University of Virginia Library

7. CHAP. VII.
Containing Observations.

It may be observed, that as I advance in
my book, I make fewer chapters, by
way of commentary, and occupy myself
chiefly with the narrative. It is the characteristic
of old age, and may be decorous
towards the conclusion of the work. Nevertheless,
I shall arrest myself here a little,
to reflect on one particular of the discoveries
of the Captain; the sculpture on the
rocks, which appeared to be the labour of
the aborigness of this country. I have
not seen these sculptures, for I have not
had an opportunity of visting this cave;
but I have seen similiar sculptures, in abundance,
on the west of the Allegany
mountains. I recollect at an early period
to have heard it said, that Ferdinando Soto,
had been on the Ohio waters, and as high
as the mouth of the great Kenaway; and to
have

have heard it given as a proof of this, that
in a particular place near the mouth of
that river, the imperial eagle was to be
seen engraven on a rock; the eagle which
was the ensign of the Spanish monarchy,
under Charles V, also emperor of Germany,
and the successor of the Cæsars. It
was added, on the same ground, that the
vestiges of fortifications discoverable in
this country, were the remains of Spanish
works, and encamping grounds, under
Soto. I had understood, that the great
Franklin had adopted this hypothesis with
regard to these forts, from the sculpture
of the eagle. In the winter of the year
1787, I had the happiness to converse
with that sage, and amongst a number of
questions, which I had the curiosity, and
perhaps impertinence, to ask, I put this,
with regard to the Kenaway sculpture, and
the theory of the vestiges of forts in the
western country. I found his ideas to be
as I had been informed, and have stated.
I was then in Philadelphia.

In the fall of this year, having returned
to the western country, a surveyor who
had been engaged in surveying lands on
the Kenaway, being in my office on some
business, it occurred to me to interrogate
him

him on the subject of the sculpture. He
had seen the engraving, of what was
thought to be the eagle, but called it a
Turkey; which word no sooner strnck my
ear, than all the hypothesis of the holy
Roman eagle, and Ferdinando Soto, fell
to the ground. It is a turkey, thought I,
which the fancy of the virtuoso and antiquarian,
has converted into the king of
birds.

Conversing, with the surveyor, he gave
me an account more minutely of this, and
other figures cut upon the rock, viz. the
turkey with its wings spread, as if just alighting;
the deer with his branching
horns; and the savage himself, with a
large head and long limbs, rudely cut.
He added, that he had heard from a hunter
whom he well knew, that there was a
rock with similar engravings on Cheat river,
a small distance above where it falls
into the Monongahela; and promised to
bring this hunter to give me a description.

About a month afterwards, the surveyor
brought the hunter to me, who appeared
to have been observant, and to be intelligent.
He had seen the rocks near the
mouth of Cheat river. The following is
the memorandum that I took from him:
The

“The turkey appears to have alighted
at the lower part of the rock, and ran up
to the top. You see the track, which it
leaves; the stretched back, and the body
thrown forward, as between flying and
running. There is the figure of a man,
with a large head, and horns, and a thin
skeleton-like body. There are deer tracks
well cut. This rock stands on a bend of
the river; and the figures on the lower
end, which projects most, are defaced by
the water, which rises to this height in the
time of floods. There is a horse track.
This is the only thing that I think remarkable,
if it is a horse track; for, as I do not
know that there were any horses here, before
the European settlements, it would
argue that this engraving had been done
since, and by the natives who have come
from the Chesapeek, and had seen horses.
The settlement made by Captain Smith at
the mouth of James river, Virginia, was
I believe the earliest made, contiguous to
this country.”

This hunter gave me to understand, that
he had seen a rock, sculptured in like
manner on the Kenaway, about eighty
miles from its mouth; that is nearly in a
line

line directly west from the rocks on Cheat
river.

Having been led into the way of enquiring
on this subject, I have found that these
engravings are very common throughout
the whole western country; that they are
discernible all along the Ohio, at low water
especially, when the horizontal rocks
are left bare; that they are found on the
margins of the smaller streams also.

