138 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
EARLY CONTACT WITIL VIRGINIA COLONISTS. 
Whatever the degree of probability attending these legends, it would 
seem that the settlers of Virginia had an acquaintance with the Chero- 
kees prior to that of the South Carolina immigrants, who for a number 
of years after their first occupation confined their explorations to a 
narrow strip of country in the vicinity of the seacoast, while the Vir- 
ginians had been gradually extending their settlements far up toward 
the headwaters of the James River and had early perceived the profits 
to be derived from the Indian trade. 
Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, equipped an expedition, 
consisting of fourteen Englishmen and an equal number of Virginia 
Indians, for the exploration of the country to the west of the exist- 
ing settlements. The party was under the command of Capt. Henry 
Batt, and in seven days’ travel from their point of departure, at Appo- 
mattox, they reached the foot of the mountains. The first ridge they 
crossed is described as not being very high or steep, but the succeed- 
ing ones ‘seemed to touch the clouds,” and were so steep that an av- 
erage day’s march did not exceed three miles. 
They came upon extensive and fertile valleys, covered with luxuriant 
grass, and found the forests abounding in all kinds of game, including 
turkeys, deer, elk, and buffalo. After passing beyond the mountains 
they entered an extensive level country, through which a stream flowed 
in a westward course, and after following it for a few days they reached 
some old fields and recently deserted Indian cabins. Beyond this point 
their Indian guides refused to proceed, alleging that not far away dwelt 
a powerful tribe that never suffered strangers who discovered their 
towns to return alive, and the expedition was therefore compelled to 
return. According to the historian, Burke, this expedition took place 
in 1667, while Beverly, not quite so definite, assigns it to the decade 
between 1666 and 1676.! It is believed that the powerful nation of 
Indians alluded to in the narrative of this expedition was the Cherokees, 
and, if so, itis apparently the first allusion made to them in the history 
of the colonial settlements. 
That the Virginians were the first to be brought in contact with the 
Cherokees is further evidenced by the fact that in 1690 an Indian trader 
from that colony, bearing the name of Daugherty, had taken up his 
residence among them, which is alleged by the historian? to have been 
several years before any knowledge of the existence of the Cherokees 
reached the settlers on Ashley River in South Carolina. 
EARLY RELATIONS WITH CAROLINA COLONISTS. 
The first formal introduction of the Cherokees to the notice of the 
people of that colony occurred in the year 1693,° when twenty Cherokee 



'Campbell’s Virginia, p. 268. 
2?Logan’s South Carolina, Vol. I, p. 168. 
® Martin’s North Carolina, Vol. I, p. 194. 
