Read Ebook: History Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States. by Heckewelder John Gottlieb Ernestus Reichel William Cornelius Commentator

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OF THE

INDIAN NATIONS.

HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF THE INDIANS.

When the Lenape arrived on the banks of the Mississippi, they sent a message to the Alligewi to request permission to settle themselves in their neighbourhood. This was refused them, but they obtained leave to pass through the country and seek a settlement farther to the eastward. They accordingly began to cross the Namaesi Sipu, when the Alligewi, seeing that their numbers were so very great, and in fact they consisted of many thousands, made a furious attack on those who had crossed, threatening them all with destruction, if they dared to persist in coming over to their side of the river. Fired at the treachery of these people, and the great loss of men they had sustained, and besides, not being prepared for a conflict, the Lenape consulted on what was to be done; whether to retreat in the best manner they could, or try their strength, and let the enemy see that they were not cowards, but men, and too high-minded to suffer themselves to be driven off before they had made a trial of their strength, and were convinced that the enemy was too powerful for them. The Mengwe, who had hitherto been satisfied with being spectators from a distance, offered to join them, on condition that, after conquering the country, they should be entitled to share it with them; their proposal was accepted, and the resolution was taken by the two nations, to conquer or die.

They say, however, that the whole of their nation did not reach this country; that many remained behind in order to aid and assist that great body of their people, which had not crossed the Namaesi Sipu, but had retreated into the interior of the country on the other side, on being informed of the reception which those who had crossed had met with, and probably thinking that they had all been killed by the enemy.

Their nation finally became divided into three separate bodies; the larger body, which they suppose to have been one half of the whole, was settled on the Atlantic, and the other half was again divided into two parts, one of which, the strongest as they suppose, remained beyond the Mississippi, and the remainder where they left them, on this side of that river.

Meanwhile the Mengwe, who had first settled on the great Lakes between them, had always kept a number of canoes in readiness to save themselves, in case the Alligewi should return, and their number also increasing, they had in time proceeded farther, and settled below the Lakes along the River St. Lawrence, so that they were now become, on the north side, neighbours of the Lenape tribes.

These Mengwe now began to look upon their southern neighbours with a jealous eye, became afraid of their growing power, and of being dispossessed by them of the lands they occupied. To meet this evil in time, they first sought to raise quarrels and disturbances, which in the end might lead to wars between distant tribes and the Lenape, for which purpose, they clandestinely murdered people on one or the other side, seeking to induce the injured party to believe, that some particular nation or tribe had been the aggressor; and having actually succeeded to their wishes, they now stole into the country of the Lenape and their associates, frequently surprising them at their hunting camps, occasionally committing murders, and making off with the plunder. Foreseeing, however, that they could not go on in this way without being detected, they had recourse to other artful means, by which they actually succeeded in setting tribe against tribe, and nation against nation. As each nation or tribe has a particular mark on their war clubs, different from that of the others; and as on seeing one of these near the dead body of a murdered person, it is immediately known what nation or tribe has been the aggressor; so the Mengwe having left a war club, such as the Lenape made use of, in the Cherokee country, where they had purposely committed a murder, of course the Cherokees naturally concluding that it had been committed by the Lenape, fell suddenly upon them, which produced a most bloody war between the two nations. The treachery of the Mengwe, however, having been at length discovered, the Lenape determined on taking an exemplary revenge, and, indeed, nothing short of a total extirpation of that deceitful race was resolved on; they were, besides, known to eat human flesh, to kill men for the purpose of devouring them; and therefore were not considered by the Lenape as a pure race, or as rational beings; but as a mixture of the human and brutal kinds.

War being now openly declared against the Mengwe, it was carried on with vigour; until, at last, finding that they were no match for so powerful an enemy as the Lenape, who had such a train of connexions, ready to join them if necessity required, they fell upon the plan of entering into a confederacy with each other, by which they would be bound to make a common cause, and meet the common enemy with their united force, and not, as the present prospect was, be destroyed by tribes, which threatened in the end the destruction of the whole. Until this time, each tribe of the Mengwe had acted independent of the others, and they were not inclined to come under any supreme authority, which might counteract their base designs; for now, a single tribe, or even individuals of a tribe, by the commission of wanton hostilities, would draw the more peaceable among them into wars and bloodshed, as particularly had been the case with the Senecas, who were the most restless of the whole; and though the Lenape had directed their force principally against the aggressors, yet the body of the nation became thereby weaker; so that they saw the necessity of coming under some better regulations and government.

