ANCIENT ABORIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. S'do 



makes these tilings circulate araonj^tliem. Their wares are ft'rain, por- 

 celain (wampum), furs, robes, tobacco, mats, cauoes, work made of moose 

 or bufi'alo hair anil of porcupine quills, cotton-beds, domestic utensils — 

 in a word, all sorts of necessaries of life required by them.'"* A passage 

 from Lawson, a contemporary of Lafitau, may also be inserted with pro- 

 priety in this place. Speaking of the natives of Carolina, he says: 

 "The women make baskets and mats to lie upon, and those that are not 

 extraordinary hunters make bowls, dishes, and spoons of gum-wood and 

 the tulip-tree; others, where they And a vein of white clay fit for their 

 purpose, make tobacco-pipes, all vrhich are often transported to other 

 Indians that, perhaps, have greater plenty of deer and other game, &c."t 

 The arrival of the whites produced a thorough change in Indian life, 

 wherever a contact between the two races took i^lace. The age of stone 

 and that of iron met, almost without an intervening link, for the so- 

 called North American " copper period" was but of little practical sig- 

 nificance. Simultaneously with the settlement of the eastern parts of 

 North America by the whites, there arose a traffic between these and the 

 Indians in their neighborhood, wbich provided the latter with imple. 

 ments and utensils so far superior to their own, that they soon ceased to 

 manufacture and use them. The keen-edged steel axe superseded the 

 clumsy and far less serviceable stone tomahawk; the European knife 

 did away with the cutting implement of flint; and those of the natives 

 who could not obtain fire-arms at least headed their arrows with points 

 of iron or brass. The potter's art was neglected, solid and durable 

 vessels of metal supplying the jilace of the fragile aboriginal fabrics of 

 clay. Instead of procuring fire by turning a wooden stick, fitting in a 

 small cavity of another piece of wood, rapidly oetween their hands until 

 ignition was effected, the natives now resorted to the far preferable 

 method of striking fire with steel and flint. Their dress, too, underwent 

 changes, pliant woolen and cotton textures being employed to a certain 

 extent instead of dressed skins. Formerly, when the Indians wished to 

 make one of their more durable canoes or a large mortar for iiounding 

 maize, they had first to fell a suitable tree, a task which, on account of 

 the insufficiency of their tools, required much labor and time. Being 

 unable to cut down a tree with their stone axes, they resorted to fire, 

 burning tlie tree around its foot and removing the charred portion with 

 their stone implements. This was continued until the tree fell. Then 

 they marked the length to be given to the object, and resumed at the 

 proper i^lace the process of burning and removing. In a similar manner 

 the hollowing of the tree was effected. But now a few strokes of the 

 European axe did the same work which formerly, perhaps, required days ; 

 and to a race as indolent and averse to labor as the Indians, the effect 

 of that simple tool must have appeared almost miraculous. 



* Lafitau, Mceurs des Sanvages Amdriqiiains, Paris, 1724, Vol. II, p. '^o2. 



t Lawson, History of Carolina, London, 1714; reprint, Raleigh, 1860, p. 33o. 



