Indian biography, or, An historical account of those individuals who have been distinguished among the North American natives as orators, warriors, statesmen, and other remarkable characters

Front matter

EX LIBRIS

The Bruce Peel Special Collections Library

Gregory Javitch j Collection

Preface

The Author does not propose an elaborate explanation, nor an apology of any kind, for the benefit of the following work. If it absolutely requires either, he must even be content to have written it in vain, as no statement or argument can give it any degree of vitality or popularity in the one case or in the other.

Ho lias regarded it, historically, as an act of mete justice to the fame and the memories of many wise, brilliant, brave and gene¬ rous men,—patriots, orators, warriors and statesmen,—who ruled over barbarian communities, and were indeed themselves barba¬ rians, but whose influence, eloquence and successor every descrip¬ tion were therefore but the nobler objects of admiration and the worthier subjects for record. Nor can Philosophy look upon them without predilection. Comparatively unopinionated and unaffect¬ ed as they were,—governed by impulse and guided by native sense,—owing little to circumstances, and struggling much amidst and against them,—their situation was the best possible for devel¬ oping both genius and principle, and their education at the same time the best for disclosing them. Their Lives, then, should illus¬ trate the true constitution of man. They should have, above ail other history, the praise and the interest of ‘ philosophy teaching by example.’

The strictly moral inducements which have operated on the Author’s mind, must be too obvious to require dissertation. We owe, and our Fathers owed, too much to the Indians,—too much from man to man,—too much from race to race,—to deny them the poor restitution of historical justice at least, however the issue may have been or may be with themselves. Nor need it be suggested, that selfishness alone might dictate the policy of a collection such as the Author has endeavored to make this, were it only for the collateral light which it constantly throws on the history and biography of our own nation.

Nothing of the same character is before the public. What may be called an Indian Biographical Dictionary has indeed recently appeared, and to that the Author lias gladly referred in the course of his researches ; but the extreme difficulty of doing justice to any individuals of the race, and at the same time to all, may be inferred from the fact that the writer alluded to has noticed such men as Uncas in some six or eight lines, while he has wholly omitted characters so important as Buckongahelas, White-eyes, Pipe, and Occonostota. On these, and ou all their more eminent countrymen, the Author has intended to bestow the notice they de¬ serve, by passing over the vast multitude distinguished only by detached anecdote, or described only in general terms.

In fine, conscious of many imperfections, but also conscious of a strenuous exertion to render them as few and small as might be, the Author submits the Biography to the public, and especially to the candor of those whose own labors, if not the results of them, have shown them the essential fallibility of every composition like this. He will have reason to be satisfied if it do good, as he will assuredly be gratified if it give pleasure,

Boston, Sept. 10,1832.

Contents

CHAP. I.—The Indian tribes of Virginia at the date of the James¬ town settlement: their names, numbers and power—The Pow¬ hatan confederacy—The Indian Village of that name— Powhat¬ an —The circumstances of the first interview between him and the English— Opechancanough, his brother—Opitchipan—Re¬ ception of Captain Smith by Powhatan—Interposition of Poca¬ hontas in his favor—Second visit of the colonists—Third visit, and coronation—Entertainment of Smith by Pocahontas—Con¬ test of ingenuity between Powhatan and Smith: and between the latter and Opechancanough—Smith saved again by Pocahon¬ tas—Political manoeuvres of Powhatan and Opechancanough— Smith’s return to Jamestown. ----- page 9

CHAP. II.—Conduct of Powhatan after Smith’s departure for England, and causes of it—Hostilities resumed—Peace finally effected by the capture of Pocahontas—Manner of gaining this point—Marriage of Pocahontas with John Rolfe—Death and character of Powhatan—His person, manner of living, talents, influence. His method and means of warfare—The discipline of his warriors—The manner in which he availed himself of the English arms and science—Causes of his hostility towards the colonists—His dignity—Shrewdness—Independence— Courtesy — Liberality—Simplicity—Affection for his relatives—A review of various opinions entertained of him by various historians. 40 CHAP. III.—The family of Powhatan—His successor—Sequel of the history of Pocahontas—Her acts of kindness to the colonists at various times, and especially to Smith—His gratitude—Her civilisation, and instruction in Christianity—Her visit to Eng¬ land in 1616—Reception at Court—Interview with Smith—His memorial respecting her to Queen Anne—Her death and charac¬ ter—Her descendants. ------- 66

