Before Hernando de Soto continued westward toward Mobile Bay, which his sailors had located in order to supply his troops for their northward journey to what DeSoto believed was the Pacific Ocean, several survivors of his ill fated expedition reported at Marianna, Florida, their winter camp, 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)." © UA 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. 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."

What follows is a compilation of the reports and testimonies, published in Europe four centuries ago, of the expedition's survivors...

"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.     DeSoto's Northern Alabama Entry

"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.

"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." © 1993, UA Press

"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."

"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."

"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 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)."

Another of DeSoto's Chroniclers says, "This day (the Thursday before Easter) we arrived at a town (Montezuma) where principal Indians came as messengers from Ichisi (in Macon; he ruled the land between the Flint and Oconee 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 (probably named that by natives on earlier conquests due to his habit of conducting surprise raids on native villages at dawn) and came from where it (the sun) dwelt and that he was going through that land and seeking the greatest lord and the richest province in it. The Chiefs (of Montezuma and Oglethorpe) said that a great lord lived on ahead; that his domain was called Ocute." (beyond the Oconee River - that wealth would prove to be a lie, as was the habit of Native Americans to ride themselves of DeSoto's invaders)

"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."

[DeSoto's navigators reasoned that this "Great River," the Ocmulgee, was the Peace River which flows into Charlotte Harbor, their port of entry in Florida. After all, on their way up the Gulf Coast they had encountered only two other large rivers: the Suwannee and the Apalachicola. When they departed Florida from Marianna, headed northeast, they crossed two big rivers, the Chattahoochee and the Flint Rivers which, they figured, were the Apalachicola and the Suwannee Rivers, respectively. The next great river they would logically encounter would be, according to their logic, the Peace River, Gulf Coast Florida's other "Great River." The Gulf of Mexico, in their eyes, was the southern east-west shoreline of this "Island" of North America.]

"Friday, the second day of the month of April, this army departed from there (Ocmulgee National Monument at Macon) and slept in the open, and the next day they (the riders) arrived at a good river (the Oconee) and found deserted huts, and messengers arrived from Altamaha (Milledgeville) and led them to a town (once Georgia's Capitol City) where they found an abundance of food, and a messenger from Altamaha came with a present, and the following day (after the army arrived from Macon) they brought many canoes and the army crossed (the Oconee River, with pigs, horses and supplies) very well."

"Here (while scouting Milledgeville's east bank) we found a river (the Ogeechee River) that did not flow to the south like the others that we crossed. It flowed east, to the sea where the lawyer Ayllon had come (the horsemen discovered this eastward flowing river, the first they came upon in Georgia, just below Sparta, a day's ride, twenty miles, from Milledgeville.It flows into the Atlantic Ocean, on the coast of which their kinsman, a wealthy judge named Ayllon, had been shipwrecked the decade before they left Spain), and because of this we gave much more credit to what the Indian boy (Perico) told us, and we believed all of his lies. This province was well populated with Indians and they all served us (freeing our scouts, who were otherwise engaged patrolling for Indian ambush, to explore beyond the range of immediate army reinforcement). We questioned the Indians about the province we were searching for (Eupaha, according to the Indian boy), which was called by them Cofitachique, and they told us that it was not possible to go there; there was neither road nor anything to eat on the way, and we would all die of hunger."

"From there the governor sent a message summoning the chief Camumo (possibly from Sparta, a chief who had avoided the Spaniards), and they said that he ate and slept and walked continually armed, that he never took off his weapons, because he was on the frontier of another chief called Cofitachequi, his enemy, and that he would not come without weapons, and the governor replied and said that he should come as he might wish. And he came and the governor gave him a large feather colored with silver, and the chief took it very happily and said "You are from heaven, and this your feather that you gave me, I can eat with it, I will go forth to war with it; I will sleep with my wife with it."

"This chief was subject to a great chief who is called Ocute (at Sandersville), and he asked the governor to whom he had to give tribute to in the future, if he should give it to the governor or to Ocute... and he (DeSoto) responded that he held Ocute as a brother, that he should give Ocute his tribute until the governor should command otherwise. From there the governor sent messengers to Ocute, and he came there, and the governor gave him a hat of yellow satin, and a shirt, and a feather, and he placed a cross there in Altamaha (Milledgeville), and it was well received."

