Discussion". 

 Dr. Brintox : 



Mr. President .-—After the brilliant demonstration of discoveries in 

 an entirely new field of American archeology, to which we have been 

 privileged to listen this evening, all that I could add is a discussion as 

 to the probabilities of the builders of those remarkable remains being 

 known or unknown to us. I shall review, briefly, the history, so far 

 as we know it, and the ethnography, so far as we know it, of the locali- 

 ties in which these were found. 



Columbus, in his first three voyages, did not hear of the Northern 

 continent. He struck the Bahamas ; he was in Cuba ; he heard of the 

 Southern continent ; he heard of Yucatan ; but he did not hear, appa- 

 rently, of Florida. His last voyages were made from what he had 

 learned from the Indians of Cuba as to where the mainland was situ- 

 ated. He went toward the south, as you know, and toward the west. 

 He did not go toward the north. So far as we know the first informa- 

 tion which was derived by the Spanish settlers of Cuba and the Antilles 

 — their first information of the Northern continent — came somewhat 

 later. It was probably twenty years afterward that they first made 

 their expedition to discover what is now known as Florida. 



The earliest exploration, which was that made by Ponce de Leon,, 

 he was distinctly led to make, according to the information we derive 

 from his contemporaries, by reports of the Indians of Cuba. He went 

 very nearly to this spot which has been shown on the map this evening 

 and journeyed northward. What led him, according to the statements, 

 was not only the thirst for gold but a nol)ler idea, the discovery of the 

 fountain, the river, of perpetual life. It is a common belief, among 

 the North American and South American Indians, that somewhere or 

 other there is that fountain or stream. It can be explained by their 

 general theory of mythology. No doubt it was shared by the Indians 

 of Cuba ; no doubt he heard of that, and it led him, therefore, in part,, 

 to make his expedition. He carried it out with unfortunate results, so 

 we have never been able to profit by the discovery in the sense in which 

 he intended it. That was about 1512 to 1520 — two expeditions which 

 were sent out by him or under his charge. "We have no very full- 

 reports of them, although we have some accounts. 



On the other hand, we have abundant information of the expedition 

 which was headed by Hernando de Soto, who reached the Florida shore 

 in 1540. He landed also on the west coast of Florida, and probably in 

 Tampa Bay ; most likely near the present town of Tampa. "We learn 

 from the accounts of that expedition that he discovered there tribes who 

 were accustomed to build just such mounds as have been described to 

 you this evening. Those mounds are still in existence, and, so far as 

 we can locate the mound-builders, they were precisely where he 

 pointed them out. The historians of his expedition say, "The natives 



