28 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS OF NEW YORK. 



sition of the dead, Mr. Clinton conjectures, was made by an enemy; but we shall 

 soon see that it probably owed its existence to the practice of gathering the bones of 

 the dead at stated intervals, and depositing them in pits, — a practice common 

 among the Hurons and other Indians around the great lakes. 



" In the town of Pompey," continues Mr. Clinton, " is the highest ground in that 

 county, which separates the waters flowing into the Chesapeake and the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence. The most elevated portions of the town exhibit the remains of ancient 

 settlements, and in various places the traces of a numerous population appear. 

 About two miles south from Manlius Square, in this township, I examined the 

 remains of a large town, which were obviously indicated by large spots of black 

 mould, at intervals of a few paces asunder, in which I observed bones of animals, 

 ashes, carbonized grains of corn, etc., denoting the residence of human beings. 

 This town must have extended at least half a mile from east to west, and three- 

 quarters of a mile from north to south. On the east side of this old town there is 

 a perpendicular descent of one hundred feet, into a deep ravine, through which 

 flows a fine stream of water. Upon the north side is a similar ravine. Here there 

 are graves, on each side of the ravine, close to the precipice. Some of the graves 

 contain five or six skeletons, promiscuously thrown together. On the south bank 

 of the ravine, gun-barrels, bullets, pieces of lead, and a skull perforated by a bullet 

 have been found. Indeed, relics of this kind are scattered all over these grounds. 

 A mile to the eastward of this town, there is a cemetery, containing three or four 

 acres ; and to the westward of it is still another. 



" There are, in this vicinity, three old forts, placed in a triangular position, and 

 within eight miles of each other. One is about a mile south of Jamesville [in the 

 present town of De Witt], the second in a northeastern, and the third in a south- 

 eastern direction. They are circular or elliptical in form ; bones are found scat- 

 tered over their areas ; and standing on a heap of mouldering ashes, within one of 

 them, I saw a white pine-tree, eight and a half feet in diameter, and at least one 

 hundred and thirty years old." 



Mr. Clinton expresses the opinion that the three " forts " were designed to pro- 

 tect the " town," the vestiges of which attracted his attention ; and he even goes 

 so far as to conjecture, from the occurrence of bones upon the brows of the north- 

 ern ravine, that the attack by which the town was destroyed was made from this 

 direction ! Of course this is wholly supposititious. The relics of European art, 

 scattered over the site, show clearly enough that this was an Indian village, occu- 

 pied by the savages subsequent to the commencement of intercourse with the 

 whites. The traces which Mr. Clinton describes are precisely those which mark 

 the site of every abandoned Indian settlement throughout the country. This county 

 possessed a very heavy aboriginal population ; probably greater than any equal 

 extent of territory north of the Floridas ; and it is not surprising, therefore, that the 

 traces of ancient occupancy are so abundant.* Mr. Clinton states that it was 



* Mr. Schoolcraft states, on the authority of Le Fort, late chief of the Onondagas, that Ondiaka, the 

 great chronicler of his tribe, informed him, on his last journey to Oneida, that in ancient times, before they 



