IN NORTH AMERICA. 177 



report goes more into particulars, lie coasted from ."U to beyond 41'^ 

 north latitude in the year 15lil, and made several laiulinjis. ITe says 

 of the natives, at a point on the coast apparently in the neighborhood 

 of New York, that they had "many plates of wiouiiht copper, which 

 tliey esteeme more than Isolde." On sailiu;"' along thecoast to the east- 

 ward he saw certain hills and concluded that they had some "minerall 

 matter in them, because," he says, " we saw many of them [the nativesj 

 have headstones of copper hanging at their eares." On the southern 

 and eastern coast, therefore, according to these accounts, the copper 

 was used for ornaments. IS'eitlier of the observers cpioted siteahs of 

 copper weai)ons in that part of the country, which they would have 

 been likely to notice, as they naturally paid special attention to the arms 

 they nught have to encounter. Nor did later exjjlorers who described 

 the e(piii)ment of the natives in detail have occasion to give greater 

 prominence to copper. 



In Cartier's second voyage to the St. Lawrence, in 1535, he kidnaped 

 the principal chief of a local tribe to take with him to France, follow 

 ing- the common practice of the time, and this chief was visited on 

 shipboard by condoling members of his tribe, who were assured that 

 he would return the next year, " which, when they heard," says the 

 account in llakhiyt, " they greatly thanked our captain and gave their 

 lord three bundles of beaver and sea wolves skinnes, with a greatknife 

 of red copper that commeth from Saguenay," Jlereis an instance of a 

 copper weapon or implement. The quantity of copper which the North 

 American Indians possessed at the epoch of disco\ery, although the 

 metal was diffused over a very wide teiritory, was very small compared 

 with stone. A glance at collections of aboriginal articles, like that of 

 the Smithsonian Institution in Washington or the Peabody Museum in 

 Cambiidge, will at once show how relatively insignilicant it was. The 

 Smithsonian has between six and seven hundred copper articles from 

 mounds, graves, and othei- S(mrces within the territory of the United 

 States, while there are thousands of stone arrow and si^ear heads and 

 implements in its collection. The Peabody and other cop]»er collections 

 are very nnich smaller. A closer examination of the Smithsonian 

 exhibit will show that tlu'. copper articles from the south and east are 

 niaiidy of an ornamental chaiacter and few in number com])ared with 

 those found toward the m)rthwest. As Wisconsin is approached the 

 copper articles not only increase in number, but tlie i)ro]»ortion of arrow 

 and s])ear heads and iniplements far exceeds that of the ornaments. 

 Among the Wisconsin specimens ar(^ pieces of "tloat" copper, varying 

 in size from those weighing several pounds down to nuggc^ts, which 

 indicate the convenient matviial of which some of tlu' nuinufactured 

 articles were i)robably made. 



If one were to])rej)are a map showing by slunling or colors, as is now 

 the practice, the relative numl)er of aboriginal copjx'r lituls in (he 

 Tnited States, the dee])est shades or darkest color would at present be in 

 II. .Mis. lU 12 