CHAP. IV.—Sequel of the history of Opechancanough—Renewal, by him and Opitchipan, of the treaty of peace—Finesse by which he extended his dominion over the Chickahominies—Prepara¬ tions for War—Causes of it—Profound dissimulation under which his hostility was concealed—Indian custom of making Conjurers —Manreuvres against the English interest—The great massacre of 1692 ; circumstances and consequences of it—Particular occa¬ sion which led to it—Character and death of Nemattanow — Details of the war subsequent to the massacre—Truce broken by the English—New exertions of Opechancanough—Battle of Pamunkey—Peace of 1632—Massacre of 1641—Capture of Opecbancanough by the English—His death and character. - - 77

Chapter I

The Indian tribes of Virginia at the date of the Jamestown settlement: their names, numbers and power—The Pow¬ hatan confederacy—The Indian Village of that name— Powhatan —The circumstances of the first interview be¬ tween him and the English—O pechancanough, his brother—Opitchipan—Reception of Captain Smith by Pow¬ hatan—Interposition of Pocahontas in his favor—Second visit of the colonists—Third visit, and coronation—Enter¬ tainment of Smith by Pocahontas—Contest of ingenuity between Powhatan and Smith : and between the latter and Opechaucauough—Smith saved again by Pocahontas—Politi¬ cal manoeuvres of Powhatan and Opechancanough—Smith’s return to Jamestown.

At the date of the first permanent settlement effected within the limits of Virginia, and for an un¬ known period previous to that date, the country from the sea-coast to the Alleghany, and from the most southern waters of James river to Patuxent river, (nowin the state of Maryland) was occupied by three principal native nations. Each of these nations was a confederacy of larger or smaller tr bes; and each tribe was subdivided into towns, families or clans, who lived together.* The three general names by which these communities have been ordinarily known, are the Mannahoacks, the Monacans and the Powhatans.

* Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia. The author has apparently intended to use the word family in its most enlarged sense.

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

Of these, the two former might be called highland or mountain Indians. They all lived upon the banks of the various small streams which water the hilly * country between the falls of the Atlantic rivers and the Alleghany ridge. The Mannahoacks consisted; of eight tribes, five of which were located between the Potomac and Rappahannoc, and three between the last named river and the York. Of the five tribes of the Monacans,* two were between the York and James, and three extended southward from the James to the boundaries of Carolina. The most powerful respectively of the eight and of the five— the Mannahoacks and the Monacans, properly so called—seem to have given their own names to the entire nation or confederacy of which they were members. The former tribe occupied chiefly what are now Stafford and Spotsylvania counties. The latter resided upon James river above the falls.

The Powhatan nation inhabited the lowland tract, extending laterally from the ocean to the falls of the rivers, and from Carolina on the south to the Pa¬ tuxent on the north. This comprised a much larger number of tribes than either of the others. As many as ten of them (including the Tauxenents, whose chief residence was about Mount Vernon) were settled between the Potomac and Rappahan¬ nock Five others extended between the Rappahan¬ noc and York; eight between the York and James, and five between the James and the borders of Caro¬ lina. Beside these, the Accohanocks and Accomacks, on what is called the Eastern Shore (of Chesapeake Bay) have also been considered a part of this nation.

* It may be well to take this occasion of observing, that the author’s only rule in the orthography of Indian term has been to follow what appears to be the most approved usage. Stith uses Manakins, instead of Monacans.

t Both these rivers have derived their names from the tribes originally settled on them. The former have been commonly called the Patowomekos.

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

The territory occupied by the whole of this great confederacy, south of the ‘ Potomac, comprehended about 8,000 square miles. Smith tells us in his his¬ tory,* that within sixty miles of Jamestown were 5,000 natives, of whom 1,500 were warriors. Mr. Jefferson has computed the whole number of Powhatan war¬ riors at 2,400, which, according to the proportions between Smith’s estimates (being three to ten) would give an entire population of 8,000, or one to each square mile.

