Locating Xualla

An Alternate Route For De Soto
Across The Southern Highlands

By Bob E. Jones
May 29, 2002

[About the footnotes]

From Cofitachequi (Camden, SC) De Soto departed north toward the Chiscas. He had heard that there was gold to be found there, and he had seen copper axe heads that had come from there that he believed contained gold [1] . He had asked the way of the leaders and the traders of Cofitachequi, and they had concocted a tale for him. They already had learned the price of being too candid. They had informed him earlier of the cache of corn in their town of Ilasi, and De Soto had sent Gallegos with much of the army east, descending on Ilasi like a plague of locusts [2] . The council of the Cofitachequi wasn't going to make the mistake of sending De Soto north through their vassal states along the Catawba if they could help it! They told De Soto that, as he had been told, the direct route to the Chiscas lay northward up the Wateree / Catawba River, but on that route, beyond the Catawba lay many a steep mountain ridge, places that his horses could not pass. [3] They reasoned with De Soto that he could instead take the route to Chiaha, a great kingdom under the control of the Coosa, via the low gap in the mountains at Xualla. He was told that the land of Chiaha was a fruitful land with an abundance of corn, and that on the way lay the lands of Chalaque, Xualla and Gauxule where he might find sustenance. This "alternate route" De Soto resolved to take, for he felt once across the mountains at Chiaha he might then decide the best approach to the Chiscas. [4]

Xualla was located at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, of this there is a general agreement among those who quest for De Soto's route. De Soto arrived there on the evening of May 21, 1540 after leaving Cofitachequi on May 12. [5] During his nine days in route he had found very few Indians, most of them in a place he rested for a day in a pine grove. On his route he had seen only one other town, that of Guaguili. [6] After the second day out from Cofitachequi they had been traveling in a territory called Chalaque, a word that is thought to mean "the people that speak another language" in Eastern Muskogean, the language of Cofitachequi. [7] It is from the accounts of De Soto that the later settlers were to derive their name for the Cherokee, and it may well be that these were in some way ancestors to that great race. But to De Soto these people seemed downtrodden and poor.

Today Charles Hudson, who is probably the foremost authority around on the De Soto and Pardo expeditions, believes that the location of Xualla was at the Berry site in Burke County, NC. This is based on the discovery of artifacts in the archaeological digs at the site beginning in 1986. [8] It is assumed these 16^th century Spanish artifacts, which are utilitarian in makeup, represent the remains of the Spanish Fort San Juan, built by Pardo in 1566. Although the number of items found is small, the continuing excavations may indeed find the remains of buildings and further evidence that makes the Berry site likely to be San Juan. However, none of these artifacts can ever confirm that the Xualla, visited by De Soto over 25 years before the building of Fort San Juan, was also located at the Berry site. In fact there are compelling reasons to believe that that is not the case.

Juan Pardo, in De Soto's footsteps

Hudson has made a life's work (so far) of the study of De Soto and Pardo. He, and his associates, Beck, DePratter, Worth and Smith, rightly see the accounts of these journeys as a unique window on the world of the Southeastern Indians in the times just before Columbus, his specialty. Indeed without these accounts all we have to show us that ancient world are the limited results of painstaking archaeological work in modern times mainly based on fragments of pottery and the faint outlines of structures indicated by stains in the ground, and on the enigma of the mysterious mounds across the Southeast that have fascinated young and old since pioneer times. These mounds are the work of the "Mississippian" peoples who inhabited the area in Prehistoric times, and only in the "accounts" are these locations painted in the colors of the "living". The pageant of life can be seen "between the lines" in these accounts, and although De Soto was a tyrant and an abusive murderer who spread death and destruction wherever he went, his accounts, and those of Pardo, are, unfortunately, the only connection we may today make with the flesh and blood of those times in the Southeast. So the study of the "route" has taken on significance beyond the atrocities of De Soto's expedition, becoming a means to visualize the cultures through which they passed..

Hudson and associates have in the last few decades overturned the findings of the Congressional Committee that in 1939 studied the "route". Using documents and accounts generated by the Pardo expedition 25 years after De Soto they have been able to provide a substantial body of evidence to support the conclusion first put forward by Mary Ross in the 1930s that Cofitachequi was located in the area east of Columbia SC, and not at Silver Bluff south of Augusta GA as the commission declared in 1939. [9] Pardo visited the same towns of Cofitachequi in 1566 and 67 and the accounts of his expedition, written both by himself and his "proctor" Bandera are clear on the central SC location. And now, in recent years, archaeological work near Camden SC at the Mulberry and Adamson sites have shown great promise in determining the actual specific location for the main towns of Cofitachequi.

Pardo goes further in his assistance of our determination of the route. Through his eyes we can perceive the land of the Chiscas, for his sergeant Moyano took a detachment there from Fort San Juan, four days across the mountains, to that place De Soto never found, and there he fought and destroyed a city of that land. [10] But he found no gold. Robin Beck places this land on the upper Holston River near today's Elizabethton, TN, or beyond up on the North Holston River at Saltville. [11] In addition Pardo describes the town of Chiaha exactly as De Soto did, and in this detailed description of the unique environs of the place, only a few sites are able to claim a "fit". By far the most likely of these sites is now under the waters of Douglas Lake east of Knoxville TN, on Zimmerman's Island in the French Broad River. [12]

And so Pardo has helped us identify these key points in the De Soto story, and in doing so has set about, through Hudson and friends, a revolution in our understanding of the "route". However, we must be careful not to take that association too far, for while the determination of the locations of Chiaha, Chiscas and Cofitachequi seems to be one and the same for both De Soto and Pardo, there are difficulties with the idea that Joara of Pardo is the same spot as the Xualla of De Soto. This paper will attempt to identify and address these difficulties, and then hope to offer an alternative.

What's in a name: Xualla or Joara or Juada …

In order to address these difficulties the first point of contention surrounds the naming of Xualla. Pardo and Bandera never say that Joara (Pardo says it was Juada) was the same spot as De Soto camped at Xualla. It is true that Pardo had been given instructions to seek out De Soto's Xualla and to build a fort there, but as the instructions to Pardo also included building a road to the silver mines in Mexico and finding the Northwest passage for the King of Spain, his ability to follow those instructions to the letter is suspect. In fact, had Pardo known, through dim memory (he was with De Soto at Xualla for several nights as a Sergeant 25 years before) that his Fort San Juan was not at that same location, he probably wouldn't have made to much ado about it in his reports to the King. The case made for the identification of Joara as Xualla is based on this "instruction" and on the supposed similarity of the two words. This may not seem evident to a layman, however there is some evidence that the Spanish difficulties in pronouncing Indian names that contained certain sounds (English "sh", "r" and "j" for example) led to the use of "X" and even "l" as placeholder letters. In addition Hudson makes a case for the theory that the translators used by De Soto and Pardo spoke different languages, and therefore made substitutions of their own. [13] So while it may seem evident that these places had different names, this may not be a true indication that these were then different places. Such a set of arguments can't be said to "prove" Xualla and Joara were the same words though.

