AMERICAN ANTTQUTTIKS. 37 



extendins: several miles into the country, and otliers on the 

 east joined to a square fort containing twenty acres, not 

 four miles distant. From this latter fort parallel walls ex- 

 tended to the harbour, and others to another circular fort one 

 mile and a half distant, containing twenty-six acres, and sur- 

 rounded by an embankment from twenty-five to thirty feet 

 high. Further north and east the elevated ground was pro- 

 tected by intrenchments. Traces of other walls have been 

 found, apparently connecting these works with those thirty 

 miles distant. When we come to reflect that there were many 

 hundreds of similar forts, some of which were of equal size, and 

 others even of still greater magnitude, we cannot help believing 

 that an enormous population, considerably advanced in the arts 

 of civilization, must at one time have existed in the country, 

 pver which for ages past the untutored savage has roamed in 

 almost a state of nature. And now these wild tribes are 

 rapidly disappearing before the advancement of a still greater 

 multitude, and a far more perfect civilization. Whether these 

 ancient races were the ancestors of the present Indians or not, 

 it is difficult to determine, as are the causes of their disappear- 

 ance. It is possible that, retreating southward, they established 

 the empires of Mexico and Peru, or, overcome by more savage 

 tribes, were ultimately exterminated. 



