and described in
the quaint old chronicle as " an ox hide as thin as a calf's skin, and the
hair like a soft wool between the coarse and tine wool of sheep." 1
( rarcilaso's glowing narrative gives a somewhat different impression.
According to this author the scouts returned full of enthusiasm for
the fertility of the country, and reported that the mines were of a tine
species of copper, and had indications also of gold and silver, while
their progress from one town to another had been a continual series of
feastings and Indian hospitalities. 2 However that may have been,
De Solo made no further effort to reach the Cherokee mines, but con-
tinued his course westward through the Creek country, having spent
altogether a month in the mountain region.
There is no record of any secondattempt to penetrate the Cherokee
country for twenty-six years (!l). In 1561 the Spaniards took formal
possession of the hay of Santa Elena, now Saint Helena, near Port
Royal, on the coast of South Carolina. The next year the French
made an unsuccessful attempt at settlement at the same place, and in
1566 Menendez made the Spanish occupancy sure by establishing there
a fort which he called San Felipe. 3 In November of that year Captain
.1 uan I'ai'do was sent with a party from the fort to explore the interior.
Accompanied by the chief of "Juada" (which from Vandera's narra-
tive we find should be "Joara," i.e.. the Sara Indians already men-
tioned in the De Soto chronicle), he proceeded as far as the territory of
that tribe, where he built a fort, hut on account of the