CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS OF THE N. W. FLORIDA COAST. 495 



suggestive. The aborigines of Florida, in common with those of many other places, 

 held the serpent in high esteem. " Nor have I seen a savage who would willingly 

 kill a snake," says Captain Bernard Romans in his " Concise Natural History of 

 East and West Florida." 1 



i 



Fig. 120.— Handle of Vessel. Cemetery 



Washington. (Full s 



William Bartram, who travelled in Florida before our Revolutionary War, tells 



most amusingly of how 



rattlesnake, having full possession of an Indian village, 

 was killed by him, and how, afterward, 

 certain braves feigned a fierce attack 

 upon him, with much noise, that the 

 manes of the snake, believing them to 

 be his avengers, might be appeased. 2 



We have found a small effigy of a 

 snake in copper in the mound at Mt. 

 Royal, St. John's river, Florida, which 

 place we believe to be the site of the 

 town of the great King, near the lake 



Point Washington. 



1 Page 101. 



2 Travels. Dublin, 17 



3, p. 258 et seq. 



