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Tristan de Luna's men helped the Coosa conquer their enemy
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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In 1559 a gigantic effort was made on the part of the Spaniards to colonize the region of our Gulf States. An expedition, led by Tristan de Luna, started from Mexico with that object in view. We have already mentioned the landing of this colony in Pensacola Harbor, or Mobile Bay, and their subsequent removal northward to a town called Nanipacna. Being threatened with starvation here, De Luna sent a Sergeant major with six captains and 200 soldiers northward in search of Coosa, whither some of his companions had accompanied De Soto 20 years before, and which they extolled highly. They came first to a place called Olibahali, of which we shall speak again, and after a short stay there continued still farther toward the north. The narrative continues as follows: "The whole province was called Coza, taking its name from the most famous city within its boundaries. It was God's will AN6 that they should soon get within sight of that place which had been so far famed and so much thought about and, yet, it did not have above thirty houses, or a few more. There were seven little hamlets in its district, five of them smaller and two larger than Coza itself, which name prevailed for the fame it had enjoyed in its antiquity. It looked so much worse to the Spaniards for having been depicted so grandly, and they had thought it to be so much better. "Its inhabitants had been said to be innumerable, the site itself as being wider and more level than Mexico, the springs had been said to be many and of very clear water, food plentiful and gold and silver in abundance, which, without judging rashly, was that which the Spaniards desired most. Truly the land was fertile, but it lacked cultivation. There was much forest, but little fruit, because as it was not cultivated the land was all unimproved and full of thistles and weeds. "Those they had brought along as guides, being people who had been there before, declared that they must have been bewitched when this country seemed to them so rich and populated as they had stated. The arrival of the Spaniards in former years had driven the Indians up into the forests, where they preferred to live among the wild beasts who did no harm to them, but whom they could master, than among the Spaniards at whose hands they received injuries, although they were good to them. Those from Coza received the guests well, liberally, and with kindness, and the Spaniards appreciated this, the more so as the actions of their predecessors did not call for it. They gave them each day four fanegas [Note: About the same number of English bushels.] of corn for their men and their horses, of which latter they had fifty and none of which, even during their worst sufferings from hunger, they had wanted to kill and eat, well knowing that the Indians were more afraid of horses, and that one horse gave them a more warlike appearance, than the fists of two men together. "But the soldiers did not look for maize; they asked most diligently where the gold could be found and where the silver, because only for the hopes of this as a dessert had they endured the fasts of the painful journey. Every day little groups of them went searching through the country and they found it all deserted and without news of gold. From only two tribes were there news about gold—one was the Oliuahali which they had just left; the others were the Napochies, who lived farther on. Those were enemies to those of Coza, and they had very stubborn warfare with each other, the Napochies avenging some offense they had received at the hands of the people of Coza. "The latter Indians showed themselves such good friends of the Spaniards that our men did not know what recompense to give them nor what favor to do them. The wish to favor those who humiliate themselves goes hand in hand with ambition. The Spaniards have the fame of not being very humble and the people of Coza who had surrendered themselves experienced now their favors. Not only were they careful not to cause them any damage or injury, but gave them many things they had brought along, outside of what they gave in the regular exchange for maize. Their gratitude went even so far that the sergeant major, who accompanied the expedition as captain of the 200 men, told the Indians that if they wanted his favor and the strength of his men to make war on their enemies, they could have them readily, just as they had been ready to receive him and his men and favor them with food. Those of Coza thought very highly of this offer, and in the hope of its fulfillment kept the Spaniards such a long time with them, giving them as much maize each day as was possible, the land being so poor and the villages few and small. The Spaniards were nearly 300 men between small and big [young and old] ones, masters and servants, and the time they all ate there was three months, the Indians making great efforts to sustain such a heavy expense for the sake of their companionship as well as for the favors they expected from them later. All the deeds in this life are done for some interested reason and, just as the Spaniards showed friendship for them that they might not shorten their provisions and perhaps escape to the forests, so the Indians showed their friendship, hoping that with their aid they could take full vengeance of their enemies. And the friars were watching, hoping