COMPARISON OF THE DEFENSIVE STRUCTURES OF THE AMERICAN ABORI- 

 GINES, WITH THOSE OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDERS, CELTS, ETC. 



The resemblances which the defensive works of the mound builders, as well as 

 of the later and existing Indian tribes, bear to those of many other rude nations, 

 in various parts of the world, are no less striking than interesting. These resem- 

 blances have, however, had the effect of misleading superficial investigators, or 

 those who have only paid incidental attention to these subjects. They have hastily 

 inferred that, because certain monuments and aboriginal relics of the United States, 

 such as entrenched hills, tumuli, and instruments and ornaments of stone and cop- 

 per, sustain analogies, in some instances almost amounting to identities, with those 

 occurring in the British Islands and on the Steppes of Russia, that relations must 

 necessarily have existed between the builders, or that they had a common origin. 

 These resemblances are, nevertheless, the inevitable results of similar conditions ; 

 and the ancient Celts and Scythians, the American Indians, and the natives of Aus- 

 tralia, built their hill-forts, and fashioned their flint arrow-points and stone axes in 

 like manner, because they thus accomplished common objects, in the simplest and 

 most obvious mode. Human development must be, if not in precisely the same 

 channels, in the same direction, and must pass through the same stages. We 

 cannot be surprised, therefore, that the earlier, as in fact the later monuments of 

 every people, exhibit resemblances more or less striking. What is thus true 

 physically, or rather moniimentally, is not less so in respect to intellectual and moral 

 development. And it is not to be denied that the want of a sufficient allowance, for 

 natural and inevitable coincidences, has led to many errors in tracing the origin 

 and affinities of nations. 



We not only find in the British islands, but also in the islands of the Pacific 

 ocean, the almost exact counterparts of the defensive structures of our own country. 

 " The places of defence of the Sandwich Islanders," says Ellis, " were rocky for- 

 tresses improved by art — narrow defiles or valleys, sheltered by projecting emi- 

 nences — passes among the mountains, difficult of access, yet allowing their inmates 

 a secure and extensive range, and an unobstructed passage to some stream or 

 spring. The celebrated Pare (fortress), in Atehuru, was of this kind; the mouth 

 of the valley in which it was situated was built up with a stone wall, and those 

 who fled thither for shelter were usually able to repel their assailants. 



" Several of these places are very extensive : that at Maeva in Huahine, near 

 Mouna Tabui, is probably the best in the islands. It is a square of about half a 

 mile on each side, and encloses many acres of ground well stocked with bread 



