126 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 137 



Coosa population. — Garcilaso de la Vega, who is, however, given to 

 exaggeration, cites his soldier informants to the effect that there were 

 500 houses in Coosa in 1540, a figure which need not be far wrong if the 

 province of Coosa is intended since the soldier sent to Coosa by Pardo 

 in 1567 reported 150 neighborhoods or small villages. The word "ve- 

 cinos" which appears here cannot possibly mean individuals unless he 

 is merely talking of the central town. The companions of De Luna, 

 who visited Coosa in 1560, reported that the principal town of the 

 province had 30 houses, and that there were seven other villages in 

 its neighborhood, five smaller and two larger. When Coosa reappears 

 in history at the end of the eighteenth century, it had lost the greater 

 part of its population. In 1738 Coosa is said to have had 100 war- 

 riors and the Coosa group of towns 414; in 1750 w© have figures of 

 30+ and 240+ ; an estimate of 1760 gives 430 men in the group, and 

 one of 1761, 270 "hunters." In 1792 the "Coosa of Chickasaw Camp" 

 were credited with 80 men, and the Coosa group of towns with 440. 

 After this time we have figures only for the group. Hawkins (1799) 

 estimated upward of 520 gunmen, and the census of 1832-33 a total 

 population of 3,792. Later figures for Coosa and its towns are not 

 available. 



COREE OR CORANINE 



A small tribe occupying the peninsula south of the mouth of Neuse 

 River, N. C. It is probably the tribe intended by the name Cwaren- 

 noc of Harlot's map, for Lawson calls them in one place Connamox. 

 Soon after first white contact, a considerable part of this tribe was 

 destroyed by the Machapunga Indians. The survivors cast in their 

 lot with the Tuscarora in their war with the colonists, 1711-13. In 

 1715 they and the Machapunga were assigned a tract of land on 

 Mattamuskeet Lake, Hyde County, N. C, where it is probable that 

 they remained until they became extinct. (See Machapunga.) 



Coree population. — In 1709, according to Lawson, they had 25 

 fighting men and were living in two villages. 



COSAPUYA 



See Cusabo, page 128. 



COWETA 



One of the two great Muskogee tribes or towns among the Lower 

 Creeks. According to tradition, they originally constituted one peo- 

 ple with the Kasihta (q. v.) and after the separation became the head 

 war town of the Lower Creeks, just as Kasihta became the head peace 

 town. This town was at one time regarded by whites as the capital 

 of the Creek Confederation, and its chief is often called "Emperor 



