_The Indian Princess._
Crossing the River.--Hospitable Reception.--Attempts to
visit the Queen Mother.--Suicide of the Prince.--Futile
search for Gold.--The Discovery of Pearls.--The Pearl
Fishery.--The Princess a Captive.--Held in Silken
Chains.--Her Escape.--Location of Cutifachiqui.--The March
Resumed.
The next day after the extraordinary interview which we have described
in the last chapter, the princess ordered several large rafts to be
constructed, and with these, aided by a number of canoes, the army
crossed the rapid stream. Four horses, in attempting to swim the swift
river, were carried away and drowned. These animals were so precious
that the loss was deplored by the whole army.
When the troops had all crossed, they found very pleasant
accommodations provided for them. Some were lodged in the village. For
the rest commodious wigwams were erected just outside of the village
in a beautiful mulberry grove on the river banks. The province of
Cofachiqui was found to be very fertile and quite densely populated.
The natives were in complexion nearly as white as the Spaniards. They
had agreeable features, graceful forms, and were very frank and
amiable in disposition. They did not seem to be fond of war, though
often involved in conflicts with their neighbors. According to the
custom of the times, all prisoners of war were enslaved and were
employed in servile labor. To prevent their escape the cruel expedient
was adopted of cutting the main tendon of one leg just above the heel.
The mother of the princess of this tribe was a widow, residing in a
retired home about thirty-six miles down the river. De Soto, who was
anxious to secure the firm friendship of this interesting people,
expressed an earnest desire to see the queen mother. The princess
immediately dispatched twelve of her chieftains to urge her mother to
visit her, that she might be introduced to the strange visitors, and
see the wonderful animals on which they rode.
She however declined the invitation, expressing her very decided
disapproval of the conduct of her daughter, as both inexpedient and
indelicate, in entering into such friendly relations with utter
strangers, of whose ulterior designs she could know nothing. This
message, greatly increased the desire of De Soto to have an interview
with the queen mother, that he might conciliate her friendship. He
therefore dispatched Juan De Anasco, who was alike distinguished for
bravery and prudence, with thirty companions on foot, to convey to her
presents and friendly messages, and very earnest requests that she
would visit them at the court of her daughter.
The princess sent a near relative of the family as guide to this
party--a young man about twenty-one years of age, and exceedingly
attractive both in person and character. He was richly habited in
garments of soft deerskin, beautifully fringed and embroidered, with a
head-dress of various colored plumes.
"In his hand he bore a beautiful bow, so highly polished as to appear
as if finely enamelled. At his shoulder hung a quiver full of arrows.
With a light and elastic step and an animated and gallant air his
whole appearance was that of an ambassador, worthy of the young and
beautiful princess whom he served."
The morning was somewhat advanced, ere they left the village. It was a
beautiful day in a lovely clime. Their route led down the banks of the
river through luxuriant and enchanting scenery. After a pleasant walk
of ten or twelve miles, they rested in the shade of a grove, for their
noonday meal. Their young guide had been very social all the way,
entertaining them with information of the region through which they
were passing, and of the people. As they were partaking of their
refreshments, suddenly the aspect of their young companion became
greatly altered. He was silent, thoughtful and apparently deeply
depressed. At length he quietly took the quiver from his shoulder, and
slowly and seemingly lost in deep reflection, drew out the arrows one
by one. They were very beautiful, of the highest possible finish,
keenly pointed, and triangularly feathered.
The Spaniards took them up, admired them greatly, and passed them from
hand to hand. At length he drew out an arrow barbed with flint, long,
and sharp, and shaped like a dagger. Casting an anxious glance around,
and seeing the attention of the Spaniards engrossed in examining his
weapons, he plunged the keen pointed arrow down his throat, severing
an artery, and almost immediately fell dead. The soldiers were shocked
and bewildered, not being able to conceive of any reason for the
dreadful occurrence. There were several Indian attendants in the
company, who seemed to be overwhelmed with distress, uttering loud
cries of grief over the corpse.
