2 OCANAHOWAN AND RECENTLY DISCOVERED LINGUISTIC FRAGMENTS FROM SOUTHERN VIRGINIA, C. 1650 Philip Barbour Ridgefield, Connecticut Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) Ocanahowan (or Ocanahonan and other spellings) was the name of an Indian town or village, region or tribe, which was first reported in Captain John Smith's True Relation in 1608 and vanished from the records after Smith mentioned it for the last time 1624, until it turned up again in a few handwritten lines in the back of a book. Briefly, these lines cover half a page of a small quarto, and have been ascribed to the period from about 1650 to perhaps the end of the century, on the basis of style of writing. The page in question is the blank verso of the last page in a copy of Robert Johnson's Nova Britannia, published in London in 1604, now in the possession of a distinguished bibliophile of Williamsburg, Virginia. When I first heard about it, I was in London doing research and brushing up on the English language, Easter-time 1974, and Bernard Quaritch, Ltd., got in touch with me about "some rather meaningless annotations" in a small volume they had for sale. Very briefly put, for I shall return to the matter in a few minutes, I saw that the notes were of the time of the Jamestown colony and that they contained a few Powhatan words. Now that the volume has a new owner, and I have his permission to xerox and talk about it, I can explain why it aroused my interest to such an extent. To begin with the end, so to speak, I would like to expatiate on the name Ocanahowan and its history, and then proceed to a conclusion involving the Powhatan words. That is a subject on which I profess almost total ignorance. As I have said, Ocanahowan was first mentioned in John Smith's True Relation, and, as I have not yet said, it first appeared on a map in the same year. This was the map that was sent, along with a letter to Philip III of Spain, by his ambassador to James I, Don Pedro de Zuniga, one of whose duties was to keep Philip informed of all threats to Spain's Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) 4 predominance in the regions west of approximately 50° west longitude as established in 1494 by treaty with Portugal. John Smith's first references to Ocanahowan (I have arbitrarily chosen this spelling for the name) are brief. (Barbour, vol. 130: 182 ff): 1) Powhatan's half-brother Opechancanough "spared not to acquaint" Smith with word of "certaine men cloathed [like me] at a place called Ocanahonan," which has been corrected in pen and ink by an anonymous annotator to read "certaine men at a place 6 dayes jorny beyond Ocanahonan". 2) Shortly thereafter, Smith sent a letter to inform the fort at Jamestown about "Ocanahonum". 3) Powhatan himself described to Smith "the people cloathed at Ocamahowan," and also confirmed what "the rest" had said, "that reported us to be within a day and a halfe of Mangoge, two dayes of Chawwonocke, 6 from Roonock [Roanoke, Ralegh's colony] to the south part of the backe sea [the Pacific Ocean]..." The map I have mentioned, which I have called the Smith/Zuniga map for obvious reasons, adds further details. It shows Ocanahowan on the south side of a river which must be the Roanoke some distance above its confluence with the river now called the Chowan. In addition it supplies descriptive notes along with other place-names: 1) There is a town called Pakerikanick on the second important river to the south, next to which is a note: "Here remayne the 4 men clothed that came from Roonock to Okanahowan;" 2) north of this river (the modern Neuse) a larger river is shown (the Pamlico) and between that and the Roanoke there is another note: "here the king of Paspaheygh reported our men to be and went to se[e]" (note that Paspahegh was always inimical to the English); 3) still more to the north, at Warraskoyack (on the modern Pagan River), Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) 5 is a third pertinent note: "here Paspanegn and two of our men landed to go to Panawiock" (located next to the preceding note). Here, tnen, we have a clue to the interest in Ocanahowan. The Englishmen mentioned were said (or thought) to be survivors of Sir Walter Ralegh s Roanoke colony, which withered on the vine, or was rudely uprooted, sometime between August 27, 1587, when John White sailed from Roanoke, and August 18, 1590, when White returned and found the colony deserted. Whatever the facts, the immediate cause of the severance of the lifeline to England was the Spanish Armada of 1588. Not even Ralegh was able to care for the colony at the time. Still, despite the passage of the years, not everybody