Local History: Chapters III - VII : Davis's 1877 History of Northampton Co, PA

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                                  HISTORY

                                    OF

                       NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


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22 (cont.)


                               CHAPTER III.

               CHARACTER AND PECULIARITIES OF THE INDIANS.

  THE character of the Delaware and Iroquois nations was, in nearly every 
respect, the same as that of all the other aborigines of the northern 
portion of America, and will be regarded, in future times, as one of the 
most interesting topics connected with its history.  Their appearance, 
customs, and manners were so  far distinct from those of other nations 
known to the civilized world, and their individual character had so little 
in common with the more restrained and law-abiding Europeans, that they 
were, in the first stages of their acquaintance with the whites, classed by 
the latter among those wild and lawless races known as savages N-ho, it was 
supposed, had few, if any, of the affections and higher emotions of 
humanity, but rather were bound by some mysterious link to the lower and 
baser passions of the animal creation.  This estimate of their character, 
although very far from being a correct one, was yet not totally wrong, for 
while later experience has shown that, under the advantages of education 
and culture, the American Indian is capable of high attainment, both mental 
and moral, yet truth forces the admission that many of the baser traits 
seemed so deeply rooted in their nature as to be ineradicable; among these 
were the cruelty and treachery which (notwithstanding all that Heckewelder 
and other missionaries have written to the contrary, were certainly among 
their general characteristics, as also, still more notably, was their 
disposition to drunkenness, which seemed to have been universal.

  The red men themselves charged that the vice of intoxication among them 
was not only originated, but wilfuly fostered by the Europeans, in order 
that they might be able more easily to over-reach them in trade; and it 
will be found extremely hard to disprove the allegation.  William Penn, in a 
letter to the "Free Society of Traders," when writing of this weakness of 
the Pennsylvania Indians, says:  "Since the Europeans came into these 
parts, they (the Indians) are grown great lovers of strong liquors-rum 
especially-and for it exchange the richest of their skins and furs.  If they 
are heated with liquors, they are restless till they have enough to sleep; 
that is their cry, some more, and I will go to sleep, but when drunk, one 
of the most wretched spectacles in the world."

  There is no doubt that the abuse of ardent spirits, produced on the 
Indian, effects still more baneful than those we find resulting from the 
same cause in the white race.  Mania-a-potu was common; and in the paroxysms 
of this fearful delirium, they frequently committed the most deplorable 
crimes; and excesses, for which they afterwards made expiation by a 
lifetime of horror and remorse.

  Loskiel relates all incident of this kind, which occurred in old 
Northampton county.  It is as follows:
"An Indian who had been born and brought up at Minisink, near the Delaware 
Water Gap, and to whom the German inhabitants of that neighborhood 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 the had, fancying him to be his worst and avowed enemy.

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1 And the believed sometimes  the grandfather  Tortoise became weary, and 
shook himself, or changed his position, and that this was the cause of 
earthquakes.

2 Meaning of the Indian tongue-River of Fish.


23


  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; the 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, the never drank a drop of 
ardent spirits, which he always called the devils blood, and was firmly 
persuaded that the devil, or some of his inferior spirits, had a hand in 
preparing it."

  The place where the Indian first tasted the strong spirits of the 
European, is said to have been the island where the City of New York now 
stands, and the occasion was the first visit of Hendrik Hudson, in 1609, to 
the river that bears his name.

  The Indian legend runs: that, many, many years before, some of their 
people, who were fishing upon the river, in its wide part, not far above 
where it goes out into the great lake of salt water, saw a large object 
floating upon the surface, a great way off, and as its appearance was most 
strange, not to say terrifying to them, and as it certainly appeared to be 
moving up towards the land, they paddled their canoe to the shore, in great 
agitation, to inform their comrades there of the strange apparition.

  Some thought it all immense bird swimming upon the water; some thought 
it an animal, while the greater number believed it to be a floating house of 
magnificent proportions, inhabited by none less than the great Manitou 
himself, who was probably coming in power and great state to visit his 
Indian children.

  So they dispatched runners in all directions to inform the neighboring 
chiefs and people of the strange appearance, and to request their presence 
at once, bringing meats and drinks, the best that could be had, with wampum 
and gifts, such as might propitiate the Manitou, if it should prove that 
his visit was an angry one, as they feared it might prove to be.  Women came 
to cook the meats and the hominy, and Indian soothsayers and wizards were 
not lacking to interpret the portents of the occasion.

  It was now very plainly to be seen that the strange phenomenon was moving 
rapidly towards the land.  A state of utter distraction prevailed, and the 
anxiety of the people was most intense.

  A stately and solemn dance was commenced, in the belief that that was one 
of the forms of worship most propitiatory to the approaching majesty.
The scouts who had, for better observation, been posted on the outermost 
point of land, now joined the main body, with the intelligence-which was by 
no means reassuring to the Indians-that it was unquestionably a house, 
containing beings which seemed human, although of a color different from 
themselves; that among these was a chief-evidently the Manitou himself-
clothed from head to foot in garments as red as the blast of the 
war-trumpet; slashed, and ornamented with glittering gold.  Nearer 
approached the house -or monster canoe, as it now became evident that it 
was-and from its mysterious company there came a bail which, judging from 
its, sound, proceeded from lungs like their own, and yet was in a language 
unknown and evidently celestial.

  The terror of the savages was now so great that they would have fled to 
the woods, but they were reminded by the chief that such a course would be 
wholly inconsistent with the Indian dignity, and would surely elicit the 
contempt of the Manitou, even if it did not provoke his wrath, and that at 
any rate, it would be impossible to elude his vengeance, if such were the 
purpose of his visit.

