Drifting into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River

Chapter 4: Seeking a Mission

chapter 4 Seeking a Mission i. Nothing here says de Soto. Everything here says clear-cut. It says logging trucks. Pine plantation . The scrubby coinage of first growth. Except to Dennis Blanton. Dennis can see Spaniards across the river, which used to be right there, where the slough is now, dropping ten or twelve feet from the bedded rows of slash pine. That is the old run of the river, no doubt, but the river has fled, and in its place is a depression that sometimes fills with black water swirling beneath the feet of water striders. The river, now, is a mile away. But there was a river right there, and the tupelo, which didn’t get cut in the season of cutting, are darkly and largely beautiful. It’s the time of year, late summer, when golden orb and banana and crab spiders string tight cords through the trees, tying it all back together. Dennis is watching the Spaniards, near six hundred of them, especially the one guy who seems to be telling everybody what to do, and he is watching the two hundred horses that raise a storm of dust, the hogs they attempt to keep from drifting, and the tired people in chains, trying to rest. He sees one of the restless band, a guide or interpreter , separate and step into the river. The man begins swimming with his feet, holding out of the water a bundle. The man is native. He swims across and steps onto the bank we now stand on, water streaming from him. He knows he is in a friendly place. No one has attacked. I am the son of the sun, his commander had said. I am here to explore and claim your land. Dennis perceives behind us a large rectangular council house, its thatched roof supported by four giant timbers and at its center a 135 seeking a mission hearth more than six feet in diameter, where a perpetual fire burns. The flames die only for the Green Corn Ceremony. Above the hearth, which is separated from the council house by wattle-and-daub partitions , the roof has been left open to create a smoke hole, and the surrounding thatch has also been plastered with a patina of clay. Around the lodge is a moat, a ditch, and in parts of it are tossed the remains of feasts. In this feasting dump are hickory shells; the bones of passenger pigeon , whitetail deer, black bear, turkey, gopher tortoise, and raccoon; mussel shells; carapaces of box turtles, lamb’s quarter seed, corn cobs. Around the council house are dwellings. Dennis sees all this. What I see is a clearing in a cutover forest. I see some sweet gums, and on the ground, among the weeds, passion vine and sassafras. I see Dennis, handsome archaeologist, a fire burning in his sky-blue eyes. When the fire is out, there is a faraway look. • Back in high school in Alma, Georgia, in the 1970s, Dennis Blanton heard about a Spanish mission called Santa Isabel de Utinahica, established inland sometime during the early Spanish occupation , the mission period, of what is now Georgia. One day after he became an archaeologist, he took interest in finding it. He contacted his old friend Frankie Snow. Frankie is a naturalist and a math and science professor at South Georgia College. His passion is archaeology. For decades, on his own time and with no assistance, Frankie has evaluated and mapped dozens of native sites. He has studied native pottery, putting entire broken vases and bowls back together, re-creating their etched designs on paper. Not only is he a friend of mine, he’s a hero. He’s a quiet, unassuming man who isn’t looking for attention. He’s simply following a desire in his heart, which is to understand the life of the native people of southern Georgia. Dennis called Frankie. “Frankie, you know this place like you know your own handwriting. I need your help. Where would you look for Santa Isabel de Utinahica?” 136 elements So Frankie took Dennis to a few spots. One was a tract of land on the Ocmulgee River, near Horse Creek, long owned by the Glass family, which the cutting and bedding had exposed. There a solitary piece of early Spanish pottery had been discovered . The native materials found there were of the right timeframe. With the gracious...