DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
"5 
 

Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/chickasawnation01 malo 
 
THE CHICKASAW NATION 
 
 n 
 
 A SHORT SKETCH OF A NOBLE PEOPLE 
 
 Souvenir of Memphis Centenary Celebration 
 May 19-24, 1919 
 
 By 
 
 JAMES H. MALONE 
 
Copyright 1919 
 By James H. Malone 
 
°iio . £ 
 
 v m 3 ;> 
 0 
 
 To My Dear Wife 
 
 Estelle Verney Malone 
 
 To whom I owe so much, 
 These pages are inscribed 
 

FOREWORD. 
 
 During a somewhat protracted experience at the 
 Memphis bar, my attention was early called to the treaties 
 of 1832 and 1834 between the United States and the 
 Chickasaw Nation. 
 
 Under these treaties the Chickasaws ceded the last 
 inch of that vast and splendid domain which they had 
 conquered and occupied long before Columbus, sailing 
 westward, looked upon the shores of what was called 
 a new world. 
 
 There are lines of deep pathos in those treaties. 
 From time to time my attention was called to the early 
 history of the Chickasaws, and I made some notes, and 
 still later wrote some fragmentary sketches upon the 
 subject, more as a diversion than otherwise. In assisting 
 with our approaching Centenary Celebration (May 19- 
 24, 1919), I concluded, almost at the last moment, to 
 print what I have already written as a souvenir, and as a 
 small contribution to local history. 
 
 Should time and opportunity permit, I hope to com- 
 plete what I design to call — “The Chickasaw Nation; A 
 Short Sketch of a Noble People.” 
 
 May, 1919. 
 
 James H. Malone. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 As to the Origin of the American Indians. 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 As to the Origin of the Chickasaw Indians. 
 
 And herein — 
 
 (1) How the Indians Preserved Historical 
 
 Events 20 
 
 (2) Traditions of a Western Origin 22 
 
 (3) “Did the Separation Take Place in the 
 
 West?” 26 
 
 (4) The Indians Were the Mound Builders. . 29 
 
 (5) Traditions Also Point to an Asiatic Origin 31 
 
 (6) Conclusion 33 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 The Dawn of History for the Clxickasaws. 
 
 And herein — 
 
 ( 1 ) De Soto Lands in Florida 38 
 
 (2) De Soto Reaches the Chickasaws 42 
 
 (3) The Original Chickasaws as They Were. 44 
 
 (4) Battle With the Chickasaws 49 
 
 (5) What Caused the Conflict . 59 
 
Chapter IV. 
 
 Topography of the Country Between the 
 Chickasaw Country and Chickasaw Bluffs. 
 
 And herein — 
 
 ( 1 ) Dr. Rowland Has Shifted the Bulwark of 
 
 His Defense 66 
 
 (2) How Language Should Be Interpreted. . 69 
 
 (3) The Trails of the Chickasaw Indians ... . 71 
 
 (4) The Short Cut Trail, or the Pigeon Roost 
 
 Road 81 
 
 (5) Pigeon Roost Creek and the Pigeons. ... 89 
 
 (6) The Trail from Holly Springs to New 
 
 Albany 96 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 The Four De Soto Narratives Quoted and Compared . 
 And herein — 
 
 (1) The Text of the Gentleman of Elvas. . . 103 
 
 (2) The Text of Biedma 106 
 
 (3) The Text of Ran j el 108 
 
 (4) Opinion of Professor Lewis Criticised. . 109 
 
 (5) De Soto’s Route to the Chickasaw Bluffs . 117 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 De Soto at the Chickasaw Bluffs. 
 
 And herein — 
 
 (1) The Location of Quizquiz 148 
 
 (2) De Soto’s Camp Near a River Bank. ... 151 
 
 (3) Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca 156 
 
 (4) The Account of Garcilaso de la Vega.. 160 
 
 (5) De Soto at the Mississippi 165 
 
 (6) De Soto Crosses the Mississippi 167 
 
 (7) The Country Opposite Memphis Dove- 
 
 tails with the Narrative 169 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
 
 When Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain in 
 August, 1492, going westward over an unexplored sea, 
 the expectation of discovering a new world was far from 
 his thoughts. 
 
 It had for years been the dream of his life that 
 there must be land beyond the limits of the Atlantic, 
 and that by sailing to the West he could discover a 
 nearer route to India than was at that time in use. 
 
 The riches of India were believed to be almost 
 boundless, and Venice and other centers of commerce 
 had amassed wealth in trade therewith ; all of which fired 
 the imagination of Columbus who was naturally of an 
 adventurous disposition, and withal a man of great dar- 
 ing and ability. 
 
 After some months of sailing it took all the in- 
 genuity and address of the great sailor to prevent an 
 open mutiny of his crew, consisting of 120 men, who 
 became discouraged, many of them fearing that they 
 would be cast away upon what seemed to them a limit- 
 less waste of desolate waters. 
 
 Finally when the crew was almost in a state of 
 mutiny, one night Columbus descried a light and soon 
 land loomed up in the distance, and then the vessels lay 
 to, until next day, when they were overjoyed to behold 
 a beautiful forested land from which friendly savages, 
 perfectly naked, issued forth looking upon the white men 
 and their vessels with evident astonishment. 
 
2 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Attired in scarlet Columbus with his principal offi- 
 cers and men bearing the standards of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, were soon on the land, when the admiral fell 
 on his knees, kissed the earth and returned thanks for 
 his safe deliverance with tears of joy; and his example 
 being followed by his men, he arose and with sword 
 in hand declared that he took possession of the country 
 in the name of his King and Queen. 
 
 In so doing he ignored the rights of the aborigines, 
 whose ancestors had possessed the country as their own 
 from time immemorial. 
 
 He claimed the country by what is termed the right 
 of discovery, or which might otherwise be termed the 
 right of might. 
 
 Long years afterwards in the year 1823, the Supreme 
 Court of the United States through Chief Justice Mar- 
 shall solemnly adjudged that in point of law the Indians 
 had no real title to the country they occupied, but that 
 European nations secured the title thereto by right of 
 original discovery, which was the subject of barter and 
 sale, regardless of the rights and claims of the aborig- 
 ines who for ages had occupied, claimed and owned 
 distinct and separate parts of the new world. (See the 
 case of Johnson v. McIntosh, 8 Wheaton, 543.) 
 
 Columbus named the island on which he landed San 
 Salvador, and thinking that it was a part of India he 
 called the inhabitants Indians, and this designation has 
 clung to the aborigines of America to this day, and will 
 doubtless endure for all time. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 3 
 
 This is but one instance illustrating that when an 
 error has once fixed itself in the popular mind, that 
 it is next to impossible to correct it. In this instance 
 the error is harmless; but in other departments of the 
 many factors which go towards making up the onward 
 march of civilization, like errors and delusions have 
 greatly delayed progress in many of the activities of 
 human life. 
 
 This memorable voyage of Columbus was the signa 1 
 that soon brought forth many adventurous sailors, whc 
 sailed the seas over in the quest of fortune and fame ; 
 but years rolled by before it was known that in point 
 of fact a new world had been discovered. 
 
 Amerigo Vespucci among others having crossed the 
 ocean to the main land of the Western hemisphere, so 
 impressed his contemporaries with reports of his dis- 
 coveries, that the new world became his namesake, and 
 ever since has been known as America, an honor un- 
 deserved and that should have been bestowed upon Colum- 
 bus, but instead he was rewarded with poverty and chains. 
 
 It was not until years afterwards, that Magellan 
 succeeded in passing around the southern extremity of 
 America, and gave his name to the wild and dangerous 
 straits through which he passed from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific ocean, and the latter to this day bears the name 
 he gave it. 
 
 His dream was to prove that this world in which 
 we live is a globe, but his dream ended with his life 
 April 27, 1521, in the Philippine Islands which he dis- 
 covered. 
 
4 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Fortunately his lieutenant, Sebastine d’Elcano, 
 proved a worthy successor to the great Magellan, and 
 succeeding to the command, he sailed onward and after 
 discovering many islands, finally doubled the southern 
 extremity of the African continent and returned to the 
 port from which he sailed, thereby proving to be true 
 the theory of Magellan, and which in turn proved that 
 America was a new world beyond the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 Magellan had sailed with five ships, but only one, 
 the San Vittoria, circled the earth, arriving at St. Lucar 
 near Seville, September 7, 1522, after a voyage of more 
 than three years. 
 
 She had accomplished the greatest achievement in 
 the history of the world up to that time, for she had cir- 
 cumnavigated the Globe. The tremendous importance 
 of this great voyage, and its effect upon the intellectual 
 development of mankind lies far beyond the scope of thesr 
 pages. 
 
 The wise men, philosophers and especially the eccle- 
 siastical world were thrown into a great discussion to 
 account for a new world, peopled by many tribes and na- 
 tions theretofore unknown, and likewise forested with 
 innumerable new trees and plants through which roamed 
 countless new animals, while the air was filled with birds 
 and a feathered tribe totally unknown in the old world. 
 
 The question debated was as to when and where all 
 of these things were created, and especially were they 
 created as a part of that six days creative acts set forth 
 in the sacred writings of the Christian religion. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 5 
 
 To doubt that all men were the descendants of 
 Adam and Eve was to deny the authenticity of the scrip- 
 tures, and would probably have put in jeopardy the lib- 
 erty or life of one so bold as to raise such a question. 
 
 It is difficult for us now to realize how profoundly 
 the question as to the origin of the American aborigines 
 affected the learned men and ecclesiastics of that time, 
 and even in comparatively modern days. 
 
 One of the early and favorite theories was a sug- 
 gestion or argument put forth that when the ark of 
 Noah finally rested on Mount Ararat that by unknown 
 means some of its passengers became shipwrecked, so 
 to speak, and in due course of time some of them reached 
 the new world, and that the Indians were their descend- 
 ants. Volumes were written to sustain this view. 
 
 Other authors called attention to the fact that in 
 the remote past Diodorus Siculus relates that the ancient 
 Phoenicians discovered a large island in the Atlantic 
 far beyond the pillars of Hercules, which abounded in all 
 kinds of riches. Plutarch mentions what Plato said as 
 to the information given in respect thereto by Egyptian 
 priests. This is what is sometimes called the fabled At- 
 lantis. Many believe even to this day that there was such 
 an island known as the Atlantis, which formerly ad- 
 joined other islands so that America might have been 
 peopled from Europe by persons going from one island 
 to another until the American continent was reached. 
 The Azores islands are supposed by some to be the tops 
 of the mountains on the Atlantis island at the time a 
 great submergence took place in some prehistoric period. 
 
6 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 I was in the Azores in 1912, and to me the islands had a 
 mountainous aspect. 
 
 Another theory and the one probably most written 
 of and advocated by learned writers, is to the effect that 
 the Indians were the descendants of the lost tribes of 
 Israel ; that is that they are the lineal descendants of the 
 Jews. Among these writers I read only one, viz: that of 
 James Adair, who published a lengthy account of the 
 American Indians in London in 1775, which has never 
 been republished and is a rare book. 
 
 Adair was an English trader and commenced to 
 trade with the Indians in 1735, and first traded with the 
 Chickasaws in 1744, and among whom he wrote the 
 greater part of his book. 
 
 The book contains 404 pages, of which 220 pages 
 consists of what he denominates “Arguments” in proof 
 of his theory that the Indians are descendants of the 
 Jews. There are twenty-three of these “Arguments,” 
 each being about the usual length of an ordinary chapter. 
 Adair was perfectly conversant with the marriage, di- 
 vorce, inheritance, burial and all other rites, laws and 
 customs of the Chickasaws, and neighboring nations, as 
 a white man could well be ; and at the same time he was 
 perfectly conversant with the Old Testament; and the 
 ingenuity displayed by him in an endeavor to show a 
 similarity between the ancient customs and laws of the 
 Jews with those of the Indians is worthy of admiration. 
 
 John R. Swanton, of the Bureau of American Eth- 
 nology, wrote me on March 21, 1917, that by all odds 
 the best account of the Chickasaw Indians was the work 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 7 
 
 of Adair, even though it was marred by his “Argu- 
 ments” in favor of his favorite theory, for he knew the 
 Chickasaws at first hand, and wrote what he saw and 
 heard. 
 
 In addition to the above theories there are two doc- 
 uments, one of Chinese and the other of Scandinavian 
 origin, which undertake to relate the discovery of a coun- 
 try, the first by the Chinese early in the Christian era, 
 wherein the kingdom of Fu-Sang was established, and 
 it is claimed Fu-Sang was upon American soil, hence the 
 descent of the Indians from the Chinese. 
 
 The Scandinavian Vikings early discovered Iceland 
 and it is recorded in the Sagas that about the year 981 
 A. D., Eric the Red, an outlaw of Ireland, discovered 
 Greenland, and the same Sagas or written legends which 
 set forth these discoveries, also relate that subsequent 
 thereto the Vikings made frequent visits to the South, to 
 a land which had been discovered there by one Bjarni, 
 and which was given the name of Vinland about the 
 year 985 A. D. 
 
 There is much diversity of opinion as to the trust- 
 worthiness of either the Chinese or Scandinavian ac- 
 counts. 
 
 There is a theory also that America was settled by 
 Japanese, as many Japanese junks have drifted to the 
 American coast, some empty, and some with men, but it 
 is said there is no evidence of a Japanese woman having 
 ever arrived in this way. 
 
 A cold current flows from the arctic regions down 
 Southward by China, hence it is said no Chinese wreck- 
 
8 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 age has ever reached American soil. On the other hand, 
 what we call the Japanese current flows north-westward 
 near the Japanese islands, and as the current runs at the 
 rate of some ten miles an hour, wreckage could well 
 reach America. 
 
 While the origin of our Indians is by no means defi- 
 nitely known, still I am strongly inclined to believe that 
 their original ancestors came across Bering’s Straits 
 from Asia to Alaska at some very remote period. The 
 straits dividing the continents are variously estimated to 
 be only from 36 to 56 miles across, and in addition there 
 are in it two islands of some considerable extent, and 
 these are about midway between the shores of the two 
 continents and are known as the Diomede Islands, and 
 are inhabited by Eskimos. Besides the straits are often 
 frozen over in winter, so that the hardy natives would 
 find no difficulty whatever in crossing on the ice from 
 Siberia to Alaska. 
 
 In 1906, my wife and I were in Nome, Alaska, and 
 after going upon the steamer Olympia to sail for Seattle, 
 a large open boat came alongside containing a jolly 
 family of Eskimos with the peculiarity that the heads 
 of the men were shaved on top ; and upon calling atten- 
 tion to this I was told these people were from the Dio- 
 mede Islands, it being the custom of the men there to 
 shave the top of the head, and that these people often 
 came down the coast several hundred miles to visit at 
 Nome and further down the coast. 
 
 Previously on the same trip, after landing at Skag- 
 way, we crossed over the coast mountains on the Yukon 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 9 
 
 and White Pass Railroad, and we reached White Horse, 
 on the Thirty-mile River at the foot of the White Horse 
 Rapids, where we took a steamer for Dawson City, the 
 commercial and political capital of the Yukon territory, 
 and where we remained about one week. Taking an- 
 other vessel, we continued our voyage down the great 
 Yukon River to Fort Gibbon, where we changed to an- 
 other steamer which carried us to' St. Michaels, in the 
 Bering Sea, and which is the entrepot for the Yukon 
 River country. There we stopped a few days with the 
 family of a friend, Walter Chidester, a very capable and 
 observant man, then the agent for a great commercial 
 concern in that distant part of the world. 
 
 I had been much interested in the long voyage of 
 2000 miles down the Yukon to observe what I could with 
 respect to the native Indians, though not many were to 
 be seen. As we approached the sea, say for about 150 
 miles from the mouth of the river, it was extremely in- 
 teresting to me to observe how the Indians gradually 
 shaded off into the Eskimo type. The change appeared 
 in the native garments especially in the Parka of the 
 Eskimo, and in the little igloos shaped like a beehive 
 and well known from pictures we so often see. 
 
 Mr. Childester informed me that there were several 
 encampments of Eskimos on the sea shore near his 
 house, and that these hardy natives came from Asia 
 along the Arctic Sea, and thought nothing of crossing 
 Bering’s straits and coming down the coast of Alaska, 
 a distance of 500 miles, on a kind of summer trip. Next 
 morning we went down to view the encampment. The 
 
10 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 boats they came in did not contain a piece of metal, and 
 doubtless were of the same pattern and kind used from 
 the most remote times. The boats were, according to 
 my estimate, some forty feet long, and wide and deep 
 in proportion to the length. The frame work consisted 
 of driftwood lashed together with rawhide, and the sides 
 or hull was rough walrus rawhide, and of course entirely 
 waterproof. 
 
 On leaving their homes in Siberia, all they had to do 
 was to launch their boat, pile in it their children and 
 dogs with such provisions and cooking utensils as they 
 had, and nothing remained except to paddle across the 
 straits, and thence enjoy as happy a voyage down the 
 coast as is given to- the children of nature. 
 
 The Eskimos have the slanting eyes of the Japanese 
 and Chinese, and are generally plump, very pleasing in 
 their demeanor, and many of them were very good look- 
 ing, some of the women having a dignified, matronly ap- 
 pearance; and it was said no Eskimo was ever seen to 
 strike a child. 
 
 We arrived at Nome on Saturday and that night, 
 under the electric lights of that outpost of civilization, 
 the streets were full of Eskimos of all sexes and ages, 
 dressed in vari colored furs, and these with miners and 
 prospectors from many parts of the earth, presented one 
 of the most picturesque scenes I ever looked upon. 
 
 As is well known the Laps inhabit the Northern Arc- 
 tic regions of Norway, Sweden and a portion of Russia, 
 their country being usually denominated Lapland. 
 While they succeeded in domesticating the reindeer, still 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 11 
 
 they have no organized government, and owe allegiance 
 to the various countries in which they live. 
 
 All ethnologists agree that the Laps are in no way 
 connected with the Eskimos, but are probably related to 
 the Finns, both being a branch of the Asiatic Mongolian 
 race, about whose origin little is known. 
 
 The best theory seems to be that the Laps in remote 
 ages lived further South and were gradually driven 
 North by their more powerful neighbors, and in course 
 of time the only asylum that could afford them protec- 
 tion was the frozen North, which accordingly became 
 their permanent home. 
 
 On the shores of Arctic Asia the Eskimos commence 
 and continue not only across the Bering Straits, but 
 they inhabit all of the Northern shores and islands of 
 North America, and extend as far as Greenland, which 
 is far out in the Atlantic Ocean. It was once a question 
 how the Eskimos could get to Greenland, but it seems to 
 be now well agreed that they could cross on the ice, and 
 if need be, aided by their water craft. 
 
 The Eskimos stretch over a distance of some thou- 
 sands of miles, counting from those who live in Asia on 
 eastward to Greenland, the Arctic Islands and lands in 
 the far frozen North ; and it seems to be agreed that their 
 speech shows a common origin. No other uncivilized 
 people have ever been known to inhabit a country so ex- 
 tensive in length, and in all probability there is no inter- 
 course between those separated by great distances. It 
 would seem, therefore, that the Eskimos on the Arctic 
 shores of Asia were driven there by their Mongolian 
 
12 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 neighbors in the South, which finally became their home, 
 as the Laps found a home on the northern shores of 
 Arctic Europe. The features of the Eskimos are of the 
 Mongolian type and I do not think there can be a reason- 
 able doubt that they are of Mongolian origin. It is true 
 that they have their peculiar characteristics, but their 
 mode of life for ages in the Arctic regions, with the in- 
 tense struggle for existence peculiar to that life would 
 necessarily show variations from the original type. 
 
 All the Eskimos I have seen appeared to better ad- 
 vantage both in person and general deportment, as well 
 as in the souvenirs of their own make which they offered 
 for sale, than did the Laps whom I saw in Northern Nor- 
 way in 1912, on a visit we made that year to the North 
 Cape, commonly called the land of the midnight sun. 
 
 Those Laps had a scrawny, dirty appearance, and 
 the trinkets offered for sale seemed to me far inferior 
 to the handiwork of the Eskimos. 
 
 That the Indians of North America are either the 
 descendants of Eskimos or Asiatics I scarcely think is 
 doubtful. While the great Yukon River flows for the 
 most part through a great plateau, with considerable for- 
 ests on its banks, still these trees gradually fade away 
 into mere scrub, within, say 100 miles of the mouth of 
 the river. The evident reason is that trees can not grow 
 on the desolate tundras near the sea precisely as no trees 
 are to be found on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. 
 
 I was told that Eskimos lived on the desolate lower 
 reaches of the Yukon, and in fact saw their igloos and 
 could distinguish them by the parkas they wore. As is 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 13 
 
 well known, Eskimos depend upon the seals, the walrus, 
 and an occasional whale, and other denizens of the sea; 
 whereas the Indian proper depends upon the creatures 
 of the land for a subsistence. 
 
 The struggle for existence in either mode of life is 
 severe and would necessarily produce many variations 
 from the original type. 
 
 All travelers report that the greatest antipathy exists 
 between Eskimos and the Indians, who sometimes stray 
 upon the hunting grounds of each other. The Eskimos 
 are often at enmity, the one tribe with another. Nothing 
 is better known than that neighboring tribes of Indians 
 were constantly at war, which is the case with practically 
 all uncivilized peoples, and also the practice is not un- 
 known among those nations who claim to be the leaders 
 of civilization. 
 
 It is well known that uncivilized peoples who depend 
 upon the chase for sustenance, are nearly always nomads, 
 spending months at a time on distant journeys, follow- 
 ing up the game which furnishes them food and raiment. 
 
 How easy would it be for a tribe forced up the 
 Yukon by its enemies, or which should take a notion to 
 spy out a happier hunting ground, to go in their canoes 
 to the upper reaches of the Yukon in the summer time? 
 Here they would find not only an abundance of fish in 
 the river and its tributaries, as well as water fowl, but 
 at certain seasons of the year there were to be found 
 millions of caribou as well as the lordly moose, not to 
 mention other game. It is true the caribou migrate and 
 at times go to the South, but it is well known that sav- 
 
14 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 age people follow migrating animals, and by following 
 these to their winter homes it would be but a short step 
 to find the countless herds of North American Buffalo 
 or bison, which stretched from Arctic America to the 
 Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 Again it is but 112 miles from the upper point of 
 navigation on the headwaters of the Yukon, to Skagway 
 on the Pacific Ocean where the sea never freezes over, 
 and how easy would it be for the aborigines to cross the 
 intervening range of mountains is shown from the fact 
 that it is now crossed on a railway train. 
 
 The Peace River country now in British Columbia, 
 though far north has a comparatively mild climate, ow- 
 ing to the warm Chinook winds which blow over the 
 Japan currents of the Pacific and reach that country. 
 This country would be a kind of half-way house between 
 the Arctic regions and the warmer parts of the country 
 stretching toward the far South, for migrating bands of 
 savages. 
 
 In considering the possibility or probability of the 
 settlement in America of the Indians, first coming across 
 by way of Bering Straits, we should not consider the 
 subject from the standpoint of a few hundred years, but 
 upon the assumption that in all probability it took some 
 thousands of years for the settlement of the American 
 continents. 
 
 Given sufficient time the dispersion might well cover 
 the whole continent; and as a climate, the productions of 
 the soil and other conditions which make it easy to sub- 
 sist and give leisure for thought and reflection, have 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 15 
 
 always been the means by which men have first discarded 
 savagery and laid the foundation stones for ultimate 
 civilization, we can realize why it was that there once ex- 
 isted in Peru and Mexico a civilization unknown on the 
 North American continent. 
 
 The warm climate and other favoring conditions in 
 those parts of America where there once existed a pre-. 
 historic civilization, have often been compared to like 
 climatic conditions in the valley of the Nile and of the 
 Euphrates and Tigris, where, so far as we know, our 
 civilization had its beginning. 
 
 It may be remarked here that the Natchez Indians 
 who gave their name to the City of Natchez in Southern 
 Mississippi on the banks of the great river of that name, 
 were the furtherest advanced in their form of govern- 
 ment and an organized society, than any other tribe of 
 Indians who dwelt within the boundaries of the United 
 States. No doubt the warm climate, and favoring con- 
 ditions of life were prime factors in the elevation of this 
 unfortunate people, who were almost exterminated by 
 the French, and as we will see the remnants of that once 
 noted tribe found an asylum and a home among the in- 
 trepid Chickasaws, who haughtily and successfully defied 
 all the powers of the French when they demanded the 
 surrender of the Natchez from the Chickasaws. 
 
 I have never seen the ruins of South or Central 
 America that have been uncovered and so extensively 
 written about and photographed, especially in these later 
 years. 
 
16 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 I passed on the train near the earth pyramids not 
 far from Mexico City, and saw in that city the great 
 Calendar stone and other remnants of a past civilization. 
 In the same year (1908) we went down to the State of 
 Oaxaca, far south of Mexico City, to see the ruins of 
 Mitla, which are not far distant from Oaxaca. No one 
 can view these ruins except with feelings of astonish- 
 ment ; and yet we are told that when Cortez first passed 
 through that country about 1520, that the half barbarous 
 people who lived near these ruins had no more knowledge 
 as to who were the builders of the splendid solid stone 
 edifices which once adorned that country, than have the 
 half naked Indians we saw there. 
 
 Between the City of Oaxaca and the ruins of Mitla 
 stands the celebrated Tide tree, said to be the oldest and 
 largest tree in the world. It measured 154 feet in cir- 
 cumference and was of sufficient importance to attract 
 the attention of Alexander Von Humboldt, who placed a 
 tablet on the tree commemorative of his visit (as I re- 
 member) in 1804, a part of which has been covered by 
 new growth of the tree, which still continues to grow. 
 
 It was on this trip that Humboldt traveled over 
 South America, and thence northward up through Cen- 
 tral America, Mexico, and into the United States. He 
 traveled over most of the world, especially through the 
 remote and uncivilized countries, was learned in almost 
 every branch of knowledge and was one of the greatest 
 intellectualities of the Nineteenth Century. Probably 
 no man was better capacitated to express an opinion as 
 to the origin of the American Indians than Humboldt. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 17 
 
 In Volume 1, page 13 of “The Great Republic by 
 Master Historians,” Humboldt is quoted as saying: 
 
 “It appears most evident to me, that the monu- 
 ments, methods of computing time, systems of cos- 
 mogony, and many myths of America, offer strik- 
 ing analogies with the ideas of eastern Asia — - 
 analogies which indicate an ancient communication, 
 and are not simply the result of that uniform con- 
 dition in which all nations are found in the dawn of 
 civilization.” 
 
 When Cortez with fire and sword and a savagery 
 rivaling Attila, “The scourge of God,” destroyed the 
 Montezumas of Mexico City, at the same time and under 
 the plea of destroying paganism and extending the Chris- 
 tian religion he likewise destroyed all the records of the 
 civilization which he found in Mexico. In all probability 
 the loss caused by this destruction, robbed mankind of the 
 only clue which might have led to a knowledge of the 
 origin of the American aborigines. 
 
 In the present state of knowledge, the conclusion of 
 Humboldt is about all that can now be said with any de- 
 gree of certainty, upon this most interesting subject. 
 
18 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE CHICKASAW NATION. 
 
 As we have seen, the origin of the race of the 
 American Indian is wrapped in mystery, so likewise when 
 we endeavor to trace the early history of the Chickasaw 
 Nation as an integral part of the Indian race, we will 
 likewise find that we are without authentic history and 
 must depend upon legends and traditions as our only 
 sources of information. 
 
 I am by no means unmindful of the weakness, not 
 to say untrustworthiness, of this kind of evidence ; never- 
 theless having no other, we will briefly look to these 
 sources as furnishing some slight indication as to the 
 earliest home of the Chickasaws. 
 
 There are several versions as to the manner in which 
 the Chickasaws reached their home in what is now North 
 Mississippi, and there found an abiding place. De Soto 
 was the first white man to enter their country in Decem- 
 ber, 1540, and there they were again found after the 
 lapse of more than a century, by the first white men who 
 explored their country. 
 
 It seems to me that these traditions point to Old 
 Mexico as the original home of the Chickasaws. 
 
 I have referred to Adair as an authority on Chicka- 
 saw history, and next to him, I regard H. B. Cushman 
 as probably the most reliable of those who have given 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 19 
 
 accounts of the Chickasaws. Lincecum is also a good 
 authority. 
 
 In 1899 Cushman published a volume of 607 pages, 
 entitled “History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Nat- 
 chez Indians,” the Greenville, Texas, Headlight Printing 
 House being the publisher, the paper being very poor but 
 the type good. I had difficulty in procuring a copy of 
 the book, which I finally did through the efforts of my 
 friend, W. W. Alsobrook, who had resided many years 
 in Greenville, and who was told by a niece of Cushman 
 that he died in 1904. 
 
 Cushman states that his parents left Massachusetts 
 in 1820, and went to the Choctaw Indians as mission- 
 aries, among whom they labored the balance of their 
 lives, and died the sincere and admiring friends of the 
 Red men of the forest ; that he was reared among the 
 Indians and was intimately acquainted with them during 
 the vicissitudes of a life extending to near four score 
 of years ; that he had obtained in these years a fund 
 of information not theretofore published, and he evi- 
 dently deemed it a sacred duty to place it in permanent 
 form for the benefit of posterity, and especially in jus- 
 tice to the Indians whom he admired and loved so much. 
 
 The wrongs and injustices towards the Indians by 
 white men evidently so oppressed the mind and sympa- 
 thies of Cushman, that throughout his lengthy book he 
 constantly declaims against the oppressors of the In- 
 dians, and in this way detracts from the value of his 
 conclusions as an impartial historian. However, his per- 
 
20 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 feet sincerity and honesty of purpose in stating exactly 
 what he saw and heard, cannot be doubted. 
 
 There is no index or even chapters to his book, and 
 it would seem that the one thought constantly with him 
 was to put in permanent form not only all he knew about 
 the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Natchez Indians, but to 
 weave into his book what he knew of other Indians, to- 
 gether with his conclusions with respect to the treatment 
 of the Indians in general by the white men of this 
 country. 
 
 The first 414 pages of the book are devoted to the 
 Choctaws; the next 115 pages to the Chickasaws, and 
 the remainder to the Natchez Indians, and various other 
 subjects. 
 
 I have thus referred to Adair, Cushman and Lince- 
 cum, because I intend to quote from them liberally as 
 authentic sources of information, which I do the more 
 readily as the first two are practically out of the reach 
 of the general reading public. 
 
 How the Indians Preserved Historical Events — 
 
 The impression is general that the Indians were 
 without any means of recording matters of great inter- 
 est or import, and that they depended entirely upon 
 their memories in transmitting current events to poster- 
 ity, but Cushman says : 
 
 “As aids to memory they used various devices, 
 among which belts of wampum were the chief. 
 Wampum was truly the archives of the tribe among 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 21 
 
 all North American Indians. It was made of 
 dressed deer skin, soft and pliable as cloth, and 
 interwoven with various shells cut into uniform 
 size, carefully polished, strung together and painted 
 in different colors, all of which were significant; 
 white being the emblem of peace and friendship ; 
 red, the symbol of hostility and war. As the colors 
 of the wampum were significant, so also were the 
 length and breadth of these belts, and also the pecu- 
 liar arrangements of the differently painted strings 
 attached, each and all fully understood by the In- 
 dians alone. A belt of wampum was presented to 
 one tribe by another as a remembrance token of 
 any important event that was communicated. They 
 had many and various kinds of wampum ; some in 
 the form of belts of different breadth and length ; 
 some in strings of various width and length, all 
 reaching back in regular order to centuries of the 
 remote past, with an accuracy incredible to the 
 White Race. 
 
 The wampum was the Indians’ history, the 
 chronicles of the past; and the leaders of each clan 
 of the tribe, from one generation to another were 
 carefully and thoroughly instructed by their prede- 
 cessors for that particular business and were held 
 in the highest esteem by all Indians everywhere. 
 * * * 
 
 Pictures, rudely carved on rocks and trees, were 
 used to convey information, each figure being a 
 true symbol understood and fully comprehended by 
 the Indians wherever seen” (See pages 35-36). 
 
 It is evident that this mode of recording current 
 events was far from perfect, and was liable to many 
 misinterpretations. 
 
22 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Traditions of a Western Origin — 
 
 All agree, however, that the Chickasaws belonged 
 to the Muskhogean family of Indians, the family name 
 being spelled variously, as Muscogee, Muskogee, Mus- 
 khogies, Muscogulgee, etc. 
 
