Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1878-11-14

than the words of tho wise.
North 1mcrtcdn Revie,o
Who Were tho First DwciIcrs in
Central New York.
That people much older and much more
civilized than the American Iudian, once
occupied this continent, is fact which
arcboologists bring overwhelming proofs to
establish. Lacking ahy better name for
these aborigncs, they are called the
mound builders, after the most remarkable
of tho evidences of thcir existence. These
mounds, sometimes of imposing size, and
always of extraordinary regularity of form,
exists in grout numbers in tho West. They
arc so numerous that in Ohio alone it is
estimated that not less than 10000, of
these mounds exist, besides 500 Enclosures
Of earth and stope-all beyond question tho
work of tho samo people. In those mounds
and enclosures are found pipes, domestic
implements, weapons of war, and various
metallic nnd terra Gotta works which prove
beyond question degree of civilization
such as the American Indian, if be ever
possessed it, could never have so completely
lost as to sink to tho condition in which he
was found when the European first entered
the continent. Whether tho mound build.
ers we're the forcrunners Of the Azteos of
Mexico; whether thoy came first from South
or Genital America, or were driven thence;
whcthor they were sprung from tho Phmui.
clan navgators; or whether they serve to
supply the missing link needed to connect
the fabulous island Of Atlantis with the
realities of profanc history-are oopiec-
lures about which tho antiquarians will
doubtless never cease to quarrel. Whoever
the vanished people was, it has nevor bcon
supposed until rocently that it had an exis-
teuce in tho Atlantic States. Plenty of
relics have boon dug up West Of tho Ale
ghanies but in New York our most ancient
findings have related to tho carly occupancy
of tho Iro1uois.
The historian, Wm. IT, Stone, now
advances the belief, in the Magazine of
American History, that this mysterious
race once occupied certain portions of Cen
tral and Eastern New York. Flo founds
this belief upon sundry pipes, copper and
bronze spear heads and spears, which hove
been found within the last year or two noar
Seneca Falls and Saratoga Springs. The
terra. Gotta pipe is wrought with tho Egyp
tian or sphinx like cast of features, so
different from any Of the rough earthcn
work of the American Indian, but not at
all unlike the discoveries made in some of
the Ohio mounds. The spear and spear
heads are identical ia sizo and shape With
tho copper implements discovered in the
abandoned galleries of the ancient copper
Of oh
can be no question of their prehistoric
character.
When did the makers and users of these
implements dgell ia tho valloy and on tho
hillsidcs Of Central New York; The Six
Nations whom our ancestors found hero
more than 200 years years ago, had no
knowledge of working in copper or Of deco
rated terra-ootta work at that time,
although thoy were far moro advanced in
inoipient processes of civilization than any
other tribes Of Indians on the oontinent.
The researches of the most careful histori-
ans, as we'll as tho traditions Of the Indians
themselves, give only 500 years as the
oxtrome limit of the time when tho Indians
fret migrated into these parts of North
Amoroa where thoy woro found at the
time Of the European discovery. It is
evident that they came long after their
predecessors had deserted this country; for
otherwise tho Indians would havo caught
and perpctuatcd some of tho arts by which
the mound builders oasod or cnlivoned the
burden of lifc. Here is a grent hiatus in
tho history of the continent, upon which
discoveries like those narrated by Mr.. Stouo
throw glimmer Of light, just enough to
reveal the impcnetrabe darkness that on
shrouds tho period
Mr.. Stone announces himself convert
to tho theory Of the Fronch aroheolo-
gist, Bourbourg--a theory that connects
the old American civilization with the
fabled island Of Atlantis. This theory
supposos tho continent to have once ex-
tended in an irregular peninsula over what
is now tho Atlantic Ocean to and including
tho Canary, Madeira, aud Western Islands,
which arc supposed to be tho remnants of
tho continent left after some terrible con
vulson Of nature. Classical writer's, bo.
ginning with Plato, havo many allusions to
an island greater than tho African oonti-
nant, known as Atlantis, gifted with
groater civilization than that which Egypt
then knew, ruled by mighty kings, and
finally anhmarpod IN $She N 0oaen l3 This