CHAPTER L.

1714-1716.

Indian School at Fort Christanna-The Rev. Mr. Griffin, Teacher-Governor Spotswood visits Christanna-Description of the School and of the Saponey Indians.

GOVERNOR SPOTSWOOD, who was a proficient in the mathematics, built the Octagon Magazine, rebuilt the College, and made improvements in the governor's house and gardens. He was an excellent judge on the bench. At his instance a grant of £1000 was made by the governors and visitors of William and Mary College in 1718, and a fund was established for instructing Indian children in Christianity,* and he erected a school for that purpose on the southern frontier, at fort Christanna, established on the south side of the Meherrin River, in what is now Southampton County. This fort, built on a rising ground, was a pentagon enclosure of palisades, and instead of bastions, there were five houses, which defended each other; each side of the fort being about one hundred yards long. It was mounted with five cannon, and had a garrison of twelve men. The Rev. Charles Griffin had charge of the school here, being employed, in 1715, by Governor Spotswood to teach the Indian children, and to bring them to Christianity. The Rev. Hugh Jones‡ says that he had seen there "seventy-seven Indian children at school at a time, at the governor's sole expense, I think." This appears to be a mistake. The school-house was built at the expense of the Indian Company. They were taught the English tongue, and to repeat the catechism, and to read the Bible and Common Prayers, and to write. These some of them learned tolerably well. The ma

*Keith's Hist. of Va., 173.

Huguenot Family, 271, and map opposite page 357. The names on this little map, taken from a letter by Peter Fontaine, are reversed, by mistake of the engraver.

State and Condition of Virginia.

¿ Rev. C. Griffin's Letter, in Bishop Meade's Old Churches, etc., i. 287.

jority of them could repeat the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments, behaved reverently at prayers, and made the responses. The Indians became so fond of this worthy missionary, that they would sometimes lift him up in their arms; and they would have chosen him chief of their tribe, the Saponeys. They alone remained steadfastly at peace with the whites. They numbered about two hundred persons, and lived within musket-shot of Fort Christanna. They had recently been governed by a queen, but she dying they were now governed by twelve old men. When Governor Spotswood visited them in April, 1716, these old men waited on him at the Fort, and laid several skins at his feet, all bowing to him simultaneously. They complained through their interpreter of fifteeen of their young men having been surprised, and murdered, by the Genitoes, and desired the governor's assistance in warring against them until they killed as many of them. They governor agreed that they might revenge themselves, and that he would furnish them with ammunition. He also made restitution to them for losses which they complained they had suffered by being cheated by the English. Sixty young men next made their appearance with feathers in their hair and run through their ears, their faces painted with blue and vermilion, their hair cut in fantastic forms, some looking like a cock's-comb; and they had blue and red blankets wrapped around them. This was their war-dress, and it made them look like furies. They made no speech. Next came the young women with long, straight, black hair reaching down to the waist, with a blanket tied round them, and hanging down like a petticoat. Most of them had nothing to cover them from the waist upwards; but some wore a mantle over the shoulders, made of two deer-skins sewed together. These Indians greased their bodies and heads with bear's oil, which, with the smoke of their cabins, gave them a disagreeable odor. They were very modest and faithful to their husbands. "They are straight and well-limbed, of good shape and extraordinary good features, as well the men as the women. They look wild, and are mighty shy of an Englishman, and will not let you touch them."*

* Huguenot Family, 272.

The Saponey town was situated on the bank of the Meherrin, the houses all joining one another and making a circle. This circle could be entered by three passages, each about six feet wide. All the doors are on the inside of the circle, and the level area within was common for the diversion of the people. In the centre was a large stump of a tree, on which the head men stood when making a speech. The women bound their infants to a board cut in the shape of the child; the top of the board was round, and there was a hole for a string, by which it is hung to the limb of a tree, or to a pin in a post, and there swings and diverts himself out of harm's way. The Saponeys lived as lazily and as miserably as any people in the world. The boys with their bows shot at the eye of an axe, set up at twenty yards distance, and the governor rewarded their skill with knives and looking-glasses. They also danced the war-dance; after which the governor treated them to a luncheon, which they devoured with animal avidity.

CHAPTER LI.

1716.

Spotswood's Tramontane Expedition-His Companions-Details of the Exploration-They cross the Blue Ridge - The Tramontane Order- The Golden Horseshoe.

It was in the year 1716 that Spotswood made the first complete discovery of a passage over the Blue Ridge of mountains. Robert Beverley, in the preface to the second edition of his "History of Virginia," published at London in 1722, says: "I was with the present governor* at the head-spring of both those rivers, and their fountains are in the highest ridge of mountains." The governor, accompanied by John Fontaine, who had been an ensign in the British army, and who had recently come over to Virginia, started from Williamsburg, on his expedition over the Appalachian Mountains, as they were then called. Having crossed the York River at the Brick-house, they lodged that night at the seat of Austin Moore, now Chelsea, on the Matapony River, a few miles above its junction with the Pamunkey. On the following night they were hospitably entertained by Robert Beverley, the historian, at his residence in Middlesex. The governor left his chaise there, and mounted his horse for the rest of the journey; and Beverley accompanied him in the exploration. Proceeding along the Rappahannock they came to the Germantown, ten miles below the falls, where they halted for some days. On the twenty-sixth of August Spotswood was joined here by several gentlemen, two small companies of rangers, and four Meherrin Indians. The gentlemen of the party appear to have been Spotswood, Fontaine, Beverley, Colonel Robertson, Austin Smith, who returned home owing to a fever, Todd, Dr. Robinson, Taylor, Mason, Brooke, and Captains Clouder and Smith. The whole number of the party, including gentlemen, rangers,

* Spotswood.

+ York and Rappahannock.

pioneers, Indians, and servants, was probably about fifty. They had with them a large number of riding and pack-horses, an abundant supply of provisions, and an extraordinary variety of liquors. Having had their horses shod, they left Germantown on the twenty-ninth of August, and encamped that night three miles from Germanna. The camps were named respectively after the gentlemen of the expedition, the first one being called "Camp Beverley," where "they made great fires, supped, and drank good punch."

Aroused in the morning by the trumpet, they proceeded westward, each day being diversified by the incidents and adventures of exploration. Some of the party encountered hornets; others were thrown from their horses; others killed rattlesnakes. Deer and bears were shot, and the venison and bear-meat were roasted before the fire upon wooden forks. At night they lay on the boughs of trees under tents. At the head of the Rappahannock they admired the rich virgin soil, the luxuriant grass, and the heavy timber of primitive forests. Thirty-six days after Spotswood had set out from Williamsburg, and on the fifth day of September, 1716, a clear day, at about one o'clock, he and his party, after a toilsome ascent, reached the top of the mountain. It is difficult to ascertain at what point they ascended, but proba bly it was Swift Run Gap.

As the company wound along, in perspective caravan line, through the shadowy defiles, the trumpet for the first time awoke the echoes of the mountains, and from the summit Spotswood and his companions beheld with rapture the boundless panorama that lay spread out before them, far as the eye could reach, robed in misty splendor. Here they drank the health of King George the First, and all the royal family. The highest summit was named by Spotswood Mount George, in honor of his majesty, and the gentlemen of the expedition, in honor of the governor, named the next in height, Mount Spotswood, according to Fontaine, and Mount Alexander, according to the Rev. Hugh Jones.* The explorers were on the water-shed, two streams

He says that Spotswood graved the king's name on a rock on Mount George; but, according to Fontaine, "the governor had graving-irons, but could not grave anything, the stones were so hard."