Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/802

 TIMUCUA

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TIMUCUA

mistaken by the early Spaniards for the name of the chief or tribe.

Habitat. — The cognate tribes of the Timucuan hn- guistic stock held all of north Florida from about Cape Canaveral and Tami)a Bay on the south to beyond the St. Mary's River on the north and westward to about the Ocilla River, where they bordered upon the celebrated Apalachee, of another (Muskhogean) stock. The tribes forming the Timueua group proper centred chiefly along the St. John's River, the principal being the Timueua along the upper part of the river and about the present St. Augustine, who.se chief, known to the French as Outina, had his settle- ment about the present Welaka, and ruled some forty villages, with perhaps 6000 souls. On the lower course of the river were the Satuniba, the enemies of the Timueua and nearly as numerous, and west of them, toward the Suwanee River, were the Potano, with over a thousand warriors or perhaps four thou- sand souls. Several other tribes were of minor importance.

Customs. — The Timueua were sedentary and semi- agricultural, but depended largely upon game, fish, wild fruits, and bread prepared from the starchy koonli root. Their houses were circular, of upright poles, thatched with palmetto leaves, and with grana- ries elevated on stakes to keep them out of reach of wild animals. Their villages were strongly stockaded and each important settlement had a large central town-house of logs, for tribal ceremonies and the reception of guests. They had large dug-out canoes. Their pottery, the work of the women, was of the finest type found east of the Mississippi. The prin- cipal weapon of the warriors was the bow, and a sort of spade-shaped club of hard wood. The numerous embankments and ancient roadways found in their country may be due in part to Spanish influence. Women wore a short fringed skirt, perhaps of some bark fibre, with their hair flowing loosely. Men went naked, except for the breechcloth, but had the whole body elaborately tattooed. They bunched the hair in a knot on top of the head, and wore inflated fish- bladders through holes in their ears. They were tall and well-made, described as of gi'eat strength and agility and remarkable swimmers.

The government by the chiefs was despotic, as was frequently the case among the Gulf State tribes. There were two hereditary classes, nobles, or chiefs, and common people, and each tribe was organized into clans or hereditary family groups, usually bearing ani- mal names. This elan system was so much inter- woven with the tribal life that it persisted even under the mission system. Prisoners of war and their de- scendants constituted a slave class. Their military organization and methods were superior to what was found among the northern tribes. Scalping and mutilation of the slain enemy were universal, and the dismembered limbs were carried from the field as trophies or to serve for cannibal feasts. Polygamy was customary. Gross sensuality was prevalent. The chief gods were the Sun and the Moon, the Deer and other animals. They were extremely ceremoni- ous, celebrating planting and harvest seasons, fishing and hunting expeditions, the going and return of war parties, marriages and funerals, each with special rites of prayer, fasting, feasting, dancing and purification by means of the "black drink" brewed from the leaves of the Ilex cassine. On certain great ceremo- nial occasions the first-born male infants of the tribe were delivered up by their mothers to be sacrificed to the Sun, in whose honour also a sacred fire was kept always burning in their temples. The dead were buried in the ground with protracted mourning rites, which included fasting and cutting off the hair. Over the body of a dead chief was raised a mound of earth upon which was placed his shell drinking cup, surrounded by a circle of arrows stuck in the groimd.

From the pictures of the artist Le Moyne we get a vivid idea of the appearance nMf] ciistnnis of the Timueua tribes, wliile the •|ur^i i^ms In Falher Pa- reja's " Conf essionario " throw niriou.s light upon their beliefs, tabus, and ceremonial observance.

History. — The history of the Timueua tribes begins with the landing of the ill-fated Ponce de Leon near the present St. Augustine in 1513. The expeditions of Xarvaez in 1528 and de Soto in 1539-41, landing at Tampa Bay, passed through the territory of the cog- nate tribes, but did not encounter the Timueua proper. In 1562-64 the French Huguenots under Ribault and Laudonniere attempted settlements at the mouth of St. John's River, explored the middle course of the stream, and made acquaintance with the principal tribes. In 1565 the Spaniards under Menen- dez destroyed the French posts, butchering all the de- fenders, immediately after which Mcneiidez founded the city of St. Augustine and began the permanent colonization of the country. Jesuit missionaries ar- rived and began their labours, but seem to have de- voted their attention chiefly to the coast tribes of South Carohna, Virginia, and western Florida, probably because of the fact that the Indians of the St. John's region had been won over by t he French and for a long time resisted the Spanish occupation. In 1573 a party of Franciscan missionaries arrived at St. Augustine, where some of their order had been from the beginning, and proceeded to organize work among the Indians of the vicinity. The work met a serious check from the recall of Governor Menendez to Spain, where he died in 1574, but in 1594, on request of Father Marron, custos of the Franciscan convent at St. Augustine, twelve other priests of the order were sent out, and the labour of Christianizing the Timu- eua was taken up with vigour.

Among those who arrived with this party was the noted Father Francisco Pareja, to whom we are in- debted for almost all that is known of the language and customs of the tribe. He was stationed at first among the Yamassee on the Georgia coast, in whose language, according to Shea, he composed a summary of Christian doctrine. Later he w-as in charge at the Timueua mission of San Juan, apparently on Little Talbot Island, north of St. Augustine, and later still was custos of the monastery in that city, until trans- ferred to the Mexican province in 1610, where he died in 162S. His various works in the Timueua language were published in Mexico. Of the priests who arrived from Spain with Father Pareja, several went to the Yamassee, while the others devoted attention to the Timueua, whose principal mission settlements were San Juan, already mentioned; San Pedro, on Cum- berland Island; San Mateo, probably about the mouth of the St. John's; and Santa Lucia de Acuera, south of Cape Canaveral; besides the settlement immediately adjoining St. Augustine. The more western cognate Potano tribe, being hostile alike to the Timueua and the Spaniards, were not Christianized until a much later period, but were also brought likewise into the mis- sion fold. In 1597 the mission growth was inter- rupted by a disastrous revolt of the Yamassee in which several missionaries lost their lives, the Chris- tian Timueua being also attacked. Some years later, however (1612?), following a visit from the Bishop of Havana in 1602, Florida was erected into a Franciscan province, under the name of Santa Elena. From 1612 to 1615 inclusive, 43 Franciscans were added to the workers in addition to these already on the ground.

In 1655 the Christian Indian population of the Florida province, which included north Florida and the coast country of Georgia and South Carolina, was estimated at 26,000 souls, chiefly among the Timueua, Apalachee, and Yamassee. In 1S7 a second out- break of the Y;iniassee, apiiarently instigated by the English of Carolina, who claimed northern Florida as