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[Edited/Revised: June 15, 2000]
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Mabila, Alibamu - Zip Code Unknown
A Research Work
[With Permission of the University of Alabama Press]
Copyright © 2000
by
Robert D. Boyd
rdboyd@aol.com

Translated Texts from the Original Narrations
of
Luis Hernandez de Biedma [participant]
Portuguese gentleman from Elvas [participant]
Garcilaso de la Vega [Interviewer of 3+ participants]
Rodrigo Rangel [participant]
[The only known true sources of the de Soto Expedition]

This work has been extracted primarily from
The De Soto Chronicles
by
Lawrence A. Clayton
Vernon James Knight, Jr.
Edward C. Moore

[ISBN No. 0-8173-0824-5]
[Two Volume Set]

[Relating only to Don Hernando de Soto's Expedition
through Tascaluca's Province]

Copyright © 1993
by
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa and London

Additional Information Furnished
by
Donald Sheppard
of the
Hernando de Soto Spanish Conquest
of North America
[Refer to related Link Below]

Hernando de Soto's Trail to Southwest Alabama

[Italics are quotes from the main or other sources]

Preface

The modern-day city of Mobile, Alabama derived its name from the ancient Indian town of Mabila by the following circumstances.

In the year 1540, Mabila was destroyed by the Spaniards under the command of Hernando de Soto. When the French settled near Mobile Bay one hundred and sixty years later an indian tribe requested permission to live near them. This tribe was said to have been descendants of the defeated Mabila tribe. The French called their new neighbors "Mobilians" and referred to them as the "Mobile" tribe. The actual meaning of "Mabila" is suspected to be derived from the Indian Choctaw linguistic term moeli meaning "to paddle" since it is written that "Mobile" was pronounced "moeli" by the local indians. Mabila was also referred to as Maubela by the English and as Mouvilla and Mavilla in addition to several other similar names by others.

The "Mabila" indians were members of the Alibamu tribe (The name Alibamu means "brush gatherers" in the Choctaw Indian language). Thus, when we combine the names Mabila and Alibamu we have "paddlers" and "brush gatherers" which seems very appropriate for the local Indians that paddled canoes and gathered brush and other items (such as Palmetto leaves) along rivers and streams for their villages.

From these names the title of this research work is obtained. Added to the title is the term "Zip Code Unknown" signifying the fact that the ruins of Mabila are still, to this date, unrecovered. It is somewhat astonishing that after more than 450 years the location of such a great site has remained undiscovered ...considering our present-day population. However, here in the deep south, with our sub-tropical weather, dense forests and swamps, lie hidden some of our yet to be discovered (archaeological) treasures of the past. Somewhere within our present-day boundaries of Alabama someone may have already discovered Mabila and just, simply, not realized what they came across (As I have been informed by Dr. Waselkov at the University of South Alabama in present-day Mobile, Alabama). It will take a great deal more effort to identify and verify the actual location of Mabila. That is the objective of the efforts behind what you read here.

If you have a determined and serious interest in assisting with this endeavor please contact me directly here or at the following related site location:

Alabama Community Connection: rdboyd

The Arrival at
and Subsequent Journey into
Tascaluca's Province

Caxa

October 06, 1540
The de Soto army arrived at the village named Caxa, described as a wretched town on the bank of the river on Wednesday, October 06, 1540. This town was said to be on the boundary [raya] of the river between the provinces of Talisi [Tallassee?] and Tascaluca, Alabama [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 1, Page 288].

[No date given]
The de Soto army headed south, drawing near the coast of New Spain [the port of Achuse which might have been our modern-day Pensacola or Mobile Bay] and had passed several towns until they arrived at another province that was called Tascaluca. [Source: Biedma, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 1, Page 232].

[No date given]
The army then passed through another town and reached a small town of [the] Tascaluca [province]. [Source: Elvas, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 1, Page 95].

[No date given]
De Soto and his army marched for two days and that early on the third day they arrived in sight of the pueblo where the curaca Tascaluca was located. Garcilaso also states that this was not the chief pueblo of this state [Tascaluca Province] but one of the other ordinary ones [Source: Garcilaso, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 2, page 327].

Humati
[Suspected to be near Present-day Montgomery]

October 07, 1540
On Thursday, October 07, 1540, de Soto and his army spent the night alongside the river [meaning the same river upon which they had been adjacent to before arriving there]. Rangel writes that an Indian town called 'Humati' was on the other side of the water. [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 288].

