Indians

THE TRADING PATH TO THE INDIANS

BY DOUGLAS L. RIGHTS

[Vol. 8 (1931), 403-426]

In the preparation of this paper the writer telephoned to the local office of the American Automobile Association and asked for the most direct route over hard surface from Petersburg, Virginia, to Augusta, Georgia, which would lead within easy reach of the most populous trade centers between the two cities. It was a question any traveling salesman might ask. Instructions were as follows: Within North Carolina, National Highway 1 to Henderson; thence on state highways, 57 to Oxford, 75 to Durham, 10 to Salisbury, 15 to Charlotte and beyond.

The young man in the office did not know that he was prescribing travel over the oldest and one of the most historic highways across North Carolina. Though there have been some slight modifications due principally to connection of railway lines and to development of trade centers on branch highways, the road runs much along a course traveled for centuries. The object of this paper is to show that this highway is a development of the Trading Path to the Indians, and incidentally to offer solution for the problem concerning the route of the first explorers who ventured into central Carolina.

Within this State the road prescribed extends approximately 250 miles, now marked as a portion of five state highways, from the Roanoke River region southwest to the Catawba River basin. It cuts nearly through the geographical center of the State. The railways follow closely: the Seaboard Air Line, and the main lines of the Southern both east and west, and north and south. The southeastern air mail and passenger service covers this route. More than half a million people, or about one in every five of population, live within a short drive of this highway. For an agricultural state it forms an industrial backbone. A large proportion of the institutions for higher learning are situated on or near it.

During the Civil War this was an important thoroughfare. President George Washington traveled a portion of it on his southern tour in 1791. Lord Cornwallis and his army were on the road in 1781 when the high water at Trading Ford forced a detour. In 1771 the Battle of Alamance was fought near by.

This was the gateway for pioneer settlers. Older settlements of the interior such as Charlotte, Salisbury, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Hillsboro were located on the road or in its vicinity. When Spangenberg,¹ in 1752, reached the Catawba River west of Salisbury, he recorded in his travel notes: “Hitherto we have been on the Trading Path where we could find at least one house a day where food could be bought; but from here we were to turn into the pathless forest.” The family of Daniel Boone settled on the Yadkin River north of the Trading Path. President Andrew Johnson, as a youth in the tailor shop at Raleigh, and President James K. Polk, as a student at Chapel Hill, were located not far from the ancient road. From the Waxhaw settlement came President Andrew Jackson. The ancestors of President Herbert Hoover were settlers in the Uwharrie region.

Yet today this highway bears no commemorative name. No monument tells its story save a modest shaft that recalls eventful history at a river crossing, Trading Ford. We search in vain for its legend on maps current in this generation. No tourist, history-hungry, beholds it starred on a road map; no school boy eager for romantic traditions finds it charted in geography text book. If we are interested in recalling this lost trail, we must in the fashion of the archaeologist dig beneath the surface.

The Alamance County soil survey map of 1901 designates a road leading westward beyond Alamance Creek called Old Salisbury Road. This is probably copied from older maps of the county. The Mouzon map of North Carolina, dated 1775, and the Collet map issued five years earlier describe plainly the same road marked “Trading Path.” On the line of this road today older residents of Randolph County remember it as the old trail to Trading Ford on the Yadkin River. The divergence of this road from the hard surface highway leads in a more direct line from Haw River to Salisbury. As the ancient maps show, the old trail branched to reach the important settlements of Wachovia and New Garden that had been established some distance to the north. Along this branch, especially since the extension of the railway lines to meet the Danville road, there was a rapid absorption of travel that has continued. This shift may have been responsible for the neglect of the central portion of the original trail as a popular thoroughfare.

An itinerary drawn from these maps lays clearly before us the ancient trail. From Roanoke River the road passes over Tar, Flat, and Little rivers to Hillsborough; thence to the Haw Fields and across Haw River not far from the present town of Swepsonville; there are two arms of the next stage: the upper arm across Little Alamance and Alamance creeks, styled the Trading Path, and the lower bending south around the hills, called the Western Trading Path; thence across Pole Cat Creek and Deep River a short distance above their confluence, near the present town of Randleman, skirting the Back Creek Mountains near Asheboro of today, and through the Carraway Mountains beyond, crossing Carraway Creek; beyond the stream designated Wharee, known as Uwharrie River, it branches toward the settlements to the north, while the Trading Path so marked continues across Abbotts Creek and over the island in the Yadkin River at Trading Ford; across Crane Creek near Salisbury the road is again marked Trading Path and continues over Buffalo Creek to Charlottesburg, extending to the Catawba settlement, a location near the mouth of Sugar Creek marked in quadrangular outline and inscribed “Catawbaw Nation—144000 acres,” including the village “Catawbaw Town.”

The Collet map of 1770 is doubtless the basis for the Mouzon map. The former had been prepared largely from information gathered by William Churton,² Lord Granville’s chief surveyor, who was thoroughly familiar with the Trading Path country. The description of the Trading Path on these two maps is almost identical.

The Mitchell map of 1755 shows only two roads in the piedmont area. Though not named, the Trading Path is outlined from Virginia to Georgia and is intersected within the limits of North Carolina by a single road. The intersection occurs between Deep River and Uwharrie River where the Cape Fear Road of the Collet map extended north through the Wachovia settlement which had been started in 1753.