that a greater population might be discovered to convert and maintain in the Christian creed. Those small hamlets had until then neither seen friars nor did they have any commodities to allow monks to live and preach among them; neither could they embrace and maintain the Christian faith without their assistance. . . . "Very bitter battles did the Napochies have with those from Coza, but justice was greatly at variance with success. Those from Coza were in the right, but the Napochies were victorious. In ancient times the Napochies were tributaries of the Coza people, because this place (Coza) was always recognized as head of the kingdom and its lord was considered to stand above the one of the Napochies. Then the people from Coza began to decrease while the Napochies were increasing until they refused to be their vassals, finding themselves strong enough to maintain their liberty which they abused. Then those of Coza took to arms to reduce the rebels to their former servitude, but the most victories were on the side of the Napochies. Those from Coza remained greatly affronted as well from seeing their ancient tribute broken off, as because they found themselves without strength to restore it. On that account they had lately stopped their fights, although their sentiments remained the same and for several months they had not gone into the battlefield, for fear lest they return vanquished, as before. "When the Spaniards, grateful for good treatment, offered their assistance against their enemies, they accepted immediately, in view of their rabid thirst for vengeance. All the love they showed to the Spaniards was in the interest that they should not forget their promise. Fifteen days had passed, when, after a consultation among themselves, the principal men went before the captain and thus spoke: "Sir, we are ashamed not to be able to serve you better, and as we would wish, but this is only because we are afflicted with wars and trouble with some Indians who are our neighbors and are called Napochies. Those have always been our tributaries acknowledging the nobility of our superiors, but a few years ago they rebelled and stopped their tribute and they killed our relatives and friends. And when they cannot insult us with their deeds, they do so with words. Now, it seems only reasonable, that you, who have so much knowledge, should favor and increase ours. Thou, Senor, hast given us thy word when thou knowest our wish to help us if we should need thy assistance against our enemies. This promise we, thy servants, beg of thee humbly now to fulfill and we promise to gather the greatest army of our men [people], and with thy good order and efforts helping us, we can assure our victory. And when once reinstated in our former rights, we can serve thee ever so much better." "When the captain had listened to the well concerted reasoning of those of Coza, he replied to them with a glad countenance, that, aside from the fact that it had always been his wish to help and assist them, it was a common cause now, and he considered it convenient or even necessary to communicate with all the men, especially with the friars, who were the ministers of God, and the spiritual fathers of the army; that he would treat the matter with eagerness, procuring that their wishes be attended to and that the following day he would give them the answer, according to the resolutions taken in the matter. "He [the captain] called to council the friars, the captains, and all the others, who, according to custom had a right to be there, and, the case being proposed and explained, it was agreed that only two captains with their men should go, one of cavalry, the other of infantry, and the other four bodies of their little army remain in camp with the rest of the people. Then they likewise divided the monks, Fray Domingo de la Anunciacion going with the new army and Fray Domingo de Salazar remaining with the others in Coza. "The next day, those who wished so very dearly that it be in their favor, came for the answer. The captain gave them an account of what had been decided, ordering them to get ready, because he in person desired to accompany them with the two Spanish regiments and would take along, if necessary, the rest of the Spanish army, which would readily come to their assistance. The people from Coza were very glad and thanked the captain very much, offering to dispose everything quickly for the expedition. Within six days they were all ready. The Spaniards did not want to take more than fifty men, twenty-five horsemen and twenty-five on foot. "The Indians got together almost three hundred archers, very skillful and certain in the use of that arm, in which, the fact that it is the only one they have has afforded them remarkable training. Every Indian uses a bow as tall as his body; the string is not made of hemp but of animal nerve sinew well twisted and tanned. They all use a quiver full of arrows made of long, thin, and very straight rods, the points of which are of flint, curiously cut in triangular form, the wings very sharp and mostly dipped in some very poisonous and deadly substance. [Note: This statement is probably erroneous, as the use of poisoned arrows among our southern Indians is denied by all other writers.] They also use three or four feathers tied on their arrows to insure straight flying, and they are so skilled in shooting them that they can hit a flying bird. The force of the flint arrowheads is such that at a moderate distance they can pierce a coat of mail. "The Indians set forward, and