[p. 457]

FOR  THE  PORT FOLIO.

OF  THE  ABORIGINES  OF  THE  WESTERN  COUNTRY.

The publisher of the Port Folio, some time since, announced his intention of printing a curious and learned work on the antiquities of the Western part of our Country, by Henry Frost, A. M. The proposals had no sooner been submitted to the publick, than a powerful appeal to his kindness and his sense of justice was made by the friends of the Reverend Dr. John P. Campbell. -- They stated that the materials for this work had been collected by this gentleman, and that they had been obtained, under false pretences, from his widow, by Mr. Frost. The MSS. were therefore immediately placed in the hands of one of her friends, who promises to prepare them for the press, and publish them for her benefit. In the mean while we are permitted to make a few extracts. The subject is extremely interesting, as it treats of the ancient inhabitants of a great continent. Dr. Campbell appears, from the manuscript, so far as we have perused it, to have been admirably fitted, both by taste and education, for the task which he commenced; and to which we understand that he devoted several years of toilsome and expensive research. We shall only add, that any subscriptions (1 vol. 8vo. price $2) which may be transmitted to the publisher of the Port Folio, shall be faithfully applied to the benevolent purposes of this publication.

'Upon the fairest computation, admitting that the Aborigines came to the western country a thousand or twelve hundred years ago, we have then before us a period of sufficient extent to embrace all that is requisite to support the supposition that the Aborigines were the descendants of a civilized people in Asia; a people who had made great advancements in civilization and the arts, but who were probably devastated, and forced to fly, by the sudden encroachment of a foe. We shall readily perceive, that in this case, such a people would perform a rapid migration, and fly from their enemies as far as their desire of safety should dictate. It is not in any degree surprising, that they should, in like manner, escape to this continent, bringing with them that civilization and that knowledge to which they had arrived. The great antiquity which is manifested by the most striking proofs of art and knowledge, seems to warrant this conclusion, and give it weight.

The successive generations of men who have inhabited the eastern parts of Asia, were distinguished, for centuries, by rapid advancements in civilization and the arts, and on a sudden subjected to a great reverse. By the encroachment of some barbarous foe, or some neighbouring robber, they have been forced to renounce the possession of their privileges, or escape for their lives. "Some of the most desert provinces in Asia," says the historian of Catherine the second, "have been repeatedly the seats of arts, arms, commerce and literature. These potent and civilized nations have repeatedly perished, for want of a union or system of policy. Some Scythian, or other barbarian, has been suffered unnoticed to subdue his neighbouring tribes; each new conquest was made an instrument to the succeeding one; till, at length, become irresistible, he swept whole empires, with their arts and sciences, off the face of the earth." This important truth we consider particularly applicable to the original peopling of the western country. The Aborigines probably constituted a part of some such nation existing in eastern Asia, and were forced to escape to this continent by the encroachment of some powerful, invading foe. I have said that this was probably a fact. I venture to add, that it was most certainly the fact in regard to the Aborigines.

It is a very general opinion, prevailing in the western country, that there is ample proof that the country in general was once inhabited by a civilized and agricultural people. This very general consent, we are disposed to respect, and consider an innocent opinion in itself, but we have not yet obtained satisfactory reasons to believe that the country in general, or to any great extent, has been adorned with the improvements and habitations of men living in a civilized and permanent state of society. The aborigines probably advanced as far, in the improvement of particular portions or districts of the country, as their knowledge of agriculture, their improvements of husbandry and their temporary residence would allow. The face of the country, since it was visited by the Aborigines, and since their demise, has undergone great changes. It is to be remarked, that the oldest trees now standing cannot be pronounced coeval with the extinction of the Aborigines.

It is a an opinion prevailing among some, that the Aborigines crossed the Allegheny, and proceeded down the Ohio river; but nothing is more incredible. Some attention to the ancient works on the river, has led us to notice that the works at different positions, are not more or less perfect. It is vain to suppose that the works lower down are less perfect, and were therefore built by a people who migrated westward, or down the river.

