612 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



The next and more immediate subject of inquiry is, Iiow we shall account for 

 those ancient tumuli, furtitications, and the remnants, both east and west of the 

 Mississippi, the origin of which is entirely uulcnown to the Indians, who in the 

 seventeenth century were the sole inhabitants, and still continue to occupy a part 

 of that country. 



On this, as on many otlier .subjects relative to our Indians, we are still in want of 

 facts. We are not yet sufliciently acquainted with the extent of the country over 

 which the monuments are spread, or how far they difl'cr in character, extent, or num- 

 ber in the different sections of the country. They only appear to have been more 

 numerous and of greater importance in the vicinity of the Mississippi and the v,alley 

 of the Ohio. There is nothing in their cou.structiou or the renmants which they con- 

 tain indicative of a much more advanced state of civilization than that of the present 

 inhabitants. But it may be inferred from their number and size that they were the 

 work of a more populous nation than any now existing; and if the inference is cor- 

 rect it would necessarily iniply a state of society in whicli greater progress had been 

 made in agriculture. For wherever satisfactory evidence of a greater population is 

 found this could not have existed without adequate means of subsistence, greater 

 than can be supplied by the chase alone. 



Those monuments seem, in two respects, to differ from any erections that can be 

 ascribed to the Indians, such as they were first found bythe first French or English 

 settlers. Some are of a cTiaracter apparently different from those purely intended 

 for defense. It may be doubted whether those extensive mounds, so regularly 

 shaped and with a rectangular basis, such as that ne.ar the Mississippi on which 

 the refugee monies of La Trappe had built their convcnt,'100 feet in height, facing 

 the four cardinal points and with those platforms designated by the name of apron, 

 are entirely the work of man, or whether they may not have been natural hills 

 artificially shaped by his hands. But, if they have been correctly described, they 

 have a strong family likeness to the Mexican pyramids, as they are called, and were 

 prol>ably connected with the worship of the nation. Of these, for there appears to 

 be at least two more, an<l of other inclosures or works which can not be accounted 

 for by a reference to military purposes only, we want full and precise descriptions. 



But, if considered only as fortifications, ramparts of earth in a forest country 

 strike us as a singular mode of defense against savage enemies and Indian weapons. 

 All the defensive works, without exception, that were used by the Indians ea.st of 

 the Mississippi, from the time they were first liuown to us, were of a uniform char- 

 acter. The descriptions of Mauville, at the time of De Soto's expedition, and of 

 Hochelaga, by Cartier, agree entirely with the Indian forts within our own knowl- 

 edge, with that of the Five Nations in the siege of which Champlaiu was engaged 

 in 1615, and of whi(^h he has left a correct drawing, and with every other description 

 given by the early writers. They all consisted of wooden palisades strongly secured, 

 with an intirnal gallery, from which the besieged party might under cover repel 

 the assail.ants with missile weapons. And they were also of a moderate size, and 

 such as could be defended by the population of an Indian village. Wood aftbrds 

 the natural means of fortification against a savage enemy, where the material is 

 abundant. It can not indeed be understood how these works could have been 

 properly defended, unless they were surrounded not only by the rampart but also 

 by a palisade. And it is, on any supposition, extremely difficult to account for works 

 containing 500 acres, such as that ou thv banks of the Missouri, which was correctly 

 measured by Lewis and Clarke. 



The only conjecture I can form, and it is but a conjecture, is that the people who 

 erected those works came from the west, and that it was during their residence iu 

 the prairie country that they were compelled to resort to that species of defensive 

 works. They may, as is often the case, have persisted in the habit wlien there was 

 no longer occasion for it. From the Colorado on tlie Rio Norte, the way to the Mis- 

 sissijrpi was easy by the river Platte or the Arkansas. The conjecture is entitled to 



