The Second Expedition,
From the Falls of Powhatan, aliàs James-River,
in Virginia, to Mahock in the
Apalatæan Mountains.
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 Name of Monakin. Here enquiring the way to the Mountains, an ancient Man described with a staffe two paths on the ground; one pointing to the Mahocks, and the other to the Nahyssans; but my English Companions slighting the Indians direction, shaped their course by the Compass due West, and therefore it fell out with us, as it does with those Land-Crabs, that crawling backwards in a direct line, avoid not the Trees that stand in their way, but climbing over their very tops, come down again on the other side, and so after a days labour gain not above two foot of ground. Thus we obstinately pursuing a due West course, rode over steep and craggy Cliffs, which beat our Horses quite off the hoof. In these Mountains we wandred from the Twenty fifth of May till the Third of June, finding very little sustenance for Man or Horse; for these places are destitute both of Grain and Herbage.
The third of June we came to the South-branch of James-River, which Major Harris observing to run Northward, vainly imagined to be an Arm of the Lake of Canada; and was so transported with this Fancy, that he would have raised a Pillar to the Discovery, if the fear of the Mahock Indian, and want of food, had permitted him to stay. Here I moved to cross the River and march on; but the rest of the Company were so weary of the enterprize, that crying out, One and All, they had offered violence to me, had I not been provided with a private Commission from the Governour of Virginia to proceed, though the rest of the company should abandon me; the sight of which laid their fury.
The lesser Hills, or Akontshuck, are here unpassable, being both steep and craggy: the Rocks seemed to me at a distance to resemble Eggs set up an end.
James-River is here as broad as it is about an hundred mile lower at Monakin; the passage over is very dangerous, by reason of the rapid Torrents made by Rocks and Shelves forcing the water into narrow Chanels. From an observation which we made of straws and rotten chuncks hanging in the boughs of Trees on the Bank, and two and twenty foot above water, we argued that the melted Snow falling from the Mountains swelled the River to that height, the Flood carrying down that rubbish which, upon the abatement of the Inundation, remained in the Trees.
The Air in these parts was so moist, that all our Biscuit became mouldy and unfit to be eaten, so that some nicer stomachs, who at our setting out laughed at my provision of Indian-meal parched, would gladly now have shared with me: but I being determined to go upon further Discoveries, refused to part with any of that which was to be my most necessary sustenance.