Again, it is the current opinion, that the first inhabitants of the western country were white people, and therefore cannot be denominated Indians. Our readers will recollect, and may have noticed, that there are distinguishing shades of white and black within the extent of our own country; and there are those among us who, by birth, or physical causes, are exceedingly dark. It is hence not indispensible that the Aborigines should be a white people, strictly speaking, in order to account for their improvements, or their knowledge of the arts. The inhabitants of Asia, and of the Asiatic continent in general, are allowed to be darker than the inhabitants of these American states, while at the same time they likewise are denominated a white people. The city of Pekin is nearly upon the same latitude with Philadelphia, and yet the citizens of Pekin are strongly shaded compared with the Philadelphians. The Aborigines, for aught we know, might have sustained a lighter complexion than those Indians who contributed to their destruction, -- or than the ancestors of the present race of Indians; and might, on that account, have been denominated by those Indians a white people. There cannot be a doubt but that the same country, at different, and very distant periods of time, may be inhabited, or produce a race of people differing very materially in colour. The climate, and local or physical causes, may be so changed in the term of a thousand years, as to produce several degrees of shade upon the human countenance.

The northern parts of Asia are supposed by some to be much colder now than they were but a few centuries or years ago; and that but a few centuries have elapsed, since the northern regions were more habitable on this very account. We suspect, however, that the Aborigines were in general, and in no other sense, a white people, than of any of the proper inhabitants of Asia at the present time. We likewise suspect that the Aborigines were denominated a white people by the present race of Indians, solely or principally, in consequence of that distinction which they possessed in the view of the Indians, by their works, or the knowledge and skill displayed in these works. These Indians having been accustomed to pay respect to Americans and Europeans as white people, appropriated naturally the same respect and title to the Aborigines. The Indians universally disclaim these ancient works and monuments, which are attributed to the Aborigines, and allege that they were erected by white people. It may not be improper, therefore, to offer the reader several traditions which relate to this point, and which may at least be found an entertainment.

General Clarke, of Louisville, in conversation with the chief of the Kaskaskias, understood him to say, that a very remarkable fortification, to which they referred, was the house of his fathers. This is understood to signify a reverential and general declaration of the same origin.

Mr. Thomas Bodley was informed by Indians of different tribes north-west of the Ohio, that they had understood from their old men, and that it had been a tradition among their several nations, that Kentucky had been settled by whites, and that they had been exterminated by war. They were of opinion that the old fortifications, now to be seen in Kentucky and Ohio, were the productions of those white inhabitants. Wappockanitta, a Shawnee chief, near a hundred and twenty years old, living on the Auglaze river, confirmed the above tradition.

An old Indian, in conversation with colonel James F. Moore, of Kentucky, informed him that the western country, and particularly Kentucky, had once been inhabited by white people, but that they were exterminated by the Indians. That the last battle was fought at the falls of Ohio, and that the Indians succeeded in driving the Aborigines into a small island below the rapids, where the whole of them were cut to pieces. He said it was an undoubted fact, handed down by tradition, and that the colonel would have ocular proof of it when the waters of the Ohio became low. This was found to be correct, on examining Sandy Island, when the waters of the river had fallen, as a multitude of human bones were discovered. The same Indian expressed his astonishment that white people could live in a country once the scene of blood. The Indian chief called Tobacco, told General Clarke, of Louisville, that the battle of Sandy Island decided finally the fall of Kentucky, with its ancient inhabitants. General Clarke says that Kentucee, in the language of the Indians, signifies "river of blood."

In addition to the proof of a great battle near the falls Ohio, it is said by General Clarke, of Louisville, that there was at Clarkesville a great burying ground, two or three hundred yards in length. -- This is likewise confirmed by major John Harrison, who received the tradition from an Indian woman of great age.

Colonel Joseph Daviess, when at St. Louis in 1800, saw the remains of an ancient tribe of the Sacks, who expressed some astonishment that any person should live in Kentucky. They said the country had been the scene of much blood, and was filled with the manes of its butchered inhabitants. He stated also that the people who inhabited this country were white, and possessed such arts as were unknown by the Indians.

