THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
A Description of the English
Province of Carolana
|
Coxe, Daniel, "A Description of the English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French La Louisiane" in: B. F. French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, pt. II, 1850, pp. 223-276. |
Sixteen leagues further upon the west side, enter the Meschacebe two rivers, which united about ten leagues above, and make an island called by the name of the Torimans, by whom it is inhabited.
The southerly of these two rivers is that of the Ousoutiwy, upon which dwell first the Arkansas, a great nation, higher upon the same river the Kansae, Mintou, Erabacha and other.
The river to the north is named Niska, upon which live part of the nation of the Ozages; their great body inhabiting a large river which bears their name, and empties itself into the Yellow River, as will be hereafter mentioned: and upon this river near the mouth is the nation Tonginga, who with the Torimas are part of the Arkansas.
Ten leagues higher is a small river named Cappa, and upon it a people of the same name, and another called Ouesperies, who fled, to avoid the persecution of the Irocois, from a river which still bears their name, to be mentioned hereafter.
Ten miles higher on the same side of the Meschacebe, is a little river named Matchicebe upon which dwell the nations Mitchigamia and Epiminguia; over against whom is the great nation of the Chicazas (Chickasaws), whose country extends above forty leagues to the river of the Cherequees (Tennessee), which we shall describe when we come to discourse of the great river Hohio.
Ten leagues higher, on the east side, is the river and nation of Chongue, with some others to the east of them.
Fifteen leagues higher, on the west side, is the river and nation of Sypouria.
Thirty leagues higher on the east side is the opening of a river that proceeds out of a lake twenty miles long, which is about ten miles from the Meschacebe. Into this lake empty themselves four large rivers. The most northerly, which comes from the north-east, is called Ouabachicou or Ouabache, upon which dwelt the nations (page 229) Chachakingua, Pepepicokia, Pianguichia. The next south of this is the vast river Hohio (Ohio), which comes from the back of New York, Maryland, and Virginia, and is navigable 600 miles. Hohio in the Indian language signifies the fair river; and certainly it runs from its heads through the most beautiful fertile countries in the universe, and is formed by the confluence of ten or twelve rivers, and innumerable rivulets. A town settled upon this lake, or the entrance of the river Hohio thereinto, would have communication with a most lovely fruitful country 600 miles square. Formerly, divers nations dwelt on this river, as the Chawanoes (Shawanees), a mighty and very populous people, who had above fifty towns, and many other nations, who were totally destroyed or driven out of their country by the Irocois, this river being their usual road when they make war upon the nations who lie to the south or to the west.
Fifteen leagues above the Hohio, or the river coming out of the lake aforementioned, to the west, is the river Honabanou, upon which dwells a nation of the same name, and another called Amicoa; and ten leagues above that is the great island of the Tamaroas, and over against it, on the east side, a nation which goes by its name, and another by that of Cahokia, who dwell on the banks of the river Chepusso.
