Question: How many counties are in the named part of Maryland on which the Choptank people historically lived?
Context: The Assateague were an Algonquian people speaking the Nanticoke language who historically lived on the Atlantic coast side of the Delmarva Peninsula (known during the colonial period as the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia, and the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania). The five counties of Hawaii on the Hawaiian Islands enjoy somewhat greater status than many counties on the United States mainland.  Counties in Hawaii are the only legally constituted government bodies below that of the state.  No formal level of government (such as city governments) exists below that of the county in Hawaii.  (Even Honolulu is governed as the City and County of Honolulu, a county that covers the entire island of Oahu.) The Choptank (or Ababco) were an Algonquian-speaking Native American people that historically lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland on the Delmarva Peninsula.  They occupied an area along the lower Choptank River basin, which included parts of present-day Talbot, Dorchester and Caroline counties.  The river emptied into the Chesapeake Bay.  They spoke Nanticoke, an Eastern Algonquian language closely related to Delaware. The flags of the counties of the United States of America exhibit a wide variety of regional influences and local histories, as well as widely different styles and design principles.  For example, some Floridian and Alabamian municipality flags feature a saltire, due to saltires being used on their state flags.  Some Maryland county flags feature the coat of arms of the Calvert family, as it is featured on the Maryland state flag, and due to the Calvert family's prominence in Maryland history.  Many counties went decades without a flag, until a certain event, such as a local sesquicentennial or the American bicentennial, spurred the creation of a flag.  Frederick County, Maryland is one example, in 1976, it hosted a contest, asking the public to submit their designs to a commission.  A panel then reviewed the five winning entries, choosing one to become the official county flag.  Frederick County's example is typical of the flag adoption processes that many counties undertook with their flags.  The 250th anniversary of Augusta County, Virginia's founding also spurred the creation of a flag, in 1988.  Some flags, such as the flags of Montgomery County, Maryland, and Loudoun County, Virginia, were created by foreign entities, such as the College of Arms in the United Kingdom. The years from 1726 to 1763 are the period in which cricket established itself as a leading sport in London and the south-eastern counties of England.  In 1726, it was already a thriving sport in the south east and, though limited by the constraints of travel at the time, it was slowly gaining adherents in other parts of England, its growth accelerating during this period with references to cricket being found in many counties to 1763.  This article is a continuation of History of cricket to 1725 (q.v.) and it terminates at 1763 because, though partially a date of convenience marking the end of the Seven Years' War, it was about then that pitched delivery bowling was introduced and the so-called "Hambledon Era" began in earnest. This is a list of the one hundred and twenty counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky.  Despite ranking 37th in size by area, Kentucky has 120 counties; depending on definitions, this is either third or fourth among U.S. states.  Texas has 254 counties and Georgia 159; Virginia has only 95 counties, but also has 38 independent cities that are not part of any county and deal directly with the state government, giving that state 133 county-level administrative units.  The original motivation for having so many counties was to ensure that residents in the days of poor roads and horseback travel could make a round trip from their home to the county seat and back in a single day, as well as being able to travel from one county seat to the next in the same fashion.  Later, however, politics began to play a part, with citizens who disagreed with the present county government simply petitioning the state to create a new county.  The 1891 Kentucky Constitution placed stricter limits on county creation, stipulating that a new county: There are various Black Lakes in Nova Scotia, Canada.  They vary widely in size, depth and usability.  Many counties, such as Cumberland, Halifax, Inverness, and Pictou Counties have more than one Black Lake so named, while other counties mentioned in this article have only one named Black Lake. The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies predominantly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay and consists of nine counties.  As of the 2010 census, its population was 449,226, with just under 8 percent of Marylanders living in the region.  The term "Eastern Shore" distinguishes a territorial part of the State of Maryland from the Western Shore of Maryland, land west of the Chesapeake Bay. The Erie people (also Erieehronon, Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were a Native American people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie.  An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and northern Ohio before 1658.  They were destroyed in the mid-17th century by five years of prolonged warfare with the neighboring Iroquois, especially the Seneca, for helping the Huron in the Beaver Wars for control of the fur trade." Azor was one of the most powerful English landowners at the time of Edward the Confessor in the 11th century.  He was a kinsman and chamberlain of Brihtheah, a bishop of Worcester and a former abbot of Pershore.  He owned property from Lincolnshire down to the Isle of Wight in many counties and like another great landowner of the times, Toki, he also owned urban property in addition to his vast possession of lavish country estates.  He is mentioned in the Domesday Book and appears in countless histories of English counties along with his sons,
Answer: nine counties