it was beautiful to see them divided up in eight different groups, two of which marched together in the four directions of the earth (north, south, east, and west), which is the style in which the children of Israel used to march, three tribes together in the four directions of the world to signify that they would occupy it all. They were well disposed, and in order to fight their enemies, the Napochies, better, they lifted their bows, arranged the arrows gracefully and shifted the band of the quiver as if they wanted to beseech it to give up new shafts quickly; others examined the necklace [collar] to which the arrow points were fastened and which hung down upon their shoulders, and they all brandished their arms and stamped with their feet on the ground, all showing how great was their wish to fight and how badly they felt about the delay. "Each group had its captain, whose emblem was a long stave of two brazas [Note: One braza is 6 feet.] in height and which the Indians call Otatl [Note: Or olatli, a Nahuatl word] and which has at its upper end several white feathers. These were used like banners, which everyone had to respect and obey. This was also the custom among the heathens who affixed on such a stave the head of some wild animal they had killed on a hunt, or the one of some prominent enemy whom they had killed in battle. To carry the white feathers was a mystery, for they insisted that they did not wish war with the Napochies, but to reduce them to the former condition of tributaries to them, the Coza people, and pay all since the time they had refused obedience. "In order to give the Indian army more power and importance the captain had ordered a horse to be fixed with all its trappings for the lord or cacique of the Indians, and as the poor Indian had never seen much less used one, he ordered a negro to guide the animal. The Indians in those parts had seen horses very rarely, or only at a great distance and to their sorrow, nor were there any in New Spain before the arrival of the Spaniards. The cacique went or rather rode in the rear guard, not less flattered by the obsequiousness of the captain than afraid of his riding feat. Our Spaniards also left Coza, always being careful to put up their tent.* or lodgings apart from the Indians so that the latter could not commit any treachery if they so intended. "One day, after they had all left Coza at a distance of about eight leagues, eight Indians, who appeared to be chiefs, entered the camp of the Spaniards, running and without uttering a word; they also passed the Indian camp and, arriving at the rearguard where their cacique was, took him down from his horse, and the one who seemed to be the highest in rank among the eight, put him on his shoulders, and the others caught him, both by his feet and arms, and they ran with great impetuosity back the same way they had come. These runners emitted very loud howlings, continuing them as long as their breath lasted, and when their wind gave out they barked like big dogs until they had recovered it in order to continue the howls and prolonged shouts. The Spaniards, though tired from the sun and hungry, observing the ceremonious superstitions of the Indians, upon seeing and hearing the mad music with which they honored their lord, could not contain their laughter in spite of their sufferings. The Indians continued their nin to a distance of about half a league from where the camp was, until they arrived on a little plain near the road which had been carefully swept and cleaned for the purpose. There had been constructed in the center of that plain a shed or theatre nine cubits in height with a few rough steps to mount. Upon arriving near the theatre the Indians first carried their lord around the plain once on their shoulders, then they lowered him at the foot of the steps, which he mounted alone. He remained standing while all the Indians were seated on the plain, waiting to see what their master would do. The Spaniards were on their guard about these wonderful and quite new ceremonies and desirous to know their mysteries and understand their object and meaning. The cacique began to promenade with great majesty on the theatre, looking with severity over the world. Then they gave him a most beautiful fly flap which they had ready, made of showy birds' plumes of great value. As soon as he held it in his hand he pointed it towards the land of the Napochies in the same fashion as would the astrologer the alidade [cross-staff], or the pilot the sextant in order to take the altitude at sea. After having done this three or four times they gave him some little seeds like fern seeds, and he put them into his mouth and began to grind and pulverize them with his teeth and molars, pointing again three or four times towards the land of the Napochies as he had done before. When the seeds were all ground he began to throw them from his mouth around the plain in very small pieces. Then he turned towards his captains with a glad countenance and he said to them: "Console yourselves, my friends; our journey will have a prosperous outcome; our enemies will be conquered and their strength broken, like those seeds which I ground between my teeth." After pronouncing these few words, he descended from the scaffold and mounted his horse, continuing his way, as he had done hitherto. The Spaniards were discussing what they had seen, and laughing about this grotesque ceremony, but the blessed father, Fray Domingo de la Anunciacion, mourned over it, for it seemed sacrilege to him and a pact with the