This confederation took place some time between the 15th and 16th century; the most bloody wars were afterwards carried on for a great length of time, between the confederated Iroquois, and the Delawares and their connexions, in which the Lenape say that they generally came off victorious. While these wars were carrying on with vigour, the French landed in Canada, and it was not long before they and the now combined Five Nations, or tribes, were at war with each other, the latter not being willing to permit that the French should establish themselves in that country. At last the Iroquois, finding themselves between two fires, and without any prospect of conquering the Lenape by arms, and seeing the necessity of withdrawing with their families, from the shores of the St. Lawrence, to the interior of the country, where the French could not easily reach them, fell upon a stratagem, which they flattered themselves would, if successful, secure to them not only a peace with the Lenape, but also with all the other tribes connected with them; so that they would then have but one enemy to contend with.

The Mahicanni further say, that it was fear which induced the Dutchemaan to aid the Five Nations in bringing about this peace, because at the place where they were at that time making their settlement, great bodies of warriors would pass and repass, so that they could not avoid being interrupted in their undertakings, and probably molested, if not destroyed, by one or the other of the war parties, as their wars, at that time, were carried on with great rage, and no quarter was given. That in producing this peace, the white people had effected for the Mengwe, what no other nation could have done, and had laid the foundation of the future greatness of their Iroquois friends, as the same policy was pursued by the English, after they came into possession of this country.--So far the tradition of the Mahicanni.

The Rev. Mr. Pyrlaeus, in his notes, after fixing as near as he could the time when the Five Nations confederated with each other, proceeds in these words: "According to my informant, Sganarady, a creditable aged Indian, his grandfather had been one of the deputies sent for the purpose of entering into a covenant with the white Europeans; they met at a place since called Nordman's Kill, about four miles below where afterwards Albany was built, where this covenant of friendship was first established, and the Mohawks were the active body in effecting this work."

The Iroquois have denied that these machinations ever took place, and say that they conquered the Delawares in fair battle, and compelled them by force to become women, or in other words that they obliged them to submit to the greatest humiliation to which a warlike spirited people can ever be reduced; not a momentary humiliation, as when the Romans were compelled by the Samnites to pass under the Caudine forks, but a permanent disgrace, which was to last as long as their national existence. If this were true, the Lenape and their allies, who, like all other Indian nations, never considered a treaty binding when entered into under any kind of compulsion, would not have submitted to this any longer than until they could again have rallied their forces and fallen upon their enemy; they would have done long before the year 1755, what they did at last at that time, joined the French in their wars against the Iroquois and English, and would not have patiently waited more than a century before they took their revenge for so flagrant an outrage. Their numbers, acknowledged to have been far superior to that of their Indian enemies, and the vast extent of territory which they possessed, furnished them with ample means to have acted hostilely, if they had thought proper. On the contrary, they lived at peace with the Iroquois, and their European allies, until that decisive war, by which the French lost at once all their extensive possessions on the continent of America.

In addition to these positive proofs, negative evidence of the strongest kind may be adduced. The Iroquois say, indeed, that they conquered the Delawares and their allies, and compelled them to become women. But there is no tradition among them of the particulars of this important event. Neither Mr. Pyrlaeus, nor Mr. Zeisberger, who both lived long among the Five Nations, and spoke and understood their language well, could obtain from them any details relative to this supposed conquest; they ought, certainly, to have been able to say how it was effected; whether by one decisive fight or by successive engagements, or at least, when the last battle took place; who were the nations or tribes engaged in it; who the chiefs or commanders; what numbers fell on each side; and a variety of other facts, by which the truth of their assertion might have been proved: the total absence of such details appears to me to militate against them in the strongest manner, and to corroborate the statement of their adversaries.

