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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE

[Note. — The length of tJie errata is entirely/ oxoin^f to the defectiveness of the manuscript furnished the printer.']

THE

HISTORY

OF rP TO THE

FIRST SETTLEMENTS THEREIN

BY THE TT«ir THIS

YEAR 1768.

BY JOHN HAYWOOD,

OF THE COtTNTT OF DAVIDSOS, IS THE STATE OF TENHISSIS.

NASHVILLE :

PRINTED BY GEOKGE WIISOX, 1823.

V

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DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE, to wit :

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand ; eight hundred and twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the forty-eighth ; Johk Hatwoou, of tl\e said District, hath deposited in the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the District of West Tennessee, tlie title of a book, the right whereof he clainas as author in the words following, to wit : "The Natural and Aborigin;d Histoiy of Tennessee, up to tke first settlements therein by the white people, i a the year 1768. By Jomsr Hai wood, of the County of Davidson, in ihe State of Tennessee."

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled '• An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies iluring the times therein raeuiioued." and also to the act, entitled " \rk Act supplementary to an act, entitled " An Act for the encouragement t/f learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the liuthors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein men- i.oned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.

Is TESTIMONY wuKREOF, I have hercunto set my hand, and affixed the public seal of my office, the day and year aforesaid.

N A. McNAIRY, Clerk of the District Court for the District of West Tennessee.

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CONTENTS.

CHAP rER I.

The appearance of East Tennessee — the Unica mountain— the Cumberland mountain — the ridges in East Tennessee — ihe Hiwassee— the valley between Cumberland mountain and the ridges to the west — the rich lands between them — the soil — old creeks — the decrease of waters — the deluge — the inequalities of the surface — the effects of the deluge — interior circular ridgea — evid'^ncesof the decrease of waters — mouths of rivers shifted — the barrens — Obed's river, pine trees — sand west of Spencer's hill — rocks on Spencer's hill — inclination of the rocks in WestTennessee--in East rennessee-- sink-holes — caves in East and West Tennessee — strata between the Ten- nessee ridge and the Mississippi — oyster shells — marbles — buhr stones — plaster of Paris — salt waters, Cookism or Ble- tonism — animal petrifactions — vegetable petrifactions — ar- gillaceous petrifactions volcanic formations — the earth- quakes of 1811 — the effects produced by them — ores— poison- ous tracts — disease called the milk sickiiess — countries where found — conjectures concerning it— Indian summer —changes of weai-hpr-wjirm columns of air —cool nights in summer- snows and rains in winter.— 1 to 51—^299, 300, 301.

CHAPTER II.

Marine appearances on the surface — conch shells — small shells — madripores — bivalve shells — crab fish — oyster shells — ridges of oyster shells— marine appearances below the sur- face— small conchs — periwinkles — charcoal — artificial pro- ductions of the surface found below it — natural productions of the surface found below it — the ancient animals of Ten- nessee— the mammoth. — 5S to 66 — 304, 312.

CHAPTER III.

The Mexicans and Hindoos — the Hindoos and Persians — their political institutions — the religious practises of the lat- ter compared with those of the former — conch shells — sacred buildings — gods or idols — pyramids — cosmical history of the Mexicans compared with that of the Hindoos — the vernacular customs of the Hindoos and those of the Mexicans and Pe- ruvians; first those relative to religion, secondly those relative to the common concerr)s of life — the Biblical repiesentatiou and traditions of the Mexicans and Peruvians. — 66 to 86.

VI CHAPTER IV.

The astronomical learning of the Mexicans compared with that of the Hindoos — the rites practised by worshippers of the sun in general to be compared with appearances in Tennessee and its vicinity — the lingual and nominal coincidences be- tween the southern Americans and the old world — the indi- genous practises and characteristics of the Mexicans and southern Indians.— 87 to 98.

CHAPTER V.

The Natchez compared with the Mexicans — the ancient inhabitants of Tennessee with both.

CHAPTER VI.

The religion of the aborigines of Tennessee — the sun and moon painted upon rocks — triplicity — the cross — mounds — images — human sacrifices — Lingam — dress of idols — conch shells— number seven— incense. — 113 to 157 — 213,315,317, 320.

CHAPTER VII.

Their sciences — letters and literal inscriptions — sculptures — paintings — manufactures — fortifications — coins and other metals— firnamp.nts — mirrors — tanks — mechanic arts —games and pastimes — colour — Mexican coincidences.— 159 to 192 — 324, 329, 332, 334, 2S5, 339, 341, 350, 255, 358.

CHAPTER Vm.

Their size— their pigmies — martial music. — 193 to 213"- ooy.

CHAPTER IX.

The Indians within the United States generally — those for- merly within the limits of North-Carolina— Indian traditions. 215 to 230.

CHAPTER X.

The Cherokees — the countries whence they came— their military character — the Biblical traditions of the Cherokees and other Indians on the east of the Mississippi — their He- braic customs — their computation of time — Hebraic rites— their political government— laws— civil customs— civil tra- ditions—scientific acquirements— lingual affinities and games. 231 to 286.

CHAPTER XI.

The Chicksaws— causes of depopulation of Indian coun- tries.—287 to 299,

:f®si*a©i<

By clearing the woods, cultivation of the lands, and by the devastation which augmented population occasions, those remnants of antiquity are fast pass- ing away, which indicate the situation and circum- stances of this country in former ages. And since men of experience and learning, by an acquaintance with them, may make discoveries conducive to the advancement of science, for that reason, this attempt is made to preserve them in remembrance. Con- viction that the aim is laudable, however imperfect the execution, has preceded the work. The same conviction has likewise determined, that correct statements concerning them, even in the rudest form, are preferable to their total extinction. Anticipation also expects from this publication an excitement of the public attention to the subject, more than it has hitherto attracted. Many articles of great value liave been thrown away or destroyed, as useless, for want of such excitement ; which, had they been preserved, might have eminently contributed to the enlargement of useful information. This work will be continued, and the investigations begun will be prosecuted, till some abler hand shall undertake it: and it is requested, that every friend to improve- ments in science will contribute all that is conve- niently within his reach, to tlie encouragement of them. Discoveries suitable to this plan come slowly to light, and cannot all be embraced in the researches of a few years, nor even the greater part of them.

vm

But by patient perseverance for some time, and by careful accumulation from many quarters of the country, with the assistance of friendly co-operators, there is reason to believe that a rich body of mate- rials may be collected. They are strewn in profu- sion upon the face of the country and in the bowels of the earth ; and when concentred in one common repository, will form, by arrangement, the ground- work and the evidences for a complete history of ancient ages, both geological and aboriginal. It is hoped that this publication will make known the objects of those inquiries which are making, as likewise the practicability of them, and at the same time will recommend them to public favoui*. The beginnings of very useful institutions are sometimes neglected, and even ridiculed, when the end to be attained is not understood; which afterwards be- come popular, when that is brought into view. This publication will develop the end; and, it is hoped, will procure, for the means essential to its success, both friends and patrons. It is but the first essay, the imperfect commencement, of a much more useful and a much more polished production. The earnest expectation is entertained, that it will have the effecfc to awaken attention, and of causing discoveries to be transmitted, in order that they may be recorded and perpetuated.

NATURAL AND ABORIGINAL

CHAPTER I.

The History of Tennessee will be the more per- fectly understood, if preceded by a brief statement of the general face of the country, arid of its natu- ral productions. This subject, of course sub- di- vides itself; and requires a description — First, of the general appearance of the country: Secondly, of its marbles, buhr stones and plaister of Paris : Thu'dly, of its salt waters : Fourthly, of its petri- factions, ores, volcanic formations, and poisonous tracts. Its geological phenomena may be included in a seperate article; which may be followed by a- nother seperate article, exhibiting the vestiges, of the aboriginal men of America : and this again, by a view of the present races of Indians, who very probably exterminated the aborigines. We shall then come to the settlement of the country by the white people, who at present occupy it, and to the ^•eat exertions made by the Indians^ to prevent or defeat those settlements.

First, of the general appearance of the country: East Tennessee is divided from North Carolina, by the Unaca or White ^lountains — Unica, in the Cherokee language signifying wliite. The direc- tion of the Mountain is southwest, bearing more to the westward, than the other ridges of the Alligha- nies. East of this, is another ridge, the course o£ which diverges to the southwest. This latter, the people of Tennessee lately contended to be the U- naca ; but the western ridge is now settled by trea- ty to be so. The Hiwassee breaks through this mountain, and heads in North Carolina, toward the -Blue Ridge. Near to its head are very high lands. . A

Vpou one of the latter of tii»-se mountains, in a gap^ fhiougli which the Indians pass, near the head of Jirass Town creek, on a hivi^e horizontal rock, are representations of animal i'oot^teps, which will ho hereafter noticed. It is divided from West Ten- nessee by the Cumherlnnd Mountain, bearing; in the same direction nt- arly witli the Unaca and tlie Mis- sissippi. Between these large mountains, there are ridsjes running castwardly and westwardly, directly from some point, near one of these mountains to some point near to the other ; but not forming a junction with either. Between the ends of these ridges, and either of the mountains to the east or ■west of them, there is an interval or passage.— These ridges, extending from east to west, are at sliort distances from each other, forming vaUes be- tween, and occupying all the rest of the country, from the northern to the southern boundary of the state.

On the eastern side, of the rich lands of \^ est Tennessee, are the Cumberland Mountains, running northeast and southwest. On the western side of them, in the same direction, are other parallel high lands or ridges, at the distance of about one hun- dred and ten miles from the Cumberland Moun- tains. The traveller crosses ilie western rigde, at, Paradice's going from Nashville to Clarksville; and at Robertson's, ten or twelve miles south of the former, in going from Nashville to Charlotte, lu a northwardly direction, the ridge traverses the counties of Robertson, Sumner and Smith ; and ap- proaching the Cumberland River, crosses the Keii- tucUy line, at a point west of the Cumberland Gap ; and probably afterwards joins some spur of the Cumberland Mountain. Towards the south it ex- tends to the Duck River ridge, which lies in the southern part of Dickson county ; and also in the southern part of Williamson ; and in the southeru parts of Rutherfurd, and through a part of Wairen, and terminates west of Collin's river, near to a spur

8

tnn tap east sido, v,])lcli cnnnoct? ivitli tlio inA'tt inosuita m, iiein y west from Pikeville. 'I he onl^s in- terval b^Lii^ where Collins' river breaks through, and seeiiivS to seperate the two spurs, or ridges. In this space, which iixcludes Davidson, Williamson, Kutherford, Wilso;?, Sumner, Warren, White, Jackson, and Overton, the relics of testaceous ani- mals are much more abundant, than npon the high lands. Some of these relics, fonnd npon the high- lands, have, been collected and preserved by the, curious. The country between the highlands, and transverse ridges, of Avhich there are others more to the south, and have been as far as the Musclft Shoals, are the rich lands of West Tennessee; the. surface of which, is G\e.rj where covered wdth great numbers of limestone rocks. The soil is black and of a different colur, from the soils of the high lands, or of any other part of the state of Tennessee. — There is no portion of sand contained in its mould. Its texture is fine. The particles of earth which compose it, are like fme flour, except as to color. — In many places, are the beds, and banks of old creeks ; in which there is now no water. And in common with the high lauds, they present creeks, now flowing in beds and banks, which have beei* made by smaller quantities of water, than formerly fiowed there. For ou either side of the present banks, and at some distance from them, ar% larger and higher banks, which have been cut, into their present form, by strong currents of water, acting npon their sides. In many places on thcsft high banks, the rocks have been made bare by the. w ashing of waters ; while those above their levels have been left covered with mould. It would seem, that after the whole of this large bottom was uncover- ed by drains, there still remained numerous streams, which long flowed and acted upon the surface. — these in theh* turn, have in a series of ages gradual- ly withdrawn themselves ; are still imperceptibly retiring; and will finally cease to run altogether,

4 when the level of the ocean, shall he far enougli he- low the bottoji of tlie inland seas and lakes, to draw oJQt* the waler from that part of their heds, Avhicli are not \ct ('etccted ; and Avhen other great reservoirs, Vvhirh iill our rivers and creeks with water, shall he diaiued off into the ocean. That hillows once Tolled over this large plain, is too evident to adn-it of denial. Whether the waters which covered it, remained for some time infolded within the circle of these ridges, after the other neighbouring waters had retired to their native seats, before they could be diecharged, by opening a passage to the ocean ; or whether, when the waters in their neighborhood, retreated from their antient habitations, to fill up the caverns and hollows, which the deluge had made by gulphs and inland seas, these were left im- prisoned by the mountains and ridges, till they made a passage for themgelves, and escaped to the ocean is not material. For whether the one or the other supposition be adopted, the result will be, in con- firmation of the scriptural history; of the great dc- Inge ; and enually accounts for the many inequali- ties and protuberances made upon the crust of the globe, by the undulations and heavings of the waves. By the mighty rase of the v/aters, gushing and precipitated from their heds, by the near ap- proach of the great comet, which rarified the air nearly to dissolution ; excited the winds ; set on fire every combustible material, not covered by the water — were possibly, as some believe, washed deeper tl:e heds of the ocean ; and were opened, those cavities which we see in all parts of the glohe, in a direction from south to north ; proving one u- niform operation in the formation of all, and by a cause proceeding from the south. Such as the >:altic, Mediteranean, Adriatic, Eegean Sea, the [Persian (:»ulph, that between Cape Jack and Cape CoE.orin ; the Bay of Bengal, the Gulf of Si- am, the yellow sea, the Channel of Tartary, the Sea. of Ochotsk, the Gulfs of California, and Mexi-

5 eo, the Gulf of Bothnia, the White Sea, and Da- vis's Streii;hts ; all which seem to have been v/ash- ed lip, by waters runniag froju south to north. — They carried with them to the northern regions, the equatorial and tropical plants, animals, weeds and trees, depositing them as far as the fiftieth degree of north latitude, Avhere their remains are now every day found ; whilst no such relics, and particularly none of northern growth, are found in regions south of the southern tropics. The w^estern ridge before described, it is probable was opposed for some time - after the recession of the waters below, to the pas- sage of the Cumberland river and its tributaries, whieh were prabably elongated after the waters withdrew. This opposition probably continued till the waters of the lake, made by the supplies of the Cumberland, rose high enough to find the lowest part of the ridge, and proceeded tli rough that pas- sage, continually widening and sinking deeper, as the waters rushed over it, and carried off the consti- tuent particles of the ridge, from the bottom and sides of the opening. The level of the water in the lake, lowered in proportion, till coming to the falls, as we now see them, near the mouth of the Big Harpeth, and Sycamore Creek ; the whole lake was finally carried off. There was also an interior or circular ridge between the Cumberland Moun- tain, and the one before described, of the same cir- cular form. Both these, will hereafter be particu- larly adverted to. It will be su9ficient at present to say, that similiar remarks, to those above made, ap- ply to the great lake, once formed, between the Duck River Kidge, on the one side and the Cum- berland Mountain on the other ; extending as far as the Muscle Shoals, and connected by a trans- verse ridge, which served to dam up the waters, till a passage was made by the workings of the Ten- nessee, and the whole lake was carried off. Should any one incline to doubt the decrease of waters, let him be desired to consider the evidences in favor of

6

tills proposition. Tbero is a line of forts, beginning at the mouth of Catarangus creek, supposed to have been built on the bro\v"of the hill; which appears to have once been the southern shore of Lake ir rie. Since they were bnilt, the waters have receded four or five miles. The surface between, is cover- ed by a vegetable mould, made from the decny of vegetables ; six, eight, or ten inches in depth. Ma- ny of the works on the Scioto, and the great Mi- ami, had gateways and parallel walls, leading down to creeks, which once washed the foot of hills, from which the streams have now receded ; have formed extensive and new alluvions, and have worn down their channels, in some instances, ten and even lif- ieen feet. The rivers have shifted their mouths, and in some places, their beds, almost universally, more to the south and west, than they were, when these ancient works were made. And perhaps this might be said with respect to all rivers, running in- to the Ohio and Mississippi. If this idea were fol- lowed up, it might possibly lead to a discovery of the cause, in the changed posture of the globe, or what- ever else it may be. Has not the Mississippi chan- ged its ancient beds or channels, for others more to the south ? Did not the Cumberland at Nashville, once extend to the hill, on the north side opposite Nashville ? Did not the small creek at colonel Jos- elin's on the southwest side of his plantation, once hold waters, up to the rocks on the banks on both sides, when the waters to fill it, must have been one hundred times more copious than they now are? The like may be observed of Whites' creek, Brush creek, and of every other creek in the country ; and of the shores of the ocean. Did not these latter, once make salt, the waters between the Mississippi, and the oyster banks in this state, and Alabama, when all these rivers and creeks were full to their banks, and when their channels were not as deep as they now are? Against so many proofs of the fact, both on the ancient shores of ocean, and on the

7

banks of all the rivers and creeks in the country, who can close his senses against conviction ? Have, not the w^aters of the Mississippi retired from thii oyster ridges, between it and Tennessee?

To the same cause may possibly be referred, tho praries, or barrens as they are called, and the ap- pearances they exhihit in West Tennessee. In the counties of Montgomery and Stuart, is a part of the barrens, w^hich are so extensive in the neigh- bouring counties of Kentucky. A great part of them is very fertile ; and some part of them other- wise. These lands are flat and level, for one hun- dred miles and more in length, and breadtli. N(» timber trees were upon them, and only a few sap- lings of ten or twenty years growth. Where the fire is kept from them, by tho interposition of plan- tations, tlte young trees immediately spring up on the unburnt surface, and grow luxuriantly. Some- times the barrens are seperated from the adjacent lands by the intervention of deep branches, and creeks, winding circuitously through them. In the bends are large timber trees, ay tall as any in the forest, which adjoius the barrens ; while on the out- side of the creek, and to its very margin, the bar- rens are without a single timber tree of any sort.-— Sometimes the barrens are intersected by swamps ; in whicli trees of many descriptions stand thick, and as large as any in the forests. Sometimes small branches run through them, so obstructed in places by natural obstacles, as to overflow the lands ou their sides. These overflowed spots, are covered with large trees. Very few mounds, are built upon the prairies or barrens. The roots of trees blown up in ancient ages, are no where visible ; as tliey are abundantly in, the adjacent woodlands. Were not these barrens once covered with water ; and af- terwards with luxuriant grass, which being every year exposed to combustion, ttie soil has therefore produced no timber trees ? This draining may ha\ c taken place at early periods; but pre h ably long

6

since the erection of those walled inclosures, which we see left in the other parts of the country, by the aborigines. It was since the settlement of the coun- try by the aborigines; otherwise the annual growth ef the barrens, would not every year have been burnt ; but like the other parts of the country would have grown up 'n bushes and trees, undisturbed by tiie destructive interposition of human agency. If it be supposed, that trees once grew in the barrens, which liave been consumed by fire, in some parching year, in the fall season, when the luxuriant grass had become combustible ; why then were the ad- joining woods left undisturbed? Why are not the roots of trees found here, which were blown up in ancient times, as they are found in the adjacent woods ? Bid not these praries emerge from water in times comparatively modern; and have they not been since kept under, by fire throv, u into them an- nually, by the inhabitants who have been here^ e- ver since their desiccation?

On Crossing Obeds River, thirteen miles east of the highest part of the Cumberland Mountain, are seen for the first time, in going from Nashville to ICnoxville, some scrubby pines. P>om thence east- wardly, the pine trees increase both in number and size, as far as to Rogersville, and probably to the mountains on the eastern borders of this state. — "Where the pine is first seen, there also appears in places, an iniermix(ure of sand with the soil, which in a few miles further ea«t. becomes a bed of sandi It seems lo have been brought hither from a great distance; and to have rebounded from the side of Spencer's Uill, and to have settled in tlie country Avest of it, and its vicinity. Beds of sand like this appear no where in West Tennessee, except in the beds of rivers, which are exposed to view, in the summer. The top of Spencer's Hill, is a very high elevation, perhaps one of the highest, on the Cum- berland Mountain. Upon its summit are large rocks, piled one upon anotlier, deprived of all cover-

ing ; and are constantly kept clean by the rains and snows which melt upon them. The covering, which may have been once around and upon them, seems to have been swept away by overflowing waters.

The rocks in West Tennessee, generally incline from southwest to northeast ; but in some instances, from northwest to southeast. In the banks of creeks and rivers, six or eight feet below the sur- face, they decline toward the north; the part to- ward the south being the most elevated. In East Tennessee, the rocks, as well those on the surface, as those on the banks of creeks, uniformly incline from the southeast to the northwest, and have an el- evation, of about forty- five degrees. Five miles west of Knoxville, near the house which Miller for- merly occupied, on the north side of the road, and near the spring, is a very remarkable collection of rocks ; the edges of which are just far enough above the surface, to be seen, and to show their exact de- gree of elevation, towards the no^-th. They are flat rocks, standing on the edges; apparently ten or twelve layers of them. They are distant a few feet from each other, and are all exactly in the same de- gree of declination, from the zenith ; as if the whole had been moved in one and the same instant ; by one and the same shock ; and by one and the same cause, operating with the same force, exactly upon each.