The seas or lakes are five. First, the superior lake before mentioned, it being of all most northerly, and is called by most of the savages the Lake of the Nadouessons (Superior), the greatest and most valiant nation of the north, divided into several tribes, who go by divers names. The lake is esteemed at least 150 leagues in length, sixty leagues in breadth, and 500 in circumference. The south side, which we reckon its length, is all along situated in very near forty-eight degrees of latitude from the east end to the west. The north side where it is broadest, is in about fifty-one degrees. It is all over navigable, hath some isles; but one especially called Minong, above sixty miles in compass, wherein, both Indians and French affirm, is a great mine of pure copper, from which the ore affords, without any preparation besides melting, above three-fifths fine metal. It is very remarkable of this sea, that on all the south side upon the shore, it is not above four or five fathoms deep, and gradually increasing as you pass over to the north, until you cannot find bottom with 150 fathoms of line. It is most wonderfully stored with admirable fish, and the land about it with deer and elk, or moose, especially the north side. With this latter and some islands, the French drive a considerable trade among the natives, for skins and furs; and of late years have intercepted a great part of the more remote Indians, who used formerly to traffick with the English in Hudson's Bay, at Port Nelson and New Severn. This lake or sea is made up of innumerable small rivers and rivulets, and three large rivers, all on the north side of the lake, entering at the N. E. end thereof, whose names are Lemi- (page 244) pissaki, Michipiketon and Nemipigon, which last proceeds out of a lake of the same name, full of islands; at the upper end whereof enters a river, which comes from the north, and hath its origin from divers small lakes and marshes. The lake of Menipigon is above 200 miles in compass. The Baron le Hontan is certainly mistaken about the original of this river, and makes it vastly bigger than it is; he accounts it the head of the great river of Canada or St. Lawrence, and to come out of the lake of the Assenipouvals; but I have been informed by a person who lived two years in those parts, and had often been upon these two lakes, that the lake of the Assinepoualaos (for that is the true name), which is considerable to the N. W., and, as the Indians often assured, was the biggest lake in all this northern continent, had no communication with that of Nemipigon. The N. W. of this Lake Superior or of the Nadeuessons, is not above thirty leagues in a straight line from the Lake of Nemipigon; but the communication by land is difficult, by reason the earth abounds with bogs and marshes.
The great or superior lake empties itself into that of Karegnondi or the deep lake, it being in most parts more profound than the three we shall hereafter mention. Formerly it was called the lake Hounondate, from a great nation who inhabited on its east side, named from their bristly hair on their head, Hourons, since totally destroyed or dispersed into very remote parts by the Irocois.
This lake is much of the figure of an equilateral triangle, whose basis is to the north. It abounds with divers sorts of excellent fish, great and small, especially a large fish named Assihendo, of the bigness of Newfoundland cod. This fish is the manna of most of the nations which inhabit about the lake, being half their subsistence. And Europeans of all nations, who have eaten thereof, agree that there is not in seas or rivers a better tasted, more wholesome fish, and the numbers are such as of cod on the Bank of New Foundland, and never to be lessened. Besides these, there is abundance of good sturgeons, salmon or salmon trout, weighing from twenty to fifty pounds, large carps, and many other kinds of fish, small and great, not inferior to any in Europe. The inhabitants almost round this lake are most destroyed by the Irocois (Iroquois), except a small remnant of two or three nations, who have, with the help of the French, erected a strong fort near another built by that nation for a refuge to their allies and traders, when the Irocois happen to invade this or adjacent parts. This lake hath many islands especially on the north side, where the greatest fishery is for the Assihendo, but (page 245) none at Maintoualin, which is twenty leagues long and ten broad, lying directly over against the continent, from which it is only six or seven leagues distant.
The north side of the country bordering upon this lake, is not so pleasant in most places as the south, east, and west; but to make amends, it abounds with all sorts of skins and furs; and hath these great conveniences, that by the river of the Nepiserini, there is a communication with all the French of Canada, and many nations bordering thereupon; for ascending this river, you enter into a large lake of the same name, which is made by divers small, and one large river coming far from the north-west. Near this lake passes the great river of the Outouacks (Ottoes), once a great nation, but now almost extirpated by the aforesaid Irocois, which, after a course of one hundred leagues, brings you to the Island and city of Montreal, the next for bigness and strength to Quebec, the capital of Canada, and there joins with the great river of St. Lawrence; from the juncture of these two rivers to Quebec is sixty leagues. Both sides of the river are inhabited all the way in plantations very little remote from each other; besides two or three small towns and fortifications. Such another communication there is, though much more easy, of which I shall discourse at large when I come to describe the lovely peninsula of Erie.
