A careful consideration of these features with a map in hand, showing the present appearance and condition of any one of the many groups of ancient earthworks in Middle Tennessee-a group on the Harpeth River, or the works near Lebanon, Tennessee, or in Sumner County, Tennesseewill readily indicate the striking similarity of these remains to the ancient fortified towns described, and, indeed, will be conclusive of the fact that these earthworks are simply the remains of towns and villages, similar to those through which De Soto and his army passed in 1540-41, and then found active with busy life. The long lines of earth that outlined the old walls with their well-se lected openings and projections, the ditches, the raised foundation mound, or pyramid of the chief's house-perhaps the mound that supported the rude temple or altar of worship-the rows of graves or burial mounds of the ancient cemetery will still be found. Sometimes the outlines of the low circular platforms upon which the common houses or wigwams were placed may be seen, as in the Lebanon group. "The cacique's house stood near the shore upon a very high mound made by hand for strength."-" Gentlemen of Elvas." Historical Col. of La., Part II. page 123; see also IdemBiedina, page 105. For description of fortified villages and walled towns, see "Gentlemen of Elvas." Historical Col. La., Part II., pages 157, 158, 173; also La Vega, "Conquest of Florida," Irving, pages 261, 262. A ground plan of the group of mounds on the Rutherford farm in Sumner County, near Saundersville, Tennessee, as they now appear, will give a tolerably correct idea of one of these ancient fortified villages.* This work incloses about fourteen acres. The earth-lines and smaller mounds in the cultivated field are nearly obliterated, but in the woodland they are well preserved. The mound of the chief, or the mound of observation near the centre, nearly twenty-six feet high, has still its flat top platform, its sharp outlines and steep sides. It is about 318 feet in circumference and is entirely artificial, having been constructed of earth excavated near its base. The small elevations are burial mounds, with stone graves radiating from the centre. The next in size are probably house or wigwam mounds. They are circular in form, averaging about thirty feet in diameter, with the remains of burned clay or ancient fire hearths in the centre. At irregular intervals along the earth-lines in the woodland, angles of earth project about ten feet beyond the general line, indicating the location of towers or rude bastions in the stockade or wall line. Some of them were doubtless protected openings or gateways. In the burial mounds have been found many fine implements and vessels of pottery. The ancient earthworks near Lebanon, Tennessee, are of the same. general character.† This is a good type of an ancient fortified or walled settlement. It contains about ten acres of land. The usual great mound is near the centre (A). A large number of the smaller elevations were found to be the remains of lodges or wigwams. When the earth was cleared away, hard, circular floors were disclosed with burned clay or ancient hearths in the centre, indicating that these habitations were similar in form to the circular lodges of many tribes of modern Indians, arranged for fires in the centre, and doubtless they had openings in the roof to let out the smoke. The fact that these houses or wigwams were irregularly scattered within the inclosures also establishes the primitive character of the settlement; yet beneath the floors of these rude structures, and within the adjacent burial mounds, were found some of the finest specimens of pottery and ancient art yet discovered among the mounds, indicating that these villagers of the stone-grave race had reached a stage of development probably equal to that of any of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Mississippi valley. No pottery or pipes or implements have been found, within the more elaborate earthworks of the Ohio valley, in finish or workmanship superior *Surveyed by W. H. Edwards, Esq., and drawn by the writer. Map reduced from Prof. F W. Putnam's plan in the 11th Annual Report Peabody Museum, page 338. The pottery to those taken from the graves and tumuli in Tennessee. It requires little effort of the imagination to picture Ancient Society in one of these settlements in Tennessee, to crown the long, lowlines of earth again with their strong palisades, to place the rude house of the chief upon its high pyramid overlooking the village and the far country, to repeople the council house, the family dwellings, humble and spacious hives of busy life, to replace the altar of the sun worshipers in its rude temple, to see the near-by burial mounds consecrated by the bones of their heroes, the gay colors of the warriors, the trappings of the hunters, the toiling of the women, the basket and cloth makers, the yelping throng of half-naked children and dogs, the medicine man with his herbs and kettles, the dealer in implements and vessels of stone, clay and shell, the trader, perhaps