60 TRANSACTION'S OF THE [dEC. 6, 



THE USE OF METALS BY THE ABORIGIlSrES OF GEORGIA AND 



FLORIDA. 



At a recent meeting of the Academy, in some remarks upon 

 the ornaments of mixed gold and silver, from Indian graves in 

 Florida, presented by Mr. Kunz, I said that there was reason 

 to believe that the gold and silver in possession of the Florida 

 Indians had been taken from Spanish ships wrecked on that 

 coast. A recent examination of the evidence on that subject 

 has developed some facts which may interest the Academy. 



For more than half a century after the discovery by Colum- 

 bus of the western hemisphere, only the eastern coast of Flor- 

 ida was known, and that was supposed to be a part of the island 

 of Cuba, as it is laid down on the celebrated wood-cut map by 

 Holbein, in the '' Novus OrUs " of G-rynasus, as late as 1555. 

 Among the vessels there lost, was a large part of a fleet of thirty 

 ships, including that on which the infamous Bovadilla, the per- 

 secutor of Columbus, had embarked, and which was laden with 

 gold and silver, despoiled from the Indians. Strict truth will 

 possibly require some discount on this treasure, in the account of 

 Peter Martyr, who says ''there were several pieces of 300 pounde 

 weighte, and one of three thousand three hundred and tenne 

 pounde, of eight ounces or pesos, albeit there were mo then a 

 thousande persons which came and handled thatpeeceof golde." 



In the "Histoire notable de la Floride,^' by Basanier, Paris, 

 1586, occurs a passage translated as follows : '' There was found 

 among the Indians a great quantity of gold and silver, which, 

 as I learned from themselves, was from the shins which had 

 been wrecked along the coast. They trade in it with one an- 

 other. What confirms this statement is the fact, that along that 

 part of the coast and the cape where the wrecks occur, there is 

 more silver than there is farther north. They said constantly 

 that in the Apallache mountains there were mines of copper 

 which I think are really gold." 



The closing observation of Basanier indicates that investiga- 

 tions should be extended farther. There is little profit in search- 

 ing the meagre records of tlie three first expeditions to Florida. 

 That of Ponce de Leon, in 1512, Avas in search of the fountain 

 of perpetual youth — those of Vasquez de Ayllon in 1522 and 



