THE ACCOUNT OF LAMHATTY
By DAVID I. BUSHNELL, Jr
An old manuscript of unusual interest, relating to the Creek
Indians in 1706 and 1707, is preserved by the Virginia Historical
Society at Richmond. It forms No. 13, vol. iv, of the Ludwell
Papers, and is now printed for the first time.
The manuscript is an account of an Indian from the town of
Towasa who was taken captive by a band of " Tusckaroras " and
carried northward through many Creek towns ; later he was sold
to the Souanoukas [Shawnees] , whose village was across the moun-
tains toward the east. Still later he accompanied a party of Shaw-
nee on a hunting trip northward along the foot of the mountains.
They evidently entered the valleys of the Blue Ridge and the Alle-
ghanies in Virginia, beyond the headwaters of the streams flowing
into the Atlantic. Soon he escaped from the Shawnee and made
his way down the Mattapony to the English settlements.
The account was either written or dictated by Robert Beverley,
the historian, two years after the first edition of his History of Vir-
ginia was published. If is written on a single sheet of paper, and
on the reverse is a map of the country through which Lamhatty
passed, his route being shown by a dotted line. The map is repro-
duced in facsimile, though slightly reduced, in plate xxxv.
The manuscript reads as follows :
" Mf Robert Beverleys A ceo! of Lamhatty
" Lamhatty an Indian of Towassa of 26 years of age comeing naked &
unarmed into the upper inhabitants on the north side of Mattapany in
very bad weather in y! X! mass hollidays anno 1707 gives this acco!
" The foregoeing year yf Tusckaroras made war on y' Towasas &
destroyed 3 of theyr nations (the whole consisting of ten) haveing dis-
posed of theyr prisoners they returned again & in y' Spring of y" year
1707 they swept away 4 nations more, the other 2 fled, not to be heard
of 'twas at this second comeing that they took Lamhatty & in 6 weeks
time they caryed him to Apeikah from thence in a week more to Jabon,
568
BUSHNELL] THE ACCOUNT OF LAMHATTY $69
from thence in 5 days to Tellapousa (where they use canoes) where they
made him worke in y° ground between 3 & 4 months. Then they
carryed him by easy Journeys in 6 weeks time to the Opponys, from
thence they were a month crossing -f mountains to Souanouka's where
they sold him.
" A party of y* Souanouka's comeing northward under the foot of y°
mountains took him with them, there were of y° Souanoukas, 6 men 2
women & 3 children, he continewed with them about 6 weeks, & they
pitched thier Camp on y° branches of Rapahan : River where they pierce
•f mountains, then he ran away from them keeping his course E b S &
E S E. Crossing 3 branches of Rapahan : River & thrice crossing Matta-
pany till he fell in upon Andrew Clarks house which he went up to & sur-
endered himself to y' people they being frightned Seized upon him
violently & tyed him tho' he made no manner of Resistance but shed tears
& shewed them how his hands were galled and swelled by being tyed
before ; where upon they used him gentler & tyed y' string onely by one
arme till they brought him before L! Coll" Walker of King & Queen
County where is at liberty & stays verry contentedly but noe body can yet
be found that understands his language.
' ' Postscript [torn] after some of his Country folks were found servants
[torn] he was sometimes ill used by Walker, became very melancholly after
fasting & crying several days together sometimes useing little Conjura-
tion & when warme weather came he went away & was never more
heard of."
Many of the towns through which the path led have been iden-
tified ; but others cannot be traced.^
The towns, beginning with Towasa, are :
1. Towasa. The narrators of the De Soto expedition relate that
on the 1 2th of September, 1 540, they reached the town of Toasi, at
some point eastward of where it was situated in 1707. "Too-wos-
sau, is three miles below E-cun-cha-te, on the same side of the river
[A-la-ba-ma] a small village on a high bluff." — Hawkins, p. 36.
2. Socsobky. Not identified.
3. Apeicah. " Au-be-coo-che . . . This town is one of the
oldest in the nation ; and sometimes, among the oldest chiefs, it
' I desire to express my indebtedness to Mr James Mooney of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, for assistance in the identification of the various names. The works quoted
are: A. S. Gatschet, A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. I, Phila., 1884;
vol. II, St. Louis, 1888. Benjamin Hawkins, The Creek Confederacy, in Coll. Georgia
Hist. Soc, vol. Ill, pt. I, Savannah, 1848.
AM. ANTH., N. S., 9-37.
