of sterner stuff than that. We could see
our race and nation blotted from existence, but not degraded. After the
lapse of many centuries we were forgotten in the struggles of a half
civilized race and the savages for supremacy, and my people dying out
year by year, are all gone save _myself_, the last of the rightful
owners of this continent."

As the old man concluded, his head fell forward on his breast and he
remained silent and motionless so long, that I feared the recalling of
the past had been too great a task for him, and going up to him, I laid
my hand on his. Throwing it aside, he said: "Young man, I have told you
of the past, and now there is a page of the future I will unfold to
you. Your race shall possess the heritage of my ancestors. And as the
savages exterminated us, so shall you them. But, beware, you too are
fostering a serpent that at last will sting, and perhaps devour you."
"The arts and sciences of your race speak of them; were they like
ours," I said, anxious to learn more of this strange people: "Yours,"
he replied with more warmth than he had exhibited, "are not unlike
ours, though far inferior to them. Your race boasts of discoveries and
inventions! ah! boy, you are but bringing to light arts long lost, but
in perfection centuries of centuries before your people ever knew of
this land."

"Is there any proof of this? is there nothing remaining to give ocular
demonstration of these facts?" I asked.

"A few," said he. "Nothing very satisfactory, but what there is, you
shall see."

So saying, he let himself down to the same spot where I had, in hiding
from him, I following. On removing a few pieces of loose rock the door
leading to a cavern was visible, which we entered. It was a large cave
running back into a lofty arched room, as far as I could see in the
surrounding gloom. The old man took a couple of torches from a pile
that lay on a shelving rock close by the door, lighted them, and giving
one to me bade me follow. The farther we went the wider and loftier was
the cave, until I began to wonder where it would end. At this moment he
paused before a stone tablet of immense proportions, raised about three
feet from the floor, the ends resting on blocks of granite. All over
its surface was hieroglyphics engraved in characters I had never seen
before, though I have often found similar ones since.

"Here," said he, "are recorded the heroic deeds of our race while
fighting to save our firesides