USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume I > Part 4
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Not infrequently these artificers, with considerable store of articles on hand, would perform long journeys to exchange their implements for commodities foreign to the regions in which they dwelt. To such traders safe conduct was accorded, and they were welcomed wherever they went. Most attractive stone ar- ticles are found in localities far distant from the points where the materials of which they are made could have been procured, and it is to the practical operation of these trade relations that their dissemination may be fairly ascribed.
Cabeça de Vaca informs us that the Florida Indians were all archers, admirable in proportions, of great activity and strength, with bows as thick as a man's arm, eleven or twelve spans in length, and capable of projecting arrows a long distance and with wonderful precision. Even the good armor of the followers of De Soto did not afford safe protection against these missiles. On many occasions the bodies of the Spaniards were traversed from side to side and their horses killed by these weapons. In the battle of Manvila there fell of the mail-clad Christians eighty- two, while the survivors bore the marks of seventeen hundred and seventy dangerous wounds inflicted by Indian arrows. With such ancient artillery did these peoples not only wage wars, but provide themselves, and that bountifully, with buffalo, deer, wild turkeys, game of various sorts, and large fishes.
Bow-strings were made of stag's gut or thongs of deer-skin.
25
STONE IMPLEMENTS, ETC.
A supply of arrows was carried in a fawn-skin quiver which de- pended from the right hip. The tip was fastened to the shaft by means of moistened sinews, a glue made of the velvet horns of the deer, or a preparation of resin. Youths were regularly ex- ercised in the use of these weapons, and became very expert in handling the blow-gun from which light arrows, feathered with thistle wool, were projected against birds, squirrels, rabbits, and other small game. Ordinary arrows were fledged with turkey- feathers.
Of grooved axes, celts, perforated hatchets, and ceremonial axes, the varieties are abundant and the manufacture is most ad- mirable. Weighing from a quarter of a pound to twelve pounds and upwards, and generally made of greenstone or diorite, they were first picked into shape with a sharp-pointed implement and subsequently, at great labor, ground and polished. Lafitau, in commenting upon the tedious toil involved in this process, re- marks : " The life of a savage is often insufficient for accomplish- ing the work, and hence such an implement, however rude and imperfect it may be, is considered a precious heirloom for the children." Chipped and ground axes of jasper sometimes occur, and occasionally some were fashioned of hematite. Ceremonial axes of ferruginous quartz, polished to the last degree, have been found. Perforations were compassed by solid and hollow drills operated with sharp sand and water. Whetstones served to re- store the edges when dulled by use.
Instances have been noted in which both the blade and handle were cut out of a solid piece of diorite. These implements were some thirteen inches in length, with blades about six inches long and rather more than two inches wide at the cutting edge. At the lower end of the handle was a perforation for the suspension of the weapon. The manufacture of these axes, hatchets, and celts was discontinued so soon as iron implements were freely furnished by the Europeans.
We may not essay a description of the various forms of stone adzes, pieks, scrapers, gouges, awls or borers, knives, cutting implements, saws, leaf-shaped implements, smoothing and crush- ing stones, hammer stones, hoes, spades, mortars, pestles, nut- stones, and other articles of bone, shell, and stone, which still de- clare the occupations, industries, and mechanical labors of these nations.
Interesting as it would be to revive their piscatorial contri- vances and engagements during that remote period when pond,
26
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
lake, swamp, and river were replete with animal life, and when, in the language of Ribault, the waters of the Florida coast were " boiling and roaring through the multitude of all kinds of fish," we can only refer to artificial preserves where fishes were bred and taken with nets; to the use of bone and shell hooks, and lines twisted from the fibres of bark and silk-grass ; to the man- ufacture of stone plummets and net-sinkers, perforated, notched, and grooved ; to the construction of dams, traps, and extensive weirs for taking fishes ; to the practice of intoxicating them by lashing ponds with the branches of certain trees, and scattering pounded horse-chestnuts and roots in the water ; to attracting them, by night, with bright pitch-pine fires kindled in the bows of canoes ; to their capture with the bow and arrow, and the de- struction of the larger kind with spears and reed harpoons.
