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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #50350 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50350)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of History, Manners, and Customs of The Indian
-Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and, by John Heckewelder
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: History, Manners, and Customs of The Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States.
-
-Author: John Heckewelder
-
-Commentator: William C. Reichel
-
-Release Date: October 31, 2015 [EBook #50350]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN NATIONS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Shaun Pinder, Wayne hammond, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-  Publications
-
-  OF THE
-
-  Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
-
-  HISTORY,
-
-  MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS
-
-  OF THE
-
-  INDIAN NATIONS.
-
-
-[Illustration: John Heckewelder]
-
-
-
-
-  HISTORY,
-
-  MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS
-
-  OF
-
-  THE INDIAN NATIONS
-
-  WHO ONCE INHABITED PENNSYLVANIA AND
-  THE NEIGHBOURING STATES.
-
-  BY THE
-
-  REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER,
-
-  OF BETHLEHEM, PA.
-
-  New and Revised Edition.
-
-  WITH AN
-
-  _INTRODUCTION AND NOTES_
-
-  BY THE
-  REV. WILLIAM C. REICHEL,
-  OF BETHLEHEM, PA.
-
-  PHILADELPHIA:
-  PUBLICATION FUND OF
-  THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA,
-  No. 820 SPRUCE STREET.
-
-  1881.
-
-
-
-
-“The Trustees of the Publication Fund of the Historical Society of
-Pennsylvania” have published nine volumes, viz.:
-
-  The History of Braddock’s Expedition.
-  Contributions to American History.
-  Record of Upland, and Denny’s Journal.
-  Reissue of Vol. 1 of the Memoirs.
-  Minutes of Defence of Philadelphia, 1814-1815.
-  Correspondence of Penn and Logan, Vols. 1 and 2.
-  History of New Sweden, by Israel Acrelius.
-  Heckewelder’s History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations.
-
-The investments held by the trustees of the Fund now amount to
-twenty-three thousand dollars, the interest only of which is applied to
-publishing. By the payment of twenty-five dollars, any one may become
-entitled to receive, during his or her life, all the publications of
-the Society. Libraries so subscribing are entitled to receive books for
-the term of twenty years.
-
-The Society desire it to be understood that they are not answerable for
-any opinions or observations that may appear in their publications: the
-Editors of the several works being alone responsible for the same.
-
-  JOHN JORDAN, JR., }
-  AUBREY H. SMITH,  } Trustees.
-  FAIRMAN ROGERS,   }
-
-  ....................................................................
-  Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by
-
-  THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA,
-
-  in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
-  ....................................................................
-
-  PHILADELPHIA.
-  LIPPINCOTT’S PRESS.
-
-
-
-
-  MEMOIRS
-
-  OF THE
-
-  HISTORICAL SOCIETY
-
-  OF
-
-  PENNSYLVANIA.
-
-  VOL. XII.
-
-  PHILADELPHIA:
-
-  PUBLICATION FUND OF
-  THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA,
-  No. 820 SPRUCE STREET.
-
-  1881.
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTION.
-
-BY THE EDITOR.
-
-
-John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder, the author of “An Account of the
-History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who once inhabited
-Pennsylvania and the neighboring States,” was born March 12th, 1743,
-at Bedford, England. His father, who was a native of Moravia, a few
-years after his arrival at Herrnhut, Saxony, was summoned to England
-to assist in the religious movement which his church had inaugurated
-in that country in 1734. In his eleventh year, the subject of this
-sketch accompanied his parents to the New World, and became a resident
-of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Here he was placed at school, and next
-apprenticed to a cedar-cooper. While thus employed, he was permitted to
-gratify a desire he had frequently expressed of becoming an evangelist
-to the Indians, when in the spring of 1762 he was called to accompany
-the well-known Christian Frederic Post, who had planned a mission
-among the tribes of the then far west, to the Tuscarawas branch of
-the Muskingum. Here Post, in the summer of 1761, had built himself a
-cabin (it stood near the site of the present town of Bolivar), and
-here on the 11th day of April, 1762, the intrepid missionary and his
-youthful assistant began their labors in the Gospel. But the times
-were unpropitious, and the hostile attitude of the Indians indicating
-a speedy resumption of hostilities with the whites, the adventurous
-enterprise was abandoned before the expiration of the year. Young
-Heckewelder returned to Bethlehem, and the war of Pontiac’s conspiracy
-opened in the spring of 1763.
-
-In the interval between 1765 and 1771, Mr. Heckewelder was, on several
-occasions, summoned from his cooper’s shop to do service for the
-mission. Thus, in the summer of the first mentioned year, he spent
-several months at Friedenshütten, on the Susquehanna (Wyalusing,
-Bradford county, Pennsylvania), where the Moravian Indians had been
-recently settled in a body, after a series of most trying experiences,
-to which their residence on the frontiers and in the settlements of
-the Province subjected them, at a time when the inroads of the savages
-embittered the public mind indiscriminately against the entire race.
-This post he visited subsequently on several occasions, and also the
-town of Schechschiquanink (Sheshequin), some thirty miles north of
-Wyalusing, the seat of a second mission on the Susquehanna.
-
-A new period in the life of Mr. Heckewelder opened with the autumn
-of 1771, when he entered upon his actual career as an evangelist to
-the Indians, sharing the various fortunes of the Moravian mission
-among that people for fifteen years, than which none perhaps in its
-history were more eventful. The well-known missionary David Zeisberger,
-having in 1768 established a mission among a clan of Monseys on the
-Allegheny, within the limits of what is now Venango county, was induced
-in the spring of 1770 to migrate with his charge to the Big Beaver,
-and to settle at a point within the jurisdiction of the Delawares
-of Kaskaskunk. Here he built Friedensstadt, and hither the Moravian
-Indians of Friedenshütten and Schechschiquanink removed in the summer
-of 1772. Mr. Heckewelder was appointed Zeisberger’s assistant in
-the autumn of 1771, and when in the spring of 1773 Friedensstadt
-was evacuated (it stood on the Beaver, between the Shenango and the
-Slippery Rock, within the limits of the present Lawrence county),
-and the seat of the mission was transferred to the valley of the
-Muskingum, Mr. Heckewelder became a resident of the Ohio country.
-Here in succession were built Schönbrunn, Gnadenhütten, Lichtenau and
-Salem, flourishing towns of Moravian Indians, and here our missionary
-labored with his associates hopefully, and with the promise of a great
-ingathering, when the rupture between the mother country and her
-transatlantic colonies, gradually involved them and their cause in the
-most perplexing complications. On the opening of the western border-war
-of the Revolution in the spring of 1777, the Moravian missionaries on
-the Muskingum realized the danger of their position. Strictly neutral
-as they and their converts were in reference to the great question at
-issue, their presence on debatable ground rendered them objects of
-suspicion alternately to each of the contending parties; and when, in
-1780, the major part of the Delaware nation declared openly for the
-British crown, it was evident that the mission could not much longer
-hold its ground. It was for the British to solve the problem; and at
-their instigation, in the autumn of 1781, the missionaries and their
-converts in part were removed to Upper Sandusky, as prisoners of war,
-under suspicion of favoring the American cause. Thence the former were
-twice summoned to Detroit, the seat of British dominion in the then
-Northwest, and arraigned before the commandant of that post. Having
-established their innocence, and at liberty once more to resume their
-Christian work, the Moravians resolved upon establishing themselves
-in the neighborhood of Detroit, with the view of collecting their
-scattered converts, and gradually resuscitating the mission. The point
-selected was on the Huron (now the Clinton), forty miles by water
-northwest of Detroit. Here they built New Gnadenhütten, in 1782. Four
-years later, New Gnadenhütten was abandoned, and a settlement effected
-on the Cuyahoga, in the present county of that name in northern
-Ohio. It was here that Mr. Heckewelder closed his missionary labors,
-and years memorable in his life, in the course of which he was “in
-journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in
-perils of his countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the
-wilderness, in weariness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in
-fastings often, in cold and nakedness,” and yet spared, as to his life,
-to a good old age, in the quiet days of which, when resting from his
-labors, he drew up a narrative of this remarkable period in his own
-experience, and in the history of his church.
-
-On severing his connection with the mission on the Cuyahoga, in the
-autumn of 1786, Mr. Heckewelder settled with his wife (Sarah m. n.
-Ohneberg, whom he married in 1780), and two daughters at Bethlehem.
-This change, however, brought him no rest, as much of his time for
-the next fifteen years was devoted to the interests of his church’s
-work among the Indians, in behalf of which he made frequent and trying
-journeys to the west.
-
-In the summer of 1792, Mr. Heckewelder was associated by Government
-with General Rufus Putnam (at that gentleman’s request), to treat for
-peace with the Indians of the Wabash, and journeyed on this mission as
-far as Post Vincennes, where, on the 27th of September, articles of
-peace were formally signed by thirty-one chiefs of the Seven Nations
-represented at the meeting. This was a high testimonial of confidence
-in his knowledge of Indian life and Indian affairs. In the spring of
-the following year, he was a second time commissioned to assist at a
-treaty which the United States purposed to ratify with the Indians
-of the Miami of the Lake, through its accredited agents, General
-Benjamin Lincoln, Colonel Timothy Pickering, and Beverly Randolph.
-On this mission he travelled as far as Detroit. The remuneration Mr.
-Heckewelder received for these services, was judiciously economized
-for his old age, his immediate wants being supplied by his handicraft,
-and the income accruing from a nursery which he planted on his return
-from the western country. In the interval between 1797 and 1800, the
-subject of this sketch visited the Ohio country four times, and in 1801
-he removed with his family to Gnadenhütten, on the Tuscarawas branch
-of the Muskingum. Here he remained nine years, having been intrusted
-by the Society of the United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among
-the Heathen, founded at Bethlehem, in 1788, with the superintendence
-of a reservation of 12,000 acres of land on the Tuscarawas, granted by
-Congress to the said Society for the benefit of the Moravian Indians,
-as a consideration for the losses they incurred in the border-war of
-the Revolution. During his residence in Ohio, Mr. Heckewelder was also
-for a time in the civil service, being a postmaster, a justice of the
-peace, and an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
-
-In 1810 he returned to Bethlehem, built a house of his own, which is
-still standing, planted the premises with trees and shrubs from their
-native forest, surrounded himself with birds and wild flowers, and
-through these beautiful things of nature, sought by association to
-prolong fellowship with his beloved Indians in their distant woodland
-homes. He was called in 1815 to mourn the departure of his wife to the
-eternal world.
-
-At a time when there was a growing spirit of inquiry among men of
-science in our country in the department of Indian archæology, it
-need not surprise us that Mr. Heckewelder was sought out in his
-retirement, and called upon to contribute from the treasure-house of
-his experience. In this way originated his intimacy with Du Ponceau
-and Wistar of the American Philosophical Society, and that career of
-literary labor to which he dedicated the latter years of his life.
-In addition to occasional essays, which are incorporated in the
-Transactions of the Historical and Literary Committee of that society,
-Mr. Heckewelder, in 1818, published under its auspices, the “Account
-of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who once
-inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring States.” His “Narrative
-of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohican
-Indians,” appeared in 1820, and in 1822 he prepared his well-known
-collection of “Names, which the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians, gave
-to Rivers, Streams, and Localities within the States of Pennsylvania,
-New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, with their Significations.” This
-was his last literary effort; another year of suffering, and on the
-31st of January, 1823, the friend of the Delawares having lived to
-become a hoary old man of seventy-nine winters, passed away.
-
-He left three daughters, Johanna Maria, born April 6, 1781, at Salem,
-Tuscarawas county, Ohio--the first white female child born within the
-borders of that State (she died at Bethlehem, September 19, 1868); Anna
-Salome, born August 13, 1784, at New Gnadenhütten, on the River Huron
-(Clinton), Michigan; she married Mr. Joseph Rice, of Bethlehem, and
-died January 15, 1857; and Susanna, born at Bethlehem, December 31,
-1786; she married Mr. J. Christian Luckenbach, of Bethlehem, and died
-February 8, 1867.
-
-Mr. Heckewelder was a fair representative of the Moravian missionaries
-of the last century, a class of men whose time was necessarily divided
-between the discharge of spiritual and secular duties; who preached the
-Gospel and administered the Sacraments in houses built by their own
-hands; who wielded the axe, as well as the sword of the Spirit, and
-who by lives of self-denial and patient endurance, sustained a mission
-among the aborigines of this country in the face of disappointments and
-obstacles, which would have discouraged any but men of their implicit
-faith in the Divine power of the Christian religion.
-
-The subject of this notice made no pretensions to scholarship on
-taking the author’s pen in hand. He was eminently an artless man, and
-artlessness is his characteristic as a writer. The fascinating volume
-to which this brief sketch is deemed a sufficient introduction, was
-received with almost unqualified approbation on its appearance in 1818.
-It was translated into German by Fr. Hesse, a clergyman of Nienburg,
-and published at Göttingen in 1821. A French translation by Du Ponceau
-appeared in Paris in 1822. True, there were those who subsequently took
-exception to Mr. Heckewelder’s manifest predilection for the Lenape
-stock of the North American Indians, and others who charged him with
-credulity, because of the reception of their national traditions and
-myths upon the pages of his book. Knowing, as we do, that even the
-most prudent of men are liable to err in their search after truth,
-it would be presumptuous to claim infallibility for our author. It
-would, however, be as presumptuous to refuse his statements all
-claim to respect. Hence it may not be denied that John Heckewelder’s
-contributions to Indian archæology, touching their traditions,
-language, manners, customs, life, and character, while supplying a
-long-felt want, are worthy of the regard which is usually accorded
-to the literary productions of men whose intelligence, honesty,
-and acquaintance with their subject have qualified them to be its
-expounders.
-
-In the preparation of his account, Mr. Heckewelder acknowledges his
-indebtedness to Moravian authorities, contemporaries, or colleagues of
-his in the work of missions among the aborigines of this country. He
-refers frequently to the Rev. J. Christopher Pyrlæus, and introduces
-extracts from the collection of notes and memoranda made by that
-clergyman during his sojourn in America. His references to Loskiel, the
-historian of the Moravian mission among the North American Indians, are
-more frequent. In fact, it is evident that he availed himself largely
-of the introductory chapters of that history, the material of which was
-furnished to Loskiel by the veteran missionary, David Zeisberger. In
-this way then, Mr. Heckewelder supplemented his personal experience,
-and the knowledge he had gained by intercourse with the Indians,
-touching those subjects of which he treats in his charming narrative.
-
-Both the text and the author’s footnotes, as found in the edition of
-1818, are faithfully reproduced in the present issue; neither have been
-tampered with in a single instance. Such a course was deemed the only
-proper one, although it was conceded that the omission of occasionally
-recurrent passages, and a reconstruction of portions of the volume
-might render the matter more perspicuous, and the book more readable,
-without detracting from its value as a repository of well authenticated
-facts.[1]
-
-
-
-
-  AN ACCOUNT
-
-  OF THE
-
-  HISTORY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS
-
-  OF THE
-
-  INDIAN NATIONS,
-
-  WHO ONCE INHABITED PENNSYLVANIA AND
-  THE NEIGHBOURING STATES.
-
-  BY THE
-
-  REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER,
-
-  OF BETHLEHEM.
-
-  PHILADELPHIA:
-  PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY ABRAHAM SMALL,
-  NO. 112 CHESTNUT STREET.
-  1819.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: DEDICATION]
-
-
-  TO
-
-  CASPAR WISTAR, M.D.,
-
-  PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, ETC.
-
-
-DEAR SIR.--Having, at your particular request, undertaken the arduous
-task of giving to the Historical Committee of our Society an Account
-of those Indian Nations and Tribes which once inhabited Pennsylvania
-and the adjoining States, including those who are known by the name of
-the “Six Nations;” I have now, as far as has been in my power, complied
-with your wishes, or at least I have endeavoured so to do.
-
-Foreseeing the difficulties I should labour under, in writing the
-history of a people, of whom so many had already written, I could not
-but consider the undertaking both as unpleasant and hazardous; being
-aware, that it would be impossible for me in all respects to coincide
-with those who have written before me; among whom there are not a
-few, who, although their good intentions cannot be doubted, yet from
-their too short residence in the country of the Indians, have not had
-sufficient opportunities to acquire the knowledge which they undertake
-to communicate. Ignorant of the language, or being but superficially
-acquainted with it, they have relied on ignorant or careless
-interpreters, by whom they have been most frequently led astray; in
-what manner, this little work will abundantly shew.
-
-The sure way to obtain correct ideas, and a true knowledge of the
-characters, customs, manners, &c., of the Indians, and to learn their
-history, is to dwell among them for some time, and having acquired
-their language, the information wished for will be obtained in the
-common way; that is, by paying attention to their discourses with each
-other on different subjects, and occasionally asking them questions;
-always watching for the proper opportunity, when they do not suspect
-your motives, and are disposed to be free and open with you.
-
-The political state and connexions of the two once great and rival
-nations, the Mengwe, (or Six Nations) and the Lenape (or Delawares, as
-we call them), being little, or but imperfectly known to many of us,
-I have been at some pains in unfolding the origin and true cause of
-their rivalship; and the means resorted to by the one nation, to bring
-themselves into consequence with the white people, for the purpose of
-subduing the other.
-
-How far the Six Nations have succeeded in this, we know; at least, we
-know so much, that they sold the country of the Lenape, Mohicans, and
-other tribes connected with them, by piecemeals to the English, so that
-they were finally obliged to wander to the West, while their enemies,
-during all this time, remained in full and quiet possession of their
-country.
-
-If we ought, or wish to know the history of those nations from whom
-we have obtained the country we now live in, we must also wish to be
-informed of the means by which that country fell into our hands, and
-what has become of its original inhabitants. To meet this object, I
-have given their traditions respecting their first coming into our
-country, and their own history of the causes of their emigrating from
-it.
-
-On all the subjects which I have treated respecting the different
-tribes, I have endeavoured to be impartial. Yet, if I should still
-be thought to have shewn some partiality for the Delawares and their
-connexions, with respect to the affairs between them and the Six
-Nations, I have only to reply, that we have been attentive to all the
-Six Nations told us of these people, until we got possession of their
-whole country; and now, having what we wanted, we ought not to turn
-them off with this story on their backs, but rather, out of gratitude
-and compassion, give them also a hearing, and acquit them honourably,
-if we find them deserving of it.
-
-What I have written, concerning their character, their customs,
-manners, and usages, is from personal knowledge, and from such other
-information as may be relied on; and in order to be the better
-understood, I have frequently added anecdotes, remarks, and relations
-of particular events. In some instances I have had reference to
-authors, and manuscript notes taken down upwards of seventy years
-since, by individuals well deserving of credit.
-
-To you, Sir, I need not apologise for my deficiency in point of
-style and language, which has been known to you long since. I have
-endeavoured to make amends for this defect, by being the more careful
-and correct in my narrations, so as at least to make up in matter what
-in manner may be deficient.
-
-  I am, Sir, with great respect,
-  Your obedient humble servant,
-  JOHN HECKEWELDER.
-
-  _November, 1817._
-
-    Since the above was written, my excellent friend DR. WISTAR has
-    departed this life, lamented by the whole country, of which
-    he was an ornament. To me he was more than I can express;
-    he directed and encouraged my humble labours, and to his
-    approbation I looked up as my best reward. He is gone, but
-    his name and his virtues will long be held in remembrance. By
-    me, at least, they shall never be forgotten. This Dedication,
-    therefore, will remain, as a testimony of the high respect I
-    bore to this great and good man while living, and as a tribute
-    justly due to his memory.
-
-  J. H.
-
-  BETHLEHEM, _March, 1818_.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: CONTENTS]
-
-
-PART I.
-
-    AN ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE INDIAN
-    NATIONS WHO ONCE INHABITED PENNSYLVANIA AND THE NEIGHBOURING
-    STATES.
-
-
-                                                                  PAGE
-
-  INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR                                       vii
-
-  DEDICATION                                                      xvii
-
-  INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR                                     xxiii
-
-  CHAPTER
-
-  I. HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF THE INDIANS                           47
-
-  II. INDIAN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST ARRIVAL OF THE DUTCH
-    AT NEW YORK ISLAND                                              71
-
-  III. INDIAN RELATIONS OF THE CONDUCT OF THE EUROPEANS
-    TOWARDS THEM                                                    76
-
-  IV. SUBSEQUENT FATE OF THE LENAPE AND THEIR KINDRED
-    TRIBES                                                          83
-
-  V. THE IROQUOIS                                                   95
-
-  VI. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS                             100
-
-  VII. GOVERNMENT                                                  107
-
-  VIII. EDUCATION                                                  113
-
-  IX. LANGUAGES                                                    118
-
-  X. SIGNS AND HIEROGLYPHICS                                       128
-
-  XI. ORATORY                                                      132
-
-  XII. METAPHORICAL EXPRESSIONS                                    137
-
-  XIII. INDIAN NAMES                                               141
-
-  XIV. INTERCOURSE WITH EACH OTHER                                 145
-
-  XV. POLITICAL MANŒUVRES                                          150
-
-  XVI. MARRIAGE AND TREATMENT OF THEIR WIVES                       154
-
-  XVII. RESPECT FOR THE AGED                                       163
-
-  XVIII. PRIDE AND GREATNESS OF MIND                               170
-
-  XIX. WARS AND THE CAUSES WHICH LEAD TO THEM                      175
-
-  XX. MANNER OF SURPRISING THEIR ENEMIES                           177
-
-  XXI. PEACE MESSENGERS                                            181
-
-  XXII. TREATIES                                                   185
-
-  XXIII. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE INDIANS ON THE WHITE PEOPLE   187
-
-  XXIV. FOOD AND COOKERY                                           193
-
-  XXV. DRESS AND ORNAMENTING OF THEIR PERSONS                      202
-
-  XXVI. DANCES, SONGS, AND SACRIFICES                              208
-
-  XXVII. SCALPING--WHOOPS OR YELLS--PRISONERS                      215
-
-  XXVIII. BODILY CONSTITUTION AND DISEASES                         220
-
-  XXIX. REMEDIES                                                   224
-
-  XXX. PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS                                     228
-
-  XXXI. DOCTORS OR JUGGLERS                                        231
-
-  XXXII. SUPERSTITION                                              239
-
-  XXXIII. INITIATION OF BOYS                                       245
-
-  XXXIV. INDIAN MYTHOLOGY                                          249
-
-  XXXV. INSANITY--SUICIDE                                          257
-
-  XXXVI. DRUNKENNESS                                               261
-
-  XXXVII. FUNERALS                                                 268
-
-  XXXVIII. FRIENDSHIP                                              277
-
-  XXXIX. PREACHERS AND PROPHETS                                    290
-
-  XL. SHORT NOTICE OF THE INDIAN CHIEFS TAMANEND AND TADEUSKUND    300
-
-  XLI. COMPUTATION OF TIME--ASTRONOMICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL
-    KNOWLEDGE                                                      306
-
-  XLII. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND ANECDOTES                         310
-
-  XLIII. ADVICE TO TRAVELLERS                                      318
-
-  XLIV. THE INDIANS AND THE WHITES COMPARED                        328
-
-  CONCLUSION                                                       346
-
-
-
-
-PART II.
-
-CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING THE INDIAN LANGUAGES.
-
-
-                                                                  PAGE
-  INTRODUCTION                                                     351
-
-  LETTER
-
-  I. MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER, 9TH JANUARY, 1816           353
-
-  II. DR. C. WISTAR TO MR. HECKEWELDER (SAME DATE)                 354
-
-  III. MR. HECKEWELDER TO DR. WISTAR, 24TH MARCH                   356
-
-  IV. THE SAME TO THE SAME, 3D APRIL                               358
-
-  V. MR. DUPONCEAU TO DR. WISTAR, 14TH MAY                         359
-
-  VI. DR. WISTAR TO MR. HECKEWELDER, 21ST MAY                      359
-
-  VII. MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU, 27TH MAY                  361
-
-  VIII. MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER, 10TH JUNE                364
-
-  IX. THE SAME TO THE SAME, 13TH JUNE                              369
-
-  X. MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU, 20TH JUNE                   371
-
-  XI. THE SAME TO THE SAME, 24TH JUNE                              375
-
-  XII. MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER, 13TH JULY                 376
-
-  XIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME, 18TH JULY                            379
-
-  XIV. MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU, 22D JULY                  380
-
-  XV. THE SAME TO THE SAME, 24TH JULY                              383
-
-  XVI. MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER, 31ST JULY                 387
-
-  XVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME, 3D AUGUST                            392
-
-  XVIII. MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU, 12TH AUGUST             395
-
-  XIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME, 15TH AUGUST                           399
-
-  XX. MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER, 21ST AUGUST                403
-
-  XXI. MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU, 26TH AUGUST               409
-
-  XXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME, 27TH AUGUST                          414
-
-  XXIII. MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER, 30TH AUGUST             416
-
-  XXIV. MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU, 5TH SEPTEMBER            422
-
-  XXV. MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER, 1ST OCTOBER               426
-
-  XXVI. MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU, 10TH OCTOBER             430
-
-
-
-
-PART III.
-
-  WORDS, PHRASES, AND SHORT DIALOGUES                              437
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: INTRODUCTION]
-
-
-The reader of the following pages, having already seen what has induced
-me to come forward with an historical account of the Indians, after so
-many have written on the same subject, will perhaps look for something
-more extraordinary in this than in other works of the kind which he has
-seen. Not wishing any one to raise his expectations too high, I shall
-briefly state that I have not written to excite astonishment, but for
-the information of those who are desirous of knowing the true history
-of those people, who, for centuries, have been in full possession of
-the country we now inhabit; but who have since emigrated to a great
-distance. I can only assure them, that I have not taken the information
-here communicated from the writings of others, but from the mouths of
-the very people I am going to speak of, and from my own observation
-of what I have witnessed while living among them. I have, however,
-occasionally quoted other authors, and in some instances copied short
-passages from their works, especially where I have thought it necessary
-to illustrate or corroborate my own statements of facts.
-
-In what I have written concerning the character, customs, manners,
-and usages of these people, I cannot have been deceived, since it is
-the result of personal knowledge, of what I myself have seen, heard,
-and witnessed, while residing among and near them, for more than
-thirty years. I have however to remark, that this history, like other
-histories of former times, will not in every respect comport with
-the character of the Indians at the present time, since all these
-nations and tribes, by their intercourse with the white people, have
-lost much of the honourable and virtuous qualities which they once
-possessed, and added to their vices and immorality. Of this, no one can
-be a better judge than a missionary residing among them. And if,[2]
-what these people told us more than half a century ago; that lying,
-stealing, and other vicious acts, before the white men came among them,
-were considered as crimes, we may safely conclude--and we know it to
-be fact--that from that time to this, and especially within the last
-forty years, they have so much degenerated, that a delineation of their
-present character would bear no resemblance to what it was before.--It
-is therefore the history of early times, not of the present, that I
-have written; and to those times my delineations of their character
-must be considered to apply; yet, to shew the contrast, I have also
-delineated some of their present features.
-
-It may be proper to mention in this place, that I have made use of the
-proper national name of the people whom we call _Delawares_, which
-is: “_Lenni Lenape_.” Yet, as they, in the common way of speaking,
-merely pronounce the word “_Lenape_,” I have, in most instances, when
-speaking of them, used this word singly. I have also made use of the
-word “_Mengwe_,” or _Mingoes_, the name by which the _Lenape_ commonly
-designate the people known to us by the name of the _Iroquois_, and
-_Five_ or _Six Nations_. I shall give at the end a general list of all
-the names I have made use of in this communication, to which I refer
-the reader for instruction.
-
-As the Indians, in all their public speeches and addresses, speak
-in the singular number, I have sometimes been led to follow their
-example, when reporting what they have said; I have also frequently, by
-attending particularly to the identical words spoken by them, copied
-their peculiar phrases, when I might have given their meaning in other
-words.
-
-On the origin of the Indians, I have been silent, leaving this
-speculation to abler historians than myself. To their history, and
-notions with regard to their creation, I have given a place; and have
-also briefly related the traditions of the Lenape on the subject of
-their arrival at, and crossing the river Mississippi, their coming to
-the Atlantic coast, what occurred to them while in this country, and
-their retreat back again.
-
-As the relation of the Delawares and Mohicans, concerning the policy
-adopted and pursued by the Six Nations towards them, may perhaps appear
-strange to many, and it may excite some astonishment, that a matter of
-such importance was not earlier set forth in the same light, I shall
-here, by way of introduction, and for the better understanding of the
-account which they give of this matter, examine into some facts, partly
-known to us already, and partly now told us in their relation; so that
-we may see how far these agree together, and know what we may rely upon.
-
-It is conceded on all sides that the Lenape and Iroquois carried on
-long and bloody wars with each other; but while the one party assert,
-that they completely conquered the other, and reduced them by force to
-the condition of women, this assertion is as strongly and pointedly
-denied by the other side; I have therefore thought that the real truth
-of this fact was well deserving of investigation.
-
-The story told by the Mingoes to the white people, of their having
-conquered the Lenape and made women of them, was much too implicitly
-believed; for the whites always acted towards the Delawares under the
-impression that it was true, refused even to hear their own account of
-the matter, and “shut their ears” against them, when they attempted to
-inform them of the real fact. This denial of common justice, is one of
-the principal complaints of the Lenape against the English, and makes a
-part of the tradition or history which they preserve for posterity.
-
-This complaint indeed, bears hard upon us, and should, at least,
-operate as a solemn call to rectify the error, if such it is found to
-be; that we, in our history, may not record and transmit erroneous
-statements of those Aborigines, from whom we have received the country
-we now so happily inhabit. We are bound in honour to acquit ourselves
-of all charges of the kind which those people may have against us,
-who, in the beginning welcomed us to their shores, in hopes that “they
-and we would sit beside each other as brothers;” and it should not be
-said, that now, when they have surrendered their whole country to us,
-and retired to the wilds of a distant country, we turn our backs upon
-them with contempt.
-
-We know that all Indians have the custom of transmitting to posterity,
-by a regular chain of tradition, the remarkable events which have taken
-place with them at any time, even often events of a trivial nature, of
-which I could mention a number. Ought we then, when such a source of
-information is at hand, to believe the story told by the Six Nations,
-of their having conquered the Lenape, (a powerful nation with a very
-large train of connexions and allies) and forcibly made them women?
-Ought we not, before we believe this, to look for a tradition of the
-circumstances of so important an event; for some account, at least,
-of the time, place, or places, where those battles were fought, which
-decided the fate of the Lenape, the Mohicans, and of a number of
-tribes connected with them? Are we to be left altogether ignorant of
-the numbers that were slain at the time, and the country in which this
-memorable event took place; whether on the St. Lawrence, on the Lakes,
-in the country of the conquerors, or of the conquered? All these I am
-inclined to call _first_ considerations, while a _second_ would be: How
-does this story accord with the situation the first Europeans found
-these people in on their arrival in this country? Were not those who
-are said to be a conquered people, thickly settled on the whole length
-of the sea coast, and far inland, in and from Virginia to and beyond
-the Province of Maine, and had they not yet, at that very time, a great
-National Council Fire burning on the banks of the Delaware? Does not
-the joint tradition of the Delawares, Mohicans and Nanticokes, inform
-us, that their great National Council House[3] then extended from the
-head of the tide on the (now) Hudson river, to the head of the tide
-on the Potomack? All this we shall find faithfully copied or written
-down from their verbal tradition, and that this Council House “was
-pulled down by the white people!”[4] and of course was yet standing
-when they came into the country; which alone is sufficient to prove
-that the Lenape, at that time, were not a conquered people; and if they
-had been conquered since, we might expect to find the fact, with its
-particulars, somewhere on record.
-
-It is admitted, however, by the Lenape themselves, that they and their
-allies were _made women_ by the Iroquois. But how did this happen?
-Not surely by conquest, or the fate of battle. Strange as it may
-appear, it was not produced by the effects of superior force, but by
-successful intrigue. Here, if my informants were correct, and I trust
-they were, rests the great mystery, for the particulars of which, I
-refer the reader to the history of the Lenape and Mohicans themselves,
-as related in part by Loskiel in his “History of the Mission of the
-United Brethren among the North American Indians,”[5] and in this work.
-In the first, he will find three material points ascertained, viz. 1st,
-“that the Delawares were too strong for the Iroquois, and could not
-be conquered by them by force of arms, but were subdued by insidious
-means. 2d, that the making women of the Delawares was not an act of
-compulsion, but the result of their own free will and consent; and 3d,
-that the whites were already in the country at the time this ceremony
-took place, since they were to hold one end of the great Peace Belt
-in their hands.”[6] In the following History, which I have taken from
-the relation of the most intelligent and creditable old Indians, both
-Delawares and Mohicans, not only the same facts will be found, but
-also a more minute account of this transaction; in which it will be
-shewn, that the Dutch not only were present at, but were parties to
-it, that it was in this manner that the Six Nations were relieved from
-the critical situation they were in, at that very time, with regard
-to their enemies, the Delawares, Mohicans, and their connexions, and
-that the white people present coaxed and persuaded them to cause the
-hatchet to be buried, declaring at the same time[7] that they “would
-fall on those who should dig it up again;” which was, on the part of
-the Hollanders, a declaration of war against the Delawares and their
-allies, if they, or any of them, should attempt again to act hostilely
-against the Six Nations. All this, according to the tradition of the
-Lenape, was transacted at a place, since called “Nordman’s Kill,” a few
-miles from the spot where afterwards Albany was built, and but a short
-time after the Dutch had arrived at New York Island, probably between
-the years 1609 and 1620.
-
-The Rev. Mr. Pyrlæus,[8] who had learned the Mohawk language of Conrad
-Weiser, and was stationed on the river of that name, for some time
-between the years 1742 and 1748, has noted down in a large manuscript
-book, that his friend there, the Mohawk chief, had told him, that at
-a place about four miles from Albany, now called Nordman’s Kill,[10]
-the first covenant had been made between the Six Nations and the white
-people; which is in confirmation of the correctness of the above
-tradition of the Mohicans.[11]
-
-This was then, according to the best accounts we have, the time when
-this pretended “conquest” took place; and the Delawares, (as the Six
-Nations have since said) were by them _made women_. It was, however, a
-conquest of a singular nature, effected through duplicity and intrigue,
-at _a council fire_, not _in battle_. “And, (say the Delawares and
-Mohicans, in their tradition,) when the English took the country from
-the _Dutchemaan_, (Hollanders) they stepped into the same alliance with
-the Six Nations, which their predecessors had established with them.”
-
-Colden, in his “History of the Five Nations,”[12] informs us, page
-34, that this took place in the year 1664; and in page 36, gives us
-full proof of this alliance, by the following account--He says: “The
-Five Nations being now amply supplied by the English with fire-arms
-and ammunition, gave full swing to their warlike genius, and soon
-resolved to revenge the affronts they had at any time received from
-the Indian nations that lived at a greater distance from them. The
-nearest nations, as they were attacked, commonly fled to those that
-were further off, and the Five Nations pursued them. This, together
-with the desire they had of conquering, or ambition of making all the
-nations around them their tributaries, or to make them acknowledge the
-Five Nations to be so far their masters, as to be absolutely directed
-by them in all affairs of peace and war with their neighbours, made
-them overrun great part of North America. They carried their arms as
-far south as Carolina; to the northward of New England; and as far west
-as the river Mississippi; over a vast country, which extends twelve
-hundred miles in length, from north to south, and about six hundred
-miles in breadth; where they entirely destroyed many nations, of whom
-there are now no accounts remaining among the English,” &c.
-
-To what a number of important questions would not the above statement
-give rise? But I will confine myself to a few, and enquire first, for
-what purpose the Five Nations were armed, and so “amply supplied with
-ammunition?” and secondly, what use did they make of those arms? The
-Delawares and Mohicans believed that the white people, first the
-Dutch and then the English, did all that was in their power to make
-the Mengwe a great people, so that they might rule over them and all
-other nations, and “that they had done what they wanted them to do,”
-&c. For an answer to the second question, we have only to believe what
-Colden himself tells us, of what the same Mengwe or Iroquois did, after
-having received arms and ammunition from the English, which it clearly
-appears they could not have done before. Now, if we even were willing
-to admit that they had only gone off, “to revenge the affronts they had
-at any time received from the Indian Nations,” yet, we would be willing
-to know, of what nature those affronts had been; otherwise we might
-conclude, that they were no other than that those nations had refused
-“to become tributary to them; would not submit to their mandates, nor
-have them for their masters;” and therefore had beaten them off, when
-they came into their country for the purpose of bringing them under
-subjection, and perhaps also paid them a visit in return, after they
-had murdered some of their people.
-
-If we were permitted to omit the words, “revenge the affronts they had
-received from other nations,” &c., we need not one moment be at a loss
-to know precisely what they went out for, as the historian himself
-tells us, that they, soon after receiving fire-arms and ammunition,
-“gave full swing to their warlike genius, and went off with a desire of
-conquering nations--of making all those around them their tributaries,
-and compelling them all to acknowledge the Five Nations to be their
-masters, and to be absolutely directed by them, in all affairs of peace
-and war.” We then know with certainty, what the object was for which
-they took the field.
-
-We are here also told, of the vast tract of country over which the Six
-Nations had carried their arms, subduing, and even “so destroying many
-nations, that no account of them was now remaining with the English!”
-
-In reply to this I might bring forward some sayings and assertions
-of the Delawares and Mohicans, which would not comport with the
-above story, nor apply to the great name the Six Nations have given
-themselves, which, as Colden tells us, is _Ongwe-honwe_, and signifies
-“men surpassing all others, superior to the rest of mankind:” but my
-object here is merely to discuss the fact, whether, previous to the
-white people’s coming into the country, and while unsupplied with
-fire-arms, hatchets, &c., those Iroquois had done such wonders among
-nations as they report; or, whether all this was done since that
-time, and in consequence of their being put into possession of those
-destructive weapons which they had not before; for how are we to judge,
-and decide on the comparative bravery of two different nations, without
-knowing whether or not the combatants were placed on an equal footing
-with regard to the weapons they used against each other?
-
-I might ask the simple question, whether the Dutch, and afterwards the
-English, have favoured their “brethren,” the Delawares, Mohicans, and
-other tribes connected with them, who lived between them and the Six
-Nations, and on the land which they wanted to have, in the same manner
-that they have favoured their enemies?
-
-Colden, in his Introduction to the History of the Five Nations, page
-3, says: “I have been told by old men in New England, who remembered
-the time when the Mohawks made war on _their_ Indians,” (meaning here
-the Mohicans, or River Indians, as they often were called,) “that as
-soon as a single Mohawk was discovered in the country, _their_ Indians
-raised a cry, from hill to hill, _a Mohawk! a Mohawk!_ upon which they
-all fled, like sheep before wolves, without attempting to make the
-least resistance, whatever odds were on their side,” and that, “the
-poor New England Indians immediately ran to the Christian houses, and
-the Mohawks often pursued them so closely, that they entered along with
-them, and knocked their brains out in the presence of the people of the
-house,” &c.
-
-This is indeed a lamentable story! It might be asked, How could the
-white people, whom those very Mohicans had hospitably welcomed, and
-permitted to live with them on their land, suffer an enemy to come
-into the country to destroy their benefactors, without making any
-opposition? Why did these Indians suffer this? Why did they not with
-spirit meet this enemy?
-
-The answer to this last question will be found in their traditional
-history of the great meeting at Nordman’s Kill, where they were
-expressly told, after they had consented to bury the hatchet, wherewith
-they warred against the Six Nations, “That whatsoever nation, (meaning
-the Mohicans and Delawares) should dig up the hatchet again, on them
-would the white people fall and take revenge!”
-
-Thus, then, arms were put into the hands of the Six Nations, and with
-them the Dutch, and afterwards the English, sided; but the Delawares
-and Mohicans were compelled to remain unarmed, for fear of being cut up
-by the white people, who had taken part with their enemies. May we not
-conclude, that these poor New England Indians were placed between two
-fires?
-
-We do not, I believe, find that in the then middle colonies, the
-Mohawks, or any of the Five Nations, had ventured so far in their
-hostile conduct against the Delawares, as they had done to the Mohicans
-of New England, though the alliance between the Dutch and the Five
-Nations, and afterwards between the English and the latter, was much
-against both, and indeed more against the Delawares than the Mohicans:
-yet, by turning to treaties and councils, held with these nations
-between the years 1740 and 1760, in Pennsylvania,[13] we find much
-insolent language, which the Iroquois were, I will say, permitted,
-but which, the people concerned say, they were “bid or hired to make
-against the Delawares, for the purpose of stopping their mouths,
-preventing them from stating their complaints and grievances, and
-asking redress from the colonial government.”
-
-The result of such high toned language, as that which was made use
-of to the Delawares, by the Six Nations, at a council held at the
-proprietors, in July, 1742, and at other times afterwards,[14] might
-easily have been foretold. For although now, these defenceless people
-had to submit to such gross insults, instead of seeing their grievances
-redressed, yet they were not ignorant of the manner in which they one
-day might take revenge, the door to the French, who were enemies
-to the English, being always open to them; they had but to go “on
-one side” (as they expressed themselves) to be out of the way of the
-Iroquois, and they could obtain from the possessors of Canada, and
-Louisiana, all that they wanted, fire-arms, hatchets, scalping-knives,
-ammunition, &c. They did so, and withdrew to the Ohio country, whither
-they were followed by others from time to time, and by the time the
-French war broke out, they were in perfect readiness, and joining the
-enemies of Britain, they murdered great numbers of the defenceless
-inhabitants of Pennsylvania, laid the whole frontier waste, and spread
-terror and misery far and wide by the outrages they committed; I
-have been myself a witness to those scenes, and to the distresses of
-hundreds of poor people, only in this one quarter.
-
-A work, entitled: “An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the
-Delaware and Shawanese Indians from the British Interest,” written by
-Charles Thompson,[15] Esq., and printed in London, in 1759, which some
-time since fell into my hands, well merits to be read with attention,
-on account of the correctness of the information that it contains.
-
-By this time, the Delawares were sensible of the imposition which had
-been practised upon them. They saw that a plan had been organised for
-their destruction, and that not only their independence, but their
-very existence, was at stake; they therefore took measures to defend
-themselves, by abandoning the system of neutrality into which they had
-been insidiously drawn.
-
-It was not without difficulty that I obtained from them these
-interesting details, for they felt ashamed of their own conduct; they
-were afraid of being charged with cowardice, or at least with want of
-forethought, in having acted as they did, and not having discovered
-their error until it was too late.
-
-And yet, in my opinion, those fears were entirely groundless, and there
-appears nothing in their whole conduct disparaging to the courage and
-high sense of honour of that brave nation. Let us for a moment place
-ourselves in the situation of the Delawares, Mohicans, and the other
-tribes connected with them, at the time when the Europeans first landed
-on New York Island. They were then in the height of their glory,
-pursuing their successes against the Iroquois, with whom they had long
-been at war. They were in possession of the whole country, from the sea
-coast to the Mississippi, from the River St. Lawrence to the frontier
-of Carolina, while the habitations of their enemies did not extend
-far beyond the great Lakes. In this situation, they are on a sudden
-checked in their career, by a phenomenon they had till then never
-beheld; immense canoes arriving at their shores, filled with people
-of a different colour, language, dress, and manners, from themselves!
-In their astonishment they call out to one another: “Behold! the Gods
-are come to visit us!”[16] They at first considered these astonishing
-beings, as messengers of peace, sent from the abode of the Great
-Spirit, and therefore, employed their time in preparing and making
-sacrifices to that Great Being who had so highly honoured them. Lost in
-amazement, fond of the enjoyment of this new spectacle, and anxious to
-know the result, they were unmindful of those matters which hitherto
-had taken up their minds, and had been the object of their pursuits;
-they thought of nothing else but the wonders which now struck their
-eyes, and their sharpest wits were constantly employed in endeavouring
-to divine this great mystery! Such is the manner in which they relate
-that event, the strong impression of which is not yet obliterated from
-their minds.
-
-It was the _Delawares_ who first received and welcomed these new guests
-on New York Island; the Mohicans who inhabited the whole of the North
-River above, on its eastern side, were sent for to participate in the
-joy which was felt on being honoured by such visitants. Their tradition
-of this event is clear and explicit. None of the enemy, say they,
-(meaning the Five Nations[17]) were present.
-
-It may possibly be asked, how the Dutch could favour the Five Nations
-so much, when none of them were present at the meetings which took
-place on their arrival in America? how they came to abandon their first
-friends, and take part against them with strangers? and how the Dutch
-became acquainted with those strangers? I shall simply, in answer,
-give the traditional accounts of the Mohicans in their own words:
-“The Dutch Traders (say they) penetrating into our country, high up
-the Mohicanichtuck (the Hudson River), fell in with some of the Mingo
-warriors, who told them that they were warring against the very people,
-(the Delawares and Mohicans) who had so kindly received them; they
-easily foresaw, that they could not carry on their trade with their
-old friends, while this was the case; neither would the Mingoes suffer
-them to trade with their enemies, unless they (the Dutch) assisted
-them in bringing about a peace between them. They also made these
-traders sensible, that they at that time, were at war with a people of
-the same colour with theirs (meaning the French), who had, by means
-of a very large river which lay to the North, come into the country;
-that they (the Mengwe) were the greatest and most powerful of all the
-Indian nations; that if the people they belonged to, were friends to
-their enemies, and sided with them in their wars, they would turn their
-whole force against them; but if, on the other hand, the Dutch would
-join them in effecting a peace with them, so that their hatchet should
-be buried forever, they would support and protect them in all their
-undertakings;[18] that these traders being frightened, had returned
-home, and having stated the matter to their chief (the Dutch Governor),
-a vessel soon after went high up the river to an appointed place, where
-meeting with the Maqua (Five Nations), a conference was held, at which
-the Dutch promised them, that they would use their best endeavours to
-persuade their enemies to give up the hatchet to be buried, which, some
-time afterwards, actually took place.”
-
-These are (as they say) the circumstances which led to the league
-which was afterwards established between the white people and the Five
-Nations, which was the cause of much dissatisfaction, injustice, and
-bloodshed, and which would not have taken place, if the rights and
-privileges of the different nations and tribes had been respected, and
-each left to act for itself, especially in selling their lands to the
-Europeans.
-
-Having seen how the Five, afterwards Six Nations, rose to power, we
-have next to state by what means they lost the ascendancy which they
-had thus acquired.
-
-The withdrawing of the principal part of the Delawares, and the
-Shawanos, from the Atlantic coast, between the years 1740 and 1760,
-afforded them an opportunity of consulting with the western tribes, on
-the manner of taking revenge on the Iroquois for the many provocations,
-wrongs and insults they had received from them; when _ten_ nations
-immediately entered into an alliance for that purpose, the French
-having promised to assist them.[19] In the year 1756, they agreed to
-move on in detached bodies, as though they meant to attack the English,
-with whom they and the French were then at war, and then turn suddenly
-on the Six Nations and make a bold stroke. Though, for various reasons,
-their designs could not at that time be carried into effect, yet they
-did not lose sight of the object, waiting only for a proper opportunity.
-
-It would, however, have been next to impossible, under existing
-circumstances, and while the Six Nations were supported by such a
-powerful ally as the English, for the Delawares and their allies, to
-subdue, or even effectually to chastise them. These Nations, however,
-at the commencement of a war between the English nation and the
-Colonies, were become so far independent, that such of them as lived
-remote from the British stations or garrisons, or were not immediately
-under their eye, were at full liberty to side with whom they pleased;
-and though the Six Nations attempted to dictate to the Western
-Delawares, what side they should take, their spirited chief, Captain
-White Eyes, did not hesitate to reply, in the name of his nation:
-“that he should do as he pleased; that he wore no petticoats, as they
-falsely pretended; he was no woman, but a man, and they should find him
-to act as such.” That this brave chief was in earnest, was soon after
-verified, by a party of Delawares joining the American army.
-
-In 1781, when almost all the Indian nations were in the British
-interest, except a part of the Delawares, among whom were the Christian
-Indians between 2 and 300 souls in number,[20] the British Indian agent
-at Detroit applied to the great council of the Six Nations at Niagara,
-to remove those Christian Indians out of the country: the Iroquois upon
-this sent a war message to the Chippeways and Ottawas,[21] to this
-effect: “We herewith make you a present of the Christian Indians, to
-make soup of;[22]” which in the war language of the Indians, is saying:
-“We deliver these people to you to be murdered!” These brave Indians
-sent the message immediately back again with the reply: “We have no
-cause for doing this!”
-
-The same message being next sent to the Wyandots, they likewise
-disobeyed their orders, and did not make the least attempt to murder
-those innocent people. The Iroquois, therefore, were completely at a
-loss how to think and act, seeing that their orders were every where
-disregarded.
-
-At the conclusion of the revolutionary war, they had the mortification
-to see, that the trade which they had hitherto carried on, and to them
-was so agreeable and profitable, that of selling to the English the
-land of other nations, to which they had no possible claim, was at once
-and forever put an end to by the liberal line of conduct which the
-American Government adopted with the Indian Nations, leaving each at
-liberty to sell its own lands, reserving, only to themselves the right
-of purchase, to the exclusion of foreigners of every description.
-
-In addition to this, the bond of connexion which subsisted between
-these Six Nations, if it was not entirely broken, yet was much
-obstructed, by a separation which took place at the close of that war,
-when a part, and the most active body of them, retired into Canada. No
-nation then any more regarded their commands, nor even their advice,
-when it did not accord with their will and inclination; all which
-became evident during the whole time the Western Nations were at war
-with the United States, and until the peace made with them in 1795.[23]
-
-At last, being sensible of their humbled situation, and probably
-dreading the consequence of their former insolent conduct to the other
-Indian Nations, and principally the Delawares, whom they had so long
-and so much insulted, were they not to make some amends for all this
-contumely? They came forward, at the critical moment, just previous
-to the Treaty concluded by General Wayne, and formally declared the
-Delaware nation to be no longer _Women_, but MEN.
-
-I hope to be believed in the solemn assertion which I now make: That in
-all that I have written on the subject of the history and politics of
-the Indian Nations, I have neither been influenced by partiality for
-the one, or undue prejudice against the other, but having had the best
-opportunities of obtaining from authentic sources, such information in
-matters of fact, as has enabled me to make up my mind on the subject,
-I have taken the liberty of expressing my opinion as I have honestly
-formed it, leaving the reader, however, at liberty to judge and decide
-for himself as he may deem most proper.
-
-I wish once more to observe, that in this history it is principally
-meant to shew, rather what the Indians of this country were previous to
-the white people’s arrival, than what they now are; for now, the two
-great nations, the Iroquois and the Delawares, are no longer the same
-people that they formerly were. The former, who, as their rivals would
-assert, were more like beasts than human beings, and made intrigue
-their only study, have, by their intercourse with the whites, become
-an industrious and somewhat civilised people; at least many of them
-are so, which is probably owing to their having been permitted to live
-so long, (indeed, for more than a century) in the same district of
-country, and while the British possessed it, under the protection of
-the superintendent of Indian affairs; while the latter have always been
-oppressed and persecuted, disturbed and driven from place to place,
-scarcely enjoying themselves at any place for a dozen years at a time;
-having constantly the lowest class of whites for their neighbours,
-and having no opportunity of displaying their true character and the
-talents that nature had bestowed upon them.
-
-My long residence among those nations in the constant habit of
-unrestrained familiarity, has enabled me to know them well, and made
-me intimately acquainted with the manners, customs, character and
-disposition of those men of nature, when uncorrupted by European vices.
-Of these, I think I could draw a highly interesting picture, if I only
-possessed adequate powers of description: but the talent of writing is
-not to be acquired in the wilderness, among savages. I have felt it,
-however, to be a duty incumbent upon me to make the attempt, and I have
-done it in the following pages, with a rude but faithful pencil. I have
-spent a great part of my life among those people, and have been treated
-by them with uniform kindness and hospitality. I have witnessed their
-virtues and experienced their goodness. I owe them a debt of gratitude,
-which I cannot acquit better than by presenting to the world this
-plain unadorned picture, which I have drawn in the spirit of candour
-and truth. Alas! in a few years, perhaps, they will have entirely
-disappeared from the face of the earth, and all that will be remembered
-of them will be that they existed and were numbered among the barbarous
-tribes that once inhabited this vast continent. At least, let it not be
-said, that among the whole race of white Christian men, not one single
-individual could be found, who, rising above the cloud of prejudice
-with which the pride of civilisation has surrounded the original
-inhabitants of this land, would undertake the task of doing justice to
-their many excellent qualities, and raise a small frail monument to
-their memory.
-
-I shall conclude with a few necessary remarks for the information of
-the reader.
-
-_Lenni Lenape_ being the national and proper name of the people we call
-“Delawares,” I have retained this name, or for brevity’s sake, called
-them simply _Lenape_, as they do themselves in most instances. Their
-name signifies “_original people_,” a race of human beings who are the
-same that they were in the beginning, _unchanged_ and _unmixed_.[24]
-
-These people (the Lenni Lenape) are known and called by all the
-western, northern, and some of the southern nations, by the name of
-_Wapanachki_, which the Europeans have corrupted into _Apenaki_,
-_Openagi_, _Abenaquis_,[25] and _Abenakis_.[26] All these names,
-however differently written, and improperly understood by authors,
-point to one and the same people, the Lenape, who are by this compound
-word, called “people at the rising of the Sun,” or as we would say,
-_Eastlanders_; and are acknowledged by near forty Indian tribes, whom
-we call nations, as being their grandfathers. All these nations,
-derived from the same stock, recognise each other as Wapanachki, which
-among them is a generic name.
-
-The name “_Delawares_,” which we give to these people, is unknown in
-their language, and I well remember the time when they thought the
-whites had given it to them in derision; but they were reconciled to
-it, on being told that it was the name of a great white chief, Lord
-de la War, which had been given to them and their river. As they are
-fond of being named after distinguished men, they were rather pleased,
-considering it as a compliment.
-
-The _Mahicanni_ have been called by so many different names,[27] that I
-was at a loss which to adopt, so that the reader might know what people
-were meant. Loskiel calls them “Mohicans,” which is nearest to their
-real name Mahicanni, which, of course, I have adopted.
-
-The name “_Nanticokes_” I have left as generally used, though properly
-it should be _Néntico_, or after the English pronunciation _Nantico_.
-
-The “_Canai_,” I call by their _proper_ name. I allude here to those
-people we call _Canais_, _Conois_, _Conoys_, _Canaways_, _Kanhawas_,
-_Canawese_.
-
-With regard to the Five, or Six Nations, I have called them by
-different names, such as are most common, and well understood. The
-Lenape (Delawares) are never heard to say “_Six Nations_,” and it is a
-rare thing to hear these people named by them otherwise than _Mengwe_;
-the Mahicanni call them _Maqua_, and even most white people call them
-_Mingoes_. When therefore I have said the _Five_ or _Six Nations_, I
-have only used our own mode of speaking, not that of the Indians, who
-never look upon them as having been so many _nations_; but _divisions_,
-and _tribes_, who, as united, have become a nation. Thus, when the
-Lenape (Delawares) happen to name them as one body, the word they make
-use of implies “the five divisions together, or united,” as will be
-seen in another place of this work. I call them also _Iroquois_, after
-the French and some English writers.
-
-The _Wyandots_, or _Wyondots_, are the same whom the French call
-_Hurons_, and sometimes _Guyandots_. Father Sagard, a French
-Missionary, who lived among them in the 17th century, and has written
-an account of his mission, and a kind of dictionary of their language,
-says their proper name is _Ahouandâte_, from whence it is evident that
-the English appellation Wyandots has been derived.
-
-There being so many words in the language of the Lenape and their
-kindred tribes, the sound of which cannot well be represented according
-to the English pronunciation, I have in general adopted for them the
-German mode of spelling. The _ch_, particularly before a consonant, is
-a strong guttural, and unless an Englishman has the use of the Greek χ,
-he will not be able to pronounce it, as in the words _Chasquem_ (Indian
-corn), _Cheltol_ (many), _Ches_ (a skin), _Chauchschisis_ (an old
-woman), and a great many more. Sometimes, indeed, in the middle of a
-word substitutes may be found which may do, as in the word _Nimachtak_
-(brethren), which might be written _Nemaughtok_, but this will seldom
-answer. This is probably the reason that most of the English authors
-have written Indian words so incorrectly, far more so than French
-authors.
-
-The Delawares have neither of the letters R, F, nor V, in their
-language, though they easily learn to pronounce them. They have a
-consonant peculiar to them and other Indians, which is a sibilant, and
-which we represent by W. It is produced by a soft whistling, and is
-not unpleasant to the ear, although it comes before a consonant. It is
-not much unlike the English sound _wh_ in _what_, but not so round or
-full, and rather more whistled. _W_ before a vowel is pronounced as in
-English.
-
-
-
-
-  PART I.
-
-  HISTORY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS
-
-  OF
-
-  THE INDIAN NATIONS,
-
-  WHO ONCE INHABITED PENNSYLVANIA AND
-  THE NEIGHBOURING STATES.
-
-
-(NOTE.--In annotating this work, the editor consulted, among other
-authorities, _The Life of John Heckewelder, by the Rev. Edward
-Rondthaler_, _Heckewelder’s Narrative of the Mission of the United
-Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians_, _History of the
-Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America_,
-_The Life and Times of David Zeisberger_, _Memorials of the Moravian
-Church_, _The Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society_, _The
-Moravians in New York and Connecticut_, and _Butterfield’s Crawford’s
-Campaign against Sandusky_.
-
-He omitted to state, in the course of the introductory biographical
-sketch of the missionary, that his Account of the History, Manners,
-and Customs of Indian Nations has been translated into both French
-and German. The French translation was published at Paris, in 1822;
-it is entitled, “_Histoire, Mœurs et Coutumes des Nations Indiennes
-qui habitaient autrefois la Pennsylvanie et les Etats voisins;
-par le Révérend Jean Heckewelder, Missionnaire Morave, traduit de
-l’Anglais, par le Chevalier Du Ponceau_.” The German translation,
-published at Göttingen in 1821, is entitled, “_Johann Heckewelder’s
-evangelischen Predigers zu Bethlehem, Nachricht von der Geschichte,
-den Sitten und Gebräuchen der Indianischen Völkerschaften, welche
-ehemals Pennsylvanien und die benachbarten Staaten bewohnten. Aus dem
-Englischen übersetzt und mit den Angaben anderer Schriftsteller über
-eben dieselben Gegenstände (Carver, Loskiel, Ling, Volney), vermehrt
-von Fr. Hesse, evangelischen Prediger zu Nienburg. Nebst einem die
-Glaubwürdigkeit und den anthropologischen Werth der Nachrichten
-Heckewelder’s betreffenden Zusatze von G. E. Schulze_.”)
-
-
-
-
-HISTORY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS
-
-OF THE
-
-INDIAN NATIONS.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF THE INDIANS.
-
-
-The Lenni Lenape (according to the traditions handed down to them by
-their ancestors) resided many hundred years ago, in a very distant
-country in the western part of the American continent. For some reason,
-which I do not find accounted for, they determined on migrating to the
-eastward, and accordingly set out together in a body. After a very
-long journey, and many nights’ encampments[28] by the way, they at
-length arrived on the _Namæsi Sipu_,[29] where they fell in with the
-Mengwe,[30] who had likewise emigrated from a distant country, and had
-struck upon this river somewhat higher up. Their object was the same
-with that of the Delawares; they were proceeding on to the eastward,
-until they should find a country that pleased them. The spies which
-the Lenape had sent forward for the purpose of reconnoitring, had
-long before their arrival discovered that the country east of the
-Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who had many large
-towns built on the great rivers flowing through their land. Those
-people (as I was told) called themselves _Talligeu_ or _Talligewi_.
-Colonel John Gibson,[31] however, a gentleman who has a thorough
-knowledge of the Indians, and speaks several of their languages, is
-of opinion that they were not called _Talligewi_, but _Alligewi_, and
-it would seem that he is right, from the traces of their name which
-still remain in the country, the Allegheny river and mountains having
-indubitably been named after them. The Delawares still call the former
-_Alligéwi Sipu_, the River of the Alligewi. We have adopted, I know
-not for what reason, its Iroquois name, Ohio, which the French had
-literally translated into _La Belle Riviere_, The Beautiful River.[32]
-A branch of it, however, still retains the ancient name Allegheny.
-
-Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said
-to have been remarkably tall and stout, and there is a tradition
-that there were giants among them, people of a much larger size than
-the tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built to
-themselves regular fortifications or entrenchments, from whence they
-would sally out, but were generally repulsed. I have seen many of the
-fortifications said to have been built by them, two of which, in
-particular, were remarkable. One of them was near the mouth of the
-river Huron, which empties itself into the Lake St. Clair, on the north
-side of that lake, at the distance of about 20 miles N. E. of Detroit.
-This spot of ground was, in the year 1786, owned and occupied by a Mr.
-Tucker. The other works, properly entrenchments, being walls or banks
-of earth regularly thrown up, with a deep ditch on the outside, were on
-the Huron river, east of the Sandusky, about six or eight miles from
-Lake Erie. Outside of the gateways of each of these two entrenchments,
-which lay within a mile of each other, were a number of large flat
-mounds, in which, the Indian pilot said, were buried hundreds of the
-slain Talligewi, whom I shall hereafter with Colonel Gibson call
-_Alligewi_. Of these entrenchments, Mr. Abraham Steiner, who was with
-me at the time when I saw them, gave a very accurate description, which
-was published at Philadelphia, in 1789 or 1790, in some periodical work
-the name of which I cannot at present remember.[33]
-
-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 Namæsi 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.
-
-Having thus united their forces, the Lenape and Mengwe declared war
-against the Alligewi, and great battles were fought, in which many
-warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large towns
-and erected fortifications, especially on large rivers, and near
-lakes, where they were successively attacked and sometimes stormed
-by the allies. An engagement took place in which hundreds fell, who
-were afterwards buried in holes or laid together in heaps and covered
-over with earth. No quarter was given, so that the Alligewi, at last,
-finding that their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in
-their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the conquerors, and fled down
-the Mississippi river, from whence they never returned. The war which
-was carried on with this nation, lasted many years, during which the
-Lenape lost a great number of their warriors, while the Mengwe would
-always hang back in the rear, leaving them to face the enemy. In the
-end, the conquerors divided the country between themselves; the Mengwe
-made choice of the lands in the vicinity of the great lakes, and on
-their tributary streams, and the Lenape took possession of the country
-to the south. For a long period of time, some say many hundred years,
-the two nations resided peaceably in this country, and increased very
-fast; some of their most enterprising huntsmen and warriors crossed
-the great swamps,[34] and falling on streams running to the eastward,
-followed them down to the great Bay River,[35] thence into the Bay
-itself, which we call Chesapeak. As they pursued their travels, partly
-by land and partly by water, sometimes near and at other times on
-the great Saltwater Lake, as they call the Sea, they discovered the
-great River, which we call the Delaware; and thence exploring still
-eastward, the _Scheyichbi_ country, now named New Jersey, they arrived
-at another great stream, that which we call the Hudson or North River.
-Satisfied with what they had seen, they, (or some of them) after a
-long absence, returned to their nation and reported the discoveries
-they had made; they described the country they had discovered, as
-abounding in game and various kinds of fruits; and the rivers and bays,
-with fish, tortoises, &c., together with abundance of water-fowl, and
-no enemy to be dreaded. They considered the event as a fortunate one
-for them, and concluding this to be the country destined for them by
-the Great Spirit, they began to emigrate thither, as yet but in small
-bodies, so as not to be straitened for want of provisions by the
-way, some even laying by for a whole year; at last they settled on
-the four great rivers (which we call Delaware, Hudson, Susquehannah,
-and Potomack) making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of
-“_Lenapewihittuck_,”[36] (the river or stream of the Lenape) the centre
-of their possessions.
-
-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 Namæsi 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.
-
-Those of the Delawares who fixed their abode on the shores of
-the Atlantic divided themselves into three tribes. Two of them,
-distinguished by the names of the _Turtle_ and the _Turkey_, the former
-calling themselves _Unâmis_ and the other _Unalâchtgo_, chose those
-grounds to settle on, which lay nearest to the sea, between the coast
-and the high mountains. As they multiplied, their settlements extended
-from the _Mohicannittuck_ (river of the Mohicans, which we call the
-North or Hudson river) to beyond the Potomack. Many families with their
-connexions choosing to live by themselves, were scattered not only
-on the larger, but also on the small streams throughout the country,
-having towns and villages, where they lived together in separate
-bodies, in each of which a chief resided; those chiefs, however, were
-subordinate (by their own free will, the only kind of subordination
-which the Indians know) to the head chiefs or great council of the
-nation, whom they officially informed of all events or occurrences
-affecting the general interest which came to their knowledge. The
-third tribe, the _Wolf_, commonly called the _Minsi_, which we have
-corrupted into _Monseys_, had chosen to live back of the two other
-tribes, and formed a kind of bulwark for their protection, watching
-the motions of the Mengwe, and being at hand to afford their aid in
-case of a rupture with them. The Minsi were considered the most warlike
-and active branch of the Lenape. They extended their settlements, from
-the _Minisink_, a place named after them, where they had their council
-seat and fire, quite up to the Hudson on the east; and to the west or
-south west far beyond the Susquehannah: their northern boundaries were
-supposed originally to be the heads of the great rivers Susquehannah
-and Delaware, and their southern boundaries that ridge of hills known
-in New Jersey by the name of _Muskanecun_, and in Pennsylvania,
-by those of _Lehigh_, _Coghnewago_, &c. Within this boundary were
-their principal settlements; and even as late as the year 1742, they
-had a town, with a large peach orchard, on the tract of land where
-_Nazareth_, in Pennsylvania, has since been built;[37] another on
-_Lehigh_ (the west branch of the Delaware), and others beyond the blue
-ridge, besides small family settlements here and there scattered.
-
-From the above _three_ tribes, the _Unâmis_, _Unalâchtgo_, and
-the _Minsi_, comprising together the body of those people we call
-_Delawares_, had in the course of time, sprung many others, who,
-having for their own conveniency, chosen distant spots to settle on,
-and increasing in numbers, gave themselves names or received them from
-others. Those names, generally given after some simple natural objects,
-or after something striking or extraordinary, they continued to bear
-even after they ceased to be applicable, when they removed to other
-places, where the object after which they were named was not to be
-found; thus they formed separate and distinct tribes, yet did not deny
-their origin, but retained their affection for the parent tribe, of
-which they were even proud to be called the grandchildren.
-
-This was the case with the _Mahicanni_ or Mohicans, in the east, a
-people who by intermarriages had become a detached body, mixing two
-languages together, and forming out of the two a dialect of their own:
-choosing to live by themselves, they had crossed the Hudson River,
-naming it Mahicannituck River after their assumed name, and spread
-themselves over all that country which now composes the eastern states.
-New tribes again sprung from them who assumed distinct names; still
-however not breaking off from the parent stock, but acknowledging
-the Lenni Lenape to be their grandfather: the Delawares, at last,
-thought proper to enlarge their council house for their Mahicanni
-grandchildren, that they might come to their fire, that is to say, be
-benefited by their advice, and also in order to keep alive their family
-connexions and remain in league with each other.
-
-Much the same thing happened with a body of the Lenape, called
-_Nanticokes_, who had, together with their offspring, proceeded far to
-the south, in Maryland and Virginia; the council house was by their
-grandfather (the Delawares), extended to the Potomack, in the same
-manner and for the same motives as had been done with the _Mahicanni_.
-
-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[38] of
-that deceitful race was resolved on; they were, besides, known to eat
-human flesh,[39] 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.[40]
-
-This confederation took place some time between the 15th and 16th
-century;[41] 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
-(the French) to contend with.
-
-This plan was very deeply laid, and was calculated to deprive the
-Lenape and their allies, not only of their power but of their military
-fame, which had exalted them above all the other Indian nations. They
-were to be persuaded to abstain from the use of arms, and assume the
-station of mediators and umpires among their warlike neighbours. In
-the language of the Indians, they were to be made _women_.[42] It
-must be understood that among these nations wars are never brought to
-an end but by the interference of the weaker sex. The men, however
-tired of fighting, are afraid of being considered as cowards if they
-should intimate a desire for peace. It is not becoming, say they, for a
-warrior, with the bloody weapon in his hand, to hold pacific language
-to his enemy. He must shew to the end a determined courage, and appear
-as ready and willing to fight as at the beginning of the contest.
-Neither, say they, is it proper, to threaten and to sue in the same
-breath, to hold the peace belt in one hand, and the tomahawk in the
-other; men’s words, as well as their actions, should be of a piece,
-all good or all bad; for it is a fixed maxim of theirs, which they
-apply on all occasions, that good can never dwell with evil. They also
-think that a treaty produced by threats or by force, cannot be binding.
-With these dispositions, war would never have ceased among Indians,
-until the extermination of one or the other party, if the tender and
-compassionate sex had not come forward, and by their moving speeches
-persuaded the enraged combatants to bury their hatchets, and make peace
-with each other. On these occasions they were very eloquent, they would
-lament with great feeling the losses suffered on both sides, when there
-was not a warrior, perhaps, who had not lost a son, a brother, or a
-friend. They would describe the sorrows of widowed wives, and, above
-all, of bereaved mothers. The pains of child-birth, the anxieties
-attending the progress of their sons from infancy to manhood, they had
-willingly and even cheerfully suffered; but after all these trials,
-how cruel was it for them to see those promising youths whom they had
-reared with so much care, fall victims to the rage of war, and a prey
-to a relentless enemy; to see them slaughtered on the field of battle,
-or put to death, as prisoners, by a protracted torture, in the midst
-of the most exquisite torments. The thought of such scenes made them
-curse their own existence, and shudder at the idea of bearing children.
-Then they would conjure the warriors by every thing that was dear
-to them, to take pity on the sufferings of their wives and helpless
-infants, to turn their faces once more towards their homes, families,
-and friends, to forgive the wrongs suffered from each other, to lay
-aside their deadly weapons, and smoke together the pipe of amity and
-peace. They had given on both sides sufficient proofs of their courage;
-the contending nations were alike high-minded and brave, and they
-must now embrace as friends those whom they had learned to respect as
-enemies. Speeches like these seldom failed of their intended effect,
-and the women by this honorable function of peace-makers, were placed
-in a situation by no means undignified. It would not be a disgrace,
-therefore; on the contrary, it would be an honour to a powerful nation,
-who could not be suspected of wanting either strength or courage, to
-assume that station by which they would be the means, and the only
-means, of preserving the general peace and saving the Indian race from
-utter extirpation.
-
-Such were the arguments which the artful Mengwe urged to the Lenape to
-make them fall into the snare which they had prepared for them. They
-had reflected, they said, deeply reflected on their critical situation;
-there remained no resource for them, but that some magnanimous nation
-should assume the part and situation of the _woman_. It could not be
-given to a weak or contemptible tribe, such would not be listened to;
-but the Lenape and their allies would at once possess influence and
-command respect. As men they had been dreaded; as women they would be
-respected and honored, none would be so daring or so base as to attack
-or insult them; as women they would have a right to interfere in all
-the quarrels of other nations, and to stop or prevent the effusion of
-Indian blood. They entreated them, therefore, to become _the woman_
-in name and, in fact, to lay down their arms and all the insignia
-of warriors, to devote themselves to agriculture and other pacific
-employments, and thus become the means of preserving peace and harmony
-among the nations.
-
-The Lenape, unfortunately for themselves, listened to the voice of
-their enemies. They knew it was too true, that the Indian nations,
-excited by their own unbridled passions, and not a little by their
-European neighbours, were in the way of total extirpation by each
-other’s hands. They believed that the Mengwe were sincere, and that
-their proposal had no object in view but the preservation of the Indian
-race. In a luckless hour they gave their consent, and agreed to become
-_women_. This consent was received with great joy. A feast was prepared
-for the purpose of confirming and proclaiming the new order of things.
-With appropriate ceremonies, of which Loskiel has given a particular
-description,[43] the Delawares were installed in their new functions,
-eloquent speeches were delivered, accompanied, as usual, with belts
-of wampum. The great peace belt and the chain of friendship (in the
-figurative language of the Indians) was laid across the shoulders of
-the new mediator, one end of which, it was said, was to be taken hold
-of by all the Indian nations, and the other by the Europeans.[44] The
-Lenape say that the Dutch were present at that ceremony, and had no
-inconsiderable share in the intrigue.[45]
-
-The old and intelligent Mahicanni, whose forefathers inhabited the
-country on the east side of the North river, gave many years since
-the following account of the above transaction. They said that their
-grandfather (the Lenni Lenape), and the nations or tribes connected
-with them, were so united, that whatsoever nation attacked the one,
-it was the same as attacking the whole; all in such cases would unite
-and make a common cause. That the long house (council house) of all
-those who were of the same blood, and united under this kind of tacit
-alliance, reached from the head of the tide, at some distance above
-where Gaaschtinick (Albany) now stands, to the head of the tide water
-on the Potomack. That at each end of this house there was a door for
-the tribes to enter at. That the Mengwe were in no way connected with
-those who had access to this house; but were looked upon as strangers.
-That the Lenape, with the Mohicans and all the other tribes in their
-connexion, were on the point of extirpating the Five Nations, when
-they applied to the _Dutchemaan_, who were now making a settlement at
-or near Gaaschtinick, to assist them in bringing about a peace with
-the Lenape. That accordingly these new comers invited the Lenape and
-Mohicans to a grand council, at a place situated at some distance from
-where Albany now stands, which the white people have since called by
-the name of _Nordman’s Kill_. That when at length, by their united
-supplications and fair speeches, they had got the hatchet out of the
-hands of the Lenape, they buried that weapon at Gaaschtinick, and
-said that they would build a church over the spot, so that the weapon
-could never any more be got at, otherwise than by lifting up the whole
-church, and whatever nation should dare to do this, on them the
-Dutchemaan would take revenge. That now, having succeeded in getting
-the weapon out of the hands of the Lenape, the ceremony of placing them
-in the situation of “the woman,” for the purpose of being mediators,
-took place, when the Mengwe declared them henceforth to be their
-cousins, and the Mahicanni, they said, they would call their nephews.
-
-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. Pyrlæus, 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.”
-
-From these three separate accounts of the Lenape, of the Mahicanni,
-and of the Mohawks, as related by Mr. Pyrlæus, it appears to be
-conclusively proved, that the Europeans were already in this country,
-when the Lenape were persuaded to assume the station of _the woman_,
-and that the Dutch were assisting in the plot, and were at least the
-instigators, if not the authors of it. It was the _Dutch_ who summoned
-the great council near Albany; the tomahawk was buried deep in the
-ground, and the vengeance of the _Dutch_ was threatened if it should
-ever be taken up again; the peace belt was laid across the shoulders of
-the unfortunate Delawares, supported at one end by the Five Nations,
-and at the other by the _Europeans_; all these circumstances point
-so clearly to European intrigue, that it is impossible to resist the
-conclusion that the whites adopted this means to neutralize the power
-of the Delawares and their friends, whom they dreaded, and strengthen
-the hands of the Iroquois, who were in their alliance.
-
-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. Pyrlæus, nor Mr. Zeisberger,[46] 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.
-
-Before that strange metamorphosis took place, of a great and powerful
-nation being transformed into a band of defenceless women, the Iroquois
-had never been permitted to visit the Lenape, even when they were at
-peace with each other. Whenever a Mengwe appeared in their country, he
-was hunted down as a beast of prey, and it was lawful for every one
-to destroy him. But now, _the woman_ could not, consistently with her
-new station and her engagements, make use of destructive weapons, and
-she was bound to abstain from all violence against the human species.
-Her late enemies, therefore, found no difficulty in travelling, under
-various pretences, through her country, and those of her allies, and
-leaving here and there a few of their people to remain among them as
-long as they pleased, for the purpose, as they said, of keeping up
-a good understanding, and assisting them in the preservation of the
-general peace. But while they were amusing the Lenape with flattering
-language, they were concerting measures to disturb their quiet by
-involving them in difficulties with the neighbouring nations. I shall
-relate one among many instances of a similar conduct. They once sent
-their men into the Cherokee country, who were instructed secretly
-to kill one of that nation, and to leave a war club near the person
-murdered, which had been purposely made after the manner and in
-the shape of those of the Delawares. Now leaving a war club in an
-Indian country, is considered by those nations as a formal challenge
-or declaration of war. The Cherokees, deceived by appearances, and
-believing that their grandfather the Lenape had committed the murder,
-collected a large party to go into their country and take their
-revenge. Meanwhile, the Iroquois sent a messenger to the Lenape, to
-inform them of the approach of an enemy, who, they had learned from
-their hunters, was coming towards their settlement, and to advise them
-to send a number of their men immediately to a certain place, where
-they would be met by a large body of the Five Nations, who would take
-the lead, march in front, and fight their battles, so that they would
-have little else to do than to look on and see how well their friends
-fought for them. The Lenape, being in no wise prepared to meet a
-powerful foe, assembled in haste a few of their men, and repaired to
-the place of rendezvous, where they were disappointed by not meeting
-any of their pretended protectors. The enemy, however, was close upon
-them; the Lenape fought with great courage, but were overpowered by an
-immense superiority of numbers, and defeated with considerable loss.
-Now the Iroquois made their appearance, and instead of attacking or
-pursuing the Cherokees, loaded the Delawares with reproaches, for
-their temerity, as they called it, in having dared, being _women_, to
-take the lead in attacking _men_. They told them that the Five Nations
-being their superiors, they ought to have waited for them before
-they attacked the Cherokees, that then their protectors would have
-fought and defeated them, but that as they had thought proper to act
-by themselves, they had received the punishment justly due to their
-presumption.
-
-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.
-
-William Penn came, with his train of pacific followers. Never will the
-Delawares forget their elder brother _Miquon_, as they affectionately
-and respectfully call him. From his first arrival in their country, a
-friendship was formed between them which was to last as long as the sun
-should shine, and the rivers flow with water. That friendship would
-undoubtedly have continued to the end of time, had their good brother
-always remained among them, but in his absence, mischievous people,
-say they, got into power, who, not content with the land which had
-been given to them, contrived to get all that they wanted; and when
-the Lenape looked round for the friends of their brother Miquon, to
-hear their just complaints, and redress their wrongs, they could not
-discover them, and had the misfortune to see their greatest enemies,
-the Mengwe, brought on for the purpose of shutting their mouths, and
-compelling them to submit to the injustice done them.
-
-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,[47] 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 (the Lenape) 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,[48] in Pennsylvania, in July, 1742,[49]
-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.[50] 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.
-
-Thus the Lenape, whose principal settlements were then on the frontier
-of Pennsylvania, took part with the French, and acted hostilely against
-the English during the whole of the war of 1755. The animosity which
-mutual hostilities produced between them and the settlers concurred,
-no doubt, with other causes, in producing the murder of the Conestogo
-Indians, which took place at the close of that war, in December, 1763,
-and is feelingly related by Loskiel, part I., ch. 14 and 15.[51]
-
-The revolutionary war put an end to the exorbitant power of the
-Iroquois. They were, indeed, still supported by the British government,
-but the Americans were now the strongest party, and of course against
-them. They endeavored to persuade the other Indian nations to join
-them, but their expectations were deceived. At a meeting which took
-place at Pittsburg in 1775, for the express purpose of deliberating
-on the part which it became Indians to take in the disturbances which
-had arisen between the King of Great Britain and his subjects, Capt.
-White Eyes, a sensible and very spirited warrior of the Lenape,[52]
-boldly declared to a select body of the Senecas, that his Indians would
-never join any nation or power, for the purpose of destroying a people
-who were born on the same soil with them. That the Americans were his
-friends and brothers, and that no nation should dictate to him what
-part he should take in the existing war. Anticipating the measure
-which the American Congress took in the succeeding year, he declared
-_himself_,[53] in behalf of his nation, free and independent of the
-Iroquois; they had pretended that they had conquered him, they had
-made a woman of him and dressed him in woman’s apparel, but now he was
-again a man, he stood before them as a man, and with the weapons of a
-man he would assert his claim to all yonder country, pointing to the
-land on the west side of the Allegheny river; for to him it belonged,
-and not to the Six Nations, who falsely asserted that they had acquired
-it by conquest. In the year 1778 or 1779, the Lenape bravely asserted
-their national independence by joining Col. Brodhead’s troops in an
-expedition against the Senecas.[54] If they did not do as much in
-that war as might have been expected of them, and took only a partial
-revenge, it was owing to the death of their brave chief, White Eyes,
-who died of the small pox at Pittsburg, I think, in the year 1780.
-He was a Christian in his heart, but did not live to make a public
-profession of our religion, though it is well known that he persuaded
-many Indians to embrace it.[55]
-
-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!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-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.
-
-A great many years ago, when men with a white skin had never yet been
-seen in this land, some Indians who were out a fishing, at a place
-where the sea widens, espied at a great distance something remarkably
-large floating on the water, and such as they had never seen before.
-These Indians immediately returning to the shore, apprised their
-countrymen of what they had observed, and pressed them to go out with
-them and discover what it might be. They hurried out together, and saw
-with astonishment the phenomenon which now appeared to their sight, but
-could not agree upon what it was; some believed it to be an uncommonly
-large fish or animal, while others were of opinion it must be a very
-big house floating on the sea. At length the spectators concluded that
-this wonderful object was moving towards the land, and that it must be
-an animal or something else that had life in it; it would therefore
-be proper to inform all the Indians on the inhabited islands of what
-they had seen, and put them on their guard. Accordingly they sent off
-a number of runners and watermen to carry the news to their scattered
-chiefs, that they might send off in every direction for the warriors,
-with a message that they should come on immediately. These arriving
-in numbers, and having themselves viewed the strange appearance, and
-observing that it was actually moving towards the entrance of the
-river or bay; concluded it to be a remarkably large house in which the
-Mannitto (the Great or Supreme Being) himself was present, and that he
-probably was coming to visit them.[56] By this time the chiefs were
-assembled at York island, and deliberating in what manner in which[57]
-they should receive their Mannitto on his arrival. Every measure was
-taken to be well provided with plenty of meat for a sacrifice. The
-women were desired to prepare the best victuals. All the idols or
-images were examined and put in order, and a grand dance was supposed
-not only to be an agreeable entertainment for the Great Being, but
-it was believed that it might, with the addition of a sacrifice,
-contribute to appease him if he was angry with them. The conjurers were
-also set to work, to determine what this phenomenon portended, and
-what the possible result of it might be. To these and to the chiefs
-and wise men of the nations, men, women, and children were looking up
-for advice and protection. Distracted between hope and fear, they were
-at a loss what to do; a dance, however, commenced in great confusion.
-While in this situation, fresh runners arrive declaring it to be a
-large house of various colours, and crowded with living creatures. It
-appears now to be certain, that it is the great Mannitto, bringing them
-some kind of game, such as he had not given them before, but other
-runners soon after arriving declare that it is positively a house full
-of human beings, of quite a different colour from that of the Indians,
-and dressed differently from them; that in particular one of them was
-dressed entirely in red, who must be the Mannitto himself. They are
-hailed from the vessel in a language they do not understand, yet they
-shout or yell in return by way of answer, according to the custom of
-their country; many are for running off to the woods, but are pressed
-by others to stay, in order not to give offence to their visitor, who
-might find them out and destroy them. The house, some say, large canoe,
-at last stops, and a canoe of a smaller size comes on shore with the
-red man, and some others in it; some stay with his canoe to guard it.
-The chiefs and wise men, assembled in council, form themselves into a
-large circle, towards which the man in red clothes approaches with two
-others. He salutes them with a friendly countenance, and they return
-the salute after their manner. They are lost in admiration; the dress,
-the manners, the whole appearance of the unknown strangers is to them
-a subject of wonder; but they are particularly struck with him who
-wore the red coat all glittering with gold lace, which they could in
-no manner account for. He, surely, must be the great Mannitto, but
-why should he have a white skin? Meanwhile, a large _Hackhack_[58]
-is brought by one of his servants, from which an unknown substance
-is poured out into a small cup or glass, and handed to the supposed
-Mannitto. He drinks--has the glass filled again, and hands it to the
-chief standing next to him. The chief receives it, but only smells
-the contents and passes it on to the next chief, who does the same.
-The glass or cup thus passes through the circle, without the liquor
-being tasted by any one, and is upon the point of being returned to
-the red clothed Mannitto, when one of the Indians, a brave man and a
-great warrior, suddenly jumps up and harangues the assembly on the
-impropriety of returning the cup with its contents. It was handed to
-them, says he, by the Mannitto, that they should drink out of it, as
-he himself had done. To follow his example would be pleasing to him;
-but to return what he had given them might provoke his wrath, and
-bring destruction on them. And since the orator believed it for the
-good of the nation that the contents offered them should be drunk,
-and as no one else would do it, he would drink it himself, let the
-consequence be what it might; it was better for one man to die, than
-that a whole nation should be destroyed. He then took the glass, and
-bidding the assembly a solemn farewell, at once drank up its whole
-contents. Every eye was fixed on the resolute chief, to see what effect
-the unknown liquor would produce. He soon began to stagger, and at
-last fell prostrate on the ground. His companions now bemoan his fate,
-he falls into a sound sleep, and they think he has expired. He wakes
-again, jumps up and declares, that he has enjoyed the most delicious
-sensations, and that he never before felt himself so happy as after he
-had drunk the cup. He asks for more, his wish is granted; the whole
-assembly then imitate him, and all become intoxicated.
-
-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,[59] 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.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-INDIAN RELATIONS OF THE CONDUCT OF THE EUROPEANS TOWARDS THEM.
-
-
-Long and dismal are the complaints which the Indians make of European
-ingratitude and injustice. They love to repeat them, and always do it
-with the eloquence of nature, aided by an energetic and comprehensive
-language, which our polished idioms cannot imitate. Often I have
-listened to these descriptions of their hard sufferings, until I felt
-ashamed of being a _white man_.
-
-They are, in general, very minute in these recitals, and proceed with a
-great degree of order and regularity. They begin with the Virginians,
-whom they call the _long knives_, and who were the first European
-settlers in this part of the American continent. “It was we,” say the
-Lenape, Mohicans, and their kindred tribes, “who so kindly received
-them on their first arrival into our country. We took them by the hand,
-and bid them welcome to sit down by our side, and live with us as
-brothers; but how did they requite our kindness? They at first asked
-only for a little land on which to raise bread for themselves and their
-families, and pasture for their cattle, which we freely gave them. They
-soon wanted more, which we also gave them. They saw the game in the
-woods, which the Great Spirit had given us for our subsistence, and
-they wanted that too. They penetrated into the woods in quest of game;
-they discovered spots of land which pleased them; that land they also
-wanted, and because we were loth to part with it, as we saw they had
-already more than they had need of, they took it from us by force, and
-drove us to a great distance from our ancient homes.”
-
-“By and by the _Dutchemaan_[60] arrived at _Manahachtánienk_,”[61]
-(here they relate with all its details what has been said in the
-preceding chapter.) “The great man wanted only a little, little land,
-on which to raise greens for his soup, just as much as a bullock’s hide
-would cover. Here we first might have observed their deceitful spirit.
-The bullock’s hide was cut up into little strips, and did not cover,
-indeed, but encircled a very large piece of land, which we foolishly
-granted to them. They were to raise _greens_ on it, instead of which
-they planted _great guns_; afterwards they built strong houses, made
-themselves masters of the Island, then went up the river to our
-enemies, the Mengwe, made a league with them, persuaded us by their
-wicked arts to lay down our arms, and at last drove us entirely out of
-the country.” Here, of course, is related at full length, the story
-which we have told in the first chapter. Then the Delawares[62] proceed.
-
-“When the _Yengeese_[63] arrived at _Machtitschwanne_,[64] they looked
-about everywhere for good spots of land, and when they found one, they
-immediately and without ceremony possessed themselves of it; we were
-astonished, but still we let them go on, not thinking it worth while to
-contend for a little land. But when at last they came to our favourite
-spots, those which lay most convenient to our fisheries, then bloody
-wars ensued: we would have been contented that the white people and
-we should have lived quietly beside each other; but these white men
-encroached so fast upon us, that we saw at once we should lose all, if
-we did not resist them. The wars that we carried on against each other
-were long and cruel. We were enraged when we saw the white people put
-our friends and relatives, whom they had taken prisoners, on board
-of their ships, and carry them off to sea, whether to drown or sell
-them as slaves, in the country from which they came, we knew not, but
-certain it is that none of them have ever returned or even been heard
-of. At last they got possession of the whole of the country which the
-Great Spirit had given us. One of our tribes was forced to wander far
-beyond Quebec; others dispersed in small bodies, and sought places of
-refuge where they could; some came to Pennsylvania; others went far to
-the westward and mingled with other tribes.
-
-“To many of those, Pennsylvania was a last, delightful asylum. But
-here, again, the Europeans disturbed them, and forced them to emigrate,
-although they had been most kindly and hospitably received. On which
-ever side of the _Lenapewihittuck_[65] the white people landed, they
-were welcomed as brothers by our ancestors, who gave them lands to live
-on, and even hunted for them, and furnished them with meat out of the
-woods. Such was our conduct to the white men[66] who inhabited this
-country, until our elder brother, the great and good MIQUON,[67] came
-and brought us words of peace and good will. We believed his words,
-and his memory is still held in veneration among us. But it was not
-long before our joy was turned into sorrow: our brother Miquon died,
-and those of his good counsellors who were of his mind, and knew what
-had passed between him and our ancestors, were no longer listened to;
-the strangers[68] who had taken their places, no longer spoke to us of
-sitting down by the side of each other as brothers of one family; they
-forgot that friendship which their great man had established with us,
-and was to last to the end of time; they now only strove to get all our
-land from us by fraud or by force, and when we attempted to remind them
-of what our good brother had said, they became angry, and sent word to
-our enemies, the Mengwe, to meet them at a great council which they
-were to hold with us at _Læhauwake_,[69] where they should take us by
-the hair of our heads and shake us well. The Mengwe came; the council
-was held, and in the presence of the white men, who did not contradict
-them, they told us that we were women, and that they had made us such;
-that we had no right to any land, because it was all theirs; that we
-must be gone; and that as a great favour they permitted us to go and
-settle further into the country, at the place which they themselves
-pointed out at Wyoming.”[70]
-
-Thus these good Indians, with a kind of melancholy pleasure, recite
-the long history of their sufferings. After having gone through these
-painful details, they seldom fail to indulge in bitter, but too just
-reflections, upon the men of Europe. “We and our kindred tribes,” say
-they, “lived in peace and harmony with each other before the white
-people came into this country; our council house[71] extended far to
-the north and far to the south. In the middle of it we would meet from
-all parts to smoke the pipe of peace together. When the white men
-arrived in the south, we received them as friends; we did the same
-when they arrived in the east. It was we, it was our forefathers, who
-made them welcome, and let them sit down by our side. The land they
-settled on was ours. We knew not but the Great Spirit had sent them to
-us for some good purpose, and therefore we thought they must be a good
-people. We were mistaken; for no sooner had they obtained a footing on
-our lands, than they began to pull our council house down,[72] first
-at one end and then at the other, and at last meeting each other at
-the centre, where the council fire was yet burning bright, they put it
-out,[73] and extinguished it with our own blood![74] with the blood
-of those[75] who with us had received them! who had welcomed them in
-our land! Their blood ran in streams into our fire, and extinguished
-it so entirely, that not one spark was left us whereby to kindle a new
-fire;[76] we were compelled to withdraw ourselves beyond the great
-swamp,[77] and to fly to our good uncle, the _Delamattenos_,[78]
-who kindly gave us a tract of land to live on. How long we shall be
-permitted to remain in this asylum, the Great Spirit only knows. The
-whites will not rest contented until they shall have destroyed the last
-of us, and made us disappear entirely from the face of the earth.”
-
-I have given here only a brief specimen of the charges which they
-exhibit against the white people. There are men among them, who have
-by heart the whole history of what took place between the whites and
-the Indians, since the former first came into their country; and relate
-the whole with ease and with an eloquence not to be imitated. On the
-tablets of their memories they preserve this record for posterity. I,
-at one time, in April, 1787,[79] was astonished when I heard one of
-their orators, a great chief of the Delaware nation,[80] go over this
-ground, recapitulating the most extraordinary events which had before
-happened, and concluding in these words: “I admit that there are good
-white men, but they bear no proportion to the bad; the bad must be
-the strongest, for they rule. They do what they please. They enslave
-those who are not of their colour, although created by the same Great
-Spirit who created us.[81] They would make slaves of us if they could,
-but as they cannot do it, they kill us! There is no faith to be placed
-in their words. They are not like the Indians, who are only enemies,
-while at war, and are friends in peace. They will say to an Indian, ‘my
-friend! my brother!’ They will take him by the hand, and at the same
-moment destroy him. And so you (addressing himself to the Christian
-Indians) will also be treated by them before long. Remember! that this
-day I have warned you to beware of such friends as these. I know the
-_long knives_; they are not to be trusted.”
-
-Eleven months after this speech was delivered by this prophetic chief,
-ninety-six of the same Christian Indians, about sixty of them women and
-children, were murdered at the place where these very words had been
-spoken, by the same men he had alluded to, and in the same manner that
-he had described. See Loskiel’s History, part III., ch. 10.[82]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-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,[83] 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,[84] 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,[85] 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.
-
-It is not in my power to ascertain the whole number of the Lenni
-Lenape, or Delaware Indians, still existing at the present time. As
-far as I am informed, they are very much scattered, a number of them,
-chiefly of the Monsey tribe, living in Upper Canada, others are in the
-state of Ohio, and some on the waters of the Wabash in the Indiana
-territory. A considerable number of them has crossed the Mississippi.
-Their first emigrations to that country had already begun between the
-years 1780 and 1790. What the numbers of this nation were when the
-Europeans first came into this country is difficult to tell; all I can
-say is, that so early as 1760, their oldest men would say that they
-were not then as many hundreds as they had been thousands. They have
-considerably decreased since that period. I saw them myself between the
-years 1754 and 1760, by hundreds at a time, and Loskiel in his history
-gives an account of upwards of 800 having been fed at Bethlehem in one
-year. In the year 1762, while I lived at Tuscorawas on the Muskingum,
-they were settled on that river and its branches, and also on the
-Cayahoga river, which empties into Lake Erie, in the neighbourhood of
-which they had since a small Christian settlement called _Pilgerruh_
-(Pilgrim’s rest.)[86],[87]
-
-
-THE SHAWANOS OR SAWANOS.[88]
-
-The history of these people is here given, principally from the
-relations of old Indians of the Mohican[90] tribe, who say that they
-formerly inhabited the Southern country, Savannah in Georgia, and the
-Floridas. They were a restless people, delighting in wars, in which
-they were constantly engaged with some of the neighbouring nations.
-At last their neighbours, tired of being continually harassed by
-them, formed a league for their destruction. The Shawanos finding
-themselves thus dangerously situated, asked to be permitted to leave
-the country, which was granted to them, and they fled immediately
-to the Ohio. Here their main body settled, and sent messengers to
-their elder brother[91] the Mohicans, requesting them to intercede
-for them with their grandfather the Lenni Lenape, that he might take
-them under his protection. This the Mohicans willingly did, and even
-sent a body of their own people to conduct their _younger brother_
-into the country of the Delawares. The Shawanos finding themselves
-safe under the protection of their grandfather, did not all choose to
-proceed farther to the eastward, but many of them remained on the Ohio,
-some of whom settled even as high up that river as the long island,
-above which the French afterwards built Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg.
-Those who proceeded farther, were accompanied by their chief, named
-Gachgawatschiqua, and settled principally at and about the forks of
-Delaware, some few between that and the confluence of Delaware and
-Schuylkill, and some even on the spot where Philadelphia now stands;
-others were conducted by the Mohicans into their own country, where
-they intermarried with them and became one people. When those settled
-near the Delaware had multiplied, they returned to Wyoming on the
-Susquehannah, where they resided for a great number of years.
-
-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.[92]
-
-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[93] 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;[94]
-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,[95] one of their
-chiefs, whom I have personally known. They call the Delawares their
-grandfathers. I shall relate the history of the Shawanos,[96] 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.[97] 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[98] (Shenango) 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,[99] 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[100] Pyrlæus 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
-Gnadenhütten, 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[101] 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.
-
-Their national name, according to the report of their chief, White,
-is _Nentégo_. The Delawares call them _Unéchtgo_, and the Iroquois
-_Sganiateratieh-rohne_. These three names have the same meaning,
-and signify _tide water people_, or the _sea shore settlers_. They
-have besides other names, by-names, as it were, given them with
-reference to their occupation. The Mohicans, for instance, call them
-_Otayáchgo_, and the Delawares _Tawachguáno_,[102] both which words in
-their respective languages, signify a “bridge,” a “dry passage over a
-stream;” which alludes to their being noted for felling great numbers
-of trees across streams, to set their traps on. They are also often
-called the _Trappers_.
-
-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,[103] 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.
-
-This once great and renowned nation has also almost entirely
-disappeared, as well as the numerous tribes who had descended from
-them; they have been destroyed by wars, and carried off by the small
-pox and other disorders, and great numbers have died in consequence of
-the introduction of spirituous liquors among them. The remainder have
-fled and removed in separate bodies to different parts, where they now
-are dispersed or mingled with other nations. So early as the year 1762,
-a number of them had emigrated to the Ohio, where I became acquainted
-with their chief who was called by the whites “Mohican John.” Others
-have fled to the shores of the St. Lawrence, where numbers of them
-incorporated themselves with the Iroquois, and where their descendants
-live at the present time, a mixed race, known by the name of the
-_Cochnewago_ Indians. Upwards of one hundred of them, who lived in the
-colonies of Connecticut and New York, having through the labours of
-the United Brethren embraced Christianity, emigrated to Pennsylvania,
-some time between 1742 and 1760, where they afterwards became
-incorporated with the Delawares.[104] A considerable number migrated
-from Hudson’s river about the year 1734, and settled at Stockbridge,
-in Massachusetts; between the year 1785 and 1787, they removed to
-Oneida, in the country of the Six Nations, and gave to their settlement
-the name of New Stockbridge. Before their removal their numbers had
-gradually diminished. In 1791, they were reduced to 191 persons.[105]
-They were once very numerous in Connecticut, and in the year 1799,
-there still were 84 individuals of them, in the county of New
-London,[106] the remains of a once large and flourishing settlement. It
-is probable that by this time they are nearly if not entirely extinct.
-
-It is believed that the Mahicanni are the same nation who are so
-celebrated in the History of New England, under the name of _Pequods_
-or _Pequots_.[107] The Rev. Jonathan Edwards, late President of Union
-College at Schenectady, in the State of New York, published in the year
-1788 in a pamphlet form, some observations on their language, which
-were republished at New York in 1801. This small tract, as well as the
-translation of the Bible into the Natick, by the venerable Eliot, and
-his grammar of that language, put it beyond a doubt that the idiom of
-the Mohicans and those of the other New England Indians proceeded from
-the same source with that of the Lenni Lenape.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-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
-(including what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), on the west by
-the Mississippi, on the east by the Great Salt-water Lake,[108] 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.
-
-Each of these two great nations, say the Delawares, had an ancient
-national name, and a tradition of their respective origin, handed down
-to them by their ancestors, and diffused among all the kindred tribes.
-By whatsoever names those tribes might be called, and whatever their
-numbers were, still they considered themselves, and were considered
-by others, as the offspring of the same original stock. All the tribes
-who had sprung from the Lenape called the mother nation _grandfather_,
-and received, in return, the appellation of _grandchildren_. They were
-all united by the strongest ties of friendship and alliance; in their
-own expressive language, they made but _one house, one fire, and one
-canoe_, that is to say, that they constituted together, one people, one
-family. The same thing took place between the Mengwe and the tribes
-descended from them. They and the Lenape had no relationship with each
-other, though they came over the Mississippi together at the same time.
-They considered each other as nations entirely distinct.
-
-The Mengwe or Iroquois were always considered by the Lenape as only one
-nation, consisting of several confederated tribes. The name of Five and
-afterwards Six Nations, was given to them by the English, whose allies
-they were, probably to raise their consequence, and magnify the idea of
-their strength; but the Indian nations never did flatter them with that
-high sounding appellation, and considered them merely as confederated
-_tribes_.
-
-The late Rev. Mr. Pyrlæus, in a large volume of MS. notes which he
-wrote between the years 1740 and 1760 (upwards of 70 years ago),
-has taken down on this subject the account given by the Iroquois
-themselves, as he had it from the mouth of an intelligent Mohawk
-chief,[109] whose veracity might be depended upon. After giving some
-details respecting the origin of their confederation, the time about
-which it took place, the names of the delegates from each of the
-confederated tribes, &c., he proceeds thus: “They then gave themselves
-the name _Aquanoshioni_, which means _one house_, _one family_, and
-consisted of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas.
-This alliance having been first proposed by a Mohawk chief, the Mohawks
-rank in the _family_ as the _eldest brother_, the Oneidas, as the
-_eldest son_; the Senecas, who were the last who at that time had
-consented to the alliance, were called the _youngest son_; but the
-Tuscaroras, who joined the confederacy probably one hundred years
-afterwards, assumed that name, and the Senecas ranked in precedence
-before them, as being the _next youngest son_, or as we would say, the
-youngest son but one.”
-
-The Rev. David Zeisberger also says: “That the Iroquois call themselves
-_Aquanoschioni_, which means _united people_, having united for the
-purpose of always reminding each other that their safety and power
-consist in a mutual and strict adherence to their alliance.”[110] He
-adds, that Onondago is the chief town of the Iroquois.
-
-Thus, in the different translations of the name which these people
-gave themselves, we find nothing that conveys the ideas of _nations_,
-it implies no more than a _family_, an _united people_, a _family
-compact_. The different sections take ranks in this family, of which
-the _Onondagoes_ are the head, while the others are brothers and sons;
-all which tends clearly to prove, that they were originally but tribes,
-detached bodies of the same people, who, when brought together in close
-union, formed a complete family and became entitled to the name of a
-NATION.
-
-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
-(the _Turtle_ tribe), 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 Pyrlæus 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[111] 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.
-
-The Lenape and their kindred tribes never have called the Iroquois
-“the Five or Six Nations.” In conversation, they call them the Mengwe,
-and never make use of any other but this generic name when speaking of
-them. In their councils, however, they occasionally distinguished them
-by the name _Palenach endchiesktajeet_.[113] These two words, literally
-translated mean “the five divisions, sections or parts together,” and
-does not in any manner imply the idea of _nations_. Had they meant
-to say “the Five Nations,” they would have expressed it by the words
-_Palenach ekhokewit_; those which they used, on the contrary, expressly
-imply _sectional divisions_, and leave no doubt about their meaning.
-
-The Iroquois themselves, as we have already seen, had adopted a name,
-_Aquanoschioni_, merely indicative of their close union. After,
-however, they came to be informed of the meaning of the name which the
-English had given them, they were willing to let it pass as correct.
-The Indians are very fond of high sounding names; I have known myself
-chiefs who delighted to be called _Kings_, after they had learned from
-us that the rulers of the English and French nations were distinguished
-by that title.
-
-Thus the proper name of those six united tribes is in their own
-language _Aquanoschioni_. By other nations they are called _Mengwe_,
-_Maquas_, _Mingoes_, and _Iroquois_. The Lenape call them by the first,
-the Mohicans and Dutch by the second, the English and Americans by the
-third, and the French by the fourth. I employ these different names
-indiscriminately in the course of this work.
-
-As detached bodies or tribes, their names with the Lenape are the
-following:
-
-1. _Sankhícani_, the Mohawks, from _Sankhican_, a gunlock, this people
-being the first who were furnished with muskets by the Europeans, the
-locks of which, with their effect in striking fire, was a subject of
-great astonishment to them; and thus they were named, as it were, _the
-fire-striking people_.
-
-2. _W’Tássone_, the Oneidas. This name means the _stone-pipe makers_,
-and was given to them on account of their ingenuity in making tobacco
-pipes of stone.
-
-3. _Onondágoes_, the Onondagoes. This name signifies in their own
-language _on the top of the hill_, their town being so situated.
-
-4. _Queúgue_, Cayugas, thus called after a lake of the same name.
-
-5. _Mæchachtínni_, the Senecas. This name means _Mountaineers_, and was
-given them because they inhabited the hilly parts of the country.
-
-6. The _Tuscaroras_, the sixth and last tribe in the league, they call
-by the same name, yet I have never heard the Lenape speak of the _six
-divisions or tribes_; when they describe them in that manner, it is
-always by the number _Five_.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS.
-
-
-The Indian considers himself as a being created by an all-powerful,
-wise, and benevolent Mannitto;[114] all that he possesses, all that
-he enjoys, he looks upon as given to him or allotted for his use by
-the Great Spirit who gave him life: he therefore believes it to be his
-duty to adore and worship his Creator and benefactor; to acknowledge
-with gratitude his past favours, thank him for present blessings, and
-solicit the continuation of his good will.[115]
-
-As beings who have control over all beasts and living creatures,
-they feel their importance; before they saw white people or men of a
-different colour from their own, they considered themselves as God’s
-favourites, and believed that if the Great Mannitto could reside on
-earth he would associate with them and be their great chief.
-
-The Indian also believes, that he is highly favoured by his Maker, not
-only in having been created different in shape and in mental and bodily
-powers from other animals, but in being enabled to controul and master
-them all, even those of an enormous size and of the most ferocious
-kinds; and therefore, when he worships his Creator in his way, he does
-not omit in his supplications to pray that he may be endowed with
-courage to fight and conquer his enemies, among whom he includes all
-savage beasts; and when he has performed some heroic act, he will
-not forget to acknowledge it as a mark of divine favour, by making a
-sacrifice to the great and good Mannitto, or by publicly announcing
-that his success was entirely owing to the courage given him by the
-all-powerful Spirit. Thus, habitual devotion to the great First Cause,
-and a strong feeling of gratitude for the benefits which he confers,
-is one of the prominent traits which characterise the mind of the
-untutored Indian.
-
-Not satisfied with paying this first of duties to the Lord of all, in
-the best manner they are able, the Indians also endeavour to fulfil
-the views which they suppose he had in creating the world. They think
-that he made the earth and all that it contains for the common good
-of mankind; when he stocked the country that he gave them with plenty
-of game, it was not for the benefit of a few, but of all. Every thing
-was given in common to the sons of men. Whatever liveth on the land,
-whatsoever groweth out of the earth, and all that is in the rivers and
-waters flowing through the same, was given jointly to all, and every
-one is entitled to his share. From this principle, hospitality flows
-as from its source. With them it is not a virtue but a strict duty.
-Hence they are never in search of excuses to avoid giving, but freely
-supply their neighbour’s wants from the stock prepared for their own
-use. They give and are hospitable to all, without exception, and will
-always share with each other and often with the stranger, even to their
-last morsel. They rather would lie down themselves on an empty stomach,
-than have it laid to their charge that they had neglected their duty,
-by not satisfying the wants of the stranger, the sick or the needy. The
-stranger has a claim to their hospitality, partly on account of his
-being at a distance from his family and friends, and partly because he
-has honoured them by his visit, and ought to leave them with a good
-impression upon his mind; the sick and the poor because they have
-a right to be helped out of the common stock: for if the meat they
-have been served with, was taken from the woods, it was common to all
-before the hunter took it; if corn or vegetables, it had grown out of
-the common ground, yet not by the power of man, but by that of the
-Great Spirit. Besides, on the principle, that all are descended from
-one parent, they look upon themselves as but one great family, who
-therefore ought at all times and on all occasions, to be serviceable
-and kind to each other, and by that means make themselves acceptable to
-the head of the universal family, the great and good Mannitto. Let me
-be permitted to illustrate this by an example.
-
-Some travelling Indians having in the year 1777, put their horses
-over night to pasture in my little meadow, at Gnadenhütten on the
-Muskingum, I called on them in the morning to learn why they had done
-so. I endeavoured to make them sensible of the injury they had done
-me, especially as I intended to mow the meadow in a day or two. Having
-finished my complaint, one of them replied: “My friend, it seems you
-lay claim to the grass my horses have eaten, because you had enclosed
-it with a fence: now tell me, who caused the grass to grow? Can _you_
-make the grass grow? I think not, and no body can except the great
-Mannitto. He it is who causes it to grow both for my horses and for
-yours! See, friend! the grass which grows out of the earth is common
-to all; the game in the woods is common to all. Say, did you never
-eat venison and bear’s meat?--‘Yes, very often.’--Well, and did you
-ever hear me or any other Indian complain about that? No; then be not
-disturbed at my horses having eaten only once, of what you call _your_
-grass, though the grass my horses did eat, in like manner as the meat
-you did eat, was given to the Indians by the Great Spirit. Besides, if
-you will but consider, you will find that my horses did not eat _all_
-your grass. For friendship’s sake, however, I shall never put my horses
-in your meadow again.”
-
-The Indians are not only just, they are also in many respects a
-generous people, and cannot see the sick and the aged suffer for
-want of clothing. To such they will give a blanket, a shirt, a pair
-of leggings, mocksens, &c. Otherwise, when they make presents, it is
-done with a view to receive an equivalent in return, and the receiver
-is given to understand what that ought to be. In making presents to
-strangers, they are content with some trifle in token of remembrance;
-but when they give any thing to a trader, they at least expect double
-the value in return, saying that he can afford to do it, since he had
-cheated them so often.
-
-They treat each other with civility, and shew much affection on
-meeting after an absence. When they meet in the forenoon, they will
-compliment one another with saying, “a good morning to you!” and in
-the afternoon, “a good evening.” In the act of shaking hands with each
-other, they strictly attend to the distinguishing names of relations,
-which they utter at the time; as for instance, “a good morning, father,
-grandfather, uncle, aunt, cousin,” and so down to a small grandchild.
-They are also in the habit of saluting old people no ways related to
-them, by the names of grandfather and grandmother, not in a tone of
-condescending superiority or disguised contempt, but as a genuine mark
-of the respect which they feel for age. The common way of saluting
-where no relationship exists, is that of “friend;” when, however, the
-young people meet, they make use of words suitable to their years or
-stage in life; they will say “a good morning, comrade, favourite,
-beloved, &c.” Even the children salute each other affectionately. “I
-am glad to see you,” is the common way in which the Indians express
-themselves to one another after a short absence; but on meeting after
-a long absence, on the return of a messenger or a warrior from a
-critical or dangerous expedition, they have more to say; the former is
-saluted in the most cordial manner with some such expression: “I thank
-the Great Spirit, that he has preserved our lives to this time of our
-happily meeting again. I am, indeed, very glad to see you.” To which
-the other will reply: “you speak the truth; it is through the favour of
-the great and good Spirit that we are permitted to meet. I am equally
-glad to see you.” To the latter will be said: “I am glad that the Great
-Spirit has preserved your life and granted you a safe return to your
-family.”
-
-They are not quarrelsome, and are always on their guard, so as not to
-offend each other. When one supposes himself hurt or aggrieved by a
-word which has inadvertently fallen from the mouth of another, he will
-say to him: “Friend, you have caused me to become jealous of you,”
-(meaning that he begins to doubt the sincerity of his friendship,) when
-the other explaining and saying that he had no bad intention, all is
-done away again.
-
-They do not fight with each other; they say that fighting is only for
-dogs and beasts. They are, however, fond of play, and passing a joke,
-yet very careful that they do not offend.
-
-They are ingenious in making satirical observations, which though they
-create laughter, do not, or but seldom give offence. For instance,
-seeing a bad hunter going out into the woods with his gun, they will
-ask him if he is going out for meat? or say to one another: “now we
-shall have meat, for such a one is gone a hunting,” (not believing any
-such thing.) If they see a coward joining a war party, they will ask
-him ironically at what time he intends to come back again? (knowing
-that he will return before he has met the enemy,) or they will say to
-one another: “will he return this way with his scalps?”
-
-Genuine wit, which one would hardly expect to find in a savage people,
-is not unfrequent among them. I have heard them, for instance, compare
-the English and American nations to a pair of scissors, an instrument
-composed of two sharp edged knives exactly alike, working against each
-other for the same purpose, that of _cutting_. By the construction of
-this instrument, they said, it would appear as if in shutting, these
-two sharp knives would strike together and destroy each other’s edges;
-but no such thing: they only cut _what comes between them_. And thus
-the English and Americans do when they go to war against one another.
-It is not each other that they want to destroy, but us, poor Indians,
-that are between them. By this means they get our land, and, when that
-is obtained, the scissors are closed again, and laid by for further use.
-
-They are remarkable for the particular respect which they pay to old
-age. In all their meetings, whether public or private, they pay the
-greatest attention to the observations and advice of the aged; no one
-will attempt to contradict them, nor to interfere in any manner or even
-to speak, unless he is specially called upon. “The aged,” they say,
-“have lived through the whole period of our lives, and long before
-we were born; they have not only all the knowledge we possess, but a
-great deal more. We, therefore, must submit our limited views to their
-experience.”
-
-In travelling, one of the oldest will always take the lead, unless
-another is specially appointed for that purpose. If such a one stops
-to hunt, or in order to stay and encamp at the place for some time,
-all halt together, all are pleased with the spot and declare it to be
-judiciously chosen.
-
-I shall expatiate further on this interesting part of the Indian
-character, in the sequel of this work.
-
-They have a strong innate sense of justice, which will lead them
-sometimes to acts which some men will call heroic, others romantic, and
-not a few, perhaps, will designate by the epithet _barbarous_; a vague
-indefinite word, which if it means anything, might, perhaps, be best
-explained by _something not like ourselves_. However that may be, this
-feeling certainly exists among the Indians, and as I cannot describe
-it better than by its effects, I shall content myself with relating
-on this subject a characteristic anecdote which happened in the year
-1793, at an Indian village called _La Chine_, situated nine miles above
-Montreal, and was told me in the same year by Mr. La Ramée, a French
-Canadian inhabitant of that place, whom I believe to be a person of
-strict veracity. I was then on my return from Detroit, in company
-with General Lincoln and several other gentlemen, who were present
-at the relation, and gave it their full belief. I thought it then so
-interesting, that I inserted it in my journal, from which I now extract
-it.
-
-There were in the said village of La Chine two remarkable Indians, the
-one for his stature, being six feet four inches in height, and the
-other for his strength and activity. These two meeting together one
-day in the street, (a third being present,) the former in a high tone
-made use of some insulting language to the other, which he could not
-well put up with: he called him a coward, said he was his inferior
-in every respect, and so provoked his anger, that unable any longer
-to contain himself, the latter instantly replied: “You have grossly
-insulted me; but I will prevent you from doing the like again!” and at
-the same moment stabbed him through the body with his knife, so that
-he dropped down dead by his side. The alarm being immediately spread
-through the village, a crowd of Indians assembled, and the murderer
-having seated himself on the ground by the side of the dead body,
-coolly awaited his fate, which he could not expect to be any other
-than immediate death, particularly as the cry of the people was, “Kill
-him! Kill him!” But although he placed his body and head in a proper
-posture to receive the stroke of the tomahawk, no one attempted to
-lay hands on him; but after removing the dead body from where it lay,
-they left him alone. Not meeting here with his expected fate, he rose
-from this place for a more public part of the village, and there lay
-down on the ground in the hope of being the sooner despatched; but the
-spectators, after viewing him, all retired again. Sensible that his
-life was justly forfeited, and anxious to be relieved from a state of
-suspense, he took the resolution to go to the mother of the deceased,
-an aged widow, whom he addressed in these words: “Woman, I have killed
-thy son; he had insulted me, it is true; but still he was thine, and
-his life was valuable to thee. I, therefore, now surrender myself up
-to thy will. Direct as thou wilt have it, and relieve me speedily from
-misery.” To which the woman answered: “Thou hast, indeed, killed my
-son, who was dear to me, and the only supporter I had in my old age.
-One life is already lost, and to take thine on that account, cannot be
-of any service to me, nor better my situation. Thou hast, however, a
-son, whom, if thou wilt give me in the place of my son, whom thou hast
-slain, all shall be wiped away.” The murderer then replied: “Mother,
-my son is yet but a child, ten years old, and can be of no service to
-thee, but rather a trouble and charge; but here am I, truly capable of
-supporting and maintaining thee: if thou wilt receive me as thy son,
-nothing shall be wanting on my part to make thee comfortable while thou
-livest.” The woman approving of the proposal, forthwith adopted him as
-her son, and took the whole family to her house.
-
-But we must now look to the other side of the picture. It cannot but
-be acknowledged that the Indians are in general revengeful and cruel
-to their enemies. That even after the battle is over, they wreak their
-deliberate revenge on their defenceless prisoners; that in their
-wars they are indifferent about the means which they pursue for the
-annoyance and destruction of their adversaries, and that surprise
-and stratagem are as often employed by them as open force. This is
-all true. Deprived of the light of the only true Christian Religion,
-unchecked by the precepts and unswayed by the example of the God
-of peace, they indulge too much, sometimes, the violence of their
-passions, and commit actions which force the tear from the eye of
-humanity. But, upon the whole, are we better than they are? I reserve
-this question for a separate chapter.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-GOVERNMENT.
-
-
-Although the Indians have no code of laws for their government, their
-chiefs find little or no difficulty in governing them. They are
-supported by able experienced counsellors; men who study the welfare
-of the nation, and are equally interested with themselves in its
-prosperity. On them the people rely entirely, believing that what they
-do, or determine upon, must be right and for the public good.
-
-Proud of seeing such able men conduct the affairs of their nation, the
-Indians are little troubled about what they are doing, knowing that
-the result of their deliberations will be made public in due time,
-and sure that it will receive their approbation. This result is made
-known to them by the chief through the orator, for which purpose they
-are called together and assemble at the council-house; and if it be
-found necessary to require a contribution of _wampum_, for carrying the
-decision of the chiefs into effect, it is cheerfully complied with by
-the whole assembly.
-
-The chiefs are very careful in preserving for their own information,
-and that of future generations, all important deliberations and
-treaties made at any time between them and other nations. Thus, between
-the years 1770 and 1780, they could relate very minutely what had
-passed between William Penn and their forefathers, at their first
-meeting and afterwards, and also the transactions which took place with
-the governors who succeeded him. For the purpose of refreshing their
-own memories, and of instructing one or more of their most capable and
-promising young men in these matters, they assemble once or twice
-a year. On these occasions they always meet at a chosen spot in the
-woods, at a small distance from the town, where a fire is kindled,
-and at the proper time provisions are brought out to them; there, on
-a large piece of bark or on a blanket, all the documents are laid
-out in such order, that they can at once distinguish each particular
-speech, the same as we know the principal contents of an instrument of
-writing by the endorsement on it. If any paper or parchment writings
-are connected with the belts, or strings of wampum, they apply to some
-trusty white man (if such can be had,) to read the contents to them.
-Their speaker then, who is always chosen from among those who are
-endowed with superior talents, and has already been trained up to the
-business, rises, and in an audible voice delivers, with the gravity
-that the subject requires, the contents, sentence after sentence,
-until he has finished the whole on one subject. On the manner in
-which the belts or strings of wampum are handled by the speaker, much
-depends; the _turning_[116] of the belt which takes place when he has
-finished one half of his speech, is a material point, though this is
-not common in _all_ speeches with belts; but when it is the case, and
-is done properly, it may be as well known by it how far the speaker
-has advanced in his speech, as with us on taking a glance at the pages
-of a book or pamphlet while reading; and a good speaker will be able
-to point out the exact place on a belt which is to answer to each
-particular sentence, the same as we can point out a passage in a book.
-Belts and strings, when done with by the speaker, are again handed to
-the chief, who puts them up carefully in the speech-bag or pouch.
-
-A message of importance is generally sent on to the place of its
-destination, by an inferior chief, by a counsellor, or by the speaker,
-especially when an immediate answer is expected. In other cases, where
-for instance only an answer to a speech is to be sent, two capable
-young men are selected for the purpose, the one to deliver the message
-or answer, and the other to pay attention while his companion is
-delivering it, that no part be forgotten or omitted. If the message
-be of a private nature, they are charged to draw or take it _under
-ground_, that is, not to make it known to any person whatsoever, except
-to him to whom it is directed. If they are told to enter _into the
-earth_ with the message or speech, and rise again at the place where
-they are to deliver it, it is to desire them to be careful not to be
-seen by the way by any person, and for that purpose to avoid all paths,
-and travel through the woods.
-
-No chief pays any attention to _reports_, though they may carry with
-them the marks of truth. Until he is _officially_ and in due form
-apprised of the matter, he will, if questioned on the subject, reply
-that he had _not heard it_. It will, until then, be considered by
-him as the _song of a bird which had flown by_; but as soon as he is
-officially informed, through a string of wampum from some distant chief
-or leading man of the nation, whose situation entitles him to receive
-credit, he then will say: “I _have_ heard it;” and acts accordingly.
-
-The Indians generally, but their chiefs more particularly, have
-many figurative expressions in use, to understand which requires
-instruction. When a nation, by message or otherwise, speaks to another
-nation in this way, it is well understood; but when they speak to
-white people after this manner, who have not been accustomed to such
-language, explanations are necessary.
-
-Their belts of wampum are of different dimensions, both as to the
-length and breadth. White and black wampum are the kinds they use;
-the former denoting that which is _good_, as peace, friendship, good
-will, &c., the latter the reverse; yet occasionally the black also is
-made use of on peace errands, when the white cannot be procured; but
-previous to its being produced for such purpose, it must be daubed all
-over with chalk, white clay, or any thing which changes the colour from
-black to white. The pipe of peace, being either made of a black or red
-stone, must also be whitened before it is produced and smoked out of on
-such occasions.
-
-Roads from one friendly nation to another, are generally marked on the
-belt, by one or two rows of white wampum interwoven in the black, and
-running through the middle, and from end to end. It means that they are
-on good terms, and keep up a friendly intercourse with each other.
-
-A black belt with the mark of a hatchet made on it with red paint,
-is a war belt, which, when sent to a nation together with a twist or
-roll of tobacco, is an invitation to join in a war. If the nation so
-invited smoke of this tobacco, and say it smokes well, they have given
-their consent, and are from that moment allies. If however they decline
-smoking, all further persuasion would be of no effect; yet it once[117]
-happened, that war messengers endeavoured to persuade and compel a
-nation to accept the belt, by laying it on the shoulders or thigh of
-the chief, who, however, after shaking it off without touching it with
-his hands, afterwards, with a stick, threw it after them, as if he
-threw a snake or toad out of his way.
-
-Although at their councils they do not seat themselves after the
-manner of the white people, yet the attitude they place themselves in
-is not chargeable to them as a want of respect. Faithful to the trust
-committed to them, they are careless of ceremonies, from which the
-nation cannot derive any benefit. They seat themselves promiscuously
-around a council fire, some leaning one way, some another, so that
-a stranger on viewing them, might be led to conclude they were
-inattentive to what was said, or had become tired of attending. Not
-so! even sitting in this posture gives them the opportunity of being
-intent on what is said, and attentive to the subject under their
-consideration. They have no object to look at, which might draw off
-their attention. They are all ears, though they do not stare at the
-speaker! The fact is, that nothing can draw their attention from the
-subject they are deliberating on, unless the house they are sitting in
-should take fire or be attacked by an enemy.
-
-To prove the correctness of the above assertion, I shall relate the
-following fact, which happened at Detroit in the winter of 1785 and
-1786.
-
-When two most audacious murderers of the Chippeway nation, who, for
-many months, had put the town and whole country in fear, by the threats
-and the daring murders they had committed in the settlement, were
-taken, and brought before the commandant (their chiefs having been
-previously sent for, and being now assembled in the council house),
-heard him pronounce the words: “that according to the laws of their
-Father (the English) they should[118] be punished with death,” the
-younger of the two, who was the son of the other, sprang from his seat,
-and having forced his way to[119] the door, endeavoured with a knife
-or dagger he had hidden under his blanket, to work his way through
-the strong guard placed outside of the door and[120] in the street to
-prevent their escape; in this attempt, however, he was stabbed and
-fell; all which occasioned much noise and commotion without, and not a
-little fear and uneasiness within, among the spectators and officers of
-government; yet, not one of the chiefs, who were many in number, either
-moved from his seat, nor looked around, or even at one another; but
-they all remained sitting in the same posture as before, smoking their
-pipes as if nothing had happened.
-
-Though there are sometimes individuals in a nation, who disregard the
-counsel and good advice given by the chiefs, yet they do not meet
-with support so as to be able to oppose the measures of government.
-They are generally looked upon as depraved beings, who not daring to
-associate with the others, lurk about by themselves, generally bent on
-mischief of a minor kind, such as pilfering small articles of goods
-and provisions. As soon, however, as they go a step further, and
-become known thieves and murderers, they are considered a disgrace to
-the nation, and being in a manner disowned by it, they are no longer
-entitled to their protection.
-
-In the year 1785, an Indian of this description, murdered a Mr. Evans
-at Pittsburg; when, after a confinement of several months, his trial
-was to be brought on, the chiefs of his (the Delaware nation,) were
-invited to come to be present at the proceedings and see how the trial
-would be conducted, and, also, if they chose, to speak in behalf of
-the accused. These chiefs, however, instead of coming, as wished for,
-sent to the civil officers of that place the following laconic answer:
-“Brethren! You inform us that N. N. who murdered one of your men at
-Pittsburg, is shortly to be tried by the laws of your country, at which
-trial you request that some of us may be present! Brethren! knowing N.
-N. to have been always a very bad man, we do not wish to see him! We,
-therefore, advise you to try him by your laws, and to hang him, so that
-he may never return to us again.”
-
-I shall conclude this subject with another anecdote. When in the winter
-of 1788 and 1789, the Indian nations were assembling at Fort Harmer, at
-the mouth of the Muskingum, where a treaty was to be held, an Indian of
-the Seneca nation was one morning found dead on the bank of the river.
-The Cornplanter, chief of this nation, observing some uneasiness among
-the officers and people of the place, and fearing the murder at this
-time and place, might perhaps create much disturbance, waited in the
-morning on the Governor, whom he desired “not to be uneasy about what
-had happened the preceding night, for the man who had been killed was
-of no consequence.” This meant in other words, that he was disowned for
-his bad conduct by his countrymen, and that his death would not be a
-loss to his nation.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-EDUCATION.
-
-
-It may justly be a subject of wonder, how a nation without a written
-code of laws or system of jurisprudence, without any form or
-constitution of government, and without even a single elective or
-hereditary magistrate, can subsist together in peace and harmony, and
-in the exercise of the moral virtues; how a people can be well and
-effectually governed without any external authority; by the mere force
-of the ascendancy which men of superior minds have over those of a more
-ordinary stamp; by a tacit, yet universal submission to the aristocracy
-of experience, talents and virtue! Such, nevertheless, is the spectacle
-which an Indian nation exhibits to the eye of a stranger. I have been
-a witness to it for a long series of years, and after much observation
-and reflection to discover the cause of this phenomenon, I think I have
-reason to be satisfied that it is in a great degree to be ascribed to
-the pains which the Indians take to instill at an early age honest
-and virtuous principles upon the minds of their children, and to the
-method which they pursue in educating them. This method I will not call
-a system; for systems are unknown to these sons of nature, who, by
-following alone her simple dictates, have at once discovered and follow
-without effort that plain obvious path which the philosophers of Europe
-have been so long in search of.
-
-The first step that parents take towards the education of their
-children, is to prepare them for future happiness, by impressing upon
-their tender minds, that they are indebted for their existence to a
-great, good and benevolent Spirit, who not only has given them life,
-but has ordained them for certain great purposes. That he has given
-them a fertile extensive country well stocked with game of every kind
-for their subsistence, and that by one of his inferior spirits he has
-also sent down to them from above corn, pumpkins, squashes, beans and
-other vegetables for their nourishment; all which blessings their
-ancestors have enjoyed for a great number of ages. That this great
-Spirit looks down upon the Indians, to see whether they are grateful to
-him and make him a due return for the many benefits he has bestowed,
-and therefore that it is their duty to show their thankfulness by
-worshipping him, and doing that which is pleasing in his sight.
-
-This is in substance the first lesson taught, and from time to time
-repeated to the Indian children, which naturally leads them to reflect
-and gradually to understand that a being which hath done such great
-things for them, and all to make them happy, must be good indeed, and
-that it is surely their duty to do something that will please him. They
-are then told that their ancestors, who received all this from the
-hands of the great Spirit, and lived in the enjoyment of it, must have
-been informed of what would be most pleasing to this good being, and of
-the manner in which his favour could be most surely obtained, and they
-are directed to look up for instruction to those who know all this, to
-learn from them, and revere them for their wisdom and the knowledge
-which they possess; this creates in the children a strong sentiment
-of respect for their elders, and a desire to follow their advice and
-example. Their young ambition is then excited by telling them that they
-were made the superiors of all other creatures, and are to have power
-over them; great pains are taken to make this feeling take an early
-root, and it becomes in fact their ruling passion through life; for no
-pains are spared to instill into them that by following the advice of
-the most admired and extolled hunter, trapper or warrior, they will at
-a future day acquire a degree of fame and reputation, equal to that
-which he possesses; that by submitting to the counsels of the aged,
-the chiefs, the men superior in wisdom, they may also rise to glory,
-and be called _Wisemen_, an honourable title, to which no Indian is
-indifferent. They are finally told that if they respect the aged and
-infirm, and are kind and obliging to them, they will be treated in the
-same manner when their turn comes to feel the infirmities of old age.
-
-When this first and most important lesson is thought to be sufficiently
-impressed upon children’s minds, the parents next proceed to make them
-sensible of the distinction between good and evil; they tell them that
-there are good actions and bad actions, both equally open to them to
-do or commit; that good acts are pleasing to the good Spirit which
-gave them their existence, and that on the contrary, all that is bad
-proceeds from the bad spirit who has given them nothing, and who cannot
-give them any thing that is good, because he has it not, and therefore
-he envies them that which they have received from the good Spirit, who
-is far superior to the bad one.
-
-This introductory lesson, if it may be so called, naturally makes them
-wish to know what is good and what is bad. This the parent teaches him
-in his own way, that is to say, in the way in which he was himself
-taught by his own parents. It is not the lesson of an hour nor of a
-day, it is rather a long course more of practical than of theoretical
-instruction, a lesson, which is not repeated at stated seasons or
-times, but which is shewn, pointed out, and demonstrated to the child,
-not only by those under whose immediate guardianship he is, but by
-the whole community, who consider themselves alike interested in the
-direction to be given to the rising generation.
-
-When this instruction is given in the form of precepts, it must not be
-supposed that it is done in an authoritative or forbidding tone, but,
-on the contrary, in the gentlest and most persuasive manner: nor is
-the parent’s authority ever supported by harsh or compulsive means; no
-whips, no punishments, no threats are even used to enforce commands or
-compel obedience. The child’s _pride_ is the feeling to which an appeal
-is made, which proves successful in almost every instance. A father
-needs only to say in the presence of his children: “I want such a thing
-done; I want one of my children to go upon such an errand; let me see
-who is the _good_ child that will do it!” This word _good_ operates,
-as it were, by magic, and the children immediately vie with each other
-to comply with the wishes of their parent. If a father sees an old
-decrepid man or woman pass by, led along by a child, he will draw the
-attention of his own children to the object by saying: “What a _good_
-child that must be, which pays such attention to the aged! That child,
-indeed, looks forward to the time when it will likewise be old!” or he
-will say, “May the great Spirit, who looks upon him, grant this _good_
-child a long life!”
-
-In this manner of bringing up children, the parents, as I have already
-said, are seconded by the whole community. If a child is sent from his
-father’s dwelling to carry a dish of victuals to an aged person, all in
-the house will join in calling him a _good_ child. They will ask whose
-child he is, and on being told, will exclaim: what! has the _Tortoise_,
-or the _little Bear_ (as the father’s name may be) got such a _good_
-child? If a child is seen passing through the streets leading an old
-decrepid person, the villagers will in his hearing, and to encourage
-all the other children who may be present to take example from him,
-call on one another to look on and see what a _good_ child that must
-be. And so, in most instances, this method is resorted to, for the
-purpose of instructing children in things that are good, proper, or
-honourable in themselves; while, on the other hand, when a child has
-committed a _bad_ act, the parent will say to him: “O! how grieved
-I am that my child has done this _bad_ act! I hope he will never do
-so again.” This is generally effectual, particularly if said in the
-presence of others. The whole of the Indian plan of education tends
-to elevate rather than to depress the mind, and by that means to make
-determined hunters and fearless warriors.
-
-Thus, when a lad has killed his first game, such as a deer or a bear,
-parents who have boys growing up will not fail to say to some person
-in the presence of their own children: “That boy must have listened
-attentively to the aged hunters, for, though young, he has already
-given a proof that he will become a good hunter himself.” If, on the
-other hand, a young man should fail of giving such a proof, it will be
-said of him “that he did not pay attention to the discourses of the
-aged.”
-
-In this indirect manner is instruction on all subjects given to the
-young people. They are to learn the arts of hunting, trapping, and
-making war, by listening to the aged when conversing together on those
-subjects, each, in his turn, relating how he acted, and opportunities
-are afforded to them for that purpose. By this mode of instructing
-youth, their respect for the aged is kept alive, and it is increased by
-the reflection that the same respect will be paid to them at a future
-day, when young persons will be attentive to what they shall relate.
-
-This method of conveying instruction is, I believe, common to most
-Indian nations; it is so, at least, amongst all those that I have
-become acquainted with, and lays the foundation for that voluntary
-submission to their chiefs, for which they are so remarkable. Thus
-has been maintained for ages, without convulsions and without civil
-discords, this traditional government, of which the world, perhaps,
-does not offer another example; a government in which there are no
-positive laws, but only long established habits and customs, no code
-of jurisprudence, but the experience of former times, no magistrates,
-but advisers, to whom the people, nevertheless, pay a willing and
-implicit obedience, in which age confers rank, wisdom gives power, and
-moral goodness secures a title to universal respect. All this seems to
-be effected by the simple means of an excellent mode of education, by
-which a strong attachment to ancient customs, respect for age, and the
-love of virtue are indelibly impressed upon the minds of youth, so that
-these impressions acquire strength as time pursues its course, and as
-they pass through successive generations.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-LANGUAGES.
-
-
-In all the North American territories bounded to the north and east by
-the Atlantic ocean, and to the south and west by the river Mississippi,
-and the possessions of the English Hudson’s Bay company, there appears
-to be but four principal languages, branching out, it is true, into
-various dialects, but all derived from one or the other of the four
-mother tongues, some of which extend even beyond the Mississippi, and
-perhaps, as far as the Rocky Mountains. These four languages are:
-
-
-I. THE KARALIT.
-
-This language is spoken by the inhabitants of Greenland and on the
-Continent by the Eskimaux Indians of the coast of Labrador. Its forms
-and principles are sufficiently known by means of the Grammar and
-Dictionary of the venerable Egede,[121] and the works of Bartholinus,
-Wœldike, Thornhallesen,[122] Cranz[123] and others. It is much
-cultivated by the Missionaries of the Society of the United Brethren,
-by whom we may expect to see its principles still further elucidated.
-It is in Greenland that begin those comprehensive grammatical forms
-which are said to characterise the languages of the vast American
-continent, as far as they are known, and are the more remarkable when
-contrasted with the simplicity of construction of the idioms spoken on
-the opposite European shores, in Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and other
-countries. It appears evident from this single circumstance, that
-America did not receive its original population from Europe.
-
-
-II. THE IROQUOIS.
-
-This language in various dialects is spoken by the Mengwe or Six
-Nations, the Wyandots or Hurons, the Naudowessies, the Assinipoetuk,
-called by the French Assiniboils, Assinipoils, or Sioux, and by
-other tribes, particularly beyond the St. Lawrence. Father La Hontan
-distinguishes this class of languages by the name of the _Huron_,
-probably because that nation was better known to the French, whose
-allies they were, than the Iroquois, who were in alliance with the
-English.[124] All these languages, however they may be called in
-a general sense, are dialects of the same mother tongue, and have
-considerable affinity with each other. Mr. Carver is mistaken when he
-describes the _Naudowessie_ as belonging to a class different from the
-Iroquois.[125] It is sufficient to compare the vocabularies that we
-have of these two idioms, to see the great similitude that subsists
-between them. We do not, unfortunately, possess a single grammar of any
-of these dialects; we have nothing, in fact, besides the fragment of
-Zeisberger’s Dictionary, which I have already mentioned, but a large
-vocabulary of the Huron,[126] composed by Father Sagard, a good and
-pious French Missionary, but of very limited abilities, and who also
-resided too short a time among that nation to be able to give a correct
-account of their language. He represents it in his preface, as poor,
-imperfect, anomalous, and inadequate to the clear expression of ideas,
-in which he is contradicted by others whom we have reason to believe
-better informed. Zeisberger considered the Iroquois (of which the Huron
-is a dialect,) as a rich and comprehensive idiom. It is to be regretted
-that a grammar which he had composed of it, and the best part of his
-Dictionary, are irretrievably lost. Sir William Johnson speaks highly
-of the powers of this language;[127] Colden,[128] though he did not
-know it himself, speaks in the same manner from the information of
-others. Indeed, Father Sagard’s Dictionary itself, when attentively
-read by a person acquainted with the forms of Indian languages, affords
-sufficient intrinsic evidence of the mistakes of the good father who
-composed it.
-
-
-III. THE LENAPE.
-
-This is the most widely extended language of any of those that are
-spoken on this side of the Mississippi. It prevails in the extensive
-regions of Canada, from the coast of Labrador to the mouth of Albany
-river which falls into the southernmost part of Hudson’s bay, and
-from thence to the Lake of the Woods, which forms the north-western
-boundary of the United States. It appears to be the language of all the
-Indians of that extensive country, except those of the Iroquois stock,
-which are by far the least numerous. Farther to the north-west, in the
-territories of the Hudson’s Bay Company, other Indian nations have
-been discovered, such as the Blackfoot Indians, Sussee Indians, Snake
-Indians, and others, whose languages are said to be different from the
-Iroquois and the Lenape, but we are not able to form a very correct
-judgment respecting those idioms from the scanty vocabularies which
-have been given us by Mackenzie, Umfreville and other travellers. We
-must wait for further light before we decide.
-
-Out of the limits of Canada few Iroquois are found, except the remnants
-of those who were once settled in the vicinity of the great Lakes, in
-the northern parts of the now State of New York. There are yet some
-Wyandots in the vicinity of Detroit. All the rest of the Indians who
-now inhabit this country to the Mississippi, are of the Lenape stock,
-and speak dialects of that language. It is certain that at the time of
-the arrival of the Europeans, they were in possession of all the coast
-from the northernmost point of Nova Scotia to the Roanoke. Hence they
-were called _Wapanachki_, or _Abenakis_, men of the East. La Hontan
-gives us a list of the Indian nations of ancient Acadia, all speaking
-dialects of the Abenaki, or as he calls it, of the Algonquin. They
-were the Abenakis, Micmacs, Canibas, Mahingans (Mohicans), Openangos,
-Soccokis, and Etchemins, from whom all Nova Scotia, (excepting the
-peninsula,) and a part of the now district of Maine, were once called
-by the French the _country of the Etchemins_. He does not speak of the
-Souriquois, who are also known to have inhabited Acadia, and likewise
-spoke a dialect of the Lenape.
-
-In the interior of the country we find every where the Lenape and
-their kindred tribes. The Miamis, or Twightwees, the Potowatomies,
-the Messissaugees, the Kickapoos, all those Indian nations who once
-inhabited, and parts of whom still inhabit the interior of our
-country on this side of the Mississippi and the great Lakes, are
-unquestionably, from their dialects, of Lenape origin. The Shawanos, it
-is said, formerly dwelt upon the river Savannah, in Georgia, and a part
-of them remaining in that country, associated with the Creeks, still
-retain their language.[129] As far as we are able to judge from the
-little knowledge that has been transmitted to us of the language of
-the Indians who once inhabited Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina,
-they all appear to have belonged to the same stock, the Nanticokes have
-been shewn to have been intimately connected with the Lenape, and among
-those who called them _grandfather_. Two pretty copious vocabularies
-of their language, in the possession of the Historical Committee of
-the American Philosophical Society, one of them communicated by Mr.
-Jefferson and the other by myself, prove it beyond a doubt to have been
-a dialect of the Lenape.[130] The Canai or Kanhawas, who have given
-their name to a river in Virginia which empties itself into the Ohio,
-are known to have been of the same stock. The Indian names of rivers,
-mountains, and towns, through that vast extent of country, appear
-generally derived from the Lenape language.
-
-The Baron de La Hontan, is one of the first writers, I believe, who
-have spoken of the universality of this idiom; but it is extraordinary
-that he has not said a word of the Lenni Lenape, that great and
-powerful nation. He calls this language the _Algonquin_ tongue,
-although he describes that people as “an erratic sort of savages, who,
-like the Arabs, had no settled abode,”[131] and admits, that at the
-time when he wrote, their number did not exceed 200. What he says on
-this subject, however, is so much to my purpose, that I hope I shall be
-permitted to make a small extract from it.
-
-“There are,” says the Baron, “but two mother tongues in the whole
-extent of Canada, which I confine within the limits of the Mississippi;
-they are the _Huron_ and the _Algonquin_. The first is understood
-by the Iroquois, for the difference between these two is no greater
-than that between the Norman and the French. The second, namely the
-_Algonquin_, is as much esteemed among the savages as the Greek and
-Latin are in Europe; though it would seem that the aborigines, to whom
-it owes its original, disgrace it by the thinness of their nation, _for
-their whole number does not amount to two hundred_.”[133]
-
-What the Baron says here of this language is very correct; but why does
-he call it the Algonquin, and ascribe its origin to that miserable
-wandering tribe? He had the Abenakis at hand, whom in another place he
-puts at the head of the tribes inhabiting Nova Scotia, and who still
-preserved the generic name of the whole nation, _Wapanachki_, which
-the French have softened to suit the analogy of their own tongue, by
-which name the different nations and tribes of the Lenape stock still
-recognise each other to this day. It is probable that he did not
-sufficiently understand their language,[134] to have much conversation
-with them, otherwise they would have informed him that they derived
-their origin from a great and powerful nation residing in the interior
-of the country, whom they revered as their _grandfather_, at whose door
-the great national council fire was kept constantly burning, whose
-badge was the _Turtle_, and whose supremacy was acknowledged by all the
-kindred tribes.
-
-Father Charlevoix, who also speaks of the universality of this
-language, commits the same error in ascribing its origin to the
-Algonquins. “In the southern part of Hudson’s Bay,” says he, “the
-trade is carried on with the Matassins, the Monsonies, the Christinaux
-(Knisteneaux), and the Assinipoils, the three first of which speak
-the _Algonquin_ language.”[135] In a later publication, (I think by a
-Mr. Winterbotham,) of which, during my travels, some years ago, I had
-merely a glance, I found by some words he had put down in the language
-of those people, that they were _Minsi_ or _Monseys_, a branch of the
-wolf tribe of the Lenape. So indeed, one of their names, _Monsonies_,
-seems of itself to indicate. The name of the Matassins, means in their
-language a tobacco pipe, and so it does in the Monsey to this day.
-And they all speak the Algonquin, a language, say both Charlevoix and
-La Hontan, universally known for a thousand leagues round. The last
-mentioned author subjoins a vocabulary of what he calls the Algonquin
-tongue, which bears a greater affinity to the language of the Unamis
-or Turtle[136] tribe of the Lenape than that does to the idiom of
-the Monsey or Wolf tribe of the same nation. I find many words in
-the Algonquin (as given by La Hontan), which are exactly the same as
-in the Unami, while others bear more resemblance to the Chippeway,
-also a dialect of the Lenape, spoken by a tribe in connexion with the
-Delawares, and who call them _grandfather_.
-
-There can be no doubt, therefore, that this universal language, so
-much admired and so generally spoken by the Indian nations, is that
-of the Lenni Lenape, and is improperly named the Chippeway by Carver,
-and the Algonquin by La Hontan. The celebrated Professor Vater, in
-his excellent continuation of Adelung’s Mithridates, calls the class
-of languages derived from this source, “the Chippewayo-Delawarian,
-or Algonkino-Mohican stock.”[137] It is, perhaps, indifferent for
-philological purposes, whether a language be called the Delaware or
-the Chippeway, the Algonquin or the Mohican; but every body must be
-sensible of the inconvenience of those long compound names, which
-leave no fixed or determinate idea upon the mind. For the purpose of
-general description it seems better to designate the languages of
-those connected tribes by the name of their common grandfather, the
-Lenni Lenape, or by the generic denomination universally adopted among
-them, Wapanachki, or Abenaki. I have preferred the former as a mark of
-respect to an ancient and once powerful nation, and in the hope that
-her name may be preserved, at least, in the records of philological
-science.
-
-This beautiful language, and those which are derived from it, though
-more has been written upon them than on any of the other languages of
-these parts of the North American continent, are as yet but little
-known. The grammar of the Natick dialect published by Eliot, at
-Cambridge in Massachusetts, in the year 1666, has long been out of
-print, and is to be found only in very few libraries in the United
-States; Dr. Edwards’s little tract on the Mohican language, although
-printed twice, does not appear to have had much circulation, and is
-not alone sufficient to give an idea of the forms and construction of
-these Indian dialects. Zeisberger’s Delaware spelling book is but a
-collection of words, and does not contain any grammatical explanations.
-The learned Vater has taken immense pains, from the scanty helps within
-his reach, to discover the grounds and principles of these idioms,
-and what he has written on the subject is a proof of what talents
-and industry can effect with little means. But still the matter is
-not sufficiently understood. There is in the library of the society
-of the United Brethren in this town, an excellent MS. grammar of the
-Lenni Lenape, written in German by Zeisberger. I understand that the
-Historical Committee of the American Philosophical Society are going to
-publish an English translation of this valuable work. I rejoice in the
-prospect of this publication, which will give a clear and satisfactory
-view of the true genius and character of the languages of the Indian
-nations. At the request of the same Committee, I have endeavoured to
-give some further development of the principles which that grammar
-contains, in a series of letters to their Secretary, which, I am
-informed, are also to be printed. This supersedes the necessity of my
-entering here into more details on this interesting subject. I hope
-the result of these publications will be to satisfy the world that
-the languages of the Indians are not so poor, so devoid of variety of
-expression, so inadequate to the communication even of abstract ideas,
-or in a word so _barbarous_, as has been generally imagined.
-
-
-IV. THE FLORIDIAN.
-
-I call by this generic name, the languages spoken by those Indian
-nations who inhabit the southern frontier of the United States and
-the Spanish Province of Florida. They are the Creeks or Muskohgees,
-Chickesaws, Choctaws, Pascagoulas, Cherokees or Cheerakees, and several
-others. It is said that there once existed among them a powerful
-nation called the Natchez, whose language was the mother tongue
-of all those southern dialects. We are told also of an Apalachian
-nation, who it is said lived in the western parts of Louisiana, and
-were a part of the great nation of the Apalachians, who resided in
-the mountains which bear their name, and whose branches were settled
-under different denominations, in the vast extent of country situated
-between Louisiana, Canada and New England.[138] In this great
-_Apalachian_ nation we cannot help recognising our friends the Lenape,
-or _Wapanachki_, whose name the French in the south have as easily
-corrupted into _Apalaches_, as those in the north into _Abenakis_.
-It was they who gave their name to the Apalachian mountains, once
-so called, but which of late have resumed their former appellation
-of Alligewi, or Allegheny. Mr. Vater thinks that the remains of
-those Apalachians are still to be found in the Catawbas,[139] who
-are sometimes named Chaktawas[140] and probably are the same who by
-contraction are now called Choktaws.
-
-Other writers speak to us of the Mobilians,[141] as the nation from
-which the neighbouring tribes derived their origin, and whose language
-was their mother tongue. The fact is, that we know very little about
-these southern Indians, and on the subject of their languages we have
-nothing to guide our enquiries, but a few words given us by Adair,
-and some that have been collected from various sources by the late
-Dr. Barton. We are not, however, without the means of obtaining full
-and accurate information on this interesting subject, and I hope the
-historical committee will be successful in the measures which they
-are about to take to procure it. Mr. Meigs, the United States agent
-with the Cherokees, Mr. Mitchell, agent to the Creeks, and the Rev.
-John Gambold, who has long lived as a Missionary of the Society of
-the United Brethren with the former of these nations, are well able
-to satisfy their enquiries, and I have no doubt will be happy to give
-their aid to the advancement of the literature of their country.
-
-It is a fact worthy of remark, and much to be regretted, that the
-French and English, who have been so long in possession of the immense
-country extending from Labrador to the Mississippi, have written so
-little respecting the Indian languages of this part of the American
-continent. Among the English, Eliot alone, and among the French, Father
-Sagard, can be said to have published anything on this subject that is
-worth notice. Zeisberger was a German, and Mr. Edwards an American.
-On the contrary, the Spaniards[142] have published a great number of
-grammars and dictionaries of the Indian languages spoken within the
-limits of their American possessions, and deserve much credit for
-these exertions. It is not yet too late for the independent Americans
-to retrieve the neglect of their forefathers; but no time should be
-lost, as the Indian nations are fast disappearing from the face of our
-country, and our posterity may have to regret hereafter that greater
-pains were not taken to preserve the memory of their traditions,
-customs, manners, and LANGUAGES.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-SIGNS AND HIEROGLYPHICS.
-
-
-It has been asserted by many persons that the languages of the
-Indians are deficient in words, and that, in order to make themselves
-understood, they are obliged to resort to motions and signs with
-their hands. This is entirely a mistake. I do not know a nation of
-whom foreigners do not say the same thing. The fact is, that in every
-country, signs and motions with the hands more or less accompany
-discourse, particularly when delivered with a certain degree of
-earnestness and warmth. Foreigners, who are not very conversant with
-a language, pay in general as much and sometimes more attention to
-these motions than to the words of the speaker, in order the better to
-be able to understand what falls from him. Hence, almost every nation
-charges the others with too much gesticulation in speaking. For a
-similar reason, a foreign language is generally thought to be spoken
-quicker than our own, while the truth is, that it is our ear which is
-slow in distinguishing the words, not the voice which speaks that is
-too quick in uttering them.
-
-The Indians do not gesticulate more when they speak than other nations
-do. In their public speeches they will, like our preachers and lawyers,
-enforce what they say by gestures and motions of the body and hands, in
-order to give greater weight to their observations, or to represent the
-subject they speak of in a more lively manner than can be done by words
-alone; but in common conversation they make few of those motions, and
-not more, I believe, than we do ourselves; even the women, who every
-where speak more than the men, never want words to express themselves,
-but rather seem to have too many, and they do not oftener employ
-gestures in aid of their conversation than the vivacity of their sex
-induces them to do every where else.
-
-It is true that the Indians have a language of signs, by which they
-communicate with each other on occasions when speaking is not prudent
-or proper, as, for instance, when they are about to meet an enemy, and
-by speaking they would run the risk of being discovered. By this means
-they also make themselves understood to those nations of Indians whose
-languages they are not acquainted with, for all the Indian nations
-understand each other in this way. It is also, in many cases, a saving
-of words, which the Indians are much intent on, believing that too much
-talking disgraces a man. When, therefore, they will relate something
-extraordinary in a few words, they make use of corresponding signs,
-which is very entertaining to those who listen and attend to them, and
-who are acquainted both with the language and the signs, being very
-much as if somebody were to explain a picture set before them. But they
-never make use of signs to supply any deficiency of language, as they
-have words and phrases sufficient to express every thing.
-
-I have frequently questioned Indians who had been educated at our
-schools, and could understand, read, write, and speak both English and
-German, whether they could express their ideas better in either of
-those languages than in their own, and they have always and uniformly
-answered that they could express themselves with far the greatest ease
-in their own Indian, and that they never were at a loss for words or
-phrases in which to clothe every idea that occurred to them, without
-being in any case obliged to gesticulate or make motions with their
-hands or otherwise. From the knowledge which I have acquired of their
-language, I have reason to be satisfied that it is so. Indeed, how can
-it be doubted, when we have the whole of the Bible and New Testament
-translated into one of their dialects, and when we see our ministers,
-when once familiar with the language of the nation with which they
-reside, preach to them without the least difficulty on the most
-abstruse subjects of the Christian faith? It is true, that ideas are
-not always expressed in those languages in the same words, or under
-the same grammatical forms as in our own; where we would use one part
-of speech, we are obliged to employ another, and one single word with
-them will not seldom serve a purpose for which we would have to employ
-several; but still, the ideas are communicated, and pass with clearness
-and precision from mind to mind. Thus the end of oral language is
-completely obtained, and more, I think, cannot be required.
-
-The Indians do not possess our art of writing, they have no alphabets,
-or[143] any mode of representing to the eye the sounds of words spoken,
-yet they have certain hieroglyphics, by which they describe facts in
-so plain a manner, that those who are conversant with those marks can
-understand them with the greatest ease, as easily, indeed, as we can
-understand a piece of writing. For instance, on a piece of bark, or on
-a large tree with the bark taken off for the purpose, by the side of
-a path, they can and do give every necessary information to those who
-come by the same way; they will in that manner let them know, that they
-were a war party of so many men, from such a place, of such a nation
-and such a tribe; how many of each tribe were in the party; to which
-tribe the chief or captain belonged; in what direction they proceeded
-to meet the enemy; how many days they were out and how many returning;
-what number of the enemy they had killed, how many prisoners they had
-brought; how many scalps they had taken; whether they had lost any of
-their party, and how many; what enemies they had met with, and how
-many they consisted of; of what nation or tribe their captain was,
-&c.; all which, at a single glance, is perfectly well understood by
-them. In the same manner they describe a chase: all Indian nations can
-do this, although they have not all the same marks; yet I have seen
-the Delawares read with ease the drawings of the Chippeways, Mingoes,
-Shawanos, and Wyandots, on similar subjects.
-
-While Indians are travelling to the place of their destination,
-whether it be on a journey to their distant hunting grounds or on a
-war excursion, some of the young men are sent out to hunt by the way,
-who, when they have killed a deer, bear, or other animal, bring it to
-the path, ready to be taken away by those who are coming along, (often
-with horses) to the place of encampment, when they all meet at night.
-Having hung up the meat by the side of the path, these young men make a
-kind of sun-dial, in order to inform those who are coming of the time
-of day it was at the time of their arrival and departure. A clear place
-in the path is sought for, and if not readily found, one is made by the
-side of it, and a circle or ring being drawn on the sand or earth, a
-stick of about two or three feet in length is fixed in the centre, with
-its upper end bent towards that spot in the horizon where the sun stood
-at the time of their arrival or departure. If both are to be noted
-down, two separate sticks are set; but generally one is sufficient,
-namely, for the time of departure.
-
-Hunters have particular marks, which they make on the trees, where
-they strike off from the path to their hunting grounds or place of
-encampment, which is often at the distance of many miles; yet the
-women, who come from their towns to fetch meat from these camps, will
-as readily find them as if they were conducted to the spot.
-
-I shall conclude this chapter with an anecdote, which will at once
-shew how expressive and energetic is this hieroglyphic writing of the
-Indians. A white man in the Indian country, met[144] a Shawanos riding
-a horse which he recognised for his own, and claimed it from him as his
-property. The Indian calmly answered; “Friend! after a little while,
-I will call on you at your house, when we shall talk of this matter.”
-A few days[145] afterwards, the Indian came to the white man’s house,
-who insisting on having his horse restored, the other then told him:
-“Friend! the horse which you claim belonged to my uncle who lately
-died; according to the Indian custom, I have become heir to all his
-property.” The white man not being satisfied, and renewing his demand,
-the Indian immediately took a coal from the fire-place, and made two
-striking figures on the door of the house, the one representing the
-white man taking the horse, and the other, himself, in the act of
-scalping him; then he coolly asked the trembling claimant “whether he
-could read this Indian writing?” The matter thus was settled at once,
-and the Indian rode off.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-ORATORY.
-
-
-The eloquence of the Indians is natural and simple; they speak what
-their feelings dictate without art and without rule; their speeches
-are forcible and impressive, their arguments few and pointed, and when
-they mean to persuade as well as convince, they take the shortest way
-to reach the heart. I know that their oratorical powers have been
-strongly controverted, and this is not astonishing, when we consider
-the prejudice that exists against their languages, which are in general
-believed to be poor, and inadequate to the expression of any but the
-most common ideas. Hence all the specimens that have been given to the
-world of their oratory have been viewed with a suspicious eye; the
-celebrated speech of Logan, authenticated as it is by the respectable
-authority of Col. John Gibson, has been denied to be genuine even
-in this country. For my part, I am convinced that it was delivered
-precisely as it is related to us, with this only difference, that it
-possessed a force and expression in the Indian language which it is
-impossible to transmit into our own.
-
-I hope the exertions and researches of the Historical Committee will
-make the character and genius of the Indian languages better known than
-they have hitherto been. The world will then be better able to judge of
-their extent and powers, and to decide whether or not they are adequate
-to the purposes of oratory. In the meantime, I shall content myself
-with presenting another specimen of Indian eloquence; one which I did
-not receive at second hand, but at the delivery of which I was present
-in person. The translation which I offer will give but a faint idea
-of the strength and spirit of the original; I vouch, however, for its
-being as correct as it has been in my power to make it.
-
-This speech was spoken at Detroit,[146] on the frontier of Canada, on
-the 9th of December,[147] 1801, by Captain Pipe,[148] a chief of the
-Delaware nation, and was addressed to the commanding officer of that
-post, then in possession of the British. The Delawares, it will be
-recollected, had been the steadfast friends of the French, in the war
-of 1756. The peace which was concluded in 1763, between the two great
-nations who then contended for the supremacy of this continent, was not
-for several years regarded by the Indians, and they continued their
-hostilities against the subjects and government of Great Britain. They
-were obliged, however, to submit to superior force; not without hopes
-that their father, the king of France, would soon send over a powerful
-army to retake Canada. They were in this situation when the war of the
-revolution broke out. It is well known that it was a part of the system
-of the British administration to employ the savages to subdue those
-whom they called their revolted subjects. The Delawares, in general, as
-I have before related, having in vain endeavoured to remain neutral,
-took part with the Americans. Captain Pipe, however, with a party of
-the Wolf tribe, joined the English in the beginning of the war, and
-soon after repented it. But it was too late. He was now reluctantly
-compelled to go out against the Americans with the men under his
-command. On his return from one of those expeditions, he went to make
-his report to the British commandant at Detroit,[149] by whom he was
-received in state at the council house, in the presence of a great
-number of Indians, British officers and others. There were several
-Missionaries present, among which I was. The chief was seated in front
-of his Indians, facing the commandant. He held in his left hand an
-human scalp tied to a short stick. After a pause of some minutes he
-rose, and addressing the governor, delivered the following speech:
-
-“FATHER!” (Here the orator stopped, and turning round to the audience,
-with a face full of meaning, and a sarcastic look, which I should in
-vain attempt to describe, he went on in a lower tone of voice, as
-addressing himself to them;)--“I have said _father_, although, indeed,
-I do not know why I am to call _him_ so, having never known any other
-father than the French, and considering the English only as _brothers_.
-But as this name is also _imposed_ upon us, I shall make use of it and
-say: (Here he fixed his eyes on the commandant.)
-
-“FATHER! Some time ago you put a war hatchet into my hands, saying:
-Take this weapon and try it on the heads of my enemies the _long
-knives_, and let me afterwards know if it was sharp and good.
-
-“FATHER! At the time when you gave me this weapon, I had neither cause
-nor inclination to go to war against a people who had done me no
-injury; yet in obedience to you, who say you are my father and call
-me your child, I received the hatchet; well knowing that if I did not
-obey, you would withhold from me[150] the necessaries of life, without
-which I could not subsist, and which are not elsewhere to be procured
-but at the house of my father.
-
-“FATHER! You may, perhaps, think me a fool, for risking my life at
-your bidding, in a cause, too, by which I have no prospect of gaining
-anything; for it is _your_ cause and not mine. It is _your_ concern
-to fight the _long knives_; _you_ have raised a quarrel amongst
-yourselves, and _you_ ought yourselves to fight it out. You should not
-compel your children, the Indians, to expose themselves to danger for
-_your sakes_.
-
-“FATHER! Many lives have already been lost on _your_ account!--Nations
-have suffered and been weakened!--Children have lost parents, brothers
-and relatives!--Wives have lost husbands!--It is not known how many
-more may perish before YOUR war will be at an end!
-
-“FATHER! I have said that you may, perhaps, think me a fool, for thus
-thoughtlessly rushing on _your_ enemy!--Do not believe this, Father!
-Think not that I want sense to convince me, that although you _now_
-pretend to keep up a perpetual enmity to the long knives, you may,
-before long, conclude a peace with them.
-
-“FATHER! You say you love your children, the Indians.--This you have
-often told them; and indeed it is your interest to say so to them, that
-you may have them at your service.
-
-“But, FATHER! who of us can believe that you can love a people of a
-different colour from your own, better than those who have a _white_
-skin, like yourselves?
-
-“FATHER! Pay attention to what I am going to say. While you, Father,
-are setting me[151] on your enemy, much in the same manner as a hunter
-sets his dog on the game; while I am in the act of rushing on that
-enemy of yours, with the bloody destructive weapon you gave me, I may,
-perchance, happen to look back to the place from whence you started
-me, and what shall I see? Perhaps, I may see my father shaking hands
-with the _long knives_; yes, with those very people he now calls his
-enemies. I may, then, see him laugh at my folly for having obeyed his
-orders; and yet I am now risking my life at his command! Father! keep
-what I have said in remembrance.
-
-“Now, FATHER! here is what has been done with the hatchet you gave me.”
-(Handing the stick with the scalp on it.) “I have done with the hatchet
-what you ordered me to do, and found it sharp. Nevertheless, I did not
-do _all_ that I _might_ have done. No, I did not. My heart failed
-within me. I felt compassion for _your_ enemy. _Innocence_[152] had no
-part in your quarrels; therefore I distinguished--I spared. I took some
-_live flesh_,[153] which, while I was bringing to you, I spied one of
-your large canoes, on which I put it for you. In a few days you will
-receive this _flesh_, and _find that the skin is of the same colour
-with your own_.
-
-“FATHER! I hope you will not destroy _what_[154] I have saved. You,
-Father! have the means of preserving that which with me would perish
-for want. The warrior is poor and his cabin is always empty; but your
-house, father! is always full.”
-
-Here we see boldness, frankness, dignity, and humanity happily blended
-together and most eloquently displayed. I am much mistaken if the
-component parts of this discourse are not put together much according
-to the rules of oratory which are taught in the schools, and which
-were certainly unknown to this savage. The peroration at the end is
-short, but truly pathetic, and I would even say, sublime; and then the
-admirable way in which it is prepared! I wish I could convey to the
-reader’s mind only a small part of the impression which this speech
-made on me and on all present when it was delivered.
-
-It is but justice here to say, that Capt. Pipe was well acquainted with
-the noble and generous character of the British officer to whom this
-speech was addressed. He is still living in his own country, an honour
-to the British name. He obeyed the orders of his superiors in employing
-the Indians to fight against us, but he did it with reluctance and
-softened as much as was in his power the horrors of that abominable
-warfare. He esteemed Captain Pipe, and I have no doubt, was well
-pleased with the humane conduct of this Indian chief, whose sagacity
-in this instance is no less deserving of praise than his eloquence. It
-is thus that great minds understand each other, and even in the most
-difficult and trying situations, find the means of making the cause of
-humanity triumph.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-METAPHORICAL EXPRESSIONS.
-
-
-The Indians are fond of metaphors. They are to their discourse what
-feathers and beads are to their persons, a gaudy but tasteless
-ornament. Yet we must not judge them too severely on that account.
-There are other nations besides the American Indians who admire this
-mode of expression. Even in enlightened Europe, many centuries have not
-elapsed since the best and most celebrated writers employed this figure
-in a profuse manner, and thought it a great embellishment to their
-poetical and prose compositions; the immortal Shakspeare, himself, did
-not disdain it.
-
-The following examples will be sufficient to give an idea of the
-metaphorical language of the Indians.
-
-1. “_The sky is overcast with dark blustering clouds._”--We shall have
-troublesome times; we shall have war.
-
-2. “_A black cloud has arisen yonder._”--War is threatened from that
-quarter, or from that nation.
-
-3. “_Two black clouds are drawing towards each other._”--Two powerful
-enemies are in march against each other!
-
-4. “_The path is already shut up!_”--Hostilities have commenced. The
-war is begun.
-
-5. “_The rivers run with blood!_”--War rages in the country.
-
-6. “_To bury the hatchet._”--To make, or conclude a peace.
-
-7. “_To lay down the hatchet, or to slip the hatchet under the
-bedstead._”--To cease fighting for a while, during a truce; or, to
-place the hatchet at hand, so that it may be taken up again at a
-moment’s warning.
-
-8. “_The hatchet you gave me to strike your enemies, proved to be very
-dull, or not to be sharp; my arm was wearied to little purpose!_”--You
-supplied me so scantily with the articles I stood in need of, that I
-wanted strength to execute your orders. The presents you gave me were
-not sufficient for the task you imposed upon me, therefore I did little!
-
-9. “_The hatchet you gave me was very sharp!_”--As you have satisfied
-me, I have done the same for you; I have killed many of your enemies.
-
-10. “_You did not make me strong!_”--You gave me nothing, or but little.
-
-11. “_Make me very strong!_”--Give me much, pay me well!
-
-12. “_The stronger you make me, the more you will see!_”--The more you
-give me, the more I will do for you!
-
-13. “_I did as you bid me, but_ SEE _nothing_!”--I have performed my
-part, but you have not rewarded me; or, I did my part for you, but you
-have not kept your word!
-
-14. “_You have spoken with your lips only, not from the heart!_”--You
-endeavour to deceive me; you do not intend to do as you say!
-
-15. “_You now speak from the heart!_”--Now you mean what you say!
-
-16. “_You keep me in the dark!_”--You wish to deceive me; you conceal
-your intentions from me; you keep me in ignorance!
-
-17. “_You stopped my ears!_”--You kept the thing a secret from me; you
-did not wish me to know it!
-
-18. “_Now I believe you!_”--Done! agreed! It shall be so!
-
-19. “_Your words have penetrated into my heart!_”--I consent! am
-pleased with what you say!
-
-20. “_You have spoken good words!_”--I am pleased, delighted with what
-you have said!
-
-21. “_You have spoken the truth!_”--I am satisfied with what you have
-said!
-
-22. “_Singing birds!_”--Tale bearers--story tellers--liars.
-
-23. “_Don’t listen to the singing of the birds which fly by!_”--Don’t
-believe what stragglers tell you!
-
-24. “_What bird was it that sung that song?_”--Who was it that told
-that story, that lie?
-
-25. (To a chief,) “_Have you heard the news?_”--Have you been
-_officially_ informed?
-
-26. “_I have not heard anything!_”--I have no _official_ information.
-
-27. “_To kindle a council fire at such a place._”--To appoint a place
-where the national business is to be transacted; to establish the seat
-of government there.
-
-28. “_To remove the council fire to another place._”--To establish
-another place for the seat of government.
-
-29. “_The council fire has been extinguished._”--Blood has been shed
-by an enemy at the seat of government, which has put the fire out; the
-place has been _polluted_.
-
-30. “_Don’t look the other way!_”--Don’t lean to _that_ side; don’t
-join with those!
-
-31. “_Look this way!_”--Join us, join our party.
-
-32. “_I have not room to spread my blanket!_”--I am too much crowded on.
-
-33. “_Not to have room enough for an encampment._”--To be too much
-confined to a small district; not to have sufficient range for the
-cattle to feed on, or sufficient hunting ground.
-
-34. “_I will place you under my wings!_”--(meaning under my arm pits)
-I will protect you at all hazards! You shall be perfectly safe, nobody
-shall molest you!
-
-35. “_Suffer no grass to grow on the war path!_”--Carry on the war with
-vigor!
-
-36. “_Never suffer grass to grow on this war path!_”--Be at perpetual
-war with the nation this path leads to; never conclude a peace with
-them.
-
-37. “_To open a path from one nation to another, by removing the logs,
-brush and briars out of the way._”--To invite the nation to which the
-path leads, to a friendly intercourse; to prepare the way to live on
-friendly terms with them.
-
-38. “_The path to that nation is again open!_”--We are again on
-friendly terms; the path may again be travelled with safety.
-
-39. “_I hear sighing and sobbing in yonder direction!_”--I think that a
-chief of a neighbouring nation has died.
-
-40. “_I draw the thorns out of your feet and legs, grease your
-stiffened joints with oil, and wipe the sweat off your body!_”--I make
-you feel comfortable after your fatiguing journey, that you may enjoy
-yourself while with us.
-
-41. “_I wipe the tears from your eyes, cleanse your ears, and place
-your aching heart, which bears you down to one side, in its proper
-position!_”--I condole with you; dispel all sorrow! prepare yourself
-for business! (N. B. This is said when condoling with a nation on the
-death of a chief.)
-
-42. “_I have discovered the cause of your grief!_”--I have seen the
-grave (where the chief was buried.)
-
-43. “_I have covered yon spot with[155] fresh earth; I have raked
-leaves, and planted trees thereon!_”--means literally, I have hidden
-the grave from your eyes; and figuratively, “you must now be cheerful
-again!”
-
-44. “_I lift you up from this place, and set you down again at my
-dwelling place!_”--I invite you to arise from hence, and come and live
-where I live.
-
-45. “_I am much too heavy to rise at this present time!_”--I have too
-much property! (corn, vegetables, &c.)
-
-46. “_I will pass one night yet at this place._”--I will stay one year
-yet at this place.
-
-47. “_We have concluded a peace, which is to last as long as the sun
-shall shine, and the rivers flow with water!_”--The peace we have made
-is to continue as long as the world stands, or to the end of time.
-
-48. “_To bury the hatchet beneath the root of a tree!_”--To put it
-quite out of sight.
-
-49. “_To bury deep in the earth_,” (an injury done)--To consign it to
-oblivion.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII.
-
-INDIAN NAMES.
-
-
-The proper names of Indians are in general given to them after animals
-of various kinds, and even fishes and reptiles. Thus they are called
-the _Beaver_, _Otter_, _Sun-fish_, _Black-fish_, _Rattle-snake_,
-_Black-snake_, &c. They have also other descriptive names, from their
-personal qualities or appearances, and sometimes from fancy or caprice;
-but many of those are given them by the whites, such as _Pipe_,
-_White-eyes_, _Kill-buck_, &c., which are not real Indian names. They
-do not always preserve the names first given to them, but often assume
-a new one after they have come to man’s estate.
-
-Indians, who have particularly distinguished themselves by their
-conduct, or by some meritorious act, or who have been the subjects of
-some remarkable occurrence, have names given to them in allusion to
-those circumstances. Thus, I have known a man whose name would signify
-in our language _the beloved lover_, and one who was named _Met by
-love_. Another, a great warrior, who had been impatiently waiting for
-day-light to engage the enemy, was afterwards called _Cause day-light_,
-or _Make day-light appear_. So, one who had come in with a heavy load
-of turkies on his back, was called _The Carrier of Turkies_, and
-another whose shoes were generally torn or patched, was called _Bad
-Shoes_. All those names are generally expressed in one single word, in
-compounding which the Indians are very ingenious. Thus, the name they
-had for the place where Philadelphia now stands, and which they have
-preserved notwithstanding the great change which has taken place, is
-_Kúequenáku_,[156] which means, _The grove of the long pine trees_.
-
-They have proper names, not only for all towns, villages, mountains,
-valleys, rivers, and streams, but for all remarkable spots, as
-for instance, those which are particularly infested with gnats or
-musquitoes, where snakes have their dens, &c. Those names always
-contain an allusion to such particular circumstance, so that
-foreigners, even though acquainted with their language, will often be
-at a loss to understand their discourse.
-
-To strangers, white men for instance, they will give names derived from
-some remarkable quality which they have observed in them, or from some
-circumstance which remarkably strikes them. When they were told the
-meaning of the name of William Penn, they translated it into their own
-language by _Miquon_, which means a feather or quill. The Iroquois call
-him _Onas_, which in their idiom means the same thing.
-
-The first name given by the Indians to the Europeans who landed in
-Virginia was _Wapsid Lenape_ (white people;) when, however, afterwards
-they began to commit murders on the red men, whom they pierced with
-swords, they gave to the Virginians the name _Mechanschican_, (long
-knives,) to distinguish them from others of the same colour.
-
-In New England, they at first endeavoured to imitate the sound of the
-national name of the _English_, which they pronounced _Yengees_. They
-also called them _Chauquaquock_, (men of knives) for having imported
-those instruments into the country, which they gave in presents to
-the natives.[157] They thought them better men than the Virginians;
-but when they were afterwards cruelly treated by them, and their
-men shipped off to sea, the Mohicans of that country called them
-_Tschachgoos_; and when next the people of the middle colonies began to
-murder them, and called on the Iroquois to insult them and assist in
-depriving them of their lands, they then dropped that name, and called
-the whites by way of derision, _Schwannack_, which signifies _salt
-beings_, or _bitter beings_; for in their language the word _Schwan_,
-is in general applied to things that have a salt, sharp, bitter, or
-sour taste. The object of this name, as well as of that which the
-Mohicans gave to the eastern people, was to express contempt as well as
-hatred or dislike, and to hold out the white inhabitants of the country
-as hateful and despicable beings. I have, however, in many instances
-observed that the Indians are careful not to apply this opprobrious
-name to any white person whom they know to be amicably disposed towards
-them, and whom they are sure to be a good, honest, well-meaning man. I
-have heard them charge their children not to call a particular white
-man _Schwannack_, but _Friend_. This name was first introduced about
-the year 1730. They never apply it to the _Quakers_, whom they greatly
-love and respect since the first arrival of William Penn into the
-country. They call them _Quœkels_, not having in their language the
-sound expressed by our letter R. They say they have always found them
-good, honest, affable and peaceable men, and never have had reason to
-complain of them.
-
-These were the names which the Indians gave to the whites, until
-the middle of the Revolutionary war, when they were reduced to the
-following three:
-
-1. _Mechanschican_ or _Chanschican_ (long knives). This they no longer
-applied to the Virginians exclusively, but also to those of the people
-of the middle states, whom they considered as hostilely inclined
-towards them, particularly those who wore swords, dirks, or knives at
-their sides.
-
-2. _Yengees._ This name they now exclusively applied to the people
-of New England, who, indeed, appeared to have adopted it, and were,
-as they still are, generally through the country called _Yankees_,
-which is evidently the same name with a trifling alteration. They say
-they know the _Yengees_, and can distinguish them by their dress and
-personal appearance, and that they were considered as less cruel than
-the Virginians or _long knives_. The proper English they[158] call
-_Saggenash_.
-
-3. _Quœkels._ They do not now apply this name exclusively to the
-members of the Society of Friends, but to all the white people whom
-they love or respect, and whom they believe to have good intentions
-towards them.
-
-Not only the Delawares, but all the nations round them, make use of
-these names, and with the same relative application. I have myself, in
-1782, while at Detroit, witnessed the Chippeways, who on meeting an
-American prisoner, who was walking about, called out _Messamochkemaan_
-(long knife), though he had no knife, sword, or dirk at his side. I
-was one day about the same time hailed in that manner as I was walking
-up the river, and apprehending that I might be seized as a runaway
-prisoner, I immediately answered: _Kau! Saggenash_; No! an Englishman;
-and they passed on. I might with great propriety make this answer, as I
-was born in England.
-
-In the year 1808, while I was riding with a number of gentlemen through
-Greentown[159] (an Indian town in the State of Ohio), I heard an Indian
-in his house, who through a crevice saw us passing, say in his language
-to his family: “See! what a number of people are coming along!--What!
-and among all these not one _long knife_! _All Yengees!_” Then,
-probably observing me, he said correcting himself, “No! one _Quækel_.”
-
-Such are the observations which the Indians make on the white people,
-and the names which they give to them. They may sometimes be in the
-wrong; but, as they make it their particular study to become acquainted
-with the actions, motions, deportment, and dress of the different
-nations, they seldom commit mistakes, and in general, they apply their
-different names precisely to those whom they are meant to designate or
-describe.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV.
-
-INTERCOURSE WITH EACH OTHER.
-
-
-It is a striking fact, that the Indians, in their uncivilised state,
-should so behave towards each other as though they were a civilised
-people! I have in numerous instances witnessed their meeting together,
-their doing business and conversing with each other for hours, their
-labouring together, and their hunting and fishing in bodies or parties;
-I have seen them divide their game, venison, bear’s meat, fish, &c.,
-among themselves, when they sometimes had many shares to make, and
-cannot recollect a single instance of their falling into a dispute or
-finding fault with the distribution, as being unequal, or otherwise
-objectionable. On the contrary, on such occasions they even receive
-what is allotted to them with thanks; they say “_anischi_” I am
-thankful! as if it was a present given to them.
-
-They certainly (I am here speaking of the men) show a reverence for
-each other, which is visible on all occasions; they often meet for
-the purpose of conversation, and their sociability appears to be
-a recreation to them, a renewal of good fellowship. Their general
-principle, that good and bad cannot mingle or dwell together in one
-heart, and therefore must not come into contact, seems to be their
-guide on all occasions. So, likewise, when travelling, whether they
-are few, or many, they are cheerful, and resigned to the accidents
-which may befal them; never impatient, quarrelsome, or charging any
-one, or one another, with being in fault, or the occasion of what
-had happened; even though one should lose his all by the neglect or
-carelessness of the other, yet they will not fly into a passion, but
-patiently bear with the loss, thinking within themselves that such a
-one feels sorry enough already, and therefore it would be unreasonable
-to add to his pain. They judge with calmness on all occasions, and
-decide with precision, or endeavour so to do, between an accident and a
-wilful act;--the _first_ (they say) they are all liable to commit, and
-therefore it ought not to be noticed, or punished;--the _second_ being
-a wilful or premeditated act, committed with a bad design, ought on the
-contrary to receive due punishment.
-
-To illustrate this subject, I shall relate a few of the cases of this
-description which have come within my knowledge. One morning early, an
-Indian came into the house of another who was yet abed, asking for the
-loan of his gun for a morning hunt, his own being out of repair; the
-owner readily consented, and said: “As my gun is not loaded, you will
-have to take a few balls out of your[160] pouch!” In taking the gun
-down, it, however, by some accident went off, and lodged the contents
-in the owner’s head, who was still lying on the bed, and now expired.
-The gun, it appeared, was loaded, though unknown to him, and the lock
-left in such a condition that by a touch it went off. A cry was heard
-from all sides in the house: O! the _accident_! for such it was always
-considered to have been, and was treated as such.
-
-A hunter went out to kill a bear, some of those animals having been
-seen in the neighbourhood. In an obscure part of a wood, he saw at a
-distance something black moving, which he took for a bear, the whole of
-the animal not being visible to him; he fired, and found he had shot a
-black horse. Having discovered the mistake, he informed the owner of
-what had happened, expressing at the same time his regret that he was
-not possessed of a single horse, with which he could replace the one
-he had shot. What! replied the Indian whose horse had been killed, do
-you think I would accept a horse from you, though you had one to give,
-after you have satisfied me that you killed mine _by accident_? No,
-indeed! for the same misfortune might also happen to me.
-
-An aged Indian who had gone out to shoot a turkey, mistook a black hog
-in the bushes for one of those birds, and shot him; finding out by
-enquiry to whom the hog belonged, he informed the owner of the mistake
-he had made, offering to pay for the hog; which the other, however,
-not only would not accept of, but having brought the meat in, gave
-him a leg of the animal, because he thought that the unfortunate man,
-as well on account of his disappointment, in not feasting on turkey
-as he expected soon to do when he shot the hog, as for his honesty in
-informing of what he had done, was _entitled_ to a share of what he had
-killed.
-
-Two Indians with a large canoe, going down the Muskingum river to
-a certain distance, were accosted by others going by land to the
-same place, who requested them to take their heavy articles, as
-kettles, axes, hoes, &c. into their canoe, which they freely did, but
-unfortunately were shipwrecked at the rocks of White Eyes’s falls (as
-the place is called,) where the whole cargo was lost, and the men saved
-themselves by swimming to the shore. The question being put and fully
-discussed, whether those men with the canoe, who had taken charge of
-the property of the others, and by this neglect lost the whole, were
-not liable to pay for the loss? it was decided in the negative, on the
-following grounds:
-
-1. That the canoe men had taken the articles on board, with the
-pleasing hope that they thereby would oblige their fellow men, and did
-not expect any recompense for that service.
-
-2. That although they might have avoided the danger and the loss, by
-unloading the canoe at the head of the fall, and carrying the cargo by
-land below it, (which was but a short distance,) as was customary, when
-the river was not in a proper state to run through, yet that, had those
-who travelled by land been in the place of those in the canoe, they
-might, like them, have attempted to have run through, as is sometimes
-done with success, and been equally unfortunate.
-
-3. That the canoe men having had all their own property on board, which
-was all lost at the same time, and was equally valuable to them, it
-was clear that they had expected to run safely through, and could not
-have intentionally or designedly brought on themselves and others the
-misfortune which had happened, and therefore the circumstance must be
-ascribed entirely to _accident_.
-
-Such is the disposition of the Indians with regard to those who
-inadvertently meet with a disaster, whereby others are injured.
-They are ready to overlook a fault, and more disposed in such cases
-to commiserate, than to punish; but with those who wilfully and
-intentionally commit aggressions and injure others, they think and act
-quite differently; a malicious person is generally despised, and if he
-intrudes himself into good company, they will, without saying a word,
-steal off one by one, and leave him alone to suffer the mortification
-which it is intended he should feel. For murderers and thieves they
-have no compassion, and punish them according to the nature of their
-crimes, if not publicly, still privately, for they are considered as
-a nuisance, and a disgrace to the nation, and so much so were persons
-of this description considered and despised in former times among the
-Delawares, before the white people came, that it was a rare thing to
-hear of any such being among them. This I have repeatedly been told,
-between the years 1770 and 1780, by Indians of that nation; one of
-whom, when a boy, resided on the spot where Philadelphia now stands,
-when the first house was building there, and assisted in furnishing
-the workmen with fish, and caught rabbits for them; the other, who was
-still older, lived with his parents on the spot where afterwards was
-built Perth Amboy in New Jersey: both were respectable men, highly
-esteemed by all who knew them.
-
-I do not believe that there exists a people more attentive to paying
-common civilities to each other than the Indians are; but this, from
-a want of understanding their language, as well as their customs and
-manners, generally escapes the notice of travellers, although some of
-them, better observers than the rest, have touched upon this subject.
-In more than one hundred instances, I have with astonishment and
-delight witnessed the attention paid to a person entering the house of
-another, where, in the first instance, he is desired to seat himself,
-with the words, “sit down, my friend!” if he is a stranger, or no
-relation; but if a relation, the proper title is added. A person is
-never left standing, there are seats for all; and if a dozen should
-follow each other in succession, all are provided with seats, and the
-stranger, if a white person, with the best. The tobacco pouch next is
-handed round; it is the first treat, as with us a glass of wine or
-brandy. Without a single word passing between the man and his wife,
-she will go about preparing some victuals for the company, and having
-served the visiters, will retire to a neighbour’s house, to inform the
-family of the visit with which her husband is honoured, never grumbling
-on account of their eating up the provisions, even if it were what she
-had cooked for her own family, considering the friendly visit well
-worth this small trouble and expense.
-
-It is true, that among themselves, they expect the same attention and
-hospitality paid to them in return; yet that is not their main object,
-for I have seen a number of instances in which a return was out of the
-question, where poverty would not admit of it, or distance of abode
-put it out of the power of the visiter to return the same civilities
-to his host: when white people are treated in this way, with the best
-entertainment the house affords, they may be sure it is nothing else
-than a mark of respect paid to them, and that the attentions they
-receive do not proceed from any interested view.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
-POLITICAL MANŒUVRES.
-
-
-In the management of their national affairs, the Indians display as
-much skill and dexterity, perhaps, as any people upon earth. When a
-political message is sent to them from a neighbouring nation,[161]
-they generally contrive to send an answer so ambiguously worded, that
-it is difficult to come at their real meaning; they conceive this to
-be the best way of getting rid of a proposal which they do not like,
-because those who sent them the message are for some time, at least, at
-a loss to comprehend the meaning, and not knowing whether the answer is
-favourable or unfavourable, their proceedings are necessarily suspended
-until they can discover its true sense; in this manner have operations
-been sometimes entirely prevented, and matters have remained in the
-same situation that they were in before.
-
-It may be supposed, perhaps, that such an artful manner of treating
-each other might be thought provoking, and cause jealousies and
-disputes among the different parties; such is not, however, the case,
-as nothing insulting is ever contained in those messages; and as
-offence is not meant, it is not taken. The Indians consider it on all
-sides as a kind of diplomatic proceeding, an exercise which tends
-to invigorate the mind, of which they are very fond. It gives them
-opportunities to reflect and think deeply on matters of importance, and
-of displaying their genius, when they have found or discovered the
-secret of an answer sent to them, or hit upon the true meaning of an
-ambiguous message.
-
-At the time of the Revolutionary war I witnessed a curious scene of
-diplomatic manœuvres between two great men of the Delaware nation, both
-of whom had in their time signalised themselves as brave and courageous
-men, and had acquired the character of two great war chiefs. The war
-that I speak of, which had but lately begun, had made it necessary for
-the Indians to consult their present and future safety. Captain White
-Eyes, of the Turtle tribe, who was placed at the head of his nation,
-had its welfare much at heart. He was in favour of their following
-the advice given them by the American Congress, which was to remain
-neutral, and not to meddle in the quarrel between the Americans and
-the parent country. He advised his people, therefore, to remain in
-friendship with both sides, and not to take up arms against either, as
-it might bring them into trouble, and perhaps, in the end, effect their
-ruin.
-
-On the other hand, Captain Pipe, of the Wolf tribe, who resided at
-the distance of fifteen miles, where he had his council fire, was of
-a different opinion, and leaned on the side of the British. He was an
-artful, ambitious man, yet not deficient in greatness of mind, as I
-have shewn in a preceding chapter. But his head at that time was full
-of the wrongs which the Indians had suffered from the Americans, from
-their first coming into the country; his soul panted for revenge, and
-he was glad to seize the opportunity that now offered. He professed
-his readiness to join in proper measures to save the nation, but not
-such measures as his antagonist proposed; what his real object was
-he did not openly declare, but privately endeavoured to counteract
-all that was done and proposed by the other. White Eyes, however, was
-a sensible upright man, and never was deficient in means to support
-his own measures, and extricate himself from the snares with which he
-was on all sides surrounded by Captain Pipe. Thus they went on for
-upwards of two years, Pipe working clandestinely, and keeping his spies
-continually on the watch upon the other, while White Eyes acted openly
-and publicly, as though he knew nothing of what was machinating against
-him.
-
-At last, a circumstance took place which apparently justified Captain
-Pipe in the measures he wished to pursue. In March 1778, a number of
-white people, of those whom we called _Tories_, among whom were M’Kee,
-Eliott, Girty,[162] and several others, having escaped from Pittsburg,
-told the Indians wherever they came, “that they must arm and be off
-immediately, and kill all the Americans wherever they found them, for
-they had determined to destroy all the Indians, and possess themselves
-of their country.” White Eyes, not believing what these men said,
-advised his people to remain quiet, for this report could not be true.
-Pipe, on the contrary, called his men together, and in a speech which
-he addressed to them, pronounced every man an enemy to his country who
-endeavoured to dissuade them from going out against the Americans, and
-said that all such ought to be put to death. Captain White Eyes was
-not disconcerted; he immediately assembled his warriors, and told them
-“that if they meant in earnest to go out, as he observed some of them
-were preparing to do, they should not go without him. He had taken
-peace measures in order to save the nation from utter destruction. But
-if they believed that he was in the wrong, and gave more credit to
-vagabond fugitives, whom he knew to be such, than to himself, who was
-best acquainted with the real state of things; if they had determined
-to follow their advice, and go out against the Americans, he would
-go out with them; he would lead them on, place himself in the front,
-and be the first who should fall. They only had to determine on what
-they meant to do; for his own mind was fully made up not to survive
-his nation, and he would not spend the remainder of a miserable life
-in bewailing the total destruction of a brave people, who deserved a
-better fate.”
-
-This spirited, and at the same time pathetic, speech of Captain White
-Eyes, made such an impression on the minds of the audience, that they
-unanimously declared that they would obey his orders, and listen to
-no person but himself, either white or of their own colour. Indeed,
-there was too much force, too much majesty in this address to be
-resisted; when this was reported to Pipe by his emissaries, he was
-absolutely confounded, and knew not what to do. A few days afterwards,
-the council of the Delaware nation received the most friendly and
-flattering messages from the commandant and Indian agent at Pittsburg,
-cautioning them, “not to listen to those worthless men who had ran off
-from them in the night, and to be assured of the steady friendship of
-the Government of the United States.” Pipe was so put to the blush,
-and took this matter so much to heart, that he soon after threw off
-the mask, permitted his men to go out and murder the Americans, and
-afterwards went off with them to Sandusky, under the protection of the
-British Government. We have seen in a former chapter that he afterwards
-saw how impolitic his conduct had been, and probably wished to retrace
-his steps, but it was too late. He had suffered himself to be misled
-by his passions, excited by the remembrance of former wrongs, and thus
-was betrayed into his injudicious conduct. Perhaps also his jealousy of
-Captain White Eyes, whose superiority his proud mind could not bear,
-did not in a small degree contribute to it. Pipe was certainly a great
-man, but White Eyes was, in my opinion, the greatest of the two. I was
-present when he made the speech which I have related, and never shall
-forget the impression it made upon me.
-
-Thus Indian politicians work and manage matters against each other
-without newspaper wrangles, abuse of character, personal quarrels, or
-open insults. Their ingenuity, when joined to a good cause, generally
-makes them come off victorious. In a bad cause, on the contrary, they
-sure[163] to meet with detection and defeat, as Captain Pipe, for his
-misfortune, sadly experienced.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI.
-
-MARRIAGE AND TREATMENT OF THEIR WIVES.
-
-
-There are many persons who believe, from the labour that they see the
-Indian women perform, that they are in a manner treated as slaves.
-These labours, indeed, are hard, compared with the tasks that are
-imposed upon females in civilised society; but they are no more than
-their fair share, under every consideration and due allowance, of
-the hardships attendant on savage life. Therefore they are not only
-voluntarily, but cheerfully submitted to; and as women are not obliged
-to live with their husbands any longer than suits their pleasure or
-convenience, it cannot be supposed that they would submit to be loaded
-with unjust or unequal burdens.
-
-Marriages among the Indians are not, as with us, contracted for
-life; it is understood on both sides that the parties are not to
-live together any longer than they shall be pleased with each other.
-The husband may put away his wife whenever he pleases, and the woman
-may in like manner abandon her husband. Therefore the connexion is
-not attended with any vows, promises, or ceremonies of any kind. An
-Indian takes a wife as it were on trial, determined, however, in his
-own mind not to forsake her if she behaves well, and particularly if
-he has children by her. The woman, sensible of this, does on her part
-every thing in her power to please her husband, particularly if he is
-a good hunter or trapper, capable of maintaining her by his skill and
-industry, and protecting her by his strength and courage.
-
-When a marriage takes place, the duties and labours incumbent on each
-party are well known to both. It is understood that the husband is to
-build a house for them to dwell in, to find the necessary implements
-of husbandry, as axes, hoes, &c., to provide a canoe, and also dishes,
-bowls, and other necessary vessels for house-keeping. The woman
-generally has a kettle or two, and some other articles of kitchen
-furniture, which she brings with her. The husband, as master of the
-family, considers himself bound to support it by his bodily exertions,
-as hunting, trapping, &c.; the woman, as his _help-mate_, takes upon
-herself the labours of the field, and is far from considering them as
-more important than those to which her husband is subjected, being
-well satisfied that with his gun and traps he can maintain a family in
-any place where game is to be found; nor do they think it any hardship
-imposed upon them; for they themselves say, that while their field
-labour employs them at most six weeks in the year, that of the men
-continues the whole year round.
-
-When a couple is newly married, the husband (without saying a single
-word upon the subject) takes considerable pains to please his wife, and
-by repeated proofs of his skill and abilities in the art of hunting,
-to make her sensible that she can be happy with him, and that she will
-never want while they live together. At break of day he will be off
-with his gun, and often by breakfast time return home with a deer,
-turkey, or some other game. He endeavours to make it appear that it
-is in his power to bring provisions home whenever he pleases, and his
-wife, proud of having such a good hunter for her husband, does her
-utmost to serve and make herself agreeable to him.
-
-The work of the women is not hard or difficult. They are both able and
-willing to do it, and always perform it with cheerfulness. Mothers
-teach their daughters those duties which common sense would otherwise
-point out to them when grown up. Within doors, their labour is very
-trifling; there is seldom more than one pot or kettle to attend to.
-There is no scrubbing of the house, and but little to wash, and that
-not often. Their principal occupations are to cut and fetch in the
-fire wood, till the ground, sow and reap the grain, and pound the corn
-in mortars for their pottage, and to make bread which they bake in
-the ashes. When going on a journey, or to hunting camps with their
-husbands, if they have no horses, they carry a pack on their backs
-which often appears heavier than it really is; it generally consists of
-a blanket, a dressed deer skin for mocksens, a few articles of kitchen
-furniture, as a kettle, bowl, or dish, with spoons, and some bread,
-corn, salt, &c., for their nourishment. I have never known an Indian
-woman complain of the hardship of carrying this burden, which serves
-for their own comfort and support as well as of their husbands.
-
-The tilling of the ground at home, getting of the fire wood, and
-pounding of corn in mortars, is frequently done by female parties,
-much in the manner of those husking, quilting, and other _frolics_
-(as they are called), which are so common in some parts of the United
-States, particularly to the eastward. The labour is thus quickly and
-easily performed; when it is over, and sometimes in intervals, they sit
-down to enjoy themselves by feasting on some good victuals, prepared
-for them by the person or family for whom they work, and which the
-man has taken care to provide before hand from the woods; for this is
-considered a principal part of the business, as there are generally
-more or less of the females assembled who have not, perhaps for a
-long time, tasted a morsel of meat, being either widows, or orphans,
-or otherwise in straitened circumstances. Even the chat which passes
-during their joint labours is highly diverting to them, and so they
-seek to be employed in this way as long as they can, by going round to
-all those in the village who have ground to till.
-
-When the harvest is in, which generally happens by the end of
-September, the women have little else to do than to prepare the daily
-victuals, and get fire wood, until the latter end of February or
-beginning of March, as the season is more or less backward, when they
-go to their sugar camps, where they extract sugar from the maple tree.
-The men having built or repaired their temporary cabin, and made all
-the troughs of various sizes, the women commence making sugar, while
-the men are looking out for meat, at this time generally fat bears,
-which are still in their winter quarters. When at home, they will
-occasionally assist their wives in gathering the sap, and watch the
-kettles in their absence, that the syrup may not boil over.
-
-A man who wishes his wife to be with him while he is out hunting in the
-woods, needs only tell her, that on such a day they will go to such a
-place, where he will hunt for a length of time, and she will be sure
-to have provisions and every thing else that is necessary in complete
-readiness, and well packed up to carry to the spot; for the man, as
-soon as he enters the woods, has to be looking out and about for game,
-and therefore cannot be encumbered with any burden; after wounding
-a deer, he may have to pursue it for several miles, often running
-it fairly down. The woman, therefore, takes charge of the baggage,
-brings it to the place of encampment, and there, immediately enters
-on the duties of housekeeping, as if they were at home; she moreover
-takes pains to dry as much meat as she can, that none may be lost; she
-carefully puts the tallow up, assists in drying the skins, gathers
-as much wild hemp as possible for the purpose of making strings,
-carrying-bands, bags and other necessary articles, collects roots for
-dyeing; in short, does every thing in her power to leave no care to her
-husband but the important one of providing meat for the family.
-
-After all, the fatigue of the women is by no means to be compared to
-that of the men. Their hard and difficult employments are periodical
-and of short duration, while their husband’s labours are constant and
-severe in the extreme. Were a man to take upon himself a part of his
-wife’s duty, in addition to his own, he must necessarily sink under the
-load, and of course his family must suffer with him. On his exertions
-as a hunter, their existence depends; in order to be able to follow
-that rough employment with success, he must keep his limbs as supple
-as he can, he must avoid hard labour as much as possible, that his
-joints may not become stiffened, and that he may preserve the necessary
-strength and agility of body to enable him to pursue the chase, and
-bear the unavoidable hardships attendant on it; for the fatigues of
-hunting wear out the body and constitution far more than manual labour.
-Neither creeks nor rivers, whether shallow or deep, frozen or free from
-ice, must be an obstacle to the hunter, when in pursuit of a wounded
-deer, bear, or other animal, as is often the case. Nor has he then
-leisure to think on the state of his body, and to consider whether his
-blood is not too much heated to plunge without danger into the cold
-stream, since the game he is in pursuit of is running off from him with
-full speed. Many dangerous accidents often befal him, both as a hunter
-and a warrior (for he is both), and are seldom unattended with painful
-consequences, such as rheumatism, or consumption of the lungs, for
-which the sweat-house, on which they so much depend, and to which they
-often resort for relief, especially after a fatiguing hunt or warlike
-excursion, is not always a sure preservative or an effectual remedy.
-
-The husband generally leaves the skins and peltry which he has procured
-by hunting to the care of his wife, who sells or barters them away to
-the best advantage for such necessaries as are wanted in the family;
-not forgetting to supply her husband with what he stands in need of,
-who, when he receives it from her hands never fails to return her
-thanks in the kindest manner. If debts had been previously contracted,
-either by the woman, or by her and her husband jointly, or if a horse
-should be wanted, as much is laid aside as will be sufficient to pay
-the debts or purchase the horse.
-
-When a woman has got in her harvest of corn, it is considered as
-belonging to her husband, who, if he has suffering friends, may give
-them as much of it as he pleases, without consulting his wife, or being
-afraid of her being displeased; for she is in the firm belief that he
-is able to procure that article whenever it is wanted. The sugar which
-she makes out of the maple tree is also considered as belonging to her
-husband.
-
-There is nothing in an Indian’s house or family without its particular
-owner. Every individual knows what belongs to him, from the horse or
-cow down to the dog, cat, kitten and little chicken. Parents make
-presents to their children, and they in return to their parents. A
-father will sometimes ask his wife or one of his children for the loan
-of his horse to go out a hunting. For a litter of kittens or brood
-of chickens, there are often as many different owners as there are
-individual animals. In purchasing a hen with her brood, one frequently
-has to deal for it with several children. Thus, while the principle of
-community of goods prevails in the state, the rights of property are
-acknowledged among the members of a family. This is attended with a
-very good effect; for by this means every living creature is properly
-taken care of. It also promotes liberality among the children, which
-becomes a habit with them by the time they are grown up.
-
-An Indian loves to see his wife well clothed, which is a proof that
-he is fond of her; at least, it is so considered. While his wife is
-bartering the skins and peltry he has taken in his hunt, he will seat
-himself at some distance, to observe her choice, and how she and the
-traders agree together. When she finds an article which she thinks will
-suit or please her husband, she never fails to purchase it for him; she
-tells him that it is _her_ choice, and he is never dissatisfied.
-
-The more a man does for his wife the more he is esteemed, particularly
-by the women, who will say: “This man surely loves his wife.” Some men
-at their leisure hours make bowls and ladles, which, when finished, are
-at their wives’ disposal.
-
-If a sick or pregnant woman longs for any article of food, be it what
-it may, and however difficult to be procured, the husband immediately
-sets out to endeavour to get it. I have known a man to go forty or
-fifty miles for a mess of cranberries to satisfy his wife’s longing. In
-the year 1762 I was witness to a remarkable instance of the disposition
-of Indians to indulge their wives. There was a famine in the land, and
-a sick Indian woman expressed a great desire for a mess of Indian corn.
-Her husband having heard that a trader at Lower Sandusky had a little,
-set off on horseback for that place, one hundred miles distant, and
-returned with as much corn as filled the crown of his hat, for which he
-gave his horse in exchange, and came home on foot, bringing his saddle
-back with him. Squirrels, ducks, and other like delicacies, when most
-difficult to be obtained, are what women in the first stage of their
-pregnancy generally long for. The husband in every such case will go
-out and spare no pains nor trouble until he has procured what is wanted.
