are deliberated on and ds- termined in a national council compofed of the chiefs of the tribe, attended by the head warriors and a number of the chiefs from the towns, who are his counfellors. In every town there is a council houfe, where the chief and old men of the town aflemble, when occafion requires, and confult what is proper to be done. Every tribe has a fixed place for the chiefs of the towns to meet and confult on the bufinefs of the tribe : and in every nation there is what they call the central council houfe, or cen- tral council fire, where the chiefs of the feveral tribes, with the principal warriors, convene to confult and determine on their national affairs. When any matter is pro- pofed in the national council, it is common for the chiefs of the feveral tribes to con- fult thereon apart with their counfellors, and when they have agreed, to deliver the opinion of the tribe at the national council:
and, as their government feems to reft wholly on perfuafion, they endeavour, by mutual concefRons, to obtain unanimity.
Such is the government that ftill fubfifis [ 39^ ] among the Indian nations bordering upon the United States. Some hiftorians feem to think, that the dignity of office of Sachem was hereditary. But that opinion does not appear to be well founded. The fachem or chief of the tribe feems to be by ele6lion. And fometimes perfons who are ftrangers, and adopted into the tribe, are promoted to this dignity, on account of their abilities. Thus on the arrival of Captain Smith, the firft founder of the colony of Virginia, Opechancanough, who was Sachem or chief of the Chickahomi- nies, one of the tribes of the Powhatans, is faid to have been of another tribe, and even of another nation, fo that no certain account could be obtained of his origin or defcent. The chiefs of the nation feem to have been by a rotation among the tribes. Thus when Capt. Smith, in the year i6o9,quef- tioned Powhatan (who was the chief of the nation, and whofe proper name is faid to have been Wahunfonacock) refpefting the fucceffion, the old chief informed him, ' that he was very old, and had feen the [ 39^ J ' death of all his people