The usefulness of the Trading Path to the incoming settlers is shown by the journey of Bishop Spangenberg³ in 1752. With William Churton the surveyor of the colony and several other companions Spangenberg started at Edenton, journeyed west to the Blue Ridge, crossed the mountains and returned, making his selection of land for settlement in the region of which Winston-Salem is now the center, this tract being later called Wachovia. His journey west followed the Trading Path from near the present town of Warrenton to Trading Ford on the Yadkin. He furnished a travel schedule for the most part of the way and the mileage is helpful in tracing locations:

Our journey from

John Sally to Edcock                              15 miles
Edcock to Patrick Bogin’s                     15 miles
Bogin’s to Sennett                                   8 miles
Sennett to Maprin                                  18 miles
Maprin to Haw River                               8 miles
Haw River to Dutchman’s                    15 miles
Dutchman’s to Reed’s at Polecat        18 miles
Reed’s to Rich’s on Caraway               22 miles
Rich’s to Smith’s                                    26 miles
Smith’s to Atkin                                       6 miles

In order to check the locations on the central portion of the Trading Path we may start at Trading Ford on the Yadkin and follow this schedule. The six miles to Smith’s bring us to the neighborhood of Abbotts Creek; twenty-six miles from Smith’s to Rich’s reach Carraway Creek; twenty-two miles from Rich’s on Carraway to Reed’s cross Deep River and Polecat Creek near Randleman; eighteen miles from Reed’s at Pole cat to Dutchman’s extend to the ridge between Stinking Quarter or Stinking Water and Alamance Creek; fifteen miles from Dutchman’s to Haw River cross the two forks of Alamance and run to the ford near Swepsonville; eight miles from Haw River to Maprin or Mepern locate the Haw Fields road to Mebane, the name recognized in the two varied spellings; eighteen miles from Mepern to Sennet cross Eno River, run through the neighborhood of Hillsboro and eight miles beyond to Sinnot’s Mill of the old maps; the remaining thirty miles of schedule continue the Trading Path.

By 1767 the Wachovia settlement had become an important trading center. The Trading Path was useful, as we have seen, in providing means of travel for the surveyors who were seeking a location for the Moravians. Meanwhile three towns, Bethabara, Bethania, and Salem had been established on the Wachovia tract. In the year 1767, when roads from these towns were being built or improved, the colonists decided upon a new road from Salem to the Cape Fear. The Wachovia diary⁴ records: “The petitions being granted, Loesch went to Salem Dec. 28th and swore in the Jury appointed to run the road from Salem by way of Abbotts Creek, to the Huware and the Trading Path.”

The Rev. George Soelle,⁵ a home mission evangelist of the Moravian settlement, made extensive preaching excursions in the years 1771-1773. He included the Uwharrie and Haw River neighborhoods in his tours and recorded interesting information concerning the settlers along this old road. His journey of 1772 led him by way of Belews Creek to the Buffalo Settlement in the neighborhood of the site of Greensboro, where he observed that “all the residents here were Presbyterians, rich and well-satisfied with themselves.” In the Alamance section he was shown hospitality by Ludwig Eisele, progenitor of the Isley family. Next he visited Jacob Christmann and held service in the local meeting house. After the service he set out, took the wrong path, and wandered into “the Trading Path just where the battle of Alamance had taken place; near by was a fenced-in burying ground.” He traveled this road some distance and then turned off south to Rock River. After some time spent in evangelistic labors he was led by a man named Seiler, a name retained in the family name Siler of Alamance and Chatham counties, to the “big road” to Carraway Creek, another stage of the Trading Path. He passed through “Poolcats Settlement” and visited the home of a settler named Breiel, evidently a member of the Briles family whose descendants are found in that neighborhood today. His meetings on Carraway Creek were largely attended; he recorded of the inhabitants that most of the English on the Carraway were Baptists, and that there were many Irish highwaymen in the vicinity.

We are now in position to follow the Trading Path according to an earlier important authority, Colonel William Byrd,⁶ who recorded in 1728 the following:

About three Miles from our Camp we passed GREAT CREEK, and then, after traversing very barren grounds for 5 Miles together, we crost the Tradeing Path, and soon after had the pleasure of reaching the uppermost Inhabitant....

The Tradeing-Path above mention’d received its Name from being the Route the Traders take with their Caravans, when they go to traffick with the Catawbas and other Southern Indians. The Catawbas live about 250 Miles beyond Roanoke River, and yet our Traders find their Account in transporting Goods from Virginia to trade with them at their own Towne.

The Common Method of carrying on this Indian Commerce is as follows: Gentlemen send for Goods proper for such a Trade from England, and then either Venture them out at their own Risk to the Indian Towns, or else credit some Traders with them of Substance and Reputation, to be paid in Skins at a certain Price agreed betwixt them.

The Goods for the Indian Trade consist chiefly in Guns, Powder, Shot, Hatchets, (which the Indians call Tomahawks,) Kettles, red & blue Planes, Duffields, Stroudwater blankets, and some Cutlary Wares, Brass Rings and other Trinkets.

Their Wares are made up into Packs and Carry’d upon Horses, each Load being from 150 to 200 Pounds, with which they are able to travel about 20 miles a day, if Forage happens to be plentiful.

Formerly a Hundred Horses have been employ’d in one of these Indian Caravans, under the Conduct of 15 or 16 Persons only, but now the Trade is much impair’d, insomuch that they seldom go with half that Number.

The Course from Roanoke to the Catawbas is laid down nearest Southwest, and lies thro’ a fine Country, that is Water’d by Several beautiful Rivers.

Those of greatest Note are, first, Tar river, which is the upper Part of Pamtico,⁷ Flat River, Little River and Eno River, all three Branches of the Neuse.

Between Eno and Saxpahaw rivers are the Haw old fields, which have the Reputation containing the most fertile high land in this part of the World, lying in a Body about 50,000 acres.