  So they suppressed all appearance of emotion, as Indians so well know how 
to do, and awaited the coming of the august visitor, who by this time, was 
approaching near the shore in a small canoe (the large one remaining 
stationary in the middle of the river).  On landing, the at once advanced in 
a dignified but easy and most courteous manner towards the expectant chiefs 
who stood in a semi-circle, and in decorous silence, to receive him.
Friendly salutes were exchanged by them, each after the manner of his own 
people.  The admiration and awe of the natives knew no bounds.  The gold 
encrusted dress, of dazzling scarlet, worn by him who was evidently the 
leader, and the great obsequiousness observed towards him by his followers, 
many of whom, indeed, seemed hardly inferior in appearance to himself, and 
more than all the benignity of his manner towards the red men, convinced 
them, simple-minded as they were, that it was, indeed, their great Manitou, 
though they found it hard to account for, or to reconcile, the fact that 
his skin was white.

  As soon as the first ceremonious civilities had passed, one of the 
servants of the great personage, advanced, holding in his hands a large 
hackhack,1 and poured from it into a drinking cup or glass, a liquid like 
water, which the Indians probably thought to be a celestial beverage, but 
which it has since been ascertained, was simply schnapps.

  The Manitou drank first, a very thoughtful thing for him to do, to show 
them that it contained nothing hurtful; then had the cup refilled, and 
passed it to one who appeared to be the principal of the assembled chiefs, 
who (apparently having some doubt of its wholesomeness) merely smelt, and 
passed it to the next, who in turn handed it on with only a smell of the 
contents, and, strange as -is the tale, it passed the entire semi-circle 
without having been drained.  At this point of the proceedings, a chief of 
great bravery and public spirit, demanded to be heard.  He told his brother 
chiefs, that the cup was handed to them by the Manitou, who had drank of it 
himself; and that to return it to him cow, untasted, would most probably 
provoke his anger, and bring upon them a just retribution.  He said it was 
entirely wrong, as well as impolitic, to decline so kind an invitation, 
coming from so high a source; and that for courtesy's sake, as well as for 
the good of his people (as he believed it to be) he would, himself, drink 
the draught, although the might fall dead the next moment (which shows that 
after all the entertained a lingering mistrust of the good faith of the 
llfanitou) for the said it would be well, even if he should forfeit his own 
life, to secure the salvation of his people.

  Then he took the cup, and, after bidding farewell to the chiefs and 
people, the drank the liquor to the bottom.  All eyes were now turned on him 
in admiration for the noble sacrifice which he had made, and in curiosity 
to see the effect which would be produced.  These feelings were soon 
succeeded by deep commiseration and grief, as they saw his manner change, 
and his step grow unsteady, until finally he lay prostrate on the ground, 
amid the sad howlings of his people who thought him dead.  The strangers, 
however, assured them that the was not dead; but that the would soon be 
awake, and as well as ever; and this proved true.  On his recovery, he 
declared that never before, had he, in all his life, been so happy as after 
he drank the strange liquid, and while he remained in the trance.  He at 
once asked for more, and more was given him; then another and another of 
the Indians desired to try it, and as all were gratified in their wish, the 
scene which followed may very easily be imagined.

  As has been said, these events happened on what is now New York Island; 
but the place was then, by the Indians, named Manahachtanenk, or Manhattan, 
this being by interpretation, "the place where we all got drunk together," 
which was, and is, all extremely appropriate designation.

  While the intoxication continued, the Manitou and his followers retired 
to their big canoe, but returned to the shore as soon as the Indians 
recovered.

  They succeeded in communicating, imperfectly, with the natives by signs 
and otherwise, and they told them that they did not intend to stay long in 
the country, but should soon depart, to return again the following year, 
and that while they remained, they should wish to have such articles of 
food as the Indians could furnish, for which they would give them other 
articles out of the store they had brought with them in their big canoe.  To 
this the natives readily assented, for they felt much honored by the visit 
of these superior beings; and, besides, they much desired to have the goods 
which were promised them, of which, it must be said, the most wished for 
was that strange and seductive liquid from the hackhack of the Manitou.

  Not only furs and skins but all the other products of the Indians were 
brought to the strangers for barter.  Maize and tobacco they raised 
everywhere.  Besides which they had hops, peas, beans, pumpkins, and other 
vegetables to some extent, and all these they furnished to the white man in 
exchange for liquor-most properly named by them "fire-water," that baleful 
poison which has proved to their race, (even in a more marked degree than 
to our own) the quintessence of all evil and woe.

  Regarding their liberality and improvidence, the following is quoted from 
the language of William Penn, employed in a letter addressed by him to the 
"Free Society of Traders:"

  "They excel in liberality.  Nothing is too good for their friends.  Give 
them a fine gun, coat, or other thing, it may pass twenty hands before it 
sticks.  Light of heart, strong affections, but soon spent.  The most inerry 
creatures that live, feast and dance perpetually.  They never have much, nor 
want much.  Wealth circulateth like the blood, calf parts partake, and 
though none shall want what another hath, yet exact observers of property.  
They care for little because they want but little, and the reason is, a 
little contents them.

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1 Probably a demijohn: as this word is the Indian name for any large vessel 
intended for the carrying of liquids.


24


  In this they are sufficiently revenged on us; if they are ignorant of our 
pleasures they are also free from our pains.  They are not disquieted with 
bills of lading and exchange, nor perplexed with chancery suits and 
exchequer reckonings.  We sweat and toil to live, their pleasure feeds 
them-I mean their hunting, fishing, and fowling, and this table is spread 
everywhere.  They eat twice a day, morning and evening, their seats and 
table are the ground."

  The Indians were certainly a most open-handed people.  Among them there 
was no short-coming-unless it might be cowardice-which they considered so 
reprehensible as a neglect of the requirements of hospitality.

  The observance of these was, with them, not a virtue but a duty.  None 
among them ever thought that such action was, in any degree, worthy of 
praise, but a failure to practice it would brand the delinquent with 
indelible disgrace.

  They would rather prefer themselves to suffer the pangs of hunger thin to 
be remiss in their duty towards the unfortunate, the needy, or to those who 
were far away front home and people.
With them it might be said in truth that-
          "A stranger is a holy name.
  Guidance and rest, and food, and fire
  In vain, the never must require."

  But in regard to rights of property, they adopted, in a great degree, the 
doctrines of the Commune.

