At the time of the settlement of the New World it is evident that there were more than two thousand Indians living in the land between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers. A century later the Indians were extinct along the Rappahannock. And in Northumberland in 1700, according to Beverley: "Wicomico has but few men living which yet keep up their kingdom and retain their fashion; yet live by themselves, separate from all Indians, and from the English." By 1700, wars, white men's diseases, liquor and a general moral breakdown had caused the disappearance of most of the Indians east of the Blue Ridge. Some had moved westward or southwestward. There was little left in the Northern Neck to mark the passing of the Indians except their ossuaries, an occasional tomahawk or arrowhead and the musical names of the waters. _THE POW-WOW_ Friends and relatives had gathered at the Stratford Hall landing to watch the sloop _Margaret_ start on a trip down the Potomac. It was a May morning, in 1744. The forest was "a-bloom" with dogwood and redbud and the "pyne" was sending its fragrance across the water, just as it had when Captain John Smith traveled this way so many years before. On board the _Margaret_, "seven flaming fine gentlemen," headed by Thomas Lee, were about to take off on the first lap of a history-making mission. Indian war drums were sounding. Thomas Lee and William Beverley had been appointed commissioners from Virginia to meet the chiefs of the Six Nations of the Iroquois at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Amid shouts and laughter and the booming of cannon the sloop headed down the Potomac, in the direction of the Chesapeake. The _Margaret_ sailed up the Bay toward Maryland and before noon the next day Annapolis had been reached. Here for five days and nights, the party was wined and dined. Philip Ludwell Lee, eighteen-year-old son of Thomas, danced until one in the morning with the pretty girls of Annapolis. The remainder of the journey was by land. After four more days of travel the party was refreshed near Chester by a big bowl of lemon punch. In Philadelphia they were highly entertained for three weeks. While in that city Lee and Beverley marched in a procession to the market place to hear an official proclamation of a war between England and France. They were solemn now, for their mission was more important than ever. The colonists needed the Indians on their side. This excursion was turning out to be an important diplomatic mission for the colony. It was to be Britain's first serious answer to French encroachments.