considerable degree of maritime skill on the part of those nations, and the probability of more extended voyages by chance or design. It is difficult to say anything on a subject like this without saying either too much or too little. It seemed desirable to present a view of the influences under which the investigation of ancient remains in the United States began, and which have continued to affect its progress; but, unless restrained within the limits of a special and well-defined purpose, the theme would expand beyond the compass of a preliminary chapter, and demand a volume for its proper consideration. Too little is, on the whole, better than too much for the object intended. Few persons have undertaken to treat of American antiquities without being seduced into speculations upon their origin founded upon analogies which appeared to them evidences of connection with some nation or race of the eastern continent; yet nothing is more deceptive than are such superficial resemblances. Proof of this may be seen in the fact that all the learned discussions that have taken place, and all the ingenious theories of this nature that have been suggested, have left the questions in their original perplexity; at least have made no advances towards their solution that are satisfactory to the public mind. In most cases, analogies of customs, of arts, and of terms in language, if they prove anything, prove more than can possibly be admitted, as researches into that field of inquiry abundantly show. If trusted implicitly, there is hardly a people on the globe that may not be supposed to have left traces of occupancy or communication in some section of our continent. Whether an examination of the physical characteristics of the native tribes, and the grammatical structure of their dialects, to which scientific men have turned with the hope of detecting reliable tokens of national lineage, has been productive of more certain conclusions, succeeding inquiries may disclose.1 1 1 Morton, in "Crania Americana;" Morton's "Inquiry into the Distinctive Characteristics of the Aboriginal Race of America;" "The Physical Type of the American Indians," in Schoolcraft's large work; the "Mithridates" of Adelung, Vater, &c.; Vater's "Untersuchungen über America's Bevölkerung;" Duponceau and Heckewelder, in "Trans. of the Historical and Literary Committee of the Am. Phil. Society;" Duponceau, in "Mémoire sur les Langues de L'Amérique du Nord;" Gallatin, in “Trans. of the Am. Antiquarian Society," and "Trans. of the Am. Ethnological Society;" "Types of Mankind," by Messrs. Nott and Gliddon; &c. &c. CHAPTER II. PROGRESS OF INVESTIGATION IN THE UNITED STATES. IN passing from general opinions and speculations to such as relate to that portion of the continent which alone is now the subject of consideration, the attention is first directed to a class of authorities from which we might reasonably expect to derive much valuable information. To this class belong the narratives of those early adventurers who saw its inhabitants in their natural condition, occupying their original seats, and in the exercise of their hereditary customs and habits. The Atlantic shores of the United States do not, indeed, present such remains of ancient art as would be likely to attract the observation of those who first visited them; but, in the records of the Spanish expeditions to Florida and Louisiana, we should look for some descriptive recognition of the extensive earthworks that are found in those regions. More especially should we anticipate that the French priests, Franciscans, and Jesuits, who, very early in the 17th century, penetrated to the upper lakes, and thence worked their way through the Valley of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, would have seen the mounds and inclosures there so frequent, and have been impressed by their numbers and magnitude. The followers of Narvaes and Soto passed through the sections of country that contain the largest and most imposing of the southern earthworks. The French emigrants that succeeded to the Spaniards, accompanied by missionaries who rendered to ecclesiastical authorities at home periodical accounts of their operations, were in the midst of those structures. At the north, the same class of learned and devoted men were historians of the progress of discovery. In the narratives of the Franciscan Friars, and in the reports of the Jesuits to their Superiors, we have elaborate notices of the natural history of the country, the manners, customs, and dialects of the natives, and their faculties and dispositions.1 At a later period, 1 These Reports, commonly termed Relations, "Relations de ce qui c'est passé, &c.," are not only very valuable, as sources of important and peculiar information, but they are, unfortunately, very rare. They are printed in small volumes, 12mo or 8vo, in number about forty, extending, with some intervals, from 1611 to 1671, and perhaps later. It is said that a complete series is not to be found even in the Royal Library at Paris. Dr. O'Callaghan prepared an account of them, which was printed with the Proceedings of the New York Historical Society for November, 1847, and contains a table showing what volumes are in this country, and where they may be found. This