by Lee Miller
The Nottoway are more problematic.50 For years, it was assumed that they were Algonquian, despite the fact that they were called Nottoway by the Powhatan, a derogatory term applied to enemies. This meant little, for the Powhatan were antagonistic to many Algonquian nations not part of their confederacy. Bland himself was told that the Nottoway were allied to the Chowanoc, their near neighbors. The Nottoway carefully preserved a memorial over the dead body of a Chowanoc king slain by the Powhatan. Nevertheless, in 1820, the Nottoway were judged to be Iroquoian, based on a word list supplied by Edie Turner, one of their last surviving speakers.51 Therefore: (1) Because the Mandoag were already considered Iroquoian, the hypothesis was advanced that the Nottoway were Mandoag. (2) The word Nottoway is Algonquian, meaning “snake” or “adder.”52 They, like the Mandoag, were clearly enemies to somebody; hence their name. (3) The Nottoway were in a location roughly consistent with Mandoag territory, though slightly too far north.
The Nottoway theory may be contested for these reasons: (1) There is no proof that the Mandoag were Iroquoian, therefore identification with the Nottoway on this basis alone is untenable. (2) The Nottoway were not enemies of the Chowanoc, but allied to them. They took the Chowanoc side against the Powhatan in the dispute over the slain Chowanoc king. (3) There is no evidence that the Nottoway were regionally powerful or strong like the Mandoag. Bland reported that their leaders were fearful of both the Wainoke and the residents of Hocomawananck; nor did they seem very much at ease among the Meherrin. (4) There is no evidence that the Nottoway dealt in copper, controlled access to the mines of Chaunis Temoatan, or hired themselves out as mercenaries.
By far the most enigmatic candidate are the Meherrin.53 (1) Their location was immediately south of the Nottoway, therefore conceivably within Mandoag territory, though perhaps still a little too far north. (2) Their behavior toward Bland and their evident alliance with Wainoke spies make them suspect, to say the least. (3) The Meherrin are regarded as Iroquoian, and therefore presumably hostile to both the Secotan and Chowanoc.
The most serious problem with the Meherrin theory hinges on language and identity. Who exactly were these people? 1650. Edward Bland is the first European to encounter them; he called them Maharineck, tacking on an Algonquian oc ending denoting “place.” 1701. Surveyor John Lawson lists them as Meherring. 1788. Thomas Jefferson writes of the Meherrins and Tute loes living on Meherrin River.54 Could these two nations have had some connection? 1836. Albert Gallatin thinks so. He undertakes the classification of southeastern languages and concludes that the Meherrin and Tutelo are one and the same. So does Henry Schoolcraft in 1850.55 Yet the Tutelo (a Monocan subtribe) speak Siouan. How, then, did the Meherrin later come to be confused with Iroquoian speakers?
The mistake was made by Gallatin himself. Since no Siouan nations were thought to exist in North Carolina, and the Meherrin and Tutelo were not Algonquian, then it was assumed that they were Iroquoian. Later, vocabularies taken from Tutelo refugees in Canada prove that they are indeed Siouan.56 But by this time the Meherrin language is extinct, no reclassification is made, and Gallatin’s original pronouncement of Iroquoian remains unchanged. The Meherrin themselves (and perhaps the Nottoway too, which might well skew their own classification) apparently received into their midst a large influx of Iroquoian-speaking Susque-hannock from Maryland. Colonial records, confounding the two, went so far as to state that the Meherrin were Susquehannock.57
The single word recorded of their language is the name Meherrin itself. Linguists have been unable to produce an Iroquoian translation, though it is said to mean “People of the Muddy Water.” In Onondaga o’dae’ge means “muddy water.” In Mohawk it is o’nawatsta: keri. Meherrin, is something different. It is Siouan, and the original name must have been closer to Meheree. Here means “banks.” We see the name in Catawba as Yetswa here, “People of the River Banks.” In Wateree as Wat era here, “banks washed away.” In Sugaree as sigri here, “spoiled (rotten) banks.” In Congaree as iswd kerd here, “deep river banks.” The word ma occurs in Biloxi. Its meaning is “mud.” Meherrin or Ye(tswa) Mahere, “People of the muddy (river) banks.”58
Yet the Meherrin were not the Mandoag. They were not for the simple reason that there was another nation in this region that fits the description much better. It is a nation we have not yet considered, but now it is time that we do.
