278 LARSON'S HISTORY 



covered f we found, in digging of a well that was 

 twenty-six feet deep, at the bottom thereof, many 

 large pieces of the tulip tree, and several other 

 sorts of wood, some of which were cut and notch- 

 ed, and some squared, as the joices of a house are, 

 which appeared (in the judgment of all that saw 

 them) to be wrought with iron, instruments; it 

 seeming impossible for anything made of stone, 

 or what they were found to make use of, to cut 

 wood in that manner. It cannot be argued, that 

 the wood so cut, might float from some other con- 

 tinent, because hickory and the tulip tree are 

 spontaneous in America, and in no other places 

 that I could ever learn. 



It is to be acknowledged that the Spaniards 

 give us relations of magnificent buildings, which 

 were raised by the Indians of Mexico and other 

 parts, which they discovered and conquered, 

 amongst whom no iron instruments were found. 

 But tis a great misfortune that no person in that 

 expedition was so curious as to take an exact 

 draught of the fabrics of those people, which would 

 have been a discovery of great value, and very ac- 

 ceptable to the ingenious ; for, as to the politeness 

 of stones, it may be effected by coRision and grind- 

 ing, which is of a contrary nature, on several ac- 

 counts, and disproves not my arguments in the 

 least. 



The next is, the earthernpots that aiv often found 

 under ground, and at the foot of the banks where 

 the water has washed them away. They are, for 