account was printed in French in 1850, with notes, corrections, and additions, by the Superior of St. Mary's College, Montreal. Mr. James Lenox, of New York, has recently caused to be reprinted fac-simile copies of the letters of Father Le Mercier, written in 1655, and those of Jerome Lallemant, written in 1659, and has added to them the Relation for the years 1676 and 1677, which had not before been published. similar returns, published under the title of "Lettres edifiantes et curieuses," contain much of the same kind of information. But, from all the explorations of these educated men, apparently observing as well as learned, very little is to be derived illustrative of the antiquities of the country, or even referring to their existence. It is remarkable how completely monuments, now viewed with surprise, were unobserved or disregarded by French and Spanish adventurers and travellers. Not only the pictorial mounds of Wisconsin, whose slight elevation and large dimensions might in uncleared lands conceal their forms, but the massive and regular parapets and lofty tumuli of the middle and southern portions of the west, seem to have been unheeded, at least as antiquities, or not esteemed worthy of special examination. La Hontan, in one of his letters, dated May 16, 1689, gives a drawing and description of a medal that he professes to have found among the savages west of the Mississippi, and which he calls a modern antique (antique moderne). It is represented as of copper, with figures of animals on one side, and characters on the other. But the whole story of his expedition in that quarter is held to be apocryphal. It may be that minds preoccupied with the grandeur of Mexican structures would be likely to consider the inferior elevation and extent of earthworks north of the gulf as rendering these undeserving of notice; and, in Florida and Louisiana, they may have been so far used, and even formed, by existing tribes, as to create no impression of an ancient or other than contemporaneous origin. In the letters of Charlevoix and Father le Petit, and in the "History of Louisiana," by Du Pratz, we have very minute accounts of the Natchez Indians, who, with the Arkansas, were the most civilized of the North American aborigines. We learn that they worshipped the sun, had temples in which was kept the "eternal fire," and a despotic government; that their chiefs were the high priests, and were called suns, or children of the sun; and that the temples and the dwellings of the chiefs were raised upon mounds, and for every new chief a new mound and dwelling were constructed.1 Thus, a civil and religious system, with customs and ceremonials pertaining to it, is described, which explains the use of some of the artificial elevations, and may indicate the purpose of others. But parapets and tumuli, and other structures of earth, are found in that region, which seem to imply the existence of more cultivated or more populous nations, and a larger scale of ceremonial observances, than these writers have represented. A mere diminution of numbers, and consequently of power, without any material difference of customs or capacities, may perhaps be sufficient to explain the diminution of grandeur in the ceremonies and structures of the later inhabitants. The decay of energy and enterprise, rather than of arts—the result, probably, of a decrease of population-which, in other parts of the country, led to a discontinuance of the construction of works consecrated to religious rites, or intended for permanent defence-may have been less advanced in its influence at the south. Hence the contrast between the monuments of the past and the productions of the living inhabitants would be less striking. Still, the absence of archæological discoveries and speculations, on the part of the intelligent 1 See also Garcilazo de la Vega's Account of Soto's Expedition, I, 218. and well-informed men who first visited the interior parts of the present United States, is somewhat singular, in view of the fact that so much has since been brought to light in the very paths on which they trod.1 We therefore advance to the period when investigations may be said to have commenced; and it is proposed to refer, in chronological order, to the observations and opinions of which the antiquities of the United States have been the subject, since they were noticed as such, and regarded as objects, not of curiosity merely, but of mystery and wonder. It is not to be expected that every allusion which may have been made by travellers or others to the existence of such remains will be included in these references; but it is hoped to embrace those which are of most importance, and which represent the nature and degree of knowledge possessed at the time. In the years 1748, 1749, and 1750, Peter Kalm, Professor of Economy in the University of Abo, in Swedish Finland, made a tour of scientific observation in this country, and was careful to record everything that seemed to him worthy of attention. After speaking of the entire absence of ruins or evidences of ancient habitations that give interest to travels in other countries, he says: "There have, however, been found a few marks of antiquity, from which it may be inferred that North America was formerly inhabited by a nation more versed in science and more civilized than that which the Europeans found here on their arrival; or that a great military expedition was undertaken to this continent from those known parts of the world." He then states that, some years before he came into Canada, the GovernorGeneral sent M. de Verandrier, with a number of people, across North America to the South sea. From Montreal they went as due west as the lakes, rivers, and mountains would permit. In a far country, beyond many nations, they met with large tracts free from wood, many of which were everywhere covered with furrows, as if they had formerly been ploughed and sown. "When," says Kalm, "they came far to the west, where, to the best of their knowledge, no Frenchman or European had ever been, they found in one place in the woods, and again on a large plain, great pillars of stone leaning upon each other. The pillars consisted of one single stone each, and the Frenchmen could not suppose that they had been erected by human hands. At last they met with a large stone, or pillar, in which a smaller stone was fixed that was covered on both sides with unknown characters. This stone, which was about a French foot in length, and * * * * 1 Brackenridge, in his "Views of Louisiana," remarks, in relation to the remains of supposed fortifications there: "The French writers, who most probably observed them, do not speak of them; a proof that they had no doubt as to their origin, nor thought of attributing them to any other than the natives of the country." p. 183. 2 The expenses of Professor Kalm's scientific tour were defrayed in part by contributions from the universities of Sweden, and in part by the king. One of the points to which his curiosity was directed he states to be, "whether any other nation possessed America before the present Indian inhabitants came into it; or whether any other nations visited this part of the globe before Columbus discovered it." The question of discoveries and settlements in the United States by the Northmen had not then been agitated. between four and five inches broad, they carried to Canada, from whence it was sent to France, to the Secretary of State, Count de Maurepas. Several Jesuits, who have seen and handled this stone, unanimously affirm that the letters on it are the same with those which, in the books containing accounts of Tartaria, are called Tartarian characters." The places where the pillars were found were estimated to be near nine hundred French miles westward of Montreal. We believe that such monolithic pillars as are here described have not attracted the attention of later explorers; but the "garden-beds" (as they are now called) exist in Michigan and Wisconsin, and are regarded with wonder at the present day, as differing altogether in form and arrangement from the usual remains of Indian agriculture. The mention of them imparts an air of authenticity to Verandrier's narrative. Prof. Kalm draws his own inference from the account, and believes that the pillars and the Tartarian inscription indicate the presence of the followers of Kublai Khan.1 In another part of his work he mentions having been informed, by an aged Swede in New Jersey, that when the Swedes settled on the Delaware, near where Salem is now situated, they found, at the depth of twenty feet, some wells inclosed with walls of brick. Since that period the river had so far encroached upon the land, by washing away its banks, that the wells were then covered with water, which was seldom low enough to admit of their being seen. From these and other evidences of the use of bricks discovered in that neighborhood, he infers the existence of an ante-Columbian settlement at that place. In November, 1766, Jonathan Carver was at Lake Pepin on the Mississippi; and in the journal of his travels mentions the embankments he saw in that neighborhood, which appeared to him of a military character, and sufficient to cover five thousand men. This is usually considered the earliest mention of western earthworks as indicating a higher degree of art than existing races of aborigines were supposed to possess. James Adair, whose History of the American Indians was published in 1775, began his acquaintance with Indian life as early as 1735, and most of his book was written among the Chickasaws, with whom he first treated in 1744. He says that, from the most exact observations he could make, in the long time that he traded among the Indians, he was forced to believe them lineally descended from the Israelites; and the main object of his book seems to be to demonstrate that proposition. His references to vestiges of antiquity are few and rather indefinite. He speaks of traces of the ancient warlike disposition of the people as being found, "through the whole continent and in the remotest woods," that, "great mounds of earth, either of a circular or oblong form, having a strong breastwork at a distance around them, are frequently met with," but does not give the details of configuration or measurement. The celebrated botanists, John and William Bartram, father and son, may be regarded as the first by whom a careful and intelligent observation of these structures has been recorded. They were in Florida together in 1765; and in |