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fish; the black is with them as gold, the white silver; they call it all wampum.

Their government is by kings which they call sachema, and those by succession, but always by the mother's side; for instance, the children of him that is now king, will not succeed, but his brother by the mother, or the children of his sister, whose sons (and after them the children of her daughters) will reign; for no woman inherits: the reason they ender for this way of descent is, that their issue may not be spurious. Every king hath his counsel, and that consists of all the old and wise men of his nation, which perhaps is two hundred people. Nothing of moment is undertaken, be it war, peace, selling of land, traffic, without advising with them; and which is more, with the young men too.

It is admirable to consider how powerful the kings are, and how they move by the breath of the people.

I have had occasion to be in council with them upon treaties of laud, and to adjust the terms of trade. Their order is thus; the king sits in the middle of a half moon, and hath his council, the old and wise on each hand; behind them or at a little distance sit the younger fry in the same figure; having consulted and resolved their business, the king ordered one of them to speak to me, and he in the name of his king saluted me; then took me by the hand, and told me, that he was ordered by his king to speak to ime; and now it was not he, but the king that spoke, because what he should say, was the king's mind.

He first prayed me to excuse them that they had not complied with me the last time, he feared there might be some fault in the interpreter, being neither Indian nor English; besides it was the Indian custom to deliberate, and take up much time in council before they resolve; and that if the young people and owners of the land had been as ready as he, I had not met with so much delay,

Having thus introduced this matter, he fell to the bounds of the land they had agreed to dispose of, and the price; the land

now is little and dear, that which would have bought twenty miles, not buying now two. During the time that this person spoke, not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile; the old grave, the young reverent in their deportment. They do speak little, but fervently and with elegancy; I have never seen more natural sagacity, considering them without the help of tradition; and he will deserve the name of wise, that outwits them in any treaty about a thing they understand.

When the purchase was agreed, great promises passed between us of kindness and good neighbourhood, and that the Indians and English must live in love as long as the sun gave light; which done, another made a speech to the Indians, in the name of all the sachamakers or kings, first to tell them what was done; next, to charge and command them to love christians; and particularly to live in peace with me, and the people under my government. That many governors had been in the river, but that no governor had come himself to live and stay here before; and having now such a one that had treated them well, they should never do him or his any wrong. At every sentence of which, they shouted, and said amen, in their

way.

reason they

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 quality of the offence, or person injured, or the sex they are of. For in case they kill a woman, they pay double; and the render, is, that she breedeth children, which men cannot do. It is rare that they fall out, if sober; and if drunk they forgive it, saying, it was the drink, and not the man that abused them. We have agreed, that in all differences between us, six of Don't abuse them, but let

each side shall end the matter. them have justice, and you win them.

the worse for the christians, who have

The worst is, they are propagated their vices,

and yielded them tradition for ill, and not for good things. as low an ebb as they are at,

But

and as in glorious as their

condition looks, the christians have not outlived their sight, with all their pretensions to an higher manifestation.

What good, then, might not a good people graft, where there is so distinct a knowledge left between good and evil? I beseech God to incline the hearts of all that come into these parts, to outlive the knowledge of the natives, by a fixt obedience to their greater knowledge of the will of God; for it were miserable indeed for us to fall under the just censure of the poor Indian conscience, while we make profession of things so far transcending.

For their original, I am ready to believe them of the Jewish race; I mean of the stock of the ten tribes; and that for the following reasons: First, they were to go to a land not planted or known, which to be sure Asia and Africa were, if not Europe, and he that intended that extraordinary judgment upon them, might make the passage not uneasy to them, as it is not impossible in itself, from the eastermost parts of Asia to the wester most parts of America. In the next place I find them of like countenance, and their children of so lively resemblance, that a man would think himself in Duke's-place or Bury-street in London, when he seeth them. But this not all; they agree in rites, they reckon by moons, they offer their first fruits, they have a kind of feast of tabernacles, they are said to lay their altar upon twelve stones, their mourning a year, customs of women, with many things that do not now occur.

About this time (1607) James'-town was built. In the discovery of Chickahamine river, one George Casson was surprised, and one Smith, with two others, beset with two hundred savages, his men slain, and himself taken prisoner; but in about a month's time he procured not only his liberty, but was in great favour among them, so that he had a most noble entertainment from Powhatam, one of their emperors, who sate in state upon his bed of mats, pillow of leather, embroidered with pearl and white beads, attired with robes of skins, as large

as an Irish mantle; at his head sat a handsome young woman, and another at his feet, and on each side the room twenty... others, their heads and shoulders painted red, with a chain of beads about their necks and a robe of skins; before them sat his chiefest men, in their orders. This emperor had about thirty kings under him, his treasure consisting of skins, copper, pearls, beads, and the like; his house being fifty or sixty yards, long, frequented only by priests; at the four corners stood four images, as sentinels, one of a bear, one of a dragon, another a leopard, and the fourth a giant: he hath as many women as he pleases, whom, after he has grown weary of, he bestows upon his favourites. His will, with the custom of the country, are his laws.

The Virginians are not born so swarthy as they appear; their hair is generally black and flaggy which they wear long; few men have beards, because they pluck out the hairs that would grow; their ointments and smoky houses do in a great measure cause their blackness, whereby they look like bacon; they are of a ready wit, very subtle and treacherous, not much addicted to labour and much given to hunting. They have one wife, and many concubines. The ancient women are used for cooks, barbers and other services, the younger for. dalliance, they are modest in their carriage and seldom quarrel; in entertaining a stranger, they spread a mat for him to sit down, and then dance before him; they wear their nails long to flea their deer, and put bows and arrows into the hands of their children at six years old. ཏྟཏྠཾ ?ཏྟཱནཾ ཉྙི

The queen of Apometica was attired with a cornet beset with many white bones, with copper in her ears, and a chain of the same six times encompassing her neck. They have several ridiculous conceits concerning their original; as that a hare came into their country, and made the first man; and two other hares came thither, the first killed a deer for their enter tainment which was then the only deer in the world, and strewing the hairs of that deer, every hair became a deer.d

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The natives think it a disgrace to fear death, and therefore. when they must die, they do it resolutely; as it happened to one that robbed an Englishman, and was by Pawlatan (upon complaint made against him) fetched sixty miles from where he was concealed, and executed in the presence of the English; his brains being knocked out without the least show of fear or

terror.

NATIVES OF NEW YORK.

Their principal recreations are foot-ball, and cards, at which they will play away all they have. They are lovers of strong drink; without they have enough to be drunk, they care not to drink at all; they observe several ceremonies in their Religious Rites, and are said to worship the devil; they are usually performed on such occasions as the making of war; when their corn is ripe, or the like.

They are much addicted to go to war against one another, but they fight no pitched battles, but upon their enemy's approach armed with guns and hatchets, they way-lay him, and it is counted a great fight when seven or eight are slain; they seldom give quarter to any but the women and children, whom they reserve and make use of for the increasing their strength.

When an Indian dies they bury him upright sitting upon a seat with his gun, money, and goods, to furnish him in the other world, which they believe to be westward, where they shall have a great store of game for hunting, and live at ease. At his funeral his relations paint their faces black, making sad lamentations; near his grave they do not suffer any grass to grow, but cover it with mats as a shelter from the rain. Notwithstanding this, when an Indian is dead his name dies with him, none daring after to mention his name, it being not only a breach of their law, but an affront to his friends and relations, as if done on purpose to renew their grief; and persons bearing the same name, change it for another, which every one invents

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