The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations, Part 18

Author: Bozman, John Leeds, 1757-1823
Publication date: 1837
Publisher: Baltimore : J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver
Number of Pages: 1062

USA > Maryland > The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations > Part 18

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# We have before supposed, that the Indian town, called Mattapanient, was situated in St. Mary's county and on the Patuxent not far from its mouth.

§The name of this "laughing king," (of Accomack,) "on the Easterne Shore,"' is not mentioned. Why he was called the laughing king, is no where explained ;. but it was most probably from some peculiarity in his countenance and manner ..

|| He was left with Powhatan, in exchange for an Indian boy named Namon-> tacke, in the year 1607, when capt. Newport went to visit Powhatan at Werow- ocomoco on Pamunkie or York river. Smith's Hist. vol. i. p. 167 ..

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SEC. VII. body in their service .* This laughing king at Accomack, tels 1620. vs the land is not two daies journey ouer in the broadest place, but in some places a man may goe in halfe a day, betwixt the baye and the maine ocean, where inhabit many people, so that by the narrownesse of the land there is not many deere, but most abundant of fish and fowle.t In February alsot he travelled§ to the south river Chowanock, some sixtie miles over land, which he found to be a very fruitfull and pleasant country, yeelding two haruests in a yeere, and found much of the silke grasse for- merly spoken of, was kindly vsed by the people, and so re- turned."

From these "travels" of Pory, a conclusion seems to have been drawn by a learned annalist, which the account thereof, stated as above by Smith, does not warrant. As his inference from them seems to have an immediate bearing upon the subse- quent dispute between the Penns and Lord Baltimore, which agitated both their provinces for a great length of time, it will be best to attend to the whole of what the annalist has said there- on .- "From the date of the original discovery of Smith," he says, "the Virginians were too much occupied, for several years, either in procuring food or in defending themselves against the attacks of a subtle enemy, to find leisure to explore more mi- nutely the capacious Chesapeake, so justly praised for beauty and commodiousness. John Pory, however, sailed, during the year 1620, into the great bay northward; and, though he did not penetrate to its source, he discovered, as he assures us, one hun- dred English happily settled, who were animated with the hope of a very good trade of furs. He adventured soon after sixty miles

* There is frequently some confusion in Smith's narrations, in respect to the person whose language he delivers. In the former part of part of these "obser- vations of Pory," he seems to have used the language of Pory, as if spoke or written by Pory himself. But here, immediately above, he brings himself into view, and speaks of Pory as the "author" who "affirmeth."

t The peninsula which constitutes the eastern shore of Virginia, is nearly of an equal breadth from the divisional line between Virginia and Maryland, of the 38th degree of latitude, to Cape Charles, and not exceeding twelve miles "in the broadest place betwixt the bay and the maine ocean." A "daies journey," above mentioned, in the meaning of the Indian king, must have been a journey on foot ; so that twelve miles must have been an easy half day's journey. But it is possible, that this king, when he said, that it was "not two daies journey ouer in the broadest place," might have alluded to the breadth of the whole peninsula from the head of the Chesapeake to Cape Charles ; in which case also, he would not have been very incorrect.

# This must have been in February, 1620, old style. (1621, N. S.)

§ Here Smith speaks in his own person, and means, that Pory "travelled," &c.