Solving the Mandoag Riddle
The Meherrin knew the Mandoag. They were neither the Iroquoian Tuscarora; nor the Nottoway, allies of the Chowanoc. They were a people related to the powerful Occaneechi and to the Siouans of the Piedmont. They were a people who sent out spies. They were a people whom the Meherrin assisted in diverting Bland. They were the Wainoke.
The Secotan and Chowanoc call them the Mandoag: the stealthy, the treacherous. To their fellow Siouans, they are the Eno. The Yeinari, the “people disliked,” the “mean” or “contemptible.”59 This in recognition, perhaps, of their general reputation.
At Ritanoc, the leader Eyanoco (Eno) holds seven Lost Colonists. At Anoeg (Eno), Strachey is informed by Wahunsonacock’s servant Wei-nock that the houses are built like ours. Its location is ten days’ march from the Powhatan, or about one hundred miles through swampy terrain. There is a country called Anone (Eno), Wahunsonacock tells Smith, where they have abundance of brass, and houses walled as ours.60 Machumps reports much brass at Pakerakanick and Ocanahowan also, along with storied houses that the English taught them to build. They hunt for ore — apess — in the mountains.
The Eno are in constant association with a people called Shakori. Edward Bland, beating a retreat away from their spies, crosses over Schockoores old fields61 The Tuscarora, Francis Yeardley reports in 1654, are at war with a great nation called the Cacores, a very little people in stature, not exceeding youths of thirteen or fourteen years, but extremely valiant and fierce in fight and, above belief swift in retirement and flight. Amazingly, the Tuscarora are unable to beat them. The Shakori easily resist the puissance of this potent, rich, and numerous people. Allied to the Shakori is another great nation called the Haynokes [Eno]. They are even more intrepid: it is the Eno who valiantly resist the Spaniards’ further northern attempts into North Carolina.62
1701. Surveyor John Lawson hires Enoe Will, whose town of Adshusheer lies on the upper Neuse and Tar Rivers, to conduct him from the Great Trading Path to Roanoke Island. Enoe Will is leader of a mixed nation of Enoe and Shoccorie. His former home was at the mouth of the Neuse, at Enoe Bay, by which, said Lawson, / perceived he was one of the Corees by birth. The Coree and Secotan had been a long time at war. They are a bloody and barbarous people, John Archdale flung at the Coree. That they are the Shakori, or a branch of the same people, is likely.63
The profile matches. The Eno are the Mandoag. They are of mean stature and courage. They are covetous and thievish. The Mandoag were mercenaries. They are ever industrious to earn a penny, and therefore hire themselves out to their neighbours. The Shakori are joined with them. They agree with the Oenocks in customs and manners.6* They control access to the mines of Chaunis Temoatan. They prevent the Tuscarora from trading with Jamestown. The Tuscarora were afraid, for the Wainoakes had told them that the English would kill them.65 Their name and multitude besides their valour is terrible to all the rest of the provinces.66 They are the Mandoag. Their very names were terrible unto them. They would fight Lane’s men for hire. Firing on them, they wooded themselves we know not where.61They are extremely valiant and fierce in fight and, above belief, swift in retirement and flight. They are the Mandoag. Gates’s instructions to find the colonists who escaped from the Powhatan of Roanoke were pointing not to Roanoke Island but to Roanoke River.
The Tacci, alias Dogi, formerly possessed the Piedmont, Lederer said. But they are extinct, and the Indians now seated here are distinguished into the several nations of Mahoc [Manahoac]… Nahyssan [Tutelo], Sapon [Saponi], Managog [Eno], Mangoack [Eno], Akenatzy [Occaneechi], and Monakin [Monacan], etc. One language is common to t
hem although they differ in dialects 6% The language of the Mandoag is Siouan.