The Delawares are of opinion, that this scheme of the Five Nations, however deeply laid, and meant essentially to injure them, would not, however, have operated against them, but on the contrary, have greatly subserved their national interest, if the Europeans had not afterwards come into the country in such great numbers, and multiplied so rapidly as they did. For their neutral position would greatly have favoured their increase, while the numbers of the other Indian nations would have been reduced by the wars in which they were continually engaged. But unfortunately for them, it happened that the Europeans successively invaded the country which they occupied, and now forms what are called the middle states, and as they advanced from the Atlantic into the interior, drove before them the Lenape and their allies, and obtained possession of their lands; while the Iroquois, who happened to be placed in the neighbourhood of Canada, between the French and English, who were frequently at war with each other, had an enemy, it is true, in the French nation, but had strong protectors in the English, who considered them as a check upon their enemies, and, being the most numerous people, were best able to afford them protection; thus they were suffered to increase and become powerful, while the Lenape, having no friend near them, the French being then at too great a distance, were entirely at the mercy of their English neighbours, who, advancing fast on their lands, gradually dispersed them, and other causes concurring, produced at last their almost entire destruction. Among those causes the treacherous conduct of the Five Nations may be considered as the principal one.

It was thus that the Five Nations rewarded the confidence that the Delawares had placed in them. Their treachery was not, however, suspected for a long time; but it was at last discovered; it was even found out that in this last engagement, a number of the Iroquois had joined in fight against them with their enemies. The Lenape then determined to unite their forces, and by one great effort to destroy entirely that perfidious nation. This, they say, they might easily have done, as they were then yet as numerous as the grasshoppers at particular seasons, and as destructive to their enemies as these insects are to the fruits of the earth; while they described the Mengwe as a number of croaking frogs in a pond, which make a great noise when all is quiet, but at the first approach of danger, nay, at the very rustling of a leaf, immediately plunge into the water and are silent.

But their attention was now diverted by other scenes. The whites were again landing in great numbers on their coast, in the east and south, and this spectacle once more engaged all the capacity of their minds. They were lost in admiration at what they saw, and were consulting and deliberating together on what they should do. The Five Nations, who lived out of the reach of all danger, nevertheless also came; but bent on their own interest, while they were instigating the other nations to fall upon the new comers, or drive them off from their shores, by which they caused useless hostilities, in which they did not appear to participate, they were insinuating themselves into the favour of the powerful strangers, professing great friendship for them, persuading them that they were superior to the other Indian nations, that they had controul over them all, and would chastise those who should disturb their peace.

They cannot conceive how the English could turn from the people by whom they had been so kindly received and welcomed with open arms; from those who had permitted them to sit down upon their lands in peace, and without fear of being molested by them; who had taken delight in supplying all their wants, and who were happy in smoking the pipe of friendship with them at one and the same fire; how they could not only see them degraded and injured by a base and perfidious nation, but join with that nation in sinking them still lower. For to the countenance of the English, they say, is entirely owing the great preponderance which the Iroquois at last attained: they complain that the English did support that enemy against them, that they even sanctioned their insolence, by telling them to make use of their authority as men, and bring these women to their senses. That they were even insulted and treated in a degrading manner, in treaties to which the English were parties, and particularly in that which took place at Easton, in Pennsylvania, in July, 1742, when the Six Nations were publicly called on to compel the Delawares to give up the land taken from them by the long day's walk. But for these repeated outrages, they would not have taken part with the French in the memorable war of 1755. Nor, perhaps, would they have done so, had not they been seduced into the measure by the perfidious Iroquois. At the commencement of that war, they brought the war belt, with a piece of tobacco, to the Delawares, and told them: "Remember that the English have unjustly deprived you of much of your land, which they took from you by force. Your cause is just; therefore smoke of this tobacco, and arise; join with us our fathers, the French, and take your revenge. You are women, it is true, but we will shorten your petticoats, and though you may appear by your dress to be women, yet by your conduct and language you will convince your enemies that you are determined not tamely to suffer the wrongs and injuries inflicted upon you."

Yielding to these solicitations, the Delawares and their connexions took up arms against the English in favor of the French, and committed many hostilities, in which the Iroquois appeared to take no part. Sir William Johnson requested them to use their ascendancy and to persuade the hostile Indians to lay down the hatchet, instead of which, instead of conforming to the ancient custom of Indian nations, which was simply to take the war-hatchet back from those to whom they had given it, they fell on a sudden on the unsuspecting Lenape, killed their cattle, and destroyed their town on the Susquehannah, and having taken a number of them prisoners, carried them to Sir William Johnson, who confined and put them in irons. This cruel act of treachery, the Delawares say, they will never forget nor forgive.

