[148] See Appendix I. The later Indians of Florida seem to have preserved certain relics of a superstitious veneration of the aqueous element. Their priests had a certain holy water, sanctified by blowing upon it and incantation, thought to possess healing virtues (Nar. of Oceola Nikkanoche, p. 141;) Coacooche said that when the spirit of his twin-sister came to him from the land of souls, she offered him a cup of pure water, “which she said came from the spring of the Great Spirit, and if I should drink of it, I should return and live with her for ever.” (Sprague, Hist. Florida War, p. 328.)
[149] Parallel myths are found in various other nations. Sir John Maundeville speaks of the odoriferous fountain of youth near the river Indus, and Ellis mentions “the Hawaiian account of the voyage of Kamapiikai to the land where the inhabitants enjoy perpetual health, where the wai ora (life-giving fountain) removed every internal malady and external deformity or decrepitude from those who were plunged beneath its salutary waters.” (Polynesian Researches, Vol I., p. 103.)
[150] Fontanedo, Memoire, pp. 17, 18, 19, 32, 39. Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. XLI., p. 31.
[151] Intro. to the Ensay. Cron.; Fontanedo makes the same statement.
[152] Despues de establecido los Españoles en las Islas de Santo Domingo, Cuba, y Puerto Rico, averiguaron que los naturales conservaban algunas ideas vagas de tierras situadas à la parte septentrional, donde entre otras cosas maravillosas referian la existencia de cierta fuente y rio, cuyas aguas remozaban à los viejos que en ella se bañaban; preocupacion tan añeja y arraigada en los Indios, que aun antes de la llegada de los españoles los habia conducido à establecer allì una colonia. Viages y Descubrimientos, Tomo III., p. 50.
[153] L’Art de Verifier les Dates, Chronologie Historique de l’Amerique, Tome VIII., p. 185.
[154] Herrera, Dec. I., Lib. IX., cap. XI., p. 249.
[155] Barcia, Ensay. Cron., Año 1698, p. 317, Careri, Voyage round the World, in Churchill’s Coll. Vol. IV., p. 537.
[156] William Bartram, Travels, p. 227.
[157] See Labat, Voyage aux Isles de l’Amerique, Tome I., p. 136, and Hughes, Nat. Hist. of Barbadoes, p. 5.