Area History: Chapter 3 - Part I, Vol II - Watson's Annals of Philadelphia And Pennsylvania, 1857

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                                 ANNALS

                                   of

                     PHILADELPHIA  AND  PENNSYLVANIA,


                               VOL.  II
     
            ______________________________________________


Chapter 3.  Part I              INDIANS

                       "A swarthy tribe ---------------
       Slipped from the secret hand of Providence,
       They come, we see not how, nor know we whence :
       That seem'd created on the spot --- though born,
        In transatlantic climes, and thither brought,
        By paths as covert as the birth of thought !"

  There is in the fate of these unfortunate beings much to awaken our
sympathy, and much to disturb the sobriety of our judgment, much in their
characters to incite our involuntary admiration.  What can be more
melancholy than their history !  By a law of their nature, they seem
destined to a slow but sure extinction.  Every where, at the approach of the
white man, they fade away.  We hear the rustling of their footsteps, like
that of the withered leaves of autumn; and themselves like "the sear and
yellow leaf", are gone for ever !
  Once the smoke of their wigwams, and the fires of their councils rose in
every valley, from the ocean to the Mississippi and the lakes.  The shouts
of victory and the war-dance rang through the mountains and the glades.  The
light arrows and the deadly tomahawk whistled through the forest; and the
hunter's trace, and the dark encampment, startled the wild beasts in their
lairs.  The warriors stood forth in their glory.  The young listened to
songs of other days.  The mothers played with their infants, and gazed on
the scene with warm hopes of the future.  Braver men never lived --- truer
men never drew the bow.  They had courage and fortitude, and sagacity  and
perseverance, beyond most of the human race.  They were inured, and capable
of sustaining every peril, and surmounting ever obstacle and surmounting
every obstacle for sweet country and home. But with all this, inveterate
destiny has unceasingly driven them hence !
                     "Forced from the land that gave them birth,
                      They dwindle from the face of earth !"

If they had the vices of savage life, they had the virtues also.  They were
true to their country, their friends and their homes.  If they forgave not
injury under misconceptions of duty, neither did they forget kindness --
                     "Faithful alike to friendship or to hate."

  If their vengeance was terrible, their fidelity and generosity were
unconquerable also.  Their love, like their hate, stopped not on this side
of the grave.  But where are they now ?  Perished ! consumed !
                                                 "The glen or hill,
                      Their cheerful whoop has ceased to thrill !"

  The wasting pestilence has not alone done this mighty work; no, not famine,
nor war.  There has been a mightier power -- a moral canker which hath eaten
into their vitals -- a plague which the touch of the baser part of our white
men has communicated -- a poison which betrayed them into a lingering ruin.
Already the last feeble remnants of the race are preparing for their journey
beyond the Mississippi.  I see them leave their long cherished homes; "few
and faint, yet fearless still", they turn to take a last look of their
deserted village, a last look at the graves of their fathers.  They shed no
tears; they utter no cries; they heave no groans.  There is something in
their hearts which surpasses speech; there is something in their looks, not
of vengeance or submission, but of hard necessity, which stifles both --
which chokes all utterance -- which has no aim or method.  It is courage
absorbed in despair.*
  [*These introductory sentiments are generally from the leading ideas of
Judge Story.]
  If such be the traces we may draw of Indian character, being ourselves the
judges, what might it not be, if told by themselves, had they but our art of
letters and the aid of an eloquent press !  Few or none among themselves can
tell their tale of "wrong and outrage".  Yet a solitary case does exist,
which, while it shows their capability of mental improvement, shows also, in
affecting terms, their just claims to our generosity and kindness.
  The beautiful and energetic letter, of April 1824, to the people and
congress of the United States, by the Cherokee natives and representatives
at Washington city, has some fine touches of refined eloquence to this
effect -- saying, of their communications, they have been  "the lonely and
unassisted efforts of the poor Indian; for we are not so fortunate as to
have such help -- wherefore this letter and every other letter was not only
written but dictated by an Indian.  The white man seldom comes forth in our
defence.  Our rights are in our own keeping, and the proofs of our
loneliness, of our bereaved and helpless state, unknown to the eye of
prejudice, having set us upon our resources, is known to those benevolent
white brothers who came to our help with letters, and the lights of
civilization and Christianity.  Our letters (we repeat it) are our own, and
if they are thought too refined for `savages', let the white man take it for
proof, that, with proper assistance, Indians can think and write for
themselves".  Signed -- John Ross, and three others.
  The Indians were always the friends of Niquon, of Onas -- of our
forefathers !  It was their greatest pleasure to cultivate mutual good will
and kindness -- "None ever entered the cabin of Logan hungry, and he gave
him no meat; or cold, or naked, and he gave him no clothes !"  Grateful
hearts must cherish kindly recollections of a too often injured race.  We
are therefore disposed, as Pennsylvanians, to treasure up some few of the
facts least known of them, in the times by-gone of our annals.
  We begin with their primitive character and habits as seen by William
Penn, and told in his letter of August, 1683, to the Free Society of Traders.
  "The natives I shall consider in their persons, language, manners,
religion and government, with my sense of their original.  For their
persons, they are generally tall, straight, well-built, and of singular
proportion; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin.
Of complexion, black, but by design; as the Gypsies in England.  They grease
themselves with bear's fat clarified; and using no defence against sun, or
weather, their skins must needs be swarthy.  Their eye is little and black,
not unlike a straight-looked Jew.  The thick lip, and flat nose, so frequent
with the East Indians and blacks, are not common to them : for I have seen
as comely European-like faces among them, of both sexes, as on your side the
sea; and truly an Indian complexion hath not much more of the white, and the
noses of several of them have as much of the Roman."
  "Their language is lofty, yet narrow; but, like the Hebrew, in
signification full; like short-hand, in writing, one word serveth in the
place of three, and the rest are supplied by the understanding of the hearer
: imperfect in their tenses, wanting in their moods, participles, adverbs,
conjunctions, interjections.  I have made it my business to understand it,
that I might not want an interpreter on any occasion; and I must say, that I
know not a language spoken in Europe, that hath words of more sweetness, or
greatness in accent and emphasis, than theirs."
  "Of their customs and manners, there is much to be said; I will begin with
children; so soon as they are born, they wash them in water; and while very