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over land, through a pleasant and fruitful country to the South SEC. VII. river. And, on its margin, he was received with friendly enter- 1620. tainment by the ruling sachem of the land, who seemed extreme- ly desirious to enter into a league of amity and commerce with the Virginians .* Thus neither the French, nor Dutch, nor Swedes, possessed then any settlements on the banks of the De- laware; because Pory must have either seen traces of their pos- session, or at least heard something of their renown."} It is evident from this concluding sentence of the annalist, that he erroneously understood "the South river Chowanock," to which Pory travelled in February, 1620-1, as Smith states to have been the same as the modern Delaware river, to which the Dutch, soon after their settlement at Manhattan, gave the name of South river in contradistinction to the Hudson, which they called the North river. He seems to have been uninformed, or to have not recollected, that there was a river in North Carolina, former- ly called the Chowanock river, but more modernly the Chowan, on which the Indian nation, called the Chowanocks, formerly lived .¿ To their town it was, that Smith sent the messengers, as before stated, to search for the colonists under White. "South- wards," says he, "we went to some parts of Chowanock and the Mongoags to search for them left by Mr. White." So in ano- ther place he speaks of the Chisapeacks and Nandsamunds as liv- ing on "the Southerne shore:"§ meaning south of James river. From hence it would appear to have been very natural for an in- habitant of Virginia on the James river, in speaking of the Cho- wan river, to call it "the South river," it being in truth the most considerable river immediately south of the James river. The dis- tance-"sixtie miles over land,"-corroborates this supposition; for, from James-town, in a strait line "over land," to the point or neck of land formed by the confluence of the rivers Nottoway and Meherrin with the Chowan, and where, as it would seem, the great town of the Chowanocks was situated, it measures, by Maddison's map, fifty miles at least, and we may suppose by the windings of an Indian path much more. It is thus then appa- rent, that our learned annalist has accidentally committed an error

* The annalist here makes a reference to "Purchas's Pilgrims, 4 v. p. 1784-7.

+ Chalmers's Annals, p. 206.

# In Smith's small map or sketch of what he calls "Ould Virginia," that is, of the country round about Roanoke island, he has laid down the river, on which Edenton now stands, as "Chowanock fluv." Chowanock river.

§ Smith's Hist. vol. i. p. 190.

VOL. I .- 20

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SEC. VII. here, in supposing that the river Chowanock, to which Pory 1620. travelled in February, 1620-1, was the Delaware river, called by the Dutch, the South river; and consequently, that his infer- ence therefrom, to wit, that "neither the French, nor the Dutch, nor Swedes, possessed then any settlements on the banks of the Dela- ware," though certainly true in fact, was, however, erroneously drawn .* But the most important error, into which his statement is calculated to lead the reader, is, that the "one hundred En- glish happily settled," said to be discovered by him, "when he sailed into the great bay northward," must have been so settled in the country now called Maryland. This, however, is easily accounted for, without such supposition, when we recur to Smith's preceding statement of Pory's travels. That "he sailed into the great bay northward, though not to its source," is entirely verifi- ed by his voyage to the Patuxent, and the "muster," which he took "of the companies tenants," at Accomack, (Cheriton,) to- gether with the "ten men," with whom he was "provided to plant the secretaries land on the easterne shore," amounts to very strong proof, that the "one hundred English happily settled," were those so settled on the company's and secretary's lands on the eastern shore of Virginia. That these "tenants" and settlers there should have been "animated with the hope of a very good trade of furs," is indeed a circumstance not so easily to be reconciled at this day, when not only the numerous tribes of Indians, who once inhabited all along the eastern shore or coast of the Chesapeake, but also the animals that once abounded in this country and afforded this "trade of furs," have been all entirely extirpated. There is evidence, however, from both history and tradition, to shew, that the country now composing the lower counties of the eastern shore of Ma- ryland, adjacent to the eastern shore of Virginia, particularly on the rivers of those counties, the Nanticoke, (or Cuscarawaocks,) the Wighcomoco, and the Pocomoke, abounded in all these ani- mals, which could support a trade in peltry. This receives con- siderable corroboration from what Smith states on the Cuscara- waock, when he first visited them. "Here doth inhabite," says he, "the people of Saripinagh, Nause, Arseek, and Nantaquak the

F * The first Dutch settlement on the Delaware, as appears from Proud's Hist. of Penn. vol. i. p. 110, was at or near Glocester, in New Jersey, in the year 1623, and the first Swedish settlement on that river appears to have been at the mouth of Christiana creek, in the year 1631. This last is to be inferred from a small Swedish History of "New Sweedland," purporting to have been written by Tho- mas C. Holm, late of New Sweedland, and published in Stockholm in 1702;" a translation of which has been lately republished in the Collections of the New York Historical Society, vol. ii. p. 355.

