A M E 
meant them an injury, when defencelefs women, and chil¬ 
dren, and even babes, are made the victims of their (hock¬ 
ing barbarity, we cannot but deeply lament their want of 
that humanity, and juft difcrimination between the inno¬ 
cent and the guilty, which are the peculiar fruits of civi¬ 
lization. We wifh we could fay, that they never had any 
examples of indiferiminate barbarity from their European 
neighbours, who ought to have taught them better. 
The Indians many times treat their prifoners in the mod 
cruel and barbarous manner; but they often ufe them with 
the greateft humanity, feeding and clothing them, even 
better than themfelves, and adopting them as fathers 
and mothers, fons and daughters, brothers and lif¬ 
ters, and treating them in all refpefts as fuch. There 
have been inftanccs of whites, thus adopted, while young, 
who have become chiefs of the nations that adopted them. 
Compullion has frequently been found neceffary to fepa- 
rate from their Indian relations, thofe white prifoners 
who have refided a few years with them ; and many men 
and women, who have been ranfomed and delivered up 
by the Indians to their white parents or relations, have 
returned back to their Indian friends, and, of choice, mar¬ 
ried and fettled among them. 
Mr. Stewart, a late enterprifing traveller into the coun¬ 
try weft of the Mifliflippi, who took his courfe vveft-fouth- 
weft from the polls on the lakes, and penetrated to the 
head of the Milfouri, and thence due weft, till he arrived 
within about 500 miles of the Pacific Ocean, informs us, 
that beyond the Miflouri he met with many powerful na¬ 
tions of Indians, w ho were in general courteous and hof- 
pitable. The nations which he vifited to the weftward 
appeared to be a polifhed civilized people, having regu¬ 
larly-built towns, and enjoying a (late of fociety not far 
removed from the European ; and, in order to be perfefl- 
lv equal, wanting only the life of iron and fteel. Their 
Nothing is of Ikins, cut in an elegant manner, and in 
many refpedts preferable to the garments in ufe among 
the whites. Adjacent to thefe nations is a vaft range of 
mountains, which may be called the Allegany of the weft- 
ern parts of America, and ferves as a barrier againft the 
too frequent incurfions of the coaft Indians, who, Mr. 
Stewart relates, appear to be inveterate enemies to the 
tribes eaftward of the mountains. 
The American Indians are unacquainted with letters, 
and their hiftory is preferved in fome few inftances by 
hieroglyphic paintings and fculpture, but principally by 
tradition. They often difeover great ingenuity in com¬ 
municating information to the abfent. The following in- 
itance of Indian hieroglyphic writing, Dr. Mitchell was 
himfelf an eye-witnefs of. Being in company with feve- 
ral other gentlemen, as they were proceeding up Onondago 
river, to an Indian treaty, they overtook feveral canoes of 
Senaka Indians, who encamped with them at night near 
fort Brewington ; and, the next day proving rainy, they 
continued in company till the weather became lb favour¬ 
able as to permit them to crofs the Oneida lake. During 
the ftorm, one of the Indian canoes ftove, and became 
unfit for fervice. The commiftioners took the crew on¬ 
board their boat, and carried them to a landing-place 
fome diftance up Wood Creek. Here one of them, before 
he left the water, took the following method to let his 
companions, who were left behind, know when and whi¬ 
ther they had proceeded. He took a piece of wood, and 
hewed it fiat and fmooth, and then raked his fire for a 
fuitable C03I, with which he rudely delineated, on the 
flab, the figure of an Indian carrying a gun reverfed on 
his fhoulder. In front of him he drew a crooked line, 
which reached to a man with a long coat and a cocked 
hat, and holding a cane in his hand ; and behind him a 
framed houfe. He then took a ftrait pole, and tied fome - 
weeds and grafs upon one end of it, and fixed the other in 
the earth, in fuch a manner, that, in the pofition the fun 
then was, which was fix o’clock in the morning,-it call no 
ftiadow ; or, in other words, he pointed it exadlly towards 
the fun. The meaning of all, was this: “ Sufquewewah 
Vol. I. No. 27. 
