Macon, Georgia - Historical Record of Macon and Central Georgia : Containing Many Inter (part 1 of 8)

Dedication And Preface

While it has been an interesting labor to gather from our oldest citizens their reminisences of events occurring in the first settlement of Central Georgia, and to carefully search the old volumes of newspapers whose editors were among the earliest founders of many of the enterprises and institutions of Macon, and like " sea shells found where the ocean has been, to tell that the great tide of life was once there," the task has been long and difficult, and accomplished only by the exercise of patient research and perseverance.

It has been the earnest aim of the writer to record only such facts as are based on the most reliable and trust-worthy authority, and to this end he has exhausted every available source of creditable information. No effort has been made at mere rhetorical embellishment.

, There may be found a few errors in the book. To say that it is perfect I would be presumption. No mortals were ever perfect except Enoch and Elijah, who were translated, and it is written that even the latter committed errors. The few typographical errors herein are such as are liable to be found in nearly every publication, and the intelligent reader will find them no obstacle to a clear and easy understanding of the subject before him.

Having an objection to extended prefatory remarks, the writer, in making his parting salaam, would adopt the advice of an old Author - " P'orbear the prelude and give the contents of thy tale."

The Author Table Of Contents

Origin of the name Indian - Opinions of the Ancients respecting the New Continent - Spanish discoveries - Ponce de Leon - Paufilo de Narvaez - Jean Ortez - Hernando DeSoto's Expedition - His route through Florida and Georgia - The first baptism in North America - The beautiful maiden Indian queen - Temples and pearls - Silver Bluff - The accounts of Mr. Bartrum, the English botanist - The expedition in Upper Georgia - Gold Silver and Mica found - Bees and honey - More pearls - DeSoto in Alabama - Tuscaloosa, the Indian chief - Battle at Maubilla - Dry Mass - Discovery of the Mississippi; the first cross erected and religious ceremony on its banks - Death of DeSoto - Fate of the expedition and the return of the survivors to Cuba - Death of Isabel, the wife of DeSoto,

Character and condition of the Indians - Their dress and habits, ingenuity and mechanism - Temples - Ornaments - Religion - Marriage ceremonies - Burials - The Creeks or Muscogees - The Uches - Milfort and McGillivray - A singular record inscribed on pearls - Mary Musgrove - Mr. Bartrum's visit to the Ocmulgee Fields - History of the Creek Nation - The mounds and the object of their construction - Skulls, bones and Indian articles found in the mounds - Brown's Mount - Opinions of various authors - The Ocmulgee River - Definition of Indian names - Important historical events connected with the Ocmulgee - Treaties with the Indians.

Indian treaties - Col. Hawkins and President Jefferson - Origin of Fort Hawkins - The Old Ocmulgee Fields - Description of Fort Hawkms - Report of Secretary of War - Encampment at Fort Hawkins and Camp Hope in the War of 1812 and 1814 - The origin of the war - Tecumseh - Grand Council of Indians - Batde of Autosse - General Weatherford - Christopher B. Strong - Generals Blackshear, McIntosh, Floyd and Andrew Jackson - Governor Early - Jackson's victory at New Orleans announced at Fort Flawkins - Reception of the news at Savannah - Jackson at Fort Hawkins - Seminole War - Ambrister and Arbuthnot - Sketch of Col.

Hawkins - Ex- Gov. David B. Mitchell - Treaty of 1821 - The " Ocmulgee Field's" Reserve acquired - John Crowell - Death of McIntosh - The first colony of settlers around Fort Hawkins, 1818 and 1819 - The first hotel - The sale of the Fort property - The last of the Ocmulgee Indians.

Bibb county laid off - The first Inferior and Superior courts - Name - Macon - Plan of the town - Tigertown - Sale of lots - The first frame house - The first county election - Macon incorporated a town - The first academy - Macon Lodge F. A. M. - Georgia Messenger - First death - House of worship and burial ground - The elections - The visit of Lafayette - The first Fourth of July celebration - Macon Volunteers - The first court-house built - First bank - Boats - Elections - Troup and Clarke - First railroad - Survey - Cotton receipts - First bridge over the Ocmulgee - Macon Bank - Extension of the town - Capt. Basil Hall - A brig of war - Religious denominations - Remarkable winter of 1828 and 1829 - Last sale of lots - P'ort Hawkins, etc. - First steamboat - Statistics - Distinguished authors - Cotton avenue - New court-house - The first Agricultural fair - Census - Christian Repertory - The Macon Advertiser - Eatonton railroad convention - Servile insurrection - A blue sun - Religious revival - Great fire - Military encampment - Adventures - Name.

Macon a city - Steamboats - Bridge - Central Hotel - Railway meeting - New academy - Sale of lots - First turf sport - Military encampment - Building on the hill - City officers - Business prosperity - Female College - Subscriptions to the Central, and to the Monroe railroads - Insurrection - Mails - Seminole war - Campaign of Macon Volunteers in Major Cooper's battalion - Interesting war incidents - Creek war - The Texan war - The Lone Star banner - Tribute of Texas to a Georgia lady - Massacre of Ward's battalion and Fannin's command - City subscription to railroads - Centrail Railroad Bank - Knoxville railroad convention - Macon convention - Masterly report of Hon. A. H. Chappell - Sale of lots - Improvements on the hill - Library - Death of Gen. Beall - Ocmulge Bank - Statistics - Awful panic of 1837 - Bank suspension - Frightful losses - Speculations - Policy of Jackson and Van Buren - United States Bank - Ice - Political excitement - Grand jury - Political temperance meeting - Completion of the railroad to Forsyth - The jubilee - Rise in cotton - White Hall - Atlanta.

The two Harrison freshets - Political convention at Milledgeville - The great Harrison convention at Macon - Alford, the war-horse of Troup, log cabins, procession, delegations, speeches, grand barbecue and other incidents - Central Railroad depot - Fire - City election - Whig party - Statistics - Indian relics - The celebration of the completion of the Central Railroad - Freights - Visit of Henry Clay - Military encampment - Fire - Democratic convention - Jawbone band - The city bankrupt - Cotton two and a half cents - Tribute to Andrew Jackson - Sale of the Monroe Railroad - Square cotton bales introduced - Census - Supreme Court organized - Annexation of Texas - Mexican war - Campaign of Macon Guards, and Col. Jackson's regiment of Georgia volunteers - The death and burial of Isaac Holmes - Death of other prominent citizens - Trade improving - The Macon and Western Railroad - Origin of the Southwestern Railroad - Macon Regulars in Mexico - The Magnetic Telegraph - Daguerreotypes - Deaths - Visit of President Polk - First Horticultural Society - Macon and Augusta railroad convention.

Sale of lots in Oglethorpe - Destructive fire - Death of Calhoun and Taylor - Remington bridges and plank roads - The Lanier House - General Lopez - Heated term - Census - Grand Lodge - Important political events - Southern Rights mass meeting, and distinguished orators present - Clay's omnibus bill - Proclamation of Governor Towns - The Union party - Southern Rights party - Cobb and Stephens - Election in Bibb - Union party triumphant - Milledgeville convention and celebrated report of the committee of 33 - Prosperity - City finances - Vineville tragedy - Academy for the Blind - St. Patrick's day - Judge Strong - A. H. Stephens - Planters' convention and Georgia Agricultural fair - Interesting reminiscence - Cold weather - Fires - The Episcopal Church - Death of Clay and Webster - E. McCall - Commercial, Gas works, etc. - Opposition to railroad consolidation - President Fillmore - Yellow fever in Savannah - Governor Towns - Passenger depot and Brown House built - Fires - Cold weather - Thackeray's lectures - Mrs. Hentz - Conventions - State military encampment - Railroad officers - Memphis visitors - Panic of 1857 - Banks - Governor Brown's veto - Concerts and theatricals - Religious services - Distinguished railroad officers - Little Mary Marsh - Macon and Brunswick Railroad - The Bond cotton crop - Census - Macon and Western Railroad - Jackson Artillery - The Belgian Minister - Flag of fifteen stars - New railroads - The Belgian fair - Visit of the Governor and Legislature - Cotton Planters' fair, etc., etc.

Political agitation - The Charleston Convention - Milledgeville Conventton - Richmond and Bahimore Conventions - Four Presidential Candidates - Visit of Douglas and Stephens - Elect'on of Lincoln - Public meeting - One million dollars for defence - Secession of South Carolina - Major Anderson - President Buchanan - Seizure of forts - Crittenden Commpromise - Convention of States - All hope lost - Secession of Georgia - Poe. Nisbet and Lamar - The Confederate States - Mr. Lincoln and the Confederate Commission - Bombardment of Sumter - Bibb County Troops - Macon during the war, arsenal, workshops, depository - Georgia Reserves - Ladies' Soldiers Relief Society - Wayside Home - Speech of Mr. Stephens - Battle near Fort Hawkins - Capture of Stoneman - Federal Politics - Reconstruction Policy - President Davis and Governor Brown - Sherman's March to the Sea - Reports of Sherman and his army correspondent - The Hampton Roads Conference - Macon the Capital - The Legislature and Governor Brown - Separate State action - Davis, Hill, Lamar and Cobb - The surrender - Johnston-Sherman armistice, etc. - The surrender of Macon and incidents.