-
-In other cases, the men and their wives do not in general trouble
-themselves with each other’s business; but the wife, knowing that the
-father is very fond of his children, is always prepared to tell him
-some diverting anecdote of one or the other of them, especially if he
-has been absent for some time.
-
-It very seldom happens that a man condescends to quarrel with his wife,
-or abuse her, though she has given him just cause. In such a case the
-man, without replying, or saying a single word, will take his gun and
-go into the woods, and remain there a week or perhaps a fortnight,
-living on the meat he has killed, before he returns home again; well
-knowing that he cannot inflict a greater punishment on his wife for
-her conduct to him than by absenting himself for a while; for she is
-not only kept in suspense, uncertain whether he will return again,
-but is soon reported as a bad and quarrelsome woman; for, as on those
-occasions, the man does not tell his wife on what day or at what time
-he will be back again, which he otherwise, when they are on good terms,
-never neglects to do, she is at once put to shame by her neighbours,
-who soon suspecting something, do not fail to put such questions to
-her, as she either cannot, or is ashamed to answer. When he at length
-does return, she endeavours to let him see by her attentions, that she
-has repented, though neither speak to each other a single word on the
-subject of what has passed. And as his children, if he has any, will on
-his return hang about him and soothe him with their caresses, he is, on
-their account, ready to forgive, or at least to say nothing unpleasant
-to their mother. She has, however, received by this a solemn warning,
-and must take care how she behaves in future, lest the next time her
-husband should stay away altogether and take another wife. It is very
-probable, that if at this time they had had no children, he would have
-left her, but then he would have taken his property with him at the
-same time.
-
-On the return of an Indian from a journey, or long absence, he will,
-on entering the house, say, “I am returned!” to which his wife will
-reply,[164] “I rejoice!” and having cast his eyes around, he will
-enquire, whether all the children are well, when being answered in the
-affirmative, he replies, “I am glad!” which for the present is all the
-conversation that passes between them; nor does he relate anything at
-this present time that occurred on his journey, but holds himself in
-readiness to partake of the nourishment which his wife is preparing for
-him. After a while, when the men of the village have assembled at his
-house, his wife, with the rest, hears his story at full length.
-
-_Marriages_ are proposed and concluded in different ways. The parents
-on both sides, having observed an attachment between two young persons,
-negotiate for them. This generally commences from the house where
-the bridegroom lives, whose mother is the negotiatrix for him, and
-begins her duties by taking a good leg of venison, or bear’s meat, or
-something else of the same kind, to the house where the bride dwells,
-not forgetting to mention, that her son has killed it: in return for
-this the mother of the bride, if she otherwise approves of the match,
-which she well understands by the presents to be intended, will prepare
-a good dish of victuals, the produce of the labour of _woman_, such as
-beans, Indian corn, or the like, and then taking it to the house where
-the bridegroom lives, will say, “This is the produce of my daughter’s
-field; and she also prepared it.” If afterwards the mothers of the
-parties are enabled to tell the good news to each other, that the
-young people have pronounced that which was sent them _very good_, the
-bargain is struck. It is as much as if the young man had said to the
-girl, “I am able to provide you at all times with meat to eat!” and
-she had replied, “and such good victuals from the field, you shall
-have from me!” From this time not only presents of this kind are
-continued on both sides, but articles of clothing are presented to the
-parents by each party, by way of return for what they have received,
-of which the young people always have a share. The friendship between
-the two families daily increasing, they do their domestic and field
-work jointly, and when the young people have agreed to live together,
-the parents supply them with necessaries, such as a kettle, dishes or
-bowls, and also what is required for the kitchen, and with axes, hoes,
-&c. to work in the field.
-
-The men who have no parents to negotiate for them, or otherwise choose
-to manage the matter for themselves, have two simple ways of attaining
-their object. The first is: by stepping up to the woman whom they wish
-to marry, saying: “If you are willing I will take you as wife!” when
-if she answer in the affirmative, she either goes with him immediately,
-or meets him at an appointed time and place.
-
-The other mode of celebrating marriage will appear from the following
-anecdote.
-
-An aged Indian, who for many years had spent much of his time among
-the white people, both in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, one day about
-the year 1770 observed, that the Indians had not only a much easier
-way of getting a wife than the whites, but were also more certain of
-getting a _good_ one; “For,” (said he in his broken English,) “White
-man court,--court,--may be one whole year!--may be two year before he
-marry!--well!--may be then got _very good_ wife--but may be _not_!--may
-be _very_ cross!--Well now, suppose cross! scold so soon as get awake
-in the morning! scold all day! scold until sleep!--all one; he must
-keep _him_![165] White people have law forbidding throwing away wife,
-be _he_ ever so cross! must keep _him_ always! Well! how does Indian
-do?--Indian when he see industrious Squaw, which he like, he go to
-_him_, place his two forefingers close aside each other, make two look
-like one--look Squaw in the face--see _him_ smile--which is all one
-_he_ say, _Yes_! so he take _him_ home--no danger _he_ be cross! no!
-no! Squaw know too well what Indian do if _he_ cross!--throw _him_ away
-and take another! Squaw love to eat meat! no husband! no meat! Squaw
-do every thing to please husband! he do the same to please Squaw! live
-happy!”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII.
-
-RESPECT FOR THE AGED.
-
-
-There is no nation in the world who pay greater respect to old age than
-the American Indians. From their infancy they are taught to be kind and
-attentive to aged persons, and never to let them suffer for want of
-necessaries or comforts. The parents spare no pains to impress upon the
-minds of their children the conviction that they would draw down upon
-themselves the anger of the Great Spirit, were they to neglect those
-whom, in his goodness, he had permitted to attain such an advanced age,
-whom he had protected with his almighty power through all the perils
-and dangers of life, while so many had perished by wars, accidents, and
-sickness in various forms, by the incantations of the wizard, or the
-stroke of the murderer, and not a few by the consequences of their own
-imprudent conduct.
-
-It is a sacred principle among the Indians, and one of those moral
-and religious truths which they have always before their eyes, that
-the Great Spirit who created them, and provided them so abundantly
-with the means of subsistence, made it the duty of parents to maintain
-and take care of their children until they should be able to provide
-for themselves, and that having while weak and helpless received the
-benefits of maintenance, education, and protection, they are bound
-to repay them by a similar care of those who are labouring under the
-infirmities of old age, and are no longer able to supply their own
-wants.
-
-Thus, a strong feeling of gratitude towards their elders, inculcated
-and cherished from their earliest infancy, is the solid foundation
-on which rests that respect for old age for which Indians are so
-remarkable, and it is further supported by the well-founded hope
-of receiving the like succours and attentions in their turn, when
-the heavy hand of time shall have reduced them to the same helpless
-situation which they now commiserate in others, and seek by every
-means in their power to render more tolerable. Hence, they do not
-confine themselves to acts of absolute necessity; it is not enough for
-them that the old are not suffered to starve with hunger, or perish
-with cold, but they must be made as much as possible to share in the
-pleasures and comforts of life. It is, indeed, a moving spectacle to
-see the tender and delicate attentions which, on every occasion, they
-lavish upon aged and decrepid persons. When going out a hunting, they
-will put them on a horse or in a canoe, and take them into the woods to
-their hunting ground, in order to revive their spirits by making them
-enjoy the sight of a sport in which they can no longer participate.
-They place them in particular situations, where they are sure that the
-game they are in pursuit of will pass by, taking proper measures at the
-same time to prevent its escape, so that their aged parents and friends
-may, at least, as our sportsmen call it, _be in at the death_. Nor is
-this all; the hoary veterans must also enjoy the honours of the chase;
-when the animal, thus surrounded, is come within reach of their guns,
-when every possibility of escape is precluded, by the woods all around
-being set on fire, they all, young and old, fire together, so that it
-is difficult to decide[166] whose ball it was that brought the animal
-to the ground. But they never are at a loss to decide, and always give
-it in favour of the oldest man[167] in the party. So, when the young
-people have discovered a place where the bears have their haunts, or
-have resorted to for the winter, they frequently take with them to the
-spot, such of the old men as are yet able to walk or ride, where they
-not only have an opportunity of witnessing the sport, but receive their
-full share of the meat and oil.
-
-At home the old are as well treated and taken care of as if they were
-favourite children. They are cherished and even caressed; indulged
-in health and nursed in sickness; and all their wishes and wants are
-anticipated. Their company is sought by the young, to whom their
-conversation is considered an honour. Their advice is asked on all
-occasions, their words are listened to as oracles, and their occasional
-garrulity, nay, even the second childhood often attendant on extreme
-old age, is never with Indians a subject of ridicule, or laughter.
-Respect, gratitude, and love are too predominant in their minds to
-permit any degrading idea to mix itself with these truly honourable and
-generous feelings.
-
-On every occasion, and in every situation through life, age takes the
-lead among the Indians. Even little boys, when going on parties of
-pleasure, were it only to catch butterflies, strictly adhere to this
-rule, and submit to the direction of the oldest in their company, who
-is their chief, leader and spokesman; if they are accosted on the way
-by any person, and asked whither they are going, or any other question,
-no one will presume to answer but their _speaker_. The same rule is
-observed when they are grown up, and in no case whatever will one of a
-party, club or meeting, attempt to assume authority over the leader,
-or even to set him right if he should mistake the road or take a wrong
-course; much less will any one contradict what he says, unless his
-opinion should be particularly asked, in which case, and no other, he
-will give his advice, but with great modesty and diffidence.
-
-And yet there have been travellers who have ventured to assert that old
-people among the Indians are not only neglected and suffered to perish
-for want, but that they are even, when no longer able to take care of
-themselves, _put out of the way of all trouble_. I am free to declare,
-that among all the Indian nations that I have become acquainted with,
-if any one should kill an old man or woman for no other cause than
-that of having become useless or burdensome to society, it would be
-considered as an unpardonable crime, the general indignation would be
-excited, and the murderer instantly put to death. I cannot conceive any
-act that would produce such an universal horror and detestation, such
-is the veneration which is everywhere felt for old age.
-
-Indeed, I have had sufficient reason to be convinced that this
-principle, excellent as it is in itself, is[168] even carried too far
-by the Indians, and that not a little inconvenience is occasioned
-by it. A few instances will make this better understood than any
-explanations that I could give.
-
-In the year 1765, the great body of Christian Indians, after having
-remained sixteen months at and near Philadelphia, were permitted
-to return to their own country, peace having been concluded with
-the Indian nations, who still continued at war, notwithstanding the
-pacification between the European powers. They resolved to open a path
-through the wilderness from the frontier settlements beyond the Blue
-Mountains, directly to Wyoming on the Susquehannah. This path they laid
-off and cut as they proceeded, two, three or four miles at a time,
-according to the nature of the ground and the convenience of water,
-bringing up their baggage by making two or more trips, as they had
-no horses to carry it. Having arrived at the great Pine Swamp, then
-supposed to be about fourteen miles wide, it was found very difficult
-to cut a passage on account of the thickets and of the great number
-of fallen trees which incumbered it; they were, besides, unacquainted
-with that part of the country. An old Indian,[169] however, took the
-lead, and undertook to be their guide. After a tedious march of near
-two weeks, attended with much labour, he brought them across the
-Swamp, to the large creek which borders upon it on the opposite side.
-There they found a very steep mountain, through which no passage could
-be found either above or below. Discouraged at the prospect before
-them, they now saw no alternative but to return the same way they had
-come, and take the route by Fort Allen[170] to Nescopeck, and so up
-the Susquehannah to Wyoming, a distance of nearly one hundred miles
-round. In this difficulty, it fortunately struck their Missionary,
-Mr. Zeisberger, that a certain Indian named David, who was one of
-their party and had followed them all the way, was acquainted with
-that part of the country, and might, perhaps, be able to point out
-to them some better and shorter road. He soon found that he was not
-mistaken. David was perfectly acquainted with the country, and knew a
-good road, through which the party might easily pass, but not having
-been questioned on the subject, had hitherto kept silence, and followed
-with the rest, though he knew all the while they were going wrong. A
-dialogue then took place between him and the Missionary.
-
-ZEISB.--David! You are, I believe, acquainted with this country;
-perhaps you know a better road[171] and a shorter one than that which
-we are going to take.
-
-DAVID.--Yes, I do; there is such a road,[171] which we may easily get
-through, and have a much shorter distance to travel than by that which
-is proposed; I am sure of it.
-
-ZEISB.--What; David! we were all going wrong, and yet you are with us?
-
-DAVID.--Yes, ’tis so.
-
-ZEISB.--And yet you said nothing, and followed with the rest as if all
-had been right!
-
-DAVID.--Yes; the guides are somewhat older than myself; they took the
-lead, and never asked me whether I had any knowledge of the country. If
-they had enquired, I would have told them.
-
-ZEISB.--Will you _now_ tell them?
-
-DAVID.--No, indeed; unless they ask me. It does not become an Indian to
-instruct his elders.
-
-The question was then asked him at the instigation of Mr. Zeisberger,
-when he immediately told them that they must all return to a certain
-spot, six miles back, and then direct their course more to the
-north-east, which would bring them to a gap in the mountain, where they
-could pass through with great ease. They did so, and he followed them,
-and being now desired to take the lead, he did it, and brought them to
-the very spot he had described, and from thence led them all the way to
-Wyoming. This difficult part of the road, in the swamp, has been since
-called _David’s path_, and the state road now passes through it.[172]
-
-This anecdote was told me by Mr. Zeisberger himself, whom I have never
-known to say anything that was not strictly true. I therefore give
-it full credit; the more so, as I have myself witnessed two similar
-instances, with the relation of which I shall conclude this chapter.
-
-The first happened in the year 1791. I had parted by accident from the
-company I was with, and lost my way in the woods. I had with me an
-Indian lad about twelve or thirteen years of age, and wished him to
-take the lead, to which, however, he would not consent. We were at last
-found by our party, who had gone in search of us. I complained to them
-of the boy, for not doing what I had bidden him; but they answered,
-“that he had done right, and that it did not become a _boy_ to walk
-before a _man_ and be his leader.”
-
-The second occurrence of the like kind, took place in the year 1798.
-I was on a journey with two young Indians, from Upper Canada to the
-Muskingum, round the head of Lake Erie.[173] Neither of these Indians
-having ever been in the country we were going to, they received their
-instructions from others before their departure. The leader, however,
-whose name was Leonhard, having once mistaken a path, we travelled
-several miles in a wrong direction, until, at last, I discovered the
-mistake, by our having the Owl creek to our left, when we ought to have
-had it to our right. I observed this to Christian, the young Indian
-in the rear, who coinciding with me in opinion, I desired him to run
-forward to Leonhard, who was far ahead of us, and to bring him back;
-but the lad answered that he _could not do it_. I asked him the reason.
-“It is,” said he, “because I am younger than he is.” “Will you then,”
-replied I, “take _my_ message to him, and tell him that _I_ desire him
-to return to this place, where I will wait for him?” The young man
-immediately consented, went forward to Leonhard, and brought him back,
-on which we took an eastward course through the wood to the Owl creek,
-and, after crossing it, fell into our right path.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-PRIDE AND GREATNESS OF MIND.
-
-
-The Indians are proud but not vain; they consider vanity as degrading
-and unworthy the character of a man. The hunter never boasts of his
-skill or strength, nor the warrior of his prowess. It is not right,
-they say, that one should value himself too much for an action which
-another may perform as well as himself, and when a man extols his own
-deeds, it seems as if he doubted his own capability to do the like
-again when he pleased. Therefore, they prefer in all cases to let their
-actions speak for themselves. The skins and peltry which the hunter
-brings home, the deer’s horns on the roof of his cabin, the horses,
-furniture and other property that he possesses, his apparel and that of
-his family, the visits with which he is honored by the first and best
-men among his nation; all these things show what he is and what he has
-done, and with this he rests satisfied.
-
-So with the warrior; it is enough for him that he is known to be a man
-of spirit and courage by the scalps and prisoners that he brings home;
-he never is seen going about boasting of his warlike exploits, and when
-questioned on the subject, he makes his answer as short as possible.
-Even when he is entering a town with his prisoners and scalps, he does
-not stare about to see whether the people are looking at him, but walks
-his usual steady pace and marches straight forward without appearing to
-see any body. When at some of their particular festivals, every warrior
-is called upon to relate his feats of arms, they make it a point to be
-as brief as possible, leaving it to those who have done but little,
-to swell their actions into importance, and give themselves credit for
-what they have done. I cannot illustrate this subject better than by a
-few anecdotes.
-
-In the year 1779, two war chiefs, the one a young man of the Shawano
-tribe, and the other an old warrior of the Wyandots, living near
-Detroit, much celebrated for his great actions, but who during the
-whole of the Revolutionary war, could not be persuaded to take the
-field against the Americans, met accidentally at my house on Muskingum,
-where they had separately come to pay me a friendly visit. The Shawano
-(whose nation, by the bye, are noted for much talk,) entered upon
-the subject of war, and with much earnestness in words and gestures,
-related the actions he had been engaged in, showing at the same time on
-his arm the mark of a bullet wound. During all this time, the Wyandot,
-smoking his pipe, listened with great attention and apparent surprise;
-and having afterwards to answer, according to custom, by relating
-what he had done, he laid down his pipe, and deliberately drawing off
-his clothes, except the breech-cloth, rose up and said: “I have been
-in upwards of twenty engagements with the enemy and fought with the
-French against the English; I have warred against the southern nations,
-and my body shows that I have been struck and wounded by nine balls.
-These two wounds I received at the same moment, from two Cherokees,
-who, seeing me fall, rested their guns against a tree, and ran up
-with their tomahawks to dispatch me, and take off my scalp. With the
-aid of the Great Spirit I jumped up, just at the moment when they
-were about to give me the stroke. I struck them and they both fell
-at my feet. I took their scalps and returned home.” Thus this grave
-and respectable veteran gave a lesson to the young Shawano, which,
-if he well understood, he, no doubt, ever after remembered; for in a
-few words, and in less than five minutes, he showed him at once the
-contrast between great actions briefly and modestly told, and every
-day occurrences related and dwelt on with pompous minuteness. This
-contrast, indeed, was particularly striking, the more so as the modest
-warrior did not seem to enjoy his triumph, nor to be even conscious
-of the accession to his fame which must result from the publicity of
-the account which he had given. As both parties spoke the Shawano
-language, I well understood every thing they said, and I paid the
-most particular attention to their discourse, which was of itself
-sufficiently interesting.
-
-This passion of the Indians, which I have called _pride_, but which
-might, perhaps, be better denominated _high-mindedness_, is generally
-combined with a great sense of honour, and not seldom produces actions
-of the most heroic kind. I am now going to relate an instance of this
-honourable pride, which I have also witnessed. An Indian of the Lenape
-nation, who was considered as a very dangerous person, and was much
-dreaded on that account, had publicly declared that as soon as another
-Indian, who was then gone to Sandusky, should return from thence, he
-would certainly kill him. This dangerous Indian called in one day at my
-house on the Muskingum to ask me for some tobacco. While this unwelcome
-guest was smoking his pipe by my fire, behold! the other Indian whom he
-had threatened to kill, and who at that moment had just arrived, also
-entered the house. I was much frightened, as I feared the bad Indian
-would take that opportunity to carry his threat into execution, and
-that my house would be made the scene of a horrid murder. I walked to
-the door, in order not to witness a crime that I could not prevent,
-when to my great astonishment I heard the Indian whom I thought in
-danger, address the other in these words: “Uncle, you have threatened
-to kill me--you have declared that you would do it the first time we
-should meet. Now I am here, and we are together. Am I to take it for
-granted that you are in earnest, and that you are really determined
-to take my life as you have declared? Am I now to consider you as my
-avowed enemy, and in order to secure my own life against your murderous
-designs, to be the first to strike you and embrue my hands in your
-blood?--I will not, I cannot do it. Your heart is bad, it is true, but
-still you appear to be a generous foe, for you gave me notice of what
-you intended to do; you have put me on my guard, and did not attempt
-to assassinate me by surprise; I, therefore, will spare you until you
-lift up your arm to strike, and then, uncle, it will be seen which of
-us shall fall!” The murderer was thunderstruck, and without replying a
-word, slunk off and left the house.
-
-The anecdote with which I am going to conclude this chapter, will
-display an act of heroism produced by this elevation of mind which I
-have called _pride_, which, perhaps, may have been equalled, but, I
-dare say, was hardly ever surpassed. In the spring of the year 1782,
-the war chief of the Wyandots of Lower Sandusky sent a white prisoner
-(a young man whom he had taken at Fort M’Intosh) as a present to
-another chief, who was called the _Half-king_ of Upper Sandusky,[174]
-for the purpose of being adopted into his family, in the place of one
-of his sons, who had been killed the preceding year, while at war with
-the people on the Ohio. The prisoner arrived, and was presented to the
-Half-king’s wife, but she refused to receive him, which, according to
-the Indian rule, was, in fact, a sentence of death. The young man was,
-therefore, taken away, for the purpose of being tortured and burnt on
-the pile. While the dreadful preparations were making near the village,
-the unhappy victim being already tied to the stake, and the Indians
-arriving from all quarters to join in the cruel act or to witness it,
-two English traders, Messrs. _Arundel_ and _Robbins_ (I delight in
-making this honourable mention of their names), shocked at the idea of
-the cruelties which were about to be perpetrated, and moved by feelings
-of pity and humanity, resolved to unite their exertions to endeavour to
-save the prisoner’s life by offering a ransom to the war chief, which
-he, however refused, because, said he, it was an established rule among
-them, that when a prisoner who had been given as a present, was refused
-adoption, he was irrevocably doomed to the stake, and it was not in
-the power of any one to save his life. Besides, added he, the numerous
-war captains who were on the spot, had it in charge to see the
-sentence carried into execution. The two generous Englishmen, however,
-were not discouraged, and determined to try a last effort. They well
-knew what effects the high-minded pride of an Indian was capable of
-producing, and to this strong and noble passion they directed their
-attacks: “But,” said they, in reply to the answer which the chief had
-made them, “among all those chiefs whom you have mentioned, there is
-none who equals you in greatness; you are considered not only as the
-greatest and bravest, but as the best man in the nation.” “Do you
-really believe what you say?” said at once the Indian, looking them
-full in the face. “Indeed, we do.” Then, without saying another word,
-he blackened himself, and taking his knife and tomahawk in his hand,
-made his way through the crowd to the unhappy victim, crying out with
-a loud voice: “What have you to do with _my_ prisoner?” and at once
-cutting the cords with which he was tied, took him to his house which
-was near Mr. Arundel’s, whence he was forthwith secured and carried off
-by safe hands to Detroit, where[175] the commandant, being informed
-of the transaction, sent him by water to Niagara, where he was soon
-afterwards liberated. The Indians who witnessed this act, said that it
-was truly heroic; they were so confounded by the unexpected conduct of
-this chief, and by his manly and resolute appearance, that they had not
-time to reflect upon what they should do, and before their astonishment
-was well over, the prisoner was out of their reach.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX.
-
-WARS AND THE CAUSES WHICH LEAD TO THEM.
-
-
-It is a fixed principle with the Indians, that evil cannot come out
-of good, that no friend will injure a friend, and, therefore, that
-whoever wrongs or does harm to another, is his ENEMY. As it is with
-individuals, so it is with nations, tribes, and other independent
-associations of men. If they commit murder on another people, encroach
-on their lands, by making it a practice to come within their bounds and
-take the game from them, if they rob or steal from their hunting camps,
-or, in short, are guilty of any act of unjust aggression, they cannot
-be considered otherwise than as ENEMIES; they are declared to be such,
-and the aggrieved nation think themselves justifiable in punishing
-them. If murder has been perpetrated, revenge is taken in the same way.
-If a lesser injury has been done, a message is sent to the chief of
-the nation to which the wrong-doers belong, to enquire whether the act
-complained of was authorised, if not to give them warning not to permit
-the like thing to be done again. If theft or some other like offence
-has been committed, restitution is at the same time demanded, or such
-reparation as the case admits of, and the chiefs are desired to forbid
-their “young people” to do so any more, or that they will have to abide
-by the consequence.
-
-There are tribes among the Indians, who claim the exclusive right of
-hunting within certain bounds, and will not suffer others to intrude
-and take _their_ game from them, as they call it; and there have
-been instances, when such intruders, being found trespassing after a
-fair warning, have had their ears and noses cut off, and have been
-sent home to tell their chiefs that the next time they came again,
-they should be sent home _without their scalps_. While the Christian
-Indians of the Lenape nation were settled for a few years on the
-land of the Chippeways beyond Detroit, where they had taken refuge
-and were permitted to remain for their safety; though the Chippeways
-professed reverence for them, and called them _Grandfather_, yet they
-were continually complaining of their killing their game. They had no
-objection to their tilling the ground, but every deer, raccoon, or
-other animal which they killed or took, was a cause of displeasure to
-their hosts; and in consequence of that, they pressed them so often to
-remove from their lands, that they at last went off.
-
-When the Indians have determined to take revenge for a murder committed
-by another nation, they generally endeavour to make at once a bold
-stroke, so as to strike their enemies with terror; for which purpose,
-they penetrate into the hostile country as far as they can without
-being discovered, and when they have made their stroke, they leave a
-war club near the body of the person murdered, and make off as quick
-as possible. This war club is purposely left that the enemy may know
-to what nation the act is to be ascribed, and that they may not wreak
-their vengeance on an innocent tribe. It is meant also to let them know
-that unless they take measures to discover and punish the author of the
-original aggression, this instrument will be the means of revenging the
-injury, or, in other words, war will be forthwith declared against them.
-
-If the supposed enemy is peaceably inclined, he will in such case send
-a deputation to the aggrieved nation, with a suitable apology. In
-general the chief sends word, that the act complained of was committed
-without his knowledge, by some of “his foolish young men;” that it was
-altogether unauthorised and unwarranted; that it was highly reprobated
-by himself and his council, and that he would be sorry that on that
-account a breach should be made between the two nations, but, on the
-contrary, wishes for peace; that he is willing to make reparation for
-the offence by condoling with the relations of the person slain and
-otherwise satisfying them. Such an offer is generally accepted, and in
-this manner all differences are adjusted between the parties, and they
-are friends again as they were before. But should the offending nation
-refuse to apologise and sue for peace, war is then immediately declared
-and is carried on with the greatest vigour.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX.
-
-MANNER OF SURPRISING THEIR ENEMIES.
-
-
-Courage, art, and circumspection are the essential and indispensable
-qualifications of an Indian warrior. When war is once begun, each
-one strives to excel in displaying them, by stealing upon his enemy
-unawares, and deceiving and surprising him in various ways. On drawing
-near to an enemy’s country, they endeavour as much as possible to
-conceal their tracks; sometimes they scatter themselves, marching at
-proper distances from each other for a whole day and more, meeting,
-however, again at night, when they keep a watch; at other times they
-march in what is called _Indian file_, one man behind the other,
-treading carefully in each other’s steps, so that their number may not
-be ascertained by the prints of their feet. The nearer they suppose
-themselves to be to the enemy, the more attentive they are to choosing
-hard, stony, and rocky ground, on which human footsteps leave no
-impression; soft, marshy and grassy soils are particularly avoided, as
-in the former the prints of the feet would be easily discovered, and in
-the latter the appearance of the grass having been trodden upon might
-lead to detection; for if the grass or weeds are only bent, and have
-the least mark of having been walked upon, it will be almost certainly
-perceived, in which the sharpness and quickness of the Indians’ sight
-is truly astonishing.
-
-In some instances they deceive their enemies by imitating the cries
-or calls of some animal, such as the fawn, or turkey. They do this so
-admirably well, that they even draw the dam of the one and the mate
-of the other to the spot to which they want to come. In this manner
-they often succeed in decoying the enemies to the place where they
-are lying in ambush, or get an opportunity of surrounding them. Such
-stratagems, however, cannot be resorted to in all seasons; with the
-turkey, it only answers in the spring, and with the fawn’s dam until
-about midsummer. In the same manner, when scattered about in the woods,
-they easily find each other by imitating the song of some birds, such
-as the quail and the rook, and at evening and morning, and particularly
-in the night, the cry of the owl. By this means they all join each
-other, though not at the same time, as they are not, perhaps, all
-within hearing; but the cry of the owl is repeated from time to time
-until they are all assembled.
-
-It is certain that the Indians, by the prints of the feet and by
-other marks and signs perceivable only to themselves, can readily
-discover, not only that men have passed through a particular path or
-line of march, but they can discriminate to what particular nation
-those men belong, and whether they are their friends or their enemies.
-They also sometimes make discoveries by examining obscure places,
-and by that means get informed of an enemy’s design. Nay, there are
-those among them who pretend to be able to discriminate among various
-marks of human footsteps the different nations of those to whom they
-respectively belong. I shall not undertake to assert thus far, but I
-shall relate an anecdote, the truth of which I firmly believe, in proof
-of their extraordinary sagacity in this respect.
-
-In the beginning of the summer of the year 1755, a most atrocious and
-shocking murder was unexpectedly committed by a party of Indians,
-on fourteen white settlers within five miles of Shamokin.[176] The
-surviving whites, in their rage, determined to take their revenge by
-murdering a Delaware Indian who happened to be in those parts and was
-far from thinking himself in any danger. He was a great friend to the
-whites, was loved and esteemed by them, and in testimony of their
-regard, had received from them the name of _Duke Holland_,[177] by
-which he was generally known. This Indian, satisfied that his nation
-was incapable of committing such a foul murder in a time of profound
-peace, told the enraged settlers, that he was sure that the Delawares
-were not in any manner concerned in it, and that it was the act of
-some wicked Mingoes or Iroquois, whose custom it was to involve other
-nations in wars with each other, by clandestinely committing murders,
-so that they might be laid to the charge of others than themselves. But
-all his representations were vain; he could not convince exasperated
-men whose minds were fully bent upon revenge. At last, he offered that
-if they would give him a party to accompany him, he would go with them
-in quest of the murderers, and was sure he could discover them by the
-prints of their feet and other marks well known to him, by which he
-would convince them that the real perpetrators of the crime belonged
-to the Six Nations. His proposal was accepted, he marched at the head
-of a party of whites and led them into the tracks. They soon found
-themselves in the most rocky parts of a mountain, where not one of
-those who accompanied him was able to discover a single track, nor
-would they believe that man had ever trodden upon this ground, as
-they had to jump over a number of crevices between the rocks, and in
-some instances to crawl over them. Now they began to believe that the
-Indian had led them across those rugged mountains in order to give
-the enemy time to escape, and threatened him with instant death the
-moment they should be fully convinced of the fraud. The Indian, true
-to his promise, would take pains to make them perceive that an enemy
-had passed along the places through which he was leading them; here
-he would shew them that the moss on the rock had been trodden down by
-the weight of an human foot, there that it had been torn and dragged
-forward from its place: further he would point out to them that pebbles
-or small stones on the rocks had been removed from their beds by the
-foot hitting against them, that dry sticks by being trodden upon were
-broken, and even that in a particular place, an Indian’s blanket had
-dragged over the rocks, and removed or loosened the leaves lying there,
-so that they lay no more flat, as in other places; all which the
-Indian could perceive as he walked along, without even stopping. At
-last arriving at the foot of the mountain on soft ground, where the
-tracks were deep, he found out that the enemy were eight in number,
-and from the freshness of the footprints, he concluded that they must
-be encamped at no great distance. This proved to be the exact truth,
-for, after gaining the eminence on the other side of the valley, the
-Indians were seen encamped, some having already laid down to sleep,
-while others were drawing off their _leggings_[178] for the same
-purpose, and the scalps they had taken were hanging up to dry. “See!”
-said Duke Holland to his astonished companions, “there is the enemy!
-not of my nation, but Mingoes, as I truly told you. They are in our
-power; in less than half an hour they will all be fast asleep. We need
-not fire a gun, but go up and tomahawk them. We are nearly two to one
-and need apprehend no danger. Come on, and you will now have your full
-revenge!” But the whites, overcome with fear, did not choose to follow
-the Indian’s advice, and urged him to take them back by the nearest and
-best way, which he did, and when they arrived at home late at night,
-they reported the number of the Iroquois to have been so great, that
-they durst not venture to attack them.
-
-This account is faithfully given as I received it from _Duke Holland_
-himself, and took it down in writing at the time. I had been acquainted
-with this Indian for upwards of twenty years, and knew him to be
-honest, intelligent and a lover of truth. Therefore I gave full credit
-to what he told me, and as yet have had no reason to disbelieve or even
-to doubt it. I once employed him to save the life of a respectable
-gentleman, now residing at Pittsburg, who was in imminent danger of
-being killed by a war party. Duke Holland conducted him safely through
-the woods, from the Muskingum to the Ohio settlement. He once found a
-watch of mine, which had been sent to me from Pittsburg by a man who
-had got drunk, and lost it in the woods about fifty miles from the
-place where I lived. Duke Holland went in search of it, and having
-discovered the tracks of the man to whom it had been entrusted, he
-pursued them until he found the lost article, which he delivered to me.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI.
-
-PEACE MESSENGERS.
-
-
-While the American Indians remained in the free and undisturbed
-possession of the land which God gave to them, and even for a long time
-after the Europeans had settled themselves in their territory, there
-was no people upon earth who paid a more religious respect than they
-did to the sacred character of the ambassadors, or (as they call them)
-_Messengers of peace_. It is too well known that since about the middle
-of the last century a great change has taken place, the cause of which,
-I am sorry to say, the Indians lay entirely to our charge.
-
-The inviolability of the person of an ambassador is one of those
-sacred fundamental principles of the law of nature which the Almighty
-Creator has imprinted upon the heart of every living man. History
-teaches us that the most barbarous and savage nations have at all times
-admitted and carried it into practice. It is a lamentable truth that
-all the violations of it that stand upon record, are to be ascribed to
-civilised man or to his contagious example.
-
-It is certain that among our Indians the person of an ambassador was
-formerly held most sacred and inviolable. All the nations and tribes
-were agreed upon this point, that a messenger, though sent by the most
-hostile people, was entitled not only to respect but to protection. To
-have, I will not say murdered, but knowingly ill treated a person of
-this description, was with them an unpardonable crime. War parties were
-always instructed, if they should find a messenger on his way from one
-nation to another, not only to give him protection but hospitality,
-and see him safely conducted to the people to whom he was sent.
-
-In the same manner, when a messenger was sent to them by a nation with
-whom they were at war or at variance, though they might be ever so much
-exasperated against them, and even though they had firmly determined
-_not to listen_, that is to say, not to consent to their propositions,
-whatever they might be, still they would grant their protection to the
-man of peace, and tell him in their expressive language “that they had
-taken him under their wings, or placed him under their arm pits, where
-he was perfectly safe.” It was with them a point of religious belief,
-that pacific messengers were under the special protection of the Great
-Spirit, that it was unlawful to molest them, and that the nation which
-should be guilty of so enormous a crime would surely be punished by
-being unsuccessful in war, and perhaps, by suffering a total defeat.
-Therefore, frequent instances happened of such messengers being
-sent back with the most threatening messages, such as, that it was
-determined to wage a war of blood and destruction, and that no quarter
-would be given, yet the ambassadors themselves did not meet with the
-least insult or disrespect; they were protected during all the time
-that they remained in the hostile country, and were safely conducted
-to their own nation, or at least, so far on their way as to be out of
-danger from the enemy’s warriors, leaving them a sufficient time to
-reach their houses, before a fresh stroke was made, to give notice
-that the truce was at an end or that the war was begun. I have heard
-of messengers being sent back with a message to this effect: “I return
-to your bosom, safe and unmolested, the messengers you sent me. The
-answer to the speech they brought me from you, you will learn from my
-young warriors, who are gone to _see_ you.” The nature of the _visit_
-thus announced may be easily guessed at. The message was in fact a
-declaration of war, with a fair notice that an invasion of the enemy’s
-country was immediately to take place.
-
-Such were the principles, such was the manly conduct of the Indians
-in former times. How different it is at present I need not say. We
-yet remember the unhappy fate of Messrs. _Trueman_, _Freeman_, and
-_Hardin_. These three respectable American gentlemen, were in the year
-1792, sent to the Indians with flags of truce and peace proposals, and
-were all wantonly murdered.[179] To whom is this horrid state of things
-to be attributed? I will not pretend to judge, but let us hear what the
-Indians say.
-
-The principal reasons which they assign as having brought about this
-great change, are comprised under the following general heads.
-
-I. That the white people have intermeddled with their national
-concerns, by dictating to one nation how they should treat another, and
-even how they should speak and what they should say to them, and by
-this means have entirely destroyed their national independence. That
-they have even encouraged and supported one Indian nation in not only
-affecting but actually exercising dominion and supremacy over all the
-others.
-
-II. That the whites have treated the Indians as a contemptible race and
-paid no regard themselves to the sacred character of messengers, but
-murdered them as well as their chiefs in numerous instances without
-distinction. That they even polluted what among them is esteemed most
-holy and inviolable, their _council fires_, extinguishing them (as they
-express themselves) with streams of the best blood of their nation, in
-violation of their professions and most solemn promises! That their
-whole conduct in short has appeared as if they would say to them: “We
-do not care for you; we despise you--all we want is your lands, and
-those we will have.”
-
-Nor are they at a loss when called upon to specify the particular
-injuries of which they complain. Amidst a long list of similar
-grievances, I shall select a few of the most prominent.
-
-1. The protection given against them to the Iroquois, encouraging that
-nation to insult them, to treat them as women made such by conquest,
-and to exercise a tyrannical superiority over them.
-
-2. The murder of the Conestogo Indians, at the very place where a
-_council fire_ was burning at the time; where treaties had been held
-with them in early times, and where even a treaty had been concluded
-in 1762, the year preceding the murder; and that too in the country of
-their brother _Miquon_, in the _Quaker_ country, in Pennsylvania.
-
-3. The horrid murder committed between the years 1776 and 1779, on the
-great and much valued Shawano chief _Cornstalk_, at Kanhawa, where it
-was known that he was on a friendly and interesting errand.[180]
-
-4. The firing upon and severely wounding a noted Shawano in the year
-1774, while on his return from Pittsburgh, to which place he had,
-out of friendship and humanity, conducted several white traders and
-protected them against an enraged body of Indians, on whose relations
-the white people had committed most horrid murders.
-
-5. The attacking the peaceable encampment of the Delaware chiefs on the
-island at Pittsburgh, where one _Messenger_ and several others were
-murdered.
-
-6. The murder of the Christian Indians on Muskingum, by Williamson’s
-party, together with the chief from _Achsinning_, (the standing stone,)
-although the persons thus murdered were known to be friends to the
-whites.
-
-The Indians relate many more outrages committed on _messengers_,
-_visiters_, and other _friendly_ Indians, of which I shall spare the
-painful recital to my readers. From this series of unjust and cruel
-acts, the Indian nations, have at last come to the conclusion that the
-Americans are in their hearts inimical to them, and that when they send
-them messengers of peace, they only mean to lull them into a fancied
-security, that they may the easier fall upon and destroy them. It was
-in consequence of this conviction that the three respectable gentlemen
-whom I have already mentioned, met with their unhappy fate.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXII.
-
-TREATIES.
-
-
-In early times, when Indian nations, after long and bloody wars, met
-together, for the purpose of adjusting their differences, or concluding
-a peace with each other, it was their laudable custom, as a token of
-their sincerity, to remove out of the place where the peacemakers
-were sitting, all warlike weapons and instruments of destruction, of
-whatever form or shape. “For,” said they, “when we are engaged in a
-good work, nothing that is bad must be visible. We are met together to
-forgive and forget, to _bury_ the destructive weapon, and put it quite
-out of sight; we cast away from us the fatal instrument that has caused
-so much grief to our wives and children, and has been the source of
-so many tears. It is our earnest hope and wish that it may never be
-dug up again.” So particular were they on this point, that if a single
-weapon had been in sight, while a treaty was negotiating, it would
-have disturbed their minds by recalling the memory of past events, and
-instead, (as they say) of gladdening their hearts, by the prospect of a
-speedy peace, would, on the contrary, have filled them with sorrow.
-
-Nor would they even permit any warlike weapons to remain within the
-limits of their _council fire_, when assembled together about the
-ordinary business of government. It might, they said, have a bad
-effect, and defeat the object for which they had met. It might be a
-check on some of the persons assembled, and perhaps, prevent those who
-had a just complaint or representation to make, from speaking their
-minds freely. William Penn, said they, when he treated with them,
-adopted this ancient mode of their ancestors, and convened them under
-a grove of shady trees, where the little birds on their boughs were
-warbling their sweet notes. In commemoration of these conferences
-(which are always to Indians a subject of pleasing remembrance) they
-frequently assembled together in the woods, in some shady spot as
-nearly as possible similar to those where they used to meet their
-brother _Miquon_, and there lay all his “_words_” or speeches, with
-those of his descendants, on a blanket or clean piece of bark, and with
-great satisfaction go successively over the whole. This practice (which
-I have repeatedly witnessed) continued until the year 1780, when the
-disturbances which then took place put an end to it, probably for ever.
-
-These pleasing remembrances, these sacred usages are no more. “When we
-treat with the white people,” do the Indians now say, “we have not the
-choice of the spot where the messengers are to meet. When we are called
-upon to conclude a peace, (and what a peace?) the meeting no longer
-takes place in the shady grove, where the innocent little birds with
-their cheerful songs, seem as if they wished to soothe and enliven our
-minds, tune them to amity and concord and take a part in the good work
-for which we are met. Neither is it at the sacred council house, that
-we are invited to assemble. No!--It is at some of those horrid places,
-surrounded with mounds and ditches, where the most destructive of all
-weapons, where _great guns_ are gaping at us with their wide mouths,
-as if ready to devour us; and thus we are prevented from speaking our
-minds freely as brothers ought to do!”
-
-How then, say they, can there be any sincerity in such councils? how
-can a treaty of this kind be binding on men thus forced to agree to
-what is dictated to them in a strong prison and at the cannon’s mouth;
-where all the stipulations are on one side, where all is concession
-on the one part and no friendship appears on the other? From these
-considerations, which they urge and constantly dwell upon, the treaties
-which they make with the white men have lost all their force, and they
-think themselves no longer bound by them than they are compelled by
-superior power. Are they right in this or are they wrong? The impartial
-reader must decide.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIII.
-
-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE INDIANS ON THE WHITE PEOPLE.
-
-
-The Indians believe that the Whites were made by the same Great Spirit
-who created them, and that he assigned to each different race of men
-a particular employment in this world, but not the same to all. To
-the whites the great Mannitto gave it in charge to till the ground
-and raise by cultivation the fruits of the earth; to the Indians he
-assigned the nobler employment of hunting, and the supreme dominion
-over all the rest of the animal creation.
-
-They will not admit that the whites are superior beings. They say
-that the hair of their heads, their features, the various colours of
-their eyes, evince that they are not like themselves _Lenni Lenape_,
-an ORIGINAL PEOPLE, a race of men that has existed unchanged from
-the beginning of time; but they are a _mixed_ race, and therefore a
-_troublesome_ one; wherever they may be, the Great Spirit, knowing the
-wickedness of their disposition, found it necessary to give them a
-great Book,[181] and taught them how to read it, that they might know
-and observe what he wished them to do and to abstain from. But they,
-the Indians, have no need of any such book to let them know the will of
-their Maker; they find it engraved on their own hearts; they have had
-sufficient discernment given to them to distinguish good from evil, and
-by following that guide, they are sure not to err.
-
-It is true, they confess, that when they first saw the whites, they
-took them for beings of a superior kind. They did not know but that
-they had been sent to them from the abode of the Great Spirit for some
-great and important purpose. They therefore, welcomed them, hoping to
-be made happier by their company. It was not long, however, before they
-discovered their mistake, having found them an ungrateful, insatiable
-people, who, though the Indians had given them as much land as was
-necessary to raise provisions for themselves and their families, and
-pasture for their cattle, wanted still to have more, and at last would
-not be contented with less than the _whole country_. “And yet,” say
-those injured people, “these white men would always be telling us of
-their great Book which God had given to them, they would persuade us
-that every man was good who believed in what the Book said, and every
-man was bad who did not believe in it. They told us a great many
-things, which they said were written in the good Book, and wanted us
-to believe it all. We would probably have done so, if we had seen them
-practise what they pretended to believe, and act according to the _good
-words_ which they told us. But no! while they held their big Book in
-one hand, in the other they had murderous weapons, guns and swords,
-wherewith to kill us, poor Indians! Ah! and they did so too, they
-killed those who believed in their Book, as well as those who did not.
-They made no distinction!”
-
-They, nevertheless, are sensible that they have many friends among the
-white people, and only regret that from their being scattered and at
-a distance, they cannot be useful to them and to each other. Of those
-whom they know to be their friends, they always speak with warmth and
-affection. They also speak of the _Gentellemaan_ (gentlemen) as a
-particular class among the whites which deserves to be distinguished;
-but they never apply that descriptive title to a person whom they know
-to be their enemy, or believe to be ill disposed towards them.
-
-The Indians have a keen eye; by looking at a person, they think that
-they can judge of his friendly or unfriendly disposition to their race;
-and, indeed, it has been allowed by many whites who have lived among
-them, that they are, in general, pretty good physiognomists. They are
-very quick among themselves in giving a name to a stranger or person
-of note that comes to them, and that name is always significant or
-descriptive of something remarkable which they have observed about his
-person, which serves them to remember him as a friend or otherwise,
-as the case may be; when they believe a person to be their friend,
-they will do everything in their power to oblige him, it being their
-principle that “good ought always to be rewarded with good.” They
-prefer a plain man, simple in his manners and who treats them with
-frankness and familiarity. Such a man, they say, loves them. From a
-proud haughty man they do not expect friendship; whatever may be his
-professions, they think him incapable of loving anybody but himself, or
-perhaps, at most, his equal, and that, they think, an Indian can, in
-his opinion, never be.
-
-They sometimes amuse themselves by passing in review those customs of
-the white people which appear to them most striking. They observe,
-amongst other things, that when the whites meet together, many of them,
-and sometimes all, speak at the same time, and they wonder how they
-can thus hear and understand each other. “Among us,” they say “only
-one person speaks at a time, and the others listen to him until he has
-done, after which, and not before, another begins to speak.” They say
-also that the whites speak too much, and that much talk disgraces a
-man and is fit only for women. On this subject they shrewdly observe,
-that it is well for the whites that they have the art of writing, and
-can write down their words and speeches; for had they, like themselves,
-to transmit them to posterity by means of strings and belts of wampum,
-they would want for their own use all the wampum that could be made,
-and none would be left for the Indians.
-
-They wonder that the white people are striving so much to get rich, and
-to heap up treasures in this world which they cannot carry with them to
-the next. They ascribe this to pride and to the desire of being called
-rich and great. They say that there is enough in this world to live
-upon, without laying anything by, and as to the next world, it contains
-plenty of everything, and they will find all their wants satisfied
-when they arrive there. They, therefore, do not lay up any stores, but
-merely take with them when they die as much as is necessary for their
-journey to the world of spirits.
-
-They believe, or, at least, pretend to believe, that the white people
-have weak eyes, or are near-sighted. “For,” say they, “when we Indians
-come among them, they crowd quite close up to us, stare at us, and
-almost tread upon our heels to get nearer. We, on the contrary, though,
-perhaps, not less curious than they are, to see a new people or a
-new object, keep at a reasonable distance, and yet see what we wish
-to see.” They also remark, that when the white people meet together,
-they speak very loud, although near to each other, from whence they
-conclude that they must be hard of hearing. “As to us,” they say, “we
-never speak loud when we come together, and yet we understand each
-other distinctly; we only speak in a high tone of voice before a public
-audience, in council, at the head of our warriors, or when we are met
-together for some important purpose.”
-
-The Indians also observe, that the white people must have a great many
-thieves among them, since they put locks to their doors, which shews
-great apprehension that their property otherwise would not be safe:
-“As to us,” say they, “we entertain no such fears; thieves are very
-rare among us, and we have no instance of any person breaking into a
-house. Our Indian lock is, when we go out, to set the corn pounder or a
-billet of wood against the door, so that it may be seen that no body is
-within, and there is no danger that any Indian would presume to enter
-a house thus secured.” Let me be permitted to illustrate this by an
-anecdote.
-
-In the year 1771, while I was residing on the Big Beaver, I passed
-by the door of an Indian, who was a trader, and had consequently
-a quantity of goods in his house. He was going with his wife to
-Pittsburg, and they were shutting up the house, as no person remained
-in it during their absence. This shutting up was nothing else than
-putting a large hominy pounding-block, with a few sticks of wood
-outside against the door, so as to keep it closed. As I was looking
-at this man with attention while he was so employed, he addressed
-me in these words: “See my friend, this is an Indian lock that I am
-putting to my door.” I answered, “Well enough; but I see you leave much
-property in the house, are you not afraid that those articles will be
-stolen while you are gone?”--“Stolen! by whom?”--“Why, by Indians, to
-be sure.”--“No, no,” replied he, “no Indian would do such a thing, and
-unless a white man or white people should happen to come this way, I
-shall find all safe on my return.”
-
-The Indians say, that when the white people encamp in the woods they
-are sure to lose something; that when they are gone, something or
-another is always found which they have lost, such as a knife, flints,
-bullets, and sometimes even money. They also observe that the whites
-are not so attentive as they are to choosing an open dry spot for their
-encampment; that they will at once set themselves down in any dirty
-and wet place, provided they are under large trees; that they never
-look about to see which way the wind blows, so as to be able to lay the
-wood for their fires in such a position that the smoke may not blow
-on them; neither do they look up the trees to see whether there are
-not dead limbs that may fall on them while they are asleep; that any
-wood will do for them to lay on their fires, whether it be dry or wet,
-and half rotten, so that they are involved during the whole night in
-a cloud of smoke; or they take such wood as young green oak, walnut,
-cherry, chestnut, &c, which throws sparks out to a great distance, so
-that their blankets and clothes get holes burned in them, and sometimes
-their whole camp takes fire. They also remark that the whites hang
-their kettles and pots over a fire just kindled, and before the great
-body of smoke has passed away.
-
-They, however, acknowledge that the whites are ingenious, that they
-make axes, guns, knives, hoes, shovels, pots and kettles, blankets,
-shirts, and other very convenient articles, to which they have now
-become accustomed, and which they can no longer do without. “Yet,”
-say they, “our forefathers did without all these things, and we have
-never heard, nor has any tradition informed us that they were at a loss
-for the want of them; therefore we must conclude that they also were
-ingenious; and, indeed, we know that they were; for they made axes of
-stone to cut with, and bows and arrows to kill the game: they made
-knives and arrows’ points with sharp flint stones and bones, hoes and
-shovels from the shoulder blade of the elk and buffaloe; they made
-pots of clay, garments of skins, and ornaments with the feathers of
-the turkey, goose and other birds. They were not in want of anything,
-the game was plenty and tame, the dart shot from our arrows did not
-frighten them as the report of the gun now does; we had therefore
-everything that we could reasonably require; we lived happy!”
-
-Finally, they think, that the white people have learned much of them in
-the art of war; for when they first began to fight the Indians, they
-stood all together in a cluster, and suffered themselves to be shot
-down like turkies. They also make a distinction between a _warrior_ and
-a _murderer_, which, as they explain it, is not much to our advantage.
-“It is not,” say they, “the number of scalps alone which a man brings
-with him that prove him to be a brave warrior. Cowards have been known
-to return, and bring scalps home, which they had taken where they knew
-there was no danger, where no attack was expected and no opposition
-made. Such was the case with those who killed the Conestogoes at and
-near Lancaster, the Christian Indians on the Muskingum, the friendly
-Indians near Pittsburg, and a great number of scattered, peaceable men
-of our nation, who were all murdered by _cowards_. It was not thus that
-the _Black Snake_,[182] the great General Wayne acted; he was a true
-warrior and a brave man; he was equal to any of the chiefs that we
-have, equal to any that we ever had.”
-
-Thus, the Indians, while they deeply resent the wrongs and injuries
-which they have suffered, yet pay due homage to worth, bravery, and
-military skill, even in an enemy. Strong as their feelings are, they do
-not extinguish their sense of justice, and they are still generously
-disposed to allow that there are great and good individuals among a
-race of men, who, they believe, have doomed them to utter destruction.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIV.
-
-FOOD AND COOKERY.
-
-
-The principal food of the Indians consists of the game which they
-take or kill in the woods, the fish out of the waters, and the
-maize, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, melons, and
-occasionally cabbages and turnips, which they raise in their fields;
-they make use also of various roots of plants, fruits, nuts, and
-berries out of the woods, by way of relish or as a seasoning to their
-victuals, sometimes also from necessity.
-
-They commonly make two meals every day, which, they say, is enough.
-If any one should feel hungry between meal-times, there is generally
-something in the house ready for him.
-
-The hunter prefers going out with his gun on an empty stomach; he says,
-that hunger stimulates him to exertion by reminding him continually
-of his wants, whereas a full stomach makes a hunter easy, careless,
-and lazy, ever thinking of his home and losing his time to no purpose.
-With all their industry, nevertheless, and notwithstanding this strong
-stimulant, many a day passes over their heads that they have not met
-with any kind of game, nor consequently tasted a morsel of victuals;
-still they go on with their chase, in hopes of being able to carry some
-provisions home, and do not give up the pursuit until it is so dark
-that they can see no longer.
-
-The morning and evening, they say, are the precious hours for the
-hunter. They lose nothing by sleeping in the middle of the day, that is
-to say, between ten o’clock in the morning and four in the afternoon,
-except in dark, cloudy, and rainy weather, when the whole day is nearly
-equally good for hunting. Therefore the hunter, who happens to have no
-meat in the house, will be off and in the woods before daylight, and
-strive to be in again for breakfast with a deer, turkey, goose, bear,
-or raccoon, or some other game then in season. Meanwhile, his wife
-has pounded her corn, now boiling on the fire, and baked her bread,
-which gives them a good breakfast. If, however, the husband is not
-returned by ten o’clock in the forenoon, the family take their meal by
-themselves, and his share is put aside for him when he comes home.
-
-The Indians have a number of manners of preparing their corn. They
-make an excellent pottage of it, by boiling it with fresh or dried
-meat (the latter pounded), dried pumpkins, dry beans, and chestnuts.
-They sometimes sweeten it with sugar or molasses from the sugar-maple
-tree. Another very good dish is prepared by boiling with their corn or
-maize, the washed kernels of the shell-bark or hickory nut. They pound
-the nuts in a block or mortar, pouring a little warm water on them,
-and gradually a little more as they become dry, until, at last, there
-is a sufficient quantity of water, so that by stirring up the pounded
-nuts the broken shells separate from the liquor, which from the pounded
-kernels assumes the appearance of milk. This being put into the kettle
-and mixed with the pottage gives it a rich and agreeable flavour. If
-the broken shells do not all freely separate by swimming on the top or
-sinking to the bottom, the liquor is strained through a clean cloth,
-before it is put into the kettle.
-
-They also prepare a variety of dishes from the pumpkin, the squash, and
-the green French or kidney beans; they are very particular in their
-choice of pumpkins and squashes, and in their manner of cooking them.
-The women say that the less water is put to them, the better dish they
-make, and that it would be still better if they were stewed without any
-water, merely in the steam of the sap which they contain. They cover up
-the pots in which they cook them with large leaves of the pumpkin vine,
-cabbages, or other leaves of the larger kind. They make an excellent
-preserve from the cranberry and crab-apple, to which, after it has been
-well stewed, they add a proper quantity of sugar or molasses.
-
-Their bread is of two kinds; one made up of green corn while in the
-milk, and another of the same grain when fully ripe and quite dry.
-This last is pounded as fine as possible, then sifted and kneaded into
-dough, and afterwards made up into cakes of six inches in diameter and
-about an inch in thickness, rounded off on the edge. In baking these
-cakes, they are extremely particular; the ashes must be clean and hot,
-and if possible come out of good dry oak barks, which they say gives
-a brisk and durable heat. In the dough of this kind of bread, they
-frequently mix boiled pumpkins, green or dried, dry beans, or well
-pared chestnuts, boiled in the same manner, dried venison well pounded,
-whortleberries, green or dry, but not boiled, sugar and other palatable
-ingredients. For the other kind of bread, the green corn is either
-pounded or mashed, is put in broad green corn blades, generally filled
-in with a ladle, well wrapped up, and baked in the ashes, like the
-other. They consider this as a very delicate morsel, but to me it is
-too sweet.
-
-Their _Psindamócan_ or _Tassmanánc_, as they call it, is the most
-nourishing and durable food made out of the Indian corn. The blue
-sweetish kind is the grain which they prefer for that purpose. They
-parch it in clean hot ashes, until it bursts, it is then sifted and
-cleaned, and pounded in a mortar into a kind of flour, and when they
-wish to make it very good, they mix some sugar with it. When wanted for
-use, they take about a table spoonful of this flour in their mouths,
-then stooping to the river or brook, drink water to it. If, however,
-they have a cup or other small vessel at hand, they put the flour in
-it and mix it with water, in the proportion of one table spoonful to a
-pint. At their camps they will put a small quantity in a kettle with
-water and let it boil down, and they will have a thick pottage. With
-this food, the traveller and warrior will set out on long journeys and
-expeditions, and as a little of it will serve them for a day, they have
-not a heavy load of provisions to carry. Persons who are unacquainted
-with this diet ought to be careful not to take too much at a time, and
-not to suffer themselves to be tempted too far by its flavour; more
-than one or two spoonfuls at most at any one time or at one meal is
-dangerous; for it is apt to swell in the stomach or bowels, as when
-heated over a fire.
-
-Their meat they either boil, roast, or broil. Their roasting is done by
-running a wooden spit through the meat, sharpened at each end, which
-they place near the fire, and occasionally turn. They broil on clean
-coals, drawn off from the fire for that purpose. They often laugh at
-the white hunters, for baking their bread in dirty ashes, and being
-alike careless of cleanliness when they broil their meat. They are fond
-of dried venison, pounded in a mortar and dipped in bear’s oil. The
-Delawares, Mohicans, and Shawanos are very particular in their choice
-of meats, and nothing short of the most pressing hunger can induce them
-to eat of certain animals, such as the horse, dog, wild cat, panther,
-fox, muskrat, wolf, &c., all which I have several times seen the
-Chippeways feast upon with a seemingly good appetite. The Iroquois are
-said to have been formerly very dirty in their eating. They dried the
-entrails of animals without cleaning, or even emptying them of their
-contents; then cut them into pieces and put them into their pottage,
-by way of seasoning.[183] The late Mr. Zeisberger has often related to
-me how he once mistook for black pepper or some other kind of spice, a
-certain unpleasant ingredient which he found floating in small grains
-on the surface of their broth.
-
-Far different in this respect are the Lenape and their kindred tribes,
-particularly the three which I have named above. They are not only
-cleanly in their eating, but even delicate, and they will sometimes
-resist the pressing calls of hunger rather than eat the flesh of those
-animals which they consider as not being proper food for man. Of this I
-shall give an instance in the following anecdote.
-
-I was travelling in the spring of 1773, from Muskingum to the Big
-Beaver, with more than twenty Indians, five of whom were old men
-and the rest women and children, all (except our guide) strangers
-to the country, having come but the year before from Wyalusing on
-the Susquehannah. Having been at one time confined two days by the
-overflowing of two large creeks, between which we were, we found our
-provisions at an end. Every man who had a gun was called upon to turn
-out into the woods, and try to kill something. Their endeavours,
-however, were to no purpose; the day passed away, and they all, except
-the well-known _Popunhank_[184] who had lost himself, returned to camp
-at night without bringing any thing of the meat kind but a wild cat,
-which our guide had shot. The Indians never despair, not even in the
-worst of times and under the severest trials; when placed in difficult
-situations they never use discouraging language, but always endeavour
-to raise their spirits and prevent them from sinking, under the
-hardships or dangers to which they are exposed. True to this national
-character, one of our old Indians immediately pronounced this wild cat
-to be “good, very good eating,” and it was immediately ordered to be
-put on the spit and roasted for our supper. While this was performing,
-the old Indian endeavoured to divert the company by extolling in a
-jocular manner the country they had now got into, and where such good
-things were to be had; to which some one or other of the old men would
-reply; “all very true.” At length, about nine o’clock at night, the
-call was given by the old cook (for so I now call him) that the meat
-was done and we might come in to eat. I, who had heard so much in
-praise of this repast, being greatly pinched with hunger, had kept
-myself in readiness for this expected call; but seeing nobody rise,
-and observing much merriment through the camp, I began to suspect that
-something was the matter, and therefore kept my seat. The night was
-spent without any body attempting to eat of the wild cat, and in the
-morning a different call was given by one of the old men, signifying
-that a large kettle of tea had been made by some of the good women,
-who invited all to come and take their share of it. Every one obeyed
-this call, and I went with the rest, the jovial old cook taking the
-roasted wild cat with him to the mess. The scene was not only very
-diverting, but brought on an interesting discussion between the men on
-the propriety or impropriety of eating the flesh of all animals without
-restriction, some contending that they were all by the will of the
-great Creator ordained for some use, and therefore put in the power of
-man; and how were we to know which were intended for our nourishment
-and which not? The old cook had himself taken that position, adding
-that the hog and the bear fed on dirty things, and yet we ate their
-meat with a good appetite. The cat, however, notwithstanding all the
-arguments in its favour, remained untouched, and was taken back by the
-old hunter and cook to its former place at his fire.
-
-But now, Popunhank, whom we believed to be lost, and our guide, who
-once more had gone out, and exerted himself in vain to kill a deer,
-came in together. The guide had been desired as he pursued his hunt to
-look for our lost companion, and had the good luck to find him at the
-distance of five or six miles, with a fine deer that he had killed. He
-lost no time in bringing him back to our camp.
-
-The sight of these two men dragging a large deer along was truly
-joyful to us, as well on account of the recovery of our lost friend,
-as of the meat that he brought. All felt the cravings of hunger, all
-were delighted with the certain prospect of immediate relief, yet no
-boisterous or extraordinary rejoicing took place, but all called out
-with one voice: _Anischi! Anischi!_ we are thankful. The wild cat,
-which yet remained untouched, was thrown out of the camp, and dismissed
-by the old cook with these words: “Go, cat, we do not want you this
-time!”
-
-The woods and waters, at certain times and seasons, furnish to the
-Indians an abundant supply of wholesome nourishing food, which, if
-carefully gathered, cured and stored up, would serve them for the
-whole year, so that none need perish or even suffer from hunger; but
-they are not accustomed to laying in stores of provisions, except
-some Indian corn, dry beans and a few other articles. Hence they
-are sometimes reduced to great straits, and not seldom in absolute
-want of the necessaries of life, especially in the time of war. Yet,
-notwithstanding the numerous famines they have been visited with, they
-have among their traditions but one instance on record in which an
-human life was taken for the support of others, although they relate
-many cases in which numbers of them were actually starved to death. The
-case I allude to was so singular a circumstance, that it seems the
-cruel act to which it gave rise was almost unavoidable. I shall relate
-it here as I have received it from the most unquestionable authority.
-
-In the winter of 1739-40, ever since remembered as the hard winter,
-when the ground was covered with a very deep snow, a woman with three
-children, was coming from beyond the Allegheny mountains on a visit
-to her friends or relations residing at the great island on the west
-branch of the Susquehannah. After she had reached that river somewhere
-about _Achtschingi Clammui_, which the whites have corrupted into
-_Chingleclamoose_,[185] the snow fell in earlier than had been before
-known, to such a depth, that she could not proceed any farther. She
-began with putting herself and her children on short allowance, in
-hopes that the weather might become more moderate, or the snow so hard
-that they could walk over it. She strove to make her little store
-of provisions last as long as she could, by using the grass which
-grew on the river’s edge, and certain barks as substitutes, which
-she boiled to make them digestible; but more snow falling, until at
-last it rose to the height of a fathom or six feet, she was deprived
-even of that wretched food, and the wolves hovering about day and
-night, often attempting to rush into her little encampment, her whole
-time was taken up with procuring wood and making fires to prevent
-herself and her children from being frozen to death, and keeping those
-voracious animals at a distance by throwing out fire-brands to them.
-Her situation, at last, became intolerable. Having no alternative but
-that of sacrificing one of her children, she resolved on destroying the
-youngest, in order to preserve the others and herself from the most
-dreadful death. After much hesitation, she turned away her eyes and
-with a trembling hand gave the fatal stroke, filling at the same time
-the air with her loud lamentations.--She now thought she had obtained
-a temporary relief, and that she might be able to support herself and
-her surviving children until a change in the weather should take place,
-so that they could be able to proceed on their journey; but the wolves
-getting the scent of the slaughtered child, became more furious than
-before, her danger every moment became more imminent. She now filled
-the air with her cries and supplications to the Great Spirit that he
-would look down with compassion on their awful condition, and save them
-by his almighty power.--But still the danger increased, the horrid food
-was almost exhausted, and no relief came. Already she contemplated
-sacrificing another child; she looked at each of them again and
-again with a mother’s eye, now resolving on killing the one, then
-changing her mind, and endeavouring to determine on the destruction
-of the other; she hesitated, wept, despaired, and the children, well
-understanding what she meant, prayed that they might all die together.
-While in this situation, her hand already lifted to strike the fatal
-stroke, the yell of two approaching Indians strikes her ear, and the
-murderous weapon falls from her hand. The men with rackets to their
-feet now appear and the dreadful scene is at once closed. They had
-provisions with them. They made a pair of rackets for the woman to walk
-on, and brought her and her children along in safety to the Big Island,
-where my informants resided at the time. I cannot remember whether they
-told me that they had gone to that spot in consequence of a dream, or
-of some strong presentiment that they should find human creatures in
-distress; certain I am, however, that it was owing to one or other of
-these causes.
-
-The place where this awful event took place was since called _Enda
-Mohátink_, which means “where human flesh was eaten.” This name has
-been very familiar to the Indians who resided in that part of the
-country.
-
-There is a spot of land at the edge of the great Pine or Beech Swamp,
-precisely where it is crossed by the road leading to Wyoming, which
-is called _the Hermit’s Field_, and of which the following account is
-given. A short time before the white people came into Pennsylvania,
-a woman from some cause or other had separated herself from society,
-and with her young son, had taken her abode in this swamp, where she
-remained undiscovered until the boy grew up to manhood, procuring a
-livelihood by the use of the bow and arrow, in killing deer, turkeys
-and other animals, planting corn and vegetables, and gathering and
-curing nuts and berries of various kinds. When after her long seclusion
-she again saw Indians, she was much astonished to find them dressed
-in European apparel. She had become so attached to her place of
-abode, that she again[186] returned thither and remained there for
-several years. I was shewn by the Indians in the year 1765, and often
-afterwards, the corn hills that she had made; the ground, being a stiff
-clay, was not wasted or worn down, but was covered with bushes, and the
-traces of the labour of the female hermit were plainly discoverable.
-
-Thus the Indians will support themselves in the midst of the greatest
-difficulties, never despairing of their fate, but trusting to their
-exertions, and to the protection of the Almighty Being who created
-them.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXV.
-
-DRESS, AND ORNAMENTING OF THEIR PERSONS.
-
-
-In ancient times, the dress of the Indians was made of the skins of
-animals and feathers. This clothing, they say, was not only warmer, but
-lasted much longer than any woollen goods they have since purchased of
-the white people. They can dress any skin, even that of the buffaloe,
-so that it becomes quite soft and supple, and a good buffaloe or bear
-skin blanket will serve them many years without wearing out. Beaver
-and raccoon skin blankets are also pliant, warm and durable; they sew
-together as many of those skins as is necessary, carefully setting
-the hair or fur all the same way, so that the blanket or covering be
-smooth, and the rain do not penetrate, but run off. In wearing these
-fur blankets they are regulated by the weather; if it is cold and dry
-the fur is placed next the body, but in warm and wet weather, they
-have it outside. Some made themselves long frocks of fine fur, and
-the women’s petticoats in the winter season were also made of them,
-otherwise of dressed deer skins, the same as their shirts, leggings and
-shoes. They say that shoes made of dressed bear skins, with the hair on
-and turned inside, are very warm, and in dry weather, durable. With the
-large rib bones of the elk and buffaloe they shaved the hair off the
-skins they dressed, and even now, they say that they can clean a skin
-as well with a well prepared rib-bone as with a knife.
-
-The blankets made from feathers were also warm and durable. They were
-the work of the women, particularly of the old, who delight in such
-work, and indeed, in any work which shews that they are able to do
-their parts and be useful to society. It requires great patience, being
-the most tedious kind of work I have ever seen them perform, yet they
-do it in a most ingenious manner. The feathers, generally those of the
-turkey and goose, are so curiously arranged and interwoven together
-with thread or twine, which they prepare from the rind or bark of
-the wild hemp and nettle, that ingenuity and skill cannot be denied
-them. They show the same talent and much forethought in making their
-_Happis_, the bands with which they carry their bags and other burdens;
-they make these very strong and lasting.
-
-The present dress of the Indians is well known to consist in blankets,
-plain or ruffled shirts and leggings for the men, and petticoats for
-the women, made of cloth, generally red, blue, or black. The wealthy
-adorn themselves besides with ribands or gartering of various colours,
-beads and silver broaches. These ornaments are arranged by the women,
-who, as well as the men, know how to dress themselves in style. Those
-of the men principally consist in the painting of themselves, their
-head and face principally, shaving or good clean garments, silver arm
-spangles and breast plates, and a belt or two of wampum hanging to
-their necks. The women, at the expense of their husbands or lovers,
-line their petticoat and blue or scarlet cloth blanket or covering with
-choice ribands of various colours, or with gartering, on which they fix
-a number of silver broaches, or small round buckles. They adorn their
-leggings in the same manner; their mocksens, (properly _Maxen_, or
-according to the English pronunciation _Moxen_), are embroidered in the
-neatest manner, with coloured porcupine quills, and are besides, almost
-entirely covered with various trinkets; they have, moreover, a number
-of little bells and brass thimbles fixed round their ancles, which,
-when they walk, make a tinkling noise, which is heard at some distance;
-this is intended to draw the attention of those who pass by, that they
-may look at and admire them.
-
-The women make use of vermilion in painting themselves for dances, but
-they are very careful and circumspect in applying the paint, so that it
-does not offend or create suspicion in their husbands; there is a mode
-of painting which is left entirely to loose women and prostitutes.
-
-As I was once resting in my travels at the house of a trader who lived
-at some distance from an Indian town, I went in the morning to visit an
-Indian acquaintance and friend of mine. I found him engaged in plucking
-out his beard, preparatory to painting himself for a dance which was to
-take place the ensuing evening. Having finished his head dress, about
-an hour before sunset, he came up, as he said, to see me, but I and my
-companions judged that he came _to be seen_. To my utter astonishment,
-I saw three different paintings or figures on one and the same face.
-He had, by his great ingenuity and judgment in laying on and shading
-the different colours, made his nose appear, when we stood directly in
-front of him, as if it were very long and narrow, with a round knob
-at the end, much like the upper part of a pair of tongs. On one cheek
-there was a red round spot, about the size of an apple, and the other
-was done in the same manner with black. The eye-lids, both the upper
-and lower ones, were reversed in the colouring. When we viewed him in
-profile on one side, his nose represented the beak of an eagle, with
-the bill rounded and brought to a point, precisely as those birds have
-it, though the mouth was somewhat open. The eye was astonishingly well
-done, and the head, upon the whole, appeared tolerably well, shewing
-a great deal of fierceness. When we turned round to the other side,
-the same nose now resembled the snout of a pike, with the mouth so
-open, that the teeth could be seen. He seemed much pleased with his
-execution, and having his looking-glass with him, he contemplated his
-work, seemingly with great pride and exultation. He asked me how I
-liked it? I answered that if he had done the work on a piece of board,
-bark, or anything else, I should like it very well and often look at
-it. But, asked he, why not so as it is? Because I cannot see the face
-that is hidden under these colours, so as to know who it is. Well, he
-replied, I must go now, and as you cannot know me to-day, I will call
-to-morrow morning before you leave this place. He did so, and when he
-came back he was washed clean again.
-
-Thus, for a single night’s _frolic_, a whole day is spent in what they
-call dressing, in which each strives to outdo the other.
-
-When the men paint their thighs, legs and breast, they, generally,
-after laying on a thin shading coat of a darkish colour, and sometimes
-of a whitish clay, dip their fingers’ ends in black or red paint, and
-drawing it on with their outspread fingers, bring the streaks to a
-serpentine form. The garments of some of their principal actors are
-singular, and decorated with such a number of gewgaws and trinkets,
-that it is impossible to give a precise description of them. Neither
-are they all alike in taste, every one dressing himself according to
-his fancy, or the custom of the tribe to which he belongs. While the
-women, as I have already said, have thimbles and little bells rattling
-at their ancles, the men have deers’ claws fixed to their braced
-garters or knee bands, and also to their shoes, for the same purpose;
-for they consider jingling and rattling as indispensably necessary to
-their performances in the way of dancing.
-
-The notion formerly entertained that the Indians are beardless by
-nature and have no hair on their bodies, appears now to be exploded
-and entirely laid aside. I cannot conceive how it is possible for any
-person to pass three weeks only among those people, without seeing
-them pluck out their beards, with tweezers made expressly for that
-purpose. Before the Europeans came into the country, their apparatus
-for performing this work, consisted of a pair of muscle shells,
-sharpened on a gritty stone, which answered very well, being somewhat
-like pincers; but since they can obtain wire, of which that of brass is
-preferred, they make themselves tweezers, which they always carry with
-them in their tobacco-pouch, wherever they go, and when at leisure,
-they pluck out their beards or the hair above their foreheads. This
-they do in a very quick manner, much like the plucking of a fowl, and
-the oftener they pluck out their hair, the finer it grows afterwards,
-so that at last there appears hardly any, the whole having been rooted
-out. The principal reasons which they give for thus plucking out their
-beards and the hair next to their foreheads, are that they may have a
-clean skin to lay the paint on, when they dress for their festivals or
-dances, and to facilitate the _tattooing_ themselves, a custom formerly
-much in use among them, especially with those who had distinguished
-themselves by their valour, and acquired celebrity. They say that
-either painting or tattooing on a hairy face or body would have a
-disgusting appearance.
-
-As late as the year 1762, when I resided at Tuscorawas on the
-Muskingum, tattooing was still practised by some Indians; a valiant
-chief of that village, named _Wawundochwalend_, desirous of having
-another name given him, had the figure of a water-lizard engraved
-or tattooed on his face, above the chin, when he received the name
-_Twakachshawsu_, the water-lizard. The process of tattooing, which I
-once saw performed, is quickly done, and does not seem to give much
-pain. They have poplar bark in readiness burnt and reduced to a powder,
-the figures that are to be tattooed are marked or designed on the skin;
-the operator with a small stick, rather larger than a common match,
-to the end of which some sharp needles are fastened, quickly pricks
-over the whole so that blood is drawn, then a coat of this powder is
-laid and left on to dry. Before the whites came into this country,
-they scarified themselves for this purpose with sharp flint stones, or
-pricked themselves with the sharp teeth of a fish.
-
-In the year 1742, a veteran warrior of the Lenape nation and Monsey
-tribe, renowned among his own people for his bravery and prowess, and
-equally dreaded by their enemies, joined the Christian Indians who
-then resided at this place.[187] This man, who was then at an advanced
-age, had a most striking appearance, and could not be viewed without
-astonishment. Besides that his body was full of scars, where he had
-been struck and pierced by the arrows of the enemy, there was not a
-spot to be seen, on that part of it which was exposed to view, but what
-was tattooed over with some drawing relative to his achievements, so
-that the whole together struck the beholder with amazement and terror.
-On his whole face, neck, shoulders, arms, thighs and legs, as well as
-on his breast and back, were represented scenes of the various actions
-and engagements he had been in; in short, the whole of his history
-was there deposited, which was well known to those of his nation, and
-was such that all who heard it thought it could never be surpassed by
-man.[188] Far from, murdering those who were defenceless or unarmed,
-his generosity, as well as his courage and skill in the art of war,
-was acknowledged by all. When, after his conversion, he was questioned
-about his warlike feats, he frankly and modestly answered, “That being
-now taken captive by _Jesus Christ_, it did not become him to relate
-the deeds he had done while in the service of the evil spirit; but
-that he was willing to give an account in the manner in which he had
-been _conquered_.” At his baptism, on the 23d of December 1742, he
-received the name of _Michael_, which he preserved until his death,
-which happened on the 23rd of July 1756. He led the life of a true
-Christian, and was always ready and willing to relate the history of
-his conversion, which I heard myself from his own mouth. His age, when
-he died, was supposed to be about eighty years.
-
-The cutting of the ears, which formerly was practised among the
-Indians, is now no longer so common with them. Their reasons for laying
-this custom aside, are that the operation is painful, not only when
-performed, but until the ears are perfectly healed, which takes a
-long time, and that they often lose that part of their ears which is
-separated from the solid part, by its being torn off by the bushes, or
-falling off when frost-bitten. I once heard of a gay Indian setting
-off on a severe cold morning for a neighbouring village not more than
-three miles distant, whose ears had been touched by the frost, and
-dropped off before he arrived at the place to which he was going. He
-had not even felt that he had lost them, and when told of it, he was
-so chagrined that he was going to destroy himself. I have seen a great
-many Indians with torn ears; but now the custom of cutting them is
-nearly if not entirely disused.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVI.
-
-DANCES, SONGS, AND SACRIFICES.
-
-
-The dances of the Indians vary according to the purposes for which
-they are intended. We have seen, in the second chapter of this work,
-that when the Dutch first landed on New York island, the inhabitants
-who believed them to be celestial beings, began a solemn dance, in
-order to propitiate them. It is not uncommon for men who are deprived
-of the light of revealed religion, to believe that the divinity will
-be pleased with the same things from which they themselves receive
-pleasure.
-
-It is a pleasing spectacle to see the Indian dances, when intended
-merely for social diversion and innocent amusement. I acknowledge I
-would prefer being present at them for a full hour, than a few minutes
-only at such dances as I have witnessed in our country taverns among
-the white people. Their songs are by no means unharmonious. They sing
-in chorus; first the men and then the women. At times the women join
-in the general song, or repeat the strain which the men have just
-finished. It seems like two parties singing in questions and answers,
-and is upon the whole very agreeable and enlivening. After thus
-singing for about a quarter of an hour, they conclude each song with
-a loud yell, which I must confess is not in concord with the rest of
-the music; it is not unlike the cat-bird which closes its pretty song
-with mewing like a cat. I do not admire this _finale_. The singing
-always begins by one person only, but others soon fall in successively
-until the general chorus begins, the drum beating all the while to
-mark the time. The voices of the women are clear and full, and their
-intonations generally correct.
-
-Their war dances have nothing engaging; their object, on the contrary,
-is to strike terror in the beholders. They are dressed and painted, or
-rather bedaubed with paint, in a manner suitable to the occasion. They
-hold the murderous weapon in their hand, and imitate in their dance
-all the warlike attitudes, motions and actions which are usual in an
-engagement with the enemy, and strive to excel each other by their
-terrific looks and gestures. They generally perform round a painted
-post set up for that purpose, in a large room or place enclosed or
-surrounded with posts, and roofed with the bark of trees; sometimes
-also this dance is executed in the open air. There every man presents
-himself in warrior’s array, contemptuously looking upon the painted
-post, as if it was the enemy whom he was about to engage; as he passes
-by it he strikes, stabs, grasps, pretends to scalp, to cut, to run
-through; in short, endeavours to shew what he would do to a real enemy,
-if he had him in his power.
-
-It was an ancient custom among the Indians to perform this dance round
-a prisoner, and as they danced, to make him undergo every kind of
-torture, previous to putting him to death. The prisoner appeared to
-partake in the merriment, contemptuously scoffing at his executioner,
-as being unskilled in the art of inflicting torments: strange as this
-conduct may appear, it was not without a sufficient motive. The object
-of the unfortunate sufferer was to rouse his relentless tormentors to
-such a pitch of fury, that some of them might, at an unguarded moment,
-give him the finishing stroke and put him out of his pain.
-
-Previous to going out on a warlike campaign, the war-dance is always
-performed round the painted post. It is the Indian mode of recruiting.
-Whoever joins in the dance is considered as having enlisted for the
-campaign, and is obliged to go out with the party.
-
-After returning from a successful expedition, a dance of _thanksgiving_
-is always performed, which partakes of the character of a religious
-ceremony. It is accompanied with singing and choruses, in which the
-women join. But they take no part in the rest of the performance. At
-the end of every song, the _scalp-yell_ is shouted as many times as
-there have been scalps taken from the enemy.
-
-The Indians also meet occasionally for the purpose of recounting
-their warlike exploits, which is done in a kind of half-singing or
-_recitative_. The oldest warrior recites first, then they go on in
-rotation and in order of seniority, the drum beating all the time, as
-it were to give to the relation the greater appearance of reality.
-After each has made a short recital in his turn, they begin again
-in the same order, and so continue going the rounds, in a kind of
-alternate chanting, until every one has concluded. On these occasions,
-great care must be taken not to give offence by affecting superiority
-over the others, for every warrior feels his own consequence, and is
-ready, if insulted, to shew by his actions, what he has performed in
-war and is still able to do. I well remember an instance of the kind,
-when an insulted warrior stepped out of the circle in which he was
-dancing, and struck dead the impudent boaster who had offended him.
-
-Their songs are in general of the warlike or of the tender and pathetic
-kind. They are sung in short sentences, not without some kind of
-measure, harmonious to an Indian ear. The music is well adapted to the
-words, and to me is not unpleasing. I would not attempt to give an idea
-of it by means of our musical notes, as has been done by other writers,
-lest I should be as unsuccessful as those who have tried in the same
-manner to describe the melodies of the ancient Greeks. It would be well
-if I could describe at one and the same time the whole combination of
-effects which acted upon my ear, but it is vain to endeavour to do it
-partially. It is, indeed, much the same with their poetry; yet I cannot
-resist the temptation of translating as well as I can, the words of
-the Lenape’s song, when they go out to war. They sing it, as I give
-it here, in short lines or sentences, not always the whole at one
-time, but most generally in detached parts, as time permits and as the
-occasion or their feelings prompt them. Their accent is very pathetic,
-and the whole, in their language, produces considerable effect.
-
-
-THE SONG OF THE LENAPE WARRIORS GOING AGAINST THE ENEMY.
-
-    “O poor me!
-    Whom am going out to fight the enemy,
-    And know not whether I shall return again,
-    To enjoy the embraces of my children
-    And my wife.
-    O poor creature!
-    Whose life is not in his own hands,
-    Who has no power over his own body,
-    But tries to do his duty
-    For the welfare of his nation.
-    O! thou Great Spirit above!
-    Take pity on my children
-    And on my wife!
-    Prevent their mourning on my account!
-    Grant that I may be successful in this attempt--
-    That I may slay my enemy,
-    And bring home the trophies of war
-    To my dear family and friends,
-    That we may rejoice together.
-    O! take pity on me!
-    Give me strength and courage to meet my enemy,
-    Suffer me to return again to my children,
-    To my wife
-    And to my relations!
-    Take pity on me and preserve my life
-    And I will make to thee a sacrifice.”
-
-The song of the Wyandot warriors, as translated to me by an Indian
-trader, would read thus: “Now I am going on an errand of pleasure--O!
-God, take pity on me, and throw good fortune in my way--grant that I
-may be successful.”
-
-Thus their Almighty Creator is always before their eyes on all
-important occasions. They feel and acknowledge his supreme power. They
-also endeavour to propitiate him by outward worship, or _sacrifices_.
-
-These are religious solemnities, intended to make themselves acceptable
-to the Great Spirit, to find favor in his sight, and obtain his
-forgiveness for past errors or offences. It is not, as some white
-persons would lead us to believe, that knowing the Great Spirit to be
-good, they are under no apprehensions from his wrath, and that they
-make sacrifices to the evil spirit, believing him alone to be capable
-of doing them hurt. This cannot be true of a people, who, as I have
-already said in another part, hold it as a fixed principle “that good
-and evil cannot and must not be united,” who declare and acknowledge
-the great and good Spirit to be “all powerful,” and the evil one to
-be “weak and limited in power;” who rely alone on the goodness of the
-author of their existence, and who, before every thing, seek by all the
-means in their power to obtain his favour and protection. For, they
-are convinced, that the evil spirit has no power over them, as long as
-they are in favour with the good one, and to him alone, acknowledging
-his continued goodness to them and their forefathers, they look for
-protection against the _Devil_, and his inferior spirits.
-
-It is a part of their religious belief, that there are inferior
-_Mannittos_, to whom the great and good Being has given the rule
-and command over the elements; that being so great, he, like their
-chiefs, must have his attendants to execute his supreme behests; these
-subordinate spirits (something in their nature between God and man) see
-and report to him what is doing upon earth; they look down particularly
-upon the Indians, to see whether they are in need of assistance, and
-are ready at their call to assist and protect them against danger.
-
-Thus I have frequently witnessed Indians, on the approach of a storm
-or thunder-gust, address the Mannitto of the air, to avert all danger
-from them; I have also seen the Chippeways, on the Lakes of Canada,
-pray to the Mannitto of the waters, that he might prevent the swells
-from rising too high, while they were passing over them. In both
-these instances, they expressed their acknowledgment, or shewed their
-willingness to be grateful, by throwing tobacco in the air, or strewing
-it on the waters.
-
-There are even some animals, which though they are not considered
-as invested with power over them, yet are believed to be placed as
-guardians over their lives; and of course entitled to some notice and
-to some tokens of gratitude. Thus, when in the night, an owl is heard
-sounding its note, or calling to its mate, some person in the camp will
-rise, and taking some _Glicanican_, or Indian tobacco, will strew it on
-the fire, thinking that the ascending smoke will reach the bird, and
-that he will see that they are not unmindful of his services, and of
-his kindness to them and their ancestors. This custom originated from
-the following incident, which tradition has handed down to them.
-
-It happened at one time, when they were engaged in a war with a distant
-and powerful nation, that a body of their warriors was in the camp,
-fast asleep, no kind of danger at that moment being apprehended.
-Suddenly, the great “Sentinel” over mankind, the _owl_, sounded the
-alarm; all the birds of the species were alert at their posts, all at
-once calling out, as if saying: “Up! up! Danger! Danger!” Obedient to
-their call, every man jumped up in an instant; when, to their surprise,
-they found that their enemy was in the very act of surrounding them,
-and they would all have been killed in their sleep, if the owl had not
-given them this timely warning.
-
-But, amidst all these superstitious notions, the supreme Mannitto, the
-creator and preserver of heaven and earth, is the great object of their
-adoration. On him they rest their hopes, to him they address their
-prayers and make their solemn sacrifices. These religious ceremonies
-are not always performed in the same manner. I had intended to have
-given some details upon this subject, but I find that it has been
-almost exhausted by other writers,[189] although I will not pretend
-to say that they are correct on every point. But I do not wish to
-repeat things which have already been told to the world over and over.
-Therefore, if on some subjects, relating to the manners and customs of
-the Indians, I should be thought to have passed over too quickly, and
-not to have sufficiently entered into particulars, let it be understood
-that I have done so to avoid the repetition of what others have said,
-although I am afraid I have been inadvertently guilty of it in more
-than one instance. I would not presume to communicate my little stock
-of knowledge, if I did not think that it will add something to what is
-already known.
-
-I do not recollect that it has already been mentioned, that previous
-to entering upon the solemnity of their sacrifices, the Indians
-prepare themselves by vomiting, fasting, and drinking decoctions from
-certain prescribed plants. This they do to expel the evil which is
-within them, and that they may with a pure conscience attend to the
-_sacred performance_, for such they consider it. Nor is the object
-of those sacrifices always the same; there are sacrifices of prayer
-and sacrifices of thanksgiving, some for all the favours received by
-them and their ancestors from the great Being, others for special or
-particular benefits. After a successful war, they never fail to offer
-up a sacrifice to the great Being, to return him thanks for having
-given them courage and strength to destroy or conquer their enemies.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVII.
-
-SCALPING--WHOOPS OR YELLS--PRISONERS.
-
-
-Scalping is a practice which the Indians say has obtained with their
-nations for ages. I need not describe the manner in which the operation
-is performed, it has been sufficiently done by others.[190] Indian
-warriors think it necessary to bring home the scalps of those they have
-killed or disabled, as visible proofs of their valour; otherwise they
-are afraid that their relations of the combat and the account they give
-of their individual prowess might be doubted or disbelieved. Those
-scalps are dried up, painted and preserved as trophies, and a warrior
-is esteemed in proportion to the number of them that he can shew.
-
-It is a well known fact that the Indians pluck out all their hair
-except one tuft on the crown of their heads, but the reason of this
-exception is not, perhaps, so well understood, which is no other than
-to enable themselves to take off each other’s scalps in war with
-greater facility. “When we go to fight an enemy,” say they, “we meet
-on equal ground; and we take off each other’s scalps, if we can. The
-conqueror, whoever he may be, is entitled to have something to shew
-to prove his bravery and his triumph, and it would be _ungenerous_ in
-a warrior to deprive an enemy of the means of acquiring that glory
-of which he himself is in pursuit. A warrior’s conduct ought to be
-_manly_, else he is _no man_.” As this custom prevails among all the
-Indian nations, it would seem, as far as I have known, to be the result
-of a tacit agreement among them, to leave the usual trophies of
-victory accessible to the contending warriors on all sides; fearing,
-perhaps, that if a different custom should be adopted by one nation
-from motives of personal safety, or to destroy the warlike reputation
-of their rivals or enemies, it might be easily imitated on the other
-side, and there would be an end to Indian valour and heroism. Indeed,
-it is certain, that all the weapons which the Indians make use of in
-war are intended for _offence_, they have no breast-plates, helmets,
-nor any arms or accoutrements of the defensive kind, and it is not
-the least remarkable trait in their warlike character, that they make
-it even a point of honour to offer a hold of their persons to their
-enemy, by which if he should be possessed of greater skill or courage
-than themselves, he may not only the more easily destroy them, but is
-enabled to carry home their bloody spoils as trophies of his victory.
-
-I once remarked to an Indian that if such was their reason for letting
-a tuft of hair grow on the top of their heads, they might as well
-suffer the whole to remain, and I could not perceive why they were
-so careful in plucking it out. To this observation he answered: “My
-friend! a human being has but one head, and one scalp from that head is
-sufficient to shew that it has been in my power. Were we to preserve a
-whole head of hair as the white people do, _several_ scalps might be
-made out of it, which would be _unfair_. Besides, the coward might thus
-without danger share in the trophies of the brave warrior, and dispute
-with him the honour of victory.”
-
-When the Indians relate their victories, they do not say that they have
-taken so many “_scalps_,” but so many “_heads_,” in which they include
-as well those whom they have scalped, but left alive (which is very
-often[191] the case), and their prisoners, as those whom they have
-killed. Nor does it follow, when they reckon or number the heads of
-their prisoners, that they have been or are to be put to death.
-
-It is an awful spectacle to see the Indian warriors return home from
-a successful expedition with their prisoners and the scalps taken in
-battle. It is not unlike the return of a victorious army from the
-field, with the prisoners and _colours_, taken from the enemy, but
-the appearance is far more frightful and terrific. The scalps are
-carried in front, fixed on the end of a thin pole, about five or six
-inches[192] in length; the prisoners follow, and the warriors advance
-shouting the dreadful _scalp-yell_, which has been called by some the
-_death-halloo_, but improperly, for the reasons which I have already
-mentioned. For every _head_ taken, dead or alive, a separate shout is
-given. In this yell or whoop, there is a mixture of triumph and terror;
-its elements, if I may so speak, seem to be _glory_ and _fear_, so as
-to express at once the feelings of the shouting warriors, and those
-with which they have inspired their enemies.
-
-Different from this yell is the _alarm-whoop_, which is never sounded
-but when danger is at hand. It is performed in quick succession, much
-as with us the repeated cry of _Fire! Fire!_ when the alarm is very
-great and lives are known or believed to be in danger. Both this and
-the scalp-yell consist of the sounds _aw_ and _oh_, successively
-uttered, the last more accented, and sounded higher than the first;
-but in the _scalp-yell_, this last sound is drawn out at great
-length, as long indeed as the breath will hold, and is raised about
-an octave higher than the former; while in the _alarm-whoop_, it is
-rapidly struck on as it were, and only a few notes above the other.
-These yells or whoops are dreadful indeed, and well calculated to
-strike with terror, those whom long habit has not accustomed to them.
-It is difficult to describe the impression which the _scalp-yell_,
-particularly, makes on a person who hears it for the first time.
-
-I am now come to a painful part of my subject; the manner in which
-the Indians treat the prisoners whom they take in war. It must not
-be expected that I shall describe here the long protracted tortures
-which are inflicted on those who are doomed to the fatal pile, nor the
-constancy and firmness which the sufferers display, singing their death
-songs and scoffing all the while at their tormentors. Enough of other
-writers have painted these scenes, with all their disgusting horrors;
-nor shall I, a Christian, endeavour to excuse or palliate them. But
-I may be permitted to say, that those dreadful executions are by no
-means so frequent as is commonly imagined. The prisoners are generally
-adopted by the families of their conquerors in the place of lost or
-deceased relations or friends, where they soon become domesticated,
-and are so kindly treated that they never wish themselves away again.
-I have seen even white men, who, after such adoption, were given up by
-the Indians in compliance with the stipulations of treaties, take the
-first opportunity to escape from their own country and return with all
-possible speed to their Indian homes; I have seen the Indians, while
-about delivering them up, put them at night in the stocks, to prevent
-their escaping and running back to them.
-
-It is but seldom that prisoners are put to death by burning and
-torturing. It hardly ever takes place except when a nation has suffered
-great losses in war, and it is thought necessary to revenge the death
-of their warriors slain in battle, or when wilful and deliberate
-murders have been committed by an enemy of[193] their innocent women
-and children, in which case the first prisoners taken are almost sure
-of being sacrificed by way of retaliation. But when a war has been
-successful, or unattended with remarkable acts of treachery, or cruelty
-on the part of the enemy, the prisoners receive a milder treatment, and
-are incorporated with the nation of their conquerors.
-
-Much has been said on the subject of the preliminary cruelties
-inflicted on prisoners when they enter an Indian village with the
-conquering warriors. It is certain that this treatment is very severe
-when a particular revenge is to be exercised, but otherwise, I can say
-with truth, that in many instances, it is rather a scene of amusement,
-than a punishment. Much depends on the courage and presence of mind of
-the prisoner. On entering the village, he is shewn a painted post at
-the distance of from twenty to forty yards, and told to run to it and
-catch hold of it as quickly as he can. On each side of him stand men,
-women and children, with axes, sticks, and other offensive weapons,
-ready to strike him as he runs, in the same manner as is done in the
-European armies when soldiers, as it is called, run the gauntlet. If
-he should be so unlucky as to fall in the way, he will probably be
-immediately despatched by some person, longing to avenge the death of
-some relation or friend slain in battle; but the moment he reaches the
-goal, he is safe and protected from further insult until his fate is
-determined.
-
-If a prisoner in such a situation shews a determined courage, and when
-bid to run for the painted post, starts at once with all his might
-and exerts all his strength and agility until he reaches it, he will
-most commonly escape without much harm, and sometimes without any
-injury whatever, and on reaching the desired point, he will have the
-satisfaction to hear his courage and bravery applauded. But woe to the
-coward who hesitates, or shews any symptoms of fear! He is treated
-without much mercy, and is happy, at last, if he escapes with his life.
-
-In the month of April 1782, when I was myself a prisoner at Lower
-Sandusky, waiting for an opportunity to proceed with a trader
-to Detroit, I witnessed a scene of this description which fully
-exemplified what I have above stated. Three American prisoners were one
-day brought in by fourteen warriors from the garrison of Fort M’Intosh.
-As soon as they had crossed the Sandusky river, to which the village
-lay adjacent, they were told by the Captain of the party to run as hard
-as they could to a painted post which was shewn to them. The youngest
-of the three, without a moment’s hesitation, immediately started for
-it, and reached it fortunately without receiving a single blow; the
-second hesitated for a moment, but recollecting himself, he also ran as
-fast as he could and likewise reached the post unhurt; but the third,
-frightened at seeing so many men, women and children with weapons in
-their hands, ready to strike him, kept begging the Captain to spare
-his life, saying he was a mason, and he would build him a fine large
-stone house, or do any work for him that he should please. “Run for
-your life,” cried the chief to him, “and don’t talk now of building
-houses!” But the poor fellow still insisted, begging and praying to
-the Captain, who, at last finding his exhortations vain, and fearing
-the consequences, turned his back upon him, and would not hear him any
-longer. Our mason now began to run, but received many a hard blow, one
-of which nearly brought him to the ground, which, if he had fallen,
-would at once have decided his fate. He, however, reached the goal, not
-without being sadly bruised, and he was besides bitterly reproached and
-scoffed at all round as a vile coward, while the others were hailed as
-brave men, and received tokens of universal approbation.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVIII.
-
-BODILY CONSTITUTION AND DISEASES.
-
-
-The Indians are in general a strong race of men. It is very common to
-see a hunter come in with a whole deer on his back, fastened with a
-_Happis_, a kind of band with which they carry loads; it rests against
-the breast, that which the women use rests against the forehead. In
-this manner they will carry a load which many a white man would not
-have strength enough to raise from the ground. An Indian, named Samuel,
-once took the flour which was ground out of a bushel of wheat upon his
-back at sun-rise within two miles from Nazareth, and arrived with it in
-the evening of the same day at his camp at Wyoming. When the Indians
-build houses, they carry large logs on their shoulders from the place
-where the tree is cut down to where they are building.
-
-Nevertheless, when put to agricultural or other manual labour, the
-Indians do not appear so strong as the whites; at least, they cannot
-endure it so long. Many reasons may be given for this, besides their
-not being accustomed to that kind of work. It is probably in part to
-be ascribed to their want of substantial food, and their intemperate
-manner of living; eating, when they have it, to excess, and at other
-times being days and weeks in a state of want. Those who have been
-brought up to regular labour, like ourselves, become robust and strong
-and enjoy good health. Such was the case with the Christian Indians in
-the Moravian settlements.
-
-So late as about the middle of the last century, the Indians were yet
-a hardy and healthy people, and many very aged men and women were seen
-among them, some of whom thought they had lived about one hundred
-years. They frequently told me and others that when they were young
-men, their people did not marry so early as they did since, that even
-at twenty they were called boys and durst not wear a breech-cloth, as
-the men did at that time, but had only a small bit of a skin hanging
-before them. Neither, did they say, were they subject to so many
-disorders as in later times, and many of them calculated on dying of
-old age. But since that time a great change has taken place in the
-constitution of those Indians who live nearest to the whites. By the
-introduction of ardent spirits among them, they have been led into
-vices which have brought on disorders which they say were unknown
-before; their blood became corrupted by a shameful complaint, which
-the Europeans pretend to have received from the original inhabitants
-of America, while these say they had never known or heard of it until
-the Europeans came among them. Now the Indians are infected with it to
-a great degree; children frequently inherit it from their parents, and
-after lingering for a few years at last die victims to this poison.
-
-Those Indians who have not adopted the vices of the white people live
-to a good age, from 70 to 90. Few arrive at the age of one hundred
-years. The women, in general, live longer than the men.
-
-The Indians do not appear to be more or less exempt than the whites
-from the common infirmities of old age. I have known old men among them
-who had lost their memory, their sight, and their teeth. I have also
-seen them at eighty in their second childhood and not able to help
-themselves.
-
-The Indian women are not in general so prolific as those of the white
-race. I imagine this defect is owing to the vicious and dissolute life
-they lead since the introduction of spirituous liquors. Among our
-Christian Indians, we have had a couple who had been converted for
-thirty years and had always led a regular life, and who had thirteen
-children. Others had from six to nine. In general, however, the Indians
-seldom have more than four or five children.
-
-The Indian children, generally, continue two years at the breast, and
-there are instances of their sucking during four years. Mothers are
-very apt to indulge their last child; children in this respect enjoy
-the same privilege alike.
-
-I have never heard of any nation or tribe of Indians who destroyed
-their children, when distorted or deformed, whether they were so
-born or came to be so afterwards. I have on the contrary seen very
-particular care taken of such children. Nor have I ever been acquainted
-with any Indians that made use of artificial means to compress or alter
-the natural shape of the heads of their children, as some travellers
-have, I believe, pretended.
-
-The disorders to which the Indians are most commonly subjected are
-pulmonary consumptions, fluxes, fevers and severe rheumatisms, all
-proceeding probably from the kind of life they lead, the hardships they
-undergo, and the nature of the food that they take. Intermitting and
-bilious fevers set in among them regularly in the autumn, when their
-towns are situated near marshy grounds or ponds of stagnant water, and
-many die in consequence of them. I have observed that these fevers
-generally make their first appearance in the season of the wild plum, a
-fruit that the Indians are particularly fond of. Sometimes also after
-a famine or long suffering for want of food, when they generally make
-too free an use of green maize, squashes and other watery vegetables.
-They are also subject to a disease which they call the _yellow vomit_,
-which, at times, carries off many of them. They generally die of this
-disease on the second or third day after the first attack.
-
-Their old men are very subject to rheumatisms in the back and knees;
-I have known them at the age of 50 or 60 to be laid up for weeks and
-months at a time on this account, and I have seen boys 10 and 12 years
-of age, who through colds or fits of sickness had become so contracted
-that they never afterwards recovered the use of their limbs.
-
-Worms are a very common disorder among Indian children, and great
-numbers of them die from that cause. They eat a great deal of green
-corn when in the milk, with beans, squashes, melons, and the like;
-their bellies become remarkably large, and it is probably in that
-manner that the worms are generated. I rather think that Indian
-children suffer less in teething than the whites.
-
-The gout, gravel, and scrofula or king’s evil, are not known among the
-Indians. Nor have I ever known any one that had the disorder called the
-_Rickets_. Consumptions are very frequent among them since they have
-become fond of spirituous liquors, and their young men in great numbers
-fall victims to that complaint. A person who resides among them may
-easily observe the frightful decrease of their numbers from one period
-of ten years to another. Our vices have destroyed them more than our
-swords.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIX.
-
-REMEDIES.
-
-
-The _Materia Medica_ of the Indians consists of various roots and
-plants known to themselves, the properties of which they are not fond
-of disclosing to strangers. They make considerable use of the barks
-of trees, such as the white and black oak, the white walnut, of which
-they make pills, the cherry, dogwood, maple, birch, and several others.
-They prepare and compound these medicines in different ways, which they
-keep a profound secret. Those preparations are frequently mixed with
-superstitious practices, calculated to guard against the powers of
-witchcraft, in which, unfortunately, they have a strong fixed belief.
-Indeed, they are too apt to attribute the most natural deaths to the
-arts and incantations of sorcerers, and their medicine is, in most
-cases, as much directed against those as against the disease itself.
-There are, however, practitioners among them who are free from these
-prejudices, or at least do not introduce them into their practice of
-the medical art. Still there is a superstitious notion, in which all
-their physicians participate, which is, that when an emetic is to be
-administered, the water in which the potion is mixed must be drawn up a
-stream, and if for a cathartic downwards. This is, at least, innocent,
-and not more whimsical perhaps, nor more calculated to excite a smile,
-than some theories of grave and learned men in civilised countries.
-
-In fevers the Indians usually administer emetics which are made up and
-compounded in various ways. I saw an emetic once given to a man who had
-poisoned himself with the root of the May Apple.[194] It consisted of
-a piece of raccoon skin burned with the hair on and finely powdered,
-pounded dry beans and gunpowder. These three ingredients were mixed
-with water and poured down the patient’s throat. This brought on a
-severe vomiting, the poisonous root was entirely discharged and the man
-cured.
-
-In other complaints, particularly in those which proceed from rheumatic
-affections, bleeding and sweating are always the first remedies
-applied. The sweat oven is the first thing that an Indian has recourse
-to when he feels the least indisposed; it is the place to which the
-wearied traveller, hunter, or warrior looks for relief from the
-fatigues he has endured, the cold he has caught, or the restoration of
-his lost appetite.
-
-This oven is made of different sizes, so as to accommodate from two
-to six persons at a time, or according to the number of men in the
-village, so that they may be all successively served. It is generally
-built on a bank or slope, one half of it within and the other above
-ground. It is well covered on the top with split plank and earth, and
-has a door in front, where the ground is level to go or rather to
-creep in. Here, on the outside, stones, generally of about the size
-of a large turnip, are heated by one or more men appointed each day
-for that purpose. While the oven is heating, decoctions from roots
-or plants are prepared either by the person himself who intends to
-sweat, or by one of the men of the village, who boils a large kettleful
-for the general use, so that when the public cryer going his rounds,
-calls out _Pimook!_ “go to sweat!” every one brings his small kettle,
-which is filled for him with the potion, which at the same time serves
-him as a medicine, promotes a profuse perspiration, and quenches his
-thirst. As soon as a sufficient number have come to the oven, a number
-of the hot stones are rolled into the middle of it, and the sweaters
-go in, seating themselves or rather squatting round those stones, and
-there they remain until the sweat ceases to flow; then they come out,
-throwing a blanket or two about them that they may not catch cold; in
-the mean while, fresh heated stones are thrown in for those who follow
-them. While they are in the oven, water is now and then poured on the
-hot stones to produce a steam, which they say, increases the heat, and
-gives suppleness to their limbs and joints. In rheumatic complaints,
-the steam is produced by a decoction of boiled roots, and the patient
-during the operation is well wrapped up in blankets, to keep the cold
-air from him, and promote perspiration at the same time.
-
-Those sweat ovens are generally at some distance from an Indian
-village, where wood and water are always at hand. The best order is
-preserved at those places. The women have their separate oven in a
-different direction from that of the men, and subjected to the same
-rules. The men generally sweat themselves once and sometimes twice a
-week; the women have no fixed day for this exercise, nor do they use it
-as often as the men.
-
-In the year 1784,[195] a gentleman whom I had been acquainted with
-at Detroit, and who had been for a long time in an infirm state of
-health, came from thence to the village of the Christian Indians on the
-Huron river, in order to have the benefit of the sweat oven. It being
-in the middle of winter, when there was a deep snow on the ground,
-and the weather was excessively cold, I advised him to postpone his
-sweating to a warmer season; but he persisting in his resolution, I
-advised him by no means to remain in the oven longer than fifteen or
-at most twenty minutes. But when he once was in it, feeling himself
-comfortable, he remained a full hour, at the end of which he fainted,
-and was brought by two strong Indians to my house, in very great pain
-and not able to walk. He remained with me until the next day, when we
-took him down in his sleigh to his family at Detroit. His situation
-was truly deplorable; his physicians at that place gave up all hopes
-of his recovery, and he frequently expressed his regret that he had
-not followed my advice. Suddenly, however, a change took place for the
-better, and he not only recovered his perfect health, but became a
-stout corpulent man, so that he would often say, that his going into
-the sweat oven was the best thing he had ever done in his life for the
-benefit of his health. He said so to me fifteen years afterwards when I
-saw him in the year 1798. He had not had the least indisposition since
-that time. He died about the year 1814, at an advanced age.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXX.
-
-PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.
-
-
-By these names I mean to distinguish the good and honest practitioners
-who are in the habit of curing and healing diseases and wounds, by
-the simple application of natural remedies, without any mixture of
-superstition in the manner of preparing or administering them. They are
-very different from the doctors or jugglers, of whom I shall speak in
-the next chapter. In one point, only, they seem to participate in their
-ridiculous notions, that is, in the different manner, which I have
-already noticed, of drawing water up or down the current of a stream,
-as it is to be respectively employed as a vehicle for an emetic or a
-cathartic. This singular idea prevails generally among the Indians of
-all classes. They think that as the one remedy is to work upwards and
-the other downwards, care should be taken in the preparation to follow
-the course of nature, so that no confusion should take place in the
-stomach or bowels of the patient.
-
-With this only exception the Indian physicians are perhaps more free
-from fanciful theories than those of any other nation upon earth.
-Their science is entirely founded on observation, experience and the
-well tried efficacy of remedies. There are physicians of both sexes,
-who take considerable pains to acquire a correct knowledge of the
-properties and medical virtues of plants, roots and barks, for the
-benefit of their fellow-men. They are very careful to have at all
-times a full assortment of their medicines on hand, which they gather
-and collect at the proper seasons, sometimes fetching them from the
-distance of several days’ journey from their homes, then they cure
-or dry them properly, tie them up in small bundles, and preserve them
-for use. It were to be wished that they were better skilled in the
-quantity of the medicines which they administer. But they are too apt,
-in general, to give excessive doses, on the mistaken principle that
-“_much_ of a _good_ thing must necessarily do _much good_.”
-
-Nevertheless, I must say, that their practice in general succeeds
-pretty well. I have myself been benefited and cured by taking their
-emetics and their medicines in fevers, and by being sweated after
-their manner while labouring under a stubborn rheumatism. I have also
-known many, both whites and Indians, who have with the same success
-resorted to Indian physicians while labouring under diseases. The wives
-of Missionaries, in every instance in which they had to apply to the
-female physicians, for the cure of complaints peculiar to their sex,
-experienced good results from their abilities. They are also well
-skilled in curing wounds and bruises. I once for two days and two
-nights, suffered the most excruciating pain from a felon or whitlow on
-one of my fingers, which deprived me entirely of sleep. I had recourse
-to an Indian woman, who in less than half an hour relieved me entirely
-by the simple application of a poultice made of the root of the common
-blue violet.
-
-Indeed, it is in the cure of external wounds that they particularly
-excel. Not only their professional men and women, but every warrior
-is more or less acquainted with the healing properties of roots and
-plants, which is, in a manner, indispensable to them, as they are
-so often in danger of being wounded in their engagements with the
-enemy. Hence this branch of knowledge is carried to a great degree of
-perfection among them. I firmly believe that there is no wound, unless
-it should be absolutely mortal, or beyond the skill of our own good
-practitioners, which an Indian surgeon (I mean the best of them) will
-not succeed in healing. I once knew a noted Shawano, who having, out of
-friendship, conducted several white traders in safety to Pittsburgh,
-while they were sought for by other Indians who wanted to revenge on
-them the murders committed by white men of some of their people, was on
-his return fired at by some white villains, who had waylaid him for
-that purpose, and shot in the breast. This man, when I saw him, had
-already travelled eighty miles, with a wound from which blood and a
-kind of watery froth issued every time he breathed. Yet he told me he
-was sure of being cured, if he could only reach _Waketemeki_, a place
-fifty miles distant, where there were several eminent Indian surgeons.
-To me and others who examined the wound, it appeared incurable;
-nevertheless, he reached the place and was perfectly cured. I saw him
-at Detroit ten years afterwards; he was in sound health and grown to
-be a corpulent man. Nine years after this I dined with him at the same
-place.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXI.
-
-DOCTORS OR JUGGLERS.
-
-
-I call these men _Doctors_, because it is the name given them by their
-countrymen who have borrowed it from our language,[196] and they
-are themselves very fond of this pompous title. They are a set of
-professional impostors, who, availing themselves of the superstitious
-prejudices of the people, acquire the name and reputation of men of
-superior knowledge, and possessed of supernatural powers. As the
-Indians in general believe in witchcraft, and ascribe, as I have
-already said, to the arts of sorcerers many of the disorders with which
-they are afflicted in the regular course of nature, this class of men
-has risen among them, who pretend to be skilled in a certain occult
-science, by means of which they are able not only to cure natural
-diseases, but to counteract or destroy the enchantments of wizards or
-witches, and expel evil spirits.
-
-These men are physicians, like the others of whom I have spoken, and
-like them are acquainted with the properties and virtues of plants,
-barks, roots, and other remedies. They differ from them only by
-their pretensions to a superior knowledge, and by the impudence with
-which they impose upon the credulous. I am sorry that truth obliges
-me to confess, that in their profession they rank above the honest
-practitioners. They pretend that there are disorders which cannot be
-cured by the ordinary remedies, and to the treatment of which the
-talents of common physicians are inadequate. They say that when a
-complaint has been brought on by witchcraft, more powerful remedies
-must be applied, and measures must be taken to defeat the designs of
-the person who bewitched the unfortunate patient. This can only be done
-by removing or destroying the deleterious or deadening substance which
-has been conveyed into them, or, if it is an evil spirit, to confine or
-expel him, or banish him to a distant region from whence he may never
-return.
-
-When the juggler has succeeded in persuading his patient that his
-disorder is such that no common physician has it in his power to
-relieve, he will next endeavour to convince him of the necessity of
-making him _very strong_, which means, giving him a _large fee_, which
-he will say, is justly due to a man who, like himself, is able to
-perform such difficult things. If the patient who applies, is rich, the
-_Doctor_ will never fail, whatever the complaint may be, to ascribe it
-to the powers of witchcraft, and recommend himself as the only person
-capable of giving relief in such a hard and complicated case. The poor
-patient, therefore, if he will have the benefit of the great man’s
-advice and assistance, must immediately give him his _honorarium_,
-which is commonly either a fine horse, or a good rifle-gun, a
-considerable quantity of wampum, or goods to a handsome amount. When
-this fee is well secured, and not before, the Doctor prepares for the
-hard task that he has undertaken, with as much apparent labour as if
-he was about to remove a mountain. He casts his eyes all round him to
-attract notice, puts on grave and important looks, appears wrapt in
-thought and meditation and enjoys for a while the admiration of the
-spectators. At last he begins his operation. Attired in a frightful
-dress, he approaches his patient, with a variety of contortions and
-gestures, and performs by his side and over him all the antic tricks
-that his imagination can suggest. He breathes on him, blows in his
-mouth, and squirts some medicines which he has prepared in his face,
-mouth and nose; he rattles his gourd filled with dry beans or pebbles,
-pulls out and handles about a variety of sticks and bundles in which he
-appears to be seeking for the proper remedy, all which is accompanied
-with the most horrid gesticulations, by which he endeavours, as he
-says, to frighten the spirit or the disorder away, and continues in
-this manner until he is quite exhausted and out of breath, when he
-retires to wait the issue.
-
-The visits of the juggler are, if the patient requires it, repeated
-from time to time; not, however, without his giving a fresh fee
-previous to each visit. This continues until the property of the
-patient is entirely exhausted, or until he resolves upon calling in
-another doctor, with whom feeing must begin anew in the same manner
-that it did with his predecessor.
-
-When at length the art of the juggling tribe has after repeated trials
-proved ineffectual, the patient is declared _incurable_. The doctors
-will say, that he applied to them too late, that he did not exactly
-follow their prescriptions, or sometimes, that he was bewitched by one
-of the greatest masters of the science, and that unless a professor can
-be found possessed of superior knowledge, he is doomed to die or linger
-in pain beyond the power of relief.
-
-Thus these jugglers carry on their deceit, and enrich themselves at the
-expense of the credulous and foolish. I have known instances in which
-they declared a patient perfectly cured and out of all danger, who
-nevertheless died of his disorder a very few days afterwards, although
-his doctors affirmed that the evil spirit or the effects of witchcraft
-were entirely removed from him; on the other hand, I have seen cases
-in which the patient recovered after being pronounced incurable and
-condemned to die. In those cases, however, he had had the good sense to
-apply to some of the honest physicians of one or the other sex, who had
-relieved him by a successful application of their medicines.
-
-The jugglers’ dress, when in the exercise of their functions, exhibits
-a most frightful sight. I had no idea of the importance of these men,
-until by accident I met with one, habited in his full costume. As I
-was once walking through the street of a large Indian village on the
-Muskingum, with the chief _Gelelemend_,[197] whom we call _Kill-buck_,
-one of those monsters suddenly came out of the house next to me, at
-whose sight I was so frightened, that I flew immediately to the other
-side of the chief, who observing my agitation and the quick strides
-I made, asked me what was the matter, and what I thought it was that
-I saw before me. “By its outward appearance,” answered I, “I would
-think it a bear, or some such ferocious animal, what is _inside_ I
-do not know, but rather judge it to be the _Evil Spirit_.” My friend
-Kill-buck smiled, and replied, “O! no, no; don’t believe that! it is a
-man you well know, it is our _Doctor_.” “A Doctor!” said I, “what! a
-human being to transform himself so as to be taken for a bear walking
-on his hind legs, and with horns on his head? You will not, surely,
-deceive me; if it is not a bear, it must be some other ferocious animal
-that I have never seen before.” The juggler within the dress hearing
-what passed between us, began to act over some of his curious pranks,
-probably intending to divert me, as he saw I was looking at him with
-great amazement, not unmixed with fear; but the more he went on with
-his performance, the more I was at a loss to decide, whether he was
-a human being or a bear; for he imitated that animal in the greatest
-perfection, walking upright on his hind legs as I had often seen it do.
-At last I renewed my questions to the chief, and begged him seriously
-to tell me what that figure was, and he assured me that although
-outside it had the appearance of a bear, yet inside there was a man,
-and that it was our doctor going to visit one of his patients who was
-bewitched. A dialogue then ensued between us, which I shall relate, as
-well as I can recollect it, in its very words:
-
-HECKEW. But why does he go dressed in that manner? Won’t his patient
-be frightened to death on seeing him enter the house?
-
-KILLB. No! indeed, no; it is the disorder, the evil spirit, that will
-be frightened away; as to the sick man, he well knows that unless the
-doctor has recourse to the most powerful means, he cannot be relieved,
-but must fall a sacrifice to the wicked will of some evil person. And,
-pray, don’t your doctors in obstinate and dubious cases, also recur to
-powerful means in order to relieve their patients?
-
-HECKEW. To my knowledge, there are no cases where witchcraft is
-assigned as the cause of a disorder, of course our doctors have nothing
-to do with that; and though they may sometimes have occasion to apply
-powerful remedies in obstinate diseases, yet it is not done by dressing
-themselves like wild beasts, to frighten, as you say, the disorder
-away. Were our doctors to adopt this mode, they would soon be left
-without patients and without bread; they would starve.
-
-KILLB. Our doctors are the richest people among us, they have
-everything they want; fine horses to ride, fine clothes to wear, plenty
-of strings and belts of wampum, and silver arm and breast plates in
-abundance.
-
-HECKEW. And _our_ doctors have very fine horses and carriages, fine
-houses, fine clothes, plenty of good provisions and wines, and plenty
-of money besides! They are looked upon as gentlemen, and would not
-suffer your doctor, dressed as he is, to come into their company.
-
-KILLB. You must, my friend! consider that the cases are very different.
-Had the white people sorcerers among them as the Indians have, they
-would find it necessary to adopt our practice and apply our remedies in
-the same manner that our doctors do. They would find it necessary to
-take strong measures to counteract and destroy the dreadful effects of
-witchcraft.
-
-HECKEW. The sorcerers that you speak of exist only in your imagination;
-rid yourselves of this, and you will hear no more of them.
-
-The dress this juggler had on, consisted of an entire garment or
-outside covering, made of one or more bear skins, as black as jet, so
-well fitted and sewed together, that the man was not in any place
-to be perceived. The whole head of the bear, including the mouth,
-nose, teeth, ears, &c., appeared the same as when the animal was
-living; so did the legs with long claws; to this were added a huge
-pair of horns on the head, and behind a large bushy tail, moving as he
-walked, as though it were on springs; but for these accompaniments,
-the man, walking on all fours, might have been taken for a bear of an
-extraordinary size. Underneath, where his hands were, holes had been
-cut, though not visible to the eye, being covered with the long hair,
-through which he held and managed his implements, and he saw through
-two holes set with glass. The whole was a great curiosity, but not to
-be looked at by everybody.
-
-There are jugglers of another kind, in general old men and women, who
-although not classed among doctors or physicians, yet get their living
-by pretending to supernatural knowledge. Some pretend that they can
-bring down rain in dry weather when wanted, others prepare ingredients,
-which they sell to bad hunters, that they may have good luck, and
-others make philters or love potions for such married persons as either
-do not, or think they cannot love each other.
-
-When one of these jugglers is applied to to bring down rain in a dry
-season, he must in the first instance receive a fee. This fee is made
-up by the women, who, as cultivators of the land are supposed to be
-most interested, but the men will slily slip something in their hands
-in aid of their collection, which consists of wampum beads, tobacco,
-silver broaches, and a dressed deer skin to make shoes of. If the
-juggler does not succeed in his experiment, he never is in want of an
-excuse; either the winds are in opposition to one another, the dry wind
-or air is too powerful for the moist or south wind, or he has not been
-made _strong enough_, (that is sufficiently paid,) to compel the north
-to give way to the south from whence the rain is to come, or lastly,
-he wants time to invoke the great Spirit to aid him on the important
-occasion.
-
-In the summer of the year 1799, a most uncommon drouth happened in the
-Muskingum country, so that every thing growing, even the grass and the
-leaves of the trees, appeared perishing; an old man named _Chenos_,
-who was born on the river Delaware, was applied to by the women to
-bring down rain, and was well feed for the purpose. Having failed in
-his first attempt, he was feed a second time, and it happened that one
-morning, when my business obliged me to pass by the place where he
-was at work, as I knew him very well, I asked him at once what he was
-doing? “I am hired,” said he, “to do a very hard day’s work.”
-
-Q. And, pray, what work?
-
-A. Why, to bring down rain from the sky.
-
-Q. Who hired you to do that?
-
-A. The women of the village; don’t you see how much rain is wanted, and
-that the corn and every thing else is perishing?
-
-Q. But can you make it rain?
-
-A. I can, and you shall be convinced of it this very day.
-
-He had, by this time, encompassed a square of about five feet each
-way, with stakes and barks so that it might resemble a pig pen of
-about three feet in height, and now, with his face uplifted and turned
-towards the north, he muttered something, then closely shutting up
-with bark the opening which had been left on the north side, he turned
-in the same manner, still muttering some words, towards the south, as
-if invoking some superior being, and having cut through the bark on
-the southwest corner, so as to make an opening of two feet, he said:
-“now we shall have rain enough!” Hearing down the river the sound of
-setting poles striking against a canoe, he enquired of me what it was?
-I told him it was our Indians going up the river to make a bush net for
-fishing. “Send them home again!” said he, “tell them that this will not
-be a fit day for fishing!” I told him to let them come on and speak to
-them himself, if he pleased. He did so, and as soon as they came near
-him, he told them that they must by no means think of fishing that day,
-for there should come a heavy rain which would wet them all through.
-“No matter, Father!” answered they in a jocular manner, “give us only
-rain and we will cheerfully bear the soaking.” They then passed on, and
-I proceeded to _Goschachking_, the village to which I was going.[198]
-I mentioned the circumstance to the chief of the place, and told him
-that I thought it impossible that we should have rain while the sky
-was so clear as it then was and had been for near five weeks together,
-without its being previously announced by some signs or change in the
-atmosphere. But the chief answered: “_Chenos_ knows very well what he
-is about; he can at any time predict what the weather will be; he takes
-his observations morning and evening from the river or something in
-it.” On my return from this place after three o’clock in the afternoon,
-the sky still continued the same until about four o’clock, when all at
-once the horizon became overcast, and without any thunder or wind it
-began to rain, and continued so for several hours together, until the
-ground became thoroughly soaked.
-
-I am of the opinion that this man, like others whom I have known, was
-a strict observer of the weather, and that his prediction that day was
-made in consequence of his having observed some signs in the sky or in
-the water, which his experience had taught him to be the forerunners
-of rain; yet the credulous multitude did not fail to ascribe it to his
-supernatural power.
-
-The ingredients for a bad hunter, to make him have good luck, are
-tied up in a bit of cloth, and must be worn near his skin while he is
-hunting. The preparations intended to create love between man and wife,
-are to be slily conveyed to the frigid party by means of his victuals
-or drink.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXII.
-
-SUPERSTITION.
-
-
-Great and powerful as the Indian conceives himself to be, firm and
-undaunted as he really is, braving all seasons and weathers, careless
-of dangers, patient of hunger, thirst and cold, and fond of displaying
-the native energy of his character even in the midst of tortures, at
-the very thought of which our own puny nature revolts and shudders;
-this Lord of the Creation, whose life is spent in a state of constant
-warfare against the wild beasts of the forest and the savages of the
-wilderness, who, proud of his independent existence, strikes his breast
-with exultation and exclaims “_I am a man!_”--the American Indian has
-one weak side, which sinks him down to the level of the most fearful
-and timid being, a childish apprehension of an occult and unknown
-power, which, unless he can summon sufficient fortitude to conquer it,
-changes at once the hero into a coward. It is incredible to what a
-degree the Indians’ superstitious belief in witchcraft operates upon
-their minds; the moment that their imagination is struck with the idea
-that they are bewitched, they are no longer themselves; their fancy is
-constantly at work in creating the most horrid and distressing images.
-They see themselves falling a sacrifice to the wicked arts of a vile
-unknown hand, of one who would not have dared to face them in fair
-combat; dying a miserable, ignominious death; a death, to which they
-would a thousand times prefer the stake with all its horrors. No tale,
-no tradition, no memorial of their courage or heroic fortitude will
-go down with it to posterity; it will be thought that they were not
-deserving of a better fate. And, (O! dreadful thought to an Indian
-mind!) that death is to remain forever unrevenged;--their friends,
-their relations, the men of their own tribe, will seek the murderer in
-vain; they will seek him while, perhaps, he is in the midst of them,
-unnoticed and unknown, smiling at their impotent rage, and calmly
-selecting some new victim to his infernal art.
-
-Of this extraordinary power of their conjurers, of the causes which
-produce it, and the manner in which it is acquired, the Indians as
-may well be supposed, have not a very definite idea. All they can
-say is that the sorcerer makes use of a “deadening substance,” which
-he discharges and conveys to the person that he means to “_strike_,”
-through the air, by means of the wind or of his own breath, or throws
-at him in a manner which they can neither understand nor describe. The
-person thus “_stricken_,” is immediately seized with an unaccountable
-terror, his spirits sink, his appetite fails, he is disturbed in his
-sleep, he pines and wastes away, or a fit of sickness seizes him,
-and he dies at last a miserable victim to the workings of his own
-imagination.
-
-Such are their ideas and the melancholy effects of the dread they feel
-of that supernatural power which they vainly fancy to exist among them.
-That they can destroy one another by means of poisonous roots and
-plants, is certainly true, but in this there is no witchcraft. This
-prejudice that they labour under can be ascribed to no other cause than
-their excessive ignorance and credulity. I was once acquainted with a
-white man, a shrewd and correct observer, who had lived long among the
-Indians, and being himself related to an Indian family, had the best
-opportunities of obtaining accurate information on this subject. He
-told me that he had found the means of getting into the confidence of
-one of their most noted sorcerers, who had frankly confessed to him,
-that his secret consisted in exciting fear and suspicion, and creating
-in the multitude a strong belief in his magical powers, “For,” said he,
-“such is the credulity of many, that if I only pick a little wool from
-my blanket, and roll it between my fingers into a small round ball, not
-larger than a bean, I am by that alone believed to be deeply skilled
-in the magic art, and it is immediately supposed that I am preparing
-the deadly substance with which I mean to strike some person or other,
-although I hardly know myself at the time what my fingers are doing;
-and if, at that moment, I happen to cast my eyes on a particular man,
-or even throw a side glance at him, it is enough to make him consider
-himself as the intended victim; he is from that instant effectually
-_struck_, and if he is not possessed of great fortitude, so as to be
-able to repel the thought, and divert his mind from it, or to persuade
-himself that it is nothing but the work of a disturbed imagination, he
-will sink under the terror thus created, and at last perish a victim,
-not indeed, to witchcraft, but to his own credulity and folly.”
-
-But men of such strong minds are not often to be found; so deeply
-rooted is the belief of the Indians in those fancied supernatural
-powers. It is vain to endeavour to convince them by argument that
-they are entirely founded in delusion and have no real existence. The
-attempt has been frequently made by sensible white men, but always
-without success. The following anecdote will shew how little hope there
-is of ever bringing them to a more rational way of thinking.
-
-Sometime about the year 1776, a Quaker trader of the name of John
-Anderson, who among the Indians was called _the honest Quaker trader_,
-after vainly endeavouring to convince those people by argument that
-there was no such thing as witchcraft, took the bold, and I might say
-the rash, solution to put their sorcerers to the test, and defy the
-utmost exertions of their pretended supernatural powers. He desired
-that two of those magicians might be brought successively before him
-on different days, who should be at liberty to try their art on his
-person, and do him all the harm that they could by magical means,
-in the presence of the chiefs and principal men of the village. The
-Indians tried at first to dissuade him from so dangerous an experiment;
-but he persisted, and at last they acceded to his demand; a conjurer
-was brought to him, who professed himself fully competent to the task
-for which he was called, but he could not be persuaded to make the
-attempt. He declared that Anderson was so good and so honest a man, so
-much his friend and the friend of all the Indians, that he could not
-think of doing him an injury. He never practised his art but on bad
-men and on those who had injured him; the great Mannitto forbid that he
-should use it for such a wicked purpose as that for which he was now
-called upon.
-
-The Indians found this excuse perfectly good, and retired more
-convinced than ever of the abilities of their conjurer, whom they now
-revered for his conscientious scruples.
-
-The one who was brought on the next day was of a different stamp. He
-was an arch sorcerer, whose fame was extended far and wide, and was
-much dreaded by the Indians, not only on account of his great powers,
-but of the wicked disposition of his mind. Every effort was made to
-dissuade Mr. Anderson from exposing himself to what was considered
-as certain destruction; but he stood firm to his purpose, and only
-stipulated that the magician should sit at the distance of about twelve
-feet from him; that he should not be armed with any weapon, nor carry
-any poison or any thing else of a known destructive nature, and that
-he should not even rise from his seat, nor advance towards him during
-the operation. All this was agreed to, the conjurer boasting that he
-could effect his purpose even at the distance of one hundred miles. The
-promised reward was brought and placed in full view, and both parties
-now prepared for the experiment.
-
-The spectators being all assembled, the sorcerer took his seat, arrayed
-in the most frightful manner that he could devise. Anderson stood firm
-and composed before him at the stipulated distance. All were silent
-and attentive while the wizard began his terrible operation. He began
-with working with his fingers on his blanket, plucking now and then
-a little wool and breathing on it, then rolling it together in small
-rolls of the size of a bean, and went through all the antic tricks to
-which the power of bewitching is generally ascribed. But all this had
-no effect. Anderson remained cool and composed, now and then calling
-to his antagonist not to be sparing of his exertions. The conjurer now
-began to make the most horrid gesticulations, and used all the means
-in his power to frighten the honest Quaker, who, aware of his purpose,
-still remained unmoved. At last, while the eyes of all the spectators
-were fixed on this brave man, to observe the effects of the sorcerer’s
-craft upon him, this terrible conjurer, finding that all his efforts
-were in vain, found himself obliged to give up the point, and alleged
-for his excuse “that the Americans[199] eat too much salt provisions;
-that salt had a repulsive effect, which made the powerful invisible
-substance that he employed recoil upon him; that the Indians, who eat
-but little salt, had often felt the effects of this substance, but that
-the great quantity of it which the white men used effectually protected
-them against it.”
-
-The imposition in this instance was perfectly clear and visible,
-and nothing was so easy as to see through this sorcerer’s miserable
-pretence, and be convinced that his boasted art was entirely a
-deception; but it was not so with the Indians, who firmly believed
-that the salt which the Americans[199] used was the only cause of his
-failure in this instance, and that if it had not been for the salted
-meat which Mr. Anderson fed upon, he would have fallen a victim as well
-as others to the incantations of this impostor.
-
-I have received this story from the mouth of Mr. Anderson himself,
-who was a most respectable gentleman, and also from several credible
-Indians who were present at the time. After this bold and unsuccessful
-experiment, it is impossible to expect that the superstitious notions
-of the Indians on the subject of witchcraft can ever by any means be
-rooted out of their minds.[200]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXIII.
-
-INITIATION OF BOYS.
-
-
-I do not know how to give a better name to a superstitious practice
-which is very common among the Indians, and, indeed, is universal among
-those nations that I have become acquainted with. By certain methods
-which I shall presently describe, they put the mind of a boy in a state
-of perturbation, so as to excite dreams and visions; by means of which
-they pretend that the boy receives instructions from certain spirits or
-unknown agents as to his conduct in life, that he is informed of his
-future destination and of the wonders he is to perform in his future
-career through the world.
-
-When a boy is to be thus _initiated_, he is put under an alternate
-course of physic and fasting, either taking no food whatever, or
-swallowing the most powerful and nauseous medicines, and occasionally
-he is made to drink decoctions of an intoxicating nature, until his
-mind becomes sufficiently bewildered, so that he sees or fancies that
-he sees visions, and has extraordinary dreams, for which, of course, he
-has been prepared beforehand. He will fancy himself flying through the
-air, walking under ground, stepping from one ridge or hill to the other
-across the valley beneath, fighting and conquering giants and monsters,
-and defeating whole hosts by his single arm. Then he has interviews
-with the Mannitto or with spirits, who inform him of what he was before
-he was born and what he will be after his death. His fate in this life
-is laid entirely open before him, the spirit tells him what is to be
-his future employment, whether he will be a valiant warrior, a mighty
-hunter, a doctor, a conjurer, or a prophet. There are even those who
-learn or pretend to learn in this way the time and manner of their
-death.
-
-When a boy has been thus initiated, a name is given to him analogous to
-the visions that he has seen, and to the destiny that is supposed to
-be prepared for him. The boy, imagining all that happened to him while
-under perturbation, to have been real, sets out in the world with lofty
-notions of himself, and animated with courage for the most desperate
-undertakings.
-
-The belief in the truth of those visions is universal among the
-Indians. I have spoken with several of their old men, who had been
-highly distinguished for their valour, and asked them whether they
-ascribed their achievements to natural or supernatural causes, and they
-uniformly answered, that as they knew beforehand what they could do,
-they did it of course. When I carried my questions farther, and asked
-them how they knew what they could do? they never failed to refer to
-the dreams and visions which they had while under perturbation, in the
-manner I have above mentioned.
-
-I always found it vain to attempt to undeceive them on this subject.
-They never were at a loss for examples to shew that the dreams they
-had had were not the work of a heated imagination, but that they came
-to them through the agency of a mannitto. They could always cite
-numerous instances of valiant men, who, in former times, in consequence
-of such dreams, had boldly attacked their enemy with nothing but the
-_Tamahican_[201] in their hand, had not looked about to survey the
-number of their opponents, but had gone straight forward, striking all
-down before them; some, they said, in the French wars, had entered
-houses of the English filled with people, who, before they had time to
-look about, were all killed and laid in a heap. Such was the strength,
-the power and the courage conveyed to them in their supernatural
-dreams, and which nothing could resist.
-
-If they stopped here in their relations, I might, perhaps, consider
-this practice of putting boys under perturbation, as a kind of military
-school or exercise, intended to create in them a more than ordinary
-courage, and make them undaunted warriors. It certainly has this effect
-on some, who fancying themselves under the immediate protection of
-the celestial powers, despise all dangers, and really perform acts of
-astonishing bravery. But it must be observed, that all that are thus
-initiated are not designed for a military life, and that several learn
-by their dreams that they are to be physicians, sorcerers, or that
-their lives are to be devoted to some other civil employment. And it is
-astonishing what a number of superstitious notions are infused into the
-minds of the unsuspecting youth, by means of those dreams, which are
-useless, at least, for making good warriors or hunters. There are even
-some who by that means are taught to believe in the transmigration of
-souls.
-
-I once took great pains to dissuade from these notions a very sensible
-Indian, much esteemed by all who knew him, even among the whites. All
-that I could say or urge was not able to convince him that at the
-time of his _initiation_ (as I call it) his mind was in a state of
-temporary derangement. He declared that he had a clear recollection of
-the dreams and visions that had occurred to him at the time, and was
-sure that they came from the agency of celestial spirits. He asserted
-very strange things, of his own supernatural knowledge, which he had
-obtained not only at the time of his initiation, but at other times,
-even before he was born. He said he knew he had lived through two
-generations; that he had died twice and was born a third time, to live
-out the then present race, after which he was to die and never more
-to come to this country again. He well remembered what the women had
-predicted while he was yet in his mother’s womb; some had foretold
-that he would be a boy, and others a girl; he had distinctly overheard
-their discourses, and could repeat correctly every thing that they had
-said. It would be too long to relate all the wild stories of the same
-kind which this otherwise intelligent Indian said of himself, with a
-tone and manner which indicated the most intimate conviction, and left
-no doubt in my mind that he did not mean to deceive others, but was
-himself deceived.
-
-I have known several other Indians who firmly believed that they knew,
-by means of these visions, what was to become of them when they should
-die, how their souls were to retire from their bodies and take their
-abodes into those of infants yet unborn; in short, there is nothing so
-wild and so extraordinary that they will not imagine and to which, when
-once it has taken hold of their imagination, they will not give full
-credit. In this they are not a little aided by certain superstitious
-notions which form a part of their traditionary belief, and of which I
-shall take notice in the next chapter.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXIV.
-
-INDIAN MYTHOLOGY.
-
-
-The Indians consider the earth as their universal mother. They believe
-that they were created within its bosom, where for a long time they had
-their abode, before they came to live on its surface. They say that the
-great, good, and all powerful Spirit, when he created them, undoubtedly
-meant at a proper time to put them in the enjoyment of all the good
-things which he had prepared for them upon the earth, but he wisely
-ordained that their first stage of existence should be within it, as
-the infant is formed and takes its first growth in the womb of its
-natural mother. This fabulous account of the creation of man needs only
-to be ascribed to the ancient Egyptians or to the Brahmins of India,
-to be admired and extolled for the curious analogy which it observes
-between the general and individual creation; but as it comes from the
-American savage, I doubt whether it will even receive the humble praise
-of ingenuity, to which, however, it appears to me to be justly entitled.
-
-The Indian Mythologists are not agreed as to the form under which
-they existed while in the bowels of the earth. Some assert that they
-lived there in the human shape, while others, with greater consistency
-contend that their existence was in the form of certain terrestrial
-animals, such as the ground-hog, the rabbit, and the tortoise. This was
-their state of preparation, until they were permitted to come out and
-take their station on this island[202] as the Lords of the rest of the
-Creation.
-
-Among the Delawares, those of the _Minsi_, or Wolf tribe, say that
-in the beginning, they dwelt in the earth under a lake, and were
-fortunately extricated from this unpleasant abode by the discovery
-which one of their men made of a hole, through which he ascended to
-the surface; on which, as he was walking, he found a deer, which he
-carried back with him into his subterraneous habitation; that there the
-deer was killed,[203] and he and his companions found the meat so good,
-that they unanimously determined to leave their dark abode, and remove
-to a place where they could enjoy the light of heaven and have such
-excellent game in abundance.
-
-The other two tribes, the _Unamis_ or Tortoise, and the _Unalachtigos_
-or Turkey, have much similar notions, but reject the story of the lake,
-which seems peculiar to the Minsi tribe.
-
-These notions must be very far extended among the Indians of North
-America generally, since we find that they prevail also among the
-Iroquois, a nation so opposed to the Delawares, as has been shewn in
-the former parts of this work, and whose language is so different from
-theirs, that not two words, perhaps, similar or even analogous of
-signification may be found alike in both. On this subject I beg leave
-to present an extract from the manuscript notes of the late Reverend
-Christopher Pyrlæus, whom I am always fond of quoting with respect,
-as he was a man of great truth, and besides well acquainted with the
-Six Nations and their idioms.[204] The account that he here gives of
-the traditions of that people concerning their original existence, was
-taken down by him in January 1743, from the mouth of a respectable
-Mohawk chief named _Sganarady_, who resided on the Mohawk river.
-
-
-THE EXTRACT.
-
-“_Traditio._--That they had dwelt in the earth where it was dark and
-where no sun did shine. That though they followed hunting, they ate
-mice, which they caught with their hands. That _Ganawagahha_ (one of
-them) having accidentally found a hole to get out of the earth at, he
-went out, and that in walking about on the earth he found a deer, which
-he took back with him, and that both on account of the meat tasting
-so very good, and the favourable description he had given them of the
-country above and on the earth, their mother, concluded it best for
-them all to come out; that accordingly they did so, and immediately set
-about planting corn, &c. That, however, the _Nocharauorsul_, that is,
-the _ground-hog_, would not come out, but had remained in the ground as
-before.”
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-So far Mr. Pyrlæus. From these traditions of the Iroquois, and those
-of the Delawares and Mohicans, it seems to follow that they must have
-considered their numbers very small, when they dwelt in the earth;
-perhaps, no more than one family of each tribe, and that the custom of
-giving to their tribes the names of particular animals, must have been
-very ancient. The _ground-hog_, say the Mohawks, would not come out.
-But who was this hog? Might it not formerly have been the name of one
-of their tribes, who was made the subject of this fable?
-
-However ridiculous these stories are, the belief of the Indians in them
-is not to be shaken. When I was a boy between twelve and fifteen years
-of age, I had often heard of white people conversant with the Indians,
-who at that time would continually come to this place, (Bethlehem) in
-great numbers, even by hundreds, that the Indians did not eat rabbits,
-because they thought them infected with the venereal disease, and that
-whoever ate of their flesh, was sure to take that disorder. Being then
-myself fond of catching those animals in traps, I asked questions on
-this subject of several Mohican Indians, who spoke the German language;
-but though they said nothing about the disease that rabbits were
-said to be infected with, yet they advised me by no means to eat of
-their flesh. They gave me no reason whatever to induce me to abstain
-from this food; but afterwards, in the year 1762, when I resided at
-Tuscorawas on the Muskingum, I was told by some of them, that there
-were some animals which Indians did not eat, and among them were the
-_rabbit_ and the _ground-hog_; for, said they, they did not know but
-that they might be _related_ to them!
-
-I found also that the Indians, for a similar reason, paid great respect
-to the rattle-snake, whom they called their _grandfather_, and would
-on no account destroy him. One day, as I was walking with an elderly
-Indian on the banks of the Muskingum, I saw a large rattle-snake lying
-across the path, which I was going to kill. The Indian immediately
-forbade my doing so; “for,” said he, “the rattle-snake is grandfather
-to the Indians, and is placed here on purpose to guard us, and to give
-us notice of impending danger by his rattle, which is the same as if
-he were to tell us ‘look about!’ Now,” added he, “if we were to kill
-one of those, the others would soon know it, and the whole race would
-rise upon us and bite us.” I observed to him that the white people were
-not afraid of this; for they killed all the rattle-snakes that they
-met with. On this he enquired whether any white man had been bitten by
-these animals, and of course I answered in the affirmative. “No wonder,
-then!” replied he, “you have to blame yourselves for that! you did as
-much as declaring war against them, and you will find them in _your_
-country, where they will not fail to make frequent incursions. They are
-a very dangerous enemy; take care you do not irritate them in _our_
-country; they and their grandchildren are on good terms, and neither
-will hurt the other.”
-
-These ancient notions have, however in a great measure died away with
-the last generation, and the Indians at present kill their grandfather
-the rattle-snake without ceremony, whenever they meet with him.
-
-That the Indians, from the earliest times, considered themselves in a
-manner connected with certain animals, is evident from various customs
-still preserved among them, and from the names of those animals which
-they have collectively, as well as individually, assumed. It might,
-indeed, be supposed that those animals’ names which they have given
-to their several tribes were mere badges of distinction, or “coats of
-arms” as Pyrlæus calls them; but if we pay attention to the reasons
-which they give for those denominations, the idea of a supposed family
-connexion is easily discernible. The Tortoise, or as it is commonly
-called, the _Turtle_ tribe, among the Lenape, claims a superiority
-and ascendency over the others, because their _relation_, the great
-Tortoise, a fabled monster, the Atlas of their mythology, bears
-according to their traditions this great _island_ on his back, and also
-because he is amphibious, and can live both on land and in the water,
-which neither of the heads of the other tribes can do. The merits of
-the _Turkey_, which gives its name to the second tribe, are that he is
-stationary, and always remains with or about them. As to the _Wolf_,
-after whom the third tribe is named, he is a rambler by nature, running
-from one place to another in quest of his prey; yet they consider him
-as their benefactor, as it was by his means that the Indians got out
-of the interior of the earth. It was he, they believe, who by the
-appointment of the Great Spirit, killed the deer whom the Monsey found
-who first discovered the way to the surface of the earth, and which
-allured them to come out of their damp and dark residence. For that
-reason, the wolf is to be honoured, and his name preserved for ever
-among them. Such are their traditions, as they were related to me by an
-old man of this tribe more than fifty years ago.
-
-These animals’ names, it is true, they all use as national badges, in
-order to distinguish their tribes from each other at home and abroad.
-In this point of view Mr. Pyrlæus was right in considering them as
-“coats of arms.” The Turtle warrior draws either with a coal or paint
-here and there on the trees along the war path, the whole animal
-carrying a gun with the muzzle projecting forward, and if he leaves a
-mark at the place where he has made a stroke on his enemy, it will be
-the picture of a tortoise. Those of the Turkey tribe paint only one
-foot of a turkey, and the Wolf tribe, sometimes a wolf at large with
-one leg and foot raised up to serve as a hand, in which the animal also
-carries a gun with the muzzle forward. They, however, do not generally
-use the word “wolf,” when speaking of their tribe, but call themselves
-_Pauk-sit_[205] which means _round-foot_, that animal having a round
-foot like a dog.
-
-The Indians, in their hours of leisure, paint their different marks or
-badges on the doors of their respective houses, that those who pass by
-may know to which tribe the inhabitants belong. Those marks also serve
-them for signatures to treaties and other documents. They are as proud
-of their origin from the tortoise, the turkey, and the wolf, as the
-nobles of Europe are of their descent from the feudal barons of ancient
-times, and when children spring from intermarriages between different
-tribes, their genealogy is carefully preserved by tradition in the
-family, that they may know to which tribe they belong.
-
-I have often reflected on the curious connexion which appears to
-subsist in the mind of an Indian between man and the brute creation,
-and found much matter in it for curious observation. Although they
-consider themselves superior to all other animals and are very proud of
-that superiority; although they believe that the beasts of the forest,
-the birds of the air, and the fishes of the waters, were created by
-the Almighty Being for the use of man; yet it seems as if they ascribe
-the difference between themselves and the brute kind, and the dominion
-which they have over them, more to their superior bodily strength and
-dexterity than to their immortal souls. All beings endowed by the
-Creator with the power of volition and self-motion, they view in a
-manner as a great society of which they are the head, whom they are
-appointed, indeed, to govern, but between whom and themselves intimate
-ties of connexion and relationship may exist, or at least did exist in
-the beginning of time. They are, in fact, according to their opinions,
-only the first among equals, the legitimate hereditary sovereigns of
-the whole animated race, of which they are themselves a constituent
-part. Hence, in their languages, these inflections of their nouns which
-we call _genders_, are not, as with us, descriptive of the _masculine_
-and _feminine_ species, but of the _animate_ and _inanimate_ kinds.
-Indeed, they go so far as to include trees, and plants within the first
-of these descriptions. All animated nature, in whatever degree, is in
-their eyes a great whole, from which they have not yet ventured to
-separate themselves. They do not exclude other animals from their world
-of spirits, the place to which they expect to go after death.
-
-I find it difficult to express myself clearly on this abstruse subject,
-which, perhaps, the Indians themselves do not very well understand, as
-they have no metaphysicians among them to analyse their vague notions,
-and perhaps confuse them still more. But I can illustrate what I have
-said by some characteristic anecdotes, with which I shall conclude this
-chapter.
-
-I have already observed[206] that the Indian includes all savage beasts
-within the number of his _enemies_. This is by no means a metaphorical
-or figurative expression, but is used in a literal sense, as will
-appear from what I am going to relate.
-
-A Delaware hunter once shot a huge bear and broke its back-bone. The
-animal fell and set up a most plaintive cry, something like that of the
-panther when he is hungry. The hunter instead of giving him another
-shot, stood up close to him, and addressed him in these words: “Hark
-ye! bear; you are a coward, and no warrior as you pretend to be. Were
-you a warrior, you would shew it by your firmness and not cry and
-whimper like an old woman. You know, bear, that our tribes are at war
-with each other, and that yours was the aggressor.[207] You have found
-the Indians too powerful for you, and you have gone sneaking about in
-the woods, stealing their hogs; perhaps at this time you have hog’s
-flesh in your belly. Had you conquered me, I would have borne it with
-courage and died like a brave warrior; but you, bear, sit here and cry,
-and disgrace your tribe by your cowardly conduct.” I was present at
-the delivery of this curious invective; when the hunter had despatched
-the bear, I asked him how he thought that poor animal could understand
-what he said to it? “Oh!” said he in answer, “the bear understood me
-very well; did you not observe how _ashamed_ he looked while I was
-upbraiding him?”
-
-Another time I witnessed a similar scene between the falls of the Ohio
-and the river Wabash. A young white man, named _William Wells_,[208]
-who had been when a boy taken prisoner by a tribe of the Wabash
-Indians, by whom he was brought up, and had imbibed all their notions,
-had so wounded a large bear that he could not move from the spot,
-and the animal cried piteously like the one I have just mentioned.
-The young man went up to him, and with seemingly great earnestness,
-addressed him in the Wabash language, now and then giving him a slight
-stroke on the nose with his ram-rod. I asked him, when he had done,
-what he had been saying to this bear? “I have,” said he, “upbraided him
-for acting the part of a coward; I told him that he knew the fortune of
-war, that one or the other of us must have fallen; that it was his fate
-to be conquered, and he ought to die like a man, like a hero, and not
-like an old woman; that if the case had been reversed, and I had fallen
-into the power of _my enemy_, I would not have disgraced my nation as
-he did, but would have died with firmness and courage, as becomes a
-true warrior.”
-
-I leave the reader to reflect upon these anecdotes, which, I think,
-convey more real information than any further attempts that I could
-make to explain the strange notions which gave them rise.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXV.
-
-INSANITY--SUICIDE.
-
-
-Insanity is not common among the Indians; yet I have known several
-who were afflicted with mental derangement. Men in this situation are
-always considered as objects of pity. Every one, young and old, feels
-compassion for their misfortune; to laugh or scoff at them would be
-considered as a crime, much more so to insult or molest them. The
-nation or colour of the unfortunate object makes no difference; the
-charity of the Indians extends to all, and no discrimination is made in
-such a lamentable case.
-
-About the commencement of the Indian war in 1763, a trading Jew, named
-Chapman, who was going up the Detroit river with a batteau-load of
-goods which he had brought from Albany, was taken by some Indians of
-the Chippeway nation, and destined to be put to death. A Frenchman,
-impelled by motives of friendship and humanity, found means to steal
-the prisoner, and kept him so concealed for some time, that although
-the most diligent search was made, the place of his confinement could
-not be discovered. At last, however, the unfortunate man was betrayed
-by some false friend, and again fell into the power of the Indians, who
-took him across the river to be burned and tortured. Tied to the stake
-and the fire burning by his side, his thirst, from the great heat,
-became intolerable, and he begged that some drink might be given to
-him. It is a custom with the Indians, previous to a prisoner being put
-to death, to give him what they call his last meal; a bowl of pottage
-or broth was therefore brought to him for that purpose. Eager to quench
-his thirst, he put the bowl immediately to his lips, and the liquor
-being very hot, he was dreadfully scalded. Being a man of a very quick
-temper, the moment he felt his mouth burned, he threw the bowl with its
-contents full in the face of the man who had handed it to him. “He is
-mad! He is mad!” resounded from all quarters. The bystanders considered
-his conduct as an act of insanity, and immediately untied the cords
-with which he was bound, and let him go where he pleased.
-
-This fact was well known to all the inhabitants of Detroit, from whom
-I first heard it, and it was afterwards confirmed to me by Mr. Chapman
-himself, who was established as a merchant at that place.
-
-SUICIDE is not considered by the Indians either as an act of heroism
-or of cowardice, nor is it with them a subject of praise or blame.
-They view this desperate act as the consequence of mental derangement,
-and the person who destroys himself is to them an object of pity. Such
-cases do not frequently occur. Between the years 1771 and 1780, four
-Indians of my acquaintance took the root of the may-apple, which is
-commonly used on such occasions, in order to poison themselves, in
-which they all succeeded, except one. Two of them were young men, who
-had been disappointed in love, the girls on whom they had fixed their
-choice, and to whom they were engaged, having changed their minds and
-married other lovers. They both put an end to their existence. The two
-others were married men. Their stories, as pictures of Indian manners,
-will not, perhaps, be thought uninteresting.
-
-One of those unfortunate men was a person of an excellent character,
-respected and esteemed by all who knew him. He had a wife whom he was
-very fond of and two children, and they lived very happily together at
-the distance of about half a mile from the place where I resided. He
-often came to visit me, and as he was of a most amiable disposition,
-I was pleased with his visits, and always gave him a hearty welcome.
-When I thought he was too long about coming, I went myself to the
-delightful spot which he had judiciously selected for his dwelling.
-Here I always found the family cheerful, sociable and happy, until
-some time before the fatal catastrophe happened, when I observed that
-my friend’s countenance bore the marks of deep melancholy, of which
-I afterwards learned the cause. His wife had received the visits of
-another man; he foresaw that he would soon be obliged to separate from
-her, and he shuddered when he thought that he must also part from his
-two lovely children; for it is the custom of the Indians, that when a
-divorce takes place between husband and wife, the children remain with
-their mother, until they are of a proper age to choose for themselves.
-One hope, however, still remained. The sugar-making season was at
-hand, and they were shortly to remove to their sugar-camp, where he
-flattered himself his wife would not be followed by the disturber of
-his peace, whose residence was about ten miles from thence. But this
-hope was of short duration. They had hardly been a fortnight in their
-new habitation, when, as he returned one day from a morning’s hunt, he
-found the unwelcome visitor at his home, in close conversation with his
-faithless wife. This last stroke was more than he could bear; without
-saying a single word, he took off a large cake of his sugar, and with
-it came to my house, which was at the distance of eight miles from his
-temporary residence. It was on a Sunday, at about ten o’clock in the
-forenoon, that he entered my door, with sorrow strongly depicted on
-his manly countenance. As he came in he presented me with his cake of
-sugar, saying, “My friend! you have many a time served me with a good
-pipe of tobacco, and I have not yet done anything to please you. Take
-this as a reward for your goodness, and as an acknowledgment from me as
-your friend.” He said no more, but giving me with both his hands a warm
-farewell squeeze, he departed and returned to the camp. At about two
-o’clock in the afternoon, a runner from thence passing through the town
-to notify his death at the village two miles farther, informed us of
-the shocking event. He had immediately on his return, remained a short
-time in his house, indulging in the last caresses to his dear innocent
-children; then retiring to some distance, had eaten the fatal root, and
-before relief could be administered by some persons who had observed
-him staggering from the other side of the river, he was on the point of
-expiring, and all succours were vain.
-
-The last whom I have to mention was also a married man, but had no
-children. He had lived happy with his wife, until one day that she fell
-into a passion and made use to him of such abusive language as he could
-not endure. Too highminded to quarrel with a woman, he resolved to
-punish her by putting an end to his existence. Fortunately he was seen
-in the first stage of his fits, and was brought into a house, where a
-strong emetic diluted in lukewarm water, the composition of which I
-have already described,[209] was forcibly poured down his throat. He
-recovered after some time, but never was again the strong healthy man
-he had been before; his wife however took warning from this desperate
-act, and behaved better ever after.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXVI.
-
-DRUNKENNESS.
-
-
-In treating of this subject, I cannot resist the impression of a
-melancholy feeling, arising from the comparison which forces itself
-upon my mind of what the Indians were before the Europeans came into
-this country, and what they have become since, by a participation in
-our vices. By their intercourse with us, they have lost much of that
-original character by which they were once distinguished, and which
-it is the object of this work to delineate, and the change which has
-taken place is by no means for the better. I am not one of those wild
-enthusiasts who would endeavour to persuade mankind that savage life
-is preferable to a state of civilisation; but I leave it to every
-impartial person to decide, whether the condition of the healthy
-sober Indian, pursuing his game through forests and plains, is not
-far superior to that of the gangrened drunken white man, rioting in
-debauchery and vice?
-
-I have already before taken notice[210] of the assertion which our
-aborigines do not hesitate to make, that before the Europeans landed
-in those parts of the American continent, they were unacquainted
-with that shameful disorder which attacks generation in its sources.
-I am well aware that this complaint is generally believed to have
-been communicated by the new world to the old. I do not know upon
-what proofs this opinion rests, but I am disposed to give credit to
-the uniform assertion of our northern Indians, that this contagion
-was first introduced among them by emigrants from Europe. However
-it may be, it is a lamentable fact that they are now very generally
-infected with it, and that their population cannot long resist its
-destructive operation upon their once strong and healthy constitutions,
-particularly as it is associated with the abuse of strong liquors, now
-so prevalent among them.
-
-Of the manner in which they have acquired this latter vice, I presume
-there can be no doubt. They charge us in the most positive manner
-with being the first who made them acquainted with ardent spirits,
-and what is worse, with having exerted all the means in our power to
-induce them to drink to excess. It is very certain that the processes
-of distillation and fermentation are entirely unknown to the Indians,
-and that they have among them no intoxicating liquors but such as they
-receive from us. The Mexicans have their _Pulque_, and other indigenous
-beverages of an inebriating nature, but the North American Indians,
-before their intercourse with us commenced, had absolutely nothing of
-the kind. The smoke of the American weed, tobacco, was the only means
-that they at that time had in use to produce a temporary exhilaration
-of their spirits.
-
-I have related in a former chapter,[211] the curious account given by
-the Delawares and Mohicans of the scene which took place when they
-were first made to taste spirituous liquors by the Dutch who landed on
-New York Island. I have no doubt that this tradition is substantially
-founded on fact. Indeed, it is strongly corroborated by the name which,
-in consequence of this adventure, those people gave at the time to
-that island, and which it has retained to this day. They called it
-_Manahachtanienk_, which in the Delaware language, means “_the island
-where we all became intoxicated_.” We have corrupted this name into
-_Manhattan_, but not so as to destroy its meaning, or conceal its
-origin. The last syllable which we have left out is only a termination,
-implying locality, and in this word signifies as much as _where we_.
-There are few Indian traditions so well supported as this.
-
-How far from that time the dreadful vice of intoxication has increased
-among those poor Indians, is well known to many Christian people among
-us. We may safely calculate on thousands who have perished by the
-baneful effect of spirituous liquors. The dreadful war which took place
-in 1774 between the Shawanese, some of the Mingoes, and the people
-of Virginia, in which so many lives were lost, was brought on by the
-consequences of drunkenness. It produced murders, which were followed
-by private revenge, and ended in a most cruel and destructive war.
-
-The general prevalence of this vice among the Indians is in a great
-degree owing to unprincipled white traders, who persuade them to become
-intoxicated that they may cheat them the more easily, and obtain their
-lands or[212] peltries for a mere trifle. Within the last fifty years,
-some instances have even come to my knowledge of white men having
-enticed Indians to drink, and when drunk, murdered them. The effects
-which intoxication produces upon the Indians are dreadful. It has been
-the cause of an infinite number of murders among them, besides biting
-off noses and otherwise disfiguring each other, which are the least
-consequences of the quarrels which inebriation produces between them.
-I cannot say how many have died of colds and other disorders, which
-they have caught by lying upon the cold ground, and remaining exposed
-to the elements when drunk; others have lingered out their lives, in
-excruciating rheumatic pains and in wasting consumptions, until death
-came to relieve them from their sufferings.
-
-Reflecting Indians have keenly remarked, “that it was strange that
-a people who professed themselves believers in a religion revealed
-to them by the great Spirit himself; who say that they have in their
-houses the WORD of God, and his laws and commandments textually
-written, could think of making a _beson_,[213] calculated to bewitch
-people and make them destroy one another.” I once asked an Indian at
-Pittsburgh, whom I had not before seen, who he was? He answered in
-broken English: “My name is _Black-fish_; when at home with my nation,
-I am a clever fellow, and when here, a _hog_.” He meant that by means
-of the liquor which the white people gave him, he was sunk down to the
-level of that beast.
-
-An Indian who had been born and brought up at Minisink, near the
-Delaware Water Gap, and to whom the German inhabitants of that
-neighbourhood had given the name of _Cornelius Rosenbaum_, told me near
-fifty years ago, that he had once, when under the influence of strong
-liquor, killed the best Indian friend he had, fancying him to be his
-worst avowed enemy. He said that the deception was complete, and that
-while intoxicated, the face of his friend presented to his eyes all
-the features of the man with whom he was in a state of hostility. It
-is impossible to express the horror with which he was struck when he
-awoke from that delusion; he was so shocked, that he from that moment
-resolved never more to taste of the maddening poison, of which he was
-convinced that the devil was the inventor; for it could only be the
-evil spirit who made him see his enemy when his friend was before him,
-and produced so strong a delusion on his bewildered senses, that he
-actually killed him. From that time until his death, which happened
-thirty years afterwards, he never drank a drop of ardent spirits, which
-he always called “the Devil’s blood,” and was firmly persuaded that the
-Devil, or some of his inferior spirits had a hand in preparing it.
-
-Once in my travels, I fell in with an Indian and his son; the former,
-though not addicted to drinking, had this time drank some liquor with
-one of his acquaintances, of which he now felt the effects. As he was
-walking before me, along the path, he at once flew back and aside,
-calling out, “O! what a monstrous snake!” On my asking him where the
-snake lay, he pointed to something and said, “Why, there, across the
-path!” “A snake!” said I, “it is nothing but a black-burnt sapling,
-which has fallen on the ground.” He however would not be persuaded; he
-insisted that it was a snake, and could be nothing else; therefore, to
-avoid it, he went round the path, and entered it again at some distance
-further. After we had travelled together for about two hours, during
-which time he spoke but little, we encamped for the night. Awaking
-about midnight, I saw him sitting up smoking his pipe, and appearing
-to be in deep thought. I asked him why he did not lay down and sleep?
-To which he replied, “O! my friend! many things have crowded on my
-mind; I am quite lost in thought!”
-
-HECKEW. “And what are you thinking about?”
-
-INDIAN. “Did you say it was not a snake of which I was afraid, and
-which lay across the path?”
-
-HECKEW. “I did say so; and, indeed, it was nothing else but a sapling
-burnt black by the firing of the woods.”
-
-INDIAN. “Are you sure it was that?”
-
-HECKEW. “Yes; and I called to you at the time to look, how I was
-standing on it; and if you have yet a doubt, ask your son, and the two
-Indians with me, and they will tell you the same.”
-
-INDIAN. “O strange! and I took it for an uncommonly large snake, moving
-as if it intended to bite me!--I cannot get over my surprise, that the
-liquor I drank, and, indeed, that was not much, should have so deceived
-me! but I think I have now discovered how it happens that Indians so
-often kill one another when drunk, almost without knowing what they
-are doing; and when afterwards they are told of what they have done,
-they ascribe it to the liquor which was in them at the time, and say
-the liquor did it. I thought that as I saw this time a living snake
-in a dead piece of wood, so I might, at another time, take a human
-being, perhaps one of my own family, for a bear or some other ferocious
-beast and kill him. Can you, my friend, tell me what is in the _beson_
-that confuses one so, and transforms things in that manner? Is it an
-invisible spirit? It must be something alive; or have the white people
-sorcerers among them, who put something in the liquor to deceive those
-who drink it? Do the white people drink of the same liquor that they
-give to the Indians? Do they also, when drunk, kill people, and bite
-noses off, as the Indians do? Who taught the white people to make so
-pernicious a _beson_?”
-
-I answered all these questions, and several others that he put to
-me, in the best manner that I could, to which he replied, and our
-conversation continued as follows:
-
-INDIAN. “Well, if, as you say, the bad spirit cannot be the inventor
-of this liquor; if, in some cases it is moderately used among you as a
-medicine, and if your doctors can prepare from it, or with the help of
-a little of it, some salutary _besons_, still, I must believe that when
-it operates as you have seen, the bad spirit must have some hand in it,
-either by putting some bad thing into it, unknown to those who prepare
-it, or you have conjurers who understand how to bewitch it.--Perhaps
-they only do so to that which is for the Indians; for the devil is not
-the Indians’ friend, because they will not worship him, as they do
-the good spirit, and therefore I believe he puts something into the
-_beson_, for the purpose of destroying them.”
-
-HECKEW. “What the devil may do with the liquor, I cannot tell; but I
-believe that he has a hand in everything that is bad. When the Indians
-kill one another, bite off each other’s noses, or commit such wicked
-acts, he is undoubtedly well satisfied; for, as God himself has said,
-he is a destroyer and a murderer.”
-
-INDIAN. “Well, now, we think alike, and henceforth he shall never again
-deceive me, or entice me to drink his _beson_!”
-
-It is a common saying with those white traders who find it their
-interest to make the Indians drunk, in order to obtain their peltry
-at a cheaper rate, that they _will_ have strong liquors, and will not
-enter upon a bargain unless they are sure of getting it. I acknowledge
-that I have seen some such cases; but I could also state many from my
-own knowledge, where the Indians not only refused liquor, but resisted
-during several days all the attempts that were made to induce them even
-to taste it, being well aware, as well as those who offered it to them,
-that if they once should put it to their lips, such was their weakness
-on that score, that intoxication would inevitably follow.
-
-I can, perhaps, offer a plausible reason why the Indians are so fond of
-spirituous drinks. The cause is, I believe, to be found in their living
-almost entirely upon fresh meats and green vegetables, such as corn,
-pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, cucumbers, melons, beans, &c., which
-causes a longing in their stomachs for some seasoning, particularly
-(as is often the case) when they have been a long time without salt.
-They are, on those occasions, equally eager for any acid substances;
-vinegar, if they can get it, they will drink in considerable
-quantities, and think nothing of going thirty or forty miles in search
-of cranberries whether in season or not. They also gather crab-apples,
-wild-grapes, and other acid, and even bitter-tasted fruits, as
-substitutes for salt, and in the spring they will peel such trees as
-have a sourish sap, which they lick with great avidity. When for a long
-time they have been without salt, and are fortunate enough to get some,
-they will swallow at a time a table-spoonful of that mineral substance,
-for which they say that they and their horses are equally hungry.
-
-The Indians are very sensible of the state of degradation to which they
-have been brought by the abuse of strong liquors, and whenever they
-speak of it, never fail to reproach the whites, for having enticed them
-into that vicious habit. I could easily prove how guilty the whites
-are in this respect, if I were to relate a number of anecdotes, which
-I rather wish to consign to oblivion. The following will be sufficient
-to confute those disingenuous traders, who would endeavour to shift the
-blame from themselves, in order to fix it upon the poor deluded Indians.
-
-In the year 1769, an Indian from Susquehannah having come to Bethlehem
-with his sons to dispose of his peltry, was accosted by a trader from
-a neighbouring town, who addressed him thus: “Well! Thomas, I really
-believe you have turned Moravian.” “Moravian!” answered the Indian,
-“what makes you think so?” “Because,” replied the other, “you used to
-come to us to sell your skins and peltry, and now you trade them away
-to the Moravians.” “So!” rejoined the Indian, “now I understand you
-well, and I know what you mean to say. Now hear me. See! my friend!
-when I come to this place with my skins and peltry to trade, the people
-are kind, they give me plenty of good victuals to eat, and pay me in
-money or whatever I want, and no one says a word to me about drinking
-rum--neither do I ask for it! When I come to your place with my peltry,
-all call to me: ‘Come, Thomas! here’s rum, drink heartily, drink! it
-will not hurt you.’ All this is done for the purpose of cheating me.
-When you have obtained from me all you want, you call me a drunken dog,
-and kick me out of the room. See! this is the manner in which you cheat
-the Indians when they come to trade with you. So now you know when you
-see me coming to your town again, you may say to one another: ‘Ah!
-there is Thomas coming again! he is no longer a Moravian, for he is
-coming to us to be made drunk--to be cheated--to be kicked out of the
-house, and be called a _drunken dog_!’”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXVII.
-
-FUNERALS.
-
-
-I believe that no sufficiently detailed account has yet been given of
-the manner in which the North American Indians conduct the funerals
-of their dead. Captain Carver tells us that the Naudowessies, among
-whom he was, kept those ceremonies a secret, and would not give him
-an opportunity of witnessing them. Loskiel, although he drew his
-information from the journals of our Missionaries, has treated this
-subject rather superficially. I therefore run little risk of repetition
-in describing what I have myself seen, and I hope that the particulars
-which I am going to relate will not be thought uninteresting.
-
-It is well known that the Indians pay great respect to the memory
-of the dead, and commit their remains to the ground with becoming
-ceremonies. Those ceremonies, however, are not the same in all cases,
-but vary according to circumstances, and the condition of the deceased;
-for rank and wealth receive distinctions even after death, as well
-among savages as among civilised nations. This, perhaps, may be easily
-accounted for. When a great chief dies, his death is considered as a
-national loss; of course all must join in a public demonstration of
-their sorrow. The rich man, on the other hand, had many friends during
-his life, who cannot decently abandon him the moment the breath is
-out of his body; besides, his fortune supplies the means of a rich
-entertainment at the funeral, of which many, as may well be supposed,
-are anxious to partake. Thus social distinctions are found even in
-the state of nature, where perfect equality, if it exists any where,
-might with the greatest probability be supposed to be found. Though
-the earth and its fruits are common to all the Indians, yet every
-man is permitted to enjoy the earnings of his industry, and that
-produces riches; and though there is no hereditary or even elective
-rank in their social organization, yet as power follows courage and
-talents, those who are generally acknowledged to be possessed of those
-qualities, assume their station above the rest, and the distinction
-of rank is thus established. Politicians and philosophers may reason
-on these facts as they please; the descriptions that I give are from
-nature, and I leave it to abler men than myself to draw the proper
-inferences from them.
-
-On the death of a principal chief, the village resounds from one end
-to the other with the loud lamentations of the women, among whom those
-who sit by the corpse distinguish themselves by the shrillness of
-their cries and the frantic expression of their sorrow. This scene of
-mourning over the dead body continues by day and by night until it is
-interred, the mourners being relieved from time to time by other women.
-
-These honours of “mourning over the corpse” are paid to all; the poor
-and humble, as well as the rich, great, and powerful; the difference
-consists only in the number of mourners, the undistinguished Indian
-having few besides his immediate relations and friends, and sometimes
-only those. Women (notwithstanding all that has been said of their
-supposed inferior station and of their being reduced to the rank of
-slaves) are not treated after their death with less respect than the
-men, and the greatest honours are paid to the remains of the wives
-of renowned warriors or veteran chiefs, particularly if they were
-descended themselves of a high family, which, however strange it may
-appear, is not an indifferent thing among the Indians, who love to
-honour the merit of their great men in their relatives. I was present
-in the year 1762, at the funeral of a woman of the highest rank and
-respectability, the wife of the valiant Delaware chief _Shingask_;[214]
-as all the honours were paid to her at her interment that are usual on
-such occasions, I trust a particular description of the ceremony will
-not be unacceptable.
-
-At the moment that she died, her death was announced through the
-village by women specially appointed for that purpose, who went through
-the streets crying, “_She is no more! she is no more!_” The place on a
-sudden exhibited a scene of universal mourning; cries and lamentations
-were heard from all quarters; it was truly the expression of the
-general feeling for a general loss.
-
-The day passed in this manner amidst sorrow and desolation. The next
-morning, between nine and ten o’clock, two counsellors came to announce
-to Mr. Thomas Calhoon, the Indian trader, and myself, that we were
-desired to attend and assist at the funeral which was soon to take
-place. We, in consequence, proceeded to the house of the deceased,
-where we found her corpse lying in a coffin, (which had been made
-by Mr. Calhoon’s carpenter) dressed and painted in the most superb
-Indian style. Her garments, all new, were set off with rows of silver
-broaches,[215] one row joining the other. Over the sleeves of her new
-ruffled shirt were broad silver arm-spangles from her shoulder down
-to her wrist, on which were bands, forming a kind of mittens, worked
-together of wampum, in the same manner as the belts which they use
-when they deliver speeches. Her long plaited hair was confined by
-broad bands of silver, one band joining the other, yet not of the same
-size, but tapering from the head downwards and running at the lower
-end to a point. On the neck were hanging five broad belts of wampum
-tied together at the ends, each of a size smaller than the other, the
-largest of which reached below her breast, the next largest reaching to
-a few inches of it, and so on, the uppermost one being the smallest.
-Her scarlet leggings were decorated with different coloured ribands
-sewed on, the outer edges being finished off with small beads also of
-various colours. Her mocksens were ornamented with the most striking
-figures, wrought on the leather with coloured porcupine quills, on the
-borders of which, round the ankles, were fastened a number of small
-round silver bells, of about the size of a musket ball. All these
-things, together with the vermilion paint, judiciously laid on, so as
-to set her off in the highest style, decorated her person in such a
-manner, that perhaps nothing of the kind could exceed it.
-
-The spectators having retired, a number of articles were brought out
-of the house and placed in the coffin, wherever there was room to put
-them in, among which were a new shirt, a dressed deer skin for shoes,
-a pair of scissors, needles, thread, a knife, pewter basin and spoon,
-pint-cup, and other similar things, with a number of trinkets and other
-small articles which she was fond of while living. The lid was then
-fastened on the coffin with three straps, and three handsome round
-poles, five or six feet long, were laid across it, near each other, and
-one in the middle, which were also fastened with straps cut up from a
-tanned elk hide; and a small bag of vermilion paint, with some flannel
-to lay it on, was then thrust into the coffin through the hole cut out
-at the head of it. This hole, the Indians say, is for the spirit of the
-deceased to go in and out at pleasure, until it has found the place of
-its future residence.
-
-Everything being in order, the bearers of the corpse were desired to
-take their places. Mr. Calhoon and myself were placed at the foremost
-pole, two women at the middle, and two men at the pole in the rear.
-Several women from a house about thirty yards off, now started off,
-carrying large kettles, dishes, spoons, and dried elk meat in baskets,
-for the burial place, and the signal being given for us to move with
-the body, the women who acted as chief mourners made the air resound
-with their shrill cries. The order of the procession was as follows;
-first a leader or guide, from the spot where we were to the place of
-interment. Next followed the corpse, and close to it _Shingask_, the
-husband of the deceased. He was followed by the principal war-chiefs
-and counsellors of the nation, after whom came men of all ranks and
-descriptions. Then followed the women and children, and lastly two
-stout men carrying loads of European manufactured goods upon their
-backs. The chief mourners on the women’s side, not having joined the
-ranks, took their own course to the right, at the distance of about
-fifteen or twenty yards from us, but always opposite to the corpse.
-As the corpse had to be carried by the strength of our arms to the
-distance of about two hundred yards, and hung low between the bearers,
-we had to rest several times by the way, and whenever we stopped,
-everybody halted until we moved on again.
-
-Being arrived at the grave, we were told to halt, then the lid of the
-coffin was again taken off, and the body exposed to view. Now the
-whole train formed themselves into a kind of semi-lunar circle on the
-south side of the grave, and seated themselves on the ground. Within
-this circle, at the distance of about fifteen yards from the grave, a
-common seat was made for Mr. Calhoon and myself to sit on, while the
-disconsolate _Shingask_ retired by himself to a spot at some distance,
-where he was seen weeping, with his head bowed to the ground. The
-female mourners seated themselves promiscuously near to each other,
-among some low bushes that were at the distance of from twelve to
-fifteen yards east of the grave.
-
-In this situation we remained for the space of more than two hours; not
-a sound was heard from any quarter, though the numbers that attended
-were very great; nor did any person move from his seat to view the
-body, which had been lightly covered over with a clean white sheet. All
-appeared to be in profound reflection and solemn mourning. Sighs and
-sobs were now and then heard from the female mourners, so uttered as
-not to disturb the assembly; it seemed rather as if intended to keep
-the feeling of sorrow alive in a manner becoming the occasion. Such was
-the impression made on us by this long silence.
-
-At length, at about one o’clock in the afternoon, six men stepped
-forward to put the lid upon the coffin, and let down the body into
-the grave, when suddenly three of the women mourners rushed from
-their seats, and forcing themselves between these men and the corpse,
-loudly called out to the deceased to “arise and go with them and not
-to forsake them.” They even took hold of her arms and legs; at first
-it seemed as if they were caressing her, afterwards they appeared to
-pull with more violence, as if they intended to run away with the
-body, crying out all the while, “Arise, arise! Come with us! Don’t
-leave us! Don’t abandon us!” At last they retired, plucking at their
-garments, pulling their hair, and uttering loud cries and lamentations,
-with all the appearance of frantic despair. After they were seated
-on the ground, they continued in the same manner crying and sobbing
-and pulling at the grass and shrubs, as if their minds were totally
-bewildered and they did not know what they were doing.
-
-As soon as these women had gone through their part of the ceremony,
-which took up about fifteen minutes, the six men whom they had
-interrupted and who had remained at the distance of about five feet
-from the corpse, again stepped forward and did their duty. They let
-down the coffin into the earth, and laid two thin poles of about four
-inches diameter, from which the bark had been taken off, lengthways
-and close together over the grave, after which they retired. Then the
-husband of the deceased advanced with a very slow pace, and when he
-came to the grave, walked over it on these poles, and proceeded forward
-in the same manner into an extensive adjoining prairie, which commenced
-at this spot.
-
-When the widowed chief had advanced so far that he could not hear what
-was doing at the grave, a painted post, on which were drawn various
-figures, emblematic of the deceased’s situation in life and of her
-having been the wife of a valiant warrior, was brought by two men and
-delivered to a third, a man of note, who placed it in such a manner
-that it rested on the coffin at the head of the grave, and took great
-care that a certain part of the drawings should be exposed to the East,
-or rising of the sun; then, while he held the post erect and properly
-situated, some women filled up the grave with hoes, and having placed
-dry leaves and pieces of bark over it, so that none of the fresh
-ground was visible, they retired, and some men, with timbers fitted
-beforehand for the purpose, enclosed the grave about breast-high, so as
-to secure it from the approach of wild beasts.
-
-The whole work being finished, which took up about an hour’s time, Mr.
-Calhoon and myself expected that we might be permitted to go home, as
-we wished to do, particularly as we saw a thundergust from the west
-fast approaching; but the Indians, suspecting our design, soon came
-forward with poles and blankets, and in a few minutes erected a shelter
-for us.
-
-The storm, though of short duration, was tremendous; the water produced
-by the rain, flowing in streams; yet all had found means to secure
-themselves during its continuance, and being on prairie ground, we were
-out of all danger of trees being torn up or blown down upon us. Our
-encampment now appeared like a village, or rather like a military camp,
-such was the number of places of shelter that had been erected.
-
-Fortunately, the husband of the deceased had reached the camp in good
-time, and now the gust being over, every one was served with victuals
-that had been cooked at some distance from the spot. After the repast
-was over, the articles of merchandise which had been brought by the two
-men in the rear, having been made up in parcels, were distributed among
-all present. No one, from the oldest to the youngest, was excepted,
-and every one partook of the liberal donation. This difference only
-was made, that those who had rendered the greatest services received
-the most valuable presents, and we were much pleased to see the female
-mourners well rewarded, as they had, indeed, a very hard task to
-perform. Articles of little value, such as gartering, tape, needles,
-beads, and the like, were given to the smaller girls; the older ones
-received a pair of scissors, needles and thread, and a yard or two
-of riband. The boys had a knife, jews-harp, awl-blades, or something
-of similar value. Some of the grown persons received a new suit of
-clothes, consisting of a blanket, shirt, breech-cloth and leggings, of
-the value in the whole of about eight dollars; and the women, (I mean
-those who had rendered essential services) a blanket, ruffled shirts,
-stroud and leggings, the whole worth from ten to twelve dollars. Mr.
-Calhoon and myself were each presented with a silk cravat and a pair
-of leggings. The goods distributed on this occasion, were estimated by
-Mr. Calhoon at two hundred dollars; the greatest part of them had, the
-same morning, been taken out of his store.
-
-After we had thus remained, in a manner, under confinement, for more
-than six hours, the procession ended, and Mr. Calhoon and myself
-retired with the rest to our homes. At dusk a kettle of victuals was
-carried to the grave and placed upon it, and the same was done every
-evening for the space of three weeks, at the end of which it was
-supposed that the traveller had found her place of residence. During
-that time the lamentations of the women mourners were heard on the
-evenings of each day, though not so loud nor so violent as before.
-
-I have thus described, from minutes which I took at the time, the
-ceremonies which take place among the Delaware Indians on the death of
-a person of high rank and consideration among them. The funerals of
-persons of an inferior station are conducted with less pomp and with
-less expense. When the heirs of the deceased cannot afford to hire
-female mourners, the duty is performed by their own immediate relations
-and friends. But “mourning over the corpse” is a ceremony that cannot
-be dispensed with.
-
-It is always customary, when an Indian dies, of whatever rank or
-condition he may be, to put a number of the articles which belonged to
-the deceased in the coffin or grave, that he may have them when wanted.
-I have seen a bottle of rum or whiskey placed at the coffin head, and
-the reason given for it was, that the deceased was fond of liquor while
-living, and he would be glad of a dram when he should feel fatigued on
-his journey to the world of spirits.
-
-When an Indian dies at a distance from his home, great care is taken
-that the grave be well fortified with posts and logs laid upon it, that
-the wolves may be prevented from getting at the corpse; when time and
-circumstances do not permit this, as, for instance, when the Indians
-are travelling, the body is enclosed in the bark of trees and thus laid
-in the grave. When a death takes place at their hunting camps, they
-make a kind of coffin as well as they can, or put a cover over the
-body, so that the earth may not sink on it, and then enclose the grave
-with a fence of poles.
-
-Warriors that are slain in battle, are, if possible, drawn aside and
-buried, so that the enemy may not get their scalps, and also that he
-may not know the number of the slain. In such cases they will turn an
-old log out of its bed, and dig a grave so deep, that the log, when
-replaced, may not press too hard upon the body. If any of the fresh
-earth be seen, they cover it with rotten wood, brush or leaves, that
-its place may not be found. If they have not sufficient time for this,
-or the number of their dead is too great, they throw the bodies on the
-top of each other between large logs, and place any kind of rotten wood
-or other rubbish upon them. They never, when they can help it, leave
-their dead to be devoured by wild beasts.
-
-When the Indians have to speak of a deceased person, they never mention
-him or her by name, lest they should renew the grief of the family
-or friends. They say, “He who was our counsellor or chief,” “She who
-was the wife of our friend;” or they will allude to some particular
-circumstance, as that of the deceased having been with them at a
-particular time or place, or having done some particular act or spoken
-particular words which they all remember, so that every body knows who
-is meant. I have often observed with emotion this remarkable delicacy,
-which certainly does honour to their hearts, and shews that they are
-naturally accessible to the tenderest feelings of humanity.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXVIII.
-
-FRIENDSHIP.
-
-
-Those who believe that no faith is to be placed in the friendship of
-an Indian are egregiously mistaken, and know very little of the true
-character of those men of nature. They are, it is true, revengeful to
-their enemies, to those who wilfully do them an injury, who insult,
-abuse, or treat them with contempt. It may be said, indeed, that the
-passion of revenge is so strong in them that it knows no bounds. This
-does not, however, proceed from a bad or malicious disposition, but
-from the violence of natural feelings unchecked by social institutions,
-and unsubdued by the force of revealed religion. The tender and
-generous passions operate no less powerfully on them than those of
-an opposite character, and they are as warm and sincere in their
-friendship, as vindictive in their enmities. Nay, I will venture to
-assert that there are those among them who on an emergency would lay
-down their lives for a friend: I could fill many pages with examples
-of Indian friendship and fidelity, not only to each other, but to men
-of other nations and of a different colour than themselves. How often,
-when wars were impending between them and the whites, have they not
-forewarned those among our frontier settlers whom they thought well
-disposed towards them, that dangerous times were at hand, and advised
-them to provide for their own safety, regardless of the jealousy which
-such conduct might excite among their own people? How often did they
-not even guard and escort them through the most dangerous places until
-they had reached a secure spot? How often did they not find means to
-keep an enemy from striking a stroke, as they call it, that is to say
-from proceeding to the sudden indiscriminate murder of the frontier
-whites, until their friends or those whom they considered as such were
-out of all danger?
-
-These facts are all familiar to every one who has lived among Indians
-or in their neighbourhood, and I believe it will be difficult to find
-a single case in which they betrayed a real friend or abandoned him in
-the hour of danger, when it was in their power to extricate or relieve
-him. The word “Friend” to the ear of an Indian does not convey the
-same vague and almost indefinite meaning that it does with us; it is
-not a mere complimentary or social expression, but implies a resolute
-determination to stand by the person so distinguished on all occasions,
-and a threat to those who might attempt to molest him; the mere looking
-at two persons who are known or declared friends, is sufficient to
-deter any one from offering insult to either. When an Indian believes
-that he has reason to suspect a man of evil designs against his friend,
-he has only to say emphatically: “This is _my friend_, and if any one
-tries to hurt him, I will do to him _what is in my mind_.” It is as
-much as to say that he will stand in his defence at the hazard of his
-own life. This language is well understood by the Indians, who know
-that they would have to combat with a spirited warrior, were they to
-attempt any thing against his friend. By this means much bloodshed is
-prevented; for it is sufficiently known that an Indian never proffers
-his friendship in vain. Many white men, and myself among others,
-have experienced the benefit of their powerful as well as generous
-protection.
-
-When in the spring of the year 1774, a war broke out between the
-Virginians and the Shawanese and Mingoes, on account of murders
-committed by the former on the latter people, and the exasperated
-friends of those who had suffered had determined to kill every white
-man in their country, the Shawano chief _Silverheels_,[216] taking
-another Indian with him, undertook out of friendship to escort several
-white traders from thence to Albany,[217] a distance of near two
-hundred miles; well knowing at the time that he was running the risk
-of his own life, from exasperated Indians and vagabond whites, if he
-should meet with such on the road, as he did in fact on his return. I
-have already said how he was rewarded for this noble act of friendship
-and self-devotion.
-
-In the year 1779, the noted Girty with his murdering party of Mingoes,
-nine in number, fell in with the Missionary Zeisberger, on the path
-leading from Goschacking to Gnadenhütten; their design was to take that
-worthy man prisoner; and if they could not seize him alive, to murder
-him and take his scalp to Detroit. They were on the point of laying
-hold of him, when two young spirited Delawares providentially entered
-the path at that critical moment and in an instant presented themselves
-to defend the good Missionary at the risk of their lives. Their
-determined conduct had the desired success, and his life was saved. His
-deliverers afterwards declared that they had no other motive for thus
-exposing themselves for his sake than that he was a friend to their
-nation, and was considered by them as a good man.
-
-But why should I speak of others when I have myself so often
-experienced the benefits of Indian protection and friendship. Let me
-be permitted to corroborate my assertions on this subject by my own
-personal testimony.
-
-In the year 1777, while the Revolutionary war was raging, and several
-Indian tribes had enlisted on the British side, and were spreading
-murder and devastation along our unprotected frontier, I rather rashly
-determined to take a journey into the country on a visit to my friends.
-Captain White Eyes, the Indian hero, whose character I have already
-described,[218] resided at that time at the distance of seventeen
-miles from the place where I lived. Hearing of my determination, he
-immediately hurried up to me, with his friend Captain Wingenund (whom
-I shall presently have occasion further to mention), and some of his
-young men, for the purpose of escorting me to Pittsburg, saying,
-“that he would not suffer me to go, while the Sandusky warriors were
-out on war excursions, without a proper escort and _himself_ at my
-side.” He insisted on accompanying me and we set out together. One
-day, as we were proceeding along, our spies discovered a suspicious
-track. White Eyes, who was riding before me, enquired whether I
-felt afraid? I answered that while he was with me, I entertained no
-fear. On this he immediately replied, “You are right; for until I
-am laid prostrate at your feet, no one shall hurt you.” “And even
-not then,” added Wingenund, who was riding behind me; “before this
-happens, I must be also overcome, and lay by the side of our friend
-_Koguethagechton_.”[219] I believed them, and I believe at this day
-that these great men were sincere, and that if they had been put to the
-test, they would have shewn it, as did another Indian friend by whom my
-life was saved in the spring of the year 1781. From behind a log in the
-bushes where he was concealed, he espied a hostile Indian at the very
-moment he was levelling his piece at me. Quick as lightning he jumped
-between us, and exposed his person to the musket shot just about to be
-fired, when fortunately the aggressor desisted, from fear of hitting
-the Indian whose body thus effectually protected me, at the imminent
-risk of his own life. Captain White Eyes, in the year 1774, saved in
-the same manner the life of David Duncan, the peace-messenger, whom he
-was escorting. He rushed, regardless of his own life, up to an inimical
-Shawanese, who was aiming at our ambassador from behind a bush, and
-forced him to desist.
-
-I could enumerate many other similar acts, but I think I have shewn
-enough for my purpose. Mr. Zeisberger fully agreed with me in the
-opinion, that it is impossible to deny to the Indians the praise of
-firm attachment and sincere friendship. It is not meant to say, that
-all will carry that feeling to the same pitch of heroism; but it is
-certain that there are many among them, whose strong attachments and
-a manly pride will induce to risk their lives in the defence of their
-friends. And, indeed, there is no Indian, who would not blush at being
-reproached that after boasting that a particular person was his friend,
-he had acted the coward when his friendship was put to the test, and
-had shrunk from venturing his own life, when there was even a chance of
-saving that of the man whom he professed to love.
-
-It is not true, as some have supposed, that an Indian’s friendship
-must be purchased by presents, and that it lasts only so long as gifts
-continue to be lavished upon them. Their attachments, on the contrary,
-are perfectly disinterested. I admit that they receive with pleasure a
-present from a friend’s hand. They consider presents as marks of the
-giver’s good disposition towards them. They cannot, in their opinion,
-proceed from an enemy, and he who befriends them, they think must love
-them. Obligations to them are not burdensome, they love to acknowledge
-them, and whatever may be their faults, ingratitude is not among the
-number.
-
-Indeed, the friendship of an Indian is easily acquired, provided it is
-sought in good faith. But whoever chooses to obtain it must be sure to
-treat them on a footing of perfect equality. They are very jealous of
-the whites, who they think affect to consider themselves as beings of a
-superior nature and too often treat them with rude undeserved contempt.
-This they seldom forgive, while on the other hand, they feel flattered
-when a white man does not disdain to treat them as children of the same
-Creator. Both reason and humanity concur in teaching us this conduct,
-but I am sorry to say that reason and humanity are in such cases too
-little attended to. I hope I may be permitted to expatiate a little
-on this subject; perhaps it may be beneficial to some white persons
-hereafter.
-
-The Indians are, as I have already observed before,[220] excellent
-physiognomists. If they are accosted by or engaged in business with a
-number of whites, though they may not understand the language that is
-spoken, they will pretty accurately distinguish by the countenance,
-those who despise their colour from those who are under the influence
-of a more generous feeling, and in this they are seldom mistaken.
-They fix their eyes on the whole party round, and read as it were in
-the souls of the individuals who compose it. They mark those whom
-they consider as their friends, and those whom they think to be their
-enemies, and are sure to remember them ever after. But what must those
-expect, if a war or some other circumstance should put them into the
-power of the Indians, who, relying on their supposed ignorance of
-our idiom, do not scruple even in their presence to apply to them the
-epithets of _dogs_, _black d--ls_, and the like? Will not these poor
-people be in some degree justifiable in considering those persons as
-decidedly hostile to their race? Such cases have unfortunately too
-frequently happened, and the savages have been blamed for treating as
-enemies those who had so cruelly wounded their most delicate feelings!
-Many white men have been thus put to death, who had brought their
-fate on themselves by their own imprudence. On the other hand, the
-Indians have not failed to mark those who at the time reprobated such
-indecent behaviour and reproached their companions for using such
-improper language. In the midst of war these benevolent Christians have
-been treated as friends, when, perhaps, they had forgotten the humane
-conduct to which they were indebted for this kind usage.
-
-Their reasoning in such cases is simple, but to them always conclusive.
-They merely apply their constant maxim, which I believe I have already
-noticed, that “good can never proceed from evil or evil from good, and
-that good and evil, like heterogeneous substances, can never combine
-or coalesce together.” How far this maxim is founded in a profound
-knowledge of human nature, it is not my business to determine; what is
-certain is that they adhere to it in almost every occasion. If a person
-treats them ill, they ascribe it invariably to his bad heart; it is the
-bad spirit within him that operates; he is, therefore, a bad man. If on
-the contrary one shews them kindness, they say he is prompted so to act
-by “the good spirit within him,” and that he has a _good heart_; for
-if he had not, he would not do good. It is impossible to draw them out
-of this circle of reasoning, and to persuade them that the friendship
-shewn to them may be dissembled and proceed from motives of interest;
-so convinced are they of the truth of their general principle, “that
-good cannot proceed from an evil source.”
-
-The conduct of the Europeans towards them, particularly within the last
-fifty or sixty years, has, however, sufficiently convinced them that
-men may dissemble, and that kind speeches and even acts of apparent
-friendship do not always proceed from friendly motives, but that the
-bad spirit will sometimes lurk under the appearance of the good.
-Hence, when they speak of the whites in general, they do not scruple to
-designate them as a false, deceitful race; but it is nevertheless true
-that with individuals, they frequently forget this general impression,
-and revert to their own honest principle; and if a white man only
-behaves to them with common humanity, it is still easy to get access to
-their simple hearts. Such are those brutes, those savages, from whom,
-according to some men, no faith is to be expected, and with whom no
-faith is to be kept; such are those _barbarous_ nations, as they are
-called, whom God, nevertheless, made the lawful owners and masters of
-this beautiful country; but who, at no very remote time, will probably
-live, partially live, only in its history.
-
-My object in this chapter is to prove that those men are susceptible
-of the noblest and finest feelings of genuine friendship. It is not
-enough that by a long residence among them, I have acquired the most
-complete conviction of this truth; facts and not opinions, I know,
-are expected from me. Perhaps I might rest satisfied with the proofs
-that I have already given, but I have only shewn the strength and have
-yet to display the _constancy_ of their attachments; and although in
-the story which I am going to relate, a friend was forced to see his
-friend perish miserably without having it in his power to save him from
-the most terrible death that vengeance and cruelty could inflict, we
-shall not be the less astonished to see him persevere in his friendly
-sentiments, under circumstances of all others the most calculated,
-(particularly to an Indian) not only to have entirely extinguished, but
-converted those sentiments into feelings of hatred and revenge.
-
-I am sorry to be so often obliged to revert to the circumstance of the
-cruel murder of the Christian Indians on the Sandusky[221] river[222]
-in the year 1782, by a gang of banditti, under the command of one
-Williamson. Not satisfied with this horrid outrage, the same band not
-long afterwards marched to Sandusky,[223] where it seems they had
-been informed that the remainder of that unfortunate congregation
-had fled, in order to perpetrate upon them the same indiscriminate
-murder. But Providence had so ordered it that they had before left
-that place, where they had found that they could not remain in safety,
-their ministers having been taken from them and carried to Detroit by
-order of the British government, so that they had been left entirely
-unprotected. The murderers, on their arrival, were much disappointed
-in finding nothing but empty huts. They then shaped their course
-towards the hostile Indian villages, where being, contrary to their
-expectations, furiously attacked, Williamson and his band took the
-advantage of a dark night and ran off, and the whole party escaped,
-except one Colonel Crawford and another, who being taken by the
-Indians were carried in triumph to their village, where the former was
-condemned to death by torture, and the punishment was inflicted with
-all the cruelty that rage could invent. The latter was demanded by the
-Shawanese and sent to them for punishment.
-
-While preparations were making for the execution of this dreadful
-sentence, the unfortunate Crawford recollected that the Delaware chief
-Wingenund,[224] of whom I have spoken in the beginning of this chapter,
-had been his friend in happier times; he had several times entertained
-him at his house, and shewed him those marks of attention which are so
-grateful to the poor despised Indians. A ray of hope darted through
-his soul, and he requested that Wingenund, who lived at some distance
-from the village, might be sent for. His request was granted, and a
-messenger was despatched for the chief, who, reluctantly, indeed, but
-without hesitation, obeyed the summons, and immediately came to the
-fatal spot.
-
-This great and good man was not only one of the bravest and most
-celebrated warriors, but one of the most amiable men of the Delaware
-nation. To a firm undaunted mind, he joined humanity, kindness and
-universal benevolence; the excellent qualities of his heart had
-obtained for him the name of _Wingenund_, which in the Lenape language
-signifies _the well beloved_. He had kept away from the tragical scene
-about to be acted, to mourn in silence and solitude over the fate
-of his guilty friend, which he well knew it was not in his power to
-prevent. He was now called upon to act a painful as well as difficult
-part; the eyes of his enraged countrymen were fixed upon him; he
-was an Indian and a Delaware; he was a leader of that nation, whose
-defenceless members had been so cruelly murdered without distinction of
-age or sex, and whose innocent blood called aloud for the most signal
-revenge. Could he take the part of a chief of the base murderers? Could
-he forget altogether the feelings of ancient fellowship and give way
-exclusively to those of the Indian and the patriot? Fully sensible that
-in the situation in which he was placed the latter must, in appearance,
-at least, predominate, he summoned to his aid the firmness and dignity
-of an Indian warrior, approached Colonel Crawford and waited in silence
-for the communications he had to make. The following dialogue now took
-place between them.
-
-CRAWF. Do you recollect me, Wingenund?
-
-WINGEN. I believe I do; are you not Colonel Crawford?
-
-CRAWF. I am. How do you do? I am glad to see you, Captain.
-
-WINGEN. (embarrassed) So! yes, indeed.
-
-CRAWF. Do you recollect the friendship that always existed between us,
-and that we were always glad to see each other?
-
-WINGEN. I recollect all this. I remember that we have drunk many a bowl
-of punch together. I remember also other acts of kindness that you have
-done me.
-
-CRAWF. Then I hope the same friendship still subsists between us.
-
-WINGEN. It would, of course, be the same, were you in your proper place
-and not here.
-
-CRAWF. And why not here, Captain? I hope you would not desert a friend
-in time of need. Now is the time for you to exert yourself in my
-behalf, as I should do for you, were you in my place.
-
-WINGEN. Colonel Crawford! you have placed yourself in a situation
-which puts it out of my power and that of others of your friends to do
-anything for you.
-
-CRAWF. How so, Captain Wingenund?
-
-WINGEN. By joining yourself to that execrable man, Williamson and his
-party; the man who, but the other day, murdered such a number of the
-Moravian Indians, knowing them to be friends; knowing that he ran no
-risk in murdering a people who would not fight, and whose only business
-was praying.
-
-CRAWF. Wingenund, I assure you, that had I been with him at the time,
-this would not have happened; not I alone but all your friends and all
-good men, wherever they are, reprobate acts of this kind.
-
-WINGEN. That may be; yet these friends, these good men did not prevent
-him from going out again, to kill the remainder of those inoffensive,
-yet _foolish_ Moravian Indians! I say _foolish_, because they believed
-the whites in preference to us. We had often told them that they would
-be one day so treated by those people who called themselves their
-friends! We told them that there was no faith to be placed in what the
-white men said; that their fair promises were only intended to allure
-us, that they might the more easily kill us, as they have done many
-Indians before they killed these Moravians.
-
-CRAWF. I am sorry to hear you speak thus; as to Williamson’s going out
-again, when it was known that he was determined on it, I went out with
-him to prevent him from committing fresh murders.
-
-WINGEN. This, Colonel, the Indians would not believe, were even I to
-tell them so.
-
-CRAWF. And why would they not believe it?
-
-WINGEN. Because it would have been out of your power to prevent his
-doing what he pleased.
-
-CRAWF. Out of my power! Have any Moravian Indians been killed or hurt
-since we came out?
-
-WINGEN. None; but you went first to their town, and finding it empty
-and deserted you turned on the path towards us? If you had been in
-search of warriors only, you would not have gone thither. Our spies
-watched you closely. They saw you while you were embodying yourselves
-on the other side of the Ohio; they saw you cross that river; they saw
-where you encamped at night; they saw you turn off from the path to the
-deserted Moravian town; they knew you were going out of your way; your
-steps were constantly watched, and you were suffered quietly to proceed
-until you reached the spot where you were attacked.
-
-CRAWF. What do they intend to do with me? Can you tell me?
-
-WINGEN. I tell you with grief, Colonel. As Williamson and his whole
-cowardly host, ran off in the night at the whistling of our warrior’s
-balls, being satisfied that now he had no Moravians to deal with, but
-men who could fight, and with such he did not wish to have anything
-to do; I say, as he escaped, and they have taken you, they will take
-revenge on you in his stead.
