swanton] EABIA BISTORT OF THE CREEK INDIANS 149 
fur aboul :i quarter of a league and seeing some smoke rise on the south shore, they 
discovered three bulks which looked like,tree trunks, but when these began to move 
towards the forest, they recognised them to be Indians. They jumped on land and 
although they tried to catch up with them they coidd not find them any more, not 
even their traces, for the Boil was covered with dry leaves. 
They found the lighted lire, and on it a badly shaped earthen pan, with lungs 1 
of bison, very tastelessly prepared, stewing in it. and some pieces of meat toasting on 
wooden roasters. <>n one of them some fish was transfixed, which looked like "Chu- 
chos." In baskets made of reed, and which the Indians call "Uzate" (Ucate) there 
was some corn, calabash-seeds, bison-Wool and hair of other animals, put in deerskin 
bags, a lot of mussels (shell-fish), shells, bones and similar things. They found several 
feather plumes of line turkeys, 2 cardinal birds or redbirds,and other birds and many 
small crosses, the edghl of which delighted them, although they recognised soon that 
tlmse were spindles on which the Indian women span the wool of the bison. The 
Spaniards put into one of the baskets cakes, into the other knives and scissors, and, 
after erecting a cross, they returned to their boat. They navigated half a league 
when they .-aw to starboard four or five Indians, who, in order to escape more swiftly 
threw away all they carried. They [the Spaniards] landed and found several skins 
of marten, fox. otter, and bison and a lot of meat pulverised and putrid, in wooden 
troughs. 8 In one of the baskets which were strewn about, they found some roots 
looking like iris or ginger, very sweet in ta=te, bison-wool done up in balls, spindles 
and beaver-wool or hair in bags, very soft white feathers and pulverised clay or earth 
apparently fir painting, combs, not so badly made, leather shoes shaped more like 
boots, claws of birds and other animals, roots of dittany, 4 several pieces of brazil, a 
very much worn, large hoe and an iron adze. The Indian huts, which they saw here, 
were made of tree-bark and in the sea were two canoes or boats, one with bows and 
arrows made of very strong wood and points of bone; the other was badly used [in 
bad condition]. These boats showed that those Indians had probably come here 
by water . . . 
. . . Toward the south-southeast went Don Carlos de Siguenza with captain Juan 
Jordan, Antonio Fernandez, carpenter, and an artillery man, and they found a hut, 
built on four posts and covered with palm leaves. Inside they found a deerskin, a 
sash made of bison wool, a piece of blue cloth of Spain, about a yard and a half long 
and thrown over the poles, many mother-of-pearl shells, fish-spines, animal-bones 
and several large locks of [human hair]. A little further on at the foot of a tall pine 
tree they saw in a hamper 5 a decayed body, to all appearances that of a woman; but, 
leaving all this as it was, they went to the spot where they had seen the two Indians 
and they found one, who fled, leaving in the place where he had been a gourd filled 
■with water and a bit of masted meat: which provisions, however, made them suppose 
him to be a sentinel, the more so as they soon found traces of children's and women's 
feet, but could find nobody. 6 
There are also three specific references to the Pensacola by French 
writers. Penicaut states that in 1699 the chiefs of "five different 
nations, named the Pascagoulas, the Capinans, the Chicachas, the 
Passacolas, and the Biloxis, came with ceremony to our fort, singing, 
1 Probably the whole lights, or haslet, i, e., lungs, heart, and liver. 
'Plumeras de plumas do pavos finos. 
3 Pilones, probably wooden mortar-. 
* Which might have been flaxinella or marjoram. 
5 Petacn means really a leather trunk fashioned after the style of a hamper. 
« Barcia, La Florida, pp. 309-310. Translated by Mrs. F. Bandelicr. 
