NO. 12 MONACAN TOWNS IN VIRGINIA BUSHNELL 3 



Strachey writing a few years later told what was then known of 

 the country beyond the falls : " Concerning the high-land little can 

 we say as yet, because thereof little have we discovered : only some 

 Indians' relations and some fewe daies' marches into the Monocan 

 country of our owne, have instructed us thus far. 



" This high land, or Britannia, then say we, is the mayne and firme 

 continent, which extendeth, we wot not how far, beyond that cataract 

 or fall of water, which the Indians call Paquachowng, from whence 

 one daies' jorney into the Monocan country. Our elder planters (at 

 their first comyng) proclaymed His Majestic King of the country at 

 Mohominge (a neighbour village), and sett up a crosse there with 

 His Majestie's name inscribed thereon .... From the falls our men 

 have heretofore marched (as the river led them) about forty or fifty 

 miles, and fownd a high land woody, little champion, with rising hills, 

 rocky and mountanous . . . .'' ^ 



Continuing Strachey wrote (p. 131): "For mineralls we will 

 promise nothing ; but the hope of which, seeing the low grownd, yields 

 manie faire shewes ; the mountaines cannot be doubted but that in 

 them manie sortes will be found : and our people, in their first dis- 

 covery into the Monocan country discovered two mynes, the one 

 within six miles of the head of the falls, which takes the name of 

 Namantack, the fynder of yt: which is conceaved wilbe worth the 

 exploring, and with little charge; the other lyes in the myd-waie be- 

 tweene twoo townes of Monocan, the nearest called Mowhemincke, 

 the furthest, Massinnacock, distant one from another fourteen miles." 



The preceding references must necessarily apply to discoveries 

 made by Newport during the autumn of 1608. 



A map of Virginia, usually attributed to Captain John Smith, was 

 presented in his " Generall Historic of Virginia," 1624. It shows 

 the course of the James far above the falls and many miles beyond 

 the spot reached by Newport in 1608. A cross appears on the map 

 at the beginning of the falls, the meaning of which may be understood 

 by quoting from Strachey's reference to the map. He gave this 

 quaintly worded explanation (p. 42) : " In which mappe, observe 

 this, that, as far as you see the little crosses either rivers, mountaines, 

 or other places, have discovered; the rest was had by informacion of 

 the salvadges, and are set downe accordinge to their instruccions." 

 In this instance it is evident the cross marks the farthest point reached 

 by Smith in May or June, 1607. He had never gone beyond the falls 



^ Strachey, William, The Historic of Travile into Virginia Britannia, p. 25. 

 Hakliiyt Society, London, 1849. 



