Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/59

 the furthest of which, there was a fifth stream that emptied into the sixth, and this in turn debouched into the South Sea.

When Smith visited Powhatan in the fall of 1608, the Indian monarch gravely informed him that his people had been deceiving the English in declaring that a salt sea was to be found in the West, and he proceeded to draw upon the ground the true map of the territories in that region. Powhatan probably wished to divert the attention of the colonists from the exploration of the western countries. The sincere belief in the existence of the salt sea beyond the mountains, entertained by the Indians of Virginia, is confirmed by too many witnesses among the Europeans to be controverted by a single statement of the wily Powhatan, and one in contradiction of his own previous assertions. One reason for this belief on the part of the Indians was probably a vague report of the great lakes, which to the view of the tribes dwelling on their shores were almost unlimited in the area covered by them, being considered even by their European discoverers to be inland seas of vast extent. The copper in possession of