  It was their belief that the Great Spirit made the earth and the ocean, 
the mountains, valleys, forests, lakes, and rivers, and all that in them 
is, for the common good of mankind; and that whatever lived in the woods 
and hills, or swam in the rivers and the sea, or grew out of the bosom of 
their mother Earth, was placed there for all men, and that the idea of 
exclusive ownership in this common property was preposterous and wholly 
subversive of the benevolent intention of the great Manitou.

  As illustrative of this belief, we mention an incident which is 
chronicled by one of the Moravian missionaries:

  "Some traveling Indians having, in the year 1777, put their horses over 
night to pasture in my little meadow at Gnadenhutten, I called on them in 
the morning to learn why they had done so.  I endeavored 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 nobody call, except the great Manitou.  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 bears 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 which my horses 
did eat, in like manner as the meat which 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 friendships sake, 
however, I shall never put my horses in your meadow again."

  Sometimes their communistic ideas were carried still further than in the 
above instance.

  It is related that a white man in the Wyoming county lost his horse, and 
soon discovered that his property was in the possession of a Shawnee 
Indian, who find in plain language, stolen him.  Meeting the Indian, 
actually mounted on his horse, he remonstrated with him, and told him to 
return the beast.  The Indian said, "Friend, I will come to your wigwam, and 
we shall have a big talk." True to his appointment he came, and finding the 
owner at home, the latter insisted that he would not lose the horse, but 
that the Indian must restore it to him.  The savage replied that the horse 
was his own, he having inherited him from his uncle who had lately died.  
But this explanation not satisfying the persistent owner, the Indian took 
from the fire-place a black coal with Which be proposed that he should 
write a statement of the case which should satisfy his white "friend." The 
statement was made in this wise.  It was a picture drawn upon the wall with 
the coal, representing the white man having taken his horse, which was all 
satisfactory so far, but he added another view of the case, which showed 
the pale face lying upon the ground, and the Sitawnee bending over him with 
a scalping-knife in his hand.  The red artist then asked his companion, if 
he could read Indian writing, and if so, whether his statement was 
satisfactory.  The reply of the owner of the horse is not recorded, but it 
is probable that the Indians showing was all that was needed, for the 
mounted the horse, and rode away without molestation.


                             CHAPTER IV.

                INDIAN WARFARE, HUNTING, AND ORATORY.

  THE science of warfare was the highest accomplishment of the Indian, but 
as is the case with all other people, a spirit of aggression was only in-
dulged by the stronger nations, to whom alone it was of any advantage.  Like 
hunted deer, the poorer and less powerful tribes were often forced to leave 
their villages as plunder to some marauding band on a foray from a distant 
locality.

  The preparation for the war-path was commonly opened by feasting and 
dancing, in which the whole tribe took part, and when this was concluded, 
the war party quickly and silently left the village and entered the forest, 
with the chief at their head, and the warriors following singly in "Indian 
file."

  As regards their possession of qualities, essential to success in war, or 
the chase, very false ideas have been, and still are entertained.  It is 
customary to think and speak of the Indian, as immeasurably superior to all 
other human beings in endurance, skill in the use of weapons, and in 
woodcraft, and also as possessing bravery and cunning, which were almost 
supernatural; whereas, it is the fact that the white man has invariably 
shown his superiority over the savage, wherever the two have been brought 
together in the same arena.

  The Indian was brave so long as be had a shelter, from which he might 
attack his foe, but that courage suffered a very marked diminution, when he 
was compelled to meet his enemies, as white men do, on the open field, and 
without cover, and it is an indisputable fact that in all the fights 
between French and English in America, where Indian allies were engaged on 
one side or the other (and often on both) these red warriors, who were so 
ready and apt, in using steel in the form of tomahawk, or scalping-knife, 
always blenched before the gleam of the bayonet.

  There has never been a single instance where any incentive of pride-of 
which the Indian was supposed to possess so much, or of savage 
vindictiveness, which we know was their most marked characteristic, was 
found sufficient to hold them steadfast in the face of an advancing line of 
glistening steel.

  And so it has always been in the science (if it may be so called) of 
woodcraft.  Keen and cunning as they were in following their enemy's trail 
by the upturning of a leaf, or the bending of a twig or blade of grass, 
guiding their way in starless night, through the depths of trackless- 
forest-, by the sense of touch upon the trunks of trees; detecting the 
proximity of a foe by a knowledge apparently as keen as a bloodhounds 
scent, and falling upon that foe with steps as noiseless as the passage of 
disembodied spirits; in all these, the white man, whenever he made these 
things his study, rivalled and surpassed the savage.  All know the story of 
that subtlest of all Indian haters, the Pennsylvanian Brady, and also that 
of Letvi Wetzel, the scout of the Ohio; how they swore to be avenged for 
the destruction of their homes and the slaving of their families by 
savages, and how, single-handed and alone, for months and years they 
shadowed the red murderers through the dim woods and along the darkly 
gliding streams, until their grudge bad been glutted it hundred fold; 
though during that time, whole tribes had bent all their energies and all 
their cunning to surprise and capture them; but in vain, for the white man 
was their superior.  His eye was keener, his tread lighter, his senses more 
acute, his rifle more unerring.

  In the quality of fortitude alone, the Indian seems to have been the 
superior of the white mail.  In enduring pain with stoical indifference, the 
stood pre-eminent.  To die, without betraying weakness or fear, was one of 
the highest virtues in his eye, and was early inculcated in the winds of 
the children.  Many a savage, whom no sentiment of courage, or pride, or 
shame, could have induced to face the terror of the bayonet on an open 
field, has chanted his death song with unquavering voice, while enduring 
tortures which would have wrung shrieks of agony from the sternest 
grenadier Who preferred death to surrender, upon the field of Waterloo.

  In their councils they observed the utmost gravity and decorum.  While the 
Indian orator addressed his audience, there was no interruption on their 
part, excepting from time to time, a guttural sound, something like 
"hoogh", expressing satisfaction at points in the speech, and, although 
antagonistic views might be held on subjects under discussion, yet the most 
respectful attention was given to the words of the speaker during his 
oration, and neither his partisans nor opponents showed the least 
disposition toward that levity which, it is to be regretted, forms a very 
marked feature of the deliberative assemblies of the white race, even in 
our own houses of Congress at Washington.


