Читать книгу History of Western Maryland - J. Thomas Scharf - Страница 6

The Indians anciently occupying the vast expanse of country lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, and reaching from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, have been classified by ethnologists, according to the affinities of language, into three great stocks. The first was the Algonquin stock, the most numerous and wide-spread of all, whose territories extended north as far as Hudson's Bay, and south to Pimlico Sound, and from the coast to the Mississippi, and in the northwest as far as Lake Winnipeg. The tribes of this stock were numerous. Among the most important were the great nation of Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, the Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Mohegans, and Shawnees. To them also belonged all the New England tribes, and most of those of Maryland and Virginia. South of the Algonquins, occupying part of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the Gulf region, was the Muscogee stock, comprising the Natchez, Uchees, and Creeks, forming the Muscogee Confederacy, and the Yamassees, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles. In the midst of the Algonquin territories, thrust in like a wedge, its base resting on the St. Lawrence and Lake Huron, and its apex reaching North Carolina, was the powerful Iroquois stock, comprising the famous confederacy of the Five Nations, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas. To the same stock, though not confederate with them, belonged the Hurons, the Susquehannoughs, and the Tuscaroras, which last tribe in 1712 joined the confederacy, which was thenceforth known as the Six Nations.

The Iroquois, though less numerous, were the bravest, the fiercest, and the most intelligent of all, and were the terror of the surrounding tribes. It is these who have furnished the typical Indian of romance; grave, taciturn, patient in suffering, untiring in action, defiant in death; faithful to friends, remorseless to foes; adroit in all the arts of the chase; cunning in strategy, surprises, and ambuscades; fierce and vindictively cruel in war. They possessed a higher degree of political and military genius than the rest; and their famous league or confederacy of the Five Nations was far more firmly organized than the loose Algonquin federations, and carried dismay as far west as Lake Superior, and as far south as North Carolina. The Iroquois were of a nobler and more martial appearance than their neighbors, and all early travelers were struck with the tall, sinewy forms, stern but commanding features, and majestic demeanor of their warriors. Those whose personal knowledge of the Indian is confined to the degraded remnants still lingering in the North, or the wretched savages of the far West, can form no idea of a Mohawk or Cayuga chief as he was seen two hundred years ago. Native tradition assigns the origin of this people to the far Northwest, whence they removed to the upper waters of the St. Lawrence and the mountainous region about the Saranac Lakes. As they increased in numbers they spread over the high forest country in Northern and Middle New York, where game was abundant, and a fertile soil and a milder climate yielded them an ample supply of maize. Skillful boatmen, their war-fleets descended the Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and carried fire and slaughter among the coast tribes, many of whom they subjugated, and among the rest the once powerful Delawares, whom — probably in mockery of their proud name of Lenni Lenape, or " Manly Men" — they reduced to the condition of " women," — that is, forbidding them to undertake wars, meddle with military matters, or alienate the soil. Some confusion has arisen from the various names they bore; they were called Mingoes in some regions, and in others Nadoues, Nattoways, or Nadowassies, a name said to signify " cruel." Smith mentions one of their nations, probably the Mohawks, under the name of Massawomekes.

"Beyond the mountains, from whence is the head of the river Patawomeke (Potomac), the Salvages report inhabit their most mortall enemies, the Massawomekes, upon a great salt water, which by all likelihood is either some part of Cannada, some great lake, or some inlet of some sea that falleth into the South Sea. These Massawomekes are a great nation and very populous. For the heads of all those rivers, especially the Pattowamekes, the Pautuxuntes, the Susquesahanocks, the Tockwoughes, are continually tormented by them: of whose cruelties they generally complained, and very importunate they were with me and my company to free them from these tormentors. To this purpose they offered good conduct, assistence, and continuall subjection."

The importance of the Iroquois was so great that they were included in all the early treaties made by the white colonists. During the English and French wars they were almost constantly allied with the English, who sought their friendship to use them against the Chippewas, Ottawas, Shawnees, and other tribes of Algonquin stock who were the firm allies of the French. Although the Susquehannoughs, the most powerful tribe in Maryland, belonged to this stock, they were not members of the Iroquois confederacy, but, on the contrary, were their fiercest enemies.

It is probable that the Susquehannoughs separated from the Iroquois about the time when the latter migrated eastward from the far northwest, and coming south, established themselves on the fertile and well-wooded shores of the great river that still bears their name. The Susquehannoughs being hunting Indians changed their abodes as game grew scarce, and so scattered themselves over a large extent of country. When Capt. John Smith in the summer of 1608 penetrated the territory of Baltimore County, he found it inhabited by the Susquehannough Indians, whose chief settlement was about twenty-one miles northward from the mouth of the Susquehannough River. At this time the tribe numbered about fifteen hundred fighting men, and exercised dominion over a considerable part of the eastern and western shores of the Chesapeake Bay, being the lords of some and the allies of other tribes and confederacies. The Susquehannoughs were one of the fiercest and most warlike nations on the Atlantic coast, and kept all the tribes within their reach in a state of almost continual alarm. Their warlike appearance, grave and haughty carriage, and sonorous speech seem to have strongly impressed the early voyagers, for Smith describes them as very noble specimens of humanity. He speaks of them as a race of giants. " Such greate and well-proportioned men are seldome seene, for they seemed like giants to the English, yea, and unto their neighbours." He speaks of them as in other respects the " strangest people of all those countries." They were of a simple and confiding temper, and could scarcely be restrained from prostrating themselves in adoration of the white strangers. Their language seemed to correspond with their proportions, " sounding from them as a voyce in a vault." They were clad in bear and wolf-skins, wearing the skin as the Mexican his poncho, passing the head through a slit in the center, and letting the garment drape naturally around from the shoulders.

" Some have cassocks made of beares' heads and skinnes that a man's head goes through the skinne's neck, and the eares of the beare fastened to his shoulders, the nose and teeth hanging down his breast, another beare's face split behind him, and at the end of the hose hung a pawe; the halfe sleeves comming to the elbowes were the necks of the beares, and the armes through the mouth with pawes hanging at their noses. One had the head of a wolfe hanging in a chaine for a Jewell, his tobacco pipe three-quarters of a yard long, prettily carved with a bird, a deere, or some such devise at the great end, sufficient to beat out one's braines."

Smith has given us a spirited sketch of one of these gigantic warriors, " the greatest of them,"' thus attired:

"The calfe of whose leg was three-quarters of a yard about, and all the rest of his limbes so answerable to that proportion, that he seemed the goodliest man we ever beheld. His hayre, the one side was long the other shave close, with a ridge over his crowne like a cock's combe. His arrows were five quarters long, headed with the splinters of a white chrystall-like stone, in forme of a hearte an inche broad, and an inche and a balfe or more long. These he wore in a wolve's skinne at his backe for his quiver, his bow in the one band and his club in the other, as is described."

