUMMIES FOUND IN KENTUCKY. Lexington, in Kentucky, stands nearly on the site of an ancient town, which was of great extent and magnificence, as is amply evinced by the wide range of its circumvallatory works, and the quantity of ground it once occupied. There is connected with the antiquities of this place, a catacomb, formed in the bowels of the limestone rock, about fifteen feet be- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. Ill low the surface of the earth, adjacent to the town of Lexington. This grand object, so novel and extraordinary in this country, was discovered in seventeen hundred and seventy-rive, by some of the first settlers, whose curiosity was excited by something remarkable in the character of the stones which covered the entrance to the cavern within. They removed these stones, and came to others of singular appearance for stones in a natural state ; the removal of which laid open the mouth of a cave, deep, gloomy, and terrific^ as they supposed. With augmented numbers, and provided with light, they de- scended, and entered, without obstruction, a spacious apartment ; the sides and extreme ends were formed into nitches and compart- ments, and occupied by figures representing men. When alarm subsided, and the sentiment of dismay and surprise permitted fur- ther research and enquiry, the figures were found to be Mummies, preserved by the art of embalming, to as great a state of perfec* tion, as was known among the ancient Egyptians, eighteen hundred years before the Christian era; which was about the time the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt, when this art was in its highest state of perfection. Unfortunately for antiquity, science, and every thing else held sacred by the illumined and learned, this inestimable discovery was made at a period when a bloody and inveterate war was carried on between the Indians and the whites ; and the power of the natives was displayed in so savage a manner, that the whites were filled with revenge. Animated by this vindictive spirit, the discoverers of the catacomb, delighted to wreak their vengeance even on the mummies, supposing them to be of the same Indian race with whom they were at war. They dragged them out to the open air, tore the bandages open, kicked the bodies into dust, and made a general bonfire of the most ancient remains antiquity could boast. The descent to this cavern is gradual, the width four feet, the height seven only, and the whole length of the catacomb was found to be eighteen rods and a half, by six and a half; and calculating from the nitches and shelve ings on the sides, it was sufficiently capacious to have contained at least two thousand subjects. I could never, says Mr. Ash, from whose travels we have taken this account, learn the exact quantity it contained ; the answers to 112 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES the inquiries which he made respecting it were, " ! they burnt up and destroyed hundreds !" Nor could he arrive at any knowl- edge of the fashion, manner, and apparel of the mummies, or re- ceive any other information than that they " were well lapped wp," appeared sound, and consumed in the fire with a rapid flame. But not being contented with the uncertain information of persons, who, it seems, had no adequate knowledge of the value of this dis- covery, he caused the cavern to be gleaned for such fragments as yet remained in the nitches, on its shelving sides, and from the floor. The quantity of remains thus gathered up, amounted to for- ty or fifty baskets, the dust of which was so light and pungent as to affect the eyes even to tears, and the nose to sneezing, to a troub- lesome degree. He then proceeded on a minute investigation, and separated from the general mass, several pieces of human limbs, fragments of bodies, solid, sound, and apparently capable of eternal duration. In a cold state they had no smell whatever, but when submitted to the action of fire, gave out an agreeable effluvia, but was like noth- ing in its fragrance to which he could compare it. On this subject, Mr. Ash has the following reflections : " How these bodies were embalmed, how long preserved, by what nations, and from what people descended, no opinion can be formed, nor any calculation made, but what must result from speculative fancy and wild conjecture. For my part, I am lost in the deepest igno- rance. My reading affords me no knowledge \ my travels no light. I have neither read nor known of any of the North American In- dians who formed catacombs for their dead, or who were acquaint- ed w T ith the art of preservation by embalming. The Egyptians, according to Herodotus, who flourished 450 years before Christ, had three methods of embalming ; but Diodo- rus, who lived before Christ, in the time of Julius Caesar, observes, that the ancient Egyptians had a fourth method of far greater rupe- riority. That method is not described by Diodorus ; it had become extinct in his time ; and yet I cannot think it presumptuous to con- ceive that the American mummies were preserved after that very manner, or at least with a mode of equal virtue and effect." The Kentuckians asserted, that the features of the face and the form of the whole body were so well preserved, that they must have been the exact representations of the once living subjects. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 113 This cavern indeed is similar to those found in Egypt, where the once polished and powerful inhabitants bestowed their dead, wrapped up in the linens^spices and aromatics of the east. It is probable the cave where these were found was partly natural and partly artificial; having found it suitable to their purpose, they had opened a convenient descent, cleared out the stones and rocks, and fitted it with nitches for the reception of those they had embalmed. This custom, it would seem, is purely Egyptian, and was prac- tised in the earliest age of their national existence, which was about two thousand years before Christ. Catacombs are numerous all over Egypt, vast excavations under ground, with nitches in their sides for their embalmed dead, exactly such as the one we have described. Shall we be esteemed presumptuous, if we hazard the opinion that the people who made this cavern and filled it with the thou- sands of their embalmed dead were, indeed, from Egypt ? If they were not, whither shall we turn for a solution of this mystery ? To what country shall we travel ? where are the archieves of past ages, that shall shed its light here ? If the Egyptians were indeed, reckoned as the first of nations ; for so are they spoken of, even in the Scriptures : if from them was derived the art of navigation, the knowledge of astronomy, in a great degree, also the unparalleled invention of letters, (from whom it is even probable the Fhcenecians derived the use of letters,) with many other arts, of use to human society ; such as architecture, agriculture, with the science of government, &c; why not allow the authors of the antiquated works about Lexington, together with the immense catacomb, to have been, indeed, an Egyptian Colony; seeing the art of embalming, which is peculiarly characteristic of that people, was found there in a state of perfection not exceeded by the mother country itself. A trait of national practices so strong and palpable, as is this pe- culiar art, should lead the mind, without hesitation, to a belief, that wherever the thing is practised, we have found in its authors either a colony direct from Egypt, or the descendants of some nation of the countries of Africa acquainted with the art. But if this be so, the question here arises, how came they in America, seeing the nearest point of even South America approach- es no nearer to the nearest point of Africa, than about seventeen 15 114 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES hundred miles ? Those points are, first, on the American side, Cape St. Roque ; and, second, on the African side, Cape de Verd. But such is the mechanism of the globe, and the operation of the waters, that from the west coast of Africa there is a constant cur- rent of the sea setting toward South America ; so that if a vessel were lost, or if an eastern storm had driven it far into the ocean, or South Atlantic ; it would naturally arrive at last on the American coast. This is supposed to have been the predicament of the fleet of Alexander the Great, some hundred years before the Christian era, as we have before related. The next inquiry to be pursued, is, whether the Egyptians were ever a maritime people, or rather, anciently so, sufficient for our pur- pose? By consulting ancient history, we find it mentioned that the Egyptians, as early as fourteen hundred and eighty-five years be- fore Christ, had shipping, and that one Danus, with his fifty daugh- ters, sailed into Greece, and anchored at Rhodes ; which is three thousand, three hundred and eighteen years back from the present year, 1S33. Eight hundred and eighty-one years after the landing of this vessel at Rhodes, we find the Egyptians, under the direc- tion of Necho, their king, fitting out some Phoenicians with a ves- sel, or fleet, with orders to sail from the Red Sea, quite around the continent of Africa, and to return by the Mediterranean, which they effected. It is easy to pursue the very tract they sailed, in order to circum- navigate Africa ; sailing from some port on the Red Sea, they pass down to the Strait of Babelmandel, into the Indian Ocean ; thence south, around the Cape of Good Hope, intojhe South Atlantic; — thence north along the African coast on the west side, which would carry them along opposite, or east of South America. Pursuing this course, they would pass into the Mediterranean at the Strait of Gibraltar, and so on to Egypt, mooring at Alexandria, on the south end of the Mediterranean ; a voyage of more than six- teen thousand miles ; two thirds of the distance round the earth. Many ages after their first settlement in Egypt, they were the lead- ing nation in maritime skill and other arts. It is true, that a knowledge of the compass and magnet, as aids to navigation, in Africa or Europe, was unknown in those early ages ; but to counterbalance this defect, they were, from necessity, AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 115. much more skilful m a knowledge of the heavenly bodies, as guides So their courses, than men are at the present day. But in China, it as now believed, that a .knowledge of the magnet, and its applica- tion to the great purposes of navigation, was understood before the time of Abraham, more than two thousand years before Christ, of which we shall give a more particular account in another place of this work. But if we cannot allow the Egyptians to have visited South America, and all the islands between, on voyages of discovery, which by no means can be supposed chimerical, we are ready to admit they may have been driven there by an eastern storm ; and as favoring such a circumstance, the current which sets from the African coast toward South America, should not be forgotten. If it be allowed that this mode of reasoning is at all conclusive, the same will apply in favor of their having first hit on the coast of the West Indies, as this group of islands, as they now exist, is much more favorable to a visit from that particular part of Africa, called Egypt, than is South America. Egypt and the West Indies are exactly in the same latitude, that is, the northern parts of those islands, both being between twenty and thirty degrees north. Sailing from Egypt, out of the Mediterranean, passing through the Straits of Gibraltar would throw a vessel, in case of an eastern storm, aided by the current, as high north as opposite the Bahama islands. A blow of but a few days in that direction, would be quite sufficient to have driven an Egyptian vessel, or boat, or whatever they may have sailed in, entirely on to the coastof the West Indies. The trade winds sweep westward across the Atlantic, through a space of 50 or 60 degrees of longitude, carrying every thing with in their current directly to the American coast. If such may have been the case, they were, indeed, in a manner, on the very continent itself, especially, if the opinion of President Jefferson and others be allowed, that the Gulf of Mexico, which is situated exactly behind those islands, west, has been scooped out by the current which makes from the equator toward the north. Kentucky itself, where, we think, we have found the remains of an Egyptian colony, or nation, as in the case of the works and catacomb at Lexington, is in latitude but five degrees north of Egypt. So that whether they may have visited America on a voy- 116 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES age of exploration, or have been driven on the coast against theit will ; in either case, it would be perfectly natural that they should have established themselves in that region. Traits of Egyptian manners were found among many of the na- tions of South America, mingled with those who appeared to be of other origin ; of which we shall speak again in the course of this work. But at Lexington the traits are too notorious to allow them to be other than pure Egyptian, in full possession of the strongest com- plexion of their national character, that of embalming, which was connected with their religion. The Mississippi, which disembogues itself into the Mexican Gulf, is in the same north latitude with Egypt, and may have, by its likeness to the Egyptian Nile, invited those adventurers to pur- sue its course, till a place suited to their views or necessities may have presented. The ancient Punic, Phoenician, or Carthagenian language, is all the same; the characters called Punic, or Phoenician, therefore, are also the same. A fac simile of those characters, as copied by Dr. Adam Clarke, are herewith presented. See No. 4. No. 4. WMSffifr . f . No. 5. They were discovered in the island of Malta, in the Mediterra- nean, which was anciently inhabited by the Phoenicians, long be- fore the Romans existed as a nation. These characters were found engraved on a stone, in a cave of that island, in the year 1761, which was a sepulchral cave, so used by the earliest inhabitants. These characters, being found in this ancient repository of the dead, it is believed, marks the place of the burial of that famous Cartha- genian general, Hannibal, as they explicitly allude to that char- acter. The reading in the original is as follows : AJfD DISCOVEKIES IK THE WEST. 117 " Chadar Beth olam kabar Chanibaal Nakeh becaleth haveh, 4 racbm daeh Am beshuth Chanilaal ben Bar melee" Which, being interpreted, is: " The inner chamber of the sanc= tuary of the sepulchre of Hannibal, illustrious in the consummation of calamity. He was beloved. The people lament, when array- ed in order of battle, Hannibal the son of Bar-Melee." This is one of the largest remains of the Punic or Phoenician language now in existence. Characters of this description are also found on the rocks in Dighton, Massachusetts, near the sea. In a chain of mountains between the rivers Oronoco and Ama- zon, South America, are found engraved in a cavern, on a block of granite, characters supposed also to be Punic letters. A fac simile of which is presented at No. 5. These were fur- nished by Baron Humboldt, in his volume of Researches in South America ; between which and those given us above, by Dr. Clarke, it is easy to perceive, a small degree of similarity. But if the Phoenician letters, shown at Nos. 4 and 5, are highly interesting, those which follow, at Nos. 1, 2, and 3, are equally so. These are presented to tbe public by Professor Rafinesque, in his Atlantic Journal, for 1832, with their meaning.. Under figures 1 and 2, are the African or Lybian characters, the primitive letters of the most ancient nations of Africa. Under figure 3, are the American letters, or letters of Otolum, an ancient city, the ruins of which are found in South America, being so far, as yet explored, of an extent embracing a circumference "of twenty- four miles, of which we shall again speak in due time. The similarity, which appears between the African letters and the letters of America, as in use perhaps two thousand years before Christ, is almost, if not exact, showing, beyond a doubt, that the same nations, the same languages, and the same arts, which were known in ancient Lybia or Africa, were also known in. America ; as well also as nations from old China, who came to the western coast in huge vessels, as we shall show in this work. We here subjoin an account of those characters, numbered. 1, 2, 3, by the author, Prof. Rafinesque ; and also of the American Glyphs, which, however, are not presented here ; they are, it appears, formed by a combination of the letters numbered 1, 2, 3, and rer sembling very much, in bur opinon, the Chinese characters, when 118 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES grouped, or combined, with a view to express a sentence or a para- graph, in their language. The account is as follows : LYBIAN. AMERICAN. No. 1. 2. 3. Ear AIPS. Eye. ESH. Nose. IFR. Tongue. OMBR Hand. VULD. Earth. LAMBD Sea. MAH. Air. NISP. Fire RASH. Sun. BAP Moon. CEK. Mars. DOR. Mer'y GOREG. Venus. UAF. Saturn. SIASH. Jup'r THEUE A. E. I. 0. U. L. M. N. P. Bp. C.k. D.t. G. V.f. S. sh Thz. 3* :^J^ <§> IS :o.©@ H-' Vni#s"^i8r. A\//\^ □'£] v >*fc» A. EI. IZ. OW. ttw. IL. IM. ^X+XT nm^ yv\W\V & y 8#|Q3| 8cjo-e- ■">**# w x w IGH. UW. ES- ISH. uz. Letter to Mr. Champollion, on the Graphic Systems of America, and the Glyphs o/Otolumo/Palenque, in Central America. — Elements of the Glyphs. I have the pleasure to present you here, a tabular and compara- tive view of the Atlantic alphabets of the two Continents, with a specimen of the Groups of Letters or Glyphs of the monuments of Otolum or Palenque: which' belong to my seventh series of graphic signs, and are in fact words formed by grouped letters or elements as in Chinese characters, or somewhat like the cypher* AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 11# dow yet in use among us, formed by acrostical anagrams or combi- nations of the first letters of words or names. When I began my investigation of these American Glyphs, and became convinced that they must have been groups of letters, I sought for the Elementary Letters in all the ancient known alpha- bets, the Chinese Sanscrit and Egyptian above, all ; but in vain. The Chinese characters offered but few similarities with these glyphs, and not having a literal but syllabic alphabet, could not promise the needful clue. The Sanscrit alphabet and all its de- rived branches, including even the Hebrew, Phoenician, Pelagic, Celtic and Cantabrian alphabets were totally unlike in forms and combinations of grouping. But in the great variety of Egyptian form of the same letters, I thought that I could trace some resem- blance with our American glyphs. In fact, I could see in them the Egyptian cross, snake, circle, delta, square, trident, eye, feather, fiish, hand, &c, but sought in vain for the birds, lions, sphynx, beetle, and 100 other nameless signs of Egypt. However, this first examination and approximation of analogy in Egypt and Africa was a great preliminary step in the enquiry. I had always believed that the Atlantes of Africa have partly colo- nized America, as so many ancient writers have affirmed ; this be- lief led me to search for any preserved fragments of the alphabets of Western Africa, and Lybia, the land of the African Atlantes yet existing under the names of Berbers, Tuarics, Shelluhs, &c. This was no easy task. The Atlantic antiquities are still more obscure than the Egyptian. No Champollion had raised their veil ; the city of Farawan a the Thebes of the Atlantes, whose splendid ruins exist as yet in the Mountains of Atlas, has not even been described properly as yet, nor its inscriptions delineated. However, I found at last in Gramay (Africa Illustrata) an old Lybian alphabet, which has been copied by Purchas, in his collec- tion of old alphabets. I was delighted to find it so explicit, so well connected with the Egyptian, being also an acrostic alphabet, and above all, to find that all its signs were to be seen in the Glyphs of Otolum. Soon after, appeared in a supplement to Claperton and Denham's travels in Africa, another old and obsolete Lybian alpha- bet, not acrostical, found by Denham in old inscriptions among the Tuarics of Targih and Ghraat, west of Fezan : which, although un- 120 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES like the first, had many analogies, and also with the American glyphs. Thinking, then, that I had found the primitive elements of these glyphs, I hastened to communicate this important fact to Mr. Du- ponceau (in a printed letter directed to him in 1828) who was struck with the analogy, and was ready to confess that the glyphs of Palenque, might be alphabetical words ; although he did not believe before that any American alphabets were extant. But he could not pursue my connection of ideas, analogies of signs, lan- guages and traditions, to the extent which I desired and now am able to prove. To render my conclusions perspicuous, I must divide the subject into several parts: directing my enquiries, 1st. on the old Lybian alphabet. 2dly. On the Tuaric alphabet. 3dly. On their ele- ments in the American glyphs. 4thly. On the possibility to read them. While the examination of their language, in connection with the other Atlantic languages, will be the theme of my third letter. I. The old Lybian delineated in the Table No. 1, has all the ap- pearance of a very ancient alphabet, based upon the acrostical plan of Egypt; but in a very different language, of which we have 16 words preserved. This language may have been that of a branch of Atlantes, perhaps the Getulians (GE-TULA, or Tulas of the plains) or of the Ammonians, Old Lybians, and also Atlantes. Out of these 16 words, only 5 have a slight affinity with the Egyptian, they are- Nose Ifr. L. Nif. E. Sea Mah Mauh. Saturn Siash Sev. Venus Uaf Ath. Ear Aips Ap. While this Lybian has a greater analogy with the Pelagic dia- lects, as many as 12 out of 16 being consimilar. Eye Esh L. Eshas P. Nose Ifr Rinif. Hand Vuld Hul, Chil. Earth Lambd Landa, Sea Mah Marah, Fire Rash Purah ? AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 121 Moon Cek Selka, Kresj Mars Dor Hares ? Thor. Mercury Goreg Mergor, Venus Uaf Uenas, Saturn Siash' Satur, Shiva Jupiter Theue Theos. Therefore, the numerical analogy is only 32 per cent, with the Egyptian, while it is 75 per cent, with the Pelagic. Another proof, among many, that the ancient Atlantes were intimately con- nected with the Pelagian nations of Greece, Italy, and Spain ; but much less so with the Egyptians, from whom they however bor- rowed perhaps their graphic system. This system is very remarkable. 1. By its acrostic form. 2. By having only 16 letters like most of the primitive alphabets, but unlike the Egyptian and Sanscrit. 3. By being susceptible of 22 sounds by modification of 6 of the letters, as usual among the Pelagian and Etruscan. 6. Above all, by being based upon the acrostics of 3 important series of physical objects, the 5 senses re- presented by their agents in man, the 4 elements of nature and the 7 planets : which are very philosophical ideas, and must have origi- nated in a civilized nation and learned priesthood. 5. By the graphic signs being also rude delineations of these physical objects or their emblems. The ear, eye, nose, tongue and hand, for the 5 senses. The triangle for the earth, fish for the sea or water, snake for the air, flame for fire. A circle for the sun, crescent for the moon, a sword for Mars, a purse for Mercury, the V for Venus, double ring for Saturn, and trident for Jupiter. t Venus being the 5th planet, has nearly the same sign as U, the 5th letter. These physical emblems are so natural and obvious, that they are sometimes found among many of the ancient alphabets ; the sun and moon even among the Chinese. But in the Egyptian alphabets, the emblems apply very ©ften to different letters, owing to the difference of language and acrostic feature. Thus the hand applies to D in Egyptian instea.d of U, the eye to R, the circle to O, the snake to L, &c. II. The second Lybian alphabet No. 2, in the tables, was the ancient alphabet of Tuarics, a modern branch of the Atlantes,, until superseded by the Arabic. Denham found, with some difficulty, its import, and names of letters which are not acrostic but literal, and 16 122 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES IS in number. It is doubtful whether these names were well ap- plied in all instances, as the explainer was ignorant, and Denhami not aware of the importance of this alphabet. Some appear not well named, and U with V have the same sign W ; but these are always interchangeable in old language, and in alphabet No. 1, Vis called UAF instead of VAF, and U is VULD instead of UULD I As we have it, this alphabet is sufficiently and obviously derived from the first, 11 out of the 16 letters being similar or nearly so, while only 5 are different, E, M, R, G and Z. This last appears the substitute of TH, of No. 1, and GH represents G. Yet they are by far more alike than the Demotic is from the Hieratic Egyp- tian, and I therefore deem this No. 2 a Demotic form of the ancient Lybian or Atlantic. I might have given and compared several other Lybian alphabets* found in inscriptions ; but as they haye been delineated without a key or names,, it is at present very difficult to decypher them. I ]aowevei ? recommend them to the attention of the learned, and a- mong others, point out the Lybian inscription of Apollonia, the har- bor of Cyrene, given by Lacella, in his travels in the Cyrenaica. The letters of this inscription appear more numerous than 16 or even 22, and although they have some analogies with the 2 Lybian alphabets, yet approximate still more to the Demotic of Egypt and the Phoenician. But the inscriptions in Mount Atlas and at Fara- wan, when collected and decyphered, will be found of much great- er historical importance. III. Meantime in the column No. 3 of the tabular view, are giv- en 46 Elements of the Glyphs of Otolum (see page 307, where there is a fac simile of these glyphs) or Palenque, a few of these glyphs being given also in column No. 4. These 46 elements are altogether similar- or derived from the Lybian prototypes of No. 1 and 2. In some cases they are absolutely identic, and the conviction of their common origin- is almost complete, particularly when taken in connection with the collateral proofs of traditions and languages. These elements are somewhat involved in the grouping, yet they may easily be perceived anbl separated. Some- times they are ornamented by double lines or otherwise, as monu- mental letters often are. Sometimes united to outside numbers represented by long ellipses meaning 10, and round dots meaning unities, which approximates td the Mexican system of graphic mi- AND DISC0TERIES IN THE WEST. 123 titration. Besides these 46 elements, some others may be seen in the glyphs, which I left off, because too intricate ; although they appear reducible, if a larger table could have been given. There is hardly a single one that may not be traced to these forms, or that baffles the actual theory. Therefore, the conclusion must occur, that such astonishing coincidence cannot be casual, but it is the re- sult of original derivation. The following remarks are of some importance ; 1. The glyphs of Otolum are written from top to bottom, like the Chinese, or from side to side, indifferently, like the Egyptian and the Demotic Lybian of No. 2. We are not told how No. 1 was written, but probably in the same way. Several signs were used for the same letter as in Egypt. 2. Although the most common way of writing the groups is in rows, and each group separated, yet we find some framed, as it were, in oblong squares or tablets like those of Egypt. See plate 12, of the work on Palenque by Delrio and Caberera. In that 12th plate there are also some singular groups resembling our musical notes. Could they be emblems of songs or hymns ? 3. The letter represented by a head occurs frequently ; but it is remarkable that the features are very different from those of the re- markable race of men or heroes delineated in the sculptures. 4. In reducing these elements to the alphabetical form, I have been guided by the more plausible theory envolved by similar forms. We have not. here the more certain demonstration of Bil- ingual inscriptions ; but if the languages -should uphold this the- ory, they certainly will be increased of the Atlantic origins of Otolum. IV. But shall we be able to read these glyphs and inscriptions, without positively knowing in what language they were written ? The attempt will be arduous, but it is not impossible. In Egypt, the Coptic has been found such a close dialect of the Egyptian, that it has enabled you to read the oldest hieroglyphs. We find among the ancient dialects of Chiapa Yucatan andGuatimala,the branches of the ancient speech pf Otolum. • Nay, Otolum was perhaps the ancient TOL or TOLA, seat of the Toltecas, (people of Tol,) and their empire ; but this subject will belong to my third letter. I will now merely give a few attempts to read some of the groups. For instance : . * • 124 » AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES 1 . The group or word on the seat of the sitting man of plate 4 of monuments of Palanque, I read UOBAC, being formed by a hand, a tongue, a circle, an ear, and a crescent. It is perhaps his name. And and underneath the seat is an eye with a small circle inside, meaning EB. 2. In plate 5, is an eye with two annexed rings, meaning proba- bly BAB, and perhaps the Sun, which is BAP in the Lybian alphabet. 3. In plate 7, the glyph of the corner with a head, a fish, and a crescent, means probably KIM. 4. The first glyph of page 15, is probably BLAKE. 5. I can make out many others reading ICBE, BOCOGO, POPO, EPL, PKE, &c. If these words and others (although some may be names) can be found in African languages, or in those of Central America, we shall obtain perhaps the key of the whole language of Old Otolum. And next reach, step by step, to the desirable knowledge of reading those glyphs, which may cover much historical knowledge of high import. Meantime I have opened the path, if my theory and con- jectures are correct, as I have strong reasons to believe. Besides this monumental alphabet, the same nation that built Otolum had a Demotic alphabet belonging to my 8th series ; which which was found in Guatimala and Yucatan, at the Spanish con- quest. A specimen of it has been given by Humboldt in his Amer- ican Researches, plate 45, from the Dresden Library, and has been ascertained to be Guatimalan instead of Mexican, being totally un- like the Mexican pictorial manuscripts. This page of Demotic has letters and numbers, these represented by strokes meaning 5, and dots meaning unities, as the dots never exceed 4. This is nearly similar to the monumental numbers. These words are much less handsome than the monumental glyphs ; they are also uncouth glyphs in rows formed by irregular or flexuous heavy strokes, inclosing within small strokes, nearly the same letters as in the monuments. It might not be impossible to deeypher some of these manuscripts written on metl paper : since they are written in languages yet spoken, and the writing was un- derstood in Central America, as late as 200 years ago. If this is done, it will be the best clue to the monumental inscriptions. C. S. RAFINESQUE. Philadelphia , Febuary^ 1832. AN© DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 125 This letter as above, strongly corroborates our supposition, that the authors of the embalmed mummies found in the cave of Lex- ington, were of Egyptian origin. See Morse's Geography, p. 500, and the Western Gazeteer, p, 103, states that several hundred mummies were discovered near Lexington, in a cave, but were wholly destroyed by the first settlers, A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF WESTERN ANTIQUITIES, WITH ANTEDILUVIAN TRAITS. Cincinnati is situated on one of those examples of antiquity, of great extent. They are found on the upper level of that town, but none on the lower one. They are so conspicuous as to catch the first range of the eye. There is every reason to suppose, that, at the remote period of the building of these antiquities, the lowest level formed part of the bed of the Ohio. A gentleman who was liviDg near the town of Cincinnati, in 1826, on the upper level, had occasion to sink a well for his accommodation, who presevered in digging to the depth of 80 feet without finding water, but still persisting in the attempt, his workmen found themselves obstructed by a substance, which resisted their labor, though evidently not stone. They cleared the surface and sides from the earth bedded around it, when there ap- peared the stump of a tree, three feet in diameter, and two feet high, which had been cut down with an axe. The blows of the axe were yet visible. It was nearly of the color and apparent character of coal, but had not the friable and fusible quality of that mineral; teu feet be- low, the water sprang up, and the well is now in constant supply and high repute. Reflections on this discovery are these, first ; that the tree was undoubtedly antediluvian. Second ; that the river now called the Ohio, did not exist anterior to the deluge, inasmuch as the re- mains of the tree were found firmly rooted, in its original position, several feet below the bed of that river. Third ; that America was 126 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES peopled before the flood, as appears from the action of the axe, in cutting down the tree. Fourth ; that the antediluvian Americans were acquainted with the use and proprieties of iron, as the rust of the axe was on the top of the stump when discovered. And why should they not be acquainted with both its properties and utility, seeing it was an antediluvian discovery. Tubal Cain, one of the sons of Cain, the son of Adam, we find, according to Genesis iv. chap. 22d verse, was a blacksmith, and worked in iron and brass, more than a thousand years before the flood. It was about five hundred years from the creation, when Tubal Cain is noticed in the sacred history, to have been a worker in brass and iron ; but, says Dr. Clarke, the commentator, " although this is the first smith on record, who taught how to make warlike instru- ments and domestic utensils out of brass and iron, yet a knowl- edge of metal must have existed long before, for Cain was a tiller of the ground, and so was Adam, which they could not have been, without spades, hooks, &c." Tbe Roman plough was formed of wood, being in shape, like the anchor to a vessel ; the ploughman held to one fluke, so as to guide it, while the other entered the ground pointed with iron, and as it was drawn along by the stem, it tore the earth in a streak, mellowing it for the seed. Such, it is likely, was the form of the primitive plough, from which, in the progress of ages, improvements have been made, till the present one, as now formed, and is the glory of the well tilled field. According to this opinion, it would appear, that in the very first period of time, men were acquainted with the metals, and as they diverged from the common centre, which was near the garden of Eden, they carried with them a knowledge of this all-important discovery. If the stump is indeed antediluvian, we learn one important fact, and this is it ; America, by whatever name it was called before the deluge, was then a body of earth above the waters ; and also, was connected with Asia ; where, it is allowed on all hands, man was originated. If it were not connected with Asia, it might be inquired, how then came men in America, before the flood, the traits of whose in- dustry, and agricultural pursuits, are discovered in the felling of AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 127 this tree, as well as a great number of other instances, of which we shall speak by and by ? It is not probable, that before the flood, there was so small a quantity of dry land on the earth as at the present time ; theNwa- ters of the globe being generally hid beneath the incumbent soil, so that an easy communication of all countries with each other ex- isted ; which must have greatly facilitated the progress of man in "peopling and subduing it." We know very well, it is said, "the gathering together of the waters, called He seas ;" but it does not follow, that they were not subterranean ; and it is more than intimated, that such was the fact 3 when it is said, " all the fountains of the great deep were broken up," on the day the flood commenced. But by what means were they broken up, this is left to conjec- ture, as the Scriptures are higher in their aim, than the mere grati- fication of curious questions of this sort ; but in some way this was done. The very terms, " broken up," siguify the exertion of power and violence, of sufficient force to burst at once, whole con- tinents from the face of the deep, and also, to throw out, at one wide rush, the central waters of the globe. . But can we conceive of any means made use of to effect this, other than the direct pressure of God's power, sinking the earth to the depths beneath, so that the water might rise above, taking the place of the land ? We imagine we can. It is well known, the velocity of the earth, in its onward motion, round the sun, is about twenty miles a second, nearly the speed of lightning. Let Him, therefore, who at first imposed this incon- ceivable velocity, stop the earth in this motion, suddenly ; what would the effect be ? All the fluids, that is, the waters, whether above ground or underneath it, would rush forward, with a power equal to their weight, which would be sufficient to burst away mountains, or any impediment whatever ; and rushing round the globe, from the extreme western point, rolling one half of the mighty flood over this side of it, and the other half over the anti- pode on the other side, which is relatively beneath us, till the two half worlds of water should meet at the extreme east, where heap- ing up, by their force, above a common level, would, gradually, roll back to their original places, as the earth should again go for- AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES 128 Ward ; this is our opinion of the way how " all the fountains of the great deep were broken up." If the earth were to be arrested in its course now, the effect would be the same. Suppose we illustrate the position, for a mo- ment. Place a vessel of water on a plank, for instance, open on the top, like a common bowl, fastened to the plank, so that it should not be liable to overcast. Cause this plank to move, at first slowly, but increase its steady, onward velocity, as much as the fluid will bear, without causing a re-action ; when, therefore, its utmost speed is obtained, stop it suddenly ; the effect would be, the water in the vessel would instantly fly over, leaving the bowl behind. Such, therefore, we imagine would be the effect, if the earth were now caused to stand suddenly still, in its orbit ; except this differ- ence, the law of gravitation would prevent the waters of the earth from leaving the surface, but would cause a rapid current in the direction the earth is pursuing. That the waters of the deluge came from the west, is evident from the manner in which the various strata of the earth are situat- ed, over the whole of our country ; and that its motion was very violent, is also evident from the appearance of native or primitive rock, being found on the top of that which is of secondary forma- tion, and of gravel and sand in hills and smaller eminences, lying on beds of clay and soils of various kinds below it. The effects of the deluge can be traced in all the earth in this way, and particularly about Albany, Saratoga, and about the lakes, and to the east, showing the waters flowed in that direction. For a beautiful and able description of this subject, see Thomas' Travels, published at Auburn, under the head, " The Deluge." At the same time, the waters above the firmament, in the clouds, were permitted to burst downward, which, in its fall, subdivided into drops, as is natural ; so that one vast perpetual storm, for forty days and forty nights rushed with all the violence of a tornado, up- on the globe, quite around it, by which, in so short a time, the highest hills were buried fifteen cubits deep, and upward ; this is what we suppose is meant by the words " and the windows of heaven were opened." But it may be inquired, from whence did the lands receive wa- ter to furnish them with, so long a rain as a storm of forty days and AND DISCOVERIES IN THS WEST. I2» mights ; and from whence originated vapor enough to becloud the whole circumambient atmosphere of the earth at once. Surely, some cause more than existed before the flood, or since, must have transpired at that time, to have produced this great accumulation of clouds and rain. The answer is, we apprehend — that the central waters bursting suddenly from the great deep, involving the whole globe, presented a greater surface of that fluid to the rays of the sun, so that by its operation on the face of the waters, a dense mist or vapor was at once produced quite round the earth, which, in its ascent, carried up incessantly that quantity of water which furnished the atmos- phere for so long and so dreadful a storm, and justify the expression, " and the windows of heaven were opened." In this way the surface of the earth was ruined ; a disproportion- ate quantity of water, caused to appear on the surface, while in the same ratio the land is sunk to the depths below. Sixteen hundred years and rising, was the space of time allowed from the creation till the flood ; a time quite sufficient to people the whole earth, even if it were then enjoying a surface of dry land, twice as much as it does at the present time, being but about one-fourth ; and America, as appears from this one monument, the stump of Cincinnati, was a part of the earth which was peopled by the Antediluvians. The celebrated antiquarian, Samuel L. Mitchell, late of New- York, with other gentlemen, eminent for their knowledge of natu- ral history, are even of the opinion 3 that America was the country where Adam was created. In a letter to Governor De Witt Clin- ton, in which this philosopher argued the common origin of the people of America, and those of Asia, he says : " I avoid the op- portunity which this grand conclusion affords me, of stating, that America was the cradel of the human race ; of tracing its colonies westward over the Pacific Ocean, and beyond the sea of Kamschat- ka, to new settlements ; of following the emigrants by land and wa- ter, until they reached Europe and Africa. I had no inclination to oppose the current opinions relative to the place of man's creation and dispersion. I thought it was scarcely worth the while to in- form an European, that in coming to America, he had left the new world behind him, for the purpose of visiting the old." — America* Antq> Society, p. 33 1. 17 130 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES But this opinion cannot obtain, if we place the least reliance on the statement of Moses, in the Book of Genesis ; who gives a cir- cumstantial account of the place of man's creation, by stating the names of the very rivers, arising out of the regions of country cal- led Paradise ; such as Pison, Havilah, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Eu- phrates ; or as they now are called, Phasis 3 Araxes, Tigris, and Eu- phrates ; this last retains its original name- No such rivers are known in America, nor the countries through which they flow. Here are data to argue from, but the position, or rather the suggestion of Professor Mitchell, has absolutely no data whatever. If but a tradition, favoring that opinion, were found even among the Indians, it would afford some foundation ; but as their tradition universally alludes to some part of the earth, far away, from whence they came, it would seem exceedingly extra- vagant to argue a contrary belief. This one stump of Cincinnati, we consider surpasses in conse- quence, the magnificence of all the temples of antiquity, whose forsaken turrets, dilapidated walls, tottering and fallen pillars, which speak in language loud and mournful, the story of their ruin ; be- cause it is a remnant of matter, in form and fashion, such as it was, before the earth " perished by water," bearing on its top the in- dubitable marks of the exertion of man, of so remote a time. It is not impossible but America may have been the country where Noah built his ark, as directed by the Most High. We know very well, when the mind refers to the subject of Noah's Ark, our thoughts are immediately associated with Mount Ararat, because it rested there, on the subsiding of the flood. But this circumstance precludes a possibility of its having been built there , if we allow the waters of the deluge to have had any cur- rent at all. It is said in Genesis, that the Ark floated, or was borne upon the waters above the earth, and also, that the ark "went upon the face of the waters." From which fact we imagine there must have been a current, or it could not have went upon the waters. Consequently, it went from the place where it was built, being obedient to the current of the waters. Now, if it had been built any where in the country called Arme- nia, where the mountain Ararat is situated ; and as it is found the waters had a general eastern direction, the Ark in going on the face of the waters, would have, during the time the waters of the de- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 131 luge prevailed, which was an hundred and fifty days, or five months, (that is, prevailed after the commencement of the deluge, till its greatest depth was effected ;) gone in an eastern direction as far perhaps as the region of the islands of Japan, beyond China, east, a distance of about six thousand miles from Ararat, which would be at the rate of about forty miles a day, or if it had floated faster, would have carried it into the Pacific Ocean. But if we may imagine it was erected in North America, or some where in the latitude of the State of New- York, or even farther west, the current of the deluge would have borne it easterly. And suppose it may have been carried at the rate of forty or fifty miles a day, would, during the time the waters prevailed, in which time, we may suppose, a current existed, have progressed as far as to Ararat; a distance of nearly six thousand miles from America, where it did actually rest. More than sixteen hundred years had elapsed, when the ark was finished, and it may fairly be inferred, that as Noah was born about one thousand years after the creation of the world, that mankind had from necessity, arisiug from the pressure of population, gone very far away from the regions round about Eden; and the coun- try where Noah was born may as well be supposed to have been America, as any other part of the earth ; seeing there are indubita- ble signs of antediluvian population in many parts of it. Unite this circumstance with that of the ascertained current of the deluge from America, and with the fact of the ark's having rested in an easterly direction from this country, we come to a conclusion, that here, perhaps in the very State of New- York, the miraculous ves- sel was erected, and bore away, treasured in its enormous capacity, the progenitors of the human race renewed. So that if America have not the honor of being the country where Adam was created, as is believed by some, it has nevertheless the honor, as we sup- pose, of being the country where the ark was erected. In Morse's Universal Geography, first volume, page 142, the dis- covery of this stump is corroborated : " In digging a well in Cin- cinnati, the stump of a tree was found in a sound state, ninety feet below the surface ;" and in digging another well, at the same place, another stump was found, at ninety-four feet below the surface which had evident marks of the axe ; and on its top there appeared as if some iron tool had been consumed by rust." 232 JUtfERieAN ANTUUITrEf The axe bad, no doubt, been struck into the top of the stamps when the horrors of the deluge first appeared, in the bursting forth of the waters from above, that is from the windows of heaven ; — when sounds terrific, from the breaking forth of the waters of the great deep, and from the shock all sensitive beings must have felt when the earth was caused to stand still in its onward course round the sun, for the space perhaps of a day. Remember Joshua, at whose command and prayer, God stoppe4 the earth for the space of a whole day, but not in its onward course around the sun, but its diurnal motion only, which could not have any effect on the fluids of the earth, as the sudden interruption of the other motion would have had. Who would not flee, when phenomena so terrible, without presage or warning, were changing the face of things, and the feelings of the atmosphere ; the earth quivering like an aspen leaf; forests leaning to the east, and snapping asunder in one awful crash over all the wide wilderness; rocks with mountains tumbling from their summits; the stoutest heart would quail at such an hour as this ; an axe, with all things else, would be left by the owners, and a general flight, if they could stand at all on their feet, would take place, they knew not whither, for safety. In one of the communications of the admired Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, Professor of Natural History, to the American Antiqua- rian Society, he mentions a certain class of antiquties as distin- guished entirely from those which are found in and about the mounds of the west, as follows: In the section of country about Fredonia, on the south side of Lake Erie, are discovered objects deservedly worthy of particular and inquisitive research. This kind of antiquities, present themselves on digging from thirty to fifty feet below the present surface of the ground. " They occur in the form of fire brands, split wood, ashes, coals, and occasionally tools and utensils, buried to those depths." This, it will be per- ceived, is much below the bed of Lake Erie, of consequence must have been antediluvian, and agrees with the discovery of the stumps at Cincinnati. " We are informed, that in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, and in Ohio, such discoveries have been made." He says, " I wish the members of the society would exert themselves with all possible diligence to ascertain and collect the facts of this description. They will be exceedingly cu- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. lM rious, both for the geologist and historian. After such facts shall have been collected and methodised, we may perhaps draw sorrie satisfactory conclusions ; light may possibly be shed upon the re- mote PelasgiaiiSj and upon the traditionary Atlantidies" the in- habitants of the Island, we have befere spoken of, Atalantes. Dut we cannot allow the discoveries made at this vast depth, to belong to any age, or to any of the works of man this side the de- luge, as that time enough has not elapsed since that catastrophe, to allow the decomposition of vegetables, nor of convulsions, to have buried these articles so deep beneath the surface extending over so great a tract of country. The draining of lakes, however sudden, could never have had so wide and universal an effect. It would seem, therefore, that we are compelled to refer them to the works of man beyond the flood, which, by the overflowing of the waters, and the consequent ruin of the original surface, these works, with their makers, have been thus buried in a tomb more dreadful to the imagination than the ordinary recepticles of the dead. In evidence, that the ocean, at some period in ages past, over- whelmed the American continent, we notice, from the " British- Spy," page 112, an account of the discovery of the skeleton of a whale, in Virginia : " Near Williamsburgh has recently been discovered, by a farm- er, while digging a ditch through a plat of ground, about five feet below the surface, a considerable portion of the skeleton of a whale. Several fragments of the ribs, and other parts, were found, with the whole of the vertebrae, or backbone, regularly arranged, and very little impaired as to figure. The spot where it was found is about two miles from James river, and about sixty from the sea. In the same region, at depths of from sixty to ninety and an hun- dred feet, have been found the teeth of sharks." In every region of the earth, as well as America, and on the highest mountains, are found the bones and shells of the ancient inhabitants of the sea. From the universality of those appearances, we conclude they were deposited and cast thither by the billows of the deluge. From the discoveries of articles of the utensil character, the bones of whales, the teeth of sharks, and the stumps of Cincinnati, at various depths, as stated above ; we are led to the conclusion, that the original surface, of what is now called America, was perhaps 134 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES not much disturbed ; but was rather suddenly overwhelmed from the west, by the bursting forth of the subterranean Pacific, which, till then, had been covered with land, mountains and vales, thickly peopled. The vast depths of strata of loam, sand, clay, gravel, and stone, which lie over each other, evincing, from the unnatural manner of their positions, that they were thrown furiously, by the agent, wa- ter, over the whole continent, furnished from the countries of the west. If such may have been the fact, how dreary, sublime, and hor- rible, when we reflect upon the immensity of the antediluvian population, west of America, at once thrown, with all their works, their wealth, and power, rapidly along the dreadful current, run- ning east, broad as half the earth, crushed and mingled with the ruined world of their own country. Here it may be supposed at different depths, their broken bodies are buried, together with the antediluvians of America ; while above them, the towns, cities, and living world of the present times, are in full career. As we pass along, over the surface of the earth, whether for re-creation and to breathe the evening or the morning air; enjoying the pleasant promenade, or roll onward in the furious chariot ; to re- flect that this soil is the same once forming a part of the vast cover- ing of the Western Ocean ; and that far beneath us, the bodies of our elder brethern are sleeping, is sad and mournful. That such may indeed, have been the fact, is favored from the discovery of the whale's skeleton, found on James River, which could never have been deposited there by other means than the flood ; forced onward, till killed by the violence and agitation of the wood, stone, and earth encumbered waters, and sunk finally down, where it was recently discovered. The pottery of the ancient nations^ mentioned by Schoolcraft, found at the vast depth of eighty feet, and even at greater depths, at the great Saline in Illinois, is evidence of an antediluvian popu- lation in America. At Cincinnati there is a barrow or mound of human bones, situ- ated exactly on the edge of the bank, that overlooks the lower town, the principal street leading from the water is cut through it, and exposes its strata and remains to every person passing by. Seven tiers of skeletons lay plainly in sight, where the barrow had caved AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 135 away, from its being undermined. Among the earth thus fallen down, were found several stone hatchets, pieces of pottery, and flute, made of the great bone of the human leg. This is a very curious instrument, with beautifully carved figures, representing birds, squirrels, and small animals, with perforated holes, in the old German manner, which, when breathed into, emitted tones of great melody. Among the modern Indians, no such instrument has ever been found. At the time when the street was opened through this bar- row of the dead, a great variety of interesting and valuable relics were brought to light ; among which were human double teeth, which, on a moderate calculation, bespoke men as large again as the present race. Also some brass rings, which were considered exceedingly curious ; an instance of which is similar to the one before mentioned in this work. Iron rings, as we have before mentioned, were anciently used among the Britons before the Chris- tian era, as money; and possibly in this case, the brass rings found in this barrow, may be a specimen of the ancient money of America. DISCOVERY OF AN IVORY IMAGE IN A BONE MOUND AT CINCINNATI. i In the same barrow of which I have been speaking, was disced vered an ivory image, which we consider more interesting, and surpasses any discovery yet mentioned. It is said to be now in the cabinet of rare collections, once in the possession of the illustrious Jefferson. The account of the image is as follows : It is seven inches high ; the figure full length ; the costume, a robe, in numberless folds, well expressed, and the hair displayed in many ringlets j the child naked, near the left breast, and the mother's eye bent on it with a strong expression of affection and endearment. There are those who think it a representation of the mother of our Lord's humanity, with the child Jesus, in her arms. The Ro- 1$G AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES man Catholics have availed themselves of this image, and made it! a testimony of the antiquity of their religion, and of the extensive range of their worship, by attempting to prove thereby, that the idol was nothing less than a Madona and Child — the Virgin Mary, and the child Jesus; and that the Roman Catholic religion was the fast which arose in the earliest Christian age in the east, and the last which set in the west, where it became extiuct, by means of a second deluge. The idea, however, of a second deluge, is inadmissible, as it would have destroyed every vestige of the mounds, pyramids, tu- muli, and fortifications, of which this work treats ; many of which are supposed older than the Christian era ; and the mound in which the image itself was discovered would also have been destroyed. There is, however, another opinion, which is not impossible may have furnished the imagination with materials for the origin of such a representation. The image may be of Greek origin, and taken from Isaiah the Prophet, 7th chap. 14th verse, where it is said, — " Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." This prophecy of Isaiah was known to the Greeks, for the Old Testament was translated into their language in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, kjng of Egypt, nearly three hundred years before the Christian era. See Adam Clarke's General Preface to the Old Testament, page 27, and is known as the Septuagint version. The Greek statuaries may, in this way, have easily found the beautiful and captivating idea of a virgin mother, by reading Isaiah in the Greek ; a work fraught with all the grandeur of images in-» spired by God himself, and could not fail to challenge the reading of every learned man of the empire, arid such were the statuaries, among the Greeks, the fame of whose exquisite skill in this respect, will go down on the historic page to latest time. From the Greeks' such an image, celebrating the idea of a vir- gin mother and her child, may have easily come into the possession of the Romans, as the Greeks were, soon after the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek,' subdued by the Romans; who, in their conquests, here and there, over the earth, including Europe, England, Scotland, and the northern islands, carrying that kind of image with them as a god, or talisman,, and from thence to America. . . AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 137 It is, however, not impossible, but it may be indeed of true Ro- man Catholic origin ; as at the time the Romans evacuated Europe, with its isles, Ireland, Eugland, &c, about the year 450, this church had risen to great importance in the Roman empire, which aided her to establish her altars in every country they had conquered. Consequently, long before the Scandinavians colonized Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador, on the American continent, the Christian religion was planted in the north of Europe ; first in France, in the year 496, and then soon after in England ; and so on farther nortji among the ancient Scandinavians, ^Norwegians, &c, and by these to Iceland and Greenland ; who may have also brought this trait of that church to America. The fort at Cincinnati is a circle, embracing about three acres, with a wall seven feet high, and twenty feet broad. At the back part of the upper level, at a distance from the circular fort, are two mounds of about twenty feet high. One of these, by cutting a trench from east to west, four feet wide, and at the depth of ten feet, came to some heavy stones, under which was a body of com- position resembling plaster of Paris. This broke with great diffi- culty, when there were exposed a few fragments of an adult human skeleton, placed on a bed of a similar nature with the covering. It was determined to . ascertain whether the monument was erected in memory of one person or more, the lower bed of hard substance was also broken through, and underneath a stratum of stones, gravel and earth, found the fragments of- another skeleton, consisting of one tibia, or. piece of the shin, two pieces of the thigh bone, and the right upper, with the left under jaw. This was the skeleton of a child, from which was derived the important fact, that this mound was not erected for one individual only, but also for the infant chief or king ; and that the nation who erected this mound, in which the child was buried, was governed by a line of hereditary chiefs or kings, as is evident from the nature and distinction of the interment of an infant ; who certainly could not have been an elected chief; the suffrages of a nation could ne- ver be supposed to elevate an infant as its king ; but if it succeed- ed by right of lineal descent, it might have- been their king, . The next relic of antiquity, discovered at Cincinnati, is a sphe- ' rical stone, found on the fall of a large portion of the bank of the river It is a green stone, twelve inches in diameter,- divided into .18 138 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES twelve sides, and each side into twelve equal parts, and each part distinguished by hieroglyphical engravings. This beautiful stone, it is said, is lodged in the cabinet of arts at Philadelphia. It is supposed the stone was formed for astronomi- cal calculations, conveying a knowledge of the movements of the heavenly bodies. Farther on in this work, is an account of a still more wonderful stone, covered with the engravings of the ancient nations, where a fac simile of the stone is preserved. A CAVERN OF THE WEST, IN WHICH ARE FOUND MANY INTERESTING HIEROGLYPHICS, SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN DONE BY THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS. On the Ohio, twenty miles below the mouth of the Wabash, is a cavern, in which are found many hieroglyphics, and representa- tions of such delineations as would induce the belief, that their au- thors were, indeed, comparatively refined and civilzed. It is a cave in a rock, or ledge of the mountain, which presents itself to view, a little above the water of the river when in flood, and is situated close to the bank. In the early settlement of Ohio, this cave became possessed by a party of Kentuckians, called " Wil- son's Gang." Wilson, in the first place, brought his family to this cave, and fitted it up, as a spacious dwelling, erected a sign-post on the water side, on which were these words, " Wilson's Liquor Vault, and House of Entertainment." The novelty of such a tavern, induced almost all the boats de- scending the river to call for refreshments and amusement. At- tracted by these circumstances, several idle, characters took up their abode at the cave, after which it continually resounded with the shouts of the licentious, the clamor of the riotous, and the blas- phemy of gamblers. v Out of such customers, Wilson found no difficulty in forming a band of robbers, with whom he formed the plan of murdering the crews of every boat that stopped at his tavern, and of sending the boats manned by some of his party, to New-Orleans, and there sell their loading for cash, which was to be conveyed to the cave AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 139 by land, through the states of Tennessee and Kentucky ; the party returning with it being instructed to murder and rob, on all good occasions, on the road- After a lapse of time, the merchants of the upper country began to be alarmed, on finding their property make no returns, and their people never coming back. Several families and respectable men, who had gone down the river were never heard of; and the losses became so frequent, that it raised, at length, a cry of individual distress and general dismay. This naturally led to inquiry, and large rewards were offered for the discovery of the perpetrators of such unparalelled crimes-. It soon came out, that Wilson, with an organized party of forty- five men, was the cause of such waste of blood and treasure ; that he had a station at Hurricane Island, to arrest every boat that pass- ed by the mouth of the cavern, and that he had agents at Natchez and New-Orleans, of presumed respectability, who converted his assignments into cash, though they knew the goods to be stolen, or obtained by the commission of murder. The publicity of Wilson's transactions soon broke up his party ; some dispersed, others were taken prisoners, and he himself was killed by one of his associates, who was tempted by the reward offered for the head of the captain of the gang. This cavern measures about twelve rods in length, and five in width; its entrance presents a width of 80 feet at its base, and 25 feet high. The interior walls are smooth rock. The floor is very remarkable, being level through the whole length of its centre, the sides rising in stony grades, in the manner of seats in the pit of a theatre. On a diligent scrutiny of the walls, it is plainly discerned, that the ancient inhabitants at a very remote period, had made use of the cave as a house of deliberation and council. The walls bear many hieroglyphics, well executed ; and some of them represent animals, which have no resemblance to any now known to natural history. This cavern is a great natural curiosity, as it is connected with another still more gloomy, which is situated exactly above, united by an aperture of about fourteen feet.; which, to ascend, is like pass- ing up a chimney, while the mountain is yet far above. Not long after the dispersion and arrest of the robbers, who had infested it, 140 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES in the upper vault were found, the skeletons of about sixty persons, who had been murdered by the gang of Wilson, as was supposed. But the tokens of antiquity are still more curious and important, than a description of the mere cave, which are found engraved on its sides, within, an account of which we proceed to give. 1st. The sun in different stages of rise and declension ; the moon under various phases ; a snake, biting its tail, and represents an orb, or circle ; a viper ; a vulture ; buzzards tearing out the heart of a prostrate man ; a panther, held by the ears, by a child ; a crocodile ; several trees and shrubs ; a fox; a curious kind of hydra serpent ; two doves ; several bears ; two scorpions ; an eagle ; an owl ; some quails ; eight representations of animals which are now unknown. Three out of the eight are like the elephant in all re- spects, except the tusk and the tail. Two more resemble the tiger, one a wild boar, another a sloth ; and the last appears a creature of fancy, being a quadrumane, instead of a quadruped, the claws being alike before and behind, and in the act of conveying some- thing to the mouth, which lay in the centre of the monster. Be- sides these were several fine representations of men and women, not naked, but clothed, not as the Indians, but much in the costume of Greece and Rome. We must at once perceive, that these objects, with an excep- tion or two, were empolyed by the ancient Greeks, to display the nature of the world, the omnipotence of God, the attributes of man, and the utility of rendering his knowledge systematic and immortal. All human sciences flourished among the Egyptians long before they were common to any other people ; the Grecians in the days of Solon, about six hundred^years before Christ ; Pythagoras, a"bout the same time ; Herodotus, between four and five hundred years before Christ, and Plato, a little later ; acquired in Egypt, all that knowledge of nature, which rendered them so eminent and remark- able. But the Egyptian priests' did not divulge their doctrines, but by the aid of signs, and figurative emblems. Their manner was to discover to their auditors, the mysteries of God and nature, in hieroglyphics ; which were certain visible shapes and forms of creatures, whose inclinations and dispositions led to the knowledge of the truths intended for instruction. All their divinity, philoso- phy, and their greatest secrets, were comprehended in these in- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST, 141 genious characters, for fear they should be profaned by a familiar acquaintance with the commonalty. It requires but a rapid and cursory view of the hieroglyphics above enumerated, to convince us of design ; and also that the cav- ern wherein they are found engraved, was originally a place of worship, or of council. The sun, the most glorious of all visible beings, represented their chief god, and received their adoration, for causing all the vegeta- tion of the earth to bring forth its increase. 