740 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY !Bdi.l137 



Michel says that the Indians of Monacantown often brought pot- 

 tery in to trade "and when desired fill it with corn" (Michel, 1916, 

 p. 123). The Powhatan Indians brought corn in baskets to sell to 

 the Virginia colonists. We read that when Capt. Ratclyffe visited 

 Powhatan in November 1609, the Indians 



carried our English to their storehouse where their corne was to traffique with 

 them, giueing them pieces of copper and beades and other things. According 

 to y° proportions of y* basketts of corne which they brought but the Indians 

 dealing deceitfully by pulling or beareing vpp the bottom of their baskets with 

 their hands soe that y* lesse corne might serue to fill them, (Smith, John, Arber 

 ed., 1884, p. civ.) 



Strachey says of the Powhatan Indians : 



They are much desirous of our comodityes, and therefore when any of our 

 boates arrive before their townes, they will come downe unto us, or suffer us 

 to come up into their bowses, and demaund after copper, white beades, howes 

 to pare their corne feilds, and hatchetts, for which they will give us of such 

 things as they have in exchaung, as deere skins, furrs of the wild catt, black 

 fox, beaver, otter, arachoune, fowle, fish, deare, or beare's flesh dried, or deare's 

 suet made up handsomely in cakes, their country corne, peas, beanes, and such 

 like; and indeed (to say truith) their victuall is their chief riches. (Strachey, 

 1849, p. 113.) 



We also find here the tribal desire to control trade so characteristic 

 of peoples in all parts of the world. The Wainoakes were said to 

 slander the English to the Tuscarora and vice versa for this purpose, 

 and the Occaneechi used every effort to prevent English traders 

 from passing beyond them (Alvord, 1912, p. 119). The traders also 

 had to suffer at times from the cupidity of the tribes they visited. 

 Upon one occasion three Indians from the Chesapeake Bay section 

 were killed by the Hocomawananck [Roanoke River] Indians "for 

 lucre of the Roanoke they brought with them to trade for Otter- 

 skins" (Alvord, 1912, p. 122). Lawson met two Tuscarora Indians 

 going to the Shakori and Occaneechi to barter some wooden bowls 

 and ladles for raw skins, "which," Lawson adds, "they [the Occa- 

 neechi] make great advantage of, hating that smj of these westward 

 Indians should have any commerce with the English which would 

 prove a hindrance to their gains" (Lawson, 1860, p. 101). 



As is common the world over, feasts and ceremonies were made 

 occasions for trading. "They meet," says Lawson, "from all the 

 towns within fifty or sixty miles round, where they buy and sell 

 several commodities, as we do at fairs and markets" (Lawson, 1860, 

 p. 288). In this region the poorer hunters made bowls, dishes, and 

 spoons of gmnwood and the tulip tree, "others, where they find a 

 vein of white clay, fit for their purpose, make tobacco pipes, all which 

 are often transported to other Indians," including seemingly baskets 

 and mats made by the women (Lawson, 1860, p. 338 ; also see p. 364) . 



