HE DISCOVERIES of John LEDERER, in three several Marches from VIRGINIA, to the West of Carolina, and other parts of the Continent : Begun in March 1669, and ended in September 1670. Together with a General Map of the whole Territory which he traversed. Collected and Translated out of Latine from his Discourse and Writings, by Sir William Talbot, Baronet. London, 1672. 9\7.ss L43d 1902- AiV\7Vm. r j\j\f\ cv 6 L I B RA PLY OF THE U N I VERS ITY Of I LLI NOIS 917.55 1902 ILLINOIS HI LSURVET A MAP OF THE WHOLE TERRITORY TRAV FP BY JOHN LEPERERIN HIS THREE MARCHES. jUarth { March toJ*<*hock where the >ft him and his r- one to Ujkery ° h home <&<""< . c- , T* e third Jlarch. 6. a auUk/and at behead ofjlapaAanock river T ^ € h ake of Ujhery 8-Jjreat Marifk TheMefitwnecks dtvelf «, hereto-fore beyond theA J jAE%E i Fi, In three feveral Marches from VIRGINIA, To the Weft of Carolina, And other parts of the Continent: Begun in March 1669, an d ended in September 1670. Together with A General MAP of the whole Territory which he traverfed. Collected and Tranllated out of Latine from his Difcourfe and Writings, By Sir William Talbot, Baronet. Sed nos immenfum fpatiis confecimus aquor, Et jam tempus equum fumantia folvere colla. Virg. Georg. London, Printed by J. C. for Samuel Heyrick, at Grays- Inne-gate in Holborn. 1672. Three hundred copies reprinted for GEORGE P. HUMPHREY Rochester, N. Y. IQ02. No. i To the Right Honourable ANTHONY Lord Ashley, Baron Ashley of Wimborn St. Giles, Chancellor of his Majesties Exchequer, Under-Treasurer of England, One of the Lords Commissioners of his Ma- jesties Treasury, one of the Lords of his most Honourable Privie Council, and one of the Lords Proprie- tors of CAROLINA. My Lord, From this discourse it is clear that the long looked-for discovery of the Indian Sea does nearly approach ; and ' Carolina, out of her happy experience of your lordships - success in great undertakings, presumes that the accomplish- ment of this glorious designe is reserved for her. In order v - to which, the Apalataean Mountains (though like the pro- digious wall that divides China and Tartary, they deny Vir- ginia passage into the West Continent) stoop to your > lordships dominions, and lay open a prospect into unlimited "empires; empires that will hereafter be ambitious of sub- J jection to that noble government which by your lordships rlleep wisdom and providence first projected is now established in Carolina ; for it will appear that she flourishes more by "-"the influence of that, than the advantages she derives from her climate and soyl, which yet do render her the beauty and envy of North-America. That all her glories should \ be seen in this draught, is not reasonably to be expected, since she sate to- my author but once, and then too with a side-face ; and therefore I must own it was never by him ",. designed for the press, but published by me, out of no other ambition than that of manifesting to the world, that I am, My Lord, Your lordships most humble and obedient servant, William Talbot. To the READER. That a stranger should presume (though with Sir William Berkly's Commission) to go into those parts of the American Continent where Englishmen never had been, and whither some refused to accompany him, was, in Virginia look'd on as so great an insolence, that our traveller at his return, instead of welcom and applause, met nothing but affronts and reproaches ; for indeed it was their part, that forsook him in the expedition, to procure him discredit that was a witness to theirs ; therefore no industry was wanting to prepare men with a prejudice against him, and this their malice improved to such a general animosity, that he was not safe in Virginia from the outrage of the people, drawn into a perswasion, that the publick levy of that year, went all to the expence of his vagaries. Forced by this storm into Maryland, he became known to me, though then ill- affected to the man, by the stories that went about of him : Nevertheless finding him, contrary to my expectation, a modest ingenious person, and a pretty scholar, I thought it common justice to give him an occasion of vindicating him- self from what I had heard of him ; which truly he did with so convincing reason and circumstance, as quite abolished those former impressions in me, and made me desire this account of his travels, which here you have faithfully rendred out of Latine from his own writings and discourse, with an entire map of the territory he traversed, copied from his own hand. All these I have compared with Indian relations of those parts (though I never met with any Indian that had followed a southwest-course so far as this German) and find- ing them agree, I thought the printing of these papers was no injury to the author, and might prove a service to the publick. William Talbot. The DISCOVERIES OF JOHN LEDERER from Virginia to the West of Carolina and other parts of the Continent. A General and Brief Account of the North- American Continent. North, as well as South-America, may be divided into three regions : the flats, the highlands, and the mountains. The flats, (in Indian, Ahkynt) is the territory lying between the eastern coast, and the falls of the great rivers, that there run into the Atlantick Ocean, in extent generally taken ninety miles. The highlands (in Indian, Ahkontshuck) begin at those falls, and determine at the foot of the great ridge of mountains that runs thorow the midst of this continent, northeast and southwest, called by the Spaniards Apalatai, from the Nation Apalakin ; and by the Indians, Pamotinck. According to the best of my observation and conjecture, they lie parallel to the Atlantick sea-coast, that bearing from Canada