It subsequently appeared, that the young guide was a great favorite
with the queen mother; that he knew that she was very unwilling to
have any acquaintance with the Spaniards, and he apprehended that it
was their object to seize her and carry her off by violence. The
thought that he was guiding them to her retreat overwhelmed him. He
could not endure the idea of meeting her, and perhaps of being
reproached as her betrayer.
On the other hand, the queen, whom he revered and loved, had
commissioned him to conduct the Spaniards to her mother's abode. He
did not dare to disobey her commands. Either alternative was more to
be dreaded by him than death. The ingenuous young man had, therefore,
endeavored to escape from the dilemma by self-destruction.
Juan De Anasco was not only deeply grieved by the fate of his young
friend, but also greatly perplexed as to the course he was then to
pursue. None of the Indian attendants knew where the widow was
concealed. He took several natives prisoners, and anxiously inquired
of them respecting the residence of the queen mother. But either they
could not, or would not, give him any information. After wandering
about fruitlessly until noon of the next day, he returned to the camp,
much mortified in reporting to De Soto the utter failure of his
expedition.
Two days after his return, an Indian came to him and offered to
conduct him down the river in a canoe, to the dwelling of the queen
mother. Eagerly he accepted the proposition. Two large canoes, with
strong rowers, were prepared. Anasco, with twenty companions, set out
on this second expedition. The queen heard of his approach, and, with
a few attendants, secretly fled to another retreat far away. After a
search of six days, the canoes returned, having accomplished nothing.
De Soto relinquished all further endeavors to obtain an interview with
the widow.
In the meantime, while Anasco was engaged in these unsuccessful
enterprises, De Soto was making very anxious inquiries respecting the
silver and the gold which he had been informed was to be found in the
province. The princess listened to his description of the yellow metal
and the white metal of which he was in search, and said that they were
both to be found in great abundance in her territories. She
immediately sent out some Indians, to bring him specimens. They soon
returned laden with a yellow metal somewhat resembling gold in color,
but which proved to be nothing but an alloy of copper. The shining
substance which he had supposed was silver, was nothing but a
worthless species of mica, or quartz. Thus again, to his bitter
disappointment, De Soto awoke from his dreams of golden treasure, to
the toils and sorrows of his weary life.
The princess seemed to sympathize with her guest in the bitterness of
his disappointment. In her attempts at consolation, she informed him
that at the distance of about three miles from where they were, there
was a village called Talomeco, which was the ancient capital of the
realm; that here there was a vast sepulchre, in which all the
chieftains and great warriors had been buried; that their bodies were
decorated with great quantities of pearls.
De Soto, with a large retinue of his own officers and of the household
of the princess, visited this mausoleum. Much to his surprise, he
found there an edifice three hundred feet in length, and one hundred
and twenty in breadth, with a lofty roof. The entrance was decorated
with gigantic statuary of wood. One of these statues was twelve feet
in height. In the interior many statues and carved ornaments were
found.
A large number of wooden chests or coffins contained the decaying
bodies of the illustrious dead. By the side of each of these there was
another smaller chest, containing such valuables as it was probably
supposed the chief would need in the spirit-land. Both the Inca and
the Portuguese narrative agree in the account of the almost incredible
number of pearls there found. It is said that the Spaniards obtained
fourteen bushels, and that the princess assured them, that by visiting
the mausoleums of the various villages, they could find enough pearls
to load down all the horses of the army.
The Spaniards generally were greatly elated at the discovery of these
riches. Pearls were estimated at a value almost equal to diamonds. It
is said that Queen Cleopatra possessed a single pearl which was valued
at three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. Philip II. of
Spain received as a present a pearl, about the size of a pigeon's egg,
valued at one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
De Soto was urged to establish his colony upon this river, which has
variously been conjectured to have been the St. Helena, the Oconee,
the Ogeechee, and the Savannah. The country was beautiful and fertile;
the climate delightful; and apparently an inexhaustible pearl fishery
near. It was urged that an agricultural colony could be established on
the fertile banks of the river, while from the seaport at its mouth a
lucrative trade could be carried on with the mother country for all
the rich productions of Spain.
