the packet of June the
10th also, and only came by that of July the 25th. They are not yet
arrived at Paris, but I expect them daily. I am sensible of your kind
attention to them, and that as you were leaving New York, you took the
course which bade fair to be the best. That they were forgotten in the
hands in which you placed them, was probably owing to too much
business, and more important. I have desired Mr. Madison to refund to
you the money you were so kind as to advance for me. The delay of your
letter will apologize for this delay of the repayment. I thank you also
for the extract of the letter you were so kind as to communicate to me,
on the antiquities found in the western country. I wish that the
persons who go thither would make very exact descriptions of what they
see of that kind, without forming any theories. The moment a person
forms a theory, his imagination sees, in every object, only the traits
which favor that theory. But it is too early to form theories on those
antiquities. We must wait with patience till more facts are collected.
I wish your Philosophical Society would collect exact descriptions of
the several monuments as yet known, and insert them naked in their
Transactions, and continue their attention to those hereafter to be
discovered. Patience and observation may enable us in time, to solve
the problem, whether those who formed the scattering monuments in our
western country, were colonies sent off from Mexico, or the founders of
Mexico itself? Whether both were the descendants or the progenitors of
the Asiatic red men? The Mexican tradition, mentioned by Dr. Robertson,
is an evidence, but a feeble one, in favor of the one opinion. The
number of languages radically different, is a strong evidence in favor
of the contrary one. There is an American by the name of Ledyard, he
who was with Captain Cook on his last voyage, and wrote an account of
that voyage, who has gone to St. Petersburg; from thence he was to go
to Kamschatka; to cross over thence to the northwest coast of America,
and to penetrate through the main continent, to our side of it. He is a
person of ingenuity and information. Unfortunately, he has too much
imagination. However, if he escapes safety, he will give us new,
curious and useful information. I had a letter from him, dated last
March, when he was about to leave St. Petersburg on his way to
Kamschatka.

With respect to the inclination of the strata of rocks, I had observe