Thirty years after Lawson met Enoe Will, we hear of him again, now an old man. 1733. William Byrd, crossing the Nottoway River, sent for an old Indian called Shacco-Will, living about 7 miles off who reckoned himself y8 years old. This fellow pretended he could conduct us to a silver mine, that lies either upon Eno River, or a Creek of it, not far from where the Tuscaruros once lived. “Not far from where the Tuscarora once lived” was Eno country. Times have changed. All the nations round about, Byrd said, bearing in mind the havoc these Indians used formerly to make among their ancestors in the insolence of their power, did at length avenge it home upon them. William Byrd rejects the offer of an old man that would have taken him into the old Mandoag territory. Enoe Will is no longer needed. Instead, to comfort his heart, I gave him a bottle of rum.69
The Great Dispersal
Our search is over. The Eno are the Mandoag. But when we look for the Lost Colonists among them, we make a disconcerting discovery. Something is wrong, for there is no Lost Colony here. Europeans who have penetrated into the interior report no such community.
Sightings of individuals, however, are rife: Arrohattoc (Powhatan Confederacy): one boy. Tuscarora: two Englishmen, a man and a woman. The Eno: town of Ritanoc, four men, two boys, one girl. In addition, Bland reports other English among the Indians, number undisclosed. From the Zúñiga map: Pakerakanick — four men reported, who came from Ocanahowan. Panawiock — housing many Lost Colonists, number undisclosed. Ocanahowan — Certain men reported, number unknown.
From the lower Tar, a strange story emerges from the territory of the Pamlico nation. 1669. The Reverend Morgan Jones, a Welsh cleric, is taken prisoner by the Tuscarora. He and his five companions are informed that they will die. Bemoaning his fate aloud in Welsh, an Indian — a visiting Doeg war captain — immediately came to me and spoke in the same language. Jones gapes, amazed, as the man assures him in the ancient British tongue I should not die, and thereupon went to the Emperor of the Tuscaroras, and agreed for my ransom and the men who were with me. Jones follows them home and remains in their town for four months, preaching in Welsh. They are settled, he said, upon Pontigo River — the Pamlico, or lower Tar.70
The story is picked up by a Turkish spy living in Paris, and translated into English. There is a region in North America, it claims, inhabited by a people whom they call Tuscorards and Doegs. Their language is the same as is spoken by the Welsh. They are thought to descend from them. Part of White’s company was Welsh.71
At first sight the evidence is completely baffling. How could individuals from White’s company be reported in so many places at the same time? Why are the Lost Colonists not together? What have the Mandoag done with them?
In 1670 and again in 1701 the Eno and Shakori were visited along the upper Tar and Neuse Rivers near present-day Durham and Hillsbor-ough. Their location was then near the Great Trading Path, south of the Occaneechi, and they were heavily involved with the English trading caravans that were working up and down it. Enoe Will was renowned as a guide. He readily offered his services to Lawson, as he did later to William Byrd. Lederer said that they were eager to earn a penny.
In 1587, however, the most lucrative income from trade for the Eno did not course down the Great Trading Path from Jamestown, but ran east/west to the coast. The Powhatan possessed a rich pearl fishery and, according to the Tuscarora, a salt corridor existed. We also know that there was a vigorous trade in copper, and that the Mandoag controlled coastal access to it so thoroughly that Secotan informants told Hariot that they had never seen the mines from whence the copper came.
In 1587, then, the Eno — the Mandoag, according to White’s map — were located farther east, poised midway between the coastal nations and the Occaneechi trade mart. The Chowanoc reported their towns to be only a day away. This was the region in which Bland crossed Shakori old fields, an area so close to the Tuscarora that Lawson mistakenly listed Eno as a Tuscarora town.72 As we have seen, the Eno were middlemen, exchanging copper for salt and pearls from the coast… and something more. The Eno traded slaves.
This was not uncommon in the Southeast. The presence of slaves was reported again and again.73 Taken as war captives, what befell them depended on the needs of the nation. They were employed to till fields, to cut wood, to hunt, and to work in mines. Others were adopted as full members of the nations into which they were taken. Still others were dispersed through trade.
At last we understand the situation. Powell and Todkill, dispatched by John Smith to the Mandoag, were denied access to the Lost Colonists. There would be no repatriation — because they were slaves. They were used at Ritanoc, said Strachey, to beat copper. Others were detained at Pakerakanick where Gepanocon would not release them, for one of these were worth much labour.
If we are right that the Eno/Mandoag took Lost Colony captives, those who were not distributed among their towns would have been conducted to the Occaneechi trade mart. From there, they would have been separated and disseminated into the interior. But did this happen? The evidence is in the Zúñiga map.