-
-CRAWF. And is there no possibility of preventing this? Can you devise
-no way to get me off? You shall, my friend, be well rewarded if you are
-instrumental in saving my life.
-
-WINGEN. Had Williamson been taken with you, I and some friends, by
-making use of what you have told me, might perhaps, have succeeded to
-save you, but as the matter now stands, no man would dare to interfere
-in your behalf. The king of England himself, were he to come to this
-spot, with all his wealth and treasures could not effect this purpose.
-The blood of the innocent Moravians, more than half of them women and
-children, cruelly and wantonly murdered calls aloud for _revenge_. The
-relatives of the slain, who are among us, cry out and stand ready for
-_revenge_. The nation to which they belonged will have _revenge_. The
-Shawanese, our grandchildren, have asked for your fellow-prisoner; on
-him they will take _revenge_. All the nations connected with us cry out
-_Revenge! revenge!_ The Moravians whom you went to destroy having fled,
-instead of avenging their brethren, the offence is become national, and
-the nation itself is bound to take REVENGE!
-
-CRAWF. Then it seems my fate is decided, and I must prepare to meet
-death in its worst form?
-
-WINGEN. Yes, Colonel!--I am sorry for it; but cannot do anything for
-you. Had you attended to the Indian principle, that as good and evil
-cannot dwell together in the same heart, so a good man ought not to go
-into evil company; you would not be in this lamentable situation. You
-see now, when it is too late, after Williamson has deserted you, what a
-bad man he must be! Nothing now remains for you but to meet your fate
-like a brave man. Farewell, Colonel Crawford! they are coming;[225] I
-will retire to a solitary spot.
-
-I have been assured by respectable Indians that at the close of this
-conversation, which was related to me by Wingenund himself as well as
-by others, both he and Crawford burst into a flood of tears; they then
-took an affectionate leave of each other, and the chief immediately
-_hid himself in the bushes_, as the Indians express it, or in his own
-language, retired to a solitary spot. He never, afterwards, spoke
-of the fate of his unfortunate friend without strong emotions of
-grief, which I have several times witnessed. Once, it was the first
-time that he came into Detroit after Crawford’s sufferings, I heard
-him censured in his own presence by some gentlemen who were standing
-together for not having saved the life of so valuable a man, who was
-also his particular friend, as he had often told them. He listened
-calmly to their censure, and first turning to me, said in his own
-language: “These men talk like fools,” then turning to them, he
-replied in English: “If king George himself, if your king had been
-on the spot with all his ships laden with goods and treasures, he
-could not have ransomed my friend, nor saved his life from the rage
-of a _justly_ exasperated multitude.” He made no further allusion to
-the act that had been the cause of Crawford’s death, and it was easy
-to perceive that on this melancholy subject, grief was the feeling
-that predominated in his mind. He felt much hurt, however, at this
-unjust accusation, from men who, perhaps, he might think, would have
-acted very differently in his place. For, let us consider in what a
-situation he found himself, at that trying and critical moment. He
-was a Delaware Indian, and a highly distinguished character among his
-nation. The offence was national, and of the most atrocious kind, as it
-was wanton and altogether unprovoked. He might have been expected to
-partake with all the rest of his countrymen in the strong desire which
-they felt for _revenge_. He had been Crawford’s friend, it is true,
-and various acts of sociability and friendship had been interchanged
-between them. But, no doubt, at that time, he believed him, at least,
-not to be an enemy to his nation and colour, and if he was an enemy,
-he might have expected him to be, like himself, a fair, open, generous
-foe. But when he finds him enlisted with those who are waging a war of
-extermination against the Indian race, murdering in cold blood, and
-without distinction of age or sex, even those who had united their fate
-to that of the whites, and had said to the Christians: “Your people
-shall be _our_ people, and your God _our_ God,”[226] was there not
-enough here to make him disbelieve all the former professions of such
-a man, and to turn his abused friendship into the most violent enmity
-and the bitterest rage? Instead of this we see him persevering to the
-last in his attachment to a person who, to say the least, had ceased to
-be deserving of it; we see him in the face of his enraged countrymen
-avow that friendship, careless of the jealousy that he might excite; we
-see him not only abstain from participating in the national revenge,
-but deserting his post, as it were, seek a solitary spot to bewail
-the death of him, whom, in spite of all, he still loved, and felt not
-ashamed to call his _friend_.
-
-It is impossible for friendship to be put to a severer test, and the
-example of Wingenund proves how deep a root this sentiment can take
-in the mind of an Indian, when even such circumstances as those under
-which the chief found himself, fail to extinguish it.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXIX.
-
-PREACHERS AND PROPHETS.
-
-
-There was a time when the preachers and prophets of the Indians,
-by properly exerting the unbounded influence which the popular
-superstitions gave them, might have excited among those nations such
-a spirit of general resistance against the encroachments of the
-Europeans, as would have enabled them, at least, to make a noble
-stand against their invaders, and perhaps to recover the undisturbed
-possession of their country. Instead of following the obvious course
-which reason and nature pointed out; instead of uniting as one nation
-in defence of their natural rights, they gave ear to the artful
-insinuations of their enemies, who too well understood the art of
-sowing unnatural divisions among them. It was not until Canada, after
-repeated struggles, was finally conquered from the French by the united
-arms of Great Britain and her colonies, that they began to be sensible
-of their desperate situation--this whole northern continent being now
-in the possession of one great and powerful nation, against whom it
-was vain to attempt resistance. Yet it was at this moment that their
-prophets, impelled by ambitious motives, began to endeavour by their
-eloquence to bring them back to independent feelings, and create among
-them a genuine national spirit; but it was too late. The only rational
-resource that remained for them to prevent their total annihilation
-was to adopt the religion and manners of their conquerors, and abandon
-savage life for the comforts of civilised society; but of this but a
-few of them were sensible; in vain Missionaries were sent among them,
-who, through the greatest hardships and dangers exerted themselves to
-soften their misfortunes by the consolations of the Christian faith,
-and to point out to them the way of salvation in this world and the
-next; the banner of Christ was comparatively followed but by small
-numbers, and these were persecuted by their friends, or, at least,
-those who ought to have been such, as well as by their enemies. Among
-the obstacles which the Missionaries encountered, the strong opposition
-which was made to them by the prophets of the Indian nations was by no
-means the least.
-
-I have known several of these preachers and prophets during my
-residence in the Indian country, and have had sufficient opportunities
-to observe the means which they took to operate on the minds of their
-hearers. I shall content myself with taking notice here of a few of the
-most remarkable among them.
-
-In the year 1762, there was a famous preacher of the Delaware nation,
-who resided at _Cayahaga_, near Lake Erie, and travelled about the
-country, among the Indians, endeavouring to persuade them that he had
-been appointed by the great Spirit to instruct them in those things
-that were agreeable to him and to point out to them the offences by
-which they had drawn his displeasure on themselves, and the means by
-which they might recover his favour for the future. He had drawn, as
-he pretended, by the direction of the great Spirit, a kind of map on a
-piece of deer skin, somewhat dressed like parchment, which he called
-“the great Book or Writing.” This, he said, he had been ordered to shew
-to the Indians, that they might see the situation in which the Mannitto
-had originally placed them, the misery which they had brought upon
-themselves by neglecting their duty, and the only way that was now left
-them to regain what they had lost. This map he held before him while
-preaching, frequently pointing to particular marks and spots upon it,
-and giving explanations as he went along.
-
-The size of this map was about fifteen inches square, or, perhaps,
-something more. An inside square was formed by lines drawn within it,
-of about eight inches each way, two of those lines, however, were not
-closed by about half an inch at the corners. Across these inside lines,
-others of about an inch in length were drawn with sundry other lines
-and marks, all which was intended to represent a strong inaccessible
-barrier, to prevent those without from entering the space within,
-otherwise than at the place appointed for that purpose. When the map
-was held as he directed, the corners which were not closed lay at the
-left hand side, directly opposite to each other, the one being at the
-south-east by south, and the nearest at the north-east by north. In
-explaining or describing the particular points on this map, with his
-fingers always pointing to the place he was describing, he called the
-space within the inside lines “the heavenly regions,” or the place
-destined by the great Spirit for the habitation of the Indians in
-future life; the space left open at the south-east corner, he called
-the “avenue,” which had been intended for the Indians to enter into
-this heaven, but which was now in the possession of the white people,
-wherefore the great Spirit had since caused another “avenue” to be
-made on the opposite side, at which, however, it was both difficult
-and dangerous for them to enter, there being many impediments in their
-way, besides a large ditch leading to a gulf below, over which they
-had to leap; but the evil spirit kept at this very spot a continual
-watch for Indians, and whoever he laid hold of, never could get away
-from him again, but was carried to his regions, where there was nothing
-but extreme poverty; where the ground was parched up by the heat for
-want of rain, no fruit came to perfection, the game was almost starved
-for want of pasture, and where the evil spirit, at his pleasure,
-transformed men into horses and dogs, to be ridden by him and follow
-him in his hunts and wherever he went.
-
-The space on the outside of this interior square, was intended to
-represent the country given to the Indians to hunt, fish, and dwell
-in while in this world; the east side of it was called the ocean or
-“great salt water Lake.” Then the preacher drawing the attention of
-his hearers particularly to the south-east avenue, would say to them:
-“Look here! See what we have lost by neglect and disobedience; by being
-remiss in the expression of our gratitude to the great Spirit, for
-what he has bestowed upon us; by neglecting to make to him sufficient
-sacrifices; by looking upon a people of a different colour from our
-own, who had come across a great lake, as if they were a part of
-ourselves; by suffering them to sit down by our side, and looking at
-them with indifference, while they were not only taking our country
-from us, but this (pointing to the spot), this, our own avenue, leading
-into those beautiful regions which were destined for us. Such is the
-sad condition to which we are reduced. What is now to be done, and what
-remedy is to be applied? I will tell you, my friends. Hear what the
-great Spirit has ordered me to tell you! You are to make sacrifices,
-in the manner that I shall direct; to put off entirely from yourselves
-the customs which you have adopted since the white people came among
-us; you are to return to that former happy state, in which we lived
-in peace and plenty, before these strangers came to disturb us, and
-above all, you must abstain from drinking their deadly _beson_, which
-they have forced upon us, for the sake of increasing their gains and
-diminishing our numbers. Then will the great Spirit give success to our
-arms; then he will give us strength to conquer our enemies, to drive
-them from hence, and recover the passage to the heavenly regions which
-they have taken from us.”
-
-Such was in general the substance of his discourses. After having
-dilated more or less on the various topics which I have mentioned, he
-commonly concluded in this manner: “And now, my friends, in order that
-what I have told you may remain firmly impressed on your minds, and to
-refresh your memories from time to time, I advise you to preserve, in
-every family, at least, such a book or writing as this, which I will
-finish off for you, provided you bring me the price, which is only
-one buckskin or two doe-skins a piece.”[227] The price was of course
-bought,[228] and the book purchased. In some of those maps, the figure
-of a deer or turkey, or both, was placed in the heavenly regions, and
-also in the dreary region of the evil spirit; the former, however,
-appeared fat and plump, while the latter seemed to have nothing but
-skin and bones.
-
-I was also well acquainted with another noted preacher, named
-_Wangomend_, who was of the Monsey tribe. He began to preach in the
-year 1766, much in the same manner as the one I have just mentioned.
-When Mr. Zeisberger first came to _Goschgoschink_ town[229] on the
-Allegheny river, this Indian prophet became one of his hearers, but
-finding that the Missionary’s doctrine did not agree with his own, he
-became his enemy. This man also pretended that his call as a preacher
-was not of his own choice, but that he had been moved to it by the
-great and good Spirit, in order to teach his countrymen, who were on
-the way to perdition, how they could become reconciled to their God. He
-would make his followers believe that he had once been taken so near
-to heaven, that he could distinctly hear the crowing of the cocks,
-and that at another time he had been borne by unseen hands to where
-he had been permitted to take a peep into the heavens, of which there
-were three, one for the Indians, one for the negroes, and another for
-the white people. That of the Indians he observed to be the happiest
-of the three, and that of the whites the unhappiest; for they were
-under chastisement for their ill treatment of the Indians, and for
-possessing themselves of the land which God had given to them. They
-were also punished for making beasts of the negroes, by selling them as
-the Indians do their horses and dogs, and beating them unmercifully,
-although God had created them as well as the rest of mankind.
-
-The novelty of these visions procured him hearers for a time; he found,
-however, at last, that the Indians became indifferent to his doctrines,
-particularly as he frequently warned them not to drink the _poison_
-brought to them by the white people, of which his congregation were
-very fond. Then he bethought himself of a more popular and interesting
-subject, and began to preach against witchcraft and those who dealt
-in the black art. Here he had all the passions and prejudices of the
-poor Indians on his side, and he did not fail to meet with the general
-approbation, when he declared to them that wizards were getting the
-upper hand, and would destroy the nation, if they were not checked in
-their career. He travelled in 1775, to _Goschachking_, at the forks
-of the Muskingum, to lay this business before the great council of
-the Delawares, and take their opinion upon it. The first report which
-the Missionaries on the Muskingum heard on this subject, was that the
-chiefs had at first united in having every conjurer and witch in the
-nation brought to an account and punished with death, that, however, on
-a more mature consideration, they had thought proper in the first place
-to ascertain the number and names not only of those who were known, but
-even of those who were suspected of dealing in sorcery, and Wangomend
-was appointed to cause the enumeration to be made. He accordingly
-hastily set off for his home; and on his arrival immediately entered
-on the duties of his mission; when behold! it was discovered that the
-number of offenders was much greater than had been at first imagined,
-and he found himself in danger of having his own name inserted in the
-black list. His zeal, in consequence, became considerably cooled,
-and by the time when he returned the chiefs were no longer disposed
-to meddle with this dangerous subject, justly fearing that it could
-not but terminate in the ruin of their nation. Wangomend, therefore,
-returned to his former mode of preaching, recommending to his hearers
-to purge themselves from sin by taking certain prescribed medicines,
-and making frequent sacrifices to the great Spirit.
-
-The last whom I shall take notice of is the Prophet-warrior _Tecumseh_,
-lately so celebrated among us, and who lost his life in the last war at
-the battle of the Thames, on the 30th of September, 1813, at the age,
-it is said, of 43 years. The details of his military life have been
-made sufficiently known through the medium of journals and newspapers,
-and his famous speech to the British general Proctor delivered at
-Amhertsburg, a short time before the battle which decided his fate,
-is in every body’s hands.[230] But his character as a prophet and the
-means that he took to raise himself to power and fame are not so well
-nor so particularly understood, although it is, in general, admitted
-that he was admirably skilled in the art of governing Indians through
-the medium of their passions. The sketch which I am going to draw will
-sufficiently prove how well this opinion is founded.
-
-From the best information that I was able to obtain of this man, he
-was by nation a Shawanese, and began his career as a preacher much in
-the manner that others had done before him. He endeavoured to impress
-upon the minds of his Indian hearers, that they were a distinct people
-from the whites, that they had been created and placed on this soil for
-peculiar purposes, and that it had been ordered by the supreme being
-that they should live unconnected with people of a different colour
-from their own. He painted in vivid colours, the misery that they had
-brought upon themselves by permitting the whites to reside among them,
-and urged them to unite and expel those lawless intruders from their
-country. But he soon discovered that these once popular topics no
-longer produced any effect on the minds of the dispirited Indians, and
-that it was impossible to persuade them to resort to strong measures,
-to oppose the progress of the whites, much less to endeavour to drive
-them beyond the great lake. He had long observed that whenever he
-touched on the subject of witchcraft, his discourses were always
-acceptable to his hearers, whose belief in those supernatural powers,
-instead of diminishing, seemed constantly to gain ground. He knew
-that his predecessor, Wangomend, had failed in his endeavour to gain
-influence and power by availing himself of these popular opinions.
-But his ill success did not deter him from making the same attempts.
-He did not, however, like him, seek the assistance of the national
-councils, but boldly determined to try what his talents and courage
-could do without any other aid. There is a saying among the Indians,
-“That God ordained man to live until all his teeth are worn out, his
-eyesight dim and his hair grey.” Of this he artfully availed himself to
-persuade those ignorant people, that the early deaths which constantly
-took place could not be attributed to any natural cause, since it was
-the will of God that every man should live to an advanced old age.
-When he found that he had thus obtained a fast hold on the minds of
-his hearers, by raising their fears of the powers of witchcraft to
-the highest pitch, he thought it was time to work on their hopes, and
-after gradually feeling the pulses of those he had to deal with, after
-successively throwing out a great number of hints and insinuations,
-the effects of which he had carefully observed, he at last did what no
-preacher before him had ventured to do, by declaring that the great
-Mannitto had endowed him with supernatural powers, to foretel future
-events, and to discover present secrets, and that he could point out
-with certainty, not only those, whether men or women, who were in the
-full possession of the art of witchcraft, but those who had even a
-tincture of it, however small. His bold assertions met with implicit
-belief, and he obtained by that means such an unlimited command over a
-credulous multitude, that at last, he had only to speak the word, or
-even to nod, and the pile was quickly prepared by willing executioners
-to put to death whomsoever he thought proper to devote. Here was a
-wide field opened for the gratification of the worst passions. Whoever
-thought himself injured, denounced his enemy as a wizard; the least
-real or pretended cause of resentment, nay, even a paltry bribe, would
-bring the most innocent man to the pile or tomahawk, and no one availed
-himself more of this frantic delusion of the populace, than the great
-prophet himself. Having his spies out in every direction, he well
-knew who were his friends and who his enemies, and we to all who were
-reported to him or even suspected by him to be of the latter class! The
-tyrant had only to will their deaths, and his commands no one durst
-contradict, but all were ready to execute.
-
-Among the number of his victims was the venerable Wyandot Chief
-Sha-te-ya-ron-yah, called by the whites _Leather-lips_. He was one of
-those who in August, 1795, signed the treaty of Greenville on behalf
-of the Huron tribe. His only crime was honesty, and the honourable
-character which he had acquired. In a fit of jealousy Tecumseh ordered
-him to be put to death, and his commands were but too readily obeyed.
-I cannot conclude this chapter better than by an account of his
-death, which was transmitted to me at the time (in August, 1810) by a
-respectable and philanthropic gentleman in the state of Ohio.
-
-The relation which I here transcribe was accompanied with the following
-letter:
-
-    “DEAR SIR--I here enclose an imperfect sketch of the execution
-    of an unfortunate Indian. From your benevolent exertions, for
-    many years, to ameliorate their condition, and the confidence
-    reposed in you by them, I trust you may have it in your power
-    successfully to oppose the wasteful influence of this prophet
-    over these too credulous people. It is the office of humanity
-    and worthy of the attention of the Society of the United
-    Brethren. I may be incorrect in the recital of some of the
-    circumstances; it was given to me from respectable sources;
-    sources, in my opinion, entitled to credit.
-
-  “I am, &c.”
-
-
-ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF LEATHER-LIPS.
-
-“This unfortunate Chief of the Seneca[231] tribe, who had attained the
-sixty-third year of his age, had pitched his camp a few miles west of
-the town of Worthington in the county of Franklinton. From his constant
-attachment to the principles of honesty and integrity, he had obtained
-a certificate from an officer of the government as a testimonial of
-the propriety of his deportment. This aged Chief was suspected by the
-_Prophet_, a man of a restless, turbulent spirit, who by his exceeding
-address, has obtained an unbounded influence over many of the northern
-and western tribes of Indians, by impressing upon their minds a belief
-that he is endowed with supernatural knowledge, and can foretel events
-yet to come. This is the same prophet who gathered the Indians at
-Greenville a few years ago, from which meeting so much was apprehended.
-In order that he should no longer have anything to apprehend from
-him (this Indian) he issued orders for his immediate death. These
-orders were given to _Crane_,[232] a chief of the Sandusky tribes, who
-immediately sat out with four other Indians, in quest of the old chief.
-About three weeks ago they found out his camp, and immediately sent
-his brother to him (who was one of their party) with a piece of bark,
-on which they had painted a tomahawk, as a token of his death! On the
-same day, Crane and his party spoke publicly in the settlements of the
-whites of their intention to kill him. When they sat out for his camp
-they were accompanied by five white men, amongst whom was a _justice of
-the peace_, no doubt to gratify their curiosity. Upon their arrival at
-the camp, they informed him of the object of their mission, and that he
-must prepare to meet his fate! In vain did he remonstrate against the
-cruelty of the sentence; he told them that he was an old man, and must
-soon die; that if they would spare him they might have his camp, and
-that he would go far beyond the Mississippi, where he would never again
-be heard of. He also alleged that he was a man of honesty, and had done
-nothing to incur so hard a fate! One of the white men also made an
-offer of his horse, to save the old man from the impending storm. Those
-offers all proved ineffectual. All hopes of a reconciliation now gone,
-he prepared to meet his fate with becoming dignity. While the Indians
-were digging his grave, he dressed himself with his best clothes in the
-war style, and then got his venison and refreshed himself. As soon as
-the grave was finished, he went to it and knelt down and prayed most
-fervently! He then took an affectionate leave of the Indians, and of
-the white men present, and when he came to the one who had offered
-his horse to redeem him, penetrated with gratitude, he burst into a
-flood of tears, and told him that _his God would reward him_. This was
-the only instance in which the least change could be perceived in his
-countenance. He was then attended to the grave by Crane--they knelt
-down, while Crane offered up to the great Spirit his prayers in his
-behalf. The fatal period had now arrived; they arose from their knees,
-and proceeded a few paces, and seated themselves on the ground. The
-old chief inclined forward, resting his face upon his hand, his hand
-upon his knees; while thus seated, one of the young Indians came up
-and struck him twice with the tomahawk. For some time he lay senseless
-on the ground. The only evidence of life that yet remained, was a
-faint respiration. The Indians all stood around in solemn silence;
-finding him to respire longer than they expected, they called upon the
-whites to take notice how hard he died, and pronounced him a witch--no
-good--they struck him again and terminated his existence. He was then
-borne to the grave, where the last sad office was soon performed.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XL.
-
-SHORT NOTICE OF THE INDIAN CHIEFS, TAMANEND AND TADEUSKUND.
-
-
-The name of TAMANEND is held in the highest veneration among the
-Indians. Of all the chiefs and great men which the Lenape nation ever
-had, he stands foremost on the list. But although many fabulous stories
-are circulated about him among the whites, but little of his real
-history is known. The misfortunes which have befallen some of the most
-beloved and esteemed personages among the Indians since the Europeans
-came among them, prevent the survivors from indulging in the pleasure
-of recalling to mind the memory of their virtues. No white man who
-regards their feelings, will introduce such subjects in conversation
-with them.
-
-All we know, therefore, of Tamanend is, that he was an ancient Delaware
-chief, who never had his equal.[233] He was in the highest degree
-endowed with wisdom, virtue, prudence, charity, affability, meekness,
-hospitality, in short with every good and noble qualification that a
-human being may possess. He was supposed to have had an intercourse
-with the great and good Spirit; for he was a stranger to everything
-that is bad.
-
-When Colonel George Morgan, of Princeton in New Jersey, was, about
-the year 1776, sent by Congress as an agent to the western Indians,
-the Delawares conferred on him the name of Tamanend in honour and
-remembrance of their ancient chief, and as the greatest mark of respect
-which they could shew to that gentleman, who, they said, had the
-same address, affability and meekness as their honoured chief, and
-therefore, ought to be named after him.
-
-The fame of this great man extended even among the whites, who
-fabricated numerous legends respecting him, which I never heard,
-however, from the mouth of an Indian, and therefore believe to be
-fabulous. In the Revolutionary war, his enthusiastic admirers dubbed
-him a saint, and he was established under the name of _St. Tammany_,
-the Patron Saint of America. His name was inserted in some calendars,
-and his festival celebrated on the first day of May in every year.
-On that day a numerous society of his votaries walked together in
-procession through the streets of Philadelphia, their hats decorated
-with bucks’ tails, and proceeded to a handsome rural place out of town
-which they called the _Wigwam_, where, after a _long talk_ or Indian
-speech had been delivered, and the _Calumet_ of peace and friendship
-had been duly smoked, they spent the day in festivity and mirth. After
-dinner, Indian dances were performed on the green in front of the
-wigwam, the calumet was again smoked, and the company separated. This
-association lasted until some years after the peace, when the public
-spirited owner of the wigwam, who generously had lent it every year for
-the honour of his favourite saint, having fallen under misfortune, his
-property was sold to satisfy his creditors, and this truly American
-festival ceased to be observed. Since that time, other societies have
-been formed in Philadelphia, New York, and I believe in other towns
-in the Union, under the name of Tammany; but the principal object of
-these associations being party-politics, they have lost much of the
-charm which was attached to the original society of St. Tammany, which
-appeared to be established only for pleasure and innocent diversion.
-These political societies, however, affect to preserve Indian forms
-in their organisation and meetings. They are presided over by a Grand
-Sachem, and their other officers are designated by Indian titles. They
-meet at their “wigwam,” at the “going down of the sun,” in the months
-of snows, plants, flowers, &c. Their distinguishing appellation is
-always “The _Tammany_ Society.”
-
-TADEUSKUND, or _Tedeuskung_, was the last Delaware chief in these
-parts east of the Allegheny mountains. His name makes a conspicuous
-figure in the history of Pennsylvania previous to the revolution, and
-particularly towards the commencement of the war of 1756. Before he was
-raised to the station of a chief, he had signalised himself as an able
-counsellor in his nation. In the year 1749, he joined the Christian
-Indian congregation, and the following year, at his earnest desire, was
-christened by the name of _Gideon_.[234] He had been known before under
-that of _Honest John_. It was not until the year 1754, that his nation
-called upon him to assume a military command. The French were then
-stirring up the Indians, particularly the Delawares, to aid them in
-fighting the English, telling them that if they suffered them to go on
-as they before had done, they would very soon not have a foot of land
-to live on. The Susquehannah and Fork Indians (Delawares) were then in
-want of a leading character to advise and govern them, their great,
-good, beloved and peaceable chief _Tademe_, (commonly called _Tattemi_)
-having some time before been murdered in the Forks settlement by a
-foolish young white man.[235] They, therefore, called upon Tadeuskund
-to take upon himself the station of a chief, which, having accepted, he
-repaired to Wyoming, whither many of the Fork Indians followed him.
-
-Whatever might have been Tadeuskund’s disposition towards the English
-at that time, it is certain that it was a difficult task for him, and
-would have been such for any other chief, to govern an exasperated
-people, entirely devoted to the opposite interest. This may account
-for his not having always succeeded in gratifying our government
-to the extent of its wishes. Yet he did much towards lessening the
-cruelties of the enemy, by keeping up an intercourse with the governor
-of Pennsylvania, and occasionally drawing many from the theatre of war
-and murder, to meet the colonial authorities at Easton or Philadelphia
-for the negotiation of treaties, by which means fewer cruelties were
-committed than would otherwise have been.
-
-His frequent visits to the governor and to the people called Quakers
-(to whom he was much attached, because they were known to be friendly
-to the Indians) excited much jealousy among some of his nation,
-especially the Monseys, who believed that he was carrying on some
-underhand work at Philadelphia detrimental to the nation at large; on
-which account, and as they wished the continuation of the war, they
-became his enemies.
-
-From the precarious situation Tadeuskund was placed in, it was easy to
-foresee that he would come to an untimely end. Perhaps no Indian chief
-before him ever found himself so delicately situated; mistrusted and
-blamed by our government and the English people generally, because he
-did not use his whole endeavours to keep his nation at peace, or compel
-them to lay down the hatchet; and accused by his own people of having
-taken a bribe from the English, or entered into some secret agreement
-with them that would be of benefit to himself alone, as he would not
-suffer them to inflict just punishment on that nation for the wrongs
-they had done them, but was constantly calling upon them to make peace.
-The Five Nations, on the other hand, (the enemies of the Delawares
-and in alliance with England,) blamed him for doing too much for the
-cause which they themselves supported, for making himself too busy, and
-assuming an authority, which did not belong to him the leader of a band
-of _women_, but to them, the Five Nations alone.
-
-To do justice to this injured chief, the true secret of his apparently
-contradictory conduct must be here disclosed. It is said by those
-Indians who knew him best, and who at that time had the welfare of
-their own nation much at heart, that his great and sole object was to
-recover for the _Lenni Lenape_ that dignity which the Iroquois had
-treacherously wrested from them; thence flowed the bitterness of the
-latter against him, though he seemed to be promoting the same interest
-which they themselves supported. He had long hoped that by shewing
-friendship and attachment to the English, he would be able to convince
-them of the justice of his nation’s cause, who were yet powerful
-enough to make their alliance an object to the British government; but
-here he was greatly mistaken. No one would examine into the grounds
-of the controversy between the Delawares and the Five Nations; the
-latter, on the contrary, were supported in their unjust pretensions
-as theretofore, and even called upon to aid in compelling the Lenape
-to make peace. This unjust and at the same time impolitic conduct, of
-which I have before taken sufficient notice,[236] irritated to the
-utmost the spirited nation of the Delawares, they felt themselves
-insulted and degraded, and were less disposed than ever from complying
-with the wishes of a government which sported in this manner with their
-national feelings, and called in question even their right to exist as
-an independent people.
-
-Surrounded as he was with enemies, Tadeuskund could not escape the fate
-that had long been intended for him. In the spring of 1763, when the
-European nations had made peace, but the Indians were still at war,
-he was burnt up, together with his house, as he was lying in his bed
-asleep. It was supposed and believed by many who were present, that
-this dreadful event was not accidental, but had been maturely resolved
-on by his enemies, whoever they were, and that the liquor which was
-brought to Wyoming at the time, was intended by them for the purpose
-of enticing him to drink, that they might the more easily effect their
-purpose. A number of Indians were witnesses to the fact that the house
-was set on fire from the outside. Suspicion fell principally upon
-the Mingoes, who were known to be jealous of him, and fearful of his
-resentment, if he should succeed in insinuating himself into the favour
-of the English and making good terms with them for his nation. It is
-said that those Indians were concerned in bringing the fatal liquor
-which is believed to have been instrumental to the execution of the
-design.
-
-While Tadeuskund was at the head of his nation, he was frequently
-distinguished by the title of “King of the Delawares.” While passing
-and repassing to and from the enemy with messages, many people called
-him the “War Trumpet.” In his person he was a portly well-looking man,
-endowed with good natural sense, quick of comprehension, and very ready
-in answering the questions put to him. He was rather ambitious, thought
-much of his rank and abilities, liked to be considered as the king of
-his country, and was fond of having a retinue with him when he went to
-Philadelphia on business with the government. His greatest weakness
-was a fondness for strong drinks, the temptation of which he could not
-easily resist, and would sometimes drink to excess. This unfortunate
-propensity is supposed to have been the cause of his cruel and untimely
-death.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XLI.
-
-COMPUTATION OF TIME--ASTRONOMICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE.
-
-
-The Indians do not reckon as we do, by days, but by nights. They say:
-“It is so many nights’ travelling to such a place;” “I shall return
-home in so many nights,” &c. Sometimes pointing to the heavens they
-say: “You will see me again when the sun stands there.”
-
-Their year is, like ours, divided into four parts: spring, summer,
-autumn, and winter. It begins with the spring, which, they say, is
-the youth of the year, the time when the spirits of man begin to
-revive, and the plants and flowers again put forth. These seasons are
-again subdivided into months or moons, each of which has a particular
-name, yet not the same among all the Indian tribes or nations; these
-denominations being generally suited to the climate under which they
-respectively live, and the advantages or benefits which they enjoy at
-the time. Thus the Lenape, while they inhabited the country bordering
-on the Atlantic, called the month which we call March, “the _shad_
-moon,” because this fish at that time begins to pass from the sea into
-the fresh water rivers, where they lay their spawn; but as there is
-no such fish in the country into which they afterwards removed, they
-changed the name of that month, and called it “the running of the
-_sap_” or “the _sugar_-making month,” because it is at that time that
-the sap of the maple tree, from which sugar is made, begins to run;
-April, they call “the _spring_ month,” May, the _planting_ month, June,
-the _fawn_ month, or the month in which the deer bring forth their
-young, or, again, the month in which the hair of the deer changes to
-a reddish colour. They call July the _summer_ month; August, the month
-of _roasting ears_, that is to say, in which the ears of corn are fit
-to be roasted and eaten. September, they call the _autumnal_ month,
-October, the gathering or _harvest_ month; December, the _hunting_
-month, it being the time when the stags have all dropped their antlers
-or horns. January is called the _mouse_ or _squirrel_ month, for now
-those animals come out of their holes, and lastly, they call February
-the _frog_ month, because on a warm day the frogs then begin to croak.
-
-Some nations call the month of January by a name which denotes “the
-sun’s return to them,” probably because in that month the days begin to
-lengthen again. As I have said before, they do not call all the months
-by the same name; even the Monseys, a tribe of the Delawares, differ
-among themselves in the denominations which they give to them.
-
-The Indians say that when the leaf of the white oak, which puts forth
-in the spring, is of the size of the ear of a mouse, it is time to
-plant corn; they observe that now the whippoorwill has arrived, and is
-continually hovering over them, calling out his Indian name “_Wekolis_”
-in order to remind them of the planting time, as if he said to them
-“_Hackiheck!_ go to planting corn!”
-
-They calculate their ages by some remarkable event which has taken
-place within their remembrance, as, for instance, an uncommonly severe
-winter, a very deep snow, an extraordinary freshet, a general war,
-the building of a new town or city by the white people, &c. Thus I
-have heard old Indians say more than fifty years ago, that when their
-brother Miquon spoke to their forefathers, they were of such an age
-or size, they could catch butterflies, or hit a bird with the bow and
-arrow. I have heard others say (alluding to the hard winter of 1739-40)
-that they were born at that time, or that they were then so tall, could
-do certain particular things, or had already some gray hair on their
-heads. When they could not refer precisely to some of those remarkable
-epochs, they would say “so many winters after.”
-
-The geographical knowledge of the Indians is really astonishing. I do
-not mean the knowledge of maps, for they have nothing of the kind to
-aid them; but their practical acquaintance with the country that they
-inhabit. They can steer directly through the woods in cloudy weather as
-well as in sunshine to the place they wish to go to, at the distance
-of two hundred miles and more. When the white people express their
-astonishment, or enquire how they can hit a distant point with so much
-ease and exactness, they smile and answer: “How can we go wrong when
-we know where we are to go to?” There are many who conjecture that
-they regulate their course by certain signs or marks on the trees, as
-for instance, that those that have the thickest bark are exposed to
-the north, and other similar observations, but those who think so are
-mistaken. The fact is, that the Indians have an accurate knowledge of
-all the streams of consequence and the courses which they run; they
-can tell directly while travelling along a stream, whether large or
-small, into what larger stream it empties itself. They know how to take
-the advantage of dividing ridges, where the smaller streams have their
-heads, or from whence they take their source, and in travelling on the
-mountains, they have a full view of the country round, and can perceive
-the point to which their march is directed.
-
-Their knowledge of astronomy is very limited. They have names for a few
-of the stars and take notice of their movements. The polar star points
-out to them by night the course which they are to take in the morning.
-They distinguish the phases of the moon by particular names; they say
-the “new moon,” the “round moon” (when it is full), and when in its
-decline, they say it is “half round.”
-
-They ascribe earthquakes to the moving of the great tortoise, which
-bears the _Island_ (Continent) on its back. They say he shakes himself
-or changes his position. They are at a loss how to account for a solar
-or lunar eclipse; some say the sun or moon is in a swoon, others that
-it is involved in a very thick cloud.
-
-A constant application of the mind to observing the scenes and
-accidents which occur in the woods, together with an ardent desire to
-acquire an intimate knowledge of the various objects which surround
-them, gives them, in many respects, an advantage over the white people,
-which will appear from the following anecdote.
-
-A white man had, at his camp in a dark night, shot an Indian dog,
-mistaking it for a wolf which had the night before entered the
-encampment and eaten up all the meat. The dog mortally wounded, having
-returned to the Indian camp at the distance of a mile, caused much
-grief and uneasiness to the owner, the more so as he suspected the act
-had been committed from malice towards the Indians. He was ordered to
-enquire into the matter, and the white man being brought before him,
-candidly confessed that he had killed the dog, believing it to be a
-wolf. The Indian asked him whether he could not discern the difference
-between the “steps” or trampling of a wolf and that of a dog, let the
-night be ever so dark? The white man answered in the negative, and said
-he believed no man alive could do that; on which the whole company
-burst out into laughter at the ignorance of the whites and their want
-of skill in so plain and common a matter, and the delinquent was freely
-forgiven.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XLII.
-
-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND ANECDOTES.
-
-
-I hope I shall be excused for bringing here together into one view a
-few observations and anecdotes which either could not well find their
-places under any of the preceding divisions of my subject, or escaped
-my recollection at the proper time. These additional traits will
-contribute something to forming a correct idea of the Indian character
-and manners.
-
-I have observed a great similarity in the customs, usages, and opinions
-of the different nations that I have seen, however distant from each
-other, and even though their languages differ so much that no traces
-of a common origin can be found in their etymology. The uniformity
-which exists in the manners of the Christian nations of Europe is
-attributed to their common religion, and to their having once been
-connected together as parts of the Roman Empire. But no such bond of
-union appears to have subsisted between the Iroquois, for instance, and
-the Delawares, and yet, the language excepted, they resemble each other
-considerably more than the inhabitants of some European countries. I
-shall not endeavour to account for this remarkable fact, but I think it
-my duty to state it.
-
-I have shown in a former chapter[237] that the mythological notions of
-the Delaware Indians prevailed in the same manner among the Wabash; it
-is not in that alone that those nations resemble each other, though
-living at a great distance. It is the custom among the Delawares that
-if a hunter shoots down a deer when another person is present, or
-even accidentally comes by before the skin is taken off, he presents
-it to him, saying, “Friend, skin your deer,” and immediately walks
-off. William Wells, whom I have before spoken of, once paid me this
-compliment, and when I asked him the reason, he answered that it was
-the custom among the Indians on the Wabash.
-
-In the year 1792, I travelled with a number of Indian chiefs of various
-tribes from Post Vincennes to Marietta, and I found in most instances
-that their usages and customs were the same that I had observed among
-the Delawares.[238]
-
-The Indians in general, although they understand and speak our
-language, yet prefer speaking to a white man through an interpreter.
-For this they give various reasons. With some it is a matter of pride;
-as their chiefs deliver their public speeches through interpreters,
-they think that they appear with more dignity when they do the same.
-Others imagine that their words will have greater weight and effect
-when expressed in proper grammatical language, while some are afraid
-of committing mistakes when speaking in an idiom not their own.
-Particularly when they have a joke to pass, a hint to give, or a shrewd
-remark to make, they wish it to have all the advantages of a good
-translation, and that their wit may not be spoiled by a foreign accent,
-improper expression, or awkward delivery.
-
-Though the Indian is naturally serious, he does not dislike a jest on
-proper occasions, and will, sometimes, even descend to a pun. Once at a
-dinner given at Marietta by the late Colonel Sproat,[239] to a number
-of gentlemen and Indian chiefs of various tribes, a Delaware chief,
-named George Washington, asked me what the name of our good friend,
-the Colonel, meant in the Lenape language? It should be observed that
-Colonel Sproat was remarkably tall. I told him that _Sprout_ (for so
-the name is pronounced) meant in English a shoot, or twig of a tree.
-“No, no,” replied the Indian, “no shoot or twig, but the _tree_ itself.”
-
-I have spoken before[240] of the wit of the Indians, and the shrewd and
-pointed remarks which they occasionally make, but passed rather lightly
-on the subject. A few characteristic anecdotes will best supply this
-deficiency.
-
-An Indian who spoke good English, came one day to a house where I was
-on business, and desired me to ask a man who was there and who owed him
-some money, to give an order in writing for him to get a little salt at
-the store, which he would take in part payment of his debt. The man,
-after reproving the Indian for speaking through an interpreter when he
-could speak such good English, told him that he must call again in an
-hour’s time, for he was then too much engaged. The Indian went out and
-returned at the appointed time, when he was put off again for another
-hour, and when he came the third time, the other told him he was still
-engaged, and he must come again in half an hour. My Indian friend’s
-patience was now exhausted, he turned to me and addressed me thus in
-his own language: “Tell this man,” said he, “that while I have been
-waiting for his convenience to give me an order for a little salt, I
-have had time to think a great deal. I _thought_ that when we Indians
-want any thing of one another, we serve each other on the spot, or if
-we cannot, we say so at once, but we never say to any one ‘call again!
-call again! call again! three times call again!’ Therefore when this
-man put me off in this manner, I _thought_ that, to be sure, the white
-people were very ingenious, and probably he was able to do what no body
-else could. I _thought_ that as it was afternoon when I first came,
-and he knew I had seven miles to walk to reach my camp, he had it in
-his power to stop the sun in its course, until it suited him to give
-me the order that I wanted for a little salt. So _thought_ I, I shall
-still have day light enough, I shall reach my camp before night, and
-shall not be obliged to walk in the dark, at the risk of falling and
-hurting myself by the way. But when I saw that the sun did not wait
-for him, and I had at least to walk seven miles in an obscure night,
-I _thought_ then, that it would be better if the white people were to
-learn something of the Indians.”
-
-I once asked an old Indian acquaintance of mine, who had come with
-his wife to pay me a visit, where he had been, that I had not seen
-him for a great while? “Don’t you know,” he answered, “that the
-white people some time ago summoned us to a treaty, to buy land of
-them?”[241]--“That is true,” replied I, “I had indeed forgotten it; I
-thought you was just returned from your fall hunt.”--“No, no,” replied
-the Indian, “my fall hunt has been lost to me this season; I had to go
-and get my share of the purchase money for the land we sold.”--“Well
-then,” said I, “I suppose you got enough to satisfy you?”
-
-INDIAN. “I can shew you all that I got. I have received such and such
-articles, (naming them and the quantity of each), do you think that is
-enough?”
-
-HECKEW. “That I cannot know, unless you tell me how much of the land
-which was sold came to your share.”
-
-INDIAN. (after considering a little), “Well, you, my friend! know who
-I am, you know I am a kind of chief. I am, indeed, one, though none of
-the greatest. Neither am I one of the lowest grade, but I stand about
-in the middle rank. Now, as such, I think I was entitled to as much
-land in the tract we sold as would lie within a day’s walk from this
-spot to a point due north, then a day’s walk from that point to another
-due west, from thence another day’s walk due south, then a day’s walk
-to where we now are. Now you can tell me if what I have shewn you is
-enough for all the land lying between these four marks?”
-
-HECKEW. “If you have made your bargain so with the white people, it is
-all right, and you probably have received your share.”
-
-INDIAN. “Ah! but the white people made the bargain by themselves,
-without consulting us. They told us that they would give us so much,
-and no more.”
-
-HECKEW. “Well, and you consented thereto?”
-
-INDIAN. “What could we do, when they told us that they must have the
-land, and for such a price? Was it not better to take something than
-nothing? for they would have the land, and so we took what they gave
-us.”
-
-HECKEW. “Perhaps the goods they gave you came high in price. The goods
-which come over the great salt water lake sometimes vary in their
-prices.”
-
-INDIAN. “The traders sell their goods for just the same prices that
-they did before, so that I rather think it is the _land_ that has
-_fallen_ in value. We, Indians, do not understand selling lands to the
-white people; for when we sell, the price of land is always low; land
-is then cheap, but when the white people sell it out among themselves,
-it is always dear, and they are sure to get a high price for it. I had
-done much better if I had stayed at home and minded my fall hunt. You
-know I am a pretty good hunter and might have killed a great many deer,
-sixty, eighty, perhaps a hundred, and besides caught many raccoons,
-beavers, otters, wild cats, and other animals, while I was at this
-treaty. I have often killed five, six, and seven deer in one day. Now I
-have lost nine of the best hunting weeks in the season by going to get
-what you see! We were told the precise time when we must meet. We came
-at the very day, but the great white men did not do so, and without
-them nothing could be done. When after some weeks they at last came, we
-traded, we sold our lands and received goods in payment, and when that
-was over, I went to my hunting grounds, but the best time, the rutting
-time, being over, I killed but a few. Now, help me to count up what I
-have lost by going to the treaty. Put down eighty deer; say twenty of
-them were bucks, each buckskin one dollar; then sixty does and young
-bucks at two skins for a dollar; thirty dollars, and twenty for the old
-bucks, make fifty dollars lost to me in deer skins. Add, then, twenty
-dollars more to this for raccoon, beaver, wild cat, black fox, and
-otter skins, and what does the whole amount to?”
-
-HECKEW. “Seventy dollars.”
-
-INDIAN. “Well, let it be only seventy dollars, but how much might I
-have bought of the traders for this money! How well we might have
-lived, I and my family in the woods during that time! How much meat
-would my wife have dried! how much tallow saved and sold or exchanged
-for salt, flour, tea and chocolate! All this is now lost to us; and
-had I not such a good wife (stroking her under the chin) who planted
-so much corn, and so many beans, pumpkins, squashes, and potatoes last
-summer, my family would now live most wretchedly. I have learned to be
-wise by going to treaties, I shall never go there again to sell my land
-and lose my time.”
-
-I shall conclude this desultory chapter with another anecdote which is
-strongly characteristic of the good sense of the Indians and shews how
-much their minds are capable of thought and reflection.
-
-Seating myself once upon a log, by the side of an Indian, who was
-resting himself there, being at that time actively employed in fencing
-in his corn-field, I observed to him that he must be very fond of
-working, as I never saw him idling away his time, as is so common with
-the Indians. The answer which he returned made considerable impression
-on my mind; I have remembered it ever since, and I shall try to relate
-it as nearly in his own words as possible.
-
-“My friend!” said he, “the fishes in the water and the birds in the air
-and on the earth have taught me to work; by their examples I have been
-convinced of the necessity of labour and industry. When I was a young
-man I loitered a great deal about, doing nothing, just like the other
-Indians, who say that working is only for the whites and the negroes,
-and that the Indians have been ordained for other purposes, to hunt
-the deer, and catch the beaver, otter, raccoon and such other animals.
-But it one day so happened, that while a hunting, I came to the bank
-of the Susquehannah, where I sat down near the water’s edge to rest a
-little, and casting my eye on the water, I was forcibly struck when
-I observed with what industry the _Meechgalingus_[242] heaped small
-stones together, to make secure places for their spawn, and all this
-labour they did with their mouths and bodies without hands! Astonished
-as well as diverted, I lighted my pipe, sat a while smoking and looking
-on, when presently a little bird not far from me raised a song which
-enticed me to look that way; while I was trying to distinguish who
-the songster was, and catch it with my eyes, its mate, with as much
-grass as with its bill it could hold, passed close by me and flew into
-a bush, where I perceived them together busy building their nest and
-singing as they went along. I entirely forgot that I was a hunting, in
-order to contemplate the objects I had before me. I saw the birds of
-the air and the fishes in the water working diligently and cheerfully,
-and all this without hands! I thought it was strange, and became lost
-in contemplation! I looked at myself, I saw two long arms, provided
-with hands and fingers besides, with joints that might be opened and
-shut at pleasure. I could, when I pleased, take up anything with these
-hands, hold it fast or let it loose, and carry it along with me as I
-walked. I observed moreover that I had a strong body capable of bearing
-fatigue, and supported by two stout legs, with which I could climb
-to the top of the highest mountains and descend at pleasure into the
-valleys. And is it possible, said I, that a being so formed as I am,
-was created to live in idleness, while the birds who have no hands, and
-nothing but their little bills to help them, work with cheerfulness and
-without being told to do so? Has then the great Creator of man and of
-all living creatures given me all these limbs for no purpose? It cannot
-be; I will try to go to work. I did so, and went away from the village
-to a spot of good land, built a cabin, enclosed ground, planted corn,
-and raised cattle. Ever since that time I have enjoyed a good appetite
-and sound sleep; while the others spend their nights in dancing and are
-suffering with hunger, I live in plenty; I keep horses, cows, hogs and
-fowls; I am happy. See! my friend; the birds and fishes have brought me
-to reflection and taught me to work!”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XLIII.
-
-ADVICE TO TRAVELLERS.
-
-
-Nothing is so common as the indiscriminate charge laid upon travellers
-of relating strange and wonderful things for the mere purpose of
-exciting admiration and raising themselves into consequence. I believe
-for my part that this accusation is in general unjust as well as
-unfair, and that travellers seldom impose upon others except when
-they have been imposed upon themselves. The discredit which they have
-fallen into is more owing to their errors and mistakes than to wilful
-imposition and falsehood. It is therefore rendering them and the
-world an essential service to point out the means of avoiding those
-deceptions, which if not sufficiently guarded against, will at last
-destroy all belief in the accounts given by travellers of distant
-nations and of manners and customs different from our own.
-
-The first and most important thing for a traveller is a competent
-knowledge of the language of the people among whom he is. Without
-this knowledge it is impossible that he can acquire a correct notion
-of their manners and customs and of the opinions which prevail among
-them. There is little faith to be placed in those numerous vocabularies
-of the languages of distant nations which are to be found in almost
-every book of voyages or travels; they are generally full of the most
-ridiculous mistakes; at least (for I must speak only of what I know)
-those which relate to the Indian languages of North America. I was
-some years ago shewn a vocabulary[243] of the idiom of the Indians who
-inhabited the banks of the Delaware, while Pennsylvania was under the
-dominion of the Swedes, which idiom was no other than the pure Unami
-dialect of the Lenape, and I could hardly refrain from laughing at the
-numerous errors that I observed in it; for instance, the Indian word
-given for _hand_ in fact means _finger_. This is enough to shew how
-carelessly those vocabularies are made, and how little their authors
-are acquainted with the languages that they pretend to teach.
-
-The cause of these mistakes may be easily accounted for. When
-pointing to a particular object you ask an Indian how it is called,
-he never will give you the name of the _genus_, but always that of
-the _species_. Thus, if you point to a tree, and ask for its name,
-the answer will be oak, beech, chestnut, maple, &c., as the case may
-be. Thus the Swedish author of the vocabulary that I have mentioned,
-probably happened to point to a _finger_, when he asked what was the
-Indian word for _hand_, and on receiving the answer, without further
-enquiry enriched his work with this notable specimen of Indian learning.
-
-When I first went to reside among the Indians, I took great care to
-learn by heart the words _Kœcu k’delloundamen yun?_ which means _What
-do you call this?_ Whenever I found the Indians disposed to attend
-to my enquiries, I would point to particular objects and repeat my
-formulary, and the answers that they gave I immediately wrote down in
-a book which I kept for the purpose; at last, when I had written about
-half a dozen sheets, I found that I had more than a dozen names for
-“_tree_” as many for “_fish_,” and so on with other things, and yet I
-had not a single generic name. What was still worse, when I pointed to
-something, repeating the name or one of the names by which I had been
-taught to call it, I was sure to excite a laugh; and when, in order
-to be set right, I put the question _Kœcu_, &c., I would receive for
-answer a new word or name which I had never heard before. This began to
-make me believe that everything was not as it should be, and that I was
-not in the right way to learn the Indian language.
-
-It was not only in substantives or the proper names of things that I
-found myself almost always mistaken. Those who are not acquainted with
-the copiousness of the Indian languages, can hardly form an idea of
-the various shades and combinations of ideas that they can express.
-For instance, the infinitive _Mitzin_ signifies _to eat_, and so
-does _Mohoan_. Now although the first of these words is sufficiently
-expressive of the act of eating something, be it what it may, yet the
-Indians are very attentive to expressing in one word what and how they
-have eaten, that is to say whether they have been eating something
-which needed no chewing, as pottage, mush or the like, or something
-that required the use of the teeth. In the latter case the proper word
-is _mohoan_, and in the former _guntammen_. If an Indian is asked
-_k’dapi mitzi?_ have you eaten? he will answer _n’dapi guntammen_, or
-_n’dapi mohoa_, according as what he has eaten did or did not require
-the aid of chewing. If he has eaten of both kinds of provisions at his
-meal, he will then use the generic word, and say, _n’dapi mitzi_, which
-means generally, _I have eaten_.
-
-These niceties of course escaped me, and what was worse, few of the
-words I had taken down were correctly written. Essential letters or
-syllables, which in the rapidity of pronunciation had escaped my ear,
-were almost everywhere omitted. When I tried to make use of the words
-which I had so carefully collected, I found I was not understood, and I
-was at a loss to discover the cause to which I might attribute my want
-of success in the earnest endeavours that I was making to acquire the
-Indian tongue.
-
-At last there came an Indian, who was conversant with the English
-and German, and was much my friend. I hastened to lay before him my
-learned collection of Indian words, and was very much astonished when
-he advised me immediately to burn the whole, and write no more. “The
-first thing,” said he, “that you are to do to learn our language is to
-get an Indian _ear_; when that is obtained, no sound, no syllable will
-ever escape your hearing it, and you will at the same time learn the
-true pronunciation and how to accent your words properly; the rest will
-come of itself.” I found he was right. By listening to the natives,
-and repeating the words to myself as they spoke them, it was not many
-months before I ventured to converse with them, and finally understood
-every word they said. The Indians are very proud of a white man’s
-endeavouring to learn their language; they help him in everything that
-they can, and it is not their fault if he does not succeed.
-
-The language, then, is the first thing that a traveller ought to
-endeavour to acquire, at least, so as to be able to make himself
-understood and to understand others. Without this indispensable
-requisite he may write about the soil, earth and stones, describe trees
-and plants that grow on the surface of the land, the birds that fly in
-the air and the fishes that swim in the waters, but he should by no
-means attempt to speak of the disposition and characters of the human
-beings who inhabit the country, and even of their customs and manners,
-which it is impossible for him to be sufficiently acquainted with. And
-indeed, even with the advantage of the language, this knowledge is not
-to be acquired in a short time, so different is the impression which
-new objects make upon us at first sight, and that which they produce on
-a nearer view. I could speak the Delaware language very fluently, but I
-was yet far from being well acquainted with the character and manners
-of the Lenape.
-
-The Indians are very ready to answer the enquiries that are made
-respecting the usages of their country. But they are very much
-disgusted with the manner which they say some white people have of
-asking them questions on questions, without allowing them time to give
-a proper answer to any one of them. They, on the contrary, never ask a
-second question until they have received a full answer to the first.
-They say of those who do otherwise, that they seem as if they wished to
-know a thing, yet cared not whether they knew it correctly or properly.
-There are some men who before the Indians have well understood the
-question put to them, begin to write down their answers; of these
-they have no good opinion, thinking that they are writing something
-unfavourable of them.
-
-There are men who will relate incredible stories of the Indians, and
-think themselves sufficiently warranted because they have Indian
-authority for it. But these men ought to know that all an Indian says
-is not to be relied upon as truth. I do not mean to say that they are
-addicted to telling falsehoods, for nothing is farther from their
-character; but they are fond of the marvellous, and when they find a
-white man inclined to listen to their tales of wonder, or credulous
-enough to believe their superstitious notions, there are always some
-among them ready to entertain him with tales of that description, as
-it gives them an opportunity of diverting themselves in their leisure
-hours, by relating such fabulous stories, while they laugh at the same
-time at their being able to deceive a people who think themselves so
-superior to them in wisdom and knowledge. They are fond of trying white
-men who come among them, in order to see whether they can act upon them
-in this way with success. Travellers who cannot speak their language,
-and are not acquainted with their character, manners and usages,
-should be more particularly careful not to ask them questions that
-touch in any manner upon their superstitious notions, or, as they are
-often considered even by themselves “fabulous amusements.” Nor should
-a stranger ever display an anxiety to witness scenes of this kind,
-but rather appear indifferent about them. In this manner he cannot
-be misled by interested persons or those who have formed a malicious
-design to deceive him. Whenever such a disposition appears (and it
-is not difficult to be discovered), questions of this kind should be
-reserved for another time, and asked in a proper manner before other
-persons, or of those who would be candid and perhaps let the enquirer
-into the secret.
-
-I have been led to consider Carver, who otherwise is deserving of
-credit for the greatest part of what he has written on the character of
-the Indians, to have been imposed upon in the story which he relates
-of having learned by means of a conjurer (the chief priest of the
-Killistenoes, as he calls him) who pretended to have had a conversation
-with the great Spirit, the precise time when a canoe should come, and
-certain traders who had been long expected should arrive.[244] Had
-Carver resided a longer time among the Indians, so as to have acquired
-a more intimate acquaintance with their customs,[245] he would have
-known that they have one in particular (which I understand is universal
-among all the tribes), which would have easily explained to him what he
-thought so mysterious. Whenever they go out on a journey, whether far
-or near, and even sometimes when they go out on hunting parties, they
-always fix a day, on which they either will return, or their friends
-at home shall hear from them. They are so particular and punctual in
-“making their word true,” as they call it, that when they find that at
-the rate they are travelling, they would probably be at home a day or
-so sooner than the time appointed, they will rather lay by for that
-time than that their word should not be precisely made good. I have
-known instances when they might have arrived in very good time the
-day preceding that which they had appointed, but they rather chose to
-encamp for the night, though but a few miles distant from their home.
-They urge a variety of reasons for this conduct. In the first place,
-they are anxious not to occasion disappointment in any case when
-they can avoid it. They consider punctuality as an essential virtue,
-because, they say, much often depends upon it, particularly when they
-are engaged in wars. Besides, when the day of their return is certainly
-known, everything is prepared for their reception, and the family are
-ready with the best that they can provide to set before them on their
-arrival. If, however, unforeseen circumstances should prevent them from
-coming all on the same day, one, at least, or more of them, will be
-sure to arrive, from whom those at home will learn all that they wish
-to know.
-
-On all important occasions, in which a tribe or body of Indians are
-concerned or interested, whether they are looking out for the return of
-an embassy sent to a distant nation, for messengers with an answer on
-some matter of consequence, for runners despatched by their spies who
-are watching an enemy’s motions, or for traders who at stated periods
-every year are sure to meet them at certain places, they always take
-proper and efficacious measures to prevent being surprised.
-
-The case which appears to have excited so much astonishment in Captain
-Carver, I believe to have been simply this. The Indians[246] had at the
-season that he speaks of failed to arrive at the trading place at the
-time appointed. The Indians who had assembled there for the purpose of
-meeting them could not be ignorant of the cause of their delay, as
-they had, no doubt, learned it by the return of some of their runners
-sent out for that purpose, who, as is their custom, probably informed
-them that another set of runners would be in the next day with further
-advices. The priest must have known all this, and the precise spot
-where those fresh runners were to encamp the night preceding their
-arrival, which is always well known and understood by means of the
-regular chain of communication that is kept up. These runners say to
-each other, pointing to the heavens: “When the sun stands there, I will
-be here or at such a particular spot,” which they clearly designate.
-The information thus given is sure to reach in time the chiefs of the
-nation.
-
-The manner in which this priest spoke to Captain Carver of his
-pretended intercourse with the great Spirit, clearly shews the
-deception that he was practising upon him. “The great Spirit,” said
-he, “has not indeed told me when the persons we expect will be here,
-but to-morrow, soon after the sun has reached his highest point in the
-heavens, a canoe will arrive, and the people in that will inform us
-when the traders will come.” The question, then, which he had put to
-the great Spirit, “when the traders would come?” was not answered, and
-there was no need of asking the Mannitto when the _canoes_ should come,
-for that must have been known already, and that the people in it would
-tell them where the traders were, and when they might be expected to
-arrive.
-
-As in or about the year 1774, I was travelling with some Christian
-Indians, two Indians of the same nation, but strangers to us, fell in
-with us just as we were going to encamp, and joined us for the night.
-One of them was an aged grave-looking man, whom I was pleased to see
-in our company, and I flattered myself with obtaining some information
-from him, as, according to the Indian custom, age always takes the lead
-in conversation. I soon, however, perceived, to my great mortification,
-that he dwelt on subjects which I had neither a taste for nor an ear
-to hear; for his topic was the supernatural performances of Indians
-through the agency of an unseen Mannitto. I did not pay any attention
-to what he said, nor did any of our Christian Indians shew marks of
-admiration or astonishment at the stories he was telling, but sat in
-silence smoking their pipes. The speaker having, after an hour’s time,
-finished his relations, the oldest Indian in my company addressed
-himself to me and said: “Now you have heard what some Indians can
-perform. Have you ever heard the like before, and do you believe all
-you have heard?” “There are,” I answered, “many things that I have
-heard of the Indians, and which I believe to be true, and such things
-I like to hear; but there are also things which they relate which I do
-not believe, and therefore do not wish to know them. While our friend
-here was just now telling us stories of this kind, which I cannot
-believe, I was wishing all the time that he might soon have finished
-and tell us something better.” The Indian, taking the hint in good
-part, asked me then what things I should like to hear? On which I made
-this reply: “As you are a man already in years, and much older than
-myself, you must have seen many things that I have not seen, and heard
-much that I have not heard. Now I should like to hear the history of
-your life; where you was born, at what age you shot your first deer,
-what things you heard of your father and your grandfather relative
-to old times; where they supposed the Indians to have come from, and
-what traditions they had respecting them. I should like also to know
-how many children you have had; how far you have travelled in your
-lifetime, and what you have seen and heard in your travels. See!” added
-I, “these are the things that I should like to hear of the Indians;
-anything of the kind from you will give me pleasure.” The Indian
-then, highly pleased with my candour, readily complied, and having
-related everything remarkable that had come within his observation and
-knowledge, I thanked him, saying that I should never forget him nor
-what he had now related to me, but that I would try to forget what he
-had related in the beginning. The Indians who were with me, following
-the thread of the conversation, continued to entertain us with rational
-stories, and the evening was spent very agreeably. In the morning,
-when we parted, the strange Indian whom I had thus rebuked, shook me
-cordially by the hand, saying: “Friend! you shall never be forgotten by
-me. Indeed I call you my _friend_.”
-
-I would take the liberty to recommend to those who may hereafter
-travel among the Indians, in any part of America, to be particular in
-their enquiries respecting the connexion of the different nations or
-tribes with each other, especially when the analogy of their respective
-languages leads to infer such _relationship_, as the Indians call it.
-I beg leave to suggest a few questions, which, I think, ought always
-to be asked. They may lead to much useful information respecting the
-various migrations and the original places of residence of the Indian
-nations, and perhaps produce more important discoveries.
-
-1. What is the name of your tribe? Is it its original name; if not, how
-was it formerly called?
-
-2. Have you a tradition of your lineal descent as a nation or tribe?
-
-3. To what tribes are you related by blood, and where do they reside?
-
-4. What is your character or rank in the national family?
-
-5. Which among the tribes connected with you is that which you call
-_grandfather_?
-
-6. Where is the great council fire of all the nations or tribes
-connected with yours?
-
-7. How do you address the chiefs and council of such a nation or tribe?
-
-8. What is the badge of your tribe?
-
-From these and other similar questions, much valuable information will
-probably result. The nation whom another tribe calls _grandfather_, is
-certainly the head of the family to which they both belong. At his door
-burns the “great national council fire,” or, in other words, at the
-place where he resides with his counsellors, as the great or supreme
-chief of the national family, the heads of the tribes in the connexion
-occasionally assemble to deliberate on their common interests; any
-tribe may have a council fire of its own, but cannot dictate to the
-other tribes, nor compel any of them to take up the hatchet against
-an enemy; neither can they conclude a peace for the whole; this power
-entirely rests with the great national chief, who presides at the
-council fire of their _grandfather_.
-
-Indian nations or tribes connected with each other are not always
-connected by blood or descended from the same original stock. Some
-are admitted into the connexion by adoption. Such are the Tuscaroras
-among the Six Nations; such the Cherokees among the Lenni Lenape.
-Thus, in the year 1779, a deputation of fourteen men came from the
-Cherokee nation to the council fire of the Delawares, to condole with
-their _grandfather_ on the loss of their head chief.[247] There are
-tribes, on the other hand, who have wandered far from the habitations
-of those connected with them by blood or relationship. It is certain
-that they can no longer be benefited by the general council fire.
-They, therefore, become a people by themselves, and pass with us
-for a separate nation, if they only have a name; nevertheless, (if
-I am rightly informed) they well know to what stock or nation they
-originally belonged, and if questioned on that subject, will give
-correct answers. It is therefore very important to make these enquiries
-of any tribe or nation that a traveller may find himself among. The
-analogy of languages is the best and most unequivocal sign of connexion
-between Indian tribes; yet the absence of that indication should not
-always be relied upon.
-
-It may not be improper also to mention in this place that the purity
-or correctness with which a language is spoken, will greatly help to
-discover who is the head of the national family. For no where is the
-language so much cultivated as in the vicinity of the great national
-council fire, where the orators have the best opportunity of displaying
-their talents. Thus the purest and most elegant dialect of the Lenape
-language, is that of the Unami or Turtle tribe.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XLIV.
-
-THE INDIANS AND THE WHITES COMPARED.
-
-
-If lions had painters! This proverbial saying applies with equal force
-to the American Indians. They have no historians among them, no books,
-no newspapers, no convenient means of making their grievances known to
-a sympathising world. Why, then, should not a white man, a Christian,
-who has spent among them the greatest part of his life, and was treated
-by them at all times with hospitality and kindness, plead their honest
-cause, and defend them as they would defend themselves, if they had
-but the means of bringing their facts and their arguments before an
-impartial public?
-
-Those who have never taken the pains to enquire into the real character
-and disposition of the American Indians, naturally suppose, that a
-people who have no code of laws for their government, but where every
-man is at liberty to do what he pleases, where men never forget or
-forgive injuries, and take revenge in their own way, often in the most
-cruel manner, and are never satisfied until they have been revenged,
-must of course be _barbarians_ and _savages_; by which undefined
-words is understood whatever is bad, wicked, and disgraceful to human
-nature. Imagination is immediately at work to paint them as a species
-of monsters, to whom cruelty is an appetite; a sort of human-shaped
-tigers and panthers, strangers to the finer feelings, and who commit
-acts of barbarity without any excitement but that of their depraved
-inclination, and without even suspecting that there are such things in
-nature as virtue on the one hand and crime on the other.
-
-But nothing is so false as this picture of the Indians. The worst
-that can be said of them is, that the passion of revenge is so strong
-in their minds, that it carries them beyond all bounds. But set this
-aside, and their character is noble and great. They have no written
-laws, but they have usages founded on the most strict principles of
-equity and justice. Murder with them is punished with death. It is
-true, that as was the case not many centuries ago among the most
-civilised nations of Europe, the death of a man may be compounded for
-with his surviving relations; if, however, they do not choose to accept
-of the terms offered, any one of them may become the executioner of the
-murderer.
-
-Thieves are compelled to restore what they have stolen, or to make
-satisfactory amends to the injured party; in their default, their
-nearest relations are obliged to make up the loss. If the thief, after
-sufficient warning, continues his bad practices, he is disowned by
-his nation, and any one may put him to death the next time that he is
-caught in the act of stealing, or that it can be clearly proved to have
-been committed by him. I have given two instances of the kind in a
-former chapter,[248] and I recollect another which will put what I have
-said in the strongest light. I once knew an Indian chief, who had a son
-of a vicious disposition, addicted to stealing, and who would take no
-advice. His father, tired and unable to satisfy all the demands which
-were made upon him for the restitution of articles stolen by his son,
-at last issued his orders for shooting him the next time he should be
-guilty of a similar act.
-
-As to crimes and offences of an inferior nature to murder and theft,
-they are left to the injured party to punish in such manner as he
-thinks proper. Such are personal insults and threats, which among
-those people are not considered as slight matters. If the will and
-intention of the aggressor appear to be _bad_; if the insult offered
-is considered as the forerunner of something worse; or, as the Indians
-express themselves, if the “_murdering spirit_” is “_alive_” within
-him who offers or threatens violence to another, they think themselves
-justified in preventing the act meditated against them; in such a case,
-they consider the killing the aggressor as an act of necessity and
-self defence. Yet it is very rarely, indeed, that such punishments are
-inflicted.[249] The Indians, in general, avoid giving offence as much
-as possible. They firmly believe that bad thoughts and actions proceed
-from the evil spirit, and carefully avoid every thing that is _bad_.
-
-Every person who is well acquainted with the true character of the
-Indians will admit that they are peaceable, sociable, obliging,
-charitable, and hospitable among themselves, and that those virtues
-are, as it were, a part of their nature. In their ordinary intercourse,
-they are studious to oblige each other. They neither wrangle nor fight;
-they live, I believe, as peaceably together as any people on earth, and
-treat one another with the greatest respect. That they are not devoid
-of tender feelings has been sufficiently shewn in the course of this
-work. I do not mean to speak of those whose manners have been corrupted
-by a long intercourse with the worst class of white men; they are a
-degenerate race, very different from the true genuine Indians whom I
-have attempted to describe.
-
-If any one should be disposed to think that I have exaggerated in the
-picture which I have drawn of these _original people_, as they call
-themselves, I appeal to the numerous impartial writers who have given
-the same testimony respecting them. What says Christopher Columbus
-himself of the American Indians in his letters to his sovereign?
-“There are not,” says he, “a better people in the world than these;
-more affectionate, affable, or mild. _They love their neighbours as
-themselves._”
-
-Similar encomiums were passed on them by some of the first Englishmen
-who came to settle in this country. The Reverend Mr. Cushman, in a
-sermon preached at Plymouth in 1620, says: “The Indians are said to be
-the most cruel and treacherous people in all those parts, even like
-lions; but to us they have been like lambs, so kind, so submissive and
-trusty, as a man may truly say, many Christians are not so kind and
-sincere.”
-
-The learned Dr. Elias Boudinot, of Burlington, in New Jersey (a man
-well remembered as one of the most eminent leaders of the American
-Revolution),[250] in a work[251] which, whatever opinion may be
-entertained of the hypothesis that he contends for, well deserves
-to be read, for the spirit which it breathes and the facts that it
-contains, has brought together in one view, the above and many other
-authorities of eminent men in favour of the American Indians, and in
-proof that their character is such as I have described. I shall not
-repeat after him what Las Casas, William Penn, Bryan Edwards, the Abbé
-Clavigero, Father Charlevoix and others, have said on the same subject;
-those numerous and weighty testimonies may be found in the work to
-which I have referred.[252] But I cannot refrain from transcribing the
-opinion of the venerable author himself, to which his high character,
-his learning, and independence, affix a more than common degree of
-authority.
-
-“It is a matter of fact,” says Dr. Boudinot, “proved by most historical
-accounts, that the Indians, at our first acquaintance with them,
-generally manifested themselves kind, hospitable and generous to the
-Europeans, so long as they were treated with justice and humanity. But
-when they were, from a thirst of gain, over-reached on many occasions,
-their friends and relations treacherously entrapped and carried away
-to be sold for slaves, themselves injuriously oppressed, deceived
-and driven from their lawful and native possessions; what ought to
-have been expected, but inveterate enmity, hereditary animosity,
-and a spirit of perpetual revenge? To whom should be attributed the
-evil passions, cruel practices and vicious habits to which they are
-now changed, but to those who first set them the example, laid the
-foundation and then furnished the continual means for propagating and
-supporting the evil?”[253]
-
-Such was the original character of the Indians, stamped, as it were,
-upon them by nature; but fifty or sixty years back, whole communities
-of them bore the stamp of this character, difficult now to be found
-within the precincts of any part of their territory bordering on the
-settlements of the white people!
-
-What! will it be asked, can this be a true picture of the character of
-the Indians; of those brutes, barbarians, savages, men without religion
-or laws, who commit indiscriminate murders, without distinction of age
-or sex? Have they not in numberless instances desolated our frontiers,
-and butchered our people? Have they not violated treaties and deceived
-the confidence that we placed in them? No, no; they are beasts of prey
-in the human form; they are men with whom no faith is to be kept, and
-who ought to be cut off from the face of the earth!
-
-Stop, my friends! hard names and broad assertions are neither reasons
-nor positive facts. I am not prepared to enter into a discussion with
-you on the comparative merits or demerits of the Indians and whites;
-for I am unskilled in argument, and profess only to be a plain _matter
-of fact_ man. To facts therefore I will appeal. I admit that the
-Indians have sometimes revenged, cruelly revenged, the accumulated
-wrongs which they have suffered from unprincipled white men; the
-love of revenge is a strong passion which their imperfect religious
-notions have not taught them to subdue. But how often have they been
-the aggressors in the unequal contests which they have had to sustain
-with the invaders of their country? In how many various shapes have
-they not been excited and their passions roused to the utmost fury by
-acts of cruelty and injustice on the part of the whites, who have made
-afterwards the country ring with their complaints against the lawless
-savages, who had not the means of being heard in their defence? I shall
-not pursue these questions any farther, but let the facts that I am
-going to relate speak for themselves.
-
-In the summer of the year 1763, some friendly Indians from a distant
-place, came to Bethlehem to dispose of their peltry for manufactured
-goods and necessary implements of husbandry. Returning home well
-satisfied, they put up the first night at a tavern, eight miles
-distant from this place.[254] The landlord not being at home, his wife
-took the liberty of encouraging the people who frequented her house for
-the sake of drinking to abuse those Indians, adding, “That she would
-freely give a gallon of rum to any one of them that should kill one of
-these black d----ls.” Other white people from the neighbourhood came in
-during the night, who also drank freely, made a great deal of noise,
-and increased the fears of those poor Indians, who, for the greatest
-part, understanding English, could not but suspect that something bad
-was intended against their persons. They were not, however, otherwise
-disturbed: but in the morning, when, after a restless night, they were
-preparing to set off, they found themselves robbed of some of the
-most valuable articles they had purchased, and on mentioning this to
-a man who appeared to be the bar-keeper, they were ordered to leave
-the house. Not being willing to lose so much property, they retired
-to some distance into the woods, where, some of them remaining with
-what was left them, the others returned to Bethlehem and lodged their
-complaint with a justice of the peace. The magistrate gave them a
-letter to the landlord, pressing him without delay to restore to the
-Indians the goods that had been taken from them. But behold! when they
-delivered that letter to the people at the inn, they were told in
-answer: “that if they set any value on their lives, they must make off
-with themselves immediately.” They well understood that they had no
-other alternative, and prudently departed without having received back
-any of their goods.[255] Arrived at Nescopeck[256] on the Susquehannah,
-they fell in with some other Delawares, who had been treated much in
-the same manner, one of them having had his rifle stolen from him. Here
-the two parties agreed to take revenge in their own way, for those
-insults and robberies for which they could obtain no redress; and that
-they determined to do as soon as war should be again declared by their
-nation against the English.
-
-Scarcely had these Indians retired, when in another place, about
-fourteen miles distant from the former, one man, two women and a child,
-all quiet Indians, were murdered in a most wicked and barbarous manner,
-by drunken militia officers and their men, for the purpose of getting
-their horse and the goods they had just purchased.[257] One of the
-women, falling on her knees, begged in vain for the life of herself
-and her child, while the other woman, seeing what was doing, made her
-escape to the barn, where she endeavoured to hide herself on the top of
-the grain. She however was discovered, and inhumanly thrown down on the
-threshing floor with such force that her brains flew out.[258]
-
-Here, then, were insults, robberies and murders, all committed within
-the short space of three months, unatoned for and unrevenged. There was
-no prospect of obtaining redress; the survivors were therefore obliged
-to seek some other means to obtain revenge. They did so; the Indians,
-already exasperated against the English in consequence of repeated
-outrages, and considering the nation as responsible for the injuries
-which it did neither prevent nor punish, and for which it did not even
-offer to make any kind of reparation, at last declared war, and then
-the injured parties were at liberty to redress themselves for the
-wrongs they had suffered. They immediately started against the objects
-of their hatred, and finding their way, unseen and undiscovered, to
-the inn which had been the scene of the first outrage, they attacked
-it at daybreak, fired into it on the people within, who were lying in
-their beds. Strange to relate! the murderers of the man, two women,
-and child, were among them. They were mortally wounded, and died of
-their wounds shortly afterwards. The Indians, after leaving this
-house, murdered by accident an innocent family, having mistaken the
-house that they meant to attack, after which they returned to their
-homes.[259]
-
-Now a violent hue and cry was raised against the Indians--no language
-was too bad, no crimes too black to brand them with. No faith was to
-be placed in those savages; treaties with them were of no effect; they
-ought to be cut off from the face of the earth! Such was the language
-at that time in everybody’s mouth; the newspapers were filled with
-accounts of the cruelties of the Indians, a variety of false reports
-were circulated in order to rouse the people against them, while they,
-the really injured party, having no printing presses among them, could
-not make known the story of their grievances.
-
-“No faith can be placed in what the Indians promise at treaties; for
-scarcely is a treaty concluded than they are again murdering us.” Such
-is our complaint against these unfortunate people; but they will tell
-you that it is the white men in whom no faith is to placed. They will
-tell you, that there is not a single instance in which the whites have
-not violated the engagements that they had made at treaties. They say
-that when they had ceded lands to the white people, and boundary lines
-had been established--“firmly established!” beyond which no whites
-were to settle; scarcely was the treaty signed, when white intruders
-again were settling and hunting on their lands! It is true that when
-they preferred their complaints to the government, the government gave
-them many fair promises, and assured them that men would be sent to
-remove the intruders by force from the usurped lands. The men, indeed,
-came, but with chain and compass in their hands, taking surveys of the
-tracts of good land, which the intruders, from their knowledge of the
-country, had pointed out to them!
-
-What was then to be done, when those intruders would not go off from
-the land, but, on the contrary, increased in numbers? “Oh!” said
-those people, (and I have myself frequently heard this language in
-the Western country,) “a new treaty will soon give us all this land;
-nothing is now wanting but a pretence to pick a quarrel with them!”
-Well, but in what manner is this quarrel to be brought about? A _David
-Owen_, a _Walker_, and many others might, if they were alive, easily
-answer this question. A precedent, however, may be found, on perusing
-Mr. Jefferson’s Appendix to his Notes on Virginia. On all occasions,
-when the object is to murder Indians, strong liquor is the main article
-required; for when you have them dead drunk, you may do to them as you
-please, without running the risk of losing your life. And should you
-find that the laws of your country may reach you where you are, you
-have only to escape or conceal yourself for a while, until the storm
-has blown over! I well recollect the time when thieves and murderers of
-Indians fled from impending punishment across the Susquehannah, where
-they considered themselves safe; on which account this river had the
-name given to it of “_the rogue’s river_.” I have heard other rivers
-called by similar names.
-
-In the year 1742, the Reverend Mr. Whitefield offered the Nazareth
-Manor (as it was then called) for sale to the United Brethren.[260] He
-had already begun to build upon it a spacious stone house, intended as
-a school house for the education of negro children. The Indians, in the
-meanwhile, loudly exclaimed against the white people for settling in
-this part of the country, which had not yet been legally purchased of
-them, but, as they said, had been obtained by fraud.[261] The Brethren
-declined purchasing any lands on which the Indian title had not been
-properly extinguished, wishing to live in peace with all the Indians
-around them. Count Zinzendorff happened at that time to arrive in the
-country; he found that the agents of the proprietors would not pay to
-the Indians the price which they asked for that tract of land; he paid
-them out of his private purse the whole of the demand which they made
-in the height of their ill temper, and moreover gave them permission to
-abide on the land, at their village, (where, by the by, they had a fine
-large peach orchard,) as long as they should think proper. But among
-those white men, who afterwards came and settled in the neighbourhood
-of their tract, there were some who were enemies to the Indians, and
-a young Irishman, without cause or provocation, murdered their good
-and highly respected chief _Tademi_,[262] a man of such an easy and
-friendly address, that he could not but be loved by all who knew him.
-This, together with the threats of other persons, ill disposed towards
-them, was the cause of their leaving their settlement on this manor,
-and removing to places of greater safety.
-
-It is true, that when flagrant cases of this description occurred,
-the government, before the Revolution, issued proclamations offering
-rewards for apprehending the offenders, and in later times, since the
-country has become more thickly settled, those who had been guilty of
-such offences were brought before the tribunals to take their trials.
-But these formalities have proved of little avail. In the first case,
-the criminals were seldom, if ever, apprehended; in the second, no jury
-could be found to convict them; for it was no uncommon saying among
-many of the men of whom juries in the frontier countries were commonly
-composed, that no man should be put to death for killing an Indian; for
-it was the same thing as killing a wild beast!
-
-But what shall I say of the conduct of the British agents, or deputy
-agents, or by whatsoever other name they may be called, who, at the
-commencement of the American Revolution, openly excited the Indians
-to kill and destroy all the rebels without distinction? “Kill all the
-rebels,” they would say, “put them all to death, and spare none.”
-A veteran chief of the Wyandot nation, who resided near Detroit,
-observed to one of them that surely it was meant that they should kill
-men only, and not women and children. “No, no,” was the answer, “kill
-all, destroy all; _nits breed lice_!” The brave veteran[263] was so
-disgusted with this reply, that he refused to go out at all; wishing
-however to see and converse with his old brother soldiers of the
-Delaware nation, with whom he had fought against the English in the
-French war, he took the command of a body of ninety chosen men, and
-being arrived at the seat of the government of the Delawares, on the
-Muskingum, he freely communicated to his old comrades (among whom was
-Glikhican, whom I shall presently have occasion further to mention)
-what had taken place, and what he had resolved on; saying that he never
-would be guilty of killing women and children; that this was the first
-and would be the last of his going out this war; that in ten days they
-should see him come back with one prisoner only, no scalp to a pole,
-and no life lost. He kept his word. The sixteen chiefs under him, from
-respect and principle, agreed to all his proposals and wishes.
-
-How different the conduct of the Indians from that of their inhuman
-employers! I have already related the noble speech of Captain Pipe
-to the British Commandant at Detroit, and I have done justice to the
-character of that brave officer, who surely ought not to be confounded
-with those Indian agents that I have spoken of. But what said Pipe
-to him? “Innocence had no part in your quarrels; and therefore I
-distinguished--I spared. Father! I hope you will not destroy what
-I have saved!”[264] I have also told the conduct of the two young
-spirited Delawares[265] who saved the life of the venerable Missionary
-Zeisberger, at the risk of their own. But it is not only against their
-own people that Indians have afforded their protection to white men,
-but against the whites themselves.
-
-In the course of the Revolutionary war, in which (as in all civil
-commotions) brother was seen fighting against brother, and friend
-against friend, a party of Indian warriors, with whom one of those
-white men, who, under colour of attachment to their king, indulged
-in every sort of crimes, was going out against the settlers on the
-Ohio, to kill and destroy as they had been ordered. The chief of the
-expedition had given strict orders not to molest any of the white men
-who lived with their friends the Christian Indians; yet as they passed
-near a settlement of these converts, the white man, unmindful of the
-orders he had received, attempted to shoot two of the Missionaries who
-were planting potatoes in their field, and though the captain warned
-him to desist, he still obstinately persisted in his attempt. The
-chief, in anger, immediately took his gun from him, and kept him under
-guard until they had reached a considerable distance from the place. I
-have received this account from the chief himself, who on his return
-sent word to the Missionaries that they would do well not to go far
-from home, as they were in too great danger from the _white people_.
-
-Another white man of the same description, whom I well knew, related
-with a kind of barbarous exultation, on his return to Detroit from
-a war excursion with the Indians in which he had been engaged, that
-the party with which he was, having taken a woman prisoner who had a
-sucking babe at her breast, he tried to persuade the Indians to kill
-the child, lest its cries should discover the place where they were;
-the Indians were unwilling to commit the deed, on which the white man
-at once jumped up, tore the child from its mother’s arms and taking it
-by the legs dashed its head against a tree, so that the brains flew out
-all around. The monster in relating this story said, “The little dog
-all the time was making _wee!_” He added, that if he were sure that his
-old father, who some time before had died in Old Virginia, would, if
-he had lived longer, have turned rebel, he would go all the way into
-Virginia, raise the body, and take off his scalp!
-
-Let us now contrast with this the conduct of the Indians. Carver tells
-us in his travels with what moderation, humanity and delicacy they
-treat female prisoners, and particularly pregnant women.[266] I refer
-the reader to the following fact, as an instance of their conduct
-in such cases. If his admiration is excited by the behaviour of the
-Indians, I doubt not that his indignation will be raised in an equal
-degree by that of a white man who unfortunately acts a part in the
-story.
-
-A party of Delawares, in one of their excursions during the
-Revolutionary war, took a white female prisoner. The Indian chief,
-after a march of several days, observed that she was ailing, and was
-soon convinced (for she was far advanced in her pregnancy) that the
-time of her delivery was near. He immediately made a halt on the bank
-of a stream, where at a proper distance from the encampment, he built
-for her a close hut of peeled barks, gathered dry grass and fern to
-make her a bed, and placed a blanket at the opening of the dwelling
-as a substitute for a door. He then kindled a fire, placed a pile of
-wood near it to feed it occasionally, and placed a kettle of water at
-hand where she might easily use it. He then took her into her little
-infirmary, gave her Indian medicines, with directions how to use them,
-and told her to rest easy and she might be sure that nothing should
-disturb her. Having done this, he returned to his men, forbade them
-from making any noise, or disturbing the sick woman in any manner, and
-told them that he himself should guard her during the night. He did
-so, and the whole night kept watch before her door, walking backward
-and forward, to be ready at her call at any moment, in case of extreme
-necessity. The night passed quietly, but in the morning, as he was
-walking by on the bank of the stream, seeing him through the crevices,
-she called to him and presented her babe. The good chief, with tears
-in his eyes, rejoiced at her safe delivery; he told her not to be
-uneasy, that he should lay by for a few days and would soon bring her
-some nourishing food, and some medicines to take. Then going to his
-encampment, he ordered all his men to go out a hunting, and remained
-himself to guard the camp.
-
-Now for the reverse of the picture. Among the men whom this chief
-had under his command, was one of those white vagabonds whom I have
-before described. The captain was much afraid of him, knowing him to
-be a bad man; and as he had expressed a great desire to go a hunting
-with the rest, he believed him gone, and entertained no fears for the
-woman’s safety. But it was not long before he was undeceived. While
-he was gone to a small distance to dig roots for his poor patient, he
-heard her cries, and running with speed to her hut, he was informed by
-her that the white man had threatened to take her life if she did not
-immediately throw her child into the river. The Captain, enraged at the
-cruelty of this man, and the liberty he had taken with his prisoner,
-hailed him as he was running off, and told him, “That the moment he
-should miss the child, the tomahawk should be in his head.” After a few
-days this humane chief placed the woman carefully on a horse, and they
-went together to the place of their destination, the mother and child
-doing well. I have heard him relate this story, to which he added, that
-whenever he should go out on an excursion, he never would suffer a
-white man to be of his party.
-
-Yet I must acknowledge that I have known an Indian chief who had been
-guilty of the crime of killing the child of a female prisoner. It was
-Glikhican,[267] of whom I have before spoken, as one of the friends of
-the brave Wyandot who expressed so much horror at the order given to
-him by the Indian agents to murder women and children.[268] In the year
-1770, he joined the congregation of the Christian Indians; the details
-of his conversion are related at large by Loskiel in his History of the
-Missions.[269] Before that time he had been conspicuous as a warrior
-and a counsellor, and in oratory it is said he never was surpassed.
-This man, having joined the French, in the year 1754, or 1755, in their
-war against the English, and being at that time out with a party of
-Frenchmen, took, among other prisoners, a young woman named _Rachel
-Abbott_, from the Conegocheague settlement,[270] who had at her breast
-a sucking babe. The incessant cries of the child, the hurry to get off,
-but above all, the persuasions of his _white_ companions, induced him,
-much against his inclination, to kill the innocent creature; while the
-mother, in an agony of grief, and her face suffused with tears, begged
-that its life might be spared. The woman, however, was brought safe
-to the Ohio, where she was kindly treated and adopted, and some years
-afterwards was married to a Delaware chief of respectability, by whom
-she had several children, who are now living with the Christian Indians
-in Upper Canada.
-
-Glikhican never forgave himself for having committed this crime,
-although many times, and long before his becoming a Christian, he had
-begged the woman’s pardon with tears in his eyes, and received her
-free and full forgiveness. In vain she pointed out to him all the
-circumstances that he could have alleged to excuse the deed; in vain
-she reminded him of his unwillingness at the time, and his having been
-in a manner compelled to it by his French associates; nothing that
-she did say could assuage his sorrow or quiet the perturbation of his
-mind; he called himself a wretch, a monster, a _coward_ (the proud
-feelings of an Indian must be well understood to judge of the force of
-this self-accusation), and to the moment of his death the remembrance
-of this fatal act preyed like a canker worm upon his spirits. I ought
-to add, that from the time of his conversion, he lived the life of a
-Christian, and died as such.
-
-The Indians are cruel to their enemies! In some cases they are, but
-perhaps not more so than white men have sometimes shewn themselves.
-There have been instances of white men flaying or taking off the skin
-of Indians who had fallen into their hands, then tanning those skins,
-or cutting them in pieces, making them up into razor-straps, and
-exposing those for sale, as was done at or near Pittsburg sometime
-during the Revolutionary war. Those things are abominations in the eyes
-of the Indians, who, indeed, when strongly excited, inflict torments
-on their prisoners and put them to death by cruel tortures, but never
-are guilty of acts of barbarity in cold blood. Neither do the Delawares
-and some other Indian nations, ever on any account disturb the ashes of
-the dead.
-
-The custom of torturing prisoners is of ancient date, and was first
-introduced as a trial of courage. I have been told, however, that among
-some tribes it has never been in use; but it must be added that those
-tribes gave no quarter. The Delawares accuse the Iroquois of having
-been the inventors of this piece of cruelty, and charge them further
-with eating the flesh of their prisoners after the torture was over. Be
-this as it may, there are now but few instances of prisoners being put
-to death in this manner.
-
-Rare as these barbarous executions now are, I have reason to believe
-that they would be still less frequent, if proper pains were taken to
-turn the Indians away from this heathenish custom. Instead of this, it
-is but too true that they have been excited to cruelty by unprincipled
-white men, who have joined in their war-feasts, and even added to the
-barbarity of the scene. Can there be a more brutal act than, after
-furnishing those savages, as they are called, with implements of war
-and destruction, to give them an ox to kill and to roast whole, to
-dance the war dance with them round the slaughtered animal, strike at
-him, stab him, telling the Indians at the same time: “Strike, stab!
-Thus you must do to your enemy!” Then taking a piece of the meat, and
-tearing it with their teeth: “So you must eat his flesh!” and sucking
-up the juices: “Thus you must drink his blood!” and at last devour the
-whole as wolves do a carcass. This is what is known to have been done
-by some of those Indian agents that I have mentioned.
-
-“Is this possible?” the reader will naturally exclaim. Yes, it is
-possible, and every Indian warrior will tell you that it is true. It
-has come to me from so many credible sources, that I am forced to
-believe it. How can the Indians now be reproached with acts of cruelty
-to which they have been excited by those who pretended to be Christians
-and civilised men, but who were worse savages than those whom, no
-doubt, they were ready to brand with that name?
-
-When hostile governments give directions to employ the Indians against
-their enemies, they surely do not know that such is the manner in
-which their orders are to be executed; but let me tell them and every
-government who will descend to employing these auxiliaries, that this
-is the only way in which their subaltern agents will and can proceed
-to make their aid effectual. The Indians are not fond of interfering
-in quarrels not their own, and will not fight with spirit for the mere
-sake of a livelihood which they can obtain in a more agreeable manner
-by hunting and their other ordinary occupations. Their passions must
-be excited, and that is not easily done when they themselves have not
-received any injury from those against whom they are desired to fight.
-Behold, then, the abominable course which must unavoidably be resorted
-to--to induce them to do what?--to lay waste the dwelling of the
-peaceable cultivator of the land, and to murder his innocent wife and
-his helpless children! I cannot pursue this subject farther, although
-I am far from having exhausted it. I have said enough to enable the
-impartial reader to decide which of the two classes of men, the Indians
-and the whites, are most justly entitled to the epithets of brutes,
-barbarians, and savages. It is not for me to anticipate his decision.
-
-But if the Indians, after all, are really those horrid monsters which
-they are alleged to be, two solemn, serious questions have often
-occurred to my mind, to which I wish the partisans of that doctrine
-would give equally serious answers.
-
-1. Can civilised nations, can nations which profess Christianity,
-be justified in employing people of that description to aid them
-in fighting their battles against their enemies, Christians like
-themselves?
-
-2. When such nations offer up their prayers to the throne of the most
-High, supplicating the Divine Majesty to grant success to their arms,
-can they, ought they to expect that those prayers will be heard?
-
-I have done. Let me only be permitted, in conclusion, to express
-my firm belief, the result of much attentive observation and long
-experience while living among the Indians, that if we would only
-observe towards them the first and most important precept of our holy
-religion, “to do to others as we would be done to;” if, instead of
-employing them to fight our battles, we encouraged them to remain at
-peace with us and with each other, they might easily be brought to a
-state of civilisation, and become CHRISTIANS.
-
-I still indulge the hope that this work will be accomplished by a wise
-and benevolent government. Thus we shall demonstrate the falsity of the
-prediction of the Indian prophets, who say: “That when the whites shall
-have ceased killing the red men, and got all their lands from them, the
-great tortoise which bears this island upon his back, shall dive down
-into the deep and drown them all, as he once did before, a great many
-years ago; and that when he again rises, the Indians shall once more be
-put in possession of the whole country.”
-
-
-
-
-CONCLUSION.
-
-
-I have thus finished the work which was required of me by the
-Historical Committee of the American Philosophical Society. On reading
-over the printed sheets which have been kindly sent to me from
-Philadelphia, as they issued from the press, I have noticed several
-errors, some of which may be ascribed to me, others to the transcriber
-of the manuscript, and very few to the printer. I regret that there are
-among them some mistakes in dates and names of places; they are all
-rectified in the errata.
-
-I am very sensible of the many defects of this little work in point
-of method, arrangement, composition and style. I am not an author
-by profession; the greatest part of my life was spent among savage
-nations, and I have now reached the age of seventy-five, at which
-period of life little improvement can be expected. It is not,
-therefore, as an author that I wish to be judged, but as a sincere
-relator of facts that have fallen within my observation and knowledge.
-I declare that I have said nothing but what I certainly know or verily
-believe. In matters of mere opinion, I may be contradicted; but in
-points of fact I have been even scrupulous, and purposely omitted
-several anecdotes for which I could not sufficiently vouch. In my
-descriptions of character, I may have been an unskilful painter, and
-ill chosen expressions may imperfectly have sketched out the images
-that are imprinted on my mind; but the fault is in the writer, not in
-the man.
-
-It is with pleasure that I inform the reader that the parts of Mr.
-Zeisberger’s Iroquois Dictionary which I have mentioned above, (pages
-97, 118,) as being irretrievably lost, have most fortunately been
-found since this work is in the press. The book has been neatly bound
-in seven quarto volumes, and will remain a monument of the richness
-and comprehensiveness of the languages of the Indian nations. Several
-valuable grammatical works on the same language, by the same author and
-Mr. Pyrlæus, have been recovered at the same time, by means of which,
-the idiom of the Six Nations may now be scientifically studied.
-
-When I spoke (p. 136) of the impression made by Captain Pipe’s speech
-“on all present,” I meant only on those who understood the language;
-for there were many who did not, and M. Baby, the Canadian interpreter,
-did not explain to the bystanders the most striking passages, but went
-now and then to the Commandant and whispered in his ear. Captain Pipe,
-while he spoke, was exceedingly animated, and twice advanced so near
-to the Commandant, that M. Baby ordered him to fall back to his place.
-All who were present must have at least suspected that his speech was
-not one of the ordinary kind, and that everything was not as they might
-suppose it ought to be.
-
-I promised in my introduction (p. xxvi.) to subjoin an explanatory list
-of the Indian nations which I have mentioned in the course of this
-work, but I find that I have been so full on the subject that such a
-list is unnecessary.
-
-I have classed the Florida Indians together in respect of language, on
-the supposition that they all speak dialects of the same mother tongue;
-the fact, however, may be otherwise, though it will be extraordinary
-that there should be several languages entirely different from each
-other in the narrow strip of land between the Carolinas and the
-Mississippi, when there are but two principal ones in the rest of
-the United States. It is to be expected that the researches of the
-Historical Committee will throw light upon this subject.
-
-
-
-
-ERRATA IN PART I.
-
-
-  PAGE 26, LINE  5--Between the words “_if_” and “_what_” insert “_we
-                      can credit_.”
-       30,     15--For “_declaring at the same time_” read “_and
-                     declared afterwards_.”
-       31,      8--For “_Mohicans_” read “_Lenape_.”
-       67,     14--For “_1742_” read “_and November 1756_.”
-       72,     12--Dele “_in which_.”
-       77,     11--For “_Delawares_” read “_Mohicans_.”
-       80,     18--For “_1787_” read “_1781_.”
-       81,      5--For “_us_” read “_them_.”
-       84,     12--For “_Mouseys_” read “_Monseys_.”
-               23--Beginning a paragraph, for “_1768, about six_” read
-                     “_1772, a few_.”
-       85,     29--Of third note, for “_Shawanachau_” read
-                     “_Shawanachan_.”
-       90,     13--For “_Shawanos_” read “_Nanticokes_.”
-       91,     13--For “_schschequon_” read “_shechschequon_.”
-       92,     29 and 30--For “_Tawachguáno_” read “_Tayachguáno_.”
-      110,     12--For “_once_” read “_sometimes_.”
-      111,      8--For “_should_” read “_deserved to_.”
-               10--For “_to_” read “_out at_.”
-               12--Dele “_outside of the door and_.”
-      118,     15--For “_Thornhallesen_” read “_Thorhallesen_.”
-      122,     10--Of the first note, for  “_p. 3_” read  “_p. 5_.”
-      130,      8--For “_or_” read “_nor_.”
-      131,     22--For “_met_” read “_saw_.”
-               25--For “_days_” read “_hours_.”
-      133,      5--For “_December_” read “_November_.”
-      140,     10--Of No. 43, for “_with_” read “_of_.”
-      143,     34--For “_they_” read “_the Chippeways and some other
-                     nations_.”
-      146,     17--For “_your_” read “_yon_.”
-      150,      4--After the word “_nation_” insert “_which they do not
-                     approve of_.”
-      153,     31--For “_they sure_” read “_they are sure_.”
-      160,     32--For “_reply_” read “_answer_.”
-      164,     26--For “_decide_” read “_say_.”
-               28--For “_man_” read “_men_.”
-      166,      2--Between “_is_” and “_even_” insert “_sometimes_.”
-               22--For “_an old Indian_” read “_several old men_.”
-      167,     11 and 13--For “_road_” read “_course_.”
-      174,     18--For “_where_” read “_whence_.”
-      178,     33--For “_Duke Holland_” read “_Luke Holland_;” the same
-                     where the name again occurs.
-      201,      5--Dele “_again_.”
-      216,     29--For “_very often_” read “_sometimes_.”
-      217,      2--For “_inches_” read “_feet_.”
-      218,     14--For “_of_” read “_on_.”
-      243,      3--For “_Americans_” read “_white men_.”
-      250,      9--For “_killed_” read “_eaten_.”
-      253,     37--For “_Pauk-sit_” read “_P’duk-sit_.”
-      263,     14--Dele “_lands or_.”
-      278,     35--For “_Albany_” read “_Pittsburgh_.”
-      283,     31--For “_Sandusky_” read “_Muskingum_.”
-      293,     26--For “_bought_” read “_brought_.”
-      313,     23--For “_them_” read “_us_.”
-
-
-
-
-PART II.
-
-A
-
-CORRESPONDENCE
-
-BETWEEN
-
-_THE REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER_.
-
-OF BETHLEHEM,
-
-AND
-
-_PETER S. DUPONCEAU, ESQ._,
-
-CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE HISTORICAL AND LITERARY COMMITTEE OF THE
-AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,
-
-RESPECTING THE
-
-Languages of the American Indians.
-
-    The following Correspondence between Mr. Heckewelder and Peter
-    S. Du Ponceau, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the Historical
-    and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society,
-    and subsequently, till his death in 1844, President of that
-    Society, is appended as a fitting sequel to the preceding
-    Account.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: INTRODUCTION]
-
-
-The Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical
-Society, desirous of taking the most effectual means to promote the
-objects of their institution, directed their corresponding secretary
-to address letters in their name to such persons in the United States
-as had turned their attention to similar objects, and solicit their
-assistance.
-
-Among other well-informed individuals, the Reverend Mr. Heckewelder
-of Bethlehem was pointed out by the late Dr. Caspar Wistar, President
-of the Society, and one of the most active and useful members of the
-Committee, as a gentleman whose intimate knowledge of the American
-Indians, their usages, manners and languages, enabled him to afford
-much important aid to their labours. In consequence of this suggestion,
-the secretary wrote to Mr. Heckewelder the letter No. 1, and Dr.
-Wistar seconded his application by the letter No. 2. The languages
-of the Indians were not at that time particularly in the view of the
-Committee; the manners and customs of those nations were the principal
-subjects on which they wished and expected to receive information. But
-Mr. Heckewelder having with his letter No. 4, sent them the MS. of Mr.
-Zeisberger’s Grammar of the Delaware Language, that communication had
-the effect of directing their attention to this interesting subject.
-
-This MS. being written in German, was not intelligible to the greatest
-number of the members. Two of them, the Reverend Dr. Nicholas Collin,
-and the corresponding secretary, were particularly anxious to be
-honoured with the task of translating it; but the secretary having
-claimed this labour as part of his official duty, it was adjudged
-to him. While he was translating that work, he was struck with the
-beauty of the grammatical forms of the Lenape idiom, which led him to
-ask through Dr. Wistar some questions of Mr. Heckewelder,[271] which
-occurred to him as he was pursuing his labours, and produced the
-correspondence now published, which was carried on by the direction and
-under the sanction of the Committee.
-
-The letters which passed at the beginning between Dr. Wistar and Mr.
-Zeisberger,[272] and are here published in their regular order, do
-not, it is true, form a necessary part of this collection; but it will
-be perceived, that to the two letters of Dr. Wistar, Nos. 2 and 6, we
-are indebted for the valuable Historical Account of the Indians, which
-forms the first number of this volume. It is just that he should have
-the credit due to his active and zealous exertions.
-
-It was intended that Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar should have immediately
-followed this Correspondence, which was considered as introductory to
-it. But it being now evident that it would increase too much the size
-of the volume, its publication is for the present postponed.
-
-
-
-
-CORRESPONDENCE
-
-RESPECTING THE INDIAN LANGUAGES.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER I.
-
-MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 9th January, 1816.
-
-SIR.--As corresponding secretary to the Historical Committee of the
-American Philosophical Society, it is my duty to solicit the aid of
-men of learning and information, by the help of whose knowledge light
-may be thrown on the yet obscure history of the early times of the
-colonization of this country, and particularly of this State. Our
-much-respected President and common friend, Dr. Wistar, has often
-spoken to me of the great knowledge which you possess respecting
-the Indians who once inhabited these parts, and of your intimate
-acquaintance with their languages, habits and history. He had promised
-me, when you was last here, to do me the favour of introducing me to
-you, but the bad state of his health and other circumstances prevented
-it, which has been and still is to me the cause of much regret. Permit
-me, sir, on the strength of his recommendation, and the assurance he
-has given me that I might rely on your zeal and patriotic feelings,
-to request, in the name of the Historical Committee, that you will be
-so good as to aid their labours by occasional communications on the
-various subjects that are familiar to you and which relate to the early
-history of this country. Accounts of the various nations of Indians
-which have at different times inhabited Pennsylvania, their numbers,
-origin, migrations, connexions with each other, the parts which they
-took in the English and French wars and in the Revolutionary war, their
-manners, customs, languages, and religion, will be very acceptable, as
-well as every thing which you may conceive interesting, on a subject
-which at no distant period will be involved in obscurity and doubt,
-for want of the proper information having been given in time by those
-cotemporaries who now possess the requisite knowledge and are still
-able to communicate it. I hope, sir, that you will be able to find some
-moments of leisure to comply, at least in part, with this request,
-which you may do in any form that you may think proper. If that of
-occasional letters to Dr. Wistar or myself should be the most agreeable
-or convenient to you, you may adopt it, or any other mode that you may
-prefer. I beg you will favour me with an answer as soon as possible,
-that I may be able to inform the Committee of what they may expect
-from you. You may be assured that all your communications will be
-respectfully and thankfully received.
-
-  I am, very respectfully, Sir,
-  Your most obedient humble servant,
-  PETER S. DUPONCEAU,
-  Corresponding Secretary.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER II.
-
-DR. C. WISTAR TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 9th January, 1816.
-
-MY DEAR SIR.--Inclosed is a letter from the corresponding secretary
-of the Historical Committee of our Society, which will inform you
-of our wishes to preserve from oblivion, and to make public, all
-the interesting information we can procure respecting the history
-of our country and its original inhabitants. I believe there is no
-other person now living who knows so much respecting the Indians who
-inhabited this part of America, as you do, and there is no one whose
-relations will be received with more confidence.
-
-I hope you will approve of this method of favouring the public with
-your information, and we will endeavour to give you no trouble in
-publishing after you have favoured us with the communications. It will
-be particularly agreeable to the society to receive from you an account
-of the Lenni Lenape, as they were at the time when the settlement of
-Pennsylvania commenced, and of their history and misfortunes since that
-time; as these subjects are so intimately connected with the history
-of our State. The history of the Shawanese, and of the Six Nations
-will be very interesting to us for the same reason. But every thing
-which throws light upon the nature of the Indians, their manners and
-customs; their opinions upon all interesting subjects, especially
-religion and government; their agriculture and modes of procuring
-subsistence; their treatment of their wives and children; their social
-intercourse with each other; and in short, every thing relating to them
-which is interesting to you, will be very instructing to the Society.
-A fair view of the mind and natural disposition of the savage, and
-its difference from that of the civilised man, would be an acceptable
-present to the world.
-
-You have long been a member of the Society; may we ask of you to
-communicate to us what you know and think ought to be published,
-respecting the wild animals, or the native plants of our country. The
-original object of our association was to bring together gentlemen like
-yourself, who have a great deal of information in which the public
-take an interest, that they might publish it together; and while an
-intercourse with you will give us all great pleasure, it will perhaps
-be a very easy way for you to oblige the world with your knowledge,
-as we will take the whole care of the publication. The information
-respecting our country which has been obtained by the very respectable
-Brethren of Bethlehem, and is contained in their archives, will, I
-believe, be more perfectly offered to the world by you at present,
-than probably it ever will afterwards by others; I therefore feel very
-desirous that you should engage in it.
-
-The facts which Mr. Pyrlæus recorded there, relative to the
-confederation of the Six Nations, are so interesting that they ought to
-be made public.
-
-In a few days after my return to Philadelphia, last autumn, I presented
-in your name to the Society the several books with which you favoured
-me. They were much gratified, for they considered them as truly
-valuable, and the secretary was requested to acknowledge the receipt of
-them, and to thank you in the name of the Society. I have constantly
-regretted the attack of influenza which deprived me of the pleasure of
-seeing more of you while you were last in Philadelphia. But I hope we
-shall meet again before a great while, and I shall be sincerely pleased
-if I can execute any of your commissions here, or serve you in any way;
-my brother joins me in assuring you of our best wishes, and of the
-pleasure we derived from your society.
-
-  With these I remain, your sincere friend,
-
-  C. WISTAR.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER III.
-
-MR. HECKEWELDER TO DR. WISTAR.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 24th March, 1816.
-
-MY DEAR SIR.--Last evening I was favoured with a letter from you,
-covering one from the corresponding secretary of the Historical
-Committee of the American Philosophical Society, dated 9th January,
-and a book, for which I return my best thanks. If an apology for not
-having written to you since I left Philadelphia can be admitted, it
-must be that of my having been engaged in all my leisure hours, in
-completing my narrative of the Mission, a work of which, even if it
-is never published, I wished for good reasons, to leave a manuscript
-copy. I have now got through with the principal part, but have to copy
-the whole text, and in part to write the notes, remarks, and anecdotes
-which are intended for the appendix. While writing, it has sometimes
-struck me, that there might probably be some interesting passages in
-the work, as the speeches of Indians on various occasions; their artful
-and cunning ways of doing at times business; I had almost said their
-diplomatic manœuvres as politicians; their addresses on different
-occasions to the Great Spirit, &c., which are here noticed in their
-proper places. I think much of the true character of the Indian may be
-met with in perusing this work, and I will endeavour to forward the
-narrative to you and your brother for perusal, after a little while.
-
-Were I still in the possession of all the manuscripts which I gave to
-my friend the late Dr. Barton, it would be an easy matter for me to
-gratify you and the Philosophical Society in their wishes, but having
-retained scarcely any, or but very few copies of what I sent him, I
-am not so able to do what I otherwise would with pleasure; I shall,
-however, make it my study to do what I can yet, though I am aware that
-I shall in some points, differ from what others have said and written.
-I never was one of those hasty believers and writers, who take the
-shadow for the substance: what I wished to know, I always wished to
-know correctly.
-
-I approve of the mode proposed by the secretary of the Historical
-Committee, to make communications in the form of letters, which is for
-me the easiest and quickest mode. In the same way Dr. Barton received
-much interesting matter from me within the last 20 or 30 years. He
-often told me that he would publish a book, and make proper use of my
-communications. Had he not told me this so repeatedly, I should long
-since have tried to correct many gross errors, written and published,
-respecting the character and customs of the Indians. The Lenni Lenape,
-improperly called the Delawares, I shall, according to their tradition,
-trace across the Mississippi into this country, set forth what people
-they were, what parts of the country they inhabited, and how they were
-brought down to such a low state: perhaps, never did man take the pains
-that I did for years, to learn the true causes of the decline of that
-great and powerful nation.
-
-The Grammar of the language of the Lenni Lenape, written by David
-Zeisberger, is still in my hands. By his will it is to be deposited in
-the Brethren’s Archives in Bethlehem, but he has not prohibited taking
-a copy of it. Will it be of any service to the Society that it should
-be sent down for a few months for perusal, or if thought necessary, to
-take a copy? If so, please to let me know, and I shall send it with
-pleasure. It is, however, German and Indian, and without a translation
-will be understood but by few. I may perhaps find other documents
-interesting to the Society, as for example, copies of letters on Indian
-business and treaties, of which many are in the possession of Joseph
-Horsfield, Esq., son of the late Timothy Horsfield, through whom they
-have come into his hands, and who is willing to communicate them.[273]
-I am, dear friend,
-
-  Yours sincerely,
-
-  J. HECKEWELDER.
-
-_P. S._--Will you be so good as with my respects to mention to the
-secretary that I have received his letter, and shall shortly answer
-it--my best wishes also to your brother Richard, whom I highly esteem.
-
-  J. H.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER IV.
-
-FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 3d April, 1816.
-
-MY DEAR FRIEND.--With Captain Mann, of your city, I send David
-Zeisberger’s Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape, (otherwise
-called the Delaware Indians.) As the book is not mine, but left by
-will, to be placed in the Library at Bethlehem, I can do no more than
-send it for perusal; or, if wished for, to have a copy taken from it,
-which, indeed, I myself would cheerfully have done for you, were it not
-that I must spare my weak eyes as much as possible.
-
-I believe I have closed my last letter to you, without answering to the
-question you put to me, respecting, “wild animals and the native plants
-of our country.” On this head I do not know that I could be of any
-service, since the animals that were in this country on the arrival of
-the Europeans must be pretty generally known; and respecting the native
-plants, I do not consider myself qualified to give any information,
-as all I have attended to, has been to collect plants for botanists,
-leaving it to them to examine and class them. But my friend Dr. Kampman
-of this place, who is, I believe, one of the most attentive gentlemen
-to botany, has promised me for you a copy of the botanical names of
-those plants which he, and a few others of his friends, have collected,
-within a great number of years, in the Forks of Delaware, with some few
-from New Jersey, to the number (he thinks) of about five hundred; all
-of which plants are in nature carefully laid up by him. Probably in two
-or three weeks, I shall have the pleasure of transmitting to you this
-promised catalogue.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER V.
-
-FROM MR. DUPONCEAU TO DR. WISTAR.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 14th May, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--When you write to your friend Mr. Heckewelder, I beg you
-will request him to answer the following questions:
-
-1. What name did the French give to the Delaware nation?
-
-2. I find in Zeisberger’s Vocabulary, page 11, that _Gischuch_ means
-the _sun_. In the Grammar, I see that the Delawares divide their year
-by moons, and call them _anixi gischuch_, &c. So that _gischuch_
-signifies _moon_ as well as _sun_, how is it?
-
-3. I find in the Grammar that the pronoun _nekama_ or _neka_ means
-_he_, but it does not appear to have any feminine. What is the proper
-word for _she_ in the Delaware, and how is it declined?
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER VI.
-
-FROM DR. WISTAR TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, May 21st, 1816.
-
-MY DEAR FRIEND.--I am much obliged by your kind letters, which are
-very interesting, and will, I hope, obtain from[274] us some of the
-valuable information which has been left unpublished by our ingenious
-colleague the late Dr. Barton. The Grammar of your venerable friend,
-Zeisberger, is regarded by Mr. Duponceau as a treasure. He thinks the
-inflections of the Indian verbs so remarkable that they will attract
-the general attention of the literati. Inclosed is a letter from him,
-by which he expects to open a correspondence with you on the subject. I
-will be much obliged by your writing to him as soon as your convenience
-will permit.
-
-We expect soon to have materials for publishing a volume of Historical
-Documents, and I have proposed that we shall prefix to those which
-relate to Pennsylvania, all the information we can collect respecting
-the Indians who were here before our ancestors. The Committee agree
-that this will be the proper method, and my dependence for authentic
-information is on you; as I have never met with any person who had any
-knowledge to compare with yours, respecting the poor Indians. I was
-delighted to find that your enquiries have been directed to the history
-of the Lenni Lenape before they settled in Pennsylvania. The removal
-of the Indian tribes from our country to another is a very interesting
-subject. If you can tell us where they came from and what forced them
-away; who were here before them, and what induced their predecessors to
-make war for them, we shall be much obliged to you. There is no book I
-shall read with more pleasure than yours.
-
-The causes of their downfall, I believe, are well known to you, and
-will of course have a place. The manner in which they were treated by
-the Six Nations, after their conquest, will be an interesting article,
-as it will shew the Indian policy. An account of the political rights
-which were still allowed them, and, in short, of everything which is
-connected with their conquest, will add to the interest of the work. As
-occupants of Pennsylvania before the whites, ought not the Shawanese
-and the Six Nations also to be described?
-
-I have been told that the Shawanese were more refined than any other
-Indians in this part of America, and that the place where Chilicothe
-now stands, was the seat of Indian civilisation.
-
-I have the pleasure of forwarding to you an instructing work by Dr.
-Drake, a physician at Cincinnati, which he sends you.
-
-He also sends a small package and a letter to Mr. Steinhauer.
-
-I send them by a wagon which goes from Mr. Bolling’s, but I am not
-without some expectation of paying another visit to Bethlehem very
-soon, where it will be a great gratification to meet with my friend.
-
-  Affectionately yours,
-
-  CASPAR WISTAR.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER VII.
-
-MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 27th May, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I was this morning favoured with a letter from my friend Dr.
-Wistar, inclosing some questions which you wish me to answer. I lose no
-time in complying with your desire.
-
-Your first question is, “what name the French did give to the Delaware
-nation?”
-
-I believe the Baron de La Hontan meant them when he spoke of the
-Algonkins, whom he describes as a people whose language was understood
-by many nations or tribes. So is certainly that of the Delawares.
-
-While I was residing on the Muskingum, between the years 1773 and 1781,
-I cannot precisely remember the year, there came a French gentleman
-who was travelling on some business among the different Indian tribes,
-and could speak more or less of several Indian languages, among which
-was that of the Delawares. I had much conversation with him respecting
-the Indians, and observed that he called the Delawares _les Lenopes_,
-(a word evidently derived from their real name _Lenni Lenape_.) He
-told me that the language of that nation had a wide range, and that
-by the help of it, he had travelled more than a thousand miles among
-different Indian nations, by all of whom he was understood. He added,
-that the Baron La Hontan, when speaking of the Algonkins, must either
-have alluded to that nation, or to some one descended from them. In
-other instances, in the course of the four years that I resided in
-Upper Canada, I generally heard the French Canadians call them Lénôpé,
-while the English called them Delawares. Nevertheless, I do not doubt
-but that they have been called by different names by the French and
-other travellers, and if my memory serves me, some of the French people
-called them _les Loups_, a name probably derived from one of their
-tribes called the _Wolf_, if it is not a corruption of Lenape or Lenope.
-
-Your next question is, “whether the Delaware word _gischuch_, signifies
-the sun or moon, or both together?” The Indian name “_gischuch_,” is
-common to “the two great luminaries which send down light from above.”
-The moon is called “_nipawi gischuch_,” as it were “the sun which
-gives light in the night.” It is also called in one word “_nipahum_.”
-“_Gischuch_,” singly, is often used for the moon; the Indian year
-is divided into thirteen lunar months, and in this sense, the word
-“_gischuch_,” is used; as for instance, “_schawanáki_[275] _gischuch_”
-or, in the Minsi or Monsey dialect, “_chwani_[276] _gischuch_” the
-_shad moon_, answering to the month which we call March, at which time
-the fish called “shad” passes from the sea into the fresh water rivers.
-The inferior “stars” have a different name; they are called in the
-singular _alank_; plural, _alankewak_, and by contraction, _alanquak_.
-
-Lastly, you ask whether the Delawares have a word answering to the
-English personal pronoun “_she_,” and what it is? I beg leave to answer
-you somewhat in detail.
-
-In the Indian languages, those discriminating words or inflections
-which we call _genders_, are not, as with us, in general, intended to
-distinguish between male and female beings, but between animate and
-inanimate things or substances. Trees and plants (annual plants and
-grasses excepted) are included within the generic class of animated
-beings. Hence the personal pronoun has only two modes, if I can so
-express myself, one applicable to the animate, and the other to the
-inanimate gender; “_nekama_” is the personal pronominal form which
-answers to “he” and “she” in English. If you wish to distinguish
-between the sexes, you must add to it the word “man” or “woman.” Thus
-“_nekama lenno_,” means “_he_” or “_this man_;” “_nekama ochqueu_,”
-“_she_” or “_this woman_.” This may appear strange to a person
-exclusively accustomed to our forms of speech, but I assure you that
-the Indians have no difficulty in understanding each other.
-
-Nor must you imagine that their languages are poor. See how the
-Delaware idiom discriminates between the different ages of man and
-woman!
-
-  LENNO, _a man_.
-  Wuskilenno, _a young man_.
-  Pilapeu, _a lad_.
-  Pilawesis, or pilawétzitsch, _a boy_.
-  Pilawétit, _a male infant babe_.
-  Kigeyilenno, _an aged man_.
-  Mihilusis, _an old man, worn out with age_.
-  OCHQUEU, _a woman_.
-  Wusdóchqueu, _a young woman, a virgin_.
-  Ochquetschitsch, _a girl_.
-  Quetit, _a female infant babe_.
-  Gichtochqueu, _an aged woman_.
-  Chauchschìsis, _a very old woman_.
-
-Note “_len_” or “_lenno_” in the male, and “_que_” or “_queu_” in the
-female, distinguish the sexes in compound words; sometimes the _L_
-alone denotes the male sex, as in “pi_l_apeu,” “mihi_l_usis,” &c.
-
-The males of quadrupeds are called “_lenno wéchum,_” and by contraction
-“_lennochum_;” the females “_Ochqueu wéchum_,” and by contraction
-“_ochquéchum_,” which is the same as saying _he_ or _she_ beasts. With
-the winged tribe, their generic denomination “_wehelle_” is added to
-the word which expresses the sex; thus, “_lenno wehelle_” for the male,
-and “_ochquechelle_” (with a little contraction) for the female. There
-are some animals the females of which have a particular distinguishing
-name, as “_Nunschetto_” a _doe_, “_Nunscheach_” a _she bear_. This,
-however, is not common.
-
-Thus I have endeavoured to answer your questions, and I hope, have done
-it to your satisfaction. I shall always be willing and ready to give
-you any further information that you or the Philosophical Society may
-require; I mean, always to the best of my knowledge and abilities.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER VIII.
-
-MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 10th June, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--Your favour of the 27th ult. has done me the greatest
-pleasure. I am very thankful for the goodness you have had to answer
-the questions which I took the liberty of putting to you through our
-common friend Dr. Wistar. I shall not fail to avail myself of your
-kind offer to answer such further questions as I may ask, as in so
-doing I shall fulfil a duty which the Historical Committee of the
-Philosophical Society has imposed upon me, and at the same time I am
-satisfied that I shall derive a great deal of pleasure to myself. But
-I must acknowledge that I am entirely ignorant of the subject on which
-I have been directed to obtain information from you, so much so that I
-am even at a loss what questions to ask. As I have, however, undertaken
-the task, I must endeavour to go through it as well as I can, and rely
-on the instruction which I shall receive from your letters, to point
-out to me further enquiries. I am fortunately employed in translating
-the late Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar of the Lenni Lenape, which will lead
-me a little into the right path, and I read at the same time such books
-as I can find in our scanty libraries respecting the languages of the
-American Indians. This study pleases me much, as I think I perceive
-many beauties in those idioms, but the true enjoyment of those beauties
-is, I presume, only accessible to those to whom the languages are
-familiar.
-
-From what I have above stated, you will easily perceive that my
-questions to you must necessarily be desultory, and without any regular
-order or method. But you will diffuse light through this chaos, and
-every thing at last will find its proper place.
-
-I cannot express to you how delighted I am with the grammatical forms
-of the Indian languages, particularly of the Delaware, as explained
-by Mr. Zeisberger. I am inclined to believe that those forms are
-peculiar to this part of the world, and that they do not exist in the
-languages of the old hemisphere. At least, I am confident that their
-development will contribute much to the improvement of the science
-of universal grammar. About fifty years ago, two eminent French
-philosophers published each a short treatise on the origin of language.
-One of them was the celebrated mathematician Maupertuis, and the other
-M. Turgot, who afterwards was made a minister of state, and acquired
-considerable reputation by his endeavours to introduce reform into the
-administration of the government of his own country. M. Maupertuis,
-in his Essay, took great pains to shew the necessity of studying the
-languages even of the most distant and barbarous nations, “because,”
-said he, “we may chance to find some that are formed on _new plans
-of ideas_.” M. Turgot, instead of acknowledging the justness of this
-profound remark, affected to turn it into ridicule, and said he could
-not understand what was meant by “_plans of ideas_.” If he had been
-acquainted with the Delaware language, he would have been at no loss to
-comprehend it.
-
-I presume that by this expression M. Maupertuis meant the various
-modes in which ideas are combined and associated together in the
-form of words and sentences, and in this sense it is to me perfectly
-intelligible. The associations expressed by words must be first formed
-in the mind, and the words shew in what order of succession the ideas
-were conceived, and in what various groups they arranged themselves
-before utterance was given to them. The variety of those groups which
-exist in the different languages forms what M. Maupertuis meant by
-“plans of ideas,” and indeed, this variety exists even in one and the
-same language. Thus when we say, “lover,” and “he who loves,” the same
-group of ideas is differently combined, and of course, differently
-expressed, and it may well be said that those ideas are arranged “on
-different plans.”
-
-This difference is strongly exemplified in the Delaware language; I
-shall only speak at present of what we call the “declension of nouns.”
-What in our European idioms we call the “objective cases” are one or
-more words expressive of two prominent ideas, that of the object spoken
-of, and that of the manner in which it is affected by some other object
-or action operating upon it. This is done in two ways; by inflecting
-the substantive, or by affixing to it one or more of those auxiliary
-words which we call “prepositions.” Thus when we say in English “_of
-Peter_” and in German “_Peters_,” the same two principal ideas are
-expressed in the former language by two words and in the latter by one,
-and the termination or inflexion _s_ in German conveys the same meaning
-as the preposition “_of_” in English. It is clear that these two ideas,
-before they were uttered in the form of words, were grouped in the
-minds both of the German and the Englishman; in the one, as it were
-at once, and in the other successively: for it is natural to suppose
-that they were conceived as they are expressed. Again, when you say in
-Latin _amo Petrum_, (I love Peter,) the termination _um_ is expressive
-of the action of the verb _love_, upon the object, _Peter_. In the
-English and German this accessory idea is not expressed by sound, but
-still it exists in the mind. In every language there are more ideas,
-perhaps, understood, than are actually expressed. This might be easily
-demonstrated, if it were here the place.
-
-Let us now consider how the same ideas are combined and expressed in
-the Delaware language, according to Mr. Zeisberger. When the accessory
-idea which we call “_case_” proceeds from the operation of a verb upon
-a noun or word significant of an object, that idea is not affixed as
-with us to the noun but to the verb, or in other words, it is not the
-_noun_ but the _verb_ that is declined by inflexions or cases. Thus
-when you say “_getannitowit n’quitayala_, I fear God;” the first word,
-_getannitowit_, which is the substantive, is expressed, as we should
-say, in the nominative case, while the termination of the verb _yala_,
-expresses its application to the object. It is precisely the same as
-if in Latin, instead of saying, _Petrum amo_, I love Peter, we carried
-the termination _um_ to the verb, and said _Petrus amum_. Does not this
-shew that many various combinations of ideas may take place in the
-human mind, of which we, Europeans by birth or descent, have not yet
-formed a conception? Does this not bid defiance to our rules or canons
-of universal grammar, and may we not say with M. Maupertuis, that in
-extending our study of the languages of man, we shall probably find
-some formed upon “plans of ideas” different from our own?
-
-But I perceive that instead of asking you questions, as it is my duty
-to do, I am losing myself in metaphysical disquisitions; I return,
-then, to my principal object. A very interesting German book has lately
-fallen into my hands. It is entitled “_Untersuchungen ueber Amerikas
-Bevœlkerung ans dem alten Kontinente_,”[277] and it is written by
-Professor Vater, of Leipzig. The author, after justly observing that
-the language of the Delawares is exceedingly rich in grammatical
-forms, and making the same observation on that of the Naticks, from
-the venerable Eliot’s translation of the Bible into that idiom, says
-that, on the contrary, that of the Chippeways is very poor in that
-respect. “_Die Chippewæer_,” he says, “_haben fast keine formen._”[278]
-This appears to me very strange, because on examining the various
-Indian languages from Nova Scotia to Chili, I have been surprised to
-find that they appear all formed on the same model, and if Professor
-Vater is correct, the Chippeway dialect will form an exception. I beg,
-therefore, you will inform me whether there is such a great difference
-as he states between that and the Delaware. I am much inclined to think
-that the learned Professor is mistaken. I must take this opportunity,
-however, to express my astonishment at the great knowledge which the
-literati of Germany appear to possess of America, and of the customs,
-manners and languages of its original inhabitants. Strange! that we
-should have to go to the German universities to become acquainted with
-our own country.
-
-Another German Professor, of the name of Rudiger, has compiled an
-interesting work, in which he gives specimens of all the languages in
-the world, as far as they are known, and among them does not forget
-those of the Indian nations of America. He gives the numerals of
-the Delaware language, from a vocabulary of that idiom, printed at
-Stockholm, in 1696, and made while the Swedes were in possession of
-that part of this country which they principally inhabited. I find
-a considerable difference between those numerals and these given by
-Zeisberger. That you may see in what it consists, I insert them both.
-
-
-DELAWARE NUMERALS.
-
-  According to the Swedish Vocabulary.  According to Zeisberger.
-            1. Ciutte.                    1. Ngutti.
-            2. Nissa.                     2. Nischa.
-            3. Naha.                      3. Nacha.
-            4. Nawo.                      4. Newo.
-            5. Pareenach.                 5. Palenach.
-            6. Ciuttas.                   6. Guttasch.
-            7. Nissas.                    7. Nischasch.
-            8. Haas.                      8. Chasch.
-            9. Pæschun.                   9. Peschkonk.
-           10. Thæræn.                   10. Tellen.
-           20. Nissinacke.               20. Nishinachke.
-          100. Ciutabpach.              100. Nguttapachki.
-
-Now, there can be no doubt that these two sets of numerals belong
-to the same language, but I am astonished at seeing the same words
-written so differently by a Swede and a German, when there is so little
-difference in the powers of the alphabetical signs of their languages.
-I am particularly struck with some words that are written with _R_
-by the Swede and with _L_ by the German author. In all Zeisberger’s
-Grammar I have not been able to find the letter _R_ in one single
-Delaware word, neither is it to be found in any of the words of his
-Delaware spelling book. No doubt you can inform me of the reason of
-this difference.
-
-A greater one is still to be found in the Algonkin numerals given by
-the Baron La Hontan, and those of the Delaware proper. I place them
-here again in opposition to each other.
-
-  Algonkin numerals from La Hontan.  Delaware numerals from Zeisberger.
-      1. Pegik.                            1. Ngutti.
-      2. Ninch.                            2. Nischa.
-      3. Nissoue.                          3. Nacha.
-      4. Neou.                             4. Newo.
-      5. Narau.                            5. Palenach.
-      6. Ningoutouassou.                   6. Guttasch.
-      7. Ninchouassou.                     7. Nischasch.
-      8. Nissouassou.                      8. Chasch.
-      9. Changassou.                       9. Peschkonk.
-     10. Mitassou.                        10. Tellen.
-
-There is certainly a family resemblance between some of these words,
-while in others no kind of similarity can be traced. As you believe
-that the Delawares and the Algonkins are the same people, I beg you
-will be so good as to point out to me the cause of the difference which
-I have observed.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER IX.
-
-FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 13th June, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I take the liberty of submitting to you a few questions,
-which have occurred to me in perusing Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar. I beg
-you will be so good as to answer them at your leisure.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-QUERIES.
-
-1. In Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar, double consonants are frequently used,
-as in _Pommauchsin_, _Lenno_, _Lenni Lenape_.
-
-QUÆRE: Are the two consonants fully and distinctly sounded, thus:
-_pom-m-auchsin_--_Len-n-o_, as in the Italian language, or is only one
-of the consonants heard, as if it were thus written: _pomauchsin_,
-_leno_. In this latter case what is the reason for using two
-consonants, if only one is sounded?
-
-2. Mr. Zeisberger frequently puts a comma or apostrophe (’) before
-or after the letter N in the present of the indicative verbs,
-_’npommauchsi_, and sometimes _n’pommauchsi_. Sometimes he writes the
-word without: _ndappiwi_, _ndappiwitsch_; what is the reason of this
-variation? Is there any necessity for the comma before or after the _N_
-in the first person, or after the _K_ and _W_, in the second and third?
-Is it not best to simplify as much as possible the orthography of such
-a difficult language?
-
-3. What is the difference in pronunciation between _ke_ and _que_; say,
-_pomauchsijenke_ and _pomauchsijeque_? Is the latter sounded like _cue_
-or _kue_, or is it sounded as _ke_?
-
-4. The conjunctive mood is expressed in German by “_wenn_;” does it
-mean in English “_if_” or “_when_”? Does “_n’pomauchsijane_,” mean
-“when I live” or “if I live,” or both? I find it sometimes expressed
-“_wenn_,” oder “_da_,” oder “_als_,” which inclines me to think it
-signifies both “_when_” and “_if_.”
-
-5. I find some terminations in the tenses of the verbs, sometimes
-written “_cup_,” sometimes “_kup_,” and sometimes “_gup_;” thus
-_epiacup_, “where I was,” _elsijakup_, “when or if I was so situated;”
-and _pommauchsijengup_, “if or when we have lived.” Are these different
-sounds, or does this difference in writing arise from the Germans being
-accustomed to confound the sounds of K and G hard?
-
-6. I find some words written sometimes with one _I_ and sometimes
-with two; thus _elsia_, and _elsija_. Are the two _i_’s separately
-articulated, or do they sound only as one?
-
-7. I find the second person of the singular in verbs sometimes written
-with a _K_, sometimes with a _G_, thus _kneichgussi_, du wirst
-gesehen (thou art seen); _kdaantschi_, du wirst gehen (thou wilt go);
-_gemilgussi_, dir wird gegeben (it is given to thee). Why is it not
-written _kemilgussi_? see query 5. I find sometimes a double _aa_--Is
-it merely to express length of quantity, or are the two _a_’s sounded
-distinctly?
-
-8. What is the difference in sound between _ch_ and _hh_, do they both
-represent the same guttural sound like _ch_ in German? If so, why
-express this sound in two different ways; if otherwise, what is the
-real difference between the two sounds?
-
-
-EXAMPLES.
-
-_Ach_pil, bleibe du (remain thou); a_ch_pi_ch_tique, wenn sie nicht da
-sind (if they are not there); nda_hh_enap, wir waren gegangen (we had
-gone); kda_hh_imo, ihr gehet (you go).
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER X.
-
-MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 20th June, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--Your favors of the 10th and 13th inst. have been duly
-received. I shall now endeavour to answer the first. The second shall
-in a few days be attended to.
-
-I am glad to find that you are so much pleased with the forms of our
-Indian languages. You will be still more so as you become more familiar
-with the beautiful idiom of the Lenni Lenape. It is certain that many
-of those forms are not to be found either in the German or English; how
-it is with the other languages of Europe, Asia, and Africa, I cannot
-say, not being acquainted with them, and never having made philology
-my particular study. I concur with you in the opinion that there must
-be in the world many different ways of connecting ideas together in
-the form of words, or what we call _parts of speech_, and that much
-philosophical information is to be obtained by the study of those
-varieties. What you observe with regard to the verbs being inflected
-in lieu of affixing a case or termination to the noun is very correct,
-but the ground or principle on which it is done, is not perhaps known
-to you. The verbs in the Indian languages are susceptible of a variety
-of forms, which are not to be found in any other language that I know.
-I do not mean to speak here of the positive, negative, causative, and
-a variety of other forms, but of those which Mr. Zeisberger calls
-_personal_, in which the two pronouns, governing and governed, are by
-means of affixes, suffixes, terminations, and inflections, included in
-the same word. Of this I shall give you an instance from the Delaware
-language. I take the verb _ahoalan_, to love, belonging to the fifth
-of the eight conjugations, into which Mr. Zeisberger has very properly
-divided this part of speech.
-
-
-INDICATIVE, PRESENT, POSITIVE.
-
-  _Singular._                          _Plural._
-
-  N’dahoala, _I love_,                 n’dahoalaneen, _we love_,
-  k’dahoala, _thou_--                  k’dahoalohhimo, _you_--
-  w’dahoala,} _he_--                   ahoalewak, _they_--
-  or ahoaleu}
-
-Now for the personal forms in the same tense.
-
-
-FIRST PERSONAL FORM.
-
-I.
-
-  _Singular._                          _Plural._
-
-  K’dahoatell, _I love thee_,          K’dahoalohhumo, _I love you_,
-  n’dahoala, _I love him or her_.      n’dahoalawak,--_them_.
-
-
-SECOND PERSONAL FORM.
-
-THOU.
-
-  _Singular_.                          _Plural._
-
-  K’dahoali, _thou lovest me_,         k’dahoalineen, _thou lovest us_,
-  k’dahoala,--_him or her_.            k’dahoalawak,--_them_.
-
-
-THIRD PERSONAL FORM.
-
-HE, (_or_ SHE.)
-
-  _Singular._                          _Plural._
-
-  N’dahoaluk, _he loves me_,           w’dahoalguna, _he loves us_,
-  k’dahoaluk,--_thee_,                 w’dahoalguwa,--_you_,
-  w’dahoalawall--_him_.                w’dahoalawak,--_them_.
-
-
-FOURTH PERSONAL FORM.
-
-WE.
-
-  _Singular._                          _Plural._
-
-  K’dahoalenneen, _we love thee_,      k’dahoalohummena, _we love you_,
-  n’dahoalawuna,--_him_.               n’dahoalowawuna,--_them_.
-
-
-FIFTH PERSONAL FORM.
-
-YOU.
-
-  _Singular._                          _Plural._
-
-  K’dahoalihhimo, _you love me_,       k’dahoalihhena, _you love us_.
-  k’dahoalanewo,--_him_.               k’dahoalawawak,--_them_.
-
-
-SIXTH PERSONAL FORM.
-
-THEY.
-
-  _Singular._                          _Plural._
-
-  N’dahoalgenewo, _they love me_,      n’dahoalgehhena, _they love us_.
-  k’dahoalgenewo,--_thee_,             k’dahoalgehhimo,--_you_.
-  w’dahoalanewo,--_him_.               w’dahoalawawak,--_them_.
-
-In this manner verbs are conjugated through all their moods and tenses,
-and through all their negative, causative, and various other forms,
-with fewer irregularities than any other language that I know of.
-
-These conjugations, no doubt, you have found, or will find in Mr.
-Zeisberger’s grammar, but the few examples that I have above put
-together, are necessary to understand the explanation which I am about
-to give.
-
-The words you quote are: “_getannitowit n’quitayala_,” _I fear God_,
-or rather, according to the Indian inversion, _God I fear_. Your
-observation is that the inflection or case of the noun substantive
-_God_, is carried to the verb. This is true; but if you enquire for the
-reason or the manner in which it takes place, you will find that _ala_
-is the inflection of the second or last person of the verb, in the
-first personal form; thus as you have seen that _n’dahoala_ means _I
-love him_, so _n’quitayala_, in the same form and person means _I fear
-him_; it is therefore the same as if you said _God I fear him_. This
-is not meant in the least to doubt or dispute the correctness of your
-position, but to shew in what manner the combination of ideas is formed
-that has led to this result. You have now, I believe, a wider field for
-your metaphysical disquisitions.
-
-I pass on to the other parts of your letter. I believe with you that
-Professor Vater is mistaken in his assertion that the language of
-the Chippeways is deficient in grammatical forms. I am not skilled
-in the Chippeway idiom, but while in Upper Canada, I have often met
-with French Canadians and English traders who understood and spoke it
-very well. I endeavoured to obtain information from them respecting
-that language, and found that it much resembled that of the Lenape.
-The differences that I observed were little more than some variations
-in sound, as _b_ for _p_, and _i_ for _u_. Thus, in the Delaware,
-_wapachquiwan_ means a _blanket_, in the Chippeway it is _wabewian_;
-_gischuch_ is Delaware for a _star_, the Chippeways say _gischis_;
-_wape_ in Delaware _white_; in the Chippeway, _wabe_. Both nations
-have the word _Mannitto_ for God, or the Great Spirit, a word which is
-common to all the nations and tribes of the Lenape stock.
-
-There is no doubt that the Chippeways, like the Mahicanni, Naticks,
-Wampanos, Nanticokes, and many other nations, are a branch of the great
-family of the Lenni Lenape, therefore I cannot believe that there is so
-great a difference in the forms of their languages from those of the
-mother tongue. I shall, however, write on the subject to one of our
-Missionaries who resides in Canada, and speaks the Chippeway idiom,
-and doubt not that in a short time I shall receive from him a full and
-satisfactory answer.
-
-On the subject of the numerals, I have had occasion to observe that
-they sometimes differ very much in languages derived from the same
-stock. Even the Minsi, a tribe of the Lenape or Delaware nation, have
-not all their numerals like those of the Unami tribe, which is the
-principal among them. I shall give you an opportunity of comparing them.
-
-  Numerals of the Minsi.                          Numerals of the Unami.
-
-   1. Gutti.                                       1. N’gutti.
-   2. Nischa.                                      2. Nischa.
-   3. Nacha.                                       3. Nacha.
-   4. Newa.                                        4. Newo.
-   5. _Nalan_, (algonk. _narau_.)                  5. Palenach.
-   6. Guttasch.                                    6. Guttasch.
-   7. _Nischoasch_, (algonk. _nissouassou_.)       7. Nischasch.
-   8. Chaasch.                                     8. Chasch.
-   9. _Nolewi._                                    9. _Peschkonk._
-  10. _Wimbat._                                   10. _Tellen._
-
-You will easily observe that the numbers five and ten in the Minsi
-dialect, resemble more the Algonkin, as given by La Hontan, than the
-pure Delaware. I cannot give you the reason of this difference. To this
-you will add the numerous errors committed by those who attempt to
-write down the words of the Indian languages, and who either in their
-own have not alphabetical signs adequate to the true expression of the
-sounds, or want an _Indian ear_ to distinguish them. I could write a
-volume on the subject of their ridiculous mistakes. I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XI.
-
-FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 24th June, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I now proceed to answer the several queries contained in
-your letter of the 13th inst.
-
-1. The double consonants are used in writing the words of the Delaware
-language, for the sole purpose of indicating that the vowel which
-immediately precedes them is short, as in the German words _immer_,
-_nimmer_, _schimmer_, and the English _fellow_, _terrible_, _ill_,
-_butter_, &c. The consonant is not to be articulated twice.
-
-2. The apostrophe which sometimes follows the letters _n_ and _k_, is
-intended to denote the contraction of a vowel, as _n’pommauchsi_, for
-_ni pommauchsi_, _n’dappiwi_, for _ni dappiwi_, &c. If Mr. Zeisberger
-has placed the apostrophe in any case before the consonant, he must
-have done it through mistake.
-
-3. There is a difference in pronunciation between _ke_ and _que_; the
-latter is pronounced like _kue_ or _kwe_. In a verb, the termination
-_ke_ indicates the first person of the plural, and _que_ the second.
-
-4. The word _wenn_, employed in the German translation of the tenses
-of the conjunctive mood of the Delaware verbs, means both _when_,
-and _if_, and is taken in either sense according to the content of
-the phrase in which the word is used. Examples: _Ili gachtingetsch
-pommauchsiane_, “IF I live until the next year”--_Payane Philadelphia_,
-“WHEN I come to Philadelphia.”
-
-5. Sometimes the letters _c_ or _g_, are used in writing the Delaware
-language instead of _k_, to shew that this consonant is not pronounced
-too hard; but in general _c_ and _g_ have been used as substitutes for
-_k_, because our printers had not a sufficient supply of types for that
-character.
-
-6. Where words are written with _ij_, both the letters are to be
-articulated; the latter like the English _y_ before a vowel. For this
-reason in writing Delaware words I often employ the _y_ instead of _j_,
-which Mr. Zeisberger and the German Missionaries always make use of.
-Thus _Elsija_ is to be pronounced like _Elsiya_.
-
-7. Answered in part above, No. 5. The double vowels are merely intended
-to express length of sound, as in the German.
-
-8. _Ch_, answers to the X of the Greeks, and _ch_ of the Germans. _Hh_,
-like all other duplicated consonants, indicates only the short sound of
-the preceding vowels.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XII.
-
-TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 13th July, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I have received your kind letters of the 20th and 24th ult.
-It is impossible to be more clear, precise, and accurate, than you
-are in your answers to my various questions. The information which
-your letters contain is of the highest interest to me, and I doubt not
-will prove so to the Committee, by whose orders I have engaged in this
-Correspondence, on a subject entirely new to me, but with which I hope
-in time and with your able assistance, to become better acquainted.
-
-M. de Volney has said somewhere in his excellent Descriptive View of
-the United States, that it were to be wished that five or six eminent
-linguists should be constantly employed at the public expense to
-compile Indian Grammars and Dictionaries. I cannot suppose that the
-Count meant literally what he said, as he must have been sensible of
-the difficulties attending on the execution of such a plan, but at any
-rate, here is a noble display of enthusiasm for our favourite science,
-and a sufficient encouragement for us to pursue our philological
-enquiries. Alas! if the beauties of the Lenni Lenape language were
-found in the ancient Coptic, or in some ante-diluvian Babylonish
-dialect, how would the learned of Europe be at work to display them
-in a variety of shapes and raise a thousand fanciful theories on that
-foundation! What superior wisdom, talents and knowledge would they not
-ascribe to nations whose idioms were formed with so much skill and
-method! But who cares for the poor American Indians? They are savages
-and barbarians and live in the woods; must not their languages be
-savage and barbarous like them?
-
-Thus reason those pretended philosophers who court fame by writing huge
-volumes on the origin of human language, without knowing, perhaps, any
-language but their own, and the little Latin and Greek that they have
-been taught at College. You would think, when you read their works,
-that they had lived in the first ages of the creation and had been
-intimately acquainted with the family of our first parents. They know
-exactly what words were first uttered when men began to communicate
-their ideas to each other by means of articulated sounds; they can
-tell you how the various parts of speech, in perfect regular order,
-were successively formed, and with a little encouragement, they would,
-I have no doubt, compile a Grammar and Dictionary of the primitive
-language, as one Psalmanazar did once in England of a supposed Formosan
-tongue. It is a pity, indeed, that the Delawares, the Wyandots and
-the Potowatamies, with languages formed on a construction which had
-not been before thought of, come to destroy their beautiful theories.
-What then? are we to suppress the languages of our good Indians, or to
-misrepresent them, that the existing systems on Universal Grammar and
-the origin of language may be preserved? No, my friend, we shall on the
-contrary, I hope, labour with all our might to make them known, and
-provide, at least, additional facts for future theorists.
-
-I have been led into this chain of ideas by reading the ponderous work
-of a Scotch Lord named Monboddo, who has dreamt of languages more than
-any other writer that I know. On the authority of a Father Sagard, (a
-French Missionary) he represents the language of the Hurons as the
-most incoherent and unsystematical heap of vocables that can possibly
-be conceived. Their words have no regular formation or derivation,
-no roots or radical syllables, there is no analogy whatever in the
-construction or arrangement of this language. He says, for instance,
-that there is a word for “two years” entirely different from those
-which signify one, three, four or ten years; that “_hut_,” “_my hut_,”
-and “_in my hut_,” are severally expressed by words entirely different
-from each other. He adduces several other examples of the same kind,
-with which I shall not trouble you, and concludes with saying, that
-“the Huron language is the most imperfect of any that has been yet
-discovered.” (Orig. of Lang., Vol. I., p. 478.)
-
-Before we proceed further, let us suppose that a Huron or a Delaware
-is writing a treatise on the origin of language, and in the pride of
-pompous ignorance attempts to make similar observations on the English
-idiom. Following Lord Monboddo’s course of reasoning, he will say: “The
-English is the most imperfect language upon earth, for its words have
-no kind of analogy to each other. They say, for instance, ‘_a house_,’
-and the things that belong to a house they call ‘_domestic_.’ They say
-‘_a year_,’ and ‘an _annual_ payment,’ for a sum of money payable every
-_year_. That is not all; if the payment is to be made in _two_ years,
-it is then called _biennial_, in which you find no trace of either the
-word _two_ or the word ‘_year_,’ of which in a regular language it
-should be compounded. What belongs to a _King_ is royal; to a _woman_,
-feminine; to _ship_, naval; to a _town_, urban; to the _country_,
-rural. Such another irregular, unmethodical dialect never existed, I
-believe, on the back of the great tortoise!!”
-
-Such would be the language of our Huron philosopher, and he would
-be about as right as Lord Monboddo. I have read this work of Father
-Sagard, of which there is a copy in the Congress library. It appears to
-me that the good Father was an honest, well meaning, but most ignorant
-friar, of one of the mendicant orders. His residence among the Hurons
-was very short, not more than a twelve-month; he was, I know not for
-what reason, called home by his superiors, and left America with great
-regret. He has collected a number of words and phrases of the Huron
-language in the form of a vocabulary, which he improperly calls a
-dictionary. I have had it copied and shall shew it to you when you come
-to town. You will be satisfied when you see it, that the good man not
-only never analysed the language of the Hurons, but was incapable of
-doing it. He was perfectly bewildered in the variety of its forms, and
-drew the very common conclusion that what he could not comprehend was
-necessarily barbarous and irregular. From an attentive perusal of his
-“dictionary,” I am inclined to draw the opposite conclusion from that
-which he has drawn. There appears to me to be in it sufficient internal
-evidence to shew that the Huron language is rich in grammatical forms,
-and that it is constructed much on the same plan with the Delaware. I
-shall be very glad to have your opinion on it, with such information
-as you are able and willing to give. I beg particularly that you will
-let me know whether there are roots and derivations in the Indian
-languages, analogous to those of our own?
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XIII.
-
-TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 18th July, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--In your letter of the 27th of May you have said that you
-believed the Delaware nation were those whom the Baron La Hontan meant
-to designate by the name of _Algonkins_. In a subsequent letter, (June
-20th,) you seem to consider them as distinct nations, but nearly
-allied to each other; you say you are not well acquainted with their
-language, which is not the same with that of the Lenape, though there
-is a considerable affinity between them. Upon the whole I suppose that
-you have meant to apply the denomination Algonkins, not only to the
-Delawares proper, but to all the nations and tribes of the same family.
-
-This has led me to consider who those Algonkins might be that La
-Hontan speaks of, and upon the best investigation that I have been
-able to make of the subject, I am inclined to believe that La Hontan’s
-Algonkins are properly those whom we call _Chippeways_, a family or
-branch of the Delawares, but not the Delawares themselves. I first
-turned to Dr. Barton’s “New Views of the Origin of the Nations and
-Tribes of America,” in which I found that he considered the Delawares
-and Chippeways as two distinct people; but when I came to the specimens
-which he gives of their languages in his Vocabularies, I found no
-difference whatever in the idioms of the two nations. Pursuing the
-enquiry further, I compared the Vocabulary of the Chippeway language
-given by Carver in his travels, and that of the Algonkin by La
-Hontan, and was much astonished to find the words in each language
-exactly alike, without any difference but what arises from the French
-and English orthography. The words explained by the two authors,
-happen also to be precisely the same, and are arranged in the same
-alphabetical order. So that either Carver is a gross plagiarist, who
-has pretended to give a list of Chippeway words and has only copied the
-Algonkin words given by La Hontan, or the Chippeways and Algonkins are
-one and the same people. I shall be very glad to have your opinion on
-this subject.
-
-I find in Zeisberger’s Grammar something that I cannot well comprehend.
-It is the verb “_n’dellauchsi_” which he translates “I live, move
-about,” or “I so live that I move about.” Pray, is this the only verb
-in the Delaware language, which signifies “_to live_,” and have the
-Indians no idea of “life,” but when connected with “_locomotion_”?
-
-Is the _W_ in the Delaware, as your Missionaries write it, to be
-pronounced like the same letter in German, or like the English _W_
-and the French _ou_? If this letter has the German sound, then it is
-exactly the same as that of our _V_; in that case I am astonished that
-the Delawares cannot pronounce the _F_, the two sounds being so nearly
-alike.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XIV.
-
-FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 22d July, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I received at the same time your two letters of the 13th and
-18th inst., the last by our friend Dr. Wistar. I think you are wrong
-to complain of the little importance attached by the learned of Europe
-to the study of Indian languages and of the false ideas which some
-of them have conceived respecting them. The truth is that sufficient
-pains have not been taken in this country to make them known. Our
-Missionaries have, indeed, compiled grammars and dictionaries of
-those idioms, but more with a view to practical use and to aid their
-fellow-labourers in the great work of the conversion of the Indians to
-Christianity, than in order to promote the study of the philosophy of
-language. They have neither sought fame nor profit, and therefore their
-compositions have remained unknown except in the very limited circle
-of our religious society. It belongs to the literary associations of
-America to pursue or encourage those studies in a more extended point
-of view, and I shall be happy to aid to the utmost of my power the
-learned researches of the American Philosophical Society.
-
-Your remarks on Lord Monboddo’s opinion respecting the Indian
-languages, and on Father Sagard’s work, on which that opinion is
-founded, I believe to be correct. I am not acquainted with the language
-of the Hurons, which I have always understood to be a dialect of that
-of the Iroquois, or at least to be derived from the same stock, and
-I cannot conceive why it should be so poor and so imperfect as the
-good Father describes it, while its kindred idiom, the Iroquois, is
-directly the reverse. At least, it was so considered by Mr. Zeisberger,
-who was very well acquainted with it. Sir William Johnson thought the
-same, and I believe you will find his opinion on the subject in one of
-the Volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society of London.[279]
-Colden, in his History of the Five Nations, says “that the verbs of
-that language are varied, but in a manner so different from the Greek
-and Latin, that his informant could not discover by what rule it
-was done.”[280] I suspect his informant had not yet acquired a very
-profound knowledge of the Iroquois; but from his imperfect description
-of their verbs, I am very nearly convinced that they are formed on
-the same model with those of the Lenni Lenape, which Mr. Zeisberger
-has well described in his Grammar of that language. Colden praises
-this idiom in other respects; he says that “the Six Nations compound
-their words without end, whereby their language becomes sufficiently
-copious.” This is true also of the Delawares.
-
-The Hurons are the same people whom we call Wyandots; the Delawares
-call them _Delamattenos_. I am inclined to believe that the tribe whom
-we call _Naudowessies_, and the French _Sioux_, who are said to live to
-the west or north-west of Lake Superior, are a branch of the Hurons;
-for the rivers which we call _Huron_, (of which there are three)[281]
-are called by the Chippeways, _Naduwewi_, or _Naudowessie Sipi_.
-But of this I cannot be sure; though I would rather conclude that
-_Naudowessie_ is the Chippeway name for all the Wyandots or Hurons.
-It is a fact which, I think, deserves to be ascertained. It is a very
-common error to make several Indian nations out of one, by means of the
-different names by which it is known.
-
-I proceed to answer the questions contained in your letter of the 18th.
-
-As it seems to me probable that the Naudowessies and Hurons, though
-called by different names, are the same people; so it may be the case
-with the Chippeways and the Algonkins, although I have no greater
-certainty of this hypothesis than of the former. I have no doubt,
-however, of their being both derived from the same stock, which is that
-of the Lenni Lenape: that their languages are strikingly similar is
-evident from the two vocabularies that you mention, and I had rather
-believe that they both speak the same language, than that Captain
-Carver was a plagiarist. The accounts which he gives of the Indians I
-have found in general correct; which is the more remarkable, that from
-his own account, it appears that he did not reside very long among
-them. He must have been, therefore, a very attentive and accurate
-observer.
-
-It is very probable that I did not express myself with sufficient
-precision in the passages of my letters of the 27th of May and 20th of
-June to which you refer. The Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, are the head
-of a great family of Indian nations who are known among themselves
-by the generic name of _Wapanachki_, or “Men of the East.” The same
-language is spread among them all in various dialects, of which I
-conceive the purest is that of the chief nation, the Lenape, at whose
-residence the grand national councils meet, and whom the others, by way
-of respect, style _grandfather_. The Algonkins are a branch of that
-family, but are not, in my opinion, entitled to the pre-eminence which
-the Baron La Hontan ascribes to them. He applied the name “Algonkin,”
-in a more extensive sense than it deserves, and said that the Algonkin
-language was the finest and most universally spread of any on the
-continent; a praise to which I think the Lenni Lenape idiom alone is
-entitled. In this sense only I meant to say that the Baron included the
-Delawares in the general descriptive name of “Algonkins.”
-
-I have yet to answer your questions respecting the language, which I
-shall do in a subsequent letter.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XV.
-
-FROM THE SAME.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 24th July, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I have now to answer your question on the subject of the
-Delaware verb, _n’dellauchsi_, which Zeisberger translates by “I live,
-or move about,” or “I so live that I move about.” You ask whether this
-is the only verb in the language which expresses “_to live_,” and
-whether the Indians have an idea of _life_, otherwise than as connected
-with _locomotion_?
-
-Surely they have; and I do not see that the contrary follows from Mr.
-Zeisberger’s having chosen this particular verb as an example of the
-first conjugation. I perceive you have not yet an adequate idea of the
-copiousness of the Indian languages, which possess an immense number of
-comprehensive words, expressive of almost every possible combination
-of ideas. Thus the proper word for “_to live_” is in the pure Unami
-dialect _lehaleheen_. An Unami meeting an aged acquaintance, whom
-he has not seen for a length of time, will address him thus: “_Ili
-k’lehelleya?_”[282] which means, “are you yet alive?” The other will
-answer “_Ili n’papomissi_,”[283] “I am yet able to walk about.” The
-verb _n’dellauchsin_, which Mr. Zeisberger quotes, is more generally
-employed in a spiritual sense, “_n’dellauchsin Patamawos wulelendam_,”
-“I live up, act up to the glory of God.” This verb, like _pommauchsin_,
-implies action or motion, connected with _life_, which is still the
-principal idea. I do not know of any thing analogous in the English
-language, except, perhaps, when we say “To _walk_ humbly before God;”
-but here the word _walk_ contains properly no idea in itself but that
-of locomotion, and is not coupled with the idea of _life_, as in the
-Indian verb which I have cited. The idea intended to be conveyed arises
-in English entirely from the _figurative_ sense of the word, in the
-Delaware from the _proper_ sense.
-
-I should never have done, were I to endeavour to explain to you in all
-their details the various modes which the Indians have of expressing
-ideas, shades of ideas, and combinations of ideas; for which purpose
-the various parts of speech are successively called to their aid. In
-the conjugations of the verbs, in Zeisberger’s Grammar, you will find
-but three tenses, present, past, and future; but you will be much
-mistaken if you believe that there are no other modes of expressing
-actions and passions in the verbal form as connected with the idea
-of time. It would have been an endless work to have given all those
-explanations in an elementary grammar intended for the use of young
-Missionaries, who stood in need only of the principal forms, which they
-were to perfect afterwards by practice. Let me now try to give you a
-faint idea of what I mean by a few examples in the Delaware language.
-
-  N’mitzi, _I eat_.[284]
-  N’mamitzi, _I am eating, or am in the act of eating_.
-  N’mitzihump, _I have eaten_.
-  Metschi n’gischi mitzi, _I am come from eating_.
-  N’dappi mitzi, _I am returned from eating_.
-
-The first two _n’mitzi_ and _n’mamitzi_, both mean _I eat_, but the one
-is used in the indefinite, and the other in the definite sense, and a
-good speaker will never employ the one instead of the other. The three
-last expressions are all past tenses of the verb “_I eat_,” and all
-mean, “_I have eaten_,” but a person just risen from table, will not
-say, “_n’dappi mitzi_;” this expression can only be used after leaving
-the place where he has been eating, in answer to a person who asks him
-“where he comes from.” The word “_n’dappi_” is connected with the verb
-_apatschin_, to return. There is another distinction, proper to be
-mentioned here. If the place where the person comes from is near, he
-says “_n’dappi_,” if distant “_n’dappa_.” Thus:
-
-  N’dappi pihm, _I am come from sweating_ (_or from the sweat oven_.)
-  N’dappihackiheen, _I am come from planting_.
-  N’dappi wickheen, _I am come from building a house_.
-  N’dappimanschasqueen, _I am come from mowing grass_.
-  N’dappi notamæsin, _I am come from striking fish with a spear_.
-  N’dappallauwin, _I am come (returned) from hunting_.
-  N’dappachtopalin, _I am come (returned) from making war_.
-
-In the future tense I could shew similar distinctions, but it would
-lead me too far.
-
-I must now take notice of what Father Sagard says, as you have
-mentioned in your letter of the 13th inst., that the Indian languages
-have “no _roots_, and that there is no regularity in the formation of
-their words.” It is certain that the manner in which the Indians in
-general form their words is different from that of the Europeans, but I
-can easily prove to you that they understand the manner of forming them
-from “_roots_.” I take, for instance, the word _wulit_, good, proper,
-right, from which are derived:
-
-  Wulik, _the good_.
-  Wulaha, _better_.
-  Wulisso, _fine, pretty_.
-  Wulamoewagan, _truth_.
-  Wulatenamuwi, _happy_.
-  Wulatenamoagan, _happiness_.
-  Wulapensowagan, _blessing_.
-  Wulapan, _fine morning_.
-  Wuliechen, _it is good, or well done_.
-  Wulittol, _they are good_.
-  Wuliken, _it grows well, thrives_.
-  Wuliechsin, _to speak well_.
-  Wulelendam, _to rejoice_.
-  Wulamallsin, _to be well, happy_.
-  Wulandeu,   }
-  Wuligischgu,} _a fine day_.
-  Wulapeyu, _just, upright_.
-  Wuliwatam, _to be of good understanding_.
-  Wuliachpin, _to be in a good place_.
-  Wulilissin, _to do well_.
-  Wulilissu, _he is good_.
-  Wulilissick, _behave ye well_.
-  Wulinaxin, _to look well_.
-  Wulamoeyu, _it is true_.
-  Wulantowagan, _grace_.
-  Wulatopnachgat,[285] _a good word_.
-  Wulatopnamik, _good tidings_.
-  Wulatonamin,[286] _to be happy_.
-  Wulissowagan, _prettiness, handsome appearance_.
-  Wulihilleu, _it is good_.
-  Wulineichquot, _it is well to be seen_.
-  Wulelemileu, _it is wonderful_.
-  Wulitehasu, _well cut or hewed_.
-  Wuliwiechinen, _to rest well_.
-  Welsit Mannitto, _the Good Spirit_.
-  From Machtit, _bad_.
-  Machtitsu, _nasty_.
-  Machtesinsu, _ugly_.
-  Machtschi _or_ Matschi Mannitto _or_ Machtando, _the evil Spirit,
-      the Devil_, &c.
-
-You will naturally observe that the words derived from the root
-_Wulit_, imply in general the idea of what is good, handsome, proper,
-decent, just, well, and so pursuing the same general object to
-_happiness_ and its derivatives; _happiness_ being considered as a good
-and pleasant feeling, or situation of the mind, and a person who is
-_happy_, as being well. This does not, as you might suppose, make the
-language ambiguous; for the Indians speak and understand each other
-with great precision and clearness.
-
-I have yet to answer your question about the _f_ and _w_. There are in
-the Delaware language no such consonants as the German _w_, or English
-_v_, _f_, or _r_. Where _w_ in this language is placed before a vowel,
-it sounds the same as in English; before a consonant, it represents a
-_whistled_ sound of which I cannot well give you an idea on paper, but
-which I shall easily make you understand by uttering it before you when
-we meet.
-
-  _I am, &c._
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XVI.
-
-TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 31st July, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I have received with the greatest pleasure your two favours
-of the 24th and 26th inst.; the last, particularly, has opened to
-me a very wide field for reflection. I am pursuing with ardour the
-study of the Indian languages (I mean of their grammatical forms) in
-all the authors that I can find that have treated of the subject,
-and am astonished at the great similarity which I find between those
-different idioms from Greenland even to Chili. They all appear to me
-to be compounded on a model peculiar to themselves, and of which I had
-not before an idea. Those personal forms of the verbs, for instance,
-which you mention in your letter of the 20th of June, I find generally
-existing in the American languages. The Spanish-Mexican Grammarians
-call them _transitions_, but they are not all equally happy in their
-modes of explaining their nature and use. The word “_transition_,”
-however, I think extremely well chosen, as it gives at once an idea of
-the passage of the verb from the pronoun that governs to that which
-is governed, from “I love” to “I love you.” The forms of the Indian
-verbs are so numerous, that a proper technical term is very much wanted
-to distinguish this particular class, and I adopt with pleasure this
-appropriate Spanish name, at least, until a better one can be found.
-
-I am sufficiently satisfied from the examples in your last letter
-that the Indians have in their languages “roots,” or radical words
-from which many others are derived; indeed, I never doubted it
-before, and only meant to shew you by the instances of Father Sagard,
-and Lord Monboddo, what false ideas the Europeans have conceived
-on this subject. The various meanings of the word “_wulit_” and
-its derivatives, obtained, as you have shewn, by easy or natural
-transitions from one kindred idea to another, are nothing new in
-language. The Greek has the word “_kalos_,” which in its various
-meanings is very analogous to “_wulit_.” Instances of similar
-“transitions” from different European idioms might be cited without
-end. There is one in the French which strikes me at this moment
-with peculiar force. In that language, an honest man is “_just_” in
-his dealings and a judge in his judgments; but a pair of shoes is
-so likewise, when made exactly to fit the foot, and by a natural
-transition, when the shoes are too tight, they are said to be too
-_just_ (trop justes). A foreigner in France is reported to have said
-to his shoemaker, complaining of the tightness of a pair of new made
-shoes: “_Monsieur, ces souliers sont trop équitables_.” I remember also
-an English song, beginning with the words “_Just like love_,” where you
-see the word “_just_” is employed without at all implying the idea of
-_equity_ or _justice_. But justice is strict, exact, correct, precise,
-and therefore the word _just_ is employed for the purpose of expressing
-these and other ideas connected with that to which it was first applied.
-
-I have made these trite observations, because I am well aware that
-many _a priori_ reasoners would not fail to find in so many words
-of different meanings derived from the same root, a proof of the
-poverty of the Indian languages. They would say that they are poor,
-because they have but few radical words, a conclusion which they
-would infallibly make without taking the pains of ascertaining the
-fact. If they were told that the Greek (the copiousness of which is
-universally acknowledged) has itself but a comparatively small number
-of roots, they would not be at a loss to find some other reason in
-support of their pre-conceived opinion. I have read somewhere (I
-cannot recollect in what book), that there was not a greater proof of
-the barbarism of the Indian languages, than the comprehensiveness of
-their locutions. The author reasoned thus: Analysis, he said, is the
-most difficult operation of the human mind; it is the last which man
-learns to perform. Savage nations, therefore, express many ideas in a
-single word, because they have not yet acquired the necessary skill
-to separate them from each other by the process of analysis, and to
-express them simply.
-
-If this position were true, it would follow that all the languages
-of savage nations have been in the origin formed on the same model
-with those of the American Indians, and that simple forms have been
-gradually introduced into them by the progress of civilisation. But if
-we take the trouble of enquiring into facts, they will by no means lead
-us to this conclusion. It is not many centuries since the Scandinavian
-languages of the North of Europe were spoken by barbarous and savage
-nations, but we do not find that in ancient times they were more
-comprehensive in their grammatical forms than they are at present,
-when certainly they are the least so, perhaps, of any of the European
-idioms; on the other hand, the Latin and Greek were sufficiently so by
-means of the various moods and tenses of their verbs, all expressed
-in one single word, without the use of auxiliaries; and yet these two
-nations had attained a very high degree, at least, of civilisation.
-I do not, therefore, see as yet, that there is a necessary connexion
-between the greater or lesser degree of civilisation of a people, and
-the organisation of their language. These general conclusions from
-insulated facts ought constantly to be guarded against; they are the
-most fruitful sources of error in the moral as well as in the natural
-sciences. Facts ought to be collected and observations multiplied long
-before we venture to indulge in theoretical inferences; for unobserved
-facts seem to lie in ambush, to start up at once in the face of
-finespun theories, and put philosophers in the wrong.
-
-I wish very much that some able linguist would undertake to make a
-good classification of the different languages of the world (as far
-as they are known) in respect to their grammatical forms. It was once
-attempted in the French Encyclopedia, but without success, because the
-author had only in view the Latin and Greek, and those of the modern
-languages which he was acquainted with. His division, if I remember
-right, was formed between those idioms in which inversions are allowed,
-and those in which they are not. Of course, it was the Latin and Greek
-on the one side, and the French, Italian, &c., on the other. This
-meagre classification has not been generally adopted, nor does it, in
-my opinion, deserve to be. A greater range of observation ought to be
-taken.
-
-I do not pretend to possess talents adequate to carrying into execution
-the plan which I here suggest; but I beg you will permit me to draw a
-brief sketch of what I have in view.
-
-I observe, in the first place, in the eastern parts of Asia, a class
-of languages formed on the same model, of which I take that which is
-_spoken_ in the empire of China, as it stood before its conquest by
-the Tartars, to be the type. In this language, there is but a very
-small number of words, all monosyllables. As far as I am able to
-judge from the excellent grammars of this idiom of which we are in
-possession, the words convey to the mind only the principal or leading
-ideas of the discourse, unconnected with many of those accessory
-ideas that are so necessary to give precision to language, and the
-hearer is left to apply and arrange the whole together as well as he
-can. It has but few or no grammatical forms, and is very deficient in
-what we call the connecting parts of speech. Hence it is said that
-the words spoken are not immediately understood by those to whom
-they are addressed, and that auxiliary modes of explanation, others
-than oral communication, are sometimes resorted to, when ambiguities
-occur. As I am no Sinologist, I will not undertake to say that the
-description which I have attempted to give of this language, from
-the mere reading of grammars and dictionaries, is very accurate, but
-I venture to assert that it differs so much from all others that we
-know, that with its kindred idioms, it deserves to form a _genus_ in a
-general classification of the various modes of speech. From its great
-deficiency of grammatical forms, I would give to this genus the name
-_asyntactic_.
-
-My second class of languages would consist of those which possess,
-indeed, grammatical forms, sufficient to express and connect together
-every idea to be communicated by means of speech, but in which those
-forms are so organized, that almost every distinct idea has a single
-word to convey or express it. Such are the Icelandic, Danish, Swedish,
-and even the German and English. Those forms of the nouns and verbs
-which are generally called declensions and conjugations, are in these
-languages the result of an analytical process of the mind, which has
-given to every single idea, and sometimes to a shade of an idea, a
-single word to express it. Thus, when we say “_of the man_,” here
-are three ideas, which, in the Latin, are expressed by one single
-word “_hominis_.” In the locution “_I will not_,” or “_I am not
-willing_,” and in the verbal form “_I will go_,” three or four ideas
-are separately expressed in English, which, in Latin, are conveyed
-together by single words “_nolo_,” “_ibo_.” From this peculiar quality
-of sufficiently, yet separately, expressing all the necessary ideas, I
-would denominate this class of languages _analytical_, or _analytic_.
-
-The third class would, of course, be that in which the principal parts
-of speech are formed by a synthetical operation of the mind, and in
-which several ideas are frequently expressed by one word. Such are what
-are called the Oriental languages, with the Latin, Greek, Slavonic, and
-others of the same description. These I would call _synthetic_.
-
-The French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, with their various
-dialects, in which conquest has in a great degree intermingled the
-modes of speech of the second and third class, would together form a
-fourth, which I would call “_mixed_.”
-
-In these various classes I have not found a place for the Indian
-languages, which richly deserve to form one by themselves. They are
-“_synthetic_” in their forms, but to such a degree as is not equalled
-by any of the idioms which I have so denominated, and which are only
-such in comparison with others where _analytic_ forms prevail. That
-they deserve to make a class by themselves cannot be doubted. They are
-the very opposite of the Chinese, of all languages the poorest in
-words, as well as in grammatical forms, while these are the richest
-in both. In fact, a great variety of forms, necessarily implies a
-great multiplicity of words; I mean, complex forms, like those of the
-Indians; compound words in which many ideas are included together, and
-are made to strike the mind in various ways by the simple addition or
-subtraction of a letter or syllable. In the Chinese much is understood
-or guessed at, little is expressed; in the Indian, on the contrary,
-the mind is awakened to each idea meant to be conveyed, by some one or
-other of the component parts of the word spoken. These two languages,
-therefore, as far as relates to their organisation, stand in direct
-opposition to each other; they are the top and bottom of the idiomatic
-scale, and as I have given to the Chinese, and its kindred dialects,
-the name of _asyntactic_, the opposite name, _syntactic_, appears to
-me that which is best suited to the languages of the American Indians.
-I find that instead of asking you questions, as I ought to do, I am
-wandering again in the field of metaphysical disquisitions. I shall try
-to be more careful in my next letter.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XVII.
-
-TO THE SAME.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 3d August, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I now return to my proper station of a scholar asking
-questions of his master. In your letter of the 24th ult., you have
-fully satisfied me that the Indians have a great number of words
-derived from “_roots_,” much in the same manner as in the languages of
-Europe, but you have said at the same time “that the manner in which
-the Indians in general form their words, is different from that of the
-Europeans.” I am very anxious to have this manner[287] explained, and I
-shall be very much obliged to you for all the information that you can
-give me on the subject.
-
-I have told you already that I thought I had reason to believe that
-all the American languages were formed on the same general plan. If I
-am correct in my supposition, I think I have found in the language of
-Greenland, the identical manner of compounding words which I am now
-calling upon you to explain. You will tell me whether I have judged
-right, and you will at once destroy or confirm my favourite hypothesis.
-According to the venerable Egede, words are formed in the Greenland
-language by taking and joining together a part of each of the radical
-words, the ideas of which are to be combined together in one compound
-locution. One or more syllables of each simple word are generally
-chosen for that purpose and combined together, often leaving out the
-harsh consonants for the sake of euphony. Thus from “_agglekpok_,” he
-writes, “_pekipok_,” he mends or does better, and “_pinniarpok_,” he
-endeavours, is formed the compound word “_agglekiniaret_,” which means,
-“endeavour to write better.” The first syllable “_agl_,” is taken from
-“agl_ekpok_,” the second “_ek_” from the same word, and also from the
-first syllable of “_pekipok_,” leaving out the _p_ to avoid harshness,
-and the third “_inniar_” from “Pinniar_pok_,” also leaving out the
-initial consonant for the same reason. It seems to me that I find
-something like it in the Delaware language. According to Zeisberger,
-_wet_ooch_wink_ signifies “father.” Now taking the second syllable
-_ooch_, and placing _n_ before it, you have “_nooch_,” my father. To be
-sure, it is not the first syllable that is borrowed, as in the above
-example from the Greenlandish, but the principle appears, nevertheless,
-to be the same in both languages.
-
-On the subject of this word “_father_” I observe a strange
-contradiction between two eminent writers on Indian languages,
-evidently derived from the stock of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware.
-One of them, Roger Williams, in his Key to the Language of the New
-England Indians, says “_osh_” (meaning probably _och_ or _ooch_, as the
-English cannot pronounce the guttural _ch_) father; “_nosh_” my father;
-“_kosh_” thy father, &c. On the other hand, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards,
-in his observations on the language of the _Muhhekanew_ (Mohican)
-Indians, speaks as follows: “A considerable part of the appellations
-is never used without a pronoun affixed. The Mohegans say, my father,
-‘_nogh_’ (again _noch_ or _nooch_) thy father ‘_kogh_,’ &c., but
-they cannot say absolutely ‘_father_.’ There is no such word in their
-language. If you were to say ‘_ogh_,’ you would make a Mohegan both
-stare and smile.” (page 13.)
-
-Which of these two professors is right? It seems that either Rogers
-invented the word _osh_ for “father,” from analogy, or that Edwards is
-not correct when he says that _ogh_ or _ooch_ singly, mean nothing in
-the Indian language. Is he not mistaken when he says that there is no
-word whatever answering to “father,” or “the father,” in an abstract
-sense; and if an Indian would stare and smile when a white man says
-_ooch_, would he smile in the same manner if he said _wetoochwink_?
-Is it possible to suppose that this respectable author had only a
-partial knowledge of the language on which he wrote, and that he was
-not acquainted with the radical word from which _nooch_ and _kooch_
-had been formed? Or is there no such radical word, and has Zeisberger
-himself committed a mistake?
-
-I beg leave to submit to you also another observation that I have
-made. It appears from the work of the late Dr. Barton, who quotes
-your authority for it, that the name of the _Lenni Lenape_, means
-“_the original people_,” and that “_Lenno_” in the Delaware language
-signifies “man,” in the general sense, (_Mensch_.) Now, it appears that
-in the language of the _Micmacs_ (a tribe of Nova Scotia,) they call
-an Indian “_Illenoh_,” and in that of the Canadian mountaineers (whom
-some believe to be the Algonkins proper) they say “_Illenou_.” (Mass.
-Histor. Coll. for the year 1799, pp. 18, 19.) I am apt to believe that
-those names are the same with “_Lenno_,” and that it is from them that
-the French have formed the name “_Illinois_,” which extends even beyond
-the Mississippi. In the speech of the Indian chief _Garangula_, to the
-Governor of Canada, related by La Hontan, the warrior says: “You must
-know, Onontio, that we have robbed no Frenchmen, but those who supplied
-the ‘_Illinois_,’ and the ‘_Oumamis_,’ our enemies, with powder and
-ball.” I am inclined to believe that Garangula when he spoke of the
-_Illinois_ meant the _Lenni Lenape_, and by the name of _Oumamis_,
-intended to describe their chief tribe, the _Unamis_. Of this,
-however, I leave you to judge. But I strongly suspect that “_Lenno_,”
-“_Lenni_,” “_Illenoh_,” “_Illenou_,” “_Illinois_,” are the same name,
-and all apply to that great nation whom the Baron La Hontan takes to
-be the _Algonkins_, who, it would seem, are only called so by way of
-discrimination, but consider themselves as a branch of the great family
-of the “_Illenou_.” If I am correct in this, how do you make out that
-_Lenni Lenape_ means “_original people_”?
-
-The Greenlanders, according to Egede, call themselves _Innuit_, which
-in their language also signifies _men_. It appears to me to be very
-much akin to _Illenoh_, _Illeun_. Could the Greenlanders be in any way
-connected with the _Lenni Lenape_?
-
-Pray tell me from what languages are derived the words _squaw_,
-_sachem_, _tomahawk_, _calumet_, _wampum_, _papoose_, which are so much
-in use among us? Are they of the Delaware or the Iroquois stock?
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XVIII.
-
-FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 12th August, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I have duly received your two letters of the 31st of July
-and 3d of August last. I am much pleased with your metaphysical
-disquisitions, as you call them, and I beg you will indulge in them
-with perfect freedom, whenever you shall feel so disposed. I agree
-with you that a proper classification of human languages would be a
-very desirable object; but I fear the task is too hard ever to be
-accomplished with the limited knowledge of man. There are, no doubt,
-many varieties in language yet to be discovered.
-
-As you wish to be acquainted with the manner in which our North
-American Indians compound their words, I shall endeavour to satisfy you
-as well as I am able. The process is much the same as that which Egede
-has described with respect to the Greenland language, and this strongly
-corroborates your opinion respecting the similarity of forms of at
-least of those of North America. In the Delaware and other languages
-that I am acquainted with, parts or parcels of different words,
-sometimes a single sound or letter, are compounded together, in an
-artificial manner, so as to avoid the meeting of harsh or disagreeable
-sounds, and make the whole word fall in a pleasant manner upon the
-ear. You will easily conceive that words may thus be compounded and
-multiplied without end, and hence the peculiar richness of the American
-languages. Of this I can give you numerous examples. In the first
-place, the word “_nadholincen_.” It is a simple short word, but means
-a great deal. The ideas that are conveyed by it are these: “Come with
-the canoe and take us across the river or stream.” Its component parts
-are as follows: The first syllable “_nad_” is derived from the verb
-“_naten_,” to fetch; the second, “_hol_,” from “_amochol_,” a canoe or
-boat; “_ineen_” is the verbal termination for “_us_,” as in _milineen_,
-“give us;”--the simple ideas, therefore, contained in this word, are
-“_fetch canoe us_,” but in its usual and common acceptation it means,
-“come and fetch us across the river with a canoe.” I need not say that
-this verb is conjugated through all its moods and tenses. _Nadholawall_
-is the form of the third person of the singular of the indicative
-present, and means “He is fetched over the river with a canoe,” or
-simply, “He is fetched over the river.”
-
-From _wunipach_, a leaf, _nach_, a hand, and _quim_, a nut growing on a
-tree (for there is a peculiar word to express nuts of this description
-and distinguish them from other nuts) is formed _wunachquim_, an acorn,
-and the ideas which by this name are intended to be conveyed are these:
-“The nut of the tree the leaves of which resemble a hand, or have upon
-them the form of a hand.” If you will take the trouble to examine the
-leaves of an oak tree, you will find on them the form of a hand with
-outspread fingers. On the same principle are formed
-
-  M’sim, _hickory nut_.
-  Ptucquim, _walnut_.
-  Wapim, _chestnut_.
-  Schauwemin, _beech nut_, and many others.
-
-The tree which we call “_Spanish oak_,” remarkable for the largeness
-of its leaves, they call “_Amanganaschquiminschi_,” “the tree which
-has the largest leaves shaped like a hand.” If I were to imitate the
-composition of this word in English and apply it to our language,
-I would say _Largehandleafnuttree_, and softening the sounds after
-the Indian manner, it would perhaps make _Larjandliffentree_, or
-_Larjandlennuttree_, or something like it. Of course, in framing the
-word, an English ear should be consulted. The last syllable of that
-which I have last cited, is not taken from the proper name for _tree_,
-which is _hittuck_; but from “_achpansi_,”[288] which means the “stock,
-trunk or body of a tree” (in German “_der stamm_”). The last syllable
-of this word, “_si_,” is in its compound converted into _schi_,
-probably for the sake of euphony, of which an Indian ear in this case
-is the best judge.
-
-Again, “_nanayunges_,” in Delaware means “a horse.” It is formed
-from _awesis_, a beast, from which the last syllable _es_ is taken,
-and _nayundam_, to carry a burden on the back or shoulders; for
-when something is carried in the hands or arms, the proper verb is
-“_gelenummen_.” The word which signifies “horse,” therefore, literally
-means, “the beast which carries on its back,” or in other words,
-“a beast of burden.” Were asses or camels known to the Indians,
-distinctive appellations for them would soon and easily be formed.
-
-Thus much for the names of _natural substances_, and words which relate
-to visible objects. Let us now turn to the expression of ideas which
-affect the moral sense.
-
-You will remember that I have told you before that “_wulik_” or
-“_wulit_” signifies “good,” and in the various derivations which flow
-from it means almost every thing that is good, just, proper, decent,
-pleasing or agreeable. When an Indian wishes to express that he is
-pleased with something that you have told him, he will say in his
-metaphorical language: “You have spoken _good_ words.” Now let us see
-how this compound idea is expressed. “_Kolamoe_” is one of the forms of
-the past tense of a verb which means “to speak the truth,” and properly
-translated signifies “thou hast spoken the truth,” or “thou hast spoken
-good words.” _K_, from _ki_, expresses the second person, “_ola_” is
-derived from _wulit_ and conveys the idea of _good_; the rest of the
-word implies the action of speaking.
-
-In the third person, “_wulamoe_” means “he has spoken the truth;” from
-which is formed the noun substantive _wulamoewagan_, “_the_ truth:”
-_wagan_ or _woagan_ (as our German Missionaries sometimes write it
-to express the sound of the English _w_) being a termination which
-answers to that of “_ness_” in English, and “_heit_” or “_keit_” in
-German. Pursuing further the same chain of ideas, _wulistamoewagan_ or
-_wulamhittamoewagan_, means “faith” or “belief,” the belief of what
-a man has seen or heard; for _glistam_ is a verb which signifies “to
-hear, hearken, listen;” hence “_wulista_,” believe it, _wulistam_, he
-believes; _wulisto_, believe ye, &c. The Indians say _klistawi!_ hear
-me! _nolsittammen_, I believe it; _ammen_ or _tammen_ abridged from
-_hittammen_, where they are employed as terminations, mean “to do,
-perform, adopt.” See what a number of ideas are connected together
-in single words, and with what regularity they are compounded, with
-proper terminations indicating the part of speech, form, mood, tense,
-number and person, that they respectively belong to! The various
-shades of thought that those different modes of speech discriminate
-are almost innumerable; for instance, _wulistammen_ means simply to
-believe; _wulamsittammen_ to believe with full conviction. I would
-never have done, if I were to point out to you all the derivatives
-from this source, or connected with the idea of _belief_, which word
-I bring forward merely by way of example, there being many others
-equally fruitful. There is _wulamoinaquot_, credible, worthy of belief
-(sometimes used as an impersonal verb, “it is credible, it deserves to
-be believed”); _welsittawot_, a believer; _welsittank_, a believer in
-the religious sense, &c.
-
-The syllable _pal_ or _pel_ prefixed to some words, implies denial,
-and also frequently denotes wrong and is taken in a bad sense.
-Hence _palsittamoewagan_, unbelief; _palsittammen_, to disbelieve;
-_pelsittank_, an unbeliever; _pelsittangik_, unbelievers. Again,
-_palliwi_, otherwise; _palliton_, to spoil, to do something wrong;
-_palhiken_, to make a bad shot, to miss the mark in shooting;
-_palhitechen_, to aim a stroke and miss it; _pallahammen_, to miss in
-shooting at _game_; _pallilissin_, to do something amiss or wrong.
-
-M. de Volney has very justly observed on the Miami language, which is
-a dialect of the Lenape, that _m_ at the beginning of a word implies
-in general something bad or ugly. It is certainly so in the Delaware,
-though not without exceptions, for _mannitto_, a spirit, by which
-name God himself, the great and good Spirit is called, begins with
-that ill-omened letter. Nevertheless the words “_machit_,” bad, and
-“_medhick_,” evil, have produced many derivatives, or words beginning
-with the syllables _med_, _mach_, _mat_, _mui_, _me_, _mas_, &c.,
-all of which imply something bad, and are taken in a bad sense. For
-instance, _mekih_ and _melih_, corruption; _machtando_, the devil;
-_machtageen_, to fight, kill; _machtapan_, a bad, unpleasant morning;
-_machtapeek_, bad time, time of war; _machtonquam_, to have a bad
-dream, &c. I mention this merely to do justice to the sagacity of M.
-Volney, whose few observations upon the Indians induce us to regret
-that he was not in a situation to make more.
-
-I begin to feel fatigued, and therefore shall take leave of you for the
-present and reserve the remainder of my answer for my next letter.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XIX.
-
-FROM THE SAME.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 15th August, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I sit down to conclude my answer to your letter of the 3d
-inst.
-
-Before I begin this task, let me give you some examples that now occur
-to me to shew the regularity of the formation of Indian words.
-
-
-1. The names of reptiles generally end in _gook_ or _gookses_.
-
-  Achgook, _a snake_.
-  Suckachgook, _a black snake_ (from _suck_ or _suckeu_, black.)
-  Mamalachgook, _spotted snake_.
-  Asgaskachgook, _green snake_.
-
-2. The names of fishes in _meek_ (_Namæs_, a fish.)
-
-  Maschilameek, _a trout_ (spotted fish.)
-  Wisameek, _cat-fish_ (the fat fish.)
-  Suckameek, _black fish_.
-  Lennameek, _chub fish_.
-
-3. The names of other animals, have in the same manner regular
-terminations, _ap_, or _ape_, for walking in an erect posture; hence
-_lenape_, man; _chum_, for four-legged animals, and _wehelleu_, for
-the winged tribes. I need not swell this letter with examples, which
-would add nothing to your knowledge of the principle which I have
-sufficiently explained.
-
-I now proceed to answer your letter.
-
-Notwithstanding Mr. Edwards’s observation (for whom I feel the highest
-respect), I cannot help being of opinion, that the monosyllable
-_ooch_, is the proper word for _father_, abstractedly considered, and
-that it is as proper to say _ooch_, father, and _nooch_, my father,
-as _dallemons_, beast, and _n’dallemons_, my beast; or _nitschan_,
-child, or a child, and _n’nitschan_, my child. It is certain, however,
-that there are few occasions for using these words in their abstract
-sense, as there are so many ways of associating them with other ideas.
-_Wetoochwink_ and _wetochemuxit_ both mean “the father,” in a more
-definite sense, and _wetochemelenk_ is used in the vocative sense, and
-means “thou our father.” I once heard Captain Pipe, a celebrated Indian
-chief, address the British commandant at Detroit, and he said _nooch!_
-my father!
-
-The shades of difference between these several expressions are so nice
-and delicate, that I feel great difficulty in endeavouring to explain
-them. _Wetochemuxit_, I conceive to be more properly applicable to the
-heavenly Father, than to an earthly one. It implies an idea of power
-and authority over his children, superior to that of mere procreation,
-therefore I think it fittest to be used in prayer and worship.
-_Wetoochwink_, on the contrary, by the syllable _we_ or _wet_, prefixed
-to it, implies progeny and ownership over it;[289] and _wink_ or _ink_
-conveys the idea of the actual existence of that progeny. Yet Mr.
-Zeisberger, who well understood the language, has used _wetoochwink_ in
-the spiritual sense. Thus, in his Delaware Hymn Book,[290] you find,
-page 15, _Pennamook Wetoochwink milquenk!_ which is in English “Behold
-what the Father has given us!” Again, in the same book, page 32, we
-read, “_Hallewiwi wetochemuxit_;” which means “The Father of Eternity.”
-Upon the whole I believe that _ooch_ is a proper word for “father”
-or “a father,” but _wetoochwink_ may also be used in the same sense,
-notwithstanding its more definite general acceptation. There is little
-occasion, however, to use either with this abstract indefinite meaning.
-
-I agree with you that _lenni_, _lenno_, _illenoh_, _illenou_,
-_illinois_, appear to have all the same derivation, and to be connected
-with the idea of _man_, _nation_, or _people_. _Lenno_, in the Delaware
-language, signifies man, and so does _Lenape_, in a more extended
-sense. In the name of the Lenni _Lenape_, it signifies _people_; but
-the word _lenni_, which precedes it, has a different signification and
-means _original_, and sometimes _common_, _plain_, _pure_, _unmixed_.
-Under this general description the Indians comprehend all that they
-believe to have been first created in the origin of things. To all such
-things they prefix the word _lenni_; as, for instance, when they speak
-of _high_ lands, they say _lenni hacki_ (original lands), but they do
-not apply the same epithet to _low_ lands, which being generally formed
-by the overflowing or washing of rivers, cannot, therefore, be called
-_original_. Trees which grow on high lands are also called _lenni
-hittuck_, original trees. In the same manner they designate Indian
-corn, pumpkins, squashes, beans, tobacco, &c., all which they think
-were given by the Great Spirit for their use, _from the beginning_.
-Thus, they call Indian corn[291] _lenchasqueem_, from _lenni_ and
-_chasqueem_; beans, _lenalachksital_, from _lenni_ and _malachksital_;
-tobacco, _lenkschatey_, from _lenni_ and _kschatey_; which is the same
-as if they said _original corn_, _original beans_, _original tobacco_.
-They call the linden tree _lennikby_, from _lenni_ and _wikby_; the
-last word by itself meaning “the tree whose bark peels freely,” as the
-bark of that tree peels off easily all the year round. This bark is
-made use of as a rope for tying and also for building their huts, the
-roof and sides of which are made of it. A house thus built is called
-_lennikgawon_, “original house or hut,” from _lennikby_, original, or
-linden tree, _wikheen_, to build, and _jagawon_ or _yagawon_, a house
-with a flat roof. It is as if they said “a house built of _original_
-materials.”
-
-_Lennasqual_, in the Minsi dialect, means a kind of grass which is
-supposed to have grown on the land from the beginning. English grasses,
-as timothy, &c., they call _schwannockasquall_, or white men’s grass.
-The chub fish they call _lennameek_, because, say they, this fish is in
-all fresh water or streams, whereas other fish are confined to certain
-particular waters or climates.
-
-They also say _lenni m’bi_, “pure water;” _leneyachkhican_, a fowling
-piece, as distinguished from a rifle, because it was the _first_
-fire-arm they ever saw; a rifle they call _tetupalachgat_. They say,
-_lenachsinnall_, “common stones,” because stones are found every where,
-_lenachpoan_, “common bread,” (_achpoan_ means “bread”); _lenachgook_,
-a common snake, such as is seen every where (from _achgook_, a snake);
-_lenchum_, the original, common dog, not one of the species brought
-into the country by the white people. I think I have sufficiently
-explained the name “_Lenni Lenape_.”
-
-As I do not know the Greenland language, I cannot say how far the word
-“_innuit_” is connected with _lenni_ or _lenno_, or any of the words or
-names derived from them.
-
-The words _squaw_, _sachem_, _tomahawk_, and _wigwam_, are words of
-Delaware stock, somewhat corrupted by the English. _Ochqueu_, woman;
-_sakima_, chief; _tamahican_, hatchet;[292] _wickwam_ (both syllables
-long, as in English _weekwawm_), a house. Hence, _nik_, my house;
-_kik_, thy house; _wikit_, his house; _wikichtit_, their houses;
-_wikia_, at my house; _wiquahemink_, in the house; again, _wickheen_,
-to build a house; _wikhitschik_, the builders of a house; _wikheu_,
-he is building a house; _wikhetamok_, let us build a house; _wikheek_
-(imperative), build a house; _wikhattoak_, they are building (a house
-or houses).
-
-_Calumet_ is not an Indian word; M. Volney thinks it is an English word
-for a tobacco pipe; it is certainly not proper English, but I have
-always thought that it was first used by the English or the French. The
-Delaware for a tobacco pipe is _Poakan_ (two syllables).
-
-_Wampum_ is an Iroquois word, and means a marine shell.
-
-_Papoose_, I do not know; it is not a word of the Delaware language,
-yet it is possible that it may be used by some Indian nations, from
-whom we may have borrowed it. I have been told that the Mahicanni of
-New England made use of this word for a _child_.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XX.
-
-TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 21st August, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I have read with the greatest pleasure your two interesting
-letters of the 12th and 15th. I need not tell you how pleased the
-Historical Committee are with your correspondence, which is laid before
-them from time to time. I am instructed to do all in my power to
-induce you to persevere in giving to your country the so much wanted
-information concerning the Indians and their languages. The Committee
-are convinced that the first duty of an American Scientific Association
-is to occupy themselves with the objects that relate to our own
-country. It is on these subjects that the world has a right to expect
-instruction from us.
-
-I am busily employed in studying and translating the excellent
-Delaware Grammar of Mr. Zeisberger; I hope the Historical Committee
-will publish it in due time. The more I become acquainted with this
-extraordinary language, the more I am delighted with its copiousness
-and with the beauty of its forms. Those which the Hispano-Mexican
-Grammarians call _transitions_ are really admirable. If this language
-was cultivated and polished as those of Europe have been, and if the
-Delawares had a Homer or Virgil among them, it is impossible to say
-with such an instrument how far the art could be carried. The Greek is
-admired for its compounds; but what are they to those of the Indians?
-How many ideas they can combine and express together in one single
-locution, and that too by a regular series of grammatical forms, by
-innumerably varied inflexions of the same radical word, with the
-help of pronominal affixes! All this, my dear sir, is combined with
-the most exquisite skill, in a perfectly regular order and method,
-and with fewer exceptions or anomalies than I have found in any
-other language. This is what really astonishes me, and it is with
-the greatest difficulty that I can guard myself against enthusiastic
-feelings. The verb, among the Indians, is truly the _word_ by way of
-excellence. It combines itself with the pronoun, with the adjective,
-with the adverb; in short, with almost every part of speech. There
-are forms both positive and negative which include the two pronouns,
-the governing and the governed; _ktahoatell_,[293] “I love thee;”
-_ktahoalowi_, “I do not love thee.” The adverb “not,” is comprised both
-actively and passively in the negative forms, _n’dahoalawi_, “I do
-not love;” _n’dahoalgussiwi_, “I am not loved;” and other adverbs are
-combined in a similar manner. From _schingi_, “unwillingly,” is formed
-_schingattam_, “to be unwilling,” _schingoochwen_, “to go somewhere
-unwillingly,” _schingimikemossin_, “to work unwillingly;” from _wingi_,
-“willingly,” we have _wingsittam_, “to hear willingly,” _wingachpin_,
-“to be willingly somewhere,” _wingilauchsin_, “to live willingly in
-a particular manner;” from the adverb _gunich_,[294] “long,” comes
-_gunelendam_, “to think one takes long to do something;” _gunagen_, “to
-stay out long;” and so are formed all the rest of the numerous class
-of _adverbial verbs_. The _adjective verbs_ are produced in the same
-way, by a combination of adjective nouns with the verbal form. Does
-_guneu_ mean “long” in the adjective sense, you have _guneep_, it was
-long, _guneuchtschi_, it will be long, &c.; from _kschiechek_, “clean,”
-is formed _kschiecheep_, “it was clean;” from _machkeu_, “red,”
-_machkeep_, “it was red;” and so on through the whole class of words.
-Prepositions are combined in the same manner, but that is common also
-to other languages. What extent and variety displays itself in those
-Indian verbs, and what language, in this respect, can be compared to
-our savage idioms?
-
-Nor are the participles less rich or less copious. Every verb has a
-long series of participles, which when necessary can be declined and
-used as adjectives. Let me be permitted to instance a few from the
-causative verb _wulamalessohen_, “to make happy.” I take them from
-Zeisberger.
-
-  Wulamalessohaluwed, _he who makes happy_.
-  Wulamalessohalid, _he who makes me happy_.
-  Wulamalessohalquon, _he who makes thee happy_,
-  Wulamalessohalat, _he who makes him happy_.
-  Wulamalessohalquenk, _he who makes us happy_.
-  Wulamalessohalqueek, _he who makes you happy_.
-  Wulamalessohalquichtit, _he who makes them happy_.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Now comes another participial-pronominal-vocative form; which may in
-the same manner be conjugated through all the _objective_ persons.
-_Wulamalessohalian!_ THOU WHO MAKEST ME HAPPY!
-
-I will not proceed further; but permit me to ask you, my dear sir,
-what would Tibullus or Sappho have given to have had at their command
-a word at once so tender and so expressive? How delighted would be
-Moore, the poet of the loves and graces, if his language, instead of
-five or six tedious words slowly following in the rear of each other,
-had furnished him with an expression like this, in which the lover,
-the object beloved, and the delicious sentiment which their mutual
-passion inspires, are blended, are fused together in one comprehensive
-appellative term? And it is in the languages of savages that these
-beautiful forms are found! What a subject for reflection, and how
-little do we know, as yet, of the astonishing things that the world
-contains!
-
-In the course of my reading, I have often seen the question discussed
-which of the two classes of languages, the _analytical_ or the
-_synthetical_ (as I call them), is the most perfect or is preferable
-to the other. Formerly there seemed to be but one sentiment on the
-subject, for who cannot perceive the superiority of the Latin and
-Greek, over the modern mixed dialects which at present prevail in
-Europe? But we live in the age of paradoxes, and there is no opinion,
-however extraordinary, that does not find supporters. To me it would
-appear that the perfection of language consists in being able to
-express much in a few words; to raise at once in the mind by a few
-magic sounds, whole masses of thoughts which strike by a kind of
-instantaneous intuition. Such in its effects must be the medium by
-which immortal spirits communicate with each other; such, I should
-think, were I disposed to indulge in fanciful theories, must have
-been the language first taught to mankind by the great author of all
-perfection.
-
-All this would probably be admitted if the Latin and Greek were only in
-question: for their supremacy seems to stand on an ancient legitimate
-title not easy to be shaken, and there is still a strong prepossession
-in the minds of the learned in favour of the languages in which Homer
-and Virgil sang. But since it has been discovered that the barbarous
-dialects of savage nations are formed on the same principle with the
-classical idioms, and that the application of this principle is even
-carried in them to a still greater extent, it has been found easier to
-ascribe the beautiful organisation of these languages to stupidity and
-barbarism, than to acknowledge our ignorance of the manner in which
-it has been produced. Philosophers have therefore set themselves to
-work in order to prove that those admirable combinations of ideas in
-the form of words, which in the ancient languages of Europe used to be
-considered as some of the greatest efforts of the human mind, proceed
-in the savage idioms from the absence or weakness of mental powers in
-those who originally framed them.
-
-Among those philosophers the celebrated Dr. Adam Smith stands
-pre-eminent. In an elegant treatise on the origin and formation of
-language, he has endeavoured to shew that synthetical forms of speech
-were the first rude attempts which men made to communicate their ideas,
-and that they employed comprehensive and generic terms, because their
-minds had not yet acquired the powers of analysis and were not capable
-of discriminating between different objects. Hence, he says every river
-among primitive men was _the river_, every mountain _the mountain_, and
-it was very long before they learned to distinguish them by particular
-names. On the same principle, he continues, men said in one word
-_pluit_ (it rains,) before they could so separate their confused ideas
-as to say _the rain_ or _the water is falling_. Such is the sense and
-spirit of his positions, which I quote from memory.
-
-This theory is certainly very ingenious; it is only unfortunate
-that it does not accord with facts, as far as our observations can
-trace them. You have shown that the comprehensive compounds of the
-Delaware idiom are formed out of other words expressive of single
-ideas; these simple words, therefore, must have been invented before
-they were compounded into others, and thus analysis presided over the
-first formation of the language. So far, at least, Dr. Smith’s theory
-falls to the ground; nor does he appear to be better supported in his
-supposition of the pre-existence of generic terms. For Dr. Wistar has
-told me, and quotes your authority for it, that such are seldom in
-use among the Indians, and that when a stranger pointing to an object
-asks how it is called, he will not be told a _tree_, a _river_, a
-_mountain_, but an ash, an oak, a beech; the Delaware, the Mississippi,
-the Allegheny. If this fact is correctly stated, it is clear that among
-those original people every tree is not _the tree_, and every mountain
-_the mountain_, but that, on the contrary, everything is in preference
-distinguished by its specific name.
-
-It is no argument, therefore, against the synthetical forms of
-language, that they are in use among savage nations. However barbarous
-may be the people by whom they are employed, I acknowledge that I can
-see nothing barbarous in them, but think, on the contrary, that they
-add much to the beauty of speech. This is neither the time nor the
-place to enter into an elaborate discussion of this subject, but I beg
-leave to be allowed to illustrate and support my opinion by a lively
-example taken from the Latin tongue.
