while they drove off all the cattle belonging to the fort, amounting to seventy or more. Disheartened by the failure of their attack, the Indians made no further effort to capture the fort, although they remained in the neighborhood for a day or two, finally retreating toward the White river, committing many depredations along their route.

The loss of the garrison during this attack was but eight killed and wounded. The Indians numbered four hundred and fifty, sufficiently strong to bury their dead or carry them away; for this reason their actual loss was never ascertained, although it must have been very heavy. For many years after the battle it was not an unusual event for bones of the buried warriors to be turned up by the plow, or protrude from the banks of the river, brought to sight by the washing of the waters. The troubles of the garrison did not end, however, with the disappearance of the Indians, as having lost their stores and stock, they were compelled to subsist on green corn. Captain Taylor attempted to send intelligence to Governor Harrison at Vincennes, but the two men he dispatched were intercepted by the Indians and compelled to return. His orderly sergeant and another man were then dispatched through the woods, and finally, after many hardships and narrow escapes, reached the Old Post with intelligence of the critical situation of the garrison at Fort Harrison, which was soon relieved by a large force of Kentucky volunteers.

Taylor was promoted to the rank of brevet-major for his gallant defense of the fort, the first instance in the service of that species of promotion. He continued to rise in the army, and after his distinguished service in the Mexican war was elected to the Presidency. The founder of the fort preceded him in the presidential chair, and thus it may be said that Fort Harrison played a certain part in the making of Presidents.

After Taylor gave up the command of Fort Harrison, Major Sturges of the regulars was in charge of the post until 1816; he was succeeded by Major John Chunn, who had been in command of Fort Knox, at Vincennes. Dr. Benjamin F. Swafford, an old and well-known physician of this city, who spent his boyhood in the neighborhood of the old fort, and who is replete with interesting facts concerning it, has in his possession the original order by which Major Chunn was transferred from Fort Knox to Fort Harrison. It is yellow with the roll of years, a document prized highly by its owner, who will not allow it out of his possession. It reads: "FIFTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Headquarters, Detroit,

10th May, 1816 Sir-Having been informed by Major Morgan that he has marched out of the department by order of General Jackson, and that in conse

quence Major Morgan thought it his duty to order you to occupy with your command the fort he had left, you will continue to make Fort Harrison your station, and consider yourself commandant thereof. Such of the publick property that without great expense be removed from Fort Knox to Fort Harrison you will cause to be removed and placed in as much security from depredation and from the weather as your stores will admit. If the quantity of small arms is very great you will communicate with the officer of the ordnance department nearest to you to learn if any arrangements have been made by his department for the removal of the arms and supplies of ordnance stores. Take care, however, to have your command as well furnished as possible with the means of defense, and always be on your guard against Indians, never permitting them to take any undue liberties, and punish promptly any insult they may offer it is the best way to keep on good terms with them. You will at the same time prevent any person from abusing or maltreating the Indians, considering yourself their protector in all that regards their rights and privileges.

You will be pleased to send me sketch of the fort and grounds in the vicinity, stating the number the barracks will contain, the nature of the soil about the fort, and the general quality of the land near you. Also, whether the position is well chosen, whether it be healthy, and the quality of the water. Be pleased, also, to give a statement of the different tribes of Indians in your neighborhood, and the amount of warriors in each tribe. Also the state of the fort as to comfort and defense. And, finally, any information touching the command.

With respectful consideration, I have the honor to be, sir,

TO MAJ. CHUNN,

3d Reg't of Infantry, Com. Fort Harrison."

ALEX. MACOMB,

Maj. Gen. Com. Fifth Military Dep't.

Major Chunn remained in command of the post until 1819, when he was transferred to Detroit. He afterwards returned to the fort, and was in command of it from some time in 1821 until it was dismantled by order of the government in 1822. He lived in the vicinity of Terre Haute until his death, which occurred in 1847. A married daughter and other descendants bearing his name still reside in Vermilion county. He was of the highest standing in the Masonic fraternity, and assisted in the organization of Terre Haute lodge in 1819, one of the oldest lodges in the state, on whose records his name may be found.

Traces of the fortifications existed here as late as the fifties, and the blockhouses were preserved nearly intact until 1849. After these disap

peared the logs were for a long time to be seen lying about the old site; but for years the only thing that has served to define the location of the fort is the well, now in the last stages of disuse.

"Old Drummer Davis," as he was familiarly known, the rattle of whose drum aroused the garrison when the attack we have described was made, was one of the last survivors of the force, and his stories of the memorable attack found many ready hearers when he chose to relate them. The victims of the conflict were first buried near the fort, and later were reinterred near what is known as the "Durkee's ferry road." When a road was once projected through this burial place, the old drummer was foremost in opposing it as a desecration. He and some of the other soldiers then living declared that they would shoot the first man who attempted to open the road across the graves, and the matter was finally dropped.

