The Patuxent River, 1608
"The fifte river is called Pawtuxunt, and is of a lesse proportion then the rest, but the channel is 15. or 18. fathomes deepe in some places, here are infinite Sculls of divers kyndes of Fish more then ellswhere, upon this river dwell the people called Acquintanacsuck, Pawtuxunt and Mattapanient. Two hundred men was the greatest strength that could be there perceived by our Discouerers, but they inhabit together, and not so dispersed as the rest; these of all others were found the most civile..."
- Captain John Smith, 1612
Opanient was one of seventeen settlements that Smith placed on his map for the Patuxent River area. Smith also noted that the River had three chiefdoms: The Pawtuxunt on the lower eastern shore in today’s Calvert County; the Acquintanacsuck on the lower western shore in today’s St. Mary’s County; and, the Mattapanient on the upper Patuxent, both shores in today’s Prince Georges and upper Calvert Counties. John Pory, who visited the Patuxent in the 1620’s noted that the werowances or chiefs of the Pawtuxunt and the Acquintanacsuck, were brothers, and thus allied on opposite sides of the lower part of the River. Smith certainly received a friendly reception from all the chiefdoms on the river. The abundance of fish on the Patuxent continued with gradually diminishing numbers until the 1950’s, after which declines in water quality and disease greatly diminished the stock of both fin and shellfish in the river.