 The principal nations composing the Muskhogeans 
 were the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creek and Chockchoo- 
 mas ; and the country occupied by them extended from 
 the Gulf of Mexico up the east side of the Mississippi 
 River, then up the Ohio to the dividing ridge between 
 the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and on eastward 
 to the Atlantic Ocean. East Tennessee, and the moun- 
 tainous portions of Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky 
 were occupied by the warlike and fine Cherokees, who 
 constituted a Southern branch of the Iroquois Indians, 
 whose main country lay further north. 
 
 There were included in the above general descrip- 
 tion of the Muskhogean country many small tribes who 
 were not Muskhogeans; such as the noted Natchez In- 
 dians, the Biloxis, Tunicas, Tensas, Yazoos, Koroas and 
 Pascagoulas, but the members of these tribes were for 
 the most part inconsiderable, while the Muskhogeans 
 were much larger and warlike, often fighting each other. 
 
 There appears to have been a well defined tradition 
 among all the Muskhogeans, pointing to the West, and 
 probably Old Mexico as their former home. It is of 
 interest here, to recall that the great Cherokee Indian, 
 Sequoyah, conceived the idea that by tracing out some 
 common idioms in the various Indian languages, he could 
 eventually determine the origin of the Cherokees and 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 23 
 
 other Indians; and in his old age he traveled to the far 
 West and was overtaken by death at the advanced age 
 of eighty-two, among the mountains of Tamaulipas, 
 Mexico. 
 
 Adair says the Choctaws and Chickasaws were the 
 descendants of a people called Chickemacaws ; who were 
 among the first inhabitants of the Mexican Empire; and 
 at an ancient period wandered eastward with a tribe of 
 Indians called Choccomaws, and finally crossed the Miss- 
 issippi River with ten thousand warriors. 
 
 Cushman supposes that the names Choctaw and 
 Chickasaw were derived from the above names, and says 
 that in 1820 the aged Choctaws related to the mission- 
 aries that their ancestors in a remote period dwelt in 
 the far West, and being conquered and oppressed by a 
 more powerful people, resolved to seek a new country, 
 going to the East. 
 
 A great council of the whole nation was called, 
 and after great deliberation and much discussion, the 
 nation started forth under the leadership of two broth- 
 ers, Chahtah and Chikasah, both equally renowned for 
 their bravery in war and their wisdom in council. 
 
 After much prayer and supplication, the Great 
 Spirit had revealed to their chief medicine men and 
 prophets that they should erect a pole (Fa-bus-sah in 
 their language) in the midst of their camp standing 
 straight up, and that each morning they should care- 
 fully observe the way it leaned and follow in that direc- 
 tion, and the first morning as it leant to the east they 
 started on their long journey toward the rising sun. 
 
24 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Each night the pole was set up in the midst of 
 the camp, alternately by the brothers, Chahtah and Chik- 
 asah, and each morning it still pointed to the east, and 
 for months they passed over plains, mountains and 
 through forests, much of the country abounding in game 
 and inviting the pilgrims to settle there, but the talis- 
 manic pole continued to point eastward and the nation 
 followed its silent admonitions. 
 
 Says Cushman : 
 
 “After many months of wearisome travel, sud- 
 denly a vast body of flowing water stretched its 
 mighty arm athwart in their path. With unfeigned 
 astonishment they gathered in groups upon its banks 
 and gazed upon its turbid waters. Never before 
 had they even heard of, or in all their wanderings 
 stumbled upon aught like this. Whence its origin? 
 Where its terminus ? This is surely the Great 
 Father the true source of all waters, whose age 
 is wrapt in the silence of the unknown past, ages 
 beyond all calculation, and as they then and there 
 named it ‘Misha Sipokni’ (Beyond Age, whose 
 source and terminus are unknown). * * * Is 
 
 Misha Sipokni to be the terminus of their toils? 
 Are the illimitable forests that so lovingly embraced 
 in their wide extended arms its restless waters to 
 be their future homes? Not so. Silent and mo- 
 tionless, still as ever before, it bows to the east and 
 its mandate, ‘Onward, beyond Misha Sipokni,’ is 
 accepted without a murmur ; and at once they pro- 
 ceed to construct canoes and rafts by which, in a 
 few weeks, all were safely landed upon its eastern 
 banks, whence again was resumed their eastward 
 march, and so continued until they stood upon the 
 western banks of the Yazoo River and once more 
 encamped for the night ; and, as had been done for 
 many months before, ere evening began to unfold 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 25 
 
 her curtains, and twilight had spread o’er all, her 
 mystic light, the Fabussa (now truly their Delphian 
 oracle) was set up; but ere the morrow’s sun had 
 plainly lit up the eastern horizon, many anx- 
 iously watching eyes that early rested upon its 
 straight, slender, silent form, observed it stood erect 
 as when set up the evening before, and then was 
 borne upon the morning breeze throughout the vast 
 sleeping encampment, the joyful acclamation! ‘Fo- 
 hah hupishno Yak! Fohah hupishno Yak!' (Pro. 
 as Fo-hah, Rest, hup-ish-noh, we, all of us, Yak, 
 here). 
 
 Now their weary pilgrimage was ended, and 
 flattering hope portrayed their future destiny in 
 the bright colors of peace, prosperity and happi- 
 ness. Then as commemorative of this great event 
 in their national history, they threw up a large 
 mound embracing three acres of land and rising 
 forty feet in a conical form, with a deep hole about 
 ten feet in diameter excavated on the top, and all 
 enclosed by a ditch encompassing nearly twenty 
 acres. After its completion, it was discovered not 
 to be erect, but a little leaning, and they named it 
 Nunih (mountain or mound, Waiyah, leaning, pro. 
 as Nunih Wai-yah). 
 
 This relic of the remote past still stands half 
 buried in the accummulated rubbish of years un- 
 known, disfigured also by the desecrating touch of 
 Time, which has plainly left his finger-marks of 
 decay upon it, blotting out its history, with all oth- 
 ers of its kind, those memorials of ages past erected 
 by the true Native American, about which so much 
 has been said in conjecture, and so much written 
 in speculation, that all now naturally turn to any- 
 thing from their modern conjectures and specula- 
 tions with much doubt and great misgivings” (See 
 pages 64-65). 
 
26 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Some years afterwards, Chahtah and Chikasah dis- 
 agreed on some question of state, and decided to sepa- 
 rate with their respective followers, the choice of the 
 countries to be decided by a game of chance, with the 
 result that the northern part of the country fell to Chik- 
 asah and his people, while the southern part fell to Chah- 
 tah and his followers. 
 
 Did the Separation Take Place in the West — 
 
 Dr. Gideon Lincecum lived among the Choctaws 
 for years and spoke their language fluently, and his auto- 
 biography will be found in VIII Publications, Mississippi 
 Historical Society Papers, at page 443; and at page 521 
 of the same volume there is an interesting account by 
 Dr. Lincecum of the Choctaw traditions about their set- 
 tlement in Mississippi, and the origin of their mounds, 
 the account extending to page 542. 
 
 On page 543 of the same volume, Harry War- 
 ren also has an interesting article on “Chickasaw Tra- 
 ditions, Customs, etc.” While differing as to some of 
 the details, still the accounts given by these three authors, 
 and also that of Schoolcraft, as quoted by Warren, agree 
 in the main, one important exception being that, accord- 
 ing to Lincecum, the separation between Chahtah and 
 Chikasah took place long before they reached their new 
 home, for he says : 
 
 “About thirty winters after they had stopped 
 at Nunih Waya, a party of hunters who had pro- 
 gressed a little further north than usual, fell in with 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 27 
 
 a camp of hunters belonging to the Chickasha 
 tribe. After finding that they spoke the same lan- 
 guage with themselves, the Chahtahs approached 
 their camp in a friendly manner, and remained sev- 
 eral days. The older men amongst them being 
 familiar with the traditional history of the journey- 
 ings of their respective tribes, took much pleasure 
 in communicating to each other an account of their 
 travels. From the point where the two tribes sep- 
 arated, the Chickashas diverged widely to the left, 
 found an extremely rough and scarce country for 
 some time, but at last emerging from the mountains 
 on to the wide spread plains, they found the buffalo 
 and other game plentiful. They continued to travel, 
 with only an occasional halt, to rest the women 
 and the feeble ones, until they came to the great 
 river, at the place called by them sakti ahlopulli 
 (bluff crossing) — ‘white people call it now Chicka- 
 saw Bluffs,’ said the old man: They made shift 
 to cross the great river, and traveling onward, the 
 leader’s pole came to a stand at a place called Chick- 
 asha Old Town in a high and beautiful country. 
 The leader’s pole stood at this place three winters, 
 at the end of which time the pole was found lean- 
 ing to the northeast. They set out again and crossed 
 another big river (little prairie near Huntsville, 
 Ala.). The pole remained there erect only one 
 winter. At mulberry time the ensuing summer, the 
 pole was found leaning almost directly to the south. 
 They packed up, and crossing many bold running 
 rivers, the pole still leaning onward, until they came 
 to a large river, near where it emptied into the great 
 okhuta (ocean). 
 
 At this beautiftd country (below where Savan- 
 nah, Georgia, now stands), the pole stood erect 
 many winters. The fish, opa haksum, oko folush 
 (oysters, clams) and all manner of shell fish and 
 fowl and small game were plentiful. The people 
 obtained full supplies of provisions with but little 
 
28 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 labor. In the process of time, however, the people 
 became sickly, and they were visited with a very 
 great plague. They called the plague hoita lusa 
 (black vomit) because the people died, vomiting 
 black matter, resembling powdered fire coals and fish 
 slime. All that took it were sick but a day or two 
 and died so fast that the people became frightened 
 and ran off, leaving great numbers of the dead 
 unburied. They followed the leader’s pole back 
 nearly over the same route they went, until finally 
 they returned to the place where the pole made its 
 first stand (Chickasha Old Towns). Here it stood 
 again, and remained erect until it rotted.” (See 
 pp. 539-540.) 
 
 There are other evidences that the Chickasaws once 
 lived near where Savannah, Georgia, now is, and the 
 sea coast, and it is a fact that they laid claim to a 
 scope of country in that vicinity before Congress as late 
 as 1795. 
 
 It is also true that the Chickasaws, or a part of 
 them, once lived at the Mussel Shoals, now in North 
 Alabama, a fact stated by Piomingo at the Great Con- 
 ference in Nashville in 1792, in giving the boundaries 
 of the Chickasaw country. 
 
 There is one other interesting feature of the above 
 quotation from Lincecum, and that is, that the Chicka- 
 saws first crossed the great river at the Chickasaw Bluffs, 
 presumably where Memphis now stands. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 29 
 
 The Indians Were the Mound Builders — 
 
 There is one feature of the migration legends treated 
 at length by Lincecum that seems to have been overlooked 
 or not treated by Cushman ; and that is the bringing by 
 the Indians of vast quantities of the bones of their de- 
 ceased ancestors to their new home. 
 
 According to Lincecum, who claimed to have de- 
 rived all of his information from the wise men of the 
 Choctaws, the migration covered a period of forty-three 
 years, and the people were loaded down with the bones 
 of their ancestors to such an extent as to make further 
 progress almost impossible. 
 
 A safe depository for the repose of these bones 
 was one of the chief reasons for building the great mound 
 in their new home, as well as to- raise a monument to 
 their triumphant march and successful settlement towards 
 the rising sun. 
 
 Commencing at page 529, Lincecum says : 
 
 “Men were then appointed to select an appro- 
 priate place for the mound to be erected on, and to 
 direct the work while in progress. They selected a 
 level piece of sandy land, not far from the middle 
 creek; laid it off in an oblong square and raised 
 the foundation by piling up earth which they dug up 
 some distance to the north of the foundation. It 
 was raised and made level as high as a man’s head 
 and beat down very hard. It was then floored with 
 cypress bark before the work of placing the sacks of 
 bones commenced. The people gladly brought for- 
 ward and deposited their bones until there were none 
 left. The bones, of themselves, had built up an im 
 mense mound. They brought the cypress bark, 
 which was neatly placed on, till the bone sacks were 
 all closely covered in, as dry as a tent. While the 
 tool carriers were working with the bark, womer 
 
30 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 and children and all the men, except the hunters, 
 carried earth continually, until the bark was all cov- 
 ered from sight constituting a mound half as high as 
 the tallest forest tree.” (See pages 529-530.) 
 
 In a note to page 530, he says : 
 
 “I visited this celebrated mound in 1843. T 
 found it rounded off, oblong square, 200 yards in 
 circumference at its base; 80 feet in height, with 
 a flat space on the top 52 yards in length by 25 
 yards in width, the whole mound was thickly set 
 with large forest trees, 200 yards to the north of it 
 is a lake, which I suppose to be the place whence they 
 carried the earth to construct the mound.” 
 
 Lincecum further set forth that he further learned 
 that in the remote past, the Chickasaws were threaten- 
 ing an invasion of the Choctaw country, when a great 
 council was called, which resolved to and did build a 
 great wall around their two principal mounds, and also 
 enclosing a space sufficient to contain all the women and 
 children, as well as the aged and infirm, in case they 
 were besieged. The wall was built of the height of two 
 men, and had in it only two openings, one on the east 
 and the other on the west, of five steps each in width 
 for the egress and ingress of the people until Nunih 
 Waya should be actually invaded by the enemy. 
 
 In a note to page 542 Lincecum says : 
 
 “I went all around this earth wall in 1843. It 
 seemed to be a complete circle, and from one and 
 a half to two miles in circumference, the southeast- 
 ern portion cutting the bluff of Nunih Waya creek. 
 Many places in the wall were still eight feet in 
 height. The two gaps in the wall had never been 
 filled up.” 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 31 
 
 Both Cushman and Lincecum attest that even in 
 their day there were professional bone pickers, whose 
 duties consisted in removing all the flesh of deceased 
 Choctaws from the bones, which were carefully and re- 
 ligiously stored away in mounds, or rather, they were 
 laid away in the Common Mausoleum of the Choctaws, 
 each addition being carefully covered with earth until 
 the mounds often reached large proportions. 
 
 Quoting his Choctaw informant, Lincecum says: 
 
 “Now my white friend, I have explained to 
 you the origin, and who it was that built the great 
 number of mounds that are found scattered over 
 this wide land. The circular conic mounds are al 1 
 graves, and mark the spot where the persons, for 
 whom they were built, breathed their last breath. 
 
 There being no bone pickers at the hunting camps 
 to handle the dead, the body was never touched, or 
 moved from the death posture. Just as it lay, or 
 sat, as the case might be, it was covered up, first 
 with either stones, pebbles or sand, and finished off 
 with earth. In this way the custom of mound 
 graves originated from the great mound graves, 
 Nunih Waya, and it prevailed with the Choctaw 
 people until the white man came with his destruc- 
 tive sense-killing ‘fire water’ and made the people 
 all drunk.” (See pp. 533-534.) 
 
 Of course there were other structures erected for de- 
 fensive and war like purposes, such as the construction 
 of the wall described by Lincecum. 
 
 Traditions Also Point to an Asiatic Origin — 
 
 I will here quote at large from Cushman, which in- 
 dicates an Asiatic origin for the Chickasaws, according to 
 tradition, as follows : 
 
32 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 “The ancient traditions . of the Cherckees, as 
 well as the ancient traditions of the Muscogees 
 (Creeks) and the Natchez also point back to Mex- 
 ico as the country from which they, in a period long 
 past, moved to their ancient possessions east of the 
 Mississippi River. But whether they preceded the 
 Choctaws and Chickasaws or came after, their tra- 
 ditions are silent. 
 
 Milfort (page 269) says: Big Warrior, Chief 
 of the Cherokees, as late as 1822, not only confirms 
 their traditions that Mexico was their native coun- 
 try, but goes back to a more remote period for their 
 origin and claims that his ancestors came from Asia 
 crossing Behring Straits in their canoes ; thence 
 down the Pacific Coast to Mexico; thence to the 
 country east of the Mississippi River, where they 
 were first known to the Europeans. 
 
 Mr. Gaines, United States Agent to the Choc- 
 taws in 1810, asked Apushamatahaubi (pro. Ar- 
 push-ah-ma-tar-hah-ub-ih) the most renowned chief 
 of the Choctaws since their acquaintance with the 
 white race, concerning the origin of his people, whc 
 replied : ‘A hattaktikba bushi-aioktulla hosh hopaki 
 fehna moma ka minti’ (Pro. as Arn (my) hut-tark- 
 tik-ba (forefather) hush-ih ai-o-kah-tullah (the 
 west, mo-mah (all) meen-tih (came) ho-par-kih 
 (far) feh-nah (very) ). 
 
 And the same response was always given by all 
 the ancient Choctaws living east of the Mississippi 
 River, when the inquiry was made of them, Whence 
 their origin? By this they only referred to the 
 country in which their forefathers long dwelt prior 
 to their exodus to the east of the Mississippi River; 
 as they also had a tradition that their forefather? 
 came from a country beyond the ‘Big Waters’ far 
 to the northwest, crossing a large body of water in 
 their canoes of a day’s travel, thence down the Pa- 
 cific coast to Mexico, the same as the Cherokees. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 33 
 
 In conversation with an aged Choctaw in the 
 year 1884 (Robert Nail, a long known friend), 
 upon the subject, he confirmed the tradition by stat- 
 ing that his people came first from Asia by way of 
 the Behring Straits. He was a man well versed in 
 geography, being taught in boyhood by the mission- 
 aries prior to their removal from their eastern 
 homes to their present abode north of Texas. The 
 Muscogees, Shawnees, Delawares, Chippeways and 
 other tribes also have the same traditions pointing 
 beyond Behring Straits to Asia as the land whence 
 their forefathers came in ages past. Some of their 
 traditions state that they crossed the Strait on the 
 ice, the Chippeways for one, but the most, accord- 
 ing to their traditions, crossed in their canoes. But 
 that the ancestors of the North American Indians 
 came at some unknown period in the remote past 
 from Asia to the North American Continent, there 
 can be no doubt.” (See pp. 66-67.) 
 
 Conclusion — 
 
 From the foregoing, I think it may be safely con- 
 cluded that the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and in fact the 
 entire Muskhogean family, in remote times came to the 
 country now comprising the Gulf States and reaching 
 to the Atlantic Ocean, from the far west, and in all 
 probability from what is now the Mexican Republic, and 
 more remotely from Asia. 
 
 The legends and traditions to this effect had become 
 a part of the religious history of the Indians. The wan- 
 derings of the Indians under the leadership of Chahtah 
 and Chickasah in quest of a new home, and their many 
 privations and sufferings, was not only as real, but as 
 sacred to them, and as of as deep a religious significa- 
 tion, as is the forty years of wandering in the wilderness 
 
34 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 of the Jews under Moses and Joshua, to the Israelites 
 and the Christian world at the present time. 
 
 A great national event of such a character sinks deep 
 into the consciousness of a people and will persist through 
 ages. 
 
 In addition to the wampum device, already noticed, 
 for the preservation of historical facts, it was the custom 
 of the Chickasaws and Choctaws to select, say, about 
 twenty youths of each generation, who were carefully in- 
 structed by their wise men in their past history as well 
 as in all things deemed advisable for the public well 
 being. 
 
 If it be said that there are too many variations or 
 differences in the traditions so handed down from genera- 
 tion to generation, then it may be truly replied that such 
 variations are inseparable attendants upon all efforts to 
 preserve records of past events. 
 
 Thus, the four gospels recording the life and teach- 
 ings of Jesus of Nazareth, vary in many particulars, 
 although he spoke as never man spake. However, taken 
 as a whole, the gospels are complete. 
 
 While Indian traditions fall in rank far below the 
 written history of any civilized people, still my conclu- 
 sion is as indicated above. 
 
 The suggestion of Cushman that the Muskhogeans 
 were driven from Mexico by the fire and sword of the 
 marauder Cortez, is entirely untenable, when we reflect 
 that the expedition of De Soto was only some twenty 
 years later than that of Cortez ; and that when De Soto 
 passed the winter of 1540-1541 with the Chickasaws, 
 they appear to have been well seated at their homes, and 
 there was nothing to indicate that they had recently been 
 driven from Mexico. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE DAWN OF HISTORY FOR THE CHICKASAWS. 
 
 The sixteenth century opened with the dawn of 
 brighter days for civilized man throughout the world. 
 A new world had been discovered, a quickening impulse 
 had been given to art, science was awakening, and the 
 diffusion of knowledge becoming more general, the 
 renaissance was flowering into a fuller fruition. The 
 shackles of ignorance and superstition which had 
 bound the minds and hearts of mankind, with far more 
 rigor and cruelty than the iron which bound their bodies, 
 were being gradually unloosened; still centuries were to 
 elapse before men were to be indeed really free, a con- 
 summation not even yet fully realized. 
 
 The spirit of adventure and discovery, like a young 
 Hercules, was rejoicing in its vigor and achievements. 
 
 Soon Pizarro in Peru, Pedrarias in Central America 
 and Cortez in Mexico had overrun and devastated these 
 countries; and returning to Spain brought enormous 
 wealth, which excited the imagination, and it may be 
 added the cupidity of mankind. 
 
 There had been born in Xerez (otherwise Jerez), in 
 Spain, of a noble family, but without fortune, a boy 
 named Hernandez, sometimes written Fernandez, and 
 which is the equivalent for the English Hernando. It 
 appears he lived at a place in Spain called Soto, and 
 following the customs of those days he was, in after 
 
36 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 years, called Hernando De Soto ; that is Hernando of 
 Soto. He possessed talents more valuable than wealth, 
 having a clear and vigorous understanding, a quick 
 apprehension, and courage of the highest order, which 
 made him a born ruler of men. He enlisted as a soldier 
 of fortune in the Peru and Central American Expedi- 
 tions; was a captain in Nicaragua, lieutenant-general in 
 the conquest of Peru, and returning to Spain it is reported 
 he brought with him, as his part of the spoils, one hun- 
 dred thousand peso de oro, equivalent to about three hun- 
 dred thousand dollars, an almost incredible fortune for 
 those days. 
 
 He was liberal and lavish of his wealth, lending a 
 large sum to the Emporer, and drew around him many 
 of the most daring and ablest young noblemen and adven- 
 turers, some of them also of great wealth. 
 
 Being now in the vigor of life De Soto appears to 
 have resided in Xerez, and at court, probably, he met 
 the widow of Pedrarias, with whom he had been ac- 
 quainted in Nicaragua, first cousin to the celebrated 
 Marchioness of Moya, lady of honor and life-long 
 favorite of Ysabel of Castilla. With her he contracted 
 for a love marriage with her daughter, named after her, 
 Ysabel de Bobadilla, and De Soto sent her a wedding 
 soft of six thousand ducats. 
 
 As showing the devotion of the young wife, it may 
 be remarked, that she accompanied De Soto on his ill- 
 fated expedition to Florida as far as Cuba ; that after 
 waiting in vain for three years in expectancy of a happy 
 reunion, she died of a broken heart in three days after 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 37 
 
 hearing of the death of her Lord, in the wilds of Amer- 
 ica, and his burial in the great Mississippi River, which 
 is inseparably linked with his name. 
 
 Having achieved his highest ambitions in the land 
 ot his nativity De Soto looked with longing eyes again 
 to the new world, and dreamed of the acquisition of still 
 greater wealth and the building of a new empire in Flor- 
 ida, a name denoting a vast and unexplored country, 
 of indeterminate boundaries, co-extensive, probably with 
 one-half of the North American Continent. 
 
 In Florida Ponce de Leon had sought in vain for 
 the fountain of youth, finding instead his own grave. 
 
 Soon thereafter Cabeca de Vaca returned from 
 Florida, stating that he and four others were the only 
 survivors of the armament sent out under the command 
 of Panfilo de Narvaez to whom the “island of Florida,’’ 
 and the adjacent country had been granted, upon his suc- 
 cessful exploring and subduing the same. 
 
 Like Ponce de Leon, de Narvaez found death, in his 
 attempted subjugation of Florida; but these failures but 
 fired the imagination and strengthened the purpose of 
 De Soto to achieve the conquest of Florida. 
 
 The details of this great enterprise is outside the 
 scope of this sketch. Suffice it to say that in considera- 
 tion of the fitting out of an armament and the conquest 
 and colonization of Florida, the Emperor was to grant 
 many concessions to De Soto, who was then made Gov- 
 ernor of Florida, and when successful in his enterprise 
 
38 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 he was to be Governor and Captain-General, with the 
 dignity of Adelantado for life, and High Sheriff in per- 
 petuity to his heirs, over a part of the conquered country. 
 
 De Soto Lands in Florida — 
 
 On Friday, May 30, 1539, De Soto disembarked his 
 expeditionary force which consisted, according to Bied- 
 ma, of six hundred and twenty men, two hundred and 
 twenty-three horses, besides many hogs, and equipments 
 necessary for such an extensive expedition, the landing 
 being made in the vicinity of the present Tampa, Florida. 
 
 Quite soon after the expedition began its journey it 
 was so fortunate as to find with the Indians a Spaniard 
 named Juan Ortiz, who had been captured nine years 
 before while a member of the Narvaez expedition. He 
 was entirely naked, brown and in appearance an Indian, 
 speaking their language fluently, which made him almost 
 invaluable as an interpreter. His duplicity when the ex- 
 pedition reached the country of the Chickasaws was one 
 of the causes that came near destroying the entire army. 
 
 The one thing that led the expedition ever onward, 
 further and further, was the expectation of finding gold 
 and silver and other treasures; in short they were seek- 
 ing a new El Dorado. 
 
 They had only gone a few leagues on their journey 
 when they came to the Province of Paracoxi, and the 
 Gentlemen of Elvas says : 
 
 “They were asked if they had knowledge, or 
 information of any country where gold and silver 
 might be found in plenty; to which they answered 
 yes; that towards the sunset was a Province called 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 39 
 
 Cale, the inhabitants of which were at war with 
 those of territories where the greater portion of 
 the year was summer, and where there was so much 
 gold, that when the people came to make war upon 
 those of Cale, they wore golden hats like casques. 
 
 As the Cacique had not come, Gallegos, reflect- 
 ing, suspected the message designed for delay, that 
 he might put himself in a condition of safety; and 
 fearing that, if those men were suffered to depart, 
 they might never return, he ordered them to be 
 chained together, and sent the news to camp by 
 eight men on horseback. The governor, hearing 
 what had passed, showed great pleasure, as did the 
 rest who were with him, believing what the Indians 
 said might be true.” 
 
 This naive statement of the untutored Red men fur- 
 nishes an example of the manner in which the Indians 
 sought to get rid of their unwelcome visitors ; or in the 
 lingo of the cantonments in these war times, they were 
 simply “passing the buck,” to De Soto and his men. 
 
 From the four narratives it is next to impossible to 
 mark out with any degree of precision the route followed 
 by De Soto in his wanderings ; but it is reasonably cer- 
 tain, speaking in present day geographical terms, that he 
 passed northward from Florida into Georgia and pos- 
 sibly into South Carolina ; thence northwest, and in cross- 
 ing upper Georgia, De Soto sent two Spaniards with 
 Indians, northward to the Province of Chisca, for he was 
 told by the Cacique of Acoste that in the Province of 
 Chisca there was a forge 
 
 “for copper or other metal of that color, though 
 brighter, having a much finer hue, and was to ap- 
 pearances much better, but was not so much used 
 
40 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 for being softer; which was the statement that had 
 been given in Cutifachiqui, where we had seen some 
 chopping-knives that were said to have a mixture 
 of gold” (Elvas, p. 77). 
 
 It is generally agreed that this Chisca was in Ten- 
 nessee ; but it was not in Middle Tennessee where the map 
 Bourne attached to Vol. 2 of his Trail Makers, places it. 
 The pioneers in East Tennessee found near what is now 
 Ducktown, in Polk County, an extremely rich copper dis- 
 trict, which for years and now is being worked with great 
 profit. Of course no gold was found, a fact not referred 
 to by the two Spaniards, though they did report that the 
 mountains were so high, “it was impossible the army 
 should march in that direction” ; and the same mountains 
 stand this day barring the approach to the copper district 
 from the south, precisely as they did to the army of De 
 Soto, now near four hundred years ago. 
 
 Thr; expedition then went southwestward until it 
 came to Manilla, near where Mobile, Alabama, now is ; 
 and there a great battle with the Indians was fought. It 
 was the most disastrous to the expedition up to that time, 
 the results of which are stated by Elvas : 
 
 “They who perished there were in all two thou- 
 sand five hundred, a few more or less ; of the Chris- 
 tians there fell eighteen, among whom was Don 
 Carlos, brother-in-law of the governor; one Juan 
 de Gamez, a nephew; Men, Rodriguez, a Portu- 
 guese; and Juan Vazquez, of Villanueva de Bar- 
 carota, men of condition and courage ; the rest were 
 infantry. Of the living, one hundred and fifty 
 Christians had received seven hundred wounds from 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 41 
 
 the arrow; and God was pleased that they should 
 be healed in little time of very dangerous injuries. 
 Twelve horses died, and seventy were hurt. The 
 clothing the Christians carried with them, the orna- 
 ments for saying mass, and the pearls, were burned 
 there; they having set the fire themselves, because 
 they considered the loss less than the injury they 
 might receive of the Indians from within the 
 houses, where they had brought the things to- 
 gether. 
 
 The governor learning in Mauilla that Fran- 
 cisco Maldonado was waiting for him in the port 
 of Ochuse, six days’ travel distant, he caused 
 Juan Ortiz to keep the news secret, that he might 
 not be interrupted in his purpose ; because the pearls 
 he wished to send to Cuba for show that their fame 
 might raise the desire of coming to Florida, had 
 been lost, and he feared that, hearing of him with- 
 out seeing either gold or silver, or other things of 
 value from that land, it would come to have such 
 reputation that no one would be found to go there 
 when men should be wanted ; so he determined to 
 send no news of himself until he should have dis- 
 covered a rich country.” 
 
 This was a fatal decision for De Soto in his search 
 for riches. He had lost up to this time one hundred and 
 two of his faithful followers, and was eventually to lose 
 his own life in the wilderness. 
 
 However, as he was seeking fame, he soon found it ; 
 for in the discovery of the Mississippi River he more 
 surely enrolled his name in the annals of fame, than if 
 he had discovered mines of silver and gold richer than 
 all his dreams of avarice. 
 
42 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 De Soto Reaches the Chickasaws — 
 
 With both interest and pleasure we come now to 
 follow in the footsteps of De Soto to the land of the 
 Chickasaws. By some strange imperfection in the his- 
 tories which have covered the countries where the Chick- 
 asaws formerly dwelt, scant notice has been given to that 
 noble nation ; and the debt of gratitude due to them 
 from the English speaking world has never been duly 
 acknowledged. Some historians are like less learned peo- 
 ple in at least one respect ; and that is, they sometimes 
 copy or repeat what others have said, without an inquiry 
 into original sources of information, Error thus be- 
 comes self propagating. Of this the Chickasaws have 
 a right to complain, as well as all who are interested to 
 know where De Soto discovered the Great Mississippi 
 River, an event of world-wide importance. 
 
 We are indebted to Edward Gaylord Bourne, pro- 
 fessor of history in Yale University, for the narratives 
 of De Soto published “in the Trail Makers Series;” 
 but he has fallen into errors which have been followed 
 by others, as will appear more at large hereinafter. 
 
 On the first page of his preface, and speaking of 
 the importance of De Soto’s discoveries, he said : 
 
 “It was the first extensive exploration of at 
 least six of our Southern States, and their written 
 history opens with the narratives which tell its 
 story; these same narratives contain the earliest 
 descriptions which we possess of the life and man- 
 ners of the Southern Indians so famous in litera- 
 ture and history the Choctaws, the Cherokees, the 
 Creeks, and the Seminoles ; these narratives also re- 
 cord the discovery of the Mississippi River and the 
 story of the first voyage upon it by Europeans.” 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 43 
 
 I commend what is said as to the historical value 
 of De Soto’s discoveries; but if Bourne is that careful 
 and dependable historian which Rowland and Lewis 
 would have us believe, then why did he omit in the above 
 statement to mention the Chickasaw Indians, the only 
 tribe mentioned in the De Soto narratives which can be 
 identified by the name attributed to them by the De Soto 
 narratives, and which they bear to this day? 
 
 Elvas and Ranjel wrote their name Chicaca; Biedma 
 and Garcilaso, Chicaza; Adair who knew them in 1735, 
 and lived with them wrote it Chickkasah; the Great John 
 Wesley in 1736 wrote it Chickasaws, while we now write 
 the name Chickasaw, the name thus identifying this 
 tribe, and this tribe only by name, of all those visited 
 by De Soto, who found them at precisely the same place 
 where they continued to live until their removal to the 
 Indian Territory in 1836. 
 
