Ye Pleasant Mount: 1989 1990 Excavations - Open site which ...

others left Kasita and settled on Uchee Creek. The Bonar map of 1757 shows the
Euches [Yuchi] settled in this location, as does the Sturgess map of 1818 (DeVorsey
1971:20; Sturgess 1818).
William Bartram visited this town during the mid-1770s, and gave a glowing
description ofYuchi town:
The Uche town is situated in a vast plain, on the gradual ascent as we rise from a
narrow strip of low ground immediately bordering on the river: it is the largest, most
compact and best situated Indian town I ever saw; the habitations are large and neatly
built; the walls of the houses are constructed of a wooden frame, then lathed and
plastered inside and out with a reddish well tempered clay or mortar, which gives them
the appearance of red brick walls; and these houses are neatly covered or roofed with
Cypress bark or shingles of that tree. The town appeared to be populous and thriving,
full of youth and young children: I suppose the number of inhabitants, men, women,
and children, might amount to one thousand or fifteen hundred, as it is said they are
able to muster five hundred gun-men or warriors. (Van Doren 1955:386)
Benjamin Hawkins provided a brief description of the same town in 1798 or 1799;
U-chee, is on the right bank of Chat-to-ho-che, ten and a half miles below Cow-e-tuh­
taI-lau-has-see [Coweta Old Town], on a flat of rich land, with hickory, oak, blackjack
and long-leaf pine; the flat extends from one to two miles back from the river, Above
the town, and bordering on it, Uchee Creek, eighty-five feet wide, joins the river.
(Hawkins 1974:61)
Hawkins noted that the Yuchi also were settled in three other villages on the Flint River
drainage at the end ofthe eighteenth century, and the Flint River towns contained 250 gun
men (Hawkins 1974;61). During a recent archaeological survey of the Flint River basin,
John Worth (personal communication, 1991) reported finding surface remains ofPatsiliga
town.
Scattered evidence ofYuchi has been identified in the central Savannah Riverregion
north and south ofAugusta. Historic Indian artifacts are reported in the midden on
Stallings Island and at least one child burial has been identified as possibly early eighteenth
century Yuchi (Claflin 1931; Neill 1955; Gresham, cited in Smith 1991).
Isolated occurrences ofplain shell tempered pottery and eighteenth century dark green
bottle glass were reported from the Mint's Point site at the mouth of Steven's Creek within
sight of Stallings Island (Elliott 1983). Contemporary maps identify a Yuchi settlement
several miles upstream from Stallings Island During his survey ofClark Hill Lake, carl
Miller searched for this town and placed one test pit, which was located at the mouth of
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