to Cape Florida, northeast and south- west, and then falling off due west as the mountains do at Sara : but here they take the name of Suala ; Sara in the Warrennuncock dialect being Sasa or Sualy. The flats, or Ahkynt, are by former writers made so well known to Christendom, that I will not stop the reader here, with an unnecessary discription of them ; but shall onely say, that by the rankness of the soyl, and salt moist- ness of the air, daily discoveries of fish-shells three fathom deep in the earth, and Indian tradition ; these parts are supposed some ages past to have lain under the sea. The highlands (or Ahkontshuck) though under the same parallels, are happie notwithstanding in a more temperate and healthful air. The ground is over-grown with under- The Discoveries of John L e d e r e r wood in many places, and that so perplext and interwoven with vines, that who travels here, must sometimes cut through his way. These thickets harbour all sorts of beasts of prey, as wolves, panthers, leopards, lions, etc. (which are neither so large nor so fierce as those of Asia and Africa) and small vermine as wilde cats, foxes, racoons. These parts were formerly possessed by the Tacci alias Dogi ; but they are extinct ; and the Indians now seated here, are distin- guished into the several nations of Mahoc, Nuntaneuck, alias Nuntaly, Nahyssan, Sapon, Managog, Mangoack, Akenatzy, and Monakin, etc. One language is common to them all though they differ in dialects. The parts inhabited here are pleasant and fruitful, because cleared of wood, and laid open to the sun. The valleys feed numerous herds of deer and elks larger than oxen : these valleys they call Savanae, being marish grounds at the foot of the Apalataei, and yearly laid under water in the beginning of summer by flouds of melted snow falling down from the mountains. The Apalataean mountains, called in Indian Ptsmotinck, (or the origine of the Indians) are barren rocks, and therefore deserted by all living creatures but bears, who cave in the hollow cliffs. Yet do these mountains shoot out to the eastward great promontories of rich land, known by the high and spreading trees which they bear : these promon- tories, because lower than the main ridge, are called by the Indians Tanx-P&motinck (alias Aquatt). To the north- east the mountains rise higher; and at Sara they sink so low, that they are easily passed over: but here (as was said before) they change their course and name, running due West, and being called Sualy: now the Sualian mountains rise higher and higher westward. The Discoveries of John L e d e r e r Of the Manners aud Customs of the Indians in- habiting the Western parts of Carolina and Virginia. The Indians now seated in these parts are none of those which the English removed from Virginia, but a people driven by an enemy from the Northwest, and invited to sit down here by an oracle about four hundred years since, as they pretend : for the ancient inhabitants of Virginia were far more rude and barbourous, feeding onely upon raw flesh and fish, until these taught them to plant corn, and shewed them the use of it. But before I treat of their ancient manners and customs, it is necessary I should shew by what means the knowledge of them has been conveyed from former ages to posterity. Three ways they supply their want of letters : first by counters, secondly by emblemes or hieroglyphicks, thirdly by tradition delivered in long tales from father to son, which being children they are made to learn by rote. For counters, they use either pebbles, or short scant- lings of straw or reeds. Where a battle has been fought, or a colony seated, they raise a small pyramid of these stones, consisting of the number slain or transplanted. Their reeds and straws serve them in religious ceremonies : for they lay them orderly in a circle when they prepare for devotion or sacrifice ; and thet performed, the circle remains still : for it is sacriledge to disturb or to touch it : the disposition and sorting of the straws and reeds, shew what kinde of rites have there been celebrated, as invocation, sacrifice, burial, etc. The faculties of the minde and body they commonly express by emblems. By the figure of a stag, they imply swiftness ; by that of a serpent, wrath ; of a lion, courage ; of a dog, fidelity : by a swan, they signifie the English, alluding to their complexion, and flight over the sea. An account of time, and other things, they keep on a string or leather thong tied in knots of several colours. I The Discoveries of John L e d e r e r took particular notice of small wheels serving for this pur- pose amongst the Oenocks, because I have heard that the Mexicans use the same. Every nation gives his particular ensigne or arms : The Sasquesahanaugh a Tarapine, or small tortoise ; the Akenatzy's a serpent ; the Nahyssanes three arrows, etc. In this they likewise agree with the Mexican Indians. Vid. Jos. a Costa. They worship one God, Creator of all things, whom some call Okaec, others Mannith : to him alone the high- priest, or Periku, offers sacrifice; and yet they believe he has no regard to sublunary affairs, but commits the govern- ment of mankinde to lesser deities, as ^uiacosough and Tagkanysough , that is, good and evil spirits: to these the inferiour priests pay their devotion and sacrifice, at which they make recitals, to a lamentable tune, of the great things done by their ancestors. From four women, viz. Pash, Sepoy, Askarin and Mar- askarin, they derive the race of mankinde ; which they there- fore divide into four tribes, distinguished under those several names. They very religiously observe the degrees of mar- riage, which they limit not to distance of kindred, but