| 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. | | | | [31] The school teacher, Miss Maud Osborn, requested me to accept | | this spear head in memory of my visit. | | | | [32] 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. | | | | [33] 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. | | | | Rigdon, who had been formerly a Baptist preacher, was well |