Guaxule is described as a very large town surrounded by a number of small mountain streams which united to form the large river down which the Spaniards proceeded after leaving the place. [26] Here, as elsewhere, the Indians received the white men with kindness and hospitality--so much so that the name of Guaxule became to the army a synonym for good fortune. [27] Among other things they gave the Spaniards 300 dogs for food, although, according to the Elvas narrative, the Indians themselves did not eat them. [28] The principal officers of the expedition were lodged in the "chief's house," by which we are to understand the townhouse, which was upon a high hill with a roadway to the top. [29] From a close study of the narrative it appears that this "hill" was no other than the great Nacoochee mound, in White county, Georgia, a few miles northwest of the present Clarkesville. [30] It was within the Cherokee territory, and the town was probably a settlement of that tribe. From here De Soto sent runners ahead to notify the chief of Chiaha of his approach, in order that sufficient corn might be ready on his arrival. Leaving Guaxule, they proceeded down the river, which we identify with the Chattahoochee, and in two days arrived at Canasoga, or Canasagua, a frontier town of the Cherokee. As they neared the town they were met by the Indians, bearing baskets of "mulberries," [31] more probably the delicious service-berry of the southern mountains, which ripens in early summer, while the mulberry matures later. From here they continued down the river, which grew constantly larger, through an uninhabited country which formed the disputed territory between the Cherokee and the Creeks. About five days after leaving Canasagua they were met by messengers, who escorted them to Chiaha, the first town of the province of Coça. De Soto had crossed the state of Georgia, leaving the Cherokee country behind him, and was now among the Lower Creeks, in the neighborhood of the present Columbus, Georgia. [32] With his subsequent wanderings after crossing the Chattahoochee into Alabama and beyond we need not concern ourselves (8). While resting at Chiaha De Soto met with a chief who confirmed what the Spaniards had heard before concerning mines in the province of Chisca, saying that there was there "a melting of copper" and of another metal of about the same color, but softer, and therefore not so much used. [33] The province was northward from Chiaha, somewhere in upper Georgia or the adjacent part of Alabama or Tennessee, through all of which mountain region native copper is found. The other mineral, which the Spaniards understood to be gold, may have been iron pyrites, although there is some evidence that the Indians occasionally found and shaped gold nuggets.6