570 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., io, 1908
gives name to the nation, Au-be-cuh." — Hawkins, pp. 41-42.
" Abi'hka . . . one of the oldest among the Upper Creek towns.
... It certainly lay somewhere near the Upper Coosa river." —
Gatschet, vol, i, p. 1 24.
4. Jabon. Not identified.
5. Alabdchehati. Not identified.
6. Tellapousa. Tallapoosa, a term usually applied to the Upper
Creeks, although there may have been a town of that name.
7. Tockhousa. Not identified.
8. Cheeawbole. Probably Ho-ith-le Waule, which stood on the
right bank of the Tallapoosa. — Hawkins, p. 32.
9. Caweta. " Kawita, a Lower Creek town on the high western
bank of Chatahochi river, three miles below its falls. The fishery
in the western channel of the river, below the falls, belonged to
Kawita, that in the eastern channel to Kasi'hta." — Gatschet, vol. i,
p. 134. " Cow-e-tugh, on the right bank of Chat-to-ho-che, three
miles below the falls, on a flat extending back one mile." — Hawkins,
P- 52.
10. Awhissie. Not identified.
1 1. OUqudney. Possibly the Okoni, who appear to have moved
from place to place and to have lived, at an early time, on Oconee
river, in the eastern part of Georgia.
12. Oukfusky. " Okfuski (better Akfaski), an Upper Creek
town, erected on both sides of Tallapoosa river, about thirty-five
miles above Tukabatchi. ... In 1799 Okfuski (one hundred and
eighty warriors) with its seven branch villages on Tallapoosa river
(two hundred and seventy warriors) was considered the largest com-
munity of the confederacy." — Gatschet, vol. i, p. 139.
13. Smvanouka. Referring to the Shawnee. (The Creek form
is Savanogi, the Cherokee Sawanuki.) The village is shown on
the map east of the mountains and evidently represents a Shawnee
settlement on upper Savannah river.
14. Poehussa. Not identified.
The towns through which Lamhatty passed, were, according to
the text :
1. Towassa. (On map Towasa.)
2. Apeikah. (On map Apeicah.)
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST
MAP SHOWING THE ROUTE OF LAMHATTY FROM TOWASA IN 1707.
N. 8., VOL. 10, PL. XXXV
om the Original Manuscript in possession of the Virginia Historical Society.)
bushnell] the account OF LAMHATTY 57 1
3. Jdbon. (On map Jabon.)
4. Tellapousa. (Same on map.)
5. Opponys. (Possibly the OQquaney on the map. They may
also have been the Saponi of North Carolina.)
6. Souanouka's. (On map Sowanouka.)
In addition to the towns already mentioned as having been on
the route followed by Lamhatty, there are eight others bearing
names. As all are shown to have been situated in the southern
part of the country, they, together with Towasa and Socsooky, may
have constituted the ten nations, or rather bands, of the Towasa
which are referred to in the text The names of the eight towns
are :
1. Pouhka. Hawkins (p. 36), refers to a small town called
Pau-woc-te near the later site of Towasa. This may be the same as
Pouhka, and if so the two were probably removed at the same time,
as they are shown close together on the map in 1707.
2. Tomobka. This may refer to a settlement of the Timucua,
originally resident in northern Florida, known to the English as
Tomoco.
3. Sowbolla. May possibly be Saw-woo-ge-lo. (Hawkins, p.
65.)
4. Auledly. Not identified.
5. Ephippick. Not identified.
6. Ogolaughoos. Not identified.
7. Choctbuh. Possibly the village of the Chato or Chatot tribe,
afterward settled near Mobile.
8. Sonepdh. Not identified.
Several other towns are indicated on the map, but no names
are attached to them.
Ouquodky is g^ven as the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
Names are given various streams as :
\. . . . bly Netuckqua. Evidently the Appalachicola.
2. Chauctoubab. The position of this river on the map corre-
sponds with that of the Flint, which, together with the Chattahoochee,
forms the Appalachicola.
3. Wichise. If the hypothesis be correct regarding the two pre-
ceding streams, this must necessarily refer to the Chattahoochee.
572 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., io, 1908
The name is probably identical with that of Ochesi, a Lower Creek
or Seminole town of the lower Chattahoochee region.
4. Sowoblla-oubab. Not identified.
5. Sayehte Alatam oiibab. Not identified.
6. Alatam. This may be Duck river, on later maps.
7. Matapani. The Mattapony, which, with the Pamunkey,
forms the York river, in Virginia.
