Travels Through North America 



William county, beautifully situated upon a high 

 hill, on the north side of Pamunky river. A little 

 below this place stands the Pamunky Indian town, 

 where at present are the few remaining of that large 

 tribe, the rest having dwindled away through in- 

 temperance and disease. They live in little wig- 

 wams or cabins upon the river; and have a very fine 

 tract of land of about 2,000 acres, which they are 

 restrained from alienating by act of assembly. Their 

 employment is chiefly hunting or fishing for the 

 neighboring gentry. They commonly dress like the 

 Virginians, and I have sometimes mistaken them 

 for the lower sort of that people.* The night I spent 

 here, they went out into an adjoining marsh to 

 catch soruses; and one of them, as I was informed 

 in the morning, caught near a hundred dozen. The 

 manner of taking these birds is remarkable. The 

 sorus is not known to be in Virginia, except for about 

 six weeks from the latter end of September: at that 

 time they are found in the marshes in prodigious 

 numbers, feeding upon the wild oats. At first they 

 are exceedingly lean, but in a short time grow so fat, 

 as to be unable to fly: in this state they lie upon the 

 reeds, and the Indians go out in canoes and knock 

 them on the head with their paddles. They are 



She was at that time the mother of seven children, all living. The 

 women in general, in this country, arrive at maturity very early. 

 Some are marriageable at eleven, many at thirteen, and the gen- 

 erality at fourteen or fifteen years of age. 



* See Appendix, No. 3. 



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