USA > Pennsylvania > Historical register : notes and queries historical and genealogical, chiefly relating to interior Pennsylvania. Volume I > Part 15
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While among the Tockwoeks "so it chanced one of them could speak the language of Powhatan, " and having learned of a mighty nation living on a large river, "we prevailed with the interpreter to take with him another interpreter, to per- suade the Sasquesahanocks to come to visit us" at a place near the mouth of the river, where Smith awaited them. These natives Smith has designated in his book as Sasquesahanocks, and laid down on his map as Sisquesahanoughs. Smith's com- panions say : "Three or four days we expected their return, then sixty of those giant-like people came down with presents of venison, tobacco, pipes three feet long, baskets, targets, bows, and arrows." They lived on the "chief spring" coming in at the head of the bay from "the north-west from among the mountains"-an interesting statement, proving that Smith learned something of the existence of the mountains on the upper parts of the river. He even ascertained the trend, for he says: "From the head of the bay to the north-west the land is mountainous, and so in a manner from thence by a south-west line, so that the more southward the farther off from the bay are those mountains." That portion of the map beyond the rocks, or highest point reached by the explorers, was, of course, constructed by Smith upon information derived from these In- dians during this single interview. As it is not explained in ` the book, its interpretation has given rise to very divergent opinions.
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The principal town. Sasquesahanough, is laid down on the map, by the scale. about twenty-two miles from the bay, but the book speak of them being located "two days' journey higher than our barge could pass for the rocks," which would place them much higher up the river. Certainly, a two days' journey was more than twenty-two miles, and as they awaited the return of the interpreters " three or four days," they prob- ably may have gone forty or fifty miles. It is claimed that this chief town was always near the mouth of the Cones- toga creek. As we know that the location of such Indian towns were often changed on account of cleanliness, conveni- ence of wood, and for other considerations ; and as we know there was a "Sasquehannoeks new town" where " some falls below hinder navigation." about 1648; and that "the present Sasquahana Fort" in 1670. was on the south side of the river below "the greatest fal," now known as the Conewago falls : . and as they had a fort at the mouth of the Octoraro, perhaps as early as 1662. it is impossible to exactly locate the town designated by Smith. Though nothing is stated in the narra- tive of other towns. yet Smith must, at this interview, have learned of five others given on the map, all evidently belong- ing to the same nation, or to confederate allies, for the general title covers all of them. Positive proof that Cepowig was one of their towns is found in the general recapitulation of the names and locations of the tribes by an early writer, who says "the Sasquesahanoes are on the Bolus river"-there being no other town to which it could refer, for no natives were found along the upper part of the western shore. What in- formation he had, beyond Smith's exploration, we are not in- formed. The Bolus is now known as the Patapsco, entering the bay at Baltimore. The map, however, gives Cepowig on an- other stream-Willowbye's river; which seems to be an elonga- tion of our Bush river. In either case, the town may have been in the direction of Westminster, Md. Attaock is at the head of a stream emptying into the Susquehanna on the west side below the chief town, apparently forty miles from the bay, which may indicate the region of York. About twenty miles above the chief town on the east side of the river is Quadroque. Just
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above this the river forks, and it is impossible to tell by the map which is the main branch of the stream. Tesinigh is on a branch coming from the north-west. Utchowig is a town on the other branch coming from the west. Both these towns, seemingly by the scale, are about sixty miles from the bay. This may indicate that Quadroque was about Middletown, Tesi- nigh about Lebanon, and Utchowig about opposite Harrisburg. It must be borne in mind, however, that these towns are named and located entirely from descriptions given by these Indians after their peculiar fashion and through a double translation, and that they may have been, and in all probability were, much further up the river. No dependence can be placed upon the scale of leagues, for points, beyond the limits of Smith's explorations. "The rest was had by information of the savages, and set down according to their instructions." Even if Smith had an idea of these distances, they may have been forgotten in after years before the map was made, and this part may have been con- tracted by the engraver to suit the space left on the border of the map. In his Oxford Tract, 1612. Smith says the river "cometh three or four days' journey from the head of the bay." One of Smith's principal motives in making this ex- ploration was the hope of discovering the supposed. and much sought for, passage to the "South Sea " or Pacific Ocean. and thus opening a near way to China. It will be remembered. he. was sailing up the "Chickahomania " creek, at the time he was captured, a year prior to this, on what seems to us this same comic errand. It is natural, therefore, to suppose that he in- quired diligently concerning the upper parts of the river, its branches, and the towns located upon it. In reply only the larger branches and the principal towns would be given. As he learned that the river came "from among the mountains," it would be a queer thing if he inquired nothing as to what tribes were among those mountains, and with what tribes they had alliances ; as we find he did in the friendly conferences he had on other rivers. All things, considered it is not, therefore, an improbable interpretation to locate Attaock on the Juniata, Quadroque at the forks at Northumberland, Tesinigh on the North Branch towards Wyoming, and Utchowig on the West
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Branch towards Lock Haven. As such, they may have de- noted the head towns of allied tribes. The map shows the towns have "king's houses."