demon, those ceremonials which those poor people used in their blind idolatry. "They all arrived, already late, at the banks of a river, and they decided to rest there in order to enjoy the coolness of the water to relieve the heat of the earth. When the Spaniards wanted to prepare something to eat they did not find anything. There had been a mistake, greatly to the detriment of all. The Indians had understood that the Spaniards carried food for being so much more dainty and delicate people, and the Spaniards thought the Indians had provided it, since they (the Spaniards) had gone along for their benefit. Both were to blame, and they all suffered the penalty. They remained without eating a mouthful that night and until the following one, putting down that privation more on the list of those of the past. They put up the two camps at a stone's throw, being thus always on guard by this division, for, although the Indians were at present very much their friends, they are people who make the laws of friendship doubtful and they had once been greatly offended with the Spaniards, and were now their reconciled friends. "With more precaution than satiety the Spaniards procured repose that night, when, at the tenth hour, our camp being at rest, a great noise was heard from that of the Indians, with much singing, and dances-after their fashion, in the luxury of big fires which they had started in abundance, there being much firewood in that place. Our men were on their guard until briefly told by the interpreter, whom they had taken along, that there was no occasion for fear on the part of the Spaniards, but a feasting and occasion of rejoicing on that of the Indians. They felt more assured yet when they saw that the Indians did not move from their place and they now watched most attentively to enjoy their ceremonials as they had done in the past, asking the interpreter what they were saying to one another. After they had sung and danced for a long while the cacique seated himself on an elevated place, the six captains drawing near him, and he began to speak to them admonishing the whole army to be brave, restore the glory of their ancestors, and avenge the injuries they had received. "Not one of you," he said, "can help considering as particularly his this enterprise, besides being that of all in common. Remember your relatives and you will see that not one among you has been exempt from mourning those who have been killed at the hands of the Napochies. Renew the dominion of your ancestors and detest the audacity of the tributaries who have tried to violate it. If we came alone, we might be obliged to see the loss of life, but not of our honor; how much more now, that we have in our company the brave and vigorous Spaniards, sons of the sun and relatives of the gods." "The captains had been listening very attentively and humbly to the reasoning of their lord, and as he finished they approached him one by one in order, repeating to him in more or fewer words this sentence: "Senor, the more than sufficient reason for what thou hast told us is known to us all; many are the damages the Napochies have done us, who besides having denied us the obedience they have inherited from their ancestors, have shed the blood of those of our kin and country. For many a day have we wished for this occasion to show our courage and serve thee, especially now, that thy great prudence has won us the favor and endeavor of the brave Spaniards. I swear to thee, Senor, before our gods, to serve thee with all my men in this battle and not turn our backs on these enemies the Napochies, until we have taken revenge." "These words the captain accompanied by threats and warlike gestures, desirous (and as if calling for the occasion) to show by actions the truth of his words. All this was repeated by the second captain and the others in their order, and this homage finished, they retired for the rest of the night. The Spaniards were greatly surprised to find such obeisance used to their princes by people of such retired regions, usages which the Romans and other republics of considerable civilization practiced before they entered a war. Besides the oath the Romans made every first of January before their Emperor, the soldiers made another one to the captain under whose orders they served, promising never to desert his banner, nor evade the meeting of the enemy, but to injure him in every way. Many such examples are repeated since the time of Herodianus, Cornelius Tacitus, and Suetonius Tranquilus, with a particular reminiscence in the life of Galba. And it is well worth consideration that the power of nature should have created a similarity in the ceremonials among Indians and Romans in cases of war where good reasoning rules so that all be under the orders of the superiors and personal grievances be set aside for the common welfare. This oath the captains swore on the hands of their lord on that night because they expected to see their enemies on the following day very near by, or even be with them, and the same oath remained to be made by the soldiers to their captains. At daybreak hunger made them rise early, hoping to reach the first village of the Napochies in order to get something to eat, for they needed it very much. "They traveled all that day, making their night's rest near a big river which was at a distance of two leagues from the first village of the enemy. There it seemed most convenient for the army to rest, in order to fall upon the village by surprise in the dead of night and kill them all, this being the