54 R5 r ~ ylor - nn +,Y\e. . visit of w} ' site of t PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARD 5 ^LIBRARY GIFT SEELEY W. 1 and GEORGE 1. COCHRAN MEY DR. JOHN R. HAYNES WILI JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. to tht UNIVERSITY OF C SOUTHERN B University Research Library JOHN * * Some Notes on the First Recorded Visit of White Men to the Site of the Present City of Richmond, Virginia. * * SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, MAY 23 AND 24, 1607. A paper read at a meeting of the Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, held at "Laburnum," June 10, 1899. ROBERT LEE TRAYLOR. RICHMOND, VA. PRIVATELY PRINTED. 1899. 8 ti 1 2 Fifty Copies Printed. - R5 SOME NOTES ON THE FIRST RECORDED VISIT OF WHITE MEN TO THE SITE OF THE PRESENT CITY OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. We know that a short lived settlement was made in Virginia by the Spaniards in 1526, almost a cen- tury before the English made their first permanent settlement at Jamestown. Some speculations, based on not improbable evidences, have been made by careful investigators, tending to fix upon the peninsula afterwards named Jamestown as the site of this Spanish attempt at colonization. Reason- ably certain it is that the Mass of the Church ot Rome, conducted by Spanish priests of the Order of St. Dominic, was the first form of service of worship offered to the God of our civilization within the present limits of Virginia.* If it be true that this Spanish settlement was in James river, it is not unreasonable to conclude that they may have explored that river to the falls, and Spaniards may thus have been the first white men to look upon the site of the present city of Richmond. Record evidences on this point are *For information and references to authorities respecting the Spanish settlement in Virginia made at " San Miguel de Gu- andape," by Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, see Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. II, p. 489, and Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. II, pp. 240 and 285. He sailed from Puerto de La Plata, San Domingo, early in June, 1526, with three ships carrying 600 men and 100 horses. His i smallest vessel was wrecked off the Carolina coast, and one was there built by him to take its place " the first instance of ship-building on our coast." The priests in his expedition were Antonio de Montesinos " the first to denounce Indian slavery," Antonio de Cervantes and Pedro de Estrada, all Dominicans. Ayllon selected the most favorable spot on the bank, though most of the land was low and swampy, and in the erection of their houses they used the labor of negro slaves "the first in- troduced here." They suffered much from chills and fevers, Indian hostilities, incendiarisms of their negro slaves, personal not now known, though they may exist in the un- explored manuscript treasures of the Vatican or the archives of the Superior General of the Do- minican Order. The first white men to visit the present site of Richmond, so far as we have known record evi- dences, were the explorers under Captain Christo- pher Newport, who spent a day hereabouts just ten days after their landing at Jamestown. In the "Certain Orders and Directions conceived and set down the tenth day of December (1606) . . . by his Majesties Counsel for Virginia, for the better government of his Majesties subjects, both captains, soldiers, marriners and others that are now bound for that coast to settle his Majesties' first colony in Virginia, there to be by them ob- served as well in their passages thither by sea, as after their arrival and landing there,"* we find, bickerings and altercations. Ayllon died here of fever October 18, 1526, and not very long thereafter the settlement was aban- doned, but only about 150 men had survived when they returned to San Domingo. For references to the sources of information concerning the later Spanish settlement attempted by Menendez and Jesuit missionaries under Father Segura, at "Axacan," in 1570, see Id. p. 282. They ascended the Potomac, crossed over to the shores of the Rappahannock, and erected a chapel there, but were massacred by the Indians. Menendez, on his return from Spain in 1572, visited this site, and is said to have hung from the yard-arms of his vessel some of the Indians who had taken part in the massacre. May not the skeletons in iron cages reported to have been unearthed on the Rappahannock in the past year or two date from this Spanish settlement ? These Orders and Directions and the