122 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS, 



" Sometimes the square, instead of being open at the ends, as shown in the 

 plan, is closed upon all sides by the banks. In the lately built or new Creek 

 towns, they do not raise a mound for the foundation of their rotundas or public 

 squares. The yard, however, is retained, and the public buildings occupy nearly 

 the same position in respect to it. They also retain the central obelisk and the 

 slave posts. 



" In the Cherokee country, all over Carolina and the northern and eastern parts 

 of Georgia, wherever the ruins of ancient Indian towns appear, we see always, 

 besides these remains, one vast, conical, pointed mound. To mounds of this kind 

 I refer, when I speak o^ pyramidal mounds. To the south and west of the Altamaha. 

 I observed none of these, in any part of the Muscogulge country, but always flat 

 circular or square structures. The vast mounds upon the St. John's, Alachua, 

 and Musquito ri^(M•s, diti'er from those among the Cherokees, with respect to their 

 adjuncts and appendages, particularly in respect to the great highway or avenue, 

 sunk below the common level of the earth, extending from them, and terminating 

 either in a vast savannah or natural plain, or an artificial pond or lake. A remark- 

 able example occurs at Mount Royal, from whence opens a glorious view of Lake 

 George and its environs. 



" Fig. 24 exhibits a view of the great mound 

 last referred to. Fig. 25 is a plan of the same 

 structure with its accompanying avenue, which 

 leads ofi" to an artificial lake or pond, on the verge 

 of an expansive savannah or natural meadow. 

 A, the mound, about forty feet in perpendicular 

 height ; B, the highway leading from the mound 

 in a straight line to the pond C, about half a mile 

 distant. What may have been the motive for 

 making this pond I cannot conjecture, since the 

 mound and other vestiges of the ancient town 

 are situated close on the banks of the river St. 

 Juan.* It could not therefore be for the 

 conveniency of water. Perhaps they raised 

 the mound with the earth taken out of the 

 pond. The sketch of this mound also 

 illustrates the character of the mounds in the Cherokee country; but the last have 

 not the highway or avenue, and are always accompanied by vast square terraces 



Fio. 24. 



W '3 



* The remains here described are referred to in Bartrani's published travels, as follows: "They are 

 situated upon an eminence, near the banks of the lake, and command an extensive and charming prospect 

 of the waters, islands, east and west shores of the lake, the capes, the bay, and Mount Royal ; and to the 

 south the view is in like manner inlinite, where the skies and waters seem to unite. On the site of tiiis 

 ancient town stands a very pompous Indian mount, or conical pyramid of eartli. from which runs in a 

 straight line a grand avenue or Indian highwav, through a magnificent grove of magnoUas. live oaks, 

 palms, and orange trees, terminating at the verge of a large, .green, level savannah." — 'I'riirel.i. p. 1(11. 



