CHAPTER II. 

 PROGRESS OF INVESTIGATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



In passing from general opinions and speculations to such as relate to that por- 

 tion of the continent which alone is now the subject of consideration, the attention 

 is first directed to a class of authorities from which we might reasonably expect to 

 derive much valuable information. To this class belong the narratives of those 

 early adventurers who saw its inhabitants in their natural condition, occupying 

 their original seats, and in the exercise of their hereditary customs and habits. The 

 Atlantic shores of the United States do not, indeed, present such remains of ancient 

 art as would be likely to attract the observation of those who first visited them ; 

 but, in the records of the Spanish expeditions to Florida and Louisiana, we should 

 look for some descriptive recognition of the extensive earthworks that are found in 

 those regions. More especially should we anticipate that the French priests, Fran- 

 ciscans, and Jesuits, who, very early in the 17th century, penetrated to the upper 

 lakes, and thence worked their way through the Valley of the Mississippi to the 

 Gulf of Mexico, would have seen the mounds and inclosures there so frequent, and 

 have been impressed by their numbers and magnitude. 



The followers of Narvaes and Soto passed through the sections of country that 

 contain the largest and most imposing of the southern earthworks. The French 

 emigrants that succeeded to the Spaniards, accompanied by missionaries who ren- 

 dered to ecclesiastical authorities at home periodical accounts of their operations, 

 were in the midst of those structures. At the north, the same class of learned and 

 devoted men were historians of the progress of discovery. In the narratives of the 

 Franciscan Friars, and in the reports of the Jesuits to their Superiors, we have 

 elaborate notices of the natural history of the country, the manners, customs, and 

 dialects of the natives, and their faculties and dispositions. 1 At a later period, 



1 These Reports, commonly termed Relations, "Relations de ce qui e'est passe, &c," are not only 

 very valuable, as sources of important and peculiar information, but they are, unfortunately, very rare. 

 They are printed in small volumes, 12mo or 8vo, in number about forty, extending, with some intervals, 

 from 1611 to 1671, and perhaps later. It is said that a complete series is not to be found even in the 

 Royal Library at Paris. Dr. O'Callaghan prepared an account of them, which was printed with the 

 Proceedings of the New York Historical Society for November, 1847, and contains a table showing 

 what volumes are in this country, aud where they may be found. This account was printed in French 

 in 1850, with notes, corrections, and additions, by the Superior of St. Mary's College, Montreal. Mr. 

 James Lenox, of New York, has recently caused to be reprinted fac-simile copies of the letters of 

 Father Le Mercier, written in 1655, aud those of Jerome Lallemant, written in 1659, and has added 

 to them the Relation for the years 1676 and 1677, which had not before been published. 



