USA > Maryland > A sketch of the history of Maryland during the three first years after its settlement : to which is prefixed, a copious introduction > Part 11
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" 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 Novem- ber 25th, 1808.
# See Thompson's note above-cited ; where it is mentioned that a tribe of the Loups or Delawares, called Chihohocki, oc- cupied the remainder part of the Delaware state, along the west side of the Delaware river, which by them was formerly called Chihohocki.
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SECT. VII. The rest of the Eastern Shore of Maryland ap. pears to have been possessed by two nations ; onc 1608 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 coun- ties .*
. See Evans's Map of the Middle British Colonies, pub- lished in 1755. Mr. Charles Thompson, in note (?) 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-men- tioned.) 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 circum- stance 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 Somer- set 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 dis- pose of their right to the said lands, or that some compensa- tion 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, Fe." The sale was accordingly effected through
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ILISTORY OF MARYLAND.
We are now to accompany Mr. Smith in his 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 Poco- noke 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 superintend- ant of Indian affairs for the northern department ; and the re- mainder of the Nanticokes removed from the province. Some notice may be here taken also, of some Indians, who were set- tled 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 ap- pears 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 Tockwocks, who had left their residence on the opposite side of the Choptank, we have no sufficient au- thority 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 ap- propiated to them by an act of assembly of the year 1798, out of their appropriation in the year 1669.
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SECT. VII. ryland to the lord Baltimore, as the most southern part of that province bordering on the Chesapeake. 160g." In doubling this point or cape, he fell in with some shoals formed by another cluster of islands, said by some to have been the same, as those since called Il'atts's islands, by others Holland's islands. To these shoals, probably from their difficult and per- plexed navigation, he gave the name of Limbo. From thence he stood over again to the eastern shore, and discovered a river called by the natives Cuscarawacock. On this river lived the nations of Sarapinak, Nause, Arseck, and Nantiquack, (of which, probably, the word Nanticoke is a corrup- tion), said by him to be the best traders of any In- dians in those parts. They told the English of a great nation, called Massawomecks, in search of whom, Smith returned by Limbo, into the bay. Leaving the shallows of the eastern shore, he ap- pears to have stood over to the western shore, but not to have fallen in with it until he came to a river, which he called Bolus river ; but which is said to be that which is now called the Patapsco .* Some- where in the upper part of the bay, he fell in with seven canoes full of Indians, who turned out to be the Massawomecks, who were then making war . upon the Susquehanocks and the Tockwocks. When they first met, the Massawomecks made a show of hostility, but suffering themselves to bc persuaded of the friendly disposition of the English, after a mutual exchange of presents they departed. i
* See Note (HI) at the end of this volume.
t This nation, called Massawomecks (or Wassawomecks) are said by Mr. Charles Thompson, in note (5) to Jefferson's
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The English are said to have next entered a river, SECT. called the Tockwock, on which lived a nation of VII. 1608. the same name in a palisaded town, in order to guard themselves against the Massawomecks .* In com- pany with the Tockwocks, they found, it seems, a party of the Susquchanocks, who had probably come there to form a joint collection to oppose the Massawomecks. Implements of European manu-
Notes, to have been the same nation 'as that subsequently well known by the English, under the denomination of the Five Nations, called by the French Iroquois, but by them- selves Mingoes. When Smith met them, they had descend- ed the Susquehannah, and were coming to attack the Susque- hanocks and the Tockwocks in the rear. Mr. Jefferson ob- serves also, (Notes, quere 11,) that these Massawomecks or Iroquois harassed unremittingly both the Manahoacs and Pow- hatans. Mr. Colden, in his history of them, p. 36, says, that they over-ran a great part of North America, carrying their arms as far south as Carolina, to the northward of New England, and as far west as the Mississippi. But these latter conquests by them were subsequent to the period we are now speaking of, and after they had been furnished with fire-arms. They were, however, exhibiting their martial prowess in a high degree against the Adirondacs or Algonquins, a nation on the north of the St. Lawrence, when the French first set- tled in Canada, in 1603, and would have extirpated them, if the French had not opposed them. Colden's Hist. ch. 1.
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· As the Tockwocks are supposed to have occupied that part of Maryland, of which the counties of Kent, Queen Ann's, and Talbot are composed, and the English had, at this period of their expedition, arrived as high up the bay as the Patapsco, it may be conjectured, although it is certainly but an inference from circumstances, that this river, here called the Tockwock, was that now called the Chester river, and the palisaded town above-mentioned, was probably situa- ted on Eastern Nick island, or somewhere in that part of Kent county.