2d. The moon denoted the next most beautiful object in the cre- ation, and was worshipped for her own peculiar usefulness ; and more particularly, for supplying the place of the departed sun. 3d. The snake, in the form of an orb, or circle, biting its tail, pointed out the continual mutation of creatures, and the change of matter, or the perpetual motion of the world itself. If so, this con- struction of that hieroglyphic, the snake, agrees- with the Greek figure, of the same kind ; which implies that the world feeds upon itself, and receives from itself in return, a continual supply for renovation and nourishment ; the same symbol designated the year which revolves round, and ends where it first began, like the ser- pent with its tail in its mouth ; it is believed the ancient Greeks gave it this meaning. 4th. The viper, the most venomous of all creatures, was the em- blem of the devil, or wicked angel ; for, as its poison is quick and powerful, so is the destroying spirit, in bringing on mankind evils, which can only be opposed by the grace and power of God. 5th. The vulture, tearing out the bowels *of a prostrate man, seems a moral intending to reprove fierceness and cruelty. Dr. Rush says, this hieroglyphic represents intemperance, and by them was so understood. 6th. The panther, held by the ears by a child, was meant to im- press a sense of the dominion of innocence and virtue over oppres- sion and vice ; or perhaps it bore the Greek meaning, of a wretch encompassed with difficulties, which he vainly attempts to avoid. 7th. The crocodile, from its power and might, was another sym- bol of the Great Spirit ; or its being the v only creature without a tongue, might have given it a title to the same honor, all heathen nations concur in representing their gods, beholding and doing all things, in heaven and earth, in profound silence. 142 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES 8th. The several trees and shrubs were undoubtedly emblemat- ical of particular virtues, as represented in this temple, the cave, from a veneration for their aromatic and healing properties. Among the ancients, we know, that the palm tree and the laurel were em- blems of victory and deserved honor ; the myrtle, of pleasure ; the cedar, of eternity ; the oak, of strength ; the olive tree, of fruitfulness ; the vine, of delight and joy; and the lily, of beauty. But what those in the cave imply, it is not possible to determine, as nothing of their character can be deduced from the manner they were sketched on the surface of a rough wall, where the design is obscured by smoke, or nearly obliterated from the effect of damp, and the gradual decay of time. 9th. The fox, from every authority, was put to denote subtlety and craftiness. 10th. The hydra serpent probably singnified malice and envy, passions which the hieroglyphic taught mankind to avoid. 11th. The two doves were hieroglyphics of constancy in love ; all nations agree in this, in admiring the attachment of doves. 12th: The bears, it is apprehended, signify industry, labor and patience ; for the Indians believe the cubs of the bear come into the world with misshapen parts, and that their eyes, ears and other members are licked into form by the mother, who passes days in that anxious and unceasing employ. 13th. The scorpions were calculated to inspire a detestation for malignity and vice ; even the present race of Indians hold these animals in great disgust, healing wounds inflicted by them with a preparation of their own blood. lith. The eagle represents, and is held to this day, as the em- blem of a great, noble, and liberal mind ; fierce in war, conquering the enemy, and protecting his friends ; he among the Indians, who can do this, is compared with the- eagle. 15th. The owl must have been set up to deter men from deceit and hypocrisy. He cannot endure the light of the sun, nor can hypocrisy bear that of truth and sincerity. He may have been the emblem of death and wretchedness, as among the Egyptians ; or of victory and prosperity, when in a flying attitude, as among the Greeks. 16th. The quails afford no clue to their hireoglyphic, unless they signify the corn seasoB, and point out the time for the usage of some AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 143 particular rites and ceremonies of a religious nature. With the Greeks, they were emblematical of impiety, from a belief that they enrage and torment themselves when the crescent of the new moon appears. J7th. The representations of the larger animals, were doubtless, indicative of the power and attributes of the Great Spirit : The mammoth showing his greatness ; the tiger, his strength ; the boar, his wrath ; the sloth, his patience ; and the nondescript, his hidden virtues, which are past finding out. 18th. The human figures are more definite, and afford inferences more certain, on account of the dress they are represented in ; which resembles the Roman ; the figures would be taken for Eu- ropean antiquities, were it not for the character and manner of the heads. The dress of these figures, consisting of, 1st. A carbasus, or rich cloak ; 2d. a sabucala, or waistcoat or shirt; 3d, a supparum, or breeches open at the knees ; 4th, solea, or sandals, tied across the toes and heels ; 5tb, the head embraced by a bandean crowned with feathers. 19th. The dress of the females, carved in this cave, have a Gre- cian cast, the hair encircled by the crown, and was confined by a bodkin ; the remaining part of this costume was Roman. 1st : The garments called stolla, or perhaps the toga pura, flounced from the shoulders to the ground : 2d, an indusium appeared underneath : 3d, the indusium was confined under the breast, by a zone or ces- tus : and, 4th, sandals, in the manner of those of the men. Could all this have been produced by the mere caprice of abori- ginal artizans — we think not ; they have, in this instance, either recorded their own manners, in the one particular of costume, or they have represented that of others, who had come among them as strangers, and wonderfully induces the belief, that such were Greeks, Romans, or some nation of the earth, whose mode of dress was similar. Viewed in the most critical manner, this instance of American antiquity cannot fail to excite in the mind surprise, when we con- trast this with the commonly received opinion, that Columbus was the first discoverer of this country. The hieroglyphic carved in this cave, which represents a child holding or leading a panther, brings forcibly to the mind a similar 144 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES idea in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 14, 6th verse, where it is said, the wolf, the leopard and the young lion shall be led by a child ; and relates to the period when both natu- ral and moral evil shall have no existence in the earthj as is be- lieved by some. In this cave, it appears, there are sketched on the rock the figures of several animals, now extinct ; among which are three, much resembling the elephant, the tail and tusks excepted. It would be passing the bounds of credulity to suppose the artists who delineat- ed those figures, would represent no less than eight animals, differ- ing in their configuration, one from the other, which had in reality no being, and such as these had never been seen. We suppose the animals resembling the elephant, to have been the mammoth, and that those ancients were well acquainted with the creature, or they could never have engraved it on the rock. Job, of the Scriptures, who was a native of the land of Uz, in Idu- mea, which is situated southwest of the lake Asphaltidese, or sea of Sodom, was also well acquainted with this animal. See Job, chapter 40 : " Behold now Behemoth, which I made with thee ; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo, now his strength is in his loins ; and his force in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar ; the sinews of his loins are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass ; his bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God." Whoever has examined the skeleton of one of those animals, now in the Philadelphia museum, will acknowledge the bones are equal to bars of brass or iron. Its height over the shoulders, is eleven feet ; from the point of the nose to the end of the tail, following the exterior or curve, is twenty-one feet ; a single tooth weighs four pounds ten ounces. The rib bones are six inches in width, and in thickness three ; the whole skeleton as it is, with the exception of a few bones, weighs one thousand pounds. But how tremendous must that animal have been, to which the tooth weighing twenty-five pounds, found in the earth at Cincin- nati belonged, more than five times the dimensions of the one de- scribed above ; arguing, from proportion, that is, if a tooth belong- ed to a skeleton weighing one thousand pounds, was found to be four pounds ten ounces; a tooth weighing twenty-five pounds AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 145 would give a skeleton of more than five thousand pounds. And if the calculation be carried forward in this sort of proportion, we shall produce an animal more than forty feet high, and nearly an hundred in length, with a proportionable thickness. What would be the sensation, if we were to meet an animal of this sort in his ancient haunts ; it would almost appear a moving mountain ; but add to this, the enormous eyes of the animal, set at a frightful distance from each other, with an amplitude of forehead between, clothed like the side of a hill, with a forest of shaggy hair ; a mouth, gaping like some dreary cavern, set round with teeth surikient to crush a buffalo at a mouthful ; its distended nos- trils emitting vapor like the puffs of a steam boat, with a sound, when breathing, that might be heard afar ; the legs appearing in size of dimensions sufficient to bear a ship on his shoulders ; and his feet or paws spread out like a farmer's corn fan, armed with claws like flukes to an anchor of a vessel of war ; the tail, as it is said in Job, waving to and fro, like a cedar bending before the wind. But add to all this, anger ; let him but put his fierceness on, his eyes flash fire, his tail elevated aloft, lashing the ground, here and there, at a dreadful distance from his body ; his voice like the double rolling of thunder, jarring the wilderness ; at which every living thirg would tremble, and drop to the earth. Such an ani- mal would indeed be the " chief of the ways of God," it would be perfectly safe in the midst of a tornado in the wilderness ; no tree, or a forest of them, could possibly harm the monster by falling against it; it would shake thera off, as mere troublesome insects, as smaller animals do the flies in a summer's day. The one in Peale's museum, of which we have spoken, a page or two back, is one out of nine skeletons of this monster, which were dug out of the earth in the neighborhood of the Shongum mountain, in Ulster county, on the southwestern side of the State of New York, eight of which were sent to Europe. See Spafford's Gazeteer of New York. Near Rochester, in the State of New- York, in 1833, two teeth of this animal were discovered, but a small depth beneath the sur- face. They were found in the town of Perrinton, near Fullam's Basin, some time ago, by Mr. William Mann, who was engaged in digging up a stump. They were deposited about four feet below the surface of the earth. These were in a tolerably good state of 19 :±? i 7- 7_i : :: -.- -u — — :: i: '--^ :: I" -: i: :: = 5s:i AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 147 ri'ci as to proclaim at once, that they were formed by animals w&l lowing in them, after they had bathed and satiated themselves with the waters of the fountain ; these were the works of buffaloes, deer, and other small animals. But the same appearances are evident in some banks in the neigh- borhood, which were hollowed in a semicircular manner, from the action of beasts rubbing against them, and carrying off quanti- ties of the earth on their hides, forming a thick coat, to defend against the stings of numberless flies, like the rhinoceros of Africa. One of those scooped out hollow banks, appeared like the side of a hill from which an hundred thousand loads of soil might have been carried off; the height of the wasted bank, where it was affected by attrition, was at least twenty-five feet. The other ani- mals, being smaller, could get down and up again from their wal* lowing, with ease and quickness ; but the mammoths were com- pelled, from their size, to lean against some hill or mountain, so as to coat their hide with earth. ]N'ear this spot are often found the frames of this animal, sunk in the mire. In the State of Missouri, between White River and Strawberry River, are certain ranges of mountains, at whose base, in a certain spot, are found " large quantities of these bones gather- ed in a small compass, which collection was doubtless occasioned by the appetite which these animals had for prey. Attracted in this way to these marshy places, they were evidently mired when they ventured too far in, and of course the struggles of the last one would sink the bones of his predecessor still deeper. Thus, these collections are easily accounted for, although, at first, it seems very strange to see these bones accumulated, like those of some of the extinct Indian tribes of the west." Beck's Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri, page 332. Adam Clarke supposes the Behemoth to have been a carnivorous animal. See his remarks on this monster, in his Commentary on Job, 40th chapter, 15th verse : " The Behemoth, on the contrary, (i. e. in opposition to the habits of the hippopotamus and elephant,) is represented as a quadruped of a ferocious nature, and formed for tyranny, if not rapacity ; equally lord of the floods and of the mountains ; rushing with rapidity of foot, instead of slowness or stateliness ; and possessing a rigid and enormous tail, like a cedar tree, instead of a short naked tail of about a foot long, as the hip- popotamus, or a weak, slender, hog-shaped tail, as the elephant." 14S AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Job gays, chap. 40th, verse 17th, that he (this monster) moveth his tail like a cedar, i. e. its motions were like those of a tall cedar tree moved slowly one way and the other by the wind ; which ex- plicitly and emphatically marks the monstronsness of this creature's size. " He moveth his tail like a cedar," slowly one way and the other ; exactly as the lion, the tiger, or the leopard, in the motions of this limb, especially when angry, or when watching for their prey ; on which account, it is probable, Job has seen fit to make mention of this peculiar motion of the animal ; and also it is an evi- dence of the overwhelming power or strength of the mammoth. He was, indeed, as it is said in Job, " the chief of the ways of God," in the creation of animals. At St. Helen's Point, north of Guayaquil, in the republic of Co- lombia, South America, on the coast of the Pacific, on the equator, are found the enormous remains of this animal. The Peruvian tradition of those bones is, that at this very point once landed, from some unknown quarter, of the earth, a colony of giants, who mutu- ally destroyed each other. At New Grenada, in the same pro- vince, and on the ridge of the Mexican Cordilleras, vast quantities of the remains of this huge beast are found.— Humboldt's Researches in South America. The remains of a monster, recently discovered on the bank of the Mississippi, in Louisiania, seventeen feet under ground, may be considered as the greatest wonder of the west. The largest bone, which was thought to be the shoulder blade, or jaw bone, is twenty feet long, three broad, and weighed twelve hundred pounds. The aperture in the vertebre,or place for the pith of the back bone, is six by nine inches caliber ; supposed, when alive, to have been an hundred and twenty-five in length. The awful and tremend- ous size of what this creature must have been, to which this shoul- der blade, or jaw bone, belonged, when alive, is almost frightful to think of. In President Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, we have the follow- ing, as the tradition of the Indians respecting this animal, which they call the big buffalo, and assert, tl*at he is carnivorous, as Dr. Clarke coutends, and still exists in the northern parts of America. " A delegation of warriors from the Beleware tribe, visited the government of Virginia, during the Revolution, on matters of busi- ness; after this had been discussed, and settled in council, the governor asked some questions relative to their country, and, among AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 149 others, what they knew or had heard of the animal whose bones were found at the Licks on the Ohio. " Their chief speaker immediately put himself into an attitude of oratory, and with a pomp suited to what he conceived the elevation of his subject, informed him, that it was a tradition handed down from their fathers, that in ancient times a herd of these tremendous animals came to the Big Bone Lick, and began an universal de- struction of the bear, deer, elk, buffaloes, and other animals, which had been created for the use of the Indians. "And that the Great Man above, looking down, and seeing this, was so enraged, that he seized his lightening ; descended on the earth, seated himself on a neighboring mountain, on a certain rock, where the print of his feet are still remaining, from whence he hurled his bolts among them, till the whole were slaughtered ; ex- cept the big bull, who presenting his forehead to the shafts, shook them off as they fell, but at length, one of them missing his head, glanced on his side, wounding him sufficiently to make him mad ; whereon, springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, at a leap, then over the Wabash at another, the Illinois at a third, and a fourth leap, over the great lakes, where he is living at this day." " A Mr. Stanley, taken prisoner by the Indians, near the mouth of the Tennessee river, relates, that after being transferred through several tribes, was at length carried over the mountains west of the Missouri, to a river which runs westwardly ; that these bones a- bounded there and that the nations described to him the animal to which these belonged, as still living in the northern parts of their country." Mr. Jefferson contends, at page 77, of his Notes on Virginia, that this animal is not extinct. " It may be asked," says this philoso- pher, " why I insert the mammoth as if it still existed. I ask in return, why I should omit it, as if it did not exist. The northern and western parts still remain in their aboriginal state, unexplored and undisturbed by us, or by others for us. He may as well exist there now as he did formerly, where we find his bones. If he be a carnivorous animal, as some anatomists have conjectured, and the Indians affirm, his early retirement to deeper wilds, may be ac- counted for, from the great destruction of the wild game, by the Indians, which commenced in the very first instant of their connex- ion with us, for the purpose of purchasing matchcoats, hatchets, and guns, with their skins." 150 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES The description of this monster's habits, as given by the Dela^ %vare chief, has a surprising agreement with the account of the Behemoth, given by Job ; especially at this verse : " Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play." " He frequenis those places (says Dr. Clarke) where he can have most prey ; he makes a mock of all the beasts of the field. They can neither resist his power, nor escape his agility." " It appears (says the above author) " to have been a many toed ani- mal ; the springs which such a creature could make, must have been almost incredible ; nothing by swiftness could have escaped its pursuit. God seems to have made it as the proof his power, and had it been prolific, and not become extinct, it would have de- populated the earth of both men and animals. TRACKS OF MEN AND ANIMALS IN THE ROCKS OF TENNES- SEE, AND ELSEWHERE. Among the subjects of antiquity, which are abundant on the American continent, we give the following, from Morse's Universal Geography, which in point of mysteriousness is not surpassed, per- haps, on the globe. In the Stale of Tennessee, on a certain moun- tain, called the enchanted mountain, situated a few miles south of Braystown, which is at the head waters of the Tennessee river, are found impressed in the surface of the solid rock, a great number of tracks, as turkies, bears, horses, and human beings, as perfect as they could be made on snow or sand. The human tracks are re- markable for having uniformly six toes each, like the anakims of Scripture ; one only excepted, which appears to be the print of a negro's foot. One, among those tracks, is distinguished from the rest, by its monstrousness, being of no less dimensions than six- teen inches in length, across the toes thirteen inches, behind the toes, where the foot narrows toward the instep, seven inches, and the heel ball five inches. One also among the tracks of the animals, is distinguished for its great size : it is the track of a horse, measuring eight by ten inches ; perhaps the horse which the great warrior led when passing this mountain with his army. That these are the real tracks of the ANB DISGOTERIES IN THE WEST. 151 animals they represent, appears from the circumstance of this horse's foot having slipped several inches, and recovered again ; the figures have all the same direction, like the trail of a company on a journey. Not far from this very spot, are vast heaps of stones, which are the supposed tombs of warriors, slain, perhaps in the very battle this big footed warrior was engaged in, at a period when these mountains, which give rise to some branches of the Tugulo, Apa- lachicola, and Hiwassa rivers, were in a state of soft and clayey texture. On this range, according to Mexican tradition, was the holy mountain ; temple and cave of Olaimi, where was also a city and the seat of their empire, more ancient than that of Mexico, To reduce that city, perhaps, was the object of the great warior, whose track with that of his horse and company, still appear. We are of the opinion 3 that these tracks, found sunk in tbe sur- face of the rocks of this mountain, is indubitable evidence of their antiquity, going back to the time when men dispersed over the earth, immediately after the flood. At the period when this troop passed the summit of this moun- tain, the rock was in a soft and yielding state ; time, therefore, suf- ficient for it to harden to its present rock consistency, is the argu- ment of the great distance of time elapsed since they went over it. It is probable the whole of these mountains, out of which arise the branches of the rivers above alluded to, were, at the time when the deluge subsided, but avast body of clay ; for even now, the sur- face, where it is not exposed to the rays of the sun, is of a soft text- ure, capable of being cut with a knife, and appears to be of the nature of the pipe stone. In order that those tracks might retain their shape against the operation of rains, the clay must have been of a tough and oily na- ture ; and hardened by slow degrees, after having been brought to feel the influence of the sun's rays, and drying nature of the winds. The changing and revolutionising consequences of the flood, it is likely, unbarred these bodies of clay from the depths of the earth, by washing off all the other kinds of strata, not so adhesive as is the nature of this clay ; out of which these ranges of mountains' have been made, some eighteen hundred years later than the origi- nal creation. • In the wild and savage country of Guiana, in South America, are mountains of a prodigious height, on whose smooth and perpen- 152 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES dicular sides, which seem once to have been a barrier to mighty- waters, are engraved, at a surprising distance from their base, the figures of animals ; also the sun, moon, and stars, with other hiero- glyphical signs. The tradition respecting them, among the natives, is that their ancestors, in a time of great waters, came in canoes, to the tops of these mountains, and that the stones were then so soft, and plastic, that men could easily trace marks on them with their fingers, or with sticks. These rocks, it would appear, were then in a state similar to those in Tennessee, which also had retained the impressions made on them by the feet of the traveller. But these mysterious traces found on the mountain in Tennessee, are not the only impressions of the kind. Mr. Sehoolcraft, in his travels in the central parts of the Mississippi regions, informs us, that on the limestone strata of rock, which forms the shores of the Mississippi, and along the neighborhood of St. Louis, were found tracks of the human foot, deeply and perfectly impressed in the solid stone. But two traces of this sort have been, as yet, discovered ; these are the same re- presented on the plate, as given by Schoolcraft.— See plate. " The impressions in the stone are, to all appearances, those of a man standing in an erect posture, with the left foot a little advanc- ed, and the heels drawn in. The distance between the heels, by accurate measurement, is six inches and a quarter, and between the extremities of the toes, thirteen and a half. The length of these tracks is ten and a quarter inches, across the toes four inches and a half, as spread out, and but two and a half at the heel. Directly before the prints of these feet, within a few inches, is a well im- pressed and deep mark, having some resemblance to a scroll, or roll of parchment, two feet long, by a foot in width. To account ior these appearances, two theories are advanced ; one is, that they were sculptured there by'the ancient nations : the other, that they were impressed there at a time when the rock was in a plastic state ; both theories have their difficulties, but we in- cline to the latter, because the impressions are strikingly natural,' says Mr. Schoolcraft, exhitbing even the muscular marks of the foot, with great precision and faithfulness to nature, and on this ac- count, weakens, in his opinion, the doctrine of their being sculp- tured by the ancient nations. But why there are no others going to and from these, is unac> AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 153 countable, unless we may suppose the rest of this rock, at that time, was buried by earth, brush, grass, or some kind of covering. If they were sculptured, why not other specimens appear ; this one isolated effort of the kind, would seem unnatural. — See the plate, which is a truefac simile of those tracks. COTUBAMANA, THE GIANT CHIEF. On the subject of the stature of the Patagonians, we have the following remarks of Morse, the geographer. " We cannot, with- out a charge of unreasonable scepticism, deny all credence to the accounts that have been transmitted to us, of a race of men of ex- traordinary stature, in the country about the Strait of Magellan. Inscrutable as are the ways of Providence, and as limited as is the progress hitherto made in the natural philosophy of the globe we inhabit, no bounds can be assigned to the endless variety of phenomena, which successively appear. The man who can assign a reason why an Irish giant, or a Polish dwarf, should be born amidst nations of ordinary stature, will have solved every problem, as to the existence, either of gigantic Patagonians, or of pigmy Es- quimaux. From, an impartial revision of the various authorities, it appears, as an established fact, that the usual stature of one or more tribes of Indians in Patagonia, is from six and a half to seven and a half feet." When the Spaniards conquered and destroyed the nations and tribes of some of the West India islands, among them was a tribe whose chief was a man of great stature. Cotubamana was the name of this cacique, who resided with his nation on the island Higuey, adjacent to Hispaniola. This chieftian, as related by Las Casas. the historian, was the strongest of his tribe, and more perfectly formed than one man of a thousand, of any nation whatever. He was taller than the tallest of his countrymen, in width from shoulder to shoulder exceeding all men, measuring full three feet, with the rest of his person iu 20 154 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES admirable proportion. His aspect was not handsome ; yet his coun- tenance was grave, strongly marked with the characteristics of a man of courage. His bow was not easily bent by a common man ; his arrow was three pronged, pointed with the bones of fishes ; all his weapons were large enough for a giant ; in a word, he was so nobly propor- tioned as to be the admiration of even the Spaniards. Already the murderous Spaniards had been m^e than conquer- ors in several battles which drove the poor fugitives to their caves, and the fastnesses of the mountains, whither they had followed their chief. A daily pursuit was continued, but chiefly to capture the as yet invincible Cotubamana. While searching in the woods and hills of the island, at a certain time, and having got on their trail, they came at length to a place where the path which they had followed suddenly spread, and divided into many, the whole company of the Spaniards, except one man, chose a path, which they pursued. This one exception, was a man named Juan Lopez, a powerful Spaniard, and skilful in the mode of Indian warfare. He chose to proceed alone, in a blind foot path, leading off to the left of the course the others had taken, winding among little hills, so thickly wooded that it was impossible to see a man at the distance of half a bow shot. But as he was silently darting along this path, he encountered all at once, in a narrow pass, overhung by rocks and trees, twelve Indian warriors, armed with bows and arrows, following each other in Indian file. The poor natives were confounded at the sight of Lopez, imagining there must be a party of soldiers behind him, or they would doubtless have transfixed hr.u with their arrows. Lopez demanded of them where their chief was ; they replied, he is behind us, and opening to let him pass, he beheld the dauntless Cotubamana in the rear. At sight of the Spaniard, the gallant cacique bent his gigantic bow, and was on the point of launching one of his three headed arrows into his heart ; but Lopez at the instant, rushed upon him, and wounded him with his sword. The other Indians, struck with terror, had fled. The Spaniard and Cotubamana now grappled with each other; Lopez had seized the chief by the hair of his head with one hand, and was aiming with the other a thrust with his sword at his naked body, but the AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 155 chief struck down the sword with his arm, and closed in with hi§ antagonist, and threw him with his back upon the rough rocks. As they were both men of great strength, the struggle was long and violent. The sword lay beneath them, but Cotubamana seized with his great hand the Spaniard's throat, and began to strangle him, when the sound of the contest brought the other Spaniards to the spot. They found their companion writhing and gasping in the agonies of death, in the gripe of the Indian. The whole band now fell upon him, and finally succeeded in binding his noble limbs, when they carried him to St. Domingo, where the infernal Span- iards hanged him as if he had been a murderer. — Irvingh Life of Columbus, 3d vol. p. 159. Could this native have been less than 12 feet in height, to be in proportion with the breadth of his back between his shoulders, which was full three feet, as Las Casas relates ? In reading the story of the miserable death of this hero of his own native island, Kiguey, we are reminded of the no less tragical end of Wallace, the Scottish chief, who was, it is said, a man of great size and strength, and was also executed for defending his country. Goliath of Gath was six cubits and a span high, which, accord- ing to the estimate of Bishop Cumberland, was eleven feet and ten inches; Cotubamana and Goliath df the Philistines, were, it ap- pears, much of the same stature, terrible to look upon, and irresisti- ble in strength. There are those who imagine, that the first inhabitants of the globe, or the antediluvians, were much larger than our race at the present time ; and although it is impossible to prove this opinion, yet the subject is not beyond the reach of argument in its support. The circumstance cf their immense longevity favors strongly this opinion ; our speeies, as they are now constituted, could not possibly endure the piossure of so many years ;. the heart, with all the blood vessels of the body, would fail. AH the organs of the human subject, which r.ppertaiu to the blood, would ossify, and cease their action, long before five, six and nine hundred years should transpire, unless differently or more abundantly sustained with the proper support, than could now be furnished from the lit- tle bodies of the present times. Small streams sooner feel the power of a draught than a river or a lake ; great trees are longer sustained beneath the rays of a burn- 156 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES ing sky, without rain, than a mere weed or shrub ; and this is bf reason of the greater quantum of the juices of the tree, and of the greater quantum of the water of the river or the lake. Apply this reasoning to the antediluvians, and we arrive at the conclusion, that their bodies must have been larger than ours, or the necessary juices could not have been contained, so as to furnish a heart, and all the blood vessels, with a sufficient ratio of strength and vigor to support life so many ages in successsion. Their whole conformation must have been of a larger, looser, and more generous texture, as the flesh and skin of the elephant, which is the largest as well as the longest lived animal known to the science of zoology. The mammoth was undoubtedly a long lived animal. The eagle, the largest of the fowl family, lives to a great age. That the antediluvians were of great stature, is strongly support- ed by a remark of King Solomon, found in his Book of Wisdom,, in the Apocrypha, 14th chapter, at the 6th verse, where he calls all the inhabitants of the earth, who were destroyed by the deluge, "proud giants," whose history, by tradition, handed down from the family of Noah, through the lineage of Shem, was well known to that king, the wisest of men in his day and age. And even after the flood, the great stature of men is supported in the Scriptures in several places, who were, for some generations, permitted to live several hundred years, and were all accordingly of great stature. Whole tribes or nations of gigantic inhabitants peopled the country of Canaan, before the Jews drove them out. Their manners and customs were very horrible, whom Solomon, the king, charges with being guilty, among m«iny other enormities, of glutting themselves with the blood and flesh of human beings; from which we learn they were cannibals. See Book of Wisdom, 12th chap. 5th verse — Apocrypha. The very circumstances of the human race, before the flood, re- quired that they should be of greater strength of body than now, because it is not likely so many useful and labor saving machines were then invented and in use as now. ' Every. thing' was to be effected by strength of muscle and bone, which of course would require greater bodies to produce it. Were we to indulge in fancy on this subject, we should judge them no pigmy race, either in person or in temper ; but terrible, AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 157 broad, and tall in stature, loose and flabby in their flesh and skin ; coarse and hideous in their features, slow and s-trong in their ges- tures, irascible and ferocious in their spirits, without pity or refine- ment ; given wholly to war, rapine and plunder ; formed into bands; clans and small bodies of marauders, constantly prowling round each other's habitations, outraging all the charities of a more refined state of things, measuring all things by mere bodily strength. From such a state of things we should naturally look for the consequence mentioned in the Bible ; which is, that the whole earth was filled with violence before the flood, and extremely wicked every way, so as to justify the Divine procedure in their extermination. Indications now and then appear, in several parts of the earth, as mentioned by the traveller, of the existence of fowls, of a size compared with the mammoth itself, considering the difference in the elements each inhabit, and approach each other in size as near- ly a$ the largest fowl now known, does the largest animal. Henderson, in his travels in New Siberia, met with the claws of a bird, measuring three feet in length ; the same was the length of the toes of a mammoth, as measured by Adam Clarke. The Yakuts, inhabitants of the Siberian country, assured Mr. Henderson, -that they had frequently, in their hunting excursions, found the skeleton, and even the feathers of this fowl, the quills of which were large enough to admit a man's arm into the calibre, which would not be out of proportion with the size of the claws mentioned above. " Captain Cook mentions having seen, during his voyages, a mon- strous bird's nest in New Holland, on a low sandy island, in En- deavor River, with trees upon it, where were an incredible num- ber of sea fowls. This monstrous nest was built on the ground, with large sticks, and was no less than twenty-six feet in circum- ference, more than eight feet across, and two feet eight inches high. Geographys speak of a species ,of eagle, sometimes shot in South America, measuring from tip to tip of the wings, forty feet. This, indeed, must have been of the species celebrated in the tradition of the ancients, called the Phoenix. In various parts of Ireland, are frequently dug up enormous horns, supposed to have belonged to a species of deer, now extinct. Some of these horns have been found, of the extent of fourteen 15$ AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES feet from tip to tip, furnished with brow antlers, and weighing three hundred pounds. The whole skeleton is frequently found with them. It is supposed the animal must have been about twelve feet high. — Morse's Universal Geog. A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST, AS GIVEN BY THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY AT CINCINNATI. Near Newark, in the county of Licking, Ohio, is situated one ©f those immense wor\s or fortifications. Its builders chose, with good taste and judgme-it, this site for their town, being exactly on the point of land ai the junction of Racoon Creek and South Fork, where Licking Ttiver commences. It is in form resembling somewhat a horse shea, accommodated, however, to the sweep of those two streams ; embracing in the whole, a circumference of about six hundred rods, or nearly two miles. . A wall of earth, of about four hundred rods, is raised on the sides of this fort next to the small creek, which comes down along its sides from the webt and east. The situation is beautiful, as these works stand on a large plain, which is elevated forty or fifty feet above the stream just noticed, and is almost perfectly flat, and as rich a soil as can be found in that country. It would seem the people who made this settlement, undertook to encompass with a wall, as much land as would support its inhabitants^ and also suffi- cient to build their dwellings on, with several fortifications, arrang- ed in a proper manner for its defence. There are, within its ranges four of those forts, of different di- mensions ; one contains forty acres, with a wall of about ten feet high ; another, containing twent-two acres, also walled ; but in this fort is an elevated observatory, of sufficient height to overlook the whole country. From this, there is the appearance of a secret or subterranean passage to the water, as one of the creeks runs near this fort. A third fort, containing about twenty-six acres, having a wall AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 159 around it, thrown out of a deep ditch on the inner side of the wall. This wall is now from twenty-five to thirty feet in height. A fourth fortification, enclosing twenty acres, with a wall of about ten feet high. Two of these forts are perfect circles ; one a per- fect square ; another an octagon or eight sided. These forts are severally connected by roads running between parallel walls ; and also in the same way communicate with the creeks ; so that these important points, in case of invasion, should not be deprived of wa- ter. There are, besides the forts, four other small works of de- fence, of a circular form, situated in such a manner as to protect, in a measure, the roads running from fort to fort. The fort which is of the eight sided form, containing the great- est space withiD, has eight gateways, with a mound in front of each of them, and were doubtless placed thereto aid in a defence against invaders. The other forts have no gateways connected with the roads that lead to them, except one, and this is a round fort united to the octangular fort, containing twenty -two acres ; the gateway to this looks toward the wilderness ; at this gate is also a mound, sup- posed to be for its defence. On the southern side of this great town, is a road running off to the country, which is also walled in the same way ; it has been surveyed a few miles, and is supposed to connect other similar works on the Hokhoking, thirty miles distance, at some point a few miles north of Lancaster, as walls of the description connected with this work, of fen or twelve miles in extent, have been discovered. It is supposed, also, that the walls on each side of the road were made for the double purpose of answering a> a fence to their fields, with gateways to accommodate their farms, and for security in time of danger, so that communion between friendly settlements might not be interrupted. About the walls of this place have been dis- covered very beautiful rock crystal and horn stone, suitable for ar- row and spear heads, a little lead, sulphur, and iron. This kind of stone, suitable for spears, was, undoubtedly, valua- ble on other accounts, as axes, knives, mallets, &c, were made of it. It is likely that, as very little iron has been discovered, even in its oxydized state, their vast works of e icavation were carried on by means of wooden shovels and scrapers, which would answer very well in the easy and stoneless soil of that country. A second fort, situated southwesterly from the great works on 160 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES the Licking, and four or five miles, in a northwestern direction from Somerset, the seat of Justice for Perry county, is found. This work encloses about forty acres ; its wall is entirely of stone, not regularly laid up in a wall, agreeably to the rules of masonry, but a huge mass of stones and rocks of all shapes and sizes, as nature formed them, without the mark of an iron tool upon them. These are in sufficient quantity to form a wall, if laid in good order, of about fourteen feet in height, and three in thickness. Near the centre of the area of this enclosure, is a stone mound, of a circular form, fifteen feet high, and was erected, as is conjec- tured, for an altar, on which were performed their religious rites, and also for a monument to perpetuate the memory of some great event in the history of its builders. It is also believed, that the whole of this vast preparation was devoted solely to the purposes of worship of some kind ; as it is situated on very high ground, where the soil is good for nothing, and may have been, what is called; an high place in Scripture, according to the customs of the ancient pagans of the old world. It could not have been a military work, as no water is found there, nor a place of dwelling, for the same reason, and from the poverty of the soil ; but must have been a place of resort on great occasions, such as a solemn assembly to propitiate the gods ; and also a place to anoint and crown their kings, elect legislators, trans- act national affairs, judge among the people, and inflict condign punishment. Who will believe for a moment, that the common Indian of the west, who were derived in part from the wandering hordes of the Northern Tartar race of Asia, were the authors of these works ; bearing the marks of so much labor and scientific calculation in their construction ? It cannot be. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 161 VAST WCRKS OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE MUSKINGUM. This fort, town, or fortification, or whatever it may have beec, is between three and four hundred rods ; or rising of a mile in cir- cumference, and so situated as to be nearly surrounded by two small brooks, running into the Muskingum. Their site is -on an elevated plain, above the present bank of that river, about a half mile from its junction with the Ohio. We give the account in the words of Mr. Atwater, president of the ^Antiquarian Society. u They consist of walls and mounds of earth, in direct lines, and in square and circular forms. The largest square fort, by some called the town, contains forty acres, encom- passed by a wall of earth, from six to ten feet high, and from twen- ty to thirty in breadth at the base. u On each side are tiree openings at equal distances, resembling twelve gateways. Ths entrances at the middle are the largest, particularly on the side next to the Muskingum. From this outlet is a covert way formed cf two parallel walls of earth, two hundred and thirty-one feet distant from each other, measured from centre to centre. The walls at the most elevated part, on the inside, are twenty-one feet in height, and forty-two in breadth, at the base, but on the outside average only about five feet in height. This fordas a passage of about twenty rods in length, leading by a gradu- al descent to the low grounds, where, at the time of its construc- tion, it probably reached the river. Its walls commence at sixty feet from the ramparts of the fort, and increase in elevation as the way descends to the river ; and the bottom is rounded in the cen- tre, in the manner of a well founded turnpike road. Within the walls of the fort, at its northwest corner, is an oblong elevated square, one hundred and eighty feet long, one hundred and thirty-two broad, and nine feet high, level on the summit, and even now, nearly perpendicular at the sides. Near the south wall is an elevated square, an hundred and fifty by an hundred and twenty, and eight feet high, similar to the other, excepting, that instead of an ascent to go up on the side next the wall, there is a 21 m «BWi Slips r& jv—. Q 2,0 1L .;■_ > 2. |y X£<< « 1. « ® ^ x '"'/,, V >j 0/ /A* ancient works an the Musking- um, near Marietta, Ohio. Explanation. — No. 1, every- where, shows the walls of these works. No. 2 shows the conical mounds. No. 2, however, inclosed by a circle repre- sents a very large mound surrounded by a wall and ditch. No 3 shows the two covered »vays leading from the large fort to the shore ol the Muskingum. No. 5 shows the remains of an ancient well. No. 6 shows two ponds, or excavations. No. 7 shows an elevated octangular oblong square, 180 feet long 30 broad and 9 high; level on the top. No. 4 shows a "2d octangular square, 150 by an 120 feet, and 8 high; with a suhte- ranean way leading to its top. No. 8 ■hows a 3d elevated square, ISO feet by 54, not as high as the others. Kioia actual survey by S. De Witt, May, 1822. <** 4 ^a Q P 162 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES hollow way, ten feet wide, leading twenty feet towards the centre, and then rising with a gradual slope to the top. This was, it is likely, a secret passage. At the southeast corner is a third elevated square, of an hundred and eighty by fifty-four feet, with ascents at the ends,- ten feet wide, but not so high nor perfect as the two others. Besides this forty acre fort, which is situated within the great range of the surrounding wall, there is another, containing twenty ^cres, with a gateway in the centre of each side, and at each cor- ner these gatewys are defended by circular mound". On the outside of the smaller fort is a mound, in form of a sugar loaf; its base is a regular circle, one hundred and fifteen feet in diameter, or twenty-one rods in circumference ; its altitude is thirty feet. It is surrounded by a ditch four feet deep, fifteen feet wide, and defended by a parapet four feet high, through which is a gate- way towards the foot, twenty feet in width. Near one of the cor- ners of the great fort, was found a reservoir or well, twenty-five feet in diameter, and seventy-five in circumference, with its sides raised above the common level of the adjoining surface, by an embank- ment of earth, three and four feet high." It was, undoubtedly, at first, very deep, as, since its discovery by the first settlers, they have frequently thrust poles into it to the depth of thirty feet. It appears to run to a point, like an inverted cone or funnel, and was undoubtedly that kind of well used by the inhabitants of the old world, which were so large at their top as to afford an easy descent down to the fountain, and up again with its water in a vessel borne on the shoulder, according to the ancient custom. See Genesis 13th chapter, 24th verse : " And she, (that is Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel,) wee: down to the well, filled her pitcher and came up.". Bethuel was an Assyrian, who, it seems, had made a well in the same form with that described above. Its sides were lined with a stratum of fine ash colored clay, eight and ten inches thick, beyond which is the common soil of the place. It is conjectured, that at the bottom of this well might be found many curious articles which belonged to the ancient inhabitants. On both sides of these walls are found fragments of pottery, cu- riously ornamented, made of shells an DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 163 appears quite black, with brilliant particles appearing at it is held to the light. Several pieces of copper have been found in and near these an- cient works, at various places ; and one was in the form of a cup, with low sides, the bottom very thick and strong, showing their enlarged acquaintance with that metal, more than the Indians ever had. RUINS OP ANCIENT WORKS AT CIRCLEVILLE, At Circlevilie, in Ohio, are the remains of very great works of this description, evidently of a military character, two of which are united ; one is exactly square, the other an exact circle. The square fort is fifty rods on each side ; the round one is nearly three hundred feet, or eighteen rods in circumference ; the circle and square touching each other, and communicate at the very spot where they are united. The circular fort is surrounded by two wails, with a deep ditch between them; the square fort is also encompassed by a wall, without a ditch. The walls of the circular fort were at least twen- ty feet in height, measuring from the bottom of the ditch, before the town of Circlevilie was built. The inner wall is formed of clay, brought from a distance, but the outside one was formed with the earth of the ditch, as it was thrown out. There were eight gateways, or openings, leading into the square fort, and only one intc the circular. Before each of these open- ings was a mound of earth, about four feet high, forty feet in diame- ter at the base, and twenty feet and upwards at the top, situated about two rods in front of the gates ; for the defence, no doubt, of these openings. The walls of this work vary a few degrees from north and south, and east and west, but no more than the needle varies; and not a few surveyors have, from this circumstance, been impressed with the belief, that the authors of these works were acquainted with astronomy, and the four cardinal points. Within the great square fort are eight small mounds, placed op- 164 AMERICAN ANTIWTI18 posite the gateways, for their defence, or to give opportunity to prl« vileged spectators to review the thousands passing out to war, or coming in with the trophies of victory. Such was the custom of ancient times. David, the most potent king of the Jews, stood at the gateway of the city, as his armies went to quell the insurrection of his son Absalom. See 2d Samuel, 18th chapter, 4th verse : " And the king stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands." It cannot be supposed the king stood on the ground, on a common level with his armies. Such a situation would be extremely inconvenient, and defeat, in a great measure, the opportunity of review. How impressive, when soldiers, fired with all the ardor of expected victory, to behold their general, chief, king, or emperor, bending over them, as they pass on, from some commanding position near at hand, giving counsel to their captains; drawing, in this way, large draughts on the indi- vidual confidence and love of the soldiery. Such may have been the spectacle at the gateways of the forts of the west, at the eras of their grandeur. In musing on the structure of these vast works found along the western rivers, enclosing such immense spaces of land, the mind is irresistibly directed to a contemplation of ancient Babylon, the first city of magnitude built immediately after the flood. That city was of a square form, being fifteen miles distance on each of its sides, and sixty in circumference, surrounded with a wall eighty- seven feet in thickness, and three hundred and fifty in height. On each side it had twenty-five gateways, amounting in all, to an hundred ; the whole, besides the wall, surrounded with a deep and wide ditch. At each corner of this immense square, was a strong tower, ten feet higher than the walls. There were fifty broad streets, each fifteen miles long, starting from each of its gates, and an hundred and fifty feet broad, crossing each other at right angles ; besides four half streets, surrounding the whole, two hundred feet broad. The whole city was divided into six hundred and seventy- six squares, four and a half furlongs on each side. In the centre of the city stood the temple of Belus, ar.d in the centre of this temple stood an immense tower, six hundred feet square at its base, and six hundred feet high, narrowing in the form of a pyramid as it ascended. The ascent to the summit was accomplished by spiral stairs, winding eight times round the whole. This tower consisted A2TP DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST, 168 of eight distinct parts, each on the top of the other, seventy-five feet high, till the whole, in aggregate, finished the tower. In the different stones were temples, or chapels, for the worship of the sun ; and on its top, some authors say, was an image of gold, forty feet in height, equal in value to three millions five hundred thousand dollars. — Blake's Atlas. The moddle of this city, with its towers at the corners, and pyramid in its centre, having been made at so early a period of time, being not far from an hundred years after the flood, was doubtless of sufficient influence to impress its image on the memory of tradition, so that the nations spreading out from that region over all the earth, may have copied this Chaldean model in their various works. This thought is strengthened when we compare its counterpart, the vast works of the west, with this Babylonian prototype of archi- tectural effort, and imagine we see in the latter, the features and general outlines of this giant, among cities, in the towers, walls, and pyramids of the western states. Near the round fort at Circleville, is another fort, ninety feet high, and was doubtless erected to overlook the whole works of that enormous military establishment. That it was a military es- tablishment is che decided opinion of the President of the Western Antiquarian Society, Mr. Atwater. He says, the round fort was picketed in, if we are to judge from the appearance of the ground, on and about the walls. Half way up the outside of the inner wall, is a place distinctly to be seen, where a row of pickets once stood, and where it was placed when this work of defence was originally erected. Finally, this work about its walls and ditch, a few years since, presented as much of a defensive aspect, as forts which were occupied in our war with the French, such as Oswego, Fort Stan- wix, and others. These works have been examined by the first military men now living in the United States, and they have uniformly declared their opinion to be, that they were milicary works of defence, 166 AMERICAN jLNTigVm&S ANCIENT WORKS ON PAINT CREEK, On Paint Creek, in Ohio, about fifteen miles from Chilicothe, are works of art, still more wonderful than any yet described. There are six in mi nber, and are in the neighborhood of each other. In one of those grand enclosures are contained three forts, one embraces seventeen, another twenty-seven, a third seventy- seven, amounting in ill, to an hundred and fifteen acres of land. One of those forts is round, another square, and a third is of an irregular form, appro sehing however, nearer to the circular than any other; and the v*all which embraces the whole, is so contrived in its courses, as to "avor those several forms j the whole being, evidently, one work, separated into three compartments. There are fourteen gateways, going out of the whole work, be- sides three which un.le the several forts one with the other, in- wardly ; all these, especially those leading outwardly, are very wide, being, as they aow appear, from one