We have all seen famous paintings and other old images of historic places and events and probably wondered if such old images of northeast Mississippi exist. They do.
Some are accurate views of local landscape, while others are only fanciful representations of the actual landscape as envisioned by people who had never been here.
The oldest images I have seen that are truly local in nature were published in early 1700s. One was a copperplate engraving titled, “Ferdinand de Soto’s Cruelties in Florida,” published by Pieter van der Aa in 1706. This incident occurred at the village of Chicasa, which may have been in the Starkville area. The other image is also a copperplate engraving which is titled, “Spanish Entering the Province of the Chicaca,” which was the crossing of the Tombigbee River by the de Soto expedition in December 1540. It is from a 1709 edition of Garcilaso de la Vega’s “The Florida of the Inca,” which was a history of the Hernando de Soto expedition.
Both engravings are of events that took place in December 1540-early 1541. They also show a fanciful view of the event and the Tombigbee area based mostly on the engravers’ imaginations. The Province of the Chicasa was the ancestral Chickasaw Nation and can be found spelled Chicasa, Chicaca or Chicaza.
We have an idea of where these events took place based on historic records and four almost complete accounts of the expedition which have survived. Three of the accounts were written by participants in the expedition and provide the best descriptions of what happened in northeast Mississippi. They are by Rodrigo Rangel, de Soto’s private secretary, Luys Hernandez Biedma, the Royal factor and a Portuguese gentleman of Elvas whose report went to the Lord Inquisitor.
As to where these events took place, the crossing of the Tombigbee appears to have occurred from five or six miles south of Columbus to about 10 miles north of Columbus. The village of Chicasa was burned March 3 or 4, 1541, so there should be an assemblage of Spanish artifacts from the mid-1500s there. In northeast Mississippi some probable Spanish artifacts from the 1500s have been found between Amory and Okolona, southwest of West Point, and a substantial number and variety of probable Spanish artifacts have been found at several sites in the Starkville area.
The Tombigbee crossing is mentioned in all of the accounts. According to Rangel, “The river of Chicaca they found overflowing its bed, (the Tombigbee was the River of the Chicaca or Chickasaw) and the Indians on the other side in arms with many white flags. Orders were given to make a barge, and the Governor sent Baltasar de Gallegos with thirty horsemen, swimmers, to search the river up above for a good crossing place and to fall suddenly upon the Indians; and it was perceived, and they forsook the passage and they crossed over very comfortably in the barge on Thursday, the 16th day of the month.”
According to Elvas, “Thence toward Chicaca the Governor marched five days through a desert (uninhabited area), and arrived at a river, on the farther side of which were Indians, who wished to arrest his passage. In two days another piragua was made, and when ready he sent an Indian in it to the Cacique, to say that if he wished his friendship he should quietly wait for him; but they killed the messenger before his eyes, and with loud yells departed. He crossed the river the seventeenth of December, and arrived the same day at Chicaca, a small town of twenty houses.”
Biedma’s account of the Tombigbee crossing was: “… Arriving at a fertile province, plentiful in provisions, where we could stop during the rigour of the season. The snows fall more heavily there than they do in Castile. Having reached the Province of Chicaza, the warriors came out to interrupt the passage of river we had to cross. We were detained by them three days. Finally, we went over in a piragua we built, when the Indians fled the woods.”
The engraving of “Ferdinand de Soto’s Cruelties in Florida” reflects Elvas’ account of de Soto’s reaction to Indians stealing hogs to eat. That was after Spaniards had stolen food from the Indians. Elvas wrote, “Indians would come up to some houses where the hogs slept, a crossbow-shot off from the camp, to kill and carry away what they could of them. Three were taken in the act: two the Governor commanded to be slain with arrows. And the remaining one, his hands having first been cut off, was sent to the Cacique.”
For those who want to delve deeper into the story of de Soto, the best overall book is Charles Hudson’s classic “Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun,” University of Georgia Press. When writing the book he attempted to follow de Soto’s route across the south and spent time in Columbus and Starkville. His wife Joyce traveled with him and responded with a delightful book about their adventures along the way titled, “Looking for De Soto,” University of Georgia Press. It is a fun read.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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