"These presents may certify all persons whatever, that in the year 1660, being an inhabitant of Virginia, and chaplain to Major-General Bennet, of Mansoman County, the said Major Bennet and Sir William Berkeley sent two ships to Port Royal, now called South Carolina, which is sixty leagues to the southward of Cape Fair, and I was sent therewith to be their minister. Upon the 8th of April we set out from Virginia, and arrived at the harbor's mouth of Port Royal the 19th of the same month, where we waited for the rest of the fleet, that was to sail from Barbadoes and Bermuda, with one Mr. West, who was to be Deputy Governor of said place. As soon as the fleet came in, the smallest vessels that were with us sailed up the river to a place called the Oyster Point. Here I continued about eight months, all which time being almost starved for want of provisions, five others, with myself, travelled through the wilderness till we came to the Tuscarora Country. Here the Tuscarora Indians took us prisoners, because we told them that we were bound to Roanoke. That night they carried us to their town, and shut us up close, to our no small dread. The next day they entered into a consultation about us, which after it was over, their interpreter told us that we must prepare ourselves to die next morning. Whereupon, being very much dejected, and speaking to this effect in the British tongue: Have I escaped so many dangers, and must I now be knocked on the head like a dog? then presently an Indian came to me, which afterwards appeared to be a war-captain belonging to the sachem of the Doegs (whose original I find must needs be from the old Britons), and took me up by the middle, and told me in the British tongue I should not die, and thereupon went to the Emperor of the Tuscaroras, and agreed for my ransom and the men who were with me. They then welcomed us to their town, and entertained us very civilly and cordially four months, during which time I had the opportunity of conversing with them familiarly in the British language, and did preach to them three times a week in the same language, and they would confer with me about anything that was difficult therein. At our departure they abundantly supplied us with whatever was necessary to our support and well-doing. They are settled upon Pontigo River, not far from Cape Atros [Hatteras]. This is a brief recital of my travels among the Doeg Indians.
"Morgan Jones,
"Son of John Jones, Basaleg,
near Newport, County of Monmouth.
"I am ready to conduct any Welshmen or others to the country.
"New York, March 10, 1685-6."
It appears that the origin of this narration came about in the following way, as described by Charles Lloyd, Esq., of Dôl y Frân, Montgomeryshire, in a letter which he has written. He says, "My brother, Dr. Thomas Lloyd, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, having heard of Rev. Morgan Jones's adventures, and meeting him in New York, desired him to write them out with his own hand in his house; and to please me and my cousin, Thomas Price, of Llanvyllin, he sent me the original. Mr. Jones was living then within twelve miles of New York, and was contemporary with me and my brother at Oxford. He was of Jesus College, and called there 'Senior Jones,' by way of distinction."
The original was given to Dr. Thomas Lloyd, and transmitted to his brother, as mentioned above; subsequently it came into the possession of Dr. Robert Plott, through Edward Lloyd, A.M., keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the former having maintained in his writings his implicit belief in Madoc's emigration and Mr. Jones's narrative. Rev. Theophilus Evans afterwards communicated the narration to the "Gentleman's Magazine." He was a Welsh clergyman, vicar of St. David's in Brecon, and well versed in the history of his nation. It is to be regretted that other accounts of the travels of Mr. Jones among the Doegs of the Tuscaroras, which were published at an earlier period, have not been preserved, inasmuch as they would materially assist in more fully establishing the veracity of the writer. As it is, however, it does not appear that his truthfulness has ever been questioned. He was an educated man, a graduate of Oxford, and not likely to be mistaken or led into an easy credulity. He is explicit as to the mode of his rescue, while engaged in prayer and deploring his wretched fate, the time he remained among them, his conversing with them and explaining anything difficult between them,—nothing unreasonable to expect, after the lapse of so many centuries,—his preaching to them three times a week. All these things, taken in connection with his accurate description of the location of this tribe, must impress the candid reader that this clergyman gave a recital of unvarnished facts.
At the time Mr. Jones was captured, the Tuscaroras inhabited a range of country that extended from Virginia down into the Carolinas. They comprised several branches, known as Doegs, Chowans, Meherrins, and Nottoways, who dwelt along the rivers bearing some of their names. They were often called the Southern Iroquois, because they were chiefly kindred in dialect with the main body of that mighty confederacy, the Five Nations, or Iroquois proper. They made frequent incursions into the territory of the Carolinians, by whom they were severely defeated in 1712: large numbers were taken prisoners, while the remainder fled northward and formed the sixth nation of the celebrated Iroquois Confederacy. Iroquois was a term applied to this confederacy by the French; Mingoes was the name given to those composing it by the great Algonquin race of red men, by whom they were largely surrounded, and with whom they were almost incessantly engaged in bloody and decimating wars.
The Five Nations called themselves Konoskioni, or "Cabin-Builders." The territory they occupied when Europeans obtained a more general acquaintance with them, which embraced New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and portions of the Carolinas, evidently had not been in their possession a very great length of time. From all that can be ascertained, they came from the west, in an easterly direction, crossing the Nauraesi Sipu (Mississippi), and made war upon another nation, called the Alligewi or Alleghanians, destroyed their works, and drove them into the interior, the conquerors taking possession of the eastern country. Now, who were these Alligewi? That they were expelled from the lands held by the Five Nations there can be no doubt; that they moved westward is equally certain. But who were they? They were supposed to be whites. McCulloh, in his "Researches on America," says that an exterminating war appears to have taken place between the barbarous natives (Iroquois) and their more refined and civilized neighbors, ending in the nearly total destruction of the latter, the few survivors of whom fled to happier climes; and to these aboriginal whites, perhaps, the Mexicans were indebted for their refinement and knowledge. Traces of these Alligewi are found throughout those portions of the country of the Eastern States once held by them, afterwards by Iroquois. Their line of march westward may be clearly traced by the earthen fortifications they threw up for purposes of defence against their savage and wily enemies. Almost without exception the traditions of the red men ascribe the construction of these works to white men. Some of them belonging to different tribes at the present say that they had understood from their prophets and old men that it had been a tradition among their several nations that the eastern country and Ohio and Kentucky had once been inhabited by white people, but that they were mostly exterminated at the Falls of Ohio. The red men drove the whites to a small island (Sandy Island) below the rapids, where they were cut to pieces. Kentuckee, in Indian, signifies river of blood. Some of the fragments of the ancient tribe of the Sacs expressed astonishment to a gentleman at St. Louis that any person should live in Kentucky. The country, they said, had been the scene of much blood, and was filled with the manes of the butchered inhabitants, who were white people.
The westward movements of the tribes which were overpowered and displaced by the Iroquois are distinctly marked, and show that a European civilization had some influence in directing the construction of those lines of defences along the largest valleys and streams of the countries through which they passed, until, arriving at the Ohio, they made a vigorous stand, with the resolution not to be driven any farther into the interior. This will account for the much greater number of earthen defences found along the Ohio, and, besides, agrees with the traditions of the red men. When, however, defeated here, after a residence extending over many years, the remnants of those tribes which survived the bloody battles fled up the Missouri.
But who were these Alligewi, or Alligenians? The word is strikingly familiar to the Welsh ear, with its double l, and corresponds with the Welsh words alii, mighty, and geni, born, or "mighty born."