Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/304

290 became chief of the nation. I need only mention another inſtance to ſhew that the chiefs of the tribes claimed this kindred with the head of the nation. In 1622, when Raleigh Craſhaw was with Japazàw, the Sachem or chief of the Patomacs, Opechàncanough, who had great power and influence, being the ſecond man in the nation, and next in ſucceſſion to Opichapan, and who was a bitter but ſecret enemy to the Engliſh, and wanted to engage his nation in a war with them, ſent two baſkets of beads to the Patowmac chief, and deſired him to kill the Engliſhman that was with him. Japazàw replied, that the Engliſh were his friends, and Opichapàn his brother, and that therefore there ſhould be no blood ſhed between them by his means. It is alſo to be obſerved, that when the Engliſh firſt came over, in all their conferences with any of the chiefs, they conſtantly heard him make mention of his brother, with whom he muſt conſult, or to whom he referred them, meaning thereby either the chief of the nation, or the tribes in confederacy. The Manahòacs are ſaid to have been a confederacy of four tribes, and in alliance with the Monacans, in the war which they were carrying on againſt the Powhatans.

To the northward of theſe there was another powerful nation, which occupied the country from the head of the Cheſapeak-bay up to the Kittatinney mountain, and as far eaſtward as Connecticut river, comprehending that part of New-York which lies between the Highlands and the ocean, all the ſtate of New-Jerſey, that part of Pennſylvania which is watered, below the range of the