capital of the I'.hee Indians, who, before their absorption by
!'.» F.TH- 111 13
194 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
the Creeks, held or claimed most of the territory on both banks of Savannah river
from the Cherokee border t" within about forty miles of Savannah ami westward to
the* >geeeheeand Cannouchee rivers (see Gatschet, ( Ireek Migration Legend, i, 17-34).
The country was already on the decline in 1540 from a recent fatal epidemic, but
was yet populous ami wealthy, and was ruled by a woman chief whose authority
extended for a considerable distance. The town was visited also by Pardoin 1567 and
again by Torres in HiL's, w hen it was still a principal settlement, as rich in pearls as in
De Soto's time i Brooks MSS, in the archives of the Bureau of American Ethnology).
Somewherein southern Georgia De Soto had been told of a rich province called
Coca (Coosa, the Creek country) toward the northwest. At Cofltachiqui he again
heard of it and of one of its principal towns called ( 'hiaha (( heliaw ) as being twelve
da\ s inland. Although on first hearing of it lie had kept on in the other direction
in order to reach Cofltachiqui, he now determined to go there, and made the
queen a prisoner to compel her to accompany him a part of the way as guide. ( 'oca
province was. though he did not know it, almost due west, and he was in haste to
reach it in order to obtain corn, as his men and horses were almost worn out from
hunger. It is apparent, however, that the unwilling queen,