the women are modest and diffident, and so bashful that they seldom lift up their eyes, and scarce ever look a man full in the face, yet, being brought up in great subjection, custom and and manners reconcile them to modes of acting, which, judged of by Europeans, would be deemed inconsistent with the rules of female decorum and propriety. I once saw a young widow, whose husband, a warrior, had died about eight days before, hastening to finish her grief, and who by tearing her hair, beating her breast, and drinking spirits, made the tears flow in great abundance, in order that she might grieve much in a short space of time, and be married. that evening to another young warrior. The manner in which this was viewed by the men and women of the tribe, who stood round, silent and solemn spectators of the scene, and the indifference with which they answered my question respecting it, convinced me that it was no unusual custom. I have known men advanced in years, whose wives were old and past child-bearing, take young wives, and have children, though the practice of polygamy is not common. Does this favor of frigidity, or want of ardor for the female? Neither do they seem to be dificient in natural affection. I have seen both fathers and mothers in the deepest affliction, when their children have been dangerously ill; though I believe the affection is stronger in the descending than the ascending scale, and though custom forbids a father to grieve immoderately for a son slain in battle. "That they are timorous and cowardly," is a character with which there is littie reason to charge them, when we recollect the manner in which the Iroquois met Mons. who marched into their country; in which the old men, who scorned to fly, or to survive the capture of their town, braved death like the old Romans in the time of the Gauls, and in which they soon aft ter revenged themselves by sacking and destroy-2 ing Montreal. But above all, the unshaken fortitude with which they bear the most ex- a cruciating tortures and death when taken pri- » soners, ought to exempt them from that character. Much less are they to be characterised as a people of no vivacity, and who are excited:: to action or motion only by the calls of hunger and thirst. Their dances in which they so much delight, and which to an European would be the most severe exercise, fully contradict~ this, not to mention their fatiguing marches, and the toil they voluntarily and cheerfully undergo in their military expeditions. It is true,ɔ that when at home, they do not employ them- +1 selves in labor or the culture of the soil but this again is the effect of customs and manners, { which have assigned that to the province of the women. But it is said, they are averse to so ciety and a social life. Can any thing be more> inapplicable than this to a people who always! live in towns or clans? Or can they be said to have no republic, who conduct all their af fairs in national councils, who pride themselves!! in their national character; who consider an in- ! sult or injury done to an individual by a stran). ger as done to the whole, and resent it accordingly? In short this picture is not applicable to any nation of Indians I have ever heard of in North-America. (5.) p. 130. As far as I have been able to learn, the country from the sea coast to the Alleghaney, and from the most southern waters of James river up to Patuxen river, now in the state of Maryland, was occupied by three different nations of Indians, each of which spoke a different language, and were under seperate and distinct governments. What the original or real names of those nations were, I have not been able to learn with certainty: but by us they are distinguished by the names of Powhatans, Mannahoacs, and Monacons, now called Tuscaroras. The Powhatans, who occupied the country from the sea shore up to the falls of the rivers, were a powerful nation, and seem to have consisted of seven tribes, five on the western and two on the eartern shore. Each of these tribes was subdivided into towns, families, or clans, who lived together. All the nations of Indians in North America lived in the hunter state, and depended for subsistence on hunting, fishing, and the spontaneous fruits of the earth, and a kind of grain which was planted and gathered by the women, and is now known by the name of Indian corn. Long potatoes, pumpkins of various kinds, and squashes, were also found in use among them. They had no flocks, herds, or tamed animals of any kind. Their government is a kind of patriarchial confederacy. Every town or family has a chief, who is distinguished by a particular title, and whom we commonly call "Sachem." the several towns or families that compose a tribe, have a chief who preside over it, and the several tribes composing a nation have a chief who presides over the whole nation. These chitis are generally men advanced in years, and distinguished by their prudence and abilities in council. The matters which merely regard a town or family are settled by the chief and principal men of the town: those which regard a tribe, such as the appointment of head warri ors or captains, and settling differences between different towns and families, are regulated at a meeting or council of the chiefs from the several towns; and those which regard the whole nation, such as the making war, concluding peace, or forming alliances with the neighboring nations, are deliberated on and determined in a national council composed of the chiefs of the tribe, attended by the head warriors and a number of the chiefs from the towns, who are his counsellors. In every town there is a council house, where the chief and old men of the town assemble when occasion requires, and consult what is proper to be done. Every tribe has a fixed place for the chiefs of the town to meet and consult on the business of the tribe: and in every nation there is what they call the central council house, or central council fire, where the chiefs of the several tribes, with the principal warriors, convene to consult and determine on their national affairs. When any matter is proposed in the national council, it is common for the chiefs of the several tribes to consult thereon apart with their counsellors, and when they have agreed, to deliver the opinion of the tribe at the national council: and, as there government seems to rest wholly on persuasion, they endeavor, by mutual concessions, to obtain unanimity. Such is the government that still subsists among the Indian nations bordering upon the United States. Some historians seem to think, that the dignity of of fice of Sachem was hereditary. But that opinion does not appear to be well founded. The sachem or chief of the tribe seems to be by election. And sometimes persons who are strangers, and adopted into the tribe, are promoted to this dignity, on account of their abilities. Thus on the arrival of Captain Smith, the first founder of the colony of Virginia, Opechancanough, who was Sachem or chief of the Chickahominies, one of the tribes of the Powhatans, is said to have been of another tribe, and even of another nation, so that no certain account could be obtained of his origin or descent. The chiefs of the nation seem to have been by a rotation among the tribes. Thus when Capt. Smith, in the year 1609, questioned Powhatan (who was the chief of the nation, and whose proper name is said to have been Wahunsonacock) respecting the succession, the old chief informed him, "that he was very old, and had seen the death of all his people thrice*; that * This is one generation more than the poet ascribes to the life of Nestor. To d'ede duo men geneai me:opo anthropon 1. Hoм. II. 2501 Two generations now had passed away, Pore. |