THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 523 
that the Delaware warrior did not hesitate to go upon the warpath 
whenever it suited his pleasure to do so.* Probably the true explana- 
tion of this seeming inconsistency is to be found in the fact that whilst 
the Delawares, as a tribe, were prohibited from exercising any of the 
rights of an independent people, yet the individual warrior, in the en- 
joyment of that wide personal liberty to which every Indian east of the 
Mississippi seems to have been born, consulted his own convenience as 
to when or with whom he should fight, and when or how, if at all, he 
should aid the women in the work of cultivating the fields. 
In Virginia, among.the tribes composing the Powhatanic confederacy 
and the adjoining nations, corn was raised in great abundance, though 
there were times when, owing to improvidence or a failure of the crops, 
the Indians suffered more or less from want. Capt. Smith, in the course 
of one of the many expeditions made in order to supply the starving 
colonists with food, says that he could have loaded a ship with it;t 
and in his letter to the Queen on the occasion of the visit of the “* Lady” 
Pocahontas to England, after acknowledging his personal obligations 
to that “tender virgin,” he tells us that for two or three years “shee, 
next under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colonie from 
deathe, famine, and utter confusion.”t We are also told that they had 
stockaded forts,§ and that their houses were built in the midst of their 
fields or gardens, ‘‘ which are small plots of ground,” ranging from 20 
to 200 acres.|| Each household is said ‘‘to know their own lands and 
gardens, and must live of their own labors;” {j and the limits within 
at a conference held at Burlington, in Archologia Americana, vol. 0, p.48. In this 
connection, and as showing the similiarity of customs among the Indians, it is of 
interest to note that the Creeks claimed to have put petticoats upon the Cherokees, 
and at the treaty of Augusta, in reply to the statement of the Georgians ‘‘that they 
had bought a certain piece of land from the Cherokees,” a Creek chief started to his 
feet, ‘‘and, with an agitated and terrific countenance, frowning menaces and dis- 
dain, fixed his eyes on the Cherokee chiefs and asked them what right they had to 
give away their lands, calling them old women, and saying that they had long ago 
obliged them to wear the petticoat.” Bartram, Travels through Florida, p. 486: 
Philadelphia, 1791. 
*Heckewelder, Historical account of the Indian Nations, including the Introduction, 
where this subject is discussed at length from the point of view of the Delawares. 
tCapt. Smith, News from Virginia, p. 20 of the reprint by Charles Dean, Esq.: 
Cambridge, 1866. 
t{Smith, Virginia, p. 121: London, 1632. ‘‘It pleased God, after awhile, to send 
these people - - - torelieve us with victuals, as Bread, Corne, Fish, and Flesh 
in great plenty, which was the setting up of our feeble men, otherwise we all had 
perished. Also we were frequented by divers Kings in the Countrie, bringing us 
store of provision to our great comfort.” Master Geo. Percy, in Purchas Pilgrims, 
vol. Iv, p. 1690: London, 1625. : 
§Capt. Smith, in Purchas Pilgrims, vol. 1v, pp. 1693-4: London, 1625. Beverly, 
Virginia, book 1m, p. 12: London, 1705. Hariot in Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 1, p. 329: 
London, 1810. 
|| Smith, in Purehas Pilgrims, vol. tv, p. 1698: London, 1625. 
q Ibid., p. 1698. 