In both East and West Tennessee, are numerous cavities in the earth, called sink holes. Let us des- cribe a few of them.

* There is a hill, three hundred and fifty feet from the base to the summit — not a knob, but a ridge, which en the north joins Cumberland Mountain^ and extends southwardly to the Tennessee River, which runs through it and finally joins the Allegha- ny Mountain, not far from the Oconee station. — The summit of this ridge, is in the county of Boane, northeast from South West Point. Upon the top of the ridge is a sink-hole, about six feet iu diame- B

10 ter; in which is water about eight feet hclow the surface. In the water are fi&h'; some of them from BIX to ten inches in length. It could not be fath- omed, by three bed ropes tied to each other, and fifty feet of hickory bark added, with a heavy piece of lead aflRxed to the end, making in all three hun- dred and eighty feet at least. >}ot far from the sink-hole, is a spring at the side of the lidge ; which when flushed by long and copious rains, has in it fish, of the same species with those found at the top. There must be some internal obstacle in the bow* els of the earth, between the spring and the water m which the fish grow, which is overflowed in wet weather, and lets the water and fish over it. Near the water on the summit, eight feet below the sur- face of the earth, in a small platform, and nearly co- vered with dirt, was found a covchf of the size of the egg of a hen, and of the same form as those fihells, which are commonly called conch shells. — There is a cave to the southwest of this sink, about half a mile on the southwest side of the ridge ; the opening of which is fifty yards from the4)ase of the ridge, and above it. There is a small apperture, after entering through wh ch> there is a descent of fifteen feet, into an arched room, twenty by thirty feet in length and breadth; and from eight to ten {eei in depth. Thence there is an opening into n- Dother room, and in it there is a cavern, into which if a stone be thrown, it will resound by the striking against thje walls, the report becomming still less and less perceptible, till finally it seems to be too far below^ to be heard from the surface. Every morning a «moke ascends from the opening, and continues till an hour or two after sunrise. In the first of these caves, depending from the arch, are va- rious petrified drippings of water, or stalactites, like icicles. Directly under them, are petrified substan- ces, made of water, in theXorm of dirt daubers nests; in other words rough, and converted into stone.— r By gome they are compared to cypress knees ; and

in some caves there arc many of them. When can- dles are introduced, they exhibit a brilliancy of ap- pearance to the representation of which, description is incompetent.

In Blount county, eight miles west of Maryville, is a spring, to the south of which is a ridge ; and at the base of which is a sink hole. One standing on the side of the ridge, and looking through a fissure, into the rocks, may see water nearly upon a level with his breast ; in which are fish. The spring is fifteen feet lower and one .hundred and fifty feet from the spot, where the water is seen in the interi- or of the cave. This spring is unfathomable. The water is clear and of a bluish cast. Near the base of the ridge, is a sinkhole, in which there is no wa- ter.

In some sink holes in East Tennessee, water is at the bottom, fifteen or twenty feet or more, below the surface of the earth ; and generally unfathoma- ble. In some of them are great numbers of fish. — » Sometimes it is observable, that there are manr such sinkholes, in a course like that of a stream of Water; one after another, all of them bottomless,* and containing fish. Sink holes, both in East and }^ est Tennessee, are to be found in all parts of tlie country. They seem to have sunk in, from the sur- face toward t!ie centre ; wider at top, and narrower at bottom, They are from fifty to sixty yards in diameter, to ten or twelve feet.

In 1795, Joseph Ray was travelling from Hol- ston in East Tennessee, to Sumner county in West Tennessee. Whilst he passed through the barrens in Kentucky, leading a horse by his side, the one that he rode sunk suddenly thirty or forty feet be- low the surface. He leaped from the sinking horse, and saved himself from going to the bottom, with the other. He went to Sumner county, and return- cd, and by means of assistance which he had ob-

* By bottomless is meant, not reacbjad bj anv Hne, the in- habitants near them have made.

IS tained, he descended into the pit, where his horse had sunk, and found runnini; water at the bottom of the pit. The horte had walked about in the ca- vern, but was dead.

About the last of May 1821, on Rock Creek, near the plantation of M'Cochrill, in Bedfoitl coun- ty, in "West Tennessee, a sudden subterraneous ex- plosion took place. It heaved the earth upwards with great force, ejecting large rocks and ^mall ones ; throwing them against the trees which were near, bruising them so that they diet]. Tlie sound of the explosion was like that of a large cannon ; and. the hole broken open by the eruption, was forty or fifty feet in diameter, and about fifty feet deep, hav- ing the appearance of a sink hole, and having with- in, a very rough and craggy appearance. A body of smoke was settled for several days at the bottom of the opening made by the eruption.

Through all East and West Tennessee, caves are very abundant, on the sides of the mountaihs, knobs, hills and bluffs. Some of them are ten miles in length, and more. They are often filled with nitrous dirt, of which salt petre is made in large quantities, where the demand and prices given, make it profitable to work them. Many bones of the ancient inhabitants are found in them ; and some skeletons in a state of preservation in the nitrous dirt within them.

The whole of the country between the ridge west of the Tennessee, and the Mississsippi, is composed of the following strata. — First: soil mixed with sand ; secondly, yellow clay ; thirdly, red sand, mixed with red clay ; fourthly, perfectly white sand, such as is seen on the shores of the Atlantic. Com- pared with the latter, there is no perceptible differ- ence. The country on the south side of the Ten- nessee, near where that river crosses the southern boundary line of this state, and for many miles to the north west, and south is quite uneven ; and ex- hibits the appearance of the ocean when agitated by

13 a storm. To the south in many places are to be found immense banks of oyster shells ; some of which are petrified. And in many places, oyster shells are to be found, upon the surface of the earth, These shells belonged to a species much liEirger. than any live oysters now to be tasien, Some of the half shells weighed not less than two pounds. — These banks of Oyster shells, are not contiguous to any water course ; but on high grounds, one hun- dred miles east of the Mississippi, and from two hundred to four hundred miles or more, north of the Gulf of Mexico.

Secondly — of the Marbles^ Buhr stones and Plais- fer of Paris, in Tennessee. •

Six miles south of Rogersville, on the lands of Judge Powell, is an abundance of fine marble, of various colors. There is a hill, two and a half miles east of north from Rogers ville, wholly com- posed of marble ; white, grey, and sometimes red. Also on the road eight miles west of Rogersville. Also on tlie north of Bean's Station, a mile from the top of Clinch Mountain. Also between Mr. Cain's and Knoxville- The marble here is white. Also on the south side of Knoxville, on the road leading from Sevierville to Knoxville.- — Also between Campbell's Station and Mr. Mere- diths. Also between Blounts ville and Jonesborough. South from Blountsville, on the south side of liol- ston, and two miles from it, is red marble. Also^ large quantities in Jefferson county. A viea of grey and variegated marble extends along the north side of Clinch Mountain, for fifty miles ; a great proportion of it very fine, and the vein of considera- ble breadth. The soil about is generally barren, or of a, metallic color ; easily washed into gullies.

In the mountains, on the eastern parts of Kast Tennessee, are inexhaustible stores of the Plaister of Paris; of the best quality ; which may be carried

14

dovTi the Holston and its branches, to all the coqxi* ties below whenever the exhausted state of their lands, shall be found to require reinvigoration.

Some of the inner mountains above described ; aud particularly one lying fifteen miles to the north of Knoxville, are mountains of Buhr stone, which is acknowledged by the best Judges, to exceed all others of the like kind in the world.

Thirdly of the Salt- Waters of Tennnessee.

At the foot of the Cumberland mountain, on the west side of it, almost every stream of water which runs from it, is found to be accompanied on its side, with other streams of salt water. Whence the in- ference has been made, that the Cumberland Moun- tain itself, is full of layers and rocks of salt. The streams of salt water, which flow from the Cumber- land Mountain, are on the sides of rivers, at great depths belaw the fresh water ; which is on the sur- face, or just below it. Salt water is also in other places, not in the neighborhood of fresh water streams, and far from the Cumberland Mountain ; but the quantity of salt water is greater or less, in proportion, as the distance from the mountain is greater or less. The important circumstance, rela- tive to salt water, and marvellously strange it is, if real, is this — that those streams so far below the iurface, are found by subterranean attraction. In England it is called Bletonism ; but in Tennessee, it is called by some Cookism ; from the name of Mr. Cook, a resident of Kentucky, who has found a great number of subrerranean streams in Tennes- see, both of salt and fresh water. Mr. Cook attri- butes this quality, to some cause similar to that of magnetism : and its action upon twigs in the hands of some men, when on those in the hands of others it will not act at all, to sympathies, peculiarly bes- towed by providence, for the purpose of making those essential discoveries; to which they tead ; aad>

15

without wliicli, the riens of subterranean waters^ both fresh and salt, would be useless ; and the de- signs of providence, in creating them be disappoin- ted. We know of its existence he says, as we know of magnetism ; not by any adequate cause we can assign, but by the numerous instances and proofs of 5ts effects ; the only means of ascertaining that the unknown cause exists. These evidences may be advanced for the conviction of scepticism ; and for the accumulation of human knowledge, in relation to the invisible agents, which creative wisdom hath prepared, for the promotion and manifestation of its designs. Mr. Cook cites many instances, in proof of the real existence of this quality; which have no doubt occurred, as he is a man of truth. Whether iucccss, was justly ascribed or not, to a magnetic cause, belongs not to the writer to dedde.- All he ought to say is, that a great majority of the people believe it. And that there is nothing more common than to search for water by this process ; aud to hear of the discoveries that have been made by it. We have the additional evidence, and very sensible ' Femarks of Turner Lane esquire, of White county^ upon this curious subject. He says, " the time once was, when when the amazing power of magnetism, or of attraction, was totally unknown to the world, and when it had not been discovered; that like qualities possessed the power of attracting, and by that power, producing an inclination, or tendency to each other. But the time of that profound igno- rance has long since ceased to exist ; for by mere casualty, one Magnus, a shepherd, took notice that the Loadstone would cleave to the Iron on his san- dals ; and this discovery being improved, prepared the way for the use of the Magnet ; a knowledge in which enables the skilful mariner to traverse the pathless ocean, without the danger of missing his point of destination, or of running heedlessly into eure ami inevitable destruction ; either by running into ^icksandsy or splitting his bark on Rocks, —

±6 And it is now every where certainly known, that by applying the loadstone to a bar of steel of a certain given temperature, and then if the bar is suspended on a pivot or centre pin, the ends of the bar will ne- ver rest, until they have settled themselves down, in coincidence with the poles of the earth. This important fact, although now universally known, yet the cause of its existance has never been clearly understood. For although the immortal Sir Isaac Newton, with all his philosophical, and astronom- ical discovery, labored hard and employed his en- larged powers of mind, with indefatigable zeal, to discover the true cause of this phenomena,, and also why it should so happen, that although the needle or bar of steel, thus impregnated with magnetism, would settle down nearly parallel with the axis of the earth, yet it would not exactly coincide there- with, but would have seme variation therefrom ; and why this variation should not at all times re- main the same, but be found at some times to the East; at others to the west of a true meredian ; at some times increasing ; at other times decreasing ; and again at other periods be found in an exact co- incidence with a true meredian, were at once phe- nomena, the procuring cause of which he left to the world as a profound secret — a secret which all the philosophers that the world has ever known, have not been able to develope, and bring out of mystery, darkness and deep obscurity.

If then, there does exist one description of mag- netism known to, and acknowledged by all men ; and if in this magnetism there does exist, a secret, unknown, and inexplicable cause, which does pro- duce the effect, which all will acknowledge to be the fact ; why may not another description of mag- netism exist, equally certain in its operation, and e- qually involved in mystery ; and the denial of which, would, perhaps in half a century from the present day, be as contemptible and ridiculous, as it would now be, to deny the polarity of the Magnet.

17

^^ That such a magnetism is just now escaping from that profound obscurity, secrecy and darkness, in which it has remained from the (^mmencement of time, to the present era, to me it seems there is no doubt. I mean the attractive power, by which a tender forked rod, in the hands of a practitioner, will vibrate, and tend to the object of the search, or enquiry of the practitioner.

" To prove that a tender rod in the hands of a practitioner, will tend to or respond to the enquiry of the practitioner, suffer me to recite a few undeni- able facts ; facts which have been proven to a de- monstration, perhaps in one hundred instances, viz : Take one of those practitiohers to a vein of salt wa- ter, ^d although the vein is far below the surface of the earth, and the surface there puts on the same appearance that it does elsewhere, yet the practi- tioner will follow all the ;s;i^-%a »• meanderings of the. stream, to any assignable or given distance. This would S6em no how strange for the first attempt, for who could say whether the practitioner was right or wrong, the surface of the earth appearing all alike.

''But how will our astonishment appear, and how will our philosophy be shaken to the centre, when we see any given number of other practition- ers, each being brought to the same ground, one by one, at different periods of time, and each of the lat- ter, total and entire strangers to all that had for- merly been said or done here ; to see them one by one, join in unison, to mark out the very sama spot for the vein to pas» under ; follow the very same zig-zag course — showing all the points, and passing directly over all the secret marks which might have been made here at the first shewing.

*^ Here our reason fails us — here our philosophy is smitten — we become dumb — we see the act achie- ved before our eyes, and we cannot deny it — we cannot get over it — we are compelled in silence to

C

IS yeilthour assent to the fact, whilst our reason is lost in profound mystery.

•< Permit Ae to relate one simple matter of fact, which came within my own inspection, and I will be no farther tedious on this subject, but will sub- mit it to the candid mind; that is to say. — About the year 1803, beini; at that time a resident of the state of Kentucky, I was well acquainted with a blacksmith in the town of Paris, who labored hard, and drank much water; he complained that the spring was far from him, and that water got Avarm in tlni vessel before it reached him ; that he would give any reasonable sum for a Well on his own lot. He accordingly sent for a Water-tcitch, to make search for water on his own lot. The experimnet was made, a place was marked and the following advices given by the practitioner : Dig here, and a,fter sinking a certain number of feet, (by him gi- ven) you will come to the rock, then after blowing down another given Humber of feet, you will strike a stream of excellent spring water. The advices were immediately put in practice, and all things- suc- ceeded precisely as foretold ; for the owner himself told me, that he could not give a more minute ac- count of the distances, after finishing bis w ell, than he had received from the practition&r before the soil was broken.

^^If then these proofs are thought conclusive, how shall we account for the cause whicli produces this effect? Shall we say that the effect is produced without a cause, and is the effect of mere chance ? If so, would not another difficulty equally impertant arise, to wit : how mere chance should happen ex- actly alike to so many different persons, all in quest of the same object, and at the same place, but at dif- ferent times, the one not knowing of the shewings of the other? But would it not confound the princi- ples of sound philosophy, to assert, that any effect was ever yet produced, without a procuring, or pra- dacing cause* Jf this assertion would be in direct

19 Gontradictioii to tiie strict laws of nature, and it should be believed that every effect proceeds from some producini; cause, would it be thought ridicu- lous and fantastical, if we should attempt to hazard an oppinion, touching the. cause wliich produces this phenomenon.

'' But before we enter upon the discussion of thi^ point., we beg leave to premise a few plain truths, or simple matters of fact. And first, it is a fact ac- knowledged by all the practitioners of this art, that tlieraiud must be strongly impressed with, and in a constant state of enquiry after the substance or thing sought for. Secondly — the forked rod must be of a yonng, quick, and tender growth, being porous and lively ; the bark being fresh and green, and the out- side rind thin as paper, so as ta be susceptible of easy penetration ; for a rough barked one will not do. Thirdly — It is required to be granted, that like substances^, qualities, or properties, have an atti^ac- Mve influence one upon the other.

^^ The premises being laid, we will now risk an opinion, on the secret and mysterious cause which produces this effect, which is the subject under con- sideration.

"Of what then does the the animal frame con- sist ; how has it been reared up ; whence has it de- rived its support and growth ; what its diet ; from whence arose this diet ; has not all been from the bowels of the earth, without a single exception ? If so, how many different or various qualities, or pro- perties, has our daily food been impregnated with ; and if we have been reared up, upon food strongly impregnated with all the various qualities or proper- ties which are combined in the bowels of the earth, what then may be the composition of qualities, or properties, of which all tlie fluids and juices which compose the animal system are impregnated with, or do partake of?

'' And if all vegitable matter, as well as animal, 4« the immediate growth and offspring of the earth.

10 •which is tire common parent of all, is it not fair to conclude that all vei^itaule matter is also composed, some in a greater and s,oine in a less degree, with tlie same qualities or properties, that the earth itself possesses ? If so, il;e foi ked rod made nse of in this process, is alho vegitiible, and consequently, in some good decree, partakes of the same (jiialUes or proper- ties, that the Ijuman or animal system does, to wit : of Kitre, «alt, Sulpher, Metalics, &c.

"It has been premised, that wlieu this process is performing, tlie mind of the ]»ractitioner must be strongly impressed with, and in a constant state of enquiry after the substance, or thing sought for. — *l'his constant and earnest pressure upon the mind, it would seem, spreads through and eifects the whole system ; operates on the nerves, on the juices, and extends to the extiHimities ; thereby strongly im- pregnating the effluvia, which passes through the pores of the body by common perspiration; and as ©ur system is composed of various qualities or pro- perties, as has already been shewn, it would seem that the quality of the same kind, with that on which the' mind labors, now becoms warm, is roused into action, and for the present, govern all the rest ; it being the oidy quality which is congenial with the strong agitations of the mind.

" It has also been premised that the forked Rod must be young, tender, green, porous, and suscepti- ble of easy penetration, and that a stiff rugged, rough-barked rod will not do. — Shall we conclude therefore, that a practitioner having a suitable rod in his hand, sets out in quest of Salt water ; his mind is bent down to the object ; the effects of the mind flow to the extremities ; the nerves, the juices, the ef- fluvia which is perspired, all are strongly impreg- nated with the same enquiry; the saline qualities which compose the system, are now warmed and heightened ; the hands of the practitioner, now gras- ping the rod closely, the warmth and dampness of the palms, strike through the tender bark of the rod,

21

and into ihe^ soft and flexible pores or the wood ; and the same saline qualities hdurx, iQ the rod, they are now I'otised, made quick and active ; and the same enquiry seems by these means, to he communicated io the rod. — The practitioner equipped, Avith a mind thus impressed, it is said, may pass over fresh wa- ter, ©vcr Lead, over Kitre, or Other minerals, and the rod Vv ill not he afiected ; but he can no sooner arrive at a vein of salt water, than the attraction of the vein seizes the rod, and it will directly respond to the enquiry of the pactitioner. And in like manner will it act, in unison with the mind, when in quest of fresh water, minerals of any description, or other metalic substances.

'' I shall prosecute this head no further, but will close by repeating,— Can an effect be produced without a cause ?

" 2ndly, If it cannot, has any thing like the probable cause, been advanced, or is there some other secret cause?

^^ Srdly, If something like what has been adyan- vanced, is ng^t the probable cause, to me it would seem hard to account for in any other, way.

" Another branch of this secret intelligence giv- en by the rod to the. practitioner, is to determine the depth of the stream beneath the surface of the earth. How this can be performed when standing perpen- dicular over the object, or what might be taken as a clue, to lead to this discovery, seems at once to baf- fle all conception, and leave us without any ground, upon which we might form an opinion ; for how, or by what rule can a rod know the depth of a stream, better than the man in whose hand it Is ? — Can at- traction determine distances, or show how far one object is from another, by the force or power, with which the one attracts, or operates on the other ? — ' Can an observer determine the latitude of the place of observation, by the degree of power, with which the Northern Pole attracts, or operates on the Mag- net ?— Can we by the laws of gravitation, deter-

Aline the height of a declivity, by the power, or forccyv with which a Globe, or other solid body would in- cline to descend it ? — If none of these examples wiU give a clue to the discovery of this mystery, 1 know hot where to resort, or how to make the attempt at finding one.

*^ A man standing perpendicularly over an object, fiiay exercise his judgment on the subject of its depth, and may hazard an opinion ; but I cannot yet believe, that a rod can offord any aid to a practi- tioner in determing depths in a perpendicular situa- tion. The rod cannot derive any knowledge of depths, by any rule or law of nature, nor can I be- lieve that by any means, a rod could be inspired with such discriminating faculties, as to discern tlie difference between feet and inches ; and even if it could b^ inspired with that knowledge, yet the dif- ficulty would remain, as to how it could acquire a knowledge of the depth, better than the man who inspired it. — I conclude this mode of practice by saying it is performed by guess, and not by art, or of necessity ; we therefore find, that although all the practitioners will agree as to the flace where those veins of water are, yet no two who practice m this way, will agree about the depth.

If then we can find no rational rnle, by which depth may be determined, in a perpendicular direc- tion above an object, let us resort to some other mode, and try how far the rule actually resorted to by the better practitioners of this art or mystery, will com- port with the fixed laws of nature.