Towards the lower end of the south-west continent is the large and fair bay of Sakinam, which is about fifty miles deep and eighteen wide, and in the middle of the opening are two isles, very advantageously situated for sheltering boats or other vessels that happen to be surprised with a storm, there being no other harbor within divers leagues. Into the bottom of this bay empties itself, after a course of sixty leagues, a very still, quiet stream, excepting three small falls, passed easily and without the least danger. On this river, and the branches thereof, is on of the greatest beaver-huntings in America. Twenty leagues from this bay to the south-east, this lake, which is above four hundred leagues in circumference, empties itself into the Lake Erie, by a channel which I shall describe, when I have given an account of the Lake of the Illinouecks, which is to the west of Karegnondi, and communicates therewith, towards the N. W. end, by a strait, nine or ten miles long and three or four broad. The breadth of it on the north coast is forty leagues, but it increases gradually in breadth until you come to the bottom of the bay. The north side is in the latitude of forty-six and thirty minutes; the south in almost forty-three degrees. Forty leagues from the entrance due west, it (page 246) makes the great bay of the Poutouatamis, a nation who inhabit a large country upon and to the south of this bay, which is eight leagues broad, and thirty leagues deep, south and by west, the entrance being full of islands. And into the bottom comes the fair River Miscouaqui, after a course of two hundred miles. This river is remarkable upon divers accounts: first, when you are ascended it fifty leagues, there is a carriage of a little above a league and a half; afterwards you meet with the lovely River Mesconsing, which carries you down into the Meschacebe, as I before declared. Next upon this river, especially near the carriage, is a country famous for beaver-hunting like that of Sakinam. You must know that most parts of North America have beavers; you shall scarce meet with a lake where there are not some of their dams and huts. But these two places I have mentioned, and others I shall speak of hereafter, are countries forty or fifty miles long, abounding with small rivers and rivulets, wherewith they make their dams or causeways; and consequently small lakes, seated opportunely for wood to build, and produces plentifully such plants and young trees, upon which they mostly subsist. This is chiefly possessed by the industrious and valiant nation of the Outogamis. Thirdly, this river and others entering thereinto abound in that corn called malomin, which grows in the water and marshy wet places, as rice in the Indians, Turkey, and Carolina, &c. But much more like our oats, only longer, bigger and better, than either that, or Indian corn, and is the chief food of many nations hereabouts and elsewhere. The nations who dwell on this river are Outogamis, Malominis, Nikic, Oualeanicou, Sacky, and the Poutouatamis before mentioned.
On the east side of this lake, about twenty leagues from the strait by which it enters Karegnondi, is a bay called Bear Bay, and a river of the same name, because of great numbers of those animals who haunt those parts. This river comes out of a ridge of hills near a hundred leagues long, beginning almost at the north end of this peninsula, out of which flow abundance of small rivers; those whose course is to the east empty themselves into the lake Karegnondi (Huron), those to the west into that of the Alinouecks. The tope of this ridge of hills is flat, from whence there is a delicious prospect into both lakes, and level as a tarasse walk. There is a great beaver-hunting, like those I formerly mentioned, upon Bear River, which hath a course of forty or fifty leagues. On the west side of the lake, before you come to the bottom, is a harbor capable of small ships; and there enters into it a small river, which at two leagues (page 247) distance approaches the River Chicagou, the north branch of the river of the Allinouecks, which is from the main branch of the said river fifty miles. Near the bottom of the bay, on the east side, is the fair river of the Miamihas (so called because upon it lives part of a nation bearing the same name), which in its passage comes within two leagues of the springs are very near the heads of some rivers which enter the Ouabachi. Monsieur de la Salle on his first arrival in this river, which was about the year 1679, finding it admirably well situated for trade, and the country surrounding it extremely pleasant and fertile, artfully gained the permission of the natives to build a fort therein, under specious pretence of protecting them from the insults of the English and Irocois, whom he represented as cruel and treacherous enemies, continually plotting the destruction of them and all the Indians round about. In this fort was formerly a great magazine and storehouse for all sorts of European goods, and hither the traders and savages continually resorted to purchase them. It commanded the entrance into the lake, and kept all the neighboring Indians in awe and subjection. Nations to the west of this lake, besides the before-mentioned, are part of the Outogamies, Mascoutens and Kikapouz; then the Ainoves, the Cascaschia, and a little to the south-west of the bottom of this lake, and more to the north, the Anthontans, and part of the Mascoutens, near the river Misconsing (Wisconsin). The countries surrounding this lake, especially towards the south, are very charming to the eye, the meadows, fruit trees and forests, together with the fowls, wild beasts, &c., affording most things necessary for the support and comfort of life, besides Indian corn, with which the natives abound; and European fruits, grains, and all other useful vegetables, by reason of the goodness of the soil, and mildness of the climate, would certainly thrive there, as well as in their native countries. But, above all, the south parts of the countries bordering on this lake seem naturally disposed to produce admirable wines, which being duly cultivated, excellent wines might be made of the fruits thereof, they growing naturally in vast numbers of divers sorts, some ramping up to the tops of the highest trees; others running upon the ground. The grapes are some very small, others wonderfully large, big as damsons, and many of a middle size, of divers colors and tastes. They are all good to eat, only some, which otherwise promise very well, have great stones or kernels and tough skins, which certainly would be remedied by due culture. But of the worst, doubtless, (page 248) good brandy might be made, were there artists and convenient vessels for pressing, fermenting and distilling.
