FAEQUHAESON ON INSCRIBED TABLETS. 103 



On the INSCRIBED TABLETS, found by Rev. J. Gass in a Mound 

 near Davenport, Iowa. 



BY R. J. FARQUHARSON, M. D. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — You need scarcely be told that the recent 

 discovery of engraved tablets of stone in one of the mounds of this 

 vicinity, is one of great, even transcendant, importance, not only to scien- 

 tific persons, but also to the world at large. We are, in a measure, aston- 

 ished at the vmexpectedness of our discovery, and also somewhat em- 

 barrassed with its richness ; for in one particular, (that of phonetic 

 writing,) it seems to prove too much. The only evidence we have of the 

 existence of a people — conventionally called Mound Builders— preceding 

 tlie modern Indians in the occupancy of this continent, consists of mate- 

 rial relics, and of these a most abundant supply has been collected ; but 

 of evidences of their language, of inscriptions, there are none — that is 

 none which have a clear and indisputable title to such a character. 



Bancroft,* speaking of the importance of material relics, has the fol- 

 lowing language : "■ When, in addition to their indirect teachings respect- 

 ing the arts and institutions of their builders, antique monuments bear 

 also inscriptions in written, or legible hieroglyphical characters, their 

 value is, of course, greatly increased ; indeed, under such circumstances, 

 they become the very highest historical authority." 



With this abundance of material relics we are not satisfied. There is 

 now, and has always been, in the hearts of the students of American 

 Archaeology, a longing for something more intimately connected with 

 the mind of man, for some relic of language, the voice of the soul, the 

 litera scripta. It may not not be too presumptuous on our part to hazard 

 the conjecture that upon the face of one of the tablets before us we iiave 

 the wherewithal, at least partly, to supply this void. 



It is objected, and seriously, too, that this discovery comes too apropos, 

 too pat, in fact, and so partakes in the minds of some too much of the 

 nature of a stage trick, a Deus ex Machina. However, if it is a true, 

 bona fide discovery, some one else among the great army of searchers, in 

 the course of time and from the very necessity of the case, must have 

 made the same or a like one ; nor need we fear that our find, remarkable 

 as it is, will long remain unique and solitary, for, as Mr. Haven truly 

 says,t ^'Science and civilization do not leave solitary monuments.''^ 



However, whether by fortune or misfortune, it has been our lot to 

 make the discovery, and it now becomes our duty, honestly and firmly 

 convinced as we are, of its genuineness and authenticity, fairly to pub- 

 lish it to the scientific world, for its merits there to be adjiidged, inviting 

 all fair and candid criticism, yet deprecating, in the most earnest man- 

 ner, the crude strictures of the hasty and inconsiderate. 



If the characters in the cremation scene tablet (Plate I) should prove 

 to be phonetic, or even hieroglyphic, it may be, it doubtless will be long 

 before they are deciphered ; it may be that from inherent difficulties, they 



*Native Tribes, &c., Vol. 4, p. S. 

 tin a letter to the writer. 



