MooNKY] TflK \n: SOTO KXrEPITIOX l."i4(l "id 



of uprig'ht log's, coveivd with (>;ii'lli wliicli hiul liccn dajr out from the 

 iiisick'.' 



Harry Sinitli. a halfbrocd lioiai al)out isl."). fatlicr of tlic lati' chief 

 of the East Clu'i'okcc, infoniu'd tlic aiitlioi' that when a boy lie liad 

 been told by an old woman a tradition of a race of very small people, 

 perfectly white, who once came and lived for some time on the site of 

 the ancient mound on the northern side of Hiwassee. at the mouth of 

 Peachtree creek, a few miles above the present Murphy, North Caro- 

 lina. The}^ afterward removed to the West. C'olonel Thomas, iht^ 

 white chief of the East Cherokee, born about the begimiing of the 

 century, had also heard a tradition of another rac(^ of ])eople. who 

 lived on Hiwassee, opposite the present Murphy, and warned the 

 Cherokee that they must not attempt to cross over to the south side 

 of the river or the great leech in the water would swallow them.'' 

 Thev linally went west, "long before the whites came." The two 

 stories are plainly the same, although told independently and many 

 miles apart. 



The Period of Spanish Exploration — 1.540-? 



The definite history of the Cherokee bi>oins with the year 1540. at 

 w-hich date we tind them already established, where they were always 

 afterward known, in the mountains of Carolina and Georgia. The 

 earliest Spanish adventui'(n-s failed to penetrate so far into the interior, 

 and the tirst entry into their country was made l)y De Soto, advancing 

 up the Savannah on his fruitless quest for gold, in Maj' of that year. 



While at Cotitachiqui. an important Indian town on the lower 

 Savamiah governed by a "queen," the Spaniards had found hatchets 

 and other objects of copper, some of which was of finer color and 

 appeared to be mixed with gold, although they had no means of testing 

 it.'' On inquiry they were told that the metal had come from an interior 

 mountain province called Chisca, but the country was represented as 

 thinly peopled and the way as imi)assable for horses. Some time before, 

 while; advancing through eastern (leorgia, they had heard also of a 

 rich and plentiful province called (yO^a, toward tht; northwest, and by 

 the people of Cofitachiqui thev were now told that Chiaha. the nearest 

 town of Coya province, was twelve days inland. As both nuMi and 

 animals were already nearly exhausted from hunger and hard travel, 

 and the Indians eithei' could not or would not furnish suiticient pro- 

 vision for their needs, De Soto determined not to attempt the passage 

 of the mountains then, but to push on at once to Coya, there to rest 

 and recuperate before undertaking further exploration. In the mean- 



' Haywood, Nat. ami .Vborig. Hist. Tennessee, pp. 166, 234-235, 287-289, 1823. 



-See story, "Tlie Great Leecli of Tianusi'yl, " p. 328. 



■'Garciiaso de la Vega. La Fiorida del Inca, pjj. 129, 133-13J: Madrid. 1723. 