Macon as it is - Location - Temperature - Railroad center - Statistics - Commercial, manufactures, water power and timbers - Banks and other institutions - Educational - Schools, Academies and Colleges - Churches - Benevolent societies - Newspapers and printing - P"ire Department - Railroads - Horticultural and agricultural - Judicial - County officers - Municipal - Post Office - Rose Hill Cemetery - Military - Ladies' Memorial Association-Monument to the heroic dead.

Chapter

His Route through Florida and Georgia - The First Baptism in North America - The Beautiful Maiden Indian Queen - Temples AND Pearls - Silver Bluff - The Accounts of Mr. Bartrum, the English Botanist - The Expedition in Upper Georgia - Gold, Silver AND Mica Found - Bees and Honey - More Pearls - DeSoto in Alabama - Tuscaloosa, the Indian Chief - Battle at Maubilla - Dry Mass - Discovery of the Mississippi ; the First Cross Erected AND Religious Ceremony on its Banks - Death of DeSoto - Fate

Continent and Islands of America were originally Mil called the West Indies, from the first discovery thereof; and the name Indian was misapplied to the aborigines by ' ' those discoverers. When the Islands were discovered by Columbus and the earliest navigators that followed, it was supposed that they had arrived at the Eastern shore of the Continent of India, and hence the people they found there were called Indians. In a very voluminous history of the North American Indians, by Samuel G. Drake, which, since its first issue in 1841, has passed through eleven editions, he remarks: ''It has been the practice of almost every writer who has written about the primitive inhabitants of a country, to give some wild theories of others concerning their origin, and to close the account with his own, which, generally, has been more visionary, if possible, than those of his predecessors. Long, laborious, and, as we may add, useless disquisitions have been daily laid before the world, from the discovery of America by Columbus to the present time, to endeavor to explain by what means the inhabitants got from the Old to the New World. To act, therefore, in unison with many of our predecessors, we will begin as far back as they have done, and so shall commence with Theopompus^ and others, from intimations in whose writings it is alleged the Ancients had knowledge of America and therefore peopled it."

Strabo said that Theopompus, a learned historian and orator, who flourished in the time of Alexander the Great, wrote a book giving a dialogue between Midas and Silenas, in which Silenas said that Europe, Asia and Africa were but islands surrounded on all sides by the sea ; but that there was a continent situated beyond these which was of immense dimensions, even without limits ; and that it was so luxuriant as to produce, animals of prodigious size, and men grew to double the height of themselves, and that they lived to a far greater age ; that they had many great cities, and their usages and laws were different from ours \ that in one city there was more than a million of inhabitants, that gold and silver were there in vast quantities. This country was west of Europe and Africa.

" Hanno flourished when the Carthagenians were in their greatest prosperity, a hundred years before the founding of Rome, about eight hundred years before the Christian era ; having explored the coasts of Africa, he set out for the Pillars of Hercules, now called the Straits of Gibraltar, and sailed westward thirty days. Hence it is inferred by many he must have visited America, or some of its islands. Many, and not without tolerably good reason, believe that an island or continent existed in the Atlantic Ocean about this period, but which disappeared afterwards.

Diodorus Siculus y who lived one hundred years B. C., says that some * Phoenicians were cast upon a most fertile island opposite to Africa.' Of this, they kept the most studied secrecy, which was doubtless occasioned by their jealousy of the advantage the discovery might be to the neighboring nations, and which they wished to secure wholly to themselves. After having passed the islands which lie beyond the Herculean Straits, they spoke of those which lie much further in the ocean ; towards Africa and the west of it, is an immense island in the broad sea, many days sail from Lybia. Its soil is very fertile, and its surface variegated with mountains and valleys. Its coasts are identified with many navigable rivers, and its fields are well cultivated, having delicious gardens and various kinds of plants and trees. It is the finest country known ; the inhabitants have spacious dwellings and everything in the greatest plenty." To say the least of this account, it corresponds very well with that given by the Mexicans when first known to the Spaniards.

Plato lived four hundred years B. C. He says : ' In those first times the Atlantic was a broad island, and there were extant most powerful kings in it, who, with joint forces, appointed to occupy Asia and Europe, and so a most grievous war was carried on, in which the Athenians, with the common consent of the Greeks, opposed themselves, and they became the conquerors. But that Atlantic island, by a flood and earthquake, was indeed suddenly destroyed, and so that warlike people were swallowed up.' He adds in another place, *an island in the mouth of the sea, in the passage of those Straits, called the Pillars of Hercules, did exist, and that island was greater and larger than Lybia and Asia, from which there was an easy passage over to other islands, and from these islands to that continent which is situated out of that region.

" Aristotle y or the author of a book that is attributed to him, speaks of an island beyond the Straits of Gibraltar as follows : Some say that beyond the*Pillars of Hercules, the Carthagenians have found a very fertile island without inhabitants, full of forests, navigable rivers, and fruit in abundance. It is several days voyage from the main land. Some Carthagenians, charmed by the fertility of the country, thought to marry and settle there, but some say that the government of Carthage forbid the settlement upon pain of death, from fear that it would increase in power so as to deprive the mother-country of her possessions there.

" Almost every country has claimed the honor of having been the discoverer of America, and hence the progenitor of the Indians. But since the recent discoveries in the North, writers say but little about getting over inhabitants from Europe, Asia, or Africa, through the difficult way of the Atlantic seas, as it is much easier to pass them over the narrow channels of the North in canoes or upon the ice."

Various speculations prevailed in the old world as to the existence of a new continent west of the Atlantic, according to the records we have quoted, for two thousand and three hundred years, down to the time of its discovery by Columbus, A. D., 1492. In the early part of the following century, Brazil was discovered and taken possession of by the Portugese, and Mexico and Peru were taken for the Spaniards by Cortez and Pizarro. As the North and South American countries were being populated and subjugated by the Spanish, French and English, constant intercourse was kept up between the old and new countries, the former, became familiar with the character, habits and physical appearance of the American Indians, who were so different from any class of people on the globe. The subject of their origin was agitated by all of the enlightened nations in the Sixteenth Century, and has been discussed by the most learned scientists to the present time, without any satisfactory solution. It was claimed by many writers that the Indian was not a descendant of Adam's race, because he could not have crossed the ocean to reach America ; the tribes were so populous when their country was discovered by the whites that they must have existed for many centuries before the compass was applied to navigation ; again after the increase of their race they would certainly have made known to the world the results of their discoveries through the same mode of conveyance that brought them over the sea ; they were not only unable to give any account of their origin but were bewildered at the very appearance of a white man.

On the other hand, the Christian and the Jew have proclaimed that the race of people found in America descended, like themselves, from Adam ; that, they assume as an infallible certainty, for any other theory would be, according to their religion, in opposition to the verity of the Holy Scriptures. Hence a vast number of volumes have been written by the most eminent and honest authors to prove that there existed a pre-historic race in America, who came from the old countries, and that the Indians were their descendants ; and they have devised various plausible methods by which they were transported hither. Prominent among these authors was Mr. Adair, who resided thirty to forty years among the Southern Indians, previous to 1775, ^^id who published a large book upon their history, origin, etc. He finds in their usages, customs, and some words in their language, a similarity to the Hebrews. Other authors follow him and assume that the long lost ten tribes of Israel are identified with the American Indians.

Though near four centuries have elapsed since the Red-man was first known to the civilized world, his origin is still uncertain. The popular opinion of the unbiased mind is, that the Creator, who made the universe and holds it in the hollow of his hand," could make a race of people on the Western as well as the Eastern Hemisphere ; and that neither Moses nor any of his priests or scribes, with all the " learning of the Egyptians," had the most remote conception of the extent of the world. Having no desire to participate in the discussion, the humble writer will summarily dismiss the subject, leaving it in charge of the various historiologists, biologists, and physiological naturalists.

During the Sixteenth Century, all of the territory in the Southern portion of the Continent lying between Massachusetts and Mexico, was not known by any other name than that of Florida.

In 1512, John Ponce de Leon, a Spanish soldier, who had once voyaged with Columbus, had received the impression common to those times, that there was a country in the newly discovered world containing a fountain whose waters had power to arrest disease and produce immortal youth. The venerable Ponce set forth to seek it and to obtain by conquest a kingdom. On Easter Sunday, called by the Spaniards Pascua Florida, and a little north of the latitude of St. Augustine, he beheld, what he considered, the coveted land of flowers, so profusive were the plants and numerous were the forest trees. The fountain of life was not there, but he took possession of the land in the name of Spain and called it Florida. He soon after returned to Spain to report his adventures, and it was not until nine years had elapsed that he was enabled, with a small expedition, to return to Florida. He gave the Indians battle, was overwhelmed and wounded, and died while endeavoring to escape.

In 1528, Paufilo de Narvaez had attempted to overcome Florida with an expedition of three hundred men, mostly mounted cavaliers. He was at first civilly received by the natives, but by his cruel treatment to them, he, in return, was overpowered, any many of his men wasted away ; the remainder embarked for Cuba in rudely constructed boats which were swallowed up by the waves. Among the prisoners captured by the Indians was a young man, Jean Otez, who came to Florida with some others in search of gold. He was about to be burnt to death, when he was fortunately saved through the entreaties of the beautiful daughter of Uceta, the chief - a coincident with the subsequent similar escape of Captain John Smith, in Virginia, by the interposition of Pocahontas. In the earlier days of his captivity, Ortez was compelled to guard, night and day, a lonely temple in which the dead were deposited. After remaining a prisoner twelve years, he made his unexpected and wonderful escape which will be referred to in its order.

