USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume One > Part 7
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Examinations into various sections of the serpent demonstrated that nothing was buried therein. The mound was ingeniously constructed in layers of different natural material; there being stone at the base covered with yellow clay, over which came a stratum of "dark soil" and then the final topping of sod.
We cannot go into any extended consideration of this fascinating and awe inspiring relic of the past. It is the teaching of ethnology that primitive man, in all races, first worshipped inanimate nature, the trees, rocks, sun and stars; then he advanced a stage and worshipped nature in her animate forms and of these the serpent was foremost, the "mysterious stranger in the grass, who overcame with honey words the fabled mother of us all, and, who to the astonished gaze of the primitive race, overcame by god-like power, man, as well as the strongest beast of the field."
While the explorer found in the serpent no secret of its age or purpose, much was revealed as to the Mound Builders in the small mounds and isolated sub-surface burials on the hill summit not far from the serpentine structure. Here Professor Putnam found inhumations, the most ancient of any discovered in Ohio, as proven by their relative placement in the strata of the various clays and subsequent coverings by other soils and vege- tation deposits and layers, the formation of which must have been due to nature, the slow work of which required "centuries of time" to thus cast its coverings over the artificial work of ancient man.
Besides such testimony as that just given by Pro- fessor Putnam, the certainty that the works of the Ohio Mound Builders are very ancient is proven in
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many ways. By the testimony of the primitive articles and implements found in the mounds and graves; by the testimony of the creeks and rivers in the changes of their courses-shifting of bed currents-since the mounds were built upon their banks, and by the great trees that have grown upon these mounds, some of them, as we have noted, being six hundred years old and in many cases second or third growths. Hence from archæological, chemical, geological and botanical testimony, scholars conclude these earthen works are at least hundreds of years old and perhaps thousands. They were unquestionably completed and abandoned before the Columbian discoveries of America. No European articles are found in any of the mounds, except where in some instances there are European "intrusions;" injections into the mound of historic burials, sometimes Indian interments with accompany- ing modern ornaments or implements.
And still the query arises who were the Mound Builders? And still the query is unsolved and insol- vable. Until a generation ago the general opinion of the archeologists was that the Mound Builders were a distinct and separate race from the American Indian and that the skillful and ingenious architects of these earthen structures "fled the field" before the Indian appeared or possibly was driven out by the invading and conquering redmen.
The later, more thorough and scientific study of the mounds and their contents, have led the archaeologists to revise their former theory and they now mainly agree that the Mound Builder was the ancestor or progenitor of the American Indian, the remoteness of
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
the relationship, however, being undetermined. The Indian progenitor theory is supported by the similarity of the artifacts found in the prehistoric mounds to the implements made by the historic Indian. But the reply to this undoubted resemblance is that the first products of the primitive man's handiwork are the same the world over. The peace and war stone implements exhumed by Schliemann from the ruins of Troy, cannot be distinguished, when placed side by side, from those found in the mounds of Ohio. Not a few writers in favor of the Indian theory point to the claim that certain Indian tribes were known to erect mounds and the Cherokees, Mandans and Natchez are especially cited. The chroniclers who accompanied De Soto in his journey (1540) from Florida to the Mississippi, noted that the Cherokees built mounds upon the sum- mits of which they located their dwellings. The Mandans of the West are said to have lived in circular earth lodges, partly under ground, hence the appellation applied to them, "ground-house Indians." Likewise the Natchez, in the territory of the Lower Mississippi, "raised mounds of earth upon which to erect their dwellings and temples." Many scholars who have studied the innumerable effigy mounds of Wisconsin attribute those monuments, though their age is un- known, to the Winnebago tribe of Indians, whose eight clans had for their totems the bear, wolf, deer, elk, fish, snake, etc., though the totem figures are not the only ones reproduced in the earth structures. But whatever may be the inferences of relationship, between the Mound Builders and the Indians elsewhere, the Ohio mounds suggest meagre, if any, cultural simi-
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larity to the Ohio Indians or the tribes of any other sections. Nor had the Ohio tribes any tradition, much less knowledge, of the builders of the mounds, that could throw any light upon the obscurity of the subject.
