334 



tiVes of Florida. Luis Velasquez de Ayllon found in his ex- 

 pedition (1520), on the coast of Chicora and at the mouth of 

 Rio Jordan (between Savannah and Charlestown, in south 

 Carolina), a race of Indians as tall as the Caribs, but with 

 long hair, " For aqella casta arriba hombres hai mui altos y 

 que parecian gigantes." (Gomara, fol. 22. Herera, Dec. ii, 

 p. 259. Lcet., p. 96.) The travellers of the 16th cen- 

 tury, who, like modern travellers, had the rage of ex- 

 plaining every thing, believed that the Indians of Chicora 

 softened their bones by taking the juice of herbs, and length- 

 ened their members by stretching them out from time to 

 time. With respect to the Asiatic origin (Arameenne) of 

 the Caribs, we shall only mention further the Phenician and 

 Roman money, which it is asserted has been found in the 

 United-States ; it was pretended that this money was of the 

 3rd century, and had been discovered in a cavern near Nash- 

 ville; but it is now known (Arch&ologia, vol. i. p. 119.) 

 that they were buried there either to deceive, or accidentally, 

 with English money, by European planters. The Carthagin- 

 ian money of Louisiana is fit to be placed by the pretended 

 inscriptions of Dighton, found in the bay of Naraugaset, and 

 on which Count de Gebelin has founded such absurd hypo-^ 

 theses. {View of the Cordilleras, vol. i. p. 60.) Is it very 

 certain that the fine shell, 9 inches long and 7 broad, dis- 

 covered in a tumulus near Cincinnati, is identical with the 

 Cassis cornutus of the archipelago of the Asiatic islands } 

 (Long's Exped. vol. i. p. 64). 



