866 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 544. 



and it is only about, or a little over, twenty 

 feet high, elliptical in form and flat on top. 

 Its base diameters are 190 and 150 feet and its 

 top diameters 90 and 60 feet. There are no 

 evidences of terraces or a graded way ; the sides 

 slope gradually from the summit. It has been 

 plowed over for many years, but this would 

 not have effaced entirely a terrace or graded 

 way had there been one. Moreover, there 

 were no such indications extant half a ceutui-j' 

 ago. There is, however, a mound in Bartow 

 County, Georgia, which does fully meet the 

 requirements of the chroniclers' descriptions. 



Another reason for rejecting this route is 

 that it follows down the Chattahoochee River 

 instead of the Coosa; in other words, elim- 

 inates the ' Coza ' for which the Adelantado 

 was in search, and which his successors en- 

 deavored to reach. Hamlet is taken out of 

 the play unless the name ' Coza ' is transferred 

 to Chattahoochee. 



Another reason for considering this theory 

 erroneous is that although the army must 

 have passed through Cherokee territory after 

 leaving Xuala, if this route was followed, no 

 mention whatever of this fact is made by any 

 of the chronicles. 



Finally the theory is erroneous because it 

 is based on a mistake. It is apparent, from 

 the statement of the author we have been re- 

 ferring to, that the conclusion reached by 

 others, that Xuala was in northeastern 

 Georgia, was set aside because he had ascer- 

 tained, as he believed, that there was formerly 

 a tribe of Indians named Suali or Suala in 

 western North Carolina; hence as Xuala 

 might be pronounced Shuala, the two must be 

 one and the same people, in fact he says (Nine- 

 teenth Annual Rep. Bureau of Eth., Pt. 195) : 

 "As the province of Clialaque is the country of 

 the Cherokee, so the province of Xuala is the 

 country of the Suali or Sara Indians, better 

 known as the Cheraws." 



On this slender foundation of a slight re- 

 semblance in names does the theory appear to 

 be built, which takes De Soto and his army, 

 with their hogs and other incumbrances, into 

 the ' piedmont region of North Carolina.' 



The objection, however, does not stop here, 

 for the statement that there was an Indian 



tribe in southwestern North Carolina known 

 as Suali or Suala appears to be based solely on 

 the name as used by John Lederer in his 

 ' Discoveries in Three Several Marches ' 

 (1672). But it has been shown (American 

 Anthropologist, N. S., Vol. 5, No. 4, 1903) 

 that his reputed expedition into Carolina is 

 clearly a fiction, that he was never nearer this 

 point than along the southern border of Vir- 

 ginia, his statements in regard to this section 

 are, therefore, unreliable. What few facts he 

 mentions being obtained, in all probability, 

 from the Indians along Roanoke River, and 

 from the accounts of other earlier explorers, 

 with which he seems to have been familiar. 



His name Suali or Suala seems to refer to 

 De Soto's Xuala, of which he appears to have 

 obtained knowledge; in fact, he states that it 

 was obtained from the Spanish. As he knew 

 it was somewhere in the direction of his im- 

 aginary journey without any knowledge as to 

 distance, he uses the name to give weight to 

 his fictitious narrative. Distance would have 

 troubled a writer but little who definitely 

 placed a great lake in western North Carolina 

 and believed that the Pacific laved the western 

 slope of the Alleghanies. 



Unfortunately, however, for the theory, 

 Lederer nowhere applies the name to the In- 

 dians, but throughout expressly limits it to 

 mountains, giving the name Sara to the In- 

 dians. ' The theory, therefore, as given is abso- 

 lutely without a foundation stone, as the name 

 Suali or Suala was never applied to Indians 

 so far as we are able to ascertain until Mr. 

 Mooney so used it in his ' Siouan Tribes of 

 the East.' 



Believing the foregoing reasons to be en- 

 tirely sufiicient for rejecting the theory that 

 Xuala was in the ' piedmont region of North 

 Carolina,' we next proceed to give our reasons 

 for believing that this village or province was 

 located in northeastern Georgia, and Guaxule 

 in northwestern Georgia, most likely in Bar- 

 tow County. 



In attempting to trace that portion of De 

 Soto's route now under discussion it is best 

 to accept what seems to be the most satisfac- 

 tory evidence in regard to one particular lo- 

 cality mentioned. One item is given by Gar- 



