Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/213

 The tejiimomes of Spanijh writers. 20 1

defensive arms, and ante-deluvian longevity, that I am afraid, thefe early and extraordinary writers would fcarcely know the defcendants of thofe Apalahche Anakim, if they now faw them. They are at prefent the fame as their dwarfiih red neighbours j fie tranfit gloria mundi.

Nicholaus Challufius paints Florida full of winged ferpents ; he affirms he faw one there, and that the old natives were very careful to get its head, on account of fome fuppofed fuperftition. Ferdinando Soto tells us, that when he entered Florida, he found a Spaniard, (J. Ortez) whom the na tives had captivated during the fpace of twelve years, confequently he muft have gained in that time, fufficient (kill in their dialect to give a true inter pretation and account and he afiures us, that Ucita, the Lord of the place, made that fellow, " Temple-keeper," to prevent the night-wolves from carrying away the dead corpfe ; that the natives worfhipped the devil, and facrificed to him the life and blood of moil of their captives ; who fpoke with them face to face, and ordered them to bring thofe offerings to quench his burning third. And we are told by Benzo, that when Soto died, the good-natured Cacique ordered two likely young Indians to be killed according to cuftom, to wait on him where he was gone. But the Chriftian Spaniards denied his death, and allured them he was the fon of God, and therefore could not die. If we except the laft fentence, which bears a juft analogy to the prefumption and arrogance of the popifh priefls and hiftorians, time and opportunity have fully convinced us, that all the reft is calumny and falfhood. It muft be confefled however, that none, even of the Spanifh monks and friars, have gone fo deep in the marvellous, as our own fagacious David Ingram he aflures us, " that he not only heard of very furprifing animals in thefe parts of the world, but faw elephants, horfes, and ftrange wild animals twice as big as our fpecies of horfes, formed like a grey-hound in their hinder parts ; he faw likewife bulls with ears like hounds ; and another furprifing fpecies of quadrupeds bigger than bears, without head or neck, but nature had fixed their eyes and mouths more fecurely in their breafts." At the end of his monftrous ideal productions, he juftly introduces the devil in the rear, fome- times afiuming the likenefs of a dog ; at other times the fhape of a calf, &c. Although this legendary writer has tranfcended the bounds of truth, yet where he is not emulous of outdoing the jefuitical romances, it would re quire a good knowledge of America to confute him in many particulars :

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