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The next day, intent upon extricating himself from this per- ilous situation, the governor sent out four expeditions - each consisting of a captain and eight cavalrymen - with instruc- tions to scour the country and find some source of relief, some avenue of escape. The day was consumed in a fruitless search, and they all came into eamp at night-fall leading their broken- down horses, or driving them before them. On the following day, having selected the best horses, and soldiers who could swim, he organized four bands, each containing eight mounted men. Baltasar de Gallegos, who commanded one, was directed "to move up the river. Juan de Anasco, with another, was to move downwards. Alfonso Romo and Juan Rodrigues Lobillo, with the other two, were ordered to strike into the country.
The thirteen sows which had been brought from Cuba had so multiplied during the progress of the expedition that there were now three hundred swine in camp. During this season of priva- tion these animals were killed, and a ration of a half pound of fresh pork was issued, per diem, to each man. This, supple- mented by such native herbs as could be collected and boiled, constituted the only subsistence of the soldiery. Upon the rough
45
ARRIVAL OF DE SOTO AT AYMAY.
grass, leaves, and the tops of palmettos did the horses feed. The entire command was in an enfeebled, dispirited, and almost perishing condition.
On Sunday afternoon (April 25th) Juan de Anasco, who was in charge of one of these reconnoitring parties, returned, bringing a woman and a youth whom he had captured. He reported that at a remove of some twelve or thirteen leagues he had found a small town. At this intelligence, says the Gentleman of Elvas, the governor and his people were as much delighted as if they had been raised from death to life.
Without awaiting the incoming of the other detachments, De Soto set out for this village, which the Indians called Aymay, and to which the Spaniards gave the name of Socorro.1 At the foot of a tree in the camp was buried a letter stating in what direction the command would march. That the attention of the absentees on their return might be called to it, on the bark of the tree were cut, with a hatchet, these words : "Dig here : at the foot of this pine you will find a letter."
Following the road which Anasco had made while passing through the woods, the governor set out on the morning of the 26th of April, taking with him his troopers who were best mounted, and moved as rapidly as he could in the direction of Aymay. That village he reached before night-fall. The army followed as best it could in its enfeebled condition, straggling all the way. At this town a barbacoa of parched meal and maize was found, the contents of which were immediately issued to the starving command.
Four Indians were captured who refused to give any informa- tion touching the existence of any adjacent native villages. One of them having been burnt, another stated that at a remove of two days' journey was the province of Cutifachiqui.
Two days afterward the three captains arrived with their de- tachments. On returning to camp they found the buried letter, and followed on in the trail left by the army. Two soldiers re- mained behind, and they belonged to the detachment of Juan Rodrigues. Their horses had entirely given out and they lagged with them. After a severe reprimand from the governor, this of- ficer was dispatched to hurry up these loiterers. Without tarrying for their coming, De Soto advanced in the direction of Cutifachi- qui. On his journey thitherward three Indians were taken who informed the Spaniards that the queen of that province had been
1 Village of Good Relief.
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46
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
advised of the approach of the army, and, in her chief town, was awaiting the arrival of the strangers. One of them was imme- diately dispatched with a message of friendship from the gover- nor to the cacica, and the announcement that he would speedily visit her. Upon the governor's arrival at the river, four canoes approached from the opposite bank. In one of these was a kins- woman of the cacica, who had been by her deputed to extend an invitation to the Spaniards to cross over and partake of the hos- pitalities of the town. She excused the absence of the cacica on the ground that she was engaged in giving directions for the reception of such distinguished gnests. . She returned with the thanks of the governor. Soon after, the cacica came out of the village, seated in a chair of state,1 which was borne by some of the principal men to the water's edge. Thence alighting, she entered a canoe, the stern of which was sheltered by an awning. Cushions lay extended in the bottom, and upon these she re- clined. In her passage across the river she was accompanied by her chief men and other subjects in canoes. Having landed, she ap- proached the spot where De Soto awaited her, and addressed him with courteous words of welcome. Drawing from over her head a long string of pearls, she suspended it about the governor's neck in token of amity. She also presented him with many shawls and dressed skins, constituting the clothing of her country. Finely formed, with great beauty of countenance, and possessing much native grace and dignity, the Spaniards were impressed by her appearance and queenly condnet. During her interview with the governor she sat upon a stool carried by one of her attendants. Her subjects preserved an unbroken silence and most respectful demeanor. She was the first female ruler whom De Soto had met during all his wanderings. The governor was sensibly moved by her generous salutation and pleasing behavior. In ac- knowledgment of her beautiful gift, and as a pledge of peace and friendship, De Soto, removing from his finger a ring of gold set with a ruby, gently placed it upon one of her fingers. The hos- pitalities of her town were generously extended. She promised to share her store of maize with the strangers, and said that she would send canoes for their conveyance to the other side of the river. This ceremony of welcome ended, the cacica returned to her home. On the following day, in canoes and upon rafts fur-
1 In Plate XXXVII. of the Breris Narratio we have a spirited illustration of the litter, or palanquin, in which the
queens of these primitive people were con- vered. See also Jones' Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 72. New York. 1873.
