white gray, vermilion and yellow, rich and proper for
winter.[32]

The frequent mention of fabrics used by the Indians for shawls, mantles,
etc., makes it plain that such were in very general use when the town of
Pacaha was captured, and the Spaniards clothed themselves with mantles,
cassocks, and gowns made from these native garments. Everywhere woven
shawls were a principal feature of the propitiatory gifts of the natives
to the Spaniards.

The extent of this manufacture of hempen garments by the Indians of the
lower Mississippi is well indicated in the account of the adventures of
the expedition on the western side of the Mississippi at Aminoga. The
Spaniards undertook the construction of brigantines by means of which
they hoped to descend the Mississippi and to pass along the gulf coast
to Mexico. A demand was made upon the natives for shawls to be used in
the manufacture of sails, and great numbers were brought. Native hemp
and the ravelings of shawls were used for calking the boats.[33] What a
novel sight must have been this first European fleet on the great river,
consisting of five brigantines impelled by sails of native manufacture!

It is worthy of note that in this region (of the lower Mississippi) the
Spaniards saw shawls of cotton, brought, it was said, from the
west--probably the Pueblo country, as they were accompanied by objects
that from the description may have been ornaments of turquois.[34]

The following is from Du Pratz:

Many of the women wear cloaks of the bark of the
mulberry-tree, or of the feathers of swans, turkies, or India
ducks. The bark they take from young mulberry shoots that
rise from the roots of trees that have been cut down; after
it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all the woody
part fall off, and they give the threads that remain a second
beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the
dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the
coarseness of pack-thread, and weave them in the following
manner: they plant two stakes in the ground about a yard and
a half asunder, and having stretched a cord from the one to
the other, they fasten their threads of bark double to this
cord, and then interweave them in a curious manner into a
cloak of about a yard square with a wrought border round the
edges. * * * The girls at the age of eight or ten put on a
little petticoat, which is a kind