Even if the assumption is made that these words are the same, then it becomes necessary to determine if the names described the same thing. While Joara is no doubt a specific town, and evidently an important cultural center, Xualla is described by Elvas as a "province". [14] Biedma says they found in the "land" of Xualla little population, but they "still found some Indian houses". [15] Garcilaso calls Xualla both a "province" and a "pueblo" [16] One might easily infer from this that Xualla of De Soto described an area, and not necessarily the central town of that "province". Much like the analogy of New York and New York.

If that is unconvincing then it is apparent also in looking at the historical record, when compared to the accounts, that places often "moved". Place names found in the accounts can be also found in the records of early pioneers, but it is agreed by almost all parties that almost all of these places have "moved" in the intervening years. [17] Indeed, may of these "moves" may well have occurred immediately after first contact with Europeans. So if all other doubts about the names could be quelled, the idea that the two words described the exact location might still be in doubt, for Xualla may well have "moved" in the intervening 25 years between the visit of De Soto and Pardo.

The descriptions of the locale, and of the route to Chiaha

Beyond the names, another thing that has led to the assumption that Joara and Xualla are one in the same has been the descriptions of these locales left us by the accounts. Both the De Soto and Pardo accounts describe Xualla and Joara as being directly under a "high ridge of mountains", located on a plain, surrounded by rivers. [18] Such a place is (arguably) the Berry Site, and thus it is easy to come to the conclusion that that place must be Xualla as well. At first glance such a description may seem a telling clue, but anyone who is familiar with what is called the Blue Ridge Escarpment knows that this could describe many, if not a majority of, locations located along the foot of this range in which an Indian settlement might have been located, all the way from Pennsylvania to Alabama!

So then if these descriptions are not a unique identifier the analysis of the route to Chiaha comes into play, for Xualla must have a route across the mountains that "fits" the accounts. In fact, thanks to the work of Robin Beck, such a route seems available from the Berry site. That route I call the Nolichucky Route. [19] From the Berry site an ancient path crosses the mountains and reaches into the supposed land of the Chiscas, due north of Berry. [20] From this pathway one might also branch off and travel down the Toe River, first to the southwest and then to the north and then west along the Nolichucky River, which the Toe becomes, eventually finding a way to Chiaha. The mileages for this route correspond closely with the abilities of Pardo and Moyano's Calvary, and make Moyano's incursion into the Chiscas fall into place. The ability to "fit" De Soto's accounts to this route I feel is problematic for the following reasons.

First is the statement by Rangel that De Soto "crossed a high ridge of mountains on the first day" out of Xualla. [21] This is a stretch from Berry, as it is 17 steep and torturous miles (Beck says 15), climbing over 2700 feet in elevation to the top of the Blue Ridge. For an army such as De Soto led, with 200 chained slaves, herds of pigs, 300 foot soldiers, hundreds of horses and 200 armored knights, marching up the narrow foot trails that had never seen such traffic, 17 miles in a day is extremely improbable. As we will demonstrate 17 (or even 15) miles a day would be an unlikely, even "suspect" speed on flat ground with good trails for De Soto's army, much less on this great climb. Could they have stopped before the crest of the ridge? Possibly, for certainly Rangel could have been wrong.

Next is the big "to do" made about "crossing up to their shins" of the Mississippi River on the second day (Elvas says the headwaters of the Mississippi, but Rangel indicates that this WAS the river itself). [22] Beck seems to think this could have been the North Toe River near the Yancey County Airport. [23] It seems unlikely that this narrow stream could have been mistaken for the great Mississippi, although it was a stream that eventually led to that river. To cross "up to your shins" would be no trouble on the North Toe, in fact to find a spot deeper would be a problem.

I believe Rangel was emphasizing that the great river came ONLY to their shins. But that's just a feeling.

Then there is the idea presented by Beck that the stream that Rangel says they followed toward Guaxule was the Nolichucky. Through the gorge that river cuts through the Unicoi Mountains to today's Erwin TN. Here he indicates Rangel calls that river a "large creek" that they "crossed many times". [24] It was only in modern times that there has been any traffic through the Nolichucky Gorge. The railroad, built in the early 20^th century was the first to pass that way, and it required the use of hundreds of pounds of dynamite to create a narrow ledge for the rails to follow. For anyone who has rafted that whitewater river it is obvious both that the gorge was not an easily traversed route on foot, and that it would be impossible in May, the season of "high water". with an army such as De Soto's to cross this river "many times". In the miles since De Soto's first crossing at the North Toe it becomes a river a hundred yards wide, hardly a creek, even a "large creek" as described. This route is not a problem when considering Pardo as an old Indian trail skirts past the gorge across the mountains to the north, a route he would have had no difficulties in traversing, but compared to the route as described by Rangel, this just doesn't "fit".

From Erwin, TN, the "Nolichucky Route" follows through the last mountains to be seen on this path. Here is Embreeville, TN, a wonderful place, and a choice site for a potential Indian town. In fact an archaeological site has been discovered here, and it is possibly of the same period (or phase) as Joara. [25] This is Beck and Hudson's Guaxule. It is hard however to reconcile the account's descriptions of a mound on which the Chief was housed, 300 houses and of small streams flowing through the town that is given by Garcilaso. Garcilaso often exaggerates however, that's well known. Rangel and Elvas said it was a "good place" and that can't be denied at Embreeville.

Once past Embreeville the valley flattens out. Here the mountains rise a few miles to the southeast, but for the remainder of the way to Chiaha the land along the Nolichucky is flat or just slightly hilly in places. Embreeville, or Guaxule according to Beck and Hudson, was reached in four days travel from Joara, but from here to Chiaha took the army another five. From this it is clear that the majority of the journey had been after they had exited the mountains, but Rangel says that the route from Xualla to Chiaha had been "all the way through the mountains". [26] It's a little thing. Once again we must ignore Rangel, for he could have been mistaken.

Then there's the strange thing Rangel says concerning the river on the third day after Gauxule. He says that they "went along a large creek that followed beside the river they had crossed up to their shins… and it had become large." [27]   Now here he is obviously talking of the Nolichucky as the "river", the creek they "followed along" according to Robin Beck is Lick Creek. Beck concludes that the army must have crossed and then left the riverside after Embreeville, and here as they followed along the creek they once again had knowledge of the Nolichucky running along their course. Beck makes this "fit" by having the army travel due east through today's Greeneville, TN, leaving the river to meander its' way to the south, the army only rejoining it when it loops back north to meet Lick Creek. The strange part is if the army had followed this river from its' headwaters, crossed it many times and spent several days in towns along its' course, why would he refer to it as the "river crossed up to our shins"? Might not he have remembered it as "the river we crossed many times" or "the river that ran through Guaxule". I feel that the army returned to that river after an absence of some time, since, in fact, they had first "crossed up to their shins", but again we can't know what was Rangel had in mind. I just don't understand why he said that, if that river was the Nolichucky, and they had followed it all along (except for the last day or so).

