VII. 1608. elected president in his stead, or whether that event SECT. was postponed until his return from his second expedition up the Chesapeake, does not appear certain from the historians of Virginia. It seems, however, that Mr. Matthew Scrivener, a man of respectability, who had been sent from England with Newport in his last voyage, and nominated one of the council in Virginia, was elected vice-president by the colonists; which seems to imply that Smith was considered by them, as their president, but that Scrivener should be intrusted with the administration of the affairs of the colony, during his absence, Smith accordingly prepared for pursuing his His se scheme, of thoroughly exploring the Chesapeake ; tempt and it is on this expedition, we are to consider him more suças the first European adventurer, who had ever penetrated into the interior parts of the country now constituting the state of Maryland. After remaining since his return, only three days at James' town, he set out again on the twenty-fourth of July, with twelve men; probably in the same open vessel, which he had used before. cond at cessful. the tribes inhabiting land. But before we follow Mr. Smith, in his route up A general the Chesapeake, it may be well to pay some atten- sketch of tion to the accounts which writers upon this subject of Indians have given us of the situation of some of the prin- Virginia cipal nations of Indians, together with a few of the and Marysubordinate tribes, who were found to inhabit on the borders of the Chesapeake, when the Europeans first intruded on them. The country which now forms the state of Virginia, including also a part of the state of Maryland, was occupied by upwards of forty different tribes of Indians. These tribes were VII. SECT. formed again into three great and distinct confede racies or nations, denominated the Powhatans, the 1608. Manahoacs, and Monacans. Each of these three nations spoke a different language, and were under separate and distinct governments, insomuch that interpreters were necessary when they transacted business with each other. The Powhatans possessed all that part of the country bordering on the sea-board and the Chesapeake, which extends from North Carolina to the mouth of the Patuxent, in Maryland. On the westward, their territories seem to have been bounded by a supposed line running with the highlands, and crossing the heads of the rivers from North Carolina to the head of the Patuxent.* Some of the Powhatans are said also to have occupied what is now called the eastern shore of Virginia, under the denomination of the Accohanocs and Accomacks, from whence probably Accomack county took its name. The Monacans inhabited that part of Virginia which lies on the highlands, to the westward of a line drawn through the falls of James' river, in extent from York river to North Carolina.† The Manahoacs appear to have possessed that See Mr. Charles Thompson's note (5) in the Appendix to Mr. Jefferson's Notes. Also Burk's Hist. of Virginia, Vol. 1, p. 112. + The Monacans afterwards assumed the name of Tuscaroras, and for some cause deserted their country in Virginia about the year 1712, and joined the Iroquois, commonly called the Five Nations, making the Sixth. Colden's Hist. of the Five Nations, p. 5. Jefferson's Notes, query 11.... VII. part of Virginia, in the highlands, to the westward SECT. of the Powhatans, lying between the York and Patowmack rivers. These two nations, (the Monacans 1608. and Manahoacs,) were in amity with each other, but waged joint and perpetual war against the Powha tans. That part of Maryland which lies between the Patuxent and the Patapsco rivers from the bay to the Alleghaney mountains, seems to have been inhabited by a nation called the Shawanees,* still existing in the northwestern parts of the United States. The Susquehanocks appear to have lived along the river Susquehanah, to the westward thereof, not only in Maryland, but to a considerable extent in Pennsylvania, probably occupying that part of Maryland which forms Harford county; and to the northward and eastward of them was a nation called originally Lenopi, by the French Loups, but since by the English Delawares, whose country is said to have extended, from the Hittatinny mountains to Duck-creek, in the state of Delaware, including all the Jerseys and the southeastern part of Pennsylvania, It is not improbable, that it included also a part of Cœcil county in Maryland.‡ * See Charles Thompson's note (5) to Jefferson's Notes. They, together with several other Indian nations, sub scribed a treaty with the United States, bearing date November 25th, 1808. + See Thompson's note above-cited; where it is mentioned that a tribe of the Loups or Delawares, called Chihohocki, occupied the remainder part of the Delaware state, along the west side of the Delaware river, which by them was formerly called Chihohocki, SECT. 1608. The rest of the Eastern Shore of Maryland ap pears to have been possessed by two nations; one called the Tockwocks, the other the Nanticokes; the former occupying Kent, Queen Ann's, and Talbot counties: that is, from the Sassafras river to the Choptank, the latter Dorchester and Somerset counties.* * See Evans's Map of the Middle British Colonies, pub lished in 1755. Mr. Charles Thompson, in note (7) in the Appendix to Jefferson's Notes, says, that "the Nanticokes were formerly of a nation that lived at the head of Chesapeake bay, and who of late years, have been adopted into the Mingo or Iroquois confederacy, and make a seventh nation; the Monacans or Tuscaroras making the sixth," (as before-mentioned.) But, whether the "Nanticokes" here meant by him, were the same nation as the Nanticokes, above-mentioned, does not appear quite certain, though probable. The circumstance mentioned by Mr. Thompson, that the "Nanticokes" lately joined the Iroquois, is true also of the Nanticokes of Dorchester and Somerset, in Maryland. In the year 1768, a remnant of the Nanticoke Indians, some of them residing on their lands situated on the north bank of the Nanticoke river, in Dorchester county, and others of them on a creek emptying into the head of the said river, called Broad creek, in Somerset county, petitioned the assembly of Maryland, for leave to sell their said lands, or to receive some compensation for them; for which purpose an act was passed in that year, the preamble of which states, "whereas the greatest part of the tribe of the Nanticoke Indians, have some years ago, left and deserted the lands in the province, appropriated by former acts of assembly for their use, and the few that remain here, by their petition, prayed that they might have liberty to dispose of their right to the said lands, or that some compensation should be made them for quitting claim thereto, as they are desirous of totally leaving this province, and going to live with their brethren, who have incorporated themselves with the Six Nations, &c." The sale was accordingly effected through VII. 1608. We are now to accompany Mr. Smith in his SECT. voyage up the Chesapeake. The first object of his notice, as they naturally presented themselves, was that cluster of islands, now usually denominated the Tangier islands; the largest of which, from their first discoverer, still retains the name of Smith's island. Leaving these islands, it appears, that he then explored the eastern shores of what is now called Poconoke bay, into which the river Poconoke empties. Departing from thence, he passed a high point of land, which he called Point Ployer, but which in all probability was the same point now well known under the denomination of Watkyns's Point, and referred to in the charter or grant of Ma the agency of a certain Amos Ogden, a deputy acting under Sir William Johnson, at that time his majesty's superintendant of Indian affairs for the northern department; and the remainder of the Nanticokes removed from the province. Some notice may be here taken also, of some Indians, who were settled in Dorchester county, on the south bank of the Choptank river, and who, as far back as the year 1669, have been known under the denomination of the "Choptank Indians," as appears by an act of assembly of that year, appropriating to them certain lands lying on the south bank of the Choptank river, and Secretary Sewall's creek. Whether they were a tribe of the Nanticoke nation, distinct from those who had emigrated, or a remnant of the Tockworks, who had left their residence on the opposite side of the Choptank, we have no sufficient authority to determine. It is certain, that they did not migrate with the Nanticokes in 1768, although they lived within twenty miles of each other. There are at this day, two or three individuals of them yet remaining, but intermixed, it is said, with Negro blood. They live on some spots of land appropiated to them by an act of assembly of the year 1798, out of their appropriation in the year 1669. |