1723-1800.] PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE SCULPTURES. 591 Falls. Iconographic skill may detect the meaning of these configurations. The impression, which one unused to the study of hieroglyphics receives from an examination of them, is that they are the work of the Indians, and that they were carved by them merely for amusement, while watching at this spot for game, or while resting after the toils of the chase.* Such are the most important memorials of the Indians which * "On West River, a little above its mouth, are a few Indian sculptures, the last that I shall have to introduce to the reader's notice. A number of figures or inscriptions are yet to be seen upon the rocks at the mouth of this river, seeming to allude to the affairs of war among the Indians; but their rudeness and awkwardness denote that the formers of them were at a great remove from the knowledge of any alphabet.' By this account, written by a native topographer, and derived from a History of Vermont, my curiosity was long raised; but, upon visiting the rock intended to be referred to, I found only the most insignificant of all the Indian sculptures that I had met with. The historian, Dr. Williams, with whom I had afterwards the pleasure of conversing, and whose book discovers a spirit of inquiry, and contains many original views, informed me, that as to the sculptures on West River, he had rashly relied on the observations of other eyes than his own. 66 'These sculptures comprise only five figures of a diminutive size, and scratched, rather than sculptured, on the surface of a small mass of schistic rock, situate on the side of a cove in a meadow, above the mouth of the river. Of the five figures, four represent birds, and one is either that of a dog or of a wolf. I was informed that on a lower part of the rock adjacent, there was a sculptured snake, so exquisitely wrought as to have terrified, by its resemblance to nature, an honest countryman of the neighbourhood. The water, however, was at this time low, and neither myself, nor the gentleman who did me the favour to accompany me, was able to discover any snake; and, on closer inquiry, no sort of foundation could be found even for the story itself. The West River rock affords us, therefore, nothing, or next to nothing, in any view save one; and this is, the example of a disposition in the Indians to sculpture rocks, and to sculpture them even for amusement. The cove, which, it may be believed, was anciently overrun with wild rice (zizania aquatica), has always been a celebrated resort of wild ducks. It is at this day a favourite place for shooting them; and we may believe that the Indians were accustomed to spend many hours here watching either for water-fowl or for fish. Hence, the sculptures, both at the Great Falls and on West River, are to be attributed to the whim of vacant moments."-Kendall's Travels, iii. 219, 220, 221. In the work from which the above extracts are taken, Mr. Kendall gives a very particular description of certain figures, said to be cut by the Indians on the trunk of a pine tree in Weathersfield. These carvings, according to Mr. Kendall, were designed to commemorate the birth of a child, whose mother was taken prisoner at the burning of Deerfield in the year 1704. The foundation of this incorrect statement is, doubtless, the stones still standing on the north bank of Knapp's brook, in the town of Reading, which were erected to commemorate the birth of Captive Johnson, which event took place on the 31st of August, 1754. All inquiries concerning this monumental tree have proved fruitless. The oldest inhabitants of Weathersfield have never known of its existence. It is probable, therefore, that Mr. Kendall's accurate description of the appearance and form of are to be found in Eastern Vermont. Regarded as specimens of the rude and uncultivated attempts of a now decaying race to express their ideas, however unimportant those ideas may have been, they cannot but be viewed with mingled emotions of curiosity and respect. the carvings with which he has adorned it, was due either to an imposition practised upon him, or to his fondness for mythical conceptions.-Kendall's Travels, iii. 207-210, 212. Also ante, pp. 65, 66. Hephen or Bradley THE brothers Bradley, six or seven in number, came to this country from England about the year 1650, having previously served among Cromwell's Ironsides, in which corps William Bradley, the first settler of North Haven, Connecticut, and one of the brothers, was an officer.