350 INDIAN POTTEEY 



One of the metliods employed hy the Indians in the manufacture of earthen- 

 ware was, to weave baskets of rushes or willows, similar in shape to the vessels 

 they intended to make, and to coat the inside of these baskets with clay to the 

 required thickness ; the baskets, 'after being destroyed by the fire, left on the 

 outer surface of the vessels peculiar impressions, resembling basket-work, which 

 produce a very pleasing effect, and replace ornamentation to a certain extent* 



With this method the potters on the Cahokia creek were likewise acquainted, 

 for I found a few pieces of their ware bearing the marks just mentioned. This 

 sort of pottery, however, is not mixed with pounded shells, but with sand, and 

 is much better baked than the other kind; it has a pale-reddish appearance, 

 and is not painted. 



Lastly, I have to enumerate among the objects of baked clay obtained from 

 the deposit in the American Bottom, two articles resembling the beaks of large 

 birds, perhaps detached pot or pan handles; a flat piece, forming the base of the 

 figure of some animal, of which, unfortunately, the tail only remains, and the 

 remnant of a toy canoe. The last-named specimen, probably made by some 

 affectionate Indian mother for her little son, was piqked up from the bottom of 

 the creek. 



The question now arises, who were the makers of these manufactures of clay? 

 I sinjply ascribe them to the Cahokia Indians, who dwelt, until a comparatively 

 recent period, on the banks of the creek that still bears the name of their tribe. 

 Concerning the antiquity of the manufactures described on the preceding pages, 

 I am not prepared to give an estimate. Only a hundred years may have elapsed 

 since they were made, yet it is also possible thnt they are much older. The 

 appearance of the fragments rather indicates a modern origin. 



The writings of early, and even comparatively modern, authors on North 

 America are not deficient in particulars relating to the art of pottery among the 

 natives. According tp their statements, those tribes were most advanced in the 

 manufacture of earthenware, who inhabited the large tracts of land formerly 

 called Florida and Louisiana, which comprise at present the southern and south- 

 western States of the Union; and their testimony is fully corroborated by the 

 character of such specimens of pottery from those parts as have escaped destruc- 

 tion, and are preserved in the collections of the country.t The Natchez, on the 

 Lower Mississippi, perhaps the most civilized among the North American Indians, 

 and supposed to be related to the Aztecs, were skilful potters. So we are told 

 by the anonymous Portuguese gentleman called the "Knight of Elvas," who 

 accompanied, towards the middle of the sixteenth century, De Soto on his ad- 

 venturous expedition through a great portion of the North American continent, 

 and became afterwards the chronicler of that bold Spaniard's exploits. In the 

 province of Naguatex, he states, clay vessels were made "which differed very 

 little from those of Estremoz or Montemor." These two towns in Portugal are 

 noted for their earthenware.| Du Pratz mentions the "Ecore Blanc," on the 



* Bartram describes a vessel of this kind whicli he extracted from a shell-mound on one of 

 the islands near the coast of Georgia. — Bartram's Travels, Dublin, 1793, p. 6. 



t "In some of the southern States, it is said, the kilns in which the aucient pottery was 

 baked are now occasionally to be met with. Some are represented still to contain the ware, 

 partially burned, and retaining the rinds of the gourds, &c., over which they were modelled, 

 and which had not been entirely removed by the fire. In Panola county, Mississippi, are 

 found great numbers of what are termed pottery kilns, in which are masses of vitrified matter, 

 frequently in the form of rude bricks, measuring twelve inches in length by ten in breadth. 

 It seems most likely that these kilns are the remains of the manufac.ories of the later tribes — 

 the Choctaws and Natchez — 'who,' says Adair, 'made a prodigious number of vessels of 

 pottery, of such variety of forms as would be tedious to describe and impossible to name.' "-!- 

 Ancient Monuments of t lie Mississippi Valley, Washington, 1848, p. 195. 



t Virginia Richly Valued, by the Description of the Maine Land of Florida, her next Neigh- 

 bour, &c. Written by a Portugall Gentleman of Eluas, emploied in all the Action, and 

 translated out of the Portugese by Richard Haklvyt, London, 1609, (reprint of J812, Sup- 

 plement, ) p. 750. 