This position seems to be demonstrated by the identification of Utchowig at the head of the upper West Branch, with the Eries, or Nation of the Chat, as the French called them. Smith, in speaking of the Virginia animals, says: " Utchun- quoyes is like a wild cat." Purchas, in his "Pilgrimes," says : "There is also a beast they call Vetchunquoyes, in the form of a wild cat." Strachey says. the Utchoonggwai is a wild beast bigger than a cat and spotted black under the belly as a lynx. Ut-chun-quoy, or, perhaps. - quog, which equals -wog or -wig, is near enough Ut-cho-wig to be regarded as almost certainly the same word. They are much more nearly alike than many other spellings now regarded as identical. Gen. John S. Clark maintains that the word "Chat," as applied by Canadian traders and missionaries, did not refer to the wild-cat, but to the raccoon, and that there are reasons for believing that this Erie, or Cat, or Raccoon nation, which the armed Five Nations obliterated in 1655, at one time came from the Susquehanna, and probably even from the Chesapeake bay, and were even then known as the Raccoon People. The early Virginia writers, however, seem to distinguish between the wild-cats and what they variously term-rahaughcums, raugrougheuns. (True Relation,) arocouns, (True Declaration, 1610,) arougheuns. (Pilgrimage,) rarowcums, (Gen. His.,) rakowns, ( Whittaker,) racones, ( Hamor.) arraha- counes, and which are said to be "much like a badger, but living on trees like a squirrel." On the other hand, Father Sagard de- scribes the Chat in a manner that leaves little doubt that the Erie chat was a raccoon, and that it is the animal after whom they were named. He says: "Nation of the Chat, * * and it is my opinion that this name has been given them on account of these chats, small wolves or leopards, which are found in their country, of which they make clothing, trimmed and orna- mented with the animals' tails sewed around the edges and on the back." In Montanus, 1671, p. 130, we have an illustra- tion of this tail ornamentation. It is not material to our argu- ment as to whether eragak, jegosasa, chat, are to be translated
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raccoon or wild-cat. It would be perfectly natural, even if the Susquehannocks describes the distant town by an Iroquois term, that the two Tockwock interpreters would give it to Smith in Nanticoke or Powhatan : and, considering the adverse circumstances of the conference and the dialectical variations. Smith did well in giving Ut-cho-wig for Raccoon or Chat town: and there can be no reasonable doubt that they are "the Va- tion du Chat or Eriech-ronons" of the Jesuit Relations of 1641. and whose habitations may well be inferred, in 1646, by the statement that in approaching the Erie country from the east "there is a thick, oily, stagnant water. which takes fire like brandy." In Smith's day it would seem that they were vet upon the heads of the West Branch. That Smith's towns are not to be confined by the scale to the narrow limits of the lower river, as has been hitherto supposed, is greatly strength- ened by the manner in which he has laid down on his map the three towns of the Atquanachukes from information gained at this same interview, which name is, no doubt. a descriptive title of the Delawares. "Chickahokin" is certainly Chiko- hoacki or Chihokies. one of the names of the Unamis or Tur- tle tribe, and their location is properly in the State of Delaware. The Macocks may be the Minsis-the location, on the west side of a river, which, as Smith heard it spoken of. he has no doubt intended for the Delaware river, points clearly to the Min- nisinks, above the Delaware Water Gap, as the council-house of that tribe. The word is given by Smith as meaning a "pompeon like a muske millen." ยท Heckewelder also gives it as meaning boxes made of the inner bark of elm and birch. used to pack maple sugar for transportation. The title of "pumpkin eaters " may have been a Tockwock term of de- rision. In a Dutch reproduction of Smith's map, in Montanus, 1671, this Delaware river is more distinctly marked, and the bay, at its mouth, is clearly delineated. There can be no question as to the river and location here intended. Beyond this river, and near the unexplored ocean, is the Atquanachuk town itself, and we find this name given on several Dutch maps for many subsequent years. They are located well up in New Jersey, near New York, and were evidently Delawares. DeLaet.
