36 JOHN EEADE: 



exercised epigraphic skill from the Dightou Rock to the Davenport Tablet, whatever else 

 they may indicate, cannot be accepted as evidence that any of the North Americans of 

 antiquity had a graphic system of their own. On this point the statement made by 

 Messrs. Nott and G-liddon nearly thirty years ago, that " no trace of an alphabet existed at 

 the conquest of the continent," is still as true as ever. " If the Mound-builders had a 

 written language," writes Mr. T. P. McLean, " they were in possession of abundant means 

 to have perpetuated it. Numerous plates of copper and polished slate were at their com- 

 mand, and if they possessed this art, letters would certainly have been eugraA^ed upon 

 them, and uniform characters wovild have been found from the great lakes to the G-ulf." ' 

 This being the case, it is unnecessary to recount the many attempts that have been made 

 to credit them with such an acquisition. In some cases of alleged discovery of inscribed 

 tablets, as in that of the Newark stone of David Wyrick, fraud has been clearly proved. 

 In others, the alleged lettered inscriptions, though accepted by many as genuine, owing 

 to the reputation of the soi-disanL finders, have only resulted in mystification and waste 

 of time. Even the markings on the famous Dighton Eock, of which the eventful epigra- 

 phic history coA'ers more than two centvrries, could suggest to so experienced a palœogra- 

 phist as Dr. Daniel Wilson, nothing but a "confused and indistinct scrawl." - Mons. G. 

 G-ravier de Montjau, in a paper read before the Congrès des Américanistes at Nancy, in 

 ISTS, in referring to the large number of such rock memorials scattered over the continent, 

 expressed regret that they were not faithfully copied by skilful antiquaries. The French 

 scholar had in his mind the saving from destruction, through ignorance or indifférence, of 

 valuable relics of the past ; but there is another reason why the transcription or repro- 

 duction of svich alleged memorials should be entrusted only to men of learning and 

 honesty. "With truthful copies before them, palœographic students would, at least, know 

 the real character of the problem which they were endeavoring to solve and would be 

 saved the disappointment and vexation, of which some of them have been the victims, of 

 wasting their analytic talents on unworthy objects. Such experiem^e, however, has not 

 been all in vain ; for, although the trade in false curiosities and antiques has in recent 

 years assumed extraordinary proportions (the demand, no doubt, among amateurs having 

 stimiilated, if not created, the supply), the knowledge of its existence has made earnest 

 investigators more cautious than they would otherwise have been. 



This notice of the world's alphabets would be incomplete without some reference to 

 those which have been elaborated for one purpose or other in modern times. In the first 

 half of the last century the famous impostor, George Psalmanazar, invented an alphabet 

 for his pretended Formosan language, though he forgot to give names to his letters. Such 

 a ruse for living on the learned public would be impossible to-day. What Psalmanazar 

 did to maintain his personation of a converted heathen, several missionaries have done to 

 carry on the work of conversion. Of the missions of the present century, one of the most 

 successful is that which the American Baptist Society has carried on among the Karen 

 tribes of Burmah. Finding no written characters in existence, the zealous agents of the 

 Society invented an alphabet, modelled on the Burmese, and in that they have printed 

 thousands of Bibles, tracts and school-books. In Africa and Polynesia, the same thing 

 has been done again and again. Some of the missionary alphabets are more correctly 



' The Mound-Buildens, p. 122. ^ Prehi.st.oric Man, ii. 97. 



