426 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 



Very little is known about the aboriginal Indians of southern 

 Florida. The Seminoles, as every one knows, are comparatively 

 recent intruders in this region. At the time of the discovery the 

 most important tribe was known as the Calusas, or Caloosas, from 

 whom the Caloosahatchee River takes its name. Their territory 

 extended from Tampa Bay southward to Cape Sable, eastward to 

 Cape Florida, including the outlying cayos, or keys, and inland to 

 Lake Okeechobee. They claimed authority over the east coast tribes 

 as far north as Cape Canaveral. It was they who, in 1513, repelled 

 Ponce de Leon and kept him from landing on their coast. They 

 were cruel and piratical, killing shipwrecked mariners, and enrich- 

 ing themselves by robbing stranded vessels. The most authentic ac- 

 count of them is given by Fontaneda, who lived among them as a 

 captive. According to him, they ate bread made of certain roots the 

 greater part of the year, but sometimes the roots could not be 

 gatherered on account of floods to which the country was subject. 

 They also had an abundance of fish and of roots resembling truffles, 

 as well as many other kinds, and when they went hunting deer or 

 birds they ate venison or fowl's flesh. These Indians did not wear 

 clothing ; the men went naked, except for tanned deerskins or mats 

 woven of straw of which they made breechcloths ; the women wore 

 moss " which grows from the trees, resembling oakum or wool, which 

 is not white but gray, and with these weeds they covered themselves 

 around the waist." 1 Their weapons were bows and arrows and throw- 

 ing sticks or spears. 



In the sixteenth century a tribe known as the Tequestas occupied 

 the coast of southeastern Florida within the present limits of 

 Dade and Monroe counties. Like the Caloosas, they were savage 

 and piratical. About the year 1600 they carried on a regular trade 

 with Habana in fish, skins, and ambergris, a grayish, waxlike sub- 

 stance secreted in the liver or intestines of the spermaceti whale 

 {Catodon macrocephalus) . This is lighter than water and some- 

 times occurs in great masses floating on the surface of the ocean. 

 Formerly it was collected in considerable quantities on the shores of 

 the Bahama Islands and the east coast of Florida. When heated it 

 emanates a delightful fragrance, on which account it was at one 

 time much used in perfumery. It was also used in medicine and be- 

 lieved to have aphrodisiac properties. 



1 Estos Indios no visten Ropa, ni menos las Mujeres ; andan desnudos los Hombres, 

 si no es unos Pellejos de Venado curtidos, con que hacen unos Bragueros y se cubren 

 solamente sus Verguenzas, y las Mujeres, unas Pajuelas que nacen de los arboles, a 

 manera de Estopa 6 Lana, y no es blanca, sino parda, y con aquellas Yerbas se cubreu 

 dellas a la redonda de la Cinta." 