-
-Suetonius relates that the Roman Emperor Claudius (one of the most
-barbarous tyrants that ever existed,) once gave to his courtiers
-the spectacle of a naval combat on the Fucine lake, to be seriously
-performed by gladiators. When the poor fellows saw the Emperor
-approaching, they hailed him with “_Ave, Imperator_, MORITURI _te
-salutant!_” In English this means, “Hail, Cæsar! THOSE WHO ARE GOING
-TO DIE salute thee!” The tyrant was so moved, or rather struck with
-this unexpected address, that before he had time to reflect he returned
-the salutation _Avete vos!_ “Fare ye well!” This gracious reply, from
-the mouth of an Emperor, amounted to a pardon, and the gladiators,
-in consequence, refused to fight. But the monster soon returned to
-his natural ferocity, and after hesitating for a while whether he
-would destroy them all by fire and sword, he rose from his seat, and
-ran staggering along the banks of the lake, in the most disgusting
-agitation, and at last, partly by exhortations and partly by threats,
-compelled them to fight.[295] Thus far Suetonius.
-
-Now, my dear sir, I put the question to you; if the gladiators,
-instead of _morituri_, had said in English _those who are about or
-going to die_; would the Emperor even have hesitated for a moment, and
-would he not at once have ordered those men to fight on? In the word
-_morituri_, he was struck at the first moment with the terrible idea
-of death placed in full front by means of the syllable MOR; while the
-future termination ITURI with the accessory ideas that it involves was
-calculated to produce a feeling of tender compassion on his already
-powerfully agitated mind, and in fact did produce it, though it lasted
-only a short time. But if, instead of this rapid succession of strong
-images, he had been assailed at first with five insignificant words
-_Those--who--are--going--to_, foreseeing what was about to follow,
-he would have had time to make up his mind before the sentence had
-been quite pronounced, and I doubt much whether the gladiators would
-have been allowed time to finish it. In German, _Diejenigen welche
-am sterben sind_, would have produced much the same effect, from the
-length of the words _diejenigen_ and _welche_, which have no definite
-meaning, and could in no manner have affected the feelings of the
-tyrant Claudius. _Ceux qui vont mourir_, in French, is somewhat
-shorter, but in none of the modern languages do I find anything that
-operates on my mind like the terrible and pathetic _morituri_. May we
-not exclaim here with the great Gœthe: _O, eine Nation ist zu beneiden,
-die so feine Schattirungen in einem Worte auszudruecken weiss!_ “O,
-how a nation is to be envied, that can express such delicate shades of
-thought in one single word!”[296]
-
-I hope, indeed I do not doubt, that there is a similar word in
-the Delaware language; if so, please to give it to me with a full
-explanation of its construction and meaning.
-
-I thank you very much for the valuable information you have given
-on the subject of the word “_father_;” the distinction between
-_wetochemuxit_, and _wetoochwink_, appears to me beautiful, and
-Zeisberger seems to have perfectly understood it. When he makes use of
-the first of these words, he displays the “_Father of Eternity_” in all
-his glory; but when he says, “_Behold what the Father has given us!_”
-he employs the word _wetoochwink_, which conveys the idea of a _natural
-father_, the better to express the paternal tenderness of God for his
-children. These elegant shades of expression shew in a very forcible
-manner the beauty and copiousness of the Indian languages, and the
-extent and the force of that natural logic, of those powers of feeling
-and discrimination, and of that innate sense of order, regularity and
-method which is possessed even by savage nations, and has produced such
-an admirable variety of modes of conveying human thoughts by means of
-the different organs and senses with which the Almighty has provided us.
-
-Will you be so good as to inform me whether the Delaware language
-admits of inversions similar or analogous to those of the Latin tongue;
-and in what order words are in general placed before or after each
-other? Do you say “_bread give me_,” or “_give me bread_”?
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XXI.
-
-FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 26th August, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--Your letter of the 21st inst. has done me the greatest
-pleasure. I see that you enter the spirit of our Indian languages, and
-that your mind is struck with the beauty of their grammatical forms. I
-am not surprised to find that you admire so much _wulamalessohalian_,
-it is really a fine expressive word; but you must not think that it
-stands alone; there are many others equally beautiful and equally
-expressive, and which are at the same time so formed as to please
-the ear. Such is _eluwiwulik_, a name which the Indians apply to
-Almighty God, and signifies “the most blessed, the most holy, the
-most excellent, the most precious.” It is compounded of _allowiwi_,
-which signifies “_more_” and _wulik_, the meaning of which has been
-fully explained in former letters. It is, as it were _allowiwi wulik_;
-the vowel _a_, in the first word being changed into _e_. By thus
-compounding this word _allowiwi_ with others the Delawares have formed
-a great number of denominations, by which they address or designate the
-Supreme Being, such are:
-
-  Eliwulek,[297]   } _He who is above every thing_.[299]
-  Allowilen,[298]  }
-  Eluwantowit,[300] _God above all_; (“getannitowit” means _God_.)
-  Eluwiahoalgussit, _the beloved above all things_.
-  Elewassit,[301] _the most powerful_, _the most majestic_.
-  Eluwitschanessik, _the strongest of all_.
-  Eluwikschiechsit, _the supremely good_.[302]
-  Eluwilissit, _the one above all others in goodness_.
-
-I have no doubt you will admire these expressions; our Missionaries
-found them of great use, and considered them as adding much to the
-solemnity of divine service, and calculated to promote and keep alive a
-deep sense of devotion to the Supreme Being. I entirely agree with you
-in your opinion of the superior beauty of compound terms; the Indians
-understand very well how to make use of them, and a great part of the
-force and energy of their speeches is derived from that source: it is
-very difficult, I may even say impossible, to convey either in German
-or English, the whole impressiveness of their discourses; I have often
-attempted it without success.
-
-The word “_morituri_” which you cite from the Latin, affords a very
-good argument in support of the position which you have taken. It is
-really very affecting, and I am not astonished at the effect which
-it produced upon the mind of the cruel emperor. We have a similar
-word in the Delaware language, “_Elumiangellatschik_,” “those who
-are on the point of dying, or who are about to die.” The first part
-of it, _elumi_, is derived from the verb _n’dallemi_, which means
-“I am going about” (something). _N’dallemi mikemosi_, “I am going
-to work,” or “about to work.” _N’dallemi wickheen_, “I am going to
-build.” _N’dallemi angeln_, “I am about dying,” or “going to die.”
-The second member of the word, that is to say _angel_, comes from
-_angeln_, “to die;” _angloagan_, “death,” _angellopannik_, “they are
-all dead.” The remainder is a grammatical form; _atsch_, indicates the
-future tense; the last syllable _ik_, conveys the idea of the personal
-pronoun “_they_.” Thus _elumiangellatschik_, like the Latin _morituri_,
-expresses in one word “they or those who are going or about to die,”
-and in German “_Diejenigen welche am sterben sind_.”
-
-I am pleased to hear that you discover every day new beauties as you
-proceed with the study of the Indian languages, and the translation
-of Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar. You have, no doubt, taken notice of the
-reciprocal verb exemplified in the fifth conjugation, in the positive
-and negative forms by “_ahoaltin_,” “to love each other.” Permit me to
-point out to you the regularity of its structure, by merely conjugating
-one tense of it in the two forms.
-
-
-INDICATIVE PRESENT.
-
-                Positive Form.
-    N’dahoaltineen, _we love one another_.
-    K’dahoaltihhimo, _you love one another_.
-    Ahoaltowak, _they love one another_.
-
-                Negative Form.
-    Matta n’dahoaltiwuneen, _we do not love one another_.
-    Matta kdahoaltiwihhimo, _you do not love one another_.
-    Matta ahoaltiwiwak, _they do not love one another_.
-
-You will find the whole verb conjugated in Zeisberger, therefore I
-shall not exemplify further. You see there is no singular voice in this
-verb, nor is it susceptible of it, as it never implies the act of a
-single person. In the negative form, “matta” or “atta” is an adverb
-which signifies “no” or “not,” and is always prefixed; but it is not
-that alone which indicates the negative sense of the verb. It is also
-pointed out by _wu_ or _wi_, which you find interwoven throughout the
-whole conjugation, the vowel immediately preceding being sometimes
-changed for the sake of sound, as from “aholt_a_wak,” “they love each
-other,” is formed “ahoalt_i_wiwak,” “they do not love each other.”
-
-I will point out further, if you have not already observed it, what I
-am sure you will think a grammatical curiosity; it is a concordance
-in tense of the adverb with the verb. Turn to the future of the same
-negative conjugation in Zeisberger, and you will find:
-
-  Mattatsch n’dahoaltiwuneen, _we shall or will not love each other_.
-  Mattatsch k’dahoaltiwihhimo, _you_--
-  Mattatsch ahoaltiwiwak, _they_--
-
-I have said already that _atsch_ or _tsch_ is a termination which in
-the conjugation of verbs indicates the future tense. Sometimes it is
-attached to the verb, as in _matta ktahoaliwitsch_, “thou shalt or wilt
-not love me,” but it may also be affixed to the adverb as you have seen
-above, by which means a variety is produced which adds much to the
-beauty and expressiveness of the language.
-
-You have asked me whether the Delaware language has inversions
-corresponding with those of the Latin? To this question, not being a
-Latin scholar, I am not competent to give an answer; I can only say
-that when the Indian is well or elegantly spoken, the words are so
-arranged that the prominent ideas stand in front of the discourse; but
-in familiar conversation a different order may sometimes be adopted. We
-say, in Delaware, _Philadelphia epit_, “Philadelphia at,” and not, as
-in English, “at Philadelphia.” We say “bread give me,” and not “give me
-bread,” because _bread_ is the principal object with which the speaker
-means to strike the mind of his hearer.
-
-In the personal forms, or as you call them, _transitions_ of the active
-verbs, the form expressive of the pronoun governed is sometimes placed
-in the beginning, as in _k’dahoatell_, “I love thee,” which is the
-same as _thee I love_; for _k_ (from _ki_), is the sign of the second
-person; sometimes, however, the governing pronoun is placed in front,
-as in _n’dahoala_, “I love him,” _n’_ being the sign of the first
-person, I. In these personal forms or transitions, one of the pronouns,
-governing or governed, is generally expressed by its proper sign, _n’_
-for “I” or “me,” _k’_ for “thou” or “thee,” and _w’_ for “he or him;”
-the other pronoun is expressed by an inflexion, as in _k’dahoalohhumo_,
-I love you, _k’dahoalineen_, thou lovest us, _k’dahoalowak_, thou
-lovest them. You may easily perceive that the governing pronoun is not
-always in the same relative place with the governed.
-
-That these and other forms of the verbs may be better understood, it
-will not be amiss to say something here of the personal pronouns. They
-are of two kinds: separable and inseparable. The separable pronouns are
-these:
-
-  Ni, _I_.
-  Ki, _thou_.
-  Neka, _or_ nekama, _he_ or _she_.
-  Kiluna, _we_.
-  Kiluwa, _you_.
-  Nekamawa, _they_.
-
-There are other personal pronouns, which I believe to be peculiar to
-the Indian languages; such are:
-
-  Nepe, _I also_.
-  Kepe, _thou also_.
-  Nepena, _or_ kepena, _we also_.
-  Kepewo, _you also_.
-  Kepoak, _they also_.
-
-The inseparable pronouns are _n_ for the first person, _k_ for the
-second, and _w_ or _o_ for the third, both in the singular and the
-plural. They are combined with substantives in the possessive forms,
-as in _nooch_, my father, _kooch_, thy father; the third person is
-sometimes expressed by the termination _wall_, as _ochwall_, his or
-her father, and at other times by _w_, as in _wtamochol_, his or her
-canoe. In the plural, _nochena_, our father, _kochuwa_, your father,
-_ochuwawall_, their father.
-
-The verbal transitions are compounded of the verb itself, combined
-with the inseparable pronouns and other forms or inflexions, expressive
-of time, person, and number. To understand these properly requires
-attention and study.
-
-These things are not new to you, but they may be of use to those
-members of the Committee who have not, like yourself, had the
-opportunity of studying a grammar of this language.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XXII.
-
-FROM THE SAME.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 27th August, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I promised you in one of my former letters that I would
-write to a gentleman well acquainted with the Chippeway language, to
-ascertain whether it is true, as Professor Vater asserts, that it is
-almost without any grammatical forms. I wrote in consequence to the
-Rev. Mr. Dencke, a respectable Missionary of the Society of the United
-Brethren, who resides at Fairfield in Upper Canada, and I have the
-pleasure of communicating to you an extract from his answers to the
-different questions which my letter contained.
-
-
-EXTRACT.
-
-1. “According to my humble opinion, and limited knowledge of the
-Indian languages, being chiefly acquainted with the Delaware and
-Chippeway, of which alone I can speak with propriety, those two idioms
-are of one and the same grammatical structure, and rich in forms. I
-am inclined to believe that Mr. Duponceau is correct in his opinion
-that the American languages in general resemble each other in point of
-grammatical construction; for I find in that of Greenland nearly the
-same inflections, prefixes, and suffixes, as in the Delaware and the
-Chippeway. The inflexions of nouns and conjugations of verbs are the
-same. The pronominal accusative is in the same manner incorporated with
-the verb, which, in this form, may be properly called _transitive_.
-See Crantz’s History of Greenland, in German, page 283. These forms,
-though they are very regular, are most difficult for foreigners to
-acquire. I might give examples of conjugations in the various forms,
-but as they have not been expressly called for, I do not think
-necessary to do it.
-
-“The Greenlanders, it seems, have three numbers in the conjugation
-of their verbs, the singular, dual, and plural; the Delawares and
-Chippeways have also three, the singular, the _particular_, and the
-plural. For instance, in the Delaware language we say in the plural,
-‘_k’pendameneen_,’ which means ‘we _all_ have heard;’ and in the
-particular number we say, ‘_n’pendameneen_,’ ‘we, who are now specially
-spoken of, (for instance, this company, the white people, the Indians,)
-have heard.’ Upon the whole, Crantz’s History of Greenland has given me
-a great insight into the construction of the Indian languages; through
-his aid, I have been able to find out the so necessary _infinitive_
-of each particular verb. By means of the transitions, Indian verbs
-have nine or ten different infinitives, whence we must conclude that
-it is very difficult to learn the Indian languages. There is also a
-peculiarity in them, by means of the duplication of the first syllable,
-as ‘_gattopuin_,’ ‘to be hungry;’ ‘_gagattopuin_,’ to be very hungry.
-
-2. “Carver’s Vocabulary of the Chippeway, I believe is not correct,
-though I have it not at present before me.
-
-3. “The numerals in the Chippeway up to ten, are as follows. I write
-them according to the German orthography. 1. Beschik. 2. Nisch. 3.
-Nisswi. 4. Newin. 5. Nanán. 6. N’guttiwaswi. 7. Nischschwaswi. 8.
-Schwaschwi. 9. Schenk. 20. Quetsch.”
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Thus far Mr. Dencke. I do not recollect whether I have already
-explained to you what he says about the “_particular_” number in the
-conjugation of the Delaware verbs. There is a distinction in the plural
-forms. “_K’pendameneen_, (_k’_ from _kiluna_, ‘we,’) means generally
-‘we have heard,’ or ‘we all have heard,’ not intending to allude to a
-particular number of persons; in ‘_n’pendameneen_,’ the ‘_n’_ comes
-from ‘_niluna_,’ which means ‘_we_,’ in particular, our family, nation,
-select body, &c. ‘_Niluna yu epienk_,’ ‘we who are here assembled,’
-_n’penameneen_, (for _niluna penameneen_) we see (we who are together
-see); _n’pendameneen_, we hear (we who are in this room hear). But
-when no discrimination is intended to be made, the form _kiluna_, or
-its abridgement _k’_ is used. _Kiluna elenapewit_, ‘we, the Indians’
-(meaning _all_ the Indians); _kiluna yu enda lauchsienk_, ‘we all that
-live upon earth;’ ‘_k’nemeneen sokelange_,’ we see it rain, (we _all_
-see it rain); _k’nemeneen waselehelete_, we _all_ see the light, (we
-and all who live upon earth see the light.)”
-
-I believe Mr. Zeisberger does not mention this distinction in his
-Grammar; but he could not say every thing.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XXIII.
-
-TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 30th August, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I thank you for your two favours of the 26th and 27th
-inst. I am very much pleased to find from the valuable extract of
-Mr. Dencke’s letter, which you have had the goodness to communicate,
-that the Chippeways have grammatical forms similar to those of the
-Delawares. Indeed, as far as my researches have extended, I have found
-those forms in all the Indian languages from Greenland to Cape Horn.
-The venerable Eliot’s Grammar shews that they exist in the idiom of the
-New England Indians, as he calls it, which is believed to be that of
-the Natick tribe. Crantz and Egede prove in the most incontrovertible
-manner that the language of Greenland is formed on the same _syntactic_
-or _polysynthetic_ model. So are the various dialects of Mexico, as far
-as I can judge from the Grammars of those languages that are in our
-Society’s library. Indeed, the authors of those Grammars are the first
-who have noticed the personal forms of the Indian verbs, and given
-them the name of _transitions_. I find from Father Breton’s Grammar
-and Dictionary of the Caribbee language, that those forms exist also
-in that idiom, and the Abbé Molina, in his excellent History of Chili,
-has shewn that the Araucanian belongs to the same class of languages.
-All the genuine specimens that we have seen of the grammatical forms
-of the Indians from north to south, on the continent, and in the
-islands, exhibit the same general features, and no exception whatever
-that I know of has yet been discovered. Father Sagard’s assertions
-about the Huron are not founded in fact, and are even disproved by the
-examples which he adduces, and Mr. Dencke’s testimony is sufficient
-to counterbalance the naked supposition of Professor Vater that the
-language of the Chippeways has no forms. Too much praise cannot be
-given to this learned author for the profound researches that he has
-made on the subject of American languages with a view to discover the
-origin of the ancient inhabitants of this continent, but not being
-on the spot, he had not the same means of ascertaining facts that we
-possess in this country. Had he lived among us, he would not so easily
-have been persuaded that there was such a difference between the
-different languages of the American Indians; that some of them were
-exceedingly rich in grammatical forms, and appeared to have been framed
-with the greatest skill, while others were so very poor in that respect
-that they might be compared to the idioms of the most savage nations in
-north-eastern Asia and Africa.[303] In Philology, as well as in every
-other science, authorities ought to be weighed, compared, and examined,
-and no assertion should be lightly believed that is not supported by
-evident proof faithfully drawn from the original sources.
-
-I do not positively assert that all the languages of the American
-Indians are formed on the same grammatical construction, but I think
-I may safely advance that as far as our means of knowledge extend,
-they appear to be so, and that no proof has yet been adduced to the
-contrary. When we find so many different idioms, spoken by nations
-which reside at immense distances from each other, so entirely
-different in their etymology that there is not the least appearance of
-a common derivation, yet so strikingly similar in their forms, that
-one would imagine the same mind presided over their original formation,
-we may well suppose that the similarity extends through the whole of
-the languages of this race of men, at least until we have clear and
-direct proof to the contrary. It is at any rate, a fact well worthy of
-investigation, and this point, if it should ever be settled, may throw
-considerable light on the origin of the primæval inhabitants of this
-country.
-
-The most generally established opinion seems to be, that the Americans
-are descended from the Tartars who inhabit the north-easternmost
-parts of Asia. Would it not be then well worth the while to ascertain
-this fact by enquiring into the grammatical forms and construction
-of the languages of those people? The great Empress Catharine
-employed a learned professor to compile a comparative vocabulary
-of those languages which are spoken within the vast extent of the
-Russian Empire. This was but the first step towards a knowledge of
-the character and affinities of those idioms. If something may be
-discovered by the mere similarity of words, how much farther may not
-we proceed by studying and comparing the “plans of men’s ideas,” and
-the variety of modes by which they have contrived to give them body and
-shape through articulate sounds. This I consider to be the most truly
-philosophical view of human language generally considered, and before
-we decide upon the Tartar origin of the American Indians, we ought, I
-think, to study the grammars of the Tartar languages, and ascertain
-whether their thoughts flow in the same course, and whether their
-languages are formed by similar associations of ideas, with those of
-their supposed descendants. If essential differences should be found
-between them in this respect, I do not see how the hypothesis of Tartar
-origin could afterwards be maintained.
-
-Professor Vater is of opinion that the language of the Cantabrians,
-whom we call Biscayans or Basques, a people who inhabit the sea coast
-at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains, is formed on the same model
-with that of the American Indians. We have in our Society’s library,
-a translation into that idiom of Royaumont’s History of the Bible.
-I acknowledge, that by comparing it with the original, I have found
-sufficient reason to incline in favour of the Professor’s assertion.
-This is a very curious fact, which well deserves to be inquired into.
-This Basque language, it is to be presumed, was once spoken in a
-considerable part of the ancient world, and probably branched out into
-various dialects. How comes it that those polysynthetic forms which
-distinguish it, have disappeared from all the rest of the continent of
-Europe, and are only preserved in a single language no longer spoken
-but by a handful of mountaineers? How comes it that the Celtic which
-appears no less ancient is so widely different in its grammatical
-construction? Are we to revive the story of the Atlantis, and believe
-that the two continents of America and Europe were once connected
-together? At least, we will not forget that the Biscayans were once
-great navigators, and that they were among the first who frequented the
-coasts of Newfoundland.
-
-But let us leave these wild theories, and not lose sight of our
-object, which is to ascertain facts, and let others afterwards draw
-inferences from them at their pleasure. In Father Breton’s Grammar
-and Dictionary of the Caribbee language, I have been struck with a
-fact of a very singular nature. It seems (and indeed there appears
-no reason to entertain the least doubt on the subject) that in that
-idiom the language of the men and that of the women differ in a great
-degree from each other. This difference does not merely consist in
-the inflexions or terminations of words, but the words themselves,
-used by the different sexes, have no kind of resemblance. Thus the
-men call an enemy _etoucou_, and the women _akani_; a friend in the
-masculine dialect is _ibaouanale_, in the female _nitignon_. I might
-adduce a much greater number of examples to shew the difference between
-these two modes of speaking. It does not, however, pervade the whole
-language; sometimes the termination of the words only differs, while
-in many cases the same words are used exactly alike by both sexes.
-But those which differ entirely in the two idioms are very numerous,
-and are in general terms of common use, such as names of parts of
-the body, or of relationship as father, mother, brother, sister, and
-many others. It is said a tradition prevails in the Caribbee islands
-that their nation was once conquered by another people, who put all
-the males to death and preserved only the females, who retained their
-national language, and would not adopt that of the conquerors. I am
-not much disposed to believe this story; the more so as I find similar
-instances in other idioms of different words being employed by the
-men and women to express the same thing. Thus among the Othomis, (a
-Mexican tribe) the men call a brother-in-law _naco_, and the women
-_namo_; a sister-in-law is called by the men _nabehpo_, and by the
-women _namuddu_. (Molina’s Grammar of the Othomi language, p. 38.) In
-the Mexican proper, the men add an _e_ to the vocative of every proper
-name, and say _Pedroe_ for _Pedro_; while the women leave out the
-_e_ and distinguish the vocative only by an affected pronunciation.
-(Rincon’s Mexican Grammar, p. 6.) It is said also that among the
-Javanese, there is a language for the nobles and another for the common
-people.[304] These are curious facts, and a discovery of their causes
-would lay open an interesting page of the great hidden book of the
-history of man.
-
-As I have determined to abstain from every hypothesis, I shall leave it
-to others to discover and point out the causes of these extraordinary
-facts; but I shall be obliged to you for informing me whether in any
-of the Indian languages that you know, there is any such difference of
-dialect between the two sexes, and in what it particularly consists.
-I cannot believe this story of the conquest of the Caribbee islands
-and of its producing that variety of language. I find it related by
-one Davis, an English writer, in whom I place no reliance; for he has
-pretended to give a Vocabulary of the Caribbee language, which he has
-evidently taken from Father Breton, without even taking the trouble of
-substituting the English for the French orthography. Carver acted with
-more skill in this respect.
-
-I thank you for the explanation which you have given of what Mr.
-Dencke calls the “_particular_ plural,” of the Chippeway and Delaware
-languages, of which I had no idea, as Zeisberger does not make any
-mention of it. It appears to me that this numerical form of language
-(if I can so express myself,) is founded in nature, and ought to have
-its place in a system of Universal Grammar. It is more natural than
-the Greek dual, which is too limited in its comprehension, while the
-particular plural expresses more, and may be limited in its application
-to two, when the context or the subject of the conversation requires
-it. I find this plural in several of the modern European languages;
-it is the _nosotros_ of the Spanish, the _noi altri_ of the Italian,
-and the French _nous autres_. There is nothing like it in English or
-German, nor even in the Latin. I am disposed to believe that this form
-exists also in the Greenland language, and has been improperly called
-_dual_ by those who have written on it. The Abbé Molina speaks also of
-a Dual in the Araucanian idiom, which he translates by _we two_. But he
-may have used a term generally known, to avoid the explanations which a
-new one would have required. However this may be, the particular plural
-is well worthy of notice.
-
-I shall be obliged to you for a translation of the Lord’s prayer in the
-Delaware language, with proper explanations in English. I suspect that
-in Loskiel is not correct.
-
-In reading some time ago one of the Gospels, (I think St. Mark’s,) in
-one of the Iroquois dialects, said to be translated by the celebrated
-chief Captain Brandt, I observed that the word _town_ was translated
-into Indian by the word _Kanada_, and it struck me that the name of the
-province of _Canada_ might probably have been derived from it. I have
-not been able to procure the book since, but I have now before me a
-translation of the English common prayer-book into the Mohawk, ascribed
-to the same chief, in which I find these words: “_Ne_ KANADA-_gongh
-konwayatsk Nazareth_,” which are the translation of “in a CITY called
-Nazareth,” (Matth. ii. 23.) The termination _gongh_ in this word
-appears evidently to be a grammatical form or inflexion, and _Kanada_
-is the word which answers for “_city_.” I should be glad to know your
-opinion of this etymology.
-
-I find in Zeisberger’s grammar, in the conjugation of one of the forms
-of the verb _n’peton_ “I bring,” _n’petagep_ in one place, and in
-another _n’petagunewoakup_, both translated into German by “_sie haben
-mir gebracht_,” “they have brought to me.” Are these words synonyma, or
-is there some difference between them, and which?
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XXIV.
-
-FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 5th September, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I have received your favour of the 30th ult. I answer
-it first at the end, and begin with your etymology of the word
-_Canada_. In looking over some of Mr. Zeisberger’s papers, who was
-well acquainted with the language of the Onondagoes, the principal
-dialect of the Iroquois, to which nation the Mohawks belong, I find
-he translates the German word _stadt_ (town) into the Onondago by
-“_ganatage_.” Now, as you well know that the Germans sometimes employ
-the G instead of the K, and the T instead of the D, it is very possible
-that the word _Kanada_ may mean the same thing in some grammatical
-form of the Mohawk dialect. As you have seen it so employed in Captain
-Brandt’s translation, there cannot be the least doubt about it. This
-being taken for granted, it is not improbable that you have hit upon
-the true etymology of the name _Canada_. For nothing is more certain
-than what Dr. Wistar once told you on my authority, that the Indians
-make more use of _particular_ than of _generic_ words. I found myself
-under very great embarrassment in consequence of it when I first began
-to learn the Delaware language. I would point to a tree and ask the
-Indians how they called it; they would answer an _oak_, an _ash_, a
-_maple_, as the case might be, so that at last I found in my vocabulary
-more than a dozen words for the word _tree_. It was a good while before
-I found out, that when you asked of an Indian the name of a thing, he
-would always give you the specific and never the generic denomination.
-So that it is highly probable that the Frenchman who first asked of
-the Indians in Canada the name of their country, pointing to the spot
-and to the objects which surrounded him, received for answer _Kanada_,
-(town or village), and committing the same mistake that I did, believed
-it to be the name of the whole region, and reported it so to his
-countrymen, who consequently gave to their newly acquired dominions the
-name of _Canada_.
-
-I had never heard before I received your letter that there existed a
-country where the men and the women spoke a different language from
-each other. It is not the case with the Delawares or any Indian nation
-that I am acquainted with. The two sexes with them speak exactly the
-same idiom. The women, indeed, have a kind of lisping or drawling
-accent, which comes from their being so constantly with children; but
-the language which they speak does not differ in the least from that
-which is spoken by their husbands and brothers.
-
-The question you ask about _n’petageep_ and _n’petagunewoakup_, both
-of which Zeisberger translates by _sie haben mir gebracht_, is easily
-answered. The translation is correct in both cases, according to the
-idiom of the German language, from which alone the ambiguity proceeds.
-_N’petageep_ means “they have brought to me,” but in a general sense,
-and without specifying by whom the thing has been brought. _Es ist mir
-gebracht worden_, or “it has been brought to me,” would have explained
-this word better, while _n’petagunewoakup_ is literally rendered by
-“_they_,” (alluding to particular persons,) “have brought to me,” or
-_sie haben mir gebracht_. You have here another example of the nicely
-discriminating character of the Indian languages.
-
-I believe I have never told you that the Indians distinguish the
-genders, animate and inanimate, even in their verbs. _Nolhatton_ and
-_nolhalla_, both mean “_I possess_,” but the former can only be used
-in speaking of the possession of things inanimate, and the latter of
-living creatures. NOLHATTON _achquiwanissall_, “I have or possess
-blankets;” _cheeli kœcu n’nolhattowi_, “many things I am possessed
-of,” or “I possess many things;” _woak nechenaunges nolhallau_, “and
-I possess a horse,” (and a horse I possess.) The _u_ which you see at
-the end of the verb _nolhalla_, conveys the idea of the pronoun _him_,
-so that it is the same as if you said, “and a horse I possess _him_.”
-It is the accusative form on which you observed in one of your former
-letters and is annexed to the _verb_ instead of the _noun_.
-
-In the verb “_to see_,” the same distinction is made between things
-animate and inanimate. _Newau_, “I see,” applies only to the former,
-and _nemen_ to the latter. Thus the Delawares say: _lenno newau_, “I
-see a man;” _tscholens newau_, “I see a bird;” _achgook newau_, “I see
-a snake.” On the contrary they say, _wiquam nemen_, “I see a house;”
-_amochol nemen_, “I see a canoe,” &c.
-
-It is the same with other verbs; even when they speak of things lying
-upon the ground, they distinguish between what has life and what is
-inanimate; thus they say, _icka_ schingiesch_in_[305] _n’dallemans_
-“there lies my beast,” (the verb _schingieschin_[305] being only used
-when speaking of animate things;) otherwise they will say: _icka_
-schingiesch_en n’tamahican_, “yonder lies my ax.” The _i_ or the _e_
-in the last syllable of the verb, as here used in the third person,
-constitutes the difference, which indicates that the thing spoken of
-has or has not life.
-
-It would be too tedious to go through these differences in the various
-forms which the verb can assume; what I have said will be sufficient to
-shew the principle and the manner in which this distinction is made.
-
-I inclose a translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Delaware, with the
-English interlined according to your wishes. I am, &c.
-
-
-THE LORD’S PRAYER IN THE DELAWARE LANGUAGE.
-
-  Ki                        _Thou_
-  Wetóchemelenk             _our Father_
-  talli                     _there_
-  épian                     _dwelling_
-  Awosságame,               _beyond the clouds,_
-  Machelendásutsch          _magnified or praised be_
-  Ktellewunsowágan          _thy name_
-  Ksakimowagan              _thy kingdom_
-  peyewiketsch              _come on_
-  Ktelitehewágan            _thy thoughts, will, intention, mind,_
-  léketsch                  _come to pass_
-  yun                       _here_
-  Achquidhackamike          _upon or all over the earth,_
-  elgiqui                   _the same_
-  leek                      _as it is_
-  talli                     _there_
-  Awosságame                _in heaven or beyond the clouds_,
-  Milineen                  _give to us_
-  eligischquik              _on or through this day_
-  gunagischuk               _the usual_, _daily_
-  Achpoan                   _bread_,
-  woak                      _and_
-  miwelendammauwineen       _forgive to us_
-  n’tschannauchsowagannéna  _our transgressions_ (faults),
-  elgiqui                   _the same as_
-  niluna                    _we_ (particular plural) _we who are here_
-  miwelendammáuwenk         _we mutually forgive them_,
-  nik                       _who or those_
-  tschetschanilawequéngik   _who have transgressed or injured us_
-                                (past participle)
-  woak                      _and_
-  kátschi                   _let not_
-  n’páwuneen                _us come to that_
-  li                        _that_
-  achquetschiechtowáganink  _we fall into temptation_; (ink, _into_),
-  shuckund                  _but_ (rather)
-  ktennineen                _keep us free_
-  untschi                   _from_
-  medhicking                _all evil_
-  Alod                      _for_
-  Knihillátamen             _thou claimest_
-  ksakimowágan[306]         _thy kingdom_
-  woak                      _and_
-  ktallewussoágan           _the superior power_
-  woak                      _and_
-  ktallowilissowágan        _all magnificence_
-  ne                        _from_
-  wuntschi                  _heretofore_
-  hallemiwi,                _ever_ (always)
-  Nanne leketsch.           _Amen._ (so be it; so may it come to pass.)
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XXV.
-
-TO MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  PHILADELPHIA, 1st October, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--Various professional avocations have prevented me from
-answering sooner your kind letter of the 5th ult. I thank you for the
-Delaware translation of the Lord’s prayer; it does not differ much from
-that in Loskiel, but the English explanations which you have given add
-greatly to its value.
-
-The information which your letter contains on the subject of the
-annexation to the verb of the form or inflexion indicative of the
-gender, is quite new to me. Though I was already acquainted with the
-principle on which this takes place, I was not fully aware of the
-extent of its application. We have already noticed and remarked upon
-the combination of the pronominal form with the active verb[307] in
-“_getannitowit n’quitayala_, I fear God;” in which the pronoun _him_
-is expressed by the last syllable _ala_ or _yala_, so that it is the
-same as if you said “_God I fear him_,” in Latin _Deus timeo eum_,
-and by contraction, _Deus timeum_. With this it is not difficult to
-pursue the same course or “plan of ideas,” by connecting not only the
-subject pronoun, but its gender, animate, or inanimate, with the verbal
-form. The idea of the sexes, if the language admitted of it, might be
-expressed in the same manner. Thus also Latin words might be compounded
-on the Delaware plan. If I wished to express in that manner “_I see a
-lion_,” I would say _leo video eum_, and by contraction _videum_; and
-if the object was of the feminine gender, I would say _videam_, for
-_video eam_. The difference between the Latin and the Delaware is that
-in the former the ideas of the pronoun and its gender are expressed by
-a _nominal_ and in the latter by a _verbal_ form. I consider _leonem
-video_, as a contraction of _leo eum video_; the _n_ being interposed
-between _leo_ and _eum_, and the _u_ in _eum_ left out for euphony’s
-sake. In the same manner _fœminam_ appears to me to be contracted
-from _fœmina eam_;[308] whence we may, perhaps, conclude that in the
-formation of different languages, the same ideas have occurred to the
-minds of those who framed them; but have been differently combined, and
-consequently differently expressed. Who would have thought that the
-barbarous idioms of the American savages could have thrown light on the
-original formation of the noble and elegant language of ancient Rome?
-Does not this very clearly shew that nothing is indifferent in science,
-and above all, that we ought by no means to despise what we do not know?
-
-I thought we had exhausted all the verbal forms of the Delaware
-language, when I accidentally fell upon one which Zeisberger has
-not mentioned in his grammar, but of which he gives an example in
-his vocabulary or spelling-book. It is a curious combination of the
-relative pronoun “_what_” or “_that which_” with an active verb,
-regularly conjugated through the several transitions or personal forms.
-The author thus conjugates the present of the indicative.
-
-
-FIRST TRANSITION.
-
-            _Singular._                           _Plural._
-
-  Elan, _what I tell thee_,            ellek, _what I tell you_,
-  elak, _what I tell him_.             elachgup, _what I tell them_.
-
-
-SECOND TRANSITION.
-
-            _Singular._                           _Plural._
-
-  Eliyan, _what thou tellest me_,      eliyenk, _what thou tellest us_,
-  elan, _what thou tellest him_.       elachtup, _what thou tellest them_.
-
-
-THIRD TRANSITION.
-
-  _Singular._              _Plural._
-
-  Elit, _what he tells me_,              elquenk, _what he tells us_,
-  elquon, _what he tells thee_,          elquek, _what he tells you_,
-  elat, elguk, _what he tells him_.      elatup, elatschi, _what he tells
-                                             them_.
-
-
-FOURTH TRANSITION.
-
-  _Singular._                        _Plural._
-
-  Elenk, _what we tell you_,         ellek, _what we tell you_,
-  elank, _what we tell him_.         elanquik, _what we tell them_.
-
-
-FIFTH TRANSITION.
-
-  _Singular._                        _Plural._
-
-  Eliyek, _what you tell me_,        eliyenkup, _what you tell us_,
-  elatup, _what you tell him_.       elaachtitup, _what you tell them_.
-
-
-SIXTH TRANSITION.
-
-  _Singular._                        _Plural._
-
-  Elink, _what they tell me_,        elgeyenk, _what they tell us_,
-  elquonnik, _what they tell thee_,  elgeyek, _what they tell you_,
-  elaachtit, _what they tell him_.   elatschik, _what they tell us_.
-
-Thus I have given myself the pleasure of transcribing this single tense
-of one of the moods of this beautiful verb, which I find is used also
-in the sense of “_as I tell thee_,” &c., and is a striking example of
-the astonishing powers of this part of speech in the Delaware language.
-Can you tell me where those powers end? Is there anything which a
-Delaware verb will not express in some form or other? I am no longer
-astonished to find that Mr. Zeisberger has not displayed in his grammar
-all the richness of this idiom. A single verb, with its various forms
-and transitions, would almost fill a volume, and there are no less than
-eight conjugations, all of which were to be explained and illustrated
-by examples!
-
-But it is not in the verbs alone that consist the beauties of this
-language. The other parts of speech also claim our attention. There I
-find, as well as in the verbs, forms and combinations of which I had
-not before conceived an idea. For instance, Zeisberger tells us that
-there are nouns substantive in the Delaware which have a _passive
-mood_! Strange as this may appear to those who are unacquainted with
-Indian forms, it is nevertheless a fact which cannot be denied; for
-our author gives us several examples of this _passive noun_, all ending
-with the substantive termination _wagan_, which, as you have informed
-me, corresponds with the English _ness_, in “happiness,” and the German
-_heit_ or _keit_, in the numerous words ending with these syllables.
-Permit me to select some of the examples given by Zeisberger.
-
-  Machelemuxowagan, _honour, the being honoured_.
-  Gettemagelemuxowagan, _the receiving favour, mercy, tenderness_.
-  Mamschalgussiwagan,[309] _the being held in remembrance_.
-  Witahemgussowagan, _the being assisted or helped_.
-  Mamintochimgussowagan,[310] _the being esteemed_.
-  Wulakenimgussowagan, _the being praised_.
-  Machelemoachgenimgussowagan, _the receiving honour and praise_.
-  Amangachgenimgussowagan, _the being raised or elevated by praise_.
-  Schingalgussowagan, _the being hated_.
-  Mamachtschimgussowagan, _the being insulted_.
-
-You will, I am afraid, be disposed to think that we have changed
-places, and that I am presuming to give you instruction in the Delaware
-language; but I am only repeating to you the lessons that I have
-learned from Zeisberger, to save you the trouble of explaining what I
-can obtain from another source; to be corrected, if I have committed
-mistakes, and to receive from you the information which my author
-does not give. Besides, as our correspondence is intended for the use
-of the Historical Committee, my occasional extracts from Zeisberger,
-and the observations to which they give rise, are addressed to them
-as well as to you, and under your correction, may contribute to give
-them a clearer idea of the forms of the Indian languages. Our letters
-thus form a kind of epistolary conference between the scholar and his
-master, held before a learned body, who profit even by the ignorance
-of the student, as it draws fuller and more luminous explanations from
-the teacher. Had I proceeded otherwise, your task would have been much
-more laborious and troublesome, and it would have been ungenerous to
-have exacted it from you.
-
-In this manner I have relieved you from the trouble of explaining the
-_passive substantives_ of Zeisberger, unless I should have mistaken his
-meaning, in which case, you will, of course, set me right. But this
-author does not tell us whether there are on the other hand _active
-substantives_, such as “_the honouring_,” “_the favouring_,” “_the
-remembering_,” “_the praising_,” “_the insulting_,” “_the hating_.”
-Here I beg you will be so good as to supply his deficiency, and explain
-what he has left unexplained.
-
-I find also that there are diminutive words in the Delaware, as in the
-Italian, such as _lennotit_, a little man, (from _lenno_); _amementit_,
-a little child, (from _amemens_); _wiquames_, a little house, (from
-_wiquam_), &c. Pray, are there also augmentatives? Is there any
-difference between the diminutive terminations _tit_ and _es_, and what
-is it?
-
-I have been told that you intend soon to visit Philadelphia; I shall
-rejoice to find it true, and to form a personal acquaintance with you,
-which, I hope, will produce a lasting friendship.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-
-
-
-LETTER XXVI.
-
-FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-  BETHLEHEM, 10th October, 1816.
-
-DEAR SIR.--I have hesitated whether I should answer your favour of
-the 1st inst., being very soon to set out for Philadelphia, where I
-shall be able to explain to you verbally everything that you wish to
-know in a much better manner than I can do in writing. As there are,
-however, but few questions in your letter, and those easily answered,
-I sit down to satisfy your enquiry, which will for the present close
-our correspondence. If you think proper to resume it after my return to
-this place, you will find me as ready as ever to continue our Indian
-disquisitions.
-
-In the first place, it cannot, I think, properly be said that
-substantives in general in the Delaware language have a passive mood;
-but there are substantives which express a passive situation, like
-those which you have cited, after Mr. Zeisberger. I do not know of any
-words which express the same thing _actively_, except the infinitives
-of active verbs, which are in that case substantively used. Such are,
-
-  Shingalgundin, _to hate_; or _the hating_.
-  Machelemuxundin, _to honour_; or _the honouring_.
-  Mamachkimgundin, _to insult_ (by words); or _the insulting_.
-
-The diminutive forms in the Indian are _tit_ and _es_; the former is
-generally applied to animate, and the latter to inanimate things.
-Thus we say _lennotit_, a little man; _amementit_, a little child;
-_wiquames_, a small house; and _amocholes_, a small canoe. This rule
-does not hold, however, in all cases; for the little fawn of a deer,
-although animate, is called _mamalis_, and a little dog among the
-Minsi is called _allumes_, (from _allum_, a dog.) _Chis_ or _ches_, is
-also a diminutive termination, which is sometimes applied to beasts;
-_achtochis_ and _achtoches_, “a small deer.”
-
-Augmentatives are compounded from the word _chingue_, which signifies
-large; and sometimes the two words are separately used.
-
-  Chingue, _or_ m’chingue puschis, _a large cat_.
-  Chingewileno (for _chingue lenno_), _a tall stout man_.
-  Chingotæney (for _chingue otæney_), _a large town_.
-  Chingi wiquam, _a large house_.
-  Chingamochol, _a large canoe_.
-  Chingachgook, _a large snake_, &c.
-
-There are a few augmentatives formed in a different manner; for
-instance, from _pachkshican_ or _kshican_, “a knife,” are formed
-_pachkschicanes_, “a small knife,” and _m’chonschicanes_,[311] “a large
-knife;” still it is easy to see that _m’chon_, in the latter word, is
-derived from _chingue_, large or great, which, with a little variation,
-brings it within the same rule with the others.
-
-You have, no doubt, observed in Zeisberger the terminations _ink_ and
-_unk_, which express the idea of locality, coupled with a substantive,
-as for instance:
-
-  Utenink, _or_ otænink, _from_ otæney, _a town_; _in the town_.
-  Utenink n’da, _I am going to town_, or _into the town_.
-  Utenink noom, _I am coming from within the town_.
-  Sipunk, (_from_ sipo) _to_ or _into the river_.
-  M’bink, (_from_ m’bi) _in the water_.
-  Hakink, (_from_ hacki) _in_ or _on the earth_.
-  Awossagamewunk, (_from_ awossageme), _in heaven_.
-  Wachtschunk n’da, _I am going up the hill_.
-  Wachtschunk noom, _I come from the hill_.
-  Hitgunk, _on_ or _to the tree_.
-  Ochunk, _at his father’s_.
-
-As you must have observed that many of our Indian names of places
-end with one or other of these terminations, such as _Minisink_,
-_Moyamensing_, _Passyunk_, &c., you will understand that all these
-names are in what we might call the _local_ case, which accounts for
-the great number of those which end in this manner.
-
-I beg you will not write to me any more for the present, as I do not
-know how soon I may have the pleasure of seeing you. I anticipate great
-satisfaction from your acquaintance, and hope it will be improved into
-a true _Indian_ friendship.
-
-  I am, &c.
-
-  J. HECKEWELDER.
-
-
-
-
-ERRATA IN PART II.
-
-
-  PAGE 352, LINE 11--For “_Zeisberger_” read “_Heckewelder_.”
-
-       359,      24--(of letter vi.) For “_from_” read “_for_.”
-
-       362,      15--For “_schawanáki_” read “_schwanameki_.”
-                 16--For “_chwani_” read “_chwami_.”
-
-       383,       1--(from the bottom) For “_k’lehelleya_” read
-                         “_k’lehellecheya_.”
-
-       386,      21--For “_wulatopnachgat_” read “_wulaptonachgat_.”
-                 23--For “_wulatonamin_” read “_wulatenamin_.”
-
-       392,      27--(of letter xvii.) For “_manner_” read “_matter_.”
-
-       397,       6 and 7--For “_achpansi_” read “_achpanschi_.”
-
-       401,      26--For “_Indian corn_” read “_a particular species of
-                        Indian corn_.”
-
-       404,       8--For “_ktahoatell_” read “_ktahoalell_.”
-                 18--For “_gunich_” read “_gunih_.”
-
-       410,      12--For “_eliwulek_” read “_eluwilek_.”
-                 13--For “_allowilen_” read “_allowilek_.” For the English
-                       translation, of these two words, substitute “_the most
-                       extraordinary, the most wonderful_.”
-                 14--For “_eluwantowit_” read “_eluwannitowit_.”
-                 16--For “_elewassit_” read “_elewussit_.”
-                 18--For “_the supremely good_” read “_the most holy one_.”
-
-       424,       6 and 7--For “_schingieschin_” read “_schingiechin_.”
-
-       429,       9--For “_mamschalgussiwagan_” read
-                         “_mamschalgussowagan_.”
-                 11--For “_mamintochimgussowagan_” read
-                         “_mamintschimgussowagan_.”
-
-       431,       4--(from the bottom) For “_m’chonschicanes_” read
-                         “_m’chonschican_.”
-
-
-
-
-ADDITIONAL ERRATUM IN PART I.
-
-  PAGE 323, LINE 34--For “_Indians_” read “_traders_.”
-
-
-
-
-  PART III.
-
-  WORDS, PHRASES, AND SHORT DIALOGUES,
-
-  IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE
-
-  _LENNI LENAPE, OR DELAWARE INDIANS_.
-
-  BY THE REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER,
-
-  OF BETHLEHEM.
-
-
-
-
-WORDS, PHRASES, ETC.,
-
-OF THE
-
-LENNI LENAPE, OR DELAWARE INDIANS.
-
-
-  N’mítzi, _I eat_.
-  N’gáuwi, _I drink_.
-  N’wachpácheli, _I awake_.
-  N’ménne, _I drink_.
-  N’papommíssi, _I walk_.
-  N’gagelícksi, _I laugh_.
-  N’mamentschi, _I rejoice_.
-  N’dáschwil, _I swim_.
-  N’manúnxi, _I am angry_.
-  N’mikemósi, _I work_.
-  N’delláchgusi, _I climb_.
-  N’nanipauwi, _I stand_.
-  N’lemáttáchpi, _I sit_.
-  Nópo, nóchpo, n’hóppo, _I smoke_.
-  N’schiweléndam, _I am sorry_.
-  N’gattópui, _I am hungry_.
-  N’gattósomi, _I am thirsty_.
-  N’pálsi, _I am sick_.
-  Nolamálsi, _I am well_.
-  N’nipitíne, _I have the tooth-ache_.
-  N’wilíne, _I have a head-ache_.
-  N’wischási, _I am afraid_.
-  N’wiquíhhalla, _I am tired_.
-  N’tschittanési, _I am strong_.
-  N’schawússi, _I am weak_, _feeble_.
-  N’túppocu, _I am wise_.
-  N’nanólhand, _I am lazy_.
-  N’pomóchksi, _I creep_.
-  N’dellemúske, _I am going away_.
-  N’gattúngwan, _I am sleepy_.
-  Oténink n’da, _I am going to town_.
-  Gelóltowak, _they are quarrelling_.
-  K’dahólel, _I love you_.
-  Kschingálel, _I hate you_.
-  Ponihi, _let me alone_.
-  Palli áal, _go away_.
-  Gótschemunk, _go out of the house_.
-  Ickalli áal, _away with you_.
-  Kschaméhella, _run_.
-  Ne nipauwi, _stop there_.
-  Undach áal, _come here_.
-  Kpáhi, _shut the door_.
-  Tauwúnni, _open the door_, _lid_, &c.
-  Pisellissu, _soft_.
-  Pisalatúlpe, _soft-shelled tortoise_.
-  Kulupátschi, _otherwise_, _on the other hand_, _else_, _however_.
-  Nahalíwi,}
-  Eiyelíwi,} _both_ (of them.)
-  Leu, _true_.
-  Attáne léwi, _it is not true_.
-  Alla gaski lewi, _it cannot be true_.
-  Bíschi, bíschihk, _yes_, _indeed_, (it is so.)
-  N’wingalláuwi, _I like to hunt_.
-  N’winggi mikemósi, _I like to work_.
-  N’schíngi mikemósi, _I don’t like to work_.
-  M’wingínammen, _I like it_.
-  N’wingándammen, _I like the taste_ (of it).
-  N’wíngachpihn, _I like to be here_.
-  N’schíngachpihn, _I dislike being here_.
-  N’mechquihn, _I have a cold, cough_.
-  Undach lénni, _reach it hither_.
-  Undach lénnemáuwil, _reach it to me_.
-  N’gattópui, _I am hungry_.
-  N’gattosomi, _I am thirsty_.
-  N’wiquíhilla, _I am tired, fatigued_.
-  N’tschitannéssi, _I am strong_.
-  N’schauwihilla, _I am weak, faint_.
-  N’wischási, _I am afraid_.
-  N’daptéssi, _I sweat_.
-  N’dágotschi, _I am cold, freezing_.
-  N’dellennówi, _I am a man_.
-  N’dochquéwi, _I am a woman_.
-  N’damándommen, _I feel_.
-  N’leheléche, _I live, exist, draw breath_.
-  Lécheen, _to exist, breathe, draw breath, be alive_.
-  Lechéwon, _breath_.
-
-    _Note._ As we would ask a person whom we had not seen for a
-    long time: “Are you _alive_ yet?”--or, is such and such a one
-    yet _alive_? the Indian would say:
-
-  Ili kleheléche? _do you draw breath yet_?
-  Leheléche íli nítis, N. N.? _does my favourite friend_ N. N. _yet
-    draw breath_?
-  Gooch ili lehelecheu? _does your father draw breath yet_?
-  Gáhawees ili lehelecheu? _does your mother draw breath yet_?
-  N’tschu! _my friend_.
-  N’tschútti, _dear, beloved friend_.
-  Nitis, _confidential friend_.
-  Geptschat, _a fool_.
-  Geptschátschik, _fools_.
-  Leppóat, _wise_.
-  Leppoeu, _he is wise_.
-  Leppoátschik, _wise men, wise people_.
-  Sókelaan, _it rains_.
-  K’schilaan, _it rains hard_.
-  Pélelaan, _it begins to rain_.
-  Achwi sókelaan, _it rains very hard_.
-  Alla sókelaan, _it has left off raining_.
-  Peelhácquon, _it thunders_.
-  Sasapeléhelleu, _it lightens_.
-  Petaquíechen, _the streams are rising_.
-  M’chaquiéchen, _the streams are up, high_.
-  Choppécat, _the water is deep_.
-  Meetschi higíhelleu, _the waters are falling_.
-  Síchilleu meétschi, _the waters have run off_.
-  Tatehúppecat, _shallow water_.
-  Gahan, _very low water, next to being dried up_.
-  K’schuppéhelleu, _a strong current, riffle_.
-  Pulpécat, _deep dead water, as in a cove or bay_.
-  Clampéching, _a dead running stream, the current imperceptible_.
-  Kscháchan, _the wind_.
-  Ta úndchen? _from whence blows the wind_?
-  Lowannéunk úndchen, _the wind comes from the north_.
-  Schawannéunk úndchen, _the wind comes from the south_.
-  Schawanáchen, _south wind_.
-  Lowannáchen, _north wind_.
-  Wundchennéunk, _in the west_.
-  Gachpatteyéunk, _in the east_.
-  Moschháquot, _a clear sky_.
-  Kschiechpécat, _clear water, clear, pure water_.
-  Achgumhócquat, _cloudy_.
-  Páckenum, _dark_, (very.)
-  Pekenink, _in the dark_.
-  Pisgeu, _it is dark_.
-  Pisgéke, _when it becomes dark_, (is dark.)
-  Mah! _there, take it_!
-  Yuni, _this_.
-  Nanni, nan, _that_.
-  Wullíh, _yonder_.
-  Wáchelemi, _afar off_.
-  Wáchelemat? _is it afar off, a great way off_?
-  Péchuat, _near, nigh_.
-  Pechuwíwi, _near_, (not far off.)
-  Pechútschi, _near_.
-  Pechu lennitti, _directly, presently_.
-  Pechu, _soon_, _directly_.
-  Alíge, _if so_, _nevertheless_.
-  Alíge n’dallemúsca, _I will go for all_, _nevertheless I will go_.
-  Yu úndachqui! _this way_, _to this side_!
-  Icka úndachqui, _to yon side_.
-  Ickalli úndachqui! _still further on that way!_
-  Wullih! _yonder!_
-  Wullíh táh! _beyond that!_
-  Pennó wullíh! _look yonder!_
-  Nachgiéchen, _it has hit against something_, (cannot move or be
-      driven forward,) as _a joist_, _a pin in a building_.
-  Clagáchen, _it rests on something in the water, is grounded_.
-  Clagáchen amóchol, _the canoe is aground, rests on something_.
-  Clagáchen aschwitchan, _the raft has grounded_.
-  Tauwihilla, _sunk_, _it has sunk_.
-  N’dámochol k’tauwíhille, _my canoe sunk_.
-  Gachpattol amóchol, _take the canoe out of the water_.
-  Gachpallátam, _let us get out and go on shore_.
-  Pusik! _embark!_ (ye.)
-  Pusil! _embark!_ (thou.)
-  Wischíksil! _be thou vigilant, quick, in earnest and exert thyself!_
-  Wischíksik! _be ye vigilant, in earnest, quick!_ (about it.)
-
-    _Note._ The word wischíksi or wischíxi
-    is by the white people interpreted
-    as signifying “_be strong_,” which does
-    not convey the true meaning of this
-    word: it comprehends more; it asks
-    for _exertions to be made, to fulfil the
-    object_.
-
-  N’petalogálgun! _I am sent as a messenger!_
-  N’sagimáum petalogálgun yu pétschi, _my chief has sent me as a
-      messenger to you_.
-  Matta nutschquem’páwi, _I am not come for nothing_, (meaning, being
-      on an errand.)
-  Pechu k’pendammenéwo wentsche payan, _you will soon hear why I am
-      come here_.
-  Tschingetsch kmátschi? _when do you return home again?_
-  Sédpook! _at day break!_
-  N’dellgun lachpi gatta páame, _I was told to hasten, and return
-      quickly_.
-  Lachpí, _quick_, (without delay.)
-  N’mauwi pihm, _I am going to take a sweat_ (at the sweat house).
-  N’dapi pihm, _I am come from sweating_ (from the sweat house).
-  N’dapelláuwi, _I am come from hunting_.
-  N’dápi notamæsi, _I come from taking fish with the spear_.
-  N’dapi áman, _I come from fishing with the hook and line_.
-  N’dapi achquáneman, _I come from bushnet fishing_.
-  Notameshícan, _a fishing spear_, _gig_.
-  Aman, _a fish hook_.
-  Achquáneman, _a bush net_.
-  Apatschiáne, _when I return_.
-  Góphammen,  } _to shut up anything close_, _a door_, &c.
-  K’páhammen, }
-  Kpáhi, _shut the door_.
-  Kpáskhamen, _to plug up tight_.
-  Tauwún, _open the door_.
-  Tauwúnni, _open the door for me_.
-  M’biák, _a whale_, (fish.)
-  Yuh’ allauwítan! _come, let us go a hunting!_
-  Nelema n’metenaxíwi, _I am not yet ready_.
-  K’metenaxi yúcke? _are you now ready?_
-  Nélema ta! _not yet!_
-  Pechu lenítti, _by and by_.
-  Laháppa pehil! _wait a little for me!_
-  Nelema n’gischambíla níwash! _I have not yet done tying up my pack!_
-  Yúh’ yehúcke allemuskétam! _well now let us go on!_
-  Schuck sokeláan gachtáuwi! _but it will rain!_
-  Quanna ta! _even if it does_, _no matter if it does_!
-  Alla kschilánge, _when the shower is over_.
-  Ta hatsch gemauwikéneen? _at what place shall we encamp?_
-  Wdiungoakhánnink, _at the white oak run_.
-  Enda gochgochgáchen, _at the crossing, fording-place_.
-  Enda tachtschaúnge, _at the narrows_, (where the hill comes close
-      on the river.)
-  Meechek achsinik, _at the big rock_.
-  Gauwáhenink, _at the place of the fallen timbers_.
-  Sikhéunk, _at the salt spring_.
-  Pachséyink, _in the valley_.
-  Wachtschúnk, _on the hill_.
-  Yapéwi, _on the river bank_.
-  Gámink, _on the other side of the river_.
-  Eli shíngeek, _on the flat_, (level upland.)
-  Mahónink, _at the lick_, (deer lick.)
-  Oténink, _in the town_.
-  Tékenink, _in the woods_.
-  Hachkihácanink, _in the field_.
-  Pockhapóckink, _at the creek between the two hills_.
-  Menatheink, _on the island_.
-  Enda lechauhánne, _at the forks of the river_.
-  Enda lechauwíechen, _at the forks of the road_.
-  Sakunk, _at the outlet of the river_, (mouth of the river.)
-  T’huppecúnk, _at the cold spring_.
-  K’mésha? _did you kill a deer?_
-  Atta, n’palléha! _no, I missed him!_
-  Yuh’ allácqui! _what a pity!_
-  Biesch knéwa? _then you did see one?_
-  Nachen n’newa achúch, _three times I saw deer_.
-  Quonna eet kpúngum machtit, _perhaps your powder is bad_.
-  Na leu, _that is true_, _so it turned out to be_.
-  Achtschíngi pockteu, _it scarcely took fire_.
-  Achtuchuíke wérnan? _are there plenty of deer where you was?_
-  Atta ta húsca, _not a great many_.
-  Nángutti schuck n’peenhálle, _I saw but few tracks_.
-  Machk kpenhálle? _did you track any bears?_
-  Biesch n’penhálle mauchsu, _I tracked but one_.
-  Schuck n’dállemons mekane, _but my dog_.
-  Palli uchschíha, _drove him off_.
-  N’gatta amochólhe, _I want to make a canoe_.
-  Wítschemil! _help me!_
-  N’pachkamen gachtáuwi, _I want to get bled_.
-  Yuh, nanne léketsch, _well do so_, _let it be so_.
-  N’matamálsi, _I feel unwell_.
-  Woak n’nipitíne, _and have the tooth-ache_.
-  Wítschemil! _help me!_
-  Poníhil, _let me alone_.
-  Tschitgússil! _be still_, _hold your tongue_!
-  Kscháhel! _strike hard_, _lay on well_! (on wood, &c.)
-  Míleen, _to give_, _the giving_.
-  Mil, _give_.
-  Mili, _give me_.
-  Milineen, _give us_.
-  Miltin, _given_, (was already.)
-  Miltoágan, _a present_.
-  N’milgun, _it was given to me_.
-  Milo, _give him_.
-  Milátamo, _let us give him_.
-  Sehe! _hush_, _be quiet_!
-  Elke! _O dear_, _wonderful_!
-  Ekesa! _miserable_, _for shame_!
-  Suppínquall, _tears_.
-  Lepácku, _he cries_.
-  E gohán, _yes, indeed_.
-  Kéhella, _aye_, _yes_.
-  Kehellá? _so, is it possible?_
-  Kehella lá! _O yes_, _so it is_!
-  Yuh kehella! _well, then!_
-  La kella! _to be sure_, _’tis so_!
-  Kehella kella! _yes, yes!_
-  E-E, _yes_, (a lazy _yes_.)
-  Mátta, _no_.
-  Tá, _no_, (a lazy _no_.)
-  Tagú, _no_, _not_.
-  Atta ta, _no, no_.
-  Eekhockewítschik mamachtagéwak, _the nations are warring against
-      each other_.
-  Yuh allácqui na lissichtit, _indeed it is a pity they do so_.
-  Napenaltowaktsché, _they will be scalping each other_.
-  Auween won gintsch pat? _who is that who just now came?_
-  Taktáani, _I don’t know_.
-  Mauwi pennó, _go and see_.
-  Auween kháckev? _who are you?_ (of what nation.)
-  Lennápe n’hackey, _I am an Indian_, (of the Lenni Lenape.)
-  Ta kóom? _where do you come from?_
-  Oténink nóom, _I come from the town_.
-  Auween kpetschi, witscheuchgun? _who came with you here?_
-  Na nípauwit, _he who stands there_.
-  Lennápe? _is he an Indian?_ (a Lenni Lenape.)
-  Tah, Mengwe, _no, he is a Mingo, an Iroquois_.
-  Kpetschi witscheuchgun otenink untschi? _did he come with you from
-      the town?_
-  Matta! n’mattelúkgun, _no! he fell in with me_ (by the way).
-  Ta tallí? _where?_
-  Wulli tah achtschaúnge! _yonder at the narrows!_
-  Ki gieschquíke? _this day?_ (to-day.)
-  Atta! welaquíke, _no! last evening_.
-  Kœcu undochwe wentschi yu páat? _what is he come here for_, _what
-      is he after_?
-  Taktani, schuck n’tschupínawe! _I don’t know, but I mistrust him!_
-  Tcshpináxu gáhenna, _he appears suspicious_, _has a suspicious
-      appearance_.
-  Gichgemotket quónna, _probably he is a thief_.
-  Wewitschi eet, _most likely_, (he is such.)
-  N’gemotemúke n’dállemons nechnaúnges, _my horse has been stolen from
-      me_.
-  Wichwínggi gemotgéwak Menge, _the Mingoes are very fond of stealing_.
-  Yuh amachgídieu, _they are vagabonds_.
-  Gachtíngetsch, _next year_.
-  Lehelechejane, _If I live_, (or am alive.)
-  Gamhackinktsch n’da, _I will go across the sea_, (or more properly)
-      _to the country beyond the sea_.
-  Clámachphil! _sit still!_
-  Schíki a na Lenno, _that is a fine, pretty man_.
-  Quatsch luppackhan? _why do you cry?_
-  N’nilchgun na nipauwit, _he that stands there struck me_.
-  Uchschímo meetschi, _he has already ran off_, _made away with
-      himself_.
-  T’chúnno! _catch him!_
-  Gachbílau! _tie him!_
-  Lachénau! _let him loose!_
-  Weemi, _or_ wemi auween lue, _everybody says_.
-  Wigwingi geloltóak schwánnakwak, _that the white people are fond
-      of quarrelling_.
-  N’matúnguam, _I had a bad dream_.
-  N’mátschi, _I will go home_.
-  Siquonne lappitsch knewi lehellecheyan! _in the spring you will see
-      me again if I am alive!_
-  Yuh, schuck mámschali! _well, but do remember me!_
-  Natsch leu, _it shall be so_, _that shall be done_.
-  N’nuntschímke, _I have been called_.
-  Auween guntschimgun? _who called you?_
-  N’dochquéum, _my wife_.
-  N’nitsch undach aal! _come hither my child!_
-  Lachpi! _quick!_
-  Nayu nípauwi (or nípawi), _there stand_.
-  Pelláh, _indeed_, _surely_, _so so_.
-  Petalamo auween, _somebody sounds_ (calls out) _the alarm yell_,
-      (signifying danger at hand.)
-  Yuh, shimoítam! _come, let us run off!_
-  Nélema ta! _not yet!_
-  Quanna eet auween gatta napenálgun! _perhaps somebody is coming
-      to attack and scalp us!_
-  Wewitschi eet, _probably_, _may-be_.
-  Pennáu! _look!_
-  Wulli ta pépannik! _yonder they are coming!_
-  Auween knéwa? _who do you see?_
-  Machelook, _or_ chelook schwánnakwak, _many white people_.
-  Papomiscuak? _are they on foot?_
-  Alénde, _some of them_.
-  Schuk matta weémi, _but not all of them_.
-  Gachtonalukguntsch matta uchschimuiénge, _we shall be attacked if
-      we do not make off with ourselves_.
-  Yuh, uchschimuítam alíge, _well then, let us make off at any rate_.
-  Mattapewíwak nik schwannakwak, _the white people are a rascally set
-      of beings_.
-  Kilunéwak wingi, _they are giving to lying_.
-  Kschinggálguna gehenna, _they hate us truly_.
-  Gemotemukguna wíngi, _they like, are disposed to rob us, are thieves
-      upon us_.
-  Yuh, gachtonalátam! _well, let us fall upon them, attack them_.
-  Longundowináquot, _it looks likely for peace_, _there is a prospect
-      of peace_.
-  Pennau won! _look at that one!_
-  Achgíeuchsu, _he is drunk_.
-  Achgepíngwe, _he is blind_.
-  Achgépcheu, _he is deaf_.
-  Kpítscheu, _he is foolish_.
-  Sópsu, _he is naked_.
-  Mamanúnxu, _he is angry_.
-  Scháaksu, _he is covetous_.
-  Pihmtónheu, _he has a crooked mouth_.
-  Ilau, _he is a great war-captain_.
-  Sakímau, _he is a chief_.
-  Kschamehellátam, _let us run together_.
-  Típaas, _a hen_. Tipátit, _a chicken_.
-  Tschólens, _a bird_. Tscholéntit, _a little bird_.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-  Abbott, Rachel, 341.
-
-  Abenakis, a name of the Lenape, xliii., 121, 123, 126.
-
-  Acadia, inhabited by the Souriquois, etc., 121.
-
-  Achsinning, 184.
-
-  Achtschingi clammui, 199.
-
-  Adair, James I., 126.
-
-  _Adelung’s Mithridates_, 124.
-
-  Ahouandâte or Wyandots, xliv.
-
-  Albany, xxx., xxxi., 61.
-
-  Albany River, the, 120.
-
-  Algonquins, the, 95;
-    language, 121, 122, 123, 124.
-
-  Allegheny River, the, 84, 294.
-
-  Alligewi or Allegheny, the, 48, 53, 126.
-
-  Alligewi Sipu, the Allegheny River, 48.
-
-  Anderson, John, a Quaker trader, 241 _et seq._
-
-  Apalaches or Wapanachkis, the, 126.
-
-  Apalachian nation, the, 126.
-
-  Aquanoshioni, national name of the Six Nation Indians, 96, 97, 98.
-
-  Arundel and Robbins, Messrs., 173.
-
-  Assiniboils or Sioux, the, 119, 123.
-
-  Assinipoetuk, the, 119.
-
-  Aubrey, Lætitia, 336.
-
-
-  Bartholinus, Kasper, 118.
-
-  _Barton’s New Views_, 121, 122, 126.
-
-  Bear, the naked, 255.
-
-  Belts of Wampum, 109.
-
-  Benezet, John Stephen, xxx.
-
-  Bethlehem, xxx.;
-    Indians at, 85, 90, 91, 92, 251, 332.
-
-  Beverwyck, xxxi.
-
-  Big Beaver River, 190, 196.
-
-  Blackfoot Indians, 121.
-
-  Boudinot, Elias, 331.
-
-  Brodhead, General Daniel, 70, 237.
-
-  Butterfield’s _Crawford’s Campaign against Sandusky_ referred to, 284.
-
-
-  Calhoon, Thomas, an Indian trader, 270.
-
-  Canada, xxxvi., 56, 85, 93, 120, 121, 126, 342.
-
-  Canai or Kanhawas, the, xliv., 90, 122.
-
-  Canajoharie, xxxi.
-
-  Canaways, the, xliv.
-
-  Canawese, the, xliv.
-
-  Canibas, the, 121.
-
-  Carolina, xxxii., xxxvii.
-
-  Carolina, North, 122.
-
-  Carver, Captain Jonathan, 119;
-    his “_Three Years’ Travel through the interior parts of North
-      America_,” _ibid._; 268, 322;
-    quoted, 324, 339.
-
-  Catawbas, the, 126.
-
-  Cayahaga, Delaware preacher at, 291.
-
-  Cayahaga River, 85.
-
-  Cayugas, the, 96, 99.
-
-  Chaktawas, the, 126.
-
-  Chapman, Abraham, and John, 67.
-
-  Chapman, a Jew trader, 257.
-
-  Chaquaquock, Indian name for the English, 142.
-
-  Charlevoix, Father, 123, 124, 331.
-
-  Chemenk, 91, 92.
-
-  Chenos, an old Indian, brings down rain, 236.
-
-  Cherokees, the, 64, 65, 88, 89, 95;
-    language of, 119, 171, 327.
-
-  Chesapeake Bay, 50.
-
-  Chickesaws, the, 125.
-
-  Chingleclamoose, 199.
-
-  Chippeways or Algonquins, language of, 119; xl., 90, 124, 130, 144,
-      176, 212.
-
-  Choctaws, the, 125.
-
-  Christian Indians, xl.
-
-  Christinaux, the, 123.
-
-  Clavigero, the Abbé, 331.
-
-  Cochnewagoes, the, a mixed race of Indians, 93.
-
-  Coghnewago, 52.
-
-  Coghnewago Hills, 52.
-
-  Colden, Cadwallader, his _History of the Five Indian Nations_ quoted,
-      xxxii., xxxiv., xliii., 55, 120.
-
-  _Collections of Maps, Historical Society_, referred to, 93, 94.
-
-  _Colonial Records of Penna._, xxxv., 178.
-
-  Conecocheague, 341.
-
-  Conestoga Indians, the murder of, 68, 80, 184, 192.
-
-  Connecticut, 94.
-
-  Conois, the, xliv.
-
-  Cornplanter, the, 112.
-
-  Cornstalk, the, 89, 184.
-
-  Coshocton, 237.
-
-  Crantz, David, a Moravian historian, his _History of Greenland_
-      referred to, 118.
-
-  Crawford. Col. William, 133;
-    tortured by Indians, 284;
-    dialogue with Capt. Wingenund, 285.
-
-  Creeks, the, 95, 121, 125.
-
-  Cushman, the Rev. Mr., of the Plymouth Colony, 330.
-
-
-  David, a Moravian Indian, 166.
-
-  David’s Path, 168.
-
-  De Laet, 126.
-
-  Delamattenos, the, 80.
-
-  De la Ware, Lord, xliii.
-
-  Delaware hunter and the bear (anecdote), 255.
-
-  Delaware Water Gap, 264.
-
-  Denmark, 119.
-
-  Detroit, xl., 49, 55, 108, 110, 119, 121, 133, 144, 171, 174, 226,
-      230, 258, 284.
-
-  _Detroit Gazette_ quoted, 243.
-
-  Doctol, Indian for Doctor, 231.
-
-  Duncan, David, 280.
-
-  Dunmore’s War, 89, 263, 278.
-
-  Du Ponceau to Heckewelder, letters of, 353, 364, 369, 376, 379, 387,
-      392, 403, 416, 426.
-
-  Du Ponceau to Wistar, letter of, 359.
-
-  Du Pratz, 126.
-
-  Dutch, Indian account of their arrival in New York, 71 _et seq._;
-      xxx., xxxii., xxxiii., xxxiv., xxxviii., 61, 74, 75.
-
-  Dutchemaan, the Dutch so called by the Indians, 60, 77.
-
-  Du Vallon, 126.
-
-
-  Easton, xxxv., 79, 168, 303.
-
-  Edwards, Bryan, 331.
-
-  Edwards, the Rev. Jonathan, 94, 125, 127.
-
-  Egede, P., 118.
-
-  Eliot, the Rev. John, 94, 125, 127.
-
-  Elliot, Matthew, 152.
-
-  Enda Mohatink, “_where human flesh was eaten_,” 200.
-
-  Esquimaux Indians, 118.
-
-  Etchemins, the country of the, 121.
-
-  Evans, Mr., murder of, at Pittsburg, 111.
-
-
-  Florida Indians, 95, 347.
-
-  Floridian languages, 125.
-
-  Forks of Delaware, the, 86.
-
-  Fort Allen, 166, 333.
-
-  Fort Duquesne, 86.
-
-  Fort Harmar, 112.
-
-  Fort McIntosh, 173, 219.
-
-  Fort Washington, 183.
-
-  Franklin at Fort Allen, 166.
-
-  Freeman, Mr., an Indian Peace Commissioner, 182.
-
-  French and Indian War, the, 67, 88.
-
-  French Missionaries, 119.
-
-
-  Gaaschtinick or Albany, 60.
-
-  Gachgawatschiqua, a Shawano chief, 86.
-
-  Gambold, the Rev. John, 126.
-
-  Gelelemend or Killbuck, a Delaware chief, 233;
-    biographical sketch of, _ibid._
-
-  Gentellemaan (gentleman), 188.
-
-  Georgia, 86, 121.
-
-  Gibson, Col. John, biographical sketch of, 48;
-    letter to the Rev. N. Seidel, 82, 85, 132.
-
-  Girty, Simon, 152, 279.
-
-  Gladwyn, Major, at Detroit, 108.
-
-  Glicanican or Indian tobacco, 212.
-
-  Glikhican, Isaac, a Moravian Indian, 341.
-
-  Gnadenhütten on the Mahoning, 91.
-
-  Goshachking, 237, 295, 327.
-    (See Coshocton.)
-
-  Greenland, inhabitants of, 118;
-    Moravian mission in, _ibid._
-
-  Greentown, incident occurring at, 144.
-
-  Greenville, treaty of, xli., 298.
-
-  Guyandots, the, xliv.
-
-
-  Hardin, Mr., an Indian Peace Commissioner, 182.
-
-  Harris, John, on the site of Harrisburg, 90.
-
-  Heckewelder, the Rev. John G. E., biographical sketch of, vii.-xiv.;
-    at Detroit, 144;
-    in Upper Canada, 168;
-    on the Muskingum, 102, 171;
-    associated with Gen. R. Putnam, 183;
-    on the Big Beaver, 190;
-    at Tuscarawas, 205;
-    at Lower Sandusky, 219;
-    at New Gnadenhütten on the Huron, 226;
-    dialogue with Killbuck, 234;
-    dialogue with Chenos, 237;
-    his “_Collection of the names of chieftains and eminent men of the
-      Delaware Nation_” alluded to, 270;
-    general observations and anecdotes, 310 _et seq._;
-    at Post Vincennes, 311;
-    at Marietta, 312;
-    advice to travellers, 318.
-
-  Heckewelder to Du Ponceau, letters of, 361, 371, 375, 380, 383, 395,
-      399, 409, 414, 422, 430.
-
-  Heckewelder to Wistar, letters of, 356, 358.
-
-  Henry, Judge William, of Lancaster, 82.
-
-  Hermit’s Field, the, 200.
-
-  Hervas, 126.
-
-  Holland, Luke, a Delaware, 178 _et seq._
-
-  Hoosink, 255.
-
-  Hudson’s Bay Company, the, 118, 120.
-
-  Huron River, now the Clinton, 93.
-
-  Hurons, the, xliv.;
-    disunited from the Iroquois, 119;
-    language of, 122.
-
-
-  Iceland, 119.
-
-  Indiana Territory, 85.
-
-  Indian Grammars by the Spaniards, 127.
-
-  Indians, their historical traditions, 47.
-    mounds and fortifications, 48, 49.
-    treatment of, by the Europeans, 76 _et seq._
-    general character, 100 _et seq._
-    belief in an all-wise and good Creator, or Mannito, 101.
-    hospitality, 101.
-    civility, 103.
-    humor and wit, 104.
-    respect for the aged, 104, 163 _et seq._
-    sense of justice, 105.
-    form of government, 107.
-    education of their children, 113 _et seq._
-    signs and hieroglyphics, 127 _et seq._
-    drawings, 130.
-    hunters’ marks, 131.
-    oratory, 132.
-    metaphorical expressions, 137 _et seq._
-    names given their own people and the whites, 141 _et seq._
-    intercourse with each other, 145 _et seq._
-    political manœuvres, 150 _et seq._
-    manner of marriage and treatment of their wives, 154 _et seq._
-    pride and greatness of mind, 170 _et seq._
-    wars and the causes which lead to them, 175.
-    manner of surprising an enemy, 177 _et seq._
-    peace-messengers, 181 _et seq._
-    treaties of peace, 185 _et seq._
-    ill treatment by the whites, 187 _et seq._
-    food, and the manner of preparing it, 193 _et seq._
-    dress, and love of ornaments, 202 _et seq._
-    dances, songs, and sacrifices, 208 _et seq._
-    scalp-whoops or yells, 215 _et seq._
-    alarm-whoop, 217.
-    death-halloo, _ib._
-    physical constitution and diseases, 220 _et seq._
-    _materia medica_, 224 _et seq._
-    sweat-ovens, 225.
-    physicians and surgeons, 228 _et seq._
-    doctors or jugglers, 231 _et seq._
-    superstitions, 239 _et seq._
-    manner of initiating boys, 245.
-    system of mythology, 249.
-    coats-of-arms, 252.
-    behaviour towards the insane, and their ideas regarding suicide,
-      257 _et seq._
-    drunkenness, 261 _et seq._
-    funerals, 268 _et seq._
-    friendships, 277 _et seq._
-    preachers and prophets, 290 _et seq._
-    computation of time, 306 _et seq._
-    astronomical and geographical knowledge, 308 _et seq._
-    general character compared with that of the whites, 328 _et seq._
-
-  Iroquois, the, 95 _et seq._;
-    supplied by the English with fire-arms, xxxii.;
-    the name given to the Six Nations by the French, xliv.;
-    the language, 119;
-    in the State of New York, 121.
-
-  Irvine, General William, letter to Wm. More, 81;
-    letter from Washington, 284.
-
-
-  Jefferson, Thomas, 122.
-
-  Johnson, Sir William, 68, 120.
-
-  Juniata River, Shawanose on the, 86, 87.
-
-
-  Kanawha, the Great, 89, 184.
-
-  Karalit, language of the, 118.
-
-  Kickapoos, the, 121.
-
-  Killbuck or Gelelemend, 233;
-    dialogue with Heckewelder, 234.
-
-  Killistenoes, the, 95, 322.
-
-  Knisteneaux, the, 95.
-
-  Knox, H., Secretary of War, letter to Heckewelder, 311.
-
-  Koguethagechton, Indian name of Capt. White Eyes, 280.
-
-  Kuequenaku, the Indian name of Philadelphia, 142.
-
-
-  Labrador, 118.
-
-  La Chine, a murderous affair between two Indians at, 105.
-
-  Laehauwake, Easton, 79.
-
-  La Hontan, Father, xliii., 119;
-    list of Indian nations, 121, 122, 124.
-
-  Lake Erie, 49, 85.
-
-  Lake St. Clair, 49.
-
-  Languages, Indian, 118 _et seq._
-
-  Las Casas, 331.
-
-  Leather Lips, a Wyandot chief, 297;
-    death of, 298.
-
-  Lehigh Hills, 52.
-
-  Lehigh River, the, 52.
-
-  Lehigh Water Gap, the, 91, 234, 334.
-
-  Lehighton, site of Gnadenhütten on the Mahoning, xxxi.
-
-  Lenapewihittuck, the Delaware River, 51, 78.
-
-  Lenni Lenape, national name of the Delawares, xxvi.;
-    were they or were they not conquered by the Mengwe? xxvii. _et
-      seq._; xiii.;
-    wars with the Iroquois, xxvii.;
-    settle on the Atlantic coast, xxviii.;
-    made women by the Iroquois, xxix.;
-    on New York Island, xxxvii.;
-    in the far West, 47;
-    on the Mississippi, 49;
-    confederated with the Mengwe to fight the Allegewi, 50;
-    on Chesapeake Bay, _ib._;
-    on the Delaware, 51;
-    consent to become women, 58;
-    seek to gain their independence, 62;
-    take up arms against the English, 68;
-    assert their national independence, 70;
-    their fate subsequent to 1763, and that of their kindred tribes, 83
-      _et seq._;
-    their number, 85;
-    language, 121, 124;
-    song of the warriors, 211;
-    words, phrases, etc., 431 _et seq._;
-    Tortoise, Turkey, and Wolf tribes of, 51, 52, 253.
-
-  Lincoln, Gen. Benjamin, 105.
-
-  Logan, the well-known Indian chief, 89;
-    his celebrated speech, 132.
-
-  Lord’s Prayer, the, in the Delaware, 424.
-
-  Loskiel, the Rev. George H., biographical sketch of, xxix.;
-    his _History of the Mission of the United Brethren_
-    _among the Indians of North America_” referred to, xxix., xxx.,
-      xxxvii., xl., 48;
-    quoted in full touching the making women of the Delawares by the
-      Iroquois, 59;
-    referred to, 70, 85, 86, 88, 90, 92, 97, 126, 134;
-    quoted, 206;
-    referred to, 213, 341.
-
-  Lower Sandusky, 159, 173.
-
-
-  Mæchachtinni, the name given by the Lenape to the Senecas, 99.
-
-  Machtitschwanne, or Massachusetts, 77.
-
-  Mackenzie, Alexander, 121.
-
-  Mahicanni or Mohicans, xliii., 53;
-    their account of the Iroquois making women of the Delawares, 60;
-    Moravian mission among them, 93;
-    called Mahingans, xliii., 121.
-
-  Mahikanders or Mohicans, xliii.
-
-  Maine, Province of, xxviii., 121.
-
-  Manahachtanienk, New York Island, 77, 262.
-
-  Maqua, the Mohican name of the Six Nations, xliv., 98.
-
-  Marietta, 311, 312.
-
-  Maryland, 53, 91, 92, 122.
-
-  Matassins, the, 123.
-
-  McKee, Alexander, 152.
-
-  Mechanschican, _i.e. Long Knives_, 142, 143.
-
-  Meigs, Return Jonathan, U. S. Agent to the Cherokees, 126.
-
-  _Memorials of the Moravian Church_ referred to, 302.
-
-  Mengwe, Delaware name of the Six Nations, xxvi.;
-    in the Great Lake region, 50;
-    on the St. Lawrence, 54;
-    their treachery toward the Lenni Lenape, 54, 64, 68, 98.
-
-  Messissaugees, the, 121.
-
-  Miamis or Twightwees, xii.;
-    of Lenape origin, 121;
-    their country, 93.
-
-  Michael, a Monsey buried at Bethlehem, 206 _et seq._
-
-  Micmacs, the, 121.
-
-  Minisink, the country of the Minsis, 52.
-
-  Mingoes, name given to the Six Nations by the whites, xliv., 98, 130.
-
-  Minsis or Monseys, 52, 53, 84, 85, 123, 124.
-
-  Miquon, Delaware name of William Penn, 66, 78, 142.
-
-  Mississippi River, the, xxvii., xxxii., xxxvii., 47, 49, 51, 85, 95,
-      118.
-
-  Mitchell, Mr., U. S. Agent to the Creeks, 126.
-
-  Mobilians, the, 126.
-
-  Mohawks, the, xxxiv., xxxv., 61, 96, 99.
-
-  Mohicanichtuck, Hudson’s River, xxxviii., 52, 53, 75.
-
-  Mohicans, xxviii., xxx., xxxiii., 71, 86.
-
-  Monongahela River, the, 87.
-
-  Monsonies, the, 123.
-
-  Montreal, 105.
-
-  Moravian Indians, the, xl., 81;
-    settle at Wyalusing, 83, 197;
-    settle on the Muskingum, 84, 85;
-    at Philadelphia, 166;
-    grant of lands by Congress to, 168;
-    on the Retrenche, _ibid._;
-    near Detroit, 176;
-    murder of, on the Muskingum, 184, 283.
-
-  Morgan, Col. George, 300.
-
-  Mourigans or Mohicans, xliii.
-
-  Muhheekanes or Mohicans, xliii.
-
-  Munsell’s _Collections of the History of Albany_ quoted, xxxi.
-
-  Muskanecun Hills, the, 52.
-
-  Muskingum or Tuscarawas River, xl., 84, 85, 102, 112, 171, 180, 252.
-
-  Muskohgees or Creeks, 125.
-
-
-  Namaesisipu, the Mississippi River, 47, 49, 51.
-
-  Nanticokes, the, xxviii., xliii., 53, 83, 90 _et seq._, 122.
-
-  Natchez, the, 126.
-
-  Natick dialect, the, 125;
-    Eliot’s Bible in the Natick, 94.
-
-  Naudowessies, the, 95, 119, 268.
-
-  Nazareth, Capt. John at, 52, 220;
-    the Barony, 336.
-
-  Nentico or Nanticoke, xliv.
-
-  Nescopeck, 91, 166, 333.
-
-  New England, xxxii., 71.
-
-  New London, 94.
-
-  New York Island, xxxvi., xxxvii., 72, 208.
-
-  Niagara, xl., 174.
-
-  Nocharauorsul, the ground hog, myth of, 251.
-
-  Nordmann’s Kill, xxx., xxxi., xxxv., 60, 61.
-
-  North River, the, xxxvii., 51.
-
-  Nova Scotia, 121, 123.
-
-
-  Ohio, an Iroquois word, 48;
-    the river, 84, 86, 87, 339
-
-  Onas, Iroquois for William Penn, 142.
-
-  Oneida, 93.
-
-  Oneidas, the, 96, 99.
-
-  Ongwe-honwe, the name given themselves by the Iroquois, xxxiv.
-
-  Onondagoes, the, 96, 99.
-
-  Openagi, the, xliii.
-
-  Openangoes, the, 121.
-
-  Otayáchgo, Mohican name of the Nanticokes, 92.
-
-  Ottawas, the, xl., xii.
-
-  Owl Creek, 168.
-
-
-  Pachgantschihilas, a Delaware chief, 80.
-
-  Papunhank, a Monsey, 197.
-
-  Pascagoulas, the, 125.
-
-  Paxnos, a Shawano chief, 88.
-
-  Penn, William, 66, 107, 331.
-
-  Pequods, the, 94.
-
-  Perth Amboy, 148.
-
-  Philadelphia, Shawanose on the site of, 86;
-    Indians on the site of, 148.
-
-  Pilgerruh, a Moravian Mission, 85.
-
-  Pine Plains, Dutchess Co., N. Y., 93.
-
-  Pine Swamp, the, 166, 200.
-
-  Pipe, a Delaware chief, biographical sketch of, 133;
-    speech at Detroit, _ibid._, 151, 152, 153, 338, 347.
-
-  Pipe of Peace, 109.
-
-  Pittsburg, 69, 70, 86;
-    Mr. Evans murdered at, 111, 184, 190, 192, 279.
-
-  Point Pleasant, 89, 184.
-
-  Pontiac, 108.
-
-  Potomac River, the, 51, 90.
-
-  Pottowatomies, the, xli., 121.
-
-  Proctor, General Thomas, 295.
-
-  Proud’s _History of Pennsylvania_ quoted, 67.
-
-  Psindamocan, a preparation of Indian corn, 195.
-
-  Putnam, General Rufus, 183, 311.
-
-  Pyrlæus, the Rev. J. Christopher, biographical sketch of, xxx.;
-    his collection of Indian traditions in MS., 54;
-    account of the conspiracy of the Five Nations quoted, 56;
-    quoted, 61, 91, 96;
-    _Indian tradition_ quoted, 251, 347.
-
-
-  Quaekels, Quakers so called by the Indians, 143.
-
-  Quebec, 78.
-
-
-  Rauch, Christian Henry, a Moravian Missionary, 93.
-
-  River Indians, Mohicans so called, xxxiv., xliii.
-
-  Robbins and Arundel, Messrs., 173.
-
-  Rochefort, 126.
-
-  Rocky Mountains, 118.
-
-  Rogers’s _Key into the Language of the Indians of New England_
-      referred to, 142.
-
-  Rosenbaum, Cornelius, a Delaware, 264;
-    dialogue with Heckewelder, 265.
-
-
-  Sagard, Father Samuel, xliv.;
-    his Dictionary, 120, 127.
-
-  Samuel, a Moravian Indian, 220.
-
-  Sandusky, 153, 172;
-    Crawford’s campaign against, 284.
-
-  Sankhicanni, name given by the Lenape to the Mohawks, 99.
-
-  Savannah, 86, 121.
-
-  Schatikooks or Mohicans, xliii.
-
-  Scheyichbi, Indian name of New Jersey, 51.
-
-  Schussele’s painting, “The Power of the Gospel,” 294.
-
-  Schuylkill River, the, 86.
-
-  Schwannack, _i. e._, “salt beings,” 142.
-
-  Schweinitz’s _Life of Zeisberger_ referred to, 63, 81.
-
-  Senecas, 55, 69, 96, 99.
-
-  Sganarady, a Mohawk chief’s account of the origin of the Indians, 61,
-      250.
-
-  Sganiateratich-rohne, the Iroquois name of the Nanticokes, 92.
-
-  Shamokin, 91, 178.
-
-  Shawanose, the, xxxix., xli., 85 _et seq._; 121, 130.
-
-  Shechschequon, 91.
-
-  Shenango, 91.
-
-  Shikilimus at Shamokin, 88.
-
-  Shingask, 269;
-    funeral of his wife, 270 _et seq._
-
-  Shummunk, 91.
-
-  Silver Heels, a Shawano, 278.
-
-  Sioux or Assiniboils, the, 119.
-
-  Six Nations or Mengwe, their manner of attaining to power, xxxii. _et
-      seq._;
-    how they lost their power, xxxix. _et seq._; xliv.;
-    eat human flesh, 55;
-    unable to conquer the Delawares, 56;
-    their scheme to make women of the Delawares, _ib._;
-    insult the Delawares, 67, 119.
-
-  Snake Indians, the, 121.
-
-  Soccokis, the, 121.
-
-  Souriquois, the, 121.
-
-  Sproat, Col. Ebenezer, 312.
-
-  “_Star in the West, A_” referred to, 331.
-
-  Steiner, the Rev. Abraham, 49.
-
-  Stenton, John, 333;
-    his place attacked by Indians, 334, 335.
-
-  St. Lawrence, the, xxviii., xxxvii., 54, 56, 93, 95.
-
-  St. Pierre, the, 119.
-
-  Stockbridge, 93.
-
-  Susquehanna River, the, 50, 52, 90.
-
-  Sussee Indians, the, 121.
-
-  Sweat-ovens, 226.
-
-  Sweden, 119.
-
-
-  Tadeuskund or Honest John, 302.
-
-  Tallegewi, the, 48, 49.
-
-  Tamanend, 300.
-
-  Tamaqua, or King Beaver, 269.
-
-  Tammany Society, the, 301.
-
-  Tar-he, a Wyandot chief, 298.
-
-  Tassmanane, a preparation of Indian corn, 195.
-
-  Tatemy, Moses, Brainerd’s interpreter, 302, 307, 337.
-
-  Tawachguano, Delaware name of the Nanticokes, 92.
-
-  Tawalsantha, Indian name of Norman’s Kill, xxxi.
-
-  Tecumseh, 295.
-
-  Thomas, a Susquehanna Indian at Bethlehem, 267.
-
-  Thomson, Charles, xxxvi.
-
-  Thorhallesen, 118.
-
-  _Transactions of the Massachusetts Historical Society_ referred to,
-      94.
-
-  Trappers, the, Nanticokes so called, 92.
-
-  Treaties held with the Indians between 1740 and 1760, xxxv.
-
-  Trueman, Mr., an Indian Peace Commissioner, 182.
-
-  _Trumbull’s History of Connecticut_ referred to, 94.
-
-  Tschachgoos, the, 142.
-
-  Tuscarawas, the river, 85;
-    the town, 205.
-
-  Tuscaroras, the, 96, 99, 327.
-
-  Twightwees or Miamis, the, 121.
-
-
-  Umfreville, Mr., 121.
-
-  Unalachtgo, Turkey Delawares, 51, 53, 253.
-
-  Unamis or Turtles, 51, 53, 124, 250.
-
-  Unechtgo, Delaware name of Nanticokes, 92.
-
-  Upper Sandusky, 173.
-
-
-  Vater, Johann Severin, 124, 125, 126.
-
-  Vincennes, Post, 183, 311.
-
-  Virginia, xxviii., 53, 71, 90, 122.
-
-  Virginians or “Long Knives,” 76.
-
-  _Volney’s View of the Soil and Climate of the United States_ referred
-      to, 256.
-
-
-  Wabash River, the, 85, 183.
-
-  Waketemeki, 230.
-
-  Wampum, 109.
-
-  Wangomend, a Monsey preacher, 293 _et seq._
-
-  Wapanachki, xliii., 121, 123, 124, 126.
-
-  Wapsid Lenape, i. e. _the white people_, 142.
-
-  Wawundochwalend, a chief of the Tuscaroras, 206.
-
-  Wayne, Gen’l Anthony, xli., 89, 133, 192.
-
-  Weiser, Conrad, xxx., xxxi., 54.
-
-  Weissport, 166.
-
-  Wells, William, and the bear, 256.
-
-  Wetterholt, Captain Jacob, 334.
-
-  White, a Nanticoke chief, 90, 92.
-
-  White Eyes, Capt., a chief of the Western Delawares, xxxix.;
-    biographical sketch of, 69, 151, 152, 153, 279.
-
-  Whitefield, the Rev. George, 52, 336.
-
-  Williamson, Capt. David, in command of militia at Gnadenhütten on
-      Muskingum, 81;
-    his expedition by whom authorized, 283, 286.
-
-  Wingenund, Capt., a Delaware, 279, 284;
-    dialogue with Col. Crawford, 285 _et seq._
-
-  Wistar to Heckewelder, letters of, 354, 359.
-
-  Wolf tribe of Delawares, 52, 253.
-
-  Womelsdorf, xxx.
-
-  W’Tássone, name given by the Lenape to the Oneidas, 99.
-
-  Wyalusing, 83, 196.
-
-  Wyandots, xl., xli., xliv., 95, 119, 130.
-
-  Wyoming, 79, 91, 92, 166.
-
-
-  Yengees (_Yankees_), 77, 142, 143.
-
-
-  Zeisberger, the Rev. David, reference to his _Essay of a Delaware
-      and English Spelling-Book_, xliii., 125;
-    biographical sketch of, 63;
-    quoted, 97;
-    his German Iroquois Dictionary, 97, 120, 347;
-    his opinion of the Iroquois language, 120;
-    his Grammar of the Lenni Lenape language, 125, 127, 166, 279;
-    dialogue with Indian David, 167;
-    at Goschgoschink, 293, 338, 347.
-
-  Zinzendorf, Count Nicholas Lewis, in Penna., xxx.;
-    among the Shawanose of Wyoming, 88, 337.
-
-
-[Illustration: FINIS]
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[1] The annotations in brackets are by the Editor.
-
-[2] Between the words “_if_” and “_what_” insert “_we can credit_.”
-
-[3] A figurative expression, denoting the territory claimed by them,
-and occupied at the time.
-
-[4] Alluding to the white people settling those countries.
-
-[5] [The book referred to here and elsewhere frequently in the course
-of his narrative by the author, was written by the Rev. George Henry
-Loskiel, a clergyman of the Continental Province of the Moravian
-Church, and was published at Barby, Saxony, in 1789. It is entitled
-“Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Brüder unter den Indianern in
-Nordamerika,” and is a faithful record of the Christian work in which
-the Moravians engaged chiefly among the Lenape and Iroquois stocks of
-the aborigines, in the interval between 1735 and 1787. The material
-on which the author wrought in the preparation of his history was
-furnished mainly from the archives of his church at Herrnhut, to which
-duplicates of the missionaries’ journals were statedly forwarded. In
-this way he was enabled to produce a narrative which is marvellously
-accurate, even touching minor points of topography, despite the fact
-that the shifting scenes of his drama were laid in another hemisphere.
-The preface was written at Strickenhof, in Livonia, in May of 1788. In
-it Mr. Loskiel acknowledges his indebtedness for valuable assistance
-to the venerable Bishop Augustus G. Spangenberg, who had superintended
-the Moravian Mission in the New World in the interval between 1744
-and 1762; and to the veteran missionary David Zeisberger, at that
-time still in its service. It was the latter who supplied the larger
-portion of the material relating to the history, traditions, manners,
-and customs of the North American Indians, found in the ten chapters
-introductory to the history of the Mission. This valuable work was
-translated into English by the Rev. Christian Ignatius Latrobe, of
-London, in 1793, and published there, in 1794, by “The Brethren’s
-Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel.” It is now a rare book.
-Having been consecrated a Bishop for the American Province of his
-Church in 1802, Mr. Loskiel came to this country, settled at Bethlehem,
-Pa., where he died in 1814.]
-
-[6] Figurative expression. See Loskiel’s History, Part I. c. 10.[9]
-
-[7] For “_declaring at the same time_” read “_and declared afterwards_.”
-
-[8] [John Christopher Pyrlæus was sent by the heads of the Moravian
-Church at Herrnhut, Saxony, to Bethlehem, Pa., in the autumn of 1741,
-to do service in the Indian Mission. Having assisted Count Zinzendorf,
-during his sojourn in the Province in 1742, in the work of the ministry
-among a portion of the German population of Philadelphia, we find him,
-in January of 1743, prosecuting the study of the Mohawk under the
-direction of Conrad Weiser, the provincial interpreter, at Tulpehocken,
-(near Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pa.) This was in view of fitting
-himself for the office of corresponding secretary of the Mission Board
-at Bethlehem, and for the duties of an evangelist among the Iroquois
-stock of Indians, to whom it was purposed by the Moravians to bring the
-Gospel. At the expiration of three months he returned to Bethlehem,
-and in the following June, accompanied by his wife, who was a daughter
-of John Stephen Benezet, a well-known merchant of Philadelphia, set
-out for the Mohawk country, his destination being the Mohawk castle of
-Canajoharie. Here he remained upwards of two months, in which interval
-of time he visited the remaining Mohawk castles, and by constant
-intercourse with the Indians strove assiduously to perfect himself in
-their language. Such was his progress then and subsequently, that in
-1744 he felt himself competent to impart instruction in that important
-dialect of the Iroquois to several of his brethren at Bethlehem, who
-were training for missionaries. In 1748, while settled at Gnadenhütten,
-on the Mahoning, (Lehighton, Carbon County, Pa.,) he rendered similar
-service. Meanwhile he had acquired a knowledge of the Mohican, and in
-1745 there appeared his first translations of German hymns into that
-tongue--the beginnings of a collection for use in Divine worship in
-the Mission churches. Eight of the eleven years of his stay in this
-country were mainly spent in labors of the kind just enumerated. Having
-been liberally educated, Mr. Pyrlæus was well qualified for the work in
-which he engaged. Several of his contributions to this novel department
-of philology, in manuscript, are deposited in the library of the
-American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. Among these are essays
-on the grammatical structure of the Iroquois dialects, and a collection
-of notes on Indian traditions. The former Mr. Heckewelder names on
-a subsequent page, and from the latter he makes frequent extracts.
-In 1751 Mr. Pyrlæus sailed for England, where he was active in the
-ministry of his Church until his recall to Germany in 1770. He died at
-Herrnhut in 1785.]
-
-[9] [The passage referred to by Mr. Heckewelder is quoted in full by
-way of annotation on a subsequent page.]
-
-[10] [Norman’s Kill, named after Albert Andriese Bratt De Norman,
-an early settler of Beverwyck, rises in Schenectady County, has a
-south-east course of about twenty-eight miles, and empties into the
-Hudson, two miles south of Albany, in the town of Bethlehem. In records
-of 1677 it is called Bethlehem’s Kil. The Indian name of the stream was
-Tawalsantha. In the spring of 1617 the United New Netherlands Company
-erected a fort near the banks of Norman’s Kill, and in 1621 the Dutch
-made a solemn alliance and treaty of peace with the Five Nations, near
-its mouth.--_Munsell’s Collections of the History of Albany._ Albany,
-1870.]
-
-[11] For “_Mohicans_” read “_Lenape_.”
-
-[12] [”_The History of the Five Indian Nations depending on the
-Province of New York in America_, by _Cadwallader Colden_.” The
-first edition of this rare book was dedicated by the author to his
-Excellency, William Burnet, Esq., and was printed and sold by William
-Bradford in New York, 1727. Colden emigrated from Scotland in 1708, and
-first settled in Pennsylvania, engaging in the practice of medicine.
-Removing to New York in 1718, he was some time surveyor-general,
-subsequently a member of the King’s Council, and in 1761 commissioned
-Lieutenant-Governor of the Province. This commission he held at the
-time of his death at his seat on Long Island, in September of 1776.]
-
-[13] [The proceedings of these conferences and treaties with the
-Indians are spread upon the minutes of the Provincial Council of
-Pennsylvania, which were authorized to be printed by the Act of
-Legislature of April 4th, 1837, and published subsequently in seven
-volumes. They are known as “The Colonial Records.”]
-
-[14] At a Treaty, at Easton, in July and November, 1756.
-
-[15] [Should be _Thomson_.]
-
-[16] Loskiel’s History, Part I., ch. 10.
-
-[17] The Iroquois were at that time a confederacy of only Five Nations;
-they became Six afterwards when they were joined by the Tuscaroras.
-
-[18] Meaning, that the Five Nations would assist the white people in
-getting the country of their enemies, the Delawares, &c., to themselves.
-
-[19] Loskiel, Part I., ch. 10.
-
-[20] [The Indian converts attached to the Moravian Mission, whom Mr.
-Heckewelder invariably designates “Christian Indians” throughout his
-history. The Moravian Indians at this date were settled with their
-missionaries in three towns on the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum
-(now the Tuscarawas River), all within the limits of the present
-Tuscarawas County, Ohio.]
-
-[21] Loskiel, Part III., ch. 9.
-
-[22] The proper name is _Wtáwas_, the _W_ is whistled.
-
-[23] [In the summer of 1794, Gen. Wayne moved an army into the Ohio
-country, and on the 20th of August defeated the confederated Indians
-near the rapids of the Maumee, or Miami of the Lake. The result of this
-campaign was a treaty of peace, which was ratified at Greenville, the
-present county seat of Darke County, Ohio, in August of 1795, between
-the United States Government, represented by Wayne, and the Shawanese,
-Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Potawattomies, Miamis and smaller tribes,
-at which treaty about two-thirds of the present state of Ohio was ceded
-to the United States.]
-
-[24] [The missionary David Zeisberger, in a collection of Delaware
-vocables incorporated in “_An Essay of a Delaware and English Spelling
-Book for the use of the Schools of the Christian Indians on the
-Muskingum River_,” printed at Philadelphia, by Henry Miller, in 1776,
-defines _Lennilenape_, “Indians of the same nation.”]
-
-[25] Colden.
-
-[26] La Hontan.
-
-[27] The Dutch called them Mahikanders; the French Mourigans, and
-Mahingans; the English, Mohiccons, Mohuccans, Mohegans, Muhheekanew,
-Schatikooks, River Indians.
-
-[28] “Night’s encampment” is a halt of one year at a place.
-
-[29] The Mississippi, or _River_ of _Fish_; _Namæs_, a _Fish_; _Sipu_,
-a _River_.
-
-[30] The Iroquois, or Five Nations.
-
-[31] [Col. John Gibson, to whom Mr. Heckewelder frequently alludes, was
-born at Lancaster, Pa., in 1740. At the age of eighteen, he made his
-first campaign under Gen. Forbes, in the expedition which resulted in
-the acquisition of Fort Du Quesne from the French. At the peace of 1763
-he settled at that post (Fort Pitt) as a trader. Some time after this,
-on the resumption of hostilities with the savages, he was captured
-by some Indians, among whom he lived several years, and thus became
-familiar with their language, manners, customs, and traditions. In the
-expedition against the Shawanese under Lord Dunmore, the last royal
-governor of Virginia, in 1774, Gibson played a conspicuous part. On the
-breaking out of the Revolutionary war, he was appointed to the command
-of one of the Continental regiments raised in Virginia, and served with
-the army at New York and in the retreat through New Jersey. He was
-next employed in the Western department, serving under Gen. McIntosh
-in 1778, and under Gen. Irvine in 1782. At one time he was in command
-at Pittsburgh. In 1800 Col. Gibson was appointed Secretary and acting
-Governor of the territory of Indiana, a position which he filled for a
-second time between 1811 and 1813. Subsequently he was Associate Judge
-of Allegheny County, Pa. He died near Pittsburgh in 1822. He was an
-uncle of the late John B. Gibson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
-Pennsylvania between 1827 and 1851.]
-
-[32] Loskiel’s History of the Mission of the United Brethren, Part I.,
-ch. I.
-
-[33] [In 1789 Mr. Heckewelder, accompanied by Abraham Steiner,
-(subsequently a missionary to the Cherokees of Georgia,) visited the
-mission at New Salem, on the Petquotting, (now the Huron,) in Erie
-County, Ohio, on business relating to the survey of a tract of land on
-the Tuscarawas, which Congress had conveyed to the Moravians in trust
-for their Indians. This was to indemnify them for losses incurred at
-their settlements during the border-war of the Revolution.]
-
-[34] The _Glades_, that is to say that they crossed the mountains.
-
-[35] Meaning the river Susquehannah, which they call “the great Bay
-River,” from where the west branch falls into the main stream.
-
-[36] The word “Hittuck,” in the language of the Delawares, means a
-rapid stream; “Sipo,” or “Sipu,” is the proper name for a river.
-
-[37] [The Indians of this town proved troublesome neighbors to a small
-company of Moravians, who, in the spring of 1740, were employed by
-Whitefield to erect a large dwelling near its site, which he designed
-for a school for negroes. The town lay near the centre of a tract
-of 5,000 acres (now Upper Nazareth township, Northampton County,
-Pennsylvania), which Whitefield bought of William Allen, which he named
-Nazareth, and which, in 1741, he conveyed to the Moravians. Captain
-John and his clan of Delawares vacated their plantation in the autumn
-of 1742, and in the following year, the Moravians commenced their
-first settlement, and named it Nazareth. Whitefield’s house is still
-standing.]
-
-[38] Loskiel, part I., ch. 10.
-
-[39] The Reverend C. Pyrlæus, a pupil of Conrad Weiser, of whom he
-learned the Mohawk language, and who was afterwards stationed on the
-Mohawk River, as a Missionary, has, in a manuscript book, written
-between the years 1742 and 1748, page 235, the following note which he
-received from a principal chief of that nation, viz.: “The Five Nations
-formerly did eat human flesh; they at one time ate up a whole body of
-the French King’s soldiers; they say, _Eto niocht ochquari_; which is:
-Human flesh tastes like bear’s meat. They also say, that the hands are
-not good eating, they are _yozgarat_, bitter.”
-
-Aged French Canadians have told me, many years since, while I was at
-Detroit, that they had frequently seen the Iroquois eat the flesh of
-those who had been slain in battle, and that this was the case in the
-war between the French and English, commonly called the war of 1756.
-
-At a treaty held at the Proprietors house in Philadelphia, July 5th,
-1742, with the Six Nations, none of the Senecas attended; the reason of
-their absence being asked, it was given for answer, “that there was a
-famine in their country, and that a father had been obliged to kill two
-of his children, to preserve the lives of the remainder of the family.”
-See Colden’s History of the Five Nations, part II., page 52. See also
-the minutes of that treaty, printed at Philadelphia, by B. Franklin, in
-1743, p. 7, in the Collection of Indian Treaties in the library of the
-American Philosophical Society.
-
-[40] Loskiel, part I., ch. 1.
-
-[41] The Rev. C. Pyrlæus, in his manuscript book, page 234, says: “The
-alliance or confederacy of the Five Nations was established, as near
-as can be conjectured, one age (or the length of a man’s life) before
-the white people (the Dutch) came into the country. _Thannawage_ was
-the name of the aged Indian, a Mohawk, who first proposed such an
-alliance.” He then gives the names of the chiefs of the Five Nations,
-which at that time met and formed the alliance, viz.: “_Toganawita_,
-of the Mohawks; _Otatschéchta_, of the Oneidas; _Tatotarho_, of the
-Onondagos; _Togaháyon_, of the Cayugas; _Ganiatariò_ and _Satagarùyes_,
-from two towns of the Senecas, &c.,” and concludes with saying: “All
-these names are forever to be kept in remembrance, by naming a person
-in each nation after them,” &c., &c.
-
-[42] Loskiel, part I., ch. 10.
-
-[43] Loskiel, part I., ch. 10.
-
-[44] Ibid.
-
-[45] [The following is the passage from Loskiel, which that historian
-copied from David Zeisberger’s “Collection of Notes on the Indians,”
-compiled by the missionary during his residence in the valley of the
-Tuscarawas, about 1778. “According to the account of the Delawares,
-they were always too powerful for the Iroquois, so that the latter
-were at length convinced that if they continued the war, their total
-extirpation would be inevitable. They therefore sent the following
-message to the Delawares: ‘It is not profitable that all the nations
-should be at war with each other, for this will at length be the ruin
-of the whole Indian race. We have therefore considered a remedy by
-which this evil may be prevented. One nation shall be the _woman_. We
-will place her in the midst, and the other nations who make war shall
-be the man, and live around the woman. No one shall touch or hurt the
-woman, and if any one does it, we will immediately say to him, “Why
-do you beat the woman?” Then all the men shall fall upon him who has
-beaten her. The woman shall not go to war, but endeavor to keep peace
-with all. Therefore, if the men that surround her beat each other, and
-the war be carried on with violence, the woman shall have the right
-of addressing them, “Ye men, what are ye about? why do you beat each
-other? We are almost afraid. Consider that your wives and children
-must perish, unless you desist. Do you mean to destroy yourselves from
-the face of the earth?” The men shall then hear and obey the woman.’
-The Delawares add, that, not immediately perceiving the intention of
-the Iroquois, they submitted to be the _woman_. The Iroquois then
-appointed a great feast, and invited the Delaware nation to it; when,
-in consequence of the authority given them, they made a solemn speech
-containing three capital points. The first was, that they declared the
-Delaware nation to be the _woman_ in the following words: ‘We dress you
-in a woman’s long habit, reafilled ching down to your feet, and adorn
-you with ear-rings;’ meaning that they should no more take up arms.
-The second point was thus expressed: ‘We hang a calabash with oil and
-medicine upon your arm. With the oil you shall cleanse the ears of
-the other nations, that they may attend to good and not to bad words,
-and with the medicine you shall heal those who are walking in foolish
-ways, that they may return to their senses and incline their hearts to
-peace.’ The third point, by which the Delawares were exhorted to make
-agriculture their future employ and means of subsistence, was thus
-worded: ‘We deliver into your hands a plant of Indian corn and a hoe.’
-Each of these points was confirmed by delivering a belt of wampum, and
-these belts have been carefully laid up, and their meaning frequently
-repeated.
-
-“The Iroquois, on the contrary, assert that they conquered the
-Delawares, and that the latter were forced to adopt the defenceless
-state and appellation of a _woman_ to avoid total ruin.
-
-“Whether these different accounts be true or false, certain it is that
-the Delaware nation has ever since been looked to for preservation of
-peace, and entrusted with the charge of the great belt of peace and
-chain of friendship, which they must take care to preserve inviolate.
-According to the figurative explanation of the Indians, the middle of
-the chain of friendship is placed upon the shoulder of the Delaware,
-the rest of the Indian nations holding one end and the Europeans the
-other.”]
-
-[46] [_The Life and Times of David Zeisberger, the Western Pioneer
-and Apostle to the Indians, by Edmund de Schweinitz, Phila._, 1870,
-reviews the Moravian mission among the North American Indians from its
-beginnings to recent times, besides very fully portraying the career
-of the veteran missionary, who spent upwards of sixty years of his
-life as an evangelist to the Indians, thirty-six of which were passed
-within the limits of the present State of Ohio. He died on the 17th of
-November, 1808, at Goshen, on the Tuscarawas, in the 88th year of his
-age. Zeisberger, in the course of his long life in the Indian country,
-mastered the Delaware and the Onondaga of the Iroquois, into the former
-of which he made translations of a number of devotional books, while
-he studied both critically, as his literary efforts in that direction,
-partly published and partly in MS., amply testify.]
-
-[47] Mr. Proud, in his History of Pennsylvania, relates that, some
-time after the establishment of William Penn’s government, the Indians
-used to supply the family of one John Chapman, whose descendants still
-reside in Bucks County, with all kinds of provisions, and mentions
-an affecting instance of their kindness to that family. Abraham and
-John Chapman, twin children about nine or ten years old, going out one
-evening to seek their cattle, met an Indian in the woods, who told
-them to go back, else they would be lost. They took his advice and
-went back, but it was night before they got home, where they found the
-Indian, who had repaired thither out of anxiety for them. And their
-parents, about that time, going to the yearly meeting at Philadelphia,
-and leaving a young family at home, the Indians came every day to
-see whether anything was amiss among them. Such (says Proud) in many
-instances was the kind treatment of the Aborigines of this country to
-the English in their first and early settlement. Proud’s Hist., Vol.
-I., pp. 223, 224.
-
-[48] [For “Easton in Pennsylvania,” read _Philadelphia_. Easton, the
-county-seat of Northampton County, was laid out in the spring of 1752.]
-
-[49] For “1742,” read “_and November, 1756_.” [The latter was held at
-Easton.]
-
-[50] [The so-called French and Indian war, the fourth and last of the
-inter-colonial wars, which originated in disputes between the French
-and English concerning territorial claims, and which, after a seven
-years’ contest, resulted in establishing the supremacy of the latter
-over the civilized portions of North America.]
-
-[51] [The Conestogas remained on their ancestral seats, near the mouth
-of the Conestoga, in Manor township, Lancaster County, Penna., long
-after the other Indians on the Susquehanna had been crowded by the
-advance of civilization beyond Shamokin. Here the remnant of this tribe
-was fallen upon by Scotch-Irish partizans of Paxton township (now
-within the limits of Dauphin County) in December of 1763, all that
-were at the settlement killed, and their cabins burnt to the ground.
-Ten days later, the remainder of this inoffensive people, who had
-been lodged in the jail at Lancaster, were inhumanly butchered by the
-same band of lawless frontiersmen. In Heckewelder’s “Narrative of the
-Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians,”
-there is a statement by an eye-witness, touching the last scene in this
-bloody tragedy.]
-
-[52] [White Eyes, alias Koquethagachton, a celebrated captain and
-counsellor of the Delawares of the Ohio country, was first met
-by Heckewelder at his home, near the mouth of the Beaver (above
-Pittsburg), when the latter was on his way to the Tuscarawas, in the
-spring of 1762. When Zeisberger entered the valley of that river, in
-1772, and built Schönbrunn, the chieftain was residing six miles below
-Gekelemukpechunk, the then capital of his nation, in the present Oxford
-township, Coshocton County. In Dunmore’s war, as well as in the war of
-the Revolution, White Eyes strove strenuously to keep the Delawares
-neutral. Failing in this in the latter contest, and seeing himself
-necessitated to take sides, he declared for the Americans, joined Gen.
-McIntosh’s command, but died at Fort Laurens, on the Tuscarawas, in
-November of 1778, before the projected expedition, which was aimed at
-the Sandusky towns, moved. White Eyes was a warm friend of the Moravian
-mission, and was deeply interested in the progress of his people in the
-arts of civilized life.]
-
-[53] Indian chiefs, in their public speeches, always speak on behalf
-of their nation in the singular number and in the first person,
-considering themselves, in a manner, as its representatives.
-
-[54] [In August of 1779, Col. Daniel Brodhead, then commandant of
-Fort Pitt, moved with some troops up the Allegheny, and in the forks
-of that river destroyed several settlements, inhabited by Monsey and
-Seneca Indians. “The Delawares,” he writes in his report to the War
-Department, “are ready to follow me wherever I go.”]
-
-[55] Loskiel, part II., ch. 8.
-
-[56] Henry Hudson, a British navigator and discoverer in the employ
-of the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Amsterdam in command of
-the Half Moon, in April of 1609, in search of a north-eastern passage.
-Foiled by the ice in the higher latitudes, he turned southwards, and in
-September anchored in New York bay.
-
-[57] Dele “_in which_.”
-
-[58] Hackhack is properly a gourd; but since they have seen glass
-bottles and decanters, they call them by the same name.
-
-[59] These Dutchmen were probably acquainted with what is related
-of Queen Dido in ancient history, and thus turned their classical
-knowledge to a good account.
-
-[60] The Hollanders.
-
-[61] Manhattan, or New York Island.
-
-[62] For “_Delawares_” read “_Mohicans_.”
-
-[63] An Indian corruption of the word _English_, whence probably the
-nickname _Yankees_.
-
-[64] This word means “a cluster of islands with channels every way,
-so that it is in no place shut up or impassable for craft.” The
-Indians think that the white people have corrupted this word into
-_Massachusetts_. It deserves to be remarked as an example of the
-comprehensiveness of the Indian languages.
-
-[65] The Delaware river. I have said above, p. 51, that _Hittuck_
-means a rapid stream. I should have added that it means so only when
-placed at the end of another word, and used as a compound. Singly, it
-signifies a _tree_.
-
-[66] The Swedes and Dutch.
-
-[67] William Penn.
-
-[68] Land traders and speculators.
-
-[69] Easton, Northampton County, Pa.
-
-[70] This actually took place at a treaty held at Easton in July and
-November, 1756.
-
-[71] _Council house_ here means “Connexion District.”
-
-[72] _Pulling the council house down._ Destroying, dispersing the
-community, preventing their further intercourse with each other, by
-settling between them on their land.
-
-[73] _Putting the fire out._ Murdering them or their people, where they
-assemble for pacific purposes, where treaties are held, &c.
-
-[74] _Our own blood._ The blood flowing from the veins of some of our
-community.
-
-[75] Alluding to the murder of the Conestogo Indians, who, though of
-another tribe, yet had joined them in welcoming the white people to
-their shores.
-
-In a narrative of this lamentable event, supposed to have been written
-by the late Dr. Franklin, it is said: “On the first arrival of the
-English in Pennsylvania, messengers from this tribe came to welcome
-them with presents of venison, corn, and skins, and the whole tribe
-entered into a treaty of friendship with the first proprietor, William
-Penn, which was to last as long as the sun should shine, or the waters
-run in the rivers.”
-
-[76] _The fire was entirely extinguished by the blood of the murdered
-running into it; not a spark was left to kindle a new fire._ This
-alludes to the last fire that was kindled by the Pennsylvania
-government and themselves at Lancaster, where the last treaty was held
-with them in 1762, the year preceding this murder, which put an end to
-all business of the kind in the province of Pennsylvania.
-
-[77] _The great Swamp._ The Glades on the Allegheny mountains.
-
-[78] _Delamattenos._ The Hurons or Wyandots, whom they call their
-uncle. These, though speaking a dialect of the Iroquois language, are
-in connexion with the Lenape.
-
-[79] For “1787” read “1781.”
-
-[80] [These were the words of a war-chief of the Delawares,
-Pachgantschihilas by name, in the course of an address to the Moravian
-Indians at Gnadenhütten, in which he sought to persuade them to remove
-from their exposed position on the Tuscarawas to a place of safety
-among the Wyandots of the Maumee.]
-
-[81] For “_us_” read “_them_.”
-
-[82] [The massacre of Moravian Indians at Gnadenhütten was perpetrated
-on the 8th of March, 1782, by militia led by Col. David Williamson,
-of Washington County, Pa. The details of this atrocious affair are
-very minutely given by De Schweinitz in _The Life and Times of David
-Zeisberger_. While such of the borderers as had suffered from Indian
-forays sought to extenuate the deplorable transaction, it was at the
-same time made the subject of an investigation at the head-quarters
-of the department. With what result, however, is inferable from
-the following extract from a letter written by Gen. Irvine to His
-Excellency William Moore, President of the Supreme Executive Council of
-Pennsylvania, and dated _Fort Pitt, May 9, 1782_:--“Since my letter of
-the 3d inst. to your excellency, Mr. Pentecost and Mr. Cannon have been
-with me. They, and every intelligent person whom I have consulted with
-on the subject, are of opinion that it will be almost impossible ever
-to obtain a just account of the conduct of the militia at Muskingum.
-No man can give any account, except some of the party themselves; if,
-therefore, an inquiry should appear serious, they are not obliged, nor
-will they give evidence. For this and other reasons, I am of opinion
-farther inquiry into the matter will not only be fruitless, but in the
-end may be attended with dangerous consequences. A volunteer expedition
-is talked of against Sandusky, which, if well conducted, may be of
-great service to this country, if they behave well on this occasion. It
-may also in some measure atone for the barbarity they are charged with
-at Muskingum. They have consulted me, and shall have every countenance
-in my power, if their numbers, arrangements, &c., promise a prospect of
-success.” _MS. in the Irvine Collection._]
-
-[The following is a letter from Col. John Gibson, to the Right Rev.
-Nathaniel Seidel, senior Bishop of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem,
-dated _Fort Pitt, May 9, 1782_.
-
-“SIR:--Your letter by Mr. Shebosh of the 11th ult., came safe to hand.
-I am happy to find that the few small services I rendered to the
-gentlemen of your society in this quarter, meet with the approbation of
-you and every other worthy character.
-
-“Mr. Shebosh will be able to give you a particular account of the late
-horrid massacre perpetrated at the towns on Muskingum, by a set of
-men the most savage miscreants that ever degraded human nature. Had I
-have known of their intention before it was too late, I should have
-prevented it by informing the poor sufferers of it.
-
-“I am in hopes in a few days to be able to send you a more particular
-account than any that has yet transpired, as I hope to obtain the
-deposition of a person who was an eye-witness of the whole transaction,
-and disapproved of it. Should any accounts come to hand from Mr.
-Zeisberger, or the other gentlemen of your society, you may depend
-on my transmitting them to you. Please present my compliments to Mr.
-William Henry, Jr., &c.
-
-“Believe me, with esteem, your most obedient servant,
-
-  “JNO. GIBSON,
-
-  “Col. 7th Virginia Reg’t.”
-]
-
-[83] [For a full account of this exodus, the reader is referred to a
-paper entitled “Wyalusing and the Moravian Mission at Friedenshütten,”
-by W. C. Reichel, in Part 5 (1871) of the Transactions of the Moravian
-Historical Society.]
-
-[84] For “_Mouseys_” read “_Monseys_.”
-
-[85] For “1768, _about six_,” read “1772, _a few_.”
-
-[86] Loskiel, part III., ch. 12.
-
-[87] [Pilgerruh on the Cuyahoga, within the limits of what is now
-Independence township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, was the seat of the
-mission during the time of the dispersion in the interval between May
-of 1786, and April of 1787.]
-
-[88] General John Gibson thinks that _Sawano_ is their proper name;
-they are so called by the other Indian nations, from their being a
-southern people. _Shawaneu_, in the Lenape language, means the south;
-_Shawanachau_,[89] the south wind, &c. We commonly call them the
-_Shawanese_.
-
-[89] For “_Shawanachau_” read “_Shawanachan_.”
-
-[90] The Shawanos call the Mohicans their _elder brother_.
-
-[91] Loskiel, part II., ch. 10.
-
-[92] While these people lived at Wyoming and in its vicinity, they
-were frequently visited by missionaries of the Society of the United
-Brethren, who, knowing them to be the most depraved and ferocious tribe
-of all the Indian nations they had heard of, sought to establish a
-friendship with them, so as not to be interrupted in their journies
-from one Indian Mission to another. Count Zinzendorf being at that
-time in the country, went in 1742 with some other missionaries to
-visit them at Wyoming, stayed with them 20 days, and endeavoured to
-impress the gospel truths upon their minds; but these hardened people,
-suspecting his views, and believing that he wanted to purchase their
-land, on which it was reported there were mines of silver, conspired
-to murder him, and would have effected their purpose, but that Conrad
-Weiser, the Indian interpreter, arrived fortunately in time to prevent
-it. (Loskiel, part II., ch. 1.) Notwithstanding this, the Brethren
-frequently visited them, and Shehellemus, a chief of great influence,
-having become their friend (Loskiel, ibid., ch. 8), they could now
-travel with greater safety. He died at Shamokin in 1749; the Brethren
-were, however, fortunate enough to obtain the friendship of Paxnos or
-Paxsinos, another chief of the Shawanos, who gave them full proof of it
-by sending his sons to escort one of them to Bethlehem from Shamokin,
-where he was in the most perilous situation, the war having just broke
-out. (Loskiel, ibid., ch. 12.)
-
-[93] Loskiel, part I., ch. 10.
-
-[94] [After the peace of 1763 there was comparative quiet on the
-Western frontiers, until the inauguration of the “Dunmore War,” in the
-spring of 1774--a contest which the last royal governor of Virginia is
-said to have excited, in order to divert the attention of the colonists
-from the oppressive acts of England towards them. The initial military
-movement in this war was Col. Angus McDonald’s expedition against the
-Shawanese town of Waketameki, just below the mouth of the Waketameki
-Creek, within the limits of the present county of Muskingum, Ohio. The
-battle fought on the 10th of October, 1774, at the junction of the
-Great Kanawha and the Ohio, between the garrison of Point Pleasant,
-under General Andrew Lewis, and the flower of the Shawanese, Delawares,
-Mingoes, and Wyandots, led by the Cornstalk, the Shawano king, in which
-the confederate Indians were routed, was speedily followed by a peace.]
-
-[95] See, in Loskiel’s History, part II., ch. 10, his account of the
-visit of this chief to the Christian Indian Congregation at Bethlehem.
-
-[96] For “_Shawanos_” read “_Nanticokes_.”
-
-[97] [In 1726, John Harris, a Yorkshireman, settled at the mouth of the
-Paxton Creek, traded largely with the neighboring Indians, cleared a
-farm, and kept a ferry. John Harris, Jr., his son, born on the Paxton
-in the above-mentioned year, inherited from his father 700 acres of
-land, on a part of which Harrisburg was laid out in 1785.]
-
-[98] _Zeningi_, according to Loskiel.
-
-[99] For “_Schschequon_” read “_Shechschequon_.”
-
-[100] [For “_Christian_” read “_Christopher_.”]
-
-[101] Loskiel, part I., ch. 9.
-
-[102] For “_Tawachguáno_” read “_Tayachguáno_.”
-
-[103] [Now the Clinton, on whose banks New Gnadenhütten was built by
-David Zeisberger in the summer of 1782.]
-
-[104] [The first mission established by the Moravians among the
-northern tribes of Indians, was among a clan of Mohegans, in the town
-of Pine Plains, Dutchess County, New York, where Christian Henry Rauch,
-of Bethlehem, began his labors as an evangelist in July of 1740.]
-
-[105] Collections Massach. Histor. Soc., vol. I., p. 195; vol. IV., p.
-67; vol. IX., p. 92.
-
-[106] Collections Massach. Histor. Soc., vol. IX., p. 76.
-
-[107] Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vol. IX., p. 77. Trumbull’s History of
-Connecticut, vol. I., p. 28.
-
-[108] The Atlantic Ocean.
-
-[109] P. 235.--This MS. is in the library of the Society of the United
-Brethren at Bethlehem.
-
-[110] Loskiel, part II., ch. 9.
-
-[111] Mr. Zeisberger wrote a complete dictionary of the Iroquois
-language, in three quarto volumes, the first of which, from A to the
-middle of H, is unfortunately lost. The remainder, which is preserved,
-contains upwards of 800 pages, which shews that, at least, the Indian
-languages are not so _poor_ as is generally imagined. It is German and
-Indian, beginning with the German.[112]
-
-[112] [This work, entitled “_Deutch und Onondagaishes Wörterbuch_,” _i.
-e._, Lexicon of the German and Onondaga Languages, complete in 7 vols.,
-MS., is deposited in the Library of the American Philosophical Society,
-at Philadelphia. Also a complete grammar of the Onondaga by the same
-author.]
-
-[113] This word should be pronounced according to the powers of the
-German Alphabet.
-
-[114] Being, or Spirit.
-
-[115] An old Indian told me about fifty years ago, that when he was
-young, he still followed the custom of his father and ancestors, in
-climbing upon a high mountain or pinnacle, to thank the Great Spirit
-for all the benefits before bestowed, and to pray for a continuance
-of his favour; that they were sure their prayers were heard, and
-acceptable to the Great Spirit, although he did not himself appear to
-them.
-
-[116] When, between the years 1760 and 1768, the noted war-chief
-Pontiac had concerted a plan of surprising and cutting off the garrison
-and town of Detroit, while in the act of delivering an impressive
-peace oration, to the then commandant Major Gladwyn, the _turning of
-the belt_ was to have been the signal of the attack by his forces, who
-all had their guns, which previously had been cut off to large pistol
-length, hidden under their blankets. So I have been informed by some
-of the most respectable inhabitants of Detroit, and by the Indians
-themselves.
-
-[117] For “_once_” read “_sometimes_.”
-
-[118] For “_should_” read “_deserved to_.”
-
-[119] For “_to_” read “_out at_.”
-
-[120] Dele “_outside of the door and_.”
-
-[121] Grammatica Grœnlandico-Danico-Latina, edita à P. Egede, Hafniæ,
-1760, 8vo.
-
-Dictionarium Grœnlandico-Danico-Latinum, adornatum à P. Egede, Hafniæ,
-1750, 8vo.
-
-[122] For “_Thornhallesen_” read “_Thorhallesen_.”
-
-[123] [The Moravians have been conducting a successful mission in
-Greenland since 1733. In 1761, David Crantz, one of their clergymen,
-sailed for that distant country to collect material for a history,
-touching its physical aspect and resources, the manners and customs
-of the native tribes. Crantz’s work was published at Barby, Saxony,
-in 1765, under the title of “_Historie von Grönland, enthaltend die
-Beschreibung des Landes und der Einwohner insbeomdere, die Geschichte
-der dortigen Mission der evangelischen Brüder zu Neu-Herrnhut und
-Lichtenfels_.” An English Translation appeared in London, in 1766.]
-
-[124] The Hurons, a great while, perhaps centuries ago, became
-disunited from the Iroquois; many wars took place between them, and
-the former withdrew at last to remote places, where they settled, and
-were discovered by French Missionaries and traders: of this last I was
-repeatedly assured during my residence at Detroit, between 1781 and
-1786.
-
-[125] Carver says that there are in North America, four different
-languages, the Iroquois to the east, the Chippeway or Algonkin to
-the northwest, the Naudowessie to the west, and the Cherokee, &c. to
-the south. Travels, ch. 17, Capt. Carver, though he appears to have
-been in general an accurate observer, resided too short a time among
-the Indians to have a correct knowledge of their languages. [Mr.
-Heckewelder quotes here and elsewhere from _“Three Years’ Travels
-through the Interior Parts of North America for more than Five Thousand
-Miles, &c.,” by Capt. Jonathan Carver of the Provincial Troops in
-America, Phila._, 1796. Those tribes of the Naudowessies among whom
-Carver resided for five months, dwelt about the River St. Pierre, 200
-miles above its junction with the Mississippi. This was the extreme
-westerly point reached by the adventurous traveller. The entire nation
-of the Naudowessies, according to Carver, mustered upwards of 2000
-fighting men.]
-
-[126] Le grand Voyage du pays des Hurons, par Samuel Sagard, Paris,
-1632. To which is added, a Dictionary of the Huron language, with a
-preface.
-
-[127] Philos. Trans. Abr., vol. lxiii., p. 142.
-
-[128] Hist. of the Five Nations, p. 14.
-
-[129] Barton’s New Views, Ed. 1798. Prelim. Disc., p. 32.
-
-[130] The late Dr. Barton, in the work above quoted, append., p.
-3,[132] seems to doubt this fact, and relies on a series of numerals
-which I once communicated to him, and was found among the papers of
-the late Rev. Mr. Pyrlæus. But it is by no means certain that those
-numerals were taken from the language of the Nanticokes, and the
-vocabularies above mentioned leave no doubt as to the origin of that
-dialect.
-
-[131] Letter v.
-
-[132] For “_page_ 3” read “_page_ 5.”
-
-[133] Letter xxv.
-
-[134] He says that it is not copious, and is only adapted to the
-necessities and conveniences of life. These are the ideas which
-strangers and philosophers, reasoning _à priori_, entertain of Indian
-languages; but those who are well acquainted with them think very
-differently. And yet the Baron says that the Algonquin is “the finest
-and the most universal language on the Continent.”
-
-[135] Letter xi., p. 276.
-
-[136] It should be properly _Tortoise_; but this word seems in a fair
-way to be entirely superseded by _Turtle_, as well in England as in
-this country.
-
-[137] _Chippewäisch-Delawarischer, oder Algonkisch-Moheganischer,
-Stamm._ Mithrid., part III., vol. iii., p. 337.
-
-[138] Vater in Mithrid., part III., vol. 3, p. 283, quotes De Laet,
-Novus Orbis, pp. 98, 103, Du Pratz, vol. 2, pp. 208, 9, Rochefort,
-Histoire Natur. des Antilles, pp. 351, 394, and Hervas, _Catologo delle
-Lingue_, p. 90; none of which works I have it in my power to consult.
-
-[139] Mithrid., ibid.
-
-[140] Loskiel, part I., ch. 1.
-
-[141] Duvallon, Vue de la Colonie Espagnole du Mississippi, quoted by
-Vater, in Mithrid., ibid., p. 297.
-
-
-[142] The Bibliotheca Americana records 45 grammars and 25 dictionaries
-of the languages spoken in Mexico only, and 85 works of different
-authors on religious and moral subjects written or translated into some
-of those languages.
-
-[143] For “_or_” read “_nor_.”
-
-[144] For “_met_” read “_saw_.”
-
-[145] For “_days_” read “_hours_.”
-
-[146] Loskiel, part III., ch. 9.
-
-[147] For “_December_” read “_November_.”
-
-[148] [Pipe, a leader of the Wolf tribe of the Monseys, was residing
-in the Ohio country at the time of Bouquet’s expedition against the
-Delawares and Shawanon of the Muskingum and Scioto, in 1764. When the
-Moravians entered the valley of the former river, he was at home on the
-Walhonding, about 15 miles above the present Coshocton. In the border
-wars of the Revolution, he at first declared against the Americans,
-withdrawing with the disaffected Delawares to the Tymochtee creek,
-a branch of the Sandusky, within the limits of the present Crawford
-County. While here, he was a serviceable tool in the hands of the
-British at Detroit. To the Moravian mission among his countrymen he was
-for many years unjustifiedly hostile. Eventually, however, he regarded
-the work apparently with favor. It was the Pipe who doomed Col. William
-Crawford to torture, after the failure of the latter’s expedition
-against Sandusky in the summer of 1782. After the treaty of Fort Harmar
-in January of 1789, Pipe threw all his influence on the side of those
-of his people who now resolved at all hazards to uphold peace with the
-United States. He died a few days before the defeat of the confederated
-Indians by Wayne, near the rapids of the Maumee.]
-
-[149] See Loskiel, part III., ch. 9, p. 704, German text, and p. 165,
-Eng. Trans.
-
-[150] It will be understood that he speaks here throughout for himself
-and his nation or tribe, though always in the first person of the
-singular, according to the Indian mode.
-
-[151] Meaning his nation, and speaking, as usual, in the first person.
-
-[152] Meaning women and children.
-
-[153] Prisoners.
-
-[154] To make his language agree with the expression _live flesh_.
-
-[155] For “_with_” read “_of_.”
-
-[156] According to the powers of the English alphabet, it should be
-written Koo-ek-wen-aw-koo.
-
-[157] Rogers’s Key into the Language of the Indians of New England, ch.
-vi.
-
-[158] For “_they_” read “_the Chippeways and some other nations_.”
-
-[159] [In Green township, in what is now Ashland County.]
-
-[160] For “_your_” read “_yon_.”
-
-[161] After the word “_nation_” insert “_which they do not approve of_.”
-
-[162] [Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott, and Simon Girty,--the
-first some time a British agent among the Indians, the second with
-a captain’s commission from the commandant at Detroit, the third as
-brutal, depraved, and wicked a wretch as ever lived,--deserted with
-a squad of soldiers from Fort Pitt, in March of 1778. This trio of
-renegade desperadoes, henceforth, in the capacity of emissaries of the
-British at Detroit (with their savage allies), wrought untold misery on
-the frontiers, even till the peace of 1795.]
-
-[163] For “_they sure_” read “_they are sure_.”
-
-[164] For “_reply_” read “_answer_.”
-
-[165] The pronouns in the Indian language have no feminine gender.
-
-[166] For “_decide_” read “_say_.”
-
-[167] For “_man_” read “_men_.”
-
-[168] Between “_is_” and “_even_” insert “_sometimes_.”
-
-[169] For “_an old Indian_” read “_several old men_.”
-
-[170] [The fort, built by Franklin in the early winter of 1756, stood
-on the site of Weissport, on the left bank of the Lehigh, in Carbon
-County, Penna. The well of the fort alone remains to mark its site.]
-
-[171] For “_road_” read “_course_.”
-
-[172] [The road from Easton, via Ross Common and the Pocono, to
-Wilkes-Barré, formerly called the Wilkes-Barré turnpike.]
-
-[173] [Mr. Heckewelder had been despatched by the Mission Board at
-Bethlehem to Fairfield, on the Retrenche, (Thames,) in Upper Canada,
-where the Moravian Indians settled in 1792, to advise with them and
-their teachers, concerning a return to the valley of the Tuscarawas, in
-which the survey of a grant of 12,000 acres of land, made by Congress,
-had recently been completed. Pursuant to his instructions, he proceeded
-from Fairfield to the Tuscarawas, to make the necessary preparations
-for a colony that was to follow in the ensuing autumn, and re-founded
-Gnadenhütten. The village of Goshen, seven miles higher up the river,
-was built in October, on the arrival of David Zeisberger and the
-expected colony from the Retrenche.]
-
-[174] [The Wyandot village of Upper Sandusky was three miles in a
-south-easterly direction from the site of the present town of Upper
-Sandusky, the county-seat of Wyandot County, Ohio. Lower Sandusky, a
-trading-post and Wyandot town, was situated at the head of navigation
-on the Sandusky. Fremont, the county-seat of Sandusky County, marks
-its site. Here the Moravian missionaries and their families were most
-hospitably entertained by Arundel and Robbins for upwards of three
-weeks, while awaiting the arrival of boats from Detroit, on which they
-were to be taken as prisoners of war to that post. It was through
-British influence that the Mission on the Muskingum had been overthrown
-in the early autumn of 1781, and that its seat was transferred to the
-Sandusky. Fort McIntosh stood on the present town of Beaver, Beaver
-County, Pennsylvania. It was erected in October of 1778 by General
-McIntosh, then in command of the Western Department.]
-
-[175] For “_where_” read “_whence_.”
-
-[176] [On the 18th October, 1755, a party of Indians fell upon the
-settlers on the Big Mahanoy, (now Penn’s Creek, in Union County,
-Penna.,) killed and carried off twenty-five persons, and burned and
-destroyed all the buildings and improvements.--_Colonial Records_,
-_vol._ 6, p. 766.]
-
-[177] For “_Duke Holland_” read “_Luke Holland_;” the same where the
-name again occurs.
-
-[178] Indian stockings.
-
-[179] [The three Commissioners set out from Fort Washington
-(Cincinnati) for the Indian country in June of 1792, but never
-returned. Despite the failure of this mission, General Rufus Putnam was
-without delay despatched on a similar errand, and at Post Vincennes,
-on the Wabash, in September of the above mentioned year, concluded a
-treaty of peace with a number of the Western tribes. Mr. Heckewelder
-was associated by the War Department with Putnam in this perilous
-undertaking.]
-
-[180] [Cornstalk, the well-known Shawano king, while held by the
-Americans in the fort at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Kanhawa,
-was murdered by some soldiers of the garrison, in revenge for the loss
-of one of their companions, who had met his death while hunting, at the
-hands of a British Indian.]
-
-[181] The Bible.
-
-[182] The Indians gave this name to General Wayne, because they say
-that he had all the cunning of this animal, who is superior to all
-other snakes in the manner of procuring his food. He hides himself in
-the grass with his head only above it, watching all around to see where
-the birds are building their nests, that he may know where to find the
-young ones when they are hatched.
-
-[183] This is not applicable to the Iroquois of the present time.
-
-[184] [A Monsey of Wyalusing, at whose persuasion the Moravian Indians
-settled on that stream in 1765, who became one of their number,
-following them to the Big Beaver and the Tuscarawas, where he died
-in May of 1775. Papunhank’s name occurs frequently in the annals of
-Provincial history between 1762 and 1765.]
-
-[185] [The Chinglacamoose, now the Moose, empties into the Susquehannah
-in Clearfield County, Penna.]
-
-[186] Dele _again_.
-
-[187] Bethlehem.
-
-[188] [“The serenity of Michael’s countenance,” writes Loskiel, “when
-he was laid in his coffin, contrasted strangely with the figures
-scarified upon his face when a warrior. These were as follows: upon
-the right cheek and temple, a large snake; from the under lip a pole
-passed over the nose, and between the eyes and the top of the forehead,
-ornamented at every quarter of an inch with round marks, representing
-scalps; upon the upper cheek, two lances crossing each other; and upon
-the lower jaw, the head of a wild boar.”]
-
-[189] See Loskiel, part I., ch. 3.
-
-[190] See Loskiel, part I., ch. 11.
-
-[191] For “_very often_” read “_sometimes_.”
-
-[192] For “_inches_” read “_feet_.”
-
-[193] For “_of_” read “_on_.”
-
-[194] Podophyllum peltatum.
-
-[195] [Mr. Heckewelder was in this year residing at New Gnadenhütten on
-the Huron (now the Clinton), Michigan, where the Moravian Missionaries
-ministered to their converts for upwards of three years, subsequent to
-their compulsory evacuation of the Tuscarawas valley.]
-
-[196] They call them _Doctols_; because the Indians cannot pronounce
-the letter R. The Minsi or Monseys call them “Mĕdéu,” which signifies
-“conjuror.”
-
-[197] [Gelelemend, _i. e._, _a leader_, (whose soubriquet among the
-whites was Kill-buck,) a grandson of the well-known Netawatwes, was
-sometime chief counsellor of the Turkey tribe of the Delaware nation,
-and after the death of Captain White Eyes, installed temporarily as
-principal chief. He was a strenuous advocate of peace among his people
-in the times of the Revolutionary war; and being a man of influence,
-drew upon himself, in consequence, the implacable animosity of those
-of his countrymen who took up arms against the Americans. Even after
-the general peace concluded between the United States and the Indians
-of the West in 1795, his life was on several occasions imperilled by
-his former opponents. Gelelemend united with the Moravian Indians, at
-Salem, on the Petquotting in the summer of 1788, where, in baptism,
-he was named William Henry, after Judge William Henry, of Lancaster.
-He died at Goshen, in the early winter of 1811, in the eightieth year
-of his age. He is said to have been born in 1737, in the neighborhood
-of the Lehigh Water Gap, Carbon County, Pa. William Henry Gelelemend
-was one of the last converts of distinction attached to the Moravian
-Mission among the Indians.]
-
-[198] [Goschachking, sometime the capital of the Delaware nation, stood
-on the Muskingum, immediately below the junction of the Tuscarawas and
-the Walhonding. On its site stands Coshocton. The town was destroyed by
-Gen. Brodhead in 1781.]
-
-[199] For “_Americans_” read “_white men_.”
-
-[200] The following extract from the Detroit Gazette, shews that this
-superstitious belief of the Indians in the powers of witchcraft, still
-continues in full force, even among those who live in the vicinity of
-the whites, and are in the habit of constant intercourse with them.
-
-_From the Detroit Gazette of the 17th of August, 1818._
-
-On the evening of the 22d ult. an Indian of the Wyandot tribe was
-murdered by some of his relatives, near the mouth of the river Huron,
-on lake Erie. The circumstances, in brief, are as follows:
-
-“It appears that two Wyandots, residing at Malden, and relatives to
-the deceased, had been informed by Captain Johnny, an Indian living
-on the Huron river, and also a relative, that a Shawanee Indian had
-come to his death by the witchcraft of an old Indian woman and her
-son Mike, and that in order to avert the vengeance of the Shawanee
-tribe, it would be necessary to kill them--and furthermore, that the
-death of Walk-in-the-water, who died last June, was caused by the same
-old woman’s witchcraft. It was determined to kill the old woman and
-her son--and for that purpose they crossed over on the 22d ult. and
-succeeded in the course of the evening in killing the latter in his
-cabin. The old woman was not at home. The next day, while endeavouring
-to persuade her to accompany them into the woods, as they said, to
-drink whiskey, they were discovered by Dr. William Brown and Mr.
-Oliver Williams, who had received that morning intimations of their
-intentions, and owing to the exertions of these gentlemen, the old
-woman’s life was preserved and one of the Indians taken, who is now
-confined in the jail of this city--the others escaped by swiftness of
-foot.
-
-“On the examination of the Indian taken, it appeared that the old
-woman, shortly after the death of the Shawanee, had entered his cabin,
-and in a voice of exultation, called upon him, saying--’Shawanee
-man! where are you?--You that mocked me; you thought you would live
-forever--you are gone and I am here--come--Why do you not come?’
-&c.--She is said to have made use of nearly the same words in the cabin
-of Walk-in-the-water, shortly after his death.”
-
-[201] War-hatchet: from which we have made _tomahawk_.
-
-[202] The Indians call the American continent an island; believing it
-to be (as in fact, probably, it is) entirely surrounded with water.
-
-[203] For “_killed_” read “_eaten_.”
-
-[204] Mr. Pyrlæus lived long among the Iroquois, and was well
-acquainted with their language. He was instructed in the Mohawk dialect
-by the celebrated interpreter Conrad Weiser. He has left behind him
-some manuscript grammatical works on that idiom, one of them is
-entitled: _Affixa nominum et verborum Linguæ Macquaicæ_, and another,
-_Adjectiva, nomina et pronomina Linguæ Macquaicæ_. These MSS. are in
-the library of the Society of the United Brethren at Bethlehem.
-
-[205] For “_Pauksit_” read “_P’duk-sit_.”
-
-[206] See page 101.
-
-[207] Probably alluding to a tradition which the Indians have of a very
-ferocious kind of bear, called the _naked bear_, which they say once
-existed, but was totally destroyed by their ancestors. The last was
-killed in the New York state, at a place they called _Hoosink_, which
-means the _Basin_, or more properly the _Kettle_.
-
-[208] The same whom Mr. de Volney speaks of in his excellent “View of
-the Soil and Climate of the United States.” Supplement, No. VI., page
-356, Philadelphia Edition, 1804.
-
-[209] See ch. 29, p. 225.
-
-[210] See ch. 28, p. 221.
-
-[211] See ch. 2.
-
-[212] Dele “_lands or_.”
-
-[213] This word means _liquor_, and is also used in the sense of a
-medicinal draught, or other compound potion.
-
-[214] [Shingask, which signifies _boggy or marshy ground overgrown
-with grass_, a brother of Tamaqua, or King Beaver, ranked first among
-Indian warriors in the times of the so-called French and Indian war.
-The frontiers of Pennsylvania suffering severely from the forays of
-this Delaware and his braves, Governor Denny, in 1756, set a price of
-£200 upon his head or scalp. Mr. Heckewelder, in a “Collection of the
-Names of Chieftains and Eminent Men of the Delaware Nation” states that
-Shingask, although an implacable foe in battle, was never known to
-treat a prisoner with cruelty. “One day,” he goes on to say, “in the
-summer of 1762, while passing with him near by where two prisoners of
-his--boys of about twelve years of age--were amusing themselves with
-his own boys, as the chief observed that my attention was arrested by
-them, he asked me at what I was looking. Telling him in reply that I
-was looking at his prisoners, he said, ‘When I first took them, they
-were such; but now they and my children eat their food from the same
-bowl or dish;’ which was equivalent to saying that they were in all
-respects on an equal footing with his own children, or alike dear to
-him.”]
-
-[215] A kind of round buckle with a tongue, which the Indians fasten
-to their shirts. The traders call them _broaches_. They are placed in
-rows, at the distance of about the breadth of a finger one from the
-other.
-
-[216] The same whom I have spoken of above, page 184, No. 4.
-
-[217] For “_Albany_” read “_Pittsburg_.”
-
-[218] See ch. 15, p. 151.
-
-[219] The Indian name of Capt. White Eyes.
-
-[220] Page 188.
-
-[221] For “_Sandusky_” read “_Muskingum_.”
-
-[222] See above, pages 81, 184.
-
-[223] [Williamson did not lead the expedition against Sandusky, nor was
-it organized for the destruction of the Moravian Indians, then in the
-Sandusky country. It was led by Colonel William Crawford. Sanctioned
-by General Irvine, then in command of the Western Department, the
-undertaking was intended to be effectual in ending the troubles upon
-the western frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, by punishing
-the Wyandots, Shawanese, Delawares, and Mingoes, whose war-parties
-were wont to come from their settlements in Sandusky, to kill and
-devastate along the borders. See Butterfield’s _Crawford’s Campaign
-against Sandusky_, for full details touching the fitting out of this
-expedition, its disastrous termination, and the awful death by torture
-of its commanding officer.
-
-In a letter written by Washington to General Irvine, and dated
-_Headquarters, 6th August, 1782_, he expresses himself in the following
-words: “I lament the failure of the expedition, and am particularly
-affected with the disastrous fate of Colonel Crawford. No other than
-the extremest torture which could be inflicted by the savages, could, I
-think, have been expected by those who were unhappy enough to fall into
-their hands, especially under the present exasperation of their minds
-from the treatment given their Moravian friends. For this reason, no
-person should at this time suffer himself to fall alive into the hands
-of the Indians.”--_MS. in the Irvine Collection._]
-
-[224] This name, according to the English orthography, should be
-written _Winganoond_ or _Wingaynoond_, the second syllable accented and
-long, and the last syllable short.
-
-[225] The people were at that moment advancing, with shouts and yells,
-to torture and put him to death.
-
-[226] Ruth, i. 16.
-
-[227] Of the value of one dollar.
-
-[228] For “_bought_” read “_brought_.”
-
-[229] [A Monsey settlement near the mouth of the Tionesta, within the
-limits of the present Venango County. It was visited by Mr. Zeisberger
-for the first time in the autumn of 1767; in the following year it
-became the seat of a mission. In 1770, the Allegheny was exchanged by
-the missionary and his converts for the Beaver. Zeisberger’s labors
-at Goschgoschink furnished the subject for Schüssele’s historical
-painting, “The Power of the Gospel.”]
-
-[230] See Nile’s Weekly Register, vol. i., p. 141, vol. v., p. 174, and
-vol. vi., p. 111.
-
-[231] This appears to be a mistake; Leather-lips, as has been stated
-above, was a chief of the Wyandots or Hurons, and is so styled in the
-treaty of Greenville, otherwise called Wayne’s Treaty, where he was one
-of the representatives of that nation.
-
-[232] The Indian name of this chief was Tar-he; he was also a Wyandot
-or Huron, and one of the signers of the Greenville treaty. How great
-must have been the power of Tecumseh, who trusted the execution of
-Leather-lips to a chief of the same nation!
-
-[233] [The earliest record of Tamanen is the affix of his mark to a
-deed, dated 23d day of the 4th month, 1683, by which he and Metamequan
-conveyed to old Proprietor Penn a tract of land, lying between the
-Pennypack and Neshaminy creeks, in Bucks County.--_Pennsylvania
-Archives_, vol. i., p. 64. Heckewelder gives the signification of the
-Delaware word “tamanen” as _affable_.]
-
-[234] [Tadeuskund was baptized at the Gnadenhütten Mission, (Lehighton,
-Carbon County, Pa.,) by the Moravian Bishop Cammerhoff, of Bethlehem,
-in March of 1750. For additional notices of this prominent actor in
-the French and Indian war, extracted from manuscripts in the Archives
-of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem, the reader is referred to
-_Memorials of the Moravian Church_, vol. i., edited by _W. C. Reichel,
-Philadelphia, 1870_.]
-
-[235] [Moses Tatemy was a convert of, and sometime an interpreter for,
-David Brainerd, during that evangelist’s career among the Delawares of
-New Jersey and Pennsylvania, who were settled on both sides of their
-great river, between its forks and the Minisinks. A grant of upwards of
-200 acres of land, lying on the east branch of Lehietan or Bushkill,
-within the limits of the present Northampton County, Pa., was confirmed
-to the chief about the year 1737, by the Proprietaries’ agents, for
-valuable services rendered. On this reservation, Tatemy was residing
-as late as 1753, and probably later. He was there a near neighbour
-of the Moravians at Nazareth. In the interval between 1756 and 1760,
-he participated in most of the numerous treaties and conferences
-between the Governors of the Province and his countrymen, frequently
-in the capacity of an interpreter. Subsequent to the last-mentioned
-year, his name ceases to appear on the Minutes of the Provincial
-Council. He probably died in 1761. Such being the facts in the case,
-Mr. Heckewelder is in error when he states that Tatemy lost his life
-at the hands of a white man _prior to 1754_. That a _son_ of the old
-chieftain, _Bill Tatemy_ by name, was mortally wounded in July of 1757,
-by a young man in the Ulster-Scot settlement, (within the limits of
-Allen township, Northampton County,) while straying from a body of
-Indians, who were on their way from Fort Allen to Easton, to a treaty,
-is on record in the official papers of that day. This unprovoked
-assault upon one of their countrymen, as was to be expected, incensed
-the disaffected Indians to such a degree, that Governor Denny was fain
-to assure them, at the opening of the treaty, that the offender should
-be speedily brought to justice; at the same time, he condoled with the
-afflicted father. _Bill Tatemy_ died near Bethlehem, from the effects
-of the gun-shot wound, within five weeks. He had been sometime under
-John Brainerd’s teaching, at Cranberry, N. J., and was a professing
-Christian.]
-
-[236] See above page 67, and see the Errata with reference to that page.
-
-[237] Ch. 34, pp. 255, 256.
-
-[238] [These chiefs were representatives of the seven nations with whom
-Gen. Putnam concluded a treaty in September of the above-mentioned
-year, and were on their way to Philadelphia.
-
-_Note._--The following is a copy of the letter written by the Secretary
-of War to Mr. Heckewelder, advising him of Putnam’s request that he
-might be associated with him in his mission to the western Indians:
-
-  “WAR DEPARTMENT, _18 May, 1792_.
-
-    “SIR.--I have the honour to inform you that the United States
-    have for some time past been making pacific overtures to the
-    hostile Indians north-west of the Ohio. It is to be expected
-    that these overtures will soon be brought to an issue under
-    the direction of Brigadier-General Putnam, of Marietta, who is
-    specially charged with this business.
-
-    “He is now in this city, and will be in readiness to set out
-    on Monday next, and being acquainted with you, he is extremely
-    desirous that you should accompany him in the prosecution of
-    this good work.
-
-    “Being myself most cordially impressed with a respect for your
-    character and love of the Indians, on the purest principles
-    of justice and humanity, I have cheerfully acquiesced in the
-    desire of Gen. Putnam.
-
-    “I hope sincerely it may be convenient for you to accompany or
-    follow him soon, in order to execute a business which is not
-    unpromising, and which, if accomplished, will redound to the
-    credit of the individuals who perform it.
-
-    “As to pecuniary considerations, I shall arrange them
-    satisfactorily with you.
-
-  “With great respect, I am, sir, your most obedient servant,
-  “H. KNOX,
-  _Secretary of War_.”]
-
-[239] [Col. Ebenezer Sproat was one of the colony which, under the
-auspices of the recently formed Ohio Company, and led by Gen. Putnam,
-emigrated to the Ohio country in the spring of 1788, and founded
-Marietta.]
-
-[240] Ch. 6, p. 104.
-
-[241] For “_them_” read “_us_.”
-
-[242] Sun-fish.
-
-[243] Vocabularium Barbaro-Virgineorum, bound with an Indian
-translation from the Swedish of Luther’s Catechism. Stockholm, 1696,
-duod.
-
-[244] Carver’s Travels, Introduction, p. 72. Boston Edit., 1797.
-
-[245] Carver was only 14 months in the Indian country, during which
-time he says he travelled near 4000 miles and visited twelve different
-nations of Indians.
-
-[246] For “_Indians_” read “_traders_.”
-
-[247] [They were sent to Goschschoking (Coshocton), the then capital of
-the Delaware nation, to condole with that people on the death of White
-Eyes.]
-
-[248] Ch. 7, p. 111.
-
-[249] See above, ch. 18, p. 172.
-
-[250] Dr. Boudinot was long a member, and once President, of the
-Continental Congress, and his talents were very useful to the cause
-which he had embraced. At a very advanced age, he now enjoys literary
-ease in a dignified retirement.
-
-[251] A Star in the West, or a humble attempt to discover the long lost
-ten tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloved
-city, Jerusalem. Trenton (New Jersey), 1816.
-
-[252] See page 140, and following.
-
-[253] Star in the West, p. 138.
-
-[254] This relation is authentic. I have received it from the mouth
-of the chief of the injured party, and his statement was confirmed by
-communications made at the time by two respectable magistrates of the
-county.
-
-[255] [This outrage was committed at the public house of John Stenton,
-which stood on the road leading from Bethlehem to Fort Allen, a short
-mile north of the present Howertown, Allen township, Northampton
-County. Stenton belonged to the Scotch-Irish, who settled in that
-region as early as 1728.]
-
-[256] [Nescopeck was an Indian settlement on the highway of Indian
-travel between Fort Allen and the Wyoming Valley.]
-
-[257] Justice Geiger’s letter to Justice Horsefield proves this fact
-
-[258] [These unprovoked barbarities were perpetrated by a squad of
-soldiers who, in command of Captain Jacob Wetterholt, of the Provincial
-service, were in quarters at the Lehigh Water Gap, Carbon County, Pa.]
-
-[259] [In this paragraph, Mr. Heckewelder briefly alludes to the _last
-foray_ made by Indians into old Northampton County, south of the
-Blue Mountain. It occurred on the 8th of October, 1763. An account
-of the affair at Stenton’s, on the morning of that day, in which
-Stenton was shot dead, and Captain Jacob Wetterholt and several of
-his men seriously or mortally wounded, was published in Franklin’s
-_Pennsylvania Gazette_, of October 18th, 1763. Leaving Stenton’s, after
-the loss of one of their number, the Indians crossed the Lehigh, and
-on their way to a store and tavern on the Copley creek, (where they
-also had been wronged by the whites,) they murdered several families
-residing within the limits of the present Whitehall township, Lehigh
-County. Laden with plunder, they then struck for the wilderness north
-of the Blue Mountain. Upwards of twenty settlers were killed or
-captured on that memorable day, and the buildings on several farms were
-laid in ashes.]
-
-[260] [The 5,000 acres at Nazareth, which Whitefield sold to the
-Moravians in 1741, were first held by Lætitia Aubrey, to whom it
-had been granted by her father, William Penn, in 1682. The right
-of erecting this tract, or any portion thereof, into a manor, of
-holding court-baron thereon, and of holding views of frankpledge for
-the conservation of the peace, were special privileges accorded to
-the grantee by the grantor. It was one of few of the original grants
-similarly invested. The royalty, however, in all cases remained a dead
-letter.]
-
-[261] Alluding to what was at that time known by the name of the _long
-day’s walk_.
-
-[262] See above, p. 302.
-
-[263] The same of whom I have spoken above, p. 171.
-
-[264] See above, pp. 135, 136.
-
-[265] Above, p. 279.
-
-[266] Carver’s Travels, ch. 9, p. 196. Edit. above cited.
-
-[267] [Glikhican, one of the converts of distinction attached to the
-Moravian mission, was a man of note among his people, both in the
-council chamber and on the war-path. When the Moravians first met
-him he resided at Kaskaskunk, on the Beaver, and at Friedenstadt, on
-that river, he was baptized by David Zeisberger in December of 1770.
-Subsequently he became a “national assistant” in the work of the
-Gospel, lived consistently with his profession, and met his death at
-the hands of Williamson’s men at Gnadenhütten in March of 1782.]
-
-[268] See above, p. 338.
-
-[269] Loskiel, p. 3, ch. 3.
-
-[270] [The valley of the Conecocheague, which stream drains Franklin
-County, Pennsylvania, was explored and settled about 1730 by
-Scotch-Irish pioneers, among whom were three brothers of the name of
-Chambers. The site of Chambersburg was built on by Joseph Chambers.
-The Conecocheague settlement suffered much from the Indians after
-Braddock’s defeat in 1755.]
-
-[271] Letter V.
-
-[272] For “_Zeisberger_” read “_Heckewelder_.”
-
-[273] These papers have been communicated.
-
-[274] For “_from_” read “_for_.”
-
-[275] For “_schawanáki_” read “_schwanameki_.”
-
-[276] For “_chwani_” read “_chwami_.”
-
-[277] An Enquiry into the Question, whether America was peopled from
-the Old Continent?
-
-[278] The Chippeways have hardly any grammatical forms.
-
-[279] See Philos. Trans. abridged; vol. lxiii., 142.
-
-[280] Colden’s Hist. of the Five Nations. Octavo ed., 1747, p. 14.
-
-[281] One of them empties itself into the north side of Lake St. Clair,
-another at the west end of Lake Erie, and a third on the south side of
-the said lake, about twenty-five miles east of Sandusky river or bay.
-
-[282] For “_K’lehelleya_” read “_K’lehellecheya_.”
-
-[283] From the verb _Pommauchsin_.
-
-[284] In the original it is _N’mizi_; the German _z_ being pronounced
-like _tz_, which mode of spelling has been adopted in this publication.
-
-[285] For “_Wulatopnachgat_” read “_Wulaptonachgat_.”
-
-[286] For “_Wulatonamin_” read “_Wulatenamin_.”
-
-[287] For “_manner_” read “_matter_.”
-
-[288] For “_achpansi_” read “_achpanschi_.”
-
-[289] _Wenitschanit_, the parent or owner of a child naturally
-begotten; _wetallemansit_, the owner of the beast.
-
-[290] [_A Collection of Hymns, for the use of the Christian Indians of
-the Missions of the United Brethren, in North America._ Philadelphia:
-Printed by Henry Sweitzer, at the corner of Race and Fourth Streets,
-1803. A second edition of this work abridged, and edited by the Rev.
-Abraham Luckenbach, was published at Bethlehem in 1847.]
-
-[291] For “_Indian corn_” read “_a particular species of Indian corn_.”
-
-[292] All words ending in _ican_, _hican_, _kschican_, denote a
-sharp instrument for cutting. _Pachkschican_, a knife; _pkuschican_,
-a gimlet, an instrument which cuts into holes; _tangamican_, or
-_tangandican_, a spear, a sharp-pointed instrument; _poyachkican_, a
-gun, or an instrument that cuts with force.
-
-[293] For “_Ktahoatell_” read “_Ktahoalell_.”
-
-[294] For “_gunich_” read “_gunih_.”
-
-[295] Quin et emissurus Fucinum lacum, naumachiam ante commisit.
-Sed cum proclamantibus naumachiariis “Ave, Imperator! morituri te
-salutant,” respondisset “Avete vos!” neque post hanc vocem, quasi veniâ
-datâ, quisquam dimicare vellet, diù cunctatus an omnes igni ferroque
-absumeret, tandem è sede sua prosiluit, ac per ambitum lacûs, non sine
-fœdâ vacillatione discurrens, partim minando, partim adhortando, ad
-pugnam compulit. Sueton. in Claud. 21.
-
-[296] Gœthe, in Wilhelm Meister.
-
-[297] For “_Eliwulek_” read “_Eluwilek_.”
-
-[298] For “_Allowilen_” read “_Allowilek_.”
-
-[299] For the English translation of these two words substitute “_the
-most extraordinary_, _the most wonderful_.”
-
-[300] For “_Eluwantowit_” read “_Eluwannitlowit_.”
-
-[301] For “_Elewassit_” read “_Elewussit_.”
-
-[302] For “_the supremely good_” read “_the most holy one_.”
-
-[303] Bey vielen Amerikanischen Sprachen finden wir theils einen so
-künstlichen und zusammengesetzten bau, und einem so grossen reichthum
-an grammatischen formen, wie ihn selbst bey dem verbum wenige sprachen
-der Welt haben: theils scheinen sie so arm an aller grammatischen
-ausbildung, wie die sprachen der rohesten Völker in Nord-Ost-Asia und
-in Afrika seyn mögen. _Untersuchungen über Amerikas bevölkerung_, S.
-152.
-
-[304] Among the Mbayas, a nation of Paraguay, it is said that young men
-and girls, before their marriage, speak a language differing in many
-respects from that of married men and women. Azara, c. 10.
-
-[305] For “_schingieschin_” read “_schingiechin_.”
-
-[306] The _k_ which is prefixed to this and the following substantives,
-conveys the idea of the pronoun _thy_; it is a repetition (as it were)
-of the beginning of the phrase “for _thine_” &c., and enforces its
-meaning. _Ksakimowagan_, may be thus dissected: _k_, thy, _sakima_,
-king or chief, _wagan_, substantive termination, added to _king_, makes
-_kingdom_.
-
-[307] See Letters 8 and 10.
-
-[308] M. Raynouard, in his excellent Researches on the Origin and
-Formation of the corrupted Roman Language, spoken before the year 1000,
-has sufficiently proved that the French articles _le_, the Spanish
-_el_, and the Italian _il_, are derived from the Latin demonstrative
-pronoun _ille_, which began about the sixth century to be prefixed to
-the substantive. Thus they said: ILLI _Saxones_, “THE SAXONS;” ILLI
-_negociatores de Longobardia_, “THE Lombard merchants,” &c. So natural
-is the use of the pronominal form to give clearness and precision to
-language. _Recherches_, &c., p. 39.
-
-[309] For “_Mamschalgussiwagan_” read “_Mamschalgussowagan_.”
-
-[310] For “_Mamintochimgussowagan_” read “_Mamintschimgussowagan_.”
-
-[311] For “_M’chonschicanes_” read “_M’chonschican_.”
-
-
-[Transcriber’s Note:
-
-Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]
-
-
-
-
-
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-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of History, Manners, and Customs of The Indian
-Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and, by John Heckewelder
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: History, Manners, and Customs of The Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States.
-
-Author: John Heckewelder
-
-Commentator: William C. Reichel
-
-Release Date: October 31, 2015 [EBook #50350]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN NATIONS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Shaun Pinder, Wayne hammond, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">i</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<p class="copy">The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p>
-</div>
-
-<h1>
-<span class="antiqua">Publications</span><br />
-
-<span class="small">OF THE</span><br />
-
-<span class="antiqua">Historical Society of Pennsylvania.</span><br />
-<br />
-HISTORY,<br />
-<br />
-MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS<br />
-
-<span class="small">OF THE</span><br />
-
-<span class="gesperrt">INDIAN NATIONS</span>.<br />
-</h1>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ii">ii</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_003a.jpg"
-alt="" /><br />
-<img src="images/i_003b.jpg"
-alt="John Heckewelder" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">iii</span></div>
-
-<p class="ph1">
-<span class="large">HISTORY,</span><br />
-
-<span class="xlarge">MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF</span><br />
-
-<span class="gesperrt smcap">The Indian Nations</span><br />
-
-<span class="large">WHO ONCE INHABITED PENNSYLVANIA AND<br />
-THE NEIGHBOURING STATES.</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">BY THE</span><br />
-
-<span class="large">REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER,</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF BETHLEHEM, PA.</span><br />
-
-<span class="antiqua">New and Revised Edition.</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">WITH AN</span><br />
-
-<span class="large gesperrt"><i>INTRODUCTION AND NOTES</i></span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">BY THE</span><br />
-REV. WILLIAM C. REICHEL,<br />
-<span class="small">OF BETHLEHEM, PA.</span><br />
-
-<span class="table medium">
-<span class="trow">PHILADELPHIA:</span>
-<span class="trow">PUBLICATION FUND OF</span>
-<span class="trow">THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA,</span>
-<span class="trow">No. 820 SPRUCE STREET.</span>
-<span class="trow">1881.</span>
-</span>
-</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">iv</span></p>
-
-<p>“The Trustees of the Publication Fund of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania”
-have published nine volumes, viz.:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>The History of Braddock’s Expedition.</li>
-<li>Contributions to American History.</li>
-<li>Record of Upland, and Denny’s Journal.</li>
-<li>Reissue of Vol. 1 of the Memoirs.</li>
-<li>Minutes of Defence of Philadelphia, 1814-1815.</li>
-<li>Correspondence of Penn and Logan, Vols. 1 and 2.</li>
-<li>History of New Sweden, by Israel Acrelius.</li>
-<li>Heckewelder’s History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations.</li></ul>
-
-<p>The investments held by the trustees of the Fund now amount to twenty-three thousand
-dollars, the interest only of which is applied to publishing. By the payment of
-twenty-five dollars, any one may become entitled to receive, during his or her life,
-all the publications of the Society. Libraries so subscribing are entitled to receive
-books for the term of twenty years.</p>
-
-<p>The Society desire it to be understood that they are not answerable for any
-opinions or observations that may appear in their publications: the Editors of the
-several works being alone responsible for the same.</p>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">John Jordan, Jr.</span>,</td>
-    <td>}</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Aubrey H. Smith,</span></td>
-    <td>}Trustees.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Fairman Rogers</span>,</td>
-    <td>}</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="table">
-<span class="trow">Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by</span>
-<span class="trow large">THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA,</span>
-<span class="trow">in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.</span>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p>
-PHILADELPHIA.<br />
-LIPPINCOTT’S PRESS.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">v</span></p>
-
-<p class="ph1">
-<span class="xlarge">MEMOIRS</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF THE</span><br />
-
-HISTORICAL SOCIETY<br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF</span><br />
-
-<span class="xlarge">PENNSYLVANIA.</span><br />
-
-<span class="large">VOL. XII.</span><br />
-
-<span class="table">
-<span class="trow medium">PHILADELPHIA:</span>
-<span class="trow medium">PUBLICATION FUND OF</span>
-<span class="trow large">THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA,</span>
-<span class="trow medium">No. 820 SPRUCE STREET.</span>
-<span class="trow medium">1881.</span>
-</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">vi</span></p>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">vii</span></p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_008a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="INTRODUCTION"><span class="gesperrt">INTRODUCTION</span>.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">BY THE EDITOR.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/j.jpg" alt="J" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder</span>,
-the author of “An Account of the
-History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian
-Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring
-States,” was born March 12th, 1743, at Bedford,
-England. His father, who was a native of Moravia, a
-few years after his arrival at Herrnhut, Saxony, was
-summoned to England to assist in the religious movement
-which his church had inaugurated in that country
-in 1734. In his eleventh year, the subject of this sketch
-accompanied his parents to the New World, and became
-a resident of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Here he was
-placed at school, and next apprenticed to a cedar-cooper.
-While thus employed, he was permitted to gratify a desire
-he had frequently expressed of becoming an evangelist to
-the Indians, when in the spring of 1762 he was called to
-accompany the well-known Christian Frederic Post, who
-had planned a mission among the tribes of the then far
-west, to the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum. Here
-Post, in the summer of 1761, had built himself a cabin (it
-stood near the site of the present town of Bolivar), and
-here on the 11th day of April, 1762, the intrepid missionary
-and his youthful assistant began their labors in the
-Gospel. But the times were unpropitious, and the hostile
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">viii</span>
-attitude of the Indians indicating a speedy resumption of
-hostilities with the whites, the adventurous enterprise was
-abandoned before the expiration of the year. Young
-Heckewelder returned to Bethlehem, and the war of
-Pontiac’s conspiracy opened in the spring of 1763.</p>
-
-<p>In the interval between 1765 and 1771, Mr. Heckewelder
-was, on several occasions, summoned from his
-cooper’s shop to do service for the mission. Thus, in
-the summer of the first mentioned year, he spent several
-months at Friedensh&uuml;tten, on the Susquehanna (Wyalusing,
-Bradford county, Pennsylvania), where the Moravian
-Indians had been recently settled in a body, after a
-series of most trying experiences, to which their residence
-on the frontiers and in the settlements of the Province
-subjected them, at a time when the inroads of the savages
-embittered the public mind indiscriminately against the
-entire race. This post he visited subsequently on several
-occasions, and also the town of Schechschiquanink
-(Sheshequin), some thirty miles north of Wyalusing, the
-seat of a second mission on the Susquehanna.</p>
-
-<p>A new period in the life of Mr. Heckewelder opened
-with the autumn of 1771, when he entered upon his
-actual career as an evangelist to the Indians, sharing the
-various fortunes of the Moravian mission among that
-people for fifteen years, than which none perhaps in its
-history were more eventful. The well-known missionary
-David Zeisberger, having in 1768 established a mission
-among a clan of Monseys on the Allegheny, within the
-limits of what is now Venango county, was induced in
-the spring of 1770 to migrate with his charge to the Big
-Beaver, and to settle at a point within the jurisdiction
-of the Delawares of Kaskaskunk. Here he built Friedensstadt,
-and hither the Moravian Indians of Friedensh&uuml;tten
-and Schechschiquanink removed in the summer
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">ix</span>
-of 1772. Mr. Heckewelder was appointed Zeisberger’s
-assistant in the autumn of 1771, and when in the spring
-of 1773 Friedensstadt was evacuated (it stood on the
-Beaver, between the Shenango and the Slippery Rock,
-within the limits of the present Lawrence county), and the
-seat of the mission was transferred to the valley of the
-Muskingum, Mr. Heckewelder became a resident of the
-Ohio country. Here in succession were built Sch&ouml;nbrunn,
-Gnadenh&uuml;tten, Lichtenau and Salem, flourishing towns
-of Moravian Indians, and here our missionary labored
-with his associates hopefully, and with the promise of a
-great ingathering, when the rupture between the mother
-country and her transatlantic colonies, gradually involved
-them and their cause in the most perplexing
-complications. On the opening of the western border-war
-of the Revolution in the spring of 1777, the Moravian
-missionaries on the Muskingum realized the danger of
-their position. Strictly neutral as they and their converts
-were in reference to the great question at issue, their
-presence on debatable ground rendered them objects of
-suspicion alternately to each of the contending parties;
-and when, in 1780, the major part of the Delaware nation
-declared openly for the British crown, it was evident that
-the mission could not much longer hold its ground. It
-was for the British to solve the problem; and at their
-instigation, in the autumn of 1781, the missionaries and
-their converts in part were removed to Upper Sandusky,
-as prisoners of war, under suspicion of favoring the
-American cause. Thence the former were twice summoned
-to Detroit, the seat of British dominion in the
-then Northwest, and arraigned before the commandant
-of that post. Having established their innocence, and
-at liberty once more to resume their Christian work, the
-Moravians resolved upon establishing themselves in the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">x</span>
-neighborhood of Detroit, with the view of collecting their
-scattered converts, and gradually resuscitating the mission.
-The point selected was on the Huron (now the
-Clinton), forty miles by water northwest of Detroit.
-Here they built New Gnadenh&uuml;tten, in 1782. Four years
-later, New Gnadenh&uuml;tten was abandoned, and a settlement
-effected on the Cuyahoga, in the present county of
-that name in northern Ohio. It was here that Mr. Heckewelder
-closed his missionary labors, and years memorable
-in his life, in the course of which he was “in journeyings
-often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in
-perils of his countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in
-perils in the wilderness, in weariness, in watchings often,
-in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness,”
-and yet spared, as to his life, to a good old age, in
-the quiet days of which, when resting from his labors, he
-drew up a narrative of this remarkable period in his own
-experience, and in the history of his church.</p>
-
-<p>On severing his connection with the mission on the
-Cuyahoga, in the autumn of 1786, Mr. Heckewelder
-settled with his wife (Sarah m. n. Ohneberg, whom he
-married in 1780), and two daughters at Bethlehem. This
-change, however, brought him no rest, as much of his
-time for the next fifteen years was devoted to the interests
-of his church’s work among the Indians, in behalf of
-which he made frequent and trying journeys to the west.</p>
-
-<p>In the summer of 1792, Mr. Heckewelder was associated
-by Government with General Rufus Putnam (at that
-gentleman’s request), to treat for peace with the Indians
-of the Wabash, and journeyed on this mission as far as
-Post Vincennes, where, on the 27th of September, articles
-of peace were formally signed by thirty-one chiefs of the
-Seven Nations represented at the meeting. This was a
-high testimonial of confidence in his knowledge of Indian
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">xi</span>
-life and Indian affairs. In the spring of the following
-year, he was a second time commissioned to assist at a
-treaty which the United States purposed to ratify with
-the Indians of the Miami of the Lake, through its accredited
-agents, General Benjamin Lincoln, Colonel
-Timothy Pickering, and Beverly Randolph. On this
-mission he travelled as far as Detroit. The remuneration
-Mr. Heckewelder received for these services, was judiciously
-economized for his old age, his immediate wants
-being supplied by his handicraft, and the income accruing
-from a nursery which he planted on his return from the
-western country. In the interval between 1797 and
-1800, the subject of this sketch visited the Ohio country
-four times, and in 1801 he removed with his family to
-Gnadenh&uuml;tten, on the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum.
-Here he remained nine years, having been intrusted
-by the Society of the United Brethren for Propagating
-the Gospel among the Heathen, founded at Bethlehem,
-in 1788, with the superintendence of a reservation
-of 12,000 acres of land on the Tuscarawas, granted
-by Congress to the said Society for the benefit of the
-Moravian Indians, as a consideration for the losses they
-incurred in the border-war of the Revolution. During
-his residence in Ohio, Mr. Heckewelder was also for a
-time in the civil service, being a postmaster, a justice of
-the peace, and an associate judge of the Court of Common
-Pleas.</p>
-
-<p>In 1810 he returned to Bethlehem, built a house of
-his own, which is still standing, planted the premises with
-trees and shrubs from their native forest, surrounded
-himself with birds and wild flowers, and through these
-beautiful things of nature, sought by association to prolong
-fellowship with his beloved Indians in their distant
-woodland homes. He was called in 1815 to mourn the
-departure of his wife to the eternal world.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">xii</span></p>
-
-<p>At a time when there was a growing spirit of inquiry
-among men of science in our country in the department
-of Indian arch&aelig;ology, it need not surprise us that Mr.
-Heckewelder was sought out in his retirement, and
-called upon to contribute from the treasure-house of his
-experience. In this way originated his intimacy with
-Du Ponceau and Wistar of the American Philosophical
-Society, and that career of literary labor to which he
-dedicated the latter years of his life. In addition to
-occasional essays, which are incorporated in the Transactions
-of the Historical and Literary Committee of that
-society, Mr. Heckewelder, in 1818, published under its
-auspices, the “Account of the History, Manners, and
-Customs of the Indian Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania
-and the neighboring States.” His “Narrative of
-the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware
-and Mohican Indians,” appeared in 1820, and in 1822
-he prepared his well-known collection of “Names, which
-the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians, gave to Rivers,
-Streams, and Localities within the States of Pennsylvania,
-New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, with their
-Significations.” This was his last literary effort; another
-year of suffering, and on the 31st of January, 1823, the
-friend of the Delawares having lived to become a hoary
-old man of seventy-nine winters, passed away.</p>
-
-<p>He left three daughters, Johanna Maria, born April 6,
-1781, at Salem, Tuscarawas county, Ohio&mdash;the first white
-female child born within the borders of that State (she
-died at Bethlehem, September 19, 1868); Anna Salome,
-born August 13, 1784, at New Gnadenh&uuml;tten, on the
-River Huron (Clinton), Michigan; she married Mr.
-Joseph Rice, of Bethlehem, and died January 15, 1857;
-and Susanna, born at Bethlehem, December 31, 1786;
-she married Mr. J. Christian Luckenbach, of Bethlehem,
-and died February 8, 1867.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">xiii</span></p>
-
-<p>Mr. Heckewelder was a fair representative of the
-Moravian missionaries of the last century, a class of men
-whose time was necessarily divided between the discharge
-of spiritual and secular duties; who preached
-the Gospel and administered the Sacraments in houses
-built by their own hands; who wielded the axe, as well
-as the sword of the Spirit, and who by lives of self-denial
-and patient endurance, sustained a mission among the
-aborigines of this country in the face of disappointments
-and obstacles, which would have discouraged any but
-men of their implicit faith in the Divine power of the
-Christian religion.</p>
-
-<p>The subject of this notice made no pretensions to
-scholarship on taking the author’s pen in hand. He was
-eminently an artless man, and artlessness is his characteristic
-as a writer. The fascinating volume to which
-this brief sketch is deemed a sufficient introduction, was
-received with almost unqualified approbation on its appearance
-in 1818. It was translated into German by Fr.
-Hesse, a clergyman of Nienburg, and published at G&ouml;ttingen
-in 1821. A French translation by Du Ponceau
-appeared in Paris in 1822. True, there were those who
-subsequently took exception to Mr. Heckewelder’s manifest
-predilection for the Lenape stock of the North American
-Indians, and others who charged him with credulity,
-because of the reception of their national traditions and
-myths upon the pages of his book. Knowing, as we do,
-that even the most prudent of men are liable to err in
-their search after truth, it would be presumptuous to claim
-infallibility for our author. It would, however, be as presumptuous
-to refuse his statements all claim to respect.
-Hence it may not be denied that John Heckewelder’s contributions
-to Indian arch&aelig;ology, touching their traditions,
-language, manners, customs, life, and character, while supplying
-a long-felt want, are worthy of the regard which is
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">xiv</span>
-usually accorded to the literary productions of men whose
-intelligence, honesty, and acquaintance with their subject
-have qualified them to be its expounders.</p>
-
-<p>In the preparation of his account, Mr. Heckewelder
-acknowledges his indebtedness to Moravian authorities,
-contemporaries, or colleagues of his in the work of missions
-among the aborigines of this country. He refers
-frequently to the Rev. J. Christopher Pyrlæus, and introduces
-extracts from the collection of notes and memoranda
-made by that clergyman during his sojourn in
-America. His references to Loskiel, the historian of the
-Moravian mission among the North American Indians,
-are more frequent. In fact, it is evident that he availed
-himself largely of the introductory chapters of that history,
-the material of which was furnished to Loskiel by the
-veteran missionary, David Zeisberger. In this way then,
-Mr. Heckewelder supplemented his personal experience,
-and the knowledge he had gained by intercourse with the
-Indians, touching those subjects of which he treats in his
-charming narrative.</p>
-
-<p>Both the text and the author’s footnotes, as found in
-the edition of 1818, are faithfully reproduced in the present
-issue; neither have been tampered with in a single
-instance. Such a course was deemed the only proper
-one, although it was conceded that the omission of occasionally
-recurrent passages, and a reconstruction of portions
-of the volume might render the matter more perspicuous,
-and the book more readable, without detracting
-from its value as a repository of well authenticated facts.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">1</a></p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_015.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">xv</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="ph1">
-<span class="large">AN ACCOUNT</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF THE</span><br />
-
-<span class="xlarge">HISTORY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF THE</span><br />
-
-<span class="gesperrt smcap">Indian Nations</span>,<br />
-
-<span class="large">WHO ONCE INHABITED PENNSYLVANIA AND<br />
-THE NEIGHBOURING STATES.</span><br />
-
-<span class="table">
-<span class="trow medium">BY THE</span>
-<span class="trow large">REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER,</span>
-<span class="trow small">OF BETHLEHEM.</span>
-</span>
-
-<img src="images/i_016.jpg"
-alt="" />
-
-<span class="table">
-<span class="trow medium">PHILADELPHIA:</span>
-<span class="trow medium">PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY ABRAHAM SMALL,</span>
-<span class="trow medium"><span class="smcap">No. 112 Chestnut Street</span>.</span>
-<span class="trow medium">1819.</span>
-</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">xvi</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">xvii</span></p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img id="DEDICATION" src="images/i_018.jpg"
-alt="DEDICATION" />
-</p>
-
-<h2>DEDICATION<br />
-
-<span class="large">TO</span><br />
-
-CASPAR WISTAR, M.D.,<br />
-
-<span class="large">PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, ETC.</span>
-</h2>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;Having, at your particular request, undertaken the arduous
-task of giving to the Historical Committee of our Society an
-Account of those Indian Nations and Tribes which once inhabited Pennsylvania
-and the adjoining States, including those who are known by the
-name of the “Six Nations;” I have now, as far as has been in my power,
-complied with your wishes, or at least I have endeavoured so to do.</p>
-
-<p>Foreseeing the difficulties I should labour under, in writing the history
-of a people, of whom so many had already written, I could not but consider
-the undertaking both as unpleasant and hazardous; being aware,
-that it would be impossible for me in all respects to coincide with those
-who have written before me; among whom there are not a few, who,
-although their good intentions cannot be doubted, yet from their too
-short residence in the country of the Indians, have not had sufficient
-opportunities to acquire the knowledge which they undertake to communicate.
-Ignorant of the language, or being but superficially acquainted
-with it, they have relied on ignorant or careless interpreters, by whom
-they have been most frequently led astray; in what manner, this little
-work will abundantly shew.</p>
-
-<p>The sure way to obtain correct ideas, and a true knowledge of the
-characters, customs, manners, &amp;c., of the Indians, and to learn their
-history, is to dwell among them for some time, and having acquired
-their language, the information wished for will be obtained in the common
-way; that is, by paying attention to their discourses with each
-other on different subjects, and occasionally asking them questions; always
-watching for the proper opportunity, when they do not suspect
-your motives, and are disposed to be free and open with you.</p>
-
-<p>The political state and connexions of the two once great and rival
-nations, the Mengwe, (or Six Nations) and the Lenape (or Delawares,
-as we call them), being little, or but imperfectly known to many of us,
-I have been at some pains in unfolding the origin and true cause of
-their rivalship; and the means resorted to by the one nation, to bring
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">xviii</span>
-themselves into consequence with the white people, for the purpose of
-subduing the other.</p>
-
-<p>How far the Six Nations have succeeded in this, we know; at least,
-we know so much, that they sold the country of the Lenape, Mohicans,
-and other tribes connected with them, by piecemeals to the English, so
-that they were finally obliged to wander to the West, while their enemies,
-during all this time, remained in full and quiet possession of their country.</p>
-
-<p>If we ought, or wish to know the history of those nations from whom
-we have obtained the country we now live in, we must also wish to be informed
-of the means by which that country fell into our hands, and
-what has become of its original inhabitants. To meet this object, I have
-given their traditions respecting their first coming into our country,
-and their own history of the causes of their emigrating from it.</p>
-
-<p>On all the subjects which I have treated respecting the different tribes,
-I have endeavoured to be impartial. Yet, if I should still be thought to
-have shewn some partiality for the Delawares and their connexions, with
-respect to the affairs between them and the Six Nations, I have only to
-reply, that we have been attentive to all the Six Nations told us of these
-people, until we got possession of their whole country; and now, having
-what we wanted, we ought not to turn them off with this story on their
-backs, but rather, out of gratitude and compassion, give them also a hearing,
-and acquit them honourably, if we find them deserving of it.</p>
-
-<p>What I have written, concerning their character, their customs, manners,
-and usages, is from personal knowledge, and from such other information
-as may be relied on; and in order to be the better understood,
-I have frequently added anecdotes, remarks, and relations of particular
-events. In some instances I have had reference to authors, and manuscript
-notes taken down upwards of seventy years since, by individuals
-well deserving of credit.</p>
-
-<p>To you, Sir, I need not apologise for my deficiency in point of style
-and language, which has been known to you long since. I have endeavoured
-to make amends for this defect, by being the more careful
-and correct in my narrations, so as at least to make up in matter what
-in manner may be deficient.</p>
-
-<p class="table w100">
-<span class="trow">
-<span class="tcell tdl"></span>
-<span class="tcell tdr">I am, Sir, with great respect,</span>
-</span>
-<span class="trow">
-<span class="tcell tdl"></span>
-<span class="tcell tdr">Your obedient humble servant,</span>
-</span>
-<span class="trow">
-<span class="tcell tdl"><i>November, 1817.</i></span>
-<span class="tcell tdr">JOHN HECKEWELDER.</span>
-</span>
-</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Since the above was written, my excellent friend <span class="smcap">Dr. Wistar</span> has departed this
-life, lamented by the whole country, of which he was an ornament. To me he was
-more than I can express; he directed and encouraged my humble labours, and to
-his approbation I looked up as my best reward. He is gone, but his name and his
-virtues will long be held in remembrance. By me, at least, they shall never be forgotten.
-This Dedication, therefore, will remain, as a testimony of the high respect
-I bore to this great and good man while living, and as a tribute justly due to his
-memory.</p>
-
-<p class="author">J. H.</p>
-<p><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, <i>March, 1818</i>.</p></blockquote>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xix">xix</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_020.jpg"
-alt="CONTENTS" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS<br />PART I.</h2>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="3"><p class="hang">AN ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE
-INDIAN NATIONS WHO ONCE INHABITED PENNSYLVANIA AND
-THE NEIGHBOURING STATES.</p></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"></td>
-    <td class="tdr">PAGE</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">Introduction by the Editor</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">vii</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap"><a href="#DEDICATION">Dedication</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">xvii</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">Introduction by the Author</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">xxiii</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="small" colspan="3">CHAPTER</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">I.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Historical Traditions of the Indians</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">47</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">II.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Indian Account of the first arrival of the Dutch at New York Island</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">71</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">III.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Indian Relations of the conduct of the Europeans towards them</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">76</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Subsequent fate of the Lenape and their kindred tribes</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">83</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">V.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">The Iroquois</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">95</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">VI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">General character of the Indians</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">100</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">VII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Government</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">107</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Education</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">113</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">IX.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Languages</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">118</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">X.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Signs and hieroglyphics</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">128</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">Oratory</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">132</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Metaphorical expressions</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">137</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">Indian names</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">141</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XIV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">Intercourse with each other</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">145</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">Political manœuvres</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">150</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XVI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Marriage and treatment of their wives</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">154</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XVII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">Respect for the aged</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">163</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XVIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">Pride and greatness of mind</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">170</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XIX.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">Wars and the causes which lead to them</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">175</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XX.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">Manner of surprising their enemies</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">177</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">Peace messengers</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">181</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">Treaties</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">185<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">xx</span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">XIIIGeneral observations of the Indians on the white people</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">187</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXIV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">Food and cookery</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">193</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">Dress and ornamenting of their persons</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">202</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXVI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">Dances, songs, and sacrifices</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">208</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXVII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">Scalping&mdash;whoops or yells&mdash;prisoners</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">215</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXVIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">Bodily constitution and diseases</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">220</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXIX.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">Remedies</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">224</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXX.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">Physicians and surgeons</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">228</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXXI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">Doctors or jugglers</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">231</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXXII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">Superstition</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">239</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXXIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">Initiation of boys</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">245</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXXIV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">Indian mythology</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">249</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXXV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">Insanity&mdash;suicide</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">257</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXXVI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">Drunkenness</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">261</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXXVII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">Funerals</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">268</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXXVIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">Friendship</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">277</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXXIX.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">Preachers and prophets</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">290</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XL.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XL">Short notice of the Indian chiefs Tamanend and Tadeuskund</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">300</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XLI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">Computation of time&mdash;astronomical and geographical knowledge</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">306</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XLII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">General observations and anecdotes</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">310</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XLIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">Advice to travellers</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">318</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XLIV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV">The Indians and the whites compared</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">328</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CONCLUSION">Conclusion</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">346</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_021.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<p class="xlarge center">PART II.<br />
-
-<span class="large">CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING THE INDIAN LANGUAGES.</span></p>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="3" class="tdr">PAGE</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap"><a href="#PART_II_INTRODUCTION">Introduction</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">351</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="3" class="small">LETTER</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">I.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_I">Mr. Duponceau to Mr. Heckewelder, 9th January, 1816</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">353</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">II.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_II">Dr. C. Wistar to Mr. Heckewelder (same date)</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">354</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">III.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_III">Mr. Heckewelder to Dr. Wistar, 24th March</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">356</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_IV">The Same to the Same, 3d April</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">358</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">V.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_V">Mr. Duponceau to Dr. Wistar, 14th May</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">359</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">VI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_VI">Dr. Wistar to Mr. Heckewelder, 21st May</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">359</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">VII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_VII">Mr. Heckewelder to Mr. Duponceau, 27th May</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">361</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_VIII">Mr. Duponceau to Mr. Heckewelder, 10th June</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">364</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">IX.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_IX">The Same to the Same, 13th June</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">369</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">X.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_X">Mr. Heckewelder to Mr. Duponceau, 20th June</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">371<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxi">xxi</span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XI">The Same to the Same, 24th June</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">375</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XII">Mr. Duponceau to Mr. Heckewelder, 13th July</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">376</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XIII">The Same to the Same, 18th July</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">379</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XIV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XIV">Mr. Heckewelder to Mr. Duponceau, 22d July</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">380</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XV">The Same to the Same, 24th July</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">383</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XVI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XVI">Mr. Duponceau to Mr. Heckewelder, 31st July</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">387</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XVII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XVII">The Same to the Same, 3d August</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">392</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XVIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XVIII">Mr. Heckewelder to Mr. Duponceau, 12th August</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">395</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XIX.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XIX">The Same to the Same, 15th August</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">399</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XX.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XX">Mr. Duponceau to Mr. Heckewelder, 21st August</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">403</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XXI">Mr. Heckewelder to Mr. Duponceau, 26th August</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">409</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XXII">The Same to the Same, 27th August</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">414</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXIII.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XXIII">Mr. Duponceau to Mr. Heckewelder, 30th August</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">416</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXIV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XXIV">Mr. Heckewelder to Mr. Duponceau, 5th September</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">422</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXV.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XXV">Mr. Duponceau to Mr. Heckewelder, 1st October</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">426</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">XXVI.</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LETTER_XXVI">Mr. Heckewelder to Mr. Duponceau, 10th October</a></span></td>
-    <td class="tdr">430</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/tb.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<p class="xlarge center" id="PART_III">PART III.</p>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="#WORDS_PHRASES_ETC">WORDS, PHRASES, AND SHORT DIALOGUES</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">437</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_022b.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxii">xxii</span>
-
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiii">xxiii</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_024a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> reader of the following pages, having already seen
-what has induced me to come forward with an historical
-account of the Indians, after so many have
-written on the same subject, will perhaps look for
-something more extraordinary in this than in other works of
-the kind which he has seen. Not wishing any one to raise his
-expectations too high, I shall briefly state that I have not
-written to excite astonishment, but for the information of those
-who are desirous of knowing the true history of those people,
-who, for centuries, have been in full possession of the country
-we now inhabit; but who have since emigrated to a great distance.
-I can only assure them, that I have not taken the information
-here communicated from the writings of others, but from
-the mouths of the very people I am going to speak of, and from
-my own observation of what I have witnessed while living
-among them. I have, however, occasionally quoted other
-authors, and in some instances copied short passages from their
-works, especially where I have thought it necessary to illustrate
-or corroborate my own statements of facts.</p>
-
-<p>In what I have written concerning the character, customs,
-manners, and usages of these people, I cannot have been
-deceived, since it is the result of personal knowledge, of what
-I myself have seen, heard, and witnessed, while residing among
-and near them, for more than thirty years. I have however to
-remark, that this history, like other histories of former times,
-will not in every respect comport with the character of the
-Indians at the present time, since all these nations and tribes, by
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiv">xxiv</span>
-their intercourse with the white people, have lost much of the
-honourable and virtuous qualities which they once possessed,
-and added to their vices and immorality. Of this, no one can
-be a better judge than a missionary residing among them. And
-if,<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> what these people told us more than half a century ago; that
-lying, stealing, and other vicious acts, before the white men came
-among them, were considered as crimes, we may safely conclude&mdash;and
-we know it to be fact&mdash;that from that time to this, and
-especially within the last forty years, they have so much degenerated,
-that a delineation of their present character would bear
-no resemblance to what it was before.&mdash;It is therefore the history
-of early times, not of the present, that I have written; and
-to those times my delineations of their character must be considered
-to apply; yet, to shew the contrast, I have also delineated
-some of their present features.</p>
-
-<p>It may be proper to mention in this place, that I have made
-use of the proper national name of the people whom we call
-<i>Delawares</i>, which is: “<i>Lenni Lenape</i>.” Yet, as they, in the common
-way of speaking, merely pronounce the word “<i>Lenape</i>,” I have,
-in most instances, when speaking of them, used this word singly.
-I have also made use of the word “<i>Mengwe</i>,” or <i>Mingoes</i>, the
-name by which the <i>Lenape</i> commonly designate the people
-known to us by the name of the <i>Iroquois</i>, and <i>Five</i> or <i>Six Nations</i>.
-I shall give at the end a general list of all the names I have
-made use of in this communication, to which I refer the reader
-for instruction.</p>
-
-<p>As the Indians, in all their public speeches and addresses,
-speak in the singular number, I have sometimes been led to
-follow their example, when reporting what they have said; I
-have also frequently, by attending particularly to the identical
-words spoken by them, copied their peculiar phrases, when I
-might have given their meaning in other words.</p>
-
-<p>On the origin of the Indians, I have been silent, leaving this
-speculation to abler historians than myself. To their history,
-and notions with regard to their creation, I have given a place;
-and have also briefly related the traditions of the Lenape on the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxv">xxv</span>
-subject of their arrival at, and crossing the river Mississippi,
-their coming to the Atlantic coast, what occurred to them while
-in this country, and their retreat back again.</p>
-
-<p>As the relation of the Delawares and Mohicans, concerning
-the policy adopted and pursued by the Six Nations towards
-them, may perhaps appear strange to many, and it may excite
-some astonishment, that a matter of such importance was not
-earlier set forth in the same light, I shall here, by way of introduction,
-and for the better understanding of the account which
-they give of this matter, examine into some facts, partly known
-to us already, and partly now told us in their relation; so that
-we may see how far these agree together, and know what we
-may rely upon.</p>
-
-<p>It is conceded on all sides that the Lenape and Iroquois carried
-on long and bloody wars with each other; but while the
-one party assert, that they completely conquered the other, and
-reduced them by force to the condition of women, this assertion
-is as strongly and pointedly denied by the other side; I have
-therefore thought that the real truth of this fact was well deserving
-of investigation.</p>
-
-<p>The story told by the Mingoes to the white people, of their
-having conquered the Lenape and made women of them, was
-much too implicitly believed; for the whites always acted
-towards the Delawares under the impression that it was true,
-refused even to hear their own account of the matter, and “shut
-their ears” against them, when they attempted to inform them
-of the real fact. This denial of common justice, is one of the
-principal complaints of the Lenape against the English, and
-makes a part of the tradition or history which they preserve for
-posterity.</p>
-
-<p>This complaint indeed, bears hard upon us, and should, at
-least, operate as a solemn call to rectify the error, if such it is
-found to be; that we, in our history, may not record and transmit
-erroneous statements of those Aborigines, from whom we
-have received the country we now so happily inhabit. We are
-bound in honour to acquit ourselves of all charges of the kind
-which those people may have against us, who, in the beginning
-welcomed us to their shores, in hopes that “they and we would
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxvi">xxvi</span>
-sit beside each other as brothers;” and it should not be said,
-that now, when they have surrendered their whole country to
-us, and retired to the wilds of a distant country, we turn our
-backs upon them with contempt.</p>
-
-<p>We know that all Indians have the custom of transmitting to
-posterity, by a regular chain of tradition, the remarkable events
-which have taken place with them at any time, even often events
-of a trivial nature, of which I could mention a number. Ought
-we then, when such a source of information is at hand, to believe
-the story told by the Six Nations, of their having conquered the
-Lenape, (a powerful nation with a very large train of connexions
-and allies) and forcibly made them women? Ought we
-not, before we believe this, to look for a tradition of the circumstances
-of so important an event; for some account, at least, of
-the time, place, or places, where those battles were fought, which
-decided the fate of the Lenape, the Mohicans, and of a number
-of tribes connected with them? Are we to be left altogether
-ignorant of the numbers that were slain at the time, and the
-country in which this memorable event took place; whether on
-the St. Lawrence, on the Lakes, in the country of the conquerors,
-or of the conquered? All these I am inclined to call <i>first</i>
-considerations, while a <i>second</i> would be: How does this story
-accord with the situation the first Europeans found these people
-in on their arrival in this country? Were not those who are
-said to be a conquered people, thickly settled on the whole
-length of the sea coast, and far inland, in and from Virginia to
-and beyond the Province of Maine, and had they not yet, at that
-very time, a great National Council Fire burning on the banks
-of the Delaware? Does not the joint tradition of the Delawares,
-Mohicans and Nanticokes, inform us, that their great
-National Council House<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> then extended from the head of the
-tide on the (now) Hudson river, to the head of the tide on the
-Potomack? All this we shall find faithfully copied or written
-down from their verbal tradition, and that this Council House
-“was pulled down by the white people!”<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> and of course was
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxvii">xxvii</span>
-yet standing when they came into the country; which alone is
-sufficient to prove that the Lenape, at that time, were not a conquered
-people; and if they had been conquered since, we might
-expect to find the fact, with its particulars, somewhere on record.</p>
-
-<p>It is admitted, however, by the Lenape themselves, that they
-and their allies were <i>made women</i> by the Iroquois. But how
-did this happen? Not surely by conquest, or the fate of battle.
