|88 
VIEWS OF LOUISIANA. 
about fifteen feet wide, which was probably intended as an ascent 
to the mound. By stepping round the base I computed the cir¬ 
cumference to be at least eight hundred yards, and the height of 
the mound about ninety feet. The step, or apron, has been used 
as a kitchen garden, by the monks of La Trappe, settled near 
this, and the top is sowed with wheat. Nearly west there is ano¬ 
ther of a smaller size, and forty others scattered through the 
plain. Two are also seen on the bluff, at the distance of three 
miles. Several of these mounds are almost conical. As the 
sward had been burnt, the earth was perfectly naked, and I could 
trace with (ease, any unevenness of surface, so as to discover 
whether it was artificial or accidental. I every where observed 
a great number of small elevations of earth, to the height of a 
few feet, at regular distances from each other, and which ap¬ 
peared to observe some order; near them I also observed pieces 
of flint, and fragments of earthen vessels. I concluded, that a 
very populous town had once existed here, similar to those of 
^Mexico, described by the first conquerors. The mounds were 
sites of temples, or monuments to the great men. It is evi¬ 
dent, this could never have been the work of thinly scattered 
tribes. If the human species had at any time heen permitted 
in this country to have increased freely, and there is every pro¬ 
bability of the fact, it must, as in Mexico, have become astonish¬ 
ingly numerous. The same space of ground would have suf¬ 
ficed tp maintain fifty times the number of the present inhabi¬ 
tants, with ease; their agriculture having no other object than 
mere sustenance. Amongst a numerous population, the power 
of the chief must necessarily be more absolute, and where there 
are no laws, degenerates into despotism. This was the case in 
Mexico, and in the nations of South America; a great number 
of individuals were at the disposal of the chief, who treated them 
little better than slaves. The smaller the society, the greater 
the consequence of each individual. Hence, there would not 
be wanting a sufficient number of hands to erect mounds or 
pyramids. 
Hunter and Dunbar describe a mound at the junction of the 
Catahoula, Washita and Tensa rivers, very similar in shape to 