young, and in cold weather, they plunge them in the rivers, to harden and
embolden them.  The children will go very young, at nine months commonly; if
boys, they go a fishing till ripe for the woods; which is about fifteen;
then they hunt, and after having given some proofs of their manhood, by a
good return of skins, they may marry; else it is a shame to think of a wife.
The girls stay with their mothers, and help to hoe the ground, plant corn,
and carry burdens; and they do well to use them to that young, which they
must do when they are old; for the wives are the true servants of their
husbands; otherwise the men are very affectionate to them."
  "When the young women are fit for marriage, they wear something upon their
heads for an advertisement, but so as their faces are hardly to be seen, but
when they please.  The age they marry at, if women, is about thirteen and
fourteen; if men, seventeen and eighteen; they are rarely elder."
  "Their houses are mats, or barks of trees, set on poles, in the fashion of
an English barn; but out of the power of the winds; for they are hardly
higher than a man; they lie on reeds or grass.  In travel they lodge in the
woods about a great fire, with the mantle of duffils they wear by day wrapt
about them, and a few boughs stuck round them."
  "Their diet is maize, or Indian corn, divers ways prepared; sometimes
roasted in the ashes; sometimes beaten and boiled with water; which they
call `homine'; they also make cakes, not unpleasant to eat.  They have
likewise several sorts of beans and pease, that are good nourishment; and
the woods and rivers are their larder."
  "If a European comes to see them, or calls for lodging at their house or
wigwam, they give him the best place and first cut.  If they come to visit
us, they salute us with an `Itah"; which is as much as to say, `Good be to
you', and set them down; which is mostly on the ground, close to their
heels, their legs upright; it may be they speak not a word, but observe all
passages.  If you give them any thing to eat or drink, well; for they will
not ask; and be it little or much, if it be with kindness, they are well
pleased, else they go away sullen, but say nothing."
  "They are great concealers of their own resentments; brought to it, I
believe, by the revenge that hath been practised among them."
  "But in liberality they excel; nothing is too good for their friend: 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 merry
creatures that live, feast and dance perpetually; they never have much, nor
want much; wealth circulateth like the blood; all 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.  In this they are sufficiently revenged on us; if they are
ignorant of our pleasures, they are also free from our pains.  We sweat and
toil to live; their pleasure feeds them; I mean their hunting, fishing and
fowling; and this table is spread every where.  They eat twice a day,
morning and evening; their seats and table are the ground."
  "In sickness impatient to be cured, and for it give any thing, especially
for their children, to whom they are extremely natural : they drink at those
times a `Tesan', or decoction of some roots in spring-water; and if they eat
any flesh, it must be of the female of any creature.  If they die, they bury
them with their apparel, be they man or woman, and the nearest of kin fling
in something precious with them, as a token of their love : their mourning
is blacking their faces, which they continue for a year : they are choice of
the graves of their dead; for lest they should be lost by time, and fall to
common use, they pick off the grass that grows upon them, and heap up the
fallen earth with great care and exactness."
  "These poor people are under a dark night in things relating to religion,
to be sure the tradition of it; yet they believe in a God and immortality,
without the help of metaphysics; for they say, "There is a Great King that
made them, who dwells in a glorious country to the southward of them; and
that the souls of the good shall go thither, where they shall live again."
-- Their worship consists of two parts, sacrifice and cantico : their
sacrifice is their first fruits; the first and fattest buck they kill goeth
to the fire, where he is all burnt, with a mournful ditty of him that
performeth the ceremony, but with such marvellous fervancy and labour of
body, that he will even sweat to a foam.  The other part is their cantico,
performed by round dances, sometimes words, sometimes songs, then shouts,
two being in the middle that begin, and by singing and drumming on a board,
direct the chorus : their postures in the dance are very antic, and
differing, but all keep measure.  This is done with equal earnestness and
labour, but with great appearance of joy.  In the fall, when the corn cometh
in, they begin to feast one another.  There have been two great festivals
already, to which all come that will : I was at one myself."
  "Their government is by kings, which they call `Sachama', and those by
succession, but always of the mother's side : for instance, the children of
him that is now king will not succeed, but his brother by the mother, or the
children of his sister, whose sons (and after them the children of her
daughters) will reign; for no woman inherits : the reason they render for
this way of descent is, that their issue may not be spurious."
  "Every king hath his council, and that consists of all the old and wise
men of his nation; which perhaps is two hundred people : nothing of moment
is undertaken, be it war, peace, selling of land, or traffic, without
advising with them; and which is more, with the young men too.  It is
admirable to consider how powerful the kings are, and yet how they move by
the breath of their people.  I have had occasion to be in council with them
upon treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of trade.  Their order is
thus : the king sits in the middle of a half moon, and hath his council, the
old and wise, on each hand : behind them, or at a little distance, sit the
younger fry in the same figure."
  "The justice they have is pecuniary : in case of any wrong or evil fact,
be it murder itself, they atone by feasts, and presents of their Wampum,
which is proportioned to the quality of the offence or person injured, or of
the sex they are of : for in case they kill a woman, they pay double, and
the reason they render is, `that she breedeth children, which man cannot
do'.  It is rare that they fall out, if sober; and if drunk, they forgive
it, saying, "it was the drink, and not the man, that abused them."
  "We have agreed, that in all differences between us, six of each side
shall end the matter : do not abuse them, but let them have justice, and you
win them : the worst is, that they are the worse for the Christians, who
have propagated their vices, and yielded them tradition for it, and not for
good things."
  "For their original, I am ready to believe them of the Jewish race; I
mean, of the stock of the `ten tribes', and that for the following reasons :
first, they were to go to `a land, not planted or known', intended that
extraordinary judgment upon them, might make the passage not uneasy to them,
as it is not impossible in itself, from the easternmost parts of Asia, to
the westernmost of America.  In the  next place, I find them of like
countenance, and their children of so lively resemblance, that a man would
think himself in Duke's place, or Berry street, in London, when he seeth
them.  But this is not all : they agree in `rites'; they reckon by `moons';
they offer their `first-fruits'; they have a kind of `feast of tabernacles';
they are said to lay their altar upon `twelve stones' ; their mourning a
year, customs of women, with many things that do not now occur."

