May 1 6, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



297 



ticello is situated." This tradition of their migrations was, 

 it seems, preserved and handed down by their official ora- 

 tors, who repeated it annually in public at the national fes- 

 tival of the green-corn dance. Haywood adds, "It is now 

 nearly forgotten ; " and Dr. D. G. Brinton informs us, in 

 " The Lenape and their Legends," that he has endeavored 

 in vain to recover some fragments of it from the present 

 residents of the Cherokee nation. 



Haywood asserts, probably from original statements made 

 to him, that " before the year 1690 the Cherokees, who were 

 once settled upon the Appomattox River in the neighbor- 

 hood of Monticello, left their formei' abodes, and came to 

 the West. The Powhatans are said by their descendants to 

 have once been a part of this nation. The probability is that 

 a migration took place about or soon after the year 1632, 

 when the Virginians suddenly and unexpectedly fell upon 

 the Indians, killing all they could find, cutting up and de- 

 stroying their crops, and causing great numbers to perish by 

 famine. They came to New River and made a temporary 

 settlement, and also on the head of the Holston." 



It is obvious that in this passage the author has given his 

 conclusion based on the "oration" mentioned, connecting 

 with it the historical event of the sudden onslaught by the 

 Virginia settlers upon the Indians, in 1632. That his deduc- 

 tion in this respect is erroneous if intended to apply to the 

 whole tribe, is apparent from the following facts: first, be- 

 cause it is evident that a portion, at least, of the tribe was 

 located in their historic seat, in and about East Tennessee 

 and western North Carolina, when De Soto passed through 

 the northern part of Georgia in 1540, as it is admitted that 

 the " Chelaques "or " Achelaques " mentioned by the chron- 

 iclers of his expedition were Cherokees; second, because 

 John Lederer, who visited this region in 1669-70, speaking 

 of the Indians of the "Apalatian Mountains," — doubtless the 

 Cherokees, as he was at that time somewhere in western 

 North Carolina, — says, in his "Discoveries," "The Indians 

 of these parts are none of those which the English removed 

 from Virginia, but were driven by an enemy from the north- 

 west and invited to fix here by an oracle, as they pretend, 

 above four hundred years ago; " third, from what is shown 

 by the archseologic evidence which will be introduced fur- 

 ther on. 



The language of Lederer indicates that he had heard sub- 

 stantially the same tradition as that of which Haywood 

 speaks. An important addition, however, is the supposed 

 date of this migration, which this author says was "above 

 four hundred years " preceding the date at which he writes 

 (1671-72), which would place it in the latter part of the thir- 

 teenth century. The tradition as given by Haywood brings 

 them from the valley of the Upper Ohio; that by Lederer, 

 from the north west, — a close agreement as to the direction 

 of their former home. 



It is doubtful whether any importance is to be attached to 

 Haywood's statenient that there was formerly a settlement 

 in the vicinity of Monticello, Va. It is possible, that, dur- 

 ing the migration toward the south-east, a party or clan 

 broke off from the main body of the tribe, and settled in that 

 region, where they remained until the general attack by the 

 whites in the early part of the seventeenth century. Mr. 

 Royce, in his paper on the "Cherokee Nation of Indians," 

 in the "Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology," 



gives a tradition preserved among the Mohicans (or Stock- 

 bridges) which he suggests may have some bearing on this 

 question. It is that " many thousand moons ago, before the 

 white men came over the great water, the Delawares dwelt 

 along the banks of the river that bears their name. They 

 had enjoyed a long era of peace and prosperity, when the 

 Cherokees, Nanticokes, and some other nation whose name 

 had been forgotten, envying their condition, came from the 

 south with a great army, and made war upon them. They 

 vanquished the Delawares, and drove them to an island in 

 the river. The latter sent for assistance to the Mohicans, 

 who promptly came to their relief, and the invaders were in 

 turn defeated with great slaughter, and put to flight. They 

 sued for peace, and it was granted on condition that they 

 should return home and never again make war on the Dela- 

 wares or their allies. These terms were agreed to, and the 

 Cherokees and Nanticokes ever remained faithful to the con- 

 ditions of the treaty." 



Passing over the improbability that a marauding party 

 forced to fly would stop and sue for peace, the tradition 

 may, after all, have some basis of fact, as there is nothing 

 improbable in the supposition that a band of Cherokees went 

 north from the banks of the Holston or Kanawha as far as 

 the Delaware on a war expedition. 



What is supposed to be the earliest notice of this tribe 

 through the settlers of Virginia is that given by the historian 

 Burke. According to this author, Sir William Berkely, 

 governor of that State, sent out in 1667 an expedition con- 

 sisting of fourteen whites and an equal number of friendly 

 Indians, under command of Capt. Henry Blatt, to explore 

 the mountainous region to the west. After seven days' 

 travel from their point of departure at Appomattox, they 

 reached the foot of the mountains. The first ridge they 

 crossed is described as being neither very high nor steep; 

 but the succeeding ones, according to their statement, 

 " seemed to touch the clouds," and were so steep that an 

 average day's march while passing over them did not exceed 

 three miles. After passing beyond the mountains they came 

 into a level region, through which a stream flowed in a 

 westward course. Following this 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 sti-angers who discovered their towns to return 

 alive: consequently the party was forced to return. It is 

 believed by some authorities that the powerful nation alluded 

 to in the narrative of this expedition was the Cherokees. 



It is probable that the point reached was what is now 

 Floyd or Montgomery County, and that the Indians so much 

 dreaded were located on New River or the extreme head 

 waters of the Holston. 



Another tradition related by Haywood is that one party or 

 band of the tribe came to their mountain home from the 

 neighborhood of Charleston, S.C., and settled south of the 

 Little Tennessee, near what is now the Georgia line. The 

 people of this branch called themselves "Ketawanga," and 

 came last into the country. 



Another tradition is, that when they first came into this 

 region they found it uninhabited with the exception of a 

 Creek settlement on the Hiawassee River. Ramsey, upon 

 what authority is not known, says this was a Uchee settlement. 