This calculation is probably quite moderate enough. It would leave an average of less than one hundred warriors to each of the thirty tribes. But we find it re¬ corded by an early writer, that three hundred appear¬ ed under an Indian chieftain in one body at one time, and seven hundred at another; all of whom were ap¬ parently of his own tribe. The Chickahominies alone had between three hundred and four hundred fight¬ ing men. The Nansamonds and Chesapeaks showed on one occasion a force of four hundred. And when Smith ascended the Potomac, in June 1608, though he saw no inhabitants for the first thirty miles, he had scarcely entered “ a little bayed creelte towards Onawmanient (now Nominy) when he found all the woods roundabout layd with ambuscadoes to the number of three or four thousand Savages, so strange¬ ly paynted, grimmed and disguised, shouting, yelling and crying as so many spirits from hell could not have shewed more terrible.”

It is well known that the valiant Captain was wont to express his opinions in strong terms, but he has rarely been detected in any great inaccuracy. And the circumstances of this case are in his favor; for it has been truly remarked, that the Powhatan con¬ federacy inhabited a country upon which nature had

* A work of which the value is well known to all readers of the early American history. The title is —“ The Trve Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captaine Iobn Smith in Europe, Asia, Africke and America, beginning about the yeere 1593, and continued to this present 1629.” We copy from the London edition of the date last named.

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

bestowed singular advantages. Unlike the natives of more northern regions, they suffered little from cold, and less from famine. Their settlements were most¬ ly on the banks of James, Elizabeth, Nansamond, York and Chickahorainy rivers, all which abounded with the most delicious fish and fowl. In his Poto¬ mac expedition, Smith met with “ that aboundance of • fish, lying so thicke with their heads above the water, as for want of nets, (our barge driving amongst them) we attempted to catch them with a frying-pan And though the captain naturally enough concluded, after some trials, that this was a poor instrument for his purpose, he persists in adding that “ neither better fish, more plentie, nor more varietie for small fish, had any of vs euer seene in any place so swimming in the water—but they are not to be caught with fryingpans.” He found the stingrays in such abundance among the reeds at the mouth of the Rappahannoc, that he amused himself by nailing them to the ground with bis sword: “ and thus,” he observes, “ we tooke more in owne houre than we could eate in a day.”

Vast quantities of corn, too, yearly rewarded even the simple agriculture of the Indians, bestowed as it was upon the best portions of a generous soil. “ Great heapes ” of it were seen at Kekoughtan, “ and then they brought him venison, turkies, wild fowle, bread and what else they had.” In none of his captivities, or his visits among the natives, did the captain ever suffer from want of food ; and he often brought off his boat and his men laden with plenty. The Nansamonds gave him 400 baskets-full at one time. The Chickahominies, though they complained extremely of their own wants, yet “ fraughted” him with a hundred bushels. The woods furnished another inexhaustible supply both of fruits and game: so that, on the whole, it is very easy to believe, that a con¬ siderably greater population than Mr. Jefferson’s esti¬ mate supposes, might have subsisted without much difficulty on the soil they are known to have occupied. “ And now the winter [of 1607—8] approaching,” we

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

are informed in another passage, “ the rivers became so covered with swans, geese, duckes and cranes, that we daily feasted with good bread, Virginia pease, pumpions and putchamins,* fish, fowle, and diverse sorts of wild beasts, so fat as we could eate them; so that none of our TuftafFaty humourists desired to go for England.” On one occasion, when Smith under¬ took an exploring tour into the interior, late in the season, a violent storm obliged him and his men to keep Christmas amon» the savages. “ And we were never more merry,” he relates, “nor fed on more plenty of good oysters, fish, flesh, wild fowle and good bread, nor ever had better fires in England.” In a peaceful interval of a few months, which occurred during the next season, the Indians are said to have brought into Jamestown more than a hundred deer and other beasts daily for several weeks.

It is evident, at least, that the Powhatan confederacy must have been among the most numerous on the continent. It was warlike too ; and though the situa¬ tion of the Monacans and Mannahoaeks among the hills of the back country protected them in some measure, yet nothing but a union of these two nations could assure them of security against then - more powerful neighbors on the coast.

