represented a captive bound with thongs. Both figures showed the peculiar contour of head and features which marks the mound-builder race. In December, 1868, some laborers engaged in grading Sixth street, in East St. Louis, dug up a nest of unused flint hoes or shovels, and another deposit of shells with string-holes worked in them, and another deposit of boulders of flint and greenstone, ready to make more tools or weapons from. These deposits were on high ground, and about half-way between two ancient mounds. In 1876 or 1877 some ancient mounds were discovered on the banks of the Missouri river near Kansas City. They were in groups of three and five together, at different points for five miles up and down the river. Some were built entirely of earth, and some had a rude stone chamber or vault inside, but covered with earth so that all looked alike outside. They were of an irregular oval shape, from four to six feet high, and had heavy growths of timber on top. Mr. W. H. R. Lykins, of Kansas City, noticed a burr-oak tree five feet in diameter, growing on top of one of them, and the decayed stump of a black walnut of about the same size, on another. In describing the exploration of some of these mounds Mr. Lykins gives some points that will be of interest to every one. says: "We did not notice any very marked peculiarity as to these bones except their great size and thickness, and the great prominence of the supraciliary ridges. The teeth were worn down to a smooth and even surface. The next one we opened was a stone mound. On clearing off the top of this we came upon a stone wall inclosing an area about eight feet square, with a narrow opening for a doorway or entrance on the south side. The wall of this inclosure was about two feet thick; the inside was as smooth and compactly built and the corners as correctly squared as if constructed by a practical workman. No mortar had been used. At a depth of about two feet from the top of the wall we found a layer of five skeletons lying with their feet toward the south." * None of the other walls examined were so skilfully laid as this one. The bones were crumbly, and only a few fragments were preserved by coating them well with varnish as quickly as possible after they were exposed to the air. One stone enclosure was found full of ashes, charcoal and burnt human bones, and the stones and earth of which the mound was composed all showed the effects of fire. Hence it is presumed that this was either a cremation furnace or else an altar for human sacrifices—most probably the latter. Some fragments of pottery were found in the vicinity. L. C. Beck in 1823† reported some remains in the territory now constituting Crawford county, Missouri, which he thought showed that there *Smithsonian Report, 1877, p. 252. + Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri, published by L. C. Beck, in 1822-23. was in old time a town there, with streets, squares, and houses built with stone foundations and mud walls. He also mentions the ruins of an ancient stone building described to him by Gen. Ashley, as situated on a high cliff on the west side of the Gasconade river. And another one said to be in Pike county, is thus described: "It presents the dilapidated remains of a building constructed of rough, unhewn stones, fifty-six feet long and twenty-two broad, embracing several divisions and chambers. The walls are from two to five feet high. Eighty rods eastward of this structure is found a smaller one of similar construction. The narrow apartments are said to be arched with stone, one course overlapping the other, after the manner of the edifices of Central America." I. Dille, Esq., of Newark, Ohio, reported that he had examined some of these pre-historic town ruins, in the vicinity of Mine-la-Motte and Fredericktown, in Madison county, Missouri. He speaks of them as groups of small tumuli, and says: "I have concluded they are the remains of mud houses. They are always arranged in straight lines, with broad streets intervening between them, crossing each other at right angles. The distance apart varies in different groups, but it is always uniform in the same group. * I have counted upwards of two hundred of these mounds in a single group. Arrow heads of jasper and agate, and axes of sienite and porphyry have been found in their vicinity." Mounds or other pre-historic structures have been found on Spencer's creek in Ralls county; on Cedar creek in Boone county; on Crow's Fork and other places in Callaway county; near Berger Station in Franklin county; near Miami in Saline county; on Blackwater river in Johnson county; on Salt river in Pike county; on Prairie Fork in Montgomery county; near New Madrid; and in many other parts of the State. The class of ancient ruins, partly built of stone, said to exist in Clay, Crawford, Pike and Gasconade