_Of how the Governor went from Coça to Tascaluça._
The Governor rested in Coça twenty-five days. On Friday, the
twentieth of August, he set out in quest of a province called
Tascaluça, taking with him the cacique of Coça. The first day he
went through Tallimuchase, a great town without inhabitants, halting
to sleep half a league beyond, near a river-bank. The following day
he came to Ytaua, a town subject to Coça. He was detained six days,
because of a river near by that was then swollen: so soon as it could
be crossed he took up his march, and went towards Ullibahali. Ten
or twelve chiefs came to him on the road, from the cacique of that
province, tendering his service, bearing bows and arrows and wearing
bunches of feathers.
The Governor having arrived at the town with a dozen cavalry and
several of his guard, he left them at the distance of a crossbow-shot
and entered the town. He found all the Indians with their weapons,
and, according to their ways, it appeared to him in readiness for
action: he understood afterwards that they had determined to wrest
the cacique of Coça from his power, should that chief have called on
them. The place was enclosed, and near by ran a small stream. The
fence, which was like that seen afterwards to other towns, was of
large timber sunk deep and firmly into the earth, having many long
poles the size of the arm, placed crosswise to nearly the height of
a lance, with embrasures, and coated with mud inside and out, having
loop-holes for archery.[265] The Governor ordered all his men to
enter the town. The cacique, who at the moment was at a town on the
opposite shore, was sent for, and he came at once. After some words
between him and the Governor, proffering mutual service, he gave the
tamemes that were requisite and thirty women as slaves. Mançano, a
native of Salamanca, of noble ancestry, having strayed off in search
of the grapes, which are good here, and plenty, was lost.
[265] Ranjel applies a similar description to an old town on the
road, three days' march from Toasi or Tuasi.
The Christians left, and that day they arrived to sleep at a town
subject to the lord of Ullibahali, and the next day they came to
pass the night at the town of Toasi, where the inhabitants gave
the Governor thirty women and the tamemes that were wanted. The
amount of travel usually performed was five or six leagues a day,
passing through settled country; and when through desert, all the
haste possible was made, to avoid the want of maize. From Toasi,
passing through some towns subject to the lord of the province of
Tallise,[266] he journeyed five days, and arrived at the town the
eighteenth day of September.
[266] This is probably not the modern town of that name,
which was located above the elbow of the Tallapoosa River, in
Tallapoosa County.
Tallise was large, situated by the side of a great river, other towns
and many fields of maize being on the opposite shore, the country on
both sides having the greatest abundance of grain. The inhabitants
had gone off. The Governor sent to call the cacique, who, having
arrived, after an interchange of kind words and good promises, lent
him forty men. A chief came to the Governor in behalf of the cacique
of Tastaluça,[267] and made the following address:
VERY POWERFUL, VIRTUOUS, AND ESTEEMED LORD:
The grand cacique of Tascaluça, my master, sends me to salute
you. He bids me say, that he is told how all, not without
reason, are led captive by your perfections and power; that
wheresoever lies your path you receive gifts and obedience,
which he knows are all your due; and that he longs to see you
as much as he could desire for the continuance of life. Thus,
he sends me to offer you his person, his lands, his subjects;
to say, that wheresoever it shall please you to go through his
territories, you will find service and obedience, friendship
and peace. In requital of this wish to serve you, he asks that
you so far favor him as to say when you will come; for that the
sooner you do so, the greater will be the obligation, and to him
the earlier pleasure.
[267] Tascaluça is correct Creek (meaning Black Warrior),
and Tastaluça, there can be little doubt, is a misspelling;
nevertheless we think it better to present all the native names
in the spellings of the Portuguese original.
The Governor received and parted with the messenger graciously,
giving him beads (which by the Indians are not much esteemed) and
other articles, that he should take them to his lord. He dismissed
the cacique of Coça, that he might return to his country: he of
Tallise gave him the tamemes that were needed; and, having sojourned
twenty days, the Governor set out for Tastaluça. He slept the night
at a large town called Casiste, and the next day, passing through
another, arrived at a village in the province of Tastaluça; and the
following night he rested in a wood, two leagues from the town where
the cacique resided, and where he was then present. He sent the
master of the camp, Luis de Moscoso, with fifteen cavalry, to inform
him of his approach.