Although the Lenape acted independently in the war of 1755, and made a formal declaration of their independence at the beginning of the revolutionary war, yet the Six Nations persevered in their pretensions, and still affected to consider them as women. Finding, however, that this obsolete claim was no longer acknowledged, and that it was useless to insist upon it any longer, they came forward of their own accord, about the time of Wayne's treaty, and formally declared that the Lenape and their allies were no longer women, but MEN.

The Delawares and Mohicans agree in saying, that from the time of the fatal treaty in which they were persuaded to assimilate themselves to women, and, indeed, ever since the Europeans first came into the country, the conduct of the Iroquois was treacherous and perfidious in the extreme. That it was their constant practice to sally out secretly and commit depredations on the neighbouring nations, with intent to involve them in wars with each other. That they would also commit murders on the frontier settlers, from Virginia to New England, and charge the tribes who were settled in the neighbourhood with the commission of those crimes. That they would then turn negotiators, and effect a peace, always at the expense of the nation whom they had injured. They would sell the lands of other nations to the English and receive the money, pretending to a paramount right to the whole territory, and this, say the Lenape, was their manner of CONQUERING NATIONS!

INDIAN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST ARRIVAL OF THE DUTCH AT NEW YORK ISLAND.

The Lenni Lenape claim the honour of having received and welcomed the Europeans on their first arrival in the country, situated between New England and Virginia. It is probable, however, that the Mahicanni or Mohicans, who then inhabited the banks of the Hudson, concurred in the hospitable act. The relation I am going to make was taken down many years since from the mouth of an intelligent Delaware Indian, and may be considered as a correct account of the tradition existing among them of this momentous event. I give it as much as possible in their own language.

After this general intoxication had ceased, for they say that while it lasted the whites had confined themselves to their vessel, the man with the red clothes returned again, and distributed presents among them, consisting of beads, axes, hoes, and stockings such as the white people wear. They soon became familiar with each other, and began to converse by signs. The Dutch made them understand that they would not stay here, that they would return home again, but would pay them another visit the next year, when they would bring them more presents, and stay with them awhile; but as they could not live without eating, they should want a little land of them to sow seeds, in order to raise herbs and vegetables to put into their broth. They went away as they had said, and returned in the following season, when both parties were much rejoiced to see each other; but the whites laughed at the Indians, seeing that they knew not the use of the axes and hoes they had given them the year before; for they had these hanging to their breasts as ornaments, and the stockings were made use of as tobacco pouches. The whites now put handles to the former for them, and cut trees down before their eyes, hoed up the ground, and put the stockings on their legs. Here, they say, a general laughter ensued among the Indians, that they had remained ignorant of the use of such valuable implements, and had borne the weight of such heavy metal hanging to their necks, for such a length of time. They took every white man they saw for an inferior Mannitto attendant upon the supreme Deity who shone superior in the red and laced clothes. As the whites became daily more familiar with the Indians, they at last proposed to stay with them, and asked only for so much ground for a garden spot as, they said, the hide of a bullock would cover or encompass, which hide was spread before them. The Indians readily granted this apparently reasonable request; but the whites then took a knife, and beginning at one end of the hide, cut it up to a long rope, not thicker than a child's finger, so that by the time the whole was cut up, it made a great heap; they then took the rope at one end, and drew it gently along, carefully avoiding its breaking. It was drawn out into a circular form, and being closed at its ends, encompassed a large piece of ground. The Indians were surprised at the superior wit of the whites, but did not wish to contend with them about a little land, as they had still enough themselves. The white and red men lived contentedly together for a long time, though the former from time to time asked for more land, which was readily obtained, and thus they gradually proceeded higher up the Mahicannittuck, until the Indians began to believe that they would soon want all their country, which in the end proved true.

INDIAN RELATIONS OF THE CONDUCT OF THE EUROPEANS TOWARDS THEM.

SUBSEQUENT FATE OF THE LENAPE AND THEIR KINDRED TRIBES.