to six rods. At three of those gateways, on the outside of the wall, are as many ancient wells ; and one on the inside, where doubtless, the inhabitants procured water. The.r width at the top is from four to six rods, but their depth unknown, as they are now nearly filled up. With- in the greatest enclosure, containing the seventy-seven acres, is an elipticai elevation of twenty-five feet in height, and so large, that its area is nearly one hundred and fifty rods in circumference, com- posed almost entirely of stone in their rough and natural state, brought from a hill ac-jaeent to the place. This elevated work is full of human bones, and some have not hesitated to express a belief, that on this work, human beings were once sacrificed. The surface is smooth and level, favoring the idea of the horrid parade, such occasions would produce ; yet they may have been erected for the purpose of mere military manseuvre- ing, which would produce a spectacle very imposing, composed of thousands, harnessed in their war attire, with nodding plumes. About a mile from this fort, there is a work in the form of a half moon, set round the edges with stones, exactly resembling the stone circles of the Druids, in which they performed their mystic rites AND DISCOVERIES IN TftE WEST. 167 in Europe, two thousand years ago. Near this semicircle is a very singular mound of only five feet in height, but ninety feet in cir- cumference, composed entirely of red ochre ; which answers well as a paint. An abundance of this ochre is found on a hill, not a great distance from this place ; from which circumstance, the stream which runs along here, is called Paint Creek. So vast a heap of this paint being deposited, is pretty clear evi dence, that it was an article of commerce among these nations Here may have been a store house, or a range of them, attended by salesmen, or merchants ; who took in exchange for it, copper, feathers, bow and arrow timber, stone for hatchets, spears, and knives, wooden ploughs and shovels ; with skins and furs, for cloth- ing ; stones for building their rude altars and works ; with food to sustain the populace, as the manner of cities of the present time, Red paint in particular, is used now among the Hindoos, which they mark themselves with, as well as their gods. This vast col- lection of red paint, by the ancient nations^ on Paint Creek, favors the opinion, that it was put to the same use, by the same people. Near this work is another, on the same creek, enclosing eighty- four acres, part of which is a square fort, with seven gateways; and the other a fort, of an irregular oval, with seven gateways, sur- rounded with a wall like the others. But the most interesting work of the three contiguous forts, is yet to be described. It is situated on a high hill, of more than three hundred feet elevation, and in many places almost perpendicular. The wall running round this work, is built exactly on the brow of the precipice, and in its courses, is accommodated to the variations of this natural battle- ment, enclosing, in the whole, an hundred and thirty acres. On its south end the ground is level, where the entrance to the fort is easy. At the north end, which approaches pretty near to Paint Creek, appears to have been a gateway descending to the water, the ground favoring it at this point, as well rs at one other, leading to a little stream, which runs along its base, on the east side of this eminence, where is also another gateway ; these three places are the only points which are at all accessible. The wall round the whole one hundred and thirty acres, is entirely of stone, and is in sufficient quantity, if laid up in good order, to make it ten feet high, an<|,four thick. At the north gateway, ston *s enough now lie, to have built two considerable round towers, tak in from the hill itself, and are of the red sand stone kind. 168 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Near the south end of this enclosure, at the place where it is easiest of access, " appear to have been a row of furnaces, (says Mr. Atwater) or smith's shops, where the cinders now lie, many feet deep ; but was not able to say with certainty, what manufac- tures were carried on here, whether brick or iron, or both." It was a clay, that had been exposed to the action of fire ; the re- mains of which are four and five feet in depth j which shows in a good degree, the amount of business done was great. u Iron ore, in this country, is sometimes found in such clay ; brick and potter's ware are now manufactured out of it. This fort is, from its natural site, one of the strongest positions of the kind in the State of Ohio, so high is its elevation, and so nearly perpendicular are the sides of the hill on which it was built." At the several angles of the wall, and at the gateways, the abundance of stone lying there, leads to the belief, that those points, towers and battlements once overlook- ed the country to an immense distance ; from whence stones and arrows might have been launched away, from engines adapted to that purpose, among the approaching enemy, with dreadful effect. " No military man could have selected a better position for a place of protection to his countrymen, their temples and their gods," than this. ANCIENT WELLS FOUND IN THE BOTTOM OF PAINT CREEK. In the bed of Paint Creek, which washes the foot of the hill, on which the walled town stood, have been discovered four wells. They were dug through a pyritous slate rock, which is very rich in iron ore. When first discovered, by a person passing over them in a canoe, they were covered, each by stones of about the size and shape of the common mill stone. These covers had holes through their centre, through which a large pry, or handspike might be put for the purpose of removing them off and on the wells. The hole through the centre of each stone, was about four inches in diameter. The wells at their tops were more than nine fee^ in circumference ; the stones were well wrought with tools, so as to AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 169 make good joints, as a stone mason would say, which were laid around them severally, as a pavement. At the time they were dug, it is not likely, Paint Creek run over these wells. For what they were sunk, is a mystery ; as that for the purposes of water, so many so near each other, would scarcely appear necessary ; per- haps for some kind of ore or favorite stone, was the original object, perhaps for salt water. There is, at Portsmouth, Ohio, one of those works, which is very extensive and wonderful, on account of walled roads, a i high place,' with many intricate operations in its construction. On the east bank of the Little Miami, about thirty miles east from Cincinnati, are vast works of this character ; having the form almost exactly of the continent of North and South America, as presented on the map, on which account some have supposed they were made in imitation of it. A RECENT DISCOVERY OF ONE OF THOSE ANCIENT WORKS AMONG THE ALLEGHANIES. New discoveries are constantly making of these ancient works, the farther we. go west, and the more minutely the research is prosecuted, even in parts already settled. During the last year, 1832, a Mr. Ferguson communicated to the editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal, a discovery of the kind, which he examined, and describes as follows: " On a mountain called the Lookout mountain, belonging to the vast Alleghanian chain, running between the Tennessee and Coos rivers, rising about one thousand feet above the level of the sur- rounding valley. The top of the mountain is mostly level, but presents to the eye an almost barren waste. On this range, not- withstanding its height, a river has its source, after traversing it for about seventy miles, plunges over a precipice. The rock from which the water falls, is circular, and juts over considerably. Im- mediately below the fall, on each side of the river, are bluff's, which rise about two hundred feet. Around one of these bluffs, the river 22 170 AMERICAN ANTIQU1TIE3 makes a bend, which gives it the form of a peninsula. On the top of this are the remains of what is esteemed fortifications ; which consist of a stone wall, built on the very brow of this tremendous ledge. The whole length of the wall, following the varying courses of the brink of this precipice, as thirty-seven rods and eight feet, including about two acres of ground." The only descent from this place is between two rocks, for about thirty feet, when a bench of the ledge presents itself, from two to the feet in width, and ninety feet long. This l~nch is the only road or path up from the water's edge to the summit. But just at the foot of the two rocks, where they reach this path, and within thirty feet of the top of the rock, are five rooms, which have been formed by dint of labor. The entrance to these rooms is very small, but when within, they are found to communicate with each other, by doors or apertures. Mr. Ferguson thinks them to have been constructed during some dreadful war, and those who con- structed them, to have acted on the defensive ; and believe that twenty men could have withstood the whole army of Xerxes, as it was impossible for more than one to pass at a time ; and might by the slightest push, be hurled at least an hundred and fifty feet down the rocks. The reader can indulge his own conjectures, whether, in the construction of this inaccessible fortress, he does not perceive the remnant of a tribe or nation, acquainted with the arts of excavation and defence ; making a last struggle against the invasion of an overwhelming foe ; where, it is likely, they were reduced by famine, and perished amid the yells of their enemies. A DESCRIPTION OF WESTERN TUMULI OR MOUNDS. We now proceed to a description of the ancient tumuli of the west, and of discoveries made on opening many of them ; quoted from the Researches of the Antiquarian Society. Ancient Tumuli are considered a kind of antiquities, differing in character from that of the other works ; both on account of what is frequently discovered in them, and the manner of their construe- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 171 tion* They are conical mounds, either of earth or stones, which were intended for sacred and important purposes. In many parts of the world, similar mounds were used as monuments, sepulchres, altars, and temples. The accounts of these works, found in the Scriptures, show, that their origin must be sought for among the Antediluvians. I That they are very ancient, and were, used as places of sepulture, public resort, and public worship, is proved by all the writers of ancient times, both sacred and profane. Homer frequently men- tions them, particularly describing the tumulus of Tydeus, and the spot where it was. In memory of the illustrious dead } a se- pulchral mound of earth was raised over their remains ; which, from that time forward, became an altar, whereon to offer sacrifices, and around which to exhibit games of athletic exercise. These of- ferings and games were intended to propitiate their names, to honor and perpetuate their memories. Prudentius, a Roman bard, has told us, that there were in ancient Rome, just as many temples of gods, as there were sepulchres of heroes ; implying that they were the same. Need I mention the tomb of Anchies, which Virgil has described, with the offerings there presented, and the games there exhibited ? The sanctity of Acropolis, where Cecrops was inhumed ? The tomb of the father of x\donis s at Paphos, whereon a temple dedicated to Venus, was erected ? The grave of Cleoma- chus, whereon stood a temple dedicated to the worship of Apollo ? Finallyj I would ask the classical reader, if the words translated tomb) and temple, are not used as synonymous, by the poets of Greece and Rome ? Virgil, who wrote in the days of Augustus Caesar, speaks of these tumuli, as being as ancient as they were sacred, even in his time. . In later times, after warriors arose and performed great and mighty deeds, the whole tribe or nation joined to raise, on some i high place,' generally, a lofty tumulus, for commemorative and sacred purposes. At first, sacrfices might have been, and probably were, offered on these tumuli, to the true God, as the Great Au- thor and Giver of life ; but in later times, they forgot Him, and worshipped the manes of heroes they had buried there. The conical mounds in Ohio, are either of stones or of earth. The former, in other countries, and in former ages, were intended as monuments, for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of some 172 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES important event, or as altars whereon to offer sacrifices. The latter were used as cemeteries and as altars, whereon, in later times, temples were erected, as among the people of Greece and Rome. The tumuli, " are of various altitudes and dimensions, some be- ing. only four or five feet, and but ten or twelve in diameter, at their base; while others, as we travel to the south, rise to the height of eighty, ninety, and some more than an hundred feet, and cover many acres of ground. They are, generally, when completed, in the form of a cone. Those in the north part of Ohio, are of infe- rior size, and fewer in number, than those along the river. These mounds are believed to exist, from the Rocky mountains in the west, to the Alieghanies in the east ; from the southern shore of Lake Erie to the Mexican Gulf ; and though few and small in the north, are numerous and lofty in the south, yet exhibit proof of a common origin. On Jonathan creek, in Morgan county, are found some mounds, whose bases are formed of well burnt bricks, between four and five inches square. There are found lying on the bricks, charcoal cin- ders, and pieces of calcined human bones. Above them the mounds were composed of earth, showing, that the dead had been buried in the manner of several of the eastern nations, and the mounds raised afterwards to mark the place of their burial. One of them is about twenty-four feet in circumference, and the stones yet looli black, as if stained with fire and smoke. This cir- cle of stones seems to have been the nucleus on which the mound was formed, as immediately over them is heaped the common earth of the adjacent plain. This mound was originally about ten feet high, and ninety feet in circumference at its base ; and has every appearance of being as old as aDy in the neighborhood, and was, at the first settlement of Marietta, covered with large trees. A particular account of many curious articles, which go to show the person buried there was a member of civilized society, is given farther on in tiiis work, under the head of " a description of im- plements found in the tumuli." The person buried here was about six feet in height, nothing differing from other men in the form of his bones, except the skull, which was uncommonly thick. The timber growing on this mound, when it was cleared off, was ascertained to be nearly rive hundred AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 173 years old, from counting the concentric circles or grains of the wood on the stumps. On the ground beside them were other trees in a state of decay, that had fallen from old age." If we were to conjecture, from this sort of data, how great a lapse of years has ensued since the abandonment of this mound, we should pursue the following method. From the time when the country became desolate of its inhabitants, till trees and forests would begin to grow, cannot well be reckoned less than five years. If then they are permitted to grow five hundred years, till as large and as old as some of the trees were on the mound when it was cleared by the people of Marietta, from that time till their natural decay and fall to the earth, and reduction to decayed wood, as was found on the mound, could not be less than three hundred years, in decaying so as to fall, and then fifty years to rot in ; this would give eight hundred and fifty-five years for the first growth of tim- ber. From this time we reckon a second crop, which we will sup- pose, was the one growing when the mound was cleared of its tim- ber ; which was, according to Mr. At water's statement, " between four and five hundred years ;" add this to the age of the first crop, say four hundred and fifty, and we have, in the w r hole, one thou- sand three hundred and five years, since it was deserted of its buil- ders. Dr. Cutler supposes at least a thousand years. Then it will follow, taking out the time since Marietta was settled, and the mound cleared of its timber, that the country was deserted about five hundred years after the commencement of the Christian era. About the same time, say from the year 410 to 500 of the Chris- tian era, the greater part of Europe was devastated by the Goths, the Huns, the Heriili, the Vandals, the Swevri, the Alians, and other savage tribes, all from the northern wilds of ancient Russia. By these the western empire of the Romans, comprehending Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and England, was subverted ; all litera- ture was obliterated, and the works of the learned, which contained the discoveries and improvements of ages, were annihilated. And from all we can make out by observing the growth of tim- ber, with that which is decayed, as found on the deserted works of the west, we are inclined to believe, that about the same period of time when Europe was overrun by the northern hordes, that the region now called the United States, where the ancient inhabit- ants had fixed their abode, was also overrun by northern hordes 174 JiM2RICAN ANTIQUITIES from toward Bhering's i. traits, who had, in ages before, got across from Asia, the Tartars, or Scythians, and had multiplied ; and as they multiplied, progressed farther and farther southerly till they discovered an inhabited country, populous, and rich, upon whom they fell with all the fury of Attila and his Huns; till, after many a long and dreadful war, 4 hey were reduced in numbers, and driven from their country far to the south ; when the rich fields, vast cities, innumerable towns, with all their works, were reduced to the ancient dominion of nature, as it was when first overgrown im- mediately after the flood, except their vast pyramids, fortifications, and tumuli, these beLig of the same nature and durability of the hills and mountains, have stood the shock of w r ar and time — the monuments of powerful nations disappeared. " In clearing out u spring near some ancient ruins of the west, on the bank of the L :tle Miami, not far from its entrance into the Ohio, was found a copper coin, four feet below the surface of the earth ; from the fac s'mile of which it appears, that the characters on the coin are old Persian characters. — Morse's Universal Geogra- phy, Vol. l,jo. 442. The era of the Persians, as noticed on the page of history, was from 559, after the floe d, .till 334, before Christ, and were a people of great strength, of e n erprising character, and enlightened in the arts and sciences; an for aught that can be objected, traversed the globe, planted colonies, perhaps even in America, as the coin, which lay so deep beneath the surface of the earth, would seem to justify ; which w r as truly a Persian coin of coppey. At Cincinnati, a mound, only eight feet high, but one hundred and twenty long, by sixty in breadth, has been opened, and is now almost obliterated, by "he construction of Main-street, which has furnished many curicu._> discoveries relative to the ancient inhabi- tants who built it. Of the articles taken from thence, many have been lost ; but the mo >t worthy of notice are embraced in the fol- lowing catalogue: 1st. Pieces of jasper, rock crystal, granite and some other stones, cylindrical at the extremes, and swelled in the middle, with an an- nular groove near the end. 2d. A circular piece of stone coal, with a large opening in the centre, as if for an axis or axletree, and a deep groove ; the circumference suitable for a hand ; it has a num- ber of small perforations, disposed in four equidistant lines, which AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 176 run from the circumference towards the centre. 3d, A small ar- ticle of the same shape, with eight lines of perforations, but com- posed of argilaceous earth, well polished. 4th. A bone ornamented with several lines, supposed to be hieroglyphical. 5th. A sculp- tured representation of the head and beak of a rapacious bird, re- sembling the eagle. 6th. A mass of lead ore, lumps of which have been found in other tumuli. 7th. A quantity of isinglass, (mica membranacea,) several plates of which have been found in and about other mounds. 8th. A small oval piece of sheet copper, with two perforations ; a large oblong piece of the same metal, with longitudinal grooves and ridges. These articles are described in the fourth and fifth volumes of the American Philosophical Transactions, by Coverneur Sargeant and Judge Turner, and were supposed, by Philosopher Barton, to have been designed, in part, for ornament, and, in part, for superstitious ceremonies. In addition to which, the author, (Mr. Atwater,) says, he has since discovered, in the same mound, a number of beads, or sections, of small hollow cylinders, apparently of bone or shell. Several large marine shells, cut in such a manner as to serve for domestic utensils, and nearly converted into a state of chalk ; seve- ral copper articles, each consisting of two sets of circular concavo convex plates, the interior of each set connected with the other by a hollow axis, around which had been wound some lint, and the whole encompassed by the bones of a man's hand. About the pre- cincts of this town, Cincinnati, human bones have been found "of different sizes ; sometimes enclosed in rude stone coffins, but oftener lying blended with the earth ; generally surrounded by a portion of ashes and charcoal," as if they had been burnt either alive or dead, as the Hindoos burn both the dead husband and the living wife, on the same funeral pile. See Ward's History of the Hindoos, page 57 ; where he states, " that not less than five thou- sand of these unfortunate women, it is supposed, are burnt annu- ally." The ancient Jews practised the sain? thing ; see Amos, 6th chap. 10th verse : " And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burnetii him, to bring out the bones ou; of the house." The ancient Edomites burnt the dead bodies of t leir captured enemies. See Amos 2d chap. 1st verse : " He," that 's Edom, " burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime." Tht same may have been practised in America. 176 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES . Besides these relics found at Marietta, others, equally interest- ing, have been procured from a mound on the Little Muskingum, about four miles from Marietta. There are some pieces of copper which appear to have been the front part of a helmet. It was originally about eight inches long and/owr broad, and has marks of having been attached to leather ; it is much decayed, and is now quite a thin plate. The helmet was worn by the ancients as a defence against the blows of the sword, aimed at the head. The Greeks, the Ro- mans, with many other nations of antiquity, made use of this ma- jestic, beautiful, warlike covering of the head. But how came this part of the ancient armor in America ? This is the mystery, and cannot be solved, only on the principle, that we believe the wearers lived in those ages coeval with the martial exploits of the Medes, Persians, Carthaginians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and of the Celtic nations of Europe. In the same mound on the Muskingum, was found a copper or- nament ; this was on the forehead of a human skeleton, no part of which retained its form, except that part of the forehead where the copper ornament lay, and had been preserved no doubt by the salts of that mineral. In Virginia, near Blacksburgh, eighty miles from Marietta, there was found the half of a steel bow, which, when entire, would measure five or six feet ; the other .part was corroded or broken. The father of the lad who found the bow, was a black- smith, and worked up this curious article with as little remorse as he would an old gun barrel. In the 18th Psalm, 34th verse, mention is -made by David, king of Israel, of the steel bow, which must have been a powerful in- strument of death, of the kind, and probably well known to the Jews, as superior to the wooden bow. This kind of warlike artil- lery, the bow and arrow, has been used by all nations, and in all ages of time. The time of King David was about one thousand one hundred years before Christ ; when, he says, a bow of steel was broken by his own arm. This must have been done in some of his fights with the enemies of Saul, as it is very probable that he fought personally after he came to the kingdom ; and from his earnestness in the fight, drew the string of his bow too far, so that the instrument could not bear it, consequently it snapped asunder ; which circumstance he has celebrated in the praises of the God of A.ND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 177 Israel, as an evidence of the aid and strength derived from Heaven in the heat of battle. But Dr. Clarke supposes, steel is out of the question, as he thinks the art of making steel was unknown at that time, and believes the bow alluded to, which was broken by David, was a brass one, but it is unknown to the writer of this work, whether brass will spring at all so as to throw an arrow with any effect. But why may not steel have been known, and the art of producing it from iron, in the time of David, as well as the art of making brass, which is equally hidden, and more so than that of steel ? Tubal Cain was a worker in brass and iron y before the flood ; and we should sup- pose the way to procure steel from iron, would as soon have been discovered by the antediluvian blacksmiths, as knowledge how to make brass from a union of copper and zinc. The discovery of this steel bow, in the west, is exceedingly cu- rious, and would seem to justify the belief, that it came from the old world, as an instrument of warfare in the hands of some of the Asiatic, African, or European nations, possibly Danes, as the pre- sent Indian nations were found destitute of every kind of bow and arrowy except that of wood. " In Ross county, near Chilicothe, a few years since, was found, in the hand of a skeleton, which lay buried in a small mound, an ornament of pure gold ; this curiosity, it is said, is now in the Mu- seum at Philadelphia." — Atwater. The tumuli, in what is called the Sciota country, are both numerous and interesting. But south of Lake Erie, until we arrive at Worthington, nine miles north of Columbus, they are few in number, and of comparatively small magnitude. Near Columbus, the seat of government of Ohio, were several mounds, one of which stood on an eminence in the princi- pal street, which has been entirely removed, and converted into bricks. It contained human bones, some few articles, among which was an owl carved in stone, a rude but very exact representation. The oiwZ, among the Romans, was the emblem of wisdom, and it is not impossible but the ancients of the w T est, may have carved it in the stone for the same reason ; who may have been, in part, Romans, or nations derived from them, or nations acquainted with their manners, their gods, and their sculpture, as we suppose the Danes were. " In another part of the town of Columbus, was a tumulus of 23 1*78 AMERICAN- ANTIQUITIES clay, which was also manufactured into bricks. In this were many human bones ; but they lay in piles, and in confusion," which would seem to elicit the belief, that these were the bones of an enemy, or they would have been laid in their accus- tomed order. Or they may have been the bones of the conquered, thrown together in a confused manner, and buried beneath this mound. As we still descend the Sciota, through a most fertile region of country, mounds and other ancient works, frequently appear, until we arrive at Circleville- Near the centre of the circular fort at Circleville, was a tumulus of earth, about ten feet high, and seve- ral rods in diameter at its base. On its eastern side, and extend- ing six rods from it, was a semicircular pavement, composed of pebbles such as are now found in the bed of Sciota river, from whence they appear to have been taken- The summit of this tu- mulus was nearly ninety feet in circumference, with a raised way to it, leading from the east, like modem turnpike- The summit was level. The outline of the semicircular pavement, and the walk, are still discernible. Mr. Atwater was present when this mound was removed, and carefully examined the contents it de- veloped. They were as follows ; First ; two skeletons, lying on what had been the original surface of the earth. Second ; a great quantity of arrow heads, some of which were so large as to induce a belief that they were used for spear heads. Third ; the handle, either of a small sword, or a large knife, made of an elk's horn ; around the end where the blade had been inserted, was a ferule of silver, which, though black, was not much injured by time ; though the handle showed the hole where the blade had been inserted, yet no iron was found, but an oxyde or rust remained, of similar shape and size. The swords of the ancient nations of the old world, it is known, were very short. Fourth ; charcoal, and wood ashes, on which these- articles lay, were surrounded by several bricks, very well burnt. The skeleton appeared to have been burnt in a large and very hot fire, which had almost consumed the bones of the de- ceased. This skeleton was deposited a little to the south of the centre of the tumulus ; and about twenty feet to the north of it was another, with which was found a large mirror, about three feet in length, one foot and a half in width, and one inch and a half in thickness ; this was of isinglass, (mica membranacea.) AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 179 On this mirror was a plate of iron, which had become an oxyde ; but before it was disturbed by the spade, resembled a plate of cast iron. The mirror answered the purpose very well for which it was intended. This skeleton had also been burned like the former, and lay on charcoal and a considerable quantity of wood ashes; a part of the mirror is in the possession of Mr, Atwater, as also a piece of brick, taken frpm the spot at the time, The knife, or sword handle, was sent to Peale ? s museum, Philadelphia, To the southwest of this tumulus, about forty rods from it, is another, more than ninety feet in height. It stands on a large hill, which appears to be artificial This must have been the common cemetry 3 as it contains an immense number of human skeletons, of all sizes and ages. These skeletons are laid horizontally, with their heads gen- erally towards the centre, and the feet towards the outside of the tumulus. In it have been found, besides these skeletons, stone axes and stone knives, and several ornaments, with holes through them, by means of which, with a cord passing through these perfo- rations, they could be worn by their owners. On the south side of this tumulus, and not far from it, was a semicircular fosse, or ditch, six feet deep ; which, when examin- ed at the bottom, was found to contain a great quantity of human bones, which, it is believed, were the remains of those who had been slain in some great and destructive battle ; because they be- longed to persons invariably who had attained their full size - 3 while those found in the mound adjoining, were of all sizes, great and small, but laid in good order, while those in the ditch were in the utmost confusion ; and were, no doubt, the conquered invaders, buried thus ingloriously, where they had intrenched themselves, and fell in the struggle. The mirror was a monstrous piece of isinglass, a lucid mineral, larger than we recollect to have ever heard of before, and used among the rich of the ancients, for lights and mirrors. A mirror of any kind, in which men may be enabled to contemplate their own form, is evidence of a considerable degree of advancement in the arts, if not even of luxury itself. The Rev. Robert G. Wilson, D. D., of Chilicothe, furnished the Antiquarian Society, with information concerning the mound, which once stood near the centre of that town. He took pains to write down its contents at the time of its demolition. Its perpendicular 180 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES height was about fifteen feet, and the circumference of its base about one hundred and eighty feet, composed of sand. It was not till this pile of earth had been removed, that the original design of its builders could be discovered. On a common level with the sur- rounding earth, at the very bottom of this mound, they had devoted about twenty feet square ; this was found to have been covered at first with bark, on which lay, in the centre, a human skeleton, overspread with a mat, manufactured from weeds or bark, but greatly decayed. On the breast of this person lay what had been a piece of cop- per in the form of a c?vss, which had become verdigris ; on the breast also lay a stone ornament, three inches in length, and two and a half in width, with two perforations, one near each end, through which passed a string, by means of which it was suspend- ed from the wearer's neck. On this string, which appeared to have been made of the sinews of some animal, which had been cured or tanned, but were very much injured by time, was strung a great many beads, made of ivory, or bone, he could not tell which. With these facts before us, we are left to conjecture at what time this individual lived, what were his heroic deeds in the field of battle ; his wisdom, his virtues, his eloquence in the councils of his nation ; for his cotemporaries have testified in a manner not to be mistaken, that among them he was held in honorable and grateful remembrance, by the mound which was raised over him at his decease. The cross on the breast of this skeleton, excites the most sur- prise, as :Iiat the cross is the emblem of the Christian religion. It is true, a knowledge of this badge of Christianity, may have been disseminated from Jerusalem, even as far east as to China ; as we know it was at a very early period, made known in many countries of Europe, Africa, and Asia; especially, at the era when the Ro- man emperor Constantine, in the year 331, ordered all the heathen temples to be destroyed, for the sake of Christianity, throughout his vast dominion. The reader may recollect, we have elicited an argument, from the age of the timber, or forest trees, growing on the mound, at Marietta, proposing to show the probable era when the country be- came depopulated; and come to the conclusion, that at least, about thirteen hundred years have passed away since that catastrophe. AND DISCOVERIES IN TllE WEST. 181 This would give about five hundred years from Christ till the depopulation of the ancient western country ; so that, during the lapse of those five centuries, a knowledge of what had been propa- gated at Jerusalem about Christ, may have been, easily enough by missionaries, travelling philosophers of the Romans, Greeks, or of other nations, carried as well to China, as to other distant countries, as we know was the fact. The string of beads, and the stone on his breast, w T hich we take the liberty of calling the Shalgramu stone, or the stone in which the Hindoos suppose the god Vishuoo resides ; together with the copper cross on his breast, and beads on his neck, are circumstances^ which strongly argue that a mixture of Brahminism and Christianity were embraced by this individual. To prove that the wearing of beads around the neck, or on the arm, for the purposes of devotion, is a religious Hindoo custom, we refer to Ward's late history of those nations, who was a Baptist missionarj?-, among that people, and died in that country. This author says, page 40, that. Brumha, the grandfather of the gods, holds in his hand, a string of beads, as an evidence of his devotion or goodness. Ungee, the regent of fire, is represented with a bend roll in his hand, to show that he is merciful or propitious to those who call upon him. — Page 45. The Hindoo mendicants, or saints, as they suppose themselves, have invariably, a string of beads, made of bone, teeth of animals, ivory, stones, or the seeds of plants, or of something, hanging about their necks, or on their arms, which they recount, calling over and over, without end, the name of the god, as evidence of devotion to him. — Page 422. The devotions of the ascetic disciples among the Hindoos, con- sists in repeating incessantly the name of their god, using, at the same time, the bead roll, or rosary, as the catholics do. — Page 427. " Strings of beads were used for this purpose, from remotest anti- quity, in all eastern Asia." — Humboldt, p. 204. This author further says, " the ros&rie," which is a string of beads, "have been in use in Thibet and China, from time imme- morial ; and that the custom, passed from the east, viz : China, to the Christians in the west, viz : Europe ;" and are found among the catholics ; no other sect of Christians, that we know of, have borrowed any trappings from the pagans, to aid their devotions } but this. 182 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES The stone found on his breast, as before remarked, we assume to call the Shalgramu stone. See also, Ward's account of this stone, page 41 and 44, as follows : A stone called the Shalgramu is a form of the god Vishnoo, and is in another case, the representative of the god Saoryu, or the sun. — Page 52. The Shalgramu, or Lingu, is a black stone, found in a part of the Gundeekee river. They are mostly perforated, in one or more places, by worms, while at the bottom of the river ; but the Hin- doos believe the god Vishnoo, in the shape of a reptile, resides in this stone, and caused the holes. With this belief, how very natural it would be to wear on the breast, either in view or concealed, this stone, as an amulet, or charm, as found on the breast of this skeleton, in union, with the cross. We are inclined to believe, that the Roman Catholic religion, borrowed, at a very early period, after their peculiar formation and corruption, subsequent to the time of Constactine, the notion of the rosary, or bead roll, which they recount while saying prayers, from the Hindoos ; and that from Christian missionaries, the Hin- doo Brahmins borrowed the idea of the cross, which they might also wear, together with the Lingu stone, as an amulet or charm. For we see on the breast of this person, both the emblem of Chris- tianity, and of the Hindoos 5 superstition, on which account, we are of the opinion, that the ministers of the Brahmin religion, lie buried beneath many of the western mounds. Mr. Ward informs us, page 272, that near the town of Dravina, in Hondostan-hu, are shown to this day, or at the time he lived in India, four small elevations, or mounds, from the top of which, the great ascetic philosopher, Shunkuracharyu, used to teach and ha- rangue the people and his disciples. From this circumstance, we catch a glimpse of the oraiorial use of the mounds in the east ; and why not the same use be derived from them to the ancient people of the west ; and more especially so, if they may be be- lieved to have, in any measure, derived themselves from any na- tions of the Chinese world. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 183 GREAT WORKS OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS ON THE NORTH FORK OF PAINT CREEK. On the north branch of this creek, five miles from Chilicothe, are works so immense, that although we have given the reader several accounts of this kind, yet we cannot well pass over these. They are situated on an elevated piece of land, called the second bottom. The first bottom, or flat, extends from Paint Creek, till it is met by a bank of twenty-five feet .in height, which runs in a straight line, and parallel with the stream. An hundred rods from the top of this first bank, is another bank, of thirty feet in height ; the wall of the works runs up this bank, and twenty rods beyond it. The whole land enclosed, is six hundred and twenty- rods in circumference, and contains one hundred and twenty-six acres of land. This second bank, runs also parallel with the creek, and with the first. On this beautiful elevation, is situated this immense work, containing within it, seventeen mounds of different sizes. Three hundred and eighty rods of this fort are encompassed with a wall twelve feet high, a ditch twenty feet wide, and the wall the same at its base. Two hundred and forty rods, running along on the top of the first bank 3 is the rest of the wall ; but is without a ditch ; this is next to the river or creek, between which and the water, is the first bottom or flat. Within this great enclosure, is a circular work of an hundred rods in circumference, with a wall and ditch surrounding it, of the same height of the other wall. Within this great circle, are six mounds, of the circular form ; these are full of human bones ; the rest of the mounds, eleven in num* ber, are for some other purpose. There are seven gateways, of about five rods in width each. " The immense labor, and nume- rous cemeteries filled with human bones, denote a vast populuation, near this spot, in ancient thues." — Atwater. " Tumuli are very common on the river Ohio, from its utmost sources to its mouth, although on the Monongahela, they are few, and comparatively small, but increase in number and size, as we descend towards the mouth of that stream at Pittsbnrgh ? where the 1S4 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Ohio begins ; after this they are still more numerous and of greater dimensions, till we arrive at Grave Creek, below WheeliDg. At this place, situated between two creeks, which run into the Ohio, a little way from the river, is one of the most extraordinary and august monuments of antiquity, of the mound description. Its circumference at its base, is fifty-six rods, its perpendicular height ninety feet, its top seven rods and eight feet in circumference. The centre at the summit, appears to have sunk several feet, so as to form a kind of amphitheatre. The rim enclosing this concavity is seven or eight feet in thickness ; on the south side, in the edge of this rim, stands a large beach tree, the bark of which is marked with the initials of a great number of visitants." This lofty and venerable tumulus has been so far opened as to ascertain that it contains many thousands of human skeletons, but no farther ; the proprietor, will not sutler its demolition, in the smallest degree, for which he is highly praise-worthy. Following the river Ohio downwards, the mounds appear on both -sides, erected uniformly, on the highest alluvials, along that stream, increasing in numbers all the way to the Mississippi, on which river they assume the largest size. Not having surveyed them, says Mr. Atwater, we shall use the description of Mr. Breckenridge, who travelled much in the west, and among the Indians, and devoted much attention to the subject of these astonishing western antiquties. These tumuli, says Mr. Breckenridge, as well as the fortifica- tions, are to be found at the junction of all the livers, along the Mississippi, in the most eligible positions for towns, and in the most extensive bodies of fertile land. Their number exceeds, perhaps, three thousand ; the smallest, not less than twenty feet in height, and three hundred in circumference at the base. Their great num- ber, and their amazing size, may be regarded as furnishing, with other circumstances, evidence of their great antiquity. I have been sometimes induced to think, that at the period when these weje constructed, there was a population as numerous as that which once animated the borders of the Nile, or of the Euphrates. The most numerous, as well as the most considerable of these re- mains, are found precisely in those parts of the country where the traces of a numerous population might be looked for, namely, from the mouth of the Ohio, on the east side of the river, to the Illinois, AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 185 and on the west side, from the St. Francis to the Missouri. I am perfectly satisfied that cities, similar to those of ancient Mexico, of several hundred thousand souls, have existed in this western coun- try . ' ' — Breckenridge . From this view, we are compelled to look upon those nations as agriculturists, or they could not have subsisted ; neither wild game nor fish could possibly support so great a population. If agricul- turists, then it must follow, of necessity, that many modes of building, as with stone, timber^ earth or clay, were practised and known 3 as well as methods of clearing the earth of heavy timber. And if they had not a knowledge of metals, we cannot well con- ceive how they could have removed the forests for the purposes of husbandry, and space for building. But if we suppose they did not build bouses with wood, stone and brick, but lived in tents or some fragile hut, yet the use of metals cannot be dispensed with, on account of the forests to be removed for agricultural purposes. Baron Humboldt informs us, in his Researches in South America, that when he crossed the Cordillera mountains, by the way of Pa- nama and Assuay, and viewed the enormous masses of stone cut from the porphyry quarries of Pullal, which was employed in con- structing the ancient highroads of the Incas, that he began to doubt whether the Peruvians were not acquainted with other tools than hatchets made of flint and stone ; and that grinding one stone on another to make them smooth and level, was not the only method they had employed in this operation. On which aecount, he adopt- ed a new opinion, contrary to those generally received. He con- jectured that they must have had tools made of copper, hardened with tin, such as it is known the early nations of Asia made use of. This conjecture was fully sustained by the discovery of an ancient Peruvian mining chisel, in a silver mine at Vilcabamba, which had been worked in the time of the Incas. This instrument of copper was twelve centimeters long and two broad 3 or in English measure^ four inches long, and three-fourths of an inch wide ; which he car- ried with him to Europe, where he had it analyzed, and found it to contain ninety-four parts of copper and six of tin. He says, that this keen copper of the Peruvians is almost identically the same with that of the ancient Galic axe, which cut wood nearly as well as if made of iron and steel. Every where, on the old continent, at the beginning of the civil- 84 186 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES ization of nations, the use of copper, mixed with tin, prevailed over that of iron, even in places where the latter had been for a long time known. Antonio de Herera, in the tenth book of his History of the West Indies, says, expressly, that the inhabitants of the maritime coast of Zocatallan, in South America, prepared two sorts of copper, of which one was hard and cutting, and the other maleable ; the hard copper was to make hatchets, weapons, and instruments of agriculture with, and that it was tempered with tin. — Humboldt, vol. 1, pages 260 — 268. Among a great variety of the gods of the people of the Tonga Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, is found one god, named To-gi Ocummea ; which is, literally, the iron axe. From which circum- stance we imagine the people of those islands, sometimes called the Friendly Islands, were, at some period before their having been discovered by Captain Cook, acquainted with the use of iron, and consequently in a more civilized condition. Because men, in those early times, were apt to deify almost every thing, but especially those things the most useful. Were the people of Christendom to lose their knowledge of the true God, and to fall back into nature's ignorance, is there an ar- ticle, within the compass of the arts, which would, from its useful- ness, have a higher claim to deification, than the metal called iron. That group of islands belongs to the immense range shooting out from New- Holland, in south latitude about 20 degrees, and once perhaps were united to China, forming a part of the continent. But however this may be, the first inhabitants of those islands were derived from China, and carried with them a knowledge of the arts ; among which was that cf the use of iron, in the form ox the axe, which it appears had become deified from its usefulness. The reason of the loss of this knowledge, must have been the separation of their country from the continent, by convulsions, from age to age; which not only altered the shape £Li condition of the land, but threw the inhabitants into confusion, separating them far from each other, the sea running between, so that they became re- duced to savagism, as they were found by the first Christian na- vigators. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 187 TRAITS OF ANCIENT CITIES ON THE MISSISSIPPI. Nearly opposite St, Louis, there are the traces of two ancient cities, in the distance of a few miles, situated on the Cohokia creek, which empties into the Mississippi but a short distance below that place. Here is situated one of those Pyramids, which is an hun- dred and fifty rods in circumference at its base, (nearly an half mile,) and one hundred feet high. At St. Louis is one with two stages or landing places, as the architectural phrase is. There is another with three stages, at the mouth of the Missouri, a few miles above St. Louis. With respect to the stages, or landing places of these pyramids, we are reminded of the tower once standing in old Babylon, which had eight stages from its base to the summit, making it six hundred feet high, At the mouth of the Cohokia creek, a short distance below St. Louis, are two groups of those mounds, of smaller size, but we are not informed of their exact number. At Bayeau Manchac and Baton Rouge, are several mounds, one of which is composed chiefly of shells, which the inhabitants burn into lime. There is a mound on Black river, which has two stages or stories ; this is surrounded with a group of lesser ones, as well as those at Bayeau Manchac, and Baton Eouge. There is one of those pyramids near Washing- ton, in the state of Mississippi, which is one hundred and forty-six feet high ; which u but little short of nine rods perpendicular ele- vation, and fifty-six rods in circumference. Mr. Breckenridge is of the opinion that the largest city, belonging to this people, the authors of the mounas and other we:ks, was situated on the plains between St. Francis and the Arkansas. There is no doubt but in the neighborhood of St. Louis must have been cities or large towns of these ancient people ; as the number and size of the mounds above recounted would most certainly justify. Ffteen miles in a southwesterly direction from the town of St. Louis, on the Merimac river, was discovered, by a Mr. Long, on lands which he had purchased there, several mounds of the ordi- nary size, as found in the valley of the Mississippi, all of which go to establish that this country, lying between the Missouri and 188 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES the Mississippi rivers, below St. Louis, and between the junction of the Illinois and the Mississippi above, with the whole region about the union of those rivers with each other, — which are all not far from St. Louis — was once the seat of empire ; equal, if not sur- passing the population and the arts, as once they flourished on the plains of Shinar, the seat of Chaldean power, and on the banks of the Euphrates. It was on the lands of this gentleman, Mr. Long, that the disco- very of a burying ground, containing a vast number of small tumu- li, or graves, took place. On opening these graves, there were found deposited, in stone coffins, composed of stone slabs, six in number, forming the bottom, sides and top, with end pieces ; the skeletons of a race of human beings apparently of but from three to four feet in height. This discovery excited much surprise, and called forth, from several pens, the conjectures of able men, who published a variety of opinions respecting them. Some imagined them to be the relics of race of pigmy inhabitants who had be- come extinct. Others on account of the size of the teeth, which denoted full grown and adult persons, conjectured them to be the skeletons of a race of baboons or monkeys, from the shortness of their stature. From this opinion arose another conjecture, that they had been the objects of worship to the ancient nations, as they had been sometimes among the earlier Egyptians. The bones of these subjects were entirely destroyed, and re- duced to ashes of a white chalky consistency, except the teeth, which were perfect, being made imperishable from their enamel. Many of these graves were opened, and the inmates found not to exceed three and four feet. At length one was opened, and the skeleton it contained appeared to be of the full size of a large man, except its length ; however, this, on close inspection, was found to have had its legs disjointed at the knees, and placed along side the thigh bones, which at once, in the eyes of some, accounted for the statures of the whole. Such a custom is, indeed, singular ; and among all the discove- ries of those ancient traits, nothing to compare with this has come to light. Respecting this instance of short skeletons, it has been also urged, that as certain tribes of the common Indians, now in- habiting the upper shores of the Missouri, place their dead on scaffolds and in baskets^ fastened to the limbs of trees, till their ANl> DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 189 8esh becomes separated from the bones, that the authors of these short graves did the same. And that when by this process, they had become fair and white, they deposited them in small coffins, as discovered on the farm of Mr. Long. But although this is doubt- less true respecting the Missouri Indians, yet we have no account of short graves having been found among them. But as we are unable to cast light on this discovery, we shall leave it as we found it — a great curiosity. TRADITION OF THE MEXICAN NATIVES RESPECTING THEIR MIGRATION FROM THE NORTH. In corroboration of Mr. At water's opinion, with respect to the gradual remove of the ancient people of the west toward Mexico, we subjoin what we have gathered from the Researches of Baron Humboldt, on that point. See Helen Maria William's translation of Humboldt's Researches in South America, vol. 2, p. 67. From which it appears the people inhabiting the vale of Mexico, at the time the Spaniard's overrun that country, were called Aztecks, or Aztekas ; and were, as the Spanish history informs us, usurpers, having come from the north, from a country which they called Aztalan. This country of Aztalan, Baron Humboldt says, " we must look for at least north of the 42d degree of latitude." He comes to this conclusion from an examination of the Mexican or Azteca manu- scripts, which were made of a certain kind of leaves, and of skins prepared ; on which, an account in painted hieroglyphics or pic- tures, was given of their migration from Aztalan to Mexico, and how long they halted at certain places, which, in the aggregate, amounts to " four hundred and sixteen years." • The following names of places appear on their account of their journeyings, at which places they made less or more delay, and built towns, forts, tumuli, &c. 1st. A place of Humiliation, and a place of Grottoes. It would seem at this place they were much afflicted and humbled ; but in what manner is not related ; and also at this place, from the term 190 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES grottoes, that it was a place of caverns and dens, probably where they at first hid, dwelt till they built a town and cleared the ground. Here they built the places which they called Tocalcc and Oztatan. 2d Journey ; they stopped at a place of fruit trees ; probably meaning, as it was farther south, a place where nature was abun- dant in nuts, grapes, and wild fruit trees. Here they built a mound or tumuli, and, in their language, it is called a Teocali. 3d Journey ; when they stopped at a place of herbs, with broad leaves ; probably meaning a place where many succulent plants grew, denoting a good soil ; which invited them to pitch their tents here. 4th Journey ; when they came to a place of human bona ; where they, either during their stay had battles with each other, or with some enemy, or they may have found them already there, the relics of other nations before them ; for, according to Humboldt, this migra- tion of the Aztecas, took place A. D. 778 ; so that other nations certainly had preceded them, also from the north. 5th Journey ; they came to a place of Eagles. 6th Journey; to a place of precious stones, and minerals. 7th Journey ; to a place of spinning, where they manufactured clothing of cotton, barks, or of something proper for clothing of some sort, and mats of rushes and feathers. 8th Journey ; they came to another place of eagles, called the Eagle-mountain, or in their own language, Quaaktli Tepee: Tepee, says Humboldt, in the Turkish language, is the word for mountain; which two words are so near alike, tepee and tepe, that it would seem almost an Arab word, or a word used by the Turks. 9th. Journey ; when they came to a place of walls, and the se- ven grottoes ; which shows the place had been inhabited before, and these seven grottoes were either caves in the earth, or were made in the side of some mountain, by those who had preceded them. 10th Journey ; when they came to a place of thistles, sand and vultures. 11th Journey ; when they came to a place of Obsideon Mirrors, which is much the same with that of isiiiglass, scientifically called micae membranacae. This mineral substance is frequently found in the tumuli of the west, and is called, by the Mexicans, the shin- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 191 ing god. The obsideon stone ? however, needs polishing, before it will answer as a mirror. 12th Journey ; came to a place of water, probably some lake, or beautiful fountains, which invited their residence there ; on the ac- count not only of the water, but for fishing and game. 13th Journey; they came to the place of the Divine Monkey^ called in their own language, Teozomoco. Here, it would seem, they set up the worship of the monkey, or baboon, as the ancient Egyptians are known to have done. This animal is found in Mex- ico or New Spain, according to Humboldt. 14th Journey ; when the came to a high mountain, probably with table lands on it; which they called Chopaltepec, or mountain of locusts. A place, says Baron Humboldt, celebrated for the mag- nificent view from the top of this hill ; which, it appears, is in the Mexican country, and probably not far from the vale of Mexico ; where they finally permanently rested. 15th Journey ; when they came to the vale of Mexico ; having here met with the prodigy, or fulfilment of the prophecy, or oracle, which at their outset from the country of Aztalan, Huehuetlapallan, and Amaquemecan ; which was (see Humboldt, 2d vol. p. 185,) that the migrations of the Aztecks should not terminate till the chiefs of the nation should meet wild an eagle perched on a cactus tree ; at such a place they might found a city. This was, as their bull-hide books inform us, in the vale of Mexico, We have related this account of the Azteca migration from the country of Aztaten, Huehuetlapallan, and Amaquemecan, from the regions of north latitude 42 degrees, merely to show that the coun- try, provinces, or districts, so named in their books, must have been the country of Ohio, Mississippi and Illinois, with the whole region thereabout ; for these are not far from the very latitude named by Humboldt as the region of Aztalan, &c. The western country is now distinguished, by the general name of the " lake country," and why, because it is a country of lakes ; and for the same reason, it was called the Mexicans, Azteca, In- dians, Aztalan, because in their language, atl is water, from which Aztalan is doubtless a derivitive as well also as their own name as a nation, or title, which was Astecas, or people of the Lakes. This account, derived from the Mexicans since their reduction by the Spaniards, gathered from the researches of learned travel* 192 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES lers, who have, for the very purpose of learning the origin of the people of this country, penetrated not only into the forest retreats in the woods of Mexico, but into the mysteries of their hard lan- guage, their theology, philosophy and astronomy. This account of their migration, as related above, is corroborated by the tradition of the Wyandot Indians. We come to a knowledge of this tradition, by the means of a Mr. William Walker, some time Indian agent for our government ; who, it seems, from a pamphlet published, 1823, by Frederick Falley, of Sandusky, giving Mr. Walker's account, that a great many hundred years ago the ancient inhabitants of America, who were the authors of the great works of the west, were driven away from their country and possessions, by barbarous and savage hordes of warriors, who came from the north and northeast ; before whose power and skill in war, they were compelled to flee, and went to the south. After having been there many hundred years, a runner came back into the same country, from whence the ancient people had been driven, which we suppose is the very country of Aztalan, or the region of the western states ; bringing the intelligence, that a dreadful beast had landed on their coast along the sea, which was spreading among them havoc and death, by means of fire and thun- der ; and that it would, no doubt, travel all over the country, for the same purpose of destruction. This beast whose voice was like thunder, and whose power to kill was like fire, we have no doubt, represents the cannon and small arms of the Spaniards, when they first commenced the mur- der of the ancient people of South America ; manytribes or nations of which were, from time to time, derived from the northern part of our continent, long before the northern hordes devastated the country of Aztalan, Huehuetlapan, and Amaquemecan, and with good reason, believed to be from Asia ; of Tartar, Hebrew, and Scythian origin ; from their dreadful propensity to war and blood- shed, which is still characteristic of our northern and western In- dians. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 193 SUPPOSED USES OF THE ANCIENT ROADS CONNECTED WITH THE MOUNDS. Ancient roads, or highways, which in many parts of the west, are found walled in on both sides for many miles, where the forest trees are growing as abundant, and as large, and aged, as in any part of the surrounding woods. We have already mentioned several roads which have always been found connected with some great works ; as at Piketon, Ports- mouth, Newark, Licking county, and at the works on the Little Miami river* These roads where they have been traced, are found to communicate with some mound, or mountain, which had been shaped by art to suit the purposes of those who originated these stupendous works The circumstance of their being walled in by banks of earth, leaving from one to four and six rods space between, has excited much inquiry, as to the reason and purposes of their construction. But may not this grand characteristic of the people of the west, in road building, be illustrated by comparing a prac- tice of the Mexicans with this fact- We will show the practice, and then draw the conclusion- " The Mexicans believed, according to a very ancient tradition^ that the end of the world would ta&e place at the termination of every cycle of fifty-two years ; that the sun would no more appear on the horizon, and that mankind would be devoured by evil genii of hideous appearance, known under the name of Tzitzim- imes. On the last day of this great cycle of time, of fifty-two years, the sacred fires were extinguished in all their temples, and dwel- lings, and every where, all the people devoting themselves to pray- er, no person daring to light a fire at the approach of the night; the vessels of clay were broken, garments torn, and whatever was most precious was destroyed, because every thing appeared useless at the tremendous moment of the last day. Amidst this frantic superstition, pregnant women became the ob- jects of peculiar horror to the men ; they caused their faces to be hidden with masks made with paper of the agave ; they were even 25 194 - AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES imprisoned in the store houses of maize or corn, from a persuasion, that if the catastrophe took place, the women transformed into tigers, would make common cause with the evil genii, and avenge themselves of the injustice of the men. As soon as it was dark, the grand procession, called the festival of the new fire, commenced. The priests took the dresses of the gods, and followed by an immense crowd of people, went in solemn train to the mountain of Huzachthcatl, which was two leagues or six miles from Mexico. This lugubrious march was called the march of the gods ; which was supposed to be their final departure from their city, and possibly never to return ; in which event, the end of the world was come. When the procession had reached the summit of the mountain, it waited till the moment when the Pleiades, or the seven stars, as- cended the middle of the sky, to begin the horrible sacrifice of a human victim, stretched on the stone of sacrifice, having a wooden disk on the breast, which the priest inflames by friction. The corpse, after having received a wound in the breast, which extin- guished life, while he lay, or was held on the fatal stone, was laid on the ground ; and the instrument made use of to produce fire by friction, was placed on the wound, which had been made with a knife of obsidian stone. When the bits of wood, by the rapid motion of the cylinder, or machine made use of for that purpose, had taken fire, an enormous pile, previously prepared to receive the body of the unfortunate victim, was kindled, the flames of which, ascending high into the air, were seen at a great distance ; when the vast populace of the city of Mexico, and surrounding country, filled the air with joyful shouts and acclamations. All such as were not able to join in the procession, were stationed on the terraces of houses, and on the tops of teocallis, or mounds, and tumulis, with their eyes fixed on the spot where the flame was to appear : which, as soon as it was perceived, was a token of the benevolence of the gods, and of the preservation of mankind du- ring another cycle of fifty-two years. Messengers posted at proper distances from each other, holding branches of wood, of a very resinous pine, carried the new fire from village to village to the distance of many leagues ; and depo- sited it anew in every temple, from whence it was distributed to all private dwellings. When the sun appeared on the horizon, the AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 195 shouting was redoubled, the procession went back from the moun- tain to the city, and they thought they could see their gods also re- turning to their sanctuaries. The women were then released from their prisons, every one put on a new dress, the temples were whitewashed, their household furniture renewed, their plate, and whatever was necessary for do- mestic use. " This secular festival, this apprehension of the sun being extinguished at the epoch of the winter solstice, seems to present a new instance of analogy between the Mexicans and the inhabitants of Egypt. When the Egyptians saw the sun descend from the Crab towards Capricorn, and the days gradually grow shorter, they were accustomed to sorrow, from the apprehension that the sun was going to abandon the earth, but when the orb be- gan to return, and the duration of the days grew longer, they robed themselves in white garments, and crowned themselves with flow- ers."— Humboldt, p. 380, 384. This Mexican usage may have been practised by the people of the west, as the roads would seem to justify, leading as they do, either to some mountain prepared by art, or at some mound : and as these processions took place in the night, so that the Pleiades 7 or seven stars, might be seen, it was necessary that the roads should be walled as a defence against an enemy, who might take ad- vantage under cover of the night. After having examined these accounts of the ancient works of the west, it is natural to ask, who their authors were : this can be answered only by comparison and conjecture, more or less upheld, as circumstances, features, manners, and customs of the nations, many resemble each other. " If we look into the Bible, we shall there learn, that mankind, soon after the deluge, undertook to raise a tower, high as heaven, designed to keep them together. But in this attempt they were disappointed, and themselves dispersed throughout the world. Did they forget to raise afterwards similar monuments and places of worship ? They did not, and to use the words of an inspired wri- ter, " high places," of various altitudes and dimensions, were raised on every high hill throughout the land of Palestine, and all the east, among the pagan nations. Some of these " high places " belonged to single families ; some to mighty chieftains, a petty tribe, a city, or a whole nation. At those " high places," belonging to great 196 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES nations, great national affairs were transacted. Here they crowned and deposed their kings ; here they concluded peace, and declared war, and worshipped their gods. The Jews, on many great occasions, assembled at Gilgal ; which word signifies " an heap.'''' Shiloh, where the Jews frequently as- sembled to transact great national affairs, and perform acts of devo- tion, was on the top of a high hill. When this was forsaken, the loftier hill of Zion was selected in its stead ; upon Sinai's awful summit the law of God was promulgated. Solomon's temple was situated upon a high hill, by Divine appointment. Samaria, a place celebrated for the worship of idols, was built upon the high hill of Shemer, by Omri, one of the kings of Israel, who was buried there. How many hundreds of mounds in this country are situated on the highest hills, surrounded by the most fertile soils. " Traverse the counties of Licking, Franklin, Pickaway, and Ross ; examine the loftiest mounds, and compare them with those described in Palestine, and a conviction will remain, that as in the earliest ages, men preferred the summit of the highest mountains, as a love of the same, as a memorial of ancestry, would influence posterity to the like custom. But the most extraordinary mound we' have heard of, is men- tioned in Mr. Schoolcraft's Travels in the west. It is called Mount Joliet, and is situated on the river Des Plains, one of the head wa- ter rivers of the Illinois. Its situation is such as to give its size its fullest effect, being on a level country with no hill in sight to form a contrast. Its height is sixty feet, nearly four rods perpen- dicular, its length eighty-four rods, its width fourteen, and is one hundred and ninety -six rods in circumference on its top, but con- siderably larger, measuring round the base. It has been remarked by Dr. Beck, that this is probably the largest mound within the limits of the United States. This mound is built on the horizontal lime stone stratum of the secondary formation, and is fronted by the beautiful lake Joliet, which is but fifteen miles long, furnishing the most " noble and picturesque spot in all America." Schoolcraft. This mound con- sists of eighteen million two hundred and fifty thousand solid feet of earth. How long it must have been in being builded, is more than can be made out, as the number of men employed, and the facilities to carry on the work, are unknown. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 197 In England, Scotland, and in Wales, they are thus situated. At Inch-Tuthel, on the river Tay, there is a mound which resembles ours on the Licking, near Newark. The camp at Comerie is on a water of Ruchel, situated on a high alluvion, like ours in the west. The antiquities of Ardoch are on a water Kneck, their walls ditch* es, gateways, mounds of defence before them, and every thing about them, resemble our works of this character in America. What Pennant, in his Antiquarian Researches in the north of Europe, calls a pi&toriurn, is exactly like the circular works round aur mounds, when placed within walls of earth- Catter-thun, two miles from Angus, is ascribed to the ancient Caledonians, or Scotch. Such works are very common in Ohio. One on the river Loden, or Lowthe, and another near the river Emet, are exactly like those in the west. The strong resemblance between the works in Scot- land and those of the west, I think, says Mr. Atwater, no man will deny. In various parts of the British isles, as well as England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, are abundance of those works, which were places of worship, burial, and defence, built by the ancient Picts, so called by the Romans, because they painted themselves, like the aborigines of this country. At a very early period of the globe, a small mound of earth served as a sepulchre and an altar, whereon the officiating priest could be seen by the surrounding worshippers. Such sacred works may be traced from Whales to Russia, quite across that empire north, to our continent ; and then across this continent, from the Columbia on the Pacific Ocean, to the Black River, on the east end of Lake Ontario ; thence turning in a southwestern direction, we find them extending quite to the southern parts of Mexico and Peru. " If there exists," says Dr. Clarke, " any thing of former times which may afford evidence of antediluvian manners, it is this mode of burial ; which seems to mark the progress of population in the first ages after the dispersion, occasioned by the confusion of lan- guages, at Babel. Whether under the form of a mound in Scandinavia and Russia, a barrow in England, or cairn in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, or heaps of earth, which the modern Greeks and Turks call Tepee, and the Mexicans, Tepee, and lastly, in the more artificial shape of a pyramid in Egypt ; they had universally the same origin." 198 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Here we have the unequivocal opinion of a man, who has scaree^ ly his fellow in the present generation, respecting a knowledge of the ancient manners of mankind ; who says, that the tumnli, found in all parts of the earth, belong solely to the age immediately suc- ceeding Noah's flood ; which greatly favors our opinion, that this country was settled as early as the other parts of the earth which are atas great a distance from Mount Ararat. But what is the distance from Mount Ararat, by w r ay of Bhering's Strait, to the middle of the United States, which is the region of the Missouri ? It is something over ten thousand miles ; nearly half the circuit of the globe. Here, in the region of the Western States, we have, by the' aid of Baron Humboldt, supposed the country of Aztalan was situated ; where the great specimens of labor and ancient manners, are must abundant. If this was the way the first people came into America, it is very clear, they could not, in the ordinary way of making a settlement here, and a settlement there, have arrived soon enough, to show signs of as great antiquity, in their works in America, as those of the same sort, found in the north of Europe. Some other way, therefore, we are confident, the first inhabitants must have pursued, so that their works in America, might compare, in character and antiquity, with those of other nations. From Ararat, in a westerly course, passing through Europe, by way of the countries now situated in Russia in Europe, to the Atlantic, the distance is scarcely five thousand miles ; not half the distance the route of Bhering's Strait would have been. And if the Egyptian tradition be true, respecting the island Atalantis, and the conjectures of naturalists about a union of Europe and America on the north, there was nothing to hinder their settling here, immediately after their dispersion. It is supposed the first generations immediately succeeding the flood, were much more enlightened than many nations since that period ; the reason is, they had not yet forgotten that which they had learned of the manners of their antediluvian ancestry from Noah ; but as they spread and diverged asunder, what they had learned from him concerning the creation, architecture, and the- culture of the earth before the flood, they lost, and so retrograded to savagism. It is true, the family of Shem, of whom were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the particular providence of God, retained^ unadul- ATSV DISCOVERIES IK THE WEST. 199 terated, the traditional history of the creation, and of man, till the time Moses embodied it in a book, eight hundred and fifty-seven years after the flood. But the rest of the nations were left, in this respect, to mere recollections, which, as soon as they divided and subdivided, become contradictory and monstrous. But the authors of the great works found in the west, seem to have retained the first ideas received from their fathers at the era of the building of Babel, equally, if not superior, to many nations of Europe, as they were in the year eight hundred after Christ. This is consented to on all hands, and even contended for by the historian, Humboldt. In order to show the reader the propritey of believing, that a colony, very soon after the confusion of the lan- guage of mankind, found their way to what is now called America, we give the tradition of the Azteca nation, who once inhabited Aztalan, the country of the western states, but were, at the era of the conquest of South America, found inhabiting the vale of Mex- ico, because they had, as we have shown, been driven away by the irruptions of the Tartarian Indians, as follows : TRAITS OF THE MOSAIC HISTORY FOUND AMONG THE K.Z TECA NATIONS. The tradition commences with an account of the deluge, as they had preserved it in books made of the buffalo and deer skin, on which account there is more certainty than if it had been preserved by mere oral tradition, handed down from father to son. They begin by painting, or as we would say, by telling us that Noah, whom they call Tezpi, saved himself, with his wife, whom they call Xochiquetzal, on a raft or canoe. Is not this the ark? The raft or canoe rested on or at the foot of a mountain, which they call Colhuacan. Is not this Ararat ? The men born after this deluge were born dumb. Is not this the confusion of language at Babel ? A dove from the top of a tree distributes languages to them in the form of an olive leaf. Is not this the dove of Noah, which returned with that leaf in her mouth, as related in Genesis I They 200 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES say. that en this rafi, beside Tezpi and bis wife, were several chil- dren, and animals, with grain, the preservation of which was of importance to mankind. Is not this in almost exact accordance with what was saved in the ark with Noah, as stated in Genesis. When the great spirit, Tezcatlipoca, ordered the waters to with- draw, Tezpi sent out from his raft a vulture, which never returned, on account of the great quantities of dead carcasses which it found to feed upon. Is not this the raven of Noah, which did not return when it was sent out the second time, for the very reason here as- signed by the Mexicans ? Tezpi sent other birds, one of which was the humming bird ; this bird alone returned, holding in its beak a branch covered with leaves. Is not this the dove ? Tezpi seeing that fresh verdure now clothed the earth, quitted his raft near the mountain Colhuacan. Is not this an allusion to Ararat of Asia ? They say the tongues which the dove gave to mankind, ■ were infinitely varied ; which, when received, they immediately dispersed. But among them there were fifteen heads or chiefs of families, which were permitted to speak the same language, and these were the Taltecks, the Aculhucans, and Azteca nations, who embodied themselves together,, which was very natural, and travel- ed, they knew not where, but at length arrived in the country of Aztalan, or the lake country. The plate or engraving presented here, is a surprising represent- ation of the Deluge of Noah, and of the Confusion of the Ancient Language, at the building of the Tower of Babel, as related in the Book of Genesis, see chap. 7 and 11. We have derived the subject of this plate from Baron Hum- boldt's volume of Researches in Mexico, who found it painted on a manuscript book, made of the leaves of some kind of tree, suit- able for the purpose, after the manner of the ancient nations of the sultry parts of Asia, around the Mediterranean. Among the vast multitude of painted representations found by this author, on the books of the natives, made also frequently of prepared skins of animals, were delineated all the leading circum- stances and history of the deluge, of the fall of man, and of the seduction of the woman by the means of the serpent, the first murder as perpetrated by Cain, on the person of his brother Abel. The plate, however, here presented, shows no more than a pic= ture of the flood, with Noah afloat on a raft, or as the traditions of AND DISCOVERIES. IN THE WEST. 201 some of the nations say, on a tree, a canoe, and some say even in a vessel of huge dimensions. It also shows, by the group of men approaching the bird, a somewhat obscure history of the confusion of the ancient language, at the building of Babel, by representing them as being born dumb, who receive the gift of speech from a dove, which flutters in the branches of the tree, while she presents the languages to the mute throng, by bestowing upon each indivi- dual a leaf of the tree, which is shown in the form of small com- mas suspended from its beak. The circumstance of their being born dumb, points out as clearly as tradition can be expected to do, the confusion of language ; as being dumb is equivalent to their not being able to converse with each other ; or their not being able to converse, was equivalent to their being born dumb. Among the different nations^ according to Humboldt, who inha- bited Mexico, were found paintings which represented the deluge, or the flood of Tezpi. The same person among the Chinese is called Fohi and Yu-ti y which is strikingly similar in sound to the Mexican Tezpi, in which they show how he saved himself and his wife, in a bark, or some say, in a canoe, others, on a raft, which they call, in their language, a huahuate. The painting, of which the plate is the representation, shows Tezpi, or Noah, in the midst of the waters, lying on his back. The mountain, the summit of which is crowned by a tree, and rises above the waters, is the peak of Colhucan, the Ararat of the Mex- icans. The horn which is represented on the hieroglyphic, is the mountain Colhucan. At the foot of the mountain, on each side, appear the heads of Noah and his wife. The woman is known by the two points extending up from her forehead, which is the uni- versal designation of the female sex among the Mexicans. In the figure of the bird, with the leaves of a tree in its beak, is shown the circumstance of the dove's return to the Ark, when it had been sent out the second time, bringing a branch of the olive in its mouth ; but in their tradition it had become misplaced, and is made the author of the languages. That birds have a language, was believed by the nations of the old world. Some of those na- tions retain a surprising traditional account of the deluge ; who say, that Noah embarked in a spacious acalli or boat, with his wife, his children, several animals, and grain, the preservation of which was 26 202 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES of great importance to mankind. When the Great Spirit, Tezcat- lipoca 3 ordered the waters to withdraw, Tezpi, or Noah, sent out from his boat a vulture. But as the bird's natural food was that of dead carcasses, it did not return, on account of the great number of those carcasses with which the earth, now dried in some places, abounded. Tezpi sent out other birds, one of which was the humming bird ; this bird alone returned again to the boat, holding in its beak a branch, covered with leaves. Tezpi now knowiDg that the earth was dry, being clothed with fresh verdure, quitted bis bark near the mountain Colhucan, which is equivalent to that of Ararat. The purity of this tradition is evidence of two things : 1st., that the book of Genesis^ as written by Moses, is not as some have imagined, a cunningly devised fable, as these Indians cannot be ac- cused of Christian priestcraft, nor yet of Jewish priestcraft, their religion being solely of another cast, wholly idolatrous. And se- cond, that the continents of America, Africa, and Asia, were an- ciently united, so that the earlier nations came directly over after the confusion of the ancient language and dispersion— on which ac- count its purity has been preserved more than among the more wandering tribes of the old continents As favoring this idea of their coming immediately from the re- gion of the tower of Babel, their tradition goes on to inform us, that the tongues distributed by this bird were infinitely various, and dispersed over the earth ; but that it so happened that fifteen heads of families were permitted to speak the same language, these are the same shown on the plate. These travelled till they came to a country which they called Aztalan, supposed to be in the regions of the now United States, according to Humboldt. As favoring this idea, we notice, the word Aztalan signifies in their language, water 9 or a country of much water. Now, no country on the earth better suits this appellation than the western country, on account of the vast number of lakes found there. There is another particular in this group of naked, dumb hu- man beings, worthy of notice, which is, that neither their counte- nances nor form of their persons agree at all with the countenances or formation of the common Indians ; they suit far better to the face of the ancient Britons, Greeks, Romans, Carthagenians and Phoenicians- A1STD DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 203 If so, it is evident, that the Indians are not the first people who found their way to this country. Among these ancient nations are found many more traditions corresponding to the accounts given by Moses, respecting the creation, the fall of man by the means of a serpent — the murder of Abel by his brother, &c. ; all of which are denoted in their paintings, as found by the earlier travellers among them, since the discovery of America by Columbus, and carefully copied from their books of prepared hides, which may be called parchment, after the manner of the ancients of the earliest ages. We are pleased when we find such evidence, as it goes to the establishment of the truth of the historical parts of the Old Testa- ment, evidence so far removed from the sceptic's charge of priest- craft here among the unsophiscated nations of the earlier people of America. Clavigero, in his history of Mexico, says, that among the Chiap- anese Indians, was found an ancient manuscript in the language of that country, made by the Indians themselves, in which it was said, according to their ancient tradition, that a certain person, named Votan, was present at that great building, which was made by or- der of his uncle, in order to mount up to heaven ; that then every people was given its language, and that Votan himself was charged by God to make the division of the lands of Anahuac— -so Noah divided the earth among his sons. Votan may have been Noah. Of the ancient Indians of Cuba, several historians of America relate, that when they were interrogated by the Spaniards concern- ing their origin, they answered, they had heard from their ances- tors, that God created the heavens and the earth, and all things : that an old man having foreseen the deluge with which God de- signed to chastise the sins of men, built a large canoe and embark- ed in it with his family, and many animals ; that when the inun- dation ceased, he sent out a raven, which, because it found food suited to its nature to feed on, never returned to the canoe ; that he then sent out a pigeon, which soon returned, bearing a branch of the Hoba tree, a certain fruit tree of America, in its mouth ; that when the old man saw the earth dry, he disembarked, and having made himself wine of the wood grape, he became intoxicated and fell asleep ; that then one of his sons made ridicule of his naked- ness, and that another son piously covered him ; that, upon waking, 204 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES he blessed the latter and cursed the former. Lastly, these island- ers held that they had their origin from the accursed son, and there- fore went almost naked ; that the Spaniards, as they were clothed ? descended perhaps from the other. Many of the nations of America, says Clavigero, have the same tradition, agreeing nearly to what we hare already related. It was the opinion of this author, that the nations who peopled the Mex- ican empire, belonged to the posterity of Naphtuhim — (the same s we imagine, with Japheth ;) and that their ancestors having left Egypt not long after the confusion of the ancient language, travel- led towards America, crossing over on the isthmus, which it is sup- posed once united America with the African continent, but since has been beaten down by the operation of the waters of the Atlantic on the north, and the Southern ocean on the south, or by the ope- ration of earthquakes. Now we consider the comparative perfection of the preservation of this Bible account, as an evidence that the people among whom it was found must have settled in this country at a very early pe- riod of time after the flood, and that they did not wander any more, but peopled the continent, cultivating it, building towns and cities, after their manner ; the vestiges of which are so abundant to this day; and on this account, viz., their fixedness, their traditionary history was not as liable to become lost, as it would have undoubt- edly been, had they wandered, as many other nations of the old world have, among whom scarcely a vestige of their origin is found, of credible tradition, compared with this. Even the Hindoo nations, who, in their origin, wandered also from Ararat, have not, with all their boasted refinement and anti- quity of origin, as clear an account of the first age of the earth, as these Mexicans. But there is another additional reason for it : those countries of the east have been frequently overrun by savage hordes from the wilds of northern Tartary ; while the ancient peo- ple of this continent have rested in peace, till similar hordes found their way across Bhering's Strait, in later years ; and, as is be- lieved, an account of the tradition, both of some of the western tribes, and of the Azteca nations in Mexico, were driven from their ancient possessions. If then we believe, that the first people who visited this country did not come here by the way of Bhering's Strait, from Tartary, AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 205' $iow then is it that we find such evident marks, in the mounds and tumuli of the west, of the presence of a Hindoo population, as well as of other nations. Let the tradition of the nations of Taltec and Azteca extraction in Mexico answer it. These say, that a wonderful personagey whom they name Quetzalcoatl, appeared among them, who was a white and bearded man. This person assumed the dignity of act- ing as a priest and legislator, and became the chief of a religious 6ect, which like the Songasis and the Boudhists of Indostan, in- flicted on themselves the most cruel penances. He introduced the- custom of piercing the lips and ears, and lacerating the rest of the body, with the prickles of the agave and leaves, the throns of the cactus., and of putting reeds into the wounds, in order that the blood; might be seen to trickle more copiously. In all this, says Hum- boldt, we seem to behold one of those Rishi, hermits of the GangeSj, whose pious austerity is celebrated in the books of the Hindoos. Jewitt, a native of Boston, who lately died at Hartford Conn., was, some few years since, captured with the crew of the vessel in which he had sailed, by the Nootka Indians, at Nootka Sound, on the Pacific. In his narrative of his captivity and sufferings, he states, that those Indians had a religious custom, very similar to those of the Hindoos, now in use, about the temple of Jugernaut s in India; which was, piercing their sides with long rods, and leap- ing about while the rods were in the wound. Respecting this white and bearded man, much is said in their tradition, recorded in their books of skin, and among other things, that after a long stay with them, he suddenly left them, promising, to return again, in a short time, to govern them and renew their happiness. This person, named Tecpaltzin, resembles, very strongly, in his promise to return again, the behavior of Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, who, on his departure from Lacedemon, bound all the citizens under an oath, both for themselves and pos- terity, that they would neither violate nor abolish his laws till his return ; and soon after, in the Isle of Crete, put himself to death, so that his return became impossible. It was the posterity of this man, whom the unhappy Montazuma thought he recognized in the soldiers of Cortez, the Spanish con- queror of Mexico. " We know," said the unhappy monarch, in his first interview with the Spanish general, " by our books, thai 206 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES myself and those who inhabit this country, are not natives but strangers, who came from a great distance. We know, also, that the chief who led our ancestors hither," that is to Aztalan, " re- turned, for a certain time, to his primitive country, and thence came back to seek those who were here established;," who, after a while, returned again, alone. We always believed that his de- scendants would one day come to take possession of this country. Since you arrive from that region where the sun rises, I cannot doubt, but that the king who sends you, is our natural master." This chief who led the Azteck tribes first to Aztalan, is called Tecpaltzin, and seems to be the person who, the monarch says, re- turned to his native land, where the sun rises ; which is a strong allusion to the country of Babylon, or some part of the old world, about the Mediteranean, which is east from Mexico, where the sun rises, the very country where the chiefs of the fifteen tribes, speaking the same language with himself, first received that lan- guage from the bird, as before stated. But Quetzalcoatl, an entire different character, appears among them many ages after their settlement at Mexico, as a religious teacher, who, Humboldt says, resembled the Boudhists or Bram= nuns of Indostan, and the hermits of the Ganges, whose pious aus= terities are celebrated in their Pain anas, or books of theology, and that the Azteca tribes left their country, Aztalan, in the year of our Lord 544 ; and wandered to the south or southwest, coming at last to the vale of Mexico. It would appear, from this view, that as the nations of Aztalan, with their fellow nations, left vast works, and a vast extent of country, apparently in a state of cultivation, with cities and villages, more in number than three thousand, as Breckenridge supposed, that they must, therefore, have settled here long before the Christian era. The peculiar doctrines of the Hindoos, we are informed, were commenced to be taught in the east, among, what is now called the Hindoo nations, by Zoroaster, about the the time of Abraham, 1449 years before the time of Confucius, who was born 551 years before Christ; so that there was time for those doctrines of Confucius and Zoroaster to take root in China, and to become popular, and also to reach America, by Hindoo missionaries, and overspread these regions even as early as the commencement of the Christian era. Of Zoroaster, it is said, that he predicted the coming of the Mes- AJSd DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST 207 siah, in plain words ; and that the " wise men " of the east, who saw his star, were of his disciples, or sect. This doctrine he must have learned of Shera, who, we have attempted to show, was Mel- chisedek, or of Abraham, as it had been handed down from Adam, the first of men. But the peculiar doctrine of Confucius, wLich was the worship of fire, as well as that of the sun, by Zoroaster, it is likely, was derived from the account he found among the ar- chives of the Jews, respecting the liming bush of Moses, which had taken place more than a thousand years before the time of Confucius- From this originated, in all probability, as taught by Confucius, the burning of heroes, when dead, among many na- tions ; and from this, that of immolating widows, as among the Hindoos, on the funeral pile, taught by the Bramhun missionaries, who, undoubtedly, visited America, as it joins on to Asia north, or as it was then possibly called, Amaquemecan, &c, and planted their belief among these nations ; the tokens of which appear so abundantly in the mounds and tumuli of the west- And this Quetzalcotl, a celebrated minister of those opinions, ap= pears to have been the first who announced the religion of the east among the people of the west There was also one other minister., or Bramhun, who appeared among the Mozca tribes in South Ame- rica, whom they name Bochica- This personage taught the wor- ship of the Sun; and if we were to judge, should pronounce him a missionary of the Confucian system, a worshipper of fire, which was the religion of the ancient Persians, of whose country Confu- cius was a native. This also is evidence that the first inhabitants of America came here at a period near the flood, long before that worship was known, or they would have had a knowledge of this Persian worship, which was introduced by Bochica, among the American nations ; which, it seems, they had not, till taught by this man. Bochica, it appears, became a legislator among those nations, and changed the form of their government to a form, the construction of which, says Baron Humboldt, bears a strong analogy to the go- vernments of Japan and Thibet, on account of the pontiffs holdino- in their hands both the secular and the spiritual reins. In Japan an island on the east of Asia, or rather many islands, which com- pose the Japanese empire, is found a religious sect, stiled Sinto^ who do not believe in the sanguinary rites of shedding either hu- 208 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES man blood, or that of animals, to propitiate their gods. They even abstain from animal food, and detest bloodshed, and will not touch any dead body. — Morse's Geography, p. 522. There is, in South America, a whole nation who eat nothing but vegetables, and who hold in abhorrence those who feed on flesh. * — Humboldt , page 200. Such a coincidence in the religion of na- tions, can scarcely be supposed to exist, unless they are of one ori- gin. " I am not ignorant, says Humboldt, p. 199, that the Tch- outsks annually crossed Bhering's Straits, to make war on the in- habitants of the northwest coast of America." Therefore, from what we have related above, ^and a few pages tack, it is clear, both from the tradition of the Aztecas,^vho lived in the western regions before they went to the south, and from the fact that nations on the Asiatic side of Bhering's Straits, having come annually over the Straits to fight with the ancient nations of the northwest ; that we, in this way, have given conclusive and satisfactory reasons, why, in the western mounds and tumuli, are found evident tokens of the presence of a Hindoo population, or at least, of nations influenced by the superstitions of that people, through the means of missionaries of that cast ; and that they did not bring those opinions and ceremonies with them when they^rs? left Asia, after the confusion of the antediluvian language, as led on by their fifteen chiefs ; till by some 'means, and at some period, they finally found this country ; not by the way of Bhering's Straits, but some nearer course, as we have conjectured in other places in this work. Perhaps a few words on the supposed native country of Quet- zalcotl, may be allowed ; who, as we have stated, is reported to have been a white and bearded man, by the Mexican Aztecas. There is a vast range of islands on the northeast of Asia, in the Pa- cific, situated not very far from Bhering's Straits, in latitude be- tween 40 and 50 degrees north. The inhabitants of these islands, when first discovered, were found to be far in advance in the arts of civilzation, and a knowledge of governments, of their continen- tal neighbors — the Chinese and Tartars. The Island of Jesso, in particular, which, of itself, is an empire, comparatively, being very populous ; and are also highly polished in their manners. The inhabitants may be denominated white ; their women espe- cially, whom Morse, in his Geography of the islands of Japan, Jesso AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 209 and others in that range, says expressly, are white, fair and ruddy. Humboldt says, they are a bearded race of men, like Europeans. It appears, the ancient government of these islands, especially that of Japan, which is neighbor to that of Jesso, was in the hands of spiritual monarchs and pontiffs, till the 17th century. As this was the form of government introduced by Quetzalcotl, when he first appeared among the Azteca tribes ; which we suppose was in the country of Aztalan, or western states, may it not be conjectured that he was a native of some of those islands, who, in his wander- ings, had found his way to the place now called Bhering's Straits; for, indeed, anciently there may have been only an isthmus at that place, and thence to this country, on errands of benevolence ; as it is said in the tradition respecting him, that he preached peace among men, and would not allow any other offering to the divinity than the first fruits of the harvest; which doctrine was in character with the mild and amiable manners of the inhabitans of those islands. And that peculiar and striking record, found painted on the Mex- ican skin-books, which describes him to have been a white and bearded man, is our other reason for supposing him to have been a native of some of these islands, and most probably Jesso, rather than any other country. The inhabitants of these islands originated from China, and with them undoubtedly carried the Persian doctrines of the worship of the Sun and Fire; consequently, we find it taught to the people of Aztalan and Mexico, by such as visited them from China, or the islands above named ; as it is clear the sun was not the original ob- ject of adoration in Mexico, but rather the power which made the sun. So Noah worshipped. A DESCRIPTION OF THE CEREMONIES OF FIRE WORSHIP, AS PRACTISED BY CERTAIN TRIBES ON THE ARKANSAS. > Mr. Ash witnessed an exhibition of fire worship, or the worship of the sun, as performed by a whole tribe, at the village of Ozark, near the mouth of the Ozark, or Arkansas river, which empties into the Mississippi, from the west. 27 210 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES He says, he arrived at the village at a very fortunate period ; at a time when it was filled with Indians and surrounded with their camp. They amounted to about nine hundred, and were com- posed of the remnants of various nations, and were worshippers of the sun. The second day after his arrival happened to be the grand festi- val among them. He had the most favorable opportunity of wit- nessing their adorations, at three remarkable stages; the sun's rise/ meridian, and setting. The morning was propitious, the air serene, the horizon clear, the weather calm. The nations divided into classes ; warrior's, young men and wo- men, and married men with their children. Each class stood in the form of a quadrant ; that each individual might behold the rising luminary, and each class held up a particular offering to the sun, the instant he rose in his glory. The warriors presented their arms, the young men and women offered ears of corn and branches of trees, and married women held up to his light their infant children. These acts were performed in silence, till the object of adoration visibly rose ; when, with one impulse, the nations burst into praise, and sung an hymn in loud chorus. The lines, which were sung with repetitions, and marked by pauses, were full of sublimity and judgment. Their meaning, when interpreted, is as follows : Great Spirit ! master of our lives. Great Spirit ! master of things visible, and invisible, and who daily makes them visible and invisible. Great Spirit! master of every other spirit, good or bad; com- mand the good to be favorable to us, and deter the bad from the commission of evil. Oh Grand Spirit ! preserve the strength and courage of our war- riors, and augment their number, that they may resist the oppres- sion of the Spanish enemies, and recover the country, and the rights of our fathers. Oh Grand Spirit ! preserve the lives of such of our old men as are inclined to give counsel and example to the young. Preserve our children, multiply their number, and let them be the comfort and support of declining age. And discoveries in the west. 211 Preserve our corn and our animals, and let w) famine desolate the land. Protect our villages, guard our lives ! Oh Great Spirit, when you hide your light behind the western hills, protect Us from the Span- iards, who violate the night, and do evil which they dare not com* mit in the presence of your beams. Good Spirit ! make known to us your pleasure, by sending to us the Spirit of Dreams. Let the Spirit of Dreams proclaim your-will in the night, and we will perform it through the day ; and if it say the time of some be closed, send them, Master of Life ! to the great country of souls, where they may meet their fathers, mothers, chil- dren, and wives, and where you are pleased to shine upon them with a bright, warm, and perpetual blaze ! Oh Grand, Oh Great Spirit ! harken to the voice of natims, harken to all thy children, and remember us always, for we are descended from thee. Immediately after this address, the four quadrants formed one immense circle, of several deep, and danced, and sung hymns de- scriptive of the power of the sun, till near ten o'clock. They then amused and refreshed themselves in the village and camp, but as* sembled precisely at the hour of twelve, and formed a number of circles, commenced the adoration of the meridian sun. The fol- lowing is the literal translation of the mid-day address : Courage! nations, courage ! the Great Spirit looks down upon tis from his highest seat, and by his lustre appears content with the children of his own power and greatness. Grand Spirit ! how great are his works, and how beautiful are they ! How good is the Great Spirit. He rides high to behold us. 5 Tis he who causes all things to augment, and to act. He even now stands for a moment to harken to us. Courage, nations ! courage ! The Great Spirit, now above Our heads, will make us vanquish our enemies ; he will cover our fields with corn, and increase the animals of our woods. He will see that the old be made happy, and that the young augment. He will make the nations prosper, make them rejoice, and make them put up their voice to him, while he rises and sets in their land, and while his heat and light can thus gloriously shine out. This was followed by dancing and hymns, which continued from 212 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES two to three hours, at the conclusion of which, dinners were served and eaten with great demonstrations of mirth and hilarity. Mr. Ash says, he dined in a circle of chiefs, on a barbacued hog, and venison very well stewed, and was perfectly pleased with the repast. The dinner, and repose after it, continued till the sun was on the point of getting. On this being announced by several who had been on the watch, the nations assembled in haste, and formed themselves into segments of circles, in the face of the sun, pre- senting their offerings during the time of his descent, and crying aloud, " The nations must prosper ; they have been beheld by the Great Spirit. What more can they want ? Is not that happiness enough ? See, he retires, great and content, after having visited his children with light and universal good. Oh Grand Spirit ! sleep not long in the gloomy west, but return and call your people once again to light and life, to light and life, to light and life." This was succeeded by dances and songs of praise, till eleven o'clock at night ; at which hour they repaired to rest, some retiring to the huts that formed their camp, and others to the vicinity of fires made in the woods, and along the river's bank. Mr. Ash took up his abode with a French settler in the village. He under- stood that these Indians have four similar festivals in the year ; one for every season. When the sun does not shine, or appear on the adoration day, an immense fire is erected, around which the ceremonies are per- formed with equal devotion and care." ORIGIN OF FIRE WORSHIP. For many ages the false religions of the east had remained sta- tionary ; but in this period, Magianism received considerable strength from the writings of Zoroaster. He was a native of Me- dia. He pretended to a visit in heaven, where God spake to him out of a fire. This fire he pretended to bring with him, on his re- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST, 213 turn. It was considered holy ; the dwelling of God. The priests were forever to keep it, and the people were to worship before it. He caused fire temples every where to be erected, that storms and tempests might not extinguish it. As he considered God as dwell- ing in the fire, he made the sun to be his chhf residence, and therefore the primary object of worship. He abandoned the old system of two gods, one good and the other evil, and taught the ex- istence of one Supreme, who had under him a good and evilangel; the immediate authors of good and evil To gain reputation, he retired into a cave, and there lived a long time a recluse, and com- posed a book called the Zend A vesta, which contains the liturgy to be used in the fire temples, and the chief doctrines of his re- ligion. His success, in propagating his system, was astonish- ingly great- Almost all the eastern world, for a season, bowed be- fore him. He is said to have been slain, with eighty of his priests, by a Scythian prince, whom he attempted to convert to his reli- gion. It is manifest, that he derived his whole system of God's dwell- ing in the fire, from the burning bush, out of which God spake to Moses. He was well acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures. He gave the same history of the creation and deluge that Moses had given, and inserted a great part of the Psalms of David into his writings. The Mehestani, his followers, believed, in the immor- tality of the soul, in future rewards and punishments, and in the purification of the body by fire, after which they would be united to the good.- — Marsh's Ecclesiastical History , p. 78. From the same origin, that of the burning bush, it is altogether probable, the worship of fire, for many ages, obtained over the whole habitable earth ; and is still to be traced in the funeral piles of the Hindoos, the beacon fires of the Scotch and Irish, the peri- odical midnight fires of the Mexicans, and the council fires ©f the North American Indians, around which they dance. A custom among the natives of New Mexico, as related by Baron Humboldt, is exactly imitated by a practice found still in some parts of Ireland, among the descendants cf the ancient Irish. At the commencement of the month of November, the great fire of Samhuin is lit up, all the culinary fires in the kingdom being first extinguished, as it was deemed sacrilege to awaken the win- ter's social flame, except by a spark snatched from this sacred fire ; 214 AMERICAN ANTlQUlflES on which account, the month November as called, in the Irish lan- guage, Samhuin. To this day, the inferior Irish look upon bonfires as sacred j they say their prayers, walking round them, the young dream upon their ashes, and the old take this fire to light up their domes- tic hearths, imagining some secret undefinable excellence connect- ed with it. A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF WESTERN ANTIQUITIES. "I have a brick," says Mr. Atwater, "now before me, over which lay, when found, wood, ashes, charcoal, and human bones* burnt in a large and hot fire. And from what was found at Circle- ville, in the mound already described, it would seem that females were sometimes burnt with the males. I need not say, that this custom was derived from Asia, as it is well known, that is the only country to look to for the origin of such a custom. The Greeks and Romans practised burning their illustrous dead ; it was prac- tised by the several other nations, but they all derived it from Asia* In Dr. Clarke's volume of Travels from St. Petersburgh to the Crimea, in the year 1800 ; and in his Travels in Russia, Tartary, and Turkey, it is said, conical mounds of earth, or tumuli, occur very frequently. The most remarkable may be seen between Ye- zolbisky and Voldai, on both sides of the road, and they continue over the whole country, from the latter place to Jedrova, and finally, over the whole Russian empire. The author of the travels above alluded to, says, "There are few finer prospects than that of Wor- onetz, viewed a few miles from the town on the road to Pautoosky. Throughout the whole of this country, are seen, dispersed over immense plains, mounds of earth, covered with fine turf, the sepu!^ chres of the ancient world, common to almost every habitable country.'" This country, (Russia in Europe) from Petersburgh to the Cri- mea, a seaport on the Black sea, the region over which Adam Clarke travelled, is in the very neighborhood of Mount Ararat \ AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 215 and from the circumstance of the likeness existing between the mounds and tumuli there, which Clarke says are the " tombs of the ancient world," and those of the same character, North and South America, we draw the conclusion, that they belong, nearly to one and the same era of time ; viz : that immediately succeeding the confusion of language, at the building of Babel. We are told in the same volume of travels, that " the Cossacks at Ekaterindara, dug into some of these mounds, for the purpose of making cellars, and found in them several ancient vases," earth- en vessels, corresponding exactly with vases found in the western mounds. Several have been found in our mounds, w T hich resem- ble one found in Scotland, described by Pennant. A vessel appa- rently made of clay and shells, resembling in its form, a small keg, with a spout on one side of it, formed like the spout of a tea-kettle, with a chain fastened to each end, made probably of copper, of which Mr. Atwater has not informed us. This chain answered as a bail or handle ; exactly on its top, or side, under the range of the chain handle, is an opening of an exact circle, which is the mouth of this ancient tea-kettle. — See plate, letter A. In the Russian tumuli are found the bones of various animals, as well as those of men. In the western tumuli are found also, the bones of men, as well as the teeth of bears, otters, and beavers. Thus we learn, from the most authentic sources, that these an- cient works existing in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, are simi- lar in their construction, in the materials w 7 ith which they were raised, and in the articles found in them. Let those who are constantly seeking for some argument to over- throw the history of man by Moses, consider this fact. Such per- sons have affected to believe, that there were different stocks or races of men derived from different original fathers ; and in this way they account for the appearance of human beings found on islands. But this similarity of works, of language, and of tradition, relating to the most ancient history of man, indicates, nay more, establishes the fact, that all men sprung from but one origin, one first man and woman, as Moses has written it in the book of Genesis. When Dr. Clarke was travelling in Tartary, he found a place called Iverness, situated in the turn of a river ; he inquired the meaning of the word, and found that Iverness, in their language ? 216 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES signifies in a turn. Whoever looks into Pennant's Tour, will see a plate, representing a town in the turn of a river, in Scotland, called by the same name, Iverness. The names of not a few of the rivers in England, Scotland, and Wales, are the names also of rivers in Tartary. Some have supposed that all the great works of the west, of which we have been treating, belong to our present race of Indians ; but from continued wars with each other, have driven themselves from agricultural pursuits, and thinned away their numbers, to that degree, that the wild animals and fishes of the rivers, and wild fruit of the forests, were found sufficient to give them abundant support ; on which account, they were reduced to savagism. But this is answered by the Antiquarian Society, as follows : " Have our present race of Indians ever buried their dead in mounds by thousands ? Were they acquainted with the use of sil- ver, or copper ? These metals curiously wrought have been found. Did the ancients of our Indians burn the bodies of distinguished chiefs, on funeral piles, and then raise a lofty tumulus over the urn containing their ashes ? Did the Indians erect any thing like the " walled towns," on Paint Creek ? Did they ever dig such wells as are found at Marietta, Portsmouth, and above all, such as those in Paint Creek ? Did they manufacture vessels from calcareous breccia, equal to any now made in Italy ? Did they ever make and worship an idol, representing the three principal gods of India, called the Triune Cup ?