Crossing the River. Hospitable
Reception. Attempts to visit the Queen
Mother. Suicide of the Prince. Futile
search for Gold. The Discovery of Pearls. The
Pearl Fishery. The Princess a Captive. Held
in Silken Chains. Her Escape. Location
of Cutifachiqui. The March Resumed.
The next day after the extraordinary
interview which we have described in the last chapter,
the princess ordered several large rafts to be constructed,
and with these, aided by a number of canoes, the army
crossed the rapid stream. Four horses, in attempting
to swim the swift river, were carried away and drowned.
These animals were so precious that the loss was deplored
by the whole army.
When the troops had all crossed, they
found very pleasant accommodations provided for them.
Some were lodged in the village. For the rest
commodious wigwams were erected just outside of
the village in a beautiful mulberry grove on the river
banks. The province of Cofachiqui was found to
be very fertile and quite densely populated.
The natives were in complexion nearly as white as the
Spaniards. They had agreeable features, graceful
forms, and were very frank and amiable in disposition.
They did not seem to be fond of war, though often
involved in conflicts with their neighbors. According
to the custom of the times, all prisoners of war were
enslaved and were employed in servile labor.
To prevent their escape the cruel expedient was adopted
of cutting the main tendon of one leg just above the
heel.
The mother of the princess of this
tribe was a widow, residing in a retired home about
thirty-six miles down the river. De Soto, who
was anxious to secure the firm friendship of this
interesting people, expressed an earnest desire to
see the queen mother. The princess immediately
dispatched twelve of her chieftains to urge her mother
to visit her, that she might be introduced to the
strange visitors, and see the wonderful animals on
which they rode.
She however declined the invitation,
expressing her very decided disapproval of the conduct
of her daughter, as both inexpedient and indelicate,
in entering into such friendly relations with utter
strangers, of whose ulterior designs she could know
nothing. This message, greatly increased the
desire of De Soto to have an interview with the queen
mother, that he might conciliate her friendship.
He therefore dispatched Juan De Anasco, who was alike
distinguished for bravery and prudence, with thirty
companions on foot, to convey to her presents and
friendly messages, and very earnest requests that she
would visit them at the court of her daughter.
The princess sent a near relative
of the family as guide to this party a
young man about twenty-one years of age, and exceedingly
attractive both in person and character. He was
richly habited in garments of soft deerskin, beautifully
fringed and embroidered, with a head-dress of various
colored plumes.
“In his hand he bore a beautiful
bow, so highly polished as to appear as if finely
enamelled. At his shoulder hung a quiver full
of arrows. With a light and elastic step and
an animated and gallant air his whole appearance was
that of an ambassador, worthy of the young and beautiful
princess whom he served.”
The morning was somewhat advanced,
ere they left the village. It was a beautiful
day in a lovely clime. Their route led down the
banks of the river through luxuriant and enchanting
scenery. After a pleasant walk of ten or twelve
miles, they rested in the shade of a grove, for their
noonday meal. Their young guide had been very
social all the way, entertaining them with information
of the region through which they were passing, and
of the people. As they were partaking of their
refreshments, suddenly the aspect of their young companion
became greatly altered. He was silent, thoughtful
and apparently deeply depressed. At length he
quietly took the quiver from his shoulder, and slowly
and seemingly lost in deep reflection, drew out the
arrows one by one. They were very beautiful,
of the highest possible finish, keenly pointed, and
triangularly feathered.
The Spaniards took them up, admired
them greatly, and passed them from hand to hand.
At length he drew out an arrow barbed with flint, long,
and sharp, and shaped like a dagger. Casting an
anxious glance around, and seeing the attention of
the Spaniards engrossed in examining his weapons,
he plunged the keen pointed arrow down his throat,
severing an artery, and almost immediately fell dead.
The soldiers were shocked and bewildered, not being
able to conceive of any reason for the dreadful occurrence.
