out will be killed, in order to thin them? Do you think they would be so barbarous? (said I) Yes! (said he) I do!-I fear they have a knowledge of an army from San Domingo, and they would be right to do it, to prevent us joining that army, if it should march towards this land! I was then very much alarmed.

"Last Tuesday or Wednesday week, Peter said to me -You see, my lad, how the white people have got to windward of us? You won't, said I, be able to do any thing. O, yes! (he said) we will! By George, we are obliged to! He said, all down this way ought to meet, and have a collection to purchase powder. What, said I, is the use of powder ?-the whites can fire three times to our once. He said, but 'twill be such a dead time of the night, they won't know what is the matter, and our horse companies will go about the streets and prevent the whites from assembling. I asked him-Where will you get horses? Why, said he, there are many butcher boys with horses; and there are the livery stables, where we have several candidates; and the waiting men, belonging to the white people of the horse companies, will be told to take away their masters' horses. He asked me if my master was not a horseman? I said, Yes! Has he not got arms in his house? I answered, Yes! Can't they be got at? I said, Yes! Then (said he) it is good to have them. I asked what was the plan? Why, said he, after we have taken the arsenals and guard houses, then we will set the town on fire, in different places, and as the whites come out we will slay them. If we were to set fire to the town first, the man in the steeple would give the alarm too soon.-I am the Captain, said he, to take the lower guard house and arsenal. But, I replied, when you are coming up, the sentinel will give the alarm. He said, he would advance a little distance ahead, and if he could only get a grip at his throat, he was a gone man, for his sword was very sharp; he had sharpened it, and had made it so sharp, it had cut his finger, which he showed me. As to the arsenal on the Neck, he said, that it was gone as sure as fate, Ned Bennett would manage that with the people from the

country, and the people between Hibbens' Ferry and Santee would land and take the upper guard house. I then said, then this thing seems true. My man, said he, God has a hand in it, we have been meeting for four years, and are not yet betrayed. I told him, I was afraid, after all, or the white people from the back country and Virginia, &c. He said that the blacks would collect so numerous from the country, we need not fear the whites from the other parts, for when we have once got the city we can keep them all out. He asked if I had told my boys. I said no. Then, said he, you should do it, for Ned Bennett has his people pretty well ranged. But, said he, take care and don't mention it to those waiting men who receive presents of old coats, &c. from their masters, or they'll betray us. I will speak to them.

We then

parted, and I have not since conversed with him. He said the rising was to take place last Sunday night, 16th June-That any of the coloured people who said a word about this matter would be killed by the others. The little man, who can't be killed, shot, or taken, is named Jack, a Gullah Negro. Peter said there was a French company in town, of three hundred men, fully armed— that he was to see Monday Gell, about expediting the rising."

122. Western Antiquities.

The numerous remains of ancient fortifications, mounds, &c. found in the Western States, are the admiration of the curious, and a matter of much speculation. They are mostly of an oblong form, situated on well chosen ground, and near the water.

One of the fortifications or towns at Marietta, Ohio, contains forty acres, accompanied by a wall of earth from six to ten feet high. On each side are three openings at equal distances, resembling gateways. The works are undoubtedly very ancient, as there does not appear to be any difference in the age or size of the timber growing on or within the va ls, and that which grows

without; and the Indians have lost all tradition respect ing them. Dr. Cutler, who accurately examined the trees on the works at Marietta, thinks from appearances, that they are on the second growth, and that the works must have been built upwards of one thousand years.

At a convenient distance from these works, always stands a mound of earth, thrown up in the form of a pyramid. Upon examination, some of these mounds are found to contain an immense number of human skeletons.

The ancient works on the western branches of the Muskingum river, extend nearly two miles, the ramparts of which are now in some places more than eighteen feet in perpendicular height.

În Pompey,* Onondaga County, New York, are vestiges of a town, the area of which included more than five hundred acres. It was protected by three circular or elliptical forts, eight miles distant from each other. They formed a triangle which enclosed the town. From certain indications, this town seems to have been stormed and taken on the line of the north side.

