OliverCowdery.com -- The Premier Web-Site for Early Mormon History


Bookshelf  |  Spalding Library  |  Mormon Classics  |  Newspapers  |  History Vault



Charles Hulbert
(1778-1857)
Museum Americanum
(London: C. Hulbert, 1823)


  • Title Page
  • Index
  • Antiquities
  • Curiosities
  • Varieties

  • transcriber's comments


  • Josiah Priest   |   Mormons, Mastodons & Mound-Builders   |   Indians' Sacred Book?






    Museum  Americanum;

    OR

    SELECT  ANTIQUITIES,
    CURIOSITIES,  BEAUTIES,  AND  VARIETIES,


    Of  Nature  and  Art,

    IN  AMERICA;

    COMPILED  FROM  EMINENT  AUTHORITIES,


    METHODICALLY  ARRANGED,

    INTERSPERSED  WITH  ORIGINAL  HINTS,
    OBVERSATIONS,  &c.




    BY  CHARLES  HULBERT,

    Author of the African Traveller, Loterary Beauties, &c.



    What wonders in the wide creation shine!
    Order and majesty adorn the whole,
    Beauty and life ----
                                  MRS. ROWE.




    Shrewsbury:
    Printed and Published by C. Hulbert;
    SOLD BY G. & W. B. WHITTAKER, W. BAYNES and SON,
    and T. BLANSHARD, London; and all other Booksellers.

    _____  
    1823.




     

    [ 339 ]



    GENERAL CONTENTS.




    -----

    PART III. -- CHAP I.

    -----

    AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.

    Ancient Cities, Temples, Palaces, Castles, Monuments, &c.

    -----

    General View of America.


    5-12 Discovery of America, Grandeur of American Objects, Luxuriance of Vegetation, Original Inhabitants, Variation of Climate, Cbaracter and Government of the United States, Letter of Mr. Foote.
    13-20 Extent and Population of the United States, Description of the Nations, Cities, Spanish Colonies, the Brazils, West India Islands, the Canadas, Slave Trade, &c. .

    ANTIQUITIES IN THE STATE OF OHIO.

    22-26 Mounds of Earth at Worthington, Gallipolis, Marietta, Big Grave Creek, Fort at Circleville, &c
    27 Ancient Works in Perry County
    28-36 Ancient Tumuli, Dr. Hildreth's account of Articles found at Marietta, Copper Helmet, Remains of a Skeleton, Earthenware, Steel Bow, Gold Ornaments, Arrow-heads, Sword, large Mirror, Common Cemetery, Ancient Walls constituted of bricks and stone, Ruins of a fortified town. Citadel.&c.

    MOUNDS BEYOND THE LIMITS OF THE STATE OF OHIO.

    37-39 The Big Grave, Great Number and Size of Ancient Tumuli and Fortifications, Traces of Ancient Cities, &c.

    ANCIENT MEXICAN CITIES AND PYRAMIDS.

    40-44 Teocalli of Mexico, Pyramids of Teoiiuuacan, Teocalli of Cholula, &c.

    RUINS NEAR PAI.ENQUE.

    45-47 Extensive Buildings, Medallions, &c. .. 4.5 to 47

    340

    CONJECTURES RESPECTING THE ANCIENT WORKS IN AMERICA.

    47-49 Prince Madog, Jews, &c.

    Chief Cities and Towns.

    NEW YORK.

    60-64 Approach to the Citv, Public Buildings, Newspapers, Religious Sects, &c.

    PHILADELPHIA.

    64-67 Site of the City. Streets, Public Buildings, Rarities, Bridges, &c.

    BALTIMORE.

    67-69 Extent of Population, Washington's Monument, Battle ditto, Amusing Anecdotes of Admiral Cockburn, &c.

    WASHINOTON.

    69-73 Description of the City, Battle of, Destruction of the Capitol. &c. by the British, Character of Gen. Washinirton.

    PITTSBURGH.

    73-76 Importance of Pittsburgh, Population, &c. Young Watson, &c.

    CINCINNATI.

    76-79 Buildings, Manufactories, Libraries, School, Anniversary of the 4th of June.

    NEW ORLEANS.

    79-80 Present and future Greatness.

    MEX1CO.

    81-84 Ancient City, Extent and Population of New, Aqueducts, Mexican Buildings.

    CUZCO.

    84-90 Grandeur and Magnificence of Ancient Edifices. Palaces of the Incas, Some account of Mango Capac, Pizarro, &c.

    LIMA.

    90 Grand Square Fountain, Churches, &c.

    BUENOS AYRES.

    91 Cathedral, Fortifications, &c.

    QUITO.

    91 Streets, Population, Earthquake.

    RIO JANEIRO.

    92-98 Appearance of the City, Elegant Gibbet, Treatment of Slaves, Anecdotes of Slave Revenge, the Queen, &c.

    341

    KINGSTON.

    96 Buildings, Markets, &c.

    ISLAND OF SOMBRERO.

    97-98 Account of poor Jeffery, &c.

    QUEBEC.

    99-100Upper and Lower Town, Market, Plains of Abraham, General Wolfe, &c.

    -----

    PART III.- CHAP. II.

    -----

    AMERICAN CURIOSITIES.

    Mountains, Volcanoes, Caverns, Rocks, Gold and Diamond Mines, Rivers, Lakes, Animals, Vegetables, &c.

    -----

    102-104 VIRGINIAN Mountains.
    105 The Andes.

    VOLCANOES.

    108 Cotopaxi Volcano, Dreadful Eruptions of, &c.
    108 Chimborazo Volcano.
    109-112 Volcano of Jorulla, Grand Catastrophe, Opinion of the Natives, &c,

    GOLD AND DIAMOND MINES.

    113-118 Mines of Villa Rica, &c. Washing for Diamonds, Anecdote of two Negroes, and the celebrated Diamond.

    GOLD AND SILVER MINES.

    118-120 Mines of Potosi, Guancavelica Royal Mints, &c.

    CAVERNS.

    121 The Mammoth Cave.
    122 Cave in Rutland County.
    122-124 Cavern in Jefferson County.
    124-125 Cave of Guacharo.

    ROCKS

    126 Singing Valley.
    127 Doric Rock.
    128 Mount Pleasant Rock.
    129 Rock Bridge.

    342

    129 Natural Bridge and Cave.
    130 Natural Bridges of Icognozo
    Rivers, Lakes, Cataracts, and Springs.
    131 River St Lawrence.
    133 Mississippi.
    134 Plata.
    135 Amazons.

    NORTH AMERICAN LAKES.

    137 Lake Superior.
    138 Lake Erie, Affecting incident of an Indian Mother and her Boy.
    140 Lake Ontario, Singular Phenomenon of the Increase and Rise of its Waters.
    141 South American Lakes.

    CATARACTS.

    143 Little Falls, Romantic Scenery, Missionaries under the special care of Providence, &c.
    145 Genessee Falls.
    147 Falls or Niagara, Hapless Fate of a poor Indian, &c.
    148 Cataracts of Tequendama.

    SPRINGS.

    149 Burning Spring in Canada.
    150 Mineral Springs in Virginia.
    Fossil Remains and Indications of a Former World.
    152-159 Bones of the Mammoth or Mastodon Mr. Jefferson's account of, Skeleton of one in Peale's Museum, Dr. Mitchel, and Dr. M'Murtre's Remarks on, Mr. Parkinson's Observations on Organic Remains, &c.
    Extraordinary North American Animals Vegtables, &c.
    160 Comparative Weight of European and American Animals, &c.
    162 The Elk, Affecting Anecdote of a Moos-Deer
    163-167 The Brown Bear, Intrepidity of Captain Clarke and his party, Instance of Cruelty to a poor Bear, &c.
    167-171 The Beaver, Sagacity of, Construction of their Houses, Cruelty of Du Pratz, Anecdotes of tame Beavers.

    CONTENTS. 343

    171 The Skunk.
    171 The Bald Eagle.
    172 The King-Bird, or Bee Eater.
    172 The American Crow.
    173 The Songster of the Woods.
    173 The Hummina Bird.
    175-176 The Kaiman Alligator, Anecdote of an Indian.
    177 The Bull Frog, curious Anecdotes of an Indian, of the inhabitants of Wyndham, &c.
    178-181 The Great Sea Serpent.
    181 Rattle-Snake, Ring-Snake, and Black-Snake.

    VEGETABLES.

    183 The Laurel Magnolia.
    184 The American Aloe.

    SOUTH AMERICAN ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES.

    184-187 The Lama and the Paco, American Lion, Jaguar, Cougar, Tapir, Armadillos, and Monkeys.
    188-189 The Ostrich, Condor, Dispertator, Gold Fish, Amphibious Animals, &c.
    190-192 The Land Crab.
    192 Fire Flies.
    193 Gymuotus, or Electrical Eel.
    194 Sea-Lion.
    195 The Animal Flower.

    VEGETABLES.

    196 The Cow Tree.
    197 The Manchineel Tree.
    197 The Cedar and Ceiba Tree.
    -----

    PART 111. -- CHAP. III.

    -----

    AMERICAN BEAUTIES.

    Sublime and interesting Views and Prospects, Buildings, Bridges, &c.

    200 View near Queenston, Upper Canada.
    201-203 View at Caraccas, Southern Constellations, &c.
    204 View at Mexico.

    344 CONTENTS.

    205 Scenery among the Cordilleras.
    207 Brazilian Scenery, Negro Misery, &c.
    BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES.
    209 Mount Vernon, Seat of the late President Washington.
    210 Washington Capitol.
    212 Cathedral of Mexico.

    BRIDGES.

    213-215 Bridge of Cohoes, Potomac Bridge, Haverhill Bridge, Wire Bridge near Philadelphia, Bridge over Charles River.
    215 Bujuco Bridges.

    -----

    PART I1I. -- CHAP. IV.

    -----

    AMERICAN VARIETIES.

    -----

    Prevailing Religions, Singular Customs, Rare Phenomena of Nature, Remarkable Events, Mechanical Inventions, Extraordinary Men, Women, &c.

    -----

    Prevailing Religions in America.

    217 Religion of the Indians of North America.
    219 Ancient Religion of the South American Indians.
    219-229 Present Prevailing Religions of the United States, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Quakers, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Dutch Church, Roman Catholics, Moravians, Universalists, Shakers, Tunkers, Sandemanians, Mennonites, Observations, &c.

    North American Indian Customs.

    229-232 General Customs of Husband and Wife, Conduct to each other, to Strangers, Indian Games, &c.
    232 Indian War Dance.
    233 Indian Anger, Revenge, and Eloquence exemplified in an interesting Narrative.
    235 Indian Revenge, extraordinary Anecdote of.

    CONTENTS. 345

    237-240 Indian Cruelty and its Punishment, by the hand of Mrs. Dustan.
    241 Indian Cruelty, and the Intrepidty of Mrs. Heard, Proscribed Judges of Charles 1st. &c.
    243-246 Cruelty of a Canadian.
    246 Indian Gratitude, most interesting Narrative of.
    248 Indian Chivalry.
    249-253 American Methodist Camp Meeting.

    SOUTH AMERICAN CUSTOMS.

    253 Customs of the Abipones.
    255 Dress and Manners of the present Inhabitants of Buenos Ayres.
    257 Customs of the Inhabitants of Jamaica, extraordinary Fidelity of Negro Slaves, two pleasing Anecdotes of, Customs of the Creole Girls on New-year's-day.

    Rare Phenomena of Nature.

    259 Rainbows, Meteors, Mock Suns, &c.
    261 Thunder and Lightning at Barbadoes.
    262 Phenomenon or the Cordilleras.
    Remarkable Events.

    -----

    EARTHQUAKES, STORMS, &c.

    262 Earthquakes at Lima.
    265-269 Earthquakes at the Caraccas.
    269 Hurricane at Montserrat.
    270 Storm in New England.
    271-274 Devastation occasioned by the Yellow Fever in Philadelphia, in 1793

    Mechanical Inventions Peculiar to America.

    274 Pottery of the Indians, American Machinery in general, Steam Engines, Trenton Bridge, &c.
    276 Merchant Manufacturing Mill.
    277 The Fulton Steam Frigate.
    279 Great American Canal.

    289-284 American Skill and Literature, President Edwards, Painters of America, &c.

    346 CONTENTS.

    Extraordinary Men and Women, chiefly of American Birth.

    -----

    MEN OF GENIUS, ENTERPRISE, &c.

    284-287 President Washington,
    287-290 Dr. Franklin.
    290-294 Patrick Henry.
    294-301 Benjamin West, Esq.
    301-310 William Beadle, Extraordinary Opinions of, Murder of his Wife and Children, Remarks on the Credulity of Sceptics, entertaining Anecdote of, in proof, Conversion of a Deist by a remarkable Providence.
    310 Skenandon, the Oneida Chief

    INSTANCES OF EXTRAORDINARY PERSONAL BEAUTY.

    312-315 Princess Pocabontas.

    INDIVIDUALS OF GIGANTIC STATURE.

    316 The Patagonians, Mr. Clarke's description of.
    318 Dr. Robertson's observaiions respecting .
    320 Mr. James Henry Lambirth.

    INSTANCES OF HUMAN LONGEVITY IN AMERICA.

    322 The old Indian Chief.
    323 Six remarkable Instances from Dwight's Travels.
    323 Two Ditto from Humboldt's Ditto.
    323 Louisa Truxo.
    324-327 Henry Francisco.
    238 Old Yaro, Several Instances of Longevity from Warden's United States.

    330-338 CONCLUDING HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS, Future Greatness of North America, Waterfall of Tuccoa, Stupendous Precipice in South Carolina, Languages of America, Learning, Serpents, Boa Constrictor, Enormous Centipede, Present State of South America, Course of Light, &c.



    zzz  zzzz.
    zzz  zzz



     

    [ 5 ]



    SELECT

    ANTIQUITIES, CURIOSITIES,

    BEAUTIES AND VARIETIES,

    OF

    NATURE AND ART.

    -------

    PART III. -- CHAP. I.

    -------

    AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.

    ------

    Ancient Cities, Temples, Palaces, Castles, Monuments, &c.

    ------

    GENERAL VIEW OF AMERICA,

    By the Editor, with the aid of Private Communications and Published Authorities.

    How insignificant the conquerors and heroes of ancient or modern times must appear, when compared with Columbus, the Discoverer of a New World.

    The treachery and deceit of a Portuguese King, the mutinous impatience of ignorant sailors, the ingratitude of Ferdinand and the Spanish nation, are only so many incentives to our admiration of the man, who has achieved more for the benefit of his race, than all the kings and emperors who. have ever lived. PROVIDENCE, with the beneficent intention of preparing an asylum for the oppressed of all nations, and of giving to freedom a permanent sanctuary, no doubt, directed the passage of this enterprising Genoese, through the then unknown and trackless Atlantic: But, though the humble instrument of an Almighty power, he is, notwithstanding, an object of the grateful recollection of mankind. *




    6                             AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                            


    America, since its first discovery by Columbus, in the year 1492, has not ceased to be the subject of European desire and enquiry. Volumes of travels, tours, and local histories, have in various periods, served to amuse and to inform the naturalist, the antiquary, and the general reader: but we may fairly calculate that not one half the wonders of the immense regions of Columbia have yet been brought to view.

    The length of America, from north to south, is more than nine thousand miles, and its greatest width four thousand six hundred. The objects which it presents to our notice, are chiefly distinguished by their grandeur and magnificence. The operations of nature seem here to have been conducted on a larger scale, and with, a greater proportion of materials than in any other quarter of the globe. All is noble and majestic. The Alps and the Pyrennees, those long celebrated mountains of Europe, sink into insignificance before the Andes or Cordilleras. Chimborazo, the loftiest point of the Andes hitherto known, has nearly five thousand feet of elevation greater than that of the highest mountain in Europe. As the mountains of the new world are elevated and grand, so its plains are extensive and beautiful. In some places, and at certain seasons of the year the eye feels its imperfection when it attempts to look over the verdant surface of these plains; and the traveller wishes in vain for rocks and woods to relieve his sight. In other parts, there are forests widely extended and almost impenetrable, except to the animals which inhabit them, or to the savages by whom those animals are pursued. Its rivers and lakes are equally remarkable. Of the former, the Plata, the Oronoko, the Marignon or Amazon, and the Mississippi, flow in such spacious channels, that, towards the lower part of their course, they resemble arms of the sea, rather than streams of fresh water. In dimensions and extent they far exceed any of the rivers of the old continent. In North America a chain of lakes extends from east to west. These are of magnitude so immense, that they are rather like inland seas than lakes, and, except the Caspian Sea, they exceed in size the greatest collections of water which any other part of the globe can boast.

    7

    In Europe and Asia mankind, and the distinctions of civilization, form the principal features which interest the traveller and the historian. In the new world, man and his productions almost disappear amidst the stupendous display of wild and gigantic nature. The human race here either presents but a few remnants of indigenous hordes, slightly advanced in civilization, or it presents that uniformity of manners and institutions which are observable in the European colonists. But if America occupy no very important place in the history of mankind, and those revolutions which have agitated the human race, it offers an ample field to the labours of the naturalist. A luxuriance of vegetation, an eternal spring of organic life, climates varying by stages as we climb the sides of the Andes: and the means afforded for the study of geology, mineralogy, and natural philosophy, infinitely exceed those of any other part of the world.

    With respect to the original inhabitants of America. There are few inquiries more interesting to a philosophic mind, than that which would explain the original peopling of this great continent. Various conjectures have been formed on the subject. Some writers have ascribed the first settlements in America to the Canaanites; and others to the Phoenicians, to the Carthaginians, to the Greeks, to the Scythians, and to other nations. But, to account for these settlements, by supposing that, in a remote period, some vessel may have accidentally been driven thither from the eastern parts of the world, is to rely upon a rather improbable conjecture. Other writers are inclined to think, that the two continents of America and Africa were originally united, and that they were subsequently severed by some violent convulsion of nature. This likewise is a conjecture, unsupported by evidence. An inspection, of a map of the world, however, will show that, at this day, the north-eastern part of Siberia, and the north-west part of America, are nearly joined; that is, they are separated by a strait not more than twenty miles in width; and that, in a lower latitude, a chain of islands reaches almost from one shore to the other. The inhabitants of these opposite shores resemble each other




    8                             AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                            


    in features, complexion, manners, habits, and customs, and it is far from improbable, that some families or tribes of wandering Tartars may have migrated across Behring's Straits, and may thus have given origin to the population of America. Among all the American tribes, the Esquimaux excepted, there is a great resemblance, both in form of body, and in qualities of mind; and in every prevailing feature, both of person and disposition, they resemble the tribes that are scattered through the north-east parts of Asia. The Esquimaux are not unlike the Greenlanders, in their aspect, dress, mode of life, and language; and Labrador and Green- laud are separated from each other only by a narrow strait.

    With the exception of some provinces of North America, and of a few individuals in the central regions, the native inhabitants of this country are of a light brown, or copper colour. In Africa, the torrid zone is inhabited by negroes, and the blackness of their colour is ascribed to the intensity of the heat in the tropical climates. Whence then does it arise that, within the region of the torrid zone, there are no negroes in America? And how is it that the copper-colour is there so prevalent? To the first of these questions it may be answered, that America is destitute of negroes, because there the heat of the torrid zone is more equally distributed than it is in Africa; and therefore the same effect could not be produced in both regions in the same degree. To the latter it may be replied, that the copper colour is preserved in the highest latitudes of the New World by the state of society, which, among the American Indians, is uniform; by most of them using certain red pigments, or by some modifying circumstances which we know to exist, but which cannot easily be explained. The whole race of American Indians is distinguished by a peculiar thickness of the skin. Another peculiarity has been remarked of them, that they have no beards. The latter, however, is occasioned by their constant practice of pulling out by the roots all the hairs, as soon as they appear.

    The ordinary stature of the native Americans is not very different from that of Europeans. But, owing either



    9

    to their inactive life, or to some constitutional tendency with which we are unacquainted, their bodies are peculiarly plump and full.

    Of the manners and habits of life of the several tribes of American Indians, we shall hereafter have occasion to speak.

    The great variation of climate affects very sensibly the constitution of the inhabitants. People become old in America sooner than in Europe. Upon females the influence of the climate is still more sensible. When young the women are generally beautiful, and particularly at Philadelphia: but after twenty, they begin to lose their fresh colour and teeth, and at twenty-five many of them would pass for Europeans of forty! The number of children which die in infancy is proportionably greater than in Europe; colds, hooping-coughs, and disorders of the throat, taking oft' great multitudes.

    The character of the inhabitants of the different states may be expected to be as dissimilar as the climates of the countries which they inhabit are various. The climate itself, the original formation of the colonies, their ancient governments, and the diversity of European nations, of which the population of the United States is composed, has in reality impressed this difference between them. The possession and usage of slaves in some stales, a traffic now almost wholly abolished, must have introduced a considerable difference in their manners.

    The traits of character common to all, are an ardour for enterprize, greediness of gain, and an advantageous opinion of themselves. Habituated to fatigue from their infancy, having for the most part made their fortune by labour, it is not become repugnant even to those in the most easy circumstances. While they wish to enjoy the sweets of life, they do not regard them as absolutely necessary; they know how to quit them, and travel in the woods whenever their interest requires it; they can forget them whenever a reverse of fortune takes them away; and they know how to run after fortune when she escapes them.

    The NATURAL PRODUCTIONS of America are wholly different




    10                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    from the productions of the old continents. Most of them differ, both in shape and appearance, from those of every other part of the world. The quadrupeds in general are smaller and weaker: there are none equal in size to the elephant and the giraffe, and few so large as the camel or the horse. Some of the reptiles, however, are of enormous size. The woods have an infinitely more majestic appearance than the forests of Europe: they represent, in their various ages, the succession of centuries; and a new soil, of immense depth, is in some places formed by the remains of ancient vegetation. But what is chiefly remarkable in America, is the existence, beneath the surface of the ground, of the fossil or mineralized remains of immense quadrupeds. Particulars of which will be given hereafter.

    As it respects the Government of the United States, its political constitution is perhaps the freest and most incorrupt of any. It is a pure system of representation, which includes the voice and will of the whole population. The Legislature consists of a House of Representatives and a Senate, corresponding to our Commons and Lords, with a President, elected every four years, instead of an hereditary Monarch, for the executive power. Every private individual in the United States has perfect liberty of conscience. There are, however some states in which the constitution requires every citizen, entering upon the legislative or executive function, to swear, "that he believes in one God, in a future state of rewards and punishments, in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and that he professes the protestant religion."

    Dr. Moore, anticipating a future era of improvement, says, "Here the sciences and the arts of civilized life, are to receive their highest improvement: here civil and religious liberty are to flourish, unchecked by the cruel hand of civil or ecclesiastical tyranny: here genius, aided by all the improvements of former ages, is to be exerted in humanizing mankind, in expanding and enriching their minds with religious and philosophical knowledge, and in planning and executing a form of government, which shall involve all the excellencies of



    11

    former governments, with as few of their defects as is consistent with the imperfections of human affairs, and which shall be calculated to protect and unite, in a manner consistent with the natural rights of mankind, the largest empire that ever existed."

    Speaking of the western portion of the United States, the learned Editor of the "Western Quarterly Reporter * of Medical and Natural Science,'' says, "the time which has elapsed since the first settlement of this country is so short, and the changes effected have succeeded each

    ----------

    * Two numbers of the "Reporter" have just been received, from its printer and publisher J. P. Foote, Esq. by the editor of this work, accompanied by the following obliging letter; several particulars in which, are important to those who may design to emigrate to the Western portion of the United States.

    Cincinnati, 9th September, 1822.

    DEAR SIR, I lost an opportunity of replying to your esteemed favour by Mr. Hilditch sometime since, which I regretted very much; and the present I had nearly lost, owing to sickness and death in my family, which has confined me to my house for some days past; I have just learned from Mr. H. that he intends to depart in the course of a few hours, and the business that has accumulated on my hands during my confinement, gives me only an opportunity of employing a few minutes of that time in writing to you. I send you herewith some publications on the Geography of this Country, and two numbers of a periodical work of which I have commenced the publication here, hoping that you may derive some amusement and information from them. The Reporter may serve to give you some idea of the state of literature and science among us. The others will shew the rapid increase of this Western World.

    The classes of men to whom the inducement for emigration to this country are greatest, are poor mechanics and labourers, and men with small incomes which are




    12                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    other with such rapidity, that credit can scarcely be given to the fact, that forty years ago, the places now enlivened by cities, towns, villages and all the active bustle of society, were shadowed by ancient forests, reechoing with the howls of ferocious animals -- the more

    __________

    not sufficient to give them the comforts of life in other parts of the world. The soil of this country is so extremely fertile and our distance from market is so great that the necessaries of life are very plentiful and cheap, and a small annual income will supply a family very comfortably. There are, however, few or no ways open for a rapid accumulation of wealth; and speculations for that purpose have been tried very extensively and have failed in almost every instance. Our society is composed of emigrants from all parts of the United States, and the British dominions; and we have more men among us of liberal education, polished manners, and good talents, than are generally expected to be found in so new a country.

