0^'70. 



ANCIENT ABORIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. 6i6 



his expedition for the conquest of Florida The leader and nearly all 

 his followers having' perished, Cabe9a de Yaca, one of the survivors, 

 wandered with his companions for many years through North America, 

 until he finally succeeded in reaching the settlements of his country- 

 men near Culiacan, in the present Mexican province of Sinaloa, after 

 having traversed the whole continent from the Floridian peninsula to the 

 Pacific coast. The description of his adventures and snfferings forms 

 one of the most remarkable early works on IS'orth America, benig, in- 

 deed, the first that treats of the interior of the country and of its na- 

 tive population. For the latter reason it is of particular value to the 

 ethnologist, presenting, as it does, the Indians as they were seen by the 

 first white visitors.* While he sojourned among the Charruco Indians, 

 a tribe inhabiting the coast, he carried on the business of a trader, 

 which, as he observes, suited him very well, because it protected him at 

 least from starvation. The excursions undertaken in the pursuit of his 

 trade sometimes extended as far as forty or fifty leagues from the coast into 

 the interior of the district. His wares consisted of pieces and " hearts" 

 of sea-shells {pedagos de caracoles de la mar y coragones de ellos), of 

 shells employed by the Indians as cutting implements, and of a smaller 

 kind that was used as money. These objects of trade he transported 

 to parts distant from the sea, exchanging them there for other articles 

 of which the coast-people were in want, such as hides, a red earth 

 for painting their faces, stones for arrowheads, hard reeds for shafting 

 the latter, and, finally, tufts of deer's hair dyed of a scarlet color, which 

 were worn as head-dresses.t This passage, indeed, is of particular in- 

 terest in connection with the subject treated in this essay, because it 

 aflbrds not only some insight into the system of Indian trade, but like- 

 wise informs us that among the objects of exchange those were con- 

 spicuous which served for the gratification of personal vanity. By the 

 " hearts" of sea-shells Cabega de Vaca understands the spines or colu- 

 mellce of large conchs, which parts were worked by the aborigines into a 

 kind of ornament, of which more will be said hereafter. 



Large quantities of shell-ornaments, mostly destined to be strung 

 together or to be worn as pendants, have been found in the sepulchral 

 mounds and other burial-places of the Indian race. In Ohio, accord- 

 ing to Messrs. Squier and Davis, beads made of shell and other mate- 



* The importance of Cabega de Vaca's work, it seems to me, has been undervalued, 

 perhaps on account of the marvelous cures which he pretends to have performed 

 among the natives. Imbued witli the superstitions of his time, he probably believed 

 in his own powers of healing the sick in a supernatural way. When these incredible 

 details are taken away, there remains much in the book that deserves the highest ap- 

 preciation. According to Arthur Helps, a most careful investigator, his account 

 '■bears every mark of truthfulness." See: Helps, The Spanish Conquest in America, 

 Harper's edition. Vol. IV, p. 397. 



t Relation et Naufrages d'Alvar NuQez Cabega de Vaca, (Ternaux-Compans Col- 

 lection), Paris, 18S7, p. r«il, &.C. The Spanish original ajjpeared in the year 1555 at 

 Valladolid. 