In Camillus, in the same county, are the remains of two forts, one covering about three acres, on a very high hill. It had one eastern gate, and a communication at west, towards a spring about ten rods from the fort. Its shape was elliptical. The ditch was deep, and the eastern wall ten feet high.

The other fort is almost half a mile distant, on lower ground, constructed like the other, and about half as large. Shells of testaceous animals, numerous fragments of pottery, pieces of brick, and other signs of an ancient settlement, were found by the first European settlers.

On the east bank of Seneca river, six miles south o. Cross and Salt lakes, the remains of an ancient Indian defence have been discovered, together with a delineation of ill shapen figures, supposed to have been hieroglyphical, and engraved as with a chisel, on a flat stone, five feet in length, three and a half in breadth, and six inches thick; evidently a sepulchral monument. The principal fortification was two hundred and twenty

* Yates' and Moulton's History.

yards in length, and fifty-five yards in breadth. The bank and corresponding ditch were remarkably entire; as were two apertures, opposite each other in the middle of the parallelogram, one opening to the water, and the other facing the forest.

About half a mile south of the great work was a large half moon, supposed to have been an outwork, but attended with this singularity, that the extremities of the crescent were from the larger fort. The banks of the ditch, both of this and the first fortress, were covered with trees that exhibited extremity of age.

The flat stone above mentioned was found over a small elevation in the great fort. Upon removing it one of the visiting party dug up with his cane a piece of earthen vessel, which, from the convexity of the fragment, was supposed to contain two gallons. It was well burned, of a red colour, and had its upper end indented, as with the finger, in its impressionable state.

Eastward, these fortifications have been traced eighteen miles from Manlius Square; and in Oxford, Chenango county, on the east bank of Chenango river, are the remains of another fort, remarkable for its great antiquity. Northward, as far as Sandy Creek, about fourteen miles from Sacket's Harbour, near which, one covers fifty acres. and contains numerous fragments of pottery.

Westward, they are discovered in great number. There is a large one in the town of Onondaga, one in Scipio, two near Auburn, three near Canandaigua, and several between the Seneca and Cayuga lakes. A number of ancient fortifications and burial places have also been discovered in Ridgeway, Genesee county.

The

Near the Tonewande creek, at the double fortified town, are some interesting antiquities, described by Dr. Kirkland. They are the remains of two forts. fit contained about four acres, and the other, distant about two miles, and situated on the other extremity of the ancient town, enclosed twice that quantity of ground. The ditch around the former was about five or six feet

This place is called by the Senecas, Tegataineaaghque, which inports a double fortified town, or a town with a fort at each end.

deep. A small stream of water, and a high bank, circumscribed nearly one third of the enclosed ground. There were traces of six gates or avenues round the ditch, and near the centre a way was dug to the water. A considerable number of large thrifty oaks had grown up within the enclosed ground, both in and upon the ditch; some of them appeared to be at least two hundred years old or more.

Near the northern fortification, which was situated on high ground, were found the remains of a funeral pile, probably the burying place of the slain, who had fallen in some sanguinary conflict. The earth was raised

about six feet above the common surface, and betwixt twenty and thirty feet in diameter. The bones appeared on the whole surface of the raised earth, and stuck out in many places on the sides.

On the south side of Lake Erie, is a series of old fortifications, from Cattaraugus creek to the Pennsylvania line, a distance of fifty miles. Some are from two to four miles apart, others half a mile only. Some contain five acres. The walls, or breastworks, are of earth, and generally on ground where there are appearances of creeks having once flowed into the lake, or where there was a bay.

These vestiges of ancient fortified towns are widely scattered throughout the extensive territory of the Six Nations, and by Indian report, in various other parts. There is one on a branch of the Delaware river, which, from the size and age of some of the trees, that have grown on the banks, and in the ditches, appears to have existed nearly one thousand years, and perhaps for a still longer period.

These antiquities afford demonstrative evidence of the remote existence of a vast population, settled in towns, defended by forts, cultivating agriculture, and more advanced in civilization, than the nations which have in habited the same countries since the European discovery.

The most probable conjecture respecting these people

*Eastman's Hist. of N. Y.