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1608.
VII. SECT. facture were observed to be in the possession of
both these nations, which the Susquehanocks in- formed them they had from the French in Canada .* An incident, which must be noticed, is said to have occurred, either in this or the following excur- sion of Smith up the Chesapeake. Invited by the great breadth of the Patowmack, at its mouth, he sailed up this river, but to what distance is not men- tioned. Three or four thousand of the natives, it
* Although the city of Quebec was not founded by Cham- plain until July, 1608, yet the French had, as early as the year 1600, established a trading settlement at Tadoussac, on the St. Lawrence, as has been before mentioned. With re- gard to what is represented in the accounts of the early ad- venturers, as coming from Smith, on this occasion, of the gi- gantic stature of the Susquehanocks, it is unworthy of notice. They were, without doubt, like most other North American Indians, tall and well limbed. What is said by Stith, of their language and dress may deserve to be here inserted: " Their language and attire were very suitable to their stature and appearance. For their language sounded deep and so- lemn, and hollow, like a voice in a vault. Their attire was the skins of bears and wolves, so cut that the man's head went through the neck, and the ears of the bear were fasten- ed on his shoulders, while the nose and teeth hung dangling down upon his breast. Behind was another bear's face split, with a paw hanging at the nose. And their sleeves coming down to their elbows, were the necks of bears, with their arms going through the mouth, and paws hanging to the nose. One of them had the head of a wolf hanging to a chain for a jewel, and his tobacco-pipe was three quarters of a yard long, carved with a bird, a deer, and other devices, at the great end. His arrows were three quarters long, headed with splinters of a white crystal-like stone, in the form of a heart, an inch broad, and an inch and a half long. These he carried at his back, in a wolf's skin, for a quiver, with his bow in one hand, and his club in the other."
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seems, had planted themselves in ambush to cut SECT. him off; but a few musquets being discharged, the VII. 1608, Indians were so frightened by the report, that they made peace, having confessed that they took up arms by the orders of Powhatan. In a small creek cal- led Quigough* formed by the waters of the Patow- mack, they saw a mine of antimony, which the In- dians made use of to ornament themselves, and the faces of their idols.t
No further account of any other material inci . dents of this voyage, has reached us. They return- ed to James' town on the seventh of September, having their boat loaded with corn. From this ex- cursion Smith is said to have drawn a map of Che- . sapeake Bay, and of the rivers thereof, annexing to it a description of the countries bordering there- on, and the nations or tribes inhabiting them, which he sent to the council in England, and which is said to have been done with admirable exactness,į as we have before had occasion to mention. His superior abilities having obtained the ascendancy over envy
* As there does not appear in the best and latest maps of the states of Maryland or Virginia, any creek or water of this name, emptying into the Patowmack, we are left to suppose, from the similitude of sound, as before-mentioned, that this creek was what is now called the Wicomoco river, falling into the Patowmack on the Maryland side of that river, and divi- ding the counties of St. Mary's and Charles. It is possible, indeed, that it may have been the same as that now called Yocomico river, lower down the Patowmack, and on the
- Virginian side thereof, or the river called Little Wigcomigo; at its mouth.
t Burk's Hist. of Virginia, Vol. 1, p. 121.
# Ibid. p. 127.
,
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SECT. and faction, he now entered on his office of presi- VII. dent.
1608. About this time, Newport arrived with an addi- The tenor tional supply of inhabitants, and with fresh " in-
structions" from the London Company. The te- nor of these " instructions" demonstrates, that those who were engaged in the colonisation of America at this time, in England, were actuated more by the alluring prospects of a sudden acquisition of wealth, than the future benefits arising from colonies. The president and council of the colony were required to explore the western country, in order to procure certain intelligence of a passage to the South Sea ; to transmit, as a token of success in the discovery of mines, a lump of gold; and to find some of the lost company sent out by Raleigh to Roanoke. And they threatened in a letter to Smith, that unless the charge of Newport's voyage, amounting to about two thousand pounds, was defrayed by the ship's re- turn, they should be deserted, and left to remain there, as banished men. A reader of humanity could scarcely give credit to this fact, did he not find it re- corded by a credible historian .* Thus far, then, we have not yet found, that either religious persecution or political oppression, or even the glory of propa- gating the Christian faith, however much talked of, were really and truly the prime and original motives to. English colonisation.
