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Vandera's account of the Cofitachequie

Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121

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Vandera [Amy: Memoria de Joan de la Vandera. En que se hace relacion de los lugares y tierra de la Florida por donde el capitan Juan Pardo entró á descubrir camino para Nueva España por los años de 1566, 1567] gives the following account of the country occupied by these people in his time:

"From Guiomaez he started directly for Canos, which the Indians call Canosi, and by another name Cofetazque; there are three or four rather large rivers within this province, one of them even carrying much water or rather two are that way; there are few swamps, but anybody, even a child, can pass them afoot. There are deep valleys surrounded by rocks and stones, and cliffs. The soil is reddish and fertile, very much better than all those before mentioned.

"Canos is a country through which flows one of the two powerful rivers; it contains that and many small rivulets; it has great meadows and very good ones, and here and from here on, the maize is abundant; the grapes are plentiful, big, and very good; there are also bad ones, thick skinned and small, in fact, there are very many varieties. It is a country in which a big town can be settled. To Santa Elena there are 50 leagues and to the sea about twenty, and it is possible to reach it by way of the big river crossing the country and [to go] much further inland by the same river; and equally could, one go by the other river which passes near Guiomaez."1

The first of these rivers can have been only the Savannah; the second probably the Coosawhatchie, the Salkehatchie, or Briar Creek. The name Canosi is perhaps perpetuated in Cannouchee River, a branch of the Ogeechee, upon which the Kasihta may once have dwelt.
(Swanton)