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resettled at the Trading Path' s Eno River ford in the vicinity of Hillsborough, where they were visited by European traders and explorers ( Swanton 1946 ; Stine 1990) . After Lederer, the next significant Piedmont explorer for local ethnohistory was John Lawson, who crossed the North Carolina Piedmont and Coastal Plain in the winter of 1700- 1701 . He wrote a detailed account of his journey ( Lefler 1967) . He describes a well- established system of trade among Indian groups as well as between Indian groups and various traders from the Carolinas and Virginia. Lawson stopped at the village of the Occaneechi, which has been identified as the Fredricks site (31 OR231 ) , occupying the same section of the floodplain where the Shakori village had stood near present-day Hillsborough (Lefler 19670606 Davis and Ward 1991 : 45 ) . Lawson noted that these piedmont Indians traded for both perishable items (e . g . , tobacco , rum, salt, vermilion) and non-perishables ( e . g . , cloth, clothing , hoes, kettles, beads, knives) (Lawson in Lefler 196732 -33 ; 201 ; see discussion in Stine 1990 : 27- 31 ) At the Fredricks site (A. D . 1680- 1710), European trade goods made up a much larger percentage of the artifact inventory than found at the preceding Jenrette phase site . This highlights the increased contact between peoples of Native and European descent along the Occaneechi Trail. Native pottery during the Fredricks phase is either plain (Fredricks Plain) or check stamped (Fredricks Check Stamped) but has sand temper as opposed to the earlier Jenrette phase use of crushed quartz temper (Daniel 1994416) . A palisade was used to defend the villagers at the Fredricks site ( Occaneechi village) . Wooden walls, however, could not protect the people from the twin eighteenth- century scourges of warfare and disease . This is underlined by the presence of two cemeteries that were discovered outside of the village walls . At a regional level the local population levels also declined, in part due to high mortality rates . Numerous Native American deaths can be attributed to contracting European diseases, as Native peoples had little immunity to those diseases . As a result the number of settlements also declined, and larger, nucleated settlements (possibly organized for defense) became the norm. These aggregated settlements tended to concentrate in the larger river valleys (Davis and Ward 1991 : 52 ; Stine 1990) . The widespread warfare , disease , and chaos of the period led to the consolidation of several Indian groups and decades of wandering in North Carolina and Virginia. The departure of the Indians from the North Carolina Piedmont can be inferred from occasional references in colonial records . In 1714 , Alexander Spotswood, the Lieutenant- Governor of Virginia, ordered the construction of Fort Christanna on the Meherrin River in southeastern Virginia. The fort, intended to guard the Virginia frontier from hostile Indians , was built near an early Indian reservation designed to house "friendly Indians" who could be used as a buffer against the hostile groups . Among the Indians who settled temporarily at the fort were Piedmont groups such as the Sapom the Tutelo , and the " Stenkenocks . " Around 1728 , William Byrd recorded that the " Sappony Nation" was " made up of the Remnant of Several other Nations, of which the most considerable are the Sapponys, the Occaneches, and Stenkenocks , who not finding themselves Separately Numerous, enough for their Defense , have agreed to unite into one Body, and all of them now go under the Name of Sapponys " (Miller 1957 : 128 ; see discussion in Stine 1990) . By 1730 , some of the Fort Christanna Indians had moved to Catawba territory in South Carolina, and some of them under the name of Saponi requested permission to settle with the Tuscarora on their Roanoke River reservation in 10