[Note 3:  Purchas:  His Pilgrimes. (1625.) Vol.  IV, p. 1765.  “A letter of Sir Samuel Argoll touching his Voyage to Virginia, and actions there.  Written to Master Nicholas Hawes, June, 1613.”]

It is to be regretted that the narrative of the explorer affords no clew to the precise locality of this interesting discovery, but since it is doubtful that the mariner journeyed very far on foot from the head of navigation of the Potomac, it seems highly probable that the first American bison seen by Europeans, other than the Spaniards, was found within 15 miles, or even less, of the capital of the United States, and possibly within the District of Columbia itself.

The first meeting of the white man with the buffalo on the northern boundary of that animal’s habitat occurred in 1679, when Father Hennepin ascended the St. Lawrence to the great lakes, and finally penetrated the great wilderness as far as western Illinois.

The next meeting with the buffalo on the Atlantic slope was in October, 1729, by a party of surveyors under Col.  William Byrd, who were engaged in surveying the boundary between North Carolina and Virginia.

As the party journeyed up from the coast, marking the line which now constitutes the interstate boundary, three buffaloes were seen on Sugar-Tree Creek, but none of them were killed.

On the return journey, in November, a bull buffalo was killed on Sugar-Tree Creek, which is in Halifax County, Virginia, within 5 miles of Big Buffalo Creek; longitude 78° 40’ W., and 155 miles from the coast.[4] “It was found all alone, tho’ Buffaloes Seldom are.”  The meat is spoken of as “a Rarity,” not met at all on the expedition up.  The animal was found in thick woods, which were thus feelingly described:  “The woods were thick great Part of this Day’s Journey, so that we were forced to scuffle hard to advance 7 miles, being equal in fatigue to double that distance of Clear and Open Ground.”  One of the creeks which the party crossed was christened Buffalo Creek, and “so named from the frequent tokens we discovered of that American Behemoth.”

[Note 4:  Westover Manuscript.  Col.  William Byrd.  Vol.  I, p. 178.]

In October, 1733, on another surveying expedition, Colonel Byrd’s party had the good fortune to kill another buffalo near Sugar-Tree Creek, which incident is thus described:[5]

[Note 5:  Vol.  II, pp. 24, 25.]

“We pursued our journey thro’ uneven and perplext woods, and in the thickest of them had the Fortune to knock down a Young Buffalo 2 years old.  Providence threw this vast animal in our way very Seasonably, just as our provisions began to fail us.  And it was the more welcome, too, because it was change of dyet, which of all Varietys, next to that of Bed-fellows, is the most agreeable.  We had lived upon Venison and Bear till our stomachs loath’d them almost as much as the Hebrews of old did their Quails.  Our Butchers were so unhandy at their Business that we grew very lank before we cou’d get our Dinner.  But when it came, we found it equal in goodness to the best Beef.  They made it the longer because they kept Sucking the Water out of the Guts in imitation of the Catauba Indians, upon the belief that it is a great Cordial, and will even make them drunk, or at least very Gay.”