133 
ance with William Penn, the man from the ocean, 
L15 they called him, they minutely related all the 
Circumstances in which they conceived the terms 
and spirit of the treaty had been infringed by the 
British, defying the ofiicers to show any one point 
in which the Indians had swerved from their en- 
gagements. It seemed to Dr. Smith that such a 
minute traditionary detail of facts could not have 
been preserved without some contemporary record; 
and he, therefore, imagined, that the constant re- 
ference made to the figures on the belts was a 
proof that they were chronicles. This notion 
was countenancerl by another circumstance which 
Mr. West had himself often noticed. The course 
of some of the high roads through Pennsylvania 
lies along what were formerly the war tracks of 
the Indians; and he had frequently seen hierogly- 
phics engraved on the trees and rocks. He was 
told that they were inscriptions left by some of 
the tribes who had passed that way in order to 
apprize their friends of the route which they had 
taken, and of any other matter which it concerned 
them to know. He had also noticed among the 
Indians who annually yisited Philadelphia, that 
there were certain old chiefs who occasionally