Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/307

Rh he knew but one, which was under the ſky that covered him, and which conſiſted of the Powhatans, the Manakins, and the Maſſawomacs. Being queſtioned concerning the latter, he ſaid they dwelt on a great water to the north, that they had many boats, and ſo many men that they waged with all the reſt of the world. The Mingo confederacy then conſiſted of five tribes; three who are the elder, to wit, the Senecas, who live to the weſt, the Mohawks to the eaſt, and the Onondagas between them; and two who are called the younger tribes, namely, the Cayugas and Oneidas. All theſe tribes ſpeak one language, and were then united in a cloſe confederacy, and occupied the tract of country from the eaſt end of lake Erie to lake Champlain, and from the Kittatinney and Highlands to the lake Ontario and the river Cadaraqui, or St. Lawrence. They had, ſometime before that, carried on a war with a nation, who lived beyond the lakes, and were called Adirondacs. In this war they were worſted: but having made a peace with them, through the interceſſion of the French, who were then ſettling in Canada, they turned their arms againſt the Lenopi; and as this war was long and doubtful, they, in the courſe of it, not only exerted their whole force, but put in practice every meaſure which prudence or policy could deviſe to bring it to a ſucceſsful iſſue. For this purpoſe they bent their courſe down the Suſquehanna, warring with the Indians in their way, and having penetrated as far as the mouth of it, they, by the terror of their arms, engaged a nation, now known by the name of Nanticocks, Conoys and Tùteloes, who lived