at a very early period in the history of the south, there was a
Shawanoe settlement on the head waters of the Catawba or Santee, and
probably of the Yadkin. From another authority it appears, that for a
time the Shawanoes had a station on the Savannah river, above Augusta;
and Adair, who refers to the war between the Shawanoes and Cherokees,
saw a body of the former in the wilderness, who, after having wandered
for some time in the woods, were then returning to the Creek country.
According to John Johnston,[A] a large party of the Shawanoes, who
originally lived north of the Ohio, had for some cause emigrated as far
south as the Suwanoe river, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. From
thence they returned, under the direction of a chief named Black Hoof,
about the middle of the last century, to Ohio. It is supposed that this
tribe gave name to the Suwanoe river, in 1750, by which name the
Cumberland was also known, when Doctor Walker, (of Virginia) visited
Kentucky.

[Footnote A: I Vol. Trans. Amer. Antiquarian Society.]

Of the causes which led the Shawanoes to abandon the south, but little
is known beyond what may be gleaned from their traditions. Heckewelder,
in his contributions to the American Philosophical Society, says, "they
were a restless people, delighting in wars, in which they were
constantly engaged with some of the surrounding nations. At last their
neighbors, tired of being continually harassed by them, formed a league
for their destruction. The Shawanoes finding themselves thus
dangerously situated, asked to be permitted to leave the country, which
was granted to them; and they immediately removed to the Ohio. Here
their main body settled, and then sent messengers to their elder
brother,[A] the Mohicans, requesting them to intercede for them with
their grandfather, the Lenni Lenape, to take them under his protection.