A feeble attempt made in this and the preceding year, by the North Virginia or Plymouth company,
* Burk's History of Virginia, Vol. 1, p. 127, 148, and Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 162.
of some instruc- tions from England to Virgi- nia.
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to plant a colony in that part of North America now SECT. VII. called the District of Maine, deserves some notice. In 1607, Sir John Popham, then lord chief justice 160 S. An at- of England, and others concerned in the Plymouth tempt of Company, sent out two ships with a colony, under the Ply- mouth the government of George Popham, his brother, Company attended with Raleigh Gilbert, nephew of Sir Wal- colony in ter Raleigh, second in command. They sailed from Maine. Plymouth on the last of May, 1607, and on the 11th of August, landed on a small island, since called Parker's island, at the mouth of Sagadahoc or Kennebec river. Here they built a store-house and fortified it, and gave it the name of fort St. George. On the fifth of December, the two ships sailed for England, leaving a little colony of forty- five persons. During the winter, which was said to have been very severe, the governour or com- mander-in-chief, George Popham, died. They had the misfortune of losing all their stores by fire: so that when the ships arrived the next year, 1608, bringing with them the disagreeable intelligence of the death of Sir John Popham and Sir John Gilbert, in England, the great patrons of the colony, they were so dispirited, that they unanimously resolved to return with the ships to England, which they did. All the fruit of this expedition was the build- ing of a barn, which was found to be of use to the succeeding colonists, who planted there some years afterwards .*
In the succeeding year, an important change took
* Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, Vol. 1, p. 10. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 160, 162.
to settle a
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SECT. VII. place in the London or South Virginia Company. Whatever their motives might have been, it seems
1609. that the members of that company thought it pro- cond char. per to petition the king, for a new organization of The se- ter of Vir- their body. Some have attributed this to that su- the causes preme direction of all the company's operations, ginia, and
of grant- ing it. which the king, by the former charter, had reserved to himself, and which discouraged persons of rank or property, from becoming members of a society so dependent on the arbitrary will of the crown .* Others have supposed, that the distractions and di- visions, which had prevailed in the council in the colony, having created much mismanagement in their affairs, the company in England, were on that account, induced to request an alteration in their charter.t While others again, have attributed the desire of a change therein, to their inordinate thirst for a sudden accumulation of wealth ;} which con- jecture seems to be too much strengthened by the tenor of their last instructions, sent to the colony by Newport. The most probable motives, however, arose from a combination of the two last-mentioned causes ; and, as a late writer upon it observes-dis- appointed in their sanguine expectations of a rich and immediate profit, they were willing enough to believe the representations of the discontented and envious, rather than suppose that they themselves
* Robertson's Hist. of America, Vol. 4, p. 192.
Oldmixon's British Empire in America, Vol. I, p. 235. Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 225. Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 243.
# Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 164. Marshall's Life of Washington, Vol. 1, p. 42.
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were mistaken in their calculations .* The king SECT. VII.
1609.
yielded to their request, and granted, what is com- monly called, the second charter of Virginia, bear- ing date the 23d of May, 7 Jac. 1, (A. D. 1609).f By this the administration of the affairs of the colo- ny was vested in a single person, under the deno- mination of a governour, who was to reside in the colony, and to act according to the orders, laws, and instructions of a council resident in England. The principal clause in this charter, which has any immediate relation to what is now the state of Ma- ryland, is that which designates the extent of terri- tory thereby granted. The king granted and con- firmed to the company, " all those lands, countries, and territories, situate, lying, and being in that part of America, called Virginia, from the point of land called Cape or Point Comfort, all along the sea- coast to the northward, two hundred miles, and from the said point of Cape Comfort, all along the sca-coast to the southward, two hundred miles, and all that space and circuit of land, lying from the sea-coast of the precinct aforesaid, up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest ; and also all the islands lying within one hundred miles along the coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid." There was certainly a great enlarge- ment of their territories beyond what was expressed in their first or former charter; which seemed to have confined them to fifty miles, of English statute measure, northward and southward, along the coast
· Burk's Hist. of Virginia, Vol. 1, p. 148.
t See this charter at large in Hazard's Collections, Vol. 1, p. 58.
