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

One other topic for examination in Bristock’s memoir yet remains—the scattered words of the language he mentions. The principal are the following;[174 - I give these according to the orthography of Baumgarten, who may differ slightly from other writers.]

Mayrdock—the Viracocha of their traditions.

Naarim—the month of March.

Theomi—proper name of the Gulf of Mexico.

Jauas—priests.

Tlatuici—the mountain tribes.

Paracussi—chief; a generic term.

Bersaykau—vale of cedars.

Akueyas—deer.

Hitanachi—pleasant, beautiful.

Tonatzuli—heavenly singer; the name of a bird sacred to the sun.

Several of these words may be explained from tongues with which we are better acquainted.

Jauas and Pâracussi are words used in the sense they here bear in many early writers; the derivation of the former will be considered hereafter; that of the latter is uncertain. Tlatuici is doubtless identical with Tsalakie, the proper appellation of the Cherokee tribe. Akueyas has a resemblance, though remote, to the Seminole ekko of the same signification. In hitanachi we recognize the Choktah intensitive prefix hhito; and in tonatzuli a compound of the Choktah verb taloa, he sings, in one of its forms, with shutik, Muskohge sootah, heaven or sky. A closer examination would doubtless reveal other analogies, but the above are sufficient to show that these were no mere unmeaning words, coined by a writer’s fancy.

The general result of these inquiries, therefore, is strongly in favor of the authenticity of Bristock’s narrative. Exaggerated and distorted though it be, nevertheless it is the product of actual observation, and deserves to be classed among our authorities, though as one to be used with the greatest caution. We have also found that though no general migration took place from the continent southward, nor from the islands northward, yet there was considerable intercourse in both directions; that not only the natives of the greater and lesser Antilles and Yucatan, but also numbers of the Guaranay stem of the southern continent, the Caribs proper, crossed the Straits of Florida and founded colonies on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico; that their customs and language became to a certain extent grafted upon those of the earlier possessors of the soil; and to this foreign language the name Apalache belongs. As previously stated, it was used as a generic title, applied to a confederation of many nations at one time under the domination of one chief, whose power probably extended from the Alleghany mountains on the north to the shore of the Gulf; that it included tribes speaking a tongue closely akin to the Choktah is evident from the fragments we have remaining. This is further illustrated by a few words of “Appalachian,” preserved by John Chamberlayne.[175 - Oratio Dominica Polyglotta, Amstelædami, 1715. He does not state where he obtained them.] These, with their congeners in cognate dialects, are as follows:

The location of the tribe in after years is very uncertain. Dumont placed them in the northern part of what is now Alabama and Georgia, near the mountains that bear their name. That a portion of them did live in this vicinity is corroborated by the historians of South Carolina, who say that Colonel Moore, in 1703, found them “between the head-waters of the Savannah and Altamaha.”[176 - Hewitt, History of South Carolina, Vol. I. p 156.] De l’Isle, also, locates them between the R. des Caouitas ou R. de Mai and the R. des Chaouanos ou d’Edisco, both represented as flowing nearly parallel from the mountains.

According to all the Spanish authorities on the other hand, they dwelt in the region of country between the Suwannee and Apalachicola rivers—yet must not be confounded with the Apalachicolos. Thus St. Marks was first named San Marco de Apalache, and it was near here that Narvaez and De Soto found them. They certainly had a large and prosperous town in this vicinity, said to contain a thousand warriors, whose chief was possessed of much influence.[177 - El Cacique principal de Apalache, Superior de muchos Caciques, Barcia, Ensay. Cron., p. 323.] De l’Isle makes this their original locality, inscribing it “Icy estoient cy devant les Apalaches,” and their position in his day as one acquired subsequently. That they were driven from the Apalachicola by the Alibamons and other western tribes in 1705, does not admit of a doubt, yet it is equally certain that at the time of the cession of the country to the English, (1763,) they retained a small village near St. Marks, called San Juan.[178 - Roberts, Hist. of Florida, p. 14.] I am inclined to believe that these were different branches of the same confederacy, and the more so as we find a similar discrepancy in the earliest narratives of the French and Spanish explorers.

