Notes on the Floridian Peninsula; its Literary History, Indian Tribes and Antiquities

181

Views of Louisiana, p. 150.

182

Trovarono terre grandi piene di genti molto ben disposte, savie, politiche, e ben’ ordinate. Bartolome de las Casas, Istoria della Distruttione dell’ Indie Occidentali, p. 108. Venetia, 1626.

183

Barcia, Ensay. Cron., p. 71.

184

Memoire, p. 13.

185

At what time or by whom Tampa Bay was first so called I have not been able to learn. Its usual name in early narratives is Baia de Espiritu Santo, which was given by De Soto; sometimes from separate discoveries it was called Bahia Honda (Deep Bay,) El Lago de San Bernardo, Baie de St. Louis, and by the Indiana Culata (Barcia, Ensayo Cron. p. 342, Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. I., Cap. VI.) Herrera in his map of the Audiencia de la Española marks it “B. de tampa,” and after him Gerard a Schaagen in the Nov. et Accurat. Americæ Descriptio.

186

Williams, Hist. of Florida, pp. 36, 212. Ellicott’s Journal, p. 247. Robert’s Hist. of Florida, p. 17.

187

Guaicum officinale; the el palo or el palo santo of the Spaniards.

188

Barcia, En. Cron. Año 1566.

189

See Prior’s Journal in Williams’ Florida, p. 299. The name Miami applied to a tribe in Ohio, and still retained by two rivers in that State, properly Omaumeg, is said to be a pure Algic word, meaning, People who live on the peninsula. (Amer. Hist. Mag. Vol. III., p. 90.) We are, however, not yet prepared to accept this explanation as applicable to the word as it appears in Florida.

190

Barcia, Ensay. Cron., p. 49, and compare the Hist. Notable, p. 134.

191

For these facts see Fontanedo’s Memoire, passim, and Barcia, Años 1566, 1567.

192

Bernard Romans, pp. 291-2.

193

Desde los Martires al Cañaveral, Herrera, Dec. IV., Lib., IV., cap. VII.

194

Barcia (En. Cron. p. 118) says Ais commences twenty leagues up the St. Johns river; but distances given by the Spanish historians were often mere guesses, quite untrustworthy.

195

Basanier, Hist. Notable, pp. 133-4.

196

Vignoles, Obs. on the Floridas, pp. 74-5.

197

Biedma, Relation, p. 53; the Port. Gent. in Hackluyt, V., p. 492; La Vega, Lib. II., cap. x., p. 38.

198

Irving’s Conquest of Fla., p. 84, note.

199

Barcia, Año 1567; Fontanedo, pp. 20, 35.

200

Basanier, Hist. Notable, pp. 190-1, 108-9, 140 sq.

201

Jusqu’à Mayajuaca, dans la contrée de Ais, vers le lieu planté de roseaux. Fontanedo, Memoire, p. 35. Cañaveral is a Spanish word signifying the same as the expression I have italicised.

202

Basanier, Hist. Not. p. 90.

203

Ibid.

204

Basanier, Hist. Not. p. 8.

205

Hackluyt, Vol. V., p. 492, Fontanedo, p. 15.

206

Les Floridiens ne sement, ne plantent, ne prennent rien ni à la chasse, ni à la pêche, qui ne soit à la disposition de leurs chefs, qui distribuent, et donnent, comme il leur plait, etc. François Coreal, Voiages, Tome I., p. 44. The chiefs on the Bahamas possessed similar absolute power. (Peter Martyr, De Novo Orbe, Dec. VII., cap. I., p. 467.)

207

Basanier, Hist. Not., p. 132.

208

Basanier, pp. 9, 141.

209

Fontanedo, pp. 10, 11.

210

Basanier, Hist. Not. p. 7.

211

Travels, p. 456.

212

E. G. Squier, Aborig. Mon. of N. Y., App. pp. 135-7; Serpent Symbol, pp. 90, 94, 95.

213

Adair, Hist. N. Am. Inds., p. 205.

214

They came to meet Narvaez playing on such flutes, “tañendo unas Flautas de Caña,” Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios, cap. V.

215

Bernard Romans, p. 62.

216

Francisco Ximenez, Origen de los Indios de Guatemala, p. 179.

217

De Morgues, Brevis Historia, Tab. XXI.

218

Lettre écrite par l’Adelantade Soto, etc., p. 46.

219

Brevia Historia, Tab. XXX., and compare the Histoire Memorable, p. 261.

220

Naufragios, cap. III.

221

God’s Protecting Providence, p. 62. This style of building was common among the Caribs, and may have been derived from them.