25


  Their speaker's gestures were animated, and their speeches delivered in a 
loud voice.  The effect upon an observer of the erect figure, naked arm, and 
rude, though not ungraceful attire of the orator, is described as very impressive.

  The matter of their discourse is found, in all the speeches which have 
been transmitted to us, to have been well adapted to the subject, their 
style varied, and appropriate to the effect intended.

  By authority as high as William Penn himself, we are told that "they 
speak little, but fervently and with elegance.  I have never seen more 
natural sagacity, considering them without the help (I was going to say the 
spoil) of tradition."

  In the speeches of their sachems and chiefs we often find passages which 
embody the soul of eloquence.  Red Jacket, upon one occasion, thus 
pathetically broke forth in an enumeration of the woes which his tribe had 
sustained at the hands of the pale faces: "We stand on a small island, in 
the bosom of the great waters.  We are encircled, we are encompassed.  The 
Evil Spirit rides upon the blast, and the waters are disturbed.  They rise, 
they press upon us, and the waters once settled over us, we disappear 
forever.  Who, then, lives to mourn us? None! What marks our extinction? 
Nothing! We are mingled with the common elements."

  Another specimen of Indian eloquence, of it high order, is recorded by 
the veteran missionary, Heckewelder, as having come under his own personal 
observation.  It was the speech of Pipe, a Delaware chief, addressed to the 
British Commandant at Detroit.  The chief and his men, at the time, were 
allies of the British, but it is represented that they were tired of the 
alliance and only continued in it under compulsion.  This may or may not 
have been a mistake on the part of the good missionary whose recorded 
statements concerning the Indians, and particularly the Delawares, although 
always conscientiously made and intended to be strictly truthful, are 
always strongly, and oftentimes ridiculously, biased in favor of the red 
men.  But this is the account which he gives of the speech, and lie vouches 
for the correctness of his rendition.  Alluding to the chief, he says: "He 
was now reluctantly compelled to go out against the Americans with the well 
under his command.  On his return from one of those expeditions, he went to 
make his report to the British Commandant, at Detroit, by whom lie was 
received in state, at the council house, in 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 a 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 took, 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 as only brothers.  But as this name is also imposed 
upon us, I shall make use of it find 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 upon 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 it 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, weil knowing that if I did not obey, you 
would withhold front me 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! 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! on say you love your children, the Indians.  This you have often 
told them; and, indeed, it is for your interest to say so to them that you 
may have them at your service.

  "But, FATHER! who of us call believe that you call love a people of it 
different color 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 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 weapons 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 whom he now calls his enemies.

  "I may then see him laugh at my folly for having obeyed his orders, and 
yet I am nosy 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); I have done, with the hatchet, what you 
ordered me to do, and have 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 had Do part in your quarrels, 
therefore I distinguished-I spared-I took some live flesh,1 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, and will find that the skill 
is of the same color as you?- own.  FATHER! I hope you will not destroy what 
I have saved.  You Father, have the means of preserving, what with me would 
perish for want.  The warrior is poor, and his calling is always empty, but 
your house, Father, is always full."

     The venerable missonary ads: "Here we see boldness, frankness, dignity, and 
humanity, happily blended together, and most eloquently displayed.  * * * * 
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."

  Taciturn and dignified as was the Indian, however, he not unfrequently 
showed a considerable disposition to be facetious and witty.

  It is related of Tudeuskund, the principal chief (and sometimes spoken of
as "king") of the Delaware, that being seen one day sitting on the pavement 
in Market street, Philadelphia, in a state of intoxication (for he dearly
loved the fiery rum), he was accosted by a Quaker who knew him.  "Ah,
chief, how is this; I thought thee was turned a good Moravian?" The fuddled 
"king" replied, "Ugh! chief, no Moravian now, chief turned Quaker
yesterday." And upon another occasion, being met by a Scotchman, a 
worthless fellow, who hailed him with, "well cousin, how do you do," the 
proud red man responded, "cousin, cousin, how do you make that out?" "Oh,"
said the Scot, "we are all cousins from Adam." "Ali, then," said the chief, 
I am very glad it is no nearer."2

  Concerning this trait, Heckewelder says: "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 lie is going out for meat? or say 
to one another, 'now we shall have meat, for such a one has gone a hunting' 
(not believing any such thing).  Or, 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?'"


                                CHAPTER V.

           INDIAN RESPECT FOR THE AGED - ADOPTION OF CHILDREN

  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 which we possess, but a great deal more.  
We, therefore, must submit our limited views to their experience.

  "In traveling, one of the eldest will always take the lead, unless 
another is especially appointed for that purpose.  If such a one stops to 
hunt, or in order to stay find encamp at the place for some time, all halt 
together, all are pleased with the spot, find declare it to be judiciously 
chosen.

  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.
___________________________________________________________________________

1 Women and children prisoners

2 Stone's History of Wyoming


26


  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 he particularly asked.  In such a case, and in no other, lie 
will give his advice, but with great modesty and diffidence.

  "Indeed, I have had sufficient reason to be convinced that this 
principle, excellent as it is in itself, is sometimes 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 explanation 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 
Susquehanna.  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 encumbered it; they were, besides, 
unacquainted with that part of the country, Several old men, however, took 
the lead and undertook to be their guides.  After a tedious march of near 
two weeks, attended with much labor, they brought the party across the 
swamp to the large creek which borders it upon 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 saw now no alternative but 
to return by the same way they had come, and take the route by Fort Allen 
to Nescopeck, and so up the Susquehanna 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.

  "ZEISBERGER.-'David, you are acquainted with this country, perhaps you 
know a better road and a shorter one than that which we are going to take?'

     "DAVID.-'Yes, I do; there is such a course which we may easily get 
through, and have a much shorter distance to travel.'

     "Z.-'What, David; we are all going wrong, and yet you are with us?'

     "D-'Yes, it is so.'

     "Z.-'And yet you said nothing, and followed with the rest, as if all had 
been right?'