-Strange as it may appear, it was not produced by the effects of
-superior force, but by successful intrigue. Here, if my informants
-were correct, and I trust they were, rests the great mystery,
-for the particulars of which, I refer the reader to the history of
-the Lenape and Mohicans themselves, as related in part by
-Loskiel in his “History of the Mission of the United Brethren
-among the North American Indians,”<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> and in this work. In the
-first, he will find three material points ascertained, viz. 1st, “that
-the Delawares were too strong for the Iroquois, and could not
-be conquered by them by force of arms, but were subdued by
-insidious means. 2d, that the making women of the Delawares
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxviii">xxviii</span>
-was not an act of compulsion, but the result of their own free
-will and consent; and 3d, that the whites were already in the
-country at the time this ceremony took place, since they were to
-hold one end of the great Peace Belt in their hands.”<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> In the
-following History, which I have taken from the relation of the
-most intelligent and creditable old Indians, both Delawares and
-Mohicans, not only the same facts will be found, but also a more
-minute account of this transaction; in which it will be shewn,
-that the Dutch not only were present at, but were parties to it,
-that it was in this manner that the Six Nations were relieved
-from the critical situation they were in, at that very time, with
-regard to their enemies, the Delawares, Mohicans, and their
-connexions, and that the white people present coaxed and persuaded
-them to cause the hatchet to be buried, declaring at the
-same time<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> that they “would fall on those who should dig it up
-again;” which was, on the part of the Hollanders, a declaration
-of war against the Delawares and their allies, if they, or any
-of them, should attempt again to act hostilely against the Six
-Nations. All this, according to the tradition of the Lenape, was
-transacted at a place, since called “Nordman’s Kill,” a few miles
-from the spot where afterwards Albany was built, and but a
-short time after the Dutch had arrived at New York Island,
-probably between the years 1609 and 1620.</p>
-
-<p>The Rev. Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us,<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> who had learned the Mohawk language
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxix">xxix</span>
-of Conrad Weiser, and was stationed on the river of that
-name, for some time between the years 1742 and 1748, has
-noted down in a large manuscript book, that his friend there,
-the Mohawk chief, had told him, that at a place about four miles
-from Albany, now called Nordman’s Kill,<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">10</a> the first covenant had
-been made between the Six Nations and the white people;
-which is in confirmation of the correctness of the above tradition
-of the Mohicans.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">11</a></p>
-
-<p>This was then, according to the best accounts we have, the
-time when this pretended “conquest” took place; and the
-Delawares, (as the Six Nations have since said) were by them
-<i>made women</i>. It was, however, a conquest of a singular nature,
-effected through duplicity and intrigue, at <i>a council fire</i>, not <i>in
-battle</i>. “And, (say the Delawares and Mohicans, in their tradition,)
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxx">xxx</span>
-when the English took the country from the <i>Dutchemaan</i>,
-(Hollanders) they stepped into the same alliance with
-the Six Nations, which their predecessors had established with
-them.”</p>
-
-<p>Colden, in his “History of the Five Nations,”<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> informs us,
-page 34, that this took place in the year 1664; and in page 36,
-gives us full proof of this alliance, by the following account&mdash;He
-says: “The Five Nations being now amply supplied by the
-English with fire-arms and ammunition, gave full swing to their
-warlike genius, and soon resolved to revenge the affronts they
-had at any time received from the Indian nations that lived at a
-greater distance from them. The nearest nations, as they were
-attacked, commonly fled to those that were further off, and the
-Five Nations pursued them. This, together with the desire they
-had of conquering, or ambition of making all the nations around
-them their tributaries, or to make them acknowledge the Five
-Nations to be so far their masters, as to be absolutely directed
-by them in all affairs of peace and war with their neighbours,
-made them overrun great part of North America. They carried
-their arms as far south as Carolina; to the northward of New
-England; and as far west as the river Mississippi; over a vast
-country, which extends twelve hundred miles in length, from
-north to south, and about six hundred miles in breadth; where
-they entirely destroyed many nations, of whom there are now
-no accounts remaining among the English,” &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>To what a number of important questions would not the
-above statement give rise? But I will confine myself to a few,
-and enquire first, for what purpose the Five Nations were
-armed, and so “amply supplied with ammunition?” and secondly,
-what use did they make of those arms? The Delawares
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxi">xxxi</span>
-and Mohicans believed that the white people, first the Dutch
-and then the English, did all that was in their power to make
-the Mengwe a great people, so that they might rule over them
-and all other nations, and “that they had done what they
-wanted them to do,” &amp;c. For an answer to the second question,
-we have only to believe what Colden himself tells us, of what
-the same Mengwe or Iroquois did, after having received arms
-and ammunition from the English, which it clearly appears they
-could not have done before. Now, if we even were willing to
-admit that they had only gone off, “to revenge the affronts they
-had at any time received from the Indian Nations,” yet, we
-would be willing to know, of what nature those affronts had
-been; otherwise we might conclude, that they were no other
-than that those nations had refused “to become tributary to
-them; would not submit to their mandates, nor have them for
-their masters;” and therefore had beaten them off, when they
-came into their country for the purpose of bringing them under
-subjection, and perhaps also paid them a visit in return, after
-they had murdered some of their people.</p>
-
-<p>If we were permitted to omit the words, “revenge the affronts
-they had received from other nations,” &amp;c., we need not one
-moment be at a loss to know precisely what they went out for,
-as the historian himself tells us, that they, soon after receiving
-fire-arms and ammunition, “gave full swing to their warlike
-genius, and went off with a desire of conquering nations&mdash;of
-making all those around them their tributaries, and compelling
-them all to acknowledge the Five Nations to be their masters,
-and to be absolutely directed by them, in all affairs of peace and
-war.” We then know with certainty, what the object was for
-which they took the field.</p>
-
-<p>We are here also told, of the vast tract of country over which
-the Six Nations had carried their arms, subduing, and even “so
-destroying many nations, that no account of them was now
-remaining with the English!”</p>
-
-<p>In reply to this I might bring forward some sayings and
-assertions of the Delawares and Mohicans, which would not
-comport with the above story, nor apply to the great name the
-Six Nations have given themselves, which, as Colden tells us, is
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxii">xxxii</span>
-<i>Ongwe-honwe</i>, and signifies “men surpassing all others, superior
-to the rest of mankind:” but my object here is merely to discuss
-the fact, whether, previous to the white people’s coming
-into the country, and while unsupplied with fire-arms, hatchets,
-&amp;c., those Iroquois had done such wonders among nations as
-they report; or, whether all this was done since that time, and
-in consequence of their being put into possession of those
-destructive weapons which they had not before; for how are we
-to judge, and decide on the comparative bravery of two different
-nations, without knowing whether or not the combatants
-were placed on an equal footing with regard to the weapons
-they used against each other?</p>
-
-<p>I might ask the simple question, whether the Dutch, and afterwards
-the English, have favoured their “brethren,” the Delawares,
-Mohicans, and other tribes connected with them, who
-lived between them and the Six Nations, and on the land which
-they wanted to have, in the same manner that they have
-favoured their enemies?</p>
-
-<p>Colden, in his Introduction to the History of the Five Nations,
-page 3, says: “I have been told by old men in New England,
-who remembered the time when the Mohawks made war on
-<i>their</i> Indians,” (meaning here the Mohicans, or River Indians, as
-they often were called,) “that as soon as a single Mohawk was
-discovered in the country, <i>their</i> Indians raised a cry, from hill
-to hill, <i>a Mohawk! a Mohawk!</i> upon which they all fled, like
-sheep before wolves, without attempting to make the least resistance,
-whatever odds were on their side,” and that, “the poor
-New England Indians immediately ran to the Christian houses,
-and the Mohawks often pursued them so closely, that they
-entered along with them, and knocked their brains out in the
-presence of the people of the house,” &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>This is indeed a lamentable story! It might be asked, How
-could the white people, whom those very Mohicans had hospitably
-welcomed, and permitted to live with them on their land,
-suffer an enemy to come into the country to destroy their benefactors,
-without making any opposition? Why did these Indians
-suffer this? Why did they not with spirit meet this enemy?</p>
-
-<p>The answer to this last question will be found in their traditional
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxiii">xxxiii</span>
-history of the great meeting at Nordman’s Kill, where
-they were expressly told, after they had consented to bury the
-hatchet, wherewith they warred against the Six Nations, “That
-whatsoever nation, (meaning the Mohicans and Delawares)
-should dig up the hatchet again, on them would the white
-people fall and take revenge!”</p>
-
-<p>Thus, then, arms were put into the hands of the Six Nations,
-and with them the Dutch, and afterwards the English, sided;
-but the Delawares and Mohicans were compelled to remain
-unarmed, for fear of being cut up by the white people, who had
-taken part with their enemies. May we not conclude, that these
-poor New England Indians were placed between two fires?</p>
-
-<p>We do not, I believe, find that in the then middle colonies,
-the Mohawks, or any of the Five Nations, had ventured so far
-in their hostile conduct against the Delawares, as they had done
-to the Mohicans of New England, though the alliance between
-the Dutch and the Five Nations, and afterwards between the
-English and the latter, was much against both, and indeed more
-against the Delawares than the Mohicans: yet, by turning to
-treaties and councils, held with these nations between the years
-1740 and 1760, in Pennsylvania,<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> we find much insolent language,
-which the Iroquois were, I will say, permitted, but which, the
-people concerned say, they were “bid or hired to make against
-the Delawares, for the purpose of stopping their mouths, preventing
-them from stating their complaints and grievances, and
-asking redress from the colonial government.”</p>
-
-<p>The result of such high toned language, as that which was
-made use of to the Delawares, by the Six Nations, at a council
-held at the proprietors, in July, 1742, and at other times afterwards,<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">14</a>
-might easily have been foretold. For although now,
-these defenceless people had to submit to such gross insults,
-instead of seeing their grievances redressed, yet they were not
-ignorant of the manner in which they one day might take
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxiv">xxxiv</span>
-revenge, the door to the French, who were enemies to the English,
-being always open to them; they had but to go “on one
-side” (as they expressed themselves) to be out of the way of the
-Iroquois, and they could obtain from the possessors of Canada,
-and Louisiana, all that they wanted, fire-arms, hatchets, scalping-knives,
-ammunition, &amp;c. They did so, and withdrew to the
-Ohio country, whither they were followed by others from time
-to time, and by the time the French war broke out, they were in
-perfect readiness, and joining the enemies of Britain, they murdered
-great numbers of the defenceless inhabitants of Pennsylvania,
-laid the whole frontier waste, and spread terror and misery
-far and wide by the outrages they committed; I have been myself
-a witness to those scenes, and to the distresses of hundreds
-of poor people, only in this one quarter.</p>
-
-<p>A work, entitled: “An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation
-of the Delaware and Shawanese Indians from the British
-Interest,” written by Charles Thompson,<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> Esq., and printed in
-London, in 1759, which some time since fell into my hands,
-well merits to be read with attention, on account of the correctness
-of the information that it contains.</p>
-
-<p>By this time, the Delawares were sensible of the imposition
-which had been practised upon them. They saw that a plan had
-been organised for their destruction, and that not only their independence,
-but their very existence, was at stake; they therefore
-took measures to defend themselves, by abandoning the system
-of neutrality into which they had been insidiously drawn.</p>
-
-<p>It was not without difficulty that I obtained from them these
-interesting details, for they felt ashamed of their own conduct;
-they were afraid of being charged with cowardice, or at least
-with want of forethought, in having acted as they did, and not
-having discovered their error until it was too late.</p>
-
-<p>And yet, in my opinion, those fears were entirely groundless,
-and there appears nothing in their whole conduct disparaging to
-the courage and high sense of honour of that brave nation. Let
-us for a moment place ourselves in the situation of the Delawares,
-Mohicans, and the other tribes connected with them, at
-the time when the Europeans first landed on New York Island.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxv">xxxv</span>
-They were then in the height of their glory, pursuing their successes
-against the Iroquois, with whom they had long been at
-war. They were in possession of the whole country, from the
-sea coast to the Mississippi, from the River St. Lawrence to the
-frontier of Carolina, while the habitations of their enemies did
-not extend far beyond the great Lakes. In this situation, they
-are on a sudden checked in their career, by a phenomenon they
-had till then never beheld; immense canoes arriving at their
-shores, filled with people of a different colour, language, dress,
-and manners, from themselves! In their astonishment they call
-out to one another: “Behold! the Gods are come to visit us!”<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">16</a>
-They at first considered these astonishing beings, as messengers
-of peace, sent from the abode of the Great Spirit, and therefore,
-employed their time in preparing and making sacrifices to that
-Great Being who had so highly honoured them. Lost in
-amazement, fond of the enjoyment of this new spectacle, and
-anxious to know the result, they were unmindful of those matters
-which hitherto had taken up their minds, and had been the
-object of their pursuits; they thought of nothing else but the
-wonders which now struck their eyes, and their sharpest wits
-were constantly employed in endeavouring to divine this great
-mystery! Such is the manner in which they relate that event,
-the strong impression of which is not yet obliterated from their
-minds.</p>
-
-<p>It was the <i>Delawares</i> who first received and welcomed these
-new guests on New York Island; the Mohicans who inhabited
-the whole of the North River above, on its eastern side, were
-sent for to participate in the joy which was felt on being
-honoured by such visitants. Their tradition of this event is
-clear and explicit. None of the enemy, say they, (meaning the
-Five Nations<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">17</a>) were present.</p>
-
-<p>It may possibly be asked, how the Dutch could favour the
-Five Nations so much, when none of them were present at the
-meetings which took place on their arrival in America? how
-they came to abandon their first friends, and take part against
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxvi">xxxvi</span>
-them with strangers? and how the Dutch became acquainted
-with those strangers? I shall simply, in answer, give the traditional
-accounts of the Mohicans in their own words: “The
-Dutch Traders (say they) penetrating into our country, high up
-the Mohicanichtuck (the Hudson River), fell in with some of
-the Mingo warriors, who told them that they were warring
-against the very people, (the Delawares and Mohicans) who had
-so kindly received them; they easily foresaw, that they could
-not carry on their trade with their old friends, while this was the
-case; neither would the Mingoes suffer them to trade with their
-enemies, unless they (the Dutch) assisted them in bringing
-about a peace between them. They also made these traders
-sensible, that they at that time, were at war with a people of
-the same colour with theirs (meaning the French), who had, by
-means of a very large river which lay to the North, come into
-the country; that they (the Mengwe) were the greatest and
-most powerful of all the Indian nations; that if the people they
-belonged to, were friends to their enemies, and sided with them
-in their wars, they would turn their whole force against them;
-but if, on the other hand, the Dutch would join them in effecting
-a peace with them, so that their hatchet should be buried
-forever, they would support and protect them in all their undertakings;<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">18</a>
-that these traders being frightened, had returned
-home, and having stated the matter to their chief (the Dutch
-Governor), a vessel soon after went high up the river to an appointed
-place, where meeting with the Maqua (Five Nations), a
-conference was held, at which the Dutch promised them, that
-they would use their best endeavours to persuade their enemies
-to give up the hatchet to be buried, which, some time afterwards,
-actually took place.”</p>
-
-<p>These are (as they say) the circumstances which led to the
-league which was afterwards established between the white
-people and the Five Nations, which was the cause of much dissatisfaction,
-injustice, and bloodshed, and which would not have
-taken place, if the rights and privileges of the different nations
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxvii">xxxvii</span>
-and tribes had been respected, and each left to act for itself,
-especially in selling their lands to the Europeans.</p>
-
-<p>Having seen how the Five, afterwards Six Nations, rose to
-power, we have next to state by what means they lost the
-ascendancy which they had thus acquired.</p>
-
-<p>The withdrawing of the principal part of the Delawares, and
-the Shawanos, from the Atlantic coast, between the years 1740
-and 1760, afforded them an opportunity of consulting with the
-western tribes, on the manner of taking revenge on the Iroquois
-for the many provocations, wrongs and insults they had received
-from them; when <i>ten</i> nations immediately entered into an alliance
-for that purpose, the French having promised to assist
-them.<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> In the year 1756, they agreed to move on in detached
-bodies, as though they meant to attack the English, with whom
-they and the French were then at war, and then turn suddenly
-on the Six Nations and make a bold stroke. Though, for
-various reasons, their designs could not at that time be carried
-into effect, yet they did not lose sight of the object, waiting only
-for a proper opportunity.</p>
-
-<p>It would, however, have been next to impossible, under
-existing circumstances, and while the Six Nations were supported
-by such a powerful ally as the English, for the Delawares
-and their allies, to subdue, or even effectually to chastise
-them. These Nations, however, at the commencement of a
-war between the English nation and the Colonies, were become
-so far independent, that such of them as lived remote from the
-British stations or garrisons, or were not immediately under
-their eye, were at full liberty to side with whom they pleased;
-and though the Six Nations attempted to dictate to the Western
-Delawares, what side they should take, their spirited chief,
-Captain White Eyes, did not hesitate to reply, in the name of
-his nation: “that he should do as he pleased; that he wore no
-petticoats, as they falsely pretended; he was no woman, but a
-man, and they should find him to act as such.” That this brave
-chief was in earnest, was soon after verified, by a party of Delawares
-joining the American army.</p>
-
-<p>In 1781, when almost all the Indian nations were in the British
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxviii">xxxviii</span>
-interest, except a part of the Delawares, among whom were the
-Christian Indians between 2 and 300 souls in number,<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> the British
-Indian agent at Detroit applied to the great council of the Six
-Nations at Niagara, to remove those Christian Indians out of
-the country: the Iroquois upon this sent a war message to the
-Chippeways and Ottawas,<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> to this effect: “We herewith make
-you a present of the Christian Indians, to make soup of;<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">22</a>”
-which in the war language of the Indians, is saying: “We
-deliver these people to you to be murdered!” These brave
-Indians sent the message immediately back again with the
-reply: “We have no cause for doing this!”</p>
-
-<p>The same message being next sent to the Wyandots, they
-likewise disobeyed their orders, and did not make the least
-attempt to murder those innocent people. The Iroquois, therefore,
-were completely at a loss how to think and act, seeing that
-their orders were every where disregarded.</p>
-
-<p>At the conclusion of the revolutionary war, they had the
-mortification to see, that the trade which they had hitherto carried
-on, and to them was so agreeable and profitable, that of
-selling to the English the land of other nations, to which they
-had no possible claim, was at once and forever put an end to by
-the liberal line of conduct which the American Government
-adopted with the Indian Nations, leaving each at liberty to sell
-its own lands, reserving, only to themselves the right of purchase,
-to the exclusion of foreigners of every description.</p>
-
-<p>In addition to this, the bond of connexion which subsisted
-between these Six Nations, if it was not entirely broken, yet
-was much obstructed, by a separation which took place at the
-close of that war, when a part, and the most active body of
-them, retired into Canada. No nation then any more regarded
-their commands, nor even their advice, when it did not accord
-with their will and inclination; all which became evident during
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxix">xxxix</span>
-the whole time the Western Nations were at war with the United
-States, and until the peace made with them in 1795.<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">23</a></p>
-
-<p>At last, being sensible of their humbled situation, and probably
-dreading the consequence of their former insolent conduct
-to the other Indian Nations, and principally the Delawares,
-whom they had so long and so much insulted, were they not to
-make some amends for all this contumely? They came forward,
-at the critical moment, just previous to the Treaty concluded by
-General Wayne, and formally declared the Delaware nation to
-be no longer <i>Women</i>, but <span class="smcap">Men</span>.</p>
-
-<p>I hope to be believed in the solemn assertion which I now
-make: That in all that I have written on the subject of the history
-and politics of the Indian Nations, I have neither been
-influenced by partiality for the one, or undue prejudice against
-the other, but having had the best opportunities of obtaining
-from authentic sources, such information in matters of fact, as
-has enabled me to make up my mind on the subject, I have
-taken the liberty of expressing my opinion as I have honestly
-formed it, leaving the reader, however, at liberty to judge and
-decide for himself as he may deem most proper.</p>
-
-<p>I wish once more to observe, that in this history it is principally
-meant to shew, rather what the Indians of this country
-were previous to the white people’s arrival, than what they now
-are; for now, the two great nations, the Iroquois and the Delawares,
-are no longer the same people that they formerly were.
-The former, who, as their rivals would assert, were more like
-beasts than human beings, and made intrigue their only study,
-have, by their intercourse with the whites, become an industrious
-and somewhat civilised people; at least many of them are
-so, which is probably owing to their having been permitted to
-live so long, (indeed, for more than a century) in the same district
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xl">xl</span>
-of country, and while the British possessed it, under the
-protection of the superintendent of Indian affairs; while the
-latter have always been oppressed and persecuted, disturbed and
-driven from place to place, scarcely enjoying themselves at any
-place for a dozen years at a time; having constantly the lowest
-class of whites for their neighbours, and having no opportunity
-of displaying their true character and the talents that nature
-had bestowed upon them.</p>
-
-<p>My long residence among those nations in the constant habit
-of unrestrained familiarity, has enabled me to know them well,
-and made me intimately acquainted with the manners, customs,
-character and disposition of those men of nature, when uncorrupted
-by European vices. Of these, I think I could draw a
-highly interesting picture, if I only possessed adequate powers
-of description: but the talent of writing is not to be acquired in
-the wilderness, among savages. I have felt it, however, to be a
-duty incumbent upon me to make the attempt, and I have done
-it in the following pages, with a rude but faithful pencil. I have
-spent a great part of my life among those people, and have been
-treated by them with uniform kindness and hospitality. I have
-witnessed their virtues and experienced their goodness. I owe
-them a debt of gratitude, which I cannot acquit better than by
-presenting to the world this plain unadorned picture, which I
-have drawn in the spirit of candour and truth. Alas! in a few
-years, perhaps, they will have entirely disappeared from the face
-of the earth, and all that will be remembered of them will be
-that they existed and were numbered among the barbarous
-tribes that once inhabited this vast continent. At least, let it
-not be said, that among the whole race of white Christian men,
-not one single individual could be found, who, rising above the
-cloud of prejudice with which the pride of civilisation has surrounded
-the original inhabitants of this land, would undertake
-the task of doing justice to their many excellent qualities, and
-raise a small frail monument to their memory.</p>
-
-<p>I shall conclude with a few necessary remarks for the information
-of the reader.</p>
-
-<p><i>Lenni Lenape</i> being the national and proper name of the
-people we call “Delawares,” I have retained this name, or for
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xli">xli</span>
-brevity’s sake, called them simply <i>Lenape</i>, as they do themselves
-in most instances. Their name signifies “<i>original people</i>,” a race
-of human beings who are the same that they were in the beginning,
-<i>unchanged</i> and <i>unmixed</i>.<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">24</a></p>
-
-<p>These people (the Lenni Lenape) are known and called by
-all the western, northern, and some of the southern nations, by
-the name of <i>Wapanachki</i>, which the Europeans have corrupted
-into <i>Apenaki</i>, <i>Openagi</i>, <i>Abenaquis</i>,<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> and <i>Abenakis</i>.<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> All these
-names, however differently written, and improperly understood
-by authors, point to one and the same people, the Lenape, who
-are by this compound word, called “people at the rising of the
-Sun,” or as we would say, <i>Eastlanders</i>; and are acknowledged
-by near forty Indian tribes, whom we call nations, as being
-their grandfathers. All these nations, derived from the same
-stock, recognise each other as Wapanachki, which among them
-is a generic name.</p>
-
-<p>The name “<i>Delawares</i>,” which we give to these people, is
-unknown in their language, and I well remember the time when
-they thought the whites had given it to them in derision; but
-they were reconciled to it, on being told that it was the name of
-a great white chief, Lord de la War, which had been given to
-them and their river. As they are fond of being named after
-distinguished men, they were rather pleased, considering it as a
-compliment.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Mahicanni</i> have been called by so many different names,<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">27</a>
-that I was at a loss which to adopt, so that the reader might
-know what people were meant. Loskiel calls them “Mohicans,”
-which is nearest to their real name Mahicanni, which, of course,
-I have adopted.</p>
-
-<p>The name “<i>Nanticokes</i>” I have left as generally used, though
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xlii">xlii</span>
-properly it should be <i>N&eacute;ntico</i>, or after the English pronunciation
-<i>Nantico</i>.</p>
-
-<p>The “<i>Canai</i>,” I call by their <i>proper</i> name. I allude here to
-those people we call <i>Canais</i>, <i>Conois</i>, <i>Conoys</i>, <i>Canaways</i>, <i>Kanhawas</i>,
-<i>Canawese</i>.</p>
-
-<p>With regard to the Five, or Six Nations, I have called them by
-different names, such as are most common, and well understood.
-The Lenape (Delawares) are never heard to say “<i>Six Nations</i>,” and
-it is a rare thing to hear these people named by them otherwise
-than <i>Mengwe</i>; the Mahicanni call them <i>Maqua</i>, and even most
-white people call them <i>Mingoes</i>. When therefore I have said
-the <i>Five</i> or <i>Six Nations</i>, I have only used our own mode of
-speaking, not that of the Indians, who never look upon them as
-having been so many <i>nations</i>; but <i>divisions</i>, and <i>tribes</i>, who, as
-united, have become a nation. Thus, when the Lenape (Delawares)
-happen to name them as one body, the word they make
-use of implies “the five divisions together, or united,” as will be
-seen in another place of this work. I call them also <i>Iroquois</i>,
-after the French and some English writers.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Wyandots</i>, or <i>Wyondots</i>, are the same whom the French
-call <i>Hurons</i>, and sometimes <i>Guyandots</i>. Father Sagard, a French
-Missionary, who lived among them in the 17th century, and has
-written an account of his mission, and a kind of dictionary
-of their language, says their proper name is <i>Ahouand&acirc;te</i>, from
-whence it is evident that the English appellation Wyandots has
-been derived.</p>
-
-<p>There being so many words in the language of the Lenape
-and their kindred tribes, the sound of which cannot well be
-represented according to the English pronunciation, I have in
-general adopted for them the German mode of spelling. The <i>ch</i>,
-particularly before a consonant, is a strong guttural, and unless
-an Englishman has the use of the Greek χ, he will not be able to
-pronounce it, as in the words <i>Chasquem</i> (Indian corn), <i>Cheltol</i>
-(many), <i>Ches</i> (a skin), <i>Chauchschisis</i> (an old woman), and a great
-many more. Sometimes, indeed, in the middle of a word substitutes
-may be found which may do, as in the word <i>Nimachtak</i>
-(brethren), which might be written <i>Nemaughtok</i>, but this will
-seldom answer. This is probably the reason that most of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xliii">xliii</span>
-English authors have written Indian words so incorrectly, far
-more so than French authors.</p>
-
-<p>The Delawares have neither of the letters R, F, nor V, in
-their language, though they easily learn to pronounce them.
-They have a consonant peculiar to them and other Indians,
-which is a sibilant, and which we represent by W. It is produced
-by a soft whistling, and is not unpleasant to the ear,
-although it comes before a consonant. It is not much unlike
-the English sound <i>wh</i> in <i>what</i>, but not so round or full, and
-rather more whistled. <i>W</i> before a vowel is pronounced as in
-English.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_044.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xliv">xliv</span>
-
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xlv">xlv</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_046a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2>
-PART I.<br />
-<br />
-<img src="images/i_046b.jpg"
-alt="" /><br />
-<br />
-HISTORY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS<br />
-
-<span class="small">OF</span><br />
-
-<span class="gesperrt">THE INDIAN NATIONS,</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">WHO ONCE INHABITED PENNSYLVANIA AND<br />
-THE NEIGHBOURING STATES.</span>
-</h2>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_046c.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xlvi">xlvi</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_048a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<p>(<span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;In annotating this work, the editor consulted, among other authorities,
-<i>The Life of John Heckewelder, by the Rev. Edward Rondthaler</i>, <i>Heckewelder’s Narrative
-of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan
-Indians</i>, <i>History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North
-America</i>, <i>The Life and Times of David Zeisberger</i>, <i>Memorials of the Moravian
-Church</i>, <i>The Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society</i>, <i>The Moravians in
-New York and Connecticut</i>, and <i>Butterfield’s Crawford’s Campaign against Sandusky</i>.</p>
-
-<p>He omitted to state, in the course of the introductory biographical sketch of the
-missionary, that his Account of the History, Manners, and Customs of Indian Nations
-has been translated into both French and German. The French translation was
-published at Paris, in 1822; it is entitled, “<i>Histoire, Mœurs et Coutumes des
-Nations Indiennes qui habitaient autrefois la Pennsylvanie et les Etats voisins; par
-le R&eacute;v&eacute;rend Jean Heckewelder, Missionnaire Morave, traduit de l’Anglais, par le
-Chevalier Du Ponceau</i>.” The German translation, published at G&ouml;ttingen in 1821,
-is entitled, “<i>Johann Heckewelder’s evangelischen Predigers zu Bethlehem, Nachricht
-von der Geschichte, den Sitten und Gebr&auml;uchen der Indianischen V&ouml;lkerschaften,
-welche ehemals Pennsylvanien und die benachbarten Staaten bewohnten. Aus dem
-Englischen &uuml;bersetzt und mit den Angaben anderer Schriftsteller &uuml;ber eben dieselben
-Gegenst&auml;nde (Carver, Loskiel, Ling, Volney), vermehrt von Fr. Hesse, evangelischen
-Prediger zu Nienburg. Nebst einem die Glaubw&uuml;rdigkeit und den anthropologischen
-Werth der Nachrichten Heckewelder’s betreffenden Zusatze von G. E. Schulze</i>.”)</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_047b.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_048a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span></p>
-
-<h2 id="History_Manners_and_Customs"><span class="smcap xxlarge">History, Manners, and Customs</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF THE</span><br />
-
-INDIAN NATIONS.<br />
-
-<span id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF THE INDIANS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Lenni Lenape (according to the traditions handed
-down to them by their ancestors) resided many hundred
-years ago, in a very distant country in the
-western part of the American continent. For some
-reason, which I do not find accounted for, they determined on
-migrating to the eastward, and accordingly set out together in a
-body. After a very long journey, and many nights’ encampments<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">28</a>
-by the way, they at length arrived on the <i>Nam&aelig;si Sipu</i>,<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">29</a>
-where they fell in with the Mengwe,<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> who had likewise emigrated
-from a distant country, and had struck upon this river
-somewhat higher up. Their object was the same with that of
-the Delawares; they were proceeding on to the eastward, until
-they should find a country that pleased them. The spies which
-the Lenape had sent forward for the purpose of reconnoitring,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span>
-had long before their arrival discovered that the country east of
-the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who
-had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing through
-their land. Those people (as I was told) called themselves
-<i>Talligeu</i> or <i>Talligewi</i>. Colonel John Gibson,<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> however, a gentleman
-who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians, and speaks
-several of their languages, is of opinion that they were not
-called <i>Talligewi</i>, but <i>Alligewi</i>, and it would seem that he is
-right, from the traces of their name which still remain in the
-country, the Allegheny river and mountains having indubitably
-been named after them. The Delawares still call the former
-<i>Allig&eacute;wi Sipu</i>, the River of the Alligewi. We have adopted, I
-know not for what reason, its Iroquois name, Ohio, which the
-French had literally translated into <i>La Belle Riviere</i>, The Beautiful
-River.<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> A branch of it, however, still retains the ancient
-name Allegheny.</p>
-
-<p>Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They
-are said to have been remarkably tall and stout, and there is a
-tradition that there were giants among them, people of a much
-larger size than the tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they
-had built to themselves regular fortifications or entrenchments,
-from whence they would sally out, but were generally repulsed.
-I have seen many of the fortifications said to have been built by
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>
-them, two of which, in particular, were remarkable. One of
-them was near the mouth of the river Huron, which empties
-itself into the Lake St. Clair, on the north side of that lake, at
-the distance of about 20 miles N. E. of Detroit. This spot of
-ground was, in the year 1786, owned and occupied by a Mr.
-Tucker. The other works, properly entrenchments, being walls
-or banks of earth regularly thrown up, with a deep ditch on the
-outside, were on the Huron river, east of the Sandusky, about
-six or eight miles from Lake Erie. Outside of the gateways of
-each of these two entrenchments, which lay within a mile of
-each other, were a number of large flat mounds, in which, the
-Indian pilot said, were buried hundreds of the slain Talligewi,
-whom I shall hereafter with Colonel Gibson call <i>Alligewi</i>. Of
-these entrenchments, Mr. Abraham Steiner, who was with me
-at the time when I saw them, gave a very accurate description,
-which was published at Philadelphia, in 1789 or 1790, in some
-periodical work the name of which I cannot at present remember.<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">33</a></p>
-
-<p>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 Nam&aelig;si 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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span>
-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.</p>
-
-<p>Having thus united their forces, the Lenape and Mengwe
-declared war against the Alligewi, and great battles were fought,
-in which many warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified
-their large towns and erected fortifications, especially on large
-rivers, and near lakes, where they were successively attacked
-and sometimes stormed by the allies. An engagement took
-place in which hundreds fell, who were afterwards buried in
-holes or laid together in heaps and covered over with earth.
-No quarter was given, so that the Alligewi, at last, finding that
-their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in their obstinacy,
-abandoned the country to the conquerors, and fled down
-the Mississippi river, from whence they never returned. The
-war which was carried on with this nation, lasted many years,
-during which the Lenape lost a great number of their warriors,
-while the Mengwe would always hang back in the rear, leaving
-them to face the enemy. In the end, the conquerors divided the
-country between themselves; the Mengwe made choice of the
-lands in the vicinity of the great lakes, and on their tributary
-streams, and the Lenape took possession of the country to the
-south. For a long period of time, some say many hundred
-years, the two nations resided peaceably in this country, and
-increased very fast; some of their most enterprising huntsmen
-and warriors crossed the great swamps,<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">34</a> and falling on streams
-running to the eastward, followed them down to the great Bay
-River,<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> thence into the Bay itself, which we call Chesapeak. As
-they pursued their travels, partly by land and partly by water,
-sometimes near and at other times on the great Saltwater Lake,
-as they call the Sea, they discovered the great River, which we
-call the Delaware; and thence exploring still eastward, the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span>
-<i>Scheyichbi</i> country, now named New Jersey, they arrived at
-another great stream, that which we call the Hudson or North
-River. Satisfied with what they had seen, they, (or some of
-them) after a long absence, returned to their nation and reported
-the discoveries they had made; they described the country they
-had discovered, as abounding in game and various kinds of
-fruits; and the rivers and bays, with fish, tortoises, &amp;c., together
-with abundance of water-fowl, and no enemy to be dreaded.
-They considered the event as a fortunate one for them, and concluding
-this to be the country destined for them by the Great
-Spirit, they began to emigrate thither, as yet but in small bodies,
-so as not to be straitened for want of provisions by the way,
-some even laying by for a whole year; at last they settled on
-the four great rivers (which we call Delaware, Hudson, Susquehannah,
-and Potomack) making the Delaware, to which they
-gave the name of “<i>Lenapewihittuck</i>,”<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> (the river or stream of the
-Lenape) the centre of their possessions.</p>
-
-<p>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 Nam&aelig;si 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.</p>
-
-<p>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.</p>
-
-<p>Those of the Delawares who fixed their abode on the shores
-of the Atlantic divided themselves into three tribes. Two of
-them, distinguished by the names of the <i>Turtle</i> and the <i>Turkey</i>,
-the former calling themselves <i>Un&acirc;mis</i> and the other <i>Unal&acirc;chtgo</i>,
-chose those grounds to settle on, which lay nearest to the sea,
-between the coast and the high mountains. As they multiplied,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span>
-their settlements extended from the <i>Mohicannittuck</i> (river of the
-Mohicans, which we call the North or Hudson river) to beyond
-the Potomack. Many families with their connexions choosing
-to live by themselves, were scattered not only on the larger, but
-also on the small streams throughout the country, having towns
-and villages, where they lived together in separate bodies, in
-each of which a chief resided; those chiefs, however, were subordinate
-(by their own free will, the only kind of subordination
-which the Indians know) to the head chiefs or great council of
-the nation, whom they officially informed of all events or occurrences
-affecting the general interest which came to their knowledge.
-The third tribe, the <i>Wolf</i>, commonly called the <i>Minsi</i>,
-which we have corrupted into <i>Monseys</i>, had chosen to live back
-of the two other tribes, and formed a kind of bulwark for their
-protection, watching the motions of the Mengwe, and being at
-hand to afford their aid in case of a rupture with them. The
-Minsi were considered the most warlike and active branch of the
-Lenape. They extended their settlements, from the <i>Minisink</i>, a
-place named after them, where they had their council seat and
-fire, quite up to the Hudson on the east; and to the west or
-south west far beyond the Susquehannah: their northern
-boundaries were supposed originally to be the heads of the
-great rivers Susquehannah and Delaware, and their southern
-boundaries that ridge of hills known in New Jersey by the
-name of <i>Muskanecun</i>, and in Pennsylvania, by those of <i>Lehigh</i>,
-<i>Coghnewago</i>, &amp;c. Within this boundary were their principal
-settlements; and even as late as the year 1742, they had a town,
-with a large peach orchard, on the tract of land where <i>Nazareth</i>,
-in Pennsylvania, has since been built;<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">37</a> another on <i>Lehigh</i> (the
-west branch of the Delaware), and others beyond the blue
-ridge, besides small family settlements here and there scattered.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span></p>
-
-<p>From the above <i>three</i> tribes, the <i>Un&acirc;mis</i>, <i>Unal&acirc;chtgo</i>, and the
-<i>Minsi</i>, comprising together the body of those people we call
-<i>Delawares</i>, had in the course of time, sprung many others, who,
-having for their own conveniency, chosen distant spots to settle
-on, and increasing in numbers, gave themselves names or received
-them from others. Those names, generally given after
-some simple natural objects, or after something striking or
-extraordinary, they continued to bear even after they ceased to
-be applicable, when they removed to other places, where the
-object after which they were named was not to be found; thus
-they formed separate and distinct tribes, yet did not deny their
-origin, but retained their affection for the parent tribe, of which
-they were even proud to be called the grandchildren.</p>
-
-<p>This was the case with the <i>Mahicanni</i> or Mohicans, in the
-east, a people who by intermarriages had become a detached
-body, mixing two languages together, and forming out of the
-two a dialect of their own: choosing to live by themselves, they
-had crossed the Hudson River, naming it Mahicannituck River
-after their assumed name, and spread themselves over all that
-country which now composes the eastern states. New tribes
-again sprung from them who assumed distinct names; still however
-not breaking off from the parent stock, but acknowledging
-the Lenni Lenape to be their grandfather: the Delawares, at last,
-thought proper to enlarge their council house for their Mahicanni
-grandchildren, that they might come to their fire, that is to
-say, be benefited by their advice, and also in order to keep
-alive their family connexions and remain in league with each
-other.</p>
-
-<p>Much the same thing happened with a body of the Lenape,
-called <i>Nanticokes</i>, who had, together with their offspring, proceeded
-far to the south, in Maryland and Virginia; the council
-house was by their grandfather (the Delawares), extended to the
-Potomack, in the same manner and for the same motives as had
-been done with the <i>Mahicanni</i>.</p>
-
-<p>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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span>
-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.</p>
-
-<p>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<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">38</a> of that
-deceitful race was resolved on; they were, besides, known to
-eat human flesh,<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">39</a> to kill men for the purpose of devouring them;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span>
-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.</p>
-
-<p>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.<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">40</a></p>
-
-<p>This confederation took place some time between the 15th
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span>
-and 16th century;<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">41</a> 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 (the French) to
-contend with.</p>
-
-<p>This plan was very deeply laid, and was calculated to deprive
-the Lenape and their allies, not only of their power but of their
-military fame, which had exalted them above all the other
-Indian nations. They were to be persuaded to abstain from the
-use of arms, and assume the station of mediators and umpires
-among their warlike neighbours. In the language of the Indians,
-they were to be made <i>women</i>.<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">42</a> It must be understood
-that among these nations wars are never brought to an end
-but by the interference of the weaker sex. The men, however
-tired of fighting, are afraid of being considered as cowards if
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span>
-they should intimate a desire for peace. It is not becoming,
-say they, for a warrior, with the bloody weapon in his hand, to
-hold pacific language to his enemy. He must shew to the end
-a determined courage, and appear as ready and willing to fight
-as at the beginning of the contest. Neither, say they, is it
-proper, to threaten and to sue in the same breath, to hold the
-peace belt in one hand, and the tomahawk in the other; men’s
-words, as well as their actions, should be of a piece, all good
-or all bad; for it is a fixed maxim of theirs, which they apply
-on all occasions, that good can never dwell with evil. They
-also think that a treaty produced by threats or by force, cannot
-be binding. With these dispositions, war would never have
-ceased among Indians, until the extermination of one or the
-other party, if the tender and compassionate sex had not come
-forward, and by their moving speeches persuaded the enraged
-combatants to bury their hatchets, and make peace with each
-other. On these occasions they were very eloquent, they
-would lament with great feeling the losses suffered on both
-sides, when there was not a warrior, perhaps, who had not lost
-a son, a brother, or a friend. They would describe the sorrows
-of widowed wives, and, above all, of bereaved mothers. The
-pains of child-birth, the anxieties attending the progress of their
-sons from infancy to manhood, they had willingly and even
-cheerfully suffered; but after all these trials, how cruel was it
-for them to see those promising youths whom they had reared
-with so much care, fall victims to the rage of war, and a prey to
-a relentless enemy; to see them slaughtered on the field of
-battle, or put to death, as prisoners, by a protracted torture, in
-the midst of the most exquisite torments. The thought of such
-scenes made them curse their own existence, and shudder at the
-idea of bearing children. Then they would conjure the warriors
-by every thing that was dear to them, to take pity on the sufferings
-of their wives and helpless infants, to turn their faces once
-more towards their homes, families, and friends, to forgive the
-wrongs suffered from each other, to lay aside their deadly
-weapons, and smoke together the pipe of amity and peace.
-They had given on both sides sufficient proofs of their courage;
-the contending nations were alike high-minded and brave, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span>
-they must now embrace as friends those whom they had learned
-to respect as enemies. Speeches like these seldom failed of
-their intended effect, and the women by this honorable function
-of peace-makers, were placed in a situation by no means undignified.
-It would not be a disgrace, therefore; on the contrary,
-it would be an honour to a powerful nation, who could not be
-suspected of wanting either strength or courage, to assume that
-station by which they would be the means, and the only means,
-of preserving the general peace and saving the Indian race from
-utter extirpation.</p>
-
-<p>Such were the arguments which the artful Mengwe urged to
-the Lenape to make them fall into the snare which they had prepared
-for them. They had reflected, they said, deeply reflected
-on their critical situation; there remained no resource for them,
-but that some magnanimous nation should assume the part and
-situation of the <i>woman</i>. It could not be given to a weak or contemptible
-tribe, such would not be listened to; but the Lenape
-and their allies would at once possess influence and command
-respect. As men they had been dreaded; as women they
-would be respected and honored, none would be so daring or so
-base as to attack or insult them; as women they would have
-a right to interfere in all the quarrels of other nations, and to
-stop or prevent the effusion of Indian blood. They entreated
-them, therefore, to become <i>the woman</i> in name and, in fact, to
-lay down their arms and all the insignia of warriors, to devote
-themselves to agriculture and other pacific employments, and
-thus become the means of preserving peace and harmony among
-the nations.</p>
-
-<p>The Lenape, unfortunately for themselves, listened to the
-voice of their enemies. They knew it was too true, that the
-Indian nations, excited by their own unbridled passions, and not
-a little by their European neighbours, were in the way of total
-extirpation by each other’s hands. They believed that the
-Mengwe were sincere, and that their proposal had no object in
-view but the preservation of the Indian race. In a luckless
-hour they gave their consent, and agreed to become <i>women</i>.
-This consent was received with great joy. A feast was prepared
-for the purpose of confirming and proclaiming the new order of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span>
-things. With appropriate ceremonies, of which Loskiel has
-given a particular description,<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">43</a> the Delawares were installed in
-their new functions, eloquent speeches were delivered, accompanied,
-as usual, with belts of wampum. The great peace belt
-and the chain of friendship (in the figurative language of the
-Indians) was laid across the shoulders of the new mediator, one
-end of which, it was said, was to be taken hold of by all the
-Indian nations, and the other by the Europeans.<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">44</a> The Lenape
-say that the Dutch were present at that ceremony, and had no
-inconsiderable share in the intrigue.<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">45</a>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span></p>
-
-<p>The old and intelligent Mahicanni, whose forefathers inhabited
-the country on the east side of the North river, gave many years
-since the following account of the above transaction. They
-said that their grandfather (the Lenni Lenape), and the nations
-or tribes connected with them, were so united, that whatsoever
-nation attacked the one, it was the same as attacking the whole;
-all in such cases would unite and make a common cause. That
-the long house (council house) of all those who were of the
-same blood, and united under this kind of tacit alliance, reached
-from the head of the tide, at some distance above where Gaaschtinick
-(Albany) now stands, to the head of the tide water on the
-Potomack. That at each end of this house there was a door
-for the tribes to enter at. That the Mengwe were in no way
-connected with those who had access to this house; but were
-looked upon as strangers. That the Lenape, with the Mohicans
-and all the other tribes in their connexion, were on the point of
-extirpating the Five Nations, when they applied to the <i>Dutchemaan</i>,
-who were now making a settlement at or near Gaaschtinick,
-to assist them in bringing about a peace with the Lenape.
-That accordingly these new comers invited the Lenape and Mohicans
-to a grand council, at a place situated at some distance
-from where Albany now stands, which the white people have
-since called by the name of <i>Nordman’s Kill</i>. That when at
-length, by their united supplications and fair speeches, they had
-got the hatchet out of the hands of the Lenape, they buried
-that weapon at Gaaschtinick, and said that they would build a
-church over the spot, so that the weapon could never any more
-be got at, otherwise than by lifting up the whole church, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span>
-whatever nation should dare to do this, on them the Dutchemaan
-would take revenge. That now, having succeeded in getting
-the weapon out of the hands of the Lenape, the ceremony
-of placing them in the situation of “the woman,” for the purpose
-of being mediators, took place, when the Mengwe declared
-them henceforth to be their cousins, and the Mahicanni, they
-said, they would call their nephews.</p>
-
-<p>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.&mdash;So far the tradition of the Mahicanni.</p>
-
-<p>The Rev. Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us, 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.”</p>
-
-<p>From these three separate accounts of the Lenape, of the
-Mahicanni, and of the Mohawks, as related by Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us, it
-appears to be conclusively proved, that the Europeans were
-already in this country, when the Lenape were persuaded to
-assume the station of <i>the woman</i>, and that the Dutch were assisting
-in the plot, and were at least the instigators, if not the
-authors of it. It was the <i>Dutch</i> who summoned the great council
-near Albany; the tomahawk was buried deep in the ground,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span>
-and the vengeance of the <i>Dutch</i> was threatened if it should ever
-be taken up again; the peace belt was laid across the shoulders
-of the unfortunate Delawares, supported at one end by the Five
-Nations, and at the other by the <i>Europeans</i>; all these circumstances
-point so clearly to European intrigue, that it is impossible
-to resist the conclusion that the whites adopted this means
-to neutralize the power of the Delawares and their friends,
-whom they dreaded, and strengthen the hands of the Iroquois,
-who were in their alliance.</p>
-
-<p>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.</p>
-
-<p>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. Pyrl&aelig;us,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>
-nor Mr. Zeisberger,<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> 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.</p>
-
-<p>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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span>
-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.</p>
-
-<p>Before that strange metamorphosis took place, of a great and
-powerful nation being transformed into a band of defenceless
-women, the Iroquois had never been permitted to visit the
-Lenape, even when they were at peace with each other. Whenever
-a Mengwe appeared in their country, he was hunted down
-as a beast of prey, and it was lawful for every one to destroy
-him. But now, <i>the woman</i> could not, consistently with her new
-station and her engagements, make use of destructive weapons,
-and she was bound to abstain from all violence against the
-human species. Her late enemies, therefore, found no difficulty
-in travelling, under various pretences, through her country, and
-those of her allies, and leaving here and there a few of their
-people to remain among them as long as they pleased, for the
-purpose, as they said, of keeping up a good understanding, and
-assisting them in the preservation of the general peace. But
-while they were amusing the Lenape with flattering language,
-they were concerting measures to disturb their quiet by involving
-them in difficulties with the neighbouring nations. I shall
-relate one among many instances of a similar conduct. They
-once sent their men into the Cherokee country, who were
-instructed secretly to kill one of that nation, and to leave a war
-club near the person murdered, which had been purposely made
-after the manner and in the shape of those of the Delawares.
-Now leaving a war club in an Indian country, is considered by
-those nations as a formal challenge or declaration of war. The
-Cherokees, deceived by appearances, and believing that their
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span>
-grandfather the Lenape had committed the murder, collected a
-large party to go into their country and take their revenge.
-Meanwhile, the Iroquois sent a messenger to the Lenape, to
-inform them of the approach of an enemy, who, they had learned
-from their hunters, was coming towards their settlement, and to
-advise them to send a number of their men immediately to a certain
-place, where they would be met by a large body of the Five Nations,
-who would take the lead, march in front, and fight their
-battles, so that they would have little else to do than to look on
-and see how well their friends fought for them. The Lenape,
-being in no wise prepared to meet a powerful foe, assembled in
-haste a few of their men, and repaired to the place of rendezvous,
-where they were disappointed by not meeting any of their pretended
-protectors. The enemy, however, was close upon them;
-the Lenape fought with great courage, but were overpowered by
-an immense superiority of numbers, and defeated with considerable
-loss. Now the Iroquois made their appearance, and
-instead of attacking or pursuing the Cherokees, loaded the
-Delawares with reproaches, for their temerity, as they called it,
-in having dared, being <i>women</i>, to take the lead in attacking
-<i>men</i>. They told them that the Five Nations being their superiors,
-they ought to have waited for them before they attacked
-the Cherokees, that then their protectors would have fought and
-defeated them, but that as they had thought proper to act by
-themselves, they had received the punishment justly due to
-their presumption.</p>
-
-<p>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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>
-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.</p>
-
-<p>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.</p>
-
-<p>William Penn came, with his train of pacific followers. Never
-will the Delawares forget their elder brother <i>Miquon</i>, as they
-affectionately and respectfully call him. From his first arrival
-in their country, a friendship was formed between them which
-was to last as long as the sun should shine, and the rivers flow
-with water. That friendship would undoubtedly have continued
-to the end of time, had their good brother always remained
-among them, but in his absence, mischievous people, say they,
-got into power, who, not content with the land which had been
-given to them, contrived to get all that they wanted; and when
-the Lenape looked round for the friends of their brother
-Miquon, to hear their just complaints, and redress their wrongs,
-they could not discover them, and had the misfortune to see
-their greatest enemies, the Mengwe, brought on for the purpose
-of shutting their mouths, and compelling them to submit to the
-injustice done them.</p>
-
-<p>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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span>
-molested by them; who had taken delight in supplying all their
-wants,<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">47</a> 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 (the
-Lenape) 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,<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">48</a>
-in Pennsylvania, in July, 1742,<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">49</a> 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.<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">50</a> 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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span>
-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.”</p>
-
-<p>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.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the Lenape, whose principal settlements were then on
-the frontier of Pennsylvania, took part with the French, and
-acted hostilely against the English during the whole of the war
-of 1755. The animosity which mutual hostilities produced
-between them and the settlers concurred, no doubt, with other
-causes, in producing the murder of the Conestogo Indians, which
-took place at the close of that war, in December, 1763, and is
-feelingly related by Loskiel, part I., ch. 14 and 15.<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">51</a>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span></p>
-
-<p>The revolutionary war put an end to the exorbitant power of
-the Iroquois. They were, indeed, still supported by the British
-government, but the Americans were now the strongest party,
-and of course against them. They endeavored to persuade the
-other Indian nations to join them, but their expectations were
-deceived. At a meeting which took place at Pittsburg in 1775,
-for the express purpose of deliberating on the part which it
-became Indians to take in the disturbances which had arisen between
-the King of Great Britain and his subjects, Capt. White
-Eyes, a sensible and very spirited warrior of the Lenape,<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">52</a> boldly
-declared to a select body of the Senecas, that his Indians would
-never join any nation or power, for the purpose of destroying a
-people who were born on the same soil with them. That the
-Americans were his friends and brothers, and that no nation
-should dictate to him what part he should take in the existing
-war. Anticipating the measure which the American Congress
-took in the succeeding year, he declared <i>himself</i>,<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">53</a> in behalf of
-his nation, free and independent of the Iroquois; they had pretended
-that they had conquered him, they had made a woman
-of him and dressed him in woman’s apparel, but now he was
-again a man, he stood before them as a man, and with the
-weapons of a man he would assert his claim to all yonder country,
-pointing to the land on the west side of the Allegheny
-river; for to him it belonged, and not to the Six Nations, who
-falsely asserted that they had acquired it by conquest. In the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span>
-year 1778 or 1779, the Lenape bravely asserted their national
-independence by joining Col. Brodhead’s troops in an expedition
-against the Senecas.<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">54</a> If they did not do as much in that war as
-might have been expected of them, and took only a partial revenge,
-it was owing to the death of their brave chief, White
-Eyes, who died of the small pox at Pittsburg, I think, in the
-year 1780. He was a Christian in his heart, but did not live to
-make a public profession of our religion, though it is well known
-that he persuaded many Indians to embrace it.<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">55</a></p>
-
-<p>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 <span class="small">MEN</span>.</p>
-
-<p>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 <span class="small">CONQUERING NATIONS</span>!
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_072a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">INDIAN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST ARRIVAL OF THE DUTCH AT
-NEW YORK ISLAND.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> 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.</p>
-
-<p>A great many years ago, when men with a white skin had
-never yet been seen in this land, some Indians who were out a
-fishing, at a place where the sea widens, espied at a great
-distance something remarkably large floating on the water, and
-such as they had never seen before. These Indians immediately
-returning to the shore, apprised their countrymen of
-what they had observed, and pressed them to go out with them
-and discover what it might be. They hurried out together, and
-saw with astonishment the phenomenon which now appeared to
-their sight, but could not agree upon what it was; some believed
-it to be an uncommonly large fish or animal, while others
-were of opinion it must be a very big house floating on the sea.
-At length the spectators concluded that this wonderful object
-was moving towards the land, and that it must be an animal or
-something else that had life in it; it would therefore be proper
-to inform all the Indians on the inhabited islands of what they
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span>
-had seen, and put them on their guard. Accordingly they sent
-off a number of runners and watermen to carry the news to their
-scattered chiefs, that they might send off in every direction for
-the warriors, with a message that they should come on immediately.
-These arriving in numbers, and having themselves
-viewed the strange appearance, and observing that it was
-actually moving towards the entrance of the river or bay; concluded
-it to be a remarkably large house in which the Mannitto
-(the Great or Supreme Being) himself was present, and that he
-probably was coming to visit them.<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">56</a> By this time the chiefs
-were assembled at York island, and deliberating in what manner
-in which<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">57</a> they should receive their Mannitto on his arrival.
-Every measure was taken to be well provided with plenty of
-meat for a sacrifice. The women were desired to prepare the
-best victuals. All the idols or images were examined and put in
-order, and a grand dance was supposed not only to be an agreeable
-entertainment for the Great Being, but it was believed that
-it might, with the addition of a sacrifice, contribute to appease
-him if he was angry with them. The conjurers were also set to
-work, to determine what this phenomenon portended, and what
-the possible result of it might be. To these and to the chiefs
-and wise men of the nations, men, women, and children were
-looking up for advice and protection. Distracted between hope
-and fear, they were at a loss what to do; a dance, however,
-commenced in great confusion. While in this situation, fresh
-runners arrive declaring it to be a large house of various colours,
-and crowded with living creatures. It appears now to be certain,
-that it is the great Mannitto, bringing them some kind of game,
-such as he had not given them before, but other runners soon
-after arriving declare that it is positively a house full of human
-beings, of quite a different colour from that of the Indians, and
-dressed differently from them; that in particular one of them
-was dressed entirely in red, who must be the Mannitto himself.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span>
-They are hailed from the vessel in a language they do not
-understand, yet they shout or yell in return by way of answer,
-according to the custom of their country; many are for running
-off to the woods, but are pressed by others to stay, in order not
-to give offence to their visitor, who might find them out and destroy
-them. The house, some say, large canoe, at last stops,
-and a canoe of a smaller size comes on shore with the red man,
-and some others in it; some stay with his canoe to guard it.
-The chiefs and wise men, assembled in council, form themselves
-into a large circle, towards which the man in red clothes approaches
-with two others. He salutes them with a friendly
-countenance, and they return the salute after their manner.
-They are lost in admiration; the dress, the manners, the whole
-appearance of the unknown strangers is to them a subject of
-wonder; but they are particularly struck with him who wore
-the red coat all glittering with gold lace, which they could in no
-manner account for. He, surely, must be the great Mannitto,
-but why should he have a white skin? Meanwhile, a large
-<i>Hackhack</i><a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> is brought by one of his servants, from which an
-unknown substance is poured out into a small cup or glass, and
-handed to the supposed Mannitto. He drinks&mdash;has the glass
-filled again, and hands it to the chief standing next to him.
-The chief receives it, but only smells the contents and passes it
-on to the next chief, who does the same. The glass or cup thus
-passes through the circle, without the liquor being tasted by any
-one, and is upon the point of being returned to the red clothed
-Mannitto, when one of the Indians, a brave man and a great
-warrior, suddenly jumps up and harangues the assembly on
-the impropriety of returning the cup with its contents. It was
-handed to them, says he, by the Mannitto, that they should
-drink out of it, as he himself had done. To follow his example
-would be pleasing to him; but to return what he had given
-them might provoke his wrath, and bring destruction on them.
-And since the orator believed it for the good of the nation that
-the contents offered them should be drunk, and as no one else
-would do it, he would drink it himself, let the consequence be
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span>
-what it might; it was better for one man to die, than that a
-whole nation should be destroyed. He then took the glass, and
-bidding the assembly a solemn farewell, at once drank up its
-whole contents. Every eye was fixed on the resolute chief, to
-see what effect the unknown liquor would produce. He soon
-began to stagger, and at last fell prostrate on the ground. His
-companions now bemoan his fate, he falls into a sound sleep,
-and they think he has expired. He wakes again, jumps up and
-declares, that he has enjoyed the most delicious sensations, and
-that he never before felt himself so happy as after he had drunk
-the cup. He asks for more, his wish is granted; the whole
-assembly then imitate him, and all become intoxicated.</p>
-
-<p>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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span>
-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,<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">59</a> 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.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span></p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_076.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_077a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">INDIAN RELATIONS OF THE CONDUCT OF THE EUROPEANS
-TOWARDS THEM.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/l.jpg" alt="L" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Long</span> and dismal are the complaints which the Indians
-make of European ingratitude and injustice. They
-love to repeat them, and always do it with the eloquence
-of nature, aided by an energetic and comprehensive
-language, which our polished idioms cannot imitate.
-Often I have listened to these descriptions of their hard sufferings,
-until I felt ashamed of being a <i>white man</i>.</p>
-
-<p>They are, in general, very minute in these recitals, and proceed
-with a great degree of order and regularity. They begin
-with the Virginians, whom they call the <i>long knives</i>, and who
-were the first European settlers in this part of the American
-continent. “It was we,” say the Lenape, Mohicans, and their
-kindred tribes, “who so kindly received them on their first
-arrival into our country. We took them by the hand, and bid
-them welcome to sit down by our side, and live with us as
-brothers; but how did they requite our kindness? They at first
-asked only for a little land on which to raise bread for themselves
-and their families, and pasture for their cattle, which we
-freely gave them. They soon wanted more, which we also gave
-them. They saw the game in the woods, which the Great
-Spirit had given us for our subsistence, and they wanted that
-too. They penetrated into the woods in quest of game; they
-discovered spots of land which pleased them; that land they
-also wanted, and because we were loth to part with it, as we saw
-they had already more than they had need of, they took it from
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span>
-us by force, and drove us to a great distance from our ancient
-homes.”</p>
-
-<p>“By and by the <i>Dutchemaan</i><a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">60</a> arrived at <i>Manahacht&aacute;nienk</i>,”<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">61</a>
-(here they relate with all its details what has been said in the
-preceding chapter.) “The great man wanted only a little, little
-land, on which to raise greens for his soup, just as much as a
-bullock’s hide would cover. Here we first might have observed
-their deceitful spirit. The bullock’s hide was cut up into little
-strips, and did not cover, indeed, but encircled a very large piece
-of land, which we foolishly granted to them. They were to
-raise <i>greens</i> on it, instead of which they planted <i>great guns</i>;
-afterwards they built strong houses, made themselves masters
-of the Island, then went up the river to our enemies, the Mengwe,
-made a league with them, persuaded us by their wicked arts to
-lay down our arms, and at last drove us entirely out of the
-country.” Here, of course, is related at full length, the story
-which we have told in the first chapter. Then the Delawares<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">62</a>
-proceed.</p>
-
-<p>“When the <i>Yengeese</i><a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">63</a> arrived at <i>Machtitschwanne</i>,<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">64</a> they looked
-about everywhere for good spots of land, and when they found
-one, they immediately and without ceremony possessed themselves
-of it; we were astonished, but still we let them go on,
-not thinking it worth while to contend for a little land. But
-when at last they came to our favourite spots, those which lay
-most convenient to our fisheries, then bloody wars ensued: we
-would have been contented that the white people and we should
-have lived quietly beside each other; but these white men encroached
-so fast upon us, that we saw at once we should lose
-all, if we did not resist them. The wars that we carried on
-against each other were long and cruel. We were enraged when
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span>
-we saw the white people put our friends and relatives, whom
-they had taken prisoners, on board of their ships, and carry them
-off to sea, whether to drown or sell them as slaves, in the
-country from which they came, we knew not, but certain it is
-that none of them have ever returned or even been heard of. At
-last they got possession of the whole of the country which the
-Great Spirit had given us. One of our tribes was forced to
-wander far beyond Quebec; others dispersed in small bodies,
-and sought places of refuge where they could; some came to
-Pennsylvania; others went far to the westward and mingled
-with other tribes.</p>
-
-<p>“To many of those, Pennsylvania was a last, delightful
-asylum. But here, again, the Europeans disturbed them, and
-forced them to emigrate, although they had been most kindly
-and hospitably received. On which ever side of the <i>Lenapewihittuck</i><a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">65</a>
-the white people landed, they were welcomed as brothers
-by our ancestors, who gave them lands to live on, and even
-hunted for them, and furnished them with meat out of the
-woods. Such was our conduct to the white men<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> who inhabited
-this country, until our elder brother, the great and good <span class="smcap">Miquon</span>,<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">67</a>
-came and brought us words of peace and good will. We believed
-his words, and his memory is still held in veneration
-among us. But it was not long before our joy was turned into
-sorrow: our brother Miquon died, and those of his good counsellors
-who were of his mind, and knew what had passed
-between him and our ancestors, were no longer listened to; the
-strangers<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> who had taken their places, no longer spoke to us of
-sitting down by the side of each other as brothers of one
-family; they forgot that friendship which their great man had
-established with us, and was to last to the end of time; they
-now only strove to get all our land from us by fraud or by force,
-and when we attempted to remind them of what our good
-brother had said, they became angry, and sent word to our enemies,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span>
-the Mengwe, to meet them at a great council which they
-were to hold with us at <i>L&aelig;hauwake</i>,<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">69</a> where they should take us
-by the hair of our heads and shake us well. The Mengwe
-came; the council was held, and in the presence of the white
-men, who did not contradict them, they told us that we were
-women, and that they had made us such; that we had no right
-to any land, because it was all theirs; that we must be gone;
-and that as a great favour they permitted us to go and settle
-further into the country, at the place which they themselves
-pointed out at Wyoming.”<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">70</a></p>
-
-<p>Thus these good Indians, with a kind of melancholy pleasure,
-recite the long history of their sufferings. After having gone
-through these painful details, they seldom fail to indulge in
-bitter, but too just reflections, upon the men of Europe. “We
-and our kindred tribes,” say they, “lived in peace and harmony
-with each other before the white people came into this country;
-our council house<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">71</a> extended far to the north and far to the
-south. In the middle of it we would meet from all parts to
-smoke the pipe of peace together. When the white men
-arrived in the south, we received them as friends; we did the
-same when they arrived in the east. It was we, it was our forefathers,
-who made them welcome, and let them sit down by our
-side. The land they settled on was ours. We knew not but
-the Great Spirit had sent them to us for some good purpose,
-and therefore we thought they must be a good people. We
-were mistaken; for no sooner had they obtained a footing on
-our lands, than they began to pull our council house down,<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">72</a> first
-at one end and then at the other, and at last meeting each other
-at the centre, where the council fire was yet burning bright, they
-put it out,<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> and extinguished it with our own blood!<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> with the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span>
-blood of those<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">75</a> who with us had received them! who had welcomed
-them in our land! Their blood ran in streams into our
-fire, and extinguished it so entirely, that not one spark was left
-us whereby to kindle a new fire;<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> we were compelled to withdraw
-ourselves beyond the great swamp,<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">77</a> and to fly to our good
-uncle, the <i>Delamattenos</i>,<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">78</a> who kindly gave us a tract of land to
-live on. How long we shall be permitted to remain in this
-asylum, the Great Spirit only knows. The whites will not rest
-contented until they shall have destroyed the last of us, and
-made us disappear entirely from the face of the earth.”</p>
-
-<p>I have given here only a brief specimen of the charges which
-they exhibit against the white people. There are men among
-them, who have by heart the whole history of what took place
-between the whites and the Indians, since the former first came
-into their country; and relate the whole with ease and with
-an eloquence not to be imitated. On the tablets of their memories
-they preserve this record for posterity. I, at one time,
-in April, 1787,<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">79</a> was astonished when I heard one of their orators,
-a great chief of the Delaware nation,<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> go over this ground, recapitulating
-the most extraordinary events which had before
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span>
-happened, and concluding in these words: “I admit that there
-are good white men, but they bear no proportion to the bad;
-the bad must be the strongest, for they rule. They do what
-they please. They enslave those who are not of their colour,
-although created by the same Great Spirit who created us.<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">81</a>
-They would make slaves of us if they could, but as they cannot
-do it, they kill us! There is no faith to be placed in their words.
-They are not like the Indians, who are only enemies, while at
-war, and are friends in peace. They will say to an Indian, ‘my
-friend! my brother!’ They will take him by the hand, and at
-the same moment destroy him. And so you (addressing himself
-to the Christian Indians) will also be treated by them
-before long. Remember! that this day I have warned you to
-beware of such friends as these. I know the <i>long knives</i>; they
-are not to be trusted.”</p>
-
-<p>Eleven months after this speech was delivered by this prophetic
-chief, ninety-six of the same Christian Indians, about
-sixty of them women and children, were murdered at the place
-where these very words had been spoken, by the same men he
-had alluded to, and in the same manner that he had described.
-See Loskiel’s History, part III., ch. 10.<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">82</a>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span></p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_083.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_084a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">SUBSEQUENT FATE OF THE LENAPE AND THEIR KINDRED
-TRIBES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/a.jpg" alt="A" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">After</span> 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,<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">83</a> 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.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span>
-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,<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">84</a> 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.</p>
-
-<p>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.</p>
-
-<p>This happened in the year 1768,<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">85</a> 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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span>
-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.</p>
-
-<p>It is not in my power to ascertain the whole number of the
-Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians, still existing at the present
-time. As far as I am informed, they are very much scattered, a
-number of them, chiefly of the Monsey tribe, living in Upper
-Canada, others are in the state of Ohio, and some on the waters
-of the Wabash in the Indiana territory. A considerable number
-of them has crossed the Mississippi. Their first emigrations to
-that country had already begun between the years 1780 and
-1790. What the numbers of this nation were when the Europeans
-first came into this country is difficult to tell; all I can say
-is, that so early as 1760, their oldest men would say that they
-were not then as many hundreds as they had been thousands.
-They have considerably decreased since that period. I saw them
-myself between the years 1754 and 1760, by hundreds at a time,
-and Loskiel in his history gives an account of upwards of 800
-having been fed at Bethlehem in one year. In the year 1762,
-while I lived at Tuscorawas on the Muskingum, they were
-settled on that river and its branches, and also on the Cayahoga
-river, which empties into Lake Erie, in the neighbourhood of
-which they had since a small Christian settlement called <i>Pilgerruh</i>
-(Pilgrim’s rest.)<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">86</a><sup>,</sup><a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">87</a></p>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">The Shawanos or Sawanos.</span><a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">88</a></h3>
-
-<p>The history of these people is here given, principally from
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span>
-the relations of old Indians of the Mohican<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">90</a> tribe, who say that
-they formerly inhabited the Southern country, Savannah in
-Georgia, and the Floridas. They were a restless people, delighting
-in wars, in which they were constantly engaged with some
-of the neighbouring nations. At last their neighbours, tired of
-being continually harassed by them, formed a league for their
-destruction. The Shawanos finding themselves thus dangerously
-situated, asked to be permitted to leave the country, which
-was granted to them, and they fled immediately to the Ohio.
-Here their main body settled, and sent messengers to their
-elder brother<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">91</a> the Mohicans, requesting them to intercede for
-them with their grandfather the Lenni Lenape, that he might
-take them under his protection. This the Mohicans willingly
-did, and even sent a body of their own people to conduct their
-<i>younger brother</i> into the country of the Delawares. The Shawanos
-finding themselves safe under the protection of their grandfather,
-did not all choose to proceed farther to the eastward, but
-many of them remained on the Ohio, some of whom settled
-even as high up that river as the long island, above which the
-French afterwards built Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg. Those
-who proceeded farther, were accompanied by their chief, named
-Gachgawatschiqua, and settled principally at and about the
-forks of Delaware, some few between that and the confluence
-of Delaware and Schuylkill, and some even on the spot where
-Philadelphia now stands; others were conducted by the Mohicans
-into their own country, where they intermarried with
-them and became one people. When those settled near the
-Delaware had multiplied, they returned to Wyoming on the
-Susquehannah, where they resided for a great number of years.</p>
-
-<p>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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span>
-“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.</p>
-
-<p>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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span>
-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.<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">92</a></p>
-
-<p>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<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">93</a> 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.</p>
-
-<p>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
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span>
-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;<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">94</a> 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.</p>
-
-<p>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.</p>
-
-<p>The Shawanos are considered to be good warriors and hunters.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span>
-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.</p>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">The Nanticokes.</span></h3>
-
-<p>The Delawares say that this nation has sprung from the same
-stock with them, and the fact was acknowledged by White,<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">95</a> one
-of their chiefs, whom I have personally known. They call the
-Delawares their grandfathers. I shall relate the history of the
-Shawanos,<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">96</a> as I had it from the mouth of White himself.</p>
-
-<p>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.<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">97</a> The main branch, or the Nanticokes proper,
-were then living in what is now called the Eastern shore of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span>
-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<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">98</a> (Shenango) 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,<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">99</a> several years previous to the
-war, and remained with them.</p>
-
-<p>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.</p>
-
-<p>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<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">100</a> Pyrl&aelig;us 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&uuml;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.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span></p>
-
-<p>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.</p>
-
-<p>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<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">101</a> 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.</p>
-
-<p>Their national name, according to the report of their chief,
-White, is <i>Nent&eacute;go</i>. The Delawares call them <i>Un&eacute;chtgo</i>, and the
-Iroquois <i>Sganiateratieh-rohne</i>. These three names have the
-same meaning, and signify <i>tide water people</i>, or the <i>sea shore settlers</i>.
-They have besides other names, by-names, as it were,
-given them with reference to their occupation. The Mohicans,
-for instance, call them <i>Otay&aacute;chgo</i>, and the Delawares <i>Tawachgu&aacute;no</i>,<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">102</a>
-both which words in their respective languages,
-signify a “bridge,” a “dry passage over a stream;” which alludes
-to their being noted for felling great numbers of trees
-across streams, to set their traps on. They are also often called
-the <i>Trappers</i>.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1785, this tribe had so dwindled away, that their
-whole body, who came together to see their old chief, White,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>
-then residing with the Christian Indians on the Huron river,<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">103</a>
-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.</p>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">The Mahicanni, or Mohicans.</span></h3>
-
-<p>This once great and renowned nation has also almost entirely
-disappeared, as well as the numerous tribes who had descended
-from them; they have been destroyed by wars, and carried off by
-the small pox and other disorders, and great numbers have died
-in consequence of the introduction of spirituous liquors among
-them. The remainder have fled and removed in separate bodies
-to different parts, where they now are dispersed or mingled with
-other nations. So early as the year 1762, a number of them
-had emigrated to the Ohio, where I became acquainted with
-their chief who was called by the whites “Mohican John.”
-Others have fled to the shores of the St. Lawrence, where numbers
-of them incorporated themselves with the Iroquois, and
-where their descendants live at the present time, a mixed race,
-known by the name of the <i>Cochnewago</i> Indians. Upwards of
-one hundred of them, who lived in the colonies of Connecticut
-and New York, having through the labours of the United
-Brethren embraced Christianity, emigrated to Pennsylvania,
-some time between 1742 and 1760, where they afterwards became
-incorporated with the Delawares.<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">104</a> A considerable number
-migrated from Hudson’s river about the year 1734, and
-settled at Stockbridge, in Massachusetts; between the year 1785
-and 1787, they removed to Oneida, in the country of the Six
-Nations, and gave to their settlement the name of New Stockbridge.
-Before their removal their numbers had gradually
-diminished. In 1791, they were reduced to 191 persons.<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">105</a> They
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span>
-were once very numerous in Connecticut, and in the year 1799,
-there still were 84 individuals of them, in the county of New
-London,<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">106</a> the remains of a once large and flourishing settlement.
-It is probable that by this time they are nearly if not entirely
-extinct.</p>
-
-<p>It is believed that the Mahicanni are the same nation who are
-so celebrated in the History of New England, under the name
-of <i>Pequods</i> or <i>Pequots</i>.<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">107</a> The Rev. Jonathan Edwards, late President
-of Union College at Schenectady, in the State of New
-York, published in the year 1788 in a pamphlet form, some
-observations on their language, which were republished at New
-York in 1801. This small tract, as well as the translation of the
-Bible into the Natick, by the venerable Eliot, and his grammar
-of that language, put it beyond a doubt that the idiom of the
-Mohicans and those of the other New England Indians proceeded
-from the same source with that of the Lenni Lenape.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_095.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_096a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">THE IROQUOIS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> 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 (including
-what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), on the west by
-the Mississippi, on the east by the Great Salt-water Lake,<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">108</a> 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.</p>
-
-<p>Each of these two great nations, say the Delawares, had an
-ancient national name, and a tradition of their respective origin,
-handed down to them by their ancestors, and diffused among all
-the kindred tribes. By whatsoever names those tribes might be
-called, and whatever their numbers were, still they considered
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span>
-themselves, and were considered by others, as the offspring of
-the same original stock. All the tribes who had sprung from
-the Lenape called the mother nation <i>grandfather</i>, and received,
-in return, the appellation of <i>grandchildren</i>. They were all united
-by the strongest ties of friendship and alliance; in their own
-expressive language, they made but <i>one house, one fire, and one
-canoe</i>, that is to say, that they constituted together, one people,
-one family. The same thing took place between the Mengwe
-and the tribes descended from them. They and the Lenape had
-no relationship with each other, though they came over the Mississippi
-together at the same time. They considered each other
-as nations entirely distinct.</p>
-
-<p>The Mengwe or Iroquois were always considered by the
-Lenape as only one nation, consisting of several confederated
-tribes. The name of Five and afterwards Six Nations, was given
-to them by the English, whose allies they were, probably to
-raise their consequence, and magnify the idea of their strength;
-but the Indian nations never did flatter them with that high
-sounding appellation, and considered them merely as confederated
-<i>tribes</i>.</p>
-
-<p>The late Rev. Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us, in a large volume of MS. notes
-which he wrote between the years 1740 and 1760 (upwards of
-70 years ago), has taken down on this subject the account given
-by the Iroquois themselves, as he had it from the mouth of an
-intelligent Mohawk chief,<a id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">109</a> whose veracity might be depended
-upon. After giving some details respecting the origin of their
-confederation, the time about which it took place, the names of
-the delegates from each of the confederated tribes, &amp;c., he proceeds
-thus: “They then gave themselves the name <i>Aquanoshioni</i>,
-which means <i>one house</i>, <i>one family</i>, and consisted of the
-Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas. This
-alliance having been first proposed by a Mohawk chief, the
-Mohawks rank in the <i>family</i> as the <i>eldest brother</i>, the Oneidas, as
-the <i>eldest son</i>; the Senecas, who were the last who at that time
-had consented to the alliance, were called the <i>youngest son</i>; but
-the Tuscaroras, who joined the confederacy probably one hundred
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span>
-years afterwards, assumed that name, and the Senecas
-ranked in precedence before them, as being the <i>next youngest
-son</i>, or as we would say, the youngest son but one.”</p>
-
-<p>The Rev. David Zeisberger also says: “That the Iroquois
-call themselves <i>Aquanoschioni</i>, which means <i>united people</i>, having
-united for the purpose of always reminding each other that
-their safety and power consist in a mutual and strict adherence
-to their alliance.”<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">110</a> He adds, that Onondago is the chief town
-of the Iroquois.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, in the different translations of the name which these
-people gave themselves, we find nothing that conveys the ideas
-of <i>nations</i>, it implies no more than a <i>family</i>, an <i>united people</i>, a
-<i>family compact</i>. The different sections take ranks in this family,
-of which the <i>Onondagoes</i> are the head, while the others are
-brothers and sons; all which tends clearly to prove, that they
-were originally but tribes, detached bodies of the same people,
-who, when brought together in close union, formed a complete
-family and became entitled to the name of a <span class="smcap">Nation</span>.</p>
-
-<p>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 (the <i>Turtle</i> tribe), 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.</p>
-
-<p>If, then, we believe the information given us by both Pyrl&aelig;us
-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<a id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">111</a> with the Mengwe idiom, and they had
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span>
-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.</p>
-
-<p>The Lenape and their kindred tribes never have called the
-Iroquois “the Five or Six Nations.” In conversation, they call
-them the Mengwe, and never make use of any other but this
-generic name when speaking of them. In their councils, however,
-they occasionally distinguished them by the name <i>Palenach
-endchiesktajeet</i>.<a id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">113</a> These two words, literally translated mean “the
-five divisions, sections or parts together,” and does not in any
-manner imply the idea of <i>nations</i>. Had they meant to say “the
-Five Nations,” they would have expressed it by the words <i>Palenach
-ekhokewit</i>; those which they used, on the contrary, expressly
-imply <i>sectional divisions</i>, and leave no doubt about their
-meaning.</p>
-
-<p>The Iroquois themselves, as we have already seen, had adopted
-a name, <i>Aquanoschioni</i>, merely indicative of their close union.
-After, however, they came to be informed of the meaning of the
-name which the English had given them, they were willing to
-let it pass as correct. The Indians are very fond of high sounding
-names; I have known myself chiefs who delighted to be
-called <i>Kings</i>, after they had learned from us that the rulers of
-the English and French nations were distinguished by that title.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the proper name of those six united tribes is in their
-own language <i>Aquanoschioni</i>. By other nations they are called
-<i>Mengwe</i>, <i>Maquas</i>, <i>Mingoes</i>, and <i>Iroquois</i>. The Lenape call them
-by the first, the Mohicans and Dutch by the second, the English
-and Americans by the third, and the French by the fourth. I
-employ these different names indiscriminately in the course of
-this work.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span></p>
-
-<p>As detached bodies or tribes, their names with the Lenape
-are the following:</p>
-
-<p>1. <i>Sankh&iacute;cani</i>, the Mohawks, from <i>Sankhican</i>, a gunlock, this
-people being the first who were furnished with muskets by the
-Europeans, the locks of which, with their effect in striking fire,
-was a subject of great astonishment to them; and thus they
-were named, as it were, <i>the fire-striking people</i>.</p>
-
-<p>2. <i>W’T&aacute;ssone</i>, the Oneidas. This name means the <i>stone-pipe
-makers</i>, and was given to them on account of their ingenuity in
-making tobacco pipes of stone.</p>
-
-<p>3. <i>Onond&aacute;goes</i>, the Onondagoes. This name signifies in their
-own language <i>on the top of the hill</i>, their town being so situated.</p>
-
-<p>4. <i>Que&uacute;gue</i>, Cayugas, thus called after a lake of the same
-name.</p>
-
-<p>5. <i>M&aelig;chacht&iacute;nni</i>, the Senecas. This name means <i>Mountaineers</i>,
-and was given them because they inhabited the hilly parts of the
-country.</p>
-
-<p>6. The <i>Tuscaroras</i>, the sixth and last tribe in the league,
-they call by the same name, yet I have never heard the Lenape
-speak of the <i>six divisions or tribes</i>; when they describe them in
-that manner, it is always by the number <i>Five</i>.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_100.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_101a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Indian considers himself as a being created by an
-all-powerful, wise, and benevolent Mannitto;<a id="FNanchor_114" href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">114</a> all that
-he possesses, all that he enjoys, he looks upon as
-given to him or allotted for his use by the Great
-Spirit who gave him life: he therefore believes it to be his duty
-to adore and worship his Creator and benefactor; to acknowledge
-with gratitude his past favours, thank him for present
-blessings, and solicit the continuation of his good will.<a id="FNanchor_115" href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">115</a></p>
-
-<p>As beings who have control over all beasts and living creatures,
-they feel their importance; before they saw white people
-or men of a different colour from their own, they considered
-themselves as God’s favourites, and believed that if the Great
-Mannitto could reside on earth he would associate with them
-and be their great chief.</p>
-
-<p>The Indian also believes, that he is highly favoured by his
-Maker, not only in having been created different in shape and
-in mental and bodily powers from other animals, but in being
-enabled to controul and master them all, even those of an enormous
-size and of the most ferocious kinds; and therefore, when
-he worships his Creator in his way, he does not omit in his
-supplications to pray that he may be endowed with courage to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span>
-fight and conquer his enemies, among whom he includes all
-savage beasts; and when he has performed some heroic act, he
-will not forget to acknowledge it as a mark of divine favour, by
-making a sacrifice to the great and good Mannitto, or by publicly
-announcing that his success was entirely owing to the
-courage given him by the all-powerful Spirit. Thus, habitual
-devotion to the great First Cause, and a strong feeling of gratitude
-for the benefits which he confers, is one of the prominent
-traits which characterise the mind of the untutored Indian.</p>
-
-<p>Not satisfied with paying this first of duties to the Lord of all,
-in the best manner they are able, the Indians also endeavour to
-fulfil the views which they suppose he had in creating the world.
-They think that he made the earth and all that it contains for
-the common good of mankind; when he stocked the country
-that he gave them with plenty of game, it was not for the benefit
-of a few, but of all. Every thing was given in common to the
-sons of men. Whatever liveth on the land, whatsoever groweth
-out of the earth, and all that is in the rivers and waters flowing
-through the same, was given jointly to all, and every one is
-entitled to his share. From this principle, hospitality flows as
-from its source. With them it is not a virtue but a strict duty.
-Hence they are never in search of excuses to avoid giving, but
-freely supply their neighbour’s wants from the stock prepared
-for their own use. They give and are hospitable to all, without
-exception, and will always share with each other and often with
-the stranger, even to their last morsel. They rather would lie
-down themselves on an empty stomach, than have it laid to
-their charge that they had neglected their duty, by not satisfying
-the wants of the stranger, the sick or the needy. The
-stranger has a claim to their hospitality, partly on account of
-his being at a distance from his family and friends, and partly
-because he has honoured them by his visit, and ought to leave
-them with a good impression upon his mind; the sick and the
-poor because they have a right to be helped out of the common
-stock: for if the meat they have been served with, was taken
-from the woods, it was common to all before the hunter took it;
-if corn or vegetables, it had grown out of the common ground,
-yet not by the power of man, but by that of the Great Spirit.
-Besides, on the principle, that all are descended from one parent,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span>
-they look upon themselves as but one great family, who therefore
-ought at all times and on all occasions, to be serviceable
-and kind to each other, and by that means make themselves
-acceptable to the head of the universal family, the great and
-good Mannitto. Let me be permitted to illustrate this by an
-example.</p>
-
-<p>Some travelling Indians having in the year 1777, put their
-horses over night to pasture in my little meadow, at Gnadenh&uuml;tten
-on the Muskingum, I called on them in the morning to
-learn why they had done so. I endeavoured to make them
-sensible of the injury they had done me, especially as I intended
-to mow the meadow in a day or two. Having finished my
-complaint, one of them replied: “My friend, it seems you lay
-claim to the grass my horses have eaten, because you had
-enclosed it with a fence: now tell me, who caused the grass to
-grow? Can <i>you</i> make the grass grow? I think not, and no
-body can except the great Mannitto. He it is who causes it to
-grow both for my horses and for yours! See, friend! the grass
-which grows out of the earth is common to all; the game in the
-woods is common to all. Say, did you never eat venison and
-bear’s meat?&mdash;‘Yes, very often.’&mdash;Well, and did you ever hear
-me or any other Indian complain about that? No; then be not
-disturbed at my horses having eaten only once, of what you call
-<i>your</i> grass, though the grass my horses did eat, in like manner
-as the meat you did eat, was given to the Indians by the Great
-Spirit. Besides, if you will but consider, you will find that my
-horses did not eat <i>all</i> your grass. For friendship’s sake, however,
-I shall never put my horses in your meadow again.”</p>
-
-<p>The Indians are not only just, they are also in many respects
-a generous people, and cannot see the sick and the aged suffer for
-want of clothing. To such they will give a blanket, a shirt, a pair
-of leggings, mocksens, &amp;c. Otherwise, when they make presents,
-it is done with a view to receive an equivalent in return, and
-the receiver is given to understand what that ought to be. In
-making presents to strangers, they are content with some trifle
-in token of remembrance; but when they give any thing to a
-trader, they at least expect double the value in return, saying that
-he can afford to do it, since he had cheated them so often.</p>
-
-<p>They treat each other with civility, and shew much affection
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span>
-on meeting after an absence. When they meet in the forenoon,
-they will compliment one another with saying, “a good morning
-to you!” and in the afternoon, “a good evening.” In the
-act of shaking hands with each other, they strictly attend to the
-distinguishing names of relations, which they utter at the time;
-as for instance, “a good morning, father, grandfather, uncle,
-aunt, cousin,” and so down to a small grandchild. They are
-also in the habit of saluting old people no ways related to them,
-by the names of grandfather and grandmother, not in a tone of
-condescending superiority or disguised contempt, but as a genuine
-mark of the respect which they feel for age. The common
-way of saluting where no relationship exists, is that of “friend;”
-when, however, the young people meet, they make use of words
-suitable to their years or stage in life; they will say “a good
-morning, comrade, favourite, beloved, &amp;c.” Even the children
-salute each other affectionately. “I am glad to see you,” is the
-common way in which the Indians express themselves to one
-another after a short absence; but on meeting after a long absence,
-on the return of a messenger or a warrior from a critical
-or dangerous expedition, they have more to say; the former is
-saluted in the most cordial manner with some such expression:
-“I thank the Great Spirit, that he has preserved our lives to this
-time of our happily meeting again. I am, indeed, very glad to
-see you.” To which the other will reply: “you speak the
-truth; it is through the favour of the great and good Spirit that
-we are permitted to meet. I am equally glad to see you.” To
-the latter will be said: “I am glad that the Great Spirit has preserved
-your life and granted you a safe return to your family.”</p>
-
-<p>They are not quarrelsome, and are always on their guard, so
-as not to offend each other. When one supposes himself hurt
-or aggrieved by a word which has inadvertently fallen from the
-mouth of another, he will say to him: “Friend, you have caused
-me to become jealous of you,” (meaning that he begins to doubt
-the sincerity of his friendship,) when the other explaining and
-saying that he had no bad intention, all is done away again.</p>
-
-<p>They do not fight with each other; they say that fighting is
-only for dogs and beasts. They are, however, fond of play, and
-passing a joke, yet very careful that they do not offend.</p>
-
-<p>They are ingenious in making satirical observations, which
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span>
-though they create laughter, do not, or but seldom give offence.
-For instance, seeing a bad hunter going out into the woods
-with his gun, they will ask him if he is going out for meat? or
-say to one another: “now we shall have meat, for such a one is
-gone a hunting,” (not believing any such thing.) If they see a
-coward joining a war party, they will ask him ironically at what
-time he intends to come back again? (knowing that he will return
-before he has met the enemy,) or they will say to one
-another: “will he return this way with his scalps?”</p>
-
-<p>Genuine wit, which one would hardly expect to find in a savage
-people, is not unfrequent among them. I have heard them,
-for instance, compare the English and American nations to a
-pair of scissors, an instrument composed of two sharp edged
-knives exactly alike, working against each other for the same
-purpose, that of <i>cutting</i>. By the construction of this instrument,
-they said, it would appear as if in shutting, these two sharp
-knives would strike together and destroy each other’s edges;
-but no such thing: they only cut <i>what comes between them</i>. And
-thus the English and Americans do when they go to war against
-one another. It is not each other that they want to destroy,
-but us, poor Indians, that are between them. By this means
-they get our land, and, when that is obtained, the scissors are
-closed again, and laid by for further use.</p>
-
-<p>They are remarkable for the particular respect which they
-pay to old age. In all their meetings, whether public or private,
-they pay the greatest attention to the observations and
-advice of the aged; no one will attempt to contradict them, nor
-to interfere in any manner or even to speak, unless he is specially
-called upon. “The aged,” they say, “have lived through
-the whole period of our lives, and long before we were born;
-they have not only all the knowledge we possess, but a great
-deal more. We, therefore, must submit our limited views to
-their experience.”</p>
-
-<p>In travelling, one of the oldest will always take the lead, unless
-another is specially appointed for that purpose. If such a
-one stops to hunt, or in order to stay and encamp at the place
-for some time, all halt together, all are pleased with the spot
-and declare it to be judiciously chosen.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span></p>
-
-<p>I shall expatiate further on this interesting part of the Indian
-character, in the sequel of this work.</p>
-
-<p>They have a strong innate sense of justice, which will lead
-them sometimes to acts which some men will call heroic, others
-romantic, and not a few, perhaps, will designate by the epithet
-<i>barbarous</i>; a vague indefinite word, which if it means anything,
-might, perhaps, be best explained by <i>something not like ourselves</i>.
-However that may be, this feeling certainly exists among the
-Indians, and as I cannot describe it better than by its effects, I
-shall content myself with relating on this subject a characteristic
-anecdote which happened in the year 1793, at an Indian village
-called <i>La Chine</i>, situated nine miles above Montreal, and was
-told me in the same year by Mr. La Ram&eacute;e, a French Canadian
-inhabitant of that place, whom I believe to be a person of strict
-veracity. I was then on my return from Detroit, in company
-with General Lincoln and several other gentlemen, who were
-present at the relation, and gave it their full belief. I thought it
-then so interesting, that I inserted it in my journal, from which
-I now extract it.</p>
-
-<p>There were in the said village of La Chine two remarkable
-Indians, the one for his stature, being six feet four inches in
-height, and the other for his strength and activity. These two
-meeting together one day in the street, (a third being present,)
-the former in a high tone made use of some insulting language
-to the other, which he could not well put up with: he called
-him a coward, said he was his inferior in every respect, and so
-provoked his anger, that unable any longer to contain himself,
-the latter instantly replied: “You have grossly insulted me; but
-I will prevent you from doing the like again!” and at the same
-moment stabbed him through the body with his knife, so that
-he dropped down dead by his side. The alarm being immediately
-spread through the village, a crowd of Indians assembled,
-and the murderer having seated himself on the ground by the
-side of the dead body, coolly awaited his fate, which he could
-not expect to be any other than immediate death, particularly as
-the cry of the people was, “Kill him! Kill him!” But although
-he placed his body and head in a proper posture to receive the
-stroke of the tomahawk, no one attempted to lay hands on him;
-but after removing the dead body from where it lay, they left
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span>
-him alone. Not meeting here with his expected fate, he rose
-from this place for a more public part of the village, and there
-lay down on the ground in the hope of being the sooner despatched;
-but the spectators, after viewing him, all retired again.
-Sensible that his life was justly forfeited, and anxious to be
-relieved from a state of suspense, he took the resolution to go
-to the mother of the deceased, an aged widow, whom he addressed
-in these words: “Woman, I have killed thy son; he
-had insulted me, it is true; but still he was thine, and his life
-was valuable to thee. I, therefore, now surrender myself up to
-thy will. Direct as thou wilt have it, and relieve me speedily
-from misery.” To which the woman answered: “Thou hast,
-indeed, killed my son, who was dear to me, and the only
-supporter I had in my old age. One life is already lost,
-and to take thine on that account, cannot be of any service
-to me, nor better my situation. Thou hast, however,
-a son, whom, if thou wilt give me in the place of my son,
-whom thou hast slain, all shall be wiped away.” The murderer
-then replied: “Mother, my son is yet but a child, ten
-years old, and can be of no service to thee, but rather a trouble
-and charge; but here am I, truly capable of supporting and
-maintaining thee: if thou wilt receive me as thy son, nothing
-shall be wanting on my part to make thee comfortable while
-thou livest.” The woman approving of the proposal, forthwith
-adopted him as her son, and took the whole family to her house.</p>
-
-<p>But we must now look to the other side of the picture. It
-cannot but be acknowledged that the Indians are in general
-revengeful and cruel to their enemies. That even after the battle
-is over, they wreak their deliberate revenge on their defenceless
-prisoners; that in their wars they are indifferent about the
-means which they pursue for the annoyance and destruction of
-their adversaries, and that surprise and stratagem are as often
-employed by them as open force. This is all true. Deprived
-of the light of the only true Christian Religion, unchecked by
-the precepts and unswayed by the example of the God of peace,
-they indulge too much, sometimes, the violence of their passions,
-and commit actions which force the tear from the eye of humanity.
-But, upon the whole, are we better than they are? I
-reserve this question for a separate chapter.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="
-
-center">
-<img src="images/i_108a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">GOVERNMENT.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/a.jpg" alt="A" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Although</span> the Indians have no code of laws for
-their government, their chiefs find little or no difficulty
-in governing them. They are supported by able
-experienced counsellors; men who study the welfare
-of the nation, and are equally interested with themselves in its
-prosperity. On them the people rely entirely, believing that
-what they do, or determine upon, must be right and for the
-public good.</p>
-
-<p>Proud of seeing such able men conduct the affairs of their
-nation, the Indians are little troubled about what they are doing,
-knowing that the result of their deliberations will be made
-public in due time, and sure that it will receive their approbation.
-This result is made known to them by the chief through the
-orator, for which purpose they are called together and assemble
-at the council-house; and if it be found necessary to require a
-contribution of <i>wampum</i>, for carrying the decision of the chiefs
-into effect, it is cheerfully complied with by the whole assembly.</p>
-
-<p>The chiefs are very careful in preserving for their own information,
-and that of future generations, all important deliberations
-and treaties made at any time between them and other nations.
-Thus, between the years 1770 and 1780, they could relate very
-minutely what had passed between William Penn and their forefathers,
-at their first meeting and afterwards, and also the transactions
-which took place with the governors who succeeded
-him. For the purpose of refreshing their own memories, and
-of instructing one or more of their most capable and promising
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span>
-young men in these matters, they assemble once or twice a
-year. On these occasions they always meet at a chosen spot
-in the woods, at a small distance from the town, where a fire
-is kindled, and at the proper time provisions are brought out to
-them; there, on a large piece of bark or on a blanket, all the
-documents are laid out in such order, that they can at once distinguish
-each particular speech, the same as we know the principal
-contents of an instrument of writing by the endorsement
-on it. If any paper or parchment writings are connected with
-the belts, or strings of wampum, they apply to some trusty white
-man (if such can be had,) to read the contents to them. Their
-speaker then, who is always chosen from among those who are
-endowed with superior talents, and has already been trained up
-to the business, rises, and in an audible voice delivers, with the
-gravity that the subject requires, the contents, sentence after sentence,
-until he has finished the whole on one subject. On the
-manner in which the belts or strings of wampum are handled
-by the speaker, much depends; the <i>turning</i><a id="FNanchor_116" href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">116</a> of the belt which
-takes place when he has finished one half of his speech, is a
-material point, though this is not common in <i>all</i> speeches with
-belts; but when it is the case, and is done properly, it may be
-as well known by it how far the speaker has advanced in his
-speech, as with us on taking a glance at the pages of a book or
-pamphlet while reading; and a good speaker will be able to
-point out the exact place on a belt which is to answer to each
-particular sentence, the same as we can point out a passage in a
-book. Belts and strings, when done with by the speaker, are
-again handed to the chief, who puts them up carefully in the
-speech-bag or pouch.</p>
-
-<p>A message of importance is generally sent on to the place of
-its destination, by an inferior chief, by a counsellor, or by the
-speaker, especially when an immediate answer is expected. In
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span>
-other cases, where for instance only an answer to a speech is to
-be sent, two capable young men are selected for the purpose, the
-one to deliver the message or answer, and the other to pay
-attention while his companion is delivering it, that no part be
-forgotten or omitted. If the message be of a private nature,
-they are charged to draw or take it <i>under ground</i>, that is, not to
-make it known to any person whatsoever, except to him to
-whom it is directed. If they are told to enter <i>into the earth</i> with
-the message or speech, and rise again at the place where they
-are to deliver it, it is to desire them to be careful not to be seen
-by the way by any person, and for that purpose to avoid all
-paths, and travel through the woods.</p>
-
-<p>No chief pays any attention to <i>reports</i>, though they may carry
-with them the marks of truth. Until he is <i>officially</i> and in due
-form apprised of the matter, he will, if questioned on the subject,
-reply that he had <i>not heard it</i>. It will, until then, be considered
-by him as the <i>song of a bird which had flown by</i>; but as soon as
-he is officially informed, through a string of wampum from some
-distant chief or leading man of the nation, whose situation
-entitles him to receive credit, he then will say: “I <i>have</i> heard
-it;” and acts accordingly.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians generally, but their chiefs more particularly, have
-many figurative expressions in use, to understand which requires
-instruction. When a nation, by message or otherwise, speaks to
-another nation in this way, it is well understood; but when they
-speak to white people after this manner, who have not been
-accustomed to such language, explanations are necessary.</p>
-
-<p>Their belts of wampum are of different dimensions, both as to
-the length and breadth. White and black wampum are the
-kinds they use; the former denoting that which is <i>good</i>, as
-peace, friendship, good will, &amp;c., the latter the reverse; yet
-occasionally the black also is made use of on peace errands,
-when the white cannot be procured; but previous to its being
-produced for such purpose, it must be daubed all over with
-chalk, white clay, or any thing which changes the colour from
-black to white. The pipe of peace, being either made of a
-black or red stone, must also be whitened before it is produced
-and smoked out of on such occasions.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span></p>
-
-<p>Roads from one friendly nation to another, are generally
-marked on the belt, by one or two rows of white wampum interwoven
-in the black, and running through the middle, and from
-end to end. It means that they are on good terms, and keep up
-a friendly intercourse with each other.</p>
-
-<p>A black belt with the mark of a hatchet made on it with red
-paint, is a war belt, which, when sent to a nation together with a
-twist or roll of tobacco, is an invitation to join in a war. If the
-nation so invited smoke of this tobacco, and say it smokes well,
-they have given their consent, and are from that moment allies.
-If however they decline smoking, all further persuasion would
-be of no effect; yet it once<a id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">117</a> happened, that war messengers
-endeavoured to persuade and compel a nation to accept the
-belt, by laying it on the shoulders or thigh of the chief, who,
-however, after shaking it off without touching it with his hands,
-afterwards, with a stick, threw it after them, as if he threw a
-snake or toad out of his way.</p>
-
-<p>Although at their councils they do not seat themselves after
-the manner of the white people, yet the attitude they place
-themselves in is not chargeable to them as a want of respect.
-Faithful to the trust committed to them, they are careless of
-ceremonies, from which the nation cannot derive any benefit.
-They seat themselves promiscuously around a council fire, some
-leaning one way, some another, so that a stranger on viewing
-them, might be led to conclude they were inattentive to what
-was said, or had become tired of attending. Not so! even
-sitting in this posture gives them the opportunity of being
-intent on what is said, and attentive to the subject under their
-consideration. They have no object to look at, which might
-draw off their attention. They are all ears, though they do
-not stare at the speaker! The fact is, that nothing can draw
-their attention from the subject they are deliberating on, unless
-the house they are sitting in should take fire or be attacked by
-an enemy.</p>
-
-<p>To prove the correctness of the above assertion, I shall relate
-the following fact, which happened at Detroit in the winter of
-1785 and 1786.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span></p>
-
-<p>When two most audacious murderers of the Chippeway nation,
-who, for many months, had put the town and whole country in
-fear, by the threats and the daring murders they had committed
-in the settlement, were taken, and brought before the commandant
-(their chiefs having been previously sent for, and being
-now assembled in the council house), heard him pronounce the
-words: “that according to the laws of their Father (the English)
-they should<a id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">118</a> be punished with death,” the younger of the two,
-who was the son of the other, sprang from his seat, and having
-forced his way to<a id="FNanchor_119" href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">119</a> the door, endeavoured with a knife or dagger
-he had hidden under his blanket, to work his way through the
-strong guard placed outside of the door and<a id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">120</a> in the street to
-prevent their escape; in this attempt, however, he was stabbed
-and fell; all which occasioned much noise and commotion
-without, and not a little fear and uneasiness within, among the
-spectators and officers of government; yet, not one of the chiefs,
-who were many in number, either moved from his seat, nor
-looked around, or even at one another; but they all remained
-sitting in the same posture as before, smoking their pipes as if
-nothing had happened.</p>
-
-<p>Though there are sometimes individuals in a nation, who disregard
-the counsel and good advice given by the chiefs, yet
-they do not meet with support so as to be able to oppose the
-measures of government. They are generally looked upon as
-depraved beings, who not daring to associate with the others,
-lurk about by themselves, generally bent on mischief of a minor
-kind, such as pilfering small articles of goods and provisions.
-As soon, however, as they go a step further, and become known
-thieves and murderers, they are considered a disgrace to the
-nation, and being in a manner disowned by it, they are no longer
-entitled to their protection.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1785, an Indian of this description, murdered a
-Mr. Evans at Pittsburg; when, after a confinement of several
-months, his trial was to be brought on, the chiefs of his (the
-Delaware nation,) were invited to come to be present at the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span>
-proceedings and see how the trial would be conducted, and,
-also, if they chose, to speak in behalf of the accused. These
-chiefs, however, instead of coming, as wished for, sent to the
-civil officers of that place the following laconic answer: “Brethren!
-You inform us that N. N. who murdered one of your men
-at Pittsburg, is shortly to be tried by the laws of your country,
-at which trial you request that some of us may be present!
-Brethren! knowing N. N. to have been always a very bad man,
-we do not wish to see him! We, therefore, advise you to try
-him by your laws, and to hang him, so that he may never return
-to us again.”</p>
-
-<p>I shall conclude this subject with another anecdote. When
-in the winter of 1788 and 1789, the Indian nations were assembling
-at Fort Harmer, at the mouth of the Muskingum, where
-a treaty was to be held, an Indian of the Seneca nation was one
-morning found dead on the bank of the river. The Cornplanter,
-chief of this nation, observing some uneasiness among the officers
-and people of the place, and fearing the murder at this time
-and place, might perhaps create much disturbance, waited in the
-morning on the Governor, whom he desired “not to be uneasy
-about what had happened the preceding night, for the man who
-had been killed was of no consequence.” This meant in other
-words, that he was disowned for his bad conduct by his countrymen,
-and that his death would not be a loss to his nation.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_113.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_114a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">EDUCATION.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">It</span> may justly be a subject of wonder, how a nation
-without a written code of laws or system of jurisprudence,
-without any form or constitution of government,
-and without even a single elective or hereditary
-magistrate, can subsist together in peace and harmony, and in
-the exercise of the moral virtues; how a people can be well and
-effectually governed without any external authority; by the
-mere force of the ascendancy which men of superior minds have
-over those of a more ordinary stamp; by a tacit, yet universal
-submission to the aristocracy of experience, talents and virtue!
-Such, nevertheless, is the spectacle which an Indian nation exhibits
-to the eye of a stranger. I have been a witness to it for
-a long series of years, and after much observation and reflection
-to discover the cause of this phenomenon, I think I have reason
-to be satisfied that it is in a great degree to be ascribed to the
-pains which the Indians take to instill at an early age honest
-and virtuous principles upon the minds of their children, and
-to the method which they pursue in educating them. This
-method I will not call a system; for systems are unknown to
-these sons of nature, who, by following alone her simple dictates,
-have at once discovered and follow without effort that
-plain obvious path which the philosophers of Europe have been
-so long in search of.</p>
-
-<p>The first step that parents take towards the education of their
-children, is to prepare them for future happiness, by impressing
-upon their tender minds, that they are indebted for their existence
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span>
-to a great, good and benevolent Spirit, who not only has
-given them life, but has ordained them for certain great purposes.
-That he has given them a fertile extensive country well stocked
-with game of every kind for their subsistence, and that by one
-of his inferior spirits he has also sent down to them from above
-corn, pumpkins, squashes, beans and other vegetables for their
-nourishment; all which blessings their ancestors have enjoyed
-for a great number of ages. That this great Spirit looks down
-upon the Indians, to see whether they are grateful to him and
-make him a due return for the many benefits he has bestowed,
-and therefore that it is their duty to show their thankfulness by
-worshipping him, and doing that which is pleasing in his sight.</p>
-
-<p>This is in substance the first lesson taught, and from time to
-time repeated to the Indian children, which naturally leads them
-to reflect and gradually to understand that a being which hath
-done such great things for them, and all to make them happy,
-must be good indeed, and that it is surely their duty to do something
-that will please him. They are then told that their ancestors,
-who received all this from the hands of the great Spirit,
-and lived in the enjoyment of it, must have been informed of
-what would be most pleasing to this good being, and of the
-manner in which his favour could be most surely obtained, and
-they are directed to look up for instruction to those who know
-all this, to learn from them, and revere them for their wisdom
-and the knowledge which they possess; this creates in the
-children a strong sentiment of respect for their elders, and a
-desire to follow their advice and example. Their young ambition
-is then excited by telling them that they were made the
-superiors of all other creatures, and are to have power over
-them; great pains are taken to make this feeling take an early
-root, and it becomes in fact their ruling passion through life;
-for no pains are spared to instill into them that by following the
-advice of the most admired and extolled hunter, trapper or
-warrior, they will at a future day acquire a degree of fame and
-reputation, equal to that which he possesses; that by submitting
-to the counsels of the aged, the chiefs, the men superior in
-wisdom, they may also rise to glory, and be called <i>Wisemen</i>, an
-honourable title, to which no Indian is indifferent. They are
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span>
-finally told that if they respect the aged and infirm, and are kind
-and obliging to them, they will be treated in the same manner
-when their turn comes to feel the infirmities of old age.</p>
-
-<p>When this first and most important lesson is thought to be
-sufficiently impressed upon children’s minds, the parents next
-proceed to make them sensible of the distinction between good
-and evil; they tell them that there are good actions and bad
-actions, both equally open to them to do or commit; that good
-acts are pleasing to the good Spirit which gave them their existence,
-and that on the contrary, all that is bad proceeds from
-the bad spirit who has given them nothing, and who cannot give
-them any thing that is good, because he has it not, and therefore
-he envies them that which they have received from the good
-Spirit, who is far superior to the bad one.</p>
-
-<p>This introductory lesson, if it may be so called, naturally
-makes them wish to know what is good and what is bad. This
-the parent teaches him in his own way, that is to say, in the
-way in which he was himself taught by his own parents. It is
-not the lesson of an hour nor of a day, it is rather a long course
-more of practical than of theoretical instruction, a lesson, which
-is not repeated at stated seasons or times, but which is shewn,
-pointed out, and demonstrated to the child, not only by those
-under whose immediate guardianship he is, but by the whole
-community, who consider themselves alike interested in the
-direction to be given to the rising generation.</p>
-
-<p>When this instruction is given in the form of precepts, it must
-not be supposed that it is done in an authoritative or forbidding
-tone, but, on the contrary, in the gentlest and most persuasive
-manner: nor is the parent’s authority ever supported by harsh
-or compulsive means; no whips, no punishments, no threats are
-even used to enforce commands or compel obedience. The
-child’s <i>pride</i> is the feeling to which an appeal is made, which
-proves successful in almost every instance. A father needs only
-to say in the presence of his children: “I want such a thing
-done; I want one of my children to go upon such an errand;
-let me see who is the <i>good</i> child that will do it!” This word
-<i>good</i> operates, as it were, by magic, and the children immediately
-vie with each other to comply with the wishes of their parent.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span>
-If a father sees an old decrepid man or woman pass by, led
-along by a child, he will draw the attention of his own children
-to the object by saying: “What a <i>good</i> child that must be,
-which pays such attention to the aged! That child, indeed,
-looks forward to the time when it will likewise be old!” or he
-will say, “May the great Spirit, who looks upon him, grant this
-<i>good</i> child a long life!”</p>
-
-<p>In this manner of bringing up children, the parents, as I have
-already said, are seconded by the whole community. If a child
-is sent from his father’s dwelling to carry a dish of victuals to
-an aged person, all in the house will join in calling him a <i>good</i>
-child. They will ask whose child he is, and on being told, will
-exclaim: what! has the <i>Tortoise</i>, or the <i>little Bear</i> (as the father’s
-name may be) got such a <i>good</i> child? If a child is seen passing
-through the streets leading an old decrepid person, the villagers
-will in his hearing, and to encourage all the other children who
-may be present to take example from him, call on one another
-to look on and see what a <i>good</i> child that must be. And so, in
-most instances, this method is resorted to, for the purpose of
-instructing children in things that are good, proper, or honourable
-in themselves; while, on the other hand, when a child has
-committed a <i>bad</i> act, the parent will say to him: “O! how
-grieved I am that my child has done this <i>bad</i> act! I hope he
-will never do so again.” This is generally effectual, particularly
-if said in the presence of others. The whole of the Indian
-plan of education tends to elevate rather than to depress the
-mind, and by that means to make determined hunters and fearless
-warriors.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, when a lad has killed his first game, such as a deer or
-a bear, parents who have boys growing up will not fail to say
-to some person in the presence of their own children: “That
-boy must have listened attentively to the aged hunters, for,
-though young, he has already given a proof that he will become
-a good hunter himself.” If, on the other hand, a young man
-should fail of giving such a proof, it will be said of him “that
-he did not pay attention to the discourses of the aged.”</p>
-
-<p>In this indirect manner is instruction on all subjects given to
-the young people. They are to learn the arts of hunting, trapping,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span>
-and making war, by listening to the aged when conversing
-together on those subjects, each, in his turn, relating how he
-acted, and opportunities are afforded to them for that purpose.
-By this mode of instructing youth, their respect for the aged is
-kept alive, and it is increased by the reflection that the same
-respect will be paid to them at a future day, when young persons
-will be attentive to what they shall relate.</p>
-
-<p>This method of conveying instruction is, I believe, common
-to most Indian nations; it is so, at least, amongst all those that
-I have become acquainted with, and lays the foundation for that
-voluntary submission to their chiefs, for which they are so remarkable.
-Thus has been maintained for ages, without convulsions
-and without civil discords, this traditional government, of
-which the world, perhaps, does not offer another example; a
-government in which there are no positive laws, but only long
-established habits and customs, no code of jurisprudence, but
-the experience of former times, no magistrates, but advisers, to
-whom the people, nevertheless, pay a willing and implicit obedience,
-in which age confers rank, wisdom gives power, and
-moral goodness secures a title to universal respect. All this
-seems to be effected by the simple means of an excellent mode
-of education, by which a strong attachment to ancient customs,
-respect for age, and the love of virtue are indelibly impressed
-upon the minds of youth, so that these impressions acquire
-strength as time pursues its course, and as they pass through
-successive generations.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_118.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_119a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">LANGUAGES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">In</span> all the North American territories bounded to the
-north and east by the Atlantic ocean, and to the
-south and west by the river Mississippi, and the possessions
-of the English Hudson’s Bay company, there
-appears to be but four principal languages, branching out, it is
-true, into various dialects, but all derived from one or the other
-of the four mother tongues, some of which extend even beyond
-the Mississippi, and perhaps, as far as the Rocky Mountains.
-These four languages are:</p>
-
-<h3>I. <span class="smcap">The Karalit.</span></h3>
-
-<p>This language is spoken by the inhabitants of Greenland and
-on the Continent by the Eskimaux Indians of the coast of Labrador.
-Its forms and principles are sufficiently known by means
-of the Grammar and Dictionary of the venerable Egede,<a id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">121</a> and
-the works of Bartholinus, Wœldike, Thornhallesen,<a id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">122</a> Cranz<a id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">123</a> and
-others. It is much cultivated by the Missionaries of the Society
-of the United Brethren, by whom we may expect to see its principles
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span>
-still further elucidated. It is in Greenland that begin
-those comprehensive grammatical forms which are said to characterise
-the languages of the vast American continent, as far as
-they are known, and are the more remarkable when contrasted
-with the simplicity of construction of the idioms spoken on the
-opposite European shores, in Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and
-other countries. It appears evident from this single circumstance,
-that America did not receive its original population
-from Europe.</p>
-
-<h3>II. <span class="smcap">The Iroquois.</span></h3>
-
-<p>This language in various dialects is spoken by the Mengwe
-or Six Nations, the Wyandots or Hurons, the Naudowessies,
-the Assinipoetuk, called by the French Assiniboils, Assinipoils,
-or Sioux, and by other tribes, particularly beyond the St. Lawrence.
-Father La Hontan distinguishes this class of languages
-by the name of the <i>Huron</i>, probably because that nation was
-better known to the French, whose allies they were, than the
-Iroquois, who were in alliance with the English.<a id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">124</a> All these
-languages, however they may be called in a general sense, are
-dialects of the same mother tongue, and have considerable affinity
-with each other. Mr. Carver is mistaken when he describes
-the <i>Naudowessie</i> as belonging to a class different from the Iroquois.<a id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">125</a>
-It is sufficient to compare the vocabularies that we have
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span>
-of these two idioms, to see the great similitude that subsists
-between them. We do not, unfortunately, possess a single
-grammar of any of these dialects; we have nothing, in fact,
-besides the fragment of Zeisberger’s Dictionary, which I have
-already mentioned, but a large vocabulary of the Huron,<a id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">126</a> composed
-by Father Sagard, a good and pious French Missionary,
-but of very limited abilities, and who also resided too short a
-time among that nation to be able to give a correct account
-of their language. He represents it in his preface, as poor,
-imperfect, anomalous, and inadequate to the clear expression
-of ideas, in which he is contradicted by others whom we have
-reason to believe better informed. Zeisberger considered the
-Iroquois (of which the Huron is a dialect,) as a rich and comprehensive
-idiom. It is to be regretted that a grammar which
-he had composed of it, and the best part of his Dictionary, are
-irretrievably lost. Sir William Johnson speaks highly of the
-powers of this language;<a id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">127</a> Colden,<a id="FNanchor_128" href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">128</a> though he did not know it
-himself, speaks in the same manner from the information of
-others. Indeed, Father Sagard’s Dictionary itself, when attentively
-read by a person acquainted with the forms of Indian
-languages, affords sufficient intrinsic evidence of the mistakes
-of the good father who composed it.</p>
-
-<h3>III. <span class="smcap">The Lenape.</span></h3>
-
-<p>This is the most widely extended language of any of those
-that are spoken on this side of the Mississippi. It prevails in
-the extensive regions of Canada, from the coast of Labrador to
-the mouth of Albany river which falls into the southernmost
-part of Hudson’s bay, and from thence to the Lake of the Woods,
-which forms the north-western boundary of the United States.
-It appears to be the language of all the Indians of that extensive
-country, except those of the Iroquois stock, which are by
-far the least numerous. Farther to the north-west, in the territories
-of the Hudson’s Bay Company, other Indian nations have
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span>
-been discovered, such as the Blackfoot Indians, Sussee Indians,
-Snake Indians, and others, whose languages are said to be different
-from the Iroquois and the Lenape, but we are not able to
-form a very correct judgment respecting those idioms from the
-scanty vocabularies which have been given us by Mackenzie,
-Umfreville and other travellers. We must wait for further light
-before we decide.</p>
-
-<p>Out of the limits of Canada few Iroquois are found, except
-the remnants of those who were once settled in the vicinity of
-the great Lakes, in the northern parts of the now State of New
-York. There are yet some Wyandots in the vicinity of Detroit.
-All the rest of the Indians who now inhabit this country to the
-Mississippi, are of the Lenape stock, and speak dialects of that
-language. It is certain that at the time of the arrival of the
-Europeans, they were in possession of all the coast from the
-northernmost point of Nova Scotia to the Roanoke. Hence
-they were called <i>Wapanachki</i>, or <i>Abenakis</i>, men of the East.
-La Hontan gives us a list of the Indian nations of ancient
-Acadia, all speaking dialects of the Abenaki, or as he calls
-it, of the Algonquin. They were the Abenakis, Micmacs, Canibas,
-Mahingans (Mohicans), Openangos, Soccokis, and Etchemins,
-from whom all Nova Scotia, (excepting the peninsula,)
-and a part of the now district of Maine, were once called by the
-French the <i>country of the Etchemins</i>. He does not speak of the
-Souriquois, who are also known to have inhabited Acadia, and
-likewise spoke a dialect of the Lenape.</p>
-
-<p>In the interior of the country we find every where the Lenape
-and their kindred tribes. The Miamis, or Twightwees, the
-Potowatomies, the Messissaugees, the Kickapoos, all those
-Indian nations who once inhabited, and parts of whom still
-inhabit the interior of our country on this side of the Mississippi
-and the great Lakes, are unquestionably, from their dialects,
-of Lenape origin. The Shawanos, it is said, formerly dwelt
-upon the river Savannah, in Georgia, and a part of them remaining
-in that country, associated with the Creeks, still retain their
-language.<a id="FNanchor_129" href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">129</a> As far as we are able to judge from the little knowledge
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span>
-that has been transmitted to us of the language of the
-Indians who once inhabited Maryland, Virginia, and North
-Carolina, they all appear to have belonged to the same stock,
-the Nanticokes have been shewn to have been intimately connected
-with the Lenape, and among those who called them
-<i>grandfather</i>. Two pretty copious vocabularies of their language,
-in the possession of the Historical Committee of the American
-Philosophical Society, one of them communicated by Mr. Jefferson
-and the other by myself, prove it beyond a doubt to have
-been a dialect of the Lenape.<a id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">130</a> The Canai or Kanhawas, who
-have given their name to a river in Virginia which empties
-itself into the Ohio, are known to have been of the same stock.
-The Indian names of rivers, mountains, and towns, through that
-vast extent of country, appear generally derived from the
-Lenape language.</p>
-
-<p>The Baron de La Hontan, is one of the first writers, I believe,
-who have spoken of the universality of this idiom; but it is
-extraordinary that he has not said a word of the Lenni Lenape,
-that great and powerful nation. He calls this language the
-<i>Algonquin</i> tongue, although he describes that people as “an
-erratic sort of savages, who, like the Arabs, had no settled
-abode,”<a id="FNanchor_131" href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">131</a> and admits, that at the time when he wrote, their number
-did not exceed 200. What he says on this subject, however,
-is so much to my purpose, that I hope I shall be permitted to
-make a small extract from it.</p>
-
-<p>“There are,” says the Baron, “but two mother tongues in the
-whole extent of Canada, which I confine within the limits of the
-Mississippi; they are the <i>Huron</i> and the <i>Algonquin</i>. The first is
-understood by the Iroquois, for the difference between these two
-is no greater than that between the Norman and the French.
-The second, namely the <i>Algonquin</i>, is as much esteemed among
-the savages as the Greek and Latin are in Europe; though it
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span>
-would seem that the aborigines, to whom it owes its original,
-disgrace it by the thinness of their nation, <i>for their whole number
-does not amount to two hundred</i>.”<a id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">133</a></p>
-
-<p>What the Baron says here of this language is very correct;
-but why does he call it the Algonquin, and ascribe its origin
-to that miserable wandering tribe? He had the Abenakis at
-hand, whom in another place he puts at the head of the tribes inhabiting
-Nova Scotia, and who still preserved the generic name
-of the whole nation, <i>Wapanachki</i>, which the French have
-softened to suit the analogy of their own tongue, by which
-name the different nations and tribes of the Lenape stock still
-recognise each other to this day. It is probable that he did not
-sufficiently understand their language,<a id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">134</a> to have much conversation
-with them, otherwise they would have informed him that
-they derived their origin from a great and powerful nation
-residing in the interior of the country, whom they revered
-as their <i>grandfather</i>, at whose door the great national council
-fire was kept constantly burning, whose badge was the <i>Turtle</i>,
-and whose supremacy was acknowledged by all the kindred
-tribes.</p>
-
-<p>Father Charlevoix, who also speaks of the universality of this
-language, commits the same error in ascribing its origin to the
-Algonquins. “In the southern part of Hudson’s Bay,” says he,
-“the trade is carried on with the Matassins, the Monsonies, the
-Christinaux (Knisteneaux), and the Assinipoils, the three first of
-which speak the <i>Algonquin</i> language.”<a id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">135</a> In a later publication,
-(I think by a Mr. Winterbotham,) of which, during my travels,
-some years ago, I had merely a glance, I found by some words
-he had put down in the language of those people, that they
-were <i>Minsi</i> or <i>Monseys</i>, a branch of the wolf tribe of the Lenape.
-So indeed, one of their names, <i>Monsonies</i>, seems of itself to
-indicate. The name of the Matassins, means in their language
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span>
-a tobacco pipe, and so it does in the Monsey to this day. And
-they all speak the Algonquin, a language, say both Charlevoix
-and La Hontan, universally known for a thousand leagues round.
-The last mentioned author subjoins a vocabulary of what he
-calls the Algonquin tongue, which bears a greater affinity to the
-language of the Unamis or Turtle<a id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">136</a> tribe of the Lenape than that
-does to the idiom of the Monsey or Wolf tribe of the same
-nation. I find many words in the Algonquin (as given by La
-Hontan), which are exactly the same as in the Unami, while
-others bear more resemblance to the Chippeway, also a dialect
-of the Lenape, spoken by a tribe in connexion with the Delawares,
-and who call them <i>grandfather</i>.</p>
-
-<p>There can be no doubt, therefore, that this universal language,
-so much admired and so generally spoken by the Indian nations,
-is that of the Lenni Lenape, and is improperly named the Chippeway
-by Carver, and the Algonquin by La Hontan. The celebrated
-Professor Vater, in his excellent continuation of Adelung’s
-Mithridates, calls the class of languages derived from this source,
-“the Chippewayo-Delawarian, or Algonkino-Mohican stock.”<a id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">137</a>
-It is, perhaps, indifferent for philological purposes, whether a
-language be called the Delaware or the Chippeway, the Algonquin
-or the Mohican; but every body must be sensible of the
-inconvenience of those long compound names, which leave no
-fixed or determinate idea upon the mind. For the purpose of
-general description it seems better to designate the languages
-of those connected tribes by the name of their common grandfather,
-the Lenni Lenape, or by the generic denomination universally
-adopted among them, Wapanachki, or Abenaki. I have
-preferred the former as a mark of respect to an ancient and once
-powerful nation, and in the hope that her name may be preserved,
-at least, in the records of philological science.</p>
-
-<p>This beautiful language, and those which are derived from it,
-though more has been written upon them than on any of the
-other languages of these parts of the North American continent,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span>
-are as yet but little known. The grammar of the Natick dialect
-published by Eliot, at Cambridge in Massachusetts, in the year
-1666, has long been out of print, and is to be found only in very
-few libraries in the United States; Dr. Edwards’s little tract on
-the Mohican language, although printed twice, does not appear
-to have had much circulation, and is not alone sufficient to give
-an idea of the forms and construction of these Indian dialects.
-Zeisberger’s Delaware spelling book is but a collection of words,
-and does not contain any grammatical explanations. The learned
-Vater has taken immense pains, from the scanty helps within
-his reach, to discover the grounds and principles of these idioms,
-and what he has written on the subject is a proof of what talents
-and industry can effect with little means. But still the matter
-is not sufficiently understood. There is in the library of the
-society of the United Brethren in this town, an excellent MS.
-grammar of the Lenni Lenape, written in German by Zeisberger.
-I understand that the Historical Committee of the American
-Philosophical Society are going to publish an English translation
-of this valuable work. I rejoice in the prospect of this publication,
-which will give a clear and satisfactory view of the true
-genius and character of the languages of the Indian nations. At
-the request of the same Committee, I have endeavoured to give
-some further development of the principles which that grammar
-contains, in a series of letters to their Secretary, which, I am
-informed, are also to be printed. This supersedes the necessity
-of my entering here into more details on this interesting subject.
-I hope the result of these publications will be to satisfy the world
-that the languages of the Indians are not so poor, so devoid of
-variety of expression, so inadequate to the communication even
-of abstract ideas, or in a word so <i>barbarous</i>, as has been generally
-imagined.</p>
-
-<h3>IV. <span class="smcap">The Floridian.</span></h3>
-
-<p>I call by this generic name, the languages spoken by those
-Indian nations who inhabit the southern frontier of the United
-States and the Spanish Province of Florida. They are the
-Creeks or Muskohgees, Chickesaws, Choctaws, Pascagoulas,
-Cherokees or Cheerakees, and several others. It is said that
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>
-there once existed among them a powerful nation called the
-Natchez, whose language was the mother tongue of all those
-southern dialects. We are told also of an Apalachian nation,
-who it is said lived in the western parts of Louisiana, and were
-a part of the great nation of the Apalachians, who resided in the
-mountains which bear their name, and whose branches were
-settled under different denominations, in the vast extent of
-country situated between Louisiana, Canada and New England.<a id="FNanchor_138" href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">138</a>
-In this great <i>Apalachian</i> nation we cannot help recognising our
-friends the Lenape, or <i>Wapanachki</i>, whose name the French in
-the south have as easily corrupted into <i>Apalaches</i>, as those in
-the north into <i>Abenakis</i>. It was they who gave their name to
-the Apalachian mountains, once so called, but which of late
-have resumed their former appellation of Alligewi, or Allegheny.
-Mr. Vater thinks that the remains of those Apalachians are still
-to be found in the Catawbas,<a id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">139</a> who are sometimes named Chaktawas<a id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">140</a>
-and probably are the same who by contraction are now
-called Choktaws.</p>
-
-<p>Other writers speak to us of the Mobilians,<a id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">141</a> as the nation from
-which the neighbouring tribes derived their origin, and whose
-language was their mother tongue. The fact is, that we know
-very little about these southern Indians, and on the subject of
-their languages we have nothing to guide our enquiries, but a
-few words given us by Adair, and some that have been collected
-from various sources by the late Dr. Barton. We are not, however,
-without the means of obtaining full and accurate information
-on this interesting subject, and I hope the historical
-committee will be successful in the measures which they are
-about to take to procure it. Mr. Meigs, the United States agent
-with the Cherokees, Mr. Mitchell, agent to the Creeks, and the
-Rev. John Gambold, who has long lived as a Missionary of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span>
-Society of the United Brethren with the former of these nations,
-are well able to satisfy their enquiries, and I have no doubt will
-be happy to give their aid to the advancement of the literature
-of their country.</p>
-
-<p>It is a fact worthy of remark, and much to be regretted, that
-the French and English, who have been so long in possession
-of the immense country extending from Labrador to the Mississippi,
-have written so little respecting the Indian languages of
-this part of the American continent. Among the English, Eliot
-alone, and among the French, Father Sagard, can be said to
-have published anything on this subject that is worth notice.
-Zeisberger was a German, and Mr. Edwards an American. On
-the contrary, the Spaniards<a id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">142</a> have published a great number of
-grammars and dictionaries of the Indian languages spoken within
-the limits of their American possessions, and deserve much
-credit for these exertions. It is not yet too late for the independent
-Americans to retrieve the neglect of their forefathers;
-but no time should be lost, as the Indian nations are fast disappearing
-from the face of our country, and our posterity may
-have to regret hereafter that greater pains were not taken to
-preserve the memory of their traditions, customs, manners, and
-<span class="small">LANGUAGES</span>.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_128.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_129a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">SIGNS AND HIEROGLYPHICS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">It</span> has been asserted by many persons that the languages
-of the Indians are deficient in words, and that,
-in order to make themselves understood, they are
-obliged to resort to motions and signs with their
-hands. This is entirely a mistake. I do not know a nation of
-whom foreigners do not say the same thing. The fact is, that
-in every country, signs and motions with the hands more or less
-accompany discourse, particularly when delivered with a certain
-degree of earnestness and warmth. Foreigners, who are not
-very conversant with a language, pay in general as much and
-sometimes more attention to these motions than to the words
-of the speaker, in order the better to be able to understand what
-falls from him. Hence, almost every nation charges the others
-with too much gesticulation in speaking. For a similar reason,
-a foreign language is generally thought to be spoken quicker
-than our own, while the truth is, that it is our ear which is slow
-in distinguishing the words, not the voice which speaks that is
-too quick in uttering them.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians do not gesticulate more when they speak than
-other nations do. In their public speeches they will, like our
-preachers and lawyers, enforce what they say by gestures and
-motions of the body and hands, in order to give greater weight
-to their observations, or to represent the subject they speak of
-in a more lively manner than can be done by words alone; but
-in common conversation they make few of those motions, and
-not more, I believe, than we do ourselves; even the women,
-who every where speak more than the men, never want words
-to express themselves, but rather seem to have too many, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span>
-they do not oftener employ gestures in aid of their conversation
-than the vivacity of their sex induces them to do every where else.</p>
-
-<p>It is true that the Indians have a language of signs, by which
-they communicate with each other on occasions when speaking
-is not prudent or proper, as, for instance, when they are about to
-meet an enemy, and by speaking they would run the risk of
-being discovered. By this means they also make themselves
-understood to those nations of Indians whose languages they
-are not acquainted with, for all the Indian nations understand
-each other in this way. It is also, in many cases, a saving of
-words, which the Indians are much intent on, believing that too
-much talking disgraces a man. When, therefore, they will relate
-something extraordinary in a few words, they make use of
-corresponding signs, which is very entertaining to those who
-listen and attend to them, and who are acquainted both with the
-language and the signs, being very much as if somebody were
-to explain a picture set before them. But they never make use
-of signs to supply any deficiency of language, as they have
-words and phrases sufficient to express every thing.</p>
-
-<p>I have frequently questioned Indians who had been educated
-at our schools, and could understand, read, write, and speak
-both English and German, whether they could express their
-ideas better in either of those languages than in their own, and
-they have always and uniformly answered that they could express
-themselves with far the greatest ease in their own Indian,
-and that they never were at a loss for words or phrases in which
-to clothe every idea that occurred to them, without being in
-any case obliged to gesticulate or make motions with their hands
-or otherwise. From the knowledge which I have acquired of
-their language, I have reason to be satisfied that it is so. Indeed,
-how can it be doubted, when we have the whole of the Bible
-and New Testament translated into one of their dialects, and
-when we see our ministers, when once familiar with the language
-of the nation with which they reside, preach to them
-without the least difficulty on the most abstruse subjects of the
-Christian faith? It is true, that ideas are not always expressed
-in those languages in the same words, or under the same grammatical
-forms as in our own; where we would use one part of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span>
-speech, we are obliged to employ another, and one single word
-with them will not seldom serve a purpose for which we would
-have to employ several; but still, the ideas are communicated,
-and pass with clearness and precision from mind to mind. Thus
-the end of oral language is completely obtained, and more, I
-think, cannot be required.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians do not possess our art of writing, they have no
-alphabets, or<a id="FNanchor_143" href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">143</a> any mode of representing to the eye the sounds
-of words spoken, yet they have certain hieroglyphics, by which
-they describe facts in so plain a manner, that those who are
-conversant with those marks can understand them with the
-greatest ease, as easily, indeed, as we can understand a piece of
-writing. For instance, on a piece of bark, or on a large tree
-with the bark taken off for the purpose, by the side of a path,
-they can and do give every necessary information to those who
-come by the same way; they will in that manner let them know,
-that they were a war party of so many men, from such a place,
-of such a nation and such a tribe; how many of each tribe were
-in the party; to which tribe the chief or captain belonged; in
-what direction they proceeded to meet the enemy; how many
-days they were out and how many returning; what number
-of the enemy they had killed, how many prisoners they had
-brought; how many scalps they had taken; whether they had
-lost any of their party, and how many; what enemies they had
-met with, and how many they consisted of; of what nation or
-tribe their captain was, &amp;c.; all which, at a single glance, is
-perfectly well understood by them. In the same manner they
-describe a chase: all Indian nations can do this, although they
-have not all the same marks; yet I have seen the Delawares
-read with ease the drawings of the Chippeways, Mingoes, Shawanos,
-and Wyandots, on similar subjects.</p>
-
-<p>While Indians are travelling to the place of their destination,
-whether it be on a journey to their distant hunting grounds or
-on a war excursion, some of the young men are sent out to hunt
-by the way, who, when they have killed a deer, bear, or other
-animal, bring it to the path, ready to be taken away by those
-who are coming along, (often with horses) to the place of encampment,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span>
-when they all meet at night. Having hung up the
-meat by the side of the path, these young men make a kind of
-sun-dial, in order to inform those who are coming of the time
-of day it was at the time of their arrival and departure. A clear
-place in the path is sought for, and if not readily found, one is
-made by the side of it, and a circle or ring being drawn on the
-sand or earth, a stick of about two or three feet in length is fixed
-in the centre, with its upper end bent towards that spot in the
-horizon where the sun stood at the time of their arrival or departure.
-If both are to be noted down, two separate sticks are
-set; but generally one is sufficient, namely, for the time of departure.</p>
-
-<p>Hunters have particular marks, which they make on the trees,
-where they strike off from the path to their hunting grounds or
-place of encampment, which is often at the distance of many
-miles; yet the women, who come from their towns to fetch meat
-from these camps, will as readily find them as if they were conducted
-to the spot.</p>
-
-<p>I shall conclude this chapter with an anecdote, which will at
-once shew how expressive and energetic is this hieroglyphic
-writing of the Indians. A white man in the Indian country,
-met<a id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">144</a> a Shawanos riding a horse which he recognised for his
-own, and claimed it from him as his property. The Indian
-calmly answered; “Friend! after a little while, I will call on you
-at your house, when we shall talk of this matter.” A few days<a id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">145</a>
-afterwards, the Indian came to the white man’s house, who insisting
-on having his horse restored, the other then told him:
-“Friend! the horse which you claim belonged to my uncle who
-lately died; according to the Indian custom, I have become heir
-to all his property.” The white man not being satisfied, and
-renewing his demand, the Indian immediately took a coal from
-the fire-place, and made two striking figures on the door of the
-house, the one representing the white man taking the horse,
-and the other, himself, in the act of scalping him; then he
-coolly asked the trembling claimant “whether he could read
-this Indian writing?” The matter thus was settled at once,
-and the Indian rode off.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_133a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">ORATORY.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> eloquence of the Indians is natural and simple;
-they speak what their feelings dictate without art and
-without rule; their speeches are forcible and impressive,
-their arguments few and pointed, and when they
-mean to persuade as well as convince, they take the shortest
-way to reach the heart. I know that their oratorical powers
-have been strongly controverted, and this is not astonishing,
-when we consider the prejudice that exists against their languages,
-which are in general believed to be poor, and inadequate
-to the expression of any but the most common ideas. Hence
-all the specimens that have been given to the world of their
-oratory have been viewed with a suspicious eye; the celebrated
-speech of Logan, authenticated as it is by the respectable authority
-of Col. John Gibson, has been denied to be genuine even
-in this country. For my part, I am convinced that it was delivered
-precisely as it is related to us, with this only difference,
-that it possessed a force and expression in the Indian language
-which it is impossible to transmit into our own.</p>
-
-<p>I hope the exertions and researches of the Historical Committee
-will make the character and genius of the Indian languages
-better known than they have hitherto been. The world
-will then be better able to judge of their extent and powers, and
-to decide whether or not they are adequate to the purposes of
-oratory. In the meantime, I shall content myself with presenting
-another specimen of Indian eloquence; one which I did not
-receive at second hand, but at the delivery of which I was
-present in person. The translation which I offer will give but a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span>
-faint idea of the strength and spirit of the original; I vouch,
-however, for its being as correct as it has been in my power to
-make it.</p>
-
-<p>This speech was spoken at Detroit,<a id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">146</a> on the frontier of Canada,
-on the 9th of December,<a id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">147</a> 1801, by Captain Pipe,<a id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">148</a> a chief of the
-Delaware nation, and was addressed to the commanding officer
-of that post, then in possession of the British. The Delawares,
-it will be recollected, had been the steadfast friends of the French,
-in the war of 1756. The peace which was concluded in 1763,
-between the two great nations who then contended for the
-supremacy of this continent, was not for several years regarded
-by the Indians, and they continued their hostilities against the
-subjects and government of Great Britain. They were obliged,
-however, to submit to superior force; not without hopes that
-their father, the king of France, would soon send over a powerful
-army to retake Canada. They were in this situation when the
-war of the revolution broke out. It is well known that it was a
-part of the system of the British administration to employ the
-savages to subdue those whom they called their revolted subjects.
-The Delawares, in general, as I have before related,
-having in vain endeavoured to remain neutral, took part with
-the Americans. Captain Pipe, however, with a party of the
-Wolf tribe, joined the English in the beginning of the war, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span>
-soon after repented it. But it was too late. He was now
-reluctantly compelled to go out against the Americans with the
-men under his command. On his return from one of those
-expeditions, he went to make his report to the British commandant
-at Detroit,<a id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">149</a> by whom he was received in state at the council
-house, in the presence of a great number of Indians, British
-officers and others. There were several Missionaries present,
-among which I was. The chief was seated in front of his Indians,
-facing the commandant. He held in his left hand an
-human scalp tied to a short stick. After a pause of some
-minutes he rose, and addressing the governor, delivered the
-following speech:</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father!</span>” (Here the orator stopped, and turning round
-to the audience, with a face full of meaning, and a sarcastic look,
-which I should in vain attempt to describe, he went on in a lower
-tone of voice, as addressing himself to them;)&mdash;“I have said
-<i>father</i>, although, indeed, I do not know why I am to call <i>him</i>
-so, having never known any other father than the French, and
-considering the English only as <i>brothers</i>. But as this name is
-also <i>imposed</i> upon us, I shall make use of it and say: (Here he
-fixed his eyes on the commandant.)</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father!</span> Some time ago you put a war hatchet into my
-hands, saying: Take this weapon and try it on the heads of my
-enemies the <i>long knives</i>, and let me afterwards know if it was
-sharp and good.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father!</span> At the time when you gave me this weapon, I had
-neither cause nor inclination to go to war against a people who
-had done me no injury; yet in obedience to you, who say you
-are my father and call me your child, I received the hatchet;
-well knowing that if I did not obey, you would withhold from
-me<a id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">150</a> the necessaries of life, without which I could not subsist,
-and which are not elsewhere to be procured but at the house of
-my father.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father!</span> You may, perhaps, think me a fool, for risking
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span>
-my life at your bidding, in a cause, too, by which I have no
-prospect of gaining anything; for it is <i>your</i> cause and not mine.
-It is <i>your</i> concern to fight the <i>long knives</i>; <i>you</i> have raised a
-quarrel amongst yourselves, and <i>you</i> ought yourselves to fight it
-out. You should not compel your children, the Indians, to
-expose themselves to danger for <i>your sakes</i>.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father!</span> Many lives have already been lost on <i>your</i> account!&mdash;Nations
-have suffered and been weakened!&mdash;Children have
-lost parents, brothers and relatives!&mdash;Wives have lost husbands!&mdash;It
-is not known how many more may perish before
-<span class="smcap">your</span> war will be at an end!</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father!</span> I have said that you may, perhaps, think me a fool,
-for thus thoughtlessly rushing on <i>your</i> enemy!&mdash;Do not believe
-this, Father! Think not that I want sense to convince me, that
-although you <i>now</i> pretend to keep up a perpetual enmity to the
-long knives, you may, before long, conclude a peace with them.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father!</span> You say you love your children, the Indians.&mdash;This
-you have often told them; and indeed it is your interest to
-say so to them, that you may have them at your service.</p>
-
-<p>“But, <span class="smcap">Father!</span> who of us can believe that you can love
-a people of a different colour from your own, better than those
-who have a <i>white</i> skin, like yourselves?</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father!</span> Pay attention to what I am going to say. While
-you, Father, are setting me<a id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">151</a> on your enemy, much in the same
-manner as a hunter sets his dog on the game; while I am in the
-act of rushing on that enemy of yours, with the bloody destructive
-weapon you gave me, I may, perchance, happen to look back
-to the place from whence you started me, and what shall I see?
-Perhaps, I may see my father shaking hands with the <i>long knives</i>;
-yes, with those very people he now calls his enemies. I may,
-then, see him laugh at my folly for having obeyed his orders;
-and yet I am now risking my life at his command! Father!
-keep what I have said in remembrance.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, <span class="smcap">Father!</span> here is what has been done with the hatchet
-you gave me.” (Handing the stick with the scalp on it.) “I have
-done with the hatchet what you ordered me to do, and found it
-sharp. Nevertheless, I did not do <i>all</i> that I <i>might</i> have done.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span>
-No, I did not. My heart failed within me. I felt compassion
-for <i>your</i> enemy. <i>Innocence</i><a id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">152</a> had no part in your quarrels; therefore
-I distinguished&mdash;I spared. I took some <i>live flesh</i>,<a id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">153</a> which,
-while I was bringing to you, I spied one of your large canoes, on
-which I put it for you. In a few days you will receive this <i>flesh</i>,
-and <i>find that the skin is of the same colour with your own</i>.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father!</span> I hope you will not destroy <i>what</i><a id="FNanchor_154" href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">154</a> I have saved.
-You, Father! have the means of preserving that which with me
-would perish for want. The warrior is poor and his cabin
-is always empty; but your house, father! is always full.”</p>
-
-<p>Here we see boldness, frankness, dignity, and humanity happily
-blended together and most eloquently displayed. I am
-much mistaken if the component parts of this discourse are not
-put together much according to the rules of oratory which are
-taught in the schools, and which were certainly unknown to this
-savage. The peroration at the end is short, but truly pathetic,
-and I would even say, sublime; and then the admirable way in
-which it is prepared! I wish I could convey to the reader’s
-mind only a small part of the impression which this speech
-made on me and on all present when it was delivered.</p>
-
-<p>It is but justice here to say, that Capt. Pipe was well acquainted
-with the noble and generous character of the British
-officer to whom this speech was addressed. He is still living in
-his own country, an honour to the British name. He obeyed
-the orders of his superiors in employing the Indians to fight
-against us, but he did it with reluctance and softened as much as
-was in his power the horrors of that abominable warfare. He
-esteemed Captain Pipe, and I have no doubt, was well pleased
-with the humane conduct of this Indian chief, whose sagacity in
-this instance is no less deserving of praise than his eloquence.
-It is thus that great minds understand each other, and even
-in the most difficult and trying situations, find the means of
-making the cause of humanity triumph.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_138a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">METAPHORICAL EXPRESSIONS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Indians are fond of metaphors. They are to their
-discourse what feathers and beads are to their persons,
-a gaudy but tasteless ornament. Yet we must
-not judge them too severely on that account. There
-are other nations besides the American Indians who admire
-this mode of expression. Even in enlightened Europe, many
-centuries have not elapsed since the best and most celebrated
-writers employed this figure in a profuse manner, and thought it
-a great embellishment to their poetical and prose compositions;
-the immortal Shakspeare, himself, did not disdain it.</p>
-
-<p>The following examples will be sufficient to give an idea of
-the metaphorical language of the Indians.</p>
-
-<p>1. “<i>The sky is overcast with dark blustering clouds.</i>”&mdash;We shall
-have troublesome times; we shall have war.</p>
-
-<p>2. “<i>A black cloud has arisen yonder.</i>”&mdash;War is threatened from
-that quarter, or from that nation.</p>
-
-<p>3. “<i>Two black clouds are drawing towards each other.</i>”&mdash;Two
-powerful enemies are in march against each other!</p>
-
-<p>4. “<i>The path is already shut up!</i>”&mdash;Hostilities have commenced.
-The war is begun.</p>
-
-<p>5. “<i>The rivers run with blood!</i>”&mdash;War rages in the country.</p>
-
-<p>6. “<i>To bury the hatchet.</i>”&mdash;To make, or conclude a peace.</p>
-
-<p>7. “<i>To lay down the hatchet, or to slip the hatchet under the bedstead.</i>”&mdash;To
-cease fighting for a while, during a truce; or, to
-place the hatchet at hand, so that it may be taken up again at a
-moment’s warning.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span></p>
-
-<p>8. “<i>The hatchet you gave me to strike your enemies, proved to be
-very dull, or not to be sharp; my arm was wearied to little purpose!</i>”&mdash;You
-supplied me so scantily with the articles I stood in
-need of, that I wanted strength to execute your orders. The
-presents you gave me were not sufficient for the task you
-imposed upon me, therefore I did little!</p>
-
-<p>9. “<i>The hatchet you gave me was very sharp!</i>”&mdash;As you have
-satisfied me, I have done the same for you; I have killed many
-of your enemies.</p>
-
-<p>10. “<i>You did not make me strong!</i>”&mdash;You gave me nothing, or
-but little.</p>
-
-<p>11. “<i>Make me very strong!</i>”&mdash;Give me much, pay me well!</p>
-
-<p>12. “<i>The stronger you make me, the more you will see!</i>”&mdash;The
-more you give me, the more I will do for you!</p>
-
-<p>13. “<i>I did as you bid me, but</i> <span class="small">SEE</span> <i>nothing</i>!”&mdash;I have performed
-my part, but you have not rewarded me; or, I did my part for
-you, but you have not kept your word!</p>
-
-<p>14. “<i>You have spoken with your lips only, not from the heart!</i>”&mdash;You
-endeavour to deceive me; you do not intend to do as
-you say!</p>
-
-<p>15. “<i>You now speak from the heart!</i>”&mdash;Now you mean what
-you say!</p>
-
-<p>16. “<i>You keep me in the dark!</i>”&mdash;You wish to deceive me; you
-conceal your intentions from me; you keep me in ignorance!</p>
-
-<p>17. “<i>You stopped my ears!</i>”&mdash;You kept the thing a secret from
-me; you did not wish me to know it!</p>
-
-<p>18. “<i>Now I believe you!</i>”&mdash;Done! agreed! It shall be so!</p>
-
-<p>19. “<i>Your words have penetrated into my heart!</i>”&mdash;I consent!
-am pleased with what you say!</p>
-
-<p>20. “<i>You have spoken good words!</i>”&mdash;I am pleased, delighted
-with what you have said!</p>
-
-<p>21. “<i>You have spoken the truth!</i>”&mdash;I am satisfied with what
-you have said!</p>
-
-<p>22. “<i>Singing birds!</i>”&mdash;Tale bearers&mdash;story tellers&mdash;liars.</p>
-
-<p>23. “<i>Don’t listen to the singing of the birds which fly by!</i>”&mdash;Don’t
-believe what stragglers tell you!</p>
-
-<p>24. “<i>What bird was it that sung that song?</i>”&mdash;Who was it that
-told that story, that lie?
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span></p>
-
-<p>25. (To a chief,) “<i>Have you heard the news?</i>”&mdash;Have you
-been <i>officially</i> informed?</p>
-
-<p>26. “<i>I have not heard anything!</i>”&mdash;I have no <i>official</i> information.</p>
-
-<p>27. “<i>To kindle a council fire at such a place.</i>”&mdash;To appoint a
-place where the national business is to be transacted; to establish
-the seat of government there.</p>
-
-<p>28. “<i>To remove the council fire to another place.</i>”&mdash;To establish
-another place for the seat of government.</p>
-
-<p>29. “<i>The council fire has been extinguished.</i>”&mdash;Blood has been
-shed by an enemy at the seat of government, which has put the
-fire out; the place has been <i>polluted</i>.</p>
-
-<p>30. “<i>Don’t look the other way!</i>”&mdash;Don’t lean to <i>that</i> side;
-don’t join with those!</p>
-
-<p>31. “<i>Look this way!</i>”&mdash;Join us, join our party.</p>
-
-<p>32. “<i>I have not room to spread my blanket!</i>”&mdash;I am too much
-crowded on.</p>
-
-<p>33. “<i>Not to have room enough for an encampment.</i>”&mdash;To be too
-much confined to a small district; not to have sufficient range
-for the cattle to feed on, or sufficient hunting ground.</p>
-
-<p>34. “<i>I will place you under my wings!</i>”&mdash;(meaning under my
-arm pits) I will protect you at all hazards! You shall be perfectly
-safe, nobody shall molest you!</p>
-
-<p>35. “<i>Suffer no grass to grow on the war path!</i>”&mdash;Carry on the
-war with vigor!</p>
-
-<p>36. “<i>Never suffer grass to grow on this war path!</i>”&mdash;Be at
-perpetual war with the nation this path leads to; never conclude
-a peace with them.</p>
-
-<p>37. “<i>To open a path from one nation to another, by removing the
-logs, brush and briars out of the way.</i>”&mdash;To invite the nation to
-which the path leads, to a friendly intercourse; to prepare the
-way to live on friendly terms with them.</p>
-
-<p>38. “<i>The path to that nation is again open!</i>”&mdash;We are again
-on friendly terms; the path may again be travelled with safety.</p>
-
-<p>39. “<i>I hear sighing and sobbing in yonder direction!</i>”&mdash;I think
-that a chief of a neighbouring nation has died.</p>
-
-<p>40. “<i>I draw the thorns out of your feet and legs, grease your
-stiffened joints with oil, and wipe the sweat off your body!</i>”&mdash;I
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span>
-make you feel comfortable after your fatiguing journey, that
-you may enjoy yourself while with us.</p>
-
-<p>41. “<i>I wipe the tears from your eyes, cleanse your ears, and place
-your aching heart, which bears you down to one side, in its proper
-position!</i>”&mdash;I condole with you; dispel all sorrow! prepare
-yourself for business! (N. B. This is said when condoling with
-a nation on the death of a chief.)</p>
-
-<p>42. “<i>I have discovered the cause of your grief!</i>”&mdash;I have seen
-the grave (where the chief was buried.)</p>
-
-<p>43. “<i>I have covered yon spot with<a id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">155</a> fresh earth; I have raked
-leaves, and planted trees thereon!</i>”&mdash;means literally, I have hidden
-the grave from your eyes; and figuratively, “you must now be
-cheerful again!”</p>
-
-<p>44. “<i>I lift you up from this place, and set you down again at my
-dwelling place!</i>”&mdash;I invite you to arise from hence, and come
-and live where I live.</p>
-
-<p>45. “<i>I am much too heavy to rise at this present time!</i>”&mdash;I have
-too much property! (corn, vegetables, &amp;c.)</p>
-
-<p>46. “<i>I will pass one night yet at this place.</i>”&mdash;I will stay one
-year yet at this place.</p>
-
-<p>47. “<i>We have concluded a peace, which is to last as long as the
-sun shall shine, and the rivers flow with water!</i>”&mdash;The peace we
-have made is to continue as long as the world stands, or to the
-end of time.</p>
-
-<p>48. “<i>To bury the hatchet beneath the root of a tree!</i>”&mdash;To put it
-quite out of sight.</p>
-
-<p>49. “<i>To bury deep in the earth</i>,” (an injury done)&mdash;To consign
-it to oblivion.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_141.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_142a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">INDIAN NAMES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> proper names of Indians are in general given to
-them after animals of various kinds, and even fishes
-and reptiles. Thus they are called the <i>Beaver</i>, <i>Otter</i>,
-<i>Sun-fish</i>, <i>Black-fish</i>, <i>Rattle-snake</i>, <i>Black-snake</i>, &amp;c. They
-have also other descriptive names, from their personal qualities
-or appearances, and sometimes from fancy or caprice; but many
-of those are given them by the whites, such as <i>Pipe</i>, <i>White-eyes</i>,
-<i>Kill-buck</i>, &amp;c., which are not real Indian names. They do not
-always preserve the names first given to them, but often assume
-a new one after they have come to man’s estate.</p>
-
-<p>Indians, who have particularly distinguished themselves by
-their conduct, or by some meritorious act, or who have been the
-subjects of some remarkable occurrence, have names given to
-them in allusion to those circumstances. Thus, I have known
-a man whose name would signify in our language <i>the beloved
-lover</i>, and one who was named <i>Met by love</i>. Another, a great
-warrior, who had been impatiently waiting for day-light to
-engage the enemy, was afterwards called <i>Cause day-light</i>, or
-<i>Make day-light appear</i>. So, one who had come in with a heavy
-load of turkies on his back, was called <i>The Carrier of Turkies</i>,
-and another whose shoes were generally torn or patched, was
-called <i>Bad Shoes</i>. All those names are generally expressed in
-one single word, in compounding which the Indians are very
-ingenious. Thus, the name they had for the place where Philadelphia
-now stands, and which they have preserved notwithstanding
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span>
-the great change which has taken place, is <i>K&uacute;equen&aacute;ku</i>,<a id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">156</a>
-which means, <i>The grove of the long pine trees</i>.</p>
-
-<p>They have proper names, not only for all towns, villages,
-mountains, valleys, rivers, and streams, but for all remarkable
-spots, as for instance, those which are particularly infested with
-gnats or musquitoes, where snakes have their dens, &amp;c. Those
-names always contain an allusion to such particular circumstance,
-so that foreigners, even though acquainted with their
-language, will often be at a loss to understand their discourse.</p>
-
-<p>To strangers, white men for instance, they will give names
-derived from some remarkable quality which they have observed
-in them, or from some circumstance which remarkably
-strikes them. When they were told the meaning of the name
-of William Penn, they translated it into their own language by
-<i>Miquon</i>, which means a feather or quill. The Iroquois call him
-<i>Onas</i>, which in their idiom means the same thing.</p>
-
-<p>The first name given by the Indians to the Europeans who
-landed in Virginia was <i>Wapsid Lenape</i> (white people;) when,
-however, afterwards they began to commit murders on the red
-men, whom they pierced with swords, they gave to the Virginians
-the name <i>Mechanschican</i>, (long knives,) to distinguish them
-from others of the same colour.</p>
-
-<p>In New England, they at first endeavoured to imitate the
-sound of the national name of the <i>English</i>, which they pronounced
-<i>Yengees</i>. They also called them <i>Chauquaquock</i>, (men
-of knives) for having imported those instruments into the
-country, which they gave in presents to the natives.<a id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">157</a> They
-thought them better men than the Virginians; but when they
-were afterwards cruelly treated by them, and their men shipped
-off to sea, the Mohicans of that country called them <i>Tschachgoos</i>;
-and when next the people of the middle colonies began
-to murder them, and called on the Iroquois to insult them and
-assist in depriving them of their lands, they then dropped that
-name, and called the whites by way of derision, <i>Schwannack</i>,
-which signifies <i>salt beings</i>, or <i>bitter beings</i>; for in their language
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span>
-the word <i>Schwan</i>, is in general applied to things that
-have a salt, sharp, bitter, or sour taste. The object of this
-name, as well as of that which the Mohicans gave to the eastern
-people, was to express contempt as well as hatred or dislike,
-and to hold out the white inhabitants of the country as
-hateful and despicable beings. I have, however, in many instances
-observed that the Indians are careful not to apply this
-opprobrious name to any white person whom they know to be
-amicably disposed towards them, and whom they are sure to be
-a good, honest, well-meaning man. I have heard them charge
-their children not to call a particular white man <i>Schwannack</i>,
-but <i>Friend</i>. This name was first introduced about the year 1730.
-They never apply it to the <i>Quakers</i>, whom they greatly love and
-respect since the first arrival of William Penn into the country.
-They call them <i>Quœkels</i>, not having in their language the sound
-expressed by our letter R. They say they have always found
-them good, honest, affable and peaceable men, and never have
-had reason to complain of them.</p>
-
-<p>These were the names which the Indians gave to the whites,
-until the middle of the Revolutionary war, when they were
-reduced to the following three:</p>
-
-<p>1. <i>Mechanschican</i> or <i>Chanschican</i> (long knives). This they no
-longer applied to the Virginians exclusively, but also to those
-of the people of the middle states, whom they considered as
-hostilely inclined towards them, particularly those who wore
-swords, dirks, or knives at their sides.</p>
-
-<p>2. <i>Yengees.</i> This name they now exclusively applied to the
-people of New England, who, indeed, appeared to have adopted
-it, and were, as they still are, generally through the country
-called <i>Yankees</i>, which is evidently the same name with a trifling
-alteration. They say they know the <i>Yengees</i>, and can distinguish
-them by their dress and personal appearance, and that they
-were considered as less cruel than the Virginians or <i>long knives</i>.
-The proper English they<a id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">158</a> call <i>Saggenash</i>.</p>
-
-<p>3. <i>Quœkels.</i>  They do not now apply this name exclusively
-to the members of the Society of Friends, but to all the white
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span>
-people whom they love or respect, and whom they believe to
-have good intentions towards them.</p>
-
-<p>Not only the Delawares, but all the nations round them,
-make use of these names, and with the same relative application.
-I have myself, in 1782, while at Detroit, witnessed the Chippeways,
-who on meeting an American prisoner, who was walking
-about, called out <i>Messamochkemaan</i> (long knife), though he had
-no knife, sword, or dirk at his side. I was one day about the
-same time hailed in that manner as I was walking up the river,
-and apprehending that I might be seized as a runaway prisoner,
-I immediately answered: <i>Kau! Saggenash</i>; No! an Englishman;
-and they passed on. I might with great propriety make
-this answer, as I was born in England.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1808, while I was riding with a number of gentlemen
-through Greentown<a id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">159</a> (an Indian town in the State of Ohio),
-I heard an Indian in his house, who through a crevice saw
-us passing, say in his language to his family: “See! what a
-number of people are coming along!&mdash;What! and among all
-these not one <i>long knife</i>! <i>All Yengees!</i>” Then, probably observing
-me, he said correcting himself, “No! one <i>Qu&aelig;kel</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>Such are the observations which the Indians make on the
-white people, and the names which they give to them. They
-may sometimes be in the wrong; but, as they make it their particular
-study to become acquainted with the actions, motions,
-deportment, and dress of the different nations, they seldom commit
-mistakes, and in general, they apply their different names
-precisely to those whom they are meant to designate or describe.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_145.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_146a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">INTERCOURSE WITH EACH OTHER.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">It</span> is a striking fact that the Indians, in their uncivilised
-state, should so behave towards each other as
-though they were a civilised people! I have in
-numerous instances witnessed their meeting together,
-their doing business and conversing with each other for hours,
-their labouring together, and their hunting and fishing in bodies
-or parties; I have seen them divide their game, venison, bear’s
-meat, fish, &amp;c., among themselves, when they sometimes had
-many shares to make, and cannot recollect a single instance of
-their falling into a dispute or finding fault with the distribution,
-as being unequal, or otherwise objectionable. On the contrary,
-on such occasions they even receive what is allotted to them
-with thanks; they say “<i>anischi</i>” I am thankful! as if it was a
-present given to them.</p>
-
-<p>They certainly (I am here speaking of the men) show a reverence
-for each other, which is visible on all occasions; they often
-meet for the purpose of conversation, and their sociability appears
-to be a recreation to them, a renewal of good fellowship.
-Their general principle, that good and bad cannot mingle or
-dwell together in one heart, and therefore must not come into
-contact, seems to be their guide on all occasions. So, likewise,
-when travelling, whether they are few, or many, they are cheerful,
-and resigned to the accidents which may befal them; never
-impatient, quarrelsome, or charging any one, or one another,
-with being in fault, or the occasion of what had happened; even
-though one should lose his all by the neglect or carelessness of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span>
-the other, yet they will not fly into a passion, but patiently bear
-with the loss, thinking within themselves that such a one feels
-sorry enough already, and therefore it would be unreasonable to
-add to his pain. They judge with calmness on all occasions,
-and decide with precision, or endeavour so to do, between an
-accident and a wilful act;&mdash;the <i>first</i> (they say) they are all liable
-to commit, and therefore it ought not to be noticed, or punished;&mdash;the
-<i>second</i> being a wilful or premeditated act, committed
-with a bad design, ought on the contrary to receive due
-punishment.</p>
-
-<p>To illustrate this subject, I shall relate a few of the cases of
-this description which have come within my knowledge. One
-morning early, an Indian came into the house of another who
-was yet abed, asking for the loan of his gun for a morning hunt,
-his own being out of repair; the owner readily consented, and
-said: “As my gun is not loaded, you will have to take a few
-balls out of your<a id="FNanchor_160" href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">160</a> pouch!” In taking the gun down, it, however,
-by some accident went off, and lodged the contents in the
-owner’s head, who was still lying on the bed, and now expired.
-The gun, it appeared, was loaded, though unknown to him, and
-the lock left in such a condition that by a touch it went off. A
-cry was heard from all sides in the house: O! the <i>accident</i>! for
-such it was always considered to have been, and was treated as
-such.</p>
-
-<p>A hunter went out to kill a bear, some of those animals having
-been seen in the neighbourhood. In an obscure part of a
-wood, he saw at a distance something black moving, which he
-took for a bear, the whole of the animal not being visible to
-him; he fired, and found he had shot a black horse. Having
-discovered the mistake, he informed the owner of what had happened,
-expressing at the same time his regret that he was not
-possessed of a single horse, with which he could replace the one
-he had shot. What! replied the Indian whose horse had been
-killed, do you think I would accept a horse from you, though
-you had one to give, after you have satisfied me that you killed
-mine <i>by accident</i>? No, indeed! for the same misfortune might
-also happen to me.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span></p>
-
-<p>An aged Indian who had gone out to shoot a turkey, mistook
-a black hog in the bushes for one of those birds, and shot him;
-finding out by enquiry to whom the hog belonged, he informed
-the owner of the mistake he had made, offering to pay for the
-hog; which the other, however, not only would not accept of, but
-having brought the meat in, gave him a leg of the animal, because
-he thought that the unfortunate man, as well on account of his
-disappointment, in not feasting on turkey as he expected soon
-to do when he shot the hog, as for his honesty in informing of
-what he had done, was <i>entitled</i> to a share of what he had killed.</p>
-
-<p>Two Indians with a large canoe, going down the Muskingum
-river to a certain distance, were accosted by others going by
-land to the same place, who requested them to take their heavy
-articles, as kettles, axes, hoes, &amp;c. into their canoe, which they
-freely did, but unfortunately were shipwrecked at the rocks of
-White Eyes’s falls (as the place is called,) where the whole cargo
-was lost, and the men saved themselves by swimming to the
-shore. The question being put and fully discussed, whether
-those men with the canoe, who had taken charge of the property
-of the others, and by this neglect lost the whole, were not liable
-to pay for the loss? it was decided in the negative, on the following
-grounds:</p>
-
-<p>1. That the canoe men had taken the articles on board, with
-the pleasing hope that they thereby would oblige their fellow
-men, and did not expect any recompense for that service.</p>
-
-<p>2. That although they might have avoided the danger and the
-loss, by unloading the canoe at the head of the fall, and carrying
-the cargo by land below it, (which was but a short distance,) as
-was customary, when the river was not in a proper state to run
-through, yet that, had those who travelled by land been in
-the place of those in the canoe, they might, like them, have
-attempted to have run through, as is sometimes done with success,
-and been equally unfortunate.</p>
-
-<p>3. That the canoe men having had all their own property on
-board, which was all lost at the same time, and was equally
-valuable to them, it was clear that they had expected to run
-safely through, and could not have intentionally or designedly
-brought on themselves and others the misfortune which had
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span>
-happened, and therefore the circumstance must be ascribed
-entirely to <i>accident</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Such is the disposition of the Indians with regard to those
-who inadvertently meet with a disaster, whereby others are
-injured. They are ready to overlook a fault, and more disposed
-in such cases to commiserate, than to punish; but with those
-who wilfully and intentionally commit aggressions and injure
-others, they think and act quite differently; a malicious person
-is generally despised, and if he intrudes himself into good company,
-they will, without saying a word, steal off one by one, and
-leave him alone to suffer the mortification which it is intended
-he should feel. For murderers and thieves they have no compassion,
-and punish them according to the nature of their crimes,
-if not publicly, still privately, for they are considered as a nuisance,
-and a disgrace to the nation, and so much so were persons
-of this description considered and despised in former times
-among the Delawares, before the white people came, that it was
-a rare thing to hear of any such being among them. This I have
-repeatedly been told, between the years 1770 and 1780, by Indians
-of that nation; one of whom, when a boy, resided on the
-spot where Philadelphia now stands, when the first house was
-building there, and assisted in furnishing the workmen with fish,
-and caught rabbits for them; the other, who was still older,
-lived with his parents on the spot where afterwards was built
-Perth Amboy in New Jersey: both were respectable men, highly
-esteemed by all who knew them.</p>
-
-<p>I do not believe that there exists a people more attentive to
-paying common civilities to each other than the Indians are;
-but this, from a want of understanding their language, as well
-as their customs and manners, generally escapes the notice of
-travellers, although some of them, better observers than the rest,
-have touched upon this subject. In more than one hundred
-instances, I have with astonishment and delight witnessed the
-attention paid to a person entering the house of another, where,
-in the first instance, he is desired to seat himself, with the words,
-“sit down, my friend!” if he is a stranger, or no relation; but
-if a relation, the proper title is added. A person is never left
-standing, there are seats for all; and if a dozen should follow
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span>
-each other in succession, all are provided with seats, and the
-stranger, if a white person, with the best. The tobacco pouch
-next is handed round; it is the first treat, as with us a glass of
-wine or brandy. Without a single word passing between the
-man and his wife, she will go about preparing some victuals for
-the company, and having served the visiters, will retire to a
-neighbour’s house, to inform the family of the visit with which
-her husband is honoured, never grumbling on account of their
-eating up the provisions, even if it were what she had cooked for
-her own family, considering the friendly visit well worth this
-small trouble and expense.</p>
-
-<p>It is true, that among themselves, they expect the same attention
-and hospitality paid to them in return; yet that is not their
-main object, for I have seen a number of instances in which a
-return was out of the question, where poverty would not admit
-of it, or distance of abode put it out of the power of the visiter
-to return the same civilities to his host: when white people are
-treated in this way, with the best entertainment the house
-affords, they may be sure it is nothing else than a mark of respect
-paid to them, and that the attentions they receive do not
-proceed from any interested view.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_150.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_151a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">POLITICAL MANŒUVRES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">In</span> the management of their national affairs, the Indians
-display as much skill and dexterity, perhaps, as any
-people upon earth. When a political message is sent
-to them from a neighbouring nation,<a id="FNanchor_161" href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">161</a> they generally
-contrive to send an answer so ambiguously worded, that it is
-difficult to come at their real meaning; they conceive this to be
-the best way of getting rid of a proposal which they do not like,
-because those who sent them the message are for some time, at
-least, at a loss to comprehend the meaning, and not knowing
-whether the answer is favourable or unfavourable, their proceedings
-are necessarily suspended until they can discover its true
-sense; in this manner have operations been sometimes entirely
-prevented, and matters have remained in the same situation that
-they were in before.</p>
-
-<p>It may be supposed, perhaps, that such an artful manner of
-treating each other might be thought provoking, and cause jealousies
-and disputes among the different parties; such is not,
-however, the case, as nothing insulting is ever contained in
-those messages; and as offence is not meant, it is not taken.
-The Indians consider it on all sides as a kind of diplomatic
-proceeding, an exercise which tends to invigorate the mind,
-of which they are very fond. It gives them opportunities to
-reflect and think deeply on matters of importance, and of displaying
-their genius, when they have found or discovered the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span>
-secret of an answer sent to them, or hit upon the true meaning
-of an ambiguous message.</p>
-
-<p>At the time of the Revolutionary war I witnessed a curious
-scene of diplomatic manœuvres between two great men of the
-Delaware nation, both of whom had in their time signalised
-themselves as brave and courageous men, and had acquired
-the character of two great war chiefs. The war that I speak
-of, which had but lately begun, had made it necessary for the
-Indians to consult their present and future safety. Captain
-White Eyes, of the Turtle tribe, who was placed at the head
-of his nation, had its welfare much at heart. He was in favour
-of their following the advice given them by the American Congress,
-which was to remain neutral, and not to meddle in the
-quarrel between the Americans and the parent country. He
-advised his people, therefore, to remain in friendship with both
-sides, and not to take up arms against either, as it might bring
-them into trouble, and perhaps, in the end, effect their ruin.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, Captain Pipe, of the Wolf tribe, who resided
-at the distance of fifteen miles, where he had his council
-fire, was of a different opinion, and leaned on the side of the
-British. He was an artful, ambitious man, yet not deficient in
-greatness of mind, as I have shewn in a preceding chapter. But
-his head at that time was full of the wrongs which the Indians
-had suffered from the Americans, from their first coming into
-the country; his soul panted for revenge, and he was glad to
-seize the opportunity that now offered. He professed his readiness
-to join in proper measures to save the nation, but not such
-measures as his antagonist proposed; what his real object was
-he did not openly declare, but privately endeavoured to counteract
-all that was done and proposed by the other. White
-Eyes, however, was a sensible upright man, and never was deficient
-in means to support his own measures, and extricate himself
-from the snares with which he was on all sides surrounded
-by Captain Pipe. Thus they went on for upwards of two years,
-Pipe working clandestinely, and keeping his spies continually
-on the watch upon the other, while White Eyes acted openly
-and publicly, as though he knew nothing of what was machinating
-against him.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span></p>
-
-<p>At last, a circumstance took place which apparently justified
-Captain Pipe in the measures he wished to pursue. In March
-1778, a number of white people, of those whom we called <i>Tories</i>,
-among whom were M’Kee, Eliott, Girty,<a id="FNanchor_162" href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">162</a> and several others,
-having escaped from Pittsburg, told the Indians wherever they
-came, “that they must arm and be off immediately, and kill all
-the Americans wherever they found them, for they had determined
-to destroy all the Indians, and possess themselves of their
-country.” White Eyes, not believing what these men said, advised
-his people to remain quiet, for this report could not be
-true. Pipe, on the contrary, called his men together, and in a
-speech which he addressed to them, pronounced every man an
-enemy to his country who endeavoured to dissuade them from
-going out against the Americans, and said that all such ought
-to be put to death. Captain White Eyes was not disconcerted;
-he immediately assembled his warriors, and told them “that if
-they meant in earnest to go out, as he observed some of them
-were preparing to do, they should not go without him. He had
-taken peace measures in order to save the nation from utter
-destruction. But if they believed that he was in the wrong, and
-gave more credit to vagabond fugitives, whom he knew to be
-such, than to himself, who was best acquainted with the real
-state of things; if they had determined to follow their advice,
-and go out against the Americans, he would go out with them;
-he would lead them on, place himself in the front, and be the
-first who should fall. They only had to determine on what
-they meant to do; for his own mind was fully made up not to
-survive his nation, and he would not spend the remainder of a
-miserable life in bewailing the total destruction of a brave people,
-who deserved a better fate.”</p>
-
-<p>This spirited, and at the same time pathetic, speech of Captain
-White Eyes, made such an impression on the minds of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span>
-audience, that they unanimously declared that they would obey
-his orders, and listen to no person but himself, either white or
-of their own colour. Indeed, there was too much force, too
-much majesty in this address to be resisted; when this was
-reported to Pipe by his emissaries, he was absolutely confounded,
-and knew not what to do. A few days afterwards, the
-council of the Delaware nation received the most friendly and
-flattering messages from the commandant and Indian agent at
-Pittsburg, cautioning them, “not to listen to those worthless
-men who had ran off from them in the night, and to be assured
-of the steady friendship of the Government of the United
-States.” Pipe was so put to the blush, and took this matter
-so much to heart, that he soon after threw off the mask, permitted
-his men to go out and murder the Americans, and afterwards
-went off with them to Sandusky, under the protection of
-the British Government. We have seen in a former chapter that
-he afterwards saw how impolitic his conduct had been, and probably
-wished to retrace his steps, but it was too late. He had
-suffered himself to be misled by his passions, excited by the
-remembrance of former wrongs, and thus was betrayed into his
-injudicious conduct. Perhaps also his jealousy of Captain White
-Eyes, whose superiority his proud mind could not bear, did not
-in a small degree contribute to it. Pipe was certainly a great
-man, but White Eyes was, in my opinion, the greatest of the
-two. I was present when he made the speech which I have
-related, and never shall forget the impression it made upon me.</p>
-
-<p>Thus Indian politicians work and manage matters against
-each other without newspaper wrangles, abuse of character, personal
-quarrels, or open insults. Their ingenuity, when joined
-to a good cause, generally makes them come off victorious. In
-a bad cause, on the contrary, they sure<a id="FNanchor_163" href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">163</a> to meet with detection
-and defeat, as Captain Pipe, for his misfortune, sadly experienced.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_154.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_155a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">MARRIAGE AND TREATMENT OF THEIR WIVES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">There</span> are many persons who believe, from the labour
-that they see the Indian women perform, that they
-are in a manner treated as slaves. These labours,
-indeed, are hard, compared with the tasks that are imposed
-upon females in civilised society; but they are no more
-than their fair share, under every consideration and due allowance,
-of the hardships attendant on savage life. Therefore they are not
-only voluntarily, but cheerfully submitted to; and as women are
-not obliged to live with their husbands any longer than suits
-their pleasure or convenience, it cannot be supposed that they
-would submit to be loaded with unjust or unequal burdens.</p>
-
-<p>Marriages among the Indians are not, as with us, contracted
-for life; it is understood on both sides that the parties are not to
-live together any longer than they shall be pleased with each
-other. The husband may put away his wife whenever he
-pleases, and the woman may in like manner abandon her husband.
-Therefore the connexion is not attended with any vows,
-promises, or ceremonies of any kind. An Indian takes a wife as
-it were on trial, determined, however, in his own mind not to
-forsake her if she behaves well, and particularly if he has
-children by her. The woman, sensible of this, does on her
-part every thing in her power to please her husband, particularly
-if he is a good hunter or trapper, capable of maintaining
-her by his skill and industry, and protecting her by his strength
-and courage.</p>
-
-<p>When a marriage takes place, the duties and labours incumbent
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span>
-on each party are well known to both. It is understood
-that the husband is to build a house for them to dwell in, to find
-the necessary implements of husbandry, as axes, hoes, &amp;c., to
-provide a canoe, and also dishes, bowls, and other necessary
-vessels for house-keeping. The woman generally has a kettle or
-two, and some other articles of kitchen furniture, which she
-brings with her. The husband, as master of the family, considers
-himself bound to support it by his bodily exertions, as
-hunting, trapping, &amp;c.; the woman, as his <i>help-mate</i>, takes upon
-herself the labours of the field, and is far from considering them
-as more important than those to which her husband is subjected,
-being well satisfied that with his gun and traps he can maintain
-a family in any place where game is to be found; nor do they
-think it any hardship imposed upon them; for they themselves
-say, that while their field labour employs them at most six
-weeks in the year, that of the men continues the whole year
-round.</p>
-
-<p>When a couple is newly married, the husband (without saying
-a single word upon the subject) takes considerable pains to
-please his wife, and by repeated proofs of his skill and abilities
-in the art of hunting, to make her sensible that she can be
-happy with him, and that she will never want while they live
-together. At break of day he will be off with his gun, and often
-by breakfast time return home with a deer, turkey, or some
-other game. He endeavours to make it appear that it is in his
-power to bring provisions home whenever he pleases, and his
-wife, proud of having such a good hunter for her husband, does
-her utmost to serve and make herself agreeable to him.</p>
-
-<p>The work of the women is not hard or difficult. They are
-both able and willing to do it, and always perform it with
-cheerfulness. Mothers teach their daughters those duties which
-common sense would otherwise point out to them when grown
-up. Within doors, their labour is very trifling; there is seldom
-more than one pot or kettle to attend to. There is no scrubbing
-of the house, and but little to wash, and that not often. Their
-principal occupations are to cut and fetch in the fire wood, till
-the ground, sow and reap the grain, and pound the corn in
-mortars for their pottage, and to make bread which they bake in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span>
-the ashes. When going on a journey, or to hunting camps with
-their husbands, if they have no horses, they carry a pack on
-their backs which often appears heavier than it really is; it generally
-consists of a blanket, a dressed deer skin for mocksens, a
-few articles of kitchen furniture, as a kettle, bowl, or dish, with
-spoons, and some bread, corn, salt, &amp;c., for their nourishment.
-I have never known an Indian woman complain of the hardship
-of carrying this burden, which serves for their own comfort and
-support as well as of their husbands.</p>
-
-<p>The tilling of the ground at home, getting of the fire wood,
-and pounding of corn in mortars, is frequently done by female
-parties, much in the manner of those husking, quilting, and
-other <i>frolics</i> (as they are called), which are so common in
-some parts of the United States, particularly to the eastward.
-The labour is thus quickly and easily performed; when it is
-over, and sometimes in intervals, they sit down to enjoy themselves
-by feasting on some good victuals, prepared for them by
-the person or family for whom they work, and which the man
-has taken care to provide before hand from the woods; for this
-is considered a principal part of the business, as there are generally
-more or less of the females assembled who have not, perhaps
-for a long time, tasted a morsel of meat, being either widows, or
-orphans, or otherwise in straitened circumstances. Even the
-chat which passes during their joint labours is highly diverting
-to them, and so they seek to be employed in this way as long as
-they can, by going round to all those in the village who have
-ground to till.</p>
-
-<p>When the harvest is in, which generally happens by the end
-of September, the women have little else to do than to prepare
-the daily victuals, and get fire wood, until the latter end of
-February or beginning of March, as the season is more or less
-backward, when they go to their sugar camps, where they
-extract sugar from the maple tree. The men having built
-or repaired their temporary cabin, and made all the troughs of
-various sizes, the women commence making sugar, while the
-men are looking out for meat, at this time generally fat bears,
-which are still in their winter quarters. When at home, they
-will occasionally assist their wives in gathering the sap, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span>
-watch the kettles in their absence, that the syrup may not boil
-over.</p>
-
-<p>A man who wishes his wife to be with him while he is out
-hunting in the woods, needs only tell her, that on such a day
-they will go to such a place, where he will hunt for a length of
-time, and she will be sure to have provisions and every thing
-else that is necessary in complete readiness, and well packed up
-to carry to the spot; for the man, as soon as he enters the
-woods, has to be looking out and about for game, and therefore
-cannot be encumbered with any burden; after wounding a deer,
-he may have to pursue it for several miles, often running it
-fairly down. The woman, therefore, takes charge of the baggage,
-brings it to the place of encampment, and there, immediately
-enters on the duties of housekeeping, as if they were at home;
-she moreover takes pains to dry as much meat as she can, that
-none may be lost; she carefully puts the tallow up, assists in
-drying the skins, gathers as much wild hemp as possible for
-the purpose of making strings, carrying-bands, bags and other
-necessary articles, collects roots for dyeing; in short, does
-every thing in her power to leave no care to her husband but
-the important one of providing meat for the family.</p>
-
-<p>After all, the fatigue of the women is by no means to be compared
-to that of the men. Their hard and difficult employments
-are periodical and of short duration, while their husband’s
-labours are constant and severe in the extreme. Were a man
-to take upon himself a part of his wife’s duty, in addition to his
-own, he must necessarily sink under the load, and of course his
-family must suffer with him. On his exertions as a hunter,
-their existence depends; in order to be able to follow that rough
-employment with success, he must keep his limbs as supple as
-he can, he must avoid hard labour as much as possible, that his
-joints may not become stiffened, and that he may preserve the
-necessary strength and agility of body to enable him to pursue
-the chase, and bear the unavoidable hardships attendant on it;
-for the fatigues of hunting wear out the body and constitution far
-more than manual labour. Neither creeks nor rivers, whether
-shallow or deep, frozen or free from ice, must be an obstacle
-to the hunter, when in pursuit of a wounded deer, bear, or other
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span>
-animal, as is often the case. Nor has he then leisure to think on
-the state of his body, and to consider whether his blood is not
-too much heated to plunge without danger into the cold stream,
-since the game he is in pursuit of is running off from him with
-full speed. Many dangerous accidents often befal him, both as
-a hunter and a warrior (for he is both), and are seldom unattended
-with painful consequences, such as rheumatism, or consumption
-of the lungs, for which the sweat-house, on which
-they so much depend, and to which they often resort for relief,
-especially after a fatiguing hunt or warlike excursion, is not
-always a sure preservative or an effectual remedy.</p>
-
-<p>The husband generally leaves the skins and peltry which he
-has procured by hunting to the care of his wife, who sells or barters
-them away to the best advantage for such necessaries as are
-wanted in the family; not forgetting to supply her husband with
-what he stands in need of, who, when he receives it from her
-hands never fails to return her thanks in the kindest manner. If
-debts had been previously contracted, either by the woman, or
-by her and her husband jointly, or if a horse should be wanted,
-as much is laid aside as will be sufficient to pay the debts or purchase
-the horse.</p>
-
-<p>When a woman has got in her harvest of corn, it is considered
-as belonging to her husband, who, if he has suffering friends,
-may give them as much of it as he pleases, without consulting
-his wife, or being afraid of her being displeased; for she is in the
-firm belief that he is able to procure that article whenever it is
-wanted. The sugar which she makes out of the maple tree is
-also considered as belonging to her husband.</p>
-
-<p>There is nothing in an Indian’s house or family without its
-particular owner. Every individual knows what belongs to him,
-from the horse or cow down to the dog, cat, kitten and little
-chicken. Parents make presents to their children, and they in
-return to their parents. A father will sometimes ask his wife
-or one of his children for the loan of his horse to go out a hunting.
-For a litter of kittens or brood of chickens, there are often
-as many different owners as there are individual animals. In
-purchasing a hen with her brood, one frequently has to deal for
-it with several children. Thus, while the principle of community
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span>
-of goods prevails in the state, the rights of property are acknowledged
-among the members of a family. This is attended with a
-very good effect; for by this means every living creature is
-properly taken care of. It also promotes liberality among the
-children, which becomes a habit with them by the time they are
-grown up.</p>
-
-<p>An Indian loves to see his wife well clothed, which is a proof
-that he is fond of her; at least, it is so considered. While his
-wife is bartering the skins and peltry he has taken in his hunt,
-he will seat himself at some distance, to observe her choice, and
-how she and the traders agree together. When she finds an
-article which she thinks will suit or please her husband, she never
-fails to purchase it for him; she tells him that it is <i>her</i> choice,
-and he is never dissatisfied.</p>
-
-<p>The more a man does for his wife the more he is esteemed, particularly
-by the women, who will say: “This man surely loves his
-wife.” Some men at their leisure hours make bowls and ladles,
-which, when finished, are at their wives’ disposal.</p>
-
-<p>If a sick or pregnant woman longs for any article of food, be
-it what it may, and however difficult to be procured, the husband
-immediately sets out to endeavour to get it. I have known a
-man to go forty or fifty miles for a mess of cranberries to satisfy
-his wife’s longing. In the year 1762 I was witness to a remarkable
-instance of the disposition of Indians to indulge their wives.
-There was a famine in the land, and a sick Indian woman expressed
-a great desire for a mess of Indian corn. Her husband
-having heard that a trader at Lower Sandusky had a little, set
-off on horseback for that place, one hundred miles distant, and
-returned with as much corn as filled the crown of his hat, for
-which he gave his horse in exchange, and came home on foot,
-bringing his saddle back with him. Squirrels, ducks, and other
-like delicacies, when most difficult to be obtained, are what
-women in the first stage of their pregnancy generally long for.
-The husband in every such case will go out and spare no pains
-nor trouble until he has procured what is wanted.</p>
-
-<p>In other cases, the men and their wives do not in general
-trouble themselves with each other’s business; but the wife,
-knowing that the father is very fond of his children, is always
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span>
-prepared to tell him some diverting anecdote of one or the other
-of them, especially if he has been absent for some time.</p>
-
-<p>It very seldom happens that a man condescends to quarrel
-with his wife, or abuse her, though she has given him just cause.
-In such a case the man, without replying, or saying a single
-word, will take his gun and go into the woods, and remain there
-a week or perhaps a fortnight, living on the meat he has killed,
-before he returns home again; well knowing that he cannot inflict
-a greater punishment on his wife for her conduct to him than
-by absenting himself for a while; for she is not only kept in
-suspense, uncertain whether he will return again, but is soon
-reported as a bad and quarrelsome woman; for, as on those
-occasions, the man does not tell his wife on what day or at what
-time he will be back again, which he otherwise, when they are
-on good terms, never neglects to do, she is at once put to shame
-by her neighbours, who soon suspecting something, do not fail
-to put such questions to her, as she either cannot, or is ashamed
-to answer. When he at length does return, she endeavours to
-let him see by her attentions, that she has repented, though
-neither speak to each other a single word on the subject of what
-has passed. And as his children, if he has any, will on his return
-hang about him and soothe him with their caresses, he is,
-on their account, ready to forgive, or at least to say nothing unpleasant
-to their mother. She has, however, received by this a
-solemn warning, and must take care how she behaves in future,
-lest the next time her husband should stay away altogether and
-take another wife. It is very probable, that if at this time they
-had had no children, he would have left her, but then he would
-have taken his property with him at the same time.</p>
-
-<p>On the return of an Indian from a journey, or long absence,
-he will, on entering the house, say, “I am returned!” to which
-his wife will reply,<a id="FNanchor_164" href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">164</a> “I rejoice!” and having cast his eyes around,
-he will enquire, whether all the children are well, when being
-answered in the affirmative, he replies, “I am glad!” which for
-the present is all the conversation that passes between them; nor
-does he relate anything at this present time that occurred on his
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span>
-journey, but holds himself in readiness to partake of the nourishment
-which his wife is preparing for him. After a while,
-when the men of the village have assembled at his house, his
-wife, with the rest, hears his story at full length.</p>
-
-<p><i>Marriages</i> are proposed and concluded in different ways. The
-parents on both sides, having observed an attachment between
-two young persons, negotiate for them. This generally commences
-from the house where the bridegroom lives, whose
-mother is the negotiatrix for him, and begins her duties by
-taking a good leg of venison, or bear’s meat, or something else
-of the same kind, to the house where the bride dwells, not forgetting
-to mention, that her son has killed it: in return for this
-the mother of the bride, if she otherwise approves of the match,
-which she well understands by the presents to be intended, will
-prepare a good dish of victuals, the produce of the labour of
-<i>woman</i>, such as beans, Indian corn, or the like, and then taking
-it to the house where the bridegroom lives, will say, “This is
-the produce of my daughter’s field; and she also prepared it.” If
-afterwards the mothers of the parties are enabled to tell the good
-news to each other, that the young people have pronounced that
-which was sent them <i>very good</i>, the bargain is struck. It is as
-much as if the young man had said to the girl, “I am able to
-provide you at all times with meat to eat!” and she had replied,
-“and such good victuals from the field, you shall have from
-me!” From this time not only presents of this kind are continued
-on both sides, but articles of clothing are presented to the
-parents by each party, by way of return for what they have received,
-of which the young people always have a share. The
-friendship between the two families daily increasing, they do
-their domestic and field work jointly, and when the young people
-have agreed to live together, the parents supply them with
-necessaries, such as a kettle, dishes or bowls, and also what is
-required for the kitchen, and with axes, hoes, &amp;c. to work in
-the field.</p>
-
-<p>The men who have no parents to negotiate for them, or
-otherwise choose to manage the matter for themselves, have
-two simple ways of attaining their object. The first is: by
-stepping up to the woman whom they wish to marry, saying:
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span>
-“If you are willing I will take you as wife!” when if she
-answer in the affirmative, she either goes with him immediately,
-or meets him at an appointed time and place.</p>
-
-<p>The other mode of celebrating marriage will appear from the
-following anecdote.</p>
-
-<p>An aged Indian, who for many years had spent much of his
-time among the white people, both in Pennsylvania and New
-Jersey, one day about the year 1770 observed, that the Indians
-had not only a much easier way of getting a wife than the
-whites, but were also more certain of getting a <i>good</i> one;
-“For,” (said he in his broken English,) “White man court,&mdash;court,&mdash;may
-be one whole year!&mdash;may be two year before he
-marry!&mdash;well!&mdash;may be then got <i>very good</i> wife&mdash;but may be
-<i>not</i>!&mdash;may be <i>very</i> cross!&mdash;Well now, suppose cross! scold so
-soon as get awake in the morning! scold all day! scold until
-sleep!&mdash;all one; he must keep <i>him</i>!<a id="FNanchor_165" href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">165</a> White people have law
-forbidding throwing away wife, be <i>he</i> ever so cross! must keep
-<i>him</i> always! Well! how does Indian do?&mdash;Indian when he
-see industrious Squaw, which he like, he go to <i>him</i>, place his
-two forefingers close aside each other, make two look like one&mdash;look
-Squaw in the face&mdash;see <i>him</i> smile&mdash;which is all one <i>he</i>
-say, <i>Yes</i>! so he take <i>him</i> home&mdash;no danger <i>he</i> be cross! no!
-no! Squaw know too well what Indian do if <i>he</i> cross!&mdash;throw
-<i>him</i> away and take another! Squaw love to eat meat! no husband!
-no meat! Squaw do every thing to please husband! he
-do the same to please Squaw! live happy!”</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_163.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_164a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">RESPECT FOR THE AGED.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">There</span> is no nation in the world who pay greater
-respect to old age than the American Indians. From
-their infancy they are taught to be kind and attentive
-to aged persons, and never to let them suffer for want
-of necessaries or comforts. The parents spare no pains to impress
-upon the minds of their children the conviction that they
-would draw down upon themselves the anger of the Great
-Spirit, were they to neglect those whom, in his goodness, he
-had permitted to attain such an advanced age, whom he had
-protected with his almighty power through all the perils and
-dangers of life, while so many had perished by wars, accidents,
-and sickness in various forms, by the incantations of the wizard,
-or the stroke of the murderer, and not a few by the consequences
-of their own imprudent conduct.</p>
-
-<p>It is a sacred principle among the Indians, and one of those
-moral and religious truths which they have always before their
-eyes, that the Great Spirit who created them, and provided them
-so abundantly with the means of subsistence, made it the duty
-of parents to maintain and take care of their children until they
-should be able to provide for themselves, and that having while
-weak and helpless received the benefits of maintenance, education,
-and protection, they are bound to repay them by a similar
-care of those who are labouring under the infirmities of old age,
-and are no longer able to supply their own wants.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, a strong feeling of gratitude towards their elders, inculcated
-and cherished from their earliest infancy, is the solid
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span>
-foundation on which rests that respect for old age for which
-Indians are so remarkable, and it is further supported by the
-well-founded hope of receiving the like succours and attentions
-in their turn, when the heavy hand of time shall have reduced
-them to the same helpless situation which they now commiserate
-in others, and seek by every means in their power to render
-more tolerable. Hence, they do not confine themselves to acts
-of absolute necessity; it is not enough for them that the old are
-not suffered to starve with hunger, or perish with cold, but they
-must be made as much as possible to share in the pleasures and
-comforts of life. It is, indeed, a moving spectacle to see the
-tender and delicate attentions which, on every occasion, they
-lavish upon aged and decrepid persons. When going out a
-hunting, they will put them on a horse or in a canoe, and take
-them into the woods to their hunting ground, in order to revive
-their spirits by making them enjoy the sight of a sport in which
-they can no longer participate. They place them in particular
-situations, where they are sure that the game they are in pursuit
-of will pass by, taking proper measures at the same time to prevent
-its escape, so that their aged parents and friends may, at
-least, as our sportsmen call it, <i>be in at the death</i>. Nor is this all;
-the hoary veterans must also enjoy the honours of the chase;
-when the animal, thus surrounded, is come within reach of their
-guns, when every possibility of escape is precluded, by the
-woods all around being set on fire, they all, young and old, fire
-together, so that it is difficult to decide<a id="FNanchor_166" href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">166</a> whose ball it was that
-brought the animal to the ground. But they never are at a loss
-to decide, and always give it in favour of the oldest man<a id="FNanchor_167" href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">167</a> in the
-party. So, when the young people have discovered a place
-where the bears have their haunts, or have resorted to for the
-winter, they frequently take with them to the spot, such of the
-old men as are yet able to walk or ride, where they not only
-have an opportunity of witnessing the sport, but receive their
-full share of the meat and oil.</p>
-
-<p>At home the old are as well treated and taken care of as if
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span>
-they were favourite children. They are cherished and even
-caressed; indulged in health and nursed in sickness; and all
-their wishes and wants are anticipated. Their company is
-sought by the young, to whom their conversation is considered
-an honour. Their advice is asked on all occasions, their words
-are listened to as oracles, and their occasional garrulity, nay,
-even the second childhood often attendant on extreme old age,
-is never with Indians a subject of ridicule, or laughter. Respect,
-gratitude, and love are too predominant in their minds to permit
-any degrading idea to mix itself with these truly honourable and
-generous feelings.</p>
-
-<p>On every occasion, and in every situation through life, age
-takes the lead among the Indians. Even little boys, when
-going on parties of pleasure, were it only to catch butterflies,
-strictly adhere to this rule, and submit to the direction of the
-oldest in their company, who is their chief, leader and spokesman;
-if they are accosted on the way by any person, and asked
-whither they are going, or any other question, no one will presume
-to answer but their <i>speaker</i>. The same rule is observed
-when they are grown up, and in no case whatever will one of
-a party, club or meeting, attempt to assume authority over the
-leader, or even to set him right if he should mistake the road or
-take a wrong course; much less will any one contradict what
-he says, unless his opinion should be particularly asked, in
-which case, and no other, he will give his advice, but with
-great modesty and diffidence.</p>
-
-<p>And yet there have been travellers who have ventured to
-assert that old people among the Indians are not only neglected
-and suffered to perish for want, but that they are even, when no
-longer able to take care of themselves, <i>put out of the way of all
-trouble</i>. I am free to declare, that among all the Indian nations
-that I have become acquainted with, if any one should kill an
-old man or woman for no other cause than that of having
-become useless or burdensome to society, it would be considered
-as an unpardonable crime, the general indignation would
-be excited, and the murderer instantly put to death. I cannot
-conceive any act that would produce such an universal horror
-and detestation, such is the veneration which is everywhere
-felt for old age.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span></p>
-
-<p>Indeed, I have had sufficient reason to be convinced that this
-principle, excellent as it is in itself, is<a id="FNanchor_168" href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">168</a> even carried too far by
-the Indians, and that not a little inconvenience is occasioned by
-it. A few instances will make this better understood than any
-explanations that I could give.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1765, the great body of Christian Indians, after
-having remained sixteen months at and near Philadelphia, were
-permitted to return to their own country, peace having been concluded
-with the Indian nations, who still continued at war, notwithstanding
-the pacification between the European powers.
-They resolved to open a path through the wilderness from the
-frontier settlements beyond the Blue Mountains, directly to Wyoming
-on the Susquehannah. This path they laid off and cut as
-they proceeded, two, three or four miles at a time, according to
-the nature of the ground and the convenience of water, bringing
-up their baggage by making two or more trips, as they had no
-horses to carry it. Having arrived at the great Pine Swamp,
-then supposed to be about fourteen miles wide, it was found
-very difficult to cut a passage on account of the thickets and
-of the great number of fallen trees which incumbered it; they
-were, besides, unacquainted with that part of the country. An
-old Indian,<a id="FNanchor_169" href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">169</a> however, took the lead, and undertook to be their
-guide. After a tedious march of near two weeks, attended with
-much labour, he brought them across the Swamp, to the large
-creek which borders upon it on the opposite side. There they
-found a very steep mountain, through which no passage could
-be found either above or below. Discouraged at the prospect
-before them, they now saw no alternative but to return the same
-way they had come, and take the route by Fort Allen<a id="FNanchor_170" href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">170</a> to Nescopeck,
-and so up the Susquehannah to Wyoming, a distance of
-nearly one hundred miles round. In this difficulty, it fortunately
-struck their Missionary, Mr. Zeisberger, that a certain Indian
-named David, who was one of their party and had followed
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span>
-them all the way, was acquainted with that part of the country,
-and might, perhaps, be able to point out to them some better
-and shorter road. He soon found that he was not mistaken.
-David was perfectly acquainted with the country, and knew a
-good road, through which the party might easily pass, but not
-having been questioned on the subject, had hitherto kept silence,
-and followed with the rest, though he knew all the while they
-were going wrong. A dialogue then took place between him
-and the Missionary.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Zeisb.</span>&mdash;David! You are, I believe, acquainted with this country;
-perhaps you know a better road<a id="FNanchor_171" href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">171</a> and a shorter one than
-that which we are going to take.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">David.</span>&mdash;Yes, I do; there is such a road,<a href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">171</a> which we may easily
-get through, and have a much shorter distance to travel than by
-that which is proposed; I am sure of it.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Zeisb.</span>&mdash;What; David! we were all going wrong, and yet you
-are with us?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">David.</span>&mdash;Yes, ’tis so.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Zeisb.</span>&mdash;And yet you said nothing, and followed with the rest
-as if all had been right!</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">David.</span>&mdash;Yes; the guides are somewhat older than myself;
-they took the lead, and never asked me whether I had any
-knowledge of the country. If they had enquired, I would have
-told them.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Zeisb.</span>&mdash;Will you <i>now</i> tell them?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">David.</span>&mdash;No, indeed; unless they ask me. It does not become
-an Indian to instruct his elders.</p>
-
-<p>The question was then asked him at the instigation of Mr.
-Zeisberger, when he immediately told them that they must all
-return to a certain spot, six miles back, and then direct their
-course more to the north-east, which would bring them to a
-gap in the mountain, where they could pass through with great
-ease. They did so, and he followed them, and being now desired
-to take the lead, he did it, and brought them to the very
-spot he had described, and from thence led them all the way to
-Wyoming. This difficult part of the road, in the swamp, has
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span>
-been since called <i>David’s path</i>, and the state road now passes
-through it.<a id="FNanchor_172" href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">172</a></p>
-
-<p>This anecdote was told me by Mr. Zeisberger himself, whom
-I have never known to say anything that was not strictly true.
-I therefore give it full credit; the more so, as I have myself
-witnessed two similar instances, with the relation of which I
-shall conclude this chapter.</p>
-
-<p>The first happened in the year 1791. I had parted by accident
-from the company I was with, and lost my way in the
-woods. I had with me an Indian lad about twelve or thirteen
-years of age, and wished him to take the lead, to which, however,
-he would not consent. We were at last found by our party,
-who had gone in search of us. I complained to them of the boy,
-for not doing what I had bidden him; but they answered, “that
-he had done right, and that it did not become a <i>boy</i> to walk
-before a <i>man</i> and be his leader.”</p>
-
-<p>The second occurrence of the like kind, took place in the year
-1798. I was on a journey with two young Indians, from Upper
-Canada to the Muskingum, round the head of Lake Erie.<a id="FNanchor_173" href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">173</a> Neither
-of these Indians having ever been in the country we were going
-to, they received their instructions from others before their departure.