Colonel M'Kee, who commanded on the Kenhawa when Cornstalk was inhumanly murdered, had frequent conversation with that chief, respecting the people who had constructed the ancient forts. He stated that it was a current and assured tradition, that Ohio and Kentucky had been once settled by white people, who were possessed of arts which the Indians did not know. That after many sanguinary contests they were exterminated. -- Colonel M. Inquired why the Indians had not learned these arts of the white people. He replied indefinitely, relating that the great spirit had once given the Indians a book, which taught them all these arts, but that they had lost it, and had never since regained the knowledge of them. -- Col. M. inquired particularly whether he knew what people it was who made so many graves on the Ohio, and at other places. He declared that he did not know, and remarked that it was not his nation, or any he had been acquainted with. Col. M. asked him if he could not tell who made those old forts, which displayed so much skill in fortifying. He answered that he did not know, but that a story had been handed down from a very long ago people, that there had been a nation of white people inhabiting the country who made the graves and forts. He also said, that some Indians, who had travelled very far west or northwest, had found a nation of people, who lived as Indians generally do, although of a different complexion.

John Cushen, an Indian of truth and respectability, having pointed to the large mound in the town of Chillicothe, observed to a gentleman that it was a great curiosity. To this the gentleman accorded, and said, The Indians built that. No, said he, it was made by white folks, for Indians never make forts or mounds -- this country was inhabited by white people once, for none but white people make forts.

In addition to the remarks which we have made on the Asiatic origin of the Aborigines, we add, that such an origin is by far the most natural, and most accordant with the progressive movements of the human family ever since the deluge. This progress in Asia, has been uniformly eastward and northward from the Euphrates. The inhabitants of Asia being the descendants of Shem, did not move to the westward in any numbers. We deem it, therefore, natural and just to conclude that the Aborigines belonged to a stock of those who moved eastward from the Euphrates, crossed at Behring Straits, and came to our western country from the north west. The Mexicans invariably declare that their ancestors came from the north west.

It is an acknowledged fact, that the antediluvians, at the event of the deluge, had arrived to a great improvement and refinement in the arts; and it is also an important fact, that a respectable portion of this knowledge was preserved from the wreck, and communicated by the sons of Noah. The descendants of Shem, the first settlers of Asia, or what is synonymous, the ten tribes, probably retained this knowledge, and transmitted it, until, through the lapse of time, it became extinct. From the descendants of Shem, or the Israelites, we derive the commencement of all that knowledge which served to keep the vast continent of Asia from total barbarism. The Israelites carried captive by Salmanaser, in the time of Hosea, became, in a great measure, incorporated with the neighbouring nations; and from this source, or in this channel, we deduce many of the customs which prevailed, and continue to prevail in Asia, and which have been frequently recognized among the Tartars, the Aborigines of the western country, and the present race of Indians. We may here introduce a striking passage of history from the second book of Esdras. "Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners, out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar, the king of Assyria, led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt." We do not pretend to say that this country, where never mankind dwelt extends to America, but we consider the passage of history important, and equally weighty as such, although apocryphal. -- The natural consequence of this determination and progress of the ten tribes, would be a very general diffusion of that knowledge which they possessed, and a general incorporation with neighbouring powers.


Note 1: It seems quite likely that Solomon Spalding had an opportunity to read and reflect upon "Aborigines of the Western Country," since the article first appeared in a Philadelphia periodical, and was doubtless reprinted by various other American publications. However, by the time the article could have been brought to Spalding's attention he was probably already rather sick, in what would become his terminal illness (he died on Oct. 20, 1816). Thus, it seems impossible that the appearance of this article, in the public press during the summer of 1816, could have in any way influenced the text of Spalding's pseudo-historical writings. On the other hand, it is possible that Spalding and Campbell, who both shared a keen interest in American antiquities, were in communication with one another before Campbell's own demise.

Note 2: The 1816 article's insistance upon a unique explanation for the ancient mounds and fortifications of the Ohio Valley, (saying that they were the products of an extinct, light-skinned race), parallelled Spalding's own fictional answers for the origin of such earthworks and artifacts. Some of the notions expressed in the 1816 article were, of course, already in circulation years before its appearance. Solomon Spalding could have derived his imaginative ideas regarding the "extinct" race that constructed the mounds from various different literary and oral sources well before he commenced writing his own "historical romance(s)" about the year 1811. For example, the explanation that the American Indians had previously exhibited a higher state of civilization, light skins, Hebrew heritage, etc. was being published in a Pittsburgh periodical almost exactly when Spalding moved to that city from Ohio. For additional information on this subject, see the on-line feature, "Book of Mormon: Sacred Book of the Indians?"

