and gold, was somewhere in the
Cherokee country of upper Georgia or Alabama. The precise location is not material,
as it i- now known that native copper, in such condition as to have been easily work-
able by the Indians, occurs throughout the whole southern Allegheny region from
about Anniston, Alabama, into Virginia. Notable timls of native copper have been
maileon the upper Tallapoosa, in Cleburne county, Alabama; about Ducktown, in
Polk county, Tennessee, and in southwestern Virginia, one. nugget from Virginia
weighing several pounds. From the appearance of ancient soapstone vessels which
have been found in the same region there is even a possibility that the Indians had
some knowledge of smelting, as the Spanish explorers surmised (oral information
from Mr \V. II. Weed, I'. S. Geological Survey). We hear again of this "province"
after De Soto hadattempt was abandoned the next year. In the
course of his wanderings he traversed the country of the CI taw, Chickasaw, and
Upper Creeks, as is shown by the names and other data in the narrative, but
returned without entering the mountains or doing any digging (see Barcia, Ensayo
Cronologico, pp. 32-41, 1723; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, n, pp. 257 259) .
In 1569 the Jesuit Rogel — called Father John Roger by shea— began mission work
among the South Carolina tribes inland from Santa Elena I about Port Royal).
The mission, which at first promised well, was abandoned next year, owing to the
unwillingness of the Indians to give up their old habits and beliefs. Shea, in Ins
'•Catholic Mission.-," supposes that these Indians were probably a pari of the
202 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.
Cherokee,