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best merchants of all other salvages;"-and in another place, SEC. VII. where he speaks "of the natural inhabitants of Virginia," meaning 1620. the Indians thereof, he says,-"Their manner of trading is for cop- per, beads, and such like, for which they give such commodities as they have, as skinnes, foule, fish, flesh, and their country corne." In these articles, particularly skins, the Indians inhabiting on the Pocomoke and other rivers just mentioned, might with great probability, have been diligent traders with the first English set- tlers on the eastern shore of Virginia. From all which it re- sults, that the "travels of Pory," in no respect whatever, war- rants the supposition, that any Englishmen whatever were then, in the year 1620-1, settled in any part of that territory or coun- try, for which Lord Baltimore, in the year 1632, obtained his grant or patent.

The foregoing extracts appear to comprise every thing in Smith's History of Virginia, that has any material relation to his discoveries of those parts of the Bay of Chesapeake, which now form the State of Maryland. Smith being the first discoverer of those upper parts of this Bay, and his narrations concerning those discoveries being deemed the best and indeed the only au- thentic source of what is said by other writers thereon since, there scarcely needs an apology to the reader for their insertion herein. The mode, we have adopted, of giving the original text with comments thereon, has been occasioned by the nume- rous mistakes, which our own, as well as other writers, upon the early part of the history of Virginia, have fallen into. The style of Smith's writings being now obsolete, and much liable to mis- construction, it is deemed to be more candid to give the reader an opportunity of forming his own judgment by a perusal of the original text itself; especially as the insertion thereof occupies but a very little more space, than would a full and comprehen- sive narration thereof with the necessary remarks thereon.

A few general remarks on the character and writings of this celebrated founder of the colony of Virginia, as introductory to a few further comments on one or two passages in his foregoing summary account of Virginia, not before noticed, may be here in- dulged. It cannot but occur to every reader, who will take the pains to peruse carefully the whole of Smith's General History of Virginia, including his own private adventures in his early life, that he must have been naturally endowed with most uncom- monly vigorous powers both of body and of mind. The hard- ships, which he appears to have gone through, from his first

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SEC. VII. departure from England while a mere youth, and during his 1620. captivity by the Turks, to an advanced period of his life in the conclusion of his discoveries in New England, without any ap- parent interruption to his health, clearly indicate the athletic powers of his person; while at the same time the correct judg- ment, which he has displayed, in his conduct on various difficult and trying occasions, and in his remarks on both men and affairs, together with the uncommon talents he has exhibited, not only in the compilation of his writings, but more particularly in the formation of his map of the Chesapeake with the adjacent coun- try, which accompanies his work, and all this too with but a very slender education, as he must necessarily have had, from his early roving disposition, demonstrate that the vigour of his mind was coequal with that of his body, and that he was thus by na- ture endowed with almost superhuman qualities for the most ar- duous undertakings. But it often happens, that in a portrait of the most excellent character we discover a blot or speck, which we could wish to obliterate. A consciousness of such superior endowments, as those which Smith possessed, naturally begat in him, not only a superciliousness towards the opinions of others, but also occasional ebullitions in his writings indicative of his liability to the sensation of vanity -- the too common infirmity of great men. For this, however, let him make his own apology .- "I know," says he, "I shall bee taxed for writing so much of myselfe, but I care not much, because the judiciall know there are few such souldiers as are my examples, have writ their owne actions, nor know I who will or can tell my intents better than myselfe." *- To this may be added in his behalf, that when he wrote his history, his mind smarted with the ingratitude of the Virginia Company towards him .- " In neither of those two coun- tries," says he, meaning New England and Virginia, "have I one foot of land, nor the very house I builded, nor the ground I digged with my own hands, nor ever any content or satisfaction at all."t-Such appeals to the world, when made by such men, are peculiarly interesting.

But partial as we may be to the character of this truly great man, there is another characteristic trait discernible in his writ- ings, which demands some little notice, inasmuch as it seems to be necessary to be taken into consideration by every reader on a

* Smith's Hist. Vol. ii. p. 92.

