Proof of this is âpéfurnished by the speech of their venerable head chief, "Old Sack," at a conference in Philadelphia in 1743.[29] His words were: "Our forefathers came from Piscatua to an island in Potowmeck; and from thence down to Philadelphia, in old Proprietor Penn's time, to show their friendship to the Proprietor. After their return they brought down all their brothers from Potowmeck to Conejoholo, on the east side Sasquehannah, and built a town there."
This interesting identification shows that they were the people whom Captain John Smith found (1608) in numerous villages along the Patuxent and the left bank of the lower Potomac. The local names show them to have been of Algonkin stock and akin to the Nanticokes.
Conoy, Ganawese, Kanawha, are all various spellings of a derivative from an Algonkin root, meaning "it is long" (Del. _guneu_, long, Cree _kinowaw_, it is long,) and is found applied to various streams in Algonkin territory.[30]
Piscataway, or Pascatoway, as it is spelled in the early narratives, also recurs as a local name in various parts of the Northern States. It is from, the root _pashk_, which means to separate, to divide. Many derivatives from it are in use in the Delaware tongue. In the Cree we have the impersonal form, _pakestikweyaw_, or the active animate _pasketiwa_, in the sense of "the division or branch of a river."[31] The site of Kittamaquindi (_kittamaque-ink_, Great Beaver Place,) the so-called "metropolis of Pascatoe,"[32] was where Tinker's creek and Piscataway creek branch off from their common estuary, about fifteen miles south of Washington city.
The "emperor" Chitomachen, Strong Bear (_chitani_, strong, _macha_, bear), who bore the title _Tayac_ (Nanticoke, _tallak_, head chief) ruled over a dominion which extended about 130 miles from east to west.
The district was thinly peopled. On the upper shores of the west side of the Chesapeake Captain John Smith and the other early explorers found scarcely any inhabitants. In 1631 Captain Henry Fleet estimated the total number of natives "in Potomack and places adjacent," at not over 5000 persons.[33] This included both sides of the river as high up as the Falls, and the shores of Chesapeake Bay.