All the territory now comprised in Cecil, Harford, Baltimore, Howard, Carroll, Frederick, and Montgomery Counties was the favorite hunting-ground of this formidable tribe, which scoured all the country between the Delaware and the Potomac, and spread terror and dismay through the distant and less warlike tribes of Southern and Western Maryland and parts of Virginia.

About the year 1621 the pinnace ''Tiger" with twenty-six men, was sent from Jamestown, under the direction of an experienced trader named Spilman, to trade for corn with the Indians near the head of navigation on the Potomac. Arriving opposite the present site of Washington City, Spilman left five men on board of his vessel, and with the remainder landed among the Nacostines, or Anascostan Indians, who lived in that vicinity. Soon after, he was attacked by the Indians, and all of his party were either killed or taken prisoners, and among the latter was Capt. Henry Fleet. Remaining in captivity for several years. Fleet returned to England, where a contemporaneous writer thus mentions him:

"Here is one, whose name is Fleet, newly come from Virginia, who being lately ransomed from the Indians, with whom he hath long lived, till he hath left his own language, reporteth that he hath oftentimes been within sight of the South Seas; that he hath seen Indians besprinkle their paintings with powder of gold; that he had likewise seen rare precious stones among them, and plenty of black fox, which of all others is the richest fur."

By his flattering representations he induced, in September, 1627, William Cloberry, a prominent merchant of London, to place the pinnace " Paramour," of one hundred tons burden, under his charge. He returned to the Indian town of Yowaccomoco (afterwards St. Mary's City), where he had lived with the Indians, and traded largely with them for furs. He made a number of voyages across the Atlantic with cargoes of fur, and, with Gov. Leonard Calvert, before landing his company, made a reconnaissance of the Potomac as far as Piscataway. From his "Journal of a voyage made in the bark 'Virginia' to Virginia and other parts of the continent of America," it is evident that his trading operations brought him into communication with many of the most powerful Indian tribes of Southern and Western Maryland. Arriving at Yowaccomoco, he learned that one Charles Harman had been trading with the Indians of that region for furs during his absence, and had succeeded in securing three hundredweight of beaver-skins by representing that Fleet was dead.

"This relation," he says, "did much trouble me, fearing (having contrary winds) that the Indians might be persuaded to dispose of all their beaver before they could have notice of my being in safety, they themselves having no use at all for it, being not accustomed to take pains to dress it and make coats of it. Monday, the 21st of May (1632), we came to an anchor at the mouth of the river, where hastening ashore I sent two Indians in company with my brother Edward to the Emperor, being three days' journey towards the Falls."

By the 26th of May he " came to the town of Patomack" (Potomac Town, supposed to be, at the mouth of Potomac Creek, in Virginia), and on the 1st of June, "with a northwest wind, we set sail, and the 3rd we arrived at the Emperor's." There was but little friendship. Fleet relates, between the Emperor and the Nacostines, he being fearful to punish them, because they are protected by the Massomacks, or Cannyda Indians." The 13th of June Fleet

"had some conference with an interpreter of Massomack, and of divers others Indians that had been lately with them, whose relation was very strange in regard to the abundance of people there, compared to all the other poor number of natives which are in Patomack and places adjacent, where are not above five thousand persons, and also of the infinite store of beaver they use in coats. Divers were the imaginations that I did conceive about this discovery, and understanding that the river was not for shipping, where the people were, not [nor] yet for boats to pass, but for canoes only."

The neighboring Indians endeavored to dissuade Fleet from his design of penetrating into this new country, but he declined to listen to their representations, and sent his brother and two trusty Indians with presents to the chiefs of this region.

"I find the Indians of that prosperous place," he says, "are governed by four kings, whose towns are of several names, — Tonhoga, Mosticum, Shaunetowa, and Moserahak, — reported above thirty thousand persons, and that they have palisades about the towns, made with great trees, and with scaffolds upon the walls. On Monday, the 25th of June, we set sail for the town of Tohoga, where we came to an anchor two leagues short of the Falls, being in the latitude of 41°, on the 26th of June. This place, without all question, is the most pleasant and healthful place in all this country, and most convenient for habitation, the air temperature in summer and not violent in winter. It aboundeth with all manner of fish. The Indians, in one night commonly, will catch thirty sturgeons in a place where the river is not above twelve fathoms brood. And as for deer, buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the woods do swarm with them, and the soil is exceedingly fertile, but above this place the country is rocky and mountainous like Cannida, The 27th of June I manned my shallop and went up with the flood, the tide rising about four feet in height at this place.

" We had not moved above three miles, but we might hear the Falls to roar about six miles, by which it appears that the river is separated with rocks, but only in that one place, for beyond is a fair river. The 3rd of July my brother with the two Indians came thither, in which journey they were seven days going and five days coming back to this place. They all did affirm that in one palisade, and that being the last of thirty, there were three hundred .houses, and in every house forty skins at least, in bundles and piles."

On the 11th of July he received a visit from "seven lusty men, with strange attire," of haughty language and demeanor, who called themselves Mostikums, but who, as Fleet afterwards learned,

" were of a people three days' journey from there, and were called Herecheenes (Iroquois?), who .with their own beaver, and what they get of those that do adjoin upon them, do drive a trade in Cannida at the plantation, which is fifteen days journey from this place."