In the beginning of the eighteenth century they suffered much from the devastations of the English, French, and Creeks; indeed, it has been said, though erroneously, that the last remnant of their tribe “was totally destroyed by the Creeks in 1719.”[179 - Schoolcraft’s Ind. Tribes, Vol. V. p. 259.] About the time Spain regained possession of the soil, they migrated to the West and settled on the Bayou Rapide of Red River. Here they had a village numbering about fifty souls, and preserved for a time at least their native tongue, though using the French and Mobilian (Chikasah) for common purposes.[180 - Schermerhorn, Report on the Western Indians in Mass. Hist. Colls. Vol. II. (2 ser.,) p. 26; Alcedo, Hist. and Geog. Dict. of America, Vol. I., p. 82.] Breckenridge,[181 - Views of Louisiana, p. 150.] who saw them here, describes them as “wretched creatures, who are diminishing daily.” Probably by this time the last representative of this once powerful tribe has perished.

CHAPTER III.

PENINSULAR TRIBES OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

§ 1. Situation and Social Condition.—Caloosas.—Tegesta and Ais.—Tocobaga.—Vitachuco.—Utina.—Soturiba.—Method of Government.

§ 2. Civilization.—Appearance.—Games.—Agriculture.—Construction of Dwellings.—Clothing.

§ 3. Religion.—General Remarks.—Festivals in honor of the Sun and Moon.—Sacrifices.—Priests.—Sepulchral Rites.

§ 4. Languages.—Timuquana Tongue.—Words preserved by the French.

§ 1.—Situation and Social Condition

When in the sixteenth century the Europeans began to visit Florida they did not, as is asserted by the excellent bishop of Chiapa, meet with numerous well ordered and civilized nations,[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.] but on the contrary found the land sparsedly peopled by a barbarous and quarrelsome race of savages, rent asunder into manifold petty clans, with little peaceful leisure wherein to better their condition, wasting their lives in aimless and unending internecine war. Though we read of the cacique Vitachuco who opposed De Soto with ten thousand chosen warriors, of another who had four thousand always ready for battle,[183 - Barcia, Ensay. Cron., p. 71.] and other such instances of distinguished power, we must regard them as the hyperbole of men describing an unknown and strange land, supposed to abound in marvels of every description. The natural laws that regulate the increase of all hunting tribes, the analogy of other nations of equal civilization, the nature of the country, and lastly, the adverse testimony of these same writers, forbid us to entertain any other supposition. Including men, women, and children, the aboriginal population of the whole peninsula probably but little exceeded at any one time ten thousand souls. At the period of discovery these were parcelled out into villages, a number of which, uniting together for self-protection, recognized the authority of one chief. How many there were of these confederacies, or what were the precise limits of each, as they never were stable, so it is impossible to lay down otherwise than in very general terms, dependent as we are for our information on the superficial notices of military explorers, who took an interest in anything rather than the political relations of the nations they were destroying.

Commencing at the south, we find the extremity of the peninsula divided into two independent provinces, one called Tegesta on the shores of the Atlantic, the other and most important on the west or Gulf coast possessed by the Caloosa tribe.

The derivation of the name of the latter is uncertain. The French not distinguishing the final letter wrote it Calos and Callos; the Spaniards, in addition to making the same omission, softened the first vowel till the word sounded like Carlos, which is their usual orthography. This suggested to Barcia and others that the country was so called from the name of its chief, who, hearing from his Spanish captives the grandeur and power of Charles of Spain (Carlos V), in emulation appropriated to himself the title. Doubtless, however, it is a native word; and so Fontanedo, from whom we derive most of our knowledge of the province, and who was acquainted with the language, assures us. He translates it “village cruel,”[184 - Memoire, p. 13.] an interpretation that does not enlighten us much, but which may refer to the exercise of the sovereign power. As a proper name, it may be the Muskohge charlo, trout, assumed, according to a common custom, by some individual. It is still preserved in the Seminole appellation of the Sanybal river, Carlosa-hatchie and Caloosa-hatchie, and in that of the bay of Carlos, corrupted by the English to Charlotte Harbor, both on the southwestern coast of the peninsula near north latitude 26° 40´.