intention of those from Coza. In order to attain better their intentions, they begged of the captain not to have the trumpet sounded that evening, which was the signal to all for prayer, greeting the queen of the Angels with the Ave Maria, which is the custom in all Christendom at nightfall. "The Napochies" said the people of Coza, "are ensnarers and always have their spies around those fields, and upon hearing the trumpet they would retire into the woods and we would remain without the victory we desire; and therefore the trumpet should not be sounded." Thus the signal remained unsounded for that one night, but the blessed father Fray Domingo de la Anunciacion. With his pious devotion, went around to all the soldiers telling them to say the Ave Maria, and he who was bugler of the evangile now had become bugler of war in the service of the Holy Virgin Mary. "That night those of Coza sent their spies into the village of the Napochies to see what they were doing and if they were careless on account of their ignorance of the coming of the enemy; or, if knowing it, they were on the warpath. At midnight the spies came back, well content, for they had noticed great silence and lack of watchfulness in that village, where, not only was there no sound of arms, but even the ordinary noises of inhabited places were not heard. "They all sleep," they said, "and are entirely ignorant of our coming, and as a testimonial that we have made our investigation of the enemies' village carefully and faithfully, we bring these ears of green corn, these beans, and calabashes, taken from the gardens which the Napochies have near their own houses." With those news the Coza people recovered new life and animation, and on that night all the soldiers made their oath to their captains, just as the captains had done on the previous one to their cacique. And our Spaniards enjoyed those ceremonies at closer quarters, since they had seen from the first ceremony that this was really war against Indians which was intended, and not craft against themselves. The Indians were now very ferocious, with a great desire to come in contact with their enemies. . . . "All of the Napochies had left their town, because without it being clear who had given them warning, they had received it, and the silence the spies had noticed in the village was not due to their carelessness but to their absence. The people of Coza went marching towards the village of the Napochies in good order, spreading over the country in small companies, each keeping to one road, thus covering all the exits from the village in order to kill all of their enemies, for they thought they were quiet and unprepared in their houses. When they entered the village they were astonished at the too great quiet and, finding the houses abandoned, they saw upon entering that their enemies had left them in a hurry, for they left even their food and in several houses they found it cooking on the fire, where now those poor men found it ready to season. They found in that village, which was quite complete, a quantity of maize, beans, and many pots filled with bear fat, bears abounding in that country and their fat being greatly prized. The highest priced riches which they could carry off as spoils were skins of deer and bear, which those Indians tanned in a diligent manner very nicely and with which they covered themselves or which they used as beds. "The people of Coza were desirous of finding some Indians on whom to demonstrate the fury of their wrath and vengeance and they went looking for them very diligently, but soon they saw what increased their wrath. In a square situated in the center of the village they found a pole of about three estados in height [Note: Three times the height of a man.] which served as gallows or pillory where they affronted or insulted their enemies and also criminals. As in the past wars had been in favour of the Napochies, that pole was full of scalps of people from Coza. It was an Indian custom that the scalp of the fallen enemy was taken and hung on that pole. The dead had been numerous and the pole was quite peopled with scalps. It was a very great sorrow for the Coza people to see that testimonial of their ignominy which at once recalled the memory of past injuries. They all raised their voices in a furious wail, bemoaning the deaths of their relatives and friends. They shed many tears as well for the loss of their dead as for the affront to the living. Moved to compassion, the Spaniards tried to console them, but for a very long time the demonstrations of mourning did not give them a chance for a single word, nor could they do more than go around the square with extraordinary signs of compassion or sorrow for their friends or of wrath against their enemies Then they [the Indians] got hold of one of the hatchets which the Spaniards had brought with them, and they cut down the dried out tree close to the ground, taking the scalps to bury them with the superstitious practices of their kind. "With all this they became so furious and filled with vengeance, that everyone of them wished to have many hands and to be able to lay them all on the Napochies. They went from house to house looking for someone like enfuriated lions and they found only a poor strange Indian [from another tribe] who was ill and very innocent of those things, but as blind vengeance does not stop to consider, they tortured the poor Indian till they left him dying. Before he expired though, the good father Fray Domingo reached his side and told him, through the interpreter