222

Basanier, Hist. Not., pp. 8, 101.

223

See Mackay, Progress of the Intellect, Vol. II., p. 143, note 152, and authorities there quoted.

224

Brevis Historia, Tab. XXXV.; Baumgarten, Geschichte von Amerika, B. I., s. 87.

225

Klemm, Culturgeschichte der Menscheit, B. II, s. 179.

226

Basanier, Hist. Not., pp. 43 sqq.

227

On the Trinity in aboriginal American religions, see Count Stolberg in the Wiener Yahrbücher der Literatur, B. XVI., s. 278.

228

God’s Protecting Providence, p. 12.

229

God’s Protecting Providence, pp. 38, 39.

230

Hist. of the North Am. Indians, p. 22. He embraces all tribes “from Hudson Bay to the Mississippi,” and adds that they had no lascivious or Priapean images or rites, in which he is equally at fault.

231

Man hat weder bei den Sudamericanern noch bei den Nördlichen eigentliche G ö t z e n b i l d e r oder I d o l e bemerkt. Culturgeschichte der Menschheit, B. II., s. 172. This is confined of course to the “Yägervolker.”

232

Barcia, Ensayo Cron. Año 1566, p. 94; the Port. Gent. in Hackluyt, Vol. V. p. 491, mentions this as existing among the tribes near Tampa Bay.

233

Moris apud illos est primogenitum masculum Regi victimum offerre, etc. Brevis Historia, Tab. XXXIV.

234

La Reprinse de la Floride, p. 264.

235

Wm. Bartram, Travels, p. 263, and compare Adair, Hist. of the North Am. Inds. pp. 238-9.

236

Brevis Historia, Tab. XL. Basanier, Hist. Not., pp. 10, 11.

237

Mackay, Progress of the Intellect, Vol. II., p. 129.

238

Tucururu or Tacatacuru was on the Atlantic coast south of St. Augustine, between it and Santa Lucea. (Barcia, En. Cron., p. 121.)

239

Hervas, Catalogo de las Lenguas de las naciones conocidas, Tom. I. p. 387. Madrid, 1800-1805.

240

Mithridates, oder Allgemeine Sprachenkunde, B. III., s. 285.

241

Gallatin, Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., Vol. II., p. 178.

242

Basanier, Hist. Not. pp. 67, 69, 72; Coppie d’une Lettre venant de la Floride, p. 244.

243

Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., Vol. II., p. 106.

244

Hewitt, Hist. of S. Car., Vol. I., p. 222. He gives 1714 as the date of this occurrence. But see Carroll’s Hist. Colls. of S. Car., Vol. II., p. 353.

245

On the Yemassees consult Hewitt, ubi suprà; Barcia, En. Cron. Año 1686; the tracts in Carroll’s Hist. Colls. of S. Car., Vol. II., pp. 106, 246, 353, 355; Roberts, Hist. of Florida, p. 15; Notices of E. Florida, by a recent traveller, p. 57.

246

On the migrations of this tribe consult the Colls. of the Georgia Hist. Soc. Vol. I., pp. 145-6; Vol. II., pp. 61, 71; John Filson; The Disc., Settlement, and Pres. State of Kentucké, App. 3, p. 84; Gallatin in Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., Vol. II., pp. 84, 95; Notices of E. Fla., by a recent traveller, p. 59; Narrative of Oceola Nikkanoche, p. 70 et seq.; Moll’s Map of the Northern Parts of America, and Sprague’s Hist. of the Florida War.

247

Travels, pp. 388-9, and see p. 486.

248

Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, Año 1686, p. 287.

249

Jedediah Morse, Rep. on Ind. Affairs, App. p. 93, Archæol-Amer., Vol. I., p. 273, and others.

250

Other forms of the same are Little St. Johns, Little Savanna, Seguano, Suannee, Swannee. It was also called the Carolinian river.

251

H. R. Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 161. Adair, however, says they recorded themselves to be terræ filii. (Hist. N. Am. Inds., p. 257, but compare p. 195.)

252

For the individual nations composing the confederacy see Romans, Hist. of Fla., p. 90; Roberts, Hist. of Fla., p. 13, and Adair, p. 257.

253

Giddings (Exiles of Florida, p. 3) gives the incorrect translation “runaways,” and adds, “it was originally used in reference to the Exiles long before the Seminole Indians separated from the Creeks.” The Upper Creeks called them Aulochawan. (American State Papers, Vol. V., p. 813.)

254

Establishment of the Colony of Georgia, pp. 10, 12, in Peter Force’s Historical Tracts, Vol. I.

