THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 587 
tribes lived much as their fathers had done before them; and if they 
did not build the mounds and chunk yards found in their midst they, 
at least, used them for the same purposes for which they were origin- 
ally erected.* 
Inclosures.—Oft the manner in which the nations east of the Missis- 
sippi fortified their villages our accounts are full and explicit. Pali- 
sades, as has been shown, were employed everywhere; but as this term, 
alone, fails to give an adequate idea of the methods by which the 
Indians were accustomed to defend their more exposed villages, it 
may be well to go into the matter somewhat in detail. To this end it 
will be necessary again to resort to the early chroniclers; and although 
this may prove tedious, yet it is unavoidable, as it is only by a study of 
the manner of fortification practiced by the recent Indians that a clue 
can be found to the mystery that surrounds the Ohio system of earth- 
works, to which we now must refer. Of the origin of these we are 
without any written record whatever unless the traditions of the Dela- 
wares, Iroquois, and Natchez, as related by Heckewelder, Rafinesque, 
Cusick, and Du Pratz,t should be accepted as such. This is of course 
‘ather a serious obstacle to be met with at the outset of an investiga- 
tion; but fortunately, in the present instance we have not far to go 
in order to discover a reason for the seeming omission. It may be 
found in the fact that after the destruction of the Eries, say about the 
middle of the seventeenth century, the whole of that region now known 
as the States of Ohio and Indiana was virtually deserted, and so re- 
mained for upwards of fifty years. Lroquois war parties swept undis- 
turbed from the Niagara River to the [llinois, and whilst there may 
have been villages of the Twightwees (Miamis) and their allies seat- 
tered about here and there, yet practically that whole section of 
country was a solitude, unvisited by the trader, the soldier, and the 
no less venturesome missionary, the only persons who could, in those 
early days, have given us an account of what they saw and heard. 
Of the tribes that may possibly once have lived here, the Shawneest 
* Bartram, Travels, etc., p. 520. 
t For the traditions of the Delawares consult chap. v of The American Nations, by 
Prof. C. $8. Rafinesque: Philadelphia, 1836. Du Pratz, vol. 11, p. 146 (London, 1763), 
speaking of the Natchez, says: ‘‘To give an idea of their power I shall only mention 
that formerly they extended from the river Manchae or Iberville, which is about 50 
leagues from the sea, to the river Wabash, which is distant from the sea about 460 
leagues; and that they had about 500 suns or princes. From these facts we may 
judge how populous this nation formerly has been; but the pride of their great suns 
or sovereigns, and likewise of their inferior suns, joined to the prejudices of the 
people, has made greater hayoe among them and contributed more to their destruc- 
tion than long and bloody wars would have done.” In the above extract he refers 
to the practice of human sacrifices upon the occasion of the death of any of the suns 
or chiefs. 
t‘*The countries and rivers of Ohio and Wabasche and circumjacent territory were 
inhabited by our Indians, the Chaouanous, Miamis, and Illinois:” Memoir sent by 
the King to Mr. Denonville, Goy. Gen. of New France, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, 
