MoosEY] DE SOTo's ROUTE 195 



with hut few mountains on the way, and the town itself watii s^ituaterl close niiiier a 

 mountain { "a la falda de una sierra" ) beside a small but rapid stream whieh formed 

 the boundary of the territory of Colitaehiqui in tliis direction. From lianjel we 

 learn that on the same ilay after leavinf; this place for the next "province" the 

 Spaniards crossed a very high mountain ridge ("una sierra umy alta"). 



Without mentioning the name, Pickett (1851) refers to Xuala as "a town in the 

 present Habersham county, Georgia," but gives no reason for this opinion. Rye 

 and Irving, of the same date, arguing from a slight similarity of name, think it may 

 have been on the site of a former Cherokee town, Qualatchee, on the head of (jhat- 

 tahoochee river in (ieorgia. The resemblance, however, is rather farfetche<l, and 

 moreover this same name is found on Keowee river in South Carolina. Jones 

 (De Soto in (ieorgia, ISSO) interprets Garcilaso's description to refer to " Nacoochee 

 valley, Habersham county" — vvhicli should be White county — and the neighboring 

 Momit Yonah, overlooking the fact that the same description of mountain, valley, 

 and swift flowing stream might apply equally well to any one of twenty other 

 localities in this southern mountain country. With direct contradiction Garcila,so 

 says that the Spaniards rested here fifteen days because they found provisions plenti- 

 ful, while the Portuguese Gentleman says that they stopped Init two days because 

 they found so little corn! Ranjel makes them stop four days and says they found 

 abundant provisions and assistance. 



However that may have been, there can be no question of the identity of the 

 name. As the province of Chalaque is the country of the Cherokee, .so the province 

 of Xuala is the territory of the Suwali or Sara Indians, better known later as 

 Cheraw, who lived in early times in the piedmont country about the head of Broad 

 river in North Carolina, adjoining the Cherokee, who still remember them imder 

 the name of Ani'-Suwa'li. A principal trail to their country from the west led up 

 Swannanoa river and across the gap which, for this reason, was known to the 

 Cherokee as Suwa'li-nunna, "Suwali trail," corrupted by the whites to Swannanoa. 

 Lederer, who found them in the same general region in 1670, calls this gaj) the 

 " Suala pass" and the neighboring mountains the Sara mountains, "which," he 

 .says, "The Spaniards make Suala." They afterward shifted to the north and 

 finally returned and were incorporate!! with the Catawba (see Mooney, Siouan Tribes 

 of the East, bulletin of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1894). 



Up to this point the Spaniards had followed a north course from Cofitachiqui 

 (Biedma and Elvas), but they now turned to the west (Elvas, final chajjter). On 

 the same day on which they left Xuala they crossed "a very high mountain ridge," 

 and descended the ne.xt day to a wide meadow bottom ("savana"), through wliich 

 flowed a river which they concluded was a [jart of the Espiritu Santo, the Mississippi 

 (Ranjel). Biedma speaks of cros.sing a mountain country and mentions the river, 

 which he al.so says they thought to be a tributary of the Mississippi. Garcila.so 

 says that this portion of their route was through a mountain country without inhabi- 

 tants ( " despoblado" ) and the Portuguese gentleman describes it as being over "very 

 rough and high ridges." In five days of such travel — for here, for a wonder, all the 

 narratives agree — they came to Guaxule. This is the form given by Garcilaso and 

 the Gentleman of Elvas; Biedma has Guasula, and Hanjel Guasili or Guasuli. The 

 translators and commentators have given us such forms as Guachoule, l^uaxule, 

 Quaxulla, and Quexale. According to the Spanish method of writing In<lian words 

 the name was pronounced Washiile or Wasuli, which ha.s a Cherokee sound, although 

 it can not be translated. Buckingham Smith (Narratives, p. 222) hints that the Span- 

 iards may have changed (juasili to Guasule, because of the similarity of the latter 

 form to a town name in southern Spain. Such corruptions of Indian names are of 

 frequent occurrence. Garcilaso speaks of it as a "province and town," while Biedma 

 and Ranjel call it simply a town ("jjueblo"). Before reaching this place the Indian 

 queen had managed to make her escape. All the chroniclers tell of the kind recei> 



