DeSoto's Southern Trail
by Donald E. Sheppard
"All of these rivers joined together within a short distance (of DeSoto's campsite - Chiaha Island is at the union of the Tuckasegee, Oconaluftee, Little Tennessee and Nantahala Rivers) to form a large river of such volume that at Chiaha, which was thirty leagues (79 miles) from Guaxule (Asheville), it was larger than the Guadalquivir at Savilla (Spain). This village, Chiaha, was situated on the (east) end of a large island (formed by the Little Tennessee and Cheoa Rivers on the north and west, the Little Tennessee and Nantahala River on the south and east) more than five leagues (thirteen miles) long, which the river formed (measured from the Little Tennessee River's bend on itself, west of today's Fontana Dam, eastward toward the Nantahala River). The Chief went out to receive the governor and welcomed him cordially with all the demonstrations of affection and pleasure that he could show, and the Indians whom he had brought with him did the same with the Spaniards, being very pleased to see them. Taking them across the river (the Little Tennessee River) in many canoes and rafts they had ready for this purpose, they lodged them in their houses, as if they were their own brothers. All the other service and entertainment they accorded them were similar in measure, their desire being, as they expressed it, to take out their hearts and lay them before the Spaniards, so that they might see with their own eyes how much pleasure it gave them to know the Spaniards..." ©University of Alabama Press
"Chiaha ("The Place of the Mink," in Cherokee language, possibly meaning weasel in this case, given the Chiaha's reputation among Cherokee. Chief Chiaha was not Cherokee; he and his people were from the west and extracted homage from the Cherokee, a common native custom, which may be why Chief Chiaha welcomed DeSoto in the first place, given his hostile Cherokee surroundings... and, likewise, why the Cherokee do not even mention the name Chiaha today. In the Yuchi language, Chiaha means "The High Place;" indicating that Chiaha was probably from the lower Tennessee River Valley...)
"(Chiaha) was isolated between two arms of a river and was settled near one of them (the Little Tennessee River) ... Very excellent fields lay along them... There the Governor rested for thirty days..." (while his army searched the surrounding mountains for gold. One mine, blasted precisely to sixteenth century standards, still exists in Sawyer Creek Valley; the Spaniards may have dug it).
"Saturday, the fifth of June, was the day that they entered in Chiaha; and since from Xuala (Tryon, North Carolina) all their travel had been through a mountain range (the highest in Eastern-North America) and the horses were tired and thin, and the Christians likewise fatigued, it was advisable to halt and rest there; and they (the Indians) gave them an abundance of good corn, of which there is much... and considerable oil of walnuts and acorns which they knew how to extract very well, and it was very good and helped them very much for their sustenance, although some are wont to say that the oil of walnuts causes flatulence; notwithstanding, it is very delicious..."
"...the Chief came to visit the Governor and made him a present of a handsome string of pearls. If they had not been pearced with fire they would have been a fine gift because the string was two fathoms (about twelve feet) long and the pearls as large as hazel nuts, almost perfectly matched. The Governor received them... and in return gave him pieces of velvet and cloth of various colors and other things from Spain, which the Indians valued highly. The Governor asked him if those pearls were found in his country, and the chief replied that they were, and that in the Temple and burial place of their fathers and grandfathers... there were great quantities of pearls; and if he wanted them, he could have... as many as he desired... The Governor told him that he appreciated the good will and although he desired the pearls he would not injure the burial place of his ancestors, however much he might want them. The string that he had given the Governor he had received only because it was a present from him, and he wished to know only how they (the Indians) took the pearls from the shells... "The chief told him that on the next day at eight o'clock in the morning his lordship would see how it was done, for that afternoon and night the Indians would fish for them. The Chief immediately directed that forty canoes be sent out with orders that they fish for the shells, with all diligence, and come back in the morning. When morning came, the chief ordered much wood to be brought and heaped up on a level space on the riverbank. It was set on fire and a large bed of coals made, and as soon as the canoes arrived he ordered that the coals be spread out and the shells that the Indians brought (in the canoes) to be thrown upon the bed of coals. The pearls opened from the heat of the fire and they were enabled to hunt for the pearls inside them. From almost the first shells that they opened the Indians took out ten or twelve pearls as large as medium-sized chick-peas and brought them to the chief and the governor, who were watching together to see how they took them out. They saw that they were very good and perfect except that the heat and smoke of the fire had already damaged their fine natural color.
