DeSoto's Western Trails
by Donald E. SheppardStanding in the March snows of 1542 just below the White River crossing at St. Charles, one of Hernando de Soto's officers reported, "As soon as it stopped snowing, he marched three days (at 10 miles per day - while gathering what he could to eat) through an unpeopled region and a land so low and with so many swamps and such hard going that one day he marched all day through water that in some places reached to the knees and others to the stirrups, and some passages were swum over (Uncle Ben's Rice Company is headquartered in that swamp, a massive rice field today).
"He came to a deserted village, without corn called Tutelpinco (Arkansas Post; the French would find it and establish an outpost there 141 years later). Near it was a lake which emptied into the river (the Mississippi River) and had a strong current and force of water..." Dismal Swamp connects to the White, Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers there, making it look like a lake.It looks that way in March because the Arkansas River, fed by early snow runoff from the Ozark Mountains, floods earlier than the Mississippi River - causing the southward water flow through Dismal Swamp to reverse course into the White River. When the Mississippi River floods in June, the flow through Dismal Swamp returns to southbound, into the Arkansas River. The water recedes in summer and Dismal becomes a Swamp again. The French selected Arkansas Post because America's great rivers' waters (those of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Cumberland, Illinois, Wabash, Arkansas and White Rivers) all flow past it. The French traded by canoe on those rivers, as did America's Natives before them from the same place."
"As five Christians, accompanied by a captain whom the governor had sent, were crossing it (The Arkansas River just below Arkansas Post) in a canoe, the canoe overturned. Some caught hold of it and others of trees which were in the lake. One (man) was drowned there. The governor went (west) for a day along the lake looking for a crossing place, but he did not find it all that day nor any road leading from any other direction (the Arkansas River can get very wide in March). Returning at night to the town, he found two peaceful Indians who showed him the crossing and the road he must take (over submerged but shallow ground). Reed frames and rafts were made from the houses, on which they crossed the lake (and, thereby, the Arkansas River). They marched for three days and reached a town of the district of Nilco, called Tianto..." today's Monticello. They would stop at Dumas and at Bayou Bartholomew, cross that bayou, which looks like a big creek, then ascend into Monticello, above tens of thousands of fertile acres. "...we arrived at a province that seamed to us to be the best that we had come upon in all the land (of North America), which is called Anicoyanque." Others with DeSoto simply called it "Nilco."
"Thirty Indians were captured there, among them being two of the principal men of the town. The governor sent a captain on ahead to Nilco (Village) with horse and foot (probably on a dawn raid under the nearly Full Moon of March 31, 1542), so that the Indians might not have any opportunity to carry off the food. They went through three of four large towns, and in the town where the chief lived - located two leagues (5 miles) from where the governor remained (near Monticello) - they found many Indians with their bows and arrows, and in appearance as if they wished to give battle, and who were surrounding the town. As soon as they saw the Christians were coming toward them, without any hesitation they set fire to the chiefs house and escaped over a swamp that lay near the town, where the horses could not cross. Next day, Wednesday, March 29, the governor reached Nilco (at Warren). He lodged with all his men in the chiefs town which was located on a level field, and which was all populated for a quarter of a league (three-quarters of a mile); while a league and a half distant (four miles) were other very large towns where there was a quantity of corn, beans, walnuts, and dried plums."
"This was the most populous region which had been seen in Florida (North America) and more abounding in corn, with the exception of Coosa (Summerville, Georgia) and Apalache (Marianna, Florida)."
"An Indian came to the camp, accompanied by others, and in the chief's name presented the governor with a blanket of martin skins and a string of pearl beads... He promised to return two days later, but he never did. On the other hand, Indians came in canoes at night and carried off all the corn they could and set up their huts on the other side of the river in the thickest part of the forest. The governor, on seeing that the Indian did not come at the promised time, ordered and ambush to be made on some barbecues (stilted corn storage bins) in the swamp (from which) the Indians came for the corn...."
...Two Indians were captured there, who told the governor that the one who came to visit them was not the chief, but one sent at the latter's command under pretense that it was he, in order to ascertain whether the Christians were off their guard, and whether they planned to settle in that region or go on farther. Thereupon the governor sent a captain across the river (back to Nilco, across Bayou Bartholomew) with men of horse and (soldiers) of foot, but on crossing they were perceived by the Indians, and for that reason, the captain could not capture more than 10 or 12 Indians, men and women, with whom he returned to the camp. That river which flowed through Nilco was the same that flowed through Cayas (Summersville, Missouri) and Autiamque (Jacksonport, Arkansas) and emptied into the large (Mississippi) river which flowed through Pacaha (Terre Haute, Indiana; we call that one the Wabash) and Aquixo (Evansville, Indiana; that one we call the Ohio River; all of which flow into the Mississippi, called the Great River by Native Americans and Desoto's people) and hard by the province of Guachoya (Lake Village, east of Nilco)..."