—See plate, letter E. To this we respond, they never have : no, not even their tra- ditions afford a glimpse of the existence of such things, as forts, tumuli, roads, wells, mounds, walls enclosing" between one and two hundred, and even five hundred acres of land ; some of them of stone, and others of earth, twenty feet in thickness, and exceed- ing high, are works requiring too much labor for Indians ever to have performed. The skeletons found in our mounds never belonged to a people like our Indians. The latter are a tall, and rather slender, straight limbed people ; but those found in the barrows and tumuli, were rarely over five feet high, though a few were six. Their foreheads were low, cheek bones rather high, their faces were very short and wide, their eyes large, and their chins very broad. But Morse, the geographer, says, page 629, the Tartars have AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. %Vt small eyes, and not of the oblique form, like the Monguls and Chi- nese, neither of which seem to correspond with the large eyed race who built the mounds and tumuli of the west ; on which account we the more freely look to a higher an more ancient origin for these people. The Indians of North America, in features, com- plexion, and form, and warlike habits, suit far better the Tartaric character, than the skeletons found in the mounds of the west. The limbs of our fossils are short and thick, resembling the Ger- mans more than any other Europeans with whom we are acquainted. There is a tradition among the Germans, that, in ancient times, some adventurers of their nations, discovered the region now called America, and made settlements in it ; but that, subsequently, they became amalgamated with the inhabitants whom they found alrea- dy here ; whether of Indian, or of the more ancient race of men before them, is not known. We have conversed with one German on this subject, who re- lates that he was acquainted with a family of Germanic origin, who once were in the possession of a Bible, printed about 200 years since, in Germany. In this Bible was an account of the discovery of America. We have taken considerable trouble to discover this Bible in some branch of the family, but have not been able ; but have found a part or branch of the family, who knew that such a volume was once in the possession of their ancestors ; but where it is, or whether it is worn out, they knew not. Germany is situated east of England, and parts of it lie along the coast of the Atlantic, or North Sea, in north latitude 53 de- grees. From whence voyagers may have passed out between the north end of Scotland and the south extremity of old Norway by the Shetland and Faroe islands, directly in the the course of Ice- land, Greenland and the Labrador coast of America. This is as possible for the Germans to have performed, as for the Norwegians, Danes and Welch, in the year of our Lord 1000, as shown in an- other part of this work. White Indians, as found far to the west, must have had a white origin. An idol found in a tumulus near Nashville, Tennessee, (see Plate, letter B.) and now in the Museum of Mr. Clifford, of Lex- ington, is made of clay, peculiar for its fineness. With this clay was mixed a small portion of gypsum or plaster of Paris. This idol was made to represent a man, in a state of nudity or naked- 218 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES ness, whose arms had been cut off close to the body, and whose nose and chin have been mutilated, with a fillet and cake upon its head. In all these respects, as well as in the peculiar manner of plating the hair, it is exactly such an idol as Professor Pallas found in his travels in the southern part of the Russian empire. A custom among the ancient Greeks, may have given rise to the formation of such an idol ; which was copied by the Asiatic ances- tors of the people who brought it with them from Asia to the woods of America. This custom was — when a victim was destined to be sacrificed, the sacred fillet was bound upon the head of the idol, the victim and priest. The salted cake was placed upon the head of the victim only ; it was called " Mola," hence immolare, or im- molation, in later times was used to signify any kind of sacrifice. On this idol, (see the Plate, letter B.,) found near Nashville, the sacred fillet and salted cake are represented on its head : it is sup- posed the copy of this god was borrowed by the Greeks from the Persians from whence it might also have been copied, in later times, by the Chinese nations, and from thence have been brought to Ame'^a. " If the ancestors of our North American Indians, were from the northern parts of Tartary, those who worshipped this idol came from a country lying farther to the south, where the population was more dense, and where the arts had made greater progress ; while the Tartar of the north was a hunter and a savage, the Hindoo and southern Tartar were well acquainted with most of the useful arts," who, at a later period than that of the first people who settled this country, came, bringing along with them the arts, the idols, and the religious riles of Hindostan, China, and the Crimea." The ancestors of our northern Indians were mere hunters ; while the authors of our tumuli were shepherds and husbandmen. The tempels, altars and sacred places of the Hindoos were always situ- ated on the banks of some stream of water. The same observa- tion applies to the temples, altars and sacred places of those who erected our tumuli. " To the consecrated streams of Hindostan devotees assembled from all parts of the empire, to worship their gods, and purify themselves by bathing in the sacred waters. In this country, their sacred places were uniformly on the banks of some river ; and who knows but the Muskingum, the Sciota, the Miami, the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Mississippi, were once AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 219 deemed as sacred, and their banks as thickly settled, and as well cultivated, as are now those of the Ganges, the Indus, and the Ba- rempooter." — American Antq. Researches. "Some years since a clay vessel was discovered, about twenty feet below the surface, in alluvial earth, in digging a well near Nashville, Tenaessee, and was found standing on a rock, from whence a spring of water issued. This vessel was taken to Peale's Museum, at Philadelphia. It contains about one gallon ; was cir- cular in its shape, with a flat bottom, from which it rises in a some- what globose form, terminating at the summit with the figure of a female head ; the place where the water was introduced, or poured out, was on the one side of it, nearly at the top of the globose part. The features of the face are Asiatic ; the crown of the head is covered by a cap of pyramidal figure, with a flattened circular sum- mit, ending at the apex, with a round button. The ears are large, extending as low as the chin. The features resemble many of those engraved for Raffle's history ; and the cap resembles Asiatic head dresses." — Am. Ant. Researchs. Another idol was, a few years since, dug up in Natchez, on the Mississippi, on a piece of ground where, according to tradition, long before Europeans visited this country, stood an Indian temple. This idol is of stone, and is nineteen inches in height, nine inches in width, and seven inches thick at the extremities. On its breast, as represented on the plate of the idol, were five marks, which were evidently characters of some kind, resembling, as supposed, the Persian ; probably expressing, in the language of its authors, the name and supposed attributes of the senseless god of stone. See the Plate, letter &r. c It has been supposed the present race of Indians found their way from Asia, by the way of Bhering's Straits, and had passed from thence along down the chain of northern lakes, till they finally came to the Atlantic, south of Hudson's Bay, in latitude about 50 degrees north ; long before the people who made the great works of the west. That this was the fact, is argued by those who con- tend for its belief, from their having greater knowledge of the arts diffused among them than the Indians. It is, say they, among a dense population, that these improve- ments are effected ; it is here that necessity, the mother of inven- tion, prompts man to subject such animals to his dominion, as he 220 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES discovers most docile, and best calculated to assist him in M& labors, and to supply him with food and raiment. All this we believe ; and for this very reason we hold the authors of our west- ern works were thus enlightened, before they came here, on the plains of Shinar, amid the density of the population of the region immediately round about the tower of Babel. For it is evident, they never, would have undertaken to build a work so immense as that tower, unless their numbers were considered equal to it \ and much less, unless this was the fact, could they have in reality effected it. While the thousands and tens of thousands, who are employed in that w 7 ork, were thus engaged, there must also, for their sup- port, have been a large country, densely peopled, under contribu- tion. In order to this, agriculture must have been resorted to ; in- struments of metal were indispensible, both in clearing the earth and in erecting the tower. All this was learned from Noah, who had brought, with himself and family, the knowledge of the ante- diluvians ; of whom it is said expressly, in the book of Genesis,. that they both understood the use of iron and brass, as well as agri- culture. Abel w r as a tiller of the ground ; Tubal Cain was a work- er in iron and brass. It cannot, therefore, be possible that Noah's immediate descend- ants, to the third or tenth generations, could have forgotten these things. And such as wandered least after the dispersion, after such as may have spoken the same language, had found a place to settle in, would most certainly retain this antediluvian information more than such as wandered, as the Tartars always have done. One of the arts known to the builders of Babel, was that of brick making ; this art was also known to the people who built the works in the west. The knowledge of copper was known to the people of the plains of Shinar, for Noah must have communicated it, as he lived an hundred and fifty years among them after the flood ; also copper, was known to the antediluvians. Copper was also known to the authors of the western monuments. Iron was known to the antediluvians ; it was also known to the ancients of the west ; however, it is evident that very little iron was among them, as very few instances of its discovery in their works have occurred ; and for this very reason we draw a conclusion that they came to this country very soon after the dispersion, and brought with them AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 221 such few articles of iron as have beed found in their works in an oxydized state. Copper ore is very abundant, in many places of the west ; and therefore, as they had a knowledge of it, when they first came here they, knew how to work it, and form it into tools and orna- ments. This is the reason why so many articles of this metal are found in their works ; and even if they had a knowledge of iron ore, and knew how to work it, all articles made of it must have become oxydized as appears from what few speimens have been found, while those of copper are more imperishable. Gold orna- ments are said to have been found in several tumuli. Silver, very well plated on copper, has been found in several mounds, besides those at Circleville and Marietta. An ornament of copper was found in a stone mound near Chilicothe ; it was a bracelet for the ancle or wrist. The ancients of Asia, immediately after the dispersion, were ac- quainted with ornaments made of the various metals ; for in the family of Tera.h, who was the father of Abraham and Nahor, we find these ornaments in use for the beautifying of females. See the servant of Abraham, at the well of Bethuel in the country of " Ur of the Chaldeans," or Mesopotamia, which is not very far from the place where Babel stood — putting a jewel of gold upon the face or forehead of Rebecca, weighing half a shekel, and two bracelets for her wrists, or arms. Bracelets for the same use have been found in the west ; all of which circumstances go to establish the ac- quaintance of those who made those ornaments of silver and cop- per found in the mounds of the west, equal with those of Ur in Chaldea. The families of Peieg, Reu, Serug, and Nahor, who were the immediate progenitors of Abraham, lived at an era but little after the flood ; and yet we find them in the possession of ornaments of this kind ; from which we conclude a knowledge both of the metals, and how to make ornaments, as above describ- ed, was brought by Noah and his family from beyond the flood. A knowledge, therefore, of these things must have gone with the different people who spread themselves over the whole earth, and were retained by those who wandered least, as we suppose was the fact in relation to the first settlers of this continent, in the regions of the west. It is believed by somewhat the common In- dian nations came first to this conntry to the northwest, and foi" 222 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIBI lowing the northern lakes, found their way to the Atlantic ; while at a later period, they suppose, the more enlightened nations of China came the same way, and followed along down the shore of the Pacific, till they found a mild climate, along in latitudes fifty, forty, and thirty degrees. But this is not possible : First, because the Indians were found by us as numerous on the shores of the Pacific, as on the shores of the Atlantic, and in all the vast country between ; dwelling where a people, still more ancient than they, once lived, but had forsaken their fields, their houses, their temples, mounds, forts, and tumuli, «Bd either were nearly exterminated in wars with them, or wander- ed to the south ; the small residue, the descendants of whom are found in several of the nations inhabiting South America, as we have shown heretofore. Second ; it would seem impossible for the people, or nations, who built the vast works of the west, and are evidently of the shepherd or agricultural cast, to have crossed the Strait, and fought their way through hostile, opposing and warlike nations, till they had established themselves in their very midst. It is, therefore, much more agreeable to reason, and also to the traditions, both of the Azteca nations in Mexico and the Wyandot tribes in the west, to believe that our Indians came on the continent at a much later period than those who are the authors of the works we have de- scribed, and that they had many wars with them, till, at length, they slowly moved to the south, abandoning forever their country, to wander, they knew not whither, as we have also shown. This conclusion is not mere fancy, for it' is a matter of historic notice, that the " Tchautskis annually crossed Bhering's Straits to make war on the inhabitants of the northwest coast of America." — Hum- boldt, vol I, p. 199. The reader will recollect our description of the walled towns of the west, surrounded with deep ditches ; as found on Paint Creek, Little Miami, Circleville, Marietta, Cincinnatti, Portsmouth, and in Perry county, Ohio. There, is an town, (see Morse's Geogra- phy, vol. 2, p. 631,) situated in the regions of Mount Ararat, in the ancient country called Independent Tartary, by the name of Khiva, which stands on a rising ground, like the town in Perry county. It is surrounded with a high wall of earth, very thick, and much higher than the houses within. It has three gateways ; AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 223 there are turrets at small distances, and a broad deep ditch ; the town is large, and occupies a considerable space, and commands a beautiful prospect of the distant plains, which the industry of the inhabitants has rendered very fertile ; but the houses of this town are very low, and mostly built of clay, and the roofs flat, and cov- ered with earth. This town, which so exactly corresponds with the ruins of the west, is in that part of Asia, east of Ararat where the primitive inhabitants, immediately after the deluge, made the first settlements. And from this coincidence, we are led to a belief, drawn from this and abundant other evidence, that the antiquity of the one is equal with that of the other ; that its construction is in- deed of the primitive form ; which strengthens our opinion, that the first inhabitants of America, came here with the very ideas relative to the construction and security of towns and fortifications, that dictated the building of Khiva, It is allowed on all hands, that the people of Asia are wholly of the primitive stamp ; their antiquities, therefore, are of the same character with those of America. " Proofs of primitive times," says Mr. Atwater, " are seen in their manners and customs, in their modes of burial and worship, and in their wells, which resemble those of the patriarchal ages. Here the reader has only to recollect the one at Marietta, those at Portsmouth, on Paint Creek, at Cincinnati, and compare them with those described in Genesis. Jacob rolled the stone from the well's mouth," that is, from the fountain at the bottom. " Rachel de- scended with her pitcher, and brought up water for her future hus- band, and for the flocks of her father." Before men were acquainted with letters, they raised monuments of unwrought fragments of rocks, for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of events. Such we find raised in America. In the patriarchal ages, men were in the habit of burying their dead on high mountains and hills, with mounds or tumuli raised over them ; such we find in America." Mr. Atwater asks the question, « did they not come here as early as the days of Lot and Abraham ?" The latter of whom lived, something more than two thousand years before Christ, which would be only about three hundred and forty years after the flood, and about one hundred and fifty years after the confusion of language at Babel. If so, they were acquainted more or less with a knowledge of %%4 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES the true God, the creation of the world, with the circumstances of the building of the ark, the fact of the deluge, the number of per- sons saved in the ark, or, as they say, on a raft ; and also, with circumstances which transpired after the flood, as mentioned in Scripture ; all of which are plainly alluded to in Mexican tra- dition. But other nations than the progenitors of the Mexicans, have also found this country, at other eras, one after another, as accident or design may have determined. Fortification. — On the shores of the Mississippi, some miles be- low Lake Pepin, on a fine plain, exists an artificial elevation of about four feet high, extending a full mile, in somewhat of a cir- cular form. It is sufficiently capacious to have covered 5000 men. Every angle of the breast work is yet traceable, though much de- faced by time. Here, it is likely, conflicting realms as great as those of the ancient Greeks and Persians, decided the fate of am- bitious Monarchs, of the Chinese, Mongol descent. Weapons of brass have been found in many parts of America, as in the Canadas, Florida, &c, with curiously sculptured stones, all of which go to prove that this country was once peopled with civilized, industrious nations, — now traversed the greater part by savage hunters. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY THE NORWEGIANS AND WELCH BEFORE THE TIME OF COLUMBUS. This is contended by Lord Monboddo, a native of Scotland, and a philosophical and metaphysical writer of the 17th century. He wrote a dissertation on the origin and progress of language, in which he is sure he has found among the nations of America, who are of the aboriginal class, the ancient Celtic or Gaelic dialect. He goes further, and supposes that all the nations of America, from the La- brador Esquimaux, to the natives of Florida, are derived of Celtic origin : but to this we cannot subscribe, as that many nations of the common Indians are evidently of Tartaric or Scythian origin ; AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 325 the descendants of the race of Shem, and not of Japheth, who was a white man. Monboddo, however, argues in support of his opinion, from a number of curious circumstances. He says that when in France, he was acquainted with a French Jesuit, a man of great and cele- brated erudition, who related to him that a companion of his, who was engaged in the missionary service, with himself, among the northern Indians in America, having lost his way in the woods, travelled on, he knew not whither, till he found himself among the Esquimaux Indians. Here he staid long enough to learn their language ; after which he returned to Quebec, in Canada ; and happening one day to be walking along the docks of that city, observed among the crew of a ship that was moored there, a sailor who was a native of the country at the foot of the Pyrenian mountain, on the side of France. On hearing this man speak, who was a Basque, from his know- ledge of the Esquimaux, obtained as above related, he understood what he said, so that they conversed together a while. Now, the language which the Basques speak, Lord Monboddo informs us, is absolutely a dialect of the ancient Celtic, and differs but little from the language of the ancient Highlanders of Scotland. This opinion is corroborated by a fact, noticed in a Scotch publi- cation, respecting an Esquimaux Indian, who acompanied one of the English expeditions towards the north pole, with a view to reach it, if possible, or to find a passage from the North Atlantic through to the North Pacific, by the way of Bhering's Strait ; but did not succeed on account of the ice. On board of this vessel was a Scotch Highlander, a native of the island of Mull, one of the Hebrides ; who, in a few days time, was enabled to converse fluently with the Esquimaux ; which would seem to be a proof absolute, of the common origin, both of the Es- quimaux language, and that of the Basque, which is the ancient Scotch or Celtic. Also the same author states, that the Celtic language was spoken by many of the tribes of Florida, which is situated at the north end of the Gulf of Mexico ; and that he was well acquainted with a gentleman, from the Highlands of Scotland, who was several years in Florida, in a public character, and who stated that many of the tribes with whom he had become acquainted, had the great- 29 226 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES est affinity with the Celtic in their language ; which appeared par- ticularly, both in the form of speech, and manner of reciprocating the common salutation, of " how do you do." But what is still more remarkable, in their war song he disco- vered, not only the sentiments, but several lines, the very same words as used in Ossian's celebrated majestic poem of the wars of his ancestors, who flourished about thirteen hundred years ago. The Indian names of several of the streams, brooks, mountains and rocks of Florida, are also the same which are given to similar ob- jects, in the highlands of Scotland. This celebrated metaphysician was a firm believer in the an- ciently reported account of America's having been visited by a co- lony from Wales, long previous to the discovery of Columbus ; and says the fact is recorded by several Welch historians, which can- not be contested. It is reported by travellers in the west, that on the Red River, which has its origin north of Spanish Texas, but empties into the Mississippi, running through Louisiana ; that on this river, very far to the southwest, a tribe of Indians has been found, whose manners, in several respects, resemble the Welch, especially in their marriage and funeral ceremonies. They call themselves the McCedus tribe, which having the Mc or Mack at- tached to their name, points evidently to a European origin, of the Celtic description. It is further reported by travellers, that north- west from the head waters of the Red River, which would be in the region called the great American desert, Indians have come down to the white settlements, some thirty or forty years since, who spoke the Welch language quite intelligibly. These Indians, bearing such strong evidence of Welch extraction, may possibly be descended from the lost colony from Wales, an account of which is given in PowePs History of Wales, in the 12th century ; which relates that Prince Madoc, weary of contending with a brother.for their father's crown, left his country, and sailed from Wales a due west course, which, if they came to land at all must have been Newfoundland, which lies opposite the mouth of the river St. Lawrence, exactly in latitude 50 degrees north, and which is con- tiguous to this continent. But the account relates that he disco- vered an unknown country ; that he returned to Wales, and gave such a favorable history of his discoveries and of the goodness of the land, that many were induced to embark with him on his AND DISCOVERIES' IN THE WEST. 227 Second voyage, which he accomplished. He returned again to Wales, but after a while sailed a third time to the newly disco- vered country, but has never since been heard of. The same account as above, is here again related, but with other Circumstances attending. u In the year 1170," 663 years ago, which was as before stated, in the 12th century, " Madoc, son of Owen Groyriwedk, Prince of Wales, dissatisfied with the situation of affairs at home, left his country, as related by the Welch his* torian, in quest of some new place to settle. And leaving Ireland to the north, proceeded west, till he discovered a fertile country ; where leaving a colony, he returned, and persuading many of his countrymen to join him, put to sea with ten ships, and was never more heard of." We are not in the belief that all the tribes of the west, who have the name of Indian, are indeed such. There are many tribes which have been discovered in the western regions, as on the Red River, in the great American desert, west of the head waters of that river, and in wilds west of the Rocky Mountains ; who are evidently not of the Tartar stock, whose complexion, language, and heavy bearded faces, show them to be of other descent. The Indians who were living on the river Taunton, in Massa- chusetts, when the whites first settled there, had a tradition that certain strangers once sailed up Asoonset, or Taunton River, in wooden houses, and conquered the red men. This tradition does not go to lessen the probability of the expedition of the Welch fleet, as above related, but greatly to strengthen it. This account of the Welch expedition, has several times drawn the attention of the world ; but as no vestige of them has been found, it was concluded, perhaps too rashly, to be a fable ; or at least, that no remains of the colony exist. Of late years, however, western settlers have received frequent accounts of a nation inhabit- ing at a great distance up the Missouri, in manners and appearance resembling the other Indians, by speaking Welch, and retaining some ceremonies of the Christian Worship ; and, at length, says imlay, in his work, entitled Imlay's America, this is universally believed to be a fact, Near the falls of Ohio, six brass ornaments, such as soldiers usu- ally wear in front of their belts, was dug up, attached to six skele- tons. They were cast metal, and on one of them which was 228 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES brought to Cincinnati, was represented a mermaid^ playing upon- & harp, which was the ancient coat of arms for the principality of Wales. The tradition from the oldest Indians, is that it was at the falls of the Ohio, that the first white people were cut off by the natives. It is well authenticated that upwards of thirty years ago, Indians came to Kaskaskia, in the territory, now the State of Illinois, who spoke the Welch dialect, and were perfectly understood by two Welchmen then there, who conversed with them. From informa- tion to be relied on, tomb stones, and other monuments of the ex- istence of such a people, have been found, with the year engraved, corresponding very near to that given above, being in the twelfth century. But long before this lost colony left Wales, Lord Monboddo says, America was visited by some Norwegians, from Greenland, who, it was well known, were the discoverers of Greenland, in A. D. 964, and on that very account, it might be safely supposed they would push their discoveries still farther west. Accordingly, his lordship says, the Norwegians having made a settlement in Greenland, in the end of the tenth century, some ad- venturers from thence about that time, which would be more than eight hundred years ago, discovered, or rather visited, North Amer- ica ; for this writer supposes the continent to have been known to the people of the old w T orld, as early as the time of the seige of Troy ; which was about eleven hundred years before Christ ; about the time of Solomon, or rather, an hundred years before the time of that king, nearly 3000 since. This is a point at which the publication of this book aims, viz : to establish that this part of the earth was settled as soon after the flood as any other country as far from Ararat, and perhaps sooner. Lord Monboddo says, these Greenland Norwegian adventurers made a settlement about the mouth of the River St. Lawrence - 7 where having found wild grapes, a German among them named the country Vinland, as is related in the history of this discovery. Mr. Irving, in his late life of Columbus, says, that as the Norwe- gians have never seen the grape vine, did not know what it was, but there being a German with them, who was acquainted with the grape of his own native country, told them its name, from which they named it as above. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 220 This account is recorded in the Annals of Iceland ; which was peopled from Norway, which is in the north of Europe ; and from Iceland the colony came that settled in Greenland, from thence \o the mouth of the River St. Lawrence, about the year 1000 A. D- If such was the fact, there is nothing more natural, than that they may have pursued up that river, even to the lakes, and have set- tled around them, and on the islands in the St. Lawrence. There is an island in that river, called Chimney Island, so named, on account of the discovery of ancient cellars and fire places, evi- dently more ancient than the first acquaintance of the French w T ith that country, which we suppose to have been made by these Norwegians. This Scottish author, in his admired work on the origin and pro- gress of language, as well as in other works of his, relates a vast number of curious and interesting circumstances, which relate to our subject ; one of the most remarkable, is an account of an In- dian mummy, discovered in Florida, wrapped up in a cloth manu- factured from the bark of trees, and adorned with hieroglyphical characters, precisely the same, with characters engraved on a metal plate, found in an ancient burying ground, in one of the Hebride islands, north of Scotland. This country, (Scotland) boasts of the most ancient line of kings that have reigned in Europe,-having settled in Scotland, more than three hundred years before the Christian era, in the time of Alex- ander the Great. They are of Cimbrick Chersonese origin, who are derived probably, from some wandering tribe, descended from Japheth, the white son of Noah, whose independence, the Greeks nor Romans w r ere never able, in their wide-spread conquests, to wrest from them ; this was reserved for the English to accomplish, which was done in 1603. These islands, therefore, north and west of Scotland, became peopled by their descendants at an early day. Their hardiness of constitution, perseverance of character, and adventuring disposition, favors, in the strongest sense, the accounts as recorded in their na- tional documents. And a reason why those documents have not come to light sooner, is, because they were penned some hundred years before the invention of printing ; and laid up in the cabinet of some Norwegian chief, at a time when but few could read at all, and the means of information did not exist, to be compared with £30 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES the facilities of the present time : therefore, it has been reserved to this late era, to unravel, in any degree, the mysteries of antiquity* In the work entitled " Irving's Life of Colombus," is an account of the discovery of this continent, by those northern islanders, given in a more circumstantial and detailed manner. See his Appendix to the 3d vol. p. 292, as follows : " The most plausible," or credible "account" respecting those discoveries," is given by Snoro Sturleson, or Sturloins, in his Saga, or Chronicle of king Olaus. According to this writer, one Biron, of Iceland, voyaging to Greenland in search of his father, from whom he had been separated by a storm, was driven by tempestu- ous weather, far to the south-west, until he came in sight of a low country, covered with woods, with an island in its vicinity. The weather becoming favorable he turned to the north-east without landing, and arrived safe at Greenland. His account of the coun- try he had seen, it is said, excited the enterprise of Lief, son of Eric Rauda, (or red head) the first settler of Greenland. A ves- sel was fitted out, and Lief and Biron departed together in quest of this unknown land. They found a rocky and sterile island, to which they gave the name of Helleland ; also a low, sandy coun- try, covered with wood, to which they gave the name of Markland ; and two days afterwards, they observed a continuance of the coast, with an island to the north of it. This last they described as fer- tile, well wooded, producing agreeable fruits, and particularly grapes ; a fruit with which they were not acquainted; but on be- ing informed by one of their companions, a German, of its qualities and name, they called the country from it, Vinland. They ascended a river well stored with fish, particularly salmon, and came to a Lake from which the river took its origin, where they passed the winter. It is very probable this river was the St. Lawrence, as it abound- ed with Salmon, and was the outlet of a Lake, which, it is likely, was Ontario ; there is no other River capable of being navigated, very far from its mouth, with a sea vessel, and which comes from a Lake, and empties into the sea, on that side of the coast, but the St. Lawrence. The climate appeared to them mild and pleasant, in comparison, being accustomed to the more rigorous seasons of the north ; on the shortest day in the winter the sun was but eight hours above the AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 231 horizon ; hence it has been concluded, that the country was about the 49th degree of north latitude, and was either Newfoundland, or, some part of the coast of North America, about the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is said in those Chronicles of Sturloins, that the re- latives of Lief made several voyages to Vinland ; that they traded with the natives for peltry and furs ; and that in 1121, 922 years ago, a bishop, named Erie, went from Greenland to Vinland, to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. A knowledge of Christianity among the savage Briton, Caledo- nians and the Welch, was introduced, as is supposed, by St. Paul, or some of his disciples, as early as the year of our Lord 63, more than seventeen hundred years since. " From this time, about 1121, we know nothing of Vinland, says Forester, in his book of northern voyages, 3d vol. 2d chap., page 36, as quoted by Irving. There is every appearance that the tribe, which still exists in the interior of Newfoundland, and who are so different from the other savages of North America both in their ap- pearance and mode of living, and always in a state of warfare with the Indians of the northern coast, are descendants of the ancient Normans, Scandinavians, or Danes." In the chronicles of these northern nations, there is also and ac- count of the voyage of four boat crews, in the year 1354, which corroborates the foregoing relations. This little squadron of fishing boats, u being overtaken by a mighty tempest, were driven about the sea for many days, until a boat, containing seven persons, was cast upon an island, called Estotiland, about one thousand miles from Friesland. They were taken by the inhabitants and carried to a fair and populous city, where the king sent for many interpre- ters, to converse with them, but none that they could understand, until a man was found who likewise had been cast upon that coast some time before. They remained several days upon the island, which was rich and fruitful. The inhabitants were intelligent and acquainted with the mechanical arts of Europe : they cultivated grain, made beer, and lived in houses built of stone. There were Latin books in the king's library, though the inhabi- tants had no knowledge of that language ; and in manuscript, as the art of printing was not yet discovered. They had many towns and castles, and carried on a trade with Greenland, for pitch, sul- phur and peltry. Though much given to navigation, they were 232 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES ignorant of the use of the compass, and finding the Frieslanders acquainted with it, held them in great esteem ; and the king sent them, with twelve barks, to visit a country to the south, called Drogeo. Drogeo is, most likely, a Norman name; as we find JJrogo was a leader of the Normans against the ancient baronies of Italy, about the year of our Lord 787. Drogeo is supposed to have been the continent of America. This voyage of the fishing squa- dron, it appears, was in 1354, more than fifty years after the disco- very of the magnetic needle, which was in 1300. " They had nearly perished in this storm, but were east away upon the coast of Drogeo. They found the people cannibals and were on the point of being killed and devoured, (these were our Indians,) but were spared on account of their great skill in fishing. Drogeo they found to be a country of vast extent, or rather a new world; that the inhabitants were naked and barbarous; but that far to the southwest there was a more civilized region and tempe- rate climate, where the inhabitants had a knowledge of gold and silver, lived in cities, erected splendid temples to idols, and sacri- ficed human victims to them." This is a true picture of the Mex- icans, as found by Cortez, the Spanish conqueror of Mexico. " After the fisherman," who relates this account, " had resided many years on the continent of Drogeo, during which time he had passed from the service of one-chieftian to another, and traversed various parts of it, certain boats of Estotiland, (now supposed to be Newfoundland,) arrived on the coast of Drogeo. The fisherman got on board of them, and acted as interpreter, and followed the trade between the main land of Drogeo and the island Estotiland, for some time, until he became very rich ; then he fitted out a bark of his own, and with the assistance of some of the people of the islaud, made his way back across the intervening distance between Drogeo and his native country, Friesland, in Germany. The account he gave of this country, determined Zichjnni, the prince of Friesland, to send an expidition thither ; ana Antonio Zeno, a Venitian, was to command it. Just before starting, the fisherman, who was to have acted as pilot, died ; but cerj^in mar- iners who accompanied him from Estotiland, were taken in his place. The expedition sailed under command of Zichmni ; the Venitian Zeno merely accompanied it. It was unsuccessful. After having discovered an island, called Icaria, where they met with a AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 333 rough reception from the inhabitants, and were obliged to withdraw, the ships were driven by storm to Greenland. No record remains of any farther prosecution of the enterprise. The countries mentioned in the account written by this Zeno, were laid down on a map originally on wood. The island Estotiland, has been supposed by M. Malte-Brun, to be Newfoundland ; its partially civilized inhabitants, the descendants of the Scandinavian colonists of Vinland, and the Latin books in manuscript, found in the king's library, to have belonged to the remains of the library of the Greenland bishop, who emigrated thither in 1121, 922 years ago. Drogeo, according to the same conjecture, was Nova Scotia and New-England ; the civilized people to the southwest, who sacri- ficed human beings in rich temples, he supposes to have been the Mexicans, or some ancient nations of Florida or Louisiana. A distinguished writer of Copenhagen, it is said, was not long since, engaged in the composition of a work on the early voyages of discovery to this continent, as undertaken by the inhabitants of the north of Europe, more than eight hundred and thirty years ago. He has in his hands, genuine ancient documents, the examination of which leads to curious and surprising results. They furnish va- rious and unquestionable evidence, not only that the coast of North America was discovered soon after the discovery of Greenland by northern explorers, a part of whom remained there ; and that it was again visited in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but also that Christianity was introduced among the Indians of America. The documents of this writer furnish even a map, cut in wood, of the northern coast of America, and also an account cf the sea coast south as far down as to the Carolinas, and that a prin- cipal station of these adventurers was at the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. ' He says it was in the year 985, that America was first discover- ed by Baiske Her Juefser, but that he did not land ; and that in the year 1000, the coast was visited by a man named Lief, a son of Eric the Red, who colonised Greenland. — Cabinet of Lit. vol. 3. From the discoveries of Baron Humboldt, in South America, it would appear that the continent of America has indeed been not only visited by the northern nations of Europe, at a very early day, but also to have settled on it, and to have became the head of tribes* 30 234 AMERICAN A*NTIQUITIE» nations and kingdoms, as follows : In the kingdom of Guatimala, South America, the descendants of the original inhabitants pre- serve traditions which go back to the epoch of a great deluge, after which their ancestors, led by a chief called Votan, had come from a country lying toward the north. As late as in the sixteenth cen- tury, in a village in Guatimala, there were of the natives who boasted their descent from the family of Votan, or Vodan. " They who have studied the history of Scandinavian (old Norway) na- tions, says Humboldt*, in the heroic times, must be struck at find- ing in Mexico a name which recalls that of Vodan or Odin, who reigned among the Scythians, and whose race, according to the very remarkable assertion of Bede, (an ecclesiastical historian of the 17th century,) gave kings to a great number of nations." This wonderfully corroborates the opinion of America's having been settled in several parts by Europeans, at a period more ancient than even the history of Europe can boast. The Shawanese tribe of Indians, who now live in Ohio, once lived on the Suaney river, in West Florida, near the shores of the southwest end of the gulf of Mexico ; among these Indians, says Mr. Atvvater, there is a tradition that Florida had once been inha- bited by white people, who had the use of iron tools. Their oldest Indians say, when children, they had often heard it spoken of by the old people of the tribe, that anciently stumps of trees, covered with earth, were frequently found, which had been cut down by edged tools. — Am. Ant. Re. p. £73. Whoever they were, or from whatever country they may have originated, the account, as given by Morse, the geographer, of the subterranean wall found in North Carolina, goes very far to show, they had a knowledge of iron ore; and consequently knew how to work it, or they could not have had iron tools, as the Shawanese Indians relate. Morse's account is as follows : " In Rowan country, North Caro- lina, about ten miles southwest from Salsbury, two hundred from the sea, and seventy from the mountains which run across the wes- tern end of the State, is found a remarkable subterraneous wall. It stands on uneven ground, near a small brook. The stones of the wall are all of one kind, and contain iron ore. They are of various sizes, but generally weighing about four pounds. All are of a long figure, commonly seven inches in length, sometimes twelve. The ends of the stones form the sides of the wall ; some of these ends AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. ^235 are square, others nearly of the form of a parallelogram, triangle, rhombus or rhomboids : but most of them are irregular. Some preserve their dimensions through the whole length, others ter- minate like a wedge. The alternate position of great and little ends, aids in keeping the work square. The surface of some is plain, of some concave, of others convex. The concave stone is furnished with one convex, so as to suit each other. Where the stones are not firm, or shelly, they are curiously wedged in with others. The most irregular are thrown into the middle of the wall. Every stone is covered with cement, which, next to the stone, has trie appearance of iron rust. Where it is thin, the rust has pene- trated through. Sometimes the cement is an inch thick, and where wet, has the fine, soft, oily feeling of putty. The thickness of the wall is uniformly twenty-two inches, the length discovered is rising of eighteen rods, and the height twelve or fourteen feet. Both sides of this are plastered with the substance in which the stones are laid. The top of the wall appears to run nearly parallel with the top of the ground, being generally about a foot below the surface. In one place it is several feet. There is a bend or curve of six feet or more, after which it proceeds in its former direction. The whole appears to be formed in the most skilful manner. Six or eight miles from this wall another has been since discovered, forty feet long, four and five feet high, seven inches thick only. The stones of this wall are all of one length."— Universal Geo. p. 515. In the State of Tennessee, which is situated exactly on the west- ern end of North Carolina, are also found the " vestiges and re- mains of ancient dwellings, towns and fortifications, with mounds, barrows, utensils, and images, wherever the soil is of prime quality and convenient to water." The bodies of two of these people were discovered in the autumn of 1810, in Warren county, in the state of Tennessee ; one of a man, the other of a child, to appearance about four years old. They were four feet below the surface, in a situation perfectly dry ; there being a mixture of copperas, alum, sulphur, and nitre, in the soil that covered them. Their skin was preserved, though its ori- ginal complexion could not be ascertained ; but the hair of their heads was of an auburn shade. The child was deposited in a basket, well wrought of smooth splits of reeds, (arundo gigauticu,) and several singular species of cloth, as well as deer skins, dressed 236 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES and undressed, were wrapped round and deposited with them, and two feather fans, and a curious belt. — Morse. From the discovery of those two bodies, we think we 'ascertain the inhabitants to have been white, like the Europeans, from the color of their hair ; as it is well known the Australasians, Polyne- sians and Malays, as well 'as the common Indians, have univer- sally black, long and shining hair. The body which is mentioned by Professor Mitchell, late of New York, discovered in a nitrous cave, in the western country, had red or sandy hair ; such was the color of the hair of the Scandinavians of the north of Europe, and are supposed, upon authority indubitable, to have settled at Onon- daga, and round about that region. See toward the close of this work. The wall discovered in North Carolina, as related above, is doubt- less a part of a wall built for the defence of a town or city ; the rest may have been thrown down by an enemy, or it may have been never finished. The regular manner in which it was built and laid in mortar, shows a considerable knowledge of masonry. This is by no means very extraordinary, as in Europe a considerable knowledge of the arts was in possession of the people of that coun- try, derived from the Romans, who had subdued all the island of England, and abandoned the country, some hundred years before the time of the Welch expedition to the west of Europe, as we shall relate by and by. What traits of iron instruments are found scattered over this country, except such as have been buried or lost in conflicts and battles with the Indians, since the discovery of the country by Columbus, is to be attributed to these Scandinavian and Welch settlers from the old country ; the latter about the ninth or tenth century, and the former long before. If the Welch, as we shall show, a few pages hence, found this country about the year 950, there was time enough for them to have established themselves in many parts, and to have built them- selves towns and cultivated the earth to a great extent ; as from about 950, till its discovery by Columbus, in 1492, would be not far from 542 years ; a longer time than has elapsed since its last discovery ; and also time enough for their deserted works to be- come covered with forests, of the age of four and five hundred years. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 237 According to Morse, the ancestors of the Welch were the Cim- bri, or northern Celts, but he says, the Goths from Asia having seized on Germany, and a great part of Gaul or France, gradually repelled the Celts, and placed colonies on the island of Britain, three or four centuries before the Christian era ; that the Romans found many tribes of the Belgae, or ancient Germans, when they first invaded that island ; consequently, not only the Welch, but the English also had in part the Goths, or ancient Germans, for their ancestors, and were the people who as well as the Scandina- vians, discovered America, and settled here. From this view, we see the propriety in the tradition, which, in another place of this volume, we have related, as being printed in a Dutch Bible, more than two hundred years ago in Germany, where it is said the Ger- mans discovered America, and became amalgamated with the Inr dians. It may be, that from such causes as these, are found, far to the west several tribes of white Indians, originated from Welch, German and Scandinavian ancestors ; who well might be supposed to have had not only a knowledge of masonry, sufficient to build walls, but of iron also ; the traits of which are found in many parts, sufficiently marked, by oxydization, to throw the time of their for- mation beyond the last discovery of America. On the River Gasconade, which empties into the Missouri, on the southern side, are found the traces of ancient works, similar to those in North Carolina. In the saltpetre caves of that region, and Gasconade county in particular, was discovered, when they were first visited, axes and hammers made of iron ; which led to the be- lief that they had formerly worked those caves for the sake of the nitre. Dr. Beck, from whose Gazetteer of Missouri and Illinois, page 234, we have this account, remarks, however, " it is difficult to decide whether these tools were left there by the present race of Indians, or a more civilized race of people." He says it is unusu- al for the savages of our day, to take up their residence in caves ; considering t.hem, the places to which the devil resorts;, and. that they are not acquainted with the uses of saltpetre, and would rath- er avoid than collect it. This author considers the circumstance of finding those tools in the nitre caves, as furnishing a degree of evidence that the country of Gasconade River. was formerly settled by a race of men who were acquainted with the use of iron; and exceeded the Indians in civilzation, and a knowledge of the. arts. 23$ AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES "But there are other facts," says he, "connected with these, about which there can be no mistake. Not far from this cave, is found the ruins of an aneient town. It appears to have been regu- larly laid out, and the dimensions of the squares, streets, and some of the houses, can yet be discovered. Stone walls are found in different parts of the area, which are frequently covered with huge heaps of earth. Missouri joins Ten- nessee on the west, the same as the latter does North Carolina ; and from a similarity of the works discovered, it would appear, that a population, similar in manners and pursuits, inhabited a vast region of country, from the Atlantic side of North Carolina, to the Missouri Territory. These discoveries rank with the architectural works of Europe, in the 9th and 10th centuries ; as that long before that period, the use of stone work had been introduced, even in the island of Bri- tain, by the all-conquering bands of the Romans. If, therefore, the Germans, Danes, Welch, Normans, Icelanders, Greenlanders, or Scandinavians, settled in this country, who are all of much the same origin, there need be no great mystery re- specting these discoveries, as they are to be referred to those na- tions from Europe, beyond all doubt. The ancient monuments of a country, says Dr. Morse, are intimately connected with the epochs of its history ; consequently, as the state of masonry, or the knowl- edge of stone work, discovered, as above described, in North- Caro- lina, Tennessee, and Missouri, is of the same character with those of Europe, about the time of the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th cen- turies, we conclude them to be wholly of European origin. About ten miles from the spot where the relics of this town are discovered, on the west side of the Gasconade River, is also found another stone work, still more extraordinary, as it is evident that its builders had indeed, a competent knowledge of constructing buildings of that material. It is about thirty feet square, and al- though in a dilapidated condition appears to have been erected with a great degree of regularity. It is situated on a high bold cliff, which commands a fine and extensive view of the country on all sides. From this stone work was found a foot path; running a devious Course down the cliff, to the entrance of a cave. These antiquities evidently form a distinct class, says Dr. Beck, of which, as yet, he had seen no description. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 239 Of the same class has been discovered on Noyer Creek, in Mis- souri, the foundation of a large stone building, fifty-six feet in length, and twenty-two in breadth, divided into four apartments. The largest room occupies about one half of the whole building, and is nearly square ; a second in size is twelve feet by sixteen ^ partly oval, third, four by sixteen, a fourth, three by sixteen feet* The outer wall is eighteen inches thick, consisting of rough, un- hewn stone ; the partitions between the rooms is of the same ma- terial, of equal thickness with the outer wall. As an entrance in- to the largest room, are two door ways, the second size, one, and the same of the two others. — See at the bottom of the Frontispiece. About eighty rods from this structure, is also found the remains of the foundation of a stone building, nineteen feet by fifteen, in size, of the same character of architecture. One large oval room, twelve feet by twelve on an average, occupies the centre, with a door way, and at each end of the room, three feet by twelve, with- out any door way. It is probable the largest of these buildings was the palace of the chief, or king, of the tribe, clan, or nation ; where was held the legislative councils, and the affairs of Government were transacted. The second building, placed at the respectful distance of eighty rods, was probably the prison house, and place of execution, which the small narrow cells, without any outside door way, would seem to suggest. „ The prison in which St. Paul was confined at Rome, is exactly of this form and size ; which we consider a remarkable co- incidence, unless it is allowed, this American prison house, as we have supposed it was, had been fashioned after the same manner. We have an account of this prison, in which St. Paul was con- fined, which was built several hundred years before the Christian era, as given by a gentleman now making the tour, of Europe. It is as follows: " All parts of Italy are interesting to the scholar, and many parts to the Christian. Thus, near Naples, at Puteoli, I saw where Paul landed, and I travelled between Naples and Rome on the very same road over which he was led prisoner to Rome ; and if he was incarcerated in this city, (which I see no reason to doubt) he doubtless lived the greater part of the time he was here, in his own hired house. I have been in the same dugeon, and seen the very pillar to which he must have been chained. 240 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES The prison is the Mameitine, the name and history of which, is familiar to every one acquainted with Roman history, as it was, for a long time, the only prison of the Romans. It consists of but two apartments, circular, and about twelve feet diameter, and six feet in height, the one over the other, both under ground. The only entrance to them originally, was through a small hole in the top cf each, through which the prisoner must have been let down with ropes, passing through the upper to reach the lower prison. These dungeons were large enough for the Romans, as the trial soon fol- lowed the imprisonment of an offender, who, if- found innocent, was at once liberated, but if guilty, immediately executed." — Jour- nal and Telegraph, vol. IV., No. 191.— 1832. From the Romans the German or Belgic tribes may have derived their first ideas of stone work, as from the Germans the Danes de- rived the same. The style and manner of this building, as it now appears, in its ruined state, agrees well with the buildings of the ancient Danes of the north of Europe, in the 10th and 11th cen- turies ; which also consisted of unhewn stone, laid up in their natu- ral state, the squarest, and best formed, selected, of course. In these buildings, says Morse, were displayed the first elements of the Gothic style, in which the ancient Belgae or Germans used to erect their castles, in the old world, eight or nine hundred years ago. These works of these distinct kind of antiquities, are nume- rous in the western countries ; the regularity, form and structure of which, says Dr. Beck, favors the conclusion that they were the work of a more civilized race than those who erected the former, or more ancient works of America; and that they were acquaint- ed with the rules of architecture, &c, [of Danish and Belgic origin,] and perhaps with a perfect system of warfare. At present, the walls of this trait of ancient times, are from two to five feet high, the rooms of which are entirely filled with forest trees ;>one of which is an oak, and was, ten years ago, nine feet in circumference. — Beck's Gazetteer, p. 306. AND DIS€OVERIES IN THE WEST. 241 mUINS OF THE CITY OF OTOLUM, DISCOVERED IN AMERICA, OF PERUVIAN ORIGIN. In a letter of C. S. Rafinesque, whom we have before quoted, to a correspondent in Europe, we find the following : £i Some years ago, the Society of Geography in Paris offered a large premium for a voyage to Guatimala, in South America, and for a new survey of the antiquities of Yucatan and Chipapa, chiefly those fifteen miles from Palanque, which are wrongly called by that name." " I have," says this author, " restored to them the true name of Otolum, which is yet the name of the stream running through the ruins. They were surveyed by Captain Del Rio, in 1787 3 an account of which was published in English, in 1822. " This account describes partly the ruins of a stone city, of no less dimensions than seventy-five miles in circuit ; * length thirty- two, and breadth twelve miles, full of palaces, monuments, statutes and inscriptions ; one of the earliest seats of American civilzation, about equal to Thebes of ancient Egypt. " At Boliva, in the same country, is another mass of ancient ruins and mine of historical knowledge, which ho late traveller has visit- ed or described ;" but have been partly described only by the first historians of those countries of South America, the Spaniards; but it is hoped ere long will be by some lover of this great subject. When the Spaniards overran that country, about three hundred years ago, among the Peruvians, whose territory lies on the west- ern side of South America, were found statues, obelisks, mausolea, edifices, fortresses, all of stone, equal,, fully so, with the architec- ture of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, six hundred years before the Christian era. Roads were cut through the Cordillera mountains ; gold, silver, copper, and led mines,, were opened and worked^o a 'great extent; all of which is evidence of their knowledge of 'archi- tecture, mineralogy and agriculture. In many places of that coun- try, are found the ruins of noble aqueducts, some of which, says ♦Through mistake, on page 117, .we have' stated these ruins to be only 24 miles in circuit, which is here corrected; .'..-'■ ' 31 •.'••••••'■•• 242 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Dr. Morse, the geographer, would have been thought works of diffi- culty in civilized nations. Several pillars of stone are now stand- ing, which were erected to point out the equinoxes and solstices. In their sepulchres were deposited and found their paintings, ves- sels of gold and silver, implements of warfare, husbandry, and fishing nets. To illustrate the architecural knowledge of the Peruvians as well as of some other provinces of South America, we quote the following from Baron Humboldt's Researches,, 1st vol. Eng. trans. Amer. edt, p. 255. " This plate," referring to one which is found in one of the volumes of his Researches, in the French language ; " re- presents the plan and inside of the small building which occupies the centre of the esplanade, in the citadel of Cannar, supposed to be a guard house. I sketched this drawing with the greater exact- ness, because the remains of Peruvian architecture, scattered along the ridge of the Cordilleras, from Cuzco to Cajambe, or from the 13th degree of north latitude to the equator, a distance of nearly a thousand miles. What an empire, and what works are these, which all bear the same character, in the cut of the stones, the shape of the doors to their stone buildings, the symmetrical disposal of the niches, and the total absence of the exterior ornaments. This uni- formity of construction is so great that all the stations along the high road, called in that country palaces of the Incas, or kings of the Peruvians, appear to have been copied from each other ; sim- plicity, symmetry, and solidity, were the three characters, by which the Peruvian edifices were distinguished. The citadel of Cannar, and the square buildings surrounding it, are not constructed with the same quartz sandstone, which covers the primitive slate, and the prophyries of Assuay ; and which appears at the surface, in the garden of the Inca, as we descend toward the valley of Gulan, but of trappean prophyry, of great hardness, enclosing nitrous feldspar, and hornblende. This porphyry was perhaps dug in the great quarries which are found at 4000 metres in height, (which is 1,200 feet and a fraction, making two and a third miles in per- pendicular height,) near the lake of Culebrilla, nearly ten miles from Cannar. To cut the stones for the buildings of Cannar, at so great a height, and to bring them down, and transport them ten miles, is equal with any of the works of the ancients, who built the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabia, long before the Christian era, in Naples of Italy* N AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 243 " We do not find, however," says Humboldt, " in the ruins of Cannar, those stones of enormous size, which we see in the Peru- vian edifices of Cuzco and the neighboring countries. Acosto, he says, measured some at Traquanaco^ which were twelve metres (38 feet) long, and five metres eight tenths, (18 feet) broad, and one metre nine tenths (6 feet) thick." The stones made use of in building the temple of Solomon, were but a trifle larger than these, some of which were twenty-five cubits, (43 feet 9 inches) long, twelve cubits (29 feet) wide, and eight cubits, (14 feet thick,) reckoning twenty-one inches to the cubit. And who is prepared to disallow that the ancestors of the Peru- vians in South America, did not derive their knowledge of stone cutting and building, from the Jews, in the days of Solomon, a thousand years before the Christian era, w T hich is so wonderfully imitated in the palaces of the Incas. " One of the temples of ancient Egypt is now, in its state of ruin, a mile and a half in circumference. It has twelve principal entrances. The body of the temple consists of a prodigious hall or portico ; the roof is supported by 134 columns. Four beautiful obelisks markihe entrance to the shrine, a place of sacrifice, which contains three apartments, built entirely of granite. The temple of Luxor, probably surpasses in beauty and splendor all the other ruins of Egypt. In front are two of the finest obelisks in the world ; they are of rose colored marble, one hundred feet high. But the objects which most attract attention, are the sculptures which cover the whole of the northern front. They contain, on a great scale, a representation of a victory gained by one of the an- cient kings of Egypt over an enemy. The number of human figures, cut in the solid stone, amounts tu 1,500 ; of these, 500 are on foot, and 1,000 in chariots. Such are the remains of a city, which perished long before the records of ancient history had a being." — Malte-Brun. We are compelled to ascribe some of the vast operations of the ancient nations of this country, to those ages which correspond with the times and manners of the people of Egypt, which are also be- yond the reach of authentic history. It should be recollected that the fleets of king Hiram navigated the seas in a surprising manner, seeing they had not, as is suppos- ed, (but not proven,) a knowledge of the magnetic needle ; and in 344 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES some voyage out of the Mediterranean, into the Atlantic, they may have been driven to South America ; where having found a coun- try, rich in all the resources of nature, more so than even their na- tive country, founded a kingdom, built cities, cultivated fields, mar- shalled armies, made roads, built aqueducts, became rich, magnifi- cent and powerful, as the vastness and extent of the ruins of Peru, and other provinces of South America, plainly show. Humboldt says, that he saw at Pullal, three houses made of stone, which were built by the Incas, each of which was more than fifty metres, or an hundred and fifty feet long, laid in a cement, ox true mortar. This fact, he says, deserves attention, because trav- ellers who had preceded him, had unanimously overlooked this cir- cumstance, asserting, that the Peruvians were unacquainted with the use of mortar, but is erroneous. The Peruvians not only em- ployed a mortar, in the great edifices of Pacaritambo, but made use of a cement of asphaltum; a mode of construction, which on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, may be traced back to the Temotest antiquity. The tools made use of to cut their stone was copper, hardened with tin, the same the ancients of the old world made use of among the Greeks and Romans, and other nations, of which we have spoken, in another place of this work. To show the genius and enterprise of the natives of Mexico, be- fore America was discovered, we give the following as but a single instance : Montazuma, the last king but one of Mexico, in the year 1446, forty-six years before the discovery of America by Co- lumbus, erected a dyke to prevent the overflowing of the waters of certain small lakes in the vicinity of their city, which had sev- eral times deluged it. This dyke consisted of a bank of stones and clay, supported on each side by a range of palisadoes ; extend- ing in its whole length about seventy miles, and sixty-five feet broad, its whole length sufficiently high to intercept, the overflow- ings of the lakes, in times of high water, occasioned by the spring floods. In Holland, the Dutch have resorted to the same means to prevent incursions of the sea ; and the longest of the many is but forty miles in extent, nearly one half short of the Mexican dyke. " Amidst the extensive plains of Upper Canada, in Florida, near the Gulf of Mexico, aad in the deserts bordered by the Orinoco, in Colombia, South America, dykes of a considerable length, weapons of brass, and sculptured stones^ are found, which are the indica- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 245 tions that those countries were formerly inhabited by industrious nations, which are now traversed only by tribes of savage hunters." Humboldt. Samuel R. Brown, author of the Western Gazetteer, 1817, says, he examined one of those remains of the ancient na- tions, situated upon the mouth of the Big Scioto river on a high bank of the Ohio, a half mile from the water. He has no doubt it was a military position of great strength, and describes it as follows : " The walls are yet standing, and enclosing as nearly as I could ascertain, by pacing fourteen acres of ground. It is of a square form" (like the ancient Roman military works.) " The officious hand of civilized man has not yet marred the wood which shade these venerable ruins; nor has any curious antiquarian multilated the walU by digging in search of hidden treasure. The walls in many places are yet sixteen feet high, and no where less than eight. At their base they are about thirty feet wide, and wide enough at their top to admit a horse team and waggon. There are seven gateways, 3 on the west, 2 on the east, and 2 on the north, all being about 20 feet wide. On the northwest side are the ruins of a covered way, extending to a creek, at the distance of 280 rods. The covering is fallen in, and large trees are yawning in the ditch. On the west side are two covered ways, leading also to the same creek, these are apart from each other about 30 feet, and extend- ing about 40 rods till they reach the stream. These walls are as wide and as high as the walls of the fort. On the east side, are also two covered ways at convenient distances from each other, leading to another small creek. Thus the garrison of this ancient fortification had jive avenues through which they could safely procure water." This could nev- er have been the work of the common Indians. 246 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES GREAT STONE CALENDAR OF THE MEXICANS, BEING A FAC SIMILE FROM THE SAME IN HUMBOLDT'S VOLUME OF R£, SEARCHES, This stone was found near toe site of the present city cf Mexico, buried some feet beneath the soil, of the same character on which wa» engraven an almost infinite number of hieroglyphics, signify- ing the divisions of time, the motions of the heavenly bodies, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, with references to the feasts and sacri- fices of the Mexicans, and is called by Humboldt, the Mexican Calendar, in relief, on basalt. This deservedly celebrated historiographer and antiquarian, has devoted an hundred pages and more of his octavo work, entitled " Researches in America," in describing the similarity which ex- ists between its representations of astrology, astronomy, and the divisions of time, and those of a great multitude of the nations of Asia; Chinese, Japanese, Calmucks, Moghols, Mantchaus, and other Tartar nations ; the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Phce- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 24*t nicians, Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and ancient Celtic nations of Europe. 