Although I agree that the figure is too high, I suspect that the actual numbers may be higher than what the 19th century historians were aware of (or willing to acknowledge). A Spanish document (dated few years after 1607) claimed that a number of Englishmen had joined the Indians and "married" native women. This is a subject of debate. As mentioned by Tom Apple on this list, there was the 1638 marriage of John Basse to the daughter of the Chief of the Nansemonds. There was also a marriage of Maryland's Englishman Giles Brent to Kittamaqund around this time. Other undefined relationships also occurred, like the case of Cockacoeske, Queen of the Pamunkey, who had a son John West by an English colonel. In spite of Governor Spotswood's observation that he hardly knew any English person married to a Native American spouse, the assimilation of a number of Native Americans into English society did occur in greater numbers (in order to survive)towards the end of the 17th century The Queen of Appomattox, if I recall correctly from my research, requested that she and her people live among the English in the latter part of the 17th century. A "John Kiquotan" of Surry County may have been married to an Englishwoman. There were 17th century Native American families with English surnames as well as other records indicating other English-Indian marriages. I've seen at least one court record where officials gave "permission" to a local Englishman to marry an Native American woman, and other similar marriages (or relationships) have been implied through indirect inference in documents. For example, one Christian convert married first an Englishman and then a Frenchman at Manakintown. The truth about the figures or percentages may actually lie somewhere between this formerly believed "small number" and this forty percent. On another subject related to this very topic, we know that laws were passed to prevent marriages between whites and non-whites in colonial times. With Native Americans, were these laws passed to prevent any future growth in this direction or to stop what was then becoming a common practice? To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html