Further notices on Creek ethnology may be found in B. F. French, Hist. Collect. of Louisiana, III, 128-139, in the "Notes;" also in Urlsperger's "Nachricht," Vol. I, chapter 5, 859-868, a passage describing especially Yámassi customs.
NOTES ON CREEK HISTORY.
To offer a history of the Creek tribe from its discovery down to our epoch to the readers does not lie within the scope of this volume, and for want of sufficient documents illustrating the earlier periods it could be presented in a fragmentary manner only. But a few notes on the subject, especially on the Oglethorpe treaties, will be of interest to the reader.
In the year following their departure from the West Indies (1540), the troops led by H. de Soto traversed a portion of the Creek territory, taken in its extent as known to us from the end of the eighteenth century. De Soto's presence is proved by the mention of Creek tribes bearing Creek names in the reports of his three chroniclers. The most circumstantial report in topography is that of the Knight of Elvas. He states that de Soto's army usually marched five to six leagues a day in peopled countries, but when passing through deserted lands proceeded faster. From Chiaha H. de Soto reached Coste in seven days. From Tali, probably contiguous to Coste, he marched for six days, through many towns, to Coça, arriving there July 26th, 1540. Leaving this town after a stay of twenty-five days, he reached Tallimuchase on the same day, Ytava on the next, and had to remain there six days, on account of a freshet in the river. Having crossed the river he reached Ullibahali town, fortified by a wooden wall, and on the next day stopped at a town subject to the lord of Ullibahali, to reach Toasi the day after. Then he traversed the Tallise "province," peopled with many towns, and entered the great pueblo of Tallise on September 18th, to stay there twenty days. Many other towns were visible on the opposite side of the "maine river," on which Tallisi[125] stood. On leaving this pueblo he reached Casiste on the same day, and Tuscalusa, whose chief was lord of many territories, after another march of two days. From there Piache, on a great river, was reached in two days, and Mavila in three days from Piache. De Soto arrived in Mavila on October 18th, and the whole distance from Coça to Tuscalusa is computed by the Knight of Elvas at sixty leagues, the direction of the route being from north to south. In this particular Biedma differs from him.
The villages of Chiaha (Chisca, Ychiaha, China, var. lect.) and of Coste (Costehe, Acostehe) provinces were fortified and stood on river-islands. This latter circumstance makes it probable that they lay on Tennessee river, and hence were held by Cheroki Indians. Tali is either the Creek term tali dry, exsiccated, or the Cha'hta tali rock. Coça, then in a flourishing condition, is the town of Kúsa. Talli-muchasi, or "Newtown," near Coça, is clearly a Creek term, and so is Ytava, Itáwa, which I take for the imperfectly articulated itálua, tribe. Toasi is, I think, the town of Tawasa, which was one of the Alibamu villages, q. v., and lay on the southern shore of the Alabama river.
Tallisi is undoubtedly Talua-hássi, "old town," but which one of the numerous settlements of this name it may have been is now impossible to determine. Casiste resembles Kasí'hta, but cannot have been Kasíχta on Chatahuchi river, for de Soto reached Tuskalusa or "Black Warrior," which I take to be a town on the river of that name, within two days from Casiste, traveling west.[126] Piache, if Creek, could be api-údshi little pole, small tree. Garcilaso de la Vega states that Tascalusa was on the same river (?) as Tallisi and below it. The documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries frequently give names of localities and tribes to the local chiefs, as was done here in the case of Tascalusa, Mavila, Alimamu and others. Chíaha is a Cheroki name, and is explained elsewhere as "place of otters." Some modern critics believe that de Soto's army did not cross the mountains into what is now North Carolina and Tennessee, the "over-hill" seats of the Cheroki people, but only skirted the southern slope of the Apalachian ridge by passing through Northern Georgia west into Northern Alabama, and then descending Coosa river. In order to determine de Soto's route in these parts, we have to decide first, whether the days and directions of the compass noted by his chroniclers deserve more credence than the local names transmitted in cases when both form conflicting statements. The names of localities could not be pure inventions; they prove by themselves, that tribes speaking Creek or Maskoki proper were encountered by the adventurous leader in the same tracts where we find them at the beginning of this nineteenth century. It follows from this that the Creek immigration from the west or northwest, if such an event ever occurred within the last two thousand years, must have preceded the time of de Soto's visit by a long lapse of time. Thus the terms itálua, talófa, talássi belong to the Creek dialect only; had H. de Soto been in a country speaking a Hitchiti dialect, he would have heard, instead of these, the term ókli, and instead of tálua mútchasi: ókli himáshi.[127]
In 1559 another Spanish leader, Tristan de Luna, disembarked in or near Mobile bay, then went north in quest of gold and treasure, reached Nanipacna, or "pueblo Santa Cruz de Nanipacna," and from there arrived, after experiencing many privations and trials, among the Coças, who were then engaged in warfare with the Napochies (naⁿpissa? cf. Chicasa). He made a treaty of alliance with the Coças, and deemed it prudent to return. The distance from Coça to Nanipacna was twelve days, from there to the harbor three days' march.[128]
In 1567 Captain Juan del Pardo set out from St. Helena, near Charleston Harbor, S. C., on an exploration tour with a small detachment, following partly the same aboriginal trail which had guided de Soto through the wastes of Georgia and the Cheroki country. On leaving the banks of the Tennessee river, he turned south, touching Kossa, a sort of a capital (evidently Kúsa), then Tasqui, Tasquiqui and Olitifar. These are the only names of places mentioned by his chronicler, Juan de la Vandera (1569), which refer to the Creek country. Tasquiqui cannot be anything else but Taskígi, near the junction of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers.
From the beginning of the eighteenth century the French, Spanish and British colonists endeavored to win over the tribes of the confederacy to their interests. The Spaniards established in Northern Florida paid honors to the "emperor of the Cowetas," therewith hoping to influence all the Lower and Upper Creeks, and in 1710 received Kawíta delegates with distinction at St. Augustine. After the conflict with the Spaniards the British established Fort Moore for trading purposes among the Lower Creeks. In 1713 chiefs of the Alibamu, Koassáti and other tribes visited the French colony at Mobile, entered into friendly relations, invited them to construct Fort Alibamu, also called Fort Toulouse, near Odshi-apófa, q. v., and were helpful in erecting it. The French entertained a small garrison and a trader's post there, and subsequently the fort was called Fort Jackson.