the West. Colonel Thomas, the
white chief of the East Cherokee, horn about the beginning of the
century, had also heard a tradition of another race of people, who
lived on Hiwassee. opposite the present Murphy, and warned the
Cherokee that they must not attempt to cross over to the south side
of the river or the great leech in the water would swallow them. 2
They finally went west, •"long before the whites came" The two
stories are plainly the same, although told independently and many
miles apart.
The Period of Spanish Exploration — 1540-1
The definite history of the Cherokee begins with the year 1540, at
which date we find them already established, where they were always
afterward known, in the mountains of Carolina and Georgia. The
earliest Spanish adventurers failed to penetrate so far into the intf rior,
andthe first entry into their country was made by De Soto, advancing
up the Savannah on his fruitless quest for gold, in May of that year.
While at Cofitachiqui. an important Indian town on the lower
Savannah governed by a " queen," the Spaniards had found hatchets
and other objects of copper, some of which was of finer color and
appeared to be mixed with gold, although they had no means of testing
it. 3 On inquiry they were told that the metal had come from an interior
mountain province called Chisca, hut the country was represented as
thinly peopled and the way as impassable for horses. Some time before,
while advancing through eastern Georgia, they had heard also of a
rich and plentiful province called Coca, toward the northwest, and by
the people of Cofitachiqui they were now