Then also there also is the matter of distance vs. time, a key element of contention in this paper. The "road" distance from the Berry site to Embreeville is 78 miles, based on my driving it the most direct route on the modern back roads. Now this may be a bit further than De Soto would have had to travel, as roads built for vehicles must meander a bit where footpaths often go directly ahead, but it isn't hard to believe that the distances are not that far different considering the blasting and equipment used over the years to smooth our way today. If so then 78 miles in four days of travel yields a rate of over 19 miles per day! When considering the initial climb of 17 miles up over the Blue Ridge, then a speed exceeding 19 miles per day to Guaxule, including a passage through an impassable gorge along the way, such a rate of travel is a bit extreme. [28] Then, without an explanation, the army took five days to complete the additional 75 miles to Chiaha, even though this travel was through relatively flat land. In the end the "Nolichucky Route" covers 103 "road" miles, and for that distance the army averaged 16 miles per day. This is within the limits of the ability of such an army to travel, but just barely. I can't understand however how they went further on the days they were in the rugged mountains than they did in the flat valleys beyond. But there is the possibility that the accounts were wrong, there is some disagreement on the dates, but the alternative dates pose a quicker traverse, and that doesn't help make the "Nolichucky Route" more probable. It's true that Embreeville need not be Guaxule for this route to be valid, but the site there (Plum Grove) is an important cornerstone of the Nolichucky Route theory.

Finally, one must also wonder at the account's mention that De Soto had elected to not take the "direct route" to Chiscas from Cofitachequi. [29] If De Soto went as described by Hudson from Camden to the North Toe through Joara, he would have been following the most direct route to that land. Only when he turned south and then west following the Toe downstream two days after Joara did he turn away from this direct route. By then the "high sierra" was behind them. In fact, two days later, once they had passed the Nolichucky Gorge to Erwin, TN, no significant mountains stood in the way on the route north to Chisca. Why then did he choose, after passing all those supposed barriers, to then turn away west to Chiaha? (I'll visit this again later)

There's another thing about the "Nolichucky Route". It's not the shortest, or the best route from Berry to Embreeville. After reaching the crest of the ridge at Jonas Ridge, and going through today's Linville Falls, the army could have turned upstream (following the trail to the Chiscas) instead of downstream on the North Toe and crossed easily across Cranberry Gap into the valley of Elk River. From here turning west over low hills to Indian Creek you arrive at Erwin and on to Embreeville in 68 miles, 10 less than the "Nolichucky Route". This was the route of the Indian trail that existed in historical times, there are no high mountains to cross and no wide river's to wade down. One wonders if the Indians were conspiring to "lose" De Soto if they took him the "Nolichucky Route".

Pardo and Moyano on the "Nolichucky Route"

Several interesting things appear when looking at the "Nolichucky Route" in connection with the Pardo Expeditions. The first, as just mentioned, if you turn north on the North Toe you arrive in short order across Cranberry Gap and down the Elk River to the Watauga River. This major tributary of the Upper Holston was the location for one of the earliest settlements of the Pioneers, and the site of signing many of the Cherokee Treaties. Sycamore Shoals, at Elizabethton, TN, is only 50 miles from Berry. From there it's only 10 more miles to the South Holston, and a total of 90 from Berry to the Powell River at Copper Ridge, TN. Both the South Holston and Powell River are places with Mississippian sites and even sixteenth century Spanish trade items. [30] That sounds like the Chiscas to me! I think that was the route that Moyano took on his foray into the land of the Chiscas, and this connection makes Berry make a lot of sense as Fort San Juan.

Another interesting coincidence is the name of the first Indian Town entered by Pardo on his way to Fort San Juan to Chiaha. This is the name of the Indian town of Tocae. Pioneer legend has it that the Toe River was named for an ancient Cherokee town that was once located on that river. Place names, as demonstrated by the failures of the De Soto Commission who relied heavily on historical names, cannot be relied upon. This naming is an interesting coincidence though, that might lead one to conclude that Pardo took the Nolichucky Route to Chiaha, and that Tocae and Toe are versions of the same name. Another coincidence is the name of Johns River, and Warrior Fork. Could Johns River be some ancient memory of Fort San Juan nearby. All my historical research of the upper Catawba can't determine the origin of that name. Warrior Fork, the stream the Berry site adjoins, could be another indication of an association made historically with Joara.

Indeed, "naming" is relied on heavily by Hudson in his determination that the Pardo route across the mountains followed the French Broad instead of the Nolichucky. Here Hudson points out the similarity between the names of the places the Indians came from to meet with Pardo at Cauchi, his next stop after Tocae on his way to Chiaha. These similarities between the names cited by Bandera, and historical Cherokee place names make him believe that Cauchi and Tocae must have been in the French Broad or Pigeon River area. Not because these place names exist in those mountains historically (actually most were located far away by the eighteenth century) but because those names are obviously Cherokee, and there is a belief that in the sixteenth century the prehistoric Cherokee were confined to those mountain areas. [31] The archaeological sites of the upper Nolichucky basin contains significant Pisgah Phase involvement however, (the signature of the Prehistoric Cherokee), even up into the Holston Valley where the Chiscas were, so there would be no reason to believe that these traditional Cherokee place names may not have existed in those regions as well. In fact Cherokee legend says that in ancient times they flourished on the upper parts of those rivers, as they did in the early historical period. So the occurrence of those names does not "prove" that Pardo went one way or the other.

One reason cited, beyond the naming, that Pardo must have gone the French Broad route is that his descriptions don't seem to "fit" those of De Soto for the route. This leads Hudson to believe that Pardo must have taken a separate route from De Soto. Since he believes that De Soto took the Nolichucky Route then that leaves the French Broad to Pardo. This is a fair observation when comparing the accounts of De Soto and Pardo. It can be seen in the problems making Gauxule the same as Cauchi, Hudson says he can "find no reason why the name had changed". He finds that somehow De Soto, if he took the same route as Pardo, missed going to Tocae, and one of the most telling differences is that Pardo relates that he "crossed the mountains in four days" coming back to Joara from Chiaha. This "fits" much more nicely with Pardo taking the Nolichucky Route to Joara than the French Broad. [32]

Moyano seems to indicate a Nolichucky route as well when he traveled to Chiaha. In fact Hudson agrees with this. Moyano after his expedition against the Chiscas we looked at above, asked via letter to be allowed to "press on further" to see what there was to see. [33] This indicates that he intended to follow the trail toward the Chiscas and " go further", not go in a separate direction such as west to the French Broad. Hudson, Beck and others all agree that Moyano took a route from the north side of the Catawba (Berry is one of several) on his way to the Chiscas and again on his way to Chiaha. When Pardo came to his rescue after he was besieged at Chiaha, it's hard to believe he would follow a different route than Moyano took, especially if Fort San Juan was at the Berry site.

Finally, there is the problem of the French Broad Route itself. This a problem that involves all the routes that are proposed. It revolves around a misconception of the nature of the passages these rivers make through the main chain of the Appalachians. The three rivers, the Nolichucky, French Broad and Pigeon, were all virtually impassable for a significant distance in the days before the railroads and modern highways came and blasted a way through. All three routes had early usage by Pioneers, and all three routes followed what the Pioneers knew as "old Indian trails". These routes however by-passed the lower gorges of all three rivers.

As cited above, the Nolichucky was by-passed by a trail that went up across the Unicoi Range at Beauty Spot. This is the route taken today by buses carrying White Water Rafters from Newport to Poplar NC at the head of the gorge to begin the wild ride down. If you have ever done this you will be assured that no army such as De Soto passed that way, and also that nobody called this a "creek" or "crossed it many times" as De Soto is supposed to have done.