[p. 1]

FOR  THE  PORT FOLIO.

OF  THE  ABORIGINES  OF  THE  WESTERN  COUNTRY.

(Continued from our last number.)

In removing an artificial mound at Chilocothe in 1813, the was found in its bosom a piece of copper, encrusted with erugo half an inch thick; it consisted of thin plates of copper rolled up, enclosing each other. It was about three inches in length, and one-fourth of an inch in thickness; the copper remarkably pure and fine, the lamina, or plates, about twenty in number. They had been smelted and prepared in a workmanlike manner, and ingeniously folded up in a single piece. As this specimen of copper is justly ascribed to the aborigines, it enters into the controversy in regard to the Asiatic and European origin of the aborigines. It is manifestly a trifling thing to ascribe this copper to a Welsh colony of the eleventh century, but the difficulty is entirely removed by supposing it to have an Asiatic origin. Brass and copper were in use at a very early period in Asia, and may be traced as far back as Tubal-cain. Brass not being formed in nature,

[p. 2]
but made of copper, affords a presumption that there were workmen in copper at that period. The copper lamina, found at Chilicothe, considered as a precious memorial, might have descended through several centuries, and might have once been in the hands of a people more refined than those aboriginal Asiatics to whom it is referred. It was a custom in heathen nations to bury with their chiefs, not only pieces of armour, but memorials which were preserved or worn by way of ornament.

In removing the same mound in Chilicothe, a beautiful piece of marble was taken up in 1814, and is now in the possession of a gentleman at Chilicothe. This marble piece was undoubtedly made and used for ornament, being perforated ingeniously with loop holes, for fastening. It is apparent that these loop holes must have been executed by some instrument for boring, as the exactness appears to be inexplicable upon any other supposition. This marble piece is about five inches in length, flat on one side, and oval on the other, having an increasing width at the middle. The ends are apparently cut and squared with some implement used for that purpose. The marble has a dark dun colour, but the veins in the stone are very distinct. We do not deny but that the present race of Indians have exercised a degree of skill equal to that which is exhibited by this piece of marble, but not in the use of these instruments which we have supposed to have been necessary in this case. It is likewise to be remarked, that these Indians are not in the practice of using this kind of ornament. Had marble pieces of this description been more common in the western country, occupying a position nearer the surface of the earth, and not buried in mounds, we might have ascribed them to the present race of Indians, or their immediate predecessors. Humboldt says of the aboriginal Mexicans, that they were in the practice of accomplishing the most curious carvings with a poor knife, and upon a hard substance; and between the aboriginal Mexicans and the aborigines of the western country, it may be remembered that we have not admitted any great distinction.

On the bank of the Scioto river, just above Chilicothe, a very large limestone rock was broken down for lime. In the body of this rock, twelve or fifteen inches below the surface, three brass screws were found, a half an inch in length. One was in a state of

[p. 3]
preservation, the other two were marred by the injuries of time and accident. This it seems was a solid limestone rock, and not perforated to any depth. There are portions of limestone in the western country which are unquestionably of a secondary nature, and have formed or increased since the original creation. These screws, however, laid upon bare rock, would hardly obtain, by any process of nature, such a durable covering. We are under the pleasing necessity of alledging, that these pieces of brass were by some means secured in the limestone rock, or that one rock had been placed upon another, enclosing the screws, and that the rocks formed a natural union. Such an inseparable union of two rocks would require a legth of time perhaps equal to that of the secondary formation of twelve or fifteen inches of limestone. We may therefore allow to these screws their proper antiquity, and ascribe the fact to the aborigines. Nothing can be more indicative of art and knowledge than the production of a regular and ingenious brass screw.