" It is saiil that when a point is ascertained^ perpendicularly to the object in quest, and the depth of tlie object is required, the practitioner with his rod elevated, turns his face from the point thus mar- ked, and walks cautiously, at right angles from the object ; — and that at a certain distance from the ob- ject, the rod will again operate, turning directy to- ward* the breast of the practitioner, and conse- quently, tending towards the object : at this point

23

^iiey make a second mark;— the distance then of those points one from the other, being let fall per« pendicularly from the first, or vertical point, will just exienil to the ohject, and determine the depth heneafti the surface.

<^ Before we enter into the investigation of this rule, we will premise, that by the laws or powers of exhalation, all rarified vapour^ or effluvia, are caus- ed to ascend.

" And that by ihe laws or powers of gravitation, all substances are caused to descend^ or at least so to expand as to form a level, and be in equillibrio.

^^ If then the distance between the two points found as above stated, is equal to tlie distance from the vertical point to the object, it follows, that those dimensions form a right angled plain triangle, whose legs are equal, and consequently, whose accute, and opposite angles, will also be equal ; for equal lines subtend equal angles. See the figure.

" In the triangle, A. B. C. let C. be the object, A. the verticle point, B. the point whence the attraction will cease to operate on the rod, and return towards the practitioner, C. P. a level, being parallel to A. B. ^' It is proven to a clear de- monstration in the first book of Euclid, that the sum of the angles in every plain tri- angle as A B G is equal to a semicircle, or to 180 degrees ; and also that every right angie as is the angle A contains 90 of those degrees; it thereforG follows, that the sum of the other Lwo angles, B and C, must also be 90 degrees ; for if the three contain 180 degrees, of which the angle A contains 90> de- grees, it follows that the other two, B and C must contain the other 90. But if the line A B is equal to the line A C, it will alio follow, that their oppo - «ite angles B and C will also be equal to each other;

S 2	V
D	0

24 tliat is aach being tlic equal half of 90 to wit, 45 degrees.

• •• It is also clearly proven in the book above ci- ted, that if two lines as A 15 and C D be draw« par- allel to each otlier. and if a line as B (J be drawn to insercect them, the acute and opposite angles A B C, and DOB will be equal to each other. — Hence we infer, that the line C. P. inclines exactly as much to the level C D as it does to the perpen- dicultir C A, and no more so, but a splitting line be- tween the two, dividing the right angle A C D in- to tw o equal halves of 45 degrees each.

" If then as has been premised, the exhaling pow- er would cause the attractive influence of all substan- ces to ascend, and rise in the direction of the per- pendicular line A C; and if as has also been premi- sed, the power of gravitation would cause all attrac- tive influences to expand and fonn a leval, in the direction of the dotted line C D. It follows with irresistible force, that those contrary or opposing laws of nature, operating at onge on the attractive influence of substances beneath the surface, with e- qual force and power, will have a direct tendency to direct the rays of attraction which pass from the object to take a middle course, and ascend directly with the splitting line C B, forming angles with the level and perpendicular of 45 degrees each.

^'This rule would admit of mathematical demon- stration, and is founded on such just principles, that if it is admitted at all, that a substance beneath th« surface can attract a rod in the hands of a practiti- oner, it ought also to be admitted, that by the fore- going rule, the depth may also be pretty nearly as- certained. Ludicrous and simple as the foregoing pages mav appear, to a person possessing your strength of mind, the impressions of mind which have for some time past pervaded me, are thereia respectfully submitted.''

25

't'ourthly — Of its Petrifactions, Volcanic Forma- tions, Ores and Poisonous Tracts.

Petrifactions are of animal substances, or of ve- getable ones, or argillaceous. "^ First, Of the Petrifactions of Animal Svhstances. Three or four miles on the south side of Cumber- land river, and as near Nashville, Dr. Roane, in 1818, found a petrified fish, adhering to a rock on the side of a hill. It was probably carried to that place, bj waters which withdrew, leaving it dead in the mud ; which some time afterward was cou- verted into stone.

In Davidson county, in the state of Tennessee, on the plantation of Captain Coleman; at the bot- tom of his spring-house, from which the earth had been removed, in searching for the foundation ; is a rock, on which the house is placed. On the sur- face of this rock, are petrified snakes, partly incor- porated with the stone. It seems as if the snakeg had lain upon it ; and had sunk, in part, into the substance, which is now stone ; giving the idea of a petrifaction, at the same time, both of that sub- stance and of the snakes which lay upon it, I'et- rified shells are found in parts of the county, south of Nashville, just below the surface. Petrified tur- key eggs have been found many feet under the ground, and will be more particularly described in another chapter.

Of Vegetable Petrifactions,

Eight miles south of Nashville, was found a petrified mushroom ; with a small stem at the bot- tom, which connected it with the ground on which it grew. The tuberous top is divided by small fissures ; and upon the outward surface are many small adjoining circles, with small circles within to the centre, where is the smallest circle of all, with a small excrescence in the centre. And almost every day, we see petrified hickory nuts, walnuts and cane roots. Petrified leaves we find, D

2^

in the interior of the rocks on the banks of tliS Cumberland at Nashville; and also nuts.

In May 1819, about seven miles from the towa of Franklin, iu the county of Williamson, passing westwardly from the Fayetteville road to the Cum- berland road, near to a small path leading through unsettled heavy timbered A\x)ods, was found by Mr, Pugh, a piece of petrified wood, which appeared to have been a stump dug up, with the roots cut ofl\ one side hewed, and the upper end cut off. Two very plain chops are on the face of the hewed part, seeming to have been first chopped, and then hew- ed. The piece would weigh at least twenty pounds, and appears to have been ash, before it was petri- fied, from the coarseness of the grain,

Ojf Argillaceous Petrifactions,

In the county of Diividson, in West Tennessee, nine miles south of Nashville, on the plantation lately occupied by John Mayfield, is a stone hearth, and upon it are the tracts of crows of different sizes.

On the Cumberland road, which was opened ia the year 1787, there is about halfway betweeu- Drowning creek and where Mr. Terril lives, an^ Obed's river where Mr. Graham lives, the impres- sion of a horse's foot shod, all converted into solid stone ; and near it, is the impression of a man's foot, upon the roek, also converted into solid stone.

In the county of White, on Cane creek, which runs into the Cany Fork northwest from Sparta fourteen miles, or two and a quarter miles below the road from Sparta to Carthage, is a flat rock,^ running from the bank into the water, where is a small stream of salt water running into the creek, on the north side of which are impressed three tracks of a horse, which seem to have been made as he went down the rock to the creek. When he came to the lower rock, near the water, he turned ta the left; and made other tracks, also impressed

27

•into it. The tracks of liis hinder feet Ijeiag on tlie lower rock, and those of his fore feet upoa another •rock a little higher, in going down tiie rock, his feet appear to have slipped forward, and where he stood upon the lower rock, the track is so plain, that the impression marie hy the frog of his foot is as apparent ftS it would have been if nmde upon common clay. The tracks are so natural, that no one would take them for sculptured representations. The rock at tiie fore part of the tracks, seems to have been clay, raised by the foot as it slipped forw^ard. The country in Avhich this rock is, was ceded by the Indians in 180.^, and first began to be settled l)y the whites in 1806. The Cherokees iirst had horses in 1700, or a little later. The French first settled Canada in 1608. Some of their hunters may have travelled on horseback ihrough this country before 1700; otherwise it must be considered, that this petrifaction took place within a few years past. See note S.,

Of Volcanic Formations in Tennessee. In the country within the limits of this state,, called the Chickasaw purchase, between the Ten- nessee river and the Mississippi, and near the lat- ter river, are found in many places, balls which at first sight seem to be cannon balls, to which theii resemblance is very striking. They are round and «f a dark colour, but are composed of sand within, and in the centre is a small cavity, containing fine particles of very white sand. The shape is like that which is given to the vitrified, round and hol- low su«bstances, which are found in the vicinity of the Cumberland liver, where it most nearly ap- proaches the Tennessee, in the lower parts of Stuart county. The latter are supposed to have been thrown up in the times of earthquakes, from subterraneous ■fires, through apertures of a rounded form, which wer^e opened ia Biany parts of th© country, giving

28

vent to the passages of sand, and fused materials. The motion by which they ascended, was such as produced rotundity iu the rolled or upheaved mass, and met the external air something like that, per- haps, which in a kettle of boiling water fixes wa- tery globules on the surface. After crossing the Tennessee river from east to WTst, and progressing forty miles in that direction, everywhere in the country, down to the Mississippi, are small longi- tudinal ponds of water, sometimes sixty poles long and twenty-five or thirty poles wide. The w ater within, is generally about six inches deep. Tha water runs o^ in small drains or necks, to the low^- er lands. Near to the entrance into those necks, are found balls with clear white sand in the centre. The balls are perfectly round, the larger ones hav- ing the appearance of cannon balls. They are from the size of a nine pound cannon ball to that of a partridge egg. The materials which compose them have internally the appearance of white clay, and not more than one third heavier than pumice. They may have been ejected from the bowels of the earth, in the time of earthquakes ; w hen also, the ponds in which they are, may have sunk. When broken, they make angular edges, and have evident signs of gas confined within them. In the neighbouring county of Stuart, on the east side of Tennessee, are round pieces of vitrified matter, with something that rattles in the inside. The bottom of these ponds is a tough marl, of a white consistence. The country near to the Mississippi is somewhat defaced, by the earthquake of 18.11 ; and on the side of one of the rivers, a lake has been formed, of ten or fifteen miles in length, and eight or ten in breadth, with dead trees standing iu it, having their bodies immersed halfway up in water.

In the same way, many have been formed in more ancient times. That these balls have been

S9

formed by the action of fire, and by the motion which prevails in the times of earthquakes, is ren- dered probable by another fact. A few miles from the town of Columbia, in the county of Maury, in West Tennessee, oii the south side of Duck river, a digging was commenced in 18SS, for the purpose of discovering a silver mine, supposed to be there. The diggers, after descending one hundred and fifty feet^ came to a cavity, through which the well passed, having part of the cavity on both sides. Near it, the rocks-had evident marks of fire having acted upon them. In the cavity, they found several balls, perfectly round, of the size of pound swivel balls ; as heavy as cannon balls of the same size, or nearly so. The exterior parts of the ball were made a little uneven, by small square protuberan- ces lying flat in some places, and by the projection of the edges, or ends of them, in others. One of them was broken, and contained, through all the interior, from the surface to the centre, a bright substance, of a cast inclining to sulphureous, and seemingly of a fusile quality. They found also on digging, a white, solid and semitransparent sub- stance, which seemed to have shot like ice, longi- tudinally, and adhering together laterally, nearly of the Colour of those stalactical substances, which cover the bottoms of our caves, and which are white, solid and heavy; sometimes three or four inches thick, and which have been formed of what fell from the dripping of the cave above. The substance now spoken of, as found near Columbia, is of the same colour but brighter, and is distin- guished from the other by its longitudinal shoots, which that has not. The Columbia substance re- sembles alum in colour, but is more transparent, light and bright. The balls must have been formed when in a state of fusion, and also in such sort of ntelting as communicated a perfectly round form, nucli as gave the same form to the vitrified balls in

30

Stuart county, and to those which were found be- tween the Tennessee vidge and the Mississippi. The latter, it is true, were not heavy in proportion to their size, and were of sandy materials in part. It may be here mentioned, as possibly proceeding from the same cause, that soon after the earthquake in 1811, several pumice stones were found floating in tlie M aters of Cumberland river, and seemed to have been discharged, by lire and fusion, of the heavier particles which formerly made a part of their composition. The earthquakes of 1811, commenced on the 16th of December, half -past two o'clock in the morning; and have been felt at inter- vals up to 1819, and as late as July 1822. The first shocks Vv'hich were the most violent, had these effects. The water in the Mississippi, near New-Madrid, rose in a few minutes twelve or fourteen feet, and again fell like a tide. Some lakes were elevated, and the bottom raised a^bove the common surface of the earth in the neighbourhood, and still remains so. The country near New-Madrid, was everywhere broken up in furrows, six or eig^it feet wide, and as many deep. The streams of water in Tennessee liave ever since been more copious ihan before. In many places iti West Tennessee, old sulphur springs liave commenced running again, which some years before Avere dried up. And in some places, new springs of sulphureous water have broken out of the earth, and still continue to run. The earth ia ths western parts of West Tennessee, opened in several places, and wliite sand issued from the apertures. Near New-Madrid, hot water issued fron the holes, of a dark colour, and of a strong fiuphureous smell. Where the white sand was th-own up, it lay around the hole in a circular form. In some places, there issued from the earth something like wind from the tube of a bellows, passing through burning coal. In the Chickasaw countiy, it cast up hillocks of white swid; of tbe

31

sk& of potatoe hills. These are all through thfJ Chickasaw country. In some places west of th© Mississippi, a troublesome warmth of the earth wa^ perceptible to the nuked feet. The next day hut one before the first earthquake, was darkened from morning to night, by thick fog ; and divers persons perceived a sulphureous scent. The wind ceased, and there was a dead calm, without ths least breath of air, on the day of the earthquake. The like calm preceded all the f?hocks. The mo- tions of the earth were undulating. The parts agitated quivered like the flesh of a beef just kitled.. They began just about the time the comet disap- peared. The motions progressed from west to east; and these earthquakes have travelled progressively in that direction, agitating aiid alarming in succes- sion, the countries of America, Europe and Asia^ till they have gone into the ocean, east of Asia. The motions in Tennessee were sometimes, but seldom, perpendicular ; resembling a house raised, and suddenly let fall to the ground. Explosions Mke the discharge of a cannott at a few miles' dis- tance, were heard; and at night, flashes of lightning seemed sometimes to break from the earth. For two or three months the shocks were frequent; al- most every day. Then they gradually decreased In frequency, and took place at longer intervals, which continued to lengthen till they finally ceased. In May 1817, in Tennessee, they had come to be several months apart, and were but just perceptible. The last of them was in 1822. When the shocks came on, the stones on the surface of the earth were agitated by a tremulous motion, like eggs in a fry- ing-pan, and altogether made a noise similar to that of the wheels of a wagon in a pebbly road. The frightened horses ran snorting in tlie field ; the hogs squealed ; the dogs barked ; anti the fowls descend- ed from their roosts. The ponds of water, where ther$ was hq wind^ had a troubled surface, the

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wliole day preceding any great shock. A deep gloom prevailed. lu the time of the earthquake, a murmuring noise, like that of fire disturbed by the blowing of a bellows, issued from the pores of the earth. A distant rumbling was heard, almost without intermission, and sometimes seemed to be in the air. Bricks fell from the tops of chimneys. The agitations about, exceeded those immediately upon the surface. On the west side of the Missis- sippi, trees were in many places split from the root upwards, the roots themselves being divided. In some instances, the tree w as wiiolly split to pieces, and in others a vacuum was left between the differ- ent parts. In some instances, the trees were broken off; the tops fell to the ground, and the trunks were left standing. Spouts of water, of three or four inches in diameter, sprang from the Mississippi, and ascended to a great height. In some parts of the Mississippi, the river was swallowed up, for some minutes, by the seeming descent of the >vater, into some great opening of the earth at the bottom of the river. Boats with their crews were ingulfed, and never more heard of. For six months before the earthquakes at least, and indeed for a longer time, the weather was unusually warm, little or no motion of the air was perceptible, and no lightning was seen or thunder heard. A dread calm brooded over futurity. In the time of the earthquakes, the fountains received muddy water into their ])eds, too thick to be drank. The watery passages seemed to be repairing, and the choaked avenues to be cleansing. A dull and heavy ob- scuration of the atmosphere usually preceded the shocks. The effluvia which caused the dimness of the day, seemed to be neither cloud or smoke, yet resembling both. It was too light for clouds, and too thin for common smoke; and was of a lighter cast. It seldom terminated in condensation, as Tennessee vapours usually do. In the time of the

22

uliocks, many persons experienced a nauseating sickness at the stomach, and a trembling of the knees. These earthquakes were followed by an epidemic complaint, in the years 1815 and 1816, which was very mortal. In the time of the earth- quakes, lights were seen in the night, sometimes westwardly like the light of the sun, before it is closed by the darkness of the night; but shooting much further, toward the east, and continuing much longer, than the light of the sun after setting. And sometimes in the night, the heavens would seem to be tinged with a reddish colour, supposed to be the efl'ect of invisible effluvia, issuing through the pores of the earth ; and collecting above us, like smoke in the spring, which rises from log heaps, and brush heaps ; and shows itself like light at a distance. The water near New-Madrid, which was spurted from the bowels of the earth, was black, having the appearance of an intermixture with coal. Ever since the commencement ofihese earthquakes, in 1811 and from thence up to 1819, and afterwards, tremblings of the earth have occurred there almost every day^ and in West Tennessee at intervals up to July 18^2.

Of the Geodes found in Tennessee.

Beside the globular masses before described, there are others in Tennessee, which seem to have a different origin, which should also be described. After passing the Cany Fork, at Trousdale's, six or eight miles above Carthage, on the road from Nashville to Knoxville, the traveller ascends a hill, on the right and left of which are low grounds, far below the road on which he is; the waters descend- ing on the one side into the Cany Fork, and on the other into the Cumberland. The summit of the ridge is two hundred or two hundred and fifty feet above the low grounds on either side. In many places, the summit of the ridge is not more than ten or fifteen feet across. The ridge continues for £

34

fifteen miles, before the hollows and low grounds disappear. Upon the summit of these ridges, a* well as on the ridge in Roan county, before de- scribed as being three hundred and fifty feet high^ are found in clusters, masses in rounded forms, in- clining to eliptical, with tuberous excrescences, like those of large Irish potatoes. They are of a dark colour on the o.utside, and of the size generally of large cymblings, in some other countries called squashes. The centre is hollow, with loose par- ticles in it, of the like sort as those which occupy the interval between the hollow and the exterior. This hollow is lined with a thin crust, or lamina of red dirt, of a deep tinge. The interval between this and the interior, is occupied by small chrystal- lized pieces, of the form of diamonds, with angu- lar points, which pieces are incorporated and run into each other, no one being wholly separated and distinct from its neighbour. The whole mass has the appearance, and suggests the idea, of matter conglomerated, whilst in a plastic state, by rolling up the hill, till it reached the summit, where the waters were not of depth and force sufficient to move them any further. After which, petrifaction and chrystallization took place, the materials contract- ing toward the surface, and of course leaving the centre hollow. The angular pieces, in the shape of diamonds, will scratch glass. Many of these geodes, of the size of pumpkins, and of eliptical figures, are said to lie on the surface, between Mur- freesborough and McMinnville. The groups in which they lie seem never to have been disordered by the misplacin^s of man.

Of the Ores of Tennessee.

Lead ore is found in small veins, in the county of Claiborne. Little search has as yet been made, to ascertain the fact of a lead mine being there.

A mine of lead has been worked in Jefferson county.

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ISfe part of the world produces better iron ot^ than the county of Claiborne ; nor in greater abun^ dance. Twenty sets of iron-works in this small county, are generally kept in operation.

Iron ore abounds also in the county of Dickson^ which contains within its limits, the Yellow-creek iron- works, those of Mr. Bell on Barton's creek, and those of Mr. Napier on the same stream, ia the lower part of Davidson; also, near the Big Harpeth river, iron ore is very abundant. It is m the greatest profusion in the counties of Lincoln and Bedford.

Of Poisonous T facts of Country in Tennessee^

On the confines of Sumner and Smith counties, in West Tennessee, and on the waters of Goose <5reek, two miles north of Mr, Donoho's plantation, on the road leading from Gallatin to Carthage, is a tract of country, in which, when cattle graze, their milk becomes poisonous : and when taken into the stomach, produces sickness which usually termin-* ates in death. If the cow be killed for beef, the fl«sh taken into the stomach, produces the same symptoms and results. The crows, dogs and buz- zards, which ara fed on the flesh of cattle, which die shortly after grazing there, soon after die them- selves. A deer which has been killed soon after feeding there, produces the sickness and death of those who eat the venison. The cause of this ex- traordinary mortality has not hitherto been discov- ered, but is supposed to lurk in the succulent parts of some vegetable which grows there. The re- searches of some experienced botanist, might be usefully employed in this spot; and might save many lives in future, by pointing out the cause, which once detected, would make known the anti- dote to be opposed to its deleterious powers. In- formation hath not made it known to the writer, whether the honey extracted from the plants which

86

grow there, is equally or at all poisonous. The cow or deer itself is not poisoned, by the food it eats there, and yet its milk and flesh are poisonous. The fact is unaccountable though it is real. AV hen- ever tke real cause comes to be discovered, the wonder may be greatly abated, as well as the effects obviated or prevented, by the application of the ap- propriate medicaments. The only one now resorted to, is that of keeping the cattle confined in pens, so that they do not range upon this tract of country. Those who live upon the lands which are exceed- ingly fertile and productive, can neither eat the meat nor use the milk of the cattle. In other re- spects, there is no inconvenience to v/hich the in- habitants are subjected, more than those who live upon the adjacent or more distant lands, in this section of country. In Bledsoe county in Se- quatchie valley, is a tract of land, the grazing of which is followed by similar effects. This valley commences a few miles south of the Crab orchard, two and a half miles east of Spencer's hill, and extends in length to the Tennessee river, in a south- wardly direction. Where it first commences, it is narrower, but where it joins the river, is the width of four or five miles. It is bounded on the west by the Cumberland mountain, and on the east by Walker's ridge, in which Spencer's hill is. The lands in the valley also are very fertile.