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in 1624, says: "The people who dwell about this bay [New York] are called Aquamuchagues." The Italian map of 1632 gives them as "Aguana Chugues." William Strachey, in his book calls them the Ac-quan-ac-huks. Smith expressly says of the Susquehannocks : " Many descriptions and discourses they made us of Atquanachuk." signifying that they "are on the ocean sea." Here we see how he got his information by which he located these distant people, and by analogy we must place the other towns far up the Susquehanna. Hence, we cannot agree that most of Smith's towns " were in the present Lan- caster county." Nothing, in a manner, is further known of these towns-at least not under these names. It has beer claimed that all these names of Susquehanna towns are Iro- quois, of the Susquehannock dialect, but those making this claim have not deciphered their significations, and it seems most natural and probable that they came to Smith translated into Powhatan or Tockwock. Names which the interpreters understood they would be as likely to translate as any other words ; and they did understand these names as well as any other words they translated. The Atquanachuk names were received at the same time. through the same medium, from the same natives, and they are not Iroquois. We have, therefore. clear proof that they did translate these, and why not, then. the others? Again the Algonquin word for place, region. land, country, is ohke, auke, in Delaware hacki, in Smith's book and map ocke, ock, ack, etc. This terminal evidently closes most of the names in both lists. Some, or all, of Smith's names are given on other maps, for more than half a century. but only as copied after Smith. On subsequent maps, such as the Popple, where many undoubted Susquehanna Iroquois names do occur, none of Smith's names are given.
We regret that we must leave much of interest connected with this subject in the uncertainty which surrounds it, pro- voked at the great loss of that information which an intelligent pen, at that period, might have given us in a few minutes. We will pay our respects hereafter to the interior defunct tribes, and to the chief town, Connadago or Fort, which Smith
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says they had palisaded to defend themselves against their mortal enemies. the Massawomakes.
Before leaving this subject, we call attention to a matter which has hitherto not been understood. The " True Relation." written by Smith in Virginia, and sent home with Capt. Nel- son's ship, which sailed on the very day Smith set out on his first trip up the bay, was published that same year, 1608, and, of course, contains no information of what was learned during the two Chesapeake exploring voyages ; yet it contains a pas- sage of great interest pertaining to Susquehanna Indian affairs, as given by Powhatan a year previous. As before stated, nothing contained in the "True Relation" was ever incorpor- ated into any of Smith's later writings, though it is, perhaps, the most reliable of all the historical matter published over Smith's name. Perhaps its very truth unfitted it for revamp- ing into the romance that was woven into the " Generall His- torie." It tells the story of the Chickahominy voyage, and his capture by "Opeckakenough." to whom he showed his com- pass, and with whom he held a scientific conversation on as- tronomy and the shape of the earth, which he related to his brother Powhatan when he delivered Smith to that emperor. " He, much delighted in Opechan Canough's relation of what I had described to him, oft examined me upon the same. He asked me the cause of our coming." Smith replied that they had had a disastrous encounter with a Spanish ship, and came up the river for fresh water while repairing the vessel. Then Powhatan "demanded why we went farther with our boat." Smith seems to have been afraid to admit that they were set- tlers, and told him that his father had a child slain, as they supposed by the Monacans, whom Smith shrewdly reminded him were also his enemies, and that he wished to revenge the death. Smith said this happened on the "back sea, on the other side of the maine, where there was salt water." This was Smith's trick to divert the sly emperor and get information of the South sea, supposed to be not far distant. Powhatan had been out of school for some time, and this talk was somewhat confusing to his geography. However, "after good delibera- tion," he " began to describe the countries beyond the falls, with
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many of the rest." that is, we presume, other countries. Smith represents him to have said that the "said water dashed amongst many stones and rocks each storm, which caused oft times the heads of the river to be brackish." The King's Council had ordered the colonists to explore the rivers. and es- pecially the north-west branches, for the near route to China; and Smith. having his eyes on the South sea, understood Pow- hatan to refer to it. It has been hitherto supposed that Pow- hatan was trying to deceive Smith, and that he adopted his tactics in telling about the sea-water during storms dashing over into the heads of the river. It is clear, however, that Smith did not comprehend the great chief's geographical descrip- tion, for the answer does not relate to the region hitherto sup- posed, but opens up a glimpse into the state of affairs in altogether another section, as is evident from Powhatan's discourse as given in the " True Relation." It says: "Anchanachuck he described