Upon their weirs, traps, nets, and mechanical contrivances of this sort the Southern Indians largely depended for support. During certain months of each year they resorted in great multi- tudes to the coast and to the banks of rivers, and spent much time in taking fishes. Large quantities, when smoked and dried, were carried to their private cribs and public storehouses.
Ribault says the Indians of May River put as presents into his boats " sundry fishes which with mervelous speed they run to take in their packs made in the water with great reeds, so well and cunningly set together after the fashion of a Labarinthe or Maze, with so many turns and crooks as it is impossible to do it without much consideration and industry." Weirs and set-nets were sometimes held in position by large, perforated soapstone sinkers, and by stone anchors or weights, notched and grooved. Upon hand-nets, push-nets, and dip-nets much reliance was placed. In the refuse piles indicating these ancient fishing re- sorts no relic is more common than the perforated and notched soapstone sinker.
Were we called upon to suggest a class of articles which amply expressed the patient industry and mechanical skill of these primitive workers in stone, we would be inclined to select those beautiful objects known as discoidal stones, many of which were used in playing that great gambling game called by the Chero- kees Chungke, in which the contestants were engaged from morn- ing until night, caring nothing for the sun's rays, staking their ornaments, weapons, apparel, and even wives and personal lib- erty upon the hazard, and refraining not from its excitement until all was lost or utter prostration forbade further exertion.
27
THE CHUNGKE GAME, ETC.
The spaces prepared for playing this game have not wholly disappeared. Rectangular in outline, slightly elevated, rendered quite level, and freed from all impediments such as roots and stones, their surfaces were sometimes hardened by a flooring of rammed clay. All known types of these discoidal stones are here richly represented, and ferruginous quartz, marble, agate, and a hard, black, close-grained stone were the materials gen- erally employed in their manufacture. Polished to the last de- gree, they are fashioned with a mathematical accuracy which could not be excelled were the skill of a modern workman with compass and metallic tools invoked. In the hands of later tribes, some, possessing saucer-shaped cavities, were applied to second- ary uses and treated as mortars for pulverizing substances ser- viceable for paint.
No longer is this famous game played within the limits of Florida of the olden time. Like the exercise of the discus in the heroie age, it has now become only a tradition, a shadowy memory. The carefully prepared areas over which the red ath- letes rushed in enthusiastic pursuit of victory, at the expense of time, property, and personal liberty, are now deserted and rugged with the trunks and roots of huge forest trees. The anointed poles and the swift hands which launched them have alike crum- bled into nothingness.
Winners and losers, oblivious of their profits and losses, the exultations and the disappointments of this exciting amusement, are themselves forgotten, and little remains to remind us of the former existence and prevalence of this popular game, character- ized by severe exercise, singular dexterity, and desperate ven- tures, save these discoidal stones so remarkable for their beauty and symmetry and so declaratory of the skill and labor ex- pended in their mannfacture.
Pretermitting all else save a bare mention of medicine and ornamental tubes, pierced tablets, pendants of hematite, greenl- stone, quartz, and jasper, amulets of striated slate, stone plates, mirrors of mica membranacea, slung stones, and other articles the uses of which are not always well ascertained, we venture the remark that in no portion of the United States other than that whose antiquities we are now considering, unless it be in the val- leys of Ohio, can be found so many and such excellent speci- mens of ancient pipes.
Entertaining the belief that the Great Spirit was addicted to smoking, and regarding the tobacco plant as a direct gift from
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28
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
him for the enjoyment of his favorite children, the pipe was es- teemed by many as a sacred object, and smoking became, at times, a devotional exercise. The incense of tobacco being pleas- ing to the Father of Life, the ascending smoke was selected as the most suitable medium of communicating with the great un- known. The curative properties of tobacco were invoked in some diseases, and its narcotic influences recognized as a solace in hours of ease and during periods of hunger and fatigue. The small clay or stone pipe was the constant companion of the Southern Indian while engaged in hunting, fishing, or in war, and amid the laziness of his rude home life. The more imposing calumet, with its long stem adorned with feathers, was present on ' occasions of moment. Its introduction was essential to a declaration of war, and with it was the treaty of amity solem- nized. Alternate whiffs from its fuming bowl were tantamount to the signing and sealing by the contracting parties. From no solemn conference or important assembly was it absent. The ceremonies and dances observed in its honor were numerous and impressive. As embodied in and symbolized by the calumet, public faith was inviolate, and he who bore it as a token of peace was entitled to safe conduct through the nations.