The French Broad has a similar circumstance in its' lower gorge. Here the "old" Pioneer route left the French Broad at Marshall, NC going west (as US 25 does today). However, the oldest route followed from there, up Laurel River and crossed the mountains at Allen Gap, then it traveled down across the Nolichucky to Greeneville, TN. Bishop Asbury, a Methodist Missionary who left extensive diaries of his yearly trips into the mountains of Western North Carolina from Tennessee from 1800 to 1814, usually followed this route. He says that around 1811 a friend told him of a new road that had been cut along the river from Warm Springs (today Hot Springs, NC), but even this road is described as wandering several miles from the river through the roughest parts, much as US 25 does between Hot Springs and Laurel River. [34] In 1845 the Buncombe Turnpike was constructed, and for the first time you could follow the river for its' course through the gorge, however the extensive use of "side fords", where the traveler actually had to wade down the river for a ways to avoid the overhanging cliffs, made this a "low water" road. [35]   When the Railroad was built in the late 1880s it required the use of what there was of this narrow path, and so the road through the gorge was discontinued. In the time of Pardo and De Soto it seems unlikely that the Indians used the French Broad route at all, instead following Laurel River toward Greeneville and the Nolichucky Valley as the earliest roads did. The French Broad in the area of the lower gorge is another popular rafting spot, and a visit there will lay your ideas of an army marching along its bank to rest much as a trip down the Nolichucky will.

So why take Pardo down the French Broad then? Because De Soto went the "other" way. But this seems a bit turned around. If Berry is Fort San Juan, Pardo's fort, and the Nolichucky route begins there it seems natural to assign this route to Pardo. The problem is two fold, first that for De Soto to have climbed the "high ridge" on the first day out from Xualla (assuming Xualla to be also at Berry) he would have had to taken the Nolichucky for any other gap in the Blue Ridge is far out of range from there, and the second is that, if we discount the French Broad, it seems that there is no other reasonable route that has been proposed, other than the Nolichucky, that "fits" De Soto's accounts. [36]

An unseen alternative for De Soto's route, the Pigeon River

Before 1996, when Hudson came to adopt the Nolichucky Route for De Soto, he placed De Soto's route along the French Broad. [37] Later this was the route he grafted on to Pardo. This route, as noted above had serious problems. Beyond those, Hudson had De Soto climbing up through Swannanoa Gap, a significantly lower gap 30 miles west of the Berry site, which is good, but out of the reach of Berry. From here De Soto supposedly went down the Swannanoa River to the area of Asheville, NC where he turned north following the French Broad. Downstream along the French Broad the terrain bothered Hudson, as nothing seemed to "fit". The lack of known archaeological sites bothered Hudson as well. It is easy to see why he was eager to abandon this theory when faced with Berry's new route.

The genesis of the French Broad Route proposed by Hudson is an interesting story, arising from an unfortunate oversight. This story can be found in the book written by Hudson's wife, Joyce. [38] She says that originally Hudson had favored a route down the Pigeon River, as this was the most logical route on a map. They had traveled that way early on in their research, along Interstate 40, and from their viewpoint, after that trip, there was no way that an army could have passed that way. Joyce says they then went back up the French Broad, and it seems that almost in desperation they decided De Soto must have come that way. The idea that the Pigeon River could not be the route has colored all Hudson's subsequent proposals, even his route for Pardo.

At the head of the Pigeon River Gorge, just off the I 40 exit for US 276 stands a NC Historical Marker. It memorializes the Cataloochee Trail, an ancient Indian Trail that followed the Pigeon River to the Tennessee. Like the other rivers the old "road" along the Pigeon didn't travel down in the gorge itself, an area that Joyce and Charlie Hudson were right about in its' perceived impassibility, the trail followed across the mountains high above the gorge. One wonders what would have happened if they had seen this marker that day, and realized that far from being an impossible route, this was actually the main trail from the French Broad Valley to the Tennessee River. Bishop Asbury, already mentioned, traveled that way from Knoxville, TN to Asheville, NC, in 1810 (although he decided he liked the Greenville TN route better even though much longer.) He describes the trail as an "ancient aboriginal path". [39]   Historical roads might not always mark the path of old Indian trails of the prehistoric period, and this has been a matter of dispute in flat lands like Mississippi when retracing the route, however the terrain in the mountains precludes most routes, so it is easy to see that a pathway known as an ancient Indian route in 1810 most likely would have also been a major route in prehistoric times.

So does this mean that this route then becomes a better "fit" for Pardo? Not really, for one couldn't ignore the mountains on the Cataloochee Trail, and from first encountering those mountains on his return from Chiaha he could not have "passed the mountains in four days" back to Joara. Pardo's description can only fit the Nolichucky Route. With such an "unexplored" alternative for De Soto however, something that doesn't necessarily mean a return to his taking the French Broad Route, our focus might well return to the issue of Xualla and it's location, before we look for a "fit" for this new "Pigeon River Route", for if we are to use this route, Xualla cannot be at Berry.

Crossing the Blue Ridge, the possibilities aren't endless

As already stated there is nothing involving the naming or the descriptions that forces us to consider that Joara and Xualla are one in the same. The next argument might be the "fit" of the Nolichucky route which (arguably) could only start from Berry. But that "fit" is a bit suspect for reasons outlined above. Also, no matter what may be found to indicate positively that Joara was Fort San Juan, archaeology will never "prove" the visit of De Soto there for a few days 25 years before Pardo, for even if De Soto left some tale tale sign of his passing, it would be indistinguishable from the artifacts left by Pardo. So finally we must look at alternative Xuallas and their relationship to this "undiscovered" route, and also the relationship of those locations relative to Cofitachequi. Of the latter there are some interesting points to be made.

When one looks at the Blue Ridge Escarpment from the viewpoint of Camden, SC, (if that is indeed Cofitachequi) and considers the number of days De Soto traveled to get there, a range of miles must limit the area to be considered. If we decide that there is no possibility that De Soto could have averaged over 20 miles a day on his march we must place a limit of no more than 160 "road" miles for his eight days of travel. This then sets the outside limits of the interface with the Escarpment to be a range along the front from the headwaters of the Saluda River near Pickens, SC over to the Catawba River near Lenoir, NC. This encompasses the headwaters of the Saluda, the Pacelot, the Broad and the Catawba Rivers. With this limit set we might then look for gaps in the Blue Ridge that could be crossed in a day. This is a surprisingly short list.

Starting from the east and moving west these locations include include:

From Patterson, NC on the headwaters of the Yadkin River, up to Blowing Rock, NC. From there the trail would have crossed through Boone, NC and followed a well known early trail that followed the Watauga River out of the mountains to join the Holston, closely following the route of today's US 321. At Patterson a site has been discovered with sixteenth century Spanish artifacts. A climb of 2100 feet in 15 miles would be required for that first day. The distance from Cofitachequi is 157 miles however, and would have required almost 20 miles a day of De Soto if the accounts are correct.

From the Berry site up Jonas Ridge to Linville, NC, the approximate route of NC 181. An extreme 2700 foot climb in 17 miles would be required of De Soto. This route is favored by the discovery of the Berry site, with its Spanish artifacts, and the Nolichucky route. It is 147 "road" miles from Cofitachequi. This is the route Hudson supports, but it requires that De Soto travel at more than 18 miles per day on his way from Cofitachequi.

