Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-06-07
SINGULAR AND CURIOUS REMINIs-
OENCE--A STORY OF THE OLDEN
TIME. I..I t..H''


TIME.
While travelling recently through the south
western section Of the U United States, was stay
inga day or two with an old Spanish gentleman
in Louisiana whose acquaintance had re-
GENTLY formed, when became possessed of
the following curious story Of the past: Sig
nor B. is descendant of an old Castilian
titled family, and has in his possession among
other records of the past, preserved in his
family, q rare document about the journey
ings Of De Soto in this country. 1t is itself
by confession, a copy taken from the original
manuscript by some of the ancestors OF sig
nor b.. Il is supposed that the original
was prepared by one of De Soto's followers.
This Is enough of its history. was kindly
permitted to examine the MS, and copy
portion of it. l should have been most
happy, had circumstances permitted, to have
taken q copy of the whole manuscript. But
not being able to do that, selected the ac-
count of De Soto's travels in the northwest
ern part Of Gorgia and Tennessee, and have
made the following free translation of aportion
which refers to his encampment among the
mountains of this region. l will give' the
tranelation first, and then endeavor TO locate
the iHencarnpment' of which IL speaks, and
endeavor TO demonstrate the correctness OF
nv conclusions by q reference to the geogra-
ply Of upper Georgia, for believe TO Georgia
Is due this honor, if it can be so called
ave had been journeying for some days
uliHn5 sIo a. AL ess,, nasso,ra ovaT
~. " InI hns ~ S~;y,s, 70 ths rough
.bsrsctsr ~ of t5e connt we We're rot able f6r
= io,',- t;,,a ~ sffact snvthing. The Gov
arNns ,o dsIepm;ned ls4 AZ lust TO 1ush boldly in
among these mountains in north-easterly
direction with the hope that we might get
60 se,,,5 ranSer 4 ;mnossible to do so. The
snoetSar SnoSiu ,yss now gett;no verv cold. and
evsrv S.v We met a great many Indians, suf-
svery Gay we /. ineS o,sLsnh sh, thay 'T,are more
.eatn .,,n5 ,ron ~ I, than ourselves There was
oiss - f3,,,d much 40 onr trouble. a great
s,SO, ~ nroyis;ons so that The Indians
had now oeased 10 bring us provender for
nau M $50 S,,h;nh tbay bad dome to tbe south
Sul 10 hei,.,,,d ~, r,eIvss uhenever we couid
sswe n'lPeo '''''0i' " " -0'N : ~
nnS w .Vi ;,,.,,ad Cor tbrae davs as we'll as we
iii y a ,oytb.assteriv direction. and then
oono ~ - ,arr,s crealr where we found i'm
s.,s. - e. Sasr and Killed some of them.
TSa no,error tbonght that we could not do
ba,tor ,hon 10 follow I'M this creek. in hopes
of getting along better. We had been fol-
y, - S.s';e ;.e ~ hi short time when the
a.s. Iomts :. .hacl.sS onr further proqress by the
t'ssss snows which bepan 10 fall. So the
GorSy,1nr dstarm;ned Ia halt and form an
,',Soa,.nn,ont 90 that we might rest our
Io.aa. thst had suffered very severely for
aN,.arsi davs ne we'll as To protect our
se,ras .oni1si the severity of the weather
mil enr;ng should afford us good
onuortunity for prosecuting our journey. The
Sp.'nr,snn saIacfaS for our encampment a
enri,, Iavoi snot of land ON the east bank of
tho nyyosI AMONG the mountains, containing
fsI acres and which we at once set to
,-,o,i" 90 Tort;fv hv throwing nm a breast
',orh ~ dirt sndd Gravel. for the Indians were
W. ~. " ,raii disnosed 70 us in this region as
tbev ,vare further south. .1-,1-I. .'' ~ ...1
Efter we Ind thus fortified our encam p
mant we made the Indians build us huts like
their own inside the breastworks, and gath
orod iii tbe food in there we could find The
Tsc;one of tbe Indians lives in an Indian
town some miles down the creek from our
sncamnment. bpt not SO far If we could have
,,rogsad the maintains. We could not get
thepe srcent inst where tho creek passed
throueh which seemed to have been an OPEN
inc isE expressly for the use of the creek, the
neuntsins came so near each other on each
side. 1t looked like the mountain had been
cnt in two here. and thin slice taken out.
Tha Cac;one never visited us but once, though
r,any otber Indians came. And the Gov
ernor then demanded of him one hundred
AZ ousworL far ns' The Caciaue being afraid
oS ns aant ma ali the maize he could get, but
was unable to send the Indians, which shows
~ INV mind that the Indian Caciques do moi
have much power over their subjects. But
we made the Indians who visited US do what.
ever We wanted done. irgg,. -9i lsy.irtg
We, killed q great many deer, which
warmed around our encampment, and so VIC
had good time. And we learned from the
indians a great deal about the country. One
thing they told us and which we could not
believe until we went ourselves TO see it. II
was Off large fat rock, which had great
MANY eagles heads and shells, and q greai
many other curious things sticking out of it
We went to see il and found that it was so
II was not far from our encampment. The
Tndians said that their Great Spirit lived
nnder the rock. and could sometimes be heard
in the around on the opposite side of the little
stream. which runs by the rock And thai
the ea9iesi heads, ETC., were real eagles anc
shells, but that the Great Spirit had got angry
with them, aud turned them into stones anC
nut them there. We remained in our encamp
nent Sepenty-fve days, when the weather be
oama milder,r aud we we're enabled TO pur
aue our tourney. So we broke up our en-
nampnent. and being all well refreshed b,
onr long rest, and our horses well rested ant
fat we pursued our journey to the north
east ., ,'r1gIs fri sgr laH sgH lrg
The manuscript from which | have trans
Istad ths above, goes on 10 relate the yariou
aSvsntnres If be Soto and his followers il
fbeir Wild journey 10 the North. OF these
sbeii say nothing more at present, but win en-