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

143

The British Empire in America, Vol. I. London, 1708.

144

Geschichte von Amerika, B. H. Halle, 1753. The articles in these volumes were selected with much judgment, and translated by J. F. Geyfarts and J. F. Schrœter, Baumgarten merely writing the bibliographical introductions. It contains a curious map entitled Gegend der Provinz Bemarin im Königreich Apalacha.

145

The Chikasah asserted for themselves the same origin, and even their Mexican relatives were said to visit them from time to time. (Adair, Hist. of the North Am. Indians, p. 195.)

146

Numerous references showing the prevalence of this error are adduced by D’Orbigny, L’Homme Americain, Tom. II., p. 275, et seq. Among later authors who have been misled by such authorities are Humboldt, (“Reise nach dem Tropen, B. V., s. 181,”) and the eminent naturalist F. J. F. Meyen, (Ueber die Ur-Eingebornen von Peru, s. 6, in the Nov. Act. Acad. Cæsar. Leopold. Carolin. Nat. Cur. Vol. XVII., Sup. I.)

147

Writers disagree somewhat as to the situation of this fountain. Hackluyt (Vol. V., p. 251) and Gomara (Hist. de las Indias Occidentales, Cap. XLV., pp. 31, 35) locate it on the island Boiuca or Agnaneo, 125 leagues north of Hispaniola. Some placed it on the island Bimini,—which, says Oviedo, is 40 leagues west of Bahama (Pt. I., lib. xix., cap. xv., quoted in Navarrete,)—a name sometimes applied to Florida itself, as on the Chart of Cristobal de Topia given in the third volume of Navarrete. Herrera, La Vega, Fontanedo, Barcia, Navarrete and most others agree in referring it to Florida. Fontanedo confuses it with the river Jordan and the Espiritu Santo or Mississippi. Gomara (ubi suprà, p. 31) gives a unique interpretation to this myth and one quite in accordance with the Spanish character, namely, that it arose from the rare beauty of the women of that locality, which was so superlative that old men, gazing upon it, would feel themselves restored to the vigor of youth. In this he is followed by Ogilby. (America, p. 344.)

148

See Appendix I. The later Indians of Florida seem to have preserved certain relics of a superstitious veneration of the aqueous element. Their priests had a certain holy water, sanctified by blowing upon it and incantation, thought to possess healing virtues (Nar. of Oceola Nikkanoche, p. 141;) Coacooche said that when the spirit of his twin-sister came to him from the land of souls, she offered him a cup of pure water, “which she said came from the spring of the Great Spirit, and if I should drink of it, I should return and live with her for ever.” (Sprague, Hist. Florida War, p. 328.)

149

Parallel myths are found in various other nations. Sir John Maundeville speaks of the odoriferous fountain of youth near the river Indus, and Ellis mentions “the Hawaiian account of the voyage of Kamapiikai to the land where the inhabitants enjoy perpetual health, where the wai ora (life-giving fountain) removed every internal malady and external deformity or decrepitude from those who were plunged beneath its salutary waters.” (Polynesian Researches, Vol I., p. 103.)

150

Fontanedo, Memoire, pp. 17, 18, 19, 32, 39. Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. XLI., p. 31.

151

Intro. to the Ensay. Cron.; Fontanedo makes the same statement.

152

Despues de establecido los Españoles en las Islas de Santo Domingo, Cuba, y Puerto Rico, averiguaron que los naturales conservaban algunas ideas vagas de tierras situadas à la parte septentrional, donde entre otras cosas maravillosas referian la existencia de cierta fuente y rio, cuyas aguas remozaban à los viejos que en ella se bañaban; preocupacion tan añeja y arraigada en los Indios, que aun antes de la llegada de los españoles los habia conducido à establecer allì una colonia. Viages y Descubrimientos, Tomo III., p. 50.

153

L’Art de Verifier les Dates, Chronologie Historique de l’Amerique, Tome VIII., p. 185.

154

Herrera, Dec. I., Lib. IX., cap. XI., p. 249.

155

Barcia, Ensay. Cron., Año 1698, p. 317, Careri, Voyage round the World, in Churchill’s Coll. Vol. IV., p. 537.

156

William Bartram, Travels, p. 227.

157

See Labat, Voyage aux Isles de l’Amerique, Tome I., p. 136, and Hughes, Nat. Hist. of Barbadoes, p. 5.

158

Jucaias a conjecturis junctas fuisse quondam reliquis magnis insulis nostri arbitrantur, et ita fuisee a suis majoribus creditum incolæ fatentur. Sed vi tempestate paulatim absorpta tellure alterne secessisse, pelago interjecto uti de messenensi freto est autorum opinio Siciliam ab Italia dirimente, quod una esset quondam contigua. De Novo Orbe, Dec. VII., cap. II., p. 468, Editio Hackluyti, Parisiis, 1587.

159

On this topic consult Baumgarten, Geschichte von Amerika, B. II., s. 583; Jefferys, Hist. of the French Dominion in America, Pt. II., p. 181; Adelung, Allgemeine Sprachenkunde, Th. II., Ab. II., s. 681; Barton, New Views of the Tribes of America, p. lxxi.; Hervas, Catalogo de las Lenguas conocidas, Tomo I., p. 387.

160

See Appendix II.

161

Hist. of the North Am. Indians, p. 267.

162

Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc. Vol. II., p. 103 seq. Bossu found the tradition of De Soto’s invasion rife among the Alibamons (Creeks) of his day. (Nouv. Voyages aux Indes Occident. I’t. II., pp. 34, 35. Paris, 1768.)

163

Memoires Historiques sur la Louisiane, Tome II., p. 301.

164

The Cherokees plastered their houses both roofs and walls inside and out with clay and dried grass, and to compensate for the lowness of the walls excavated the floor as much as three or four feet. From this it is probable they were the “Indi delle Vacche” of Cabeza de Vaca “tra queste case ve ne havea alcune che erano di terra, e tutte l’altre sono di stuore.” (Di Alvaro Nunnes Relatione in Ramusio, Viaggi, Tom. III., fol. 327, B.) A similar construction was noticed by Biedma in Acapachiqui where the houses “etaient creusées sous terre et rassemblaient à des cavernes,” (Relation, pp. 60, 61,) by the Portuguese Gentlemen in Capachiqui, (Hackluyt, Vol. V., p. 498.) and by La Vega among the Cofachiqui, (Conq. de la Florida, Lib. III., cap. XV., p. 131.) Hence the Cherokees are identical with the latter and not with the Achalaques, as Schoolcraft erroneously advances. (Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes, p. 595.) I suppose it was from this peculiar style of building that the Iroquois called them Owaudah, a people who live in caves. (Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 163.)

165

Adair, Hist. of the N. Am. Inds., pp. 413, 420, 421; Wm. Bartram, Travels, pp. 367, 388; Le Page Dupratz, Hist. of Louisiana, Vol. II., pp. 351-2.

166

Hist. N. Am. Inds., pp. 422-3.

167

François Coreal, Voyages, Tome I., p. 31; Catesby, Account of Florida and the Bahama Islands, p. viii.