The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-12-26 00:00:00

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IaIiCir4IIIIRICAN PAPERS.
LiTaittat.o. (CON.) SEPT. 21.--SouTs r. BENSON..
—The plaintiff received a verdict in this cause at the
present circuit in this place, before
-Judge BRISTOL, of
ore dinosaur) dollars.
The plaintiff and family bad been taken sick with
stymptoms of poison ; this led to the searching of the
well, where a bag filled with human excretnents, parts
of the body of some animal, and some kind of mineral
,poison, were foaml sunk to the bottom of the well by a
stone. Proofs sufficient to convince the Jnry that the
defendant was guilty of placing it there, was adduced,
and they gave the verdict.
We have never witnessed a rause where more moral
turpitude and dept avity was exhibited than in this. There
is scarcely a crime that was not developed, or ut least
indicated as having been perpetrated by the defendant,
some of his family, or some of the witnessses brought
on one or the other side.
Perjury, burglary, murder, forgery, bigamy, lar-
c, ay, and adultery, if out itices', were among the
nuttsb.r.
The defendant, as was alleged, bad poisoned the
well of the plaintiff, becan se the plaintiff had attempt-
ed to break up an adulterous connection, of the
'daughter of the defendant. The father bail formerly
'attempted to get the son to state prison to prevent the
sot from testifyintr against the 'father for poisoning; --
•'! wife of defeudaut bad died ofd oison adtuit.istered•
by her soli or her husband. And what crimes ap-
peared not to have been eotninit.ed by either father,
son, mother, or daughter, seemed abundantly sup-
plied when the character of the witnesses on one
side or the other were impeached.
Fortunately the theatre of action for these unhal-
lowed transactions, was on the confines of the state,
ant were worthy only of the confines, the very out
pests soci Fur a while it indeed appeared in
the Court-House as thought the damned had been again
summoned to an earthly tribunal.—(3merie. it Paper.)
IltdOM TIM ST. LOUIS ENQUIRER.
THE MOUNDS OF MISSOURI.
I know of nothing that would be more entertaining
than a few speculative or descriptive ideas upon the cu-
riosities of this country botJa. natural and artificial ; and
which, were I adequate to the task, might furnish mat-
ter fur the scientific researches and itinerant labours of
months. At present I shall confine my observations to
,the mounds, which for their number, variety, and even
construction, in my apprehension, claim a more distin-
guished place among the artificial curiosities of antiquity
than they have hitherto sustained, and I am surprized
that the writers have heretofore talon no notice of them.
'I be ancient works pervade the whole western
country, and vary both in magnitmle and form. Some
are coniele from the base to the top ; others present
oily the lower segment of a cone ; some ate semiglo-
b liar, others in the form of a parallelogram. The
In.tst remarkable appea an .es of mounds or pyramids
in the western country, within my knowledge, are on
the Mississippi, consisting of two groit;;es, the one abou
two wiles above the Cahsskia, which empties near St.
L• OS. and the other nearly the same disteace below it ;
wash in all exceede 150.
Near St Louis, within one mile of the Mississippi,
on the east side, is the upper groupe ; which, at a
lit!l, distance, resembles an enormous cluster of liar
reeks ; they are generally circular, and some of them
a great height, having spate enough on the top tocon-
ta'n an hunirPd men. The largest of these mounds
is a stupendous pile of earth, to form which must have
required the labour of thousands for years : it stands
immediately on the bank of lialloki. Were it not for
the regularity and design dlsplayed, the plain alluvial
• ground on which it %tam's, and the great number of
others scattered around it, I could scarcely believe it
to be the work of human baud!. The shape is
a parallelogram from ninth to south ; on the south
is a broad apron about half way down, and from
this an.ther projection nearly fifteen feet wide:
—the whole circumference is eighty yards, and
the height of the mound ninety feet. The monks of
La Trappe have settled near it, who have made the!
*lron into a kitchen garden, and sowed the top with
wheat. The extraordinary appearance of the cluster
of mounds forces conviction on the reflecting mind,
t sat they are the only relics time has secured fruui ob-
n, of a great and populous city. • The large
mounds are probably sites of temples, and many of the
smaller ones monuments of distinguished chiefs.
There is, perhaps. no spot in the west capable of pro-
duciog more abundantly, and of supporting a more nu-
met otts population than this tract, csilivd the Ame-
rican bottom.
The great number of mounds and the surprising
qusnatity of bones, every where slug tip or found on the
surface of the ground, with other appearances, prove
this valley to have been anciently 611etl with the habi-
t* tons of men. Near St. Louis is a cutians work
much admired, called the Fallen Garden. It suggests
to the minds of the spectators the idea of a situation
for assembling public councils. • ••• •
" THE BASIS iii THS Woons."—The following ac-
count is pnblished in the Cahawba 'ma) Press of
the 13th ult. with assurance that its authenticity may be
relied on :
On the Ilea nit. two little sons of Mr. Henry Vinson,
of Butler county, one four, the other . two years old,,
went out to meet their father on his return from work—
took a wrong direction, and got lost in an adjacent
• wood, which is entirely uninhabited. The inhabitants
of Butler tamed out en mass, could not find nor hear
• • the least account of them, and began to despair, but
still persevered. On the fourth day it was thought there
were no less than two hundred engaged in the hunt.
When about four miles from Mr. Vinson's house a'
voice was heard from one of the company that
signs were found; which had scarcely died away
before the cheering report was sounded by Mr. Sims
that he bad found the lost. To describe to you the
scene is past my pen's communication. The lovely
little babes were well, but much debilitated ; howevee,
by a proper regimen, are restored to perfect healtb.They
hid taken up their abode near a refreshing brook, and
say they,inteaded to live there, and the number of little
beds found is indicative of the fact. Around their new
abode were • 'lumber of sassafras bushes, from which
they bad gathered the leaves and barked the twigs aid
ate thereof, which was their only support. Surely a
ruling Proildence was their protector, and ought to
be gratefully adored.—(C/evelead Herald, Nor. 6.)