3ec the American edition, by Helen Maria Williams, 1st Volume. The size of this stone was very great, being a fraction over twelve feet square, three feet in thickness, weighing twenty- four tons. It is of the kind of stone denominated trappean pro- phyry, of the blackish grey color. The place where it was found was more than thirty miles from any quarry of the kind ; from which we discover the ability of the ancient inhabitants, not only to transport stones of great size, as well as the ancient Egyptians, in building their cities and temples of Marble, but also to cut and engrave on stone, equal with the present age. It was discovered in the vale of Mexico, forty-two years ago, in the spot where Cortez ordered it to be buried, when, with his fero- cious Spaniards, that country was devastated. That Spaniard uni- versally broke to pieces all idols of stone, which came ip his way, except such as w T ere too large and strong to be quickly and easily thus effected. Such he buried, among which this sculptured stone was one. This was done to hide them from the sight of the na- tives, whose strong attachment, whenever they saw them, counter- acted their conversion to the Roman Catholic religion. The sculptured work on this stone, is in circles ; the outer one of all, is a trifle over 27 feet in circumference; from which the reader can have a tolerable notion of its size and appearance. The whole stone is intensely crowded with an infinity of representa- tions and hieroglyphics ; arranged however, in order and harmony, every way equal with any astronomical calendar of the present day. It is further described by Baron Humboldt, who saw and examined it on the spot. " The concentric circles, the numerous divisions and subdivisions, engraven in this stone, are traced with mathematical precision ; the more minutely the detail of this sculpture is examined, the greater the taste we find in the repetition of the same forms. In the cen- tre of the stone is sculptured the celebrated sign nahui-olin-Tona- tiuh, the Sun ; which is surrounded by eight triangular radii. The god Tonatiuh or the Sun, is figured on this stone, opening his large mouth, armed with teeth, with the tongue protruded to a great length. This yawning mouth, and protruded tongue, is like the image of Kala, or in another work, Time, a divinity of Hindostan, 34S AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Its dreadful mouth, armed with teeth, is meant to show, that the god, Tonatiuh, or Time, swallows the world, opening a fiery mouth devouring the years, months, and days, as fast as they come into being. The same image we find under the name of Moloch, a- mong the Phoenicians," the ancient inhabitants of a part of Africa, on the southern side of the Mediterranean ; from which very coun- try, there can be but little doubt, America received a portion of its earliest inhabitants ; hence, a knowledge of the arts to great per- fection, as found among the Mexicans, was thus derived. Hum- boldt says, the Mexicans, have evidently followed the Persians, in the division of time, as represented on this stone. The Persians flourished 1500 years before Christ. " The structure of the Mexican aqueducts, leads the imagination at once, to the shores of the Mediterranean." — Thomas'* Travels, p. 293. The size, grandeur, and riches, of the tumuli on the European and Asiatic sides of the Cimmerian Strait," (which unites the Black Sea with the Archipelago, a part of the Mediterranean, the region of ancient Greece, where the capital of Turkey in Eu- rope now stands, called Constantinople,) " excite astonishing ideas of the wealth and power of the people by whom they were con- structed ; and in view of labor so prodigious, as well as expendi- ture so enormous, for the mere purpose of inhuming a single body, customs and superstitions which illustrate the origin of the pyra- mids of Egypt, the cavern of Elephanta, and the first temples of the ancient world." — Thomas'' Travels. But whatever power, wealth, genius, magnitude of tumuli- mounds, and pyramids, are found about the Mediterranean ; where the Egyptian, the Phoenician, Persian, and the Greek, have dis- played the monuments of this most ancient sort of antiquities : all, all is realised in North and South America ; and doubtless under the influence of the same superstition, and eras of time ; having crossed over, as before argued ; and among the various aboriginal nations of South and North America^ but especially the former, are undoubtedly found the descendants of the fierce Medes and Persians, and other warlike nations of the old world. . The discoveries of travellers in that country, show, even at the present time, that the ancient customs, in relation to secuiing their habitations with a wall, still prevails. Towns in the interior of Africa, on the River Niger, of great extent, are found to be sur- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 249 rounded by walls of earth, in the same manner as those of the west in North America. See the account as given by Richard Lardner : " On the 4th of May we entered a town of prodigious extent, fortified with three walls, of little less than twenty miles in circuit, with ditches, or moats between. This town, called Boo-hoo, and is in latitude of about 8 degrees 43 minutes north, and longitude 5 degrees 10 min- utes, east. On the 17th we came to Roossa, which is a cluster of huts walled with earth." This traveller states, that there is a kingdom there called Yaarie, which is large, powerful, and flourishing ; a city which is of pro- digious extent ; the wall surrounding it is of clay or earth, and very high, its circuit, between twenty and thirty miles. He men- tions several other places, enclosed by earth walls in the same manner. It is easy to perceive the resemblance between these walled towns in central Africa, and the remains of similar works in this country, America. GREAT STONE CASTLE OF ICELAND. In Iceland, which is not far from Greenland, and Greenland is not far from the coast of America, has been found the remains of ancient architecture, of no less dimensions than two hundred rods in circumference, built of stone, the wall of which, in some places, as related by Van Troil, was an hundred and twenty feet high ; this was the Norwegian castle, of wonderful strength and magnitude, and of the same character with ruins found in this country, and in South America. Iceland is but an hundred and twenty miles east of Greenland, and Greenland is supposed to be connected with America, far to the north. This island is considerable larger than the state of New York, being four hundred miles in length, and two hundred and seventy in breadth. s It was discovered by a Norwegian pirate, na- med Nardoddr, in the year 861, as he was driven out to sea by an 32 250 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES eastern storm on his way from Norway, which is the northern ]5£ff of Europe, to the Feroe islands. Soon after this, in the year 870, it was colonized from Norway? under the direction of a man named Ingalf, and sixty years after? which would bring it to 930, the whole island was inhabited. But they were without any regular government, being distracted with? the wars of several chiefs, for a long series of years, during which 7 Iceland was a scene of rapine and butchery. It is natural to sup- pose, during such conflicts, many families, from time to time, would leave the island, in quest of some other dwelling. This was in their power to do, as they had a knowledge of navigation, in a good degree, derived from the Romans, at the time they ruled the most of Europe, nine hundred years before. That Greenland, or countries lying west of Iceland, existed; eould but be known to the Icelanders, from the flights of birds of passage, and from driftwood, which, to this day, is driven, in large quantities, from America, by the Gulf Stream r and deposited on? the western coast of that island. — Morse. In this way, it is highly probable, the first Europeans found their way to America, and became the authors of those vast ruins built ©f stone, found in various parts of America. The language of the Icelanders, is, even now, after so long a lapse of ages, much the same with that spoken in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway ; so that they understand the most ancient traditional history of their ances- tors. The characters they made use of were Runic, and were but sixteen in number; but about the year 1000, the Latin, or Roman letters superceded the use of the ancient Runic. Dr. Morse says, the arts and sciences were extensively cultiva- ted in Norway, at the time when Iceland was first settled by them f and while the traces of literature were diminished 3 and at length- destroyed, in Norway, by the troubles which shook the whole north of Europe for several ages ; they were, on the contrary, carefully preserved in Iceland. From this we may safely infer, that America, having received its first European colonies from Iceland ; who had not only a knowledge of architecture, in a degree, but of navigation also, with that of science ; that in the very regions where villas, cities, culti- vated fields, roads, canals, rail-ways, with all the glory of the pres- ent age,, exist along the Atlantic coast,. — also flourished the wo*k& AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 251 «5J: a former population — the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, civ- ilized nations, centuries before Columbus was born, but who have passed away, by the means of wars, with the more ancient nations of America, or with the common enemy of both— the Tartar hordes from Asia, now called the American Indians — leaving forever the labor of ages, which, here and there, are discovered, the relics of their architectural knowledge. An hundred and twenty-one years after the discovery of Iceland, Greenland was discovered also 3 by the Norwegians, who planted a •colony there ; and in a little time after, the country was provided with two Christian churches and bishops; between which and Norway, the mother country, a considerable amount of commerce was carried on, till 1406 ; a lapse of years amounting to about four hundred and eighty-three, before the discovery of America by Co j lumbus ; when all intercourse between the two countries ceased) occasioned probably by the convulsions and wars of Europe at that period. The whole of that population, it is supposed, was lost, as no tra- ces of them are found ; the climate of that region, as is evident, has since undergone a great change, from an accumulation of ice and snow from the northern sea, so as to render the coast, where those settlements were, wholly inaccessible. — Morse. Is it not possible, that as they found the severity of the weather increasing rapidly upon them, they may have removed to the coast of Labrador, and from thence down the coast, till they came to the rigion of the Canadas, where are discovered the traces of ancient nations, in vast lines of fortications, as attested to by the most ap- proved authority r Humboldt and others. A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS. There are the remains of one of those efforts of Scandinavian defence, situated on a hill of singular form, on the great sand plain between the Susquehannah and Chemung rivers, near their junc- tion. The hill is entirely isolated, about three-fourths of a mile in circumference, and more than an hundred feet high. It has been 252 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES supposed to be artificial, and to belong to the ancient nations to which all works of this sort generally belong. However, the in- habitants living round it, do not believe it to be artificial, on ac- count of large stones situated on its sides, too heavy to have been placed there by art of man. In the surrounding plain are many deep holes, of twenty or thir- ty rods circumference, and twenty feet deep ; favoring a belief that from these, the earth was scooped out to form the hill with. It is four acres large on its top, and perfectly level, beautifully situated to overlook the country, to a great distance, up and down both riv- ers. But whether the hill be artificial or not, there are on its top the remains of a wall, formed of earth, stone and wood, which runs round the whole, exactly on the brow. The wood is decayed and turned to mould, yet it is traceable and easily distinguished from the natural earth. Within is a deep ditch or entrenchment, running round the whole summit. From this it is evident, that a war was once waged here ; and were we to conjecture between whom, we should say, between the Indians and Scandinavians ; and that this fortification, so advantageously chosen, is of the same class of defensive works with those about Onondaga, Auburn, and the lakes Ontario, Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida, and Erie. As it is known, or not pretended, that the Scandinavians did not make set- tlements on the continent earlier than 985 ; there cannot be a doubt but they had to fight their way among the Indians, more or less, the same as we did when first we colonized the coast of the At- lantic, along the seabord of the New-England states. But as these Scandinavians, Norwegians, Scotch, and Welch, were fewer in number than the Indians, and without the means of recruiting from the mother country, as was our case ; they at length fell a prey to this enemy, or became amalgamated with them, and so w r ere lost ; the traces of whom appear, now and then, among the tribes, as we have shown. We are strongly inclined to believe the following articles, found in the town of Pompey, Onondaga county, N. Y., are of Scandina- vian origin. In Pompey, on lot No. 14, is the site of an ancient burying ground, upon which, when the country was first settled, was found timber growing apparently of the second growth, judg- ing from the old timber, reduced to mould, lying round, which was an hundred years old, ascertained by counting the concentric grains. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 253 In one of these graves was found a glass bottle about the size of a common junk bottle, having a stopple in its muzzle, and in the bottle was a liquid of some sort, but was tasteless. This fact was related to us by a Mr. Higgins, some time sheriff' of Onondaga county, who both saw the bottle and tasted the liquid at the time it was discovered, but could not tell of what kind, as it was tasteless. But is it possible, that the Scandinavians could have had glass in their possession, at so early a period as the year 950 and there- about, so as to have brought it with them from Europe when their first settlements were made in this country ? We see no good reason why not, as glass had been in use nearly three hundred years in Europe, before the northern Europeans are reputed to have found this country ; the art of making glass having been discovered in the year of our Lord 644. In the same grave with the bottle, was found an iron hatchet, edged with steel. The eye, or place for the helve was round, and extended or projected out, like the ancient Swiss or German axe. On lot No. 9, in the same town, was an- other aboriginal burying ground, covered with forest trees, as the oth- er. In the same town, on lot No. 17, were found the remains of a blacksmith's forge. At this spot have been ploughed up cruci- bles, such as mineralogists use in refining metals. These axes are similar, and correspond in character with those found in the nitrous caves on the Gasconade river, which empties into the Missouri, as mentioned in Professor Beck's Gazetteer of that country. In the same town are the remains of two ancient forts or fortifications, with redoubts, of a very extensive and formi- dable character. Within the range of these works, have been found pieces of cast iron, broken from some vessel of considerable thickness. These articles cannot well be ascribed to the era of the French war, as time enough since then, till the region round about Onondaga was commenced to be cultivated, had not elapsed to give the growth of timber found on the spot, of the age above noticed ; and added to this, it is said, that the Indians, occupying that tract of country, had no tradition of their authors. The reader will recollect, a few pages back, we have noticed the discovery of a place called Estotiland, supposed to be Nova- Scotia, in 1354, the inhabitants of which were Europeans, who cultivated grain, lived in stone houses, and manufactured beer, as in Europe at that day. Now, from the year 1354, till the time of H#4 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES the first settlements made in Onondaga county, by the present in- habitants, is about four hundred years ; is it not possible, therefore, that this glass bottle; with some kind of liquor in it, may have been ■derived from this Estotiland, having been originally brought from Europe ; as glass had been in use, more or less, there from the year 644, till the Scandinavians colonized Iceland, Greenland, and Estotiland, or Newfoundland. The hatchets or iron axes, found here, were likely of the same origin with the pieces of cast iron. In ploughing the earth, digging wells, canals, or excavating for salt waters, about the lakes, new discoveries are frequently made, which as clearly show the operations of ancient civilization here, as the works of the present race would do, were they left to the operations of time for five or six hundred years ; especially were this country to be totally overrun by the whole consolidated savage tribes of the west, exterminating both the worker and his works, as appears to have been done in ages past. In Scipio, on Salmon creek, a Mr. Halsted has, from time to time, during ten years past, ploughed up, on a certain extent of land on his farm, seven or eight hundred pounds of brass, which appeared to have once been formed into various implements, both of husbandry and war ; helmets and working utensils mingle to- gether. The finder of this brass, we are informed, from time to time, as he discovered it by ploughing, carried it to Auburn, and sold it by the pound, where it was worked up with as little curiosity attend- ing it, as though it had been but an ordinary article of the coun- try's produce : when if it had been announced in some public manner, the finder would have, doubtless, been highly rewarded by some scientific individual or society, and preserved it in the ca- binets of the antiquarian, as a relic of by-gone ages, of the highest interest. On this field, where it was found, the forest timber was growing as abundantly, and had attained to as great age and size as else- where in the heavy timbered country of the lakes. In the same field was also found much wrought iron, which fur- nished Mr. Halsted with a sufficiency to shoe his horses for seve- ral years. Hatchets of iron were also found there, formed in the manner the ancient Swiss or German hatchet or small axe is formed. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 255 From the above account, we cannot resist the conclusion that on this farm in Scipio, was situated an European village, of Danes or Welch, who were cut off and exterminated by the fortunes of war ? some hundred years before the discovery of America by Columbus ; when it is likely their town was destroyed by the fire of the enemy, their articles of brass broken in pieces, and in the course of ages- became buried by the earth, by the increase of vegetable mould y and the growth of the wilderness. If, then, we have discovered the traits of a clan or village of Europeans, who had a know ledge of the use of brass and iron, as the Danes certainly had, long before they colonized Iceland, Green- land and Labrador, why not be allowed to conjecture, nay more, to believe, that many others in different parts overspread the lake country to a great extent. On the Black River, running from the northern part of the state of New- York into Lake Ontario, a man was digging a well, when at the depth of several feet, he came to a quantity of China and Delph ware. This is equally surprising with the field of brass. A Mr. Thomas Lee discovered, not long since, on his farm, in Tompkins county, in the state of New- York, the entire iron works of a wagon, reduced to rust. From this discovery much might be conjectured respecting the state of cultivation, as a wagon de- notes not only a knowledge of the mechanic arts, equal, perhaps, in that respect with the present times ; but also that roads existed, or a wagon could not have traversed the country. That the wagon was brought there by the Spaniards, who it is- said, very soon after the discovery of America explored these north- ern and further regions, in quest of minerals, because roads at that time did not exist ; and for the same reason none of the first set- tlers of the New England coast, had penetrated so far in the wilds with a wagon as to give time for it to rust entirely aivay before the late settlement of the western country. If one wagon existed, there were doubtless many; which plain- ly shows a civilized state of things, with all the conveniences of an agricultural life ; which would also require towns and places of re- sort — as market places for produce — or a wagon could not have been of any use to the owner. Anvils of iron have been found in Pom- pey, in the same quarter of the country with the other discoveries, as above related j which we should naturally expect to find, or it 256 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES might be inquired, how could axes, and the iron works of wagons be manufactured ? . On the flats of the Genesee River, on the land of Mr. Liberty Judd, was found by this gentleman, a bit of silver, about the length of a man's finger, hammered to a point at one end, while the other was square and smooth, on which were cut, or engraved, in Arabic figures^ the year of our Lord 600. The discovery of the remains of a wagon, as above stated, goes also to prove that some kind of animal must have been domesti- cated to draw it with — either the horse, the ox, or the buffalo. The horse, it is said, was not known in America till the Spaniards introduced it from Europe after the time of its discovery by Co- lumbus, which has multiplied prodigiously on the innumerable wilds and prairies of both South and North America ; yet the track of a horse is found on a mountain of Tennessee, in the rock of the enchaoted mountain as before related, and shows that horses were known in America in the earliest ages after the flood. It is likely, however, that the Danes, who are believed once to have occupied the whole lake country 3 had domesticated the buffa- lo, as other nations, have done, by which they were aided in agri- cultural pursuits, as we are now by the ox. From what we have related respecting these European appear- ances in America, the traits of a Scandinavian, Welch, and Scotch population, it is clear that the remark of Professor Beck, was not made without sufficient reason ; which is : " They certainly form a class of antiquities entirely distinct from the walled towns, for- tifications, barrows, or mounds." Page 315. A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF WESTERN ANTIQUITIES-. But as to the state of the arts, among the more ancient nations of America, some idea may be gathered from what has been already said. That they manufactured brick of a good quality, is known from the discoveries made on opening their tumuli. A vast many instances of articles made of copper and sometimes plated with sil- ver, have been met with on opening their works. Circular pieces AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 257 of copper, intended either as medals or breast plates, have been found, several inches in diameter, very much injured by time. In several tumuli, the remains of knives and even of swords, in the form of rust, have been discovered. Glass has not been discovered in any of their works in the Ohio except one ; from which we learn at once that thase works were made at least more than eleven hundred and sixty years ago ; as the manufacture of glass was not discovered till the year of our Lord 664. But there is no doubt of their having inhabited this country from the remotest antiquity, drawn from data heretofore noticed in this work. " Mirrors made of isinglass, have been found in as many as fifty places, within my own knowledge, says Mr. Atwater, besides the large and very elegant one at Circleville. From the great thickness of those micac membraneca Mirrors, they answered the purpose for which they were made very well. Their houses, in some instances, might have been built of stone and brick, as in the walled towns on Paint Creek, and some few other places, yet their habitations were of wood, or they dwelt in tents ; otherwise their ruins would be met with in every part of this great country. Along the Ohio, where the river is, in many places, wearing and washing away its banks, hearths and fire places are brought to light, two, four, and even six feet below the surface, these are also found on the banks of the Muskingum, at its mouth, and at Point Harman, opposite Marietta. Two stone covers of stone vessels, were found in a stone mound, in Ross county, in Ohio, ingeniously wrought, and highly polished. These covers resembled almost ex- actly, and were quite equal to vessels of that material manufactured in Italy at the present time. An urn was found in a mound, a few miles from Chilicothe, which, a few years since, was in the hands of a Mr. J. W. Collet, who lived in that place, about a foot high, and well proportioned ; it very much resembles one found in a similar work in Scotland, I mentioned in Pennant's Tour, vol. 1, page 154, 4th London edition, 1 1790. It contained arrow heads, ashes, and calcined or burnt hu- |man bones. In digging a trench on the Sandusky river, in alluvial ;arth, at a depth of six feet, was found a pipe, which displays great taste in its execution. The rim of the bowl is in high relief, and pie front represents a beautiful female face. The stone of which 33 258 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES it is made the real talc graphique exactly resembling the stone of which the Chinese make their idols. No talc of this species is known to exist on the west side of the Alleghanies ; it must, there- fore, have been brought, at some remote period, from some part of the old world. Fragments of fishing nets and mocasins, or shoes made of a spe- cies of weed, have been found in the nitrous caves of Kentucky. The mummies which have been found in these places, were wrap- ped in a coarse species of linin cloth, of about the consistency and texture of cotton bagging. It was evidently woven by the same kind of process which is still practised in the interior of Africa. The warp being extended by some slight kind of machinery, the woof was passed across it, and then twisted, every two threads of warp together, before the second passage of the filliug. This seems to have been the first rude method of weaving in Asia, Africa and America." If s», then it is clear, that the inhabitants of America, who had the knowledge of this kind of fabrication, did indeed belong to an era as ancient as the first people of Asia itself, and even before the settlement of Europe ; this is not a small witness in favor of our opinion of the extreme antiquity of those ancient works of the west. Other nations, however, have, from time to time mingled among them by various means, as we have, in some measure re- counted, heretofore. A second envelope of these mummies, is a kind of net work, of coarse threads, formed of very small loose meshes, in which were fixed the feathers of various kinds of birds, so as to make a per- fectly smooth surface, lying all in one direction. The art of this tedious but beautiful manufacture, was well understood in Mexico, and still exists on the northwest coast of America, and in the islands of the Pacific. In these islands it is the state or court dress. The third and outer envelope of these mummies, is either like the one first described, or consists of leather, sewed together. — American Antq. Society. The manufacture of leather from the hides of animals, is a very- ancient invention, known to almost all the nations of the earth ; but to find it in America, wrapped around mummies, as in several instances found in nitrous caves, and in the Kentucky caverns, shows a knowledge of a branch of the arts, in the possession of the AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 259 people of America, at an era coeval with the Egyptians — as the art of embalming is found in connexion with that of tanning the skins of animals. Respecting the fact of leather being the outer wrapper of some of the mummies discovered, Mr. Atwater says, his authority is the statement of Mr. Clifford, of Lexington, Ken- tucky who was also a member of the American Antiquarian Society. There was a small vessel found on the Ohio flats, at a depth of twelve feet, made of the same materials with the mortars now in use among physicians aud apothecaries, manufactured in Europe. It holds about three quarts, comes to a point at its bottom, has a groove around it near the middle, with two ears, though a chain was probably inserted, so as to suspend it over fire, as it has on it the marks of that element, and was probably a crucible, for melt- ing metals, and the chain handle shows the ingenuity of its con- struction, by its being placed near the middle of the crucible, in order to preduce an equipoise, when the refiner wished to pour out his lead, his iron, or his silver : However, it may have been only a culinary vessel. Among the vast variety of discoveries made in the mounds, tu- muli and fortifications of these people, have been found not only hatchets made of stone ; but axes as large, and much of the same shape with those made of iron at the present day ; also pickaxes and pestles, see plate Nos. 11 and 12 ; with various other instru- ments, made of stone. But besides, there have been found very well manufactured swords and kniyes of iron, and possibly steel, says Mr. Atwater. If so, this also is an argument of the great and primeval antiqui- ty of those settlements ; for we are to suppose men kuew more of iron and steel, at the time of the building of Babel, than in after ages, when they became dispersed, and, from peculiar circumstan- ces, lost that peculiar art, and therefore, in the time of the Greeks, in the year 1406 before Christ, it was discovered anew. From which we are to conclude, that the primitive people of America, either discovered the use of iron themselves, as the Greeks did, or, that they learned its use from this circumstance ; or that they car- ried a knowledge of this ore, with them at the time of their dis- persion ; as received from Noah's family, who brought it from be- yond the flood, discovered in or before the days of Tubal Cain, which was only about 500 years after the creation. 260 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Dr. Clarke says, that from the manufacture of certain articles, in the wilderness, by the Israelites, iron, and even steel, must have been known, which was an age preceding its knowledge among the Greeks, nearly an hundred years. If this was so, it follows, they must have learned it, or rather they must have borrowed the very instruments of iron and steel, when they left Egypt ; as they had no means of making such instruments from the ore, in the wil- derness. If, then, the art was learned of the Egyptians, by the Israelites, the knowledge of iron and steel existed among that people more than three hnndred years before it was known among the Greeks, and perhaps much earlier, as that the Egyptians were ahead of all other nations in arts and inventions. A DISCRIPTION OF INSTRUMENTS FOUND IN THE TUMULI. In removing the earth, which composed an ancient mound, si- tuated where now one of the streets of Marietta runs, several cu- rious articles were discovered in 1819. They appear to have been buried with the body of the person to whose memory this mound was erected. Lying immediately on the forehead of this skeleton, were found three large circular ornaments, which had adorned a sword belt, or buckler, and were composed of copper, overlaid with a plate of silver; The fronts, or show sides were slightly convex, with a deep depression, like a cup, in the centre, and measured two inches and a quarter across the face of each. On the back side, opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet, around which are two sep- arate plates, by which they were fastened to the leather belt. The two pieces of leather resembled the skin of a mummy, and seemed to have been preserved by the salts of the copper ; the plates were nearly reduced to an oxyde or rust. The silver looked quite black, but was not much corroded, as on rubbing it became bright and clear. Around one of the rivers was a small quantity, of what appeared AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 261 to be, flax or hemp, in a tolerable state of preservation. Near the side of the body was found a plate of silver, which appeared to have been the upper part of a sword scabbard; it was six inches long, and two broad, with two longitudinal ridges, which probably corresponded with the edges or ridges of the sword once sheathed by it, and appeared to have been fastened to the scabbard by seve- ral rivets, the holes of which remain in the plate. Two or three pieces of a copper tube, were also found with this body, filled with iron rust. The pieces, from their appearances, composed the lower end of the scabbard, near the point of the sword, but no sign of the sword itself, except a streak of rust its whole length. We learn from this that the person who was buried there, was a warrior, as the sword declares ; and also that the people, of whom he was an individual, were acquainted with the arts of civilized life, which appears from the sheath, the flax, the copper, and the silver, but more especially as the silver was plated on the copper. Near the feet was found a piece of copper, weighing three ounces, which from its shape, appeared to have been used as a plumb, as near one of the ends is a crease or groove, for tying a thread ; it is round and two inches and a half in length, one inch in diame- ter at the centre, and an half inch at the small or upper end. It was composed of small pieces of native copper, pounded to- gether, and in the cracks between the pieces were stuck several bits of silver, one nearly the size of a sixpence. This copper plumb was covered with a coat of green rust, and was considerably corroded. A piece of red ochre, or paint, and a piece of iron ore, which had the appearance of having been partially vitrified, or melt- ed, was also found in this tumulus ; the bit of ore was nearly pure iron. The body of the person here buried, was laid on the surface of the earth, with his face upwards, and his feet pointing to the north- east, and his head to the southwest. From the appearance of several pieces of charcoal, and bits of partially burnt seacoal, and the black color of the earth, it would appear that the funeral obsequies had been celebrated by fire ; and that while the ashes were yet hot and smoking, a circle of flat stones had been laid around and over the body, from which the tumulus had been carried up. 262 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES For a view of each article, the reader can refer to the Frontis-* piece engraving, by observing the numbering of each specimen. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, are articles fonnd in the mound at Ma- rietta, in 1819. No. 1. Back view of the silver ornament for a sword scab- bard. No. 2. Front view of the same. No. 3. Front view of an ornament for a belt, with a silver face. No. 4. Back view of the same ornament, of copper. No. 5. A plumb, or pendant, formed of pieces of copper pound- ed together, leaving fissures or openings, which were filled with bits of silver ; an implement, as to its shape, resembling the instru- ments used by carpenters and masons, now-a-days, to ascertain per- pendiculars with, and was doubtless used by these ancients for the same purpose. No. 6. A stone with seven holes., like a screw plate, fourteen inches long, finely polished, and very hard ; this, however, was not found in the mound, but in a field near this tumulus. Letter A. represents a small keg in its construction, and a tea- kettle in the use of which it seems to have been put, which is in- dicated by its spout ; and appears to have been made of a compo- sition of clay and shells. Letter B. represents the idol, before spoken of, on pages 217 and 218, in three views, a front, side, and back view, Letter C. represents the idol, or image of stone, on page 219. Letter D. is the stone, or Shalgrumu, described on pages 180, 181, and 182. Letter E. represents the Triune Clip, found on the Cany fork of Cumberland river, in an ancient work, about four feet below the surface. The drawing is an exact likeness, taken originally by Miss Sara Clifford, of Lexington, Kentucky ; it is by some called the Triune Idol. " The object itself may be thus described. It consists of three heads joined together at the back part, near the top, by a stem or handle, which rises above the head about three inches. This stem is hollow, six inches in circumference at the top, increasing in size as it descends. The heads are all of the same dimensions, being about four AND UISGOVERIES IN THE WEST*. 263 inches from the top to the chin. The face, at the eyes, is three inches broad, decreasing in breadth, all the way to the chin. All the strong marks of the Tartar countenance are distinctly preserved and expressed with so much skill, that even a modern artist might be proud of the performance. The countenances are all different from each other, and denote one old person, and two younger ones. The face of the oldest is painted around the eyes with yellow, shaded with a streak of the same color, begining from the top of the ear, running in a semicircular form, to the ear on the other side of the head. Another painted line begins at the lower part of the eye, and runs down before each ear, about one inch. — See the right hand figure on the cup, or image. The face engraved alone, is the back view, and represents a per- son of a grave countenance, but much younger than the preceding one, painted very differently, and of a different color. A streak of reddish brown surrounds each eye. Another line of the same col- or, beginning at the top of one ear, passes under the chin, and ends at the top of the other ear. The ears also, are slightly tinged with the same color. The third figure, in its characteristical features, resembles, the others, representing one of the Tartar family. The whole of the face is slightly tinged with vermilion, or some paint resembling it. Each cheek has a spot on it, of the size of a quarter of a dollar, brightly tinged with the same paint. On the chin is a similar spot. One circumstance worthy of remark, is, that though these colors must have been exposed to the damp earth for many centuries, they have, notwithstanding, preserved every shade in all its bril- liancy. This Triune vessel stands upon three necks, which are about an inch and a half in length. The whole is composed of a fine clay, of a light umber color, which has been rendered hard by the ac- tion of fire. The heads are hollow, and the vessel is of capacity to hold about one quart. Does not this cup represent the three gods of India — Brahma, Vishnoo, and Siva ? Let the reader look at the plate representing this vessel, and consult the u Asiatic Researches," by Sir William Jones \ let him also read Buchanan's " Star in the East," and ac- counts there found, of the idolatry of the Hindoos, and he cannot fail to see in this idol, one proof at least, that the people who 264 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES raised our ancient works were idolaters ; and, that some of them worshipped gods resembling the three principal deities of India. What tends to strengthen this inference, is, that nine murex shells, the same as described by Sir William Jones, in his Asiatic Re- searches, and by Symmes, in his Embassy to Ava, have been found within twenty miles of Lexington, Kentucky, in an ancient work. The murex shell, is a sea shell fish, out of which the ancients procured the famous Tyrian purple dye, which was the color of the royal robes of kings, so celebrated in ancient times. Their com- ponent parts remained unchanged, and they were every way in an excellent state of preservation. These shells, so rare in India, are highly esteemed, and consecrated to their god, Mahadeva, whose character is the same with the Neptune, of Greece and Rome. This shell, among the Hindoos, is the musical instrument of their Tritons; (sea gods, or trumpeters of Neptune.) Those, of the kind discovered as above, are deposited in the Museum, at Lex- ington. The foot of the Siamese god, Gudma, or Boodh, is re- presented by a sculptured statute, in Ava, of six feet in length, and the toes of this god, are carved, each to represent a shell of the Murex. These shells have been found in many mounds which have been opened in every part of this country ; and this is a proof that a considerable value was set upon them by their owners. From these discoveiies it is evident, that the people who built the an- cient works of the west, were idolaters ; it is also inferred from the age of the world in which they lived ; history, sacred and pro- fane, affords the fact, that all nations, except the Jews, were idola- ters at the same time and age. Medals, representing the sun with its rays of light, have been found in the mounds, made of a very fine clay, and colored in the composition, before it was hardened by heat, from which it is in- ferred they worshipped the sun. It is also supposed, that they worshipped the moon, both from their semicircular works, which represent the new moon ; and also from the discovery of copper medals, round like the moon in its full, being smooth, without any rays of light, like those which represent the sun. The worship of the sun, moon, and stars, was the worship of many nations, in the earliest ages, not only soon after the flood, but all along, cotempo- rary with the existence of the Jews as a nation, and also succeed- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 265 itig the Christian era, and till the present time, as among the pagan Mexicans. Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, represent the shapes of the stone axes, pestle, and other articles spoken of a few pages back. — See the Plate. As it respects the scientific acquirements of the builders of the works in the west, now in ruins, Mr. Atwater says, " when tho- roughly examined, have furnished matter of admiration to all intel- ligent persons, who have attended to the subject. Nearly all the lines of ancient works found in the whole country, where the from of the ground admits of it, are right ones, pointing to the four car- dinal points. Where there are mounds enclosed, the gateways are most frequently on the east side of the works, towards the rising Sun. Where the 'situation admits of it, in their military works, the openings are generally towards one or more of the cardinal points. From which it is supposed they must have had some know- ledge of astronomy, or their structures would not, it is imagined, have been thus arranged. From these circumstances also, we draw the conclusion, that the first inhabitants of America, emigrated from Asia, at a period coeval with that of Babylon, for here it was that astronomical calculations were first made, 2234 years before Christ. " These things could never have so happened, with such invari- able exactness, in almost all cases, without design. " On the whole," says Atwater, " I am convinced from an attention to many hundreds of these works, in every part of the west which I have visited, that their authors had a knowledge of astronomy." He strengthens his opinions as follows: u The pastoral life, which men followed in the early ages, was certainly very favorable to the at- tainment of such a knowledge. Dwelling in tents, or in the open air, with the heavenly bodies in full view, and much more liable to suffer from changes in the weather, than persons dwelling in comfortable habitations, they would, of course, direct their atten- tion to the prognostics of approaching heat or cold, stormy or pleas- ant weather. Our own sailors are an example in point. Let a person, even wholly unaccustomed to the seas, be wafted for a few weeks by the winds and waves, he will become all ear to every breeze, all eye to every part of the heavens. Thus, in the earliest ages of mankind, astronomy was attended to, partly from necessity ; hence, a knowledge of this science was early diffused among men, 34 266 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES the proofs of which are seen in their works, not only heie, but in every part of the globe. It was reserved, however, for the geniuses of modern times 3 to make the most astonishing discoveries in this science, aided by a knowledge of figures, and an acquaint- ance with the telescope." Our ancient works continued into Mexico, increasing in size and grandeur, preserving the same forms, and appear to have been put to the same uses. The form of our works is round, square, trian- gular, semicircular, and octangular agreeing, in all these respects, with those in Mexico. The first works built by the Mexicans, were mostly of earth, and not much superior to the common ones on the Mississippi." The same may be said of the works of this sort over the whole earth, which is the evidence that all alike be- long to the first efforts of men, in the very first ages after the flood. " But afterwards temples were erected on the elevated squares, circles, &c, but were still like ours, surrounded by walls of earth. These sacred places, in Mexico, were called ■ " teocalli" which in the vernacular tongue of the most ancient tribe of Mexicans, signi- fies " mansions of the gods" They included within their sacred walls, gardens, fountains, habitations of priests, temples, altars, and magazines of arms. This circumstance may account for many things which have excited some surprise among those who have hastily visited the works on Paint Creek, at Portsmouth, Marietta, Gircleville, Newark, &c It is doubted by many to what use these works were put ; whe- ther they were used as forts, camps, cemeteries, altars, and tem- ples ; whereas they contained all these either within their walls, or were immediately connected with them. Many persons cannot imagine why the works, at the places above mentioned, were so ex- tensively complicated, differing so much in form, size, and eleva- tion, among themselves." But the solution is, undoubtedly, " they contained within them, altars, temples cemeteries, habitations of priests, gardens, wells, fountains, places devoted to sacred purposes, of various kinds, and the whole of their warlike munitions, laid up in arsenals. These works were calculated for defence, and were resorted to in cases of the last necessity, where they fought with desperation. We are warranted in this conclusion, by know- ing that these works are exactly similar to the most ancient now to be seen in Mexico, connected with the fact, that the Mexican works did contain within them«W that we have stated. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 267 GREAT SIZE OF SOME OF THE MEXICAN MOUNDS, The word Teocalli, Humboldt says, is derived from the name of one of the gods to which they were dedicated, Tezcatlipoca, the Brahma of the Mexicans. The pyramid of Cholula, was seated on a tumulus with four stages, and was dedicated to Quetzalcotl, one the mysterious characters that appeared among the ancient Mexicans, said to have been a white and bearded man, before spo- ken of in this work. The Teocalli, or pyramid of Cholula, is sixty rods in circumfe- rence, and ten rods high. In the vale of Mexico^ twenty-four miles northeast from the capital, in a plain that bears the name of Mi- coat], or the path of the dead, is a group of pyramids, of several nundred in number, generally about thirty feet high. In the midst of these are two large pyramids, one dedicated to the Sun, the other to the Moon. The sun pyramid is ten rods thir- teen feet high, aud its length nearly thirty-five rods, and of a pro- portionable thickness, but is not a circle ; that of the moon is eight rods and eleven feet in perpendicular height, but its base is not specified by Humboldt ; from whose Researches in South America, we have derived this information. The small pyramids, which surrounded the two dedicated to the sun and moon, are divided by spacious streets, runing exactly north and south, east and west, intersecting each other at right angles, forming one grand palace of worship, and of the dead. It is the tradition of the Mexicans, that in the small tumuli, or pyramids, were, buried the chiefs of their tribes. We also here ascertain that the builders of these two vast houses of the sun and moon, had in- deed a knowledge of the cardinal points of the compass ; for this arrangement could never have taken place from mere chance, it must have been the result of calculation, with the north star, or pole, in view. On the top of those theocallis, were two colossal statues of the sun and moon, made of stone, and covered with plates of gold, of which they were stripped by the soldiers of Cor- tez. Such were some of the pyramids of Egypt, with colossal statues. 268 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES This tremendous work is much similar to one found in Egypt,, called the " Cheops and the Mycerinus;" round about which were eight small pyramids ; only the Egyptian work is much less than the Mexican one, yet their fashion is the same. PREDILECTION OF THE ANCIENTS TO PYRAMIDS. In those early ages of mankind, it is evident there existed an un- accountable ambition among the nations, seemingly to outdo each other in the height of their pyramids ; for Humboldt mentions the pyramids of Porsenna, as related by Varro, styled the most learned of the Romans, who flourished about the time of Christ ; and says there were, at this place, four pyramids, eighty meters in height, which is a fraction more than fifteen rods perpendicular altitude ; the meter is a French measure, consisting of 3 feet 3 inches. Not many years since was discovered, by some Spanish hunters, on descending the Cordilleras, towards the Gulf Mexico, in the thick forest, the pyramid of Papantla. The form of this teocalli, or pyramid which had seven stories, is more tapering than any other monument of this kind, yet discovered, but its height is not remarkable ; being but fifty-seven feet, its base but twenty-five feet on each side. However, it is remarkable on oue account ; it is built entirely of hewn stones, of an extraordinary size, and very beautifully shaped. Three stair-cases lead to its top ; the steps of which were decorated with hieroglyphical sculpture and small niches, arranged with great symmetry. The number of these niches seems to allude to the three hundred and eighteen simple and compound signs of the days of their civil calendar. If so, this monument was erected for astronomical purposes ; besides, here is evidence of the use of metalic tools in the preparation and build- ing of this temple. In those mounds were sometimes hidden the treasures of kings and chiefs, placed there in times of war and danger. Such was found to be the fact on opening the tomb of a Peruvian prince, when was discovered a mass of pure gold, amounting to four mil- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 269 lions, six hundred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred dollars. — Humboldi 's Researches, vol. 1 p. 92. The pyramids of the Ohio, are, in several instances, built in the same manner, with several stages, on the tops of which were, un- questionably, temples of wood, in the day of their glory, when their builders swarmed in populous ten thousands, over all the un- bounded west ; but time h^s destroyed all fabrics of this sort, while the mounds on which they stood, in giddy grandeur, remain, but stripped of the habiliments of architecture, and the embellishments of art. There is, in South America, to the southeast of the city of Cuer- nuvaca, on the west declivity of the Cordillera of Anahuac, an iso- lated hill, which, together with the pyramid, raised on its top by the ancients of that country, amounts to thirty-five rods ten feet, in perpendicular height. The ancient tower of Babel, around which the city Babylon was afterwards built, was six hundred feet high, which is but thirty feet higher than the hill we are describ- ing ; but the base of Babel is a mere nothing, compared with the gigantic work of Anahuac, being but six hundred feet square, which is one hundred and fifty rods, or nearly so ; while the hill in South America, partly natural and partly artificial, is at its base 12,0G6 feet ; this thrown into rods, gives seven hundred and fifty-four, and into miles, is two and a quarter, and a half quarter, wanting eight rods, which is five times greater than that of Babel. The hill of Xochicalco is a mass of rocks, to which the hand of man has given a regular conic form, and which is divided into five stories or terraces, each of which is covered with masonry. These terraces are nearly sixty feet in perpendicular height, one above the other 3 besides the artificial mound added at the top, making its height nearly that of Babel ; besides, the whole is surrounded with a deep broad ditch, more than five times the circumference of that Babylonian tower. Humboldt says, we ought not to be surprised at the magnitude and dimensions of this work, as on the ridge of the Cordilleras of Peru, and on the other heights, almost equal to that of Teneiiffe, he had seen monuments still more considerable. Also in Canada, he had seen lines of defence, and entrenchments of extraordinary length, the work of some people belonging to the early ages of time. Those in Canada, however, we imagine to be of the Danish 270 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES origin, and to have been erected in the 9th, 10th, and 11th centu- ries of the Christian era, for reasons hereafter shown. If then, as Humboldt states, there were found on the plains of Canada, lines of defence of extraordinary length, it affords an argu- ment that the Norwegians and other northern nations, may not only have made settlements there, but became a kingdom, a body poli- tic and military and waged long and dreadful wars with opposing powers, who were unquestionably the Indians, who had already driven away the more ancient inhabitants of America, the authors of the western works, mounds and tumuli. But respecting the tre- mendous monument of art, found by the hunters, which we have described above, it is said that travellers, who have attentively ex- amined it, were struck with the polish and cut of the stones, the care with which they have been arranged, without cement between the joints, and the execution of the sculpture, with which the stones are decorated ; each figure occupying several stones, and from the outlines of the animals which they represent, not being broken by the joints of the stones, it is conjectured the engravings were made after the edifice was finished. But the animals and men sculptured on the stone of this pyramid, afford a strong evi- dence of the country from which the ancestors of those who built it came. There are crocodiles spouting water, and men sitting even cross legged, according to the custom of several Asiatic na- tions ; finally, the whole of the American works, of the most ancient class, from Canada to the extreme parts of South Ame- - irca, resemble those which are daily discovered in the eastern parts of Asia. From the deep ditch, with which the greater monument we have been describing, is surrounded, the covering of the terraces, the great number of subterranean apartments, cut into the solid rock, on its northern side, the wall that defends the approach to its base, ---it is believed to heive been a military work of great strength. The natives, even to this day, designate the ruins of this pyramid by the name that signifies a citadel or castle. The pyramid of Mexitli, found in another part of Mexico, called the great temple of Tenochtitlan, contained an arsenal, and during the war of the Spaniards with the devoted Mexicans, was alternately resorted to as a fort of defence, and a place of security. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 271 Nothing, of the warlike character, could exceed the grandeur of a fight maintained from the base to the summit of one of these tre- mendous teocallis, or pyramids. We may suppose the foe already gathered from their more scattered work of ruin, and circling, with yells of fury, the immediate precincts of the mound, while the rushing multitude fly from their burning habitations, toward this last resort. The goal is gained ; the first who reach it, ascend to its top ; rank after rank succeed, till, in frightful circles of fero- cious warriors, the whole pyramid is but one living mass of fury. Now the enemy come pouring round as a deluge, and begirt this final refuge of the wailing populace ; while warrior facing warrior, each moment fells its thousands by the noiseless death stab of the dirk of copper ; while from the ranks above the silent, but venge- ful arrow does its work of death. Here, from the strong arm and well practised sling, stones, with furious whizzing, through the air, cover in showers the distant squadron with dismay. Circle after circle, at the base, both of invader and invaded, fall together in glorious ruin. Now the top where waved such signals of defiance as rude nations could invent, becomes thinned of its defenders; who, pressing downward, as the lower ranges are cut in pieces, renew the fight. Now the farthest circle of the enemy nears the fatal centre ; now the destinies of conflicting nations draw nigh ; those of the pyramid have thrown their last stone ; the quiver is emptied of its arrows ; the last spear of flint and battle-axe, have fled, with well-directed aim, amid the throng. Surrender, captivity, slavery, and death, wind up the account ; a tribe becomes extinct, whose bones, when heaped together, make a new pyramid. Such, doubtless, is the origin of many of the frightful heaps of human bones found scattered over all the west. We learn from Scripture, that in the earliest times, the temples of Asia — such as that of Baal-Berith, at Shechim, in Canaan — were not only buildings consecrated to worship, but also intrenchments, in which the inhabitants of a city defended themselves in times of war. The same may be said of the Grecian temples ; for the wall which formed the parabolis, alone afforded an assylum to the be- sieged. — Humboldt. The ancient Carthegenians, the sworn and eternal enemies of the Romans, practised raising mounds of earth over their glorious 272 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES dead. Hannibal, their famous general, who for a while so success- fully combated the Roman armies, almost in sight of the imperial city, was thus honored. At the place where he fell by his own hand, having poisoned himself to escape the scorn of his victors, was raised a lofty mound of earth over his remains, exactly like the one which marks the place where sleeps the ashes of Achilles on the plains of Troy. The mound of Hannibal was erected 182 years before Christ. If therefore, the Carthegenians, the Greeks, the Romans, the more ancient Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Jews, and all the first na- tions immediately succeeding the flood, were found in this prac- tice ; is it not fairly inferred, that branches or colonies of these same nations and races of men, were also the authors of many of the mounds of America found scattered over its mighty re- gions. Clavigero, who was well acquainted with the history of the Mexicans and Peruvians, professes to point out the places from whence they emigrated, several places they stopped at, and the times which they continued to sojourn there. This, we under- stand, is the same as related before in this work, written by Hum- boldt, and describes the emigration of the Azteca tribes, from Aztalan, or the western states, to Mexico, which commenced to take place not long after the conquest of Judea by Titus. Clavi- gero supposes these nations of Aztalan came from Asia, across the Pacific, from the region along the coasts of the Chinese sea and islands, reaching America not far from Bhering's Straits, and from thence followed along the coast of the Pacific, till they came, in process of time, to a milder climate. To this Mr. Atwater adds, and suppose them to have from thence worked across the continent, as well as in other direc- tions, as far as the regions of the western states and territories, where they may have lived thousands of years, as their works denote. Others may have found their way into South America, by cross- ing the Pacific and Atlantic at different times and places. Green- landers have been driven upon the coast of Iceland, which is a dis- tance of at least a thousand miles. Thus transported by winds, waves and stress of weather, man has found all the islands of all the seas. In the same way may have arriyed persons from Africa, AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 273 Europe, — Australasians, Chinese, Hindoos, Japanese, Birmans, Kamschadales, and Tartars, on the coasts of America in the first ages after the flood. VOYAGES AND SHIPPING OF THE MONGOL TARTARS, AND SETTLEMENTS ON THE WESTERN COAST OF AMERICA. The whole western coast of the American continent, from oppo- site the Japan islands, in latitude from 40 to 50 degrees north, down to Patagonia, in latitude 40 south — a distance of more than six thousand miles—it would appear, was once populous with such na- tions as peopled the Japan islands, and the eastern shores of Asia, Chinese Tartary, China, and Farther India ; who also peopled the islands between, with thek various nations. A cross made of fine marble, beautifully polished, about three feet high, and three fingers in width and thickness, was found in an Indian temple. This, it appears, was kept as sacred, in a pa- lace of one of the Incas, and held in great veneration by the na- tives of South America. When the Spaniards conquered that country they enriched this cross with gold jewels, and placed it in the cathedral of Cuzco. But how came this emblem of Christianity in America ? There were in the service of the Mongols, in the 13th century, many Nestorians, a sect of Christians. The conqueror of the king of Eastern Bengal,was a Christian, which was in 1272, A. D. Under this king a part of an expedition was sent to conquer the islands of Japan, in large Chinese vessels, and supposed to have been commanded by these Christian Nestorians, as officers ; being more trust-worthy and more expert in warlike manouvres than the Mongol natives. This expedition by some means found their way from the Japan Islands, (which are west from North America, in north latitude 35 degrees,) to the coast of America in the same latitude, and landed at a place called in the Mexican language Culcaan, opposite New-California, in north latitude about 35 degrees. 