bwanton] EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK tNDTANS 39 
assentaron su campo 6 real en la costa del." (" After they had been 
there for some days, being dissatisfied with the country and the 
interpreters or guides having left them, they decided to go and settle 
on the coast beyond, in the direction of the west coast; atkl they went 
to a large river. 40 or 45 leagues from that place, more or less, called 
Gualdape; and there they established their camp or settlement on the 
coast.")' Xavarrete interprets this to mean that they traveled 
north," and he has been followed by both Harrisse 3 and Shea.* The 
last is confirmed in his opinion by the narrative of Ecija, which 
states that "Guandape" was near where the English had estab- 
lished their settlement:' consequently he carries Ayllon from the 
River Jordan all the way to Jamestown, in Virginia. It seems to 
the writer, however, that the "English settlement" to which Ecija 
refers and which he places on an island must have been the Roanoke 
colony, although in Ecija's time it had been abandoned 20 years. But 
in either case the distance from the mouth of the Pedee or Santee 
was too great to be described as " 40 or 45 leagues. " 
On the other hand, there are good reasons for believing that Ayllon 
did not move north after abandoning the River Jordan, but southwest. 
It is unfortunate that Oviedo's words are not clearer, but it seems to 
the writer that the most natural interpretation of them is that the 
settlers followed the coast westward, which would actually be in this 
case toward the southwest. Lowery also comes to this conclusion, 
but since he starts them from a different point — the mouth of the 
Cape Fear River — he brings them no farther than the Pedee, our 
starting point. 8 To what Oviedo tells us of this movement Nava- 
rrete adds the information, that the women and the sick were trans- 
ported thither in boats while the remainder of the company made 
their way by land. 7 Lowery accepts this statement without ques- 
tion, 8 but Navarrete is not an absolutely reliable authority. His 
information on this point can only have been drawn from unpub- 
lished manuscripts, and unless we have some means of substantiating 
it, it seems unsafe to assume a march of so many leagues when no 
reason is presented why the Spaniards should not have taken to their 
vessels. My belief is that they did so. But how much of the coast 
is embraced in these 40 or 45 leagues it is impossible to say, for 
often the "leagues" of these old relations are equivalent only to the 
same number of miles. Thus Gualdape might be anywhere from 40 
to 135 miles away, somewhere between Charleston Harbor and the 
mouth of Savannah River. 
Charleston Harbor itself seems to be excluded by the description 
of the bar at the mouth of the river of Gualdape which the vessels 
• oviedo. Hist. Gen., in. p. 628. & ibid., p. 285. 
1 Navarrete, Col., in, p. 723. 6 Lowery, Span. Settl., i. pp. 165 166 
J Harrisse, Disc, of N. Amer.. p. 213. 7 Navarrete, Col., m, p. 72. 
' Shea in Winsor, Narr audi fit Bist. Amcr., n, p. 240. B Lowery, op. eit. 