There were several Indian attendants in the company,
who seemed to be overwhelmed with distress, uttering
loud cries of grief over the corpse.
It subsequently appeared, that the
young guide was a great favorite with the queen mother;
that he knew that she was very unwilling to have any
acquaintance with the Spaniards, and he apprehended
that it was their object to seize her and carry her
off by violence. The thought that he was guiding
them to her retreat overwhelmed him. He could
not endure the idea of meeting her, and perhaps of
being reproached as her betrayer.
On the other hand, the queen, whom
he revered and loved, had commissioned him to conduct
the Spaniards to her mother’s abode. He
did not dare to disobey her commands. Either alternative
was more to be dreaded by him than death. The
ingenuous young man had, therefore, endeavored to
escape from the dilemma by self-destruction.
Juan De Anasco was not only deeply
grieved by the fate of his young friend, but also
greatly perplexed as to the course he was then to
pursue. None of the Indian attendants knew where
the widow was concealed. He took several natives
prisoners, and anxiously inquired of them respecting
the residence of the queen mother. But either
they could not, or would not, give him any information.
After wandering about fruitlessly until noon of the
next day, he returned to the camp, much mortified
in reporting to De Soto the utter failure of his expedition.
Two days after his return, an Indian
came to him and offered to conduct him down the river
in a canoe, to the dwelling of the queen mother.
Eagerly he accepted the proposition. Two large
canoes, with strong rowers, were prepared. Anasco,
with twenty companions, set out on this second expedition.
The queen heard of his approach, and, with a few attendants,
secretly fled to another retreat far away. After
a search of six days, the canoes returned, having
accomplished nothing. De Soto relinquished all
further endeavors to obtain an interview with the
widow.
In the meantime, while Anasco was
engaged in these unsuccessful enterprises, De Soto
was making very anxious inquiries respecting the silver
and the gold which he had been informed was to be found
in the province. The princess listened to his
description of the yellow metal and the white metal
of which he was in search, and said that they were
both to be found in great abundance in her territories.
She immediately sent out some Indians, to bring him
specimens. They soon returned laden with a yellow
metal somewhat resembling gold in color, but which
proved to be nothing but an alloy of copper. The
shining substance which he had supposed was silver,
was nothing but a worthless species of mica, or quartz.
Thus again, to his bitter disappointment, De Soto
awoke from his dreams of golden treasure, to the toils
and sorrows of his weary life.
The princess seemed to sympathize
with her guest in the bitterness of his disappointment.
In her attempts at consolation, she informed him that
at the distance of about three miles from where they
were, there was a village called Talomeco, which was
the ancient capital of the realm; that here there
was a vast sepulchre, in which all the chieftains
and great warriors had been buried; that their bodies
were decorated with great quantities of pearls.
De Soto, with a large retinue of his
own officers and of the household of the princess,
visited this mausoleum. Much to his surprise,
he found there an edifice three hundred feet in length,
and one hundred and twenty in breadth, with a lofty
roof. The entrance was decorated with gigantic
statuary of wood. One of these statues was twelve
feet in height. In the interior many statues
and carved ornaments were found.
A large number of wooden chests or
coffins contained the decaying bodies of the illustrious
dead. By the side of each of these there was
another smaller chest, containing such valuables as
it was probably supposed the chief would need in the
spirit-land. Both the Inca and the Portuguese
narrative agree in the account of the almost incredible
number of pearls there found. It is said that
the Spaniards obtained fourteen bushels, and that
the princess assured them, that by visiting the mausoleums
of the various villages, they could find enough pearls
to load down all the horses of the army.
The Spaniards generally were greatly
elated at the discovery of these riches. Pearls
were estimated at a value almost equal to diamonds.