The cacique was at home, in a piazza. Before his dwelling, on a
high place, was spread a mat for him, upon which two cushions were
placed, one above another, to which he went and sat down, his men
placing themselves around, some way removed, so that an open circle
was formed about him, the Indians of the highest rank being nearest
to his person. One of them shaded him from the sun with a circular
umbrella, spread wide, the size of a target, with a small stem, and
having deer-skin extended over cross-sticks, quartered with red
and white, which at a distance made it look of taffeta, the colors
were so very perfect. It formed the standard of the chief, which he
carried into battle. His appearance was full of dignity: he was tall
of person, muscular, lean, and symmetrical. He was the suzerain of
many territories, and of a numerous people, being equally feared by
his vassals and the neighboring nations. The master of the camp,
after he had spoken to him, advanced with his company, their steeds
leaping from side to side, and at times towards the chief, when he,
with great gravity, and seemingly with indifference, now and then
would raise his eyes, and look on as in contempt.
The Governor approached him, but he made no movement to rise; he took
him by the hand, and they went together to seat themselves on the
bench that was in the piazza. The cacique addressed him these words:--
POWERFUL CHIEF:
Your lordship is very welcome. With the sight of you I receive
as great pleasure and comfort as though you were an own brother
whom I dearly loved. It is idle to use many words here, as it is
not well to speak at length where a few may suffice. The greater
the will the more estimable the deed; and acts are the living
witnesses of truth. You shall learn how strong and positive is
my will, and how disinterested my inclination to serve you. The
gifts you did me the favor to send I esteem in all their value,
but most because they were yours. See in what you will command
me.
The Governor satisfied the chief with a few brief words of kindness.
On leaving he determined, for certain reasons, to take him along. The
second day on the road he came to a town called Piache;[268] a great
river ran near, and the Governor asked for canoes. The Indians said
they had none, but that they could have rafts of cane and dried wood,
whereon they might readily enough go over, which they diligently set
about making, and soon completed. They managed them; and the water
being calm, the Governor and his men easily crossed.
[268] From Ranjel's description of this place it is not
improbable that Piachi was located on the north side of the Black
Warrior River.
From the port of Espiritu Santo to Palache, a march of about a
hundred leagues, the course was west; from Apalache to Cutifachiqui,
which may be four hundred and thirty leagues, it was northeast; from
thence to Xualla, two hundred and fifty leagues, it was towards the
north; and thence to Tastaluça, which may be some other two hundred
and fifty leagues, one hundred and ninety of them were toward the
west, going to the province of Coça, and the sixty southwardly, in
going thence to Tastaluça.
After crossing the river of Piache, a Christian having gone to look
after a woman gotten away from him, he had been either captured
or killed by the natives, and the Governor pressed the chief to
tell what had been done; threatening, that should the man not
appear, he would never release him. The cacique sent an Indian
thence to Mauilla, the town of a chief, his vassal, whither they
were going, stating that he sent to give him notice that he should
have provisions in readiness and Indians for loads; but which, as
afterwards appeared, was a message for him to get together there all
the warriors in his country.
The Governor marched three days, the last one of them continually
through an inhabited region, arriving on Monday, the eighteenth day
of October, at Mauilla.[269] He rode forward in the vanguard, with
fifteen cavalry and thirty infantry, when a Christian he had sent
with a message to the cacique, three or four days before, with orders
not to be gone long, and to discover the temper of the Indians, came
out from the town and reported that they appeared to him to be making
preparation; for that while he was present many weapons were brought,
and many people came into the town, and work had gone on rapidly to
strengthen the palisade. Luis de Moscoso said that, since the Indians
were so evil disposed, it would be better to stop in the woods; to
which the Governor answered, that he was impatient of sleeping out,
and that he would lodge in the town.
[269] Mauilla or Mabila may have been located on the prairie
north of the Black Warrior and east of the Tombigbee River, in
Greene County, Alabama.
Arriving near, the chief came out to receive him, with many Indians
singing and playing on flutes, and after tendering his services,
gave him three cloaks of marten-skins. The Governor entered the town
with the caciques, seven or eight men of his guard, and three or
four cavalry,[270] who had dismounted to accompany them; and they
seated themselves in a piazza. The cacique of Tastaluça asked the
Governor to allow him to remain there, and not to weary him any more
with walking; but, finding that was not to be permitted, he changed
his plan, and, under pretext of speaking with some of the chiefs, he
got up from where he sate, by the side of the Governor, and entered
a house where were many Indians with their bows and arrows. The
Governor, finding that he did not return, called to him; to which the
cacique answered that he would not come out, nor would he leave that
town; that if the Governor wished to go in peace, he should quit at
once, and not persist in carrying him away by force from his country
and its dependencies.
[270] "Only forty horsemen," according to Ranjel.