"The next day, the eighth of April (the army having crossed the Oconee River into Ocute Province), the Governor departed from there with his army, and he took Ocute with him, and they went to sleep at some huts, and on Friday they arrived at the town of Ocute (Sandersville). And the Governor got angry with him, and he (Ocute) trembled with fear; and after that a great number of Indians came with supplies, and they gave the Christians as many Indian burden bearers as they wished, and a cross was placed, and they appeared to receive it with as much devotion and adored it on their knees, as they saw the Christians do."

[Garcilaso de la Vega, the only DeSoto chronicler who has not commented so far in this particular narrative, says at this point] "At the end of ten days' journey (from Montezuma to Milledgeville) that our men traveled due north up the river (the Ocmulgee River), they passed out of the province of Altapaha (by crossing the Oconee River at Milledgeville), leaving the chief (who the other Chroniclers had called "Altamaha") and his Indians very satisfied with the friendship that they had contracted with them..."

"...They entered another province, called Achalaque ("Cherokee" in English, lying beyond the Oconee River, which means "Big River" in the Cherokee language), which was poor and lacking in food. There were very few young Indians in it, almost all of its inhabitants being old..." The young people would be found months later with Chief Coosa. "The Spaniards traveled through this province of Achalaque making long daily marches in order to leave it quickly both because it was poor in food and because we desired to reach Cofitachique as soon as we could. There, because of the news they had of there being much gold and silver in that province, they thought to load themselves down with rich treasure and return to Spain. Whereupon they doubled their daily marches, and they could do it easily because the country was flat, without woods, mountains or rivers to impede their swift pace. They crossed the province of Achalaque (between the Oconee and Ogeechee Rivers: Ogeechee means "Our Mother" in the Cherokee language) in five days' marches and left its chief and natives very peaceably inclined and friendly toward the Christians."

"So that they (the Natives) would remember them, the governor gave them, among other presents, two swine, male and female, for breeding. He had done the same for the chief of Altapaha and the lords of the other provinces who had come out peacefully and made friends with the Spaniards. Though hitherto we have not mentioned that we brought these animals with us, it is true that DeSoto brought more than three hundred head, male and female, which multiplied greatly and were exceedingly useful in the great necessities that our Castilians suffered in this discovery. If (by now) the Indians have not destroyed them, it is probable that... there are many of them there today (when this report was published in 1609), for besides those the governor gave to the friendly chiefs, many others were lost along the roads, though they were well and carefully guarded. While on the march one of the companies of cavalry (horsemen) was assigned to herd and guard them."

[Garcilaso goes on to say...] "We have not mentioned hitherto a piece of artillery the governor brought along with his army... the governor, having seen that it served for nothing except a burden and annoyance, requiring men to care for it and pack mules to transport it, decided to leave it with the chief (of) Cofa to keep." This chief was the one who the other chroniclers called Ocute, a chief subject to Cofa, who they called "Coosa") "So that he (the chief) might see (the importance of) what he (DeSoto) was leaving for him, the governor ordered the piece aimed from the house of the chief toward a large and very beautiful live-oak tree that was outside the village, and he knocked it down entirely with two shots, at which the chief and his Indians were amazed."

"The Chief (Ocute) sent him (DeSoto) two thousand Indians bearing gifts, namely rabbits, partridges, corn bread, two hens, and many dogs (possem), which are esteemed among the Christians as if they were fat sheep because there was a great lack of meat and salt. Of this there was so much need and lack in many places and on many occasions that if a man fell sick, there was nothing with which to make him well; and he would waste away of an illness which could have been easily cured in any other place, until nothing but his bones were left and he would die from pure weakness, some saying: "If I had a bit of meat or some lumps of salt, I should not die." The Indians do not lack for meat; for they kill many deer, hens, rabbits, and other game with their arrows. In this they have great skill, which the Christians do not have; and even if they had it, they had no time for it, for most of the time they were on the march, and they did not dare to turn aside from the paths (which were Indian trails between Indian villages). And because they lacked meat so badly, when the six hundred men with DeSoto arrived at any town and found twenty or thirty dogs, he who could get one and who killed it thought he was not a little agile. And if he who killed one did not send his captain a quarter, the latter, if he learned of it... gave him to understand it in the watches or in any other matter of worth that arose with which he could annoy him. On Monday, April 12, the governor left Ocute, the Chief having given him four hundred tamemes, that is, Indians for carrying."