It is said that Queen Cleopatra possessed a single
pearl which was valued at three hundred and seventy-five
thousand dollars. Philip II. of Spain received
as a present a pearl, about the size of a pigeon’s
egg, valued at one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
De Soto was urged to establish his
colony upon this river, which has variously been conjectured
to have been the St. Helena, the Oconee, the Ogeechee,
and the Savannah. The country was beautiful and
fertile; the climate delightful; and apparently an
inexhaustible pearl fishery near. It was urged
that an agricultural colony could be established on
the fertile banks of the river, while from the seaport
at its mouth a lucrative trade could be carried on
with the mother country for all the rich productions
of Spain.
But the persistent spirit of De Soto
was not to be turned from its one great all-absorbing
object, the search for gold. He urged, and with
great show of reason, that, in consequence of the recent
pestilence, there was not sufficient provision in
the country, to support the army for a month; that
by continuing their march they might enter far richer
provinces, and might find mines of gold. Should
they be disappointed, they could easily return; and
in the meantime, the Indians having replanted their
land, the fields would wave with abundant golden harvests.
In an army of eight or nine hundred
Spanish adventurers, there would of course be many
worthless characters, difficult of restraint.
De Soto had been in this village several weeks.
Notwithstanding all his endeavors to promote peace
and friendship, several broils had arisen between
the natives and some of the low and degraded of his
soldiery. The conduct of these vile men had produced
a general feeling of ill-will among the natives.
Even the princess herself manifested estrangement.
She had become distant and reserved, and was evidently
desirous that her no longer welcome guests should take
their speedy departure. There were some indications
that the princess so far distrusted the Spaniards
that, like her more prudent mother, she was about
secretly to escape from them by flight.
This would leave the Spaniards in
a very embarrassed condition. They needed guides
to conduct them through the extended territory of the
princess. Heavily armed as they were, they needed
porters to carry their burdens of extra clothing and
provisions. The flight of the princess would
be the signal for the natives, all over the territory,
to rise in a war of attempted extermination. The
queen mother would doubtless do everything in her
power to rouse and stimulate this hostility.
The Spaniards thus assailed on every side, destitute
of guides, without porters to carry their baggage,
and with but little food, would find themselves compelled
in self-defence, to cut their way, with blood-dripping
sabres, through their foes, to rob their granaries,
and to leave behind them a path strown with the dead,
and filled with misery.
Again De Soto found himself in a false
position. Again he felt constrained to do that
which his own conscience told him was unjust.
The only possible way, as it seemed to him, by which
he could obtain extrication from these awful difficulties,
was to seize the person of the princess, his friend
and benefactor, and hold her as a captive to secure
the good behavior of her subjects. He knew that
their love for her was such that so long as she was
in his power, they would not enter upon any hostile
movement which might bring down vengeance upon her
head.
If De Soto had accepted the spirit
of the noble letter from Isabella, and had said, “I
will no longer persevere in this invasion of the lands
of others, which is always plunging me more and more
deeply into difficulties,” had he
said frankly to the friendly princess, “I have
decided to return to my home, and I solicit your friendly
cooperation to assist me on my way;” and had
he made her a present, in token of his gratitude,
of some of those articles with which he could easily
have parted, and which were of priceless value to her,
he might doubtless have retired unmolested. Instead
of this he followed the infamous example which Pizarro
had set him in Peru.
He appointed a guard, who were directed
to keep a constant watch upon the princess, so that
she could by no possibility escape; at the same time
he informing her, in the most courteous tones, that
the protection of his army and of her own people rendered
it necessary that she should accompany him on his
march. He held her in silken chains, treating
her with the utmost delicacy and deference. The
princess had sufficient shrewdness to affect compliance
with this arrangement. It certainly accomplished
the desired effect. All strife between the natives
and the Spaniards ceased, a sufficient body of porters
accompanied the army, and its march was unimpeded.
A beautiful palanquin was provided for the princess,
and the highest honors were lavished upon her.
Colonel A. J. Pickett, in his interesting
and very carefully prepared History of Alabama, speaking
of the locality of this village where De Soto tarried
so long, and encountered so many adventures, says:
“He entered the territory of the
present Georgia at its southwestern border, and
successively crossing the Ockmulgee, Oconee, and
Ogeechee, finally rested on the banks of the Savannah,
immediately opposite the modern Silver Bluff.