  Gabriel Thomas, in his description of Pennsylvania, as written in 1698,
says, "the natives of this country are supposed by most people, to have been
of the ten scattered tribes, for they resemble the Jews in the make of their
persons and tincture of their complexions.  They observe new moons; offer
their first-fruits to a Maneto or supposed deity, whereof they have two --
one, as they fancy, above --(good) another, below -- (bad).  They have a
kind of feast of tabernacles, laying their altars upon twelve stones.  They
observe a sort of mourning twelve months; customs of women, and many other
rites.  [It is scarcely possible to read these coincidences of opinion with
Penn's, which precede it, without thinking of Dr. Boudinet's Star in the
West, and his efforts to prove them Jewish] They are very charitable to one
another -- the lame and the blind living as well as the best.  They are also
very kind and obliging to the Christians.  They have among them many curious
physical wild herbs, roots and drugs of great virtue, which makes the
Indians, in their right use, as able doctors as any in Europe.
  Oldmixon says there were, in 1684, as many as ten nations of Indians in
the province of Pennsylvania, comprising 6,000 in number.
  William Penn held a great Indian treaty, in 1701, with forty Indian
chiefs, who came from many nations to Philadelphia to settle the friendship.
The same year he had also a great Indian council at Pennsbury, to take leave
of him, to renew covenants, &c.
  Mrs. Mary Smith's MS. account of the first settlement at Burlington,
(herself an eye witness) thus speaks of the Indians there in 1678, saying --
"The Indians, very numerous and very civil, brought them corn, venison, &c.,
and bargained also for their land.  It was said that an old Indian king
spoke prophetically before his death, and said the English should increase
and the Indians should decrease !"
  Jacob Taylor's Almanac of 1743 relates, that "An Indian of the province,
looking at the great comet of 1680, and being asked what he thought was the
meaning of that prodigious appearance, answered -- `IT SIGNIFIES, WE INDIANS
SHALL MELT AWAY, AND THIS COUNTRY BE INHABITED BY ANOTHER SORT OF PEOPLE.'
This prediction the Indian delivered very grave and positive to a Dutchman
of good reputation near Chester, who told it to one, now living, of full
veracity".
  I have compiled from the work of the Swedish traveller, Professor Kalm,
his notices of our Indians preceding the year 1748, to wit :
   "Of their Food and Mode of Living. -- Maize, (Indian corn) some kinds of
beans and melons, made up the sum of the Indians' gardening.  Their chief
support arose from hunting and fishing.  Besides these, the oldest Swedes
related that the Indians were accustomed to get nourishment from the
following wild plants, to wit :
   "Hopniss, so called by the Indians and Swedes, (the Glycine apios of
Linnaeus) they found in the meadows.  The roots resembled potatoes, and were
eaten boiled, instead of bread.
   "Katniss, so called by the Indians and Swedes (a kind of Sagittaria
sagittifolia) was found in low wet ground, had oblong roots nearly as large
as the fist; this they boiled or roasted in the ashes.  Several Swedes said
they liked to eat of it in their youth.  The hogs liked them much, and made
them very scarce.  Mr. Kalm, who ate of them, thought they tasted like
potatoes.  When the Indians first saw turnips they called them katniss too.
   "Taw-ho, so called by the Indians and Swedes, (the arum virginicum, or
Wake-robin, and poisonous) grew in moist grounds, and swamps; they ate the
root of it.  The roots grew to the thickness of a man's thigh; and the hogs
rooted them up and devoured them eagerly.  The Indians destroyed their
poisonous quality by baking them.  They made a long trench in the ground,
put in the roots and covered them with earth, and over them they made a
great fire.  They tasted somewhat like potatoes.
   "Taw-kee, so called by the Indians and Swedes, (the Orontium aquaticum)
grew plentifully in moist low grounds.  Of these they used the seeds, when
dried.  These they boiled repeatedly to soften them, and then they ate
somewhat like peas.  When they got butter or milk from the Swedes, they
boiled them together.
   "Bilberries or whortleberries (a species of Vaccinium) was a common diet
among the Indians.  They dried them in the sun, and kept them packed as
close as currants.
   "Of their Implements for Domestic or Field Use. --- The old boilers or
kettles of the Indians were either made of clay, or of different kinds of
pot stone -- (Lapis ollaris).  The former consisted of a dark clay, mixed
with grains of white sand or quartz, and probably burnt in the fire.  Many
of these kettles had two holes in the upper margin; on each side one,
through which they passed a stick, and held therewith the kettle over the
fire.  It is remarkable that none of these pots have been found glazed
either inside or outside.  A few of the old Swedes could remember to have
seen the Indians use such pots to boil their meat in.  They were made
sometimes of a greenish, and sometimes of a grayish pot stone; and some were
made of another species of a pyrous stone.  They were very thin.  Mr.
Bartram, the botanist, showed him an earthen pot, which had been dug up at a
place where the Indians had lived -- on the outside it was much ornamented.
Mr. Bartram had also several broken pieces.  They were all made of mere
clay, in which were mixed, according to the convenience of the makers,
pounded shells of snails and muscels {mussels}, or of crystals found in the
mountains.  It was plain they did not burn them much, because they could be
cut up with a knife.  Since the Europeans have come among them they disuse
them, and have even lost the art of making them. -- [All these remarks much
accord with the speculations which I have preserved on this subject
respecting the potteries found in the `tumilii' in the western countries.]
   "The hatchets of the Indians were made of stone, somewhat of the shape of
a wedge.  This was notched round the biggest end, and to this they affixed a
split stick for a handle, bound round with a cord.  These hatches could not
serve, however, to cut any thing like a tree; their means, therefore, of
getting trees for canoes, &c., was to put a great fire round the roots of a
big tree to burn it off, and with a swab of rags on a pole to keep the tree
constantly wet above until the fire below burnt it off.  When the tree was
down, they laid dry branches on the trunk and set fire to it, and kept
swabbing that part of the tree which they did not want to burn; thus the
tree burnt a hollow in one place only; when burnt enough, they chipped or
scraped it smooth inside with their hatchets, or sharp flints, or sharp shells.
   "Instead of knives, they used little sharp pieces of flints or quartz, or
a piece of sharpened bone.
   "At the end of their arrows they fastened narrow angulated pieces of
stone; these were commonly flints or quartz. -- [I have such, as well as
hatchets, in my possession.]  Some made use of the claws of birds and beasts.
   "They had stone pestles of about a foot long and five inches in
thickness; in these they pounded their maize.  Many had only wooden pestles.
The Indians were astonished beyond measure when they saw the first
wind-mills to grind grain.  They were, at first, of opinion that not the
wind, but spirits within them, gave them their momentum.  They would come
from a great distance, and set down for days near them, to wonder and admire
at them.
   "The old tobacco pipes were made of clay or pot stone, or serpentine
stone -- the tube thick and short.  Some were made better, of a very fine
red pot stone, and were seen chiefly with the sachems.  Some of the old
Dutchmen at New York preserved the tradition that the first Indians seen by
the Europeans made use of copper for their tobacco pipes, got from the
second river near Elizabethtown.  In confirmation of this, it was observed
that the people met with holes worked in the mountains, out of which some
copper had been taken; and they even found some tools which the Indians
probably used for the occasion.  They used birds' claws instead of
fishing-hooks.  The Swedes saw them succeed in this way."
  The Indians made their ropes, bridles, and twine for nets, out of a wild
weed, growing abundantly in old corn fields, commonly called Indian hemp. --
(i.e. Linum virginianum)  The Swedes used to buy fourteen yards of the rope
for a loaf of bread, and deemed them more lasting in the water than that
made of true hemp.  Mr. Kalm himself saw Indian women rolling the filaments
of this plant upon their bare thighs to make of them thread and strings,
which they dyed red, yellow, black, &c.
  The Indians at first were much more industrious and laborious, and before
the free use of ardent spirits, attained to a great age.  In early time they
were every where spread about among the Swedes.  They had no domestic
animals among them before the arrival of the Europeans, save a species of
little dogs.  They readily sold their lands to the Swedes for a small price.
Such tracts as would have brought £400 currency in Kalm's time, had been
bought for a piece of baize or a pot of brandy !
  The Indians told Mr. Kalm, as their tradition, that when they saw the
first European ship on their coast, they were perfectly persuaded Maneto, or
God himself, was in the ship; but when they first saw the negroes, they
thought they were a true breed of devils.
  The Indians whom we usually call Delawares, because first found about the
regions of the Delaware river, never used that name among themselves; they
called themselves `Lenni Lenape', which means "the original people"- -
Lenni, meaning original -- whereby they expressed they were an unmixed race,
who had never changed their character since the creation; in effect they
were primitive sons of Adam, and others were sons of the curse, as of Ham,
or of the outcast Ishmael, &c.
  They, as well as the `Mengwe' (called by us Iroquois) agreed in saying
they came from westward of the Mississippi -- called by them `Namoesi Sipu'
, or river of fish, and that when they came over to the eastern side of that
river, they there encountered and finally drove off all the former
inhabitants, called the `Alligewi' -- (and of course the primitives of all
our country !) who, probably, such as survived, sought refuge in Mexico.
  From these facts we may learn, that however unjustifiable, in a moral
sense, may be the aggressions of our border men, yet on the rule of the "lex
talionis" we may take refuge and say, we only drive off or dispossess those
who were themselves encroachers, even as all our Indians, as above stated,
were !
  The Indians called the Quakers "Quekels", and the "English", by inability
of pronouncing it, they sounded "Yengees" -- from whence probably we have
now our name of Yankees.  In their own language they called the English
"Saggenah".
  William Fishbourne, in his MS. narrative of 1739, says the proprietor's
first and principal care was to promote peace with all  --  accordingly he
established a friendly correspondence, by way of treaty with the Indians, at
least twice a year.  [This fact is worth remembering !]  He also strictly
enjoined the inhabitants and surveyors, not to settle any land to which the
Indians had a claim, until he had first, at his own cost, satisfied and paid
for the same; so that this discreet method engaged their friendship and love
to him and his people -- even while other colonies were at war and distress
by the Indians.
  William Penn's letter of the 25th of 5mo., 1700, to James Logan, (in the
Logan MSS.) says, that because of an injury done his leg, the Indians must
go up to him at Pennsbury, along with the council, &c.  Was not this
assemblage for something like a treaty ?
  Another such assemblage of Indians met there also in 1701; for John
Richardson tells us, in his journal, of his being there when many Indians
and chiefs were present to revive their covenants or treaties with William
Penn before his return home.  There they received presents -- held their
cantico or worship, by singing and dancing round the fire on the ground.
  In 1704, the Indians of the Five Nations (Onandago) came on to
Philadelphia, to trade and make a treaty.  James Logan was present.
  In 1724, an Indian chief, in addressing Sir William Keith, complains that
although `Onas" gave his people their lands on the Bandywine, yet the whites
have stopped the river; the fish can no longer go up it; their women and
children can no longer, with their bows and arrows kill the fish in the
shallow waters; it is now dark and deep; and they wish they may pull away
the dams, that the water may again flow, and the fish again swim !
  Mr. Carver, first settler at Byberry, became in great straits for bread
stuff; they then knew of none nearer than New Castle.  In that extremity
they sent out their children to some neighbouring Indians, intending to
leave them there, till they could have food for them at home; but the
Indians took off the boys'  trowsers, and tied the legs full of corn, and
sent them back thus loaded -- a rude but frank and generous hospitality !
His great grandaughter, Mrs. S., told me of this fact as certain.
  The Indians upon the Brandywine had a reserved right, (as said James Logan
in his letter of 1731) to retain themselves a mile in breadth on both sides
of one of the branches of it, up to its source.
  In the year 1742, (vide Peters' letter to the Penns) there was in
Philadelphia an assemblage of two hundred and twenty Indians of the Five
Nations.  They had come from the north-westward to get goods.  While in the
city, a fire of eight houses occurred, at which they gave great assistance.
  In the year 1744, by reason of some strife between the frontier people and
Indians of Virginia and Maryland, they aim to settle their dispute, by the
mediation of the Pennsylvania governor, through a treaty, to be convened at
John Harris' ferry, (now Harrisburg) which was, however, not held there, but
at Lancaster, where the affair was adjusted satisfactorily.

