11,532. Adding the third of these numbers to the first, and the fourth to the second, we have, [161]

296,852 free inhabitants.

270,762 slaves.

567,614 inhabitants of every age, sex and condition. But 296,852, the number of free inhabitants, are to 270,762, the number of slaves, nearly as 11 to 10. Under the mild treatment our slaves experience, and their wholesome, though coarse food, this blot in our country increases as fast, or faster than the whites. During the regal government we had at one time obtained a law which imposed such a duty on the importation of slaves as amounted nearly to a prohibition, when one inconsiderate assembly, placed under a peculiarity of circumstance, repealed the law. This repeal met a joyful sanction from the then sovereign, and no devices, no expedients, which could ever be attempted by subsequent assemblies, and they seldom met without attempting them, could succeed in getting the royal assent to a renewal of the duty. In the very first session held under the republican government, the assembly passed a law for the perpetual prohibition of the importation of slaves. This [162] will in some measure stop the increase of this great political and moral evil, while the minds of our citizens may be ripening for a complete emancipation of human nature.'

QUERY IX.

The number and condition of the militia and regular troops, and their pay?

The following is a state of the militia, taken from returns of 1780 and 1781, except in those counties marked with an asterisk, the returns from which are somewhat older. [162]

"The first settlement of Europeans in America was by the Spaniards in St. Domingo in 1493. So early as 1501 we find they had already got into the habit of carrying the negroes there as slaves, and in 1503 they had become so inconvenient, that Ovando, the Governor, put a stop to their importation. Herrera. Dec. 1, b. 2, ch. 10: B. 4, ch. 12; B. 5, ch. 12; but in 1511 they were again fully in the same habit. The king's instructions at that date were "Que se buscasse forma como se llevassen muchos negroes Guinea, porque era mas util el trabajo de un negro, que de quatro Indios.-Herrera. Dec. 1, L., 9, c. 5; Dec. 2, L., 2, c. 8, 20."-Footnote in edition of 1853.

Situation.

Between the

Westward of

Between the Blue Ridge and Tide Waters. Alleghaney and the Alleghaney

18,828.

Blue Ridge

7,673.

4,458.

Every able-bodied freeman, between the ages of 16 and 50, is enrolled in the militia. Those of every county are formed into companies, and these again into one or more battalions, according to the numbers in the county. They are commanded by colonels, and other subordinate officers, as in the regular service. In every county is a county lieutenant, who commands the whole militia of his county, but ranks only as a colonel in the field. We have no general officers always existing. These are appointed occasionally, when an invasion or insurrection happens, and their commission determines with the occasion. The governor is head of the military, as well as civil power. The law requires every militiaman to provide himself with the arms usual in the regular service. But this injunction was always indifferently complied

VOL. III.-13

with, and the arms they had, have been so frequently called for to arm the regulars, that in the lower parts of the country they are entirely disarmed. In the middle country a fourth or fifth part of them may have such firelocks as they had provided to destroy the noxious animals which infest their farms; and on the [165] Western side of the Blue ridge they are generally armed with rifles. The pay of our militia, as well as of our regulars, is that of the Continental regulars. The condition of our regulars, of whom we have none but Continentals, and part of a battalion of state troops, is so constantly on the change, that a state of it at this day would not be its state a month hence. It is much the same same with the condition of the other Continental troops, which is well enough known.

QUERY X.

The marine?

Before the present invasion of this state by the British under the command of General Phillips, we had three vessels of 16 guns, one of 14, five small gallies, and two or three armed boats. They were generally so illy manned as seldom to be in a condition for service. Since the perfect possession of our rivers assumed by the enemy, I believe we are left with a single armed boat only. [166]

QUERY XI.

A description of the Indians established in that State?

