132 
an 
thie 
n'ronu'ments 
of 
antient 
art 
in 
Rofne, the Obelisk bro-ught from Egypt, in the 
reign of Augustus, interested his Curiosity the 
most, and even for a time affected him as- 
by their 
resemble 
much as those which so agitated him 
beauty. The hieroglyphics appeared to 
so 
of 
exactly the figures 
the Vlndians, thdt 
in the VVampum belts 
it occurred to him, if 
GVCF 
the 
mysteries 
of 
EgyPt 
were 
to 
be 
terpreted, it mightrbe by the aborigines of Ame- 
rica. This singular notion was not, however, the 
more suggestion of fancy, but the effect of an opi- 
nion which his early friend and tutor Provost 
Smith conceived, in consequence of aittending the 
grand meeting of the Indian chiefs, With the G0- 
vernors of the British colonies, held at East town, 
in Pennsylvania, in the year following the disas- 
trous fate of Bradock's army. The chiefs had 
requested this interview, in order to state to the 
olficers the wrongs and injuries ofiwhich they 
complained; and at the meeting they evidently 
read the reports and circumstances of their griev- 
ances from the hieroglyphical chronicle of the- 
Wampum belts, which they held in their hands, 
"and by which, from the date of their grand alli-