Let it be borne in mind, too, that the time is not very far back when it was considered quite an accomplishment for kings and queens to be able simply to read. There are books in manuscript and print in the public libraries of the world, dating back many centuries, which cannot be read and understood by those in whose vernacular they were written or printed.
Enough recitals have been added to the narrative of Rev. Charles Beatty to render it absolutely certain that in his time and during his tour through Pennsylvania there existed a firm conviction, based on personal knowledge and experience, that there was a tribe of Indians who spoke the Welsh language; that they formerly had occupied the eastern portions of the country, but, pressed by their enemies, red and white, they had retreated farther and farther into the interior, and had become broken into scattering fragments, incorporating themselves in some cases with other tribes. Can they be pursued by the antiquary or the historian? Let the succeeding pages answer.
CHAPTER VII. THE WELSH INDIANS MOVING WEST.
Modern investigations and discoveries show that there once existed an almost unbroken system of defences, extending from New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas, in a diagonal direction, to the valley of the Ohio, and thence into the great basin of the Mississippi. These works increase in size and number as they advance towards the centre, and may properly be classified into forts for defence and tumuli or mounds for sepulture. They are chiefly found along the fertile valleys through which run large rivers, and at their junctions with one another. It is quite usual with writers on these remarkable works to assign to them so great an antiquity that the employment of figures is almost useless if they tell the truth. But there are substantial reasons for the belief that they were erected by the Welsh, aided by those Indians with whom they became incorporated and whom they directed in their labor. The route they took, either by choice or necessity, and the exact correspondence of these earthen monuments with those found in England and Europe known to be of Cambrian origin, go very far to support this belief.
In Onondaga, New York, there are vestiges of ancient settlements dating back beyond the time when the council-fires of the Six Nations burned there. These are protected by three circular forts.
Isaac Chapman, Esq., says, in his "History of Wyoming," Pennsylvania, "In the valley of Wyoming there exist some remains of ancient fortifications, which appear to have been constructed by a race of people very different in their habits from those who occupied the place when first discovered by the whites. Most of these ruins have been so obliterated by the operations of agriculture that their forms cannot now be distinctly ascertained. That which remains the most entire was examined by the writer during the summer of 1817, and its dimensions carefully ascertained, although from frequent plowing its form had become almost destroyed. It is situated in the township of Kingston, upon a level plain, on the north side of Toby's Creek, about one hundred and fifty feet from its bank, and about half a mile from its confluence with the Susquehanna. From present appearances, it consisted probably of only one mound, which in height and thickness appears to have been the same on all sides, and was constructed of earth, the plain on which it stands not abounding in stone. On the outside of the rampart is an intrenchment, or ditch. When the first settlers came to Wyoming, this plain was covered with its native forest, consisting principally of oak and yellow pine, and the trees which grew in the rampart and the intrenchment are said to have been as large as those in any other part of the valley; one large oak particularly, upon being cut down, was ascertained to be seven hundred years old. The Indians had no tradition concerning these fortifications; neither did they appear to have any knowledge of the purposes for which they were constructed. They were, perhaps, erected about the same time with those upon the waters of the Ohio, and probably by a similar people and for similar purposes."
Directly opposite, on the eastern bank of the Susquehanna, a little above the city of Wilkesbarre, another fortification has been discovered and measured, and found to have been of precisely the same size and dimensions as that described by Mr. Chapman.
In these earthen works, and along the banks of the river up as far as Towanda, have been found human skeletons,—as many as six at one time having been washed out from old fire-places by the freshets,—large earthen vessels, and relics of various kinds. One of these earthen vessels was twelve feet in diameter, thirty-six feet in circumference, and three inches thick. It was found on the farm of a Mr. Kinney. Relics of iron instruments have also been found—which agrees with a remarkable tradition of the Shawanese Indians who emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio, "that the coasts were inhabited by white men who used iron instruments."