This letter does not shed any
light on the Melungeons, nor does it mention any Portuguese
Indians but it was printed in the book of Amos Stoddard in 1812,
two years after it was received. It is interesting, not in what he
says, but in what he does not say. Stoddard had wrote to him
enquiring about these 'white Indians' that had been in Tennessee.
He writes back telling Stoddard what he knows but never mentions
a strange race of people, Portuguese, White, Indian or
otherwise. He is recalling from memory and notes the period
of 1782 to 1810 but does not mention any strange people or the
name Melungeons.
John Sevier
Knoxville, Tennessee,
October 9th, 1810
To Amos Stoddard
I shall with pleasure, give
you the information required, so far as my memory will now serve me,
and the help of a memorandum I hastily took on the subject, of a nation
of people called the Welsh Indians. In the year 1782, I was on a
campaign against the Cherokees, and during my route, discovered traces
of very ancient fortifications. Some time after the expedition, I
had occassion to enter into a negotiation with the Cherokee Chiefs, for
the purpose of exchanging prisoners. After the exchange had been
settled, I took an opportunity of enquiring of a venerable old chief,
named Oconostoto, (then, and for nearly sixty years had been, a ruling
chief of the Cherokee nation,) if he could inform me of the people that
had left such signs of fortifications in their country and particularly
the one on the bank of the Highwassee river? The old warrior
briefly answered me as follows;
It is handed down by our
forefather, that the works were made by white people, who had formerly
inhabitied the country, while the Cherokees lived low down in the
country, now callled South Carolina, and that a war existed between the
two nations for many years. At length, it was discovered, that
the whites were making a number of large boats, which induced the
Cherokees to suppose, that they intended to descend the Tennessee
river. They then collected their whole band of warriors, and took
the shortest and most convenient route to the muscle shoals in order to
intercept them down the river. In a few days, the boats hove in
sight, and a warm combat ensued, with various success for several
days. At length the whites proposed to the Indians, that if they
would exchange prisoners, and cease hostilities, they would leave the
country, and never more return; which was acceded to, and, after the
exchange, parted in friendship. The whites then descended the the
Tennessee to the Ohio, and then down to the big river, (Mississippi)
then up it to the muddy river, (Missouri) then up that river to a vey
great distance. They are now on some of it's branches; But they
are no longer a white people; they are now all become Indians; and look
like the other red people of the country:"
I then asked him, if he had
ever heard any of his ancestors say what nation of peole those white
people belonged to? He answered; "I have heard my
grandfather and other old people say, that they were a people called,
Welsh; that they had crossed the great water, and landed near the mouth
of Alabama river, and were finally driven to the heads of its water,
and even to Highwassee river, by the Mexican Indians, who had been
driven out to fheir own country by the Spaniards."
Many years past I
happened in company with a Frenchman, who lived with the Cherokees, and
had been a great explorer of the country west of the Mississippi.
He informed me, " that he had been high up the Missouri, and traded
several months with the Welsh tribe; that they spoke much of the Welsh
dialect, and although their customs were savage and wild, yet many of
them, particularly the females were very fair and white, and frequently
told him, they had sprung from a white nation of people; also stated
they had yet some small scraps of books remaining among them, but in
such tattered and destructive order, that nothing intelligible
remained." He observed that their settlement was in a very
obscure part of the Missouri, surounded with innumerable lofty
mountains. The Frenchman's name has escaped my memory, but I
believe it was something like Duroque.
In my conversation with the
old chief Oconostoto, he informed me, that an old woman in his nation
named Peg, had some part of an old book given her by an Indian living
high up the Missouri, and thought he was one of the Welsh tribe.
Unfortunately before I had an opportunity of seeing the book, the old
woman's house, and its contents, were consumed by fire. I have
conversed with several persons, who saw and examined the book, but it
was so worn and disfigured, that nothing intelligible remained; neither
did any one fo them understand any language but their own, and even
that, very imperfectly.
You can read more about the
Welsh Indians at the sites below.
Amos Stoddard
A Welsh Nation In American p 365
Pronce Madoc
OCONOSTOTA, head
king or archimagus of the Cherokees.