Introductiov.



numerous tribes, and from Carolina to the southern limits
of Florida the Mobilian family had distributed its tribal
divisions. With the exception of the five sections occupied
by the Huron-Iroquois, the Cherokees, the Catawbas,
the Uchees, and the Natches, these two great nations
extended their occupancy of the country not only from
Maine to Florida, but from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Mississippi River. Their hunting-grounds extended beyond
this great river, but with their trans-Mississippi possessions
we are not now concerned. Their mode of occupying this
vast territory differed essentially from that of the Americans.
They were not cultivators of the soil, but left the land
clothed with the original forests for the protection of the
wild animals they used for food and clothing.  A patch
of ground for corn and vegetables, cultivated by the squaws
in the most primitive way, was all of their vast territory
they reduced to absolute use.  They had no schools nor
churches, and their dwelling-houses were rude structures
of cane and bark. They were hunters and fishermen,
and lived mainly upon the products of the forest and the
stream. They had no fences around their lands nor any
marked trees to show the limits of their territory, but
depended upon the hills and valleys and streams to define
their boundaries. Nothing more distinguished their savage
life from that of civilized man than the quantity of land



Vii