-The leader, however, whose name was Leonhard, having
-once mistaken a path, we travelled several miles in a wrong direction,
-until, at last, I discovered the mistake, by our having the
-Owl creek to our left, when we ought to have had it to our
-right. I observed this to Christian, the young Indian in the
-rear, who coinciding with me in opinion, I desired him to run
-forward to Leonhard, who was far ahead of us, and to bring him
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span>
-back; but the lad answered that he <i>could not do it</i>. I asked him
-the reason. “It is,” said he, “because I am younger than he is.”
-“Will you then,” replied I, “take <i>my</i> message to him, and tell
-him that <i>I</i> desire him to return to this place, where I will wait
-for him?” The young man immediately consented, went forward
-to Leonhard, and brought him back, on which we took an eastward
-course through the wood to the Owl creek, and, after crossing
-it, fell into our right path.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_170.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_171a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">PRIDE AND GREATNESS OF MIND.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Indians are proud but not vain; they consider
-vanity as degrading and unworthy the character of a
-man. The hunter never boasts of his skill or strength,
-nor the warrior of his prowess. It is not right, they
-say, that one should value himself too much for an action which
-another may perform as well as himself, and when a man extols
-his own deeds, it seems as if he doubted his own capability to
-do the like again when he pleased. Therefore, they prefer in all
-cases to let their actions speak for themselves. The skins and
-peltry which the hunter brings home, the deer’s horns on the
-roof of his cabin, the horses, furniture and other property that
-he possesses, his apparel and that of his family, the visits with
-which he is honored by the first and best men among his nation;
-all these things show what he is and what he has done, and with
-this he rests satisfied.</p>
-
-<p>So with the warrior; it is enough for him that he is known to
-be a man of spirit and courage by the scalps and prisoners that he
-brings home; he never is seen going about boasting of his warlike
-exploits, and when questioned on the subject, he makes his
-answer as short as possible. Even when he is entering a town
-with his prisoners and scalps, he does not stare about to see
-whether the people are looking at him, but walks his usual
-steady pace and marches straight forward without appearing to
-see any body. When at some of their particular festivals, every
-warrior is called upon to relate his feats of arms, they make it a
-point to be as brief as possible, leaving it to those who have done
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span>
-but little, to swell their actions into importance, and give themselves
-credit for what they have done. I cannot illustrate this
-subject better than by a few anecdotes.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1779, two war chiefs, the one a young man of the
-Shawano tribe, and the other an old warrior of the Wyandots,
-living near Detroit, much celebrated for his great actions, but
-who during the whole of the Revolutionary war, could not be
-persuaded to take the field against the Americans, met accidentally
-at my house on Muskingum, where they had separately
-come to pay me a friendly visit. The Shawano (whose nation,
-by the bye, are noted for much talk,) entered upon the subject
-of war, and with much earnestness in words and gestures, related
-the actions he had been engaged in, showing at the same time
-on his arm the mark of a bullet wound. During all this time,
-the Wyandot, smoking his pipe, listened with great attention and
-apparent surprise; and having afterwards to answer, according
-to custom, by relating what he had done, he laid down his pipe,
-and deliberately drawing off his clothes, except the breech-cloth,
-rose up and said: “I have been in upwards of twenty engagements
-with the enemy and fought with the French against the
-English; I have warred against the southern nations, and my
-body shows that I have been struck and wounded by nine balls.
-These two wounds I received at the same moment, from two
-Cherokees, who, seeing me fall, rested their guns against a tree,
-and ran up with their tomahawks to dispatch me, and take off
-my scalp. With the aid of the Great Spirit I jumped up, just at
-the moment when they were about to give me the stroke. I
-struck them and they both fell at my feet. I took their scalps
-and returned home.” Thus this grave and respectable veteran
-gave a lesson to the young Shawano, which, if he well understood,
-he, no doubt, ever after remembered; for in a few words,
-and in less than five minutes, he showed him at once the contrast
-between great actions briefly and modestly told, and every
-day occurrences related and dwelt on with pompous minuteness.
-This contrast, indeed, was particularly striking, the more so as
-the modest warrior did not seem to enjoy his triumph, nor to be
-even conscious of the accession to his fame which must result
-from the publicity of the account which he had given. As both
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span>
-parties spoke the Shawano language, I well understood every
-thing they said, and I paid the most particular attention to their
-discourse, which was of itself sufficiently interesting.</p>
-
-<p>This passion of the Indians, which I have called <i>pride</i>, but
-which might, perhaps, be better denominated <i>high-mindedness</i>,
-is generally combined with a great sense of honour, and not seldom
-produces actions of the most heroic kind. I am now going
-to relate an instance of this honourable pride, which I have also
-witnessed. An Indian of the Lenape nation, who was considered
-as a very dangerous person, and was much dreaded on that account,
-had publicly declared that as soon as another Indian, who
-was then gone to Sandusky, should return from thence, he would
-certainly kill him. This dangerous Indian called in one day at
-my house on the Muskingum to ask me for some tobacco.
-While this unwelcome guest was smoking his pipe by my fire,
-behold! the other Indian whom he had threatened to kill, and
-who at that moment had just arrived, also entered the house. I
-was much frightened, as I feared the bad Indian would take that
-opportunity to carry his threat into execution, and that my house
-would be made the scene of a horrid murder. I walked to the
-door, in order not to witness a crime that I could not prevent,
-when to my great astonishment I heard the Indian whom I
-thought in danger, address the other in these words: “Uncle,
-you have threatened to kill me&mdash;you have declared that you
-would do it the first time we should meet. Now I am here, and
-we are together. Am I to take it for granted that you are in
-earnest, and that you are really determined to take my life as
-you have declared? Am I now to consider you as my avowed
-enemy, and in order to secure my own life against your murderous
-designs, to be the first to strike you and embrue my hands
-in your blood?&mdash;I will not, I cannot do it. Your heart is bad,
-it is true, but still you appear to be a generous foe, for you gave
-me notice of what you intended to do; you have put me on my
-guard, and did not attempt to assassinate me by surprise; I,
-therefore, will spare you until you lift up your arm to strike, and
-then, uncle, it will be seen which of us shall fall!” The murderer
-was thunderstruck, and without replying a word, slunk off
-and left the house.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span></p>
-
-<p>The anecdote with which I am going to conclude this chapter,
-will display an act of heroism produced by this elevation of mind
-which I have called <i>pride</i>, which, perhaps, may have been
-equalled, but, I dare say, was hardly ever surpassed. In the
-spring of the year 1782, the war chief of the Wyandots of Lower
-Sandusky sent a white prisoner (a young man whom he had
-taken at Fort M’Intosh) as a present to another chief, who was
-called the <i>Half-king</i> of Upper Sandusky,<a id="FNanchor_174" href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">174</a> for the purpose of
-being adopted into his family, in the place of one of his sons,
-who had been killed the preceding year, while at war with the
-people on the Ohio. The prisoner arrived, and was presented
-to the Half-king’s wife, but she refused to receive him, which,
-according to the Indian rule, was, in fact, a sentence of death.
-The young man was, therefore, taken away, for the purpose of
-being tortured and burnt on the pile. While the dreadful preparations
-were making near the village, the unhappy victim being
-already tied to the stake, and the Indians arriving from all quarters
-to join in the cruel act or to witness it, two English traders,
-Messrs. <i>Arundel</i> and <i>Robbins</i> (I delight in making this honourable
-mention of their names), shocked at the idea of the cruelties
-which were about to be perpetrated, and moved by feelings of
-pity and humanity, resolved to unite their exertions to endeavour
-to save the prisoner’s life by offering a ransom to the war chief,
-which he, however refused, because, said he, it was an established
-rule among them, that when a prisoner who had been given as
-a present, was refused adoption, he was irrevocably doomed to
-the stake, and it was not in the power of any one to save his life.
-Besides, added he, the numerous war captains who were on the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span>
-spot, had it in charge to see the sentence carried into execution.
-The two generous Englishmen, however, were not discouraged,
-and determined to try a last effort. They well knew what effects
-the high-minded pride of an Indian was capable of producing,
-and to this strong and noble passion they directed their attacks:
-“But,” said they, in reply to the answer which the chief had
-made them, “among all those chiefs whom you have mentioned,
-there is none who equals you in greatness; you are considered
-not only as the greatest and bravest, but as the best man in the
-nation.” “Do you really believe what you say?” said at once
-the Indian, looking them full in the face. “Indeed, we do.”
-Then, without saying another word, he blackened himself, and
-taking his knife and tomahawk in his hand, made his way
-through the crowd to the unhappy victim, crying out with a loud
-voice: “What have you to do with <i>my</i> prisoner?” and at once
-cutting the cords with which he was tied, took him to his house
-which was near Mr. Arundel’s, whence he was forthwith secured
-and carried off by safe hands to Detroit, where<a id="FNanchor_175" href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">175</a> the commandant,
-being informed of the transaction, sent him by water to Niagara,
-where he was soon afterwards liberated. The Indians who witnessed
-this act, said that it was truly heroic; they were so confounded
-by the unexpected conduct of this chief, and by his
-manly and resolute appearance, that they had not time to reflect
-upon what they should do, and before their astonishment was
-well over, the prisoner was out of their reach.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_175.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_176a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">WARS AND THE CAUSES WHICH LEAD TO THEM.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">It</span> is a fixed principle with the Indians, that evil cannot
-come out of good, that no friend will injure a friend,
-and, therefore, that whoever wrongs or does harm to
-another, is his <span class="small">ENEMY</span>. As it is with individuals, so it
-is with nations, tribes, and other independent associations of
-men. If they commit murder on another people, encroach on
-their lands, by making it a practice to come within their bounds
-and take the game from them, if they rob or steal from their
-hunting camps, or, in short, are guilty of any act of unjust
-aggression, they cannot be considered otherwise than as <span class="small">ENEMIES</span>;
-they are declared to be such, and the aggrieved nation
-think themselves justifiable in punishing them. If murder has
-been perpetrated, revenge is taken in the same way. If a lesser
-injury has been done, a message is sent to the chief of the
-nation to which the wrong-doers belong, to enquire whether
-the act complained of was authorised, if not to give them warning
-not to permit the like thing to be done again. If theft or
-some other like offence has been committed, restitution is at the
-same time demanded, or such reparation as the case admits of,
-and the chiefs are desired to forbid their “young people” to do
-so any more, or that they will have to abide by the consequence.</p>
-
-<p>There are tribes among the Indians, who claim the exclusive
-right of hunting within certain bounds, and will not suffer others
-to intrude and take <i>their</i> game from them, as they call it; and
-there have been instances, when such intruders, being found
-trespassing after a fair warning, have had their ears and noses
-cut off, and have been sent home to tell their chiefs that the
-next time they came again, they should be sent home <i>without
-their scalps</i>. While the Christian Indians of the Lenape nation
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">176</span>
-were settled for a few years on the land of the Chippeways
-beyond Detroit, where they had taken refuge and were permitted
-to remain for their safety; though the Chippeways
-professed reverence for them, and called them <i>Grandfather</i>,
-yet they were continually complaining of their killing their
-game. They had no objection to their tilling the ground, but
-every deer, raccoon, or other animal which they killed or took,
-was a cause of displeasure to their hosts; and in consequence
-of that, they pressed them so often to remove from their lands,
-that they at last went off.</p>
-
-<p>When the Indians have determined to take revenge for a murder
-committed by another nation, they generally endeavour to
-make at once a bold stroke, so as to strike their enemies with
-terror; for which purpose, they penetrate into the hostile
-country as far as they can without being discovered, and when
-they have made their stroke, they leave a war club near the
-body of the person murdered, and make off as quick as possible.
-This war club is purposely left that the enemy may know
-to what nation the act is to be ascribed, and that they may
-not wreak their vengeance on an innocent tribe. It is meant
-also to let them know that unless they take measures to discover
-and punish the author of the original aggression, this
-instrument will be the means of revenging the injury, or, in
-other words, war will be forthwith declared against them.</p>
-
-<p>If the supposed enemy is peaceably inclined, he will in such
-case send a deputation to the aggrieved nation, with a suitable
-apology. In general the chief sends word, that the act complained
-of was committed without his knowledge, by some of
-“his foolish young men;” that it was altogether unauthorised and
-unwarranted; that it was highly reprobated by himself and his
-council, and that he would be sorry that on that account a breach
-should be made between the two nations, but, on the contrary,
-wishes for peace; that he is willing to make reparation for the
-offence by condoling with the relations of the person slain and
-otherwise satisfying them. Such an offer is generally accepted,
-and in this manner all differences are adjusted between the parties,
-and they are friends again as they were before. But should the
-offending nation refuse to apologise and sue for peace, war is then
-immediately declared and is carried on with the greatest vigour.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_178a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">MANNER OF SURPRISING THEIR ENEMIES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/c.jpg" alt="C" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Courage</span>, art, and circumspection are the essential
-and indispensable qualifications of an Indian warrior.
-When war is once begun, each one strives to excel
-in displaying them, by stealing upon his enemy unawares,
-and deceiving and surprising him in various ways. On
-drawing near to an enemy’s country, they endeavour as much as
-possible to conceal their tracks; sometimes they scatter themselves,
-marching at proper distances from each other for a whole
-day and more, meeting, however, again at night, when they
-keep a watch; at other times they march in what is called
-<i>Indian file</i>, one man behind the other, treading carefully in each
-other’s steps, so that their number may not be ascertained by
-the prints of their feet. The nearer they suppose themselves to
-be to the enemy, the more attentive they are to choosing hard,
-stony, and rocky ground, on which human footsteps leave no
-impression; soft, marshy and grassy soils are particularly
-avoided, as in the former the prints of the feet would be easily
-discovered, and in the latter the appearance of the grass having
-been trodden upon might lead to detection; for if the grass or
-weeds are only bent, and have the least mark of having been
-walked upon, it will be almost certainly perceived, in which the
-sharpness and quickness of the Indians’ sight is truly astonishing.</p>
-
-<p>In some instances they deceive their enemies by imitating the
-cries or calls of some animal, such as the fawn, or turkey. They
-do this so admirably well, that they even draw the dam of the
-one and the mate of the other to the spot to which they want to
-come. In this manner they often succeed in decoying the enemies
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span>
-to the place where they are lying in ambush, or get an
-opportunity of surrounding them. Such stratagems, however,
-cannot be resorted to in all seasons; with the turkey, it only
-answers in the spring, and with the fawn’s dam until about midsummer.
-In the same manner, when scattered about in the
-woods, they easily find each other by imitating the song of some
-birds, such as the quail and the rook, and at evening and morning,
-and particularly in the night, the cry of the owl. By this
-means they all join each other, though not at the same time,
-as they are not, perhaps, all within hearing; but the cry of the
-owl is repeated from time to time until they are all assembled.</p>
-
-<p>It is certain that the Indians, by the prints of the feet and by
-other marks and signs perceivable only to themselves, can readily
-discover, not only that men have passed through a particular
-path or line of march, but they can discriminate to what particular
-nation those men belong, and whether they are their friends
-or their enemies. They also sometimes make discoveries by examining
-obscure places, and by that means get informed of an
-enemy’s design. Nay, there are those among them who pretend
-to be able to discriminate among various marks of human footsteps
-the different nations of those to whom they respectively
-belong. I shall not undertake to assert thus far, but I shall
-relate an anecdote, the truth of which I firmly believe, in proof
-of their extraordinary sagacity in this respect.</p>
-
-<p>In the beginning of the summer of the year 1755, a most atrocious
-and shocking murder was unexpectedly committed by a
-party of Indians, on fourteen white settlers within five miles of
-Shamokin.<a id="FNanchor_176" href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">176</a> The surviving whites, in their rage, determined to
-take their revenge by murdering a Delaware Indian who happened
-to be in those parts and was far from thinking himself in
-any danger. He was a great friend to the whites, was loved and
-esteemed by them, and in testimony of their regard, had received
-from them the name of <i>Duke Holland</i>,<a id="FNanchor_177" href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">177</a> by which he was generally
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span>
-known. This Indian, satisfied that his nation was incapable
-of committing such a foul murder in a time of profound peace,
-told the enraged settlers, that he was sure that the Delawares
-were not in any manner concerned in it, and that it was the act
-of some wicked Mingoes or Iroquois, whose custom it was to
-involve other nations in wars with each other, by clandestinely
-committing murders, so that they might be laid to the charge of
-others than themselves. But all his representations were vain;
-he could not convince exasperated men whose minds were fully
-bent upon revenge. At last, he offered that if they would give
-him a party to accompany him, he would go with them in quest
-of the murderers, and was sure he could discover them by the
-prints of their feet and other marks well known to him, by which
-he would convince them that the real perpetrators of the crime
-belonged to the Six Nations. His proposal was accepted, he
-marched at the head of a party of whites and led them into the
-tracks. They soon found themselves in the most rocky parts of
-a mountain, where not one of those who accompanied him was
-able to discover a single track, nor would they believe that man
-had ever trodden upon this ground, as they had to jump over a
-number of crevices between the rocks, and in some instances to
-crawl over them. Now they began to believe that the Indian
-had led them across those rugged mountains in order to give
-the enemy time to escape, and threatened him with instant death
-the moment they should be fully convinced of the fraud. The
-Indian, true to his promise, would take pains to make them perceive
-that an enemy had passed along the places through which
-he was leading them; here he would shew them that the moss
-on the rock had been trodden down by the weight of an human
-foot, there that it had been torn and dragged forward from its
-place: further he would point out to them that pebbles or small
-stones on the rocks had been removed from their beds by the
-foot hitting against them, that dry sticks by being trodden upon
-were broken, and even that in a particular place, an Indian’s blanket
-had dragged over the rocks, and removed or loosened the
-leaves lying there, so that they lay no more flat, as in other
-places; all which the Indian could perceive as he walked along,
-without even stopping. At last arriving at the foot of the mountain
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span>
-on soft ground, where the tracks were deep, he found out that
-the enemy were eight in number, and from the freshness of the
-footprints, he concluded that they must be encamped at no great
-distance. This proved to be the exact truth, for, after gaining
-the eminence on the other side of the valley, the Indians were
-seen encamped, some having already laid down to sleep, while
-others were drawing off their <i>leggings</i><a id="FNanchor_178" href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">178</a> for the same purpose,
-and the scalps they had taken were hanging up to dry. “See!”
-said Duke Holland to his astonished companions, “there is the
-enemy! not of my nation, but Mingoes, as I truly told you. They
-are in our power; in less than half an hour they will all be
-fast asleep. We need not fire a gun, but go up and tomahawk
-them. We are nearly two to one and need apprehend no danger.
-Come on, and you will now have your full revenge!” But the
-whites, overcome with fear, did not choose to follow the Indian’s
-advice, and urged him to take them back by the nearest and
-best way, which he did, and when they arrived at home late at
-night, they reported the number of the Iroquois to have been so
-great, that they durst not venture to attack them.</p>
-
-<p>This account is faithfully given as I received it from <i>Duke Holland</i>
-himself, and took it down in writing at the time. I had
-been acquainted with this Indian for upwards of twenty years,
-and knew him to be honest, intelligent and a lover of truth.
-Therefore I gave full credit to what he told me, and as yet have
-had no reason to disbelieve or even to doubt it. I once employed
-him to save the life of a respectable gentleman, now
-residing at Pittsburg, who was in imminent danger of being
-killed by a war party. Duke Holland conducted him safely
-through the woods, from the Muskingum to the Ohio settlement.
-He once found a watch of mine, which had been sent
-to me from Pittsburg by a man who had got drunk, and lost it
-in the woods about fifty miles from the place where I lived.
-Duke Holland went in search of it, and having discovered the
-tracks of the man to whom it had been entrusted, he pursued
-them until he found the lost article, which he delivered to me.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_182a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">PEACE MESSENGERS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/w.jpg" alt="W" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">While</span> the American Indian remained in the free and
-undisturbed possession of the land which God gave to
-them, and even for a long time after the Europeans
-had settled themselves in their territory, there was no
-people upon earth who paid a more religious respect than they
-did to the sacred character of the ambassadors, or (as they call
-them) <i>Messengers of peace</i>. It is too well known that since about
-the middle of the last century a great change has taken place,
-the cause of which, I am sorry to say, the Indians lay entirely
-to our charge.</p>
-
-<p>The inviolability of the person of an ambassador is one of those
-sacred fundamental principles of the law of nature which the
-Almighty Creator has imprinted upon the heart of every living
-man. History teaches us that the most barbarous and savage
-nations have at all times admitted and carried it into practice.
-It is a lamentable truth that all the violations of it that stand
-upon record, are to be ascribed to civilised man or to his contagious
-example.</p>
-
-<p>It is certain that among our Indians the person of an ambassador
-was formerly held most sacred and inviolable. All the
-nations and tribes were agreed upon this point, that a messenger,
-though sent by the most hostile people, was entitled not only to
-respect but to protection. To have, I will not say murdered,
-but knowingly ill treated a person of this description, was with
-them an unpardonable crime. War parties were always instructed,
-if they should find a messenger on his way from one nation
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span>
-to another, not only to give him protection but hospitality, and
-see him safely conducted to the people to whom he was sent.</p>
-
-<p>In the same manner, when a messenger was sent to them by
-a nation with whom they were at war or at variance, though
-they might be ever so much exasperated against them, and even
-though they had firmly determined <i>not to listen</i>, that is to say,
-not to consent to their propositions, whatever they might be,
-still they would grant their protection to the man of peace, and
-tell him in their expressive language “that they had taken him
-under their wings, or placed him under their arm pits, where
-he was perfectly safe.” It was with them a point of religious
-belief, that pacific messengers were under the special protection
-of the Great Spirit, that it was unlawful to molest them, and that
-the nation which should be guilty of so enormous a crime would
-surely be punished by being unsuccessful in war, and perhaps,
-by suffering a total defeat. Therefore, frequent instances happened
-of such messengers being sent back with the most threatening
-messages, such as, that it was determined to wage a war
-of blood and destruction, and that no quarter would be given,
-yet the ambassadors themselves did not meet with the least insult
-or disrespect; they were protected during all the time that
-they remained in the hostile country, and were safely conducted
-to their own nation, or at least, so far on their way as to be out
-of danger from the enemy’s warriors, leaving them a sufficient
-time to reach their houses, before a fresh stroke was made, to
-give notice that the truce was at an end or that the war was
-begun. I have heard of messengers being sent back with a
-message to this effect: “I return to your bosom, safe and unmolested,
-the messengers you sent me. The answer to the
-speech they brought me from you, you will learn from my
-young warriors, who are gone to <i>see</i> you.” The nature of the
-<i>visit</i> thus announced may be easily guessed at. The message
-was in fact a declaration of war, with a fair notice that an invasion
-of the enemy’s country was immediately to take place.</p>
-
-<p>Such were the principles, such was the manly conduct of the
-Indians in former times. How different it is at present I need
-not say. We yet remember the unhappy fate of Messrs. <i>Trueman</i>,
-<i>Freeman</i>, and <i>Hardin</i>. These three respectable American
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span>
-gentlemen, were in the year 1792, sent to the Indians with flags
-of truce and peace proposals, and were all wantonly murdered.<a id="FNanchor_179" href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">179</a>
-To whom is this horrid state of things to be attributed? I will
-not pretend to judge, but let us hear what the Indians say.</p>
-
-<p>The principal reasons which they assign as having brought
-about this great change, are comprised under the following general
-heads.</p>
-
-<p>I. That the white people have intermeddled with their national
-concerns, by dictating to one nation how they should treat
-another, and even how they should speak and what they should
-say to them, and by this means have entirely destroyed their
-national independence. That they have even encouraged and
-supported one Indian nation in not only affecting but actually
-exercising dominion and supremacy over all the others.</p>
-
-<p>II. That the whites have treated the Indians as a contemptible
-race and paid no regard themselves to the sacred character
-of messengers, but murdered them as well as their chiefs in
-numerous instances without distinction. That they even polluted
-what among them is esteemed most holy and inviolable,
-their <i>council fires</i>, extinguishing them (as they express themselves)
-with streams of the best blood of their nation, in violation
-of their professions and most solemn promises! That their
-whole conduct in short has appeared as if they would say to
-them: “We do not care for you; we despise you&mdash;all we want
-is your lands, and those we will have.”</p>
-
-<p>Nor are they at a loss when called upon to specify the particular
-injuries of which they complain. Amidst a long list of
-similar grievances, I shall select a few of the most prominent.</p>
-
-<p>1. The protection given against them to the Iroquois, encouraging
-that nation to insult them, to treat them as women made
-such by conquest, and to exercise a tyrannical superiority over
-them.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span></p>
-
-<p>2. The murder of the Conestogo Indians, at the very place
-where a <i>council fire</i> was burning at the time; where treaties had
-been held with them in early times, and where even a treaty had
-been concluded in 1762, the year preceding the murder; and
-that too in the country of their brother <i>Miquon</i>, in the <i>Quaker</i>
-country, in Pennsylvania.</p>
-
-<p>3. The horrid murder committed between the years 1776 and
-1779, on the great and much valued Shawano chief <i>Cornstalk</i>, at
-Kanhawa, where it was known that he was on a friendly and
-interesting errand.<a id="FNanchor_180" href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">180</a></p>
-
-<p>4. The firing upon and severely wounding a noted Shawano
-in the year 1774, while on his return from Pittsburgh, to which
-place he had, out of friendship and humanity, conducted several
-white traders and protected them against an enraged body of
-Indians, on whose relations the white people had committed
-most horrid murders.</p>
-
-<p>5. The attacking the peaceable encampment of the Delaware
-chiefs on the island at Pittsburgh, where one <i>Messenger</i> and
-several others were murdered.</p>
-
-<p>6. The murder of the Christian Indians on Muskingum, by
-Williamson’s party, together with the chief from <i>Achsinning</i>, (the
-standing stone,) although the persons thus murdered were
-known to be friends to the whites.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians relate many more outrages committed on <i>messengers</i>,
-<i>visiters</i>, and other <i>friendly</i> Indians, of which I shall spare
-the painful recital to my readers. From this series of unjust and
-cruel acts, the Indian nations, have at last come to the conclusion
-that the Americans are in their hearts inimical to them, and that
-when they send them messengers of peace, they only mean to
-lull them into a fancied security, that they may the easier fall
-upon and destroy them. It was in consequence of this conviction
-that the three respectable gentlemen whom I have already
-mentioned, met with their unhappy fate.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_186a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">TREATIES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">In</span> early times, when Indian nations, after long and
-bloody wars, met together, for the purpose of adjusting
-their differences, or concluding a peace with each
-other, it was their laudable custom, as a token of
-their sincerity, to remove out of the place where the peacemakers
-were sitting, all warlike weapons and instruments of
-destruction, of whatever form or shape. “For,” said they, “when
-we are engaged in a good work, nothing that is bad must be
-visible. We are met together to forgive and forget, to <i>bury</i> the
-destructive weapon, and put it quite out of sight; we cast away
-from us the fatal instrument that has caused so much grief to our
-wives and children, and has been the source of so many tears.
-It is our earnest hope and wish that it may never be dug up
-again.” So particular were they on this point, that if a single
-weapon had been in sight, while a treaty was negotiating, it would
-have disturbed their minds by recalling the memory of past
-events, and instead, (as they say) of gladdening their hearts, by
-the prospect of a speedy peace, would, on the contrary, have
-filled them with sorrow.</p>
-
-<p>Nor would they even permit any warlike weapons to remain
-within the limits of their <i>council fire</i>, when assembled together
-about the ordinary business of government. It might, they said,
-have a bad effect, and defeat the object for which they had met.
-It might be a check on some of the persons assembled, and perhaps,
-prevent those who had a just complaint or representation
-to make, from speaking their minds freely. William Penn, said
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span>
-they, when he treated with them, adopted this ancient mode of
-their ancestors, and convened them under a grove of shady trees,
-where the little birds on their boughs were warbling their sweet
-notes. In commemoration of these conferences (which are
-always to Indians a subject of pleasing remembrance) they frequently
-assembled together in the woods, in some shady spot as
-nearly as possible similar to those where they used to meet their
-brother <i>Miquon</i>, and there lay all his “<i>words</i>” or speeches, with
-those of his descendants, on a blanket or clean piece of bark,
-and with great satisfaction go successively over the whole.
-This practice (which I have repeatedly witnessed) continued
-until the year 1780, when the disturbances which then took
-place put an end to it, probably for ever.</p>
-
-<p>These pleasing remembrances, these sacred usages are no
-more. “When we treat with the white people,” do the Indians
-now say, “we have not the choice of the spot where the messengers
-are to meet. When we are called upon to conclude a
-peace, (and what a peace?) the meeting no longer takes place in
-the shady grove, where the innocent little birds with their cheerful
-songs, seem as if they wished to soothe and enliven our
-minds, tune them to amity and concord and take a part in the
-good work for which we are met. Neither is it at the sacred
-council house, that we are invited to assemble. No!&mdash;It is at
-some of those horrid places, surrounded with mounds and
-ditches, where the most destructive of all weapons, where <i>great
-guns</i> are gaping at us with their wide mouths, as if ready to devour
-us; and thus we are prevented from speaking our minds
-freely as brothers ought to do!”</p>
-
-<p>How then, say they, can there be any sincerity in such councils?
-how can a treaty of this kind be binding on men thus
-forced to agree to what is dictated to them in a strong prison
-and at the cannon’s mouth; where all the stipulations are on
-one side, where all is concession on the one part and no friendship
-appears on the other? From these considerations, which
-they urge and constantly dwell upon, the treaties which they
-make with the white men have lost all their force, and they
-think themselves no longer bound by them than they are compelled
-by superior power. Are they right in this or are they
-wrong? The impartial reader must decide.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_188a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">GENERAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE INDIANS ON THE WHITE PEOPLE.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Indians believe that the Whites were made by the
-same Great Spirit who created them, and that he
-assigned to each different race of men a particular
-employment in this world, but not the same to all.
-To the whites the great Mannitto gave it in charge to till the
-ground and raise by cultivation the fruits of the earth; to the
-Indians he assigned the nobler employment of hunting, and the
-supreme dominion over all the rest of the animal creation.</p>
-
-<p>They will not admit that the whites are superior beings. They
-say that the hair of their heads, their features, the various colours
-of their eyes, evince that they are not like themselves <i>Lenni
-Lenape</i>, an <span class="smcap">Original People</span>, a race of men that has existed unchanged
-from the beginning of time; but they are a <i>mixed</i> race,
-and therefore a <i>troublesome</i> one; wherever they may be, the
-Great Spirit, knowing the wickedness of their disposition, found
-it necessary to give them a great Book,<a id="FNanchor_181" href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">181</a> and taught them how
-to read it, that they might know and observe what he wished
-them to do and to abstain from. But they, the Indians, have no
-need of any such book to let them know the will of their Maker;
-they find it engraved on their own hearts; they have had sufficient
-discernment given to them to distinguish good from evil,
-and by following that guide, they are sure not to err.</p>
-
-<p>It is true, they confess, that when they first saw the whites,
-they took them for beings of a superior kind. They did not
-know but that they had been sent to them from the abode of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span>
-the Great Spirit for some great and important purpose. They
-therefore, welcomed them, hoping to be made happier by their
-company. It was not long, however, before they discovered
-their mistake, having found them an ungrateful, insatiable people,
-who, though the Indians had given them as much land as was
-necessary to raise provisions for themselves and their families,
-and pasture for their cattle, wanted still to have more, and at
-last would not be contented with less than the <i>whole country</i>.
-“And yet,” say those injured people, “these white men would
-always be telling us of their great Book which God had given to
-them, they would persuade us that every man was good who
-believed in what the Book said, and every man was bad who
-did not believe in it. They told us a great many things, which
-they said were written in the good Book, and wanted us to believe
-it all. We would probably have done so, if we had seen
-them practise what they pretended to believe, and act according
-to the <i>good words</i> which they told us. But no! while they held
-their big Book in one hand, in the other they had murderous
-weapons, guns and swords, wherewith to kill us, poor Indians!
-Ah! and they did so too, they killed those who believed in
-their Book, as well as those who did not. They made no distinction!”</p>
-
-<p>They, nevertheless, are sensible that they have many friends
-among the white people, and only regret that from their being
-scattered and at a distance, they cannot be useful to them and
-to each other. Of those whom they know to be their friends,
-they always speak with warmth and affection. They also speak
-of the <i>Gentellemaan</i> (gentlemen) as a particular class among the
-whites which deserves to be distinguished; but they never apply
-that descriptive title to a person whom they know to be their
-enemy, or believe to be ill disposed towards them.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians have a keen eye; by looking at a person, they
-think that they can judge of his friendly or unfriendly disposition
-to their race; and, indeed, it has been allowed by many
-whites who have lived among them, that they are, in general,
-pretty good physiognomists. They are very quick among themselves
-in giving a name to a stranger or person of note that
-comes to them, and that name is always significant or descriptive
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span>
-of something remarkable which they have observed about
-his person, which serves them to remember him as a friend or
-otherwise, as the case may be; when they believe a person to
-be their friend, they will do everything in their power to oblige
-him, it being their principle that “good ought always to be
-rewarded with good.” They prefer a plain man, simple in his
-manners and who treats them with frankness and familiarity.
-Such a man, they say, loves them. From a proud haughty man
-they do not expect friendship; whatever may be his professions,
-they think him incapable of loving anybody but himself, or perhaps,
-at most, his equal, and that, they think, an Indian can, in
-his opinion, never be.</p>
-
-<p>They sometimes amuse themselves by passing in review those
-customs of the white people which appear to them most striking.
-They observe, amongst other things, that when the whites meet
-together, many of them, and sometimes all, speak at the same
-time, and they wonder how they can thus hear and understand
-each other. “Among us,” they say “only one person speaks
-at a time, and the others listen to him until he has done, after
-which, and not before, another begins to speak.” They say also
-that the whites speak too much, and that much talk disgraces a
-man and is fit only for women. On this subject they shrewdly
-observe, that it is well for the whites that they have the art of
-writing, and can write down their words and speeches; for had
-they, like themselves, to transmit them to posterity by means of
-strings and belts of wampum, they would want for their own use
-all the wampum that could be made, and none would be left for
-the Indians.</p>
-
-<p>They wonder that the white people are striving so much to
-get rich, and to heap up treasures in this world which they cannot
-carry with them to the next. They ascribe this to pride
-and to the desire of being called rich and great. They say that
-there is enough in this world to live upon, without laying anything
-by, and as to the next world, it contains plenty of everything,
-and they will find all their wants satisfied when they arrive
-there. They, therefore, do not lay up any stores, but merely
-take with them when they die as much as is necessary for their
-journey to the world of spirits.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span></p>
-
-<p>They believe, or, at least, pretend to believe, that the white
-people have weak eyes, or are near-sighted. “For,” say they,
-“when we Indians come among them, they crowd quite close
-up to us, stare at us, and almost tread upon our heels to get
-nearer. We, on the contrary, though, perhaps, not less curious
-than they are, to see a new people or a new object, keep at a
-reasonable distance, and yet see what we wish to see.” They
-also remark, that when the white people meet together, they
-speak very loud, although near to each other, from whence they
-conclude that they must be hard of hearing. “As to us,” they
-say, “we never speak loud when we come together, and yet we
-understand each other distinctly; we only speak in a high tone
-of voice before a public audience, in council, at the head of our
-warriors, or when we are met together for some important purpose.”</p>
-
-<p>The Indians also observe, that the white people must have a
-great many thieves among them, since they put locks to their
-doors, which shews great apprehension that their property otherwise
-would not be safe: “As to us,” say they, “we entertain no
-such fears; thieves are very rare among us, and we have no
-instance of any person breaking into a house. Our Indian lock
-is, when we go out, to set the corn pounder or a billet of wood
-against the door, so that it may be seen that no body is within,
-and there is no danger that any Indian would presume to enter
-a house thus secured.” Let me be permitted to illustrate this by
-an anecdote.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1771, while I was residing on the Big Beaver, I
-passed by the door of an Indian, who was a trader, and had consequently
-a quantity of goods in his house. He was going with
-his wife to Pittsburg, and they were shutting up the house, as
-no person remained in it during their absence. This shutting
-up was nothing else than putting a large hominy pounding-block,
-with a few sticks of wood outside against the door, so
-as to keep it closed. As I was looking at this man with attention
-while he was so employed, he addressed me in these words:
-“See my friend, this is an Indian lock that I am putting to my
-door.” I answered, “Well enough; but I see you leave much
-property in the house, are you not afraid that those articles will
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span>
-be stolen while you are gone?”&mdash;“Stolen! by whom?”&mdash;“Why,
-by Indians, to be sure.”&mdash;“No, no,” replied he, “no Indian
-would do such a thing, and unless a white man or white people
-should happen to come this way, I shall find all safe on my
-return.”</p>
-
-<p>The Indians say, that when the white people encamp in the
-woods they are sure to lose something; that when they are gone,
-something or another is always found which they have lost, such
-as a knife, flints, bullets, and sometimes even money. They also
-observe that the whites are not so attentive as they are to choosing
-an open dry spot for their encampment; that they will at
-once set themselves down in any dirty and wet place, provided
-they are under large trees; that they never look about to see
-which way the wind blows, so as to be able to lay the wood for
-their fires in such a position that the smoke may not blow on
-them; neither do they look up the trees to see whether there are
-not dead limbs that may fall on them while they are asleep; that
-any wood will do for them to lay on their fires, whether it be dry
-or wet, and half rotten, so that they are involved during the
-whole night in a cloud of smoke; or they take such wood as
-young green oak, walnut, cherry, chestnut, &amp;c., which throws
-sparks out to a great distance, so that their blankets and clothes
-get holes burned in them, and sometimes their whole camp takes
-fire. They also remark that the whites hang their kettles and
-pots over a fire just kindled, and before the great body of smoke
-has passed away.</p>
-
-<p>They, however, acknowledge that the whites are ingenious,
-that they make axes, guns, knives, hoes, shovels, pots and kettles,
-blankets, shirts, and other very convenient articles, to which
-they have now become accustomed, and which they can no
-longer do without. “Yet,” say they, “our forefathers did without
-all these things, and we have never heard, nor has any tradition
-informed us that they were at a loss for the want of them;
-therefore we must conclude that they also were ingenious; and,
-indeed, we know that they were; for they made axes of stone
-to cut with, and bows and arrows to kill the game: they made
-knives and arrows’ points with sharp flint stones and bones,
-hoes and shovels from the shoulder blade of the elk and buffaloe;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span>
-they made pots of clay, garments of skins, and ornaments
-with the feathers of the turkey, goose and other birds. They
-were not in want of anything, the game was plenty and tame,
-the dart shot from our arrows did not frighten them as the report
-of the gun now does; we had therefore everything that we
-could reasonably require; we lived happy!”</p>
-
-<p>Finally, they think, that the white people have learned much
-of them in the art of war; for when they first began to fight the
-Indians, they stood all together in a cluster, and suffered themselves
-to be shot down like turkies. They also make a distinction
-between a <i>warrior</i> and a <i>murderer</i>, which, as they explain it,
-is not much to our advantage. “It is not,” say they, “the number
-of scalps alone which a man brings with him that prove him
-to be a brave warrior. Cowards have been known to return,
-and bring scalps home, which they had taken where they knew
-there was no danger, where no attack was expected and no
-opposition made. Such was the case with those who killed the
-Conestogoes at and near Lancaster, the Christian Indians on
-the Muskingum, the friendly Indians near Pittsburg, and a great
-number of scattered, peaceable men of our nation, who were all
-murdered by <i>cowards</i>. It was not thus that the <i>Black Snake</i>,<a id="FNanchor_182" href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">182</a>
-the great General Wayne acted; he was a true warrior and a
-brave man; he was equal to any of the chiefs that we have,
-equal to any that we ever had.”</p>
-
-<p>Thus, the Indians, while they deeply resent the wrongs and
-injuries which they have suffered, yet pay due homage to worth,
-bravery, and military skill, even in an enemy. Strong as their
-feelings are, they do not extinguish their sense of justice, and
-they are still generously disposed to allow that there are great
-and good individuals among a race of men, who, they believe,
-have doomed them to utter destruction.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_194a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FOOD AND COOKERY.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> principal food of the Indians consists of the game
-which they take or kill in the woods, the fish out of
-the waters, and the maize, potatoes, beans, pumpkins,
-squashes, cucumbers, melons, and occasionally cabbages
-and turnips, which they raise in their fields; they make
-use also of various roots of plants, fruits, nuts, and berries out of
-the woods, by way of relish or as a seasoning to their victuals,
-sometimes also from necessity.</p>
-
-<p>They commonly make two meals every day, which, they say,
-is enough. If any one should feel hungry between meal-times,
-there is generally something in the house ready for him.</p>
-
-<p>The hunter prefers going out with his gun on an empty
-stomach; he says, that hunger stimulates him to exertion by
-reminding him continually of his wants, whereas a full stomach
-makes a hunter easy, careless, and lazy, ever thinking of his
-home and losing his time to no purpose. With all their industry,
-nevertheless, and notwithstanding this strong stimulant,
-many a day passes over their heads that they have not met with
-any kind of game, nor consequently tasted a morsel of victuals;
-still they go on with their chase, in hopes of being able to carry
-some provisions home, and do not give up the pursuit until it is
-so dark that they can see no longer.</p>
-
-<p>The morning and evening, they say, are the precious hours
-for the hunter. They lose nothing by sleeping in the middle
-of the day, that is to say, between ten o’clock in the morning
-and four in the afternoon, except in dark, cloudy, and rainy
-weather, when the whole day is nearly equally good for hunting.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span>
-Therefore the hunter, who happens to have no meat in
-the house, will be off and in the woods before daylight, and
-strive to be in again for breakfast with a deer, turkey, goose,
-bear, or raccoon, or some other game then in season. Meanwhile,
-his wife has pounded her corn, now boiling on the fire,
-and baked her bread, which gives them a good breakfast. If,
-however, the husband is not returned by ten o’clock in the forenoon,
-the family take their meal by themselves, and his share is
-put aside for him when he comes home.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians have a number of manners of preparing their
-corn. They make an excellent pottage of it, by boiling it with
-fresh or dried meat (the latter pounded), dried pumpkins, dry
-beans, and chestnuts. They sometimes sweeten it with sugar or
-molasses from the sugar-maple tree. Another very good dish is
-prepared by boiling with their corn or maize, the washed kernels
-of the shell-bark or hickory nut. They pound the nuts in
-a block or mortar, pouring a little warm water on them, and
-gradually a little more as they become dry, until, at last, there
-is a sufficient quantity of water, so that by stirring up the
-pounded nuts the broken shells separate from the liquor, which
-from the pounded kernels assumes the appearance of milk. This
-being put into the kettle and mixed with the pottage gives it a
-rich and agreeable flavour. If the broken shells do not all freely
-separate by swimming on the top or sinking to the bottom, the
-liquor is strained through a clean cloth, before it is put into the
-kettle.</p>
-
-<p>They also prepare a variety of dishes from the pumpkin, the
-squash, and the green French or kidney beans; they are very
-particular in their choice of pumpkins and squashes, and in their
-manner of cooking them. The women say that the less water
-is put to them, the better dish they make, and that it would be
-still better if they were stewed without any water, merely in the
-steam of the sap which they contain. They cover up the pots
-in which they cook them with large leaves of the pumpkin vine,
-cabbages, or other leaves of the larger kind. They make an
-excellent preserve from the cranberry and crab-apple, to which,
-after it has been well stewed, they add a proper quantity of
-sugar or molasses.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span></p>
-
-<p>Their bread is of two kinds; one made up of green corn while
-in the milk, and another of the same grain when fully ripe and
-quite dry. This last is pounded as fine as possible, then sifted
-and kneaded into dough, and afterwards made up into cakes of
-six inches in diameter and about an inch in thickness, rounded
-off on the edge. In baking these cakes, they are extremely particular;
-the ashes must be clean and hot, and if possible come
-out of good dry oak barks, which they say gives a brisk and
-durable heat. In the dough of this kind of bread, they frequently
-mix boiled pumpkins, green or dried, dry beans, or well
-pared chestnuts, boiled in the same manner, dried venison well
-pounded, whortleberries, green or dry, but not boiled, sugar
-and other palatable ingredients. For the other kind of bread,
-the green corn is either pounded or mashed, is put in broad
-green corn blades, generally filled in with a ladle, well wrapped
-up, and baked in the ashes, like the other. They consider this
-as a very delicate morsel, but to me it is too sweet.</p>
-
-<p>Their <i>Psindam&oacute;can</i> or <i>Tassman&aacute;nc</i>, as they call it, is the most
-nourishing and durable food made out of the Indian corn. The
-blue sweetish kind is the grain which they prefer for that purpose.
-They parch it in clean hot ashes, until it bursts, it is then
-sifted and cleaned, and pounded in a mortar into a kind of flour,
-and when they wish to make it very good, they mix some sugar
-with it. When wanted for use, they take about a table spoonful
-of this flour in their mouths, then stooping to the river or brook,
-drink water to it. If, however, they have a cup or other small
-vessel at hand, they put the flour in it and mix it with water, in
-the proportion of one table spoonful to a pint. At their camps
-they will put a small quantity in a kettle with water and let it
-boil down, and they will have a thick pottage. With this food,
-the traveller and warrior will set out on long journeys and
-expeditions, and as a little of it will serve them for a day, they
-have not a heavy load of provisions to carry. Persons who are
-unacquainted with this diet ought to be careful not to take too
-much at a time, and not to suffer themselves to be tempted too
-far by its flavour; more than one or two spoonfuls at most at
-any one time or at one meal is dangerous; for it is apt to swell
-in the stomach or bowels, as when heated over a fire.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span></p>
-
-<p>Their meat they either boil, roast, or broil. Their roasting is
-done by running a wooden spit through the meat, sharpened at
-each end, which they place near the fire, and occasionally turn.
-They broil on clean coals, drawn off from the fire for that purpose.
-They often laugh at the white hunters, for baking their
-bread in dirty ashes, and being alike careless of cleanliness when
-they broil their meat. They are fond of dried venison, pounded
-in a mortar and dipped in bear’s oil. The Delawares, Mohicans,
-and Shawanos are very particular in their choice of meats, and
-nothing short of the most pressing hunger can induce them to
-eat of certain animals, such as the horse, dog, wild cat, panther,
-fox, muskrat, wolf, &amp;c., all which I have several times seen the
-Chippeways feast upon with a seemingly good appetite. The Iroquois
-are said to have been formerly very dirty in their eating.
-They dried the entrails of animals without cleaning, or even
-emptying them of their contents; then cut them into pieces and
-put them into their pottage, by way of seasoning.<a id="FNanchor_183" href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">183</a> The late Mr.
-Zeisberger has often related to me how he once mistook for
-black pepper or some other kind of spice, a certain unpleasant
-ingredient which he found floating in small grains on the surface
-of their broth.</p>
-
-<p>Far different in this respect are the Lenape and their kindred
-tribes, particularly the three which I have named above. They
-are not only cleanly in their eating, but even delicate, and they
-will sometimes resist the pressing calls of hunger rather than
-eat the flesh of those animals which they consider as not being
-proper food for man. Of this I shall give an instance in the
-following anecdote.</p>
-
-<p>I was travelling in the spring of 1773, from Muskingum to the
-Big Beaver, with more than twenty Indians, five of whom were
-old men and the rest women and children, all (except our guide)
-strangers to the country, having come but the year before from
-Wyalusing on the Susquehannah. Having been at one time
-confined two days by the overflowing of two large creeks,
-between which we were, we found our provisions at an end.
-Every man who had a gun was called upon to turn out into the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span>
-woods, and try to kill something. Their endeavours, however,
-were to no purpose; the day passed away, and they all, except
-the well-known <i>Popunhank</i><a id="FNanchor_184" href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">184</a> who had lost himself, returned to
-camp at night without bringing any thing of the meat kind
-but a wild cat, which our guide had shot. The Indians never
-despair, not even in the worst of times and under the severest
-trials; when placed in difficult situations they never use discouraging
-language, but always endeavour to raise their spirits
-and prevent them from sinking, under the hardships or dangers to
-which they are exposed. True to this national character, one of
-our old Indians immediately pronounced this wild cat to be “good,
-very good eating,” and it was immediately ordered to be put on the
-spit and roasted for our supper. While this was performing, the
-old Indian endeavoured to divert the company by extolling in a
-jocular manner the country they had now got into, and where
-such good things were to be had; to which some one or other
-of the old men would reply; “all very true.” At length, about
-nine o’clock at night, the call was given by the old cook (for so
-I now call him) that the meat was done and we might come in to
-eat. I, who had heard so much in praise of this repast, being
-greatly pinched with hunger, had kept myself in readiness for
-this expected call; but seeing nobody rise, and observing much
-merriment through the camp, I began to suspect that something
-was the matter, and therefore kept my seat. The night was
-spent without any body attempting to eat of the wild cat, and in
-the morning a different call was given by one of the old men,
-signifying that a large kettle of tea had been made by some of
-the good women, who invited all to come and take their share
-of it. Every one obeyed this call, and I went with the rest, the
-jovial old cook taking the roasted wild cat with him to the
-mess. The scene was not only very diverting, but brought on
-an interesting discussion between the men on the propriety or
-impropriety of eating the flesh of all animals without restriction,
-some contending that they were all by the will of the great
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span>
-Creator ordained for some use, and therefore put in the power
-of man; and how were we to know which were intended for our
-nourishment and which not? The old cook had himself taken
-that position, adding that the hog and the bear fed on dirty things,
-and yet we ate their meat with a good appetite. The cat, however,
-notwithstanding all the arguments in its favour, remained
-untouched, and was taken back by the old hunter and cook to
-its former place at his fire.</p>
-
-<p>But now, Popunhank, whom we believed to be lost, and our
-guide, who once more had gone out, and exerted himself in vain
-to kill a deer, came in together. The guide had been desired as
-he pursued his hunt to look for our lost companion, and had the
-good luck to find him at the distance of five or six miles, with a
-fine deer that he had killed. He lost no time in bringing him
-back to our camp.</p>
-
-<p>The sight of these two men dragging a large deer along was
-truly joyful to us, as well on account of the recovery of our lost
-friend, as of the meat that he brought. All felt the cravings of
-hunger, all were delighted with the certain prospect of immediate
-relief, yet no boisterous or extraordinary rejoicing took
-place, but all called out with one voice: <i>Anischi! Anischi!</i> we
-are thankful. The wild cat, which yet remained untouched,
-was thrown out of the camp, and dismissed by the old cook
-with these words: “Go, cat, we do not want you this time!”</p>
-
-<p>The woods and waters, at certain times and seasons, furnish to
-the Indians an abundant supply of wholesome nourishing food,
-which, if carefully gathered, cured and stored up, would serve
-them for the whole year, so that none need perish or even suffer
-from hunger; but they are not accustomed to laying in stores of
-provisions, except some Indian corn, dry beans and a few other
-articles. Hence they are sometimes reduced to great straits,
-and not seldom in absolute want of the necessaries of life,
-especially in the time of war. Yet, notwithstanding the numerous
-famines they have been visited with, they have among their
-traditions but one instance on record in which an human life
-was taken for the support of others, although they relate many
-cases in which numbers of them were actually starved to death.
-The case I allude to was so singular a circumstance, that it
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span>
-seems the cruel act to which it gave rise was almost unavoidable.
-I shall relate it here as I have received it from the most
-unquestionable authority.</p>
-
-<p>In the winter of 1739-40, ever since remembered as the hard
-winter, when the ground was covered with a very deep snow, a
-woman with three children, was coming from beyond the
-Allegheny mountains on a visit to her friends or relations residing
-at the great island on the west branch of the Susquehannah.
-After she had reached that river somewhere about
-<i>Achtschingi Clammui</i>, which the whites have corrupted into
-<i>Chingleclamoose</i>,<a id="FNanchor_185" href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">185</a> the snow fell in earlier than had been before
-known, to such a depth, that she could not proceed any farther.
-She began with putting herself and her children on short allowance,
-in hopes that the weather might become more moderate,
-or the snow so hard that they could walk over it. She strove
-to make her little store of provisions last as long as she could,
-by using the grass which grew on the river’s edge, and certain
-barks as substitutes, which she boiled to make them digestible;
-but more snow falling, until at last it rose to the height of a
-fathom or six feet, she was deprived even of that wretched food,
-and the wolves hovering about day and night, often attempting
-to rush into her little encampment, her whole time was taken up
-with procuring wood and making fires to prevent herself and
-her children from being frozen to death, and keeping those
-voracious animals at a distance by throwing out fire-brands to
-them. Her situation, at last, became intolerable. Having no
-alternative but that of sacrificing one of her children, she resolved
-on destroying the youngest, in order to preserve the
-others and herself from the most dreadful death. After much
-hesitation, she turned away her eyes and with a trembling hand
-gave the fatal stroke, filling at the same time the air with her
-loud lamentations.&mdash;She now thought she had obtained a temporary
-relief, and that she might be able to support herself and
-her surviving children until a change in the weather should take
-place, so that they could be able to proceed on their journey;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span>
-but the wolves getting the scent of the slaughtered child, became
-more furious than before, her danger every moment became more
-imminent. She now filled the air with her cries and supplications
-to the Great Spirit that he would look down with compassion
-on their awful condition, and save them by his almighty
-power.&mdash;But still the danger increased, the horrid food was
-almost exhausted, and no relief came. Already she contemplated
-sacrificing another child; she looked at each of them
-again and again with a mother’s eye, now resolving on killing
-the one, then changing her mind, and endeavouring to determine
-on the destruction of the other; she hesitated, wept, despaired,
-and the children, well understanding what she meant, prayed
-that they might all die together. While in this situation, her
-hand already lifted to strike the fatal stroke, the yell of two
-approaching Indians strikes her ear, and the murderous weapon
-falls from her hand. The men with rackets to their feet now
-appear and the dreadful scene is at once closed. They had
-provisions with them. They made a pair of rackets for the
-woman to walk on, and brought her and her children along in
-safety to the Big Island, where my informants resided at the
-time. I cannot remember whether they told me that they had
-gone to that spot in consequence of a dream, or of some strong
-presentiment that they should find human creatures in distress;
-certain I am, however, that it was owing to one or other of these
-causes.</p>
-
-<p>The place where this awful event took place was since called
-<i>Enda Moh&aacute;tink</i>, which means “where human flesh was eaten.”
-This name has been very familiar to the Indians who resided
-in that part of the country.</p>
-
-<p>There is a spot of land at the edge of the great Pine or Beech
-Swamp, precisely where it is crossed by the road leading to
-Wyoming, which is called <i>the Hermit’s Field</i>, and of which the
-following account is given. A short time before the white
-people came into Pennsylvania, a woman from some cause or
-other had separated herself from society, and with her young
-son, had taken her abode in this swamp, where she remained
-undiscovered until the boy grew up to manhood, procuring a
-livelihood by the use of the bow and arrow, in killing deer,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span>
-turkeys and other animals, planting corn and vegetables, and
-gathering and curing nuts and berries of various kinds. When
-after her long seclusion she again saw Indians, she was much
-astonished to find them dressed in European apparel. She had
-become so attached to her place of abode, that she again<a id="FNanchor_186" href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">186</a> returned
-thither and remained there for several years. I was
-shewn by the Indians in the year 1765, and often afterwards,
-the corn hills that she had made; the ground, being a stiff clay,
-was not wasted or worn down, but was covered with bushes, and
-the traces of the labour of the female hermit were plainly discoverable.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the Indians will support themselves in the midst of the
-greatest difficulties, never despairing of their fate, but trusting to
-their exertions, and to the protection of the Almighty Being
-who created them.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_202.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_203a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">DRESS, AND ORNAMENTING OF THEIR PERSONS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">In</span> ancient times, the dress of the Indians was made of
-the skins of animals and feathers. This clothing, they
-say, was not only warmer, but lasted much longer
-than any woollen goods they have since purchased of
-the white people. They can dress any skin, even that of the
-buffaloe, so that it becomes quite soft and supple, and a good
-buffaloe or bear skin blanket will serve them many years without
-wearing out. Beaver and raccoon skin blankets are also pliant,
-warm and durable; they sew together as many of those
-skins as is necessary, carefully setting the hair or fur all the
-same way, so that the blanket or covering be smooth, and the
-rain do not penetrate, but run off. In wearing these fur blankets
-they are regulated by the weather; if it is cold and dry the
-fur is placed next the body, but in warm and wet weather, they
-have it outside. Some made themselves long frocks of fine fur,
-and the women’s petticoats in the winter season were also made
-of them, otherwise of dressed deer skins, the same as their shirts,
-leggings and shoes. They say that shoes made of dressed bear
-skins, with the hair on and turned inside, are very warm, and in
-dry weather, durable. With the large rib bones of the elk and
-buffaloe they shaved the hair off the skins they dressed, and
-even now, they say that they can clean a skin as well with a
-well prepared rib-bone as with a knife.</p>
-
-<p>The blankets made from feathers were also warm and durable.
-They were the work of the women, particularly of the old, who
-delight in such work, and indeed, in any work which shews that
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span>
-they are able to do their parts and be useful to society. It requires
-great patience, being the most tedious kind of work I
-have ever seen them perform, yet they do it in a most ingenious
-manner. The feathers, generally those of the turkey and goose,
-are so curiously arranged and interwoven together with thread
-or twine, which they prepare from the rind or bark of the wild
-hemp and nettle, that ingenuity and skill cannot be denied them.
-They show the same talent and much forethought in making
-their <i>Happis</i>, the bands with which they carry their bags and
-other burdens; they make these very strong and lasting.</p>
-
-<p>The present dress of the Indians is well known to consist in
-blankets, plain or ruffled shirts and leggings for the men, and
-petticoats for the women, made of cloth, generally red, blue, or
-black. The wealthy adorn themselves besides with ribands or
-gartering of various colours, beads and silver broaches. These
-ornaments are arranged by the women, who, as well as the men,
-know how to dress themselves in style. Those of the men principally
-consist in the painting of themselves, their head and face
-principally, shaving or good clean garments, silver arm spangles
-and breast plates, and a belt or two of wampum hanging to their
-necks. The women, at the expense of their husbands or lovers,
-line their petticoat and blue or scarlet cloth blanket or covering
-with choice ribands of various colours, or with gartering, on
-which they fix a number of silver broaches, or small round
-buckles. They adorn their leggings in the same manner; their
-mocksens, (properly <i>Maxen</i>, or according to the English pronunciation
-<i>Moxen</i>), are embroidered in the neatest manner, with
-coloured porcupine quills, and are besides, almost entirely covered
-with various trinkets; they have, moreover, a number of
-little bells and brass thimbles fixed round their ancles, which,
-when they walk, make a tinkling noise, which is heard at some
-distance; this is intended to draw the attention of those who
-pass by, that they may look at and admire them.</p>
-
-<p>The women make use of vermilion in painting themselves for
-dances, but they are very careful and circumspect in applying
-the paint, so that it does not offend or create suspicion in their
-husbands; there is a mode of painting which is left entirely to
-loose women and prostitutes.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span></p>
-
-<p>As I was once resting in my travels at the house of a trader
-who lived at some distance from an Indian town, I went in the
-morning to visit an Indian acquaintance and friend of mine. I
-found him engaged in plucking out his beard, preparatory to
-painting himself for a dance which was to take place the ensuing
-evening. Having finished his head dress, about an hour before
-sunset, he came up, as he said, to see me, but I and my companions
-judged that he came <i>to be seen</i>. To my utter astonishment,
-I saw three different paintings or figures on one and the
-same face. He had, by his great ingenuity and judgment in laying
-on and shading the different colours, made his nose appear,
-when we stood directly in front of him, as if it were very long
-and narrow, with a round knob at the end, much like the upper
-part of a pair of tongs. On one cheek there was a red round
-spot, about the size of an apple, and the other was done in the
-same manner with black. The eye-lids, both the upper and
-lower ones, were reversed in the colouring. When we viewed
-him in profile on one side, his nose represented the beak of an
-eagle, with the bill rounded and brought to a point, precisely as
-those birds have it, though the mouth was somewhat open. The
-eye was astonishingly well done, and the head, upon the whole,
-appeared tolerably well, shewing a great deal of fierceness.
-When we turned round to the other side, the same nose now
-resembled the snout of a pike, with the mouth so open, that the
-teeth could be seen. He seemed much pleased with his execution,
-and having his looking-glass with him, he contemplated
-his work, seemingly with great pride and exultation. He asked
-me how I liked it? I answered that if he had done the work
-on a piece of board, bark, or anything else, I should like it very
-well and often look at it. But, asked he, why not so as it is?
-Because I cannot see the face that is hidden under these colours,
-so as to know who it is. Well, he replied, I must go now, and
-as you cannot know me to-day, I will call to-morrow morning
-before you leave this place. He did so, and when he came back
-he was washed clean again.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, for a single night’s <i>frolic</i>, a whole day is spent in what
-they call dressing, in which each strives to outdo the other.</p>
-
-<p>When the men paint their thighs, legs and breast, they, generally,
-after laying on a thin shading coat of a darkish colour,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span>
-and sometimes of a whitish clay, dip their fingers’ ends in black
-or red paint, and drawing it on with their outspread fingers,
-bring the streaks to a serpentine form. The garments of some
-of their principal actors are singular, and decorated with such
-a number of gewgaws and trinkets, that it is impossible to give
-a precise description of them. Neither are they all alike in
-taste, every one dressing himself according to his fancy, or the
-custom of the tribe to which he belongs. While the women,
-as I have already said, have thimbles and little bells rattling at
-their ancles, the men have deers’ claws fixed to their braced
-garters or knee bands, and also to their shoes, for the same purpose;
-for they consider jingling and rattling as indispensably
-necessary to their performances in the way of dancing.</p>
-
-<p>The notion formerly entertained that the Indians are beardless
-by nature and have no hair on their bodies, appears now to be
-exploded and entirely laid aside. I cannot conceive how it is
-possible for any person to pass three weeks only among those
-people, without seeing them pluck out their beards, with tweezers
-made expressly for that purpose. Before the Europeans
-came into the country, their apparatus for performing this work,
-consisted of a pair of muscle shells, sharpened on a gritty stone,
-which answered very well, being somewhat like pincers; but
-since they can obtain wire, of which that of brass is preferred,
-they make themselves tweezers, which they always carry with
-them in their tobacco-pouch, wherever they go, and when at
-leisure, they pluck out their beards or the hair above their foreheads.
-This they do in a very quick manner, much like the
-plucking of a fowl, and the oftener they pluck out their hair,
-the finer it grows afterwards, so that at last there appears hardly
-any, the whole having been rooted out. The principal reasons
-which they give for thus plucking out their beards and the hair
-next to their foreheads, are that they may have a clean skin to
-lay the paint on, when they dress for their festivals or dances,
-and to facilitate the <i>tattooing</i> themselves, a custom formerly much
-in use among them, especially with those who had distinguished
-themselves by their valour, and acquired celebrity. They say
-that either painting or tattooing on a hairy face or body would
-have a disgusting appearance.</p>
-
-<p>As late as the year 1762, when I resided at Tuscorawas on
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span>
-the Muskingum, tattooing was still practised by some Indians;
-a valiant chief of that village, named <i>Wawundochwalend</i>, desirous
-of having another name given him, had the figure of a water-lizard
-engraved or tattooed on his face, above the chin, when he
-received the name <i>Twakachshawsu</i>, the water-lizard. The process
-of tattooing, which I once saw performed, is quickly done,
-and does not seem to give much pain. They have poplar bark
-in readiness burnt and reduced to a powder, the figures that are
-to be tattooed are marked or designed on the skin; the operator
-with a small stick, rather larger than a common match, to the
-end of which some sharp needles are fastened, quickly pricks
-over the whole so that blood is drawn, then a coat of this powder
-is laid and left on to dry. Before the whites came into this
-country, they scarified themselves for this purpose with sharp
-flint stones, or pricked themselves with the sharp teeth of a fish.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1742, a veteran warrior of the Lenape nation and
-Monsey tribe, renowned among his own people for his bravery
-and prowess, and equally dreaded by their enemies, joined the
-Christian Indians who then resided at this place.<a id="FNanchor_187" href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">187</a> This man,
-who was then at an advanced age, had a most striking appearance,
-and could not be viewed without astonishment. Besides
-that his body was full of scars, where he had been struck and
-pierced by the arrows of the enemy, there was not a spot to be
-seen, on that part of it which was exposed to view, but what was
-tattooed over with some drawing relative to his achievements,
-so that the whole together struck the beholder with amazement
-and terror. On his whole face, neck, shoulders, arms, thighs
-and legs, as well as on his breast and back, were represented
-scenes of the various actions and engagements he had been in;
-in short, the whole of his history was there deposited, which
-was well known to those of his nation, and was such that all
-who heard it thought it could never be surpassed by man.<a id="FNanchor_188" href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">188</a> Far
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span>
-from, murdering those who were defenceless or unarmed, his
-generosity, as well as his courage and skill in the art of war,
-was acknowledged by all. When, after his conversion, he was
-questioned about his warlike feats, he frankly and modestly
-answered, “That being now taken captive by <i>Jesus Christ</i>, it
-did not become him to relate the deeds he had done while in
-the service of the evil spirit; but that he was willing to give an
-account in the manner in which he had been <i>conquered</i>.” At
-his baptism, on the 23d of December 1742, he received the name
-of <i>Michael</i>, which he preserved until his death, which happened
-on the 23rd of July 1756. He led the life of a true Christian,
-and was always ready and willing to relate the history of his
-conversion, which I heard myself from his own mouth. His
-age, when he died, was supposed to be about eighty years.</p>
-
-<p>The cutting of the ears, which formerly was practised among
-the Indians, is now no longer so common with them. Their
-reasons for laying this custom aside, are that the operation is
-painful, not only when performed, but until the ears are perfectly
-healed, which takes a long time, and that they often lose that
-part of their ears which is separated from the solid part, by its
-being torn off by the bushes, or falling off when frost-bitten. I
-once heard of a gay Indian setting off on a severe cold morning
-for a neighbouring village not more than three miles distant,
-whose ears had been touched by the frost, and dropped off
-before he arrived at the place to which he was going. He had
-not even felt that he had lost them, and when told of it, he was
-so chagrined that he was going to destroy himself. I have seen
-a great many Indians with torn ears; but now the custom of
-cutting them is nearly if not entirely disused.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_208.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_209a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">DANCES, SONGS, AND SACRIFICES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> dances of the Indians vary according to the purposes
-for which they are intended. We have seen,
-in the second chapter of this work, that when the
-Dutch first landed on New York island, the inhabitants
-who believed them to be celestial beings, began a solemn
-dance, in order to propitiate them. It is not uncommon for men
-who are deprived of the light of revealed religion, to believe that
-the divinity will be pleased with the same things from which
-they themselves receive pleasure.</p>
-
-<p>It is a pleasing spectacle to see the Indian dances, when intended
-merely for social diversion and innocent amusement. I
-acknowledge I would prefer being present at them for a full
-hour, than a few minutes only at such dances as I have witnessed
-in our country taverns among the white people. Their songs
-are by no means unharmonious. They sing in chorus; first the
-men and then the women. At times the women join in the
-general song, or repeat the strain which the men have just
-finished. It seems like two parties singing in questions and
-answers, and is upon the whole very agreeable and enlivening.
-After thus singing for about a quarter of an hour, they conclude
-each song with a loud yell, which I must confess is not in concord
-with the rest of the music; it is not unlike the cat-bird
-which closes its pretty song with mewing like a cat. I do not
-admire this <i>finale</i>. The singing always begins by one person
-only, but others soon fall in successively until the general chorus
-begins, the drum beating all the while to mark the time. The
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span>
-voices of the women are clear and full, and their intonations
-generally correct.</p>
-
-<p>Their war dances have nothing engaging; their object, on the
-contrary, is to strike terror in the beholders. They are dressed
-and painted, or rather bedaubed with paint, in a manner suitable
-to the occasion. They hold the murderous weapon in their hand,
-and imitate in their dance all the warlike attitudes, motions and
-actions which are usual in an engagement with the enemy, and
-strive to excel each other by their terrific looks and gestures.
-They generally perform round a painted post set up for that
-purpose, in a large room or place enclosed or surrounded with
-posts, and roofed with the bark of trees; sometimes also this
-dance is executed in the open air. There every man presents
-himself in warrior’s array, contemptuously looking upon the
-painted post, as if it was the enemy whom he was about to engage;
-as he passes by it he strikes, stabs, grasps, pretends to
-scalp, to cut, to run through; in short, endeavours to shew
-what he would do to a real enemy, if he had him in his power.</p>
-
-<p>It was an ancient custom among the Indians to perform this
-dance round a prisoner, and as they danced, to make him
-undergo every kind of torture, previous to putting him to death.
-The prisoner appeared to partake in the merriment, contemptuously
-scoffing at his executioner, as being unskilled in the art
-of inflicting torments: strange as this conduct may appear, it
-was not without a sufficient motive. The object of the unfortunate
-sufferer was to rouse his relentless tormentors to such a
-pitch of fury, that some of them might, at an unguarded moment,
-give him the finishing stroke and put him out of his pain.</p>
-
-<p>Previous to going out on a warlike campaign, the war-dance
-is always performed round the painted post. It is the Indian
-mode of recruiting. Whoever joins in the dance is considered
-as having enlisted for the campaign, and is obliged to go out
-with the party.</p>
-
-<p>After returning from a successful expedition, a dance of <i>thanksgiving</i>
-is always performed, which partakes of the character of
-a religious ceremony. It is accompanied with singing and
-choruses, in which the women join. But they take no part in
-the rest of the performance. At the end of every song, the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span>
-<i>scalp-yell</i> is shouted as many times as there have been scalps
-taken from the enemy.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians also meet occasionally for the purpose of recounting
-their warlike exploits, which is done in a kind of half-singing
-or <i>recitative</i>. The oldest warrior recites first, then they go on in
-rotation and in order of seniority, the drum beating all the time,
-as it were to give to the relation the greater appearance of reality.
-After each has made a short recital in his turn, they begin again
-in the same order, and so continue going the rounds, in a kind
-of alternate chanting, until every one has concluded. On these
-occasions, great care must be taken not to give offence by affecting
-superiority over the others, for every warrior feels his own
-consequence, and is ready, if insulted, to shew by his actions,
-what he has performed in war and is still able to do. I well
-remember an instance of the kind, when an insulted warrior
-stepped out of the circle in which he was dancing, and struck
-dead the impudent boaster who had offended him.</p>
-
-<p>Their songs are in general of the warlike or of the tender and
-pathetic kind. They are sung in short sentences, not without
-some kind of measure, harmonious to an Indian ear. The music
-is well adapted to the words, and to me is not unpleasing. I
-would not attempt to give an idea of it by means of our musical
-notes, as has been done by other writers, lest I should be as unsuccessful
-as those who have tried in the same manner to describe
-the melodies of the ancient Greeks. It would be well if
-I could describe at one and the same time the whole combination
-of effects which acted upon my ear, but it is vain to endeavour
-to do it partially. It is, indeed, much the same with their poetry;
-yet I cannot resist the temptation of translating as well as
-I can, the words of the Lenape’s song, when they go out to war.
-They sing it, as I give it here, in short lines or sentences, not
-always the whole at one time, but most generally in detached
-parts, as time permits and as the occasion or their feelings
-prompt them. Their accent is very pathetic, and the whole, in
-their language, produces considerable effect.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span></p>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">The Song of the Lenape Warriors going against the Enemy.</span></h3>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“O poor me!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whom am going out to fight the enemy,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And know not whether I shall return again,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To enjoy the embraces of my children<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And my wife.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">O poor creature!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whose life is not in his own hands,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Who has no power over his own body,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But tries to do his duty<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For the welfare of his nation.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">O! thou Great Spirit above!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Take pity on my children<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And on my wife!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Prevent their mourning on my account!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Grant that I may be successful in this attempt&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That I may slay my enemy,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And bring home the trophies of war<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To my dear family and friends,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That we may rejoice together.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">O! take pity on me!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Give me strength and courage to meet my enemy,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Suffer me to return again to my children,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To my wife<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And to my relations!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Take pity on me and preserve my life<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And I will make to thee a sacrifice.”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The song of the Wyandot warriors, as translated to me by an
-Indian trader, would read thus: “Now I am going on an errand
-of pleasure&mdash;O! God, take pity on me, and throw good fortune
-in my way&mdash;grant that I may be successful.”</p>
-
-<p>Thus their Almighty Creator is always before their eyes on
-all important occasions. They feel and acknowledge his supreme
-power. They also endeavour to propitiate him by outward
-worship, or <i>sacrifices</i>.</p>
-
-<p>These are religious solemnities, intended to make themselves
-acceptable to the Great Spirit, to find favor in his sight, and obtain
-his forgiveness for past errors or offences. It is not, as some
-white persons would lead us to believe, that knowing the Great
-Spirit to be good, they are under no apprehensions from his
-wrath, and that they make sacrifices to the evil spirit, believing
-him alone to be capable of doing them hurt. This cannot be true
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span>
-of a people, who, as I have already said in another part, hold it
-as a fixed principle “that good and evil cannot and must not be
-united,” who declare and acknowledge the great and good Spirit
-to be “all powerful,” and the evil one to be “weak and limited
-in power;” who rely alone on the goodness of the author of
-their existence, and who, before every thing, seek by all the
-means in their power to obtain his favour and protection. For,
-they are convinced, that the evil spirit has no power over them,
-as long as they are in favour with the good one, and to him
-alone, acknowledging his continued goodness to them and their
-forefathers, they look for protection against the <i>Devil</i>, and his
-inferior spirits.</p>
-
-<p>It is a part of their religious belief, that there are inferior
-<i>Mannittos</i>, to whom the great and good Being has given the rule
-and command over the elements; that being so great, he, like
-their chiefs, must have his attendants to execute his supreme
-behests; these subordinate spirits (something in their nature
-between God and man) see and report to him what is doing upon
-earth; they look down particularly upon the Indians, to see
-whether they are in need of assistance, and are ready at their
-call to assist and protect them against danger.</p>
-
-<p>Thus I have frequently witnessed Indians, on the approach of
-a storm or thunder-gust, address the Mannitto of the air, to
-avert all danger from them; I have also seen the Chippeways,
-on the Lakes of Canada, pray to the Mannitto of the waters,
-that he might prevent the swells from rising too high, while they
-were passing over them. In both these instances, they expressed
-their acknowledgment, or shewed their willingness to be grateful,
-by throwing tobacco in the air, or strewing it on the waters.</p>
-
-<p>There are even some animals, which though they are not considered
-as invested with power over them, yet are believed to be
-placed as guardians over their lives; and of course entitled to
-some notice and to some tokens of gratitude. Thus, when in the
-night, an owl is heard sounding its note, or calling to its mate,
-some person in the camp will rise, and taking some <i>Glicanican</i>,
-or Indian tobacco, will strew it on the fire, thinking that the
-ascending smoke will reach the bird, and that he will see that
-they are not unmindful of his services, and of his kindness to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span>
-them and their ancestors. This custom originated from the following
-incident, which tradition has handed down to them.</p>
-
-<p>It happened at one time, when they were engaged in a war
-with a distant and powerful nation, that a body of their warriors
-was in the camp, fast asleep, no kind of danger at that moment
-being apprehended. Suddenly, the great “Sentinel” over mankind,
-the <i>owl</i>, sounded the alarm; all the birds of the species
-were alert at their posts, all at once calling out, as if saying:
-“Up! up! Danger! Danger!” Obedient to their call, every
-man jumped up in an instant; when, to their surprise, they found
-that their enemy was in the very act of surrounding them, and
-they would all have been killed in their sleep, if the owl had not
-given them this timely warning.</p>
-
-<p>But, amidst all these superstitious notions, the supreme Mannitto,
-the creator and preserver of heaven and earth, is the great
-object of their adoration. On him they rest their hopes, to him
-they address their prayers and make their solemn sacrifices.
-These religious ceremonies are not always performed in the
-same manner. I had intended to have given some details upon
-this subject, but I find that it has been almost exhausted by
-other writers,<a id="FNanchor_189" href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">189</a> although I will not pretend to say that they are
-correct on every point. But I do not wish to repeat things
-which have already been told to the world over and over. Therefore,
-if on some subjects, relating to the manners and customs
-of the Indians, I should be thought to have passed over too
-quickly, and not to have sufficiently entered into particulars, let
-it be understood that I have done so to avoid the repetition of
-what others have said, although I am afraid I have been inadvertently
-guilty of it in more than one instance. I would not presume
-to communicate my little stock of knowledge, if I did not
-think that it will add something to what is already known.</p>
-
-<p>I do not recollect that it has already been mentioned, that
-previous to entering upon the solemnity of their sacrifices, the
-Indians prepare themselves by vomiting, fasting, and drinking
-decoctions from certain prescribed plants. This they do to
-expel the evil which is within them, and that they may with
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span>
-a pure conscience attend to the <i>sacred performance</i>, for such they
-consider it. Nor is the object of those sacrifices always the
-same; there are sacrifices of prayer and sacrifices of thanksgiving,
-some for all the favours received by them and their
-ancestors from the great Being, others for special or particular
-benefits. After a successful war, they never fail to offer up a
-sacrifice to the great Being, to return him thanks for having
-given them courage and strength to destroy or conquer their
-enemies.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_215.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_216a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">SCALPING&mdash;WHOOPS OR YELLS&mdash;PRISONERS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/s.jpg" alt="S" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Scalping</span> is a practice which the Indians say has
-obtained with their nations for ages. I need not
-describe the manner in which the operation is performed,
-it has been sufficiently done by others.<a id="FNanchor_190" href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">190</a>
-Indian warriors think it necessary to bring home the scalps of
-those they have killed or disabled, as visible proofs of their
-valour; otherwise they are afraid that their relations of the
-combat and the account they give of their individual prowess
-might be doubted or disbelieved. Those scalps are dried up,
-painted and preserved as trophies, and a warrior is esteemed in
-proportion to the number of them that he can shew.</p>
-
-<p>It is a well known fact that the Indians pluck out all their hair
-except one tuft on the crown of their heads, but the reason of
-this exception is not, perhaps, so well understood, which is no
-other than to enable themselves to take off each other’s scalps in
-war with greater facility. “When we go to fight an enemy,”
-say they, “we meet on equal ground; and we take off each
-other’s scalps, if we can. The conqueror, whoever he may be,
-is entitled to have something to shew to prove his bravery and
-his triumph, and it would be <i>ungenerous</i> in a warrior to deprive
-an enemy of the means of acquiring that glory of which he himself
-is in pursuit. A warrior’s conduct ought to be <i>manly</i>, else
-he is <i>no man</i>.” As this custom prevails among all the Indian
-nations, it would seem, as far as I have known, to be the result
-of a tacit agreement among them, to leave the usual trophies of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span>
-victory accessible to the contending warriors on all sides; fearing,
-perhaps, that if a different custom should be adopted by one
-nation from motives of personal safety, or to destroy the warlike
-reputation of their rivals or enemies, it might be easily imitated
-on the other side, and there would be an end to Indian valour
-and heroism. Indeed, it is certain, that all the weapons which
-the Indians make use of in war are intended for <i>offence</i>, they
-have no breast-plates, helmets, nor any arms or accoutrements
-of the defensive kind, and it is not the least remarkable trait in
-their warlike character, that they make it even a point of honour
-to offer a hold of their persons to their enemy, by which if he
-should be possessed of greater skill or courage than themselves,
-he may not only the more easily destroy them, but is enabled to
-carry home their bloody spoils as trophies of his victory.</p>
-
-<p>I once remarked to an Indian that if such was their reason for
-letting a tuft of hair grow on the top of their heads, they might
-as well suffer the whole to remain, and I could not perceive why
-they were so careful in plucking it out. To this observation he
-answered: “My friend! a human being has but one head, and
-one scalp from that head is sufficient to shew that it has been in
-my power. Were we to preserve a whole head of hair as the
-white people do, <i>several</i> scalps might be made out of it, which
-would be <i>unfair</i>. Besides, the coward might thus without danger
-share in the trophies of the brave warrior, and dispute with him
-the honour of victory.”</p>
-
-<p>When the Indians relate their victories, they do not say that
-they have taken so many “<i>scalps</i>,” but so many “<i>heads</i>,” in
-which they include as well those whom they have scalped, but
-left alive (which is very often<a id="FNanchor_191" href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">191</a> the case), and their prisoners, as
-those whom they have killed. Nor does it follow, when they
-reckon or number the heads of their prisoners, that they have
-been or are to be put to death.</p>
-
-<p>It is an awful spectacle to see the Indian warriors return home
-from a successful expedition with their prisoners and the scalps
-taken in battle. It is not unlike the return of a victorious army
-from the field, with the prisoners and <i>colours</i>, taken from the
-enemy, but the appearance is far more frightful and terrific. The
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span>
-scalps are carried in front, fixed on the end of a thin pole, about
-five or six inches<a id="FNanchor_192" href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">192</a> in length; the prisoners follow, and the warriors
-advance shouting the dreadful <i>scalp-yell</i>, which has been
-called by some the <i>death-halloo</i>, but improperly, for the reasons
-which I have already mentioned. For every <i>head</i> taken, dead
-or alive, a separate shout is given. In this yell or whoop, there
-is a mixture of triumph and terror; its elements, if I may so
-speak, seem to be <i>glory</i> and <i>fear</i>, so as to express at once
-the feelings of the shouting warriors, and those with which they
-have inspired their enemies.</p>
-
-<p>Different from this yell is the <i>alarm-whoop</i>, which is never
-sounded but when danger is at hand. It is performed in quick
-succession, much as with us the repeated cry of <i>Fire! Fire!</i> when
-the alarm is very great and lives are known or believed to be in
-danger. Both this and the scalp-yell consist of the sounds <i>aw</i>
-and <i>oh</i>, successively uttered, the last more accented, and sounded
-higher than the first; but in the <i>scalp-yell</i>, this last sound is
-drawn out at great length, as long indeed as the breath will
-hold, and is raised about an octave higher than the former;
-while in the <i>alarm-whoop</i>, it is rapidly struck on as it were, and
-only a few notes above the other. These yells or whoops are
-dreadful indeed, and well calculated to strike with terror, those
-whom long habit has not accustomed to them. It is difficult to
-describe the impression which the <i>scalp-yell</i>, particularly, makes
-on a person who hears it for the first time.</p>
-
-<p>I am now come to a painful part of my subject; the manner
-in which the Indians treat the prisoners whom they take in war.
-It must not be expected that I shall describe here the long protracted
-tortures which are inflicted on those who are doomed
-to the fatal pile, nor the constancy and firmness which the sufferers
-display, singing their death songs and scoffing all the while
-at their tormentors. Enough of other writers have painted these
-scenes, with all their disgusting horrors; nor shall I, a Christian,
-endeavour to excuse or palliate them. But I may be permitted
-to say, that those dreadful executions are by no means so frequent
-as is commonly imagined. The prisoners are generally
-adopted by the families of their conquerors in the place of lost
-or deceased relations or friends, where they soon become domesticated,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span>
-and are so kindly treated that they never wish themselves
-away again. I have seen even white men, who, after such adoption,
-were given up by the Indians in compliance with the stipulations
-of treaties, take the first opportunity to escape from their
-own country and return with all possible speed to their Indian
-homes; I have seen the Indians, while about delivering them
-up, put them at night in the stocks, to prevent their escaping
-and running back to them.</p>
-
-<p>It is but seldom that prisoners are put to death by burning
-and torturing. It hardly ever takes place except when a nation
-has suffered great losses in war, and it is thought necessary to
-revenge the death of their warriors slain in battle, or when wilful
-and deliberate murders have been committed by an enemy
-of<a id="FNanchor_193" href="#Footnote_193" class="fnanchor">193</a> their innocent women and children, in which case the first
-prisoners taken are almost sure of being sacrificed by way of
-retaliation. But when a war has been successful, or unattended
-with remarkable acts of treachery, or cruelty on the part of the
-enemy, the prisoners receive a milder treatment, and are incorporated
-with the nation of their conquerors.</p>
-
-<p>Much has been said on the subject of the preliminary cruelties
-inflicted on prisoners when they enter an Indian village with the
-conquering warriors. It is certain that this treatment is very
-severe when a particular revenge is to be exercised, but otherwise,
-I can say with truth, that in many instances, it is rather
-a scene of amusement, than a punishment. Much depends on
-the courage and presence of mind of the prisoner. On entering
-the village, he is shewn a painted post at the distance of from
-twenty to forty yards, and told to run to it and catch hold of it
-as quickly as he can. On each side of him stand men, women
-and children, with axes, sticks, and other offensive weapons,
-ready to strike him as he runs, in the same manner as is done
-in the European armies when soldiers, as it is called, run the
-gauntlet. If he should be so unlucky as to fall in the way, he
-will probably be immediately despatched by some person, longing
-to avenge the death of some relation or friend slain in battle;
-but the moment he reaches the goal, he is safe and protected
-from further insult until his fate is determined.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span></p>
-
-<p>If a prisoner in such a situation shews a determined courage,
-and when bid to run for the painted post, starts at once with all
-his might and exerts all his strength and agility until he reaches
-it, he will most commonly escape without much harm, and sometimes
-without any injury whatever, and on reaching the desired
-point, he will have the satisfaction to hear his courage and bravery
-applauded. But woe to the coward who hesitates, or shews
-any symptoms of fear! He is treated without much mercy, and
-is happy, at last, if he escapes with his life.</p>
-
-<p>In the month of April 1782, when I was myself a prisoner at
-Lower Sandusky, waiting for an opportunity to proceed with a
-trader to Detroit, I witnessed a scene of this description which
-fully exemplified what I have above stated. Three American
-prisoners were one day brought in by fourteen warriors from
-the garrison of Fort M’Intosh. As soon as they had crossed
-the Sandusky river, to which the village lay adjacent, they were
-told by the Captain of the party to run as hard as they could
-to a painted post which was shewn to them. The youngest of
-the three, without a moment’s hesitation, immediately started
-for it, and reached it fortunately without receiving a single blow;
-the second hesitated for a moment, but recollecting himself, he
-also ran as fast as he could and likewise reached the post unhurt;
-but the third, frightened at seeing so many men, women and
-children with weapons in their hands, ready to strike him, kept
-begging the Captain to spare his life, saying he was a mason,
-and he would build him a fine large stone house, or do any work
-for him that he should please. “Run for your life,” cried the
-chief to him, “and don’t talk now of building houses!” But the
-poor fellow still insisted, begging and praying to the Captain,
-who, at last finding his exhortations vain, and fearing the consequences,
-turned his back upon him, and would not hear him any
-longer. Our mason now began to run, but received many a
-hard blow, one of which nearly brought him to the ground,
-which, if he had fallen, would at once have decided his fate.
-He, however, reached the goal, not without being sadly bruised,
-and he was besides bitterly reproached and scoffed at all round
-as a vile coward, while the others were hailed as brave men, and
-received tokens of universal approbation.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_221a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">BODILY CONSTITUTION AND DISEASES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Indians are in general a strong race of men. It is
-very common to see a hunter come in with a whole
-deer on his back, fastened with a <i>Happis</i>, a kind of
-band with which they carry loads; it rests against the
-breast, that which the women use rests against the forehead.
-In this manner they will carry a load which many a white man
-would not have strength enough to raise from the ground. An
-Indian, named Samuel, once took the flour which was ground
-out of a bushel of wheat upon his back at sun-rise within two
-miles from Nazareth, and arrived with it in the evening of the
-same day at his camp at Wyoming. When the Indians build
-houses, they carry large logs on their shoulders from the place
-where the tree is cut down to where they are building.</p>
-
-<p>Nevertheless, when put to agricultural or other manual labour,
-the Indians do not appear so strong as the whites; at least, they
-cannot endure it so long. Many reasons may be given for this,
-besides their not being accustomed to that kind of work. It is
-probably in part to be ascribed to their want of substantial food,
-and their intemperate manner of living; eating, when they have
-it, to excess, and at other times being days and weeks in a state
-of want. Those who have been brought up to regular labour,
-like ourselves, become robust and strong and enjoy good health.
-Such was the case with the Christian Indians in the Moravian
-settlements.</p>
-
-<p>So late as about the middle of the last century, the Indians
-were yet a hardy and healthy people, and many very aged men
-and women were seen among them, some of whom thought they
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span>
-had lived about one hundred years. They frequently told me
-and others that when they were young men, their people did
-not marry so early as they did since, that even at twenty they
-were called boys and durst not wear a breech-cloth, as the men
-did at that time, but had only a small bit of a skin hanging
-before them. Neither, did they say, were they subject to so
-many disorders as in later times, and many of them calculated
-on dying of old age. But since that time a great change has
-taken place in the constitution of those Indians who live nearest
-to the whites. By the introduction of ardent spirits among them,
-they have been led into vices which have brought on disorders
-which they say were unknown before; their blood became corrupted
-by a shameful complaint, which the Europeans pretend
-to have received from the original inhabitants of America, while
-these say they had never known or heard of it until the Europeans
-came among them. Now the Indians are infected with
-it to a great degree; children frequently inherit it from their
-parents, and after lingering for a few years at last die victims
-to this poison.</p>
-
-<p>Those Indians who have not adopted the vices of the white
-people live to a good age, from 70 to 90. Few arrive at the age
-of one hundred years. The women, in general, live longer than
-the men.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians do not appear to be more or less exempt than
-the whites from the common infirmities of old age. I have
-known old men among them who had lost their memory, their
-sight, and their teeth. I have also seen them at eighty in their
-second childhood and not able to help themselves.</p>
-
-<p>The Indian women are not in general so prolific as those of
-the white race. I imagine this defect is owing to the vicious
-and dissolute life they lead since the introduction of spirituous
-liquors. Among our Christian Indians, we have had a couple
-who had been converted for thirty years and had always led a
-regular life, and who had thirteen children. Others had from
-six to nine. In general, however, the Indians seldom have more
-than four or five children.</p>
-
-<p>The Indian children, generally, continue two years at the
-breast, and there are instances of their sucking during four years.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span>
-Mothers are very apt to indulge their last child; children in this
-respect enjoy the same privilege alike.</p>
-
-<p>I have never heard of any nation or tribe of Indians who destroyed
-their children, when distorted or deformed, whether they
-were so born or came to be so afterwards. I have on the contrary
-seen very particular care taken of such children. Nor have
-I ever been acquainted with any Indians that made use of artificial
-means to compress or alter the natural shape of the heads
-of their children, as some travellers have, I believe, pretended.</p>
-
-<p>The disorders to which the Indians are most commonly subjected
-are pulmonary consumptions, fluxes, fevers and severe
-rheumatisms, all proceeding probably from the kind of life they
-lead, the hardships they undergo, and the nature of the food that
-they take. Intermitting and bilious fevers set in among them
-regularly in the autumn, when their towns are situated near
-marshy grounds or ponds of stagnant water, and many die in
-consequence of them. I have observed that these fevers generally
-make their first appearance in the season of the wild plum,
-a fruit that the Indians are particularly fond of. Sometimes
-also after a famine or long suffering for want of food, when they
-generally make too free an use of green maize, squashes and
-other watery vegetables. They are also subject to a disease
-which they call the <i>yellow vomit</i>, which, at times, carries off
-many of them. They generally die of this disease on the second
-or third day after the first attack.</p>
-
-<p>Their old men are very subject to rheumatisms in the back
-and knees; I have known them at the age of 50 or 60 to be laid
-up for weeks and months at a time on this account, and I have
-seen boys 10 and 12 years of age, who through colds or fits of
-sickness had become so contracted that they never afterwards
-recovered the use of their limbs.</p>
-
-<p>Worms are a very common disorder among Indian children,
-and great numbers of them die from that cause. They eat a
-great deal of green corn when in the milk, with beans, squashes,
-melons, and the like; their bellies become remarkably large,
-and it is probably in that manner that the worms are generated.
-I rather think that Indian children suffer less in teething than
-the whites.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span></p>
-
-<p>The gout, gravel, and scrofula or king’s evil, are not known
-among the Indians. Nor have I ever known any one that had
-the disorder called the <i>Rickets</i>. Consumptions are very frequent
-among them since they have become fond of spirituous liquors,
-and their young men in great numbers fall victims to that complaint.
-A person who resides among them may easily observe
-the frightful decrease of their numbers from one period of ten
-years to another. Our vices have destroyed them more than
-our swords.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_224.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_225a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">REMEDIES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> <i>Materia Medica</i> of the Indians consists of various
-roots and plants known to themselves, the properties
-of which they are not fond of disclosing to strangers.
-They make considerable use of the barks of trees,
-such as the white and black oak, the white walnut, of which
-they make pills, the cherry, dogwood, maple, birch, and several
-others. They prepare and compound these medicines in different
-ways, which they keep a profound secret. Those preparations
-are frequently mixed with superstitious practices, calculated
-to guard against the powers of witchcraft, in which, unfortunately,
-they have a strong fixed belief. Indeed, they are too apt to
-attribute the most natural deaths to the arts and incantations of
-sorcerers, and their medicine is, in most cases, as much directed
-against those as against the disease itself. There are, however,
-practitioners among them who are free from these prejudices, or
-at least do not introduce them into their practice of the medical
-art. Still there is a superstitious notion, in which all their
-physicians participate, which is, that when an emetic is to be
-administered, the water in which the potion is mixed must be
-drawn up a stream, and if for a cathartic downwards. This is, at
-least, innocent, and not more whimsical perhaps, nor more calculated
-to excite a smile, than some theories of grave and
-learned men in civilised countries.</p>
-
-<p>In fevers the Indians usually administer emetics which are
-made up and compounded in various ways. I saw an emetic
-once given to a man who had poisoned himself with the root of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span>
-the May Apple.<a id="FNanchor_194" href="#Footnote_194" class="fnanchor">194</a> It consisted of a piece of raccoon skin burned
-with the hair on and finely powdered, pounded dry beans and
-gunpowder. These three ingredients were mixed with water
-and poured down the patient’s throat. This brought on a severe
-vomiting, the poisonous root was entirely discharged and the
-man cured.</p>
-
-<p>In other complaints, particularly in those which proceed from
-rheumatic affections, bleeding and sweating are always the first
-remedies applied. The sweat oven is the first thing that an
-Indian has recourse to when he feels the least indisposed; it is
-the place to which the wearied traveller, hunter, or warrior looks
-for relief from the fatigues he has endured, the cold he has
-caught, or the restoration of his lost appetite.</p>
-
-<p>This oven is made of different sizes, so as to accommodate
-from two to six persons at a time, or according to the number
-of men in the village, so that they may be all successively
-served. It is generally built on a bank or slope, one half of
-it within and the other above ground. It is well covered on the
-top with split plank and earth, and has a door in front, where
-the ground is level to go or rather to creep in. Here, on the
-outside, stones, generally of about the size of a large turnip, are
-heated by one or more men appointed each day for that purpose.
-While the oven is heating, decoctions from roots or
-plants are prepared either by the person himself who intends to
-sweat, or by one of the men of the village, who boils a large
-kettleful for the general use, so that when the public cryer going
-his rounds, calls out <i>Pimook!</i> “go to sweat!” every one brings
-his small kettle, which is filled for him with the potion, which
-at the same time serves him as a medicine, promotes a profuse
-perspiration, and quenches his thirst. As soon as a sufficient
-number have come to the oven, a number of the hot stones are
-rolled into the middle of it, and the sweaters go in, seating
-themselves or rather squatting round those stones, and there
-they remain until the sweat ceases to flow; then they come out,
-throwing a blanket or two about them that they may not catch
-cold; in the mean while, fresh heated stones are thrown in for
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span>
-those who follow them. While they are in the oven, water is
-now and then poured on the hot stones to produce a steam,
-which they say, increases the heat, and gives suppleness to
-their limbs and joints. In rheumatic complaints, the steam is
-produced by a decoction of boiled roots, and the patient during
-the operation is well wrapped up in blankets, to keep the cold
-air from him, and promote perspiration at the same time.</p>
-
-<p>Those sweat ovens are generally at some distance from an
-Indian village, where wood and water are always at hand. The
-best order is preserved at those places. The women have their
-separate oven in a different direction from that of the men, and
-subjected to the same rules. The men generally sweat themselves
-once and sometimes twice a week; the women have no
-fixed day for this exercise, nor do they use it as often as the
-men.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1784,<a id="FNanchor_195" href="#Footnote_195" class="fnanchor">195</a> a gentleman whom I had been acquainted
-with at Detroit, and who had been for a long time in an infirm
-state of health, came from thence to the village of the Christian
-Indians on the Huron river, in order to have the benefit of the
-sweat oven. It being in the middle of winter, when there was a
-deep snow on the ground, and the weather was excessively cold,
-I advised him to postpone his sweating to a warmer season;
-but he persisting in his resolution, I advised him by no means
-to remain in the oven longer than fifteen or at most twenty
-minutes. But when he once was in it, feeling himself comfortable,
-he remained a full hour, at the end of which he fainted, and
-was brought by two strong Indians to my house, in very great
-pain and not able to walk. He remained with me until the
-next day, when we took him down in his sleigh to his family at
-Detroit. His situation was truly deplorable; his physicians at
-that place gave up all hopes of his recovery, and he frequently
-expressed his regret that he had not followed my advice. Suddenly,
-however, a change took place for the better, and he not
-only recovered his perfect health, but became a stout corpulent
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span>
-man, so that he would often say, that his going into the sweat
-oven was the best thing he had ever done in his life for the
-benefit of his health. He said so to me fifteen years afterwards
-when I saw him in the year 1798. He had not had the least
-indisposition since that time. He died about the year 1814, at
-an advanced age.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_228.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_229a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/b.jpg" alt="B" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">By</span> these names I mean to distinguish the good and
-honest practitioners who are in the habit of curing
-and healing diseases and wounds, by the simple application
-of natural remedies, without any mixture of
-superstition in the manner of preparing or administering them.
-They are very different from the doctors or jugglers, of whom
-I shall speak in the next chapter. In one point, only, they seem
-to participate in their ridiculous notions, that is, in the different
-manner, which I have already noticed, of drawing water up or
-down the current of a stream, as it is to be respectively employed
-as a vehicle for an emetic or a cathartic. This singular
-idea prevails generally among the Indians of all classes. They
-think that as the one remedy is to work upwards and the other
-downwards, care should be taken in the preparation to follow
-the course of nature, so that no confusion should take place in
-the stomach or bowels of the patient.</p>
-
-<p>With this only exception the Indian physicians are perhaps
-more free from fanciful theories than those of any other nation
-upon earth. Their science is entirely founded on observation,
-experience and the well tried efficacy of remedies. There are
-physicians of both sexes, who take considerable pains to acquire
-a correct knowledge of the properties and medical virtues of
-plants, roots and barks, for the benefit of their fellow-men. They
-are very careful to have at all times a full assortment of their
-medicines on hand, which they gather and collect at the proper
-seasons, sometimes fetching them from the distance of several
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span>
-days’ journey from their homes, then they cure or dry them
-properly, tie them up in small bundles, and preserve them for
-use. It were to be wished that they were better skilled in the
-quantity of the medicines which they administer. But they are
-too apt, in general, to give excessive doses, on the mistaken
-principle that “<i>much</i> of a <i>good</i> thing must necessarily do <i>much
-good</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>Nevertheless, I must say, that their practice in general succeeds
-pretty well. I have myself been benefited and cured by
-taking their emetics and their medicines in fevers, and by being
-sweated after their manner while labouring under a stubborn
-rheumatism. I have also known many, both whites and Indians,
-who have with the same success resorted to Indian physicians
-while labouring under diseases. The wives of Missionaries, in
-every instance in which they had to apply to the female physicians,
-for the cure of complaints peculiar to their sex, experienced
-good results from their abilities. They are also well
-skilled in curing wounds and bruises. I once for two days and
-two nights, suffered the most excruciating pain from a felon or
-whitlow on one of my fingers, which deprived me entirely of
-sleep. I had recourse to an Indian woman, who in less than
-half an hour relieved me entirely by the simple application of a
-poultice made of the root of the common blue violet.</p>
-
-<p>Indeed, it is in the cure of external wounds that they particularly
-excel. Not only their professional men and women, but
-every warrior is more or less acquainted with the healing properties
-of roots and plants, which is, in a manner, indispensable
-to them, as they are so often in danger of being wounded in
-their engagements with the enemy. Hence this branch of
-knowledge is carried to a great degree of perfection among
-them. I firmly believe that there is no wound, unless it should
-be absolutely mortal, or beyond the skill of our own good practitioners,
-which an Indian surgeon (I mean the best of them) will
-not succeed in healing. I once knew a noted Shawano, who
-having, out of friendship, conducted several white traders in
-safety to Pittsburgh, while they were sought for by other Indians
-who wanted to revenge on them the murders committed by white
-men of some of their people, was on his return fired at by some
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span>
-white villains, who had waylaid him for that purpose, and shot
-in the breast. This man, when I saw him, had already travelled
-eighty miles, with a wound from which blood and a kind of
-watery froth issued every time he breathed. Yet he told me he
-was sure of being cured, if he could only reach <i>Waketemeki</i>, a
-place fifty miles distant, where there were several eminent Indian
-surgeons. To me and others who examined the wound, it
-appeared incurable; nevertheless, he reached the place and was
-perfectly cured. I saw him at Detroit ten years afterwards; he
-was in sound health and grown to be a corpulent man. Nine
-years after this I dined with him at the same place.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_231.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_232a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">DOCTORS OR JUGGLERS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">I call</span> these men <i>Doctors</i>, because it is the name
-given them by their countrymen who have borrowed
-it from our language,<a id="FNanchor_196" href="#Footnote_196" class="fnanchor">196</a> and they are themselves very
-fond of this pompous title. They are a set of professional
-impostors, who, availing themselves of the superstitious
-prejudices of the people, acquire the name and reputation of men
-of superior knowledge, and possessed of supernatural powers.
-As the Indians in general believe in witchcraft, and ascribe, as I
-have already said, to the arts of sorcerers many of the disorders
-with which they are afflicted in the regular course of nature, this
-class of men has risen among them, who pretend to be skilled in
-a certain occult science, by means of which they are able not
-only to cure natural diseases, but to counteract or destroy the
-enchantments of wizards or witches, and expel evil spirits.</p>
-
-<p>These men are physicians, like the others of whom I have
-spoken, and like them are acquainted with the properties and
-virtues of plants, barks, roots, and other remedies. They differ
-from them only by their pretensions to a superior knowledge,
-and by the impudence with which they impose upon the credulous.
-I am sorry that truth obliges me to confess, that in their
-profession they rank above the honest practitioners. They pretend
-that there are disorders which cannot be cured by the ordinary
-remedies, and to the treatment of which the talents of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span>
-common physicians are inadequate. They say that when a complaint
-has been brought on by witchcraft, more powerful remedies
-must be applied, and measures must be taken to defeat the
-designs of the person who bewitched the unfortunate patient.
-This can only be done by removing or destroying the deleterious
-or deadening substance which has been conveyed into them,
-or, if it is an evil spirit, to confine or expel him, or banish him
-to a distant region from whence he may never return.</p>
-
-<p>When the juggler has succeeded in persuading his patient that
-his disorder is such that no common physician has it in his
-power to relieve, he will next endeavour to convince him of the
-necessity of making him <i>very strong</i>, which means, giving him a
-<i>large fee</i>, which he will say, is justly due to a man who, like
-himself, is able to perform such difficult things. If the patient
-who applies, is rich, the <i>Doctor</i> will never fail, whatever the complaint
-may be, to ascribe it to the powers of witchcraft, and
-recommend himself as the only person capable of giving relief
-in such a hard and complicated case. The poor patient, therefore,
-if he will have the benefit of the great man’s advice and
-assistance, must immediately give him his <i>honorarium</i>, which is
-commonly either a fine horse, or a good rifle-gun, a considerable
-quantity of wampum, or goods to a handsome amount. When
-this fee is well secured, and not before, the Doctor prepares for
-the hard task that he has undertaken, with as much apparent
-labour as if he was about to remove a mountain. He casts his
-eyes all round him to attract notice, puts on grave and important
-looks, appears wrapt in thought and meditation and enjoys for
-a while the admiration of the spectators. At last he begins his
-operation. Attired in a frightful dress, he approaches his patient,
-with a variety of contortions and gestures, and performs by his
-side and over him all the antic tricks that his imagination can
-suggest. He breathes on him, blows in his mouth, and squirts
-some medicines which he has prepared in his face, mouth and
-nose; he rattles his gourd filled with dry beans or pebbles, pulls
-out and handles about a variety of sticks and bundles in which
-he appears to be seeking for the proper remedy, all which is
-accompanied with the most horrid gesticulations, by which he
-endeavours, as he says, to frighten the spirit or the disorder
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span>
-away, and continues in this manner until he is quite exhausted
-and out of breath, when he retires to wait the issue.</p>
-
-<p>The visits of the juggler are, if the patient requires it, repeated
-from time to time; not, however, without his giving a fresh fee
-previous to each visit. This continues until the property of the
-patient is entirely exhausted, or until he resolves upon calling
-in another doctor, with whom feeing must begin anew in the
-same manner that it did with his predecessor.</p>
-
-<p>When at length the art of the juggling tribe has after repeated
-trials proved ineffectual, the patient is declared <i>incurable</i>. The
-doctors will say, that he applied to them too late, that he did
-not exactly follow their prescriptions, or sometimes, that he
-was bewitched by one of the greatest masters of the science,
-and that unless a professor can be found possessed of superior
-knowledge, he is doomed to die or linger in pain beyond the
-power of relief.</p>
-
-<p>Thus these jugglers carry on their deceit, and enrich themselves
-at the expense of the credulous and foolish. I have
-known instances in which they declared a patient perfectly
-cured and out of all danger, who nevertheless died of his disorder
-a very few days afterwards, although his doctors affirmed
-that the evil spirit or the effects of witchcraft were entirely
-removed from him; on the other hand, I have seen cases in
-which the patient recovered after being pronounced incurable
-and condemned to die. In those cases, however, he had had the
-good sense to apply to some of the honest physicians of one
-or the other sex, who had relieved him by a successful application
-of their medicines.</p>
-
-<p>The jugglers’ dress, when in the exercise of their functions,
-exhibits a most frightful sight. I had no idea of the importance
-of these men, until by accident I met with one, habited in
-his full costume. As I was once walking through the street
-of a large Indian village on the Muskingum, with the chief
-<i>Gelelemend</i>,<a id="FNanchor_197" href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">197</a> whom we call <i>Kill-buck</i>, one of those monsters
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span>
-suddenly came out of the house next to me, at whose sight I
-was so frightened, that I flew immediately to the other side of
-the chief, who observing my agitation and the quick strides I
-made, asked me what was the matter, and what I thought it
-was that I saw before me. “By its outward appearance,” answered
-I, “I would think it a bear, or some such ferocious animal,
-what is <i>inside</i> I do not know, but rather judge it to be the
-<i>Evil Spirit</i>.” My friend Kill-buck smiled, and replied, “O! no,
-no; don’t believe that! it is a man you well know, it is our
-<i>Doctor</i>.” “A Doctor!” said I, “what! a human being to transform
-himself so as to be taken for a bear walking on his hind legs,
-and with horns on his head? You will not, surely, deceive me;
-if it is not a bear, it must be some other ferocious animal that
-I have never seen before.” The juggler within the dress hearing
-what passed between us, began to act over some of his curious
-pranks, probably intending to divert me, as he saw I was looking
-at him with great amazement, not unmixed with fear; but the
-more he went on with his performance, the more I was at a loss
-to decide, whether he was a human being or a bear; for he imitated
-that animal in the greatest perfection, walking upright on
-his hind legs as I had often seen it do. At last I renewed my
-questions to the chief, and begged him seriously to tell me what
-that figure was, and he assured me that although outside it had
-the appearance of a bear, yet inside there was a man, and that
-it was our doctor going to visit one of his patients who was
-bewitched. A dialogue then ensued between us, which I shall
-relate, as well as I can recollect it, in its very words:</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> But why does he go dressed in that manner?
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span>
-Won’t his patient be frightened to death on seeing him enter
-the house?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Killb.</span> No! indeed, no; it is the disorder, the evil spirit,
-that will be frightened away; as to the sick man, he well knows
-that unless the doctor has recourse to the most powerful means,
-he cannot be relieved, but must fall a sacrifice to the wicked will
-of some evil person. And, pray, don’t your doctors in obstinate
-and dubious cases, also recur to powerful means in order to
-relieve their patients?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> To my knowledge, there are no cases where witchcraft
-is assigned as the cause of a disorder, of course our doctors
-have nothing to do with that; and though they may sometimes
-have occasion to apply powerful remedies in obstinate diseases,
-yet it is not done by dressing themselves like wild beasts, to
-frighten, as you say, the disorder away. Were our doctors to
-adopt this mode, they would soon be left without patients and
-without bread; they would starve.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Killb.</span> Our doctors are the richest people among us, they
-have everything they want; fine horses to ride, fine clothes to
-wear, plenty of strings and belts of wampum, and silver arm
-and breast plates in abundance.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> And <i>our</i> doctors have very fine horses and carriages,
-fine houses, fine clothes, plenty of good provisions and
-wines, and plenty of money besides! They are looked upon as
-gentlemen, and would not suffer your doctor, dressed as he is,
-to come into their company.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Killb.</span> You must, my friend! consider that the cases are
-very different. Had the white people sorcerers among them
-as the Indians have, they would find it necessary to adopt our
-practice and apply our remedies in the same manner that our
-doctors do. They would find it necessary to take strong measures
-to counteract and destroy the dreadful effects of witchcraft.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> The sorcerers that you speak of exist only in your
-imagination; rid yourselves of this, and you will hear no more
-of them.</p>
-
-<p>The dress this juggler had on, consisted of an entire garment
-or outside covering, made of one or more bear skins, as black
-as jet, so well fitted and sewed together, that the man was not
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span>
-in any place to be perceived. The whole head of the bear,
-including the mouth, nose, teeth, ears, &amp;c., appeared the same
-as when the animal was living; so did the legs with long claws;
-to this were added a huge pair of horns on the head, and behind
-a large bushy tail, moving as he walked, as though it were on
-springs; but for these accompaniments, the man, walking on
-all fours, might have been taken for a bear of an extraordinary
-size. Underneath, where his hands were, holes had been cut,
-though not visible to the eye, being covered with the long hair,
-through which he held and managed his implements, and he
-saw through two holes set with glass. The whole was a great
-curiosity, but not to be looked at by everybody.</p>
-
-<p>There are jugglers of another kind, in general old men and
-women, who although not classed among doctors or physicians,
-yet get their living by pretending to supernatural knowledge.
-Some pretend that they can bring down rain in dry weather
-when wanted, others prepare ingredients, which they sell to bad
-hunters, that they may have good luck, and others make philters
-or love potions for such married persons as either do not, or
-think they cannot love each other.</p>
-
-<p>When one of these jugglers is applied to to bring down rain
-in a dry season, he must in the first instance receive a fee. This
-fee is made up by the women, who, as cultivators of the land are
-supposed to be most interested, but the men will slily slip something
-in their hands in aid of their collection, which consists of
-wampum beads, tobacco, silver broaches, and a dressed deer skin
-to make shoes of. If the juggler does not succeed in his experiment,
-he never is in want of an excuse; either the winds are in
-opposition to one another, the dry wind or air is too powerful
-for the moist or south wind, or he has not been made <i>strong
-enough</i>, (that is sufficiently paid,) to compel the north to give
-way to the south from whence the rain is to come, or lastly, he
-wants time to invoke the great Spirit to aid him on the important
-occasion.</p>
-
-<p>In the summer of the year 1799, a most uncommon drouth
-happened in the Muskingum country, so that every thing growing,
-even the grass and the leaves of the trees, appeared perishing;
-an old man named <i>Chenos</i>, who was born on the river
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span>
-Delaware, was applied to by the women to bring down rain, and
-was well feed for the purpose. Having failed in his first attempt,
-he was feed a second time, and it happened that one morning,
-when my business obliged me to pass by the place where he was
-at work, as I knew him very well, I asked him at once what he
-was doing? “I am hired,” said he, “to do a very hard day’s
-work.”</p>
-
-<p>Q. And, pray, what work?</p>
-
-<p>A. Why, to bring down rain from the sky.</p>
-
-<p>Q. Who hired you to do that?</p>
-
-<p>A. The women of the village; don’t you see how much rain
-is wanted, and that the corn and every thing else is perishing?</p>
-
-<p>Q. But can you make it rain?</p>
-
-<p>A. I can, and you shall be convinced of it this very day.</p>
-
-<p>He had, by this time, encompassed a square of about five feet
-each way, with stakes and barks so that it might resemble a pig
-pen of about three feet in height, and now, with his face uplifted
-and turned towards the north, he muttered something, then
-closely shutting up with bark the opening which had been left
-on the north side, he turned in the same manner, still muttering
-some words, towards the south, as if invoking some superior
-being, and having cut through the bark on the southwest corner,
-so as to make an opening of two feet, he said: “now we shall
-have rain enough!” Hearing down the river the sound of setting
-poles striking against a canoe, he enquired of me what it was?
-I told him it was our Indians going up the river to make a bush
-net for fishing. “Send them home again!” said he, “tell them
-that this will not be a fit day for fishing!” I told him to let
-them come on and speak to them himself, if he pleased. He
-did so, and as soon as they came near him, he told them that
-they must by no means think of fishing that day, for there
-should come a heavy rain which would wet them all through.
-“No matter, Father!” answered they in a jocular manner,
-“give us only rain and we will cheerfully bear the soaking.”
-They then passed on, and I proceeded to <i>Goschachking</i>, the
-village to which I was going.<a id="FNanchor_198" href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">198</a> I mentioned the circumstance
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span>
-to the chief of the place, and told him that I thought it impossible
-that we should have rain while the sky was so clear as it
-then was and had been for near five weeks together, without its
-being previously announced by some signs or change in the atmosphere.
-But the chief answered: “<i>Chenos</i> knows very well
-what he is about; he can at any time predict what the weather
-will be; he takes his observations morning and evening from
-the river or something in it.” On my return from this place
-after three o’clock in the afternoon, the sky still continued the
-same until about four o’clock, when all at once the horizon became
-overcast, and without any thunder or wind it began to rain,
-and continued so for several hours together, until the ground
-became thoroughly soaked.</p>
-
-<p>I am of the opinion that this man, like others whom I have
-known, was a strict observer of the weather, and that his prediction
-that day was made in consequence of his having observed
-some signs in the sky or in the water, which his experience
-had taught him to be the forerunners of rain; yet the
-credulous multitude did not fail to ascribe it to his supernatural
-power.</p>
-
-<p>The ingredients for a bad hunter, to make him have good
-luck, are tied up in a bit of cloth, and must be worn near his
-skin while he is hunting. The preparations intended to create
-love between man and wife, are to be slily conveyed to the frigid
-party by means of his victuals or drink.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_239.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_240a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">SUPERSTITION.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/g.jpg" alt="G" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Great</span> and powerful as the Indian concieves himself
-to be, firm and undaunted as he really is, braving all
-seasons and weathers, careless of dangers, patient of
-hunger, thirst and cold, and fond of displaying the
-native energy of his character even in the midst of tortures, at
-the very thought of which our own puny nature revolts and
-shudders; this Lord of the Creation, whose life is spent in a
-state of constant warfare against the wild beasts of the forest
-and the savages of the wilderness, who, proud of his independent
-existence, strikes his breast with exultation and exclaims “<i>I am
-a man!</i>”&mdash;the American Indian has one weak side, which sinks
-him down to the level of the most fearful and timid being, a
-childish apprehension of an occult and unknown power, which,
-unless he can summon sufficient fortitude to conquer it, changes
-at once the hero into a coward. It is incredible to what a degree
-the Indians’ superstitious belief in witchcraft operates upon
-their minds; the moment that their imagination is struck with
-the idea that they are bewitched, they are no longer themselves;
-their fancy is constantly at work in creating the most horrid and
-distressing images. They see themselves falling a sacrifice to the
-wicked arts of a vile unknown hand, of one who would not have
-dared to face them in fair combat; dying a miserable, ignominious
-death; a death, to which they would a thousand times prefer
-the stake with all its horrors. No tale, no tradition, no
-memorial of their courage or heroic fortitude will go down with
-it to posterity; it will be thought that they were not deserving
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span>
-of a better fate. And, (O! dreadful thought to an Indian mind!)
-that death is to remain forever unrevenged;&mdash;their friends, their
-relations, the men of their own tribe, will seek the murderer in
-vain; they will seek him while, perhaps, he is in the midst of
-them, unnoticed and unknown, smiling at their impotent rage,
-and calmly selecting some new victim to his infernal art.</p>
-
-<p>Of this extraordinary power of their conjurers, of the causes
-which produce it, and the manner in which it is acquired, the
-Indians as may well be supposed, have not a very definite idea.
-All they can say is that the sorcerer makes use of a “deadening
-substance,” which he discharges and conveys to the person that
-he means to “<i>strike</i>,” through the air, by means of the wind or
-of his own breath, or throws at him in a manner which they can
-neither understand nor describe. The person thus “<i>stricken</i>,” is
-immediately seized with an unaccountable terror, his spirits
-sink, his appetite fails, he is disturbed in his sleep, he pines and
-wastes away, or a fit of sickness seizes him, and he dies at last a
-miserable victim to the workings of his own imagination.</p>
-
-<p>Such are their ideas and the melancholy effects of the dread
-they feel of that supernatural power which they vainly fancy to
-exist among them. That they can destroy one another by
-means of poisonous roots and plants, is certainly true, but in
-this there is no witchcraft. This prejudice that they labour
-under can be ascribed to no other cause than their excessive
-ignorance and credulity. I was once acquainted with a white
-man, a shrewd and correct observer, who had lived long among
-the Indians, and being himself related to an Indian family, had
-the best opportunities of obtaining accurate information on this
-subject. He told me that he had found the means of getting
-into the confidence of one of their most noted sorcerers, who
-had frankly confessed to him, that his secret consisted in
-exciting fear and suspicion, and creating in the multitude a
-strong belief in his magical powers, “For,” said he, “such is the
-credulity of many, that if I only pick a little wool from my
-blanket, and roll it between my fingers into a small round
-ball, not larger than a bean, I am by that alone believed to be
-deeply skilled in the magic art, and it is immediately supposed
-that I am preparing the deadly substance with which I mean to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span>
-strike some person or other, although I hardly know myself at
-the time what my fingers are doing; and if, at that moment, I
-happen to cast my eyes on a particular man, or even throw
-a side glance at him, it is enough to make him consider himself
-as the intended victim; he is from that instant effectually <i>struck</i>,
-and if he is not possessed of great fortitude, so as to be able to
-repel the thought, and divert his mind from it, or to persuade
-himself that it is nothing but the work of a disturbed imagination,
-he will sink under the terror thus created, and at last perish
-a victim, not indeed, to witchcraft, but to his own credulity and
-folly.”</p>
-
-<p>But men of such strong minds are not often to be found; so
-deeply rooted is the belief of the Indians in those fancied supernatural
-powers. It is vain to endeavour to convince them by
-argument that they are entirely founded in delusion and have
-no real existence. The attempt has been frequently made by
-sensible white men, but always without success. The following
-anecdote will shew how little hope there is of ever bringing
-them to a more rational way of thinking.</p>
-
-<p>Sometime about the year 1776, a Quaker trader of the name
-of John Anderson, who among the Indians was called <i>the honest
-Quaker trader</i>, after vainly endeavouring to convince those people
-by argument that there was no such thing as witchcraft,
-took the bold, and I might say the rash, solution to put their
-sorcerers to the test, and defy the utmost exertions of their
-pretended supernatural powers. He desired that two of those
-magicians might be brought successively before him on different
-days, who should be at liberty to try their art on his person,
-and do him all the harm that they could by magical means, in
-the presence of the chiefs and principal men of the village.
-The Indians tried at first to dissuade him from so dangerous an
-experiment; but he persisted, and at last they acceded to his
-demand; a conjurer was brought to him, who professed himself
-fully competent to the task for which he was called, but he
-could not be persuaded to make the attempt. He declared that
-Anderson was so good and so honest a man, so much his friend
-and the friend of all the Indians, that he could not think of
-doing him an injury. He never practised his art but on bad
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span>
-men and on those who had injured him; the great Mannitto
-forbid that he should use it for such a wicked purpose as that
-for which he was now called upon.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians found this excuse perfectly good, and retired
-more convinced than ever of the abilities of their conjurer,
-whom they now revered for his conscientious scruples.</p>
-
-<p>The one who was brought on the next day was of a different
-stamp. He was an arch sorcerer, whose fame was extended far
-and wide, and was much dreaded by the Indians, not only on
-account of his great powers, but of the wicked disposition of
-his mind. Every effort was made to dissuade Mr. Anderson
-from exposing himself to what was considered as certain
-destruction; but he stood firm to his purpose, and only stipulated
-that the magician should sit at the distance of about
-twelve feet from him; that he should not be armed with any
-weapon, nor carry any poison or any thing else of a known
-destructive nature, and that he should not even rise from his
-seat, nor advance towards him during the operation. All this
-was agreed to, the conjurer boasting that he could effect his
-purpose even at the distance of one hundred miles. The promised
-reward was brought and placed in full view, and both parties
-now prepared for the experiment.</p>
-
-<p>The spectators being all assembled, the sorcerer took his seat,
-arrayed in the most frightful manner that he could devise.
-Anderson stood firm and composed before him at the stipulated
-distance. All were silent and attentive while the wizard began
-his terrible operation. He began with working with his fingers
-on his blanket, plucking now and then a little wool and breathing
-on it, then rolling it together in small rolls of the size of a
-bean, and went through all the antic tricks to which the power
-of bewitching is generally ascribed. But all this had no effect.
-Anderson remained cool and composed, now and then calling
-to his antagonist not to be sparing of his exertions. The conjurer
-now began to make the most horrid gesticulations, and
-used all the means in his power to frighten the honest Quaker,
-who, aware of his purpose, still remained unmoved. At last,
-while the eyes of all the spectators were fixed on this brave
-man, to observe the effects of the sorcerer’s craft upon him, this
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span>
-terrible conjurer, finding that all his efforts were in vain, found
-himself obliged to give up the point, and alleged for his excuse
-“that the Americans<a id="FNanchor_199" href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">199</a> eat too much salt provisions; that salt
-had a repulsive effect, which made the powerful invisible substance
-that he employed recoil upon him; that the Indians, who
-eat but little salt, had often felt the effects of this substance, but
-that the great quantity of it which the white men used effectually
-protected them against it.”</p>
-
-<p>The imposition in this instance was perfectly clear and visible,
-and nothing was so easy as to see through this sorcerer’s miserable
-pretence, and be convinced that his boasted art was entirely
-a deception; but it was not so with the Indians, who firmly believed
-that the salt which the Americans<a href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">199</a> used was the only
-cause of his failure in this instance, and that if it had not been
-for the salted meat which Mr. Anderson fed upon, he would
-have fallen a victim as well as others to the incantations of this
-impostor.</p>
-
-<p>I have received this story from the mouth of Mr. Anderson
-himself, who was a most respectable gentleman, and also from
-several credible Indians who were present at the time. After
-this bold and unsuccessful experiment, it is impossible to expect
-that the superstitious notions of the Indians on the subject of
-witchcraft can ever by any means be rooted out of their minds.<a id="FNanchor_200" href="#Footnote_200" class="fnanchor">200</a>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span></p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_245.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_246a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">INITIATION OF BOYS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">I do</span> not know how to give a better name to a superstitious
-practice which is very common among the
-Indians, and, indeed, is universal among those nations
-that I have become acquainted with. By certain
-methods which I shall presently describe, they put the mind of
-a boy in a state of perturbation, so as to excite dreams and
-visions; by means of which they pretend that the boy receives
-instructions from certain spirits or unknown agents as to his
-conduct in life, that he is informed of his future destination and
-of the wonders he is to perform in his future career through the
-world.</p>
-
-<p>When a boy is to be thus <i>initiated</i>, he is put under an alternate
-course of physic and fasting, either taking no food whatever,
-or swallowing the most powerful and nauseous medicines, and
-occasionally he is made to drink decoctions of an intoxicating
-nature, until his mind becomes sufficiently bewildered, so that
-he sees or fancies that he sees visions, and has extraordinary
-dreams, for which, of course, he has been prepared beforehand.
-He will fancy himself flying through the air, walking under
-ground, stepping from one ridge or hill to the other across the
-valley beneath, fighting and conquering giants and monsters,
-and defeating whole hosts by his single arm. Then he has interviews
-with the Mannitto or with spirits, who inform him of
-what he was before he was born and what he will be after his
-death. His fate in this life is laid entirely open before him, the
-spirit tells him what is to be his future employment, whether he
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span>
-will be a valiant warrior, a mighty hunter, a doctor, a conjurer,
-or a prophet. There are even those who learn or pretend to
-learn in this way the time and manner of their death.</p>
-
-<p>When a boy has been thus initiated, a name is given to him
-analogous to the visions that he has seen, and to the destiny that
-is supposed to be prepared for him. The boy, imagining all that
-happened to him while under perturbation, to have been real,
-sets out in the world with lofty notions of himself, and animated
-with courage for the most desperate undertakings.</p>
-
-<p>The belief in the truth of those visions is universal among the
-Indians. I have spoken with several of their old men, who had
-been highly distinguished for their valour, and asked them
-whether they ascribed their achievements to natural or supernatural
-causes, and they uniformly answered, that as they knew
-beforehand what they could do, they did it of course. When I
-carried my questions farther, and asked them how they knew
-what they could do? they never failed to refer to the dreams
-and visions which they had while under perturbation, in the
-manner I have above mentioned.</p>
-
-<p>I always found it vain to attempt to undeceive them on this subject.
-They never were at a loss for examples to shew that the
-dreams they had had were not the work of a heated imagination,
-but that they came to them through the agency of a mannitto.
-They could always cite numerous instances of valiant men, who,
-in former times, in consequence of such dreams, had boldly
-attacked their enemy with nothing but the <i>Tamahican</i><a id="FNanchor_201" href="#Footnote_201" class="fnanchor">201</a> in their
-hand, had not looked about to survey the number of their opponents,
-but had gone straight forward, striking all down before
-them; some, they said, in the French wars, had entered houses
-of the English filled with people, who, before they had time to
-look about, were all killed and laid in a heap. Such was the
-strength, the power and the courage conveyed to them in their
-supernatural dreams, and which nothing could resist.</p>
-
-<p>If they stopped here in their relations, I might, perhaps, consider
-this practice of putting boys under perturbation, as a kind
-of military school or exercise, intended to create in them a more
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span>
-than ordinary courage, and make them undaunted warriors. It
-certainly has this effect on some, who fancying themselves under
-the immediate protection of the celestial powers, despise all dangers,
-and really perform acts of astonishing bravery. But it
-must be observed, that all that are thus initiated are not designed
-for a military life, and that several learn by their dreams that
-they are to be physicians, sorcerers, or that their lives are to be
-devoted to some other civil employment. And it is astonishing
-what a number of superstitious notions are infused into the minds
-of the unsuspecting youth, by means of those dreams, which are
-useless, at least, for making good warriors or hunters. There are
-even some who by that means are taught to believe in the transmigration
-of souls.</p>
-
-<p>I once took great pains to dissuade from these notions a very
-sensible Indian, much esteemed by all who knew him, even
-among the whites. All that I could say or urge was not able to
-convince him that at the time of his <i>initiation</i> (as I call it) his
-mind was in a state of temporary derangement. He declared
-that he had a clear recollection of the dreams and visions that
-had occurred to him at the time, and was sure that they came
-from the agency of celestial spirits. He asserted very strange
-things, of his own supernatural knowledge, which he had obtained
-not only at the time of his initiation, but at other times,
-even before he was born. He said he knew he had lived through
-two generations; that he had died twice and was born a third
-time, to live out the then present race, after which he was to die
-and never more to come to this country again. He well remembered
-what the women had predicted while he was yet in his
-mother’s womb; some had foretold that he would be a boy, and
-others a girl; he had distinctly overheard their discourses, and
-could repeat correctly every thing that they had said. It would
-be too long to relate all the wild stories of the same kind which
-this otherwise intelligent Indian said of himself, with a tone and
-manner which indicated the most intimate conviction, and left
-no doubt in my mind that he did not mean to deceive others,
-but was himself deceived.</p>
-
-<p>I have known several other Indians who firmly believed that
-they knew, by means of these visions, what was to become of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span>
-them when they should die, how their souls were to retire from
-their bodies and take their abodes into those of infants yet unborn;
-in short, there is nothing so wild and so extraordinary
-that they will not imagine and to which, when once it has taken
-hold of their imagination, they will not give full credit. In this
-they are not a little aided by certain superstitious notions which
-form a part of their traditionary belief, and of which I shall take
-notice in the next chapter.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_249.jpg"
-alt="" /><span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_250a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">INDIAN MYTHOLOGY.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Indians consider the earth as their universal
-mother. They believe that they were created within
-its bosom, where for a long time they had their
-abode, before they came to live on its surface. They
-say that the great, good, and all powerful Spirit, when he created
-them, undoubtedly meant at a proper time to put them in the
-enjoyment of all the good things which he had prepared for
-them upon the earth, but he wisely ordained that their first
-stage of existence should be within it, as the infant is formed
-and takes its first growth in the womb of its natural mother.
-This fabulous account of the creation of man needs only to be
-ascribed to the ancient Egyptians or to the Brahmins of India,
-to be admired and extolled for the curious analogy which it
-observes between the general and individual creation; but as
-it comes from the American savage, I doubt whether it will
-even receive the humble praise of ingenuity, to which, however,
-it appears to me to be justly entitled.</p>
-
-<p>The Indian Mythologists are not agreed as to the form under
-which they existed while in the bowels of the earth. Some
-assert that they lived there in the human shape, while others,
-with greater consistency contend that their existence was in
-the form of certain terrestrial animals, such as the ground-hog,
-the rabbit, and the tortoise. This was their state of preparation,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span>
-until they were permitted to come out and take their station
-on this island<a id="FNanchor_202" href="#Footnote_202" class="fnanchor">202</a> as the Lords of the rest of the Creation.</p>
-
-<p>Among the Delawares, those of the <i>Minsi</i>, or Wolf tribe, say
-that in the beginning, they dwelt in the earth under a lake, and
-were fortunately extricated from this unpleasant abode by the
-discovery which one of their men made of a hole, through which
-he ascended to the surface; on which, as he was walking, he
-found a deer, which he carried back with him into his subterraneous
-habitation; that there the deer was killed,<a id="FNanchor_203" href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">203</a> and he and
-his companions found the meat so good, that they unanimously
-determined to leave their dark abode, and remove to a place
-where they could enjoy the light of heaven and have such excellent
-game in abundance.</p>
-
-<p>The other two tribes, the <i>Unamis</i> or Tortoise, and the <i>Unalachtigos</i>
-or Turkey, have much similar notions, but reject the
-story of the lake, which seems peculiar to the Minsi tribe.</p>
-
-<p>These notions must be very far extended among the Indians
-of North America generally, since we find that they prevail also
-among the Iroquois, a nation so opposed to the Delawares, as
-has been shewn in the former parts of this work, and whose language
-is so different from theirs, that not two words, perhaps,
-similar or even analogous of signification may be found alike in
-both. On this subject I beg leave to present an extract from the
-manuscript notes of the late Reverend Christopher Pyrl&aelig;us,
-whom I am always fond of quoting with respect, as he was a
-man of great truth, and besides well acquainted with the Six
-Nations and their idioms.<a id="FNanchor_204" href="#Footnote_204" class="fnanchor">204</a> The account that he here gives of
-the traditions of that people concerning their original existence,
-was taken down by him in January 1743, from the mouth of a
-respectable Mohawk chief named <i>Sganarady</i>, who resided on
-the Mohawk river.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span></p>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">The Extract.</span></h3>
-
-<p>“<i>Traditio.</i>&mdash;That they had dwelt in the earth where it was
-dark and where no sun did shine. That though they followed
-hunting, they ate mice, which they caught with their hands.
-That <i>Ganawagahha</i> (one of them) having accidentally found a
-hole to get out of the earth at, he went out, and that in walking
-about on the earth he found a deer, which he took back with
-him, and that both on account of the meat tasting so very good,
-and the favourable description he had given them of the country
-above and on the earth, their mother, concluded it best for them
-all to come out; that accordingly they did so, and immediately
-set about planting corn, &amp;c. That, however, the <i>Nocharauorsul</i>,
-that is, the <i>ground-hog</i>, would not come out, but had remained
-in the ground as before.”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>So far Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us. From these traditions of the Iroquois,
-and those of the Delawares and Mohicans, it seems to follow that
-they must have considered their numbers very small, when they
-dwelt in the earth; perhaps, no more than one family of each
-tribe, and that the custom of giving to their tribes the names of
-particular animals, must have been very ancient. The <i>ground-hog</i>,
-say the Mohawks, would not come out. But who was this
-hog? Might it not formerly have been the name of one of their
-tribes, who was made the subject of this fable?</p>
-
-<p>However ridiculous these stories are, the belief of the Indians
-in them is not to be shaken. When I was a boy between twelve
-and fifteen years of age, I had often heard of white people conversant
-with the Indians, who at that time would continually
-come to this place, (Bethlehem) in great numbers, even by hundreds,
-that the Indians did not eat rabbits, because they thought
-them infected with the venereal disease, and that whoever ate
-of their flesh, was sure to take that disorder. Being then myself
-fond of catching those animals in traps, I asked questions on this
-subject of several Mohican Indians, who spoke the German language;
-but though they said nothing about the disease that
-rabbits were said to be infected with, yet they advised me by
-no means to eat of their flesh. They gave me no reason whatever
-to induce me to abstain from this food; but afterwards, in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">252</span>
-the year 1762, when I resided at Tuscorawas on the Muskingum,
-I was told by some of them, that there were some animals which
-Indians did not eat, and among them were the <i>rabbit</i> and the
-<i>ground-hog</i>; for, said they, they did not know but that they
-might be <i>related</i> to them!</p>
-
-<p>I found also that the Indians, for a similar reason, paid great
-respect to the rattle-snake, whom they called their <i>grandfather</i>,
-and would on no account destroy him. One day, as I was
-walking with an elderly Indian on the banks of the Muskingum,
-I saw a large rattle-snake lying across the path, which I was
-going to kill. The Indian immediately forbade my doing so;
-“for,” said he, “the rattle-snake is grandfather to the Indians, and
-is placed here on purpose to guard us, and to give us notice of
-impending danger by his rattle, which is the same as if he were
-to tell us ‘look about!’ Now,” added he, “if we were to kill one
-of those, the others would soon know it, and the whole race
-would rise upon us and bite us.” I observed to him that the
-white people were not afraid of this; for they killed all the
-rattle-snakes that they met with. On this he enquired whether
-any white man had been bitten by these animals, and of course
-I answered in the affirmative. “No wonder, then!” replied he,
-“you have to blame yourselves for that! you did as much as declaring
-war against them, and you will find them in <i>your</i> country,
-where they will not fail to make frequent incursions. They are
-a very dangerous enemy; take care you do not irritate them in
-<i>our</i> country; they and their grandchildren are on good terms,
-and neither will hurt the other.”</p>
-
-<p>These ancient notions have, however in a great measure died
-away with the last generation, and the Indians at present kill
-their grandfather the rattle-snake without ceremony, whenever
-they meet with him.</p>
-
-<p>That the Indians, from the earliest times, considered themselves
-in a manner connected with certain animals, is evident
-from various customs still preserved among them, and from the
-names of those animals which they have collectively, as well as
-individually, assumed. It might, indeed, be supposed that those
-animals’ names which they have given to their several tribes
-were mere badges of distinction, or “coats of arms” as Pyrl&aelig;us
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span>
-calls them; but if we pay attention to the reasons which they
-give for those denominations, the idea of a supposed family connexion
-is easily discernible. The Tortoise, or as it is commonly
-called, the <i>Turtle</i> tribe, among the Lenape, claims a superiority
-and ascendency over the others, because their <i>relation</i>, the
-great Tortoise, a fabled monster, the Atlas of their mythology,
-bears according to their traditions this great <i>island</i> on his back,
-and also because he is amphibious, and can live both on land
-and in the water, which neither of the heads of the other tribes
-can do. The merits of the <i>Turkey</i>, which gives its name to the
-second tribe, are that he is stationary, and always remains with
-or about them. As to the <i>Wolf</i>, after whom the third tribe is
-named, he is a rambler by nature, running from one place to
-another in quest of his prey; yet they consider him as their
-benefactor, as it was by his means that the Indians got out of
-the interior of the earth. It was he, they believe, who by the
-appointment of the Great Spirit, killed the deer whom the
-Monsey found who first discovered the way to the surface of
-the earth, and which allured them to come out of their damp and
-dark residence. For that reason, the wolf is to be honoured,
-and his name preserved for ever among them. Such are their
-traditions, as they were related to me by an old man of this
-tribe more than fifty years ago.</p>
-
-<p>These animals’ names, it is true, they all use as national
-badges, in order to distinguish their tribes from each other at
-home and abroad. In this point of view Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us was right
-in considering them as “coats of arms.” The Turtle warrior
-draws either with a coal or paint here and there on the trees
-along the war path, the whole animal carrying a gun with the
-muzzle projecting forward, and if he leaves a mark at the place
-where he has made a stroke on his enemy, it will be the picture
-of a tortoise. Those of the Turkey tribe paint only one foot of
-a turkey, and the Wolf tribe, sometimes a wolf at large with one
-leg and foot raised up to serve as a hand, in which the animal
-also carries a gun with the muzzle forward. They, however, do
-not generally use the word “wolf,” when speaking of their tribe,
-but call themselves <i>Pauk-sit</i><a id="FNanchor_205" href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">205</a> which means <i>round-foot</i>, that animal
-having a round foot like a dog.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span></p>
-
-<p>The Indians, in their hours of leisure, paint their different
-marks or badges on the doors of their respective houses, that
-those who pass by may know to which tribe the inhabitants
-belong. Those marks also serve them for signatures to treaties
-and other documents. They are as proud of their origin from
-the tortoise, the turkey, and the wolf, as the nobles of Europe
-are of their descent from the feudal barons of ancient times,
-and when children spring from intermarriages between different
-tribes, their genealogy is carefully preserved by tradition in the
-family, that they may know to which tribe they belong.</p>
-
-<p>I have often reflected on the curious connexion which appears
-to subsist in the mind of an Indian between man and the
-brute creation, and found much matter in it for curious observation.
-Although they consider themselves superior to all other
-animals and are very proud of that superiority; although they
-believe that the beasts of the forest, the birds of the air, and the
-fishes of the waters, were created by the Almighty Being for the
-use of man; yet it seems as if they ascribe the difference between
-themselves and the brute kind, and the dominion which
-they have over them, more to their superior bodily strength and
-dexterity than to their immortal souls. All beings endowed by
-the Creator with the power of volition and self-motion, they
-view in a manner as a great society of which they are the head,
-whom they are appointed, indeed, to govern, but between whom
-and themselves intimate ties of connexion and relationship may
-exist, or at least did exist in the beginning of time. They are,
-in fact, according to their opinions, only the first among equals,
-the legitimate hereditary sovereigns of the whole animated race,
-of which they are themselves a constituent part. Hence, in their
-languages, these inflections of their nouns which we call <i>genders</i>,
-are not, as with us, descriptive of the <i>masculine</i> and <i>feminine</i>
-species, but of the <i>animate</i> and <i>inanimate</i> kinds. Indeed, they
-go so far as to include trees, and plants within the first of these
-descriptions. All animated nature, in whatever degree, is in
-their eyes a great whole, from which they have not yet ventured
-to separate themselves. They do not exclude other animals
-from their world of spirits, the place to which they expect
-to go after death.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span></p>
-
-<p>I find it difficult to express myself clearly on this abstruse
-subject, which, perhaps, the Indians themselves do not very well
-understand, as they have no metaphysicians among them to
-analyse their vague notions, and perhaps confuse them still
-more. But I can illustrate what I have said by some characteristic
-anecdotes, with which I shall conclude this chapter.</p>
-
-<p>I have already observed<a id="FNanchor_206" href="#Footnote_206" class="fnanchor">206</a> that the Indian includes all savage
-beasts within the number of his <i>enemies</i>. This is by no means
-a metaphorical or figurative expression, but is used in a literal
-sense, as will appear from what I am going to relate.</p>
-
-<p>A Delaware hunter once shot a huge bear and broke its
-back-bone. The animal fell and set up a most plaintive cry,
-something like that of the panther when he is hungry. The
-hunter instead of giving him another shot, stood up close to
-him, and addressed him in these words: “Hark ye! bear; you
-are a coward, and no warrior as you pretend to be. Were you
-a warrior, you would shew it by your firmness and not cry and
-whimper like an old woman. You know, bear, that our tribes
-are at war with each other, and that yours was the aggressor.<a id="FNanchor_207" href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">207</a>
-You have found the Indians too powerful for you, and you have
-gone sneaking about in the woods, stealing their hogs; perhaps
-at this time you have hog’s flesh in your belly. Had you conquered
-me, I would have borne it with courage and died like a
-brave warrior; but you, bear, sit here and cry, and disgrace your
-tribe by your cowardly conduct.” I was present at the delivery
-of this curious invective; when the hunter had despatched the
-bear, I asked him how he thought that poor animal could
-understand what he said to it? “Oh!” said he in answer, “the
-bear understood me very well; did you not observe how
-<i>ashamed</i> he looked while I was upbraiding him?”</p>
-
-<p>Another time I witnessed a similar scene between the falls of
-the Ohio and the river Wabash. A young white man, named
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span>
-<i>William Wells</i>,<a id="FNanchor_208" href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">208</a> who had been when a boy taken prisoner by a
-tribe of the Wabash Indians, by whom he was brought up, and
-had imbibed all their notions, had so wounded a large bear that
-he could not move from the spot, and the animal cried piteously
-like the one I have just mentioned. The young man went up to
-him, and with seemingly great earnestness, addressed him in
-the Wabash language, now and then giving him a slight stroke
-on the nose with his ram-rod. I asked him, when he had done,
-what he had been saying to this bear? “I have,” said he, “upbraided
-him for acting the part of a coward; I told him that he
-knew the fortune of war, that one or the other of us must have
-fallen; that it was his fate to be conquered, and he ought to die
-like a man, like a hero, and not like an old woman; that if the
-case had been reversed, and I had fallen into the power of <i>my
-enemy</i>, I would not have disgraced my nation as he did, but
-would have died with firmness and courage, as becomes a true
-warrior.”</p>
-
-<p>I leave the reader to reflect upon these anecdotes, which, I
-think, convey more real information than any further attempts
-that I could make to explain the strange notions which gave
-them rise.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_257.jpg"
-alt="" /><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_258a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">INSANITY&mdash;SUICIDE.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Insanity</span> is not common among the Indians; yet I
-have known several who were afflicted with mental
-derangement. Men in this situation are always considered
-as objects of pity. Every one, young and
-old, feels compassion for their misfortune; to laugh or scoff at
-them would be considered as a crime, much more so to insult or
-molest them. The nation or colour of the unfortunate object
-makes no difference; the charity of the Indians extends to all,
-and no discrimination is made in such a lamentable case.</p>
-
-<p>About the commencement of the Indian war in 1763, a trading
-Jew, named Chapman, who was going up the Detroit river
-with a batteau-load of goods which he had brought from
-Albany, was taken by some Indians of the Chippeway nation,
-and destined to be put to death. A Frenchman, impelled by
-motives of friendship and humanity, found means to steal the
-prisoner, and kept him so concealed for some time, that although
-the most diligent search was made, the place of his confinement
-could not be discovered. At last, however, the unfortunate man
-was betrayed by some false friend, and again fell into the power
-of the Indians, who took him across the river to be burned and
-tortured. Tied to the stake and the fire burning by his side, his
-thirst, from the great heat, became intolerable, and he begged
-that some drink might be given to him. It is a custom with the
-Indians, previous to a prisoner being put to death, to give him
-what they call his last meal; a bowl of pottage or broth was
-therefore brought to him for that purpose. Eager to quench his
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">258</span>
-thirst, he put the bowl immediately to his lips, and the liquor
-being very hot, he was dreadfully scalded. Being a man of a
-very quick temper, the moment he felt his mouth burned, he
-threw the bowl with its contents full in the face of the man who
-had handed it to him. “He is mad! He is mad!” resounded
-from all quarters. The bystanders considered his conduct as an
-act of insanity, and immediately untied the cords with which he
-was bound, and let him go where he pleased.</p>
-
-<p>This fact was well known to all the inhabitants of Detroit,
-from whom I first heard it, and it was afterwards confirmed to
-me by Mr. Chapman himself, who was established as a merchant
-at that place.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Suicide</span> is not considered by the Indians either as an act of
-heroism or of cowardice, nor is it with them a subject of praise
-or blame. They view this desperate act as the consequence of
-mental derangement, and the person who destroys himself is to
-them an object of pity. Such cases do not frequently occur.
-Between the years 1771 and 1780, four Indians of my acquaintance
-took the root of the may-apple, which is commonly used
-on such occasions, in order to poison themselves, in which they
-all succeeded, except one. Two of them were young men, who
-had been disappointed in love, the girls on whom they had fixed
-their choice, and to whom they were engaged, having changed
-their minds and married other lovers. They both put an end
-to their existence. The two others were married men. Their
-stories, as pictures of Indian manners, will not, perhaps, be
-thought uninteresting.</p>
-
-<p>One of those unfortunate men was a person of an excellent
-character, respected and esteemed by all who knew him. He
-had a wife whom he was very fond of and two children, and they
-lived very happily together at the distance of about half a mile
-from the place where I resided. He often came to visit me, and
-as he was of a most amiable disposition, I was pleased with his
-visits, and always gave him a hearty welcome. When I thought
-he was too long about coming, I went myself to the delightful
-spot which he had judiciously selected for his dwelling. Here
-I always found the family cheerful, sociable and happy, until
-some time before the fatal catastrophe happened, when I observed
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">259</span>
-that my friend’s countenance bore the marks of deep
-melancholy, of which I afterwards learned the cause. His wife
-had received the visits of another man; he foresaw that he
-would soon be obliged to separate from her, and he shuddered
-when he thought that he must also part from his two lovely
-children; for it is the custom of the Indians, that when a divorce
-takes place between husband and wife, the children remain with
-their mother, until they are of a proper age to choose for themselves.
-One hope, however, still remained. The sugar-making
-season was at hand, and they were shortly to remove to their
-sugar-camp, where he flattered himself his wife would not be
-followed by the disturber of his peace, whose residence was
-about ten miles from thence. But this hope was of short duration.
-They had hardly been a fortnight in their new habitation,
-when, as he returned one day from a morning’s hunt, he found
-the unwelcome visitor at his home, in close conversation with
-his faithless wife. This last stroke was more than he could bear;
-without saying a single word, he took off a large cake of his
-sugar, and with it came to my house, which was at the distance
-of eight miles from his temporary residence. It was on a Sunday,
-at about ten o’clock in the forenoon, that he entered my door,
-with sorrow strongly depicted on his manly countenance. As
-he came in he presented me with his cake of sugar, saying, “My
-friend! you have many a time served me with a good pipe of
-tobacco, and I have not yet done anything to please you. Take
-this as a reward for your goodness, and as an acknowledgment
-from me as your friend.” He said no more, but giving me with
-both his hands a warm farewell squeeze, he departed and returned
-to the camp. At about two o’clock in the afternoon, a
-runner from thence passing through the town to notify his death
-at the village two miles farther, informed us of the shocking
-event. He had immediately on his return, remained a short
-time in his house, indulging in the last caresses to his dear
-innocent children; then retiring to some distance, had eaten
-the fatal root, and before relief could be administered by some
-persons who had observed him staggering from the other side
-of the river, he was on the point of expiring, and all succours
-were vain.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span></p>
-
-<p>The last whom I have to mention was also a married man,
-but had no children. He had lived happy with his wife, until
-one day that she fell into a passion and made use to him of such
-abusive language as he could not endure. Too highminded to
-quarrel with a woman, he resolved to punish her by putting an
-end to his existence. Fortunately he was seen in the first stage
-of his fits, and was brought into a house, where a strong emetic
-diluted in lukewarm water, the composition of which I have
-already described,<a id="FNanchor_209" href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">209</a> was forcibly poured down his throat. He
-recovered after some time, but never was again the strong
-healthy man he had been before; his wife however took warning
-from this desperate act, and behaved better ever after.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_261.jpg"
-alt="" /><span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_262a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">DRUNKENNESS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">In</span> treating of this subject, I cannot resist the impression
-of a melancholy feeling, arising from the comparison
-which forces itself upon my mind of what the
-Indians were before the Europeans came into this country,
-and what they have become since, by a participation in our
-vices. By their intercourse with us, they have lost much of that
-original character by which they were once distinguished, and
-which it is the object of this work to delineate, and the change
-which has taken place is by no means for the better. I am not
-one of those wild enthusiasts who would endeavour to persuade
-mankind that savage life is preferable to a state of civilisation;
-but I leave it to every impartial person to decide, whether the
-condition of the healthy sober Indian, pursuing his game through
-forests and plains, is not far superior to that of the gangrened
-drunken white man, rioting in debauchery and vice?</p>
-
-<p>I have already before taken notice<a id="FNanchor_210" href="#Footnote_210" class="fnanchor">210</a> of the assertion which our
-aborigines do not hesitate to make, that before the Europeans
-landed in those parts of the American continent, they were unacquainted
-with that shameful disorder which attacks generation
-in its sources. I am well aware that this complaint is generally
-believed to have been communicated by the new world to
-the old. I do not know upon what proofs this opinion rests,
-but I am disposed to give credit to the uniform assertion of our
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span>
-northern Indians, that this contagion was first introduced among
-them by emigrants from Europe. However it may be, it is a
-lamentable fact that they are now very generally infected with
-it, and that their population cannot long resist its destructive
-operation upon their once strong and healthy constitutions, particularly
-as it is associated with the abuse of strong liquors, now
-so prevalent among them.</p>
-
-<p>Of the manner in which they have acquired this latter vice, I
-presume there can be no doubt. They charge us in the most
-positive manner with being the first who made them acquainted
-with ardent spirits, and what is worse, with having exerted all
-the means in our power to induce them to drink to excess. It
-is very certain that the processes of distillation and fermentation
-are entirely unknown to the Indians, and that they have among
-them no intoxicating liquors but such as they receive from us.
-The Mexicans have their <i>Pulque</i>, and other indigenous beverages
-of an inebriating nature, but the North American Indians, before
-their intercourse with us commenced, had absolutely nothing of
-the kind. The smoke of the American weed, tobacco, was the
-only means that they at that time had in use to produce a temporary
-exhilaration of their spirits.</p>
-
-<p>I have related in a former chapter,<a id="FNanchor_211" href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">211</a> the curious account given
-by the Delawares and Mohicans of the scene which took place
-when they were first made to taste spirituous liquors by the
-Dutch who landed on New York Island. I have no doubt that
-this tradition is substantially founded on fact. Indeed, it is
-strongly corroborated by the name which, in consequence of
-this adventure, those people gave at the time to that island, and
-which it has retained to this day. They called it <i>Manahachtanienk</i>,
-which in the Delaware language, means “<i>the island where
-we all became intoxicated</i>.” We have corrupted this name into
-<i>Manhattan</i>, but not so as to destroy its meaning, or conceal its
-origin. The last syllable which we have left out is only a termination,
-implying locality, and in this word signifies as much
-as <i>where we</i>. There are few Indian traditions so well supported
-as this.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span></p>
-
-<p>How far from that time the dreadful vice of intoxication has
-increased among those poor Indians, is well known to many
-Christian people among us. We may safely calculate on thousands
-who have perished by the baneful effect of spirituous
-liquors. The dreadful war which took place in 1774 between
-the Shawanese, some of the Mingoes, and the people of Virginia,
-in which so many lives were lost, was brought on by the consequences
-of drunkenness. It produced murders, which were
-followed by private revenge, and ended in a most cruel and destructive
-war.</p>
-
-<p>The general prevalence of this vice among the Indians is in a
-great degree owing to unprincipled white traders, who persuade
-them to become intoxicated that they may cheat them the more
-easily, and obtain their lands or<a id="FNanchor_212" href="#Footnote_212" class="fnanchor">212</a> peltries for a mere trifle. Within
-the last fifty years, some instances have even come to my knowledge
-of white men having enticed Indians to drink, and when
-drunk, murdered them. The effects which intoxication produces
-upon the Indians are dreadful. It has been the cause of an infinite
-number of murders among them, besides biting off noses
-and otherwise disfiguring each other, which are the least consequences
-of the quarrels which inebriation produces between
-them. I cannot say how many have died of colds and other disorders,
-which they have caught by lying upon the cold ground,
-and remaining exposed to the elements when drunk; others
-have lingered out their lives, in excruciating rheumatic pains and
-in wasting consumptions, until death came to relieve them from
-their sufferings.</p>
-
-<p>Reflecting Indians have keenly remarked, “that it was strange
-that a people who professed themselves believers in a religion
-revealed to them by the great Spirit himself; who say that they
-have in their houses the <span class="smcap">Word</span> of God, and his laws and commandments
-textually written, could think of making a <i>beson</i>,<a id="FNanchor_213" href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">213</a>
-calculated to bewitch people and make them destroy one
-another.” I once asked an Indian at Pittsburgh, whom I had
-not before seen, who he was? He answered in broken English:
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span>
-“My name is <i>Black-fish</i>; when at home with my nation, I am a
-clever fellow, and when here, a <i>hog</i>.” He meant that by means
-of the liquor which the white people gave him, he was sunk
-down to the level of that beast.</p>
-
-<p>An Indian who had been born and brought up at Minisink,
-near the Delaware Water Gap, and to whom the German inhabitants
-of that neighbourhood had given the name of <i>Cornelius
-Rosenbaum</i>, told me near fifty years ago, that he had once, when
-under the influence of strong liquor, killed the best Indian friend
-he had, fancying him to be his worst avowed enemy. He said
-that the deception was complete, and that while intoxicated,
-the face of his friend presented to his eyes all the features of the
-man with whom he was in a state of hostility. It is impossible
-to express the horror with which he was struck when he awoke
-from that delusion; he was so shocked, that he from that moment
-resolved never more to taste of the maddening poison, of
-which he was convinced that the devil was the inventor; for it
-could only be the evil spirit who made him see his enemy when
-his friend was before him, and produced so strong a delusion on
-his bewildered senses, that he actually killed him. From that
-time until his death, which happened thirty years afterwards, he
-never drank a drop of ardent spirits, which he always called
-“the Devil’s blood,” and was firmly persuaded that the Devil, or
-some of his inferior spirits had a hand in preparing it.</p>
-
-<p>Once in my travels, I fell in with an Indian and his son; the
-former, though not addicted to drinking, had this time drank
-some liquor with one of his acquaintances, of which he now felt
-the effects. As he was walking before me, along the path, he at
-once flew back and aside, calling out, “O! what a monstrous
-snake!” On my asking him where the snake lay, he pointed to
-something and said, “Why, there, across the path!” “A snake!”
-said I, “it is nothing but a black-burnt sapling, which has fallen
-on the ground.” He however would not be persuaded; he insisted
-that it was a snake, and could be nothing else; therefore,
-to avoid it, he went round the path, and entered it again at some
-distance further. After we had travelled together for about two
-hours, during which time he spoke but little, we encamped for
-the night. Awaking about midnight, I saw him sitting up
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">265</span>
-smoking his pipe, and appearing to be in deep thought. I asked
-him why he did not lay down and sleep? To which he replied,
-“O! my friend! many things have crowded on my mind; I am
-quite lost in thought!”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> “And what are you thinking about?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “Did you say it was not a snake of which I was
-afraid, and which lay across the path?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> “I did say so; and, indeed, it was nothing else but
-a sapling burnt black by the firing of the woods.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “Are you sure it was that?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> “Yes; and I called to you at the time to look, how
-I was standing on it; and if you have yet a doubt, ask your son,
-and the two Indians with me, and they will tell you the same.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “O strange! and I took it for an uncommonly large
-snake, moving as if it intended to bite me!&mdash;I cannot get over
-my surprise, that the liquor I drank, and, indeed, that was not
-much, should have so deceived me! but I think I have now discovered
-how it happens that Indians so often kill one another
-when drunk, almost without knowing what they are doing; and
-when afterwards they are told of what they have done, they
-ascribe it to the liquor which was in them at the time, and say
-the liquor did it. I thought that as I saw this time a living
-snake in a dead piece of wood, so I might, at another time, take
-a human being, perhaps one of my own family, for a bear or
-some other ferocious beast and kill him. Can you, my friend,
-tell me what is in the <i>beson</i> that confuses one so, and transforms
-things in that manner? Is it an invisible spirit? It must be
-something alive; or have the white people sorcerers among
-them, who put something in the liquor to deceive those who
-drink it? Do the white people drink of the same liquor that
-they give to the Indians? Do they also, when drunk, kill
-people, and bite noses off, as the Indians do? Who taught
-the white people to make so pernicious a <i>beson</i>?”</p>
-
-<p>I answered all these questions, and several others that he put
-to me, in the best manner that I could, to which he replied, and
-our conversation continued as follows:</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “Well, if, as you say, the bad spirit cannot be the
-inventor of this liquor; if, in some cases it is moderately used
-among you as a medicine, and if your doctors can prepare from
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">266</span>
-it, or with the help of a little of it, some salutary <i>besons</i>, still, I
-must believe that when it operates as you have seen, the bad
-spirit must have some hand in it, either by putting some bad
-thing into it, unknown to those who prepare it, or you have
-conjurers who understand how to bewitch it.&mdash;Perhaps they
-only do so to that which is for the Indians; for the devil is not
-the Indians’ friend, because they will not worship him, as they
-do the good spirit, and therefore I believe he puts something
-into the <i>beson</i>, for the purpose of destroying them.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> “What the devil may do with the liquor, I cannot
-tell; but I believe that he has a hand in everything that is bad.
-When the Indians kill one another, bite off each other’s noses,
-or commit such wicked acts, he is undoubtedly well satisfied;
-for, as God himself has said, he is a destroyer and a murderer.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “Well, now, we think alike, and henceforth he shall
-never again deceive me, or entice me to drink his <i>beson</i>!”</p>
-
-<p>It is a common saying with those white traders who find it
-their interest to make the Indians drunk, in order to obtain their
-peltry at a cheaper rate, that they <i>will</i> have strong liquors, and
-will not enter upon a bargain unless they are sure of getting it.
-I acknowledge that I have seen some such cases; but I could
-also state many from my own knowledge, where the Indians not
-only refused liquor, but resisted during several days all the attempts
-that were made to induce them even to taste it, being
-well aware, as well as those who offered it to them, that if they
-once should put it to their lips, such was their weakness on that
-score, that intoxication would inevitably follow.</p>
-
-<p>I can, perhaps, offer a plausible reason why the Indians are so
-fond of spirituous drinks. The cause is, I believe, to be found in
-their living almost entirely upon fresh meats and green vegetables,
-such as corn, pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, cucumbers,
-melons, beans, &amp;c., which causes a longing in their stomachs for
-some seasoning, particularly (as is often the case) when they
-have been a long time without salt. They are, on those occasions,
-equally eager for any acid substances; vinegar, if they can
-get it, they will drink in considerable quantities, and think nothing
-of going thirty or forty miles in search of cranberries whether
-in season or not. They also gather crab-apples, wild-grapes,
-and other acid, and even bitter-tasted fruits, as substitutes for
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">267</span>
-salt, and in the spring they will peel such trees as have a sourish
-sap, which they lick with great avidity. When for a long
-time they have been without salt, and are fortunate enough to
-get some, they will swallow at a time a table-spoonful of that
-mineral substance, for which they say that they and their horses
-are equally hungry.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians are very sensible of the state of degradation to
-which they have been brought by the abuse of strong liquors,
-and whenever they speak of it, never fail to reproach the whites,
-for having enticed them into that vicious habit. I could easily
-prove how guilty the whites are in this respect, if I were to
-relate a number of anecdotes, which I rather wish to consign to
-oblivion. The following will be sufficient to confute those disingenuous
-traders, who would endeavour to shift the blame from
-themselves, in order to fix it upon the poor deluded Indians.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1769, an Indian from Susquehannah having come
-to Bethlehem with his sons to dispose of his peltry, was accosted
-by a trader from a neighbouring town, who addressed him thus:
-“Well! Thomas, I really believe you have turned Moravian.”
-“Moravian!” answered the Indian, “what makes you think so?”
-“Because,” replied the other, “you used to come to us to sell
-your skins and peltry, and now you trade them away to the
-Moravians.” “So!” rejoined the Indian, “now I understand
-you well, and I know what you mean to say. Now hear me.
-See! my friend! when I come to this place with my skins and
-peltry to trade, the people are kind, they give me plenty of good
-victuals to eat, and pay me in money or whatever I want, and no
-one says a word to me about drinking rum&mdash;neither do I ask
-for it! When I come to your place with my peltry, all call to
-me: ‘Come, Thomas! here’s rum, drink heartily, drink! it will
-not hurt you.’ All this is done for the purpose of cheating me.
-When you have obtained from me all you want, you call me a
-drunken dog, and kick me out of the room. See! this is the
-manner in which you cheat the Indians when they come to trade
-with you. So now you know when you see me coming to your
-town again, you may say to one another: ‘Ah! there is Thomas
-coming again! he is no longer a Moravian, for he is coming to
-us to be made drunk&mdash;to be cheated&mdash;to be kicked out of the
-house, and be called a <i>drunken dog</i>!’”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">268</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_269a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FUNERALS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">I believe</span> that no sufficiently detailed account has
-yet been given of the manner in which the North
-American Indians conduct the funerals of their dead.
-Captain Carver tells us that the Naudowessies,
-among whom he was, kept those ceremonies a secret, and would
-not give him an opportunity of witnessing them. Loskiel,
-although he drew his information from the journals of our
-Missionaries, has treated this subject rather superficially. I
-therefore run little risk of repetition in describing what I have
-myself seen, and I hope that the particulars which I am going
-to relate will not be thought uninteresting.</p>
-
-<p>It is well known that the Indians pay great respect to the
-memory of the dead, and commit their remains to the ground
-with becoming ceremonies. Those ceremonies, however, are
-not the same in all cases, but vary according to circumstances,
-and the condition of the deceased; for rank and wealth receive
-distinctions even after death, as well among savages as among
-civilised nations. This, perhaps, may be easily accounted for.
-When a great chief dies, his death is considered as a national
-loss; of course all must join in a public demonstration of their
-sorrow. The rich man, on the other hand, had many friends
-during his life, who cannot decently abandon him the moment
-the breath is out of his body; besides, his fortune supplies the
-means of a rich entertainment at the funeral, of which many, as
-may well be supposed, are anxious to partake. Thus social distinctions
-are found even in the state of nature, where perfect
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">269</span>
-equality, if it exists any where, might with the greatest probability
-be supposed to be found. Though the earth and its fruits
-are common to all the Indians, yet every man is permitted to
-enjoy the earnings of his industry, and that produces riches; and
-though there is no hereditary or even elective rank in their social
-organization, yet as power follows courage and talents, those who
-are generally acknowledged to be possessed of those qualities,
-assume their station above the rest, and the distinction of rank
-is thus established. Politicians and philosophers may reason on
-these facts as they please; the descriptions that I give are from
-nature, and I leave it to abler men than myself to draw the
-proper inferences from them.</p>
-
-<p>On the death of a principal chief, the village resounds from one
-end to the other with the loud lamentations of the women, among
-whom those who sit by the corpse distinguish themselves by the
-shrillness of their cries and the frantic expression of their sorrow.
-This scene of mourning over the dead body continues by day
-and by night until it is interred, the mourners being relieved
-from time to time by other women.</p>
-
-<p>These honours of “mourning over the corpse” are paid to all;
-the poor and humble, as well as the rich, great, and powerful;
-the difference consists only in the number of mourners, the undistinguished
-Indian having few besides his immediate relations
-and friends, and sometimes only those. Women (notwithstanding
-all that has been said of their supposed inferior station and
-of their being reduced to the rank of slaves) are not treated after
-their death with less respect than the men, and the greatest
-honours are paid to the remains of the wives of renowned
-warriors or veteran chiefs, particularly if they were descended
-themselves of a high family, which, however strange it may
-appear, is not an indifferent thing among the Indians, who love
-to honour the merit of their great men in their relatives. I was
-present in the year 1762, at the funeral of a woman of the highest
-rank and respectability, the wife of the valiant Delaware
-chief <i>Shingask</i>;<a id="FNanchor_214" href="#Footnote_214" class="fnanchor">214</a> as all the honours were paid to her at her interment
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">270</span>
-that are usual on such occasions, I trust a particular
-description of the ceremony will not be unacceptable.</p>
-
-<p>At the moment that she died, her death was announced
-through the village by women specially appointed for that purpose,
-who went through the streets crying, “<i>She is no more!
-she is no more!</i>” The place on a sudden exhibited a scene of
-universal mourning; cries and lamentations were heard from
-all quarters; it was truly the expression of the general feeling
-for a general loss.</p>
-
-<p>The day passed in this manner amidst sorrow and desolation.
-The next morning, between nine and ten o’clock, two counsellors
-came to announce to Mr. Thomas Calhoon, the Indian trader,
-and myself, that we were desired to attend and assist at the
-funeral which was soon to take place. We, in consequence,
-proceeded to the house of the deceased, where we found her
-corpse lying in a coffin, (which had been made by Mr. Calhoon’s
-carpenter) dressed and painted in the most superb Indian style.
-Her garments, all new, were set off with rows of silver broaches,<a id="FNanchor_215" href="#Footnote_215" class="fnanchor">215</a>
-one row joining the other. Over the sleeves of her new ruffled
-shirt were broad silver arm-spangles from her shoulder down
-to her wrist, on which were bands, forming a kind of mittens,
-worked together of wampum, in the same manner as the belts
-which they use when they deliver speeches. Her long plaited
-hair was confined by broad bands of silver, one band joining the
-other, yet not of the same size, but tapering from the head downwards
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">271</span>
-and running at the lower end to a point. On the neck
-were hanging five broad belts of wampum tied together at the
-ends, each of a size smaller than the other, the largest of which
-reached below her breast, the next largest reaching to a few inches
-of it, and so on, the uppermost one being the smallest. Her
-scarlet leggings were decorated with different coloured ribands
-sewed on, the outer edges being finished off with small beads also
-of various colours. Her mocksens were ornamented with the
-most striking figures, wrought on the leather with coloured
-porcupine quills, on the borders of which, round the ankles,
-were fastened a number of small round silver bells, of about the
-size of a musket ball. All these things, together with the vermilion
-paint, judiciously laid on, so as to set her off in the highest
-style, decorated her person in such a manner, that perhaps
-nothing of the kind could exceed it.</p>
-
-<p>The spectators having retired, a number of articles were
-brought out of the house and placed in the coffin, wherever
-there was room to put them in, among which were a new shirt,
-a dressed deer skin for shoes, a pair of scissors, needles, thread,
-a knife, pewter basin and spoon, pint-cup, and other similar
-things, with a number of trinkets and other small articles which
-she was fond of while living. The lid was then fastened on the
-coffin with three straps, and three handsome round poles, five
-or six feet long, were laid across it, near each other, and one in
-the middle, which were also fastened with straps cut up from a
-tanned elk hide; and a small bag of vermilion paint, with some
-flannel to lay it on, was then thrust into the coffin through the
-hole cut out at the head of it. This hole, the Indians say, is for
-the spirit of the deceased to go in and out at pleasure, until it
-has found the place of its future residence.</p>
-
-<p>Everything being in order, the bearers of the corpse were
-desired to take their places. Mr. Calhoon and myself were
-placed at the foremost pole, two women at the middle, and two
-men at the pole in the rear. Several women from a house about
-thirty yards off, now started off, carrying large kettles, dishes,
-spoons, and dried elk meat in baskets, for the burial place, and
-the signal being given for us to move with the body, the women
-who acted as chief mourners made the air resound with their
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">272</span>
-shrill cries. The order of the procession was as follows; first
-a leader or guide, from the spot where we were to the place of
-interment. Next followed the corpse, and close to it <i>Shingask</i>,
-the husband of the deceased. He was followed by the principal
-war-chiefs and counsellors of the nation, after whom came men
-of all ranks and descriptions. Then followed the women and
-children, and lastly two stout men carrying loads of European
-manufactured goods upon their backs. The chief mourners on
-the women’s side, not having joined the ranks, took their own
-course to the right, at the distance of about fifteen or twenty
-yards from us, but always opposite to the corpse. As the corpse
-had to be carried by the strength of our arms to the distance of
-about two hundred yards, and hung low between the bearers,
-we had to rest several times by the way, and whenever we
-stopped, everybody halted until we moved on again.</p>
-
-<p>Being arrived at the grave, we were told to halt, then the lid
-of the coffin was again taken off, and the body exposed to view.
-Now the whole train formed themselves into a kind of semi-lunar
-circle on the south side of the grave, and seated themselves on
-the ground. Within this circle, at the distance of about fifteen
-yards from the grave, a common seat was made for Mr. Calhoon
-and myself to sit on, while the disconsolate <i>Shingask</i> retired by
-himself to a spot at some distance, where he was seen weeping,
-with his head bowed to the ground. The female mourners seated
-themselves promiscuously near to each other, among some low
-bushes that were at the distance of from twelve to fifteen yards
-east of the grave.</p>
-
-<p>In this situation we remained for the space of more than two
-hours; not a sound was heard from any quarter, though the
-numbers that attended were very great; nor did any person
-move from his seat to view the body, which had been lightly
-covered over with a clean white sheet. All appeared to be in
-profound reflection and solemn mourning. Sighs and sobs were
-now and then heard from the female mourners, so uttered as
-not to disturb the assembly; it seemed rather as if intended to
-keep the feeling of sorrow alive in a manner becoming the occasion.
-Such was the impression made on us by this long silence.</p>
-
-<p>At length, at about one o’clock in the afternoon, six men
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">273</span>
-stepped forward to put the lid upon the coffin, and let down
-the body into the grave, when suddenly three of the women
-mourners rushed from their seats, and forcing themselves between
-these men and the corpse, loudly called out to the
-deceased to “arise and go with them and not to forsake them.”
-They even took hold of her arms and legs; at first it seemed
-as if they were caressing her, afterwards they appeared to pull
-with more violence, as if they intended to run away with the
-body, crying out all the while, “Arise, arise! Come with us!
-Don’t leave us! Don’t abandon us!” At last they retired,
-plucking at their garments, pulling their hair, and uttering loud
-cries and lamentations, with all the appearance of frantic despair.
-After they were seated on the ground, they continued in the
-same manner crying and sobbing and pulling at the grass and
-shrubs, as if their minds were totally bewildered and they did
-not know what they were doing.</p>
-
-<p>As soon as these women had gone through their part of the
-ceremony, which took up about fifteen minutes, the six men
-whom they had interrupted and who had remained at the distance
-of about five feet from the corpse, again stepped forward
-and did their duty. They let down the coffin into the earth,
-and laid two thin poles of about four inches diameter, from
-which the bark had been taken off, lengthways and close
-together over the grave, after which they retired. Then the
-husband of the deceased advanced with a very slow pace, and
-when he came to the grave, walked over it on these poles, and
-proceeded forward in the same manner into an extensive adjoining
-prairie, which commenced at this spot.</p>
-
-<p>When the widowed chief had advanced so far that he could
-not hear what was doing at the grave, a painted post, on which
-were drawn various figures, emblematic of the deceased’s situation
-in life and of her having been the wife of a valiant warrior,
-was brought by two men and delivered to a third, a man of note,
-who placed it in such a manner that it rested on the coffin at the
-head of the grave, and took great care that a certain part of the
-drawings should be exposed to the East, or rising of the sun;
-then, while he held the post erect and properly situated, some
-women filled up the grave with hoes, and having placed dry
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">274</span>
-leaves and pieces of bark over it, so that none of the fresh ground
-was visible, they retired, and some men, with timbers fitted
-beforehand for the purpose, enclosed the grave about breast-high,
-so as to secure it from the approach of wild beasts.</p>
-
-<p>The whole work being finished, which took up about an
-hour’s time, Mr. Calhoon and myself expected that we might
-be permitted to go home, as we wished to do, particularly as
-we saw a thundergust from the west fast approaching; but the
-Indians, suspecting our design, soon came forward with poles
-and blankets, and in a few minutes erected a shelter for us.</p>
-
-<p>The storm, though of short duration, was tremendous; the
-water produced by the rain, flowing in streams; yet all had
-found means to secure themselves during its continuance, and
-being on prairie ground, we were out of all danger of trees being
-torn up or blown down upon us. Our encampment now appeared
-like a village, or rather like a military camp, such was the
-number of places of shelter that had been erected.</p>
-
-<p>Fortunately, the husband of the deceased had reached the
-camp in good time, and now the gust being over, every one was
-served with victuals that had been cooked at some distance from
-the spot. After the repast was over, the articles of merchandise
-which had been brought by the two men in the rear, having been
-made up in parcels, were distributed among all present. No one,
-from the oldest to the youngest, was excepted, and every one
-partook of the liberal donation. This difference only was made,
-that those who had rendered the greatest services received the
-most valuable presents, and we were much pleased to see the
-female mourners well rewarded, as they had, indeed, a very hard
-task to perform. Articles of little value, such as gartering, tape,
-needles, beads, and the like, were given to the smaller girls; the
-older ones received a pair of scissors, needles and thread, and a
-yard or two of riband. The boys had a knife, jews-harp, awl-blades,
-or something of similar value. Some of the grown persons
-received a new suit of clothes, consisting of a blanket, shirt,
-breech-cloth and leggings, of the value in the whole of about
-eight dollars; and the women, (I mean those who had rendered
-essential services) a blanket, ruffled shirts, stroud and leggings,
-the whole worth from ten to twelve dollars. Mr. Calhoon and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">275</span>
-myself were each presented with a silk cravat and a pair of leggings.
-The goods distributed on this occasion, were estimated
-by Mr. Calhoon at two hundred dollars; the greatest part of
-them had, the same morning, been taken out of his store.</p>
-
-<p>After we had thus remained, in a manner, under confinement,
-for more than six hours, the procession ended, and Mr. Calhoon
-and myself retired with the rest to our homes. At dusk a kettle
-of victuals was carried to the grave and placed upon it, and the
-same was done every evening for the space of three weeks, at
-the end of which it was supposed that the traveller had found
-her place of residence. During that time the lamentations of
-the women mourners were heard on the evenings of each day,
-though not so loud nor so violent as before.</p>
-
-<p>I have thus described, from minutes which I took at the time,
-the ceremonies which take place among the Delaware Indians on
-the death of a person of high rank and consideration among
-them. The funerals of persons of an inferior station are conducted
-with less pomp and with less expense. When the heirs
-of the deceased cannot afford to hire female mourners, the duty
-is performed by their own immediate relations and friends. But
-“mourning over the corpse” is a ceremony that cannot be dispensed
-with.</p>
-
-<p>It is always customary, when an Indian dies, of whatever rank
-or condition he may be, to put a number of the articles which
-belonged to the deceased in the coffin or grave, that he may have
-them when wanted. I have seen a bottle of rum or whiskey
-placed at the coffin head, and the reason given for it was, that
-the deceased was fond of liquor while living, and he would be
-glad of a dram when he should feel fatigued on his journey to
-the world of spirits.</p>
-
-<p>When an Indian dies at a distance from his home, great care
-is taken that the grave be well fortified with posts and logs laid
-upon it, that the wolves may be prevented from getting at the
-corpse; when time and circumstances do not permit this, as, for
-instance, when the Indians are travelling, the body is enclosed
-in the bark of trees and thus laid in the grave. When a death
-takes place at their hunting camps, they make a kind of coffin
-as well as they can, or put a cover over the body, so that the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">276</span>
-earth may not sink on it, and then enclose the grave with a fence
-of poles.</p>
-
-<p>Warriors that are slain in battle, are, if possible, drawn aside
-and buried, so that the enemy may not get their scalps, and also
-that he may not know the number of the slain. In such cases
-they will turn an old log out of its bed, and dig a grave so deep,
-that the log, when replaced, may not press too hard upon the
-body. If any of the fresh earth be seen, they cover it with rotten
-wood, brush or leaves, that its place may not be found. If
-they have not sufficient time for this, or the number of their
-dead is too great, they throw the bodies on the top of each other
-between large logs, and place any kind of rotten wood or other
-rubbish upon them. They never, when they can help it, leave
-their dead to be devoured by wild beasts.</p>
-
-<p>When the Indians have to speak of a deceased person, they
-never mention him or her by name, lest they should renew the
-grief of the family or friends. They say, “He who was our counsellor
-or chief,” “She who was the wife of our friend;” or they
-will allude to some particular circumstance, as that of the deceased
-having been with them at a particular time or place, or
-having done some particular act or spoken particular words
-which they all remember, so that every body knows who is
-meant. I have often observed with emotion this remarkable
-delicacy, which certainly does honour to their hearts, and shews
-that they are naturally accessible to the tenderest feelings of
-humanity.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_277.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">277</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_278a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FRIENDSHIP.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Those</span> who believe that no faith is to be placed in the
-friendship of an Indian are egregiously mistaken, and
-know very little of the true character of those men
-of nature. They are, it is true, revengeful to their
-enemies, to those who wilfully do them an injury, who insult,
-abuse, or treat them with contempt. It may be said, indeed,
-that the passion of revenge is so strong in them that it knows no
-bounds. This does not, however, proceed from a bad or malicious
-disposition, but from the violence of natural feelings unchecked
-by social institutions, and unsubdued by the force of revealed
-religion. The tender and generous passions operate no less
-powerfully on them than those of an opposite character, and they
-are as warm and sincere in their friendship, as vindictive in their
-enmities. Nay, I will venture to assert that there are those
-among them who on an emergency would lay down their lives
-for a friend: I could fill many pages with examples of Indian
-friendship and fidelity, not only to each other, but to men of
-other nations and of a different colour than themselves. How
-often, when wars were impending between them and the whites,
-have they not forewarned those among our frontier settlers
-whom they thought well disposed towards them, that dangerous
-times were at hand, and advised them to provide for their
-own safety, regardless of the jealousy which such conduct might
-excite among their own people? How often did they not even
-guard and escort them through the most dangerous places until
-they had reached a secure spot? How often did they not find
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">278</span>
-means to keep an enemy from striking a stroke, as they call it,
-that is to say from proceeding to the sudden indiscriminate murder
-of the frontier whites, until their friends or those whom they
-considered as such were out of all danger?</p>
-
-<p>These facts are all familiar to every one who has lived among
-Indians or in their neighbourhood, and I believe it will be difficult
-to find a single case in which they betrayed a real friend or
-abandoned him in the hour of danger, when it was in their power
-to extricate or relieve him. The word “Friend” to the ear of
-an Indian does not convey the same vague and almost indefinite
-meaning that it does with us; it is not a mere complimentary or
-social expression, but implies a resolute determination to stand
-by the person so distinguished on all occasions, and a threat to
-those who might attempt to molest him; the mere looking at
-two persons who are known or declared friends, is sufficient to
-deter any one from offering insult to either. When an Indian
-believes that he has reason to suspect a man of evil designs
-against his friend, he has only to say emphatically: “This is <i>my
-friend</i>, and if any one tries to hurt him, I will do to him <i>what is
-in my mind</i>.” It is as much as to say that he will stand in his
-defence at the hazard of his own life. This language is well
-understood by the Indians, who know that they would have to
-combat with a spirited warrior, were they to attempt any thing
-against his friend. By this means much bloodshed is prevented;
-for it is sufficiently known that an Indian never proffers his
-friendship in vain. Many white men, and myself among others,
-have experienced the benefit of their powerful as well as generous
-protection.</p>
-
-<p>When in the spring of the year 1774, a war broke out between
-the Virginians and the Shawanese and Mingoes, on account of
-murders committed by the former on the latter people, and the
-exasperated friends of those who had suffered had determined to
-kill every white man in their country, the Shawano chief <i>Silverheels</i>,<a id="FNanchor_216" href="#Footnote_216" class="fnanchor">216</a>
-taking another Indian with him, undertook out of friendship
-to escort several white traders from thence to Albany,<a id="FNanchor_217" href="#Footnote_217" class="fnanchor">217</a> a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">279</span>
-distance of near two hundred miles; well knowing at the time
-that he was running the risk of his own life, from exasperated
-Indians and vagabond whites, if he should meet with such on the
-road, as he did in fact on his return. I have already said
-how he was rewarded for this noble act of friendship and self-devotion.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1779, the noted Girty with his murdering party of
-Mingoes, nine in number, fell in with the Missionary Zeisberger,
-on the path leading from Goschacking to Gnadenh&uuml;tten; their
-design was to take that worthy man prisoner; and if they could
-not seize him alive, to murder him and take his scalp to Detroit.
-They were on the point of laying hold of him, when two young
-spirited Delawares providentially entered the path at that critical
-moment and in an instant presented themselves to defend the
-good Missionary at the risk of their lives. Their determined
-conduct had the desired success, and his life was saved. His
-deliverers afterwards declared that they had no other motive for
-thus exposing themselves for his sake than that he was a friend
-to their nation, and was considered by them as a good man.</p>
-
-<p>But why should I speak of others when I have myself so
-often experienced the benefits of Indian protection and friendship.
-Let me be permitted to corroborate my assertions on this
-subject by my own personal testimony.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1777, while the Revolutionary war was raging, and
-several Indian tribes had enlisted on the British side, and were
-spreading murder and devastation along our unprotected frontier,
-I rather rashly determined to take a journey into the country
-on a visit to my friends. Captain White Eyes, the Indian hero,
-whose character I have already described,<a id="FNanchor_218" href="#Footnote_218" class="fnanchor">218</a> resided at that time
-at the distance of seventeen miles from the place where I lived.
-Hearing of my determination, he immediately hurried up to me,
-with his friend Captain Wingenund (whom I shall presently have
-occasion further to mention), and some of his young men, for the
-purpose of escorting me to Pittsburg, saying, “that he would not
-suffer me to go, while the Sandusky warriors were out on war
-excursions, without a proper escort and <i>himself</i> at my side.”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">280</span>
-He insisted on accompanying me and we set out together. One
-day, as we were proceeding along, our spies discovered a suspicious
-track. White Eyes, who was riding before me, enquired
-whether I felt afraid? I answered that while he was with me, I
-entertained no fear. On this he immediately replied, “You are
-right; for until I am laid prostrate at your feet, no one shall
-hurt you.” “And even not then,” added Wingenund, who was
-riding behind me; “before this happens, I must be also overcome,
-and lay by the side of our friend <i>Koguethagechton</i>.”<a id="FNanchor_219" href="#Footnote_219" class="fnanchor">219</a> I believed
-them, and I believe at this day that these great men were
-sincere, and that if they had been put to the test, they would
-have shewn it, as did another Indian friend by whom my life was
-saved in the spring of the year 1781. From behind a log in the
-bushes where he was concealed, he espied a hostile Indian at the
-very moment he was levelling his piece at me. Quick as lightning
-he jumped between us, and exposed his person to the
-musket shot just about to be fired, when fortunately the aggressor
-desisted, from fear of hitting the Indian whose body thus
-effectually protected me, at the imminent risk of his own life.
-Captain White Eyes, in the year 1774, saved in the same manner
-the life of David Duncan, the peace-messenger, whom he
-was escorting. He rushed, regardless of his own life, up to an
-inimical Shawanese, who was aiming at our ambassador from
-behind a bush, and forced him to desist.</p>
-
-<p>I could enumerate many other similar acts, but I think I have
-shewn enough for my purpose. Mr. Zeisberger fully agreed
-with me in the opinion, that it is impossible to deny to the
-Indians the praise of firm attachment and sincere friendship. It
-is not meant to say, that all will carry that feeling to the same
-pitch of heroism; but it is certain that there are many among
-them, whose strong attachments and a manly pride will induce
-to risk their lives in the defence of their friends. And, indeed,
-there is no Indian, who would not blush at being reproached
-that after boasting that a particular person was his friend, he had
-acted the coward when his friendship was put to the test, and
-had shrunk from venturing his own life, when there was even a
-chance of saving that of the man whom he professed to love.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">281</span></p>
-
-<p>It is not true, as some have supposed, that an Indian’s friendship
-must be purchased by presents, and that it lasts only so
-long as gifts continue to be lavished upon them. Their attachments,
-on the contrary, are perfectly disinterested. I admit that
-they receive with pleasure a present from a friend’s hand. They
-consider presents as marks of the giver’s good disposition towards
-them. They cannot, in their opinion, proceed from an enemy,
-and he who befriends them, they think must love them. Obligations
-to them are not burdensome, they love to acknowledge
-them, and whatever may be their faults, ingratitude is not among
-the number.</p>
-
-<p>Indeed, the friendship of an Indian is easily acquired, provided
-it is sought in good faith. But whoever chooses to obtain it
-must be sure to treat them on a footing of perfect equality.
-They are very jealous of the whites, who they think affect to
-consider themselves as beings of a superior nature and too often
-treat them with rude undeserved contempt. This they seldom
-forgive, while on the other hand, they feel flattered when a white
-man does not disdain to treat them as children of the same
-Creator. Both reason and humanity concur in teaching us this
-conduct, but I am sorry to say that reason and humanity are in
-such cases too little attended to. I hope I may be permitted to
-expatiate a little on this subject; perhaps it may be beneficial to
-some white persons hereafter.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians are, as I have already observed before,<a id="FNanchor_220" href="#Footnote_220" class="fnanchor">220</a> excellent
-physiognomists. If they are accosted by or engaged in business
-with a number of whites, though they may not understand the
-language that is spoken, they will pretty accurately distinguish
-by the countenance, those who despise their colour from those
-who are under the influence of a more generous feeling, and in
-this they are seldom mistaken. They fix their eyes on the whole
-party round, and read as it were in the souls of the individuals
-who compose it. They mark those whom they consider as their
-friends, and those whom they think to be their enemies, and are
-sure to remember them ever after. But what must those expect,
-if a war or some other circumstance should put them into the
-power of the Indians, who, relying on their supposed ignorance
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">282</span>
-of our idiom, do not scruple even in their presence to apply to
-them the epithets of <i>dogs</i>, <i>black d&mdash;ls</i>, and the like? Will not
-these poor people be in some degree justifiable in considering
-those persons as decidedly hostile to their race? Such cases
-have unfortunately too frequently happened, and the savages have
-been blamed for treating as enemies those who had so cruelly
-wounded their most delicate feelings! Many white men have
-been thus put to death, who had brought their fate on themselves
-by their own imprudence. On the other hand, the Indians
-have not failed to mark those who at the time reprobated such
-indecent behaviour and reproached their companions for using
-such improper language. In the midst of war these benevolent
-Christians have been treated as friends, when, perhaps, they had
-forgotten the humane conduct to which they were indebted for
-this kind usage.</p>
-
-<p>Their reasoning in such cases is simple, but to them always
-conclusive. They merely apply their constant maxim, which
-I believe I have already noticed, that “good can never proceed
-from evil or evil from good, and that good and evil, like heterogeneous
-substances, can never combine or coalesce together.”
-How far this maxim is founded in a profound knowledge of
-human nature, it is not my business to determine; what is certain
-is that they adhere to it in almost every occasion. If a person
-treats them ill, they ascribe it invariably to his bad heart; it is
-the bad spirit within him that operates; he is, therefore, a bad
-man. If on the contrary one shews them kindness, they say he
-is prompted so to act by “the good spirit within him,” and that
-he has a <i>good heart</i>; for if he had not, he would not do good.
-It is impossible to draw them out of this circle of reasoning, and
-to persuade them that the friendship shewn to them may be dissembled
-and proceed from motives of interest; so convinced are
-they of the truth of their general principle, “that good cannot
-proceed from an evil source.”</p>
-
-<p>The conduct of the Europeans towards them, particularly
-within the last fifty or sixty years, has, however, sufficiently
-convinced them that men may dissemble, and that kind speeches
-and even acts of apparent friendship do not always proceed from
-friendly motives, but that the bad spirit will sometimes lurk
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">283</span>
-under the appearance of the good. Hence, when they speak of
-the whites in general, they do not scruple to designate them as
-a false, deceitful race; but it is nevertheless true that with individuals,
-they frequently forget this general impression, and revert
-to their own honest principle; and if a white man only behaves
-to them with common humanity, it is still easy to get access to
-their simple hearts. Such are those brutes, those savages, from
-whom, according to some men, no faith is to be expected, and
-with whom no faith is to be kept; such are those <i>barbarous</i>
-nations, as they are called, whom God, nevertheless, made the
-lawful owners and masters of this beautiful country; but who,
-at no very remote time, will probably live, partially live, only
-in its history.</p>
-
-<p>My object in this chapter is to prove that those men are susceptible
-of the noblest and finest feelings of genuine friendship.
-It is not enough that by a long residence among them, I have
-acquired the most complete conviction of this truth; facts and
-not opinions, I know, are expected from me. Perhaps I might
-rest satisfied with the proofs that I have already given, but I
-have only shewn the strength and have yet to display the <i>constancy</i>
-of their attachments; and although in the story which I
-am going to relate, a friend was forced to see his friend perish
-miserably without having it in his power to save him from the
-most terrible death that vengeance and cruelty could inflict, we
-shall not be the less astonished to see him persevere in his
-friendly sentiments, under circumstances of all others the most
-calculated, (particularly to an Indian) not only to have entirely
-extinguished, but converted those sentiments into feelings of
-hatred and revenge.</p>
-
-<p>I am sorry to be so often obliged to revert to the circumstance
-of the cruel murder of the Christian Indians on the Sandusky<a id="FNanchor_221" href="#Footnote_221" class="fnanchor">221</a>
-river<a id="FNanchor_222" href="#Footnote_222" class="fnanchor">222</a> in the year 1782, by a gang of banditti, under the command
-of one Williamson. Not satisfied with this horrid outrage,
-the same band not long afterwards marched to Sandusky,<a id="FNanchor_223" href="#Footnote_223" class="fnanchor">223</a> where
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">284</span>
-it seems they had been informed that the remainder of that unfortunate
-congregation had fled, in order to perpetrate upon them
-the same indiscriminate murder. But Providence had so ordered
-it that they had before left that place, where they had found that
-they could not remain in safety, their ministers having been taken
-from them and carried to Detroit by order of the British government,
-so that they had been left entirely unprotected. The murderers,
-on their arrival, were much disappointed in finding nothing
-but empty huts. They then shaped their course towards the hostile
-Indian villages, where being, contrary to their expectations,
-furiously attacked, Williamson and his band took the advantage
-of a dark night and ran off, and the whole party escaped, except
-one Colonel Crawford and another, who being taken by the Indians
-were carried in triumph to their village, where the former
-was condemned to death by torture, and the punishment was
-inflicted with all the cruelty that rage could invent. The latter
-was demanded by the Shawanese and sent to them for punishment.</p>
-
-<p>While preparations were making for the execution of this
-dreadful sentence, the unfortunate Crawford recollected that the
-Delaware chief Wingenund,<a id="FNanchor_224" href="#Footnote_224" class="fnanchor">224</a> of whom I have spoken in the
-beginning of this chapter, had been his friend in happier times;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">285</span>
-he had several times entertained him at his house, and shewed
-him those marks of attention which are so grateful to the poor
-despised Indians. A ray of hope darted through his soul, and
-he requested that Wingenund, who lived at some distance from
-the village, might be sent for. His request was granted, and a
-messenger was despatched for the chief, who, reluctantly, indeed,
-but without hesitation, obeyed the summons, and immediately
-came to the fatal spot.</p>
-
-<p>This great and good man was not only one of the bravest and
-most celebrated warriors, but one of the most amiable men of the
-Delaware nation. To a firm undaunted mind, he joined humanity,
-kindness and universal benevolence; the excellent qualities of
-his heart had obtained for him the name of <i>Wingenund</i>, which in
-the Lenape language signifies <i>the well beloved</i>. He had kept
-away from the tragical scene about to be acted, to mourn in
-silence and solitude over the fate of his guilty friend, which he
-well knew it was not in his power to prevent. He was now
-called upon to act a painful as well as difficult part; the eyes
-of his enraged countrymen were fixed upon him; he was an
-Indian and a Delaware; he was a leader of that nation, whose
-defenceless members had been so cruelly murdered without
-distinction of age or sex, and whose innocent blood called
-aloud for the most signal revenge. Could he take the part of
-a chief of the base murderers? Could he forget altogether the
-feelings of ancient fellowship and give way exclusively to those
-of the Indian and the patriot? Fully sensible that in the situation
-in which he was placed the latter must, in appearance, at
-least, predominate, he summoned to his aid the firmness and
-dignity of an Indian warrior, approached Colonel Crawford and
-waited in silence for the communications he had to make. The
-following dialogue now took place between them.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> Do you recollect me, Wingenund?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> I believe I do; are you not Colonel Crawford?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> I am. How do you do? I am glad to see you,
-Captain.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> (embarrassed) So! yes, indeed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> Do you recollect the friendship that always existed
-between us, and that we were always glad to see each other?
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">286</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> I recollect all this. I remember that we have drunk
-many a bowl of punch together. I remember also other acts of
-kindness that you have done me.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> Then I hope the same friendship still subsists between
-us.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> It would, of course, be the same, were you in your
-proper place and not here.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> And why not here, Captain? I hope you would not
-desert a friend in time of need. Now is the time for you to exert
-yourself in my behalf, as I should do for you, were you in my
-place.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> Colonel Crawford! you have placed yourself in a
-situation which puts it out of my power and that of others of
-your friends to do anything for you.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> How so, Captain Wingenund?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> By joining yourself to that execrable man, Williamson
-and his party; the man who, but the other day, murdered
-such a number of the Moravian Indians, knowing them to be
-friends; knowing that he ran no risk in murdering a people who
-would not fight, and whose only business was praying.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> Wingenund, I assure you, that had I been with him
-at the time, this would not have happened; not I alone but all
-your friends and all good men, wherever they are, reprobate
-acts of this kind.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> That may be; yet these friends, these good men
-did not prevent him from going out again, to kill the remainder
-of those inoffensive, yet <i>foolish</i> Moravian Indians! I say <i>foolish</i>,
-because they believed the whites in preference to us. We had
-often told them that they would be one day so treated by those
-people who called themselves their friends! We told them that
-there was no faith to be placed in what the white men said; that
-their fair promises were only intended to allure us, that they
-might the more easily kill us, as they have done many Indians
-before they killed these Moravians.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> I am sorry to hear you speak thus; as to Williamson’s
-going out again, when it was known that he was determined
-on it, I went out with him to prevent him from committing
-fresh murders.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">287</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> This, Colonel, the Indians would not believe, were
-even I to tell them so.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> And why would they not believe it?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> Because it would have been out of your power to
-prevent his doing what he pleased.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> Out of my power! Have any Moravian Indians
-been killed or hurt since we came out?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> None; but you went first to their town, and finding
-it empty and deserted you turned on the path towards us? If
-you had been in search of warriors only, you would not have
-gone thither. Our spies watched you closely. They saw you
-while you were embodying yourselves on the other side of the
-Ohio; they saw you cross that river; they saw where you encamped
-at night; they saw you turn off from the path to the
-deserted Moravian town; they knew you were going out of your
-way; your steps were constantly watched, and you were suffered
-quietly to proceed until you reached the spot where you were
-attacked.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> What do they intend to do with me? Can you tell
-me?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> I tell you with grief, Colonel. As Williamson and
-his whole cowardly host, ran off in the night at the whistling of
-our warrior’s balls, being satisfied that now he had no Moravians
-to deal with, but men who could fight, and with such he did not
-wish to have anything to do; I say, as he escaped, and they have
-taken you, they will take revenge on you in his stead.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> And is there no possibility of preventing this? Can
-you devise no way to get me off? You shall, my friend, be well
-rewarded if you are instrumental in saving my life.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> Had Williamson been taken with you, I and some
-friends, by making use of what you have told me, might perhaps,
-have succeeded to save you, but as the matter now stands, no
-man would dare to interfere in your behalf. The king of England
-himself, were he to come to this spot, with all his wealth
-and treasures could not effect this purpose. The blood of the
-innocent Moravians, more than half of them women and children,
-cruelly and wantonly murdered calls aloud for <i>revenge</i>.
-The relatives of the slain, who are among us, cry out and stand
-ready for <i>revenge</i>. The nation to which they belonged will have
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">288</span>
-<i>revenge</i>. The Shawanese, our grandchildren, have asked for
-your fellow-prisoner; on him they will take <i>revenge</i>. All the
-nations connected with us cry out <i>Revenge! revenge!</i> The
-Moravians whom you went to destroy having fled, instead of
-avenging their brethren, the offence is become national, and the
-nation itself is bound to take <span class="smcap">REVENGE</span>!</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Crawf.</span> Then it seems my fate is decided, and I must prepare
-to meet death in its worst form?</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Wingen.</span> Yes, Colonel!&mdash;I am sorry for it; but cannot do
-anything for you. Had you attended to the Indian principle,
-that as good and evil cannot dwell together in the same heart,
-so a good man ought not to go into evil company; you would
-not be in this lamentable situation. You see now, when it is
-too late, after Williamson has deserted you, what a bad man he
-must be! Nothing now remains for you but to meet your fate
-like a brave man. Farewell, Colonel Crawford! they are coming;<a id="FNanchor_225" href="#Footnote_225" class="fnanchor">225</a>
-I will retire to a solitary spot.</p>
-
-<p>I have been assured by respectable Indians that at the close
-of this conversation, which was related to me by Wingenund
-himself as well as by others, both he and Crawford burst into a
-flood of tears; they then took an affectionate leave of each other,
-and the chief immediately <i>hid himself in the bushes</i>, as the Indians
-express it, or in his own language, retired to a solitary spot. He
-never, afterwards, spoke of the fate of his unfortunate friend
-without strong emotions of grief, which I have several times
-witnessed. Once, it was the first time that he came into Detroit
-after Crawford’s sufferings, I heard him censured in his own
-presence by some gentlemen who were standing together for
-not having saved the life of so valuable a man, who was also his
-particular friend, as he had often told them. He listened calmly
-to their censure, and first turning to me, said in his own language:
-“These men talk like fools,” then turning to them, he
-replied in English: “If king George himself, if your king had
-been on the spot with all his ships laden with goods and treasures,
-he could not have ransomed my friend, nor saved his life
-from the rage of a <i>justly</i> exasperated multitude.” He made no
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">289</span>
-further allusion to the act that had been the cause of Crawford’s
-death, and it was easy to perceive that on this melancholy subject,
-grief was the feeling that predominated in his mind. He
-felt much hurt, however, at this unjust accusation, from men who,
-perhaps, he might think, would have acted very differently in
-his place. For, let us consider in what a situation he found
-himself, at that trying and critical moment. He was a Delaware
-Indian, and a highly distinguished character among his nation.