  The last of the "Lenape", nearest resident to Philadelphia, died in
Chester county, in the person of old Indian Hannah, in 1803.  She had her
wigwam many years upon the Brandywine, and used to travel much about in
selling her baskets, &c.  On such occasions, she was often followed by her
dog and her pigs -- all stopping where she did.  She lived to be nearly a
hundred years of age -- had a proud and lofty spirit to the last -- hated
the blacks, and scarcely brooked the lower orders of the whites; her family
before her, had dwelt with other Indians in Kennet township.  She often
spoke emphatically of the wrongs and misfortunes of her race, upon whom her
affections still dwelt.  As she grew old, she quitted her solitude, and
dwelt in friendly families.
  A person visiting her cabin, on the farm of Humphrey Marshall, thus
expressed his emotions :
              "Was this the spot where Indian Hannah's form
               Was seen to linger, weary, worn with care ?
               Yes, --that rude cave was once the happy home
               Of Hannah, last of her devoted race;
               But she too, now, has sunk into the tomb,
               And briars and thistles wave above the place."

  Several facts concerning the Chester county Indians, collected by my
friend, Mr. J.J. Lewis, may be read on page 513 of my MS. Annals, in the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania -- such as their thickest settlement
being about Pequa, and along the great valley.  In other places they usually
settled in groups of half a dozen families.  The last remaining family was
remembered about sixty years ago, at Kennet, consisting of Andrew, Sarah,
Nanny, and Hannah, the last being the above mentioned Hannah -- "last of the
Lenape !"
  As late as the year 1750, the Shawnese had their wigwam at the Beaver
pond, near the present Carlisle; and as late as 1760, Doctor John, living in
Carlisle, with his wife and two children, were cruelly murdered by persons
unknown.  He was a chief.  The governor offered £100 reward.
  As it is the prejudice or misinformation of many, to regard the Indians as
wholly barbaric, I herein add some elucidation of their real character as
derived now from a living character, John Brickell, of Columbus, Ohio, who
was made a prisoner in Pennsylvania when a youth, and who was given up in
1795, after Wayne's victory.  He had been adopted and brought up with
kindness in the family of Whingwy Pooshies, a Delaware.  At his taking
leave, the children all hung round him crying; and when present, before the
military, his Indian father stood up and made this touching and pathetic
speech saying : "my son, there are the men of the same colour as yourself --
some of them may be your kin, or can convey you to those who are your
kindred.  You have lived a long time with us and I call on you to say if I
have not used you as well as a father could use a son ?  You have hunted for
me and been to me as a son.  I call on you to say if you will go, or if you
will still stay with me ?  Your choice is left to yourself."  Then Brickell
says, he knew its truth, and stood up some time, considerate, hardly knowing
what choice to make -- he thought of the children he had just left in tears
-- then of the Indians whom he loved -- then of his own kin -- and he at
length answered, I will go with my kin.  The Indian replied, "I must then
loose you -- I had leaned on you as a staff -- now it is broken -- and I am
ruined" --- he then sank back to his seat and cried, and was joined in tears
by Brickell !  Such a scene was like the patriarchal relations in the Bible,
and Brickell makes the remark, that many of their observances in his mind
seemed to show their affinity to the Jews.  They had their regular feasts;
such as the first corn that is fit to use, was made a fruit offering, and
when they started on hunting expeditions, the first game that was taken they
skinned whole, observing not to break a bone, and leaving thereon, the head,
ears and hoofs, this they cook whole and every one partakes, and the rest
they entirely burn up.  They also observe the law of clean and unclean
animals."  They never eat catfish, eels, or other fish without scales, nor
beasts of prey.  They would not even eat rabbits when he had killed them.
Their women, too, observed with remarkable strictness, times of seclusion,
and not returning to society, till after washing themselves and their whole
apparel.  In cases of deaths of husbands or wives, they wore mourning
apparel for an entire year.  It is hardly possible to conceive that such
conformities to Jewish rituals, among a people so long "scattered and
pealed", could be the result of arbitrary choice.  He shows too, that they
were eminently a religious people in their own way, worshipping God, always,
according to "the law of their fathers".  They frequently had family worship
in which they would sing and pray, and they had no words for profane
swearing, and never used false accusation, and are always strictly chaste.
Brickell remarks, that they were the best people to train up children he had
ever seen; they never whip, and scarcely ever scold, the whole family is
remarkably quiet, and much of their time they employ in instructing their
youths in what they deem to be right, they say much of Maneto, much applaud
before their children just actions, and greatly condemn bad examples.
  That their kindness to Brickell was not an exempt case, we may know from a
fact which he relates of another prisoner, one Isaac Choat.  He had been but
a short time a prisoner, when he was observed by his master to be sitting in
a pensive mood, and being asked what was his cause of trouble, he said "he
was thinking about his wife and children".  "The Indian said, that makes me
think that I should be sorry too, if carried away from my squaw and
children, and I will not let you suffer, I must let you go, but not alone --
lest other Indians see you and kill you -- I must go with you", and so
saying, he accompanied him as far as Muskingum and set him free; the result
was, he joined his family, and was afterwards seen by Brickell.
  The same Indians recaptured one May, a prisoner, whom they had cherished
and adopted -- they tied him to a tree, set a target on his breast, and shot
him with many balls, and saying, "you not satisfied to live with us".  This
was the operation of their law, of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth".  If custom and usage sanction the acts of others, why not justify
them also !

                        INDIAN  VISITS  TO  THE  CITY

  From a very early period it was the practice of Indian companies
occasionally to visit the city -- not for any public business, but merely to
buy and sell, and look on.  On such occasions they usually found their
shelter, for the two or three weeks which they remained, about the
State-house yard.  [There was a shed constructed for them along the western
wall; under it was sheltered for some time, as old Thomas Bradford has told
me, old King Hendricks and a party of his warriors, just before they went to
join Sir William Johnson at Lake George.]  There they would make up baskets,
and sell them to visiters, from the ash strips which they brought with them.
Before the revolution such visits were frequent, and after that time they
much diminished, so that now they are deemed a rarity.
  Such of the Indians as came to the city on public service were always
provided for in the east wing of the State-house, up-stairs, and at the same
time, their necessary support there was provided for by the government.
  Old people have told me that the visits of Indians were so frequent as to
excite but little surprise; their squaws and children generally accompanied
them.  On such occasions they went abroad much in the streets, and would any
where stop to shoot at marks, of small coin, set on the tops of posts.  They
took what they could so hit with their arrows.
  On the 6th of 6mo., 1749, there was at the State-house an assemblage of
two hundred and sixty Indians, of eleven different tribes, assembled there
with the governor to make a treaty.  The place was extremely crowded; and
Canaswetigo, a chief, made a long speech.  There were other Indians about
the city at the same time, making together probably four to five hundred
Indians at one time.  The same Indians remained several days at Logan's
place, in his beech woods.
  As the country increased in population, they changed their public
assemblages to frontier towns -- such as Pittsburg, and Easton for
Pennsylvania, and Albany for New York, &c.
  They once hung an Indian at Pegge's run, at the junction of Cable lane.
The crowd, assembled there, stood on the hill.  He had committed murder.
Old Mrs. Shoemaker and John Brown told me of this fact, and said the place
afterwards took the name of "Gallows - hill" for a long while.  In my
youthful days Callowhill street was often called "Gallows-hill Street".

                        INDIAN  ALARMS  AND  MASSACRE.