On the little Miami, about four miles above Waynesville, in the neighborhood of a Mr. J. Vance, some moss and mud were removed to open a spring, and in doing this the workmen struck, to their astonishment, upon a regular stone wall. The ground here might have become in a great measure alluvial in half a century; but the fact of there being such a wall, and its nature, indicates great antiquity, and the existence of a people differing materially, in regard to knowledge, from the present race of Indians. A regular stone wall has not in any one instance been attempted by the present race of Indians.

A Mr. Sinks had a well sunk in the village of Williamsburgh, in the east fork of the Little Miami, and in passing down, the workmen pierced through different strata of clay, sand, gravel, and stones, which had the appearance of having been prepared and used. They then continued to the depth of thirty-five or forty feet to the extremity of a regular stone pavement, extending nearly across the diameter of the well, the stones of which bore evident impressions of having been subject to labour. They were fitted to their place, and appeared to have been trodden by human feet. Two or three feet below this pavement they came to a poplar

[p. 4]
log, and soon after to a quantity of water, which rose so unexpectedly as to bury the workmen's tools.

In digging another well in the same village, at the depth of fifteen feet the workmen struck upon a stump which had been [cut], but it was so much injured by time that the species of wood could not be discerned.

In a well dug in the same village, at the depth of twenty-six or thirty-six feet workmen came to a fire-place, charcoal and fire-stones artfully laid together, and designed to be burnt or kindled.

Our diggings in some of these mounds have been followed by the discovery of coals, arranged in a particular manner, with layers of earth, so as to indicate the burning of a sacrifice; but without detaining the reader with any conjectures upon this point, we would offer an extract from Dr. Lowth, which seems to be the most probable account of this discovery.

"The burning of heaps of armour, gathered from the field of battle, as an offering made to the god supposed to be the giver of victory, was a custom that prevailed among some heathen nations, [and the] Romans used it as an emblem of peace. A medal struck by Vespasian represents the goddess Peace, with a lighted torch in one hand, setting fire to a heap of armour. There are notices of some such practice among the Israelites. See Josh. 11, 6. Nahum 2, 13, Psalm 16, 9. Ezek. 39, 8-10."

These facts are not unimportant, and serve to designate some of the characteristic features of the aborigines.

A Mr. M'Kibbon, at the head of the east fork of Little Miami, thirty miles above Williamsburgh, wishing to obtain water in a place which had been the resort of deer as a lick, selected a spot where he conceived he saw the best vein for water. commenced digging, and passed down about two and a half feet, when he came to some logs of wood, and, breaking through, fell into the water to his neck. Having regained his standing, he cautiously removed the timber, and found the cavity to be an old well three or four feet in diameter. The walls of the well were smooth, and appeared to have been filled with beautiful clean sand and gravel to within four or five feet of the top, which had been covered with logs. Having removed the gravel and sand, he immersed a sycamore and filled

[p. 5]
up the excavation around it, leaving three feet. The water is fine, impregnated with iron and fixed air.

In the same neighbourhood there has been discovered another ancient well, three feet in diameter, walled up with stone. Either from design or accident it had been filled up with earth near to the top. This well is yet to be opened and examined.

Mr. Burnit of Cincinnati, in digging a well on his lot, and within the wall of the old fort at Cincinnati, struck upon two stumps, a larger and a smaller one, at a depth of ninety-three feet below the surface. The largest was so injured by time that it was doubtful to what family it belonged. The smaller one was in a state of better preservation, and a sugar maple. Just before reaching the stumps the workmen passed through a layer of black mud, which was very offensive. Lower down pigments of a fine blue colour were thrown up in detached pieces. This was twenty or thirty feet below the level of the first bottom.

Judge Symmes, in digging for water higher up the hill, and near the creek which washes the upper end of the town, came upon a stump at the depth of twenty feet.

In digging a well in Sunfish, Adams county, Ohio, a gentleman found an earthen pot, below the surface at a considerable depth.

Thirty miles above the mouth of Cumberland river, a great quantity of earthen ware has been found; some of it well made. A pitcher was found, which was covered at the top, with a hole in the front, and opposite the handle.

General Clarke, of Louisville, saw earthen ware in various places, which had been glazed.

There is an elevated ground on Salt River, eight miles from Danville, Kentucky, where bits of earthen ware have been found. One bit I saw, which was evidently checquered or figured.

