Silver Crosses from an Indian Grave-Mound at Coosawattee Old Town, Murray County, Georgia
The two silver crosses, correct representations[1] of which are herewith presented, were taken, in November, 1832, from a grave-mound at Coosawattee Old Town, in Murray County, Georgia. Indian relics were found associated with them. We incline to the opinion that they may properly be referred to the expedition of Hernando de Soto.
If we interpret aright the wanderings of the Adelantado over the territory embraced within the geographical limits of the modern State of Georgia, his command halted for a while at the precise site where these objects were obtained; and thence, moving down the valley to the Oostanaula, reached this, the site of the present town of Rome, where De Soto tarried daring the month of June 1540, to recruit his men and animals.
Fig. A1.
In the Spanish narrative we are informed that before entering the village of Canasagua the strangers were met by twenty natives, each bearing a basket of mulberries.
Now, this name Canasagua lives to-day, and is borne by the Connasagua River, which, uniting with the Coosawattee, forms the Oostananula. Coosawatttee Old Town is located not far above the confluence of these streams. Within the historic period it continued to be a favorite abode of the Cherokee Indians.
In the neighboring county of Habersham, metallic objects of European manufacture have been unearthed under such circumstances that we feel justified in attributing them to the companions either of De Soto or of Louis de Velasco.
It is a well-established fact that twelve priests, eight clergymen of inferior rank, and four monks accompanied the Adelantado's army. We are assured that the conversion of the natives was one of the avowed
Fig. A2.
purposes of the expedition. These clerical gentlemen were supplied with crucifixes, crosses, and rosaries, which they employed about, and distributed during the course of, their religious labors. That some effort was made to indoctrinate the aborigines in the mysteries of Christianity, and to lead them to look upon the cross as a symbol of peace, we are distinctly advised. Witness the erection of large wooden crosses, and the teachings of the priests at Achese, at Casqui, in the province of Icasqui, and elsewhere.
It appears by no means improbable that these crosses were presented by the Spanish clergymen of the expedition to prominent Indians—reckoned as converts at the time—and that their fellows, in obedience to a custom long established and maintained even to the present moment, upon the death of the fortunate owners, buried them in the grave-mounds erected for their sepulture.
Fig. b 1.
We regret that we have no suitable references at hand which would enable us to determine, at least approximatively, the date of the manufacture of these crosses. The silver of which they are made is seemingly quite pure, and each cross is about the thirtieth of an inch in thickness.
Some intrusive engraving appears on the face of one of these objects. Behold the delineation of the head and neck of a horse! Even the most superficial examination will convince any one that this figure was not made with the graver's tool which wrought the other ornamentations, but that it was more rudely done, and, in all likelihood, with the sharp point of a flint flake.
Why an owl should have been figured on the other face of this cross, I know not. Were this a Roman relic our wonder would not be excited.
We are at a loss to suggest a satisfactory interpretation of the inscription appearing in the center of one of the faces of the cross which still retains its ring for suspension. Can it be a rude tracing by the donor, on the spur of the moment, of the name of the Indian to whom the
cross was presented! This inscription has an illiterate, unskillful, and hasty look about it. It is not a of a kind with the rest of the engraving, and was certainly added after the completion of the object. Written
Fig. b 2.
from left to right, it runs as follows: iynkicidu. Read from right to left, we have udiciknyi. In either case, by a slight exercise of the imagination, we have a name with a traditional aboriginal ring about it. Manifestly these letters were not within the double circle when the cross passed from the shop of the silversmith, and we are persuaded that both a clumsy tool and an unskilled hand were employed in their superscription.
As we well know, the Florida tribes were wholly unacquainted with the horse prior to the advent of the European. To them, therefore, on its first appearance, this quadruped must have proved an object of special interest and wonder. These silver ornaments, too, were doubtless held in high esteem, because, in beauty of material, symmetry of form, and excellency of manufacture, they far excelled all the products of aboriginal fabrication.
May we not suggest that the native, into whose ownership one of these crosses passed, endeavored with a flint flake to perpetuate his recollection of this animal which, in his esteem, was not less remarkable than the pale-faced stranger or his shining gift. We cannot resist the impression that this equinal delineation was the work of an Indian.
- ↑ These drawings are half-size, and delineate both faces of each cross.