Instructions were first printed by the late Rev. E. D. Neill, in 1869, from the copies preserved with the manuscript Virginia Company Records 1621-1625, still unpublished, in the Library of Congress. When the history of Virginia is written, its compiler will be under great obligations to Neill for the materials made accessible through his efforts. Some recent writers, who refer to him, since his death, with contemptuous epithets, are very much more indebted to him for information than they have had the grace to acknowledge. among others, this instruction: ". . . the said Captain Newport shall with such number of men as shall be assigned him by the President and Counsel of the said Colony, spend and bestow two months in discovery of such ports and rivers as can be found in that country, and shall give order for the present laiding and furnishing of the two ships above named [the Sarah Constant and the Goodspeed], and all such principal comodities and merchandize as can there be had and found, in such sort as he may return with the said ships full laden with good merchandizes, bringing with him full relation of all that hath passed in said voyage, by the end of May next, if God permit."* From the Instructions given by way of advice to the voyagers, which were probably drawn up by Hakluyt, we take the following extracts: "When you have discovered as far up the river as you mean to plant yourselves and landed your victuals and munitions, to the end that every man may know his charge, you shall do well to divide your six score men into three parts, whereof one party of them you may appoint to fortify and build, of which your first work must be your storehouse for victual; another you may employ in preparing your ground and sowing your corn and roots, ten of these forty you must leave as centinel at the haven's mouth. The other forty you may employ for two months in discovery of the river above you, and on the country about you, which charge Cap- tain Newport and Captain Gosnold may undertake of these forty discoverers; when they do espie any high lands or hills Captain Gosnold may take twenty of the Company to cross over the lands and, carrying a half-dozen pickaxes, to try if they can find any minerals, "f . . . "You shall do *Neill's Virginia Company, p. 8; Brown's Genesis, p. 75. tNeill's Virginia Company, p. 10; Brown's Genesis, p. 82. 8 well to send a perfect relation by Captain Newport of all that is done, what height [/. e., latitude] you are seated, how far into the land, what commodities you find, what soil, woods and their several kinds; and so of all other things else to advertise particu- larly; and to suffer no man to return but by pass- port from the President and Counsel, nor to write any letter of anything that may discourage others."* In pursuance of these orders and instructions, on Thursday, the 2ist of May, 1607, about noon, just one week after landing and beginning their settle- ment at Jamestown which was on Thursday, the I4th of May, 1607, old style, corresponding to May 24th of our present calendar Captain Christopher Newport, with five gentlemen, George Percy, Esq., Capt. Gabriel Archer, Capt. John Smith, Mr. John Brooks and Dr. Thomas Wotton; four mariners, Francis Nelson, John Colson, Robert Tindall and Mathew Fitch, and fourteen sailors, Jonas Poole, Robert Markham, John Crookdeck, Oliver Browne, Benjamin White, Rich. Genoway, Tho. Turnbridge, Tho. Godword, Robert Jackson, Charles Clarke, Thomas Skinner, Jeremy Deale, Stephen and Daniel, set out from Jamestown, in their ' ' shallop, ' ' " with a perfect resolution not to return, but either to find the head of this river, the lake mentioned by others heretofore, the sea againe, the maun- tayne Apalatsi, or some issue." And on Saturday, the 23d day of May, 1607, old style, corresponding to June 2d of the present calendar, they saw for the first time the present site of Richmond.! We have, besides the references made to this voyage by Capt. John Smith in his printed accounts, * Neill's Virginia Company, p. 13. Brown's Genesis, p. 85. t Charles Campbell, History of Virginia (1860), p. 42, erron- eously gives this date as June 10. W. G. Stanard, in the His- torical Sketch of Richmond, in the Times Almanac 1899, gives this date May 21. They left Jamestown about noon May 21, and reached the falls Saturday afternoon, May 23. the statements of George Percy in his "Relation," first printed by Purchas, and the very minute and interesting "Relation of the Discovery of our River, by a Gentleman of the Colony," attributed to Capt. Gabriel Archer, first Secretary or Recorder of the Colony. These three are the principal origi- nal authorities on this voyage of discovery. Robert Tindall, one of the mariners, who is referred to as "Gunner to His Highness," wrote a letter to Prince Henry, from Jamestown, June 22d, 1607, at the time of Newport's return for England, trans- mitting to him a journal of the voyage and a "draughte " or map of the river. The original of this letter is preserved in the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum.* Archer says: "Thus parting from Arahatecs ioye,~\ we found the people on either syde the River stand in Clus- ters all along, still profering vs victualls, which of some were accepted; as our guydes (that were with vs in the boate) pleased, and gaue them requitall. " So after we had passed some 10. myle, which (by the pleasure and ioye we took of our kinde in- * Archer's Relation was first printed in 1860 by the American Antiquarian Society Arch&ologia Americana, vol. IV, pp. 40 ft seg, and Judge Wm. Green identified him as the author. Bancroft said: " this relation has an interest from its fulness of details and its indisputable authenticity." The extracts here given from the accounts of Archer, Percy and Smith, are copied from Edward Arber's Edition of Captain John Smith's Works, sm. 8vo. pp. cxxxvi and 984, Birmingham, 1884, reissued West- minster, 1895. This book and Alexander Brown's two works, Genesis of the United States and First Republic in America, are probably, of all current books, the most useful to the student of the early history of Virginia, and they should be more widely read in this State. Of John Fiske's Old Virginia and Her Neighbors probably ten thousand copies have been sold, but a small percentage of that number was, however, bought in Virginia. t Either Cox's Landing or "Newstead," the plantation for- merly owned by Col. Wm. Boulware now owned by Bennett. 8 terteynment, and for the Comfort of our happy and hopefull Discovery) we accompted scarce. 5. we came to the second Ilet* Described in the Ryver; over against which on Popham syde is the habita- tyon of the greate kyng Pawatah : f which I call Pawatahs Towre ; it is scituat upon a highe Hill by the water syde, a playne betweene it and the water. 12. score over, whereon hesowes his wheate, beane, peaze, tobacco, pompions, gourdes, Hempe, flaxe, &c. And were any Art vsed to the naturall state of this place, it would be a goodly habitatyon: Heere we were conducted vp the Hill to the kyng, with whome we found our kinde king Arahatec: Thes. 2. satt by themselves aparte from all the rest (saue one who satt by Powhatah, and what he was I could not gesse but they told me he was no Wiroans): Many of his company satt on either side: and the mattes for vs were layde right over against the kynges. He caused his weomen to bring vs vittailes, mulberyes, strawberryes &c. but our best entertaynment was frendly wellcome." . . . " Now the Day Drawing on, we made signe to be gone, wherewith he was contented; and sent. 6. men with vs: we also left a man with him, and De- parted. But now rowing some. 3. myle in shold water we came to an overfall, impassable for boates * Turkey Island, having been previously referred to in the narrative. fjohn Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, vol. I, p. 94, gives " Falling Waters " as the English equivalent of Powha- tan. But " Powotawh " meant a hill, a mountain; " Powotawh- an," hilly, mountainous. The Powhatan meant then, I think, the hereditary ruler of the people in the hill country. " Shacaho" meant a stone ; " Shacahocan," of or pertaining to stone. From this comes our name " Shockoe " Creek. The "Old Rock Landing" was on the West bank of this creek, at its mouth, near the present site of the Ola Gas Works. " Mananst " meant a little stone; " Mananst-oh," stony, rocky. The high land on the South side of the river at the Falls was named " Rocky Ridge " by the English, the Indians doubtless called it " Mananstoh," and this name, pronounced quickly, sounds very like the Englishman's pronunciation to-day of Manchester. 9 any further. Here the water falles Downe through great mayne Rockes, from ledges of Rockes aboue. 2. fadome highe: in which fall it maketh Divers little Iletts, on which might be placed 100. water milnes for any vses. Our mayne Ryver ebbs and flowes. 4. foote even to ye skert of this Downfall. Shippes of. 200. or. 300. tonne may come to within. 5. myle hereof, and the rest Deepe inoughe for Barges, or small vessells that Drawe not aboue. 