W R K S F D E F E N C E . 45 



however, that the Indians were hunters averse to labor, and not known to have 

 constructed any works approaching in skilfulness of design or in magnitude tliose 

 under notice, there is almost positive evidence that the mound-builders were an 

 agricultural people, considerably advanced in the arts, possessing a great uniformity 

 throughout the whole territory which they occupied, in manners, habits, and 

 religion, — a uniformity sufficiently well marked to identify them as a single people, 

 having a common origin, common modes of life, and, as an almost necessary con- 

 sequence, common sympathies, if not a common and consolidated government. 



The question whether the North American Indians constructed defensive works 

 of this description, is one of much importance, but which cannot be fully discussed 

 in this connection. All the early writers concur in representing that the Indian 

 tribes, from Florida to Canada, possessed common modes of defending their villages 

 and protecting themselves from the attacks of their enemies. Their fortifications 

 consisted of rows of pickets firmly fixed in the ground, sometimes wattled together, 

 but occasionally placed so far apart, as to permit missiles of various kinds to be 

 discharged between them upon an assailant.* They seldom had more than a 

 single entrance, which, among the Floridians, was not direct, but circuitous. 

 Entrenchments of earth, consisting of an embankment and ditch, do not appear to 

 have been constructed by them. It seems, however, that of late years, the Indians 

 to the westward of the Mississippi, particularly the Mandans and Rickarees, have 

 constructed entrenchments of earth, surmounted by palisades.j But whether the 

 practice is of recent introduction or otherwise, it is diflicult to say. It is stated 

 by Prince Maximilian, in his Travels in America, that the defences of the Mandan 

 village of Mih-tutta-hang-kush, which consisted of a wall and ditch, were built 

 by whites, who were employed by the Indians for that purpose.:}: 



The defences of the nations of the central portion of the Continent, and espe- 

 cially those of the Mexicans and Peruvians, so far as we are informed concerning 

 them, bore a close resemblance to those of the mound-builders, although exhibiting 

 a superiority entirely consonant with the further advance which we arc justified in 

 supposing they had made in all the arts, including the art of defence.§ Some 

 reference has already been had to the actual identity which a few of the defences 

 of the West exhibit with those of Mexico, in some of their most interesting fea- 

 tures. These resemblances might be pointed out in detail, but they will readily 

 suggest themselves to the Archaeologist. The usual mode of fortification in 

 Peru consisted in throwing up a series of embankments around the summits of 

 isolated hills, — a practice which was common among the ancient Celts, and which 

 is still preserved among the Australian and Polynesian islanders. || UUoa observes, 



* Charlevoix, Canada, vol. ii. p. 128; Loskiel, p. 53; Du Pratz, Louisiana, p. 375; Ilcirara, His- 

 loiy of America, vol. v. p. 324. 



f Catlin's North American Indians, \o\. i. p. 81 ; Lewis and Clark, ttbi supra. 



I Travels in North America, pp. 173, 243. 



§ De Soils, History of Mexico, p. 54 ; Juarros, History Guatemala, p. 402 ; Stephens's Yucatan, vol. i. 

 pp. 165, 230 ; Molina, vol. ii. pp. 10, 68 ; Ulloa, vol. ii. p. 27. 



II Ellis's Polynesian Res. vol. i. pp. 313, 314; Cook's Second Voyage, ubi supra; Pollack's Now 

 Zi-abnd, \ol ii p 20. 



