SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNilTED STATES 589 



Le Moyne mentions circular metal plates which Timucua Indians 

 "were accustomed to wear to protect the back and breast in war," 

 but it is somewhat questionable whether the service they rendered 

 in this way was intentional or accidental (Le Moyne, 1723, p. 8; 

 Swknton, 1922, p. 350). Similarly, Barlowe tells us that a Caro- 

 lina Indian bought a bright tin dish and hung it in front of his breast 

 as a breastplate (Burrage, 1906, p. 232). 



From the foregoing data it may be inferred that the use of ar- 

 mor was rare. There is also some reason to think that the hide 

 shields represented a later intrusion from the north upon an area 

 in which cane shields were usually employed. The "Oustack" or 

 Westo, for instance, are known to have moved south in late times, 

 the Pacaha may very well have been farther northwest at a not 

 remote period, and there is reason to believe that the Cofitachequi 

 Indians had come from the middle Mississippi region not long be- 

 fore De Soto met them. 



IMPLEMENTS SERVING TRANSPORTATION 

 CANOES AND RAFTS 



The use of dugout canoes was almost universal in the Southeast, 

 though parts of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations had little oc- 

 casion to resort to them in their immediate territories. Bark canoes 

 were employed as supplementary means of conveyance, especially 

 along the northern borders of the section in the interior. The 

 De Soto chroniclers mention dugouts in Florida, on the Ocmulgee, 

 Savannah, Tennessee, Alabama, Tombigbee, and Mississippi Rivers 

 and their principal branches, and along the coast. They were brought 

 most closely in contact with canoes along the Mississippi, where it 

 is natural to suppose that the canoe technique was highly developed. 

 White and Le Moyne attempted to depict dugouts, and we can get 

 some idea of them from specimens w^hich have been found buried 

 in muck as described by Jones (1873, pp. 53-54) ; as preserved in 

 the Valentine Museum, at Richmond; from a specimen in the Na- 

 tional Museum; from several at the museum of the University of 

 Florida; and from models rescued by Cushing from the muck of 

 Key Marco. 



In 1528 Narvaez and his followers destroyed over 30 dugout canoes 

 in front of a village in the neighborhood of modern Pensacola 

 (Cabeza de Vaca, Bandelier ed., 1905, pp. 42-44; Swanton 1922, p. 

 145), and Cabeza de Vaca, in his account of the expedition, mentions 

 them all along the Gulf shore as far as the mouth of the Mississippi. 

 Two hundred canoes filled with warriors prepared to dispute the 

 passage of the latter river with De Soto's army, and 100 or more 