35 274 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES In the year 1273 A. D., Kublai, a Mongol emperor, it appears? became master of all China. At that time they were in the pos- session of the knowledge of ship building, so that vessels of enormous size were constructed by them ; so great as to carry more than a thousand men ; being four masted, though not rig= ged as vessels no 600 dialects, some of which are even deemed peculiar lan- guages at present. Thus these original or mother languages of Europe are the Pe- lagian, Celtic, Cantabrian, Teutonic or Gothic, Thracian or Sla- vonian, and Finnish. And out of the Gothic have sprung the English, Dutch, German, Danish, Swedish, &c which were once AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 325 mere dialects, bat are now become languages, having many dia- lects of their own. Primitive Origin of the English Language. By C. S. Rafinesque. The best work on the philosophy and affinities of the English language is, at present, the Introduction, by Noah Webster, to his great dictionary. Yet although he has taken enlarged views of the subject, and by far surpassed every predecessor, he has left much to do to those future philologists and philosophers who may be inclined to pursue the subject still farther : not having traced the English language to its primitive sources, nor through all its variations and anomalies. But no very speedy addition to this knowledge is likely tb be produced, since Mr. Webster has stated, in a letter inserted in the Genesee Farmer of March, 1832, (written to vindicate some of his improvements in orthography,) that no one has been found in America or England able to review his Introduction ! although many have been applied to ! But I was not one of those consulted, few knowing of my researches in languages, else I could have done ample justice to the subject and Mr. Webster. It is not now a review of his labors that I undertake, but merely an inquiry into the primitive origin of our language, extracted from my manuscript Philosophy of the English, French and Italian lan- guages, compared with all the oilier languages or dialects of the whole world, not less than 3000 in number. The. modern English has really only one immediate parent. The old English, such as it was spoken and written in England, between the years 1000 and 1500, lasting about five hundred years, which is the usual duration of fluctuating languages. Our actual English is a natural deviation or dialect of it, begun between 1475 and 1525, and gradually improved and polished under two different forms, the written English and the spoken English, which are as different from each other as the English from the French. These two forms have received great accession by the increase of knowledge, and borrowing from many akin languages words un- known to the old English. They are both subject yet to fluctua- 326 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES tions of orthography and pronunciation, which gradually modify them again. The old English existed probably also under these two forms, and had several contemporaneous dialects, as the modern English, of which the Yorkshire and Scotch dialects are most striking in Europe, while Guyana, Creole and West-India Creole, are the most remarkable in America. Another dialect, filled with Bengali and Hindostani words, is also forming in the East-Indies. A complete comparison of the old and modern English has not yet been given. A few striking examples will here be inserted as a specimen of disparity. Written. Written. Spoken. Old English Mod. English. Mod. English. Londe Lande Land Sterre Star Star Erthe Earth Erthe Yle Island Ailend See Sea Si Benethen Beneath Binith Hevvyn Heaven Hevn Hedde Head Hed As late as the year 1555, we find the English language very dif- ferent from the actual, at least in orthography; for instance, Eng. o/1555. Writ. Mod. Eng. Spok. Mod. Eng. Preste Priest Prist Euyll Evil Ivl Youe You Yu Fyer Fire Fayer Howse House Haus This old English is supposed to have sprung from the amalga- mation of three languages : British-Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Nor- man-French, between the years 1000 and 1200. This has been well proved by many, and I take it for granted. But the successive parents and the genealogies of the Celtic, Saxon and Norman, are not so well understood. Yet through their successive and gradual dialects springing from each other, are to be traced the anomalies and affinities of all the modern languages ot western Europe. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 327 By this investigation it is found that these three parents of the English, instead of beiDg remote and distinct languages, were them- selves brothers, sprung from a common primitive source, having undergone fluctuations and chauges every 500 or 1000 years. For instance, the Latin of the time of Romulus, was quite a different language from that spoken in the time of Augustus, although this was the child of the former, this of the Ausonian, &c. The following table will illustrate this fact, and the subsequent remarks prove it. I. Old English sprung partly from the British- Celtic. 2d Step British Celtic of Great Britain, sprung from the Celtic of West Europe. 2d Step. This Celtic from the Cumric or Kimran of Europe. 4th Step. The Cumric from the Gomerian of Western Asia. 5th Step. The Gomerian from the Yavana of Central Asia. 6th Step. The Yavana was a dialect of the Sanscrit. II. The Old English partly sprung from the Anglo-Saxon of Britain, 2d Step. The Anglo-Saxon sprung from Saxon or Sacacenas of Germany. 3d Step. The Saxon from the Teutonic or Gothic of Europe. 4th Step. The Teutonic from the Getic of East Europe. 5th Step. The Getic from the Tiras or Tharaca of West Asia. (Thracians of the Greeks.) 6th Step. The Tiras from the Cutic or Saca of Central Asia, called Scythian by the Greeks. 7th Step. The Saca was a branch of the Sanscrit. III. Old Englishpartly sprung from the Norman French. 2d Step. The Norman French was sprung from the Romanic of France. 3d Step. The Romanic from the Celtic, Teutonic and Roman Latin. 4th Step. Roman Latin from the Latin of Romulus. 5th Step. The Latin from the Ausonian of Italy. 6th Step. The Ausonian from the Pelagic of Greece and West Asia. 7th Step. The Pelagic from the Palangsha or Pali of Central A.sia. 8th Step. The Pali was a branch of the Sanscrit. 328 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Thus we see all the sources of the English language concen- trating by gradual steps into the Sanscrit, one of the oldest lan- guages of Central Asia, which has spread its branches all over the globe. Being the original language of that race of men, fathers of the Hindus, Persians, Europeans and Polynesians. All the affinities between English and Sanscrit, are direct and striking;, notwithstanding many deviations, and the lapse of ages. While those between the English and other primitive languages, such as Chinese, Mongol, Arabic, Hebrew, Coptic, Berber, &c, are much less in number and importance ; being probably derived from the natural primitive analogy of those languages with the Sanrcrit itself, when all the languages in Asia were intimately connected. Many authors have studied and unfolded the English analogies with many languages ; but few if any have ever stated their nu- merical amount Unless this is done we can never ascertain tbi relative amount of mutual affinities. It would be a very laborious and tedious task to count those enumerated in Webster's Dictiona- ry. My numerical rule affords a very easy mode to calculate this amount without much trouble. Thus, to find the amount of affinities between English and Latin, let us take ten important words at random in each. Writ. Eng, Woman tfWater f Earth |God ttSoul One ttHouse |Moon Star t|Good We thereby find three affinities in ten, or 30 per cent ; as man| analogies or semi-affinities, marked |, equal to 15 per cent more| and four words, or 40 per cent, have no affinities. ' This will pre bably be found a fair average of the mutual rate in the old Englisl but the modern has received so many Latin synonyms as to excee perhaps this rate. Spok. Eng. Latin. Vumehn Femina Vuater Aqua Erth Terra God Deus Sol Anima Uahn Unum Haus Domus Muhn Luna Star Aster Good Bonus AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 829 'Of these analogies it is remarkable that most are not direct from 'the Latin, or even through the French ; but are of Saxon origin, which had them with the Latin previously. Thus the affinities between the English and Greek or Russian, are derived through the Pelagic and Thracian s unless lately- adopted. Boxhorn and Lipsius first noticed the great affinities of words and grammar between the Persian and German dialects. Twenty- five German writers have written on this. But Weston, in a very Tare work, printed at Calcutta, in 1816, on the conformity of the English and European languages with the Persian, has much en- larged the subject, and has given as many as 480 consimilar words between Persian and Latin, Greek, English, Gothic and Celtic: but he has not stated the numerical amount of these affinities. All this is not surprising, since the Iranians or Persians were also a branch of Hindus, and this language a child of the Zend, a dialect of the Sanscrit. Hammer has found as many as 560 affinities be- tween German and Persian. But the late work of Col. Kennedy, "Researches on the Origin ften and obsolete words are found the most striking affinities of •which I here give the greater part. English, Written Mother Spoken. Mother Old Sanscrit of Menu* Mara Mind Maind Men Mankind Mehnkaind Manavah Era Ira Antara • Hour Hauer Hora Virtuous Vsertius Verta Antique Beetle Antic BitI Arti Blatta Penny Gas Peni Gas Pana Akasa Father Father Vasus Play Malice (sin) Patriarch ' Pie Malis Patriark Waya Mala Patri AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST 331 English. Old Sanscrit. * Written. Spoken of Menu. Middle Midi Medhya Teacher - Ticher Acharya Bos (master) Bos Bhos Before Bifor Pur/a Wind Vuind Pavana Deity Deiti Daitya Mouth Mauth Muc'ha Eyes Aiz Eshas Right Rait Rita Phantom Fantom Vantasa Wood Vud Venu Me, mine Mi, Man Animate Animet Mahat Spirit Spirit Eshetra Being twenty-eight derivated words out of eighty-four of this old vocabulary, 33 per cent. Another very singular vocabulary I have extracted from the transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, and Erskine's ac- count of the Ancient Mahabad Religion of Balk from the book De- satir. Some words are given there of the language of the Maha- bad empire, the primitive Iran, which appears to be a very early dialect of the Sanscrit and Zend. Out of thirty Words twelve have analogies to the English, equal to 40 per cent. English. Mahabad. Written. Spoken. of Iran. Father Father Fiter End End Antan Course Kors Kur (time) Nigh Nay Unim Amical Amikal Mitr (friend) Globe Glob Gul Middle Midi Mad Sky Skay Kas Royal Royal Raka (king) Ignate Ignet Agai (fire) Man Mehn Minhush Donation Doneshiohn Datisur 332 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES I could add here at least 250 to the 251 of Kennedy, if it were not too tedious and long. But I can safely vouch that all the 566 radical roots of peculiar meaning, forming the hase of the Sanscrit, are to be found in the English roots, or if a few are lacking it is merely owing to some having become obsolete through the lapse of nearly 5000 years, when the Yavanas, Sacas and Pallis separated from their Hindu brethren, and the revolution of six or seven suc- cessive dialects formed by each, till they met again in the English. Kennedy has even some obsolete English and Scotch words, now out of use, which are derived from the Sanscrit. This inquiry is not merely useful to unfold the origin and revo- lutions of our language ; but it applies more or less to all the lan- guages of Europe ; which were formed in a similar way by dialects of former languages. Since every dialect becomes a language whenever it is widely spread and cultivated by a polished nation. Thus the French, Italian, Spanish Portuguese, Romanic and Vala- quian are now become languages, with new dialects of their own, although they are in fact mere dialects of the Latin and Celtic. The physical conformation and features of all the European and Hindu nations are well known to agree, and naturalists consider them as a common race. The historical traditions of these nations confirm the philological and physical evidence. Ail the European nations came from the east or the west of the Imaus table land of Asia, the seat of the ancient Hindu empires of Balk, Cashmir and Iran. The order of time in which the Asiatic nations entered Eu- rope to colonize it was as follows : 1. or most ancient. Esquas or Oscans or Iberians or Cantabrians* 2. Gomarians or Cumras or Celts or Gaels. 3. Geies or Goths or Scutans or Scythians. 4. Finns or Laps or Sanies. 5. Tiras or Thracians or Illyrians or Slaves. 6. Pallis or Pelasgians or Hellenes or Greeks. The settlement in Europe of these last is so remote as to be in- volved in obscurity. But their geographical positions, traditions and languages prove their relative antiquity. The Greek language is one of those that has been most permanent, having lasted 2500 years, from Homer's time to the Turkish conquest. Yet it sprung from the Pelagie and has given birth to the Romaic or modern Greek dialects. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 333 COLONIES OF THE DANES IN AMERICA. But besides the evidences that the Malay, Australasian and Polynesian tribes of the Pacific islands, have, in remote ages, peo- pled America, from the west; coming, first of all, from the Asiatic shores of that ocean ; and also from the east, peopling the island Atalantis, (equally early, as we believe,) once situated between America and Europe, and from this to the continent ; yet there is another class of antiquities, or race of population, which, says Dr. Mitchell, deserves particularly to be noticed. 6 * These are the emi- grants from Lapland, Norway, and Finland ; the remotest latitude north of Europe, " who, before the tenth century, settled them- selves in Greenland, and passed over to Labrador. It is recorded that these adventurers settled themselves in a country which they called Vinland." Our learned regent, Gov. De Witt Clinton, says Dr. Mitchell, who has out-done Governeur Golden, by writing the most full and able history of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, of New- York, men- tioned to me his belief that a part of the old forts and other antiqui- ties at Onondaga, about Auburn 3 and the adjacent country, were of Danish character. " I was at once penetrated by the justice of his remark ; an ad- ditional window of light was suddenly opened to my view on this subject. I perceived at once, with the Rev. Van Troil, that the European emigrants had passed, during the horrible commotions of the ninth and tenth century, to Iceland. See History of Eugland. The Rev. Mr. Crantz had informed me, in his important book, how they went to Greenland. I thought I could trace the people of Scandinavia to the banks of the St. Lawrence ; I supposed my friends had seen the Punic inscriptions made by them here and here, in the places where they visited. Madoc, prince of Wales, and his Cambrian followers, appeared, to my recollection, among :hese bands of adventurers. And thus the northern lands of North A.merica were visited by the hyperborean tribes from the north- ^vestermost climates of Europe ; and the northwestern climes of 334 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES North America had received inhabitants of the same race from the northeastern regions of Asia. The Danes, Fins, or Germans, and Welchmen, performing their migrations gradually to the southwest, seem to have penetrated to the country situated in the south of Lake Ontario," which would be in the states of New- York and Pennsylvania, " and to have fortifi d themselves there ; where the Tartars, or Samoieds, travel- ling, by slow degrees, from Alaska, on the Pacific, to the southeast, finally found them. In their course, these Asian colonists probably exterminated the Malays, who had penetrated along the Ohio audits streams, or drove them to caverns abounding in saltpetre and copperas, in Ken tucky and Tennessee ; where their bodies, accompanied with cloths and ornaments of their peculiar manufacture, have been repeated- ly disinterred and examined by the members of the American An- tiquarian Society. Having achieved this conquest, the Tartars and their descend- ants, had, probably, a mu'h harder task to perform. This was to subdue the more ferociot/s and warlike European colonists, who had intrenched and fortified themselves in the country, after the arrival of the Tartars, or Indians, as they are now called, in the particular parts they had settled themselves in, along the region of the Atlantic. In Pompey, Onondaga county, are the remcins, or outlines, of a town, including more than five hundred acres. It appeared pro- tected by three circular or elliptical forts, eight miles distant from each other ; placed in such relative positions as to form a triangle round about the town, at those distances- It is thought, from appearances, that this strong hold was stormed and taken on the line of the north side. In CamilJus, in the same county, are the remains of two forts, one covering about three acres, on a very high hill ; it had gateways, one opening to the east and the other to the west, toward a spring some rods from the works; its shape is elliptical ; it has a wall, in some places ten feet high, with a deep diteh. Not far from this is another exactly like it only half as large. There are many of these ancient works here- abouts ; one in Scipio, two near Auburn, three near Canandaigua, and several between the Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. A number of AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 335 such fortifications and burial places have also, been discovered in Ridgeway, or the southern shore of Lake Ontario. There is evidence enough that long and bloody wars were waged among the inhabitants, in which the Scandinavians, or Esquimaux, as they are now called, seem to have been overpowered and de- stroyed in New- York. The survivors of the defeat aid ruin re- treated to Labrador," — a country lying between Hudson's bay and the Atlantic ; in latitude 50 and 60 degrees norih, where they have remained secure from further pursuit. From the known ferocity of the ancient Scandinavians, who with other Europeans of ancient times we suppose to be the au- thors of the vast works about iue region of Onondaga, dreadful wars, with infinite butcheries, must have crimsoned every hill and dale of this now happy country. In corroboration of this opinion, we give the following, which is an extract from remarks made on the ancient customs ofthe Scan- dinavians, by Adam Clarke, in a volume entitled, " Clarke's Dis- covery," page 145. 1st Odin, or Woden, their supreme god, is there termed the terrible or severe deity ; the father of slaughter, who carries deso- lation and fire; the tumultuous and roaring deity; the giver of courage and victory ; he who marks out who shall perish in battle ; the sheader of the blood of man. From him is the fourth day of our week, denominated Wodensday, or Wednesday. 2d. Frigga, or Frega : she was his consort, called also Ferorthe, mother Earth. She was the goddess of love and debauchery — the northern Venus. She was also a warrior, and divided the souls of the slain with her husband,. Odin. From her we have our Friday, or Freya's day ; as on that day she was peculiarly worshipped ; as was Odin on Wednesday. ' 3d. Thor, the god of winds and tempests, thunder and lightning. He was the especial object of worship in Norway, Iceland, and con- sequently in the Zetiaad isles. From him we have the name of. our fifth day, Thor's day or Thursday. 4th. Tri> the god who protects houses. His day of worship was called Tyrsdays, or Tiiesday, whence our Tuesday. As to our first and second -day, Sunday and Monday, they derived their names from the Sun and the Moon, to whose worship ancient idolaters had consecrated them." ■ • 336 American antiquities From this we learn that they had a knowledge of a small cycle of time, called a week of seven days, and must have been derived, in some way, from the ancient Hebrew scriptures, as here we have the first intimation of this division of time. But among the Mexi- cans no trait of a cycle of seven days is found, says Humboldt ; which we consider an additional evidence that the first people who found their way to these Tegions, called North and South America, left Asia at a period anterior at least to the time of Moses ; which was full 1600 years before Christ. But we continue the quotation : "All who die in battle go to Vall- palla, Odin's palace, where they amuse themselves by going through their martial exercises ; then cutting each other to pieces ; afterwards, all the parts healing, they sit down to their feasts, where they quaff beer out of the skulls of those whom they had slain in battle, and whose blood they had before drank out of the same skulls, when they had slain them. The Scandinavians offered different kinds of sacrifices, but espe- cially human ; and from these they drew their auguries, by the velocity with which the blood flowed, when they cut their throats, and from the appearance of the intestines, and especially the heart. It was a custom in Denmark to offer annually, in January, a sacri- fice of ninety-nine-cocks, ninety-nine dogs, ninety-nine horses, and ninety-nine men ; besides other human sacrifices," on various oc- casions. " Such being the fact, it is fairly presumable that as the Danes, Scandinavians, and Lapponiac nations, found their way from the north of Europe to Iceland, Greenland and Labrador ; and from thence about the regions of the western lakes, especially Ontario ; that the terrific worship of the Celtic gods, has been practised in America, at least in the State of New- York. And it is not impos- sible but this custom may have pervaded the whole continent, for the name of one of these very gods, namely Odin, is found among the South Americans, and the tops of the pyramids may have been the altars of sacrifice. . u We have already fixed the attention of the reader," says Baron Humboldt, " on Votan, or Wodan, an American, who seems to be a member of the same family with the Woads, or Odins, of the Goths, and nations of the Celtic origin." AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 337 The same names, he says, are celebrated in India, Scandinavia, and Mexico, all of which is, by tradition, believed to point to none other than to Noah and his sons. For, according to the traditions of the Mexicans, as collected by Bishop Francis Nunez de la Vega, their Wodan was grandson to that illustrious old man, who, at the time of the great deluge, was saved on a raft with his family. He was also at the building of the great edifice, and co-operated with the builder, which had been undertaken by men to reach the skies. The execution of this rash project was interrupted ; each family receiving from that time a different language ; when the Great Spirit, or Teatl, ordered Wodan to go and people the country of Anahuac, which is in America. " Think (says Dr. Mitchell) what a memorable spot is our On- ondaga, where men of the Malay race, from the southwest, and of the Tartar blood from the northwest, and of the Gothic stock from the northeast, have successively contended for the supremacv and rule, and which may be considered as having been possessed by each long enough before " Columbus was born, or the navigat- ing of the western ocean thought ©f. "John De Let, a Flemish writer, says, that Madoc, one of the sons of Prince Owen Gycnith, being disgusted with the civil wars which broke out between his brothers, after the death of their father, fitted out several vessels, and having provided them with every thing necessary for a long voyage, went in quest of new lands to the westward of Ireland. There he discovered very fertile coun- tries," where he settled ; and it is very probable Onondaga, and the country along the St. Lawrence, and around Lakes Ontario and Erie, were the regions of their improvements. — Carver, p. 108. " We learn from the historian Charlevoix, that the Eries, an in- digenous nation of the Malay race, who formerly inhabited the lands south of Lake Erie, where the western district of Pennsyl- vania and the state of Ohio now are. And Lewis Evens, a former resident of the city of New-Yoik, has shown us in his map of the Middle Colonies, that the hunting grounds of the Iroquois extend- ed over that very region. The Iroquois were of the Tartar stock, and they converted the country of the exterminated Eries or Ma- lays, into a range for the wild beasts of the west, and a region for their own hunters." 43 338 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES He says, the Scandinavians emigrated about the tenth century of the Christian era, if not earlier ; and that they may be considered as not only having discovered this continent, but to have explored its northern climes to a great extent, and also to have peopled them. In the fourteenth township, fourth range of the Holland Compa- ny's lands in the state of New- York, near the Ridge road leading from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, is an ancient fort, situated in a large swamp j it covers about five acres of ground ; large trees are stand- ing upon it. The earth which forms this fort was evidently brought from a distance, as that the soil of the marsh is quite of another kind, wet and miry, while the site of the fort is dry gravel and loam. The site of this fortification is singular, unless we suppose it to have been a last resort or hiding place from an enemy. The distance to the margin of the marsh is about half a mile, where large quantities of human bones have been found, on open- ing the earth, of an extraordinary size : the thigh bones, about two inches longer than a common sized man's : the jaw or chin bone will cover a large man's face : the skull bones are of an enormous thickness : the breast and hip bones are also very large. On be- ing exposed to the air they soon moulder away, which denotes the great length of time since their interment. The disorderly manner in which these bones were found to lie, being crosswise, commixed and mingled with every trait of confusion, show them to have been deposited by a conquering enemy, and not by friends, who would have laid them, as the custom of all nations always has been, in a more deferential mode. There was no appearance of a bullet having been the instrument of their destruction, the evidence of which would have been bro- ken limbs. Smaller works of the same kind abound in the coun- try about Lake Ontario, but the one of which we have just spoken is the most remarkable. This work, it is likely, was a last effort of the Scandinavians. North of the mountain, or great slope toward the lake, there are no remains of ancient works or tumuli, which strongly argues, that the mountain or ridge way once was the southern boundary or shore of lake Ontario : The waters having receded from three to seven m ; les from its ancient shore, nearly tlie whole length of the lake, occasioned by some strange convulsion in nature, redeeming much AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 339 of the lands of the west from the water that had covered it from the time of the deluge. The following is the opinion of Morse, the geographer, on the curious subject of the original inhabitants or population of America. He says, " without detailing the numerous opinions of philosophers, respecting the original population of this continent, he will, in few words, state the result of his own inquiries on the subject, and the facts from which the result is deduced. <; The Greenlanders and Esquimaux," which are one in origin, " were emigrants from the northwest of Europe," which is Nor- way and Lapland. A colony of Norwegians was planted in Ice- land, in 874, which is almost a thousand years ago. Greenland, which is separated from the American continent only by Davis' Strait, which, in several places, is of no great width, was settled by Eric Rufus, a young Norwegian, in 982 ; and before the 11th cen- tury, churches were founded and a bishopric erected, at Grade, the capital of the settlement. Soon after this, Bairn, an Icelandic navigator, by accident, dis- covered land to the west of Greenland. This land received the name of Vineland. It was settled by a colony of Norwegians in 1002, and from the description given of its situation and produc- tions, must have been Labrador, which is on the American conti- nent, or Newfoundland*, which is but a little way from the conti- nent, separated by the narrow strait of Bellisle, at the north end of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a river of Canada. Vineland was west of Greenland, and not very far to the south of it. It also produced grape vines spontaneously. Mr. Elis, in his voyage to Hudson's Bay, informs us that the vine grows spontaneously at Labrador, and compares the fruit of it to the currants of the Levant. Several missionaries of the Moravians, prompted by a zeal for propagating Christianity, settled in Greenland ; from whom we learn that the Esquimaux perfectly resemble the natives of the two countries, and have intercourse with one another ; that a few sail- ors, who had acquired the knowledge of a few Greenland words, reported, that these were understood by the Esquimaux ; that at length a Moravian missionary, well acquainted with the language of Greenland, having visited the country of the Esquimaux, found to his astonishment that they spoke the same language with the Greenlanders ;" which of course was the same with the language 340 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES of Iceland, and also of Norway, which is in Europe, lying along on the coast of the Atlantic ; as that the first colony of Iceland was from Norway, and Iceland a first colony settled on Greenland, from thence to Labrador, which is the continent ; showing that the language of the Esquimaux is that of the ancient Norse of Europe, derived from the more ancient Celtic nations, who were derived from the descendants of Japheth, the son of Noah; from which we perceive that both from country and lineal descent, the present in- habitants are brothers to the Esquimaux (Indians, as they are im- properly called) who also are white, and not copper colored, like the red men, or common Indians, who are of the Tartar stock. The missionary found, " that there was abundant evidence of their being of the same race, and he was accordingly received and entertained by them as a friend and brother." These facts prove the settlement of Greenland by an Icelandic colony, and the con- sanguinity of the Greenlanders and Esquimaux. Iceland is only about one thousand miles west from Norway, in Europe, with more than twenty islands between ; so that there is no difficulty in the way of this history to render it improbable that the early navigators from Norway may have easily found Iceland, and colonized it. " The enterprize, skill in navigation, even without the compass, and roving habits, possessed by these early navigators, renders it highly probable also, that at some period more remote than the 10th century, they had pursued the same route to Greenland, and plant- ed colonies there, which is but six hundred miles west of Iceland. Their descendants the present Greenlanders and Esquimaux, re- taining somewhat of the enterprize of their ancestors, have always preserved a communication with each other, by crossing and re- crossing Davis's Strait. The distance of oceaa between Ame- rica and Europe on the east, or America and China on the west, is no objection to the passage of navigators, either from design or stress of weather; as that Coxe, in his Russian Discoveries, men- tions that several Kamschadale vessels, in 1745, were driven out to sea, and forced, by stress of weather, to take shelter amoDg the Aleutian islands, in the Pacific, a distance of several hundred mii^s ; and also Captain Cook, in one of his voyages, found some natives of one of the islands of the same ocean, in their war canoes, six Jiundred miles from land." — Morse , AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 341 In the year 1789, Captain Bligh was sent out under the direction of the government of England, to the Friendly Islands, in the Pa- cific, in quest of the bread fruit plant, with the view of planting it in the West Indies. But having got into the Pacific ocean, his crew mutined, and put him, with eighteen of his men, on board of a boat of but thirty- two feet in length, with one hundred and fifty pounds of bread, twenty-eight gallons of water, twenty pounds of pork, three bottles of wine and fifteen quarts of rum. With this scanty provision he was turned adrift in the open sea, when the vessel sailed, and left them to their fate. Captain Bligh then sailed for the island of To- foa, but being resisted by the islanders with stones, and threatened with death, was compelled to steer from mere recollection, (for he was acquainted with those parts of that ocean,) lor a port in the East Indies called Tima, belonging to the Dutch. He had been with the noted Captain Cook, in his voyages. The reason the na- tives were so bold as to pelt them with stones as they attempted to land, was because they perceived them to be without arms. This voyage, however, they performed in forty-six days, suffering in a most incredible manner, a distance of four thousand miles, losing but one man, who was killed by the stones of the savages, in at- tempting to get clear from the shore of an island, where they had landed to look for water. " In 1797, the slaves of a ship from the coast of Africa, having risen on the crew, twelve of the latter leaped into a boat, and made their escape. On the thirty-eighth day three still survived, and drifted ashore at Barbadoes, in the West Indies. In 1799, six men in a boat from St Helena, lost their course, and nearly a month after, five of them surviving, reached the coast of South America, a distance of two thousand seven hundred and sixty miles." — Thomas'' Travels, p. 283. This author, Mr. David Thomas, whose work was published at Auburn, 1819, is of the opinion that " the Mexicans and Peruvians derived their origin in arriving in wrecks from the sea coast without the Strait of Gibraltar, soon after the commencement of navigation, driven thither by the current and trade winds." But as to the Peruvians, being originally from about the Medi- terranean, we should suppose rather improbable, as that Peru is situ- 342 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES ated on the Pacific in South America, and Mexico on the Pacific in North America It would have been more natural for them to have fixed their abode where they first landed, rather than to have travelled across the continent. The Peravians were doubtless from China origin- ally, and the Mexicans from a more northern region, Mongol, Tar- tary and the Japan islands. He says, "If we consider in what an early age navigation was practised, and consequently how soon after that era America would receive inhabitants within its torrid zone, it will appear probable that the Mexicans were a great nation before either the Tartars or Esquimaux arrived on the northern part of this continent." Navigation was indeed commenced at an early age, by the Egyptians and Phoenicians, probably more than sixteen hundred years before the time of Christ, (See Morse's Chronology,*) and doubtless, from time to time, as in later ages, arrivals, either from design or from being driven to sea by storm, took place, so that Egyptians, Phoenicians, and individuals of other nations of that age, unquestionably found their way to South America, and also to the southern parts of North America, from the east, and also from the west, across the Pacific, in shipping. But we entertain the opinion, that even sooner than this, the woods of the Americas had received inhabitants, as we have before endeavored to argue in this work, at a time when there was more land, either ia the form of islands in groups, or in bodies, ap- proaching to that of continents, situated both in the Pacific and At- lantic oceans ; but especially that of Atalantis, once in the Atlan- tic, between America and the coast of Gibraltar. * fi pn the remarks of Carver on titis subject, through the. interior parts of North western* America, we have the following: — "Many of the ancients are supposed to have known that this quarter of the globe not on?y existed, but also that it was inhabited." Plato, who wrote about five hundred years before Christ, in his book entitled Timaeus, has asserted that beyond the island which he calls Atalantis, as learned from the Egyptian priests, and. which according to his description was situated in the Western ocean, op- posite, as we have before said, to the Strait of Gibraltar, there were a great nuaifcer of other islands, and behind those a vast continent. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 343 If some have affected to treat the tradition of the existence of this island as a chimera., we would ask, how should the priests be able to tell us that behind that island, farther west, was a vast con- tinent, which proves to be true, for that continent is America ; or rather, us a continent is spoken of by Plato at all a lying west of Europe, we are of the opinion that this fact should carry conviction that the island also existed, as well as the continent ; and why not Atalantl ? (f Plato knew of the one did he not cf the other ? If the Egyptian priests had told Plato that anciently there existed a certain island, with a continent on th3 west of it, and the Strait of Gibraltar on the east of it, anu it was fouiid, in succeeding ages, that neither the strait nor the continent were ever known to exist, it would be, indeed, clearly inferred, that neither was the island known to them. But as the strait does exist, and the western con- tinent also, is it very absurd to suppose that Atalahtis was indeed situated between these two facts, or parts of the earth now known to all the world ? Carver says that Oviedo, a celebrated Spanish author, the same who became the friend of Columbus, whom he accompanied on his second voyage to the new world, has made no scruple to a%rn, that the Antilles are the famous Hesperides, so often mentioned by the poets, which are at length restored to the King of Spain, the de- scendants of King Hesperus, who ^ved upwards of 3000 years ago, and from whom these islands received their name. De Laet, a Flemish writer, says it is related by Pliny the elder, one of the most learned of the ancient Roman writers, who was born twenty-three years after the time of Christ, and left behind him no less than thirty-seven volumes on natural history, and some other writers, that on many of the islands near the western coast of Africa, particularly on the Canaries, some ancient edifices were seen ; even caHed ancient by Pliny, a term which would throw the time of their erection back to a period perhaps five or six hundred years before Christ. " From this it is highly probable," says Mr. Carver, " that the inhabitants having deserted those edifices, even in the time of Pliny, may have passed over to South America^ the passage being neither long nor difficult. This migration, according to the calculation of those authors, must have taken place more than two hundred years before the Christian era, at a time when the people of Spain were 344 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES much troubled by the Carthagenians, and might have retired to the Antilles, by the way of the Western Isles, which were exactly half way in their voyage to South America." Emanuel de Morez, a Portuguese, in his history of Brazil, a pro~ vince of South America, asserts that America has been wholly peo- pled by the Carthagenians and Israelites. He brings, as a proof of this assertion, the discoveries the former are known to have made, at a great distance beyond the western coast of Africa. The far- ther progress of which being put a stop to by the senate of Carthage some hundred years before Christ, those who happened to be then in the newly discovered countries, being cut off' from all communi- cations with their countrymen, and destitute of many necessaries of life, fell into a state of barbarism. George De Horn, a learned Dutchman, who has written on the subject of the first peopling of America, maintains that the first founders of the colonies of this country were Scythians, who were much more ancient than the Tartars, but were derived from the Scythians ; as the term Tartar is but of recent date when compared with -the far more ancient appellation of Scythian, the descendants of Shem, the great progenitor of the Jews. He also believes that the Phoenicians and Carthagenians after- wards got footing in America, by crossing the Atlantic, and like- wise the Chinese, by way of the Pacific. These Phoenician and Carthagenian migrations he supposes to have been before the time of Solomon, king of Israel, who flourished a thousand years before Christ. Mr. Thomas, of Auburn, in his volume entitled, Travels through the Western Country, has devoted some twenty pages to the subject of the ancient inhabitants of America, with ability evidencing an enlarged degree of acquaintance with it. He says explicitly, on page 288, that " the Phoenicians were early acquainted with those shores," " believes that vessels, sailing out of the Mediterranean, may have been wrecked on the American shores ; also colonies from the west of Europe, and from Africa, in the same way. Sup- poses that Egyptians and Syrians settled in Mexico ; the former the authors of the pyramids of South America, and that the Syrians are the same with the Jews; wanting nothing to complete this fact but the rite of circumcision. Says the Greeks were the only, or AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- • 345 first people, who practised raising tumuli around the urns which contained the ashes of their heroes." And, as we know, tumuli are in abundance in the west, raised over the ashes, as we suppose, of their heroes ; should we not in- fer that the practice was borrowed from that people ? This would prove some of them, at least, originally from about the Mediter= ranean. But notwithstanding our agreement with this writer that many nations, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Phoenicians, Carthagenians, Europeans, Romans, Asiatics, Scythians and Tar- tars, have, in different eras of time, contributed to the peopling of America ; yet we believe, with the great and celebrated naturalist, Dr. Mitchell, that the ancestors of the people known by the appel- lation of the Malays, now peopling the islands of the Pacific, were nearly among the first who set foot on the coasts of America. And that the people who settled on the islands of the Atlantic, and es- pecially that of Atalantis, now no more, immediately after the dis- persion, were they who, first of all, and the Malay second, filled all America with their descendants in the first ages. But in process of time, as the arts came on, navigation, with or without the compass, was practised, if not as systematically as at the present time, yet with nearly as wide a range ; and as convul- sions in the earth, such as divided one part of it from another, as in the days of Peleg, removing islands, changing the shape of conti- nents, and separating the inhabitants of distant places from each other, by destroying the land or islands between, so that when shipping, whether large or small, as in the time of the Phoenicians, Tyrians of King Solomon, the Greeks and Romans, came to navi- gate the seas, America was found, visited and colonized anew. In this way we account for the introduction of arts among the more ancient inhabitants whom they found there ; which arts are clearly spoken of in the traditions of the Mexicans, who tell us of white and bearded men, as related by Humboldt, who came from the sun, (as they supposed the Spaniards did,) changed or reduced the wandering millions of the woods to order and government, intro- duced among them the art of agriculture, a knowledge of metals, with that of architecture; so that when Columbus discovered America, it was filled with cities, towns, cultivated fields and coun- tries ; palaces, aqueducts, and roads, and highways of the nations, 44 346 * AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES equal with, if not exceeding, in some respects, even the people of the Roman countries, before the time of Christ. But as learning and a knowledge of the shape of the earth, in the times of the nations we have spoken of above, was not in gene- ral use among men ; and from incessant wars and revolutions of nations, what discoveries may have been made, were lost to man- kind ; so that some of the very countries once known, have in later ages been discovered over again. We will produce one instance of a discovery which has been lost— the land of Ophir — where the Tyrian fleets went for gold, in the days of Solomon. Where is it? The most learned do not know, cannot agree. It is lost as to identity. Some think it in Africa ; some in the islands of the South Atlantic, and some in South America ; and although it is, wherever it may be, undoubt- edly an inhabited country, yet as to certainty about its location, it is unknown. ANCIENT CHRONOLOGY OF THE ONGUYS OR IROQUOIS INDIANS. By David Cusick. In the traditions of the Tuscaroras published by Cusick in 1827, few dates are found ; but these few are, nevertheless, precious for history. A small volume has been printed this year by the Sunday School Union, on the History of the Delaware and the Iroquois Indians, in which their joint traditions are totally neglected, as usual with our actual book makers. Although Cusick's dates may be vague and doubtful, they de- serve attention, and they shall be noticed here. , Anterior to any date the Eagwehoewe, (pronounced Yayuyhohuy) meaning real people, dwelt north of the lakes, and formed only one nation. After many years a body of them settled on the river Ka- nawag, now the St. Lawrence, and after a long time a foreign peo- ple came by sea and settled south of the lake. First date. Towards 2500 winters before Columbus' discovery of America, or 1008 years before our era, total overthrow of the Towancas, nations of giants come from the north, by the king of th« Onguys, Donhtonha and the hero Yatatau. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 347 2d. Three hundred winters after, or 708 before our era, the northern nations form a confederacy, appoint a king, who goes to visit the great Emperor of the Golden City, south of the lakes ; but afterwards quarrels arise, and a war of 100 years with this empire of the south, long civil wars in the north, &c. A body of people escaped in the mountain of Oswego, &c 3d. 1500 years before Columbus, or in the year 8 of our era, Tarenyawagon, the first lsgislator leads his people out of the moun- tains to the river Yenouatateh, now Mohawk, where six tribes form an alliance called the Long-house, Agoneaseah. Afterwards reduced to five, the sixth spreading west and south. The Kautanoh since Tuscarora, came from this. Some went as far as the Onau- weyoka, now Mississippi. 4th. In 108 the Konearawyeneh, or Flying Heads, invade the Five Nations. 5th. In 242 the Shakanahih, or Stone Giants, a branch of the western tribe, become cannibals, return and desolate the country ; but they are overthrown and driven north by Tarenyawagon II. 6th. Towards 350 Tarenyawagon III. defeats other foes, called Snakes. 7th. # In 492 Atotarho I., king of the Onondagas, quells civil wars, begins a dynasty ruling over all the Five Nations, till Atotarho IX. who ruled yet in 1142. Events are since referred to their reigns. 8th. Under Atotarho II., a Tarenyawagon IV. appears to help him to destroy Oyalk-guhoer, or the Big-bear. 9th. Under Atotarho III. a tyrant, Sohnanrowah, arises on the Kaunaseh, now Susquehannah river, which makes war on, the Sah= wanug. 10th. In 602, under Atotarho IV., the Towancas, now Mississau- gers, cede to the Senecas the lands east of the River Niagara, who settle on it. 11th. Under Atotarho V. war between the Senecas and Otawahs of Sandusky. 12th. Towards 852 under Atotarho VI. the Senecas reach the Ohio river, compel the Otawahs to sue for peace. 18th. Atotarho VII. sent embassies to the west, the Kentakeh nation dwelt south of the Ohio, the Chipiwas on the Mississippi. 14th. Towards 1042, under Atotarho VIII., war with the To- wancas, and a foreign stranger visits the Tuscaroras of Neuse river s 348 i AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES who are divided into three tribes, and at war with the Nanticokes and Totalis. 15th. In 1143, under Atotarho IX., first civil war between the Erians of Lake Erie, sprung from the Senecas, and the Five Na- tions. Here end these traditions. C. S. RAFINESQUE. The foregoing is a curious trait of the ancient history of the wars and revolutions which have transpired in America. It would appear that at the time of the overthrow of the Tawan- cas, 1008 years before Christ, called in the tradition a nation of giants, that it was about the time the temple of Solomon was fin- ished ; showing clearly that as they had become powerful in this country they had settled here at a very early period, probably about the time of Abraham, within three hundred and forty years of the flood. The hero who conquered them was called Yatatan, king of the Onguys, names which refer them, as to origin, to the ancient Scyth- ians of Asia. Three hundred winters after this, or 708 years before Christ, about the time of the commencement of the Roman empire by Rom- ulus, the northern nations form a grand confederacy and appoint a king, who went on a visit to the great emperor of the Golden city, south of the western lakes. Were we to conjecture where this Golden city was situated, we should say on the Mississippi, where the Missouri forms a junction with that river, at or near St. Louis, as at this place and around its precincts are the remains of an immense population. This is likely the city to which the seven persons who were cast away on the island Estotiland, as before related, were carried to ; being far to the southwest from that island, supposed to be Newfoundland, — St. Louis being in that direction. This visit of Yalatan to the Golden city, it appears, was the occasion of a civil war of one hundred years, which ended in the ruin of the Golden city. A body of the citizens escaping, fled far to the east, and hid themselves in the mountains of Oswego, along the southern shores of Lake Ontario, where they remained about seven hundred years, till a great leader arose among them, called Tarenyawagon, who led them to settle on the Mohawk ; this was eight years after the birth of Christ- AND DISCOVERIES IS THE WEST. 349 These refugees from the Golden city, had now multiplied so that they had become several nations, whence the grand confederacy of six nations was formed. Upon these, a nation called Flying Heads made war but were unsuccessful ; also, in 242 years after Christ, a nation called Stone Giants, made an attempt to destroy them but ailed. They were successful in other wars against the Snake In- dians, a more western tribe. About the time of tho commencement of Mahomet's career in 602, a great tyrant arose on the Susquehannah river, who waged war with the surrounding nations, from which it appears, that while in Africa, Europe, and Asia, revolution succeeded revolution, em- pires rising on the ruins of empires, that in America the same scenes were acting on as great a scale ; cultivated regions, popu- lous cities and towns, were reduced to a wilderness, as in the other continents. EVIDENCE THAT A NATION OF AFRICANS, THE DESCEND- ANTS OF HAM, NOW INHABIT A DISTRICT OF S. AMERICA. By C. S. Rafinesque. The Yarura nation of the Oronoco regions, (also called Jarura, Jaros, Worrow, Guarau, &c.) is one of the darkest and ugliest in South America, some tribes of it are quite black like negroes and are called monkeys. They are widely spread from Guyana to Choco. The following 35 words of their language collected from Chili, Hervas and Vater, have enabled me to trace their origin to Africa. ^God Conomeh Anderh H Heaven Andeh Earth Dabu, Dahu Water Uy, Uvi River Nicua 1\Sun and day Dob Moon Goppeh &«■ Boeboe 350 1MBRICAN AN'HQUITISS Fire Soul Wood Plain 1\Bread Name Give Come Mayze II Man Woman Father Mother Head Eyes UNcse Tongue Feet Evil Being Our Will Power 1 2 ff3 Condeh Yuaneh Yuay Chiri Tarab, Tambeh Kuen Yero Manatedi Pueh Pumeb Ibi Aya Aini Pachu Yondeh Nappeh Topeno Tao Chatandra Abecbin. Conom Ibba Ea Beh Canameh Noeni Tarani Those marked IT or 7 out of 34 have some analogy with the Eng- lish, equal to 19 per cent. The language of the Gahunas, negroes of Choeo and Popayan has 50 per cent analogy with the Yarura, since out of 8 words to be compared, 4 are similar. God Conomeh Y Copamo G Man Pumeh Mehora One Canameh Amba Two Noeni Nunri While the Ashanty or Fanty, negro language widely spread in West Africa has 40 per cent of affinity with the Yarura or si^ words similar in fifteen comparable. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 351 Earth Dabu.y Dade A Mother Aini Mina Woman Ibi Bis Father Aya Aga Eyes Yondeh Ineweh Water Uy Uyaba This is the maximum in Africa. But the language of the Pa- puas of New Guinea in Polynesia has 50 per cent of Analogy, or six words out of twelve, which is the maximum with the Asiatic and Polynesic negroes. nr Pumeh Y ) . , -^ Mm MehoraGJ Ameneh P Woman Ibi Bienih Mother Aini Nana Water Uy Uar Evil Chatandra Tarada ^ Canameh ) A , , One AmbaG J Amboher It may have happened that the Gahunas came from the Papuas through the Pacific ; but the Yaruras from the Ashantis through the Atlantic : yet have been once two branches of a single black nation. u In support of the doctrine that the three sons of Noah were red, black and white, we bring the tradition of the Marabous, the priests of the most ancient race of Africans, which says that after the death of Noah his three sons one of whom was white, the second tawny or red, the third black, agreed to divide his property fairly, which consisted of gold and silver, vestments of silk, linen and wool, horses, cattle, camels, dromedaries, sheep and goats, arms, furniture, corn and other provisions, besides tobacco and pipes. " Having spent the greater part of the day in assorting these dif- ferent things, the three sons were obliged to defer the partition of the goods till the next morning. They therefore smoked a friendly pipe together, and there retired to rest, each in his own tent. 11 After some hours sleep, the white brother awoke before the other two, being moved by avarice, arose and seized the gold and iilver, together with the precious stones, and most beautiful vest- ments, and having loaded the best camels with them, pursued his 352 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES way to that country which his white posterity have ever since in- habited. " The Moor, or tawny brother, awaking soon afterwards, with the same intentions, and being surprised that he had been antici- pated by his white brother, secured in great haste the remainder of the horses, oxen and camels, and retired to another part of the world, leaving only some coarse vestments of cotton, pipes and to- bacco, millet, rice, and a few other things of but small value. " The last lot ef stuff fell to the share of the black son, the laziest of the three brothers, who took up his pipe with a melancholy air, and while he sat smoking in a pensive mood, swore to be revenged." — AnquetiVs Universal History, vol. 6, p. 117, 118. We have inserted this tradition, not because we think it circum- stantially true, with respect to the goods, &c, but because we find in it this one important trait, viz : The origin of human complex- ions in the family of Noah : and if the tradition is supposed alto- gether a fiction, we would ask, how came these Africans the most degraded and ignorant of the human race — by so important a trait of ancient history — as that such a man, with three sons, ever ex- isted, from whom the three races descended, if it were not so. DISAPPEARANCE OF MANY ANCIENT LAKES OF THE WEST, AND OF THE FORMATION OF SEA COAL. This description of American antiquities is more captivating than the accounts already given ; because to know that the millions of maukind, with their multifarious works, covering the vales of all our rivers, many of which were once the bottoms of immense lakes, and where the tops of the tallest forests peer to the skies, or where the towering spires of many a Christiau temple makes glad the heart of civilized man, and where the smoking chimnies of his widespread habitations— once sported the lake serpent, and the finny tribes, as birds passing in scaly waves along the horizon. We look to the soil where graze the peaceful flock ; to the fields where wave a thousand harvests ; to the air above, where play the AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 353 wings of innumerable fowls; and to the road where the sound of passing wheels denote the course of men ; and say, can this be so ? Was all this space once the home of the waves ? Where eels and shell fish once congregated in their houses of mud is now fixed the foundation of many a stately mansion, the dwell- ing of man. Such the mutation of matter, and the change of habi- tation ! We forbear to ramble farther in this field of speculation, which opens before us with such immensity of prospect, to give an ac- count of the disappearance of lakes supposed to have existed in the west. , To do this, we shall avail ourselves of the opinions of several distinguished authors, as Volney, in his travels in America ; School- craft, in his travels in the central parts of the valley of the Mis- sissippi ; and Professor Beck, in his Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri. We commence with the gifted and highly classical writer, C. F. Volney; who, although we do not subscribe to his notions of theology, yet as a naturalist we esteem him of the highest class, and his statements, with his deductions, to be worthy of attention. He commences by saying, that in the structure of the mountains of the United States, exists a fact more strikingly apparent than in any other part of the world, which must singularly have increased the action and varied the movements of the waters. If we atten- tively examine the land, or even the maps of this country, we must perceive that the principal chains or ridges of the Alieghanies, Blue Ridge, &c, all run in a transverse or cross direction, to the course of all the great rivers ; and that these rivers have been forced to rupture their mounds or barriers, and break through these ridges, in order to make their way to the sea from the bosoms of the valleys. This is evident in the Potomac, Susquehannah, Delaware and James rivers, and others, where they issue from the confines of the mountains to enter the lower country. But the example which most attracted his attention on the spot was that of the Potomac, three miles below the mouth of the She- nandoa. He was coming from Fredericktown, about twenty miles distant, and travelling from the southeast towards the northwest, through a woody country, with gentle ascents and descents. After 45 354 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES he had crossed one ridge, pretty distinctly marked, though by no means steep, began to see before him, eleven or twelve miles west- ward, the chain of the Blue Ridge, resembling a lofty rampart, covered with forests, and having a breach through it from top to bottom. He again descended into the undulating wood country, which separated him from it ; and at length, on approaching it, he found himself at the foot of this great mountainous rampart, which he had to cross, and ascertained to be about three hundred and fifty yards high, or one hundred and twenty rods, (nearly half a mile) deep. On emerging from the wood, he had a full view of this tremen- dous breach, which he judged to be about twelve hundred yards wide, or two hundred and twenty-five rods, which is about three fourths of a mile. Through the bottom of this breach ran the Po- tomac, leaving on its left a passable b[«k or slope, and on its right washing the foot of the breach. On both sides of the chasm, from top to bottom, many trees were then growing among the rocks, and in part concealed the place of the rupture ; but about two-thirds of the way up, on the right side of the river, a large perpendicular space remains quite baie, and displays plainly the traces and scars of the ancient land, or natural wall, which once dammed up this river, formed of gray quartz, which the victorious river has over- thrown, rolling its fragments a considerable distance down its course. Some large blocks that have resisted its force, still remain as testi- monials of the convulsion. The bed of this river, at this place, is rugged, with fixed rocks, which are, however, gradually wearing away. Its rapid waters boil and foam through these obstacles, which, for a distance of two miles form very dangerous falls or rapids. From the height of the mountain on each side of the river, and from attending circumstan- ces, the rapids below the gap and the narrows, for several miles above the immediate place of rupture, are sufficient evidence that at this place was originally a mountain dam to the river ; conse- quently a lake above must have been the effect, with falls of the most magnificent description, which had thundered in their descent from the time of Noah's flood till the rupture of the ridge took place. At the end of three miles he came to the confluence of the river Shenandoa, which issued out suddenly from the steep mountain of AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 355 the Blue Ridge. This river is but about one-third, as wide as the Potomac ; having, like that river, also broken through a part of the same ridge. He says, " the more he considered this spot and its circumstan- ces, the more he was confirmed in the belief that formerly the chain of the Blue Ridge, in its entire state, completely denied the Potomac a passage onward ; and that then all the waters of the up- per part of the river, having no issue, formed several considerable lakes. The numerous transverse chains that succeed each other beyond Fort Cumberland, could not fail to occasion several more west of North Mountain. " On the other hand, all the valley of the Shenandoa and Coni- gocheague, must have been the basin of a single lake, extending from Staunton to Chambersburg ; and as the level of the bills, even those from which these two rivers derive their source, is much below the chains of the Blue Ridge and North Mountain, it is evident that this lake must have been bounded at first only by the general line of the summit of these two great chains ; so that in the earliest ages it must have spread, like them, toward the south, as far as the great Alleghanies." At that period, the two upper branches of James river, equally bounded by the Blue Ridge, would have swelled it with all their waters ; while toward the north, the general level of the lake, find- ing no obstacles, must have spread itself between the Blue Ridge and the chain of Kittatinny, not only to the Susquehannah and Schuylkill, but beyond the Schuylkill, and even the Delaware. Then all the lower country, lying between the Blue Ridge and the sea, had only smaller streams, furnished by the eastern declivi- ties of that ridge, and the overflowing of the lake, pouring from its summit over the brow of the ridge ; in many places forming cas- cades of beauty, which marked the scenery of primeval landscape, immediately after the deluge. " In consequence, the. river there being less, and the land gene- rally more flat, the ridge of talc granite must have stopped the waters, and formed marshy lakes. The sea must have come up to the vicinity of this ridge, and there occasioned other marshes of the same kind, as the Dismal Swamp, near Norfolk;" being partly in the states of Virginia and North Carolina. " And if the reader re-, collect, the stratum of black mud mingled with osier and. trees^ 356 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES which is found every where in boring on the coast, he will see in it a proof of the truth of this hypothesis." But when the great embankment gave away, by the weight of the waters above, or by attrition, convulsion, or whatever may have been the cause of their rupture, the rush of the waters brought from above, all that stratum of earth now lying on the top of these subterranean trees, osiers and mud above noticed. " This operation must have been so much the easier, as Blue Ridge in general is not a homogeneous mass crystalized in vast strata, but a heap of