But the persistent spirit of De Soto was not to be turned from its one
great all-absorbing object, the search for gold. He urged, and with
great show of reason, that, in consequence of the recent pestilence,
there was not sufficient provision in the country, to support the army
for a month; that by continuing their march they might enter far
richer provinces, and might find mines of gold. Should they be
disappointed, they could easily return; and in the meantime, the
Indians having replanted their land, the fields would wave with
abundant golden harvests.
In an army of eight or nine hundred Spanish adventurers, there would
of course be many worthless characters, difficult of restraint. De
Soto had been in this village several weeks. Notwithstanding all his
endeavors to promote peace and friendship, several broils had arisen
between the natives and some of the low and degraded of his soldiery.
The conduct of these vile men had produced a general feeling of
ill-will among the natives. Even the princess herself manifested
estrangement. She had become distant and reserved, and was evidently
desirous that her no longer welcome guests should take their speedy
departure. There were some indications that the princess so far
distrusted the Spaniards that, like her more prudent mother, she was
about secretly to escape from them by flight.
This would leave the Spaniards in a very embarrassed condition. They
needed guides to conduct them through the extended territory of the
princess. Heavily armed as they were, they needed porters to carry
their burdens of extra clothing and provisions. The flight of the
princess would be the signal for the natives, all over the territory,
to rise in a war of attempted extermination. The queen mother would
doubtless do everything in her power to rouse and stimulate this
hostility. The Spaniards thus assailed on every side, destitute of
guides, without porters to carry their baggage, and with but little
food, would find themselves compelled in self-defence, to cut their
way, with blood-dripping sabres, through their foes, to rob their
granaries, and to leave behind them a path strown with the dead, and
filled with misery.
Again De Soto found himself in a false position. Again he felt
constrained to do that which his own conscience told him was unjust.
The only possible way, as it seemed to him, by which he could obtain
extrication from these awful difficulties, was to seize the person of
the princess, his friend and benefactor, and hold her as a captive to
secure the good behavior of her subjects. He knew that their love for
her was such that so long as she was in his power, they would not
enter upon any hostile movement which might bring down vengeance upon
her head.
If De Soto had accepted the spirit of the noble letter from Isabella,
and had said, "I will no longer persevere in this invasion of the
lands of others, which is always plunging me more and more deeply into
difficulties,"--had he said frankly to the friendly princess, "I have
decided to return to my home, and I solicit your friendly cooperation
to assist me on my way;" and had he made her a present, in token of
his gratitude, of some of those articles with which he could easily
have parted, and which were of priceless value to her, he might
doubtless have retired unmolested. Instead of this he followed the
infamous example which Pizarro had set him in Peru.
He appointed a guard, who were directed to keep a constant watch upon
the princess, so that she could by no possibility escape; at the same
time he informing her, in the most courteous tones, that the
protection of his army and of her own people rendered it necessary
that she should accompany him on his march. He held her in silken
chains, treating her with the utmost delicacy and deference. The
princess had sufficient shrewdness to affect compliance with this
arrangement. It certainly accomplished the desired effect. All strife
between the natives and the Spaniards ceased, a sufficient body of
porters accompanied the army, and its march was unimpeded. A beautiful
palanquin was provided for the princess, and the highest honors were
lavished upon her.
