FURTHER NOTES ON THE ROUTE OF DE SOTO 



By JOHN R. SWANTON 

 Ethnologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



During the greater part of the month of October and the first half 

 of November, 1938, I continued reconnaissance work in the interest 

 of the United States De Soto Expedition Commission. I left Wash- 

 ington by automobile on October 3 with my son as driver and on the 

 way south made another visit to Towns Hill near Walhalla, S. C, 

 which I regard as the site of the Cheraw town visited by the Spaniards 

 in 1540, and examined the lower end of the old Winding Stair Trail. 

 The next stop was at Arlington, Ga., where Mrs. Wm. E. Bost- 

 wick, Jr., assisted by a group of girl scouts, has been trying to identify 

 land-marks on that part of De Soto's route which passed through 

 Decatur, Miller, Baker, and Early Counties. Under her guidance a 

 visit was made to a spring at the head of Alligator Creek in Baker 

 County, which may be the White Spring where De Soto's army passed 

 the night of March 17-18. It is in competition for that honor with 

 Holyhead Spring, some miles to the west. 



From there we went to Tallahassee via Bainbridge, stopping at Mil- 

 ford to photograph the Ichawaynochaway River, believed to be the 

 River of Toa of the Spaniards. At Tallahassee I had the pleasure of 

 meeting and consulting with Dr. Herman Gunter, the State Geologist, 

 and with J. Clarence Simpson, who is well acquainted with Indian 

 remains in the northwestern part of the State. Mr. Simpson accom- 

 panied me to some neighboring sites including that of San Luis Mis- 

 sion, the Lake Jackson mound group, and sites occupied by the 

 Apalachee Indians in the direction of the Gulf. 



Going on south from Tallahassee, we stopped first to examine 

 Aucilla River, former boundary of the Apalachee tribe toward the 

 southeast, on the banks of which these Indians put up a stout resis- 

 tance to their Spanish adversaries in the fall of 1539. We then pro- 

 ceeded as far as the Withlacoochee and followed the road along the 

 west side which must lie very near the trail followed by De Soto on 

 leaving Tampa Bay. On the way back a brief stop was made at 

 Ocala and a somewhat longer one at Lake Butler, the county seat of 

 Union County. The Narratives would indicate a considerable Indian 

 population here, but few signs of it were discovered. On the way back 

 to Tallahassee a stop was made at Madison and several Indian sites 



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