Serpentine, gneiss, steatite, oölite, soap-stone, and a tough stone composed of mica and dark brown feldspar were the ma- terials usually selected for the manufacture of pipes of this class. Many are bird and animal shaped, - some of them weighing as much as eight pounds. Their bottoms are flat so as to maintain an upright position when placed on the ground. The bowls, generally at right angles with the shanks, are capacious, with substantial walls, and cavities either circular or square. The apertures for the stems are large. Although generally plain, the surfaces are, in not a few instances, ornamented with incised lines.1
We have observed very few pipes in this region made of Cat- linite.
Common pipes were manufactured of clay and stone. Occa- sionally they occur fabricated of some hard material such as
1 Others, with ample, cup-shaped bowls, possess apertures no less than eight in number for the insertion of stems, thus affording opportunity for an equal num- ber of smokers at the same moment to partake of the consolations of the fuming weed from a common receptacle.
Others still, with a central bowl, ex- hibit two elongated shanks in the same plane, perforated for the insertion of long stems, so that two individuals, facing each other, can at the same time smoke the same pipe.
29
PRIMITIVE PIPES AND POTTERY.
quartz. In many instances a hole was drilled through the heel, or lower edge of the shank, so as to admit of suspension when the object was not in use.1 The ordinary swamp cane supplied convenient stems. Associated with the truncated pyramids and larger tumuli have been found pipes, denominated idol-pipes, evi- dently of great antiquity, generally representing the human form in a sitting posture, the bowl supported in the uplifted hands, the face upturned, the hair confined at the top of the head and thence falling backwards, and the perforation for the stem enter- ing below the shoulders and passing through the back and belly into the bottom of the bowl. Such specimens are usually about six inches in height. They may be easily distinguished from the human-shaped pipes of the Cherokees which frequently, in the language of Adair, cannot "much be commended for their mod- esty."
To the pottery of this region the Knight of Elvas pays high compliment when he describes it as " little differing from that of Estremoz or Montemor."
If we may believe Cabeça de Vaca, some of the Florida In- dians were either ignorant or neglectful of the potter's trade. " Not having discovered the use of pipkins to boil what they would eat," so runs the narrative, " they fill the half of a large calabash with water, and throw on the fire many stones of such as are most convenient and readily take the heat. When hot, they are taken up with tongs of sticks and dropped into the calabash until the water in it boils from the fervor of the stones. Then, whatever is to be cooked is put in, and, until it is done, they continue taking out cooled stones and throwing in liot ones. Thus they boil their food." This statement is certainly not of general application, for we have abundant proofs that the manu- facture of fictile articles by these peoples was not only common, but also that it had been carried on, from periods the most re- mote, in almost all localities inhabited by them. It may be safely asserted that as savages they excelled in the ceramic art, bestowing special care upon the selection of clays, their admix- ture with powdered shells, gravel, and pulverized mica, and upon the shape and ornamentation of their vessels. The use of the pot- ter's wheel seems to have been unknown. Surviving the changes
1 Much labor was bestowed upon the fabrication and ornamentation of these pipes, both common and ceremonial. Va- rious are the birds and animals which they represent. Pigments of white, red, black,
and blue were employed in the decoration of their exterior walls. But a little while ago we beheld a large bird-shaped pipe, two beautiful opal stones having been in- serted as eyes.
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30
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
of centuries, and affording glimpses of ancient taste and cus- toms, these fictile articles are among the most interesting remains which have been transmitted. Varied in form, symmetrical in shape, excellent in composition, and diversified in ornamentation, this pottery was both sun-dried and baked. Flat-bottomed jars serving as receptacles for pounded maize, honey, bear's-grease, and oils made from the nuts of the pecan, the hickory-nut, and the walnut ; pots varying in their capacities from a pint to ten gal- lons and upwards, with and without legs and ears ; burial urns, water flasks, hooded vases, cups, pans, platters, - all these and more are found ; the grave-mounds yielding the best specimens, while fields, refuse piles, and the sites of old villages are covered with countless shards.