he had brought along, that if he wished to enjoy the eternal blessings of heaven, he should receive the blessed water of baptism and thereby become a Christian. He further gave him a few reasonings, the shortest possible as the occasion demanded, but the unfortunate Indian, with inherent idolatry and suffering from his fresh wounds, did not pay any attention to such good council, but delivered his soul to the demon as his ancestors before him had done. This greatly pained the blessed Father Domingo, because, as his greatest aim was to save souls, their loss was his greatest sorrow. "When the vindictive fury of the Coza people could not find any hostile Napochies on whom to vent itself, they wanted to burn the whole village and they started to do so. This cruelty caused much grief to the merciful Fray Domingo de la Anunciacion, and upon his plea the captain told the people of Coza to put out the fires, and the same friar, through his interpreter, condemned their action, telling them that it was cowardice to take vengeance in the absence of the enemies whose flight, if it meant avowal of their deficiency, was so much more glory for the victors. All the courage which the Athenians and the Lacedemonians showed in their wars was nullified by the cruelty which they showed the vanquished. "How can we know," said the good father to the Spaniards, "whether the Indians of this village are not perhaps hidden in these forests, awaiting us in some narrow pass to strike us all down with their arrows? Don't allow, brethren, this cruel destruction by fire, so that God may not permit your own deaths at the hands of the inhabitants of this place [these houses]." "The captain urged the cacique to have the fire stopped; and as he was tardy in ordering it, the captain told him in the name of Fray Domingo, that if the village was really to be burnt down, the Spaniards would all return because they considered this war of the fire as waged directly against them by burning down the houses, where was the food which they all needed so greatly at all times. Following this menace, the cacique ordered the Indians to put out the fire which had already made great headway and to subdue which required the efforts of the whole army. "When the Indians were all quieted, the cacique took possession of the village in company with his principal men and with much singing and dancing, accompanied by the music of badly tuned flutes, they celebrated their victories. The abundance of maize in that village was greater than had been supposed and the cacique ordered much of it to be taken to Coza [Note: Acosa in the original MS] so that the Spaniards who had remained there should not lack food. His main intention was to reach or find the enemy, leaving enough people in that village [of the Napochies] to prove his possession and a garrison of Spanish soldiers, which the captain asked for greater security. He then left to pursue the fugitives. "They left in great confusion, because they did not now where to find a trace of the flight which a whole village had taken and although the people of Coza endeavored diligently to find out whether they had hidden in the forests, they could not obtain any news more certain than their own conjectures. "It can not be otherwise," they said, "than that the enemy, knowing that we were coming with the Spaniards became suspicious of the security of their forests and went to hide on the great water." "When the Spaniards heard the name of great water, they thought it might be the sea, but it was only a great river, which we call the River of the Holy Spirit, the source of which is in some big forests of the country called La Florida. It is very deep and of the width of two harquebuse-shots. In a certain place which the Indians knew, it became very wide, losing its depth, so that it could be forded and it is there where the Napochies of the first village had passed, and also those who lived on the bank of that river, who, upon hearing the news, also abandoned their village, passing the waters of the Oquechiton, which is the name the Indians give that river and which means in our language the great water (la grande agua). [Note: This is pure Choctaw, from oka, water, and the objective form of chito, big. This river was not the Mississippi, as Padilla supposes, but probably the Black Warrior.] "Before the Spaniards arrived at this little hamlet however, they saw on the flat roof (azotea) of an Indian house, two Indians who were on the lookout to see whether the Spaniards were pursuing the people of the two villages who had fled across the river. The horsemen spurred their horses and, when the Indians on guard saw them, they were so surprised by their monstrosity [on horseback] that they threw themselves down the embankment towards the river, without the Spaniards being able to reach them, because the bank was very steep and the Indians very swift. One of them was in such a great hurry that he left a great number of arrows behind which he had tied up in a skin, in the fashion of a quiver. "All the Spaniards arrived at the village but found it deserted, containing a great amount of food, such as maize and beans. The inhabitants of both villages were on the riverbank on the other side, quite confident that the Spaniards would not be able to ford it. They ridiculed and made angry vociferations against the people from Coza. Their mirth was short lived, however, for, as the Coza people knew that country, they found the ford in the river and they started crossing it, the water reaching the chests of those