 The De Soto narratives will be searched in vain for 
 either of the names Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek or Semi- 
 nole, or any near approach thereto. Why omit to men- 
 tion not only the Indian nation which we know posi- 
 tively De Soto visited, but which by its valor and supe- 
 riority deserved especial notice; which entertained De 
 Soto and supplied all his wants during a most severe 
 winter ; and when insulted and mistreated came near 
 destroying the entire expedition ? 
 
 Does not such an omission and mistakes hereafter to 
 be noted, awaken a doubt as to the conclusions reached 
 by those who make them as to matters of great moment, 
 
44 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 where others equally learned have come to a different 
 conclusion ? 
 
 De Soto had lost up to the time he left Mauilla one 
 hundred and two of his faithful followers, and he turned 
 northward, and on December 14, 1540, he came to the 
 River Chucaca, evidently named for the Chickasaws, and 
 now known as the Tombigbee. 
 
 When De Soto indicated his purpose to cross the 
 river the Chickasaws disputed his passage ; whereupon 
 De Soto sent an Indian messenger to the Cacique, 
 
 “to say that if he wished his friendship he should 
 quietly wait for him ; but they killed the messenger 
 before his eyes, and with loud yells departed. 
 
 He crossed the river the seventeenth of De- 
 cember, and arrived the same day at Chicaca, a 
 small town of twenty houses. There the people un- 
 derwent severe cold, for it was already winter, and 
 snow fell ; the greater number then were lying in the 
 fields, it being before they had time to put up hab- 
 itations. The land was thickly inhabited, the 
 people living about over it as they do in Mauilla; 
 and as it was fertile, the greater part being under 
 cultivation, there was plenty of maize. So much 
 grain was brought together as was needed for get- 
 ting through with the season.” (Elvas, p. 100.) 
 
 The Original Chickasaws as They Were — 
 
 We have followed De Soto into the land of the 
 Chickasaws. He and his followers were the first white 
 men to visit their country and to look into- their faces. 
 They were great travelers and ever on the alert, and the 
 news that De Soto had put other Indians into chains and 
 captivity as well as the news of the battle at Mauilla had 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 45 
 
 doubtless reached the Chickasaws long before the expe- 
 dition had reached their country. Biedma says the expe- 
 dition was detained at the river three days before a pass- 
 age was effected, which was finally accomplished and the 
 expedition installed for the winter as shown above. 
 
 It seems to me as this is the dawn of history for 
 the Chickasaws, and that history not written by them, 
 but by the Spaniards, who delighted to call themselves 
 Christians, it is highly important to inquire what man- 
 ner of people were the original Chickasaw who roamed 
 the forest when first seen by white men. Here is a brief 
 pen picture of that splendid race now almost extinct in 
 the course of a few years. The average citizen believes 
 that our Chickasaws were a shiftless kind of savage, 
 wandering over the country, living in bark or skin tepees 
 and depending entirely upon the chase and fishing for a 
 living. This is a very great mistake. They were a self- 
 reliant, self-respecting people ; and it may be added they 
 required others to respect them. They had good houses, 
 suitable to their condition and means of building, to live 
 in, those for the summer months being somewhat differ- 
 ent from those they lived in for the winter, which were 
 so constructed as to be warmer and more comfortable. 
 
 Their houses were not only clean, but their lives 
 pure, and their women were gracious, many of them very 
 handsome ; and what is more important they were chaste 
 and pure, for Haywood, regarded as the father of his 
 history in Tennessee, assures us that no Chickasaw girl 
 was ever known to give birth to a child before wedlock. 
 Of how many so-called civilized people can this be said? 
 
46 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 And moreover there were no orphans in the Chicka- 
 saw Nation; nor was there need for an orphan asylum. 
 
 It is true that fathers and mothers died leaving 
 little children, and the fathers were often slain in battle, 
 but under their system of laws governing these matters, 
 when a child became motherless and fatherless, then that 
 child was immediately placed with some near desig- 
 nated relative, able to care for the child, which became 
 thereby adopted into this new family, and was as much 
 a member thereof, and received the same love and care 
 as the children born to the parents of the family. And 
 the Chickasaws made no difference between these adopted 
 children and those of their own blood. Are not these 
 matters of family purity, and the loving care and solici- 
 tude lavished upon helpless orphanage, evidences of a 
 nobility of character worthy of imitation even among 
 the most civilized and refined people on this globe? 
 
 At the same time the Chickasaw warriors were the 
 bravest of the brave, and for fidelity of character they 
 were the peers of any nation of ancient or modern times. 
 There was, comparatively speaking, but a handful of 
 them, estimated by various authorities, and at various 
 times from two thousand to four thousand souls. 
 
 The Choctaws, Creeks and Cherokees mentioned by 
 Bourne in the excerpt quoted above, each one of them, 
 had as many warriors as the Chickasaws had warriors, 
 women and children, aged and infirm put together, and 
 yet the Chickasaws were more than a match for either 
 of these tribes, and defied all comers. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 47 
 
 Their home country and hunting grounds com- 
 prised the vast and splendid domain described by Pio- 
 mingo hereinbefore quoted, over which they were the ac- 
 knowledged overlords, and no' Indian nation, however 
 large, dared dispute their overlordship. 
 
 As to their form of government, it was one of the 
 purest democracies. There was a Chief, sometimes called 
 by writers a King, because his duties and prerogatives 
 resembled those of a king. However, they were never 
 guilty of the folly of having a hereditary ruling king, or 
 other hereditary rulers or classes. A Chickasaw became 
 Chief or a subordinate Chief, by the choice of the Nation 
 solely because he had achieved that distinction by deeds 
 for the nation that entitled him to leadership. He en- 
 joyed that distinction only so long as his merits entitled 
 him thereto. 
 
 They never went to war except after the most care- 
 ful deliberation of all the warriors, followed by fasting 
 and prayer to the “Beloved One that dwelleth in the blue 
 sky,” for his aid and protection in the impending con- 
 flict. In war they neither gave or expected quarter, 
 and would die at the burning stake without uttering a 
 word of pain or a request for mercy. 
 
 They were of a deeply religious nature, but super- 
 stition was a stranger to them. 
 
 Unlike most uncivilized peoples, the appearance of a 
 comet, or an eclipse or an earthquake brought no terrors 
 to them. 
 
 These they regarded as a part of natural phenomena, 
 under the guidance of the “Beloved One,” who gov- 
 
48 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 erned all things, and bestowed upon his children all of 
 the good things which their merits deserved. When that 
 great philanthropist, General James Oglethorpe, about 
 1733, procured permission of King George to come to 
 America and found a colony for the poor and oppressed 
 people of England, who could not make a respectable liv- 
 ing for themselves and families, he took care soon after 
 settling at Savannah, Georgia, to seek out and make a 
 league of friendship with that small and distant nation, 
 the intrepid Chickasaws, though they lived nearly a thou- 
 sand miles in the western wilderness near the Great 
 Mississippi. The Chickasaws proved a bulwark of 
 strength to Oglethorpe and his infant colony. 
 
 When General James Robertson, that conspicuous 
 character in the settlement of Middle Tennessee, was 
 striving to lay the foundation for his colony at the French 
 Lick, he likewise sought out the intrepid Chickasaws and 
 made a league of friendship with them; and but for their 
 valor and fidelity his settlement would doubtless have 
 been wiped from the face of the earth. 
 
 When after the Revolutionary war was over, and 
 the Northwestern Indians beyond the Ohio and about the 
 Great Lakes, were carrying fire and destruction to the 
 outposts of civilization, and “Mad” Anthony Wayne 
 was striving to raise an army to succor civilization in 
 the wilderness, President George Washington, “first in 
 war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his country- 
 men,” appealed to the Chickasaws to aid the United 
 States, to which they cheerfully responded. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 49 
 
 It was a proud saying of the Chickasaws that they 
 never raised the hatchet against the English speaking 
 people; and if nobility of character and fidelity in the 
 execution of every league of friendship and treaty ought 
 to be rewarded, then there was nothing too good for the 
 people and the Government of the United States to be- 
 stow upon the Chickasaws, but it has been said, and 
 sometimes I think with some truth, that republics are un- 
 grateful ; at least such has been proven to be the case, so 
 far as the Chickasaws are concerned. 
 
 Battle with the Chickasaws — 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the appearance of 
 white men, clad in coats and other vestments of metal 
 armor and mounted on horseback generally struck terror 
 to the hearts of the Indians when they first looked upon 
 white men, armored and mounted. 
 
 In Mexico, upon the first appearance of Cortez and 
 his followers, the Indians thought the mounted men and 
 the horses on which they rode were unearthly, gigantic 
 monsters which had come to destroy them and their 
 country and that resistance would be useless. But we 
 have seen that the Chickasaws were not to be so easily 
 frightened, and though their weapons were inferior to 
 those of the Spaniards ; and though the latter had upon 
 them coats-of-mail and were mounted on horses which 
 were likewise protected by armor, still we shall see the 
 Chickasaws gladly matched their prowess with that of the 
 Spaniards in three separate contests. They did not ask 
 
50 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 the aid of other Indians, feeling themselves self sufficient 
 for any emergency that might arise. 
 
 Three of the four narrators do not mention the 
 name of the Cacique or Chief of the Chickasaws; but 
 there is a sentence in Ranjel (p. 132) which though 
 somewhat involved, gives the name of the principal Chief 
 as Miculasa; while the Gentleman of Elvas gives the 
 names of his two subordinate Chiefs as Alimamu and 
 Niculasa. 
 
 It frequently happens that the narrators give differ- 
 ent names both to persons and places; but this is not 
 strange when we remember that they had no guide as 
 to the spelling, and guessed at spelling from the sound 
 of the words, as best they could. 
 
 Having taken possession, evidently against the will 
 of the Chickasaws, De Soto sought to open up communi- 
 cations, seizing certain of the Indians and among them 
 one that was much esteemed by Miculasa, the Chief, 
 who came to see De Soto on January 3, 1541, being 
 borne upon the shoulders of his warriors. Biedma says : 
 
 “He gave us deer skins and little dogs (of 
 which the Spaniards were fond). The people re- 
 turned, and every day Indians came and went, 
 bringing us many hares, and whatever else the 
 country supplied.” 
 
 According to Elvas when Chief Miculasa came to 
 see De Soto, 
 
 “He came, and offered him the service of his 
 person, territories, and subjects; he said that he 
 would cause two chiefs to visit him in peace. In 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 51 
 
 a few days he returned with them, they bringing 
 their Indians. They presented the Governor one 
 hundred and fifty conies, with clothing of the coun- 
 try, such as shawls and skins. 
 
 The name of one was Alimamu, of the other 
 Niculasa.” 
 
 I have quoted from Elvas hereinbefore that “so 
 much grain was brought together as was needed for 
 getting through the season.” 
 
 Or, stated in one sentence, Chief Miculasa offered 
 to De Soto his personal services, those of his people and 
 territories, and actually supplied everything necessary 
 for man and beast of the entire army, consisting of some 
 two hundred and fifty men (Biedma, page 21) and at 
 least one hundred head of horses, hogs, etc. 
 
 That this was a heavy burden to be suddenly placed 
 upon an uncivilized people, does not admit of question, 
 and at least shows that the Chickasaws were good livers. 
 
 When the expedition had fairly settled down, Chief 
 Niculasa asked De Soto to aid him in the suppression 
 of his vassal the Chief of Saquechuma (or Sacchuema- 
 Ranjel), who had rebelled against Niculasa. De Soto, 
 taking thirty cavalry and eighty infantry, went to the 
 province said to be in rebellion and found the houses 
 deserted, which were burned up. Ranjel states that 
 thereupon peace was made, and does not hint of any 
 trick or dissimulation on the part of the Indians. How- 
 ever, the Gentleman of Elvas states that the whole affair 
 was a dissimulation on the part of Niculasa, who wished 
 to separate the army into two parts so that it could be 
 the more easily destroyed ; but that, owing to the vigi- 
 
52 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 lance of the governor, his men were at all times on guard 
 and no opportunity was afforded to make the contem- 
 plated attack. 
 
 However this may be, it is certain that the governor 
 was sending for the chief, and sending a horse upon 
 which the chief was to ride in making his visits to dine 
 with the governor, and we may all believe that the gov- 
 ernor took occasion to make many fair and flattering 
 speeches to the chief. 
 
 The Gentleman of Elvas gives a very clear and the 
 best account of the causes which led to the sanguinary 
 conflict between the army of De Soto and the Chicka- 
 saws, on March 4, 1841, and the results thereof; and I 
 do not think I can do better than to quote from him, 
 beginning at page 102, as follows: 
 
 “The governor invited the caciques and some 
 chiefs to dine with him, giving them pork to eat, 
 which they so relished, although not used to it, that 
 every night Indians would come up to some houses 
 where the hogs slept, a cross-bow shot off from the 
 camp, to kill and carry away what they could of 
 them. Three were taken in the act ; two the gov- 
 ernor commanded to be slain with arrows, and the 
 remaining one, his hands having been cut off, was 
 sent to the cacique, who appeared grieved that they 
 had given offense, and glad that they were pun- 
 ished. This chief was half a league from where 
 the Christians were, in an open country, whither 
 wandered off four of the cavalry, Francisco Osorio. 
 Reynoso, a servant of the Marquis of Astorga, 
 and two servants of the governor — the one, Ribera, 
 his page, the other, Fuentes, his chamberlain. They 
 took some skins and shawls from the Indians, who 
 made great outcry in consequence and abandoned 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 53 
 
 their houses. When the governor heard of it, he 
 ordered them to be apprehended, and condemned 
 Osorio and Fuentes to death, as principals, and all 
 of them to lose their goods. The friars, the priests 
 and other principal personages solicited him to let 
 Osorio live and moderate the sentence; but he 
 would do so for no one. When about ordering 
 them to be taken to the town-yard to be beheaded, 
 some Indians arrived, sent by the chief to complain 
 of them. Juan Ortiz, at the entreaty of Baltasar 
 de Gallegos and others, changed their words, tell- 
 ing the governor, as from the cacique, that he had 
 understood those Christians had been arrested on 
 his account; that they were in no fault, having of- 
 fended him in nothing, and that if he would do him 
 a favour, to let them go free; then Ortiz said to the 
 Indians, that the governor had the persons in cus- 
 tody, and would visit them with such punishment 
 as should be an example to the rest. The prisoners 
 were ordered to be released. 
 
 “So soon as March had come, the governor, 
 having determined to leave Chicaca, asked two 
 hundred tamemes of the cacique, who told him that 
 he would confer with his chiefs. Tuesday, the 
 eighth, he went where the cacique was, to ask for 
 the carriers, and was told that he would send them 
 the next day. When the governor saw the chief, 
 he said to Luis de Moscoso that the Indians did 
 not appear right to him; that a very careful watch 
 should be kept that night, to which the field mar- 
 shal paid little attention. At four o’clock in the 
 morning the Indians fell upon them in four squad- 
 rons, from as many quarters, and directly as they 
 were discovered, they beat a drum. With loud 
 shouting, they came in such haste, that they entered 
 the camp at the same moments with some scouts 
 that had been out ; of which, by the time those in 
 the town were aware, half the houses were in 
 flames. That night it had been the turn of three 
 
54 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 horsemen to be of the watch — two of them of low 
 degree, the least value of any in the camp, and the 
 third a nephew of the governor, who had been 
 deemed a brave man until now, when he showed 
 himself as great a coward as either of the others; 
 for they all fled, and the Indians, finding no re- 
 sistance, came up and set fire to the place. They 
 waited outside of the town for the Christians, be- 
 hind the gates, as they should come out of the 
 doors, having had no opportunity to put on their 
 arms; and as they ran in all directions, bewildered 
 by the noise, blinded by the smoke and the bright- 
 ness of the flame, knowing not whither they were 
 going, or were able to find their arms, or put sad- 
 dles on their steeds, they saw the Indians who shot 
 arrows at them. Those of the horses that could 
 break their halters got away, and many were burned 
 to death in the stalls. 
 
 “The confusion and rout were so great that 
 each man fled by the way that first opened to him, 
 there being none to oppose the Indians ; but God, 
 who chastiseth his own as he pleaseth, and in the 
 greatest wants and perils hath them in his hand, 
 shut the eyes of the Indians, so that they could not 
 discern what they had done, and believed that the 
 beasts running about loose were the cavalry gath- 
 ering to fall upon them. The governor, with a 
 soldier named Tapia, alone' got mounted, and 
 charging upon the Indians, he struck down the first 
 of them he met with a blow of the lance, but went 
 over with the saddle, because in the haste it had 
 not been tightly drawn, and he fell. The men on 
 foot, running to a thicket outside of town, came 
 together there ; the Indians imagining, as it was 
 dark, that the horses were cavalry coming upon 
 them, as has been stated, they fled, leaving only 
 one dead, which was he the governor smote. 
 
 The town lay in cinders. A woman, with her 
 husband, having left a house, went back to get 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 55 
 
 some pearls that had remained there ; and when 
 she would have come out again the fire had reached 
 the door and she could not, neither could her hus- 
 band assist her, so she was consumed. Three Chris- 
 tians came out of the fire in so bad plight, that one 
 of them died in three days from that time, and the 
 two others for a long while were carried in their 
 pallets, on poles borne on the shoulders of Indians, 
 for otherwise they could not have got along. There 
 died in this affair eleven Christians, and fifty 
 horses. One hundred of the swine remained, four 
 hundred having been destroyed, from the conflagra- 
 tion of Mauilla. 
 
 “If, by good luck, anyone had been able to save 
 a garment until then, it was there destroyed. Many 
 remained naked, not having had time to catch up 
 their skin dresses. In that place they suffered 
 greatly from cold, the only relief being in large 
 fires, and they passed the night long in turning, 
 without the power to sleep; for as one side of a 
 man would warm, the other would freeze. Some 
 contrived mats of dried grass sewed together, one 
 to be placed below and the other above them ; many 
 who laughed at this expedient were afterwards 
 compelled to do likewise. The Christians were left 
 so broken up, that what with the want of the sad- 
 dles and arms which had been destroyed, had the 
 Indians returned the second night, they might, with 
 little effort, have been overpowered. They removed 
 from that town to the one where the cacique was 
 accustomed to live, because it was in the open field. 
 In eight days’ time they had constructed many sad- 
 dles from the ash, and likewise lances, as good as 
 those made in Biscay.” 
 
 Garcilaso de la Vega gives substantially the same 
 account as the Gentleman of Elvas, but adds some addi- 
 tional particulars, and among them that the Chickasaw 
 
56 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 chief chose a dark and cloudy night when a north wind 
 was blowing furiously, to make the attack. 
 
 That the chief divided his forces into three bands, 
 so as to make the attack simultaneously in three several 
 places, the chief leading in person the force which at- 
 tacked in the center. He adds : 
 
 “Immediately the air resounded with the blasts 
 of conch shells, the rumbling of wooden drums, 
 and the yells and war whoops of the savages, who 
 rushed like demons to the assault. Many had 
 lighted matches, like cords, made of a vegetable 
 substance, which whirled in the air, would blaze 
 up into a flame ; others had arrows tipped with 
 the same. These they hurled upon the houses, 
 which being of reeds and straw, instantly took fire, 
 and the wind blowing strongly, were soon wrapped 
 in flames.” 
 
 Ranjel says that the Indians “entered the camp in 
 many detachments, beating drums as if it had been in 
 Italy, and setting fire to the camp, they burned and cap- 
 tured fifty-nine horses and three of them they shot 
 through the shoulders with arrows.” He added: “If 
 the Indians had known how to follow up their victory, 
 this would have been the last day of the lives of the 
 Christians of that army, and made an end of the demand 
 for carriers.” 
 
 We also learn from Garcilaso that the woman who 
 was burned -up was the wife of a worthy soldier, and 
 that she was the only white woman that had accompa- 
 nied the expedition from Spain. That she was a white 
 woman is not stated by either of the other three narra- 
 tors, and it will be seen that the sentence from Elvas in 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 57 
 
 reference to her death is obscure, but not in conflict with 
 Garcilaso. 
 
 Her husband had left her behind when he rushed 
 forth to fight, and she had escaped from the burning 
 house, but returned to save some pearls; and was cut off 
 by the flames from her second retreat and was found 
 burned to death. 
 
 The loss of the Spaniards, according to Elvas, was 
 eleven Christians and fifty horses; according to Ranjel, 
 twelve Christians and fifty-nine horses ; while Garcilaso 
 says forty Spaniards fell in combat and fifty horses per- 
 ished and many more wounded; that the darts had been 
 skilfully aimed at the vital parts of the horses. One 
 horse had two shafts through the heart, shot from dif- 
 ferent directions. Another horse and one of the heavi- 
 est in the army, was killed, sped by such a vigorous arm 
 that the arrow had passed through both shoulders and 
 four-finger’s breadth beyond. 
 
 Biedma in his usual laconic style, says : 
 
 “The Indians did us very great injury, killing 
 fifty-seven horses, more than three hundred hogs, 
 and thirteen or fourteen men ; and it was a great, 
 mysterious providence of God that, though we were 
 not resisting them, nor giving them any cause to 
 do so, they turned and fled ; had they followed us 
 up, not a man of all our number could have es- 
 caped. Directly we moved to a cottage about a 
 mile off.” 
 
 In the last conflict between the Spaniards and the 
 Chickasaws, as will be seen in the next chapter, the num- 
 ber of Spaniards who then lost their lives in battle is 
 
58 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 stated in a rather equivocal way ; but it seems certain 
 that at least fifteen died on the forward march, and I 
 am inclined to the opinion that as many Spaniards per- 
 ished in the last as did in the first battle. 
 
 The loss in the first battle of so much of De Soto’s 
 weapons, armor, horses, hogs, etc., was probably as great 
 a weakening of the army as the loss of the lives of the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 We must always bear in mind that our source of 
 information comes from the Spaniards, who no> doubt 
 colored their accounts to their advantage, and doubtless 
 to the disadvantage of the Chickasaws. 
 
 It will be noted that all four of the narratives state 
 the loss of some three hundred head of hogs, which were 
 greatly prized by De Soto. How he contrived to carry 
 with his army so large a number of these slow-moving 
 and easily-wearied animals through the wilderness, and 
 to so keep them that they constantly multiplied, is one of 
 the marvels of this extraordinary expedition. He saved 
 enough, however, for stock, for after his death, May 21, 
 1542, his personal effects were sold at auction, and among 
 these his hogs, which brought two hundred cruzados per 
 head, to be paid at the end of the expedition, upon a di- 
 vision of the fruits thereof, or if none, then within one 
 year. From that time forward most of the people raised 
 hogs and ate freely of pork. 
 
 In an interesting article published by Mr. E. T. Win- 
 ston of Pontotoc, in his paper the advance, November 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 59 
 
 22, 1917, he reviews this episode in the travels of De 
 Soto with respect to the loss of so many of his hogs, 
 many of which escaped into the wilds and became the 
 progenitors of multitudes of wild hogs found by the 
 earliest settlers in Mississippi. 
 
 Mr. Winston felicitates the State of Mississippi as 
 the place which first furnishing the time, the place and 
 the occasion when “hog and hominy” first met, although 
 the meeting was destined to give rise to the near destruc- 
 tion of the De Soto expedition, which furnished the hogs 
 while the Indians furnished the hominy. 
 
 It is well known that maize, or Indian corn, was 
 a gift of incalculable value from the Indians of the new 
 world to civilization, more of that grain being now raised 
 in the United States than any other cereal, the crop for 
 1917, being 3,247,512,000 bushels, valued at $4,871.- 
 268,000 a sum so great as to stagger the imagination. 
 Lye hominy, so much used throughout the South before 
 the Civil War, and now put up in cans by large corpora- 
 tions for general distribution through the channels of 
 trade and commerce, is a very wholesome and nourish- 
 ing article of diet, a gift of the Indians to the world, 
 which the Chickasaws called “Tom-fulla.” 
 
 What Caused the Conflict — 
 
 It is perfectly evident from the account of the Span- 
 iards that the attack by the Chickasaws upon the Span- 
 iards was brought about by two causes which justly in- 
 censed the Indians. 
 
60 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 In the first place the Spaniards had appropriated corn 
 and other provisions belonging to the Indians worth 
 probably ten times the value of all of the Spanish hogs. 
 Doubtless the Indians thought that a fair exchange was 
 no robbery; and conceding that some of these hogs were 
 taken without permission, still it does seem a harsh and 
 cruel punishment to have put two Indians to death there- 
 for ; and furthermore to have cut off the hands of a third 
 one and sent him to his people. While I am well aware 
 that the men at that day and time are not to be judged 
 by the standards of the present, still the duplicity of 
 Juan Ortiz turned the retributory sentence pronounced 
 by De Soto on his fellows, who had robbed the Indians, 
 into a perfect mockery of justice. 
 
 It is true that De Soto had decreed the same punish- 
 ment on his own followers, that he had visited on the 
 Indians for a like offense; but he was deceived, and 
 the ends of justice defeated by the deception of Ortiz and 
 his confederates; but we may be assured that his false- 
 hoods did not deceive the ever vigilant and intelligent 
 Chickasaws. The most unfortunate phase of the matter 
 is that in all probability the Indians were never made 
 aware of the deception practiced upon De Soto by his 
 own followers. 
 
 In the next place the demand made by the Spaniards 
 for porters was probably the immediate cause for the 
 attack made by the Chickasaws upon the expedition. 
 Nothing could escape the vigilance of the Chickasaws, for 
 the smallness of the nation, surrounded by hostile neigh- 
 bors, so much more numerous than themselves, made the 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 61 
 
 trite saying “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” a 
 part of the very warp and woof of their existence. 1 
 doubt not that they had a complete history of the treat- 
 ment of the Spaniards towards the Indians before reach- 
 ing their country; and if so they knew that if a tribe 
 once furnished the desired porters, they were not only 
 compelled to carry burdens all day, but were compelled 
 to make camp, and when camp was made, it was their 
 duty to feed the stock, do the cooking, and in short, do 
 all menial work ; they were secured by chains in order to 
 prevent escape, and carried as virtual prisoners, either 
 to death, or so far from their people that they could never 
 return again to their beloved country. 
 
 Evidently the Chickasaws preferred death to such 
 a fate and were ready to stake their all on an unequal 
 contest. This they did not only in the manner set forth 
 above, but in a few days they renewed the attack, but 
 without success. De Soto was almost completely cast 
 down by the terrible assaults of the fearless and intrepid 
 Chickasaws. He had become convinced from appearances 
 that the Indians were contemplating a battle, saying to 
 his followers: “To night is an Indian night. I shall 
 sleep armed and my horse saddled.” 
 
 He charged Luis de Moscoso, Master of the Camp, 
 that he should take extra precautions that night in re- 
 gard to the sentinels, since they were to start on their 
 journey next day. Moscoso put on the morning watch 
 three of the most useless men, mounted on the poorest 
 horses in the camp. For his gross negligence in this re- 
 
62 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 gard De Soto deposed Moscoso, and appointed Baltazar 
 de Gallagos in his place. 
 
 In the next chapter I will take up the line of march 
 from the Chickasaw country to the place where De Soto 
 discovered the Mississippi River, and then we will see 
 that the Chickasaws made a third attempt to destroy the 
 Spaniards. As that chapter will deal particularly with 
 the place at which the great river was discovered and is 
 intended as an answer to those who contend that it was 
 discovered in Tunica County, Mississippi, and who also 
 affect to reject the narrative of Garcilaso de la Vega, 
 “the Inca,” I will not in that chapter quote from or say 
 anything upon the authority of Garcilaso, though I con- 
 sider his narrative an extremely valuable contribution to 
 our knowledge of what really occurred during the De 
 Soto expedition. 
 
 However, as showing the bravery and indomitable 
 spirit of the Chickasaws, Garcilaso tells at length of the 
 complicated and well-built fort the Chickasaws had con- 
 structed near a rapid river, which we now call the Tal- 
 lahatchie, and of the sanguinary conflict which there took 
 place. 
 
 I select these two excerpts (p. 306) as showing the 
 prowess and intrepidity of the Chickasaws : 
 
 “At the first discharge, Diego de Castro, Luis 
 Bravo, and Francisco de Figueroa, were brought to 
 the ground, mortally wounded. All three were 
 pierced in the thigh, with arrows barbed with flint, 
 for the savages, having gained some experience dur- 
 ing their warfare with the Spaniards, always aimed 
 at the thigh, which was never guarded. The Span- 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 63 
 
 iards, seeing their companions fall, shouted to one 
 another to rush in, and leave the Indians no time to 
 gall them with their arrows. They charged furious- 
 ly, and drove the enemy before them, to the very 
 portals of the fortress. 
 
 “While Jaun de Anasco and Andres de Vas- 
 concelos attacked the savages on the flank, De Soto 
 with twenty horses, charged upon the other. As the 
 governor was spurring onward, an arrow struck 
 him upon his casque with such force that it re- 
 bounded a pike’s length in the air, and De Soto 
 confessed afterwards that it made his eyes flash 
 fire. Pressed by the united shock of horse and foot, 
 the Indians made for the entrance of the fort, but 
 these were so narrow that a great number were 
 slaughtered without the walls. The Spaniards 
 rushed in, pell-mell, with them. * * * 
 
 One of the savages who had escaped, desirous 
 of showing his skill with the bow and arrow, sep- 
 arated himself from his companions, and shouted 
 to the Spaniards, giving them to understand, by 
 signs and words, that he challenged any archer tc 
 come out and have a shot with him, to prove which 
 was the better marksman. Upon this, Juan de Sa- 
 linas, a brave Austrian (Asturian?) hidalgo, whc 
 with some companions had sheltered himself among 
 trees from the arrows, stepped forth, and walking 
 down to the bank of the river, took his stand op- 
 posite to the Indian. One of his companions called 
 to him to wait until he should come to guard him 
 with his shield ; but Salinas refused to take any 
 advantage of his enemy. He placed an arrow in 
 his cross-bow, while the Indian also selected one 
 from his quiver, and both drew at the same moment. 
 
 The dart of Juan de Salinas took effect, and 
 pierced the Indian’s breast. He would have fallen, 
 but was received in the arms of his companions, whc 
 bore him away, more dead than alive. The Indian’s 
 arrow pierced the Spaniard in the nape of the neck 
 
64 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 and remained crossed in the wound. Salinas return- 
 ed with it in this state to his comrades, well pleased 
 with his success. 
 
 The comrades of the fallen Indian allowed him 
 to depart without molestation, as the challenge had 
 been man to man.” 
 
 The bravery thus displayed, not only by the Chicka- 
 saws as a nation, but by the Chickasaw warrior, who de- 
 fiantly challenged any archer of the De Soto army to 
 single combat, commands the admiration of all who re- 
 spect valor, and those who willingly offer their lives up- 
 on the altar of their country, that their countrymen may 
 enjoy the priceless privilege of freedom. 
 
 Can any Mississippian, Tennessean, Kentuckian or 
 Alabamian whose home once lay within the domains of 
 that splendid territory over which the Chickasaws were 
 the acknowledged Overlords, read the simple story left by 
 the Spaniards of the fight for liberty made by the Chick- 
 asaws, and not be thrilled with emotions of admiration 
 for those who first occupied their homes? 
 
 Claiborne, the greatest of Mississippi historians, af- 
 ter giving an account of the battles of the Chickasaws 
 with the Spaniards for freedom, eloquently concludes : 
 
 “History records no bolder enterprise. A forti- 
 fied camp, defended by the best soldiers of Europe 
 armed with what the Indians called thunder and 
 lightning, attacked by naked savages, with bows 
 and war clubs : All honor to this noble race of 
 warriors — these native Mississippians who subse- 
 quently, in defense of their homes and fireside, de- 
 feated and disgraced three French Armies, sent to 
 subdue them. And may this ever be the fate of 
 the invader of the territory of a free people.” 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 65 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY BETWEEN THE 
 CHICKASAW COUNTRY AND CHICKASAW BLUFFS. 
 
 On February 18, 1917, Dr. Dunbar Rowland, Di- 
 rector of the Mississippi Department of Archives and His- 
 tory, published a paper in the Commercial Appeal, the 
 purpose of which was to show that De Soto discovered 
 the Mississippi River in Tunica County, Mississippi, at 
 a point he cannot locate; and it may be added, nor can 
 any one else. 
 
 Soon thereafter Judge J. P. Young, author of the 
 History of Memphis, and other works, replied to Dr. 
 Rowland in a very vigorous manner, insisting that De 
 Soto discovered the great river at the fourth Chickasaw 
 Bluff, named after that intrepid and splendid nation, 
 the Chickasaws, these Bluffs being their entrepot or land- 
 ing, from which, on the bosom of the father of waters 
 they traveled in their water-craft to the most northern- 
 most parts of their princely domains, which stretched up 
 the Mississippi, then up the Ohio beyond the mouth of 
 the Tennessee to the dividing ridge between it and the 
 Cumberland river, in what is now the state of Kentucky. 
 Memphis is built on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, and if 
 Judge Young is correct, it was here that the great river 
 was first discovered in May, 1541. 
 
 Centenary Vol. II, Publications of the Mississippi 
 Historical Society, so ablv edited by Dr. Rowland, has 
 just come to hand, and contains the two papers referred 
 
66 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 to, together with a second paper by Dr. Rowland in re- 
 ply to Judge Young. 
 
 These papers having thus been put in permanent 
 form, the purpose of this paper is to meet Dr. Rowland 
 on his favorite arena, as disclosed in his last paper, and 
 to show beyond a reasonable doubt that De Soto dis- 
 covered the Mississippi, the longest river in the world, at 
 the point whereon Memphis is now situated. 
 
 Like Judge Young, from childhood to young man- 
 hood I lived in Mississippi, in De Soto County, fifteen 
 miles southeast of Memphis, and love that State ; but the 
 question is at what point was the river discovered, and 
 this question must be answered according to the facts 
 as they were, and not as we would have them to be. 
 
 Dr. Rowland Has Shifted the Bulwark of His Defense — 
 
 The discussion between the two eminent authors as 
 disclosed in the papers, is pitched on high ground as 
 become men of their character, and I would not have it 
 supposed that in what I may say, I desire in any way to 
 make invidious criticisms, for my only purpose is to throw 
 light on this most interesting question, and contribute, if I 
 can, to its proper solution. 
 
 That Dr. Rowland has shifted the main bulwark 
 of the defense of his theory I think is quite plain, for 
 in his first paper on page 145 of the work referred to, he 
 says : 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 67 
 
 “I freely admit in the outset that the claim of 
 Memphis as the place where the great river was 
 discovered has been accepted by some Memphians, 
 but that acceptance has, no doubt, been based on the 
 narrative of Garcilaso de la Vega, ‘the Inca,’ which 
 careful and complete investigation has shown to be 
 unreliable, and not in accord with the narrative of 
 the facts as given in all contemporary accounts.” 
 
 Further on I will challenge this conclusion as to the 
 “Inca.” But for the present mark that he says the claim 
 of Memphis has been accepted “by some Memphians,” 
 the plain implication being that only “some Memphians” 
 claim that the river was discovered here, and that the 
 claim has no other support. 
 
 Judge Young met this claim of Dr. Rowland and 
 utterly destroyed it, by showing that many historians, 
 through a series of many years had designated the fourth 
 Chickasaw Bluff as the place where De Soto discovered 
 the Mississippi. What is of prime importance is that 
 among these authors cited by Judge Young, and from 
 whom he quoted, was Bancroft, whose reputation as an 
 accurate and accomplished historian is nation-wide, and 
 I think it may be said he has international reputation, 
 and greater than that of all the historians cited by Dr. 
 Rowland, if it were possible to combine their several 
 reputations in one. 
 
 And, moreover, Judge Young also quotes from J. 
 F. H. Claiborne, in “Mississippi as a State and Terri- 
 tory,” easily the most noted of all Mississippi historians, 
 for Claiborne likewise supports the claim that the river 
 was discovered where Memphis now stands. 
 
68 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Evidently the idea that the claim of Memphis has 
 been accepted only “by some Memphians” was exploded. 
 
 In his second paper (p. 159) Dr. Rowland says that 
 the most reliable source of information is found in 
 original records. Next in importance, he insists, comes 
 the topography and geology of the country through 
 which the expedition passed. To these views I give my 
 hearty assent, and upon this arena which Dr. Rowland 
 has thus chosen, I wish to meet him. 
 
 His statement that the geology of the country is the 
 same is entirely correct; but his further statement that 
 the topography is the same, is only partially correct, for 
 the Indian villages and forests are not only gone, but a 
 large part of the hills on the route have been so gullied 
 and gutted by rains and the elements since the country 
 was denuded of its forests, the valleys so filled with sand, 
 and the rivers and creeks so choked up and dwindled 
 away, as to present only a faint topographical resem- 
 blance to the time of De Soto, now (1919) 378 years 
 ago. 
 
 The late Ab Myers, of Byhalia, Mississippi, speak- 
 ing to me on this subject many years ago, said that he 
 had all the works of De Tocqueville, the noted French 
 statesman and writer, and that De Tocqueville in his 
 travels through that part of the state, noticing the great 
 quantities of sand in the soil, predicted that in 100 years 
 after the settlement of the country, it would become a 
 howling wilderness. It must be admitted that the 
 prophecy has been to some extent fulfilled, but quite 
 enough remains for the present discussion. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 69 
 
 In a recent letter to me by W. T. Ross, cashier of 
 the Holly Springs Bank, and who has been connected 
 therewith for forty years, he says : 
 
 “Holly Springs was named for the beautiful 
 spring surrounded by holly trees, but the sand has 
 covered up the spring, and not a holly tree is to be 
 seen. My father told me that when he came here in 
 1836, the spring was about 30 feet wide and 10 
 feet deep, and would swim a horse. This spring 
 formed a bold creek that emptied into* Tallaloosa, 
 southwest of the town.” 
 
 When Mr. Ross was a lad the spring was still run- 
 ning pretty strong. On July 21, 1918, he walked with 
 me over and through back yards to show me the spot 
 where this beautiful spring once flowed, not a vestige 
 of it or its beautiful trees being left, its site being in 
 what appeared to be a back yard for cattle ! 
 
 How Language Should Be Interpreted — 
 
 We all know that there is no direct communication 
 between the minds of men, and that our thoughts, con- 
 ceptions and ideas must usually be conveyed by words, 
 written or spoken. The frailty of human speech or writ- 
 ten language to correctly convey what we wish others to 
 know has often been lamented, and we are frequently 
 forced to resort to rules of interpretation. Interpreta- 
 tion may be defined as the art of finding out the true 
 sense of any set of words ; that is, the sense which their 
 author intended to convey. In order to do this we must 
 view the situation of the party who wrote the words as 
 well as all his surroundings, so as to place ourselves in 
 
70 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 the position which he occupied. Applying the principle 
 to the subject of this discussion we must inquire what 
 was the topography of the county through which the 
 writers had to pass; what roads or trails, if any, could 
 be made available, and their respective difficulties, and 
 generally to put ourselves in their places so as to ascer- 
 tain the true meaning of the language used. This leads 
 us to a consideration of the topography of the country, 
 and what was the most available route to pursue for the 
 objects of the expedition. Manifestly, likewise, all that 
 the narrators say must be considered and construed to- 
 gether, and not quoted in part, much less garbled, as I 
 think has been done. 
 
 In Lieber’s Hermeneutics, or the principles of in- 
 terpretation and construction (p. 71), it is said: 
 
 “In the first place it must begin with what is 
 likewise the first rule of criticism. 
 
 We must convince ourselves that the text be 
 genuine, that is, that it has proceeded from the 
 utterer from which it purports to have proceeded, 
 or from whom others assert it to have proceeded; 
 or that it belongs to that period at which it is main- 
 tained that it originated. This is a rule of para- 
 mount importance in all departments, and not the 
 least so in politics, whether it refer to documents 
 issued by the highest authority, or to reports of 
 speeches, or to conversational sayings of a political 
 character.” 
 
 The correctness of these principles are so obvious 
 that it would seem unnecessary to appeal thereto ; never- 
 theless we will see further on, a flagrant violation of the 
 foregoing elementary and paramount rule, in that the 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 71 
 
 texts of the narratives have been misquoted and garbled 
 to a degree that is surprising. We need not impute any 
 improper motive, and indeed may assume that every- 
 thing has been written in the utmost good faith; never- 
 theless the question remains as to what is the true inter- 
 pretation of the language used by the various narrators; 
 and fidelity in strictly quoting the exact language as 
 written lies at the very threshold of this discussion, and 
 can not be evaded if we would rather pursue another 
 course. 
 
 The Trails of the Chickasaw Indians — 
 
 In the celebrated conference between the Chicka- 
 saw, Creek and Cherokee Indians at Nashville in 1792, 
 and Governor Blount, James Robertson and others, Pio- 
 mingo, the great Chickasaw Chief, thus described the 
 boundaries of their lands : 
 
 “I will describe the boundaries of our lands. 
 It begins on the Ohio at the ridge which divides the 
 waters of Tennessee and Cumberland, and extends 
 with the ridge, eastwardly, as far as the most east- 
 ern waters of Elk River; thence across the Tennes- 
 see, and a neck of land, to Tenchacunda Creek, a 
 southern branch of the Tennessee, and up the same 
 to its source; thence to the waters of the Tombigby; 
 that is, to the west fork of Long Leaf Pine Creek, 
 and down it to the line of the Chickasaws and Choc- 
 taws, a little below the trading road.” 
 
 In 1794, President George Washington gave to the 
 Chickasaws a certificate confirming to them their right 
 to the territory so described by Piomingo. 
 
72 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 The expression often used with respect to the con- 
 dition of this country at the time of its discovery, as be- 
 ing a pathless wilderness, has in it scarcely a vestige of 
 truth. The trails or traces of the Indians extended hun- 
 dreds of miles in all directions and they criss-crossed 
 each other over the whole continent, and over these the 
 Indians constantly traveled on continuous trips thou- 
 sands of miles. The Chickasaws were great travelers, 
 and thought nothing of going to the far west, over their 
 trails to Mobile on the Gulf, to Savannah and Charleston 
 on the Atlantic and to the Great Lakes in the far North, 
 where they waged furious warfare with the Iroquois. 
 
 The Indians, and the Chickasaws in particular, were 
 pastmasters in all woodcraft and knew the topography 
 of the country and all its conditions almost by instinct ; 
 and as a general rule what may be termed their princi- 
 pal trails or highways ran along the crest of ridges in 
 such manner as not only to avoid crossing water courses, 
 but of passing over stony places or through thick scrub 
 and briars or dense timber, so as to protect their foot- 
 gear, their clothing and their flesh as well. 
 
 Their trails or traces were far superior to any the 
 white man could locate, and the early use by white pio- 
 neers of these Indian trails was a constant source of fric- 
 tion, for the Indians resented that use. As soon as state 
 governments were organized roads were laid out over 
 these traces; and the United States government made 
 these trails available. Thus, the Chickasaws had a trail 
 leading from about where Natchez, Mississippi, now is 
 on to the Cumberland River where Nashville is now 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 73 
 
 situated, and the trail led thence onward to the Atlantic 
 seaboard, over which the Chickasaws traveled. It be- 
 came very necessary both for military and civil purposes 
 to have a road over which wagons could pass from the 
 growing settlement on the Cumberland to the settlement 
 at Natchez on the Mississippi, and after long negotia- 
 tions and much difficulty, the United States finally in- 
 duced the Chickasaws, at the Chickasaw Bluffs, to enter 
 into the treaty of October 26, 1801, by which the Chick- 
 asaws granted to the President of the United States, 
 permission 
 
 “to lay out, open and make a convenient wagon 
 road through their lands between the settlement 
 of Mero District in the State of Tennessee, and 
 those of Natchez in the Mississippi Territory, in 
 such way and manner as he may deem proper ; and 
 the same shall be a highway for the United States 
 and the Chickasaws.” 
 
 The ferries crossing all streams were reserved by 
 the Indians as these at that time were valuable. 
 
 General Andrew Jackson laid out the road, follow- 
 ing the Indian trail, which remained in use until super- 
 seded by the advent of railroads and steamboats. 
 
 This celebrated Natchez trail was crossed by the no 
 less important trail to the Chickasaws than that com- 
 mencing at the Chickasaw Bluffs on the Mississippi 
 River, and running thence southwardly to the Gulf coast 
 where Mobile, Alabama, now is, and this great Chicka- 
 saw highway will next be noticed. 
 
 If you look into the history of James Adair, pub- 
 lished in London in 1775, and their best early historian, 
 
74 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 or nearly any book of reference, you will see it stated 
 that the Chickasaws were seated in North Mississippi 
 near where Pontotoc now is, 160 miles from the Missis- 
 sippi River, some of them saying, from the river at the 
 Chickasaw Bluffs. In a direct line it is not 100 miles 
 from Memphis to Pontotoc, and I was puzzled for some 
 time to understand how the Indian trail could be 160 
 miles long between those points. 
 
 The explanation is that the old chroniclers in giving 
 the distance computed it according to the great trail of 
 the Chickasaws, which could be used at all seasons of 
 the year, and of course along high ground and the crest 
 of a ridge nearly all the way. Thus, by leaving the 
 Chickasaw Bluff and crossing Wolf River near Memphis 
 at Raleigh, where the high land comes down in an abrupt 
 precipice to the water, or even nearer Memphis, you can 
 travel almost dry shod to Hardeman County near Boli- 
 var; and thence taking the crest of the well known Pon- 
 totoc ridge southward you will pass over the highest 
 ground in all Mississippi, about 700 feet above the sea, 
 lying in Tippah County; and thence on to Pontotoc, and 
 during all this journey you will scarcely cross a stream, 
 a distance of about 160 miles. 
 
 In Vol. I Centenary Series (p. 467), George J. Left- 
 wich has an interesting article entitled “Some Main 
 Traveled Roads, Including Cross-sections of Natchez 
 Trace”; and speaking of the Chickasaw highway trail 
 from the Chickasaw Bluffs to their home in North Mis- 
 sissippi, and leading onward to the Gulf of Mexico at 
 Mobile, he says : 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 75 
 
 “On the attached map is plainly marked out 
 also the Bolivar Indian trail, which ran from Mem- 
 phis to Mobile, by way of the Chickasaw towns in 
 Lee County, and down the Tombigbee River to 
 St. Stevens and Mobile ; from the Chickasaw towns 
 near Tupelo, it passed northwest by Ripley, by 
 Bolivar, Tennessee, on to the Chickasaw Bluffs. 
 The Bolivar trail was the route of travel followed 
 by the Indians and pioneers, leading from the Tom- 
 bigbee country by way of Bolivar to Fort Adams 
 (now Memphis) on the Mississippi; and afforded 
 access for the Chickasaws and Choctaws to West 
 Tennessee, which was known as the common hunt- 
 ing ground for the Indians who lived in Kentucky 
 on the north, and the Chickasaws and Choctaws on 
 the South. Williams, in his ‘Old Times in West 
 Tennessee,’ says that this road was pursued cir- 
 cuitously in order to avoid the crossing of the 
 streams so numerous in the country farther south, 
 which largely trend westward towards the Holly 
 Springs country, which were harder to cross ; Indi- 
 ans always avoid as much as possible water courses” 
 (see p. 467). 
 
 Note that it is said the waters trend westward to- 
 wards the Holly Springs country, and this is correct, 
 for the headwaters of both the Tallahatchie and Cold- 
 water rivers commence in the Tippah highlands. It 
 should also be noted that the highlands of Tippah, the 
 highest in the state, extend an elbow or a spur down into 
 Marshall County, embracing Holly Springs, and over 
 this high elbow or spur and across adjacent streams and 
 their bottoms the Chickasaw short-cut, or dry weather 
 trail ran, this trail running in almost a straight north- 
 west direction from the seat of the Chickasaws in what 
 is now Pontotoc County to the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, 
 
76 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 the entrepot of that Nation. Here a neck of high land 
 projects itself to the edge of the river, making a high 
 precipitous bluff, the high land stretching back in the 
 shape of a fan, making the bluffs an ideal place for a 
 permanent landing of rare value to the Indians, and a 
 place whereon to build a great city; hence the subse- 
 quent location of Memphis here, often called the Bluff 
 City. 
 
 These short cut trails were indispensable to the In- 
 dians, for the news of an invasion or other matter of 
 great importance could only be carried by a messenger 
 running on foot, and the Chickasaws were celebrated in 
 this respect. Thus, Adair tells of a young Chickasaw, 
 who, on an emergency, and being pursued, ran from 
 where Mobile, Alabama, is now located (a distance of 
 300 computed miles) in 42 hours; whereas Adair says 
 he could scarcely make the same trip in 140 hours, though 
 riding a very superior saddle horse. This Indian car- 
 ried no provisions, depending upon such herbs as he could 
 snatch up on the way for sustenance, and yet not allow- 
 ing him a moment to eat or to sleep, he traveled night 
 and day at an average rate of over seven miles an hour 
 for forty-two consecutive hours ! 
 
 When D’Artaguette came from Canada down the 
 Mississippi in 1736, with his French and Indian army, 
 for the avowed purpose of joining Bienville’s army com- 
 ing from the South to annihilate the Chickasaws, he 
 landed his army at the Chickasaw Bluffs, and proceeded 
 thence to the seat of the Chickasaws in North Mississippi, 
 where both armies suffered an inglorious defeat at the 
 hands of the invincible Chickasaws. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 77 
 
 In the discussion of any subject it is well to have 
 • correct data as a foundation on which to proceed; and 
 as this has been somewhat difficult to obtain with respect 
 to the topography of the country in question, I will set 
 it down for the benefit of those who may prefer accuracy 
 to mere speculation or rhetoric. 
 
 In a letter to me of date October 3, 1918, Dr. E. N. 
 Lowe, the efficient geologist of Mississippi, says: 
 
 “1. The annual rainfall in the latitude of Holly 
 Springs is 50 inches, pretty evenly distributed 
 over the region of Marshall and adjacent hill 
 counties. 
 
 2. From my own measurements the highest point 
 
 in Mississippi is at Blue Mountain, the Bald 
 Knob, a few hundred yards northeast of 
 Mississippi Heights School, rising to 690 
 feet above sea level. I have been informed 
 that a point near Iuka rises to more than 700 
 feet, and I am inclined to believe this, though 
 I do not know that it is true. Dr. F. T. Car- 
 mack of Iuka claims to have seen the altitude 
 taken by government engineers. 
 
 3. The highlands about Holly Springs seems to be 
 
 independent of the Tippah highlands, sep- 
 arated from that ridge at the nearest point 
 by about 20 miles of lower intervening re- 
 gions. 
 
 4. Altitude of railroad station at Holly Springs is 
 
 602 feet ; a mile south of the station the rail- 
 road track rises considerably higher.” 
 
 To the same effect I received a letter from Dr. W. 
 T. Lowrey, the well known president of Blue Mountain 
 College, which was founded by General M. P. Lowrey, 
 
78 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 the father of W. T. Lowrey, in 1873. The large hill 
 called Blue Mountain acquired that name in the remote 
 past, and long before the college was located there. Dr. 
 Lowrey says he was told that the name originated with 
 the young people of Ripley before the Civil War, when 
 they drove through the country from Ripley to visit 
 Colonel Brougher’s family, who lived in a palatial resi- 
 dence which was located where the main dormitory of 
 Blue Mountain College is now situated, commanding a 
 fine view of the surrounding country. 
 
 It is almost needless to add that the name Blue 
 Mountain originated from the beautiful blue mountain- 
 ous view here afforded. As might be expected, the adja- 
 cent country abounds in many bold springs of clear free- 
 stone, wholesome water, making the country very attrac- 
 tive and healthful, and an ideal location for an educa- 
 tional institution. 
 
 C. C. Pashby, for many years was connected with 
 the engineer’s office of Memphis, and for sometime has 
 been the city clerk, and is a man of accurate informa- 
 tion, and in a recent letter he says: 
 
 “Replying to your inquiries concerning the alti- 
 tude of Memphis above the river and above the gulf, 
 annual rainfall, etc. : 
 
 I beg to advise that the following points are 
 given, together with their elevation above the zero 
 point on the river gauge, and the elevation above 
 the mean level of the Gulf of Mexico: 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 79 
 
 Above Zero Above Gulf 
 River Gage. Mexico. 
 
 Madison and Front 
 
 88 
 
 270 
 
 Jackson Mounds (De Soto Pk) 
 
 102 
 
 284 
 
 Bellevue & K. C. Junction 
 
 136 
 
 318 
 
 Mississippi & Trigg 
 
 138 
 
 320 
 
 Tri-State Fair 
 
 134 
 
 316 
 
 S. W. Corner Overton Park 
 
 100 
 
 282 
 
 The Zero gage referred to is the lowest point where 
 the river is supposed to have reached, at a date back in the 
 eighteen-seventies ; though I have heard that it went some 
 two or three feet lower since then. 
 
 I have consulted some of the United States Re- 
 ports in an effort to find the elevation of Holly 
 Springs, but have been unable to do so. However, 
 I did learn that the elevation of 
 
 Tupelo is 279 feet; 
 
 Jackson, Tenn. 396 feet; 
 
 Grand Junction 582 feet. 
 
 The rainfall in this locality varies from about 
 33 inches to a record of something like 72 inches 
 with an average of about 45.” 
 
 It will be noted that there are considerable differ- 
 ences in the altitude of nearby places in Memphis, a fact 
 to which I will refer further on, when I will show that 
 the criticism of Prof. Lewis as to statements made by 
 Garcilaso de la Vega with reference to the topography 
 of the country where De Soto discovered the Mississippi, 
 has no foundation upon which to rest. 
 
 But to return to a consideration of the Chickasaw 
 country, we find that the Chickasaws were located on the 
 Pontotoc ridge, which increased in altitude going north 
 
80 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 reaching its highest point in the Tippah highlands and 
 extending still further northward into Tennessee. This 
 high land or ridge divides the waters flowing into the 
 Mississippi from those flowing into the Gulf of Mexico; 
 or it may be termed the height of land between these 
 two great water sheds. 
 
 All of the country to the west of this height of land 
 quite uniformly slopes downward toward the Mississippi 
 River ; and as might be supposed the streams flow west- 
 ward, those in Mississippi taking a trend southward as 
 they approach the river. 
 
 W e thus have these natural conditions : a warm 
 climate; a heavy annual rainfall, and a gradually de- 
 scending water shed, the soil of which has in it much 
 sand, some of it impalpably fine, nevertheless sand. The 
 rain and sunshine operating upon this country as the 
 seasons succeed each other could not fail to wear down 
 the country into a broken appearance, with almost in- 
 numerable small streams and many more or less consider- 
 able streams, and with very rich alluvial bottoms. The 
 sandy soil washing down with leaves and vegetable mat- 
 ter gradually extended these bottoms and from this rich 
 soil spring giant white oaks, red oaks and many other 
 oaks, besides immense gums, hickories, ash, poplar, cy- 
 press and many other varieties of the finest timber to be 
 found in any country. 
 
 This was precisely the character of country over 
 which De Soto passed. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 81 
 
 The Short-Cut Trail, or Pigeon Roost Road — 
 
 Having referred to the long trail which could be 
 used to the best advantage at all seasons of the year and 
 in all kinds of weather, I will now call attention to what 
 for a better name I will call the short-cut trail, which 
 was the shortest route or way between the Chickasaw’s 
 home in North Mississippi, and the Chickasaw Bluffs. 
 
 Under the Chickasaw treaties of 1832 and 1834, all 
 of the Chickasaw cession was laid off into sections, and 
 the roads in Mississippi run on section lines, except where 
 the roads of the white man adopted the Indian trails, 
 and the Pigeon Roost Road falls into the excepted class, 
 because it follows the ancient Chickasaw trail. It will 
 now be described. 
 
 This road was laid out by the Shelby County Court 
 in 1828, when there was scarcely a handful of people 
 in the then village of Memphis, and it ran along the 
 Chickasaw short-trail or trace. The description of the 
 road, as officially laid off, commences where Adams 
 Street intersects Bayou Gayoso, the then corporate lim- 
 its of the village, and after proceeding in a southeast- 
 erly direction with various calls and courses, it proceeds 
 thus : “Thence with said line of blaze bearing south- 
 eastwardly to the old Chickasaw trace on top of a ridge; 
 thence with the said trace occasionally straightening the 
 same on good ground, to the northeast side of a lagoon 
 in the bottom (the lagoon evidently being in Nonconnah 
 bottom), thence with a line of chops and blazes to the 
 creek (evidently Nonconnah) a short distance below 
 the ford on the old trace; thence up the bank of the 
 
82 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 creek to the old trace, and with it cutting across some 
 lands as above to where the same crosses the State Line.” 
 
 By actual measurements recently made, Nonconnah 
 bottom begins eight miles from Second and Adams 
 Streets, opposite the Court House in Memphis, passing 
 along the old Chickasaw trail, as near as that can be now 
 traveled in the city, and then along the line of the pres- 
 ent Pigeon Boost Road. Nonconnah is a considerable 
 creek, and was much larger before the country was settled. 
 In high water even at this day, the creek is often a 
 mile wide and anciently its bottom was filled with lagoons 
 and cypress brakes, and difficult to cross except under 
 most favorable conditions. To my knowledge during 
 the Civil War the four long bridges over the sloughs, 
 and the one over the main stream, were down, at least 
 the most of them were, and a ferry was maintained 
 across the main stream over which I often passed. In 
 the winter the road became so out of repair that for 
 days and days no vehicle could pass over it. Noncon- 
 nah bottom was then infested by robbers, and three Fed- 
 eral soldiers were court-martialed and shot for commit- 
 ting rape in that dreaded bottom, my father Dr. Frank- 
 lin J. Malone, being a witness at the trial in Memphis. 
 My father died January 24, 1873, and I rode from Mem- 
 phis to the old home just across the line in De Soto 
 County on horseback, as no vehicles were then passing 
 over the road, it being difficult to pass on horseback, that 
 winter being an exceptionally bad one. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 83 
 
 On July 21, 1918, I rode in my auto from Mem- 
 phis to Holly Springs, a distance of 47.9 miles, care- 
 fully noting the water courses crossed by the Pigeon 
 Roost Road, and I do not think that it can be surpassed 
 for its many windings, turnings and constant changes 
 of courses, thus demonstrating its Indian origin. 
 
 Leaving the Court House at Memphis, Nonconnah 
 bottom was reached at eight miles, after descending 
 Brown’s hill, formerly rising abruptly to high land, and 
 this high land extends to Memphis. The bottom is a 
 little over one mile wide, and emerging from this bot- 
 tom the land is not high for some miles, but low, and 
 formerly swampy. This low level land may be desig- 
 nated according to local description, as second bottom 
 lands, and extends from the true or low bottom lands, 
 about two miles, passing through the village of Oakville 
 (formerly called Shakerag), and to a small creek or 
 large branch with a good sized bottom, and then the 
 road goes up on rolling land. Further on Ten-Mile 
 branch is crossed, its name implying its distance from 
 Memphis. Capleville is reached at thirteen miles, and by 
 it, or rather where it now stands, there flowed in 1859. 
 and for years thereafter to my knowledge, a beautiful 
 creek with delightful fish in it. Today what is left of 
 it forms a big ditch not made by nature, but by the 
 hand of man, about one-eighth of a mile to the north, 
 in which you may sometimes see a muddy conglomerate 
 to which the phrase may be applied, “as dull as ditch 
 water.” The fate of this stream on the upper waters 
 of which, three miles distant, in my boyhood days I 
 
84 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 swam and sported, catching beautiful fish, is the com- 
 mon fate of all the streams through this section of the 
 country. A few hundred yards beyond Capleville an- 
 other creek is crossed. 
 
 I will now give the small creeks and distances 
 crossed from Memphis to Holly Springs from this point. 
 
 At the State Line, 15.5 miles; 17.6 miles; 18.3 
 miles (Olive Branch passed) ; 20.8 miles; 23.8 miles (at 
 Miller’s! ; 25.6 miles (this is Coldwater River, with a 
 bottom one mile wide) ; 29.3 miles (Byhalia passed, 
 30.1), and at 30.9 miles (Byhalia Creek), and 31.7 miles 
 (Byhalia Creek again crossed, at least this was the 
 name given me) ; 34 miles; 34.7 miles, good sized creek 
 near Victoria (passing Red Banks at 39 miles) ; 40.4 
 miles; 41.8 miles; 42.8 miles (good size); 43.7 miles 
 (good size) ; thence to Holly Springs, 47.9 miles, from the 
 point of beginning, which was opposite the Court House 
 in Memphis. 
 
 I need scarcely add that every stream crossed has 
 its bottom more or less wide, according to its size, and 
 the abruptness of the hills rising from its bosom. 
 
 These bottoms were veritable wildernesses to any- 
 one compelled to cross them before the country was 
 settled up. 
 
 One of the most notable features of the landscape 
 that could not fail to attract the attention of any obser- 
 vant person, was the beautiful view afforded about two 
 miles from Holly Springs, approaching that city on the 
 Pigeon Roost Road from the northwest. The road leads 
 up to the brow of a long hill, and the outlines of the city 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 85 
 
 can be faintly seen in the distance, and apparently with 
 a mountainous background, and with intervening low- 
 lands between the observer and the city. Or, expressed 
 in other words, the city was apparently silhouetted upon 
 the horizon, with a mountainous background; a very 
 pleasing view to those who live in a comparatively flat 
 country. This feature of the landscape, will be found 
 to be very important when we come to carefully con- 
 sider the descriptions given by the various narratives of 
 the country over which De Soto marched his army. 
 
 It is also an undeniable fact that upon the ridges 
 and little plateaus throughout this region, there were 
 numerous depressions, locally called ponds, which are 
 well described in the words of the Gentleman of Elvas, 
 as “pondy places,” “basins or lakes.” Sometimes these 
 pondy places covered say only an acre, with aquatic 
 plants and shrubs in them, drying up in midsummer; 
 while others were deeper, and covered some acres, were 
 clear of all trees or shrubs and could be designated as 
 lakes ; and on these, numerous ducks and other wild fowl 
 found feeding places, and they never dried up. The river 
 and larger bottoms were literally covered with lagoons, 
 and what are locally called cypress brakes, many of them 
 containing deep water throughout the year, having soft 
 mud bottoms and over which it was extremely difficult to 
 pass. 
 
 In reference to the cypress brakes, as they are locally 
 called, it may be stated that they abounded in all the 
 the bottoms similar to that of Nonconnah, and deserve 
 further notice. There are in the old world, as well as 
 
86 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 in America, many species of cypress, but the discovery 
 in the Southern states of this country of what is called 
 “Swamp Cypress,” or “Bald Cypress,” was a distinct 
 surprise to botanists and naturalists in general. It is 
 one of the loftiest trees, grows to a height of 170 
 feet, and of such massive trunks as to be sometimes 
 from ten to fifteen feet in diameter, and usually grows 
 in or near water, or on low land subject to frequent 
 inundations. More than one hundred years ago Bartram 
 said of it: 
 
 “This cypress is in the first order of North 
 American trees. Its majestic stature is surprising. 
 On approaching we are struck with a kind of awe 
 at beholding the stateliness of its trunk, lifting its 
 cumbrous top towards the sky and casting a wide 
 shadow on the ground, as a dark, intervening cloud, 
 which from time to time excludes the rays of the 
 sun. The delicacy of its color and the texture of 
 its leaves exceed everything in vegetation.” 
 
 It is said to be remarkable in that it is little affected 
 by the dryness or excessive moisture in the atmosphere, 
 for on the same tree different forms of branches and 
 foliage will sometimes be found to exist, which are 
 capable of either aiding or preventing the escape of 
 moisture. 
 
 Another remarkable thing about this Southern 
 cypress, is a large conical excrescence which rises from 
 the roots of the tree, called cypress knees, the cause or 
 reason for their growth being unknown, and as to which 
 much speculation has been indulged. They are hollow, 
 and where the tree grows in water the knees rise above 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 87 
 
 the surface, there sometimes being as many as one hun- 
 dred under a tree. Where the tree grows on land not 
 submerged, there are no knees. Some cypress brakes in 
 large bottoms were miles long and wide; and it can be 
 readily seen that where the ground was submerged and 
 with knees interspersed, it would form an almost im- 
 passable barrier. 
 
 The wood of this cypress was and is extremely valu- 
 able for shingles, which last for forty years, besides, it 
 was much used for fencing, interior paneling for doors, 
 windows, etc., hence it was one of the first giants of 
 the forest to fall under the woodman’s ax, and now, alas, 
 they have nearly disappeared from the bottoms of our 
 upland country. 
 
 There is one lone sentinel, like a spectre of the 
 past, growing out of the north bank of Nonconnah, a 
 few inches from the west side of the iron bridge on the 
 Pigeon Roost Road, and evidently spared because the 
 bridge would lodge against it, in case it should be moved 
 by a great flood. It is a double or twin tree, and while 
 not one of the giants of its tribe, still gives some faint 
 idea of what those monarchs of the forest were like. 
 
 A few feet below this same bridge there will also 
 be seen a miniature island in midstream, on which small 
 trees are growing. The passing throng would never 
 suppose that as late as during the Civil War there was 
 not only no island there, but in its place there was a 
 wide expanse of water on whose bosom a ferry boat 
 crossed and recrossed, carrying wagons, buggies, horses, 
 men and everything that traveled, for which the trav- 
 
88 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 eling public were compelled to pay exorbitant ferriage 
 fees. Now a man could jump from one side of the 
 creek to the other side almost, without wetting his feet ; 
 and still Dr. Rowland thinks the topography of the coun- 
 try is the same. I can scarcely ever cross the bridge 
 referred to without casting a glance at the lone tree- 
 sentinel and the little miniature island ; and mute wit- 
 nesses though they be, yet to me they speak in trumpet 
 tones of the mutability of all worldly things, and of 
 the infinite future to which we are fleeing with such 
 incredible swiftness that even the scenes of our child- 
 hood days seem like phantoms of the past! 
 
 Some time since application was made to convert all 
 of Nonconnah and its bottoms into a drainage district, 
 and some technicality has delayed the proceeding; but, 
 sooner or later, the Gordian knot will be cut, and a dull 
 ditch will be all that is left of the majestic stream, once 
 known as Nonconnah. 
 
 In the fall of 1917, and previous thereto, I rode in 
 an auto from Holly Springs in the main southeastward 
 direction, towards Pontotoc, and crossed Chewalla Creek 
 (quite a stream), the main branch of Tippah Creek, 
 sometimes called Tippah River, and crossing to the south- 
 west of the Frisco road at Potts Camp, we then crossed 
 another affluent of Tippah ; these considerable creek bot- 
 toms having the main characteristics of the country from 
 Holly Springs to Memphis, and in addition, the country 
 had a more mountainous and picturesque appearance, 
 owing to the many hills rising abruptly from the bot- 
 
 toms. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 89 
 
 Since the foregoing was written, viz., on Decem- 
 ber 1, 1918, again I went over the same road; C. H. 
 Curd, long time editor of the Holly Springs Reporter, 
 being a member of the party. 
 
 After we had crossed the Kansas City or Frisco 
 Railroad at Potts Camp, going southwest, and then 
 crossed quite considerable creek bottoms, we ascended 
 some high hills, rising abruptly from the bottom land. 
 
 After going some two to three miles further, the 
 ground was still higher, and Mr. Curd pointed out to 
 us the top of a distant ridge, which he said was four- 
 teen miles from us, and was the site of Holly Springs. 
 
 He went with us to a high hill one mile west of 
 Holly Springs, locally called Rocky Mountain, because 
 of its height and the presence on its top of large sand 
 stones, some ten feet in length and nearly as wide, a 
 very unusual geologic feature for that section. 
 
 Pigeon Roost Creek and the Pigeons — 
 
 The names, Pigeon Roost Road, and Pigeon Roost 
 Creek carry with them a meaning with respect to the 
 country which furnished these names, if we but consider 
 attentively those words. At the risk of being charged 
 with a digression, I will linger to consider these names 
 and what they imply; especially as this digression will 
 involve characteristics of the Chickasaw country, now our 
 country; for it is unfortunately true that we give more 
 attention to the histories, appearances and stories of for- 
 eign countries, than to that of our own, it matters not 
 
90 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 how interesting our own country, past and present may 
 be. 
 
 The disappearance of the vast hosts of wild pigeons, 
 whose flights in the heavens once almost obscured the 
 light of the sun at noon, has proven one of the mysteries 
 of nature. 
 
 Their sudden disappearance from the face of the 
 earth in modern times remains an unsolved problem. I 
 remember as a small boy to have seen in 1859 innumer- 
 able numbers of these wild pigeons in flight, and they 
 appeared to be fond of lighting in the large oak trees, 
 especially white oaks, and I was told that they were 
 feeding upon acorns. They chose the largest and strong- 
 est trees for a roost, because their great weight would 
 tear down and strip the strongest monarchs of the forest. 
 
 In Lincecum’s autobiography already referred to, he 
 describes the great destruction to the timber in the Choc- 
 taw country, just south of the Chickasaw country, where 
 ever the pigeons had a roost. As like causes produce like 
 results, the immensity of these pigeon roosts and the 
 consequent destruction produced thereby at one place 
 furnishes a description where other roosts took place; 
 and I will here insert excerpts from famous nature writ- 
 ers, the accuracy of whose observations cannot be 
 doubted : 
 
 “The associated numbers of wild pigeons, the 
 numerous flocks which compose the general swarm, 
 are without any other parallel in the history of the 
 feathered race; they can indeed alone be compared 
 to the finny shoals of herrings, which, descending 
 from the Arctic regions, discolor and fill the ocean 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 91 
 
 to the extent. of mighty kingdoms. * * * The 
 
 approach of the mighty feathered army with a loud 
 rushing roar and a stirring breeze, attended by a 
 sudden darkness, might be mistaken for a fearful 
 tornado about to overwhelm the face of Nature. 
 For several hours together the vast host, extending 
 some miles in breadth, still continues to pass in flocks, 
 without diminution. The whole air is filled with 
 birds ; * * * they shut out the light as if it were 
 an eclipse. At the approach of the hawk their sub- 
 lime and beautiful aerial evolutions are disturbed 
 like a ruffling squall extending over the placid 
 ocean ; as a thundering torrent they rush together in 
 a concentrating mass, and heaving in undulating and 
 glittering sweeps towards the earth, at length again 
 proceed in lofty meanders like the rushing of a 
 mighty animated river. * * * 
 
 In the Atlantic States, where the flocks are less 
 abundant, the gun, decoy, and net are put in opera- 
 tion against the devoted throng. Twenty or even 
 thirty dozen have been caught at a single sweep of 
 the net. Wagonloads of them are poured into mar- 
 ket, where they are sometimes sold for no more than 
 a cent apiece. * * * The Honorable T. H. Per- 
 kins remarks that about the year 1798, while he was 
 passing through New Jersey, near Newark, the 
 flocks continued to pass for at least two hours with- 
 out cessation ; and he learned from the neighboring 
 inhabitants that in descending upon a large pond to 
 drink, those in the rear, alighting on the backs of 
 the first that arrived (in the usual order of their 
 movements on land to feed), pressed them beneath 
 the surface, so that tens of thousands were thus 
 drowned. They were likewise killed in great num- 
 bers at the roosts with clubs,” Nuttall, Vol. II, pp. 
 3, 4, 6. 
 
 Audubon estimated the number of birds in one of 
 these flocks at eleven hundred millions, and calculated 
 
92 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 that they would require more than eight millions of bush- 
 els of seeds and grains for feed each day. Another flock 
 seen by Wilson was greater still. He judged them in 
 flight, to extend over two hundred and forty miles. He 
 concluded that they must have numbered more than 
 twenty-two hundreds of millions, and consumed above 
 seventeen millions of bushels of seed and grains daily. 
 
 “As the sun begins to decline, they depart in a 
 body for the general roost, which is often hundreds 
 of miles distant, and is generally chosen in the tall- 
 est and thickest forests, almost divested of under- 
 wood. Nothing can exceed the waste and desola- 
 tion of these nocturnal resorts. * * * The tall 
 
 trees for thousands of acres are completely killed, 
 and the ground strewed with massy branches torn 
 down by the clustering weight of the birds which 
 have rested upon them. The whole region for sev- 
 eral years presents a continued scene of devastation, 
 
 as if swept by the resistless blast of a whirlwind. 
 * * * 
 
 “The breeding places, as might naturally be 
 expected, differ from the roosts in their greater ex- 
 tent. In 1807, according to Wilson, one of these 
 immense nurseries, near Shelbyville, in Kentucky, 
 was several miles in breadth and extended through 
 the woods for upwards of forty miles. * * * 
 
 Wilson often counted upwards of ninety nests in a 
 single tree, and the whole forest was filled with 
 them. * * * But their most destructive enemy 
 
 is man ; and as soon as the young are fully grown, 
 the neighboring inhabitants assemble and encamp 
 for several days around the devoted pigeons with 
 wagons, axes, and cooking utensils, like the out- 
 skirts of a destructive army. The perpetual tumult 
 of the birds, the crowding and fluttering multitudes, 
 the thundering roar of their wings, and the crash 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 93 
 
 of falling trees, from which the young are thus pre- 
 cipitated to the ground by the axe, produces alto- 
 gether a scene of indescribable and almost terrific 
 confusion. It is dangerous to walk beneath these 
 clustering crowds of birds, from the frequent de- 
 scent of large branches broken down by the con- 
 gregating millions ; the horses start at the noise, and 
 conversation can only be heard in a shout.” 
 
 To the foregoing extract from Nuttall’s book is ap- 
 pended the following note : 
 
 “The most important of recent contributions to 
 the biography of this species is Mr. William Brew- 
 ster’s article in The Auk for October, 1889. He 
 tells there of a ‘nesting’ in Michigan in 1877 that 
 covered an area twenty-eight miles long and three 
 to four miles wide, and says : ‘For the entire dis- 
 tance of twenty-eight miles every tree of any size 
 had more or less nests, and many trees were filled 
 with them.’ ” Nutall’s Birds of the United States 
 and Canada, Vol. II, pp. 4, 5, 7. 
 
 L. B. Jones, an intelligent citizen somewhat ad- 
 vanced in years, and who lives near Holly Springs, in- 
 formed me that his grandfather settled on Pigeon Roost 
 Creek at a very early date; that he often heard both his 
 grandfather and father relate their experiences with the 
 wild pigeons which in the years long passed, roosted in 
 the forests of Pigeon Roost Creek, from which circum- 
 stance the creek derived its name. From them he learned 
 the pigeons came in vast flocks, lighting on the limbs of 
 the trees, while belated ones perched on the backs of 
 those who arrived first ; and by thus piling or perching 
 
94 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 on the backs of each other, the weight of the pigeons 
 became so great as to strip and tear down some of the 
 largest trees cf the forest. 
 
 The people of that vicinity would go to the roost 
 and bring back wagon loads of the pigeons, whose num- 
 bers seemed to be almost infinite. 
 
 Beaumont M. Stratton, though a Confederate vet- 
 eran with many scars of that great conflict on his body, is 
 still youthful of heart and vigorous of body, and as 
 might be supposed, having reached the reminiscent age, 
 is fond of recalling his early recollections. His father, 
 Major Thomas Stratton, moved from Middle Tennes- 
 see to the southern part of Shelby County, in the early 
 fifties, and at that time the most of the country was in 
 woods and was a wilderness. 
 
 Mr. Stratton says that when a boy he had often gone 
 south in Mississippi to the bottoms of Coldwater River, 
 and there saw the destruction wrought by the wild pigeons 
 to the great forests springing from the rich alluvial soil. 
 Many of the smaller trees were stripped of their limbs 
 and broken down, while many monarchs of the forest had 
 lost great limbs and were so stripped of their branches 
 as to present mere shadows of their former proportions. 
 
 Mr. Stratton further states that in those early years 
 the wild pigeons were still passing over the country in 
 great flocks of incredible numbers, so that at times their 
 numbers were so great as to obstruct the rays of the sun, 
 the shadow of the birds falling upon the earth so as to 
 give the appearance of twilight, or the shades of eve- 
 ning. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 95 
 
 From L. B. Jones and C. H. Curd, mentioned above, 
 I also learned that the north branch of Pigeon Roost 
 Creek had its head in the once famous Springs which 
 with the adjacent holly trees gave to Holly Springs its 
 name. The main branch of the creek, however, origi- 
 nates beyond or south of Holly Springs. 
 
 From these gentlemen and Judge J. P. Young, of 
 Memphis, I learned that going south from Memphis on 
 the Pigeon Roost road, it deflects at Byhalia from the 
 present Holly Springs road, trending in a more south- 
 ward direction, leading on to Chulahoma, where Judge 
 Young was born, and leaving Holly Springs about six 
 miles to the east of its course opposite that city. 
 
 This is in entire accord with Lusher’s map. 
 
 On Lusher’s map of 1835 (hereinafter more par- 
 ticularly referred to) the streams in the Chickasaw 
 country are laid down with more detail and accuracy than 
 upon any other map before or since that time ; and while 
 nearly all the streams have Indian names only, Pigeon 
 Roost Creek forms an exception, and had on this map 
 the same name it bears to this day. 
 
 The fact is that the creek was so named on account 
 of the vast pigeon roosts which formerly formed a con- 
 spicuous feature of its heavily timbered bottoms; and 
 bear in mind that this giant timbered country was the 
 country to attract the pigeons for a roosting place. This 
 roosting place must have been famous far and near, for 
 it gave not only its name to the large creek in question, 
 but to one of the most important thoroughfares leading 
 to Memphis, a distance of some fifty miles. 
 
96 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Lusher’s map also shows that the short-cut Indian 
 trail or trace crossed the head waters of the Pigeon 
 Roost Creek. This roost was undoubtedly known to the 
 Chickasaws, for nothing of this character escaped their 
 notice ; and moreover, it was doubtless a great asset to 
 them where, at least in certain years, they found an un- 
 limited supply of most palatable and wholesome food. 
 Indeed, the existence of this roost may have been one of 
 the reasons for a trail passing through that vicinity. 
 
 The Trail from Holly Springs to New Albany — 
 
 Not having personally traveled over the former 
 Chickasaw trail from Holly Springs to New Albany, I 
 wrote to Judge Charles Lee Crum, of New Albany, for a 
 description of that part of the country and received the 
 following answer : 
 
 “Before describing the country directly from 
 New Albany to Holly Springs, I will say that I was 
 born in 1867 where the village of Hickory Flat now 
 is, which is fourteen miles northwest from New Al- 
 bany, and twenty miles southeast from Holly 
 Springs. My grandfather, Eli Crum, moved onto 
 his farm at the very place where Hickory Flat now 
 is, in December, 1837, at which time my father, W. 
 A. Crum, was an infant three months old. This 
 was before the Indians left. My father owned this 
 place until his death in A. D. 1910. So you can 
 understand that having for years held this as the pa- 
 ternal home, and on account of its being nearly 
 midway between New Albany and Holly Springs 
 and having lived for twenty-five years at the former 
 place, I have had opportunity to know this coun- 
 try. Besides being a lawyer by profession, I have 
 since my boyhood hunted wild game considerably 
 and traveled over all this country horseback and 
 otherwise. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 97 
 
 I have heard my father say repeatedly that the 
 public road from Memphis to Pontotoc was origi- 
 nally laid out along what was an Indian trail. This 
 highway ran from Memphis via Holly Springs, 
 Potts Camp, Winbom, about three-fourths mile 
 north of where Hickory Flat now is, crossed Talla- 
 hatchie River about three-fourths mile southwest of 
 the court house in New Albany, and thence to the 
 town of Pontotoc and covered high ground except 
 in crossing the following streams: Chewalla, Tip- 
 pah River, head waters of Okalimetah, Ayers Creek 
 (a very small stream), Big Creek (sometimes called 
 Hell Creek), and Tallahatchie. The crossing at the 
 time of the earliest recollections of white settlers on 
 Tallahatchie River, before bridges were built, were 
 only two. One was at Rocky Ford, where Etta 
 postoffice now is. The other was three-fourths 
 mile southwest of New Albany Courthouse, on 
 what is now my farm property and immediately in 
 the rear of my present residence which is known as 
 ‘Riverside.’ 
 
 There is a bluff immediately west of the ford 
 at Rocky Ford and there has been to my personal 
 knowledge for forty years a very large rock just 
 below this ford, which is nearly round in top appear- 
 ance and which projected several feet above the low 
 water forty years ago. The rock appears to have 
 been a boulder which rolled down from off this 
 bluff. The hill which projects to the river here and 
 makes this bluff has numerous such rocks on it now. 
 It is about twelve miles on an air line from New Al- 
 bany to Rocky Ford. I am not advised whether 
 there was an Indian trail that crossed here, but it 
 was a ford where the road crossed as early as the 
 white settlers settled now living know. The river 
 here runs on the south side of the low bottom, 
 which low land is about one mile wide and many 
 years ago was very slashv on north half. It is con- 
 ceded that De Soto fought a battle with the Indians 
 
98 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 who had a village where New Albany now is, after 
 leaving the Indian settlement east of Pontotoc. 
 From New Albany to Rocky Ford, to travel south 
 of Tallahatchie, would, in De Soto’s time, have re- 
 quired covering a distance of twenty or thirty-five 
 miles, for down the river in the low lands was very 
 swampy even as late as I can remember and covered 
 with thick canes, rattan and other vines and much 
 undergrowth. Besides there are several large 
 creeks that run into Tallahatchie from the south 
 that he would have been obliged to cross. 
 
 Tallahatchie bottom at New Albany is less than 
 four hundred yards wide and the crossing was at a 
 swift place with a solid rock bottom, and Esq. 
 Reaves, who was for many years the Mayor of New 
 Albany, has told me that an Indian ford was there 
 before the white man used it in the early settlement 
 for a public highway. Here is where the Memphis 
 and Pontotoc road first crossed Tallahatchie. 
 
 From all I have heard and read on the course 
 taken by De Soto I am convinced that, after fight- 
 ing the Indians here at New Albany, he crossed 
 Tallahatchie at the rock bottom ford south of the 
 town, traveled in a northwest direction along the 
 trail via Hickory Flat (where there was an Indian 
 village on my grandfather’s place in 1837), Potts 
 Camp, Holly Springs and on to the Chickasaw 
 Bluffs at Memphis. * * * 
 
 On each side of the river near this ford with 
 rock bottom at New Albany were evidently Indian 
 camps of minor importance. They were near large 
 lakes which then existed and between them on high 
 back-bones or ridges. These ridges are now in my 
 farm and hundreds of arrow-heads, tomahawks, 
 pestle and mortar rocks and other relics have been 
 found. My son, now sixteen, has several hundred 
 arrow and spear-heads of all sizes. At these minor 
 camps the Indians evidently camped, fished and 
 hunted in good weather when the river was low.” 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 99 
 
 Attention is called to the words in italics stating that 
 the old Indian camps ‘‘were near large lakes which then 
 existed and between them on high back-bones or ridges.” 
 These lakes, or pondy places were scattered over the hill 
 country of the Chickasaws, as all observant persons know 
 to have been the case, before the country was deforested. 
 
 In a subsequent letter Judge Crum says: 
 
 “The channel of the old Tallahatchie River 
 adjacent to the point in the river where the rock- 
 bottom ford anciently existed, which is about 
 of a mile southwest from the court house at New 
 Albany, was (until as late as 1898, at which time I 
 purchased the land), very deep, with the banks of 
 the river on the east side very high and perpendic- 
 ular. In fact I live now on this high point that 
 projects into where the old channel was then. 
 
 The topography then agreed very well with the 
 description which the Spaniard, Garcilaso de la 
 Vega gave of it in his diary, considering the time 
 that has elapsed. 
 
 As attorney for the Tallahatchie District I had 
 a canal dug down the bottom for a distance of 30 
 miles. The width of the canal is 30 feet or more 
 at its top end to 60 feet or more at its mouth at the 
 west line of Union County. There is no place in 
 the river where there was a solid rock bottom, ex- 
 cept at New Albany, and although the canal is 18 
 feet deep in places, we encountered no rock in dig- 
 ging it.” 
 
 It will thus be seen that the main topographical 
 features of the country from Pontotoc on to the Chick- 
 asaw Bluffs are quite similar ; and these features should 
 be borne in mind when we read the various narratives. 
 
100 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FOUR DE SOTO NARRATIVES QUOTED AND 
 COMPARED. 
 
 We come now to consider the four separate narra- 
 tives of the De Soto Expedition. Dr. Rowland, follow- 
 ing in the footsteps of Prof. Lewis, adopts the three 
 narratives of the Gentleman of Elvas, Rodrigo Ranjel 
 and Hernandez de Biedma, as edited by Edward Gay- 
 lord Bourne in the “Trail Makers.” They reject alto- 
 gether the narrative of Garcilaso de la Vega. 
 
 For the present I will follow their selection, because 
 these three narratives so selected by them, when exam- 
 ined, especially in the light of the topography and geol- 
 ogy of the country and the condition surrounding the 
 expedition, demonstrate that the Mississippi was discov- 
 ered at the Chickasaw Bluffs. 
 
 Later I will show that Garcilaso’s is entirely worthy 
 of credit, and if this is so, then they admit they are out 
 of court. 
 
 I will now briefly refer to the time each of the four 
 narratives appeared in print following exactly the order 
 observed by Bourne as set forth in his preface. 
 
 First : “The Gentleman of Elvas.” 
 
 This narrative purports to have been written by a 
 Portugese gentleman (not a Spaniard), and was first 
 published at Evora, Portugal, in 1557. The narrative 
 also purports to have been written by one who accom- 
 panied De Soto, but the writer did not reveal his name, 
 and it is not known to this day. Some who reject Gar- 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 101 
 
 cilaso, also reject the Gentleman of Elvas, but not so 
 Bourne and his followers, who put great reliance thereon. 
 
 Second : Bourne admits that “next in order of 
 publication and equal in fame comes” Garcilaso, which 
 was first published in Lisbon in 1605, or only 62 years 
 after the death of De Soto, and again re-published in 
 Madrid in 1722. It is admitted that Garcilaso was of 
 noble birth, and that he was a historian of distinction 
 aside from his De Soto narrative. 
 
 His narrative is rejected by some after the lapse of 
 some hundreds of years, because he states that he was 
 not a member of the expedition, but got his information 
 from a nobleman, who did accompany the expedition and 
 who, for a lifetime, had been Garcilaso’s bosom friend 
 and constantly related the incidents of the expedition, 
 and these were supplemented by notes taken down by 
 two privates in the expedition ; so that the narrative is 
 based on the testimony of three witnesses. 
 
 Third : The narrative of Hernandez de Biedma, the 
 King’s factor, was drawn up in 1544, but not published 
 until 1841, and then in French, by the French scholar, 
 Ternaux-Campons, the first English edition appearing in 
 1850. On page XV, Bourne commends Biedma’s narra- 
 tive as an official account, though giving few details, 
 “except as to directions and distances” ; or in other words 
 he is said to be accurate in giving details “as to direc- 
 tions and distances,” which is an important admission, as 
 shown further on. 
 
102 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Fourth : Rodrigo Ranjel was the private secretary 
 of De Soto, and his narrative did not come to light until 
 1866, when, according to Bourne, it was revealed in 
 Oviedo’s Historia General Y Natural de las Indias. 
 Bourne says also that he was convinced that Oviedo’s 
 account had imbedded in it Rodrigo Ranjel’s journal in 
 the same way as the journal of Columbus of his second 
 voyage was preserved by Las Casas in his Historia de las 
 Indias. 
 
 It can readily be seen that the Ranjel account may 
 have suffered important changes through the channels it 
 has reached us ; nevertheless by the authors mentioned it 
 is given first rank for accuracy, followed next by the 
 Gentleman of Elvas, then by Biedma, while they reject 
 altogether Garcilaso. 
 
 We now meet them on their chosen ground. 
 
 When doing this, however, I will quote the text of 
 these three narratives, word for word, and I will de- 
 cline to accept the versions thereof by Prof. Lewis and 
 followed by Dr. Rowland, for important words are not 
 only left out, but interpolations are made without the 
 least regard to the originals. These quotations will begin 
 with the departure of De Soto from near the seat of the 
 Chickasaw Nation, in what is now Pontotoc County, for 
 it seems to be now conceded that the expedition crossed 
 Tallahatchie River near New Albany, where there is for 
 that country a very unusual geological formation, namely 
 a solid rock bottom for the river, the meaning of the 
 Indian word Tallahatchie being rock river. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 103 
 
 The Text of the Gentleman of Elvas — 
 
 “From some prisoners taken, the governor in- 
 formed himself of the region in advance. On the 
 25th day of April (1541) he left Chicaca and went 
 to sleep at a small town called Alimamu. Very 
 little maize was found ; and as it became necessary 
 to attempt thence to pass a desert, seven days’ jour- 
 ney in extent, the next day the governor ordered 
 that three captains, each with cavalry and foot, 
 should take a different direction, to get provisions 
 for the way. Juan de Anasco, the comptroller, went 
 with fifteen horse and forty foot on the course the 
 governor would have to march, and found a staked 
 fort where the Indians were awaiting them. Many 
 were armed, walking upon it, with their bodies, 
 legs and arms painted and ochred, red, black, 
 white, yellow and vermilion in stripes, so that they 
 appeared to have on stockings and doublet. Some 
 wore feathers, and others horns on the head, the 
 face blackened, and the eyes encircled with vermil- 
 ion, to heighten their fierce aspect. So soon as they 
 saw the Christians draw nigh they beat drums, and, 
 with loud yells, in great fury came forth to meet 
 them. As to Juan de Anasco and others it appeared 
 w T ell to avoid them, and to inform the governor, 
 they retired, over an even ground in sight, the dis- 
 tance of a cross-bow shot from the enclosure, the 
 footmen, the cross-bow men and targeteers putting 
 themselves before those on horseback, that the 
 beasts might not be wounded by the Indians, who 
 came forth by sevens and eights to discharge their 
 bows at them and retire. In sight of the Christians 
 they made a fire, and, taking an Indian by the head 
 and feet, pretended to give him many blows on the 
 head and cast him into the flames, signifying in this 
 way what they would do with the Christians. 
 
 A message being sent with three of the cavalry 
 to the governor, informing him of this, he came di- 
 rectly. It was his opinion that they should be 
 
104 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 driven from the place. He said that if this was not 
 done they would be emboldened to make an attack 
 at some other time, when they might do him more 
 harm ; those on horseback were commanded to dis- 
 mount, and, being set in four squadrons, at the 
 signal charged the Indians. They resisted until the 
 Christians came up to the stakes ; then, seeing they 
 could not defend themselves, they fled through that 
 part near which passed a stream, sending back some 
 arrows from the other bank; and became, at the 
 moment, no place was found where the horses might 
 ford, they had time to make their escape. Three 
 Indians were killed and many Christians zvounded, 
 of whom , after a few days, fifteen died on the 
 march. Every one thought the governor com- 
 mitted a great fault in not sending to examine the 
 state of the ground on the opposite shore, and dis- 
 cover the crossing-place before making the attack; 
 because, with the hope the Indians had of escaping 
 unseen in that direction, they fought until they were 
 broken ; and it was the cause of their holding out so 
 long to assail the Christians, as they could, with 
 safety to themselves. 
 
 How the Governor Went from Quizquiz, and Thence to the 
 River Grande — 
 
 Three days having gone by since some maize 
 had been sought after, and but little found in com- 
 parison with the great want there was of it, the 
 governor became obliged to move at once, notwith- 
 standing the wounded had need of repose, to where 
 there should be abundance. He accordingly set out 
 for Quizquiz, and marched seven days through a 
 wilderness , hawing many pondy places, zmth thick 
 forests , fordable, however, on horseback, all to some 
 basins or lakes that were swum. He arrived at a 
 town of Quizquiz without being descried, and seized 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 105 
 
 all the people before they could come out of their 
 homes. Among them was the mother of the 
 Cacique; and the governor sent word to him, by 
 one of the captives, to come and receive her, with 
 the rest he had taken. The answer he returned was, 
 that if his lordship would order them to be loosed 
 and sent, he would come to visit and do him serv- 
 ice. 
 
 The governor, since his men arrived weary, 
 and likewise weak, for want of maize, and the horses 
 were also lean, determined to yield to the require- 
 ment and try to have peace; so the mother and the 
 rest were ordered to be set free, and with words 
 of kindness were dismissed. The next day, while 
 he was hoping to see the chief, many Indians came, 
 with bows and arrows, to set upon the Christians, 
 when he commanded that all the armed horsemen 
 should be mounted and in readiness. Finding them 
 prepared, the Indians stopped at the distance of a 
 crossbow shot from where the governor was, near 
 a river bank, where, after remaining quietly half 
 an hour, six chiefs arrived at the camp, stating that 
 they had come to find out what people it might be ; 
 for they had knowledge from their ancestors that 
 they were to be subdued by a white race ; they conse- 
 quently desired to return to the Cacique, to tell 
 him that he should come presently to obey and serve 
 the governor. After presenting six or seven skins 
 and shawls brought with him, they took their leave, 
 and returned with the others who were waiting 
 for them by the shore. The Cacique came not, nor 
 sent another message. 
 
 There was little maize in the place, and the 
 goz'ernor moved to another town, half a league 
 from the great river, here it was found in suffi- 
 ciency. He went to look at the river, and saw that 
 near it there was much timber of which piraguas 
 might be made, and a good situation in which the 
 camp might be placed. He directly moved, built 
 
106 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 houses, and settled on a plain a crossbow shot from 
 the water, bringing together there all the maize of 
 the towns behind, that at once they might go to 
 work and cut down trees for sawing out planks to 
 build barges. The Indians soon came from up the 
 stream, jumped on shore, and told the governor they 
 were the vassals of a great lord, named Aquixo, 
 who was the suzerain of many towns and people 
 on the other shore ; and they made known from 
 him, that he would come the day after, with all his 
 people, to hear what his lordship would command 
 him.” 
 
 The Text of Biedma — 
 
 “We remained here perhaps two months, get- 
 ting ready what were necessary of saddles, lances 
 and targets, and then left, taking the direction to 
 the northwest, toiuard a province called Alibamo. 
 
 At this time befell us what is said never to have 
 occurred to the Indians. In the highway over 
 which we had to pass, without there being either 
 women to protect or provisions to secure, and only 
 to try our valour with theirs, the Indians put up 
 a very strong stockade directly across the road, 
 about three hundred of them standing behind it, 
 resolute to die rather than give back. So soon as 
 they observed our approach, some came out to shoot 
 their arrows, threatening that not one of us should 
 remain alive. When we had surveyed their work, 
 thus defended by men, we supposed they guarded 
 something — provisions perhaps — of which we 
 stood greatly in need, for we had calculated to cross 
 a desert of twelve days’ journey in its extent, where 
 we could have nothing to eat but what we carried. 
 We alighted, some forty or fifty men, and put our- 
 selves on two sides, arranging that at the sound 
 of the trumpet we should all enter the barricade 
 at one time. We did accordingly, carrying it, al- 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 107 
 
 though at some cost, losing on our side seven or 
 eight men, and having twenty-five or twenty-six 
 more wounded. We killed some Indians, and took 
 others, from whom we learned that they had done 
 this to measure themselves with us, and nothing 
 else. We looked about for food, although at great 
 hazard, that we might begin our journey in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 We traveled eight days with great care, in ten- 
 derness of the wounded and the sick we carried. 
 One mid-day we came upon a town called Quiz quiz, 
 and so suddenly to the inhabitants, that they were 
 without any notice of us, the men being away at 
 work in the maize fields. We took more than three 
 hundred women, and the few skins and shawls they 
 had in their houses. There we first found a little 
 walnut of the country, which is much better than 
 that here in Spain. The town was near the hanks 
 of the River Espiritu Santo. They had told us 
 that it was, with many towns about there, tribu- 
 tary to a lord of Pacaha, famed throughout the 
 land. When the men heard that we had taken their 
 women, they came to us peacefully, requesting the 
 governor to restore them. He did so, and asked 
 them for canoes in which to pass that great river. 
 These they promised, but never gave; on the con- 
 trary, they collected to give us battle, coming in 
 sight of the town where we were; but in the end 
 not venturing to make an attack, they turned and 
 retired. 
 
 We left that place and went to encamp by the 
 riverside, to put ourselves in order for crossing. On 
 the other shore we saw numbers of people collected 
 to oppose our landing, who had many canoes. We 
 set about building four large piriguas, each capa- 
 ble of taking sixty or seventy men and five or six 
 horses. We were engaged in the work twenty- 
 seven or twenty-eight days.” 
 
108 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 The Text of Ranjel — 
 
 ‘'Tuesday, April 26, in the year aforesaid, 1541, 
 the governor, Hernando de Soto, set out from the 
 plain of Chicaca, and arrived at Limamu for the 
 night; and there they searched for corn, because 
 the Indians had hidden it, and they had to pass over 
 a desert. And Thursday they came to another plain 
 where the Indians had taken the position, having 
 made a very strong barricade, and within it there 
 were many Indian braves, painted red and deco- 
 rated with other colours which appeared very fine 
 (or rather, very bad, at least it meant harm to the 
 Christians). And they entered the barricade by 
 force, and with some loss by death and wounds on 
 the part of the commander and his army, and with 
 a loss greater beyond comparison on the part of 
 the conquered ; and it would have been still more 
 if the Indians had not taken flight. 
 
