Indian mounds--Their origin and object--Tumuli near Natchez
--Skulls and other remains--Visit to the fortifications or
mounds at Seltzertown--Appearance and description of the
mounds--Their age--Reflections--History of the Natchez.
The Indian mounds, those gigantic mausolea of unhistoried nations, will
ever present a subject of absorbing interest to the reflecting mind.
Elevating their green summits amid the great forests of the
west--mysterious links of the unknown past--they will stand imperishable
through time, encircled by the cities and palaces of men, silent but
impressive monitors of their grasping ambition. These sepulchres are
scattered every where throughout the valley of the Mississippi--itself a
mighty cemetery of mighty tombs. In the pathless forests, and on the
banks of the rivers of the south-west, they are still more thickly
strewed than in the north valley, indicating a denser population. It
was recently suggested to me, by a gentleman of antiquarian tastes, that
the Indians of the southern valley, by whom these mounds were
constructed, and who were a mild and inoffensive people, far advanced in
civilization, were, in remote ages, invaded by a horde of northern
tribes from the Atlantic shores--as were the effeminate states of
southern Europe by the Goths and Vandals--who drove out the original
possessors, and took possession of their delightful country; while the
fugitive inhabitants crossed the Mississippi, and, moving to the west
and south, laid the foundation of the empire of Mexico. This theory is
not improbable, and it is supported by many established facts. It is
certain that the rude tribes found in this country, by De Soto and his
followers, remnants of which still exist, cannot be identified with
those by whom these tumuli were erected. Among them there exists not
even a tradition of the formation of these mounds.
There have been many curious hypotheses advanced in reference to their
object. Some have supposed that they were constructed, after a great
battle, of the numerous bodies of the slain; others, that they were the
customary burial-places of the Indians, gradually accumulating in a
series of years, until, terminating in a cone, they were covered with
earth, and deserted for new cemeteries, to be in like manner abandoned
in their turn. Others, by a train of analogous reasoning, founded upon
the prevailing custom of other aboriginal tribes, have supposed them to
be fortifications; and others again believe them temples; or, like the
pyramids of Egypt, structures connected with the mysteries of the
religion of their builders. But their true origin, like that of their
grander prototypes on the plains of Memphis, must for ever be lost in
conjecture.
In the vicinity of Natchez, and within three hours' ride of the city, in
various directions, are twelve or fifteen of these mounds. Some of them
have been partially excavated; and besides many vessels, weapons of war,
and ordinary human remains, skeletons of men of a large size have been
found in them. On the estate of a gentleman two miles from Natchez, and
in the loveliest vale in this region, there are three, situated
equidistant from each other, along the bank of the St. Catharine. One of
these was recently excavated by Dr. Powell, a distinguished phrenologist
of the west; from which he obtained several earthen vessels, neatly
made, various fragments, and besides other bones, three perfect
skulls--one the most beautiful head I ever beheld, of a young Choctaw
girl; another, the skull of a man of the same tribe; and the third, a
massive and remarkably formed skull of a Natchez. I have since examined
two of these mounds, but was not able to add any thing important to the
discoveries of Dr. Powell. The perfect decomposition which has taken
place in one of them, would indicate a much greater age than is
generally attributed to them. I laid bare a perpendicular face of this
mound, ten feet square, and the spade struck but one hard substance,
which proved to be the lower jaw, containing seven or eight teeth, of
some wild animal, and a few splinters of corroded human bones that
crumbled between the fingers. I could easily discern several strata, in
this exposed surface, alternately of common earth and a black friable
loam, resembling powder to the eye, but soft like paste in the fingers.
These black strata were veined with light brown or dingy white streaks,
of a firmer consistence. The location of this mound, its height, not
exceeding twenty feet, the uniform decomposition, and the regular series
of strata, lead to the conclusion, that it was constructed at one time,
probably after a battle, of the bodies of men whose deaths took place at
the same period, laid in layers, one above another, as the modern slain
are buried, by only reversing the process, in deep pits.