If this Indian theory be correct, it must be admitted that the American historic Indian, who was discovered by the invading European, must have been a degenerate and unworthy descendant of his distant forebear, the Mound Builder. "A broad chasm is to be spanned before we can link the Mound Builders to the North American Indians," says a leading scholar on the Amer- ican races, for the American Indian, in his best historic periods, never displayed an architectural talent, an artistic ingenuity, or a trait of industry at all com- parable to those characteristics so unquestionably the possession of the Mound Builder.
Volumes have been written upon the origin and racial identity of the Mound Builder. Arguments have been put forth to the effect that he was the lost tribes of Israel; that he came in the twilight of ancient history from Japan, China, and other Oriental race centers; that he was the lineal predecessor of the Toltecs; that he later emigrated from North to South America and displayed in those wonderful temples, the constructive powers he inherited from his mound building ancestors ; reversely, that the Mound Builder was the descendant of the Toltecs and from Mexico ascended the Miss- issippi Valley and dotted that great basin and its tributary, the Ohio Valley, with his countless monu- ments of earth; again that he was the kin of the Aztecs, perhaps a branch of that warlike and art-loving people; again that the prehistoric American was the descendant
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of the South American Indian, and so on until specu- lation and conjecture have been exhausted. But all in vain. The Mound Builder's identity, the time of his entry and his exit; the duration of his stay, all belong to the realm of the unknown, nor will that unknown ever become the known; the veil will never be lifted-oblivion will never yield the secret.
" Thou unrelenting Past! Strong are the barriers 'round thy dark domain- And fetters, sure and fast,
Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign.
" Far in thy realm, withdrawn, Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom; And glorious ages, gone,
Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb."
CHAPTER IV. HISTORIC BEGINNINGS OF OHIO
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1 N its historic beginning the territory now known as the State of Ohio belonged to Spain. This was by the right of discovery, supplemented by papal decree.
The latter half of the fifteenth and the earlier years of the sixteenth century comprised the great era of geo- graphical discoveries by European nations. The hith- erto unknown continents of the earth were being uncovered. The ancients regarded the world as a flat disk, encircled by the visible horizon. This was the "pancake" theory. The second theory was that it is a level parallelogram, longer east and west than north and south. This might be called the "floor" theory. This elongated "floor" was measured off each way sidewise and lengthwise by the geographers in terms of "latitude" and "longitude." Then devel- oped slowly the globe theory-that the earth was a sphere. The "pancake" became an "apple" and the navigators of western Europe began to believe that by sailing west on the trackless waste of waters they could reach the lands of the Orient-Cathay and Cipango, as China and Japan were then designated.
In the fifteenth century Prince Henry of Portugal, called the Navigator, was the great patron of maritime discovery. Africa was only known a short way down its western shore and the existence of America was not even suspected. Prince Henry held the idea that Africa was a peninsula around the southern base of which the oceans of the east and west flowed together. This science-searching prince and enterprising royal patron did not live to see the realization of his belief, but dur- ing his life his bold sailors skirted along the coast of
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Africa until they reached Cape Bojador. Rich lands were explored and negro natives were captured and imported as slaves to Portugal. Henry saw the possi- bilities of these explorations and patriotically and religiously wished his country and church to reap the exclusive benefit therefrom.
In order to secure this monopoly and bar out all possible competitors for the prospective "land grabs," Henry applied to the supreme authority of earth and omnipotent arbiter of all nations, Christian and heathen, the Papal Pontiff, for a "concession in perpetuity" to the crown of Portugal of whatever lands might be dis- covered along the ocean pathway even to the East Indies. The Primate of the Church, Martin V, fore- saw the advantages forthcoming to the Papal See as well as to the Portuguese Kingdom, and the conces- sion was granted. This patent was affirmed by subse- quent Popes. The sailors of Portugal pushed on across the equator and down the coast, until, in 1497, the dauntless Vasca da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope and cast anchor in the harbor of Calcutta.
