NO. 8 MANAHOAC TRIBES IN VIRGINIA BUSHNELL 4I 



eighteenth century. Here, in April 1714, were seated the German 

 colonists who had been induced by agents of Spotswood to come to 

 Virginia, where they were to work the iron mines about to be de- 

 veloped. The name Germanna, then applied to the settlement, has 

 persisted, although the settlement itself has long since disappeared, 

 and only scant traces of it remain. 



In the year 1730, as told in a County Court record: "William 

 Bohannon came into court and made oath that about twenty-six of 

 the Sapony Indians that inhabit Colonel Spotswood's land in Fox's 

 neck go about and do a great deal of mischief by firing the woods 

 .... and that he verily believes that one of the Indians shot at 

 him the- same day .... that the Indian after firing his gun stood 

 in a stooping manner very studdy so that he could hardly discern 



him from a stump " " Whether these Indians had formerly 



been at Fort Christanna or had always lived in the valley of the 

 Rapidan is not known, but the presence of a native settlement on the 

 neck in 1730 suggests that it was the site of one of the more ancient 

 Manahoac towns occupied in 1608. Shackaconia may have stood 

 nearby. 



When gathered at Fort Christanna, the groups of Indians were 

 known to the English as the " Sapponi nation ". This fact was men- 

 tioned in 1728 by Col. William Byrd." He wrote (p. 88) : 



All the grandees of the Sapponi nation did us the honour to repair hither to 



meet us This people is now made up of the remnants of several other 



nations, of which the most considerable are the Sapponies, the Occaneches, and 

 Stoukenhocks, who not finding themselves separately numerous enough for their 

 defence, have agreed to unite into one body, and all of them now go under the 

 name of the Sapponies. Each of these was formerly a distinct nation, or rather a 

 several clan or canton of the same nation, speaking the same language, and using 

 the same customs. But their perpetual wars against all other Indians, in time, 

 reduced them so low as to make it necessary to join their forces together. 



Consequently, the term " Sapony Indians " would have been applied 

 to the natives who occupied Fox Neck in 1730, even though they 

 may not have descended from the Saponi group. Mount Pony, a 

 few miles west of Stevensburg, probably derived its name from 

 that of the " Sapony Indians " who lived nearby. 



An aerial view of Fox Neck and surrounding country is re- 

 produced in plate 18. The camera was pointed about northwest 

 and is looking up the valley of the Rapidan on the left. The road 



^* Scott, W. W., A history of Orange County, Virginia, p. 56. Richmond, 1907. 

 " Byrd, William, The Westover manuscripts : containing the history of the 

 dividing line .... Petersburg, Va., 1841. 



