Cherokee country in addition
to the one mentioned in the narrative, and almost every old Indian local name
was thus repeated several times, as in the case of such common names as Short
creek, Whitewater, Richmond, or Lexington among ourselves. The fact that only
one name of the set has been retained on the map does not prove its identity with the
town of the old chronicle. Again such loose terms as "a large river," "a beautiful
valley," have been assumed to mean something more definitely localized than the
wording warrants. The most common error in translation has been the rendering
of the Spanish "despoblado" as "desert." There are no deserts in the Gulf states,
and the word means simply an uninhabited region, usually the debatable strip
between two tribes.
There have been many attempts to trace lie Soto'scenturies after the event it is unnecessary to say. Both these
writers have brought De Soto down the Coosa river, in which they have been
followed without investigation by Irvine. Shea and others, but none of these was
awan- of the existence of a Suwali tribe or correctly acquainted with the Indian
nomenclature of the upper country, or of the Creek country as so well summarized
bj Gatschet in his Creek Migration Legend. They are also mistaken in assuming
that only De Soto passed through thi untry, whereas we now know thai several
Spanish explorers ami numerous French adventurers traversed the same territory,
the latest expeditions of course being freshest in Indian memory. Jones in his
"De Soto's March Through Georgia" simply dresses up the- earlier statements in
more literary style, sometimes changing surmises to positive assertions, without
mentioning