It is not unlikely that some of these Spanish adventurers, would have taken advantage of any opportunity that may have occurred, to proceed into the interior of the new continent. Due consideration should also be given to the fact that the French may have assisted the Indians in the construction of their forts on the plains, at any period between the dates of their first partial occupation of Canada in 1541, and the final abandonment of their positions in the valley of the Ohio in 1758.
Amongst the various opinions that have been held with respect to the Mound Builders, there is one which attributes their origin to the northern part of Mexico.
Mr. Lewis Morgan, whose works upon the subject of the Indian races have placed him in the position of being a high authority upon all matters relating to them, wrote to me a letter upon the question of their migrations, in which he observed as follows:—“Any opinion as to who were the mound builders must be speculative. It is quite probable that they were village Indians from New Mexico, and having found the climate too severe for their type of village life, retired gradually from the country.” Although it has to be admitted that all theories as to the Mound Builders must be necessarily indeterminate, yet nothing has been found amongst the ornaments or weapons that were placed in their burial mounds, which supports the hypothesis that they were different in race or intelligence from the tribes that surrounded them.
The school teacher, Miss Maud Osborn, requested me to accept this spear head in memory of my visit.
The Missouri joins the Mississippi after having pursued a devious course from the Rocky Mountains, for a distance estimated to be nearly three thousand miles, of which the greater part is navigable at that season of the year when its waters are at their highest level.
Nauvoo was once brought into prominent notice in connection with the Mormons, as it was here that they built their first great temple.
Judge Williams had personally known Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, and Rigdon his chief colleague. Joseph Smith, he said, was an illiterate man, but, was remarkable for a kind of shrewdness combined with great insight into character.