f a confederacy, of which Powhatan was head
war chief or werowance. There were at least thirty-four of these
tribes, and to each Powhatan appointed one of his own friends as
chief. Powhatan's capital, or "werowocomoco," was on York River at
Portan Bay (a corruption for Powhatan), about fourteen miles from
Jamestown; and Pochins, one of his sons, commanded at Point Comfort,
while Parahunt, another son, was werowance at the falls of the James
River, one hundred and twenty miles inland. West of the bay region,
beyond the falls of the rivers, were other confederacies of Indians,
who carried on long wars with Powhatan, of whom the most important
were the Monacans, or Manakins, and Massawomekes.[16]

Powhatan's dominions extended from the Roanoke River, in North
Carolina, to the head of Chesapeake Bay, and in all this country his
will was despotic. He had an organized system of collecting tribute
from the werowances, and to enforce his orders kept always about him
fifty armed savages "of the tallest in his kingdom." Each tribe had a
territory defined by natural bounds, and they lived on the rivers and
creeks in small villages, consisting of huts called wigwams, oval in
shape, and made of bark set upon a framework of saplings. Sometimes
these houses were of great length, accommodating many families at
once; and at Uttamussick, in the peninsula formed by the Pamunkey and
Mattapony, were three such structures sixty feet in length, where the
Indians kept the bodies of their dead chiefs under the care of seven
priests, or medicine-men.

The religion of these Chesapeake Bay Indians, like that of all the
other Indians formerly found on the coast, consisted in a belief in a
great number of devils, who were to be warded off by powwows and
conjurations. Captain Smith gives an account of a conjuration to which
he was subjected at Uttamussick when a captive in December, 1607. At
daybreak they kindled a fire in one of the long houses and by it
seated Captain Smith. Soon the chief priest, hideously painted,
bedecked with feathers, and hung with skins of snakes and weasels,
came skipping in, followed by six others similarly arrayed. Rattling
gourds and chanting most dismally, they marched about Captain Smith,
the chief priest in the lead and trailing a circle of meal, after
which they marched about him again and put down at intervals little
heaps of corn of five or six grains each. Next they took some little
bunches of sticks and put one