The Susquehannoughs, or Minquas, or Andastes, or Conestogues, or Gaudastogues, as they were sometimes called, were engaged in active hostilities against the colonists and friendly tribes from the first settlement of the colony on March 27, 1634. The policy of the early settlers of Maryland was to treat the Indians with justice, moderation, and kindness, and to buy the land from them. The settlement of St. Mary's was purchased by Leonard Calvert for a quantity of axes, hoes, and broadcloth, articles of real value to the Indians, who, indeed, were the more ready to part with the territory from the fact that they were suffering from the continued inroads of the fierce Susquehannoughs, who had harassed them so cruelly that they had already determined to abandon their lands and seek safer homes elsewhere. Some were allowed to remain on part of the purchased territory, and their wives and children were employed as servants in the settlers' families; others were allotted reservations, with full rights of hunting and fishing in the woods and streams. They very cheerfully submitted to the dominion of the whites for the sake of the protection against the Susquehannoughs, which their ancestors tried to purchase from Smith with the offer of perpetual subjection. The friendly Indians were protected against their enemies and secured in the enjoyment of their rights, and many of them, such as the Yaocomicos, Potopacos, Piscataways, Patuxents, and others, rarely wavered from their amicable relations. The two strong and warlike tribes of Maryland — the Nanticokes and Susquehannoughs — preserved an independent existence, and at the time of the first settlement of the province there was a feud between them, and the former, as well as the latter, were often invaded by the Iroquois. As if this were not enough, the Nanticokes were frequently embroiled with the whites, and war was several times declared against them. Under this double pressure they yielded at last, and requested to be put on the same footing as the Piscataways. The Iroquois, however, continued to harass them, and finally brought them under subjection. About the middle of the eighteenth century, by advice or command of the Six Nations (who stipulated in a treaty with the province that the Nanticokes should be permitted to leave Maryland and settle where the Six Nations should appoint), a portion of the tribe left the province, carrying with them the bones of their ancestors, and removed to Otsiningo (now Binghamton, N. Y.), where they joined some fragments of the Shawnees and Mohickanders, and made a league under the name of the Three Nations. Others seem to have settled in Wyoming, Pa., and others again, if the theory be correct which identifies the Conoys, or Kanawhas, with the Nanticokes, to have removed to the vicinity of the rivers which now bear their name. As late as 1852 a remnant of the tribe (about one hundred) was living on Grand River, north of Lake Erie, in Canada West.

The interposition of the colonists in behalf of the peaceable and friendly tribes of Piscataways, Patuxents, and Yoamaeos had from the first secured the hostility of the Susquehannoughs, who took occasion as they followed the war-path against their savage enemies of the south, or the back settlers of Virginia, to strike a blow at the unprotected Marylanders; and at times they organized expeditions with the express purpose of surprising the frontier plantations, murdering their occupants and plundering their dwellings. Even the devoted and fearless Jesuit missionaries who were engaged in converting the Indians to Christianity began seriously to think of abandoning their station on the Patuxent River and establishing themselves at Potupaco (Port Tobacco), which was less exposed to the ravages of this cruel and warlike tribe. Friendly relations having been re-established in the beginning of 1639 with the Patuxent Indians, the Jesuit missionaries immediately improved the favorable circumstance by dispersing themselves among the Indians in such places as seemed to be most favorable for the general diffusion of Christianity. The annual letter of 1639 says, —

''Father Andrew White is distant" from St. Mary's City "one hundred and twenty miles, to wit: at Kittamaquindi, the metropolis of Pascatoe, having lived in the palace of the king himself of the place, whom they call Tayac, from the month of June, 1639. . . . The salvation of Maquacomen being despaired of, Father Andrew White betook himself to him [the Tayac], and being treated by him very kindly at the first interview, so attached the man to him that he was afterwards held by him in the greatest love and veneration; of which thing this is the strongest proof that he was unwilling that the father should use any other hospitality than of his palace. Nor was the queen inferior to her husband in benevolence to their guest, for with her own hands (which thing the wife of our treasurer also does willingly) she is accustomed to prepare meat for him and bake bread, with no less care than labor.

"So not long after the coming of Father White to his palace, the Tayac was in danger from a severe disease; and when forty conjurers had in vain tried .every remedy, the father, by permission of the sick man, administered medicine, to wit: a certain powder of known efficacy mixed with holy water, and took care, the day after, by the assistance of the boy whom he had with him, to open up one of his veins for blood-letting. After this the sick man began daily to grow better; not long after became altogether well. Restored from the disease entirely, of himself he resolved, as soon as possible, to be initiated in the Christian rites; not himself only, but his wife also and two daughters; for as yet he has no male offspring. Father White is now diligently engaged in their instruction; nor do they slothfully receive the heavenly doctrine, for, by the light of heaven poured upon them, they have long since found out the errors of their former life. The king has exchanged the skins, with which he was heretofore clothed, for a garment made in our fashion; he makes also a little endeavor to learn our language.

"Having put away his concubines from him, he lives content with one wife, that he may the more freely (as he says) have leisure to pray to God. He abstains from meat on the days in which it is forbidden by the Christian laws; and men that are heretics who do otherwise, or are of that name, he thinks ought to be called bad Christians. . . . But the greatest hope is, that when the family of the king is purified by baptism, the conversion of the whole empire will speedily take place."

The writer then proceeds to describe the execution of an Indian convicted of the murder of an Englishman. The culprit was converted to Christianity before his death, which he met with fortitude, and his remains were buried with the solemn rites of the Catholic Church. The writer adds, —

" No one, however, was more vehemently moved at the sight of the dying neophyte than the Tayac, who afterwards earnestly insisted that he too should receive the gift of baptism. The thing being considered in council, it appeared that it would be for the greater glory of God if it be deferred a little until it could be performed with splendid display, in the greatest solemnity, and in the sight of his countrymen; his wife also, and his children, coming to a participation of his joy and gladness. The king, at length, won over by the attentions of the Catholics, and greatly delighted with their prolonged hospitality, returned home, the same Father White being his attendant, whither as soon as he came he gave command to his people to prepare the church by next Pentecost, the time appointed for the next baptism. On that day, at Kittamaquindi, the Governor and other distinguished men of the colony contemplated honoring by their presence, and by whatever other means they can, the Christian sacraments and the second better birth of the Tayac, a merciful God causing this thing to turn out to the good of all, — to his glory, to our reward, and to the salvation of the whole tribe,"

The Tayac mentioned in the last letter as king or emperor of Piscataway was also called Chitomacon, or Chitomachen. The latter appears to have been his proper name, and Tayac an appellation expressing his rank or dignity. He had been represented as a chief of great power, exercising authority over several of the neighboring tribes. His capital, called Kittamaquindi, was at or near the present village of Piscataway, about fifteen miles from Washington City.

The annual letter of 1640 gives an account of the baptism and marriage of this barbaric prince. So important was the event considered, that we find Governor Calvert and others of the principal men in the colony making a journey into the wilderness to be present at it. As an incident in history it may be placed beside the baptism of Pocahontas, which has so often inspired the artist's pencil. As that ceremony secured for Virginia the friendship of the great chief Powhatan, so the baptism of the Tayac gained for the infant colony of Maryland the good will and alliance of the most powerful of the neighboring chieftains, without whose friendship its existence would probably have been seriously imperiled. The letter

" In this mission this year have been four priests and one coadjutor. We stated last year what hope we had conceived of converting the Tayac, or the emperor of what they call Pascatoe. From that time, such is the kindness of God, the event has not disappointed the expectation, for he has joined our faith, some others also being brought over with him, and on the 5th of July, 1640, when he was sufficiently instructed in the mysteries of the faith, in a solemn manner he received the sacramental waters in a little chapel, which, for that purpose and for divine worship, he had erected out of bark, after the manner of the Indians. At the same time the queen, with an infant at the breast, and others of the principal men, whom he especially admitted to his councils, together with his little son, were regenerated in the baptismal font. To the emperor, who was called Chitomachen before, was given the name of Charles; to his wife, that of Mary. The others, in receiving the Christian faith, had Christian names allotted to them. The Governor was present at the ceremony, together with his secretary and many others; nor was anything wanting in display which our means could supply.