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SECT. VII. of America from the first seat of their plantation and habitation, which was James' town, and only 1609. one hundred miles back into the country from the . sca-coast. But the country granted by this second charter, included nearly one-third of the present United States. The extent of it " from sea to sca," that is, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean would have been absurd, could it be supposed, that they were then acquainted with the real distance between those seas across the continent of North America, in the latitude of Point Comfort. But it would seem, from the tenor of their last instructions to the president and council, sent out by Newport, before referred to, that they were at that time strongly pos- sessed with the idea, either that a passage to the south sea westward, through some inlet, would soon be discovered, or that the distance to that ocean across the continent was but very short, compared with what it has been since found out to be. Into this mistake they seem to have been led, not only by the previous discoveries of the Spaniards at the narrow isthmus of Darien, but also by some ac- counts given by the Indians to captain Smith, when he was exploring the Chesapeake, of great waters lying to the westward, not far distant; obviously meaning the lakes, and not the Pacific ocean .* Another observation on this charter occurs, in rela- tion to the subsequent grant by Charles I, to Lord Baltimore, which at first was so loudly complained
* Marshall's. Life of Washington, Vol. 1, p. 40. It is wor- thy of notice, however, that Powhatan told Smith, that all the accounts he had received, " of salt waters beyond the moun- tains," were false. Burk's Hist. of Virginia, Vol. 1, p. 129.
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of as unjustly lopping off so much of the territories SECT. VII. 1609. of Virginia. The absurd aspect of the extent of territory granted by this second charter of Virginia, left this solitary question only-how, and where its excrescencies should be pared off ? That it was too large for any kingdom or commonwealth upon earth, admitted of no doubt.
: The last and concluding clause in this charter, seems also to claim some notice, as it manifests the temper of those times in relation to religious con- troversies, and indicates those causes which eventu- ated in about twenty years afterwards, in the settle- ment of a colony of English Catholics in Maryland. " And lastly, because the principal effect which we can desire or expect of this action, is the conver- sion and reduction of the people in those parts unto the true worship of God and Christian religion,* in which respect we shall be loath that any person should be permitted to pass, that we suspected to
" This cant pervades all the early charters of North Ame- rica, both French and English. As the emperor Powhatan was well known to entertain a most inveterate hatred to the Anglo-Virginians, on account of their invasion of his territo- ries, his sentiments on the above clause, could he have read it, would very probably, have been similar to those of the In- dian cazique of Cuba; to whom, when fastened. to the stake to be burnt, a Franciscan friar, labouring to convert him, pro- mised immediate adınittance into the joys of heaven, if he would embrace the Christian faith. " Are there any Spani- ards," says he, after some pause, " in that region of bliss which you describe ?" " Yes," replied the monk, " but only such as are worthy and good." " The best of them," returned the indignant cazique, " have neither worth nor goodness; I will not go to a place where I may meet with one of that accursed race !"
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SECT. VII. affect the superstitions of the church of Rome, we do hereby declare, that it is our will and pleasure, 1609. that none be permitted to pass in any voyage, from time to time, to be made into the said country, but such as first shall have taken the oath of supremacy : for which purpose, we do by these presents, give full power and authority to the treasurer for the time being, and any three of the council to tender and exhibit the said oath, to all such persons as shall at any time be sent and employed in the said voy- age."*
The set- tlenient of s! New York. The Dutch nation, notwithstanding their con. the Dutch stant war with Spain for many years, for their inde- pendence, which about this time was acknowledged by all, except their ancient masters, had now attain- ed to a considerable extent of trade in the East In- dies ; insomuch that the States General, had, in 1602, thought it proper to erect, what is styled by historians, the Dutch East India Company. The great length of the passage to the East Indies, by the Cape of Good Hope, being productive of many in- conveniences, the company became anxious, as in- deed all the rest of Europe had long been, to explore some more convenient route thereto. With this view, they employed captain Henry Hudson, an En- glishman, to find out what was supposed, and called a northwest passage. Being furnished by the com-, pany with a vessel, cquipped with all necessaries, and with twenty men, English and Dutch, he sailed . from the Texel in the beginning of the year 1609,
* This clause will be animadverted upon more at large in & subsequent part of this work.
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and pursuing a westward course, fell in with the SECT. coast of Newfoundland. He is said to have shaped VII. his course from thence to Cape Cod; looked into 1609. the Chesapeake, where the English were settled ; anchored off the Delaware, and penetrated up the river on which New-York is situated, called after him, Hudson's river, as far north as the latitude of 43°. The consequence of this voyage, is said to - have been, that the Dutch, having purchased of him his chart of discoveries on the coast, sent some ships next year to the place, then called Manhattan island, on which the city of New York now stands, and in process of time, settled a colony there and at Albany, higher up the river ; calling the province New Netherlands, which, agreeably to their claims, extended so far south as to comprehend what is now' called the Delaware state, Pennsylvania, and the Jerseys .*
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