20 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[Bull. 182 



Map 8. — Jefferys map No. 5 (Jefferys Atlas, 1776), showing Indian trail leading southward 

 from Petersburg across the Roanoke River at the State line and into the Catawba terri- 

 tory. 



Country; and that about tbree days journey farther to the South West, there 

 was a far greater Branch so broad that a man could hardly see over it, and 

 bended itselfe to the Northward above the head of James River where lived 

 many people upwards, being the Oocanacheaus and Nessouecks, and that where 

 some of the Occonacheans lived, there is an island within the River three dayes 

 journy about, which is very rich and fertile soile, and that the upper end of 

 the Island is fordable, not above knee deepe, of a stony bottome, running very 

 swift, and the other side very deep and navigable. 



It will be noted that only some of the Occaneechi lived on the 

 island in the river. 

 Alvord and Bidgood (1912, footnote p. 124) states that: 



From 1G73 and perhaps earlier the Occaneechee fortified themselves in the 

 one island Bland calls Berkeley Island and by reason of their strategic and 

 secure location were able to offer great annoyance to the fur trade which 

 passed along the Great Trading Path into Carolina piedmont, crossing their 

 island. 



This statement, in itself, would place the Occaneechi and the Great 

 Trading Path well below the confluence of the Dan and Staunton 

 Rivers, and from it w^e can well assume that the Occaneechi village 

 never existed within the confines of the John H. Kerr (Buggs Island) 

 Reservoir area. 