This Saxpahaw is the upper Part of Cape Fair River, the falls of which lye many Miles below the Trading Path.

Some Mountains overlook this Rich Spot of Land, from whence all the soil washes down into the Plains, and is the cause of its exceeding Fertility. Not far from thence the Path crosses ARAMANCHY⁸ River, branch of Saxpahaw, and about 40 miles beyond that, the Path intersects the Yadkin, which is there half a Mile over, and is supposed to be the South Branch of the same Pedee.

The Soil is exceedingly rich on both sides of the Yadkin, abounding in rank grass and prodigiously large Trees; and for plenty of Fish, Fowel and Venison, is inferior to No Part of the Northern Continent. There the Traders commonly lie Still for some days, to recruit their Horses’ Flesh as well as to recover their own Spirits. Six miles further is Crane Creek, so nam’d from its being the Rendezvous of great Armies of Cranes, which wage a more cruel War at this day, with the Frogs and Fish, than they us’d to do with the Pigmies in the days of Homer.

About three-score Miles more bring you to the first Town of Catawbas, call’d Nauvasa, situated on the banks of Santee River. Besides this Town there are five Others belonging to the same Nation, lying all on the same Stream, within the Distance of 20 Miles.

These Indians were call’d formerly by the general Name of the Usherees, and were very Numerous and Powerful People. But the frequent Slaughters made upon them by the Northern Indians, and, what has been still more destructive by far, the Intemperence and Foul Distempers introduc’d amongst them by the Carolina Traders, have now reduc’d their Numbers to little More than 400 Fighting Men, besides Women & Children. It is a charming Place where they live, the Air very Wholesome, the Soil fertile, and the Winters ever mild and Serene....

So soon as the Catawba Indians are inform’d of the Approach of the Virginia Caravans, they send a Detachment of their Warriors to bid them Welcome, and escort them Safe to their Town, where they are receiv’d with great Marks of Distinction. And their courtesys to the VIRGINIA Traders, I dare say, are very Sincere, because they sell them better Goods and better Pennyworths than the Traders of Carolina.⁹ They commonly reside among the Indians till they have barter’d their Goods away for Skins, with which they load their Horses and come back by the Same Path they went.

The Colonel had never traveled the Trading Path in Carolina. However, there were three sources of information available. His language and the information he imparted bear close resemblance to reports of the few adventurers who were thoughtful enough to leave a written record of their journeys through the territory in question. His home community was still rich in traditions of the fur trade expeditions to the interior and among his fellow citizens were still to be found the traders. He had also another source of information not to be overlooked; Bearskin, the young Indian hunter who was with Byrd at the time of the crossing of the Trading Path on the Virginia line, was a Saponi whose ancestors once lived at Trading Ford on the Yadkin River. He furnished his patron with a great store of information concerning his people, and he doubtless provided or confirmed information regarding the Trading Path.

Colonel Byrd’s geographical errors with regard to the rivers, his tendency to exaggeration, his exalted pride in business dealings of his fellow citizens of Virginia, and his complaints which might be addressed to some interstate commerce commission, are quite pardonable for he has given a valuable description of the Trading Path when it was the Broadway of Carolina. Though not even a wagon road at the beginning of the eighteenth century it was the great north and south highway. The value of the fur trade, the chief object of its traffic, must have reached proportions which would be regarded as considerable even in our own day.

The Path of the Adventurers

In turning now to the question of the journeys of the early explorers we would do well to acquaint ourselves with two things: first, with a forgotten little mountain range in central North Carolina; second, with the location of Indian villages.

In regard to the former, attention is called to the rugged hills locally called mountains that extend southward in small broken groups or ranges from Randolph and lower Davidson counties through Montgomery County, falling across the Yadkin River into Rowan and Stanly counties on the west. The name Uwharrie is applied to the group although quite a number of the hills bear individual names such as Dutchman Mountain, Flat Swamp Mountains, and the like. A small group called Carraway Mountains lies in Randolph County on the line of the Trading Path. These mountains do not appear on current maps of the state. The outside world does not know about them, nor do the people in North Carolina learn of them from textbook maps. However, upon the traveler coming from the more level ways they make an impression and reveal themselves truly as mountains. This section of country had a peculiar attraction for the Indians for here they found in abundance stone suitable for making projectile points. The writer has discovered their quarries where quantities of material had been chipped out to be transported into other regions of the State. It is evident that from earliest days the trail of the Indians led through these hills.

In regard to the location of Indian villages, first consideration seems to have been water supply. Only along the streams could populous villages be maintained. Indian villages were not compact like our towns; they demanded room. It was not unusual for an Indian village to extend several miles along a stream. There were certain sites sought more eagerly than others. Rich soil of wide bottom land that afforded advantage for primitive agriculture, ample room for games or ceremonial dances, adjacent hunting territory—these furnished situations especially desirable. A good location, therefore, might be the site for camp or village of several tribes in succession.

While some sections remained in the possession of a tribe over a long period of years, it seems that there were frequent changes of locations among the tribes. Not only was the Indian roving by nature, as we say. He was forced by nature to be a rover. His methods of hunting were often wasteful. Food supply was easily exhausted. Natural or human enemies could compel migration. Indians seemed to have an aversion for long habitation at any place where numbers of their tribe had died. After the intrusion of Europeans tribal movements were very frequent. It is not surprising, therefore, that a tribe located in 1670 along the Yadkin River had by 1700 disappeared and that another tribe had possessed the same village site.

