OBSERVATIONS ON A GOLD ORNAMENT FROM FLORIDA. 301 



its occupation by Europeans. " The man who dug it out," says Mr. 

 Greenleaf, "had no idea that it was gold. He had been digging all 

 day, and was just giviug up the work, wheu, with a fiual desperate 

 blow, he struck, broke, and brought to light the gold ornament. Ho 

 then explored the rest of the mound carefully, but found nothing but 

 fragments of pottery and crumbling bones." 



Purely aboriginal relics of gold appear to be extremely rare in this 

 country. According to Colonel Charles C. Jones, Indian beads composed 

 of that metal have been met with in Georgia. He says : " Gold beads — 

 evidently not European in their manufacture — have been found in the 

 Etowah Val'ey, in the vicinity of the large mounds on Colonel Tuinliu's 

 plantation."* This statement is corroborated by Mr. M. E. Stephenson 

 in an article on ancient mounds in Georgia, which was published in the 

 Smithsonian lieport for 1870. I am not aware that Indian relics of gold 

 have been found in Florida in modern times ; but mention is made of a 

 small gold bell obtained in 1527 by the party of the unfortunate Pam- 

 philo de Narvaez, immediately after his landing in Florida. It was 

 discovered in one of the large houses {bitJiios), which the natives had 

 deserted upon the approach of the Spaniards.! 



We learn from the old accounts relating to the discovery and coloni- 

 zation of the large tract of land formerly called Florida that the abo- 

 riginal inhabitants were cognizant of the occurrence of gold in their dis- 

 tricts. The grains of gold which the early Spanish visitors saw in the 

 possession of the Floridians excited their cupidity, and inspired them 

 with the hope of finding a second Mexico or Peru in the more northern 

 portion of the new continent. Upon asking the Indians where the 

 precious metal had been obtained, they were referred to the "Apalatcy " 

 Mountains, in the north, from which rivers carrying particles of gold, 

 silver, and copper were flowing. The Indian method of collecting these 

 metallic grains is represented en plate 41, vol. ii, of De Bry's Peregri- 

 nationes (Frankfort on the Main, 1591), where the natives are pictured 

 as usiug long tubes for this purpose. Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, 

 the artist of Laudonni^re's expedition, to which the volume relates, 

 probably drew the sketch from imagination, or according to what he 

 had heard from the Indians, who were never noted for their veracity. 

 The short Latin description accompanying the sketch closes with the 

 statement that the Spaniards knew how to apply these treasures to their 

 own use. Indeed, traces of mining operations which are ascribed to 

 the Spaniards have been found in the gold district of Georgia. It 

 would be foreign to my purpose to enlarge on this subject ; but I will 

 refer to two articles by Dr. D. G. Brintoo, which treat of this early 



* Antiquities of the Southern Indians. New York, 1873, p. 43. 



t " Uu de ces buhios 6tait si grand, qu'il pouvait contenir plus de trois cents person- 

 Ees : les autres dtaient moins vastes ; nous y trouvdmes une clochette en or parmi des 

 filets." — Eelation et Xauf rages d'AIvar Xunez Calcga de Vaca. Paris, 1837, p. 24. (Ter- 

 naux-Compana Collection.) The Spanish original was published in the year 1555 at 

 Valladolid. 