-The offence was national, and of the most atrocious kind, as it
-was wanton and altogether unprovoked. He might have been
-expected to partake with all the rest of his countrymen in the
-strong desire which they felt for <i>revenge</i>. He had been Crawford’s
-friend, it is true, and various acts of sociability and friendship
-had been interchanged between them. But, no doubt, at
-that time, he believed him, at least, not to be an enemy to his
-nation and colour, and if he was an enemy, he might have expected
-him to be, like himself, a fair, open, generous foe. But
-when he finds him enlisted with those who are waging a war of
-extermination against the Indian race, murdering in cold blood,
-and without distinction of age or sex, even those who had united
-their fate to that of the whites, and had said to the Christians:
-“Your people shall be <i>our</i> people, and your God <i>our</i> God,”<a id="FNanchor_226" href="#Footnote_226" class="fnanchor">226</a> was
-there not enough here to make him disbelieve all the former
-professions of such a man, and to turn his abused friendship into
-the most violent enmity and the bitterest rage? Instead of this
-we see him persevering to the last in his attachment to a person
-who, to say the least, had ceased to be deserving of it; we see
-him in the face of his enraged countrymen avow that friendship,
-careless of the jealousy that he might excite; we see him not
-only abstain from participating in the national revenge, but deserting
-his post, as it were, seek a solitary spot to bewail the
-death of him, whom, in spite of all, he still loved, and felt not
-ashamed to call his <i>friend</i>.</p>
-
-<p>It is impossible for friendship to be put to a severer test, and
-the example of Wingenund proves how deep a root this sentiment
-can take in the mind of an Indian, when even such circumstances
-as those under which the chief found himself, fail to extinguish
-it.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">290</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_291a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XXXIX">CHAPTER XXXIX.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">PREACHERS AND PROPHETS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">There</span> was a time when the preachers and prophets
-of the Indians, by properly exerting the unbounded
-influence which the popular superstitions gave them,
-might have excited among those nations such a spirit
-of general resistance against the encroachments of the Europeans,
-as would have enabled them, at least, to make a noble stand
-against their invaders, and perhaps to recover the undisturbed
-possession of their country. Instead of following the obvious
-course which reason and nature pointed out; instead of uniting
-as one nation in defence of their natural rights, they gave ear to
-the artful insinuations of their enemies, who too well understood
-the art of sowing unnatural divisions among them. It was not
-until Canada, after repeated struggles, was finally conquered
-from the French by the united arms of Great Britain and her
-colonies, that they began to be sensible of their desperate situation&mdash;this
-whole northern continent being now in the possession
-of one great and powerful nation, against whom it was
-vain to attempt resistance. Yet it was at this moment that their
-prophets, impelled by ambitious motives, began to endeavour
-by their eloquence to bring them back to independent feelings,
-and create among them a genuine national spirit; but it was too
-late. The only rational resource that remained for them to prevent
-their total annihilation was to adopt the religion and manners
-of their conquerors, and abandon savage life for the comforts
-of civilised society; but of this but a few of them were sensible;
-in vain Missionaries were sent among them, who, through the
-greatest hardships and dangers exerted themselves to soften their
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">291</span>
-misfortunes by the consolations of the Christian faith, and to
-point out to them the way of salvation in this world and the next;
-the banner of Christ was comparatively followed but by small
-numbers, and these were persecuted by their friends, or, at least,
-those who ought to have been such, as well as by their enemies.
-Among the obstacles which the Missionaries encountered, the
-strong opposition which was made to them by the prophets of
-the Indian nations was by no means the least.</p>
-
-<p>I have known several of these preachers and prophets during
-my residence in the Indian country, and have had sufficient
-opportunities to observe the means which they took to operate
-on the minds of their hearers. I shall content myself with taking
-notice here of a few of the most remarkable among them.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1762, there was a famous preacher of the Delaware
-nation, who resided at <i>Cayahaga</i>, near Lake Erie, and travelled
-about the country, among the Indians, endeavouring to persuade
-them that he had been appointed by the great Spirit to instruct
-them in those things that were agreeable to him and to point
-out to them the offences by which they had drawn his displeasure
-on themselves, and the means by which they might
-recover his favour for the future. He had drawn, as he pretended,
-by the direction of the great Spirit, a kind of map on a
-piece of deer skin, somewhat dressed like parchment, which he
-called “the great Book or Writing.” This, he said, he had
-been ordered to shew to the Indians, that they might see the
-situation in which the Mannitto had originally placed them, the
-misery which they had brought upon themselves by neglecting
-their duty, and the only way that was now left them to regain
-what they had lost. This map he held before him while preaching,
-frequently pointing to particular marks and spots upon it,
-and giving explanations as he went along.</p>
-
-<p>The size of this map was about fifteen inches square, or, perhaps,
-something more. An inside square was formed by lines
-drawn within it, of about eight inches each way, two of those
-lines, however, were not closed by about half an inch at the
-corners. Across these inside lines, others of about an inch
-in length were drawn with sundry other lines and marks, all
-which was intended to represent a strong inaccessible barrier,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">292</span>
-to prevent those without from entering the space within, otherwise
-than at the place appointed for that purpose. When the
-map was held as he directed, the corners which were not closed
-lay at the left hand side, directly opposite to each other, the one
-being at the south-east by south, and the nearest at the north-east
-by north. In explaining or describing the particular points
-on this map, with his fingers always pointing to the place he
-was describing, he called the space within the inside lines “the
-heavenly regions,” or the place destined by the great Spirit for
-the habitation of the Indians in future life; the space left open
-at the south-east corner, he called the “avenue,” which had been
-intended for the Indians to enter into this heaven, but which was
-now in the possession of the white people, wherefore the great
-Spirit had since caused another “avenue” to be made on the
-opposite side, at which, however, it was both difficult and
-dangerous for them to enter, there being many impediments in
-their way, besides a large ditch leading to a gulf below, over
-which they had to leap; but the evil spirit kept at this very spot
-a continual watch for Indians, and whoever he laid hold of,
-never could get away from him again, but was carried to his
-regions, where there was nothing but extreme poverty; where
-the ground was parched up by the heat for want of rain, no fruit
-came to perfection, the game was almost starved for want of
-pasture, and where the evil spirit, at his pleasure, transformed
-men into horses and dogs, to be ridden by him and follow him
-in his hunts and wherever he went.</p>
-
-<p>The space on the outside of this interior square, was intended
-to represent the country given to the Indians to hunt, fish, and
-dwell in while in this world; the east side of it was called the
-ocean or “great salt water Lake.” Then the preacher drawing
-the attention of his hearers particularly to the south-east avenue,
-would say to them: “Look here! See what we have lost by
-neglect and disobedience; by being remiss in the expression of
-our gratitude to the great Spirit, for what he has bestowed upon
-us; by neglecting to make to him sufficient sacrifices; by looking
-upon a people of a different colour from our own, who had
-come across a great lake, as if they were a part of ourselves; by
-suffering them to sit down by our side, and looking at them with
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">293</span>
-indifference, while they were not only taking our country from
-us, but this (pointing to the spot), this, our own avenue, leading
-into those beautiful regions which were destined for us. Such is
-the sad condition to which we are reduced. What is now to be
-done, and what remedy is to be applied? I will tell you, my
-friends. Hear what the great Spirit has ordered me to tell you!
-You are to make sacrifices, in the manner that I shall direct; to put
-off entirely from yourselves the customs which you have adopted
-since the white people came among us; you are to return to that
-former happy state, in which we lived in peace and plenty, before
-these strangers came to disturb us, and above all, you must
-abstain from drinking their deadly <i>beson</i>, which they have forced
-upon us, for the sake of increasing their gains and diminishing
-our numbers. Then will the great Spirit give success to our
-arms; then he will give us strength to conquer our enemies, to
-drive them from hence, and recover the passage to the heavenly
-regions which they have taken from us.”</p>
-
-<p>Such was in general the substance of his discourses. After
-having dilated more or less on the various topics which I have
-mentioned, he commonly concluded in this manner: “And now,
-my friends, in order that what I have told you may remain
-firmly impressed on your minds, and to refresh your memories
-from time to time, I advise you to preserve, in every family, at
-least, such a book or writing as this, which I will finish off for
-you, provided you bring me the price, which is only one buckskin
-or two doe-skins a piece.”<a id="FNanchor_227" href="#Footnote_227" class="fnanchor">227</a> The price was of course bought,<a id="FNanchor_228" href="#Footnote_228" class="fnanchor">228</a>
-and the book purchased. In some of those maps, the figure of
-a deer or turkey, or both, was placed in the heavenly regions,
-and also in the dreary region of the evil spirit; the former, however,
-appeared fat and plump, while the latter seemed to have
-nothing but skin and bones.</p>
-
-<p>I was also well acquainted with another noted preacher, named
-<i>Wangomend</i>, who was of the Monsey tribe. He began to preach
-in the year 1766, much in the same manner as the one I have
-just mentioned. When Mr. Zeisberger first came to <i>Goschgoschink</i>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">294</span>
-town<a id="FNanchor_229" href="#Footnote_229" class="fnanchor">229</a> on the Allegheny river, this Indian prophet became
-one of his hearers, but finding that the Missionary’s doctrine
-did not agree with his own, he became his enemy. This man
-also pretended that his call as a preacher was not of his own
-choice, but that he had been moved to it by the great and good
-Spirit, in order to teach his countrymen, who were on the way
-to perdition, how they could become reconciled to their God.
-He would make his followers believe that he had once been
-taken so near to heaven, that he could distinctly hear the crowing
-of the cocks, and that at another time he had been borne by
-unseen hands to where he had been permitted to take a peep
-into the heavens, of which there were three, one for the Indians,
-one for the negroes, and another for the white people. That of
-the Indians he observed to be the happiest of the three, and that
-of the whites the unhappiest; for they were under chastisement
-for their ill treatment of the Indians, and for possessing themselves
-of the land which God had given to them. They were
-also punished for making beasts of the negroes, by selling them
-as the Indians do their horses and dogs, and beating them unmercifully,
-although God had created them as well as the rest of
-mankind.</p>
-
-<p>The novelty of these visions procured him hearers for a time;
-he found, however, at last, that the Indians became indifferent
-to his doctrines, particularly as he frequently warned them not
-to drink the <i>poison</i> brought to them by the white people, of
-which his congregation were very fond. Then he bethought
-himself of a more popular and interesting subject, and began to
-preach against witchcraft and those who dealt in the black art.
-Here he had all the passions and prejudices of the poor Indians
-on his side, and he did not fail to meet with the general approbation,
-when he declared to them that wizards were getting
-the upper hand, and would destroy the nation, if they were not
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">295</span>
-checked in their career. He travelled in 1775, to <i>Goschachking</i>,
-at the forks of the Muskingum, to lay this business before the
-great council of the Delawares, and take their opinion upon it.
-The first report which the Missionaries on the Muskingum heard
-on this subject, was that the chiefs had at first united in having
-every conjurer and witch in the nation brought to an account
-and punished with death, that, however, on a more mature consideration,
-they had thought proper in the first place to ascertain
-the number and names not only of those who were known, but
-even of those who were suspected of dealing in sorcery, and
-Wangomend was appointed to cause the enumeration to be
-made. He accordingly hastily set off for his home; and on his
-arrival immediately entered on the duties of his mission; when
-behold! it was discovered that the number of offenders was
-much greater than had been at first imagined, and he found himself
-in danger of having his own name inserted in the black
-list. His zeal, in consequence, became considerably cooled, and
-by the time when he returned the chiefs were no longer disposed
-to meddle with this dangerous subject, justly fearing that it
-could not but terminate in the ruin of their nation. Wangomend,
-therefore, returned to his former mode of preaching,
-recommending to his hearers to purge themselves from sin by
-taking certain prescribed medicines, and making frequent sacrifices
-to the great Spirit.</p>
-
-<p>The last whom I shall take notice of is the Prophet-warrior
-<i>Tecumseh</i>, lately so celebrated among us, and who lost his life
-in the last war at the battle of the Thames, on the 30th of September,
-1813, at the age, it is said, of 43 years. The details of
-his military life have been made sufficiently known through the
-medium of journals and newspapers, and his famous speech to
-the British general Proctor delivered at Amhertsburg, a short
-time before the battle which decided his fate, is in every body’s
-hands.<a id="FNanchor_230" href="#Footnote_230" class="fnanchor">230</a> But his character as a prophet and the means that he
-took to raise himself to power and fame are not so well nor so
-particularly understood, although it is, in general, admitted that
-he was admirably skilled in the art of governing Indians through
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">296</span>
-the medium of their passions. The sketch which I am going to
-draw will sufficiently prove how well this opinion is founded.</p>
-
-<p>From the best information that I was able to obtain of this
-man, he was by nation a Shawanese, and began his career as a
-preacher much in the manner that others had done before him.
-He endeavoured to impress upon the minds of his Indian hearers,
-that they were a distinct people from the whites, that they
-had been created and placed on this soil for peculiar purposes,
-and that it had been ordered by the supreme being that they
-should live unconnected with people of a different colour from
-their own. He painted in vivid colours, the misery that they
-had brought upon themselves by permitting the whites to reside
-among them, and urged them to unite and expel those lawless
-intruders from their country. But he soon discovered that these
-once popular topics no longer produced any effect on the minds
-of the dispirited Indians, and that it was impossible to persuade
-them to resort to strong measures, to oppose the progress of the
-whites, much less to endeavour to drive them beyond the great
-lake. He had long observed that whenever he touched on the
-subject of witchcraft, his discourses were always acceptable to his
-hearers, whose belief in those supernatural powers, instead of
-diminishing, seemed constantly to gain ground. He knew that
-his predecessor, Wangomend, had failed in his endeavour to gain
-influence and power by availing himself of these popular opinions.
-But his ill success did not deter him from making the
-same attempts. He did not, however, like him, seek the assistance
-of the national councils, but boldly determined to try what
-his talents and courage could do without any other aid. There
-is a saying among the Indians, “That God ordained man to live
-until all his teeth are worn out, his eyesight dim and his hair
-grey.” Of this he artfully availed himself to persuade those ignorant
-people, that the early deaths which constantly took place
-could not be attributed to any natural cause, since it was the will
-of God that every man should live to an advanced old age.
-When he found that he had thus obtained a fast hold on the
-minds of his hearers, by raising their fears of the powers of witchcraft
-to the highest pitch, he thought it was time to work on
-their hopes, and after gradually feeling the pulses of those he had
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">297</span>
-to deal with, after successively throwing out a great number of
-hints and insinuations, the effects of which he had carefully observed,
-he at last did what no preacher before him had ventured
-to do, by declaring that the great Mannitto had endowed him
-with supernatural powers, to foretel future events, and to discover
-present secrets, and that he could point out with certainty, not
-only those, whether men or women, who were in the full possession
-of the art of witchcraft, but those who had even a tincture
-of it, however small. His bold assertions met with implicit belief,
-and he obtained by that means such an unlimited command
-over a credulous multitude, that at last, he had only to speak
-the word, or even to nod, and the pile was quickly prepared by
-willing executioners to put to death whomsoever he thought
-proper to devote. Here was a wide field opened for the gratification
-of the worst passions. Whoever thought himself injured,
-denounced his enemy as a wizard; the least real or pretended
-cause of resentment, nay, even a paltry bribe, would bring the
-most innocent man to the pile or tomahawk, and no one availed
-himself more of this frantic delusion of the populace, than the
-great prophet himself. Having his spies out in every direction, he
-well knew who were his friends and who his enemies, and we to
-all who were reported to him or even suspected by him to be
-of the latter class! The tyrant had only to will their deaths,
-and his commands no one durst contradict, but all were ready
-to execute.</p>
-
-<p>Among the number of his victims was the venerable Wyandot
-Chief Sha-te-ya-ron-yah, called by the whites <i>Leather-lips</i>. He
-was one of those who in August, 1795, signed the treaty of
-Greenville on behalf of the Huron tribe. His only crime was
-honesty, and the honourable character which he had acquired.
-In a fit of jealousy Tecumseh ordered him to be put to death,
-and his commands were but too readily obeyed. I cannot conclude
-this chapter better than by an account of his death, which
-was transmitted to me at the time (in August, 1810) by a respectable
-and philanthropic gentleman in the state of Ohio.</p>
-
-<p>The relation which I here transcribe was accompanied with
-the following letter:
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">298</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>&mdash;I here enclose an imperfect sketch of the execution of
-an unfortunate Indian. From your benevolent exertions, for many
-years, to ameliorate their condition, and the confidence reposed in you
-by them, I trust you may have it in your power successfully to oppose
-the wasteful influence of this prophet over these too credulous people.
-It is the office of humanity and worthy of the attention of the Society
-of the United Brethren. I may be incorrect in the recital of some
-of the circumstances; it was given to me from respectable sources;
-sources, in my opinion, entitled to credit.</p>
-
-<p class="author">“I am, &amp;c.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">Account of the Death of Leather-Lips.</span></h3>
-
-<p>“This unfortunate Chief of the Seneca<a id="FNanchor_231" href="#Footnote_231" class="fnanchor">231</a> tribe, who had attained
-the sixty-third year of his age, had pitched his camp a few miles
-west of the town of Worthington in the county of Franklinton.
-From his constant attachment to the principles of honesty and
-integrity, he had obtained a certificate from an officer of the government
-as a testimonial of the propriety of his deportment.
-This aged Chief was suspected by the <i>Prophet</i>, a man of a restless,
-turbulent spirit, who by his exceeding address, has obtained
-an unbounded influence over many of the northern and western
-tribes of Indians, by impressing upon their minds a belief that
-he is endowed with supernatural knowledge, and can foretel
-events yet to come. This is the same prophet who gathered the
-Indians at Greenville a few years ago, from which meeting so
-much was apprehended. In order that he should no longer
-have anything to apprehend from him (this Indian) he issued
-orders for his immediate death. These orders were given to
-<i>Crane</i>,<a id="FNanchor_232" href="#Footnote_232" class="fnanchor">232</a> a chief of the Sandusky tribes, who immediately sat out
-with four other Indians, in quest of the old chief. About three
-weeks ago they found out his camp, and immediately sent his
-brother to him (who was one of their party) with a piece of bark,
-on which they had painted a tomahawk, as a token of his death!
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">299</span>
-On the same day, Crane and his party spoke publicly in the settlements
-of the whites of their intention to kill him. When they
-sat out for his camp they were accompanied by five white men,
-amongst whom was a <i>justice of the peace</i>, no doubt to gratify
-their curiosity. Upon their arrival at the camp, they informed
-him of the object of their mission, and that he must prepare to
-meet his fate! In vain did he remonstrate against the cruelty
-of the sentence; he told them that he was an old man, and must
-soon die; that if they would spare him they might have his
-camp, and that he would go far beyond the Mississippi, where
-he would never again be heard of. He also alleged that he was
-a man of honesty, and had done nothing to incur so hard a fate!
-One of the white men also made an offer of his horse, to save
-the old man from the impending storm. Those offers all proved
-ineffectual. All hopes of a reconciliation now gone, he prepared
-to meet his fate with becoming dignity. While the Indians were
-digging his grave, he dressed himself with his best clothes in
-the war style, and then got his venison and refreshed himself.
-As soon as the grave was finished, he went to it and knelt down
-and prayed most fervently! He then took an affectionate leave
-of the Indians, and of the white men present, and when he came
-to the one who had offered his horse to redeem him, penetrated
-with gratitude, he burst into a flood of tears, and told him that
-<i>his God would reward him</i>. This was the only instance in which
-the least change could be perceived in his countenance. He was
-then attended to the grave by Crane&mdash;they knelt down, while
-Crane offered up to the great Spirit his prayers in his behalf.
-The fatal period had now arrived; they arose from their knees,
-and proceeded a few paces, and seated themselves on the ground.
-The old chief inclined forward, resting his face upon his hand,
-his hand upon his knees; while thus seated, one of the young
-Indians came up and struck him twice with the tomahawk. For
-some time he lay senseless on the ground. The only evidence
-of life that yet remained, was a faint respiration. The Indians
-all stood around in solemn silence; finding him to respire longer
-than they expected, they called upon the whites to take notice
-how hard he died, and pronounced him a witch&mdash;no good&mdash;they
-struck him again and terminated his existence. He was then
-borne to the grave, where the last sad office was soon performed.”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">300</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_301a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XL">CHAPTER XL.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">SHORT NOTICE OF THE INDIAN CHEIFS, TAMANEND AND TADEUSKUND.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> name of <span class="smcap">Tamanend</span> is held in the highest veneration
-among the Indians. Of all the chiefs and great
-men which the Lenape nation ever had, he stands
-foremost on the list. But although many fabulous
-stories are circulated about him among the whites, but little of
-his real history is known. The misfortunes which have befallen
-some of the most beloved and esteemed personages among the
-Indians since the Europeans came among them, prevent the survivors
-from indulging in the pleasure of recalling to mind the
-memory of their virtues. No white man who regards their feelings,
-will introduce such subjects in conversation with them.</p>
-
-<p>All we know, therefore, of Tamanend is, that he was an ancient
-Delaware chief, who never had his equal.<a id="FNanchor_233" href="#Footnote_233" class="fnanchor">233</a> He was in the highest
-degree endowed with wisdom, virtue, prudence, charity, affability,
-meekness, hospitality, in short with every good and noble qualification
-that a human being may possess. He was supposed to
-have had an intercourse with the great and good Spirit; for he
-was a stranger to everything that is bad.</p>
-
-<p>When Colonel George Morgan, of Princeton in New Jersey,
-was, about the year 1776, sent by Congress as an agent to the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">301</span>
-western Indians, the Delawares conferred on him the name of
-Tamanend in honour and remembrance of their ancient chief,
-and as the greatest mark of respect which they could shew to
-that gentleman, who, they said, had the same address, affability
-and meekness as their honoured chief, and therefore, ought to
-be named after him.</p>
-
-<p>The fame of this great man extended even among the whites,
-who fabricated numerous legends respecting him, which I never
-heard, however, from the mouth of an Indian, and therefore believe
-to be fabulous. In the Revolutionary war, his enthusiastic
-admirers dubbed him a saint, and he was established under the
-name of <i>St. Tammany</i>, the Patron Saint of America. His name
-was inserted in some calendars, and his festival celebrated on the
-first day of May in every year. On that day a numerous society
-of his votaries walked together in procession through the streets
-of Philadelphia, their hats decorated with bucks’ tails, and proceeded
-to a handsome rural place out of town which they called
-the <i>Wigwam</i>, where, after a <i>long talk</i> or Indian speech had been
-delivered, and the <i>Calumet</i> of peace and friendship had been duly
-smoked, they spent the day in festivity and mirth. After dinner,
-Indian dances were performed on the green in front of the wigwam,
-the calumet was again smoked, and the company separated.
-This association lasted until some years after the peace, when
-the public spirited owner of the wigwam, who generously had
-lent it every year for the honour of his favourite saint, having
-fallen under misfortune, his property was sold to satisfy his
-creditors, and this truly American festival ceased to be observed.
-Since that time, other societies have been formed in Philadelphia,
-New York, and I believe in other towns in the Union, under the
-name of Tammany; but the principal object of these associations
-being party-politics, they have lost much of the charm which was
-attached to the original society of St. Tammany, which appeared
-to be established only for pleasure and innocent diversion. These
-political societies, however, affect to preserve Indian forms in
-their organisation and meetings. They are presided over by a
-Grand Sachem, and their other officers are designated by Indian
-titles. They meet at their “wigwam,” at the “going down of
-the sun,” in the months of snows, plants, flowers, &amp;c. Their
-distinguishing appellation is always “The <i>Tammany</i> Society.”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">302</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Tadeuskund</span>, or <i>Tedeuskung</i>, was the last Delaware chief in
-these parts east of the Allegheny mountains. His name makes
-a conspicuous figure in the history of Pennsylvania previous to
-the revolution, and particularly towards the commencement of
-the war of 1756. Before he was raised to the station of a chief,
-he had signalised himself as an able counsellor in his nation. In
-the year 1749, he joined the Christian Indian congregation, and
-the following year, at his earnest desire, was christened by the
-name of <i>Gideon</i>.<a id="FNanchor_234" href="#Footnote_234" class="fnanchor">234</a> He had been known before under that of
-<i>Honest John</i>. It was not until the year 1754, that his nation
-called upon him to assume a military command. The French
-were then stirring up the Indians, particularly the Delawares, to
-aid them in fighting the English, telling them that if they suffered
-them to go on as they before had done, they would very
-soon not have a foot of land to live on. The Susquehannah and
-Fork Indians (Delawares) were then in want of a leading character
-to advise and govern them, their great, good, beloved and
-peaceable chief <i>Tademe</i>, (commonly called <i>Tattemi</i>) having some
-time before been murdered in the Forks settlement by a foolish
-young white man.<a id="FNanchor_235" href="#Footnote_235" class="fnanchor">235</a> They, therefore, called upon Tadeuskund
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">303</span>
-to take upon himself the station of a chief, which, having accepted,
-he repaired to Wyoming, whither many of the Fork
-Indians followed him.</p>
-
-<p>Whatever might have been Tadeuskund’s disposition towards
-the English at that time, it is certain that it was a difficult task
-for him, and would have been such for any other chief, to govern
-an exasperated people, entirely devoted to the opposite interest.
-This may account for his not having always succeeded in gratifying
-our government to the extent of its wishes. Yet he did
-much towards lessening the cruelties of the enemy, by keeping
-up an intercourse with the governor of Pennsylvania, and occasionally
-drawing many from the theatre of war and murder, to
-meet the colonial authorities at Easton or Philadelphia for the
-negotiation of treaties, by which means fewer cruelties were committed
-than would otherwise have been.</p>
-
-<p>His frequent visits to the governor and to the people called
-Quakers (to whom he was much attached, because they were
-known to be friendly to the Indians) excited much jealousy
-among some of his nation, especially the Monseys, who believed
-that he was carrying on some underhand work at Philadelphia
-detrimental to the nation at large; on which account, and as
-they wished the continuation of the war, they became his
-enemies.</p>
-
-<p>From the precarious situation Tadeuskund was placed in, it
-was easy to foresee that he would come to an untimely end.
-Perhaps no Indian chief before him ever found himself so
-delicately situated; mistrusted and blamed by our government
-and the English people generally, because he did not use his
-whole endeavours to keep his nation at peace, or compel them
-to lay down the hatchet; and accused by his own people of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">304</span>
-having taken a bribe from the English, or entered into some
-secret agreement with them that would be of benefit to himself
-alone, as he would not suffer them to inflict just punishment on
-that nation for the wrongs they had done them, but was constantly
-calling upon them to make peace. The Five Nations,
-on the other hand, (the enemies of the Delawares and in alliance
-with England,) blamed him for doing too much for the cause
-which they themselves supported, for making himself too busy,
-and assuming an authority, which did not belong to him the
-leader of a band of <i>women</i>, but to them, the Five Nations alone.</p>
-
-<p>To do justice to this injured chief, the true secret of his apparently
-contradictory conduct must be here disclosed. It is
-said by those Indians who knew him best, and who at that time
-had the welfare of their own nation much at heart, that his great
-and sole object was to recover for the <i>Lenni Lenape</i> that dignity
-which the Iroquois had treacherously wrested from them; thence
-flowed the bitterness of the latter against him, though he seemed
-to be promoting the same interest which they themselves supported.
-He had long hoped that by shewing friendship and
-attachment to the English, he would be able to convince them
-of the justice of his nation’s cause, who were yet powerful enough
-to make their alliance an object to the British government; but
-here he was greatly mistaken. No one would examine into the
-grounds of the controversy between the Delawares and the Five
-Nations; the latter, on the contrary, were supported in their unjust
-pretensions as theretofore, and even called upon to aid in
-compelling the Lenape to make peace. This unjust and at the
-same time impolitic conduct, of which I have before taken sufficient
-notice,<a id="FNanchor_236" href="#Footnote_236" class="fnanchor">236</a> irritated to the utmost the spirited nation of
-the Delawares, they felt themselves insulted and degraded, and
-were less disposed than ever from complying with the wishes of
-a government which sported in this manner with their national
-feelings, and called in question even their right to exist as an
-independent people.</p>
-
-<p>Surrounded as he was with enemies, Tadeuskund could not
-escape the fate that had long been intended for him. In the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">305</span>
-spring of 1763, when the European nations had made peace, but
-the Indians were still at war, he was burnt up, together with his
-house, as he was lying in his bed asleep. It was supposed and
-believed by many who were present, that this dreadful event was
-not accidental, but had been maturely resolved on by his enemies,
-whoever they were, and that the liquor which was brought to
-Wyoming at the time, was intended by them for the purpose of
-enticing him to drink, that they might the more easily effect their
-purpose. A number of Indians were witnesses to the fact that
-the house was set on fire from the outside. Suspicion fell principally
-upon the Mingoes, who were known to be jealous of him,
-and fearful of his resentment, if he should succeed in insinuating
-himself into the favour of the English and making good terms
-with them for his nation. It is said that those Indians were
-concerned in bringing the fatal liquor which is believed to have
-been instrumental to the execution of the design.</p>
-
-<p>While Tadeuskund was at the head of his nation, he was frequently
-distinguished by the title of “King of the Delawares.”
-While passing and repassing to and from the enemy with messages,
-many people called him the “War Trumpet.” In his
-person he was a portly well-looking man, endowed with good
-natural sense, quick of comprehension, and very ready in answering
-the questions put to him. He was rather ambitious,
-thought much of his rank and abilities, liked to be considered as
-the king of his country, and was fond of having a retinue with
-him when he went to Philadelphia on business with the government.
-His greatest weakness was a fondness for strong drinks,
-the temptation of which he could not easily resist, and would
-sometimes drink to excess. This unfortunate propensity is supposed
-to have been the cause of his cruel and untimely death.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_306.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">306</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_307a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XLI">CHAPTER XLI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">COMPUTATION OF TIME&mdash;ASTROMICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Indians do not reckon as we do, by days, but by
-nights. They say: “It is so many nights’ travelling
-to such a place;” “I shall return home in so many
-nights,” &amp;c. Sometimes pointing to the heavens they
-say: “You will see me again when the sun stands there.”</p>
-
-<p>Their year is, like ours, divided into four parts: spring, summer,
-autumn, and winter. It begins with the spring, which,
-they say, is the youth of the year, the time when the spirits of
-man begin to revive, and the plants and flowers again put forth.
-These seasons are again subdivided into months or moons, each
-of which has a particular name, yet not the same among all the
-Indian tribes or nations; these denominations being generally
-suited to the climate under which they respectively live, and the
-advantages or benefits which they enjoy at the time. Thus the
-Lenape, while they inhabited the country bordering on the Atlantic,
-called the month which we call March, “the <i>shad</i> moon,”
-because this fish at that time begins to pass from the sea into the
-fresh water rivers, where they lay their spawn; but as there is
-no such fish in the country into which they afterwards removed,
-they changed the name of that month, and called it “the running
-of the <i>sap</i>” or “the <i>sugar</i>-making month,” because it is at
-that time that the sap of the maple tree, from which sugar is
-made, begins to run; April, they call “the <i>spring</i> month,” May,
-the <i>planting</i> month, June, the <i>fawn</i> month, or the month in
-which the deer bring forth their young, or, again, the month in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">307</span>
-which the hair of the deer changes to a reddish colour. They
-call July the <i>summer</i> month; August, the month of <i>roasting ears</i>,
-that is to say, in which the ears of corn are fit to be roasted and
-eaten. September, they call the <i>autumnal</i> month, October, the
-gathering or <i>harvest</i> month; December, the <i>hunting</i> month, it
-being the time when the stags have all dropped their antlers or
-horns. January is called the <i>mouse</i> or <i>squirrel</i> month, for now
-those animals come out of their holes, and lastly, they call February
-the <i>frog</i> month, because on a warm day the frogs then
-begin to croak.</p>
-
-<p>Some nations call the month of January by a name which
-denotes “the sun’s return to them,” probably because in that
-month the days begin to lengthen again. As I have said before,
-they do not call all the months by the same name; even the Monseys,
-a tribe of the Delawares, differ among themselves in the
-denominations which they give to them.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians say that when the leaf of the white oak, which
-puts forth in the spring, is of the size of the ear of a mouse, it is
-time to plant corn; they observe that now the whippoorwill has
-arrived, and is continually hovering over them, calling out his
-Indian name “<i>Wekolis</i>” in order to remind them of the planting
-time, as if he said to them “<i>Hackiheck!</i> go to planting corn!”</p>
-
-<p>They calculate their ages by some remarkable event which
-has taken place within their remembrance, as, for instance, an
-uncommonly severe winter, a very deep snow, an extraordinary
-freshet, a general war, the building of a new town or city by the
-white people, &amp;c. Thus I have heard old Indians say more than
-fifty years ago, that when their brother Miquon spoke to their
-forefathers, they were of such an age or size, they could catch
-butterflies, or hit a bird with the bow and arrow. I have heard
-others say (alluding to the hard winter of 1739-40) that they
-were born at that time, or that they were then so tall, could do
-certain particular things, or had already some gray hair on their
-heads. When they could not refer precisely to some of those
-remarkable epochs, they would say “so many winters after.”</p>
-
-<p>The geographical knowledge of the Indians is really astonishing.
-I do not mean the knowledge of maps, for they have nothing
-of the kind to aid them; but their practical acquaintance
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">308</span>
-with the country that they inhabit. They can steer directly
-through the woods in cloudy weather as well as in sunshine to
-the place they wish to go to, at the distance of two hundred
-miles and more. When the white people express their astonishment,
-or enquire how they can hit a distant point with so much
-ease and exactness, they smile and answer: “How can we go
-wrong when we know where we are to go to?” There are many
-who conjecture that they regulate their course by certain signs
-or marks on the trees, as for instance, that those that have the
-thickest bark are exposed to the north, and other similar observations,
-but those who think so are mistaken. The fact is, that
-the Indians have an accurate knowledge of all the streams of
-consequence and the courses which they run; they can tell
-directly while travelling along a stream, whether large or small,
-into what larger stream it empties itself. They know how to
-take the advantage of dividing ridges, where the smaller streams
-have their heads, or from whence they take their source, and in
-travelling on the mountains, they have a full view of the country
-round, and can perceive the point to which their march is directed.</p>
-
-<p>Their knowledge of astronomy is very limited. They have
-names for a few of the stars and take notice of their movements.
-The polar star points out to them by night the course which they
-are to take in the morning. They distinguish the phases of the
-moon by particular names; they say the “new moon,” the
-“round moon” (when it is full), and when in its decline, they
-say it is “half round.”</p>
-
-<p>They ascribe earthquakes to the moving of the great tortoise,
-which bears the <i>Island</i> (Continent) on its back. They say he
-shakes himself or changes his position. They are at a loss how
-to account for a solar or lunar eclipse; some say the sun or
-moon is in a swoon, others that it is involved in a very thick
-cloud.</p>
-
-<p>A constant application of the mind to observing the scenes
-and accidents which occur in the woods, together with an ardent
-desire to acquire an intimate knowledge of the various objects
-which surround them, gives them, in many respects, an advantage
-over the white people, which will appear from the
-following anecdote.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">309</span></p>
-
-<p>A white man had, at his camp in a dark night, shot an Indian
-dog, mistaking it for a wolf which had the night before entered
-the encampment and eaten up all the meat. The dog mortally
-wounded, having returned to the Indian camp at the distance of
-a mile, caused much grief and uneasiness to the owner, the more
-so as he suspected the act had been committed from malice
-towards the Indians. He was ordered to enquire into the
-matter, and the white man being brought before him, candidly
-confessed that he had killed the dog, believing it to be a wolf.
-The Indian asked him whether he could not discern the difference
-between the “steps” or trampling of a wolf and that of a
-dog, let the night be ever so dark? The white man answered
-in the negative, and said he believed no man alive could do that;
-on which the whole company burst out into laughter at the
-ignorance of the whites and their want of skill in so plain and
-common a matter, and the delinquent was freely forgiven.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_310.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">310</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_311a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XLII">CHAPTER XLII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND ANECDOTES.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">I hope</span> I shall be excused for bringing here together
-into one view a few observations and anecdotes which
-either could not well find their places under any of
-the preceding divisions of my subject, or escaped my
-recollection at the proper time. These additional traits will
-contribute something to forming a correct idea of the Indian
-character and manners.</p>
-
-<p>I have observed a great similarity in the customs, usages, and
-opinions of the different nations that I have seen, however distant
-from each other, and even though their languages differ so
-much that no traces of a common origin can be found in their
-etymology. The uniformity which exists in the manners of the
-Christian nations of Europe is attributed to their common religion,
-and to their having once been connected together as parts
-of the Roman Empire. But no such bond of union appears to
-have subsisted between the Iroquois, for instance, and the Delawares,
-and yet, the language excepted, they resemble each other
-considerably more than the inhabitants of some European countries.
-I shall not endeavour to account for this remarkable fact,
-but I think it my duty to state it.</p>
-
-<p>I have shown in a former chapter<a id="FNanchor_237" href="#Footnote_237" class="fnanchor">237</a> that the mythological
-notions of the Delaware Indians prevailed in the same manner
-among the Wabash; it is not in that alone that those nations
-resemble each other, though living at a great distance. It is the
-custom among the Delawares that if a hunter shoots down a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">311</span>
-deer when another person is present, or even accidentally comes
-by before the skin is taken off, he presents it to him, saying,
-“Friend, skin your deer,” and immediately walks off. William
-Wells, whom I have before spoken of, once paid me this compliment,
-and when I asked him the reason, he answered that it was
-the custom among the Indians on the Wabash.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1792, I travelled with a number of Indian chiefs
-of various tribes from Post Vincennes to Marietta, and I found
-in most instances that their usages and customs were the same
-that I had observed among the Delawares.<a id="FNanchor_238" href="#Footnote_238" class="fnanchor">238</a></p>
-
-<p>The Indians in general, although they understand and speak
-our language, yet prefer speaking to a white man through an
-interpreter. For this they give various reasons. With some it
-is a matter of pride; as their chiefs deliver their public speeches
-through interpreters, they think that they appear with more dignity
-when they do the same. Others imagine that their words
-will have greater weight and effect when expressed in proper
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">312</span>
-grammatical language, while some are afraid of committing
-mistakes when speaking in an idiom not their own. Particularly
-when they have a joke to pass, a hint to give, or a shrewd remark
-to make, they wish it to have all the advantages of a good
-translation, and that their wit may not be spoiled by a foreign
-accent, improper expression, or awkward delivery.</p>
-
-<p>Though the Indian is naturally serious, he does not dislike a
-jest on proper occasions, and will, sometimes, even descend to
-a pun. Once at a dinner given at Marietta by the late Colonel
-Sproat,<a id="FNanchor_239" href="#Footnote_239" class="fnanchor">239</a> to a number of gentlemen and Indian chiefs of various
-tribes, a Delaware chief, named George Washington, asked me
-what the name of our good friend, the Colonel, meant in the
-Lenape language? It should be observed that Colonel Sproat
-was remarkably tall. I told him that <i>Sprout</i> (for so the name is
-pronounced) meant in English a shoot, or twig of a tree. “No,
-no,” replied the Indian, “no shoot or twig, but the <i>tree</i> itself.”</p>
-
-<p>I have spoken before<a id="FNanchor_240" href="#Footnote_240" class="fnanchor">240</a> of the wit of the Indians, and the shrewd
-and pointed remarks which they occasionally make, but passed
-rather lightly on the subject. A few characteristic anecdotes
-will best supply this deficiency.</p>
-
-<p>An Indian who spoke good English, came one day to a house
-where I was on business, and desired me to ask a man who was
-there and who owed him some money, to give an order in writing
-for him to get a little salt at the store, which he would take
-in part payment of his debt. The man, after reproving the
-Indian for speaking through an interpreter when he could speak
-such good English, told him that he must call again in an hour’s
-time, for he was then too much engaged. The Indian went out
-and returned at the appointed time, when he was put off again
-for another hour, and when he came the third time, the other
-told him he was still engaged, and he must come again in half
-an hour. My Indian friend’s patience was now exhausted, he
-turned to me and addressed me thus in his own language: “Tell
-this man,” said he, “that while I have been waiting for his convenience
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">313</span>
-to give me an order for a little salt, I have had time to
-think a great deal. I <i>thought</i> that when we Indians want any
-thing of one another, we serve each other on the spot, or if we
-cannot, we say so at once, but we never say to any one ‘call
-again! call again! call again! three times call again!’ Therefore
-when this man put me off in this manner, I <i>thought</i> that, to
-be sure, the white people were very ingenious, and probably he
-was able to do what no body else could. I <i>thought</i> that as it
-was afternoon when I first came, and he knew I had seven miles
-to walk to reach my camp, he had it in his power to stop the
-sun in its course, until it suited him to give me the order that I
-wanted for a little salt. So <i>thought</i> I, I shall still have day light
-enough, I shall reach my camp before night, and shall not be
-obliged to walk in the dark, at the risk of falling and hurting
-myself by the way. But when I saw that the sun did not wait
-for him, and I had at least to walk seven miles in an obscure
-night, I <i>thought</i> then, that it would be better if the white people
-were to learn something of the Indians.”</p>
-
-<p>I once asked an old Indian acquaintance of mine, who had
-come with his wife to pay me a visit, where he had been, that I
-had not seen him for a great while? “Don’t you know,” he
-answered, “that the white people some time ago summoned us
-to a treaty, to buy land of them?”<a id="FNanchor_241" href="#Footnote_241" class="fnanchor">241</a>&mdash;“That is true,” replied I,
-“I had indeed forgotten it; I thought you was just returned from
-your fall hunt.”&mdash;“No, no,” replied the Indian, “my fall hunt
-has been lost to me this season; I had to go and get my share
-of the purchase money for the land we sold.”&mdash;“Well then,”
-said I, “I suppose you got enough to satisfy you?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “I can shew you all that I got. I have received such
-and such articles, (naming them and the quantity of each), do
-you think that is enough?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> “That I cannot know, unless you tell me how
-much of the land which was sold came to your share.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> (after considering a little), “Well, you, my friend!
-know who I am, you know I am a kind of chief. I am, indeed,
-one, though none of the greatest. Neither am I one of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">314</span>
-lowest grade, but I stand about in the middle rank. Now, as
-such, I think I was entitled to as much land in the tract we sold
-as would lie within a day’s walk from this spot to a point due
-north, then a day’s walk from that point to another due west,
-from thence another day’s walk due south, then a day’s walk to
-where we now are. Now you can tell me if what I have shewn
-you is enough for all the land lying between these four marks?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> “If you have made your bargain so with the
-white people, it is all right, and you probably have received
-your share.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “Ah! but the white people made the bargain by
-themselves, without consulting us. They told us that they
-would give us so much, and no more.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> “Well, and you consented thereto?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “What could we do, when they told us that they
-must have the land, and for such a price? Was it not better
-to take something than nothing? for they would have the land,
-and so we took what they gave us.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> “Perhaps the goods they gave you came high in
-price. The goods which come over the great salt water lake
-sometimes vary in their prices.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “The traders sell their goods for just the same prices
-that they did before, so that I rather think it is the <i>land</i> that has
-<i>fallen</i> in value. We, Indians, do not understand selling lands to
-the white people; for when we sell, the price of land is always
-low; land is then cheap, but when the white people sell it out
-among themselves, it is always dear, and they are sure to get
-a high price for it. I had done much better if I had stayed at
-home and minded my fall hunt. You know I am a pretty good
-hunter and might have killed a great many deer, sixty, eighty,
-perhaps a hundred, and besides caught many raccoons, beavers,
-otters, wild cats, and other animals, while I was at this treaty.
-I have often killed five, six, and seven deer in one day. Now
-I have lost nine of the best hunting weeks in the season by
-going to get what you see! We were told the precise time
-when we must meet. We came at the very day, but the great
-white men did not do so, and without them nothing could be
-done. When after some weeks they at last came, we traded,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">315</span>
-we sold our lands and received goods in payment, and when
-that was over, I went to my hunting grounds, but the best
-time, the rutting time, being over, I killed but a few. Now, help
-me to count up what I have lost by going to the treaty. Put
-down eighty deer; say twenty of them were bucks, each buckskin
-one dollar; then sixty does and young bucks at two skins
-for a dollar; thirty dollars, and twenty for the old bucks,
-make fifty dollars lost to me in deer skins. Add, then, twenty
-dollars more to this for raccoon, beaver, wild cat, black fox, and
-otter skins, and what does the whole amount to?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heckew.</span> “Seventy dollars.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indian.</span> “Well, let it be only seventy dollars, but how much
-might I have bought of the traders for this money! How well
-we might have lived, I and my family in the woods during that
-time! How much meat would my wife have dried! how much
-tallow saved and sold or exchanged for salt, flour, tea and chocolate!
-All this is now lost to us; and had I not such a good
-wife (stroking her under the chin) who planted so much corn,
-and so many beans, pumpkins, squashes, and potatoes last summer,
-my family would now live most wretchedly. I have learned
-to be wise by going to treaties, I shall never go there again to
-sell my land and lose my time.”</p>
-
-<p>I shall conclude this desultory chapter with another anecdote
-which is strongly characteristic of the good sense of the Indians
-and shews how much their minds are capable of thought and
-reflection.</p>
-
-<p>Seating myself once upon a log, by the side of an Indian, who
-was resting himself there, being at that time actively employed
-in fencing in his corn-field, I observed to him that he must be
-very fond of working, as I never saw him idling away his time,
-as is so common with the Indians. The answer which he returned
-made considerable impression on my mind; I have
-remembered it ever since, and I shall try to relate it as nearly in
-his own words as possible.</p>
-
-<p>“My friend!” said he, “the fishes in the water and the birds
-in the air and on the earth have taught me to work; by their
-examples I have been convinced of the necessity of labour and
-industry. When I was a young man I loitered a great deal
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">316</span>
-about, doing nothing, just like the other Indians, who say that
-working is only for the whites and the negroes, and that the Indians
-have been ordained for other purposes, to hunt the deer,
-and catch the beaver, otter, raccoon and such other animals. But
-it one day so happened, that while a hunting, I came to the bank
-of the Susquehannah, where I sat down near the water’s edge
-to rest a little, and casting my eye on the water, I was forcibly
-struck when I observed with what industry the <i>Meechgalingus</i><a id="FNanchor_242" href="#Footnote_242" class="fnanchor">242</a>
-heaped small stones together, to make secure places for their
-spawn, and all this labour they did with their mouths and bodies
-without hands! Astonished as well as diverted, I lighted my
-pipe, sat a while smoking and looking on, when presently a
-little bird not far from me raised a song which enticed me to
-look that way; while I was trying to distinguish who the songster
-was, and catch it with my eyes, its mate, with as much grass
-as with its bill it could hold, passed close by me and flew into a
-bush, where I perceived them together busy building their nest
-and singing as they went along. I entirely forgot that I was a
-hunting, in order to contemplate the objects I had before me.
-I saw the birds of the air and the fishes in the water working
-diligently and cheerfully, and all this without hands! I thought
-it was strange, and became lost in contemplation! I looked at
-myself, I saw two long arms, provided with hands and fingers
-besides, with joints that might be opened and shut at pleasure.
-I could, when I pleased, take up anything with these hands, hold
-it fast or let it loose, and carry it along with me as I walked. I
-observed moreover that I had a strong body capable of bearing
-fatigue, and supported by two stout legs, with which I could
-climb to the top of the highest mountains and descend at pleasure
-into the valleys. And is it possible, said I, that a being so
-formed as I am, was created to live in idleness, while the birds
-who have no hands, and nothing but their little bills to help
-them, work with cheerfulness and without being told to do so?
-Has then the great Creator of man and of all living creatures
-given me all these limbs for no purpose? It cannot be; I will
-try to go to work. I did so, and went away from the village to
-a spot of good land, built a cabin, enclosed ground, planted corn,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">317</span>
-and raised cattle. Ever since that time I have enjoyed a good
-appetite and sound sleep; while the others spend their nights
-in dancing and are suffering with hunger, I live in plenty; I
-keep horses, cows, hogs and fowls; I am happy. See! my
-friend; the birds and fishes have brought me to reflection and
-taught me to work!”</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_318.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">318</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_319a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XLIII">CHAPTER XLIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">ADVICE TO TRAVELLERS.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/n.jpg" alt="N" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Nothing</span> is so common as the indiscriminate charge
-laid upon traveller of relating strange and wonderful
-things for the mere purpose of exciting admiration
-and raising themselves into consequence. I believe
-for my part that this accusation is in general unjust as well as
-unfair, and that travellers seldom impose upon others except
-when they have been imposed upon themselves. The discredit
-which they have fallen into is more owing to their errors and
-mistakes than to wilful imposition and falsehood. It is therefore
-rendering them and the world an essential service to point out
-the means of avoiding those deceptions, which if not sufficiently
-guarded against, will at last destroy all belief in the accounts
-given by travellers of distant nations and of manners and customs
-different from our own.</p>
-
-<p>The first and most important thing for a traveller is a competent
-knowledge of the language of the people among whom he
-is. Without this knowledge it is impossible that he can acquire
-a correct notion of their manners and customs and of the opinions
-which prevail among them. There is little faith to be placed
-in those numerous vocabularies of the languages of distant nations
-which are to be found in almost every book of voyages or travels;
-they are generally full of the most ridiculous mistakes; at least
-(for I must speak only of what I know) those which relate to the
-Indian languages of North America. I was some years ago
-shewn a vocabulary<a id="FNanchor_243" href="#Footnote_243" class="fnanchor">243</a> of the idiom of the Indians who inhabited
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">319</span>
-the banks of the Delaware, while Pennsylvania was under the
-dominion of the Swedes, which idiom was no other than the
-pure Unami dialect of the Lenape, and I could hardly refrain
-from laughing at the numerous errors that I observed in it; for
-instance, the Indian word given for <i>hand</i> in fact means <i>finger</i>.
-This is enough to shew how carelessly those vocabularies are
-made, and how little their authors are acquainted with the languages
-that they pretend to teach.</p>
-
-<p>The cause of these mistakes may be easily accounted for.
-When pointing to a particular object you ask an Indian how it
-is called, he never will give you the name of the <i>genus</i>, but always
-that of the <i>species</i>. Thus, if you point to a tree, and ask for
-its name, the answer will be oak, beech, chestnut, maple, &amp;c., as
-the case may be. Thus the Swedish author of the vocabulary
-that I have mentioned, probably happened to point to a <i>finger</i>,
-when he asked what was the Indian word for <i>hand</i>, and on receiving
-the answer, without further enquiry enriched his work
-with this notable specimen of Indian learning.</p>
-
-<p>When I first went to reside among the Indians, I took great
-care to learn by heart the words <i>Kœcu k’delloundamen yun?</i>
-which means <i>What do you call this?</i> Whenever I found the
-Indians disposed to attend to my enquiries, I would point to
-particular objects and repeat my formulary, and the answers
-that they gave I immediately wrote down in a book which I
-kept for the purpose; at last, when I had written about half a
-dozen sheets, I found that I had more than a dozen names for
-“<i>tree</i>” as many for “<i>fish</i>,” and so on with other things, and yet
-I had not a single generic name. What was still worse, when I
-pointed to something, repeating the name or one of the names
-by which I had been taught to call it, I was sure to excite a
-laugh; and when, in order to be set right, I put the question
-<i>Kœcu</i>, &amp;c., I would receive for answer a new word or name
-which I had never heard before. This began to make me believe
-that everything was not as it should be, and that I was
-not in the right way to learn the Indian language.</p>
-
-<p>It was not only in substantives or the proper names of things
-that I found myself almost always mistaken. Those who are
-not acquainted with the copiousness of the Indian languages,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">320</span>
-can hardly form an idea of the various shades and combinations
-of ideas that they can express. For instance, the infinitive <i>Mitzin</i>
-signifies <i>to eat</i>, and so does <i>Mohoan</i>. Now although the first
-of these words is sufficiently expressive of the act of eating
-something, be it what it may, yet the Indians are very attentive
-to expressing in one word what and how they have eaten, that
-is to say whether they have been eating something which needed
-no chewing, as pottage, mush or the like, or something that required
-the use of the teeth. In the latter case the proper word
-is <i>mohoan</i>, and in the former <i>guntammen</i>. If an Indian is asked
-<i>k’dapi mitzi?</i> have you eaten? he will answer <i>n’dapi guntammen</i>,
-or <i>n’dapi mohoa</i>, according as what he has eaten did or did
-not require the aid of chewing. If he has eaten of both kinds
-of provisions at his meal, he will then use the generic word, and
-say, <i>n’dapi mitzi</i>, which means generally, <i>I have eaten</i>.</p>
-
-<p>These niceties of course escaped me, and what was worse, few
-of the words I had taken down were correctly written. Essential
-letters or syllables, which in the rapidity of pronunciation
-had escaped my ear, were almost everywhere omitted. When
-I tried to make use of the words which I had so carefully collected,
-I found I was not understood, and I was at a loss to discover
-the cause to which I might attribute my want of success
-in the earnest endeavours that I was making to acquire the Indian
-tongue.</p>
-
-<p>At last there came an Indian, who was conversant with the
-English and German, and was much my friend. I hastened to
-lay before him my learned collection of Indian words, and was
-very much astonished when he advised me immediately to burn
-the whole, and write no more. “The first thing,” said he, “that
-you are to do to learn our language is to get an Indian <i>ear</i>; when
-that is obtained, no sound, no syllable will ever escape your
-hearing it, and you will at the same time learn the true pronunciation
-and how to accent your words properly; the rest will
-come of itself.” I found he was right. By listening to the natives,
-and repeating the words to myself as they spoke them, it
-was not many months before I ventured to converse with them,
-and finally understood every word they said. The Indians are
-very proud of a white man’s endeavouring to learn their language;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">321</span>
-they help him in everything that they can, and it is
-not their fault if he does not succeed.</p>
-
-<p>The language, then, is the first thing that a traveller ought to
-endeavour to acquire, at least, so as to be able to make himself
-understood and to understand others. Without this indispensable
-requisite he may write about the soil, earth and stones,
-describe trees and plants that grow on the surface of the land,
-the birds that fly in the air and the fishes that swim in the waters,
-but he should by no means attempt to speak of the disposition
-and characters of the human beings who inhabit the country, and
-even of their customs and manners, which it is impossible for him
-to be sufficiently acquainted with. And indeed, even with the
-advantage of the language, this knowledge is not to be acquired
-in a short time, so different is the impression which new objects
-make upon us at first sight, and that which they produce on a
-nearer view. I could speak the Delaware language very fluently,
-but I was yet far from being well acquainted with the character
-and manners of the Lenape.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians are very ready to answer the enquiries that are
-made respecting the usages of their country. But they are very
-much disgusted with the manner which they say some white
-people have of asking them questions on questions, without
-allowing them time to give a proper answer to any one of them.
-They, on the contrary, never ask a second question until they
-have received a full answer to the first. They say of those who
-do otherwise, that they seem as if they wished to know a thing,
-yet cared not whether they knew it correctly or properly. There
-are some men who before the Indians have well understood the
-question put to them, begin to write down their answers; of
-these they have no good opinion, thinking that they are writing
-something unfavourable of them.</p>
-
-<p>There are men who will relate incredible stories of the Indians,
-and think themselves sufficiently warranted because they have
-Indian authority for it. But these men ought to know that all
-an Indian says is not to be relied upon as truth. I do not mean
-to say that they are addicted to telling falsehoods, for nothing
-is farther from their character; but they are fond of the marvellous,
-and when they find a white man inclined to listen to their
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">322</span>
-tales of wonder, or credulous enough to believe their superstitious
-notions, there are always some among them ready to entertain
-him with tales of that description, as it gives them an opportunity
-of diverting themselves in their leisure hours, by relating
-such fabulous stories, while they laugh at the same time at their
-being able to deceive a people who think themselves so superior
-to them in wisdom and knowledge. They are fond of trying
-white men who come among them, in order to see whether they
-can act upon them in this way with success. Travellers who
-cannot speak their language, and are not acquainted with their
-character, manners and usages, should be more particularly careful
-not to ask them questions that touch in any manner upon
-their superstitious notions, or, as they are often considered even
-by themselves “fabulous amusements.” Nor should a stranger
-ever display an anxiety to witness scenes of this kind, but rather
-appear indifferent about them. In this manner he cannot be
-misled by interested persons or those who have formed a malicious
-design to deceive him. Whenever such a disposition
-appears (and it is not difficult to be discovered), questions of
-this kind should be reserved for another time, and asked in a
-proper manner before other persons, or of those who would be
-candid and perhaps let the enquirer into the secret.</p>
-
-<p>I have been led to consider Carver, who otherwise is deserving
-of credit for the greatest part of what he has written on the character
-of the Indians, to have been imposed upon in the story
-which he relates of having learned by means of a conjurer (the
-chief priest of the Killistenoes, as he calls him) who pretended
-to have had a conversation with the great Spirit, the precise time
-when a canoe should come, and certain traders who had been
-long expected should arrive.<a id="FNanchor_244" href="#Footnote_244" class="fnanchor">244</a> Had Carver resided a longer time
-among the Indians, so as to have acquired a more intimate acquaintance
-with their customs,<a id="FNanchor_245" href="#Footnote_245" class="fnanchor">245</a> he would have known that they
-have one in particular (which I understand is universal among
-all the tribes), which would have easily explained to him what
-he thought so mysterious. Whenever they go out on a journey,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">323</span>
-whether far or near, and even sometimes when they go out on
-hunting parties, they always fix a day, on which they either will
-return, or their friends at home shall hear from them. They are
-so particular and punctual in “making their word true,” as they
-call it, that when they find that at the rate they are travelling,
-they would probably be at home a day or so sooner than the
-time appointed, they will rather lay by for that time than that
-their word should not be precisely made good. I have known
-instances when they might have arrived in very good time the
-day preceding that which they had appointed, but they rather
-chose to encamp for the night, though but a few miles distant
-from their home. They urge a variety of reasons for this conduct.
-In the first place, they are anxious not to occasion disappointment
-in any case when they can avoid it. They consider
-punctuality as an essential virtue, because, they say, much often
-depends upon it, particularly when they are engaged in wars.
-Besides, when the day of their return is certainly known, everything
-is prepared for their reception, and the family are ready
-with the best that they can provide to set before them on their
-arrival. If, however, unforeseen circumstances should prevent
-them from coming all on the same day, one, at least, or more
-of them, will be sure to arrive, from whom those at home will
-learn all that they wish to know.</p>
-
-<p>On all important occasions, in which a tribe or body of Indians
-are concerned or interested, whether they are looking out for the
-return of an embassy sent to a distant nation, for messengers
-with an answer on some matter of consequence, for runners
-despatched by their spies who are watching an enemy’s motions,
-or for traders who at stated periods every year are sure to meet
-them at certain places, they always take proper and efficacious
-measures to prevent being surprised.</p>
-
-<p>The case which appears to have excited so much astonishment
-in Captain Carver, I believe to have been simply this. The Indians<a id="FNanchor_246" href="#Footnote_246" class="fnanchor">246</a>
-had at the season that he speaks of failed to arrive at the
-trading place at the time appointed. The Indians who had assembled
-there for the purpose of meeting them could not be
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">324</span>
-ignorant of the cause of their delay, as they had, no doubt,
-learned it by the return of some of their runners sent out for that
-purpose, who, as is their custom, probably informed them that
-another set of runners would be in the next day with further advices.
-The priest must have known all this, and the precise spot
-where those fresh runners were to encamp the night preceding
-their arrival, which is always well known and understood by
-means of the regular chain of communication that is kept up.
-These runners say to each other, pointing to the heavens:
-“When the sun stands there, I will be here or at such a particular
-spot,” which they clearly designate. The information thus given
-is sure to reach in time the chiefs of the nation.</p>
-
-<p>The manner in which this priest spoke to Captain Carver of
-his pretended intercourse with the great Spirit, clearly shews
-the deception that he was practising upon him. “The great
-Spirit,” said he, “has not indeed told me when the persons we
-expect will be here, but to-morrow, soon after the sun has reached
-his highest point in the heavens, a canoe will arrive, and the
-people in that will inform us when the traders will come.” The
-question, then, which he had put to the great Spirit, “when the
-traders would come?” was not answered, and there was no need
-of asking the Mannitto when the <i>canoes</i> should come, for that
-must have been known already, and that the people in it would
-tell them where the traders were, and when they might be expected
-to arrive.</p>
-
-<p>As in or about the year 1774, I was travelling with some
-Christian Indians, two Indians of the same nation, but strangers
-to us, fell in with us just as we were going to encamp, and joined us
-for the night. One of them was an aged grave-looking man, whom
-I was pleased to see in our company, and I flattered myself with
-obtaining some information from him, as, according to the Indian
-custom, age always takes the lead in conversation. I soon,
-however, perceived, to my great mortification, that he dwelt on
-subjects which I had neither a taste for nor an ear to hear; for
-his topic was the supernatural performances of Indians through
-the agency of an unseen Mannitto. I did not pay any attention
-to what he said, nor did any of our Christian Indians shew marks
-of admiration or astonishment at the stories he was telling, but
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">325</span>
-sat in silence smoking their pipes. The speaker having, after
-an hour’s time, finished his relations, the oldest Indian in my
-company addressed himself to me and said: “Now you have
-heard what some Indians can perform. Have you ever heard
-the like before, and do you believe all you have heard?” “There
-are,” I answered, “many things that I have heard of the Indians,
-and which I believe to be true, and such things I like to hear;
-but there are also things which they relate which I do not believe,
-and therefore do not wish to know them. While our
-friend here was just now telling us stories of this kind, which I
-cannot believe, I was wishing all the time that he might soon
-have finished and tell us something better.” The Indian, taking
-the hint in good part, asked me then what things I should like
-to hear? On which I made this reply: “As you are a man already
-in years, and much older than myself, you must have seen
-many things that I have not seen, and heard much that I have
-not heard. Now I should like to hear the history of your life;
-where you was born, at what age you shot your first deer, what
-things you heard of your father and your grandfather relative to
-old times; where they supposed the Indians to have come from,
-and what traditions they had respecting them. I should like
-also to know how many children you have had; how far you
-have travelled in your lifetime, and what you have seen and
-heard in your travels. See!” added I, “these are the things
-that I should like to hear of the Indians; anything of the kind
-from you will give me pleasure.” The Indian then, highly
-pleased with my candour, readily complied, and having related
-everything remarkable that had come within his observation and
-knowledge, I thanked him, saying that I should never forget
-him nor what he had now related to me, but that I would try to
-forget what he had related in the beginning. The Indians who
-were with me, following the thread of the conversation, continued
-to entertain us with rational stories, and the evening was spent
-very agreeably. In the morning, when we parted, the strange
-Indian whom I had thus rebuked, shook me cordially by the
-hand, saying: “Friend! you shall never be forgotten by me.
-Indeed I call you my <i>friend</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>I would take the liberty to recommend to those who may
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">326</span>
-hereafter travel among the Indians, in any part of America, to
-be particular in their enquiries respecting the connexion of the
-different nations or tribes with each other, especially when the
-analogy of their respective languages leads to infer such <i>relationship</i>,
-as the Indians call it. I beg leave to suggest a few questions,
-which, I think, ought always to be asked. They may lead
-to much useful information respecting the various migrations
-and the original places of residence of the Indian nations, and
-perhaps produce more important discoveries.</p>
-
-<p>1. What is the name of your tribe? Is it its original name;
-if not, how was it formerly called?</p>
-
-<p>2. Have you a tradition of your lineal descent as a nation or
-tribe?</p>
-
-<p>3. To what tribes are you related by blood, and where do
-they reside?</p>
-
-<p>4. What is your character or rank in the national family?</p>
-
-<p>5. Which among the tribes connected with you is that which
-you call <i>grandfather</i>?</p>
-
-<p>6. Where is the great council fire of all the nations or tribes
-connected with yours?</p>
-
-<p>7. How do you address the chiefs and council of such a nation
-or tribe?</p>
-
-<p>8. What is the badge of your tribe?</p>
-
-<p>From these and other similar questions, much valuable information
-will probably result. The nation whom another tribe
-calls <i>grandfather</i>, is certainly the head of the family to which
-they both belong. At his door burns the “great national council
-fire,” or, in other words, at the place where he resides with his
-counsellors, as the great or supreme chief of the national family,
-the heads of the tribes in the connexion occasionally assemble
-to deliberate on their common interests; any tribe may have
-a council fire of its own, but cannot dictate to the other tribes,
-nor compel any of them to take up the hatchet against an
-enemy; neither can they conclude a peace for the whole; this
-power entirely rests with the great national chief, who presides
-at the council fire of their <i>grandfather</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Indian nations or tribes connected with each other are not
-always connected by blood or descended from the same original
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">327</span>
-stock. Some are admitted into the connexion by adoption.
-Such are the Tuscaroras among the Six Nations; such the
-Cherokees among the Lenni Lenape. Thus, in the year 1779,
-a deputation of fourteen men came from the Cherokee nation to
-the council fire of the Delawares, to condole with their <i>grandfather</i>
-on the loss of their head chief.<a id="FNanchor_247" href="#Footnote_247" class="fnanchor">247</a> There are tribes, on the
-other hand, who have wandered far from the habitations of those
-connected with them by blood or relationship. It is certain
-that they can no longer be benefited by the general council fire.
-They, therefore, become a people by themselves, and pass with
-us for a separate nation, if they only have a name; nevertheless,
-(if I am rightly informed) they well know to what stock or
-nation they originally belonged, and if questioned on that subject,
-will give correct answers. It is therefore very important
-to make these enquiries of any tribe or nation that a traveller
-may find himself among. The analogy of languages is the best
-and most unequivocal sign of connexion between Indian tribes;
-yet the absence of that indication should not always be relied
-upon.</p>
-
-<p>It may not be improper also to mention in this place that the
-purity or correctness with which a language is spoken, will
-greatly help to discover who is the head of the national family.
-For no where is the language so much cultivated as in the
-vicinity of the great national council fire, where the orators have
-the best opportunity of displaying their talents. Thus the purest
-and most elegant dialect of the Lenape language, is that of the
-Unami or Turtle tribe.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_328.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">328</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_329a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_XLIV">CHAPTER XLIV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">THE INDIANS AND THE WHITES COMPARED.</span></h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">If</span> lions had painters! This proverbial saying applies
-with equal force to the American Indians. They
-have no historians among them, no books, no newspapers,
-no convenient means of making their grievances
-known to a sympathising world. Why, then, should not
-a white man, a Christian, who has spent among them the greatest
-part of his life, and was treated by them at all times with
-hospitality and kindness, plead their honest cause, and defend
-them as they would defend themselves, if they had but the
-means of bringing their facts and their arguments before an
-impartial public?</p>
-
-<p>Those who have never taken the pains to enquire into the real
-character and disposition of the American Indians, naturally
-suppose, that a people who have no code of laws for their government,
-but where every man is at liberty to do what he
-pleases, where men never forget or forgive injuries, and take
-revenge in their own way, often in the most cruel manner, and
-are never satisfied until they have been revenged, must of course
-be <i>barbarians</i> and <i>savages</i>; by which undefined words is understood
-whatever is bad, wicked, and disgraceful to human nature.
-Imagination is immediately at work to paint them as a species
-of monsters, to whom cruelty is an appetite; a sort of human-shaped
-tigers and panthers, strangers to the finer feelings, and
-who commit acts of barbarity without any excitement but that
-of their depraved inclination, and without even suspecting that
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">329</span>
-there are such things in nature as virtue on the one hand and
-crime on the other.</p>
-
-<p>But nothing is so false as this picture of the Indians. The
-worst that can be said of them is, that the passion of revenge is
-so strong in their minds, that it carries them beyond all bounds.
-But set this aside, and their character is noble and great. They
-have no written laws, but they have usages founded on the most
-strict principles of equity and justice. Murder with them is punished
-with death. It is true, that as was the case not many
-centuries ago among the most civilised nations of Europe, the
-death of a man may be compounded for with his surviving relations;
-if, however, they do not choose to accept of the terms
-offered, any one of them may become the executioner of the
-murderer.</p>
-
-<p>Thieves are compelled to restore what they have stolen, or to
-make satisfactory amends to the injured party; in their default,
-their nearest relations are obliged to make up the loss. If the
-thief, after sufficient warning, continues his bad practices, he is
-disowned by his nation, and any one may put him to death the
-next time that he is caught in the act of stealing, or that it can
-be clearly proved to have been committed by him. I have given
-two instances of the kind in a former chapter,<a id="FNanchor_248" href="#Footnote_248" class="fnanchor">248</a> and I recollect
-another which will put what I have said in the strongest light.
-I once knew an Indian chief, who had a son of a vicious disposition,
-addicted to stealing, and who would take no advice. His
-father, tired and unable to satisfy all the demands which were
-made upon him for the restitution of articles stolen by his son,
-at last issued his orders for shooting him the next time he
-should be guilty of a similar act.</p>
-
-<p>As to crimes and offences of an inferior nature to murder and
-theft, they are left to the injured party to punish in such manner
-as he thinks proper. Such are personal insults and threats,
-which among those people are not considered as slight matters.
-If the will and intention of the aggressor appear to be <i>bad</i>; if
-the insult offered is considered as the forerunner of something
-worse; or, as the Indians express themselves, if the “<i>murdering</i>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">330</span>
-<i>spirit</i>” is “<i>alive</i>” within him who offers or threatens violence
-to another, they think themselves justified in preventing the
-act meditated against them; in such a case, they consider the
-killing the aggressor as an act of necessity and self defence.
-Yet it is very rarely, indeed, that such punishments are inflicted.<a id="FNanchor_249" href="#Footnote_249" class="fnanchor">249</a>
-The Indians, in general, avoid giving offence as much as possible.
-They firmly believe that bad thoughts and actions proceed
-from the evil spirit, and carefully avoid every thing that is <i>bad</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Every person who is well acquainted with the true character
-of the Indians will admit that they are peaceable, sociable, obliging,
-charitable, and hospitable among themselves, and that those
-virtues are, as it were, a part of their nature. In their ordinary
-intercourse, they are studious to oblige each other. They neither
-wrangle nor fight; they live, I believe, as peaceably together as
-any people on earth, and treat one another with the greatest respect.
-That they are not devoid of tender feelings has been
-sufficiently shewn in the course of this work. I do not mean to
-speak of those whose manners have been corrupted by a long
-intercourse with the worst class of white men; they are a degenerate
-race, very different from the true genuine Indians whom
-I have attempted to describe.</p>
-
-<p>If any one should be disposed to think that I have exaggerated
-in the picture which I have drawn of these <i>original people</i>, as
-they call themselves, I appeal to the numerous impartial writers
-who have given the same testimony respecting them. What
-says Christopher Columbus himself of the American Indians in
-his letters to his sovereign? “There are not,” says he, “a better
-people in the world than these; more affectionate, affable, or
-mild. <i>They love their neighbours as themselves.</i>”</p>
-
-<p>Similar encomiums were passed on them by some of the first
-Englishmen who came to settle in this country. The Reverend
-Mr. Cushman, in a sermon preached at Plymouth in 1620, says:
-“The Indians are said to be the most cruel and treacherous
-people in all those parts, even like lions; but to us they have
-been like lambs, so kind, so submissive and trusty, as a man
-may truly say, many Christians are not so kind and sincere.”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">331</span></p>
-
-<p>The learned Dr. Elias Boudinot, of Burlington, in New Jersey
-(a man well remembered as one of the most eminent leaders of
-the American Revolution),<a id="FNanchor_250" href="#Footnote_250" class="fnanchor">250</a> in a work<a id="FNanchor_251" href="#Footnote_251" class="fnanchor">251</a> which, whatever opinion
-may be entertained of the hypothesis that he contends for, well
-deserves to be read, for the spirit which it breathes and the facts
-that it contains, has brought together in one view, the above
-and many other authorities of eminent men in favour of the
-American Indians, and in proof that their character is such as I
-have described. I shall not repeat after him what Las Casas,
-William Penn, Bryan Edwards, the Abb&eacute; Clavigero, Father
-Charlevoix and others, have said on the same subject; those
-numerous and weighty testimonies may be found in the work to
-which I have referred.<a id="FNanchor_252" href="#Footnote_252" class="fnanchor">252</a> But I cannot refrain from transcribing
-the opinion of the venerable author himself, to which his high
-character, his learning, and independence, affix a more than
-common degree of authority.</p>
-
-<p>“It is a matter of fact,” says Dr. Boudinot, “proved by most
-historical accounts, that the Indians, at our first acquaintance
-with them, generally manifested themselves kind, hospitable and
-generous to the Europeans, so long as they were treated with
-justice and humanity. But when they were, from a thirst of
-gain, over-reached on many occasions, their friends and relations
-treacherously entrapped and carried away to be sold for slaves,
-themselves injuriously oppressed, deceived and driven from their
-lawful and native possessions; what ought to have been expected,
-but inveterate enmity, hereditary animosity, and a spirit
-of perpetual revenge? To whom should be attributed the evil
-passions, cruel practices and vicious habits to which they are
-now changed, but to those who first set them the example, laid
-the foundation and then furnished the continual means for
-propagating and supporting the evil?”<a id="FNanchor_253" href="#Footnote_253" class="fnanchor">253</a>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">332</span></p>
-
-<p>Such was the original character of the Indians, stamped, as it
-were, upon them by nature; but fifty or sixty years back,
-whole communities of them bore the stamp of this character,
-difficult now to be found within the precincts of any part of their
-territory bordering on the settlements of the white people!</p>
-
-<p>What! will it be asked, can this be a true picture of the character
-of the Indians; of those brutes, barbarians, savages, men
-without religion or laws, who commit indiscriminate murders,
-without distinction of age or sex? Have they not in numberless
-instances desolated our frontiers, and butchered our people?
-Have they not violated treaties and deceived the confidence that
-we placed in them? No, no; they are beasts of prey in the
-human form; they are men with whom no faith is to be kept,
-and who ought to be cut off from the face of the earth!</p>
-
-<p>Stop, my friends! hard names and broad assertions are neither
-reasons nor positive facts. I am not prepared to enter into a
-discussion with you on the comparative merits or demerits of
-the Indians and whites; for I am unskilled in argument, and
-profess only to be a plain <i>matter of fact</i> man. To facts therefore
-I will appeal. I admit that the Indians have sometimes
-revenged, cruelly revenged, the accumulated wrongs which they
-have suffered from unprincipled white men; the love of revenge
-is a strong passion which their imperfect religious notions have
-not taught them to subdue. But how often have they been the
-aggressors in the unequal contests which they have had to sustain
-with the invaders of their country? In how many various
-shapes have they not been excited and their passions roused to
-the utmost fury by acts of cruelty and injustice on the part of
-the whites, who have made afterwards the country ring with
-their complaints against the lawless savages, who had not the
-means of being heard in their defence? I shall not pursue these
-questions any farther, but let the facts that I am going to relate
-speak for themselves.</p>
-
-<p>In the summer of the year 1763, some friendly Indians from a
-distant place, came to Bethlehem to dispose of their peltry for
-manufactured goods and necessary implements of husbandry.
-Returning home well satisfied, they put up the first night at a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">333</span>
-tavern, eight miles distant from this place.<a id="FNanchor_254" href="#Footnote_254" class="fnanchor">254</a> The landlord not
-being at home, his wife took the liberty of encouraging the
-people who frequented her house for the sake of drinking to
-abuse those Indians, adding, “That she would freely give a
-gallon of rum to any one of them that should kill one of these
-black d&mdash;&mdash;ls.” Other white people from the neighbourhood
-came in during the night, who also drank freely, made a great
-deal of noise, and increased the fears of those poor Indians, who,
-for the greatest part, understanding English, could not but suspect
-that something bad was intended against their persons.
-They were not, however, otherwise disturbed: but in the morning,
-when, after a restless night, they were preparing to set off,
-they found themselves robbed of some of the most valuable
-articles they had purchased, and on mentioning this to a man
-who appeared to be the bar-keeper, they were ordered to leave
-the house. Not being willing to lose so much property, they
-retired to some distance into the woods, where, some of them
-remaining with what was left them, the others returned to
-Bethlehem and lodged their complaint with a justice of the
-peace. The magistrate gave them a letter to the landlord, pressing
-him without delay to restore to the Indians the goods that
-had been taken from them. But behold! when they delivered
-that letter to the people at the inn, they were told in answer:
-“that if they set any value on their lives, they must make off
-with themselves immediately.” They well understood that they
-had no other alternative, and prudently departed without having
-received back any of their goods.<a id="FNanchor_255" href="#Footnote_255" class="fnanchor">255</a> Arrived at Nescopeck<a id="FNanchor_256" href="#Footnote_256" class="fnanchor">256</a> on
-the Susquehannah, they fell in with some other Delawares, who
-had been treated much in the same manner, one of them having
-had his rifle stolen from him. Here the two parties agreed to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">334</span>
-take revenge in their own way, for those insults and robberies
-for which they could obtain no redress; and that they determined
-to do as soon as war should be again declared by their
-nation against the English.</p>
-
-<p>Scarcely had these Indians retired, when in another place,
-about fourteen miles distant from the former, one man, two
-women and a child, all quiet Indians, were murdered in a most
-wicked and barbarous manner, by drunken militia officers and
-their men, for the purpose of getting their horse and the goods
-they had just purchased.<a id="FNanchor_257" href="#Footnote_257" class="fnanchor">257</a> One of the women, falling on her
-knees, begged in vain for the life of herself and her child, while
-the other woman, seeing what was doing, made her escape to
-the barn, where she endeavoured to hide herself on the top of
-the grain. She however was discovered, and inhumanly thrown
-down on the threshing floor with such force that her brains flew
-out.<a id="FNanchor_258" href="#Footnote_258" class="fnanchor">258</a></p>
-
-<p>Here, then, were insults, robberies and murders, all committed
-within the short space of three months, unatoned for and unrevenged.
-There was no prospect of obtaining redress; the survivors
-were therefore obliged to seek some other means to obtain
-revenge. They did so; the Indians, already exasperated against
-the English in consequence of repeated outrages, and considering
-the nation as responsible for the injuries which it did neither
-prevent nor punish, and for which it did not even offer to make
-any kind of reparation, at last declared war, and then the injured
-parties were at liberty to redress themselves for the wrongs they
-had suffered. They immediately started against the objects of
-their hatred, and finding their way, unseen and undiscovered, to
-the inn which had been the scene of the first outrage, they attacked
-it at daybreak, fired into it on the people within, who were
-lying in their beds. Strange to relate! the murderers of the man,
-two women, and child, were among them. They were mortally
-wounded, and died of their wounds shortly afterwards. The
-Indians, after leaving this house, murdered by accident an innocent
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">335</span>
-family, having mistaken the house that they meant to attack,
-after which they returned to their homes.<a id="FNanchor_259" href="#Footnote_259" class="fnanchor">259</a></p>
-
-<p>Now a violent hue and cry was raised against the Indians&mdash;no
-language was too bad, no crimes too black to brand them
-with. No faith was to be placed in those savages; treaties with
-them were of no effect; they ought to be cut off from the face
-of the earth! Such was the language at that time in everybody’s
-mouth; the newspapers were filled with accounts of the cruelties
-of the Indians, a variety of false reports were circulated in order
-to rouse the people against them, while they, the really injured
-party, having no printing presses among them, could not make
-known the story of their grievances.</p>
-
-<p>“No faith can be placed in what the Indians promise at treaties;
-for scarcely is a treaty concluded than they are again murdering
-us.” Such is our complaint against these unfortunate
-people; but they will tell you that it is the white men in whom
-no faith is to placed. They will tell you, that there is not a
-single instance in which the whites have not violated the engagements
-that they had made at treaties. They say that when they
-had ceded lands to the white people, and boundary lines had
-been established&mdash;“firmly established!” beyond which no
-whites were to settle; scarcely was the treaty signed, when
-white intruders again were settling and hunting on their lands!
-It is true that when they preferred their complaints to the government,
-the government gave them many fair promises, and
-assured them that men would be sent to remove the intruders
-by force from the usurped lands. The men, indeed, came, but
-with chain and compass in their hands, taking surveys of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">336</span>
-tracts of good land, which the intruders, from their knowledge
-of the country, had pointed out to them!</p>
-
-<p>What was then to be done, when those intruders would not
-go off from the land, but, on the contrary, increased in numbers?
-“Oh!” said those people, (and I have myself frequently heard
-this language in the Western country,) “a new treaty will soon
-give us all this land; nothing is now wanting but a pretence to
-pick a quarrel with them!” Well, but in what manner is this
-quarrel to be brought about? A <i>David Owen</i>, a <i>Walker</i>, and
-many others might, if they were alive, easily answer this question.
-A precedent, however, may be found, on perusing Mr.
-Jefferson’s Appendix to his Notes on Virginia. On all occasions,
-when the object is to murder Indians, strong liquor is
-the main article required; for when you have them dead drunk,
-you may do to them as you please, without running the risk of
-losing your life. And should you find that the laws of your
-country may reach you where you are, you have only to escape
-or conceal yourself for a while, until the storm has blown over!
-I well recollect the time when thieves and murderers of Indians
-fled from impending punishment across the Susquehannah, where
-they considered themselves safe; on which account this river
-had the name given to it of “<i>the rogue’s river</i>.” I have heard
-other rivers called by similar names.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1742, the Reverend Mr. Whitefield offered the
-Nazareth Manor (as it was then called) for sale to the United
-Brethren.<a id="FNanchor_260" href="#Footnote_260" class="fnanchor">260</a> He had already begun to build upon it a spacious
-stone house, intended as a school house for the education of
-negro children. The Indians, in the meanwhile, loudly exclaimed
-against the white people for settling in this part of
-the country, which had not yet been legally purchased of
-them, but, as they said, had been obtained by fraud.<a id="FNanchor_261" href="#Footnote_261" class="fnanchor">261</a> The
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">337</span>
-Brethren declined purchasing any lands on which the Indian
-title had not been properly extinguished, wishing to live in
-peace with all the Indians around them. Count Zinzendorff
-happened at that time to arrive in the country; he found that
-the agents of the proprietors would not pay to the Indians the
-price which they asked for that tract of land; he paid them out
-of his private purse the whole of the demand which they made
-in the height of their ill temper, and moreover gave them permission
-to abide on the land, at their village, (where, by the
-by, they had a fine large peach orchard,) as long as they should
-think proper. But among those white men, who afterwards
-came and settled in the neighbourhood of their tract, there
-were some who were enemies to the Indians, and a young
-Irishman, without cause or provocation, murdered their good
-and highly respected chief <i>Tademi</i>,<a id="FNanchor_262" href="#Footnote_262" class="fnanchor">262</a> a man of such an easy and
-friendly address, that he could not but be loved by all who knew
-him. This, together with the threats of other persons, ill disposed
-towards them, was the cause of their leaving their settlement
-on this manor, and removing to places of greater safety.</p>
-
-<p>It is true, that when flagrant cases of this description occurred,
-the government, before the Revolution, issued proclamations
-offering rewards for apprehending the offenders, and in later
-times, since the country has become more thickly settled, those
-who had been guilty of such offences were brought before the
-tribunals to take their trials. But these formalities have proved
-of little avail. In the first case, the criminals were seldom, if
-ever, apprehended; in the second, no jury could be found to
-convict them; for it was no uncommon saying among many of
-the men of whom juries in the frontier countries were commonly
-composed, that no man should be put to death for killing an Indian;
-for it was the same thing as killing a wild beast!</p>
-
-<p>But what shall I say of the conduct of the British agents, or
-deputy agents, or by whatsoever other name they may be called,
-who, at the commencement of the American Revolution, openly
-excited the Indians to kill and destroy all the rebels without
-distinction? “Kill all the rebels,” they would say, “put them
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">338</span>
-all to death, and spare none.” A veteran chief of the Wyandot
-nation, who resided near Detroit, observed to one of them that
-surely it was meant that they should kill men only, and not
-women and children. “No, no,” was the answer, “kill all, destroy
-all; <i>nits breed lice</i>!” The brave veteran<a id="FNanchor_263" href="#Footnote_263" class="fnanchor">263</a> was so disgusted
-with this reply, that he refused to go out at all; wishing however
-to see and converse with his old brother soldiers of the
-Delaware nation, with whom he had fought against the English
-in the French war, he took the command of a body of ninety
-chosen men, and being arrived at the seat of the government of
-the Delawares, on the Muskingum, he freely communicated to
-his old comrades (among whom was Glikhican, whom I shall
-presently have occasion further to mention) what had taken
-place, and what he had resolved on; saying that he never would
-be guilty of killing women and children; that this was the first
-and would be the last of his going out this war; that in ten days
-they should see him come back with one prisoner only, no scalp to
-a pole, and no life lost. He kept his word. The sixteen chiefs
-under him, from respect and principle, agreed to all his proposals
-and wishes.</p>
-
-<p>How different the conduct of the Indians from that of their
-inhuman employers! I have already related the noble speech
-of Captain Pipe to the British Commandant at Detroit, and I have
-done justice to the character of that brave officer, who surely
-ought not to be confounded with those Indian agents that I have
-spoken of. But what said Pipe to him? “Innocence had no
-part in your quarrels; and therefore I distinguished&mdash;I spared.
-Father! I hope you will not destroy what I have saved!”<a id="FNanchor_264" href="#Footnote_264" class="fnanchor">264</a> I
-have also told the conduct of the two young spirited Delawares<a id="FNanchor_265" href="#Footnote_265" class="fnanchor">265</a>
-who saved the life of the venerable Missionary Zeisberger, at the
-risk of their own. But it is not only against their own people
-that Indians have afforded their protection to white men, but
-against the whites themselves.</p>
-
-<p>In the course of the Revolutionary war, in which (as in all civil
-commotions) brother was seen fighting against brother, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">339</span>
-friend against friend, a party of Indian warriors, with whom one
-of those white men, who, under colour of attachment to their
-king, indulged in every sort of crimes, was going out against the
-settlers on the Ohio, to kill and destroy as they had been ordered.
-The chief of the expedition had given strict orders not
-to molest any of the white men who lived with their friends the
-Christian Indians; yet as they passed near a settlement of these
-converts, the white man, unmindful of the orders he had received,
-attempted to shoot two of the Missionaries who were planting
-potatoes in their field, and though the captain warned him to
-desist, he still obstinately persisted in his attempt. The chief,
-in anger, immediately took his gun from him, and kept him under
-guard until they had reached a considerable distance from the
-place. I have received this account from the chief himself, who
-on his return sent word to the Missionaries that they would do
-well not to go far from home, as they were in too great danger
-from the <i>white people</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Another white man of the same description, whom I well
-knew, related with a kind of barbarous exultation, on his return
-to Detroit from a war excursion with the Indians in which he
-had been engaged, that the party with which he was, having
-taken a woman prisoner who had a sucking babe at her breast,
-he tried to persuade the Indians to kill the child, lest its cries
-should discover the place where they were; the Indians were
-unwilling to commit the deed, on which the white man at once
-jumped up, tore the child from its mother’s arms and taking it
-by the legs dashed its head against a tree, so that the brains flew
-out all around. The monster in relating this story said, “The
-little dog all the time was making <i>wee!</i>” He added, that if he
-were sure that his old father, who some time before had died in
-Old Virginia, would, if he had lived longer, have turned rebel,
-he would go all the way into Virginia, raise the body, and take
-off his scalp!</p>
-
-<p>Let us now contrast with this the conduct of the Indians.
-Carver tells us in his travels with what moderation, humanity
-and delicacy they treat female prisoners, and particularly pregnant
-women.<a id="FNanchor_266" href="#Footnote_266" class="fnanchor">266</a> I refer the reader to the following fact, as an instance
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">340</span>
-of their conduct in such cases. If his admiration is excited
-by the behaviour of the Indians, I doubt not that his indignation
-will be raised in an equal degree by that of a white man who unfortunately
-acts a part in the story.</p>
-
-<p>A party of Delawares, in one of their excursions during the
-Revolutionary war, took a white female prisoner. The Indian
-chief, after a march of several days, observed that she was ailing,
-and was soon convinced (for she was far advanced in her pregnancy)
-that the time of her delivery was near. He immediately
-made a halt on the bank of a stream, where at a proper distance
-from the encampment, he built for her a close hut of peeled
-barks, gathered dry grass and fern to make her a bed, and placed
-a blanket at the opening of the dwelling as a substitute for a
-door. He then kindled a fire, placed a pile of wood near it to
-feed it occasionally, and placed a kettle of water at hand where
-she might easily use it. He then took her into her little infirmary,
-gave her Indian medicines, with directions how to use
-them, and told her to rest easy and she might be sure that nothing
-should disturb her. Having done this, he returned to his
-men, forbade them from making any noise, or disturbing the
-sick woman in any manner, and told them that he himself should
-guard her during the night. He did so, and the whole night
-kept watch before her door, walking backward and forward, to
-be ready at her call at any moment, in case of extreme necessity.
-The night passed quietly, but in the morning, as he was walking
-by on the bank of the stream, seeing him through the crevices,
-she called to him and presented her babe. The good chief, with
-tears in his eyes, rejoiced at her safe delivery; he told her
-not to be uneasy, that he should lay by for a few days and
-would soon bring her some nourishing food, and some medicines
-to take. Then going to his encampment, he ordered all
-his men to go out a hunting, and remained himself to guard
-the camp.</p>
-
-<p>Now for the reverse of the picture. Among the men whom
-this chief had under his command, was one of those white
-vagabonds whom I have before described. The captain was
-much afraid of him, knowing him to be a bad man; and as he
-had expressed a great desire to go a hunting with the rest,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">341</span>
-he believed him gone, and entertained no fears for the woman’s
-safety. But it was not long before he was undeceived. While
-he was gone to a small distance to dig roots for his poor
-patient, he heard her cries, and running with speed to her hut,
-he was informed by her that the white man had threatened to
-take her life if she did not immediately throw her child into the
-river. The Captain, enraged at the cruelty of this man, and the
-liberty he had taken with his prisoner, hailed him as he was
-running off, and told him, “That the moment he should miss
-the child, the tomahawk should be in his head.” After a
-few days this humane chief placed the woman carefully on a
-horse, and they went together to the place of their destination,
-the mother and child doing well. I have heard him relate
-this story, to which he added, that whenever he should go out
-on an excursion, he never would suffer a white man to be of
-his party.</p>
-
-<p>Yet I must acknowledge that I have known an Indian chief
-who had been guilty of the crime of killing the child of a
-female prisoner. It was Glikhican,<a id="FNanchor_267" href="#Footnote_267" class="fnanchor">267</a> of whom I have before
-spoken, as one of the friends of the brave Wyandot who expressed
-so much horror at the order given to him by the Indian
-agents to murder women and children.<a id="FNanchor_268" href="#Footnote_268" class="fnanchor">268</a> In the year 1770, he
-joined the congregation of the Christian Indians; the details of
-his conversion are related at large by Loskiel in his History of
-the Missions.<a id="FNanchor_269" href="#Footnote_269" class="fnanchor">269</a> Before that time he had been conspicuous as a
-warrior and a counsellor, and in oratory it is said he never was
-surpassed. This man, having joined the French, in the year
-1754, or 1755, in their war against the English, and being at
-that time out with a party of Frenchmen, took, among other
-prisoners, a young woman named <i>Rachel Abbott</i>, from the Conegocheague
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">342</span>
-settlement,<a id="FNanchor_270" href="#Footnote_270" class="fnanchor">270</a> who had at her breast a sucking babe.
-The incessant cries of the child, the hurry to get off, but above
-all, the persuasions of his <i>white</i> companions, induced him, much
-against his inclination, to kill the innocent creature; while the
-mother, in an agony of grief, and her face suffused with tears,
-begged that its life might be spared. The woman, however, was
-brought safe to the Ohio, where she was kindly treated and
-adopted, and some years afterwards was married to a Delaware
-chief of respectability, by whom she had several children, who
-are now living with the Christian Indians in Upper Canada.</p>
-
-<p>Glikhican never forgave himself for having committed this
-crime, although many times, and long before his becoming a
-Christian, he had begged the woman’s pardon with tears in his
-eyes, and received her free and full forgiveness. In vain she
-pointed out to him all the circumstances that he could have
-alleged to excuse the deed; in vain she reminded him of his
-unwillingness at the time, and his having been in a manner compelled
-to it by his French associates; nothing that she did say
-could assuage his sorrow or quiet the perturbation of his mind;
-he called himself a wretch, a monster, a <i>coward</i> (the proud feelings
-of an Indian must be well understood to judge of the force
-of this self-accusation), and to the moment of his death the remembrance
-of this fatal act preyed like a canker worm upon his
-spirits. I ought to add, that from the time of his conversion, he
-lived the life of a Christian, and died as such.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians are cruel to their enemies! In some cases they
-are, but perhaps not more so than white men have sometimes
-shewn themselves. There have been instances of white men
-flaying or taking off the skin of Indians who had fallen into their
-hands, then tanning those skins, or cutting them in pieces,
-making them up into razor-straps, and exposing those for sale,
-as was done at or near Pittsburg sometime during the Revolutionary
-war. Those things are abominations in the eyes of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">343</span>
-Indians, who, indeed, when strongly excited, inflict torments on
-their prisoners and put them to death by cruel tortures, but
-never are guilty of acts of barbarity in cold blood. Neither
-do the Delawares and some other Indian nations, ever on any
-account disturb the ashes of the dead.</p>
-
-<p>The custom of torturing prisoners is of ancient date, and was
-first introduced as a trial of courage. I have been told, however,
-that among some tribes it has never been in use; but it must be
-added that those tribes gave no quarter. The Delawares accuse
-the Iroquois of having been the inventors of this piece of cruelty,
-and charge them further with eating the flesh of their prisoners
-after the torture was over. Be this as it may, there are now but
-few instances of prisoners being put to death in this manner.</p>
-
-<p>Rare as these barbarous executions now are, I have reason to
-believe that they would be still less frequent, if proper pains
-were taken to turn the Indians away from this heathenish custom.
-Instead of this, it is but too true that they have been
-excited to cruelty by unprincipled white men, who have joined
-in their war-feasts, and even added to the barbarity of the scene.
-Can there be a more brutal act than, after furnishing those savages,
-as they are called, with implements of war and destruction,
-to give them an ox to kill and to roast whole, to dance the war
-dance with them round the slaughtered animal, strike at him,
-stab him, telling the Indians at the same time: “Strike, stab!
-Thus you must do to your enemy!” Then taking a piece of the
-meat, and tearing it with their teeth: “So you must eat his
-flesh!” and sucking up the juices: “Thus you must drink his
-blood!” and at last devour the whole as wolves do a carcass.
-This is what is known to have been done by some of those
-Indian agents that I have mentioned.</p>
-
-<p>“Is this possible?” the reader will naturally exclaim. Yes, it
-is possible, and every Indian warrior will tell you that it is true.
-It has come to me from so many credible sources, that I am
-forced to believe it. How can the Indians now be reproached
-with acts of cruelty to which they have been excited by those
-who pretended to be Christians and civilised men, but who were
-worse savages than those whom, no doubt, they were ready to
-brand with that name?
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">344</span></p>
-
-<p>When hostile governments give directions to employ the
-Indians against their enemies, they surely do not know that
-such is the manner in which their orders are to be executed;
-but let me tell them and every government who will descend to
-employing these auxiliaries, that this is the only way in which
-their subaltern agents will and can proceed to make their aid
-effectual. The Indians are not fond of interfering in quarrels
-not their own, and will not fight with spirit for the mere sake of
-a livelihood which they can obtain in a more agreeable manner
-by hunting and their other ordinary occupations. Their passions
-must be excited, and that is not easily done when they themselves
-have not received any injury from those against whom
-they are desired to fight. Behold, then, the abominable course
-which must unavoidably be resorted to&mdash;to induce them to do
-what?&mdash;to lay waste the dwelling of the peaceable cultivator of
-the land, and to murder his innocent wife and his helpless children!
-I cannot pursue this subject farther, although I am far
-from having exhausted it. I have said enough to enable the
-impartial reader to decide which of the two classes of men, the
-Indians and the whites, are most justly entitled to the epithets
-of brutes, barbarians, and savages. It is not for me to anticipate
-his decision.</p>
-
-<p>But if the Indians, after all, are really those horrid monsters
-which they are alleged to be, two solemn, serious questions have
-often occurred to my mind, to which I wish the partisans of that
-doctrine would give equally serious answers.</p>
-
-<p>1. Can civilised nations, can nations which profess Christianity,
-be justified in employing people of that description to aid them
-in fighting their battles against their enemies, Christians like
-themselves?</p>
-
-<p>2. When such nations offer up their prayers to the throne of
-the most High, supplicating the Divine Majesty to grant success
-to their arms, can they, ought they to expect that those prayers
-will be heard?</p>
-
-<p>I have done. Let me only be permitted, in conclusion, to
-express my firm belief, the result of much attentive observation
-and long experience while living among the Indians, that if we
-would only observe towards them the first and most important
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">345</span>
-precept of our holy religion, “to do to others as we would be
-done to;” if, instead of employing them to fight our battles, we
-encouraged them to remain at peace with us and with each
-other, they might easily be brought to a state of civilisation,
-and become <span class="smcap">Christians</span>.</p>
-
-<p>I still indulge the hope that this work will be accomplished
-by a wise and benevolent government. Thus we shall demonstrate
-the falsity of the prediction of the Indian prophets, who
-say: “That when the whites shall have ceased killing the red
-men, and got all their lands from them, the great tortoise which
-bears this island upon his back, shall dive down into the deep
-and drown them all, as he once did before, a great many years
-ago; and that when he again rises, the Indians shall once more
-be put in possession of the whole country.”</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_346.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">346</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_347a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CONCLUSION">CONCLUSION.</h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/i.jpg" alt="I" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">I have</span> thus finished the work which was required
-of me by the Historical Committee of the American
-Philosophical Society. On reading over the printed
-sheets which have been kindly sent to me from Philadelphia,
-as they issued from the press, I have noticed several
-errors, some of which may be ascribed to me, others to the transcriber
-of the manuscript, and very few to the printer. I regret
-that there are among them some mistakes in dates and names
-of places; they are all rectified in the errata.</p>
-
-<p>I am very sensible of the many defects of this little work in
-point of method, arrangement, composition and style. I am not
-an author by profession; the greatest part of my life was spent
-among savage nations, and I have now reached the age of
-seventy-five, at which period of life little improvement can be
-expected. It is not, therefore, as an author that I wish to be
-judged, but as a sincere relator of facts that have fallen within
-my observation and knowledge. I declare that I have said
-nothing but what I certainly know or verily believe. In matters
-of mere opinion, I may be contradicted; but in points of fact I
-have been even scrupulous, and purposely omitted several anecdotes
-for which I could not sufficiently vouch. In my descriptions
-of character, I may have been an unskilful painter, and ill
-chosen expressions may imperfectly have sketched out the
-images that are imprinted on my mind; but the fault is in the
-writer, not in the man.</p>
-
-<p>It is with pleasure that I inform the reader that the parts of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">347</span>
-Mr. Zeisberger’s Iroquois Dictionary which I have mentioned
-above, (pages 97, 118,) as being irretrievably lost, have most
-fortunately been found since this work is in the press. The book
-has been neatly bound in seven quarto volumes, and will remain
-a monument of the richness and comprehensiveness of the languages
-of the Indian nations. Several valuable grammatical
-works on the same language, by the same author and Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us,
-have been recovered at the same time, by means of which,
-the idiom of the Six Nations may now be scientifically studied.</p>
-
-<p>When I spoke (p. 136) of the impression made by Captain
-Pipe’s speech “on all present,” I meant only on those who
-understood the language; for there were many who did not,
-and M. Baby, the Canadian interpreter, did not explain to the
-bystanders the most striking passages, but went now and then
-to the Commandant and whispered in his ear. Captain Pipe,
-while he spoke, was exceedingly animated, and twice advanced
-so near to the Commandant, that M. Baby ordered him to fall
-back to his place. All who were present must have at least
-suspected that his speech was not one of the ordinary kind, and
-that everything was not as they might suppose it ought to be.</p>
-
-<p>I promised in my introduction (p. xxvi.) to subjoin an explanatory
-list of the Indian nations which I have mentioned in the
-course of this work, but I find that I have been so full on the
-subject that such a list is unnecessary.</p>
-
-<p>I have classed the Florida Indians together in respect of language,
-on the supposition that they all speak dialects of the same
-mother tongue; the fact, however, may be otherwise, though it
-will be extraordinary that there should be several languages
-entirely different from each other in the narrow strip of land
-between the Carolinas and the Mississippi, when there are but
-two principal ones in the rest of the United States. It is to be
-expected that the researches of the Historical Committee will
-throw light upon this subject.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_348.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_348">348</span></p>
-
-<h2 id="ERRATA_IN_PART_I">ERRATA IN PART I</h2>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Page</span> 26,</td>
-    <td class="tdr nowrap"><span class="smcap">Line</span> 5&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Between the words “<i>if</i>” and “<i>what</i>” insert “<i>we can credit</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">30,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>declaring at the same time</i>” read “<i>and declared afterwards</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">31,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Mohicans</i>” read “<i>Lenape</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">67,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>1742</i>” read “<i>and November 1756</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">72,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Dele “<i>in which</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">77,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Delawares</i>” read “<i>Mohicans</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">80,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>1787</i>” read “<i>1781</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">81,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>us</i>” read “<i>them</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">84,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Mouseys</i>” read “<i>Monseys</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">23&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Beginning a paragraph, for “<i>1768, about six</i>” read “<i>1772, a few</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">85,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">29&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Of third note, for “<i>Shawanachau</i>” read “<i>Shawanachan</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">90,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Shawanos</i>” read “<i>Nanticokes</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">91,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>schschequon</i>” read “<i>shechschequon</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">92,</td>
-    <td colspan="2" ><span class="i3">29 and 30&mdash;</span>
-For “<i>Tawachgu&aacute;no</i>” read “<i>Tayachgu&aacute;no</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">110,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>once</i>” read “<i>sometimes</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">111,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>should</i>” read “<i>deserved to</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">10&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>to</i>” read “<i>out at</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">12&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Dele “<i>outside of the door and</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">118,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Thornhallesen</i>” read “<i>Thorhallesen</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">122,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Of the first note, for&nbsp; “<i>p. 3</i>” read&nbsp; “<i>p. 5</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">130,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>or</i>” read “<i>nor</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">131,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">22&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>met</i>” read “<i>saw</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">25&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>days</i>” read “<i>hours</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">133,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>December</i>” read “<i>November</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">140,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Of No. 43, for “<i>with</i>” read “<i>of</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">143,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">34&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>they</i>” read “<i>the Chippeways and some other nations</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">146,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>your</i>” read “<i>yon</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">150,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4&mdash;</td>
-    <td>After the word “<i>nation</i>” insert “<i>which they do not approve of</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">153,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">31&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>they sure</i>” read “<i>they are sure</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">160,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">32&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>reply</i>” read “<i>answer</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">164,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">26&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>decide</i>” read “<i>say</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">28&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>man</i>” read “<i>men</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">166,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Between “<i>is</i>” and “<i>even</i>” insert “<i>sometimes</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">22&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>an old Indian</i>” read “<i>several old men</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">167,</td>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="i3">11 and 13&mdash;</span>
-For “<i>road</i>” read “<i>course</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">174,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>where</i>” read “<i>whence</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">178,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">33&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Duke Holland</i>” read “<i>Luke Holland</i>;” the same where the name again occurs.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">201,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Dele “<i>again</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">216,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">29&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>very often</i>” read “<i>sometimes</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">217,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>inches</i>” read “<i>feet</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">218,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>of</i>” read “<i>on</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">243,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Americans</i>” read “<i>white men</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">250,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>killed</i>” read “<i>eaten</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">253,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">37&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Pauk-sit</i>” read “<i>P’duk-sit</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">263,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14&mdash;</td>
-    <td>Dele “<i>lands or</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">278,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">35&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Albany</i>” read “<i>Pittsburgh</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">283,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">31&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Sandusky</i>” read “<i>Muskingum</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">293,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">26&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>bought</i>” read “<i>brought</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">313,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">23&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>them</i>” read “<i>us</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_349">349</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_350a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="PART_II">PART II.<br />
-<br />
-<img src="images/tb.jpg"
-alt="" /><br />
-
-<span class="medium">A</span><br />
-
-CORRESPONDENCE<br />
-
-<span class="medium">BETWEEN</span><br />
-
-<span class="large"><i>THE REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER</i>.</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF BETHLEHEM,</span><br />
-
-<span class="small">AND</span><br />
-
-<span class="large"><i>PETER S. DUPONCEAU, ESQ.</i>,</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE HISTORICAL AND LITERARY
-COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,</span><br />
-
-<span class="small">RESPECTING THE</span><br />
-
-<span class="large">Languages of the American Indians.</span>
-</h2>
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_350c.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">350</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_351a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The following Correspondence between Mr. Heckewelder and Peter S. Du Ponceau,
-Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the Historical and Literary Committee of the
-American Philosophical Society, and subsequently, till his death in 1844, President
-of that Society, is appended as a fitting sequel to the preceding Account.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_351b.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">351</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_352a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2 id="PART_II_INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</h2>
-
-<div>
-<img class="drop-cap" src="images/t.jpg" alt="T" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Historical and Literary Committee of the American
-Philosophical Society, desirous of taking the most
-effectual means to promote the objects of their institution,
-directed their corresponding secretary to address
-letters in their name to such persons in the United States
-as had turned their attention to similar objects, and solicit their
-assistance.</p>
-
-<p>Among other well-informed individuals, the Reverend Mr.
-Heckewelder of Bethlehem was pointed out by the late Dr. Caspar
-Wistar, President of the Society, and one of the most active
-and useful members of the Committee, as a gentleman whose
-intimate knowledge of the American Indians, their usages, manners
-and languages, enabled him to afford much important aid
-to their labours. In consequence of this suggestion, the secretary
-wrote to Mr. Heckewelder the letter No. 1, and Dr. Wistar
-seconded his application by the letter No. 2. The languages of
-the Indians were not at that time particularly in the view of the
-Committee; the manners and customs of those nations were the
-principal subjects on which they wished and expected to receive
-information. But Mr. Heckewelder having with his letter No. 4,
-sent them the MS. of Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar of the Delaware
-Language, that communication had the effect of directing their
-attention to this interesting subject.</p>
-
-<p>This MS. being written in German, was not intelligible to the
-greatest number of the members. Two of them, the Reverend
-Dr. Nicholas Collin, and the corresponding secretary, were particularly
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_352">352</span>
-anxious to be honoured with the task of translating it;
-but the secretary having claimed this labour as part of his official
-duty, it was adjudged to him. While he was translating that
-work, he was struck with the beauty of the grammatical forms
-of the Lenape idiom, which led him to ask through Dr. Wistar
-some questions of Mr. Heckewelder,<a id="FNanchor_271" href="#Footnote_271" class="fnanchor">271</a> which occurred to him as
-he was pursuing his labours, and produced the correspondence
-now published, which was carried on by the direction and under
-the sanction of the Committee.</p>
-
-<p>The letters which passed at the beginning between Dr. Wistar
-and Mr. Zeisberger,<a id="FNanchor_272" href="#Footnote_272" class="fnanchor">272</a> and are here published in their regular
-order, do not, it is true, form a necessary part of this collection;
-but it will be perceived, that to the two letters of Dr. Wistar,
-Nos. 2 and 6, we are indebted for the valuable Historical Account
-of the Indians, which forms the first number of this volume.
-It is just that he should have the credit due to his active and
-zealous exertions.</p>
-
-<p>It was intended that Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar should have
-immediately followed this Correspondence, which was considered
-as introductory to it. But it being now evident that it would
-increase too much the size of the volume, its publication is for
-the present postponed.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_353.jpg"
-alt="" /><span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">353</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_354.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="CORRESPONDENCE">CORRESPONDENCE<br />
-
-<span class="medium">RESPECTING THE INDIAN LANGUAGES.</span><br />
-
-<span id="LETTER_I">LETTER I.</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 9th January, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sir.</span>&mdash;As corresponding secretary to the Historical Committee
-of the American Philosophical Society, it is my duty to
-solicit the aid of men of learning and information, by the help
-of whose knowledge light may be thrown on the yet obscure
-history of the early times of the colonization of this country, and
-particularly of this State. Our much-respected President and
-common friend, Dr. Wistar, has often spoken to me of the great
-knowledge which you possess respecting the Indians who once
-inhabited these parts, and of your intimate acquaintance with
-their languages, habits and history. He had promised me, when
-you was last here, to do me the favour of introducing me to you,
-but the bad state of his health and other circumstances prevented
-it, which has been and still is to me the cause of much regret.
-Permit me, sir, on the strength of his recommendation, and the
-assurance he has given me that I might rely on your zeal and
-patriotic feelings, to request, in the name of the Historical Committee,
-that you will be so good as to aid their labours by occasional
-communications on the various subjects that are familiar
-to you and which relate to the early history of this country.
-Accounts of the various nations of Indians which have at different
-times inhabited Pennsylvania, their numbers, origin, migrations,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_354">354</span>
-connexions with each other, the parts which they took in
-the English and French wars and in the Revolutionary war,
-their manners, customs, languages, and religion, will be very
-acceptable, as well as every thing which you may conceive interesting,
-on a subject which at no distant period will be involved
-in obscurity and doubt, for want of the proper information having
-been given in time by those cotemporaries who now possess the
-requisite knowledge and are still able to communicate it. I hope,
-sir, that you will be able to find some moments of leisure to
-comply, at least in part, with this request, which you may do in
-any form that you may think proper. If that of occasional letters
-to Dr. Wistar or myself should be the most agreeable or
-convenient to you, you may adopt it, or any other mode that you
-may prefer. I beg you will favour me with an answer as soon
-as possible, that I may be able to inform the Committee of what
-they may expect from you. You may be assured that all your
-communications will be respectfully and thankfully received.</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-I am, very respectfully, Sir,<br />
-Your most obedient humble servant,<br />
-<span class="smcap">Peter S. Duponceau</span>,<br />
-Corresponding Secretary.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_II">LETTER II.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">DR. C. WISTAR TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author">
-<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 9th January, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;Inclosed is a letter from the corresponding
-secretary of the Historical Committee of our Society, which
-will inform you of our wishes to preserve from oblivion, and to
-make public, all the interesting information we can procure respecting
-the history of our country and its original inhabitants.
-I believe there is no other person now living who knows so
-much respecting the Indians who inhabited this part of America,
-as you do, and there is no one whose relations will be received
-with more confidence.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">355</span></p>
-
-<p>I hope you will approve of this method of favouring the public
-with your information, and we will endeavour to give you no
-trouble in publishing after you have favoured us with the communications.
-It will be particularly agreeable to the society to
-receive from you an account of the Lenni Lenape, as they were
-at the time when the settlement of Pennsylvania commenced,
-and of their history and misfortunes since that time; as these
-subjects are so intimately connected with the history of our
-State. The history of the Shawanese, and of the Six Nations
-will be very interesting to us for the same reason. But every
-thing which throws light upon the nature of the Indians, their
-manners and customs; their opinions upon all interesting subjects,
-especially religion and government; their agriculture and
-modes of procuring subsistence; their treatment of their wives
-and children; their social intercourse with each other; and in
-short, every thing relating to them which is interesting to you,
-will be very instructing to the Society. A fair view of the mind
-and natural disposition of the savage, and its difference from that
-of the civilised man, would be an acceptable present to the world.</p>
-
-<p>You have long been a member of the Society; may we ask of
-you to communicate to us what you know and think ought to be
-published, respecting the wild animals, or the native plants of
-our country. The original object of our association was to
-bring together gentlemen like yourself, who have a great deal
-of information in which the public take an interest, that they
-might publish it together; and while an intercourse with you
-will give us all great pleasure, it will perhaps be a very easy
-way for you to oblige the world with your knowledge, as we
-will take the whole care of the publication. The information
-respecting our country which has been obtained by the very
-respectable Brethren of Bethlehem, and is contained in their
-archives, will, I believe, be more perfectly offered to the world
-by you at present, than probably it ever will afterwards by
-others; I therefore feel very desirous that you should engage
-in it.</p>
-
-<p>The facts which Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us recorded there, relative to the
-confederation of the Six Nations, are so interesting that they
-ought to be made public.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">356</span></p>
-
-<p>In a few days after my return to Philadelphia, last autumn, I
-presented in your name to the Society the several books with
-which you favoured me. They were much gratified, for they
-considered them as truly valuable, and the secretary was requested
-to acknowledge the receipt of them, and to thank you
-in the name of the Society. I have constantly regretted the
-attack of influenza which deprived me of the pleasure of seeing
-more of you while you were last in Philadelphia. But I hope we
-shall meet again before a great while, and I shall be sincerely
-pleased if I can execute any of your commissions here, or serve
-you in any way; my brother joins me in assuring you of our
-best wishes, and of the pleasure we derived from your society.</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-With these I remain, your sincere friend,<br />
-<br />
-<span class="smcap">C. Wistar</span>.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_III">LETTER III.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">MR. HECKEWELDER TO DR. WISTAR.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author">
-<span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 24th March, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;Last evening I was favoured with a letter
-from you, covering one from the corresponding secretary of the
-Historical Committee of the American Philosophical Society,
-dated 9th January, and a book, for which I return my best
-thanks. If an apology for not having written to you since I left
-Philadelphia can be admitted, it must be that of my having been
-engaged in all my leisure hours, in completing my narrative of
-the Mission, a work of which, even if it is never published, I wished
-for good reasons, to leave a manuscript copy. I have now got
-through with the principal part, but have to copy the whole text,
-and in part to write the notes, remarks, and anecdotes which are
-intended for the appendix. While writing, it has sometimes
-struck me, that there might probably be some interesting passages
-in the work, as the speeches of Indians on various occasions;
-their artful and cunning ways of doing at times business;
-I had almost said their diplomatic manœuvres as politicians;
-their addresses on different occasions to the Great Spirit, &amp;c.,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">357</span>
-which are here noticed in their proper places. I think much of
-the true character of the Indian may be met with in perusing
-this work, and I will endeavour to forward the narrative to you
-and your brother for perusal, after a little while.</p>
-
-<p>Were I still in the possession of all the manuscripts which I
-gave to my friend the late Dr. Barton, it would be an easy matter
-for me to gratify you and the Philosophical Society in their
-wishes, but having retained scarcely any, or but very few copies
-of what I sent him, I am not so able to do what I otherwise
-would with pleasure; I shall, however, make it my study to do
-what I can yet, though I am aware that I shall in some points,
-differ from what others have said and written. I never was one
-of those hasty believers and writers, who take the shadow for
-the substance: what I wished to know, I always wished to
-know correctly.</p>
-
-<p>I approve of the mode proposed by the secretary of the Historical
-Committee, to make communications in the form of letters,
-which is for me the easiest and quickest mode. In the same
-way Dr. Barton received much interesting matter from me
-within the last 20 or 30 years. He often told me that he would
-publish a book, and make proper use of my communications.
-Had he not told me this so repeatedly, I should long since have
-tried to correct many gross errors, written and published, respecting
-the character and customs of the Indians. The Lenni
-Lenape, improperly called the Delawares, I shall, according to
-their tradition, trace across the Mississippi into this country, set
-forth what people they were, what parts of the country they
-inhabited, and how they were brought down to such a low
-state: perhaps, never did man take the pains that I did for
-years, to learn the true causes of the decline of that great and
-powerful nation.</p>
-
-<p>The Grammar of the language of the Lenni Lenape, written
-by David Zeisberger, is still in my hands. By his will it is to be
-deposited in the Brethren’s Archives in Bethlehem, but he has
-not prohibited taking a copy of it. Will it be of any service to
-the Society that it should be sent down for a few months for
-perusal, or if thought necessary, to take a copy? If so, please
-to let me know, and I shall send it with pleasure. It is, however,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_358">358</span>
-German and Indian, and without a translation will be
-understood but by few. I may perhaps find other documents
-interesting to the Society, as for example, copies of letters on
-Indian business and treaties, of which many are in the possession
-of Joseph Horsfield, Esq., son of the late Timothy Horsfield,
-through whom they have come into his hands, and who is willing
-to communicate them.<a id="FNanchor_273" href="#Footnote_273" class="fnanchor">273</a> I am, dear friend,</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-Yours sincerely,<br />
-<br />
-<span class="smcap">J. Heckewelder</span>.</p>
-
-<p><i>P. S.</i>&mdash;Will you be so good as with my respects to mention to
-the secretary that I have received his letter, and shall shortly
-answer it&mdash;my best wishes also to your brother Richard, whom
-I highly esteem.</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-J. H.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_IV">LETTER IV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 3d April, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Friend.</span>&mdash;With Captain Mann, of your city, I send
-David Zeisberger’s Grammar of the Language of the Lenni
-Lenape, (otherwise called the Delaware Indians.) As the book
-is not mine, but left by will, to be placed in the Library at Bethlehem,
-I can do no more than send it for perusal; or, if wished
-for, to have a copy taken from it, which, indeed, I myself would
-cheerfully have done for you, were it not that I must spare my
-weak eyes as much as possible.</p>
-
-<p>I believe I have closed my last letter to you, without answering
-to the question you put to me, respecting, “wild animals
-and the native plants of our country.” On this head I do not
-know that I could be of any service, since the animals that were
-in this country on the arrival of the Europeans must be pretty
-generally known; and respecting the native plants, I do not
-consider myself qualified to give any information, as all I have
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">359</span>
-attended to, has been to collect plants for botanists, leaving it
-to them to examine and class them. But my friend Dr. Kampman
-of this place, who is, I believe, one of the most attentive
-gentlemen to botany, has promised me for you a copy of the
-botanical names of those plants which he, and a few others of
-his friends, have collected, within a great number of years, in
-the Forks of Delaware, with some few from New Jersey, to the
-number (he thinks) of about five hundred; all of which plants
-are in nature carefully laid up by him. Probably in two or three
-weeks, I shall have the pleasure of transmitting to you this promised
-catalogue.</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_V">LETTER V.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM MR. DUPONCEAU TO DR. WISTAR.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author">
-<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 14th May, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>
-
-ash;When you write to your friend Mr. Heckewelder,
-I beg you will request him to answer the following questions:</p>
-
-<p>1. What name did the French give to the Delaware nation?</p>
-
-<p>2. I find in Zeisberger’s Vocabulary, page 11, that <i>Gischuch</i>
-means the <i>sun</i>. In the Grammar, I see that the Delawares divide
-their year by moons, and call them <i>anixi gischuch</i>, &amp;c. So that
-<i>gischuch</i> signifies <i>moon</i> as well as <i>sun</i>, how is it?</p>
-
-<p>3. I find in the Grammar that the pronoun <i>nekama</i> or <i>neka</i>
-means <i>he</i>, but it does not appear to have any feminine. What
-is the proper word for <i>she</i> in the Delaware, and how is it declined?</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_VI">LETTER VI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM DR. WISTAR TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author">
-<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, May 21st, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend.</span>&mdash;I am much obliged by your kind letters,
-which are very interesting, and will, I hope, obtain from<a id="FNanchor_274" href="#Footnote_274" class="fnanchor">274</a> us
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">360</span>
-some of the valuable information which has been left unpublished
-by our ingenious colleague the late Dr. Barton. The
-Grammar of your venerable friend, Zeisberger, is regarded by
-Mr. Duponceau as a treasure. He thinks the inflections of the
-Indian verbs so remarkable that they will attract the general
-attention of the literati. Inclosed is a letter from him, by
-which he expects to open a correspondence with you on the
-subject. I will be much obliged by your writing to him as
-soon as your convenience will permit.</p>
-
-<p>We expect soon to have materials for publishing a volume of
-Historical Documents, and I have proposed that we shall prefix
-to those which relate to Pennsylvania, all the information we
-can collect respecting the Indians who were here before our
-ancestors. The Committee agree that this will be the proper
-method, and my dependence for authentic information is on
-you; as I have never met with any person who had any knowledge
-to compare with yours, respecting the poor Indians. I
-was delighted to find that your enquiries have been directed to
-the history of the Lenni Lenape before they settled in Pennsylvania.
-The removal of the Indian tribes from our country to
-another is a very interesting subject. If you can tell us where
-they came from and what forced them away; who were here
-before them, and what induced their predecessors to make war
-for them, we shall be much obliged to you. There is no book
-I shall read with more pleasure than yours.</p>
-
-<p>The causes of their downfall, I believe, are well known to you,
-and will of course have a place. The manner in which they
-were treated by the Six Nations, after their conquest, will be
-an interesting article, as it will shew the Indian policy. An
-account of the political rights which were still allowed them,
-and, in short, of everything which is connected with their conquest,
-will add to the interest of the work. As occupants of
-Pennsylvania before the whites, ought not the Shawanese and
-the Six Nations also to be described?</p>
-
-<p>I have been told that the Shawanese were more refined than
-any other Indians in this part of America, and that the place
-where Chilicothe now stands, was the seat of Indian civilisation.</p>
-
-<p>I have the pleasure of forwarding to you an instructing work
-by Dr. Drake, a physician at Cincinnati, which he sends you.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">361</span></p>
-
-<p>He also sends a small package and a letter to Mr. Steinhauer.</p>
-
-<p>I send them by a wagon which goes from Mr. Bolling’s, but
-I am not without some expectation of paying another visit to
-Bethlehem very soon, where it will be a great gratification to
-meet with my friend.</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-Affectionately yours,<br />
-<br />
-<span class="smcap">Caspar Wistar</span>.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_VII">LETTER VII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author">
-<span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 27th May, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I was this morning favoured with a letter from
-my friend Dr. Wistar, inclosing some questions which you wish
-me to answer. I lose no time in complying with your desire.</p>
-
-<p>Your first question is, “what name the French did give to the
-Delaware nation?”</p>
-
-<p>I believe the Baron de La Hontan meant them when he spoke
-of the Algonkins, whom he describes as a people whose language
-was understood by many nations or tribes. So is certainly
-that of the Delawares.</p>
-
-<p>While I was residing on the Muskingum, between the years
-1773 and 1781, I cannot precisely remember the year, there
-came a French gentleman who was travelling on some business
-among the different Indian tribes, and could speak more or less
-of several Indian languages, among which was that of the Delawares.
-I had much conversation with him respecting the Indians,
-and observed that he called the Delawares <i>les Lenopes</i>, (a
-word evidently derived from their real name <i>Lenni Lenape</i>.) He
-told me that the language of that nation had a wide range, and
-that by the help of it, he had travelled more than a thousand
-miles among different Indian nations, by all of whom he was
-understood. He added, that the Baron La Hontan, when speaking
-of the Algonkins, must either have alluded to that nation, or
-to some one descended from them. In other instances, in the
-course of the four years that I resided in Upper Canada, I generally
-heard the French Canadians call them L&eacute;n&ocirc;p&eacute;, while the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_362">362</span>
-English called them Delawares. Nevertheless, I do not doubt
-but that they have been called by different names by the French
-and other travellers, and if my memory serves me, some of the
-French people called them <i>les Loups</i>, a name probably derived
-from one of their tribes called the <i>Wolf</i>, if it is not a corruption
-of Lenape or Lenope.</p>
-
-<p>Your next question is, “whether the Delaware word <i>gischuch</i>,
-signifies the sun or moon, or both together?” The Indian name
-“<i>gischuch</i>,” is common to “the two great luminaries which send
-down light from above.” The moon is called “<i>nipawi gischuch</i>,”
-as it were “the sun which gives light in the night.” It is also
-called in one word “<i>nipahum</i>.” “<i>Gischuch</i>,” singly, is often used
-for the moon; the Indian year is divided into thirteen lunar
-months, and in this sense, the word “<i>gischuch</i>,” is used; as for
-instance, “<i>schawan&aacute;ki</i><a id="FNanchor_275" href="#Footnote_275" class="fnanchor">275</a> <i>gischuch</i>” or, in the Minsi or Monsey
-dialect, “<i>chwani</i><a id="FNanchor_276" href="#Footnote_276" class="fnanchor">276</a> <i>gischuch</i>” the <i>shad moon</i>, answering to the
-month which we call March, at which time the fish called “shad”
-passes from the sea into the fresh water rivers. The inferior
-“stars” have a different name; they are called in the singular
-<i>alank</i>; plural, <i>alankewak</i>, and by contraction, <i>alanquak</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Lastly, you ask whether the Delawares have a word answering
-to the English personal pronoun “<i>she</i>,” and what it is? I
-beg leave to answer you somewhat in detail.</p>
-
-<p>In the Indian languages, those discriminating words or inflections
-which we call <i>genders</i>, are not, as with us, in general, intended
-to distinguish between male and female beings, but between
-animate and inanimate things or substances. Trees and
-plants (annual plants and grasses excepted) are included within
-the generic class of animated beings. Hence the personal pronoun
-has only two modes, if I can so express myself, one applicable
-to the animate, and the other to the inanimate gender;
-“<i>nekama</i>” is the personal pronominal form which answers to
-“he” and “she” in English. If you wish to distinguish between
-the sexes, you must add to it the word “man” or “woman.”
-Thus “<i>nekama lenno</i>,” means “<i>he</i>” or “<i>this man</i>;” “<i>nekama</i>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_363">363</span>
-<i>ochqueu</i>,” “<i>she</i>” or “<i>this woman</i>.” This may appear strange to
-a person exclusively accustomed to our forms of speech, but I
-assure you that the Indians have no difficulty in understanding
-each other.</p>
-
-<p>Nor must you imagine that their languages are poor. See
-how the Delaware idiom discriminates between the different ages
-of man and woman!</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow"><span class="smcap">Lenno</span>, <i>a man</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wuskilenno, <i>a young man</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pilapeu, <i>a lad</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pilawesis, or pilaw&eacute;tzitsch, <i>a boy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pilaw&eacute;tit, <i>a male infant babe</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kigeyilenno, <i>an aged man</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mihilusis, <i>an old man, worn out with age</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow"><span class="smcap">Ochqueu</span>, <i>a woman</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wusd&oacute;chqueu, <i>a young woman, a virgin</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ochquetschitsch, <i>a girl</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Quetit, <i>a female infant babe</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gichtochqueu, <i>an aged woman</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Chauchsch&igrave;sis, <i>a very old woman</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>Note “<i>len</i>” or “<i>lenno</i>” in the male, and “<i>que</i>” or “<i>queu</i>” in
-the female, distinguish the sexes in compound words; sometimes
-the <i>L</i> alone denotes the male sex, as in “pi<i>l</i>apeu,” “mihi<i>l</i>usis,”
-&amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>The males of quadrupeds are called “<i>lenno w&eacute;chum,</i>” and by
-contraction “<i>lennochum</i>;” the females “<i>Ochqueu w&eacute;chum</i>,” and by
-contraction “<i>ochqu&eacute;chum</i>,” which is the same as saying <i>he</i> or
-<i>she</i> beasts. With the winged tribe, their generic denomination
-“<i>wehelle</i>” is added to the word which expresses the sex; thus,
-“<i>lenno wehelle</i>” for the male, and “<i>ochquechelle</i>” (with a little
-contraction) for the female. There are some animals the females
-of which have a particular distinguishing name, as “<i>Nunschetto</i>”
-a <i>doe</i>, “<i>Nunscheach</i>” a <i>she bear</i>. This, however, is not common.</p>
-
-<p>Thus I have endeavoured to answer your questions, and I
-hope, have done it to your satisfaction. I shall always be willing
-and ready to give you any further information that you or
-the Philosophical Society may require; I mean, always to the
-best of my knowledge and abilities.</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-I am, &amp;c.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_364">364</span></p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_VIII">LETTER VIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">MR. DUPONCEAU TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author">
-<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 10th June, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;Your favour of the 27th ult. has done me the
-greatest pleasure. I am very thankful for the goodness you have
-had to answer the questions which I took the liberty of putting
-to you through our common friend Dr. Wistar. I shall not fail
-to avail myself of your kind offer to answer such further questions
-as I may ask, as in so doing I shall fulfil a duty which the
-Historical Committee of the Philosophical Society has imposed
-upon me, and at the same time I am satisfied that I shall derive
-a great deal of pleasure to myself. But I must acknowledge that
-I am entirely ignorant of the subject on which I have been
-directed to obtain information from you, so much so that I am
-even at a loss what questions to ask. As I have, however, undertaken
-the task, I must endeavour to go through it as well as
-I can, and rely on the instruction which I shall receive from
-your letters, to point out to me further enquiries. I am fortunately
-employed in translating the late Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar
-of the Lenni Lenape, which will lead me a little into the
-right path, and I read at the same time such books as I can find
-in our scanty libraries respecting the languages of the American
-Indians. This study pleases me much, as I think I perceive
-many beauties in those idioms, but the true enjoyment of those
-beauties is, I presume, only accessible to those to whom the
-languages are familiar.</p>
-
-<p>From what I have above stated, you will easily perceive that
-my questions to you must necessarily be desultory, and without
-any regular order or method. But you will diffuse light through
-this chaos, and every thing at last will find its proper place.</p>
-
-<p>I cannot express to you how delighted I am with the grammatical
-forms of the Indian languages, particularly of the Delaware,
-as explained by Mr. Zeisberger. I am inclined to believe
-that those forms are peculiar to this part of the world, and that
-they do not exist in the languages of the old hemisphere. At
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_365">365</span>
-least, I am confident that their development will contribute much
-to the improvement of the science of universal grammar. About
-fifty years ago, two eminent French philosophers published each
-a short treatise on the origin of language. One of them was
-the celebrated mathematician Maupertuis, and the other M.
-Turgot, who afterwards was made a minister of state, and acquired
-considerable reputation by his endeavours to introduce
-reform into the administration of the government of his own
-country. M. Maupertuis, in his Essay, took great pains to shew
-the necessity of studying the languages even of the most distant
-and barbarous nations, “because,” said he, “we may chance to
-find some that are formed on <i>new plans of ideas</i>.” M. Turgot,
-instead of acknowledging the justness of this profound remark,
-affected to turn it into ridicule, and said he could not understand
-what was meant by “<i>plans of ideas</i>.” If he had been acquainted
-with the Delaware language, he would have been at no loss to
-comprehend it.</p>
-
-<p>I presume that by this expression M. Maupertuis meant the
-various modes in which ideas are combined and associated
-together in the form of words and sentences, and in this sense
-it is to me perfectly intelligible. The associations expressed by
-words must be first formed in the mind, and the words shew in
-what order of succession the ideas were conceived, and in what
-various groups they arranged themselves before utterance was
-given to them. The variety of those groups which exist in the
-different languages forms what M. Maupertuis meant by “plans
-of ideas,” and indeed, this variety exists even in one and the same
-language. Thus when we say, “lover,” and “he who loves,”
-the same group of ideas is differently combined, and of course,
-differently expressed, and it may well be said that those ideas
-are arranged “on different plans.”</p>
-
-<p>This difference is strongly exemplified in the Delaware language;
-I shall only speak at present of what we call the “declension
-of nouns.” What in our European idioms we call the
-“objective cases” are one or more words expressive of two prominent
-ideas, that of the object spoken of, and that of the manner
-in which it is affected by some other object or action operating
-upon it. This is done in two ways; by inflecting the substantive,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_366">366</span>
-or by affixing to it one or more of those auxiliary words
-which we call “prepositions.” Thus when we say in English
-“<i>of Peter</i>” and in German “<i>Peters</i>,” the same two principal
-ideas are expressed in the former language by two words and
-in the latter by one, and the termination or inflexion <i>s</i> in German
-conveys the same meaning as the preposition “<i>of</i>” in English.
-It is clear that these two ideas, before they were uttered
-in the form of words, were grouped in the minds both of the
-German and the Englishman; in the one, as it were at once, and
-in the other successively: for it is natural to suppose that they
-were conceived as they are expressed. Again, when you say in
-Latin <i>amo Petrum</i>, (I love Peter,) the termination <i>um</i> is expressive
-of the action of the verb <i>love</i>, upon the object, <i>Peter</i>. In
-the English and German this accessory idea is not expressed by
-sound, but still it exists in the mind. In every language there
-are more ideas, perhaps, understood, than are actually expressed.
-This might be easily demonstrated, if it were here the place.</p>
-
-<p>Let us now consider how the same ideas are combined and
-expressed in the Delaware language, according to Mr. Zeisberger.
-When the accessory idea which we call “<i>case</i>” proceeds
-from the operation of a verb upon a noun or word significant of
-an object, that idea is not affixed as with us to the noun but to
-the verb, or in other words, it is not the <i>noun</i> but the <i>verb</i> that is
-declined by inflexions or cases. Thus when you say “<i>getannitowit
-n’quitayala</i>, I fear God;” the first word, <i>getannitowit</i>, which
-is the substantive, is expressed, as we should say, in the nominative
-case, while the termination of the verb <i>yala</i>, expresses its
-application to the object. It is precisely the same as if in Latin,
-instead of saying, <i>Petrum amo</i>, I love Peter, we carried the termination
-<i>um</i> to the verb, and said <i>Petrus amum</i>. Does not this
-shew that many various combinations of ideas may take place
-in the human mind, of which we, Europeans by birth or descent,
-have not yet formed a conception? Does this not bid defiance
-to our rules or canons of universal grammar, and may we not
-say with M. Maupertuis, that in extending our study of the languages
-of man, we shall probably find some formed upon “plans
-of ideas” different from our own?</p>
-
-<p>But I perceive that instead of asking you questions, as it is my
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_367">367</span>
-duty to do, I am losing myself in metaphysical disquisitions; I
-return, then, to my principal object. A very interesting German
-book has lately fallen into my hands. It is entitled “<i>Untersuchungen
-ueber Amerikas Bevœlkerung ans dem alten Kontinente</i>,”<a id="FNanchor_277" href="#Footnote_277" class="fnanchor">277</a> and
-it is written by Professor Vater, of Leipzig. The author, after
-justly observing that the language of the Delawares is exceedingly
-rich in grammatical forms, and making the same observation
-on that of the Naticks, from the venerable Eliot’s translation
-of the Bible into that idiom, says that, on the contrary, that
-of the Chippeways is very poor in that respect. “<i>Die Chippew&aelig;er</i>,”
-he says, “<i>haben fast keine formen.</i>”<a id="FNanchor_278" href="#Footnote_278" class="fnanchor">278</a> This appears to me
-very strange, because on examining the various Indian languages
-from Nova Scotia to Chili, I have been surprised to find
-that they appear all formed on the same model, and if Professor
-Vater is correct, the Chippeway dialect will form an exception.
-I beg, therefore, you will inform me whether there is such a
-great difference as he states between that and the Delaware. I
-am much inclined to think that the learned Professor is mistaken.
-I must take this opportunity, however, to express my astonishment
-at the great knowledge which the literati of Germany
-appear to possess of America, and of the customs, manners and
-languages of its original inhabitants. Strange! that we should
-have to go to the German universities to become acquainted
-with our own country.</p>
-
-<p>Another German Professor, of the name of Rudiger, has compiled
-an interesting work, in which he gives specimens of all
-the languages in the world, as far as they are known, and among
-them does not forget those of the Indian nations of America.
-He gives the numerals of the Delaware language, from a vocabulary
-of that idiom, printed at Stockholm, in 1696, and made
-while the Swedes were in possession of that part of this country
-which they principally inhabited. I find a considerable difference
-between those numerals and these given by Zeisberger. That
-you may see in what it consists, I insert them both.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_368">368</span></p>
-
-<h3>DELAWARE NUMERALS.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th class="small" colspan="2">According to the Swedish Vocabulary.</th>
-    <th class="small" colspan="2">According to Zeisberger.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">1.</td>
-    <td>Ciutte.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1.</td>
-    <td>Ngutti.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">2.</td>
-    <td>Nissa.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2.</td>
-    <td>Nischa.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">3.</td>
-    <td>Naha.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3.</td>
-    <td>Nacha.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">4.</td>
-    <td>Nawo.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4.</td>
-    <td>Newo.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">5.</td>
-    <td>Pareenach.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5.</td>
-    <td>Palenach.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">6.</td>
-    <td>Ciuttas.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6.</td>
-    <td>Guttasch.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">7.</td>
-    <td>Nissas.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7.</td>
-    <td>Nischasch.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">8.</td>
-    <td>Haas.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8.</td>
-    <td>Chasch.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">9.</td>
-    <td>P&aelig;schun.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9.</td>
-    <td>Peschkonk.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">10.</td>
-    <td>Th&aelig;r&aelig;n.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10.</td>
-    <td>Tellen.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">20.</td>
-    <td>Nissinacke.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20.</td>
-    <td>Nishinachke.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">100.</td>
-    <td>Ciutabpach.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">100.</td>
-    <td>Nguttapachki.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>Now, there can be no doubt that these two sets of numerals
-belong to the same language, but I am astonished at seeing the
-same words written so differently by a Swede and a German,
-when there is so little difference in the powers of the alphabetical
-signs of their languages. I am particularly struck with some
-words that are written with <i>R</i> by the Swede and with <i>L</i> by the
-German author. In all Zeisberger’s Grammar I have not been
-able to find the letter <i>R</i> in one single Delaware word, neither is
-it to be found in any of the words of his Delaware spelling book.
-No doubt you can inform me of the reason of this difference.</p>
-
-<p>A greater one is still to be found in the Algonkin numerals
-given by the Baron La Hontan, and those of the Delaware
-proper. I place them here again in opposition to each other.</p>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th class="small" colspan="2">Algonkin numerals from La Hontan.</th>
-    <th class="small" colspan="2">Delaware numerals from Zeisberger.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">1.</td>
-    <td>Pegik.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1.</td>
-    <td>Ngutti.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">2.</td>
-    <td>Ninch.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2.</td>
-    <td>Nischa.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">3.</td>
-    <td>Nissoue.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3.</td>
-    <td>Nacha.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">4.</td>
-    <td>Neou.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4.</td>
-    <td>Newo.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">5.</td>
-    <td>Narau.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5.</td>
-    <td>Palenach.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">6.</td>
-    <td>Ningoutouassou.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6.</td>
-    <td>Guttasch.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">7.</td>
-    <td>Ninchouassou.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7.</td>
-    <td>Nischasch.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">8.</td>
-    <td>Nissouassou.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8.</td>
-    <td>Chasch.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">9.</td>
-    <td>Changassou.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9.</td>
-    <td>Peschkonk.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">10.</td>
-    <td>Mitassou.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10.</td>
-    <td>Tellen.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_369">369</span></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>There is certainly a family resemblance between some of
-these words, while in others no kind of similarity can be traced.
-As you believe that the Delawares and the Algonkins are the
-same people, I beg you will be so good as to point out to me
-the cause of the difference which I have observed.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_IX">LETTER IX.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 13th June, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I take the liberty of submitting to you a few
-questions, which have occurred to me in perusing Mr. Zeisberger’s
-Grammar. I beg you will be so good as to answer them
-at your leisure.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">Queries.</span></h3>
-
-<p>1. In Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar, double consonants are frequently
-used, as in <i>Pommauchsin</i>, <i>Lenno</i>, <i>Lenni Lenape</i>.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Qu&aelig;re</span>: Are the two consonants fully and distinctly sounded,
-thus: <i>pom-m-auchsin</i>&mdash;<i>Len-n-o</i>, as in the Italian language, or is
-only one of the consonants heard, as if it were thus written:
-<i>pomauchsin</i>, <i>leno</i>. In this latter case what is the reason for using
-two consonants, if only one is sounded?</p>
-
-<p>2. Mr. Zeisberger frequently puts a comma or apostrophe (’)
-before or after the letter N in the present of the indicative verbs,
-<i>’npommauchsi</i>, and sometimes <i>n’pommauchsi</i>. Sometimes he
-writes the word without: <i>ndappiwi</i>, <i>ndappiwitsch</i>; what is
-the reason of this variation? Is there any necessity for the
-comma before or after the <i>N</i> in the first person, or after the <i>K</i>
-and <i>W</i>, in the second and third? Is it not best to simplify as
-much as possible the orthography of such a difficult language?</p>
-
-<p>3. What is the difference in pronunciation between <i>ke</i> and
-<i>que</i>; say, <i>pomauchsijenke</i> and <i>pomauchsijeque</i>? Is the latter
-sounded like <i>cue</i> or <i>kue</i>, or is it sounded as <i>ke</i>?</p>
-
-<p>4. The conjunctive mood is expressed in German by “<i>wenn</i>;”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_370">370</span>
-does it mean in English “<i>if</i>” or “<i>when</i>”? Does “<i>n’pomauchsijane</i>,”
-mean “when I live” or “if I live,” or both? I find it
-sometimes expressed “<i>wenn</i>,” oder “<i>da</i>,” oder “<i>als</i>,” which
-inclines me to think it signifies both “<i>when</i>” and “<i>if</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>5. I find some terminations in the tenses of the verbs, sometimes
-written “<i>cup</i>,” sometimes “<i>kup</i>,” and sometimes “<i>gup</i>;”
-thus <i>epiacup</i>, “where I was,” <i>elsijakup</i>, “when or if I was so
-situated;” and <i>pommauchsijengup</i>, “if or when we have lived.”
-Are these different sounds, or does this difference in writing
-arise from the Germans being accustomed to confound the
-sounds of K and G hard?</p>
-
-<p>6. I find some words written sometimes with one <i>I</i> and
-sometimes with two; thus <i>elsia</i>, and <i>elsija</i>. Are the two <i>i</i>’s
-separately articulated, or do they sound only as one?</p>
-
-<p>7. I find the second person of the singular in verbs sometimes
-written with a <i>K</i>, sometimes with a <i>G</i>, thus <i>kneichgussi</i>, du wirst
-gesehen (thou art seen); <i>kdaantschi</i>, du wirst gehen (thou wilt
-go); <i>gemilgussi</i>, dir wird gegeben (it is given to thee). Why is
-it not written <i>kemilgussi</i>? see query 5. I find sometimes a double
-<i>aa</i>&mdash;Is it merely to express length of quantity, or are the two
-<i>a</i>’s sounded distinctly?</p>
-
-<p>8. What is the difference in sound between <i>ch</i> and <i>hh</i>, do they
-both represent the same guttural sound like <i>ch</i> in German? If
-so, why express this sound in two different ways; if otherwise,
-what is the real difference between the two sounds?</p>
-
-<h3>EXAMPLES.</h3>
-
-<p><i>Ach</i>pil, bleibe du (remain thou); a<i>ch</i>pi<i>ch</i>tique, wenn sie nicht
-da sind (if they are not
-
-ere); nda<i>hh</i>enap, wir waren gegangen
-(we had gone); kda<i>hh</i>imo, ihr gehet (you go).</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_371.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_371">371</span></p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_X">LETTER X.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 20th June, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;Your favors of the 10th and 13th inst. have been
-duly received. I shall now endeavour to answer the first. The
-second shall in a few days be attended to.</p>
-
-<p>I am glad to find that you are so much pleased with the forms
-of our Indian languages. You will be still more so as you become
-more familiar with the beautiful idiom of the Lenni Lenape.
-It is certain that many of those forms are not to be found either
-in the German or English; how it is with the other languages
-of Europe, Asia, and Africa, I cannot say, not being acquainted
-with them, and never having made philology my particular
-study. I concur with you in the opinion that there must be in
-the world many different ways of connecting ideas together in
-the form of words, or what we call <i>parts of speech</i>, and that much
-philosophical information is to be obtained by the study of those
-varieties. What you observe with regard to the verbs being
-inflected in lieu of affixing a case or termination to the noun is
-very correct, but the ground or principle on which it is done, is
-not perhaps known to you. The verbs in the Indian languages
-are susceptible of a variety of forms, which are not to be found
-in any other language that I know. I do not mean to speak
-here of the positive, negative, causative, and a variety of other
-forms, but of those which Mr. Zeisberger calls <i>personal</i>, in which
-the two pronouns, governing and governed, are by means of
-affixes, suffixes, terminations, and inflections, included in the
-same word. Of this I shall give you an instance from the Delaware
-language. I take the verb <i>ahoalan</i>, to love, belonging to
-the fifth of the eight conjugations, into which Mr. Zeisberger has
-very properly divided this part of speech.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_372">372</span></p>
-
-<h3>INDICATIVE, PRESENT, POSITIVE.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2">N’dahoala, <i>I love</i>,</td>
-    <td>n’dahoalaneen, <i>we love</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2">k’dahoala, <i>thou</i>&mdash;</td>
-    <td>k’dahoalohhimo, <i>you</i>&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>w’dahoala,}<br />
-or ahoaleu }</td>
-    <td><i>he</i>&mdash;</td>
-    <td>ahoalewak, <i>they</i>&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>Now for the personal forms in the same tense.</p>
-
-<h3>FIRST PERSONAL FORM.<br />
-
-I.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>K’dahoatell, <i>I love thee</i>,</td>
-    <td>K’dahoalohhumo, <i>I love you</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>n’dahoala, <i>I love him or her</i>.</td>
-    <td>n’dahoalawak,&mdash;<i>them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h3>SECOND PERSONAL FORM.<br />
-
-THOU.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular</i>.</th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>K’dahoali, <i>thou lovest me</i>,</td>
-    <td>k’dahoalineen, <i>thou lovest us</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>k’dahoala,&mdash;<i>him or her</i>.</td>
-    <td>k’dahoalawak,&mdash;<i>them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h3>THIRD PERSONAL FORM.<br />
-
-HE, (<i>or</i> SHE.)</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>N’dahoaluk, <i>he loves me</i>,</td>
-    <td>w’dahoalguna, <i>he loves us</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>k’dahoaluk,&mdash;<i>thee</i>,</td>
-    <td>w’dahoalguwa,&mdash;<i>you</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>w’dahoalawall&mdash;<i>him</i>.</td>
-    <td>w’dahoalawak,&mdash;<i>them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h3>FOURTH PERSONAL FORM.<br />
-
-WE.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>K’dahoalenneen, <i>we love thee</i>,</td>
-    <td>k’dahoalohummena, <i>we love you</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>n’dahoalawuna,&mdash;<i>him</i>.</td>
-    <td>n’dahoalowawuna,&mdash;<i>them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h3>FIFTH PERSONAL FORM.<br />
-
-YOU.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>K’dahoalihhimo, <i>you love me</i>,</td>
-    <td>k’dahoalihhena, <i>you love us</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>k’dahoalanewo,&mdash;<i>him</i>.</td>
-    <td>k’dahoalawawak,&mdash;<i>them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h3>SIXTH PERSONAL FORM.<br />
-
-THEY.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>N’dahoalgenewo, <i>they love me</i>,</td>
-    <td>n’dahoalgehhena, <i>they love us</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>k’dahoalgenewo,&mdash;<i>thee</i>,</td>
-    <td>k’dahoalgehhimo,&mdash;<i>you</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>w’dahoalanewo,&mdash;<i>him</i>.</td>
-    <td>w’dahoalawawak,&mdash;<i>them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_373">373</span></p>
-
-<p>In this manner verbs are conjugated through all their moods
-and tenses, and through all their negative, causative, and various
-other forms, with fewer irregularities than any other language
-that I know of.</p>
-
-<p>These conjugations, no doubt, you have found, or will find in
-Mr. Zeisberger’s grammar, but the few examples that I have
-above put together, are necessary to understand the explanation
-which I am about to give.</p>
-
-<p>The words you quote are: “<i>getannitowit n’quitayala</i>,” <i>I fear
-God</i>, or rather, according to the Indian inversion, <i>God I fear</i>.
-Your observation is that the inflection or case of the noun substantive
-<i>God</i>, is carried to the verb. This is true; but if you
-enquire for the reason or the manner in which it takes place,
-you will find that <i>ala</i> is the inflection of the second or last person
-of the verb, in the first personal form; thus as you have
-seen that <i>n’dahoala</i> means <i>I love him</i>, so <i>n’quitayala</i>, in the same
-form and person means <i>I fear him</i>; it is therefore the same as
-if you said <i>God I fear him</i>. This is not meant in the least to
-doubt or dispute the correctness of your position, but to shew in
-what manner the combination of ideas is formed that has led to
-this result. You have now, I believe, a wider field for your
-metaphysical disquisitions.</p>
-
-<p>I pass on to the other parts of your letter. I believe with
-you that Professor Vater is mistaken in his assertion that the
-language of the Chippeways is deficient in grammatical forms.
-I am not skilled in the Chippeway idiom, but while in Upper
-Canada, I have often met with French Canadians and English
-traders who understood and spoke it very well. I endeavoured
-to obtain information from them respecting that language, and
-found that it much resembled that of the Lenape. The differences
-that I observed were little more than some variations in
-sound, as <i>b</i> for <i>p</i>, and <i>i</i> for <i>u</i>. Thus, in the Delaware, <i>wapachquiwan</i>
-means a <i>blanket</i>, in the Chippeway it is <i>wabewian</i>;
-<i>gischuch</i> is Delaware for a <i>star</i>, the Chippeways say <i>gischis</i>;
-<i>wape</i> in Delaware <i>white</i>; in the Chippeway, <i>wabe</i>. Both nations
-have the word <i>Mannitto</i> for God, or the Great Spirit, a word
-which is common to all the nations and tribes of the Lenape
-stock.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_374">374</span></p>
-
-<p>There is no doubt that the Chippeways, like the Mahicanni,
-Naticks, Wampanos, Nanticokes, and many other nations, are a
-branch of the great family of the Lenni Lenape, therefore I cannot
-believe that there is so great a difference in the forms of
-their languages from those of the mother tongue. I shall, however,
-write on the subject to one of our Missionaries who resides
-in Canada, and speaks the Chippeway idiom, and doubt not that
-in a short time I shall receive from him a full and satisfactory
-answer.</p>
-
-<p>On the subject of the numerals, I have had occasion to observe
-that they sometimes differ very much in languages derived
-from the same stock. Even the Minsi, a tribe of the Lenape or
-Delaware nation, have not all their numerals like those of the
-Unami tribe, which is the principal among them. I shall give
-you an opportunity of comparing them.</p>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th class="small" colspan="2">Numerals of the Minsi.</th>
-    <th class="small" colspan="2">Numerals of the Unami.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">1.</td>
-    <td>Gutti.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1.</td>
-    <td>N’gutti.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">2.</td>
-    <td>Nischa.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2.</td>
-    <td>Nischa.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">3.</td>
-    <td>Nacha.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3.</td>
-    <td>Nacha.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">4.</td>
-    <td>Newa.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4.</td>
-    <td>Newo.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">5.</td>
-    <td><i>Nalan</i>, (algonk. <i>narau</i>.)</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5.</td>
-    <td>Palenach.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">6.</td>
-    <td>Guttasch.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6.</td>
-    <td>Guttasch.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">7.</td>
-    <td><i>Nischoasch</i>, (algonk. <i>nissouassou</i>.)</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7.</td>
-    <td>Nischasch.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">8.</td>
-    <td>Chaasch.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8.</td>
-    <td>Chasch.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">9.</td>
-    <td><i>Nolewi.</i></td>
-    <td class="tdr">9.</td>
-    <td><i>Peschkonk.</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">10.</td>
-    <td><i>Wimbat.</i></td>
-    <td class="tdr">10.</td>
-    <td><i>Tellen.</i></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>You will easily observe that the numbers five and ten in the
-Minsi dialect, resemble more the Algonkin, as given by La
-Hontan, than the pure Delaware. I cannot give you the reason
-of this difference. To this you will add the numerous errors
-committed by those who attempt to write down the words of
-the Indian languages, and who either in their own have not
-alphabetical signs adequate to the true expression of the sounds,
-or want an <i>Indian ear</i> to distinguish them. I could write a
-volume on the subject of their ridiculous mistakes. I am, &amp;c.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_375">375</span></p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XI">LETTER XI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 24th June, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I now proceed to answer the several queries contained
-in your letter of the 13th inst.</p>
-
-<p>1. The double consonants are used in writing the words of
-the Delaware language, for the sole purpose of indicating that
-the vowel which immediately precedes them is short, as in the
-German words <i>immer</i>, <i>nimmer</i>, <i>schimmer</i>, and the English <i>fellow</i>,
-<i>terrible</i>, <i>ill</i>, <i>butter</i>, &amp;c. The consonant is not to be articulated
-twice.</p>
-
-<p>2. The apostrophe which sometimes follows the letters <i>n</i> and
-<i>k</i>, is intended to denote the contraction of a vowel, as <i>n’pommauchsi</i>,
-for <i>ni pommauchsi</i>, <i>n’dappiwi</i>, for <i>ni dappiwi</i>, &amp;c. If
-Mr. Zeisberger has placed the apostrophe in any case before the
-consonant, he must have done it through mistake.</p>
-
-<p>3. There is a difference in pronunciation between <i>ke</i> and <i>que</i>;
-the latter is pronounced like <i>kue</i> or <i>kwe</i>. In a verb, the termination
-<i>ke</i> indicates the first person of the plural, and <i>que</i> the
-second.</p>
-
-<p>4. The word <i>wenn</i>, employed in the German translation of the
-tenses of the conjunctive mood of the Delaware verbs, means
-both <i>when</i>, and <i>if</i>, and is taken in either sense according to the
-content of the phrase in which the word is used. Examples:
-<i>Ili gachtingetsch pommauchsiane</i>, “<span class="smcap">If</span> I live until the next year”&mdash;<i>Payane
-Philadelphia</i>, “<span class="smcap">When</span> I come to Philadelphia.”</p>
-
-<p>5. Sometimes the letters <i>c</i> or <i>g</i>, are used in writing the
-Delaware language instead of <i>k</i>, to shew that this consonant is
-not pronounced too hard; but in general <i>c</i> and <i>g</i> have been used
-as substitutes for <i>k</i>, because our printers had not a sufficient
-supply of types for that character.</p>
-
-<p>6. Where words are written with <i>ij</i>, both the letters are to be
-articulated; the latter like the English <i>y</i> before a vowel. For
-this reason in writing Delaware words I often employ the <i>y</i> instead
-of <i>j</i>, which Mr. Zeisberger and the German Missionaries
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_376">376</span>
-always make use of. Thus <i>Elsija</i> is to be pronounced like <i>Elsiya</i>.</p>
-
-<p>7. Answered in part above, No. 5. The double vowels are
-merely intended to express length of sound, as in the German.</p>
-
-<p>8. <i>Ch</i>, answers to the X of the Greeks, and <i>ch</i> of the Germans.
-<i>Hh</i>, like all other duplicated consonants, indicates only the short
-sound of the preceding vowels.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XII">LETTER XII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Philadelp
-
-</span>, 13th July, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I have received your kind letters of the 20th and
-24th ult. It is impossible to be more clear, precise, and accurate,
-than you are in your answers to my various questions.
-The information which your letters contain is of the highest
-interest to me, and I doubt not will prove so to the Committee,
-by whose orders I have engaged in this Correspondence, on a
-subject entirely new to me, but with which I hope in time and
-with your able assistance, to become better acquainted.</p>
-
-<p>M. de Volney has said somewhere in his excellent Descriptive
-View of the United States, that it were to be wished that five or
-six eminent linguists should be constantly employed at the public
-expense to compile Indian Grammars and Dictionaries. I
-cannot suppose that the Count meant literally what he said, as
-he must have been sensible of the difficulties attending on the
-execution of such a plan, but at any rate, here is a noble display
-of enthusiasm for our favourite science, and a sufficient encouragement
-for us to pursue our philological enquiries. Alas! if
-the beauties of the Lenni Lenape language were found in the
-ancient Coptic, or in some ante-diluvian Babylonish dialect, how
-would the learned of Europe be at work to display them in a
-variety of shapes and raise a thousand fanciful theories on that
-foundation! What superior wisdom, talents and knowledge
-would they not ascribe to nations whose idioms were formed
-with so much skill and method! But who cares for the poor
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_377">377</span>
-American Indians? They are savages and barbarians and live
-in the woods; must not their languages be savage and barbarous
-like them?</p>
-
-<p>Thus reason those pretended philosophers who court fame by
-writing huge volumes on the origin of human language, without
-knowing, perhaps, any language but their own, and the little
-Latin and Greek that they have been taught at College. You
-would think, when you read their works, that they had lived in
-the first ages of the creation and had been intimately acquainted
-with the family of our first parents. They know exactly what
-words were first uttered when men began to communicate their
-ideas to each other by means of articulated sounds; they can tell
-you how the various parts of speech, in perfect regular order,
-were successively formed, and with a little encouragement, they
-would, I have no doubt, compile a Grammar and Dictionary of
-the primitive language, as one Psalmanazar did once in England
-of a supposed Formosan tongue. It is a pity, indeed, that the
-Delawares, the Wyandots and the Potowatamies, with languages
-formed on a construction which had not been before thought of,
-come to destroy their beautiful theories. What then? are we
-to suppress the languages of our good Indians, or to misrepresent
-them, that the existing systems on Universal Grammar
-and the origin of language may be preserved? No, my friend,
-we shall on the contrary, I hope, labour with all our might to
-make them known, and provide, at least, additional facts for
-future theorists.</p>
-
-<p>I have been led into this chain of ideas by reading the ponderous
-work of a Scotch Lord named Monboddo, who has
-dreamt of languages more than any other writer that I know.
-On the authority of a Father Sagard, (a French Missionary) he
-represents the language of the Hurons as the most incoherent
-and unsystematical heap of vocables that can possibly be conceived.
-Their words have no regular formation or derivation,
-no roots or radical syllables, there is no analogy whatever in
-the construction or arrangement of this language. He says, for
-instance, that there is a word for “two years” entirely different
-from those which signify one, three, four or ten years; that
-“<i>hut</i>,” “<i>my hut</i>,” and “<i>in my hut</i>,” are severally expressed by
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_378">378</span>
-words entirely different from each other. He adduces several
-other examples of the same kind, with which I shall not trouble
-you, and concludes with saying, that “the Huron language is
-the most imperfect of any that has been yet discovered.” (Orig.
-of Lang., Vol. I., p. 478.)</p>
-
-<p>Before we proceed further, let us suppose that a Huron or a
-Delaware is writing a treatise on the origin of language, and in
-the pride of pompous ignorance attempts to make similar observations
-on the English idiom. Following Lord Monboddo’s
-course of reasoning, he will say: “The English is the most
-imperfect language upon earth, for its words have no kind of
-analogy to each other. They say, for instance, ‘<i>a house</i>,’ and
-the things that belong to a house they call ‘<i>domestic</i>.’ They
-say ‘<i>a year</i>,’ and ‘an <i>annual</i> payment,’ for a sum of money
-payable every <i>year</i>. That is not all; if the payment is to be
-made in <i>two</i> years, it is then called <i>biennial</i>, in which you find
-no trace of either the word <i>two</i> or the word ‘<i>year</i>,’ of which in
-a regular language it should be compounded. What belongs to
-a <i>King</i> is royal; to a <i>woman</i>, feminine; to <i>ship</i>, naval; to a
-<i>town</i>, urban; to the <i>country</i>, rural. Such another irregular, unmethodical
-dialect never existed, I believe, on the back of the
-great tortoise!!”</p>
-
-<p>Such would be the language of our Huron philosopher, and
-he would be about as right as Lord Monboddo. I have read
-this work of Father Sagard, of which there is a copy in the
-Congress library. It appears to me that the good Father was
-an honest, well meaning, but most ignorant friar, of one of the
-mendicant orders. His residence among the Hurons was very
-short, not more than a twelve-month; he was, I know not for
-what reason, called home by his superiors, and left America
-with great regret. He has collected a number of words and
-phrases of the Huron language in the form of a vocabulary,
-which he improperly calls a dictionary. I have had it copied
-and shall shew it to you when you come to town. You will be
-satisfied when you see it, that the good man not only never analysed
-the language of the Hurons, but was incapable of doing
-it. He was perfectly bewildered in the variety of its forms, and
-drew the very common conclusion that what he could not comprehend
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_379">379</span>
-was necessarily barbarous and irregular. From an
-attentive perusal of his “dictionary,” I am inclined to draw the
-opposite conclusion from that which he has drawn. There appears
-to me to be in it sufficient internal evidence to shew that
-the Huron language is rich in grammatical forms, and that it is
-constructed much on the same plan with the Delaware. I shall
-be very glad to have your opinion on it, with such information
-as you are able and willing to give. I beg particularly that you
-will let me know whether there are roots and derivations in the
-Indian languages, analogous to those of our own?</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XIII">LETTER XIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 18th July, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;In your letter of the 27th of May you have said
-that you believed the Delaware nation were those whom the
-Baron La Hontan meant to designate by the name of <i>Algonkins</i>.
-In a subsequent letter, (June 20th,) you seem to consider them
-as distinct nations, but nearly allied to each other; you say you
-are not well acquainted with their language, which is not the
-same with that of the Lenape, though there is a considerable
-affinity between them. Upon the whole I suppose that you have
-meant to apply the denomination Algonkins, not only to the
-Delawares proper, but to all the nations and tribes of the same
-family.</p>
-
-<p>This has led me to consider who those Algonkins might be
-that La Hontan speaks of, and upon the best investigation that
-I have been able to make of the subject, I am inclined to believe
-that La Hontan’s Algonkins are properly those whom we call
-<i>Chippeways</i>, a family or branch of the Delawares, but not the
-Delawares themselves. I first turned to Dr. Barton’s “New
-Views of the Origin of the Nations and Tribes of America,” in
-which I found that he considered the Delawares and Chippeways
-as two distinct people; but when I came to the specimens which
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_380">380</span>
-he gives of their languages in his Vocabularies, I found no difference
-whatever in the idioms of the two nations. Pursuing the
-enquiry further, I compared the Vocabulary of the Chippeway
-language given by Carver in his travels, and that of the Algonkin
-by La Hontan, and was much astonished to find the words
-in each language exactly alike, without any difference but what
-arises from the French and English orthography. The words
-explained by the two authors, happen also to be precisely the
-same, and are arranged in the same alphabetical order. So that
-either Carver is a gross plagiarist, who has pretended to give a
-list of Chippeway words and has only copied the Algonkin
-words given by La Hontan, or the Chippeways and Algonkins
-are one and the same people. I shall be very glad to have your
-opinion on this subject.</p>
-
-<p>I find in Zeisberger’s Grammar something that I cannot well
-comprehend. It is the verb “<i>n’dellauchsi</i>” which he translates
-“I live, move about,” or “I so live that I move about.” Pray,
-is this the only verb in the Delaware language, which signifies
-“<i>to live</i>,” and have the Indians no idea of “life,” but when connected
-with “<i>locomotion</i>”?</p>
-
-<p>Is the <i>W</i> in the Delaware, as your Missionaries write it, to be
-pronounced like the same letter in German, or like the English
-<i>W</i> and the French <i>ou</i>? If this letter has the German sound,
-then it is exactly the same as that of our <i>V</i>; in that case I
-am astonished that the Delawares cannot pronounce the <i>F</i>, the
-two sounds being so nearly alike.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XIV">LETTER XIV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 22d July, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I received at the same time your two letters of
-the 13th and 18th inst., the last by our friend Dr. Wistar. I
-think you are wrong to complain of the little importance attached
-by the learned of Europe to the study of Indian languages and of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_381">381</span>
-the false ideas which some of them have conceived respecting
-them. The truth is that sufficient pains have not been taken in
-this country to make them known. Our Missionaries have, indeed,
-compiled grammars and dictionaries of those idioms, but
-more with a view to practical use and to aid their fellow-labourers
-in the great work of the conversion of the Indians to Christianity,
-than in order to promote the study of the philosophy of language.
-They have neither sought fame nor profit, and therefore
-their compositions have remained unknown except in the very
-limited circle of our religious society. It belongs to the literary
-associations of America to pursue or encourage those studies in
-a more extended point of view, and I shall be happy to aid to
-the utmost of my power the learned researches of the American
-Philosophical Society.</p>
-
-<p>Your remarks on Lord Monboddo’s opinion respecting the Indian
-languages, and on Father Sagard’s work, on which that
-opinion is founded, I believe to be correct. I am not acquainted
-with the language of the Hurons, which I have always understood
-to be a dialect of that of the Iroquois, or at least to be
-derived from the same stock, and I cannot conceive why it
-should be so poor and so imperfect as the good Father describes
-it, while its kindred idiom, the Iroquois, is directly the reverse.
-At least, it was so considered by Mr. Zeisberger, who was very
-well acquainted with it. Sir William Johnson thought the same,
-and I believe you will find his opinion on the subject in one of
-the Volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society of London.<a id="FNanchor_279" href="#Footnote_279" class="fnanchor">279</a>
-Colden, in his History of the Five Nations, says “that
-the verbs of that language are varied, but in a manner so different
-from the Greek and Latin, that his informant could not discover
-by what rule it was done.”<a id="FNanchor_280" href="#Footnote_280" class="fnanchor">280</a> I suspect his informant
-had not yet acquired a very profound knowledge of the Iroquois;
-but from his imperfect description of their verbs, I am very nearly
-convinced that they are formed on the same model with those
-of the Lenni Lenape, which Mr. Zeisberger has well described
-in his Grammar of that language. Colden praises this idiom in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_382">382</span>
-other respects; he says that “the Six Nations compound their
-words without end, whereby their language becomes sufficiently
-copious.” This is true also of the Delawares.</p>
-
-<p>The Hurons are the same people whom we call Wyandots;
-the Delawares call them <i>Delamattenos</i>. I am inclined to believe
-that the tribe whom we call <i>Naudowessies</i>, and the French <i>Sioux</i>,
-who are said to live to the west or north-west of Lake Superior,
-are a branch of the Hurons; for the rivers which we call <i>Huron</i>,
-(of which there are three)<a id="FNanchor_281" href="#Footnote_281" class="fnanchor">281</a> are called by the Chippeways, <i>Naduwewi</i>,
-or <i>Naudowessie Sipi</i>. But of this I cannot be sure; though
-I would rather conclude that <i>Naudowessie</i> is the Chippeway
-name for all the Wyandots or Hurons. It is a fact which, I
-think, deserves to be ascertained. It is a very common error
-to make several Indian nations out of one, by means of the
-different names by which it is known.</p>
-
-<p>I proceed to answer the questions contained in your letter of
-the 18th.</p>
-
-<p>As it seems to me probable that the Naudowessies and Hurons,
-though called by different names, are the same people; so
-it may be the case with the Chippeways and the Algonkins,
-although I have no greater certainty of this hypothesis than of
-the former. I have no doubt, however, of their being both derived
-from the same stock, which is that of the Lenni Lenape:
-that their languages are strikingly similar is evident from the
-two vocabularies that you mention, and I had rather believe that
-they both speak the same language, than that Captain Carver
-was a plagiarist. The accounts which he gives of the Indians I
-have found in general correct; which is the more remarkable,
-that from his own account, it appears that he did not reside very
-long among them. He must have been, therefore, a very attentive
-and accurate observer.</p>
-
-<p>It is very probable that I did not express myself with sufficient
-precision in the passages of my letters of the 27th of May and
-20th of June to which you refer. The Lenni Lenape, or Delawares,
-are the head of a great family of Indian nations who are
-known among themselves by the generic name of <i>Wapanachki</i>,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_383">383</span>
-or “Men of the East.” The same language is spread among
-them all in various dialects, of which I conceive the purest is
-that of the chief nation, the Lenape, at whose residence the
-grand national councils meet, and whom the others, by way of
-respect, style <i>grandfather</i>. The Algonkins are a branch of that
-family, but are not, in my opinion, entitled to the pre-eminence
-which the Baron La Hontan ascribes to them. He applied the
-name “Algonkin,” in a more extensive sense than it deserves,
-and said that the Algonkin language was the finest and most
-universally spread of any on the continent; a praise to which I
-think the Lenni Lenape idiom alone is entitled. In this sense
-only I meant to say that the Baron included the Delawares in
-the general descriptive name of “Algonkins.”</p>
-
-<p>I have yet to answer your questions respecting the language,
-which I shall do in a subsequent letter.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XV">LETTER XV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM THE SAME.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 24th July, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I have now to answer your question on the subject
-of the Delaware verb, <i>n’dellauchsi</i>, which Zeisberger translates
-by “I live, or move about,” or “I so live that I move about.”
-You ask whether this is the only verb in the language which expresses
-“<i>to live</i>,” and whether the Indians have an idea of <i>life</i>,
-otherwise than as connected with <i>locomotion</i>?</p>
-
-<p>Surely they have; and I do not see that the contrary follows
-from Mr. Zeisberger’s having chosen this particular verb as an
-example of the first conjugation. I perceive you have not yet an
-adequate idea of the copiousness of the Indian languages, which
-possess an immense number of comprehensive words, expressive
-of almost every possible combination of ideas. Thus the proper
-word for “<i>to live</i>” is in the pure Unami dialect <i>lehaleheen</i>. An
-Unami meeting an aged acquaintance, whom he has not seen for
-a length of time, will address him thus: “<i>Ili k’lehelleya?</i>”<a id="FNanchor_282" href="#Footnote_282" class="fnanchor">282</a> which
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_384">384</span>
-means, “are you yet alive?” The other will answer “<i>Ili n’papomissi</i>,”<a id="FNanchor_283" href="#Footnote_283" class="fnanchor">283</a>
-“I am yet able to walk about.” The verb <i>n’dellauchsin</i>,
-which Mr. Zeisberger quotes, is more generally employed in a
-spiritual sense, “<i>n’dellauchsin Patamawos wulelendam</i>,” “I live
-up, act up to the glory of God.” This verb, like <i>pommauchsin</i>,
-implies action or motion, connected with <i>life</i>, which is still the
-principal idea. I do not know of any thing analogous in the
-English language, except, perhaps, when we say “To <i>walk</i>
-humbly before God;” but here the word <i>walk</i> contains properly
-no idea in itself but that of locomotion, and is not coupled with
-the idea of <i>life</i>, as in the Indian verb which I have cited. The
-idea intended to be conveyed arises in English entirely from the
-<i>figurative</i> sense of the word, in the Delaware from the <i>proper</i>
-sense.</p>
-
-<p>I should never have done, were I to endeavour to explain to
-you in all their details the various modes which the Indians have
-of expressing ideas, shades of ideas, and combinations of ideas;
-for which purpose the various parts of speech are successively
-called to their aid. In the conjugations of the verbs, in Zeisberger’s
-Grammar, you will find but three tenses, present, past,
-and future; but you will be much mistaken if you believe that
-there are no other modes of expressing actions and passions in
-the verbal form as connected with the idea of time. It would
-have been an endless work to have given all those explanations
-in an elementary grammar intended for the use of young Missionaries,
-who stood in need only of the principal forms, which
-they were to perfect afterwards by practice. Let me now try to
-give you a faint idea of what I mean by a few examples in the
-Delaware language.</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">N’mitzi, <i>I eat</i>.<a id="FNanchor_284" href="#Footnote_284" class="fnanchor">284</a></span>
-<span class="trow">N’mamitzi, <i>I am eating, or am in the act of eating</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’mitzihump, <i>I have eaten</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Metschi n’gischi mitzi, <i>I am come from eating</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dappi mitzi, <i>I am returned from eating</i>.</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_385">385</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>The first two <i>n’mitzi</i> and <i>n’mamitzi</i>, both mean <i>I eat</i>, but the
-one is used in the indefinite, and the other in the definite sense,
-and a good speaker will never employ the one instead of the
-other. The three last expressions are all past tenses of the verb
-“<i>I eat</i>,” and all mean, “<i>I have eaten</i>,” but a person just risen
-from table, will not say, “<i>n’dappi mitzi</i>;” this expression can
-only be used after leaving the place where he has been eating,
-in answer to a person who asks him “where he comes from.”
-The word “<i>n’dappi</i>” is connected with the verb <i>apatschin</i>, to return.
-There is another distinction, proper to be mentioned here.
-If the place where the person comes from is near, he says
-“<i>n’dappi</i>,” if distant “<i>n’dappa</i>.” Thus:</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">N’dappi pihm, <i>I am come from sweating</i> (<i>or from the sweat oven</i>.)<br /></span>
-<span class="trow">N’dappihackiheen, <i>I am come from planting</i>.<br /></span>
-<span class="trow">N’dappi wickheen, <i>I am come from building a house</i>.<br /></span>
-<span class="trow">N’dappimanschasqueen, <i>I am come from mowing grass</i>.<br /></span>
-<span class="trow">N’dappi notam&aelig;sin, <i>I am come from striking fish with a spear</i>.<br /></span>
-<span class="trow">N’dappallauwin, <i>I am come (returned) from hunting</i>.<br /></span>
-<span class="trow">N’dappachtopalin, <i>I am come (returned) from making war</i>.<br /></span>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the future tense I could shew similar distinctions, but it
-would lead me too far.</p>
-
-<p>I must now take notice of what Father Sagard says, as you
-have mentioned in your letter of the 13th inst., that the Indian
-languages have “no <i>roots</i>, and that there is no regularity in the
-formation of their words.” It is certain that the manner in which
-the Indians in general form their words is different from that of
-the Europeans, but I can easily prove to you that they understand
-the manner of forming them from “<i>roots</i>.” I take, for
-instance, the word <i>wulit</i>, good, proper, right, from which are
-derived:</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Wulik, <i>the good</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulaha, <i>better</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulisso, <i>fine, pretty</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulamoewagan, <i>truth</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulatenamuwi, <i>happy</i>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_386">386</span></span>
-<span class="trow">Wulatenamoagan, <i>happiness</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulapensowagan, <i>blessing</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulapan, <i>fine morning</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wuliechen, <i>it is good, or well done</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulittol, <i>they are good</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wuliken, <i>it grows well, thrives</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wuliechsin, <i>to speak well</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulelendam, <i>to rejoice</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulamallsin, <i>to be well, happy</i>.</span>
-
-<div style="text-indent: -1em">
-<span class="division"><span class="num">Wulandeu,<span class="i2">}</span></span>
-<span class="denom">Wuligischgu,}</span></span><i>a fine day</i>.</div>
-
-<span class="trow">Wulapeyu, <i>just, upright</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wuliwatam, <i>to be of good understanding</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wuliachpin, <i>to be in a good place</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulilissin, <i>to do well</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulilissu, <i>he is good</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulilissick, <i>behave ye well</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulinaxin, <i>to look well</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulamoeyu, <i>it is true</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulantowagan, <i>grace</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulatopnachgat,<a id="FNanchor_285" href="#Footnote_285" class="fnanchor">285</a> <i>a good word</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulatopnamik, <i>good tidings</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulatonamin,<a id="FNanchor_286" href="#Footnote_286" class="fnanchor">286</a> <i>to be happy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulissowagan, <i>prettiness, handsome appearance</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulihilleu, <i>it is good</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulineichquot, <i>it is well to be seen</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulelemileu, <i>it is wonderful</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulitehasu, <i>well cut or hewed</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wuliwiechinen, <i>to rest well</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Welsit Mannitto, <i>the Good Spirit</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">From Machtit, <i>bad</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Machtitsu, <i>nasty</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Machtesinsu, <i>ugly</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Machtschi <i>or</i> Matschi Mannitto <i>or</i> Machtando, <i>the evil Spirit, the Devil</i>, &amp;c.</span>
-</div>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_387">387</span></p>
-
-<p>You will naturally observe that the words derived from the
-root <i>Wulit</i>, imply in general the idea of what is good, handsome,
-proper, decent, just, well, and so pursuing the same general
-object to <i>happiness</i> and its derivatives; <i>happiness</i> being considered
-as a good and pleasant feeling, or situation of the mind,
-and a person who is <i>happy</i>, as being well. This does not, as
-you might suppose, make the language ambiguous; for the
-Indians speak and understand each other with great precision
-and clearness.</p>
-
-<p>I have yet to answer your question about the <i>f</i> and <i>w</i>. There
-are in the Delaware language no such consonants as the German
-<i>w</i>, or English <i>v</i>, <i>f</i>, or <i>r</i>. Where <i>w</i> in this language is placed
-before a vowel, it sounds the same as in English; before a consonant,
-it represents a <i>whistled</i> sound of which I cannot well
-give you an idea on paper, but which I shall easily make you
-understand by uttering it before you when we meet.</p>
-
-<p class="author"><i>I am, &amp;c.</i></p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XVI">LETTER XVI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span> 31st July, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I have received with the geatest pleasure your
-two favours of the 24th and 26th inst.; the last, particularly, has
-opened to me a very wide field for reflection. I am pursuing
-with ardour the study of the Indian languages (I mean of their
-grammatical forms) in all the authors that I can find that have
-treated of the subject, and am astonished at the great similarity
-which I find between those different idioms from Greenland even
-to Chili. They all appear to me to be compounded on a model
-peculiar to themselves, and of which I had not before an idea.
-Those personal forms of the verbs, for instance, which you mention
-in your letter of the 20th of June, I find generally existing
-in the American languages. The Spanish-Mexican Grammarians
-call them <i>transitions</i>, but they are not all equally happy in their
-modes of explaining their nature and use. The word “<i>transition</i>,”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_388">388</span>
-however, I think extremely well chosen, as it gives at once an
-idea of the passage of the verb from the pronoun that governs to
-that which is governed, from “I love” to “I love you.” The
-forms of the Indian verbs are so numerous, that a proper technical
-term is very much wanted to distinguish this particular class,
-and I adopt with pleasure this appropriate Spanish name, at least,
-until a better one can be found.</p>
-
-<p>I am sufficiently satisfied from the examples in your last letter
-that the Indians have in their languages “roots,” or radical
-words from which many others are derived; indeed, I never
-doubted it before, and only meant to shew you by the instances
-of Father Sagard, and Lord Monboddo, what false ideas the
-Europeans have conceived on this subject. The various meanings
-of the word “<i>wulit</i>” and its derivatives, obtained, as you
-have shewn, by easy or natural transitions from one kindred
-idea to another, are nothing new in language. The Greek has
-the word “<i>kalos</i>,” which in its various meanings is very analogous
-to “<i>wulit</i>.” Instances of similar “transitions” from different
-European idioms might be cited without end. There is one
-in the French which strikes me at this moment with peculiar
-force. In that language, an honest man is “<i>just</i>” in his dealings
-and a judge in his judgments; but a pair of shoes is so likewise,
-when made exactly to fit the foot, and by a natural transition,
-when the shoes are too tight, they are said to be too <i>just</i> (trop
-justes). A foreigner in France is reported to have said to his
-shoemaker, complaining of the tightness of a pair of new made
-shoes: “<i>Monsieur, ces souliers sont trop &eacute;quitables</i>.” I remember
-also an English song, beginning with the words “<i>Just like love</i>,”
-where you see the word “<i>just</i>” is employed without at all implying
-the idea of <i>equity</i> or <i>justice</i>. But justice is strict, exact,
-correct, precise, and therefore the word <i>just</i> is employed for the
-purpose of expressing these and other ideas connected with that
-to which it was first applied.</p>
-
-<p>I have made these trite observations, because I am well aware
-that many <i>a priori</i> reasoners would not fail to find in so many
-words of different meanings derived from the same root, a proof of
-the poverty of the Indian languages. They would say that they
-are poor, because they have but few radical words, a conclusion
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_389">389</span>
-which they would infallibly make without taking the pains of
-ascertaining the fact. If they were told that the Greek (the
-copiousness of which is universally acknowledged) has itself but
-a comparatively small number of roots, they would not be at a
-loss to find some other reason in support of their pre-conceived
-opinion. I have read somewhere (I cannot recollect in what
-book), that there was not a greater proof of the barbarism of the
-Indian languages, than the comprehensiveness of their locutions.
-The author reasoned thus: Analysis, he said, is the most difficult
-operation of the human mind; it is the last which man
-learns to perform. Savage nations, therefore, express many
-ideas in a single word, because they have not yet acquired the
-necessary skill to separate them from each other by the process
-of analysis, and to express them simply.</p>
-
-<p>If this position were true, it would follow that all the languages
-of savage nations have been in the origin formed on the
-same model with those of the American Indians, and that simple
-forms have been gradually introduced into them by the progress
-of civilisation. But if we take the trouble of enquiring into facts,
-they will by no means lead us to this conclusion. It is not many
-centuries since the Scandinavian languages of the North of
-Europe were spoken by barbarous and savage nations, but we
-do not find that in ancient times they were more comprehensive
-in their grammatical forms than they are at present, when certainly
-they are the least so, perhaps, of any of the European
-idioms; on the other hand, the Latin and Greek were sufficiently
-so by means of the various moods and tenses of their verbs, all
-expressed in one single word, without the use of auxiliaries; and
-yet these two nations had attained a very high degree, at least,
-of civilisation. I do not, therefore, see as yet, that there is a
-necessary connexion between the greater or lesser degree of
-civilisation of a people, and the organisation of their language.
-These general conclusions from insulated facts ought constantly
-to be guarded against; they are the most fruitful sources of
-error in the moral as well as in the natural sciences. Facts
-ought to be collected and observations multiplied long before
-we venture to indulge in theoretical inferences; for unobserved
-facts seem to lie in ambush, to start up at once in the face of finespun
-theories, and put philosophers in the wrong.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_390">390</span></p>
-
-<p>I wish very much that some able linguist would undertake to
-make a good classification of the different languages of the world
-(as far as they are known) in respect to their grammatical forms.
-It was once attempted in the French Encyclopedia, but without
-success, because the author had only in view the Latin and Greek,
-and those of the modern languages which he was acquainted
-with. His division, if I remember right, was formed between
-those idioms in which inversions are allowed, and those in which
-they are not. Of course, it was the Latin and Greek on the one
-side, and the French, Italian, &amp;c., on the other. This meagre
-classification has not been generally adopted, nor does it, in my
-opinion, deserve to be. A greater range of observation ought
-to be taken.</p>
-
-<p>I do not pretend to possess talents adequate to carrying into
-execution the plan which I here suggest; but I beg you will
-permit me to draw a brief sketch of what I have in view.</p>
-
-<p>I observe, in the first place, in the eastern parts of Asia, a class
-of languages formed on the same model, of which I take that
-which is <i>spoken</i> in the empire of China, as it stood before its conquest
-by the Tartars, to be the type. In this language, there is
-but a very small number of words, all monosyllables. As far as
-I am able to judge from the excellent grammars of this idiom of
-which we are in possession, the words convey to the mind only
-the principal or leading ideas of the discourse, unconnected with
-many of those accessory ideas that are so necessary to give precision
-to language, and the hearer is left to apply and arrange
-the whole together as well as he can. It has but few or no
-grammatical forms, and is very deficient in what we call the connecting
-parts of speech. Hence it is said that the words spoken
-are not immediately understood by those to whom they are addressed,
-and that auxiliary modes of explanation, others than
-oral communication, are sometimes resorted to, when ambiguities
-occur. As I am no Sinologist, I will not undertake to say that
-the description which I have attempted to give of this language,
-from the mere reading of grammars and dictionaries, is very
-accurate, but I venture to assert that it differs so much from all
-others that we know, that with its kindred idioms, it deserves to
-form a <i>genus</i> in a general classification of the various modes of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_391">391</span>
-speech. From its great deficiency of grammatical forms, I would
-give to this genus the name <i>asyntactic</i>.</p>
-
-<p>My second class of languages would consist of those which
-possess, indeed, grammatical forms, sufficient to express and connect
-together every idea to be communicated by means of speech,
-but in which those forms are so organized, that almost every distinct
-idea has a single word to convey or express it. Such are
-the Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, and even the German and English.
-Those forms of the nouns and verbs which are generally
-called declensions and conjugations, are in these languages the
-result of an analytical process of the mind, which has given to
-every single idea, and sometimes to a shade of an idea, a single
-word to express it. Thus, when we say “<i>of the man</i>,” here are
-three ideas, which, in the Latin, are expressed by one single
-word “<i>hominis</i>.” In the locution “<i>I will not</i>,” or “<i>I am not willing</i>,”
-and in the verbal form “<i>I will go</i>,” three or four ideas are
-separately expressed in English, which, in Latin, are conveyed
-together by single words “<i>nolo</i>,” “<i>ibo</i>.” From this peculiar
-quality of sufficiently, yet separately, expressing all the necessary
-ideas, I would denominate this class of languages <i>analytical</i>,
-or <i>analytic</i>.</p>
-
-<p>The third class would, of course, be that in which the principal
-parts of speech are formed by a synthetical operation of the
-mind, and in which several ideas are frequently expressed by one
-word. Such are what are called the Oriental languages, with the
-Latin, Greek, Slavonic, and others of the same description.
-These I would call <i>synthetic</i>.</p>
-
-<p>The French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, with their various
-dialects, in which conquest has in a great degree intermingled
-the modes of speech of the second and third class, would together
-form a fourth, which I would call “<i>mixed</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>In these various classes I have not found a place for the Indian
-languages, which richly deserve to form one by themselves.
-They are “<i>synthetic</i>” in their forms, but to such a degree as is
-not equalled by any of the idioms which I have so denominated,
-and which are only such in comparison with others where <i>analytic</i>
-forms prevail. That they deserve to make a class by themselves
-cannot be doubted. They are the very opposite of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_392">392</span>
-Chinese, of all languages the poorest in words, as well as in
-grammatical forms, while these are the richest in both. In fact,
-a great variety of forms, necessarily implies a great multiplicity
-of words; I mean, complex forms, like those of the Indians;
-compound words in which many ideas are included together, and
-are made to strike the mind in various ways by the simple addition
-or subtraction of a letter or syllable. In the Chinese
-much is understood or guessed at, little is expressed; in the
-Indian, on the contrary, the mind is awakened to each idea meant
-to be conveyed, by some one or other of the component parts
-of the word spoken. These two languages, therefore, as far as
-relates to their organisation, stand in direct opposition to each
-other; they are the top and bottom of the idiomatic scale, and
-as I have given to the Chinese, and its kindred dialects, the name
-of <i>asyntactic</i>, the opposite name, <i>syntactic</i>, appears to me that
-which is best suited to the languages of the American Indians.
-I find that instead of asking you questions, as I ought to do, I
-am wandering again in the field of metaphysical disquisitions.
-I shall try to be more careful in my next letter.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XVII">LETTER XVII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">TO THE SAME.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 3d August, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I now return to my proper station of a scholar
-asking questions of his master. In your letter of the 24th ult.,
-you have fully satisfied me that the Indians have a great number
-of words derived from “<i>roots</i>,” much in the same manner as in
-the languages of Europe, but you have said at the same time
-“that the manner in which the Indians in general form their
-words, is different from that of the Europeans.” I am very
-anxious to have this manner<a id="FNanchor_287" href="#Footnote_287" class="fnanchor">287</a> explained, and I shall be very much
-obliged to you for all the information that you can give me on
-the subject.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_393">393</span></p>
-
-<p>I have told you already that I thought I had reason to believe
-that all the American languages were formed on the same general
-plan. If I am correct in my supposition, I think I have found
-in the language of Greenland, the identical manner of compounding
-words which I am now calling upon you to explain. You
-will tell me whether I have judged right, and you will at once
-destroy or confirm my favourite hypothesis. According to the
-venerable Egede, words are formed in the Greenland language
-by taking and joining together a part of each of the radical words,
-the ideas of which are to be combined together in one compound
-locution. One or more syllables of each simple word are generally
-chosen for that purpose and combined together, often leaving
-out the harsh consonants for the sake of euphony. Thus
-from “<i>agglekpok</i>,” he writes, “<i>pekipok</i>,” he mends or does better,
-and “<i>pinniarpok</i>,” he endeavours, is formed the compound word
-“<i>agglekiniaret</i>,” which means, “endeavour to write better.”
-The first syllable “<i>agl</i>,” is taken from “agl<i>ekpok</i>,” the second
-“<i>ek</i>” from the same word, and also from the first syllable of
-“<i>pekipok</i>,” leaving out the <i>p</i> to avoid harshness, and the third
-“<i>inniar</i>” from “Pinniar<i>pok</i>,” also leaving out the initial consonant
-for the same reason. It seems to me that I find something
-like it in the Delaware language. According to Zeisberger,
-<i>wet</i>ooch<i>wink</i> signifies “father.” Now taking the second syllable
-<i>ooch</i>, and placing <i>n</i> before it, you have “<i>nooch</i>,” my father. To
-be sure, it is not the first syllable that is borrowed, as in the
-above example from the Greenlandish, but the principle appears,
-nevertheless, to be the same in both languages.</p>
-
-<p>On the subject of this word “<i>father</i>” I observe a strange contradiction
-between two eminent writers on Indian languages,
-evidently derived from the stock of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware.
-One of them, Roger Williams, in his Key to the Language
-of the New England Indians, says “<i>osh</i>” (meaning probably <i>och</i>
-or <i>ooch</i>, as the English cannot pronounce the guttural <i>ch</i>) father;
-“<i>nosh</i>” my father; “<i>kosh</i>” thy father, &amp;c. On the other hand,
-the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, in his observations on the language
-of the <i>Muhhekanew</i> (Mohican) Indians, speaks as follows: “A
-considerable part of the appellations is never used without a
-pronoun affixed. The Mohegans say, my father, ‘<i>nogh</i>’ (again
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_394">394</span>
-<i>noch</i> or <i>nooch</i>) thy father ‘<i>kogh</i>,’ &amp;c., but they cannot say absolutely
-'<i>father</i>.’ There is no such word in their language. If
-you were to say ‘<i>ogh</i>,’ you would make a Mohegan both stare
-and smile.” (page 13.)</p>
-
-<p>Which of these two professors is right? It seems that either
-Rogers invented the word <i>osh</i> for “father,” from analogy, or
-that Edwards is not correct when he says that <i>ogh</i> or <i>ooch</i>
-singly, mean nothing in the Indian language. Is he not mistaken
-when he says that there is no word whatever answering
-to “father,” or “the father,” in an abstract sense; and if an Indian
-would stare and smile when a white man says <i>ooch</i>, would
-he smile in the same manner if he said <i>wetoochwink</i>? Is it possible
-to suppose that this respectable author had only a partial
-knowledge of the language on which he wrote, and that he was
-not acquainted with the radical word from which <i>nooch</i> and <i>kooch</i>
-had been formed? Or is there no such radical word, and has
-Zeisberger himself committed a mistake?</p>
-
-<p>I beg leave to submit to you also another observation that I
-have made. It appears from the work of the late Dr. Barton,
-who quotes your authority for it, that the name of the <i>Lenni Lenape</i>,
-means “<i>the original people</i>,” and that “<i>Lenno</i>” in the Delaware
-language signifies “man,” in the general sense, (<i>Mensch</i>.)
-Now, it appears that in the language of the <i>Micmacs</i> (a tribe of
-Nova Scotia,) they call an Indian “<i>Illenoh</i>,” and in that of the
-Canadian mountaineers (whom some believe to be the Algonkins
-proper) they say “<i>Illenou</i>.” (Mass. Histor. Coll. for the
-year 1799, pp. 18, 19.) I am apt to believe that those names
-are the same with “<i>Lenno</i>,” and that it is from them that the
-French have formed the name “<i>Illinois</i>,” which extends even
-beyond the Mississippi. In the speech of the Indian chief <i>Garangula</i>,
-to the Governor of Canada, related by La Hontan, the
-warrior says: “You must know, Onontio, that we have robbed
-no Frenchmen, but those who supplied the ‘<i>Illinois</i>,’ and the
-'<i>Oumamis</i>,’ our enemies, with powder and ball.” I am inclined
-to believe that Garangula when he spoke of the <i>Illinois</i> meant
-the <i>Lenni Lenape</i>, and by the name of <i>Oumamis</i>, intended to describe
-their chief tribe, the <i>Unamis</i>. Of this, however, I leave
-you to judge. But I strongly suspect that “<i>Lenno</i>,” “<i>Lenni</i>,” “<i>Illenoh</i>,”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_395">395</span>
-“<i>Illenou</i>,” “<i>Illinois</i>,” are the same name, and all apply to
-that great nation whom the Baron La Hontan takes to be the
-<i>Algonkins</i>, who, it would seem, are only called so by way of discrimination,
-but consider themselves as a branch of the great
-family of the “<i>Illenou</i>.” If I am correct in this, how do you
-make out that <i>Lenni Lenape</i> means “<i>original people</i>”?</p>
-
-<p>The Greenlanders, according to Egede, call themselves <i>Innuit</i>,
-which in their language also signifies <i>men</i>. It appears to me to
-be very much akin to <i>Illenoh</i>, <i>Illeun</i>. Could the Greenlanders
-be in any way connected with the <i>Lenni Lenape</i>?</p>
-
-<p>Pray tell me from what languages are derived the words
-<i>squaw</i>, <i>sachem</i>, <i>tomahawk</i>, <i>calumet</i>, <i>wampum</i>, <i>papoose</i>, which are
-so much in use among us? Are they of the Delaware or the
-Iroquois stock?</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XVIII">LETTER XVIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span> 12th August, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I have duly received your two letters of the 31st
-of July and 3d of August last. I am much pleased with your
-metaphysical disquisitions, as you call them, and I beg you will
-indulge in them with perfect freedom, whenever you shall feel
-so disposed. I agree with you that a proper classification of
-human languages would be a very desirable object; but I fear
-the task is too hard ever to be accomplished with the limited
-knowledge of man. There are, no doubt, many varieties in language
-yet to be discovered.</p>
-
-<p>As you wish to be acquainted with the manner in which our
-North American Indians compound their words, I shall endeavour
-to satisfy you as well as I am able. The process is much
-the same as that which Egede has described with respect to the
-Greenland language, and this strongly corroborates your opinion
-respecting the similarity of forms of at least of those of North
-America. In the Delaware and other languages that I am acquainted
-with, parts or parcels of different words, sometimes a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_396">396</span>
-single sound or letter, are compounded together, in an artificial
-manner, so as to avoid the meeting of harsh or disagreeable
-sounds, and make the whole word fall in a pleasant manner
-upon the ear. You will easily conceive that words may thus
-be compounded and multiplied without end, and hence the peculiar
-richness of the American languages. Of this I can give you
-numerous examples. In the first place, the word “<i>nadholincen</i>.”
-It is a simple short word, but means a great deal. The ideas
-that are conveyed by it are these: “Come with the canoe and
-take us across the river or stream.” Its component parts are as
-follows: The first syllable “<i>nad</i>” is derived from the verb “<i>naten</i>,”
-to fetch; the second, “<i>hol</i>,” from “<i>amochol</i>,” a canoe or
-boat; “<i>ineen</i>” is the verbal termination for “<i>us</i>,” as in <i>milineen</i>,
-“give us;”&mdash;the simple ideas, therefore, contained in this word,
-are “<i>fetch canoe us</i>,” but in its usual and common acceptation it
-means, “come and fetch us across the river with a canoe.” I
-need not say that this verb is conjugated through all its moods
-and tenses. <i>Nadholawall</i> is the form of the third person of the
-singular of the indicative present, and means “He is fetched
-over the river with a canoe,” or simply, “He is fetched over
-the river.”</p>
-
-<p>From <i>wunipach</i>, a leaf, <i>nach</i>, a hand, and <i>quim</i>, a nut growing
-on a tree (for there is a peculiar word to express nuts of this
-description and distinguish them from other nuts) is formed
-<i>wunachquim</i>, an acorn, and the ideas which by this name are
-intended to be conveyed are these: “The nut of the tree the
-leaves of which resemble a hand, or have upon them the form
-of a hand.” If you will take the trouble to examine the leaves
-of an oak tree, you will find on them the form of a hand with
-outspread fingers. On the same principle are formed</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">M’sim, <i>hickory nut</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ptucquim, <i>walnut</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wapim, <i>chestnut</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Schauwemin, <i>beech nut</i>, and many others.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>The tree which we call “<i>Spanish oak</i>,” remarkable for the
-largeness of its leaves, they call “<i>Amanganaschquiminschi</i>,” “the
-tree which has the largest leaves shaped like a hand.” If I were
-to imitate the composition of this word in English and apply it
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_397">397</span>
-to our language, I would say <i>Largehandleafnuttree</i>, and softening
-the sounds after the Indian manner, it would perhaps make
-<i>Larjandliffentree</i>, or <i>Larjandlennuttree</i>, or something like it. Of
-course, in framing the word, an English ear should be consulted.
-The last syllable of that which I have last cited, is not taken
-from the proper name for <i>tree</i>, which is <i>hittuck</i>; but from “<i>achpansi</i>,”<a id="FNanchor_288" href="#Footnote_288" class="fnanchor">288</a>
-which means the “stock, trunk or body of a tree” (in
-German “<i>der stamm</i>”). The last syllable of this word, “<i>si</i>,” is
-in its compound converted into <i>schi</i>, probably for the sake of
-euphony, of which an Indian ear in this case is the best judge.</p>
-
-<p>Again, “<i>nanayunges</i>,” in Delaware means “a horse.” It is
-formed from <i>awesis</i>, a beast, from which the last syllable <i>es</i> is
-taken, and <i>nayundam</i>, to carry a burden on the back or shoulders;
-for when something is carried in the hands or arms, the proper
-verb is “<i>gelenummen</i>.” The word which signifies “horse,” therefore,
-literally means, “the beast which carries on its back,” or
-in other words, “a beast of burden.” Were asses or camels
-known to the Indians, distinctive appellations for them would
-soon and easily be formed.</p>
-
-<p>Thus much for the names of <i>natural substances</i>, and words
-which relate to visible objects. Let us now turn to the expression
-of ideas which affect the moral sense.</p>
-
-<p>You will remember that I have told you before that “<i>wulik</i>”
-or “<i>wulit</i>” signifies “good,” and in the various derivations which
-flow from it means almost every thing that is good, just, proper,
-decent, pleasing or agreeable. When an Indian wishes to express
-that he is pleased with something that you have told him,
-he will say in his metaphorical language: “You have spoken
-<i>good</i> words.” Now let us see how this compound idea is expressed.
-“<i>Kolamoe</i>” is one of the forms of the past tense of a
-verb which means “to speak the truth,” and properly translated
-signifies “thou hast spoken the truth,” or “thou hast spoken
-good words.” <i>K</i>, from <i>ki</i>, expresses the second person, “<i>ola</i>”
-is derived from <i>wulit</i> and conveys the idea of <i>good</i>; the rest of
-the word implies the action of speaking.</p>
-
-<p>In the third person, “<i>wulamoe</i>” means “he has spoken the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_398">398</span>
-truth;” from which is formed the noun substantive <i>wulamoewagan</i>,
-“<i>the</i> truth:” <i>wagan</i> or <i>woagan</i> (as our German Missionaries
-sometimes write it to express the sound of the English <i>w</i>) being
-a termination which answers to that of “<i>ness</i>” in English, and
-“<i>heit</i>” or “<i>keit</i>” in German. Pursuing further the same chain
-of ideas, <i>wulistamoewagan</i> or <i>wulamhittamoewagan</i>, means “faith”
-or “belief,” the belief of what a man has seen or heard; for <i>glistam</i>
-is a verb which signifies “to hear, hearken, listen;” hence
-“<i>wulista</i>,” believe it, <i>wulistam</i>, he believes; <i>wulisto</i>, believe ye,
-&amp;c. The Indians say <i>klistawi!</i> hear me! <i>nolsittammen</i>, I believe
-it; <i>ammen</i> or <i>tammen</i> abridged from <i>hittammen</i>, where they
-are employed as terminations, mean “to do, perform, adopt.”
-See what a number of ideas are connected together in single
-words, and with what regularity they are compounded, with
-proper terminations indicating the part of speech, form, mood,
-tense, number and person, that they respectively belong to!
-The various shades of thought that those different modes of
-speech discriminate are almost innumerable; for instance, <i>wulistammen</i>
-means simply to believe; <i>wulamsittammen</i> to believe
-with full conviction. I would never have done, if I were to point
-out to you all the derivatives from this source, or connected with
-the idea of <i>belief</i>, which word I bring forward merely by way of
-example, there being many others equally fruitful. There is
-<i>wulamoinaquot</i>, credible, worthy of belief (sometimes used as an
-impersonal verb, “it is credible, it deserves to be believed”);
-<i>welsittawot</i>, a believer; <i>welsittank</i>, a believer in the religious
-sense, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>The syllable <i>pal</i> or <i>pel</i> prefixed to some words, implies denial,
-and also frequently denotes wrong and is taken in a bad sense.