The skulls found by Dr. Powell in the mound opened by him, were very
perfect specimens. The head of the Choctaw differs not materially from
those of Europeans, when considered phrenologically, although its
developements of the organs of animal feelings are more prominent than
those of the intellectual faculties. The head is generally smaller than
that of the European, but the general contour is nearly the same. The
skull of the Natchez is remarkable in every respect. It is large, like
the German head, very angular, with bold developements. It is shaped
artificially in infancy,--a peculiarity only of the skulls of the
males--so that the top of the forehead forms the apex of a cone. The
compressure necessary to produce this shape has entirely destroyed the
organs of veneration, of benevolence, and of the reasoning powers. My
examination of this skull was for a moment only, and very superficial,
so that I did not ascertain the particular deficiency or developement of
any special organ. The heads of the females of this extinct tribe, I am
informed by those who have examined them, are very fine, displaying in
their graceful, undulating outline, the _beau ideal_ of the human
cranium.
There is a mound about five miles from Natchez, upon the plantation of a
gentleman, whose taste or ambition has influenced him to erect his
dwelling upon its summit. A strange dwelling-place for the living, over
the sepulchres of the dead! Eleven miles from the city there is another
mound, or a collection of mounds, which, in the beauty of its location,
the elevation of its summit, and the ingenuity displayed in its
construction, either as a fortress or a temple, is entitled to an
important rank among these mysterious structures of the western valley.
A few days since I left Natchez with a northern gentleman, for the
purpose of visiting this mound. Three miles from town we passed the
race-course, situated in a delightful intervale. This is the finest
"course" in the south, passing round a perfectly level plain in a circle
of one mile, whose centre is slightly convex, so that the spectators can
obtain a full view of the horses while running. Ladies, on extraordinary
occasions, attend the races, although it is not customary. But to
south-western gentlemen the race-course is a place of resort of the most
alluring character. On the St. Catharine race-course, now alluded to, on
great race days, the chivalry of Mississippi will be found assembled in
high spirits, and full of the peculiar excitement incident to the
occasion. Home is, perhaps, the proper scene for studying the planter's
character; but it will never be perfectly understood until he is seen,
booted and spurred, with his pocket-book in one hand, and bank bills
fluttering in the other, moving about upon the turf.
Three miles from the race-ground, about which is gathered a little
village, sometimes called St. Catharinesville, we entered the pretty and
rural town of Washington. The whole village was embowered in the foliage
of China trees, which thickly lined both sides of the main street.
Turning down a street to the left, which led to the college, we alighted
there after a short ride over the green, as it was the intention of the
president and one or two of the professors to accompany us to the mound.
We were shown the college library, comprised in a few shelves filled
with volumes of the statutes; and the cabinet, where, besides a few
interesting geological specimens, were some bones of a mammoth, or
mastodon, found in the neighbourhood.
In the course of an hour we all mounted our horses, and, entering the
village, rode down its quiet and shaded streets, and emerged on the brow
of the hill or ridge on which the town is built; and shortly after
crossed the pebbly bed of the St. Catharine's, which, in its serpentine
windings, crosses nearly every road in the neighbourhood of Natchez.
Beyond this stream, from an eminence over which the road wound, we had a
fine view of the village on the opposite hill, with its college, lifting
its roof among the towering oaks; its dwellings, with their light
galleries and balconies, half hidden among the shade trees; the female
academy, with its green lawn, a high colonnaded private edifice,
overtopping the trees, and its neat unassuming churches.
After a pleasant ride of five miles, through forest and plantation
scenery, over a country pleasantly undulating, we arrived at the summit
of a hill, just after passing a neat brick cottage, surrounded by a
parterre, and half hidden in the woods; so that it would not have been
observed, but for the wide gate on the road-side--often the only
indication, as I have before remarked, of the vicinage of a planter's
residence. From this hill we were gratified with an extensive prospect
of a richly wooded and partially cultivated extent of country,
occasionally rising into precipitous hills, crowned with forest trees.
