52 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



so steep that it is impossible to ascend it but by the artificial steps or way that is 

 fixed alone on one side." 



From this and other notices, less particular but equally distinct, of mounds as 

 the sites of temples, and as fortresses, and of fortified inclosures, found in the early 

 narratives as well as from the arts, religious system, and despotic government of 

 those tribes, and from all we know of their history, Dr. McCulloh felt himself 

 justified in maintaining that they and their ancestors were the authors of all the 

 works whose remains exist in that portion of the country. He inferred, too, " that 

 other tribes, also of a certain degree of civilization, inhabited the shores of the 

 Mississippi and Ohio, even up to Pennsylvania, who were fully able to construct 

 any monument hitherto discovered north of Mexico." These he supposed might 

 have been exterminated by the barbarian, nations around them, or compelled to 

 migrate elsewhere, perhaps pressed down towards Florida, where they were incor- 

 porated with a people of congenial disposition. 



He might have added to his references wdiat Ribault says of the great chieftain 

 Chiquola. " They (the Floridians) gave me to understand that they would bring 

 me to see the greatest lord of this country, which they called Chiquola, Avhich 

 exceeded them in height (as they told me) a good foot and a half. They said unto 

 me that he dwelt within the land, in a very large place, and inclosed exceeding high, 

 but I could not learn wherewith. * * * I began then to show them all the parts 

 of the heaven, to the intent to learn in which quarter they (Chiquola's people) 

 dwelt. And straightway one of them stretching out his hand showed me that 

 they dwelt towards the north. * * :): Besides this proof, those which were left in 

 the first voyage have certified me, that the Indians showed them by evident signs, 

 that further within the land, toward the north, there was a great inclosure or city 

 where Chiquola dwelt." 1 



Dr. McCulloh's conclusions respecting the mounds and fortifications of North 

 America may be embraced in a few sentences. 



He was decidedly of opinion, in opposition to the views held by him at the com- 

 mencement of his researches, that they were erected by Indian tribes; the more 

 eminent monuments, probably by nations kindred with the Natches, Tcensas, Mobi- 

 lians, &c, if not by the ancestors of those very people, whose traditions point to 

 some ancient establishments in the western country. 



The fortifications, as they were usually termed, he regarded as simple walls, which 

 surrounded towns and villages, including also cultivated grounds, thrown up for 

 protection against surprisals, but without reference to any general system of military 

 defence. The mounds within the inclosures he considered as sites for the dwellings 

 of the chiefs, for council halls, or for temples, the conical mounds being generally 

 for sepulchral purposes. 



He thought he had been able to show that, on opening the mounds, nothing had 

 been discovered indicating a state of civilization materially different from that of 

 ordinary Indian society; and certainly nothing surpassing the demi-civilization of 



1 Ribault's account of Florida, in Haklnyt, III, SICu 



