Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/184

 148 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. other enclosures or works which cannot be accounted for by a reference to military purposes only, we want full and precise descriptions. But, if considered only as fortifications, ramparts of earth, in a forest country, strike us as a singular mode of defence, against Savage enemies and Indian weapons. All the defensive works, without exception, that were used by the Indians, east of the Mississippi, from the time they were first known to us, were of a uniform character. The descriptions of Mauville at the time of De Soto's expedition, and of Hochelaga by Cartier, agree entirely with the Indian forts within our own knowledge, with that of the Five Nations in the siege of which Champlain was engaged in 1615, and of which he has left a correct drawing, and with every other description given by the early w T riters. They all consisted of wooden palisades strongly secured, with an internal gallery, from which the besieged party might under cover repel the assailants with missile weapons. And they were also of a moderate size, and such as could be defended by the population of an Indian village. Wood affords the natural means of forti- fication against a savage enemy, where the material is abundant. It cannot indeed be understood how these works could have been properly defended, unless they were surrounded, not only by the rampart, but also by a palisade. And it is on any sup- position extremely difficult to account for works containing five hundred acres, such as that on the banks of the Missouri, which was correctly measured by Lewis and Clarke. The only conjecture I can form, and it is but a conjecture, is, that the people who erected those works came from the west, and that it was during their residence in the prairie country, that they were compelled to resort to that species of defensive works. They may, as is often the case, have persisted in the habit when there was no longer occasion for it. From the Colorado or the Rio Norte, the way to the Mississippi was easy by the river Platte or the Arkansa. The conjecture is entitled to consideration, only in case further investigation should show a probable connexion between the monuments of the valley of the Mississippi with those of Mexico. The extensive tract of alluvial land along the Mississippi opposite St. Louis, now called the American Bottom, is the place in which are found the strongest indication of a concentrated population. It is not necessary to refute the opinion of those who would ascribe these works to European emigrants. There is