    Our climate is unfavourable to children, particularly those from a colder climate, for adults it is probably as healthy as any part of the United States. It is always found that a fertile soil in a new country is sickly for a time. A few years will probably render this part of the country as healthy as any part of the world, as every thing is favourable, except the recent state of cultivation, every additional year of improvement adds to the salubrity of the country.

    1 shall be pleased to hear from you as occasions may offer, and if I can afford you any service in this remote quarter of the globe it will give me pleasure to receive your commands.

    I remain, dear Sir,

    With esteem,

    Your obedient Servant,

    J. P. FOOTE.

    To Mr. C. Hulbert,

    SHREWSBURY.



    13

    discordant and terrifying yells of savage men, or the sullen roar of mighty rivers rolling their tributary waters to the ocean.

    Such is, however, the truth. An immense population, widely extending cultivation, cities and manufactories, a rapidly advancing state of society, and an increasing refinement, are to be found here. A country singularly interesting to the moral, medical and natural philosopher, reaches to vast distances on all sides, and the progress of time will shew, that those who anticipate the future wealth and strength of this region, have not been mistaken in their views.''

    The UNITED STATES comprehend an extensive portion of North America; bounded on the south, since the acquisition of the Floridas in 1819, by the gulf of Mexico; on the cast by New Brunswick and the Atlantic ocean; on the west by the territory inhabited by the Indians; although, with the exception of Louisiana, there are few settlers to the west of the Mississippi; and on the north and north-west by the river St. Lawrence, and a line drawn through the middle of lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and along the northern shore of lake Superior, whence it is prolonged westward into the desert territory of the Indians.

    In the Michigan territory the settlers, however, are not numerous; and in the north-west territory, bounded by lake Superior on the north, and lake Michigan on the west, population has scarcely begun.

    But in the United States the progress of population is much quicker than in the old and long settled countries of Europe. The fertile and unoccupied countries which lie westward, afford an ample expanse, on which the overflowing population may freely spread itself. So long as there is plenty of vacant ground, provisions must be abundant and cheap, the wages of labour will be high, and these circumstances are an extraordinary stimulus to the increase of inhabitants.




    14                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    The following topographical table contains a view of the United States, with the divisions of the country into different states:

    [image]

    The population of the United States is at least 10 millions; and, which according to the regular progression, will double itself in 25 years; to which may be added 400,000 Indians.

    15

    This extensive territory is diversified by a tolerably equal proportion of hill and valley, and is watered by a great variety of navigable (streams. The country is intersected in almost its whole length by the great chain of mountains called the Allegany or Appalachian mountains, which extend 900 miles in length, from near the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the confines of Georgia, and are about 200 miles in breadth.

    On the western side of the Allegany chain, the country is spread out into that vast valley which if bounded by the Rocky mountains on the west, and which is from 1200 to 1500, miles in breadth. The great river the Mississippi, which runs generally in a direction from north to south, and falls into the gulf of Mexico, is the common channel through which all the waters of this vast valley flow out into the ocean. The rivers which have their rise on the western declivity of the Allegany range, as well a* those which flow from the Rocky mountains, including the great river Missouri, all terminate in this general drain.

    For 250 miles above the mouth of the Mississippi, the country is a perfect flat, and it afterwards rises by a gradual ascent. In consequence of this favourable configuration of the ground, vessels may ascend by the course of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Allegany rivers, an inclined plane of 2400 miles, to an elevation of 1200 or 1400 feet, without the help either of canals or locks. The advantages of this disposition of the ground for the purpose of commerce and navigation, need hardly be explained. With a greater elevation of the mountains, the streams would have run to the ocean with a rapidity that would have impeded navigation; and a lower elevation would not have been sufficient to have poured the surplus waters into the ocean.

    Immense and, important as the United States of Northern America may appear, some have supposed that the SOUTHERN CONTINENT is destined to be more than its rival.

    The following description of the Nations, recently Spanish Colonies, now Independent States, is from the Literary Chronicle, No. 1 70.

    "The nations who have declared themselves independent,




    16                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    are the empire of Mexico, and the republics of Columbia, Buenos Ayres, Peru, and Chili.

    Mexico, including the kingdom of New Mexico and the province of Guatimala, extends from the Pacific Ocean on the south and west, to the uncertain limits of Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico on the east. The population of Mexico alone, exclusive of New Mexico and Guatimala, was estimated by Humboldt, in 1803, at 6,500,000. Since the beginning of their contest with Spain, the inhabitants of these provinces have taken a census, which may be considered tolerably accurate. They report the numbers to be, in --

    Mexico 5,400,000

    Guatimala 1,800,000

    New Mexico 800,000

    Total 8,000,000

    The city of Mexico, the capital, contains, according to Humboldt, 137,000 inhabitants.

    The independence of the Mexican empire was declared on the 24th of August, 1821.

    The republic of Columbia consists of the provinces of Venezuela and New Grenada; and probably includes also the neighbouring provinces of Cumana, Guiana, and and Maracaybo. If so, it extends from the Spanish Main on the north, to Buenos Ayres and Peru; and from Dutch Guiana, on the east, to the Pacific Ocean; and contains about 3,500,000 inhabitants. Its principal city is Santa Fe de Bogoda, containing a population of 40,000.

    It will be recollected that the provinces of New Grenada separately declared their independence; and, since the year 1808, have maintained a bloodier contest with the arms of Spain, than any of the provinces. On the 19th of December, 1819, they united themselves under one government, on the model of that of the United States, and assumed the name of 'the Republic of Columbia.'

    Buenos Ayres, beginning at the 38th degree of south latitude, extends nearly 1600 miles to the north, where it is bounded by the unknown regions of Amazonia and Matto-Grosso; and from the Atlantic on the east, about

    17

    1000 miles to Chili on the west. -- Its population is estimated at 1,100,000. -- The city of Buenos Ayres is supposed to contain about 60,000 inhabitants, and Monte Video about 30,000. The viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres declared its independence in 1816; but, though it encountered no opposition from the government of Spain, it has been distracted by civil wars, particularly with the Banda Orientale -- the eastern shore of La Plata; and by contests with the neighbouring provinces. It is said now to enjoy entire tranquility.

    Peru is perhaps the least known of all the Spanish provinces. It is more than 1000 miles in length, from New Grenada to Chili, and stretches westward from Buenos Ayres to the Pacific Ocean. The Patriots have estimated its population at 1,700,000.

    Lima, its principal city, was founded by Pizarro, and now contains about 53,000 inhabitants; of whom 17,000 are Spaniards, 9000 Negroes, 3000 Indians; and the rest a mixed race, the descendants of Spaniards and Indians.

    Peru was liberated from the power of the Spaniards last Summer, by an army from Buenos Ayres and Chili, under the command of General San Martin. On the capture of Lima, on the 12th of June, 1821, they proclaimed their independence.

    Chili, extending from Peru to the Archipelago of Chiloe, has, in fact, never been entirely conquered from the natives. The Arancanians, inhabiting about 300 miles of the southern part of Chili, having resolutely maintained their independence against all the attacks of the Spaniards since the first invasion of Diego Almagro; and the possession of the northern part of the country, which the Spaniards ultimately acquired, cost them more blood and treasure, than all the rest of the Continent. One of the finest poems in the Spanish language, the Arancana of Alonzo de Ercilla, celebrates the wars of this nation with their Spanish invaders.

    Spanish Chili is about 780 miles long and 250 broad. Santiago, the capital, contains about 46,000 inhabitants; Valparaiso about 20,000. The number of inhabitants in the province has never been estimated. The people proclaimed their independence of Spain in 1818; and




    18                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    have since been unmolested in the possession of their sovereignty.

    These five communities are now introduced into the great society of nations. It is impossible to predict the moral and political effects of their independence; but when it is remembered that the blessings of freedom and knowledge are now placed within the reach of fifteen millions of the human race, no sentiments can arise in our hearts, but those of gratitude and joy. It is worthy of remark, that the human character has attained its highest perfection either in times of great agitation and calamity, or immediately after such periods. -- An age of revolutions is always an age of great mental energy. In times of civil contention, there is a development of talent, that, on ordinary occasions, would have remained concealed. And even among those, who, by birth or fortune, are placed at the summit of society, there is, in stirring times, an excitement of feeling -- a kindling of imagination -- that prepares them for great enterprises. From being obliged to act for themselves, they learn to think for themselves.

    If these remarks are correct, we may indulge the brightest hopes of these Southern republics, including also the kingdom of Brazil. They have entered upon a career of almost endless improvement. And, though much disorder and confusion may attend the beginning of their course, they will soon attain the knowledge and freedom and civilization of the happiest states of Europe."

    The extensive Portuguese kingdom, or empire of the Brazils, above alluded to, is divided into eight governments, besides that of Rio Janeiro, including a population of 200,000 whites, 600,000 negroes, and 1,000,000 of natives.

    The climate in the south is delicious, and the soil fertile; but the north is exposed to rains, thunder and storms. The vallies are rich, the forests extensive, and the rivers and mountains are both numerous and grand.

    Brazilian Diamond Mines are greatly celebrated, though inferior to those of the east; but diamonds constitute not the real wealth of this immense territory, they are inconsiderable when compared with the herd»

    GENERAL VIEW OF AMERICA. 19

    of wild cattle which range the forests, and medicinal plants of rare virtues which every where abound.

    British North America comprehends the extensive and valuable Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, extending from the Gulph of St. Lawrence to Lake Winnipeg 1400 miles, and of the average breadth of 200 miles: To which may be added Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and the Bermudas or Summer Islands, about half way between Nova Scotia and the West Indies.

    The West Indian Islands pertaining to Great Britain are not only numerous but valuable and important: comprising Jamaica, Barbadoes, St. Christopher, Antigua, Nevis, Barbuda, Anguila, Dominica, St. Luica, St. Vincent, Grenada, Tobago, Trinidad, and the Virgin Islands; we have also the thriving settlement of Demerara, a part of the Southern Continent, &c.

    Canada is in general mountainous and woody, but in the Upper Province there are savannas and plains of great beauty. The climate of the western parts of Upper Canada is not only healthful but agreeable. The cold, in winter, in every part is undoubtedly severe, but in compensation for this the sky is bright and cloudless, particularly conducive to health and longevity. The autumns of Upper Canada resemble very much those of Great Britain, though the spring is far from being as pleasant. The soil of the Upper Province is excellent, as is some portion of the Lower.

    The Upper Province may probably contain at: this time 230,000 inhabitants, and daily increasing; while the population of the Lower may not exceed 120,000, and is nearly stationary. One principal hindrance to the more rapid settlement of these valuable Colonies is, their proximity to the United States, and consequent exposure to invasion in case of any disagreement between the governments of Great Britain and America. Some future day, it appears almost certain, that the Canadas will either establish their own independence, or fraternise with their republican neighbours.

    Our possessions in the West Indies are no less likely eventually to desert the nation which now renders them support.



    20

    The passing of the law for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and other restrictive measures of the parent country, have given to the planters and merchants of the West Indies no inconsiderable offence; and in most of their speeches on public occasions they manifest strong feelings of dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction is not unknown to the slaves, who are many times the numerical strength of the planters; and in the event of any rupture, must necessarily contemplate complete emancipation, if not the entire possession of the property of their masters.

    In case of their being voluntarily emancipated by the planters, the consequence, probably, would be union, and an attempt to establish a government, or governments independent of Great Britain. That such a change would be to the advantage of the islands is not very certain. But, supposing a revolt among the slaves, and their final ascendancy, the scenes which would follow are too horrible for contemplation; and we sincerely pray that the moderation and wisdom of government and the planters, will devise such means, and adopt such measures, as shall secure the just rights of all parties, and prevent the horrors of an insurrection. -- Gradual, but total emancipation, with due encouragement to free blacks commencing business or planting, would attach them to that island, and to that community, of which they may form a part; and give them a fellow feeling, and a fellow interest in the peace and prosperity of the whole of the islands.




    20                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    [image]

    21

    ANTIQUITIES, &c.

    Primeval woods and forests, vast and rude,
    Where reigns one deep, unbroken solitude!
    Eternal oaks who've wider stretch'd their arms,
    And deeper struck their roots, amidst the storms,
    Beneath their aged trunks (whose fibres sleep
    In earth's dark central caverns founded deep,)
    Entombed in earth, and mighty waters lie,
    Towers which invaded yonder Lofty sky!
    There the proud ruins of those days of yore,
    Reveal In groans, Columbia's ancient power:
    Strong forts repose beneath that fertile soil,
    Which time has, formed of Nature's mould'ring spoil.
    Where the bright temple echoed songs divine,
    The roots firm anchor of the stately pine;
    Low in the halls where glittering minarchs sat.
    Reign in their solemn gloom, the mole and bat!
    Where fluttering lords their honey'd venom spake,
    Devours his prey, the deadly rattle-snake!
    Hush! for what horrid stillness dwells on all,
    Silent the holy fane, -- the mirthful hall. --
    Silent, historic, truth and fable there,
    Swept from the earth as though they never were!
    Oblivion of thy treasures spare one view,
    Spirits of olden time, inform the new. –
    Say, were ye Scythian tribes, whose wandering feet
    Cross'd the cold north, a warmer clime to greet;
    Or Canaan's exiled children whom the wave,
    Bore from your conquered homes, to meet this grave;
    Or Madog's vent’rous bands who fill'd the west,
    The brave Columbus this far clime address' d:
    Say were these ponderous walls like Egypt's towers,
    Raised by a captive nation's fainting powers?
    Had freedom's sinewy children bid them grow.
    They had not fallen so soon, or sunk so low!
    Sepulchr’d giants! slumbering sons of old,
    No more your voices ring your domes of gold,
    No more your pompons palaces remain,
    But freedom builds her never dying fane;
    Fade, thrones of tyrant kings, a nobler race
    Erect their tents in your forsaken place!
    Slaves I had ye known of freedom's charms one glance,
    Oh, ye had burst your chains, and gain'd deliverance!

    C. A. H.




    22                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ANTIQUITIES IN

    THE STATE OF OHIO.

    UNITED STATES, NORTH AMERICA.

    (From Kilbourii's Ohio Gazetteer, published at Columbus, U. S. 1819.)

    The most prominent antiquities are the numerous mounds and forts of earth, in the state of Ohio, as well as the western states generally, which are found interspersed throughout almost the whole extent of country, as far west and south-west of the Allegany mountains as the country is much known. The general direction in which these fortifications, as they are called, lie, is from north east to south west. The place where they commence, or at least, where they are very remarkable, is in the western part of the state of New York, near the southern shores of lake Ontario. From thence they extend in a south-westerly direction through the western states and territories, and terminate in Mexico.

    Various have been the conjectures of the learned concerning the time when, by what people, and even for what purpose, these stupendous monuments of human ingenuity were erected. Their origin is so deeply involved in the obscurity of remote antiquity, without any light of history, or even authentic tradition, to conduct our enquiries concerning them to the desired result, that no certainty upon the subject will probably ever be attained. The writer will therefore only give an account of facts, or a mere statement of the present appearances of those antiquities; and even within these limits, he will confine himself chiefly to a description of those which have fallen within the limits of his own personal observation. It will likewise be unnecessary to describe, minutely, every individual mound and fortification; for, almost always, the same general plan and principle of their structure is discoverable in them all. Therefore, a particular description of a few will substantially be a description of the whole.

    Some of the most remarkable forts and mounds in this state, are at Worthington, at Granville, m Athens, in Marietta, in Gallipolis, in Chillicothe, on Paint creek

    (U. States) MOUNDS, FORTS, &c. 23

    18 miles north west from Chillicothe, on a plain 3 miles north east of Chillicothe, and at Circleville on the east bank of the Scioto river, about 60 miles in direct line from its mouth, and on the little Miami river. There are no fortifications, (or not any of much notoriety,) at any of these places, except at Granville, at Circleville, near Chillicothe, on Paint creek, and the little Miami; but, at these places, there are both mounds and forts. Mounds of earth, of various sizes, are found interspersed over almost the whole face of the country; but the forts, as they are called, are not so numerous. The mounds vary, in magnitude, vastly from each other, and somewhat so in shape; some are of a conical figure, ending on the top in a point, and as steep on the sides as the earth could be made to lie; others are of the same form, except that they present a flat area on the top, like a cone cut off at some distance from its vertex, in a plane coincident with its base, or with the horizon. Others again are of a semi-globular shape. Of this latter description is that standing in Gallipotis. The largest one near Worthington is of the second kind, and presents, on the summit, a level area of 40 feet in diameter. There is one at Marietta of the same kind, but the circular area on the top does not exceed 20 feet in diameter. Its perpendicular height is about 50 feet; and is 20 rods in circumference at its base. Those in Worthington, and Gallipolis, are each from 15 to 20 rods in circumference, at their bases. There are a number of others of less magnitude, which have fallen within the limits of the writer's observation, particularly on the west side of the Hockbocking river in the township of Athens; on the south side of Shade river about 20 miles south of Athens; and in the French Grant about 60 rods north of the Ohio river, and opposite to the mouth of Little Sandy river, in Kentucky. At each of the two latter places, respectively, there are three several mounds within a few feet of each other. These are much smaller than those before described, and are each from 5 to 10 or Id feet in perpendicular height, and proportionally large in circumference.

    Many of these mounds are composed of earth of a different quality from that which is found in their immediate




    24                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    vicinity. This circumstance seems to indicate that the earth of which they were composed, was transported from some distance. A striking instance of this difference of composition was observed, a few years since, in a mound at Franklinton, near the main fork of the Scioto river. This mound was composed altogether of clay, of which the bricks for the court house, in that town, were made. In it were likewise found a much greater number of human bones, than have been discovered in almost any other of its size.

    It is believed, from the best information which can be obtained upon the subject, that the largest of all the mounds which have yet been discovered, is the one adjoining Big Grave creek, near the Ohio river, 14 miles below Wheeling. This mound, according to the account given of it by an intelligent gentleman, who examined it personally, is about 33 rods in circumference, and consequently between 10 and 11 rods in diameter, in its base. Its perpendicular height is about 70 feet. On the summit is an area of nearly 60 feet in diameter, in the middle of which is a regular concavity, the cubical content of which is about 3000 feet. Within a short distance of this large one, are five small ones, some of which are thirty feet in diameter.

    The epithet Grave has been applied to the creek which runs by the large mound, and to another called Little Grave creek, one mile north of the former, on account of the great number of these mounds which have been discovered in their vicinity: which mounds, both here and elsewhere, are pretty generally supposed to have been cemeteries for the dead. One principal reason for this supposition, is the circumstance of human bones having been discovered in most of those which have been examined. Most of those bones presently crumble in pieces or moulder into dust, shortly after being exposed to the air; except in some instances, wherein the teeth, jaw, scull, and sometimes a few other bones, by their peculiar solidity, resist the above described effects of a contact with the air.

    Among those places, where are the greatest number, and most prominent and entire of the earthen walls, which are commonly supposed to have been forts and

    25

    military fortifications, are Granville and Circleville, in this state, and the land bordering on the Great Kanhawa river in Virginia, towards its mouth, and from thence down the Ohio 10 or 12 miles; at the latter place, in particular, the country is very thickly bestrewn with them. And among these is a mound of similar magnitude with the largest at Grave creek.

    The fortifications throughout the western country generally, consist of a circular wall composed of earth, and usually, as steep, on the sides, as the dirt could conveniently be made to lie. Sometimes, though rarely, their form is elliptical or oval, and a few of them are square. Their height is almost infinitely various. Some of them are so low as to be scarcely perceptible: some are from 20 to 30 feet in perpendicular height; while others again are of an intermediate elevation. But the wall of the same fort, is pretty uniformly of the same height all around. They are likewise equally various in the contents of ground, which they enclose: some containing but a few perches of land; others again, containing nearly 100 acres. The number of their entrances or gate-ways, varies in different forts from one to eight or more, in proportion to the plan of construction, and magnitude of the enclosure. The walls are, mostly, single; but, in a few instances, the forts have been found consisting of two walls parallel, and adjacent to each other. As to their local situation, it may perhaps, suffice to observe that they are, generally, situated on a comparatively elevated site of ground, adjoining a river or stream of water. Some, even among the most learned men, have controverted the idea of their having been designed for forts; but a strong argument in favour of the idea is, that they seem in a majority of instances to have been constructed in such advantageous and commanding ground as skilful military positions: still, numbers of them seem to be erected, without any regard to the choice of situation, as it respects eligibility either for offence, or defence.

    One of the most remarkable collections of these fortifications, is at Circleville, the chief town of Pickaway county. This town derives its name from the circumstance of being laid out within one of the old circular




    26                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    forts, and with circular streets, corresponding with the external fortification. The town plat, however, includes the area of a square fort, adjoining the circular one on the east, besides two streets circumscribing nearly the whole.

    The circular fort consists of two parallel walls, whose tops are, apparently, about three rods asunder; the inner one of which is forty seven rods in diameter. Between these two walls is a fosse, excavated sufficiently broad and deep; and not more than sufficiently so, to have afforded earth enough for the construction of the external wall alone. From this circumstance, among others, the earth composing the inner wall, is supposed to have been transported from a distance. Another particular, corroborating this supposition, is, there being a level foot way, of about four feet wide, left on the original surface of the ground, between the interior base of the inner wall. Although this circumstance is far from being conclusive upon the subject; yet, the following fact almost infallibly proves this conjecture to be well founded. This is, that the interior wall is composed of clay, of which the inhabitants manufacture brick; whereas, the exterior circle is composed of dirt and gravel of similar quality with that which composes the neighbouring ground.

    There is but one original regular opening, or passage, into the circular fort; and that is in the east side from the square one. The latter has seven avenues leading into it, exclusively of that which communicates with the circle; there is one at every corner, and one on each side equidistant from the angular openings. These avenues are each 12 or 15 feet wide; and the walls, on either hand, rise immediately to their usual height; which is above 20 feet. The trees, which are growing upon these, and all the other forts and mounds throughout the country, are, apparently, of equal age and size, and those which are down are in equal stages of decay, with those, in like situations, in the surrounding forests. This circumstance, incontestibly proves the great antiquity of those stupendous remains of former labour and ingenuity.

    27

    ANCIENT WORKS IN PERRY COUNTY, OHIO.

    (From the Archaeologist Americana, printed at Worcester, Massachusetts, U. S. 1820.)

    Southwardly from the great works on the Licking, four or five miles in a northwestern direction from Somerset, the seat of justice for Perry county, and on section twenty-one, township seven, range sixteen, is an ancient work of stone. In the centre is a stone mound. This stone mound is circular, and in the form of a sugar loaf, from twelve to fifteen feet in height There is a smaller circular stone tumulus, standing in the wall, which encloses the work, and constitutes a part of it.

    There is a large and high rock, lying in front of an opening in the outer wall. This opening is a passage between two large rocks, which lie in the wall, of from seven to ten feet in width. These rocks, on the outside, present a perpendicular front of ten feet in altitude, but after extending fifty yards into the enclosure, they enter the earth and disappear.

    There is also a small work, whose area is half an acre; the walls are of earth, and of a few feet only in height. This large stone work contains within its walls forty acres and upwards. The walls, as they are called in popular language, consist of rude fragments of rocks, without any marks of any iron tool upon them. These stones lie in the utmost disorder, and if laid up in a regular wall, would make one seven feet or seven feet six inches in height, and from four to six feet in thickness. I do not believe this ever to have been a military work, either of defence or offence; but if a military work, it must have been a temporary camp. From the circumstance of this work's containing two stone tumuli, such as were used in ancient times, as altars and as monuments, for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of some great era, or important event in the history of those who raised them, I should rather suspect this to have been a sacred enclosure, or "high place," which was resorted to on some great anniversary. It is on high ground, and destitute of water, and. of coarse, could not have been a place of habitation for any length of time, It might have




    28                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    been the place, where some solemn feast was annually held by the tribe by which it was formed. The place has become a forest, and the soil is too poor to have ever been cultivated by a people who invariably chose to dwell on a fertile spot. These monuments of ancient manners, how simple and yet how sublime. Their authors were rude, and unacquainted with the use of letters, yet they raised monuments, calculated almost for endless duration, and speaking a language as expressive as the most studied inscriptions of latter times upon brass and marble. These monuments, their stated anniversaries and traditionary accounts, were their means of perpetuating the recollection of important transactions. Their authors are gone; their monuments remain; but the events, which they were intended to keep in the memory, are lost in oblivion.

    ----------

    ANCIENT TUMULI.

    THE SAME.

    f The following information is extracted from the Letter of Dr. Hildreth, to the President of the American Antiquarian Society, dated Marietta, Nov. 3, 1819.)