" In the afternoon the king and queen were united in matrimony in the Christian manner; then the great holy cross was erected, in carrying which to its destined place the king, Governor, secretary, and others lent their shoulders and hands; two of us in the meantime chanting before them the litany in honor of the Blessed Virgin."

Id the mean time the Susquehannough Indians continued their depredations, for the records exhibit for many years lamentable accounts of the murders, house-burnings, and robberies committed by them upon the inhabitants of the territory now embraced in Montgomery, Ann Arundel, Prince George's, Baltimore, Harford, Cecil, and Kent Counties. In 1662 the colonists were at peace with the Susquehannoughs, but both of these were at war with the Senecas, who were devastating the few scattered settlements of the English along the western tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay.

In the spring of 1662 they penetrated as far south as the head of South River, which seems to have alarmed the Council, for they ordered all the powder and shot to be seized for the use of the colony, and that scouts should be sent to the head-waters of all rivers emptying into the head of the bay, with orders to arrest or kill all Indians found there. The troubles with the Senecas grew worse, and on July 4, 1663, the Council was informed by the inhabitants of Baltimore County at the head of the bay that the Indians had recently murdered two of the settlers, and another near Patapsco River, with two youths whom it was believed they had either killed or carried off. For nearly twelve years a fierce war was kept up between the Susquehannoughs and Senecas, success being mostly on the side of the former tribe; but a more formidable enemy than even the Senecas had by this time invaded them, — the smallpox, which first appeared among them in 1661, and whose ravages became terrible. In 1673 they only numbered about three hundred warriors, while ten years before they had been able to muster seven hundred; and probably the mortality was even greater among the women and children.

When the Hurons, who were of Iroquois stock, were finally overthrown, the survivors fled for refuge to the Andastes, or Susquehannoughs, from whom they had before received promises of assistance. The protection thus afforded seems to have been resented by the Iroquois Confederacy, or Five Nations, and war being declared between them and the Susquehannoughs in 1662, the warriors of the latter tribe carried such devastation into the land of the Senecas (one of the Five Nations) that these were forced to seek the aid of the French. The Dutch writers, under date of 1661-62, relate that the Susquehannoughs, or Minquas, though they had suffered severely from the smallpox, had engaged in a war with the Senecas, and that " in May, 1663, an army of sixteen hundred Senecas marched against the Minquas and laid siege to a little fort defended by a hundred men, who, armed with firearms and even cannon, relying, too, on speedy aid from their countrymen, and from the Marylanders, with whom they had really made peace, defended themselves vigorously, and at last compelled the Senecas to raise the siege." The war between the Andastes and Iroquois continued for many years, with almost constant victory for the former. But disease accomplished what the Five Nations could not, and the reduced tribe was finally defeated, the Relation of 1676-77 speaking of the Andastes as utterly exterminated after a resistance of twenty years. That Maryland took part in the final defeat of this heroic nation is evident from the language of the Iroquois deputies at the treaty of Lancaster in 1711:. " We do not remember," they say, " that we have ever been employed by the Great King to conquer others; if it is so, it is beyond our memory. We do remember we were employed by Maryland to conquer the Conestogues (Susquehannoughs), and that the second time we were at war with them we carried them' off."

The Susquehannoughs having been reduced by disease and warfare to about three hundred warriors, in 1674 were terribly defeated by the Senecas, and driven from their homes at the head of the Chesapeake to the territory formerly occupied by the Piscataways, near the Maryland and Virginia boundary, the latter tribe having been removed by the Assembly to lands on the Potomac River, near the present site of Georgetown, afterwards in Frederick County. Here they established themselves in an old Indian fortification. Here the Senecas pursued them, and did some damage to the plantations on both sides of the river.

In the summer of 1675 a white man was found lying covered with wounds at the door of his house near Stafford, Va., and the corpse of a friendly Indian by his side. Before dying he declared that Indians had been the murderers. Col. Mason and Capt. Brent at once collected a party of militia, and followed the trail up the Potomac and across that river into Maryland.

Here the party divided; the detachment under Brent found a wigwam belonging to some of the Doage tribe, surrounded it, and summoned the inmates to come forth. A chief obeyed, and was at once shot dead by Brent. The others within rushed forth, and all, ten in number, were shot down, only a boy being spared. In the meantime Mason's party had also found and surrounded a wigwam, and as the Indians came out at his summons they were fired on and fourteen killed, the firing only ceasing when a chief running up to Mason called out that they were Susquehannoughs and friends. The survivors denied all knowledge of the murder, which they said had been done by a marauding band of Senecas. Shortly after this several other murders were committed on both sides of the river, and terror and excitement prevailed. Disbelieving the innocence of the Susquehannoughs, or desirous of ridding themselves of their neighborhood, the Marylanders and Virginians organized a joint attack upon their fortress, the Virginia troops being led by Col. John Washington (great-grandfather of Gen. George Washington), Col. Mason, and Maj. Alderton, and the Marylanders by Maj. Thomas Trueman, one of the Governor's Council. The Maryland force were assisted by Piscataway', Chaptico, Matawoman, Pamunky, and Nansemy Indians. On Sunday morning, Sept. 25, 1675, the Maryland troops appeared before the fort, summoned the chiefs to a parley, and charged them with the recent murders, which they solemnly denied, laying the blame on the Senecas. These, they said, were now near the head of the Patapsco, and they offered guides for their pursuit. During the conference the Virginians had joined the Marylanders, and their commanders reiterated the charges, which the Indians persisted in denying, insisting that they were friends, and as proof of their assertions showing a silver medal with a black and yellow ribbon — the Baltimore colors — and certain papers which had been given them by Governor Calvert as a safe-conduct and pledge of amity. Trueman, it is said, professed himself satisfied of their innocence, and promised that no harm should befall them. On the following morning, however, Capt. Allen, who had been sent to one of the scenes of recent murder, returned, bringing with him the bodies of the victims, and arrived at the camp while the conference was being hell with the chiefs. The passions of the militiamen were roused to fury by the sight of the mangled bodies, and the Virginia officers demanded the instant execution of the chiefs. Col. Washington, according to the testimony of a witness, being particularly furious, shouting, " What! should we keep them any longer? Let us knock them on the head."