t Ibid. p. 102,

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perusal of his history. He certainly had no small propensity, in SEC. VII. his several narrations, not only of his own private adventures, but 1620. of his discoveries of new countries, to surprise his readers with something marvellous. An example of this, though it is appa- rently a trivial circumstance, occurs in his account of his extra- ordinary stature of one of the Susquehanock Indians; herein just before stated ;- "the calfe of whose leg was three quarters of a yard about."-Now, supposing the calf of the leg of a man of ordinary height, say of five feet ten inches, and of a proportional personal form, measures sixteen inches round, this Indian, the calf of whose leg was three quarters of a yard or twenty-seven inches about, would have been, " with the rest of his limbs an- swerable to that proportion," about nine feet ten inches in height. But as this little circumstance, though extraordinary, is not beyond the bounds of possibility, or indeed of probability as an individual instance, we ought not to condemn Smith too hasti- ly. It is possible, that one race of men may be taller and stout- er in their form than another, as it is in families of Europeans, and upon the same principle might be so in a whole tribe of In- dians. So, the Indians, on the Nanticoke and Wighcomoco might have been generally of less stature than ordinary, as stat- ed by Smith, and the Susquehanocks much larger. So, in our recent accounts of the Osages near the Missouri, they are repre- sented as a people of " uncommon stature and undoubtedly some- what above the common size of men." This is very judicially attributed by the writer, "to their living plentifully in a very healthy country, the constant exercise of hunting, the frequent removal of their camps, and from being cleanly in their persons, and making free use of the bath." *- These causes, or some of them might have operated in rendering the Susquehanocks of more than ordinary size. On a like principle it may be remark- ed, that it is probable, that the unhealthiness of the country ad- jacent to the rivers Nanticoke and Wighcomoco might have diminished the stature of the Indians thereon, agreeably to Smith's statement. The same principle may be applied to the Patagonian Indians of South America, of whose extraordinary stature, however, contradictory accounts have been handed down to us. In the account of the voyage of their first discoverer Fer-

* See "Notes on the Missouri river, &c. by a Military Gentleman," in the Analectic Magazine for 1820.

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SEC. VII. didand Magellan in the year 1519,* the description there given of one of these Patagonians much resembles that of one of the Susquehanocks as before stated by Smith .- " His bulk and stature was such as would easily allow him the character of a giant; the head of one of their middle-sized men" (Spaniards) "reached but to his waist, and he was proportionally big. His body was formidably painted all over, especially his face. For his apparel he had the skin of a beast clumsily sewed together. The arms that he brought with him were a stout bow and ar- rows."-In the voyage of Sir Thomas Cavendish, which occur- red in 1586, a similar account is given of these Patagonians. The measure of one of their feet was eighteen inches in length, and his height seven feet and a half. In the voyage of Van Noort, (a Dutchman,) in the year 1599, this extraordinary sta- ture of the Patagonians is confined to one of their tribes only, the rest being of the common size. The Indians of this gigan- tic tribe are there stated to have been ten and twelve feet high. In Sebald de Weert's voyage, which occurred in the same year, the savages, they met with near Magellan's straits, are stated to have been ten or eleven feet high; but in the Dutch voyage by Jaques le Hermite, in 1623, they are said to be " very strong and well proportioned, and generally about the height of the people in Europe."-In Anson's voyage, it is stated, that they did not see any of the inhabitants of Patagonia, except those near to Buenos Ayres ; but in Commodore Byron's, which was between the year 1764 and 1766, the Patagonians are again represented as giants. He says,-" One of them, who afterwards appeared to be a chief, came towards me; he was of a gigantic stature, and seemed to realize the tales of monsters in a human shape: he had the skin of some wild beast, thrown over his shoulders, as a Scotch highlander wears his plaid, and was hideously painted. I did not measure him, but if I may judge of his height by the proportion of his stature to my own, it could not be much less than seven feet."-The statement of this same in- terview with the Patagonians made by Mr. Clarke, who was one of commodore Byron's officers then present with him, and whose account thereof was addressed to the secretary of the Royal So- ciety and published in their philosophical transactions, goes be- yond the commodore's .- "We had not got," says he, "above

* See this and some of the subsequent voyages above mentioned in Harris's Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 1, p. 7.