At the United States Saline, twelve miles from the Wabash, and twelve miles from the Ohio, an earthen image of a man was found, in 1807, by a major Taylor. Pots and several kettles made of the same were likewise found.

At Point Harmer, Marietta, Ohio, a curious earthen pot has been taken out of the bank of the Ohio river, and is now in the possession of a gentleman at Marietta. This pit decreases to the

[p. 6]
end, from the bulge, like a funnel; but the end is not perforated, and was probably fitted to be placed in some cavity for a fire.

The present race of Indians have not yet displayed any workmanship in earthen ware, and cannot lay claim to these things. The manufacture of earthen ware in every instance indicates an advanced stage of civilization and improvement. *

In digging the walls of the irregular fort at Parkersburgh, Wood. Co., Virginia, a variety of earthen ware, of human bones and animal bones, were discovered, constituting part of the wall, and these appeared to have been promiscuously thrown together in every part of the way where any digging had been performed: and what is remarkable, a small mound, situated at the right angle corner of the fort, yielded nothing curious to the hand of the digger, and appeared to have been constituted of bare earth.

There was taken up in the road near Circleville, a small fragment of a stone or red flint vessel. The manufacture was fine, and equal to any thing of modern date in point of neatness and strength.

There was dug from the central mound at Circleville, a fragment of some culinary vessel. It was evidently of cast iron, and showed the mark of the mould. It was covered on the lower side with the black, or smut, contracted over the fire. It was found among ashes and large pieces of charcoal.

A Mr. Neville, of Pickaway Co., in digging for water, met with blacksmith's cinder, six or eight feel below the surface of the

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* "In the earlier periods of society," says a later writer on taste, "it seems reasonable to imagine, that all those arts which were directed only to ornament, or to the production of beauty, should employ, in preference to all others, the admir'd form; and that the artist should attempt to give to every thing that constituted the fine arts of such an age, that uniformity which was expressive of the quality most valued and most admired among them. It is found accordingly that this is the fact, that the form which, in such periods, universally characterizes the productions of taste, is uniformity and regularity. In every form where we discover a total want of this quality, we are disposed to consider it the production of chance, or of some power which has operated without thought or intention. 'In all events,' says Dr. Reid, 'regulrity expresses design and art; for nothing regular was ever the work of chance.' In what manner this conexion is formed -- whether it is derived from experience, or to be considered as an original principle of our nature, I do not inquire."

[p. 7]
In removing the walls at Circleville, blacksmith's cinder appeared.

General G. Walton, in digging for salt on Long Lick Creek, beach fork of Salt River, fell upon an ancient well, carried down a solid limestone rock twelve or fifteen feet; petrified buck's horn and earthen ware were found in the bottom. Earthen ware pans, or dishes, which would have held three or four gallons, were found. Some were lying about the old well's mouth, and some with the ground or dirt thrown out.

In the county of Warren, on Miami, Ohio, within an ancient fort, a stone was discovered upwards of three feet in length, and fifteen inches in circumference, fixed perpendicularly in the earth; on the west side marked thus, S F, and on the east with a figure resembling a half moon carved in the stone, three inches in length

Samuel Clarke, of Louisville, has in his possession a stone in the shape of an egg, or about the size of a hen's egg, perforated longitudinally, It is blue, and neatly polished.

On Highland Creek was taken out of a mound an earthen pot, and a small stone image well polished. The image was five or six inches in length; the figure human, and supposed to be a saint. The stone is flint.

A small stone image was taken up on the Ohio at low water, five miles above Louisville. The stone has unequal sides of between three and four inches. The image is a man's head well executed. The image was originally made of a black substance, like wax, and attached to the stone in a very ingenious manner. It is evident that the artificer, in respect to the eyelid, designed to effect a shade, that great secret of the pencil.

At Circleville there was taken from the central mound of the circle a copper coin. It was dug up beneath the roots of a hickory growing on the mound, seven feet eight inches in circumference. A comparison of this coin with other ancient copper devices, particularly of Britain, is attended with no satisfaction. This comparison was instituted and carried on to a considerable extent.

