151 
that they had examined this tablet, which the 
Chevalier Beauharnois, then governor of Ca- 
nada, had sent to M. de Maurepas in France. 
We cannot but deeply regret having no farther 
knowledge of a monument, so interesting to 
the history of man. But were there any per- 
sons residing at Quebec capable of judging of 
the character of an alphabet ? and if this pre- 
tended inscription had been really recognized 
in France as a Tartarian inscription, is it pro- 
bable, that an enlightened minister, a protec- 
tor of the arts, would not have ordered it to be 
published ? 
The Anglo-American antiquaries have made 
known an inscription, which is supposed to be 
Phoenician, and which is engraved on the rocks 
of Dighton, in Narraganset bay, near the banks 
of Taunton river, twelve leagues south of Bos- 
ton. Drawings of this inscription have been 
repeatedly published, from the end of the 17th 
century down to the present time by Danforth, 
Mather, Greenwood, and Sewell; but so dis- 
similar, that it is difficult to recognize them 
as copies of the same original. The natives who 
inhabited these countries, at the time of the 
first European settlements, preserved an anci- 
ent tradition, according to which, strangers in 
wooden houses had sailed up Taunton river, 
formerly called Assoonet. These strangers, 
after having conquered the red men, had en- 
