136 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
in 1597.1 This location is based upon the narrative of De Soto’s expe- 
dition, and is fixed a short distance east of the Savannah River and im- 
mediately south of the Appalachian Mountains. ‘ Xualla” is placed to 
the west of and near the headwaters of the “ Secco” or Savannah River. 
EARLY TRADITIONS. 
Haywood, in his Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, 
records many of the traditions concerning the origin and the primal 
habitat of the Cherokees. He notes the fact that they were firmly 
established on the Tennessee or Hogohege River before the year 1650, 
and exercised dominion over all the country on the east side of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains, including the headwaters of the Yadkin, Catawba, 
Broad, and Savannah Rivers, and that from thence westward they 
claimed the country as far as the Ohio, and thence to the headwaters 
of the Chattahoochee and Alabama. One tradition which he alleges 
existed among them asserts their migration from the west to the upper 
waters of the Ohio, where they erected the mounds on Graye Creek, 
gradually working eastward across the Alleghany Mountains to the 
neighborhood of Monticello, Va., and along the Appomattox River. 
From this point, it is alleged, they removesl to the Tennessee country 
about 1623, when the Virginians suddenly and unexpectedly fell upon 
and massacred the Indians throughout the colony. After this mas- 
sacre, the story goes, they came to New River and made a temporary set- 
tlement there as well as one on the head of the Holston; but, owing to the 
enmity of the northern Indians, they removed in a short time to the Little 
Tennessee and founded what were known as “ Middle Settlements.” An- 
other tribe, he alleges, came from the neighborhood of Charleston, South 
Carolina, and settled lower down the Tennessee. This branch called 
themselves “ Ketawanga,” and came last into the country. The tradi- 
tion as to those who came from Virginia seeks also to establish the idea 
that the Powhatan Indians were Cherokees. The whole story is of the 
vaguest character, and if the remainder has no stronger claims to cred- 
ibility than their alleged identity with the Powhatans, it is scarcely 
worthy of record except as a matter of curiosity. 
Tn fact the explorations of De Soto leave almost convincing proof that 
the Cherokees were occupying a large proportion of their more modern 
territory nearly a century prior to their supposed removal from the 
Appomattox. 
Pickett, in his History of Alabama, improves upon the legend of Hay- 
wood by asserting as a well established fact what the latter only pre- 
sumes to offer as a tradition. 
However, as affording a possible confirmation of the legend related 
by Haywood concerning their early location in Eastern Virginia, it may 

'The full title of this work is ‘‘Descriptionis Ptolemaic Augmentum; sive Occi- 
dentis Notitia, breyi commentario illustrata, studio et opera Cornely Wytfliet, 
Lonaniensis. Lovanii, Typis lohannis Bogardi, anno Domini MDXCVII.” 
