22 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



gave ; dividing with them their last morsel. Theft in their commiinitie.s 

 was rare, and is said to have been almost unknown before their acquain - 

 tance with the whites." 



4. It is difficult to disentangle the web of conflicting evidence respect- 

 ing the nationality of the Indians, Avho from time to time occupied the 

 soil of Lancaster county. This subject has been investigated with com- 

 mendable research by E. Conyngham, whose valuable notes are preserved 

 in Hazard's Eegister, and by William Parker Foulke, in his "Notes re- 

 specting the Indians of Lancaster count}^, Pennsylvania," published in the 

 Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. iv, part 2, pp. 

 188 — 219. The following data are chiefly drawn from the latter. 



The Iroquois had at the beginning of the seventeenth century pene- 

 trated from the North, as far as the bays of Delaware and Chesapeake, 

 and were pursuing, with varying success, hostile enterprises against the 

 tribes located near the head of the latter inlet, and upon the Susque- 

 hanna, Potomac, and other streams, whose waters are discharged by the 

 Chesapeake into the ocean. Captain Smith, in his explorations of the 

 bay, in 1608, found the Avestern shore deserted from the Patapsco upward, 

 and opposite on the eastern shore, and east of the Susquehanna, were set- 

 tlements of the Nanticokes or Tockwoghs, fortified against the Iroquois 

 or Massawomeks, as they called them. At two days' journey up the 

 Susquehanna, or about 21 miles in a right line from the mouth of the 

 river, w^ere settled the Susquehannocks, numbering 600 warriors, who 

 were palisaded in their towns to resist the incursions of their Northern 

 enemies. On Smith's map a village of Quadroqvies is marked about 5| 

 or 6 leagues (20 miles) higher up, and about 5 leagues (17 miles) above 

 these dwelt the Tesinigh, distant from the embouchure of the Susque- 

 hanna, in a straight line, about 50 or 57 miles. These three villages were 

 situated ljetA\'een the northern and southern boundaries of Lancastei' 

 county. We have no data to determine the nationality of those Indians. 



In IBol, Claiborne, so long a source of internal disquiet to the colony 

 of Lord Baltimore, obtained a license to trade with Indians in parts for 

 which no patent had been granted, and he established his chief trading 

 post in what is now Kent County, in the State of Maryland. He also lo- 

 cated a post at the mouth of the Susquehanna, whence he trafficked with 

 the Susquehannocks and other Indians, at or near the head of the bay. 

 At the same period the Swedes planted settlements upon the Delaware 

 Kiver and Bay ; Fort Christina, in the same latitude, with the settlement 

 of the Susquehannocks mentioned by Captain Smith, and distant from it 

 less than 50 miles in a straight line, was surrounded by Maquas or Iro- 

 quois Indians who, according to Campanius, lorded it over the other In- 

 dians so that they scarcely dared to stir without the approbation of the 

 former. It appears from the treaty at Lancaster in 1744, printed in full 