"Having seen them take out the pearls, the governor went to his lodgings to eat and soon after he had eaten a soldier entered... Showing a pearl that he carried in his hand, he said: "Sir, as I was eating some of the oysters that the Indians brought today, a few which I took to my quarters and had cooked, I found this between my teeth, which almost broke them. As it seemed to me to be a fine one, I brought it to your lordship so that you might send it to your wife Dona Isabel..." The adelantado replied, saying: "I thank you for your good will and accept the present and the favor you do Dona Isabel so that she may thank you and repay you whenever the opportunity arises. But it will be better if you keep the pearl and take it to Havana, so that you can get in exchange for it a couple of horses and two mares and anything else you may need. Because of the good will you have shown toward us, I shall pay, out of my own pocket, the fifth (of the value of the pearl) that belongs to his Majesty.
"The Spaniards who were with the governor examined the pearl, and those among them who regarded themselves as lapidaries of sorts estimated that in Spain it would be worth 400 ducats, because it was the size of a large hazelnut with its husk entire, perfectly rounded and of a clear and lustrous color. Since it had not been opened with fire, as had the others, its color and beauty had not been injured. We give an account of these particulars, though unimportant, because they show the wealth of that country. "On one of the days that the Spaniards were in this village of Chiaha a misfortune occurred that grieved all of them very much. This was that a gentleman... while walking across a plain near the river with a lance in his hand, saw a dog pass near him and threw the lance at it with the intention of killing it for food, because due to the general scarcity of meat throughout that country, the Castillians ate all the dogs they were able to get. The throw missed the dog, and the lance went skimming across the plain beyond until it fell over the bluff above the river, and it happened to strike in the temple a soldier who was fishing there with a cane pole, coming out on the other side of his head, from which he immediately fell dead. (The gentleman), ignorant of having made this cruel throw, went to look for his lance and found it stuck through the temples of Juan Mateos, for this was the soldier's name... Among all the Spaniards who went on this discovery he alone had gray hair, wherefore everyone called him father and respected him as if he were the father of each of them. Thus there was general grief at the misfortune and miserable death that had overtaken him when he had gone out to enjoy himself. Death is a near and is equally certain for us in all times and places."
"The chief told us... that thirty leagues away (seventy nine miles over the Great Smoky Mountains) there were mines of yellow metal (near today's Knoxville; a place called Chisca by Chiaha)... and that he would furnish guides who would take our people there and back. They (the scouts) left there at once, deciding to go on foot rather than on horseback... so as to accomplish more in less time." There are no roads over those mountains, even today, from Chiaha; the mountains are much too steep and barren, even for horses. The Indians had learned, by that time, that by saying that gold could be found, just over the horizon, they could be rid of Spanish Conquistadors.
"The Indians were with (us) fifteen days in peace; they played and swam with us, and in all they served us very well. They went away Saturday, the nineteenth of the month (precisely on the Full Moon) because of a certain thing that the Governor asked them for; and in short, it was women. The next day in the morning..."
"...(we) cut down and destroyed their large maize fields... and sent word to them that they should return... that our Governor did not wish any Indian women since it cost so dearly for them to give them to us."
"In the land of (Chief) Chiaha these Spaniards first found the towns palisaded (enclosed with high fence; the people of Chiaha were not Cherokee but lived in their nountains and collected tribute from them; they did not speak the same language as the Cherokee but one resembling their neighbors to the west). (Chief) Chiaha gave us five hundred tamemes, and DeSoto's Captains consented to leave off the collars and chains.
On Monday, the twenty-eighth of June, the Governor and his people left from Chiaha (in Western North Carolina)... we passed through five or six towns (on the way down the south bank of the Little Tennessee River), and we went to sleep at a pine forest, in front of a town ("which, we said, was five leagues [thirteen miles from Chiaha].. where the river came together again," at the Little Tennessee River's bend on itself just below today's Fontana Dam; pioneer Tallassee, an Indian village once located on the river's big bend, has since moved downstream. That village, named "Tallassee," may well have been the source of the name "TENNESSEE," in English, given that English fur traders most likely traveled into today's Tennessee along the same trail DeSoto did). "...but we had much hardship there in crossing the river that flowed very strong, and, so that the foot soldiers might not be endangered, we put the horses in the river in single file, tail with head, and we held them still... and the horses received the impact of the current, and below them... the foot soldiers crossed, holding on to the tail, stirrup and mane of one (horse) after another; and in this manner all the army crossed well."