  The defeat of Braddock's army in 1755, near Pittsburg, seems to have
produced great excitement and much consternation among the inhabitants of
Pennsylvania, even within a present day's journey from Philadelphia !
£50,000 was voted by the legislature to raise additional troops.  The people
at and about Carlisle were in great alarm as frontier inhabitants; and
Colonel Dunbar, who had the command of the retreating army, was earnestly
besought to remain on the frontier, and not to come on to Philadelphia, as
he soon afterwards did to seek for winter quarters.  He was nick-named
"Dunbar the tardy !"
  To give an idea how thin the settlement of our country was at that time,
it may serve to say, that such near counties as Northampton and Berks
experienced the ravages of the scalping knife by predatory parties.  From
Easton to fifty miles above it, the whole country was deserted, and many
murders occurred.  Easton town, and the Jerseys opposite, were filled with
the terrified inhabitants.  Some skulking Indians were seen about Nazareth
and Bethlehem.  The gazettes of the time have frequent extracts of letters
from persons in the alarmed districts.  Philadelphia itself was full of
sympathetic excitement.  The governor, for instance, communicates to the
assembly that he has heard that as many as fifteen hundred French and
Indians are actually encamped on the Susquehanna, only thirty miles above
the present Harrisburg !  Some were at Kittochtinny hills, eighty miles from
Philadelphia.  The burnings and scalpings at the Great Cove are general.  At
Tulpehocken the ravages were dreadful : one little girl, of six years of
age, was found alive, with her scalp off !  The Irish settlement at the
Great Cove was entirely destroyed.
  It may give some idea of the alarm which these events caused, even on the
seaboard, to know that such was the report received at Bohemia, in Cecil
county, (received by an express from New Castle, and believed) that 1500
French and Indians had reached Lancaster, and burnt it to the ground, and
were proceeding onward !  Three companies of infantry, and a troop of
cavalry, immediately set off towards Lancaster, and actually reached the
head of Elk before they heard any counter intelligence ! -- to wit, in
November, 1755.
  So sensitive as the frontier men must have felt, they became jealous, lest
the Philadelphians and the assembly were too much under the pacific policy
of the Friends to afford them in time the necessary defensive supplies.  To
move them to a livelier emotion, an expedient of gross character was adopted
-- it was, to send on to Philadelphia the bodies of murdered family !  These
actually reached Philadelphia in the winter, like frozen venison from their
mountains -- were paraded through our city, and finally set down before the
legislative hall -- as "ecce factum" !
  It seems much to diminish the idea of time to say there are now persons
alive at Easton, Nazareth, &c., who once witnessed frontier ravages in their
neighbourhood, or had their houses filled with refugees; and also persons,
still in Philadelphia, who saw that parade of bloody massacre.  Thomas
Bradford, Esq., lately alive, thus wrote to me, saying : "I saw, when a boy,
in the state-house yard, the corpse of a German man, his wife, and grown-up
son, who were all killed and scalped by the Indians in Shearman's valley,
not many miles from the present seat of government.  At that time the
Indians marauded all around the Blockhouse at Harris' ferry" -- (now
Harrisburg.)
  John Churchman, the public Friend, also saw those dead bodies, and has
thus spoken of them : "The Indians having burnt several houses on the
frontiers, and also at Gradenhutten in Northampton county, and murdered and
scalped some of the inhabitants, two or three of the dead bodies were
brought to Philadelphia in a wagon, in the time of the general meeting of
Friends there in December, with intent to animate the people to unite in
preparations for war on the Indians.  They were carried along the streets --
many people following -- cursing the Indians, and also the Quakers, because
they would not join in war for their destruction.  The sight of the dead
bodies, and the outcry of the people, were very afflicting and shocking".
  With the bodies came "the frontier inhabitants, and surrounding the
assembly room, required immediate support".
  The excitement in the assembly ran high, between those who resisted and
those who advocated means for the emergency.  Outdoor interest too, at the
same time, was great; for the citizens of Philadelphia offer, by
subscription and by proclamation, 700 dollars for the heads of Shingass and
Captain Jacobs, Delaware chiefs -- gone over to the interests of their
enemies !  Among the wonders of that day for us now to contemplate, but of
little notoriety then, was the presence of "Colonel Washington", on a
mission from Virginia, concerning the Indians.  Little did he, or any of
them of that colonial day, regard him as the future president of a new and
great nation ! *
    [* I heard one fact of the time, to be relied upon too : -- Reese
Meredith, a merchant of Philadelphia, seeing Washington at the Coffee-house,
was so pleased with his personal demeanour as a genteel stranger, that he
invited him home, to dine with him on fresh venison.  It formed a lasting
friendship, and caused afterwards, it is said, the appointment of another
Meredith of the family, to be his first treasurer of the union.  As this
acquaintance was formed without formal introduction, it long remained a
grateful recollection in Meredith's family, as a proof of his discernment.
He was the father of the treasurer.]
  In the next year the scourge fell heavy upon the Indians; for Colonel
Armstrong burnt their town, and destroyed their people at Kittaning -- a
great affair in that day !  To commemorate it, a medal was struck, and
swords and plate were distributed at the expense of the city to the
officers, &c.
  In giving the preceding notices of Indian events, made so interesting and
stirring to the Philadelphians in that day, it will be appropriately
followed by the history of an association formed in Philadelphia, by leading
members among friends, for the avowed purpose of preserving the former
friendly relations with the Indians, without the destructive intervention of
war.  It had, therefore, its warm abettors and fierce opponents, as may be
discerned in the following brief history of that society.

      ASSOCIATION FOR PRESERVING PEACE WITH THE INDIANS -- YEAR 1756.

  In the spring of the year 1755, the Indians on the frontiers of Virginia
having commenced ravages on the people there, excited great alarm at
Philadelphia.  The pacific principles of the Friends had so long preserved
the peace of Pennsylvania, that it seemed but natural that they should feel
peculiar reasons on such an occasion to therefore prevent hostilities from
extending to their frontier inhabitants.  They therefore united, in 1756,
under the denomination of "the Friendly Association for regaining and
preserving Peace with the Indians" and by their private and individual
subscriptions, raised several thousand pounds to enable them to execute
their friendly designs.  Benevolent as their disinterested designs were,
they were reproached by some; and even the government, in some instances,
repelled their proffered services to preserve peace.  The Edinburgh
Reviewers have said, "if princes would use Friends for prime ministers,
universal peace might be perpetuated", and the manner in which this
association negotiated, both with the provincial rulers and the hostile
Indians, seemed to verify their peculiar qualifications for such peaceful
offices.
  The minutes of their proceedings, containing about two quires of MS. cap
paper, as preserved by Israel Pemberton, having been in my possession, I
made memoranda of incidents therein, which may be consulted by the curious
or the interested, in my MS. Annals in the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania, pages 181 to 184.
  They begin by addressing a long letter, declarative of their designs, to
Governor Robert H. Morris, on the 12th of the 4th mo., 1756, and beseeching
him not to declare war against the Indians until pacific overtures should be
made to them, and offering to aid the same by services and money.  He and
his council not according with their views, they proceeded forthwith to
address a long letter to the general assembly.  A declaration of war was,
however, made.  They then address letters to bespeak friendship for their
designs, and for the Indians, by directing Israel Pemberton to write letters
in their behalf to Sir William Johnson, and to Governor Sir C. Hardy, at New
York; copies of which are preserved -- also copies of Governor R.H. Morris'
messages, conveyed by Indian agents to the Indians on the Susquehanna at
Teaogon (Tioga).  With these agents the Friends made much interest; and
their remark on this interference is thus recorded -- "From the time of the
first messengers arriving at Teaogon, the hostilities on our northern
frontiers ceased, and an acceptable respite being obtained for our
distressed fellow subjects, we enjoyed so much real pleasure and
satisfaction in this happy event of our endeavours, as to engage us
cheerfully to pursue the business we had begun, though many malicious
calumnies and aspersions were cast upon us by persons from whom we had a
right to expect encouragement and assistance."
  They attended Indian treaties at Easton, at Lancaster, &c., and often made
presents -- measures which gave the Friends much ascendency over the minds
of the Indians, and inclined them to peace.