From north of Marion, NC, (McDowell Site) along Cox Creek or over Altapass Gap, following the Clinchfield Railroad and NC 226, a 1300 foot climb in about 13 miles. This route is favored by the discovery of the McDowell site near Marion, [40] and the Nolichucky Route is available from here, following the Catawba it is 153 "road" miles from Cofitachequi.

From Old Fort, NC, through the Swannanoa Gap, the approximate route of I 40 but more properly the route of "old US 70", a road now closed. This a 1250 foot climb in 8 miles. This is the route of the major east to west trail the Indians used, the Suali or Sara trail, that later became known as the Rutherford Trace. [41] No sites have been discovered at Old Fort to date, and this is barely within reach from Cofitachequi, and only if one travels up the Broad River at 160 miles.

From Crooked Creek, NC, south of Old Fort, through Cane Creek Gap, following Hebron Road and then Old Fort Road. A 1430 foot climb in 10 miles. No sites have been discovered here, but the location has several things going for it when looking at a "fit" with the accounts. It is 155 miles from Cofitachequi.

From Lake Lure, NC along the Rocky Broad to Reedy Patch Creek to Edneyville, the route of US 64. A 1200 foot climb in 16 miles. This route was proposed by Mooney in 1903, [42] from Camden, SC, it is 145 miles.

From Sunny View, NC across World's Edge, the old Mills Gap Road. A 1850 foot climb in 8 miles. This route follows one of the first Pioneer Roads into the mountains, to reach here from Cofitachequi would take road 140 miles.

From Lake Adger, NC across Deep Gap. A 1400 foot climb in 17 miles. Today this route is used only by jeeps in the Green River game Lands. The distance to Cofitachequi is 140 miles.

From Lynn, NC (Tryon) across Warrior Gap, the Old Howard gap Road and Warrior Path. This is near the route of I 26. An 1100 foot climb in 9 miles. Here is the lowest Gap in the Blue Ridge, the gap used by both the main north to south Indian Trail, the great Warrior Path to the Cumberland Gap from the Piedmont of SC and the earliest "wagon road" into the mountains, the Howard Gap Road. [43] It is also the route of I 26 across the Blue Ridge. A secondary route from here, the North Pacelot River climbs the same 1100 feet in 14 miles and today is the route of US 176 and the railroad. No sites have been discovered here, but the "fit" with De Soto's accounts and the Pigeon River Route from here is exciting. At 130 miles from Cofitachequi it is the closet candidate in "road miles" to Camden, SC.

From Poinsett Reservoir, SC, on the headwaters of the NE Fork of the Saluda across Saluda Gap, closely following the route of Old US 25. This a 1200 foot climb in 7 miles. An interesting thing about this route is that Cyrus Thomas placed a "mound" at a site near here, but that site has never been studied, and it's exact location is "lost". [44] It is 135 miles from Camden, SC.

From Table Rock, SC across Caesar's Head, the route today a trail west of US 276. A 1800 foot climb in 9 miles. Table Rock is 150 miles from Cofitachequi.

From north of Pickens, SC up Eastatoe Creek, the route of US 178 to the headwaters of the French Broad. A 1700 foot climb in 14 miles. This route was proposed early in the century by Lowrey, [45] and he proposed a route toward Georgia. To "fit" the French Broad route would work. It is 155 miles from here to Camden, SC

Along the Blue Ridge Escarpment within our range there are a total of 23 points where it is possible (within reason) to pass over that ridge. Most of these today have highways across, and those that don't have trails or jeep roads. Of those 23 only from the 12 outlined above can the Blue Ridge be crossed

in less than 20 miles via trail or road. Those locations are described above.  The table looks at various aspects of these locations. From the Patterson, Berry and McDowell locations I consider the Guaxule to be Embreeville, from the rest Guaxule would be garden Creek.

Of miles on the trail

Patterson, Berry, McDowell, Old Fort and Crooked Creek require that De Soto hurry along at 18 or 19 miles per day after departing Cofitachequi, while Lynn and Poinsett require a more leisurely 16 miles per day. All are problematic in that Hudson himself states that "any route that required De Soto to average over 15 miles per day is suspect". [46] I would say that 18 miles is a bit more "suspect" than 16 however.

This point of the "suspect" distance to the Catawba (and the Berry site) is recognized by Hudson. In his 1984 discourse, "From Apalachee to Chiaha", [47] he proposed that De Soto might have been traveling with his vanguard out ahead of his army, and therefore could accomplish such speeds. This would leave his army to catch up in the days he spent at Xualla, but the accounts only mention the arrival of Gallegos and his "half" of the army from Ilasi the day after De Soto arrived. It might be proposed that the elements of De Soto's army that slowed the march down, especially the 300 pigs, could have been sent with Gallegos to Ilasi. Since we don't known when he departed Ilasi this might be possible, but this is only a guess. It is a guess made, like the invention of the Nolichucky route, only because without such inventions and guesses Xualla cannot be at Berry.

So if we demand a location that doesn't require such invention, a location that just barely stretches "suspect", and isn't fraught with the problems of the Nolichucky Route as a "fit" then we are left to look at Lynn or Poinsett. Lynn, astride a major Indian Trail that is described by the Pioneers as going south toward "the Congarees" (Columbia, SC), and sitting at the foot of the lowest gap available to cross the Blue Ridge is surely attractive as a possible Xualla. So a look at the route De Soto would have taken to Lynn (or Poinsett) from Cofitachequi is in order.

The road from Cofitachequi

The first thing to note when looking at the most direct route to either Berry or Lynn from Cofitachequi is that you must cross the Wateree to the west side. As neither Pardo or De Soto make note of a major river crossing this would indicate a point where the crossing wouldn't be that difficult. In fact such a place exists on the Wateree, at a place called Great Falls, just south of the junction of Fishing Creek with the Wateree. This is noted in Hudson in his study of Pardo and De Soto's route. While Pardo, traveling at a high speed, and De Soto if he was in route to Berry, would have crossed this point, which is 32 miles north of Camden, early on the second day, De Soto traveling at a less "suspect" speed to Lynn would have arrived there at the end of his second day.

This corresponds to his entry into Chalaque. Could this mean that Chalaque was the land west of the Wateree, that the river was the boundary? Further it seems that Great Falls is 70 miles from Cheraw, the supposed location of Ilasi. That's about 5 days travel at 15 miles per day. Gallegos says he met with De Soto's trail after 5 days travel from Ilasi, [48] this could mean that Gallegos also was pressing for this crossing on his way to meet De Soto. De Soto indicated Gallegos was to meet him "at Chalaque" and he was upset when he wasn't there. I suspect that De Soto had ordered Gallegos to meet him at Great Falls. When he arrived here, probably a day and a half after De Soto (they had been delayed by a severe storm), his men knew two things. First that Cofitachequi, the place they had wanted to colonize, [49] lay just two days to the south, and that crossing this river was leading them back into the wilderness of Ocute. It is here that they almost mutinied.