On the farm of Mr. Edward Payne, near Lexington, were found two ancient coins. One was of gold, and sold at ten dollars; the other was of brass. Each had a head reversed, and each were inscribed with characters not understood, but said to resemble Hebrew.

[p. 8]
The date of the gold coin was probably 1014, and the date of the brass piece 1009.

A few miles below Mr. Payne a gold piece was found on the plantation of Mr. Chambers, who says it was sold at Lexington for thirteen dollars. This was inscribed with unknown characters. Mr. Chambers says it was unlike any coin he had ever seen. He also says, that a small piece of copper was found on his farm at the same time. It was exactly square, well polished, and marked on two sides with 1064. He considered it a weight.

Mr. J. Blair, in removing the clay of the mound in Franklinton, found a copper weight of the aborigines. It weighed 1 1/2 lb. In size and shape it resembled such a tin inkstand as is commonly used in counting rooms.

Sanders, a half Indian or white man, raised among the Shawanese, informed me that in some of the ancient works, four feet under ground, a piece of a sword was dug up which had been a very strong blade.

In the mouth of a cavern opposite to, or not far from Hurricane, on the Ohio, north west side, are engraved on the rock, twenty-five feet high, the fiqures of several animals, as of the bear, and buffaloe, and, what is most remarkable, of the lion and lioness. These figures are done in a masterly style. You enter the cavern first, through a small cavity nine feet wide and twelve feet high; then ascend a bench of a few feet, and enter an aperature of about the size of a door into a most spacious cavern.

About one-fourth of a mile below St. Louis, there is a distinguished impression in a rock of a man's foot. The gentleman who informed me of this remarked, that the people in the neighbourhood will not allow that this was done by Europeans. Curious ear-rings are ascribed to the Mexicans, and were no doubt, a common thing among the aborigines.

At the place where Clarkesville was laid out, opposite Shippingport, there was a burying ground of two or three hundred yards. Numerous bones were found on Sandy Island, as evidences of a great battle which was fought there.

General Clarke, of Louisville, says that about forty years ago, there was discovered near Red Stone, Old Fort, and in an excavation made by a fallen tree, a human skeleton buried in a coffin of earthen ware.


Note 1: Writer Dan Vogel, in his 1986 book, Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon, provides a list of articles appearing in the Port Folio which might be of interest to students of the Book of Mormon. Strangely enough, Vogel says nothing about John P. Campbell passing along William Mc'Kee's report of the "lost book" legend. Here are excerpts taken from various pages in Vogel's book:
[p. 18]
The Philadelphia Port Folio reported in [July] 1816 that "thin plates of copper rolled up" were discovered in one mound... In 1823 John Haywood [in his The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, described "human bones of large size" and "two or three plates of brass, with characters inscribed resembling letters" found in one West Virginia mound.... Joseph Smith may have combined these stories of plates coming from the mounds with detailed descriptions of metal books used by the Jews and others in the Old World.

[p. 29]
The Port Folio reported in 1819 that one Tennessee mound contained "an iron sword, resembling the sabre of the Persians or Seythians"... John Haywood claimed that... Ohio mound builders... "had swords of iron and steel, and steel bows, ..."

[p. 64]
In [June] 1816 the Philadelphia Port Folio reported that "it is a very general opinion, prevailing in the western country, that there is ample proof that the country in general was once inhabited by a civilized and agricultural people" who were eventually destroyed by the Indians. [[79. "Of the Aborigines of the Western Country... It is a current opinion... that the first inhabitants of the western country were white people"... Indian tradition reportedly held "Kentucky had once been inhabited by white people, but that they were exterminated by the Indians."

[pp. 140-41]
Port Folio. Philadelphia, 1801-27. Edited by Oliver Oldschool [Joseph Dennie, later Nicholas Biddle]. APS: 2:40-2, 220, 228, 915; LAC 31440-84.

  Vol. 4 (new series), 7 Nov. 1807: Describes Charles W. Peale's Museum in Philadelphia (293-96). Peale's Mammoth Room contained an entire mammoth skeleton which had been discovered in New York in 1801 and several other bones of prehistoric animals (295-96).

  Vol. 1 (second series), Jan. 1809: Reviews Thomas Ashe's Travels in America (150-62) and discusses North American fortifications (159-60).

