32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



habitations were undoubtedly the typical mat- or bark-covered lodges. 

 But strongly made log structures were to have been encountered else- 

 where in Virginia, and their occurrence was likewise recorded by 

 Fontaine. In the month of June, the year before he visited the Saponi 

 settlement with Governor Spotswood, Fontaine made a journey from 

 Williamsburg to the German colony on the Rappahannock. He had 

 crossed the Mattaponi and was in King William County when at 

 some point on the left or north bank of the river, possibly about due 

 north of the present Pamunkey Indian Reservation, he encountered 

 a single Indian habitation. This was June 12, 1715, and he wrote in 

 his journal that day : ' " The day very windy. We see by the side of 

 the road an Indian cabin, which was built with posts put into the 

 ground, the one by the other as close as they could stand, and about 

 seven feet high, all of an equal length. It was built four-square, and 

 a sort of a roof upon it, covered with the bark of trees. They say it 

 keeps out the rain very well. The Indian women were all naked, only 

 a girdle they had tied round the waist, and about a yard of blanketing 

 put between their legs, and fastened one end under the fore-part of 

 the girdle, and the other behind. Their beds were mats made of 

 bulrushes, upon which they lie, and have one blanket to cover them. 

 All the household goods was a pot." Unfortunately Fontaine failed 

 to record the name of the tribe to which this family belonged, but the 

 lodge, its surroundings and the condition of its occupants, were 

 probably characteristic of the time and country and were in no way 

 exceptional. Indian families such as this, living ofif and apart from 

 others, would undoubtedly have been found in many parts of tide- 

 water and piedmont Virginia. And after the towns of Mowhemcho, 

 Massinacack, and Rassawek ceased to be important settlements, as 

 they were during the early years of the 17th century, many isolated 

 cabins would have been encountered within " The Land called the 

 Monscane." 



The five Monacan towns, as they are known to have stood early in 

 the 17th century, have now been mentioned. It is believed the identi- 

 fication of the sites is accurate and conclusive. And although the 

 exact position of Rassawek has not been determined, it must be 

 agreed that the settlement was situated somewhere within a rather 

 restricted area between the James and Rivanna, on or near the right 

 bank of the latter stream and not far from its mouth. No other 

 Monacan villages were referred to by the early writers and if any 

 existed they have been lost to history. But throughout the entire 



* Op. cit., p. 264. 



