STUDIES OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN 59 



own of how it happened " That his [Bartram's] theory should 

 continue to flourish while his more important facts contradic- 

 tory of it were overlooked," ^° but it is not important here. 

 What is important is the respect with which an eminent modern 

 ethnologist views Bartram's facts. 



That to Swanton Bartram's descriptions are of more than 

 "some importance, because of their influence upon Words- 

 worth," is further proved by his references to the Travels in 

 his Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi V alley ^^ and his 

 Early History of the Creek Indians and their Neighbors}"^ In 

 the latter work he invokes Bartram's authority no less than 

 fifty-three times, often quoting whole pages from the Travels 

 to substantiate his conclusions. A brief examination of repre- 

 sentative references to Bartram in Swanton' s monograph can- 

 not fail to indicate the extent and variety of Bartram's contri- 

 bution to the study of the American Indian: 



Bartram tells us that in his time the language of the Chiaha was 

 entirely different from that of Kasihta, which we know to have been 

 Muskogee, and in his list of Creek towns he includes it among those 

 speaking Stinkard. 



Wappoo, Wappo, Wapoo. . . . given by Bartram as the name of 

 a tribe formerly living near South Carolina, which the Creeks had 

 driven away. 



Bartram, who visited Florida in 1777-78, speaks of the Yamasee 

 Nation as entirely destroyed as a distinct body, and he thus describes 

 the site on St. Johns River of what he terms "' the last decisive battle ": 



That the town was considered important is shown by the Creek name 

 which it bears, Talwa, lako, " Big Town," and from Bartram's state- 

 ment that it was the leading White or Peace town. 



Bartram states that he crossed the Chattahoochee " at the point towns 

 Chehaw and Usseta (Kasihta). These towns," he adds, "almost join 

 each other, yet speak two languages, as radically different perhaps as 

 the Muscogulge and Chinese." 



Almost all that is known of later Oconee history is contained in the 

 following extract from Bartram: 



^Ubid., 495. 



^'^Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 43 (1911)- 



'^'Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 15 (1922). 