47
CUTIFACHIQUI.
nished by the natives, the army crossed to the other shore and found food and rest in wigwams shaded by luxuriant mulberry- trees. Four horses were drowned in the passage of the river. So soon as De Soto was lodged in the village many wild turkeys were sent to him, and during his sojourn in this place he and his men were entertained with every mark of hospitality. To be thus rested and feasted was most joyous to this band, foot-sore and weary, disappointed, dejected, and well-nigh overborne by the difficulties and privations of the journey.
The inhabitants, well proportioned and of a good countenance, were more civilized than all other peoples seen in the wide-ex- tended territory of Florida. They wore clothing and shoes. The country, in that early springtime, was beautiful and gave every indication of fertility. The temperature was delightful, and the woods were most attractive. The Spaniards were particularly gratified with the profusion of walnut and mulberry trees. To all save the governor it seemed good to form a permanent set- tlement here. The point appeared favorable for raising sup- plies ; and, as the natives stated it was only two days' journey from the coast, it was thought that ships from New Spain, Peru, Sancta Marta, and Tierra-Firme, going to Spain, might be in- duced to stop here and refresh their crews. Thus ignorant were these strangers of their true geographical position.
In the vicinity of Cutifachiqui were large, vacant towns over- grown with grass. It was ascertained that two years before there had been a pest in the land, and in order to escape its ravages multitudes of the inhabitants had removed to other localities.
In the barbacoas were found " large quantities of clothing ; shawls of thread made from the bark of trees, and others of feathers, white, gray, vermilion, and yellow, rich and proper for winter. There were also many well-dressed deer-skins, of colors drawn over with designs, of which had been made shoes, stock- ings, and hose."
Upon searching the sepulehres in the town " three hundred and fifty weight of pearls, and figures of babies and birds made from iridescent shells," were taken from them. The suggestion of the Spanish narrators is that this quest was undertaken by permis- sion of the cacica, who observed how highly the Christians valued these gems of the water. When we remember, however, how ardently attached these primitive peoples were to the graves of their dead, how carefully they deposited in them the treasures of the deceased, how tenderly they watched over and sacredly
48
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
guarded the last resting-places of their departed, we recognize in this procedure not the voluntary intervention of the native, but the cupidity, the violence, and the outrage of the foreigner.
In the town were found a dirk and beads of European manu- facture. From the best information which could be gathered touching their origin and the manner in which the Indians be- came possessed of them, it was believed that they had been ob- tained from some members of the unfortunate expedition of the governor-licentiate Ayllon. Biedma says, in alluding to these relics, " We found buried two wood axes of Castilian make, a rosary of jet beads, and some false pearls such as are taken from this country [Spain] to traffic with the Indians, all of which we supposed they got in exchange made with those who followed the licentiate Ayllon. From the information given by the Indians, the sea should be about thirty leagues distant. We knew that the people who came with Ayllon hardly entered the country at all ; that they remained continually on the coast until his sickness and death. In strife for command, they then commenced to kill each other, while others of them died of hunger ; for one, whose lot it was to have been among them, told us that of six hundred men who landed, only fifty-seven escaped, - a loss caused to a great extent by the wreck of a big ship they had brought, laden with stores."
