30 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



years of age, and having lived with them till it became "more familiar than his 

 mother tongue." 



Dr. Barton's "New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America," 

 printed at Philadelphia in 1797, and much enlarged the following year, is wholly 

 devoted to the subject of language, and the comparison of vocabularies. A refer- 

 ence to philological studies, so intimately associated with inquiries into the origin 

 and affinities of population, is deferred to a later period of our narrative, when these 

 may appropriately form a distinct topic of consideration ; hence, no notice has been 

 taken of the efforts of travellers and writers to procure comparative tables of words 

 and phrases. The principal and most trustworthy compilers of vocabularies were 

 the missionaries, who could not communicate theological doctrines to the untutored 

 savage without a more careful study of the shades of meaning in words than ordi- 

 nary intercourse would require. Much is due to the Jesuit and Franciscan priests ; 

 more to Mayhew, Eliot, Roger Williams, and their associates. Some useful addi- 

 tions were also contributed by traders, and other casual residents among the natives. 

 Enough had been collected when Dr. Barton wrote to furnish attractive materials 

 for study to philologists, not only in this country, but in Europe. 1 



From what has been said it will be seen that, before the close of the last century, 

 men of science in the United States had become warmly interested in the vestiges 

 of ancient art which had been discovered; and, supposing the amount of knowledge 

 of the subject possessed by learned men in 1787, to be indicated by Jefferson's 

 opinion that there existed " no remain as respectable as would be a common ditch 

 for the draining of lands," a few succeeding years had certainly witnessed rapid 

 advances of information, derived from nearly every portion of our national territory, 

 and relating to extraordinary and nrysterious monuments of antiquit}^. It is 

 undoubtedly true that, before 1800, the existence of tumuli and inclosures in great 

 numbers, and of imposing magnitude, throughout the valley of the Mississippi, at 

 least on its eastern side, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Lakes, was well known 

 to the public ; and, moreover, that many of the principal localities had been pointed 

 out, some of the works had been described with great particularity, and collections 

 had been made of the curious contents of the mounds. The inclosed works were 

 generally regarded as fortifications, and were supposed to demonstrate the former 

 possession of the country by a people skilled in the means of military defence. 



In 1803, two well educated gentlemen, of observing habits of mind, were exam- 

 ining these structures at no great distance from one another, but on opposite sides 

 of the Ohio River, and came to very different conclusions respecting their origi- 

 nal purpose. One of them, Bishop Madison, of Virginia, became satisfied that the 

 parapets and inclosures were never intended for military uses ; and gave his rea- 

 sons at length in a letter to Dr. Barton, which was read before the Philosophical 



1 Among the foreign correspondents of Dr. Barton, was Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal 

 Society. In 1795, Sir Joseph sent over some specimens of earthenware found near Lake Huron, in 

 "the ruins of an ancient town," by Dr. Nooth, of Quebec. — Massachusetts Magazine of Oct. 1795. 



In 1796, the celebrated French philosopher, Volney, travelled through many of the Western States, 

 and collected a vocabulary of the language of the Miamis. He saw mounds at Cincinnati, and in 

 Kentucky ; and, from the account of the works at Muskingum, did not think they exhibited evidence 

 of military art — Volney's "View," &c, translated by C. B. Brown, Phil., 1804. 