6. foote water. Having viewed this place, betweene Content and greefe we left it for this night, deter- myning the next Day to fitt our selfe for a March by Land. "So we roade all night betweene Pawatahs Tower and that Ilet I call* whereon is. 6. or. 7. families." . . . " Sonday, Whitsonday, our Captayne caused two peeces of porke to be sodd a shore with pease; to * Blank in original. In the manuscript book of Evidencts of the Lands of Wm. Syrd, preserved in the Virginia Historical Society, there is recorded the plat of a survey made by Wm. Hall, 26 August, 1662, for Captain Thos. Stegg, uncle of the first Wm. Byrd, of what later became known as the "Falls Plantation," on the south side of James River extending from the mouth of Goode's Creek up to a point above the present site of the works of the Allison & Addison Branch of the Vir- ginia-Carolina Chemical Company. This plat shows " Har- rards, or Harwood's" Island, then, below it, "My Lord's Isle," of much larger area, below that a small island called "Prince's 1 ' or "Prince's Folly.' ' Later maps show and deeds refer to, in addition to these, " Edward's Island," doubtless so called from Edward Lane, an early settler there, and " Willow Island," both of which were below " Prince's Folly." All of these Islands were above the mouth of Goode's Creek, then called Stony Creek. The action of the currents in nearly three centu- ries of floods, and the work of the improvement of the river for deepening the channel have, of course, very greatly changed the physical situation hereabouts. There is at present a penin sula of very considerable area variousiy styled on our modern maps " Drury's," " Drewry's " and " Hardin's" Island. From its centre to the falls the distance by river is a little over two miles. In the low grounds, about opposite the centre of " My Lord's Isle," Captain Stegg had built a one story stone house, which was standing in 1662. 10 which he invyted king Pawatah: for Arahatec per- swading himselfe we would come Downe the Ryver that night, went home before Dynner, for prepara- tyon against our Coming." . . . " Now Arahatec departed, and it being Dynner tyme, king Pawatah with some of his people satt with vs, brought of his dyet,and wefedd familiarly, without sitting in his state as before; he eat very freshly of our meat, Dranck of our beere, Aqua- vite, and Sack. Dynner Done we entred into Dis- course of the Ryver how far it might be to the head thereof, where they gat their Copper, and their Iron, and how many dayes iornye it was to Mona- nacah Rahowacah and the Mountaines Quirank:* requesting him to have guydes with vs also in our intended March; for our Captaine Determyned to haue travelled two or. 3. dayes iornye a foot vp the Ryver: but without gyving any answer to our Demaundes, he shewde he would meete vs him- selfe at the overfall and so we parted. This Naui- raus accompanyed vs still in the boate. According to his promyse he mett vs; where the fellow whome I haue called our kinde Consort, he that followed vs from Turkey lie, at the Coming of Pawatah made signe to vs we must make a shoute, which we Dyd. " Now sitting vpon the banck by the overfall be- holding the same,f he began to tell vs of the tedyous travell we should haue if wee proceeded any fur- ther, that it was a Daye and a halfe lorney to Mo- nanacah, and if we went to Quiranck, we should get no vittailes and be tyred, and sought by all meanes to Disswade our Captayne from going any further: Also he tolde vs that the Monanacah was * The Blue Ridge. The knowledge of the Appalachian mountains possessed by the Virginia Company was doubtless had from the references in the Spanish relations. t The word here printed " same," is " sonne " in Archceologia, and Rev. E. E. Hale says, in a note, " The sun; or perhaps ' looking westward.' " 11 his Enmye, and that he came Downe at the fall of the leafe and invaded his Countrye. "Now what I coniecture of this I haue left to a further experience. But our Captayne out of his Discreyton (though we would faine have scene fur- ther, yea and himselfe as desirous also) Checkt his intentyon and retorned to his boate; as holding it much better to please the king (with whome and all of his Comaund he had made so faire way) then to prosecute his owne fancye or satisfye our re- questes: So vpon one of the little Iletts at the mouth of the falls* he sett vp a Crosse with this in- scription lacobus Rex. 1607. and his owne name belowe: At the erecting hereof we prayed for our kyng and our owne prosperous success in this his Actyon, and proclaymed him kyng, with a greate showte. The king Pawatah was now gone (and