"Okisko had told him about the Chowan, a broad river from the north that divided the Chowanook Indians, who gave it their name. Here was a good country where crops were heavier, forests deeper and trees taller. In the spring the herring and greater fish also swam up in schools to spawn. There were small creeks of sweet black water, which drained the heavy swamps of cypress and hardwoods."

– Roanoke Hundred