Cofitachequi

Cofitachequi was a powerful Indigenous chiefdom in the Wateree River country. Its towns included Cofitachequi itself and neighbouring Talimeco, where a temple crowned a great earthen mound. Pearls, woven mats and the remains of earlier leaders were kept in sacred buildings, while the chief's authority extended over communities beyond the river valley.

In 1540 Hernando de Soto arrived in search of gold and encountered the woman remembered as the Lady of Cofitachequi. Her people supplied the expedition with food and freshwater pearls, but the Spaniards also plundered sacred places. De Soto took the Lady with him as a hostage when he departed; she escaped with her attendants. The province had already suffered a serious epidemic, and Spanish accounts described Talimeco as abandoned. Juan Pardo visited the chiefdom in the 1560s and left a garrison whose fort was soon overrun. A later expedition arrived in 1627–28. In 1670 the Englishman Henry Woodward travelled inland from Charles Town and persuaded the chief to visit the new settlement. By the time John Lawson came up the Wateree in 1701, small Congaree communities occupied the former chiefdom's country.