bwanton] EARLY BISTORT OF THE CREEK [NDIANS 181 
masee outbreak of L715, and the movement into Florida about 1750. * 
Their chief during most, of this period was known to the whites as 
"TheCowkeeper." Although Bartram represents the tribe as having 
gone in a body, we know that part of them remained ontheChatta- 
hoochee much later, for they appear in the assignments to traders 
for 1701,- and in Hawkins's Sketch of 1799, 3 while Bartram himself 
includes the town in his list as one of* those on the Apalachicola or 
Chattahoochee River. 4 The list of towns given in 1701 includes a 
big and a little Oconee town, the two having together 50 hunters. 
Their trader was William Frazer. 2 Hawkins describes their town as 
follows: 
O-co-nee is six miles below Pa-la-chooe-le, on the left bank of Chat-to-ho-che. It is 
a small town, the remains of the settlers of O-co-nee; they formerly lived just below 
the rock landing, and gave name to that river; they are increasing in industry, making 
fences, attending to stock, and have some level land moderately rich; they have a few 
hogs, cattle, and horses. 4 
They are not represented in the census of 1832, so we must sup- 
pose either that they had all gone to Florida by that time or that 
they had united with some other people. Bartram's narrative gives, 
not merely the history of the Oconee, but a good account also of the 
beginnings of the Seminole as distinct from the Creeks. When we 
come to a discussion of Seminole history we shall find that the 
Oconee played a most important part in it, in fact that the history 
of the Seminole is to a considerable extent a continuation of the 
history of the Oconee. 
THE TAMALI 
It is in the highest degree probable that this town is identical with 
the Toa, Otoa, or Toalli of the De Soto chroniclers, the -Hi of the 
last form representing presumably the Hitchiti plural -ali. Be that as 
it may, there can be little cpucstion regarding the identity of Tamali 
with the town of Tama, which appears in Spanish documents of the 
end of the same century and the beginning of the seventeenth. 5 In 
1598 Mendez de Canco, governor of Florida, writes that he plans to 
establish a post at a place "which is called Tama, where I have 
word there are mines and stones, and it is a very fertile land 
abounding in food and fruits, many like those of Spain." It 
was said to be 40 leagues from St. Augustine. 6 In a later letter, 
dated February, 1000, is given the testimony of a soldier named 
Gaspar de Salas, who had visited this town in the year 1590. He 
undertook this expedition in company with the Franciscan fathers, 
Pedro Fernandez de Chosas and Francisco de Veras. He found the 
epp. Mv-399. « Bartram, Travels, p. 462. 
: Ga. Col. Docs., vm, p. 522. • See p. 12. 
» Ua. liist. 8oc. Colls., m, p. 65. • Serrano y Sanz, Doc. Hist., p. 138. 
