217 



from which the River Saint Mary takes its rise. It is called 

 a lake, or rather a marsh, three hundred miles in circumfer- 

 ence. The account given of these Indians, borders too 

 much on romance to deserve much credit. The lake or 

 marsh is called Ouaquaphenoga. " In wet seasons it appears 

 like an inland sea, and has several large islands of rich land ; 

 one of which the present generation of Creek Indians repre- 

 sent as the most blissful spot on earth. They say it is 

 inhabited by a peculiar race of Indians, whose women are 

 incomparably beautiful. They tell that this terrestrial par- 

 adise has been seen by some enterprising hunters, when in 

 pursuit of their game, who being lost in inextricable swamps 

 and bogs, and on the point of perishing, were unexpectedly 

 relieved by a company of beautiful women, whom they call 

 daughters of the sun, who kindly gave them such provisions 

 as they had with them ; consisting of fruit and corn cakes, 

 and then enjoined them to fly for safety to their own coun- 

 try, because their husbands were fierce men, and cruel to 

 strangers. They further say, that these hunters had a view 

 of their settlements, situated on the elevated banks of an 

 island, in a beautiful lake ; but in all their endeavours to 

 approach it, they were involved in perpetual labyrinths, and, 

 like enchanted land, still as they imagined they had just 

 gained it, it seemed to fly before them ; and having quitted 

 the delusive pursuit, they with much difficulty effected 

 their retreat. 



"They tell another story concerning this sequestered 

 country, which seems not improbable, which is, that the 

 inhabitants are the posterity of a fugitive remnant of the an- 

 cient Yamases, who escaped massacre, after a bloody and 

 decisive battle between them and the Creeks, (who, it is 

 certain, conquered and nearly exterminated that once pow- 

 erful people), and here formed an asylum, remote and secure 

 from the fury of their proud conquerors. The River Saint 

 Mary and Sitilla, which fall into the Atlantic, and the beauti- 

 ful Little Juan, which empties into the bay of Appalachi, at 

 Saint Mark's, are said by Bartrana, to flow from this lake>"* : 



* See Ouaquaphenogaxv, American Gazetteer, 

 19 