About a mile to the north, on our left, in the centre of a large cotton
plantation, surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, stood a singular
cluster of eminences, isolated from those encircling them, whose summits
were destitute of verdure or trees. These were the goal of our
excursion--the celebrated tumuli of Mississippi. Descending the hill, we
passed through a gate, opening into a narrow lane, bordered on either
side with thick clumps of trees, and the luxuriant wild shrubbery which
grows by the streams and along the roads throughout the south; and after
winding through ravines and crossing bayous, we arrived at the "gin" of
the plantation; a large building resembling a northern hay-press, where
some negroes were at work; one of whom, with a readiness always
characteristic of the negro slave, immediately came out to take charge
of our horses. Declining his aid, as we had no authority for
appropriating his services--a liberty as to which some planters are very
punctilious--we hitched our horses to the rail fence. Had the proprietor
of the estate been present, we should have solicited the aid of some of
his slaves in excavating: but since then I have met with the venerable
planter, who, with great politeness, has offered me every facility for
making whatever researches or excavations curiosity might suggest.
We ascended the steep sides of the mound with some difficulty, as they
were inclined but a few degrees from the perpendicular. On gaining the
summit, thirty-five feet from the base, we saw, extended before us, an
elliptical area, whose plane was three or four feet lower than the verge
of the mound. To the right, at the eastern extremity of the area, rose a
super-mound, fifteen feet high; and on the opposite extremity, to the
east, stood another, rising thirty feet from the floor of the area or
summit of the great mound we had just ascended, and sixty feet from the
level of the surrounding plantation. From the summit of this second
mound the eye embraced an irregular amphitheatre, confined by elevated
forests, half a league in diameter, whose centre was the mound, from
which, on nearly every side, the ground descended, almost imperceptibly,
with a few obstructions, to the foot of the surrounding hills.
This peculiarity of its location, so favourable for a military
position, would indicate such to have been the object of its
constructors. The whole structure, so far as an opinion can be formed
from a careful survey of its general features, was originally a conical
hill, now changed to its present shape by human labour; which nature, in
a wayward mood, placed, like Joseph's sheaf, conspicuous, and aloof from
the hills that surround it on every side. From its present aspect, the
mound, if originally a natural hill, must have been forty or fifty feet
high, of an oblong form, its greatest diameter being from east to west,
with very precipitous sides. It consists now of a single conspicuous
elevation, oval in shape, and presenting, on every side, indentations
and projections, not unlike the salient angles of military works,
serving to strengthen the opinion that it was a fortification. Its
summit is perfectly flat, comprising an area of four acres, surrounded
by a kind of balustrade, formed by the projection of the sides of the
mound two or three feet higher than the area. The two super-mounds
before mentioned stand at either extremity of the summit, in a direction
east and west; a position indicating design, and confirming the views of
those who believe the structure to be a temple. The Indians, by whom the
mound is supposed to have been erected, were, like the Peruvians,
worshippers of the sun and of fire, and maintained a perpetual sacrifice
of the latter upon their altars. If this was a temple, the two
super-mounds were its altars; on one of which, toward the east, burned
the sacrifice of fire, to welcome the rising sun, of which it was a pure
and beautiful emblem; while the bright flame upon the altar toward the
west, mingled with his last expiring beams. Between these two superior
mounds are four others of inferior height, two of which border the
northern verge of the area, and two the southern, although not exactly
opposite to the former. Thus the area upon the summit is surrounded by
six tumuli, of various elevations. The largest of them, to the west,
before mentioned, is flat on the top, which contains about one-fourth of
an acre. Its external sides slope, as do the outside surfaces of the
other five, gradually down to the base of the great mound upon which it
is constructed.
