Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/92

56 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. Nations had committed hostilities. Indians living on the Poto- mac, rather than on the Kanhawa, must at that time have been midcr the protection of Virginia. And it is probable that the Nanticokes, the Susquehannocks, and the Conoys, Canawese, or Cahhawaas, were but one nation, extending from the eastern shore of Maryland, across the bay, and North of the Patuxent to the upper waters of the Potomac. The final cession by the Five Nations of the lands on both sides of the Susquehanna lying in Pennsylvania southwest of the North Mountain, was effected by the treaties of 1736 and 1742. We have no remnant whatever of the language of the Susquehannocks. Captain Smith has given a detailed account of the various tribes found in Virginia, at the time of its first permanent set- tlement in the years 1707 and 1709. Exclusively of the Massawomacs (B^ive Nations), who are invaders, of the Sus- quehannocks who lay to the north of the colony, and of the Nanticokes and Tockwoghs on the eastern shore and already alluded to, he mentions four nations or confederacies speaking distinct lansmas;es. Those which formed the Powhatan confederacy embraced, on the southern extremity of the eastern shore, the Acomack and the Acohanock. On the western shore of the Chesapeake, they extended from the most southern rivers that empty into James River to the Patuxent, consisting of thirty-four tribes, each having a distinct name, but speaking the same language, and amounting together (including the Acomacks and Aco- hanocks) to two thousand nine hundred warriors, or more than ten thousand souls. Their settlements extended westwardly to the great falls of the rivers ; but it would seem, though the accounts are indistinct, that their hunting-grounds extended farther west towards the first ridge of hills. South of the Powhatans, on the waters of the Nottoway and Meherrin Rivers which empty into Albemarle Sound, he places the Chawonock and Mangoags ; two Iroquois tribes, known to us under the name of Nottoways and Tuteloes. West of the more southerly Powhatans, and extending from James River towards the Roanoke, were the Monacans, having several tribes (Massinacack, Monasickapanoughs, &c.) for tributaries. These Monacans are considered as the same Iroquois nation which called themselves Tuscaroras.