However, as competition developed with the French in the West, the strategic location of the Cherokee gave them increasing importance. Vague rumors, no doubt exaggerated, of English penetration into the Cherokee country and even as far as the Tennessee valley were current among the French as early as the epoch of La Salle's explorations. But by reason of the Iroquois hegemony south of the Great Lakes, the French, apparently, had no first-hand knowledge, even at the end of that period, of the great central region of the Ohio and its southern affluents. Such information as they possessed probably came from the Indians, principally from the Shawnee, who were rapidly disintegrating under the assaults of the Iroquois. The maps which purported to record the results of Marquette's and Joliet's explorations, though exceedingly vague in depicting this section, showed the approximate position of the 'Kaskinonka' Indians, from whom the Tennessee River took its early name. In the great manuscript map by Franquelin recording La Salle's discoveries, the 'Casquinampogamou' appeared as the most important tributary of the Ohio, and the location of the Cherokee on its upper waters was clearly indicated. From 'les Kaskinampo,' on an island in the mid-course of the river, Franquelin showed a path leading to Florida by which these and other Indians 'vont traiter aux Espagnols.' Such was the extent of French information of the Tennessee when La Salle's labors in the Mississippi Valley were completed, and for a decade and a half thereafter. [Note 79: MVHR, III. 3-5. In the W. L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a photostatic reproduction of the Franquelin map, 1688, from the Bibliotheque Nationale MS 4040 B, 6 bis.]