De Soto crossed the river and traveled another 16 miles northwest his third day, and stopped at a pine grove that would have been near Chester, SC. Here he could find no villages and the people seemed to be poor and "decimated". [50] Pardo on the other hand was ranging north after his crossing, up the Wateree, where he found towns and people a plenty. [51] It is hard to understand the difference in what De Soto saw and what Pardo experienced if they were on the same track. Hudson recognizes this as well, and suggests that maybe De Soto actually traveled up the east side of the Wateree, but that would stretch his travel speeds to Berry into the oblivion of "suspect". Here at Chester an angered De Soto sent word back to Gallegos' that he best be hurrying along to meet him, and he waited a day. Probably on that day Gallegos arrived at Great Falls, and thus was a day behind De Soto. De Soto pressed forward, led by his Indian guides, and crossed the Broad River in another 16 miles at Lockhart, SC. Here is a spot where the river divides into several narrow channels, a major crossing point on that river from time beyond history. De Soto had brought along the "princess" he had dealt with in Cofitachequi, and she seemed to have a certain amount of influence upon the few inhabitants they encountered. It seemed like they maybe were a conquered race, subject to the lands of the Lady of Cofitachequi. Garcilaso speaks of some of these unfortunates as having their Achilles tendon cut on one foot, evidently years ago, by someone, to allow them to walk but not run. [52]

After crossing the Wateree De Soto encountered a good but often deserted land, finding only one town on his route for four days. If he was in the northern fringe of the wilderness that existed at the time along the Broad and Savannah River that would explain his experience. The accounts say the land was they traveled through was hilly and fertile, and was crossed by rivers every 4 leagues or so. [53] Rivers every 12 to 14 miles would "fit" well with this route.

Finally he arrived at Xualla, and the next day Gallego's came in behind him. [54] To drive this route today start at the Mulberry Site south of Camden then go north on US 321 to Great falls. From there cross the Wateree River and go toward Chester on SC 97 and merge with SC 9. Follow 9 across the Broad River at Lockhart and on the Spartanburg, SC, where 9 merges with US 176. Follow US 176 to Tryon, NC. Lynn is to the northeast of Tryon 2 miles on Howard Gap Road. Here at Lynn is a flat bottomland surrounded by the North Pacelot River and various other streams that join that river there.

So the distance is right, or at least closest to right, the accounts "fit" the terrain, the reason for the mutiny of Gallego's troops and the deserted lands is evident, the reason that Pardo found such a different land on his track is clear and the motive of the Indians in taking De Soto this way is circumstantial but understandable.

The "Route" from Lynn to Garden Creek

Relying mainly on the account of Rangel with a bit of help from Elvas and Garcilaso it is possible to follow De Soto up and over the Blue Ridge and on to his next destination, Gauxule [55] . It was not hard to see how De Soto's army could climb the 1100 feet to the crest of Warrior Gap that morning, and to press ahead over the hilly plateau they found there and down into the gorge of the Green River. Here, if the old Indian trail followed the Howard Gap Road, they crossed Green River, a tributary of the Broad, at Green River's Warrior Ford, a place where you can just about jump the stream. From here they would climb up a creek to arrive at a point near the eastern continental divide, in an area of small hills called Upward, NC. This is the route of Interstate 26 today.

Alternately they could have pressed ahead leaving the Howard Gap Road to the east after crossing Warrior Gap (later Howard Gap) and gone to Flat Rock by way of Saluda, NC, as some historians say the old Warriors Trail did. [56] This way they could avoid the plunge into the Green River's Gorge and back out again. Either way, after about 14 miles from Lynn they found themselves on the southern edge of a great plain that is formed by the drainages of Clear Creek, Mud Creek, Mills River, Cane Creek and the French Broad River.

As a lifetime resident of this great plain, unusual in the mountains because of its' size, and a local historian of some merit, I can tell you that when Rangel speaks of a spending the next day crossing a "savannah" where they suffered from the cold, he could well be describing this plain. In the days of the pioneers this whole area, up to the foot of the surrounding mountains, was open grassland. Here the grass grew in places well over a man's head, with huge stands of cane along the creek. [57]   The vista seemed unlimited in those days, all the way to the surrounding mountains, broken here and there only by small isolated hillocks and high, isolated ridges covered with timber. From the south to the north this plain is about 15 miles wide, from east to west about 12 miles.

De Soto may have wandered out onto the fringe of this plain and camped on one of these small hillocks or mountains that lie around the plain. His climb up from Lynn would have brought him there easily. Now on the 26^th of May he struck out for the northern edge, aiming toward the gap in the hills where the French Broad exited the "savannah" 12 or 13 miles away. Here at that northern gap the French Broad, after gathering up the waters of this expansive valley drops over it's first shoals, rushing towards Tennessee, and becomes a river that could be waded "up to their shins". Before that the river is deep and sunken between steep muddy banks. At Buck Shoals the river widens out to over 100 yards, but is much shallower with a rocky bottom. Here also steep hills encroach on the river and mark an end to the plain.

Crossing here at the shoals, he probably stopped to watch the army come in and cross. His 200 mounted knights and their extra horses, 300 or so Foot soldiers, his huge herd of over 300 pigs and 200 or so Indian "porters" chained together with neck chains, and then his camp followers including some European women and wives and many slaves, both black and white. By evening De Soto was aware that several of his own people, and the Lady of Cofitachequi and her entourage, were absent without his leave. In a rage he blamed his lieutenant Romo, the leader of the Rear Guard that day, and he sent him and his troop back to search for the missing. The army tarried at riverside for a day, waiting for Romo to return, and when he did with a few of the escapees, conspicuously absent was the Lady and her Pearls, De Soto flew into a rage again, and threatened to hang them all. [58]

The river here was worthy of mention as "the Mississippi". It is the widest and most impressive stream they would encounter until they met with the same river again near Chiaha. [59]   It was also evident that it ran north, away from the piedmont and the world of La Florida. It is no wonder that so many decided to face the unknown and turn back, and the Lady took this opportunity to escape. One might imagine the men, so recently mutinous, now having marched through a land devoid of corn, skirting the hated wilderness of Ocute, climbing an awe inspiring "sierra", the highest yet seen, and then "suffering" the cold across the wide savannah to reach and wade this broad river flowing off into the unknown.

But De Soto was a firm, if not more likely a tyrannical leader of men, and the next day he rallied his troops and struck off downstream, following the west bank of the river past the enclosing hills. By noon he would have broken into the open and gone northwest across the low hills, to intersect the Suali Trail near Hominy Creek. Here he camped in an Oak Grove, most likely near the historical Indian camp and pioneer blockhouse on the Sand Hill. [60]

From here, two miles to the east the Suali Trail crossed the French Broad at Warrior Ford. That's on the Biltmore Estate near Asheville today. The trail continued east up the Swannanoa River from there to exit the mountains at Swannanoa Gap down to Old Fort. This ancient trail was later to be known as the Rutherford Trace, the route marked by General Rutherford on his crushing expedition against the Cherokee in 1776, and used by the early pioneers to press westward after that war. [61]

De Soto turned west the next day however, toward Guaxule. Now he followed the Suali Trail west as it crossed and re-crossed Hominy Creek. He marched upstream that day and, when the stream turned away from the trail, he crossed the low gap into the Pigeon River Valley. This is now US 19 as it wanders along below Interstate 40 west of Asheville. He marched on to a spot near the Pigeon River at Canton, NC, where he camped for the night. The army had been required to cover a mere 50 miles in 4 days of travel from Xualla, an average of 12 or 13 miles per day.

