To the Right Honourable ANTHONY Lord Ashley , Baron Ashley of Wimborn St. Giles , Chancellor of his Majesties Exchequer, Under-Treasurer of England , One of the Lords Commissioners of his Majesties Treasury, one of the Lords of his most Honourable Privie Council, and one of the Lords Proprietors of CAROLINA . My Lord , From this discourse it is clear that the long looked-for discovery of the Indian Sea does nearly approach; and Carolina , out of her happy experience of your Lordships success in

That a Stranger should presume (though with Sir William Berkly ’s Commission) to go into those Parts of the American Continent where Englishmen never had been, and whither some refused to accompany him, was, in Virginia look’d on as so great an insolence, that our Traveller at his Return, instead of Welcom and Applause, met nothing but Affronts and Reproaches; for indeed it was their part, that forsook him in the Expedition, to procure him discredit that was a witness to theirs; Therefore no ind

North, as well as South- America , may be divided into three Regions: the Flats, the Highlands, and the Mountains. The Flats (in Indian, Ahkynt ) is the Territory lying between the Eastern Coast, and the falls of the great Rivers, that there run into the Atlantick Ocean, in extent generally taken Ninety miles. The Highlands (in Indian, Ahkontshuck ) begin at those falls, and determine at the foot of the great ridge of Mountains that runs thorow the midst of this Continent, Northeast and Southwes

The Indians now seated in these parts, are none of those which the English removed from Virginia , but a people driven by an Enemy from the Northwest, and invited to sit down here by an Oracle above four hundred years since, as they pretend: for the ancient inhabitants of Virginia were far more rude and barbarous, feeding onely upon raw flesh and fish, until these taught them to plant Corn, and shewed them the use of it. But before I treat of their ancient Manners and Customs, it is necessary I

Upon the ninth of March 1669 (with three Indians whose names were Magtakunh , Hopottoguoh , and Naunnugh ) I went out at the falls of Pemæoncock , aliàs York-River in Virginia , from an Indian Village called Shickehamany , and lay that night in the Woods, encountring nothing remarkable, but a Rattle-snake of an extraordinary, length and thickness, for I judged it two yards and a half or better from head to tail, and as big about as a mans arm: by the distention of her belly, we believed her full

The twentieth of May 1670, one Major Harris and my self, with twenty Christian Horse, and five Indians , marched from the Falls of James-River , in Virginia , towards the Monakins ; and on the Two and twentieth were welcomed by them with Volleys of Shot. Near this Village we observed a Pyramid of stones piled up together, which their Priests told us, was the Number of an Indian Colony drawn out by Lot from a Neighbour-Countrey over-peopled, and led hither by one Monack , from whom they take the

The fifth of June , my Company and I parted good friends, they back again, and I with one Sasquesahanough-Indian , named Jackzetavon , only, in pursuit of my first Enterprize, changing my course from West to Southwest & by South, to avoid the Mountains. Major Harris at parting gave me a Gun, believing me a lost man, and given up as a prey to Indians or savage Beasts; which made him the bolder in Virginia to report strange things in his own praise and my disparagement, presuming I would n

On the twentieth of August 1670, Col. Catlet of Virginia and my self, with nine English Horse, and five Indians on foot, departed from the house of one Robert Talifer , and that night reached the falls of Rappahanock -river, in Indian Mantepeuck . The next day we passed it over where it divides into two branches North and South, keeping the main branch North of us. The three and twentieth we found it so shallow, that it onely wet our horses hoofs. The four and twentieth we travelled thorow the S

They are certainly in a great errour, who imagine that the Continent of North- America is but eight or ten days journey over from the Atlantick to the Indian Ocean: which all reasonable men must acknowledge, if they consider that Sir France Drake kept a West-Northwest course from Cape Mendocino to California . Nevertheless, by what I gathered from the stranger Indians at Akenatzy of their Voyage by Sea to the very Mountains from a far distant Northwest Country, I am brought over to their opinion

Two breaches there are in the Apalatæan Mountains, opening a passage into the Western parts of the Continent. One, as I am informed by Indians, at a place called Zynodoa , to the Norward; the other at Sara , where I have been my self: but the way thither being thorow a vast Forest, where you seldom fall into any Road or Path, you must shape your course by a Compass; though some, for want of one, have taken their direction from the North-side of the trees, which is distinguished from the rest by

If you barely designe a Home-trade with neighbour-Indians, for skins of Deer, Beaver, Otter, Wild-Cat, Fox, Racoon, &c. your best Truck is a sort of course Trading Cloth, of which a yard and a half makes a Matchcoat or Mantle fit for their wear; as also Axes, Hoes, Knives, Sizars, and all sorts of edg’d tools. Guns, Powder and Shot, &c. are Commodities they will greedily barter for: but to supply the Indians with Arms and Ammunition, is prohibited in all English Governments. In d