Timucuan Friends

<i>"[The Timucuans] brought us grains of roasted maize,... smoked lizards or other wild animals... and various kinds of roots, some for foods, others for medicine. And when they discovered that we were more interested in metals and minerals, they gave us some of these as well."</i><br>Jacques le Moyne, 1564 <i>la Caroline</i> colonist and artist<br><br>Timucuan Chief Saturiba's men crafted a shelter, similar to the one seen here, so Saturiba could sit and watch the colonists build their settlement. When the French requested help, Saturiba sent eighty of his strongest men. The natives helped dig the fort's moat; they gathered palmetto leaves, weaving a thatch to cover the colonists' houses.<br><br>The Timucuans gave of their bounty - gold and silver jewelry, pearls, animal hides, and medicinal plants. In return, Chief Saturiba sought a war alliance to help his people. When the alliance never materialized, Timucuan assistance dwindled.<br><br><i>"If the natives had not supplied us daily from their own stores, some of us certainly would have perished from starvation, especially those who did not know how to use a gun in the hunt."</i><br>Jacques le Moyne