INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 239 
Extensive mural remains are scattered over the immense plain, from 
the southern shore of Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico, and may be 
traced around the Gulf, across Texas into New Mexico, increasing in 
size and splendor as they advance toward the south. The student who de- 
sires to examine the subject more minutely, may refer to the before-men- 
tioned volume of the Archseologia Americana, where he will find a long 
and interesting treatise by Mr. Attwater ; — the plates of which will illus- 
trate the size and character of these works more satisfactorily tnan any 
mere verbal descriptions. 
I have thus traced a continuous chain of structures, chiefly of earthen 
mounds, and trifling relics pertaining to the necessaries of life, defence, 
and worship, throughout the greater portion of our western territory until 
it joins the soil of Mexico. I will now proceed with the account of such 
antiquities, of an architectural character, besides those already described 
by me, as have come to my knowledge in the latter Republic. 
In the year 1773, the Padre Francisco Garces, accompanied by Padre 
Font, in the course of their travels in the northern departments of Mex- 
ico, arrived at a vast and beautiful plain on the south bank of the river 
Giia, running westwardly from the great chain of the Rocky mountains, 
and falling into the Gulf of California between the thirty-third and thirty- 
fourth degrees of north latitude. There the travellers discovered remains 
of extensive works and ruins, covering a square league of ground, in 
the midst of which was an edifice, called by them the "Casa Grande." 
Like most of the Indian works, it was built of unburned bricks, and 
measured about four hundred and My feet in length, by two hundred 
and fifty in breadth. Within this edifice they found traces of five apart- 
ments. A wall, broken at intervals by lofty towers, surrounded the build- 
ing, and appeared to have been designed for defence. The remains of 
a canal were still perceptible, by which the waters of the Gila had been 
conveyed to the ruined town. 
The neighboring plains were covered (like the ruins I have recently 
described at Tezcoco and Tezcosingo,) with fragments of obsidian, and 
glazed and painted pottery ; the Indians of the vicinity were found by 
the explorers to be mild, civil, and intelligent people, devoted to the cuJU- 
vation of the soil, and possessing in no degree the ferocity or savage hab- 
its of the Cumanches or Apaches. 
Northwestwardly from Chihuahua, and southwestwardlv from these 
ruins, near the thirtieth degree of latitude, are similar remains ; and in 
the mountains in the latitude of 2T 28', there is a multitude of caverns 
excavated from the solid rocks, on the sides and walls of which are 
painted the figures of various animals, and of men and women, in dresses 
by no means unlike the habiliments of the ancient Mexicans, as de- 
picted in drawings and pictures that have been preserved until our day, 