Uxapita
[Suspected to be Present-day Prattville]

October 08, 1540
This narrator that gives dates most consistently, writes that they (de Soto and his army), on the next day, went to another new town ['poblacion'] called Uxapita [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 288].

Open Country/Forest
[Distance of travel and location questionable]

October 09, 1540
Once again, according to Rangel, de Soto and his army, on the next day, Saturday, established camp one league before arriving at the town of Athahachi. This camp was said to have been in the open. It was at this location that de Soto sent a courier to deliver a message to Tascaluca. Later [how much later is not indicated] that messenger returned back to de Soto with a reply from the Chief that he would be welcomed whenever he wished to come [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 288].

[No date given]
The next day he [de Soto and his army] slept in a wood two leagues from the town where the cacique lived and was located at that time. [said to be Athahachi by Rangel] De Soto then sent his "maestre de campo" Luis de Moscoso, with fifteen of his horsemen so as to inform Tascaluca that they were coming [Source: Elvas, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 95].

Athahachi
[Suspected to be Present-day Autaugaville]

October 10, 1540
On Sunday, October 10, 1540, the governor [de Soto and his army] entered the town of Tascaluca [Athahachi, according to Donald Sheppard, having visited this location in person himself, suspects that this town was not Tascaluca's principal (capital) town and that "Piachi" was, instead, Tascaluca's main domain] [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 290].

October 11, 1540
De Soto and his army spent one day, Monday, October 11, 1540 at Athahachi [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, page 291].

[No date given]
Tascaluca, having learned from his "runners" that de Soto and his army was approaching, went out from his pueblo, in person himself, to meet the Spanish commander. Tascaluca placed himself and his accompanying assistants with him upon a small high hill in a manner that was both majestically prominent as well as giving him very good view of the area around him. [Source: Garcelaso-XXIV, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 2, Page 327 --This location, again, according to Donald Sheppard, was said to be "Potato Hill" just west of Autaugaville].
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[Editor's Note: Having visited this location myself, the actual town of Athahachi was located, more than likely, upon a much higher elevated area just west of the Potato Hill location (Personal observation made by the author at that location on Wednesday, October 13, 1999). I must state that the area where Donald Sheppard indicates Atahatchi to be located is a very impressive site ...a long hill running from north to south (or visa-versa) to the west of what is referred to as "Potato Hill" because upon that long north/south stretch are many smaller hills. And, quite honestly, I suspect those smaller hills to be, not so much Indian mounds but, rather, actual "tells" created by centuries of settlements.]
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October 12, 1540
On this day, or the day before, while still in Athahachi, de Soto asked Tascaluca for tamenes (burden carriers) and one hundred Indian women (quite honestly, for sex indulgence for his Christian soldiers). He also writes that Tascaluca provided 400 tamenes [burden carriers] to assist de Soto and his army but said that the women could not be provided until they arrived at Mabila, another town more distant from where they were [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 1, Page 291].

[No date given]
Because he said that he could not give us anything there [Athahachi], that we should go to another town of his, which was called Mavila and that there they would give what we requested of him,... [Source: Beidma, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 1, Page 232].

[No date given]
The Spaniards rested in that Pueblo [Athahachi] two days, and on the third they proceeded on their journey [Source: Garcelaso, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 2, Page 328].

Open Country/Forest
[Distance of travel and location questionable]

October 12, 1540
Finally, Tuesday, the twelfth of October, they left from the town of Athahachi, taking the cacique [Tascaluca], as has been said, and with him many principals and always the Indian with the sunshade in front of his lord, and another with a cushion; and that day they spent the night in the open [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 291].

[No date given]
The governor [de Soto] was no little relieved that a horse had been found that Tascaluca could ride, and he was not disturbed because they mounted him on a pack horse [No larger animal could be found that Tascaluca could not literally 'straddle' over on foot because of his size]. Thus they marched three daily journeys of four leagues each [1 league = 2.634 miles X 4 = 10.536 miles X 3 days = 31.608 miles], at the end of which they reached the principal pueblo, called Tascaluca [named Athahachi according to Rangel], from which the province and its lord took their names. The pueblo was strong, being situated on a peninsula the river formed; the stream was the same one that passed by Talise [which] became increasingly large and swift [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 2, Page 329].
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[Editor's Note: Confusing text by Garcelaso, above, because he refers to both a 'peninsula' formed by the river saying that it was the same one that passed by the town of Talise and yet uses the term 'stream' while continuing to describe it. This has caused many researchers to conclude that the 'peninsula' that he describes was the convergence of present-day Cahaba (or some other tributary) and Alabama rivers. Garcelaso may also be confusing the two Indian towns of Atahatchi and Piachi here and, again, Donald Sheppard suspects that Athahachi was not the 'capital' of Tascaluca, but rather that it was Piachi.]
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Piachi
[Suspected to be Present-day Cahaba]