     "D.-'Yes, the guides are older than I, they took the lead, and never 
asked me whether I had any knowledge of' the country.  If they had inquired, 
I would have told them.'

  "Z.-'Will you now tell them?'

     "D.-'No, indeed; unless they ask me.  It does not become an Indian to 
instruct his elders."'

  "At the instigation of Mr.  Zeisberger, the question was then asked him, 
when he immediately told them they must all return to a certain spot, six 
miles back, and then direct their course more to the northeast, which would 
bring them to it 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."

  This anecdote was told me by Mr.  Zeisberger himself, whom I have never 
known to say anything which was not strictly true.  I, therefore, give it 
full credit, the more so, as I have myself witnessed two similar instances.
"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 hid 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 
on)- party, who had gone in search of us.  I complained to them of the boy 
for not doing what I had hidden 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.  1 
was on a journey with two young Indians round the head of Lake Erie.  
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, having once mistaken a path, we traveled several miles in 
a wrong direction, until at last I discovered the mistake by our having Owl 
Creek on 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 the leader, 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 the leader and brought him back,
I upon which we took an eastward course through the woods to Owl Creek, and 
after crossing it fell into our right path."1

  The same venerable writer also speaks of filial affection and respect 
among the Indian tribes (and having particular reference to those of the 
Lenni Lenape), as follows:
  "It is a sacred principle among the Indians, and one of those moral and 
religious truths which they always have 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 and 
protection, they are bound to repay them by a similar care of those who are 
laboring 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 succors 
and attentions, in their turn, when the heavy hand of time shall have 
reduced them to the same helpless condition 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 decrepit 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 
sights 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 honors 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 say whose ball it 
was that brought the animal to the ground.  But they are never at a loss to 
decide, and always give it in favor of the oldest men 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 the oil.
   
  "At home the old are as well treated and taken care of as if they were 
favorite 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 honor.  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.
___________________________________________________________________________

Extract from "History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nation."


27 


  Respect, gratitude, and love, are too predominant in their minds to 
permit any degrading idea to mix itself with these truly honorable and 
generous feeling".

  "And yet there leave been travelers 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 burdensome to society, it, would be considered as an 
unpardonable crime; the general indignation would be excited, and the 
murderer instantly he 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 fill, old age."

  Among the customs, or indeed common laws of the Indians, one of the most 
remarkable and interesting was the adoption of prisoners.  This right 
belonged more particularly to the females than to the warrior, of the 
tribes.

  It was common for a mother to claim, from among the captives, one whose 
life should be spared, and who should, by adoption, fill in her household, 
the place of her son who had fallen in battle.

  It was well for the unfortunate prisoners, that this election depended 
more on the voice of the mother time on that of the, father, as innumerable 
lives were thus pared, of those whom the warriors, if left to their own 
desires, would have immolated.  When once adopted, if the captives assumed a 
cheerful aspect, entered into their mode of life, learned their language, 
and, in brief, acted as, it they actually felt themselves adopted, all 
hardship was removed, except, and such as was inseparable to the Indian 
mode of life.

  Although the right was most frequently exercised by mothers to fill the
places of their sons who had been slain, yet the privilege of adoption was 
often extended to female prisoners.  Tho following is a case in point, 
extracted from Mark Bancroft's account of the surprise and capture of the 
Gilbert family, near the present site of Weissport in the year 1780.  
Speaking of this custom of adoption he says: 

     "But if this change of, relation operated as an amelioration, of 
condition in the life of the prisoner, it rendered ransom extremely 
difficult in all cases, and in  some instances precluded it altogether.  
These difficulties were exemplified in a striking manner in the person of 
of Elizabeth Gilbert.

  This girl, only twelve years of age when captured was adopted by an 
Indian family, but afterwards permitted to reside in a white family of the 
name of Secord, by whom she was treated as a child indeed, and to whom she 
became so much attached as to call Mrs.  Secord by the endearing title of 
Mamma.  Her residence, however, in a white family was a favor granted to the 
Secords by the Indian (adopted) parents of Elizabeth, who regarded and 
claimed her as their child.

  "Mr.  Secord, having business at Niagara, took Betsey- as she was called
with him, and there, after long separation, she had the happiness to meet
six of her relations, most of whom had been already released and were 
preparing to set out for Montreal, lingering and yearning, for those they 
seemed  destined to leave behind perhaps forever.  The sight of their 
beloved little sister roused every energy to effect her release which 
desire was generously seconded by John Secord and Colonel Butler, who, soon  
her visit to Niagara, sent for the Indian who claimed Elizabeth, and made 
overtures for her ransom.  At first 'he declared that he would not sell his 
own flesh and blood but;' attacked through his interest, or in other words 
his necessities, the negotiation succeeded, and her youngest child was 
among the treasures first restored to the mother at Montreal."

  Referring to this Indian custom Heckwalder, with his usual lenity of 
judgment towards the savages, says:
  "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."

  But with all proper deference to the old missionary's statement, we are 
probably safe in believing that such instances of white  men's devotion to 
the delights of Indian life are, to say the very least, exceedingly rare.


                                  CHAPTER VI.

                            INDIAN SUPERSTITION.

  THE Delawares, like all other Indian tribes, were superstitious it the 
extreme-believers; in dreams, and observers of omens.

  No enterprise was inaugurated, nor journey commenced by them, without, 
consultation of signs and portents, and in the most ordinary operations of 
life the planting of their maize, or erection of their rude 
wigwams-critical attention had to weather-signs, and to the position and 
supposed influence of the moon.  In this last named peculiarity, however, 
they did not, materially differ from many of the most substantial farmers 
in Pennsylvania at the present day.

  Of the incredible folly and weakness which, in this direction, were 
universally exhibited by the otherwise self-reliant aborigines, the gentle 
Heckwelder thus discourses:

 "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 it 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, he who 
proud of his independent, existence, strike his breast with exultation and 
explains,  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 in occult and unknown  power which, unless he can summon 
sufficient fortitude to conquer it, changes at once the hero into it 
coward.

