snow in the
mountains did not think it advisable to go farther, and returned.
leaving a sergeant with thirty soldiers to garrison the post. Soon
after his return he received a letter from the sergeant stating that the
chief of Chisca— the rich mining country of which De Soto had heard —
was very hostile to the Spaniards, and that in a recent battle the latter
had killed a thousand of his Indians and burned fifty houses with
almost no damage to themselves. Either the sergeant or his chronicler
must have been an unconscionable liar, as it was asserted that all this
was done with only fifteen men. Immediately afterward, according
to the same story, the sergeant marched with twenty men about a day's
MYTH8 OF THE CHEROKEE [cth.aiih.19
distance in the mountains against another hostile chief, whom he found
ina Btrongly palisaded town, which, after a hard fight, he and his men
stormed and burned, killing fifteen hundred Indians without losing a
single man themselves. Under instructions Erom his superior officer,
the sergeant with his small party then proceeded to explore what lay
bej I. and. taking a road which the} were told led to the territory
of a ureal chief, after lour day- of hard marching they came to his
tow ii. called Chiaha (Chicha, by mistake in the manuscript transla-
tion), the same where De Soto had rested. It i- described at this time
as palisaded and strongly fortified, with a deep river on each side, and
defended by over three thousand fighting men. there being no women
or children among them. It is possible that in view of their former
experience with the Spaniards, (lie