latter was fictitious in every part which was
not purloined from authors whose knowledge furnished him with all in his treatise
which was true."
(11) Ancient Spamsit Mixes i pp. 29, 31 I: As the existence of the precious metals
in the southern Alleghenies was known to the Spaniards from a very early period, it
is probable that more thorough exploration of that region will bring to light many
evidences of their mining operations. In his "Antiquities of the Southern Indians,''
Jones describes a sort of subterranean village discovered in 1834 on Dukes creek,
White county, Georgia, consisting of a row of small loir cabins extending along the
creek, hut imbedded several feet below the surface of the ground, upon which lame
trees were growing, the inference being that the houses had been thus covered by suc-
cessive freshets.The loss had been notched ami shaped apparently with sharp metal-
lic tools. Shafts have been discovered on Valley river, North Carolina, at the bottom
of one of which was found, in 1854, a well-] ■reserved windlass of hewn oak timbers,
showing traces of having once been banded with iron. Another shaft, passing through
hard rock, showed the marks of sharp tools used in the boring. The casing and
other timbers were still sound (Jones, pp. 48, 49). Similar ancient shafts have been
found in other places in upper Georgia and western Xorth Carolina, together with
some remarkable stone-built fortifications or corrals, notably at Fort mountain, in
Murray county, Georgia, and on Silver creek, a few miles from Rome, Georgia.
Very recently remains of an early white settlement, traditionally ascribed to the
Spaniards, have been reported from Lincolnton,