When the first effectual settlement of our colony was made, which was in 1607, the country from the sea-coast to the mountains, and from the Patowmac to the most southern waters of James river, was occupied by upwards of forty different tribes of Indians. Of these the Powhatans, the Mannahoacs, and Monacans, were the most powerful. Those between the sea-coast and falls of the rivers, were in amity with one another, and attached to the Powhatans as their link of union. Those between the falls of the rivers and the mountains, were divided into two confeder

1 From this note it is apparent that Jefferson must have prepared some of his memoranda while he was still governor of Virginia, or before the arrival of the French fleet.

acies; the tribes inhabiting the head waters of Patowmac and Rappahannoc, being attached to the Mannahoacs; and those on the upper parts of James river to the Monacans. But the Monacans and their friends were in amity with the Mannahoacs and their friends, and waged joint and perpetual war against [167] the Powhatans. We are told that the Powhatans, Mannahoacs, and Monacans, spoke languages so radically different, that interpreters were necessary when they transacted business. Hence we may conjecture, that this was not the case between all the tribes, and, probably, that each spoke the language of the nation to which it was attached; which we know to have been the case in many particular instances. Very possibly there may have been anciently three different stocks, each of which multiplying in a long course of time, had separated into so many little societies,' the principles of their government being so weak as to give this liberty to all its members.

The territories of the Powhatan confederacy, south of the Patowmac, comprehended about 8000 square miles, 30 tribes, and 2400 warriors. Captain Smith tells us, that within 60 miles of James town were 5000 people, of whom 1500 were warriors. From this we find the proportion of their warriors to their whole inhabitants, was as 3 to 10. The Powhatan confederacy, then, would consist of about 8000 inhabitants, which was one for every square [168] mile; being about the twentieth part of our present

66

so many

1 In the edition of 1787 and subsequent ones the words following little societies" are omitted, and a paragraph inserted as follows: "This practice results from the circumstance of their having never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power, any shadow of government. Their only controls are their manners, and that moral sense of right and wrong, which, like the sense of tasting and feeling in every man, makes a part of his nature. An offence against these is punished by contempt, by exclusion from society, or, where the case is serious, as that of murder, by the individuals whom it concerns. Imperfect as this species of coercion may seem, crimes are very rare among them, insomuch that were it made a question, whether no law, as among the savage Americans, or too much law, as among the civilized Europeans, submits man to the greatest evil, one who has seen both conditions of existence would pronounce it to be the last; and that the sheep are happier of themselves, than under care of the wolves. It will be said, that great societies cannot exist without government. The savages, therefore, break

them into small ones."

population in the same territory, and the hundredth of that of the British islands.

Besides these were the Nottoways, living on Nottoway river, the Mehèrrins and Tuteloes on Meherrin river, who were connected with the Indians of Carolina, probably with the Chòwanocs. [169]

The preceding table contains a state of these several tribes, according to their confederacies and geographical situations, with their numbers when we first became acquainted with them, where these numbers are known. The numbers of some of them are again stated as they were in the year 1669, when an attempt was made by the assembly to enumerate them. Probably the enumeration is imperfect, and in some measure conjectural, and that a farther search into the records would furnish many more particulars. What would be the melancholy sequel of their history, may, however, be argued from the census of 1669; by which we discover that the tribes therein enumerated were, in the space of 62 years, reduced to about one-third of their former numbers. Spirituous liquors, the small-pox, war, and an abridgement of territory to a people who lived principally on the spontaneous productions of nature, had committed terrible havoc among them, which generation, under the obstacles opposed to it among them, was not likely to make good. That the lands of this country were taken from them by conquest, is not so general a truth as is supposed. I [170] find in our historians and records, repeated proofs of purchase, which cover a considerable part of the lower country; and many more would doubtless be found on further search. The upper country, we know, has been acquired altogether by purchases made in the most unexceptionable form.

Westward of all these tribes, beyond the mountains, and extending to the great lakes, were the Massawòmecs, a most powerful confederacy, who harrassed unremittingly the Powhatans and Manahoàcs. These were probably the ancestors of tribes known at present by the name of the Six Nations.

Very little can now be discovered of the subsequent history of these tribes severally. The Chickahòminies removed about the year 1661, to Mattapony river. Their chief, with one from each of the Pamunkies and Mattaponies, attended the treaty of Albany