I had heard of one of these on the Monongehela,
about forty miles above Pittsburgh,
and in the summer of 1793, crossing
the country near that place, I spent a
part of a day, in going out of my course
to observe it. The sculptures were of the
same kind, and answer the description before
given of those elsewhere. The figures
on this are, a bear rudely or rather
clumsily cut; a hawk flying with a snake
in its beak; the moon and the seven stars;
a racoon; a human arm, and human feet,
well done; a buck with branching horns;
the turkey; and a number others. I want
no other proof that these sculptures were
by the natives, than the form of the feet,
which are unquestionably Indian. The
narrowness, and smallness of the heel evinces
it. It might also be induced as a
pre

presumption, that there are the vestiges of
a sortification, such as has been mentioned,
just above on the hill. For it is reasonable
to suppose, that these works of
leisure and taste, were most likely to be
pursued in the neighbourhood of such
a work. But what has been at all times
conclusive to me, that these engravings
are the works of the natives, is, the circumstance
that no alphabetic mark of any
language, or Roman or Arabic numeral,
is found amongst any of these. For it is
well known, that it is a thing which would
occur to any European, who should amuse
himself in this manner, to impress the initials
at least of his name, and the digits of
the year. I had put this question to the
surveyor and hunter, of whom I have
made mention, with regard to letters and
numeral marks, and found that none had
been observed by them, on the rocks which
they had seen. On that ground, independent
of all others, I made the deduction
I have stated.

I consider these sculptures, as the sirst
rude esseys of the fine art of engraving;
and to have been the work of savages of
taste, distinguished from the common mass,
by a talent to imitate in wood or stone,
the

the forms of things innature, and a capacity
of receiving pleasure from such an
application of the mental powers. Whilst
a chief of genius, was waiting for the assembling
of other chiefs, to hold a council;
or while the warrior was waiting at
a certain point for others, that were to meet
him, he may have amused himself in this
manner; or it may have been the means
to cheat weariness, and solace the intellectual
faculty, when there was no counselling
in the nation, or wars to carry
on.

Happy savage, that could thus amuse
himself, and exercise his first preeminence
over animals we call Beasts. They can
hunt, and devour living things for food;
but where do you find a wolf, or a fishing
hawk, that has any idea of these abstract
pleasures, that feed the imagination? Why
is it that I am proud, and value myself amongst
my own species? It is because I
think I possess, in some degree, the distinguishing
characteristic of a man, a taste
for the fine arts: a taste and characteristic
too little valued in America, where a system
of finance, has introduced the love
of unequal wealth; destroyed the spirit
of common industry; and planted that of
lot

lottery in the human heart; making the
mass of the people gamblers; and under
the idea of speculation, sthrouded engrossing
and monopoly every where.

It would seem, that the sculptures of
which I speak, are the works of more ancient
savages, than these which have lately
occupied this country; these tribes not
being in the habit of making any such
themselves, and the figures evincing an
old date, being in most places, in some
degree essaced, by the water of the river,
or the rain washing the rocks, on which
they are engraven. They would seem to
have been a more improved race, who had
given way to barbarians of the north, who
had over run the country. It is generally
understood, by the tradition of the
present Indians, and the early French
writers, Charlevoix and others, that about
the beginning of the present century,
the Six Nations conquered this country,
and expelled the former owners; and the
word Ohio, is said to mean Bloody, and
was the name given it from the blood shed
upon its waters at that time.

The sortifications of which we speak,
must have also been works of defence, of
that or an earlier period. From the trees
grow

growing upon the mound, or parapet of
these, they must be some of them many
hundred years old.

It will strike the reflection, how was it
possible for the human mind to remain so
long in so low a stage of improvement, as
was the casfe with these, the aborigines of
this country. Perhaps the more puzzling
question would be, whence the spring that
could have sussicient energy to rouse from
it. I shall leave this to philosophy, thought,
and historical deduction. Enough has
been said at present.CHAP