ROYCE, ] TREATY OF NOVEMBER 28, 1785, _ 135 
after traveling a long distance in a northeasterly direction from his 
point of landing on the west coast of Florida, De Soto reached, in the 
spring of 1540, an Indian town called by the narrator Ga ami: 
qui.” From the early American maps of De L’Isle and other 8, upon which 
is delineated the supposed route of De Soto, this town appears to be 
located on the Santee River, and, as alleged by the “gentleman of 
Elvas,” on the authority of the inhabitants, was two days’ journey from 
the sea-coast. 
The expedition left Cutifachiqui on the 3d of May, 1540,and pursued 
a northward course for the period of seven days, when it came toa 
province called Chelaque, “the poorest country of maize that was seen in 
Florida.” It is recorded that the Indians of this province “feed upon 
roots and herbs, which they seek in the fields, and upon wild beasts, 
which they kill with their bows and arrows, and are a very gentle people. 
All of them go naked and are very lean.” 
That this word “Chalaque” is identical with our modern Cherokee 
would appear to be almost an*assured fact. The distance and route 
pursued by the expedition are both strongly corroborative of this as- 
sumption. The orthography of the name was probably taken by the 
Spaniards from the Muscogee pronunciation, heard by them among the 
Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. It is asserted by William Bar- 
tram, in his travels through that region in the eighteenth century, that 
in the ‘“‘Muscogulge” language the letter “r” is not sounded in a sin- 
gle word, but that on the contrary it occurs very frequently in the 
Cherokee tongue.! 
Through this province of Chalaque De Soto passed, still pursuing 
his northward course for five days until he reached the province of 
“ Xualla,” a name much resembling the modern Cherokee word Qualla. 
The route from Cutifachiqui to Xualla lay, for the most part, through 
a hilly country. From the latter province the expedition changed its 
course to the west, trending a little to the south, and over “very rough 
and high hills,” ee at the end of five Pag a town or province 
which was called “Guaxule,” and two days later a town called 
“Canasagua,” an orthography almost identical with the modern Chero- 
kee name of Canasauga, as applied to both a stream and a town within 
their Georgia limits. 
Assuming that these people, whose territory De Soto thus traversed, 
were the ancestors of the modern Cherokees, it is the first mention made 
of them by European discoverers and more than a century anterior to 
the period when they first became known to the pioneers of permanent 
European occupation and settlement. 
Earliest map.—The earliest map upon whieh I have found “ Chalaqua” 
located is that of “ Florida et Apalche” by Cornely Wytfliet, published 

'T ain informed by Colonel Bushyhead, reel chief of the loneane ae that 
Bartram is mistaken in his latter assumption. The letter ‘‘r” was never used ex- 
cept among the Overhill Cherokees, and occurred very infrequently with them. 