Between the Indian villages there would naturally develop paths of communication and the more favored locations would be assured of a trail constantly traveled. In trading and in ambassadorial relations the Indians did much traveling. Over a long period the trails between locations fitted by nature as choice sites for settlement would become widely known and well marked. Many of our modern cities have been located on sites chosen for advantages that attracted the savages and many highways that link cities are the development of aboriginal trails. Not only the Trading Path, but also other trails in our State have in time been converted into highways.

The Journey of John Lawson

In the year 1700 John Lawson,¹⁰ surveyor general of North Carolina, began his thousand-mile journey of exploration. He left Charleston and made his way by the trail easily followed up the Santee River to the vicinity of the present capital of South Carolina; next he visited the Wateree Indians, whom he called Weteree Chickanee, near the Wateree River, passing on to the Waxhaws located near the southern border of Union County.

Lawson hired an Indian guide to direct the way from the Waxhaws “to the Esaw Indians, a very large Nation, containing many thousands of people.” These were the Catawbas, the largest and most influential tribe of the piedmont country. He passed several Indian towns pleasantly situated near the creeks that drain this section near the border of Mecklenburg County. A number of these “towns” belonged to the “Sugeree,” evidently situated on or near Sugar Creek, a tribe probably related to the Catawba. The stronghold of the Catawbas was on the Catawba River near the mouth of Sugar Creek in South Carolina, and their settlements extended for miles up and down the river. When he arrived at the “Kadapau King’s House,” the Catawba chieftan’s lodge, Lawson met “one John Stewart, a Scot, then an Inhabitant of James River in Virginia, who had traded there for many years.”

Lawson now turned toward Sapona and recorded the following stages of travel: Saturday, leisurely travel with some hunting; Sunday, a halt in waiting for the return of a horse that had wandered back to the Catawbas, which allowed a wild pigeon hunt; Monday, 25 miles through a pleasant dry country; Tuesday, leisurely travel over hilly country with a night camp by a swift stream; Wednesday, 25 miles over very pleasant country and numerous creeks; Thursday, about 30 miles through a “delicious” country to the Indian town on the banks of Sapona River. The estimate is about 100 miles in five days of actual travel, and corresponds with the distance of the ridge road Trading Path from the Catawba Nation to Trading Ford on the Yadkin. (Lawson had a tendency to overestimate distance.)

Lawson was charmed with the Yadkin Valley. He wrote: “Nor could all England afford a pleasanter Stream, were it inhabited by Christians, and cultivated by Ingenious Hands. These Indians live in a clear Field, about a Mile square, which they would have sold me because I talked about coming into these parts to live…. This pleasant River may be sometimes larger than the Thames at Kingston, keeping a continual pleasant Noise, with its reverberating on the bright Marble rocks. It is beautiful with its numerous train of Swans, and other sorts of Water Fowl.... The forward Spring welcomed us with her innumerable train of small Choristers, which inhabit those fair Banks; the Hills redoubling, and adding sweetness to their Melodious tunes, by their shrill echoes. One side of the River is hemmed in with Mountainy Ground, the other side proving as rich a soil to the eye of a knowing person with us, as any this Western World can afford.... We walked along the River-side, where we found a very delightful Island, made by the River, and a Branch, there being several such plots of Ground environ’d with this Silver Stream.”

The Sapona Town¹¹ site is identified as the valley location near the present power plant at Dukeville. The Islands to which Lawson referred have been submerged in the backwater of High Rock Lake, but may still be seen when the water is low. Lawson noted the numerous waterfowl of the region, commented upon by Colonel Byrd, and attested today by the flocks of white herons that make this a favorite haunt. The Saponi Indians had not been long at Trading Ford, although they had a palisade and were well located on the pleasant valley site. They had previously migrated from the Virginia foothills to one of the islands near the confluence of Dan and Staunton rivers, later moving to the Yadkin. They were now preparing to unite with other broken tribes and to move east to the settlements under the protection of the colonists.

After an agreeable halt with the Saponi, Lawson resumed his march. He crossed several small creeks beyond the river, and 8 miles from Sapona crossed “a very pretty River, called Rock River, a fit name, having a ridge of High Mountains running from its Banks to the Eastward, and disgorging itself in the Sapona River.” This stream was doubtless Abbotts Creek. The “high ridge of Mountains” near its mouth is recognized today as the Flat Swamp Mountains.¹² Two days’ travel of 30 miles brought him to the Keyauwees. At noon of the second day he “passed over such another Stony River, as that eight Miles from Sapona,” called Highwaree, or Heighwaree. This was, of course, the Uwharrie.

We must pass over more interesting portions of his narrative, of the hospitality of Keyauwee Jack the “king,” of the “princess” whom Lawson described as “the beautifulest Indian I ever saw,” of the traveler’s Sunday School lesson about King David, and other romantic details, and confine ourselves to the itinerary of the explorer.

The location of the Keyauwees has never been definitely identified. They could be called a lost tribe of Carolina. The most noted authority on the subject, James Mooney, whose scholarly labors have revealed the surest record of the interior tribes, placed the location of the Keyauwees near the present city of High Point.¹³ This is not a bad assumption. However, we believe that we can come 20 miles nearer. Let us follow Lawson’s journal.

Five Miles from this River [Uwharrie] to the N. W. stands the Keyauwee’s Town. They are fortified in with Wooden Puncheons, like Sapona, being a People much of the same Number. Nature hath so fortified this town with Mountains, that were it a Great Seat of War, it might easily be made impregnable, having large cornfields joining to their Cabins, and a Savanna near the Town, at the foot of these Mountains, so that no hard Wind ever troubles these inhabitants. These high clifts have no grass growing on them, and very few Trees.… These Indians make use of red ore to paint their Faces withal, which they get in the Neighboring Mountains…. Near the Town is such another Current as Heighwaree.

