182 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
town to be farther off than the governor had supposed — "about 50 
leagues, little more or less," from St. Augustine. They reached it 
from Guale — that is, from St. Catherines Island. De Salas states 
that 
It took them eight days to go from Guale to Tama, and seven of those eight days 
led through deserted land, which was very poor, and on arriving at Tama they found 
abundance of food, like corn, beans, and much venison and turkeys ' and other fowl, 
and a great abundance of fish, as, for instance sturgeon, which they call "sollo real" 
in Spain; and likewise much fruit, as big grapes of as nice a taste as in Spain, and 2 
white plums like the "siruelademonje, " and cherries and watermelons 3 and other 
fruit. 
That all around the said village of Tama and neighbouring territory there is very 
good brown soil, which, when it rains, clings to one's feet like marl. There are in 
certain regions many barren hills where he saw many kinds of minerals. In several 
of these parts he and the two monks gathered of those stones those which seemed to 
them to contain metals and which were on the surface, because they did not have 
anything with which they could dig, and that he, the said witness, brought some of 
them, pulverised, to the governor and another part to a jeweler who at that time 
lived in the city, but who died in those days past, and that he made assays of them 
and told this witness that where those had been found there existed silver for they 
were the slags and scum of such a mine, and if they should find the vein of this mineral 
it would certainly prove to be a rich mine. About all this the said governor would 
certainly be better informed, for he, too, was told about it and made the experiment 
with the said jeweler. And near those mines grew an herb which is highly treasured 
by the Indians as a medicinal plant and to heal wounds, and they call it "guitamo 
real." On those same hills and on the banks of big streams they gathered many 
crystalisations and even fine crystals. 4 
Ocute was one day's journey beyond this place\ On their return 
they took a more southerly route, better and not so devoid of human 
habitation, since they were only two days away from settlements. 
They came first to places called Yufera and Cascangue, and finally 
reached the coast at the island of San Pedro (Cumberland Island). 5 
In 1606 the chief of Tama was among those who met Governor 
Ibarra at Sapelo, which we many assume to have been the most 
convenient place on the coast for him to present himself. 6 The 
name, sometimes spelled Thama, appears frequently from this time 
on, applied to a province of somewhat indefinite extent in southern 
Georgia, and one for which missionaries were needed. No earnest 
attempt at its conversion took place, however, until late in the 
seventeenth century. In the mission lists of 1680 a station known 
as Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria de la Tama appears among those 
1 Gallinas de 
J Sollo="pike." 
3 The watermelon was introduced from Africa; perhaps these were really pumpkins. The word used 
is "sandias." 
* Serrano y Sam, Doc. Hist., p. 144. Translated by Mrs. F. Bandelier. 
s Ibid., p. 145. 
« Ibid., p. 184. 
