I 



A nfiqiiifie.i of Ki-tc- 1 o/-^- . 226 



probably stormed. There are graves on each side close to the 

 precipice ; sometimes five or six persons were thrown promiscu- 

 ously into the same grave. If the invaders had been repulsed, 

 the inhabitants would have interred the killed in the usual places, 

 but, from the circumstance of there being graves near the 

 ravine and in the village, I am induced to believe that the town 

 was taken. On the south side of this xavine, a gun-barrel, se- 

 veral bullets, a piece of lead, and a £ku41 perforated by a ball, 

 were discoveied. Indeed, gun-barrels, axes, hoes, and swords 

 are. found all over these grounds, and I procured the following 

 articles which I now transmit to the society to be deposited in 

 their collection : two mutilated gun-barrels, two axes, a hoe, a 

 bell without a clapper, a piece of a large bell, a finger ring, a 

 sword blade, pieces of bayonets, gun locks and earthen ware, a 

 pipe, door latch, beads, ai)d several other small things. These 

 demonstrate European intercourse, and from the attempts which 

 were evidently made to render the gun-barrels useless by filing 

 them, there can be little doubt but that the Europeans who had 

 settled here, were defeated and driven from the country by the 

 Indians. 



Near the remains of this towp, I observed a larg-e forest wbict 

 was in former times cleared and under cultivation ; and I drew 

 this inference from the fallowing circumstances : There were no 

 hillocks or small mounds, which are always the result of uproot- 

 ed trees; jio uprooted or decaying trees or stumps, no under- 

 wood, and the trees were generally fifty or ^Lxty years old. 

 Many, very many, year^ must elapse before a cultivated country 

 is covered with wood. The seeds must be slowly conveyed by 

 winds and birds. The town of Pompey abounds with forests of 

 a similar chajacter; some a^re four miles long and two wide, 

 aud it contains a great number of ancient places of interment ; 

 I have heard them estimated at eighty. If the present white 

 population of that comitry were entirely Hwept away, perhaps in 

 the revolution of ages similar appearances would exist. 



It appears to me that there are two distinct eras in our anti- 

 ((uilies; one api)licablc to the remains of old fortifications and 

 settlements which txisttd anterior to European inlcrcuuibe/ 