Colonel A. J. Pickett, in his interesting and very carefully prepared
History of Alabama, speaking of the locality of this village where De
Soto tarried so long, and encountered so many adventures, says:
"He entered the territory of the present Georgia at its
southwestern border, and successively crossing the Ockmulgee,
Oconee, and Ogeechee, finally rested on the banks of the
Savannah, immediately opposite the modern Silver Bluff. On
the eastern side was the town of Cutifachiqui, where lived an
Indian queen, young, beautiful, and unmarried, and who ruled
the country around to a vast extent. In 1736 George Golphin,
then a young Irishman, established himself as an Indian
trader at this point, and gave the old site of Cutifachiqui
the name of Silver Bluff. The most ancient Indians informed
him that this was the place where De Soto found the Indian
princess; and this tradition agrees with that preserved by
other old traders, and handed down to me."
According to this statement the village of Cutifachiqui was on the
eastern bank of the Savannah river, in Barnwell county, in the State
of South Carolina. On the morning of the 4th of May, 1540, De Soto
again put his army in motion, taking with him the beautiful queen and
her retinue of plumed warriors. All this country was then called
Florida. The army advanced rapidly up the eastern bank of the Savannah
river, where they forded the stream, and, again entering the present
State of Georgia, traversed nearly its whole breadth until they
reached the head waters of the Coosa river. Here, at the confluence of
the Oostanaula and Etowa rivers, they found a large Indian town called
Chiaha, near the present site of Rome.
While on the march across the State of Georgia, the queen, probably
dreading to be carried captive beyond her own domain, and aided by an
understanding with her retinue, leaped from the palanquin and
disappeared in a dense forest through which they were passing. De Soto
never saw her or heard from her again. Undoubtedly a band of her
warriors were in rendezvous there to receive her.
For five days the adventurers pressed along as rapidly as possible,
over a hilly country about sixty miles in breadth. Though well
watered, and abounding in beautiful valleys, luxuriant with mulberry
groves and rich prairies, it seemed to be quite uninhabited. Having
crossed this mountainous region, they reached a populous district
called Guachule. The chief had received an intimation of the approach
of the Spaniards, and that they came as messengers of peace and not of
war. When De Soto and his band, led by native guides whom they had
picked up by the way, had arrived within two miles of the village of
the chief, they discovered him approaching them with a retinue of five
hundred plumed warriors, adorned with glittering robes and weapons in
the highest style of semi-barbaric display. The chief was
unembarrassed, dignified, and courtly in his address. He received De
Soto with truly fraternal kindness, escorted him to his village, which
consisted of three hundred spacious houses, in a beautiful valley of
running streams at the base of adjacent hills.
The dwelling of the chief was upon a spacious artificial mound, the
summit of which was sufficiently broad for the large edifice, leaving
a terrace all around it about twelve feet in breadth. Here De Soto
remained four days, enjoying the hospitality of the friendly Cacique.
Resuming their journey, the army marched down the banks of a large
stream, supposed to be the Etowa, which empties into the Coosa. For
five days they continued their march through an uninteresting country,
almost destitute of inhabitants, until, having traversed, as they
supposed, about ninety miles, they came in sight of a large village,
called Chiaha.
De Soto, having arrived opposite the great town of Chiaha, which
probably occupied the present site of Rome, crossed the Oostanaula in
canoes, and upon rafts made of logs, prepared by the Indians, and took
up his quarters in the town. The noble young chief received De Soto
with unaffected joy, and made him the following address:
"Mighty Chief:--Nothing could have made me so happy as to be the means
of serving you and your warriors. You sent me word from Guaxule to
have corn collected to last your army two months. Here I have twenty
barns full of the best which the country can afford. If I have not met
your wishes respect my tender age, and receive my good-will to do for
you whatever I am able."
The Governor responded in a kind manner, and was then conducted to the
chief's own house, prepared for his accommodation. The confluence of
the Oostanaula and Etowa at this point forms the Coosa. Here De Soto
remained for a fortnight, recruiting his wearied men and his still
more exhausted horses. It was bright and balmy summer, and the
soldiers encamping in a luxuriant mulberry grove a little outside of
the town, enjoyed, for a season, rest and abundance. De Soto, as
usual, made earnest inquiries for gold. He was informed that about
thirty miles north of him there were mines of copper, and also of some
metal of the color of copper, but finer, brighter, and softer; and
that the natives sometimes melted them together in their manufacture
of barbs, spearheads, and hatchets.
