thick, coarse, and long; and their beards, when worn at all, thin and straggling. Two exceptions only to these characteristics were observed by the first settlers. At a point on the Powhatan, to which the name of Point Cotage was given, an Indian boy was seen who had a shock of yellow hair and a comparatively fair skin, while the Indian guide of Smith, on the Potomac, wore a dark, bushy beard, causing him to resemble a Frenchman.[1] Both were probably the offsprings of European fathers, and may have come into Virginia from the neighborhood of the former colony on Roanoke Island, or have been begotten by Spanish voyagers, who had visited the country previous to the arrival of the English. The impression prevailed among the early settlers that the Indians were born with a white skin, and that they gradually darkened to a brown color, not so much as the effect of internal physical influences, as from constant exposure to sun, storm, and wind, and from the continued use of paint.[2] Not a gray or a blue eye was seen among them. Their eyes were intensely black, and capable a great variety of expression. The women in general were regular in feature and graceful in figure, with symmetrical legs, slender arms, and small and shapely hands, and their voices when they sang were not lacking in sweetness. The general health of the aborigines was sound, and they frequently lived to a great age, showing but few signs of decrepitude. An Indian was observed at Pamunkey on the Powhatan, who, according to the assertions of his tribe, was one hundred and ten years old;[3] he was still strong and erect,
- ↑ Percy’s Discourse, p. lxviii; Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 424. Captains Amadas and Barlow had observed at Roanoke in 1584 children “that had very fine aburne and chestnut coloured haire,” probably the children of European sailors who had visited the coast. Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. III, p. 303.
- ↑ Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 361.
- ↑ Relatyon of the Discovery of our River, p. li.