The Powhatans proper, who gave their own appel¬ lation to the confederacy of which they were lead¬ ing members, were located in what is now Henrico county, on the banks of the James river, and at the distance of about two days’ journey from the .English, settlement at its mouth. The principal chief—or emperor, as the old historians style him—of the thirty tribes of the nation, was found by the first colonists residing with these Indians, and is believed to have been one of their number by birth. His proper name

* A species of indigenous plum, which is elsewhere described as growing to a considerable height, with fruit like a medlar, first green, then yellow, and red when ripe. “ If it be not ripe, it will draw a man’s mouth awry with much torment. If ripe, it is delicious as an apricot.”

B

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

was Wahuusonacook. He had that of Powhatan, by which he has been generally designated, from the town so called, which was the chief seat and metrop¬ olis of his hereditary dominions. This town is de¬ scribed as pleasantly situated on a hill. It consisted of twelve houses, in front of which were three islets in the river, not far from what in modern times has been called Mayo’s plantation, and a little below the spot where Richmond now stands. It was considered by the English both the strongest and pleasantest place in the whole country ;* and was consequently named Nonsuch, it seems, about two years after the settlement at Jamestown, when it was purchased of the emperor by Smith. “ The place is very pleasant,” says the captain in his history, “ and strong by nature, and about it are many cornfields.”

The occasion of the first acquaintance which the colonists had with Powhatan was as follows. The adventurous and ambitious spirit of Smith had prompted him to make several journeys and voyages along the Virginia coast, and into the interior of the country. Within a few months after the settlement of Jamestown, among other tribes he discovered the Chickahominies, and procured a large quantity of provision from them at a time when the colonists were in great need of it.

But with the idle and unruly in the colony, this good fortune served only to produce murmuring. They complained of his having done so little instead of applauding him for having done so much; and some even of the council undertook to say, that he ought to have followed up the Chickahominy river to its source.

Smith was not a man to submit tamely to reproach. He set off again, therefore, in the winter of 1607—8, taking with him a crew sufficient to manage a barge and a smaller boat proper for the navigation of the Upper streams. He ascended the Chickahominy with

* Stith’s History, p. 105.

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

the btfrge, as far as it could be forced up, by dint of great labor in cutting away trees and clearing a pas¬ sage. Then leaving it in a broad bay or cove, out of reach of the savages on the banks, the captain, with two other whites, and two friendly Indians, proceeded higher up in the smaller boat. Those who were left meanwhile in possession of the barge, were ordered on no occount to go on shore until his return. The order was disobeyed; for he was scarcely out of sight and hearing, when the whole of the crew went ashore. They were very near forfeit¬ ing their lives for their rashness. The Indians, to the number of two or three hundred, lay wait for them among the woods on the bank of the river, under the direction of Ofechancanough, Sachem of the Pamunkies and reputed brother of Powhatan. One George Cassen was taken prisoner; and the savages soon compelled him to tell them which way Smith had gone. They then put him to death in a cruel manner, and continued the pursuit.

The captain, meanwhile, little dreaming of any accident, had gone twenty miles up the river, and was now among the marshes at its source. Here his pursuers came suddenly upon the two English¬ men, who had hauled up their boat, and lain down to sleep by a fire on the dry land, (while Smith himself went out some distance to kill game with his musket for a supper.) The unfortunate wretched were shot full of arrows and despatched. The savages then pressed on after Smith, and at last overtook him. Finding himself beset by the multitude, he coolly bound to his arm, with his garters, the young Indian who had attended him as guide, for a buckler—(what had become of the other, does not appear)—and re¬ ceived the enemy’s onset so briskly with his fire¬ arms, that he soon laid three of them dead on the spot, and wounded and galled many others so effect¬ ually that none appeared anxious to approach him. He was himself wounded slightly in the thigh, and had many arrows sticking in his clothes; but he still

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

kept the enemy at bay. Ilis next movement was to endeavor to sheer off to his boat; but taking more notice of his foe than his path, as he went, he sud¬ denly slipped up to his middle in an oozy creek. Hampered as he was in this awkward position, not an Indian dared venture near him, until, finding him¬ self almost dead with cold, he threw away his arms and surrendered. Then drawing him out, they carried him to the fire where his men had been slain, carefully chafed his benumbed limbs, and finally re¬ stored him to the use of them.

