leaves of the palmetto.

A word touching these savages. In the peninsula of Florida were several
distinct Indian confederacies, with three of which the French were
brought into contact. The first was that of Satouriona. The next was the
potent confederacy of the Thimagoa, under a chief called Outina, whose
forty villages were scattered among the lakes and forests around the
upper waters of this remarkable river. The third was that of "King
Potanou," whose domain lay among the pine-barrens, cypress-swamps, and
fertile hummocks, westward and northwestward of the St. John's. The
three communities were at deadly enmity. Their social state was more
advanced than that of the wandering hunter-tribes of the North. They
were an agricultural people. Around all their villages were fields of
maize, beans, and pumpkins. The harvest, due chiefly to the labor of the
women, was gathered into a public granary, and on this they lived during
three-fourths of the year, dispersing in winter to hunt among the
forests.

Their villages were clusters of huts thatched with palmetto. In the
midst was the dwelling of the chief, much larger than the rest, and
sometimes raised on an artificial mound. They were inclosed with
palisades, and, strange to say, some of them were approached by wide
avenues, artificially graded, and several hundred yards in length.
Remains of them may still be seen, as may also the mounds in which the
Floridians, like the Hurons and various other tribes, collected at
stated intervals the bones of their dead.

The most prominent feature of their religion was sun-worship, and, like
other wild American tribes, they abounded in "medicine-men," who
combined the functions of priest, physician, and necromancer.

Social distinctions were sharply defined among them. Their chiefs, whose
office was hereditary, sometimes exercised a power almost absolute. Each
village had its chief, subordinate to the grand chief of the nation. In
the language of the French narratives, they were all kings or lords,
vassals of the great monarch Satouriona, Outina, or Potanou. All these
tribes are now extinct, and it is difficult to ascertain with precision
their tribal affinities. There can be no doubt that they were the
authors of the mounds and other remains at present found in various
parts of Florida.

Their fort nearly finished, and their league made with Satouriona, the
gold-hunting Huguenots were eager to spy out the secrets of the
interior