¢ 
1883. } 3 [Hale. 
They were then at war with the powerful and dreaded Senecas—whom 
Lawson styles Sinnagers. While he was at the Sapona town, some of the 
Toteras warriors came to visit their allies. Lawson was struck with their 
appearance, He describes them, in his quaint idiom, as “tall, likely men, 
having great plenty of buffaloes, elks and bears, with every sort of deer, 
amongst them, which strong food makes large, robust bodies.’’ In another 
place he adds: ‘‘These five nations of the Toteros, Saponas, Keiauwees, 
Aconechos and Schoicories are lately come amongst us, and may contain 
in all about 750 men, women and children.”’* It is known that the Tote- 
roes (or Tuteloes) and Saponas understood each other’s speech, and it is 
highly probable that all the five tribes belonged to the same stock. They 
had doubtless fled together from southwestern Virginia before their Iro- 
quois invaders. The position in which they had taken refuge might well 
have seemed to them safe, as it placed between them and their enemies 
the strong and warlike Tuscarora nation, which numbered then, accord- 
ing to Lawson’s estimate, twelve hundred warriors, clustered in fifteen 
towns, stretching along the Neuse and Tar rivers. Yet, even behind this 
living rampart, the feeble confederates were not secure. Lawson was 
shown, near the Sapona town, the graves of seven Indians who had been 
lately killed by the ‘“‘Sinnegars or Jennitos’’—names by which Gallatin 
understands the Senecas and Oneidas, though as regards the latter identi- 
fication there may be some question. 
The noteworthy fact mentioned by Lawson, that buffaloes were found 
in ‘great plenty’ in the hilly country on the head waters of the Cape 
Fear river, may be thought to afford a clue to the causes which account 
for the appearance of tribes of Dakota lineage east of the Alleghenies. The 
Dakotas are peculiarly a hunting race, and the buffalo is their favorite 
game. The fact that the Big Sandy river, which flows westward from the 
Alleghenies to the Ohio, and whose head waters approach those of the 
Cape Fear river, was anciently known as the Totteroy river, has been 
supposed to afford an indication that the progress of the Toteros or Tute- 
los, and perhaps of the buftaloes which they hunted, may be traced along 
its course from the Ohio valley eastward. There are evidences which seem 
to show that this valley was at one time the residence, or at least the hunt- 
ing-ground, of tribes of the Dakota stock. Gravier Cin 1700) affirms that 
the Ohio river was called by the Illinois and the Miamis the Akansea 
river, because the Akanseas formerly dwelt along it.| The Alkanseas 
were identical with the Quappas, and have at a later day given their name 
to the river and State of Arkansas. Catlin found reason for believing 
*Lawson’s “ History of Carolina;” reprinted by Strother & Marcom. Raleigh, 
1880 3 p, 384. 
t‘* Hille” (the Ohio) “s’appelle par les Illinois et par les Oumiamis la riviére 
des Akanseas, parceque les Akanseas Vhabitoient autrefois.’—Grayier, Relation 
du Voyage, p. 10, Iam indebted for this and other references to my esteemed 
friend, Dr, J. G. Shea, whose unsurpassed knowledge of Indian history is not 
more admirable than the liberality with which its stores are placed at the com. 
mand of his friends, 