from a far country, with his wares and strings of shell money, the pipe maker, the flint chipper, the fisherman, all necessary features of ancient town and village life in the South as described by early writers in their account of the Southern Indians. Now, picture this town swept by the desolation of war or rudely pillaged by the marauding soldiery of De Soto-picture it after the lapse of three centuries! Fire and decay have consumed its strong palisades, its great houses, and all that was left of wood. The raised foundations and pyramids of earth with their steep sides may have become commonplace hillocks. The dense forest has again spread over the scene. Giant trees are covering its graves and ditches. Time and probably the plowshare of the pioneer have almost obliterated the lines of the crumbled wall. You thus have the true story of ancient society in Tennessee and of the monuments and remains of the stone-grave race. The young oaks that sprung up on the mounds that De Soto left desolate and unoccupied in 1541 would now be three hundred and fortyseven years old-old enough indeed to be lords of the forest. Most of the earthworks in Tennessee and the Mississippi valley doubtless date from a period anterior to the time of De Soto-probably centuries anteThe testimony of his followers is given, however, to show their objects and uses, and to solve at least some of the apparent mysteries of their construction. The accounts left us by the historian of the Narvaez expedition into Florida in 1564 confirm these views. We learn from Dumont s memoirs also, that near the mouth of the Yazoo River in Mississippi were the villages of the Offogoulas and other Southern Indians built upon mounds artificially made.* Dumont also says the cabin of the chief of the Natchez Indians “ was on an elevated mound." La Petit, a missionary among the Natchez Indians, mentions that "the residence of the great chief or brother of the Sun,' as he was called, was erected upon a mound of earth carried for that purpose." Du Pratz, the early historian of Louisiana, states that the house of the Great Sun of the Natchez stood upon a mound "about eight feet high, and twenty feet over on the surface," and that the temple of the priest was on a mound about the same height. + It is a matter of comparatively recent history that when the French and Choctaws defeated the Natchez Indians in Mississippi in 1730, the latter established themselves upon the Black River, where they erected *Hist. Collection La., Part 5, page 43. + Quoted by Dr. D. G. Brinton. mounds and embankments for defense. These defenses covered an area of four hundred acres, and could still be seen as late as 1851.* The pyramids of earth raised by the Choctaws over their dead when collected together, as described by Bertram, who traveled among these Indians in 1777, are in the form of some of our Southern burial mounds. t James Adair, who lived among the Southern Indians forty years, and published his history of them in 1775, generally confirms these views. A large mound of earth was erected by the Osage Indians on the Osage River, in Missouri, during the present century, in honor of one of their dead chiefs. + The earthworks of Western New York, long regarded as the unquestioned remains of an ancient race of mound builders, were, after careful exploration, declared to be the remains of the stockade forts of the Iroquois Indians, or their western neighbors, and of no great antiquity. § They are often exact counterparts of our fortified works in Tennessee. One of these stockade forts of the Iroquois is minutely described by Champlain, who attacked it in 1610. A familiar old print of this remarkable structure is given in the Documentary History of New York. The lines of stockades, the ditches, the great houses inside, all recall some of the descriptions in the chronicles of De Soto, and show a marked similarity to our Tennessee remains. The Iroquois nearly three centuries ago had acquired a knowledge of military defense that the armies of the North and South had to learn during the late war by costly experience. La Salle tells us they built a rude fort of earth and timbers every night they encamped near the enemy. Cartier found the site of modern Montreal occupied by a strongly fortified Indian town in 1535. On approaching it, nothing could be seen but its high palisades. They were made of the trunks of trees set in triple rows. Transverse braces formed galleries between them to assist the defenders. Lewis and Clark describe the forts built by the Mandans and other Indians of the Northwest in 1805, with raised stockades, ditches and fortified gateways. Captain John Smith, the founder and historian of the first Virginia colony, writes that the Indians of Virginia had “palizadood towns.” Bienville of Louisiana in 1735 attacked a Chickasaw village protected by a strong fort. He was repulsed, with heavy loss. The palisade wall was six feet thick, arranged with loopholes, covered with heavy timbers. *Pickett's Alabama, Vol. I., Ibid., page 83. | Vol. 3, page 15. Hist. Memoirs La., Part 5, page 110. |