104 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



Numerous other localities might be mentioned, where interesting aooriginal 

 remains have been observed, as at Castaliuu Springs; Bledsoe's Lick, in Sumner 

 Co. ; on the Big Harpcth near the mouth of Dog Creek ; on the Cumberland River 

 above Nashville, in Davidson County; on the banks of Harpeth in Williamson 

 County; on Piney, Duck, Powel's, Collins, French Broad, Hatchy, Forked-deer, 

 Obed's, Tennessee, Caney Fork, and other rivers. 



Those who would attempt to assign some definite age to the Stone Fort, and to 

 the mounds and earthworks of Tennessee and of the adjacent States, should not fail 

 to accord to the following facts their full weight. 



At the time of the discovery of America, a portion at least of the Mississippi 

 Valley was inhabited by the Mound Builders. 



The testimony of the earliest Spanish and French explorers, and the traditions 

 of the Indians, concur in establishing the fact, that, at the time oi the discovery 

 of North America, the Mississippi Valley, together with the States now known as 

 Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, was inhabited by powerful and warlike nations, 

 who cultivated the soil, lived in fortified towns, adored the sun, and had temples 

 located upon artificial mounds, in which idols were enthroned and worshipped. 



Ponce de Leon, who visited the continent in 1512 and discovered a country of 

 vast and unknown extent, to which he gave the name of Pasca Florida, in his 

 subsequent attempts to erect a town and fortress upon the coast, was assailed with 

 such vigor by the natives, that he was compelled to abandon the country. 



Ponce de Leon lost the greater part of his men from the arrows of the Indians, 

 and himself received a mortal wound, 



De Ayllon, who, in 1520, visited the coast of South Carolina, in that portion 

 which lies near to the mouth of the Combahee Iliver, decoyed and carried oft' from 

 the Island of St. Helena, a large number of the kind and unsuspecting natives, 

 who had entertained the Spaniards with liberal hospitality, and upon his second 

 voyage, in 1524, met with a just reward for the cruelty and perfidy which subse- 

 quently yielded such bitter fruits. After landing upon what is now the coast of 

 Georgia or South Carolina, two hundred of his soldiers penetrated a few leagues 

 into the interior, whilst he remained with the rest of his force to guard the ships ; 

 the Indians attacked and massacred the whole of the detachment sent out, and then, 

 falling suddenly upon the guard near the ships, succeeded in driving them from 

 the coast. 



The point of land reached by the Florentine, John Verrazzani, in his voyage of 

 discovery in 1524, appears to have been somewhere about Wilmington, in the 

 present state of North Carolina, near where the English, seventy years afterwards, 

 under Sir Walter Kaleigh, made the first attempt at colonizing America. 

 When Verrazzani visited tlie Indians of the southern portion of what now consti- 

 tutes the United States, he found them " gentle and courteous in their manners, of 

 sweet and pleasant countenances, and comely to behold." Pursuing a simple and 

 innocent style of living, they numbered a large population. 



While the Indians of the south were enabled by the fertility of the soil to culti- 

 vate various grains and vegetables, those of the more northern latitudes were con- 

 strained to live cliicfly by fishing and hunting. The agricultural occupations of 