One of the girls who melted the bullets used by the soldiers in the defense of the fort, has descendants living in the neighborhood of the fort, as also the two brave young women who carried the water used in quenching the fire in the blockhouse. Among these are numbered some of the most prominent persons in Vigo county, who refer with pardonable pride to the part played by their ancestors in the history of the old landmark. For years after the battle a soldier named Black was celebrated throughout this region as the "crack shot of Fort Harrison." During the memorable engagement an Indian had mounted a tall cottonwood tree that stood on the bank of the river opposite the fort, and from this commanding position would have been enabled to do much damage to the garrison. Black espied him, and calling the attention of a comrade to the Indian, he drew a sight and fired, bringing his man down at the first shot. Years afterward it was a frequent occurrence for the lads in the neighborhood to gather at the old fort, and with their rifles endeavor to chip the bark off the old cottonwood out of which Black had dropped the savage.

It may be of interest to state that only a few summers ago the bones of the Doyle brothers were found at the foot of the old oak-tree where their comrades buried them more than eighty years ago. These brothers were perfect dare-devils, to whom danger was unknown, and when they ventured out of the fort on that September evening they were soon surrounded by their red foes. They were not the kind, however, to die without a struggle, and backing up against the oak-tree they sold their lives dearly, killing many an Indian before they fell.

A. C. Duddleston,

TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA.

PRE-COLUMBIAN LITERATURE OF NORTH AMERICA

This appears to be a propitious time for the discovery of facts relating to that epoch which forms the dividing line between the historic and prehistoric times of our continent. New data are being brought to light and additional light thrown on those already known. Even what seemed to be hopelessly beyond the reach of research is being attained. The mysterious inscriptions found by Stephens and others on the ruined temples and palaces of Central America, and the few strange manuscripts which escaped the ruthless hands of the conquerors, are on the eve of yielding up to our earnest solicitation their secrets. I have the pleasure of announcing to archæologists and others interested, that I have ascertained beyond question the true rendering of a sufficient number of the written characters in the Maya Codices to furnish a key to the interpretation of all the rest. I trust that the pride I take in making this announcement will be considered pardonable, as there was no greater desideratum in regard to American archæology than the interpretation of these manuscripts and inscriptions. From the discoveries of Stephens and Waldeck to the present there has gone forth a hopeless longing for the solution of this riddle, for some means of compelling the American sphinx to give up its

secret.

I am as yet but on the threshold of the solution, which will require the long and patient labor of more than one worker, and which cannot be completed until the linguistic material locked up in manuscripts has been published. Nevertheless, I purpose to state briefly the method and nature of the discovery, and what light the little progress so far made throws upon these ancient records.

My study has been confined almost exclusively to the four Maya Codices which have been published, and with which I must take for granted the interested reader is more or less familiar. As illustrations, which are absolutely necessary to a critical exposition, cannot be given here, I can only make general statements.

A notice of these codices and of the data relating thereto has been given by Dr. Brinton in his "Introduction" to my Study of the Manuscript Troano, published by the United States Geological Survey, in 1882. In that work, and others by Dr. Förstemann, Dr. Schellhas, Dr. Seler, Rosny, Charencey, and myself, illustrations and general explanations of these

written characters are given. A somewhat thorough and satisfactory explanation of the use and relation of the numerous day and numeral characters found in the Dresden and Troano Codices has been presented, chiefly by Dr. Förstemann and myself, but up to the present no satisfactory interpretation of any of the written characters has been obtained. In fact, it was and still is, so far as known to the reading public, a mooted question whether they are phonetic or mere symbols. Although Bishop Landa in his well-known work, Las Cosas de Yucatan, written in the sixteenth century, gives what he claims to be the alphabet (“ a, b, c ") of the hieroglyphic writing, all efforts at interpretation by means of these up to the present have confessedly failed. Although I now know that he was in part correct, yet my clue was obtained from the symbols for the cardinal points. I was convinced at an early stage of my study, that the symbols for east and west were phonetic characters; but reversing their true positions in my assignment my efforts to apply their phonetic elements in the interpretation of other characters failed. Determining recently to make another earnest effort to solve the problem, after trying in vain all the supposed clues known to me, the thought struck me of reversing the cardinal symbols and trying the new phonetic value this would give them. Without mentioning the details of my progress, it is sufficient to state that this soon led to the satisfactory rendering of several characters in the Troano and Dresden Codices. Of course, the chief aids in determining the correctness of interpretations were the agreement in phonetic value in different combinations and correspondence with the accompanying pictorial representations. These discoveries, of course, convinced me that the writing was to some extent phonetic. It also led to the further conclusion that those figured are chiefly the consonant elements, which vary in form or details according to the vowel elements with which they are combined. I also soon found that some of Landa's letter characters were rude and imperfect attempts to represent these written elements, and have ascer tained that the following of his list are substantially correct, requiring certain modifications mentioned.*

His

His second B, which is a circle inclosing four dots, requires an additional dot in the centre. The outer four dots are often found placed against the surrounding circle. His C is correct when used in connection with certain vowel elements and without the hooks at the top. E is correct, though frequently found without the inner semicircle. His second H, his I, CA, and K are substantially correct. The first L should * Those readers who do not have Landa's work at hand will find an exact copy of his characters on page 141 of my Study of the Manuscript Troano.