With respect to the symptoms of the disorder in affected animals, observed principally in the poi- sonous tract on Goose creek, in the county of Sum- ner. If the cow can get to water, it hastens the appearance of the symptoms, iremour and ike con- stipation of the intestines. Her head is tossed from side to side, in agony ; and if it remain in any one position for some time, the muscles cannot be acted on, so as to bring the head to any other posture. All the muscles have a peculiar rigidity. If milk be now drawn; it emits an odour known to

37

those conversant with sucli milk. It is said not to froth so much as good milk, when ^jlng from th i dug into a vessel. At boiling heat it quickly cur- dles. The cream has a greenish hue^ and the but- ter made from it highly pernicious qualities. If the calf Slick the milk, it trembles, staggers, and often falls, whilst sucking, and dies immediately. By abstracting the milk, the animal is somewhat relieved. At length, her abdomenal muscles are much contracted, presenting a meagre appearance of the body. Her breathing is laborious, and very ofiFensive if inhaled by the by-standers. On dis- section, the stench arising from the internal parts is almost insu])portable. The several apartments of the stomach, and parts of the intestines are gan- grenous, The retained contents are dry fee ted matter. Other animals are similarly affected in the violent forms of the disease. The first suspicion of the cow being diseased, often arises from nausea at the stomach of those who for some days may have used the milk. Perhaps the calf is by this time affected. If under these circumstances the milk be regularly drawn, the cow may exhibit no symptoms of disease, eating and drinking as usual. Should she be made to undergo severe exercise, the complaint will appear in its customary form, and perhaps terminate in death, or in a slow recovery of six or twelve months' duration. Indeed, it is stated that animals once under the influence of this poison, never are so completely recovered as not to feel its effects in any future violent exertion, or what is vulgularly called healing the blood. At ail stages of the disease, ardent spirits, and spirits of turpentine, are attended with salutary effects when freely administered. When the intestinal canal is freely purged, the danger is slight, with proper care.

In Sequatchie valley some sheep laboured under the poisou : they vomited without much apparent

tiffbrt, and were also purged without having takea any medicine. The owner thought if his cattle and sheep had remained on the hills, they would not have shown any marks of disease. The fa- tigue of heing driven home, and then drinking wa- ter, produced the active form of the disease.

In the dormant state of the disease, the milk of a cow is not so deleterious, as when the complaint has assumed its more distinctive character.

That dogs, cats, hogs, turkeys, chickens, crows and buzzards die by using the flesh of animals which perished under this disease, can be attested by the oaths of hundreds. Sometimes buzzards are unable to fly from the carcase ; and on a branch of Goose creek, called Hicherson's fork, sixty or seventy buzzards have been seen dead at one tim« near the water.

In driving fourteen steers from the hills to a farm two miles from them, seven sickened and died at the first branch of water they crossed : two only could be driven home, and they also died some time afterwards. Dogs have been unable to get home, after eating the flesh of dead animals. One of the neighbours of the late Colonel Benjamin Sea well, who stated these facts, when removing his family to a distant part of the country, had six or seven horses to die on the road, with the common symp- toms of this disorder, although these horses wer* apparently well when setting off on the journey.

Mr. Elisha Henry, when fox hunting, found two of his dogs at a carcase he supposed to be peison- ed. The same dogs, after running half a mile in a fox chase, came to water and drank, and died immediately.

The cows of Mrs. Britton were neglected, and ranged out of the pasture, whilst lier husband was sick. She suspected the milk, from the greenish colour of the cream ; and ordered some to be given to a pig. The eervant believing the milk to b«

good, eat some of it, and was immediately attacked, Dut recovered. At the sale of her husband's estate shortly afterwards, she purchased a mare known to be affected by the poison, and this mare soon died. It being inconvenient to burn or bury the carcase, as is customary, a pen of wood was placed around. Into this inclosure none but small animals could find a passage. In the course of a day or two, one racoon and two opossums were found dead by the carcase.

So far as this sickness affects human beings, it can be invariably traced to taking into the stomach the milk, butter or flesh of animals which laboured under the same disease. With respect to both men and other animals, the violence of an attack is mo- dified by the quantity and quality of milk, butter or flesh taken into the stomach, and the time it is retained.

A great many horses and cows die quite fat, within the limits of that section of country in which the disease exists : and a vast number of hogs and dogs die very soon after using the flesh of such tinimals, of a disease similar to that of which those animals themselves died.

The stomach and bowels of these animals are highly inflamed, and the intestines are filled with hardened, round, smooth lumps of excrements. Stock confined to an old, well cultivated pasture, never are affected with this disease ; nor is their flesh or milk noxious. If a new piece of woodland be added to the farm the disorder often appears, but by separating those woodlands from the old lots, it will soon disappear. Vegetation here is the same as elsewhere. The country is rich and considerably broken with small mountains; the Millstone mountain, the Sandstone mountain, &c. Sulphur is intermixed with the rocks of the Mill- stone mountain. In human patients a burnin!; sensation in the stomach is first perceived, which

40

for a day or two is maderatCj and not attended with any vomiting or pain. On the third day the hurn- ing in the stomach is severe, and the patient some- times vomits every half hour: ohstinate constipation takes place, witJi some pain in the stomach. The pulse is small, threaded and a little accelerated ; and the heat of the extremities considerably below the common temperature. Restlessness and great anxiety prevails in the early part of the disease; a constant and an ungovernable desire for water, which when given allays the burning for a moment, but the fluid is soon rejected, and then vomiting and pain resume their usual violence. There is no soreness or pain in the regions of the liver, spleen, back or head. The disease is seated in. the stomach and bowels, and there is great and immediate prostra- tion of the whole system. These symptoms con- tinue with great violence about twenty-four hours after the vomiting commences, with now and then a hickup. The vomiting, burning and pain then begin to subside, and the hickup becomes more and more frequent. Difficulty of breathing supervenes, especially as the patient inspires, which is perform- ed slowly and with considerable difficulty : and as he becomes less restless, and his anxiety abates, stupor prevails, in the same ratio, till its subject is rendered conjpletely insensible. The pulse inter- mits, the eyes become fixed, and the palpibrae re- main open. ^V ith these symptoms death closes the scene, in about sixty hours from the time the vomiting commences. The matter thrown off the stomach is nearly transparent, now and then a little bilious, goiuerally tasteless ; not acrid, having a ^tly peculiar smell, conceit makes it sometimes re- semble the smell that is frequently emitted from new milk just taken fi'om cows which have recently fed on joung wild vegetation and buds, and some- times the smell of young bruised garlick. This is one of the most prominent diagnostics of the com-

41

plaint. It occurs at every time of the year, but is most common in March, April, May, September, October and November. Cows giving milk, it is believed, labour for months under the influence of this disorder, without showing evident signs of it. The calves of cows apparently well, frequently die with a complaint, evidenced by the same train of symptoms, which othfer animals show, that are supposed to be poisoned.

There are hills separating the two principal branches of Goose creek from each other, towards their sources, and on the west from Bledsoe's creek. It is along the?e ridges and theirlbases, that animalg contract the disease. The chain running between the upper and middle fork of Goose creek, is most remarkable for the poison. This high land runs in peaks and hills, to the height of two or three hun- dred feet above the level of the river. Of these hills, the Millstone knob is the most remarkable. From its summit, a country beautifully variegated ivith hills and dales, in a state of high cultivation, presents itself. The mill stone quarry, whence it has its name, is about two thirds the way from it« base to the summit. Viewing the face of the quar- ry, it will be found that only a few feet of earth, covers a loose flaky bed of slate, which extends to the depth of five or ten feet, and rests on the mill stone rock. This last seems composed of flint of different colours, the secondary limestone, with a small portion of sulphur, and a bituminous sub- Stai^ JiLcombination. It is said, that when the liot^lPfMif are applied around the mill stone, an * '6ilJ^ suytance with some sulphur exudes. Thp slate stone will blaze ih the fire for some time, and enjit an unpleasant smell. There is no discoverable mineral subitance in this hill, except some coarse ppites.

To one p«gsiiag through the adjacent counti^y> jtnd Goone creek Uods; the Utter would present uo I F

pfecuriaiity, eitbei* in regard to t£e face of the coan^ try, its mineralogy, its wateiv or its vegetation.

This disease occurs in other places. Many of its peculiarides have been observed in Stokes county, North-Carolina, on the low lands, on both margins of the Yadkin river. In that part of the country it \^as called the river sickness, and could alvi ays be eradicated- by cultivating the soil, as was proved on Poindexter's and Kirhy's farms. It was there thought to be produced by the wild parsnip^ root, or by the numerous spiders with their webs, which adhered to the mulberry leaves.

On the Little Yadkin river, where there was ar fulling mill and furnace, it was ascribed to mineral exhalations raised by the heat and their subsiding, on the vegetables.

In the same state it occurs in Guilford and Burk counties, in North- Carolina. Also in some parts^ of South -Carolina. It occurs in the mountainous and flat lauds of Kentucky, in the plains of Indi- ana, of Missouri, of Illinois, Michigan,, and lik Ohio. It is also met with in Bedford county, ia the state of Tennessee, in Smith county, on the^ waters of Frenchbread river, and on Emery's rivei^» In Sequatchie valley, in Bledsoe cousity, it is very: 4^tructive. This valley is about seventy miles iii length, about five and twelve miles wide. The Cumberland mountain is on one side^ and its aux- iliary chain, the Walnut ridge. From these twa lofty mountains, in the, summer time, is presented a» delightful prospect of finely cultivated farnis. The- atmosphere in these mountains is singularly seFone^ the foggy valley below looks to the morning travel-^ ler like a lengthened lake below. Even in this peaceful valley, lurks the undiscovered cau?e of sp- iftuch pain and misery- Inquii-y for thjC cause pi^t* on its eager hue, whenever a human being become^ the subject of \is operation, and many and various |ue the conjectures which spring intavi^w before it.

43

But the cause is yet undiscovered, not because it is "beyond the reach of human investigation, but bfe- ^ause those whose learning and qualifications for accurate research have not yet bestowed upon the subject th« requisite pains for its elucidation.

For the latter statement in relation to the poison- .ous tract on Goose creek, the topography of that section, and the symptoms ^f the disorder, the au- thor is indebted to communications made by Doctor McCall, who with all liberality, that everywhete marks the conduct of enlightened men, has furnish- ed the requisite information, founded upon his own observations, and those of Doctor Sharp, who hay e both exanrined the phenomena with a scientific cu- riosity, suitable to the importance and novelty of the subject. And from whose continued pursuits there is ground to hope for the most beneficial re- sults.

Hei^ let a remark be iiidulged, that can do no liarm, and may do some good. If this disorder were caused by mineral effluvia, it Would prevail as much in winter as iu the other seasons of the yeai*, and not in alluvial soils, where thei*e is no rock or mineral substance in the whole country, as in Indiana, Illinois, and on the Yadkin, in North- Carolina. Nor would its sources be reached arid destroyed by the plough or other agricultural in- strument.

If caused by some plant, it would cease to act in November and December ; unless, indeed, the seeds of ttie disorder W6re taken into the stomach before. Nor would it begin to operate as early ^s March, ft would, moreover, be discernabk amongst the herbs of the forest: not would itbci eradicated fey culture ; but like other plants, would spring up ^ain, When culture was discontinued.

But if some spider or ^mall poisonond insect, or Wdrfti, it would be torpid in Me winter months, •Wiiiii otire^ anhaals became $0; dnd begm to move

44

again in March, when other torpid animals begin to move. Its residence would be just below the surface, and w'ould be broken up and destroyed by thei plough. From March to December, it would ascend to the surface, especially in tlie warmer months of the year, to enjoy the cool temperature of the evening and the morning; and fly from the rays of the sun, when teo hot to be comfortable. This hypothesis, being not in collision with any of the observations hitherto made, is recommended to the consideration of the Ijterate, when making their further researches.

Adjacent to Alabama, on the west of the Cum« berland mountains, the same disorder occurs. These mountains run through the state obliquely, fi*om northeast to southwest, dividing it into East and West Tennessee. East Tennessee is a rough, mountainous country, extremely healthy. Here the milk sickness is unknown, except as is before mentioned, and in Blount county. The part of West Tennessee adjoining to Kentucky, is also hroken, and hilly; more to the south and west, the country is less so ; the soil very fertile, and ve- getation exceedingly luxuriant. The forests abound in large trees and thick undergrowth, which ex- cludes the rays of the sun from the soil; and in wet weather, noxious effluvia rise in great exuber- ance. In some places the water runs off slowly, and in others are stagnant. Franklin county lies along the foot qf the Cumberland mountain, thirty or thirty-five miles, and is watered by Elk river. On the north and west of Franklin lies Bedford county, watered by Duck river and its tributaries. As soon as the settlements commenced in these counties, in the year 1807, near the mountains, many cattle were lost, from some unknown poison, the nature of which has not yet been discovered. Sometimes whole herds were found dead, in some sequestered cove of the mountain. The poison is confined to

45

ceriatn spots^ at or near the foot of tlie iiumnt-iin, m those coves, as some imagine, which have a ■western or northwestern aspect; but as others say, in those coves, and others likewise, which have a diffeient aspect. Tliose which h>ok to the south, jire supposed by some to be free from poison, bat Sequatchie valley must be excepted. The exist- ence of the poison is here periodical, from June to October, and is most virulent in August and Sep- tember. If cattle remain in a poisonous tract du- ring the night, or feed there early in the morning, they invariably suffer more or less from the poiaou. J3ut after the sun has risen so as to dissipate the dews, they may feed there with perfect safety. Some of the farmers pen their cattle in the night, and at nine or ten o'clock turn them out to range, without fear of the consequence. Within a few years, a fence has been extended for many miles along the foot of the mountain, so as to exclude this nuisance; in consequence of which precaution, cases of this disorder much more rarely occur than formerly. In 1850, the legislature interposed, and by an act passed for the purpose, directed to be fenced certain coves of the Cumberland mountain, to prevent, as it states, animals from eating an un- known vegetable, imparting to their milk and flesh, when used for diet, deleterious qualities. And it contained very strict provisions, obliging overseers to keep up those fences. Many of the inhabitants in this section of country liave died of the disorder, as well as the c^ittle, supposed to have been poison- ed by the flesh, milk or butter of animals, which had previously taken the poison into the stomach, and before it had manifested itself with sufficient violence to attract notice. Hence the popular name of the disease. Men, it is said, may be affected as other animals, by lying on the ground, on the poisonous tracts, or by remaining there for several hours during the night. In men, the disease thus

46

induced is gastridous, with some modifications of the usual symptoms accompanying this affection, as supposed to be induced by miasmata generally. The stomach is extremely irritable; the bowels torpid, and obstinately costive, with great febrile excitement, and determination to the head. A pe- culiar odour emanates from the patient, especially as death approadies, which is perhaps the most striking diagnostic. But for this, it might be dif- ficult to distinguish it from the most violent attacks of bilious remittent fever. The remedies adopted by the people, and by physicians, are active pur- gatives. T<j open the bowels is indispensable, but frequently difficult. The most operative medicines have frequently failed of success. In general, re- lief is the immediate consequence of evacuation. Convalescence is generally tedious, and relapses frequent, even at the distance of twelve months. The hair, epidermis, and nails, sometimes fall off; and some constitutions never recover from the shock. The stomachs ©f brutes have been opened after -death, by dissection, and have shown in places the iiiarks of inflammation, and some of the ventrils ^tiHe said to have exhibited the appearances of hav- ing been broiled or contracted by heat. This poisoa is supposed by some to be vegetable ; by others, mineral. In the poison fi,elds of Chatham county. North- Carolina, hemlock is said to grow. In West Tennessee, mushrooms, and also a species of weed bearing a black berry, and other vegetable subtan- tts have been suspected. The waters have been accused of mineral impregnation. Mineral exha- lations, from imbedded ores, imbibed by the dew as it ascends, have been cited to the bar of ^xanii- ttation. Some think, that it is a miasmatic exhala- titm. In the sumnier time they say, from 80 to 90 bt Farehheit, that the nights are cool, and that oftentimes in twenty-four hours, there is a difference of the temperature from ZQ to 30 degrees^ Copions

47

exhalations are pioduced bj the lieat of the tlay^ of effluvia, from the ponds^ rivers, marshes, and forests, so rarified as to be but little capable of injury. Niffht condenses them by a colder atmos- phere, and Irom increased gravity they begin to subside. Vapours visible and invisible, this theo- ry considers as attracted by mountains, and other elevated objects. There is commonly at this seasoa of the year, a breeze from the west, by which the mists and vapours are gently wafted towards the neighbouring mountains, where they are intercepted and driven into the valleys. Becoming still more dense, the more ponderous particles gradually roll down the declivities, and settle in condensed bo- dies, in the low grounds and hollows, and confined coves, which become the hotbeds of the poison. Here, it is supposed, are generated, by concentrar tioB of the most ^noxious particles, disorders more virulent than even this called the milk sickness. And the miasmata, when received into the stomachy with the dews deposited on the herbage, are supposed to be adequate to the destruction which is produced. This theory, as well as others, has its difficulties to encounter : for the disorder pre- vails in East Tennessee,^ where there are no moun- tains to intercept the western breezes, nor cavities to receive their more ponderous particles, nor swamps and stagnant waters to generate the poison; where the winds blow directly from the Camber- land mountain, and from the high and Inoken land* near its eastern side ; and where the air is as highly salubrious as in any part of the world.

Poisonous tracts are also on the east side of the Alleghenies, in Haywood county, to which the i^iune remarks exactly apply.

In "West Tennessee, for several years pasf,^ white <Jk)ver, when eaten by hoi-ses and other animals^ ear>y \n the morning, before nine or ten o'clock^ produces profuse salivation, which sometimes ter-

48

minates in death. Formerly such effects were un- known : the cause is yet undiscovered : but as in one circumstance it is very much like the poison taken into the stomach by cattle, early in the morn- ing, in the poison fields, it may in time become as hurtful as the poison now in discussion. A perfect discovery of the one cause, might shed a great deal of light upon the other.

In the county of JBlount, in East Tennessee, is another of tirese poisonous tracts. A farmer, whose plantation adjoius, extended his field over a part of it. The ground yielded abundantly ; and it has not been perceived that the grain raised there, has contracted any virulent quality. But he is assured of the fact, that when using the land as pasture, the disease of the cattle is contracted, although there is nothing visible, but what in appearance are the sweetest and most nutritive grasses. He has observed, in gathering fodder from the corn stock, that by suspending the blades, and keeping them from the ground, while cutting, the fodder receives no poisonous infusion, as it does invariably when placed to dry in contact with the soil.

More to the east, but nearly in the same degree of latitude, amongst the Alleghenies,on the west side of the Blue ridge, forty miles from the southern boun- dary of North- Carolina, which is in the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, in three or four coves of the mountain, where the lands are fertile, is the same disorder. The animal that feeds upon them, when heated by motion, loses the use of its limbs, and dies in a short time. But if not heated by exercise, very often escapes being disordered. That they are poisoned, is hardly ever discoverable, till they become fatigued by exercise. Their milk and flesh is poisonous, and the butter likewise. The sick- ness from eating any of these, commences by puking and a violent pain in the stomach. The breath of the patient is very offensive, and the sweat from

49

his body may be smelled eight or ten steps froQ him : the scent is cadaverous* The poisonous effects are seen here in the months of August and ISep^ tember. There are four of these poisonous tracts in the county of Haywood^ not far from the centre and the town of Waynesville* No ponds or stag- nant waters are near them. The coves in which they are, bear to the southeast. There are some of these poisonous tracts also, in the county of Buncomb ; nearly in the same degree of latitude^ but rather more to the south. ,

Of the Indian Summer in Tewhesset.