On the eastern side was the town of Cutifachiqui,
where lived an Indian queen, young, beautiful,
and unmarried, and who ruled the country around
to a vast extent. In 1736 George Golphin, then
a young Irishman, established himself as an Indian
trader at this point, and gave the old site of
Cutifachiqui the name of Silver Bluff. The
most ancient Indians informed him that this was
the place where De Soto found the Indian princess;
and this tradition agrees with that preserved by other
old traders, and handed down to me.”
According to this statement the village
of Cutifachiqui was on the eastern bank of the Savannah
river, in Barnwell county, in the State of South Carolina.
On the morning of the 4th of May, 1540, De Soto again
put his army in motion, taking with him the beautiful
queen and her retinue of plumed warriors. All
this country was then called Florida. The army
advanced rapidly up the eastern bank of the Savannah
river, where they forded the stream, and, again entering
the present State of Georgia, traversed nearly its
whole breadth until they reached the head waters of
the Coosa river. Here, at the confluence of the
Oostanaula and Etowa rivers, they found a large Indian
town called Chiaha, near the present site of Rome.
While on the march across the State
of Georgia, the queen, probably dreading to be carried
captive beyond her own domain, and aided by an understanding
with her retinue, leaped from the palanquin and disappeared
in a dense forest through which they were passing.
De Soto never saw her or heard from her again.
Undoubtedly a band of her warriors were in rendezvous
there to receive her.
For five days the adventurers pressed
along as rapidly as possible, over a hilly country
about sixty miles in breadth. Though well watered,
and abounding in beautiful valleys, luxuriant with
mulberry groves and rich prairies, it seemed to be
quite uninhabited. Having crossed this mountainous
region, they reached a populous district called Guachule.
The chief had received an intimation of the approach
of the Spaniards, and that they came as messengers
of peace and not of war. When De Soto and his
band, led by native guides whom they had picked up
by the way, had arrived within two miles of the village
of the chief, they discovered him approaching them
with a retinue of five hundred plumed warriors, adorned
with glittering robes and weapons in the highest style
of semi-barbaric display. The chief was unembarrassed,
dignified, and courtly in his address. He received
De Soto with truly fraternal kindness, escorted him
to his village, which consisted of three hundred spacious
houses, in a beautiful valley of running streams at
the base of adjacent hills.
The dwelling of the chief was upon
a spacious artificial mound, the summit of which was
sufficiently broad for the large edifice, leaving
a terrace all around it about twelve feet in breadth.
Here De Soto remained four days, enjoying the hospitality
of the friendly Cacique.
Resuming their journey, the army marched
down the banks of a large stream, supposed to be the
Etowa, which empties into the Coosa. For five
days they continued their march through an uninteresting
country, almost destitute of inhabitants, until, having
traversed, as they supposed, about ninety miles, they
came in sight of a large village, called Chiaha.
De Soto, having arrived opposite the
great town of Chiaha, which probably occupied the
present site of Rome, crossed the Oostanaula in canoes,
and upon rafts made of logs, prepared by the Indians,
and took up his quarters in the town. The noble
young chief received De Soto with unaffected joy,
and made him the following address:
“Mighty Chief: Nothing
could have made me so happy as to be the means of
serving you and your warriors. You sent me word
from Guaxule to have corn collected to last your army
two months. Here I have twenty barns full of
the best which the country can afford. If I have
not met your wishes respect my tender age, and receive
my good-will to do for you whatever I am able.”
The Governor responded in a kind manner,
and was then conducted to the chief’s own house,
prepared for his accommodation. The confluence
of the Oostanaula and Etowa at this point forms the
Coosa. Here De Soto remained for a fortnight,
recruiting his wearied men and his still more exhausted
horses. It was bright and balmy summer, and the
soldiers encamping in a luxuriant mulberry grove a
little outside of the town, enjoyed, for a season,
rest and abundance. De Soto, as usual, made earnest
inquiries for gold. He was informed that about
thirty miles north of him there were mines of copper,
and also of some metal of the color of copper, but
finer, brighter, and softer; and that the natives
sometimes melted them together in their manufacture
of barbs, spearheads, and hatchets.
