18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ BULL. 69 
of interest to trace the existence of native settlements in different 
parts of the country, and to show how seldom the amount of material 
encountered on a site is indicative of the extent or importance of the 
ancient village. 
Early maps show the positions of native villages, and often it 
is possible to locate the ancient sites, usually by following the water 
courses near which they stood. .A manuscript map of the greatest 
interest is contained in the La Harpe manuscript, now in the Library _ 
of Congress at Washington. This shows in part the central and 
southern portions of the Mississippi Valley as known to the French 
about the year 1720, with the scattered towns of the native tribes. 
A section of the map is now for the first time reproduced in plate 1. 
It is a well-established fact that before the coming of Europeans 
the aborigines, in many parts of the country, occupied, and had occu- 
pied for many generations, their ancient sites. This alone would 
have made possible the erection of the earthworks of Ohio and the 
great mounds of the South and West, as no migratory people could 
have been the builders of the works which undoubtedly required 
much time to complete. Many village sites are traceable over a 
wide area and would, at first glance, seem to indicate the presence 
of a rather large population, but in reality the site may have been 
occupied by a small number of habitations during a comparatively 
long period. Evidences of occupancy are often found extending for 
several miles along the banks of streams, while probably not more than 
a few hundred yards of the area was occupied at a given time. re 
The chosen spots were always near a supply of fresh water; either 
springs of sufficient size, near streams, or on the shores of lakes. 
Along the water courses the larger settlements appear to have been 
at the junction of two streams, thus making them more accessible 
with canoes, and also adding to the sources of the necessary supply 
of food. It is quite probable that settlements, large or small, were 
at some time located at or near the mouths of a great majority of the 
numerous streams. [Kvidences of such villages are, in many instances, 
yet discernible, but other sites have been washed away, or covered 
by deposits of alluvium. 
When Champlain explored the coast of New England, during the 
first years of the seventeenth century, he visited many small villages 
on the shores of bays and inlets scattered along the rugged coast. 
During July, 1605, the expedition reached the mouth of the Saco, 
in the present York County, Maine, and there discovered a small 
settlement, of which they wrote: 
“The savages dwell permanently in this place, and have a large 
cabin Reercaneed by palisades made of rather large trees placed by ~ 
the side of each other, in which they take refuge when their enemies 