    There is another species of ancient works in this country which deserves our notice. They are conical mounds, either of earth or stones, which were intended for many 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 Antideluvians. That they are very ancient, 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 mentions them. He particularly describes the tumulus of Tytyus and the spot where it was. In memory of the illustrious dead, a sepulchral 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 offerings and games

    29

    were intended to propitiate their manes, to honour and perpetuate their memories. *

    "In addition to the articles found at Marietta," says Dr. Hildreth, "I have procured, from a mound on the Little Muskingum, about four miles from Marietta, some pieces of copper, which appear to be the front of a helmet. It was originally about eight inches long, and four broad, and has marks of having been attached to leather; it is much decayed, and is now quite a thin plate. A copper ornament in imitation of those described, and found in Marietta, was discovered with the plate, and appears to have been attached to the centre of it by a rivet, the hole for which remains both in the plate and ornament. At this place the remains of a skeleton were found. No part of it retained its form, but a portion of the forehead and skull, which lay under the plate of copper.

    "The mound in which these relics were found, is about the magnitude of the one in Marietta, and has every appearance of being as ancient. I have in any possession some pieces of ancient potters' ware, found within the ancient works at Marietta. They are, some of them, neatly wrought, and composed of pounded flint stone and clay. ** They are yet quite solid and firm although they have lain for several years, exposed to rain and frost, on the surface of the ground.

    "We often find pieces of broken ware, near the banks of the river, and in the bottoms; but they are composed of clay and pounded clam shells; are much less compact and firm, and do not appear to have been burnt They are evidently of the same composition with those made by the modern Indians.

    "Some time in the course of this month, we propose opening several mounds in this place; and if any thing is discovered, which will throw light on the subject of

    __________

    * Alexander the Great paid great honours when at Ilion, to the manes of Achilles, and caused games to be celebrated round his tomb. -- ED.

    ** Vessels are found in some instances equal to any now manufactured in any part of the world.




    30                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    the "Ancients of the finest," it shall be communicated to your Society, with a portion or all of the articles found. It seems to be a well established fact, that the bodies of nearly all those buried in mounds, were partially, if not entirely, consumed by fire, before the mounds were built. This is made to appear, by quantities of charcoal being found at the centre and base of the mounds; stones burned and blackened, and marks of fire on the metallic substances buried with them. It is a matter of much regret that on no one of the articles yet found, has been discovered any letters, characters, or hieroglyphicks, which would point to what nation or zzzapre these people belonged. 1 have been told by an eye witness, that a few years ago, near Blackshurgh in Virginia, eighty miles from Marietta, there was found about 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 man who found it was a blacksmith, and worked np this curious article, I suppose, with as little remorse as he would an old gun-barrel. Mounds are very frequent in that neighbourhood, and many curious articles of Antiquity have been found there."

    1 have also been told from good authority, that an ornament, composed of very pure gold, something similar to those found here, was discovered a few years since in Ross county, near Chillicothe, lying in the palm of a skeleton's hand, in a small mound. This curiosity, I am told, is in the Museum at Philadelphia. "

    As we still descend the Scioto, through a most fertile region of country, mounds and other ancient works frequently appear, untill we arrive at Circleville, twenty- six miles south of Columbus, where are to be seen some of the most interesting Antiquities any where to be found.

    "The works (at Circleville) have been noticed, but the mounds remain to he described. Of these there were several which the ruthless hum! of man is destroying. Near the centre of the round fort, was a tumulus of earth, about ten feet in height, and several rods in diameter at its base. On its eastern side, and extending nix rods from it, was a semicircular pavement, composed of pebbles, such as are now found in the bed of the Scioto

    31

    river, from whence they appear to have been brought.

    The summit of this tumulus was nearly thirty feet in diameter, and there was a raised way to it, leading from the east, like n modern turnpike. The summit was level. The outline of the semicircular pavement and the walk is still discernible. -- The earth composing this mound was entirely removed several years since. The writer was present at its removal, and carefully examined the contents. It contained,

    1. Two human skeletons, lying on what had been, the original surface of the earth.

    2. A great quantity of arrow heads, some of which were so large, as to induce a belief that they were used for spear heads.

    3. 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, vet no iron was found, but an oxyde remained of similar shape and size.

    4. Charcoal and wood ashes, on which these articles lay, which were surrounded by several bricks very well burnt. The skeleton appeared to have been burned in a large and very hot fire, which had almost consumed the bones of the deceased. 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 were

    5. A large mirror, about three feet in length, one foot and a half in breadth, and one inch and a half in thickness. This mirror was of isinglass, (mica membranacea) and on it,

    6. A plate of iron, which had become an oxyde; but before it was disturbed hy 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 buried like the former, and lay on charcoal and a considerable quantity of wood ashes. A part of the mirror is in my possession as well as a piece of a brick, taken from the spot at the time.

    The knife, or sword handle, was sent to Mr. Peale's Museum, at Philadelphia.




    32                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    To the south west of this tumulus, about forty rod* tram 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 cemetery, as it contains an immense number of human skeletons, of all sizes and ages.

    The skeletons are laid horizontally, with their heads generally towards the centre, and the feet towards the outside of the tumulus. A considerable part of this work still stands uninjured, except by time. In it have been found, besides these skeletons, stone axes and knives, and several ornaments, with holes through them, by means of which, with a cord passing through these perforations, they could be worn by their owners.

    On the south side of this tumulus, and not far from it, was a semicircular fosse, which, when I first saw it, was six feet deep. On opening it, was discovered at the bottom a great quantity of human hones, which, I am inclined to believe, were the remains of those who had been slain in some great and destructive battle. First, because they belonged to persons who had attained their full size; whereas, in the mound adjoining, were found the skeletons of persons of all ages; and secondly, they were here in the utmost confusion, as if buried in a hurry. May we not conjecture, that they belonged to the people who resided in the town, and who were victorious in the engagements? otherwise they would not have been thus honourably buried in the common cemetery.

    ANCIENT TUMULI CONTINUED.

    (From Mc.Murtrie's Sketches of Louisville.)

    Dr. McMurtrie modestly remarks "the antiquities of the western country in general, have been already so minutely described by others, that I shall, no doubt be readily excused for the brevity of the present article, and the more so, as there is nothing of the kind peculiarly interesting in the immediate vicinity of Louisville.

    Mounds or tumuli are occasionally met with, some of which have been opened; nothing, however, was found to repay the trouble of the search, but a few human

    33

    bones, mixed with others apparently belonging to the deer.

    With respect to the uses of these accumulations, there can be no doubt; their contents speak plainly on the subject, and from the circumstance of some of them having been found to contain but one skeleton, while from others, of not more than equal magnitude, the remains of twenty have been disinterred, we may reasonably conclude, that the former were designed for the mausolea of chiefs, or distinguished persons, the latter for those of the community.

    Hatchets of stone, pestles or grain beaters, of the same material, arrow beads, of flint, together with the remains of hearths, indicated by flat stones surrounded I iv, and partly covered with broken shells, fragments of bones, charcoal, calcined earth, Sec. are every where to be seen, and some of them in situations affording an ample fund for speculation to the geognost. Two of the first mentioned instruments were discovered, a few miles below the town, at the depth of forty feet, near an Indian hearth, on which, among other vestiges of a fire, were found two charred brands, evidently the extremities of a stick that had been consumed in the middle, on this identical spot: the whole of this plain, as we before observed, is alluvial, and this fact shows to what depth that formation extends. But at the time the owners of these hatchets were seated by the fire, where, I would ask, was the Ohio? Certainly not in its present bed, for these remains are below its level; and where else it may have been, I am at a loss even to conjecture, as there are no marks of any obsolete water course whatever, between the river and Silver Creek hills, on the one side, and between it and the Knobs, on the other.

    Not many years past, an iron hatchet was found in a situation equally singular. A tree of immense size, whose roots extended thirty or forty feet each way, was obliged to be felled, and the earth on which it grew to be removed, in order to afford room for a wall connected with the foundations of the great mill, at Shippingport. A few feet below the surface, and directly under the centre of the tree, which was at least six feet in diameter,




    34                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    was found the article in question, which, as was evident upon examination, had been formed out of a flat bar of wrought iron, heated in the fire to redness, and bent double, leaving a round hole at the joint for the reception ol a handle, the two ends being nicely welded together, terminated by a cutting edge.

    Many others of a similar description have been found at different times and places, but as they were always attributed to the settlers of Kentucky, subsequent to 1769, no care was taken to note such local circumstances as might have determined a greater quantity; and the one above mentioned would have, no doubt, shared the same fate, but for this obvious fact, that the tree must necessarily have grown over the axe previously deposited there, and that no human power could have placed it in the particular position in which it was found, after that event had taken place. The tree was upwards of two hundred years old.

    A little below Clarksville, immediately on the hank of the river, is the site of a wigwam, covered with an alluvial deposition of earth, six feet in depth Interspersed among the hearths, and scattered in the soil beyond them, are large quantities of human bones, in a very advanced stage of decomposition. Facts most generally speak for themselves, and this one, tells a very simple and probable tale. The village must have been surprised by an enemy, many of whose bodies, mixed with those of the inhabitants, were left upon the spot. Had it been a common burial place, something like regularity would have been evinced in the disposition of the skeletons; neither should we have found them in the game place, with the fire places of an extensive settlement, (or near it) but below it.

    That walls, constructed of bricks and hewn stones, have been discovered in the western country, is a fact as clear as that the sun shines when he is in his meridian splendour, the dogmatical assertions of writers to the contrary, notwithstanding. Among the great variety of the latter, I shall name but one, which I have selected, because, the gentleman who is my authority for the story, is now in this town, was himself on the spot, and is one on whose simple word the most implicit reliance may be

    35

    placed: Mr. R. W. Todd assured me, that he was present, during the year 1809, where some workmen were employed in sinking a well on Todd's Fork, a branch of the Little Miami. At the depth of eighteen or twenty feet, they came to the stump of a tree and a grape vine, and, lower down, to a wall, regularly constructed of hewn stone. Having dug a few feet along the side of this, their spades, &c. were arrested by a pavement composed of the same materials. They had but little time to comment on this discovery, for the water rushed in and obliged them to ascend so speedily, that they could hardly loosen one of the stones from the wall which, however, they accomplished, and brought it up with them. Mr. Todd examined the stone attentively, and declares it to have been a piece of a silicious limestone rock, of a regular oblong figure, evidently fashioned by some iron instrument.

    With respect to the existence of the former, Mr. Savage, of this place, has lately made a discovery, that puts the fact beyond a possibility of doubt, and one that tends to throw much light upon the race of people now supposed extinct, that once inhabited the vallies of the Mississippi and Ohio.

    This gentleman fatigued by the continual ennui of his situation, the natural consequence of his confinement to the Buffaloe steam boat, which, from accidents happening to her machinery, running aground, &c. was detained a long time in the Mississippi, determined upon an excursion to the shores of the river, where accident directed his steps to the ruins of a fortified town of considerable extent, near the river St. Francis; among which were still standing, part of the walls of a citadel, built of bricks cemented by mortar.

    Over these walls were spread, the extended branches of a number of gigantic trees, which grew upon them. To ascertain the age of the largest of these, was a point of primary importance, to fell them, no easy task; perseverance, however, soon accomplished, what curiosity had commenced, and several of them were leveled with the earth, when it was found, from the number of annual . rings visible on the surface of the stumps, that they . must lave stood there, at least, three hundred years!




    36                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    which furnishes a hint, respecting the probable time the town became a ruin. The bricks (several of which are now in this place) are composed of clay mixed with chopped and twisted straw, of regular figures hardened by the action of fire, or the sun. It is a subject of deep regret to me, that I am only able to furnish this very lame and imperfect account of one of the most interesting discoveries, respecting the arts of the ancient inhabitants of America, that has ever been made, but the public will probably be the gainer, as Mr. Savage himself contemplates, ere long, laying before it every circumstance connected with this curious fact. I cannot, however, take leave of the subject without observing, that had common attention, and but a small portion of curiosity existed in the minds of the earlier settlers of Kentucky, and in those of the western country generally, we should, no doubt, at the present moment, possess a sufficient mass of evidence to enable us to decide, most positively, on the nation or origin of that race of men, who have left behind them marks of civilization and refinement, that serve to distinguish them from the more savage inhabitants of the forest.

    MOUNDS BEYOND THE LIMITS OF THE

    STATE OF OHIO.

    (Archaeologia Americana.)

    These tumuli are very common on the river Ohio, . from its utmost sources to its mouth. Few and small, comparatively, they are found on the waters of the Monongahela; but increase in number and size, as we descend towards the mouth of that stream, at Pittsburgh. Then rapidly increasing in number, they are of the largest dimensions at Grave Creek, below Wheeling.

    "For an able and interesting account of those last mentioned,'' says Dr. Hildreth, "I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Doddridge, of Brooke county, Virginia. An Extract from his communication follows, dated,

    "WELLSBUBGH, VA. May 27, 1819.

    "DEAR SIR,

    "As to your inquiry concerning the ancient works at

    37

    Grave Creek, below Wheeling, I will give you the best account which I can.

    The 'Big Grave,' as it is called, is certainly one of the most august monuments of remote Antiquity any where to be found. Its circumference at the base, is three hundred yards; its diameter, of course, one hundred. Its altitude, from measurement, is ninety feet; and its diameter, at the summit, is forty-five feet. The centre, at the summit, appears to have sunk several feet, so as to form a small kind of amphitheatre. The rim enclosing this amphitheatre, is seven or eight feet in thickness. On the south side, in its edge, stands a large beach tree, whose bark 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 of the ground, Mr. Joseph Tomlinson, will not suffer its demolition in the smallest degree. I, for one, do him honour for his sacred regard for these works of Antiquity. I wish that the inhabitants of Chillicothe and Circleville had acted like Mr. Tomlinson. In that case, the mounds in those towns would have been left standing. They would have been religiously protected, as sacred relics of remote and unknown Antiquity.

    Following the river Ohio downwards, the mounds appear on both sides, erected uniformly on the highest alluvions along the stream. Their numbers increase all the way to the Mississippi, on which river they assume the largest size. Not having surveyed them, we shall use the description of Mr. Brackenridge, who has devoted great attention to them. With his discriminating powers of mind the public are acquainted.

    These tumuli, as well as the fortifications, are to be found at the junction of all the rivers, 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 one hundred in diameter at the base. Their great number, and the astonishing size of some of them, may be regarded as furnishing, with other circumstances, evidence of their antiquity.




    38                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    I have been sometimes induced to think, that, at the period when these were constructed, there was a population as numerous as that which once animated the borders of the Nile, or of the Euphrates, or of Mexico. The most numerous, as well as the most considerable of these remains, are found precisely in those parts of the country where the traces of a numerous population might be looked for, viz. from the mouth of the Ohio, on the east side of the river, to the Illinois river, 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 COUNTRY."

    Nearly opposite St. Louis, there are traces of two such cities, in the distance of five miles. They are situated on the Cahokia, which crosses the American bottom opposite St. Louis. One of the mounds is eight hundred yards in circumference at the base, (the exact size of the pyramid of Asychis) and one hundred feet in height. Mr. Brackenridge, noticed "a mound at New Madrid of three hundred and fifty feet in diameter at the base." Other large ones are at the following places, viz. at St. Louis, one with two states, another with three; at the mouth of the Missouri; at the mouth of Cahokia river, in two groups; twenty miles below, two groups also, but the mounds of a similar size; on the bank of a lake, formerly the bed of the river, at the mouth of Marameck, St. Genevieve; one near Washington, Mississippi state, of one hundred and forty-six feet in height; at Baton Rouge, and on the bayou Manchac; one of the mounds near the lake is composed chiefly of shells. The inhabitants have taken away great quantities of them for lime.

    The mound on Black River, has two stage* and a group around. At each of the above places there are groups of mounds, and there was probably once a city. Mr. Brackenridge thinks that the largest city belonging to this people, was situated between the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois. On the plains between the Arkansaw and St. Francis, there are several very large mounds.

    Thus it will be seen, that these remains which were

    39

    so few and small along the northern lakes, are more and more numerous as we travel in a south-western direction, until we reach the Mississippi, where they are lofty and magnificent. Those works similar to the Teocalli of Mexico, by the Spaniards called "Adoratorios," are not found north of the mound at Circleville on the Scioto, or at least, I have seen none of them. They are very common and lofty, it seems, on the Mississippi river. An observing eye can easily mark, in these works, the progress of their authors, from the lakes to the valley of the Mississippi; thence to the Gulph of Mexico, and round it, through Texas, into New Mexico, and into South America; their increased numbers, as they proceeded, are evident; while the articles found in and near these works, show also the progressive improvement of the arts among those who erected them.

    Miscellaneous Remarks on the Uses of Mounds.

    Though they were used as places of sepulture and of worship, yet, were they not sometimes in the last resort, used also as places of defence? Solis, who describes the destruction of the Mexicans, and the conquest of their empire by the Spaniards, informs us that the " Teocalli." which were like many of our works, in cases of extreme necessity, appeared like "living hills;" they were covered with warriors. Standing upon their altars and in their temples; upon the tombs of their lathers; defending themselves, their wives, their children, their aged parents, their country, and their gods, they fought with desperation. These mounds being elevated on high grounds, in situations easily defended. Is it not highly probable, that their authors, in cases of the last resort, used them as places of defence?"

    ----




    40                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    ANCIENT MEXICAN CITIES AND PYRAMIDS.

    (Humboldt's Views of the Cordilleras.)

    "Among those swarms of nations, which, from the seventh to the twelfth century of the Christian era, successively inhabited the country of Mexico, five are enumerated, the Toltecks, the Cieimecks, the Acolhuans, the Tlascaltecks, and the Aztecks, who, notwithstanding their political divisions, spoke the same language, followed the same worship, and built pyramidal edifices, which they regarded as teocallis, that is to say, the house of their gods. -- These edifices were all of the same form, though of very different dimensions; they were pyramids, with several terraces, and the sides of which stood exactly in the direction of the meridian, and the parallel of the place. Each house of a Mexican divinity, like the ancient temple of Baal Berith, burnt by Abimelech, was a strong place. A great staircase led to the top of the truncated pyramid, and on the summit of the platform were one or two chapels, built like towers, which contained the colossal idols of the divinity, to whom the Teocalli was dedicated. The in . side of the edifice was the burial place of the kings and principal personages of Mexico. It is impossible to read the descriptions, which Herodotus and Diodorus Sivulus have left us of the temple of Jupiter Belus, without being struck with the resemblance of that Babylonian monument to the Teocallis of Anahuac.

    At the period when the Mexicans, or Aztecks, one of the seven tribes of the Anabuatlacks, (inhabitants of the banks of rivers,) took possession, in the year 1190, of the equinoctial region of New Spain, they already found the pyramidal monuments of Teotihuacan, of Cholula, or Cholollan, and of Pupantla. They attributed these great edifices to the Toltecks, a powerful and civilized nation, who inhabited Mexico five hundred years earlier, who made use of hieroglyphical characters, who computed the year more precisely, and had a more exact chronology than the greater part of the people of the old continent. We ought not to be astonished, that no history of any American nation should precede the seventh

    (Mexico) CITIES, PYRAMIDS, &c. 41

    century; and that the annals of the Toltecks should be as uncertain as those of the Pelasgi and the Ausonians. The learned Mr. Schloezer has clearly proved, that the history of the north of Europe reaches no higher than the tenth century, an epocha when Mexico was in a more advanced state of civilization than Denmark, Sweden and Russia.

    The Teocalli of Mexico was dedicated to Tezcatlipolica, the first of the Azteck divinities after Teotl, who is the supreme and visible Being; and to Huitzilopochtli, the God of war. It was built by the Aztecks, on the model of the pyramids of Teotihuacan, six years only before the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. This truncated pyramid, called by Cortez the principal temple, was ninety-seven metres * in breadth at its basis, and nearly fifty-four metres in height.

    The group of the pyramids of Teotihuacan is in the valley of Mexico, eight leagues north east from the capital, in a plain that bears the name of Micoatl, or the Path cf the Death. There are two large pyramids dedicated to the Sun (Tonatiuh,) and to the Moon (Meztli); and these are surrounded by several hundreds of small pyramids, which form streets in exact lines from north to south, and from east to west. Of these two great Teocallis, one is fifty-five, the other is forty-four metres in perpendicular height. The basis of the first is two hundred and eighty metres in length; whence it results, that the Tonntiuh Yztaqual, according to Mr. Oteyza's measurement, made in 1 803, is higher than the Mycerinus, or third of the three great pyramids of Geeza in Egypt, and the length of its base nearly equal to that of the Cephren. The small pyramids, which surround the great houses of the Sun and the Moon, are scarcely nine or ten metres high; and served, according to the tradition of the natives, as burial places for the chiefs of the tribes. Around the Cheops and the Mycerinus in Egypt, there are eight small pyramids, placed with symmetry, and parallel to the fronts of the greater. The two Teocallis

    ------

    * A French revolutionary measure of 3 feet, 11 1/2 inches. -- ED.




    42                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    of Teotihuacan had four principal stories, each of which was subdivided into steps, the edges of which are still to be distinguished. The nucleus is composed of clay mixed with small stones, and it is encased by a thick wall of tezontli, or porous amygdaloid. * This construction recalls to mind that of one of the Egyptian pyramids of Sakharab, which has six stories; and which, according to Pocock, is a mass of pebbles and yellow mortar, covered on the outside with rough stones. On the top of the great Mexican Teocallis were two colossal statues of the Sun and Moon: they were of stone, and covered with plates of gold, of which they were stripped by the soldiers of Cortez. -- When bishop Zumaraga, a Franciscan monk, undertook the destruction of whatever related to the worship, the history, and the Antiquities of the natives of America, he ordered also the demolition of the idols of the plain of Micoatl. We still discover the remains of a staircase built with large hewn stone, which formerly led to the platform of the Teocalli.

    On the east of the group of the pyramids of Teotihuacan, on descending the Cordillera towards the Gulph of Mexico, in a thick forest, called Tajin, rises the pyramid of Papantla. This monument was by chance discovered scarcely thirty years ago, by some Spanish hunters; for the Indians carefully conceal from the whites whatever was an object of ancient veneration. The form of this Teocalli, which had six, perhaps seven stories, is more tapering than that ol any other monument of this kind; it is nearly eighteen metres in height, while the breadth of its basis is only twenty-five. This small. edifice is built entirely with hewn stones, of an extraordinary size, and very beautifully and regularly shaped. Three staircases lead to the top. The covering of its steps is decorated with hieroglyphical sculpture, and small niches, which are 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 the Cempobualilhuitl, or civil calendar of the Toltecks.

    ------

    * Mandelstein of the German mineralogists.

    43

    The greatest, most ancient, and most celebrated of the whole of the pyramidal monuments of Anahuac is the Teocalli of Cholula. It is called in the present day the Mountain made by the hand of man (monte hecho a manos.) At a distance it has the aspect of a natural hill covered with vegetation.

    A vast plain, the Puebla, is separated from the valley of Mexico by the chain of volcanic mountains) which extend from Popocatepetl, toward Rio Frio, and the peak of Telapon. This plain, fertile though destitute of trees, is rich in memorials, interesting to Mexican history. In it flourished the capitals of three republics of Tlascalla, Huexocingo and Cholula, which, notwithstanding their continual dissensions, resisted with no less firmness the despotism and usurping spirit of the Azteck kings.

    The small city of Cholula, which Cortez, in his Letters to Charles V. compares with the most populous cities of Spain, contains at present scarcely sixteen thousand inhabitants. The pyramid is to the east of the city, on the road which leads from Cholula to Puebla.

    The Teocalli of Cholula has four stories, all of equal height. It appears to have been constructed exactly in the direction of the four cardinal points; but as the edges of the stories are not very distinct, it is difficult to ascertain their primitive direction. This pyramidical monument has a broader basis than that of any other edifice of the same kind in the old continent. I measured it carefully, and ascertained, that its perpendicular height is only fifty metres, but that each side of its basis is four hundred and thirty -nine metres in length. Torquemada computes its height at seventy-seven metres; Betancourt, at sixty-five; and Clavigero, at sixty-one. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a common soldier in the army of Cortez, amused himself by counting the steps of the staircase, which led to the platform of the Teocallis; he found one hundred and fourteen in the great temple of Tenochtitlan, one hundred and seventeen in that of Tezcuco, and one hundred and twenty in that of Cholula. The basis of the pyramid of Cholula is twice as broad as that of Cheops; but its height is very little more than that of the pyramid of Mycerinus. An adit dug




    44                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    through the Teocalli of Cholula, to examine its external structure, would bean interesting operation; and it is singular, that the desire of discovering hidden treasure has not prompted the undertaking. -- During my travels in Peru, in visiting the vast ruins of the city of Chimu, near Mansiche, I went into the interior of the famous Huaca de Toledo, the tomb of a Peruvian prince, in which Garci Gutierez de Toledo discovered, on digging a gallery, in 1576, massive gold amounting in value to more than five millions of francs, as is proved by the hook of accounts, preserved in the mayor's office at Truxillo.