In Tennessee and in North-Carolina, and Vir" ginia, a part of the year is distinguished by the name of the Indian summer ; which is said not to be known in othef parts of the world. About the middle of October, or a few days sooner or later* it commences. The weather is fair and warm, with a hazy or smoky appearance of the atmosphere^ and causes agreeable sensations. It continues two or three weeks, and sometimes more, and is imme- diately succeeded by cold weather. Advantage i« taken of its continuance, to gather in the cottoti and other fruits of the earth. It is generally dispelled by a brisk ctin-ent of wind from the south, followed in a few hours by clouds and rain, which ate drivea t)ff by wind from the west or northwest. The cold season then advances, and through the wintet to the beginning of April, whenever the wind is from the south, the temperature is watm, and the animal spirits depressed ; which state of the atmosphere is soon followed by a brisk wind with clouds and rain in the rear. When their direction is changed |jy a wind from the West or from the northwest, th© rain is oftentimes changed into snow before the horizon is cleared of them. The animal spirits are exhilarated by a wind from the west, and much ?ttore m by one froia the northwest. In any part

50

pi the winter, the wind is seldom from any pomt beyond the south or northwest. When from the West, the weather is cold ; but more so when the wind is from the northwest; and still more so when it is from the north. When from the northeast, it is in nearly the same degree of temperature as when from a point between the south and west ; but gen- erally the weather is cloudy, and the clouds lower* ing and charged with snow. The old remains of the- roots and bodies of trees blown up by winds, show that there have been within a century past, very strong gusts and currents of wind from the southeast. Tornados are frequent in the summer, from the clouds which frequently blow up in the evening, and within the limits of their extent, are often very destructive. When the atmosphere is cleared of vapour, by a west or northwest wind, the weather in winter becomes clear and cold ; but each suc- ceeding day becomes milder for three or four days ; whilst the wind creeps to the south, when it again becomes warm, and frequently so much so, that it is not agreeable to set by the fire. In a short time afterwards, the wind springs up, and the clouds follow as before mentioned. The nights in summer time are much cooler titan in North- Carolina. There is seldom a night in Tennessee, when just before daybreak, and thence to sunrise, a blanket would not be comfortable. That part of the night is so cool, as to indicate with certainty the near approach of light. And indeeed every part of the^ night is cooler than in North-Carolina.

When the spring, begins to advance, the air in Tennessee is unequally warmed. In some places, "We enter into tepid columns, through which we pass in eight or ten yards. The sensation they create, is rather oppressive than otherwise.

There is much more rain and snow in the winters in Tennessee, than in those of North-Carolina; th* sky is seldom clear in December and January, and

51

to the middle of February. The soil is dilated into mud, which reaches in many places to the knees of a horse travelling on the road. This constant humi- dity is the parent of consumptions to those whose constitutions are predisposed to that disorder. The summer nights are much cooler than those in North- Carolina. There is seldom, if ever, a summer night in Tennessee, where an hour before daybreak the cover of a blanket is not necessary for defence against the cold. One cause may be, that the nu- merous large trees which grow in the forests, ex- clude the rays of the sun in the day time, from the soil on which they stand; whereby it retains its moisture and coolness, which the falling of the dews increases : but this, if any cause, is not the only one, or perhaps even the most efficient ; for a similar coolness is experienced in the barrens and wilderness, where there are no such forests^ but possibly not in the same degree„

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CHAPTER II.

Within the limits of Tennessee arc some geo- logical phenomena, both upon the surface of the earth and below it, which ought to be recorded for the benefit of naturalists. And at the same time, there are numerous aboriginal vestiges; which added to those already preserved, may at some future day, help to elucidate what we so much desire to know, the history of the primitive settlers in this continent, with that of their exter- minators, whom we in succession have extermina- ted. We will consider then in the first place, of marine appearances found upon or near the surface; secondly, of marine appearances under the surface; thirdly, of the productions of the surface found below it.

Sec. 1. First then, Of Marine Appearances on the surface. Shells are found in the limestone rock, in various parts of East Tennessee, particu- larly about the junction of the north and south forks of Holston. The volute of the conch is dis- tinctly marked. Some of them are six inches in diameter. In many places, they may be seen in the road, by the observing traveller. The like ap- pearances are discernable, at a few places near Bays mountain. The shells at the mouth of the north fork, are distant fifty miles from the summit of the AUeghenies. Similar appearances are abundant at Mr. Bradley's, fourteen miles east of Rogers ville, and indeed through all the adjacent parts of the country.

Small shells of the same form as those common- ly called conch shells of the ocean, are found upon the surface of the earth, in many places in Weat Tennessee. Upon the shells is an apex, and from it winding ridges, downwards, till the body of the shell is enlarged, where the auimtl once was en-

54

closed. Tlience it tapers and decreases, till it comes to a point at tlie bottom, Avith a part of the involuted shell covered by an upper one, with a space between, which the animal occupied whilst living. The colour of the inside is white with a mixture of red.

In many places amongst the rocks are found madripores, which are mistaken for petrified wasp- nests. TJiese petrifactions exhibit a thousand cells in which animals once resided.

At a plantation in Davidson county, eight miles south- from Nashville, on the road leading to Huntsville, and through the whole neighbourhood of it, are limestone rocks on the surface ; in which, through all parts of them, are intermixed bivalve shells, some of them of the siz« of the thumb nail of a middle sized man ; others of the size of Spanish coined quarters of dollars. They are not quite as long as broad. Similar appearances are found in very great abundance, near Williamsburg, in Jackson county. Other petrified substances on the above mentioned plantation, are composed of small biyalve shells, of the same form, but two thirds less. The*e are found in masses, two or three feet under the surface, which are concretions formed of countless numbers of such shells; which are grooved on the outside, with radii all diverging from a point, near the upper end of the shell. The masses are easily broken into pieces, and «eem to be in a state of decay. The shells are cemented together by mud converted into stone ; in which mud they were embedded together, and were all of the same age when the animal functions were suspended, which must have been also at the siajne instant.

Ip Maury county, in the suburbs of Columbia, which stands on the south side of Duck river, arie liinestone rocks, in which are visible, numerous shells of the same species with those above descri-

55

bed itt the cotinty of Davidson. And in tlie same suburbs, are madripores, and upon one of the rocks there, and forming a part of it, is a petrified crab fish. Similar shells are on Richland creek, and on Elk river. Marine appearances in short, are exhibited in all the counties within the limits of Tennessee, from the dividing ridge between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, to the Alleghen- ies, which divide this state from North-Carolina. Between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, is a ridge of oyster shells, running in a northwardly and southwardly direction, and extending as far northwardly as the head waters of Forked- deer river, thirty or forty miles north of the southern boundary of the state of Tennessee. The Forked- deer being there nearly parallel with the boundary. How much further north the bank extends, at pre- sent is unknown to the writer. The ridge, or bank, is above the head of the rivei's which run into the Tennessee on the one side, and into the Mississippi on the other. It extends southwardly, to the junc- tion of the Black warrior river with theTombcckbe ; and in its course, is sometimes on the one side and sometimes on the other side of the Tombeckbe. In the state of Mississippi, in the lands occupied by the Chickasaw settlements, are several parallel ridges of oyster shells, three or four miles apart, dividing the head waters of Tombeckbe from each other. Some of these ridges are thirty or forty feet above the level of the water in the adjacent streams, and from half a mile to three quarters in width : others are of smaller dimensions. Some of them are wholly composed of oyster shells ; and have the appearance of lime compacted, after it lias been dissolved by slacking. It will crumble be- tween the thumb and finger, like rotten dirt; and may be rubbed into the smallest particles, like lime fronqi reduced shell*.

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Sec. 2. Of Marine Appearances below the sur- face.

Between the towns of Sparta and Carthage, and four miles from the former, is a mountain or ridge, through a gap of which the traveller passes, in going from the one town to the other. It continues cir- cuitously, till it passes the Cany Fork, three miles beloW the Rock landingj and runs in a direction to join the main Cumberland motintaiti, on the north of Sparta. Its southwardly course is between Stone's river and Duck river, dividing the waters of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. This seems to be a similar circular chain within that which is twelve or eighteen miles beyond Nashville westwardly, which also is within an exterior one, more westwatdly still, between the Tennessee and Mississippi, and to the ridge on the souths between the waters of the Mississippi and those of the Ala- bama. The smaller of these segments, in the shape of a rainboWj passes on the south of Sparta, three miles from it. Near the base, in a southwardly course from Sparta three miles, is the appearance of ail old well, around which lie promiscuously a great number of conchs, from the size of a ben's egg to that of a thimble. Here the water below, it is said, affords a strong salt-water attraction. The ground around the old well, is firm and high. The well is five or six feet deep ; and near its mouth is a small hillock of earth, made of the materials taken from the inside. There is no river in the country which at this day produces such shells. They were brought to the well, or taken from it by digging.

Mr. Spear sunk three wells in search of salt water, three miles from the town of Franklin, in Williamson county, and in a northwardly direction from the town, and near the road leading to Nash- ville. In one of them, at the depth of tw^enty feet, he struck limestone 5 on which h« found periwin^

5T

kles, one inch and a half in length, and two or three cockle shells, fluted on the outside. He dug up divers pieces of charcoal, of hurnt white oak, at the depth of ten or fifteen feet. Fire and water, so hostile to each other, seem by all the subterra- nean phenomena which have been hitherto disco- vered in Tennessee, or in the neighbouring state of Missouri^ to hav^ joined their powers at the awful period when all these deposites were made in the bowels of the earth. Wherever we see trees, and equatorial plants heaped together under the surface, we never fail to find charcoal also. The fire seems to have exerted itself upon every combustible sub- ject, which the waves did not conceal from its fury^ See B,

Sec. 3. Of th» Productions of the Surface found helow it y first, artificial ; secondly, natural.

First, Of Artificial Productions of the Surface found helow it.

On Goose creek, on the Redbifd fork of Ken- tucky river, not far from the bank of the creek, a well was sunk, to the depth of a hundred feet, and at the bottom was found a piece of an iron pot, and coal and ashes. General White, of Abingdon^ related the fact to Colonel Ackland^ the latter ot whom stated it to the writer.

At Mr. Ready's, twelve miles southeast froni Murfreesborough j ten feet from the bank of the east fork of Stone's river, and ten feet below the sur- face, he dug up a quantity of charcoal, in making an opening in which to fix his millhouse.- — See i'.

Secondly, Of J^atural Productions of the Sun- face found helow it.

The town of Sparta, in the county of White, in West Tennessee, is situated, at the foot of the Cumberland mountain, about one hundred yards east of a spring of the Cany Fork, called the Calf killer, which runs by it from northeast to southwest. H

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llic site of the town is an eminence, from tlie brow of which to the river on the west, is a decliv- ity of twenty-five or thirty degrees, somewhat bro- ken by the- extremities of strata terminating one below another, and with a more western projection than the one next above, till the valley is arrived at, in which the river rolls. Between the brow and the river^ in digging, w^s lately found, twenty feet under ground, five or six turkey eggs, all pet- rified. The end of one of them being broken off, the white and yolk Were as plainly discernable as they were When the egg was in its primitive state. Thirty or forty yards below the spot where the well was sunk, is a sink-hole, now nearly filled up, which may have once extended to the place where the well was sunk. Part of the well caved in, and the clay which composed it fell to the bottom. The eggs found at the bottom may have come from this cavity, which was only twelve feet below the surface. The eggs looked like boiled eggs, but the colours of the yolk and white were not changed. Salt water is abundant through all this neighbourhood, and ma- ny nitrous caves are in the neighbouring mountains. These may have promoted and accellerated petri* faction. But how was the covering superinduced? Water mixed with sediment would have floated and separated the eggs. Dirt or clay torn off and thrown upon them, would have crushed them. The nest must have been in a cavity extending east- wardly, and under the covering over which the water glided, and from it fell below the nest, de- positing sediments, Avhich finally covered the mouth towards the west. Afterwards, the sediments were deposited equally over the covering of the cavity, and the alluvial accretion below. Most certainly, this covering to the depth of twenty feet, having been formed neither by inundation nor earthquake, shows evidently, that all other things under the same depth of covering; such as boues; metals and

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the like, may have been buried by progressive ac- cretion. The hollows constantly fill up from the mountain to the plane ; and Nature incessantly ex- erts herself to smooth the unevenness of the sur- face, which the deluge produced.

On the south side of Tennessee river, near the southern boundary of the state of Tennessee; are three trees entirely petrified. One a cypress, about four feet through ; another a sycamore ; and the last a hickory, but not as large. The roots, bark and limbs were still remaining in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-one, except parts which have been recenty broken off. They lie obliquely from the river, with the roots up stream, and are about five feet below low- water mark. About fifteen feet of the trees are exposed by the caving in of the blufl^, and the residue of the trees -b covered by the bluff, which at that place is estimated to be three hundred feet high, and is nearly perpendicular. The bluff is about a mile in length, and gently de- «cends from the river. It consists of sand and white clay, and is by some called the Chalk bluff. Immediately over these trees, is a small spring, the Avater of which is strongly impregnated with iron and copperas. Similar petrifactions of wood, are to be found on Big Harpeth river ; and also at the Chickasaw bluff, on the Mississippi. At the latter place, are several copperas springs, near to Avhicli are to be seen parts of trees, which have been lodged in the bank, in a state of petrifaction. The beach also over which the water passes, is for ma- ny yards incrusted with a petrifaction of clay or gravel. Part of a tree is also to be seen at this place, at low-water mark, some of which is petri- fied, and the balance has the appearance of stone coal, and from experiments made, no doubt is so. For several rods the coal is to be found, and when broken to pieces, exhibits the appearance of part having been once wood, and other parts clay.

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l^hft coal is stated by the settlers at tire blu/f, itf have been farmed Vvitbin a few year;?. At Fort Pickering, which is about a diIIc below, Mr. Trvhi, ifi digging a well, foui>d about thirty feet below the surface, what he at first supposed to be a stone. There being none in the country, be had the curi- osity to break it, and discovered that it was a pet- rifaction of clay and eTavel, and that it enclosed a frog, which after being exposed to the sun, hopped off.

At William Young's, fifteen miles east of Ro- gersville, in digging a millrace in the side of a hill, at a point forty or fifty yards from the creek, at thfc depth of six feet below the surface, was found the upper part of a goafs horn, completely petrified, the length was an inch and a half.

Sec. 4, Of tfe Ancient Animals of Tennessee-

That everything might appear -wonderful to him "who comes to explore the footsteps of past ages in this country of extraordinary spectacles, are left for the speculations of curiosity, a number of large bones, which belonged to animals of the brute cre- ation, that have for ages disappeared, and at this time are not known to exist in any part of the globe. Some of them need only to be described, to give an idea of the size of these huge animals. They are distinguishable by the great claw, or megaliuix, and the mammoth.

And first, Of the Great Claw,

In White county, on the west side of the Cumber- land mountain, in West Tennessee, near the line of Warren county, and about eight miles south or southwest of the spot where were found the two human bodies which will be hereafter described, is a cave, in the spur of the mountain, having a small entry on one side, but on the other a mouth of much larger size. Half a mile from the small entry, the bones of some large animal were found, lying all

61

togethsh Some of the teeth were taken un, and weighed seven or eight poniuls. A hora, of raach larger size, it is said, than the horn of the largest buffalo, hut resembling it in shape, was taken from amongst or near to these large bones. In tlie cave, was a proiigious claw, with verij long nails, but it does not appear, whether found with the bones above-mentioned or not. Many bones also of smaller beasts, were found in this cave. The tooth had the form of a dog's upper tooth, not at all in the shape of a grinder. Tiiis must have belonged to a carnivorous animal, of immense size, which preyed upon the buffalo, as well as animals of less bulk, and was probably of the feline genus. An- other account of the same bones, has some partic- ulars not stated in the former. It states, that the Big-bone and Arch caves are on the dividing line between White and Warren counties, and on the Cumberland mountain. They are six: or eight hundred yards apart, or rather their mouths are, for they unit^ They were discovered in eighteen hundred and six, and were sold out in shares, to forty or fifty persons, for sixty thousand dollars. They are now owned by Colonel Randolph Ross, of Rockbridge county, in Virginia. About twenty thousand pounds of saltpetre were made from the smallest cave, called the Arch care. There are several branches to the Big-bone cave ; from one of which, the dirt has been collected for upwards of half a mile. This branch of the cave has been explored upwards of half a mile. Three men were three days and nights in the cave, and represented that they went in it to the dis- tance of ten or twelve miles. The proprietors think that they were mistaken as to the distance. The bones of a large animal were found when the Big-bone cave was discovered. The animal they belonged to was of the cat species. The ribs were placed on the ba'^k bone, the lower end

62

in tlie ground. Jacob Drake, who is five feet nine inches liigh, walked erect in the hollow. The width of the libs was between four and five inches. The hoUoAv of the back bone was between two and three inches in diameter. The socket of the bone -working in the shoulder blade, six inches. The tusk, between four and five inches in diameter, similar to a dog's. The claw, twelve inches in the round from point to point; straight, nine inches ; hollow, one inch in diameter; weight, one pound and three quarters. There was also a scoop net, made of bark thread ; a raockasin made of the like materials ; a mat of the same materials, enveloping human bones, w^ere found in saltpetre dirt, six feet below the surface. The net and other things moul- tlered on being exposed to the sun,

A claw was lately taken from a cave, in Perry county, in the Chickasaw purchase, which is ap- parently above five inches long. The upper part covered, about two inches down, with a brownish filament one eightli of an inch thick, with many little holes in the surface. In the mnei* or lower side of the claw, are two large holes, equidistant IVom the edge, and parallel to each other trans- versely; which seem to have received some tendon, that joined tlie upper ligaments, about the higher sind hinder part of the foot. The upper part was in diameter about one half of an inch, and thence to the point about three inches.

At a lick, on Lick creek of Tennessee river, -on the south side, was lately found, by Jeremiah Brown, Esquire, a large tusk or tooth, measuring eidit feet in length. It was crooked like a horn, and round ; and where it entered into the jaw, it was eight inches broad, and flat. He supposed it f o be the tooth of a sea animal. But at the same place, some small distance under ground, have been found the bones of different land animals. The socket of the bone of one of them was so

6S

large, that one man could hardly lift it. The pet* rifled part of the hip bone was eisjlit inches in diameter. Some of these were probably the bones of the animal to which the tusk bclonif;ed.

Secondly, Of the Mammoth,

In a lick in Sullivan county, was found a tooth, now in the possession of Mr. Pciuberton, who con-- siders it a family relick, and will nut part with it. The lick is a large one, a!)out eighteen miles due east of Blountsville, near Holston river, which hatli the appearance of having been much used and fre- quented by wild animals in former times. A per- son, in clearing out a spring near the lick, found the under jaw bone of some large animal, which con- tained three grinders, the largest of w hich is now in the possession of Mr. Pemberton, Avhich weigh- ed, at the time it was extracted from the bone, three pounds and three quarters. The root or lower part of the tooth, to the edge of the jaw bone, or perhaps to the gum, was decayed, and in part gone, at the time the tooth was found, and the balance to the solid part of the tooth mouldered away on being exposed to the atmosphere. There were three jaw-teeth in the bone, and probably nevermore. The tooth in the possessjion of Mr. Pemberton, was the hindermost tooth, and measur- ed about four inches from the cheek side to that of *he tongue, four inches from the upper edge to that part next the root, and eight or nine inches from the front part to the hinder. The socket in which the grinder sat in the jaw bone, u as fiftt^en inches long and five wide. The jaw bone when laid on the ground, exhibited a size equal to that of a large dog's body. BetW'cen the grinder and the place where the four teeth were, the bone was solid, simi- lar to that of a horse or cow. At the end next the fote teeth, was a cavity in thfe bone, a small part of which reraained large enou^^h to receive a man's

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jirm. There the front teeth may have been. Thft ends of the jaw bone were decayed. From the curve, the jaw bone was estimated to be equal to that of a large man's thigh. The ribs were nine feet long, both ends being decayed some distance- Where the bones are, many small pine knots ar8 found, perfectly sound. The bones when laid in water, will remain entire; but would dissolve, if exj)osed to the corroding atmosphere.

At Bledsoe's lick, in tlie county of Sumner, in making way by digging into the earth, to sink a gum for tlie collection of the water, and to separate it from the black mud at the lick, after digging some distance, the workmen came to the tusk of some huge animal, between two and three feet in length. Also grinders, eight or nine inches wide at least. The tusk was bent, like that of a hog, but not as much so, in proportion to its size.

At Mansker's station, where is a salt lick, and Mansker's creek, a well was sunk for salt waters Affer digging some distance, the diggers came to large bones, as thick as a man's thigh, and two, three or more feet long.

In the county of Maury, a few miles from Co- lumbia^ and on the south side of Duck river, ou the lands of the late Mr. Williamson, is a spring of excellent water ; near which, some years ago, were found under the surface, two teeth, or tusks, of a curved form, and two or three feet in length ; the teeth tapering to a point, from that part of them which joined the socket to the end of the tooth which is pointed.

At a sulphur spring, ten or twelve miles from Reynoldsburg, on the south side of the Tennessee river, ou a creek that discharges itself into the river^ is a spring breaking out in the bed of the creek. In the water near the spout of the spring, was found in the year eighteen hundred and twenty, the tusk of a huge animal, curved inwardg considerably, ia

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a;s to form the segment of a circle. The end, which iiad grown in the socket of the jaw bone, was de- cayed. The tooth was eight feet six inches in. length, and is supposed to weigh from one to two hundred weight. It is of a yellowish cast. Also was found there, the thigh bone. The part that turned in the socket is decayed. It was six feet in length, and three feet in circumference. Also were found, several parts of the back bone. The hol- low, which enclosed the spinal marrow, measured six inches in diameter. Also was found there, a part of the scull, which contained the cavity in which the eye rolled. It v/as eight inches in di- ameter. Also was found there, a hip bone, the hollow of which that the thigh hone turned in, is capacious enough to receive a fifteen-gallon kettle. The bones were covered with mud. The spring is in about 35,45 north latitude. It is calculated from the appearance and size of the bones, that the animal when living must have been twenty feet high.