dif- ference of tribes, which are continued in the issue of the females : now for two of the same tribe to match, is ab- horred as incest, and punished with great severity. Their places of burial they divide into four quarters, assigning to every tribe one : for, to mingle their bodies, even when dead, they hold wicked and ominous. They commonly wrap up the corpse in beasts skins, and bury with it provi- sion and housholdstuff for its use in the other world. When their great men die, they likewise slay prisoners of war to attend them. They believe the transmigration of souls : for the angry they say is possest with the spirit of a serpent ; the bloudy with that of a wolf ; the timorous, of a deer ; the faithful, of a dog, etc. and therefore they are figured by these emblemes. Elizium, or the abode of their lesser deities, they place beyond the mountains and Indian Ocean. 8 The Discoveries of John L e d e r e r Though they want those means of improving human reason, which the use of letters affords us; let us not there- fore conclude them wholly destitute of learning and sciences : for by these little helps which they have found, many of them advance their natural understandings to great knowl- edge in physick, rhetorick and policie of government : for I have been present at several of their consultations and de- bates, and to my admiration have heard some of their seniors deliver themselves with as much judgement and eloquence as I should have expected from men of civil education and literature. THE FIRST EXPEDITION, From the head of Pemaeoncock, alias York- River (due West) to the top of the Apalataean Mountains. Upon the ninth of March, 1669, (with three Indians whose names were Magtakunh, Hopottoguoh and Naunnugh) I went out at the falls of Pemaeoncock, alias York-River in Virginia, from an Indian village called Shickehamany, and lay that night in the woods, encountring nothing remarka- ble, but a rattle-snake of an extraordinary length and tick- ness, for I judged it two yards and a half or better from head to tail, and as big about as a mans arm : by the dis- tention of her belly, we believed her full with young; but having killed and opened her, found there a small squirrel whole ; which caused in me a double wonder : first, how a reptile should catch so nimble a creature as a squirrel ; and having caught it, how he could swallow it entire. The Indians in resolving my doubts, plunged me into a greater astonishment, when they told me that it was usual in these serpents, when they lie basking in the sun, to fetch down The Discoveries of John L e d e r e r these squirrels from the tops of the trees, by fixing their eye steadfastly upon them ; the horrour of which strikes such an affrightment into the little beast, that he has no power to hinder himself from tumbling down into the jaws of his enemy, who takes in all his sustenance without chewing, his teeth serving him onely to offend withal. But I rather believe what I have heard from others, that these serpents climb the trees, and surprise their prey in the nest. The next day falling into marish grounds between the Pemaeoncock and the head of the River Matapeneugh, the heaviness of the way obliged me to cross Pemaeoncock, where its North and South branch (called Ackmick) joyn in one. In the peninsula made by these two branches, a great Indian king called Tottopottoma was heretofore slain in battle, fighting for the Christians against the Mahocks and Nahyssans, from whence it retains his name to this day. Travelling thorow the woods, a doe seized by a wild cat crossed our way ; the miserable creature being even spent and breathless with the burden and cruelty of her rider, who having fastened on her shoulder, left not sucking out her bloud until she sunk under him : which one of the Indians perceiving, let fly a lucky arrow, which piercing him thorow the belly, made him quit his prey already slain, and turn with a terrible grimas at us ; but his strength and spirits failing him, we escaped his revenge, which had certainly ensued, were not his wound mortal. This creature is some- thing bigger than our English fox, of a reddish grey colour, and in figure every way agreeing with an ordinary cat ; fierce, ravenous and cunning: for finding the deer (upon which they delight most to prey) too swift for them, they watch upon branches of trees, and as they walk or feed under, jump down upon them. The fur of the wilde cat, though not very fine, is yet esteemed for its virtue in taking away cold aches and pains, being worn next to the body ; their flesh, though rank as a dogs, is eaten by the Indians. The eleventh and twelfth, I found the ways very un- even and cumbred with bushes. 10 The Discoveries of John L e d e r e r The thirteenth, I reached the first spring of Pemason- cock, having crossed the river four times that day, by reason of its many windings ; but the water was so shallow, that it hardly wet my horses patterns. Here a little under the surface of the earth, I found flat pieces of petrified matter, of one side solid stone, but on the other side isinglas, which I easily peeled off in flakes about four inches square : several of these pieces, with a transparent stone like crystal that cut glass, and a white marchasite that I purchased of the Indians, I presented to Sir William Berkley, Governour of Virginia. The fourteenth of March, from the top of an eminent hill, I first descried that Apalataean mountains, bearing due west to the place I stood upon : their distance from me was so great, that I could hardly discern whether they were mountains or clouds, until my Indian fellow travellers pros- trating themselves in adoration, howled out after a barbarous manner, Ok'ee p