38 STOUAN TRI15ES OF THE EAST. [Ithnology 



The next reference toeitber of these tribes is in 1G86, when the French 

 missionary Lambreville reported that the Seneca of New York were 

 preparing to go against tlie ''Tolere," a misprint for Totere (Hale, 3). 

 In 1699 we find the Earl of Bellomont writing from New York as to the 

 convenience of Carolina for treaty with the Shatera (misprint of 

 Totera), Twichtwicht (Miami), and Dowaganhas (Shawano) Indians, 

 "and a world of other nations," which the northern tribes had informed 

 him were as numerons as the sands on the seashore (X. Y., 8). 



In their frontier position at the base of the monntains the Saponi 

 and Tutelo were directly in the path of the Iroqnois, whose war trail 

 toward the Catawba crossed the Dan at a point between the months 

 of Smith river and Mayo river, about on the line of the present rail- 

 road (Byrd, 6). Unable to withstand the constant assaults of their 

 northern enemies, the two western tribes abandoned their villages 

 and removed (some time between 1G71 and 1701) to the junction of the 

 Staunton and the Dan, where they established themselves adjoining 

 their friends and kinsmen the Occaneechi, whose history thenceforth 

 merges into theirs. The Occaneechi, of whom more will be said later, 

 although now themselves reduced by the common enemy, had been an 

 important tribe They occupied at this time a beautiful island about 

 4 miles long, called by their tribal name, lying in the Roanoke a short 

 distance below the forks of the stream, in what is now Mecklen- 

 burg county, Virginia. Above and below Occaiu^echi island, in the 

 same stream, were two other islands, of nearly equal size. The 

 Saponi settled on the lower of these, while the Tutelo took possession 

 of the upper one just at the contluence of the two rivers. How long they 

 remained there is not definitely known, but it is evident they were not 

 able to hold their position, even with the river on all sides as a pro, 

 tecting barrier, for in 1701 all three tribes were far down in Carolina- 

 uniting their decimated forces and preparing to remove into the Eng- 

 lish settlements. They may have been driven from their position on 

 the Roanoke by that general Indian upheaval, resulting from the con- 

 quest of the Conestoga or Susquehanna by the Iroquois about 1G75, 

 which culminated in Virginia in the Bacon rebellion. In 1733 Byrd 

 visited the islands, and found tall grass growing in the abandoned fields. 

 On the Tutelo island he found a cave where, according to his story, 

 " the lastTetero king," with only two men, had defended himself against 

 a large party of Iroquois and at last forced them to retire (Byrd, 7). 



After Lederer and Batts, the next definite information comes from 

 John Lawson, the surveyor-general of North Carolina. With a small 

 party he left Charleston, South Carolina, on December 2.S, 1700, and, 

 after ascending Santee and Wateree rivers to the Catawba countr}'', 

 struck across and came out about seven weeks later on Pamlico river 

 in North Carolina. A considerable portion of his journey was along the 

 great Indian trail and trader's route, known to the Virginia traders 

 as the Occaneechi or Catawba path, which extended from Bermuda 

 Hundred, on James river, in Virginia, to Augusta, Georgia. He had 