Learning that the mother of the cacica resided about twelve leagues down the river, and that she was a widow, De Soto ex- pressed a strong desire to see her. This wish was doubtless born of the fact that she was reported to be the owner of many valu- able pearls. Upon intimating his pleasure, the cacica of Cuti- fachiqui dispatched twelve of her prominent subjects to entreat her mother to come and see the wonderful strangers and the re- markable animals they had brought with them. To these mes- sengers the widow administered a severe rebuke, declined to ac- company them, and returned to her daughter words condemnatory of her conduct. Still intent upon his object, De Soto dispatched Juan de Anasco, with thirty companions, to secure the presence of the queen mother. They were accompanied by a youthful warrior whom the cacica selected as a guide. He was a near relative of the widow and had been reared by her. It was sup- posed that he of all others could best bespeak for the expedition a favorable reception. In the blush of early manhood he possessed handsome features and a graceful, vigorous form. " His head was decorated with lofty plumes of different colored feathers ; he
49
SUICIDE OF A YOUNG INDIAN GUIDE.
wore a mantle of dressed deer-skin ; in his hand he bore a beautiful bow so highly varnished as to appear as if finely enameled ; and at his shoulder hung a quiver full of arrows. With a light and elastic step and an animated and gallant air, his whole appear- ance was that of an ambassador worthy of the young and beauti- ful princess whom he served."
What next befell the Spanish captain and his Indian guide we relate in the language of Theodore Irving, quoting from Garci- lasso de la Vega : -
"Juan de Anasco and his comrades having proceeded nearly three leagues, stopped to make their midday meal and take their repose beneath the shade of some wide-spreading trees, as the heat was oppressive. The Indian guide had proved a cheer- ful and joyous companion, entertaining them all the way with accounts of the surrounding country and the adjacent provinces. On a sudden, after they had halted, he became moody and thoughtful, and, leaning his cheek upon his hand, fell into a reverie, uttering repeated and deep-drawn sighs. The Span- iards noticed his dejection, but, fearing to increase it, forbore to demand the cause.
" After a time he quietly took off his quiver, and placing it before him drew out the arrows slowly one by one. They were admirable for the skill and elegance with which they were formed. Their shafts were reeds. Some were tipped with buck's horn, wrought with four corners like a diamond ; some were pointed with the bones of fishes, curiously fashioned ; others with barbs of the palm and other hard woods; and some were three-pronged. They were feathered in a triangular manner to render their flight of greater accuracy. The Spaniards could not sufficiently admire their beauty ; they took them up and passed them from hand to hand, examining and praising their workmanship and extolling the skill of their owner. The youthful Indian con- tinued thoughtfully emptying his quiver, until, almost at the last, he drew forth an arrow with a point of flint, long and sharp, and shaped like a dagger ; then, casting round a glance, and seeing the Spaniards engaged in admiring his darts, he suddenly plunged the weapon in his throat and fell dead upon the spot.
"Shocked at the circumstance, and grieved at not having been able to prevent it, the Spaniards called to their Indian attendants and demanded the reason of this melancholy act in one who had just before been so joyous.
" The Indians broke into loud lamentations over the corpse ; 4
50
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
for the youth was tenderly beloved by them, and they knew the grief his untimely fate would cause to both their princesses. They could only account for his self-destruction by supposing him perplexed and afflicted about his embassy. He knew that his errand would be disagreeable to the mother, and apprehended that the plan of the Spaniards was to carry her off. He alone knew the place of her concealment, and it appeared to his gen- erous mind an unworthy return for her love and confidence thus to betray her to strangers. On the other hand, he was aware that should he disobey the mandates of his young mistress he would lose her favor and fall into disgrace. Either of these alternatives would be worse than death; he had chosen death, therefore, as the lesser evil, and as leaving to his mistress a proof of his loyalty and devotion.
