We have still to say a word regarding the Chiaha whom De Soto found in the mountains—those to whom the name was first applied. This seems to have been a powerful nation by itself in his time, for he learned of it while still at Cofitachequi. The Fidalgo of Elvas says: "The natives [of Cofitachequi] were asked if they had knowledge of any great lord farther on, to which they answered, that twelve days' travel thence was a province called Chiaha, subject to a chief of Coca."5 The statement regarding subjection may be taken to indicate some kind of alliance, nothing more. De Soto reached this place June 5, 1540, and left it on the 28th. Ranjel mentions the rather interesting fact that here the explorers first encountered fenced villages.1 (Swanton)