The incidents of the ensuing scene are a striking illustration both of the sagacity of the prisoner and the simplicity of his captors. He called for their chief—through the intervention of his Indian guide, we suppose—and Opechancanougli came forward. Smith presented him with a round ivory double compass-dial, which he had carried at his side. The savages were confounded by the playing of the fly and needle, especially as the glass prevented them from touching what they could see so plainly. He then gave them a sort of astronomical lecture, de¬ monstrating “ by that Globe-like Iewell,” as he calls it, the roundness of the earth, the skies, the sphere of the sun, moon and stars; “ and how the sunne did chase the night round about the world continually ; the greatnesse of the land and sea, the diversitie of nations, varietie of complexions, and how we were to them antipodes, and many other such like matters,” his tawny auditors standing all the while motionless and dumb with amazement.

But within about an hour they returned to their original purpose of killing him, as they had killed three of his comrades. He was tied to a tree, and the savages drew up in a circle to shoot him. The arrow was already laid upon a hundred bows. But at this moment Opechancanough held up the com¬ pass. This was a signal of delay, if not of mercy, and they threw by their arms at once. With great exultation and parade they then conducted the cap-

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

tive to Orapakes, a hunting-residence of Powhatan, lying on the north side of Chickahominy swamp, and much frequented by that Sachem and his family, on account of the abundance of game it afforded. The order of procession was a proper Indian file. Opechancanougb, marching in the centre, had the English swords and muskets carried before him as a trophy. Next followed Smith, led by three stout savages who held him fast by the arm ; while on either side six more marched in file, with their arrows notched, as flank-guards.

On arriving at Orapakes, a village consisting of some thirty to forty mat-houses, the women and chil¬ dren flocked out to gaze at a being so different from any they had ever before seen. The warriors, on the other hand, immediately began a grand war-dance, the best description of which is in Smith’s own lan¬ guage. “ A good time they continued this exercise, and then cast themselues in a ring dauncing in such severall postures, and singing and yelling out such hellish notes and screeches ; being strangely paynted, every one his quiver of arrowes, and at his backe a club; on his arme a fox or an otter’s sltinne, or some such matter for a vambrace ; their heads and shoul¬ ders paynted red, with oyle and pocones * mingled together, which scarlet-like color made an exceeding handsome shew ; his bow in his hand, and the skinne of a bird with her wings abroad dryed, tyed on his head ; a peece of copper, a white shell, a long feather, with a small rattle growing at the tayls of their snaks tyed, or some such like toy.” Thrice the performers stopped to take breath, and thrice they renewed the dance—Smith and the Sachem mean¬ while standing in the centre. The company then broke up; and the prisoner was conducted to a

*• A small root which turned red by being dried and beat into powder. It was used also for swellings, aches, anointing the joints after fatigue and exposure, and painting garments. Beverly calls it puccoon.

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

long matted wigwam, where thirty or forty tall stout savages remained about him as a guard. Ere-long, more bread and venison was brought him than would have served twenty men. “ I thinke,” says the cap¬ tain himself, “hisstomacke at that time was not very good.” He ate something, however, and the re¬ mainder was put into baskets, and swung from the roof of the wigwam over his head.

About midnight these liberal provisioned set their fare before him again, never tasting a morsel them¬ selves all the while. But, in the morning, when they brought in a fresh reinforcement, they ate the frag¬ ments of former meals, and swung up the residue of the last one as before. So little reason had the captain to complain of famine, that he began seriously to believe they were fatting him for the slaughter. He suffered occasionally from the cold, and would have suffered more but for an unexpected relief An Indian, named Mocasseter, brought him his goune, as Smith calls it—perhaps a fur mantle, or a blanket— and gave it to him, professedly in requital of certain beads and toys which Smith had given him at Jamestown, immediately after his arrival in Virginia.*