counties, Missouri, are not found further north, but are frequent enough further south, and are supposed to indicate a transitional period in the development of architectural knowledge and skill, from the grotesque earth-mounds of Wisconsin to the well-finished adobe structures of New Mexico, and the grander stone ruins of Yucatan. But, no matter what theory we adopt with regard to these pre-historic relics, the present citizens of Missouri can rest assured that a different race of human beings lived and flourished all over this region of country, hundreds-yes, thousands of years ago, and that they were markedly different in their modes of life from our modern Indians. * Many large and costly works have been published by scientists, devoted to the general subject of Pre-Historic Man; but of cheap and popular works for the general reader, the best are Foster's "Pre-Historic Races of the United States"; and Baldwin's "Ancient America". And there are at least two discoveries known which show that these people were here before the extinction of the mastodon, or great American elephant. In the "Transactions of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences," 1857, Dr. Kock reports that in the year 1839 he dug up in Gasconade county [as that county then was] the bones of a mastodon, near the Bourbeuse river. The skeleton of this gigantic creature was buried in such a position as to show that it had got its hind legs down in a bog so deeply that it could not climb out, although its fore feet were on dry ground. The natives had attacked it with their flint arrows and spears, most of which were found in a broken condition; but they had finally managed to build a big fire so close to its head as to burn it to death, the head-bones and tusks being found all burnt to coals. The account of this discovery was first printed in the Philadelphia Presbyterian, Jan. 12, 1839, and copied into the "American Journal of Science" the same year. The authenticity of the incident has been disputed, on the assumed ground that man did not exist as long ago as when the mastodon roamed over these pre-historic plains; but science now has indisputable evidence that man existed even in the Tertiary age of the geological scale, (see note to chart in chapter on Geology) long before the glacial epoch; hence that objection has no force at present. Dr. Koch further reports that about a year after unearthing the Gasconade county monster, he again found in the bottom land of the Pomme-de-Terre river, in Benton county, a nearly complete skeleton of the great extinct beast called Missourium, with arrow-heads under it in such a way as to show beyond question that they were made and used while the animal was alive. This skeleton is now in the British Museum. * Human footprints have been found in the rocks at De Soto in Jefferson county, also in Gasconade county, and at St. Louis. H. R. Schoolcraft, in his book of travels in the Mississippi river country in 1821, said of these footprints: "The impressions in the stone are, to all appearance, those of a man standing in an erect posture, with the left foot a little advanced, and the heels drawn in. The distance between the heels, by accurate measurement, is 6 inches and between the extremities of the toes 13 inches. The length of these tracks is 10 inches; across the toes 4 inches as spread out, and but 24 at the heel." Our eminent U. S. Senator, Thomas H. Benton, wrote a letter April 29th, 1822, in which he says: "The prints of the human feet which you mention, I have seen hundreds of times. They were on the uncovered limestone rock in front of the town of St. Louis. The prints were seen when the country was first settled, and had the same appearance then as now. No tradition can tell anything about them. They look as old as the rock. They have the same fine polish which the attrition of the *See Foster's "Pre-Historic Races of the United States," pp. 62-3-4-5-6. sand and water has made upon the rest of the rock which is exposed to their action. I have examined them often with great attention. They are not handsome, but exquisitely natural, both in the form and position. * A block 6 or 8 feet long and 3 or 4 feet wide, containing the prints, was cut out by Mr. John Jones, in St. Louis, and sold to Mr. Rappe, of New Harmony, Indiana."