AMERICAN A!'.ORI(;i\AL PIPES AND SMOKING CUSTOMS. 413 



fore, to tlie belief that while smoking was probably indulged in, it was 

 but to a limited extent until the whites, by the^cultivation of tobiicco, 

 popularized its use. 



That the natives of the shores of the great bays of the Atlantic coast 

 were reasonably fair boatmen one would expect, but Bartram's asser- 

 tion is almost incredible tluit they "have large handsome canoes, some 

 of them commoilious enough to hold twenty or thirty warriors. In 

 these large canoes they descend the river on trading and hunting expe- 

 ditions to the seacoast, neighboring islands, and keys, quite to the 

 point of Florida, and sometimes across the Gulf, extending their navi- 

 gations to the Bahanui Islands and even to Cuba. A crew of these 

 adventurers had just arrived, having returned from Cuba a few days 

 before our arrival, with a cargo of liquors, coffee, sugar, and tobacco."^ 



The natives were great hunters and thoroughly acquainted with the 

 natural food supply, in search of which they wandered great distances 

 as it became seasonable in different jdaces. As we are informed by 

 Cabeca de A'aca, they have been known to travel hundreds of miles in 

 a direct line from home for the i)urpose of hunting or of attacking some 

 enemy. In their wanderings in search of food, upon their hunting 

 expeditions, and np(m the no less important search lor suitable mate- 

 rial for the manufacture of their implements tliey became thoroughly 

 familiar with the minerals of the country, and with the artificial frac- 

 ture of those minerals, which was often of greater importance to them 

 than was the mineral itself, for to the Indian stone was valuable or the 

 reverse according to the ease with which it could be chi[)ped, pecked, 

 cut, or ground. Pickett says: "Upon the creeks and rivers in Ala- 

 bama, where they meander through the mountainous regions, are occa- 

 sionally seen cuttings upon rocks, which have also been im])roperIy 

 attributed to European discoverers. In the country of Tallapoosa, not 

 far below the mouth of the Sougohatchee and a few miles east of the 

 Tallapoosa Kiver, are cliffs of a singular kind of a gray rock, rather soft 

 and having the ai)pearance of containing silver ore. The face of these 

 cliff's is very much disfigured by having round pieces taken out of them. 

 The ancient Indians used to resort to this place to obtain materials for 

 manufacturing pi])es of large and small sizes and other household 

 vessels. They cut out the pieces with flint rocks fixed in wooden 

 handles. After working around as deep as they desired the ])iece was 

 prized out of the rock. The author is also sustained in this ])osition by 

 unquestionable Indian testimony wliich has been procured by liim."- 

 He refers without doubt to a steatite or soapstone outcrop, a stone 

 which has always been a favorite mineral from which to make pipes 

 and bowls for cooking. In addition to its ability to resist heat, it was 

 the most easily cut of all the minerals. What is said of Alabama would 



'William Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, p. 225, Duhlin, 1793. 

 -Albert James Pickett, A History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and 

 Mississippi, from tbe earliest period, 1. p. 177, Charleston, 1851. 



