History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf
and of divers others Indians that had been lately with them, whose relation was very strange in regard to the abundance of people there, compared to all the other poor number of natives which are in Patomack and places adjacent, where are not above five thousand persons, and also of the infinite store of beaver they use in coats. Divers were the imaginations that I did conceive about this discovery, and understanding that the river was not for shipping, where the people were, not [nor] yet for boats to pass, but for canoes only."
The neighboring Indians endeavored to dissuade Fleet from his design of penetrating into this new country, but he declined to listen to their representations, and sent his brother and two trusty Indians with presents to the chiefs of this region.
"I find the Indians of that prosperous place," he says, "are governed by four kings, whose towns are of several names, — Tonhoga, Mosticum, Shaunetowa, and Moserahak, — reported above thirty thousand persons, and that they have palisades about the towns, made with great trees, and with scaffolds upon the walls. On Monday, the 25th of June, we set sail for the town of Tohoga, where we came to an anchor two leagues short of the Falls, being in the latitude of 41°, on the 26th of June. This place, without all question, is the most pleasant and healthful place in all this country, and most convenient for habitation, the air temperature in summer and not violent in winter. It aboundeth with all manner of fish. The Indians, in one night commonly, will catch thirty sturgeons in a place where the river is not above twelve fathoms brood. And as for deer, buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the woods do swarm with them, and the soil is exceedingly fertile, but above this place the country is rocky and mountainous like Cannida, The 27th of June I manned my shallop and went up with the flood, the tide rising about four feet in height at this place.
" We had not moved above three miles, but we might hear the Falls to roar about six miles, by which it appears that the river is separated with rocks, but only in that one place, for beyond is a fair river. The 3rd of July my brother with the two Indians came thither, in which journey they were seven days going and five days coming back to this place. They all did affirm that in one palisade, and that being the last of thirty, there were three hundred .houses, and in every house forty skins at least, in bundles and piles."
On the 11th of July he received a visit from "seven lusty men, with strange attire," of haughty language and demeanor, who called themselves Mostikums, but who, as Fleet afterwards learned,
" were of a people three days' journey from there, and were called Herecheenes (Iroquois?), who .with their own beaver, and what they get of those that do adjoin upon them, do drive a trade in Cannida at the plantation, which is fifteen days journey from this place."
The Susquehannoughs, or Minquas, or Andastes, or Conestogues, or Gaudastogues, as they were sometimes called, were engaged in active hostilities against the colonists and friendly tribes from the first settlement of the colony on March 27, 1634. The policy of the early settlers of Maryland was to treat the Indians with justice, moderation, and kindness, and to buy the land from them. The settlement of St. Mary's was purchased by Leonard Calvert for a quantity of axes, hoes, and broadcloth, articles of real value to the Indians, who, indeed, were the more ready to part with the territory from the fact that they were suffering from the continued inroads of the fierce Susquehannoughs, who had harassed them so cruelly that they had already determined to abandon their lands and seek safer homes elsewhere. Some were allowed to remain on part of the purchased territory, and their wives and children were employed as servants in the settlers' families; others were allotted reservations, with full rights of hunting and fishing in the woods and streams. They very cheerfully submitted to the dominion of the whites for the sake of the protection against the Susquehannoughs, which their ancestors tried to purchase from Smith with the offer of perpetual subjection. The friendly Indians were protected against their enemies and secured in the enjoyment of their rights, and many of them, such as the Yaocomicos, Potopacos, Piscataways, Patuxents, and others, rarely wavered from their amicable relations. The two strong and warlike tribes of Maryland — the Nanticokes and Susquehannoughs — preserved an independent existence, and at the time of the first settlement of the province there was a feud between them, and the former, as well as the latter, were often invaded by the Iroquois. As if this were not enough, the Nanticokes were frequently embroiled with the whites, and war was several times declared against them. Under this double pressure they yielded at last, and requested to be put on the same footing as the Piscataways. The Iroquois, however, continued to harass them, and finally brought them under subjection. About the middle of the eighteenth century, by advice or command of the Six Nations (who stipulated in a treaty with the province that the Nanticokes should be permitted to leave Maryland and settle where the Six Nations should appoint), a portion of the tribe left the province, carrying with them the bones of their ancestors, and removed to Otsiningo (now Binghamton, N. Y.), where they joined some fragments of the Shawnees and Mohickanders, and made a league under the name of the Three Nations. Others seem to have settled in Wyoming, Pa., and others again, if the theory be correct which identifies the Conoys, or Kanawhas, with the Nanticokes, to have removed to the vicinity of the rivers which now bear their name. As late as 1852 a remnant of the tribe (about one hundred) was living on Grand River, north of Lake Erie, in Canada West.
The interposition of the colonists in behalf of the peaceable and friendly tribes of Piscataways, Patuxents, and Yoamaeos had from the first secured the hostility of the Susquehannoughs, who took occasion as they followed the war-path against their savage enemies of the south, or the back settlers of Virginia, to strike a blow at the unprotected Marylanders; and at times they organized expeditions with the express purpose of surprising the frontier plantations, murdering their occupants and plundering their dwellings. Even the devoted and fearless Jesuit missionaries who were engaged in converting the Indians to Christianity began seriously to think of abandoning their station on the Patuxent River and establishing themselves at Potupaco (Port Tobacco), which was less exposed to the ravages of this cruel and warlike tribe. Friendly relations having been re-established in the beginning of 1639 with the Patuxent Indians, the Jesuit missionaries immediately improved the favorable circumstance by dispersing themselves among the Indians in such places as seemed to be most favorable for the general diffusion of Christianity. The annual letter of 1639 says, —
''Father Andrew White is distant" from St. Mary's City "one hundred and twenty miles, to wit: at Kittamaquindi, the metropolis of Pascatoe, having lived in the palace of the king himself of the place, whom they call Tayac, from the month of June, 1639. . . . The salvation of Maquacomen being despaired of, Father Andrew White betook himself to him [the Tayac], and being treated by him very kindly at the first interview, so attached the man to him that he was afterwards held by him in the greatest love and veneration; of which thing this is the strongest proof that he was unwilling that the father should use any other hospitality than of his palace. Nor was the queen inferior to her husband in benevolence to their guest, for with her own hands (which thing the wife of our treasurer also does willingly) she is accustomed to prepare meat for him and bake bread, with no less care than labor.
"So not long after the coming of Father White to his palace, the Tayac was in danger from a severe disease; and when forty conjurers had in vain tried .every remedy, the father, by permission of the sick man, administered medicine, to wit: a certain powder of known efficacy mixed with holy water, and took care, the day after, by the assistance of the boy whom he had with him, to open up one of his veins for blood-letting. After this the sick man began daily to grow better; not long after became altogether well. Restored from the disease entirely, of himself he resolved, as soon as possible, to be initiated in the Christian rites; not himself only, but his wife also and two daughters; for as yet he has no male offspring. Father White is now diligently engaged in their instruction; nor do they slothfully receive the heavenly doctrine, for, by the light of heaven poured upon them, they have long since found out the errors of their former life. The king has exchanged the skins, with which he was heretofore clothed, for a garment made in our fashion; he makes also a little endeavor to learn our language.
"Having put away his concubines from him, he lives content with one wife, that