Fortified with a soil survey map of Randolph County the writer spent several days searching for this lost town. The Uwharrie River was visited in the vicinity about 25 miles distant from Trading Ford. There is no like current northwest of the Uwharrie, and Lawson’s direction is evidently an error. The next stream east of the river is Carraway Creek, which differs not much in size from the upper Uwharrie. About five miles from the river to the northeast, Carraway Creek emerges from the Carraway Mountains. There is a beautiful wide valley surrounded by the knobs of the little mountain range. In early spring the rocky hills appeared just as Lawson described, high cliffs with few trees. The natives of the region today say that the creek and the mountains are named after the Carraway Indians, of whom they can say little more.¹⁴ Here in the pleasant sheltered valley were found, in spite of ravages of freshet and plow, the vestiges of an Indian village. Thus it appears that the lost Keyauwee is restored under the name Carraway. The location coincides with the early maps showing the line of the Trading Path through the Carraway Mountains.

Twenty-eight years after Lawson’s journey Colonel Byrd¹⁵ and his party surveying the dividing line were examining the Pilot and Sauratown Mountains more than a score of miles distant south of the line. Lover’s Leap, as they called what is probably Pilot Mountain, was thought by some of the Indian traders to be “Kiawan” or “Katawa Mountain,” which they had formerly seen on their trading journeys to the Cherokees. The name suggests “Keyauwee Mountain” which may have passed into “Carraway Mountains,” and as such Colonel Byrd was right in insisting on their location further south. He was also correct in his belief that a continuation of the dividing line would lead to the Cherokee country reached by trading parties at that time only by the circuitous journey over the old Trading Path by way of the Catawbas.

The day after leaving Keyauwee Town Lawson journeyed 20 miles and passed over “two pretty Rivers,” the route corresponding with the Trading Path outlined on the map, the two water courses being Deep River and Polecat Creek. The next day he traveled over “very good Land, but full of Free Stone,” a section which runs into outcrops of white quartz and rhyolite. The third day from Keyauwee he “likewise passed over three Great Rivers.” He mentioned the last one as “Hau River,” and there is little question that the two preceding were Alamance and Little Alamance. Haw River was described as a rapid stream, “having large Stones, about the bigness of an ordinary House, lying up and down the River.” In the chilly weather the travelers stripped and forded the stream, although Lawson had learned that “it used to frighten passengers from fording it.” The streams were probably deeper than they are today and in high water seasons were formidable. The engineering of the Indians in running their trail as much as possible on the ridges seems evident.

On the following day the journey was begun toward the Occaneechi town on Eno River. On the way was met a pack train with thirty loaded horses and four or five men. The leader was an Englishman named Massey, a native of Leeds in Yorkshire, trading out of Virginia. The travelers commented on the rich land of the vicinity, which was widely known as Haw Fields. About three o’clock in the afternoon the Indian town was reached. The Occaneechi had been driven sometime before from their island home near the junction of the Staunton and Dan rivers and were now situated in the neighborhood of Hillsboro. The Occaneechee Hills near that town still bear their name. The Enos were then living a short distance east and were combining their weakened tribe with the Shoccoree and the Adshusheer. Regaled with good fat bear and venison provided by the Indians Lawson was refreshed for the continuance of his journey. The next morning he met the noble Indian, Enoe-Will, whom be engaged as guide, and set out eastward, soon leaving the Virginia path and proceeding more directly on his way to eastern Carolina.

Thus the journey of John Lawson has been seen to trace the well beaten trail of the famous Trading Path.

The Journeys of Needham and Arthur

The journeys of Needham and Arthur have been called “the most truly remarkable as well as romantic of the English explorations of the seventeenth century.” We are now to review the chronicle very unsatisfactorily and almost in the cold light of vivisection with an eye solely to the paths traveled.

Fort Henry, now Petersburg, was a famous trading center of Virginia. In 1673, Abraham Wood was the moving spirit of the trading post. At this time the boom in fur trade aroused keen ambition for extensive traffic.

A letter from Abraham Wood to John Richards of London gives the information of the travels under consideration. Only a small part of it concerns our subject, and the reading of the original letter is advised, both for enjoyment and for historical information.¹⁶

In April, 1673, Wood sent two men with a party of Indians to travel into the hinterland and to reach, if possible, the mountains, that they might open up the productive trade of the interior. They were turned back by the warlike Occaneechi. These Indians held a strong position on the largest island below the confluence of the Dan and Staunton rivers, and controlled the back country traffic. They were a powerful tribe; their dialect was the common language in trade and religion among the Indians throughout the region. They were jealous of their position and being fierce warriors they maintained their advantage by striking fear into the hearts of both the white and the red men. A traveler could enter what is now Piedmont North Carolina only through their gateway and only with their permission. Here was the entrance to the famed Trading Path. When Colonel Byrd crossed the path in 1728, he was 25 miles or more to the east where the path had been shifted after the power of the Occaneechi was broken.

Abraham Wood, not to be deterred, sent his men again in May, more strongly provided. The Englishman of the expedition were James Needham and Gabriel Arthur—the former a gentleman of some repute in the colony; the latter a youth without schooling but possessing courage and adaptability.

About a month after they left Fort Henry they fell in with a party of Tomahitan Indians, a tribe located beyond the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. These Indians agreed to lead the adventurers to their country with the object of opening up trade.

