SOURCE OF ST. PETER's RIVER. 211 



after assume the female garb* It is not impossible that 

 this may have been the source of the numerous stories of 

 hermaphrodites, related by all the old writers on America. 



Wennebea thought that the Great Spirit had a human 

 form, was white, and wore a hat. It is remarkable that 

 this personification of the Supreme Being under a different 

 appearance from their own, is not peculiar to the Sauks ; 

 the Mexicans and the Muypuscas represented him as 

 white, and wearing a beard ; the Santees, according -to 

 Lawson, held the belief that he was white. " They made 

 answer," says he, " that they had been conversing with the 

 White Man above, (meaning God Almighty.*)" It would 

 be curious to inquire whether there was any connexion 

 between this white complexion attributed to the Deity, 

 and the prophecies which are said to have prevailed among 

 some of the Virginia tribes, as well as at Quizquiz near the 

 Mississippi, of the coming of white men among them.t 



These reported prophecies, existing previous to the disco* 

 very of this continent, (concerning the arrival of white men,) 

 are represented by the early writers as very common; 

 whether they really existed in the country, or were art- 

 fully cii'culated by the invaders, may be a matter of doubt. 

 Montezuma, in a speech to his subjects, in the presence of 

 Cbrtez, is said to have alluded to this subject. An old 

 writer, John de Laet, reports the same belief to have been 

 prevalent in the island of Cozumel, on the coast of Yu- 

 catan, and distant from it about four leagues, in latitude 

 20° N. This author enters into many particulars on this 



• A New Voyage to Carolina, by John Lawson. London, 1709, p. 20. 



■j- Purchas's Pilgrimage, p. 843. Narrative of De Soto's Invasion of 

 Florida, written by a gentleman of Elvas, and translated by Ilackluyt, 

 London, 1609, p. 90. 



