88 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



Old Town was admirably located for defence, and for an abundant supply of 

 water and fisli. On one side it was protected by the steep, abrupt banks of the 

 Harpeth, and on the other, by a deep ravine and stream ; whilst the remaining 

 portions were protected by a high embankment, which was most probably crowned 

 by a stockade during the occupation of the aborigines. The surrounding lands 

 also were adapted to the cultivation of Indian corn. 



It is worthy of note that the works, mounds, and graves of Old Town, like those 

 of the various aboriginal settlements which we have described, presented the 

 appearance of completion, as if the ancient inhabitants, from some cause, had 

 abandoned their homes. The finished aspect of the mounds and earthworks of 

 Tennessee and Kentucky, the undisturbed contents of the sacrificial and hurial 

 mounds, as well as the unaltered state of the stone graves and earthworks, forced 

 upon me the conviction that these were all the work of the same race, and that, 

 in most instances, after their desertion, they remained without subsequent occupants. 



The abandonment of the aboriginal remains of Tennessee, Kentucky, and of 

 several of the Western States by the primitive inhabitants who were at one time 

 very numerous, may be referred to three causes, viz. : — 



1. Emigration. 



2. Destruction of the entire population by more barbarous and nomadic tribes. 



3. Destruction by pestilence. 



It is evident from the age of the trees growing in many of these mounds, that 

 they were completed and abandoned long before the discovery and exploration of 

 the North American Continent. 



My examinations of the organic and monumental remains, and of the works of 

 art of the aborigines of Tennessee, establish the fact that tliey were not the relics 

 of the nomadic and hunting tribes of Indians existing at the time of the explora- 

 tion of the coast and the interior of the continent by the white race ; but, on the 

 contrary, that they are the remains of a people closely related to, if not identical 

 with the more civilized nations of Mexico and Central America. 



The question, whether the mound builders of the Mississippi valley were the 

 primitive race from which the Toltecs and Aztecs sprang, or whether they were 

 offshoots of these races, cann6t at present be definitely settled. A solution of this 

 interesting question, will depend mainly upon a careful exploration of the aboriginal 

 remains of the entire North American continent. When this great Avork is com- 

 pleted, it may be possible to decide as to the relative age and relationship of the 

 remains in different sections of the continent, and thus to establish the lines of 

 occupation and emigration of the mound builders. 



It is possible that it- may be finally shown that the races which attained a 

 certain degree of civilization in Mexico and Central America, have all emigrated 

 originally from the valley of the Mississippi, where they had sojourned and multiplied 

 during a considerable period of time. The frequent and devastating wars waged 

 by the Iroquois (5n the east, and by the Cherokees and Choctaws on the south and 

 west, were evidently subsequent to the migrations of the ancient mound builders 

 and stone grave race of' Tennessee, Kentucky, and other Western States. 



The numerous stone graves scattered over a belt of country stretching from the 