                  THE PAXTON BOYS, AND INDIAN MASSACRE

   This was a story of deep interest and much excitement in its day -- the
year 1764.  It long remained quite as stirring and affecting, as a tale of
woe or of terror, as any of the recitals, in more modern times, of the
recollections of that greater event -- the war of Independence.  The
Indians, on whom the outrage was committed by those memorable outlaws, were
friendly, unoffending, Christian Indians, dwelling about the country in
Lancaster county, and the remnant of a once greater race -- even in that
neighbourhood where they had been so cruelly afflicted.  For instance, in
1701, a letter of Isaac Norris' (preserved in the Logan MSS.) speaks thus,
to wit : "I have been to Susquehanna, where I met the governor; we had a
round-about journey, and well traversed the wilderness; we lived nobly at
the king's PALACE IN CONESTOGOE."  "They once had there (says J. Logan) a
considerable towne" -- called Indian town.
  The spirit which finally eventuated in the massacre, was discerned and
regretted at a much earlier period -- say as early as 1729-30.  Then James
Logan's letter to the proprietaries (vide Logan MSS) says, "The Indians
themselves are alarmed at the swarms of strangers (Irish) and we are afraid
of a breach with them.  The Irish are very rough to them."  In 1730, J.
Logan complains of the Scotch-Irish in a disorderly manner possessing
themselves, about that time, of the whole of Conestoga manor of 15,000 acres
-- saying, as their justification (the same as they did in effect at the
massacre) that "it was against the laws of God and nature that so much land
should lie idle, while so many Christians wanted it to labour on", &c.  In
truth, they did not go off until dispossessed by the sheriff and his posse,
and their cabins burnt to the number of thirty.  They rested chiefly in
Donegal, as a frontier people, at an exemption from rent, &c.
  In 1764, under an alarm of intended massacre, fourteen being previously
killed on Conestoga, the Indians took shelter in Lancaster, and for their
better security they were placed under the bolts and bars of the prison; but
at mid-day a party on horseback, from the country, rode through the streets
to the prison, and there forcibly entered and killed unresisting men and
women on the spot !  The citizens of Lancaster were much blamed for so
tamely suffering such a breach of the peace.  Nothing was there done to
apprehend the perpetrators.  In the mean time, other Indians in amity with
us, hearing of the cruelty to their brethern, sought refuge in Philadelphia,
which when the Paxton boys knew, being excited to more daring and insolence
by their former sufferance -- like blood-hounds, stimulated to a passion for
more blood by the previous taste -- they forthwith resolved on marching down
to Philadelphia to destroy the remainder of the afflicted race, and to take
vengeance also on all their friends and abettors there.  They were
undoubtedly Christian professors -- used Bible phrases -- talked of God's
commanded vengeance on the heathen, and that the saints should inherit the
earth, &c.  They had even writers to plead their religious cause in
Philadelphia ! ! !
  The news of their approach, which outran them, was greatly magnified; so
that "every mother's son and child" was half crazed with fear, and even the
men looked for a hard and obstinate struggle; for even among their own
citizens there were not wanting of those who, having been incensed by the
late Indian war, thought almost any thing too good for an Indian.  The
Paxton boys, to the amount of several hundred, armed with rifles, and
clothed with hunting shirts, affecting the rudest and severest manners, came
in two divisions as far as Germantown and the opposite bank of the
Schuylkill, where they finally entered into affected negotiations with the
citizens, headed by Benjamin Franklin, and returned home, terrifying the
country as they went.
  In the meantime the terrified Indians sought their refuge in Philadelphia
-- having with them their Moravian minister.  They were at first conducted
to the barracks in the Northern Liberties, by the order of the Governor.
But the Highlanders there refused them shelter; and the Indians stood
several hours exposed to the revilings of scoffers.  This was in the cold of
December.  They were thence sent to Province island, afterwards by boats to
League island : then they were recalled and sent to New York.  In returning
through Philadelphia they held their worship and took their breakfast in the
Moravian church in Bread street.  William Logan and Joseph Fox, the barrack
master, who gave them blankets, accompanied them as far as Trenton.  A
company of seventy Highlanders was their guard as far as Amboy, where they
were stopped by orders from General Gage; they then returned back to
Philadelphia barracks.  [All these removals were measures of security, as
fears were entertained from some of our own excited citizens, favourable to
the Paxton boys.]  The alarm of the Paxton boys being near -- at night, too,
as the city is voluntarily illuminated ! -- alarm bells ring, and citizens
run for arms, and haste to the barracks !  Many young Quakers joined the
defenders at the barracks, where they quickly threw up intrenchments. [Among
the most conspicuous of these were Edward Penington and William Logan, who
of course had under dealings by the society; but as their generous purposes
were popular, their sentence was mild -- only an exclusion from service in
affairs of discipline.]  Dr. Franklin, and other gentlemen who went out to
meet the leaders, brought them into the city, that they might point out
among the Indians the alleged guilty; but they could show none.  They,
however, perceived that the defence was too formidable, and they affected to
depart satisfied.
  The Indians remained there several months, and held regular Christian
worship.  In time they were greatly afflicted with smallpox, and fifty-six
of their number now rest among the other dead, beneath the surface of the
beautiful "Washington square".
  In the spring, these Indians were conducted by Moravian missionaries, via
Bethlehem and Wyoming, and made their settlement on the Susquehanna, near to
Wyalusing creek.  There they ate wild potatoes in a time of scarcity.
  The massacre of those Conestoga Indians was thus described by Susanna
Wright, of Columbia, to wit :  "The cruel murder of these poor Indians has
affected and discomposed my mind beyond what I can express.  We had known
the greater part of them from children; had been always intimate with them.
Three or four of the women were sensible and civilized, and the Indians'
children used to play with ours and oblige them all they could.  We had many
endearing recollections of them, and the manner of effecting the brutal
enormity so affected us, that we had to beg visiters to forbear to speak of
it.  But it was still the subject with every body."
  No good succeeded to the actors.  They were well remembered by old Mr.
Wright, long a member in the assembly from Columbia.  He used to tell at
Charles Norris', where he stayed in session time, that he had survived
nearly the whole of them, and that they generally came to untimely or
suffering deaths !

             PRESENT STATE AND REFUGE OF THE DELAWARE INDIANS.

  The Indian nation of the Delawares -- our proper Indians -- was once one
of the most numerous and powerful tribes; but are now reduced to about four
or five hundred souls, and scattered among other tribes.  The chief place
where they now hold any separate character and community is at the river
Thames, in Upper Canada, about seventy miles from Detroit.  There is there a
place called Moravian town -- made memorable by being destroyed by our
Americans in the last war, and by the death of Tecumsah, the celebrated
Shawnee chief, in the battle of the "Long woods".  This is at present the
last and only Moravian missionary establishment among the Indians of our
country.  There are there about one hundred and sixty souls under the
mission of the Rev. Abram Luchenback, and his assistant, the Rev. Mr. Haman.
They worship from printed books in the Delaware tongue.
  The wanderings of the poor Delawares under the Moravian auspices are
curious.  They first collected on Mahony, a branch of the Lehigh, from
whence they were driven by the French war.  They then removed to near
Bethlehem; where they remained till the war of the Revolution; thence they
removed to Tioga; thence to Allegheny and to Beaver creek, Ohio.  Both of
these settlements broke up and went to Muskigum, near New Philadelphia,
where, in 1821, there were but about three families remaining; these removed
to the above mentioned settlement on the Thames, which was established about
the year 1793.
  In connexion with this renewed Moravian town, there is, higher up the
Thames, a place called Bingham, occupied by Delawares; and not far from them
dwell some Munsee and Chippewa Indians.
  A small settlement of Delawares now reside near the mouth of Grand river,
in Upper Canada, where they form a part of the Six Nations, who have a
reserve of sixty miles in length on both sides of that river.  Among some of
these, the Methodist missionaries have wrought much civilization and moral
improvements.
  The Indians, formerly of Chester county, were of the Delaware or "Lenni
Lenape".  Of these was the tribe of the Nanticoke, which dwelt once, and
lingered long along the whole region drained by the stream of the Brandywine ---
             "Their home for many an age was there !"
  They removed from thence in the year 1757, to the valleys of the Wyoming
and Wyalusing, on the Susquehanna.  At the great treaty of St. Mary's in
1820, there were then present about twenty chiefs and warriors of the
Nanticokes; and among them was one who had withstood the storms of ninety
winters, who in most dramatic pathos, told the commissioners that he and his
people had once roamed through their own domains along their favourite
Brandywine.  A gentleman then present related this as fact.  Ah, poor Indian
!  what recollections and reflections he must have had, if duly sensible of
the change to him, and even to us !

            "A mighty chief, whose hundred hands
             Ranged freely o'er those shaded lands;
             But now there's scarcely left a trace,
             To mind one of that friendly race !"