255

Major C. Swan, in Schoolcraft’s Hist. of the Indian Tribes. Vol. V., pp. 260, 272.

256

Smilax, China, and Zamia pumila.

257

On the civilization of the Seminoles, consult Wm. Bartram, Travels, pp. 192-3, 304, the American Jour. of Science, Vol. IX., pp. 133, 135, and XXXV., pp. 58-9; Notices of E. Fla., by a recent Traveller, and the works on the Florida War.

258

Narrative of Oceola Nikkanoche, p. 75. The author supposed this was to receive the injunctions of the dying mother, but more probably it sprang from that belief in a metasomatosis which prevailed, and produced analogous customs in other tribes. See La Hontan, Voiages, Tome I., p. 232; “Brebeuf, Relation de la Nouv. France pour l’an 1636, ch. IX.” Pedro de Cieza, Travs. in Peru, ch. XXXII., p. 86 in Steven’s Collection.

259

Notices of East Fla., by a recent traveller, p. 79. For the extent and meaning of this singular superstition, see Schoolcraft, Oneota, pp. 331, 456; Algic Researches, Vol. I., p. 149, note; Hist. of the Indian Tribes, Vol. III., p. 66; Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, Vol. II., p. 271; Bradford, American Antiquities, p. 415; Mackay, Progress of the Intellect, Vol. I., p. 146, and note15.

260

Narrative of Oceola Nikkanoche, p. 77.

261

C. Swan in Schooloraft’s His. Ind. Tribes, Vol. V., p. 260.

262

By the whites I refer to the descendants of the English of the northern states. While under the Spanish government, up to the first Seminole war, their nation was said to be “numerous, proud and wealthy.” (Vignoles, Obs. on the Floridas, App., p. 215.) This was owing to the Spanish laws which gave them equal privileges with white and free colored persons, and drew the important distinction that they could hold land individually, but not nationally. How different these beneficent regulations from the decree of the Florida Legislature in 1827, that any male Indian found out of the reservation “shall receive not exceeding thirty-nine stripes on his bare back, and his gun be taken away from him.” (Laws relating to Inds. and Ind. Affairs, p. 247, Washington, 1832,) and similar enactments.

263

Relation de la Floride apportée par Frère Gregorio de Beteta, in Ternaux’s Recueil. They did not touch the coast beyond the Bay of Apalache nor much south of Tampa Bay. Both Barcia (En. Cron. Año 1549) and Herrera (Dec. VIII., Lib. V., cap. XIV., XV.) say they entered the latter, but this cannot be, as the supposed description is entirely inapplicable. For other particulars see Eden’s translation of Peter Martyr, (fol. 319, Londini, 1555.)

264

The authority for this, as well as most of the facts in this chapter where other references are not given, is Barcia’s Ensayo Cronologico.

265

Sometimes called Santa Maria or St. Marys; now Amelia Island, so named, from the beauty of its shores, by Gov. Oglethorpe in 1736. (Francis Moore, Voyage to Georgia, in Ga. Hist. Soc.’s Colls. Vol. I., p. 124)

266

Called by the natives Ylacco or Walaka, the river of many lakes; by the French Rivière Mai, as Ribaut entered it on the first of that month; by the Spaniards Rio Matheo, Rio Picolato, on some charts by mistake Rio San Augustin, Rio Matanca and Rio Caouita, and not till much later Rio San Juan, which the English changed to St. Johns, and St. Whan.

267

Barcia, p. 123, and cf., p. 128.

268

Williams, Florida, p. 175.

269

Though Drake left nothing but the fort, and the dwellings were a second time destroyed by Col. Palmer, in 1727, yet Stoddard (Sketches of Louisiana, p. 120) says houses were standing in his time bearing the date 1571!

270

Hackluyt, Vol. III., p. 432. Pedro Morales adds, “The greatest number of Spanyards that have beene in Florida these sixe yeeres, was 300.”

271

Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. XIX., cap. XX., p. 350.

272

Nat. and Civ. Hist. of Fla., p. 175.

273

Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. XIX., cap. XX., p. 350; Barcia, Años 1603 and 1612.

274

L’interieur, non plus que les parties de l’ouest et du Nord n’est pas en notre pouvoir. Voiages aux Indes Occidentales, T. I., p. 27.

275

He published two Cedulas Reales for this purpose, bearing the dates Oct. 20, 1680, and Sept. 30, 1687.

276

Barcia, p. 317; Careri, Voyage round the World, in Churchill’s Coll., Vol. IV., p. 537.

277

God’s Protecting Providence, pp. 77-8.