The whole work is surrounded by the remains of a ditch; from which, and
from the sides of the chief mound, the earth must have been taken to
form those upon the summit. The material of which the whole is
constructed, is the same alluvial earth as that composing the sides of
the ditch and the surrounding plain. Neither stone nor brick forms any
portion of the material of the work, nor is the former found any where
in the vicinity. In the centre of the elevated area is the mouth of a
subterranean passage, leading, with an easy inclination, to a spring
without the mound, on the north side of the plain. It is now fallen in,
and choked with briers, vines, and young trees. There are traces also of
another avenue, conducting to the south side, and opening into the
country. Against the two eastern angles of the mound, at its base, are
two smaller mounds, ten feet high, which might be taken for bastions by
one who regarded the work as a fortification. In the early settlement
of this country, the mound was covered with fruit-trees of a large size,
whose age indicated uninterrupted possession of their places for
centuries. It is now divested of its trees, and under cultivation. It is
to be regretted that the axe or plough should ever have desecrated a
monument so sacred to the antiquary.
There is every evidence that formerly this position was one of great
importance. Remains of excavated roads, passing through the adjacent
forests, and converging to this mound as their common centre, still
exist, in which large trees are growing, whose age--more than two
hundred years--gives an approximation to the date when these roads were
disused, and when, probably, the spot to which they centred, ceased to
be regarded either as a shrine for the Indian pilgrim--a national
temple--or the centre of their military strength. Human remains of very
large size have been discovered in its vicinity, and also fragments of
pottery, weapons, pipes, and mortar-shaped vessels, covered with
ornamental tracery and hieroglyphics, evincing a high degree of
advancement in the arts. If their dwellings and apparel were made with
the same skill which is displayed in the utensils and weapons discovered
in these mounds, their fabricators will be regarded, so far as this
criterion extends, as having possessed a high degree of civilization.
In surveying this mound from the plain, the mind is impressed with the
idea of the vast amount of human labour expended in thus piling it
up--mound upon mound--like Pelion upon Ossa. Thousands of human emmets
have toiled to rear this hill--their busy hum filled the air, and every
spot around us was trodden by their nimble feet. The question is
naturally suggested to the mind, while gazing upon the huge pile, "For
what was it constructed?"--and imagination, surveying the sad history of
the departed nations, who once inhabited this pleasant land, might
answer that a prophetic warning of their total annihilation influenced
these people to erect a national tomb. And are they not their tombs? Are
not these the only evidences that they ever have been--and are they not
the receptacles of their national remains? The footstep of the labourer
is now stayed for ever! his voice is hushed in death! The shout of the
hunter--the cry of the warrior--the voice of love, are heard no more.
"The Natchez tribe of Indians," says a beautiful writer, to whom I have
before alluded, and who involves in his historical sketch a touching
narrative, "who inhabited the luxuriant soil of Mississippi, were a
mild, generous, and hospitable people. The offspring of a serene
climate, their character was marked by nothing ferocious; and beyond the
necessity of self-defence, or the unavoidable collisions with
neighbouring tribes, by nothing martial. Their government, it is true,
was most despotic; and, perhaps, the history of no other nation north of
the equator presents a parallel; and yet no charge of an unnecessary, or
unwarrantable exercise of this great power, is made against them, even
by their historians, who were also the countrymen of their oppressors.
Their king, or chief, was called "THE SUN," and the exalted
station which he held, was designated by a representation of that
luminary worn upon his breast. He united also with his civic function,
the priestly power and supremacy--and thus entrenched behind the
ramparts of physical force, and wielding the terrors of superstition, he
was absolute master of the lives and property of his subjects. His
equal, in dignity and power, was his queen, under the title of "THE
WIFE OF THE SUN." Thus, then, living in undisturbed repose, and in
the innocent enjoyment of the bounties of nature, there came in an evil
hour to their peaceful shores, a party of French emigrants, who, about
the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century,
navigated the Mississippi in quest of wealth and territory. They were
received with all the cordiality and affection that these guiltless and
inoffensive beings could bestow. The choicest gifts of the beneficent
Creator had been showered upon them with a lavish hand, and with a
spirit, somewhat allied to his who had conferred them, they cheerfully
tendered to the houseless wanderers a participation in the blessings
they themselves enjoyed. These substantial pledges of amity and good
feeling were received with apparent gratitude by the emigrants; but
their immediate wants supplied, they were again thrown back upon their
evil passions, that for a moment had been quelled by misfortune, and
perpetrated acts of injustice and cruelty which excited the indignation
of their benefactors. Driven almost to frenzy, by repeated acts of
aggression, they attempted a re-establishment of their rights, but were
eventually subdued, and basely massacred. The French, upon their
arrival, affected to treat upon terms of reciprocity for the products of
the soil; perceiving, however, the unsuspicious temper of these generous
Indians, they threw off the mask, and urged novel and extravagant
demands; even extending to the fields which supported their wives and
children--and not until they were driven in ignominy from them into the
depth of the wilderness, were their shameless oppressors satisfied. At
this period commenced the league against the French, which embraced all
the tribes lying on the east, and to the failure of which, through the
unmerited compassion of their queen, they owed their defeat and
extermination.