                              TEDYUSCUNG

   A Delaware chief, a frequent visitor to Philadelphia, from 1750 to `60.
-- By this means, and his frequent intercourse with the whites, he had
acquired a competent knowledge of our language; he was a tall, large figure
of a man -- always regarded himself as at home in the Norris family, where
he was always welcomed. He generally had some retinue with him, and affected
the character of something superior as a sovereign; he was addicted to
occasional excess in drinking.  On one occasion, he went with a dozen of his
train to Norris' country house at Fairhill -- the male part of the family
being absent, the females hid themselves from terror-- he, however, entered
and blustered about; one of the hired girls fearing some mischief might be
done to the property, for they were searching the closets for food and
drink, she took up courage, and went in to restrain them; Tedyuscung
affected to frighten her, saying they would kill her if she did not provide
them something good; she vapoured in return -- but to make the best of it,
she laid them a table and refreshments, and by some finesse succeeded to
hurry them off; they had much noisy mirth before going.  Mr. Norris used to
talk of this afterwards good-naturedly to the chief; and he used to promise
no more to take possession where there were none but women to receive him.
   Governor Dickinson used to relate, that he attended a treaty at Albany,
where Tedyuscung was a negotiator; while there, at a time when the chief was
making an ill-timed speech being excited by a surplus of strong drink.  His
wife, who was present, was heard to speak in the most modest and silvery
tones imaginable in the Indian tongue; the melody of her tones enchanted
every ear; while she spoke, she looked steadfastly and with much humility to
the ground; every body was curious to inquire of the chief what she said; he
answered rudely -- "Ho ! she's nothing but a poor weak woman ! -- she has
just told me it was unworthy the dignity and the reputation of a great king,
like me, to show myself drunken before the council of the nation".

                             ISAAC  STILL

   Was a celebrated Indian of good education, a leader of the last remains
of the Delawares adjacent to Philadelphia.  He was a Christian man of fine
morals and much good sense; and was therefore employed as agent and
interpreter, in French as well as English in many important missions to
distant Indians.  He was said to have travelled further over the surface of
our country to the unknown wilds of the west, than any other individual, and
having seen, as he said, the Rocky mountains and the white Indians; his
journal of observations was deemed important, and was therefore taken down
by some one for publication; but where it now is, is not known. [It was done
while he was at Logan's place, as he said himself -- and Mr. Samuel Preston
has suggested (vide my MS book) some papers and families, where he thinks it
might yet be found -- say among the papers of Logan, Dr. Barton, or H.
Drinker, or E. Penington.]  For a considerable time he dwelt with his
family, in wigwam style, on a part of Logan's place, now called the Indian
field; their only son, Joshua, in the mean time, was educated at the
Germantown school house.  In 1771, he moved up into Buckingham, proposing
there to collect his scattered tribe, and to move them off to the Wabash,
"far away" as he said, "from war and rum".  This he effected in the fall of
1775, having with him about forty persons, chiefly females, as the men and
the young and active (about twenty) had gone on before.  Mr. Samuel Preston,
who witnessed their departure, described Still as a fine looking man,
wearing a hat ornamented with feathers, the women, all bareheaded, each
loaded with a large pack on her back, fastened with broad straps across
their foreheads, thus making their heads bear much of the burthen, they
proceeded in regular form of march.  Thus ended, in the year 1775, the last
vestige of Lenni Lenape from the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, and from
Bucks county and Jersey !  Many further particulars concerning Isaac Still
as an Indian, and of his services as a useful agent and ally to our cause,
are told in several MS. letters from the said Samuel Preston, and may be
consulted on page 556, and following, in my MS book deposited with the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, to whom the facts therein told more
appropriately belong.
  Bucks county is also identified with another Indian of greatest fame, even
of the renowned Tamanend, (or TamanŽ, as Penn spells his name) the tutelary
saint of our country !  His remains repose by the side of a spring not far
from Doylestown.  A letter now before me from my friend E.M. says, "I have
just returned from visiting the identical spot in which the celebrated
Indian chief, St. TamanŽ was buried.  It is about four miles from this
village, in a beautiful situation, at the side of an endless spring, which
after running about a furlong, empties into the Neshaminy -- the spot is
worth visiting; and the reflections it awakens are worth a league's walk !"
Another letter says, "I have discovered a large Indian mound, known by the
name of the Giant's Grave and at another place is an Indian burial ground,
on a very high hill, not far from Doylestown".
  There is some tradition existing that king Tamanend once had his cabin and
residence on the meadow near the Ridge road, situated under a great elm tree
on Francis' farm.  The character of Tamanend is told at length in the
interesting work of Heckewelder.

                                 MISCELLANEA

  An original deed "from Wiggoneeheenah, in behalf of all the Delaware
Indians concerned" grants unto Edmund Cartlidge a piece of ground, formerly
his plantation, lying in a turn of Conestogoe creek, called Indian point [no
acres or bounds mentioned] and dated in the presence of A. Cox, witness, on
the 8th of April, 1725.  The Indian signature and seal are curious; the seal
is of red wax impressed with a running fox, and the Indian signature, in
lieu of his name, is a tolerable good drawing of a similar animal.  The deed
itself is among the Logan MSS.  In 1722, John Cartlidge is named as killing
an Indian at the same place.
  In 1720, the Gazette states that a runaway man was seen last "at an Indian
town, called Pehoquellamen, on Delaware river".  Who can designate that
place ?  Or who can now say where was "Upper and Lower Dinderdonk" islands,
where George Fox, the Friend, was ferried across the Delaware in Indian canoes ?
  In 1721, Sir William Keith, the governor; his council and thirty
gentlemen, set out for Conestogoe, to there hold an Indian treaty with the
heads of the Five Nations.
  In the Gazettes of this period, I often observe Indians named as
occasionally serving as sailors on board some of our coasting vessels.  The
Indians in Maine too, in fighting us in the year 1727, coasted in an armed
vessel there, and fought their cannon, as well as others !  At that time,
too, more Indians than others were employed in all the Nantucket whalers.
  In 1728, some ten or twelve Indians in Manatawna, on the Schuylkill, fell
into a quarrel with the whites, and several were killed.  Governor Gordon,
in consequence, visits the Indians at French creek, and at "Indian town" at
Conestogoe, to incite them to peace, and he proclaims that no molestation
shall be offered to any of the Indian nations then in our borders, to wit :
"Delawares, Conestogoe, Ganawese, Shawenese, Mingoes".  At this time,
several Delawares are stated as living about Brandywine.  In the same year
the Indians assaulted the iron-works at Marketasoney, and were beaten off
with loss.
  At this time, two brothers, Welshmen, are executed at Chester for the
murder of three Indians; they declare they thought all the Indians were
rising on them, in the case of the above strife.  They appear to have been
maddened with sheer fright, and killed the first unoffending Indians they met.
  About the year 1759 advertisements often appear in the Gazettes,
describing children recovered from the Indians, and requesting their friends
to come and take them home.  Several are described as having sustained some
injury; and in so many cases can only tell their baptismal names, and the
same of their parents !
  In 1762, a number of white children, unclaimed, were given up by the
Indians at Lancaster, and were bound out by order of the governor.
  The Gazettes of the year 1768-9 contain such frequent and various recitals
of the havoc and cruelties of the incensed Indians on the frontiers, as
would, if selected, make quite a book of itself.  Of the numerous
calamities, Colonel Boquet, who commanded a regiment of Highlanders, and was
at Fort du Quesne (Pittsburg) after the peace of 1763, gives a very
affecting recital of the delivery up to him of all the prisoners surrendered
by the Indians.  Husbands went hundreds of miles in hopes of finding lost
wives or children.  The collection amounted to several hundred !  and the
sight of seeing husbands and wives rushing into each others arms, and
children claimed by their parents made the joy of all such extreme !  There
was also the mourning of others, who hoped to find relatives -- but neither
finding or hearing of them, made much lamentation.  There were also Indians,
who had adopted all those persons, and loved them as their children or
relatives, and having then to give them up, showed great signs of distress.
Some young Indians had become passionately fond of some young women, and
some few women had formed attachments for them.  The Indians loaded their
friends at their departure with their richest gifts -- thus proving they had
hearts of tenderness, even to prisoners.
  The same Col. Bouquet when at Philadelphia in 1756 with 500 men,
threatened to billet his men on the town, with the small-pox, because he
said he could not find suitable quarters.
  I find among the "Proprietary Papers" so called, the speech of Lapowinso
to the Proprietaries, at Pennsbury, the 9th May, 1735.  Present -- James
Logan, Jeremiah Langhorne, Joseph Kirkbride, Thos. Freame, Wm. Piles, Joseph
Kirkbride,Jr., Israel Pemberton, James Steel, Peter Lloyd, Robt. Appleton.
Also-- Indians, Lapowinso, Neutonies, Lesbeconk, Tiscoquam.
  Lapowinso spoke and said :  That as he came down the usual road to his
plantation, he heard from his brethern that the proprietaries wanted to
speak with him; he therefore came to shake hands with them, and was glad to
see them, and presented a bundle of skins.
  He desires unity and peace as usual -- that he intended to come down with
many of his brethern in a twelve moon's hence, to see them and to discourse
further about the lands.
  That a great king had a mind to have gone down with him, but was lame and
could not.  Next year they would come and discourse further about the bounds
of the lands.  That he is uneasy at home, to attend to a message sent him
from three of the Mingo kings, who were to arrive as soon as the bark
peeled, and then to go on to Philadelphia.  We have a fine portrait of
Lapowinso.
  The proprietries told them they were glad to see them and accepted their
presents very kindly, and should always be glad to continue in peace and
friendship.  The skins were valued at £6 16s. 6d.

