while from various similar references in other
parts of the narrative there can be no doubt that the "hill" upon which it stood was
an artificial mound. In modern Spanish writing such artificial elevations are more
often called lomas, but these early adventurers may be excused for not noting the
distinction. Issuing from the mountains round about the town were numerous small
streams, which united to form the river which the Spaniards henceforth followed
from here down to Chiaha, where it was as large as the Guadalquivir at Sevilla
( ( larcilaso).
Deceived by the occurrence, in the Portuguese narrative, of the name Canasagua,
which they assumed could belong in but one place, earlier commentators have
identified this river with the Coosa, Pickett putting Guaxule somewhere upon its
upper waters, while Jones improves upon this by making the site"identical, or very
nearly so, with Coosawattee Old town, in the southeastern corner of Murray county,"
Georgia. As we shall show, however, the name in question was duplicated in several
states, and a careful study of the narratives, in the light of present knowledge of the
country, makes it evident that the river was not the Coosa, but the Chattahoochee.
Turning our attention once more to Xuala, the most northern point reached by
De Soto, we have seen that this was the territory of the Suwala or Sara Indians, in
the eastern foothills of the Alleghenies, about the head waters of Broad and Catawha
rivers, in North Carolina. As the Spaniards turned here to the west they probably
did not penetrate far beyond the present South Carolina boundary. The "very high
mountain ridge" which they crossed immediately after