RAMBLES IN FLORIDA. 463 

At Piney Point are numerous shell-heaps and mounds; 
they are covered with a dense vegetation; climbing over 
prostrate trees, or crawling upon hands and knees, through 
atangled growth of vines and shrubs, we forced our way as 
best we could, from mound to mound, over ground rich with 
historie interest and upon a spot which had received the foot- 
prints of as brave and adventurous a band of men as have 
ever walked the earth. “If at times our feelings revolt at 
the outrages committed by them upon the poor Indians, and 
by their wrongs towards those native chieftains who fought 
and fell so heroically in the defence of their homes, yet our 
indignation passes away and is forgotten in the melancholy 
ate of the invaders. Scarce three years had elapsed from 
the time of their embarkation at Cuba, when nearly the 
whole train of youthful cavaliers had passed away; horse 
and rider alike had perished, and their bones lay bleaching 
midst the savage wilds of America !"* 
The mounds are crowned with magnificent specimens of 
the palmetto; in the vicinity may be seen the Cerasus 
Caroliniana or Wild Orange; also sycamores and pines. 
Various flowering shrubs and vines not in bloom at the time 
of our visit compose a part of the undergrowth. We were 
unable to obtain a sufficiently extended view by which we 
could form an idea of the relation of heap to heap or mound 
to mound, or ascertain whether any general plan had been 
pursued in their construction; the Floridians, residents of 
the neighborhood, believe them to be defensive works that 
Were erected by De Soto; but we could perceive no basis for 
this belief, as the structures separately viewed are essentially 
e same as others we had examined.f 























1 
1 
: 
1 

*Irving’s Co i 
; nquest of Florida, Ed. 1869, p. 447. 
Tin none of the mounds examined by us were found any ornaments for. personal 
made of shells. F. ds in other places i 

wad that purpose have been obtained. In the Smithsonian Institution, No. bestens 
“‘hnelogical specimens, is a pendant for a necklace or ear-drop made of a piece of a 
8Pecies of Busra. iius Peas Xxx d bass: hips fH 

4 No. also in the same collection, 
.. Re-B8ll, is a roughly polished valve of Unio gibbosus ? perforated, found near Sulphur 
i; E Rie a. ton neighborhood of Neri Tennessee; No. 7654, also Smithsqnian Col- 

