Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/143

 SECT. III.] SOUTHERN INDIANS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 10T sand.* In another place, at Cofaqui or Patofa, the last in- habited district before the arrival of the Spaniards at Cofachiqui, the Cacique, who was very friendly, gave them, according to Garcilaso, four thousand warriors, to escort them and four thou- sand retainers to carry their supplies and clothing. It must be observed that the total amount of their baggage was such, that, on their departure from Anhayca, each soldier carried his sup- ply on his back. On the seventh day of their march through an uninhabited country, the army was arrested by the termina- tion of the path which they had followed thus far. They were then within twelve leagues of the first village in the province of Cofachiqui, and not one of the eight thousand Indian allies could point out the proper direction, which at last was dis- covered by the Spaniards themselves. And the Indian chief assured De Soto that none of his followers had ever been in that place, and that in their wars with the Indians of Cofachiqui, those of Cofaqui had never passed over their own frontiers. Whether any one Indian warrior has ever been found ignorant of the way to an enemy's village, hardly one hundred and fifty miles distant, and through a country offering no particular obstacle, we are able to judge. According to the Portuguese narrator, De Soto had demanded only six hundred Indians ; and when he found himself at a loss which way to pursue, he had no other guide but a young Indian they had brought from Appalache, and who confessed that he did not know where he was. "The Indians of Patofa (or Cofaqui) had been sent back as soon as provisions began to be scarce," though the poor men showed a great deal of trouble to leave the Christians before they saw them in a good country. The numbers, as stated in the Portuguese relation, are not on the whole incon- sistent with a population nearly the same as at this time. The greatest apparent exaggeration is perhaps that of the Cacique of Ocute sending two thousand Indians to De Soto with a pres- ent of some provisions. Whatever opinion may be entertained of the respective population of the four great southern nations three hundred, and one hundred and fifty years ago, it appears certain that according to his knowledge, the bounds of credibility. Born in Peru, lie was deceived by an erroneous analogy, and saw nothing extraordinary in the accounts given to him of eight to twelve thousand Indians col ; lected together.
 * Yet Garcilaso did not intend to impose on his readers, or exceed,