Messengers were despatched to different quarters, and a general massacre
of the common enemy was agreed upon. A day was appointed, but being
unacquainted with the art of writing, or the use of numbers, the period
was designated by a bundle of sticks, every stick representing a day;
each of the confederated chiefs prepared a bundle corresponding in
number with those of his associates, one of which was to be burned
daily; and the committing of the last to the flames, was to be the
signal for the attack.
"The wife of the sun," still attached to the French by many
recollections, being the strangers whom she had protected and
loved--trembling at the torrents of blood which must flow, and
forgetting the wrongs which had been heaped upon her country, determined
to preserve them, and intimated to their commander the necessity of
caution; by some singular incredulity he despised and neglected the
counsel thus tendered to him. Frustrated in her purpose of saving those
within the limits of her own tribe, she determined, by the anticipation
of their fate, to preserve the majority scattered throughout other
tribes. Having free access to the temple, she removed several of the
sticks there deposited, and the warriors, on repairing thither, finding
but one symbol remaining, prepared for the dreadful business on which
they had resolved. They then consigned the last stick to the fire, and
supposing that the united nations were all engaged in the same bloody
work, fell upon the French, and cut them off almost to a man.[17]
Perrein, the commander, with a few more, escaped, and collecting a few
of his countrymen, prevailed upon the neighbouring tribes, by threats or
promises, to abandon and betray the devoted Natchez; and in one day
consigned them to the sword, sparing neither age, sex, nor condition; he
burnt their houses, laid waste their fields, and desolation soon marked
the spot, once the retreat of an unoffending, peaceful, and happy
people. The few who escaped, fled for protection to a neighbouring
tribe, then, and now, known as the Chickasaws; a brave, warlike, and
independent nation. Their conduct toward these wretched outcasts should
be remembered to their immortal honour; they received them with open
arms, and resisted with unshaken firmness, the earnest and repeated
demands of the French for their delivery; and to such an extent did they
carry their magnanimity, that they preferred hazarding a doubtful
contest, when their own existence was at stake, to a violation of the
pledges of hospitality and protection, which they had made to a few
persecuted strangers. Three times, with souls bent upon vengeance
against the remnant of their ancient foes, and with no less bloody
purposes against their defenders, did the French carry war to the
Chickasaw boundary, and three times were they driven back with ignominy
and loss--nor did they ever obtain their object. The poor Natchez shared
the hospitality of their protectors until their necessities and sorrows
were alike relieved by death; their bones repose in a land unknown to
their fathers; their spirits may be again mingled in the beautiful
regions which they believe to be prepared by the Great Spirit for the
fearless warrior, the successful hunter, and the faithful and hospitable
Indian, beyond the great lakes. Such is the story of the Natchez--such
their melancholy end--such the kindness and benevolence extended to the
white man in distress--and such the ingratitude, perfidy, and cruelty,
with which these favours were repaid. Of the distinguished female, whose
humanity and mercy proved so unexpectedly fatal to her race, we hear no
more--but it is highly probable, that in the indiscriminate massacre
which took place, neither her strong claims to the gratitude of the
French, nor her merciful and forbearing disposition, nor her honours,
titles, and dignities, nor even her sex, could protect her; but that she
fell an undistinguished victim, among her slaughtered people."