SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 603 



At Key Marco, according to Gushing, 



portions of mats, some thick, as though for use as rugs, others enveloping 

 various objects, and others still of shredded bark in strips so thin and flat and 

 closely platted that they might well have served as sails, were frequently di»- 

 covered. (Gushing, 1896, p. 363.) 



The Frenchmen who visited the Quale (Ouade) chief in 1562 re- 

 ported that "upon the place where the king slept were white coverings 

 woven in panels with clever artifice and edged about with a scarlet 

 fringe" (Laudonniere, 1586, p. 48; Swanton, 1922, p. 73). The de- 

 scription suggests cane mats, though the "coverings" might have been 

 made of native textiles. 



When La Salle reached Lake St. Joseph in northeastern Louis- 

 iana, the chief of the Taensa came to visit him, a servant bringing 

 a beautifully woven mat for him to sit upon during the inter- 

 view (Margry, 1875-86, vol. 2, pp. 209-210; Swanton, 1911, p. 262). 



This would have been like the Natchez mats which Du Pratz de- 

 scribes, 



ordinarily 6 feet long by 4 broad and . . . worked in designs. The gloss 

 of the cane, yellows in aging. Some of them, besides having designs indicated 

 by different weaves, have variously colored splints, some red, some black, 

 making [with the natural shade of the cane] three different kinds of colors. 

 (Le Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, pp. 182-183; Swanton, 1911, p. 61.) 



To this day the mats of the Chitimacha are made similarly (pi. 76, 



fig. 1). 



Keferences to baskets in the De Soto documents have been men- 

 tioned in connection with boxes. Whether the "petaca" was or was 

 not a basket, at least Garcilaso (1723, pp. 132-133) clearly refers to 

 both baskets and boxes. 



There is a singular paucity of references to baskets in Virginia and 

 North Carolina, but in "The proceedings of the English Colonies in 

 Virginia" there is mention of "many women loaded with great 

 painted baskets," meaning, of course, carrying baskets, in the train 

 of Opechancanough, and Beverley (1705, bk. 3, p. 62) refers to baskets 

 made of silk grass (Smith, John, Tyler ed., 1907, p. 175). 



In 1701-2 Michel observed that the Indians of Monacantown were 

 bringing in in trade, among other things, 



a large number of baskets, carried on the arras, of different colors, made very 

 artistically. The material is a kind of root. They weave into them all kinds 

 of animals, flowers and other strange things, very beautifully. (Michel, 1916, 

 p. 130.) 



About the same time Lawson wrote: 



The baskets our neighboring Indians make are all made of a very fine sort 

 of bulrushes, and sometimes of silk grass, which they work with figures of 

 beasts, birds, fishes, &c. (Lawson, 1860, p. 307.) 



Catesby almost parallels Lawson here : 