According to Fontanedo, the province included fifty villages of thirty or forty inhabitants each, as follows: “Tampa, Tomo, Tuchi, Sogo, No which means beloved village, Sinapa, Sinaesta, Metamapo, Sacaspada, Calaobe, Estame, Yagua, Guayu, Guevu, Muspa, Casitoa, Tatesta, Coyovea, Jutun, Tequemapo, Comachica, Quisiyove, and two others; on Lake Mayaimi, Cutespa, Tavaguemme, Tomsobe, Enempa, and twenty others; in the Lucayan Isles, Guarunguve and Cuchiaga.” Some of these are plainly Spanish names, while others undoubtedly belong to the native tongue. Of these villages, Tampa has given its name to the inlet formerly called the bay of Espiritu Santo[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.] and to the small town at its head. Muspa was the name of a tribe of Indians who till the close of the last century inhabited the shores and islands in and near Boca Grande, where they are located on various old maps. Thence they were driven to the Keys and finally annihilated by the irruptions of the Seminoles and Spaniards.[186 - Williams, Hist. of Florida, pp. 36, 212. Ellicott’s Journal, p. 247. Robert’s Hist. of Florida, p. 17.] Guaragunve, or Guaragumbe, described by Fontanedo as the largest Indian village on Los Martires, and which means “the village of tears,” is probably a modified orthography of Matacumbe and identical with the island of Old Matacumbe, remarkable for the quantity of lignum vitæ there found,[187 - Guaicum officinale; the el palo or el palo santo of the Spaniards.] and one of the last refuges of the Muspa Indians. Lake Mayaimi, around which so many villages were situated, is identical with lake Okee-chobee, called on the older maps and indeed as late as Tanner’s and Carey’s, Myaco and Macaco. When Aviles ascended the St. Johns, he was told by the natives that it took its origin “from a great lake called Maimi thirty leagues in extent,” from which also streams flowed westerly to Carlos.[188 - Barcia, En. Cron. Año 1566.] In sound the word resembles the Seminole pai-okee or pai-hai-o-kee, grassy lake, the name applied with great fitness by this tribe to the Everglades.[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.] When travelling in Florida I found a small body of water near Manatee called lake Mayaco, and on the eastern shore the river Miami preserves the other form of the name.

The chief of the province dwelt in a village twelve or fourteen leagues from the southernmost cape.[190 - Barcia, Ensay. Cron., p. 49, and compare the Hist. Notable, p. 134.] The earliest of whom we have any account, Sequene by name, ruled about the period of the discovery of the continent. During his reign Indians came from Cuba and Honduras, seeking the fountain of life. He was succeeded by Carlos, first of the name, who in turn was followed by his son Carlos. In the time of the latter, Francesco de Reinoso, under the command of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the founder of St. Augustine and Adelantado of Florida, established a colony in this territory, which, however, owing to dissensions with the natives, never flourished, and finally the Cacique was put to death by Reinoso for some hostile demonstration. His son was taken by Aviles to Havana to be educated and there baptized Sebastian. Every attempt was made to conciliate him, and reconcile him to the Spanish supremacy but all in vain, as on his return he became “more troublesome and barbarous than ever.” This occurred about 1565-1575.[191 - For these facts see Fontanedo’s Memoire, passim, and Barcia, Años 1566, 1567.] Not long after his death the integrity of the state was destroyed, and splitting up into lesser tribes, each lived independent. They gradually diminished in number under the repeated attacks of the Spaniards on the south and their more warlike neighbors on the north. Vast numbers were carried into captivity by both, and at one period the Keys were completely depopulated. The last remnant of the tribe was finally cooped up on Cayo Vaco and Cayo Hueso (Key West), where they became notorious for their inhumanity to the unfortunate mariners wrecked on that dangerous reef. Ultimately, at the cession of Florida, to England in 1763, they migrated in a body to Cuba, to the number of eighty families, since which nothing is known of their fate.[192 - Bernard Romans, pp. 291-2.]

Of the province of Tegesta, situate to the west of the Caloosas, we have but few notices. It embraced a string of villages, the inhabitants of which were famed as expert fishers, (grandes Pescadores,) stretching from Cape Cañaveral to the southern extremity.[193 - Desde los Martires al Cañaveral, Herrera, Dec. IV., Lib., IV., cap. VII.] The more northern portion was in later times called Ais, (Ays, Is) from the native word aïsa, deer, and by the Spaniards, who had a post here, Santa Lucea.[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.] The residence of the chief was near Cape Cañaveral, probably on Indian river, and not more than five days journey from the chief town of the Caloosas.

