82 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. Wood, and from which we learn that the true name of that tribe is Chtrohakah. The Tuscaroras were by far the most powerful nation in North Carolina, and occupied all the residue of the territory in that colony, which has been described as inhabited by Iro- quois tribes. Their principal seats in 1708, were on the Sense and the Taw or Tar rivers, and, according to Lawson, they had twelve hundred warriors in fifteen towns. The Albemarle district in North Carolina had at that time been settled more than fifty years; and, although some collisions had occurred, no serious conflict had till then taken place between the white emigrants and the weaker Indian tribes, bordering on the sounds and seated near the mouths of the rivers. The settlements did not extend far inland towards the Tuscaroras ; and an accession of German emigrants seems to have been the immediate cause of what that nation considered as an encroachment. Lawson, who was Surveyor General of the Colony, was the first victim of their resentment. Having taken and murdered him, they thought they had proceeded too far to retreat, and, falling unexpectedly on the inhabitants, mas- sacred one hundred and thirty in one day. (September, 1711.) They were joined by several small adjacent tribes, which appear to have inhabited the low country between the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers, the principal of which is called Corees or Coramines. The colony was still very weak and was thrown into great alarm. The government of South Carolina sent to their assistance Colonel Barnwell with six hundred militia and about six hundred friendly Indians.* He killed or took near three hundred hostile Indians, principally of the smaller tribes, surrounded six hundred Tuscaroras, and made with them a peace which they soon broke. In the autumn of 1712, all the inhabitants south and southwest of Chowan River were obliged to live in forts ; and the Tuscaroras expected assistance from the Five Nations.f This could not have been given, without involving the confederacy in a war with Great Britain ; and the Tuscaroras were left to their own resources. A force,
- Two hundred and eighteen Cherokees, seventy-nine Creeks, forty-
one Catawbas, twenty-eight Yamassees. Hewatt's Account of South Carolina. The Indians sent the following year, under Colonel Moore, are called Ashley Indians by Dr. Williamson. f Letter of Governor Pollock to the Proprietors, of September, 1712. Williamson's History of North Carolina.
