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Show 35 5 6 4 INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES IKTH.ANN.18 tho natives. 'Tis truo, the circumstances of the parties admitted not a fair and legal purchase; and after the massacre, the Indians were strippod of their inheritance without the shadow of justice. The special items, however, upon which this verdict appears to have been founded are brief and unsatisfactory. It is only after the dissolution of the company in 1G24 and the records of the general assembly are reached, that the policy of Virginia in regard to the Indian title is clearly set forth. According to Stith,1 Powhatan's "hereditary countries were only Powhatan, Arrohatock, about twelve miles down, which hath since been corrupted to Haddihaddocks, Appamatock, Youghtanuud, Pamunkey, and Mattapony, to which may be added, Werowocomoco and Kiskiack, or as it hath since been called Cheesecake, between Williamsburg and York. All the rest were his Conquests; and they were bounded on the South by James river, with all its Branches, from the Mouth to the Falls, and so across the Country, nearly as high as the Falls of all the great Rivers over Patowmack even to Patuxen in Maryland. And some Nations also on the Eastern Shore owned Subjectiou to him." In 1000 Smith purchased of Powhatan the place called Powhatan, which had formerly been this chief's residence. The conditions of this agreement, as given by Stith (page 104), were as follows: "That the English should defend him against the Manakins; that he [Powhatan] should resign to them the fort and the houses, with all that country, for a proportion of copper," etc. The extent of territory included under "all that country" is unknown. It also appears from Stith (page 140) that in 1G16 the Indians, being much straitened for food, applied, through their chief, to Sir Thomas Dale, then governor of the English colony, for corn. Sir Thomas Dale, among the many Praises, justly due to his Administration, had been particularly careful of the Supplies of Life; and had, accordingly, always caused so much Corn to bo planted, that the Colony lived in great Plenty and Abundance. Nay, whereas they had formerly been constrained, to buy Corn of the Indians Yearly, which exposed them to much Scorn and Difficulty, the Case was so much altered under his Management, that the Indians sometimes applied to the English, and would sell the very Skins from their Shoulders for Corn. And to some of their petty Kings, Sir Thomas lent four or five hundred Bushels; for Repayment whereof tho next Year, ho took a Mortgage of their whole countries. Whether the Indians' claim that this was repaid was conceded, or was true, is not known. Nothing further than an application for corn by Mr Yeardly and a refusal by the Indians to furnish it is recorded. In 1G1S a party of Chickahoininy killed a number of persons, and complaint was made to Opechancanough, who was their chief. In reply he sent a basket of earth to the governor as an evidence that the town of the aggressors was given to the English. It appears incidentally from Burk's History that a treaty was concluded with the Indians in 1G36, fixing their boundary line, but no par- ] History of Virginia, Sabin's reprint, pp. 53-54. |