Despite the reluctance of Trueman, five of the chiefs were bound, led away, and tomahawked, one only being spared. The remainder in the fort bravely defended themselves for six weeks, after which time, their provisions giving out, they made their escape by night.

For this breach of faith Maj. Trueman was cited before the bar of the Lower House, and Robert Carville, attorney-general, Messrs. Burgess, Cheseldyn, Stephens, and others brought in articles of impeachment against him, addressed to the proprietary, and supported by affidavits. These charge, first, that he caused the chiefs to be seized and executed after they had come out under assurance of safety, and had shown the paper and medal as evidence of their being friends to Maryland. Secondly, that he caused the execution without previously obtaining the proprietary's authority. Thirdly, that he failed to procure a signed declaration of the Virginia officers that the execution was by their advice and consent. They therefore conclude that Trueman had broken his commission and instructions, and pray his lordship and the Upper House " to take such order with the said Maj. Thomas Trueman as may be just and reasonable."

These articles and depositions being laid before the Upper House, Trueman was brought to trial on May 27, 1676, before the Lord Proprietary, Col. Samuel Chew, chancellor and secretary, and Cols. Wharton and Tailler, sitting as a court of impeachment, and it was voted, nemine contradicente, that the accused was guilty of the first article of impeachment, and the Upper House was requested to send a message to the Lower House, desiring them to draw a bill of attainder against him. The bill was at once drawn and sent to the Upper House, which on the 1st of June responded by a message saying that the penalties therein prescribed were far too light for " so horrid a crime" and breach of the public faith. That if Trueman escaped so lightly the justice and dignity of the province would be brought into contempt, and the Indians set an example of bad faith likely to have disastrous consequences. That, moreover, the Assembly will be looked upon as countenancing rather than abhorring the acts of Trueman.

To this the Lower House replied that circumstances were shown at the trial that extenuated the conduct of the accused; for instance, " the eager impetuosity of the whole field, as well Marylanders as Virginians, at the sight of the Christians murdered at Mr. Hinson's," the identification of several of the chiefs as the murderers, and the necessity of the act to prevent a meeting. They therefore refused to recede from their former position.

The Upper House on the 12th answered that the bill was an attainder only in name; that they never would consent " to inflict a pecuniary punishment upon a person accused of murder by one house and condemned by the other; and that it was against their privileges for the bill to be pressed on them any further." The Lower House unanimously decided that Trueman, though guilty of the charge, was not deserving of death, and the Upper House remaining firm, he escaped his deserved punishment. He was, however, dismissed from the Council.

It has been said that the Indians left in the fort after the massacre of the chiefs defended themselves until their provisions gave out and then escaped by night. They went with the fires of rage and revenge burning in their hearts, and marked their southward march by a track of devastation and slaughter. At least sixty settlers paid the penalty of that deed of treachery and cruelty. One of them was a servant of Nathaniel Bacon, of Virginia; and this aroused Bacon, a man of bold and adventurous spirit, to apply for a commission to raise and command a force against the Susquehannoughs, the consequences of which were the utter crushing of the tribe and the revolt which bears Bacon's name in Virginian history.

A remnant of the Susquehannoughs that had been carried off by the Iroquois in a war with that nation must have maintained a separate existence, for we find that Penn, in 1701, entered into a regular treaty with Conoodagtok, king of the Susquehannoughs, Minquays, or Conestoga Indians; but it would seem that on this occasion a representative from the Onondago tribe was present. As a subject tribe we meet with the Susquehannoughs for many years in the negotiations of the league, and though some of them appear to have been removed to Onoghguage, a little band remained at Conestoga, where, joined by some Nanticokes, they formed a small village. In 1763, we are told, " they were still at their old castle, numbering only twenty, inhabiting a cluster of squalid cabins, living by beggary and the sale of baskets, brooms, and wooden ladles. An Indian war (Pontiac's) then desolated the frontier, and the Paxton boys, suspecting these poor wretches, and finding in the Bible sufficient commission to destroy the heathen, attacked the village, and killed six of them, the only occupants at the time. The fourteen survivors were taken to Lancaster by the sheriff, and shut up in the jail-yard for protection, but they could not escape the Paxton boys, who, while the townspeople were at church, burst into the jail and massacred the helpless objects of their fury." Thus perished at the hands of a cowardly mob the last remnant of that once powerful and noble tribe which had lorded it over the whole of Maryland, and which had often vanquished the fiercest and most formidable of the Indian confederacies.

The Indians that roamed over the upper counties of Western Maryland belonged to the Shawanese tribe, a subdivision of the Algonquin group. According to a tradition of recent origin, the Shawnees, or Shawanese, were primarily identical with the Kickapoo nation; but they moved eastward, and a part are said to have remained in 1648 along the Fox River, while the main body, mot south of Lake Erie by the Iroquois, were driven to the banks of the Cumberland River.

The basin of the Cumberland River is marked by the earliest geographers as the locality of the Shawnese, who connected the southeastern Algonquins with the western, and there is authority for the statement that they were inhabitants of this territory before the settlement of the Europeans on the continent. In 1682, when Penn made his celebrated treaty with the Indians, in the neighborhood of the present city of Philadelphia, the Shawnees were a party to the treaty in common with other tribes who composed the great nation of Algonquins, and they must have been considered a very prominent band from the fact of their having preserved the treaty in their own possession, as we are informed that at a subsequent conference held with them and the Mingoes many years afterwards, probably in 1701, by the Governor of Pennsylvania, the Shawnees produced this treaty written on parchment.

It would seem that after the treaty of 1682 a part of the Shawnees lived near Winchester, Va. , but that the principal band removed from their hunting-ground in Kentucky, on the Cumberland River, to the headwaters of one of the great rivers of South Carolina, perhaps the Congarec; and at a later day four hundred of them who had wandered in the woods for four years were found a little north of the head-waters of the Mobile River, on their way to the country of the Muscogees, or Creeks.

