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are still vistages of a once popular Indian village are dug up mortars, pestles, pots and other utensils in great abundance. Some of these are so common in the state as to cease to be articles of curionity.

In the museum of the state college at Burlington is to be seen the stone axe, larger than the common iron one, found lately a few rods north of the college. A stone hatchet had just been presented, found in Colchester some feet beneath the ground in an iron ore bed, where it must have reposed for ages. Gouges and chissels made of stone are common. A flat stone, very thin, with two holes bored in it, was probably an ornament the natives wore on the breast. A flat stone, nearly the shape of a heart, lately dug up in Colchester, was probably a spear head used in war.

About 3 years ago, in digging a cellar in Essex, two feet below the surface, a calumet was found. Its body was made of brass, a pipe on one side, and a steele edge on the other, dove tailed in, and exceedingly well wrought. It must have lain in the hard pan for centuries.

On Onion river, opposite Burlington, the bank washed away by the water discovered a vast quantity of bones of various sorts and sizes, for more than ten rods in extent. The horns of deer were yet distinguishable. In digging a few feet, among the several things found was the edge part of an Indian iron hatchet, which had been cracked and broken off at the eye. From the whole scene, the thought hurried itself into the mind, that this was a burying ground for the natives at a time, when it was customary to bury provisions for nourishment and instruments for defence with the bodies of the deceased, when they made their journies to the country of souls.

At Rockingham are some attempts in a rock to give certain figures of the heads of men, women, children and other animals. They are very rude, and indented one third of an inch. The figures themselves do not express the original designs of the formers of them, but only manifest how far they were from improvements in the arts.

In Kellyvale, is yet to be seen something like an attempt at painting. The bark of a large tree is stripped off as high as a man can reach. With a stain of a lively color, an Indian with a gun is painted, with his face towards the north. Beside him, is a representation of a skelton sketched with a considerable degree of anatomical exactness. The whole is

a kind of gazette, in which the Indian informs his company which was to follow him, that one of their number was dead, and that the surviving was proceeded in safety on the way to Canada.

Several inscriptions both on rocks and trees are to be found in various places, particularly near the mouth of West river. They manifest a total ignorance of letters. Several Indian pots have been found in the country of Chittenden. The most complete of these was lately found in Bolton. It is about three feet in circumference; nearly half an inch thick without any legs, or eyes for a bail. It is regularly and handsomely formed with a share of ornament: and both its size and shape are similar to the American common dinner pot. It has the appearance of being formed of clay and pounded stone, mixed with iron particles and manifest a considerable knowledge of pottery. It has one small crack, each border of which is perforated with small holes, designed to tie it together, in the manner of cracked wooden dishes. It is very light and portable, a very ingenious and useful vessel. In some respects, it is superior to our common iron pots; and a critical investigation of its material may give very useful hints at new improvements in this kind of manufacture.

Pieces of such pots are to be found in every part of Vermont. Almost a whole one was found, a few years since, at the mouth of a cave, at the foot of Camel's Rump, which is one of the highest in the range of the Green mountains. It is probable that one of the Indian traces lay across this mountain. It is on the direct course from the lakes and Canadas to the New-England settlements. The natives used to signify success and victory to their countrymen at a distance, by building fires on the tops of the mountains, in the manner of telegraphic signals. One from the summit of this single mountain, which is about 3500 feet from the level of the sea, would be seen from nearly every state in New England, from a large part of the state of New-York, from the city of Montreal and from the two Canadas.

In proportion as cultivation proceeds in Vermont, new monuments and vestiges of its ancient inhabitants are disered in every quarter. Chance, and not search, throws them into our way. As so many of their utensils and weapons are necessarily perishable by the operation which time produces, it is a matter of surprise that we meet with so many curious

relics. Some of these are buried several feet deep beneath the surface of the ground, and must have belonged to owners who lived in the times of other centuries, much older than the present surface of our soil, or the trees of our forests, which have themselves risen since, and grown old one growth upon another, over the ashes of warriors and the sleeping millions, who have had their day, and have passed down the bourne of returnless time. A great portion of our soil was once the animated dust of mortals, once fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, warriors and lovers, friends and foes. The dust, which nourishes a plant, might have once been another mighty Cæsar, or an ambitious Buonparte troubling the repose of the nations of the western world. The ruins of that race of men may remind us of the period, when the present race may be as little known to the future.