-Hence <i>palsittamoewagan</i>, unbelief; <i>palsittammen</i>, to disbelieve;
-<i>pelsittank</i>, an unbeliever; <i>pelsittangik</i>, unbelievers. Again, <i>palliwi</i>,
-otherwise; <i>palliton</i>, to spoil, to do something wrong; <i>palhiken</i>,
-to make a bad shot, to miss the mark in shooting; <i>palhitechen</i>,
-to aim a stroke and miss it; <i>pallahammen</i>, to miss in
-shooting at <i>game</i>; <i>pallilissin</i>, to do something amiss or wrong.</p>
-
-<p>M. de Volney has very justly observed on the Miami language,
-which is a dialect of the Lenape, that <i>m</i> at the beginning
-of a word implies in general something bad or ugly. It is certainly
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_399">399</span>
-so in the Delaware, though not without exceptions, for
-<i>mannitto</i>, a spirit, by which name God himself, the great and
-good Spirit is called, begins with that ill-omened letter. Nevertheless
-the words “<i>machit</i>,” bad, and “<i>medhick</i>,” evil, have produced
-many derivatives, or words beginning with the syllables
-<i>med</i>, <i>mach</i>, <i>mat</i>, <i>mui</i>, <i>me</i>, <i>mas</i>, &amp;c., all of which imply something
-bad, and are taken in a bad sense. For instance, <i>mekih</i> and
-<i>melih</i>, corruption; <i>machtando</i>, the devil; <i>machtageen</i>, to fight,
-kill; <i>machtapan</i>, a bad, unpleasant morning; <i>machtapeek</i>, bad
-time, time of war; <i>machtonquam</i>, to have a bad dream, &amp;c. I
-mention this merely to do justice to the sagacity of M. Volney,
-whose few observations upon the Indians induce us to regret that
-he was not in a situation to make more.</p>
-
-<p>I begin to feel fatigued, and therefore shall take leave of you
-for the present and reserve the remainder of my answer for my
-next letter.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XIX">LETTER XIX.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM THE SAME.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 15th August, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I sit down to conclude my answer to your letter
-of the 3d inst.</p>
-
-<p>Before I begin this task, let me give you some examples that
-now occur to me to shew the regularity of the formation of Indian
-words.</p>
-
-<p>
-1. The names of reptiles generally end in <i>gook</i> or <i>gookses</i>.</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Achgook, <i>a snake</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Suckachgook, <i>a black snake</i> (from <i>suck</i> or <i>suckeu</i>, black.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Mamalachgook, <i>spotted snake</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Asgaskachgook, <i>green snake</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>2. The names of fishes in <i>meek</i> (<i>Nam&aelig;s</i>, a fish.)</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Maschilameek, <i>a trout</i> (spotted fish.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Wisameek, <i>cat-fish</i> (the fat fish.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Suckameek, <i>black fish</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Lennameek, <i>chub fish</i>.</span>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_400">400</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>3. The names of other animals, have in the same manner
-regular terminations, <i>ap</i>, or <i>ape</i>, for walking in an erect posture;
-hence <i>lenape</i>, man; <i>chum</i>, for four-legged animals, and <i>wehelleu</i>,
-for the winged tribes. I need not swell this letter with examples,
-which would add nothing to your knowledge of the principle
-which I have sufficiently explained.</p>
-
-<p>I now proceed to answer your letter.</p>
-
-<p>Notwithstanding Mr. Edwards’s observation (for whom I feel
-the highest respect), I cannot help being of opinion, that the
-monosyllable <i>ooch</i>, is the proper word for <i>father</i>, abstractedly
-considered, and that it is as proper to say <i>ooch</i>, father, and <i>nooch</i>,
-my father, as <i>dallemons</i>, beast, and <i>n’dallemons</i>, my beast; or
-<i>nitschan</i>, child, or a child, and <i>n’nitschan</i>, my child. It is certain,
-however, that there are few occasions for using these words in
-their abstract sense, as there are so many ways of associating
-them with other ideas. <i>Wetoochwink</i> and <i>wetochemuxit</i> both
-mean “the father,” in a more definite sense, and <i>wetochemelenk</i>
-is used in the vocative sense, and means “thou our father.” I
-once heard Captain Pipe, a celebrated Indian chief, address the
-British commandant at Detroit, and he said <i>nooch!</i> my father!</p>
-
-<p>The shades of difference between these several expressions are
-so nice and delicate, that I feel great difficulty in endeavouring
-to explain them. <i>Wetochemuxit</i>, I conceive to be more properly
-applicable to the heavenly Father, than to an earthly one. It
-implies an idea of power and authority over his children, superior
-to that of mere procreation, therefore I think it fittest to be used
-in prayer and worship. <i>Wetoochwink</i>, on the contrary, by the
-syllable <i>we</i> or <i>wet</i>, prefixed to it, implies progeny and ownership
-over it;<a id="FNanchor_289" href="#Footnote_289" class="fnanchor">289</a> and <i>wink</i> or <i>ink</i> conveys the idea of the actual existence
-of that progeny. Yet Mr. Zeisberger, who well understood
-the language, has used <i>wetoochwink</i> in the spiritual sense. Thus,
-in his Delaware Hymn Book,<a id="FNanchor_290" href="#Footnote_290" class="fnanchor">290</a> you find, page 15, <i>Pennamook
-Wetoochwink milquenk!</i> which is in English “Behold what the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_401">401</span>
-Father has given us!” Again, in the same book, page 32, we
-read, “<i>Hallewiwi wetochemuxit</i>;” which means “The Father of
-Eternity.” Upon the whole I believe that <i>ooch</i> is a proper
-word for “father” or “a father,” but <i>wetoochwink</i> may also be
-used in the same sense, notwithstanding its more definite general
-acceptation. There is little occasion, however, to use either
-with this abstract indefinite meaning.</p>
-
-<p>I agree with you that <i>lenni</i>, <i>lenno</i>, <i>illenoh</i>, <i>illenou</i>, <i>illinois</i>, appear
-to have all the same derivation, and to be connected with the
-idea of <i>man</i>, <i>nation</i>, or <i>people</i>. <i>Lenno</i>, in the Delaware language,
-signifies man, and so does <i>Lenape</i>, in a more extended sense.
-In the name of the Lenni <i>Lenape</i>, it signifies <i>people</i>; but the
-word <i>lenni</i>, which precedes it, has a different signification and
-means <i>original</i>, and sometimes <i>common</i>, <i>plain</i>, <i>pure</i>, <i>unmixed</i>.
-Under this general description the Indians comprehend all that
-they believe to have been first created in the origin of things.
-To all such things they prefix the word <i>lenni</i>; as, for instance,
-when they speak of <i>high</i> lands, they say <i>lenni hacki</i> (original
-lands), but they do not apply the same epithet to <i>low</i> lands,
-which being generally formed by the overflowing or washing of
-rivers, cannot, therefore, be called <i>original</i>. Trees which grow
-on high lands are also called <i>lenni hittuck</i>, original trees. In the
-same manner they designate Indian corn, pumpkins, squashes,
-beans, tobacco, &amp;c., all which they think were given by the
-Great Spirit for their use, <i>from the beginning</i>. Thus, they call
-Indian corn<a id="FNanchor_291" href="#Footnote_291" class="fnanchor">291</a> <i>lenchasqueem</i>, from <i>lenni</i> and <i>chasqueem</i>; beans,
-<i>lenalachksital</i>, from <i>lenni</i> and <i>malachksital</i>; tobacco, <i>lenkschatey</i>,
-from <i>lenni</i> and <i>kschatey</i>; which is the same as if they said <i>original
-corn</i>, <i>original beans</i>, <i>original tobacco</i>. They call the linden tree
-<i>lennikby</i>, from <i>lenni</i> and <i>wikby</i>; the last word by itself meaning
-“the tree whose bark peels freely,” as the bark of that tree
-peels off easily all the year round. This bark is made use of as a
-rope for tying and also for building their huts, the roof and sides
-of which are made of it. A house thus built is called <i>lennikgawon</i>,
-“original house or hut,” from <i>lennikby</i>, original, or linden tree,
-<i>wikheen</i>, to build, and <i>jagawon</i> or <i>yagawon</i>, a house with a flat
-roof. It is as if they said “a house built of <i>original</i> materials.”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_402">402</span></p>
-
-<p><i>Lennasqual</i>, in the Minsi dialect, means a kind of grass which
-is supposed to have grown on the land from the beginning.
-English grasses, as timothy, &amp;c., they call <i>schwannockasquall</i>,
-or white men’s grass. The chub fish they call <i>lennameek</i>, because,
-say they, this fish is in all fresh water or streams, whereas
-other fish are confined to certain particular waters or climates.</p>
-
-<p>They also say <i>lenni m’bi</i>, “pure water;” <i>leneyachkhican</i>, a
-fowling piece, as distinguished from a rifle, because it was the
-<i>first</i> fire-arm they ever saw; a rifle they call <i>tetupalachgat</i>. They
-say, <i>lenachsinnall</i>, “common stones,” because stones are found
-every where, <i>lenachpoan</i>, “common bread,” (<i>achpoan</i> means
-“bread”); <i>lenachgook</i>, a common snake, such as is seen every
-where (from <i>achgook</i>, a snake); <i>lenchum</i>, the original, common
-dog, not one of the species brought into the country by the
-white people. I think I have sufficiently explained the name
-“<i>Lenni Lenape</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>As I do not know the Greenland language, I cannot say how
-far the word “<i>innuit</i>” is connected with <i>lenni</i> or <i>lenno</i>, or any
-of the words or names derived from them.</p>
-
-<p>The words <i>squaw</i>, <i>sachem</i>, <i>tomahawk</i>, and <i>wigwam</i>, are words
-of Delaware stock, somewhat corrupted by the English. <i>Ochqueu</i>,
-woman; <i>sakima</i>, chief; <i>tamahican</i>, hatchet;<a id="FNanchor_292" href="#Footnote_292" class="fnanchor">292</a> <i>wickwam</i> (both
-syllables long, as in English <i>weekwawm</i>), a house. Hence, <i>nik</i>,
-my house; <i>kik</i>, thy house; <i>wikit</i>, his house; <i>wikichtit</i>, their
-houses; <i>wikia</i>, at my house; <i>wiquahemink</i>, in the house; again,
-<i>wickheen</i>, to build a house; <i>wikhitschik</i>, the builders of a house;
-<i>wikheu</i>, he is building a house; <i>wikhetamok</i>, let us build a
-house; <i>wikheek</i> (imperative), build a house; <i>wikhattoak</i>, they
-are building (a house or houses).</p>
-
-<p><i>Calumet</i> is not an Indian word; M. Volney thinks it is an
-English word for a tobacco pipe; it is certainly not proper English,
-but I have always thought that it was first used by the
-English or the French. The Delaware for a tobacco pipe is
-<i>Poakan</i> (two syllables).</p>
-
-<p><i>Wampum</i> is an Iroquois word, and means a marine shell.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_403">403</span></p>
-
-<p><i>Papoose</i>, I do not know; it is not a word of the Delaware
-language, yet it is possible that it may be used by some Indian
-nations, from whom we may have borrowed it. I have been
-told that the Mahicanni of New England made use of this word
-for a <i>child</i>.      I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XX">LETTER XX.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 21st August, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I have read with the greatest pleasure your two interesting
-letters of the 12th and 15th. I need not tell you how
-pleased the Historical Committee are with your correspondence,
-which is laid before them from time to time. I am instructed to do
-all in my power to induce you to persevere in giving to your country
-the so much wanted information concerning the Indians and their
-languages. The Committee are convinced that the first duty
-of an American Scientific Association is to occupy themselves
-with the objects that relate to our own country. It is on these
-subjects that the world has a right to expect instruction from us.</p>
-
-<p>I am busily employed in studying and translating the excellent
-Delaware Grammar of Mr. Zeisberger; I hope the Historical
-Committee will publish it in due time. The more I become
-acquainted with this extraordinary language, the more I am delighted
-with its copiousness and with the beauty of its forms.
-Those which the Hispano-Mexican Grammarians call <i>transitions</i>
-are really admirable. If this language was cultivated and polished
-as those of Europe have been, and if the Delawares had
-a Homer or Virgil among them, it is impossible to say with such
-an instrument how far the art could be carried. The Greek is
-admired for its compounds; but what are they to those of the
-Indians? How many ideas they can combine and express together
-in one single locution, and that too by a regular series
-of grammatical forms, by innumerably varied inflexions of the
-same radical word, with the help of pronominal affixes! All
-this, my dear sir, is combined with the most exquisite skill, in
-a perfectly regular order and method, and with fewer exceptions
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_404">404</span>
-or anomalies than I have found in any other language. This is
-what really astonishes me, and it is with the greatest difficulty
-that I can guard myself against enthusiastic feelings. The verb,
-among the Indians, is truly the <i>word</i> by way of excellence. It
-combines itself with the pronoun, with the adjective, with the
-adverb; in short, with almost every part of speech. There are
-forms both positive and negative which include the two pronouns,
-the governing and the governed; <i>ktahoatell</i>,<a id="FNanchor_293" href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">293</a> “I love
-thee;” <i>ktahoalowi</i>, “I do not love thee.” The adverb “not,”
-is comprised both actively and passively in the negative forms,
-<i>n’dahoalawi</i>, “I do not love;” <i>n’dahoalgussiwi</i>, “I am not
-loved;” and other adverbs are combined in a similar manner.
-From <i>schingi</i>, “unwillingly,” is formed <i>schingattam</i>, “to be unwilling,”
-<i>schingoochwen</i>, “to go somewhere unwillingly,” <i>schingimikemossin</i>,
-“to work unwillingly;” from <i>wingi</i>, “willingly,”
-we have <i>wingsittam</i>, “to hear willingly,” <i>wingachpin</i>, “to be
-willingly somewhere,” <i>wingilauchsin</i>, “to live willingly in a particular
-manner;” from the adverb <i>gunich</i>,<a id="FNanchor_294" href="#Footnote_294" class="fnanchor">294</a> “long,” comes <i>gunelendam</i>,
-“to think one takes long to do something;” <i>gunagen</i>,
-“to stay out long;” and so are formed all the rest of the numerous
-class of <i>adverbial verbs</i>. The <i>adjective verbs</i> are produced
-in the same way, by a combination of adjective nouns with the
-verbal form. Does <i>guneu</i> mean “long” in the adjective sense,
-you have <i>guneep</i>, it was long, <i>guneuchtschi</i>, it will be long, &amp;c.;
-from <i>kschiechek</i>, “clean,” is formed <i>kschiecheep</i>, “it was clean;”
-from <i>machkeu</i>, “red,” <i>machkeep</i>, “it was red;” and so on through
-the whole class of words. Prepositions are combined in the
-same manner, but that is common also to other languages.
-What extent and variety displays itself in those Indian verbs,
-and what language, in this respect, can be compared to our savage
-idioms?</p>
-
-<p>Nor are the participles less rich or less copious. Every verb
-has a long series of participles, which when necessary can be
-declined and used as adjectives. Let me be permitted to instance
-a few from the causative verb <i>wulamalessohen</i>, “to make
-happy.” I take them from Zeisberger.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_405">405</span></p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Wulamalessohaluwed, <i>he who makes happy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulamalessohalid, <i>he who makes me happy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulamalessohalquon, <i>he who makes thee happy</i>,</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulamalessohalat, <i>he who makes him happy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulamalessohalquenk, <i>he who makes us happy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulamalessohalqueek, <i>he who makes you happy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulamalessohalquichtit, <i>he who makes them happy</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Now comes another participial-pronominal-vocative form;
-which may in the same manner be conjugated through all the
-<i>objective</i> persons. <i>Wulamalessohalian!</i> <span class="small">THOU WHO MAKEST ME
-HAPPY!</span></p>
-
-<p>I will not proceed further; but permit me to ask you, my dear
-sir, what would Tibullus or Sappho have given to have had at
-their command a word at once so tender and so expressive?
-How delighted would be Moore, the poet of the loves and
-graces, if his language, instead of five or six tedious words
-slowly following in the rear of each other, had furnished him
-with an expression like this, in which the lover, the object beloved,
-and the delicious sentiment which their mutual passion
-inspires, are blended, are fused together in one comprehensive
-appellative term? And it is in the languages of savages that
-these beautiful forms are found! What a subject for reflection,
-and how little do we know, as yet, of the astonishing things
-that the world contains!</p>
-
-<p>In the course of my reading, I have often seen the question
-discussed which of the two classes of languages, the <i>analytical</i>
-or the <i>synthetical</i> (as I call them), is the most perfect or is preferable
-to the other. Formerly there seemed to be but one sentiment
-on the subject, for who cannot perceive the superiority of
-the Latin and Greek, over the modern mixed dialects which at
-present prevail in Europe? But we live in the age of paradoxes,
-and there is no opinion, however extraordinary, that does not
-find supporters. To me it would appear that the perfection of
-language consists in being able to express much in a few words;
-to raise at once in the mind by a few magic sounds, whole
-masses of thoughts which strike by a kind of instantaneous intuition.
-Such in its effects must be the medium by which immortal
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_406">406</span>
-spirits communicate with each other; such, I should
-think, were I disposed to indulge in fanciful theories, must
-have been the language first taught to mankind by the great
-author of all perfection.</p>
-
-<p>All this would probably be admitted if the Latin and Greek
-were only in question: for their supremacy seems to stand on
-an ancient legitimate title not easy to be shaken, and there is
-still a strong prepossession in the minds of the learned in favour
-of the languages in which Homer and Virgil sang. But since it
-has been discovered that the barbarous dialects of savage nations
-are formed on the same principle with the classical idioms, and
-that the application of this principle is even carried in them to
-a still greater extent, it has been found easier to ascribe the beautiful
-organisation of these languages to stupidity and barbarism,
-than to acknowledge our ignorance of the manner in which it
-has been produced. Philosophers have therefore set themselves
-to work in order to prove that those admirable combinations of
-ideas in the form of words, which in the ancient languages of
-Europe used to be considered as some of the greatest efforts of
-the human mind, proceed in the savage idioms from the absence
-or weakness of mental powers in those who originally framed
-them.</p>
-
-<p>Among those philosophers the celebrated Dr. Adam Smith
-stands pre-eminent. In an elegant treatise on the origin and
-formation of language, he has endeavoured to shew that synthetical
-forms of speech were the first rude attempts which men
-made to communicate their ideas, and that they employed comprehensive
-and generic terms, because their minds had not yet
-acquired the powers of analysis and were not capable of discriminating
-between different objects. Hence, he says every river
-among primitive men was <i>the river</i>, every mountain <i>the mountain</i>,
-and it was very long before they learned to distinguish
-them by particular names. On the same principle, he continues,
-men said in one word <i>pluit</i> (it rains,) before they could
-so separate their confused ideas as to say <i>the rain</i> or <i>the water
-is falling</i>. Such is the sense and spirit of his positions, which
-I quote from memory.</p>
-
-<p>This theory is certainly very ingenious; it is only unfortunate
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_407">407</span>
-that it does not accord with facts, as far as our observations can
-trace them. You have shown that the comprehensive compounds
-of the Delaware idiom are formed out of other words expressive
-of single ideas; these simple words, therefore, must have been
-invented before they were compounded into others, and thus
-analysis presided over the first formation of the language. So
-far, at least, Dr. Smith’s theory falls to the ground; nor does he
-appear to be better supported in his supposition of the pre-existence
-of generic terms. For Dr. Wistar has told me, and quotes
-your authority for it, that such are seldom in use among the
-Indians, and that when a stranger pointing to an object asks
-how it is called, he will not be told a <i>tree</i>, a <i>river</i>, a <i>mountain</i>,
-but an ash, an oak, a beech; the Delaware, the Mississippi, the
-Allegheny. If this fact is correctly stated, it is clear that among
-those original people every tree is not <i>the tree</i>, and every mountain
-<i>the mountain</i>, but that, on the contrary, everything is in
-preference distinguished by its specific name.</p>
-
-<p>It is no argument, therefore, against the synthetical forms of
-language, that they are in use among savage nations. However
-barbarous may be the people by whom they are employed, I
-acknowledge that I can see nothing barbarous in them, but think,
-on the contrary, that they add much to the beauty of speech.
-This is neither the time nor the place to enter into an elaborate
-discussion of this subject, but I beg leave to be allowed to illustrate
-and support my opinion by a lively example taken from
-the Latin tongue.</p>
-
-<p>Suetonius relates that the Roman Emperor Claudius (one of
-the most barbarous tyrants that ever existed,) once gave to his
-courtiers the spectacle of a naval combat on the Fucine lake, to
-be seriously performed by gladiators. When the poor fellows
-saw the Emperor approaching, they hailed him with “<i>Ave, Imperator</i>,
-<span class="smcap">MORITURI</span> <i>te salutant!</i>” In English this means, “Hail,
-C&aelig;sar! <span class="smcap">THOSE WHO ARE GOING TO DIE</span> salute thee!” The tyrant
-was so moved, or rather struck with this unexpected address,
-that before he had time to reflect he returned the salutation
-<i>Avete vos!</i> “Fare ye well!” This gracious reply, from the mouth
-of an Emperor, amounted to a pardon, and the gladiators, in
-consequence, refused to fight. But the monster soon returned
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_408">408</span>
-to his natural ferocity, and after hesitating for a while whether he
-would destroy them all by fire and sword, he rose from his seat,
-and ran staggering along the banks of the lake, in the most disgusting
-agitation, and at last, partly by exhortations and partly
-by threats, compelled them to fight.<a id="FNanchor_295" href="#Footnote_295" class="fnanchor">295</a> Thus far Suetonius.</p>
-
-<p>Now, my dear sir, I put the question to you; if the gladiators,
-instead of <i>morituri</i>, had said in English <i>those who are about or
-going to die</i>; would the Emperor even have hesitated for a moment,
-and would he not at once have ordered those men to fight
-on? In the word <i>morituri</i>, he was struck at the first moment
-with the terrible idea of death placed in full front by means of the
-syllable <span class="smcap">MOR</span>; while the future termination <span class="smcap">ITURI</span> with the accessory
-ideas that it involves was calculated to produce a feeling of tender
-compassion on his already powerfully agitated mind, and in fact
-did produce it, though it lasted only a short time. But if, instead
-of this rapid succession of strong images, he had been assailed
-at first with five insignificant words <i>Those&mdash;who&mdash;are&mdash;going&mdash;to</i>,
-foreseeing what was about to follow, he would have had
-time to make up his mind before the sentence had been quite
-pronounced, and I doubt much whether the gladiators would
-have been allowed time to finish it. In German, <i>Diejenigen
-welche am sterben sind</i>, would have produced much the same effect,
-from the length of the words <i>diejenigen</i> and <i>welche</i>, which
-have no definite meaning, and could in no manner have affected
-the feelings of the tyrant Claudius. <i>Ceux qui vont mourir</i>, in
-French, is somewhat shorter, but in none of the modern languages
-do I find anything that operates on my mind like the
-terrible and pathetic <i>morituri</i>. May we not exclaim here with
-the great Gœthe: <i>O, eine Nation ist zu beneiden, die so feine Schattirungen
-in einem Worte auszudruecken weiss!</i> “O, how a nation
-is to be envied, that can express such delicate shades of thought
-in one single word!”<a id="FNanchor_296" href="#Footnote_296" class="fnanchor">296</a>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_409">409</span></p>
-
-<p>I hope, indeed I do not doubt, that there is a similar word in
-the Delaware language; if so, please to give it to me with a full
-explanation of its construction and meaning.</p>
-
-<p>I thank you very much for the valuable information you have
-given on the subject of the word “<i>father</i>;” the distinction between
-<i>wetochemuxit</i>, and <i>wetoochwink</i>, appears to me beautiful, and
-Zeisberger seems to have perfectly understood it. When he
-makes use of the first of these words, he displays the “<i>Father
-of Eternity</i>” in all his glory; but when he says, “<i>Behold what
-the Father has given us!</i>” he employs the word <i>wetoochwink</i>,
-which conveys the idea of a <i>natural father</i>, the better to express
-the paternal tenderness of God for his children. These elegant
-shades of expression shew in a very forcible manner the beauty
-and copiousness of the Indian languages, and the extent and the
-force of that natural logic, of those powers of feeling and discrimination,
-and of that innate sense of order, regularity and
-method which is possessed even by savage nations, and has produced
-such an admirable variety of modes of conveying human
-thoughts by means of the different organs and senses with which
-the Almighty has provided us.</p>
-
-<p>Will you be so good as to inform me whether the Delaware
-language admits of inversions similar or analogous to those of
-the Latin tongue; and in what order words are in general placed
-before or after each other? Do you say “<i>bread give me</i>,” or
-“<i>give me bread</i>”?</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XXI">LETTER XXI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 26th August, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;Your letter of the 21st inst. has done me the
-greatest pleasure. I see that you enter the spirit of our Indian
-languages, and that your mind is struck with the beauty of their
-grammatical forms. I am not surprised to find that you admire
-so much <i>wulamalessohalian</i>, it is really a fine expressive word;
-but you must not think that it stands alone; there are many
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_410">410</span>
-others equally beautiful and equally expressive, and which are at
-the same time so formed as to please the ear. Such is <i>eluwiwulik</i>,
-a name which the Indians apply to Almighty God, and signifies
-“the most blessed, the most holy, the most excellent, the
-most precious.” It is compounded of <i>allowiwi</i>, which signifies
-“<i>more</i>” and <i>wulik</i>, the meaning of which has been fully explained
-in former letters. It is, as it were <i>allowiwi wulik</i>; the
-vowel <i>a</i>, in the first word being changed into <i>e</i>. By thus compounding
-this word <i>allowiwi</i> with others the Delawares have
-formed a great number of denominations, by which they address
-or designate the Supreme Being, such are:</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<div style="text-indent: -1em">
-<span class="division"><span class="num">Eliwulek,<a id="FNanchor_297" href="#Footnote_297" class="fnanchor">297</a> }</span>
-<span class="denom">Allowilen,<a id="FNanchor_298" href="#Footnote_298" class="fnanchor">298</a>}</span></span><i>He who is above every thing</i>.<a id="FNanchor_299" href="#Footnote_299" class="fnanchor">299</a>
-</div>
-<span class="trow">Eluwantowit,<a id="FNanchor_300" href="#Footnote_300" class="fnanchor">300</a> <i>God above all</i>; (“getannitowit” means <i>God</i>.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Elewassit,<a id="FNanchor_301" href="#Footnote_301" class="fnanchor">301</a> <i>the most powerful</i>, <i>the most majestic</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Eluwitschanessik, <i>the strongest of all</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Eluwikschiechsit, <i>the supremely good</i>.<a id="FNanchor_302" href="#Footnote_302" class="fnanchor">302</a></span>
-<span class="trow">Eluwilissit, <i>the one above all others in goodness</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>I have no doubt you will admire these expressions; our Missionaries
-found them of great use, and considered them as adding
-much to the solemnity of divine service, and calculated to promote
-and keep alive a deep sense of devotion to the Supreme
-Being. I entirely agree with you in your opinion of the superior
-beauty of compound terms; the Indians understand very well
-how to make use of them, and a great part of the force and
-energy of their speeches is derived from that source: it is very
-difficult, I may even say impossible, to convey either in German
-or English, the whole impressiveness of their discourses; I
-have often attempted it without success.</p>
-
-<p>The word “<i>morituri</i>” which you cite from the Latin, affords a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_411">411</span>
-very good argument in support of the position which you have
-taken. It is really very affecting, and I am not astonished at
-the effect which it produced upon the mind of the cruel emperor.
-We have a similar word in the Delaware language, “<i>Elumiangellatschik</i>,”
-“those who are on the point of dying, or who are about
-to die.” The first part of it, <i>elumi</i>, is derived from the verb
-<i>n’dallemi</i>, which means “I am going about” (something). <i>N’dallemi
-mikemosi</i>, “I am going to work,” or “about to work.”
-<i>N’dallemi wickheen</i>, “I am going to build.” <i>N’dallemi angeln</i>,
-“I am about dying,” or “going to die.” The second member
-of the word, that is to say <i>angel</i>, comes from <i>angeln</i>, “to die;”
-<i>angloagan</i>, “death,” <i>angellopannik</i>, “they are all dead.” The
-remainder is a grammatical form; <i>atsch</i>, indicates the future
-tense; the last syllable <i>ik</i>, conveys the idea of the personal pronoun
-“<i>they</i>.” Thus <i>elumiangellatschik</i>, like the Latin <i>morituri</i>,
-expresses in one word “they or those who are going or about to
-die,” and in German “<i>Diejenigen welche am sterben sind</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>I am pleased to hear that you discover every day new beauties
-as you proceed with the study of the Indian languages, and the
-translation of Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar. You have, no doubt,
-taken notice of the reciprocal verb exemplified in the fifth conjugation,
-in the positive and negative forms by “<i>ahoaltin</i>,” “to
-love each other.” Permit me to point out to you the regularity
-of its structure, by merely conjugating one tense of it in the two
-forms.</p>
-
-<h3>INDICATIVE PRESENT.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th>Positive Form.</th>
-    <th>Negative Form.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>N’dahoaltineen, <i>we love one another</i>.</td>
-    <td>Mat
-
-n’dahoaltiwuneen, <i>we do not love one another</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>K’dahoaltihhimo, <i>you love one another</i>.</td>
-    <td>Matta kdahoaltiwihhimo, <i>you do not love one another</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Ahoaltowak, <i>they love one another</i>.</td>
-    <td>Matta ahoaltiwiwak, <i>they do not love one another.</i></td>
-  </tr></table>
-
-<p>You will find the whole verb conjugated in Zeisberger, therefore
-I shall not exemplify further. You see there is no singular
-voice in this verb, nor is it susceptible of it, as it never implies
-the act of a single person. In the negative form, “matta” or
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_412">412</span>
-“atta” is an adverb which signifies “no” or “not,” and is
-always prefixed; but it is not that alone which indicates the
-negative sense of the verb. It is also pointed out by <i>wu</i> or <i>wi</i>,
-which you find interwoven throughout the whole conjugation,
-the vowel immediately preceding being sometimes changed for
-the sake of sound, as from “aholt<i>a</i>wak,” “they love each other,”
-is formed “ahoalt<i>i</i>wiwak,” “they do not love each other.”</p>
-
-<p>I will point out further, if you have not already observed it,
-what I am sure you will think a grammatical curiosity; it is a
-concordance in tense of the adverb with the verb. Turn to the
-future of the same negative conjugation in Zeisberger, and you
-will find:</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Mattatsch n’dahoaltiwuneen, <i>we shall or will not love each other</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mattatsch k’dahoaltiwihhimo, <i>you</i>&mdash;</span>
-<span class="trow">Mattatsch ahoaltiwiwak, <i>they</i>&mdash;</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>I have said already that <i>atsch</i> or <i>tsch</i> is a termination which in
-the conjugation of verbs indicates the future tense. Sometimes
-it is attached to the verb, as in <i>matta ktahoaliwitsch</i>, “thou shalt
-or wilt not love me,” but it may also be affixed to the adverb as
-you have seen above, by which means a variety is produced
-which adds much to the beauty and expressiveness of the
-language.</p>
-
-<p>You have asked me whether the Delaware language has
-inversions corresponding with those of the Latin? To this
-question, not being a Latin scholar, I am not competent to give
-an answer; I can only say that when the Indian is well or
-elegantly spoken, the words are so arranged that the prominent
-ideas stand in front of the discourse; but in familiar conversation
-a different order may sometimes be adopted. We say, in
-Delaware, <i>Philadelphia epit</i>, “Philadelphia at,” and not, as in
-English, “at Philadelphia.” We say “bread give me,” and not
-“give me bread,” because <i>bread</i> is the principal object with
-which the speaker means to strike the mind of his hearer.</p>
-
-<p>In the personal forms, or as you call them, <i>transitions</i> of the
-active verbs, the form expressive of the pronoun governed is
-sometimes placed in the beginning, as in <i>k’dahoatell</i>, “I love
-thee,” which is the same as <i>thee I love</i>; for <i>k</i> (from <i>ki</i>), is the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_413">413</span>
-sign of the second person; sometimes, however, the governing
-pronoun is placed in front, as in <i>n’dahoala</i>, “I love him,” <i>n’</i> being
-the sign of the first person, I. In these personal forms or
-transitions, one of the pronouns, governing or governed, is generally
-expressed by its proper sign, <i>n’</i> for “I” or “me,” <i>k’</i> for
-“thou” or “thee,” and <i>w’</i> for “he or him;” the other pronoun
-is expressed by an inflexion, as in <i>k’dahoalohhumo</i>, I love you,
-<i>k’dahoalineen</i>, thou lovest us, <i>k’dahoalowak</i>, thou lovest them.
-You may easily perceive that the governing pronoun is not
-always in the same relative place with the governed.</p>
-
-<p>That these and other forms of the verbs may be better understood,
-it will not be amiss to say something here of the personal
-pronouns. They are of two kinds: separable and inseparable.
-The separable pronouns are these:</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Ni, <i>I</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ki, <i>thou</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Neka, <i>or</i> nekama, <i>he</i> or <i>she</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kiluna, <i>we</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kiluwa, <i>you</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Nekamawa, <i>they</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>There are other personal pronouns, which I believe to be
-peculiar to the Indian languages; such are:</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Nepe, <i>I also</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kepe, <i>thou also</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Nepena, <i>or</i> kepena, <i>we also</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kepewo, <i>you also</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kepoak, <i>they also</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>The inseparable pronouns are <i>n</i> for the first person, <i>k</i> for the
-second, and <i>w</i> or <i>o</i> for the third, both in the singular and the
-plural. They are combined with substantives in the possessive
-forms, as in <i>nooch</i>, my father, <i>kooch</i>, thy father; the third person
-is sometimes expressed by the termination <i>wall</i>, as <i>ochwall</i>, his
-or her father, and at other times by <i>w</i>, as in <i>wtamochol</i>, his or
-her canoe. In the plural, <i>nochena</i>, our father, <i>kochuwa</i>, your father,
-<i>ochuwawall</i>, their father.</p>
-
-<p>The verbal transitions are compounded of the verb itself, combined
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_414">414</span>
-with the inseparable pronouns and other forms or inflexions,
-expressive of time, person, and number. To understand these
-properly requires attention and study.</p>
-
-<p>These things are not new to you, but they may be of use to
-those members of the Committee who have not, like yourself,
-had the opportunity of studying a grammar of this language.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XXII">LETTER XXII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM THE SAME.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 27th August, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I promised you in one of my former letters that
-I would write to a gentleman well acquainted with the Chippeway
-language, to ascertain whether it is true, as Professor Vater
-asserts, that it is almost without any grammatical forms. I wrote
-in consequence to the Rev. Mr. Dencke, a respectable Missionary
-of the Society of the United Brethren, who resides at Fairfield
-in Upper Canada, and I have the pleasure of communicating
-to you an extract from his answers to the different questions
-which my letter contained.</p>
-
-<h3>EXTRACT.</h3>
-
-<p>1. “According to my humble opinion, and limited knowledge
-of the Indian languages, being chiefly acquainted with the Delaware
-and Chippeway, of
-
-ich alone I can speak with propriety,
-those two idioms are of one and the same grammatical structure,
-and rich in forms. I am inclined to believe that Mr. Duponceau
-is correct in his opinion that the American languages in general
-resemble each other in point of grammatical construction; for I
-find in that of Greenland nearly the same inflections, prefixes,
-and suffixes, as in the Delaware and the Chippeway. The inflexions
-of nouns and conjugations of verbs are the same. The
-pronominal accusative is in the same manner incorporated with
-the verb, which, in this form, may be properly called <i>transitive</i>.
-See Crantz’s History of Greenland, in German, page 283. These
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_415">415</span>
-forms, though they are very regular, are most difficult for foreigners
-to acquire. I might give examples of conjugations in the
-various forms, but as they have not been expressly called for, I
-do not think necessary to do it.</p>
-
-<p>“The Greenlanders, it seems, have three numbers in the conjugation
-of their verbs, the singular, dual, and plural; the Delawares
-and Chippeways have also three, the singular, the <i>particular</i>,
-and the plural. For instance, in the Delaware language
-we say in the plural, ‘<i>k’pendameneen</i>,’ which means ‘we <i>all</i> have
-heard;’ and in the particular number we say, ‘<i>n’pendameneen</i>,’
-'we, who are now specially spoken of, (for instance, this company,
-the white people, the Indians,) have heard.’ Upon the
-whole, Crantz’s History of Greenland has given me a great insight
-into the construction of the Indian languages; through his
-aid, I have been able to find out the so necessary <i>infinitive</i> of
-each particular verb. By means of the transitions, Indian verbs
-have nine or ten different infinitives, whence we must conclude
-that it is very difficult to learn the Indian languages. There is
-also a peculiarity in them, by means of the duplication of the
-first syllable, as ‘<i>gattopuin</i>,’ ‘to be hungry;’ ‘<i>gagattopuin</i>,’ to be
-very hungry.</p>
-
-<p>2. “Carver’s Vocabulary of the Chippeway, I believe is not
-correct, though I have it not at present before me.</p>
-
-<p>3. “The numerals in the Chippeway up to ten, are as follows.
-I write them according to the German orthography. 1. Beschik.
-2. Nisch. 3. Nisswi. 4. Newin. 5. Nan&aacute;n. 6. N’guttiwaswi.
-7. Nischschwaswi. 8. Schwaschwi. 9. Schenk. 20. Quetsch.”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Thus far Mr. Dencke. I do not recollect whether I have
-already explained to you what he says about the “<i>particular</i>”
-number in the conjugation of the Delaware verbs. There is a
-distinction in the plural forms. “<i>K’pendameneen</i>, (<i>k’</i> from <i>kiluna</i>,
-'we,’) means generally ‘we have heard,’ or ‘we all have heard,’
-not intending to allude to a particular number of persons; in
-'<i>n’pendameneen</i>,’ the ‘<i>n’</i> comes from ‘<i>niluna</i>,’ which means ‘<i>we</i>,’
-in particular, our family, nation, select body, &amp;c. ‘<i>Niluna yu
-epienk</i>,’ ‘we who are here assembled,’ <i>n’penameneen</i>, (for <i>niluna
-penameneen</i>) we see (we who are together see); <i>n’pendameneen</i>,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_416">416</span>
-we hear (we who are in this room hear). But when no discrimination
-is intended to be made, the form <i>kiluna</i>, or its abridgement
-<i>k’</i> is used. <i>Kiluna elenapewit</i>, ‘we, the Indians’ (meaning
-<i>all</i> the Indians); <i>kiluna yu enda lauchsienk</i>, ‘we all that live upon
-earth;’ ‘<i>k’nemeneen sokelange</i>,’ we see it rain, (we <i>all</i> see it rain);
-<i>k’nemeneen waselehelete</i>, we <i>all</i> see the light, (we and all who live
-upon earth see the light.)”</p>
-
-<p>I believe Mr. Zeisberger does not mention this distinction in
-his Grammar; but he could not say every thing.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XXIII">LETTER XXIII.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 30th August, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I thank you for your two favours of the 26th
-and 27th inst. I am very much pleased to find from the valuable
-extract of Mr. Dencke’s letter, which you have had the goodness
-to communicate, that the Chippeways have grammatical forms
-similar to those of the Delawares. Indeed, as far as my researches
-have extended, I have found those forms in all the Indian
-languages from Greenland to Cape Horn. The venerable
-Eliot’s Grammar shews that they exist in the idiom of the New
-England Indians, as he calls it, which is believed to be that of
-the Natick tribe. Crantz and Egede prove in the most incontrovertible
-manner that the language of Greenland is formed on
-the same <i>syntactic</i> or <i>polysynthetic</i> model. So are the various
-dialects of Mexico, as far as I can judge from the Grammars of
-those languages that are in our Society’s library. Indeed, the
-authors of those Grammars are the first who have noticed the
-personal forms of the Indian verbs, and given them the name of
-<i>transitions</i>. I find from Father Breton’s Grammar and Dictionary
-of the Caribbee language, that those forms exist also in that
-idiom, and the Abb&eacute; Molina, in his excellent History of Chili,
-has shewn that the Araucanian belongs to the same class of languages.
-All the genuine specimens that we have seen of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_417">417</span>
-grammatical forms of the Indians from north to south, on the
-continent, and in the islands, exhibit the same general features,
-and no exception whatever that I know of has yet been discovered.
-Father Sagard’s assertions about the Huron are not
-founded in fact, and are even disproved by the examples which
-he adduces, and Mr. Dencke’s testimony is sufficient to counterbalance
-the naked supposition of Professor Vater that the language
-of the Chippeways has no forms. Too much praise cannot
-be given to this learned author for the profound researches
-that he has made on the subject of American languages with a
-view to discover the origin of the ancient inhabitants of this
-continent, but not being on the spot, he had not the same means
-of ascertaining facts that we possess in this country. Had he
-lived among us, he would not so easily have been persuaded that
-there was such a difference between the different languages of
-the American Indians; that some of them were exceedingly rich
-in grammatical forms, and appeared to have been framed with
-the greatest skill, while others were so very poor in that respect
-that they might be compared to the idioms of the most savage
-nations in north-eastern Asia and Africa.<a id="FNanchor_303" href="#Footnote_303" class="fnanchor">303</a> In Philology, as well
-as in every other science, authorities ought to be weighed, compared,
-and examined, and no assertion should be lightly believed
-that is not supported by evident proof faithfully drawn from the
-original sources.</p>
-
-<p>I do not positively assert that all the languages of the American
-Indians are formed on the same grammatical construction,
-but I think I may safely advance that as far as our means of
-knowledge extend, they appear to be so, and that no proof
-has yet been adduced to the contrary. When we find so many
-different idioms, spoken by nations which reside at immense
-distances from each other, so entirely different in their etymology
-that there is not the least appearance of a common derivation,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_418">418</span>
-yet so strikingly similar in their forms, that one would
-imagine the same mind presided over their original formation,
-we may well suppose that the similarity extends through the
-whole of the languages of this race of men, at least until we
-have clear and direct proof to the contrary. It is at any rate,
-a fact well worthy of investigation, and this point, if it should
-ever be settled, may throw considerable light on the origin of
-the prim&aelig;val inhabitants of this country.</p>
-
-<p>The most generally established opinion seems to be, that the
-Americans are descended from the Tartars who inhabit the north-easternmost
-parts of Asia. Would it not be then well worth the
-while to ascertain this fact by enquiring into the grammatical
-forms and construction of the languages of those people? The
-great Empress Catharine employed a learned professor to compile
-a comparative vocabulary of those languages which are
-spoken within the vast extent of the Russian Empire. This
-was but the first step towards a knowledge of the character
-and affinities of those idioms. If something may be discovered
-by the mere similarity of words, how much farther may not we
-proceed by studying and comparing the “plans of men’s ideas,”
-and the variety of modes by which they have contrived to give
-them body and shape through articulate sounds. This I consider
-to be the most truly philosophical view of human language
-generally considered, and before we decide upon the Tartar origin
-of the American Indians, we ought, I think, to study the
-grammars of the Tartar languages, and ascertain whether their
-thoughts flow in the same course, and whether their languages
-are formed by similar associations of ideas, with those of their
-supposed descendants. If essential differences should be found
-between them in this respect, I do not see how the hypothesis
-of Tartar origin could afterwards be maintained.</p>
-
-<p>Professor Vater is of opinion that the language of the Cantabrians,
-whom we call Biscayans or Basques, a people who inhabit
-the sea coast at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains, is formed on
-the same model with that of the American Indians. We have in
-our Society’s library, a translation into that idiom of Royaumont’s
-History of the Bible. I acknowledge, that by comparing
-it with the original, I have found sufficient reason to incline in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_419">419</span>
-favour of the Professor’s assertion. This is a very curious fact,
-which well deserves to be inquired into. This Basque language,
-it is to be presumed, was once spoken in a considerable part of
-the ancient world, and probably branched out into various dialects.
-How comes it that those polysynthetic forms which distinguish
-it, have disappeared from all the rest of the continent
-of Europe, and are only preserved in a single language no longer
-spoken but by a handful of mountaineers? How comes it that
-the Celtic which appears no less ancient is so widely different in
-its grammatical construction? Are we to revive the story of the
-Atlantis, and believe that the two continents of America and
-Europe were once connected together? At least, we will not
-forget that the Biscayans were once great navigators, and that
-they were among the first who frequented the coasts of Newfoundland.</p>
-
-<p>But let us leave these wild theories, and not lose sight of our
-object, which is to ascertain facts, and let others afterwards draw
-inferences from them at their pleasure. In Father Breton’s Grammar
-and Dictionary of the Caribbee language, I have been struck
-with a fact of a very singular nature. It seems (and indeed
-there appears no reason to entertain the least doubt on the subject)
-that in that idiom the language of the men and that of the
-women differ in a great degree from each other. This difference
-does not merely consist in the inflexions or terminations of
-words, but the words themselves, used by the different sexes,
-have no kind of resemblance. Thus the men call an enemy
-<i>etoucou</i>, and the women <i>akani</i>; a friend in the masculine dialect
-is <i>ibaouanale</i>, in the female <i>nitignon</i>. I might adduce a
-much greater number of examples to shew the difference between
-these two modes of speaking. It does not, however,
-pervade the whole language; sometimes the termination of
-the words only differs, while in many cases the same words
-are used exactly alike by both sexes. But those which differ
-entirely in the two idioms are very numerous, and are in general
-terms of common use, such as names of parts of the body,
-or of relationship as father, mother, brother, sister, and many
-others. It is said a tradition prevails in the Caribbee islands
-that their nation was once conquered by another people, who
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_420">420</span>
-put all the males to death and preserved only the females, who
-retained their national language, and would not adopt that of
-the conquerors. I am not much disposed to believe this story;
-the more so as I find similar instances in other idioms of different
-words being employed by the men and women to express
-the same thing. Thus among the Othomis, (a Mexican tribe)
-the men call a brother-in-law <i>naco</i>, and the women <i>namo</i>; a
-sister-in-law is called by the men <i>nabehpo</i>, and by the women
-<i>namuddu</i>. (Molina’s Grammar of the Othomi language, p. 38.)
-In the Mexican proper, the men add an <i>e</i> to the vocative of
-every proper name, and say <i>Pedroe</i> for <i>Pedro</i>; while the women
-leave out the <i>e</i> and distinguish the vocative only by an affected
-pronunciation. (Rincon’s Mexican Grammar, p. 6.) It is said
-also that among the Javanese, there is a language for the nobles
-and another for the common people.<a id="FNanchor_304" href="#Footnote_304" class="fnanchor">304</a> These are curious facts,
-and a discovery of their causes would lay open an interesting
-page of the great hidden book of the history of man.</p>
-
-<p>As I have determined to abstain from every hypothesis, I
-shall leave it to others to discover and point out the causes of
-these extraordinary facts; but I shall be obliged to you for informing
-me whether in any of the Indian languages that you
-know, there is any such difference of dialect between the two
-sexes, and in what it particularly consists. I cannot believe this
-story of the conquest of the Caribbee islands and of its producing
-that variety of language. I find it related by one Davis, an English
-writer, in whom I place no reliance; for he has pretended to
-give a Vocabulary of the Caribbee language, which he has evidently
-taken from Father Breton, without even taking the
-trouble of substituting the English for the French orthography.
-Carver acted with more skill in this respect.</p>
-
-<p>I thank you for the explanation which you have given of what
-Mr. Dencke calls the “<i>particular</i> plural,” of the Chippeway and
-Delaware languages, of which I had no idea, as Zeisberger
-does not make any mention of it. It appears to me that this
-numerical form of language (if I can so express myself,) is
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_421">421</span>
-founded in nature, and ought to have its place in a system of
-Universal Grammar. It is more natural than the Greek dual,
-which is too limited in its comprehension, while the particular
-plural expresses more, and may be limited in its application to
-two, when the context or the subject of the conversation requires
-it. I find this plural in several of the modern European languages;
-it is the <i>nosotros</i> of the Spanish, the <i>noi altri</i> of the
-Italian, and the French <i>nous autres</i>. There is nothing like it in
-English or German, nor even in the Latin. I am disposed to
-believe that this form exists also in the Greenland language, and
-has been improperly called <i>dual</i> by those who have written on
-it. The Abb&eacute; Molina speaks also of a Dual in the Araucanian
-idiom, which he translates by <i>we two</i>. But he may have used a
-term generally known, to avoid the explanations which a new
-one would have required. However this may be, the particular
-plural is well worthy of notice.</p>
-
-<p>I shall be obliged to you for a translation of the Lord’s prayer
-in the Delaware language, with proper explanations in English.
-I suspect that in Loskiel is not correct.</p>
-
-<p>In reading some time ago one of the Gospels, (I think St.
-Mark’s,) in one of the Iroquois dialects, said to be translated by
-the celebrated chief Captain Brandt, I observed that the word
-<i>town</i> was translated into Indian by the word <i>Kanada</i>, and it
-struck me that the name of the province of <i>Canada</i> might probably
-have been derived from it. I have not been able to procure
-the book since, but I have now before me a translation of the
-English common prayer-book into the Mohawk, ascribed to the
-same chief, in which I find these words: “<i>Ne</i> <span class="smcap">Kanada</span>-<i>gongh konwayatsk
-Nazareth</i>,” which are the translation of “in a <span class="smcap">City</span>
-called Nazareth,” (Matth. ii. 23.) The termination <i>gongh</i> in this
-word appears evidently to be a grammatical form or inflexion,
-and <i>Kanada</i> is the word which answers for “<i>city</i>.” I should be
-glad to know your opinion of this etymology.</p>
-
-<p>I find in Zeisberger’s grammar, in the conjugation of one of
-the forms of the verb <i>n’peton</i> “I bring,” <i>n’petagep</i> in one place,
-and in another <i>n’petagunewoakup</i>, both translated into German
-by “<i>sie haben mir gebracht</i>,” “they have brought to me.” Are
-these words synonyma, or is there some difference between them,
-and which?</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_422">422</span></p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XXIV">LETTER XXIV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 5th September, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I have received your favour of the 30th ult. I
-answer it first at the end, and begin with your etymology of the
-word <i>Canada</i>. In looking over some of Mr. Zeisberger’s papers,
-who was well acquainted with the language of the Onondagoes,
-the principal dialect of the Iroquois, to which nation the Mohawks
-belong, I find he translates the German word <i>stadt</i> (town)
-into the Onondago by “<i>ganatage</i>.” Now, as you well know
-that the Germans sometimes employ the <span class="small">G</span> instead of the <span class="small">K</span>, and
-the <span class="small">T</span> instead of the <span class="small">D</span>, it is very possible that the word <i>Kanada</i>
-may mean the same thing in some grammatical form of the Mohawk
-dialect. As you have seen it so employed in Captain
-Brandt’s translation, there cannot be the least doubt about it.
-This being taken for granted, it is not improbable that you have
-hit upon the true etymology of the name <i>Canada</i>. For nothing
-is more certain than what Dr. Wistar once told you on my authority,
-that the Indians make more use of <i>particular</i> than of
-<i>generic</i> words. I found myself under very great embarrassment
-in consequence of it when I first began to learn the Delaware
-language. I would point to a tree and ask the Indians how they
-called it; they would answer an <i>oak</i>, an <i>ash</i>, a <i>maple</i>, as the case
-might be, so that at last I found in my vocabulary more than a
-dozen words for the word <i>tree</i>. It was a good while before I
-found out, that when you asked of an Indian the name of a thing,
-he would always give you the specific and never the generic denomination.
-So that it is highly probable that the Frenchman
-who first asked of the Indians in Canada the name of their country,
-pointing to the spot and to the objects which surrounded
-him, received for answer <i>Kanada</i>, (town or village), and committing
-the same mistake that I did, believed it to be the name of
-the whole region, and reported it so to his countrymen, who
-consequently gave to their newly acquired dominions the name
-of <i>Canada</i>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_423">423</span></p>
-
-<p>I had never heard before I received your letter that there existed
-a country where the men and the women spoke a different
-language from each other. It is not the case with the Delawares
-or any Indian nation that I am acquainted with. The two sexes
-with them speak exactly the same idiom. The women, indeed,
-have a kind of lisping or drawling accent, which comes from
-their being so constantly with children; but the language which
-they speak does not differ in the least from that which is spoken
-by their husbands and brothers.</p>
-
-<p>The question you ask about <i>n’petageep</i> and <i>n’petagunewoakup</i>,
-both of which Zeisberger translates by <i>sie haben mir gebracht</i>, is
-easily answered. The translation is correct in both cases, according
-to the idiom of the German language, from which alone
-the ambiguity proceeds. <i>N’petageep</i> means “they have brought
-to me,” but in a general sense, and without specifying by whom
-the thing has been brought. <i>Es ist mir gebracht worden</i>, or “it
-has been brought to me,” would have explained this word better,
-while <i>n’petagunewoakup</i> is literally rendered by “<i>they</i>,” (alluding
-to particular persons,) “have brought to me,” or <i>sie haben mir
-gebracht</i>. You have here another example of the nicely discriminating
-character of the Indian languages.</p>
-
-<p>I believe I have never told you that the Indians distinguish
-the genders, animate and inanimate, even in their verbs. <i>Nolhatton</i>
-and <i>nolhalla</i>, both mean “<i>I possess</i>,” but the former can
-only be used in speaking of the possession of things inanimate,
-and the latter of living creatures. <span class="smcap">Nolhatton</span> <i>achquiwanissall</i>,
-“I have or possess blankets;” <i>cheeli kœcu n’nolhattowi</i>, “many
-things I am possessed of,” or “I possess many things;” <i>woak
-nechenaunges nolhallau</i>, “and I possess a horse,” (and a horse I
-possess.) The <i>u</i> which you see at the end of the verb <i>nolhalla</i>,
-conveys the idea of the pronoun <i>him</i>, so that it is the same as if
-you said, “and a horse I possess <i>him</i>.” It is the accusative
-form on which you observed in one of your former letters and
-is annexed to the <i>verb</i> instead of the <i>noun</i>.</p>
-
-<p>In the verb “<i>to see</i>,” the same distinction is made between
-things animate and inanimate. <i>Newau</i>, “I see,” applies only to
-the former, and <i>nemen</i> to the latter. Thus the Delawares say:
-<i>lenno newau</i>, “I see a man;” <i>tscholens newau</i>, “I see a bird;”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_424">424</span>
-<i>achgook newau</i>, “I see a snake.” On the contrary they say,
-<i>wiquam nemen</i>, “I see a house;” <i>amochol nemen</i>, “I see a canoe,”
-&amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>It is the same with other verbs; even when they speak of
-things lying upon the ground, they distinguish between what has
-life and what is inanimate; thus they say, <i>icka</i> schingiesch<i>in</i><a id="FNanchor_305" href="#Footnote_305" class="fnanchor">305</a>
-<i>n’dallemans</i> “there lies my beast,” (the verb <i>schingieschin</i><a href="#Footnote_305" class="fnanchor">305</a> being
-only used when speaking of animate things;) otherwise they will
-say: <i>icka</i> schingiesch<i>en n’tamahican</i>, “yonder lies my ax.” The
-<i>i</i> or the <i>e</i> in the last syllable of the verb, as here used in the
-third person, constitutes the difference, which indicates that the
-thing spoken of has or has not life.</p>
-
-<p>It would be too tedious to go through these differences in the
-various forms which the verb can assume; what I have said will
-be sufficient to shew the principle and the manner in which this
-distinction is made.</p>
-
-<p>I inclose a translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Delaware,
-with the English interlined according to your wishes. I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h3>THE LORD’S PRAYER IN THE DELAWARE LANGUAGE.</h3>
-
-<table>
-
-  <tr>
-    <td>Ki</td>
-    <td><i>Thou</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Wet&oacute;chemelenk</td>
-    <td><i>our Father</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>talli</td>
-    <td><i>there</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>&eacute;pian</td>
-    <td><i>dwelling</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Awoss&aacute;game,</td>
-    <td><i>beyond the clouds,</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Machelend&aacute;sutsch</td>
-    <td><i>magnified or praised be</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Ktellewunsow&aacute;gan</td>
-    <td><i>thy name</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Ksakimowagan</td>
-    <td><i>thy kingdom</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>peyewiketsch</td>
-    <td><i>come on</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Ktelitehew&aacute;gan</td>
-    <td><i>thy thoughts, will, intention, mind,</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>l&eacute;ketsch</td>
-    <td><i>come to pass</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>yun</td>
-    <td><i>here</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Achquidhackamike</td>
-    <td><i>upon or all over the earth,</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elgiqui</td>
-    <td><i>the same</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>leek</td>
-    <td><i>as it is</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>talli</td>
-    <td><i>there</i>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_425">425</span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Awoss&aacute;game</td>
-    <td><i>in heaven or beyond the clouds</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Milineen</td>
-    <td><i>give to us</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>eligischquik</td>
-    <td><i>on or through this day</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>gunagischuk</td>
-    <td><i>the usual</i>, <i>daily</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Achpoan</td>
-    <td><i>bread</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>woak</td>
-    <td><i>and</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>miwelendammauwineen</td>
-    <td><i>forgive to us</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>n’tschannauchsowagann&eacute;na</td>
-    <td><i>our transgressions</i> (faults),</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elgiqui</td>
-    <td><i>the same as</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>niluna</td>
-    <td><i>we</i> (particular plural) <i>we who are here</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>miwelendamm&aacute;uwenk</td>
-    <td><i>we mutually forgive them</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>nik</td>
-    <td><i>who or those</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>tschetschanilawequ&eacute;ngik</td>
-    <td><i>who have transgressed or injured us</i> (past participle)</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>woak</td>
-    <td><i>and</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>k&aacute;tschi</td>
-    <td><i>let not</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>n’p&aacute;wuneen</td>
-    <td><i>us come to that</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>li</td>
-    <td><i>that</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>achquetschiechtow&aacute;ganink</td>
-    <td><i>we fall into temptation</i>; (ink, <i>into</i>),</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>shuckund</td>
-    <td><i>but</i> (rather)</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>ktennineen</td>
-    <td><i>keep us free</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>untschi</td>
-    <td><i>from</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>medhicking</td>
-    <td><i>all evil</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Alod</td>
-    <td><i>for</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Knihill&aacute;tamen</td>
-    <td><i>thou claimest</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>ksakimow&aacute;gan<a id="FNanchor_306" href="#Footnote_306" class="fnanchor">306</a></td>
-    <td><i>thy kingdom</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>woak</td>
-    <td><i>and</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>ktallewusso&aacute;gan</td>
-    <td><i>the superior power</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>woak</td>
-    <td><i>and</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>ktallowilissow&aacute;gan</td>
-    <td><i>all magnificence</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>ne</td>
-    <td><i>from</i>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_426">426</span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>wuntschi</td>
-    <td><i>heretofore</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>hallemiwi,</td>
-    <td><i>ever</i> (always)</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Nanne leketsch.</td>
-    <td><i>Amen.</i> (so be it; so may it come to pass.)</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XXV">LETTER XXV.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">TO MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, 1st October, 1816</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;Various professional avocations have prevented
-me from answering sooner your kind letter of the 5th ult. I
-thank you for the Delaware translation of the Lord’s prayer; it
-does not differ much from that in Loskiel, but the English explanations
-which you have given add greatly to its value.</p>
-
-<p>The information which your letter contains on the subject of
-the annexation to the verb of the form or inflexion indicative
-of the gender, is quite new to me. Though I was already acquainted
-with the principle on which this takes place, I was
-not fully aware of the extent of its application. We have already
-noticed and remarked upon the combination of the pronominal
-form with the active verb<a id="FNanchor_307" href="#Footnote_307" class="fnanchor">307</a> in “<i>getannitowit n’quitayala</i>, I fear
-God;” in which the pronoun <i>him</i> is expressed by the last syllable
-<i>ala</i> or <i>yala</i>, so that it is the same as if you said “<i>God I fear
-him</i>,” in Latin <i>Deus timeo eum</i>, and by contraction, <i>Deus timeum</i>.
-With this it is not difficult to pursue the same course or “plan
-of ideas,” by connecting not only the subject pronoun, but its
-gender, animate, or inanimate, with the verbal form. The idea
-of the sexes, if the language admitted of it, might be expressed
-in the same manner. Thus also Latin words might be compounded
-on the Delaware plan. If I wished to express in that
-manner “<i>I see a lion</i>,” I would say <i>leo video eum</i>, and by contraction
-<i>videum</i>; and if the object was of the feminine gender, I
-would say <i>videam</i>, for <i>video eam</i>. The difference between the
-Latin and the Delaware is that in the former the ideas of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_427">427</span>
-pronoun and its gender are expressed by a <i>nominal</i> and in the
-latter by a <i>verbal</i> form. I consider <i>leonem video</i>, as a contraction
-of <i>leo eum video</i>; the <i>n</i> being interposed between <i>leo</i> and <i>eum</i>,
-and the <i>u</i> in <i>eum</i> left out for euphony’s sake. In the same manner
-<i>fœminam</i> appears to me to be contracted from <i>fœmina eam</i>;<a id="FNanchor_308" href="#Footnote_308" class="fnanchor">308</a>
-whence we may, perhaps, conclude that in the formation of different
-languages, the same ideas have occurred to the minds of
-those who framed them; but have been differently combined,
-and consequently differently expressed. Who would have
-thought that the barbarous idioms of the American savages
-could have thrown light on the original formation of the noble
-and elegant language of ancient Rome? Does not this very
-clearly shew that nothing is indifferent in science, and above all,
-that we ought by no means to despise what we do not know?</p>
-
-<p>I thought we had exhausted all the verbal forms of the Delaware
-language, when I accidentally fell upon one which Zeisberger
-has not mentioned in his grammar, but of which he gives
-an example in his vocabulary or spelling-book. It is a curious
-combination of the relative pronoun “<i>what</i>” or “<i>that which</i>”
-with an active verb, regularly conjugated through the several
-transitions or personal forms. The author thus conjugates the
-present of the indicative.</p>
-
-<h3>FIRST TRANSITION.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Elan, <i>what I tell thee</i>,</td>
-    <td>ellek, <i>what I tell you</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elak, <i>what I tell him</i>.</td>
-    <td>elachgup, <i>what I tell them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h3>SECOND TRANSITION.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Eliyan, <i>what thou tellest me</i>,</td>
-    <td>eliyenk, <i>what thou tellest us</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elan, <i>what thou tellest him</i>.</td>
-    <td>elachtup, <i>what thou tellest them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_428">428</span></p>
-
-<h3>THIRD TRANSITION.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Elit, <i>what he tells me</i>,</td>
-    <td>elquenk, <i>what he tells us</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elquon, <i>what he tells thee</i>,</td>
-    <td>elquek, <i>what he tells you</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elat, elguk, <i>what he tells him</i>.</td>
-    <td>elatup, elatschi, <i>what he tells them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h3>FOURTH TRANSITION.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Elenk, <i>what we tell you</i>,</td>
-    <td>ellek, <i>what we tell you</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elank, <i>what we tell him</i>.</td>
-    <td>elanquik, <i>what we tell them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h3>FIFTH TRANSITION.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Eliyek, <i>what you tell me</i>,</td>
-    <td>eliyenkup, <i>what you tell us</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elatup, <i>what you tell him</i>.</td>
-    <td>elaachtitup, <i>what you tell them</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<h3>SIXTH TRANSITION.</h3>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <th><i>Singular.</i></th>
-    <th><i>Plural.</i></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Elink, <i>what they tell me,</i>,</td>
-    <td>elgeyenk, <i>what they tell us</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elquonnik, <i>what they tell thee</i>,</td>
-    <td>elgeyek, <i>what they tell you</i>,</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>elaachtit, <i>what they tell him</i>.</td>
-    <td>elatschik, <i>what they tell us</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>Thus I have given myself the pleasure of transcribing this
-single tense of one of the moods of this beautiful verb, which I
-find is used also in the sense of “<i>as I tell thee</i>,” &amp;c., and is a
-striking example of the astonishing powers of this part of speech
-in the Delaware language. Can you tell me where those powers
-end? Is there anything which a Delaware verb will not express
-in some form or other? I am no longer astonished to
-find that Mr. Zeisberger has not displayed in his grammar all
-the richness of this idiom. A single verb, with its various forms
-and transitions, would almost fill a volume, and there are no less
-than eight conjugations, all of which were to be explained and
-illustrated by examples!</p>
-
-<p>But it is not in the verbs alone that consist the beauties of this
-language. The other parts of speech also claim our attention.
-There I find, as well as in the verbs, forms and combinations of
-which I had not before conceived an idea. For instance, Zeisberger
-tells us that there are nouns substantive in the Delaware
-which have a <i>passive mood</i>! Strange as this may appear to
-those who are unacquainted with Indian forms, it is nevertheless
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_429">429</span>
-a fact which cannot be denied; for our author gives us several
-examples of this <i>passive noun</i>, all ending with the substantive
-termination <i>wagan</i>, which, as you have informed me, corresponds
-with the English <i>ness</i>, in “happiness,” and the German <i>heit</i> or
-<i>keit</i>, in the numerous words ending with these syllables. Permit
-me to select some of the examples given by Zeisberger.</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Machelemuxowagan, <i>honour, the being honoured</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gettemagelemuxowagan, <i>the receiving favour, mercy, tenderness</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mamschalgussiwagan,<a id="FNanchor_309" href="#Footnote_309" class="fnanchor">309</a> <i>the being held in remembrance</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Witahemgussowagan, <i>the being assisted or helped</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mamintochimgussowagan,<a id="FNanchor_310" href="#Footnote_310" class="fnanchor">310</a> <i>the being esteemed</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wulakenimgussowagan, <i>the being praised</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Machelemoachgenimgussowagan, <i>the receiving honour and praise</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Amangachgenimgussowagan, <i>the being raised or elevated by praise</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Schingalgussowagan, <i>the being hated</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mamachtschimgussowagan, <i>the being insulted</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>You will, I am afraid, be disposed to think that we have
-changed places, and that I am presuming to give you instruction
-in the Delaware language; but I am only repeating
-to you the lessons that I have learned from Zeisberger, to
-save you the trouble of explaining what I can obtain from
-another source; to be corrected, if I have committed mistakes,
-and to receive from you the information which my author does
-not give. Besides, as our correspondence is intended for the
-use of the Historical Committee, my occasional extracts from
-Zeisberger, and the observations to which they give rise, are addressed
-to them as well as to you, and under your correction, may
-contribute to give them a clearer idea of the forms of the Indian
-languages. Our letters thus form a kind of epistolary conference
-between the scholar and his master, held before a learned
-body, who profit even by the ignorance of the student, as it
-draws fuller and more luminous explanations from the teacher.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_430">430</span>
-Had I proceeded otherwise, your task would have been much
-more laborious and troublesome, and it would have been ungenerous
-to have exacted it from you.</p>
-
-<p>In this manner I have relieved you from the trouble of explaining
-the <i>passive substantives</i> of Zeisberger, unless I should
-have mistaken his meaning, in which case, you will, of course,
-set me right. But this author does not tell us whether there
-are on the other hand <i>active substantives</i>, such as “<i>the honouring</i>,”
-“<i>the favouring</i>,” “<i>the remembering</i>,” “<i>the praising</i>,” “<i>the
-insulting</i>,” “<i>the hating</i>.” Here I beg you will be so good as to
-supply his deficiency, and explain what he has left unexplained.</p>
-
-<p>I find also that there are diminutive words in the Delaware,
-as in the Italian, such as <i>lennotit</i>, a little man, (from <i>lenno</i>); <i>amementit</i>,
-a little child, (from <i>amemens</i>); <i>wiquames</i>, a little house,
-(from <i>wiquam</i>), &amp;c. Pray, are there also augmentatives? Is
-there any difference between the diminutive terminations <i>tit</i>
-and <i>es</i>, and what is it?</p>
-
-<p>I have been told that you intend soon to visit Philadelphia;
-I shall rejoice to find it true, and to form a personal acquaintance
-with you, which, I hope, will produce a lasting friendship.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<h2 id="LETTER_XXVI">LETTER XXVI.<br />
-
-<span class="medium">FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.</span></h2>
-
-<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Bethlehem</span>, 10th October, 1816.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir.</span>&mdash;I have hesitated whether I should answer your
-favour of the 1st inst., being very soon to set out for Philadelphia,
-where I shall be able to explain to you verbally everything
-that you wish to know in a much better manner than I
-can do in writing. As there are, however, but few questions
-in your letter, and those easily answered, I sit down to satisfy
-your enquiry, which will for the present close our correspondence.
-If you think proper to resume it after my return to this
-place, you will find me as ready as ever to continue our Indian
-disquisitions.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_431">431</span></p>
-
-<p>In the first place, it cannot, I think, properly be said that substantives
-in general in the Delaware language have a passive
-mood; but there are substantives which express a passive situation,
-like those which you have cited, after Mr. Zeisberger. I
-do not know of any words which express the same thing <i>actively</i>,
-except the infinitives of active verbs, which are in that case substantively
-used. Such are,</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Shingalgundin, <i>to hate</i>; or <i>the hating</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Machelemuxundin, <i>to honour</i>; or <i>the honouring</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mamachkimgundin, <i>to insult</i> (by words); or <i>the insulting</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>The diminutive forms in the Indian are <i>tit</i> and <i>es</i>; the former
-is generally applied to animate, and the latter to inanimate
-things. Thus we say <i>lennotit</i>, a little man; <i>amementit</i>, a little
-child; <i>wiquames</i>, a small house; and <i>amocholes</i>, a small canoe.
-This rule does not hold, however, in all cases; for the little fawn
-of a deer, although animate, is called <i>mamalis</i>, and a little dog
-among the Minsi is called <i>allumes</i>, (from <i>allum</i>, a dog.) <i>Chis</i> or
-<i>ches</i>, is also a diminutive termination, which is sometimes applied
-to beasts; <i>achtochis</i> and <i>achtoches</i>, “a small deer.”</p>
-
-<p>Augmentatives are compounded from the word <i>chingue</i>, which
-signifies large; and sometimes the two words are separately
-used.</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Chingue, <i>or</i> m’chingue puschis, <i>a large cat</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Chingewileno (for <i>chingue lenno</i>), <i>a tall stout man</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Chingot&aelig;ney (for <i>chingue ot&aelig;ney</i>), <i>a large town</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Chingi wiquam, <i>a large house</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Chingamochol, <i>a large canoe</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Chingachgook, <i>a large snake</i>, &amp;c.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>There are a few augmentatives formed in a different manner;
-for instance, from <i>pachkshican</i> or <i>kshican</i>, “a knife,” are formed
-<i>pachkschicanes</i>, “a small knife,” and <i>m’chonschicanes</i>,<a id="FNanchor_311" href="#Footnote_311" class="fnanchor">311</a> “a large
-knife;” still it is easy to see that <i>m’chon</i>, in the latter word, is
-derived from <i>chingue</i>, large or great, which, with a little variation,
-brings it within the same rule with the others.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_432">432</span></p>
-
-<p>You have, no doubt, observed in Zeisberger the terminations
-<i>ink</i> and <i>unk</i>, which express the idea of locality, coupled with a
-substantive, as for instance:</p>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">Utenink, <i>or</i> ot&aelig;nink, <i>from</i> ot&aelig;ney, <i>a town</i>; <i>in the town</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Utenink n’da, <i>I am going to town</i>, or <i>into the town</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Utenink noom, <i>I am coming from within the town</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Sipunk, (<i>from</i> sipo) <i>to</i> or <i>into the river</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">M’bink, (<i>from</i> m’bi) <i>in the water</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Hakink, (<i>from</i> hacki) <i>in</i> or <i>on the earth</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Awossagamewunk, (<i>from</i> awossageme), <i>in heaven</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wachtschunk n’da, <i>I am going up the hill</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wachtschunk noom, <i>I come from the hill</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Hitgunk, <i>on</i> or <i>to the tree</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ochunk, <i>at his father’s</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p>As you must have observed that many of our Indian names
-of places end with one or other of these terminations, such as
-<i>Minisink</i>, <i>Moyamensing</i>, <i>Passyunk</i>, &amp;c., you will understand that
-all these names are in what we might call the <i>local</i> case, which
-accounts for the great number of those which end in this manner.</p>
-
-<p>I beg you will not write to me any more for the present, as I
-do not know how soon I may have the pleasure of seeing you.
-I anticipate great satisfaction from your acquaintance, and hope
-it will be improved into a true <i>Indian</i> friendship.</p>
-
-<p class="author">I am, &amp;c.<br />
-J. HECKEWELDER.</p>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_433.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_433">433</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_434a.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="ERRATA_IN_PART_II">ERRATA IN PART II.</h2>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_434b.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Page</span>352,</td>
-    <td class="nowrap"><span class="smcap">Line</span> 11&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Zeisberger</i>” read “<i>Heckewelder</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">359,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">24&mdash;</td>
-    <td>(of letter vi.) For “<i>from</i>” read “<i>for</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">362,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>schawan&aacute;ki</i>” read “<i>schwanameki</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">16&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>chwani</i>” read “<i>chwami</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">383,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1&mdash;</td>
-    <td>(from the bottom) For “<i>k’lehelleya</i>” read “<i>k’lehellecheya</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">386,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">21&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>wulatopnachgat</i>” read “<i>wulaptonachgat</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">23&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>wulatonamin</i>” read “<i>wulatenamin</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">392,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">27&mdash;</td>
-    <td>(of letter xvii.) For “<i>manner</i>” read “<i>matter</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">397,</td>
-    <td colspan="2" class="i3">6 and 7&mdash;
-For “<i>achpansi</i>” read “<i>achpanschi</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">401,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">26&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Indian corn</i>” read “<i>a particular species of Indian corn</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">404,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>ktahoatell</i>” read “<i>ktahoalell</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">18&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>gunich</i>” read “<i>gunih</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">410,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>eliwulek</i>” read “<i>eluwilek</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">13&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>allowilen</i>” read “<i>allowilek</i>.” For the English translation,<br />of these two words, substitute “<i>the most extraordinary, the most wonderful</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">14&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>eluwantowit</i>” read “<i>eluwannitowit</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">16&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>elewassit</i>” read “<i>elewussit</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">18&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>the supremely good</i>” read “<i>the most holy one</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">424,</td>
-    <td colspan="2" class="i3">6 and 7&mdash;
-For “<i>schingieschin</i>” read “<i>schingiechin</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">429,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>mamschalgussiwagan</i>” read “<i>mamschalgussowagan</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdr">11&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>mamintochimgussowagan</i>” read “<i>mamintschimgussowagan</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdr">431,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4&mdash;</td>
-    <td>(from the bottom) For “<i>m’chonschicanes</i>” read “<i>m’chonschican</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_434c.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2>ADDITIONAL ERRATUM IN PART I.</h2>
-
-<table>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Page</span> 323,</td>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Line</span> 34&mdash;</td>
-    <td>For “<i>Indians</i>” read “<i>traders</i>.”</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_434d.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_434">434</span></p>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_435">435</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_436a.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<h2>
-<span class="large">PART III.</span><br />
-<br />
-<img src="images/i_436b.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<br />
-<br />
-WORDS, PHRASES, AND SHORT DIALOGUES,<br />
-<br />
-<span class="medium">IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE</span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="large"><i>LENNI LENAPE, OR DELAWARE INDIANS</i>.<br />
-<br />
-BY THE REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER,</span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="medium">OF BETHLEHEM.</span>
-</h2>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_436c.jpg"
-alt="" />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_436">436</span></p>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_437">437</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_438.jpg"
-alt="" /></p>
-
-<h2 id="WORDS_PHRASES_ETC">WORDS, PHRASES, ETC.,<br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF THE</span><br />
-
-<span class="large">LENNI LENAPE, OR DELAWARE INDIANS.</span></h2>
-
-<div class="list">
-<span class="trow">N’m&iacute;tzi, <i>I eat</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’g&aacute;uwi, <i>I drink</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’wachp&aacute;cheli, <i>I awake</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’m&eacute;nne, <i>I drink</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’papomm&iacute;ssi, <i>I walk</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’gagel&iacute;cksi, <i>I laugh</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’mamentschi, <i>I rejoice</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’d&aacute;schwil, <i>I swim</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’man&uacute;nxi, <i>I am angry</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’mikem&oacute;si, <i>I work</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dell&aacute;chgusi, <i>I climb</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’nanipauwi, <i>I stand</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’lem&aacute;tt&aacute;chpi, <i>I sit</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N&oacute;po, n&oacute;chpo, n’h&oacute;ppo, <i>I smoke</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’schiwel&eacute;ndam, <i>I am sorry</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’gatt&oacute;pui, <i>I am hungry</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’gatt&oacute;somi, <i>I am thirsty</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’p&aacute;lsi, <i>I am sick</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Nolam&aacute;lsi, <i>I am well</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’nipit&iacute;ne, <i>I have the tooth-ache</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’wil&iacute;ne, <i>I have a head-ache</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’wisch&aacute;si, <i>I am afraid</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’wiqu&iacute;hhalla, <i>I am tired</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’tschittan&eacute;si, <i>I am strong</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’schaw&uacute;ssi, <i>I am weak</i>, <i>feeble</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’t&uacute;ppocu, <i>I am wise</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’nan&oacute;lhand, <i>I am lazy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’pom&oacute;chksi, <i>I creep</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dellem&uacute;ske, <i>I am going away</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’gatt&uacute;ngwan, <i>I am sleepy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ot&eacute;nink n’da, <i>I am going to town</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gel&oacute;ltowak, <i>they are quarrelling</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">K’dah&oacute;lel, <i>I love you</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ksching&aacute;lel, <i>I hate you</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ponihi, <i>let me alone</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Palli &aacute;al, <i>go away</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">G&oacute;tschemunk, <i>go out of the house</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ickalli &aacute;al, <i>away with you</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kscham&eacute;hella, <i>run</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ne nipauwi, <i>stop there</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Undach &aacute;al, <i>come here</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kp&aacute;hi, <i>shut the door</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Tauw&uacute;nni, <i>open the door</i>, <i>lid</i>, &amp;c.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pisellissu, <i>soft</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pisalat&uacute;lpe, <i>soft-shelled tortoise</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kulup&aacute;tschi, <i>otherwise</i>, <i>on the other hand</i>, <i>else</i>, <i>however</i>.</span>
-
-<span class="trow" style="text-indent: -1em">
-<span class="division"><span class="num">Nahal&iacute;wi, }</span>
-<span class="denom">Eiyel&iacute;wi, }</span></span> <i>both</i> (of them.)
-</span>
-
-<span class="trow">Leu, <i>true</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Att&aacute;ne l&eacute;wi, <i>it is not true</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Alla gaski lewi, <i>it cannot be true</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">B&iacute;schi, b&iacute;schihk, <i>yes</i>, <i>indeed</i>, (it is so.)</span>
-<span class="trow">N’wingall&aacute;uwi, <i>I like to hunt</i>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_438">438</span></span>
-<span class="trow">N’winggi mikem&oacute;si, <i>I like to work</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’sch&iacute;ngi mikem&oacute;si, <i>I don’t like to work</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">M’wing&iacute;nammen, <i>I like it</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’wing&aacute;ndammen, <i>I like the taste</i> (of it).</span>
-<span class="trow">N’w&iacute;ngachpihn, <i>I like to be here</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’sch&iacute;ngachpihn, <i>I dislike being here</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’mechquihn, <i>I have a cold, cough</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Undach l&eacute;nni, <i>reach it hither</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Undach l&eacute;nnem&aacute;uwil, <i>reach it to me</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’gatt&oacute;pui, <i>I am hungry</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’gattosomi, <i>I am thirsty</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’wiqu&iacute;hilla, <i>I am tired, fatigued</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’tschitann&eacute;ssi, <i>I am strong</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’schauwihilla, <i>I am weak, faint</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’wisch&aacute;si, <i>I am afraid</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dapt&eacute;ssi, <i>I sweat</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’d&aacute;gotschi, <i>I am cold, freezing</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dellenn&oacute;wi, <i>I am a man</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dochqu&eacute;wi, <i>I am a woman</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dam&aacute;ndommen, <i>I feel</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’lehel&eacute;che, <i>I live, exist, draw breath</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">L&eacute;cheen, <i>to exist, breathe, draw breath, be alive</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Lech&eacute;won, <i>breath</i>.</span>
-
-<span class="trow">
-<i>Note.</i> As we would ask a person whom
-we had not seen for a long time:
-“Are you <i>alive</i> yet?”&mdash;or, is such
-and such a one yet <i>alive</i>? the Indian
-would say:</span>
-
-<span class="trow">Ili klehel&eacute;che? <i>do you draw breath yet</i>?</span>
-<span class="trow">Lehel&eacute;che &iacute;li n&iacute;tis, N. N.? <i>does my favourite friend</i> N. N. <i>yet draw breath</i>?</span>
-<span class="trow">Gooch ili lehelecheu? <i>does your father draw breath yet</i>?</span>
-<span class="trow">G&aacute;hawees ili lehelecheu? <i>does your mother draw breath yet</i>?</span>
-<span class="trow">N’tschu! <i>my friend</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’tsch&uacute;tti, <i>dear, beloved friend</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Nitis, <i>confidential friend</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Geptschat, <i>a fool</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Geptsch&aacute;tschik, <i>fools</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Lepp&oacute;at, <i>wise</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Leppoeu, <i>he is wise</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Leppo&aacute;tschik, <i>wise men, wise people</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">S&oacute;kelaan, <i>it rains</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">K’schilaan, <i>it rains hard</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">P&eacute;lelaan, <i>it begins to rain</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Achwi s&oacute;kelaan, <i>it rains very hard</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Alla s&oacute;kelaan, <i>it has left off raining</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Peelh&aacute;cquon, <i>it thunders</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Sasapel&eacute;helleu, <i>it lightens</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Petaqu&iacute;echen, <i>the streams are rising</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">M’chaqui&eacute;chen, <i>the streams are up, high</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Chopp&eacute;cat, <i>the water is deep</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Meetschi hig&iacute;helleu, <i>the waters are falling</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">S&iacute;chilleu me&eacute;tschi, <i>the waters have run off</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Tateh&uacute;ppecat, <i>shallow water</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gahan, <i>very low water, next to being dried up</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">K’schupp&eacute;helleu, <i>a strong current, riffle</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pulp&eacute;cat, <i>deep dead water, as in a cove or bay</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Clamp&eacute;ching, <i>a dead running stream, the current imperceptible</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ksch&aacute;chan, <i>the wind</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ta &uacute;ndchen? <i>from whence blows the wind</i>?</span>
-<span class="trow">Lowann&eacute;unk &uacute;ndchen, <i>the wind comes from the north</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Schawann&eacute;unk &uacute;ndchen, <i>the wind comes from the south</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Schawan&aacute;chen, <i>south wind</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Lowann&aacute;chen, <i>north wind</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wundchenn&eacute;unk, <i>in the west</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gachpattey&eacute;unk, <i>in the east</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Moschh&aacute;quot, <i>a clear sky</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kschiechp&eacute;cat, <i>clear water, clear, pure water</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Achgumh&oacute;cquat, <i>cloudy</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">P&aacute;ckenum, <i>dark</i>, (very.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Pekenink, <i>in the dark</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pisgeu, <i>it is dark</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pisg&eacute;ke, <i>when it becomes dark</i>, (is dark.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Mah! <i>there, take it</i>!</span>
-<span class="trow">Yuni, <i>this</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Nanni, nan, <i>that</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wull&iacute;h, <i>yonder</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">W&aacute;chelemi, <i>afar off</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">W&aacute;chelemat? <i>is it afar off, a great way off</i>?</span>
-<span class="trow">P&eacute;chuat, <i>near, nigh</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pechuw&iacute;wi, <i>near</i>, (not far off.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Pech&uacute;tschi, <i>near</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pechu lennitti, <i>directly, presently</i>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_439">439</span></span>
-<span class="trow">Pechu, <i>soon</i>, <i>directly</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Al&iacute;ge, <i>if so</i>, <i>nevertheless</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Al&iacute;ge n’dallem&uacute;sca, <i>I will go for all</i>, <i>nevertheless I will go</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Yu &uacute;ndachqui! <i>this way</i>, <i>to this side</i>!</span>
-<span class="trow">Icka &uacute;ndachqui, <i>to yon side</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ickalli &uacute;ndachqui! <i>still further on that way!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Wullih! <i>yonder!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Wull&iacute;h t&aacute;h! <i>beyond that!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Penn&oacute; wull&iacute;h! <i>look yonder!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Nachgi&eacute;chen, <i>it has hit against something</i>, (cannot move or be driven forward,) as <i>a joist</i>, <i>a pin in a building</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Clag&aacute;chen, <i>it rests on something in the water, is grounded</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Clag&aacute;chen am&oacute;chol, <i>the canoe is aground, rests on something</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Clag&aacute;chen aschwitchan, <i>the raft has grounded</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Tauwihilla, <i>sunk</i>, <i>it has sunk</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’d&aacute;mochol k’tauw&iacute;hille, <i>my canoe sunk</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gachpattol am&oacute;chol, <i>take the canoe out of the water</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gachpall&aacute;tam, <i>let us get out and go on shore</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pusik! <i>embark!</i> (ye.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Pusil! <i>embark!</i> (thou.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Wisch&iacute;ksil! <i>be thou vigilant, quick, in earnest and exert thyself!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Wisch&iacute;ksik! <i>be ye vigilant, in earnest, quick!</i> (about it.)</span>
-
-<span class="trow"><i>Note.</i> The word wisch&iacute;ksi or wisch&iacute;xi
-is by the white people interpreted
-as signifying “<i>be strong</i>,” which does
-not convey the true meaning of this
-word: it comprehends more; it asks
-for <i>exertions to be made, to fulfil the
-object</i>.</span>
-
-<span class="trow">N’petalog&aacute;lgun! <i>I am sent as a messenger!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">N’sagim&aacute;um petalog&aacute;lgun yu p&eacute;tschi, <i>my chief has sent me as a messenger to you</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Matta nutschquem’p&aacute;wi, <i>I am not come for nothing</i>, (meaning, being on an errand.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Pechu k’pendammen&eacute;wo wentsche payan, <i>you will soon hear why I am come here</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Tschingetsch km&aacute;tschi? <i>when do you return home again?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">S&eacute;dpook! <i>at day break!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">N’dellgun lachpi gatta p&aacute;ame, <i>I was told to hasten, and return quickly</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Lachp&iacute;, <i>quick</i>, (without delay.)</span>
-<span class="trow">N’mauwi pihm, <i>I am going to take a sweat</i> (at the sweat house).</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dapi pihm, <i>I am come from sweating</i> (from the sweat house).</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dapell&aacute;uwi, <i>I am come from hunting</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’d&aacute;pi notam&aelig;si, <i>I come from taking fish with the spear</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dapi &aacute;man, <i>I come from fishing with the hook and line</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’dapi achqu&aacute;neman, <i>I come from bushnet fishing</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Notamesh&iacute;can, <i>a fishing spear</i>, <i>gig</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Aman, <i>a fish hook</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Achqu&aacute;neman, <i>a bush net</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Apatschi&aacute;ne, <i>when I return</i>.</span>
-
-<span class="trow" style="text-indent: -1em">
-<span class="division"><span class="num">G&oacute;phammen, }</span>
-<span class="denom">K’p&aacute;hammen,}</span></span><i>to shut up anything close</i>, <i>a door</i>, &amp;c.
-</span>
-
-<span class="trow">Kp&aacute;hi, <i>shut the door</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kp&aacute;skhamen, <i>to plug up tight</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Tauw&uacute;n, <i>open the door</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Tauw&uacute;nni, <i>open the door for me</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">M’bi&aacute;k, <i>a whale</i>, (fish.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh’ allauw&iacute;tan! <i>come, let us go a hunting!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Nelema n’metenax&iacute;wi, <i>I am not yet ready</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">K’metenaxi y&uacute;cke? <i>are you now ready?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">N&eacute;lema ta! <i>not yet!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Pechu len&iacute;tti, <i>by and by</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Lah&aacute;ppa pehil! <i>wait a little for me!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Nelema n’gischamb&iacute;la n&iacute;wash! <i>I have not yet done tying up my pack!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Y&uacute;h’ yeh&uacute;cke allemusk&eacute;tam! <i>well now let us go on!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Schuck sokel&aacute;an gacht&aacute;uwi! <i>but it will rain!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Quanna ta! <i>even if it does</i>, <i>no matter if it does</i>!</span>
-<span class="trow">Alla kschil&aacute;nge, <i>when the shower is over</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ta hatsch gemauwik&eacute;neen? <i>at what place shall we encamp?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Wdiungoakh&aacute;nnink, <i>at the white oak run</i>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_440">440</span></span>
-<span class="trow">Enda gochgochg&aacute;chen, <i>at the crossing, fording-place</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Enda tachtscha&uacute;nge, <i>at the narrows</i>, (where the hill comes close on the river.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Meechek achsinik, <i>at the big rock</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gauw&aacute;henink, <i>at the place of the fallen timbers</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Sikh&eacute;unk, <i>at the salt spring</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pachs&eacute;yink, <i>in the valley</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wachtsch&uacute;nk, <i>on the hill</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Yap&eacute;wi, <i>on the river bank</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">G&aacute;mink, <i>on the other side of the river</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Eli sh&iacute;ngeek, <i>on the flat</i>, (level upland.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Mah&oacute;nink, <i>at the lick</i>, (deer lick.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Ot&eacute;nink, <i>in the town</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">T&eacute;kenink, <i>in the woods</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Hachkih&aacute;canink, <i>in the field</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pockhap&oacute;ckink, <i>at the creek between the two hills</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Menatheink, <i>on the island</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Enda lechauh&aacute;nne, <i>at the forks of the river</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Enda lechauw&iacute;echen, <i>at the forks of the road</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Sakunk, <i>at the outlet of the river</i>, (mouth of the river.)</span>
-<span class="trow">T’huppec&uacute;nk, <i>at the cold spring</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">K’m&eacute;sha? <i>did you kill a deer?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Atta, n’pall&eacute;ha! <i>no, I missed him!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh’ all&aacute;cqui! <i>what a pity!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Biesch kn&eacute;wa? <i>then you did see one?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Nachen n’newa ach&uacute;ch, <i>three times I saw deer</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Quonna eet kp&uacute;ngum machtit, <i>perhaps your powder is bad</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Na leu, <i>that is true</i>, <i>so it turned out to be</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Achtsch&iacute;ngi pockteu, <i>it scarcely took fire</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Achtuchu&iacute;ke w&eacute;rnan? <i>are there plenty of deer where you was?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Atta ta h&uacute;sca, <i>not a great many</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N&aacute;ngutti schuck n’peenh&aacute;lle, <i>I saw but few tracks</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Machk kpenh&aacute;lle? <i>did you track any bears?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Biesch n’penh&aacute;lle mauchsu, <i>I tracked but one</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Schuck n’d&aacute;llemons mekane, <i>but my dog</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Palli uchsch&iacute;ha, <i>drove him off</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’gatta amoch&oacute;lhe, <i>I want to make a canoe</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">W&iacute;tschemil! <i>help me!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">N’pachkamen gacht&aacute;uwi, <i>I want to get bled</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh, nanne l&eacute;ketsch, <i>well do so</i>, <i>let it be so</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’matam&aacute;lsi, <i>I feel unwell</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Woak n’nipit&iacute;ne, <i>and have the tooth-ache</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">W&iacute;tschemil! <i>help me!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Pon&iacute;hil, <i>let me alone</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Tschitg&uacute;ssil! <i>be still</i>, <i>hold your tongue</i>!</span>
-<span class="trow">Ksch&aacute;hel! <i>strike hard</i>, <i>lay on well</i>! (on wood, &amp;c.)</span>
-<span class="trow">M&iacute;leen, <i>to give</i>, <i>the giving</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mil, <i>give</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mili, <i>give me</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Milineen, <i>give us</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Miltin, <i>given</i>, (was already.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Milto&aacute;gan, <i>a present</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’milgun, <i>it was given to me</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Milo, <i>give him</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mil&aacute;tamo, <i>let us give him</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Sehe! <i>hush</i>, <i>be quiet</i>!</span>
-<span class="trow">Elke! <i>O dear</i>, <i>wonderful</i>!</span>
-<span class="trow">Ekesa! <i>miserable</i>, <i>for shame</i>!</span>
-<span class="trow">Supp&iacute;nquall, <i>tears</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Lep&aacute;cku, <i>he cries</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">E goh&aacute;n, <i>yes, indeed</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">K&eacute;hella, <i>aye</i>, <i>yes</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kehell&aacute;? <i>so, is it possible?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Kehella l&aacute;! <i>O yes</i>, <i>so it is</i>!</span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh kehella! <i>well, then!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">La kella! <i>to be sure</i>, <i>’tis so</i>!</span>
-<span class="trow">Kehella kella! <i>yes, yes!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">E-E, <i>yes</i>, (a lazy <i>yes</i>.)</span>
-<span class="trow">M&aacute;tta, <i>no</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">T&aacute;, <i>no</i>, (a lazy <i>no</i>.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Tag&uacute;, <i>no</i>, <i>not</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Atta ta, <i>no, no</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Eekhockew&iacute;tschik mamachtag&eacute;wak, <i>the nations are warring against each other</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh all&aacute;cqui na lissichtit, <i>indeed it is a pity they do so</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Napenaltowaktsch&eacute;, <i>they will be scalping each other</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Auween won gintsch pat? <i>who is that who just now came?</i>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_441">441</span></span>
-<span class="trow">Takt&aacute;ani, <i>I don’t know</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mauwi penn&oacute;, <i>go and see</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Auween kh&aacute;ckev? <i>who are you?</i> (of what nation.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Lenn&aacute;pe n’hackey, <i>I am an Indian</i>, (of the Lenni Lenape.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Ta k&oacute;om? <i>where do you come from?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Ot&eacute;nink n&oacute;om, <i>I come from the town</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Auween kpetschi, witscheuchgun? <i>who came with you here?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Na n&iacute;pauwit, <i>he who stands there</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Lenn&aacute;pe? <i>is he an Indian?</i> (a Lenni Lenape.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Tah, Mengwe, <i>no, he is a Mingo, an Iroquois</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kpetschi witscheuchgun otenink untschi? <i>did he come with you from the town?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Matta! n’mattel&uacute;kgun, <i>no! he fell in with me</i> (by the way).</span>
-<span class="trow">Ta tall&iacute;? <i>where?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Wulli tah achtscha&uacute;nge! <i>yonder at the narrows!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Ki gieschqu&iacute;ke? <i>this day?</i> (to-day.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Atta! welaqu&iacute;ke, <i>no! last evening</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kœcu undochwe wentschi yu p&aacute;at? <i>what is he come here for</i>, <i>what is he after</i>?</span>
-<span class="trow">Taktani, schuck n’tschup&iacute;nawe! <i>I don’t know, but I mistrust him!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Tcshpin&aacute;xu g&aacute;henna, <i>he appears suspicious</i>, <i>has a suspicious appearance</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gichgemotket qu&oacute;nna, <i>probably he is a thief</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wewitschi eet, <i>most likely</i>, (he is such.)</span>
-<span class="trow">N’gemotem&uacute;ke n’d&aacute;llemons nechna&uacute;nges, <i>my horse has been stolen from me</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wichw&iacute;nggi gemotg&eacute;wak Menge, <i>the Mingoes are very fond of stealing</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh amachg&iacute;dieu, <i>they are vagabonds</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gacht&iacute;ngetsch, <i>next year</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Lehelechejane, <i>If I live</i>, (or am alive.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Gamhackinktsch n’da, <i>I will go across the sea</i>, (or more properly) <i>to the country beyond the sea</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Cl&aacute;machphil! <i>sit still!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Sch&iacute;ki a na Lenno, <i>that is a fine, pretty man</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Quatsch luppackhan? <i>why do you cry?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">N’nilchgun na nipauwit, <i>he that stands there struck me</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Uchsch&iacute;mo meetschi, <i>he has already ran off</i>, <i>made away with himself</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">T’ch&uacute;nno! <i>catch him!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Gachb&iacute;lau! <i>tie him!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Lach&eacute;nau! <i>let him loose!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Weemi, <i>or</i> wemi auween lue, <i>everybody says</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Wigwingi gelolt&oacute;ak schw&aacute;nnakwak, <i>that the white people are fond of quarrelling</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’mat&uacute;nguam, <i>I had a bad dream</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’m&aacute;tschi, <i>I will go home</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Siquonne lappitsch knewi lehellecheyan! <i>in the spring you will see me again if I am alive!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh, schuck m&aacute;mschali! <i>well, but do remember me!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Natsch leu, <i>it shall be so</i>, <i>that shall be done</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’nuntsch&iacute;mke, <i>I have been called</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Auween guntschimgun? <i>who called you?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">N’dochqu&eacute;um, <i>my wife</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">N’nitsch undach aal! <i>come hither my child!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Lachpi! <i>quick!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Nayu n&iacute;pauwi (or n&iacute;pawi), <i>there stand</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pell&aacute;h, <i>indeed</i>, <i>surely</i>, <i>so so</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Petalamo auween, <i>somebody sounds</i> (calls out) <i>the alarm yell</i>, (signifying danger at hand.)</span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh, shimo&iacute;tam! <i>come, let us run off!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">N&eacute;lema ta! <i>not yet!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Quanna eet auween gatta napen&aacute;lgun! <i>perhaps somebody is coming to attack and scalp us!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Wewitschi eet, <i>probably</i>, <i>may-be</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Penn&aacute;u! <i>look!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Wulli ta p&eacute;pannik! <i>yonder they are coming!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Auween kn&eacute;wa? <i>who do you see?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Machelook, <i>or</i> chelook schw&aacute;nnakwak, <i>many white people</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Papomiscuak? <i>are they on foot?</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Al&eacute;nde, <i>some of them</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Schuk matta we&eacute;mi, <i>but not all of them</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gachtonalukguntsch matta uchschimui&eacute;nge, <i>we shall be attacked if we do not make off with ourselves</i>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_442">442</span></span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh, uchschimuítam alíge, <i>well then, let us make off at any rate</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Mattapewíwak nik schwannakwak, <i>the white people are a rascally set of beings</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kilun&eacute;wak wingi, <i>they are giving to lying</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kschingg&aacute;lguna gehenna, <i>they hate us truly</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Gemotemukguna w&iacute;ngi, <i>they like, are disposed to rob us, are thieves upon us</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Yuh, gachtonal&aacute;tam! <i>well, let us fall upon them, attack them</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Longundowin&aacute;quot, <i>it looks likely for peace</i>, <i>there is a prospect of peace</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pennau won! <i>look at that one!</i></span>
-<span class="trow">Achg&iacute;euchsu, <i>he is drunk</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Achgep&iacute;ngwe, <i>he is blind</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Achg&eacute;pcheu, <i>he is deaf</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kp&iacute;tscheu, <i>he is foolish</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">S&oacute;psu, <i>he is naked</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Maman&uacute;nxu, <i>he is angry</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Sch&aacute;aksu, <i>he is covetous</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Pihmt&oacute;nheu, <i>he has a crooked mouth</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Ilau, <i>he is a great war-captain</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Sak&iacute;mau, <i>he is a chief</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Kschamehell&aacute;tam, <i>let us run together</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">T&iacute;paas, <i>a hen</i>. Tip&aacute;tit, <i>a chicken</i>.</span>
-<span class="trow">Tsch&oacute;lens, <i>a bird</i>. Tschol&eacute;ntit, <i>a little bird</i>.</span>
-</div>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_443.jpg"
-alt="" />
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_443">443</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2 id="INDEX">INDEX.</h2>
-
-<ul class="index">
-
-<li class="ifrst">Abbott, Rachel, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Abenakis, a name of the Lenape, xliii., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Acadia, inhabited by the Souriquois, etc., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Achsinning, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Achtschingi clammui, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Adair, James I., <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><i>Adelung’s Mithridates</i>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ahouand&acirc;te or Wyandots, xliv.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Albany, xxx., xxxi., <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Albany River, the, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Algonquins, the, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</li><li class="isub1">language, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Allegheny River, the, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alligewi or Allegheny, the, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alligewi Sipu, the Allegheny River, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Anderson, John, a Quaker trader, <a href="#Page_241">241</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Apalaches or Wapanachkis, the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Apalachian nation, the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aquanoshioni, national name of the Six Nation Indians, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arundel and Robbins, Messrs., <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Assiniboils or Sioux, the, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Assinipoetuk, the, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aubrey, L&aelig;titia, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Bartholinus, Kasper, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><i>Barton’s New Views</i>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bear, the naked, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belts of Wampum, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Benezet, John Stephen, xxx.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bethlehem, xxx.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Indians at, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Beverwyck, xxxi.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Big Beaver River, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blackfoot Indians, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Boudinot, Elias, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brodhead, General Daniel, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Butterfield’s <i>Crawford’s Campaign against Sandusky</i> referred to, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Calhoon, Thomas, an Indian trader, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canada, xxxvi., <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canai or Kanhawas, the, xliv., <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canajoharie, xxxi.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canaways, the, xliv.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canawese, the, xliv.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canibas, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carolina, xxxii., xxxvii.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carolina, North, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carver, Captain Jonathan, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his “<i>Three Years’ Travel through the interior parts of North America</i>,” <i>ibid.</i>; <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Catawbas, the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cayahaga, Delaware preacher at, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cayahaga River, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cayugas, the, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chaktawas, the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chapman, Abraham, and John, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chapman, a Jew trader, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chaquaquock, Indian name for the English, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Charlevoix, Father, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chemenk, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chenos, an old Indian, brings down rain, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cherokees, the, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">language of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chesapeake Bay, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chickesaws, the, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chingleclamoose, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chippeways or Algonquins, language of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>; xl., <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_444">444</span></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Choctaws, the, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Christian Indians, xl.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Christinaux, the, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Clavigero, the Abb&eacute;, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cochnewagoes, the, a mixed race of Indians, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Coghnewago, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Coghnewago Hills, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Colden, Cadwallader, his <i>History of the Five Indian Nations</i> quoted, xxxii., xxxiv., xliii., <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><i>Collections of Maps, Historical Society</i>, referred to, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><i>Colonial Records of Penna.</i>, xxxv., <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Conecocheague, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Conestoga Indians, the murder of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Connecticut, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Conois, the, xliv.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cornplanter, the, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cornstalk, the, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Coshocton, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Crantz, David, a Moravian historian, his <i>History of Greenland</i> referred to, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Crawford. Col. William, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">tortured by Indians, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dialogue with Capt. Wingenund, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Creeks, the, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cushman, the Rev. Mr., of the Plymouth Colony, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">David, a Moravian Indian, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">David’s Path, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">De Laet, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Delamattenos, the, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">De la Ware, Lord, xliii.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Delaware hunter and the bear (anecdote), <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Delaware Water Gap, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Denmark, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Detroit, xl., <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><i>Detroit Gazette</i> quoted, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Doctol, Indian for Doctor, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Duncan, David, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dunmore’s War, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Du Ponceau to Heckewelder, letters of, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Du Ponceau to Wistar, letter of, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Du Pratz, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dutch, Indian account of their arrival in New York, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> <i>et seq.</i>; xxx., xxxii., xxxiii., xxxiv., xxxviii., <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dutchemaan, the Dutch so called by the Indians, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Du Vallon, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Easton, xxxv., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Edwards, Bryan, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Edwards, the Rev. Jonathan, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Egede, P., <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eliot, the Rev. John, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Elliot, Matthew, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Enda Mohatink, “<i>where human flesh was eaten</i>,” <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Esquimaux Indians, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Etchemins, the country of the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Evans, Mr., murder of, at Pittsburg, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Florida Indians, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Floridian languages, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Forks of Delaware, the, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fort Allen, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fort Duquesne, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fort Harmar, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fort McIntosh, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fort Washington, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Franklin at Fort Allen, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Freeman, Mr., an Indian Peace Commissioner, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">French and Indian War, the, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">French Missionaries, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Gaaschtinick or Albany, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gachgawatschiqua, a Shawano chief, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gambold, the Rev. John, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gelelemend or Killbuck, a Delaware chief, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">biographical sketch of, <i>ibid.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gentellemaan (gentleman), <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Georgia, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_445">445</span></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gibson, Col. John, biographical sketch of, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to the Rev. N. Seidel, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Girty, Simon, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gladwyn, Major, at Detroit, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Glicanican or Indian tobacco, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Glikhican, Isaac, a Moravian Indian, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gnadenh&uuml;tten on the Mahoning, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Goshachking, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">(See Coshocton.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Greenland, inhabitants of, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Moravian mission in, <i>ibid.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Greentown, incident occurring at, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Greenville, treaty of, xli., <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Guyandots, the, xliv.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Hardin, Mr., an Indian Peace Commissioner, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harris, John, on the site of Harrisburg, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Heckewelder, the Rev. John G. E., biographical sketch of, vii.-xiv.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Detroit, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">in Upper Canada, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">on the Muskingum, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">associated with Gen. R. Putnam, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">on the Big Beaver, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Tuscarawas, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Lower Sandusky, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at New Gnadenh&uuml;tten on the Huron, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dialogue with Killbuck, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dialogue with Chenos, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his “<i>Collection of the names of chieftains and eminent men of the Delaware Nation</i>” alluded to, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">general observations and anecdotes, <a href="#Page_310">310</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Post Vincennes, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Marietta, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">advice to travellers, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Heckewelder to Du Ponceau, letters of, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Heckewelder to Wistar, letters of, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry, Judge William, of Lancaster, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hermit’s Field, the, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hervas, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Holland, Luke, a Delaware, <a href="#Page_178">178</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hoosink, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hudson’s Bay Company, the, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Huron River, now the Clinton, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hurons, the, xliv.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">disunited from the Iroquois, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">language of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Iceland, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Indiana Territory, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Indian Grammars by the Spaniards, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Indians, their historical traditions, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">mounds and fortifications, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">treatment of, by the Europeans, <a href="#Page_76">76</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">general character, <a href="#Page_100">100</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">belief in an all-wise and good Creator, or Mannito, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">hospitality, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">civility, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">humor and wit, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">respect for the aged, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">sense of justice, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">form of government, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">education of their children, <a href="#Page_113">113</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">signs and hieroglyphics, <a href="#Page_127">127</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">drawings, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">hunters’ marks, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">oratory, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">metaphorical expressions, <a href="#Page_137">137</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">names given their own people and the whites, <a href="#Page_141">141</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">intercourse with each other, <a href="#Page_145">145</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">political manœuvres, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">manner of marriage and treatment of their wives, <a href="#Page_154">154</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">pride and greatness of mind, <a href="#Page_170">170</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">wars and the causes which lead to them, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">manner of surprising an enemy, <a href="#Page_177">177</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">peace-messengers, <a href="#Page_181">181</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">treaties of peace, <a href="#Page_185">185</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">ill treatment by the whites, <a href="#Page_187">187</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">food, and the manner of preparing it, <a href="#Page_193">193</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">dress, and love of ornaments, <a href="#Page_202">202</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">dances, songs, and sacrifices, <a href="#Page_208">208</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">scalp-whoops or yells, <a href="#Page_215">215</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">alarm-whoop, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">death-halloo, <i>ib.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">physical constitution and diseases, <a href="#Page_220">220</a> <i>et seq.</i>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_446">446</span></li>
-<li class="isub1"><i>materia medica</i>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">sweat-ovens, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">physicians and surgeons, <a href="#Page_228">228</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">doctors or jugglers, <a href="#Page_231">231</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">superstitions, <a href="#Page_239">239</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">manner of initiating boys, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">system of mythology, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">coats-of-arms, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li>
-<li class="isub1">behaviour towards the insane, and their ideas regarding suicide, <a href="#Page_257">257</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">drunkenness, <a href="#Page_261">261</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">funerals, <a href="#Page_268">268</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">friendships, <a href="#Page_277">277</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">preachers and prophets, <a href="#Page_290">290</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">computation of time, <a href="#Page_306">306</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">astronomical and geographical knowledge, <a href="#Page_308">308</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-<li class="isub1">general character compared with that of the whites, <a href="#Page_328">328</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Iroquois, the, <a href="#Page_95">95</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">supplied by the English with fire-arms, xxxii.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the name given to the Six Nations by the French, xliv.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the language, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">in the State of New York, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Irvine, General William, letter to Wm. More, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter from Washington, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Jefferson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Johnson, Sir William, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Juniata River, Shawanose on the, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Kanawha, the Great, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Karalit, language of the, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kickapoos, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Killbuck or Gelelemend, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dialogue with Heckewelder, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Killistenoes, the, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Knisteneaux, the, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Knox, H., Secretary of War, letter to Heckewelder, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Koguethagechton, Indian name of Capt. White Eyes, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kuequenaku, the Indian name of Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Labrador, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">La Chine, a murderous affair between two Indians at, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Laehauwake, Easton, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">La Hontan, Father, xliii., <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">list of Indian nations, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lake Erie, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lake St. Clair, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Languages, Indian, <a href="#Page_118">118</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Las Casas, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leather Lips, a Wyandot chief, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death of, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lehigh Hills, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lehigh River, the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lehigh Water Gap, the, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lehighton, site of Gnadenh&uuml;tten on the Mahoning, xxxi.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lenapewihittuck, the Delaware River, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lenni Lenape, national name of the Delawares, xxvi.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">were they or were they not conquered by the Mengwe? xxvii. <i>et seq.</i>; xiii.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">wars with the Iroquois, xxvii.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">settle on the Atlantic coast, xxviii.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">made women by the Iroquois, xxix.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">on New York Island, xxxvii.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">in the far West, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">on the Mississippi, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">confederated with the Mengwe to fight the Allegewi, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">on Chesapeake Bay, <i>ib.</i>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">on the Delaware, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">consent to become women, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">seek to gain their independence, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">take up arms against the English, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">assert their national independence, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their fate subsequent to 1763, and that of their kindred tribes, <a href="#Page_83">83</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their number, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">language, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">song of the warriors, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">words, phrases, etc., <a href="#Page_431">431</a> <i>et seq.</i>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Tortoise, Turkey, and Wolf tribes of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lincoln, Gen. Benjamin, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Logan, the well-known Indian chief, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his celebrated speech, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lord’s Prayer, the, in the Delaware, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Loskiel, the Rev. George H., biographical sketch of, xxix.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his <i>History of the Mission of the United Brethren</i>
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_447">447</span></li>
-<li class="isub1"><i>among the Indians of North America</i>” referred to, xxix., xxx., xxxvii., xl., <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quoted in full touching the making women of the Delawares by the Iroquois, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lower Sandusky, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">M&aelig;chachtinni, the name given by the Lenape to the Senecas, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Machtitschwanne, or Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mackenzie, Alexander, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mahicanni or Mohicans, xliii., <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their account of the Iroquois making women of the Delawares, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Moravian mission among them, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">called Mahingans, xliii., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mahikanders or Mohicans, xliii.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maine, Province of, xxviii., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Manahachtanienk, New York Island, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maqua, the Mohican name of the Six Nations, xliv., <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marietta, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maryland, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Matassins, the, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McKee, Alexander, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mechanschican, <i>i.e. Long Knives</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Meigs, Return Jonathan, U. S. Agent to the Cherokees, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><i>Memorials of the Moravian Church</i> referred to, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mengwe, Delaware name of the Six Nations, xxvi.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">in the Great Lake region, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">on the St. Lawrence, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their treachery toward the Lenni Lenape, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messissaugees, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miamis or Twightwees, xii.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">of Lenape origin, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their country, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Michael, a Monsey buried at Bethlehem, <a href="#Page_206">206</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Micmacs, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Minisink, the country of the Minsis, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mingoes, name given to the Six Nations by the whites, xliv., <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Minsis or Monseys, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miquon, Delaware name of William Penn, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mississippi River, the, xxvii., xxxii., xxxvii., <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mitchell, Mr., U. S. Agent to the Creeks, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mobilians, the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mohawks, the, xxxiv., xxxv., <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mohicanichtuck, Hudson’s River, xxxviii., <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mohicans, xxviii., xxx., xxxiii., <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Monongahela River, the, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Monsonies, the, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Montreal, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Moravian Indians, the, xl., <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">settle at Wyalusing, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">settle on the Muskingum, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">grant of lands by Congress to, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">on the Retrenche, <i>ibid.</i>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">near Detroit, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">murder of, on the Muskingum, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morgan, Col. George, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mourigans or Mohicans, xliii.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Muhheekanes or Mohicans, xliii.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Munsell’s <i>Collections of the History of Albany</i> quoted, xxxi.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Muskanecun Hills, the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Muskingum or Tuscarawas River, xl., <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Muskohgees or Creeks, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Namaesisipu, the Mississippi River, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nanticokes, the, xxviii., xliii., <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Natchez, the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Natick dialect, the, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Eliot’s Bible in the Natick, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Naudowessies, the, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nazareth, Capt. John at, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the Barony, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nentico or Nanticoke, xliv.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nescopeck, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New England, xxxii., <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_448">448</span></li>
-
-<li class="indx">New London, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New York Island, xxxvi., xxxvii., <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Niagara, xl., <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nocharauorsul, the ground hog, myth of, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nordmann’s Kill, xxx., xxxi., xxxv., <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">North River, the, xxxvii., <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nova Scotia, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Ohio, an Iroquois word, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the river, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Onas, Iroquois for William Penn, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Oneida, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Oneidas, the, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ongwe-honwe, the name given themselves by the Iroquois, xxxiv.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Onondagoes, the, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Openagi, the, xliii.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Openangoes, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Otay&aacute;chgo, Mohican name of the Nanticokes, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ottawas, the, xl., xii.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Owl Creek, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Pachgantschihilas, a Delaware chief, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Papunhank, a Monsey, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pascagoulas, the, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Paxnos, a Shawano chief, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Penn, William, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pequods, the, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Perth Amboy, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Philadelphia, Shawanose on the site of, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Indians on the site of, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pilgerruh, a Moravian Mission, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pine Plains, Dutchess Co., N. Y., <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pine Swamp, the, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pipe, a Delaware chief, biographical sketch of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">speech at Detroit, <i>ibid.</i>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pipe of Peace, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pittsburg, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Mr. Evans murdered at, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Point Pleasant, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pontiac, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Potomac River, the, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pottowatomies, the, xli., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Proctor, General Thomas, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Proud’s <i>History of Pennsylvania</i> quoted, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Psindamocan, a preparation of Indian corn, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Putnam, General Rufus, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pyrl&aelig;us, the Rev. J. Christopher, biographical sketch of, xxx.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his collection of Indian traditions in MS., <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">account of the conspiracy of the Five Nations quoted, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1"><i>Indian tradition</i> quoted, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Quaekels, Quakers so called by the Indians, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Quebec, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Rauch, Christian Henry, a Moravian Missionary, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">River Indians, Mohicans so called, xxxiv., xliii.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Robbins and Arundel, Messrs., <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rochefort, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rocky Mountains, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rogers’s <i>Key into the Language of the Indians of New England</i> referred to, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rosenbaum, Cornelius, a Delaware, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dialogue with Heckewelder, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Sagard, Father Samuel, xliv.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his Dictionary, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Samuel, a Moravian Indian, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sandusky, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Crawford’s campaign against, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sankhicanni, name given by the Lenape to the Mohawks, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Savannah, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Schatikooks or Mohicans, xliii.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scheyichbi, Indian name of New Jersey, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Schussele’s painting, “The Power of the Gospel,” <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Schuylkill River, the, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Schwannack, <i>i. e.</i>, “salt beings,” <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Schweinitz’s <i>Life of Zeisberger</i> referred to, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_449">449</span></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Senecas, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sganarady, a Mohawk chief’s account of the origin of the Indians, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sganiateratich-rohne, the Iroquois name of the Nanticokes, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shamokin, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shawanose, the, xxxix., xli., <a href="#Page_85">85</a> <i>et seq.</i>; <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shechschequon, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shenango, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shikilimus at Shamokin, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shingask, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">funeral of his wife, <a href="#Page_270">270</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shummunk, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Silver Heels, a Shawano, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sioux or Assiniboils, the, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Six Nations or Mengwe, their manner of attaining to power, xxxii. <i>et seq.</i>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">how they lost their power, xxxix. <i>et seq.</i>; xliv.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">eat human flesh, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">unable to conquer the Delawares, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their scheme to make women of the Delawares, <i>ib.</i>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">insult the Delawares, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Snake Indians, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Soccokis, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Souriquois, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sproat, Col. Ebenezer, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“<i>Star in the West, A</i>” referred to, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Steiner, the Rev. Abraham, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stenton, John, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his place attacked by Indians, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">St. Lawrence, the, xxviii., xxxvii., <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">St. Pierre, the, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stockbridge, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Susquehanna River, the, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sussee Indians, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sweat-ovens, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sweden, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Tadeuskund or Honest John, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tallegewi, the, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tamanend, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tamaqua, or King Beaver, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tammany Society, the, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tar-he, a Wyandot chief, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tassmanane, a preparation of Indian corn, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tatemy, Moses, Brainerd’s interpreter, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tawachguano, Delaware name of the Nanticokes, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tawalsantha, Indian name of Norman’s Kill, xxxi.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tecumseh, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thomas, a Susquehanna Indian at Bethlehem, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thomson, Charles, xxxvi.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thorhallesen, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><i>Transactions of the Massachusetts Historical Society</i> referred to, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trappers, the, Nanticokes so called, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Treaties held with the Indians between 1740 and 1760, xxxv.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trueman, Mr., an Indian Peace Commissioner, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><i>Trumbull’s History of Connecticut</i> referred to, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tschachgoos, the, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tuscarawas, the river, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the town, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tuscaroras, the, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Twightwees or Miamis, the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Umfreville, Mr., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Unalachtgo, Turkey Delawares, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Unamis or Turtles, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Unechtgo, Delaware name of Nanticokes, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Upper Sandusky, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Vater, Johann Severin, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vincennes, Post, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virginia, xxviii., <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virginians or “Long Knives,” <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><i>Volney’s View of the Soil and Climate of the United States</i> referred to, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Wabash River, the, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Waketemeki, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wampum, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wangomend, a Monsey preacher, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wapanachki, xliii., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_450">450</span></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wapsid Lenape, i. e. <i>the white people</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wawundochwalend, a chief of the Tuscaroras, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wayne, Gen’l Anthony, xli., <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Weiser, Conrad, xxx., xxxi., <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Weissport, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wells, William, and the bear, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wetterholt, Captain Jacob, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">White, a Nanticoke chief, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">White Eyes, Capt., a chief of the Western Delawares, xxxix.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">biographical sketch of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whitefield, the Rev. George, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Williamson, Capt. David, in command of militia at Gnadenh&uuml;tten on Muskingum, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his expedition by whom authorized, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wingenund, Capt., a Delaware, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dialogue with Col. Crawford, <a href="#Page_285">285</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wistar to Heckewelder, letters of, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wolf tribe of Delawares, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Womelsdorf, xxx.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">W’T&aacute;ssone, name given by the Lenape to the Oneidas, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wyalusing, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wyandots, xl., xli., xliv., <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wyoming, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Yengees (<i>Yankees</i>), <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Zeisberger, the Rev. David, reference to his <i>Essay of a Delaware and English Spelling-Book</i>, xliii., <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">biographical sketch of, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his German Iroquois Dictionary, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his opinion of the Iroquois language, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his Grammar of the Lenni Lenape language, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dialogue with Indian David, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Goschgoschink, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Zinzendorf, Count Nicholas Lewis, in Penna., xxx.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">among the Shawanose of Wyoming, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li></ul>
-
-<p class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_451.jpg"
-alt="FINIS" />
-</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-<h2 id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES:</h2>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">1</a>
-The annotations in brac
-
-s are by the Editor.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">2</a>
-Between the words “<i>if</i>” and “<i>what</i>” insert “<i>we can credit</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">3</a>
-A figurative expression, denoting the territory claimed by them, and occupied
-at the time.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">4</a>
-Alluding to the white people settling those countries.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">5</a>
-[The book referred to here and elsewhere frequently in the course of his narrative
-by the author, was written by the Rev. George Henry Loskiel, a clergyman of
-the Continental Province of the Moravian Church, and was published at Barby,
-Saxony, in 1789. It is entitled “Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Br&uuml;der
-unter den Indianern in Nordamerika,” and is a faithful record of the Christian work
-in which the Moravians engaged chiefly among the Lenape and Iroquois stocks of
-the aborigines, in the interval between 1735 and 1787. The material on which the
-author wrought in the preparation of his history was furnished mainly from the
-archives of his church at Herrnhut, to which duplicates of the missionaries’ journals
-were statedly forwarded. In this way he was enabled to produce a narrative which
-is marvellously accurate, even touching minor points of topography, despite the fact
-that the shifting scenes of his drama were laid in another hemisphere. The preface
-was written at Strickenhof, in Livonia, in May of 1788. In it Mr. Loskiel acknowledges
-his indebtedness for valuable assistance to the venerable Bishop Augustus G.
-Spangenberg, who had superintended the Moravian Mission in the New World in
-the interval between 1744 and 1762; and to the veteran missionary David Zeisberger,
-at that time still in its service. It was the latter who supplied the larger
-portion of the material relating to the history, traditions, manners, and customs of
-the North American Indians, found in the ten chapters introductory to the history
-of the Mission. This valuable work was translated into English by the Rev. Christian
-Ignatius Latrobe, of London, in 1793, and published there, in 1794, by “The
-Brethren’s Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel.” It is now a rare book.
-Having been consecrated a Bishop for the American Province of his Church in 1802,
-Mr. Loskiel came to this country, settled at Bethlehem, Pa., where he died in 1814.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">6</a>
-Figurative expression. See Loskiel’s History, Part I. c. 10.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">9</a>]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">7</a>
-For “<i>declaring at the same time</i>” read “<i>and declared afterwards</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">8</a>
-[John Christopher Pyrl&aelig;us was sent by the heads of the Moravian Church at
-Herrnhut, Saxony, to Bethlehem, Pa., in the autumn of 1741, to do service in the
-Indian Mission. Having assisted Count Zinzendorf, during his sojourn in the
-Province in 1742, in the work of the ministry among a portion of the German population
-of Philadelphia, we find him, in January of 1743, prosecuting the study of the
-Mohawk under the direction of Conrad Weiser, the provincial interpreter, at Tulpehocken,
-(near Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pa.) This was in view of fitting himself
-for the office of corresponding secretary of the Mission Board at Bethlehem, and for
-the duties of an evangelist among the Iroquois stock of Indians, to whom it was
-purposed by the Moravians to bring the Gospel. At the expiration of three months
-he returned to Bethlehem, and in the following June, accompanied by his wife, who
-was a daughter of John Stephen Benezet, a well-known merchant of Philadelphia,
-set out for the Mohawk country, his destination being the Mohawk castle of Canajoharie.
-Here he remained upwards of two months, in which interval of time he
-visited the remaining Mohawk castles, and by constant intercourse with the Indians
-strove assiduously to perfect himself in their language. Such was his progress then
-and subsequently, that in 1744 he felt himself competent to impart instruction in that
-important dialect of the Iroquois to several of his brethren at Bethlehem, who were
-training for missionaries. In 1748, while settled at Gnadenh&uuml;tten, on the Mahoning,
-(Lehighton, Carbon County, Pa.,) he rendered similar service. Meanwhile he had
-acquired a knowledge of the Mohican, and in 1745 there appeared his first translations
-of German hymns into that tongue&mdash;the beginnings of a collection for use in
-Divine worship in the Mission churches. Eight of the eleven years of his stay in
-this country were mainly spent in labors of the kind just enumerated. Having been
-liberally educated, Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us was well qualified for the work in which he engaged.
-Several of his contributions to this novel department of philology, in manuscript, are
-deposited in the library of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
-Among these are essays on the grammatical structure of the Iroquois dialects, and a
-collection of notes on Indian traditions. The former Mr. Heckewelder names on a
-subsequent page, and from the latter he makes frequent extracts. In 1751 Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us
-sailed for England, where he was active in the ministry of his Church until his
-recall to Germany in 1770. He died at Herrnhut in 1785.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">9</a>
-[The passage referred to by Mr. Heckewelder is quoted in full by way of annotation on a subsequent
-page.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">10</a>
-[Norman’s Kill, named after Albert Andriese Bratt De Norman, an early settler
-of Beverwyck, rises in Schenectady County, has a south-east course of about twenty-eight
-miles, and empties into the Hudson, two miles south of Albany, in the town
-of Bethlehem. In records of 1677 it is called Bethlehem’s Kil. The Indian name
-of the stream was Tawalsantha. In the spring of 1617 the United New Netherlands
-Company erected a fort near the banks of Norman’s Kill, and in 1621 the Dutch
-made a solemn alliance and treaty of peace with the Five Nations, near its mouth.&mdash;<i>Munsell’s
-Collections of the History of Albany.</i> Albany, 1870.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">11</a>
-For “<i>Mohicans</i>” read “<i>Lenape</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">12</a>
-[”<i>The History of the Five Indian Nations depending on the Province of New
-York in America</i>, by <i>Cadwallader Colden</i>.” The first edition of this rare book was
-dedicated by the author to his Excellency, William Burnet, Esq., and was printed
-and sold by William Bradford in New York, 1727. Colden emigrated from Scotland
-in 1708, and first settled in Pennsylvania, engaging in the practice of medicine.
-Removing to New York in 1718, he was some time surveyor-general, subsequently a
-member of the King’s Council, and in 1761 commissioned Lieutenant-Governor of the
-Province. This commission he held at the time of his death at his seat on Long
-Island, in September of 1776.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">13</a>
-[The proceedings of these conferences and treaties with the Indians are spread
-upon the minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, which were authorized
-to be printed by the Act of Legislature of April 4th, 1837, and published subsequently
-in seven volumes. They are known as “The Colonial Records.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">14</a>
-At a Treaty, at Easton, in July and November, 1756.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">15</a>
-[Should be <i>Thomson</i>.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">16</a>
-Loskiel’s History, Part I., ch. 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">17</a>
-The Iroquois were at that time a confederacy of only Five Nations; they became
-Six afterwards when they were joined by the Tuscaroras.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">18</a>
-Meaning, that the Five Nations would assist the white people in getting the
-country of their enemies, the Delawares, &amp;c., to themselves.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">19</a>
-Loskiel, Part I., ch. 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">20</a>
-[The Indian converts attached to the Moravian Mission, whom Mr. Heckewelder
-invariably designates “Christian Indians” throughout his history. The Moravian
-Indians at this date were settled with their missionaries in three towns on the Tuscarawas
-branch of the Muskingum (now the Tuscarawas River), all within the
-limits of the present Tuscarawas County, Ohio.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">21</a>
-Loskiel, Part III., ch. 9.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">22</a>
-The proper name is <i>Wt&aacute;was</i>, the <i>W</i> is whistled.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">23</a>
-[In the summer of 1794, Gen. Wayne moved an army into the Ohio country,
-and on the 20th of August defeated the confederated Indians near the rapids of the
-Maumee, or Miami of the Lake. The result of this campaign was a treaty of peace,
-which was ratified at Greenville, the present county seat of Darke County, Ohio, in
-August of 1795, between the United States Government, represented by Wayne, and
-the Shawanese, Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Potawattomies, Miamis and smaller
-tribes, at which treaty about two-thirds of the present state of Ohio was ceded to
-the United States.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">24</a>
-[The missionary David Zeisberger, in a collection of Delaware vocables incorporated
-in “<i>An Essay of a Delaware and English Spelling Book for the use of the
-Schools of the Christian Indians on the Muskingum River</i>,” printed at Philadelphia,
-by Henry Miller, in 1776, defines <i>Lennilenape</i>, “Indians of the same nation.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">25</a>
-Colden.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">26</a>
-La Hontan.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">27</a>
-The Dutch called them Mahikanders; the French Mourigans, and Mahingans;
-the English, Mohiccons, Mohuccans, Mohegans, Muhheekanew, Schatikooks, River
-Indians.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">28</a>
-“Night’s encampment” is a halt of one year at a place.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">29</a>
-The Mississippi, or <i>River</i> of <i>Fish</i>; <i>Nam&aelig;s</i>, a <i>Fish</i>; <i>Sipu</i>, a <i>River</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">30</a>
-The Iroquois, or Five Nations.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">31</a>
-[Col. John Gibson, to whom Mr. Heckewelder frequently alludes, was born at
-Lancaster, Pa., in 1740. At the age of eighteen, he made his first campaign under
-Gen. Forbes, in the expedition which resulted in the acquisition of Fort Du Quesne
-from the French. At the peace of 1763 he settled at that post (Fort Pitt) as a trader.
-Some time after this, on the resumption of hostilities with the savages, he was captured
-by some Indians, among whom he lived several years, and thus became
-familiar with their language, manners, customs, and traditions. In the expedition
-against the Shawanese under Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia, in
-1774, Gibson played a conspicuous part. On the breaking out of the Revolutionary
-war, he was appointed to the command of one of the Continental regiments raised
-in Virginia, and served with the army at New York and in the retreat through New
-Jersey. He was next employed in the Western department, serving under Gen.
-McIntosh in 1778, and under Gen. Irvine in 1782. At one time he was in command
-at Pittsburgh. In 1800 Col. Gibson was appointed Secretary and acting Governor of
-the territory of Indiana, a position which he filled for a second time between 1811
-and 1813. Subsequently he was Associate Judge of Allegheny County, Pa. He died
-near Pittsburgh in 1822. He was an uncle of the late John B. Gibson, Chief Justice
-of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania between 1827 and 1851.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">32</a>
-Loskiel’s History of the Mission of the United Brethren, Part I., ch. I.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">33</a>
-[In 1789 Mr. Heckewelder, accompanied by Abraham Steiner, (subsequently a
-missionary to the Cherokees of Georgia,) visited the mission at New Salem, on the
-Petquotting, (now the Huron,) in Erie County, Ohio, on business relating to the
-survey of a tract of land on the Tuscarawas, which Congress had conveyed to the
-Moravians in trust for their Indians. This was to indemnify them for losses incurred
-at their settlements during the border-war of the Revolution.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">34</a>
-The <i>Glades</i>, that is to say that they crossed the mountains.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">35</a>
-Meaning the river Susquehannah, which they call “the great Bay River,” from
-where the west branch falls into the main stream.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">36</a>
-The word “Hittuck,” in the language of the Delawares, means a rapid stream;
-“Sipo,” or “Sipu,” is the proper name for a river.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">37</a>
-[The Indians of this town proved troublesome neighbors to a small company of
-Moravians, who, in the spring of 1740, were employed by Whitefield to erect a large
-dwelling near its site, which he designed for a school for negroes. The town lay
-near the centre of a tract of 5,000 acres (now Upper Nazareth township, Northampton
-County, Pennsylvania), which Whitefield bought of William Allen, which he
-named Nazareth, and which, in 1741, he conveyed to the Moravians. Captain John
-and his clan of Delawares vacated their plantation in the autumn of 1742, and in the
-following year, the Moravians commenced their first settlement, and named it
-Nazareth. Whitefield’s house is still standing.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">38</a>
-Loskiel, part I., ch. 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">39</a>
-The Reverend C. Pyrl&aelig;us, a pupil of Conrad Weiser, of whom he learned the
-Mohawk language, and who was afterwards stationed on the Mohawk River, as a
-Missionary, has, in a manuscript book, written between the years 1742 and 1748,
-page 235, the following note which he received from a principal chief of that nation,
-viz.: “The Five Nations formerly did eat human flesh; they at one time ate up a
-whole body of the French King’s soldiers; they say, <i>Eto niocht ochquari</i>; which is:
-Human flesh tastes like bear’s meat. They also say, that the hands are not good
-eating, they are <i>yozgarat</i>, bitter.”
-</p>
-<p>
-Aged French Canadians have told me, many years since, while I was at Detroit,
-that they had frequently seen the Iroquois eat the flesh of those who had been slain
-in battle, and that this was the case in the war between the French and English,
-commonly called the war of 1756.
-</p>
-<p>
-At a treaty held at the Proprietors house in Philadelphia, July 5th, 1742, with the
-Six Nations, none of the Senecas attended; the reason of their absence being asked,
-it was given for answer, “that there was a famine in their country, and that a father
-had been obliged to kill two of his children, to preserve the lives of the remainder of
-the family.” See Colden’s History of the Five Nations, part II., page 52. See also
-the minutes of that treaty, printed at Philadelphia, by B. Franklin, in 1743, p. 7, in
-the Collection of Indian Treaties in the library of the American Philosophical Society.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">40</a>
-Loskiel, part I., ch. 1.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">41</a>
-The Rev. C. Pyrl&aelig;us, in his manuscript book, page 234, says: “The alliance or
-confederacy of the Five Nations was established, as near as can be conjectured, one
-age (or the length of a man’s life) before the white people (the Dutch) came into the
-country. <i>Thannawage</i> was the name of the aged Indian, a Mohawk, who first proposed
-such an alliance.” He then gives the names of the chiefs of the Five Nations,
-which at that time met and formed the alliance, viz.: “<i>Toganawita</i>, of the Mohawks;
-<i>Otatsch&eacute;chta</i>, of the Oneidas; <i>Tatotarho</i>, of the Onondagos; <i>Togah&aacute;yon</i>, of
-the Cayugas; <i>Ganiatari&ograve;</i> and <i>Satagar&ugrave;yes</i>, from two towns of the Senecas, &amp;c.,” and
-concludes with saying: “All these names are forever to be kept in remembrance, by
-naming a person in each nation after them,” &amp;c., &amp;c.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">42</a>
-Loskiel, part I., ch. 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">43</a>
-Loskiel, part I., ch. 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">44</a>
-Ibid.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">45</a>
-[The following is the passage from Loskiel, which that historian copied from
-David Zeisberger’s “Collection of Notes on the Indians,” compiled by the missionary
-during his residence in the valley of the Tuscarawas, about 1778. “According to
-the account of the Delawares, they were always too powerful for the Iroquois, so
-that the latter were at length convinced that if they continued the war, their total
-extirpation would be inevitable. They therefore sent the following message to the
-Delawares: ‘It is not profitable that all the nations should be at war with each other,
-for this will at length be the ruin of the whole Indian race. We have therefore
-considered a remedy by which this evil may be prevented. One nation shall be the
-<i>woman</i>. We will place her in the midst, and the other nations who make war shall
-be the man, and live around the woman. No one shall touch or hurt the woman,
-and if any one does it, we will immediately say to him, “Why do you beat the
-woman?” Then all the men shall fall upon him who has beaten her. The woman
-shall not go to war, but endeavor to keep peace with all. Therefore, if the men
-that surround her beat each other, and the war be carried on with violence, the
-woman shall have the right of addressing them, “Ye men, what are ye about? why
-do you beat each other? We are almost afraid. Consider that your wives and
-children must perish, unless you desist. Do you mean to destroy yourselves from
-the face of the earth?” The men shall then hear and obey the woman.’ The
-Delawares add, that, not immediately perceiving the intention of the Iroquois,
-they submitted to be the <i>woman</i>. The Iroquois then appointed a great feast, and
-invited the Delaware nation to it; when, in consequence of the authority given
-them, they made a solemn speech containing three capital points. The first was,
-that they declared the Delaware nation to be the <i>woman</i> in the following words:
-'We dress you in a woman’s long habit, reafilled ching down to your feet, and adorn you
-with ear-rings;’ meaning that they should no more take up arms. The second point
-was thus expressed: ‘We hang a calabash with oil and medicine upon your
-arm. With the oil you shall cleanse the ears of the other nations, that they may
-attend to good and not to bad words, and with the medicine you shall heal those
-who are walking in foolish ways, that they may return to their senses and incline
-their hearts to peace.’ The third point, by which the Delawares were exhorted to
-make agriculture their future employ and means of subsistence, was thus worded:
-'We deliver into your hands a plant of Indian corn and a hoe.’ Each of these
-points was confirmed by delivering a belt of wampum, and these belts have been
-carefully laid up, and their meaning frequently repeated.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The Iroquois, on the contrary, assert that they conquered the Delawares, and that
-the latter were forced to adopt the defenceless state and appellation of a <i>woman</i> to
-avoid total ruin.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Whether these different accounts be true or false, certain it is that the Delaware
-nation has ever since been looked to for preservation of peace, and entrusted with
-the charge of the great belt of peace and chain of friendship, which they must take
-care to preserve inviolate. According to the figurative explanation of the Indians,
-the middle of the chain of friendship is placed upon the shoulder of the Delaware,
-the rest of the Indian nations holding one end and the Europeans the other.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">46</a>
-[<i>The Life and Times of David Zeisberger, the Western Pioneer and Apostle to the
-Indians, by Edmund de Schweinitz, Phila.</i>, 1870, reviews the Moravian mission
-among the North American Indians from its beginnings to recent times, besides very
-fully portraying the career of the veteran missionary, who spent upwards of sixty
-years of his life as an evangelist to the Indians, thirty-six of which were passed
-within the limits of the present State of Ohio. He died on the 17th of November,
-1808, at Goshen, on the Tuscarawas, in the 88th year of his age. Zeisberger, in the
-course of his long life in the Indian country, mastered the Delaware and the Onondaga
-of the Iroquois, into the former of which he made translations of a number of
-devotional books, while he studied both critically, as his literary efforts in that
-direction, partly published and partly in MS., amply testify.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">47</a>
-Mr. Proud, in his History of Pennsylvania, relates that, some time after the
-establishment of William Penn’s government, the Indians used to supply the family
-of one John Chapman, whose descendants still reside in Bucks County, with all
-kinds of provisions, and mentions an affecting instance of their kindness to that
-family. Abraham and John Chapman, twin children about nine or ten years old,
-going out one evening to seek their cattle, met an Indian in the woods, who told
-them to go back, else they would be lost. They took his advice and went back, but
-it was night before they got home, where they found the Indian, who had repaired
-thither out of anxiety for them. And their parents, about that time, going to the
-yearly meeting at Philadelphia, and leaving a young family at home, the Indians
-came every day to see whether anything was amiss among them. Such (says Proud)
-in many instances was the kind treatment of the Aborigines of this country to the
-English in their first and early settlement. Proud’s Hist., Vol. I., pp. 223, 224.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">48</a>
-[For “Easton in Pennsylvania,” read <i>Philadelphia</i>. Easton, the county-seat of
-Northampton County, was laid out in the spring of 1752.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">49</a>
-For “1742,” read “<i>and November, 1756</i>.” [The latter was held at Easton.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">50</a>
-[The so-called French and Indian war, the fourth and last of the inter-colonial
-wars, which originated in disputes between the French and English concerning territorial
-claims, and which, after a seven years’ contest, resulted in establishing the
-supremacy of the latter over the civilized portions of North America.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">51</a>
-[The Conestogas remained on their ancestral seats, near the mouth of the Conestoga,
-in Manor township, Lancaster County, Penna., long after the other Indians on
-the Susquehanna had been crowded by the advance of civilization beyond Shamokin.
-Here the remnant of this tribe was fallen upon by Scotch-Irish partizans of
-Paxton township (now within the limits of Dauphin County) in December of 1763,
-all that were at the settlement killed, and their cabins burnt to the ground. Ten
-days later, the remainder of this inoffensive people, who had been lodged in the
-jail at Lancaster, were inhumanly butchered by the same band of lawless frontiersmen.
-In Heckewelder’s “Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among
-the Delaware and Mohegan Indians,” there is a statement by an eye-witness, touching
-the last scene in this bloody tragedy.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">52</a>
-[White Eyes, alias Koquethagachton, a celebrated captain and counsellor of the
-Delawares of the Ohio country, was first met by Heckewelder at his home, near the
-mouth of the Beaver (above Pittsburg), when the latter was on his way to the Tuscarawas,
-in the spring of 1762. When Zeisberger entered the valley of that river,
-in 1772, and built Sch&ouml;nbrunn, the chieftain was residing six miles below Gekelemukpechunk,
-the then capital of his nation, in the present Oxford township, Coshocton
-County. In Dunmore’s war, as well as in the war of the Revolution, White Eyes
-strove strenuously to keep the Delawares neutral. Failing in this in the latter contest,
-and seeing himself necessitated to take sides, he declared for the Americans,
-joined Gen. McIntosh’s command, but died at Fort Laurens, on the Tuscarawas, in
-November of 1778, before the projected expedition, which was aimed at the Sandusky
-towns, moved. White Eyes was a warm friend of the Moravian mission, and
-was deeply interested in the progress of his people in the arts of civilized life.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">53</a>
-Indian chiefs, in their public speeches, always speak on behalf of their nation
-in the singular number and in the first person, considering themselves, in a manner,
-as its representatives.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">54</a>
-[In August of 1779, Col. Daniel Brodhead, then commandant of Fort Pitt, moved
-with some troops up the Allegheny, and in the forks of that river destroyed several
-settlements, inhabited by Monsey and Seneca Indians. “The Delawares,” he writes
-in his report to the War Department, “are ready to follow me wherever I go.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">55</a>
-Loskiel, part II., ch. 8.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">56</a>
-Henry Hudson, a British navigator and discoverer in the employ of the Dutch
-East India Company, sailed from Amsterdam in command of the Half Moon, in
-April of 1609, in search of a north-eastern passage. Foiled by the ice in the higher
-latitudes, he turned southwards, and in September anchored in New York bay.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">57</a>
-Dele “<i>in which</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">58</a>
-Hackhack is properly a gourd; but since they have seen glass bottles and
-decanters, they call them by the same name.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">59</a>
-These Dutchmen were probably acquainted with what is related of Queen Dido
-in ancient history, and thus turned their classical knowledge to a good account.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">60</a>
-The Hollanders.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">61</a>
-Manhattan, or New York Island.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">62</a>
-For “<i>Delawares</i>” read “<i>Mohicans</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">63</a>
-An Indian corruption of the word <i>English</i>, whence probably the nickname
-<i>Yankees</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">64</a>
-This word means “a cluster of islands with channels every way, so that it is in
-no place shut up or impassable for craft.” The Indians think that the white people
-have corrupted this word into <i>Massachusetts</i>. It deserves to be remarked as an
-example of the comprehensiveness of the Indian languages.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">65</a>
-The Delaware river. I have said above, p. 51, that <i>Hittuck</i> means a rapid
-stream. I should have added that it means so only when placed at the end of
-another word, and used as a compound. Singly, it signifies a <i>tree</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">66</a>
-The Swedes and Dutch.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">67</a>
-William Penn.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">68</a>
-Land traders and speculators.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">69</a>
-Easton, Northampton County, Pa.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">70</a>
-This actually took place at a treaty held at Easton in July and November, 1756.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">71</a>
-<i>Council house</i> here means “Connexion District.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">72</a>
-<i>Pulling the council house down.</i> Destroying, dispersing the community, preventing
-their further intercourse with each other, by settling between them on their
-land.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">73</a>
-<i>Putting the fire out.</i> Murdering them or their people, where they assemble for
-pacific purposes, where treaties are held, &amp;c.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">74</a>
-<i>Our own blood.</i> The blood flowing from the veins of some of our community.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">75</a>
-Alluding to the murder of the Conestogo Indians, who, though of another tribe,
-yet had joined them in welcoming the white people to their shores.
-</p>
-<p>
-In a narrative of this lamentable event, supposed to have been written by the late
-Dr. Franklin, it is said: “On the first arrival of the English in Pennsylvania, messengers
-from this tribe came to welcome them with presents of venison, corn, and
-skins, and the whole tribe entered into a treaty of friendship with the first proprietor,
-William Penn, which was to last as long as the sun should shine, or the waters run
-in the rivers.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">76</a>
-<i>The fire was entirely extinguished by the blood of the murdered running into it;
-not a spark was left to kindle a new fire.</i> This alludes to the last fire that was kindled
-by the Pennsylvania government and themselves at Lancaster, where the last
-treaty was held with them in 1762, the year preceding this murder, which put an
-end to all business of the kind in the province of Pennsylvania.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">77</a>
-<i>The great Swamp.</i> The Glades on the Allegheny mountains.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">78</a>
-<i>Delamattenos.</i> The Hurons or Wyandots, whom they call their uncle. These,
-though speaking a dialect of the Iroquois language, are in connexion with the
-Lenape.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">79</a>
-For “1787” read “1781.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">80</a>
-[These were the words of a war-chief of the Delawares, Pachgantschihilas by
-name, in the course of an address to the Moravian Indians at Gnadenh&uuml;tten, in
-which he sought to persuade them to remove from their exposed position on the
-Tuscarawas to a place of safety among the Wyandots of the Maumee.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">81</a>
-For “<i>us</i>” read “<i>them</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">82</a>
-[The massacre of Moravian Indians at Gnadenh&uuml;tten was perpetrated on the 8th
-of March, 1782, by militia led by Col. David Williamson, of Washington County,
-Pa. The details of this atrocious affair are very minutely given by De Schweinitz
-in <i>The Life and Times of David Zeisberger</i>. While such of the borderers as had
-suffered from Indian forays sought to extenuate the deplorable transaction, it was at
-the same time made the subject of an investigation at the head-quarters of the department.
-With what result, however, is inferable from the following extract from a
-letter written by Gen. Irvine to His Excellency William Moore, President of the
-Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, and dated <i>Fort Pitt, May 9, 1782</i>:&mdash;“Since
-my letter of the 3d inst. to your excellency, Mr. Pentecost and Mr. Cannon
-have been with me. They, and every intelligent person whom I have consulted
-with on the subject, are of opinion that it will be almost impossible ever to obtain a
-just account of the conduct of the militia at Muskingum. No man can give any account,
-except some of the party themselves; if, therefore, an inquiry should appear serious,
-they are not obliged, nor will they give evidence. For this and other reasons, I am
-of opinion farther inquiry into the matter will not only be fruitless, but in the end
-may be attended with dangerous consequences. A volunteer expedition is talked of
-against Sandusky, which, if well conducted, may be of great service to this country,
-if they behave well on this occasion. It may also in some measure atone for the
-barbarity they are charged with at Muskingum. They have consulted me, and shall
-have every countenance in my power, if their numbers, arrangements, &amp;c., promise
-a prospect of success.” <i>MS. in the Irvine Collection.</i>]</p>
-
-<p>[The following is a letter from Col. John Gibson, to the Right Rev. Nathaniel
-Seidel, senior Bishop of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem, dated <i>Fort Pitt, May 9,
-1782</i>.
-</p>
-<p>
-“<span class="smcap">Sir</span>:&mdash;Your letter by Mr. Shebosh of the 11th ult., came safe to hand. I am
-happy to find that the few small services I rendered to the gentlemen of your
-society in this quarter, meet with the approbation of you and every other worthy
-character.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Mr. Shebosh will be able to give you a particular account of the late horrid
-massacre perpetrated at the towns on Muskingum, by a set of men the most savage
-miscreants that ever degraded human nature. Had I have known of their intention
-before it was too late, I should have prevented it by informing the poor sufferers
-of it.
-</p>
-<p>
-“I am in hopes in a few days to be able to send you a more particular account
-than any that has yet transpired, as I hope to obtain the deposition of a person who
-was an eye-witness of the whole transaction, and disapproved of it. Should any
-accounts come to hand from Mr. Zeisberger, or the other gentlemen of your society,
-you may depend on my transmitting them to you. Please present my compliments
-to Mr. William Henry, Jr., &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-“Believe me, with esteem, your most obedient servant,<br />
-“<span class="smcap">Jno. Gibson</span>,<br />
-“Col. 7th Virginia Reg’t.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">83</a>
-[For a full account of this exodus, the reader is referred to a paper entitled
-“Wyalusing and the Moravian Mission at Friedensh&uuml;tten,” by W. C. Reichel, in
-Part 5 (1871) of the Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">84</a>
-For “<i>Mouseys</i>” read “<i>Monseys</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">85</a>
-For “1768, <i>about six</i>,” read “1772, <i>a few</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">86</a>
-Loskiel, part III., ch. 12.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">87</a>
-[Pilgerruh on the Cuyahoga, within the limits of what is now Independence
-township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, was the seat of the mission during the time of the
-dispersion in the interval between May of 1786, and April of 1787.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">88</a>
-General John Gibson thinks that <i>Sawano</i> is their proper name; they are so called
-by the other Indian nations, from their being a southern people. <i>Shawaneu</i>, in the
-Lenape language, means the south; <i>Shawanachau</i>,<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">89</a> the south wind, &amp;c. We commonly
-call them the <i>Shawanese</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">89</a>
-For “<i>Shawanachau</i>” read “<i>Shawanachan</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">90</a>
-The Shawanos call the Mohicans their <i>elder brother</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">91</a>
-Loskiel, part II., ch. 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">92</a>
-While these people lived at Wyoming and in its vicinity, they were frequently
-visited by missionaries of the Society of the United Brethren, who, knowing them
-to be the most depraved and ferocious tribe of all the Indian nations they had heard
-of, sought to establish a friendship with them, so as not to be interrupted in their
-journies from one Indian Mission to another. Count Zinzendorf being at that time
-in the country, went in 1742 with some other missionaries to visit them at Wyoming,
-stayed with them 20 days, and endeavoured to impress the gospel truths upon their
-minds; but these hardened people, suspecting his views, and believing that he
-wanted to purchase their land, on which it was reported there were mines of silver,
-conspired to murder him, and would have effected their purpose, but that Conrad
-Weiser, the Indian interpreter, arrived fortunately in time to prevent it. (Loskiel,
-part II., ch. 1.) Notwithstanding this, the Brethren frequently visited them, and
-Shehellemus, a chief of great influence, having become their friend (Loskiel, ibid.,
-ch. 8), they could now travel with greater safety. He died at Shamokin in 1749;
-the Brethren were, however, fortunate enough to obtain the friendship of Paxnos or
-Paxsinos, another chief of the Shawanos, who gave them full proof of it by sending
-his sons to escort one of them to Bethlehem from Shamokin, where he was in the
-most perilous situation, the war having just broke out. (Loskiel, ibid., ch. 12.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">93</a>
-Loskiel, part I., ch. 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">94</a>
-[After the peace of 1763 there was comparative quiet on the Western frontiers,
-until the inauguration of the “Dunmore War,” in the spring of 1774&mdash;a contest
-which the last royal governor of Virginia is said to have excited, in order to divert
-the attention of the colonists from the oppressive acts of England towards them.
-The initial military movement in this war was Col. Angus McDonald’s expedition
-against the Shawanese town of Waketameki, just below the mouth of the Waketameki
-Creek, within the limits of the present county of Muskingum, Ohio. The
-battle fought on the 10th of October, 1774, at the junction of the Great Kanawha
-and the Ohio, between the garrison of Point Pleasant, under General Andrew Lewis,
-and the flower of the Shawanese, Delawares, Mingoes, and Wyandots, led by the
-Cornstalk, the Shawano king, in which the confederate Indians were routed, was
-speedily followed by a peace.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">95</a>
-See, in Loskiel’s History, part II., ch. 10, his account of the visit of this chief to
-the Christian Indian Congregation at Bethlehem.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">96</a>
-For “<i>Shawanos</i>” read “<i>Nanticokes</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">97</a>
-[In 1726, John Harris, a Yorkshireman, settled at the mouth of the Paxton
-Creek, traded largely with the neighboring Indians, cleared a farm, and kept a ferry.
-John Harris, Jr., his son, born on the Paxton in the above-mentioned year, inherited
-from his father 700 acres of land, on a part of which Harrisburg was laid out in
-1785.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">98</a>
-<i>Zeningi</i>, according to Loskiel.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">99</a>
-For “<i>Schschequon</i>” read “<i>Shechschequon</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="label">100</a>
-[For “<i>Christian</i>” read “<i>Christopher</i>.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="label">101</a>
-Loskiel, part I., ch. 9.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="label">102</a>
-For “<i>Tawachgu&aacute;no</i>” read “<i>Tayachgu&aacute;no</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="label">103</a>
-[Now the Clinton, on whose banks New Gnadenh&uuml;tten was built by David Zeisberger
-in the summer of 1782.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="label">104</a>
-[The first mission established by the Moravians among the northern tribes of
-Indians, was among a clan of Mohegans, in the town of Pine Plains, Dutchess
-County, New York, where Christian Henry Rauch, of Bethlehem, began his labors as
-an evangelist in July of 1740.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="label">105</a>
-Collections Massach. Histor. Soc., vol. I., p. 195; vol. IV., p. 67; vol. IX., p. 92.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="label">106</a>
-Collections Massach. Histor. Soc., vol. IX., p. 76.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="label">107</a>
-Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vol. IX., p. 77. Trumbull’s History of Connecticut, vol.
-I., p. 28.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108" class="label">108</a>
-The Atlantic Ocean.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109" class="label">109</a>
-P. 235.&mdash;This MS. is in the library of the Society of the United Brethren at
-Bethlehem.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110" class="label">110</a>
-Loskiel, part II., ch. 9.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111" class="label">111</a>
-Mr. Zeisberger wrote a complete dictionary of the Iroquois language, in three
-quarto volumes, the first of which, from A to the middle of H, is unfortunately
-lost. The remainder, which is preserved, contains upwards of 800 pages, which
-shews that, at least, the Indian languages are not so <i>poor</i> as is generally imagined.
-It is German and Indian, beginning with the German.<a id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">112</a>]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112" class="label">112</a>
-[This work, entitled “<i>Deutch und Onondagaishes W&ouml;rterbuch</i>,” <i>i. e.</i>, Lexicon of the German
-and Onondaga Languages, complete in 7 vols., MS., is deposited in the Library of the American
-Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia. Also a complete grammar of the Onondaga by the same
-author.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_113" href="#FNanchor_113" class="label">113</a>
-This word should be pronounced according to the powers of the German Alphabet.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_114" href="#FNanchor_114" class="label">114</a>
-Being, or Spirit.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_115" href="#FNanchor_115" class="label">115</a>
-An old Indian told me about fifty years ago, that when he was young, he still
-followed the custom of his father and ancestors, in climbing upon a high mountain or
-pinnacle, to thank the Great Spirit for all the benefits before bestowed, and to pray
-for a continuance of his favour; that they were sure their prayers were heard, and
-acceptable to the Great Spirit, although he did not himself appear to them.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_116" href="#FNanchor_116" class="label">116</a>
-When, between the years 1760 and 1768, the noted war-chief Pontiac had concerted
-a plan of surprising and cutting off the garrison and town of Detroit, while in
-the act of delivering an impressive peace oration, to the then commandant Major
-Gladwyn, the <i>turning of the belt</i> was to have been the signal of the attack by his
-forces, who all had their guns, which previously had been cut off to large pistol
-length, hidden under their blankets. So I have been informed by some of the most
-respectable inhabitants of Detroit, and by the Indians themselves.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_117" href="#FNanchor_117" class="label">117</a>
-For “<i>once</i>” read “<i>sometimes</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_118" href="#FNanchor_118" class="label">118</a>
-For “<i>should</i>” read “<i>deserved to</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_119" href="#FNanchor_119" class="label">119</a>
-For “<i>to</i>” read “<i>out at</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_120" href="#FNanchor_120" class="label">120</a>
-Dele “<i>outside of the door and</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_121" href="#FNanchor_121" class="label">121</a>
-Grammatica Grœnlandico-Danico-Latina, edita &agrave; P. Egede, Hafni&aelig;, 1760, 8vo.
-</p>
-<p>
-Dictionarium Grœnlandico-Danico-Latinum, adornatum &agrave; P. Egede, Hafni&aelig;, 1750,
-8vo.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_122" href="#FNanchor_122" class="label">122</a>
-For “<i>Thornhallesen</i>” read “<i>Thorhallesen</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_123" href="#FNanchor_123" class="label">123</a>
-[The Moravians have been conducting a successful mission in Greenland since
-1733. In 1761, David Crantz, one of their clergymen, sailed for that distant country
-to collect material for a history, touching its physical aspect and resources, the manners
-and customs of the native tribes. Crantz’s work was published at Barby, Saxony,
-in 1765, under the title of “<i>Historie von Gr&ouml;nland, enthaltend die Beschreibung des
-Landes und der Einwohner insbeomdere, die Geschichte der dortigen Mission der evangelischen
-Br&uuml;der zu Neu-Herrnhut und Lichtenfels</i>.” An English Translation appeared
-in London, in 1766.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_124" href="#FNanchor_124" class="label">124</a>
-The Hurons, a great while, perhaps centuries ago, became disunited from the
-Iroquois; many wars took place between them, and the former withdrew at last to
-remote places, where they settled, and were discovered by French Missionaries and
-traders: of this last I was repeatedly assured during my residence at Detroit, between
-1781 and 1786.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_125" href="#FNanchor_125" class="label">125</a>
-Carver says that there are in North America, four different languages, the Iroquois
-to the east, the Chippeway or Algonkin to the northwest, the Naudowessie to
-the west, and the Cherokee, &amp;c. to the south. Travels, ch. 17, Capt. Carver, though
-he appears to have been in general an accurate observer, resided too short a time
-among the Indians to have a correct knowledge of their languages. [Mr. Heckewelder
-quotes here and elsewhere from <i>“Three Years’ Travels through the Interior
-Parts of North America for more than Five Thousand Miles, &amp;c.,” by Capt. Jonathan
-Carver of the Provincial Troops in America, Phila.</i>, 1796. Those tribes of the Naudowessies
-among whom Carver resided for five months, dwelt about the River St.
-Pierre, 200 miles above its junction with the Mississippi. This was the extreme
-westerly point reached by the adventurous traveller. The entire nation of the Naudowessies,
-according to Carver, mustered upwards of 2000 fighting men.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_126" href="#FNanchor_126" class="label">126</a>
-Le grand Voyage du pays des Hurons, par Samuel Sagard, Paris, 1632. To which
-is added, a Dictionary of the Huron language, with a preface.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_127" href="#FNanchor_127" class="label">127</a>
-Philos. Trans. Abr., vol. lxiii., p. 142.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_128" href="#FNanchor_128" class="label">128</a>
-Hist. of the Five Nations, p. 14.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_129" href="#FNanchor_129" class="label">129</a>
-Barton’s New Views, Ed. 1798. Prelim. Disc., p. 32.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_130" href="#FNanchor_130" class="label">130</a>
-The late Dr. Barton, in the work above quoted, append., p. 3,<a id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">132</a> seems to doubt
-this fact, and relies on a series of numerals which I once communicated to him, and
-was found among the papers of the late Rev. Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us. But it is by no means
-certain that those numerals were taken from the language of the Nanticokes, and the
-vocabularies above mentioned leave no doubt as to the origin of that dialect.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_131" href="#FNanchor_131" class="label">131</a>
-Letter v.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_132" href="#FNanchor_132" class="label">132</a>
-For “<i>page</i> 3” read “<i>page</i> 5.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_133" href="#FNanchor_133" class="label">133</a>
-Letter xxv.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_134" href="#FNanchor_134" class="label">134</a>
-He says that it is not copious, and is only adapted to the necessities and conveniences
-of life. These are the ideas which strangers and philosophers, reasoning
-<i>&agrave; priori</i>, entertain of Indian languages; but those who are well acquainted with
-them think very differently. And yet the Baron says that the Algonquin is “the
-finest and the most universal language on the Continent.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_135" href="#FNanchor_135" class="label">135</a>
-Letter xi., p. 276.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_136" href="#FNanchor_136" class="label">136</a>
-It should be properly <i>Tortoise</i>; but this word seems in a fair way to be entirely
-superseded by <i>Turtle</i>, as well in England as in this country.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_137" href="#FNanchor_137" class="label">137</a>
-<i>Chippew&auml;isch-Delawarischer, oder Algonkisch-Moheganischer, Stamm.</i> Mithrid.,
-part III., vol. iii., p. 337.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_138" href="#FNanchor_138" class="label">138</a>
-Vater in Mithrid., part III., vol. 3, p. 283, quotes De Laet, Novus Orbis, pp. 98,
-103, Du Pratz, vol. 2, pp. 208, 9, Rochefort, Histoire Natur. des Antilles, pp. 351,
-394, and Hervas, <i>Catologo delle Lingue</i>, p. 90; none of which works I have it in
-my power to consult.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_139" href="#FNanchor_139" class="label">139</a>
-Mithrid., ibid.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_140" href="#FNanchor_140" class="label">140</a>
-Loskiel, part I., ch. 1.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_141" href="#FNanchor_141" class="label">141</a>
-Duvallon, Vue de la Colonie Espagnole du Mississippi, quoted by Vater, in
-Mithrid., ibid., p. 297.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_142" href="#FNanchor_142" class="label">142</a>
-The Bibliotheca Americana records 45 grammars and 25 dictionaries of the languages
-spoken in Mexico only, and 85 works of different authors on religious and
-moral subjects written or translated into some of those languages.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_143" href="#FNanchor_143" class="label">143</a>
-For “<i>or</i>” read “<i>nor</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_144" href="#FNanchor_144" class="label">144</a>
-For “<i>met</i>” read “<i>saw</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_145" href="#FNanchor_145" class="label">145</a>
-For “<i>days</i>” read “<i>hours</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_146" href="#FNanchor_146" class="label">146</a>
-Loskiel, part III., ch. 9.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_147" href="#FNanchor_147" class="label">147</a>
-For “<i>December</i>” read “<i>November</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_148" href="#FNanchor_148" class="label">148</a>
-[Pipe, a leader of the Wolf tribe of the Monseys, was residing in the Ohio
-country at the time of Bouquet’s expedition against the Delawares and Shawanon of
-the Muskingum and Scioto, in 1764. When the Moravians entered the valley of the
-former river, he was at home on the Walhonding, about 15 miles above the present
-Coshocton. In the border wars of the Revolution, he at first declared against the
-Americans, withdrawing with the disaffected Delawares to the Tymochtee creek, a
-branch of the Sandusky, within the limits of the present Crawford County. While
-here, he was a serviceable tool in the hands of the British at Detroit. To the Moravian
-mission among his countrymen he was for many years unjustifiedly hostile.
-Eventually, however, he regarded the work apparently with favor. It was the Pipe
-who doomed Col. William Crawford to torture, after the failure of the latter’s expedition
-against Sandusky in the summer of 1782. After the treaty of Fort Harmar in
-January of 1789, Pipe threw all his influence on the side of those of his people who
-now resolved at all hazards to uphold peace with the United States. He died a few
-days before the defeat of the confederated Indians by Wayne, near the rapids of the
-Maumee.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_149" href="#FNanchor_149" class="label">149</a>
-See Loskiel, part III., ch. 9, p. 704, German text, and p. 165, Eng. Trans.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_150" href="#FNanchor_150" class="label">150</a>
-It will be understood that he speaks here throughout for himself and his nation
-or tribe, though always in the first person of the singular, according to the Indian
-mode.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_151" href="#FNanchor_151" class="label">151</a>
-Meaning his nation, and speaking, as usual, in the first person.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_152" href="#FNanchor_152" class="label">152</a>
-Meaning women and children.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_153" href="#FNanchor_153" class="label">153</a>
-Prisoners.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_154" href="#FNanchor_154" class="label">154</a>
-To make his language agree with the expression <i>live flesh</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_155" href="#FNanchor_155" class="label">155</a>
-For “<i>with</i>” read “<i>of</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_156" href="#FNanchor_156" class="label">156</a>
-According to the powers of the English alphabet, it should be written Koo-ek-wen-aw-koo.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_157" href="#FNanchor_157" class="label">157</a>
-Rogers’s Key into the Language of the Indians of New England, ch. vi.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_158" href="#FNanchor_158" class="label">158</a>
-For “<i>they</i>” read “<i>the Chippeways and some other nations</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_159" href="#FNanchor_159" class="label">159</a>
-[In Green township, in what is now Ashland County.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_160" href="#FNanchor_160" class="label">160</a>
-For “<i>your</i>” read “<i>yon</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_161" href="#FNanchor_161" class="label">161</a>
-After the word “<i>nation</i>” insert “<i>which they do not approve of</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_162" href="#FNanchor_162" class="label">162</a>
-[Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott, and Simon Girty,&mdash;the first some time a
-British agent among the Indians, the second with a captain’s commission from the
-commandant at Detroit, the third as brutal, depraved, and wicked a wretch as ever
-lived,&mdash;deserted with a squad of soldiers from Fort Pitt, in March of 1778. This trio
-of renegade desperadoes, henceforth, in the capacity of emissaries of the British at
-Detroit (with their savage allies), wrought untold misery on the frontiers, even
-till the peace of 1795.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_163" href="#FNanchor_163" class="label">163</a>
-For “<i>they sure</i>” read “<i>they are sure</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_164" href="#FNanchor_164" class="label">164</a>
-For “<i>reply</i>” read “<i>answer</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_165" href="#FNanchor_165" class="label">165</a>
-The pronouns in the Indian language have no feminine gender.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_166" href="#FNanchor_166" class="label">166</a>
-For “<i>decide</i>” read “<i>say</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_167" href="#FNanchor_167" class="label">167</a>
-For “<i>man</i>” read “<i>men</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_168" href="#FNanchor_168" class="label">168</a>
-Between “<i>is</i>” and “<i>even</i>” insert “<i>sometimes</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_169" href="#FNanchor_169" class="label">169</a>
-For “<i>an old Indian</i>” read “<i>several old men</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_170" href="#FNanchor_170" class="label">170</a>
-[The fort, built by Franklin in the early winter of 1756, stood on the site of
-Weissport, on the left bank of the Lehigh, in Carbon County, Penna. The well of
-the fort alone remains to mark its site.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_171" href="#FNanchor_171" class="label">171</a>
-For “<i>road</i>” read “<i>course</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_172" href="#FNanchor_172" class="label">172</a>
-[The road from Easton, via Ross Common and the Pocono, to Wilkes-Barr&eacute;, formerly
-called the Wilkes-Barr&eacute; turnpike.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_173" href="#FNanchor_173" class="label">173</a>
-[Mr. Heckewelder had been despatched by the Mission Board at Bethlehem to
-Fairfield, on the Retrenche, (Thames,) in Upper Canada, where the Moravian Indians
-settled in 1792, to advise with them and their teachers, concerning a return to the
-valley of the Tuscarawas, in which the survey of a grant of 12,000 acres of land,
-made by Congress, had recently been completed. Pursuant to his instructions, he
-proceeded from Fairfield to the Tuscarawas, to make the necessary preparations for
-a colony that was to follow in the ensuing autumn, and re-founded Gnadenh&uuml;tten.
-The village of Goshen, seven miles higher up the river, was built in October, on the
-arrival of David Zeisberger and the expected colony from the Retrenche.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_174" href="#FNanchor_174" class="label">174</a>
-[The Wyandot village of Upper Sandusky was three miles in a south-easterly
-direction from the site of the present town of Upper Sandusky, the county-seat of
-Wyandot County, Ohio. Lower Sandusky, a trading-post and Wyandot town, was
-situated at the head of navigation on the Sandusky. Fremont, the county-seat of
-Sandusky County, marks its site. Here the Moravian missionaries and their families
-were most hospitably entertained by Arundel and Robbins for upwards of three
-weeks, while awaiting the arrival of boats from Detroit, on which they were to be
-taken as prisoners of war to that post. It was through British influence that the
-Mission on the Muskingum had been overthrown in the early autumn of 1781, and
-that its seat was transferred to the Sandusky. Fort McIntosh stood on the present
-town of Beaver, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. It was erected in October of 1778
-by General McIntosh, then in command of the Western Department.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_175" href="#FNanchor_175" class="label">175</a>
-For “<i>where</i>” read “<i>whence</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_176" href="#FNanchor_176" class="label">176</a>
-[On the 18th October, 1755, a party of Indians fell upon the settlers on the Big
-Mahanoy, (now Penn’s Creek, in Union County, Penna.,) killed and carried off
-twenty-five persons, and burned and destroyed all the buildings and improvements.&mdash;<i>Colonial
-Records</i>, <i>vol.</i> 6, p. 766.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_177" href="#FNanchor_177" class="label">177</a>
-For “<i>Duke Holland</i>” read “<i>Luke Holland</i>;” the same where the name again
-occurs.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_178" href="#FNanchor_178" class="label">178</a>
-Indian stockings.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_179" href="#FNanchor_179" class="label">179</a>
-[The three Commissioners set out from Fort Washington (Cincinnati) for the
-Indian country in June of 1792, but never returned. Despite the failure of this
-mission, General Rufus Putnam was without delay despatched on a similar errand,
-and at Post Vincennes, on the Wabash, in September of the above mentioned year,
-concluded a treaty of peace with a number of the Western tribes. Mr. Heckewelder
-was associated by the War Department with Putnam in this perilous undertaking.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_180" href="#FNanchor_180" class="label">180</a>
-[Cornstalk, the well-known Shawano king, while held by the Americans in the
-fort at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Kanhawa, was murdered by some soldiers
-of the garrison, in revenge for the loss of one of their companions, who had met his
-death while hunting, at the hands of a British Indian.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_181" href="#FNanchor_181" class="label">181</a>
-The Bible.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_182" href="#FNanchor_182" class="label">182</a>
-The Indians gave this name to General Wayne, because they say that he had all
-the cunning of this animal, who is superior to all other snakes in the manner of procuring
-his food. He hides himself in the grass with his head only above it, watching
-all around to see where the birds are building their nests, that he may know where
-to find the young ones when they are hatched.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_183" href="#FNanchor_183" class="label">183</a>
-This is not applicable to the Iroquois of the present time.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_184" href="#FNanchor_184" class="label">184</a>
-[A Monsey of Wyalusing, at whose persuasion the Moravian Indians settled on
-that stream in 1765, who became one of their number, following them to the Big
-Beaver and the Tuscarawas, where he died in May of 1775. Papunhank’s name
-occurs frequently in the annals of Provincial history between 1762 and 1765.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_185" href="#FNanchor_185" class="label">185</a>
-[The Chinglacamoose, now the Moose, empties into the Susquehannah in Clearfield
-County, Penna.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_186" href="#FNanchor_186" class="label">186</a>
-Dele <i>again</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_187" href="#FNanchor_187" class="label">187</a>
-Bethlehem.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_188" href="#FNanchor_188" class="label">188</a>
-[“The serenity of Michael’s countenance,” writes Loskiel, “when he was laid
-in his coffin, contrasted strangely with the figures scarified upon his face when a
-warrior. These were as follows: upon the right cheek and temple, a large snake;
-from the under lip a pole passed over the nose, and between the eyes and the top
-of the forehead, ornamented at every quarter of an inch with round marks, representing
-scalps; upon the upper cheek, two lances crossing each other; and upon the
-lower jaw, the head of a wild boar.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_189" href="#FNanchor_189" class="label">189</a>
-See Loskiel, part I., ch. 3.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_190" href="#FNanchor_190" class="label">190</a>
-See Loskiel, part I., ch. 11.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_191" href="#FNanchor_191" class="label">191</a>
-For “<i>very often</i>” read “<i>sometimes</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_192" href="#FNanchor_192" class="label">192</a>
-For “<i>inches</i>” read “<i>feet</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_193" href="#FNanchor_193" class="label">193</a>
-For “<i>of</i>” read “<i>on</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_194" href="#FNanchor_194" class="label">194</a>
-Podophyllum peltatum.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_195" href="#FNanchor_195" class="label">195</a>
-[Mr. Heckewelder was in this year residing at New Gnadenh&uuml;tten on the
-Huron (now the Clinton), Michigan, where the Moravian Missionaries ministered to
-their converts for upwards of three years, subsequent to their compulsory evacuation
-of the Tuscarawas valley.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_196" href="#FNanchor_196" class="label">196</a>
-They call them <i>Doctols</i>; because the Indians cannot pronounce the letter R.
-The Minsi or Monseys call them “Mĕd&eacute;u,” which signifies “conjuror.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_197" href="#FNanchor_197" class="label">197</a>
-[Gelelemend, <i>i. e.</i>, <i>a leader</i>, (whose soubriquet among the whites was Kill-buck,)
-a grandson of the well-known Netawatwes, was sometime chief counsellor of the
-Turkey tribe of the Delaware nation, and after the death of Captain White Eyes,
-installed temporarily as principal chief. He was a strenuous advocate of peace
-among his people in the times of the Revolutionary war; and being a man of influence,
-drew upon himself, in consequence, the implacable animosity of those of his
-countrymen who took up arms against the Americans. Even after the general peace
-concluded between the United States and the Indians of the West in 1795, his life
-was on several occasions imperilled by his former opponents. Gelelemend united
-with the Moravian Indians, at Salem, on the Petquotting in the summer of 1788,
-where, in baptism, he was named William Henry, after Judge William Henry, of
-Lancaster. He died at Goshen, in the early winter of 1811, in the eightieth year of
-his age. He is said to have been born in 1737, in the neighborhood of the Lehigh
-Water Gap, Carbon County, Pa. William Henry Gelelemend was one of the last converts
-of distinction attached to the Moravian Mission among the Indians.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_198" href="#FNanchor_198" class="label">198</a>
-[Goschachking, sometime the capital of the Delaware nation, stood on the Muskingum,
-immediately below the junction of the Tuscarawas and the Walhonding. On
-its site stands Coshocton. The town was destroyed by Gen. Brodhead in 1781.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_199" href="#FNanchor_199" class="label">199</a>
-For “<i>Americans</i>” read “<i>white men</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_200" href="#FNanchor_200" class="label">200</a>
-The following extract from the Detroit Gazette, shews that this superstitious belief
-of the Indians in the powers of witchcraft, still continues in full force, even
-among those who live in the vicinity of the whites, and are in the habit of constant
-intercourse with them.</p>
-
-<p><i>From the Detroit Gazette of the 17th of August, 1818.</i></p>
-
-<p>On the evening of the 22d ult. an Indian of the Wyandot tribe was murdered by
-some of his relatives, near the mouth of the river Huron, on lake Erie. The circumstances,
-in brief, are as follows:</p>
-
-<p>“It appears that two Wyandots, residing at Malden, and relatives to the deceased,
-had been informed by Captain Johnny, an Indian living on the Huron river, and also
-a relative, that a Shawanee Indian had come to his death by the witchcraft of an old
-Indian woman and her son Mike, and that in order to avert the vengeance of the
-Shawanee tribe, it would be necessary to kill them&mdash;and furthermore, that the death
-of Walk-in-the-water, who died last June, was caused by the same old woman’s
-witchcraft. It was determined to kill the old woman and her son&mdash;and for that
-purpose they crossed over on the 22d ult. and succeeded in the course of the evening
-in killing the latter in his cabin. The old woman was not at home. The next day,
-while endeavouring to persuade her to accompany them into the woods, as they said,
-to drink whiskey, they were discovered by Dr. William Brown and Mr. Oliver Williams,
-who had received that morning intimations of their intentions, and owing to
-the exertions of these gentlemen, the old woman’s life was preserved and one of the
-Indians taken, who is now confined in the jail of this city&mdash;the others escaped by
-swiftness of foot.
-</p>
-<p>
-“On the examination of the Indian taken, it appeared that the old woman, shortly
-after the death of the Shawanee, had entered his cabin, and in a voice of exultation,
-called upon him, saying&mdash;’Shawanee man! where are you?&mdash;You that mocked
-me; you thought you would live forever&mdash;you are gone and I am here&mdash;come&mdash;Why
-do you not come?’ &amp;c.&mdash;She is said to have made use of nearly the same
-words in the cabin of Walk-in-the-water, shortly after his death.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_201" href="#FNanchor_201" class="label">201</a>
-War-hatchet: from which we have made <i>tomahawk</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_202" href="#FNanchor_202" class="label">202</a>
-The Indians call the American continent an island; believing it to be (as in fact,
-probably, it is) entirely surrounded with water.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_203" href="#FNanchor_203" class="label">203</a>
-For “<i>killed</i>” read “<i>eaten</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_204" href="#FNanchor_204" class="label">204</a>
-Mr. Pyrl&aelig;us lived long among the Iroquois, and was well acquainted with their
-language. He was instructed in the Mohawk dialect by the celebrated interpreter
-Conrad Weiser. He has left behind him some manuscript grammatical works on
-that idiom, one of them is entitled: <i>Affixa nominum et verborum Lingu&aelig; Macquaic&aelig;</i>,
-and another, <i>Adjectiva, nomina et pronomina Lingu&aelig; Macquaic&aelig;</i>. These MSS.
-are in the library of the Society of the United Brethren at Bethlehem.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_205" href="#FNanchor_205" class="label">205</a>
-For “<i>Pauksit</i>” read “<i>P’duk-sit</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_206" href="#FNanchor_206" class="label">206</a>
-See page 101.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_207" href="#FNanchor_207" class="label">207</a>
-Probably alluding to a tradition which the Indians have of a very ferocious kind
-of bear, called the <i>naked bear</i>, which they say once existed, but was totally destroyed
-by their ancestors. The last was killed in the New York state, at a place they called
-<i>Hoosink</i>, which means the <i>Basin</i>, or more properly the <i>Kettle</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_208" href="#FNanchor_208" class="label">208</a>
-The same whom Mr. de Volney speaks of in his excellent “View of the Soil and
-Climate of the United States.” Supplement, No. VI., page 356, Philadelphia Edition,
-1804.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_209" href="#FNanchor_209" class="label">209</a>
-See ch. 29, p. 225.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_210" href="#FNanchor_210" class="label">210</a>
-See ch. 28, p. 221.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_211" href="#FNanchor_211" class="label">211</a>
-See ch. 2.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_212" href="#FNanchor_212" class="label">212</a>
-Dele “<i>lands or</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_213" href="#FNanchor_213" class="label">213</a>
-This word means <i>liquor</i>, and is also used in the sense of a medicinal draught, or
-other compound potion.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_214" href="#FNanchor_214" class="label">214</a>
-[Shingask, which signifies <i>boggy or marshy ground overgrown with grass</i>, a
-brother of Tamaqua, or King Beaver, ranked first among Indian warriors in the
-times of the so-called French and Indian war. The frontiers of Pennsylvania suffering
-severely from the forays of this Delaware and his braves, Governor Denny, in
-1756, set a price of &pound;200 upon his head or scalp. Mr. Heckewelder, in a “Collection
-of the Names of Chieftains and Eminent Men of the Delaware Nation” states
-that Shingask, although an implacable foe in battle, was never known to treat a
-prisoner with cruelty. “One day,” he goes on to say, “in the summer of 1762,
-while passing with him near by where two prisoners of his&mdash;boys of about twelve
-years of age&mdash;were amusing themselves with his own boys, as the chief observed
-that my attention was arrested by them, he asked me at what I was looking. Telling
-him in reply that I was looking at his prisoners, he said, ‘When I first took them,
-they were such; but now they and my children eat their food from the same bowl or
-dish;’ which was equivalent to saying that they were in all respects on an equal footing
-with his own children, or alike dear to him.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_215" href="#FNanchor_215" class="label">215</a>
-A kind of round buckle with a tongue, which the Indians fasten to their shirts.
-The traders call them <i>broaches</i>. They are placed in rows, at the distance of about
-the breadth of a finger one from the other.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_216" href="#FNanchor_216" class="label">216</a>
-The same whom I have spoken of above, page 184, No. 4.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_217" href="#FNanchor_217" class="label">217</a>
-For “<i>Albany</i>” read “<i>Pittsburg</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_218" href="#FNanchor_218" class="label">218</a>
-See ch. 15, p. 151.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_219" href="#FNanchor_219" class="label">219</a>
-The Indian name of Capt. White Eyes.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_220" href="#FNanchor_220" class="label">220</a>
-Page 188.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_221" href="#FNanchor_221" class="label">221</a>
-For “<i>Sandusky</i>” read “<i>Muskingum</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_222" href="#FNanchor_222" class="label">222</a>
-See above, pages 81, 184.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_223" href="#FNanchor_223" class="label">223</a>
-[Williamson did not lead the expedition against Sandusky, nor was it organized
-for the destruction of the Moravian Indians, then in the Sandusky country. It was
-led by Colonel William Crawford. Sanctioned by General Irvine, then in command
-of the Western Department, the undertaking was intended to be effectual in ending
-the troubles upon the western frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, by punishing
-the Wyandots, Shawanese, Delawares, and Mingoes, whose war-parties were wont
-to come from their settlements in Sandusky, to kill and devastate along the borders.
-See Butterfield’s <i>Crawford’s Campaign against Sandusky</i>, for full details touching
-the fitting out of this expedition, its disastrous termination, and the awful death by
-torture of its commanding officer.</p>
-
-<p>In a letter written by Washington to General Irvine, and dated <i>Headquarters, 6th
-August, 1782</i>, he expresses himself in the following words: “I lament the failure of
-the expedition, and am particularly affected with the disastrous fate of Colonel Crawford.
-No other than the extremest torture which could be inflicted by the savages,
-could, I think, have been expected by those who were unhappy enough to fall into
-their hands, especially under the present exasperation of their minds from the treatment
-given their Moravian friends. For this reason, no person should at this time
-suffer himself to fall alive into the hands of the Indians.”&mdash;<i>MS. in the Irvine Collection.</i>]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_224" href="#FNanchor_224" class="label">224</a>
-This name, according to the English orthography, should be written <i>Winganoond</i>
-or <i>Wingaynoond</i>, the second syllable accented and long, and the last syllable short.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_225" href="#FNanchor_225" class="label">225</a>
-The people were at that moment advancing, with shouts and yells, to torture and
-put him to death.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_226" href="#FNanchor_226" class="label">226</a>
-Ruth, i. 16.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_227" href="#FNanchor_227" class="label">227</a>
-Of the value of one dollar.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_228" href="#FNanchor_228" class="label">228</a>
-For “<i>bought</i>” read “<i>brought</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_229" href="#FNanchor_229" class="label">229</a>
-[A Monsey settlement near the mouth of the Tionesta, within the limits of the
-present Venango County. It was visited by Mr. Zeisberger for the first time in the
-autumn of 1767; in the following year it became the seat of a mission. In 1770, the
-Allegheny was exchanged by the missionary and his converts for the Beaver. Zeisberger’s
-labors at Goschgoschink furnished the subject for Sch&uuml;ssele’s historical
-painting, “The Power of the Gospel.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_230" href="#FNanchor_230" class="label">230</a>
-See Nile’s Weekly Register, vol. i., p. 141, vol. v., p. 174, and vol. vi., p. 111.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_231" href="#FNanchor_231" class="label">231</a>
-This appears to be a mistake; Leather-lips, as has been stated above, was a
-chief of the Wyandots or Hurons, and is so styled in the treaty of Greenville, otherwise
-called Wayne’s Treaty, where he was one of the representatives of that nation.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_232" href="#FNanchor_232" class="label">232</a>
-The Indian name of this chief was Tar-he; he was also a Wyandot or Huron,
-and one of the signers of the Greenville treaty. How great must have been the
-power of Tecumseh, who trusted the execution of Leather-lips to a chief of the same
-nation!</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_233" href="#FNanchor_233" class="label">233</a>
-[The earliest record of Tamanen is the affix of his mark to a deed, dated 23d day
-of the 4th month, 1683, by which he and Metamequan conveyed to old Proprietor
-Penn a tract of land, lying between the Pennypack and Neshaminy creeks, in Bucks
-County.&mdash;<i>Pennsylvania Archives</i>, vol. i., p. 64. Heckewelder gives the signification
-of the Delaware word “tamanen” as <i>affable</i>.]
-</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_234" href="#FNanchor_234" class="label">234</a>
-[Tadeuskund was baptized at the Gnadenh&uuml;tten Mission, (Lehighton, Carbon
-County, Pa.,) by the Moravian Bishop Cammerhoff, of Bethlehem, in March of 1750.
-For additional notices of this prominent actor in the French and Indian war, extracted
-from manuscripts in the Archives of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem, the reader
-is referred to <i>Memorials of the Moravian Church</i>, vol. i., edited by <i>W. C. Reichel,
-Philadelphia, 1870</i>.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_235" href="#FNanchor_235" class="label">235</a>
-[Moses Tatemy was a convert of, and sometime an interpreter for, David Brainerd,
-during that evangelist’s career among the Delawares of New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
-who were settled on both sides of their great river, between its forks and the
-Minisinks. A grant of upwards of 200 acres of land, lying on the east branch of
-Lehietan or Bushkill, within the limits of the present Northampton County, Pa., was
-confirmed to the chief about the year 1737, by the Proprietaries’ agents, for valuable
-services rendered. On this reservation, Tatemy was residing as late as 1753, and
-probably later. He was there a near neighbour of the Moravians at Nazareth. In
-the interval between 1756 and 1760, he participated in most of the numerous treaties
-and conferences between the Governors of the Province and his countrymen, frequently
-in the capacity of an interpreter. Subsequent to the last-mentioned year,
-his name ceases to appear on the Minutes of the Provincial Council. He probably
-died in 1761. Such being the facts in the case, Mr. Heckewelder is in error when
-he states that Tatemy lost his life at the hands of a white man <i>prior to 1754</i>. That
-a <i>son</i> of the old chieftain, <i>Bill Tatemy</i> by name, was mortally wounded in July of
-1757, by a young man in the Ulster-Scot settlement, (within the limits of Allen township,
-Northampton County,) while straying from a body of Indians, who were on
-their way from Fort Allen to Easton, to a treaty, is on record in the official papers of
-that day. This unprovoked assault upon one of their countrymen, as was to be expected,
-incensed the disaffected Indians to such a degree, that Governor Denny was
-fain to assure them, at the opening of the treaty, that the offender should be speedily
-brought to justice; at the same time, he condoled with the afflicted father. <i>Bill Tatemy</i>
-died near Bethlehem, from the effects of the gun-shot wound, within five weeks.
-He had been sometime under John Brainerd’s teaching, at Cranberry, N. J., and was
-a professing Christian.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_236" href="#FNanchor_236" class="label">236</a>
-See above page 67, and see the Errata with reference to that page.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_237" href="#FNanchor_237" class="label">237</a>
-Ch. 34, pp. 255, 256.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_238" href="#FNanchor_238" class="label">238</a>
-[These chiefs were representatives of the seven nations with whom Gen. Putnam
-concluded a treaty in September of the above-mentioned year, and were on their way
-to Philadelphia.</p>
-
-<p><i>Note.</i>&mdash;The following is a copy of the letter written by the Secretary of War to
-Mr. Heckewelder, advising him of Putnam’s request that he might be associated with
-him in his mission to the western Indians:</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-“<span class="smcap">War Department</span>, <i>18 May, 1792</i>.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Sir.</span>&mdash;I have the honour to inform you that the United States have for some time
-past been making pacific overtures to the hostile Indians north-west of the Ohio. It
-is to be expected that these overtures will soon be brought to an issue under the direction
-of Brigadier-General Putnam, of Marietta, who is specially charged with this
-business.</p>
-
-<p>“He is now in this city, and will be in readiness to set out on Monday next, and
-being acquainted with you, he is extremely desirous that you should accompany him
-in the prosecution of this good work.</p>
-
-<p>“Being myself most cordially impressed with a respect for your character and
-love of the Indians, on the purest principles of justice and humanity, I have cheerfully
-acquiesced in the desire of Gen. Putnam.</p>
-
-<p>“I hope sincerely it may be convenient for you to accompany or follow him soon,
-in order to execute a business which is not unpromising, and which, if accomplished,
-will redound to the credit of the individuals who perform it.</p>
-
-<p>“As to pecuniary considerations, I shall arrange them satisfactorily with you.</p>
-
-<p class="author">
-“With great respect, I am, sir, your most obedient servant,<br />
-“<span class="smcap">H. Knox</span>,<br />
-<i>Secretary of War</i>.”]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_239" href="#FNanchor_239" class="label">239</a>
-[Col. Ebenezer Sproat was one of the colony which, under the auspices of the
-recently formed Ohio Company, and led by Gen. Putnam, emigrated to the Ohio
-country in the spring of 1788, and founded Marietta.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_240" href="#FNanchor_240" class="label">240</a>
-Ch. 6, p. 104.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_241" href="#FNanchor_241" class="label">241</a>
-For “<i>them</i>” read “<i>us</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_242" href="#FNanchor_242" class="label">242</a>
-Sun-fish.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_243" href="#FNanchor_243" class="label">243</a>
-Vocabularium Barbaro-Virgineorum, bound with an Indian translation from the
-Swedish of Luther’s Catechism. Stockholm, 1696, duod.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_244" href="#FNanchor_244" class="label">244</a>
-Carver’s Travels, Introduction, p. 72. Boston Edit., 1797.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_245" href="#FNanchor_245" class="label">245</a>
-Carver was only 14 months in the Indian country, during which time he says he
-travelled near 4000 miles and visited twelve different nations of Indians.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_246" href="#FNanchor_246" class="label">246</a>
-For “<i>Indians</i>” read “<i>traders</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_247" href="#FNanchor_247" class="label">247</a>
-[They were sent to Goschschoking (Coshocton), the then capital of the Delaware
-nation, to condole with that people on the death of White Eyes.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_248" href="#FNanchor_248" class="label">248</a>
-Ch. 7, p. 111.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_249" href="#FNanchor_249" class="label">249</a>
-See above, ch. 18, p. 172.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_250" href="#FNanchor_250" class="label">250</a>
-Dr. Boudinot was long a member, and once President, of the Continental Congress,
-and his talents were very useful to the cause which he had embraced. At a
-very advanced age, he now enjoys literary ease in a dignified retirement.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_251" href="#FNanchor_251" class="label">251</a>
-A Star in the West, or a humble attempt to discover the long lost ten tribes of
-Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloved city, Jerusalem. Trenton (New
-Jersey), 1816.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_252" href="#FNanchor_252" class="label">252</a>
-See page 140, and following.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_253" href="#FNanchor_253" class="label">253</a>
-Star in the West, p. 138.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_254" href="#FNanchor_254" class="label">254</a>
-This relation is authentic. I have received it from the mouth of the chief of the
-injured party, and his statement was confirmed by communications made at the time
-by two respectable magistrates of the county.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_255" href="#FNanchor_255" class="label">255</a>
-[This outrage was committed at the public house of John Stenton, which stood
-on the road leading from Bethlehem to Fort Allen, a short mile north of the present
-Howertown, Allen township, Northampton County. Stenton belonged to the Scotch-Irish,
-who settled in that region as early as 1728.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_256" href="#FNanchor_256" class="label">256</a>
-[Nescopeck was an Indian settlement on the highway of Indian travel between
-Fort Allen and the Wyoming Valley.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_257" href="#FNanchor_257" class="label">257</a>
-Justice Geiger’s letter to Justice Horsefield proves this fact</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_258" href="#FNanchor_258" class="label">258</a>
-[These unprovoked barbarities were perpetrated by a squad of soldiers who, in
-command of Captain Jacob Wetterholt, of the Provincial service, were in quarters
-at the Lehigh Water Gap, Carbon County, Pa.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_259" href="#FNanchor_259" class="label">259</a>
-[In this paragraph, Mr. Heckewelder briefly alludes to the <i>last foray</i> made by
-Indians into old Northampton County, south of the Blue Mountain. It occurred on
-the 8th of October, 1763. An account of the affair at Stenton’s, on the morning of
-that day, in which Stenton was shot dead, and Captain Jacob Wetterholt and several
-of his men seriously or mortally wounded, was published in Franklin’s <i>Pennsylvania
-Gazette</i>, of October 18th, 1763. Leaving Stenton’s, after the loss of one of their
-number, the Indians crossed the Lehigh, and on their way to a store and tavern on
-the Copley creek, (where they also had been wronged by the whites,) they murdered
-several families residing within the limits of the present Whitehall township, Lehigh
-County. Laden with plunder, they then struck for the wilderness north of the Blue
-Mountain. Upwards of twenty settlers were killed or captured on that memorable
-day, and the buildings on several farms were laid in ashes.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_260" href="#FNanchor_260" class="label">260</a>
-[The 5,000 acres at Nazareth, which Whitefield sold to the Moravians in 1741,
-were first held by L&aelig;titia Aubrey, to whom it had been granted by her father, William
-Penn, in 1682. The right of erecting this tract, or any portion thereof, into a
-manor, of holding court-baron thereon, and of holding views of frankpledge for the
-conservation of the peace, were special privileges accorded to the grantee by the
-grantor. It was one of few of the original grants similarly invested. The royalty,
-however, in all cases remained a dead letter.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_261" href="#FNanchor_261" class="label">261</a>
-Alluding to what was at that time known by the name of the <i>long day’s walk</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_262" href="#FNanchor_262" class="label">262</a>
-See above, p. 302.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_263" href="#FNanchor_263" class="label">263</a>
-The same of whom I have spoken above, p. 171.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_264" href="#FNanchor_264" class="label">264</a>
-See above, pp. 135, 136.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_265" href="#FNanchor_265" class="label">265</a>
-Above, p. 279.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_266" href="#FNanchor_266" class="label">266</a>
-Carver’s Travels, ch. 9, p. 196. Edit. above cited.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_267" href="#FNanchor_267" class="label">267</a>
-[Glikhican, one of the converts of distinction attached to the Moravian mission,
-was a man of note among his people, both in the council chamber and on the war-path.
-When the Moravians first met him he resided at Kaskaskunk, on the Beaver,
-and at Friedenstadt, on that river, he was baptized by David Zeisberger in December
-of 1770. Subsequently he became a “national assistant” in the work of the Gospel,
-lived consistently with his profession, and met his death at the hands of Williamson’s
-men at Gnadenh&uuml;tten in March of 1782.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_268" href="#FNanchor_268" class="label">268</a>
-See above, p. 338.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_269" href="#FNanchor_269" class="label">269</a>
-Loskiel, p. 3, ch. 3.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_270" href="#FNanchor_270" class="label">270</a>
-[The valley of the Conecocheague, which stream drains Franklin County, Pennsylvania,
-was explored and settled about 1730 by Scotch-Irish pioneers, among
-whom were three brothers of the name of Chambers. The site of Chambersburg was
-built on by Joseph Chambers. The Conecocheague settlement suffered much from
-the Indians after Braddock’s defeat in 1755.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_271" href="#FNanchor_271" class="label">271</a>
-Letter V.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_272" href="#FNanchor_272" class="label">272</a>
-For “<i>Zeisberger</i>” read “<i>Heckewelder</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_273" href="#FNanchor_273" class="label">273</a>
-These papers have been communicated.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_274" href="#FNanchor_274" class="label">274</a>
-For “<i>from</i>” read “<i>for</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_275" href="#FNanchor_275" class="label">275</a>
-For “<i>schawan&aacute;ki</i>” read “<i>schwanameki</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_276" href="#FNanchor_276" class="label">276</a>
-For “<i>chwani</i>” read “<i>chwami</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_277" href="#FNanchor_277" class="label">277</a>
-An Enquiry into the Question, whether America was peopled from the Old Continent?</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_278" href="#FNanchor_278" class="label">278</a>
-The Chippeways have hardly any grammatical forms.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_279" href="#FNanchor_279" class="label">279</a>
-See Philos. Trans. abridged; vol. lxiii., 142.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_280" href="#FNanchor_280" class="label">280</a>
-Colden’s Hist. of the Five Nations. Octavo ed., 1747, p. 14.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_281" href="#FNanchor_281" class="label">281</a>
-One of them empties itself into the north side of Lake St. Clair, another at the
-west end of Lake Erie, and a third on the south side of the said lake, about twenty-five
-miles east of Sandusky river or bay.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_282" href="#FNanchor_282" class="label">282</a>
-For “<i>K’lehelleya</i>” read “<i>K’lehellecheya</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_283" href="#FNanchor_283" class="label">283</a>
-From the verb <i>Pommauchsin</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_284" href="#FNanchor_284" class="label">284</a>
-In the original it is <i>N’mizi</i>; the German <i>z</i> being pronounced like <i>tz</i>, which mode
-of spelling has been adopted in this publication.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_285" href="#FNanchor_285" class="label">285</a>
-For “<i>Wulatopnachgat</i>” read “<i>Wulaptonachgat</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_286" href="#FNanchor_286" class="label">286</a>
-For “<i>Wulatonamin</i>” read “<i>Wulatenamin</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_287" href="#FNanchor_287" class="label">287</a>
-For “<i>manner</i>” read “<i>matter</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_288" href="#FNanchor_288" class="label">288</a>
-For “<i>achpansi</i>” read “<i>achpanschi</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_289" href="#FNanchor_289" class="label">289</a>
-<i>Wenitschanit</i>, the parent or owner of a child naturally begotten; <i>wetallemansit</i>,
-the owner of the beast.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_290" href="#FNanchor_290" class="label">290</a>
-[<i>A Collection of Hymns, for the use of the Christian Indians of the Missions of
-the United Brethren, in North America.</i> Philadelphia: Printed by Henry Sweitzer,
-at the corner of Race and Fourth Streets, 1803. A second edition of this work
-abridged, and edited by the Rev. Abraham Luckenbach, was published at Bethlehem
-in 1847.]</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_291" href="#FNanchor_291" class="label">291</a>
-For “<i>Indian corn</i>” read “<i>a particular species of Indian corn</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_292" href="#FNanchor_292" class="label">292</a>
-All words ending in <i>ican</i>, <i>hican</i>, <i>kschican</i>, denote a sharp instrument for cutting.
-<i>Pachkschican</i>, a knife; <i>pkuschican</i>, a gimlet, an instrument which cuts into holes;
-<i>tangamican</i>, or <i>tangandican</i>, a spear, a sharp-pointed instrument; <i>poyachkican</i>, a
-gun, or an instrument that cuts with force.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_293" href="#FNanchor_293" class="label">293</a>
-For “<i>Ktahoatell</i>” read “<i>Ktahoalell</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_294" href="#FNanchor_294" class="label">294</a>
-For “<i>gunich</i>” read “<i>gunih</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_295" href="#FNanchor_295" class="label">295</a>
-Quin et emissurus Fucinum lacum, naumachiam ante commisit. Sed cum proclamantibus
-naumachiariis “Ave, Imperator! morituri te salutant,” respondisset
-“Avete vos!” neque post hanc vocem, quasi veni&acirc; dat&acirc;, quisquam dimicare vellet,
-di&ugrave; cunctatus an omnes igni ferroque absumeret, tandem &egrave; sede sua prosiluit, ac per
-ambitum lac&ucirc;s, non sine fœd&acirc; vacillatione discurrens, partim minando, partim adhortando,
-ad pugnam compulit. Sueton. in Claud. 21.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_296" href="#FNanchor_296" class="label">296</a>
-Gœthe, in Wilhelm Meister.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_297" href="#FNanchor_297" class="label">297</a>
-For “<i>Eliwulek</i>” read “<i>Eluwilek</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_298" href="#FNanchor_298" class="label">298</a>
-For “<i>Allowilen</i>” read “<i>Allowilek</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_299" href="#FNanchor_299" class="label">299</a>
-For the English translation of these two words substitute “<i>the most extraordinary</i>,
-<i>the most wonderful</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_300" href="#FNanchor_300" class="label">300</a>
-For “<i>Eluwantowit</i>” read “<i>Eluwannitlowit</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_301" href="#FNanchor_301" class="label">301</a>
-For “<i>Elewassit</i>” read “<i>Elewussit</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_302" href="#FNanchor_302" class="label">302</a>
-For “<i>the supremely good</i>” read “<i>the most holy one</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_303" href="#FNanchor_303" class="label">303</a>
-Bey vielen Amerikanischen Sprachen finden wir theils einen so k&uuml;nstlichen und
-zusammengesetzten bau, und einem so grossen reichthum an grammatischen formen,
-wie ihn selbst bey dem verbum wenige sprachen der Welt haben: theils scheinen
-sie so arm an aller grammatischen ausbildung, wie die sprachen der rohesten V&ouml;lker
-in Nord-Ost-Asia und in Afrika seyn m&ouml;gen. <i>Untersuchungen &uuml;ber Amerikas
-bev&ouml;lkerung</i>, S. 152.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_304" href="#FNanchor_304" class="label">304</a>
-Among the Mbayas, a nation of Paraguay, it is said that young men and girls,
-before their marriage, speak a language differing in many respects from that of married
-men and women. Azara, c. 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_305" href="#FNanchor_305" class="label">305</a>
-For “<i>schingieschin</i>” read “<i>schingiechin</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_306" href="#FNanchor_306" class="label">306</a>
-The <i>k</i> which is prefixed to this and the following substantives, conveys the idea
-of the pronoun <i>thy</i>; it is a repetition (as it were) of the beginning of the phrase
-“for <i>thine</i>” &amp;c., and enforces its meaning. <i>Ksakimowagan</i>, may be thus dissected:
-<i>k</i>, thy, <i>sakima</i>, king or chief, <i>wagan</i>, substantive termination, added to <i>king</i>, makes
-<i>kingdom</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_307" href="#FNanchor_307" class="label">307</a>
-See Letters 8 and 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_308" href="#FNanchor_308" class="label">308</a>
-M. Raynouard, in his excellent Researches on the Origin and Formation of the
-corrupted Roman Language, spoken before the year 1000, has sufficiently proved
-that the French articles <i>le</i>, the Spanish <i>el</i>, and the Italian <i>il</i>, are derived from the
-Latin demonstrative pronoun <i>ille</i>, which began about the sixth century to be prefixed
-to the substantive. Thus they said: <span class="smcap">Illi</span> <i>Saxones</i>, “<span class="smcap">the Saxons</span>;” <span class="smcap">Illi</span> <i>negociatores
-de Longobardia</i>, “<span class="smcap">THE</span> Lombard merchants,” &amp;c. So natural is the use of the
-pronominal form to give clearness and precision to language. <i>Recherches</i>, &amp;c., p. 39.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_309" href="#FNanchor_309" class="label">309</a>
-For “<i>Mamschalgussiwagan</i>” read “<i>Mamschalgussowagan</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_310" href="#FNanchor_310" class="label">310</a>
-For “<i>Mamintochimgussowagan</i>” read “<i>Mamintschimgussowagan</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_311" href="#FNanchor_311" class="label">311</a>
-For “<i>M’chonschicanes</i>” read “<i>M’chonschican</i>.”</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="transnote">
-<h3>Transcriber’s Note:</h3>
-
-<p>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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