That the cold seasons are now advancing, and have been fur twenty years and more, is proved by the observation of many persons ; that the winters are now longer and more severe than they were twenty or thirty years ago. And very recently a phenomenon has occurred, which, though commou in high northern latitudes, has never like been observed in Tennessee, by the white people who have settled there. On Friday morning, the loth of February, 1723, the wind in Cumberland moun- tain from the south, with moderate rain ; about 9 o'clock the wind shifted more to the west, and shortly after blew a strong gale fiom the northwest, with snow. Tiie cold increased during the whole day. In the night, the heaven's became clear ; a strong gale still blowing from the northwest. The morning of the 16th was the coldest weather ever witnessed in Tennessee; by the oldest inhabitants.

66

The sun fose briglit, but was not fell, a mist being in the atmosphere, which was perfectly congealed, and with every gale was drifted a fine frvst. At times the whole atmosphere was filled with it. The son was still visible, with a silver brightness, as through a curtain, not more oppressive to the eye than the moon in a clear night. The cold must bave been at least four degrees more intense than- in the valley below.

The same falling of frost through the whole day prevailed over all the country around Nashville. . On the mountain, the trees everywhere resound- ed, from the excessive freeze, with sounds frequent- ly as loud as the report of discharged pistils. The cold subsided gradually, and the temperature be- came tolerable in the course of the two following. daySo'—iSiee note ZB^ at the end of this volume*

67

CHAPTER 111. .

'Bepore entering upon the aboriginal history of "Tennessee, a short comparison of the Mexicans with the Hindoos and Persians, and of the Natchez with the Mexicans, will, it is conceived, very much contribute to the understanding of many aboriginal relics, with which we meet in this country. 'I'his comparison therefore will be made: First, between the political institutions of tlie Mexicans and Pe- ruvians on the one hand, v^iih those of the Hindoos and Persians on the other : Secondly, between the religious practices of the Hindoos and Persians on the one hand, and of the Mexicans and Peruvians on the other : Thirdly, between the cosmical his- tory of the latter, and that of the Hindoos and Per- sians : Fourthly ,^ between the vernacular customs of the Hindoos and Persians, and those of the Mexicans and Peruvians.

T'irst — Between the. JPoliticdl Institutions of thB JSIexican^ and Peruvians on the one hand, and, 4hose of the Hindoos and Persians on the other.

Ancient authors consider the Hindoos and Egyp- tians as the same people : and believe that the ons

^was a colony from the other, because of the same- ness which was found in their religion, government, customs, sciences and arts. A. similitude with one

ds therefore equally so with the other.

The Mexicans and Peruvmns, like the Hindoos, invested their princes with despotic power; and lik^ the Hindoos, Persians, Chinese and Geylonese, de- nominated them children of the sun. The Persians called their princes brothers of the sun. The Mexicans, like the Hindoos, divided the people into five, or rather four, casts. The Mexicans had

?= post-roads and couriers through all parts of the

68

empire :139 an iRstituiiori first invenied in Persin, by Cyrus, or soon after his time ; and which was not introduced into Europe before the time of Au- gustus, and not into the states of modern Europe till very lately.

The lands in Peru were appropriated ODe third to the sun, the god whom they adored ; to be ap- plied to the erection of temples, and to the furnish- ing of requisites, for celebrating the rites of reli- gion ; another third, to the inea, or sovereign, and the other third was divided amongst the people ; and at the end of every year a new division was jnade. The lands were cultivated jointly. The people were summoned by" an officer, and worked with songs and musical instruments to cheer them. In Egypt, all the lands were divided into three classes, one for the king, one for the priesta, and the other to the soldiers. 140 The h^isbandmen took these lands to farm, for a moderate portion of their produce. Joseph, in his time, acquired all the lands for the king ; and returned them to the peo- ple, they paying to the king one fifth of their pro- duce annually ; and this law continued to the time of Moses. 141 The same law was carried into India in ancient times, probably after the time of Joseph, or in his time and possibly in the reign of Sesos- tris. There the monarch was the sole proprietor, and the people paid a land tax to their kings. Such also w^as the state of property in ancient times in Persia. 142 In Mexico, some of the people held lands as inheritances^ some as annexed to the offi- ces they held. The residue of the lands were divided into portions suited to the numbers of fa- milies who w^ere to cultivate them. The product was deposited in a common storehouse, and divided amongst them according to their wants.

139 4 Herod. 222'; 2 R. H. Am. 265; 2 Rollins/ 326.

140 D. Siculus, b. 1. p. 85.

141 Genesis, ch. 47, v. 18, 20, 22, 24.

142 Rob, Ind. 330 ; D. Seculus, b. 2, p. 153.

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Sec, 2, ^econdlj— Between the Meligioiis Prac- tices of the Hindoos and Persians on. the one hand, and of the Mexicans and Peruvians on the other.

The religious notions of the Mexicans conform- ed in a great variety of instances to those of the Hindoos. And in some instances, a confonnity is discovered in the antiquities of Tennessee, which lias not been mentiooed by writers, as existing amongst the Mexicans, but which v/ithoat doubt did exist, if those who formeriy resided here were colonists from Mexico. The Hindoos have a Tri- murti, or three principal divinities in one: Brahma, Vishnu and Semi. This union is intended to d(i- note, that existence cannot be produced, without the combination of the threefold power of creation, preservation and destruction. ^^^ Originally, by the representation of three divine powers in one body, the ancient Hindoos intended the iliiwi great pow- ers of nature, the earth, water and lire. This no- tion gradually vanished after images came into use; and the ignorant populace converted these repre- sentations by images into three distinct godheads. Thence came the notion into Egypt, and ihence into Grreece, of the mysterious virtue contained in the number three. But wh}' or wherefore, they could not tell. Some said it was the representa- tion of time, and that the three eyes in the image of Jupiter, one in the middle between the other two, was intended for time past, present and to come. Some said it meant three eternals, God, matter and form. 144 The Platonic system united three grand ' principles into one. In order to be the better un- derstood, it considered one of them as the son of an eternal father, the creator and governor of the world. Having proceeded thus far, the lively imagination and active ingenuity of the Grreeks sooa branched these ideas into a thousand others.

143 1 Dub. 113. 144 3 Anach.

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Jupiter, in Tiis lifetime, supposed {he fliree go3s to be the sun, the earth and heavens ; and to them he accovdingly sacrificed. 1^5 As soon as the sun ^became one of the three, his emblem, the serpent with one body and three heads, was twisted around a statue. The Romans thought the three gods were Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus.i47 Afterwards they deemed Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune the three ^upremes, as did the Trojans in the time of the Trojan war,i^8 or the world below, the air and sea. 149 At Alexandria was the image of Serapis; on his right hand was the body and head of a ser- pent branching into three tails, which were again terminated by the triple head of a dog, a lion and a wolf. From this origin, in short, the belief of a sacred virtue in the number three has spread over the v/hole earth. In many countries it hath been received without examination into the causes of its mystic qualities. Amongst others, the Hebrews, from a long residence with the Egyptians, adopted it likewise. 150 it originatad from the Trimurte of India, and the religion of the Hindoos is founded upon books of the higiiest antiquity. Like the books themselves, it hath remained tire same through a long succession of ages. It is one of the religious <hities of the Brahman's, to bathe three tiijies every <lay. The Hindoos celebrate a festival in honour of their ancestors three days ; and on those days make various offerings to their ancestors, of food and raiment. If Ave meet in America with tlte «ame deified trij)licity, with the same reverence for this mysterious number, .we may refer it to tiiia Hindoo origin, until some better shall be assigned for it.

146 ID Siculus, 5. 147 5 Gib, 3.

148 1 Iliad, £00, 149 15 liiad.

150 Exodus, ch. 23, v. 14, 17 ; Numb. ch. 22, v. 15, 28, cb. £4, V, 10; Deut. ch. 16, v. 16; .1 Samuel, cb. 20, v. 41 ; 1 Kings, ch. 9, v. 25, ch. 17, v. 21:; Daniel, ch. 1, v. -5, ch. 10, X.13. /. ■

Tt

The Mexicans believe in a transmigration of souls ; a doctrine first t^iuglit in India and Persia, and afterwards adopted by the Egyptians.

Two of the Mexican deities were the sun and moon. These were worshipped in ancient times hy far the greater part of the nations of Asia, and bythe Persians and Hindoos particularly.

The Mexicans had their pentiies or houseliold gods. So had the people of Mesipotamia, 1600 years before Christji^i which probably they bor- rowed from the eastern countries, whence they emigrated. 152

The Hindoos and the Egyptians worshipped animals : the dog and the cat were sacred animals. The Mexicans ei-ected little chapels, in which they buried the wolf, the tiger, the eagle and the sjsjake or adder.

The Hindoos worshipped the gamide, or bird of prey, with a strong hooked bill ; particularly those Hindoos who were of the sect of Vishnu. They pay it adoration every morning immediately after ablution. On the 25th of May, 1538, He Soto^ landed in Florida. ^^ The Lord^s house stood near the shore, upon a very hi^h mount, made by hand for strength. At another end of the town, stood a fowl made of ivood, with gilded eyesJ^ In one of the mounds of Ohio, the beak of a bird of prey,, like that of the eagle, was found.

The representation of the Mexican god Huel- zettu-pocli, and the Hindoo god Crishna, very strikingly resemble each other.

The Mexican gods or idols were for the most part painted with red, and blue shirts. Blue vest- ments and decorations are usually met with in the statues of the Hindoo and Egyptian deities. Ver- milion also was a common colour with the deities of the two nations. The Romans painted Jupiter's fece red, and Vulcan was sometimes representetl with a blue hat.

151 GtnMia, cli. Sl^VrSO, 152 Geaesis, ch. 11^ v. 2.

73

In Mexico, as avcII as in Egypt, the noses of their gods, or idols, vrere ornamented with gold, rings, formed into the shape of a serpent, the em- blem of the siin.^^2

The Mexicans celebrate the festivals "which the Hindoos call jlama, and Avhich the Peruvians also celebrated by the name of Kama-satea.

In Mexico, infants were passed through the fire: it was done by making a movement as if passing the child tlircugh a ilame, kindled for the occasion. No doubt this practice was common to the Hindoos, with all the other worshippers of the sun. 1^2

The Mexicans adore the sun by waving the hand towards him, and perhaps putting it towards the mouth. This also was a practice no doubt comyipn to the Hindoos, with all his other wor- shippers.i^s

The masque 'of a Mexican priest is represented in Mexico. He is drawn as sacrificing a human victim ; a sacrifice which all the worshippers of the sun everywhere made.i54 The masque represents an elephant's trunk, similar to the head so often portrayed in Indostan. As no elephants exist in America, it is reasonable to conclude that the de- signment was brought from Asia.

Yishnu, one of the principal divinities of the Hindoos, is with them the preserver of all things. And in this office, has been obliged, upon ten im- portant occasions, to metamorphose himself, in or- der to efPect his purposes. Once into a fish, to dive into the abyss of the sea, and to pluck the four books called tlie Vedas/from the bowels of a giant, who had stolen and swallowed tliem, and took refnge in the middle of the ocean. In the time of

152 Genesis, ch. 35, V. 4.

152 Leviticus, ch.l8, v. 21 ; Deuteronomy, ch. 18. v. 10; 2 Kings, ch. 16, v. 3, ch. 21, v. 6, ch.23, v. 10, ch. 17, V.IT"; SChron. ch.53, V.6; 2Dub. 171.

153 Job, ch.31, V. 27. 154 2 Dub. 171.

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the war between the gods and the giants, the celes- tials being vanquished, and praying to Vishnu, he ordered them to pull up the mountain Mandara- Parvata, and cast it into the sea. They made a ship of this mountain, with which to navigate the ocean. It began to sink, and the gods being in it, and like to perish, he metamorphosed himself into a tortoise, plunged into the ocean, and supported the sinking mountain on his solid back'. He had, in short, perpetual war with the giants: often changed his form and appearance, and conquered. The island of Ceylon, with his ape auxiliaries, he conquered, and overcame the army of giants there. The Vishnu of the Hindoos resembles, in his at- tributes, the Neptune of the Greeks and Romans. Neptune lives in the waters, and rules over the ocean, armed with a trident. The tritons accom- pany him, sounding their conch shells. Vishnu is called Nara-yana, or one of the sojourners in the waters. He sleeps in the bottom of the wide ocean. His devotees bear on their foreheads the symbol of the trident. They blow the sea horn, and repre- sent its figure, with hot iron on the shoulders. 1^4 When a universal deluge swept oflP all mankind, the seven penitents were saved, by means of a ship; into which Vishnu made them embark, and ia which he acted as the pilot This account is given in the Bagha-veta, one of the most ancient books which the Hindoos acknowledge. Extravagant aa are these fundamentals of Hindoo mythology, they are contained in the most ancient writings of the world. Stripped of the fabulous covering which Hindoo imagination hath given them, we can dis- cover, that Vishnu the dweller in the ocean, is sig- nified by the symbolical representation of the for- toise or the conch shell. For this or some other cause, shells and conch shells were considered amongst the valuables of India^ iu the most ancient

154 1 Dub, 118.

J

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fimes. And the law provided, that double tBe principal shall be the limited accumulation of in- terest, in shells borrowed. '•'It is the same in re- spect nf conchs or the liJee.'^^^^ His large statue on the island of Elephanta, is represented with hi*' toes of conch shells ^ to signify his marine journeys. Conch shells were probably used for sounding his praises, convoking his worshippers, and in their ablutions. As it is presumable, that the follower* of Vishnu everywhere practised the same ceremo- nies, we must expect to find wherever they have been, the relics of their rites and ceremonies. Such relics, when discovered, will be as good, if not better evidence of such rites, than if they had been simply mentioned by some writer. The truth is, that many such indicia may have been seen and not observed by writers, who had no suspicion of the former connexion between the Hindoos and Mexi- cans. And though not mentioned as existing amongst the Mexicans, must now be taken to have been in use amongst them, as well as amongst the Hindoos. Mr. Clifford said, in his lifetime, that conch shells reversed had been found at springs in Kentucky. !Nine were found in digging out one spring ; five or six in a spring near Willi am sville, in Woodford county ; fifteen others at a spring on General Kennedy^s farm; eighteen large and twelve smaller ones, in like situations, at Mr. Jones's farm, two miles from Lexington, in Garard county : alf in circumvallatory temples. In the temples in Ga- rard county,where found, the entrances into the open area are directly opposite to the fountains. These' conchs are perfect, and in as good preservation as^ shells usually are which are found upon the sea- beach. We can see from the imperfect lights be- fore noticed, that navigation in India was cultivated' and practiced, from times at least but shortly sub* sequent to the Deluge, Their marine inUrest, at*-

1:55 Colebrook'8 Hiudoo Layrs, 51, 6t.

T5

|0we3 of in the book called Menii^ •vvLo Uvea, rt in «aid, at as early a period of the world as Moses rfihows it. " Whatever interest shall be settled., Jbetween the jJarties^ hy men well acquainted with sea voyages, or journeys by land, such interest shall have legal forced '^^^ Bea voyages then were performed in the time of Menu, by the people of India. For this reason they adored Vishnu. And now comes the important fact, which the preceding observa- tions are intended to make appear in its true light. In Mexico, this deity, or god of the ocean, was adored equally with the sun, tlieir greatest deity. And why did the Mexicans adore him ? Bid they derive from India the knowledge they had of hia properties ? did they, in imitation of the Hindoos, use conch shells as religious symbols of that deity? did they make their purifying ablutions with them at the springs, before they entered into the temple, to offer up prayer and thanksgiving? With tha Hindoos, bathing is the proper remedy for sin and impurity. There are certain places of bathing, to which are attributed complete efficacy. Those who wash in certain sacred rivers, restore the soul and body from all sins and corruptions which they may Lave contracted. To think of these rivers in th© performance of purifying ablutions is sufficient* There are also many springs and pools consecra- ted, and much renowned for the spiritual effect* they communicatei^^ to those who bathe in them. Some have the virtue every twelfth year; and thera are others Avhicli have it periodically. When th& year and day arrive for bathing in those sacred waters, a crowd of people almost without number, men, women and children, arrange themselves a- round the water, and as soon as the astrologer aa- nounces the favourable hour and moment of th© ^ay, all, men, women and children; plunge int© tU»,

156 1 Hindoo Laws, p. 48, sec. 36.

157 1 Dub. 181, 182.

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water at once, and with a mighty uproar. Vesti- ges of the same practices in America, in the use of conch shells, and of multitudinous ablutions, wiiich will occur in the further progress of these inquiries, may assist in leading to the conclusion, that the Mexicans, who had many other traits of the Hin- doo character, had also the rites of which we are now speaking. The same acts and circumstances produced defilement amongst the Hindoos, as are stated to produce it in Leviticus. And though in many instances, ablution is prescribed, both by the law of Moses and the Hindoos, yet multitudinous ablutions were not prescribed by the latter.iss Th* use of this remark will be perceived in the sequel. The affinities between certain practices pointed out by the antiquities of this country, with those of the Hindoos, are so striking, that one who makes tiie comparison, cannot well abstain from the belief, that so many coincidences are not merely fortuitous. He cannot forbear to suspect, that the ancient in- habitants, who were probably colonists from Mex- ico, and by consequence the Mexicans themselves, Lad not only the religious ceremonies of India, but that even some of the materials which they used were actually exported from the shores of the In- dian ocean. He will be inclined to think, that the little conch shells in the small graves which will be hereafter described, were used as religious emblems* That the adoration, which is paid by the Mexicans, to the god of the ocean, is founded upon the protec- tion he is supposed to give to navigation, which being of course precedent to the power created foF its protection, must have been used in India from periods long prior to European navigation as prac- tised at the pressnt time, since the discovery of th« navigator's needle, or in ancient times by the Mex- icans themselves.

158 Leviticus, ch. 11, T.S5, 28, 32, 40, ch. 13, v. 6, 54,58, ch. 14, V. 8, 9. 47, ch. 16, v. 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17,

18,21,32,27.

77

The sacretl buildings of the Mexicans were oii- structed upon the same principles with those of the old world : the pyramids of Egypt, the temple of Belus, and the pyramids of India.

The great temple of Mexico seemed to be com- posed of fine pieces or bodies, one above another, the larger below, and gradually diminishing in each successive piece to the top. The upper body was paved with smooth flat stones ; and at the east- ern extremity of the pavement, stood two towers, of the height of 56 feet. Each of these towers was divided into three bodies ; the lowest of which was stone and lime ; the two upper ones were of wood, well wrought, and painted. The stone part of each of the«e towers, was properly the sanctu- ary. Before each of them was a stove, in which was kept a constant fire.'^^^

The tower of Babel was at its base a square of half a mile in circumference, consisting of eight towers, as they appeared to be, one above the other. The ascent to the top was by stairs on the outside ; formed by a sloping line from the bottom to the top, eight times around it, so as to exhibit the appearance of eight towers, the uppermost of which is the most sacred. In this temple of Belus there seemed to be two deities worshipped ; one the supreme God of heaven, while Belus was at least the delegated God upon earth. The two towers which stood in the Mexican temple, were «ach dedicated to a different deity.

In India are ancient pyradmids of large dimen- sions. They are rude structures, but of such a magnitude as must have required the power of «ome considerable state to have raised them. ^60

The Pagoda of Seringham is situated about a anile from the western extremity of the island of

159 2 Dub. 48; Plut.79, 165, 166; 2 Dub. 34; 1 Joseph, 134 ; 2 Rol. 369, 370 ; 8 Gib. 239^

160 Rob. Ind. 270.

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^ringhani, formed by the division of the great river Caveri into the two channels. "It is composed of seven square iiiclosures, one within the other ; the walls of vv'hich arc twenty-five feet high, and four ^hick. These inclosures are 350 feet distant from one another; and each has four large gates, with a high tower, which are placed one in the middle of each side of the enclosure, and opposite to the four cardinal points. The outer wall is nearly four miles in ciicumference; and its gateway to the south is ornamented with pillars, several of which are of single stones, thirty-three feet long and nearly five in diameter, and those which form the roof are still larger. In the inmost inclosures are the chapels.'* The largest of the pyramids of Egypt w as built of rock, having a square base, cut on the inside aa 60 many steps, and decreasing gradually quite to ihe summit. It was built of stones of a prodigioui size, the least of which was thirty feet long, wrought "with wonderful art, and covered with hieroglyphics. The summit of the pyramid, which to those who viewed it from below seemed like a point, was a fne platform composed of ten or twelve massy- stones, and each side of the platform from sixteen to eighteen feet long. The four sides of this pyra- mid were turned exactly to the four quarters of the worldySiuA showed the true meridian of that place.i60 This pyramid is so constructed, that an oT^server placed at its foot on the day of the equinox, could have seen the sun at noon seated as it were upoa the summit. The inclined plane of the side of the pyramid, forms an angle v/ith the plane of the ho- lizoii, equal to the meridianal height of the sun at that period. The pyramid being placed exactly in the latitude of 30 north, the angle ought to be 60. All the sides being equally inclined, the pro- file of the pyramid cut perpendicularly from the snmmif to the base, through the middle of two ©f

160 1 Rollini, 8, U.