The Cognawaga tribe, one of the seven nations, still lay claims to the lands lying within a line beginning at Ticonderoga, passing the great falls on Otter Creek, running to the height of lands dividing the streams between lake Champlain and Connecticut river, thence to the hight of lands opposite Missisque down to its bay. In 1798, they sent 5 chiefs to treat with the general assembly of Vermont. The assembly understood that it was a right belonging to congress to treat of trade and intercourse with Indian tribes. A desire was expressed to learn what New-York had done with a similar claim. A design to do entire justice was expressed to the chiefs. They were supported at the expense of the State, during their visit at Vergennes. They attracted much attention, and expressed great satisfaction in meeting with some old English friends, whose fathers they knew and loved, when they themselves constituted a part of the Stockbridge tribe. A present of one hundred dollars was made them by order of the legislature, when they departed in good humor, designing to meet with the same success by making a similar application in some future convenient time. This was renewed in 1800, but not succeeding, their claim will probably be lost in their silence concerning it,

CHAPTER XVIII.

Their simi

America entirely settled by the original natives. larity to each other. The manner of the primitive SETTLEMENT of America uncertain. The Mosaic account of the unity of the human race contested by infidels. Various hypotheses for peopling the western from the eastern continent by an ancient acquaintance with navigation: by a union of the two continents: by a passage by land from Asia or peopled from nations by way of the Baltic. Two classes of Indians. The Esquimaux. The Aborigines. Chains of isles in the two oceans.

AMERICA, when first discovered by European adventurers, was found inhabited in every part. Neither the burning heat of a vertical sun, nor the piercing cold towards the polar circles prevented the settlements of the original natives. Nor did they crowd the shores of the ocean only, although they derived no inconsiderable portion of their food from its plenteous stores; but the whole of the immense countries of the interior from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, and from the northern to the southern extremities of the western continent, was filled with inhabitants. As if the main were not sufficient to contain the multitudes of people, every island, contiguous to the continent, in either ocean had its full proportion of natives living upon it.

The Indians are very distinguishable from all other people, On the eastern continent, we find men of all complexions from the blackness of the African to the fairness of the European, while nature seems there to have studied in the human color, as in every thing else, an endless and insatiable variety. But, on the western continent, nature has proceeded on a very different plan, or circumstances have combined to produce a contrary result. Here, the human complexion has an uncommon and surprising uniformity. No matter what was the climate, diet, mode of living, state of society, or whatsoever else, with which the human complexion has heretofore been supposed to be connected; every where, in every climate, in every section of the whole country, red men

were to be found. A similarity of color, features and appearance indicated, that they were of the same original race of men. Other nations spread over a small territory, whose limits are marked by men of different complexions, features, arts, manners and characters. But the Indians spread over an entire continent, inhabited more than one third part of the whole world; and while they were formed into many distinct tribes and spoke in different languages, still they exhibited a wonderful similarity in external appearance. Although the tribes are so very numerous and the climates so diverse, yet de Leon, who was one of the conquerors of Peru as well as a traveller through a great part of America, affirms, that the natives are like the children of one father and mother. Ulloa, who visited as well the Indian tribes of Cape Breton in North America as those in South America, asserts, that they were the same people, with no essential difference in complexion, manners and customs; and to see one was to see them all.

An interesting question has arisen, as to the manner in which America was first peopled. A doubt has arisen in the minds of some, whether the inhabitants of the two continents could ever have proceeded from one original stock. The subject involves many difficulties, and becomes a matter of curiosity more than of any real utility. The history of human affairs not extending back into antiquity sufficiently for decision, wild conjecture is ready to assume the place of absolute knowledge. The natives themselves, unacquainted with the importance of furnishing to posterity the means of information, as well as destitute of letters and unable to rear any imperishable monuments, which could be the expositors of human thoughts and the heralds of other times which are passed down the bourne of oblivion, can afford the eager inquirer no manner of intelligence, on which reliance can be safely placed. To agitate the question is not with the expectation of demonstrating the truth. A collection of facts will always possess an advantage over the finest speculations of fancy. Whatever shall put men on thinking, may, however, be turned to some good account. All speculative inquiries will become useful, when they lead to real investigation; and curiosity need not be repressed, when it only serves to animate men in the search after important facts. As new discoveries are constantly made respecting the early inhabitants of the new world, it is not impossible, as far as we know,

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