DeSoto's Southern Trail
by Donald E. SheppardBefore continuing west to the harbor which his sailors had located (Mobile Bay) for supplies for his long northward journey toward what he believed was the "Pacific Ocean," several survivors of Hernando De Soto's ill fated expedition reported at Marianna, Florida, that "... we had news of the interior... we were going in search of the land that Indian boy named Perico told us was on another sea (the Atlantic Ocean)." ©University of Alabama Press
"He (Perico) said that he was not from this land, but that he was from another one lying in the direction of the sunrise (northeast). Some time ago he had come here in order to visit other lands; his land was called Yupaha, and that a woman ruled it. Her town was of wonderful size, and she collected tribute from many of her neighboring Chiefs, some of whom gave her gold in abundance. He told how the gold was taken from the mines, melted and refined, just as if he had seen it done, or else the devil thought him. All among us who knew anything of this said it was impossible to give so good an account of it unless one had seen it; and all believed whatever he said was true when they saw the signs he made. On Wednesday, the 3rd of March, 1540 (mid-March on our Gregorian Calendar), the governor (Hernando de Soto) left (his camp at Marianna) in search of Yupaha, the Indian boy's land."
"Our ships headed for Cuba and we marched north, in order to see what the Indian boy told us about."
DeSoto ordered all his men "to provide themselves with food for a long journey through uninhabited land. Those of horse carried the corn on their horses and those of foot on their backs, because most of the captured Indians had died from the hard life they suffered, being naked and in chains all winter. After a march of four days (into Southeast Alabama), we came to a deep river (the Chattahoochee River) where a large raft was made ("the river was so broad that our best thrower never managed to throw a stone across it") and, because of the strong current, a chain cable (made from bondage chains, "strongly joined with S hooks of iron") was fastened on each side of the river. The raft was crossed over alongside the chain..." Four full days and part of another were spent rafting the army and its animals across this river, which was flooded by the Spring thaw. Today there's a highway bridge and railroad trestle spanning this huge river where DeSoto crossed it into today's Georgia. "... the horses were pulled across with ropes and tackle, which horses had dragged there..." from the ships at port in Panama City.
"On the other bank of the river we found a province, which is called Acapachiqui (Southwest Georgia), very abundant in food..." on Wednesday, March 9, 1540. We saw some towns of the province, and others we could not visit because it was a land of very great swamps (Kirkland, Sawhatchee, Sheffield Mills, Weaver Creeks and Porter Pond, all flooded by heavy rains). Here we found a difference in the houses of the Indians; we found them as caves below the ground, while up to here they were covered with palms and straw."
"After crossing the river (the Chattahoochee), in a day and a half we reached a town called Capachiqui (Blakely, Ga.). On Friday, March 11, they saw the Indians had hidden in the woods. Next day, five Christians went to look for mortars which the Indians use for crushing corn. They went to some Indian houses near to the camp which were surrounded by a forest. Within the forest many Indians were walking about who came to spy on us. Five of them separated from the others and attacked our men. One of our men came running to the camp. They found one of our men dead and three badly wounded. The Indians fled through a swamp (Dry Creek) with a very dense wood around it where the horses could not enter."
"... thus we passed on to sleep at another town farther on (Kolomoki Mound State Park). But we came upon a bad swamp next to town (Blakely) with a strong current, and before arriving (at Kolomoki) we crossed a large stretch of water (Breastworks Branch) that came to the saddle pads of the horses in such a manner that all the army was not able to finish crossing that day on account of it (it's dammed there today beside a highway which still closes after heavy rains)... we left, on the sixteenth of March, and spent the night at White Spring (at the head of Spring Creek, west of Edison). This is a very beautiful spring, with a great abundance of good water and fish."
"We went onward and came upon two rivers..." Pachitla and Ichawaynochaway Creeks, at today's Fountain Bridge and Five Points, just after heavy rains."
"... where we made two bridges of pine trees, and the great current broke them, and we made another bridge of timbers crossed in a certain way, which a gentleman described, at which we all laughed, but it was true what he said; and having made the bridges in that way, we crossed very well. And on Monday the army finished crossing those rivers and they spent the night in a pine forest... And early on Tuesday (under the Full Moon and probably on a dawn horseback raid, as was DeSoto's habit when entering a large native settlement) they arrived at Toa (Toa-son today, Dawson, Georgia). We found a fair-sized town there, larger than any we had found up to there."
"Beyond that place a difference was seen in the houses, for those behind were covered with hay and those of Toa were covered with canes in the manner of tile... Throughout these cold lands each of the Indians has his house for the winter plastered inside and out. They shut the very small door at night and build a fire inside the house so that it gets as hot as an oven, and stays so all night long.... Besides those houses they have others for summer with kitchens nearby where they build their fires and bake their bread. They have barbacoas in which they keep their corn, that is a house raised up on four posts and timbered like a loft and with a floor of cane... the houses of the lords are larger and have balconies in front, under which are cane seats resembling chairs... Native blankets are made of the inner bark of trees and some from a plant like daffodils, the Indian women cover themselves with these, wrapping one from the waist down and another over the shoulder with the right arm uncovered. The Indian men wear only one over the shoulders in the same way and have their privies covered with a truss of deerskin resembling the breech cloths formerly worn in Spain. The skins are well tanned...and of this they make shoes...."
