DRAWING BY JACQUES LEMOYNE DE MORGUES OF 



SATURIOUA, A TIMUCUA CHIEF IN 



FLORIDA, 1564 



By DAVID I. BUSHNELL, JR. 

 (With One Plate) 



When it became known in Europe that a new continent had been 

 discovered beyond the sea, that the lands reached by CoUimbus and 

 his companions did not form part of Asia but were a new and 

 distinct region, wonder was aroused as to the sort of people who 

 were to be found in the strange and unknown country. So great was 

 the interest thus manifested that many narratives of early voyages 

 contain accounts of the natives encountered along the coasts and some 

 refer, all too briefly, to the manners and customs of the Indians, a 

 term erroneously applied to the inhabitants of the New World. Many 

 records are preserved of natives having been taken to Europe by the 

 explorers. It is written that when the Cabots — first to reach the con- 

 tinent of North America — returned to England in the year 1497, they 

 carried three of the strange people from the newly discovered lands, 

 and that four years later Cortereal compelled others to return with 

 him to Europe. Likewise when Jacques Cartier reached France in 

 1535, after exploring the great River St. Lawrence, he had on board 

 his small vessel a native chief taken in the wilderness. This tends 

 to prove that many were eager to learn about the people who lived 

 in the mysterious region far to the westward, beyond the sea. With 

 this evidence of interest in the people of the New World it is difficult 

 to believe that pictures were not made of them ; sketches or paintings 

 to portray their peculiar customs, strange ornaments and dress, and 

 frail habitations. But no drawings are known to have been made dur- 

 ing the voyages of the Cabots, of Ponce de Leon, Varrazano, Narvaez, 

 de Soto, or Cartier. No proof that any pictures of Indians of North 

 America were made during the first half of the sixteenth century has 

 been discovered. And although the account of the voyages of Cartier, 

 as presented by Ramusio, is accompanied by several crude illustra- 

 tions, there is no evidence to indicate that the drawings were made by 

 a person who had visited Canada. Thus it would appear that not until 

 the year 1564, when the French expedition led by Laudonniere set 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 81, No 4 



