BULL. 30] 



TIMUCUAN FAMILY 



753 



of the AVithlacoochee and Suwannee; 

 Tocobaga, between Withlacoochee r. and 

 Tampa bay; Mayaca, on the n. e. coast; 

 Marracou, 40 leagues from the mouth of 

 St John r. Several other tribes can not 

 be so definitely located, and all identifica- 

 tion is rendered difficult owing to the con- 

 fusion existing in the minds of the first 

 explorers between chief names, tribe or 

 village names, and titles. The statement, 

 often repeated, that the chief had the 

 same name as his ' ' province ' ' or tribe was 

 due to misunderstanding. In person the 

 Timucuan people are described as tall and 

 well made. They went almost entirely 

 naked except for the breechcloth, but 

 covered their bodies with an elaborate tat- 

 tooing. They were agricultural, though 

 apparently not to the same extent as the 

 Muskhogean tribes, depending more on 

 game, fish, oysters, wild fruits, and bread 

 from the nourishing coonti root. Their 

 larger towns were compactly built and 

 stockaded, their houses being circular 

 structures of poles thatched with palmetto 

 leaves, with a large "townhouse" for 

 tribal gatherings in the center of the 

 public square. From misunderstanding 

 of the description, Brinton and others 

 following him have incorrectly described 

 this townhouse as a communal dwelling. 

 Society was bailed on the clan system, 

 and Pareja (1612) gives an interesting ac- 

 count of the intricate system of kinship 

 relations. The clans were grouped into 

 phratries, usually bearing animal names, 

 and certain chiefships or functions seem 

 to have been hereditary in certain clans. 

 In his time the system was retained even 

 by the mission converts. In military or- 

 ganization and authority of the chiefs 

 they seem to have surpassed the more 

 northern tribes. Scalping and mutilation 

 of the dead were universally practised, 

 and human sacrifice was a regular part of 

 thair religious ritual, the victims, as 

 among the Natchez, being sometimes in- 

 fants belonging to the tribe. There is 

 evidence also of occasional cannibalism. 

 The narrative and descriptive illustrations 

 of Le Moyne, the French Huguenot 

 (1564), shed much light on the home 

 life, war customs, and ceremonies, while 

 from Pareja's confessional a good idea of 

 their beliefs and religious practices is 

 gained. All the dialects of the family 

 seem to have been so closely related as 

 to be mutually intelligible. Pareja names 

 7, viz: Freshwater District (probably on 

 the interior lakes), Itafi, Mocama 

 (a coast dialect) , Potano, Santa Lucia de 

 Acuera (s. from C. Canaveral), Timacua, 

 and Tucururu (on the Atlantic coast). 

 Besides these there were probably others 

 in the interor and on the w. coast. The 

 language was vocalic and musical, with a 

 very complex grammar. 



3456— Bull. 30, pt 2—07 48 



The history of the Timucuan tribes be- 

 gins with the landing of Ponce de Leon 

 near the site of the present St Augustine 

 in 1513. In 1528 Narvaez led his small 

 army from Tampa bay northward to ex- 

 plore the country of the Apalachee and 

 beyond. In 1539 De Soto went over 

 nearly the same route, his historians 

 mentioning some 20 tribal or local names 

 within the region, including Yustaga and 

 Potano. In 1562-64 the French H uguenots 

 under Ribaultand Laudonniere attempted 

 settlements at the mouth of St John r., 

 explored the middle course of the stream 

 and the adjacent interior, and became ac- 

 quainted with the tribes of Saturiba (Sa- 

 touiroua) and Timucua (Thimagoa), as 

 well as with the Potano (Potanou) and 

 Yustaga (Hostaqua) already visited by 

 De Soto. In 1565 the Spaniards under 

 Menendez destroyed the French posts, 

 killing all their defenders; they then 

 founded St Augustine and began the 

 permanent colonization of the country. 

 Within a few years garrisons were estab- 

 lished and missions founded, first under 

 the Jesuits and later under the Francis- 

 cans. (See San Juan, San Mateo, San 

 Pedro. ) The principal center of mission 

 enterprise was in the neighborhood of St 

 Augustine among the Timucua proper. 

 The most noted of these missionaries was 

 Father Francisco Pareja, who arrived in 

 1594 and after 16 years of successful 

 work retired to the City of Mexico, where 

 hewrote a Timucua grammar, dictionary, 

 and several devotional works, from which, 

 and from the French narrative, is derived 

 practically all that we know of the lan- 

 guage, customs, beliefs, and organization 

 of the Timucuan tribes. Pareja died in 

 1628. In spite of one or two revolts by 

 whichseveral missionaries lost their lives, 

 the Timucuan tribes in general, particu- 

 larly along the e. coast, accepted Chris- 

 tianity and civilization and became the 

 allies of the Spaniards. In 1699 the 

 Quaker Dickenson visited several of their 

 mission settlements and noted the great 

 contrast between the Christian Indians 

 and the savage tribes of the southern 

 peninsula among whom he had been a 

 captive. A few years later, about 1703, 

 began the series of invasions by the Eng- 

 lish of Carolina and their savage Indian 

 allies. Creek, Catawba, and Yuchi, by 

 which the missions were destroyed, hun- 

 dreds of their people killed, and hun- 

 dreds, possibly thousands, of others, men, 

 women, and children, carried off into 

 slavery, while the remnant took refuge 

 close under the walls of St Augustine. 

 The prosperous A palachee m issions shared 

 the same fate. With the decline of the 

 Spanish power and the incessant inroads 

 of the Creeks and Seminole, the native 

 Indians rapidly dwindled until on the 