They passed the Occaneechi barrier not without trouble, but gained their objective. The route of these travelers is of most concern to us. They journeyed nine days from “Occhonechee to Sitteree” west and by south, past nine rivers and creeks “which all end in this side ye mountains and emty themselves into ye east sea.” Sitteree was the last town of inhabitance and there was no further path until they came within two days’ journey of the Tomahitans.¹⁷

This brief description, in direction and enumeration of water-courses, agrees strikingly with the line of the Trading Path we have already traced. Further reference to the journeys will be even more convincing. “Sitteree” seems to be another name for Sugaree, spelled on the Popple map of 1733 “Sataree” and on the Winsor War Map of 1715 “Suturee.” This suggests strongly the Catawba center at the mouth of Sugar Creek south of Mecklenburg County. Nine days of steady travel by horse with the fleet footed Indians could give the mileage expected.

We must omit the thrilling narrative that follows of the entry of the first Europeans into the present state of Tennessee, simply recording that Needham left Arthur among the Tomahitans and returned to Fort Henry.

Abraham Wood was overjoyed at the success of his venture and, unmindful of impending tragedy, dispatched Needham again to the over-hills Indians. In January rumors began to reach him through the enigmatic reports of Indian intercourse that his man had been cruelly murdered. The dark rumors were at length confirmed. Needham had among his company for the return trip an Occaneechi Indian who bad been well paid for his services as protector on the former expedition, Indian John, or Hasecoll, who accompanied the party from “Aeno to Sarrah.” When one of the Indians in crossing Sarrah River, either by accident or with intent, let his pack slip into the water, a quarrel ensued between Needham and Indian John. Ill feeling continued all day until they passed “Yattken towne” and “soe over Yattken river,” described as being near the foot of the mountains. Here the travelers pitched camp for the night. The disgruntled Indian continued complaining and threatening until Needham threw a hatchet upon the ground, grasped his sword, and challenged him whether he meant violence. Thereupon Indian John, of whom the best that can be said is that he was a good shot, caught up a gun and with quick aim sent a bullet through Needham’s brain. The Tomahitans made an attempt at rescue, but too late, and then bewailed the tragedy. The culprit, however, before their startled eyes drew out his knife, ripped open the body of his victim and tore out the heart, held it aloft, and looking toward the east vaunted his rage at the Englishmen.

The scene of this memorable tragedy was in all probability near the famous Trading Ford on the Yadkin River. The travelers had come from Occaneechi Island to the Eno where the Eno Indians dwelt, thence over the well known trail, crossing “Sarrah River,” probably the Uwharrie, in the morning and by nightfall reaching the ford of the Yadkin within sight of the Flat Swamp Mountains that were noted by Lawson and other explorers along this route, their night camp being in the domain later to be occupied by the Saponi, at this time in possession of the Saura Indians, as further evidence of this narrative affirms.

Meanwhile the young man, Arthur, was virtually a prisoner among the Tomahitans and participated in some of the most remarkable exploits that ever befell pioneer adventurers. In May of the following year he was allowed to return. We find him again on the trail of the Trading Path, undisturbed until he came to “Sarah,” the scene of Needham’s tragedy and the settlement of the Saura Indians on the Yadkin River, where Arthur saw some of his lamented fellow-traveller’s effects that had been left scattered on the ground by the murderer. Here four Occaneechi were lying in wait. They made attack at night, according to Indian custom, but in the confusion Arthur escaped into the bushes. The Tomahitans fled leaving Arthur with his packs. He therefore hired four “Sarrah Indians” to carry them to Eno. However, his pack bearers would go no further than the Eno town. The resolute youth left the goods with the Eno, and with a lone Tomahitan continued over the trail, crossed the island stronghold of the Occaneechi by night, and arrived June 18 at Fort Henry.

The events of the journeys add another colorful chapter to the story of the Trading Path, tracing again the old trail, and leading in this brief series of thrilling exploits to the discovery of what is now the state of Tennessee by men of European blood.

The Journey of John Lederer

Ethnologists and not a few historians treating the theme of the North American Indians have pondered over the journey of John Lederer.¹⁸ In the last decade of the nineteenth century Cyrus Thomas, writing in the American Anthropologist, declared that “the journey into the Carolinas is a myth.” In 1912, Messrs. Alvord and Bidgood in their excellent volume “First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region” speak of “his alleged journey into the Carolinas,” and state that “after he left the Saura village, no certainty can be evolved from the mass of palpable falsehood.”

Even among the believers there is much dissention in the household of faith as to the itinerary of their hero. James Mooney¹⁹ commented “that the attempted identification of Lederer’s route by Hawks, in his history of North Carolina, seems to be entirely incorrect. After making him swing around a narrow circle instead of proceeding along the lines of the trading path toward a definite point, he leaves the traveler floundering in the marshes of Albemarle Sound, when in fact he must have been on Catawba river on the border of South Carolina, and finally gives up the indentification in despair with the statement that ‘Lederer’s itinerary presents difficulties which we confess we cannot satisfactorily solve.’”

Mooney himself made a near solution of the mystery, and furnished the best commentary of Lederer, but his location of the visits of Lederer to tribes of the Piedmont is not to be reconciled with the journal of the explorer.

After the consideration of such weighty minds it is presumptuous for the humble layman to invade the field. However, if we can afford some confirmation of John Lederer’s statements concerning the course of his journey, we will not only assist in solving a puzzle of long standing, but will also help to save the reputation for veracity of the brave and estimable doctor, the Father of Explorers in the Piedmont.

It is readily admitted that Lederer was credulous and accepted some Indian yarns as veritable; that he expressed freely his interpretations which were not always correct, as when he supposed the transmontane land of great waves, described by the Indians, to be the sea, although the receding mountain peaks were being depicted; that he had a gift for exaggeration, not an exclusive property as other travelers have revealed.