as we noted somewhat Distasted with our importunity of proceeding vp further) and all the Salvages like- wise save Nauiraus, who seeing vs set vp the Crosse with such a shoute, began to admire; but our Captayne told him that the two Armes of the Crosse signifyed king Powatah and himselfe, the fastening of it in the myddest was their vnited * If, in their trip by land from the Indian village to the falls on Sunday afternoon, they followed, as seems probable, the north bank of the river, the Indian guide taking their boat up by river, and this cross was erected after returning from the rocks to their boat, the probable place of this ceremony was the small island shown on early maps of Richmond as Lot No. 321, at the North end of Mayo's bridge, which island after the construction of the James River and Kanawha Canal became incorporated into the main land. Here Mayo's Warehouse formerly stood and its site is now the freight depots of the Southern Railway. A stone monument with a bronze tablet, to mark the height of the flood of 1877, removed to this locality from the vicinity of Fifteenth and Main Streets a few years ago, has within the past year been buried by the raised grade in repaving Fourteenth Street. Some generations hence it may be unearthed to the delight of any inhabitant then who may be curious about our history. 12 Leaug, and the shoute the reverence he Dyd to Pawatah, which cheered Nauiraus not a little." "So far as we could Discerne the River above the overfall, it was full of huge Rockes: About a myle of [f], it makes a pretty bigg Hand;* It runnes up betweene highe Hilles which increace in height one aboue another so farr as wee sawe. Now our kynde Consortes relay ton sayth (which I dare well beleeve, in that I found not any one report false of the River so farr as we tryed, or that he tolde vs vntruth in any thing ells whatsoeuer) that after a Dayes iorney or more, this River Devydes it selfe into two branches, which both come from the mountaynes Quirank. Here he whispered with me that theer caquassartf was gott in the bites ot Rockes and betweene ClifFes in certayne vaynes. " Having ended thus of force our Discovery, our Captayne intended to call of kyng Pawatah, and sending Nauiraus vp to him he came Downe to the water syde; where he went a shore single vnto him, presented him with a Hatchet, and staying but till Nauiraus had tolde (as we trewly perceived ) the meaning of our setting vp the Crosse, which we found did exceedingly reioyce him, he came a boorde, with the kyndest farewell that possible might be. Now at our putting of[f] the boate, Nauiraus willed vs to make a shout, which we Dyd two severall times, at which ye king and his com- pany weaved their skinnes about their heades answering our shout with gladnes in a frendly fashion. "This night (though late) we came to Arahatec loy, where we found the king ready to entertayne vs, and had provided some victualls for vs, but he *Called on our early maps " Broad Rock Island," now " Belle Isle," famed as a prison camp during the Civil War, the site of the Old Dominion Iron and Nail Works. t " Redstone or copper." Hale's Note in Archceologia. 13 tolde vs he was very sick, and not able to sitt vp long with us, so we repaired aborde. "Monday he came to the water syde, and we went a shore to him agayne. He tolde vs that our hott Drynckes he thought caused his greefe, but that he was well agayne, and we were very well- come." Percy says: "This Riuer which wee haue discouered is one of the famousest Riuers that euer was found by any Christian. It ebbes and flowes a hundred and threescore miles, where ships of great burthen may harbour in safetie. Wheresoeuer we landed vpon this Riuer, wee saw the goodliest Woods as Beech, Oke, Cedar, Cypresse, Wai-nuts, Sassafras and Vines in great abundance which hang in great clusters on many Trees, and other Trees vnkown; and all the grounds bespred with many sweet and delicate flowres of diuers colours and kindes. There are also many fruites as Strawberries, Mul- berries, Rasberries, and Fruites vnknowne. There are many branches of this Riuer, which runne flow- ing through the Woods with great plentie of fish of all kindes; as for Sturgeon, all the World can- not be compared to it. In this Countrey I haue scene many great and large Medowes hauing ex- cellent good pasture for many Cattle. There is also great store of Deere both Red and Fallow. There are Beares, Foxes, Otters, Beuers, Muskats, and wild beasts vnknown. "The foure and twentieth day, we set up a Crosse at the head of this Riuer, naming it Kings Riuer, where