De Soto

I was about half way through the first draft of my novel, working on a character’s heritage, and reading about the Native American’s in South Carolina.  I stumbled across information about a Native American Queen, “The Lady Cofitachequi.”  As often is the case when I am researching, I go down rabbit holes, finding something interesting or unusual and off I go, learning yet more history and often, gaining more information for my writing.  As was often the case, here was yet another oddity in the writing of my novel.

The Lady Cofitachequi was a ruler of many chiefdoms in the South Carolina Piedmont region, the areas around present day Camden, along the Wateree River.  It is common practice for the Native Americans of the southeast to base their family blood lines on the mothers, or maternal side.   There were other women rulers, one in particular in the Salisbury area of North Carolina who controlled no less than 39 lesser chiefs.  It was believed that "The Lady" controlled chiefdoms that ranged from the Piedmont area and into the mountains and even as far east as the coast. Her great wealth had reached the attention of De Soto and was the reason for his exploration into what is now, South Carolina.

De Soto was on a campaign, seeking fortune and fame and in many cases, leaving death and destruction in his path. "The Lady" pasified him with animal skins, food and other riches, and after a period of time, realizing that the Spaniards were not going to leave as long as she was feeding the 600 man army, she quietly disappeared into the interior of her kingdom, leaving De Soto to feed himself. 

Wanting to find her and all her riches, De Soto took slaves from the smaller villages of a neighboring chiefdom that had been at war with Cofitachequi and tried to force them to take him to The Lady. Now, this is where my research turned odd. As chronicled by Luys Hernandez de Biedma the chronicler for De Soto, the slaves refused to show De Soto the way to Cofitachequi, saying, “there was no road by which to go…because they were at war.  Sometimes when they came to make war on one another, they passed through hidden and secret places where they would not be detected…”
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That sure sounds like a Spirit Path to me.
 
GC