SWANTON] miDIANS OF THE SiOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 301 



Seeing the great necessity for salt that his people were experiencing, for 

 they were dying for lack of it, the adelantado made thorough inquiries of the 

 curacas and their Indians in that province of Capaha in order to learn where 

 he could get some. In the course of this questioning he found eight Indians 

 in the hands of the Spaniards who had been captured the day they entered 

 that pueblo, and were not natives of it, but strangers and merchants who had 

 traversed many provinces with their goods, and among other things they were 

 accustomed to bring salt to sell. Being brought before the governor they told 

 him that in some mountains forty leagues away there was a great deal of 

 very good salt, and to the repeated questions they asked them they replied 

 that there was also in that country much of the yellow metal which they asked 

 for. (Garcilaso, 1723, p. 187.) 



Two Spaniards were sent in quest of these things with the mer- 

 chants and an escort of Indians, "and at the end of the eleven days 

 that they spent on their journey they returned with six loads of 

 rock-salt crystals, not made artificially, but found in this state," be- 

 sides some brass (evidently copper) (Garcilaso, 1723, p. 187). 

 The copper must have gotten into that region from farther to the 

 north but the salt may well have been a native product, though 

 there is some doubt as to whether this episode is properly placed in 

 the narrative. Later, the De Soto expedition encountered salt springs 

 at places named Calpista, Cayas, Tanico, Chaguate, and Aguacay, 

 and Garcilaso speaks of a "Province of Salt" in Arkansas, which 

 was probably along Salt Creek, an affluent of the Ouachita. Of the 

 salt in the "Province of Cayas," at or near this place, Elvas says : 



The Indians carry it thence to other regions to exchange it for skins and 

 blankets. They gather it along the river, which leaves it on top of the sand 

 when the water falls. And since they can not gather it without more sand 

 being mixed with it, they put it into certain baskets which they have for this 

 purpose, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. They hang the baskets 

 to a pole in the air and put water in them, and they place a basin underneath 

 into which the water falls. After being strained and set on the fire to boil, 

 as the water becomes less, the salt is left on the bottom of the pot. (Robert- 

 son, 1933, pp. 192-193.) 



A hundred and forty years later, the French found the Caddo, 

 Tunica, Koroa, and Washita Indians of this section busily engaged 

 in boiling down salt and carrying it to the Mississippi tribes in trade, 

 the Quapaw and Taensa being particularly mentioned as customers. 

 One of the Caddo tribes bears the name "place of salt" (Namidish) 

 (Swanton, 1942, pp. 139-140). Du Pratz thus speaks of the salt 

 region of Louisiana: 



When one has ascended Black River for about 30 leagues, he finds on the 

 left a stream of saline water which comes from the west. Ascending this 

 stream about 2 leagues he comes upon a lake of salt, which is perhaps 2 leagues 

 long by 1 wide. One league higher toward the north he comes upon another 

 lake of salt water almost as long as the first and as wide. 



This water passes without doubt through some salt mines. It has the salt 

 taste without having the bitterness of sea water. The natives come to this 