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ten or twelve leagues into the straights of Magellen from the At- SEC. VII. lantic Ocean, before we saw several people upon the north shore, (the continent,) and with the help of our glasses could perceive them beckoning to us to come on shore, and at the same time we observed to each other, that they seemed of an extraordinary size."-After stating the incidents accompanying their going on shore, Mr. Clarke proceeds :- "We were with them near two hours at noon-day, within a very few yards, though none had the honor of shaking hands with them but Mr. Byron and Mr. Cummings;" (the commodore and his first lieutenant;) "how- ever, we were near enough and long enough with them to con- vince our senses so far as not to be cavilled out of the very exis- tence of these senses at that time, which some of our country- men and friends would absolutely attempt to do. They are of a copper colour, with long black hair, and some of them are certain- ly nine feet, if they do not exceed it. The commodore, who is very near six foot, could but just reach the top of one of their heads, which he attempted, on tip-toes, and there were several taller than him on whom the experiment was tried. They are prodigious stout, and as well and proportionally made as ever I saw people in my life. The women, I think, bear much the same proportion to the men as our Europeans do; there was hardly a man there less than eight feet, most of them considerably more; the women, I believe, run from seven and a half to eight." *- In captain Wallis's voyage, which was immediately after commo- dore Byron's, their stature seems to be rather lowered to the com- mon standard; and in captain Cook's first voyage, the inhabi- tants of Terra del Fuego, who were probably the same people as the Patagonians, are expressly stated as being " men, who were large but clumsily built, their stature was from five feet eight to five feet ten."-The truth of the subject seems to be reduced to this :- that every species of mankind, for there are undoubtedly different species of mankind, as well as there are different species and genera of other animals,) have one ordinary height peculiar to that species, but from which some anomalous prodigies will occasionally vary. The American Indians generally, among whom we may include the Patagons, have been deemed much tall- er in their stature than any other species of mankind yet known. That there have been individual men of ten feet in height among Europeans also, has been asserted by many credible writers and

* Annual Register for 1768, p. 68,

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SEC. VII. philosophers, though considered by them, as just mentioned, as anomalous prodigies or ludibria natura. Thus then, it would seem, that the illustrious founder of Virginia-Smith, has not exceeded the bounds of possibility, although his Susquehanock Indian should have been ten feet high.

The important fact, stated by Smith, in the conclusion of the preceding extract from his General History of Virginia, deserves also a more particular consideration. The " sundry languages" spoken by the " many severall nations," who in his time occu- pied the country, which now composes the States of Virginia and Maryland, so far as they border on the Chesapeake, form a subject well worth the attention of every philosophic philologist. This diversity of languages among nations or tribes of people of such small population and contiguous neighbourhood to each other, as these Indians herein enumerated by Smith, seems to be accountable for, only as a natural consequence of the retirement and solitude, in which savages, especially those of America, thinly scattered over the earth, delight to dwell. A man and his wife, seated in some obscure spot of the country, would in process of time generate a family ; which again, in two or three generations more, would enlarge into a tribe. Unwilling to in- termix with other tribes, lest their own peace and quiet, toge- ther with the little local possessions, which they had carved out to themselves in their forests, should be interrupted, they dis- courage all unnecessary communication with other neighbour- ing tribes. A peculiar language, or a dialect of a language, among such one tribe is then the natural result. Reserved and unsocial with their neighbours, they become prone to resent the slightest injury with war. The frequency of wars among them again contributes to the preservation of their own present lan- guage or dialect. It is only from some such causes, that we can trace this peculiarity among savages ; which seems to have been prevalent not only with those of America, but at this day in Africa also. The unfortunate Mungo Parke was stopped in his passage through several small tribes or nations of Negroes, until he either learned their language or procured an interpreter ; when he was enabled to pass on to others. Thus it was with Smith in his exploration of the Chesapeake. The "many severall nations of sundry languages, that environed Powhatan's territories," as just mentioned by him, ten in number, were all, excepting the Massawomecks or Iroquois, seated on the shores

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of the Chesapeake, or not far distant therefrom, and in that SEC. VII. space of the country now comprised within the State of Mary- land and within that part of the State of Virginia lying east of the Allegany mountains ; the local limits of the whole of which country we should suppose to be too narrow at this day, to pre- serve for any length of time among civilized people ten differ- ent languages in their original purity.

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The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations, Part 18

Author: Bozman, John Leeds, 1757-1823 Publication date: 1837 Publisher: Baltimore : J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver Number of Pages: 1062

Author: Bozman, John Leeds, 1757-1823
Publication date: 1837
Publisher: Baltimore : J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver
Number of Pages: 1062