198 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE Ieth.ann.19 



man of Elvas, Chiha by Biedma in the Documentos, China l)y a misprint in an 

 English rendering, ami Ychiaha byOarcilaso. It appears as Chiha on an English map 

 of 1762 reproduced in Winsor, Westward Movement, page 31, 1897. Gallatin spells 

 it Ichiaha, while Williams and Fairbanks, by misprint, make it Chiapa. According 

 to both Ranjel and Elvas the army entered it on the 5th of June, although the 

 former makes it four days from Canasagua, while the other makes it five. Biedma 

 says it was four days from Guaxule, and, finally, Garcilaso says it was six days and 

 thirty leagues from Guaxule and on the same river, which was, here at Chiaha, as 

 large as the Guadalquivir at Sevilla. As we have seen, there is a great discrepancy 

 in the statements of the distance from Cotitachiqui to this point. All four authorities 

 agree that the town was on an island in the river, along which they had been 

 marching for some time (Garcilaso, Ranjel), but while the Elvas narrative makes 

 the island "two crossbow shot" in length above the town and one league in length 

 below it, Garcilaso calls it a "great island more than five leagues long." On both 

 sides of the island the stream was very broad and easily waded (Elvas). Finding 

 welcome and food for men and horses the Spaniards rested here nearly a month 

 (June 5-28, Ranjel; twenty-six or twenty-seven days, Biedma; thirty days, Elvas). 

 In spite of the danger from attack De Soto allowed his men to sleep under trees in 

 the open air, "because it was very hot and the people should have suffered great 

 extremity if it had not been so" (Elvas). This in itself is evidence that the place 

 was pretty far to the scjuth, as it was yet only the first week in June. The town was 

 subject to the chief of the great province of Cofa, farther to the west. From here 

 onward they began to meet palisaded towns. 



On the theory that the march was down Coosa river, every commentator hitherto 

 has located Chiaha at some point upon this stream, either in Alabama or Georgia. 

 Gallatin (1836) says that it "must have been on the Coosa, probably some distance 

 below the site of New Echota." He notesa similarity of soimd between Ichiaha and 

 "Echoy" (Itseyl), a Cherokee town name. Williams (1837) says that it was on 

 Mobile (i. e., the Alabama or lower Coosa river). Meek (1839) says "there can be 

 little doubt that Chiaha was situated but a short distance above the junction of the 

 Coosa and Chattooga rivers," i. e., not far within the Alabama line. He notes the 

 occurrence of a "Chiaha" (Chehawhaw) creek near Talladega, Alabama. In regard 

 to the island upon which the town was said to have been situated he says: "There 

 is no such island now in the Coosa. It is probable that the Spaniards either mistook 

 the peninsula formed Ijy the junction of two rivers, the Coosa and Chattooga, for an 

 island, or that those two rivers were originally luiited so as to form an island neai' 

 their present confluence. We have heard this latter supposition asserted by per- 

 sons well acquainted with the country." — Romantic Passages, p. 222, 1857. Monette 

 (1846) puts it on Etowah Ijranch of the Coosa, probably in Floyd county, Georgia. 

 Pickett (1851), followed in turn by Irving, Jones, and Shea, locates it at "the site of 

 the modern Rome." The "island" is interpreted to mean the space between the 

 two streams above the confluence. 



Pickett, as has been stated, bases his statements chiefly or entirely upon Indian 

 traditions as obtained from halfbreeds or traders. How much information can be 

 gathered from such sources in regard to events that transpired three centuries before 

 mav be estimated by considering how much an illiterate mountaineer of the same 

 region might lie able to tell concerning the founding of the Georgia colony. Pickett 

 himself seems to have been entirely unaware of the later Spanish expeditions of 

 Pardo and De Luna through the same country, as he makes no mention of them 

 in his history of Alabama, but ascribes everything to De Soto. Concerning Chiaha 

 he says: 



"The mo.st ancient Cherokee Indians, whose tradition has been handed down to 

 us through old Indian traders, disagree as to the precise place [!] where De Soto 

 crossed the Oostanaula to get over into the town of Chiaha— some asserting that he 



