perfect pofleffion of our rivers aflumed by the ene- my, I believe we are left with a fmgle armed boat only.
QUERY XL A DESCRIPTION of the Indians efta- blifhed in that ftate?
When the firft efFedual fettlement of our colony was made, which was in 1607, the country from the fea-coaft to the mountains, and from Patowmac to the mofl fouthern waters of James river, was occupied by upwards of forty different tribes of Indians. Of thefe the PowhatanSy the Mannahoacsy and MonacanSy were the mofl powerful. Thofe between the fea- coaft and falls of the rivers, were in amity with one another, and attached to the Powhatans as their link of union. Thofe between the falls of the rivers and the mountains, were divided into two confede- racies; the tribes inhabiting the head waters of Patowmac and Rappahannock being attached to the Mannahoacs; and thofe on the upper parts of James river to the Monacans. But the Monacans and their friends were in amity with the Mannahoacs and their friends and waged joint and perpetual war againft the Powhatans, We are told that the Powhatans^ Mannahoacs^ and Monacans, fpake languages fo radically different, that interpreters were neceffary when they tranfafted bufinefs. Hence we may conjecture, that this was not the cafe between all the tribes, and probably that each fpoke the language of the nation A a to which it was attached; which we know to have been the cafe in many particular inftances. Very poffibly there may have been anciently three different flocks, each of which multiplying in a long courfe of time, had feparated into fo many little focieties. This pradice refults from the circumftance of their having never fub- mitted themfelves to any laws, any coer- cive power, any fhadow of government.
Their only controuls are their manners, and that moral fenfe of right and wrong, which, like the fenfe of tailing and feeling, in every man makes a part of his na- ture. An offence againft thefe is punifhed by contempt, by