detached blocks, of different magnitudes, mix- ed with vegetable mould, easily dinusable in water ; it is in fact a wall, the stones of which are imbedded in clay ; and as its declivi- ties are very steep, it frequently happens that thaws and heavy rains, by carrying away the earth, deprive the masses of stones of their support, and then the fall of one or more of these, occasions very considerable stone slips or avalanches, which continue sometimes for several hours. " From this circumstance, the falls from the lake must have act- ed with the more effect and rapidity. Their first attempts have left traces in those gaps with which the line of summits is indented from space to space, or from ridge to ridge. It may be clearly per- ceived on the spot, that these places were the first drains of the sur- plus waters subsequently abandoned for others, where the work of demolition was more easy. " It is obvious that the lakes flowing off must have changed the whole face of the lower country. By this were brought down all these earths of a secondary formation, that compose the present plain. The ridge of talcky granite, pressed by more frequent and voluminous inundations, gave way in several points, and its marshes added their mud to the black mud of the shore, which, at present, we find buried under the alluvial earth, afterward brought down by the enlarged rivers." In the valley between the Blue Ridge and North Mountain, the changes that took place were conformable to the mode in which the water flowed off. Several breaches ' having, at once or in succes- sion, given a passage to the streams of water now called James, Potomac, Susquehannah, Schuylkill and Delaware, their general and common reservoir was divided into as many distinct lakes, sep- arated by the risings of the ground that exceeded this level. Each AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 357 of these lakes had its particular drain, and this drain being at length worn down to the lowest level, the land was left completely un- covered. This must^ have occurred earlier with James, Susquehannah, and Delaware, because their basins are more elevated, and it must have happened more recently with the Potomac, for the opposite reason, its basin being the deepest of all." How far the Delaware then extended, the reflux of its waters toward the east, he could not ascertain; however, it appears its basin was bounded by the ridge that accompanies its left bank, and which is the apparent continuation of the Blue Ridge, and North Mountain. It is probable that its basin has always been separate from that of the Hudson, as it is certain that the Hudson has al- ways had a distinct basin, the limit and mound of which were above West-Point, at the place called the Highlands, commencing immediately below Newburgh. To every one who views this spot, it seems incontestible, that the transverse chain bearing the name of the Highlands, was for- merly a bar to the course of the entire river, and kept its waters at a considerable height ; and considering that the tide flows as far as ten miles above Albany, is the proof that the level above the ridge, was a lake, which reached as far as to the rapids on Fort Edward. At that time, therefore, the Cohoes, or falls of the Mohawk, did not appear, and till this lake was drained off through the gap at West-Point, the sound of those falls was not heard. The existence of this lake explains the cause of the alluvials, petrified shells 3 and strata of schist and clay, mentioned by Dr. Mitchell, and proves the justice of the opinions of this judicious observer, respecting the stationary presence of waters in ages past, along the valley of many of the American rivers. These ancient lakes, now drained by the rupture of their mounds, explains ano- ther appearance which is observed in the valley of such rivers as are supposed to have been once lakes, as the Tennessee, the Ken- tucky, the Mississippi, the Kanhaway, and the Ohio. This ap- pearance is the several stJges or flats observed on the banks of these rivers, and most of the rivers of America, as if the water once was higher than at subsequent periods, and by some means were drained off more ; so that the volume of water fell lower 358 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES when a new mark of embankment would be formed, marking tbe original heights of the shores of these rivers. In none is this appearance more perceptible than the Ohio, at the place called Cincinnati, or Fort Washington ; here the original or first bank is nearly fifty feet high, and runs along parallel with the river, at the distance of about seventy-five rods. The high floods sometimes even now overflow this first level. At other places the banks are marked, not with so high an an- cient shore, but then the lowness of the country, in such places, admitted the spread of the waters to the foot of the hills of nature. When we examine the arrangement of these flats, which are pre- sented in the form of stages along this river, we remain convinced that even tbe most elevated part of the plain, or highest level about Cincinnati, has been once the seat of waters, and even the primi- tive bed of the river, which appears to have had three different pe- riods of decline, till it has sunken to its present bed or place of its current. The first of the periods was the time when the transverse ridges of the hills, yet entire, barred up the course of the Ohio, and acting as mounds to it, kept the water level with their summits. All the country within this level was then one immense lake, or marsh of stagnant water. In lapse of time, and from ,the periodical action of the floods, occasioned by the annual melting of the snows, some feeble parts of the raound were worn away by the water. One of the gaps having at length given away to the current, the whole effort of the waters was collected in that pijint, which soon hollowed out for itself a greater deptVi, and thus sunk the lake se- veral yards. The first operation uncovered the upper or first level on which the waters had stood, from the time of the subsiding of the deluge, till the first rupture took place. From the appearance of the shores of the river, it seems to have maintained its position after the first draining some length of lime, so as distinctly to mark the position of the waters when a second draining took place, because the waters had, by their action, re- moved whatever may have opposed the first attempt to break down their mound or barrier. The third and last rent of the barrier took place at length, when the fall of the water became more furious, being now more concen- trated, scooped ont for itself a narrower and deeper channel, which AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- $59 is its present bed, leaving all the immense alluvial regions of the Ohio bare, and exposed to the rays of the sun. It is probable that the Ohio has been obstructed at more places than one, from Pittsburgh to the rapids of Louisville* as that below Silver creek, about five miles from the rapids of the Ohio, and towards Galliopolis and the Scioto, several transverse chains of mountains exist, very capable of answering this purpose. Volney says it was not till his return from Fort Vincent, on the Wabash, that he was struck with the disposition of a chain of hills below Silver creek. This ridge crosses the basin of the Ohio from north to south, and has obliged the river to change its direction from the east toward the west, to seek an issue, which in fact it finds at the confluence of Salt river ; and it may even be said, that it required the copious and rapid waters of this river and its numerous branches, to force the mound that opposed its way at this place. The steep declivity of these ridges requires about a quarter of an hour to descend it by the way of the road, though it is good and commodious, and by comparison with other hills around, he con- ceived the perpendicular height to be about four hundred feet, or twenty-five rods. The summit of those hills, when Volney exa- mined them, " was too thickly covered with wood for the lateral course of the chain to be seen ;" but, so far as he could ascertain, " perceived that it runs very far north and south, and closes the ba- sin of the Ohio throughout its whole breadth." This basin, viewed from the summit of this range, exhibits the appearance and form of a lake so strongly, that the idea of the an- cient existence of one here is indubitable. Other circumstances tend to confirm this idea, for he observed from this chain to White river, eight miles from Fort Vincent, that the country is interspersed by a number of ridges, many of them steep, and even lofty ; they are particularly so beyond Blue Ridge, and on both banks of White river, and their direction is every where such, that they meet the Ohio transversely. On the other hand, he found at Louisville that the south or Ken- tucky bank of the river, corresponding to them, had similar ridges ; so that in this part is a succession of ridges capable of opposing powerful obstacles to the waters. It is not till lower down the river that the country becomes flat, and the ample savannahs of the Wa- &60 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES bash and Greeii river commence, which extending to the Mississippi, exclude every idea of any other mound or barrier to the waters on that side of the river. There is another fact in favor of u these western rivers having been, in many places, lakes, found in this country ; and is noticed as a great singularity. In Kentucky, all the rivers of that country flow more slowly near their sources than at their mouths ; which is directly the reverse of what takes place in most rivers of other parts of the world ; whence it is inferred that the upper bed of the rivers of Kentucky is a flat country, and that the lower bed, at the en- trances of the vale of the Ohio, is a descending slope." Now this perfectly accords with the idea of an ancient lake ; for at the time when this lake extended to the foot of the Alleghanies, its bottom, particularly towards its mouth, must have been nearly smooth and level, its surface being broken by no action of the wa- ters ; but when the mounds or hills, which confined this tranquil body of water, were broken down, the soil* laid bare, began to be furrowed and cut into sluices by its drains, and when at length the current became concentrated ia the vale of the Ohio, and de- molished its dyke more rapidly, the soil of this vale washed away with violence, leaving a vast channel, the slopes of which occasion- ed the waters of the plain to flow to it more quickly ; and hence this current, which, notwithstanding the alterations that have been going on ever since, have continued more rapid to the present day." " Admitting, then, that the Ohio has been barred up, either by the chain of Silver creek, or any other contiguous to it, a lake of great extent must have been the result. From Pittsburgh the ground slopes so gently that the river, when low, does not run two miles an hour ; which indicates a fall of four inches to the mile. tl The whole distance from Pittsburgh to the rapids of Louisville, following all the windings of the river, does not exceed six hundred miles. From these data we have a difference of level amounting to two hundred feet," which does not exceed the elevation of the ranges of hills supposed to have once dammed up the Ohio river at that place. Such a mound could check the waters and turn them back as far as to Pittsburgh. Such having been the fact, what an immense space of the west- ern country must have lain under water, from the subsiding of the AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 361 Hood till this mound was broken down. This is made apparent by the spring freshets of the Ohio, at the present time, which rising only to the height of fifty feet, keeps back the water of the Great Miami, as far as Greenville, a distance of seventy miles up the country to the north, where it occasions a stagnation of that river, and even an inundation of its shores to a great extent." In the vernal inundations, the north branch of the Great Miami forms but one with the south branch of the Miami ; the space be- tween becomes one body of water. " The south branch runs into Lake Erie, and is sometimes called St. Mary's river. The carry- ing place or portage between the heads of these two rivers is but three miles, and in high water the space can be passed over in a boat, from the one which runs into the Ohio to the other which runs into Lake Erie." This Mr. Volney states to have been the fact, as witnessed by himself on the spot, in the year 1796 ; so near are all these waters on a level with each other. He says, that " during the year 1792, a mercantile house at Fort Detroit, which is at the head of Lake Erie despatched two canoes, which passed immediately, without carrying, from the river Huron, running into Lake Erie, to Grand river, which runs into Lake Michigan, by the waters overflowing at the head of each of these rivers. The Muskingum, which runs into the Ohio, also communicates, by means of its sources and of small lakes, with the waters of the river Cayahoga, which flows into Lake Erie." From all these' facts united, it follows that the surface of the level country between Lake Erie and the Ohio, cannot exceed the level of the flat next to the water of the Ohio more than one hundred feet, nor that of the second flat or level, which is the general surface of the country, more than seventy feet ; consequently, a mound, or range of mountain, of two hundred feet, at Silver creek, six hun- dred miles down the Ohio from Pittsburgh, would have been suffi- cient to keep back its waters, not only as far as Lake Erie, but even to spread them from the last slopes of the Alleghanies, to the north of Lake Superior. " But whatever elevation we allow this natural monnd, or if we suppose there were several in different places, keeping back the water in succession, the existence of sedentary waters in this west- €fa country, and ancient lakes, such as we have pointed out be- 46 362 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES tween Blue Ridge and North Mountain, is not the less an incontro- vertible fact, as must appear to every one who contemplates the country ; and this fact explains, in a simple and satisfactory manner, a number of local circumstances, which, on the other hand, serve as proofs of the fact. For instance, these ancient lakes explain why, in every part of the basin of the Ohio, the land is always le- velled in horizontal beds or different heights ; why these beds are placed in the order of their specific gravity ; and why we find in various places the remains of trees, of osier, and of other plants. They also happily and naturally account for the formation of the immense beds of seacoal found in the western country, in certain situations and particular districts. In fact, from the researches which the inhabitants have made, it appears that the principal seat of coal is above Pittsburgh, in the space between the Laurel moun- tain and the rivers Alleghany and Monongahela, where exists, al- most throughout, a stratum, at the average depth of twelve and six- teen feet. This stratum is supported by the horizontal bed of cal- careous stones, and covered with strata of schists and slate ; it rises and falls with these on the hills and in the valleys, being thicker as it rises with the hills, but thinner in the vales. " On considering its local situation, we see it occupies the lower basin of the two rivers we have mentioned, and of their branches, the Yohogany and Kiskemanitaus, all of which flow through a nearly fiat country, into the Ohio below Pittsburgh. " Now on the hypothesis of the great lake of which we have spoken, this part will be found to have been originally the lower extremity of the lake, and the part where its being kept back would have occasioned still water. It is admitted by naturalists that coal is formed of heaps of trees carried away by rivers and floods., and afterwards covered with earth." These heaps are not accumulated in the course of the stream, but in parts out of it, where they are left to their own weight ; which becomes saturated with water, within a sufficient lapse of time, so as to increase their gravity sufficient to sink to the depths below. " This process may be observed, even now, in many river of America, particularly in the Mississippi, which annually carries along with its current a great number of trees. Some of these trees are deposited in the bays and eddies, and there left in still AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 863 water to sink; but the greater part reach the borders of the ocean, where the current being balanced by the tide, they are rendered stationary and buried under the mud and sand, by the double ac- tion of the stream of the river and the reflux of the sea. " In the same manner, anciently, the rivers that flow from the Alleghany and Laurel mountains into the basin of the Ohio, find- ing, towards Pittsburgh, the dead waters and tail of the great lake, there deposited the trees and drift wood which they still carry away by thousands, when the frost breaks up, and the snows melt in the spring. These trees were accumulated in strata, level as the fluid that bore them ; and the mound of the lakes sinking grad- ually, as we have before explained, its tail was likewise lowered by degrees, and the place of deposit changed as the lake receded ; forming that vast bed which, in the lapse of ages, has been subse- quently covered with earth and gravei, and acquired the mineral qualities of coal, the state in which we find it. " Coal is found in several other parts of the United States, and always in circumstances analogous to those we have just described* In the year 1784, at the mouth of the rivulet Laminskicola, which runs into the Muskingum, the stratum of coal there took fire, and burnt for a whole year. This mine is a part of the mass of which we have been speaking ; and almost all the great rivers that run into the Ohio, must have deposits of this kind in their flat and long levels, and in the places of their eddies. " The upper branches of the Potomac, above and to the left of Fort Cumberland^ have been celebrated some years for their strata of coal embedded along their shores, so that boats can lie at their banks and load. " Now this part of the country has every appearance of having been once a lake, produced by one or more of the numerous trans- verse ridges that bound the Potomac, above and below Fort Cum- berland. " la Virginia, the bed of James river rests on a very considerable bed of coal. At two or three places where shafts have been sunk, on its left bank, after digging a hundred and twenty feet through red clay, a bed of coal, about twenty-four feet thick, has been found, on an inclined stratum of granite. It is evident that at the rapids, lower down, where the course of the river is still checked, it was once completely obstructed : and then there must have been a standing water, and very probably a lake." 364 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES "The reader will observe, that wherever there is a rapid, a stag* nation takes place in the sheet of water above, just as there is at s mill head ; consequently the drifted trees must have accumulated there, and when the outlet of the lake had hollowed out for itself a gap, and sunk its level, the annual floods brought down with them and deposited the red clay now found there; as it is evident that' this clay was brought from some other place, for the earth of such a quality belongs to the upper part of the course of the river, par- ticularly to the ridge called Southwest. " It is possible that veins or mines of coal, not adapted to this- theory, may be mentioned or discovered on the coast of the Atlan- tic. But one or more such instances will not be sufficient to sub- vert this theory ; for the whole of this coast, or all the land between the ocean and the Alleghanies, from the St. Lawrence to the West Indies, has been destroyed by earthquakes ; the traces of which are every where to be seen, and these earthquakes have altered the ar- rangement of strata throughout the whole of this space." This account, as given by Breckenride, of the appearance of a portion of the country between two forks of a small branch of the Arkansas river favors this supposition. " There is a tract of country," he says, " of about seventy-five miles square, in which nature has displayed a great variety of the most strange and whimsical vagaries. It is an assemblage of beau- tiful meadows, verdant ridges, and misshapen piles of red clay, thrown together in the utmost apparent confusion ; yet affording the most pleasing harmonies, and presenting in every direction an end- less variety of curious and interesting objects. " After winding along for a few miles on the high ridges, you suddenly descend an almost perpendicular declivity of rocks and clay, into a series of level, fertile meadows, watered hy some beau- tiful rivulets, and here and there adorned with shrubbery, cotton trees, elms and cedars. " These natural meadows are divided by chains formed of red clay, and huge masses of gypsum, with here and there a pyramid of gravel. One might imagine himself surrounded by the ruins of some ancient city, and the plains to have been sunk by some con- vulsions of nature, more than a hundred feet below its former level, for some of the huge columns of red clay rise to the height of two hundred feet perpendicular, capped with rocks of gypsum." This is supposed to have been the work of an earthquake. AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- S6l Thus far we have given the view of this great naturalist (Volney) respecting the existence of ancient lakes to the west, and of the formation of the strata of sea coal in those regions. If then it be allowed that timber being deposited deep in the earth, becomes the origin of that mineral, we discover at once the chief material which feeds the internal fires of the globe. The earth, at the era of the great deluge being covered with an immensity of forests, more than it now presents, furnished the ma- terial, when sunk and plunged to the unknown depths of the then soft and pulpy globe, for exhaustless strata of sea coal. This, by some means, having taken fire, continues to burn, and descending deeper and deeper, spreading farther and farther, till the conquerless element has even under sunk the ocean ; from whence it frequently bursts forth in the very middle of the sea, ac- companied with all the grandeur of display and phenomena of fire and water, mingled in unbounded warfare. This internal opera- tion of fire feeding on the unctious minerals of the globe, among which, as chief, is seacoal, becomes the parent of many a new isl- and, thrown up by the violence of that clement. We counot but call to recollection in this place, the remarkable allusion of Isaiah at chap, xxx., 33, which is so phrased as al- most induces a belief that he had reference to this very circum- stance, that of the internal fires of the globe being fed by wood car- bonated or turned to coal. " For Tophet is ordained of old. * * He hath made it deep and large ; the pile thereof is fire and much wood ; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone doth kin- dle it." Various accidents are supposeable by which seacoal may have, at first, taken fire, so as to commence the first volcano ; and in its operations to have ignited other mineral substances, as sulphur, saltpetre, bitumen, and salts of various kinds. An instance of the ignition of seacoal by accident, is mentioned in Dr. Beck's Gazet- teer, to have taken place on a tract of country called the American Bottom, situated between the Kaskaskia river and the mouth of the Missouri. On this great alluvion, which embraces a body of land equal to five hundred square miles, seacoal abounds, and was first discovered in a very singular manner. In clearing the ground of its timber, a tree took fire which was standing and was dry, which 366 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES communicated to the roots, but continued to burn much longer than was sufficient to exhaust the free, roots and all. But upon examination, it was found to have taken hold of a bed of coal, which continued to burn until the fire was smothered by the falling in of a large body of earth, which the fire had under- mined by destroying the coal and causing a cavity. This is a vol- cano in miniature, and how long it might have continued its rava- ges with increased violence, is unknown, had it not have so oppor- tunely been extinguished. But this class of strata of that mineral lies, of necessity, much deeper in many places than any other of the kind, deposited since the flood, by the operation of rivers and lakes. If, as we have sup- posed in this volume, the earth, previous to the flood of Noah, had a greater land surface than at the present time, we find in this sup- position a sufficiency of wood, the deposition of which being thrown into immense heaps by the whirls, waves and eddies of the waters, to make whole subterranean ranges of this coal equal in size to the largest and longest mountains of the globe. . These ranges, in many places, rise even above the ordinary sur- face of the land, having been bared 3 since the flood, by the violence of convulsions occasioned by both volcanic fires and the irruptions of bodies of water and incessent rains. If those philosophers who affect to despise the writings of Moses, as found in the Book of Genesis, who has given us an account of the deluge, would think of this fact, the origin of seacoal, they could not but subscribe to this one account at least, which that book has given of the flood. The insignificant depositions of timber, occasioned by the draw- ing off of lakes, or change of water courses, since the flood, can- not be supposed to be in sufficient quantities to furnish the vast magazines of this mineral, compared with that of the universal flood. These strata of coal appearing too in such situation as to preclude all idea of their having been formed by the operation of water since the flood, so that we are driven, by indubitable deduction of fair and logical argument, to resort to just such an occurance as the deluge, the account of which is given by Moses in the Scrpiture. So that if there were never an universal flood, as stated in the Bible, the ingenuity of sceptical philosophy would be sadly per- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 367 plexed as well as all others, to account for the deposition of wood enough to furnish all the mines of this article found over the whole earth, in its several locations. If another flood were to drown the world, its deposits of timber could not equal, by one half, the deposits of the Noachian deluge, on account of the land surface of the earth having, under the influ- ence of that flood, been greatly diminished. If it be truly said in the Bible, that the earth perished by water, and also that the foun- tains of the great deep, (subterranean seas,) were broken up, we arrive at the conclusion, that there was more wood devoted to the purpose of coal creation, because there wbs, it is likely, double the quantity of surface of dry land for the forest to grow upon. FURTHER REMARKS ON THE DRAINING OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY OF ITS ANCIENT LAKES. In corroboration of the theory of Mr. Volney on this subject, we give the brief remarks of that accurate and pleasing writer, Mr. Schoolcraft, w r ell known to the reading class of the public. He says, while treating on the subject of the appearance of the two prints of human feet, in the limestone strata along the shore of the Mississippi, at St. Louis : " May we not suppose a barrier to have once existed across the lower part of the Mississippi, converting its immense valley into an interior sea, whose action was adequate to the production and deposition of calcareous strata. We do not consider such a" supposition incompatible with, the existence of transition rocks in this valley; the position of the latter being be- neath the secondary. Are not the great northern lakes the remains of such an ocean ? And did not the sudden demolition of this an- cient barrier enable this powerful stream to carry its banks, as it has manifestly done, a hundred miles into the gulf of Mexico. We think such an hypothesis much more probable, than that the every-day deposits of this river should have that effect on the gulf. We have been acquainted with the mouths of the Mississippi for more thau a century ; and yet its several channels, to all appear- ance, are essentially the same as when first discovered. $68 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Favoring the same position, or theory, we give from Dr. Beckys Gazetteer, a quotation from Silliman's Journal, 3d volume, quoted by that author from Bringier, on the Region of the Mississippi, who says, that " between White river and the Missouri, are three paral- lel prophyry ranges, running circularly from the west to the north- east. These three mountains are twenty-eight miles across, and seem to have been above water, when the whole country around was covered by an ocean." At the foot of one of these ranges was found the tooth of some tremendous monster, supposed to be the mammoth, twice as large as assy found at the Big-bone lick. An account of this creature, so far as we are able to give it, has already been done, commencing on page 144 to 150 inclusive, of this work ; yet we feel it incum- bent to insert a recent discovery respecting this monster, which we had not seen when those pages went to press. The account is as follows : There were lately dug up at Massillion, Starke county, Ohio, two large tusks, measuring each nine feet six inches in length, and eight inches diameter, being two feet in girth at the largest ends. The weight of one is as much as two men could lift. The outside covering is as firm and hard as ivory, but the inner parts were con- siderably decayed. They were found in a swamp, about two feet below the surface, and were similar to those found some time ago at Bone-lick, in Kentucky, the size of which animal, judging from the bones found, was not less than sixty feet k length, and twenty- two in height, and twelve across the hips. Each tooth of the crea- ture's mouth which was found weighed eleven pounds.-— Clearfield Banner, 1832. This is, indeed, realizing the entire calculation made by Adam Clarke the commentator, who tells, as before remarked, that haviflg examined one toe of the creature supposed to be the mammoth, he found it of sufficient size and length to give, according to the rule of animal proportion, an animal at least sixty feet in length, and twenty-five feet high. It would seem that in nature, whether of animate or inanimate things, each has its giant. Of the materials composing the globe, the waters are the giant ; among the continents, Asia ; among fishes, the whale ; among serpents, the great Li Boa, of Africa ; among AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 369 quadrupeds, the mammoth ; among birds, the condor; among men, the Patagonians ; among trees, the banyan of the east ; among herbs, the mustard of Palestine. But among quadrupeds, the giant of that section of nature, it would appear, has become extinct, by what means is unknown : whether a change in the climate, a want of food— whether by disease or the arts of the ancient nations — all is locked in the fathomless depths of oblivion. The animal, however, must have come down, in its species from the very outset of time, with all other animals. A male and female of this enormous beast must have been saved in the ark ; but it is likely the Divine Providence directed a pair that were young, and therefore not as large and ferocious as such as were full grown would be. The finding of this animal in America is, it would appear, incontrovertible evidence that the continent was, at some period, united with the old world at some place or places, as has been contended in this work ; as so large an animal could nei- ther have been brought hither by men, in any sort of craft hitherto known, except the ark ; nor could they have swam so far, even if they were addicted to the water. But to return to the subject of western lakes. How great a lapse of time took place from the subsiding of the flood of Noah, till the bursting away of the several barriers is unknown. The emptying out of such vast bodies of water, as held an almost bound- less region of the west in a state of complete submergency, must of necessity have raised the Atlantic, so as to envelope in its increase many a fair and level country along its coasts, both on this continent and those of Europe and Africa. In such an emerency, all islands which were low on the surface, and not much elevated above the sea, must have been drowned, or parts of them, so that their hills, if any they had, would only be left, a sad and small memorial of their ancient domains. It may have been, that the rush of these mighty waters from the west, flowing to the sea at once, down the channels of so many ri- vers, which at first broke up and enveloped the land between the range of the West India islands and the shores of the Gulf of Mex- ico. It is conjectured by naturalists, that the time was when those islands were in reality the Atlantic coast of the continent. Some convulsion, therefore, must have transpired to bring about so great a change, 47 370 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES If, as Schoolcraft lias suggested, the Mississippi, in bursting down its barriers, drove the earthy matter which accompanied it in that occurrence a hundred miles into the sea, it may well be sup- posed that if all that space, now the gulf, was then a low tract of country, which is natural to suppose, as its shores are so now, that it was overwhelmed, while the higher parts of the coast, now the West India islands, are all that remains of that drowned country. The Gulf of Mexico is full of low islands, scarcely above the le- vel of the sea, which have been, from the earliest history of that coast, the resort of pirates. Their peculiar situation in this respect, would favor the opinion, that the once low and level shores were, by the rush and overflowing of the waters, buried to a great extent in the country, leaving above water every eminence, which are now the islands of the gulf. From an examination of the lakes Seneca, Cayuga and Erie, it is evident from their banks, that anciently the water stood in them ten and twelve feet higher than at present ; these also, therefore, have been drained a second time since those of which we have been speaking, of which these were once a part. It is evident from" the remarks of Breckenridge, which are the result of actual observations of that traveller, that there was for- merly an outlet from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, by the way of the Illinois river, which heads near the southern end of that lake. This is supported by the well known facts, that the waters of all the lakes drained by the St Lawrence, has sunk many feet. The Illinois shows plainly the marks of having once conveyed a much greater body of water between its shores than at the present time. All the western lakes, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Lake of the Woods, Erie, Seneca, Cayuga, and many lesser ones, are the mere remnants of the great inland sea which once existed in this region, and the tiraie may come, when all these lakes will be again drained off to the north by the way of the St. Lawrence, and to the south by other rivers, to the sea, adding a country of land freed in a mea- sure from these waters ? as great in extent as ail the lakes put to- gether. It is believed by the most observing naturalists, that the falls of Niagara were once as low down the river as where Queeustown is situated, which is six or eight miles below the fall. If so, the time may come, and none can tell how soon, when the falls shall have AND DISCOVEftlES IN THE WEST. 871 worn through the stone ridge or precipice, over which the Niagara is precipitated, and coming to a softer barrier of mere earth, the power of the water would not be long in rending for itseh' a more level channel, extending to the foot of Lake Erie, on an inclined plane of considerable steepness. One shock of an earthquake, such as happened in Virginia, in the vicinity of the coal mines, 1833, would probably fracture the falls of Niagara, so as to force the wa- ters in its subterranean work, and undermine the falls. This would affect Lake Erie, causing an increased current in its waters, and the lowering of its bed, which would also have the same effect on lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior, with all the rest of a lesser magnitude, changing them from the character they now bear, which is that of lakes, to that of mere rivers, like the Ohio. In the mean time, Ontario would become enlarged, so as to rise, perhaps, to a level with the top of the falls, which is one hun- dred- and fifty feet. Lake Ontario is but about one hundred and fifty feet below the city of Utica, and Utica is four hundred feet above the valley of the Hudson river ; consequently, deducting the hundred and fifty feet, which is the fall of land from the long level, as it is called, on which Utica stands, to the lake, there will be left two hundred and fifty feet elevation of Lake Ontario above the vale of the Hudson. That lake, therefore, need to be raised but a little more than one hundred and fifty fettt^ when it would immediately inundate a greater part of the state of New- York, as well as a part of Upper and all of Lower Canada, till the waters should be carried off by the way of the several rivers now existing, on the easterly and southerly side of the lake, and by new channels, such a catastro- phe would most certainly cut for itself, in many directions, in its" descent to the Atlantic. §|But we trust such an occurrence may never take place ; yet it is equally possible, as was the draining of the more ancient lakes of the west. And however secure the ancient inhabitants may have felt themselves, who had settled below the barriers, yet that inland sea suddenly took up its line of march, to wage war with, or to be- come united to, its counterpart, the Atlantic, and in its travel bore away the country, and the nations dwelling thereon. It is scarcely to be doubted, but the same effects were experi- enced by the ancient inhabitants settled between the Euxine or 372 , AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES Black sea and the Mediterranean, and the whole coast of that in- land ocean, where its shores were skirted by low countries. It is stated by Euclid, in a conversation that philosopher had with Anacharsis, of whom we have before spoken in this work, that the Black sea was once entirely surrounded by natural em- bankments, but that many rivers running into it from Europe and Asia, at length overflowed its barriers, cutting for itself a deep chan- nel, tore out the whole distance from its own shore to that of the Archipelago, a branch of the Mediterranean, which is something more than a hundred miles, now called the Bosphorus. It is not impossible but from the rush of all these waters at once, into the Mediterranean, that at that time the isthmus which united Europe and Africa where now is situated the Strait of Gibraltar, was then torn away. It is true that the ancients attributed this se- paration to the power of Hercules, which circumstance, though we do not believe in the strength of this Grecian hero, points out clearly that an isthmus once was there. By examining the map of the Blaek sea, we rind that beside the outlet of the Bosphorus, there is none other ; so that previous to the time of that rupture it had no visible outlet. Some internal con- vulsions, therefore, must have taken place, so that its subterranean channels became obstructed, and caused it at once to overflow its lowest embankment, which it appears was toward the Archipelago, or the west. The Caspian sea, in the same country, has no outlet, though many large rivers flow into it. If, therefore, this body of water, which is nearly 700 miles long, and nearly 300 wide, were to be deranged in its subterranean outlets, it would also soon overflow at its lowest points, which is also on its western side, at its southern end, and rushing on between the Georgian or Circassian and Tau- rus mountains, would plough for itself a channel to the Black sea. From this view, the rupturing of the ancient embankments of lakes in Europe, Asia and America, it appears that the waters of the Atlantic are now, of necessity, much deeper than anciently; on which account many fair countries and large islands, once thickly peopled, and covered with cities, towns and cultivated regions, lie now where sea monsters sport above them, while whole tracts of country once merged in other parts of the earth beneath the waters, have lifted hills and Jales to the light and influence of the sun, and AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST- 373 spread out the lap of happy countries, whereon whole nations of men now live, where once the wind drove onward the terrific billows. CAUSES OF THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS, But what has finally become of these nations, and where are their descendants, are questions, which, could they be answered, would be highly gratifying. On opening a mound, below Wheeling on the Ohio, a few years since, a stone was found, having on it a brand exactly similar to the one commonly used by the Mexican nations in marking their cattle and horses. From this it is evident, that the ancient nations were not savages, or a trait of the domestication of animals would not be found in the country, they once inhabited. The head of the Sustajases, or Mexican hog, cut off square, was found in a saltpetre cave in Ken- tucky not long since by Dr. Brown. This circumstance is men- tioned by Dr. Drake, in his " Picture of Cincinnati." The nitre had preserved it. ' It had been deposited there by the ancient in- habitants where it must have lain for ages. This animal is not found, it is said, north of the Mexican coun- try, the northern line of which, is about on the 40th degree of north latitude, and the presumption is that the inhabitants took these ani- mals along with them in their migrations, until they finally settled in Mexico. Other animals, as the elk, the moose and the buffa- lo were doubtless domesticated by them, and used for agricultural purposes, as the ox, the horse and various other animals are now in use among us. The wild sheep of Oregon, Louisama, California and the Rocky Mountains, the same found in the north of Asia. May be the remnants of the flocks of that animal once domesticated all over these regions, by those people, and used for food. One means of their disappearance may have been the noxious effluvia which would inevitably arise from the bottoms of those vast bodies of water, which must have had a pestilential effect on S74 ItrilfCJbf ANTIQUITIES the people settled ground them. This position needs no elucida- tion, as it is known that the heat of the sun, in its action on swamps and marshy grounds, fills the region round them with a deathly seent, acting directly on the economy and constitution of the hu- man subject, while animals of coarser habits escape. Who has not experienced this on the sudden draining of stag- nant waters, or even those of a mill pond. The reason is, the filth settled at the bottoms of such places, becomes exposed by having the cover taken away, which w;s the waters, and the winds imme- diately wafting the deleterions vapors ; "the surrounding atmosphere becomes corrupted ; disease follows with death in its train. But on the sudden draining of so great a body of water, from such immense tracts of land, which had been accumulating filth, formed of decayed vegetation and animals, from the time of the deluge till their passage off at that time, the stench must have been beyond all conception, dreadful. Such is the fact on the subsiding of the waters of the Nile in Egypt, which, after having overflown the whole valley of that riv- er, about 500 miles in length, and from 15 to 25 in width, leaves an insufferable stench, and is the true origin of the plague, which sweeps to eternity annually, its thousands in that country. It is not, therefore 9 impossible nor improbable, but by this very means, the ancient nations settled round these waters, may have, indeed, been exterminated ; or if they were not exterminated, must have been exceedingly reduced in numbers, so as to induce the re- sidue to flee from so dangerous a country, far to the south, or any where, from the effects of the dreadful effluvia, arising from the newly exposed chasms and gulfs. Such, also, would be the effect on the present inhabitants, should the falls of Niagara at length undermine and wear down that strata of rock over which it now plunges, and drain the lakes of the west, the remnant of the greater bodies of water which once rested there. In the event of such a catastrophe, it would be natural, that the waters should immediately flow into the head water channels of all the rivers northeast and south from Lake Ontario, after coming on a level with the beads of the short streams passing into that lake on its easterly side. The rivers running southeast and north from that part of Lake^ Ontario as high up as the village of Lyons, are a part of the Che- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 375 inung, the Chenango, the Unadilla, the Susquehannah, the Dela- ware, the Mohawk, the Schoharie, the Au Sable, and the St. Law- rence, with all their smaller head water streams. The vallies of these streams would become the drains of such a discharge of the western lakes, overwhelming and sweeping away all the works of men in those directions, as well as in many other directions, where the lowness of the country should be favorable to a rush of the waters, leaving isolated tracts of high lands, with the mountains as islands, till the work of submersion should be over. All this, it is likely, will appear extremely visionary, but it should not be forgotten, that we have predicated it on the supposed demo- lition of Niagara falls, which is as likely to ensue, as that the bar- riers of the ancient lakes should have given away, where the re- spective falls of the rivers which issued from them, poured over their precipices. " Whoever will examine all the circumstances," says Volney, " will clearly perceive, that at the place where the village of Queenstown now stands, the fall at first commenced, and that the river, by sawing down the bed of the rock, has hollowed out the chasm, and continued carrying back its breach, from age to age, till it has at length reached the spot where the cascade now is. There it continues its secular labors with slow but incessant ac- tivity. The oldest inhabitants of the country remember having seen the cataract several paces beyond its present place." The frosts of winter have the effect continually of cracking the project- ing parts of the strata, and the thaws of spring, with the increased powers of the augmented waters, loosen, and tumble large Mocks of the rock into the chasm below. Dr. Barton, who examined the thickness of the stratum of stone, and estimates it at sixteen feet, believes it rests on that of blue schist, which he supposes forms the bed of the river, as well as the falls, up to the Erie. " Some ages hence, if the river, continuing its untiring operations, may cease to find the calcareous rock that now checks it, and finding a softer strata, the fall will ultimately arrive at Lake Erie ; and then one of those great desications will take place, of which the valleys of the Potomac, Hudson, and Ohio, afford instances in times past." 376 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES LAKE ONTARIO FORMED BY A VOLCANO, Though the northern parts of America have been known to us but about two centuries, yet this interval, short as it is in the an- nals of nature, has already, says Volney, been sufficient to convince us, by numerous examples, that earthquakes must have been fre- quent and violent here, in times past. And that they have been the principal cause of the derangements of which the Atlantic coast presents such general and striking marks. To go back no farther than the year 1628, the time of the arri- val of the first English settlers, and end with 1782, a lapse of 154 years, in which time there occurred no less than forty-five earth- quakes. These were always preceded by a noise resembling that of a violent wind, or of a chimney on fire ; they often threw down chimnies, sometimes even houses, and burst open doors and win- dows ; suddenly dried up wells, and even several brooks and streams of water ; imparting to the waters a turbid color, and the fcetied smell of liver of sulphur, throwing up out of great chinks, sand with a similar smell- The shocks of these earthquakes seem- ed to proceed from an internal focus, which raised the earth up from below, the principal line of which run northeast and southwest, following the course of the River Merrimack, extending southward to the Potomac, and northward beyond the St. Lawrence, particu- larly affecting the direction of Lake Ontario. Respecting these earthquakes, Volney says, he was indebted to a work written by a Mr. Williams, from whose curious researches he had derived the most authentic records. But the language and phrases he employs are remarkable, says Mr. Volney, for the analo- gy they bear to local facts, noticed by himself, respecting the ap- pearance of schists on the shores of Lake Erie ; and about the fails of Niagara ; and by Dr. Barton, who supposed it to form the bed on which the rock of the falls rests. He quotes him as follows : — " Did not that smell of liver sul- phur, imparted to the water and sand vomited up from the bowels of the earth through great chinks, originate from the stratum of schist which we found at Niagara, beneath the limestone, and which AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 377 when submitted to the action of fire, emits a strong smell of sul- phur .>" It is true, says Volney, that this is but one of the elements of the substance mentioned, composing schist, but an accurate analy- sis might detect the other. This stratum of schist is found under the bed of the Hudson, and appears in many places in the states of New- York and Pennsylvania, among the sand stones and granites ; and we have reason to presume that it exists round Lake Ontario, and beneath Lake Erie, and consequently, that it forms one of the floors of the country, in which was the. principal focus of the earth- quakes mentioned by Mr. Williams. The line of this focus running northwest and southeast, particu- larly affected the direction of the Atlantic to Lake Ontario. This predilection is remarkable, on account of the singular structure of this lake. The rest of the western lakes, notwithstanding their magnitude, have no great depth. Lake Erie no where exceeds a hundred or a hundred and thirty feet, and the bottom of Lake Su- perior is visible in many places. The Ontario, on the contrary, is m general very deep; that is to say, upwards of forty-live or fifty fathoms, three hundred feet, and so on ; and in considerable extent, no bottom could be found with a line of a hundred and ten fathoms, which is a fraction less than forty reds in depth. This is the case in some places near its shores, ani these circum- stances pretty clearly indicate that the basin of this lake was once the crater of a volcano now extinct- This inference is confirmed by the volcanic productions already found on its borders, and no doubt the experienced eye will discover many more, by examining the form of the great talus, or slope, that surrounds this lake almo? t circularly, and announces in all parts, to the eye as well as to the understanding, that formerly the fiat of Niagara extended almost as far as the middle of Lake Ontario, where it was sunk and swal- lowed up by the action of a volcano, then in its vigor. The existence of this subterranean fire, accords perfectly with the earthquakes mentioned by Williams, as above, and these two agents, which we find here united, while they confirm on the one hand, that of a grand subterranean focus, at an unknown depth, on the other, afford a happy and plausable explanation of the confusion of all the strata of the earth and stones, which occurs throughout 48 378 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES the Atlantic coast. It explains, too, why the calcareous, and even granite strata there, are inclined in the horizon in angles of forty- five degrees and upward, even as far as eighty, almost perpendicu- lar, or endwise, their fragments remaining in the vacuities formed by the vast explosions. To this fracture of the stratum of granite, are owing its little cascades ; and this fact indicates that formerly the focus extended south beyond the Potomac, as also does this stratum. No doubt it communicated with that of the West India islands. As favoring this supposition of Monsieur Volney, we recollect the dreadful earthquakes of 1811 and'1812, on the Mississippi, in the very neighborhood of the country supposed to have been the scenes of the effects of those early shocks, of probably the same internal cause, working now beneath the continent, and sooner or later may make again the northern parts of it itspJace of vengeance, instead of the more southerly, as among the Andes, and the Cor- dilleras of South America. , The earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 "took place at New-Madrid, on the Mississippi, where its effects were dreadful, having thrown up vast heaps of earth, destroying the whole plain upon which that town was laid out. Houses, gardens, and the fields were swallowed up ; many of the inhabitants were forced to flee, ex- posed to the horrors of the scenes passing around, and to the incle- mencies of the storms, without shelter or protection. The earth rolled under their feet, like the waves of the sea. The shocks of this subterranean convulsion were felt two hundred miles around. And, further, in evidence of the action of volcanic fires in the west of this country, we have the following, from Dr. Beck's Gazetteer of Illinois : " I visited Fort Clark in 1820, and obtained a specimen of na- tive copper in its vicinity. It weighed about two pounds, and is similar to that found on Lake Superior, of which the following de- scription was given at the mint of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, at the request of Dr. Eustis. From every appearance, that piece of copper seems to have been taken from a mass that had undergone fusion. The melting was, however, not an operation of art, but a natural effect, caused by a volcanic eruption. "The stream of lava probably carried in its course the aforesaid body of copper, that formed into one collection as fast as it was AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 379 heated enough to run from all parts of the mine. The united mass was, probably, borne in this manner to the place where it now rests in the soil. Thus we see that even America, in its northern parts, as well as many parts of the old world, as it is called, has felt the shock of that engine, which is, comparatively speaking 3 boundless in power, capable of new modelling the face of whole tracts of country, in a few days, if not hours." That many parts of the western country have once been the scene of the devastating power of voleanos, is also maintained by that distinguished philosopher, Rafiuesque. — See Atlantic Journal, No. 4, p. 138, 1832. He says :— u The great geological question of the igneous or aqueous origin of the globe, and the primitive formation, is now pretty much at rest. It is become more important to ascertain the origin of the secondary formations, with the immense stores of life and organic remains therein entombed. " No one can be a good geologist without having seen voleanos, or, at least, without having studied well their actual operations througheut the globe. After seeing the huge voleanos of South America, throwing yet streams of water, mud, clay, sand, marl, bitumite, pitchstone, &c, instead of melted stones, while the same happens also in Java, Spain, Sicily and Russia." If by this agent water is thrown out from the bowels of the earth, so as to change the entire surface of large disctricts in many parts of the old world, why not in America, if the tokens of such opera- tions are found here ? Volney was the first to call Lake Ontario a volcano, and to notice our ancient mountain lakes, now dried up by eruptions or convul- sions, each having a breach or water gap. I am induced to amplify his views, by deeming nearly all our lakes as many volcanic out- lets, which have not merely thrown water in later periods, but in more ancient periods have formed nearly all our secondary strata, by eruptions of muddy water, mud., clay, liquid coal, basalts, trap. This was when the ocean covered yet the land. Submarine or oceanic volcanoes exist as yet every where in the ocean, and their effects are known. They must of course be hol- low outlets under water, that would become lakes if the ocean was dried up. We can form an idea of their large number and extent by the late but natural discovery, that all the Lagoon islands, and 380 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES circular clusters of islands in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, are volcanic craters. This is now admitted, even in Eng- land ; and the coral reef often crowning those clusters, are later superincumbent formations by insects. The Bahama islands in the Atlanta , the Maldives, neat India, and the coral islands all over the Pacific, a^e the most striking of these singular volcanic clusters, nearly at a level with the ocean. Some of them are of immense extent, from sixty to one hundred and fifty miles in circuit, or even more. Some circular bays and gulfs of the sea appear to be similar, dif- fering by having only one breach. The Bay of Naples is one also, an ancient crater, with islands in front. The analogy between lakes and volcanic craters is obvious. Al- most all fiery craters become lakes filled wilh water, when their igneous activity is spent. All springs ire smaller outlets of water, while the fumaroles and holes of igneous volcanos are small outlets of smoke 3 fire, air, gases, hot mud, &c. I can perceive no essential difference between them, or any other eruptive basin, except in degree of caloric or kind of matter which they emit. They may both be quiescent or in acti- vity. Springs vary as much as vulcanos. We have few pure springs ; they commonly hold mineral substances. They are cold, warm, hot, salt, bitter, saline, bituminous, limpid, colored, muddy; perpetual or periodical, flowing or spouting. Just like volcanic outlets. Therefore volcanos are properly igneous springs, and springs or lakes are aqueous volcanos ! Under this view, we have no lack of volcanic outlets in North America, since one-half of it, the whole boreal portion, from New England and Labrador in the east, to North Oregon and Alaska in the west, and from Lake Erie to the boreal ocean, is filled with them, being eminently a region of lakes and springs; covered with ten thousand lakes at least. To these as well as to the dry lakes of our mountains, the lime- stone craters and sinks, may be traced as the original outlets of our secondary formations, in a liquid state, under the ocean, imbedding our fossils The basaltic, trapic, and carbonic formations have the sam3 origin, since they are intermingled. But some kinds of sands and clays have been ejected since this continent became dry land- AND DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST. 38l To trace all these formations to their sources, delineate their streams or banks, ascertain their ages and ravage on organized be- ings, will require time, assiduity, zeal, and accurate observations. What connection there is between lakes or dry basins of primi- tive regions and their formations, is not weli ascertained. Some are evidently the produce of cryctalization ; but others forming streams, veins, janks and ridges may have been ejected in a fluid or- soft state, before organic life had begun, and thus spread into their actual shapes. Many streams of primitive limestone, anthra- cite, wacke, grit — are probably so formed and expanded. Hollows in the primitive ocean must have been the outlets of these sub- stances, now become lakes, after the land became dry The power which rises and ejects out of the bowels of the earth, watery, muddy and solid substances, either cold or inflamed, i? one of the secrets of nature ; but we know that such a power or cause exists, since we see it in operation. Water rises in lakes and springs much above the level of the ocean, while the Caspian sea is under that level. There is then no uniform level for water on the globe, nor uniform aerial pressure over them. Another cause operates within the bowels of the earth to generate and expel li- quid and solid substances, — perhaps many causes and powers are combined there. Galvanism is probably one of the main agents. A living power of organic circulation, would explain many earthly phenomena. The great astronomer Kepler, and other philosophers, surmised that the earth was a great living body, a kind of organized animal rolling in space. According to this theory, lakes and 'r^ngs would be the outward pores, vents and outlets of this huge being, volca- noes inflamed sores and exuvia, water the blood or sap of C-e earth, mountains the ribs, rivers the veins. This whimsical conceit is not preposterous, since we know of animals perfectly globular, and somewhat like our globe — the tethya and volvox for instance. But it is only a theoretical surmise, I merely mention it as an illustra- tion, and the conception of some great minds ; perhaps a more ra- tional idea than the theories deeming this globe a mass of inert matter, a globular crystal, or a hollow sphere suspended in space, or a rolling ball whirling round the sun. Considering, therefore, the omnipotency of the two agents, fire and water, so created by Him who is more omnipotent, what chan- 382 AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES ges of surface and of inhabitants may not have taken place in the western regions, as well as in the other par's of America. We cannot close this subject better than by introducing an Ara- bian fable, styled the Revolutions of Time. The narrator is sup- posed to have lived three thousand years on the earth, and to have travelled much in the course of his life, and to have noced down the various changes which took place with respect to the surface of the globe in many places, and to have been conversant with the various generations of men that succeeded each other. This fable we consider illustrative of the antiquities of all coun- tries, as well as of the changes which have most certainly taken place in our own, as it relates to surface and inhabitants. The name of the traveller was Khidr, and his story is as follows : I was passing, says Khidr, a populous city, and I asked one of the inhabitants, " How long has this city been built ?" But he said, "This city is an ancient city; we know not at what time it was built; neither we nor our fathers." Then I passed by after five hundred years, and not a trace of the city was to be seen ; but I found a man gathering herbs, and I ask- ed him, " How long has this city been destroyed ?" But he said, "The country has always been thus." And I said, " But there was a city here." Then he said, " We have seen no city here, nor have we heard of such from our fathers." After five hundred years, I again passed that way, and found a lake, and met there a company of fishermen, and asked them,