89 
THE DlVlDINt^ LliVE, 
which the most considerable are the Sapponies, the Occaneches, and Stonken- 
hocks, who not finding themselves separately numerous enough for their de- 
fence, have agreed to unite into one body, and all of them now go under the 
name of the Sapponies. Each of these was formerly a distinct nation, or 
rather a several clan or canton of the same nation, speaking the same lan- 
guage, and using the same customs. But their perpetual wars against all 
other Indians, in time, reduced them so low as to make it necessary to join 
their forces together. They dwelt formerly not far below the mountains, up- 
on Yadkin river, about two hundred miles west and by south from the falls of 
Roanoke. But about twenty-five years ago they took refuge in Virginia, 
being no longer in condition to make head not only against the northern In- 
dians, who are their implacable enemies, but also against most of those to 
the south. All the nations round about, bearing in mind the havoc these 
Indians used formerly to make among their ancestors in the insolence of 
their power, did at length avenge it home upon them, and made them glad to 
apply to this government for protection. Colonel Spotswood, our then lieu- 
tenant governor, having a good opinion of their fidelity and courage, settled 
them at Christanna, ten miles north of Roanoke, upon the belief that they 
would be a good barrier, on that side of the country, against the incursion of 
all foreign Indians. And in earnest they would have served well enough for 
that purpose, if the white people in the neighbourhood had not debauched 
their morals, and ruined their health with rum, 'which was the cause of many 
disorders, and ended at last in a barbarous murder committed by one of 
these Indians when he was drunk, for which the poor wretch was executed 
when he was sober. It was matter of great concern to them, however, that 
one of their grandees should be put to so ignominious a death. All Indians 
have as great an aversion to hanging as the Muscovites, though perhaps not 
for the same cleanly reason : these last believing that the soul of one that 
dies in this manner, being forced to sally out of the body at the postern, must 
needs be defiled. The Sapponies took this execution so much to heart, that 
they soon after quitted their settlement and removed in a body to the Ca- 
tawbas. The daughter of the Tetero king went away with the Sapponies, 
but being the last of her nation, and fearing she should not be treated ac- 
cording to her rank, poisoned herself, like an old Roman, with the root of 
the trumpet plant. Her father died two years before, who was the most 
intrepid Indian we have been acquainted with. He had made himself terri- 
ble to all other Indians by his exploits, and had escaped so many dangers 
that he was esteemed invulnerable. But at last he died of a pleurisy, the 
last man of his race and nation, leaving only that unhappy daughter behind 
him, who would not long survive him. 
The most uncommon circumstance in this Indian visit was, that they all 
came on horse-back, which was certainly intended for a piece of state, be- 
cause the distance was but three miles, and it is likely they had walked on 
foot twice as far to catch their horses. The men rode more awkwardly than 
any Dutch sailor, and the ladies bestrode their palfreys a la mode de France, 
but were so bashful about it, that there was no persuading them to mount till 
they were quite out of our sight. The French women used to ride a-strad- 
dle, not so much to make them sit firmer in the saddle, as from the hopes the 
same thing might perad venture befall them that once happened to the nun of 
Orleans, who, escaping out of a nunnery, took post en cavalier, and in ten 
miles’ hard riding had the good fortune to have all the tokens of a man break 
out upon her. This piece of history ought to be the more credible, because 
it leans upon much the same degree of proof as the tale of bishop Burnet’s 
two Italian nuns, who, according to his lordship’s account, underwent the 
same happy metamorphosis, probably by some other violent exercise. 
