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ner. Canoes were siispeiuled between two or more trees, about tAA'elve feet 

 from the g-ronnd, in Avhich were the skeletons of two or three persons. 

 Others of a larger size were hauled up into the outskirts of the woods, which 

 contained from four to seven skeletons, covered over with a broad plank. 

 In some of these, broken bows and arrows were found, which at first gave rise 

 to a conjecture that these might have been warriors, who, after being mor- 

 tally wounded, had, whilst their strength remained, hauled up their canoes 

 for the purpose of expiring quietly in them. But, on a further examination, 

 this became improbable, as it woiild hardly have been possible to have pre- 

 served the regularity of position in the agonies of death, or to have defended 

 their sepulchers with the broad plank with which each was covered. The 

 few skeletons we saw so carefully deposited in the canoes were probably 

 the chiefs, priests, or leaders of particular tribes, whose followers most likely 

 continue to possess the highest respect for their memory and remains; and 

 the general knowledge I had obtained from experience of the regard which 

 all savage nations pay to their funeral solemnities made me particularly 

 solicitous to prevent any indignity from being wantonly offered to their 

 departed friends. Baskets were also found suspended on high trees, each 

 containing the skeleton of a young child; in some of which were also small 

 square boxes filled with a kind of white paste, resembling such as I had 

 seen the natives eat, supposed to be made of the saranna root. Some 

 of these boxes were quite full; others were nearly empty, eaten probably by 

 the mice, squirrels, or birds. On the next low point south of our present 

 encampment, where the gunners were airing the powder, they met with several 

 holes, in which human bodies were interred, slightly covered over, and in 

 different states of decay, some appearing to have been very recently 

 deposited. About half a mile to the northward of our tents, where the land 

 is nearly level with high-water mark, a few paces within the skirting of the 

 wood, a canoe was found suspended between two trees, in which were three 

 human skeletons; and a few paces to the right was a cleared space of nearly 

 forty yards round, where, from the fresh appearance of burned stumps, most 

 of its vegetable productions had very lately been consumed by fire. Amongst 

 the ashes we found the skulls and other bones of near twenty persons in 

 different stages of calcination; the fire, however, had not reached the sus- 