The first discovery of the present Georgia was made by Hernando DeSoto, a native of Spain, a commander of renown in the West Indies and Nicaragua, and one of the first that went with Francis Pizarro, upon the conquest of Peru, and by whom, from his worth and valor, he was appointed Lieutenant General. Having no property but his sword, DeSoto won high military distinction and acquired a vast amount of wealth in Peru. Returning to his native country, he found the wildest stories prevailing about the wealth of Florida in minerals and flowers. It had been represented to be the finest country in the world. Numerous applications were make to the King of Spain for an expedition to sail in conquest of Florida. DeSoto, with his laurels acquired under Pizarro, presented an imposing appearance before the court and proposed to fit out an expedition at his own expense to invade and possess the lands of Florida which he had been led to believe were richer in gold than those of Peru or Mexico. About this time he married the beautiful Dona Isabel de Bobadilla, whose father had high influence with the crown. DeSoto's application was granted with the office conferred upon him of Governor of Cuba, because that island was to be the place for the deposit and distribution of arms for carrying on the conquest, and Adelantado of Florida. The design being made public - from the high reputation of the commander and the hopes of gaining much wealth - six hundred chosen young men of the best blood of Spain and Portugal joined the standard of the Adelantado, and more volunteered to go than were wanted. The young men of wealth sold their estates to invest in the expedition. A fleet consisting of five large and four small vessels were assigned to the expedition. There was nothing wanting which wealth could produce, in this expedition.

Amid the salutes of artillery, the music of trumpets, the cheers of thousands of Castilians, the waving of banners, the fleet with the soldiers commanded by the Adelantado, who was accompanied by his bride and a number of attendants, set sail for Cuba on the 6th of April 1538. The voyage to Cuba was more like an excursion of a royal bridal party than a hostile expedition. As the sea was calm there was a revelry in music, dancing, wine and cards. Arriving safely at Cuba, DeSoto consumed a year in arranging the affairs of his government, and in making preparations for the great enterprise before him. Having appointed his wife, de Bobadilla, Governess of Cuba, he put on shipboard three hundred and thirty splendid horses, and increased the number of his soldiers to one thousand, besides sailors. His army was provided with helmets, breastplates, shields and coats of steel, to repel the arrows of the Indians, swords, guns, crossbows, and one piece of artillery. His cavaliers, mounted upon two hundred and thirteen horses, were the most gallant and graceful men of all Spain. Greyhounds, of wonderful fleetness, and bloodhounds of largest size and ferocity were taken along to turn loose upon the savages ; also handcuffs, chains and neck collars, to secure the prisoners. Workmen of every trade, with various tools, men of science, with appliances for refining gold were in attendance; also merchandise, tons of iron and steel, and provisions to last for two years, and three hundred live hogs were taken along. There were twelve priests with their robes, holy relics and sacramental bread and wine, connected with the expedition. After building the first fort at Havana, he .sailed from that place on the 12th of May, 1539, and arrived on the last day of that month at Espiritu Santo, subsequently known as Tampa Bay. On the following day he had a skirmish with the Indians and defeated them. All of the forces landed and marched two leagues to an Indian town, where the cazique had fled to another town, where a message was sent by forty horsemen from DeSoto. They were met by a party of Indians, among whom was their captive, Jean Ortez. The Indians, who never before saw a horse, imagined that the horse and rider was one animal, and quickly dispersed. Ortez recognized his countrymen, though he was attired like an Indian and having been among them so long he had almost forgotten his native language. The spear of a Spaniard was lifted at him, when he made the sign of Roman cross and exclaimed, I am a Christian ! I am a Christian ! slay me not." Alvaro Nieto, the cavalier who was about to hurl his lance at Ortez, recognized that he was a Spaniard, dropped his lance and lifting the stranger upon his horse, took him to DeSoto, who was highly gratified . at his rescue from a captivity of twelve years. DeSoto gave him , clothes, arms and a fine charger ; and as he had become familiar * with the Indian language, made him his interpreter. After tra- i versing the surrounding country for many miles, having numer- i ous conflicts with the natives, the Adelantado cut his way to I Apalache, in the neighborhood of where Tallahassee now stands. | Here was a fertile country, abounding in fruits, corn, etc. The ^ adventurers camped at this place for the winter, sending out ex- | peditions in search of gold, but no trace of metal was found. Learning from two Indian slaves that a country to the Northeast, about fourteen days journey, abounded in gold, silver and pearls, and afterwards hearing confirmation of the pleasing report by others, DeSoto concluded to march his army in search of the place. One of his exploring parties returned, and reported the discovery of the fine bay of Pensacola. He ordered his ships to return to Cuba for supplies and sail for Pensacola in October, where he expected to meet them.

The season being favorable for a march to the golden region, as reported by the slave, on March 3d, 1540, the camp was broken up at Apalache and the army advanced northward. On the third day they discovered Indian towns of the province of Apalache, where they remained two days. From thence they advanced to the province of Allapaha, and remained three days ; thence proceeded ten days northward along the banks of a river, in a fruitful country with peaceful Indians. They came into the province of Achalaqui, which was poor, barren and thinly settled. They came next to a province of the cazique Achalaqui. DeSoto gave the cazique some swine to breed, as his stock was increasing very heavily and none had been killed, for provisions were found plentiful. Thence they came to the province of Cosa's, where they rested five days. The next province was that of Cofaqui, who gave his village to them to camp in, and supplies of provisions. The cazique Cofaqui offered them eight thousand Indians to pass a wilderness of seven days' journey on the route to the province of Queen Cofachiqui, where they expected to find a country abounding in mines of gold and silver. Four thousand Indians were armed to act as defenders, and four thousand more were to transport the burdens of the Spaniards, provisions and everything being provided. The armies then marched apart in excellent order ; the armed Indians making the van and rear guard, and those carrying the burdens, placed in the center. The third day's journey from Cofaqui brought them to the desert, through which they traveled in six days, fording two rapid rivers. On the seventh day both Spaniards

^ind Indians became confused, as the great road was at an end, so that they did not know which trail to continue. Four exploring parties were sent out in different directions to return in five days and report their discoveries.

Before crossing the rivers a singular incident occurred : Two favorite Indians who had been with the Spaniards a long time, and had become familiar with their customs, were called by them, the one Mark, and the other Peter. They cried out one night that Peter was in danger of being killed. All of the forces were immediately at arms, and found Peter quaking, who said that "the devil, attended by many of his companions, had threatened to kill him in case he conducted the Spaniards, as he had promised, to the land of gold ; that they had dragged and beaten him so unmercifully, had they not come to his assistance he would have killed him, and since the great devil had fled from two Christians, he desired that they would baptize him, that he might be a Christian as well as they." By the bruises and swelling on Peter's body, his story appeared to be no fiction, whereupon the Adelantado delivered him to the priests, who nursed him all night and baptized him with water from the river the following day ; and we may with safety say that, from the high authority from which we trace the record of his march, Adelantado DeSoto was the discoverer of the Ocmulgee river ; that he journeyed with his army of Spaniards along its western bank ten days, and that the first ordinance of baptism recorded in the New World, was administered in its crystal waters in the month of March, 1540, at the feet of those memorable relics of antiquity, the Indian mounds that majestically overlook the present city of Macon.

The province of the cazique Cofaqui extended to the Oconee river. The wilderness, or desert spoken of, laid between the Oconee and the Savannah river, on which was the objective point of the excursion, the province of the maiden Queen Cofachiqui, who presided at Silver Bluff. Here was where they expected to find the mines of gold and silver.

Cofaqui, the latter came out to meet him with many of his people all finely dressed with plumes and feathers, and rich mantles of sable, and other valuable furs. When the Spaniards were quartered, the cazique went away to another town, leaving that one entirely to them. The next day the cazique Cofaqui returned, offering the armed Indians, etc., to escort the strangers through the desert. The cazique had an abundance of stores of maize which was used by the Indians, as wheat was used by the Spaniards, and other provisions and dried fruits. It was not the season to cure meat, and for flesh they depended on fresh meat, which they obtained daily by hunting and fishing. The two young Indians that had told of the lands of gold and silver, were Peter and Mark. After passing the wilderness, they also lost the trail. DeSoto asked the Indian general, whom the cazique placed in charge of the eight thousand Indians to defend his army and carry his freight, why no one of them knew the road to their destination ? He answered : That no man among them had ever been there, and that their wars had never been managed with complete armies, but that they killed and made one another prisoners whensoever they happened to meet at the fisheries on the rivers, or in hunting ; wherein those of Cafachiqui having proved most successful, his countrymen did not go so far which was the reason of their being in the country."