After the murder of the Conestogo Indians, the Lenni Lenape thought proper, for their safety, to withdraw altogether from the interior of the white settlements, into the wilds of the Susquehannah country; and Government, conscious that they could no longer protect any Indians, or body of Indians, whether Christians or not, in the settled parts of the province, advised the Christian Indians, whom, during the last troubles, they had with difficulty prevented from sharing the fate of the Conestogos, to retire into the back country. They did so, and settled at Wyalusing, which then became the nearest settlement of Indians to the white inhabitants, being upwards of 150 miles north of Philadelphia, and about 100 miles from the frontier settlers beyond the blue mountains; all the other Indians of that nation, together with the Nanticokes, lived then higher up the Susquehannah. For about five years, the Indians on this river enjoyed peace, and the Christian Indians lived quietly here and at another settlement they had made thirty miles higher, built good houses for themselves, together with a spacious church, planted fruit trees, and put large bodies of land under cultivation. But, while they were flattering themselves with the most favourable prospect, they were informed that the Six Nations had sold the whole country, including the land they lived on, to the English. They soon saw the object of this clandestine proceeding, of which they had not received the least notice, and foreseeing what kind of neighbours they should have, if they should stay where they were, they determined to move off in a body to the Ohio, where they had received an invitation to settle from the grand council of their nation. Accordingly, two hundred and forty-one souls set off directly for the Muskingum river, where a large tract of land was given them, out of that which the Wyandots had formerly granted and confirmed to their people; the other Indians of the same nation residing on the Susquehannah soon followed, some settling at one place, some at another; the Mouseys, however, joined their own tribe, who long since had emigrated and were settled on the head waters of the Allegheny river; and so the whole country east of the Allegheny mountains was cleared of its original inhabitants.

The Delawares thus became at once released from their troublesome neighbours the Iroquois, who had calculated on their settling near them, at a place they had already fixed upon; but they were mistaken, for with all their fair speeches they could not persuade the Lenape, who gave them plainly to understand that they were no longer inclined to listen to a people who had so long and so often deceived them.

This happened in the year 1768, about six years before the beginning of the revolutionary war. During which short period of tranquillity, the numbers of the Christian Indians on the Ohio rapidly increased, and never was there such a fair prospect of their being fixed in a state of prosperous civilisation. But the revolution put an end to these hopes, and this opportunity was lost, perhaps, never to return again. It was not the fault of the American government, who were truly desirous of seeing the Indians adopt a neutral line of conduct, and repeatedly advised them not to interfere in the quarrel between the colonies and the mother country; happy would it have been if the British government had acted in the same manner; but they pursued a different plan. These poor deluded people were dragged into a war in which they had no concern, by which not only their population was gradually reduced, but they lost the desire of becoming a civilised people; for the Americans, at last, become exasperated against them, and considering all Indians as their enemies, they sent parties out from time to time to destroy them. The murder of the Christian Indians on the Muskingum in 1782, completed their alienation. Those who yet remained were driven to despair, and finally dispersed.

THE SHAWANOS OR SAWANOS.

In the mean while, those who had remained on the Ohio increased in numbers, and in process of time began again to be troublesome to their neighbours. At last, they crossed the Allegheny mountains, and falling upon the camps of the Lenape on Juniata river, they committed several murders and went off with their plunder. It was soon discovered who were the aggressors; but the Lenape had now assumed the station of "the woman," and could not engage in wars. They could only apply for protection to the Five Nations, which they did, expecting that they would immediately pursue the offenders and inflict an exemplary punishment upon them, but the Five Nations found means to evade their demand for the present. They told the Delawares that the season was too far advanced to commence a war; that it was better to put off their intended expedition until the ensuing spring; that in the mean time, both nations should put themselves in readiness, and keep their preparations secret, and that as soon as the season should open, they would march off separately and meet together at an appointed time and place on the Allegheny, then push on together for the Shawano towns below the confluence of that river and the Monongahela, where they could fall together unawares on the aggressors and punish them. The Iroquois promised, as usual, that they would place themselves in the front of the battle, so that the Delawares would have nothing to do but to look on and see how bravely their protectors would fight for them, and if they were not satisfied with that, they might take their revenge themselves.

Agreeably to this plan, the Lenape remained quiet till the spring, when, with a body of their most valiant men, they marched to the appointed spot; but how great was their surprise when their pretended champions did not make their appearance? They suspected treachery, and were not mistaken; for having immediately marched forward to the Shawano towns, bent on taking an exemplary revenge, they had the disappointment to see on their arrival their enemies pushing off as fast as they could down the Ohio river in their canoes. Some of them were flying by land, as probably they had not a sufficient number of canoes to convey their whole number; these they pursued and attacked, beat them severely, and took several prisoners. Here they had a striking instance of the treachery of the Mengwe, who had warned the Shawanos of their approach. Some time after this, the Shawanos who resided on the north branch of the Susquehannah, began to draw off by degrees, first to the west branch of that river and the Juniata, and then to the Ohio; so that at the commencement of the French war in 1755, they had all, except a few families, with whom was their chief Paxnos, retired to the Ohio, where they joined their countrymen in a war against the English.