This intelligence excited De Soto with new hopes. He had occasionally
met on his way natives with hatchets composed of copper and gold
melted together. As the province, which was called Chisca, was
separated from Chiaha by a pathless wilderness which horses could not
traverse, De Soto sent two of his most trusty followers on an
exploring tour through the region, conducted by Indian guides. After
an absence of ten days they returned with the disappointing report
that they found nothing there but copper of different degrees of
purity.
The rivers in the vicinity of Chiaha seem to have abounded with pearl
oysters, and large numbers of beautiful pearls were obtained. The
natives nearly spoiled them all by boring them through with a red-hot
rod, that they might string them as bracelets. One day the Cacique
presented De Soto with a string of pearls six feet in length, each
pearl as large as a filbert. These gems would have been of almost
priceless value but for the action of fire upon them.
De Soto expressed some curiosity to see how the pearls were obtained.
The Cacique immediately dispatched forty canoes down the river to fish
during the night for pearl oysters. In the morning De Soto accompanied
the Cacique to the banks of the river where the oysters were
collected. Large fires were built, and the oysters placed upon the
glowing coals. The heat opened them, and the pearls were sought for.
From some of the first thus opened ten or twelve pearls were obtained,
about the size of peas. They were all, however, more or less injured
by the heat. Col. Pickett says that the oyster mentioned was the
muscle, to be found in all the rivers of Alabama.
Again De Soto commenced his journey, leaving the friendly chief and
his people well contented with the presents he made them of gayly
colored cloths, knives, and other trinkets. Following the banks of the
Coosa to the west they soon entered what is now the State of Alabama,
and on the second of July came to a large native town named Acoste.
The tribe, or nation, inhabiting this region, was famed for its
martial prowess. The Cacique, a fierce warrior, did not condescend to
advance to meet De Soto, but at the head of fifteen hundred of his
soldiers, well armed and gorgeously uniformed, awaited in the public
square the approach of the Spanish chief. De Soto encamped his army
just outside of the town, and, with a small retinue, rode in to pay
his respects to the Cacique.
Some of the vagabond soldiers straggled into the city, and were guilty
of some outrages, which led the natives to fall upon them. De Soto,
with his accustomed presence of mind, seized a cudgel and assisted the
natives in fighting the Spaniards, while at the same moment he
dispatched a courier to summon the whole army to his rescue. Peace was
soon established, but there was some irritation on both sides. The
next morning De Soto was very willing to leave the neighborhood, and
the chief was not unwilling to have him.
De Soto crossed the river Coosa to the eastern banks, and journeying
along in a southerly direction, at the rate of about twelve miles a
day, passed over a fertile and populous region, nearly three hundred
miles in extent. It is supposed his path led through the present
counties of Benton, Talladega, Coosa, and Tallapoosa, in Alabama.
Throughout the whole route they were treated by the natives with the
most profuse hospitality, being fed by them liberally, and supplied
with guides to lead them from one village to another. The province
which De Soto was thus traversing, and which was far-famed for its
beauty and fertility, was called Coosa.
"With a delightful climate, and abounding in fine meadows and
beautiful little rivers, this region was charming to De Soto and
his followers. The numerous barns were full of corn, while acres
of that which was growing bent to the warm rays of the sun and
rustled in the breeze. In the plains were plum trees, peculiar to
the country, and others resembling those of Spain. Wild fruit
clambered to the tops of the loftiest trees, and lower branches
were laden with delicious Isabella grapes."[E]
[Footnote E: History of Alabama, by Albert James Pickett, p. 17.]
This is supposed to have been the same native grape, called the
Isabella, which has since been so extensively cultivated.