42 SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE EAST. [ethnology 



ington and Bath. Altliougli it is not an easy matter to follow these 

 old explorers through an unnamed and unsurveyed country, the jjroblem 

 is simplified if it is remembered that the principal Indian settlements, 

 even though successively abandoned and reoccupied through the con- 

 stant shifting of tribes, were usually situated in the most favorable 

 locations for the future cities of the whites, and as the principal trails 

 naturally followed the best lines of travel between these Indian settle- 

 ments the wagon roads of the early settlers, and afterward the rail- 

 roads, were laid out nearly on the same lines. 



Soon after Lawson's visit in 1701 the SajDoni and Tutelo left their 

 villages on the Yadkin and moved in toward tlie settlements, being 

 joined on the Avay by the Occaneechi and their allied tribes. The 

 name of Saponi creek, near Nashville, North Carolina, probably indi- 

 cates the line of this eastward migration. Together they crossed the 

 Roanoke, evidently before the Tuskarora war of 1711, and made a new 

 settlement, called "Sapona Town," a sliort distance east of that river 

 and about 15 miles westward from the present Windsor in Bertie 

 county, North Carolina. For information in regard to this settlement, 

 which appears to have escaped the notice of historians, I am indebted 

 to the kindness of Dr E. W. Pugh, of Windsor, to one of whose ances- 

 tors the land in question was deeded l)y the last remaining of the Tuska- 

 rora on their removal to New York. That tribe lived originally along 

 the waters of the Neuse, and did not occupy this territory until after 

 the Tuskarora war, when, in 1717, that portion of the tribe which had 

 remained friendly was settled north of the Roanoke in Bertie county. 

 From a reference in a document of 1711, slnMly after the outbreak of 

 the Tuskarora war, it appears probable that the Saponi were already 

 established there in 1711 (N. C. R., 1). In the next year the government 

 of North Carolina took steps to engage their help against the hostile 

 Tuskarora, leaving the Saponi to make their own terms, and i)romis- 

 ing to provide for their families in the meantime if they would remove 

 into the settlements, which at tliat time were confined to the northern 

 shore of Albemarle sound (N. C, R., 2). As they evidently had no rea.son 

 to love the Tuskarora it is probable that this invitation was accepted, 

 for a few months later it was j)roposed to get the assistance of the Saponi 

 in cutting off the retreat of the hostiles on the north. It was believed 

 that the Nottoway and Meherrin, who were of the Iroquoian stock, could 

 not be trusted for such service. The negotiation was left to Virginia, 

 whose energetic governor, Spotswood, possessed almost boundless Influ- 

 ence over all the tribes of that neighborhood (N. C. R., 3). 



From all accounts it appears that there was always bad feeling 

 between the Saponi and their confederates on the one side and the 

 Tuskarora, Nottoway, and Meherrin — all Iroquoian tribes — on the 

 other, after they became near neighbors, so that it required the con- 

 stant effort of the English to adjust their quarrels and iirevent them 

 from killing one another. In 1709 the Saponi chief complained that the 

 Nottoway and Tuskarora had killed two of his people. On this the 