Peace was made in 1763 between Great Britain and France; but the restless spirit of the Shawanos did not permit them to remain quiet; they commenced war against their southern neighbours, the Cherokees, who, while in pursuit of the aggressors, would sometimes through mistake fall upon the Lenape, who resided in the same country with the Shawanos, through whom they also became involved in a war with that nation, which lasted some time. The Mengwe being then also at war with the Cherokees, and frequently returning with their prisoners and scalps through their country, the warlike spirit was kept alive among all, until at length, in 1768, the Cherokees sought a renewal of the friendship formerly existing between them and their grandfather, the Lenape, which being effected, they, by their mediation, also brought about a peace between them and the Five Nations.

The Shawanos not being disposed to continue the war with the Cherokees by themselves, and having been reprimanded by their grandfather for being the instigators of all those troubles, willingly submitted to the dictates of the Lenape, and from that time remained at peace with all the nations until the year 1774, when they were involved in a war with the people of Virginia, occasioned by some murders which were committed on Logan's family connexions and others by white people. In this instance it cannot, I think, be said that they were the aggressors, yet their thirst for revenge was so great, and the injured Mengwe at their side called out so loudly for revenge, that they with great spirit engaged into a war with the Virginians, which, however, was of but short duration, as they were opposed with an equal degree of courage, and after a severe battle between the two rivals, at or near the mouth of the Great Kanhawa, and the destruction of many of their towns by the Virginians, the Shawanos were brought to make peace once more; which did not last long, as they joined the British against the American people, some time after the commencement of the Revolution, and remained our enemies after that time, never establishing a firm peace with us, until the memorable treaty which took place in 1795, after the decisive defeat of the nations by the late General Wayne.

The Shawanos lost many of their men during these contests; but they were in a manner replaced by individuals of other nations joining them. Thus, during the Revolutionary war, about one hundred turbulent Cherokees, who could not be brought by their own nation to be at peace with the American people, and were on that account driven out of their country, came over to the Shawanos, while others from the Five Nations joined them or became their neighbours.

The Shawanos are considered to be good warriors and hunters. They are courageous, high spirited and manly, and more careful in providing a supply of ammunition to keep in reserve for an emergency, than any other nation that I have heard of. Their language is more easily learned than that of the Lenape, and has a great affinity to the Mohican, Chippeway and other kindred languages. They generally place the accent on the last syllable.

THE NANTICOKES.

The Delawares say that this nation has sprung from the same stock with them, and the fact was acknowledged by White, one of their chiefs, whom I have personally known. They call the Delawares their grandfathers. I shall relate the history of the Shawanos, as I had it from the mouth of White himself.

Every Indian being at liberty to pursue what occupation he pleases, White's ancestors, after the Lenape came into their country, preferred seeking a livelihood by fishing and trapping along the rivers and bays, to pursuing wild game in the forest; they therefore detached themselves, and sought the most convenient places for their purpose. In process of time, they became very numerous, partly by natural increase, and partly in consequence of being joined by a number of the Lenape, and spread themselves over a large tract of country. Thus they became divided into separate bodies, distinguished by different names; the Canai, they say, sprung from them, and settled at a distance on the shores of the Potomack and Susquehannah, where they lived when the white people first arrived in Virginia; but they removed farther on their account, and settled higher up the Susquehannah, not far from where John Harris afterwards established a ferry. The main branch, or the Nanticokes proper, were then living in what is now called the Eastern shore of Maryland. At length, the white people crowded so much upon them, that they were also obliged to seek another abode, and as their grandfather was himself retreating back in consequence of the great influx of the whites, they took the advice of the Mengwe, and bent their course at once to the large flats at Wyoming, where they settled by themselves, in sight of the Shawanos town, while others settled higher up the river, even as high as Chemenk and Shummunk, to which places they all emigrated at the beginning of the French war. White's tribe resided there until the Revolutionary war, when they went off to a place nearer to the British, whose part they had taken, and whose standard they joined. White himself had joined the Christian Indians at Schschequon, several years previous to the war, and remained with them.