we proclaimed lames King of Eng- land to haue the most right vnto it. When wee had finished and set vp our Crosse, we shipt our men and made for lames Fort. " By the way, wee came to Powhatans Towre, where the Captaine went on shore, suffering none 14 to goe with him. Hee presented the Commander of this place with a Hatchet; which hee tooke ioy- fully, and was well pleased. " But yet the Sauages murmured at our planting in the Countrie, whereupon this Wcroivance made answere againe very wisely of a Sauage, Why should you bee offended with them, as long as they hurt you not, nor take any thing away by force. They take but a little waste ground, which doth you nor any of vs any good." Smith says in the True Relation, printed at London 1608: "But to finish this discourie, we passed on fur- ther, where within an ile we were intercepted with great scraggy stones in the midst of the riuer, where the water falleth so rudely, and with such a violence, as not any boat can possibly passe, and so broad disperseth the streame, as there is not past fiue or sixe Foote at a low water, and to the shore scarce passage with a barge, the water flow- eth foure foote, and the freshes by reason of the Rockes haue left markes of the inundations 8. or 9. foote: The south side is plaine low ground, and the north side high mountaines, the rockes being of a grauelly nature, interlaced with many vains of glistring spangles. "That night we returned to Powhatan: the next day (being Whitsunday after dinner) we returned to the fals. leauing a mariner in pawn with the In- dians for a guide of theirs, hee that they honoured for King followed vs by the riuer. That afternoone we trifled in looking vpon the Rockes and riuer (further he would not goe) so there we erected a crosse, and that night taking our man at Powhatans^ Captaine Newport congratulated his kindenes with a Gown and a Hatchet: returning to Arsetecke, and stayed there the next day to obserue the height thereof, and so with many signes of loue we departed." 15 Smith, in the second part of the Map of Virginia, printed at Oxford 1612, says: "Newport, with Smith, and 20 others, were sent to discover the head of the river. By divers smal habitations they passed. In 6 daies they arrived at a towne called Powhatan, consisting of some 12 houses pleasantly seated on a hill: before it, 3 fertil lies, about it many of their cornefields. The place is very pleasant, and strong by nature. Of this place, the Prince is called Powhatan, and his people Powhatans. To this place, the riuer is navigable; but higher within a mile, by reason of the Rockes and lies, there is not passage for a smal boate: this they call the Falles." Smith's History, 1624, merely reproduces the statement printed by him in 1612: "Newport, Smith, and twentie others, were sent to discover the head of the riuer; by divers small habitations they passed, in six dayes they arrived at a Towne called Powhatan, consisting of some tvvelue houses, pleasantly seated on a hill; before it three fertile lies, about it many of their corne- fields, the place is very pleasant, and strong by nature, of this place the Prince is called Poivhatan, and his people Powhatans. To this place the river is navigable: but higher within a myle, by reason of the Rockes and Isles, there is not passage for a small Boat, this they call the Falles." Smith, in the time of his Presidency, spent nine days at the falls, last of August and first of Sep- tember, 1609, endeavoring to remove the 120 settlers under West, who had, he says, " seated in a place not only subject to the river's inundation, but round invironed with many intolerable incon- veniences," to the Indian village which was, he says, " pretilie fortified with poles and barkes of trees sufficient to have defended them from all the 16 salvages in Virginia, drie houses for lodgings, 300 acres of ground ready to plant, [this he changed in the General History to read " neere two hundred acres,"] and no place so strong, so pleasant and delightful in Virginia, for which we called it Non- such." But his endeavors were unsuccessful; he "left them to their fortunes, they returning again to the open air at West Fort, abandoning Nonsuch, and he to Jamestown with his best expedition."