Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/138



DESCRIPTION of the Indians eſtabliſhed in that ſtate?

When the firſt effectual ſettlement of our colony was made, which was in 1607, the country from the ſea-coaſt to the mountains, and from Potowmac to the moſt ſouthern waters of James' River, was occupied by upwards of forty different tribes of Indians. Of theſe the Powhatans, the Mannahoacs, and Monacans, were the moſt powerful. Thoſe between the ſea-coaſt and falls of the rivers, were in amity with one another, and attached to the Powhatans as their link of union. Thoſe between the falls of the rivers and the mountains, were divided into two confederacies; the tribes inhabiting the head waters of Potowmac and Rappahannoc being attached to the Mannahoacs; and thoſe on the upper parts of James' River to the Monacans. But the Monacans and their friends were in amity with the Mannahoacs and their friends and waged joint and perpetual war againſt the Powhatans. We are told that the Powhatans, Mannahoacs, and Monacans, ſpoke languages ſo radically different, that interpreters were neceſſary when they tranſacted buſineſs. Hence we may conjecture, that this was not the caſe between all the tribes, and probably that each ſpoke the language of the nation to which it was attached; which we know to have been the caſe in many particular inſtances. Very poſſibly there