Smith reported Lost Colony survivors at Panawioc, Pakerakanick, and Ocanahowan. Those at Pakerakanick had originated at Ocanahowan. We know that Ocanahowan was located in the north, probably along the Roa-noke River, although the Zúñiga map placed it south of the Meherrin River, above Occaneechi Island. Bland met a “Tuscarora” among the Meherrin who agreed to conduct Lost Colonists from the lower Tuscarora town to a place called Hocomawananck, on a river. Is there a connection between this location and Ocanahowan, where so many of the colonists were reported? Could either, or both, have been Occaneechi Island? The names on the Zúñiga map have never been translated. We must try to do so now.
Ocanahowan. Recorded by Smith, and later by Strachey. It has not been decipherable in Algonquian. This is because the word is Siouan. Its construction is derived from the Tutelo yu:xkañ, “man,” “person” + o hon, “many” + hi wa, “come,” “gather.” Its meaning: “many people gather here.”74 We have seen the exact word before in Algonquian: Occa-neechi, the place where people gather. The Lost Colonists were there. At Ocanahowan — the Occaneechi trade mart.
Hocomawananck. A place name recorded by Bland. It is Algonquian, and appears to be a combination of accomac, ogkomé, “the other side place,” or “beyond” + Ma-wig-nack, “the place where two streams meet,” thus accomawignack, “beyond the place where the two streams meet.”75 In 1650 Bland traveled south from Jamestown with the intention of entering the Tuscarora villages. At Meherrin, he changed plans and agreed to meet the Lost Colonists at Hocomawananck somewhere to the west, a rendezvous obviously of some renown, easily accessible, a logical selection. What better site to choose than Occaneechi Island? It is indeed “beyond the place where two streams meet,” lying in the midst of the Roanoke River at the junction of the Staunton and the Dan. Bland was instructed to open up trade; Occaneechi Island was the gateway to the Great Trading Path.
If the Lost Colonists were dispersed from Occaneechi Island, they would logically reappear throughout the Piedmont, among the Occa-neechi’s trading partners and among the Eno towns themselves. Paker-akanick. Never translated, yet compare to Abenaki kara, “scraped,” kon, “pines, forest” + Passamaquoddy pe, “extensive, extended” + oc, locative ending. Pekarakonoc, “Extensive place of scraped trees.”76 If correct, it is a haunting reminder: in the deep woods, Powell and Todkill discovered crosses & letters, the characters and assured testimonies of Christians newly cut in the barks of trees.
On the Zúñiga map, Pakerakanick appears on the Tar, located substantially west of a fork in the river. Whether this was Tranters Creek or Fishing Creek to its northwest is unknown, but the nation within whose territory it lay was the same. This was an area in the vicinity of modern Rocky Mount. This was Eno country. The town’s leader was Gepanocon. His name is untranslated, though a clue to its meaning may be found in a Siouan chief’s title, recorded am
ong the Tutelo as Gá pogá tadyi?1
Panawioc. Smith was told that many Lost Colonists were here. The word is Algonquian. Its meaning: Place of Foreigners, an apt name for a site where they reported our men to be.7S It appears on the Zúñiga map on Cashie Creek, Bertie County. This, too, was likely Eno territory, or perhaps associated with the tribal town of Moratuc. At Panawioc, Strachey reported, are said to be store of salt stones. Two substantial salt deposits have been discovered on the Carolina coast. One is located far south near present-day Wilmington; the other occurs at the confluence of the Roanoke and Chowan Rivers in the vicinity of Cashie Creek.
If the Zúñiga map were our only source for Lost Colony sightings, we might still be in doubt. It is not. The reports of Smith and Strachey also confirm the dispersal, as does a peculiar finding in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 1671. Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam are sent on a government-sponsored expedition into Tutelo territory. They will be the first Englishmen to reach the Blue Ridge Mountains. As they pass along a trail at the base of the first range, they notice several letters burned into the brow of a tree, marked in the past. Peering closer, they observe them to be the initials MA, NI. Five days later, still marching west, they spot two more marked trees: the first is again inscribed MA. NI. (or NJf.ysince J and / were written the same); the second is cut with the initials MA. and several other scratchments.19 Is it coincidence? Among the Lost Colonists were Morris Allen and Nicholas Johnson.