278

Maintenant ils sont presque touts Chrètiens. Louys Morery, Le Grand Dictionnaire Historique, ou le Melange Curieux, Vol. I., Art. Apalaches. (Amsterdam and La Haye, 1702.)

279

See the Report on Oglethorpe’s Expedition, and Col. Moore’s Letter to the Governor, in Carroll’s Hist. Colls. of S. C., Vol. II.

280

Williams, View of W. Fla., p. 107.

281

Alcedo, Dict. of America, Vol. I., p. 81.

282

God’s Protecting Providence, pp. 68-9.

283

Herman Moll, Thesaurus Geographus, Pt. II, p. 211, 4th ed. London, 1722.

284

Dickinson, God’s Protecting Prov., p. 63.

285

Roberts, Hist, of Fla., p. 15, and Francis Moore’s Voyage to Georgia.

286

Travels, p. 233.

287

Travels in E. Fla., p. 32, Darlington, Mems. of Bartram and Marshall, p. 284.

288

Nat. Hist. E. and W. Fla., pp. 277-8.

289

Nat. and Civil Hist. Fla. Preface and p. 175.

290

See his letter on the Antiquities of the State in Williams’ View of W. Fla., pp. 105-110.

291

The War in Fla., by a late Staff Officer, p. 5; see also, the account of Black Hoof in Morse’s Rep. on Ind. Affairs, App. p. 98, and cf. Archæol. Am., Vol. I. p. 273.

292

Dr. Stork, Des. of E. Fla., p. 8.

293

Capt. Robinson, in Roberts, p. 97.

294

Roberts, Hist. of Fla., p. 5.

295

Parliamentary History, Vol. XV., Col. 1301, Art. XX.

296

Travels, p. 65.

297

Jour. of Travels in E. Fla., p. 25.

298

Travels, p. 99.

299

Ibid., p. 521.

300

Travels, p. 99.

301

Au sorty du village d’Edelano, pour venir au port de la rivière il faut passer par une allée, longue environ de trois cens pas et large de quinze, aux deux costez de laquelle sont plantez de grands arbres, &c. Hist. Notable, p. 138.

302

Il y a au sortir du village une grande allée de trois à quatre cens pas, laquelle et recouverte de grands arbres des deux costez. Hist. Not. pp. 164-5.

303

Conq. de la Florida, Lib. II., P. I, cap. ult.

304

La Vega, Ibid., Lib. I., cap. V., pp. 30-1.

305

Lafitau in Baumgarten, Geschichte von Amerika, B. I., s. 71; Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, Vol. II., pp. 52, 190.

306

Knight, Anc. Art. sect. 162; Mackay, Progress of the Intellect, Vol I., p. 198, note28; Montfaucon, Antiquities, Vol. II, p. 235; Görres, Mythengeschichte, B. I., s. 171.

307

Real Cedula que contiene el asiento capitulado con Lucas Vasquez de Aillon, in Navarrete Viages, Tom. III. p. 153; Basanier, Hist. Notable, p. 29, and comp, p. 78.

308

Real cedula dando facultad à Francisco de Garay para poblar la Provincia de Amichel, in Navarrete, Tom. III., p. 148. The account says they were “de diez à once palmos en alto.”

309

Histoire de la Virginie, Liv. III., p. 259, (Orleans, 1707.)

310

Notes on the Iroquois, p. 482.

311

Letters from the Allegheny Mountains, Let. XX. p. 162.

312

Archæologia Americana, Vol. I.

313

On the rôle of trees in primitive religions consult Guigniaut, Religions de l’Antiquitè, T. I., pp. 81, 150, note, 391, 406.

314

La Vega, Conq. de la Florida, Lib. I., cap. IV., p. 5.

315

Ibid. Lib. III., cap. XIV., p. 129. cap. XV., p. 131, et sq.

316

For descriptions of this mode of interment, essentially the same in most of the tribes from the Mississippi to the St. Lawrence, and very widely prevalent in South America, consult Wm. Bartram, Travels, p. 516; Romans, Nat. Hist. Fla., pp. 88-90; Adair, Hist. N. Am. Inds., p. 183; Lawson, New Account of Carolina, p. 182, in Stevens’ Collection; Beverly, Hist. de la Virginie, pp. 259-62; Baumgarten, Ges. von Amerika, B. I., s. 470; Colden, Hist. of the Five Nations, p. 16, and many others.

317

See an instructive notice from Pere le Petit in the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, T. IV., pp. 261-2, and the Inca, Lib. II., pp. 69-70; Lib. IV., p. 188; Lib. V., pp. 202, 231, &c.

318

Port. Gent, in Hackluyt, V., p. 489.