Gauxule

The next day, early in the morning they arrived at Guaxule. Garcilaso describes the town as having 300 houses, centered on a mound where the head man lived. He says it was a wonderful site dissected by many streams that drained the surrounding mountains. [62] The place was so memorable that later the soldiers would remember it when playing dice as "the house of Guaxule" by which they meant a "good place".

There were four mounds at Garden Creek in two separate but close by town sites. The largest of the mounds was excavated by the Valentine Museum in the 1880s. A secondary one was studied a bit more scientifically by Heyes in 1917. [63]    Another was overtaken by the Pigeon River, which has swallowed it up over the years, and the fourth is the domain of local legend. Then in the 1980s as development encroached upon the site modern archaeological excavation was done. David Moore says of Garden Creek that "it was more than five acres in size, much larger than the typical Pisgah site". The towns at Garden Creek may well have had three hundred structures as Garcilaso describes. Moore goes on to say that Garden Creek was obviously an important ceremonial center in the sixteenth century. [64] It is believed that this was an important ancestral center of the prehistoric Cherokee. 

There's not today much left of Garden Creek. It lies in a cornfield, and under an adjacent housing development 2 miles south of Canton, NC, on NC 110. Here the surrounding mountains, especially Cold Mountain, the subject of a recent novel, [65] stand as sentinels above the wide bottomlands. Garden Creek was discovered to have one of the premiere outstanding features of the Pisgah cultures, a mound that was developed in the late Pisgah period from its' beginnings as an earth lodge. Here the large lodge had been collapsed after many years and covered with a layer of dirt and clay. Then another lodge had been constructed on the ruins, and so forth. The site seems to have been occupied up until about the time of De Soto, at the beginning of what is known as the Qualla Phase in Archaeology. Hudson and others even see an association with the word Xualla and Qualla. It may be that this change, and the desertion of Gauxule, may have been precipitated by the visit of these Europeans and their diseases.

On toward Chiaha, The Pigeon River Route

After a few days spent at Guaxule De Soto departed for Chiaha. He chose to follow the "rivers that flowed through Guaxule downstream" according to Garcilaso [66] . This would be the Pigeon River, which flows northwest from Garden Creek toward its junction with the French Broad through the Great Smoky Mountains. This is the route followed by Interstate 40 today. The first day-s march was through gentle rolling hills of the Pigeon River Valley, through today-s Clyde and on to Jonathan-s Creek.

In the days of my 5th Great Grandfather, Jacob Shook, who settled in Clyde 250 years after De Soto passed by, this was known as the "Pigeon River Cut Off". By that it was meant that the Rutherford Trace departed the path and went on westward at Garden Creek, toward today-s Waynesville and beyond, while the old Indian path followed the river northwest, and on to Tennessee.

At Jonathan-s Creek the Pigeon (and Interstate 40) enters a narrow gorge, and the old Indian Path, as such trails almost always do under such circumstances (including the Indian trails down the Nolichucky and the French Broad) turned away from the river, continuing to follow the river-s route across the high shoulders of its- gorge, the southeastern side of the gorge in this case. This was later known as the Cataloochee Trail, and even gained somewhat of a reputation through the diaries of a later day missionary and "explorer", Bishop Asbury.

Just before the climb up the ridge the army set up camp, 14 miles from Guaxule, at the junction of Jonathan-s Creek and the Pigeon River. Rangel said it was an Oak Grove next to the river. Early the next morning the army was rousted out on the road again, and began the climb up along the trail.

The track through the Smoky Mountains which Asbury called "an ancient aboriginal trail" was difficult even in 1810, it must have been not much different in 1540. It leads up Right Branch and on up and over the Cataloochee Divide. This is a high and difficult ridge to cross, and probably shortened the day-s march considerably. Struggling upward on the worst incline since the climb up and across the Blue Ridge, the army pressed forward, until finally, 4 torturous miles from the start they crossed the knife-edge of the ridge into the Cataloochee Valley. Now they struggled down the steep incline of the other side of the divide, until probably shortly after noon when De Soto with his vanguard came upon Cataloochee Creek, 8 miles from the start.

Here the principal men of Canasoga had gathered to welcome them, bringing them baskets of Mulberries. The trail itself didn-t go to Canasoga proper, it continued west across Cataloochee Creek and upstream following Little Cataloochee Creek. It seems likely that word was left for the army to continue on the trail while De Soto and the vanguard were treated to a side trip, a visit to Canasoga. The town was about 2 miles up the main creek, Big Cataloochee, and the town itself wasn-t very large, as indicated by the embassy of only twenty men. But it was a beautifully impressive location then, as it is today. [67]

The army crossed Cataloochee Creek, a fast running rocky stream, and continued on up the relatively flat valley of Little Cataloochee for a mile or so, then began the climb up Mount Sterling. The army stopped in the open, at the top of the ridge that drops to the Pigeon from Mount Sterling. They had covered a difficult 12 miles that day over this rugged country.

Morning saw the army on the move again, this time negotiating about 4 rugged miles, over into the watershed of Big Creek. Now, finally they could go downhill, back to the Pigeon River far below. They once again reached the Pigeon at the mouth of Big Creek, where the NC / TN State Line is located today. The trail followed the river for a few miles before it again climbed away, up a small valley and turned west. On across a low divide they marched, and down a creek leading to today-s town of Cosby, TN. Here they encountered a natural bog, the type that occurs often in the narrow, wet valleys of the Smokey's along the streams. After 14 or 15 miles of this torturous travel the horses were worn out, and so were the people. The ridges they had crossed in the last two days had been worse than the initial climb up and across the Blue Ridge.

This was the end of their third day from Guaxule, and they had covered only a little over 40 miles. It was here at Canton-s Grove above Cosby that Asbury, traveling east in 1810, had encountered the tollgate for the Cataloochee Trail. An enterprising pioneer had set the small fort and trading establishment up on the old pathway, and charged a fee to cover his "improvements". At one time this route was promoted as the best way from Knoxville to Asheville, and in the years before the Civil War there was talk of building a "turnpike" along the route. The failing fortunes of the South after the war ended that talk, but in the 1920s the issue of such a road was again revived. The Great Depression ended that effort. Then in the Eisenhower years the Interstate highway system began looking at a Pigeon River route for Interstate 40. Because of advancements in road building, and the huge amounts of money the Federal Government planned to spend, it wasn-t deemed necessary to use the old roadway, and so the route of the Interstate was blasted through the high cliffs and tunneled through the sharp ridges on the opposite side of the Pigeon Gorge from the Cataloochee Trail. It took 11 years to build that stretch of I 40, and it opened in 1969. It is an impressive piece of modern engineering for anyone who ventures down it. The old road still survives as a single lane dirt road for most of its length, a winding reminder of times gone by.

On Thursday the army pushed on across Cosby Creek. Here they became aware of the French Broad River, their Espirito Sancto, running parallel to their course about eight miles to the north east. Rangel points out that this was the River they had crossed back in the savannah where the Lady of Cofitachequi escaped. [68] After the had last turned away from the Pigeon River it continued north to join the French Broad River five or six miles north of Newport, TN, and then shortly, as the French Broad turns southwest, the Nolichucky flows in from the north. That is where today-s Douglas Lake begins.