In the year 1684, La Salle, a, Frenchman, set out on a second expedition for the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi, but before he had effected his object he was murdered by the Indians. In 1694, M. Iberville set out on a voyage of the same character, and on the 14th of August a basket was found in the possession of some Indians containing a paper upon which the names of many individuals belonging to La Salle's expedition were written, and a letter addressed to M. D. Zanti, from which it was learned that he had descended to the sea with twenty Canadians and thirty Shawnee Indians from the river Wabash. This appears to have been on the first expedition of La Salle, which was of course prior to the one above mentioned, which was in the year 1684, but how long before is unknown. Thus it seems that previous to the year 1684 some of the Shawnees lived on the Wabash, but what became of the thirty Shawnees who accompanied La Salle we are not informed; it is thought, however, that they made their way into Florida or Texas, and never returned to the Wabash country. About 1678 seventy families of the Shawnees removed from South Carolina and settled on the Susquehanna River, in Pennsylvania. Others of the same tribe soon followed, so that the number of fighting men of this tribe in Pennsylvania in 1732 amounted to seven hundred, half of whom were from the South. This number, it is presumed, only included the band that had gone to South Carolina; but as it is evident that these seven hundred warriors did not include all the Shawnees, the remainder can be accounted for by another band, referred to by Cadwallader Colden, who, after remarking, in 1745, that the Shawnees were the most restless of all the Indian tribes, says that one tribe of them had gone to New Spain (now Florida). This band of four hundred and fifty, who were found north of the head-waters of the Mobile River, probably never returned to Pennsylvania, while the band which had lived near Winchester probably removed to the Alleghany, near Fort Duquesne, and afterwards to Cape Girardeau, between the Whitewater and Mississippi Rivers.

The Iroquois claimed sovereignty over the Shawnees, and drove them to the West, where they took active part in the various Indian wars that from time to time broke forth in vain attempts to stay the progress of white civilization. In 1731, rejecting the English missionaries, they negotiated with the French, and gave early aid to them in the final struggle; but in 1758 they were won over by the appearance of Gen. Forbes. After the fall of Canada they joined Pontiac, and were active in hostilities till subdued by Bouquet. In 1774 they participated in the battle of Point Pleasant, and in 1771 twice repulsed the attacks of Col. Bowman. They joined in the peace of 1786, but under English influence took part in the Miami war, in the campaigns against Gens. Harmar and St. Clair, till they were finally reduced by Gen. Wayne, and submitted under the treaty of Greenville in 1795. The main party were at this time on the Scioto, but some had crossed into Missouri, where the Spaniards gave them land. Another band moved South. In the war of 1812 some of the bands were won by the English. Urged by Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, they endeavored to unite all the Indians of the West against the Americans, but those in Ohio remained faithful. The Missouri band ceded their lands to the government in 1825, and the Ohio band in 1831. In 1854 the band of Shawnees proper in that part of the Indian Territory now included in Kansas numbered nine hundred, on a reservation of one million six hundred thousand acres; but by treaty the tribal relation was ended, and the lands were divided in severalty. Besides these, there were in 1872 ninety in the Quapaw agency, and six hundred and sixty-three in the Sac and Fox agency.

Of the region bordering on the Upper Potomac, however,

"there is no history," says a distinguished writer, "either written or oral, to enlighten us as to the events of an epoch earlier than about 1728.

" At that date there was located in the province of Maryland, at the junction of two streams known as the Cuhongaronta and the Caiuctucuc, an Indian town, which also bore the latter name. The town of Caiuctucuc was built on the ground lying between these streams, from their confluence to a point some distance up the river Cohongaronta, the greater portion of the town being located upon the site of the west side of the present city of Cumberland. Other towns were dotted along the river's bank for a distance of more than forty miles, the most easterly being the present site of Oldtown, Allegany Co., Md. A century ago the settlement at that point was called ' Shawanese Oldtown,' but of late years the explanatory prefix has been entirely dropped, and the place is now simply known as Oldtown. Other villages were scattered about between the Virginia and Pennsylvania lines, two of which were not far distant from Caiuctucuc. One of these was located in the narrow valley, three miles westward, on the banks of Braddock's Run, on what is now known as the Eckles' place, and within a few yards of the line of the present National read, just where it is crossed by the Eckhart Railroad. Within the memory of men now living there were many relics of this village in existence,

" The ground was heavily timbered throughout that valley, and a clearing of several acres had been made there, in which were still to be seen the remnants of the small huts used by the natives. Just across the ridge, in Cash Valley, was another village of the same character, and still another of greater dimensions was situated near the spot on which Cresaptown stands, probably a little nearer the river. The date of the decline and fall of the town of Caiuctucuc is left to conjecture, but it was abandoned prior to 1751, as is shown by the earliest map of this region, made in that year, which simply marks the territory in question as ' Abandoned Shawanese Lands,' and at that time ' many bands of Indians of other tribes, with scattered lodges, were found here by the hardy pioneers, whose venturesome spirits led them so far beyond the limits of civilization, while the Shawanese thickly peopled the hanks of the; Ohio and the Monongahela west of the Alleghanies.' " (Lowdermilk's "History of Cumberland.")

In its day and generation, however, Caiuctucuc was a town of respectable dimensions, built after the fashion of Indian villages in general. It was simply an aggregation of cabins or wigwams, constructed by fixing saplings in the ground in a circle and tying the flexible ends together at the top, so as to form a conical cage or frame-work, which was covered with skins or sheets of bark. A better style of house, such as the chiefs used, was constructed by inclosing an oblong space in the same manner. Holes were cut in the sides for windows, and an opening left at the top to allow the smoke to escape, the fireplace occupying the center part of the floor. Mats of grass or rushes were sometimes used to partition off an apartment. The mode of fortification was by inclosing the whole town, or a part of it, including the chief's house, with a strong and close stockade. Within this stockade was the council-fire, around which they gathered to discuss public matters or for religious ceremonies.

The land about the village was held in common, but to each family a portion was allotted for cultivation, the agricultural tasks devolving upon the women. Each family delivered a part of the crop to the chief, and it was placed in a general store-house to be used for the chief's subsistence, for the entertainment of guests, and as a reserve in case of scarcity or siege. They cultivated maize, beans, tobacco, and several varieties of the melon and gourd. The confederate tribes exercised common rights of forestry over the surrounding wilderness; but certain natural boundaries, such as rivers and streams, distinguished the territory of each from its neighbors.

The tribe was subject to its chief, who had absolute power over his people, and whose authority descended in the female line. When the chief died he was succeeded by his brother of the same mother, or failing a brother, by his sister's son; the alleged reason being that descent derived through the mother is certain, while that through the father was uncertain. This custom would seem to point to a time when conjugal fidelity was rarer among the women than the early writers represent it. Next to the chief, or " king," of the tribe was the werowance, or general, who had command of all expeditions, whether peaceful or hostile. Such warriors as had distinguished themselves in council or battle were honored with a title which the early travelers and historians give as cockarouse, and these, with the chief, the werowance, and a " medicine-man," or conjuror, formed the ordinary council of the tribe.