Nothing, said White, had equalled the decline of his tribe since the white people had come into the country. They were destroyed in part by disorders which they brought with them, by the small pox, the venereal disease, and by the free use of spirituous liquors, to which great numbers fell victims.

The emigration of the Nanticokes from Maryland was well known to the Society of the United Brethren. At the time when these people were beginning their settlement in the forks of Delaware, the Rev. Christian Pyrlaeus noted down in his memorandum book, "that on the 21st day of May, 1748, a number of the Nanticokes from Maryland, passed by Shamokin in ten canoes, on their way to Wyoming." Others, travelling by land, would frequently pass through Bethlehem, and from thence through the Water Gap to Nescopeck or Susquehannah, and while they resided at Wyoming, they, together with the Shawanese, became the emissaries of the Five Nations, and in conjunction with them afterwards, endeavoured to remove the Christian Indians from Gnadenh?tten, in Northampton county, to Wyoming; their private object being to have a full opportunity to murder the white inhabitants, in the war which they already knew would soon break out between the French and English.

These Nanticokes had the singular custom of removing the bones of their deceased friends from the burial place to a place of deposit in the country they dwell in. In earlier times, they were known to go from Wyoming and Chemenk, to fetch the bones of their dead from the Eastern shore of Maryland, even when the bodies were in a putrid state, so that they had to take off the flesh and scrape the bones clean, before they could carry them along. I well remember having seen them between the years 1750 and 1760, loaded with such bones, which, being fresh, caused a disagreeable stench, as they passed through the town of Bethlehem.

They are also said to have been the inventors of a poisonous substance, by which they could destroy a whole settlement of people, and they are accused of being skilled in the arts of witchcraft; it is certain that they are very much dreaded on this account. I have known Indians who firmly believed that they had people among them who could, if they pleased, destroy a whole army, by merely blowing their breath towards them. Those of the Lenape and other tribes, who pretend to witchcraft, say that they learned the science from the Nanticokes; they are not unwilling to be taxed with being wizards, as it makes them feared by their neighbours.

In the year 1785, this tribe had so dwindled away, that their whole body, who came together to see their old chief, White, then residing with the Christian Indians on the Huron river, north of Detroit, did not amount to 50 men. They were then going through Canada, to the Miami country, to settle beside the Shawanos, in consequence of an invitation they had received from them.

THE MAHICANNI, OR MOHICANS.

THE IROQUOIS.

The most intelligent and credible Indians of the Lenape stock, including the Mohicans, have ever asserted, that in the whole country bounded on the north by the river St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes , on the west by the Mississippi, on the east by the Great Salt-water Lake, and on the south by the country of the Creeks, Cherokees, and other Florida Indians, there were but two nations, the Mengwe, and themselves. Theirs was by far the most numerous and the most extensively settled, for their tribes extended even beyond the Mississippi. On the other side of the St. Lawrence, the Algonquins, the Killistenos or Knisteneaux, and others, speaking dialects of their language, prove their origin from the same stock. The Mengwe, on the contrary, were comparatively few, and occupied a much less portion of territory, being almost confined to the vicinity of the great lakes. But few tribes are known to be connected with them by descent and language; the principal ones are the Wyandots, otherwise called Hurons, and the Naudowessies. Almost every other nation within the boundaries described, is of the Lenape family.

We also see that self-preservation was the cause of their uniting, and that they were compelled by necessity to this measure, on which their existence depended. And though we have a right to suppose that that tribe which always takes the lead in the government of an Indian nation , existed among them, yet it is evident that its authority at that time was either wholly disregarded, or at least, was too weak to give complete efficacy to its measures.

If, then, we believe the information given us by both Pyrlaeus and Zeisberger to be correct, we must be fully convinced that the Iroquois confederacy did not consist of Five or Six Nations, but of as many tribes or sections of the same people, forming together one nation. These two Missionaries are known to have been men of the strictest veracity; they were both, I may say, critically acquainted with the Mengwe idiom, and they had their information from the most respectable and intelligent men among that nation, the former from the Mohawk, the latter from the Onondaga tribe. There is no reason, therefore, why the truth of their statements should be doubted.

As detached bodies or tribes, their names with the Lenape are the following:

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS.

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