(the name of the Indian) left this fpot at fix o’clock in the 
morning, or when the fun was in (lie place where the pole 
pointed, and has proceeded up Wood Creek, (which is 
remarkably crooked,) to the fettlemerit where the com- 
mifiioners of the ftatc of New York are affembled to hold 
a treaty with.the Indians.” All thefe injtgnia were ar¬ 
ranged fo corifpicuoufly on the margin of the creek, that 
his companions behind could fcarcely avoid obferving 
them as they palled. 
In the interior parts of America various monuments of 
art have been found, which difeover greater ingenuity in 
their conftrudtion than the prefent generation of Indians 
appear to poffefs. Two miles weft of the Genellee river, 
in the Hate of New York, we have been informed, by the 
Rev. Mr. Kirkland, miffionary to the Six Nations, wlio 
vifited this place in 178S, are the remains of an ancient 
Indian fort. It enclofes about four acres ; is encompaffed 
with a ditch eight feet wide and five or lix deep, and has 
fix gateways. Its form is circular, except on one part, 
which is defended by nature with a high bank, at the foot 
of wjtich is a fine ftream of water ; there is an appearance 
of there having been a deep covered way through the 
middle of the bank to the water. Some of the trees on 
the bank and in the ditch look as if they had been grow¬ 
ing 150 or 200 years. Half a mile fouth, on an eminence, 
are the ruins of another Indian fortified town, of fmaller 
dimenfions, and more advantageoufly fituated for defence. 
The old Indians fay, thefe forts were built before the Se- 
nakas were admitted into confederacy with the Mohawks, 
Onondagos, Oneidas, and Cayogas, and while the Senakas 
were at war with the Miffiffuages, and other Indians, on 
the great lakes, which Mr. Kirkland conjectures, from 
various accounts that he received from different tribes, 
was at leaft 300 years ago. 
A few miles from the above-mentioned forts, at a place 
which the Senakas call Tegateenedaghque, figni lying a 
town with a fort at each end, are the remains of two other 
forts, conftrudted nearly in the fame form, with fix gates, 
a ditch, and a ftream of water, and a covered way to it. 
Near the northern fort are the ruins of a funeral pile, lix 
feet high, and twenty or thirty feet diameter, where were 
buried 800 Indians, who, according to tradition, fell in a 
famous battle fought at this place, between the Senakas, 
who were the vifitors, and the weftern Indians. The 
weapons of war then in ufe were bows and arrows, the 
fpear or javelin pointed with bone, and the war-club, or 
death-mall. When the former fort of weapons were ex¬ 
pended, they came to clofe engagement with the latter. 
The warriors wore a fort of jacket made of willow Hicks, 
or of moofe wood, laced tight round their bodies ; on 
their heads they wore a cap of the fame kind, but com¬ 
monly wove double, the better to fecure them againft a 
mortal blow from the death-mall. The battle above- 
mentioned was fought fome of the Indians fay 300, fome 
400, and fome 500, lives or ages ago, and long before the 
arrival of the Europeans. They commonly reckon a life, 
or an age, one hundred winters or colds. 
Mr. Kirkland obferves, that there are fimilar veftiges 
of ancient fortified towns throughout the extenfive ter¬ 
ritories of the Six Nations ; and, by Indian report, in va¬ 
rious other parts, and particularly on a branch of the 
Delaware river, which appear to be very ancient. He 
adds, “ I find on inquiring, that a tradition prevails among 
the Indians in general, that all Indians came from the 
weft.” This is a confirmation of the opinion that this 
fecond clafs of Indians, of whom we have been fpeaking, 
and of which the Six Nations make a part, came over 
from the north-eaft of Afia, to the north-weft coaft of 
America, whence they migrated fouth towards Mexico, 
and eaftward into the prefent territory of the United States. 
Judging of the ancient Indians from the traditionary ac¬ 
counts of them, and the ruins we have been deferibing, 
we are led to conceive of them as a more civilized, ipge-- 
nious, and warlike, people than their descendants at the 
prefent time. We are at a lofs for the caules of their de- 
5 CL. gcncracy. 