This medicine-man was a person of great importance, combining in himself the functions of physician and magician, as is generally the case among savage tribes, who look upon disease as the result of a hostile incantation or the anger of a malignant or offended spirit. They were usually initiated into their profession by a long period of preparation, including protracted fasting, solitude, severe penances, and frequently the administration of narcotic drugs. This regimen produced hallucinations, in which medicines or charms were revealed to them by spirits, and a hysterical or epileptic tendency superinduced, which, under nervous excitement, readily gave rise to paroxysms.

Their modes of powwowing were various, but usually began with drum-beating, shaking of rattles, and chanting by the assistants, and furious dancing and gesticulation on the part of the conjuror, until he was seized with convulsions, real or simulated, and rolled upon the ground with face distorted and mouth foaming. Sometimes he howled forth his oracle in this condition, and then it was understood to be a spirit that possessed him speaking with his voice; at other times he fell prostrate and apparently lifeless, and did not deliver his oracle until he recovered his senses, when he announced that his soul had quitted his body and journeyed to the world of spirits, whence it brought the desired answer. In their medical practice they combined these conjurations with treatment of a more orthodox sort, administering drugs, using scarification, cauterization, and other remedies; and in both capacities they were regarded with great veneration. These medicine-men also took a prominent part in the religious ceremonies, solemn fasts, and other rites. These had mostly reference to the change of seasons and other events, the chief feast being at the maize-harvest, while others signalized the return of certain sorts of migratory game, the ripening of certain fruits, etc. Their festivals were celebrated with various ceremonies of a symbolical character, with singing, dancing, and a grand banquet.

Neither at these festivals nor in their ordinary life did these Indians use any beverage but water, sometimes sweetened with the sap of the sugar-maple, until after they had learned the use of spirituous liquors from the whites; and to these, Father White tells us, the Maryland Indians had at first a great repugnance, though afterwards drunkenness became a prevalent vice with them. The custom of smoking tobacco was universal among the tribes at the time of the first arrival of the whites. It was regarded, however, in a far different light from the same practice among ourselves. Tobacco was a sacred herb, a precious gift of the Great Spirit to his children, and the act of smoking had always something of a ceremonial or even religious character. In some tribes the chief, standing at the entrance of his cabin at sunrise, saluted the first appearance of the solar disk with solemn wafts of smoke from his pipe. In councils and other ceremonies the calumet played an important part. It was solemnly lighted by the chief, who gave a few whiffs, sometimes directing these to the four cardinal points, and then opened the matter for consideration; the pipe was next handed to the second in rank, who in turn took two or three whiffs, and then delivered his opinion, and thus the pipe made the circuit of the assembly. A large and ornamental pipe was kept in each village for the ceremonious reception of strangers, whose peaceful or hostile intentions were known by their reception of it. The chief of the village filled and lighted the peace-pipe in the presence of the visitors, and after smoking a little handed it to their principal men. If he refused to smoke, it meant that their intentions were hostile, but if he received and smoked it, it was a sign of peace, and it was passed alternately according to rank between hosts and guests. These pipes were adorned with feathers and wings of birds, and whatever other ornament their fancy could devise, and served also as credentials to traveling ambassadors, and, like the herald's tabard of feudal times, was a safe-conduct even among foes.

At the time of the arrival of the first colonists the Maryland Indians clothed themselves in skin, mostly of the deer, which the women had the art of dressing extremely soft and pliant. Some, according to Smith, used ingeniously-woven mantles of turkey-feathers. Their weapons were bows and arrows, pointed with pieces of deer-horn, the spurs of the wild turkey, or flints skillfully chipped to the requisite shape and keenness; hatchets of hard grit-stone ground to an edge and grooved for the attachment of a handle, and Warclubs of hard wood, sometimes edged with flints. As defensive armor they had shields of bark, and Smith mentions a kind of light target used by the Massawomekes, made of small sticks woven between strings of hemp and silk grass, and proof against arrow-shots. The introduction of firearms, however, rendering these simple contrivances useless, they were gradually abandoned. They soon learned to buy improved arms. Implements, and clothing from the Europeans, giving in exchange furs and peltries, and getting coarse, heavy cloths, hatchets and knives of steel, guns and ammunition, and pieces of iron out of which they cut lighter and better heads for their arrows. Though iron ore was abundant, none of the Indians had the art of melting it, their skill in metallurgy being limited to the manufacture of rude articles out of native copper, and occasionally gold. Penn's description of Indian manners and customs is as graphic as it is accurate.

"Of their manners and customs," he says, "there is much to be said. I will begin with children. So soon as they are born they wash them in water, and while very young, and in cold weather to choose, they plunge them in the river to harden and embolden them. Having wrapped them in a cloth, they lay them on a straight thin board, a little more than the length and breadth of the child, and swaddle it first upon the board to make it straight, — wherefore all Indians have fiat heads, — and thus they carry them at their backs.

" The children will go very young, at nine months old commonly. They use only a small cloth round their waist till they are large. If boys, they go a-fishing till ripe for the woods, which is about fifteen; then they hunt, and after giving some proofs of their manhood, by a good return of skins, they may marry, else it is a shame to think of a wife. The girls stay with their mothers and help to hoe the ground, plant corn, and carry burthens; and they do well to use them young, which they must do when they are old, for the wives are the true servants of their husbands. Otherwise the men are very affectionate to them.

" When the young women are fit for marriage they wear something on their heads for an advertisement, but so as their faces are hardly to be seen but when they please. The age they marry at, if women, is about thirteen or fourteen; if boys, seventeen or eighteen; they are seldom older.

" They are great concealers of their own resentments, brought to it, I believe, by the revenge that hath been practiced among them; in either of these they are not exceeded by the Italians. In sickness they are impatient to be cured, and for it give everything, especially for their children, to whom they are extremely natural. They drink at those times a teran, or concoction of roots in spring water; and if they eat any flesh, it must be the female of any creature. If they die, they bury them with their apparel, be they men or women, and the nearest of kin fling in something precious with them as a token of true love; their mourning is blacking of their faces, which they continue for a year. They are choice of the graves of their dead, lest they should be lost by time and fall to common use. They pick off the grass that grows upon them, and heap up the fallen earth with great care and exactness. These poor people are under a dark night in things relating to religion; to be sure the traditions of it they have only, yet they believe in a God and immortality without the help of metaphysics; for, say they, there is a great king that made them, who dwells in a glorious country to the southward of them, and that the souls of the good shall go thither, where they shall live again. Their worship consists of two parts, sacrifice and cantico; their sacrifice is their first fruits, the first and fattest buck they kill goeth to the fire, where he is all burnt, with a mournful ditty of him that performeth the ceremony, but with such marvelous fervency and labor of the body that they will even sweat to a foam. The other part is their cantico, performed by round dances, sometimes words, sometimes songs, then shouts; two being in the middle tent begin, and by singing and drumming on a board direct the chorus.

