THE INDIANS IN TALBOT COUNTY

Although prior to 1652, there were many Indian settlements, as still indicated by their banks of oyster shells, on points along the shores of the Choptank, Chester and Tred Avon rivers, it was in this year, being eight years prior to the founding of Talbot county, that a treaty was made with them, which is the first of which any record has been preserved and by which all of their lands on the Eastern Shore, north of the Choptank river, were ceded to the English.

This treaty was made at the river Severn, where the city of Annapolis was later located, and, tradition says, it was held under the old tulippopular tree, still standing on the campus of St. John's College. This treaty may be found, at length, in the appendix to Bozman's History of Maryland, in which it is stated a blank occurs in the first article. A critical examination of the old council book will, however, convince any person familiar with the peculiar chirography of that time, that there is no blank in it, and that the word that Bozman says, in another place, is illegible, is in reality the word trees. The first article is as follows:

Article of peace and friendship treated and agreed upon the 5th day of July, 1652, between the English nation in the province of Maryland, on the one part, and the Indian nation of Susquesahanough on the other part, as followeth:

First, that the English nation shall have, hold and enjoy to them, their heirs and assigns, forever, all the land lying from the Patuxent river unto Palmer's Island, on the Western side of the Bay of Chesepiake, and from Choptank river to the north east branch which lyes to the northward of Elks river, on the Eastern side of the said baye, with all the islands, rivers, creeks, tres, fish, fowle, deer, elke, and whatsoever else to the same belonging, excepting the Isle of Kent and Palmer's Island, which belong to Capt. Clayborne. But, never the less it shall be lawful for the aforesaid English or Indians to build a house or forte for trade or any such like use or occasion at any tyme upon Palmers' Island.

The treaty further stipulated for the return of fugitives escaping from either of the contracting parties, and provided that when the Indians desired to visit the English they should come by water and not by land, and not more than eight or ten of them at one time, and that each party, when visiting the other, should carry with them and exhibit

the token, which they appear to have mutually exchanged with each other, so that they could be recognized and entertained. And after pledging the contracting parties to a perpetual peace, which was to endure for ever, to the end of the world, provided that if it should so happen that either party should grow weary of the peace, and desired to go to war, they should give twenty days' notice by sending in and delivering up this writing.

This treaty was signed by Richard Bennet, Edward Lloyd, Thomas Marsh, Capt. William Fuller and Leonard Strong, commissioners on the part of the English, and on the part of the Indians by "Sawahegeh, treasurer, Auroghtaregh, Scarhuhadig, Ruthehoagh and Nathheldianch, war captains and Councillors of Susquesahanough," and was witnessed by William Lawson and Jafer, or Jasper Peter, the last individual signing it for the Swedish Government. This Peter was probably an Indian trader from the Swedish settlement at Christina, (now Wilmington, Del.).

The reader will notice that Kent and Palmer's Island are said to belong to Captain Clayborne. The facts being that at this time the Government of Maryland was in the hands of his friends and that he had re-entered and taken possession of these two islands a short time before the treaty was made. We learn from Hansons "Old Kent" that "in consequence of dangers arising from the hostility of the 'Salvages,' Capt. Giles Brent, Esq., one of the Counsil, was commissioned, Feb. 3, 1639, o. s. to be Commander of the Isle of Kent," with military powers. This was for special and temporary purposes. He remained on the Isle, in commission, but a few months, for it appears that on the 14th of August, 1640, William Braithwayte was acknowledged by the Governor, Commander of the Isle, and "Gyles Brent, Gent" as "the treasurer of our province."

The Indians had again become so hostile that the Governor on the 10th day of July, 1641, issued his proclamation prohibiting all persons whatsoever "to harbour or entertain any Indian" under pain of the penalty of martial law, and declaring it "lawful to any inhabitant whatsoever of the Isle of Kent to shoot, wound or kill any Indian whatsoever coming upon the said Island."

Is it any wonder then that the poor Indian became desperate. Necessity lent them obstinancy. Despair lent them courage. Their only resource was the scalping knife. The Susquehannahs lived in Cecil county, the Matapeakes principally in Kent and upper Talbot. The Chester River was lined with their settlements, where many Indian re

mains still exist, on the Emory Farm, called Indian Town, while the shores of the Tred Avon and Choptank rivers were occupied by the Choptank Indians. These two last mentioned tribes, though at first peaceably inclined towards the white settlers, became later fierce and warlike. They, however, dwindled rapidly away, and scarcely a mention of them appears in history.

