ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 71 



mals now found fossil, as a true product of geologic time. 

 But the fact was strongly insisted upon that the ordinary 

 method of discussing all these questions was vicious, in fail- 

 ing to recognize the underlying question as to what consti- 

 tutes a being — a man. As no true line of demarkation be- 

 tween apehood and manhood exists there is no fixed point, 

 either genealogical, chorological, or chronological, from 

 which to set out. 



TWENTY-THIRD REGULAR MEETING. 



May 4, 1880. 



Who were the Massawomekes ? 

 By A. L. GUSS. 



The paper collected and analyzed all statements of Capt. 

 John Smith concerning this tribe, first met by him in 1608 at 

 the head of Chesapeake Bay. From these it appeared that 

 all the Indians on the Chesapeake and its affluents were in 

 dread of a people named Massawomekes, who were superior 

 to them in numbers and warlike power. The large body of 

 historians have been of opinion that these people were Iro- 

 quois proper, commonly called the Five Nations, from the 

 present State of New York. This was denied, and it was 

 contended with much elaboration of argument, deduced from 

 ancient maps and original authorities, that the} 1 " were a body 

 of the Iroquoian linguistic stock, neither belonging to the 

 Five Nations nor to the Tuscaroras of the South, which 

 latter became, in 1715, the sixth nation of the Confederacy. 

 This theory would proceed to the conclusion that the Tus- 

 caroras were not isolated from the remainder of the linguis- 

 tic family, but that the latter extended continuous^ from 

 Canada to North Carolina, occupying all Pennsylvania west 

 of the streams flowing into the Delaware, the upper and 

 western portions of Maryland, and all of Virginia except 



