24 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



be presumed that the drawing was sent at the same time, as it would be required, 

 of course, to enable Franklin to form a judgment of the nature and object of the 

 structures. Franklin might naturally transfer it to the editors of the magazine in 

 Philadelphia for publication, as a matter of general interest and curiosity. It 

 does not appear as a communication from Captain Heart, and is inserted without 

 note or comment. General Parsons, who was but two days at Marietta, 1 on his 

 way down the river, speaks of having left at that place, a request with an officer 

 of learning and great curiosity in his observations of the natural world, to inform 

 him of his discoveries, from whom it would appear that much of his information 

 had been derived. Captain Heart was stationed at Fort Harmar, on the opposite 

 bank of the Muskingum, and subsequent papers written by him manifest the 

 qualities attributed to the officer alluded to. 



We may justly conclude that the plan in the Columbian Magazine, is the one 

 referred to by General Parsons, and that, next to the sketch of the works at Circle- 

 ville in 1772, before mentioned, it is the earliest diagram made of western antiqui- 

 ties. Captain Heart was not only one of the earliest observers in this field of 

 investigation, but manifested a zeal, intelligence, and comprehensiveness of research, 

 that promised the most satisfactory results. A few years later (Jan. 1791), in 

 reply to inquiries of Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, he wrote a paper, embodying 

 much valuable information, that was read before the American Philosophical 

 Society, and is included in the third volume of the transactions of that body. 

 In this communication, he refers to a large number and variety of earthworks 

 observed by himself and others in the western country, at the mouth of the 

 Muskingum, at Grave creek, at Paint creek, and along the Scioto, on the Ken- 

 tucky side of the Ohio opposite the mouth of the Scioto (the last said to have been 

 accurately traced by Col. George Morgan), and on the Great and Little Miami. 

 He mentions that others have been described to him as situated on the Big Black 

 river (the intended site of the colony from New England before the Revolution), 

 at Bio Pierre on the Mississippi, and on the head waters of the Yazoo and Mobile 

 rivers. This was an extensive range for that period, and includes remains whose 

 discovery has been ascribed to later explorers. Contrary to the general tendency 

 of the time, the writer indulges in no visionary speculations, but simply gives his 

 opinion that the earthworks were not constructed by De Soto, because he did not 

 visit the regions where they are principally found, and had no time for such labors 

 anywhere ; that the state of the works and the trees growing on them indicated 

 an origin prior to the discovery of America by Columbus; that they were not 

 due to the present Indians or their predecessors, or some tradition would have 

 remained of their uses ; that they were not constructed by a people who procured 

 the necessaries of life by hunting, as a sufficient number to carry on such labors 

 could not have subsisted in that way ; and, lastly, that the people who constructed 

 them were not altogether in an uncivilized state, as they must have been under 

 the subordination of law, with a strict and well-governed police, or they could 



1 Then called "Muskingum," from the river at whose mouth it is situated. 



