Amherst Amherst Virginia United States

The Monacan towns of Mowhemencho and Mahock were still in the area in 1670, when they were visited by John Lederer and Major Harris, who found that the men possessed muskets.

Lederer recorded their tradition that they had settled in the area on account of an oracle four hundred years earlier, having been driven from the northwest by an enemy nation.

They told him they had found it occupied by the Doegs, whom they eventually displaced, in the meantime teaching them the art of growing corn.

Another Monacan tradition he records as follows: "From four women, viz. Pash, Sepoy, Askarin, and Maraskarin, they derive the race of mankinde; which they therefore divide into four tribes, distinguished under those several names."

At the time of Lederer's visit, the tribe had about thirty bowmen, out of a total population of perhaps one hundred.

Lederer also noted the towns of Sapon and Pintahae on the Staunton River; Swanton considers this last to be a Nahyssan village, which Batts and Fallam record as Hanahaskie in 1671.