Two days afterwards, he was violently assaulted, and but for his guard would have been killed, by an old Indian whose son had been wounded in the skirmish which took place at his capture. They con¬ ducted him to the death-bed of the poor wretch, where he was found breathing his last. Smith told them he had a kind of water at Jamestown which might effect a cure, but they would not permit him to go for it, and the subject was soon forgotten. With¬ in a few days, they began to make great preparations for assaulting the English Colony by surprise. They

* A fine illustration of that principle of gratitude which is as proverbially characteristic of the Indians as their revenge, and for similar reasons. No favor is wasted upon them, and no injury or insult is forgiven. The anecdote following this in the text is an instance in point-

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

craved Smith’s advice and assistance in that pro¬ ceeding, offering him not only life and liberty for his services, but as much hind for a settlement and as many women for wives as he wanted—such an opin¬ ion had they formed of his knowledge and prowess. He did every thing in his power to discourage their design, by telling them of the mines, the cannon, and various other stratagems and engines of war, used by the English. He could only succeed in prevailing upon several of them to carry a note for him to Jamestown, (under pretence of getting some toys,) in which he informed his countrymen of his own situa¬ tion and the intention of the savages, and requested them to send him without fail by the bearers certain articles which he named. These were to be de¬ posited at a particular spot in the woods near James¬ town. The messengers started off, we are told, in as severe weather as could be of frost and snow, and arrived at Jamestown. There, seeing men sally out from the town to meet them, as Smith had told them would be the case, they were frightened and ran off. But the note was left behind; and so coming again in the evening, they found the articles at the appoint¬ ed place, and then returned homeward in such haste as to reach Orapakes in three days after they had left it.

All thoughts of an attack upon the colony being now extinguished in the astonishment and terror ex¬ cited by the feats of Smith, they proceeded to lead him about the country in show and triumph. First they carried him to the tribe living on the Youghtanund, since called the Pamunkey river; then to the Mattaponies, the Piankatunks, the Nantaughtacunds on the Rappahannoc, and the Nominies on Potomac river. Having completed this route, they conducted him, through several other nations, to Opechancanough’s own habitation at Pamunkey; where, with frightful howlings and many strange ceremonies, they ‘conjured’ him three days in order to ascertain, as they told him, whether he intended them well or

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

ill.* An idea may be formed of these proceedings, which took place under Opechancanough’s inspec¬ tion, from the exercises for one day as described by the captive himself

Early in the morning, a great fire was made in a long house, and mats spread upon each side of it, on one of which the prisoner was seated. His body¬ guard then left the house, “ and presently came skip¬ ping in a great grim fellow, all paynted over with coale, mingled with oyle; and many snakes and vvesels skinnes stuffed with mosse, and all their tayles tyed together, so as they met on the croune of his head in a tassell; and round about the tassell was a coro¬ net of feathers, the skinnes hanging round about his head, backe and shoulders, and in a manner covered his face; with a hellish voyce and a rattle in his hand.” This personage commenced his invocation with a great variety of gestures, postures, grimaces and exclamations; and concluded with drawing a circle of meal round the fire. Then rushed in three more performers of the same description, thenbodies painted half red and half black, their eyes white and their faces streaked with red patches, ap¬ parently in imitation of English whiskers. These three having danced about for a considerable time, made way for three more, with red eyes, and white streaks upon black faces. At length all seated them¬ selves opposite to the prisoner, three on the right hand of the first named functionary (who appeared to be the chief priest, and ringleader) and three on the left. Then a song was commenced, accompanied with a violent use of the rattles; upon which the chief priest laid down five wheat-corns ,f and began an oration, straining his arms and hands so that he ps^rspired freely, and his veins swelled. At the con¬ cision, all gave a groan of assent, laid down three

*Stith, p. 53.

t An inadvertency, we presume; or the words may be used rather loosely to signify what had as yet no distinctive name. Indian corn must be meant.

INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.

grains more, and renewed the song. This went on until the lire was twice encircled. Other cere¬ monies of the same character ensued, and last of all was brought on, towards evening, a plentiful feast of the best provisions they could furnish. The circle of imml was said to signify their country, the circles of corn the bounds of the sea, and so on. The world, according to their theory, was round and flat, like a trencher, and themselves located precisely in the midst.