"Such was the conjecture of the Indians, to which the Span- iards were inclined to give faith. Grieving over the death of the high-minded youth, they mournfully resumed their journey.
" They now, however, found themselves at a loss about the road. None of the Indians knew in what part of the country the widow was concealed, the young guide who had killed himself being alone master of the secret. For the rest of that day and until the following noon they made a fruitless search, taking prisoners some natives who all professed utter ignorance on the subject. Juan de Anasco, being a fleshy man and some- what choleric, was almost in a fever with the vexation of his spirit, the weight of his armor, and the heat of the day ; he was obliged, however, to give up the quest after the widow, and to return to the camp much mortified at having for once failed in an enterprise."
Three days afterward, upon the offer of an Indian to guide him, by water, to the point where the widow had secreted her- self, Anasco, with twenty companions, departed in two canoes for the purpose of capturing her. At the end of six days he returned vexed and chagrined at the failure of his expedition. Thus did the queen's mother avoid the Spaniards and preserve her pearls.
Still intent upon his quest for gold, in response to his in- quiries De Soto was told that there was here yellow and also white metal, similar to that shown by the Spaniards. Natives were dispatched to bring samples of both. To the sore disap- pointment of the Christians, however, the yellow metal proved to be a copper ore, and the white metal a light crumbling mate- rial like mica.
51
TEMPLE AT TALOMECO.
Turning his attention again to the pearls of the region, the governor visited Talomeco, the former chief town of the prov- ince, distant about a league from the village of the princess of Cutifachiqui, where was a large mausoleum containing many dead and a large store of pearls. On this occasion he was accompanied by Anasco, the contador, or royal accountant of the expedition, by the officers of the royal revenue, and by a number of his prin- cipal officers and soldiers.
The Inca, Garcilasso de la Vega, thus describes the temple of Talomeco, which constituted the sepulchre of the kings of the country : " It is more than one hundred steps long by forty broad. The walls are high in proportion, and the roof very ele- vated to supply the want of tiles and to give more slope to the water. The covering is of canes, very thin, split in two, of which the Indians make mats, which resemble the rush carpets of the Moors, which are very beautiful to view. Five or six of these mats placed one upon the other serve to prevent the rain from penetrating and the sun from entering the temple ; which the private people of the country and their neighbors imitate in their houses.
" Upon the roof of this temple are many shells of different sizes, of divers fishes, ranged in very good order. These shells are placed with the insides out to give more brilliancy. The great spiral sea-shell is located between two small shells. These shells are connected, the one with the other, by strings of pearls of va- rious sizes. These festoons of pearls, extending from the top of the roof to the bottom, in association with the vivid brilliancy of the mother-of-pearl and the other shells, produce a very beau- tiful effect when the sun shines upon them.
" The doors were proportioned to the grandeur of the temple : and at the entrance were seen twelve gigantic statues made of wood. So ferocious and menacing was the aspect of these fig- ures that the Spaniards paused for a long time to consider them. They say that these giants were placed there to defend the en- trance of the door. They stand in a row on each side, and gradually diminish in size. The first are eiglit feet high and the others proportionally a little less, in the order of the tubes of an organ.
" They have arms conformable to their height: the first on each side bearing clubs, ornamented with copper, which they hold in an elevated position as though ready to bring them down with fury upon those who may dare to enter. The second have maces,
52
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
and the third a kind of oar; the fourth, copper axes, the edges of which are of flint ; and the fifth hold a bended bow with the arrow ready to be discharged. Curious are these arrows, the lower ends of which contain pieces of stag's horn well finished, or flint stones as sharp as a dagger. The last giants hold very long pikes ornamented with copper at both ends. They also maintain a threatening attitude.
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" The ornamentation of the inner walls of the temple conforms with that of the exterior, for there is a kind of cornice made of great spiral sea-shells placed in excellent order, and between these are seen festoons of pearls depending from the roof. At intervals between the shells and pearls, suspended from the arches and tied to the roof, are plnmes well arranged and of divers colors. Besides this order which reigns above the cornice, many plumes and strings of pearls hang from all the other parts of the roof, retained by imperceptible threads.