According to Guachoya's people, their province existed between Bayou Bartholomew, or Boeuf River beside it, and the Mississippi River; today that part of the Mississippi River is the largest lake in Arkansas: Lake Chicot. The river's flow was diverted from it, just below Greenville, Mississippi, sometime before Arkansas Statehood. "The Lord of the upper part (of Guachoya Province) came in canoes (from Lake Village, his home) to make war on the lord of Nilco (his closest neighbor). Sent by him, an Indian (first) came to the governor and told him that he (the chief of Guachoya Province) was his servant and as such he (DeSoto) should consider him that... two days later he would come to kiss the hands of his Lordship. He came at the time with some of his principal Indians who accompanied him (for a dramatic waterborne entrance to DeSoto's dismal but bountiful campsite). With words of great promise and courtesy, he presented many blankets and deer skins to the governor. The governor gave him some trifles (typically a mirror and comb, scarce commodities in those parts) and showed him great honor (typically a demonstration of horse and swordsmanship; the Indians usually joined in by demonstrating their incredible archery skills). He questioned him about a settlement down the river. He said that he knew of none other except his own (Lake Village); and that on the other side of the (Mississippi) river was a province of a chief called Quigaltam (Greenville, Mississippi; who was subject to another chief who lived at Vicksburg, as DeSoto's people would discover a year later). He (Chief Guachoya) took his leave of the governor and returned to his town.
A few days later, the governor made up his mind to go to Guachoya (Lake Village; he planned to take that city during the darkness of New Moon), in order to ascertain there whether the sea (the Gulf of Mexico) were nearby, or whether there were any settlement nearby where he might subsist himself while brigantines were built which he intended to send to the land of Christians. As he was crossing the River of Nilco, Indians came up in canoes from Guachoya, and when they saw him, thinking that he was going after them to do them some hurt (as he was widely reputed to do), they turned back down the river and went to warn the chief. The latter, abandoning the town (of Lake Village) with all of his people, with all they could carry off, on that night crossed over to the other side of the great river (Lake Chicot today). The governor sent a captain and 50 men in 6 canoes down the river, while he, with the rest of his men, went overland (down the shore of Lake Chicot on the Indian trail that led toward Greenville; a city which DeSoto's scouts sighted across the Mississippi River). He reached Guachoya on Sunday, April 17th and lodged himself in the chief's town, which was surrounded by a stockade, a crossbow flight from the (Mississippi) river..." Lake Chicot, today. Lake Village would be the end of the line for Hernando the "Great".
"As soon as the governor reached Guachoya, he sent Juan de Anasco (his most trusted captain) up the river (north) with as many men as could get into the (Indian) canoes (which were procured at Lake Village); for when they (the soldiers) were coming from Nilco, they (the scouts) saw newly made huts on the other side (of the Mississippi River; Greenville, Mississippi)... they brought back canoes laden with corn, beans, dried plums, and many loaves made from the pulp of plums..." for which the Spaniards would pay dearly the following year.
The first officer continued, "On that day, an Indian came to the governor in the name of the chief of Guachoya (of Lake Village, whose house DeSoto happened to be living in at the time) and said that his lord would come next day. On the following day, they saw many canoes coming from downstream (the south). They assembled together for the space of an hour on the other side of the great river (today's Lake Chicot), debating as to whether they should come or not. At last they made up their minds and crossed... He (DeSoto) asked him (the chief) whether he had any knowledge of the sea (the Gulf of Mexico). He said he did not, nor of any settlement down the river from that place, except that there was a town of one of his principal Indians subject to him two leagues away (5 miles, we call it Fairview; the chief had just come from there), and on the other side (of the Mississippi River) three days' journey downstream (by Indian canoe), the province (and hometown) of Quigaltam, who was the greatest lord of that region (he lived at Vicksburg).
It seemed to the governor that the chief was lying to him in order to turn him (toward that place and) aside from his towns, and he sent Juan de Anasco downstream with eight horse to see what population there was and to ascertain whether there were any knowledge (among the downstream Indians) of the sea." That scouting party's departure was timed for Full Moon at journey's mid-way.
DeSoto's men reported to an historian of their day, "Meanwhile the chief of Guachoya persuaded the governor to return to the province of Nilco, offering to go with his men to serve his lordship, and to facilitate the crossing of the River of Nilco he ordered 80 large canoes, besides other small ones, to be taken seven leagues (18 miles) down the Great (Mississippi) River to the mouth of the River of Nilco, which entered the Great River (at Ditch Bayou just below Fairview: we call these many bayous by different names, the Indians did not). They would ascend it to the village of Nilco (the same way the chief had gone when he first sighted DeSoto). The whole route that the canoes would have to go by both rivers would be about 20 leagues (52 miles) of navigation. While the canoes were descending the Great River and ascending the River of Nilco they (some of DeSoto's army) would go by land, so that they could all arrive together at the village of Nilco at the same time."