These ramble about in great herds, especially about the bottom of the lake, infinite quantities of wild kine, some hundred usually together, which is a great part of the subsistence of the savages, who live upon them while the season of hunting lasts; for at those times they leave their towns quite empty. They have a way of preserving the flesh without salt six or eight months, which both looks and eats so fresh, strangers apprehend the cattle had not been killed one week. Besides, they use the hair, or rather wool, cut off their hides, for garments and beds, and spin it into yarn, of which they make great bags, wherein they put the flesh they kill, after they have cured it, to bring it home to their houses; for their huntings are from the latter end of autumn, when the cattle are fat, to the beginning of the spring; and of the hides dressed they make shores a la savage.
But it's time we should return to the lake Karegnondi (Huron), which empties itself into the Lake Erie, by a channel thirty leagues long, and where narrowest a league broad; in the middle whereof is a small lake, called by the Indians Otseka, ten leagues long, and seven or eight over, being of an oval figure. In this lake and channel are divers small islands, exceedingly pleasant and fruitful, in which, and all the country, on both sides of the, are great quantities of beasts and fowl, as deer of several kinds, wild turkeys, pheasants, and a large excellent fowl, which they call dindo's. The Lake Erie is about a hundred leagues long, and almost equally forty broad. Eight leagues from its mouth are eight or ten islands, most of them small; one in the middle is five or six miles in circumference, and all very agreeable. Near the mouth on the west side is a large harbor for ships, defenced from most winds, made like our downs by a great bank of sand; though winds seldom infest this lake, in respect of the others, where sometimes they rage as in the main ocean, so that it may deservedly be called the Pacific Lake. And if we may give credit to the relation of the English who have long frequented it, and unanimously agree herein, there is not a more pleasant lake or country surrounding it in the universe. It is not indeed so deep as the others, yet is in all places navigable by the greatest ships, there being seldom less than ten or twelve fathoms water. The land round about it is perfectly level, abounding with trees, both for timber and fruit; so happily placed that one would be apt to apprehend it to be a work of great art, and contrived to declare the grandeur and magnificence of some mighty emperor, and not of nature. Abundance of small (page 249) petty rivers discharge themselves thereinto, amongst which are four very considerable and remarkable. One about ten leagues from the entrance of the canal, in the bottom of the west end of the lake, that hath a course of sixty leagues, and its head very near the river of the Miamihas, which runs into the S. E. side of the Lake of the Illinouecks, by means whereof there is a short and easy communication therewith, which by water is above six hundred miles.
Fifty miles further to the south, at the same west end of this lake, is another river much of the same bigness and length; and about and between these two rivers, every year in the season, are multitudes of wild kine called Cibolas.
At the S. E. end of the lake there is a third river, which has its rise very near the great Susquehanna river, which waters part of Pennsylvania, and afterwards empties itself into the north end of the Bay of Chesapeake in Maryland. And twenty leagues south-westerly is another fair river which comes near fifty leagues out of the country; from whose head, which issues from a lake, is but a short cut to the River Ohio, from whence to a branch of the aforesaid Susquehanna River is about one league.