    The size of the platform of the pyramid of Cholula, on which I made a great number of astronomical observations, is four thousand two hundred square metres. From it the eye ranges over a magnificent prospect; Popocatepetl, Iztaceihuatl, the peak of Orizaba, and the Sierra de Tlascalla, famous for the tempests which gather around its summit. We view at the same time three mountains higher than Mount Blanc, two of which are still burning volcanoes. A small chapel, surrounded with cypress, and dedicated to the Virgin de los Remedies, has succeeded to the temple of the god of the air, or the Mexican Indra. An ecclesiastic of the Indian race celebrates mass every day on the top of this antique monument.

    In the time of Cortez, Cholula was considered as a holy city. No where existed a greater number of Teocallis, of priests, and religious orders (tlamacazque;) no spot displayed greater magnificence in the celebration of public worship, or more austerity in its penances and fasts. Since the introduction of Christianity among the Indians, the symbols of a new worship have not entirely effaced the remembrance of the old. The people assemble in crowds, from distant quarters, at the summit of the pyramid, to celebrate the festival of the Virgins. A mysterious dread, a religious awe, fills the soul of the Indian at the sight of this immense pile of bricks, covered with shrubs and perpetual verdure."

    ------

    45

    RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CITY NEAR PALENQUE, IN GUATEMALA. (Captain Rio's Discoveries.)

    “From Palenque, the last town northward in the province of Cindad Real deChiapa, taking a southwesterly direction, and ascending a ridge of high land that divides the kingdom of Guatemala from Yucatan, or Campeachy, at the distance of two leagues, is the little river Micol, whose waters, flowing in a westerly direction, unite with the great river Tulija, which bends its course towards the province of Tabasco; having passed the Milcot, the ascent begins, and, at half a league from thence, the traveller crosses a little stream called Otolum, discharging its waters into the before-mentioned current; from this point heaps of ruins are discovered, which render the road very difficult for another half league, when you gain the height whereon the stone houses are situated, being fourteen in number, some more dilapidated than others, but still having many of their apartments perfectly discernable.

    A rectangular area, three hundred yards in breadth by four hundred and fifty in length, presents a plain at the base of the highest mountain forming the ridge, and in the centre is situated the largest of these structures which has been as yet discovered: it stands on a mound twenty yards high, and is surrounded by the other edifices; namely, five to the northward, four to the southward, one to the south-west, and three to the eastward. In all directions the fragments of other fallen buildings are to be seen extending along the mountain, that stretches east and west, about three or four leagues either way, so that the whole range of this ruined town may be computed to extend between seven and eight leagues; but its breadth is by no means equal to its length, being little more than half a league wide at the point where the ruins terminate, which is towards the river Micol, that winds round the base of the mountain, whence descend small streams, that wash the foundation of the ruins mi their banks, so that, were it not for the thick




    46                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    umbrageous foliage of the trees, they would present to the view so many beautiful serpentine rivulets.

    It might be inferred that this people had had some analogy to, and intercourse with the Romans, from a similarity in the choice of situation as well as a subterranean stone aqueduct of great solidity and durability, which passes under the largest building.

    I do not take upon myself to assert that these conquerors did actually land "in this country; but there is reasonable ground for hazarding a conjecture that some inhabitants of that polished nation did visit these regions; and that, from such intercourse, the natives might have imbibed, during their stay, an idea of the arts, as a reward for their hospitality.

    The entrance to the large building is on the eastern side, by a portico or corridor thirty-six varas, or yards, in length, and three in breadth, supported by plain rectangular pillars, without either basis or pedestals, upon which there are square smooth stones of more than a foot in thickness, forming an architrave, while, on the exterior superficies are species of stucco shields, the designs of some of them, while over these stones, there is another plain rectangular block, five feet long and six broad, extending over two of the pillars. Medallions or compartments in stucco, containing different devices of the same material, appear as decorations to the chambers: and it is presumable, from the vestiges of the heads which can still be traced, that they were the busts of a series of kings and lords to whom the natives were subject. Between the medallions there is a range of windows like niches, passing from one end of the wall to the other, some of them are square, some in the form of a Greek cross, and others, which complete the cross, lire square, being about two feet high and eight inches deep. Beyond this corridor there is a square court, entered by a night of seven steps; the north side is entirely in ruins, but sufficient traces remain to show that it once had a chamber and corridor similar to those on the eastern side, and which continued entirely along the several angles. The south side has four small chambers with no other ornament than one or two little windows, like those already described. The western side is correspondent

    ORIGIN OF THE ANCIENT WORKS. 47

    to its opposite in all respects, but in the variety of expression of the figures in stucco: these are much more rude and ridiculous than the others, and can only be attributed to the most uncultivated Indian capacity. The device is a sort of grotesque mask, with a crown and long beard like that of a goat; under this are two Greek crosses, the one delineated in the other. Proceeding in the same direction, there is another court, similar in length to the last, but not so broad, having a passage round it that communicated with the opposite side; in this passage there are two chambers like those above-mentioned, and an interior gallery looking on one side upon the court-yard, and commanding, on the other, a view of the open country. In this part of the edifice some pillars yet remain."

    -----

    CONJECTURES RESPECTING THE ORIGIN

    AND HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORKS

    IN AMERICA.

    ( McMurtrie's Sketches of Louisville.)

    "But few settlements, in any portion of the known world, have ever been effected under so many discouraging circumstances, as that of Louisville and its adjacent country. The great bone of contention, between the northern and southern tribes of Indians, who disputed the possession of it with each other for a hunting ground, it was not likely they could see a foreign people step in between them, and take possession of it, without a violent struggle, on their part to prevent it.

    Man, in his natural and savage state, is by far the most remorseless and cruel animal of the creation, surpassing the tiger in ferocity, and incapable of forgiving an injury, however unintentionally it may have been offered to him. No matter what length of time may have elapsed, from the moment in which it is committed: no matter what motives may have palliated, excused, or justified the deed -- nothing, no, not the silence of the tomb, can protect the object of his hatred; he must have blood! and, in default of the offender, by a refinement im cruelty, making reYenge to reach beyond the gravs.




    48                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    he wreaks it on his defenceless widow or helpless children!

    Such were the people, 'among whom the daring settlers of Kentucky first pitched their tents, in 1769. No sooner did they appear among the tawny sons of the forests, than the war-whoop was heard, the hell-hounds of death were let loose, and murder stalked triumphantly abroad. Every surf that rose witnessed some work of destruction; and every wind that blew, wafted on its wings the heart-appalling yells of an infernal pack, fresh from their butcher chase; and that dust, which had be . fore oft imbibed the blood of the savage, now became saturated with that of his civilized brother.

    The fury of an ever-active and wary foe, was not the only danger that threatened extermination to those few brave spirits who ventured to this land of blood; * Disease reared her pale and spectre form among them: so that many escaped unhurt, the hatchet and the knife, only to receive their doom from her fell influence.

    Hunted and watched by the natives, like the beasts of the forest; depending upon their rifles for their support, the pursuit of which forced them into the toils; their bodies enervated by sickness, and their minds enfeebled by the continual apprehension of danger; deprived of all medicine or medical aid -- it is not to be wondered at, that so few were added to, their number, that a settlement, so situated, progressed but slowly.

    From an attentive consideration of the various reliques of the western country, I am led to believe however, that several hundred years previous to this epoch, the shores of the Ohio and Mississippi, were inhabited by a race of men instructed by, and descended from Europeans, (probably the French,) who were the authors of all those more perfect specimens of human art alluded to. Whether we consider the iron hatchets, and other manufactured pieces of that metal, which, at different times and places, have been found buried in the earth, in situations indicative of their great antiquity, or whether we reflect upon the existence and composition

    -------

    * The name by which Kentucky at first was designated.

    49

    of the bricks taken from the crumbling wall of the lately discovered ruins on the Mississippi, we are equally certain that neither the Mexicans, nor any other nation of either North or South America, could have been the manufacturers.

    The use of iron was unknown among them, until after the year 1519, which, according to the principle assumed, by which we have calculated the lapse of time, since those instruments were buried, and these walls constructed, is about the period in which the latter were abandoned.

    To some other quarter, then, we must look for an explanation of these bricks, iron hatchets, hewn stones, and regularly constructed fortifications, the three latter of which are so commonly dispersed throughout the western country. To attribute them to the Egyptians, Phoenicians, or any other elder nations of Asia, would be as ridiculous, as to suppose them the work of the native, uncivilized American Indian, and it is evident, from the great age of the timber often found growing on the embankments, that they must have been constructed at or prior to the discovery of St. Salvador, by Columbus, in 1492.

    Greenland was said to have been visited by the Icelanders and the Norwegians, 982, and a colony planted by the former in Finland, a part of Labrador, or Newfoundland, in 1003. From this epoch until the discovery of St. Salvador, 1492, intervenes a period of four hundred and ninety years, during which time, history makes no mention of any attempt at further discoveries; all remarks, therefore, relative to what may have passed during this interim, are purely conjectural; but upon the discovery of such a country as Greenland was represented to be, by Eric-raude, and particularly when, in a few years, we see the same people, who, by his persuasion, were induced to follow him thither, extending that discovery to Vinland, we are a little surprised that the flame which hitherto bad animated them, should be smothered in their bosoms, at the very moment they began to reap the reward of their enterprise in the possession of a country far superior to their own.

    But even admitting that the Danes, Icelanders, or




    50                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    Norwegians, never ventured in the trade, which finally guided Columbus to the American coast, are we sure that accident or design, the spirit of enterprise or stress of weather, may not have led individuals * of other nations to the same spot?

    Europe long rang with the noise of the discovery of Newfoundland; and although the first expedition by the French, fitted out with a view to similar purposes, by

    -----

    * According to Caradoc and other authorities, on the death of Owen Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, about the year 1169, several children contending for his dominions, Madog, one of his sons, perceiving his native country likely to he engaged in civil wars, fitted up a few ships, and passing Ireland, sailed to the westward, where he met with a rich fertile country; when he again returned to North Wales, and described the beauty of the new country, and prevailed on numbers to accompany him, and sailed back with 10 ships. The descendants of these Welsh emigrants are supposed to be the inhabitants of western and southern America, whose sepulchres, remains of cities, and proofs of civilization remain to this day.

    The existence of a nation of Welshmen, in the interior of America, has long been maintained by various writers, and many respectable individuals have declared that they have seen and conversed with Indians who could speak the Welsh language. The editor of this work has frequently heard a Mr. Lawson of Shrewsbury, declare that when he was in Canada, he had many conversations with an Indian whose native language was Welsh, and that he conversed with him in that language with the greatest facility. The same Indian described the distance between Canada and the settlement of his tribe to be nine moans journey.

    Dr. Williams who made this interesting enquiry his study for 30 years, declares his belief of the story of Madog, and also of the existence of Welsh Indians in America; he published two pamphlets on the subject » bout the year 1791. Various other writers have expressed the same belief, and upon the whole it appears

    51

    the imperial order, was in 1524, ** yet such is the enthusiasm with which that people engaged in the pursuit of every thins; that is novel or uncommon, I think not unreasonable to suppose, that, stimulated by the hope of gain, and the desire of distinction, or, perhaps, disgusted with their country or its government, and desirous of seeking new ones, some few individuals, without parade or noise, leaving the soil of France, long prior to the expedition of 1524, and trusting to their fortune, may have been conducted safely to the forests of America; where, finding a country, lovely beyond description, abounding with every gift that nature can bestow, and delighted with the uncontrolled exercise of man's natural heritage, of unlimited freedom, they determined to remain forever, incorporating themselves with some friendly tribe of Indians, and communicating to them the knowledge of such arts as would tend to their comfort and security.

    Whatever proof may be wanting, to establish the time or mode in which these adventurers became the inhabitants of the forest, of their nation, or that of the people who were the constructors of the town lately discovered on the Mississippi, there exists much positive and specific evidence in the bricks of which the walls are composed. As early aa the latter end of the ninth, and the beginning of the tenth century, the inhabitants of Anjou were in the habit of building their houses with clay, well tempered and thoroughly mixed with chopped or twisted straw, in which state it was termed pizay, and when divided into pieces of regular and determinate figures, and dried in the sun or by fire, assumed the

    ------

    quite as reasonable to believe, that there is now or may have been a nation or tribe of Indians originally descended from natives of Ancient Britain, as to maintain the contrary opinion.

    The story of Prince Madog's emigration has been rendered popular and interesting by Mr. Southey.

    ** Giovanni Verazzoni visited America in 1524, by order of Francis I.




    52                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    name of bricks. This practice, I believe, subsequently extended to Picardy and several other provinces of France where the custom, I have no doubt, in a great measure still exists. The similarity between this substance and that of which the ancient bricks (if they may be so called) are composed, is striking -- they are, in feet, one and the same. When, in addition to this circumstance, we take into consideration, the facility with which the French are known to mingle with the Indians of this country, adopting their dress, manners, mode of living, &c. together with the existence of walls now buried in the earth, whose stones have evidently been cut by some metallic instrument, above all, when we rind one of those instruments lying immediately under the centre of an immense tree, whose roots covered a circle of forty feet in diameter, we cannot hesitate to acknowledge, that some persons acquainted with the art of working metals, and the uses to which they may be applied, possessing a tolerable notion of the comforts of life, and the best possible mode of screening themselves from the "pollings of the pitiless storm," as well as the peltings of their more pitiless enemies, could alone have been the workmen; that the aborigines of America, possessing no knowledge of these things, until after their acquaintance with Europeans, could of themselves never have produced them; and, finally, that of all the nations of Europe, who might have had a hand in their formation, facts are in favor of the French.

    If, then, there once existed in this country a people so far advanced in the arts of civilized life, as these relics indisputably prove to have been the case, the question very naturally arises of, What has become of them? this is not so easily answered. They may have been all destroyed at one fell sweep by war, pestilence, or famine, singly, or united. If my supposition respecting the introduction of Europeans among them be admitted, it will furnish a clew, which may enable us to thread the labyrinth, and to account at once for the disappearance of those people, and the origin of the white Indians.

    Incorporated as I have previously supposed, with one particular, or several friendly tribes, to whom they taught the art of fortifying themselves in the field, and

    53

    Europe, as well as of the greater importance of iron, in the various uses to which it may be applied, thereby enabling them to be superior to their neighbours, in peace as well as war, pratitude to the authors of such signal services, may have induced those tribes to have clothed them with power and command, privilegio gynaecei.

    Hence arose a race of light complexioned men, distinguished from their savage brethren, not more by a difference of colour, than by a refinement of intellect, and a knowledge of the arts. Superiority is always envied. Disturbances were excited between these tribes, and those who remained in a perfectly savage state; wars ensued and battles were fought, in which the white Indians and their allies necessarily proved successful, as, in addition to an equal portion of bodily courage and address with their antagonists, they were acquainted with the art of war, which taught them the utility of raising those more perfect specimens of fortifications, which have of late exercised the pens of so many ingenious writers.

    Perceiving the great and decided advantages resulting from the mode in which their enemies carried on the war, a mode that enabled a handful of resolute men to resist an army, and having acquired some little knowledge by woeful experience, the black Indians hastened to imitate them, throwing up the earth and forming breast-works, behind which they could fight, retire for shelter when too hard pressed, and within whose limits they would be secure from a nocturnal surprise, producing a series of works similar to the former, but inferior in point of execution. Having made this approximation to an equality with their foes, superior numbers, combined with accident, may have turned the scales of victory, and gradually put the hitherto triumphant party in the power of their mortal enemies: extermination was the word, and thus the white Indians with the arts they cultivated, forever disappeared.

    About the time when general Clarke first visited this country, art old Indian is said to have assured him, that there was a tradition to this effect -- that there had formerly existed a race of Indians whose complexion was




    54                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    lighter than that of the other natives, which caused them to be known by the name of the white Indians; that bloody wars had always been waged between the two, but that at last the black Indians got the better of the others in a great battle fought at Clarksville, wherein all the latter were assembled; that the remnant of their army took refuge in Sandy Island, whither their successful and implacable enemies followed and put every individual to death.'' How true this maybe I know not; but appearances are strongly in its favour. A large field a little below Clarksville, contains immense quantities of human hones, whose decomposed state and the irregular manner in which they are scattered, as well as the circumstance of their being covered with an alluvial deposition of earth, six or seven feet deep, evidently prove that it was not a regular burial place, but a field of battle, in some former century. Relics of a similar description are said to have been seen in great plenty on Sandy Island, in 1778, none of which, however, are visible at this day, (upon the surface) which may be owing to the constant deposition of sand upon the island, and the action of the water in high floods, whose attrition may have finally removed every vestige of such substances.

    -----

    ADDITIONAL CONJECTURES.

    (From the latter of the Rev. Dr. Doddridge, of Brooke, Virginia, cited in the Archaeologia Americana.)

    Who then were the Authors of our Ancient Works?

    If we look into the Bible, the most authentic, the most ancient history of man, we shall there learn, that mankind, soon after the deluge, undertook to raise a tower high as heaven, which should serve to keep them together, as a place of worship, and stand to future ages as a monument of their industry, their religious zeal, their enterprize, their knowledge of the arts. Unacquainted, as they undoubtedly were, with the use of letters, in what better way could their names have been handed down to their posterity with renown? But in this attempt they were disappointed, and themselves

    55

    dispersed through the wide world. Did they forget to raise afterwards, similar monuments and places of worship? They did not; and, to use the words of an inspired penman, "high places," of various altitudes and dimensions, were raised "on every high hill, and under every green tree," throughout the land of Palestine, and all the east.

    Some of these "high places" belonged to single families, some to a mighty chieftain, a petty tribe, a city, or a whole nation. Some were places of worship for the individual, the tribe, the village, the town, the city, or the nation, to which they respectively belonged.

    At those "high places," which belonged to great nations, great national affairs were transacted. Here they crowned and deposed their kings; here they concluded peace and declared war. Here the nation assembled at stated seasons, to perform the solemn worship of their deities. Here they celebrated anniversaries of great national events, and buried the illustrious dead.

    The Jews, on many great occasions, assembled at Gilgal. The name of the place, signifies "a heap." Here was a pile of stones, which were brought from the bed of the river Jordan, and piled up on the spot where they encamped for the first night after they crossed that river, on their entrance into "the promised land.'' Let the reader examine similar piles of stones on the waters of the Licking, near Newark, in the counties of Perry, Pickaway and Ross, and then ask himself, Whether those who raised our monuments, were not originally from Asia? Shiloe, where the Jews frequently assembled to transact great national affairs, and perform acts of devotion, was situated upon a high hill. When this place was deserted, the loftier hill of Zion was selected in its stead. Upon Sinai's awful summit the law of God was promulgated. Moses was commanded to ascend a mountain to die. 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, king of Israel, who was there buried. 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,




    56                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    Pickaway and Ross; examine the loftiest mounds, and compare them with those described as being in Palestine. Through the wide world, 'such places seem to have been preferred by the men of ancient times who erected them. In England, Scotland, and Wales, they are thus situated.'

    By examining Pennant's drawing and description of the Antiquities of Delvin, otherwise called Iuch-Tuthel, on the river Tay, the reader will see how much the works on the Tay resemble ours on the Licking, near Newark. Pennant, however, imagines these to be Roman works, but Boethius, the only authority quoted hy him, says, that Delvin is a work of the ancient Picts, and was by them called "Tulina.'' The reader is requested to compare the works near Newark, with those of Delvin.

    The same author describes two works on the river Loder or Lowther, and one near the river Eimet, exactly like ours in the west. The strong resemblance between the works in Scotland and ours, I think no man will deny.

    I shall not trouble myself to examine authorities, as to the works of the same kind in various parts of the British isles, because I might fatigue without instructing the leader. What has been said already, applies to many, very many others, throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. They were places of worship, burial, and defence, for the Picts, so called by the Romans, because they painted themselves, like the aborigines of this continent.

    The acquaintance of the Egyptians with the useful and ornamental arts, was of an earlier date than that of the nations around them. Their pyramids and temples, medals and monuments, show a comparatively civilized people, whilst their neighbours were rude barbarians -- the former were shepherds, the latter hunters. In Egypt, a lofty pyramid is a place of sepulture and an altar, whilst a rude pile of stones at Gilgal, is raised for the purpose of commemorating a great national event.

    For many ages we have reason to believe there were none but such altars. From Wales, they may be traced to Russia, quite across that empire, to our continent; across it from the mouth of the Columbia on the Pacific

    57

    ocean, to Black River, on the east end of lake Ontario. Thence turning in a south-western direction, we find them extending quite to the southern parts of Mexico and Peru.

    In the Russian empire, mounds are numerous, and were every where seen by the learned Dr. Clarke, in his tour from St. Petersburg to the Crimea, in the year 1800. In his travels in Russia, Tartary, and Turkey, the author, in speaking of the country between St. Petersburg and Moscow, says, "Conical mounds of earth or tumuli occur very frequently. They are common all over the Russian empire.'' Again, the author says, "There are few finer prospects than that of Woronetz, viewed a few versts from the town on the road to Paulovsky. Throughout the whole of this country are seen dispersed over immense plains, mounds of earth, covered with a fine turf, the sepulchres of the ancient world, common to almost every habitable country. If there exists any thing of former timer, which may afford monuments of antediluvian manners, it is this mode of burial. -- They seem to mark the progress of population in the first ages, after the dispersion, rising wherever the posterity of Noah came. Whether under the form of a mound in Scandinavia and Russia, a barrow in England, a cairn in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, or those heaps, which the modern Greeks and Turks call Tepe; lastly, in the more artificial shape of a pyramid in Egypt; they had universally the same origin. They present the simplest and sublimest monuments, which any generation could raise over the bodies »f their progenitors; calculated for almost endless duration, and speaking a language more impressive than the most studied epitaph upon Parian marble. When beheld in a distant evening's horizon, skirted by the rays of the setting sun, and touching, as it were, the clouds which hang over them, imagination pictures the spirits of heroes of remoter periods descending to irradiate the warrior's grave. Some of them rose in such regular forms, with so simple and yet so artificial a shape, in a plain, otherwise so perfectly level and flat, that no doubt whatever could be entertained respecting them. Others, still more ancient, have at last sunk into the earth, and




    58                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    left a hollow place, which still marks their pristine situation. Again, others, by the passage of the plough upon their surfaces, have been considerably diminished."

    How exactly does this description of Dr. Clarke's apply to our mounds in the west? Who ever described with more accuracy, that species of mounds of earth in Ohio, which were used as cemeteries? Unless we knew to the contrary, who of us in Ohio, would ever suspect, that Dr. Clarke was not describing with fidelity, our western mounds? In one conjecture, however, he is mistaken; that is, in supposing those to be the most ancient, which were but just begun. I have seen them in all stages, from the time that a circular fosse, with a hole in its centre, was made, until these mounds were brought to a perfect point at the summit.

    In Scioto country, a few miles from Portsmouth, is a circular fosse, with a hole in the centre of the area which it encloses. The owner makes use of this work as a barn yard.

    There is a work of a similar form between two walls, belonging to the works at Newark; and I have seen several on the Kenhawa river, not far from Point Pleasant, and others, left in the same unfinished state, in a great number of places. It would seem that where a ditch was to enclose a tumulus, this ditch was first dug, then a hole made in the centre, which was covered over with wood, earth, stones, or brick, then a large funeral pile constructed, and the corpse of some distinguished personage placed on it and burnt. An examination of the works already described, will amply justify these conjectures.

    I have a brick, 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 Circleville, 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 to all my readers, that that is the only country to look to for the origin of such a custom. -- The Greeks and Romans practised burning their illustrious dead. It was practised by several other nations, but they all derived it from Asia,

    59

    In the same volume of travels, Dr. Clarke says, "Tumuli, so often mentioned before, abound in all seeppes; and, in working the cliff for a magazine, or storehouse, where one of these tumuli had been raised, they found, in the sandy soil of which it consisted, an arched vault, shaped like an oven, constructed of large square bricks, and paved in a style of exquisite workmanship with the same materials."

    We are told by the same author, that "The Cossacks at Ekaterinedara, dug into some of these mounds for the purpose of making cellars, and found several ancient vases.'' Such vases are discovered in ours. Several have been found in our mounds, which resemble one found in Scotland, and described by Pennant. Another, somewhat resembling a small keg in its construction, and a tea kettle in the use to which it was put. This vessel appears to be made of a composition of clay and shells. An urn was found in a mound a few miles from Chillicothe.

    Thus we learn from the most authentic sources, that these ancient works existing in Europe, Asia, and America, are as similar in their construction, in the materials with which they are raised, and in the articles found in them, as it is possible for them to be. Let those who are constantly seeking for some argument, with which to overthrow the history of man by Moses, consider this fact. Such persons have more than once asserted, that there were different stocks or races of men; but this similarity of works almost all over the world, indicates that all men sprung from one common origin. I have always considered this fact, as strengthening the Mosaic account of man, and that the scriptures throw a strong and steady light on the path of the Antiquarian.


     

    [ 73 ]



    73

    PITTSBURGH.

    (Fearon's Sketches.)

    Pittsburgh is, in several points of view a most interesting town; from its natural situation, being at the termination of two, and the commencement of a third river, which has a direct communication with the ocean, though at the almost incredible distance of 2300 miles; its scenery, which is truly picturesque; its exhaustless possession of that first-rate material for manufactories, coal; its original situation as an early military post, and remarkable for two defeats of the British, more especially that of General Bradock by the French and Indians, in which the great Washington first distinguished himself, though but a youth and only a militia colonel; and lastly, its present importance as being the connecting link between new and old America; and though it is not at present a "Birmingham," as the natives bombastically call it, yet it certainly contains the seeds of numerous important manufactories.




    74                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    At Messrs. Page and Bakewell's glass warehouse I saw chandeliers and numerous articles in cut glass of a very splendid description; among the latter was a pair of decanters, cut from a London pattern, the price of which will be eight guineas. It is well to bear in mind that the demand for these articles of elegant luxury lies in the W'estern States! the inhabitants of Eastern America being still importers from the "Old Country.'' What interesting themes of reflection are offered by such facts to the philosopher as well as to the politician! Not thirty years since the whole right bank of the Ohio was termed the Indian side." Spots in Tennessee, in Ohio and Kentucky, that within the life-time of even young men, witnessed only the arrow and the scalping-knife, now present to the traveller articles of elegance and modes of luxury which might rival the displays of London and Paris, while within the last half century, the beasts of the forest, and man more savage than the beast, were the only inhabitants of the whole of that immense tract peculiarly denominated the "Western Country:" which is now partially inhabited, and promises soon to be generally so by man -- civilized man, possessed of the arts and the pursuits of civilized life. It is already the refuge of the oppressed from every other nation. May it become the seat of enlightenment, of private virtue and public liberty; and it may then, but not fill then, expect to rank among the greatest, the most powerful, and the most respected of the nations of the earth!

    Upon the whole, I consider Pittsburgh, in every point of view, to be a very important town; and have no doubt, although its prosperity is now at a stand, and property if not declining, is not increasing in value, that it will gradually advance: and that the time must come when it will be an extensive and very populous city. The present population is 10,000, made up from all nations, and, of course, not free from the vices of each: this indeed is but too apparent upon a very short residence.

    A day previous to my departure from Pittsburgh, says Mr. Fearon, I called at Carey's Porter-house: Mr. C. stepped forward, and pointing to a young man, said, "Mr. Watson, Sir." For some minutes I did not comprehend his meaning. The person to whom he directed my attention

    75

    sat in a corner -- silent, serious, and indifferent: he was short in stature and mean in appearance. Guess my surprise when I was informed that this Mr. Watson was no other than Young Watson; he concerning whom, for some months, our whole country was in a general ferment. I felt some curiosity to know the history of a person so singularly thrust into premature importance. His appearance greatly disappointed me, not on account of the poverty of his dress, for that I presume results at present from circumstances beyond his controul; but I had imagined Young Watson to be a daring, bold, enthusiastic, indiscreet young man. He does not seem, however, possessed of any one of these qualities: he is reserved, not from constraint, but habit, and habit of a kind that more bespeaks an absence of talent than the attendant of mind. The ship Venus, in which he went passenger, was hauled to off Dover. Two Bow-street officers went on board, having certain information that he was there. His face was painted; he had on a farmer's frock coat, stuffed; shoes without heels, looked stouter, shorter, and younger than described in the proclamation. He went on deck upon knowing that officers were looking for him. When he was standing by their side, Miss Wilson, a cabin passenger, fainted. Lavender, ignorant of his person, told him to take care of the lady; -- examined the trunks of all the passengers, not excepting that of Watson, who continued supporting Miss Wilson. The officers did not believe but that he was on board, their information being positive; they at length whispered to each other in his hearing, "he is not here;" -- they departed; -- the ship got under weigh; -- he conversed with all concerning Young Watson. -- Upon arriving in America, Mr. Bushy, son of Dr. Bushy, who was a cabin passenger, enquired of an Englishman in New York, if young Watson was in America; being answered in the affirmative, he asked by what ship. "The Venus.'' "No, that is impossible, for I came in the Venus." -- "He certainly came in the "Venus." "Under what name?" -- "Thomas Pearson." "Oh, I know the boy Pearson very well, we used to call him the proud farmer.'' He has got a situation in a school and receives 501. per annum; is little known and less regarded.




    76                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    Americans who have heard of him either care nothing about or dispise him for the political part which he has taken: in these few lines you have the particulars of a young man who has excited in no small degree the public attention. He did not express the least gratitude for the extraordinary assistance which, I presume, he must have received. …


     

    [ 81 ]



    81

    MEXICO.

    SPANISH AMERICA.

    (Various Authorities.)

    The original city of Mexico, or, as it was called, Tenochtitlan, was founded by the Mexicans in the year 1325, and was situated in the valley of Mexico, and a group of islands in lake Tezcuco.

    Ancient Mexico, when it was first discovered by the Spaniards, was a rich, flourishing, and populous city, the seat of government and religion, and the great emporium for all sorts of valuable produce. Cortez, in a letter to Charles V., states it to be as large as Savilte or Cordovo; and he describes it as possessing all the activity and bustle of a commercial town. "The streets (he observes,) I merely speak of the principal ones, are very narrow and very large; some are half dry and half occupied by navigable canals, furnished with very well constructed wooden bridges, broad enough for 10 men on horseback to pass at the same time. The market-place, twice as large as that of Seville, is surrounded with an immense portico, under which are exposed for sale all sorts of merchandise, eatables, ornaments made of gold, silver, lead, pewter, precious stones, bones, shells, and feathers: delft ware, leather, and spun cotton. We find also hewn stone, tiles, and timber, fit for building. There are lanes for game, others for roots and garden fruits: there are houses where barbers shave the head with razors made of obsidian; and there are houses resembling our apothecaries shops, where prepared medicines, unguents, and plasters are sold. There are houses where drink is sold. The market abounds with so many things, that I am unable to name them all to your highness. To avoid confusion, every species of merchandise is sold in a separate lane; every thing is sold by the yard, but nothing has hitherto been seen to be weighed in the market. In the midst of the great square is a house, which I shall call Paudiencia, in which ten or twelve persons sit constantly for determining any disputes which may arise respecting the sale of goods. There are other persons who mix continually with the crowd, to see that a just price is asked. We have seen




    82                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    them break the false measures which they had seized from the merchants."

    The ancient city of Mexico was taken by Cortez in the year 1521, after a siege of 75 days, with a prodigious slaughter of the inhabitants. In the course of this siege, the place held out to the last extremity; and the Spaniards wore at last so irritated with its protracted resistance, that they resolved to raze to the ground the different streets as they got possession of them, for the purpose of facilitating their approaches to the main parts of the town. Thus the ancient Tenochtitlan was completely destroyed, and the present city has risen out of its ruins.

    Mexico is the most populous city of the new continent. It forms a great square, extending from north to south, and from east to west, about four English miles. The ground on which it stands is quite level; the streets are drawn at right lines from each other, and being very spacious, appear in general rather deserted. The town is surrounded with a wall of uncemented stones; and the channels which lead from the lake, disperse their waters in various smaller canals, which flow through some beautiful streets, and are covered with craft and canoes, which appear every day loaded with supplies of fruit, flowers, and other produce, and make their way as far as the walls of the viceroy's palace, situated in the great square. There are different markets, where there is a regular supply of every thing that the public can require. The city is entered by seven stone causeways, three of which were built by the Indians. The others are the work of the Spaniards. The public buildings are magnificent, and some of them pf the most beautiful architecture.

    The convent of St. Francis has a revenue, from alms alone, of 20.000/. The hospital has a revenue of 10,00(W. and supports 1,400 children and old people. The mint employs about 400 workmen, and is the most extensive establishment of the kind in the world. The principal manufacture is the working of gold and silver in all its branches. Large pieces of wrought plate, vases and church ornaments, are annually executed to a great amount. The city contains upwards 100 churches and

    83

    137,000 inhabitants, of whom one half are whites, and the rest Indians, mulattoes, and mestizoes.

    This beautiful city is supplied with water by two aqueducts, and its vegetables are raised on the elegant floating gardens of the lake of Tezcuco. There are three other small lakes in the valley of Mexico besides Tezcuco. The waters in these lakes used formerly to rise above their banks, and inundate the city and the valley. In 1629 there was a great inundation, which lasted for five years; and during the whole of that time the streets of Mexico could be passed only in boats. To prevent the recurrence of this evil various means were employed without effect. At first, a huge dike or mound of stones and clay was erected, 70 miles long and 65 feet broad; but the waters burst through it and tore it away. A subterranean passage was then dug through the mountains which surrounded the valley, to let off the waters; but the earth caved in and filled up the passage. At length a drain, 12 miles long, 300 feet broad, and in some places 200 feet deep, has been cut through a gap in the mountains, and this seems to answer the purpose. The whole expense laid out on these great works from the year 1607 to 1689, is calculated 1,291,770.

    Mexico is undoubtedly one of the finest cities ever built by the Europeans in either hemisphere. With the exception of Petersburgh, Berlin, Philadelphia, and some quarters of Westminster, there does not exist a city of the same extent, which can be compared to the capital of New Spain, for the uniform level of the ground on which it stands, for the regularity and breadth of the streets, and the extent of the public places. The architecture is generally in a fine style; and there are edifices of a very beautiful structure. The houses are not loaded with useless ornaments. Two sorts of hewn stone, one a porphyry, give to the Mexican buildings an air of solidity, and sometimes of magnificence. There are none of those wooden balconies and galleries to be seen, which disfigure so much all the European cities in both the Indies. The balustrades and gates are all of Biscay iron, ornamented with bronze; and the houses, instead of roofs, have terraces like those in Italy and other southern countries. The general appearance of the capital of




    84                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    of Mexico is much heightened by the majestic character of the scenery by which it is surrounded. Nothing can possibly present a more rich and varied appearance than the valley in which it is situated, when, in a fine summer morning, the sky, without a cloud, and of that deep azure which is peculiar to the dry and ratified air of high mountains, is viewed either from the top of one of the towers of the cathedral of Mexico, or from the neighbouring hill of Chapaltepec. A beautiful vegetation surrounds this hill. From the centre of this solitude the eye sweeps over a vast plain of carefully cultivated fields", which extend to the very foot of the colossal mountains, covered with perpetual snow. The city appears as if washed by the waters of the lake Tezcuco, whose basin, surrounded with villages and hamlets, resembles the fine lakes of the mountains of Switzerland. Large avenues of elms and poplars lead in every direction to the capital; and two aqueducts constructed over arches of great elevation, cross the plain, and exhibit an appearance equally agreeable and interesting. Towards the south, the ground appears an immense garden of orange, peach, apple, cherry, and other European fruit trees. This beautiful cultivation is finely contrasted by the wild appearance of the naked mountains which enclose the valley, among which the famous volcanoes of La Fuebla, Popocatepetl, and Iztaccicihuatl, are the most distinguished. The first of these forms an enormous cone, of which the crater, continually inflamed, and throwing up smoke and ashes, opens in the midst of eternal snows.

    -----

    CUZCO.

    (Various Authentic Sources.)

    Cuzco is the ancient Capital of the Peruvian Empire, in South America. It was founded, according to the common tradition, in 1043, by Manca Capac, the first Inca* of Peru; and it is situated upon a rough and unequal

    -----

    * Inca, an appellation anciently given to the kings of Pen, and the princes of their blood; the word literally

    85

    plain, formed by the skirts of various mountains, which are washed by the small river Guatanay. The grandeur and magnificence of the edifices, of the fortress and of the temple of the sun, struck the Spaniards with astonishment in 1534, when the city was taken possession of by Francis Pizarro.

    -----

    signifying, lord, king, emperor, and royal blood. Pedro de Cieca, in his Chronicles of Peru, gives the origin of the Incas; and says that that country was, for a long time, the theatre of all manner of crimes, of war, dissension, and the most dreadful disorders, till at last two brothers appeared, one of whom was called Mango Capac; of this person the Peruvians relate many wonderful stories. He built the city of Cuzco, made laws, established order and harmony by his wise regulations: and he and his descendants took the name of Inca, which signifies king or great lord. These Incas became so powerful, that they rendered themselves masters of all the Country from Pasto to Chili, and from the Maule on the S. to the Augasmago on the N. these two rivers forming the bounds of their empire, which extended above 1300 leagues in length. This they enjoyed till the divisions between Inca Guascar and Atahualpa; which the Spaniards laying hold of, made themselves masters of the country, and destroyed the empire of the Incas.

    Peru was discovered by Pizarro, in 1524. The battle of Caxatnarca, on the 10th Nov. 1532, decided the fate of that kingdom; and Atahualpa, the captive monarch, was treacherously and inhumanly put to death by the cruel and avaricious Spaniards. Pizarro, after having defeated Paula Inca, the brother of Atahualpa, entered Cuzco, the capital. Quito was next taken. In 1535, Pizarro founded the city of Lima, and employed himself in establishing a form of government. While thus employed, a new enemy started up, -- the ambitious Almagro; who, in a decisive battle fought near Cuzco, was taken prisoner and beheaded. Two years afterwards, Pizarro was assassinated, on the 26th of June, 1541.

    The viceroyalty of Peru, after being transmitted down from one governor to another, in a line directed more




    86                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    "At that time, it is said, there was a castle built in such a surprising manner that many people, who saw it, imagined it could not have been raised without the assistance of enchantment. This fortress stood on the top of a hill, and on the edge of a precipice, which towards the town was perfectly perpendicular. Towards the country it was defended by triple semicircular walls, of such height and thickness, that they were proof against all the force that could be brought against them. Some of the stones were of such a prodigious size, that it was inconceivable how they were hewn out of the quarry, or brought to the place, the natives having no iron tools, no beasts to draw them, nor engines to raise them to such a height. They were dragged, however, by the strength of men, twelve or fifteen leagues, over hills and valleys, and along the most difficult roads; and there is one stone

    -----

    by the fortunes of war, and the vicissitudes of events, than by any regular plan of succession, terminated in June, 1821, by the capture of Lima; and by a declaration published in the next month, the independence of Peru was declared to be the wish of the people.

    In the year 1742, an Indian of the province of Xauxas, said to have been descended from the ancient Incas, attempted to establish the independence of Peru. He caused himself to be proclaimed king. His countrymen, in hopes of recovering their lands, their laws, and their liberty, flocked in crowds to his standard; but though at first successful, they were defeated and dispersed, after having made considerable progress.

    The editor of this work would feel peculiar pleasure should he ever learn the fact that a descendant of the murdered Atahualpa first projected, or in some way powerfully contributed to the destruction of the Spanish government in Peru, and in the establishment of the present independence of the southern continent.

    Our readers will have in their recollection the seas of blood wantonly spilled by the Spaniards in their conquest of south America. One wretch, Carvajal when expiring on the Scaffold boasted he had massacred with his own hands 20,000 Indians!!!

    87

    in particular, to which the Indians give the name of Syacusa or "The Weary," because it never arrived at the place for which it was designed. This rock is said to have been drawn fifteen leagues by twenty thousand Indians, over very rugged and uneven roads; hut, notwithstanding all their care and strength, it got the better of them, and tumbling down the bill killed several hundred men, who were endeavouring to poise the weight. They raised it however, once again, and with incredible pains dragged it to the plain in the neighbourhood of Cuzco, where they were obliged to leave it, being unable to get it on the hill on which the castle was situated.

    Between each wall of the castle there was a space of twenty-five or thirty feet, which was filled up with earth, and every wall had a breast work on the top of it. Beyond these walls were three large towers, standing in a triangle, answerable to the bending of the walls. The principal of these towers had a fountain of excellent water, brought to it by a subterraneous aqueduct, the source of which was only known to the Inca and his council, lest an enemy should discover the stream, and cut it ofl' in case of a siege. This tower was round, and in it the Inca had an apartment, nobly furnished like the rest of his palaces. The other two were square, and contained rooms for the garrison, who were all of the royal blood. Underneath these towers were apartments as large as those above; and they had a communication with each other, by a subterraneous labyrinth, through which it was difficult fora stranger to find his way with- uut a guide. It is said that great part of the new city of disco was built with the stones found in the ruins of this fortress.

    The palaces of the Incas in Cuzco, besides the castle just mentioned, were very spacious and magnificent, some of the halls brim? two hundred paces in length, and fifty or sixty in breadth; insomuch that the Spaniards converted one of them into a cathedral church. The stones of these buildings were so well joined together that they needed no cement; but sometimes, for the sake of ornament, they closed up the seams of their structures with melted gold and silver, which occasioned the total destruction of most of them, the Spaniards subverting




    88                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    the very foundations in hopes of finding treasure. Most of the apartments were decorated with figures of men, beasts, birds, and other animals, cast in gold; and on the walls, instead of tapestry, were plants and flowers of the same metal, intermixed with serpents, butterflies, and other reptiles and insects. It seems there were no chairs in these palaces, but the Inca himself sat on a stool made of gold, without arms or back, having a pedestal of the same metal. They had also cisterns of gold in their bagnios, and the utensils of their kitchens, and in the meanest offices, were likewise of gold; but they neither purchased houses or lands with this metal as we do; but used it as an ornament when living, and buried it with them when they died. The royal gardens were net only planted with great variety of trees, flowers, &c. but the figures of those and all sorts of animals were made of gold, and placed in the walks to adorn them. These magnificent palaces, however, were greatly inferior to the temple of the Sun, which was enriched with the greatest treasures that ever the world beheld. It was built of free-stone, and lined with gold, the ceiling being also of the same metal, though the roof itself was no better than common thatch. It was divided into several cloisters, or apartments; in the principal whereof, towards the east, was placed the image of the Sun, consisting of one gold plate that covered the whole breadth of the chapel, and twice as thick as the plates that covered the other walls. This image was of a circular form, representing the Sun with his rays darting from him, much in the same manner as he is drawn by European painters; and on each side of it were placed the bodies of the deceased Incas, so embalmed that they seemed to be alive. These were placed on thrones of gold, but on the arrival of the Spaniards they were concealed by the Indians, with most of the treasures of the temple.

    This temple had several gates covered with gold; and round the top of it, on the outside, was a cornice three feet deep, consisting of gold plate. Besides the chapel of the Sun, there were five others of a pyramidal form, the first of which was dedicated to the Moon, deemed the sister and wife of the Sun; and the doors and walls

    89

    of this structure were covered with silver. Here was the image of the moon of a round form, with a woman's face in the middle of it; and on each side of the image were placed the bodies of the deceased Empresses ranged in older. Next to this chapel was that of Venus, by the Peruvians called Chasea, who was much esteemed as an attendant on the Sun, as the rest of the stars were deemed maids of honour to the Moon; and this chapel was likewise plated with silver. The third chapel was dedicated to thunder and lightning, which they looked upon as servants of the sun; and this was ceiled and wainscoted with plates of gold. The fourth was dedicated to the rainbow, as owing its origin to the sun; and this was also covered with gold, and had on one side of it a representation of the rainbow. The fifth chapel was an apartment for the use of the high-priest, and others who officiated in the temple, who were all of the royal blood; and this, like the chapel of the sun, was adorned with gold.

    There was no other image worshipped in the temple but that of the sun, but there were numerous figures of men, women, and children, and of various birds, beasts, and other animals of wrought gold, placed in it for ornament; and all the vessels and utensils were of the same precious metal. We likewise read of a sort of nunnery wherein were kept a thousand or fifteen hundred virgins all of the blood of the Emperors, who were intended only for the service of the temple. Nor was it only in the city of Cuzco that a temple was erected, but almost every large town in the country had one adorned in the like sumptuous manner."

    Cuzco is at present a large city, containing about 20,000 inhabitants. The houses are almost all built of stone, and are of fine proportions. The cathedral is large, beautiful, and rich, and of elegant architecture. There are, besides, nine other parish churches, likewise convents and hospitals, some of which have very ample revenues. The city still preserves many monuments of its ancient grandeur, and among others the great fortress. The jurisdiction of Cuzco was formerly very extensive; but it has been since greatly reduced....




    90                            AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, &c.                           


    not copied




     

    [ 101 ]



    PART III. -- CHAP. II.

    -----

    AMERICAN CURIOSITIES.

    -----

    Mountains, Volcanoes, Caverns, Rocks, Gold and Diamond Mines, Rivers, Lakes, Animals, Vegetables, &c. "

    Thou too again, stupendons Mountain! Thou
    That as I raise my head, awhile bow'd low
    In adoration, upward from thy Base
    Slow-travelling with dim eyes suffused with tears,
    Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury cloud,
    To rise before me -- Rise, O ever rise,
    Rise like a cloud of Incense, from the Earth!
    Thou kingly spirit throned among the hills,
    Thou dread Ambassador from Earth to Heaven,
    Great Hierarch! tell thou the silent Sky,
    And tell the Stars, and tell yon rising Sun,
    Earth, with her thousand voices, praises GOD.
    And you, wild torrents fiercely glad!
    Who call'd you forth from night and utter death,
    Who gave you your invulnerable life,
    Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy,
    Unceasing thunder, and eternal foam? And who commanded (and the silence came),
    Here let the Billows stiffen, and have rest?
    Who made you glorious as the Gates of Heaven
    Beneath the keen full Moon? Who bade the Sun
    Cloath yon with rainbows? Who, with living flowers
    Of loveliest blue spread garlands at your feet?
    GOD! let the Torrents, like a shout of Nations
    Answer! and let the Ice-plains echo GOD!
    GOD! sing ye meadow streams with gladsome voice!
    Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds!




    102                            AMERICAN CURIOSITIES, &c.                           


    (pages 102-151 not transcribed)








    152                            AMERICAN CURIOSITIES, &c.                           


    FOSSIL REMAINS

    AND INDICATIONS OF A FORMER WORLD.

    ------

    BONES OF THE MAMMOTH OR MASTODON.

    (By the Editor, from Various Sources.)

    The first traces of this extraordinary animal are said to be collected from a letter of Dr. Mather, of Boston, to Dr. Woodward, in 1712, and transcribed from a Work in manuscript, entitled Blblia Americana. In this work teeth and bones of prodigious size, supposed to be human, are described as being found at Albany, in New England.

    North America seems to be the quarter where the remains of the Mammoth or Mastodon most abound. On the Ohio, and in many parts farther north, tusks, grinders, and skeletons of unparalleled magnitude, which can admit of no comparison with any animal at present known, are found in vast numbers, some lying on the surface of the earth, and some a little below it. "A Mr. Stanley, taken prisoner by the Indians near the mouth of . the Tennessee, relates," as Mr. Jefferson informs us, "that after being transferred through several tribes, from one to another, he was at length carried over the mountains west of the Missouri to a river which runs westwardly; that these bones abounded there; and that the natives described to him the animal to which they belonged as still existing in the northern parts of their country; from which description he judged it to be an elephant. Bones of the same kind have been lately found some feet below the surface of the earth, in salines opened on the North Holston, a branch of the Tennessee, about the latitude of 36 1/2 degrees N. Instances are mentioned f like animal remains found in the more southern climates of both hemispheres: but Mr. Jefferson observes, "they are either so loosely mentioned, as to leave a doubt of the fact; so inaccurately described, as not to authorize the classing them with the great northern bones; or so rare, as to found a suspicion that they have been carried thither as curiosities from more northern

    FOSSIL REMAINS – MAMMOTH. 153

    regions. So that, on the whole, there seems to be no certain vestiges of the existence of this animal farther south than the salines last mentioned. It is remarkable ( continues he) that the tusks and skeletons have been ascribed by the naturalists of Europe to the elephant, while the grinders have been given to the hippopotamus or river-horse. Yet it is acknowledged, that the tusks and skeletons are much larger than those of the elephant, and the grinders many times greater than those of the hippopotamus, and essentially different in form Wherever these grinders are found, there also we find the tusks and skeleton; but no skeleton of the hippopotamus nor grinders of the elephant. It will not be said that the hippopotamus and elephant came always to the same spot, the former to deposit his grinders, and the latter his tusks and skeleton. For what became of the parts not deposited there? We must agree, then, that these remains belong to each other; that they are of one and the same animal; that this was not an hippopotamus, because the hippopotamus had no tusks nor such a frame, and because the grinders differ in their size as well as in the number and form of their points. That it was not an elephant, I think ascertained by proofs equally decisive. I will not avail myself of the authority of the celebrated anatomist (Dr. Hunter), who, from an examination of the form and structure of the tusks, has declared they were essentially different from those of the elephant; because another anatomist (D'Aubenton), equally celebrated, has declared, on a like examination, that they are precisely the same. Between two such authorities I will suppose this circumstance equivocal. But, 1. The skeleton of the Mammoth (for so the incognitum has been called) bespeaks an animal of five or six times the cubic volume of the elephant, as M. de Buffou has admitted. 2. The grinders are five times as large, are square, and the grinding surface studded with lour or five rows of blunt points: whereas those of the elephant are broad and thin, and their grinding surface flat. 3. I have never heard an instance, and suppose there has been none, of the grinder of an elephant being found in America. 4. From the known temperature and constitution of the elephant, he could never have




    154                            AMERICAN CURIOSITIES, &c.                           


    existed in those regions where the remains of the Mammoth have been found. The elephant is a native only of the torrid zone and its vicinities: if, with the assistance of warm apartments and warm clothing, he has been preserved in life in the temperate climates of Europe, it has only been for a small portion of what would have been his natural period, and no instance of his multiplication in them has ever been known. But no bones of the Mammoth, as I have before observed, have been ever found further south than the salines of the Holston, and they have been found as far north as the arctic circle. For my own part, J find no difficulty in believing that an animal may have existed, resembling the elephant in his tusks and general anatomy, while his nature was in other respects extremely different. From the 30th degree of south latitude to the 30th of north, are nearly the limits which nature has fixed for the existence and multiplication of the elephant known to us. Proceeding thence northwardly to 36 1/2 degrees, we enter those assigned to the Mammoth. The further we advance north, the more their vestiges multiply as far as the earth has been explored in that direction; and it is as probable as otherwise, that this progression continues to the pole itself, if land extends so far. The centre of the frozen zone then may be the acme of their vigour, as that of the torrid is of the elephant. Thus nature seems to have drawn a belt of separation between these two tremendous animals, whose breadth indeed is not precisely known, though at present we may suppose it about 6| degrees of latitude; to have assigned to the elephant the regions south of these confines, and those north to the Mammoth, founding the constitution of the one in her extreme of heat, and that of the other in the extreme of cold. When the Creator has therefore separated their nature as far as the extent of the scale of animal life allowed to this planet would permit, it seems perverse to declare it the same, from a partial resemblance of their tusks and bones. But to whatever animal we ascribe these remains, it is certain such a one has existed in America, and that it was the largest of all terrestrial beings of which any traces have ever appeared."

    Two skeletons of this animal were found in 1801, is

    155

    the State of New York, in the vicinity of Newburgh: one of these is erected as a permanent establishment at the Museum, Philadelphia; * and the other was brought to England for the inspection of the curious. They consisted, at first, of all the neck, most of the vertebra of the back, and some of the tail; most of the ribs, in greater part broken; both scapula, both humeri, with the radii and ulnae; one femur, a tibia of one leg and a fibula of the other; some large fragments of the head, many of the fore and hind feet bones, the pulvis somewhat broken, and a large fragment five feet long, of the left tusk, about midway. The land, where these bones were found, was in possession of a farmer, and as the fields were then in grain, they delayed for a short time searching for the other bones, and employed the interim in mending those which were broken, and arranging the whole. On resuming their search, one of the men, thrusting his spade deeper than usual, struck something which he imagined to be a log of wood, but on cutting it to ascertain the kind, it was discovered to be a bone, and proved to be that of the thigh, three feet nine inches in length, and eighteen inches in circumference, in the smallest part. After much labour, and searching various morasses, other bones and fragments were found, till at last, the deficiencies were in a great measure supplied, and the skeletons of two terrific and gigantic animals, composed of these materials.

    It is imagined that the Mammoth was clothed, with hair or wool, which in most situations was quickly liable

    ----- * Mr. Peale (of the above Museum) calls the Mammoth an antediluvian animal, and says that this skeleton was discovered in Ulster county, in the state of New York, in the year 1801. It is eleven feet ten inches high, and nineteen feet long. It has carnivorous grinders; in many respects it differs materially from the elephant, and is much larger, though formerly supposed to be of the same species. The tusks affixed to the skeleton are artificial, but a part of the real tusk is shewn, from which the size and shape are ascertained. -- Janson’s Stranger in America.




    156                            AMERICAN CURIOSITIES, &c.                           


    to decay. The only instance of hair being found with the remains of this animal, occurred in a morass belonging to Mr. A. Colden, in the neighbourhood where the above skeletons were found. The hair was coarse, long, and brown, a large mass of it together, and so rotten, that after a few days exposure to the air, it fell into a powder. The extirpation of this extraordinary animal may be attributed to the violent and sudden irruption of water, or to the prevalence of famine. Dr. Hunter, in his Essay on this subject, thus concludes: "If this animal was indeed carnivorous, which I believe cannot be doubted, though we may as philosophers regret it, as men, we cannot but thank heaven that its whole generation is probably extinct."

    The Behemoth, that monstrous creature, mentioned in scripture (about which interpreters are much divided, some imagining it to be the whale, some the sea-calf or ox, and others, the devil, or the elephant) was probably the Mammoth; Behemoth signifying in the Hebrew language any beast of a monstrous huge size; if so, this animal was also graminivorous, as appears from the book of Job, Chapter 40, verse 15, &c. "Behold now Behemoth, he eateth grass as an ox -- his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly -- he moveth his tail like a cedar, the sinews of his strength 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 -- he that made him can make his sword approach unto him. -- Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play -- he lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed and fens. -- The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about. -- Behold he drinketh up a river, and hastneth not -- he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth -- he taketh it with his eyes, his nose pierceth through snares."

    Many bones of this animal were found, in 1799, in the State of New York, in a large plain, bounded on every side by immense mountains, in the vicinity of New- burgh, situated on the Hudson, or North River. These remains are also found on the side of the three great chains of mountains, the Alegany, the North Mountains,

    157

    and the Blue Mountains; in the interior parts of Pennsylvania and Carolina; and in new Jersey.

    In 1817, Dr. Mitchell assisted in disinterring the remains of a mammoth, at Chester, fifty-four miles from the city of New York, Since that time the remains of another individual of this species have been found in a marsh, only thirty-two miles north. He also discovered another in the town of Goshen, Orange County, within sixty miles of New York, in a meadow belonging to a Mr.Yelverton. The soil is a black vegetable mould, of an inflammable nature. It abounds with pine-knots and trunks, and was, about thirty years ago, covered with a grove of white pine-trees. The length of the tooth was six inches, the breadth three and a half inches; the circumference of the lower jaw, including the tooth it contains, twenty-six inches; the length of the jaw, thirty five inches.

    Dr. M' Murtrie, in his Sketches of Louisville, notices various remains of the Mastodon, found at the Big Bone Lick, mouth of the Great Miami; and at Cincinnati. At Jeffersonville, near Cincinnati, the skull of a Buffaloe, with one of the horns fast in the socket, completely petrified, was discovered: of which the Dr. observes:

    "I was for many months very dubious how to consider a fossil, resembling a horn of the above mentioned animal, which I had found in one of the streets of Jeffersonville, when accident made me acquainted with an inhabitant of that town, before whose door it was picked up. He told me that he had some time before taken out from between the first and second strata of rock in the Falls, while quarrying stone there, the entire skull of a buffaloe, with one perfect horn fixed in it. Considering this a great curiosity, he had taken it home, where, a few days after, a philosophical carpenter, by way of ascertaining its nature, struck it with a hammer, and broke both skull and horn to pieces. Vexed at the accident and thinking the fragments of no value, he threw them out into the street, where I became the possessor of the horn, (at least, a great portion of it) in the manner already described."

    Accounts from the banks of the Mississippi state, according to Mr. Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, that




    158                            AMERICAN CURIOSITIES, &c.                           


    the Mammoth has been discovered actually in existence in the western deserts of North America.

    According to the descriptions given of it, this Colossus of the animal kingdom is not carnivorous, but lives on vegetables; more particularly on a certain species of tree, of which it eats the leaves, the bark, and even the trunk. H never lies down, and sleeps leaning for support against a tree. It has rather the shape of a wild boar than of an elephant, and is fifteen feet high. His body is covered by an hairy skin, and he has no horn.

    One of the most extraordinary discoveries of modern times is the fossil, or petrified skeleton of a female, of about five feet two or three inches in height, on the Island of Guadaolupe; it is now preserved among the collections in the British Museum. Whether this be 8 real fossil, or a mere accidental incrustation, we must leave to the determination of those who have bad the opportunity of investigation.

    With the pious and energetic remarks of Mr. Parkinson, Author of Organic Remains, Sec. we conclude this article:

    "We cannot quit these monuments of former worlds," says Mr. P. "without alluding to the incontrovertible evidence they present of the exercise of Almighty Power and of the perpetual influence of a Divine Providence. In the several formations composing the outer part of the earth down to the primitive rocks, vast accumulations exist of the fossil remains of organised beings, varying in each formation, and essentially differing from those beings which now exist. The discovery of animals peculiar to certain formations, and the general agreement with each other of the fossils of the same formations, have led to the belief that these several formations were the consequences of successive changes effected on the earth's surface; and that their contained fossils are the preserved remains of the several creations which had been successively formed to accord with the state of the planet under its several changes.

    The assumption of successive creations with accordant changes in the state of the planet, does not, indeed, agree

    -----

    * zzzFor the Editor's sentiments on this subject, the Kealer is referred, to page 174 Museum Asianum.

    159

    with the Mosaic account of the creation; at least, in its ordinary acceptation. The facts, however, appear to be as they are stated. May not the discordance depend on a misconception of the Sacred Writings? Once more, with submission and deference -- may not the days of creation be considered as periods of long and indefinite duration?

    This system of successive creations fitted to the existing or predestined state of the planet, appears, not only not to derogate from the wisdom and power of the Almighty, but to be perfectly in agreement with the agency of Providence as taught by the Divine Author of our religion. The world is seen, in its formation and continuance, constantly under the providence of Almighty God, without whose knowledge not one sparrow falls to the ground.

    Under these impressions, we view the results of these several changes and creations as manifesting the prescience, the power, and the benevolence of our great Creator. The general form of the earth's surface, varied by the distribution of hills and vallies, and of land and water; the prodigious accumulations of coal derived from the vegetables of a former creation, with the accompanying slates and schists; the useful, durable, and often beautiful, encrinital and shelly limestones! the immense formations of chalk and flint, and the varioug series of clays; all demonstrate a careful provision for the wants of man. The several breaks and faults in the stratified massses, and the various inclination of the strata, as well as the vast abruptions by which these several substances are brought to the hand of man, may be regarded as most beneficent provisions resulting from catastrophes too vast and tremendous for human intellect to comprehend.

    From these several creations it appears that beings have proceeded, gradually increasing in superiority, from testaoeous animals to reptiles, marine and fresh water amphibia, quadrupeds, and lastly to man, who, in his turn, is destined, with the earth he inhabits, to pass away, and be succeeded by a new heaven, and a new earth."




    160                            AMERICAN CURIOSITIES, &c.                           


    (pages 160-184 not transcribed)








     

    [ 185 ]



    LAMA, PACO, &c. 185

    THE LAMA AND THE PACO,

    both natives of the mountainous parts of Peru, also inhabit the higher districts of Tucuman. The Lamas constitute the principal riches of the Indians; their flesh is excellent food, and their wool highly useful; they will also carry very heavy burdens in the most rugged and dangerous roads, though they seldom travel more than fifteen miles a day. When they stop to rest, they bend their knees very carefully, and they rest with their legs folded under their bellies. The neck is like that of the camel, to which animal it bears a great resemblance; and satisfied with a small portion of vegetables and grass, they neither want corn or hay; but the guenacos, or wild lamas, are stronger, brisker, and swifter than the domestic ones. When the wild ones see any of the human species they regard him at first with astonishment, without shewing any fear or surprise; hut shortly after, as if by common consent, they blow through their nostrils, neigh like horses, take Hightail at once, and ascend the tops of the mountains. Here, it is vain either for the hunters, or dogs to follow them. Whilst grazing, too, they place a sentinel on an eminence, who, upon the approach of hunters, gives an alarm to the rest.

    The Paco, or Vicunna, the one its domesticated, the other its wild denomination, is as much inferior to the lama as the ass to the horse. Their wool, however, being fine and long, is a valuable article of merchandise; the natural colour of it is that of a rose leaf, and is so permanent, that it undergoes no alteration under the hands ot the manufacturer. The Pacos are of the same disposition, manners, and nearly of the same temperament as the lamas; and though smaller, and having shorter legs, resemble them in figure. They inhabit and pasture on the highest parts of the mountains. The domestic Pacos, are employed to carry burdens like the Lamas; but are of such a stubborn nature, that if once they fall down with a load, they will suffer themselves to be cut to pieces rather than rise. The Paco is never found ia the valleys, and will die if brought into warm




    186                            AMERICAN CURIOSITIES, &c.                           


    countries. All those animals produce bezoar stones is a greater or lesser degree.

    THE PUMA, OR AMERICAN LION,

    is much smaller than those of Africa, or Asia, and the male has no mane. They avoid the sight of man, and commit no havoc, but among cattle; they are generally of a grey colour; but in Chaco, their fur is red and very long. They are cowardly, fly from the barking of a dog, and climb up trees. When caught by the Indians, they are kept in cages. Of the American Tigers, there are two kinds,

    THE JAGUAR,

    and the cougar; the former in size, resembles the ounce, and the ground of its colour is a bright yellow. It is a formidable and cruel animal, yet when its appetite a gorged, a single dog will put him to flight. All the animals fly from the jaguar, the ant-eater only; he, on being attacked, turns on his back, and often preserver himself by the strength of his claws.

    THE CONGAR

    is longer, but less thick than the jaguar; he has a small head, long tail and short hair; his colour, a lively red, intermixed with some black tints, particularly on the back. Though not so strong, he is equally fierce, and perhaps crueller than the jaguar; though, like him, cowardly when glutted. Of the yaguaru, or water tiger, and the anta, or danta, there are no accounts given that can be depended on for veracity. The peccari, or Mexican hog, is found in some parts of Paraguay; this is in a great measure a useless animal.

    THE TAPIR

    is of the size of a small cow, but has neither horns or tail; the head is thick and long, with a kind of trunk like a rhinoceros. He feeds upon plants and roots, and is mild and timid, flying from every attack or danger; and though his legs are short, and his body heavy, he runs swiftly, and swims still better than he runs; his flesh coarse and insipid, is only eaten by the Indians...




                               THE  TITIS,  OR  MONKEYS.                            187


    (pages 187-216 not transcribed)








     

    [ 217 ]



    217

    PART III. -- CHAP. IV.

    -----

    AMERICAN VARIETIES.

    -----

    Prevailing Religions, Singular Customs, Rare Phenomena of Nature, Remarkable Events, Mechanical Inventions, Extraordinary Men and Women, &c. &c. .

    -----

    Sovereign Being!
    Thy power all wise shiues in the glitt'ring star,
    Speaks in the thunder's desolating storm,
    Or sparkles in the fructifying dew;
    Is wafted on the soft odorif'rous breeze,
    Or on tumult’ous tempests pinions borne,
    O'er ocean's deep, or deserts vast:
    Nor heard, in earthquake's all portentous roll,
    More than in echo's imitative voice.
    Nature INANIMATE resounds with thee,
    While LIFE in state, or form unknown, or seen,
    Proclaims ail Infinite eternal God.

    EDITOR.

    -----

    PREVAILING RELIGIONS IN AMERICA.

    (The Editor, assisted by several Authorities.)

    -----

    RELIGION OF THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA.

    According to some, the Indians have the most sublime notions of the Deity: others find them grovelling in the basest superstition; and, if the suffrages were taken, we fear, that the latter would constitute the majority. 'The Indian,' says one, 'considers himself as a being created by an all-powerful, wise, and benevolent Manitto; * all that he possesses, all that he enjoys,

    ----- * 'Being or Spirit.'




    218                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    he looks upon as given to him or allotted for his use, by the great Spirit who gave him life: he therefore believes it is his duty to adore and worship his Creator and Benefactor,' &c. But it is a little singular, that, when the Swedes first landed in Delaware, the natives gave the same name, Manitto, to a being, which is as far from being all-wise, as it is from being benevolent. 'Over against Poaetquessingh, 'says their historian, * there useth a sort of fish there with long great teeth, which the Indians call Manitto, that is, the devil: he plungeth in the water very much, and spouts the water up as a whale, and the same sort is not seen or found elsewhere in the river.' The truth is, the Indians have some vague idea of a being, who is far superior to themselves; but their ideas are too apt to become definitive, at the appearance of any extraordinary phenomenon.

    The Delawares are said to have preserved an account of what befel their ancestors, when the first Dutch ship arrived at Manhattan Island. They saw it at a distance, and took it to be the great Manitto. 'Every measure was taken to be well provided with meat for sacrifice. The women were desired to prepare the best victuals. All the images or idols were examined and put in order, and a grand dance was supposed not only to be an agreeable entertainment to the great being; but it was believed, that it might, with the addition of a sacrifice, contribute to appease him, if he was angry with them. The conjurors were also set to work, to determine what this phenomenon portended, and what the possible result of it might be. Distracted between hope and fear, they were at a loss to know what to do. A dance, however, commenced in great confusion. While in this situation fresh runners arrive, declaring it to be a large house of various colours, and crowded with living creatures.' Individuals who have sought to exalt Natural Religion, and to debase Christianity have been loud in their panegyrics on the Indian Religion, as being pure and genuine Deism; but those who have visited and become best acquainted with the savage tribes, affirm, "that the general religion of the American Indians, is

    -----

    * Holm.

    219

    some species of idolatrous worship of the sun, moon, or stars; while others choose their idols from among plants, serpents, and quadrupeds. They have some confused notions of a future state, and have had the tradition of an universal deluge, and other circumstances connected with the Mosaic account of the creation, handed down to them, though they are strangely disfigured with other prejudices and fables.

    -----

    ANCIENT RELIGION OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

    The Mexicans worshipped thirteen deities: the Creator; Tezcatlipoca, or ever-young, and supreme agent under the Invisible Creator. They adored the sun, the moon, and the god of the air; Tlaloc, who was god of water, harvests, and of the household; the god and goddess of hell; the god of night; Mexitili, the god of war, the chief and most generally adored; Hatecolototl, or the rational owl, or evil god, who was worshipped from fear. They had many inferior gods, which may be said to have answered to the tryads, naiads, &c. of the Greeks and Romans. These gods were all composed of clay, wood, stone, gold, silver, copper, and even gems. The figure of Mexitili, was however said to be made of seeds fastened together with human blood. Two high priests held the principal situations in the kingdom; in tact, they may be said to have governed it. The CREATOR was not worshipped under similitude, neither were there any temples dedicated to him. They believed that the souls of the brave upon their death would be admitted into the blissful regions of the sun, where they would remain 4 years, and that then they would return to the earth under the form of beautiful birds. The souls of the meaner class were supposed to pass into the bodies of inferior animals, but the spirits of those who died by any kind of accident, went immediately into an elysium inhabited by those of the little children. They also had their Tartarus, which they called Mictlan, for the souls of the wicked.

    The Mexicans were cruel and sanguinary. At the dedication of their principal temple in Mexico, which




    220                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    was very superb, 70,000 victims are said to have been immolated by order of the monarch Ahuitzotl.

    This dreadful sacrifice took place in the year 1486, and at the completion of another in 1487, another holocaust of human victims took place. This last year was marked by a terrible shock of an earthquake, which threatened to shake the now splendid city of Mexico to its foundation.

    Of CHRISTIAN sects, the Catholic is the predominant in South America, scarcely any other being known.

    _____

    PRESENT PREVAILING RELIGIONS IN THE

    UNITED STATES.

    The principal religious denominations in the United States are -- Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Friends or Quakers, Methodists, Baptists, German Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, Roman Catholics, Moravians, Mennonists, Jumpers, Universalists, and Shakers. If the whole population were divided into twelve parts, three of these would he Calvinists, chiefly of the Congregational and Presbyterian sects; two Baptists; two Methodists; one Episcopalians and Lutherans; the rest include persons of many various forms of belief, and a considerable number who follow no religious profession. -- Of the

    CONGREGATIONALISTS,

    a few years since, there were 1000 congregations in New England, * and 200 in the middle and southern states, with 120 ministers and candidates for the ministry. Each church chooses its own minister, but is associated with others for mutual advantage, and the termination of disputes. Meetings are held for this purpose twice a year.

    PRESBYTERIANS.

    In the year 1810 there were 772 congregations of Presbyterians,

    -----

    * By the year 1642 (22 years from the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth) there had been settled in New England 77 ministers, who were driven from the p»rent country, 60 towns and villages had been planted, and. 30 or 40 churches gathered.

    221

    with 434 ministers, and a number of licentiates. This denomination prevails in the middle and southern states. Their highest ecclesiastical court is styled the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, under which are synods, presbyteries, and church sessions. In 1810 there were five synods and thirty-six presbyteries. At Princeton there is a theological school for Calvinists, well endowed, with a good library.

    THE EPISCOPALIANS,

    before the revolution, were obliged to send their preachers to England for ordination, at the average expence of .£ 100 Sterling each. Dr Chemeler, in his appeal to the public in behalf of the Church of England in America, stated, "that, of fifty-two who went home for orders, only forty-two returned in safety, owing to sickness, or the accidents of the voyage." In the year 1808 the number of Episcopalian churches in New England was 65, that of ministers, 48; in the middle states, 68 churches, and 66 ministers; in the southern, 105 churches, and 101 ministers; in all, 238 churches, and 215 ministers. The churches are under the general direction of the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which is composed of two houses; the one of bishops, the other of delegates, consisting of clergymen and laymen.

    OF THE QUAKERS'

    or Friends there were about 100 congregations some years ago, and chiefly in the middle states. In the northern there are few, except in Rhode Island. In North Carolina there is a Quaker settlement at New Garden, and congregations at Pasquotank and Wood creek.

    -----

    * In 1656, the Quakers making their appearance in Massachusetts, the legislature of that colony passed severe laws against them. No master of a vessel was allowed to bring any one of tins sect into its jurisdiction on penalty of .£100. Other still severer penalties were inflicted upon them in 1657, such as cutting their ears, and boring their tongues with a hot iron, &c. They were at length banished on pain of death, and four, refusing to go, were executed in 1659.




    222                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    METHODISTS. *

    The number of Methodists is nearly 200,000. They are more numerous in the middle and southern than in the northern states. Their churches are associated under the title of the United Societies of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The whole country is divided into religious districts and circuits; the former under the direction of a presiding elder, the latter under the inspection of an itinerant preacher; both of whom arc appointed at the annual conference. It is believed this denomination is increasing very rapidly.

    BAPTISTS. **

    In the year 1793, there were 45 Baptist associations in the United States, 1032 churches, 1291 ministers, and 73,471 members. In May 1817 the general convention of the Baptist denomination in the United States held their first triennial meeting at Philadelphia; and in their report the number of churches and of members was thus estimated -- 2727 churches; ministers, 1936; members in fellowship, 183,245. In the state of New York the number of churches was 321, of members, 23,558; in Kentucky, 421 churches, and 22,432 members; in Georgia, 202 churches, and 16,834 members; in Virginia, 314 churches, and 11,838 members.

    LUTHERANS.

    In the states of New York and Pennsylvania, the Lutherans, chiefly of German origin, have a hundred congregations

    -----

    * Methodism was introduced into the United States, about the year 1783, under the direction of the Rev. John Wesley. This denomination increased rapidly in the Middle States, and, |in 1789, they amounted in the United States, to about 50,000. Infidelity lost ground, and public worship was more punctually attended, than during the war.

    ** The first Baptist church in America was formed at Providence, 1639. Their sentiments spreading into Massachusetts, in 1651, the general court passed a law against them, inflicting banishment for persisting in the promulgation of their doctrines,

    223

    the German Calvinists nearly the same number. Several of the clergymen of this denomination have distinguished themselves by their literary and scientific attainments; the late Dr. Muhlenburg of Lancaster, as a botanist, Dr. Kunzie of New York, as an oriental scholar and mathematician, Mr. Melsheimer of Pennsylvania, as an etymologist.

    THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH,

    under the name of the Reformed Synod of New York and New Jersey, consists of about eighty congregations. The canons of Dordrecht are adopted as a rule of discipline, and the Hiedelburg Catechism as the rule of faith.

    ROMAN CATHOLICS.

    This denomination is more numerous in Maryland * and in Louisiana than in any of the other states. The Roman Catholics of Maryland are chiefly of Irish, those of Louisiana of French origin. Some years ago, the number in Maryland was 75,000. In Baltimore there is an archbishop and four bishops, and three churches; in Boston, a church and a bishop; in New York, two churches and a bishop; in Philadelphia, four churches and a bishop; in Bardstown, one; in Kentucky one; in Louisiana, one, with two canons, and twenty-five curates, who receive each about 500 dollars a year.

    MORAVIANS,

    or United Brethren. -- In the year 1788 the number of this denomination was about 2000. Their principal establishments are at Bethlehem and Nazareth in Pennsylvania, at Hope in New Jersey, and at Wachovia, on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina. In the last state they purchased 100,000 acres of land from Lord Granville. They are styled the United Brethren of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

    At Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, the Moravians have a large society, occupying a number of farms. There is a great hall in which all daily assemble for the

    -----

    * The Roman Catholics first came to America in 1632: they settled in Maryland, and now constitute a respectable and numerous portion of the inhabitants of that state.




    224                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    purpose of public worship. The single men and women have each a separate dwelling. The latter are occupied in various domestic employments, -- in fancy and ornamental works, and occasionally in musical practice under the direction of a superintendent. The walls of the large hall where the society dine are adorned with paintings, chiefly Scripture pieces, executed by members. Various branches of trade and manufacture are carried on, the profits of which go to the general stock, from which all are supplied with the necessaries of life. Their whole time is spent in labour and in prayer, except an hour in the evening, which is allotted for a concert. Marriage is contracted in a singular manner. The young man who has an inclination to marry makes application to the priest, who presents a young woman designated by the superintendent as the next in rotation for marriage. Having left the parties together for an hour, the priest returns, and if they mutually consent to live together, they are married the next day; if otherwise, each is put at the bottom of the list, containing, perhaps, sixty or seventy names, and, on the part of the girl, there is no chance of marriage, unless the same young man should again feel disposed for matrimony. When united, a neat habitation, with a pleasant garden, is provided, and their children, at the age of six, are placed in the seminary. If either of the parents die, the other returns to the apartment of the single people. In the Moravian establishment there is a tavern with large and excellent accommodations. There are Moravian establishments alto in South Carolina, at Bethania, Salem, and other places on the Moravian branch of the river Yadkin.

    UNIVERSALISTS.

    It would be impossible to form an estimate of the numbers of this denomination, for, as in Great Britain, they are found in every Christian community. They are denominated Universalists from having adopted the idea of a UNIVERSAL RESTORATION of all lapsed intelligences; supposing "that if all the families of the earth are to be blessed in Christ, then God will not contend forever, neither be always wroth; that he does not willingly grieve or afflict any; but of necessity, both must, and will punish sinners with few or many stripes, according to

    225

    their different degrees of guilt and incorrigibility: that Christ will restore all lost in Adam, finally make an end of sin, destroy the works of the devil, and establish an Universal Kingdom of righteousness and peace." There have been many churches formed in the United States of Christians adopting this opinion, but the majority of believers deem the sentiment one of that nature which a Christian may believe, and still hold communion with any other particular sect. They form two divisions; viz. Calvinistic Universalists, and Arminian Universalists.

    SHAKERS.

    The first of this sect came from England in 1 774. Their number is inconsiderable. Their principal establishments are at Nisqueunah, and New Lebanon, in the state of New York; at Enfield, in Connecticut, and at Canterbury, in New Hampshire.

    In the great house at LEBANON there are near an hundred; the men live in their several apartments on the right as they enter the house, and the women on the left, commonly four in a room. They kneel in the morning by the side of the bed as soon as they rise, the same before they lay down; also before and after every meal. The brethren and sisters generally eat at the same time, at two long tables placed in the kitchen, men at one and women at the other; during which time they sit on benches and are all silent. They go to their meals walking in order, one directly after the other; the head of the family or elder takes the lead of the men, and one called Sister Elder takes the lead of the women! Several women are employed cooking and waiting upon the table; they are commonly relieved weekly by others. It is contrary to order, for a man or women to sleep alone, but two of the brethren sleep together, and the sisters the same. It is contrary to order for a man to be alone with a roman, also to touch one another. If a man presents any thing to a female, or a female to a man, due care must be taken by each not to touch the other. It n contrary to order for a woman to walk out alone, or to be alone. A man and a woman are not allowed to converse together, except in the presence of some of the brethren and sisters. They sometimes have what they




    226                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    call union meetings, when several of the brethren and sisters meet together, sit and converse and smoke their pipes. If a man is on the road alone from home in a carriage, it is contrary to order for him to permit a woman to ride with him on any account whatever. It is contrary to order or the gift as they call it, to leave any bars down or gates open, or leave any thing they use out of its proper place, consequently they seldom have any thing lost. It is according to the gift or order for all to endeavour to keep all things in order. Indolence and carelessness, they say, is directly opposite to the Gospel and order of God; cleanliness in every respect is strongly enforced -- it is contrary to order even to spit on the floor. A dirty, careless, slovenly or indecent person they say cannot travel in the way of religion. It is contrary to order to talk loud, to shut the door hard, to rap at the door for admittance, or to make a noise in any respect; even when walking the floor, they must be careful not to make a noise with their feet! They go to bed at nine or ten o'clock, and rise at four or five; all that are in health go to work about sun-rise; in-door mechanics in the winter, work by candle light; each one follows such an employment as the Deacon appoints for him. Every man and woman must be employed and work steadily and moderately. When any are sick, they have the utmost care and attention paid to them. If a man is sick, if there is a woman who was his wife before he believed, she in health, nurses and waits upon him. If any of them transgress the rules and orders of the Church, they are not held in union till they confess their transgression, and that often on their knees, before the brethren and sisters.

    It is pleasing to observe, that there is in these SHAKERS a love of good works and a strain of fervent though misguided piety. It is an unfortunate circumstance, that the Sect rejecting marriage should take up its abode in the United States of America -- a large Outline which wants filling up, and where POPULATION is one of its greatest blessings!

    The Shakers are A compound of almost all the other sects. They are a kind of religious Eclectics -- with this commendable trait, that they are enemies to every sort

    227

    of coercion in matters of religion. They have chosen what appeared to them to he good out of every denomination, hut there may be reason to question the soundness of their judgment. Never before was there a people so singularly characterized -- so unnaturally embodied. Warmth of feeling has been known to ascend in devotion, and sink into sensuality. But here are a people who profess such a height of spiritual mindedness, that they renounce the common passions of our nature. They sanction the entire separation of the sexes, a practice which, were it universally followed, would convert the world into a desert! Their religion is a kind of Upas tree, which suffers nothing to vegetate within its circumference.

    THE TUNKERS,

    a sect in Pennsylvania, took their origin from a German, who, weary of the busy world, retired to a solitary place about fifty miles from Philadelphia, where he formed a colony on a river named Euphrates. Their religious practices resemble those of the Quakers, none but those who feel the divine influence having a right to preach and exhort. The women live separate from the men, and never associate except for the purpose of public worship, or public business. Divine service is performed twice a day; and the whole time, except a few hours given to sleep, is spent in labour and in prayer. They hold as injurious the doctrine of original sin, and deny the eternity of future punishment; though they admit of a hell and a paradise. They believe that the souls of Christians are employed in the next world in the conversion of those who left this without enjoying the light of the Gospel.

    In their conduct they show a stoical indifference to the good and evil of life. They never complain or retaliate, even when insulted or robbed of their property. The dress of both sexes consists of a long white hooded gown, a coarse shirt, and thick shoes. The men wear wide breeches resembling those of the Turks; and never cut the beard, which, in some, reaches to the waist. Their food consists of vegetables only, the produce of their own labour, which is deposited in a common stock for the wants of the society,




    228                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    SANDEMANIANS.

    Of this sect there is a small society at Portsmouth, in New Hampshire.

    MENNONISTS,

    Who derive their name from Simon Menno, a German Baptist, live in Pennsylvania. In the year 1770, their number amounted to 4000, forming thirteen churches, and forty congregations.

    -----

    Although the spirit of religious intolerance had disappeared from the colonies, and the puritanical severity of the north had become much softened, yet, until the commencement of the French and Indian war, the religious character of the colonies had remained essentially the same. -- But, during this war, infidelity was extensively introduced into the army, by means of the foreign officers and soldiers who were sent into the country. -- From the army, it spread itself into society, and produced a considerable relaxation of morals, and a looser adherence to principles.

    During the revolution, religious controversy was suspended, and bigotry softened. -- That spirit of intolerance, which had marked some portions of the country, was nearly done away.

    But, for these advantages, the revolution brought with it great disadvantages to religion in general. That vague atheism, which had been spread over France, was thickly sown in the American army, by the French; and uniting with the infidelity, which before had taken root in the country, produced a serious declension in the tone of religious feeling, among the American people.

    In addition to this, religious institutions during the war were much neglected; churches were demolished, or converted into barracks; public worship was often suspended; and the clergy buttered severely, from the reduction of their salaries, caused by the depreciation of the circulating medium.

    However the people of the United States heartily espoused the cause of the revolution in France, and sympathized with that people, in their struggle for freedom, it was but too natural, that the sentiments of the revolutionists, on other than the political subjects, should

    INDIAN CUSTOMS 229

    be imbibed. As the French revolutionists were many of them deists or atheists, these sentiments were extensively spread over the United States.

    Infidelity was also greatly extended at this time, by the writings of Paine and others, which were industriously circulated through the country. * The perspicuous and simple style of Paine, his keen powers of ridicule, directed against the Bible, and above all, the gratitude which multitudes felt for the aid his pen had given to the revolution, contributed to give him a peculiarly powerful influence.

    Extraordinary revivals of religion have, however, subsequently pervaded the country, and have tended strongly to prevent open infidelity, and to check the tide of pollution, which was invisibly spreading over the land. Liberal and expanded plans have been devised and commenced for the promotion of Christianity. Several excellent institutions founded, missionary and bible societies established, and a great call for ministers of the gospel has been heard.

    At present, ministers of religion in proportion to the population, are no more than 3000 to 8 millions, which, allowing a regular pastor to every 150 families or 1000 souls, it appears that no fewer than five millions of persons are destitute of religious instruction. This fact speaks loudly in favour of religious establishments.

    NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN CUSTOMS, &c.

    GENERAL CUSTOMS.

    (Sandford's History of the United States, printed at Philadelphia, 1819.)

    In their marriages, the Indians have nothing in common with civilized men. The contract generally begins, and ends, in mere convenience; or, if the parties are sometimes swayed by a more refined motive,

    -----

    * An enormous edition was printed in France, and sent to America to be sold, for a few pence only; where it could not be sold it was given away.




    230                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    there is so little in their habits to keep it alive, that one or two years are generally sufficient to dissipate the charm. The chief duties of the husband are, to provide a cabin, game, and utensils for cooking. The squaw tills their ground; fetches all their wood; and, when on a juurn"y, transports all their baggage. It is considered as a privilege, that she can change husbands, when she pleases; but this is only the privilege of leaving one master, who has ill-treated her, for another, who will treat her in the same manner. It is a privilege, however, that, when she quits her husband, the children follow her; for, as each person, whether old or young, receives an equal dividend of national property, the more numerous the family, the more easy are their circumstances.

    Some authors represent the Indians as little superior to beasts of prey; while others make them the most innocent being., on this side of Paradise. The former only look at their treatment of enemies; and the latter have an eye merely to their conduct towards friends, strangers, and each other. There is some truth on both sides of the picture. The Indians are as extreme in their benevolence, as they are extravagant in their cruelty. They can neither do too much for a friend; nor too much against an enemy. Many of the tribes were accustomed to set apart houses for the sole use of strangers; and, upon the arrival of a guest, a whole village contributed their efforts to give him fit entertainment. * Experience has taught each tribe, too, that nothing but the most perfect harmony among themselves,

    -----

    * 'There is in every village of the Susquehanna Indians,' says Dr. Franklin, 'a vacant dwelling called the Stranger's House. When a traveller arrives within hearing of a village, he stops and halloos, for it is deemed uncivil to enter abruptly. Two old men lead him to the house, and then go round to the inhabitants, telling them a stranger has arrived fatigued and hungry. They send him all they can spare, bring tobacco after they are refreshed, and then ask questions whence they same and whither they go.'

    231

    will enable them to maintain their station, in the Indian commonwealth; and we have it from a white, who has been an Onondaga chief, for about forty years, that, during all that time, he has never seen one Indian give another an ill-natured word, -- much less, a blow.

    We are apt to forget, that, by the very nature of their society, they can have few occasions to quarrel. Whatever ferocity may he ascribed to their character, they must, at least, be acquitted of personal selfishness. There has been but one account of their liberality to those of their own kindred or tribe, since the continent was first discovered. 'I have always seen these people,' says Columbus, 'impart to each other whatever they had;' and one, who lives near a tribe, may daily witness the corroboration of his statement. Not only does their way of life create no necessity, -- but it is so liable to change, and so little calculated for repose, that it produces no motive, -- for the accumulation of private wealth. They are not ambitious of improvement; and know not what is meant by luxury. Their wants are few and simple; and, beyond the gratification of these, they can see no use in property. An Indian, it is said, was told, in answer to his question, that 'covetousness,' among white people, means, 'a desire for more than one has need of.' 'That's strange,' he replied, with a look that accorded with his language. Such ideas of property are little fitted to create disputes; for men, who can boast of civilization, may bear to be told, that the greater part of their own quarrels arise from disagreements concerning mine and thine.

    Indian games are not numerous; and seem chiefly designed to render the combatants athletic and swift of foot. Some of the western tribes formerly had a play, which, for want of the appropriate name, we must call a scramble. A billet of wood, about eighteen inches long, made round, and polished very smooth, was sent to a great distance, by one of the chiefs: the younger lads of the tribe immediately started in pursuit of it: the fleetest runner was not always the stoutest wrestler: to get the billet was some merit; but to keep it, was a greater; and it was so slippery, that it changed hands, perhaps a thousand times, before the strongest proclaimed his victory."




    232                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    But the most universal and most manly game, is that of ball. This is frequently played by several hundreds; and different tribes will sometimes play against each other. The ball is made of deer skin, stuffed with hair, and sewed with sinews. The sticks are from three to four feet long; and, being curved at the end, a web is made of thongs, for the purpose of catching the ball. The goals are two stakes, set in the ground, about six hundred yards apart. The hall is tossed into the air, at an equal distance from each; and I he object is to throw it beyond the one, or the other. The parties enter upon the combat with great eagerness: the velocity of their movements is scarcely credible: the ball seldom touches the ground; but is seen constantly shooting into the air; and, while one is upon the point of hurling it in one direction, an antagonist strikes down his club, -- catches the ball in his web, and sends it in another. 'They play with so much vehemence,' says a traveller, 'that they frequently wound each other, and sometimes a bone ii broken; but notwithstanding these accidents, there never appears to be any spite or wanton exertions of strength to affect them, nor do any disputes ever happen between the parties.'

    INDIAN WAR DANCE.

    (Marsden's Journal.)

    While in Canandarqua, (says Mr. M.) Mr. Myron Holley introduced me to see a war dance of the Indians of the Oneida nation, who were then going to assist the American army, at the Niagara frontier: this shew of savage military tactics exceeded in sublimity of horror any thing that 1 had ever witnessed, and made me deeply deplore that civilized nations should resort to such barbarous allies as the Indians: the reader, who has never perhaps, seen an Indian, can scarcely imagine any thing more horrible than a number of these engaged in a war dance; -- let him imagine 20 or 30 of these warriors half naked, painted in various forms, 60 as to increase an appearance of ferocity; their hair dressed in war style, and their arms covered with plates of brass

    233

    or silver; each with a scalping knife in his belt, and brandishing a tomahawk or small axe as bright as silver; a kind of gong is struck by one of them, which emits a dismal and unmusical sound, the whole number of warriors flourishing their tomahawks, set up the war whoop -- a sound so terrific and savage, that it cannot be heard without a chilling emotion of terror, that penetrates to the very soul; the rest consisted of running, springing, creeping, gnashing with the tomahawk, and scalping; all accompanied with such barbarous yells and ferocious looks, such writhing and twisting of the body and distortions of the countenance, that if a little colony of demons were to emigrate from the bottomless pit, their exhibition would hardly be more terrific. -- Such is an Indian war dance, which, in fact, is no other than a real representation of their ferocious and inhuman mode of fighting; and yet these Oneida Indians have been somewhat civilized; have had Missionaries among them; and have, in a limited degree, learned the arts of agriculture.

    -----

    INDIAN ANGER, REVENGE, & ELOQUENCE.

    (Harris's Tour.)

    An occurrence, (says Mr. Harris, in his Journal, and of which he seems to have been witness,) has taken place, unpleasant in its nature, and at first threatening in its consequences the good understanding, if not the safety, of the whole body. Two Chippawa chiefs differing with each other, animadverted with some asperity on the part each took in the late war with England. One of them, fired at the idea of having reflections cast upon his honour, drew his knife, and in an instant buried it in the body of his brother chief. -- Knowing the wound to be mortal, his anger was satisfied, and giving himself up to the friends of his victim, awaited with calmness his own death, then in all probability necessary to appease their spirit of revenge. The agent of government interfered, assembled the principal chiefs of the tribes with the relations of the deceased, and then offered to cover (as they term it) the body,




    234                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    that is, by placing near it presents of cloth, silks, and various articles, till they were decided to be equivalent to the loss sustained. The agent opened the business, by an interpreter, to the Indians squatting on the ground before him in a semicircle; stating the object of the meeting, with his desire to mediate and preserve unity among them. On his concluding, a Shawnnese stood up, a fine athletic expressive figure, and (as interpreted) thus spoke: --

    "My red brothers, for brothers we are, and as brothers ought to be, we now meet in the presence of the Great Spirit whose we are, and whom we serve, on an occasion painful, and calculated to rouse our passions of animosity: but let us be cool, calm, collected; be thankful to the Great Spirit for inclining our Great Father (the President,) to offer mediation in our differences, to be solicitous for our welfare. Let us hear him, (pointing to the agent) consider well the counsel he has to Rive, that, if accordant with those principles of honour we have so proudly maintained, that sun may let without witnessing our hands imbrued in blood."

    A general acclamation of applause was returned by his red brothers to this animated speech, of which you are here presented with a very imperfect idea. The intonation and attitudes in the delivery, your first orators need not have been ashamed to imitate. Several others stood up, exhibiting great strength of mind, and copiousness of idea, in their speeches, as well as a full conviction of a Supreme, and some faint conception of their duty to Him as his creatures. A Chippawa chief then rose, and addressed the agent to this effect:

    "I believe I speak the sentiments of my nation, in thanking our great Father, whose representative you are, for his interposition with us this day: that sun is nigh setting, which, but for your interference, might have gone down upon our wrath; night, instead of removing, would have heightened our revenge, and tomorrow's sun had risen upon the murders of our tomahawks: but to you are we indebted for thus escaping the cries of blood. Before, our eyes were darkened by passion, we could not see; now we see. We had doubts as to the implication of our honour, and of our rights

    235

    as men; -- they are dispelled: and we now offer you our thanks for your friendly counsel and advice."

    A burst of "Yogh! yogh! Yogh!" from the band of warriors, testified their approbation of this elegant expression of their gratitude An old squaw was then led forward, and having been deprived by this catastrophe of her only son, on whom she was partly dependent for support, having lost her husband in the war, she stated her willingness to adopt his murderer in his place. The mark of death was removed, and with the bow, the tomahawk, and the scalping knife of his victim, he entered upon his new relationship. The affair closed by the agent bringing forward the presents, and a request from one of the chiefs to be comforted with a little of their great Father's milk, * while watching through the night with the body of their deceased brother.

    -----

    INDIAN REVENGE.

    (Birkbeck's Letters.)

    Our frontier position, observes Mr. B., affords us many opportunities of obtaining information, which is highly interesting, on Indian manners and customs, from persons intimately acquainted with them by an intercourse of many years. Men who have fought with them and traded with them. A gentleman with whom I am in habits of frequent intercourse, a respectable neighbour of ours, has just returned from a trading expedition up the Red river, about seven hundred miles south-west of this place, among the Iotans, Cados, and Choctaws. He relates an event which occurred about Christmas last, at a place he visited, highly illustrative of the virtues and the vices of this untameable variety of the human family. Their simple necessaries of food and clothing are supplied as heretofore by the chase; but the skins of the various animals they kill have acquired, since their intercourse with the whites, a new value, and they have acquired a taste for one fatal

    -----

    * Whisky.




    236                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    luxury, ardent spirits. For these they barter their skins and furs. They indulge in them to dreadful excess; and thousands on thousands perish through intoxication, and the frantic broils which it continually occasions. In one of these frays a Cado bit off the under- lip of a Choctaw, both young men; the latter was so drunk, that he did not know who had been his antagonist: he lost his lip, got sober, and returned to the chase as usual. Some time after as he was attending his beaver-traps with a comrade of his own tribe, his companion divulged the secret, and told the name of the Cado who had disfigured him.

    The Choctaw could not sustain the disgrace when vengeance was practicable. He immediately sold his whole property, his beaver-traps, his rifle, and his horse; for these he obtained forty bottles of whisky. Thirty-nine bottles he consumed with his friends, lo- tans, Cados, and Choctaws, indifferently, in a grand debauch which lasted a week; but reserved one bottle secreted for a special purpose. After this, when again sufficiently sober, he joined a party, among whom was his devoted foe -- fell upon him with his knife, and dispatched him. He then coolly took from his pouch some red paint, and smeared himself with it preparatory to his death, which was a matter of course, as blood must be avenged by blood, saying he should be ready to die by ten o'clock the next day, but he wished to be shot by one of his own nation. The Cados were merciful; they told him he should not be shot by one of them, but by one of his own tribe, a friend of his own selection. He chose his friend, and he desired them to accompany him to a certain spot in the woods: they did so, and he directed them to dig a grave for him there. The next day he was missing: they sought for him at the appointed hour, and found him sitting at his grave, his bottle of whiskey by him. He drank a part of it, and told them he was ready. His friend was also ready. He kept his seat, and holding up his arm, pointed to the place on his side where the ball should enter. The friend took aim -- the gun missed fire: he gave a slight start, but said nothing. Again he raised his arm -- again the gun snapped: he jumped up with

    237

    some exclamation, took another draught of whiskey, and seated himself in the same place. The flint being chipped and all ready, once more he presented his side, and the filial ball sent this brave man to an untimely grave. Some time after they were talking over the melancholy affair, and the friend declared he was glad to shoot him, for he was not his friend in reality. The spirit of savage justice was roused again: one of his companions immediately fired at him, but missed -- thanks to the whiskey both for the danger and the escape. However they confined the false friend one whole week, whilst they eat in council on the case. At length he was acquitted for murder, and liberated, as he had only taken a devoted life, though with the heart of a traitor to his friend.

    -----

    INDIAN CRUELTY AND ITS PUNISHMENT, BY

    THE HAND OF MRS. DUSTAN.

    (Dwight's Travels.)

    In the year 1697, on the 5th day of March, a body of Indians attacked the town of Haverhill, burnt a small number of houses, and killed and captivated about forty of the inhabitants. A party of them, arrayed in all the tenors of the Indian war-dress, and carrying with them the multiplied horrors of a savage invasion, approached near the house of Mr. Dustan. This man was abroad at his usual labour. Upon the first alarm, he flew to the house, with the hope of hurrying to a place of safety his family, consisting of his wife, who had been confined a week only in child-bed, her nurse, a Mrs. Mary Teff, a widow from the neighbourhood., and eight children. Seven of his children he ordered to flee with the utmost expedition in the course opposite to that in which the danger was approaching, and went himself to assist his wife. Before she could leave her bed, the savages were upon them. Her husband, despairing of rendering her any service, flew to the door, mounted his horse, and determined to snatch up the child, with which he was unable to part, when he should overtake the little flock. When he came up to them, about two hundred yards




    238                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    from his house, he was unable to make a choice, or to leave any one of the number. He therefore determined to take his lot with them, and to defend them from their murderers, or die by their side. A body of the Indians; pursued, and came up with him, and from near distances fired at him and his little company. He returned the fire, and retreated alternately. For more than a mile he kept so resolute a face to his enemy, retiring in the rear of his charge; returning the fire of the savages so often, and with so good success, and sheltered so effectually his terrified companions, that he finally lodged them all safe from the pursuing butchers, in a distant house. When it is remembered how numerous his assailants were, how hold, when an overmatch for their enemies, how active, and what excellent marksmen, a devout mind will consider the hand of Providence as unusually visible in the preservation of this family.

    Another party of the Indians entered the house immediately after Mr. Dustan had quitted it, and found Mrs. Dustan and her nurse, who was attempting to fly with the infant in her arms. Mrs. Dustan they ordered to rise instantly; and, before she could completely dress herself, obliged her and her companion to quit the house, after they had plundered it, and set it on fire. In company with several other captives, they began their march into the wilderness, she feeble, sick, terrified beyond measure, partly clad, one of her feet bare, and the season utterly unfit for comfortable travelling. The air was chilly and keen, and the earth covered, alternately, with snow and deep mud. Her conductors were unfeeling, insolent, and revengeful. Murder was their glory, and torture their sport. Her infant was in her nurse's arms; and infants were the customary victims of savage barbarity.

    The company had proceeded but a short distance, when an Indian, thinking it an incumbrance, took the child out of the nurse's arms, and dashed its head against a tree. What were then the feelings of the mother?

    Such of the other captives as began to be weary, and to lag, the Indians tomahawked. The slaughter was not an act of revenge nor of cruelty. It was a mere

    239

    convenience; and effort so familiar, as not even to excite an emotion.

    Feeble as Mrs. Dustan was, both she and her nurse sustained, without yielding, the fatigue of the journey. Their intense distress for the death of the child, and of their companions, anxiety for those whom they had left behind, and unceasing terror for themselves, raised these unhappy women to such a degree of vigour, that, notwithstanding their fatigue, their exposure to cold, their sufferance of hunger, and their sleeping on damp ground under an inclement sky, they finished an expedition of about one hundred and fifty miles, without losing their spirits, or injuring their health.

    The wigwam, to which they were conducted, and which belonged to the savage, who had claimed them as his property, was inhabited by twelve persons. In the month of April this family set out with their captives for an Indian settlement, still more remote, and informed them, that when they arrived at the settlement, they must be stripped, scourged, and run the gauntlet, naked, between two files of Indians, containing the whole number found in the settlement; for such, they declared, was the standing custom of their nation. This information, you will believe, made a deep impression on the minds of the captive women; and led them, irresistibly, to devise all the possible means of escape. On the 31st of the same month, very early in the morning, Mrs. Dustan, while the Indians were asleep, having awaked her nurse, and fellow prisoner (a youth taken some time before from. Worcester), dispatched, with the assistance of her companions, ten of the twelve Indians. The other two escaped. With the scalps of these savages they returned through the wilderness; and, having arrived safely at Haverhill, and afterwards at Boston, received a handsome reward for their intrepid conduct from the legislature.

    Whether all their sufferings, and all the danger of suffering anew, justified this slaughter, may probably be questioned by some exact moralist. Precedents innumerable, and of high authority, may indeed be urged in behalf of these captives; but the moralist will equally question the rectitude of these. Few persons, however,




    240                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    agonising as Mrs. Dustan did, under the evils which she had already suffered, and in the full apprehension of those which she was destined to suffer, would have been able to act the part of nice casuists; and fewer still, perhaps, would have exercised her intrepidity. That she herself approved of the conduct, which was applauded by the magistrates and divines of the day, in the cool hours of deliberation, cannot be doubted. The truth is, the season of Indian invasion, burning, butchering, captivity, threatening, and torture, is an unfortunate time for nice investigation and critical moralizing. A wife, who had just seen her house burnt, her infant dashed against a tree, and her companions coldly murdered one by one; who supposed her husband, and her remaining children, to have shared the same fate; who was threatened with torture, and indecency more painful than torture; and who did not entertain a doubt, that the threatening would be fulfilled; would probably feel no necessity, when she found it in her power to dispatch the authors of her sufferings, of asking questions concerning any thing but the success of the enterprise.

    But, whatever maybe thought of the rectitude of her conduct, that of her husband is in every view honourable. A finer succession of scenes for the pencil was hardly ever presented to the eye, than is furnished by the efforts of this gallant man, with their interesting appendages. The artist must be destitute indeed of talents, who could not engross every heart, as well as every eye, by exhibitions of this husband and father flying to rescue his wife, her infant, and her nurse, from the approaching horde of savages, attempting on his horse to select from this flying family the child which he was the least able to spare, and unable to make the selection; facing, in their rear, the horde of hell hounds; alternately and sternly retreating behind his inestimable charge, and fronting the enemy again, receiving and returning their fire, and presenting himself equally as a barrier against murderers, and a shelter to the flight of innocence and anguish. In the back ground of some or other of these pictures might be exhibited, with powerful impression, the kindled dwelling, the sickly mother, the terrified nurse, with the new-born infant in her

    241

    arms, and the furious natives surrounding them, driving them forward, and displaying the trophies of savage victory, and the insolence of savage triumph.

    -----

    INDIAN CRUELTY, AND THE INTREPIDITY

    OF MRS. HEARD.

    (The same)

    From the settlement of Dover until the year 1675, the planters appear to have lived, generally, in peace with the savages. In Philip's war, * several inroads were made upon the scattered settlements within the township. Some of the inhabitants were killed, and a few houses destroyed. In the year 1689, the Indians killed and captivated more than fifty of these people, and burnt some of their houses, together with the mills in the neighbourhood. On this occasion Major Waldron,

    -----

    * During the concealment and abode at Hadley, of the two Proscribed Judges of Charles 1st. the most famous and memorable Indian war of New England took place. This was called King Philip's war. Philip was a powerful sachem, and resided at Mount Hope, in Rhode Island; where he was soon after this war put to death by Colonel Church. All the new frontier towns of New England were attacked, and Hadley was then exposed as a place of that description. The time the savages fixed upon to make the assault was while the inhabitants were assembled in the meeting-house to observe a fast-day; but fortunately it had been some time a custom for the men to attend public worship, armed. Had the town been taken, the discovery of Whalley and Goffe would have been inevitable. The men took up their arms, and attempted a defence, but were soon thrown into confusion, when (as it is related to this day) a stranger suddenly appeared among them, of venerable aspect, and different in his apparel from the inhabitants; who rallied, and disposing them in the best military manner, led them to the charge, routed the Indians, and saved the town. In the moment of victory their deliverer vanished. The inhabitants,




    242                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    a celebrated partizan, of great bravery and reputation, who had been president of New-Hampshire, was betrayed and murdered. The Indians were professedly at peace with the English. With every appearance of good-will, a sachem, named Mesandowit, and two Indian women, applied to Major Waldron for permission to lodge in his house, which was fortified and garrisoned. They were accordingly admitted and hospitably entertained. The same night, while the family were asleep, these fiends opened the door. A body of their warriors, as had been preconcerted, immediately rushed in and forced the room in which this venerable champion, then eighty years of age, lay. He seized his sword and drove them out of the room. But one of them, who had stolen behind him, knocked hint down with a hatchet. They then seated him in an elbow-chair upon a table; cut him across the breast and belly; severed his nose and ears, and forced them into his mouth; and finally, placing his sword under him as he fell, terminated his gallant and useful life. To finish the tragedy, they killed or captivated the rest of the family, and set the house on fire.

    At this time, a Mrs. Heard, together with a daughter, three sons, and several other persons, was returning from Portsmouth, When they came near to Dover, they were alarmed by the noise of the firing, and the war-whoop. The anguish which they felt for their families induced them to advance farther up the river, and land one- fourth of a mile from Major Waldron's garrison. When they had become within sight of Mrs. Hoard's house, unable to account for the phenomenon, believed that they had been commanded by an angel, sent from heaven for their protection.

    This supposed angel was Goffe, who never before ventured from his concealment. Whalley was then in a state of second childhood. Such was their caution to prevent a discovery of their retreat, that the inhabitants never knew them, or who it was that so ably led them against the savages, until they both had paid the debt of nature. -- Janson's Stranger in America.

    243

    garrisoned also, they saw lights in the windows, and ran to it for protection. They knocked and called, but no answer was given. One of the company, climbing the wall and looking over it, discovered an Indian at a small distance, with a musket in his hand. Exhausted and agonising, Mrs. Heard bade her children and companions make the best shift they could, while she herself sat down, to meet death on the spot. In a short time, however, she began to recover her strength and spirits, and betook, herself for safety to a thicket, about a furlong; from the house. Here an Indian came up to her, with a pistol in his hand; looked at her, and without saying a word withdrew. A few minutes after he returned again, and again left her in the same manner. She then attempted to cross the river in vain, and, returning to her retreat, continued there until the savages decamped.

    Having thus wonderfully escaped from destruction, she had the satisfaction to find her house preserved. It had been vigorously assaulted by the enemy; but it had, also, been bravely defended. It stood in the skirt of the town, nearest to the forest. By the prudence and heroism of this lady it was defended through a ten years' war. Though often and strongly solicited to place herself in security among her friends at Portsmouth, she determined to keep her station. How few men would have continued at this post of honour when pressed by such solicitation I Mrs. Heard was a woman of distinguished piety.

    -----

    Shocking as the preceding narratives certainly are, they are exceeded by the following instance of horrid depravity, exemplified in the conduct of a civilized native of Canada.

    "Mr. Long, who published a volume of Travels through N. America, about 30 years ago, after traversing a great extent of country, was compelled to winter among the Nipegon Indians. Here he found one Fulton, a trader, who had several Canadians as his servants. Being obliged to divide his men into two parties, which is called the cawway, or casting lots, which party shall limit and fish, and which shall stay with the master, he did so accordingly. The fishing party consisted of




    244                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    Charles Janvier, Francois St. Ange, and Louis Dufresne, all natives of Canada, who being provided with axes, ice-cutters, and fishing materials, set off, and at the expiration of eight days, arrived at a convenient place, where they built a hut, in which they lived for sonic time tolerably well; but fish failing them, and having no success in hunting, they were almost starved. In this situation, said the chief, the bad spirit had entered into the heart of Janvier, and he being the strongest man, supported hunger better than his companions, by which he was enabled soon after to effect a diabolical purpose he had formed of killing the first Indian who should come in his way, find which he had declared he would do. In the height of their distress, Janvier perceived a savage at some distance, with a load at his back, and instantly returning to the hut, told his poor dispirited partners of their approaching relief. They instantly got up, though very weak, and came out of the hut as fast as their feeble limbs would allow them. The Indian arrived, took off his load, which was only two otters, and two hares, and gave them to Janvier, who received them with great satisfaction; and when he had skinned them. boiled them in the kettle without cleansing them, so extreme was their hunger. This seasonable relief was soon devoured, and from the eagerness with which Janvier eat, and the satisfaction which appeared in his countenance when he looked at the savage, the men were in hopes he had forgot the rash determination he had formed, and flattered themselves his mind was nut so depraved as to entertain a thought of doing an injury to the man whose timely assistance had saved their lives The next morning the Indian told them he was sorry he could not assist them further, having no ammunition, but that he was going to Mr. Fulton for a supply.

    Janvier's heart being inexorable even to the kindness he had received, he desired the savage to assist him in placing a large log of wood on the fire," as his companions were unable to do it. The Indian cheerfully complied, and stooping to take it up, Janvier knocked him down with an axe, and dragged him to the door of the hut, cut him up, and with the most unfeeling barbarity, put as much of the flesh of his deliverer into the kettle

    245

    as he thought sufficient for a meal. When it was dressed, he compelled Francois St. Ange, and Louis Dufresne to partake of it, and obliged them to kiss the cross which hung at his breast, and swear by all the saints never to reveal the transaction; threatening at the same time, that if they did, they should share the same fate. Intimidated by his threats, and the certainty that he would fulfil them, they solemnly promised perfect compliance with his injunctions. Having overcome their first aversion, which extreme hunger had occasioned, they ate immoderately of the horrid meal, and soon after fell sick, with violent retchings. During their indisposition, they complained to each other softly, that it was eating the Indian's flesh that had occasioned their sickness: Janvier overhearing them, culled them fools and rascals, and asked them if they were afraid the savage would come to life attain; and with an insolent sneer desired them to tell him which they thought the best part of a man? The poor fellows only replied they were very sick and could not tell the cause. In a few days (having no other provision) the Indian was eaten up, and Janvier determined to have human flesh, if no other could be obtained. To this end he sought an opportunity to quarrel with St. Ange -- Dufresne not during to interfere in the dispute. Janvier, willing, however to appear as plausible in the eyes of Dufresne as possible, widened the breach very artfully, till pretending he was no longer able to contain his anger, asked Dufresne if he did not think St. Ange deserved the Indian's death, for daring to say he would reveal the circumstance he had so solemnly sworn to conceal. Dufresne, dreading the consequences of differing with him in sentiment, said he thought St. Ange was to blame; upon which reply, Janvier immediately struck him with axe, and killed him: he then cut him up, and boiled a part, of which he obliged Dufresne to partake he not daring to shew any reluctance. Fortunately for Dufresne the weather became more moderate, and having caught plenty of fish, they proposed to return to their master. Janvier, intoxicated with the idea of his superiority, obliged Dufresne to drag him in an Indian slay to Mr. Fulton's house -- a cruel imposition upon him, and a dreadful service to a weak, emaciated man! but




    246                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    knowing he was unable to resist, he made a virtue of necessity, and obeyed the tyrant with seeming cheerfulness. On the journey he was frequently reminded of his oath, and the fatal consequences that would attend him if he should ever divulge the secret, which Janvier assured him would produce instant death.

    Our readers probably will be happy to hear, that tins genuine Son of Hell was brought by his master to confession, and from thence to condign punishment.

    -----

    INDIAN GRATITUDE.

    now change the picture, and from scenes of cruelty, turn to pleasing instances of better principles and feeling. The following is from President Dwight's Travels, from whose interesting Journal we have several times, previously, enriched this volume.

    "Not many years after the county of Litchfield began to be settled by the English, a strange Indian came one day into an inn, in the town of Litchfield, in the dusk of the evening, and requested the hostess to furnish him with some drink and a supper. At the same time, he observed, that he could pay for neither, as he had had no success in hunting, but promised payment as soon as he should meet with better fortune. The hostess refused him both the drink and supper, called him a lazy, drunken, good-for-nothing fellow, and told him, that she did not work so hard herself to throw away her earnings upon such creatures as he was. A man. who sat by, and observed that the Indian, then turning about to leave so inhospitable a place, shewed by his countenance that he was suffering very severely from want and weariness, directed the hostess to supply him what he wished, and engaged to pay the bill himself. She did so. When the Indian had finished his supper, he turned to his benefactor, thanked him, and assured him that he should remember his kindness, and whenever he was able, would faithfully recompense it. For the present, he observed, he could only reward him with n story, which, if the hostess would give him leave, he wished to tell. The hostess, whose complacency had been recalled by the prospect of payment,

    247

    consented. The Indian, addressing himself to his benefactor, said, 'I suppose you read the Bible.' The man assented. 'Well,' said the Indian, 'the Bible say God made the world; and then he took him, and looked on him, and say "it's all very good." Then he made light; and took him, and say 'it's all very good.' Then he made dry land and water, the sun and moon, and grass and trees; and took him, and looked upon him, and said, "it's all very good." Then he make beasts, and birds, and fishes, and took him, and looked on him, and say, "it's all very good." Then he made man, and took him, and looked on him, and say, "it's all very good." Then he made woman, and took him and looked on him, 'and he no dare say one such word.' The Indian having told his story, withdrew.

    Some years after, the man who had befriended him, had occasion to go some distance into the wilderness, between Litchfield and Albany, then a frontier settlement, where he was taken prisoner by an Indian scout, and carried to Canada. When he arrived at the principal settlement of the tribe, on the southern border of the St. Lawrence, it was proposed by some of the captors that he should be put to death. During the consultation, an old Indian woman demanded, that he should be given up to her, that she might adopt him in the place of a son, whom she had lost in the war. He was accordingly given to her, and lived through the succeeding winter in her family, experiencing the customary effects of savage hospitality. The following summer, as he was at work in the forest alone, an unknown Indian came up to him, and asked to meet him at a place which he pointed out, upon a given day. The prisoner agreed to the proposal, but not without some apprehensions that mischief was intended him. During the interval, these apprehensions increased to such a degree, as to dissuade him effectually, from fulfilling his engagement. Soon after, the same Indian found him at his work again, and very gravely reproved him for not performing his promise. The man apologized awkwardly enough, but in the best manner in his power. The Indian told him that he should be satisfied, if he would meet him at the same place on a future day,




    248                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    which he named. The man promised to meet him, and fulfilled his promise. When he arrived at the spot, he found the Indian provided with two muskets, ammunition for them, and two knapsacks. The Indian ordered him to take one of each, and follow him. -- The direction of their march was to the south. -- The man followed, without the least knowledge of what he was to do, or whither he was going; but concluded, that if the Indian intended him harm, he would have despatched him at the beginning, and that at the worst he was as safe where he was, as he could be in any other place. Within a short time therefore, his fears subsided, although the Indian observed a profound and mysterious silence concerning the object of the expedition. In the day time they shot such game as came in their way; and at night kindled a fire, by which they slept. After a tedious journey of many days, they came one morning to the top of an eminence, presenting a prospect of a cultivated country, in which was a number of houses. The Indian asked his companion whether he knew the ground. He replied eagerly, that it was Litchfield. His guide then, after reminding him that he had so many years before relieved the wants of a famishing Indian, at an inn in that town, subjoined, 'I am that Indian; now I pray you; go home.' Having s(«d this, he bade him adieu; and the man joyfully returned to his own house.''

    -----

    INDIAN CHIVALRY.

    (From an American Paper, 1823).

    A very pretty anecdote is related of one of the Chiefs recently at the seat of government (the Pawnee). A squaw had been taken in one of the predatory parties of his tribe, and was condemned to the stake. The hour arrived, and she was bound, and waiting for application of the fatal torch to the pile, when giving vent to Ungenerous emotion of pity which filled his breast, he rushed forward, unbound the victim, and bore her triumphantly off from her astonished tormentors. His countrymen, whose reverence for his bravery and rank . in the tribe, prevented their opposition, not only forgave but applauded the noble act. But applause more flattering

    249

    still waited upon the red hero of the forest. During the visit to Washington, the young ladies of Miss White's Seminary, as a testimony of grateful remembrance, presented this chief with a silver medal bearing the inscription commemorative of the chivalric philanthropy of the act above recited. The spectacle must have been singular and gratifying -- to behold one of those whom we proudly call savages, receiving from the hands of our fair country women, a testimonial so flattering for an action which might shed additional lustre upon the most civilized hero.

    -----

    AMERICAN METHODIST CAMP MEETING.

    (Marsden's Journal.)

    During my continuance at New York, says Mr. M. I had an opportunity of attending several camp meetings, and as the nature of these stupendous means- of grace is not distinctly known, I will spend a few moments in making my readers acquainted with them. -- Camp meetings are now a regular and orderly part of the Methodist economy in the United States; and one of the questions at the annual conference is, "when and where shall our next camp meetings be held?" hence, they are not as some in this country, suppose either disorderly or irregular, but wonderful means in the hands of God. The time and place being appointed by conference, it is next advertised from the pulpits, and as the day approaches, each of your friends asks you -- "are you going to camp meeting." Great preparation is made, and much excitement prevails upon the occasion. The one held for the city and district of New York, is generally at Croton, about 40 miles up the Hudson river; a select part of the forest is chosen, rising like an amphitheatre: this is generally cleared from brush and sylvan rubbish, so as to have little but the grass beneath and tall trees waving above. At the appointed time, the trustees of the New York Methodist churches, delegate one of their body to attend and make the proper arrangements for the occasion. A number of tents are employed; sloops and small vessels are hired by the trustees, who charge each person a small piece of money for




    250                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    his passage, and also debar improper persons from embarking: the joyful hour is at length arrived; the sloops are all freighted with the tents, camp meeting equipage, &c. and only waited the proper number of passengers: these crowd from every part of the city toward the well-known wharf. Some of the sloops have "camp meeting'' waving on their colours; others have the words painted on boards, which they hang in the rigging. The people crowd on board, until each sloop above and below contains from three to four hundred persons: it is often the case that there are several local and itinerant preachers in each vessel, who regulate and lead the worship on board; for from the time they leave the wharfs until they arrive at the place, sometimes a period of seven or eight hours, singing, prayer, preaching, and exhortation, alternately follow each other in regular succession; and truly it is enlivening to a dull, and enchanting to a devout and well-tuned heart to sail along the silent and towering woods, singing the praises of God, and joining in the various exercises of religion; at a time too, when nature is in a state of beauty -- the sun shining over your head, and the morning star irradiating the heart; this is certainly a combination issuing in much internal peace and harmony of soul.

    When the vessels reach the select spot, the passengers hasten as quickly as possible to the camp ground. The tents are generally pitched in the form of a crescent, in the centre of which is an elevated stand for the preachers, round which, in all directions, are placed rows of planks for the people to sit upon, while they hear the word. Among the trees, which spread their tops over this forest- church, are hung the lamps, which burn all night, and give light to the various exercises of religion, which occupy the solemn midnight hours: as it was nearly eleven o'clock at night when I first arrived on the borders of a camp: I left the boat at the edge of the wood, one mile from the scene, though the sound of praise from such a multitude, and at such an hour, in the midst of a solitary wildness is difficult to describe; but when I opened upon the camp ground, my curiosity was converted into astonishment, to behold the pendent lamps among the trees; the tents half encircling a

    251

    large space; 4000 people in the centre of this, listening with profound attention to a preacher, whose stentorian voice and animated manner carried the vibration of each word to a great distance through the now deeply umbrageous wood; where, save the twinkling lamps of the camp; brooding darkness spread a ten fold gloom: all excited my astonishment, and forcibly brought before my view the Hebrews in the wilderness. But, to return, when the tents are pitched, the preachers stand raised; the carte, waggons, chaises, horses, &c. of those who come, all disposed round the outside of the tents; the preachers then go hand in hand, through the camp, singing some appropriate hymn.

    The meetings generally begin on Monday morning, and on the Friday morning following break up; the daily exercises are carried forward in the following manner: in the morning, at five o'clock, the horn sounds through the camp, either for public preaching or prayer, this, with smaller exercises, or a little intermission, brings on the breakfast hour, eight o'clock; at ten the horn sounds for public preaching, after which, until noon, the interval is filled up with little groups of praying persons, who scatter themselves up and down the camp, both in the tents and under the trees.

    I should have observed, that a female or two is generally left in each tent, to prepare the proper materials for dinner, which is always cold meats, pies, tarts, tea, &c. (the use of ardent spirits being forbidden,) and a fire is kept burning in different parts of the camp, where the water is boiled. After the afternoon preaching, things take nearly the same course as in the morning, only the praying groups are upon a larger scale, and more scope is given to animated exhortations and loud prayers; some who exercise on these occasions soon lose there voices, and at the end of a camp meeting many, both preachers and people, can only speak in a whisper. At six o'clock in the evening the horn summonses to preaching, after which, though in no regulated form, all the above means continue until morning; so that go to whatever part of the camp you please, some are engaged in them; yea, and during whatever part of the night you awake, the wilderness is vocal with praise. In the calm




    252                              AMERICAN VARIETIES, &c.                             


    and solemn hours of sleep, to hear amidst the deep silence of the wood, the gloom filled with hymns of piety to the God of love, is to a heaven aspiring soul, a spiritual luxury that cannot be described. I have, at one and two o'clock in the morning, gone from tent to tent, to observe what filled the hour, and but few engaged my notice, where the inmates were lying asleep upon the clean straw. I should have observed, that there is generally a partition or curtain between that part of the tent in which the men sleep, and that in which the women sleep; all things are done decently, and in much order; nor do I believe that there is a place in the world where wicked thoughts find such difficult access to the mind as at a camp meeting. I was, during the preaching of one forenoon, sitting musing at the foot of a tree, respecting the singularity of such a mode of worshiping God, when I fell into the following train of thoughts: God, thought 1, might put them upon, instituting an ordinance that should bear some resemblance to the magnitude of the immense country where all nature is upon a scale of grandeur, rivers, mountains, forests, lakes, cataracts, all far surpassing those of any other country in the world. At the expiration ot the allotted time the camp meeting is broken up, the process of which is as follows: there is a sacrament and lovefeast near the preachers' stand; the preachers then walk through the camp, singing a hymn; after this they stand in a line, and all the people walk round the camp singing, and as they pass the preachers, shake hands until the whole are passed, then the preachers ascend the stand, sins; the parting hymn, and bid each other farewell in the presence of the whole camp. At this (Croton) camp meeting there were 20 preachers, 212 tents, and upon the most moderate calculation, not less than 40 or 50 carts, waggons, gigs, &c. on several of the days there were present about 6000 persons; the tents, reckoning 15 persons to each, contained 3180, but some of the tents had from 20 to 30 inmates.

    During my visit to New York, the celebrated Dr. Rush died, deservedly esteemed and lamented as a great and good man: to the Africans he was a distinguished benefactor. Hence, in this city, they stand upon dignified

    253

    ground, having several good churches, and ministers of their own colour, chiefly through his former liberality to them, and his influence with others in their behalf. The funeral of this great physician and philanthropist, was one of the largest I ever saw, extending probably a mile in length, and attended by nearly a hundred coaches. One of his pupils related to me a singular anecdote respecting him: -- he was at one time, attending his lectures, and remarked, that in one of them, he branched out upon a subject, which he (Dr. Sergent) had seen, more largely treated upon in a work of Mr. Fletcher's, and meeting with Dr. Rush, afterwards, my friend asked him if he knew the writings of Mr. Fletcher• -- Ah! yes, replied the doctor, I know the writings of that great and good man well; before I read his works, I could not zzzroy for all men, but he set me at liberty; and if I meet him in heaven, I will thank him, and say -- " you Mr. Fletcher, gave me just views of God's love to the human family.''




     

    Transcriber's Comments


    Charles Hulbert, Esq, (1778-1857)


    1823 Museum Americanum




    (under construction)




     

    Return to top of the page



    Return to: Oliver Cowdery's Writings  |  Oliver Cowdery Home Page


    last revised April 5, 2008