319

Nar. of Oceola Nikkanoche, pp. 71-2. The author speaks of one “that must have covered two acres of ground,” but this is probably a misapprehension.

320

I am aware that Mr. Schoolcraft places the pottery of Florida intermediate between the coarse work of the northern hunter tribes, and the almost artistic manufactures of Yucatan and Mexico, (see an article on the Antiquities of Florida, in the Hist. of the Ind. Tribes, Vol. III.;) but the numerous specimens obtained in various parts of the peninsula that I had opportunities to examine, never seemed to indicate a civilization so advanced.

321

There is an excellent paper on this topic by the well-known geologist, Lardner Vanuxem, in the Trans. Am. Assoc. Geol. and Naturalists, for 1840-42, p. 21. sq.

322

This is not an invariable proof however; see Tuomey, Geol. Survey of S. Car., p. 199, note.

323

Second Visit to the United States, Vol. I., p. 252.

324

Am. Jour. of Science, Vol. XI., (2 ser.) pp. 164-74.

325

Le case loro sono edificate di stuore sopra scorze d’ostriche, e sopra di esse dormono sopra cuoi d’animali. Relatione que fece Alvaro Nunez, detto Capo di Vaca, Ramusio, Viaggi, T. III., fol. 317., E.

326

On the geology of these bluffs, see the articles by Mr. Allen, in the first, and Mr. Conrad in the second volume of the Am. Jour. Science. (Second series.)

327

Travels, p. 198.

328

The peculiar hue of the whole St. Johns system of streams has been termed by various travellers a light brown, light red, coffee color, rich umber, and beer color. In the sun it is that of a weak lye, but in the shade often looks as black as ink. The water is quite translucent and deposits no sediment. The same phenomenon is observed in the low country of Carolina, New Jersey, and Lake Superior, and on a large scale in the Rio Negro, Atababo, Temi, and others of South America. In the latter, Humboldt (Ansichten der Natur, B. I., p. 263-4) ascribes it “to a solution of carburetted hydrogen, to the luxuriance of a tropical vegetation, and to the quantity of plants and herbs on the ground on which they flow.” In Florida, the vast marshes and hammocks, covered the year round with water from a few inches to two feet in depth, yet producing such rank vegetation as to block up the rivers with floating islands, are doubtless the main cause. The Hillsboro, Suwannee, and others, flowing through the limestone lands into the Gulf, are on the other hand remarkable for the clarity of their streams. I have drank this natural decoction when it tasted and smelt so strongly of decayed vegetable matter as almost to induce nausea. A fact not readily explained is that while the dark waters of other regions are marked by a lack of fish and crocodiles, a freedom from stinging musquitoes, a cooler atmosphere and greater salubrity, nothing of the kind occurs on these streams.

329

For particulars concerning some of these, see Wm. Bartram, Travels, pp. 145, 165, 206, 230; Notices of E. Florida, by a recent Trav., pp. 28, 44; American Journal of Science, Vol. XXV., p. 165, I., (2 ser.) p. 39.

330

Flint, (Travels, Let. XVI., p. 172,) says that neither of those found in 1810 measured more than four feet. This is an error. He only saw the female, whose age was not over fourteen, and the squatting position in which the body was, deceived him.

331

Conq. de la Florida, Lib. V., P. II., cap. VIII.

332

In French’s Hist. Coll. of La., Pt. I., p. 61.

333

Mems. Hist. sur la Louisiane, T. I., pp. 154-5.

334

Hist. of Louisiana, Vol. II., p. 230.

335

A New Account of Carolina, p. 191.

336

Joutel, Jour. Hist., p. 218; Mems. of Sieur de Tonty, p. 61; Dupratz, V. II., p. 22; Cabeza de Vaca. in Ramusio, T. III., fol. 317, E.

337

Lawson, ubi suprà, p. 180.

338

It was remarked of the mummy found in the Mammoth cave, “In the making of her dress there is no evidence of the use of any other machinery than bone and horn needles.” (Collin’s Kentucky, p. 257.)

339

Archæologia Americana, Vol. I., p. 230.

340

Whence the French verb boucaner, and the English buccaneer. Possibly the custom may have been introduced among the tribes of the northern shore of the Gulf by the Caribs.

341

Dumont, Mems., Hist. sur la Louisiane, T. I, p. 240.

342

De Bry, Peregrinationes in America, P. I., Tab. XXII.; Beverly, Hist. de la Virginie, Liv. III., pp. 285-6; Lawson, Acc’t of Carolina, p. 182; Schoolcraft, Hist. Ind. Tribes, Vol. V., p. 693.