* Prof. G. C. Broadhead, and some other writers, think these were not natural impression of human feet, but sculptures made by hand. This theory requires a belief that the pre-historic men of Missouri had tools with which they could cut the most delicate lines in hard rocks; and that they studied the human form in its finest details of muscular action and attitude, and had the art of sculpturing these things so as to look “exquisitely natural," as Col. Benton expresses it—thus rivalling, if not excelling the most famous sculptors of ancient Greece; all of which is wholly inconsistent with the known facts. And besides this, there is no better geological reason for doubting their genuineness as natural footprints, than there is in the case of the famous bird and reptile tracks in the sandstones of Connecticut, or those found by Prof. Mudge in Kansas, in 1873. There is no valid reason, either of an æsthetic, historical, or scientific nature, for pronouncing them anything but just what they show themselves to be— fossil footprints of a man who stood in the mud barefooted; and in course of time that mud became solid stone, preserving his footprints just as he left their exact impression in the plastic material. THE WHITE RACE IN MISSOURI. SPANISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERERS. In 1512 the Spanish adventurer Ponce de Leon discovered Florida; and at this time and for some years after the old countries of Europe were filled with the wildest and most extravagant stories about the inexhaustible mines of gold, silver and precious stones that existed in the country north of the Gulf of Mexico; also of great and populous cities containing fabulous wealth, beyond what Pizarro and Cortes had found in Peru and Mexico. And besides all this, the "fountain of perpetual youth," which all Europe had gone crazy after, about this time, was supposed to be in that region. Indeed, it can hardly be doubted that the Spaniards in Mexico had gathered from the natives some inkling of the wonderful healing waters now known as *See Smithsonian Report, 1879, pp. 857-58. Also "American Antiquities," by Josiah Priest, 1833, pp. 1850-51-52. Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the brilliant quartz crystals found in that region, as well as the glittering ores of Missiouri. Ferdinand de Soto was a wealthy cavalier who had won fame as a leading commander in Pizarro's conquest of Peru; he imbibed deeply the current imaginings about the undiscovered wonders of the new world, and was eager to immortalize his name by bringing to his king and country the glory of still more important conquests and discoveries; and he especially desired to find the supposed "fountain of perpetual youth." Accordingly, in 1538 he received permission from the king of Spain to conquer Florida at his own cost-"Florida" then meaning all the unknown country from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northern ocean. He collected a band of more than six hundred young bloods who were able to equip themselves in all the gorgeous trappings and splendor of a Spanish cavalier dress parade, and with this plumed and tinselled troupe, very like the grand entree riders of a modern circus, he landed in Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1539. From here he boldly struck out into the interior, wandering about and pushing forward with dogged perseverance, in spite of bogs and streams and bluffs; in spite of tangling thickets and dense forests; in spite of heats and rains; in spite of the determined hostility of the natives-until in May, 1541, he discovered the Great River, a few miles below where the city of Memphis now stands; and thus he made his name memorable for all time. After some delay, to construct boats, they crossed the river and pushed on northward as far as where the city of New Madrid now stands; and this was the first time that the eyes of white men looked upon any portion of the soil now comprised within the State of Missouri.* But, so fruitless was this visit that no white man set foot within our present State boundary again until one hundred and thirty-two years, afterward, when the French missionaries, Marquette and Joliet, came from the great lakes down the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers, to the mouth of the Missouri, in June, 1673. This was the first time white men had beheld the waters of this great stream, and they named it Pekitonoui, or "Muddy Water River". It was known by this name until about 1710 or 1712, when it began to be called "the river of the Missouris," referring to a tribe of Indians that dwelt at its mouth, chiefly on the lands now comprised in St. Louis county. Marquette and Joliet went on down the river as far south as the mouth of the Arkansas river, of course making several camping stops on Missouri soil, and discovering the Ohio river. From the Arkansas they returned northward the same way they * De Soto and his army came into Missouri trom the south, twice crossing the Ozark mountains. He spent the winter of 1541-42 in Vernon county, in the extreme western part of the State. Ruins of their winter camp structures and smelting operations are still found there. They melted lead ore for silver, and the glittering, lustrous, yellow, zinc blende or Smithsonite for gold; but were deeply disgusted to find at last that they had been handling only the basest metals. |