  It is incredible to what a degree the Indian's superstitious 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 themselves, falling it sacrifice to the wicked arts of a vile
unknown hand, of one who would not have dared to face them in a fair
combat, dying a miserable ignominious death to which they  would
a thousand times prefer the stake with all its horror.  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 are not deserving, of a 
bettor fate.  And, (O! dreadful thought, to an Indian mind) that death is to 
remain forever unrevenged; their friends, their relation, the men of their 
own tribe will seek the murderer in vain, they will seek while, perhaps, he 
is in the midst of them unnoticed  and unknown, smiling at their impotent 
rage, and calmly selected some new victim to his infernal art.

  "Of this extraordinary supposed 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 definite idea.  All they can say is, that 
the sorcerer makes use of a 'deadening substance' which he discharges and 
conveys to the whom 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 waste away, or a 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 no witchcraft.  This prejudice which they 
labor under can be ascribed to no other 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 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 east my eyes on a particular man, or even to 
cast a side glance at him, it is enough to make him consider himself as the 
intended victim; he is from that moment 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."'


28


  "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 endeavor 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."

  More than a hundred years ago, while the Delawares still occupied this 
portion of the State, there was a Quaker named John Anderson, a traveling 
merchant among the Indians, known far and wide by them as "the honest 
Quaker trader." This man, knowing the almost unlimited confidence which the 
natives reposed in him, endeavored to convince them of the titter fallacy 
of their foolish superstition; but finding argument vain, at last requested 
that their most powerful sorcerers might be produced, and in presence of 
the tribe and the chiefs and the old men, might exercise on him the most 
potent spells of their magic, and if they should succeed in working harm 
upon him, never in so slight a degree, then he would not only acknowledge 
their supernatural power, but would pay a goodly amount of merchandise, of 
such kinds as Indians most covet, in forfeit for his discomfiture.  His only 
stipulation was that the conjurer should be unarmed, and, to guard against 
the possibility of poison, that lie should not attempt to approach nearer 
than a specified distance of about twelve feet.

  The first magician, to whom this opportunity was offered, utterly refused 
to injure so good a man; one whom the Indians all loved for his 
uprightness; No! the Great Spirit forbid that he should turn the terrible 
glance of the evil eye on the honest Quaker!

 This most considerate and conscientious course was greeted with the warmest 
admiration and applause by the assembled Delawares, and caused them to 
regard the conjurer with more reverence than ever.

  But another was found who was less conscientious, and who boasted that 
neither the distance of twelve feet, nor yet of twelve miles, could in the 
least interfere with the certain effect of his deadly spells.

  So honest John Anderson brought out the enticing goods which were to be 
forfeit, and then stood firm and serene before the fearful man who claimed 
such wonderful powers.  He was dressed and tricked out in a manner most 
infernal; covered from head to toe with a bear skin, black as jet, and 
closed together just as it grew upon the animal.  In addition to this were a 
pair of Satanic horns upon the head, all intended to strike the victim dumb 
by its terrible appearance.  But it had no such effect on the shad-bellied 
Ajax.  The spectators had implored him to desist from his fool-hardiness, as 
they thought it to be, and when he persisted, they looked on him with 
profoundest pity, and some covered their eyes with their blankets to shut 
out the fearful sight, for they loved this mail of integrity with a 
surpassing affection, and they would not that lie should incur a fate so 
dreadful.  It is barely possible that at this time, with all this 
commiseration, there may have floated through the red man's mind, some 
consolatory visions of the delights of an Indian administration upon the 
personal effects of the upright Quaker, who so persistently courted his own 
doom, but, however that may have been, John Anderson boldly faced the 
diabolical antics and gesticulations of the horned wizard, and never 
blenched through an interminable half-hour of, wool-picking and 
contortions; at the end of which, the red trickster suddenly ceased his 
incantations, announcing that the pale face was impervious to them on 
account of having been accustomed to living on salted provisions, the salt 
having a repellant effect on that invisible substance, which was always so 
fatal in it effects when directed against Indians.

  But though the chiefs and sachems and warriors saw with their own eyes 
the discomfiture of their sorcerer, and the triumph of the good Quaker 
congratulating him on his miraculous escape, and gazing pensively upon the 
bright-colored merchandise as it flow disappeared from their sight and was 
returned to the packages; yet their superstitious belief in the power of 
the conjurer had not diminished one iota.

  Even in the administering of medicines to the sick, we are told by an old 
Moravian chronicler that these preparations were "mixed with superstitious 
practices, calculated to guard against the powers of witchcraft, in which, 
unfortunately, they have it 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 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, downward.  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 civilized countries."


                                CHAPTER VII.

                  THE QUESTION OF THE DELAWARES HUMILIATION

  AT the time when the Mengwe and the Lenape first became known to the white 
men, they respectively held towards each other the positions of conqueror 
and vassal.  The attitude of the Iroquois, however, was not wholly that of 
tyrants over the Delawares, for they mingled, to some extent, the character 
of protectors with that of masters.  It has been said of them that "The 
humiliation of tributary nations was to them (the Iroquois) tempered with a 
paternal regard for their interests in all negotiations With the whites, 
and care was taken that no trespasses should be committed on their rights, 
and that they should be justly dealt with,"-which, being interpreted, seems 
to mean that the Mengwe would, so far as laid in their power, see to it 
that none others than themselves should be permitted to despoil the Lenape.  
They exacted front them an annual tribute, an acknowledgment of their state 
of vassalage, and, on this condition they were permitted to occupy their 
former hunting grounds.

  Bands of the Five Nations, however, were interspersed among the Delawares 
and Shawnees and established their villages there; probably more as a sort 
of police, and for the purpose of keeping a watchful eve on them, than for 
any other purpose.

  The Shawnees, were a people which had been expelled from the far 
southwest by stronger tribes, and a portion of whom, traveling eastward as 
far ass the country adjoining the Delawares, had been permitted to erect 
their lodges there, but were, like the Lenape, held in a state of 
subjection by the Iroquois.

