64 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



to have lived upon the Ocklawaha Kiver and ultimately to have 

 united with the Seminole. The noted chiefs Jumper and Alligator 

 are supposed to have been descended from them. But there appears 

 to have been another body of Yamasee which gravitated westward 

 as far as Mobile and moved from that region successively to the 

 Upper Creeks, the Lower Creeks, and the western Seminole, with 

 whom they ultimately amalgamated. 



During all this time the Indians of southern Florida seem to have 

 had few dealings with the Spaniards, and, as we have seen, no perma- 

 nent missions were established among them. Nevertheless, they can 

 hardly have escaped entirely from the epidemics introduced by their 

 white neighbors, and we may be pretty certain that they were constantly 

 falling off in numbers. Romans tells us that these Indians removed 

 to Cuba about the time when Great Britain took possession of Florida, 

 but this statement probably applies more particularly to those living 

 along the east coast, because at least part of the Calusa, to whom the 

 name Muspa is frequently given, remained about Lake Okeechobee and 

 on the Gulf shores until the very end of the Seminole war. Part were 

 destroyed at that time and the rest probably retired to Cuba, where they 

 had been in the habit of going regularly to trade (Swanton, 1922, pp. 

 97-106, 124-125, 131, 339-345). 



We now return to the sixteenth century to record Spain's contacts 

 with the native tribes farther north. 



In 1566, the year after he had destroyed the French establishment in 

 Florida, Menendez visited Guale and Santa Elena and built a small 

 fort at the latter place, which he called San Felipe. Acting under his 

 orders, Capt. Juan Pardo left this fort on November 1 with 125 soldiers 

 "to discover and conquer the interior country from there to Mexico." 

 He traveled toward the northwest, not far probably from the Coosaw- 

 hatchie River, until he reached Cofitachequi, or "Canos," as he also 

 calls it. From there he went toward the north until he came to 

 "Juada," or "Joara," the Xuala of De Soto, taking about the same 

 length of time, and perhaps following the same trail. His itinerary 

 and notes are interesting because they serve to locate Cofitachequi with 

 approximate accuracy, and because they show that Catawba or related 

 tribes of Indians were then in occupancy of all of northwestern South 

 Carolina. Indeed, a few days after leaving Cofitachequi, he passed 

 through a town called Ysa, which may have been the Issa or Iswa of a 

 later date, a constituent part of the Catawba tribe. However, the name 

 lias the general signification of "River," and may have been applied to 

 some other tribe. He speaks of the head of this tribe as "a great chief," 

 and says that there he found many chiefs and a great number of In- 

 dians. This again suggests the Catawba tribe, which was the most 

 populous and powerful of the group to which it gave its name. He 