Meanwhile there were momentous doings in other directions. The king and queen of Arragon and Castile resolved to test the dream of Columbus, and the son of Italy became the protégé of Spain. On the sphere theory, he sailed due west and "stumbled" upon the West Indies, the islands of the new world, mistaking them for the India of the east. It was the memorable year 1492.
On the return of Columbus and his report to Fer- dinand and Isabella of his perilous voyage and mar- velous discoveries, those sagacious and pious sovereigns
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alike zealous for their country and loyal to the Holy Father, without delay dispatched an ambassador to Rome to secure a "concession" that would confirm to them exclusive and undisputed possession of all western discoveries. The Pope, the famous Alexander VI, himself a Spaniard, willingly granted the request, issuing-May, 1493-first a bull of concession, and then a remarkable pronunciamento establishing the "Line of Demarcation" which was to determine and adjust any conflicting claims that might arise between Spain and Portugal.
It was Alexander the Great who conquered the world-all that he could find of it-but it was left to Alexander Borgia, the Pope, to divide the world and give away the halves. In this demarcation decree the Pope, as he asserts in the document itself, by authority of Almighty God granted him in St. Peter and by the office which he bore on earth in the stead of Jesus Christ, did give, grant and assign to the Spanish rulers and their heirs and assigns all firm lands and islands found or to be found toward the West and South, from a line drawn from the Pole Arctic to the Pole Antarctic through the Cape Verde Islands.
This decree, one of the most remarkable documents in history, ceded to Spain practically the whole of the Western Hemisphere. Portugal was dissatisfied with the decision of the papal umpire and by mutual agree- ment of all parties the meridian line of division was shifted to a distance of three hundred and seventy eagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. This read- ustment gave Brazil to Portugal but left the rest of
e
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South America and all of North America to Spain, while Portugal got Africa and all beyond to the far East.
In effect then the successor of St. Peter signed, sealed and delivered to the rulers of Spain and Portu- gal, blank deeds to all unknown parts of the globe and permitted those privileged grantees to write in the descriptions-of the lands which they might dis- cover-at their pleasure. But that we may clearly understand the bearing of this papal ultimatum on subsequent events, it should be noted that it gave the lands as donated and divided except-thus reads the bond-"such as have not actually been heretofore possessed by any other Christian King or Prince." The sweeping privilege of future title left the countries already owned by "Christian" powers undisturbed. It applied merely to lands and islands uninhabited or occupied by the heathen, pagan, infidel or unbaptised- those without the pale of the church. These benighted people had no rights the Christian discoverer was bound to respect. Such human beings as the Indians of America and Negroes of Africa were treated as mere phases of property that ran with the land like the fruits of the field and the ores of the mines. The papal devotees were simply taking territory that belonged to "no one." It was what the ancient Romans called res nullius-property of no one-and the right of dis- covery is founded on the principle that what belongs to no one may be appropriated by the first finder. Spain and Portugal were alone to have the privilege of hunting and finding.
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And now there begins the mad rush to discover new lands. Portugal's adventurers do not interest us, but Spain claims our closest attention. The decretal of demarcation was followed in rapid succession by the voyages of Columbus, Americus Vespucius and other Spanish navigators who touched the shores of the North and South Americas. It was a period of daring and romantic expeditions and explorations. Spain was the aggressive and ambitious nation on the scene of action. The resplendent Charles V. was on the Spanish throne, the most powerful potentate in Europe or the world. His sailors and soldiers conquered Mexi- co and South America, and his subject, Ponce de Leon, in search of the "fountain of perpetual youth, " found the shores of Florida.