 Saturday, the last day of April, the army set 
 out from the place of the barricade and marched 
 nine days through a deserted country and by a 
 rough way, mountainous and swampy, until May 
 8th, when they came to the first village of Quiz quiz, 
 which they took by assault and captured much peo- 
 ple and clothes ; but the governor promptly restored 
 them liberty and had everything restored to them 
 for fear of war, although that was not enough to 
 make friends of these Indians. A league beyond 
 this village they came upon another with abundance 
 of corn, and soon again after another league, upon 
 another likewise amply provisioned. There they 
 saw the great river. Saturday, May 21, the force 
 went along to a plain between the river and a small 
 village, and set up quarters and began to build 
 four barges to cross over to the other side. Many 
 of these conquerors said this river was larger than 
 the Danube.” 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 109 
 
 It may be thought that my quotations are entirely 
 too lengthy for the few sentences of pertinent matter, 
 as compared to that which is not pertinent. My excuse is, 
 first, I wish the reader to see the entire context, and 
 thus at the same time do entire justice, and so that no 
 one may say anything was omitted. It is almost unnec- 
 essary to add that all the italics in this article are my 
 own, which I use in order to direct the attention of the 
 reader to such parts as I deem pertinent to the points 
 at issue. 
 
 Opinion of Professor Lewis Criticised — 
 
 Dr. Rowland states that Theodore Hayes Lewis is 
 a learned antiquarian, archeologist and historian, and 
 that no historian has thought it wise to question his con- 
 clusions; but we have seen that Judge Young, a real 
 historian, has sharply questioned the conclusions of Prof. 
 Lewis. Moreover, though I am not an historian, or anti- 
 quarian or archeologist, still I am here and now to 
 pointedly question the conclusions of Prof. Lewis, believ- 
 ing that no one, whatever may be his acquirements, has 
 a right to preempt the discussion or an exclusive right 
 to express an opinion on a matter so plain that any man 
 of ordinary understanding can easily form an intelligent 
 opinion. In point of fact, I believe, that the phrase, 
 “much learning doth make thee mad,” which was so 
 misapplied near two thousand years ago, to one of the 
 greatest men the world ever heard, in the High Court of 
 Appeals in a kingly palace, can be well applied to the 
 two learned authors, in relation to this discussion. 
 
110 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Let us see — 
 
 On page 146, Centenary Series, No. II, Dr. Rowland 
 quotes Prof. Lewis as stating the route of De Soto, after 
 crossing the Tallahatchie, in these words : 
 
 “On Saturday, April 30, the army left this en- 
 closed place, turning to the westward.” 
 
 The three narratives will be searched in vain for 
 any statement that the expedition turned at all, and least 
 of all, westward. The statement is a complete interpola- 
 tion. 
 
 This is not by any means all, for it will be recalled 
 that their favorite author. Bourne, commends Biedma’s 
 short narrative for accuracy “as to directions and dis- 
 tances.” Now Biedma’s narrative is the only one which 
 undertakes to give the direction that De Soto took after 
 leaving the Chickasaw nation ; and as the two other nar- 
 ratives are silent on this point, certainly when the third 
 one, commended for accuracy in this particular, gives 
 the direction it must be accepted as true. What does 
 Biedma say? 
 
 “We remained here two months, getting ready 
 what was necessary of saddles, lances and targets 
 and then left, taking the direction to the northwest, 
 towards a province called Alibamo.” 
 
 Why was this direction, which so plainly and un- 
 mistakably pointed to the Chickasaw Bluffs, omitted; 
 and why were the words “turning to the westward” in- 
 terpolated, and which so plainly pointed to Tunica 
 County? 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 111 
 
 Having thus airily and neatly constructed a paper- 
 turning for the expedition in a paper direction westward, 
 so as to reach “somewhere” in dear old Tunica, the next 
 thought of the guide, philosopher and friend of Dr. 
 Rowland seems to have been to neatly construct a com- 
 panion paper-route for the De Soto expedition, especially 
 adapted to the canebrakes, lakes and fastnesses of the 
 Mississippi delta. 
 
 However, acquitting the learned author of any in- 
 tentional purpose to warp the plain story of the narra- 
 tives, still, when examined, his account exhibits an almost 
 perfect adaptation of a means to an end. 
 
 Immediately following the sentence above quoted 
 and criticised, Prof. Lewis says : 
 
 “ ‘According to Elvas, the country they were 
 now passing through was a wilderness of thick 
 forests, having many marshy places that were ford- 
 able, and some basins and lakes (sluggish streams) 
 that were not.’ In another place he says: ‘The 
 land is low, abounding in lakes.’ Ranjel says they 
 passed over bad roads leading through woods and 
 swamps.” 
 
 It would be difficult to more incorrectly misstate 
 what was really said by the two narrators than is found 
 in the above quotation from Prof. Lewis. Elvas will be 
 searched in vain for the sentence ascribed to him in quo- 
 tation marks, “the land was low, abounding in lakes.” 
 Where, then, did this sentence come from? 
 
 Here is what Elvas said : 
 
 “He accordingly set out for Quizquiz, and 
 marched seven days through a wilderness, having 
 
112 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 many pondy places, with thick forests, fordable 
 however, on horseback, all to some basins or lakes 
 that were swum.” 
 
 The sentence is involved and not well worded, al- 
 though Elvas is especially acclaimed to be the best scholar 
 among the narrators ; still just how the Professor is 
 able to interpret the above language to mean that there 
 were some basins and lakes that were not fordable, when 
 the narrator expressly states the reverse, I am unable to 
 see. 
 
 Moreover, it will be noted that the Professor uses 
 the conjunctive “and” between basins and lakes; where- 
 as Elvas uses the disjunctive “or” between them. As 
 explained hereinbefore, in treating of the topographical 
 features of the small plateaus in the country southeast 
 of the fourth Chickasaw Bluffs, they abounded with 
 marshy places, basins or lakes. Elvas wrote basins 
 or lakes; or as he had just said “pondy places,” evi- 
 dently meaning that these places scarcely arose to the 
 proportions of what we understand to be a lake. The 
 Professor not only eliminates the qualified language of 
 Elvas, but makes him convey the idea that the lakes 
 were so large that they were not fordable, thus evi- 
 dently pointing to the Mississippi swamps. 
 
 But if the Professor erroneously and improperly 
 stated what Elvas said, then he is worse than erroneous 
 in quoting from Ranjel who, it will be remembered, is 
 declared to be the most accurate of all the narrators. 
 
 The Professor quotes Ranjel thus : 
 
 “Ranjel says they passed over bad roads lead- 
 ing through woods and swamps.” 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 113 
 
 Ranjel said no such thing. What he recorded is in 
 these words : 
 
 “Saturday the last of April, the army set out 
 from the place of barricade and marched nine days 
 through a deserted country and by a rough way, 
 mountainous and swampy,” etc. 
 
 I ask by what principle of interpretation or fair- 
 ness, did the Professor omit the word mountainous, 
 which Ranjel used and which with marked precision de- 
 scribed the Tippah Highlands, which reached down into 
 Marshall County and over which the Chickasaw trail 
 passed? He knew there was no mountainous country 
 leading from where New Albany now is to the imag- 
 inary point in Tunica County where he was laboring to 
 land De Soto. 
 
 Indeed after eliminating the word mountainous 
 from Ranjel’s account he used the garbled statement to 
 point his argument that the discovery was made in the 
 Mississippi swamps ; for he immediately adds : “This 
 part of the route lay wholly within the State of Missis- 
 sippi for, had it been toward Memphis, they would have 
 passed through a hilly region instead of one of swamps.” 
 Yes, indeed, the country through which De Soto really 
 did pass was in point of fact not only hilly, but to use 
 the exact word of Ranjel “mountainous,” at least in ap- 
 pearance; and to use his other word there were parts of 
 it “swampy.” Paradoxical as it may seem at first blush, 
 nevertheless Ranjel perfectly describes the two main fea- 
 tures of the country traversed by the Chickasaw trail, 
 when he used the words “swampy and mountainous.” 
 
114 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 That is to say, the bottoms of Nonconnah, Cold water, 
 Tippah, and numerous other smaller streams which were 
 crossed were filled with swamps, cypress brakes, pondy 
 places, lagoons, morasses and almost impenetrable thick' 
 ets and forests, so as to make them veritable wilder' 
 nesses; while the abrupt high hills of the Tippah high- 
 lands, reaching down into Marshall county, gave that 
 part of the country a mountainous aspect, and this top- 
 ographical feature of the country remains to this day. 
 And still Dr. Rowland is surprised that any one should 
 have the temerity to question the conclusions of Prof, 
 Lewis ! 
 
 It is amusing to read the sentence of the professor 
 locating the point where the great river was discovered, 
 the ipse dixit characteristic, being its main feature. He 
 says : “The crossing was made either at Council Bend 
 or Walnut Bend, in Tunica County, in a straight line 
 some 25 to 38 miles below Memphis.” That this is a 
 guess pure and simple, without one line of support in any 
 narrative is perfectly apparent. There are dozens of 
 bends on the river similar to these, and there is no 
 pretense of a physical feature at either point to identify 
 it as the landing place. 
 
 There is likewise a significant silence on the part 
 of Prof. Lewis, with respect to the several Indian vil- 
 lages and the fields of growing maize, not to mention 
 the hundreds and even thousands of Indians who had a 
 permanent home at the place where the great river was 
 discovered. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 115 
 
 The one thing that appears to have burdened the 
 professor’s thoughts, was to drive De Soto and his small 
 army through the well nigh impenetrable swamps, mor- 
 asses, cane brakes, sloughs and lagoons of Tallahatchie 
 and Coldwater river bottoms, not to mention that of the 
 Mississippi, which are worse than those of the Yalobusha, 
 the word “Yalobusha” in the Indian language meaning 
 tadpole place. Apparently, in the opinion of the pro- 
 fessor, any old place in the Mississippi swamps, even a 
 tadpole place, was quite eligible for a permanent home for 
 the Indians. 
 
 And again the professor and his friend, Dr. Row- 
 land, seem oblivious to the fact that it is actually a little 
 farther, on an air line, from Pontotoc in the northeast- 
 ern part of the state, to the ubiquitous place in Tunica 
 county, where they claim the river was discovered, than 
 it is to the Chickasaw Bluffs, leading to which were well 
 known and well traveled Chickasaw trails, affording a 
 far better road to the river ; whereas no one pretends that 
 there was any trail of the Chickasaws or of any one else 
 leading to Tunica county. 
 
 And finally on this feature of the discussion, can 
 the professor and Dr. Rowland name any river that 
 flows into the Mississippi in Tunica county? It is cer- 
 tain no mention is made of such a river by them, and it 
 is an undeniable fact, resulting from purely natural 
 causes, that no river flows into the Mississippi river on 
 the east side, after Nonconnah, at the south end of the 
 Chickasaw Bluffs, until the mouth of the Yazoo is reach- 
 ed, 300 miles to the south. In fact the surface waters 
 
116 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 of Tunica and even those of De Soto, Marshall and Ben- 
 ton counties, bordering on Tennessee, flow into Coldwater 
 river, which deflects southward, joins the Tallahatchie 
 after which their combined waters, with those of the 
 Yalobusha further south, are known as the Yazoo river, 
 entering the Mississippi near Vicksburg. 
 
 Another thing is equally undeniable, and that is their 
 favorite author, the Gentleman of Elvas, plainly states 
 that while the Indians were menacing the expedition at 
 the villages of Quizquiz, and before the expedition pitched 
 camp by the Great river, De Soto drew up his horsemen 
 near a river-bluff to confront the Indians. This river 
 formed then and forms now an unmistakable, and may 
 I not add a controlling feature of the country, forever 
 destroying the Tunica county theory, and stamping the 
 fourth Chickasaw Bluffs, with Wolf river flowing into 
 the Mississippi at its north terminus, and Nonconnah 
 (almost a little river), flowing into the great river at its 
 south terminus, as the place where white men first gazed 
 upon the father of waters? 
 
 Did the learned historians pass over this unmis- 
 takable feature of the country where the discovery was 
 made sub silentio, because they were not conversant with 
 the topography of the country; or because they read El- 
 vas so inattentively as to overlook this important matter? 
 I know not. Certain it is that when further on Prof. 
 Lewis undertook to disparage the claims of Memphis, 
 he was alive to physical features, for he commented on 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 117 
 
 the conformation of the plateau at the bluffs, in order 
 to make a point for his argument, and in this I shall 
 show that he was mistaken. 
 
 It is also a little amusing that after the learned his- 
 torian lands De Soto over in the Arkansas swamps op- 
 posite Tunica county, and started him in a course north- 
 ward and practically parallel with the Great river, the 
 suggestion is made that possibly some earthquake may 
 have changed the topography of the country; and still 
 Dr. Rowland, in his last paper, appeals to the topography 
 of the country as unchangeable! 
 
 From this short review I believe the impartial read- 
 er will conclude that eltrich and eerie and strange must 
 be the mythical place in Tunica where, in the imagina- 
 tions of the learned historians, De Soto discovered the 
 Mississippi ; and moreover that they must appeal to the 
 miraculous in order to conjure up even a shadow of 
 support for their favorite theory. Indeed, the supposed 
 place where the discovery was made, is an arbitrary con- 
 ception, as destitute of objective characteristics as the 
 tropic of Capricorn. 
 
 De Soto’s Route to the Chickasaw Bluffs — 
 
 Irrespective of any criticism of the theory of Prof. 
 Lewis and Dr. Rowland, let us endeavor new to place 
 ourselves near the home of the Chickasaw Nation in 
 April. 1541, and with the De Soto expedition when it was 
 about to move forward in search of the new El Dorado, 
 reminding us of the quest for the fabled golden fleece. 
 Where were they and what roads lay before them? 
 
118 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 The Chickasaws had chosen as their home and the 
 seat of their government the country lying now in Pon- 
 totoc county, Mississippi, as the very best for health, for 
 abundance of everything necessary to their sustenance, as 
 well as for beauty, and as being without a rival in the 
 vast territory of which they were the acknowledged over- 
 lords. 
 
 Their home was on the well known Pontotoc ridge, 
 which runs north and south, the waters to the east run- 
 ning into the Tombigbee, and those on the west of the 
 ridge running into the Tallahatchie and Cold water rivers 
 and thence into the Yazoo and on into the Mississippi. 
 Of the home of the Chickasaws Bancroft speaks of it as 
 a land “where the grass is verdant in midwinter; the 
 blue-bird and the robin are heard in February ; the springs 
 of pure water gurgle up through the white sands to 
 flow through natural bowers of evergreen holly; and if 
 the earth be but carelessly gashed to receive the kernel of 
 maize, the thick corn springs abundantly from the fertile 
 soil. The region is as happy as any beneath the sun ; 
 and the love it inspired made its occupants, though not 
 numerous, yet the most intrepid warriors of the South." 
 
 Evidently the Chickasaws exercised that sagacity 
 for which they were noted, in the selection of their home; 
 and being great travelers with a large territory to guard 
 and defend against all intruders, they had well defined 
 trails leading to all important points, and especially to the 
 fourth Chickasaw Bluff, which was their entrepot on 
 the great river, for they were at home upon its bosom, 
 Adair saying that they appeared almost amphibious. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 119 
 
 The trails of the Chickasaws leading in various di- 
 rections were perfectly well known. De Soto had been 
 wandering amid the wilds of the southern wilderness 
 since July 15, 1539; besides he had wandered in the 
 tropical forests of South and Central America, and 
 probably no man then living knew as much as he did 
 about the difficulties of such traveling, or better how to 
 choose the best way. It was scarcely necessary for the 
 Gentleman of Elvas to inform us that “From some pris- 
 oners taken, the Governor informed himself of the re- 
 gion in advance.” We know he diligently sought in- 
 formation from every source, for this was necessary for 
 self-preservation, the first law of nature. 
 
 That while he was for months living with the Chick- 
 asaws on the most friendly terms, he learned from them 
 of the great river which, with its tributary, the Ohio, 
 formed their western boundary and their highway for a 
 thousand miles, no one can doubt. For seventy-five years 
 Cushman lived among the Choctaws and Chickasaws, 
 having been raised in their nations, their language being 
 his language, and he says they “named it (the Missis- 
 sippi) ‘Misha Sipokni’ (beyond age, whose source and 
 terminus are unknown).” They knew all about the sit- 
 uation of this great river with respect to their country 
 and every foot of their vast domains, and had highways 
 suitable to their wants to all parts of it. De Soto neces- 
 sarily learned the lay of the country before him and of 
 the Indian trails which were unmistakably marked out 
 on the face of the earth. The Chickasaw long trail for 
 winter as well as for summer, on top of ridges going 
 
120 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 almost directly north as far as where Bolivar, Tennessee, 
 now is, then turning west and on to the Chickasaw 
 Bluffs, was much out of the way ; and moreover De 
 Soto was moving the last of April, when presumably the 
 short cut route approximately by way of where Holly 
 Springs now is, and onward northwestwardly along where 
 the Pigeon Roost road now runs, was comparatively 
 dry, and he had this road or rather Indian trail over 
 which to travel. 
 
 The long trail appears on Lusher’s Map of 1835, as 
 well as the short cut trail. This article was mostly writ- 
 ten before I knew there was such a map, which I will ex- 
 plain further on. 
 
 There is also marked on Lusher’s Map of 1835, an 
 intermediate trail, running with the long trail a short 
 distance north from where New Albany now is; thence 
 diverging westward where it crosses the headwaters of 
 the Tallahatchie and Coldwater rivers higher up than 
 the short cut trail, and still bearing northwestward fol- 
 lows the top of the ridge dividing the waters of Wolf 
 river from those of Nonconnah creek, the result being 
 that it crosses neither Wolf or Nonconnah, and does 
 not pass over as large streams as the short cut. The 
 disadvantages of this route consist in the fact that it is 
 longer than the short cut, and being higher up towards the 
 Tippah Highlands, it is more “mountainous.” I went 
 over this route some years ago and again in October, 
 1917, going from Memphis out Poplar Street Boulevard, 
 by Collierville, there turning southward into Mississippi, 
 and some 8 to 10 miles from Collierville we crossed a 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 121 
 
 very low flat expanse, the soil being evidently retentive 
 of water and while in timber wet and swampy, and 
 partly so even to this day, and of a pondy character. 
 While for the most part the road is on high ground, still 
 we passed over several streams, including Chewalla and 
 Tippah before reaching Potts Camp, beyond Holly 
 Springs. The windings of the road and its characteristics 
 unmistakably stamps it as of Indian origin. 
 
 There is a bare possibility that De Soto traveled this 
 trail rather than the short cut, but I do not think that 
 probable. 
 
 Lusher’s map also shows what T have denominated 
 the short cut route or trail, leading from Memphis along 
 approximately what is now the Pigeon Roost road over 
 which, in my opinion, De Soto passed; but it is due to 
 say that this trail does not appear to cross Tallahatchie 
 at New Albany, but further down and quite near where 
 Tippah flows into Tallahatchie, running thence south- 
 wardly to one of the very few places marked on the map, 
 Olacopotoo, which appears to be the modern Toccopola, 
 a village of some 233 inhabitants in Pontotoc County. 
 
 Here the trail forks ; one fork runs almost due east, 
 only 12 miles on section lines, to Pontotoc, which, of 
 course, is marked on the map ; while the other fork runs 
 much further southward. I am frank to say that I do 
 not believe that De Soto passed over this southern part 
 of the short cut trail, and my opinion is that he followed 
 the main trail northwestward, crossing Tallahatchie 
 where New Albany now is, on the rock bottom of the 
 river. This is the conclusion also of Prof. Lewis. 
 
122 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 My opinion is that not far northward of New Al- 
 bany, there was a trail connecting the main trail with the 
 short cut trail, precisely as the intermediate trail is 
 shown on the map to diverge westward from the main 
 trail, only about one mile northward from New Albany; 
 or it may be that the divergence was from the intermedi- 
 ate trail to the short cut, thus making a saving of dis- 
 tance of some 20 to 30 computed miles and crossing 
 many less high hills. This view is precisely in accord 
 with the statement of Judge Crum, as to the route the 
 short cut took from New Albany on to Holly Springs, 
 and thence on to where Memphis now is, as quoted 
 hereinbefore. 
 
 While Holly Springs is not on Lusher’s map, still 
 it does show the short-cut trail as crossing the head 
 waters of Coldwater River, Byhalia, Red Banks and 
 Pigeon Roost Creeks, and these streams are crossed to- 
 day by the Pigeon Roost road. 
 
 It is due to say, however, that according to my reck- 
 oning the trail did not pass the spot where Holly Springs 
 is now located, but passed some six miles westward. I 
 feel quite sure that Dr. Lowe is entirely correct in saying 
 that the high land whereon Holly Springs is located 
 stands off to itself, and is entirely disconnected with the 
 Tippah highlands, though some modern maps show 
 otherwise. Lusher’s map corroborates this statement of 
 Dr. Lowe, in that it shows no streams passing over the 
 immediate vicinity of Holly Springs, but does show 
 streams radiating in various directions from that vicin- 
 ity; from which I infer that the uplift or spur whereon 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 123 
 
 the little city is located, furnishes, at least in part, the 
 origin of adjacent creeks. 
 
 It is well here to note that the Indian trails or traces 
 on Lusher 's map are uniformly represented by continu- 
 ous faint lines, and that none of the many Indian trails 
 or traces are designated by a name. 
 
 There is one trail, and one only, that forms a 
 marked exception to all other trails; and consists of a 
 dotted line, commencing on the west side of the Missis- 
 sippi River (with two dots on the west side thereof), the 
 commencing point being opposite the name “Helena,” ev- 
 idently the present Helena, Arkansas, this being one of 
 the few places on the map with an English name. 
 
 This dotted line on the east side of the river trends 
 east by north, passing near the southern end of Beaver 
 Dam Lake, until it nearly reaches Coldwater River, where 
 it is joined by another dotted line, commencing on the 
 east side of the Mississippi River, about opposite the 
 north end of Beaver Dam Lake; running thence east- 
 ward to where the two dotted lines meet ; and thence the 
 dotted line crosses Coldwater and runs northeastward 
 until it ends with joining a regular Indian trail about 
 six computed miles from the point where the short-cut 
 Indian trail crosses Pigeon Roost Creek, and about 12 
 computed miles southwest of where Holly Springs now 
 is. This dotted line is plainly marked “Helena trace”; 
 whereas none of the many Indian traces or continuous 
 lines have any names marked on them. 
 
 It is evident that this “Helena trace” was of recent 
 origin, and a pathway made by the white man; and be- 
 
124 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 ing the only trace trending east and west through the 
 Mississippi swamps, gives emphasis to the fact that there 
 was no Indian trace or trail that led to the Mississippi 
 River at any point except to the fourth Chickasaw 
 Bluff, to which three Indian trails led from the Chicka- 
 saw home, where Pontotoc now is. 
 
 And now as to maps in general and Lusher’s map 
 in particular, I will say that I give scant credit thereto 
 unless the maps were made upon actual survey. Thus, 
 why should anyone put any great confidence in the favor- 
 ite map of Prof. Lewis, viz : that of De L’ Isle, published 
 in 1718, or 177 years after De Soto discovered the Mis- 
 sissippi ; and this map, according to the professor, was the 
 first that undertook to locate the place where the river 
 was discovered? 
 
 Simply because a man is a cartographer he is not 
 inspired with the gift of location ; for at last the accu- 
 racy of the map must depend on the knowledge of the 
 cartographer as to' the real location of any place which 
 he undertakes to place on a piece of paper. What source 
 of knowledge did De L’ Isle possess as to where the 
 river was discovered that we have not? Probably he 
 had not so much information as we, for the Biedma and 
 Ranjel narratives have only recently come to light; and 
 it is practically certain he knew absolutely nothing as to 
 the topography of the country. Prof. Lewis rejects as 
 worthless most of the maps relative to this matter. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 125 
 
 To illustrate the utter worthlessness and unreli- 
 ability of some of the work of cartographers, consult the 
 Atlas Vol. 10, p. 4 of the Century Dictionary, which 
 undertakes to show the route pursued by various dis- 
 coverers on this continent, and among them the route of 
 De Soto. According to this map De Soto did not go far 
 enough north in Mississippi to reach the Chickasaw 
 country, and crossed the great river about where Vicks- 
 burg now is. 
 
 Probably more money and talent were bestowed on 
 bringing out that great dictionary than on any other in 
 the history of this country, still no one who has care- 
 fully studied this matter can defend this so-called map. 
 showing the route of De Soto through Mississippi. 
 
 A word as to Lusher’s map. The copy I examined 
 belongs to Captain J. D. Fontaine, nestor of the New 
 Albany bar, who kindly lent it to E. T. Winston of Pon- 
 totoc to send to me for examination, with many injunc- 
 tions for safe keeping and its safe return. From outside 
 to outside it is 18x24 inches, of fine workmanship, is 
 on quite thin, but good paper, folds up book-like, with 
 extra good binding, so that it can be carried in the coat 
 pocket. This is the inscription on it : “Map of the land 
 ceded by the Chickasaws to the United States in 1832 
 and 1834 from actual survey by Henry M. Lusher, 
 draughtsman in the office of the Surveyor General of 
 lands in Missis. Ceded by the Chickasaws, 1835. Ap- 
 proved John Bell, Surveyor of land in Missis. Ceded by 
 the Chickasaws, Benja. Reynolds Chickasaw Agent.” 
 
126 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Beneath the above in small print there is this: 
 “Pendleton’s Lithography, Boston Eddy. delt. on stone.” 
 Of course there was the usual display of capitals, etc., 
 but I have made a literal copy of the verbiage; from 
 which I think it appears that the map is as authentic and 
 correct as one could be made in 1835. The Indians had 
 not then left Mississippi, but were still occupying their 
 ancestral homes. 
 
 In a letter Mr. Winston called my attention to what 
 he termed the main Chickasaw trail, a part of which is 
 indistinctly shown on Lusher’s map, and which, coming 
 from the south, intersected the Tombigbee on the east, 
 where Columbus now is. 
 
 Winston then quotes from Claiborne, saying that 
 De Soto followed an Indian trail or buffalo path some 
 five miles up to Lincecum’s shoals just above the mouth 
 of the Tibbee and a little below the present town of 
 Waverly. The Tombigbee here is bifurcated by an 
 island, the first obstruction below Butahatchie. The 
 gravel discharged from this stream lodged against the 
 island and rendered both channels fordable a great part 
 of the year, and this is the only point where the Span- 
 iards could have forded in December. It was the cross- 
 ing used by the Choctaws when going to their villages 
 and hunting grounds east of the Tombigbee. The trail 
 struck here a stretch of prairie between Tibbee and 
 Hanging Kettle creeks, and crossed the present Mobile 
 and Ohio railroad at Lookhattan, thence a little west of 
 the railroad by Muldon, Prairie station and Egypt. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 127 
 
 The early settlers of this portion of Mississippi re- 
 member the well worn, beaten trail, long disused but 
 distinctly defined, and can to this day trace it from plan- 
 tation to plantation. 
 
 On leaving Egypt the trail tended northwest up the 
 ridge known as Featherston’s ridge, through a series of 
 glades three or four miles west of Okalona and up the 
 second bottom on the east side of Suckartouchee Creek. 
 There it struck Pontotoc ridge four miles east of the an- 
 cient Chickasaw Council House. Near this point stood 
 the first Chickasaw town, and in the vicinity the Spaniards 
 went into winter quarters. 
 
 Winston then gives the route of De Soto as passing 
 thence up the Pontotoc ridge to New Albany and thence 
 (as he thought) along the short cut to the Chickasaw 
 Bluff’s; and this in the opinion of Mr. Winston was the 
 route over which De Soto traveled, and discovered the 
 great river where Memphis now is. For years he has 
 studied this matter very carefully from every angle, and 
 being on the ground and understanding the topography 
 of the country thoroughly, his opinion is entitled to great 
 weight. 
 
 Remember there was no Indian trail towards Tuni- 
 ca County or in that direction. If the Indians, going 
 single file, found it impracticable to have a trail through 
 these swamps, how could De Soto expect to cut out a 
 way for his horses, army, their baggage, etc. ? All In- 
 dian trails wind in and out in a tortuous manner, because 
 
128 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 they knew not only the impassable, but the bad places 
 and these they went around. Although the Pigeon 
 Roost road has been changed and partially straightened 
 out, first by order of the public authorities, then by the 
 Pigeon Roost and Chulahoma Turnpike Company, chart- 
 ered October 31, 1853, when the road was rebuilt and 
 made into a plank road, still it is today one of the crook- 
 edest roads leading from Memphis, thus bearing the un- 
 mistakable impress of its Indian origin. 
 
 Why attribute to De Soto the monumental folly of 
 refusing to travel either one of three well defined 
 trails, leading to the greatest and best known headland 
 in all the lower Mississippi valley on the great river, 
 and on the other hand deliberately choosing to go through 
 the impenetrable swamps where the Indians dared not 
 make a trail for themselves? 
 
 Bear in mind also that there was high land across 
 the river from Memphis, where there are even to this 
 day Indian Mounds, where Mound City now is, evidently 
 named after the Mounds, and from which the Indians 
 unquestionably had trails leading northward and west- 
 ward. 
 
 Looking now to the three favorite narratives of 
 Prof. Lewis, we find that they point with unerring accu- 
 racy to the short Chickasaw trail as the one used by 
 De Soto. 
 
 Biedma is commended for giving the details for 
 directions and distances and he says, “we remained here 
 two months (meaning near the Chickasaws) getting 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 129 
 
 ready what were necessary of saddles, lances and targets 
 and then left taking the direction to the northwest , to- 
 wards a province called Alibamo.” Mark, they went 
 northwest, which accurately described the direction of 
 the Chickasaw Bluffs, and is in accord with Lusher’s map. 
 
 As the expedition started in the direction as we 
 claim, the next inquiry is as to the character of the coun- 
 try over which it passed upon which so much stress is 
 laid by Professor Lewis. He says Ranjel is the most 
 accurate of all the narrators and we will quote not in 
 part, but the exact words used by Ranjel as follows: 
 
 “Saturday, the last of April, the army set out 
 from the place of barricade and marched nine days 
 through a deserted country and by a rough way, 
 mountainous and swampy, until May 8, when they 
 came to the first village of Quizquiz, etc.” 
 
 Mark, in the first place, that they went “by a rough 
 way” which implies that they were traveling over a 
 “way,” which means, I think, along an Indian trail, for 
 in common parlance the trail might very well be termed 
 “a rough way,” as no doubt it was. 
 
 But the important feature is that this rough way 
 was “mountainous and swampy.” At first blush the 
 words “mountainous and swampy” might seem contra- 
 dictory ; but when reference is had to the topography and 
 character of the country over which the expedition actu- 
 ally passed, I insist no other two single words could more 
 accurately describe the road De Soto traveled. The 
 abrupt hills on both sides of Holly Springs, being spurs 
 
130 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 from the Tippah highland, even to this day rear their 
 heads skyward, as silent witnesses or sentinels, attesting 
 the verity of Ranjel’s statement where he says the coun- 
 try was mountainous. This no man, however learned, 
 can deny. 
 
 It is equally certain that no mountainous country 
 could be encountered by De Soto had he turned westward 
 on leaving where New Albany now is, as Professor 
 Lewis says he did. Was the Professor impressed with 
 this important fact, when, in quoting Ranjel, he omitted 
 the word “mountainous” ? 
 
 But it may be said what of the word “swampy” used 
 by Ranjel; and I answer it very correctly fits the river 
 and creek bottoms over which the Chickasaw trail 
 passed. 
 
 In view of the fact that the narrative of the Gentle- 
 man of Elvas seems to be much relied upon in this con- 
 nection, I will next quote from that, which is as follows , 
 
 “He accordingly set out for Quizquiz, and 
 marched seven days through a wilderness, having 
 many pondy places, with thick forests, fordable, 
 however, on horseback, all to some basins or lakes 
 that were swum.” 
 
 The original sentence may have been in good 
 Spanish ; if so, the last part has not been happily trans- 
 lated into English. Nevertheless the import of the text 
 is clear, and the only question is — did parts of the trail 
 lead over or through places as above described. Un- 
 questionably they did. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 131 
 
 The very fact that the Chickasaws had a long trail 
 on top of the Pontotoc ridge going directly north near 
 to Bolivar, Tennessee, and turning thence abruptly west, 
 and that they also had the intermediate trail both of 
 which were so roundabout, and so much further to the 
 Bluffs than the less used Chickasaw short trail, of itself 
 is a demonstration that the Indians regarded the short 
 trail as a swampy, boggy and dangerous trail, and not fit 
 for use, except in dry seasons or in emergencies. 
 
 Any observant man 70 years old, and who knew or 
 passed over the river and creek bottoms on this trail, or 
 over the intermediate trail in his early years, will, with- 
 out hesitation state that they were covered with thick 
 forests, and interspersed with canebrakes, lagoons, 
 sloughs, cypress brakes and the like, which made them 
 near impassable and veritable wildernesses. Where is 
 the man described that will dispute these facts ? 
 
 As stated by E. T. Winston the Indians knew every 
 foot of these trails through the bottoms especially, knew 
 the solid ground from that which appeared solid, but in 
 reality was a quagmire; knew the shallow water from 
 the deep water; the hard bottom from quicksand bot- 
 tom; and knew when and where to cross the streams or 
 lagoons, sloughs, etc., and could pass over almost dry 
 shod where De Soto and his men, burdened with armor 
 and baggage, and with his horses, would find an almost 
 impassable way. 
 
 Who doubts the correctness of these deductions? 
 
132 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 View the situation from another angle. J. J. Rawl- 
 ings died in Memphis in 1900, aged 92 years and was 
 then the oldest inhabitant, an honored man and alto- 
 gether a picturesque character; and in the evening of 
 life he wrote some of his reminiscences, which are pre- 
 served in pamphlet form. He was born in 1808, came to 
 the Bluffs in 1824, before Memphis was incorporated; 
 and says that in 1826 or 1827, he and Marcus B. Win- 
 chester (the first mayor of Memphis) and W. D. Dab- 
 ney (soon to be a very prominent man) went down into 
 Mississippi to visit the Chickasaws, and be there when 
 the Indian agent made his disbursements, so they could 
 collect what the Indians owed. After dancing all night, 
 for more than one night, with the dark-eyed beauties of 
 the forest, these three hardy young pioneers started 
 home, when Rawlings relates this incident : 
 
 “On nearing home we were pressing our horses 
 to reach a house we thought was ahead, we never 
 found it. We got lost in Cold Water Bottom, a 
 dark and dismal place. We worried about in the 
 dark until we found it was no use. Our horses be- 
 ing very tired, we stripped them and turned them 
 loose to eat pea vines. We commenced preparing 
 to stay in that horrible place all night. Our first 
 effort was to get a light — no matches in those days. 
 We had spunk and steel and with all our efforts 
 we could never get a fire. We gave it up for a bad 
 job and spread our saddles on the ground. Sleep 
 was not expected. Foxes and wolves were barking 
 all around us, owls hooting — plenty of music — 
 that was not the worst of it, there were millions of 
 mosquitoes to the square inch and it was as much as 
 we could do to save our lives from the infernal 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 133 
 
 pests. Next day we reached home, after a sleepless 
 night. On looking in the glass we did not know 
 ourselves. You could not put the point of a pin on 
 our faces and hands where there was not a mos- 
 quito bite.” 
 
 And still Professor Lewis would have us believe that 
 it was almost a picnic trip for De Soto, in 1541, to go 
 through these swamps with his army and horsemen, 
 without a guide, where white men never trod before, 
 and where even the Indians did not venture, except in 
 dry weather or in great emergencies. 
 
134 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DE SOTO AT THE CHICKASAW BLUFFS. 
 
 We now come to a consideration of the topography, 
 and general lay of the land at and adjacent to the fourth 
 Chickasaw Bluffs whereon Memphis is enthroned, and 
 declared by some of the most eminent historians to be 
 the place where the Mississippi River was discovered by 
 Hernando De Soto. 
 
 The point where Madison Avenue intersects Front 
 Street is locally considered about the center of the city, 
 though not quite midway between the north and south 
 extremities of the bluff where it intersects the Mississippi ; 
 and moreover this point is only about 400 to 500 feet 
 from the water’s edge; and doubtless for these reasons 
 it is the first point mentioned by Pashby in stating the 
 altitude of various places in the city. 
 
 The Bluff rises at Madison and Front (88) eighty- 
 eight feet above low water ; and further below, at the 
 Indian Mounds, called Jackson Mounds, and now 
 forming De Soto Park, the Bluff is (102) one hundred 
 and two feet above low water. Before the advent of 
 the white man there sprang from the tops of these bluffs 
 a giant forest, many of the trees being over one hundred 
 feet high, so that the tops of this great forest rose over 
 (200) two hundred feet above low water. 
 
 To any one passing the bluffs on the river, which 
 flows through a flat alluvial delta, this great headland 
 could not fail to make a deep and pleasing impression. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 135 
 
 And moreover the bluffs were but an extension or an 
 elbow from the Pontotoc ridge or Tippah highlands, on 
 the southern projection of which the Chickasaws had 
 their home. 
 
 Wolf River rises in Tippah County, flows first 
 northward, then westward and enters the Mississippi at 
 the north end of the bluffs; and in this connection it is 
 well to remember that for miles up stream from its 
 mouth an abrupt bluff rises from its eastern and south- 
 ern shores. 
 
 Nonconnah was first called Chickasaw Creek, and 
 would in Europe, be called a river. With its meanders 
 it is probably 50 miles long. Its headwaters also com- 
 mence in the Tippah highlands, but lower down in Mar- 
 shall County, Mississippi ; and first trend a little north 
 of west and then westward, flowing into the Mississippi 
 at the southern end of the Chickasaw Bluff, only about 
 four or five miles from the mouth of Wolf River. C. D. 
 Johnson, secretary of the Cossitt Library, called to my 
 attention a quaint small volume, entitled The Namgator ; 
 the first edition of which appeared in 1801, written by 
 a riverman for rivermen navigating the Mississippi and 
 some of its tributaries; and having wood cuts of the 
 Mississippi, very creditable for that early day. In refer- 
 ence to the fourth Chickasaw Bluff the author says : 
 
 “Wolf (called by Hutchins), Margot River. 
 This is a handsome little river on the left side. The 
 French had a fort here just below the mouth of the 
 river, called Assumption Fort, built in the year 
 1736, during their wars with the Chickasaws, but 
 in the year following a peace ensued, and the fort 
 
136 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 was demolished. A good landing may be had at 
 Wolf River, by pulling over after you pass the 
 four islands above. 
 
 Fort Pike formally stood just below Wolf 
 River, but a better situation was pitched upon and a 
 fort built two miles lower down the bluff called 
 Fort Pickering. 
 
 It occupies the commanding ground of the 
 fourth Chickasaw Bluff, on the left bank of the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The United States have a military factor 
 here, with a few soldiers. The settlement is thin 
 and composed of what is called the half breed, that 
 is a mixture of the whites and Indians, a race of 
 men too indolent to do any permanent good either 
 for themselves or for society. A landing may be 
 had a little above Fort Pickering, but it is not a 
 very good one. 
 
 The fourth bluff affords a commanding, airy, 
 pleasant and extensive situation for a settlement, 
 and the soil is remarkably fertile. Opposite the 
 bluff or Wolf River, on the right bank of the Mis- 
 sissippi ; there used to stand a Spanish fort, now 
 demolished. When this post was in possession of 
 the Spaniards the commandant had a road cut in a 
 straight line from the mouth of Chickasaw Creek 
 (a small creek two miles below Fort Pickering) 
 to Wolf River for the purpose of taking exercise 
 on horseback.” 
 
 Thus we see the fourth Chickasaw Bluff was a con- 
 spicuous headland, Wolf River and Nonconnah being 
 conspicuous streams entering the river at the north and 
 south sides of the bluff respectively. These bluffs run 
 back forming a backbone or ridge for many miles, and 
 constitutes the watershed between Wolf and Nonconnah, 
 the ridge extending back to the Tippah highlands, or 
 Pontotoc ridge, and being an elbow or arm therefrom. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 137 
 
 I learn from J. Paul Gaines, a well known civil en- 
 gineer, that this ridge is called to this day Poplar Ridge, 
 on account of the splendid trees which abounded thereon, 
 locally miscalled poplars, and which furnished one of 
 the most valuable timbers on this continent. In point of 
 fact the so-called poplar is the tulip tree. In the flower- 
 ing season the tulip tree bursts radiantly into bloom, 
 with exquisitely scented and strangely colored flowers. 
 Having a lofty grey stem and crown of beautiful leaves 
 the tulip tree is one of the most notable of our forests, 
 and attains in the south a growth of great luxury. 
 
 It was on this ridge that the Chickasaws sometimes 
 traveled from their home to the Chickasaw Bluff ; and 
 which I have denominated the intermediate trail, and 
 which crosses few streams, and which plainly appears on 
 Lusher’s map. 
 
 It is possible that De Soto came over this trail, but 
 not probable; for I believe he traveled over the short-cut 
 trail, already fully described. That he came over one 
 or the other is the important consideration, and this I 
 believe appears beyond a reasonable doubt. 
 
 Professor Lewis wrought out an argument against 
 the supposition that De Soto discovered the Mississippi 
 river on the Chickasaw Bluffs, based mainly on alleged 
 quotations from Garcilaso de la Vega, one purpose of 
 which, even if not so intended, served the purpose to dis- 
 credit that eminent historian. 
 
 Later I will undertake to show that he misquotes 
 Garcilaso, called by him the “Inca”; but at this juncture 
 
138 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 my purpose is to show that the professor was entirely 
 ignorant of the topography and geology of the country in 
 question ; otherwise I believe he would not have made the 
 statements he did. 
 
 Bear in mind that his friend, Dr. Rowland, very cor- 
 rectly points out that an accurate knowledge of the 
 topography and geology of the country is very essential 
 to a right understanding of the matters involved. 
 
 In order to have a clear understanding of the ques- 
 tion here at issue I will quote that part of the professor’s 
 alleged quotation from Garcilaso in the precise words of 
 the professor, as follows : 
 
 “Because of many streams around there they 
 
 could not use their horses.” 
 
 The professor then adds : 
 
 “It will readily be seen that this description 
 
 does not apply to Fort Pickering.” 
 
 The professor evidently places reliance in the state- 
 ment attributed to Garcilaso that there were “numerous 
 streams” adjacent to the point of discovery. That there 
 were numerous streams all over the bluffs cannot be suc- 
 cessfully denied. 
 
 As stated, what is called Poplar Ridge is a narrow 
 ridge of land extending from the Tippah highlands some 
 fifty miles westward, stopping abruptly at the Missis- 
 sippi river, the west end of the ridge constituting what 
 from time immemorial has been called the Chickasaw 
 Bluffs. What was and is the character of the soil or 
 ground of these bluffs? It is what is called a loess for- 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 139 
 
 mation, consisting of a fine siliceous loam of a pale yel- 
 low color, having in it considerable sand almost im- 
 palpably fine. Beneath this formation there is to be 
 found different colored sands of varying thickness, lay- 
 ing in different strata, and likewise there are strata of 
 gravel. 
 
 It may be added ( though not pertinent to the present 
 discussion) that some three hundred feet below the sur- 
 face a thick, blue clay, impervious to water, is found, 
 which when pierced, is found to lay upon a very fine 
 white water-bearing sand, and from this sand gushes up 
 an inexhaustible supply of pure artesian water with 
 which the city is supplied. 
 
 With a given high, narrow ridge of ground com- 
 posed as above indicated ; with an annual rain fall of 
 about fifty inches, how could it be otherwise than that this 
 ridge would, in course of time, be furrowed with numer- 
 ous streams? 
 
 And with a primeval forest, cane, and underbrush 
 springing from the soil and over the ground decayed 
 vegetation holding water almost like a sponge, how could 
 it be otherwise, than that a part of the rainwater would 
 percolate the loess, and flow along lower horizontal 
 strata of sand or gravel, finding an outlet as springs, 
 where these strata were cut by the streams, locally called 
 bayous ? 
 
 This is precisely what took place. 
 
140 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 It would be a great mistake to suppose, as appar- 
 ently assumed by Professor Lewis, that the lay of the 
 land at the top of the bluffs and backwards towards the 
 east was a flat expanse. Far to the contrary it was much 
 broken by numerous small streams. 
 
 Even present appearances show this in part, but we 
 must remember that the most of these small streams, hills 
 and hollows have been obliterated in the building of the 
 city. Thus, my office is in the Cotton Exchange Build- 
 ing, a twenty story skyscraper, fronting Madison, Sec- 
 ond and South Court Streets opposite Court Square. 
 No one now would ever suppose that formerly a small 
 stream flowed where it now stands; and yet when some 
 years since the foundations of this building were laid, 
 some bridge timbers, roots of trees and the bed of a 
 small stream were found twenty feet below the surface. 
 
 Very little of the storm water ran or runs now west- 
 ward from the bluff into the river, because on an average 
 not exceeding one thousand feet from the water’s edge, 
 the surface slopes eastward, carrying the water into 
 Bayou Gayoso, which is about one-quarter of a mile 
 from the river going east on Madison, the bed of the 
 bayou being about forty feet lower than the bluff at 
 Madison and Front. 
 
 The bluffs were criss-crossed by numerous streams, 
 the chief one being Bayou Gayoso, some five and a half 
 miles long, running in a main north by west direction, 
 emptying into Wolf river about 2500 feet from its junc- 
 tion with the Mississippi, and with its east and west 
 forks, the Little Betty and De Soto drains the southern 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 141 
 
 and central divisions of the present city. The main af- 
 fluent of Bayou Gayoso is Quimby Bayou, something 
 less than four and a half miles long from its head to 
 where it empties into Bayou Gayoso, and with its tribu- 
 taries drains the northern part of the city. 
 
 Probably there is not one person in ten thousand 
 in Memphis today who are aware of the fact that as 
 late as 1831, Bayou Gayoso spread out into a large lake 
 just north of the old Louisville & Nashville depot ad- 
 jacent to Second Street; still such was the case, and it 
 was known as Catfish Bay, because of the abundance of 
 fish, and especially cat fish, to be found in its waters. 
 
 Flat boats, fishing house boats and other water craft 
 in the early days came from the Mississippi up Wolf 
 and then into Gayoso for good fish and safe anchorage 
 in Catfish Bay; and many fishermen built little shanties 
 on the shores of this bay. A movement was set on foot 
 to clear them away as unsightly and a nuisance, which 
 fired the wrath of these Catfish Bay inhabitants. Old 
 Ike Rawlings was considered a fixture in the Mayor’s 
 chair and advocated the removal, but a young lawyer 
 lately from Kentucky, named Seth Wheatley, took up 
 the cudgel for Catfish Bay and its inhabitants and de- 
 feated Rawlings for Mayor in 1831. The end of Cat- 
 fish Bay is thus set forth by Keating (p. 184) : 
 
 “Two nights after Wheatley’s election as 
 mayor, a perfect sluice of tan-ooze and filth, from 
 Carr’s tannery, was sent into the bayou, and thus 
 found its way to the bay ; the waters of which were 
 so polluted that the fish were killed and the water 
 could no longer be used for any domestic sendee. 
 
142 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Great indignation followed, much of it expressed in 
 the adjectives and expletives usual to the orators of 
 Pinch, but Catfish Bay was ruined, and the people 
 quickly left it and its shores. Some of the boats 
 were floated out, others were broken up and the 
 shanties were taken down and moved to other lo- 
 calities. The merchants and citizens were very lib- 
 eral, and the change was effected in a very short 
 time and at last with the best of feeling. After a 
 few days all were quieted down, and the names Cat- 
 fish Bay and Pinch Gut were dropped.” 
 
 Probably there are not a half dozen people in Mem- 
 phis who know that the site of Carr’s Tannery referred 
 to was on a large bayou in the present Southern Railroad 
 yards between Madison and Adams Avenues, bounded on 
 the west by Lauderdale, and that this large bayou flows 
 now through brick culverts under the surface since the 
 building of the first railroad into Memphis in 1857. 
 
 Speaking of fish it may be mentioned that in early 
 days numerous cool springs were dotted all along the 
 course of these bayous which cut deep down into the soil 
 so that there was cool running water in the bayous all 
 the year round. The veteran and retired banker, Miles 
 S. Buckingham, in his reminiscent moods, is fond of 
 telling how in early days, when the dogwoods were in 
 blossom, he would take his hook and line any day and 
 bring home a long string of the finest game fish, caught 
 from the cool waters of the bayou south of Vance Ave- 
 nue. 
 
 What a beautiful, nay, was not the Chickasaw Bluff 
 country an ideal, place for a home of the children of the 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 143 
 
 forest? Might we not expect permanent Indian villages 
 on the bluffs proper and the adjacent country? 
 
 As we have seen the old Chickasaw trail coming 
 from the southeast after crossing Nonconnah and along 
 the line of the present Pigeon Roost Road, passed up 
 Brown’s Hill, thus abruptly ascending from the low to 
 high land ; and in a short distance there commences a 
 beautiful expanse of almost level country, some six or 
 seven miles from the Court House in Memphis. 
 
 In my opinion this was the vicinity of Quizquiz, the 
 first village reached by De Soto near the great river. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that Poplar 
 Ridge afforded the only country adapted to permanent 
 villages for the Indians. Quite to the contrary, the coun- 
 try north of Wolf River and south of Nonconnah fur- 
 nished ideal conditions for permanent villages for the 
 Indians ; and moreover at one time, how remote no one 
 knows, they lived in the vicinity of the present Caple- 
 ville, Tennessee, some twelve miles from Memphis, where 
 there were in early days abundant springs, but now, alas ! 
 the most of them are gone, or else so shrunken as to be 
 scarce shadows of their former proportions. 
 
 Nearly due east of the Ila Douglass homestead, say 
 eleven miles from Memphis and one mile from the Pigeon 
 Roost Road, and across Little Nonconnah Creek, there 
 is to this day in a cultivated field, the remnants of a salt 
 lick covering about one-fourth of an acre of ground ; a 
 geologic feature of the country as rare as it was valu- 
 able to the Indians. 
 
144 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 About a mile in a southeasterly direction from the 
 lick there were in my boyhood days two Indian old fields 
 surrounded by dense forests; about one-quarter of a 
 mile apart. It was the custom of the Chickasaws to live 
 apart to a large extent, doubtless being taught by ex- 
 perience that this contributed to their good health and 
 general well being. One of these Indians’ fields is on 
 the estate of my late sister, Mrs. Mary Lou Malone 
 Ellis. 
 
 About one mile west of the Pigeon Roost Road and 
 some two miles west of the salt lick, there is upon the 
 estate of the late George R. Tuggle, a considerable In- 
 dian mound, formerly having large trees standing there- 
 on. These trees have been cut long since, and the ad- 
 jacent ground put in cultivation. Near this mound and 
 on top of a high ridge there were two pondy places, 
 such as referred to by the Gentleman of Elvas. When 
 I was a boy these pondy places were of considerable 
 extent ; in fact, were miniature lakes, having clear water 
 in them the year round, and in winter I have often seen 
 them covered with wild ducks and other wild fowls. 
 One of them has been drained for agricultural purposes, 
 and the other is much shrunken in size. George M. 
 Douglass owns the property on which the salt lick can 
 now be seen. His parents were among the early set- 
 tlers, he now being on the shady side of seventy, but 
 hale and hearty. He well remembers being shown when 
 a boy a large tree, with low heavy limbs, in which he 
 was told the Indians sought a perch from which they 
 could' easily kill deer and other game (with their bows 
 and arrows), which came to the lick for salt. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 145 
 
 Milton Blocker was born and has lived all his life 
 at the pretty little village of Olive Branch, Mississippi, 
 some seven miles southeast of the salt lick referred to, 
 he now also being on the shady side of seventy, but 
 very active and alert for his years. His father and 
 mother settled on a large estate while the Indians were 
 still in Mississippi, a part of which he now owns. He 
 readily recalls hearing his mother, who lived to an old 
 age, speak of the salt lick referred to, and its great value 
 to the Indians, in drawing to it the abundant game of 
 the country from far and near. 
 
 As showing the uses to which the Indians put these 
 rare salt licks, and the dangers attendant thereon, I will 
 here insert an excerpt from Cushman (pages 486, 487) : 
 
 “When watching at a deer lick at night by the 
 light of the full-orbed moon, in which the writer 
 has indulged years ago in the Mississippi forests 
 then untouched by the ax, the hunter found as his 
 rival in the same sport, the panther or the cata- 
 mount, sometimes both ; and whose presence was 
 made known by the moving shadow cast upon the 
 ground by moonlight, as he was preparing to leap 
 from his perch upon a deer that had, unconscious 
 of danger, walked into the lick. An incident of 
 this kind happened to a hunter in Oktibbihaw Coun- 
 ty, Mississippi, shortly after the exodus of the 
 Choctaws. He had found a deer lick in Catarpo 
 (corruption of the Choctaw word Katapah, stop- 
 ped ; referring to the obstructions in the creek by 
 drifts) swamps, which was much frequented by the 
 deer. He built a scaffold fifteen or twenty feet 
 high on the edge of a lick, and on a beautiful night 
 of the full moon, shortly after sundown, took his 
 seat thereon. About ten o’clock at night a deer 
 
146 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 noiselessly entered the lick a few rods distant from 
 his place of concealment, and began licking the 
 salty earth; he was just in the act of shooting it, 
 when his attention was attracted from the deer to 
 a moving shadow upon the ground between him and 
 the deer ; he at once looked up to ascertain who his 
 neighbor was, and was not a little surprised to see 
 a huge panther standing on a projecting limb of a 
 tree, that reached nearly over and just behind him, 
 and preparing to spring upon the unsuspecting deer. 
 He thought no more of the deer, and gave his un- 
 divided attention to his rival who had unceremoni- 
 ously and clandestinely taken his seat a little higher 
 and nearly over his head, without so much as say- 
 ing ‘by your leave.’ Not being very fastidious just 
 then, he quietly yielded the right of precedence to 
 his fellow hunter above, in all things pertaining to 
 the deer quietly licking the salty earth below. For 
 several minutes he gazed upon the huge beast as 
 it maneuvered upon the limb, seemingly doubtful 
 as to making a successful spring. Finally the pan- 
 ther made a tremendous leap from the limb, pass- 
 ing almost directly over the hunter’s head, and lit 
 directly upon the deer’s back. The bleating of the 
 helpless deer momentarily broke the stillness of the 
 forest, and then all was hushed. The panther pulled 
 his victim to the outer edge of the lick, stood a 
 moment and then with mighty bounds disappeared 
 in the surrounding forests. During all this the hunt- 
 er sat quietly upon his perch cogitating over the 
 novel scene. But his reveries were suddenly inter- 
 rupted by a wild and terrible yell, seemingly half 
 human and half beast, fearful enough to awaken 
 all the denizens of the forest for miles away; then 
 came an immediate response from a distant point 
 in the swamp. That was enough to bring the hunt- 
 er’s cogitations to a fixed determination, which 
 was clearly manifested by the agility displayed in 
 descending the scaffold, and the schedule time on 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 147 
 
 which he ran towards home, leaving- the two pan- 
 thers to enjoy their unenvied supper of venison in 
 their native woods undisturbed. Often the hunt- 
 er found the panther had preceded him at the deer 
 licks; in all such cases, having previously resolved 
 never to dispute precedency with any gentleman 
 of that family, he quietly left him to the undis- 
 puted possession of the chance of venison for that 
 night, particularly.” 
 
 As might well be supposed, the Chickasaw Indians 
 well knew and appreciated the great value of salt licks ; 
 and in the treaty by which they ceded their possessions 
 in West Tennessee, they especially reserved for their own 
 use and the emoluments expected therefrom, a consider- 
 able salt lick near Paris, Tennessee; out of which quite 
 a scandal grew up and was fully aired in heated debates 
 in Congress between the most eminent congressmen of 
 that day. 
 
 It was charged that certain politicians of high and 
 low degree, closely connected with President Jackson, 
 had taken advantage of their official positions to exploit 
 and develop these salt mines for their own account ; for 
 salt wells were sunk there and considerable salt turned 
 out in the early days, but not sufficiently abundant to 
 justify continued operations. 
 
 In Volume 9, page 252 of the American (Tennessee) 
 Historical Magazine, under date of July, 1904, there 
 is a very interesting article by the late Governor James 
 D. Porter, giving a good account of this salt formation, 
 and the heated controversy to which the Chickasaw treaty 
 in reference thereto gave rise. 
 
148 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 No one can doubt that at some former prehistoric 
 period Indians had a permanent home near Capleville; 
 but who the Indians were, or when they lived there will 
 probably remain a shrouded mystery, though the proba- 
 bility is they were Chickasaws. 
 
 The Location of Quizquiz — 
 
 What was the site of Quizquiz, the first Indian 
 village taken by the De Soto expedition, just before the 
 discovery of the Mississippi ? This has to me been an 
 interesting question, and I will now state my conclu- 
 sions in reference thereto. 
 
 It will aid the reader to turn back to the fifth chap- 
 ter in which appears verbatim the accounts given by the 
 three narratives which have received the commendation 
 of Professor Lewis and Dr. Rowland. No two of them 
 agree as to the details, nor does the narrative of Gar- 
 cilaso agree in its details with the other three. 
 
 This is not surprising for obvious reasons. 
 
 On the other hand, the main, or determinative, facts 
 can be grasped from a consideration of the three narra- 
 tives, taken together and construed as one whole. 
 
 From these it appears that the approach to the river 
 was quite gradual ; and that the expedition first came to 
 a village called Quizquiz, then to another not named, 
 and then to a third, where “they saw the great river;” 
 that is, the Mississippi. Rodrigo Ranjel is much com- 
 mended for his accuracy of statements, and as he more 
 succinctly and clearly states the details connected with 
 the discovery of the river it is here repeated for conven- 
 
 ience : 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 149 
 
 “Saturday, the last of April, the army set out 
 from the place of the barricade and marched nine 
 days through a deserted country, and by a rough 
 way, mountainous and swampy, until May 8, when 
 they came to the first village of Quizqui, which they 
 took by assault and captured much people and 
 clothes; but the governor promptly restored them 
 to liberty and had everything restored to them for 
 fear of war, although that was not enough to make 
 friends of these Indians. A league beyond this vil- 
 lage they came upon another with abundance of 
 corn, and soon again after another league, upon 
 another, likewise amply provisioned. There they 
 saw the great river.” 
 
 How near the last village was to the river is not 
 stated ; but presumptively it was not far. 
 
 It appears quite certain that Quizquiz was at least 
 two leagues from the river; and while we understand 
 that a league is considered in this country to be three 
 English miles, the real inquiry is what was the length of 
 a Spanish league; for presumably the narrators had ref- 
 erence to the Spanish league. 
 
 The Century dictionary gives the Spanish league as 
 4.214 miles, and the Spanish judicial league as being 
 2.634 miles long. Which kind of the two Spanish 
 leagues the narrators had in mind we have no means to 
 determine; but I think we may safely assume that the 
 two leagues which lay between Quizquiz and the river 
 covered a space of from six to eight miles ; and follow- 
 ing the ancient Chickasaw trace, which is now the Pigeon 
 Roost Road, Quizquiz was somewhere not far from 
 Brown’s Hill, named for Dr. Robert Frierson Brown, a 
 
150 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 pioneer land owner in that vicinity, and an eminent phy- 
 sician. 
 
 From Brown’s Hill on to the old Bethel place, about 
 or a little over a mile, there is an unusually level expanse 
 of country, with barely enough inclination to drain the 
 waters falling thereon ; no doubt its beauty attracted the 
 attention of P. C. Bethel, a man of great wealth, and 
 who built a palatial residence there before the Civil 
 War, and though for over a generation it has been sadly 
 neglected, it still rears its lofty roof towards the sky. 
 
 As usual, Biedma is very laconic, saying that “the 
 town (Quizquiz) was near the banks of the River Es- 
 piritu Santo;” that is the river of the Holy Ghost, the 
 name given it by De Soto. 
 
 It is manifest that the word near, as used here, has 
 no definite significance ; but under the surrounding cir- 
 cumstances I think it may safely be said that at a dis- 
 tance of from six to eight miles, the town may have 
 been very properly described as being near the great 
 river. The Gentleman of Elvas, after mentioning the 
 capture of Quizquiz, and the negotiations and circum- 
 stances attendant thereon, only mentions one and not 
 two towns visited before reaching the Mississippi, but 
 there is no real conflict here between he and Ranjel for 
 the supposition is that he omitted to mention the other 
 town, either by inadvertence or because it was deemed 
 an unnecessary detail. He does say, however, “there 
 was little maize in the place, and the governor moved 
 to another town, half a league from the great river 
 (meaning the Mississippi) where it was found in suffi- 
 ciency.” 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 151 
 
 This was doubtless the third village mentioned by 
 Ran j el, who did not state its distance from the river. 
 It would seem therefore, that Quizquiz was approxi- 
 mately two and one-half leagues from the Mississippi. 
 
 De Soto’s Camp Near a River Bank — 
 
 There are some other details which dovetail into our 
 insistence that the Mississippi was discovered on these 
 bluffs, to which no reference is made by those who deny 
 the correctness of our conclusions. 
 
 All the narratives agree that the Spaniards came 
 upon the Indians suddenly, and Biedma says the men 
 were away from the village working in the maize fields, 
 and we know that at that time of the year the young 
 corn must have been well advanced, though it was be- 
 fore roasting ears were ready for the table. However, 
 in the various villages there was plenty of maize, that is 
 old corn, both for the little army as well as all the horses 
 of De Soto. This shows a fruitful country, sufficient 
 and more than sufficient to supply the permanent Indian 
 villages; in fact the very best farming lands stretched 
 out in many directions far beyond the necessities of the 
 Indians. Why should we not expect permanent Indian 
 villages in this stretch of the country so' perfectly adapt- 
 ed to their comfort and well being? 
 
 De Soto captured all the women in Quizquiz, num- 
 bering, according to Biedma, three hundred, and among 
 these was the mother of the Cacique ; and De Soto held 
 these as hostages, sending word to the Chief by one of 
 the captives to come and he would turn his mother and 
 
152 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 the captives over to him, but the wily Indian evidently 
 scented treachery, and declined the invitation. 
 
 The after developments are not stated with clear- 
 ness as to time or the exact place; nor is it anywhere 
 stated what place De Soto pitched camp after taking into 
 custody all the people in Quizquiz. The Cacique very 
 properly demanded the unconditional release of the cap- 
 tives, to which De Soto finally agreed, because his men 
 had arrived, weak and weary for the want of maize, and 
 his horses were also lean. How long these negotiations 
 were pending does not appear, but the probability is they 
 covered at least one or two whole days. After stating 
 these negotiations, Elvas adds: 
 
 “The next day, while he was hoping to see the 
 Chief, many Indians came, with bows and arrows, 
 to' set upon the Christians, when he commanded that 
 all the armed horsemen should be mounted and in 
 readiness. Finding them prepared, the Indians 
 stopped at the distance of a crossbow-shot from 
 where the Governor was, near a river bank, where, 
 after remaining quietly half an hour, six chiefs ar- 
 rived at the camp,” etc. 
 
 It is evident that De Soto had drawn up his cav- 
 alry at his camp near a precipitous bank, in order to pro- 
 tect his rear. It is not said that he was near a river, but 
 “near a river bank,” from which expression I am inclined 
 to the opinion that De Soto had pitched his camp upon 
 the brow of Brown’s hill, or in that vicinity, where the 
 descent from the high to the low ground was sufficiently 
 abrupt as to afford protection to his rear, and unques- 
 tionably such conditions then prevailed, though much 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 153 
 
 changed since then by the effacing finger of the white 
 man, of time and the elements. 
 
 If it be said Nonconnah is not a river, then my am 
 swer is that it all depends on the opinion of the person 
 writing the narrative as to what constitutes a river. 
 Usually the word river is understood to mean a con- 
 siderable body of water flowing in a channel with a 
 certain definite course, and with a perceptible current 
 throughout the year. At that time Nonconnah unques- 
 tionably came up to this definition of a river. But it is 
 well known that in arid states like Southern California 
 and Southern Texas, and doubtless in the arid portions 
 of Spain, many streams which have no current for 
 months at a time are called rivers. 
 
 It is perfectly possible that in the time of De Soto, 
 now near four hundred years ago, Nonconnah may have 
 run at the foot of Brown's hill for the precipitous char- 
 acter of the hill or bluff indicates that anciently the 
 stream washed its base, and such streams flowing through 
 alluvial soil often change their courses. 
 
 Today Nonconnah bottom proper is one mile wide, 
 and going south after emerging from the bottom proper 
 there is a low expanse over a mile long that must have 
 abounded in pondy places and thickets, and extremely 
 bad to cross in the days of De Soto. Evidently Noncon- 
 nah bottom formed to some extent a natural barrier and 
 protection to the Indians living on the Chickasaw Bluffs 
 at that time, from incursions coming from the south. 
 The narratives all agree that there were no natives then 
 living in the country traveled over by the expedition, be- 
 
154 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 tween Alibamo and Quizquiz, because of a war between 
 the Indians. All agree that when the expedition ap- 
 peared at Quizquiz, the Indians were taken by great sur- 
 prise, the men being at work in the maize fields. 
 
 If De Soto came over the short-cut or direct trail, 
 his sudden ascent from Nonconnah bottoms up and upon 
 high land, subsequently called Brown’s Hill, with the 
 seizure of all the inhabitants of the first village he 
 reached, very naturally took the Indians by complete sur- 
 prise. It could not be otherwise. The conditions of the 
 surrounding country demonstrated how it was the nat- 
 ural result for the Indians to be taken by surprise; thus 
 dovetailing into 1 the details of the story as given by the 
 three narratives. 
 
 If I was inclined to be dogmatic, I might here enter 
 my ipse dixit, but I leave that course for others more 
 learned, leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions. 
 
 While I have stated my opinion as to the locality of 
 De Soto’s first camp after seizing all the inhabitants of 
 Quizquiz, I am by no means dogmatically wedded to that 
 opinion. However, there are certain main facts which 
 loom up so< plainly that they can not be mistaken. 
 
 ( 1 ) De Soto suddenly appeared and by surprise 
 
 seized all the inhabitants of Quizquiz, in- 
 cluding the mother of the Cacique or Chief, 
 and this carried consternation to the Indians 
 and called for a rescue. 
 
 (2) De Soto apprehending an attack pitched his 
 
 camp near a river-bank, and drew up in 
 battle array all his cavalry, knowing that 
 their appearance usually struck terror to the 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 155 
 
 savages, who knew nothing of horses, and 
 both men and horses being encased in armor, 
 gave them the appearance of supernatural 
 monsters, something on the order of the 
 fabled centaurs of the ancient Greeks. This 
 array had the desired effect, for instead of 
 fighting, the Indians, through the six chiefs 
 sent to De Soto's camp, effected a release 
 of all their people and agreed to supply the 
 Spaniards with provisions. Thus hostilities 
 were averted. 
 
 (3) After all this had transpired, the Gentleman 
 
 of Elvas says : “There was little maize in 
 the place, and the Governor moved to an- 
 other town, half a league from the great 
 river, where it was found in sufficiency. He 
 went to look at the river, and saw that near 
 it there was much timber of which piraguas 
 might be made, and a good situation in which 
 the camp might be placed. He directly 
 moved, built houses, and settled on a plain a 
 crossbow-shot from the water, bringing to- 
 gether there all the maize of the towns be- 
 hind, that at once they might go to work and 
 cut down trees for sawing out planks to 
 build barges.” 
 
 (4) It thus clearly appears that after the first camp 
 
 on the river bank, De Soto moved to another 
 town half a league from his previous camp ; 
 and from this second camp he went and for 
 the first time looked upon the Mississippi, af- 
 ter which he pitched his third or last camp 
 within bow-shot of the water, and began 
 building boats to cross the river. 
 
 That De Soto pitched his first camp for defensive 
 purposes “near a river-bank,” is undoubtedly true. It 
 is equally true that if he did not pitch that camp at or 
 
156 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 near the bluffs in the vicinity of Brown’s hill, then the 
 river banks of Wolf River were both sufficiently high 
 and precipitous to furnish protection to the camp and 
 could readily be reached by reconnoitering cavalry in less* 
 than an hour from Brown’s Hill. 
 
 It thus appears that there is not a single detail in 
 the three narratives, that is not accounted for and in 
 complete accord with the physical appearances or topo- 
 graphical features of the country at the fourth Chicka- 
 saw Bluff. 
 
 Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca — 
 
 It will be noted that I have referred only to the three 
 narratives upon which Professor Lewis and Dr. Row- 
 land have placed the seal of their approval, and I might 
 safely leave the matter here. 
 
 The learned historians knowing full well that if the 
 work of Garcilaso' de la Vega is considered, they would 
 not have the pretense of a defense for their Tunica 
 theory, affect to discredit his narrative and not satis- 
 fied with this, misquote what he said in an important par- 
 ticular. Both from inclination and in justice to the truth 
 of history I propose to look a little more deeply into the 
 matter. 
 
 If it be said that this is wandering somewhat from 
 a sketch of the Chickasaws, I answer that the name and 
 fame of the Chickasaws is wrapped up with that of De 
 Soto, and the discovery of the Great river; and more- 
 over that I am writing this as much for my own diver- 
 sion as for any other purpose; supposing that it will be 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 157 
 
 of more interest to my immediate family and personal 
 friends than to the public at large. 
 
 In the preface to his book Conquest of Florida , 
 brought out in 1851, Theodore Irving (the nephew of 
 Washington Irving) said: 
 
 “Garcilaso de la Vega was a man of rank and 
 honor. He was descended from an ancient Span- 
 ish stock by the father’s side, while by the mother’s, 
 he was of the lofty Peruvian line of the Incas. His 
 narrative was originally taken down by himself, 
 from the lips of a friend; a cavalier of worth and 
 respectability, who had been an officer under De 
 Soto, and for whose probity we have the word of 
 the Inca as a guarantee. It was authenticated and 
 enriched by the written journals or memorandums 
 of two soldiers, who had served in the expedition. 
 He had the testimony, therefore, of three eye-wit- 
 nesses. The Portuguese narrative, on the other 
 hand, is the evidence of merely a single eye-witness, 
 who gives himself out as a cavalier, or gentleman; 
 but for this we have merely his own word, and he 
 is anonymous. There is nothing intrinsic in his 
 work that should entitle it to the exclusive belief 
 that has been claimed for it. It agrees with the 
 narrative of the Inca, as to the leading facts which 
 form the framework of the story ; it differs from 
 it occasionally, as to- the plans and views of Her- 
 nando’ de Soto ; but here the Inca is most to be 
 depended upon — the Spanish cavalier from whom 
 he derived his principal information being more 
 likely to be admitted to the intimate councils of his 
 commander than one of a different nation, and being 
 free from the tinge of national jealousy which may 
 have influenced the statements of the Portuguese. 
 
 The narrative of the Portuguese is more meagre 
 and concise than that of Garcilaso ; omitting a thou- 
 sand interesting anecdotes and personal adventures; 
 
158 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 but this does not increase its credibility. A multi- 
 tude of facts, gathered and gleaned from three dif- 
 ferent persons, may easily have escaped the knowl- 
 edge, or failed to excite the attention of a solitary 
 individual. These anecdotes are not the less cred- 
 ible because they were striking and extraordinary; 
 the whole expedition was daring and extravagant, 
 and those concerned in it men who delighted in ad- 
 venture and exploit.” 
 
 It may be added that the authors of the three nar- 
 ratives referred to are wholly unknown, except through 
 their respective narratives; while Garcilaso was one of 
 the most distinguished authors of his age, dying in 1616, 
 the same year Shakespeare died in England, and his 
 countryman, Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, died 
 in Spain ; Garcilaso being a worthy contemporary of 
 those two immortals in the literature of the world. 
 
 His history of Peru is declared by a competent au- 
 thority to be “A source from which all subsequent writers 
 on the subject have largely drawn, and still continues to 
 be one of the chief authorities on ancient Peru.” 
 
 While he is chiefly remembered through this his- 
 tory, he was the author of other books which passed 
 through various editions, some being translated into 
 French and English; and as late as 1800, or nearly 200 
 years after his death, an edition of his works, in seventeen 
 volumes, was brought out in Madrid. 
 
 He was admired by his countrymen as a man of 
 piety, virtue, modesty and of devotion to letters, and 
 held in the highest esteem as a historian. He was buried 
 in the Cathedral of Cordova in one of the Chapels called 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 159 
 
 Garcilaso in his honor; where monumental inscriptions 
 on each side of the altar record his valor (for he was at 
 one time a gallant soldier), his virtues and his literary 
 merits. 
 
 And this is the author whose narrative is rejected, 
 admittedly superior to all the others in literary style, and 
 the most famous; its rejection being upon the charge that 
 it is spurious ; that this good and distinguished man, with- 
 out any motive therefor, palmed off a gigantic literary 
 fraud upon the world! 
 
 Garcilaso realized that absolute accuracy in all its 
 details was impossible under the circumstances, and Irv- 
 ing quotes him as saying: 
 
 “I cannot hold myself responsible for the ac- 
 curacy of the distances I give, for, although I have 
 spared no exertions, and have used all the diligence 
 to arrive at the truth, yet I have been unavoidably 
 compelled to leave much to conjecture. The Span- 
 iards had no instruments with them by which they 
 could compute distances; their main object was to 
 conquer the country, and seek for silver and gold; 
 consequently, they gave themselves little trouble to 
 note the route.” 
 
 Nor is it a strange thing that Garcilaso should “have 
 set down,” as it was then phrased, the story of the three 
 members of the De Soto expedition, when we recall the 
 almost universal illiteracy of the times, as well as the 
 custom for a man of some literary attainments, to write 
 the adventures of those who were unable to perform that 
 service for themselves. There was then as there are now 
 
160 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 in illiterate countries, many professional letter-writers, 
 all of which is very natural when we recall the conditions 
 which led to such customs, long since without any ex- 
 istence in highly developed countries. 
 
 It was also a strange custom also of those times for 
 authors to withhold their identity ; as witness the fact that 
 no one to this day knows who was the author of the 
 narrative of “The Gentleman of Elvas”; on account of 
 which some say it should be rejected ; but when we con- 
 sider the customs of those days, as well as the internal 
 evidence in the narrative, its rejection would be an act of 
 folly. 
 
 I will now reproduce the narrative of Garcilaso as 
 appears in Young’s History of Memphis, beginning on 
 page 22, where we read that the account there appearing 
 is from the French, contained in Richlet’s version of 
 Garcilaso, brought out in 1731. Robert B. Goodwin, a 
 very accurate and scholarly member of the Memphis bar, 
 made the translation for Judge Young, and kindly looked 
 over and confirmed his translation at my request; and 
 I have every reason to believe it is entirely correct, and 
 it is here given. 
 
 The Account of Garcilaso de la Vega — 
 
 “The Spaniards in leaving AlibamO', marched 
 across a waste country bearing always towards the 
 north in order to get further and further away from 
 the sea, and at the end of three days they came in 
 view of the capital of Chisca, which bears the name 
 of its province and of its ruler. This town is situa- 
 ted near a river which the Indians called Chucagua, 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 161 
 
 the largest of all those encountered by our people 
 in Florida. The inhabitants of Chisca, unaware of 
 the coming of the troops, by reason of the war which 
 they were waging with their neighbors, were taken 
 by surprise. The Spaniards plundered them and 
 took several of them prisoners. The rest of them 
 fled, some into a forest between the village and the 
 river, and others to the house of the Cacique, which 
 stood upon a high mound commanding a view of 
 the whole place. The Cacique was old, and then 
 sick upon his bed, in a condition of great weakness. 
 He was of such small stature and of such meagre 
 visage that in that country the like had never been 
 seen. Nevertheless at the sound of the alarm and 
 being surprised that his subjects were being plun- 
 dered and being taken prisoners, he, arose, walked 
 out of his chamber with a battle axe in his hand and 
 made the threat that he would slay all who might 
 enter his lands without his leave. But as he was 
 about to go forth from his house to confront the 
 Spaniards, the women of his household, aided by 
 some of his subjects who had made their escape 
 from the Spaniards, restrained him. With tears in 
 their eyes they reminded him of the fact that he was 
 feeble, without men at arms, his vassals in dis- 
 order, and not in condition for fighting and that 
 those with whom he had to do were vigorous, well 
 disciplined, great in number and, for the most part, 
 mounted upon beasts of such speed that none could 
 ever escape them. 
 
 That it was necessary then, to wait a favorable 
 occasion for their revenge and to deceive their ene- 
 mies in the meantime by fair appearances of friend- 
 ship, thus preventing the destruction of himself and 
 his subjects. 
 
 “These considerations caused Chisca to pause, 
 but he was so chagrined by the injury which the 
 Spaniards had done him, that instead of being 
 willing to listen to the envoys of the general in their 
 
162 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 demands for peace, he declared war upon them, add- 
 ing that he hoped within a short while to cut the 
 throat of their captain and all those with him. 
 
 "De Soto, however, was not astonished at this, 
 but sent others and they made excuses for the dis- 
 order created upon their arrival, and repeated the 
 demand for peace. 
 
 “For it was clear to De Soto that his men were 
 discouraged on account of the constant skirmishing, 
 and were encumbered with sick men and sick horses ; 
 that in less than six hours there had come to the 
 side of the Cacique not less than four thousand men, 
 quite well equipped ; that in all probability he would 
 get together a very much larger number; besides, 
 that the lay of the land was very favorable to the 
 Indians , and very unfavorable to the Spaniards, on 
 account of the thicket surrounding the town, which 
 would make it impossible to use liis cavalry; that 
 finally, instead of making progress by fighting, the 
 Spaniards were working their own destruction from 
 day to day. These were the considerations which in- 
 duced the general to offer peace. 
 
 “But the larger part of the Indians who were 
 assembled to deliberate upon the subject had quite 
 contrary views. Some were for war, believing that 
 to be the only means of recovering their goods and 
 delivering their companions from the power of the 
 Spaniards. They declared that there need be no 
 fear of such people ; that such earnest demands for 
 peace as the Spaniards made afforded certain proof 
 of their cowardice : finally, that it was fitting to ap- 
 prise them of the courage of those whom they had 
 just attacked by giving battle in turn, to the end 
 that no stranger in future would have the temerity 
 to enter their domain. But the other side contend- 
 ed that peace was their only means of getting back 
 their property and their imprisoned countrymen ; 
 that if there should be a battle their misery would 
 only be increased by reason of fire and the loss 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 163 
 
 of their crops (which were still unharvested), re- 
 sulting in ruin to the entire province and the death 
 of many of their people. 
 
 ‘‘For they said inasmuch as their enemies had 
 come as far as their country, through so many 
 trials and perils and through so many fierce tribes, 
 their courage could not be fairly doubted. 
 
 “Thus they said without any other proofs, 
 peace ought to be made, and that if they were after- 
 wards dissatisfied they could break the truce to a 
 much better advantage than they could on that day 
 make war. This opinion prevailed and the Cacique, 
 dissembling his resentment, asked the envoys what 
 they thought to gain by peace, which they seemed 
 to desire so much. They answered, their lodging 
 in the town, together with supplies for passing on. 
 Chisca agreed to all on condition that they should 
 set at liberty those of his subjects whom the Span- 
 iard held prisoners, return all the goods that they 
 had seized, and not enter into his house; and he 
 warned them that the only alternative would be war 
 of extermination. 
 
 “The Spaniards accepted peace on these con- 
 ditions and released the subjects of Chisca, for they 
 had no lack of Indian servants, and returned all the 
 booty — consisting only of some sorry deerskins and 
 clothing of small value. Thereupon the inhabitants 
 abandoned the town with the supplies which they 
 had and the Spaniards remained six days, treating 
 their sick. On the last day De Soto got leave from 
 Chisca to visit him in his house, and after he had 
 thanked him for the favor done his troops he with- 
 drew, proceeding the next day upon his journey of 
 discovery.” 
 
 The italics are mine, and designed primarily to call 
 attention to two matters which attest manifest errors on 
 the part of the learned historians in question. 
 
164 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 (1) It will be recalled that Professor Lewis stated 
 that after the expedition left the Chickasaw Country, it 
 turned west, not only without any support in any narra- 
 tive therefor, but in direct contradiction to Biedma, who 
 says it went to the northwest. And now we see that Gar- 
 cilaso states the course as “bearing always towards the 
 north (not due north), in order to get further and fur- 
 ther away from the sea.” 
 
 (2) It will be recalled also that the professor quotes 
 Garcilaso as saying that De Soto could not use his cav- 
 alry “because of the many streams around there they 
 could not use their horses” ; whereas we now see that 
 what he really said was : 
 
 “Besides, that the lay of the land was very 
 favorable to the Indians, and very unfavorable to 
 the Spaniards, on account of the thicket surround- 
 ing the town, which would make it impossible to 
 use his cavalry.” 
 
 As no one visited the Mississippi River after the De 
 Soto expedition, for a period of 142 years, how else was 
 it possible for Garcilaso to obtain the information that a 
 mound was located on the Mississippi where its discov- 
 ery was made, except through members of that expedi- 
 tion? To assume that his narrative was a fiction, neces- 
 sarily concedes also, that the author had more than a 
 prophetic vision, or a prescience unknown to the children 
 of men. 
 
 It is not strange, therefore, that the ablest historians 
 and the public at large have long since accepted the fourth 
 Chickasaw Bluff as the point of the discovery of the 
 great Mississippi River. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 165 
 
 De Soto at the Mississippi — 
 
 “High on a bluff they stood; anear its base 
 The Mississippi rolled its mighty flood. 
 
 The lordly river, half a league in breadth, 
 
 And flowing gently, parted in two streams 
 Around a verdant island to the south. 
 
 Titanic in his grandeur, yet serene 
 And placid with a godlike majesty, 
 
 The King of Rivers to the Christians’ hearts 
 Brought admiration, awe and reverence. 
 
 De Soto viewed with fascinated eyes 
 
 The scene before him. Into his troubled soul 
 
 There came, he knew not why, a holy calm ; 
 
 A deep yet tranquil joy surged through his heart, 
 
 As with a great thanksgiving hymn to God. 
 
 Faint in his ears, a whisper from afar 
 Assured him that this river with his name 
 Would be entwined forever; that this stream, 
 
 More stately than the Danube or the Nile, 
 
 Would be the artery, in a distant age, 
 
 To some illustrious empire, more august 
 Than that which centered on the Tiber’s shore. 
 
 Here would be giant cities, splendid halls, 
 
 The homes of Commerce, Learning, Wealth and Power. 
 Here Art and Science would be honored ; here 
 Would be the haunts of Story and of Song, — 
 Renowned in lays of poets yet to be, — 
 
 Surpassing in romantic legendry 
 
 The dome-crowned Arno or the vine-clad Rhine. 
 
 He called it The River of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Long after all his men had sought the camp, 
 
 Intent on little tasks that closed their day, 
 
 De Soto, silent, mused upon the banks 
 
166 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Of the Great River, that, with sacrifice 
 Of toils and tears, his prowess now had won. 
 Recumbent in a dim, secluded spot, 
 
 As in a sanctuary, he was lulled 
 Into benign repose. Far to the west, 
 
 The setting sun in benediction hung, 
 
 And burnished heaving waves with melted gold; 
 Above the vast, deep western wilderness 
 He paused, then sank, and left the quiet world 
 To rest, to meditation and to sleep. 
 
 The brilliant gold of sunset deepened slow 
 To orange; then the fragile floating clouds 
 Took chastened tints of faded rose and pearl. 
 
 The chirp of crickets beat with drowsy notes ; 
 
 The cadence of cicadas, like a dirge, 
 
 Sighed through the unillumined forest gloom ; 
 
 The requiems of lone thrushes pined and yearned 
 At rustic altars of umbrageous woods, — 
 
 Soft evensongs at gentle evenfall 
 For euthanasia of departing day. 
 
 Through haunts sequestered and forsaken stole 
 The sundown shadows ; from its rich maroon 
 To ashen twilight waned the afterglow. 
 
 Soon melancholy purple dimmed the skies, 
 
 And through the vesper gloaming, tremulous, 
 
 The fair-faced, timid stars came one by one. 
 
 The gray-winged gulls wheeled slowly, homeward- 
 bound. 
 
 Then solemn Nightfall, like a Sibyl, came, 
 
 And in one great libation, from her urn 
 Outgushed the darkness over earth and heaven ; 
 
 But still De Soto mused beside the stream, 
 
 Immovable — in silence, — lost in thought.” 
 
 Walter Malone, 
 
 In Hernando De Soto. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 167 
 
 De Soto Crosses the Mississippi — 
 
 It will be recalled that in the fifth chapter I referred 
 to the fact that after Professor Lewis had, in his im- 
 agination, landed De Soto in the swamps of Arkansas, 
 opposite some imaginary point in Tunica County, Mis- 
 sissippi, he suggested that some prehistoric earthquake 
 may have changed the face of the earth in that vicinity. 
 
 This suggestion was the offspring of necessity, for 
 it evidences the fact that the Professor must have real- 
 ized all too well, that there was not a single physical 
 feature of that country which would dovetail with any 
 one of the three narratives to which he gives his alle- 
 giance. Hence an appeal to some supposed or imaginary 
 cataclysm in nature to supply the want of solid facts; an 
 appeal which makes it difficult to suppress a smile of 
 incredulity. 
 
 But, however this may be, one who merely searches 
 for the real place at which the Mississippi was discovered 
 by De Soto, has no need to appeal to the miraculous, 
 when he reads the three narratives of those who are ac- 
 claimed as credible witnesses, to see and understand that 
 the discovery was made where Memphis is now en- 
 throned. What are the undisputed facts? 
 
 We have seen that the eastern shores of the river 
 where the discovery was made, sustained a teeming popu- 
 lation of aborigines, and that the physical features of the 
 Chickasaw Bluffs, with its splendid hinterland, afforded 
 almost an early paradise or happy hunting grounds for 
 the Red children of the forest. And, so likewise, the 
 opposite or western shores of the Mississippi supported 
 
168 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 an equally large aboriginal population, and we have only 
 to consider the physical features of the western hinter- 
 land to observe how well it fits in with the three narra- 
 tives referred to. 
 
 Biedma says (p. 26) : 
 
 “On the other shore we saw numbers of people 
 collected to oppose our landing, who' had many 
 canoes. We set about building four large piraguas, 
 each capable of taking sixty or seventy men and 
 five or six horses. We were engaged in this work 
 twenty-seven or twenty-eight days. During this 
 time, the Indians every day, at three o’clock in the 
 afternoon would get into two hundred and fifty 
 very large canoes they had, well shielded, and came 
 near the shores on which we were; with loud cries 
 they would exhaust their arrows upon us, and then 
 return to the other bank.” 
 
 Ranjel (page 137) estimated the number of In- 
 dians on the opposite shore to oppose the passage, at 
 seven thousand, and that all of them had shields made of 
 canes joined, so strong and closely interwoven with such 
 thread that a cross-bow could hardly pierce them. 
 
 The Gentleman of Elvas says (page 113) that the 
 barge in which the Cacique came had an awning at the 
 poop under which he sat ; and there from under the 
 canopy where the chief man was, the course was directed 
 and orders issued to the rest. They were painted with 
 ochre, wearing great bunches of white and other plumes 
 of many colors, having feathered shields in their hands, 
 with which they sheltered the oarsmen on either side, the 
 warriors standing erect from bow to stern, holding bows 
 and arrows. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 169 
 
 He added they were fine looking men, very large and 
 well formed; and what with the awnings, the plumes 
 and the shields, the pennons and the number of the peo- 
 ple in the fleet, it appeared like a famous Armada of 
 galleys. 
 
 The Country Opposite Memphis Dovetails 
 With the Narratives — 
 
 With such a large population and splendid types of 
 Indians inhabiting the western shores of the river where 
 De Soto crossed, what should we expect but a fine coun- 
 try fit to produce and maintain such a people? Such 
 was the country then and now, opposite the fourth Chick- 
 asaw Bluffs. 
 
 It is a well known topographical feature of this 
 section of the delta that there was an almost continuous 
 ridge of high land, commencing from about where 
 Mound City now is, and running in a westward direc- 
 tion to Crowley’s Ridge, the high ground about forty 
 miles from Memphis ; that is, the delta is about forty 
 miles wide, opposite Memphis, and this high ground an 
 almost continuous way across the Mississippi delta, with 
 some occasional breaks therein. 
 
 Of course, there were breaks in the ridge, and there 
 were occasional lakes, bayous and some rivers to cross, 
 but there was sufficiently continuous high ground or 
 ridges as to make it of great importance to all who 
 wished to cross the delta, and this was such a marked 
 feature of the country that the United States made it 
 
170 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 available before the day of railroads, for the construc- 
 tion of a military road over which to transport troops. 
 
 Taking advantage of this feature of the country, the 
 United States Government long before the Civil War, 
 constructed a military road from the vicinity of Mound 
 City, Arkansas, across the bottoms to Little Rock, Ar- 
 kansas. As the name implies, there were Indian mounds 
 at the site of that ancient village, and the mounds gave 
 the place its name, and they are there today, silent wit- 
 nesses to the fact that De Soto crossed the Mississippi 
 where Memphis now is. 
 
 When the Chickasaw Indians were moved across 
 the river in the thirties, thousands of them were fer- 
 ried from Memphis to Mound City, under the supervis- 
 ion of Marcus B. Winchester, who had been the first 
 mayor of Memphis. 
 
 There they commenced to cross the delta on their 
 long journey to their new home, then in the far West. 
 There was a considerable section around Mound City 
 that was not subject to overflow, and in the early 
 days there was a settlement and village there, for it 
 was then a rival of Memphis for the supremacy of the 
 valley. The Spaniards fully appreciated and well un- 
 derstood the value of such high land, and located grants 
 around Mound City when they were the overlords of 
 the country. It is also interesting to recall that only 
 twelve to fifteen miles north from Mound City the traveler 
 anciently and now may view the beautiful and well 
 known Wappanocca Lake, famous for its unrivaled fish- 
 eries, and myriads of duck and waterfowls of all kinds. 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 171 
 
 It has an outlet leading to the river, called Wappa- 
 nocca Bayou, while another outlet leads to the Tyronza 
 River. These bayous of the delta bear a great resem- 
 blance to canals, and these bayous are doubtless what 
 the De Soto narratives called canals leading to the river 
 from certain lakes. Indeed, some writers have insisted 
 that these bayous were in fact canals constructed by 
 some prehistoric people for the drainage of the coun- 
 try; and I have heard men learnedly argue to this effect, 
 and viewing these bayous as they appeared years ago. 
 I could not but feel the force of their arguments, though 
 I was not convinced of the correctness of the theory. 
 
 A recent map of Crittenden County, Arkansas, be- 
 fore me, prepared by the Rhodes Abstract Company, 
 shows the country adjacent to Wappanocca Bayou and 
 Lake plastered over with old Spanish grants ; and it may 
 be added that the ground there is higher and the Indian 
 mounds more numerous than at Mound City. 
 
 It may be also added, that as you go north from 
 Crittenden County there is higher ground, and that Miss- 
 issippi County, lying immediately north of and adjoin- 
 ing Crittenden, is regarded by many as the best county 
 in the delta, owing not only to the fertility of its soil, 
 but to its rolling and well-drained surface. Such is the 
 goodness of this part of the delta that Professor Lewis, 
 in his article, finally leads, or lands, De Soto in Miss- 
 issippi County, though it is a thing to me incredible 
 that he could have floundered his way so far north from 
 a point somewhere opposite Tunica County, Mississippi. 
 
172 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 Anciently, and as we all know until within recent 
 years, in its approach towards the Chickasaw Bluffs, 
 after the Mississippi passed Mound City, its direction 
 was eastwardly, and that opposite the northern section 
 of the Bluffs it turned abruptly southward around Hope- 
 field Point. From the window of my office on the elev- 
 enth floor of the Cotton Exchange Building, facing 
 Court Square, I can almost see the location of old Mound 
 City. For many years the river has been gradually 
 shifting its bed eastward at and beyond Mound City, 
 and within the last two or three years it has cut a new 
 channel, running almost south, by the old Hen and 
 Chicken Islands, just north of Memphis, and leaving 
 Mound City far from the main channel of the river. 
 
 With these unquestioned topographical features of 
 the western country across the Mississippi from the 
 Chickasaw Bluffs before us, can any reasonable man 
 doubt that De Soto was ignorant thereof, or failed to 
 acquaint himself with the lay of the land, when igno- 
 rance in respect thereto might lead to the destruction of 
 every man in the expedition? 
 
 What do the narratives disclose as to the route 
 that was taken and the character of the country beyond 
 the Mississippi ? 
 
 The river was high, bringing down many trees with 
 its currents, the Gentleman of Elvas (page 115) stating 
 that the river was near a half league unde; adding that a 
 man standing on the shore could not be told whether 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 173 
 
 he was a man or something else, from the other side. 
 The stream was swift and very deep, always flowing 
 turbidly, bringing down from above much timber driven 
 by the force of the current. 
 
 Biedma says (page 26) that the river was near a 
 league wide, and nineteen or twenty fathoms deep. 
 
 On account of the swiftness of the current, Elvas 
 says that they went up along the river about a quarter 
 of a league, and landed about opposite the camps, and 
 from this statement I suppose the landing place was 
 about Hopefield Point. Having located De Soto on the 
 west side of the river, how far did he have to travel to 
 reach the Indian mounds, now the location of Mound 
 City? 
 
 The Gentleman of Elvas (page 116) says: 
 
 “The Rio Grande being crossed, the governor 
 marched a league and a half, to a large town of 
 Aquixo, which was abandoned before his arrival. 
 Over a plain thirty Indians were seen to draw nigh, 
 sent bv the Cacique, to discover what the Chris- 
 tians intended to do, but who tied directly as they 
 saw them. The cavalry pursued, killed ten and 
 captured fifteen. As the town toward which the 
 governor marched was near the river, he sent a 
 captain, with the force he thought sufficient, to take 
 the piraguas up the stream. These, as they fre- 
 quently wound about through the country, having 
 to go round the bays that swell out the river, the 
 Indians had opportunity to attack those in the pira- 
 guas, placing them in great peril, being shot at 
 with bows from the ravines, while they dared not 
 leave the shore, because of the swiftness of the cur- 
 rent; so that, as soon as the governor got to the 
 town, he directly sent cross-bow men to them down 
 
174 
 
 The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 the stream, for their protection. When the pira- 
 guas arrived, he ordered them to be taken to pieces, 
 and the spikes kept for making others, when they 
 should be needed.” 
 
 Anyone familiar with the country will unhesitat- 
 ingly state that the Indian mounds, adjacent to Mound 
 City, are about four to five miles from Hopefield Point, 
 and any properly scaled map will show the same dis- 
 tance, and thus we have a verification of the estimate 
 made by Elvas that it was a league and a half from 
 the landing place to the first Indian village reached in 
 the Province of Aquixo. 
 
 Biedma says (pages 27, 28) with respect to customs 
 of the Indians across the river : 
 
 “Arriving there as it is the custom of the 
 Caciques to have near their houses a high hill, made 
 by hand, some having houses placed thereon, we 
 set up the cross on the summit, and we all went on 
 bended knees, with great humility, to kiss the foot 
 of the cross. The Indians did the same as they 
 saw us do, nor more nor less; then directly they 
 brought a great quantity of cane, making a fence 
 about it. and we returned that night to our camp.” 
 
 From the context, I think this took place in Casqui. 
 
 Who can doubt that the first village reached by De 
 Soto across the river in the province of Aquixo, stood 
 where the Indian mounds at the ancient village of Mound 
 City, now rear their worn proportions above the sur- 
 rounding plain, mute witnesses to the verity of the De 
 Soto narratives, and which have stood there from that 
 time “whereof the memory of man runneth not to the 
 contrary ?” 
 
The Chickasaw Nation 
 
 175 
 
 From the province of Aquixo, De Soto next visited 
 the provinces of Casqui and Pacaha, and speaking of 
 these Ranjel (page 140) says: 
 
 “In Aquixo and Casqui and Pacaha, they saw 
 the best villages seen up to that time, better stock- 
 aded and fortified, and the people were of finer 
 quality, excepting those of Cofitachequi. The com- 
 mander and the soldiers remaining some days in 
 Pacaha, they made some incursions further up coun- 
 try.” 
 
 From these statements we learn two things, that 
 the country possessed the capabilities of producing the 
 numerous and fine specimens of aborigines, who were 
 menacing the expedition while camped on the Chicka- 
 saw Bluffs; and that De Soto here, as was the case long 
 before he reached the Mississippi, made “incursions” or 
 side trips, and did not follow continuously in any one 
 given direction. 
 
 It is a difficult matter to follow in the footsteps of 
 the De Soto expedition, unless that path crosses some 
 great and imperishable landmark like the Mississippi 
 River, or describes or refers to such commanding topo- 
 graphical and indestructible features of the country 
 through which it passed, as to fix the route pursued with 
 reasonable certainty. 
 
 That De Soto discovered the Mississippi River on 
 the fourth Chickasaw Bluffs, the present site of the City 
 of Memphis, I submit, appears beyond a reasonable 
 doubt.