  Vol. 3 (second series), Feb. 1810: Discusses mammoths discovered in the Arctic in 1806 (111-13).

  Vol. 4 (second series), Oct. 1810: Letter from Benjamin Smith Barton to Thomas Jefferson, 13 July 1810, discusses the American mammoth (340-44).

  Vol. 7 (second series), June 1812: Reviews Benjamin Smith Barton's New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America (Philadelphia, 1797), discussing Barton's view that the Indians came from Asia. The review maintains that another race, predating but surpassing the Indians, constructed the ancient forts and cities east of the Mississippi River (507-26).

  Vol. 5 (third series), Jan. 1815: Announces that the periodical possesses an unpublished manuscript which refutes the theory that America was peopled from Asia through the Bering Strait and that a portion of the manuscript will be printed in a forthcoming issue (80-81).

  Vol. 5 (third series), March 1815: "Proposed Solution of the Question, Touching the Peopling of the Continent of America," an extract from the unpublished manuscript in the periodical's possession, argues the impossibility of men and animals crossing the Bering Strait, since no one would transport snakes or wolves. Rather the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans were once dry land, allowing men and animals to migrate to the New World. This land disappeared during the convulsions of the earth at the time of Peleg (231-41).

  Vol. 6 (third series), July 1815: "Whence come the Men and Animals to America?" (7-10), another extract from the unpublished manuscript, again argues that animals such as iguanas, alligators, monkeys, and parrots could not have migrated through the extremely cold Arctic region.

  Vol. 1 (fourth series), June 1816: "Of the Aborigines of the Western Country" reveals that the extracts published in the March and July issues, supposedly the work of Henry Frost, were in fact written by the late Dr. John P. Campbell (457). The periodical then discusses at length the common notion that the mounds and fortifications were built by a civilized, agricultural, white-skinned race. This white-skinned race, according to the Port Folio, came from Asia and were perhaps Israelites of the ten tribes. These civilized people were eventually destroyed by other more savage and dark-complected Asiatics who also migrated to the New World (457-63).

  Vol. 2 (fourth series), July 1816: Continues the June article about the aborigines of the western country, discussing the mound builders' metallurgy and use of copper, brass, and iron (1-8).

  Vol. 3 (fourth series), May 1817: Samuel Mitchill, "American Antiquities," discusses the Tartar origin of the Indians (422).

  Vol. 4 (fourth series), Aug. 1817: "Origin of the North American Indians" mentions that a cross was found around the neck of a skeleton taken from a mound at Chilicothe, Ohio (168).

  Vol. 4 (fourth series), Sept. 1817: C. W. Short, "Antiquities of Ohio," describes a fortification in Hamilton County, Ohio, and includes a diagram (179-81).

  Vol. 7 (fourth series), April 1819: "Antiquities of the West" describes antiquities of Tennessee, including a stone fort, some glass, and an iron sword (350).

  Vol. 2 (fifth series), Aug. 1822: Describes an Ohio mound, states that the mounds cannot be the work of the Indians, and compares the mounds to the pyramids of Egypt (125-26). Note 2: What became of the Rev. John P. Campbell's full manuscript, history does not recall. Several of his notions respecting the origin of the earliest Americans correspond rather well with those implictly expressed in Solomon Spalding's c. 1812 Oberlin manuscript. It is possible that, prior to his death, Campbell was in communication with Spalding -- or, that at the very least the two men may haev shared some of the same sources in developing their respective ideas. Some similar thoughts on the "aborigines of America" may be found in James H. McColloh's 1816 book, Researches on America. McColloh expanded his second edition to include some quotes from Campbell's 1816 articles (see pp. 210-220 of McColloh's 1817 edition).

Note 3: Rev. Campbell's writings presumably reached a larger audience than just the subscribers to the Philadelphia Port Folio; for example, the July 18, 1816 issue of the Canton Ohio Repository reprinted the June article from the magazine -- probably other contemporary newspapers offered similar reprints, excerpts or paraphrases. See also the Chillicothe, Ohio Weekly Recorder of July 5, 1814 and the Lexington, Ky., Evangelical Record of Dec. 1813.