BULL. 30] 



SUSUQUEY 



659 



black under the belly like a lynx, and 

 uttacmvai for "lyon," which of course 

 was probably intended for panther, and 

 the native terms employed by him are 

 evidently cognate. From the Jesuit 

 Relation for 1647^8, in reference to 

 the Rhiierrhonon, it is learned that 

 the s. shores of L. Erie were formerly in- 

 habited "by certain tribes whom we 

 call the Nation of the Cat; they have 

 been compelled to retire far inland to 

 escape their enemies, who are farther 

 west" ; and further that they had a num- 

 ber of fixed towns, as they cultivated the 

 soil. This would indicate that before 

 this date the Erie had been forced east- 

 ward into the region along the w. branch 

 of tne Susquehanna or the upper waters 

 of the Allegheny. Now, it was from 

 this latter region that the Wenrohronon, 

 an allied tribe of the Neutrals, emigrated 

 in 1639 to the Huron country. Of these, 

 Father Du Peron wrote, Apr. 27, 1639: 

 " We have a foreign nation taking refuge 

 here both on account of the Iroquois, 

 their enemies, and of the epidemic, 

 which is still causing them great mor- 

 tality; nearly all of them are baptized 

 before death." And Bressani (Relation 

 for 1653, Thwaites' ed., 39, 141), writing 

 of the Wenrohronon (Ahouenrochrho- 

 nons), said that they had then recently 

 come into the Huron country and "had 

 formerly traded with the English, Dutch, 

 and other heretical Europeans. ' ' At this 

 point it may be well to cite some in- 

 formation concerning a little-known peo- 

 ple, called the Black Minquas, who 

 apparently dwelt in the region now 

 under consideration, that s. e. of L. 

 Erie and the Juniata, and the w. branch 

 of the Susquehanna. Some interesting 

 data are obtained from an extended leg- 

 end appearing on Herrman's map of Vir- 

 ginia and Maryland, prepared in 1670 and 

 issued in 1673. Beyond the Alleghany mts. 

 all the streams flow westward either into 

 "the Bay of Mexico or the West Sea," 

 especially the first one discovered, "a 

 very great River, called the Black Minc- 

 quaas River" (i. e., the Ohio), whereon 

 lived the tribe of that name. There 

 was a branch (the Conemaugh) of the 

 "Black Mincquaas River" opposite a 

 branch (the Juniata) of the Susquehanna 

 r., which entered the main stream of the 

 Susquehanna some leagues above the 

 "Sassquahana forte," placed by the map 

 on the right bank near "the greatest fal, 

 . . . where formerly those Black 

 Mincquaas came over as far as Delaware 

 to trade ' ' ; but that "the Sassquahana and 

 Sinnicus Indians went over and destroyed 

 that very great nation." Van der Donck 

 mentions these Indians, assigning them 

 a general position and stating: "The beav- 

 ers are mostly taken far inland, there be- 



ing few of them near the settlements — 

 particularly by the Black Minquas, who 

 are thus named because they wear a black 

 badge on their breast, and not because 

 they are really black." One other refer 

 ence to these people is found in Beek- 

 man's Letter of Dec. 23, 1662 (Pa. Ar- 

 chives, 2d s., VII, 695, 1878), wherein the 

 statement is made that 5 Minquas (Sus- 

 quehanna) chiefs informed him that they 

 expected shortly the assistance of 800 

 Black Minquas, of whom 200 had al- 

 ready arrived, so that they were fully 

 resolved to carry the war into the 

 country of the Seneca and to attack 

 their forts; and they requested that the 

 white people furnish them with munitions 

 of war when payment was made for them. 

 Hazard ( Annals of Pa. , 2d s. , 342, 1850 ) evi- 

 dently errs in calling these allies of the 

 Susquehanna "Swedish Minquas," prob- 

 ably because he did not know that the 

 Erie or some of their allied tribes bore 

 this name. 



It is thus seen that the number and 

 position of the tribes marked on the 

 "Carte Figurative" confirm in large 

 measure the view that the names of 

 places with kings' houses placed on 

 Smith's map under the general rubric 

 " Sasquesahanoughs " were those of inde- 

 pendent tribes or of the chief towns of 

 such tribes in the valley of the Susque- 

 hanna. It was perhaps the lack of defi- 

 nite knowledge concerning them that 

 compelled Smith to be silent about them 

 in his text. With the final subjugation 

 of the Susquehanna, representing the 

 remnants of the tribes dwelling above 

 them, in 1676, this period of the history 

 of the Susquehanna valley is closed. 



Subsequent to the year 1700 the valley 

 of the Susquehanna became the habitat 

 of many of the tribes subject to the Iro- 

 quois. The Shawnee, Conoy, Nanticoke, 

 Delawares, Munsee, Mahican, Saponi, 

 Tutelo, Tuscarora, and 12 or 15 other 

 tribes were settled here at one time or 

 another under the jurisdiction of the 

 Five Nations. 



For sources and further details, con- 

 sult Alsop, Character of the Prov. of 

 Maryland, in Gowans' Bibl. Am. No. 5, 

 1869; De Vries in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 

 2d s.. Ill, pt. I, 1858; Jesuit Relations, 

 Thwaites ed., 1896-1901; Md. Archives, 

 1636-1667; Pa. Archives, 2d s., v, 1877; 

 VII, 1878; Smith, Works, Arber ed., 1884; 

 Strachey, Hist. Travaile into Virginia, 

 1849; Van der Donck, Description of New 

 Netherland, in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2d 

 s., I, 1841. See also Conestoga, Erie, Mc- 

 herrin, Minqua, Neutrals, and their respec- 

 tive synonyms. (j. n. b. h.) 



Susuquey. A Chumashan village w. of 

 Pueblo de las Canoas ( San Buenaventura ) , 

 Ventura co. , Cal. , in 1542. 



