Indian Mounds

"I have been upon all the sea islands and hunting islands, from Sullivan's to Savannah river... these islands must have existed a long time, since there are live oak and pine trees on some of them as large as any perhaps in the State.... On the west side of Edisto is a mound of shells from fifteen to twenty feet high, and its base half an acre of land. It is called the Spanish Mount; but as savages drew the better part of their subsistence from the sea, from the many banks of shells scattered about this point of land, I apprehend that there was a large settlement of Indians in the vicinity, and that this pile of shells may have been placed there by some regulations among themselves. On St. Helena are two mounds of human bones. The one fifteen, the other ten feet high. One covers a quarter of an acre, the other less. They are called "The Indian Burial Place." I saw one of them opened when I was a lad, and well remember the red beads and broken earthen vessels among the bones, and these last lying in every direction. The Indians say that a great battle had been fought there, long before the white people were heard of. This is what I heard from my family, who were among the first settlers of this country; my grandfather, Richard Reynolds, being for a long time Commander of the English garrison first established on Port Royal Island."

- Extract of a letter from Benjamin Reynolds, Esq., to David Ramsay, dated December 1, 1808.

Source:
Ramsay's History of South Carolina from Its First Settlement in 1670 to the year 1808
by David Ramsay, M.D.
Preface dated "Charleston, December 31st, 1808.
Published in 1858, by W.J. Duffie, Newberry, S.C.
Reprinted in 1959, by The Reprint Company, Spartanburg, S.C.

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