The narrative of his two journeys to the mountains in Virginia are quite acceptable, and the journey into Carolina is described in such a way as to lead to the belief that that narrative also was based on experience.

The German physician, of whom little is known, set out from the falls of the James, now Richmond, on May 22, 1670, under authority of Governor Berkeley. With him were Major Harris, “twenty Christian horse,” and five Indians. After a few days a disagreement arose. All of the party turned back except Lederer and a Susquehanna Indian named Jackzetavon.

Not far below the present city of Lynchburg, at “Sapon,” they found the Saponi Indians. The tribe subsequently moved to the island near the Occaneechi, later migrating to the Yadkin River where they were in 1701 at the time of Lawson’s journey.

From the Saponi, Lederer took a southeast course, rather than southwest as he recorded, and arrived June 12 at “Akenatzy,” i.e., Occaneechi Island, with which we are already familiar through the journeys of Needham and Arthur who passed there three years later.

He did not remain long at the fortified island home of these fierce warriors. The following day five Rickohockans, presumably Cherokee Indians, ambassadors from the mountains, were treacherously murdered by the Occaneechi, and the travelers were frightened away.

For two days, June 14 and 15, Lederer traveled “sometimes by a beaten path, and sometimes over hills and rocks,” reaching the “Oenock” Indians who were not over “thirty odde” miles distant from Occaneechi in a direct line. There is no difficulty in recognizing here the location of the Eno Indians on the river of their name. Lederer said of the Enos, “They are of mean stature and courage, covetous and thievish, industrious to earn a penny; and therefore hire themselves out to their neighbors, who employ them as carryers or porters.” He described their town “built round a field,” which was their athletic field wherein they exercised strenuously at ballplay, using stones for balls. Omitting other interesting details we must leave the Enos, who had evidently been a stronger tribe but were now much reduced in power.

“Fourteen miles west-southwest of the Oenocks, dwell the Schakory-Indians, upon a rich soil, and yet abounding in antimony, of which they shewed me considerable quantities.” It is not difficult to trace here the trail from Eno River to Haw River by way of the Haw Fields where the Shoccoree Indians were then located. Later these Indians had retreated east beyond Hillsboro where they were found by Lawson.

Lederer found that the Shoccoree differed little in customs and manners from the Enos. He recorded: “I made no stay here, but passing thorow thickets and marish grounds, I arrived at Watary above fourty miles distant, and bearing west-southwest to Shakor.” This is the portion of the Trading Path over the rocky ridges and thickets of the little stream valleys beyond Alamance Creek, across Polecat Creek and Deep River to the neighborhood of Carraway. Time, distance, and description of travel agree with Lawson’s record, and the mileage corresponds well with Spangenberg’s travel schedule. Within Carolina the directions by Lederer’s compass are remarkably trustworthy.

Lederer did not find the Keyauwee; at any rate, he called the inhabitants of the place “Watary.” These may have been the Wateree Indians, called Weteree Chickanee by Lawson thirty years later when he found them near the Wateree River some miles below the Waxhaw and the Catawba. That the Wateree were located in the region to which we have traced Lederer is not improbable. There is an old tradition²⁰ that the lower Yadkin or Great Peedee River was once called Wateree, and the tribe may have worked upstream and into the small tributaries such as Uwharrie River or Carraway Creek. Lederer described the “Watary” as being slaves rather than subjects of their “king.” Although the chieftan was grave and courteous, he shocked Lederer greatly by hiring three youths to kill as many young women of their enemies in order to serve his son who had recently died. The braves returned with the scalps before Lederer could take his departure.

If we follow our assumption, we would guess that the next stage of Lederer’s journey would lead 30 miles west to Trading Ford on the Yadkin within sight of the southerly Flat Swamp Mountains falling away westward beyond the river, and that he would reach the Saura Indians. We read:

I departed from Watary the one and twentieth of June: and keeping a west-course for near thirty miles, I came to Sara: here I found the ways more level and easie. Sara is not far distant from the mountains, which here lose their height, and change their course and name: for they run due west, and receive from the Spaniards the name Suala. From these mountains or hills the Indians draw great quantities of cinabar, with which beaten to powder they colour their faces.

We have here the details noted by Lawson: thirty miles of travel; the mountains running east and west, which were noted also in the narrative of Needham and Arthur; paint mineral secured in the neighboring mountains (in the hills of upper Moore County, about forty miles south, and perhaps at other places in the mountains, is to be found stone with pockets of red and yellow powder, ferruginous material, which could be mixed with bear grease to form paints of brilliant colors). The location of the Sara is the same as that three years later when Needham and Arthur passed Trading Ford.

We may now consider the difficulty at this stage of the narrative that has led many to question Lederer. The explorer thought he was passing near a low gap of the Blue Ridge, calling the mountains after the Saura Indians, and stating in his narrative that the mountains fall off due west and take the name “Suala.” He was not impressed with their height, calling them “mountains or hills.” Certainly the time limits and the mileage recorded forbade any approach of Lederer to the Blue Ridge. It seems that the solution lies in the forgotten chain of small mountains in central Carolina. The Uwharrie Mountains which skirted the Trading Path answer every description.