At the period of the French settlements, such amity existed between these neighbors, that the ruler of the latter sought in marriage the daughter of Oathcaqua, chief of Tegesta, a maiden of rare and renowned beauty. Her father, well aware how ticklish is the tenure of such a jewel, willingly granted the desire of his ally and friend. Encompassing her about with stalwart warriors, and with maidens not a few for her companions, he started to conduct her to her future spouse. But alas! for the anticipations of love! Near the middle of his route was a lake called Serrope, nigh five leagues about, encircling an island, whereon dwelt a race of men valorous in war and opulent from a traffic in dates, fruits, and a root “so excellent well fitted for bread, that you could not possibly eat better,” which formed the staple food of their neighbors for fifteen leagues around. These, fired by the reports of her beauty and the charms of the attendant maidens, waylay the party, rout the warriors, put the old father to flight, and carry off in triumph the princess and her fair escort, with them to share the joys and wonders of their island home.

Such is the romantic story told Laudonniére by a Spaniard long captive among the natives.[195 - Basanier, Hist. Notable, pp. 133-4.] Why seek to discredit it? May not Serrope be the beautiful Lake Ware in Marion county, which flows around a fertile central isle that lies like an emerald on its placid bosom, still remembered in tradition as the ancient residence of an Indian prince,[196 - Vignoles, Obs. on the Floridas, pp. 74-5.] and where relics of the red man still exist? The dates, les dattes, may have been the fruit of the Prunus Chicasaw, an exotic fruit known to have been cultivated by the later Indians, and the bread a preparation of the coonta root or the yam.

North of the province of Carlos, throughout the country around the Hillsboro river, and from it probably to the Withlacooche, and easterly to the Ocklawaha, all the tribes appear to have been under the domination of one ruler. The historians of De Soto’s expedition called the one in power at that period, Paracoxi, Hurripacuxi, and Urribarracuxi, names, however different in orthography, not unlike in sound, and which are doubtless corruptions of one and the same word, otherwise spelled Paracussi, and which was a generic appellation of the chiefs from Maryland to Florida. The town where they found him residing, is variously stated as twenty, twenty-five, and thirty leagues from the coast,[197 - Biedma, Relation, p. 53; the Port. Gent. in Hackluyt, V., p. 492; La Vega, Lib. II., cap. x., p. 38.] and has by later writers been located on the head-waters of the Hillsboro river.[198 - Irving’s Conquest of Fla., p. 84, note.] In later times the cacique dwelt in a village on Old Tampa Bay, twenty leagues from the main, called Tocobaga or Togabaja,[199 - Barcia, Año 1567; Fontanedo, pp. 20, 35.] (whence the province derived its name,) and was reputed to be the most potent in Florida. A large mound still seen in the vicinity marks the spot.

This confederacy waged a desultory warfare with their southern neighbors. In 1567, Aviles, then superintending the construction of a fort among the Caloosas, resolved to establish a peace between them, and for this purpose went himself to Tocobaga. He there located a garrison, but the span of its existence was almost as brief as that of the peace he instituted. Subsequently, when the attention of the Spaniards became confined to their settlements on the eastern coast, they lost sight of this province, and thus no particulars of its after history are preserved.

The powerful chief Vitachuco, who is mentioned in the most extravagant terms by La Vega and the Gentleman of Elvas, seems, in connection with his two brothers, to have ruled over the rolling pine lands and broad fertile savannas now included in Marion and Alachua counties. Though his power is undoubtedly greatly over-estimated by these writers, we have reason to believe, both from existing remains and from the capabilities of the country, that this was the most densely populated portion of the peninsula, and that its possessors enjoyed a degree of civilization superior to that of the majority of their neighbors.

The chief Potavou mentioned in the French accounts, residing about twenty-five leagues, or two days’ journey from the territory of Utina, and at war with him, appears to have lived about the same spot, and may have been a successor or subject of the cacique of this province.[200 - Basanier, Hist. Notable, pp. 190-1, 108-9, 140 sq.]

The rich hammocks that border the upper St. Johns and the flat pine woods that stretch away on either side of this river, as far south as the latitude of Cape Cañaveral,[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.] were at the time of the first settlement of the country under the control of a chief called by the Spanish Utina, and more fully by the French Olata Ouæ Outina. His stationary residence was on the banks of the river near the northern extremity of Lake George, in which locality certain extensive earthworks are still found, probably referable to this period. So wide was his dominion that it was said to embrace more than forty subordinate chiefs,[202 - Basanier, Hist. Not. p. 90.] which, however, are to be understood only as the heads of so many single villages. It is remarkable, and not very easy of satisfactory explanation, that among nine of these mentioned by Laudonniére,[203 - Ibid.] two, Acquera and Moquoso, are the names of villages among the first encountered by De Soto in his march through the peninsula, and said by all the historians of the expedition to be subject to the chief Paracoxi.

