the Nansemond when it was first explored, and that those seen in the immediate vicinity of the Chickahominy about twenty-two hundred, but such expressions were probably merely designed to show that these territories were thickly seated rather than to convey an accurate account of the real number of their inhabitants. If intended to be accepted implicitly, the population on the Chickahominy alone was nearly equal in volume to the whole population assigned to the main valley of the Powhatan under the ratio furnished by Smith himself.[1]
There should be added to the number of Indians living on the modern Rappahannock, York, and James, and the lower tributaries of the latter two streams, those who resided near the banks of the Potomac and in Accomac. In the valley of the Potomac, as far as it was explored by Smith, there were in the different towns which he visited about eight hundred warriors, indicating the presence of twenty-five hundred savages; the number in Accomac, Smith not including the Eastern Shore in his enumeration, was subsequently stated to be two thousand,[2] swelling the total population of that part of the territory of Virginia, which was the first to fall under the observation of the English, to ten thousand.
If we accept as correct the figures which Strachey has given, his calculations being confined to the number of warriors who were members of the tribes residing in the
- ↑ Sir Thomas Dale calculated that the number of bowmen among the Chickahominies amounted to five hundred. He is also the authority for the statement, that in a few days Powhatan could summon to his side one thousand warriors ready for battle. See Dale’s letter preserved in Ralph Hamor’s True Discourse, pp. 62, 56.
- ↑ Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 570.
and people; they may containe 1000.” Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 32. See also p. 430 for the large number of Indians seen in one body in the valley of the Rappahannock.
