SWANTON] INDIANS OP THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 635 



fronting the water, and about fifty yards distant from it. Some of the youth 

 were naked, up to their hips in the water, fishing with rods and lines; whilst 

 others, younger, were diverting themselves in shooting frogs with bows and 

 arrows. On my near approach, the little children took to their heels, and 

 ran to some women who were hoeing corn; but the stouter youth stood their 

 ground, and, smiling, called to me. As I passed along, I observed some elderly 

 people reclined on skins spread on the ground, under the cool shade of spreading 

 Oaks and Palms, that were ranged in front of their houses : they arose, and eyed 

 me as I passed, but perceiving that I kept on without stopping, they resumed 

 their former iwsition. They were civil, and appeared happy in their situ- 

 ation. 



There was a large Orange grove at the upper end of their village; the trees 

 were large, carefully pruned, and the ground under them clean, open, and 

 airy. There seemed to be several hundred acres of cleared land about the 

 village; a considerable portion of which was planted, chiefly with corn (Zea), 

 Batatas, Beans, Pompions, Squashes (Cucurbita verrucosa). Melons (Cucurbita 

 citrullus) Tobacco (Nicotiana), &c. abundantly sufficient for the inhabitants of 

 the village. (Bartram, 1792, pp. 90-91.) 



With this may be compared the Seminole village in the Ever- 

 glades visited in 1913 by Skinner and thus pleasantly described : 



On a little "hammock," or meadow island, surrounded by dark cypress trees 

 that stood in the glass-clear water, were clustered eight or ten Seminole lodges. 

 The palmetto fans with which they were thatched had faded from green to 

 old gold in color, and above them the sky formed a soft background. Some 

 naked Indian children, who had been playing and bathing in the water near 

 the trail, saw us and splashed screaming into the camp at our approach. One 

 little girl carried on her brown back a baby brother nearly as large as herself. 

 Several gaunt dogs came bounding to the water's edge to greet us with their 

 hoarse barking . . . 



This village (like all the others that we saw during our sojourn In the Big 

 Cypress and the Everglades) is situated on a hammock, or meadow island. 

 As the hammocks are never very large, the village is of no great size. The 

 houses are built around the edge of the land, not far from the water, with an 

 open area, in this case roughly rectangular in shape, in the middle. In the 

 center of this space is the cook-house, in which a fire is constantly burning. 

 (Skinner, 1913, pp. 69-70.) 



Plate 79 reproduces Eastman's sketch of an earlier Seminole 

 settlement. 



Henry Woodward has the following short sketch of the Westo 

 town on Savannah River somewhere near the site of the present 

 Augusta. He says that it 



. . . stands uppon a poynt of ye river . . . uppon ye Westerne side soe yt 

 ye river encompasseth two-thirds thereof ... ye Towne ... is built in a con- 

 fused manner, consisting of many long houses whose sides and tops are both 

 artifitially done with barke uppon ye tops of most whereof fastened to ye ends of 

 long poles hang ye locks of haire of Indians that they have slaine. Ye inland 

 side of ye towne being duble Pallisadoed, & yt part which fronts ye river 

 haveing only a single one, under whose steep banks seldom ly less then one 

 hundred faire canoes ready uppon all occasions. (South Carolina Hist. Soc. 

 Colls., 1897, vol. 5, pp. 459-461.) 



