Rev. John Lathrop, of Boston, to
Hon. John Davis, August 10, 1809, containing George
Washington's opinion of the Dighton inscription. When President
Washington visited Cambridge in the fall of 1789, he was shown
about the college buildings by the president and fellows of the
university. While in the museum he was observed to "fix his
eye" upon a full-size copy of the Dighton inscription made by
the librarian, James Winthrop. Dr. Lathrop, who happened to be
standing near Washington, "ventured to give the opinion which
several learned men had entertained with respect to the origin
of the inscription." Inasmuch as some of the characters were
thought to resemble "oriental" characters, and inasmuch as the
ancient Phoenicians had sailed outside of the Pillars of
Hercules, it was "conjectured" that some Phoenician vessels had
sailed into Narragansett bay and up the Taunton river. "While
detained by winds, or other causes now unknown, the people, it
has been conjectured, made the inscription, now to be seen on
the face of the rock, and which we may suppose to be a record
of their fortunes or of their fate."

"After I had given the above account, the President smiled and
said he believed the learned gentlemen whom I had mentioned
were mistaken; and added that in the younger part of his life
his business called him to be very much in the wilderness of
Virginia, which gave him an opportunity to become acquainted
with many of the customs and practices of the Indians. The
Indians, he said, had a way of writing and recording their
transactions, either in war or hunting. When they wished to
make any such record, or leave an account of their exploits to
any who might come after them, they scraped off the outer bark
of a tree, and with a vegetable ink, or a little paint which
they carried with them, on the smooth surface they wrote in a
way that was generally understood by the people of their
respective tribes. As he had so often examined the rude way of
writing practised by the Indians of Virginia, and observed many
of the characters on the inscription then before him so nearly
resembled the characters used by the Indians, he h