7»

Its ©ppos-ide sides ouglit to present an equiktei'al triangle, 1^^

W ith these models let us now compare the Ame* lican pyramids.

In the Mexican valley are the remains of tv/o pyramids of San Juan da Teotihuacan, siUiated to the northeast of the lake Tczcuco, consecrated t» the sun and moon;, which thelndians cailTonituah- Ytzaqual, house of the sun, and Metzle-Itzaqual^ house of the moon. Its base is 68S English feet ; its height l7l feet. They are, within o^ seconds placed to the north and south and from easi to west. Their interior is clay mixed with small stones. The covering is with a thick wall of porous amyg^ daloid. A stair of large hewn stones formerly led to their tops^ where, as the first travellers say, were statues covered with thin lamina of gold. Each was composed of four principal layers^ sub- divided into small gradations, of ihree feet three inches ; of which the edges are still distinguishabley which were formerly covered with fragments of obsidion^ that were the edges of instruments with which the priests opened the chasts of human vic- tims, i^i Around the houses of the sun and moon> of Teotihuacan, is a group of pyramids, not more than 29 or 32 feet high. There are several hun- dreds of these monuments, disposed in very large streets, which follow exactly the direction of the parallels and of the meridians, and terminate on the four faces of the two great pyramids. The lesser pyramids are more frequent towards the southern side of the temple of the moon, than towards the temple of the sun ; and according to the tradition of the country, they were dedicated to the stars.

The great pyramid of Cholula, in Mexico, coa- •ists of four stages. It is 177 feet high at present. The base is 1423 feet. Its sides are in the direc- tioji of the parallels and meridians, and Gonstruct*

161 Ali Bey, 23. l6l 2 Humb. 48.

80

ed of alternate strata of brick and clay. The plat" form for the truncated pyramid of Cholula, has a surface of 45,S08 square feet English. The pyra- mid of Cholula is exactly of the same lieight as the Tonituah-Itzaqual of Teotihuacan. It it nin& feet eight inches higher than the Mycerinus, or the third of the great Egyptian pyramids of the group of Gheze. The apparent length of the base is al- most the double of the great pyramid in Egypt known by the name of Cheops. Around the Egyp- tian pyramid of Cheops, are regular depositions of small pyramids, similar to those around the houses of the sun and moon, or the pyramidal monuments of Teotihucan, northeast from Mexico. Other pyr- amids in Mexico and its neighbourhood might b» described; but these will be enough to compare with the like edifices in India, with those made by the Natchez, and with those found in Tennessee.

The morals of the Pacific islands are upon th© same plan. That of Obera is 267 feet long and 8l wide at the base. It is raised by flights of steps to the height of 44 feet. These steps are four feet high, narrowing gradually till they end in a small entabliture, in which, near the middle, stands the figure of a bird carved in wood, and at some dis* tance the broken fragments of a fish cut in stone. It makes a considerable part of one side of a square court, 360 by 354, with a stone wall and pavement, with the same materials through its whole extent. This work is solid, and without a cavity.

In the island of Uwhyhee is a moral, 40 by 20, and 14 high. The top teas flat, and was surround- ed by a wooden railing. A minous wooden build- ing was situated in the centre of the area, connect- ed with the railing by a stone wall dividing th» "whole space into two parts. Altars were ancientlj built on mounds. — The greater part of the forego- ing statements are made from the writings of Mr^ JllcCulloch, of Baltimore,

81

Thirdly-^ T^e Cosmical History oftlieMexicariM €ompared with that of the Hindoos,

In their ages of the Avorld, the Mexicans very nearly agreed with the Hindoos. The Mexicana had four ages of the world. The first was that of the sun, or the age of water, wliich continued from the creation, till all mankind perished with the suu by a great inundation. The second was the age of the earth, from the time of the inundation, until the ruin of the giants, and the great earthquakes which concluded the second sun. The third wai the age of the air, from the destruction of the gi- ants, until the great whirlwinds, in which all man- kind perished with the third sun. The fourth is the age of fire, beginning with the last restoration of the human race, and to continue till the fourtli sun and the earth shall he C(>nsiimed by fire.

The first age of the lindoos was ended by a mighty flood; the second, by a great whirlwind; the third, by a great earthquake ; and the fourth is to be terminated by a general conflagration. All the southeastern countries of Asia have this belief^ and they have transmitted it to America. Nq doubt, mankind have derived it from the prophecy of Noah,i7i which hath ever since been delivered from one generation to another down to the present day.

Of the Vernacular Customs of the Hindoos, andL those of the Mexicans and Peruvians: firsi, of those relative to Religion ; secondly, of those relative tQ |&« Common Concerns of Life,

First— Of those relative to Religion.

The religionists of "Vishnu wore a plate of cop«

per on the breast. 7^ The Brahmans put on their

Oead, necklaces made of beads, which are nearly

of the size and shape of a nut.i'^s They place

171 Genesis, ch. 9. t. 11, 14, 15, ch. 8, v. 22, I7i I Dub. 90. J73 2 Dub. 25, 108.

8T

^ciri in a hole about six feet deep, one half filled* with salt : the body is covered to the neck with salt* Then more salt is added, till the head is covered^ and then earth is accumulated over the trench ta the height of several feet.i74 The Hindoos an- ciently sacrificed their prisoners taken in war ; and both in ancient and modern times, on very solemn occasions, they sacrifice human beings. .175

The sect of Vishnu wore necklaces of black beads of the size of a nut, and particoloured' gar- ments. They travel to beg with a round plate of brass, about a foot in diameter, and a large shell called sankha^ sh^iped like a sea conch, with either of which they can make a noise to announce their approach. ^ 76 Answerable to these customs, and seeming to be the effects of them, are divers dis- coveries made in this state, and in the neighbouring state of Kentucky, and Ohio, which if taken to have been colonized from Mexico and Peru, may be presumed to have been equally practised there. In Virginia, neav Wheeling,, on Grave creek, is a mound 75 feet high, with many smaller ones around it. In the interior parts of this mound, are found human hones of targe size, and mixed with theni are two or three plates of brass, with characters inscribed resembling letters. A mound near Chil- licothe being removed, discovered near the bottoin, in a cavity, the remains of some chieftain. A string of ivory beads wa« around his n«ck, and on his breast a stone about three inches long, with a hole Bear each end, in order to fasten it to the wearer'* neck, rather thicker in the centre than at the ex'- tremities, flat on the side next the breast, remainder of it round, and made of a species of black marble. The latter may have been produced in America, but the ivory beads most probably came from India; or the country in its vicinity, where the elephant i« jaised, and the ivory worked. The sculls whieh^

I7i 2Dub.2fi. 175 2 Dub. 172, 2r2. 176 1 Dub.. 70*

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Will be hereafter mentioned, as found in caves Tiear Bledsoe^s liek, in Grainger county, will indicate the sacrifice of prisoners, or of human beings on solemn religious occasions. And the presumption is, that these are parts of the general system which pre- vailed in Mexico and amongst the Natchez ; which is made out by the accumulation of all the evidences which are to be ascribed to worshippers of the sun.

Another kindred custom is, not only the worship of the sun by the Mexicans and Peruvians, but the perpetual fire kept up in the temples. ^"^"^ So also was it in the temple of Solomon, from his time to that of the Babylonish captivity. When this fire happened to be extinguished in those countries of the old world, it was restored by glasses of refrac- tioa, or by flint, or attrition or friction. The fire for the sacrifice of the Hamam in India is extracted from flint.

The bones of a wolf have been found in a Mex- ican grave. The Egyptians buried their deified animals ; and no doubt the same practice was com- mon to the Hindoos. *

"Secondly — Of those relative to theCommov Con- cerns of Life.

The Mexican celebration of the rights of mar- riage, was a close imitation of that of the Hindoos. The priest tied the mantle of the bridegroom to the gown of the bride. The new married pair never eiirred from the chamber for five days. These they passed in prayer and fasting ; dressed in new hab- its, and adorned with the insignia of the gods of their devotion ; and drawing blood from the diflier- ent parts of the body. These austerities were ob- served with the greatest exactness ; for they feared the heaviest punishments of the gods if the mar- riage were consummated before the end of the four days.

177 Boud. 57, 218, 220, 221, 247 ; 1 Plutarch, 79. 161, IGG,- 2 Plutarch, 70 j 1 Dub. 143, 1443 2 Dub. 34, 48, 125, 414.

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In Indostan, on the day when the skirts are tied together, the bridegroom shows to the bi-ide th#

£oiar star, as au eml)lem or figure of consj-ancy. during the three following days, the married cou- ple tnust live chastly and austerely; on the fourth from the marriage, the bridegroom conducts the bride to his own house.

The sun, or brother of the sun, or children of the sun, the titles given to llie princes of Peru and Mexico, and the Natchez, are the same which were anciently given to the princes of Persia, India^ Ceylon and China.

The Hindoos, as well as the people of Japan, China, Siam, Tartary, the Curds and La])landersj and the negroes on the banks of the Senegal, be* lieve that the eclipses of the moon are occasioned by a dragon, which would devour that star. Th« fear they are in, brings them to make the gr-atest Hioise they can, to frighten the monster, and make him quit his prey. Mr. Goguet^^s thinks thi^ practice may be derived from the ancient astronomy of the orientals. I'o design the periodical cycle of the moon, they used the emblem of a dragon, whose head was placed at the point where the circle cuts the ecliptic, because it is always at that point, or its opposite, that the eclipses of -the sua are made. The same practices obtains in Peru, and the people there must have brought it from tlio old world.

The Mexicafls, like the Persians^ ?'9 and Jewa% and other orientals, rend their garments for gtief«

Of ik6 Biblical Rf>preBentatmns and TradiU»m of the MeMiGm9 and Peruvians.

There is a Mexican painting which cofftfaiwa tb§ tradition of the mother of Atankind having fall^il

178 2 0. L. 413. Mc. 172.

179 Herod. Urania, 100; 2 Samuel, ch. IS. r.31^ ch, 15, V. 8Q» eh. 15, T. 19 } Job, ch. 1-, f . 20^ ch. % v. 13.

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fi*om her fot state of happiness ; and she is v?. "^- gentetl as accompanipcl by a serpent. Also is foun I the idea of a great inundation overwhelming the earth, from which a single family escaped on a raft. There is a history of a pyramidal edifice raised by the pride of man, and destroyed by the anger of the gods. The ceremony of ablution is practised at the birth of children. Similar tradi* lions of high antiquity are found amongst the fol* lowers of Brahma, and amongst the Shamas of the eastern Steppes of Tartary.

The nations of Cuba had an account of the floorli An old man, they say, foresaw the intention of Grod^ to cover the world with a deluge. He built a canoe, and embarked with his family and a great number of animals. When the flood subsided, he sent out a raven, which finding carrion, did not return. A pigeon was then sent out, and soon returned Avith a sprig oihoba in its mouth. At last the ground became dry. The old man quitted his canoe, and making some wine of the wjod g»'ape, drank till he \vag intoxicated. An i falling asleep, one of his sons mocked him ; but the other covered his nakedness. He blessed one, and cursed the other. In Indos- tan, in a book of the H ndoos, called Pudnam- J*aram, Sir William Jones found, aud transcribed verbatim, nine sections where the same story is told with all its circumstances. It states the intoxica- tion of the king of the whale earth, his three sons, and the undutiful behaviour of one of them, for which his father pronounced a curse against him. And it is added, that he gave to one of them, Sher- ma, the whole dominion on the south of the Snowy mountain, and to Jugpeli he gave all on the north of the Snowy mountain.

The Chiapanese say, that a certain Votan, nephew of the one who attempted to erect a build- ing that should reach heaven, and which is the place where mau received hi* different languagei,

66

"went by express command of tlie Deity to people South -America. Baron Humboldt has seen the liieroglyphical representation of these traditions, and gives his opinion, that they were the actual belief of the Mexican*.

These traditions relate to events which preceded the time of Abraham, and could not have been learned from the mosaic writings, but from the more ancient history of the world, which was pre- served in India. And being at this day in the tra- ditional possession of the people of America, bears evidence of a genuine original, from which came both the writings of Moses and these traditions.

r 8?

CHAPTER IV.

S©ME and indeed considerable insight may bo acquired into the history of the American aborigines, by some additional comparisons. Particularly, first, of the astronomical learning of the Mexicans, with that of the Hindoos. Secondly, of the practises of the worshippers of the sun in general, with the phenomena which are seen in Tennessee and its vicinity. Thirdly, of the lingual and nominal co- incidences between the southern Americans and people of the old world. And fourthly, by a state- ment of some of the indigenous practices of the Mexicans, to be compared with certain appearances in Tennessee and its vicinity.

First then— Of ^Zie Astronomical Learning of the Mexicans J to be compared with that of the Hindoos^.

The Mexicans knew of the solar year of 365 days and 6 hours. They lost a day in every four years, and added 13 to every 52 years, to make up the defalcation. Like the Egytians, they placed the five days at the end of the year as thrown away. The beginning of the Mexican day was at sun- rising; so was that of the Persians, Egyptians, Babylonians, and the greater part of the nations of Asia, except the Chinese. And it was divided into eight intervals, as was also the day of the Hindoos and Romans. The Chilian year consist- ed of 13 months of 30 days, and they intercalated 13. Their year commenced on the 22d of Sep- tember. It was divided into four seasons. Their day was divided into 12 equal parts, and com men- ced at midnight. The year of 365 days was nofc known in Egypt in the time of Moses. In descri- bing the deluge, he calls 150 days five months. In times prior to the days of Moses, they had calcu- lated the year at 354 days ; and not at 365 till

88

1S2S before Christ. But stiTl by degrees getting more light upon the subject, the Egyptians had discovered in the time of Plato, 384 before Christ, that the solar year consisted of 365 days and near- ly 6 ht»ur«. The Chaldeans had discovered that it was of longer duration than 365 days, before th$ return of the Israelites, from the Babylonish cap- tivity, in the year 458 before Christ. About i\n$ time it was that they discovered it to be of th© length of 365 days, 5 hours, 31 minutes and 36 seconds. Berosus, a Chaldean historian, who wrote in the third century before Christ, made use of a period composed of these years. iso After this period the Mexicans learned it. Not from the ten tribes who had been removed for nearly 300 years, into the northern parts of Asia, and never did know it at all ; but from some of the enlightened nations to which it had been communicated from Chaldea. The Mexicans divided their year into eighteen months of 20 days to the month. And several names by which they designated thes^ days of th,eir month, are those of the signis of the Kodiac, which have been in use from the remotest antiquity, among the nations of eastern Asia. Baron Humboldt compares the names of the Mexican symbols for these days with the Tartarean, Japan- ese and Thibetan names of the twelve signs, and also with the names of the Noschatras, or lunar Jiouses of theHindoos. In eight of the hieroglyphics the analogy is very striking. Alt, the name of the first day, as also of water, is indicated by a hiero- glyphic, the parallel or undulating lines of w hich remind us of the sign Aquarius. In the Thibetan zodiac, the sign is marked by a rat, an emblem d water. The rat is likewise an asterism in tKe Chi- nese zodiac. The ape is a character used in the Jdexican calendar, as it is in the Ihibetan zodiac, ftnd in the lunar bouses of the Hlndooai thou|;k

180 3 0. L. £65.

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this animal does not exist in the high countries of the Andes. The people of America called the constellation which we call the Great Bear, by a name which also signifies bear. The Egyptians and then the Asiatics first gave it the name of the Great Bear. Before alphabetic writing was in use it is probable that constellation was represented by the image of a bear,i8X and when afterwards it came to be written, instead of being represented by an image, it was called by the name of the image* These latter evidences afford full proof that the astronomy of the Mexicans was not invented by them, but learned from the Countries whence they emigrated. And united with the Biblical traditions before stated, raise a question of very difficult sulution. The traditions came no lower down than to the building of the tower of Babel. Had the Mexicans learned them from the writings of Moses, they would have known of the history of Abraham and of the Israelites, as well of the facts to which the traditions relate. Either they left the old world before the writings of Moses came into existence 5 or must have lived in some part of Asia where the prevalence of idolatry excluded the writings of Moses so hostile to it, in all its precepts ; and ia some country too where the people had access to the astronomical learning of the Chaldeans after the period of 384 years before Christ. If tha Mexicans came into this country over a continent DOW sunk into the ocean, why have not the large animals of Asia reached America over the same continent? Jf they came in early times, before those animals had time by propagation and emi- gration to reach America, and before the days of Abraham and of the Exodus, then they couW only learn the length of the year, ajtid. the astronomical discoveries of the Chaldeans, from an intercpur^

181 Job, ch. 9, V, 9, ch. 38, v. SI; 1 0. h, 231,241 ; 2 O; L. 398, 405.

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^ith Asia, kept up by navigation subsequently to tb« year 384 before Christ. This latter idea receive* countenance not only from the great devotion of the Mexicans to the god of the ocean,but alsofrom avery curious fact related by Pliny the elder, after Corne- lius Nepos, who, in an account of a voyage to tha north, says that in the year 60 before Christ, certain Indians who had embarked in a commercial voyage, were cast away on the coast of Germany, and wera given as a present by the king of the Survians, to Metellus, at that time proconsular governor of Gaul. 182 About the year 4770, a set of naviga-- tors from Japan, were driven by a storm to the northern coasts of Siberia, and having landed at Kamtschatka, were conveyed to Petersburg, and were there received by the empress of Russia, who treated them with great humanity. The Indians given to Metellus either came through Bhering's straits, or were shipwrecked between them and Kamtschatka, (for all the seas north of the Baltic were then called the German ocean,) and were con- veyed by land to the Baltic; or otherwise, the Northern ocean being then unobstructed by ice, or more so than in late ages, (as it probably was be- fore the sea between Iceland and Greenland was covered with ice in the tenth century,) they passed through Bhering's straits to the coast of Lapland and Norway. The latter supposition is very im- probable. If trading vessels.irom India, 60 years before Christ, visited the ocean south and east of Bhering's straits, and adjoining to them, and there suffered shipwreck, could other vessels from the fiame country, or from Japan, as readily and as easily have sailed to the neighbouring shore of A- jnerica ? We cannot see in Mexico the science of astronomy in operation, or any of its principles in the learning of the people; but we can see tlua product itself of this science, the true length of the

182 Tacitus upon Agricola, sec. 28, notis.

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isdlar year in complete perfection. Either tbe sci- ence of astronomy has perished in Mexico, or it was left by the Mexicans in Asia. We cannot see in Chili the metalUirgic art in being which taught the smelting ot iron fro m; the ore; but we hear the Chilians pronounce the name of iron and the names of iron tools in contradistinction to all others.

Either then the art has been lost in Chili, or was left by the people of Chili in those countries of Asia whence they emigrated. If for some time an in- tercourse was kept up by navigation, the emigrants iiad iron tools upon their first arrival, and until that intercourse was discontinued. The gold, the erne- ralds^^^ which are not the production of Kurope or Asia,J83 and the algum tree, for musical instruments, which is prdbaibly mahogany, and which were im- ported from the golden Chersonesus into the Red (Bea, in the time of Solomon,i84 and which must Lave been brought from countries as far beyond the Chersonesus as the Red sea is on this side of it, were very probably the productions of South A- merica.

The Mexicans, like the Hebrews, reckon their ecclesiastical year by nights and moons, commen- cing with the new moon of the vernal equinox.

Some bits of ivory seen by Captain Cook ia some of the Pacific islands,i85 which had never before been visited by European navigators, must have been brought thither by Asiatic navigators.

Secondly — Of the Practices of the Worshippers of the Sun in general^ to be compared with the Phe- nomena in Tennessee and its vicinity.

In the time of Moses, all the civilized nations of Asia worshipped the sun. Cities and countries

182 Genesis, ch. 9, v. 12 ; Job, ch. 28, v. 6 ; Ezekiel, ch. 28.

183 2 0. L. 120 ; S Raynol, 8, 23, 49.

184 Jos. Ant. 393, b. 8, ch. 6, sec. 4.

3185 1 Cook's Voyages, 397; 3 Cook'a Voyages, 232.