  The feelings with which the Delawares regarded their conquerors were 
those of inextinguishable hatred-held in abeyance by fear-and they also 
pretended to a feeling of superiority, on account of their more ancient 
lineage, and their farther approval from original barbarism, which latter 
claim was, perhaps, well-grounded.  They also alleged that the "Mingoes" 
were addicted to cannibalism, in eating their prisoners; but for this 
charge there does not seem to have been the slightest shadow of 
foundation.1

  On the part of the Iroquois, the feeling towards their vassals was one of 
haughty superiority.  There is no recorded instance where unmeasured insult 
and stinging contempt, were more wantonly and publicly heaped on a cowed 
and humiliated people, than on the occasion of a treaty held in 
Philadelphia, in 1742, where Connossatego, an old Iroquois chief, having 
been requested, by the Governor, to attend (really for the purpose of 
forcing the Delawares to yield up the rich lands of the Minisink), arose in 
the council, where whites and Delawares and Iroquois were convened, and in 
the name of all the deputies of his confederacy, said to the Governor, that 
the Delawares; had been an unruly people, and were altogether in the wrong, 
and that they should be removed from their lands; and then, turning most 
superciliously towards the abashed Delawares, he said: "You deserve to be 
taken by the hair of your heads, and shaken till you recover your senses, 
and become sober.  We have seen a deed, signed by nine of your chiefs over 
fifty years ago, for this very land.  But how came you to take it upon 
yourselves to sell lands at all? We conquered you, we made women of you.  
You know you are women, and can no more sell lands than women.  Nor is it 
fit that you should have power to sell lands, since you would abuse it.  You 
have had clothes, meat, and drink, by the good; paid you for it, and now 
you want it again, like children as you are.  What makes you sell lands in 
the dark? Did you ever tell us you had sold this land? Did we ever receive 
any part, even to the value of a pipe-shank, from you for it? This is 
acting in the dark-very differently from the conduct which our Six Nations 
observe in the sales of land.
______________________________________________________________________

1 Heckewelder, however, gives credence to this, as to all other ex-parte 
statements made by his particular friends, the Delawares, no matter how 
absurd they may be.  On page 54 of his "History, Manners, and Customs of the 
Indians, "he says: The treachery of the Mengwe, however, having been at 
length discovered, the Lenape determined on taking an exemplary revenge; 
and, indeed, nothing short of total extirpation of that deceitful race was 
resolved on.  They were, besides, known to cut human flesh; to kill men for 
the purpose of devouring them; and, therefore, were not considered by the 
Lenape as a pure race, or as rational beings but as a mixture of the human 
and brutal kinds."


29


  But we find you are none of our blood; you act a dishonest part in this, 
as in other matters.  Your ears are ever open to slanderous reports about 
your brethren.  For all these reasons, we charge you to remove instantly! We 
don't give you liberty to think about it.  You are women! Take the advice of 
a wise man and remove instantly! You may return to the other side of the 
river where you came from, but we do not know whether, considering how you 
have demeaned yourselves, you will be permitted to live there, or whether 
you have not already swallowed that land down your throats, as well as the 
land on this side.  You may go either to Wyoming or Shamokin, and then we 
shall have you under our eye, and can see how you behave.  Don't deliberate, 
but go, and take this belt of wampum."

  He then forbade them ever again to interfere in any matters between white 
man and Indian, or ever, under any pretext, to pretend to sell lands, and, 
as they (the Iroquois), he said, had some business of importance to 
transact with the Englishmen, lie commanded them to immediately leave the 
council, like children and women as they were.

  The aged and amiable Heckewelder, however, again comes up to attempt the 
rescue of the good name of the humbled Delawares, by enumerating the long 
and labored explanations which they have invented to show that the epithet 
"women," as applied to them by the Iroquois, was originally a term of 
distinction rather than of reproach.  These explanations he narrates, as 
follows:
  "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 make, 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 honor 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 Dow when they have surrendered 
their whole country to us, and retired to the wilds of' a distant country, 
we turn our backs on them with contempt.

  "We know that all Indians have a habit 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 connections) 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 which were slain 
at the time, and of 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 were said to be a conquered people, thickly settled on 
the whole length of the sea coast and far inland, in and from Virginia to 
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 then extended from the head of the 
tide on the (now) Hudson River to the head of the tide of the Potomac? All 
this, we shall find faithfully copied or written, down from their verbal 
tradition, and that the is council house was pulled down by the white 
people, and, of course, was yet standing when they came into this 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 by 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 the Mohicans; themselves, as related in part by Loskiel in 
his History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the North American 
Indians, and in this work.  In the first he will find three material points 
ascertained, viz.: First, 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; second, that the making women of the Delawares 
was not an act of compulsion, but the result of their own free will and 
consent; and third, 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.

  "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 shown 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, the Mohicans, and their 
connections; and that the white people present coaxed and persuaded them to 
cause the hatchet to be buried, declaring, at the same time, 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 Lenape, was transacted 
at a place 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. Pyrlaeus, who 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 Mohawks chief, had told him that, at a place about four 
miles from Albany, now called Nordman's Kill, the first covenant had been 
made between the Six Nations and the white people, which is in conformation 
of the correctness of the above tradition of the Mohicans."

  "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 Dutcheman (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, 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 they had 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 pence and of war with their neighbors, made them overrun a 
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 
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 Dow no accounts 
remaining among the English, etc.

  "To what a number of important questions would not the above statement 
give rise? But I will confine myself to a few, and inquire 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?


30


  "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."

  "For all answer to the second question we have only to believe what 
Colden himself tells its, 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 
avenge 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 I 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," etc., we need not one moment be at a loss to 
know precisely what they went out for, as the historian himself tells its 
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, etc., those 
Iroquois had done such wonders among nations, as they report; or whether 
all this was done since that time, and in consequence their being 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 favored 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 
favored 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 Mohican, or 
River Indians, as they are often called), that as soon as a single Mohawk 
was discovered in their 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.

  "This is, indeed, a lamentable story. It might be asked how could the 
white people, whom those very Mohican had hospitably welcomed and permitted 
to live with them on their land, suffer all 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
Mohican; 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 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 towards the Delawares as they had done to the Mohicans, though the 
alliance between the Dutch and 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, we find much 
insolent language which the Iroquois were, I will say, permitted, but which 
the people concerned say were 'bid or hired to make, against the Delawares, 
for the purpose of stopping their months, preventing them from stating 
their complaints and grievances, find 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, 1 and at other times afterwards, 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, etc.

