Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1898-01-05
4 eATTLEFIELD'S CROPS.
Relics of a Giant Race Found on Flor
 Ida Farm.

 :. Relics of Giant Race Pound on Flor ida Farm.
 A graveyard in a farm is rot ar 8 extraordinary thing, but a farm II q graveyard IS something different T Imagine a vast tract of many acre
 planted with corn, cane, tOnatoe;
 and many other vegetables, while the ground round about is almost } completely covered with skulls bones and other debris that belongs
 to a graveyard proper. Such is the
 farm of Captain E. J. Watson, who
 lives at Chatham Bay Key, Fla, in
 the Tel island section. In the fields
 are seen big cornstalks and sugar
 cane growing out through empty i skulls, while the ground underneath
 the thickly matted tomato vines
 seems nothing but surface of bones
 This key is one of the most pecul- jar of the many odd islands in this
 group It is a large island, contain
 ing about 60 acres, most being ex-
 tremely rich land. In the center is
 a sort of raised highland, containing
 about ten acres. On the edges of
 this there are still to be seen remains
 of what was formerly probably
 fertilization of some kind, the CO
 quina walls showing about a foot
 high in some places, while in others
 they have completely disappeared.
 In the center are the ruins of what
 was once a temple of some sort, the fragments of wall foundations still
 remaining being about 300 by 300 feet, in the form of an eight pointed star. Tn the center of this island is a square upright column made from coquina. It k now only about 10 inches square and not over 12 feet high, but from its foundation and other points it would seem to have been at least 2 feet square and possi- ! ply 20 or more feet high. Queer In- diaE figures can be yet made out on it
 The Indians have superstition | regarding this island. and 1t is i'm | possible to get any of them to visit 1 1t at night Chief Iconadachee, one | of the oldest Indians there, says that years ago when the SpaniaTds in Florida were presenting the Indians a powerful race inhabited this south | ern section. They were large and | fierce and astonishCd the invaders | by their gigantic size and immense strength. Ec says that this tribe Was driven south of the Chatham river, beyond which lies an impene tTable moraSs. They made this tboif ] last fighting ground, and many tales are told of the encounters that oc- cured there between the Spaniards and these Indians Finally they | were driven away from this refuge. and what was left of the tribe, pos sibly 1000, moved to this island. A | mighty battle was fought here aft erward, and it Is supposed that the tribe was completely exterminated. An examination of the farm would indicate that a massacre of some kind had occurred, as the whole up per part of the key is completely covered with skulls and various body bones of all sizes and condi- tons. Ore can scarcely walk with out treading on something of the kind. Hundreds and hundreds of the skulls are crushed in, as If the owner had been killed by bludgeon wound or by a battleax-in fact, three-fourths of all the skulls picked up show the marks of wounds of this character.
 A large number of skeletons have been put together, and the result has been surprising. A majority of them are nearly $ feet in height, broad in shoulders and with mighty arm reach that would astOnish even a Fitzsimmons or a Corbett. All the other frame bones are correspondingly large, be ing much larger than the bones of an ordinary human body. 4 great many scientists have visited this |, section this winter, but none of them could explain this strange find, ex- oept on the hypothesis of a complete massacre and an extinction of this .ribe. Mr. Watson's farm is noted for its richness, decaying bones giv ng it an immense amount of ferti- izing. From 30 acres planted in cane md vegetables he has sold nearly DO, 900 worth of stuff. This shows he incOmparable richness of the 2lace.-St. Louis Globe Democrat.