SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 581 



The Indian, having shaken his arms with his fists closed in order to call up 

 his strength, shot the arrow, which passed through the coat of mail and the 

 basket so clean and with such force that if a man had been on the other side it 

 would have transfixed him also. Seeing the little or no protection that one coat 

 of mail gave against an arrow, the Spaniards wished to see what two would do. 

 Thus they ordered another very fine one to be put on over the one on the basket, 

 and giving the Indian another arrow they told him to shoot it as he had the 

 first one, to see if he were man enough to shoot through both of them. 



The Indian, again shaking his arms as if he were gathering new strength, for 

 the defense against him was now doubled, discharged the arrow. He struck the 

 coats of mail and the basket through the center and the arrow passed through 

 the four thicknesses of steel and lodged there, half-way through. When the 

 Indian saw that it had not come out clean on the other side he showed great 

 annoyance, and said to the Spaniards : "Let me shoot another, and if it does not 

 pass clear through both sides as the first one did, hang me here and now. The 

 second arrow did not leave the bow as I wished it to and therefore did not pass 

 through the coats of mail like the first one." 



The Spaniards were unwilling to grant the Indian's request because they did 

 not want their coats of mail further maltreated, and thenceforth they were unde- 

 ceived with regard to the little defense that their much esteemed coats of mail 

 afforded against arrows. Thus the owners themselves made fun of them, 

 calling them linen from Flanders, and in place of them they made loose quilted 

 jackets three or four finger-breadths in thickness with long skirts which would 

 cover the breasts and haunches of the horses. These jackets made from blankets 

 would resist the arrows better than any other defensive armament, and the thick 

 and unpolished coats of mail which were not much valued, with some other 

 protection which they put under them, were a better defense against arrows than 

 the very elegant and highly burnished ones. Thus the cheaper ones came to be 

 more valued and the expensive ones laid aside. (Garcilaso, 1723, pp. 96-97.) 



This idea of quilted armor may have been borrowed from the 

 Mexican Indians. 



Percy gives us the results of a similar test of native American 

 archery : 



One of our Gentlemen having a Target which hee trusted in, thinking it 

 would beare out a slight shot, hee set it up against a tree, willing one of 

 the Savages to shoot ; who tooke from his backe an Arrow of an elle long, 

 drew it strongly in his Bowe, shoots the Target a foote thorow, or better: 

 which was strange, being that a Pistoll could not pierce it. Wee seeing the 

 force of his Bowe, afterwards set him up a Steele Target; he shot again, 

 and burst his arrow all to pieces. (Narr. Early Va., Tyler ed., 1907, p. 17.) 



Smith and Strachey say: 



Forty yards will they shoot levell, or very neare the mark, and 120 is their best 

 at Random. (Smith, John, Tyler ed., 1907, p. 104 ; Strachey, 1849, p. 106. ) 



The great bane of the American archer, as of his European 

 brother, seems to have been rain. Alonso de Carmona related that 

 the Chickasaw were foiled by a heavy fall of rain in an attempted 

 attack upon De Soto's troops while they were recovering from the 

 disaster at the Chickasaw town (Garcilaso, 1723, p. 170). 



In spite of the efficiency of their major weapon, the Gulf Indians 