One of the exploring parties having been out six days, returned four men to report the discovery of a town seated on the same side of the great river to which DeSoto had advanced and halted. The town was reported small, but contained stores of provisions, and that higher up still there were several towns, and the land was sowed. The party that made the pretended discovery was one thousand of the cazique's men under his general, Patossa, who, " on the night after they entered the town, fell upon the natives, killed all they could lay their hands on, plundered the temple, which was the place of burial, where they had the best of their effects. The town was in the province of Cofachiqui, and in that part of it much mischief was done by the other Indians. The Adelantado now dismissed all of the eight thousand Indians to prevent any further depredations while they were under his protection, and having given their general, and other commanders, some provisions, they went away well pleased."

Cofaqui, whom we shall call the Ocmulgee cazique appears to have been a wily man himself. He had been at enmity with the Indians in the domain of Queen Cofachiqni. His proffer to DeSoto of his thousands of warriors to accompany him thither, was a cunningly devised plan to make war upon that people, who, when they beheld the horsemen, would regard the " horse and rider as the same animal," and the infantry as men " with fire in their hands," would surrender from terror.

DeSoto continued his march three days up the broad river, and was perplexed as to the means he should devise to cross it, when the two Christian Indians, Mark and Peter, discovered at night, from the barking of dogs and lights from houses, that there was a town on the opposite side of the river. The next morning DeSoto advanced with one hundred horsemen and as many on foot, to the shore to view the town, when the Indians on the opposite side fled at the sight of the Spaniards. Finally six of them crossed in a canoe, and according to custom, the Adelantado was seated in a chair to receive them with state. The six Indians approached, bowed first to the Sun, then to the Moon and next to the Adelantado, and said : Sir, are you for peace or for war?" He bid the interpreter tell them, " he was for peace, and required nothing but provisions, and desired they would excuse him in asking for them." They replied that they accepted peace, but were concerned about provisions, as they were scarce, there having been a plague, that they were subjects of a maiden queen, to whom they would return and report. Soon as the message was delivered to her, two large canoes were covered with awnings and decked with choicest feathers, etc., in which the Queen glided over the water with many attendants. On reaching the camp of the Adelantado, she sat upon a stool that had been brought for her, and after some compliments, said : " While she was sorry for the scarcity of provisions in the country, she had two store houses for the relief of the needy, one of which she gave them and desired they would leave her the other ; that she had two thousand bushels of maize in another town which she would also give them, and would quit her own house and half of the town to quarter the men in, if they needed it." The Adelantado replied in a most courteous manner, returning thanks, saying he would be satisfied with what she would be pleased to give him. While he was speaking she took a string of pearls from her neck and delivered it to the interpreter, John Ortez, to hand to the Adelantado, saying the transgression against modesty forbid the presentation from her own hand. The handsome Adelantado stood erect, received it with appropriate respect, and presented her with a ruby he wore on his finger. Thus the peace was ratified ; the young Queen Cofachiqui, whose country was the goal DeSoto so long sought, went away, the Spaniards admiring her youth and beauty, grace and accomplishments.

The Spaniards crossed the Savannah river in canoes and floats and quartered in the middle of the town. They found the country was extraordinarily fruitful. Exploring parties with engineers and miners were sent out in search of the precious metals. "They found much copper, some of a golden color, and great plates of ore, bright like silver, but mouldered like the earth." The golden colored metal was pyrites, and the other was mica. A vast quantity of pearls were found. The pearl bearing mussels were abundant in the river; the Indians were unfamiliar with their value. The Queen gave the Spaniards leave to go to a house held as sacred, being the burial place of the nobility, and to the temple, which was the burying place of her forefathers, in another town, both containing immense quantities of pearls which were at their disposal. There were found chests laid by in the temple, in which were the bodies of the dead. In baskets made of reeds there were an abundance of large and seed pearls, also garments made of furs and skins, for men and women. The officers measured out five hundred weight of pearls. The Adelantado ordered that the forces should not be encumbered with loads and that only half a hundred weight of pearls should be taken which should be sent to Havana, to test their quality and value. Proceeding to another town they found a similar temple containing large strings of beads and quantities of pearls, furs, etc.; and in the charnel rooms there were a great number of pikes with copper heads, that resembled gold, and axes of the same metal, clubs, staves, bows, arrows, targets and breast-plates.

It was discovered that the queen mother, a widow, lived retired, in a town twelve leagues distant, and had been sent for by her daughter to come and see the pale faces, and that she declined, reprimanding the queen for remaining among such strangers. At the request of the queen two more escorts were sent for the mother, who said she would not come. The escort visited a similar temple, as described, in her town with the same character of contents. DeSoto and his lordly army of Castilians, though highly pleased with the prosperity of the surrounding natives and their hospitable treatment, were sorely disappointed in not finding the country abounding in the precious metals. After remaining in the province of the maiden Indian queen near three weeks, they began to make preparations for continuing their search for mines of gold in another direction.

Mr. Bartrum, a celebrated English botanist, visited Georgia, Alabama and Florida in 1744, on a tour of investigation, for several years. He published, in London, a large volume of his travels which has passed several editions. On his visit through Carolina he refers to a place called '' Silver Bluff " as being very celebrated, and says, ''It is of considerable height upon the Carolina shore of the Savannah river ; its steep banks discover various strata of earth ; the surface, for a considerable depth, is a loose sandy loam with a mixture of sea shells." After describing the various stratas, he found among them " pyrites and sulphurous nodules, shining like brass, lying in this flaky-like, micaceous earth ; also sticks, acorns with their cups, limbs and trunks of trees, all transmuted or charred black, hard and shining as charcoal ; also animal substances petrified, and that the surface of the gruond upon this bluff extends a mile and half or two miles on the river, and a mile in breadth with good soil, which is evident from the fine trees and shrubs in the old fields spreading abroad to a great distance. There are also vestiges and monuments of the residence of the ancients, as Indian mounds, terraces, etc., as well as remains or traces of fortresses, which are supposed to be the camps of the Spaniards in search of silver."

In 1736 George Galphin established himself at this point as an Indian trader, and gave the old site of Cofachiqui the name of Silver Bluff. All Indian traditions locates the old site. The most ancient Indian informed Galphin that this was the place where DeSoto found the Indian queen. Galphin was an influential man in Georgia and Alabama. The wife of Governor Milledge was his daughter. The bluff is situated in Barnwell District, South Carolina, near Augusta, and was the property of Governor Hammond. The father of Governor Hammond was one of the earliest school-teachers in Macon, Georgia, where he died, and was buried in the old cemetery in that city.

On the 3d of May, 1540, DeSoto, the discoverer also of the Savannah river, and South Carolina, broke up his camp at Silver Bluff. The atrocious requital he made to the beautiful young Indian queen for her generous treatment to him and his command, was to make her a prisoner and retain her person as a hostage to ensure obedience among her subjects.

The army marched up the Savannah river, passing several Indian towns where they found the usual temples containing pearls and othes relics, until they reached a town in the present Habersham county, Georgia. From this place they marched in a Western course, tarrying in several towns on their route; being met by their caziques, with one thousand warriors wearing plumes and rich mantles of furs, by whom they were conducted to a town on the present Oostanaula which contained five hundred houses. The house of the cazique was situated upon a mound, and was surrounded by a terrace wide enough for six men to promenade abreast. The house and the town was tendered to the strangers for lodging during their visit, and was accepted. After march- ing through their towns where they were well received, they halted at Chiaha, the present site of Rome, Georgia. During the march to this place the noble young captive queen made her escape, doubtless with intense disgust at the perfidy of the pale faces. Two negro slaves and a Barbary moor accompanied her in her flight ; they were concealed by the natives who rejoiced to have anything remain around them that belonged to the white man.

DeSoto kept his engineers prospecting for gold during his journey. They reported finding immense quantities of pyrites and copper, though but little silver or gold. Notwithstanding DeSoto had explored the richest portion of the auriferous regions of Georgia, his disappointment in discovering so little gold was that he expected to find it in large quantities and on the surface, and in deposits, as it was then, and for a very long period afterwards, found in Spain, Peru and Mexico. The American gold is found in veins of quartz, deep in the earth. The Virginia mines, in Colorado, are worked three thousand feet below the earth's surface, and their yield is greater than any mine in America, and probably in the world.

In Mr. Pickett's excellent history of DeSoto's march through Alabama, Georgia, etc., he quotes largely from the standard authorities of Spain, who wrote their narative from the records of officers and surviving priests, and others, on their return from the disastrous expedition of DeSoto.

Mr. Pickett quotes: " On the arrival of DeSoto at Chiaha, the noble young Chief of the town received him with unaffected joy, and made the following address :

'' Mighty Chief : Nothing could have made me so happy as to be the means of serving you and your warriors. You sent me word from Guaxule to have corn collected to last your army two months. Here I have twenty barns full of the best which the country can afford. If I have not met your wishes, respect my tender years, and receive my good will to do for you whatever I am able." conducted to the Chief's own house, which was prepared for his accommodation. Chiaha contained a great quantity of bears' oil in gourds, and walnut oil clear as butter, and equally as palatable; and for the only time in the entire route were seen pots of honey. Of the honey Mr. Pickett says: have often been informed by bee hunters and Indian countrymen, that after the territory of Alabama became partially settled by an American population, wild bees were much more abundant than they were in their earliest recollection. They were introduced into the country from Georgia and Carolina, and after escaping from their hives to the woods, became wild - hence DcSoto found no honey at the early period in which he invaded it, except at Chiaha."

