654 



SUSQUEHAKNA 



[b. a. e. 



the defense of the Susquehanna fort and 

 inmates, "whom you are upon all occa- 

 sions to assist against the assaults of their 

 enemies." At the conference of June 29, 

 1666, at St Johns, Wastahanda Hariguera 

 of the Terrapin or Turtle clan, and 

 Gosweinquecrakqua of the Fox clan, war 

 chiefs of the Susquehanna, brought 

 Wanahedana to justice, "lest the crime 

 of one be imputed to the whole tribe," 

 and asked assistance from the governor 

 "at this time," for they had lost a large 

 number of men who were ranging about 

 the head of Patapsco and other rivers to 

 secure the English plantations from the 

 Seneca, who, they declared, were re- 

 solved to storm the Susquehanna fort in 

 the following August and then fall upon 

 the English; and they also agreed to de- 

 liver the "King of Potomack his two 

 sonns" to Major Goldsmyth. At the 

 former treaty it was stipulated also that 

 6 Susquehanna warriors should act as 

 dispatch bearers. 



On July 28, 1663, the Maryland 

 authorities gave to Civility and the rest 

 of the Susquehanna Indians 2 barrels of 

 powder, 200 pounds of lead, and their 

 own choice of one of two small cannon. 

 At this conference Wastahandow of the 

 Turtle clan declared that it was not "the 

 Sasquesahanoughs " but the Seneca who 

 began the war, for the Seneca had killed 

 the Susquehanna ambassadors and had 

 robbed them of 70belts of wampum; and 

 he declared that their enemies (such of 

 the Iroquois tribes as were engaged in 

 making war on them) mustered about 

 1,460 warriors, while the Susquehanna 

 had about 700 fighting men. 



In the writings of Swedish and Dutch 

 authors many references are found to a 

 people called therein Minquas, Minquosy, 

 or Machoeretini (in De Laet), Mengwe, 

 or Mingo, names which were evidently 

 bestowed on them by the Algonquians of 

 the lower Delaware r. and bay. It would 

 seem that in the earliest application of 

 the names Susquehanna and Minqua they 

 denoted a tribe or group of allied tribes 

 which from 1608 to 1633 waged relentless 

 war against the Algonquian tribes on and 

 about the lower portion of Potomac r. 

 and Delaware r. and bay. De Vries 

 says that on Feb. 11, 1633, when he and 

 a small crew were in the Delaware r. op- 

 posite Ft Nassau, 50 Indians came over 

 the river from the fort and spoke to him 

 and his men. He states that these were 

 Minquas dwelling among "the English 

 of Virginia," and that, numbering 600 

 warriors, they had come on a warlike 

 expedition, but that they were friendly 

 with him and his men; that while in 

 that immediate vicinity two days later, 

 three Indians of the Armewamen came 

 to him and reported that they were fugi- 



tives from the Minquas, who had killed 

 some of their people, plundered them of 

 their corn, and burned their houses, and 

 that these Minquas had killed 90 men of 

 the Sankiekens (Sankhikans); also that 

 the Minquas had returned to their own 

 country. But subsequent to this period 

 these two names, Susquehanna and Min- 

 qua, especially the latter, had acquired a 

 broader and more comprehensive signifi- 

 cation. Van der Donck, writing prior to 

 1653, says, "With the Minquas we in- 

 clude the Senecas, the Maquas, and other 

 inland tribes." 



-On July 24, 1608, Capt. John Smith 

 began his exploration of Susquehanna 

 r., completing the work on Sept. 8 of 

 the same year. As already stated, in 

 his text he calls the Indians he found 

 inhabiting the river, Sasquesahannocks, 

 but on his map he recorded the name 

 Sasquesahanoughs, and the name of 

 their town Sasquesahanough. The exact 

 situation of this town is not definitely 

 known, but a satisfactory approxima- 

 tion may be made. Smith said that it 

 was "two days' journey higher than 

 our barge could pass for rocks." The 

 rocks are at Port Deposit, Md., and 

 40 or 50 m. above this point may be 

 tentatively taken as the approximate 

 situation of the town. Smith locates 

 it on the e. side of the Susquehanna, a 

 short distance above the confluence of a 

 feeder from the w. side. It is matter of 

 record that a ' ' Sasquehanocksnew-town ' ' 

 existed about 1648 where "some falls 

 below hinder navigation," and that in 

 1670 Augustine Herrman located Canooge, 

 "the present Sassquahana Indian fort," 

 on the w. bank just above the "greatest 

 fall" (the present Conewago falls); and 

 they also had a palisaded town at the 

 mouth of the Octoraro, prohabh^ as early 

 as 1662, so that the Susquehanna of 1608 

 may probably have been in the vicinity 

 of the Conewago falls. In Smith's text 

 a remarkable silence is maintained as to 

 the names of any other towns of the Sus- 

 quehanna, but on his map he places 

 five other towns with king's houses: 

 Attaock, Quadroque, Tesinigh, Utcho- 

 wig, and Cepowig, and with the single 

 exception of Cepowig, which is located on 

 the E. side of the main stream of Willow- 

 bye's r., all these towns are located on 

 the Susquehanna or on some of its afl^u- 

 ents. Since no Indians were found along 

 the upper portion of the w. shore of the 

 bay, there can be little doubt that Cepowig 

 was a Susquehanna town, for an early 

 writer in a general recapitulation of 

 names and situations of tribes says that 

 "the Sasquesahanoes are on the Bolus 

 river." The "Bolus r." of Smith is the 

 present Patapsco, which flows into Chesa- 

 peake bay at Baltimore. This would 



