31.8 America: a.d. 1601 to 1700  (Page 11/16)

Carolina, established relatively late, nevertheless soon had an Indian slave trade that overshadowed other mainland colonies. In late century these normally came from the interior and were marched in large numbers to the coast for sale to English purchasers. As in Africa, natives captured and sold natives. Westos, Savannahs, Lower Creeks and Yamasees, among others, raided remote towns and brought their prisoners to Charleston. Incidentally, yellow fever killed 150 people in Charleston in 1698. (Ref. 267 , 222 ) Sometime during this century the London Company started a settlement in what was to be South Carolina, which thrived on ambergris, a secretion from the whale's intestine that was to be found floating on the sea. It was used in perfumes. (Ref. 39 )

Extra-colonial areas of the united states

The southeast

Spain began establishing her second great mission system in the province of Apalachee after 1630, well after the founding of Jamestown. By the 1670s some 20 smaller missions radiated from the principal one at San Luis (Tallahassee) and a road connected that province with St. Augustine. Still Spain's grasp on the area was weak and the garrisons averaged only 300 to 400 men and even these were not the flower of the Spanish army. They were greatly outnumbered by the surrounding natives and, as we have noted in the preceding section, these were of ten encouraged to attack by the Carolinians. The priests did make many converts, however, and since the cross had long been one of the symbols of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, the padres reported that the Indians fervently came forward to kiss the newly erected cross. Even as early as the preceding century Franciscans had learned the tongue of the Timucuan and Apalachee and that knowledge helped preserve much information about those peoples. Some Timucuans and other natives were actually reading, writing and singing in Castilian, as well as writing in their own language. But the missionaries could also be cruel and they whipped Indians who missed Mass, forcing them to be porters transporting goods some 200 miles from St. Augustine without pay, among other penalties. It is no wonder that they could easily be influenced to revolt. (Ref. 267 )

Because of the fear of the French in Louisiana, Spain had a mission on the Neches River in 1690 and later a garrison at Pensacola, Florida. Even so Florida remained sparsely populated. There were droves of wild pigeons, parrots and other birds, so that many boats came away loaded with birds and their eggs. (Ref. 260 )

The mississippi river region and louisiana

The French explorer Jean Nicolet, who had lived among the Hurons since Champlain's expedition of 1618, explored the Lake Michigan and Wisconsin regions in 1634. (Ref. 222 ) Courcelles and Frontenac explored farther in the Great Lakes regions in - 1671 which was about the same time that Robert Cavelier de La Salle made some preliminary investigations down in the headwaters of the Mississippi River. In the following year Jacques Marquette explored the region around Chicago and a few years later, with Father Louis Jolliet, went down the Mississippi to the Arkansas tributary. (Ref. 131 )