to be the people that had slain my brother, whose death he would revenge. He described also, upon the same sea, a mighty nation called Pocoughtronack, a fierce nation that did eat men. and warred with the people of Moyaoncer and Pataromerke, nations upon the top of the heads of the bay. under his territories, where the year before they had slain an hundred. He signified their crowns were shaven. long hair in the neck tied on a knot. swords like pole-axes. Beyond them he described people with short coats and sleeves to their elbows. that passed that way in ships like ours. Many kingdoms he described me to the head of the bay, which seemed to be a mighty river, issuing from mighty mountains betwixt the two seas." It must be conceded that Powhatan had considerable knowledge of the country, more or less definite, and extend- ing several hundred miles. Such information was obtained through hunting and war parties, and from captives. He could not see where Smith's brother could have been killed, except by a tribe adjoining the sea, where white men had landed. Hence, we may rest assured that the An-chan-ac-huck are the At-quin-ac-huck, that is, the Delawares, of whom the Susque- hannocks told Smith, a year later, that they were "on the ocean sea." The words are practically identical, and the map gives
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their location, and this rationally interprets the supposition of Powhatan. Two of the names we may safely regard as mis- prints, of which the tract is full, for Movaonces and Patawo- meake. The Movaons, whom Purchas calls Morowances, are on the map on the north side of the Potomac, at about the place afterwards famous as the home of the Piscataways. Pa- tawomek is given on the south side of the river. on a point of Potomac creek. where New Marlborough. Stafford county. Va .. now is. From this tribe the river received its name.
Now, Powhatan describes a people that had been wag- ing war on these two tribes, who belonged to his territories. and of whom they had killed one hundred the previous year. He describes their name. character, location, manner of wearing their hair. the fact that they were in possession of hatchets. as also a vivid picture of the Susquehanna river. Everything here points to and fits the Susquehan- nocks, visited by Smith the next year. but at this time vet entirely unknown. They were a mighty and fierce nation with wide-spread fame. and reported to be cannibals, which is a charge often made against them in common with the other Iroquois tribes in after years. Alsop. 1666. charges the Susquehannocks with eating portions of the prisoners which they burned at the stake. The very word. Mohawk. meant man-eaters, as applied to them by the Hudson river Indians. The manner of wearing the hair is clearly intended to describe just what Smith saw the next year, and has so well pictured in his map. The iron hatchets which Smith found in possession of the Tockwocks, they informed him they had re- ceived from the Susquehannocks: and they in turn. Smith says, informed him that "from the French they had their hatchets," and Purchas says the same thing. Swords like pole- axes are evidently hatchets; and though we cannot. at this date, fix the time and place " on the same sea," adjoining the Delawares and the Susquehannocks where the French traded with the natives. yet the fact that they had these goods seems to be undeniable. It must have, at that date, seemed quite probable. It was possibly at the New York bay, as the Sus- quehannocks were one of the Minqua tribes, one of whom was
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at this period at this busy point, as given on old maps, and as appears from Dutch historians, and from the sale of Staten Island. the deed of which contains the signature of a " Minqua Sachemack." After 1603. we know the French were very active in the fur trade about the St. Lawrence, " and it is noto- rious that Sieur Champlain did for many years prosecute the fur trade at a place where Boston now stands," and other places, "during more than ten years before any English or Duteb in- habited that quarter,"-Penna. Arch. N. S. vol. vi: p. 38 also 4 and 34, and Champlain's map in Vol. III. Doc. His. N. Y. and p. 35 where the Dutch, in 1623, " convoved the French- man out of the river." and the Dutch tell us the natives came thirty days journey from the interior to trade. The Susque- hannocks were a ruling tribe, and enforced trade privileges. The name Powhatan gave this fierce and mighty nation is Pocoughtronack. or. as elsewhere more correctly spelled in the same tract. Pocoughtaonack. William Strachey, Hakluyt Soc., Vol. VI, 27, calls them "Bocootawwonaukes." There can scarcely be any doubt of the ilentity of the people Po-cough- ta-on-ack, Bo-coo-taw-won-auk, and the Sasque-sa-han-ock. We shall refer to these words hereafter. The historical stu- dent will notice, also. that the wars which the fierce nation on the heads of the bay were waging upon the Potomac tribes, is precisely the same picture presented when Lord Baltimore. twenty-five years later, made his first settlement in Maryland and for many years later. As Lake Erie was, in fact, the only " back sea" of which Powhatan knew anything, his descrip- tion of the Susquehanna is most admirable as "a mighty river issuing from mighty mountains betwixt the two seas." The statement about the storms washing the salt water among the rocks had of course reference to the action of the tides on the same river. The reference to clothing and "ships like ours " plainly refers to Europeans.
