434 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 137 



(Garcilaso, 1723, pp. 194-195; Eobertson, 1933, p. 203). Both 

 Guachoya and Aminoya were fenced (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, p. 38; 

 Robertson, 1933, pp. 214, 262), and the same may have been true of 

 Anilco though it is not specifically stated. Let us now review the 

 principal descriptions. 



Speaking of the stronghold of the Apalachee chief, Garcilaso says : 



The Indians had fortified it in the following manner. In the middle of a 

 very large and very dense forest they had cleared a space where the Curaca 

 and his Indians had their lodgings. As an entrance to this plaza they had 

 opened through the same woods a narrow alley more than half a league in 

 length. All along this alley at intervals of a hundred paces they had made 

 strong palisades with thick logs which commanded the passage. (Garcilaso, 

 1723, p. 83.) 



The Tennessee towns did not, apparently, excite so much interest 

 as the stockaded settlements in central Alabama. Ranjel describes 

 an old and abandoned town on or near Alabama River 



that had two fences and good towers, and these walls are after this fashion: 

 They drive many thick stakes tall and straight close to one another. These 

 are then interlaced with long withes, and then overlaid with clay within and 

 without. They make loopholes at intervals and they make their towers and 

 turrets separated by the curtain and parts of the wall as seems best. And 

 at a distance it looks like a fine wall or rampart and such stockades are 

 very strong. (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, p. 115.) 



Elvas says of UUibahali, 



The enclosure, like that in other towns seen there afterward, was of thick 

 logs, set solidly close together in the ground, and many long poles as thick as an 

 arm placed crosswise. The height of the enclosure was that of a good lance, 

 and it was plastered within and without and had loopholes. (Robertson, 1933, 

 p. 120; Bourne, 1904, vol. 1, p. 85.) 



According to Garcilaso, the famous town of Mabila was 



on a very fine plain and had an enclosure three estados [about 16.5 feet] high 

 which was made of logs as thick as oxen {tueyes). They were driven into the 

 ground so close together that they touched one another. Other beams, longer 

 and not so thick, were placed crosswise on the outside and inside and attached 

 with split canes and strong cords. On top they were daubed with a great deal of 

 mud packed down with long straw, which mixture filled all the cracks and open 

 spaces between the logs and their fastenings in such manner that it really 

 looked like a wall finished with a mason's trowel. At intervals of fifty paces 

 around this enclosure were towers capable of holding seven or eight men, 

 who could fight in them. The lower part of the enclosure, to the heiglit of an 

 estado [5.55 feet], was full of loopholes for shooting arrows at those on the 

 outside. The pueblo had only two gates, one on the east and the other on 

 the west. In the middle of the pueblo was a spacious plaza around which 

 were the largest and most important houses. (Garcilaso, 1723, pp. 146-147.) 



Garcilaso gives a very elaborate account of the Alabama fort, but 

 it is unfortunately not checked by the other writers, though we may 

 gather that he has exaggerated as is his wont. He says: 



