The languages spoken by the Calusa and by the people next in order,
the Tequesta, are unknown to us, and thus cannot be mentioned here as
forming separate linguistic stocks. I simply make mention of these
tribes, because they were regarded as people distinct from the Timucua
and the tribes of Maskoki origin.
The Calusa held the southwestern extremity of Florida, and their
tribal name is left recorded in Calusahatchi, a river south of Tampa
bay. They are called Calos on de Bry's map (1591), otherwise Colusa,
Callos, Carlos, and formed a confederacy of many villages, the names
of which are given in the memoir of Hernando d'Escalante Fontanedo
(Mémoire sur la Floride, in Ternaux-Compans' Collection XX, p. 22;
translated from the original Spanish). These names were written down
in 1559, and do not show much affinity with Timucua; but since they
are the only remnants of the Calusa language, I present the full list:
"Tampa, Tomo, Tuchi, Sogo, No (which signifies 'beloved village'),
Sinapa, Sinaesta, Metamapo, Sacaspada, Calaobe, Estame, Yagua, Guaya,
Guevu, Muspa, Casitoa, Tatesta, Coyovea, Jutun, Tequemapo, Comachica,
Quiseyove and two others in the vicinity. There are others in the
interior, near Lake Mayaimi--viz., Cutespa, Tavaguemue, Tomsobe,
Enempa and twenty others. Two upon the Lucayos obey to the cacique of
Carlos, Guarunguve and Cuchiaga. Carlos and his deceased father were
the rulers of these fifty towns." Fontanedo states that he was
prisoner in these parts from his thirteenth to his thirtieth year;
that he knew four languages, but was not familiar with those of Aïs
and Teaga, not having been there.
One of these names is decidedly Spanish, Sacaspada or
"Draw-the-sword"; two others appear to be Timucua, Calaobe (kala
_fruit_; abo _stalk, tree_) and Comachica (hica _land, country_).
Some may be explained by the Creek language, but only one of them,
Tampa (itímpi _close to it, near it_) is Creek to a certainty; Tuchi
resembles tútchi _kidneys_; Sogo, sá-uka _rattle, gourd-rattle_, and
No is the radix of a-no-kítcha _lover_, anukídshās _I love_, which
agrees with the interpretation given by Fontanedo. Tavaguemue may
possibly contain the Creek táwa _sumach_; Mayaimi (Lake), which
Fontanedo explains by "_very large_," the Creek augmentative term
máhi, and Guevu the Creek u-íwa _water_.
The Spanish orthography, in which these names are laid down, is
unfitted for transcribing Indian languages, perhaps as much
so as the English orthography; nevertheless, we recognize the
frequently-occurring terminal -esta, -sta, which sounds quite like
Timucua. There are no doubt many geographic terms, taken from
Seminole-Creek, in the south of the peninsula as well as in the north;
it only remains to determine what age we have to ascribe to them.
The Calusa bore the reputation of being a savage and rapacious people,
and B. Romans (p. 292) denounces them as having been pirates. He
informs us (p. 289), that "at Sandy Point, the southern extremity of
the peninsula, are large fields, being the lands formerly planted by
the Colusa savages;" and that "they were driven away from the
continent by the Creeks, their more potent neighbors." In 1763 the
remnants, about eighty families, went to Havannah from their last
possessions at Cayos Vacos and Cayo Hueso (hueso, _bone_), where
Romans saw the rests of their stone habitations (p. 291); now called
Cayos bajos and Key West.
On the languages spoken in these parts more will be found under the
heading "Seminole."