  "They did so, and removed 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 Great 
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 myself been witness 
to those scenes, and in the distresses of hundreds of poor people, only in 
this one quarter.

  "By this time the Delawares were sensible of the imposition which had
been practiced upon them. They saw that a plan had been organized for
their destruction, and that not only their independence but their 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 honor of that brave nation."

  In David Zeisberger's Notes on the Indians, are found the following 
accounts of this "women" question, as given respectively by the Delawares 
and by the Five Nations.

The bias in favor of the Delawares, is less strongly marked in this that in 
the preceding extracts.

"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 
accordingly seat 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 on him who has beaten her. The woman shall not go to war, but endeavor 
to keep pence with all. Therefore, if the men who 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 ye desist. Do you mean to destroy yourselves from the face 
of the earth?" The men shall then hear and obey the woman."
___________________________________________________________________________

1 Alluding to the insulting speech made by the Iroquois chief, 
Connossatego, before quoted.


31


  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 declare the Delaware nation to be 
the woman in the following words:

  "We dress you in it woman's long habit, reaching down to your feet, and 
adorn you with earrings, meaning that they should no more take up arms. 
The second point was thus expressed: 'We bang a calabash, filled with oil 
and medicine upon your arm. With the oil you shall cleanse the ears of 
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 bands a plant of Indian corn and a hoe.' Each of these points was 
confirmed by delivering a belt of wampum, and these belts were 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 the 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 Indiana, 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."

  It is impossible to fail in admiration of the single-minded constancy 
with which the veteran missionaries espoused the cause of the Delawares, 
through all the exigencies of good and of evil report. It is evident that 
the labored, but clumsy and transparent tale of their investiture as women, 
was credited by both Zeisberger and Heckewelder, and particularly by the 
latter who believed every part of it most implicitly, and apparently did 
not realize that which no reader can fail to perceive, that if his 
championship were to have any influence at all on the world's estimate of 
his Indian friends, it could hardly be a favorable one, for it would only 
tend to show that they had suffered themselves to be most ridiculously 
imposed upon by the Iroquois, and that they willingly acknowledged 
themselves a nation of imbeciles, rather than admit a defeat, which, in 
itself, brought no disgrace to them, and was no impeachment of their 
courage or warlike skill.1

  No, the bravery and military enterprise of the Delawares was 
unquestioned-it was a mightier agent than bravery or energy: it was the 
gunpowder and lead which the Iroquois had-most fortunately for themselves 
been the first to procure from the trading Dutch, which compassed the 
downfall of the Delawares. For them, the conflict was a hopeless one: waged 
against immeasurable odds-resistance to the irresistible. Under a reversal 
of conditions, the Lenape would have been victors, and the Mingoes; 
vanquished, and no loss of honor could attach to an overthrow under such 
circumstances.

  It is a pity that the tribes should vainly have expended so much labor 
and ingenuity upon a tale which-for their sake-had better never been told, 
and in which even the sincere endorsement of the venerable missionary has 
wholly failed to produce a general belief.

  Upon the occasion above referred to-the Indian treaty at Philadelphia, in 
1742 -when the Iroquois chief, Connossatego, commanded the Delawares 
instantly to leave the council-house, where their presence would no longer 
be tolerated, the outraged and insulted red men were completely 
crest-fallen and crushed, but they had no choice except to obey. They at 
once left the presence of the Iroquois, returned to their homes on the 
beautiful Lenape Whittuck -now their homes no longer-and prepared to bid 
them adieu forever.

  We may imagine the agony of hatred-more bitter than gall, and yet wholly 
impotent -with which they thought of the haughty tyranny of the Iroquois, 
and the cupidity and double-dealing of the white man, as they took up their 
sad march towards the land of their banishment, in the valley of the 
Susquehanna. Those lands were already occupied by the Shawnees, but they, 
being also under tribute to the Mengwe, dared not protest against the new 
occupancy, so they "moved along" and made room for the Delawares, some of 
whom pitched their lodges at Wyoming, while some passed on to the West 
Branch, and others even crossed the Alleghenies.

  A most melancholy removal for an ancient people, who regarded themselves, 
as the very essence of Indian aristocracy!

  But the day of humiliation came to the Iroquois too, at last, for the 
pale faces became tired of their presence, totally destroyed their power, 
and drove them from the "long council-house" of their fathers, by the rapid 
and decisive campaign of General Sullivan in 1779. Their prostration was 
complete, and the Delawares were avenged! Both Mengwe and Lenope looked 
longingly back towards their old homes, and they humbly asked, and procured 
from the whites a stipulation that the burial places of their fathers 
should remain undisturbed. And for many years afterwards they came 
annually; sometimes in small parties, and sometimes singly-dejected 
pilgrims to those sacred shrines. How agonizing must have been the feelings 
of the proud and sensitive wanderers! Well might their stern impassiveness 
give way, and their tears flow without shame, as they bowed their heads 
above the graves of their fathers, and in utter despair and heart-sickness 
remembered that they were now but exiles and strangers; that a domineering 
and hostile race had become masters of those ancient hunting grounds, from 
which the original people had faded and vanished forever.

            "They died not by hunger, or lingering decay-
            "Twas the steel of the white man that swept them away."

_____________________________________________________________________________

1 "But even if Mr. Heckwelder had succeeded in making his readers believe 
that the Delawares, when they submitted to the degradation proposed to them 
by their enemies, were influenced, not by fear, but by the benevolent 
desire to put a stop to the calamities of war, he has established for them 
the reputation of being the most egregious dupes and fools that the world 
has ever seen. This is not often the case with Indian sachems. They are 
rarely cowards, but still more rarely are they deficient in sagacity or 
discernment to detect any attempt to impose on them. 

  "I sincerely wish that I could unite with the worthy German in removing 
the stigma upon the Delawares-General William Henry Harrison on the 
Aborigines.