Briuton.] 4o4: [Xov. 6, 



l)uilded their houses on mounds made with hand for strength," as mili- 

 tary positions, and in order to raise them above the waters which some- 

 times invaded them. We have, therefore, a distinct statement, which 

 'Cannot be controverted, that at that time tliose people were accustomed 

 to build just such structures as those which have been mentioned to 

 you to-night. 



From that time on the sources of our information are rather abundant. 

 There was a Spaniard (one of many who had been wrecked on the 

 Florida reefs) by name d'Escalante Fontaneda, who had been captured 

 by the Indians and remained with them six or eight years, about 1552 to 

 1560. He lived to write an account of his explorations there. He said 

 lie had traveled all over the peninsula of fair Florida, and adds that he 

 "had bathed in every river that he had come to, hoping that it would 

 be the one to confer upon him perpetual life." He regretted to add 

 that he had not found it, otherwise we should have had him here to- 

 night. 



He says of the people there dwelling that they " live in a condition 

 of comparative simplicitj', but are great warriors and fine archers." He 

 adds that they were divided into a certain series of village communi- 

 ties ; and he mentions one in particular where he stayed the longest 

 time, about the locality described by Mr. dishing. He gives us the 

 name of the chief of the country, Caloosa ; he tells us also that that 

 had been a kingdom for many generations, and furnishes a few particu- 

 lars as to the genealogy of the king ; among others, the name of his 

 father (Sequene) and the names of his ancestors. We have, therefore, 

 rather strong evidence from this that the people who constructed these 

 mounds belonged to a race who continued to live there for some time 

 after the first discovery of the country. 



From that time on Florida becomes a known country. In 1502, the 

 Protestants, who had been sent out by Admiral Coligny, settled in the 

 vicinity of the lower St. Johns, not far from St. Augustine. They 

 remained there five years ; wrote several very excellent books about 

 it (which we still have, fortunately) ; when they were dispossessed 

 and mostly massacred by the Spaniards who came in 1567. The Span- 

 iards made a permanent settlement. 



The French had gone far up the St. .Johns River, probably to Lake 

 Okeechobee. The Spaniards explored it quite thoroughly and their 

 priests immediately began to study the languages and write books in 

 them and instruct their converts in religion. We have not all those 

 books, but we have several of them, so that we know something about 

 the native tongues of Florida at that time. 



I need scarcely pursue this branch of the subject further than to say 

 that it was probably nearly a century before a Christian (Catholic) 

 church was founded directly in the locality which has been described 

 to-night. It was probal)ly about 1660 or 1666 that the Bishop estab- 

 lished a permanent priest there. He did not. however, have sufficient 



