1857. Monette
(1846) puts it on Etowah branch of the Coosa, probably in Floyd county, Georgia.
Pickett (1851), followed in turn by Irving, Jones, and Shea, locates it at "the site of
the modern Rome." The "island" is interpreted to mean the space between the
two streams above the continence.
Pickett, as has been stated, bases his statements chiefly or entirely upon Indian
traditions as obtained from halfbreeds or traders. How much information can be
gathered from such sources in regard to events that transpired three centuries before
may lie estimated by considering how much an illiterate mountaineer of the same
region might lie able to tell concerning the founding of the Georgia colony. Pickett
himself seems to have been entirely unaware of the later Spanish expeditions of
Pardo and De Luna through the same country, as he makesno mention of them
in his history of Alabama, but ascribes everything to De Soto. Concerning Chiaha
he says:
"The most ancient Cherokee Indians, whose tradition has been handed down to
us through old Indian trailers, disagree as to the precise place [!] where De Soto
crossed the Oostanaula to get over into the town of Chiaha— some asserting that he
]>K SOTO'S ROUTE 199
passed over that river seven miles above its junction with tin- Etowah, and that
he marched from thence down t" Chiaha, which, all contend, lay immediately ;it the
confluence of the two rivers; while other ancient Indians asserted thai lie crossed,
with his army, immediately opposite i In- town. Bu( this is no( verj important.
Coupling the Indian traditions with theaccounl by < larcellasso and thai by the Por-
tuguese rvi'H itness, we are inclined