About the year 1689, 28 years after the laying out of Talbot County, Mr. John Hawkins, for many years Judge of the Provincial Court, who lived at Queenstown on Chester River (1680-1717), long one of the chief shipping ports of Talbot County was appointed to head a commission to the Indians for the Eastern Shore. The other members of this commission, all of Talbot County, were John Stanley, Clement Sales, William Dickinson, William Stevens and William Bealey. The Nanticoke Indians had been committing many depredations along the shores of Talbot County, on the Choptank, the Saint Michaels and the Chester Rivers, and these gentlemen had been appointed to treat with the Indians and if necessary to reduce them by force.

Here is their Report to the Governor and Provincial Council:

report of commissioners to the indians, august ye 23rd, 1689

These may acquaint you that we whose names are underwritten have according to request bin and treated with ye Indians, and doe find 'em to be very civill and kind, and desire nothing but peace and quietness, "butt yt in part through ye instigation of bad people, and chiefly doe instance Andrew Gray, that ye English in one moon would cut them all off; likewise concerning an Indian woman w'ch they say was killed by Cornelius Mulrain's wife, for w'ch they have expected some satisfactory answer, concerning which as yett, they have not received. And yt ye sd. Cornelius, since their departure, offered great abuse in robbing them of their cannons, corn, mattar, bowles and basketts, and they say, their chests have bin broke open, and since they have bin gone out ye sd Gray hath bin with 'em and threatened them if they would not come home, he would get a Party of men and fetch 'em by force. Likewise they say that they haven ten Indians w'ch went between Oxford Town and Coll. Lowe's and that their time of return is elapsed and are not satisfied what is become of 'em, whereof all these things being computed together hath seized them with feare, butt that they are very joyfull att our coming, and were taking up their goods to return to their habitations.

THE PASSING OF THE NANTICOKES

In Heckwelder's "History of the Indian nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring states," published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society, 1876, he says, concerning the Nanticokes— The Delawares say that this nation has sprung from the same stock with them, and the fact was acknowledged by White, one of their chiefs, whom I have personally known.

They call the Delawares their grandfathers. I shall relate the history of the Nanticokes, as I had it from the mouth of White himself: "Every Indian being at liberty to pursue what occupation he pleases, White's ancestors, after the Lenapi came into their country, preferred seeking a livelihood by fishing and trapping along the rivers and bays, to pursuing wild game in the forests; they therefore detached themselves and sought the most convenient places for their purpose. In process of time they became very numerous, partly by natural increase, and partly in consequence of being joined by a number of the Lenape, and spread themselves over a large tract of country and divided into separate bodies. The main branch of the Nanticokes proper were then living on what is now called the Eastern Shore of Maryland. At length the white people crowded so much upon them that they were obliged to seek another abode, and as their grandfather, the Delaware, was himself retreating back in consequence of the great influx of the whites, they took the advice of the Mengroe (Mingo's), and bent their course to the large flats of the Wyoming, where they settled themselves, in sight of the Shawanos town, while others settled higher up the river, even as high as Chemenk, (Shenango) and Shummunk, to which places they emigrated at the beginning of the French war."

White's tribe resided there until the beginning of the Revolutionary war, when they went off to a place nearer to the British, whose part they had taken, and whose standard they joined. White himself had joined the Christian Indians, Sheekschequon, several years previous to the war and remained with them.

"Nothing," said White, "had equalled the decline of his tribe since the white people had come into the country." They were destroyed, in part by disorders they brought with them, by the smallpox and by the free use of spirituous liquors to which great numbers fell victims. The emigration of the Nanticokes from Maryland was well known to the Society of the United Brethren."

The Nanticoke, the Choptank and Matapeake Indians, descend

ants of the Delawares, were first seen along the bay shores of Talbot County by Captain John Smith and his exploring party from Virginia in 1608, and later by Claybourne and his trading party four or five years before Lord Baltimore's Colonists landed at Saint Mary's, near the mouth of the St. Mary's river. They had a peculiar and sacred respect for their dead. The corpse was buried for some months and then exhumed and the bones carefully cleaned and placed in an "Osuary," called man-to-kump, (Manito) with the locative termination or rather signification, "place of the mystery or spirit." When their tribes moved from one place to another they carried the bones of their dead with them. When they emigrated, about the middle of the 18th century and settled in northern Pennsylvania, they carried their sacred relics with them, in bags on their backs, and buried them near the present site of Towanda. The Indian name Towandaunk literally meaning "where we bury our dead."

To avoid any possible difficulty in trading with the Indians, a privilege was granted every white inhabitant of Dorset county to trade with them, without license, only at Captain Henry Trippe's house, in 1680. Previously the Governor had issued special licenses to individual traders, who could go to the Indian camps and there trade, often selling them guns and ammunition, in violation of the trading regulations, which caused much trouble between the colonists and the native Indians.