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A Spaniard from SA visited the Ocute Indians
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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Our next glimpse of Ocute is in the testimony given by Gaspar de Salas with respect to his expedition from St. Augustine to Tama in the year 1596. The greater part of this testimony will be introduced in discussing the Tamali tribe. After leaving Tama the narrative continues: "At one day's journey from Tama they came upon the village of Ocute, where they were very well received by its cacique, who made them many presents, the women bringing their shawls, which he calls aprons, which look like painted leather. [Note: He says carpeta, which in Spanish is a table cover, a portfolio, or any leather case.] Some of them say that they have been in New Spain and have or are imitating their dress. "As they wished to go on farther, the cacique of Ocute tried very earnestly to dissuade them from it, weeping over it with them, as he said that if they went any farther inland the Indians there would kill them, because a long time ago, which must have been when Soto passed there, taking many people on horseback, they killed many of them; how much more would they kill them who were but few? This is the reason why they did not go ahead, but returned from there. They likewise heard the Indians of that village as well as the Salchiches say that at four days' journey from there, and after passing a very high mountain where, when the sun rose, there seemed to be a big fire, on the farther side of it lived people who wore their hair clipped (cut), and that the pine trees were cut down with hatchets, and that it seems to the witness that such signs can only apply to Spaniards. He [the witness] says that this country [Tama, etc.] seems to him to be very rich, or at least sufficiently so to produce any kind of grain, even if it be wheat, and has many meadows and pastures for cattle, and its rivers have sweet water in places, and that it seems to him that if there were anybody who knew how to find and wash gold in those rivers it could surely be found."4 (Swanton)
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