Obviously, by what Rangel said, they had not followed the Espirito Sancto out of the mountains, but instead, as Garcilaso says, the river from Guaxule joined that river and formed a huge river by the time it reached Chiaha. A river "larger than the Guadalquivir at Seville" [69]

After leaving Cosby the army crossed the low hills into the watershed of the East Fork of the Little Pigeon River. All day they pushed westward along the creek. Thursday night they spent in the general area East Fork, TN, after covering about 15 miles, and Friday they continued west along that creek (roughly following the route of today-s TN 339) to about today-s Harrisonburg, TN where they turned north toward Chiaha. Having covered about 14 miles they set up camp somewhere near Flat Creek or Red Oak Knobs. They were now 69 miles from Guaxule, and just a few miles south of Chiaha. Here large numbers of Indians from Chiaha came "in peace" and brought the hungry men corn. The next day "early" the army crossed the river into Chiaha.

Xualla to Chiaha

There are three major points to consider concerning the route from Xualla to Chiaha.

First, the distances are too great for the Berry Site and the Nolichucky Route. De Soto with the army that he had could not have gone that way. Distances of 18 or 19 miles a day may well be reasonable for a disciplined military force like Pardo had, but for De Soto to have moved that fast day after day, especially in the difficult terrain of his first day crossing the Blue Ridge is just not possible. The distance to the ridge top from Berry is too far. The climb of 2700 feet is too great. His army couldn't have made it to the ridge that first day along that route as the accounts describe. From the headwaters of the Broad and the Saluda, along the Pigeon River Route, Zimmerman's Island is within the range of such an army, although at the greatest possible reach, admittedly. The climb there is just a little more than 1/3 that at Berry and the distance to the crest of the ridge was much shorter. These things don't stretch the voice of reason.

Second, the descriptions of the route from Xualla to Chiaha just don't "fit" the Nolichucky route. The idea that an army such as De Soto somehow negotiated the Nolichucky Gorge, crossing back and forth across that significant river in late May is nonsensical. The idea that the members of the expedition, a group that later "discovered" the Mississippi and built ships that floated down it to the Gulf of Mexico could mistake the North Toe above Spruce Pine for that great river is a bit myopic. That they called those waters a "river" above Spruce Pine and a "large creek" in the Gorge, then commented that they reached the Nolichucky again at Lick Creek where that it was "now large", when in fact the river there looks smaller at that juncture than at Embreeville or in the Gorge opposes common sense. These issues don't arise on the Pigeon route. On that path they saw the Spirito Sancto for only one day near the crossing up to their "shins". There it was a significant river, and nothing they saw later would dissuade them that this was indeed the River itself, for they never saw the Ohio or the upper Mississippi coming from the north. When they returned to the French Broad after exiting the mountains it was indeed a "large" river, much larger than in the mountains, as big as the "Guadalquivir at Seville". Even the elaborate description given by Garcilaso of Guaxule, a description that must be noted as an exaggeration on the Nolichucky Route, "fits" the reality of Garden Creek.

Third, the Indians after so many generations knew what they were doing. It would be extremely unrealistic to think that they didn't know their "way around" the Southeast. A cursory glance at a map would show that Berry doesn't lie on the shortest route to Chiaha from Cofitachequi, indeed it lies directly on the shortest route to the Chiscas. As such that route was accurately described to De Soto as having "mountain ridges which the horses could not cross." This is the direct route De Soto sought to avoid when he took the route to Chiaha across the Pigeon Route. To think that the Indians would choose the highest and most difficult gap available on the whole Blue Ridge Escarpment to pass through on the route to Chiaha, and then turn west to Chiaha after crossing those mountain ridges is without reason. It is no wonder that our highways pass through the lowest of those Blue Ridge gaps, the Swannanoa (I 40) and the lowest, Warrior Gap (I 26), and it is also not strange that the major known historical Indian trails also pass along those same routes. This pattern is repeated in the old Indian trail, the Cataloochee, which shadows I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge.

The latter is the most telling of all. Even though elevations and distances don't change, as in the first instance, and even though the accounts don't match, as in the second, it is impossible to avoid the meaning of Elvas when he told of De Soto's reason for coming to Chiaha. Here it is in Elva's own words:

While at Chiaha "a cacique from the province of Acoste came to visit the governor. After offering himself to him and exchanging words of politeness and courtesy with him, the governor asked him whether he knew of any rich land. He said he did; that there was a province to the north called Chisca, and that there was a foundry for copper and an other metal of that color, except that it was finer and much more perfect color and much better in appearance; and that they did not make so much use of it as it was softer. The same thing had been told the governor in Cofitachequi where we saw some copper hatchets which they said had a mixture of gold. However, the land was thinly populated as far as that region and they said that there were mountain ridges, which the horses could not cross. On that account, the governor did not wish to go thither by direct road from Cofitachequi, and thought that if he went through a populated region while the men and horses were in better condition and he more certain of the truth of what there was, he could turn hither through ridges and better populated land where he could travel better. He sent two Christians from Chiaha with Indians who knew the land of Chisca and its language, in order that they might examine it, with orders that they should go to report what they found at the place where he said he would await them." –Elvas

So we find that to support the Nolichucky Route we must discount selectively the words of the accounts, and many arguments can be made to do so [70] , and that leaves us with the number of days they traveled, but again this can be argued, and lastly we must ignore the "common sense" that the ancient Native Americans most surely share with those who constructed today's modern highways, that of "the most direct route". But then this will leave us very little it seems, except for the desire of archaeologists to find reward for their hard work digging in the hot sun for the slim leavings of the distant past. And this desire is the heart of the Nolichucky Route, the hope that they may take "known sites", such as Berry and Embreeville that they have discovered, often by mere chance, and string them out together like De Soto's fresh water pearls. I suggest we still have a lot to find in future years, and much yet to learn.

It is entirely possible that the exciting and definitive findings at Berry may be determined to indicate it is indeed the long lost Fort San Juan of Pardo. As I have demonstrated here there are several things when we look at the Nolichucky Route for Pardo that seem to make that even more likely. Most of all the findings at Berry prove that the Sixteenth Century Spanish visited the upper Catawba Region, and this is certainly an important discovery. 

However, Berry is not De Soto's Xualla. If it were then we would be forced to relinquish at least one of the cornerstones of the "new" route proposed by Hudson and his associates, either Cofitachequi at Camden or Chiaha at Zimmerman's must go. But where? Both those sites seem to be without a reasonable alternative. So we are left to find an alternative Xualla instead.

What we need is an alternative that is 1. Within "reach" and reason. 2. "Fits" descriptions given in the accounts as much as possible, and 3. Accepts the expertise of the original inhabitants of Southeast, by taking De Soto the most direct way to Chiaha from Camden while not taking him the most direct route to the Chiscas.

Here are offered two locations that meet all the requirements of such an alternative, in fact within the constraints of the accepted locations of Cofitachequi and Chiaha these are the only sites possible. Lynn is the most promising because it is the shortest of the routes, however the "re discovery" of the Poinsett site, and finding that it was occupied in the Sixteenth Century would certainly be compelling. And nothing would be more exciting than the discovery of a currently unknown site at Lynn, or anywhere within a few miles of there.

This makes me want to pull out a shovel and go digging, will you join me? [71]

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