forgot the men and women left behind, or the rumored copper-mines of Chaunis Temoatan, up the Roanoke River, above Ocanahowan. But even while the Roanoke colony flourished, briefly, its site had never seemed the best possible, and Ralph Lane had visited and reported favorably on the southern shores of Chesapeake Bay (unfortunately, very little is known about this visit). So, when the Virginia colony was being planned in 1606, the site proposed was the lower Chesapeake Bay region—not Albemarle Sound. At the same time, however, the colonists who were to found Jamestown were instructed to look for survivors from Roanoke Island, and to explore the whole area further for silk-grass, copper mines, and so on. Though there are no known surviving instructions to this end, there must have been verbal orders of some sort. In his True Relation Smith wrote that sometime in late March or early April, 1608: We had agreed with the king of Paspahegh, to conduct two of our men to a place called Panawicke beyond Roanok, where he reported many men to be apparelled [like us]. We landed him at Warraskoyack, where [he] playing the villaine, and deluding us for rewards, returned within three dayes after without going further. " ' Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) 6 Then, toward the end of 1608, when the chronic disorders and mutinies in Jamestown simmered down a little, Smith himself sent a scout southwards from Warrascoyack, on December 30 or 31. In the words of the Proceedings, he asked the werowance of that tribe for guides to Chowanoke, explaining that: He would send a present to that king to bind him his friend. To performe this journey was sent Michael Sicklemore, a very honest, valiant and painefull souldier, with him two guids, and directions how to search for the lost company of Sir Walter Rawley, and silke grasse. To this passage, Samuel Purchas added a side-note when he reprinted it in his Pilgrimes (1625): Search for them sent by Sir W. Rawlew. Powhatan confessed that hee had bin at the murther of that Colonie: and shewed to Captaine Smith a Musket barrell and a brasse Morter, and certaine peeces of Iron which had bin theirs. Some time later, after Smith had finished a stay at Powhatan's residence, trading for corn, Sicklemore returned to Jamestown from Chawonock: "but found little hope and lesse certainetie of them were left by Sir Walter Rawley". Smith then dispatched two others on the same mission, this time with guides from another werowance. This expedition is barely mentioned in the Proceedings, but is recounted in some detail in the Generall Historie: Master Nathanael Powell and Anas Todkill were also by the Quiyoughquohanocks conducted to the Mangoags to search them there: but nothing could they learne but [that] they were all dead.... Three dayes jorney they conducted them through the woods, into a high country towards the Southwest: where they saw here and there a little corne field, by some little spring or smal brooke, but no river they could see: the people in all respects like the rest, except their language: they live most upon rootes, fruites, and wilde beasts; and trade with them towards the sea and the fatter [more fertile] countries for dryed fish and corne, for skins. Meanwhile, Captain Christopher Newport was on his way back to London, and the London company was going through a reorganization that came very close indeed to destroying the very thing it was designed to revivify, through Published in: Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975) 7 senseless bungling and a hurricane. However, what is pertinent here is that the reorganized company with its new charter appointed a lord governor to replace the president of the local council, and sent Sir Thomas Gates, one of the patentees of the original charter off to Virginia as deputy governor while his lordship baron De La Warr got himself ready to take over full command. Gates got lengthy and detailed instructions, which included the following paragraph: Foure dayes Journey from your forte [Jamestown] Southewards is a towne called Ohonahorn seated where the River of Choanocki devideth it self into three braunches and falleth into the sea of Rawnocke in thirtie five degrees [correctly, 36° N lat. ]. This place if you seeke by Indian guides from James forte to Winocke by water, from thence to Manqueocke, some twenty miles from thence to Gaththega, as much and from thence to Oconahoen you shall find a brave and fruiteful seate every way unaccessable by a straunger enemy, much more abundant in Pochon and in the grasse silke called Cour del Cherva and in vines, then any parte of this land knowne unto us.