For our first notice we must go back to the very beginning of Spanish exploration on the Atlantic coast of North America, to the list of "provinces" for which Francisco of Chicora was responsible. In this list, as previously noted,1 we find one province called "Yamiscaron," which there is every reason to believe refers to the tribe we have under discussion [Yamasee]. The peculiar ending suggests a form which appears again in Yamacraw and which it is difficult to account for in a tribe supposed to be Muskhogean and without a true phonetic r in the language. I can explain it only by supposing that it was originally taken from the speech of the Siouan neighbors of these people to the northeast.2 April 4, 1540, De Soto's army came to a province called by Biedma "the Province of Altapaha." Elvas gives it as " the town of Altamaca," but Ranjel has the correct form Altamaha. The last mentioned speaks as if the Spaniards did not pass through the main town, but they received messengers from the chief, who furnished them with food and had them transported across a river. This was probably the river which Biedma says encouraged them because it flowed east instead of south. Ranjel seems to imply that Altamaha, like a neighboring chief called Camumo, was the subject of "a great chief whose name was Ocute" (the Hitchiti).2 The significance in this encounter is due to the fact that Altamaha afterwards appears as the head town of the Lower Yamasee. From Ranjel's statement it would seem that the Yamasee were at this time connected with the Hitchiti, whereas the language of the Guale people proper was somewhat different. (Swanton)