Finally, if anything further be needed to prove the correct- ness of our position in regard to the identity and location of the Anchanachuckes mentioned by Powhatan in 1607, it is de- monstrated by Powhatan himself a year or two subsequently. In the fall after Smith returned from the Susquehanna, Captain
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Newport arrived from England with a copper crown for Pow. hatan. He sent Smith over to invite the Chief to Jamestown to the coronation. The haughty chief refused to come : and among other things said. as we find in the " Map of Virginia." etc., 1612: "As for the Monacans. I can revenge my own in- juries ; and as for Atquanuchuck. [the Barrens, New Jersey.] - where you say your brother was slain, it is in the contrary way from those parts you suppose it. But for any salt water be- yond the mountains. the relations you have had from my peo- ple are false : whereupon he began to draw plots upon the ground of all those regions." This settles it.
The testimony of Stracher is no less clear as to the other word. He says: " The low land of Virginia borders west and north-west upon the Falls and the country of the Monacans, and north upon the Bocootauwanauks, east upon the sea. and south upon Florida." Again. "to the northward of the Falls [at Richmond, ] and bending to the north-east lieth the skirt of the high land country. from whence the aforesaid five navigable rivers take their heads. which run through the low land into the Chesapeake bay : this quarter is altogether unknown to us as yet. only herein are seated. say the Indians, those people whom Powhatan calls Bocootauwonaukes." And again. the great emperor # # we commonly call Powhatan, * * * the greatness and bounds of whose empire, by reason of his power and ambition in his youth, has larger limits than ever before had any of his predecessors in former times. for he seems to command south and north from Mangoages and Chawonaks * * to Tockwogh. a town palisaded standing at the north end of the bay ; # * south-west to Anoeg, (not on the map.) ten days distant from us; west to the foot of the mountains ; north-west to the borders of Massawomeck and Bo- cootauwonough. his enemies : north-east and by east to Acco- hanock, Accomack. and some other petty nations lying on the east side of our bay." This unquestionably identifies the " Bo- cootauwanaukes " with the Susquehannocks : and Powhatan well knew where they and the Delawares were located. A most singular repetition of the relations between these Indians. as described by Powhatan, will be found. in 1644, [ Bozman's His.
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of Md., vol. ii, 27-9.] when the Marylanders were anxious to make peace between the Susquehannocks and the Piscataways. and especially to include the Patomecks, though south of the river.
Smith places the Susquehannocks far above the Powhatan tribes in every respect. and this conforms to the general estab- lished superiority of the Iroquois tribes over the more feeble Algonquins. They covered Smith with "a great plaited bear skin," put around his neck "a great chain of white beads weighing six or seven pounds." and they laid at his feet "eigh- teen mantles. made of divers sorts of skins sewed together," and kept "stroking their ceremonious hands about his neck, for his creation to be their governor and protector." promising aid, and food. and all they had. if he would stay with them to defend and revenge them of their mortal enemies. the Massa- womakes. They seem to have had a manly confidence in the white strangers. which contrasts strongly with the low cunning and suspicion so often characteristic of the Algonquin tribes. as is finely illustrated. for example. in Smith's reception on the Potomac, where they came "shouting. yelling. and crying, as so many spirits from hell." Five of the Susquehannock chiefs. after the "talk." came boldly aboard the barge, and crossed with the pale faces over the head of the bay to the Tockwocks, "leaving their men and canoes, the wind being so high ther durst not pass." Like the Mohawks, they seem to have passed among the coast tribes whenever they pleased.
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