October 13, 1540
The next day, Wednesday, they arrived at Piachi, which is a high town, upon the bluff of a rocky river [Suspected by Donald Sheppard, having visited this location in person, himself, to be present-day Cahaba], and its cacique was malicious, and he took a position [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 291] to resist the crossing; but in fact [sic; should read, "and because of this"] they crossed the river with difficulty, and two Christians were killed, and the principals who accompanied the cacique went away. In that town [sic - should read "of"] Piachi it was found out that they had killed Don Teodoro, and a black man, who came forth [at an earlier time] from the boats of Panfilo de Narvaez [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 292 and from the editor, having visited this location in person].

We headed for there, arriving at a large river [Rio Caudall], which we believe is the river that flows into the bay of Chuse [Alabama?]*. Here we had news of how the boats of Narvaez had arrived in need of [drinking?] water, and that here among these Indians remained a Christian who was called Don Teodoro, and a black man with him. They showed us a dagger that the Christian had. We were here two days making rafts to cross this river, during which the Indians killed a Christian who was one of the governor's [de Soto's] guard. In a fit of anger, he [the governor, i.e. de Soto] treated the cacique badly and told him that he was going to burn him unless he gave him the Indians that had killed the Christian. He [Tascaluca (obviously, a very confident and "cool" chief)] said that in his town of Mavila he would give them to us [Source: Biedma, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 232].

[No date given]
After a march of two days he [de Soto] reached a town called Piachi. Near it flowed a large river*. The governor [de Soto] asked the Indians for canoes. They said that they did not have any, but that they would make rafts of canoes and dry wood on which he could cross. Diligently and quickly they made them and steered them; and since the water was quiet, the governor and his men crossed in great safety [Source: Elvas, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Page 96-98].

[No date given]
They spent the following day in crossing it [river or stream], and because of the scarcity of rafts, it took almost an entire day*. They camped half a league from the river in a beautiful valley [Source: Garcelaso, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 2, Page 329].

October 14, 1540
De Soto and his army remained in Piachi this day following the crossing of the river* [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Pages 291-292].

October 15, 1540
On this day, Friday, October 15, 1540, the army continued to rest in Piachi [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 1, Pages 291-292].

Open Country/Forest
[Suspected to be 1 day journey from Piachi]

October 16, 1540
On Saturday, the sixteenth of October, they departed from there [Piachi] and went to a forest, where one of the two Christians that the governor [de Soto] had sent [on mission] to Mabila came; and he said that there was a great gathering of armed people in Mabila [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 1, Page 292].

Populated/Palisaded Towns
[Suspected to have been 2 days journey from Piachi
and 1 day journey to Mabila]

October 17, 1540
The next day they [de Soto and his army] went to a palisaded town, and messengers from Mabila came who brought to the cacique much chestnut bread, for there are many and good chestnuts in his land [which may have been pecans]. [Source: Rangel, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 1, page 292]

[No date given]
The governor [de Soto along with his army] marched for three days, the third day through a continuously peopled region [Source: Elvas, The De Soto Chronicles, Vol. 1, page 98].

[No date given]
At dawn on the following day the governor [de Soto] sent out two soldiers selected from among the best in the whole army. One was named Gonzalo Quadrado Xaramillo, an Hidalgo who was a native of Zafra, an able and experienced man in all respects to whom could be entrusted implicitly any serious affair of peace or of war; the other was Diego Vazquez, a native of Villanueva de Barcarrota, also a man of good repute and entirely trustworthy. He sent them with orders to go to see what was in a pueblo called Mauvilla, which was a league and [a] half [3.951 miles] from the camp. There the curaca had many people ostensibly in order to better serve and entertain the governor and his Spaniards. He ordered them to wait for him in the pueblo, as he was marching after them immediately [Source: Garcelaso, The De Soto Chronicles, Volume 2, Page 330].
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*Editors Note: If anyone reads the above narrations regarding the river crossing to Piachi with extreme care they may begin to realize that there is a very distinct possibility that de Soto and his army may very well have crossed the Alabama river from the east bank to the west bank (or even visa-versa) at that location. This possibility is evident with every single reference by every single narrator in The De Soto Chronicles.
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rdboyd@aol.com

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