It is worthy of notice, too, that the age of the trees found standing on these ancient fortifications and mounds, and the number of their annular circles, diminish with striking regularity in the ratio of their distance from the eastern coast. The first found reach as high a number as seven hundred; then, decreasing, they are found in Ohio with from four hundred to five hundred; and then in the copper regions of Lake Superior with from three hundred and fifty to four hundred annular rings. Comparing these figures with the time (1170) when Madoc and his followers landed on this continent, and allowing for their progress into the interior such reasonable periods as their peculiar circumstances demanded, adding also whatever other proofs have been adduced, scarcely a single doubt can linger in the mind of the candid inquirer as to the origin of these earthen defences and mounds, the removal of the native forests, the working of the mines, and the many relics unearthed.
If it be objected that a small band of a few hundreds could not cover so much territory or accomplish so much work, it may be said, in reply, that one century alone offers sufficient time for the achievement of wonders. Under favorable conditions peoples multiply rapidly. Surrounded as the Welsh were with populous tribes of red men, they affiliated with some of them for self-protection and aid, and degraded remnants of them are found at the present time in different parts of the far West.
CHAPTER VIII. THE DISPERSION OF THE WELSH INDIANS.
It was only after the most stubborn and sanguinary resistance that the Welsh Indians yielded the fertile plains of the Ohio valley to their enemies. They moved down the Ohio River to its confluence with the Mississippi, and here for a period took another stand, as is evinced by the many remarkable remains and relics which have been brought to light by accident and the diligent researches of antiquarians and archæologists.
At this point there began a series of dispersions, south, west, and north, by which they became spread over a vast area of the Western country. The Lower and Upper Mississippi, the Missouri, and many of the smaller rivers abound with remains which exhibit the same knowledge and skill with those along the Ohio. Such a dispersion offers the best solution for the construction of the numerous accounts given of them into an intelligible and consistent whole. These accounts coming from so many different parties, separated from one another in time and distance, and independent of one another, excluding the possibility of preconcert or collusion, it would not be wonderful if they appeared to vary in the minor details. Their differences are a proof of the absence of falsehood or trickery. That the Welsh did not lose all the radical characteristics of their race can be made evident: still, when it is considered how numerous the peoples were with whom they amalgamated, it will be seen that it did not require a great length of time for them to exhibit also traits of savage life. Such a result would follow from physical laws and the conditions of their wild state.
This dispersion, and their being discovered in various sections of the country along and west of the Mississippi, will account for the different names by which they were called by intelligent travellers and captured whites, who had either heard of them or had been in their country and conversed with them.
In 1792 a gentleman who had resided more than twenty years in New Orleans and on the banks of the Mississippi wrote a letter to Griffith Williams, London, being on a visit to the latter city himself at the time, from which the following extract is given: "That the natives of America have, for many years past, emigrated from the east to the west is a known fact. That the tribes mentioned by Mr. Jones, who spoke the Welsh tongue, may have done so is much within the order of probability; and that a people called the Welsh or White Indians now reside at or near the banks of the Missouri, I have not the least doubt of, having been so often assured of it by people who have traded in that river, and who could have no possible inducement to relate such a story unless it had been founded in fact.
"Since writing the above, a merchant from the Illinois country, and a person of reputation, is arrived in London. He assures me there is not the smallest doubt of a people existing on the west side of the Mississippi, called by the French the White Bearded Indians, none of the natives of America wearing beards; that these people are really white; that they are said to consist of thirty-two villages or towns, are exceeding civilized, and vastly attached to certain religious ceremonies; that a Mr. Ch., a merchant of reputation at the Illinois, has been to their country, which is, as he supposes, upwards of a thousand miles from the Illinois.