202 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [Erit.ANN.ig 



Cherokee, but a study of the Spanish record in Barcia (Ensayo, jiji. 1.'>S-141 | i^huvvs 

 t)iat Rogel penetrated only a short distance from the coast. 



(10) Davies' History op the Carribby Islands (p. 29) : The fraudulent char- 

 acter of this work, which is itself an altered translation of a fictitiousi liistory by 

 Rochefort, is noted by Buckingham Smith (Letter of Hernando dc Soto, p. .'!(), 1854), 

 Winsor (Narrative and Critical History, ii, ji. 2S9) , and Field (Indian Biljliography, 

 p. 95). Says Field: "This book is an example of the most uiil)liishing effrontery. 

 The pseudo author assumes the credit of the jierformancc, witli but the faintest 

 allusion to its previous existence. It is a nearly faithful translation of Rochefort's 

 'Histoire des Antilles.' There is, however, a gratifying retribution in Davies' treat- 

 ment of Rochefort, for the work of the latter was fictitious in every part which was 

 not ptirloined from authors whose knowledge furnished him with all in his treatise 

 which was true." 



(11) Ancient Spanish Mines (pp. 29, 31): As the existence of the precious metals 

 in the southern Alleghenies was known to the Spaniards from a very early period, it 

 is probalile that more thorough exploration of tliat region will bring to light many 

 evidences of their mining operations. In his "Antiquities of the Southern Indians," 

 Jones describes a sort of subterranean village discovered in 1834 on Dukes creek. 

 White county, Georgia, consisting of a row of small log cabins extending along the 

 creek, but imbedded several feet below the surface of the ground, upon which large 

 trees were growing, the inference being that the houses had teen thus covered by suc- 

 cessive freshets. The logs had been notched and shaped apparently with sharp metal- 

 lic tools. Shafts liave been discovered on A'alley river. North Carolina, at the bottom 

 of one of which was found, in 1854, a well-preserved windlass of hewn oak timbers, 

 showing traces of having once been banded with iron. Another sliaft, passing through 

 hard rock, showed the marks of shai'p tools used in the boring. The casing and 

 other timbers were still sound (Jones, pp. 48, 49). Similar ancient shafts have been 

 found in other places in upper Georgia and western North Carolina, together with 

 some remarkable stone-built fortifications or corrals, notably at Fort mountain, in 

 Murray county, Georgia, and on Silver creek, a few miles from Rome, Georgia. 



Very recently remains of an early white settlement, traditionally ascribed to the 

 S])aniards, have been reported from Lincolnton, North Carolina, on the edge of the 

 ancient country of the Sara, among whom the Spaniards built a fort in 1566. The 

 works include a dam of cut stone, a series of low pillars of cut stone, arranged in 

 squares as tliough intended for foundations, a stone-walled well, a quarry from which 

 the stone had been procured, a fire pit, and a series of sinks, extending along the 

 stream, in which were found remains of timbers suggesting the subterranean cabins 

 on Dukes creek. All these antedated the first settlement of that region, about the 

 year 1750. Ancient mining indications are also reported from Kings mountain, 

 about twenty miles distant (Reinhardt MS, 1900, in Bureau of American Ethnology 

 archives). The Spanish miners of whom Lederer heard in 1670 and Moore in 1690 

 were probably at work in this neighborhooil. 



(12) Sir William Johnson (p. 38): This great soldier, wliose history is so insep- 

 arably connected with that of the Six Nations, was born in the county ileath, Ireland, 

 in 1715, and died at Johnstown, New York, in 1774. The younger son of an Irish 

 gentleman, he left his native country in 1738 in consequence of a disappointment in 

 love, and emigrated to America, where he undertook the settlement of a large tract 

 of wild land belonging to his uncle, which lay along the south side of the Mohawk 

 river in what was then the wilderness of New York. This brought him into close 

 contact with tlie Six Nations, particularly tlie Mohawks, in whom he became so much 

 interested as to learn their language and in some degree to accommodate himself to 

 their customs, sometimes even to the wearing of the native costume. This interest, 

 together with his natural kindness and dignity, completely won tlie hearts of the Six 