A quarter of a century later, under the orders of Emperor Charles, De Soto, whose exploits in the con- quest of Peru had given him fame and fortune, landed in the country of fruits and flowers at Tampa Bay. He was the first to penetrate the interior. It was like a Medieval Crusade. De Soto commanded some eight hundred Spanish soldiers, many of them nobles and gentlemen, part of them mounted. They were equip- ped with clumsy arquebuses, burnished cuirasses, gleam- ing helmets and flashing halberds. At the start it was a spectacular and gorgeous pageant, "the clangor of trumpets, the neighing of horses, the flutter of pennons, the glitter of helmet and lance startled the ancient forest with unwonted greeting."
Thus went forth Spain to possess North America- snail-like these imperial invaders, scarcely knowing whither they went, pushed their way amid the tangled
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thickets and forest fastnesses, north through Florida and the Carolinas, to the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains; thence returning down the Alabama River; again moving north, crossing the Mississippi at Chickasaw Bluff, and finally returning southward through what is now Arkan- sas and Louisiana to the mouth of the Red River. At almost every step the Indians fought the progress of the armed and warring marauders, for the plumed and sabred Spaniards were supplied with blood-hounds, iron neck collars and chains for the captives, while the accompanying monks in sacredotal robes carried "images of the Virgin, holy relics and sacremental bread and wine wherewith to make Christians of the captured pagans." In the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Creeks with their bows, flinted arrows and war clubs, the armored cavaliers met foemen worthy of their steel. There are few scenes in history comparable to this campaign of De Soto. For three years he wandered through the wilderness where the foot of white man had never trod before. The ruth- less invaders encountered untold deprivations, hard- ships and exposures, the recital of which is more strange and fascinating than the tales with which the swarthy Moor beguiled the "greedy ear" of the fair Desdemona. De Soto was the victim of his own rash courage and was buried in the bed of the great river, "The Father of Waters," which he was the first white man to dis- cover. Less than half the members who started with him, survived the ravages of disease and the attacks of the savages, and a company of sickly and starving men, clad in rags and skins, found their way back to the Spanish settlement.
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Thus by the middle of the sixteenth century the intrepid explorers of Spain had visited and claimed for their country a territory in the northern continent of the new world greater in extent than the whole of Europe. There were other numerous Spanish explora- tions both of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and into the inland. They extended through the century just mentioned until discovery and papal decree would seem to have given Spain safe title to North America. But did either of those authorities or both together give Spain restrictive possession of the lands she . claimed? We will see. Naturally the discoveries of the Spanish mariners attracted the attention, and then the competition of other nations. The Briton, ever at home on the sea, sprang to his boats. Henry VII, the first Tudor King, who as the Duke of Richmond had unhorsed the bloody Richard and won the crown on the field of Bosworth, though a good Catholic, defied the papal patent and commissioned the Cabots, father and sons, to fit out ships and sail for new empires in the westward.
For the glory of England and the profit of its King, the Cabots made various voyages across the Atlantic, making landfalls at Labrador, Newfoundland and the Southern mainland, which latter they reconnoitered, it is claimed, as far south as the Carolinas. This was the initial recorded discovery of the North American continent, the Norse narratives not being regarded as official. Cabot stood on the northern continent at almost the exact date that Columbus, in his third voy- age, first set foot on the shore of the southern continent. Some authorities state that the two landings were
1g to
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within three days of each other, a neck and neck race between Spain and England, the Latin and the Teuton, for the first "touchdown" in the game for the western world. In each case the discoverer had no idea he was on a new continent, but each supposed he had reached Cathay on the opposite side of the globe.