." Beneath the ceiling and cornice, and around the four sides of the temple, are two rows of statues, one above the other, the one of men and the other of women, of the stature of the people of the country. Each has its niche, and thus is the wall adorned, which would otherwise appear naked. The male statnes have arms in their hands, encircled with four or five rows of pearls strung upon colored threads and terminating in tassels. The hands of the female statues are empty. At the base of the walls are wooden benches, cleverly fashioned, whereon are placed the coffins of the lords of the province and their families. Two feet above these coffins, and in niches in the wall, we behold the stat- ues of the individuals who there lie entombed. So natural is the representation that these images perpetuate the recollection of the departed. The males are armed, the women not.
" The space intervening between the images of the dead and the two ranks of statues above described is decorated with buck- - lers of various sizes, made of reeds, and so strongly woven that they appeared capable of resisting perforation by the arrow of a cross-bow or the shot of a musket. The beauty of these shields is greatly enhanced by decorations of pearls and variegated tassels. . " In the middle of the temple were three rows of chests upon separate benches. The largest chests served as a base for those of medium size ; and these in turn supported the smallest. Thus these pyramids consisted ordinarily of five or six cliests. Open spaces existed between them and the benches. These chests were filled with pearls, the largest containing the finest, and the
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53
WEALTH OF ARMS IN THE TEMPLE.
snailest only seed pearls. They represented the accumulations
. Besides this quantity of pearls were found packages of skins colored, and raiments of skin with the hair variously dyed.
" About this temple, which was clean and kept in excellent order, was a large magazine divided into eight halls. Upon en- tering these the Spaniards found them filled with arms. In the first were long pikes, mounted with beautiful copper, and orna- mented with pearls. The place where these pikes touched the shoulder was embellished with colored skins, and at the extremi- ties were tassels with pearls, contributing greatly to the beauty of these weapons. There were, in the second hall, maces, like those in the hands of the giants guarding the entrance to the tem- ple, decorated with pearls and colored tassels. In the third were found hammers embellished as the others; in the fourth, pikes decked with tassels near the blade and at the handle; in the fifth, a kind of oar adorned with pearls and fringes ; in the sixth, very beautiful bows and arrows. Some were armed with flint sharp- ened at the end in the form of a bodkin, a sword, a piko-blade, or the point of a dagger with two edges. The bows were adorned with divers brilliant colors and embellished with pearls. In the seventh hall were bucklers of wood and of buffalo-skins decked with pearls and colored tassels. In the eighthi were seen shields of cane, skillfully woven, and ornamented with tassels and seed pearls." 1
This temple represented the grandeur and the wealth of the province.
While the existence of pearls upon the persons and in the graves of the natives of this region may not be questioned, it is highly probable that the accounts of the quantities of these glis- tening beads here found are exaggerated. The treasures of the New World were greatly magnified by these adventurers, who dealt largely in the marvelous, and sought, by glowing descrip- tions, to excite the wonder and enlist the sympathies of their friends at home.
Shell heaps -still extant along the line of Southern rivers, upon the shores of ponds and lakes, and on the sea-coast - are not infrequent. Upon the animals which they contained did the aborigines depend in no small degree for food, and the pearls thence obtained were industriously gathered and perforated to
1 See History of Hernando de Soto and Florida, etc., by Barnard Shipp, pp. 362- 305. Philadelphia. 1881.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
be worn as ornaments. Through aboriginal trade relations con- stant supplies were also procured from margatiferous shells of the Gulf of Mexico.1
It was the purpose of the intendants of the revenue, who ac- companied the expedition, to collect and preserve all the pearls found in these temples and graves ; but upon a suggestion by the governor that these could not be conveniently carried, and that at present they were simply engaged in an expedition for discovery, it was resolved that specimens only should be taken for exhibi- tion in Havana, and that the rest should remain until such time . as they might return and possess the land. Handfuls of large pearls were distributed among the officers, with an exhortation from De Soto that they make rosaries of them. The Crown officers were allowed to retain quite a quantity which they had already weighed out.
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