Many of these vessels appear to have been modeled within net- works, rush-baskets, and coverings of the desired size and shape made of twigs or split cane, or within large calabashes the in- terior walls of which were carved so as to leave raised figures and lines upon the exterior surfaces of the jars thus formed. Trowel-shaped implements of soapstone and baked clay were used in pressing the plastic material against these contrivances for imparting the desired shape, and in rendering the interior of the open-mouthed vessels and pots smooth and compact. When thus fashioned, the ornamentation upon the vessels, the moulds being burnt or cut away, appears impressed. Blocks of wood and cores of sand and clay were also in vogue.
At other times, while the vessels were drying, flint flakes, the finger nail, the end of a hollow reed, thongs, dies of soapstone and wood, and corn cobs were employed to incise or imprint the desired ornamentation.
Raised mouldings near the rims, ears, legs, and fanciful pro- tuberances were added while the clay was still soft and ready adhesion of such parts could be compassed. By the insertion of pieces of mica and shell, and with the aid of white, red, yellow, blue, and black pigments, the ornamentation was further diversi- fied.
During the hardening process the pots and wide-mouthed jars were sometimes subjected to a heat so intense as to cause a fusion of the particles of the interior surface near akin to glaz- ing. Traces of pottery-kilns, formed of stones and with paved floors, closely resembling rude ovens, are still extant.
From soapstone large tubs, troughs, and smaller vessels were fashioned.
31
PEARL AND SHELL ORNAMENTS.
To the women was the construction of this earthenware mainly committed.
The manufacture of fictile articles was abandoned upon the introduction by the Europeans of iron pots and copper kettles.
No fact is more emphatically asserted in the early narratives, or more clearly demonstrated by the relies themselves, than that pearls and shell ornaments were highly prized and extensively worn by these Florida Indians. Near the bay of Espiritu Santo pearls of large size were found, "such as the Indians valued, piercing them for beads " and stringing them about their necks, wrists, waists, and ankles. In welcoming De Soto, the Indian queen at Cutifachiqui drew from over her head a long string of pearls and threw it around his neck with words of courtesy and friendship. From sepulchres there, and at other points along the line of march, the Spaniards obtained quantities of these glisten- ing beads. At the confluence of the Etowah and the Ooste- naulla the cacique of Ichiaha presented the adelantado with a string of pearls two fathoms in length, and, having sent his peo- ple out over night to gather margatiferous unios from the rivers, the next morning showed the Spaniards how the pearls were extracted from them. Thus are we assured by these and other observers that, in the sixteenth century, upon the persons of the natives and in the graves of their dead, were many pearls, some of them as large as filberts. Grievous was the disappointment of the Spaniards at finding most of them discolored by fire, and rendered valueless for the purpose of commerce from having been perforated with heated copper spindles. The oysters of the Gulf of Mexico and the pearl-bearing unios of the Southern streams and lakes supplied in great abundance these coveted ornaments. That they were eagerly sought after is attested by the artificial shell-heaps still extant upon the coast, on the banks of rivers, and upon the shores of lakes and ponds. The shells were opened by fire, the animals eaten, and the pearls which they contained carefully preserved. So constant and extensive were the trade relations established between the coast region and the interior that these treasures were widely disseminated.
From marine, fluviatile, and lacustrine shells were manufac- tured beads, gorgets, pendants, arm-guards, masks, pins, drinking cups, spoons, and money. Welcomed everywhere was the trader who brought store of such articles. Dwelling under soft skies, these Southern Indians passed the greater part of the year in a state of nudity, delighting in tattooing and skin-painting, in the
32
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
exhibition of necklaces, waist-bands, bracelets, armlets, and ank- lets of pearls and shells, and in the display of shell pendants and gorgets.
Various are the forms of the shell-beads and gorgets. Some of the latter are very large and curiously engraven. The in- terior of the shell being lined with an iridescent nacre, and na- ture having polished that surface beyond all art, the inner and not the outer surface was selected for exhibition. The oliva and the marginella were used as ornaments, the apices of the former being cut off, and the backs of the latter ground so as to admit of their being strung. Pins fashioned from the columns of the strombus gigas were frequently worn.