Soturiba (Sotoriva, Satouriona) was a powerful chief, claiming the territory around the mouth of the St. Johns, and northward along the coast nearly as far as the Savannah. Thirty sub-chiefs acknowledged his supremacy, and his influence extended to a considerable distance inland. He showed himself an implacable enemy to the Spaniards, and in 1567, assisted Dominique de Gourgues to destroy their settlements on the St. Johns. His successor, Casicola, is spoken of by Nicolas Bourguignon as the “lord of ten thousand Indians,” and ruler of all the land “between St. Augustine and St. Helens.”

The political theories on which these confederacies were based, differed singularly in some particulars from those of the Indians of higher latitudes. Among the latter the chief usually won his position by his own valor and wisdom, held it only so long as he maintained this superiority, and dying, could appoint no heir to his pre-eminence. His counsel was sought only in an emergency, and his authority coerced his fellows to no subjection. All this was reversed among the Floridians. The children of the first wife inherited the power and possessions of their father,[204 - Basanier, Hist. Not. p. 8.] the eldest getting the lion’s share; the sub-chiefs paid to their superior stated tributes of roots, games, skins, and similar articles;[205 - Hackluyt, Vol. V., p. 492, Fontanedo, p. 15.] and these superiors held unquestioned and absolute power over the persons, property, and time of their subjects.[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.)] Among the Caloosas, indeed, the king was considered of divine nature, and believed to have the power to grant or withhold seasons favorable to the crops, and fortune in the chase; a superstition the shrewd chief took care to foster by retiring at certain periods almost unattended to a solitary spot, ostensibly to confer with the gods concerning the welfare of the nation.[207 - Basanier, Hist. Not., p. 132.] In war the chief led the van with a chosen body guard for his protection,[208 - Basanier, pp. 9, 141.] and in peace daily sate in the council house, there both to receive the homage of his inferiors, and to advise with his counsellors on points of national interest. The devotion of the native to their ruler, willingly losing their lives in his defence, is well illustrated in the instance of Vitachuco, killed by De Soto. So scrupulously was the line of demarcation preserved between them and their subjects, that even their food was of different materials.[209 - Fontanedo, pp. 10, 11.]

§ 2.—Civilization

The Floridians were physically a large, well proportioned race, of that light shade of brown termed by the French olivâtre. On the southern coast they were of a darker color, caused by exposure to the rays of the sun while fishing, and are described by Herrera as “of great stature and fearful to look upon,” (de grandes cuerpos y de espantosa vista). What rendered their aspect still more formidable to European eyes was the habit of tattooing their skin, practiced for the double purpose of increasing their beauty, and recording their warlike exploits. Though this is a perfectly natural custom, and common wherever a warm climate and public usage permits the uncivilized man to reject clothing a portion of the year, instances are not wanting where it has been made the basis of would-be profound ethnological hypotheses.

In their athletic sports they differed in no notable degree from other tribes. A favorite game was that of ball. In playing this they erected a pole about fifty feet in height in the centre of the public square; on the summit of this was a mark, which the winning party struck with the ball.[210 - Basanier, Hist. Not. p. 7.] The very remarkable “pillar” at the Creek town of Atasse on the Tallapoosa river, one day’s journey from the Coosa, which puzzled the botanist Bartram,[211 - Travels, p. 456.] and which a living antiquarian of high reputation has connected with phallic worship,[212 - E. G. Squier, Aborig. Mon. of N. Y., App. pp. 135-7; Serpent Symbol, pp. 90, 94, 95.] was probably one of these solitary trunks, or else the “red painted great war-pole” of the southern Indians,[213 - Adair, Hist. N. Am. Inds., p. 205.] usually about the same height.

In some parts they had rude musical instruments, drums, and a sort of flute fashioned from the wild cane,[214 - They came to meet Narvaez playing on such flutes, “tañendo unas Flautas de Caña,” Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios, cap. V.] the hoarse screeching of which served to testify their joy on festive occasions. A primitive pipe of like construction, the earliest attempt at melody, but producing anything but sounds melodious, was common among the later Chicasaws[215 - Bernard Romans, p. 62.] and the Indians of Central America.[216 - Francisco Ximenez, Origen de los Indios de Guatemala, p. 179.]