The name of these mountains should not be overlooked. The Saura Indians were living near by, though they were found later on the Dan River fifty miles north, and some of the tribe may have migrated there before Lederer’s time. The story of Needham and Arthur indicates that their home on the Trading Path was not an advantageous location for them at that time. Lederer used the following names for the Saura: Sara, Suala, Sasa, and Sualy. He stated that the neighboring mountains received from the Spaniards the name Suala, another name for Saura. It has not yet been confirmed that the Spaniards invaded the Uwharrie region. However, the Spanish appellation given by De Soto²¹ for the tribe met somewhere near the southern border of the State was Xuala, pronounced Shuala or Suala, as by Lederer, which later became Huala or Hwala. The name Uwharrie, applied to the clusters of mountains and to the small river of the region, has never been explained definitely. Its suffix agrees with the demonstrative ending of words used in the language of the interior tribes, and the stem bears resemblance to others of the same tongue. However, the resemblance of “Highwaree” as given by Lawson and “Huwarrie” as pronounced by early settlers²² is close to the “Xuala” and “Xualla” of the De Soto narratives and demands consideration. The interior tribes used the “l” and “r” sounds interchangeably.²³ The pronunciation of “Xuala” of the Spaniards would become “Huara” or “Huarrie” of the native tribes. The Saura gave their name to the mountains fifty miles north near which they were found later, also to the town Cheraw, South Carolina, their last settlement, and it is not out of reason that in the neighborhood of Trading Ford on the Yadkin this strong tribe that possessed the territory should have left their name. Hence the name Uwharrie may be, after all the Xuala of the Spaniards, possibly transferred by the Saura through a previous migration from the southwestern hills of the Piedmont region where De Soto is thought to have discovered them in 1540.

Lederer’s stay among the Saura was brief, according to his testimony:

These Indians are so indiscreetly fond of their children, that they will not chastise them for any mischief or insolence. A little boy had shot an arrow thorow my body, had I not reconciled him to me with gifts: and all this anger was, because I spurred my horse out of another arrows way which he directed at him. This caused such a mutiny amongst the youth of the town, that the seniors taking my horse and self into protection, had much ado (and that by intreaties and prayers, not commands) to appease them.

Since the Indians for certain reasons feared to exercise parental restraint, thus was narrowly averted another Trading Ford tragedy. Lederer left hastily, probably without ascertaining careful direction, and with his companion Jackzetavon continued the trail.

“From Sara I kept a south-southwest course until the five and twentieth of June, and then I reached Wisacky.” This three days’ march was rough and troublesome. Lederer evidently took the trail that branched from the Trading Path more directly to the Waxhaw Indians near the southern border of the State, his course running near the site of the present town called Indian Trail in Union County. The following day he proceeded to the “Usheryes” or Catawbas. Much interesting information is recorded of these Indians, some of it evidently having been received with great credulity or stated with exaggeration, but most of it having an important bearing on the history of this powerful tribe.

Lederer did not care to retrace his journey over the Trading Path; he feared to make the circuit by way of the northwest on account of the Cherokees who overran that territory; he decided upon an eastern route. His return may be traced with little difficulty by anyone familiar with the sand hills and pine barrens of eastern Carolina and with the former location of the Tuskarora Indians.

Footnotes

¹ Fries, A. L., Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, Vol. I, p. 30.

² Ibid., Vol. II, p. 760.

³ Ibid., Vol. II, p. 518.

⁴ Ibid., Vol. II, p. 352.

⁵ Ibid., Vol. II, p. 798.

⁶ Boyd, William K. (ed.), William Byrd’s Histories of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina, pp. 298, 300, 302. Col. Byrd’s camp mentioned here was located near the dividing of the stakes about ten miles west of the intersection of the line by Roanoke River.

⁷ Pamlico.

⁸ Alamance.

⁹ The Carolina traders under Col. Byrd’s censure were probably South Carolinians working out of Charleston up the Santee trail.

¹⁰ Lawson, John. The History of Carolina, pp. 1-33.

¹¹ A small settlement in Davidson County a short distance northeast Trading Ford retained for many years the name Sapona.

¹² The dam and power plant at High Rock have been built across the 1200 foot gap where the Yadkin River broke through the ridge of the Flat Swamp Mountains.

¹³ Mr. Mooney supposed that the Southern Railway followed more closely the line of the Trading Path; hence his location of the Keyauwee site is quite reasonable. However we have seen how the railway has probably been instrumental in shifting the main route of travel some miles north of the original trail.

¹⁴ There is a manufactured legend of the Carraway neighborhood which tells of an Indian maiden disappointed in love who in desperation leaped from the rugged mountain cliff—not to destruction, for the favoring winds carried her away; hence the name Carraway. This far-fetched attempt to explain the name Carraway is an example of fiction often associated with nature’s beauties and wonders. And should not the beautiful Keyauwee princess have left inspiration enough for romantic expression?

¹⁵ Boyd, William K. (ed.), Histories of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina, pp. 244-245.

¹⁶ Alvord, C. W., and Bidgood, Lee. The First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region by the Virginians, 1650-1674, p. 210.

¹⁷ The trail of the Tomahitans seems to have led through Hickory Nut Gap or Swannanoa Gap across the French Broad River and other streams flowing northwest passed on the south side of the Great Smoky Mountains until the Tennessee was reached. The conjecture of the editors that these streams were tributaries of New River is hardly tenable, since the headwaters of the New flow northeast and these would have led a considerable distance from the course described.

¹⁸ Lederer, John, The Discoveries, pp. 1-17.

¹⁹ Mooney, James, Siouan Tribes of the East, p. 34.

²⁰ Gregg, Alexander, History of the Old Cheraws, p. 7.

²¹ Bourne, E. G. (ed.), Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the Conquest of Florida, as told by a Knight of Elvas and in a Relation by Luys Hernandez de Biedma factors of the Expedition, Vol. II, p. 15.

²² Fries, A. L. Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, Vol. I, p. 433; II, 833.

²³ Mooney, James, Siouan Tribes of the East, p. 57.