Thus from an eminence too distant for careful survey, and with a flight too rapid for specific mention, have we glanced at the semi-civilization of the red races who antedated us in the oc- cupancy of this region. Although too general for accurate dis- crimination, and too discursive for scientific precision, these observations will, it is hoped, convey at least a tolerable impres- sion of the ancient peoples who, in the flood of years, like the restless waves of the ocean, covered our land and, receding, left here and there these sea-shells which we have been gathering, - physical tokens that the great tide of an early and almost forgot- ten human life was once here.
That the older Indian tribes erected monuments more substan- tial and imposing than those constructed by the Indians of the eighteenth century cannot be denied. That the Cherokees and Creeks did not in some things equal the aborigines of the six- teenth century as described by the historians of the Spanish and French expeditions must be admitted. Why this decadence in power and industry ? Will it be doubted that the burthens im- posed, the desolations wronght, and the diseases introduced by Europeans contributed to the manifest demoralization of the primitive population ? Time was, if we may fairly judge from the proportions and uses of some of these august tumuli and their attendant relics, when those who built and cared for them occu- pied a position somewhat in advance of the later Indian tribes. Forming permanent settlements, they devoted themselves to agri- cultural pursuits, erected temples, fortified localities, worshiped the sun, possessed images, wrought extensively in stone and bone and wood, fashioned money and ornaments of shell, used copper implements, traded extensively, and were not improvident of the future. Such was the fertility of the localities most thickly
33
EXTINCTION OF THE RED RACE.
peopled by them, so pleasant the climate, and so abundant the supply of game, that these ancient settlers were in great meas- ure exempt from the stern struggle which, among nomadic tribes and under more inhospitable skies, constitutes the great battle with nature for life. With but few temptations to wander, they bestowed much attention upon the cultivation of their fields, and expended great labor in establishing their temples, protect- ing their abodes, and confirming their chosen seats. And yet they were not exempt from the vicissitudes which have befallen greater and more civilized nations, reverses born of the cupid- ity and cruelty of strangers.
Certain it is that the inroads of the Spaniards violently shocked this primitive population, imparting new ideas, intro- ducing contagion hitherto unknown, interrupting customs long established, overturning acknowledged government, impoverish- ing whole districts, engendering a sense of insecurity until that time unfelt, instigating intertribal wars, causing marked changes, and entailing losses and demoralizations far more potent than we are inclined, at first thought, to imagine.
The operation of that inexorable law which subordinates the feebler to the will of the stronger, inaugurated here more than three hundred years agone, has in the end brought about the utter expatriation of the red race from the soil of Georgia. Al- though half a century has elapsed since the last of the Cherokees departed hence for their enforced homes beyond the Mississippi, Indian memories linger upon our hills and are interwoven with some of the most dramatic episodes in the history of this State. Our
" Everlasting rivers speak Their dialect of yore.
The mountains are their monuments Though ye destroy their dust." 1
1 For fuller description of the archa- Georgia Tribes. Charles C. Jones, Jr. ology of this region, see Antiquities of New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1873. the Southern Indians, particularly of the
CHAPTER II.
EARLY VOYAGES. - EXPEDITION OF HERNANDO DE SOTO.
WHETHER Sebastian Cabot, as has been surmised by some, coasted as far as the shores at present claimed by the modern State of Georgia; whether the veteran soldier Juan Ponce de Leon, while traversing the Land of Flowers in quest of the fountain of perpetual youth, wandered over any portion of the territory ceded more than two centuries afterwards by the Crown of England to Oglethorpe and his associates ; whether the careless sea-captain Diego Miruelo in trafficking with the natives held commerce with the ancestors of the Lower Creeks, must, we fear, remain undetermined. That the licentiate Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon with his two slave ships, during his ill-starred voyage to Chicora, beheld the low-lying islands which guard the Georgia coast is not improbable ; but, so far as we now know, he never landed upon them, or sought by means of the intervening rivers to reach the interior and accomplish his purposed rape of the unsuspecting inhabitants. The tragic overthrow and the wasted fortunes of his second expedition gave to the native dwellers on the banks of the Combahee trinkets and objects of European manufacture which were highly prized and widely distributed.
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