By these two last-mentioned rivers, the English may have a ready and easy communication with this and consequently with all the other lakes. If the French should ever settle thereon, which for above twenty years they have endeavored, but have been in great measure, wonderfully frustrated by the Irocois, our subjects or allies, they might greatly molest, by themselves and their Indians, the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia; which, I hope, by the wisdom and care of his majesty and ministry, will be speedily prevented.
At the north-east end of this lake is another canal forty miles long, and in most places a league broad, called by the natives Niagara, having a delicate, level, beautiful, fertile country on each side of it; but being passed about two-thirds of the way, it is straitened by mighty rocks, and precipitates itself several hundred feet, being the greatest cataract that hath ever yet come to our knowledge, in the whole world. This lying within five or six days' journey of Albany and Schenecteda (two remarkable towns and fortifications of New York) and adjacent unto our confederates or subjects the Five Nations, (by the French called Irocois), especially the Sonnontovans (by some named Senecas), the most populous of the five, I have received an account from divers persons, who have with great attention and curi- (page 250) osity viewed it, suiting very well with the description Hennepin gives thereof, who had been there several times. The noise of such a multitude of waters falling from so great a height is so extraordinary, that although the country is very pleasant, level, and fruitful below the fall, yet the Sonnontovans were not able to bear it, but were forced to remove, and settle two leagues lower. I have had it from very credible people that, when the wind sets due south, they have heard it distinctly above thirty miles. The river, as may be easily imagined, below this cataract, is very rapid for the space of three or four miles; then for six or eight is more placid and navigable, until it enters the Lake Ontario, which is eighty leagues long, and in the middle twenty-five or thirty broad, being of an oval figure. The name of this lake in the Irocois language, that nation bordering upon it to the south, signifies the pleasant or beautiful lake, as it may be deservedly styled; the country around it being very champaign, fertile, and every two or three miles watered with fine rivulets. It has on the south side three fair rivers; that next the fall coming out of the country of the Sonnontovans, the middle one from the Onontages, and its origin from a lake within a league of their capital town, Onontague, made up with many little rivers and rivulets, being forty miles in circumference, abounding with fish of divers sorts with some salt-springs entering into it. After the river hath passed a mile from the lake, it receives another coming from the west, out of the province of the Onioiens or Oiongouens, who are neighbors of the Sonnontovans, in whose country the head of this river springs. About ten miles lower it is increased by a fair deep river, which comes from the east, out of the country of the Oneiouks (Oneidas) one of the five nations, situated between the Onontages (Onondagas) and the Mohachs (Mohawks), who dwell in three towns on a fair river, which runs, after a course of one hundred miles, into Hudson's River near Albany. The river of the Onontagues enters the Lake Ontario fifty miles from the little lake whence it derives its origin.
Twenty leagues to the east is another river, somewhat less, but navigable by sloops and large boats a considerable way into the country.
About the same distance, likewise to the east, the lake forms a great river, which the French call the river of the Irocois, but the natives Kanadari, which for the space of sixty miles is very broad, full of fine islands, and runs quietly; then is interrupted in its course by divers falls successively, some very deep and long, for above a hundred miles, until it meets with the great river of the Outouacks (page 251) at the end of the island and city of Montreal, and together with that makes the river of Canada or St. Lawrence, so named by the French because discovered on the day dedicated to his memorial.
The north part of the Lake Ontario was formerly possessed by two tribes of the Irocois, who were, in time of perfect peace, without the least provocation, but only to get their country destroyed, enslaved, or sent to France, and put into the galleys; of which you may read at large in the journals of the Baron le Hontan, an impartial and judicious author, who saw and relates that tragedy with much indignation.