* Stephen Bradley, another of the brothers, became a resident of New Haven, where he labored at his calling, which was that of a silversmith. On the beha vior of the Protector's troops when disbanded, Macaulay has passed the highest encomium. "Fifty thousand men, accustomed to the profession of arms, were at once thrown on the world: and experience seemed to warrant the belief that this change would produce much misery and crime, that the discharged veterans would be seen begging in every street, or that they would be driven by hunger to pillage. But no such result followed. In a few months there remained not a trace indicating that the most formidable army in the world had just been absorbed into the mass of the community. The Royalists themselves confessed that, in every department of honest industry, the discarded warriors prospered beyond other men, that none was charged with any theft or robbery, that none was heard to ask an alms, and that, if a baker, a mason, or a waggoner attracted notice by his diligence and sobriety, he was in all probability one of Oliver's old soldiers." Wholly consonant with this description of the scarred and war-worn veterans of the Protectorate was the conduct of the Bradleys. Moses Bradley of Cheshire, Connecticut, the second son of Stephen, married Mary Row, only daughter and heiress of Daniel Row of Mount Carmel, now Hamden. Their son, Stephen Row Bradley,† the subject of this notice, was born in that part of Wallingford which is now comprised in the town of Cheshire, on the 20th of February, 1754. Having entered Yale College, he was graduated at that institution a Bachelor of Arts on the 25th of July, 1775. Three years later, on the 9th of September, 1778, he received from his Alma Mater the degree of M. A. Of his early tastes, some idea may be formed from the fact, that, while a student in college, he prepared an almanac for the year 1775, an edition of which, numbering two * "The first settler in North Haven appears to have been William Bradley, who had been an officer in Cromwell's army. He lived here soon after the year 1650, on the land belonging to Governor Eaton, who owned a large tract on the west side of the [Wallingford or Quinnipiac] river."-Barber's Conn. Hist. Coll., p. 241. Whenever Mr. Bradley wrote his name at full length, which was but seldom, he, until past middle life, put it down "Stephen Row Bradley." It was so spelt in the record of his baptism in Wallingford, and also on the title-page of an almanac which he published in 1775. "Rowe" and "Roe" are the other forms in which the middle name sometimes appears. STEPHEN ROW BRADLEY. 595 thousand copies, was published by Ebenezer Watson of Hartford, printer, on the 1st of November, 1774. Soon after graduating he entered the American service, and as early as the 4th of January, 1776, was captain of a company called the "Cheshire Volunteers." During that month he was ordered to march his men to New York, and his pay rolls, which were presented to Congress on the 26th of June, 1776, show that he and his company were employed in the continental service from January 25th to February 25th of that year. It would appear that he soon after relinquished the captaincy of this company. On the 17th of December, 1776, with the rank of adjutant, he was appointed to the stations of vendue master and quarter master. He afterwards served as aid-de-camp to General David Wooster, and was engaged in that capacity when that noble officer fell mortally wounded on the 27th of April, 1777, during the attack on Danbury. In 1778 Bradley was employed as a commissary, and during the summer of 1779 served as a major at New Haven. The time which he could spare from military avocations was occupied in more peaceful pursuits. It appears from a letter written by Richard Sill, dated January 27th, 1778, that Bradley was at that time teaching a school at Cheshire. His law studies, in the meantime, were directed by Tapping Reeve, afterwards the founder of the Litchfield law school. The precise date of his removal to Vermont is not known. It is probable that even after his removal he not unfrequently visited Connecticut, until he resigned his place in the militia of that state. His first appearance in public, in Vermont, was at an adjourned session of the Superior court, held at Westminster on the 26th of May, 1779. On this occasion he was commissioned as an attorney-at-law, and received a license to plead at the bar within that "independent" state. At the same time he was appointed clerk of the court. His knowledge of the law and the ability which he displayed in the practice of his profession, raised him at once to a high position in the estimation of the community. On the 16th of June, 1780, he was made state's attorney for the county of Cumberland. At this period the controversy respect. ing the title of the New Hampshire Grants was attracting the attention, not only of the states which laid claim to that district, but of Congress. "Having popular manners, and a keen insight into society, he became a prominent political leader, and exercised a large influence in laying the foundation of the state |