Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/576

 540 DESCRIPTION OF A of wise and prudent princes — maintained by our arms and by solemn treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Dortrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Paul Lebrosse, fecit.' " Remarks. — From inspection of this plate, it appears that considerable numbers of them were made at a time, probably in Canada, or perhaps in France, leaving many blanks in the in- scription, to be filled up with names of commandants of detach- ments, who carried them along with them to be deposited near some remarkable object; that is, some cave, mound, mouth of a river, he. Thus, in this medal, ' Celeron,' ' Riviere,' ' Ye- nangue,' ' Aug. 16,' &c, fill the blanks left for them, in a man- ner quite rude compared with what goes before or follows after them. " Besides, the language of the inscription shows, that it was composed at a distance from the spot where the plate was left. I have underscored some of the words, to which I refer you. ' Paul Lebrosse' made it. Its size was about eight by ten inches square, and three-eighths of an inch in thickness. It has been considerably injured by the rude hand of violence since found, but what remains of it I have before me. As I have not been able to ascertain that the Muskingum was ever called ' Yenangue ' by any tribe of Indians, it is supposed that some person brought it from its original place of deposit, to the spot where it was found. It is true that different tribes called the Muskingum by different names, all meaning ' a place of residence.' ' Da-righ-qua ' in the Wyandot, ' Waketomo ' in the Shawanoes, and ' Muskingum' in the Delaware, mean the same thing, — ■ ' a place of residence,' or c a river with a town upon its banks'; alluding, naturally enough, to the celebrated remains of an ancient town at Marietta." Mr. At water, at a subsequent period, sent me the original plate, which I now transmit to you as a proper accompaniment of this account. Recollecting my previous conversation with Mr. Smith, I wrote to him for distinct information on the subject, and he favored me with the following transcript from his History of Canada, (Vol*. I. page 209.) " Galissionicre, persuaded that peace would soon be conclud- ed, and sensible of the importance of giving certain boundaries both to Canada and Nova Scotia, detached an officer, M. de Celeron de Brienville, with three hundred men, with orders to repair to Detroit; and from thence to traverse the country as