MOONEYJ DE SOTO's ROUTE 201 



other, known as " Old Coosa," and probal)ly of more ancient origin, was on the west 

 side of Alabama river, near the present site of Jlontfjomery (see Gatschet, Creek 

 Mi-rration Legend). It was probably the latter whieh was visited by Be Soto, and later 

 on by De Lnna, in 1559. Beyond Coi;a they ])assed tbrovigh another Creek town, ap- 

 parently lower down on the .-Vlabama, the name of wliieh is variously spelle<l Ytaua 

 (Elvas, Foree translation), Ytava (Elvas, Ilaklnyt Society translation), or Itaba 

 (Kanjel), and which may be connected with I'tSwi', Etowah or "Hightower," tlie 

 name of a former Cherokee settlement near the head of Etowah river in (Georgia. 

 ■ The Cherokee regard this as a foreign name, and its occurrence in upper tieorgia, as 

 well as in central Alabama, may help to support the traditifin that the snutliern 

 Cherokee border was formerly held by the Creeks. 



De Soto's route beyond the Cherokee country does not concern us excejit a.s it 

 throws light upon his previous progress. In the seventeenth chapter the Elvas nar- 

 rative sununarizes that portion from the landing at Tampa bay to a point in southern 

 Alabama as follows: " From the Port de Spirito Saiito to Apalache, which is about an 

 hundreil leagues, the governor went from east to west; and from Apalache to Cutifa- 

 ehiqui, which are 430 leagues, from tlie southwest to the northeast; and from Cutifa- 

 chiqui to Xualla, which are aljout 250 leagues, from the .south to the north; and from 

 Xualla to Tascaluca, which are 250 leagues more, an hundred and ninety of them he 

 trax'ck'd from ea.st to west, to wit, to the province of Co^a; and the other 60, from 

 Co(;a to Tascaluca, from the north to the south." 



C'hisca (Elvas and Kanjel), the mountainous northern region in search of wliicli 

 men were sent from Chiaha to look for copper and gold, was somewhere in the 

 Cherokee country of upper Georgia or Alabama. The precise location is not material, 

 as it is now known that native copper, in such condition as to have been easily work- 

 able by the Indians, occurs throughout the whole southern Allegheny region from 

 about Anniston, Alabama, into Virginia. Notable finds of native copper have been 

 made on the upper Tallapoosa, in Cleburne county, Alabama; about Ducktown, in 

 Polk county, Tennessee, and in southwestern Virginia, one nugget from A'irginia 

 weighing several pounds. From the appearance of ancient soapstone vessels which 

 have been found in the same region there is even a possibility that the Indians had 

 some knowledge of smelting, as the Spanish explorers sumii.sed (oral information 

 from ^Ir W. H. Weed, U. S. Geological Survey). We hear again of this "province" 

 after De Soto had reached the Mississippi, and in one place Garcila-so seems to 

 confound it with another province called Quizqui (Ranjel) or Quizquiz (Elvas 

 and Biednia). The name has some resemblance to the Cherokee word txishra, 

 "bird." 



(9) I)K LcXA AND RooEL (p. 27): Jones, in his De Soto's ^Slarcli through (icorgia, 

 incorrectly ascribes certain traces of ancient mining operations in the Cherokee 

 country, jiarticularly on Valley river in North Carolina, to the followers of De Luna, 

 "who, in 15t)0 . . . came with 300 Spanish .soldiers into this region, and spent 

 the sununer in eager and laborious search for gold." Don Tristan de Luna, with 

 fifteen hundred men, landed somewhere about Mobile bay in 1559 with the design of 

 establishing a permanent Spanish settlement in the interior, but owing to a succes- 

 sion of unfortunate hap|)enings the attempt was abandoned the next year. In the 

 course of his wanderings he traversed the country of the Choctaw, Chicka.«aw, and 

 L'pjier Creeks, as is shown by the names and other data in the narrative, but 

 returned without entering the mountains or doing any <liggiug (see Barcia, Ensayo 

 Cronologico, pp. 32—11, 1723; Winsor, Xarraliveand Critical History, ii, pp. 257-2.')9). 



In 1569 the Jesuit Rogel — called Father .b.hii linu'ci- by Shea — began mission work 

 among the South Carolina tribes inland from Santa Elena (about Port Royal). 

 The mission, which at lirst promi.sed well, was abaiidoneil next year, owing to the 

 unwillingness of the Inilians to give up their old habits and beliefs. Shea, in bis 

 "Catholic ^lissions," supposes that these Indians were i)r(ibably a jiart nf the 



