These Indians lived more on fish, and much less on venison, bears' flesh, and other wild game, than their countrymen farther back. This circumstance, and the inoffensive conduct of the white settlers, were the occasions of their long peace of sixty years. The settlers purchased land of them, and paid for it promptly, the Indians generally reserving a square of some three or four miles, including their towns.

Some slight disputes had been occasioned by strong drink; but Governor Daniel, who was an exception to the bad governors I have mentioned, stipulated with the Indian chiefs, in 1703, in a solemn treaty, that no rum should be sold to an Indian by any trader. The young Indians, however, complained of this, as a restraint upon their natural liberty. Some time afterwards, they demanded and obtained the usual supply of rum, unawed by the great havoc which strong drink had occasioned among the tribes.

The Chowanoke Indians, who could bring three thousand bowmen into the field in Smith's time, as we have seen, were now reduced to fifteen men. They lived in a miserable little village on Bennett's creek. The Mangoacks had equally diminished in strength. The powerful Muatocks had wholly disappeared: fifteen hundred volunteers, living on the north side of Albemarle sound, had assembled at Dasamonquipo, in 1585, for the massacre of the English colony on Roanoke island. But all the

tribes to which these Indians belonged were now reduced to forty-six fighting men.

In fact, the Tuskaroras, who lived on the Neuse river, were now the only powerful tribe in North Carolina; they could muster one thousand two hundred fighting men; the Waccon Indians one hundred and twenty; and about a dozen other tribes together might muster half as many more. The Tuskaroras, living at some distance from the first settlements, had suffered little from the use of strong drink. These Indians had observed, however, with some anger, the encroachments of the whites upon the reserved squares of the various tribes, during the rebellious and other riotous times.

Their temper was soured, too, by the frequent impositions of fraudulent white traders. The first white man who fell a sacrifice to their jealousy, was one John Lawson, well known among them as surveyor-general of the province of North Carolina. He had marked off some of their lands, accidentally, perhaps. Among the rest, a tract of five thousand acres, and another of ten thousand, had been lately surveyed for Graffenried. Soon after this, Lawson and Graffenried, together, undertook to explore the waters of the Neuse.

They took a small boat at New Bern, and ascended the river. In the evening of the first day, they stopped at Coram, an Indian village, where they intended to lodge. Here they met two Tuska

roras, though Lawson had assured Graffenried, that the banks were uninhabited. These two were soon after joined by a great number more, well armed. The baron now grew uneasy. He whispered to Lawson, that they had better proceed up the river. Lawson assented, not liking the looks of the Indians himself; and they began to move off from the fire they had made, towards the river.

They had no sooner reached their boats, however, than such a press of the savages followed close after them, that it became impossible to keep them off. They took the arms and provisions of the two travellers, to begin with. They then stripped them of every thing else they possessed. The Indians afterwards compelled them to march off with themselves to an Indian village, at a considerable distance from the river. There the two captives were delivered to the sachem of the village. He immediately called a council, at which one of the Indians delivered a long and violent speech in the savage style, distorting and beating himself. The question was then put, whether the whites should be bound: this was decided in the negative. The reason given was, that the guilty should always have an opportunity to defend and explain their conduct. Such an idea had these simple savages of the first principles of justice, and so strictly did they regard it.

The next morning, the captives, anxious as to their fate, desired to know what the Indians intended to do with them. They were told, that the sa

chem would that evening invite a number of neighboring sachems to an entertainment, who would also assist in the trial, and the decision of the prisoners' fate. In the evening, accordingly, upwards of two hundred Indians collected, forty of whom were chiefs, or leading men. By these forty, the prisoners were interrogated very closely, as to their intention in ascending the river. The latter replied, that they were endeavoring to find and lay out some shorter and better road to Virginia than the present one travelled by the Carolina settlers. Such a road, they said, would accommodate the Indians as much as the English.

The sachems were still dissatisfied. They complained much of the conduct of the Carolina colonies towards them, and charged Lawson, in particular, with having sold their land. They said that one Hancock had stolen a gun from them; and that a Mr. Price had cheated them abominably, which, I dare say, was true. But, notwithstanding all this, they did not at this time object to the release of the prisoners.

The latter were examined again the next morning, and gave the same answers as before. But it happened, unluckily, that an Indian named Cor Thomas, was now present, whom Lawson imprudently reprimanded for certain ill conduct he had known him to be guilty of. Cor, being irritated, " gave a very unfavorable turn to the affairs of the prisoners. The council itself broke up without de