* The following extracts are from Wm. Strachey's Travaile into Virginia, written about 1612, but first printed by the Hakluyt Society in 1849: " Concerning the high-land little can we say as yet, because thereof little have we discovered; only some Indians' relations and some fewe daies' * For the following extract from the Byrd Manuscript Evi- dences of Lands, I presume that Col. Wm. Byrd may be taken as authority. " The great Emperor Powhatan dwelt at the Falls of James River, where he kept his Court, but being Jealous of the Neighbourhood of the English, who extended themselves high up that River, and intending to remove to a place on Powto- meck, he sold the Lands about the Falls to the Lord Delaware for the use of the Virginia Company, & several of the Com- pany's Tenants were seated there, the Land being exceedingly good. But there being a great slaughter of them at the time of the Massacre by the Indians, that place was deserted til the Dissolution of the Company, nor did anybody dare to go thither to live for several years afterwards, for fear of the Monacan Indians. In that deserted condition this fine place lay til the year 1634, when it was granted by Patent to George Minefee, Esqr. This Gentleman granted the Land about the Falls to Capt. Matthew Gough, and he conveyed it to John White, Merchant, Mr. White conveyed the same by Deed dated 26th of December 1649 to Fleetwood Dormer, Gent., for 15,000 Ib. Tobacco and Cask." This has, however, reference specially to 1,000 acres of what afterwards became known as the "Falls Plantation " on the South side of the river. Dormer conveyed to Rev. Robert Lesley. Wm. Drummond as Attorney for Lesley, sold to Capt. Thos Stegg, October 28, 1659, and the consideration named in his deed of conveyance dated Novem- ber 25, 1661, is ninety pounds sterling. Stegg by his will dated March 31, 1670, bequeathed it to his nephew, the first William Byrd. 17 marches into the Monocan country of our owne, have instructed us thus far. "This high land extendeth, we wot not how far, beyond that cataract or fall of water, which the In- dians call Paquachowng,* from whence one daie's jorney into the Monocan country. Our elder plant- ers (at their first comyng) proclaymed His Majes- tic king of the country at Mohomingef (a neighbour village), and sett up a crosse there with His Majes- tie's name inscribed thereon, the said falls being one hundred and fifty myles up from the mouth of the bay, and where the current there at his head falleth, with an easye discent, three or four fath- ome downe into the low contry." ... P. 25. " Upon Powhatan, or the King's river, are seated as followeth: " i. Parahunt, one of Powhatan's sonnes, whome we therefore call Tanxpowatan, which is as much to say Little Powhatan, and is weroance of the country which hath his owne name, called Powha- tan, lying (as before mencioned) close under the Falls, bordering the Monacans, and he maye at the present be furnished with fifty fighting and ready men." ... P. 56. "The great emperour at this time amongst them, we comondly call Powhatan, for by that name, true yt is, he was made knowne unto us when we arrived in the country first, and so, indeed, he was generally called when he was a yong man, as tak- ing his denomination from the country Powhatan, wherin he was borne, which is above the Falls, as before mentioned, right over aneinst the islands, at * This is evidently only a variation of the Indian sounds which we now render " Powhatan." fOne of the early plats of lands patented by Captain Wm. Byrd, on the north side of the river, shows Indian huts above the mouth of Shockoe Creek, in the vicinity of the present site of Planters and Merchants Warehouse and the Old Gas Works. " Mowkohan " meant a fish-hook, and " Mohominge" may have meant a fishing-place. 18 the head of our river, and which place, or birth- right of his, he sold, anno 1609, about September, unto Captain Francys West, our lord generall's brother, who therefore erected there a fort, calling yt West's Fort, and sate himself down there with one hundred and twenty English; the inhabitants themselves, especially his frontier neighbour prince, call him still Powhatan; his owne people some- times call him Ottaniack, sometyme Mamanato- wick, which last signifies "great king"; but his proper right name, which they salute him with (himself in presence), is Wahunsenacawh." . . . P. 48. "He hath divers seates or howses; his chief, when we came into the country, was upon Pamunky River, on the north side or Pembrook side, called Werowocomoco, which, by interpretacion, signi- fies kinges'-howse; howbeit, not liking to neigh- bour so neere us, that house being within some fif- teen or sixteen miles where he saw we purposed to hold ourselves, and from whence, in six or seven howers, we were able to visite him, he removed, and ever since hath most what kept at a place in the des- arts called