TRAVELS IN 
two or three days, employed in augmenting my 
collections of fpeciinens, and waiting for Mr. Ga- 
lahan, who was to call on me here, to accompany 
him to Sinica, where he and other traders were to 
meet Mr. Cameron, the deputy commilTary, to 
hold a congrefs at that town, with the chiefs of the 
Lower Cherokees, to confuli preliminaries intro- 
ductory to a general congrefs and treaty with thefe 
Indians, which was to be convened next June, and 
held in the Overhill towns* 
I obferved in the environs of Keowe^ on the bafes 
of the rocky hills, immediately afcendiflg from the 
low grounds near the river bank, a great number of 
very fmgular antiquities, the work of the ancients ; 
they feem to me to have been altars for facrifice or 
fepulchres : they were constructed of four flat If ones, 
two fet on an edge for the fides, one clofed one end, 
and a very large flat one lay horizontally at top, fo 
that the other end was open ; this fabric was four or 
five feet in length, two feet high, and three in 
width. I inquired of the trader what they were, 
who could not tell me certainly, but fuppofed them 
to be ancient Indian ovens ; the Indians can give no 
account of them : they are on the furface of the 
ground, and are of different dimenfions. 
I accompanied the traders to Sinica, where we 
found the cpmmlfTary and the Indian chiefs con- 
vened in counfel 5 continued at Sinica fometime, 
employing myfeif in obfervations, and making col- 
lections of every thing worthy of notice : and find- 
ing the Indians to be yet unfettled in their determi- 
nation, and not in a good humour, I abandoned 
the project of vifiting the regions beyond the Che- 
rokee mountains for this feafon : fet off for my re- 
turn to Fort James, Dartmouth, lodged this night 
