80 On the supposed Welch- Indians. 



America, and, it has been conjectured, that they land- 

 ed on the continent, somewhere in the Gulph of 

 Mexico, and from thence proceeded northward, till 

 they got out of the reach of the hostile natives, and 

 seated themselves in the upper country of Missouri. 



Many accounts, accordingly, have been published, 

 within the last thirty years, of persons who, in con- 

 sequence, either by accident, or the ardour of curio- 

 sity, have made themselves acquainted with a nation 

 of men on the Missouri, possessing the complexion 

 of Europeans, and the language of Welchmen. 



Could the fact be well established, it would afford, 

 perhaps, the most satisfactory solution of the difficulty 

 occasioned by a view of the various ancient fortifica- 

 tions, with which the Ohio country abounds, of any 

 that has ever been offered. Those fortifications were 

 evidently never made by the Indians. The Indian 

 art of war presents nothing of the kind. The proba- 

 bility, too, is, that the persons who constructed them 

 were, at that time, acquainted with the use of iron : 

 the situation of those fortifications, which are uni- 

 formly in the most fertile land of the country, indi- 

 cates, that those who made them were an agricultural 

 people ; and the remarkable care and skill, with 

 which they were executed, afford traits of the genius 

 of a people, who relied more on their military skill 

 than on their numbers. The growth of the trees 

 upon them is very compatible with the idea, that it 

 is not more than three hundred years ago that they 

 were abandoned. 



