ns had been lost, as have been those
of Egypt, of Assyria and many other early empires, we should still have
in the ruins and monuments of Italy, and Greece, complete evidence of
the existence of those nations, their location, power and skill; nay,
even of the extent of their dominion by their colonial monuments,
scattered from Syria to Spain, from Lybia to Britain. If the British
annals should ever be lost hereafter by neglect or revolutions, the
ruins of dwellings, churches, monuments &c., built in the British style,
will reveal the existence or preserve the memory of the wide extent of
British power by colonies sent from North America to Guyana, from
Hindustan to Ceylon, South Africa and Australia.

And thus it is in both Americas where many nations and empires have
dwelt and passed away, risen and fallen by turns, leaving few or no
records, except the traces of their existence, and widely spread
colonies by the ruins of their cities and monuments, standing yet as
silent witnesses of past dominion and great power. It is only of late
that they have begun to deserve the attention of learned men and
historians--what had been stated by Ulloa, Humboldt, Juarros, Delrio,
&c., of some of them, chiefly found in the Spanish part of America, as
well as the scattered accounts of the many fragments found in North
America, from the lakes of Canada to Louisiana, although confined to a
few places or widely remote localities, have begun to excite the
curiosity of all inquiring men, and are soon likely to deserve as much
interest as the famed ruins of Palmyra and Thebes, Babylon and
Persepolis; when the future historians of America shall make known the
wonderful and astonishing results that they have suggested, or will
soon unfold, particularly when accurately surveyed and explored, drawn
and engraved; instead of being hidden and veiled, or hardly noticed by
the detractors of the Americans, the false historians of the school of
Depaw and Robertson, who have perverted or omitted the most striking
features of American history.

The most erroneous conceptions prevail as yet concerning them, and the
most rude or absurd ideas are entertained in our country of their
objects and nature. As in modern Greece, every ruin is now a
_Paleo-castro_ or old castle for the vulgar peasant or herdsman, thus
all our ruins of the West are _Indian forts_ for the settlers of the
Western states; and every traveller gazing at random at a few, exclaims
that