The Arkansaw traveler. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1882-1???, 1888-12-29

tions. These men had intermarried with the
tawny sun-worshipers, and told De Soto marvel
GUS tales of the mountain walled cities. They
promised to lead him within three weeks to valleys
of richness, filled with wild game, and where there
was profusion of gold, copper and pearls.
Three thousand friendly Indians had also attached
/ themselves to DE SotO's army, and many more
of the natives, who had been captured in different
skirmishes, were compelled to bear the camp
equipage and rations. A curious itinerary Of this
first military tramp through Georgia Is extant but
modern writers have failed TO agree upon the locali
| ties which ii certifes On the Sd day of March,
l54O (ths record says, they left Anhaca and four
days atterward the whole army crossed deep river
called by the Indians "Ocklockonee" March 9th
they arrived at Capachiqui and the 2lst Of that
month came to Toalli. At the latter place Sup
posed TO be in what is known as Irwin county,
| they remained three DAYS and by days quick
march reached Achese, where they stayed one week.
On the 4th of April DE Soto and his motley band
passed through the town of Altamaca, reaching
| Ocute on the 10th of that month. Here two days
halt was made Leaving Ocute on the 18th, they
passed through town whose lord was named
Cofaqui, and came on the 18th to the province of
another chieftain known as Potofa The following
day they became separated in an enormous pine
barren and wandered here and there trying to
escape its labyrinths. A week was consumed, dur
ing which two rivers were forded. Extricated at
length from this predcament, the bulk of the army
set out, April 26, 1910, for Aymay, and
reached it before nightfall Two days subsequent
they departed for Cutifachiqui, where numerous
mulberry groves were found. This place is con-
coded by local historiographers to be identical with
Silver Bluff the left bank of the Savannah river,
twenty five miles below Augusta On the Sd of
May the army was again in motion and week
later arrived at Cheaque May II, $780, Nualla
was reached, situated on the TANKS of a mountain,
with small turbulent river flowing at its base.
| II Eualla be not recognized NAcoochee "hid in
the hills affair, with the May dew on her breast"
there is other likeness within Georga's present
bou ndaries. In ascending the Savannah river, DE
Soto had used charts and diagrams which, being
the work of unskilled hands, often led him far
astray. Taking his departure from Cutifachiqui
Undoubtedly Silver Bluff, he was, including all
stoppages, Just twelve days the road to the cap
ital of the Cherokee nation, a fenced town in
Nacoochee's charming valley. Mount Yonah, a
towering eminence in Habersham county, is prob
ably the "high land" where fernando DE Soto, cav
aier and Zealot, caused an immense rude cross to
be erected, and where, morning and evening, the
most fervent prayers were offered, far above the
noise of ChattahoOchee's rapids.
Leaving Nualla, after i've days rest the army
went to Guaxule. May %, 1910, they were
camped at Canasagua, and on June 5, Chaha was
reached. This is the present site of Rome, Ga.
From Chiaha, on the 1st day of July, 1910, new
march was begun. 1t extended for many months
and miles through Alabama and Mississippi to the
waters of that mighty, sluggish river, where in the
third year of his wanderings De SotO's fever-de-
| stroyed body was committed to the stream. Upon
its discovery his fame chiefly rests
When he traversed the lagoons, forests and val
leys of what we now call the South Atlantic and
], Gulf states of the American republic, De Soto's
widest dream, of conquest, empire and wealth,
scarcely faintest thinning of the grand development
of $50 years. At that time there were fifteen to
twenty thousand Indians in Florida and Georgia
Now, these two states do not contiin an aggregate
of 800. The handsome, ll-fated Spaniard found s
grave where he sought dominion. His career is
one of the few selected of many to point moral
to the youth of free America, and adorn panel in
the rotunda of national Capitol. Sentimental
historians have pictured him a latter day cru
sader. Truth is less fattering. 1t draws no rob-
Der butcher, like De Narvaez, but shows De Soto
more the warrior and adVenturer than the mis-.