Their agriculture was of that simple character common to most North American tribes. They planted twice in the year, in June or July and March, crops of maize, beans, and other vegetables, working the ground with such indifferent instruments as sticks pointed, or with fish bones and clam-shells adjusted to them.[217 - De Morgues, Brevis Historia, Tab. XXI.] Yet such abundant return rewarded this slight toil that, says De Soto,[218 - Lettre écrite par l’Adelantade Soto, etc., p. 46.] the largest army could be supported without exhausting the resources of the land. In accordance with their monarchical government the harvests were deposited in public granaries, whence it was dispensed by the chief to every family proportionately to the number of its members. When the stock was exhausted before the succeeding crop was ripe, which was invariably the case, forsaking their fixed abodes, they betook themselves to the woods, where an abundance of game, quantities of fish and oysters, and the many esculent vegetables indigenous in that latitude, offered them an easy and not precarious subsistence.

Their dwellings were collected into a village, circular in form, and surrounded with posts twice the height of a man, set firmly in the ground, with interfolding entrance. If we may rely on the sketches of De Morgues, taken from memory, the houses were all round and the floors level with the ground, except that of the chief, which occupied the centre of the village, was in shape an oblong parallelogram, and the floor somewhat depressed below the surface level.[219 - Brevia Historia, Tab. XXX., and compare the Histoire Memorable, p. 261.] In other parts the house for the ruler and his immediate attendants was built on an elevation either furnished by nature or else artificially constructed. Such was the “hie mount made with hands,” described by the Portuguese Gentleman at the spot where De Soto landed, and which is supposed by some to be the one still seen in the village of Tampa. Some of these were of sufficient size to accommodate twenty dwellings, with roads leading to the summits on one side, and quite inaccessible on all others.

Most of the houses were mere sheds or log huts thatched with the leaf of the palmetto, a plant subservient to almost as many purposes as the bread-fruit tree of the South Sea Islands. Occasionally, however, the whole of a village was comprised in a single enormous habitation, circular in form, from fifty to one hundred feet in diameter. Into its central area, which was sometimes only partially roofed, opened numerous cabins, from eight to twelve feet square, arranged around the circumference, each the abode of a separate family. Such was the edifice seen by Cabeza de Vaca “that could contain more than three hundred persons” (que cabrian mas de trecientas personas);[220 - Naufragios, cap. III.] such that found by De Soto in the town of Ochile on the frontiers of the province of Vitachuco; such those on the north-eastern coast of the peninsula described by Jonathan Dickinson.[221 - God’s Protecting Providence, p. 62. This style of building was common among the Caribs, and may have been derived from them.]

The agreeable temperature that prevails in those latitudes throughout the year did away with much of the need of clothing, and consequently their simple wardrobe seems to have included nothing beyond deerskins dressed and colored with vegetable dyes, and a light garment made of the long Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), the gloomy drapery of the cypress swamps, or of the leaves of the palmetto. A century and a half later Captain Nairn describes them with little or no clothing, “all painted,” and with no arms but spears, “harpoos,” pointed with fish bones.

§ 3.—Religion

It is usual to consider the religion and mythology of a nation of weighty import in determining its origin; but to him, who regards these as the spontaneous growth of the human mind, brought into existence by the powers of nature, nourished by the mental constitution of man, and shaped by external circumstances, all of which are “everywhere different yet everywhere the same,” general similarities of creed and of rite appear but deceptive bases for ethnological theories. The same great natural forces are eternally at work, above, around and beneath us, producing similar results in matter, educing like conceptions in mind. He who attentively compares any two mythologies whatever, will find so many points of identity and resemblance that he will readily appreciate the capital error of those who deduce original unity of race from natural conformity of rite. Such is the fallacy of those who would derive the ancient population of the American continent from a fragment of an insignificant Semitic tribe in Syria; and of the Catholic missionaries, who imputed variously to St. Thomas and to Satan the many religious ceremonies and legends, closely allied to those of their own faith, found among the Aztecs and Guatemalans.

In investigations of this nature, therefore, we must critically distinguish between the local and the universal elements of religions. Do we aim by analysis to arrive at the primal theistic notions of the human mind and their earliest outward expression? The latter alone can lead us. Or is it our object to use mythology only as a handmaid to history, an index of migrations, and a record of external influence? The impressions of local circumstances are our only guides.