NORTH AMERICA. 
4 55 
In the midft of a large oblong fquare adjoin- 
ing this town, (which was fur rounded with a low 
bank or terrace) is branding a high pillar, round 
like a pin or needle ; it is about forty feet in height, 
and between two and three feet in diameter at the 
earth, gradually tapering upwards to a point ; it is 
one piece of pine wood, and arifes from the centre 
of a low, circular, artificial hill, but it leans a little 
to one fide. I inquired of the Indians and traders 
what it was defigned for, who anfwered they knew 
not* the Indians faid that their an cedars found it 
in the fame fituation, when they firft arrived and 
pofTcffed the country, adding, that the red men or 
Indians, then the poffeffors, whom they vanquished, 
were as ignorant as themfelves concerning it, faying 
that their anceflors likewife found it (landing fo. 
This monument, fimple as it is, may be 'worthy 
the obfervations of a traveller, fince it naturally 
excites at lead the following queries : for what 
purpofe was it defigned ? its great antiquity and 
incorruptibility— -what method or machines they 
employed to bring it to the fpot, and how they 
raifed it erefl ? There is no tree or fpecies of the 
pine, whofe w r ood, i. e. fo large a portion of the 
trunk, is fuppofed to be incorruptible, expofed in 
the open air to all weathers, but the longdeaved 
Pine (Pin. paluftris), and there is none growing 
within twelve or fifteen miles of this place, that 
tree being naturally produced only on the high, 
dry, barren ridges, where there is a Tandy foil and 
graffy wet favannas. A great number of men unit- 
ing their ftrength, probably carried it to the place 
on handfpikes, or fome fuch contrivance. 
On the Sabbath day before I fet off from this 
place, I could not help obferving the folemnity 
o 
