Notices of the Floridas, & s E 135 
crops are gathered, at which if adulterers, who had fled to. 
avoid the punishment of losing their ears, appear, they 
are pardoned. The Indians are well acquainted with 
many medicinal plants. Their dwellings are usually con- 
structed of logs; the roofs of bark or split pine are very 
tight; the sides of the best are neatly lined with clap- 
boards, but without floors or divisions, and much infested 
by fleas. They have little furniture. Potters’ ware o 
a good shape and well baked, is made by females. The 
chief of Sanfalasco, aided by a smal! bellows, anvil, hammer, 
and file, manufactures with much ingenuity, from coin, 
n e ornaments of silver. We conversed frequently 
with this intelligent old man, through the medium of our 
interpreter, a shrewd native negro, who spoke fluently 
Seminole and English. The chief mentioned an instance 
of Indian credulity. It is believed by the natives, that a 
monster, with a large serpent’s body shining like silver, 
whose breath is destructive to all that approach, occu- 
pies a large sink or cave in Hast Florida, guarding a mine. 
Similar stories are current among the Cherokees. The 
Spanish authorities made a fruitless search for this treas- 
ure a few years since. 
These Indians do not appear to have a form of worship, 
but believe in a Supreme Being. The chief informed us 
that according to Indian traditions, the world was created 
by the Great Spirit ; that he formed three men, an Indian, 
a white, and a black man; the Indian was the most per- 
fect : they were called into his presence, and directed to 
select their employments ; the Indian chose a bow and 
arrow, the white man a book, and the negro a spade. The 
chief had heard of our Saviour, and his sufferings, but 
supposed he had been put to death by the Spaniards. 
e Indians are very unwilling to leave their lakes, 
fertile hills, and agreeable climate, for the southern re- 
servation, that has little to recommend it except its being 
80 undesirable, that the Indians may remain there unmo- 
lested. The chief said they had cherished a hope that 
the whites would continue satisfied with the coasts, 
and suffer them to retain a valuable remnant of their 
i 