The nation of the Irocois, as they are called by the French, for what reason I could never learn, who inhabit the south part of the country, are styled by the English the Five Nations, being so many distinct in name and habitations from each other; but leagued by a most strict confederacy, like the Cantons of Switzerland, which they frequently in a very solemn manner renew, especially since the French grew powerful in their neighborhood. They have always been an excellent and useful barrier between us and them, being ready, on all occasions, upon the most slender invitations and the least assistance, to molest and invade them, unto whom they are the most irreconcilable enemies, and I think upon good grounds; although the French say the hardest things imaginable against them; but I believe unto any impartial judges, they will appear more blameable themselves. The original of this enmity proceeded from the French, who about one hundred years since settled at the place, now their capital, called Quebeck. The Irocois knowing of the little French habitation (where were not above forty men), came according to their usual manner, being about 200 of their prime youth, under an esteemed captain, to war against the Algonquins, then a very populous nation; and to show their contempt of them made a fort on the south side of the river, before they who dwelt on the north side could gather into a body, their habitations or villages being somewhat remote from each other. But having drawn their forces together in great numbers, they attacked the Irocois, who always valiantly repulsed them, with great losses to their enemies and little unto themselves. Thereupon the Algonquins had recourse unto the French, desiring they would assist them with their thunder and lightening-darting engines. They readily complied, and did such execution with their guns (which being altogether new and very surprising, or rather astonishing), that the Irocois were discomfited, not above two or three escaping to give an account thereof to their own countrymen, who by tradition have propagated the story to posterity; which may, in some measure, excuse the irreconcilable enmity this nation hath conceived against the French, between whom there have been formerly almost constant wars, accompanied with various events- the French with their allies endeavoring to extirpate them, who have hitherto bravely defended themselves; the English for their furs supplying them with ammunition, and during time of war with the French powerfully assisting them. They have been a very useful barrier, and without their help New York, and probably other neighboring provinces, had long since been possessed by the French, having been very slenderly aided from England.
The French in all their writings concerning Canada make many tragical relations of and exclamations against the barbarous cruelties of this nation exercised upon them, and the Indians their allies; but seldom tell us that the very same things are practiced by themselves and their Indians against the Irocois, and often during time of peace. For when the Irocois or Five Nations, we call them, were abandoned by order of King Charles II towards the latter end of his reign and during the whole reign of King James, and obnoxious unto the resentments of the French (the English being strictly forbidden any ways to assist them), they were under a necessity of making a very disadvantageous peace, which how perfidiously it was broken may be seen at large in that faithful and judicious history of the Baron la Hontan. And had it riot been or the revolution in England, the Irocois had been totally destroyed or subjected unto the French, which, as I hinted before in the preface, would have been of dreadful consequence to divers of our English colonies on the continent. Tis true, the Irocois (Iroquois) have extirpated or subjected several nations of Indians round about them, but it hath been either because they were in confederacy with their enemies, destroyed their country, murdered their people, hindered them in their beaver-hunting (without which they could not subsist), or furnished their enemies with furs, which occasioned the increasing the numbers of the French from France, and consequently threatened them with utter ruin, when Canada shall be more populated from Europe; so that certainly the measures they take for their own preservation and security are more innocent and excusable than those have been by the French, forty years last past, exercised in Europe, whose wars have, according to a modest calculation, occasioned the death of above two millions of their own country people, and other Europeans, and most unjustly invaded or grievously oppressed their neighbors; desire of increasing their wealth, enlarging their territories, or advancing the glory of their (page 253) great monarch being the chief causes, though some other slender and easily confuted pretences have sometimes been alleged.
But to return unto the Irocois, whom we call subjects of the crown of England, they only style themselves brethren, friends, allies, being a people highly tenacious of their liberty, and very impatient of the least encroachments thereon. These five cantons or nations have sold, given, and, in a formal public manner, made over and conveyed to the English divers large countries conquered from the Indians, upon the south side of the great lakes, as far as the Meschacebe, and the noble, beautiful, fertile peninsula situated between the three middle lakes, that of Hurons to the west, Ontario to the east, and Erie to the south; a country almost as large as England, without Wales, admirably seated for traffick, pleasant, healthful and fertile as any part of North America; and the territory to the south is of the same nature, and confines with the borders of our province of Carolana, which extends to all the north side of the Gulf of Mexico.
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