And we add that that portion of Georgia has ever excelled in the culture of bees, and in the quantity and superiority of honey. At every Georgia State Fair the premiums are awarded for the honey produced in the vicinity of Rome, Georgia.

The Spaniards rested in the romantic and delightful spot where now stands the flourishing town of Rome, for thirty days. The horses, which were reduced in flesh, now fattened upon the meadows, and the men scattered about at will along the rivers leisurely searching for the coveted gold. The chief presented the Adelantado with a string of pearls two yards in length, and as large as filberts, for which he received in return velvet, silk and other cloths, much prized by the Indians. He said the temple of the town, where the remains of his ancestors were deposited, contained quantities of pearls, etc. The Chief, to illustrate the manner of collecting these pearls, sent some of his subjects in canoes to fish all night for the oysters which contained them. He had a large fire made upon the bank of the Coosa, and when the canoes returned laden, the oysters were thrown upon the glowing coals ; they succeeded in finding many pearls the size of peas which DeSoto pronounced beautiful, but for the fire which had robbed them of some of their brilliancy. A soldier, in eating some of the oysters, or rather mussels, found I one of great size uninjured, and offered it to the Adalantado for

Donna Isabel. He declined the kindness intended his wife, and urged the generous fellow to keep it to buy horses with at Havana. Connoisseurs in camp valued it at four hund red ducats."

The oysters mentioned, w'as undoubtedly the mussel commonly known as the unio, a pearl-bearing mussel. The writer has seen vast quantities of them along the rivers in Georgia and Alabama, particularly in the regions of the old Indian haunts, and below Macon, in the cotton fields contiguous to the Ocmulgee ; many of these shells have been turned up in the plow furrows. Mr. Pickett says : " But as thousands of the shells lie banked up, some deep in the ground, we may also suppose that the Indians, in DeSoto's time, everywhere in Alabama, obtained pearls from them. There can be no doubt about the pearls found in the State of Georgia in 1540, but they were of a coarser and less valuable kind than the Spaniards supposed. The Indians used to perforate them with a copper spindle and string them around their necks like beads ; others made toy babies and birds of them. Old warriors have informed me that their ancestors used the shells to temper the clay with which they made their vessels."

Before breaking up camp in the picturesque and delightful country surrounding the confluence of the Etowah and Oostanaula Rivers, DeSoto, at the solicitation of some of his unprincipled officers, demanded of the noble young Chief a number of Indian girls to accompany them in their explorations to the West. Upon which demand all of the inhabitants, on the night following, quietly left the town and secreted themselves on the mountains. Summoning the horsemen, DeSoto scoured the country, and, provoked at not finding the fugitives, destroyed their flourishing fields of corn. Learning afterwards that men only would be required for the purpose of bearing the baggage of the Spaniards, the fugitives returned. It had been the custom of DeSoto to capture Indians and impose the servile labor of bearing upon their backs the burdens of the army.

side of the Coosa, leaving the hospitable Indians of Chiaha many presents, and entered the lands of the present State of Alabama, in the county of Cherokee. Of their arrival Pickett says: " Never before had our natives beheld white faces, long beards, strange apparel, glittering armor, and stranger than all,

[ the singular animals bestrode by the dashing cavaliers." Here DeSoto received the same hospitalities from the chiefs and their subjects that had been extended to him since his march from Apalache in Florida. Throughout Georgia his march was peaceable and agreeable, and it would have been the same elsewhere had he not taken both chiefs and natives as hostages. He journeyed through several Indian towns, exploring the country to - the mountains, finding little gold, but the country abounding , with huge rocks and lofty hills. The Chief of a mountain town presented him with a buffalo robe, which the Spaniards supposed was the skin of a tremendous animal, partaking of the qualities of the ox and the sheep. The result of the mining prospect was an abundance of the highly colored copper, such as is found in Georgia. In Alabama DeSoto met with many fortified towns and a number of mounds; " the trail was lined with towns, villages and hamlets, and many sown fields which reached from one to the other." The climate was delightful, and as in Georgia, abounding in fine meadows and beautiful little rivers. The numerous barns were full of corn, while acres of it were ripened on the fields. In the fields were plum trees, peculiar to the country, and others resembling the fruit in Spain. Wild fruit clambered to the tops of the trees, and lower branches were ' laden with delicious Isabella grapes." After meeting with a Chief dressed in a mantle of martin skins, his head adorned with a diadem of brilliant feathers, and who was escorted by a thousand warriors, DeSoto accepted his invitation and visited his town ; it contained five hundred houses and was the capital of this flourishing province. The Chief offered him any place I in his extensive domain that he might select, to establish a Spani ish colony. In return for this kindness, DeSoto, on leaving, provisions. Some of the Indians taken here were placed in irons as slaves and made to bear the baggage of the army to the Mississippi river. The village of the Chief was the capital of Coosa. Here DeSoto left a young Christian negro slave who had taken sick, after having been with him since his departure from Cuba. The Indians made a pet of him on account of " his peculiar hair and sable complexion." He recovered, and was doubtless the distant ancestor of " dark-colored savages seen in that region in modern times." The march continued to Ullehabale, " a town surrounded by a wall composed of two rows of posts driven deep in the ground, with poles laid horizontally between them, the inner and outer side of the frame work neatly stuccoed with clay and straw. Port holes were left at proper distance as high as a lance. Such was the character of the fortifications from this place onward. DeSoto left some hogs and cattle among the towns, and such is the origin of these animals among the Indians.

On the 1 8th the Spaniards passed the town of Tallassee, which was an extensive one, and well fortified. The Spaniards were next met by the son of Tuscaloosa, a potent Chief whose province extended thirty miles to the Tombigby and beyond. The son bore a message from Tuscaloosa inviting DeSoto to visit his capital, where great preparations were made for his reception. Tuscaloosa was a Chief of great power : " He was lord of many territories and much people, and was feared by his neighbors and subjects." He was forty years old, of gigantic stature, with a small waist and heavy limbs. He was well proportioned and very handsome. He received DeSoto with respect, and observed his dignity. After accepting his generous hospitality two days, and the Spaniards supplying themselves freely from his store of provisions, DeSoto selected the largest and strongest horse in his army, captured the cazique, Tuscaloosa, placed him astride of the animal and bore him off as a hostage. He was more than a head taller than any of the attendants, and mounted on the horse his feet nearly trailed the ground. But Tuscaloosa was determined to be revenged. He was Chief of the

Mobilian tribe, and succeeded in getting messages to his subjects of the treachery of the Spaniards. The capture of so many of their Chiefs and making slaves of the captured natives, aroused many thousands of the various tribes. DeSoto now marched through the center of Alabama, and was the discoverer of the great river that bears that name. Passing through many populous towns he found quantities of corn, beans, pumpkins and other provisions.

On the 1 8th of October the Adalantado and the Chief, Tus- Icaloosa, entered the capital of the Mobilians at the town of iMaubila, on the Alabama river, twenty-five miles above its conifluence with the Tombigby. " The town was surrounded by a high wall, made of immense trunks of trees set deep in the ground and close together, strengthened with cross-timbers and interwoven with large vines. A thick mud plaster, resembling handsome masonry, concealed the wood work, together with towers capable of containing eight men each, at the distance of fifty feet apart. An Eastern and Western gate opened into the town which contained eighty handsome houses, each capable of holding one thousand persons. They all fronted a large public square. DeSoto and Tuscaloosa were ushered into this square with songs, music upon Indian flutes and the graceful dancing of the beautiful brown girls. They alighted from their chargers land seated themselves under a ' canopy of State.' Remaining here a short time, Tuscaloosa requested that he should no longer be held as a hostage, nor required to follow the army any further. The Adalantado hesitated in his reply, which brought the Chief to his feet, who walked off with a lofty and independent bearing to one of the houses. In the meantime one of the spies of DeSoto imformed him there were ten thousand Indian warriors in the houses, and that other houses were filled with clubs, stones, bows and arrows. DeSoto was surprised and deeply solicitous. He secretly sent word to his men to be ready for an attack. Then, anxious to avert a rupture, by regaining possession of the Chief, he approached him with smiles and kind words, but Tuscaloosa scornfully turned his back on him, and was soon lost among the host of excited warriors." And now commenced a most horrible carnage. An Indian excitedly rushed from one of the houses, denounced the Spaniards as robbers and assassins, and drew his bow at one of them, when a swordsman, with a powerful sweep of his blade, split his body and let out his entrals. The Indians now emerged from the houses and rushed upon the Spaniards. They retreated fighting face to face with DeSoto in front, until they passed the gate into the plain. A party of Indians succeeded in capturing all of the baggage and other effects of the Spaniards, which they deposited in a house in the town. They released the Indian slaves, except a few that were with the Spaniards. The remainder of the army now arrived and the battle was renewed, with awful destruction to the Indians. The cavalry and infantry charged, and drove them behind their walls. Here they showered arrows and stones upon the Spaniards with considerable effect, until the latter succeeded in breaking down the gates and entering the town. The Indians were driven into the large houses which were fired by the Spaniards, and four thousand men and women perished in the flames. Tuscaloosa was killed in the battle, and DeSoto severely wounded. The loss of the Indians were fifty-five hundred in killed and burnt ; that of the Spaniards eighty-two in killed, and every man was wounded ; the most of them received several different wounds. Among their slain were all of the surgeons except one, who estimated that there were one thousand seven hundred wounds on the bodies of the survivors. All the medicines, oils, bandages and surgical implements were destroyed by the fire in the large house, where nearly all of the baggage and equipments of the army had been deposited by the Indians. The relics and robes of the priests, their flour and wine used in the sacrament, and a thousand other things which the wilderness could not supply, were burnt. Forty-five horses were also lost. The Spaniards wore their armour in the battle, which was impenetrable against the arrows of the natives.