Orapaks, at the top of the river Chicka- hamania, betweene Youghtamund and Powhatan. He is a goodly old man, not yet shrincking, though well beaten with many cold and stormye winters, in which he hath bene patient of many necessityes and attempts of his fortune to make his name and famely great. He is supposed to be little lesse than eighty yeares old, I dare not saye how much more; others saye he is of a tall stature and cleane lymbes, of a sad aspect, rownd fatt visaged, with graie haires, but plaine and thin, hanging upon his broad showlders; some few haires upon his chin, and so on his upper lippe: he hath been a strong and able salvadge, synowe, and of a daring spirit, vigilant, ambitious, subtile to enlarge his dominions : for, but the countryes Powhatan, Arrohatock, Appa- 19 matuck, Pamunky, Youghtamund, and Mattapa- mient, which are said to come unto him by inheri- tance, all the rest of the territories before named and expressed in the mappe, and which are all ad- joyning to that river whereon we are seated, they report (as is likewise before remembred) to have been eyther by force subdued unto him, or through feare yeilded." P. 49. The following extract is from the History of Richmond, by Dr. John P. Little, Southern Lite- rary Messenger, Vol. XVII (1851), p. 610, and will at least afford a contrast of the literary styles of the "makers" of Virginia History, in 1607, and its " writers " nearly two and a half centuries later: " Beautifully must the landscape have appeared in the evening sunlight, as Smith and his bold companions made their way up to the foot of the falls. The mighty river rolling and tumbling down its rocky bed, dashing and roaring among the rocks that impeded its course, spreading placidly out into a broad bay below; the various islands that dotted its surface; the low grounds now cultivated and the site of Manchester covered with dense for- ests in the full leaf of summer; the high hills around, made still more high by their crown of tall trees, glancing and waving in the sunlight, and casting a sombre shadow on the turbid waters be- low; the Indian village in the distance, with its smoke columns ascending for the evening meal; and a troop of painted savages on the shore, watch- ing the boat's crew and forbidding their landing, made up a scene of wild and picturesque beauty. So accurately does Smith describe the residence of Powhatan, by the beauty of situation, the quantity of arable land around, the three islands opposite and the distance from the falls, that it will be at once recognized as the place called by his name, 20 and now owned by Col. Mayo.* The Indian chief had chosen his residence well; cultivated fields lay around; his town was well palisadoed and thor- oughly protected; the falls of the river lay a short distance above, affording every opportunity for the use of the spear or the trap in catching fish, and hunting grounds densely wooded, stood on each bank. "It was truly an Indian Paradise; affording all that savage life requires, security, abundant food, and the pleasure of hunting." *Stith, History of Virginia (1747), p. 46, says " This Place 1 judge to be either Mrs. Mayo's or else Marring's Planta- tion." Archer's circumstantial account of this exploration to the falls was not known to either Stith or Little, and the de- scriptions given by him make it rather improbable that the place called Powhatan by the Mayo family could have been the site of the Indian village. The location given on the two maps re- produced from originals in Brown's Genesis, pp. 150 and 184, indicate a site further from the falls than the Mayo place. That place is certainly not distant three miles from the falls, it would hardly have been called by them a " highe hill " or a "towre ', when looking upon the greater elevations which surround it, and there are not 300, nor " neere two hundred acres" of lowgrounds about it. It is much nearer to the falls than a point opposite " My Lord's Isle." The present " Marion Hill " (Mar- rings Plantation) or even " Tree Hill " would more nearly meet these requirements. I have searched the existing Henrico County Records without finding in the descriptions of the lands acquired by Joseph Mayo, who came here from Barbadoes about 1723, any reference to Indian possession or occupation. Imprynted by William Ellis Jones, xte ye signe of "The Mint," in South Twelfth Street, Richmond, Virginia, July, igo. 98612 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FAPII ITV A A 000019268 2 UNIVERSITY of CALIFOKM* AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY