182 SUPPOSED WELCH INDIANS. 



Traditional ae- or two came back with the account that they had difcovererf 



tants of America acountr y ^ ar to ln e weftward, and that they fet fail again with 



fuppofed to have a frefli reinforcement, and never returned again any more. 



w£ tCdfr ° m The countr y which thefe adventurers difcovered, it has 



been fuppofed, was the continent of North America; and it 



has been conjectured that they landed on the continent, fome- 



where in the Gulf of Mexico, and from thence proceeded 



northward, till they got out of the reach of the hoftile natives, 



and feated themfelves in the upper country of Miffouri. 



Many accounts accordingly have been published, within the 

 Iaft thirty years, of perfons who, in confequence either by 

 accident or the ardour of curiofity, have made themfelves ac- 

 quainted with a nation of men on the Miffouri, poffeffing the 

 complexion of Europeans and the language of Welchmen. 



Could the fact be well eftablifhed, it would afford perhaps 

 the moil fatisfactory folution of the difficulty occafioned by a 

 view of the various ancient fortifications with which the Ohio 

 country abounds, of any that has ever been offered. Thofe 

 fortifications were evidently never made by the Indians, The 

 Indian art of war prefents nothing of the kind. The proba- 

 bility too is that the perfons who conftrucled them were, at 

 that time, acquainted with the ufe of iron : The fituation of 

 thefe fortifications, which are uniformly in the raoft fertile 

 land of the country, indicates, that thofe who made them 

 were an agricultural people; and the remarkable care and 

 fkill with which they were executed, affords traits of the 

 genius of a people, who relied more on their military fkill 

 than on their numbers. The growth of the trees upon them 

 is very compatible with the idea that it is not more than three 

 hundred years ago that they were abandoned. 



Thefe hints however are thrown out rather to excite en- 

 quiry, than by way of advancing any decided opinion on the 

 fubjeft. Having never met with any of the perfons who had 

 feen thefe white Americans, nor even received their teftimony 

 near the fource, I have always entertained confiderable doubts 

 about the fact. Laft evening, however, Mr. John Childs, 

 of Jeflamine County, a gentleman with whom I have been 

 long acquainted, and who is well known to be a man of ve- 

 racity, communicated a relation to me, which at all events 

 appears to merit ferious attention. 



Aftef 