"Wednesday, the twenty-forth of the month, on the Full Moon, the Governor left from there at midnight, secretly, with up to forty horsemen... and they traveled all that day until the night (they rode through today's town of DeSoto, Ga.), when he found a bad and deep crossing of water (Lime Creek), and although it was night, they crossed it, and they walked (their horses) this day twelve leagues (thirty-two miles); and the next day (the Thursday before Easter), in the morning, they arrived at the province of Chisi (at the Flint River) and crossed a branch of a large river, very broad, some of it on foot, and even a good part of it swimming (they crossed the Flint River) and attacked a town that was on an island in this river (the "island" was the high ground inside the junction of the Flint River at Turkey Creek, the river's main branch, near Drayton), where they captured some people and found food. And because this place was dangerous, before the Indians came in canoes some went back the same way they had entered (DeSoto sent riders back to advance the army), but first they all had for lunch some hens of the land, which are called turkeys, and loins of venison that they found roasted on a barbacoa, which is like a grill... and the Indian boy Perico that they had brought from Apalache (near Panama City) as guide led them there. And they (with DeSoto) passed on to other towns (riding up the east bank of the Flint River), and at a bad crossing of a swamp (Hogcrawl Creek), some horses drowned, because they were put in to swim with the saddles, while their owners crossed over on a beam which traversed the current of the water. And crossing this Benito Fernandez, a Portuguese, fell from the wood beam and drowned."
"As soon as the governor had crossed the stream (Hogcrawl Creek), he found a village called Achese (Montezuma, Ga.) a short distance on. Although the Indians had never heard of Christians they plunged into a river (the Flint River). A few Indians were seized, men and women, and one of them understood the Indian boy who was guiding us to Yupaha. On that account, DeSoto was more certain of what the boy said, for we had passed through lands having different languages, some of which the boy had not understood. The governor sent one of the Indians captured there to call the Chief who was on the other side of the river (at today's Oglethorpe)."
"This day (the Thursday before Easter) we arrived at a town (Montezuma) where principal Indians came as messengers from Ichisi (Macon; he ruled the land between the Flint and Ocmulgee Rivers), and one of them asked the governor: "Who are you? What do you want? Where are you going?" And they brought presents of hides and blankets of the land, which were the first gifts as a signal of peace."
"the governor said... that he was the son of the sun and came from where it dwelt and that he was going through that land and seeking the greatest lord and the richest province in it. The Chiefs said that a great lord lived on ahead; that his domain was called Ocute." (beyond the Oconee River; Cherokee Indians)
"On Monday, the twenty-ninth of March (the army having advanced up the west bank of the Flint River through Americus and Oglethorpe then crossing the river into Montezuma during the days preceding Easter Sunday), they left from there for Ichisi (Macon, Ga.), and it rained so much, and a small river (Beaver Creek) swelled in such a manner, that if they had not made much haste to cross, all of the army would have been endangered.
"The chief (of Montezuma) gave DeSoto a guide and interpreter for that province. The governor ordered his Indians to be set free and departed from his town... marching through his land up a river with many villages (up the Flint River to Whitewater Pond then over Beaver Creek). He left a wooden cross raised very high in the middle of the public place (on Easter Sunday).
"We spent five or six days in passing through this province (between the Flint and Ocmulgee Rivers), which is called Chisi, where we were well served by the Indians, from the little that they had."
"This day (Monday, March 29) the Indian men and women came forth (to Marshallville from Fort Valley) to receive them (DeSoto's riders in the vanguard). The women came clothed in white and they made fine appearance, and they gave to the Christians tortollas of corn and some bundles of spring onions exactly like those of Castile, as fat as the tip of the thumb and more. And that was a food which helped them much from then on; and they ate them with tortillas, roasted and stewed and raw, and it was a great aid to them because they are very good. The white clothing in which those Indian women came clothed are some blankets of both coarse and fine linen. They make the thread of them from the bark of the mulberry tree; not from the outside but rather of the middle; and they know how to process and spin and prepare it so well and weave it, that they make very pretty blankets. And they put one on from the waist down, and another tied by one side and the top placed upon the shoulder, like those of Bohemians or Egyptians who are in the habit of sometimes wandering through Spain. The thread is such that he who found himself there (with DeSoto, in the vanguard) certified to me that he saw the women spin it from the bark of the mulberry trees and make it good as the most precious thread from Portugal that the women in Spain procure in order to sew, and some more thin and even, and stronger. The mulberry trees are exactly like those of Spain, and as large and larger; but the leaf is softer and better for silk, and the mulberries better for eating and even larger than those from Spain, and the Spaniards also made good use of them many times, in order to sustain themselves. They (DeSoto's riders) arrived that day at a town of a chief (Fort Valley; the others probably camped near Marshallville their first night out of Montezuma) subject to Ichisi, a pretty town and with plenty of food, and the chief gave them willingly of what he had, and they rested there on Tuesday (while the rest of the army caught up to them), and then on Wednesday, the last day of March, the Governor and his army departed, and they (DeSoto's riders) arrived at the Great River (the Ocmulgee at Macon) where they (the Indians) had many canoes in which they crossed very well and arrived at the town of the Lord, who was one-eyed (at today's Ocmulgee National Monument), and he gave them very good food and fifteen Indians to carry the burdens. And as he was the first who came in peace, they did not wish to be tiresome. They were there Thursday, the first of April (while the army advanced from Fort Valley, through Byron, and crossed the Ocmulgee River at Macon), and they placed a cross on the mound of his town and informed them through the interpreter of the sanctity of the cross, and they received it and appeared to adore it with much devotion."