This intelligence excited De Soto
with new hopes. He had occasionally met on his
way natives with hatchets composed of copper and gold
melted together. As the province, which was called
Chisca, was separated from Chiaha by a pathless wilderness
which horses could not traverse, De Soto sent two
of his most trusty followers on an exploring tour
through the region, conducted by Indian guides.
After an absence of ten days they returned with the
disappointing report that they found nothing there
but copper of different degrees of purity.
The rivers in the vicinity of Chiaha
seem to have abounded with pearl oysters, and large
numbers of beautiful pearls were obtained. The
natives nearly spoiled them all by boring them through
with a red-hot rod, that they might string them as
bracelets. One day the Cacique presented De Soto
with a string of pearls six feet in length, each pearl
as large as a filbert. These gems would have been
of almost priceless value but for the action of fire
upon them.
De Soto expressed some curiosity to
see how the pearls were obtained. The Cacique
immediately dispatched forty canoes down the river
to fish during the night for pearl oysters. In
the morning De Soto accompanied the Cacique to the
banks of the river where the oysters were collected.
Large fires were built, and the oysters placed upon
the glowing coals. The heat opened them, and
the pearls were sought for. From some of the
first thus opened ten or twelve pearls were obtained,
about the size of peas. They were all, however,
more or less injured by the heat. Col. Pickett
says that the oyster mentioned was the muscle, to
be found in all the rivers of Alabama.
Again De Soto commenced his journey,
leaving the friendly chief and his people well contented
with the presents he made them of gayly colored cloths,
knives, and other trinkets. Following the banks
of the Coosa to the west they soon entered what is
now the State of Alabama, and on the second of July
came to a large native town named Acoste. The
tribe, or nation, inhabiting this region, was famed
for its martial prowess. The Cacique, a fierce
warrior, did not condescend to advance to meet De
Soto, but at the head of fifteen hundred of his soldiers,
well armed and gorgeously uniformed, awaited in the
public square the approach of the Spanish chief.
De Soto encamped his army just outside of the town,
and, with a small retinue, rode in to pay his respects
to the Cacique.
Some of the vagabond soldiers straggled
into the city, and were guilty of some outrages, which
led the natives to fall upon them. De Soto, with
his accustomed presence of mind, seized a cudgel and
assisted the natives in fighting the Spaniards, while
at the same moment he dispatched a courier to summon
the whole army to his rescue. Peace was soon
established, but there was some irritation on both
sides. The next morning De Soto was very willing
to leave the neighborhood, and the chief was not unwilling
to have him.
De Soto crossed the river Coosa to
the eastern banks, and journeying along in a southerly
direction, at the rate of about twelve miles a day,
passed over a fertile and populous region, nearly three
hundred miles in extent. It is supposed his path
led through the present counties of Benton, Talladega,
Coosa, and Tallapoosa, in Alabama. Throughout
the whole route they were treated by the natives with
the most profuse hospitality, being fed by them liberally,
and supplied with guides to lead them from one village
to another. The province which De Soto was thus
traversing, and which was far-famed for its beauty
and fertility, was called Coosa.
“With a delightful climate, and
abounding in fine meadows and beautiful little
rivers, this region was charming to De Soto and his
followers. The numerous barns were full of corn,
while acres of that which was growing bent to
the warm rays of the sun and rustled in the breeze.
In the plains were plum trees, peculiar to the
country, and others resembling those of Spain.
Wild fruit clambered to the tops of the loftiest
trees, and lower branches were laden with delicious
Isabella grapes."
This is supposed to have been the
same native grape, called the Isabella, which has
since been so extensively cultivated.