Both Cabot and Columbus died without having learned the true results of their voyages. Neither ever knew what a hit he had made. The Cabots reported to King Henry that they found an abundance of fish but no gold in the new country. Henry demand- ed something more substantial than fish stories, even if true, as returns for the expeditions of the Cabots. He therefore dropped the discovery project as a non- paying investment, and it was nearly a century before his successors resumed American prospecting. But the English Kings never conceded the all-pervading claims of Spain and Portugal, based as they were on the grant of the Roman Pontiff. Henry VII. and his successors recognized the discoveries by other countries only so far as those claims were made good by actual occupancy of the land discovered. This principle will be met with later in our narrative.
The immediate and potent competitor of Spain was France. Francis I. wrote his great rival, Charles V, saucily asking by what right the Kings of Portugal and Spain assumed to "own the earth;" Had father Adam made them his sole heirs and could he produce a copy of the will? Until such a will could be shown, the French monarch declared he would feel at liberty tc sail around and take all the soil he could get, and with this liberal idea he set forth in the discovery enterprise
es B It
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
It was only five or six years after the last voyage of Columbus that an enterprising French voyager, Denis of Honfleur explored the fishing fields off Newfoundland. Less than twenty years later Verrazzano, an Italian "sailor bold" under the auspices of Francis I, coasted the Eastern shores of North America as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From now on the French expedi- tions were persistent and continuous. Almost at the very time that De Soto was exploring the country of the Mississippi, south of the Ohio, Jacques Cartier, a brave French buccaneer, was sailing up the broad river he named St. Lawrence, as far as Montreal, then an Indian town known as Hochelaga, and he formally took possession of the country in the name of France. Cartier wintered at the site of Quebec, or Stadacona, as the Indians called the headquarters of their Iroquois chief, Donnacona. Cartier called the country "Can- ada," that being, it is claimed, the name applied by the Iroquois Indians to a village and the surrounding region. The Iroquois inhabited the upper basin of the St. Lawrence at the time of its exploration by Cartier.
By 1541 the French explorers and claimants had so assumed possession of the country of the St. Lawrence that they named it New France and their King, Francis I, created Sieur de Roberval its viceroy and Jacques Cartier its captain-general. These officials with a little fleet loaded with emigrants sailed for the new empire with the purpose of establishing a colony. But the time and circumstances were not propitious. It was abandoned and beyond straggling voyages and unsuccessful attempts at colonization in the Carolinas,
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the endeavors of the French to get a foothold in America were futile until the chivalrous Samuel de Champlain, an experienced sailor, diplomat and soldier, appears upon the scene. The King of France made Champlain Lieutenant-general of Canada. France had now come to stay.
Champlain ascended the St. Lawrence and wisely chose the site of Stadacona as the seat of the proposed French province. It was on the rocky cliffs overlook- ing the broad and majestic river. He called the place Quebec, pronounced by the Indians, Kebec, meaning "the Narrows." It was in 1608 that the quaint city was founded which was to play so conspicuous a part in the history of our country; it was truly a city founded on a rock and Champlain no doubt believed the citadel of his nation there established would survive the storms of war and shock of siege and be the impreg- nable Gibraltar of Gallic power in America.
But another nation and race had entered the contest. It was the Anglo-Saxon-the English. A century had passed since the Cabots effected landfalls on the shores of Labrador. The British monarchs all this while were too busy with home affairs and royal antagonists across the channel to bother with experimental excur- sions to uncertain quarters in distant America. But the trans-oceanic exploits of Spain and France roused the envy and emulation of England. Elizabeth was on the throne. This illustrious maiden queen was no idle dreamer, but the strenuous doer of things great. She loved power and she knew how to wield it to a purpose. Her reign was the renaissance of England. The Elizabethan Era was renowned for its flourish of
SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN.
The intrepid French explorer and discoverer who ascended the St. Lawrence and in 1608 founded the city of Quebec, the first permanent French settlement in North America.
of
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Mi tromalttoe donorT fronsineg Jett 15Hy bodsuo namplain an experienced sarlor, diplomat anchesoldier, appear upon the scene. The King of France made Champlain Lieutenant-general of Canada. France had now come to stay.
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