114 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY Lbull. 71 



tends to make more clear the customs of the inhabitants of ancient 

 America at the time of the coming of Europeans. 



About tlie year 1730 a small group of Creeks, together with a few 

 Yamasee, all belonging to the same linguistic family, settled on the 

 south or right bank of the Savannah, at a place now^ knoAvn as Yama- 

 craw Bluff, within the limits of the present city of Savannah. Their 

 chief was the famous Tomochichi, who, together with others, later 

 accompanied Gov. Oglethrope to England. ^Vliile there, during the 

 year 1734, a member of the party died, and " previous to interment 

 in the church-yard of St. John's, Westminster, the body was sewn 

 up in a blanket and bound between two boards." (Jones, C. C, (1), 

 pp. 185-187.) It was placed in a grave together with many orna- 

 ments and other objects. Moore drew attention to the occurrence 

 when describing burials encountered by him in a mound on Creigh- 

 ton Island, Mcintosh County, Georgia, only a short distance south of 

 Savannah, and consequently not far from the former village on 

 Yamacraw Bluff. He remarked on the discovery of traces of wood 

 associated with the skeletal remains, and said in part: "In seven 

 cases h^yers of decayed wood or bark, occasionally showing marks of 

 fire, lay above human remains, and in two cases, above and below." 

 (Moore, (1), p. 30.) There is little doubt of these mound burials 

 having been similar, in all essential details, to that of the Indian who 

 died in London in 1734. And although it is not possible to determine 

 the exact age of the mound on Creighton Island, nevertheless it is 

 reasonable to attribute it to a period after the coming of the Span- 

 iards to the coast of Florida. It is interesting to know that a small 

 mound Avhich stood in Chatham County, Georgia, not far from the 

 preceding, when examined revealed a human skeleton resting upon 

 the original surface, and associated with it was a sword of European 

 origin. 



THE SEMINOLE 



The Seminole, the innnigrants from the Creek towns who settled 

 in Florida during the eighteenth century, were little influenced by 

 the whites until very recent years. Living as they did in the midst 

 of the great swamps of the southern part of the peninsula, with no 

 roads penetrating the tangle of semitropical vegetation, and with 

 even the location of their settlements unknown to the occui)ants of 

 other parts of Florida, they were never visited, and seldom seen ex- 

 cept when they chose to make journeys to the traders near the coast. 

 Consequently the burial customs of the people, as witnessed 40 years 

 ago, were probably little different from those practiced during the 

 past generations. The account written at that time referred par- 

 ticularly to the death and burial of a child: 



"The preparation for burial began as soon as death had taken 

 place. The body was clad in a new shirt, a new handkerchief being 