The ships from Cuba had arrived at Pensacola with supplies, DeSoto was within a week's march of that port. He remained in camp near the battle ground until the wounded had recovered. A large number of his men were anxious to return to the ships, being reduced in health and without the actual comforts and even necessities for further service. Joy prevailed throughout the camp when the news of the arrival of tne ships was confirmed. DeSoto discovered that some of his men were conspiring to return to Spain. He became perplexed and gloomy. He knew that his means were exhausted, his pearls and all his effects had been lost by the fire, and his hopes of finding a country abounding in gold, thus far, blasted. He, therefore, determined to thwart his conspirators and changed his course to an opposite direction, turning his back upon the ships laden with provisions, clothes and other supplies.

The priests held a convention with the laymen and concluded that corn meal could not be substituted for flour, and that there was no substitute for wine in the celebration of mass. After this, in place of the chalices, altar dresses, chasubles and other sacred articles, which had been lost by the fire, the fathers made some robes of deer skins, built rustic altars, and read the prayers of the mass on Sundays, omitting the consecration. This episode was called " Dry Mass."

On Sunday, the i8th November, 1540, the astounding order to march north, and that the first man would be put to death who attempted to return to the ships, was issued. The disappointed cavaliers reluctantly obeyed. After many battles, adventures and hardships, attended with sickness and loss of life, the Spaniards, in May, 1541, reached a village called Chisca. It was located near a wide and rapid river, the largest they had discovered. This was the ''Father of Waters," the mighty Mississippi, and DeSoto was the fir§t European to look upon that turbulent stream and be buried in its waters.

Mr. Theodore Irving, who studied all of the Spanish authorities while at Madrid, and wrote a valuable book of the expedition of DeSoto in America, recalls " a religious ceremony on

The army remained tranquil in this village during three days, with much good feeling on both sides. On the morning of the fourth the cazique, accompanied by all his principal subjects came into the presence of DeSoto, and making a profound obeisance, ' Senor,' said he, ' as you are superior to us in prowess and surpass us in arms, we likewise believe that your God is better than our God ! These you behold before you, are the chief warriors of my dominions. We supplicate you to pray to your God to send us rain, for our fields are parched for the want of water !"

DeSoto replied, that although he and all his followers were but sinners, yet they would supplicate God, the Father of mercies, to show mercy unto them. In the presence of the cazique, he ordered his chief carpenter to hew down the largest and highest pine tree in the vicinity and construct of it a cross.

They immediately felled one of such immense size that a hundred men could not raise it from the ground. They formed of it a perfect cross, and erected it on a high hill on the banks of the river, which served the Indians as a watchtower, overlooking every eminence in the vicinity. Everything was prepared in two days, and the Governor ordered that the next morning all should join in a solemn procession to it, except an armed squadron of horse and foot, who should be on the alert to protect the army.

The cazique walked beside the Governor, and many of the savage warriors mingled among the Spaniards. Before them went a choir of priests and friars, chanting the litany, while the soldiers responded. The procession, in which were more than a thousand persons, both Spaniards and Indians, wound slowly and solemnly along until it arrived before the cross, where all sank upon their knees. Two or three prayers were offered up ; they then arose, and two by two, approached the holy emblem, bent the knee before it, and worshipped and kissed it.

this singular but imposing ceremony. With their arms extended and their hands raised, they watched the movements of the Spaniards. Ever and anon they raised their eyes to heaven and made signs with their faces and hands, as if asking God to listen to the Christian prayer. Then would they raise a low and wailing cry, like people in excessive grief, echoed by the plaintive murmuring of their children's voices. DeSoto and his followers were moved to tenderness, to behold in a strange and heathen land, a savage people worshipping with such deep humility and tears, the emblem of our redemption. Observing the same order, the procession returned ; the priests chanted forth TV Deum laudatnus, and with it closed the solemnity of the day.

God, in his mercy, says the Spanish Chronicler, willing to show these heathens that he listeneth unto those who call upon him in truth, sent down, in the middle of the ensuing night, a plenteous quantity of rain, to the great joy of the Indians. * *

It is a reflection replete with interest that three centuries ago the cross, the type of our beautiful religion, was planted on the banks of the Mississippi, and its silent forests were awakened by the Christian hymn of gratitude and praise. The effect was vivid but transitory. The '' voice cried in the wilderness," and reached and was answered by every heart, but it died away and was forgotten, and was not to be heard again in that savage region for many generations. It was as if a lightning gleam had broken for a moment upon a benighted world, startling it with sudden effulgence, only to leave it in tenfold gloom. The real dawning was yet afar off from the benighted Valley of the Mississippi.

DeSoto advanced into Arkansas, and returned the first of June, 1542, to the great river, where, sick, and exhausted in materials, clothing, etc., he commenced the construction of two brigantines to communicate with Cuba. This grand army, once composed of one thousand of the best blood of Spain, and equipped with all that wealth could command, was now reduced to three hundred and twenty men, and apparaled, like the natives, in the skins of animals. DeSoto was taken with a violent fever; he had met with nothing but disappointment, and his proud spirit was subdued. After appointing Moscosco to the command he bade his companions farewell, entreating them " to keep together and return to that country which he was destined never to see, and then closed his eyes in death." To conceal his death from the Indians his body was placed in a trough made of a hollow oak, and on a dark night sunk into the bosom of the Mississippi. " Long did its waters wash the bones of one of the bravest sons of Spain ! He was the first to behold that river - the first to close his eyes in death upon it - and the first to find a grave in its deep and turbid channel."

The Spaniards used bridle bits, saddle stirrups and every particle of iron that could be made into a nail, skins of Indian mantles for sails, and made several rough brigantines for their departure down the river. Five hundred Indian slaves were left behind ; one hundred were taken with them ; amongst them were the beautiful girls captured at the battle of Maubila. After descending the river, the remnant of the army reached the Mexican coast September loth, 1543. The Cuban ships found them at Vera Cruz. They had been well ^ cared for at the city of Mexico by the Viceroy and the elegant Castilian ladies of the court who were enthusiastic in admiration of the beautiful Indian girls - the original daughters of Alabama. The announcement of the ill-fated expedition under DeSoto cast a deep gloom over Havanna, and the fair Dona Isabel, so long distracted in mind over the long and unaccountable absence of her husband, became overwhelmed with grief and died with a broken heart.

Note. - The authorities from which the foregoing narratives are written are Col. A. J. Pickett's history of the Aboriginees of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. The Spanish authors he drew from were Garcilaso, De la Vega, the last of the line of the Peruvian Incas, a most distinguished and reliable historian; Antonio De Herrara, historiographer to his Catholic Majesty, Charles V., of Spain, Briedma, the commissary of DeSoto, and the writings of a Portugese eye witness. Also the history of DeSoto's conquest of Florida, by Theodore Irving, a nephew of Washington Irving, who spent several

Chapter Ii

Ingenuity and Mechanism - Temples - Ornaments - Religion - Marriage Ceremonies - Burial - The Creeks or the Muscogees - The Uchees - Milfort and McGillivray - A Singular Record Inscribed ON Pearls - Mary Musgrove - Mr. Bartrum's Visit to the Ocmulgee Fields - History of the Creek Nation - The Mounds, and the Object of their Construction - Skulls, Bones and Indian Articles Found in the Mounds - Brown's Mount - Opinions of Various Authors - The Ocmulgee River - Definition of Indian Names - Important Historical Events Connected with the Ocmulgee - Treaties with the Indians.

V T esting adventures of DeSoto than is usual to a history of a local character, for several reasons : He was the first white man, with his troops, to discover the greater portion of Florida and two of its most important harbors. He was the discoverer, also, of all of the important rivers between the Savannah River and the Rocky Mountains; he watered his horses from them and pitched his camps upon their banks. Other early adventurers made their discoveries by sailing along the coast, but De- Soto was the first man to penetrate the wilderness, and marching through a hundred Indian settlements for several thousand miles.

From the discoveries of DeSoto we conclude that the Indian population was larger at that date than at any subsequent period. Notwithstanding their hospitable treatment to them in Alabama years in Madrid, and translated from the Spanish accounts written by the same authors from which Col. Pickett founded his narrative. Col. Pickett was four years writing his book - had lived from boyhood amongst the Indians, and so had his father. He exhausted every source of information in written accounts and Indian traditions. He traveled over the country, and in pursuance of his investigations established the route of DeSoto's journeyings.

he destroyed them by the thousand. It is also believed that the natives were in a higher state of civilization then than at any time following. The reception and introductory speeches of the chiefs, though brief, were chaste, appropriate, unaffected, and evinced a generous sentiment. In respect to their language, they had but few words ; their wants were few, and as nature supplied them all, they had no use for words. They could, in a degree, express their ideas by signs, motions and by pointing to objects. Their illustrations were ever by natural objects ; within a few years of two centuries afterwards, the same characteristic will be observed in the speech made Tomichichi in offering the Indian emblems to Oglethorpe : Here is a little present ; I give you a buffalo skin, adorned on the inside with the head and feathers of an eagle, which I desire you to accept, because the eagle is the emblem of speed and the buffalo of strength ; the English are as swift as the bird and strong as the beast ; since like the former, they flew over vast seas to the uttermost parts of the earth, and like the latter, they are so strong that nothing can withstand them ; the feathers of the eagle are soft and signify love, and are emblems of peace in our land, so we leave them with you as a token of everlasting peace. The buffalo's skin is warm and signifies protection ; therefore, I hope the English will love and protect their little families."

The dress of the males were of a mantle made of the inner bark of trees and a species of flax interwoven. It was thrown over the shoulders with the right arm exposed ; skins of deer were also used. One of these mantles encircled the body of the female, commencing below the breast and extending nearly to the knees, while another was gracefully thrown over the shoulders, also with the right arm exposed. Both sexes were fond of ornament, and frequently wore rich feathers, strings of beads, pearls and shining shells, and the better classes wore mocasins extending to the knees, made of dressed deer skins ; plumes of beautiful feathers adorned the heads of the warriors." implements were found among them ; wonderful indeed ! The art and science of the old world for three thousand years have never been able to harden copper so as to make it useful like steel. How the Indians performed the process is as great a mystery as that of the building of the pyramids by the ancient Egyptians. Within those ancient monuments have been found, in late years, chisels and other tools made of copper, which were harder than any other metal. With these, the ancient artificers along the oldest known and most wonderful river in the world, gave shape to the vast stones of which the pyramids were built. The whole civilized and enlightened world have failed to discover the valuable art of utilizing copper in cutting stone, as the Orientals used it ; their tools were superior to any other class of implements since that time. Yet the same art, or a similar one that produced the same effects, was common to the natives of America, whom near all history have called savages !

The ingenuity of the Indians in the making of arms, houses, ornaments and fortifications, was considerable and adequate to all their demands. Some of their towns were surrounded by walls, and houses were surmounted with towers. At Pacha, west of the Mississippi, DeSoto discovered a large ditch around the town, " wide enough for two canoes to pass without the paddles touching; it was nine miles long, communicated with the Mississippi, supplied the waters with fish and afforded them the privileges of navigation." They excelled in the construction of canoes and barges. A chief approached DeSoto at the Mis. sissippi from the west side with two hundred handsome canoes of very large size, bearing over the stream more than a thousand painted and plumed warriors, standing erect to protect those who paddled. The canoes of the chiefs and principal men had fancy awnings, decorated like those of the Georgia Queen on the Savannah river, with waving flags and plumes.

Frequent reference has been made to their temples. They were all nearly similar in construction and for the purposes for which they were used. Garcilaso gives the following description of the temple near Silver Bluff : "It was more than one hun- dred feet in length and forty in width. The walls were high in proportion; the roof steep and covered with mats of sjdit cane, interwoven so compactly that they resembled the rush carpeting of the Moors, (the inhabitants in this section all covered their houses with this matting.) Shells of different sizes, arranged in an ingenious manner, were placed on the outside of the roof. On the inside, beautiful plumes, shells and pearls were suspended in the form of festoons from one to the other down to the floor. The temple was entered at the three gates, at each of which were stationed gigantic wooden statues, presenting fierce and menacing attitudes. Some of them were armed with clubs, maces, canoe paddles, copper hatchets, and others with drawn bows and long pikes. All of these implements were ornamented with rings of pearls and beads of copper. On the side of the walls were benches on which sat boxes containing the deceased chiefs and their families. Two feet below these were statues of the persons entombed, the space between them being made of strong wooden reeds adorned with pearls and colored tassels. Three rows of chests, full of valuable pearls, occupied the middle of the temple. Deer skins, of a variety of colors, were packed away in chests, together with a large amount of clothing made of the skins of wild cat, martin and other animals. The temple abounded in the most splendid mantles of feathers. Adjoining was a storehouse, containing eight apartments, abounding in valuable relics."

At a town in Arkansas, salt was made into small cakes and sold among the various tribes for skins and mantles; it was made from the shores of a lake, and at several saline springs. " Productions were abundant ; peas, squashes, beans, pumpkins and corn grew with but little labor throughout the whole country ; persimons, which were made into large cakes, were eaten in winter, with walnut and bear's oil. Pumpkins were roasted in the embers, and resembled in taste boiled chestnuts. The granaries were sometimes erected in the woods near navigable streams, and were constructed with stone and dirt, and covered with cane mats. Here were deposited corn, fruits, and all kinds of cured meat for subsistence during the winter hunts. The universal honesty of the people was a guarantee that the contents of these granaries would remain undisturbed until consumed by the owners.

"The Indians were a sociable people, and at certain pertods indulged in large feasts. At other times they indulged in bow shooting, singing, music, ball playing and dancing."

The Spanish authorities make no mention of the religions of the Indians 'during DeSoto's expedition of five years among them, further than in the West there was a tribe of Sun-worshippers. DeSoto said to the chief, " I am a child of the Sun; " to which the chief replied, "If you are, command the Sun to dry up the waters in the great river, (the Mississippi,) and then we will believe you." At another place on the same river, De- Soto was surrounded by a chief and his subjects. The chief sneezed loudly, when the subjects bowed their heads, opened and closed their arms, and saluting him said, "May the Sun guard you ; may the Sun be with you ; may the Sun shine upon you; may the Sun prosper and defend you." largest deer, with the head and legs attached. They filled it with a variety of fruit and grain and sewed it up again. The horns were also hung with garlands of fruit. The skin resembled a large buck; it was taken by the tribe to an open plain, placed upon a high post, and just at the rising of the sun, the Indians fell upon their knees around it and implored that luminary to grant them, the ensuing season, an abundance of fruits and provisions, as good as those contained in the skin of the deer."

If a chief desired to marry, he was accustomed to send his principal men to select from the girls of the nobility one of the youngest and most beautiful. Painted with colors, and adorned with shells and pearls, the chosen one was then placed in a sedan chair, the top of which formed an arch of green boughs. When placed by his side, on an elevated seat, great pomp and ceremony, an array of ornaments of all kinds, and music and danc-

When the chief desired to build a tower, he would settle a site near a river and throw up a mound thirty to fifty feet high, round on the sides, but flat on top, on which he would build houses for himself and family. I'hose who were able would build houses in squares at the base of the mound, and the lower class build wigwams on the suburbs.

When married Indians died in battle it was the custom of the women to visit the graves of their husbands and deposit upon them the arms which they used in hunts and in war, and the shells out of which they were accustomed to drink. They would cut off their flowing hair and lay it over the graves ; they would not marry again until their hair regained its former length. They would surround the chief, stoop at his feet, cover their faces with their hands, weep, and implore him to be revenged for the death of their husbands, and to grant them a support during their widowhood, and to permit them to marry again when the time appointed by law expired.

Such were the customs of the natives in 1540-42, when De- Soto was between the Savannah and the Mississippi. Though very many of the tribes spoke different languages, their habits were very similar. The names of the tribes, with a few exceptions, seemed to have been called after that of their respective caziques. History tells us little of the Georgia Indians from the time of the expedition of DeSoto down to the arrival of Oglethorpe at Yamacraw Bluff, on the Savannah river, in 1733, and during that long interval, within ten years of two centuries, of which we have such scant records, we will call the "dark ages" of our history, and proceed to the ground upon which the city of Macon stands.

None of the rivers seem to have been named when DeSoto crossed them. The length of his march from one Indian tribe to another, the towns his own reports refer to, the relics of these towns, their proximity to rivers that he crossed, and the traditions of Indians partially enable the historians to locate his route. A very large tribe of Indians inhabited the country on ' the West bank of the Ocmulgee river, occupying a great extent ! of territory. Their Chief, Cofachi, owned two towns; the first, Ij down the river, he gave to DeSoto to recruit at, five days, with his army, who were attended by nine hundred Indian slaves to bear the burdens of the army, when he furnished him with ' eight thousand of his subjects for the same purpose, to escort I him through the wilderness to the Savannah river. There was I also another tribe below that of Cofaqui's, which has been re- ' ferred to. Whether the tribe of Cofaqui, which was located on the "old Ocmulgee Fields," and the identity of those fields is as ancient in history as that of the river and tribe that bears the same name, was the Ocmulgee nation or not, we are unable to say, but many circumstances strongly indicate that it was.

The Creeks were originally named Muscogees, and were only known as Muscogees until the British had possession of the country and named them Creeks, from the many small streams that they lived upon. The earliest accounts of the Muscogees or Creeks, which are for the most part traditional, locate them as a populous and powerful tribe of Indians who came from Mexico. After the conquest of that country by Cortez, in 1519 and 1520, the Muscogees, having lost many of their own warriors and, being unwilling to remain in a country under the dominion of foreign invaders and assassins, determined to seek another land. The whole tribe left Mexico for the East, and, passing praries abounding in fruits and wild animals, settled at length on the Red river. Here they built a town and laid out fields. They explored the country, finding other tribes of Indians whom they fought and conquered, taking the larger portion of each tribe with them, and by this means increased their own strength until they reached the Ohio river, where they planted themselves, and heard for the first time of DeSoto, and the Spaniards, who, being clothed in garments of metal, which the arrows of the Indians could not penetrate, and having "fire in their hands " which they hurled like lightning with the noise of thunder, had almost destroyed the country.

In 1620, the Muscogees marched through Alabama, continuing their conquests, adding other tribes to their ranks, proceeded into Georgia, crossed the Ocmulgee, Oconee and Ogechee, arrived at the Savannah river and built a town where Augusta now stands. Conquering all the tribes in Georgia on their route, they then went to near the mouth of the river, where Savannah now stands, met a powerful and numerous tribe called the Uchees, whom, after a long conflict, they conquered and brought to the Chattahoochee.

The first and only instance of the Indians ever keeping a record of their history was discovered by Leclerc Milfort, a young Frenchman and adventurer, and a man of high talents, who lived twenty years among the Creeks, commencing in 1776. Milfort was associated with that most extraordinary Indian chief Alexander McGillivray, and married his sister. Both of these men were renowned for their talents and acted a very important part with the French, Spanish and British governments in their relations with Southern Indians during the revolutionary war. They were afterwards employed by President Washington, with high rank and responsible trusts.

Pickett says of Milfort: '^When he arrived among the Creeks, the old men often spoke of their ancestors, and they exhibited to him strands of pearls which contained their history and constituted their archives. Upon their arrangement depended their signification ; and only principal events were thus preserved. One of their chaplets sometimes related the history of thirty years. Each year was rapidly distinguished by those who understood them. The old men, therefore, with the assistance of these singular records and strong memories, were enabled to impart to Milfort a correct tradition," etc. The wonderful record was a summary of the route and adventures of the Creeks from the time of their departure from Mexico to their settlement in Ohio. The names Ocmulgee, Oconee and Ogechee first appear about 1620, when the Creeks invaded the country from the west. Many of the Indian names have been corrupted. The first mention we find of the word Chattahoochee, is called from the Indian " Chaita,'' sparkling or flowered, and '' Ochee,'' rocks ; the bright colored rocks found in the river at the falls suggested the name, though the earliest record of it was spelt Chatta-Uchee, as if called in part after the Uchees. Upon this river, at the town of Coweta, in 1700, was Mary, an Indian princess, born 3 she was by maternal descent one of the Queens of the Creeks, and married John, the son of Col. John Musgrove, an Indian negotiator in the service of the British. She afterwards presided near the mouth of the Savannah river, and was, until corrupted by her husband, of eminent service to Oglethorpe in his transactions with the Indians.

Oglethorpe visited Coweta shortly after his return from Europe in 1 737*38, crossing the Ocmulgee at the site of Macon. He made a treaty with eight tribes of Indians who had assembled at Coweta. His crossing the Ocmulgee is the first mention we have found of that name by a white man, in our Indian researches.

In 1774, Mr. William Bartram, who spent several years among the Indians in the South, stopped on the Ocmulgee in the neighborhood of the mounds, near Macon, and published the following in his interesting history: After crossing the Oconee, a day's journey brought us to the Ocmulgee. This river is the main branch of the beautiful Altamaha. On the east bank of the river lie the famous " Old Ocmulgee Fields,' where are yet conspicuous very wonderful remains of the power and grandeur of the ancients of this part of America, in the ruins of a capital town and settlement, as vast artificial hills, terraces, etc., already mentioned in my tour through lower Georgia. In the evening we came to camp near the banks of Stony Creek, a large rapid water, about six miles beyond the river. The next day we traveled about ten miles further, having crossed two considerable creeks named Great and Little Tobosochte, and at evening camped at a brook called Sweet Water," etc. Continuing, he mentions crossing the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers. While on another visit through Georgia, Bartram says : "About eighty miles above the confluence of the Ocmulgee and Oconee, the trading path from Augusta to the Creek Nation, crossed these fine rivers. On the east bank of the Ocmulgee, this trading road runs two miles through ancient Indian fields, called "Ocmulgee Fields they are the rich low lands of the river. On the heights of these low lands are visible monuments, in traces, of an ancient town such as artificial monuments or terraces, squares and banks, encircling considerable areas. Those old fields and planting land extend up and down the river fifteen or twenty miles from this site. If we are to give credit to the account the Creeks give of themselves, this place is remarkable for being the first town or settlement, when they sat down, as they term it, or established themselves, after their emigration from the west, beyond the Mississippi, their original native country. On this Icing journey they suffered great and innumerable difficulties, encountering and vanquishing numerous tribes of Indians, who opposed and retarded their march. Having crossed the river, still pushing eastward, they were obliged to make a stand and fortify themselves in this place, as their only remaining hope, being to the last degree persecuted and weakened by their surrounding foes. Having formed for themselves this retreat, and driven off the inhabitants by degrees, they recovered their spirits and again faced their enemies, when they came off victorious in a memorable and decisive battle. They afterwards gradually subdued their surroundkig enemies, strengthening themselves by taking with the confederacy the vanquished tribes."

Of the religion of the Creeks, Bartram says : " These Indians are by no means idolaters, unless their puffing the tobacco smoke toward the sun and rejoicing at the appearance of the new moon, may be termed so. So far from idolatry are they that they have no images amongst them, nor any religious rite or ceremony that I could perceive; but adore the Great Spirit, the giver and taker away of the breath of life, with the most profound and respectful homage. They believe in a future state, where the spirit exists, which they call the world of spirits, where they enjoy different degrees of tranquility or comfort, agreeably to the lives spent here. A person who, in this life, had been an industrious hunter, provided well for his family, an intrepid and active warrior, just, upright and did all the good he could, will, they say, in the world of spirits live in a warm, pleasant country, where are expansive, green, flowery savannas and high forests, watered with rivers of pure water, replenished with deer and every species of game ; a serene, unclouded and peaceful sky - in short, where there is fullness of pleasure uninterrupted."

The Mounds

Almost every writer upon Indian Antiquities refers at length to the mounds at the East of Macon, on the old Ocmulgee Fields. They are among the most remarkable tumuli in America. We have already stated that during the invasion of DeSoto his chroniclers of discoveries speak of mounds, some with temples upon them, and others with the dwellings of the caziques. Those discovers even describe " the manner in which the natives brought the earth to the spot and formed these elevations."

Colonel Charles C. Jones, Jr., who has recently published a very extensive and authentic history of Indian Antiquities in the South, gives a long account of the mounds at Macon, from which the following is extracted :

" Of the mounds on the left bank of the Ocmulgee River, opposite the city of Macon, the largest and most noteworthy, lying farthest down the river, is located upon the summit of a natural hill and occupies a commanding position. The earth of which it is composed was gathered in the valley and conveyed to the top of the hill, so as in the end to increase its elevation by some forty-five or fifty feet. The summit diameters of this tumulus, measured north and south and east and west, are, respectively, one hundred and eighty and two hundred feet. On the west is an artificial plateau still about eight feet high, seventytwo feet long and ninety-three wide. On the north and east are three spurs or elevated approaches, over which, on paths, the laborer during the construction of the mound, carried their burdens of sand or clay in cane baskets, and, by means of which, when the tumulus was completed, accent to its summit was ren- dered more facile. It is not improbable that this was a temple mound, used by priests and devotees in their established worship of the sun."

" These mounds are all flat, and may be described as truncated cones with the exception of the temple-mound which resembles the form of an octagonal, truncated pyramid. The temple mound was erected for religious purposes ; the others were heaped up, probably, in honor of the dead. In their vicinity the fields are filled with sherds, shells of pearl-bearing Unio and fragments of articles of domestic economy. Upon the acclivity east of the central mound are the manifest remains of an aboriginal settlement. Here, in excavating for the new track of the Central railway, the workmen, a short time since, unearthed, a few feet below the surface, several skeletons, in connection with which were found heads of shell and porcelain, a part of a discoidal stone, several arrow and spear points, two stone celts, a clay pipe, an earthen pot and other matters ol a primitive character fashioned for use or ornament.

This excavation for the line of the railway necessitated the removal of a considerable portion of the northern side of the central mound. In the conduct of this work the laborers, while cutting through the slope of the mound at a lower depth, exhumed several skulls, regular in outline and possessing the ordinary characteristics of American crania. Associated with these skeletons were stone implements - the handiwork of the red race - and Venetian heads and copper hawk-bells acquired through commercial intercourse with early traders and voyagers. The fact was patent that, at least, some of these inhumations had occurred subsequent to the period of primal contact between Europeans and the Indian. Passing below these interments - which were evidently secondary in their character - and arriving at the bottom of the mound, a skull was obtained which differed most essentially from those we have described as belonging to a later inhumation. It was vastly older than those of the secondary interments and had been artificially distorted to such an extent that the cerebellum was quite obliterated, while the front portion of the skull had not only been flattened but irregularly compressed so as to cause an undue elevation and divergence to the left."