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were everywhere named after him. Eteliopolis in Egypt and Syria, Baalbeck, or the. city of the smij Apollonea, or the country of Apollo, and all the placeis in scripture called Baal, with an addition, are plain indications of it It had subsisted foi* ages before the time of Moses ; and so far were his many and earnest injutictions^s^ from sul3duing a disposition for the same worship, in the minds of the Hebrews^ that 500 years after his time, Solo- mon, the wisest of princes, and a great part of Sa- maria and Judea, embraced the idolatrous worship of the sun. It is fair to suppose, that the customs of his woi*shippers at one place were the same with those in all other places. And happily we are fur- nished with a detailed account of their customs and practices in Judea and Samaria, by the most au* thentic history in the world. The various passages in the Bible respecting the worship of the sun and the usages of his votaries, will furnish this history. It shall now be briefly stated for comparison with the aboriginal antiquities of this country: and we shall receive much better assistance for the investi- , gation, than can be furnished from any otl^er source. These various passages embodied form this history. The worshippers of the sun built hiajh places, inclosed them in opeil courts, erected houses for their idols upon them, and placed their idols within the houses. Upon these high places they burnt incense, unto Baal, which was an image, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets and to the host of heaven. Upon those high, places they sacrificed human beings, and there made offerings to the suii of horses and chariots. To those high places they retired to grieve and to make lamentation. Their idols they decorated with silver and gold, and clo- thed th-em in blue and purple, and embroidered

186 Deut. ch. 4, v. 19. ch. 17, v. 3 ; Judges, ch. 2, v. 13, ch. 10, V. 6; IK. ch. 1 1, v. 5, ch. 18, v. 19 ; 2 K. ch. 23, v. 5 1 Jer. ch. 44.

garments. The images of beasts, and of cre^Din^ things which were deified, and of their idols, we^e painted upon the walls of their temples with vef* tnilion. Upon these high places tliey sacrificed their sons and their daughters to their gods. In Worshipping, they were placed towards the east. They stretched forth the hand toward the sun, and drawing it back, they kissed it. They made their children to pass through the fire to their idols ; and ■when the sun at the summer solstice began to re- cede to the south, they kept the festival of Tammuz or Adonis, in which they bitterly wept and lamented for his departure. In doing so, they sat on the north side of the temple. We shall presently see by the aboriginal relics, which are yet found in the country, whether in ancient times similar religious notions and customs once prevailed here.

Profane writings inform us also, that the revolu- tion of the sun has been known and celebrated in Persia, ever since the time of Zoroaster, 600 years before Christ, and probably was at the summer solstice, or in June, the same time that our southern Indians celebrate the green corn dance.

In ancient times, when the mysteries of religion were expressed in hieroglyphics, the serpent was the hieroglyphic symbol to signify the obloquy of the ecliptic or the winding coarse of the sun, front one solstice to the oihevA^T' The serpent twisted iaround the figure it entwines, represents the spirals which result from the combination of the diurnal motion of the sun, with his motion of declination.

To those who vrorshipped the sun, the moon and the planets, and host of heaven, astronomy, which taught the motions, revolutions and relations of the heavenly bodies to each other, from time to time, and the supposed influences of these relations, so much relied on by the astrologers of those days, was a science of infinite importance. Those

3187 10 Gib. 367 ; 2 0. L, 407.

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who studied it, were in the pursuit of wisdom; those who hecamc proficients were wise men ; to excel in the understanding of it, was pre-eminence. As new discoveries were made from time to time^ they were exhibited by some token in their temples: the motion of die sun ; the constellations ; the months of the year; the days of the year; the animals to which divine honours were paid. Sa- bianism, says Mr. Gibben,i89 was diffused in Asia by the science of the Chaldeans and the arms of the Assyrians, From the obser^^ations of 200Q years, the priests and astronomers of Babylon de- duced the eternal laws of nature and providence. They adored the seven gods, who directed the course of the seven planets, and shed their irresist- ible influence upon the earth. The attributes of the seven planets, with the 13 signs of the zodiac, and the 24 constellations of the northern and south- . ern hemispheres, were represented by images and talismans. The seven days of the week were de- dicated to their respective deities. The Sabeans prayed thrice each day, and the temple of the moon at Haran was the term of their pilgrimage. They held a singular agreement with their Jewish cap- tives, in the tradition of the creation, the deluge and the patriarchs, and they practised the right of circumcision. They lived in a remote period of antiquity. How near a resemblance to this repre- sentation is discovered in the pyramid of Papantla in Mexico ! Tn the middle of a thick forest it stands. Enormous stones are used in the structure, which are covered with hieroglyphics. The only materi- als employed are immense stones, of porphyritical shape, and mortar is in the seams. The edifice is remarkable for its symmetry, the polish of the stones, and the great regularity of their cut. The base is an exact square, each side 82 feet in length: the height, from 53 to 65 feet. It is composed of

189 9 Gib. 249.

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several stages; six are distingtiishable, and the seventh is concealed by the vegetation with which the sides of the pyramid are covered. A great stair of 57 steps conducts to the truncated top, where the human victims were sacrificed. On each side of the great stair, is a small one. The facings of the stones are adorned with hieroglyphics, in which serpents and crocodiles carved in relievo are discernible. Each story contains a great number of square niches symmetrically distributed. In the first story, 24 on each side ; in the second, 20 ; in "the third, 16. The number of these niches in the body of the pyramid is 366, and there are 12 in the stair toward the east. Did the seven stages of the pyramid represent the seven planets ? and the seven days of the week ? and the 366 niches, all the days that could be in any year? Did the 12 niches in the stair toward the east, represent the 12 months in the year? and the 24 niches, the 24 constellations ?

Thirdly— 6?f the Lingual and •^Tominal Coinci- dences between the southern S.mericans and people of the old world.

The Hebrews, who spake a dialect of the San- scrit, anciently the language used in India, called the sugar cane kaniche ; so did the Caribs when discovered by the Spaniards. This indicates an- other fact besides : that the sugar cane of the conti- nent, like that of Otaheite and of the Pacific islands, grew in America before the arrival of the Span- iards. They could not have had name for a thing they knew not of. Tonn., in Japanese, signifies sun, moon, governor, king, prince. The Mexicans called the sun tonticiLS^ and the moon tona. In Hispaniola, all persons of noble or princely bleed were called taino. Montezuma is the general ap- pellation of a Japanese monarch : Montezuma in Mexico; was the title of their monarch. Canaan

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fs called by the Creeks, Kenaa. A Roman is cslV led in Caiib, Ishto : the same in Hebrew. They had known of Rome and of Canaan, otherwise they could not have had names for them.

Fourthly — Of the Indigenous Practices and Characteristics vf the Mexicans and southern In- dians,

The Mexicans had a god, called the god of the shining mirror. In his left hand was a golden fan, set around with beautiful feathers, and polished like a mirror, in which they imagined he saw all that passed in the world. His image was made of a black strong stone.

The Mexicans were addicted to war. The use of money Avas unknown to them. They had watch- men in ther towns. They ma-de feathered mantles, of variegated and changeable colours. They had ornaments of gold and silver; and utensils also. When the king died, his attendants were sacrificed to wait on hi^ in the next world. 189

The Mexicans had pikes, pointed with copper, which appears to have been hardened by an amal- gam of tin. They had when the Spaniards first arrived amongst them, carpenters, masons, weavers, and founders. And if it be true, as stated by some of the writers in the southern parts of America, that the Peruvians did not worship idols ; but carried them to their temple of Cusco, from the countries they conquered, and placed them there as trophies; then, all the mounds upon which images have been pla- ced, found in Tennessee or its vicinity, are ascriba- ble neither to the Peruvians nor the Chilians, what- ever they may be to the Mexicans or Natchez. Nor were hnman sacrifices ascribable to either of them, for many centuries before the arrival of the Span- iards ; for one of the legislators of the Peruvians had abolished the practice. It remained with the JMexicans and Natchez.

189 2 Herod. 370.

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The Peruvians used mattocs of hardened wood, And bricks liardened in the sun. They had the art of smelting ore ; of refining silver, and some- times made domestic utensils of it. They buried the bodies of their dead, and vessels of value with them, in mounds. They have also mirrors of va- rious dimensions, made of hard shining stones, highly polished, such as the people of India used both in ancient and modern times.i89 ^nd they had, hatchets of copper made as hard as iron. They had tools also, with which they could exercise tho sculptural art. In the Peruvian city of Tehuanac, were two giants, cut from stone, with bonnets upon their heads, and garments which reached to the ground. 190

In Chili are rich copper mines, amongst the mountains of the Cordilleras, as well as of other metals, which yield greater quantities of it, than any others in the world were ever known to furnish. Also native brass. These mines of copper are dis- persed through the whole country. And upon the Andes in Chili, are very rich silver mines. Moun- tains of marble are found in the Cordilleras of Co- peapo, and in the marshes of Maule, in zones of various cetors. The Chilians, in the time of the Spanish invasion, worked in marble, and made polished vessels of it. They had gold, silver, copper, lead and tin, and made of the copper, bell metal, which they fashioned into axes, hatchets and other edged tools, but in small quantities. They had a specific name for iron, which distin- guished tools made of it from other metals. They had the art of smith ery, and smiths amongst them. Those of the Chilians who live in the valleys of the mountains, and on the east side of them, are of iofty stature, but generally not much exceeding six

189 1 O. L. 552, 353 ; Guth. Gram. 719.

190 Ex. ch. 28. V. 40, ch. 29, v. 19, ch. 39, v. ?8 : Leviti- «us. ch. 8, V. 13 ; Judges, ch. 4. v. 18 ; 1 Samuel, ch. 28, v. 14.

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feet. The Araucauians, a part of them, are ef g?? reddish brown colour ; their hair dark a»d blacky I)ut rather coarse. The Baroans of Chili, -in the S9th degree of south latitude, are white and as welt formed as the northern Europeans. They worshi]^ a spiritual God only. They have from time im- memorial made dies and paints, the colour of which never fades. They believe as the-Persians did, ia' two spirits, good and evil. They obtain fire hy friction, as the Kamtschatkadales do. They pay: parents for their w ives. They have words of Greek and Latin pronunciation, and signifying the same as in those languages. But there are many Latin- words clearly assimilated in sound and signification^ to words of the Hindoo language. i9i In Chili, a» at Rome, the axe is a badge of supreme authority. To these standards we shall have occasion fre- quently to recur in travelling through the antiqui- ties of Tennessee; and of the countries in its vip- cinity.

191 1 Dubois, 68, 148o

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CHAPTER V.

Having compared the Mexicans and Peruvian* tjwith the Hindoos and Persians, we will now com- ■pare the Natchez with the Mexicans ; and after- wards, the ancient inhabitants of Tennessee with 1)oth.

All those nations which lived on the west sid© •of the Mississippi, when they first became known to the Europeans, between the years 168S and 1697, were worshippers of the sun, and were governefl by despotic princes ; two prominent circumstances! ^of distinction between them, and the Indians who lived on the lakes, and on those rivers which floW^ into the Atlantic, on the eastern side of the Atle- ghenies.191

The Natchez at this time extended from the river Manches, or Iberville, which is about 50 leagues from the sea, to the AVabash, which is about 450 leagues from the sea ; and it is probable, that they extended laterally up all the rivers which fall into Mississippi between these two extremes. The mounds are perhaps within the limits of their set- tlements, and not beyond them. They had at this time 500 sachems of the nation. They were under the sovereignty of one man, who styled himself tJis suTif and bore upon his breast the image of that lu- minary, of which he professed to be the descendant. He regulated war, religion and politics, at his will and pleasure. His wife was called the wife of the sun, and was also clothed with absolute authority. They had the arbitrary disposal of the lives of all their subjects. They all laboured in common for his benefit. When he or his wife died, the guards killed themselves, to attend their sovereign in the other world. Their religious ceremonies were mul- tifarious. They had one temple for the whole na-

191 5RaynoI, 181.

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tion. When it caught fire upon a certain occasion, some mothers present threw their children into the fire to stop the progress of the flames, and on the next (lay were extolled in a public discourse by their despotic pontiff. Some families were reputed noble, and enjoyed hereditary dignity. The body of the people was considered as vile. The former were called respectables: the latter, stevJcards. Their great chief, the brother of the sun, the sole object of their worship, they approach with religious veneration, and honour him as the representative of their deity.i92 Their temples were constructed with some magnificence, and were decorated with various ornaments. In them they kept up a perpetual fire, as the purest emblem of their divinity. 'J'he first function of the great chief every morning, is an act of obeisance to the sun. 193 The people of Bagota worshipped the sun and moon. They had temples, altars, priests, and sacrifices of human victims. They, like the Mexicans, painted the forms of dei- fied beasts on their temples, and sacrificed human beings for the propitiation of their deities. Their captives taken in war, like those of the Mexicans, were slain, and their hearts and heads were conse- crated to their deities. The body was eaten by the warrior who had made the victim his prisoner. If we meet in Tennessee with appearances which nothing but these facts can account for, we shall know how to refer them to their proper cause.

The nation of the Natchez mouldered away, and their decline seemed to keep pace with the wasting away of the Mexican empire. But whilst a part of their former splendour and power still remained, the French who had come from Canada, and sailed down the Mississippi to the gulf of Mexico in the year 1682, began to be acquainted with their coun- try. In the year 1697, Iberville attempted to make

192 2 R. H. America, 140.

193 2 R, H. Am. 192, 39 ; 1 Plut. 79, 165, 166,

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settlements on the Mississippi ; but failin* there, actually made an establishuicnt at the Mobile, on Dauphin island. Fovt Mobile was afterwards placed on the bank of the Mobile river. This settlement was ruined by a storm in 1717. Some tvent in quest of better settlements ; some staid be- hind and lived upon vej;etables ; till their compaoy was reduced to ^ families. French settlers at va- rious times, before the year 1723, planted themselves in the country of the Natchez ; who supplied them ■with provisions, assisted them ia their tillage, and in building their houses, and indeed saved them from famine and death. The Natchez possessed the strongest disposition to oblige them, and would have continued eminently useful to the French settlers, if the commandant had not treated thein with indigni- ty and injustice. The first dispute was in 17^3; when an old warrior owed a soldier a debt in corn. Payment being demanded, the warrior alleged that the corn was not ripe, but that it should be deliver- . ed as soon as possible. They quarrelled, and the soldier cried miirier. When the warrior left him to go to the village, a soldier of the gia d fired at and shot him. The commandant would not punish the offender. Revenge drew them to arius. They attacked the French in all quarters ; but by the influence ot a noted chief, peace was restored, which prevented the utter extermination of the French settlers. Peace was made, and duly ratified, by Monsieur Branville; yet he took advantage of it, to inflict a dreadful and sudden blowupon theN^atchez. He privately brought 700 men. fell upon and slaugh- tered them in (heir huts, and demanded the head of their chief, which they were obliged to surrender. The slaughter lasted four days. A. peace was then made, but confidence was destroyed. A sachem soon afterwards, in an indignant reply to the solicitation and address of a French officer, upbraided them with their ingratitude, perfidy and rapacity, la

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1729, being greatly ill treated by ihe commandarit, they caused him to be summoned before the govern- or of New-Orleans, to answer their comjjlaints. They were overjoyed at the attention paid to their remonstrances. But the commandant was dismis- sed without removal from office, and returned, more inimical to the Natchez than he had been before. He resolved to gratify his revengeful spirit. He selected for the site of a town, which was to be immediately built, a village belonging to one of the sachems, which covered a square of three miles in extent. H6 sent for the sun, or chief, and directed him to clear the huts and to remove to some other place. The chief replied, that their ancestors had lived there for so many ages, and that it was good for their descendants to occupy the same ground. The commandant was offended at the answer, and threatened punishment for disobedience, in case of pertinacity a few days longer. The Indians secretly prepared for a conflict. Ey various excu- ses they attempted to defer the execution of his plan. He rejected their excuses, and reiterated the mena- ces. They obtained permission to wait till their liarvest was in. In this interval their scheme was perfected. They determined in concert to make one grand effort, in defending the tombs of their jincestors. A woman of their nation betrayed the secret. The commandant disbelieved and punished lier. On the close of the last day of 1729, the 8;rand sun, with several warriors, repaired to the fort, with their tribute of corn and fowls, which had ])een agreed on. 1 hey secured the gate and other l)assages, and cut off the soldiers from the means of defence. All opposition was vain. They massa- cred the men generally through the whole of the French settlements. 'I'lie women, and some of the slaves, they spared. The commandant, too ignoble in their estimation to be slain by the hands of a chief, was committed to the charge of one of th«

lOS

lowest of the tribe, and from his hands received an ignominious fate. The whole settlement of 700 men was broken up. The settlements at Yazoo and Westatu were extirpated.^^^ Xhe governor of Orleans being implacably bent on the destruction of the JSTatchez, they tied beyond the Mississippi, and settled 180 miles up the Red river, where they built a fort for their protection. Thither he pur- sued them, besieged the fort, and compelled them to surrender at discretion. The women and chil- dren were reduced to slavery, and were scattered amongst the plantations. The men were sent as slaves to St. Domingo. Their villages at first con- sisted of 1200 souls. Of all the Indians, they were the most polished and civilized. The probability is, that they had all the aits of the Mexicans, as well as their form of government and religion. They had an established religion, and a regular priesthood. They had kings, or chiefs, and a kind of subordinate nobility. The usual distinctions created by rank were understood and preserved. In all which instances there Avere not any affinities between them and the Indians east of the Missis- sippi and north of the Ohio, and also east of the Alleghenies and north of the Savannah. Tiie Natchez were skilled in the knowledge of medi- cinal plants, and their properties. The cures they performed, particularly amongst the French, were almost incredible. They did not deem it glorious to destroy the human species. Tliey were seldom engaged in any other wars than defensive ones. They were just, generous, and humane, and greatly attentive to the wants and necessities of those who needed assistance. It is extremely probable, that this nation, when in the days of its prosperity, ex- tended to the Wabash, extended up all the rivers from the Mississippi southwardly and eastwardly, the waters of which fall into that river. And it

1^2 Boudinot, 306,

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may be that /their settlements were at all the places upoa those rivers and their branches, where we now see the high places, which at the present day are attractive of so miuh notice. The Mexican empire, with its depeiulent provinces and kingdoms, before the arr^^ al of the Europeans, in all likeli- hood, presented to those nations which were on the west and north, too formidable a front to encourage their liopes, or flatter their cupidity. Thus the stream of emigration may have been turned to countries less inviting, and to climates less suitable to savages, which being less populous, and more distant from the centre of Mexican grandeur, fur- nished more sanguine prospects of success. Then perhaps, countless hosts of embattled adventurers, grown too numerous to be sustained in their own country, left the first settlements which they had made in America, and made their appearance upon the branches of the Missouri and Mississippi, and like the mighty torrent of the latter river, deposited the tokens of their awful inundations over all the prostrate countries on the east of that great river. We shall see presently, there is reason to believe that this was actually the fact. The Natrhe?, in the time of De Soto, seemed to parti- cipate in the afflictions which embittered the last moments of the Mexican empire. The numerous towns which he passed in his march, replete with inhabitants, on lK)th sides the Mississippi, in less than a century afterwards, had disappeared, and in the places where they once stood, were seated men, the most ignorant and the most savage of human beings. The Mexican empire crumbled into ruins; the defence of the frontier was gradually weakened; new encroachments may have been made, till final- ly the cemented parts of this mighty empire falling asunder, the inhabitants either wholly perished, fled for safety to remote regions, or united with other tribes as chance off'ered or the occasion dicta-

ted. The neglected arts began to languish, aa their, troubles arose; the comforts and conveniences of life which these supplied, disappeared ; and in a few years, except to the eye of the inquisitive anti- quarian, no sign remained to announce their former existence. If the chief ruler of the Natchez did not govern the country over which he provided, as a viceroyalty, forming a part of the Mexican em- pire, at least ; his people received from thence, the religion they professed ; the form of government ; the titles and dignities, both in church and state ; the arts, sciences and degree of civilization which distinguished them. Their customs, habits, man- ners, and permanent institutions, point to the same origin. When we first knew them, they were great in ruins, but hastening through the last stages of a tragic scene. Like thousands of rocks in their country, broken in the age of earthquakes, into nu- merous pieces, which nature had once conjoined, the throes and convulsions they experienced, wer» attested by the many and distant fragments of theic scattered tribes. Whatever religious practices wera sanctioned at Natchez, the same it may be presumed took place on Tennessee, the Cumberland, and the Frenchbroad, when the inhabitants lived upon thoso rivers, in the undisturbed enjoyment of all their in- stitutions, supported by the veneration of ages, and by the solidity of a government, which like all other mighty nations, they imagined to be of eternal du- ration.

A remnant of the Natchez lived within the pre- sent bounds of this state, as late as the year 1750^ and were even then numerous. They were extir- pated in a war which they carried on against the French and Choctaws ; at the end of which, such, of them as were not roasted in the fire, were sold into slavery. But in 1758, when all the French forces were called to the aid of fort Du Quesne, th« easlaved Natchez rose in their absence, aud d«- N

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stroycd all the Frendi of every description, who^ had been left behiad. Intelligence of the fall oV fort Dii Quesne. met the advancing troops of the French at the falls of the Ohio; and they were order- ed back to their respective stations. When those of the Natchez country returned home, they found the women and children all dead, and theJSatchez In- dians, their late slaves, all fled. A French soldier,. tired of the service, deserted, and went