8I0DAN 

 MOONEY 



] SAPONI AND TUTELO EARLY HISTORY. 43 



Nottoway replied that the Saponi had killed three of theirs and 

 wounded two others not long- before, and they thought it reasonable 

 that they as well as the Saponi should have satisfaction. Then the 

 Saponi pro^^osed, according to the Indian custom, that the Nottoway 

 should pay for the two nnirdered Saponi, which the Nottoway agreed 

 to do provided the Saponi would pay for the three Nottoway, on 

 •which the disgusted judge to whom they had come told them that if 

 they would make such bargains among themselves he would have noth- 

 ing to say, but it was not in the white i^eople's law to sell men's lives 

 for money. The Saponi then tried to shift the blame upon the Tntelo, 

 but the Nottoway answered that they were l)oth as one i)eople, and 

 further stated that they had some time ago paid the Saponi a quan- 

 tity of wampum to help them exterminate the Tntelo; but that the false 

 Sai)oni, after taking the wampum, had broken their i)romise and pri- 

 vately warned the Tntelo of the designs of their enemies. To settle 

 the whole matter the Nottoway proposed that if the Saponi would 

 fulfill their agreement and join them against the Tntelo, they (the 

 Nottoway) Avould not only let them keep the wampum, but would also 

 pay them for the two men killed. The Saponi chief promised to take 

 the matter under consideration and returned home, while the judge 

 wi'ote to the Virginia government that if a Tuskarora was delivered up 

 to be killed by the Saj)oni some English lives would certainly pay for 

 it(V. S.P., 1). 



About this time the Saponi, Tutelo, and confederated tribes removed 

 from North Carolina through the persuasions of Governor Spotswood, 

 of Virginia, who settled them near Fort Christanna, 10 miles north of 

 Roanoke river, about the present Gholsonville, in Brunswick county, 

 Virginia. Their village was close to Meherrin river, and the name of 

 Totaro district, south of Meherrin river and southeast of Lawrence ville, 

 in Brunswick county, preserves their memory. The exact date of this 

 removal does not appear, but it was probably shortly after the opening 

 of the Tuskarora war, which began with the general massacre of Sep- 

 tember 22, 1711. Spotswood's object in procuring their removal to the 

 fort was to draw away the Saponi and their confederates from an 

 alliance with the hostile tribes and to make them a barrier between the 

 latter and the Virginia settlements, as well as to render the Saponi 

 more secure from the attacks of the Iroquois. The name of Saponi 

 creek and chapel, in Dinwiddle county, dating back at least to 1733, 

 indicates that they sometimes extended their excursions north of Notto- 

 way river. They gained nothing, however, by their removal to Fort 

 Christanna, for by so doing they became embroiled in constant quarrels 

 with the neighboring Nottoway and Meherrin and with the remnant 

 of the Tuskarora on Eoanoke river, whde their old enemies, the Iroquois, 

 still continued their attacks, even after they had agreed to make peace, 

 in 1722 (N. C. R., 4). There is evidence that the refugee Tuskarora who 

 had fled to New York had a great deal to do with instigating the Iro- 

 quois to these outrages. 