"... and they gave us some of the foods they had and told us that if we wished to go make war on the lady of Cofitachiqui, they would give us all that we might want for our journey. They told us that there was no road by which to go, since they had no dealings with one another because they were at war; sometimes when they came to make war on one another, they passed through hidden and secret places where they would not be detected... Having seen our determination, they gave us eight hundred Indians to carry our food and cloths, and other Indians to guide us; we headed straight east and traveled for three days. The Indian (boy named Perico) who had deceived us told us that in three days he would get us there."

"and (we) arrived at Cofaqui (Louisville), and the principal Indians came with gifts... This Chief Cofaqui was an old man, full-bearded..."

"...and reached a province of an Indian lord called Patofa (at Shell Bluff), who, since he was at peace with the lord of Ocute and the other lords round him (in today's Georgia), he had heard of the governor some days before and desired to see him..."

"This land, from that of the first peaceful chief (at today's Montezuma) to the province of Patofa (today's Shell Bluff) - a distance of fifty leagues (one-hundred and thirty-two miles, the actual distance between them) - is a rich land, beautiful, fertile, well watered, and with fine fields along the rivers..."

At Patofa, the Indian boy named Perico) said, "...that four day's journey thence toward the rising sun (east-north-east) was the province of which he spoke (it would be found 80 miles, straight line distance, from there). The Indians of Patofa said that they knew of no settlement in that direction, but that toward the northwest they knew a province called Coza (which others called "Coosa"), a well provisioned land and of very large villages (Coosa, as we have said, would be encountered months later). The chief told the governor that if he wished to go thither (toward the northwest), he would furnish him service of a guide and Indians to carry (the burdens); and if (DeSoto wanted to go) in the direction indicated by the youth (east-north-east) he would also give him all those he needed..."

"On Thursday, the fifteenth of that month, Perico, the Indian boy who had been their guide since Apalache (Panama City, Florida), began to lose his bearings, because now he did not know any more of the land, and he made himself out to be possessed (he was 26 miles south of the road he should have been on at Augusta - from which their destination was only 62 miles away)... they had to take (other Indian) guides... in order to go to Cofitachequi, across an uninhabited region of nine or ten days' journey (from where Perico had mistakenly lead them)."

"Many times I am amazed by the gambling spirit, or tenacity or pertinacity, or perhaps I should say constancy, because it gives better impression of the way these deceived conquistadors went on from one difficulty to another, and from another to yet a worse one, and from one danger to others and others, here losing a comrade and there three and over there more, and going from bad to worse, without learning their lesson. Oh marvelous God, what blindness and rapture under such an uncertain greed and such vain preaching as that which Hernando de Soto was able to tell those deluded soldiers that he led to a land where he had never been... because he knew nothing of the islands of the land to the North (today's America), knowing only the method of government of... Nicaragua, and of Peru, which was another manner of dealing with the Indians; and he thought that experience from there sufficed to know how to govern here on the coast of the North, and he deluded himself, as this history will relate...

"...Friday, the sixteenth of the month, the Governor and his people spent the night at a creek (there are several there)... crossed an extremely large river, divided into branches, and broader than a long shot of a crossbow (the Savannah River at Shell Landing, below Augusta), and it had many bad fords of many flat stones, and it came up to the stirrups, and in places up to the saddle pads. The current was very strong, and there was not a man on horseback who dared to take a foot soldier on the river. The foot soldiers passed across further upstream on the river, through very deep water... They made a string of thirty or forty men tied one to another, and thus they crossed, the ones holding themselves to the others; and although some were in much danger, thanks to God not one drowned, because they aided them with the horses, and gave them the butt of their lance or the tail of their horse, and thus all came forth and slept in the forest (in South Carolina, on Full Moon)."