on foot and the saddles of the riders. "Fray Domingo de la Anunciacion remained on this side of the water with the cacique, because as he was not of the war party it did not seem well that he should get wet. When our soldiers had reached about the middle of the river, one of them fired his flint lock which he had charged with two balls, and he felled one of the Napochies who was on the other side. When the others saw him on the ground dead, they were greatly astonished at the kind of Spanish weapon, which at such a distance could at one shot kill men. They put him on their shoulders and hurriedly carried him off, afraid that other shots might follow against their own persons. "All the Napochies fled, and the people of Coza upon passing the river pursued them until the fugitives gathered on the other side of an arm of the same stream, and when those from Coza were about to pass that the Napochies called out to them and said that they would fight no longer, but that they would be friends, because they [the Coza people] brought with them the power of the Spaniards; that they were ready to return to their former tributes and acknowledgment of what they owed them [the Coza people]. "Those from Coza were glad and they called to them that they should come in peace and present themselves to their cacique. They all came to present their obedience, the captain of the Spaniards requesting that the vanquished be treated benignly. The cacique received them with severity, reproaching them harshly for their past rebellion and justifying any death he might choose to give them, as well for their refusal to pay their tributes as for the lives of so many Coza people which they had taken, but that the intervention of the Spaniards was so highly appreciated that he admitted them into his reconciliation and grace, restoring former conditions. The vanquished were very grateful, throwing the blame on bad counselors, as if it were not just as bad to listen to the bad which is advised as to advise it. They capitulated and peace was made. "The Napochies pledged themselves to pay as tributes, thrice a year, game, or fruits, chestnuts, and nuts, in confirmation of their [the Coza people's] superiority, which had been recognized by their forefathers. This done, the whole army returned to the first village of the Napochies, where they had left in garrison Spanish soldiers and Coza people. As this village was convenient they rested there three days, until it seemed time to return to Coza where the 150 Spanish soldiers were waiting for them. "The journey was short and they arrived soon, and although they found them all in good health, including Father Fray Domingo de Salazar who had remained with them, all had suffered great hunger and want, because there were many people and they had been there a long time. They began to talk of returning to Nanipacna, where they had left their general, not having found in this land what had been claimed and hoped for. As it means valor in war sometimes to flee and temerity to attack, thus is it prudence on some occasions to retrace one's steps, when the going ahead does not bring any benefit."1 Barcia's account of this expedition is much shorter and contains little not given in the narrative of Padilla. He says that Father Domingo de la Anunciacion "asked the Indians about a man called Falco Hen-ado,3 a soldier of low rank, who remained voluntarily at Coza when Hernando de Soto passed through there; and he also asked about a negro, by the name of Robles, whom De Soto left behind sick,8 and he was informed that they had lived for 11 or 12 years among those Indians, who treated them very well, and that 8 or 9 years before they died from sickness." 4 After consultation the Spaniards determined to send messengers back to De Luna, the bulk of the force remaining where it was until they learned whether he would join them. They found that the Spanish settlers had withdrawn to the port where they had originally landed, and, arrived there, they received orders to return to the Spaniards in Coza and direct them to abandon the country and unite with the rest of the colony. As soon as the messengers reached them they set out "to the great grief of the Indians who accompanied them two or three days' journey weeping, with great demonstrations of love, but not for their religion, since only one dying Indian asked for baptism, which Father Salazar administered to him. In the beginning of November they reached the port after having been seven months on this exploration." ' We learn from this narrative that the nucleus of the Coosa River Creeks and the Tallapoosa River Creeks was already in existence, and that the Coosa and Holiwahali tribes were then most prominent in the respective groups. It is probable that most of the other tribes afterwards found upon Tallapoosa River were at this time in Georgia, and it is likely that the Abihka had not yet come to settle beside the Coosa. In spite of an evident confusion in the minds of the Spaniards of Indian and feudal institutions there must have been some basis for the overlordship said to have been enjoyed by the Indians of Coosa. The Napochies seem to have been a Choctaw speaking people on the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers. Mr. Grayson informs me that the name was preserved until recent years as a war title among the Creeks. They were probably identical with the Napissa, whom Iberville notes as having already in his time (1699) united with the Chickasaw.1 (Swanton)
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