decided to remove it to a blacksmith’s shop at
Wateryale, a small settlement near by. It remained
there six months or more, and became
the subject of much talk and speculation at the
time.
Every person who came to the shop would of
course examine the stone. It was not uncommon
for some of them to take a horse nail, or
old file, and .scrape the cracks, seams and carvings,
till all the parts of the inscription were freed
from dirt. The stone . was found with the inscription
downward, about. One-third buried. It
was subsequently removed to Manlius village,
and was visited by several gentlemen of science!,
most of whom were disposed to admit that it
was.genuine. 11 remained in this village nearly
a year, and was finally deposited in the museum
of the Albany Institute, now under the care of
Dr. T. Ilomeyn Beck. The nature and objects
of the inscription will best appear, by a minute
examination of the engraving. The stone is
about fourteen inches,. by twelve,, and,eight
inches in thickness. It is a hard, oval shaped
boulder, of a gneisoid character, and- bears the
evidence of attrition common to all the. “ erratic
block groupe.” By the figure of a serpent climbing
a tree, a well known passage in the Pentateuch
i§ clearly referred to. By the date, ;the
sixth . year of the reign of the Roman pontiff,
Leo X, has been thought to be denoted. This
appears to be probable, 'less clearly from.the inscriptive
phrase, Leo de Lon AT, than from
the plain date, 1520, being six years after this
pontiff took the papal chair..
It has been stated in newspaper notices, that
Mexico had been fully explored and settled previous
to 1521. In the app.endix to Stone’s Brant,
this is narrowed down to; the declaration that
Mexico wars ^-settled” at that date. Neither is
strictly true. | Gottez first attacked the city in
1519, 'whence-he was expelled under the short
but energetic reign of Guafamozin, but he finally
prevailed, after taking the troops of Nafvaëz, and
carried the city and razted it to the ground, as hë
entered it, in 1521. His army entered it finally
on the 13th August. No exploration of the territory,'
.féfr léssl£t settlement^’ was made, or attempted,
until after this.date. We cannot look,
indeed, to Mexico, as .having'originated any
meaistire which led to a visits however isolated,
of the- Iroquois ^country, a region possessed then,
as affer\Vards, by brave muscular warriors, very
different, in these - respects, 1 from the mild and
luxurious Aztecs.':
i Gaspar Cotereal, a Portuguese; had explored
nearly the whole coast of North America in 1501.
The fishing grounds’ of Newfoundland were well
known, and were occupied by the French as
early as 1505.. The Italian navigator yerrizani,
examined the shores? of the United -States in
1525; Jacques Cartier reached Hochelaga, the
present, site of Moiltreal, in 1535.
It has been said that the inscription is due to
persons connected, with the celebrated expedition