8. Rapahan:. Probably the Rappahannock.
The names are in the Hitchiti dialect, the suffix oubab evidently
meaning river, or water.
The principal value of the manuscript, aside from its general in-
terest, is the reference to the dissolution of the Towasa tribe, which
in Hawkins' time {ca. 1 799) we find incorporated with the Creeks.
Also it throws new light on the size of that nation. It is said that
during the year 1705 the Towasa moved to Mobile, to be near the
French :
" At the beginning of this year 1705 a savage nation called the Tou-
achas came to M. Bienville at Mobile to beg of him a place in which to
establish themselves ; he marked out for them a place at a distance of
one league and a half below the fort where they remained as long as we
were estabUshed at Mobile. ' ' '
The slight variance in dates does not detract from the value of
the manuscript : it must be remembered that it was written by an
Englishman, as told by an Indian, far from the places mentioned.
II. Caweta in 1740
As Caweta was mentioned as being on the route followed by
Lamhatty in 1 707, the following brief account of a visit to that town
thirty-three years later is of special interest. The description forms
part of an unpublished manuscript in the British Museum (Stowe,
792), which is a journal kept by a member of General Oglethorpe's
expedition to the Creek towns in 1740. Only the portion relating
to the Indians is quoted :
' ' We camped at Ocmulgas River where are three mounts raised by
the Indians over three of their Great Kings who were killed in the
wars . . .
iMargry, Dhouvertes, Paris, 1883, pt. v, p. 457.
BUSHNELL] THE ACCOUNT OF LAMHATTY 573
"Aug 8th We encamped about two miles from the Indian town.
The Indians sent Boys and Girls out of their Town with Fowls, Venison,
Pompions, Potatoes Water Melons & Sundry other things.
" About ten of the Clock we set forward for the Indian Town & were
met by the Indian King and some of their Cheifs. The King had Eng-
lish Colours in his hand. We Saluted them & they returned our Salute
and then shaking hands with the General & Company. The King very
gracefully taking him by the Arm led him towards the town & when we
came there they brought us to Logs which they had placed for that pur-
pose covered with Bears Skins and desired us to sit down which when
we had done The head Warriors of the Indians brought us black Drink
in Conk shells which they presented to us and as we were drinking they
kept Hooping and Hallowing as a Token of gladness in seeing us. This
Drink is made of a leaf called by the English Casena (and much resem-
bles Bohea Tea)' It is very plenty in his Country, afterwards we went
to the Kings House or rather Hut where We Dined, at night we went to
the Square to see the Indians dance.
" They dance round a large Fire by the beating of a small Drum
and Six men singing, their Dress is very wild & frightful, their faces
painted with several sorts of colours, their hair cut short except three
locks one of w""" hangs over their Forehead like a horses fore top. They
paint the short Hair and stick it full of Feathers. They have Balls
[? bells] and rattles about their Waist and several things in their hands.
" Their dancing is of divers Gestures and Turnings of the Bodies in a
great many frightful Postures.
" The women are mostly naked to the waist wearing only one short
Peticoat w"" reaches to the Calves of their Legs. Their Houses or Hutts
are built with Stakes and Plaistered w* clay Mixed with Moss which makes
them very warm and Tite. They dress their Meat in Large pans made
of Earth and not much unlike our Beehives in England.^ They do not
make use of Mills to grind their corn in but in lieu thereof use a Mortar
made out of the Stock of a Tree which they cut and burn hollow and
1 Casena, or Black drink, was prepared by many Southern tribes from the leaves of
of Ilex cassine. Conch shells, large univalves, were used as drinking cups. Mr Clar-
ence B. Moore found remains of such cups in mounds in Alabama ( Moundville Revis-
ited, 1907, p. 395). Many writers refer to the use of shells and the drink, and one of
the best accounts is in Haywood's Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, Nash-
ville, 1823, p. 156.
2 Mr Holmes has illustrated various examples of large earthen vessels, from the
southern Appalachian area, with rounded or pointed bottoms. These, if inverted, would
closely resemble the old style conical beehives even now used in rural England.
574 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., io, 1908
then Pound their Com therein and when its pounded sufficiently they sep-
arate the husks from the meal by Sifting thro' a Sieve made of Reed or
Cane . . .
"Aug the 1 2'" We set out from this Town which belonged to the Cou-
ettan's \Cow-e-tuh. — Hawkins, p. 52] to go to a Town of the Causettans
\Cus-se-tuh. — Hawkins, p. 57]."
Washington, D. C.
The Account of Lamhatty
