Researchers have worked to identify the provinces and tribes described by Chicora. They have analyzed phonetics of 16th-century Spanish, as well as the many languages of the North American tribes in the area, to reach their conclusions. • Francisco's home province, considered by Swanton to be on the lower
Pee Dee River, was called
Chicora. Scholars generally consider the people a
Catawban group. Swanton (1940) proposed a connection with the Sugaree or
Shakori; Rudes (2004) suggested
Coree. •
Duahre (or
Duhare, many variant spellings) was a neighboring province described as home to Datha, the principal
chief of several provinces. Ayllon is said to have marched through this province in 1526, en route to
Guadalupe, where he built the short-lived colony of
San Miguel de Guadalupe. The location and ethnicity of the actual people referred to in Chicora's tall tales of Duhare has been debated; candidates have included Catawban,
Guale, and
Cusabo. In 2004,
Blair Rudes asserted that other linguistic evidence in Martyr's account points to the Iroquoian
Tuscarora tribe, and specifically their town on the
Neuse River called
Teyurhèhtè. He suggests, for example, that Old Tuscaroran
Teeth-ha (king) corresponded with the name "Datha", which he says may have been a title rather than proper name. He also notes close similarities between accounts of a religious ceremony as recounted by Francisco de Chicora, and one among the Tuscarora recounted by a European in the early eighteenth century. •
Xapita - a province near Duahre where pearls were found, was identified with the name of the
Sampit River. •
Hitha (
Yta) - a province ruled by Datha, possibly Etiwaw (Eutaw), a
Cusabo subtribe. •
Tihe - a province under Datha and inhabited by a priestly tribe. •
Xamunambe - another of Datha's provinces. •
Arambe, Guacaya, Quohathe, Tanzaca (Tanaca), Pahoc - These were other regions which the Spanish recorded visiting, where they noted the indigenous peoples had dark brown skin. Swanton suggests that
Guacaya may correlate to
Waccamaw (a Siouan tribe), and
Pahoc to "Back Hooks". Rudes connects
Quohathe with
Coweta (a
Muscogee (Creek) subtribe);
Tanzaca with "Transequa", a village shown on a 1733 map on the Upper Catawba River; and
Arambe with the
Ilapi of
Hernando de Soto (1541), also the Mississippian-culture village called
Herape by
Juan Pardo (1568), and the later Creek town
Hilibi, which had moved farther west. •
Inziguanin - described as a nation whose inhabitants had a myth that crocodile-like men had once lived in their land. Rudes suggested
Inziguanin could be a reference to the
Shawnee, though they were not attested in the southeast until long afterward. Other sources, such as Oviedo, Navarrete, Barcia, and
Documentos Ineditos list additional provinces derived from Francisco de Chicora, some of which have been tentatively identified by Swanton and other researchers: •
Yamiscaron - the
Yamacraw or
Yamasee tribe (Guale) •
Orixa - a Cusabo subtribe on the
Edisto River •
Coçayo - the "Coosa" subtribe of the Cusabo, who lived on the upper South Carolina rivers. These "Coosa" were probably not related to the Muskogean-speaking
Coosa chiefdom that De Soto encountered some 15 years later in present-day northern Georgia. •
Pasqui - called the
Pasque by Pardo, they lived inland near the Siouan
Waxhaw tribe. •
Aymi - possibly the
Hymahi of De Soto and Pardo, placed by Hudson (1990) on the
Congaree River, near where it joins the Santee. •
Sona - possibly a Cusabo subtribe on the
Stono River •
Yenyohol - the
Winyah of
Winyah Bay •
Anica,
Xoxi,
Huaque,
Anoxa - uncertain ==References==