2() ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



between four and five inches broad, they carried to Canada, from whence it was 

 sent to France, to the Secretary of State, Count de Maurepas. Several Jesuits, 

 who have seen and handled this stone, unanimously affirm that the letters on it are 

 the same with those which, in the books containing accounts of Tartaria, are called 

 Tartarian characters." The places where the pillars were found were estimated to 

 be near nine hundred French miles westward of Montreal. We believe that such 

 monolithic pillars as are here described have not attracted the attention of later 

 explorers ; but the " garden-beds" (as they are now called) exist in Michigan and 

 Wisconsin, and are regarded with wonder at the present day, as differing altogether 

 in form and arrangement from the usual remains of Indian agriculture. The men- 

 tion of them imparts an air of authenticity to Verandrier's narrative. 



Prof. Kalm draws his own inference from the account, and believes that the 

 pillars and the Tartarian inscription indicate the presence of the followers of 

 Kublai Khan. 1 



In another part of his work he mentions having been informed, by an aged 

 Swede in New Jersey, that when the Swedes settled on the Delaware, near where 

 Salem is now situated, they found, at the depth of twenty feet, some wells inclosed 

 with walls of brick. Since that period the river had so far encroached upon the 

 land, by washing away its banks, that the wells were then covered with water, 

 which was seldom low enough to admit of their being seen. From these and other 

 evidences of the use of bricks discovered in that neighborhood, he infers the exist- 

 ence of an ante-Columbian settlement at that place. 



In November, 1766, Jonathan Carver was at Lake Pepin on the Mississippi; and 

 in the journal of his travels mentions the embankments he saw in that neighbor- 

 hood, which appeared to him of a military character, and sufficient to cover five 

 thousand men. This is usually considered the earliest mention of western earth- 

 works as indicating a higher degree of art than existing races of aborigines were 

 supposed to possess. James Adair, whose History of the American Indians was 

 published in 1775, began his acquaintance with Indian life as early as 1735, and 

 most of his book was written among the Chickasaws, with whom he first treated 

 in 1744. He says that, from the most exact observations he could make, in the 

 long time that he traded among the Indians, he was forced to believe them lineally 

 descended from the Israelites ; and the main object of his book seems to be to 

 demonstrate that proposition. His references to vestiges of antiquity are few and 

 rather indefinite. He speaks of traces of the ancient warlike disposition of the 

 people as being found, " through the whole continent and in the remotest woods," 

 that, " great mounds of earth, either of a circular or oblong form, having a strong 

 breastwork at a distance around them, are frequently met with," but does not give 

 the details of configuration or measurement. 



The celebrated botanists, John and William Bartram, father and son, may be 

 regarded as the first by whom a careful and intelligent observation of these 

 structures has been recorded. They were in Florida together in 1765 ; and in 



1 "Travels into North America," Til, 123, et scq. 