" Their postures in the dance are very antique and differing, but all keep measure. This is done with equal earnestness and labor, but great appearances of joy. In the fall, when the corn Cometh in, they begin to feast one another. There have been two great festivals already, to which all come that would. I was at one myself. Their entertainment was a great seat by a spring, under some shady trees, and twenty fat bucks with hot cakes of new corn, both wheat and beans, which they make up in square form, in the leaves of the stem, and bake them in the ashes, and after that they fall to dancing. But they that I go must carry a small present in their money; it may be sixpence, which is made of the bone of a fish; the black is with them as gold, the white, silver. They call it all wampum. The justice they have is pecuniary; in case of any wrong or evil fact, be it murder itself, they atone by feasts and presents of their wampum, which is proportioned to the offense or person injured, or of the sex they are of; for in case they kill a woman, they pay double, and the reason they render is that she can raise children, which men cannot do. It is rare that they fall out if sober, and if drunk forgive it, saying it was the drink and not the man that abused them."

Their mode of warfare was altogether of the guerrilla sort, consisting chiefly of surprises and ambuscades, in which they displayed great skill and cunning. Such a thing as a pitched battle between two armies in the open field was contrary to all their notions of good strategy. When a hostile expedition had been determined on by the chief and leading warriors in council, it was made known to the tribe, who celebrated the occasion by a solemn dance, in which the warriors, bedizened in paint and feathers, stated their past or projective exploits, and imitated in expressive pantomime the shooting, tomahawking, and scalping of their foes. On the appointed day they set out in one or more parties, moving, as they approached their destination, with extreme wariness to prevent discovery, marching often by night in single file, slipping from shadow to shadow, or gliding through the forest so stealthily that hardly a twig snapped or leaf rustled under the tread of a moccasined foot, until at a given signal they burst upon the village with terrific war-whoops. Those of their foes who survived after the rage of slaughter was glutted they made prisoners, and reserved for death by the most cruel tortures their ingenuity could devise; in inventing and enduring which the Iroquois — who, indeed, have the credit of introducing the custom seem to have surpassed all others. Instances are recorded of the tortures of distinguished warriors lasting for days, a sort of contest arising between the power of cruelty to inflict and that of fortitude to endure. In the intervals of torment the victim would sometimes smoke his pipe and talk on indifferent matters with his tormentors; while amid his suffering he sang his own exploits, or derided the unskillfulness of his torturers, and taught them devices for inflicting more exquisite pain. Women were sometimes tortured, but usually they were tomahawked or shot, unless the captors wanted women, in which case they were adopted into the tribe. One of the most noted species of ornament, which answered all the purposes of a circulating medium among the Eastern Indians, was wampum. This consisted of small circular bits of sea-shell, smoothly ground and polished, with a hole drilled through the center of each, by which it might be strung or attached ornamentally to the belt or other parts of the dress. The " quahog," or round clam, furnished the principal material for this coin, the variegated purple portions of the shell being much the most valuable. The great labor in preparing it was the boring, which was effected by a sharp flint.'

"The wompompeague," says Gookin, " is made principally by the Block Islanders and Long Island Indians. Upon the sandy flats and shores of those coasts the wilk shells are found. With this wompompeague they pay tribute, redeem captives, satisfy for murders and other wrongs, purchase peace with their potent neighbors, as occasion requires; in a word, it answers all occasions with them, as gold and silver doth with us."

To effect a clearing and secure a crop with such rude implements of stone as they possessed appears to us almost an impracticable undertaking; but we are assured by early writers that they obtained as large a yield from a given quantity of ground as can be produced by the assistance of all modern conveniences and contrivances.

Two dishes greatly in vogue among the Indians, says Brownell, have maintained their popularity among their European successors. Green corn, the ripening of which was celebrated by a national dance, is sought as eagerly as when it supplied a grateful refreshment to the red men, emaciated, as Smith describes them, by their spring diet of fish and roots. A preparation denominated " succotash," consisting of maize boiled with beans and flavored with fat bear's meat or fish, still remains a favorite dish.

It is a singular fact that the use of milk should have been entirely unknown before the advent of the whites, although there were various animals in the country from which it might have been procured. This fact has been adduced as a strong argument against the hypothesis that immigrants from the nomadic tribes of Tartary have mingled with the red race in comparatively modern times.

A favorite article of diet was a cake made of maize beaten as fine as the means at command would permit, mixed with water, and baked upon a flat stone, previously heated in the fire. These cakes, it is said, were called " Shawnee cakes," the name, in the course of a few years, being corrupted into the " Johnnycake" so well known in the South and other sections of the country at the present day.

"The lands in the vicinity of Cumberland,'' says Lowdermilk, " are rich in Indian relics, and an interesting collection of stone pipes, tomahawks, rings, tablets, quoits, etc., has been made by F. M. Offutt. These were taken from graves which were opened by various persons. Along the banks of the Potomac the curious may still find these graves, and the writer has himself assisted in the exploration of a number of them. The custom of the Indians was to lay their dead upon the surface of the earth, and to deposit beside them their bows, arrows, tomahawks, and food in jars or crocks of pottery made of clay mixed with finely crushed flint, and burned. The friends then deposited such articles as they chose, and the bodies were afterwards covered with stones, which were laid on to the height of about two feet. Usually the stones used were bowlders from the bed of the river. It is probable that the graves thus constructed were those of parties who were on the war-path, or traveling from one place to another, as usually not more than two or three graves are found together. This is rendered more probable from the fact that few such graves are found in the vicinity of their towns. At Brady's Mills a number of skeletons were unearthed some years ago by workmen who were excavating the ground for the production of a distillery built there by Samuel Brady. These were, beyond doubt, the remains of Indians, and were buried in a sitting posture some depth below the surface. This was doubtless the burial-ground of the Indian village which lay between that place and Cresaptown. On the farm of Mr. Christopher Kelly, fourteen miles below Cumberland, one of these stone-piles was opened recently, and a beautiful serpentine pipe of green tinted stone, besides rings, etc., taken therefrom. In that neighborhood, and on the opposite side of the river, are several other graves of a similar character, while in the valley of the South Branch they have been discovered in great numbers, and hundreds of relics taken from them have found their way to the Smithsonian Institute. The articles thus recovered were all of stone or bone, the latter being used freely as ornaments."