               "Ask ye for hamlets' peopled bound ?
                With cone-roof'd cabins circled round?
                For chieftans proud --- for hoary sire ----
                Or warrior, terrible in ire !

                Ye've seen the shadows quit the vale ---
                The foam upon the water fail ---
                The fleeting vapour leaves no trace,
                Such was their path, that faded race!"


            FRONTIER INDIANS,  INCIDENTS,  HOSTILITIES,  &c.

   The preceding notices of the Indians are the same as were published in
the first edition of the Annals, and are now intended to be much extended,
for the sake of giving more enlarged views of their character and actions in
Pennsylvania; and especially of their hostilities and ravages on the
frontiers.  They were once a formidable foe, and much afflicted and periled
the frontier inhabitants.  What we now propose to record will, we doubt not,
be new to many, although old in themselves ---
  In July, 1700, there was a survey of a line from Philadelphia direct to
Susquehanna, coming out nigh the mouth of Conestoga creek, a little more
north, (about four miles) near to "an old fort demolished".  This was in
consequence of surveyor-general Holmes' purchase of all the lands from
Upland creek to Pemapecka creek, and so backward to Susquehanna, two days'
journey.  The whole is said to have been bought of the Indian kings and
sakamackers, for the use of William Penn -- bought of Shakhoppah, Secaming,
Malebore, Tangoras, Indian kings ; and Maskecasho, Wawarrin, Tenoughan,
Terrecka, Nesonhaikin, Indian sakamackers.  I notice that in the map of the
line of survey, two Indian paths traverse it obliquely, north-west by north
-- the first from Philadelphia, is at Rocky run, (fifteen miles) between the
head waters of Ridley and Chester creeks, and again at thirty-eight miles,
two miles beyond Doe run.  These facts I found recorded in a survey book,
No. 14, in the land office, and the above extracts are from the warrant of
survey by Holme.  Below follow other facts on the same subject, all tending
to show the treaty by which the lands of Philadelphia city and county are held.

                                                   Philadelphia.
      To my very loving ffriends Shakhoppah, [This king was one of the
witnesses to Tammanend's sale in 1683, of lands between Neseminah and
Pemepecka creeks.] Secaming, Malebore, Tangoras -- Indian kings ; and to
Maskecasho, Wawarrin, Tenoughan, Tarrecka, Nesonhaikin -- Indian
sakamackers, and the rest concerned :
       Whereas I have purchased and bought of you, the Indian kings and
sakamackers, for the use of Governor William Penn, all your land from
Pemepecka creek to Upland creek, and so backward to Chesapeake bay and
Susquehanna, two days journey; that is to say, as far as a man can go in two
days, as under the hands and seals of you the said kings may appear; and to
the end I may have a certain knowledge of the land backward, and that I may
be enabled and be provided against the time for running the said two days'
journey, I do hereby appoint and authorize my loving ffriend, Benjamin
Chambers, of Philadelphia, with a convenient number of men to assist him,
to mark out a westerly line from Philadelphia to Susquehanna, that so the
said line may be prepared and made ready for going the said two days'
journey backward hereafter, when notice is given to you the said kings, or
some of you, at the time of going the said line; and I do hereby desire and
require, in the name of our said Governor Penn, that none of you, the said
kings, sakamackers, or any other Indians whatsoever, that have formerly been
concerned in the said tracts of land, do presume to offer any interruption
or hinderance in making out the said line, but rather I expect your
ffurtherance and assistance, if occasion be herein; and that you will be
kind and loving to my said friend, Benjamin Chambers, and his company, for
which I shall, on the governor's behalf, be kind and loving to you
hereafter, as occasion may require.  Witness my hand and a seal, this 7th
day of the 5 mo., called July, being the fourth year of the reign of our
great king of England, and eighth of our proprietary, William Penn's
government.
                         THO.  HOLME.
 A true copy from the original, by Jacob Taylor.
   With the foregoing is a diagram of the ground plot of the survey.  It
goes direct from Philadelphia city to a spot on the Susquehanna, about three
miles above the mouth of the Conestoga, near to a spot marked, "fort
demolished".
  In the book of "Charters and Indian Deeds" (in secretary of state's
office, and recorded 30 years ago) p.62, is given the deed of the foregoing
granted lands, to wit :
        WE, Shakhoppah, Secane, Malebore, Tangoras, Indian sakamackers, and
right owners of ye lands lying between Macopanackan
alias Upland, now called Chester river or creek, and the river or creek of
Pemapecka, now called Dublin creek, beginning at a hill called Conshohockin,
on the river Manaiunck, or Schoolkill, from thence extending a parallel line
to the said Macopanackan, (alias Chester creek) by a south-westernly course,
and from the said Conshohockin hill to the aforesaid Pemapecka, (alias
Dublin creek) by the said parallel line north-westernly, and so up along the
said Pemapecka as far as the creek extends, and so from thence
north-westernly back unto the woods, to make up two full days' journey, as
far as a man can go in two days from the said station of the said parallel
line at Pemapecka, as also beginning at the said parallel at Macopanackan
(Chester creek) and so from thence up the said creek as far as it extends,
and from thence north-westernly back into the woods, to make up two full
days' journey, as far as a man can go in two days from the said station of
the said parallel line at the said Macopanackan, alias Chester creek -- FOR
AND IN CONSIDERATION of 200 fathoms of wampum, 30 fathoms of duffells, 30
guns, 60 fathoms of strawd waters, 30 kettles, 30 shirts, 20 gun belts, 12
pairs shoes, 30 pairs stockings, 20 pairs scissors, 30 combs, 30 axes, 30
knives, 21 tobacco tongs, 30 bars of lead, 30 lbs. powder, 30 awls, 30
glasses, 30 tobacco boxes, 30 papers of beads, 44 lbs. red lead, 30 pairs of
hawks' bells, 6 drawing knives, 6 caps, 12 hoes, -- To us in hand well and
truly paid by William Penn, proprietary and governor of Pennsylvania and
territories -- Do by these presents grant, bargain, sell &c., all right,
title and interest that we or any others shall or may claim in the same --
hereby renouncing and disclaiming forever any claim or pretence to the
premises, for us, our heirs and successors, and all other Indians whatsoever
-- In witness wherof we set our hands and seals, &c., this 30th day of the
5th mo., called July, and in the year 1685.    (Signed)
          SHAKAHAPPOH                  SECANE
          MALEBORE                     TANGORAS
     Sealed and delivered to Thomas Holme, president of the provincial
council, in the presence of us --

GREAT MEN OF THE INDIANS.                 Lasse Cock
    Tareckhoua                            Mouns Cock
    Penoughant                            Will Asley
    Wesakant                              Swan Swanson
    Kacocahahous                          Ism Frampton
    Nehallas                              Saml. Carpenter
    Toutamen                              Arthur Cook
    Tepasekenin                           Tryall Holme.

   On the 2d of 8th mo., 1685, at New Castle, a treaty is made with sundry
Indians for all the lands between Quing Quingas, called Duck creek,
fronting along the Delaware river, and thence backward as far as a man can
ride in two days with a horse -- in consideration of, &c.  [Much the same in
kind, quantity and value as the above things*]  The witnesses are Peter
Alricks, &c.  [* A copy of the whole may be seen in the Germantown Telegraph
of 21st March, 1838.  It differed chiefly in having 100 jewsharps, 300
flints, 200 needles, 30 lbs. sugar. 5 galls. molasses, 300 pipes, and 40
tomahawks, in place of axes.]
   NOTE --- That this said Peter Alricks, "of New Castle county, gentleman"
is the same to whom a grant is made by Col. Nicolls, (the conqueror of Gov.
Stuyvesant, of New York) of "surrender" of "Matinicum island to Peter
Alricks, formerly of New Castle, with all stocks and goods thereupon".  The
descendants of this Alricks -- say "Hermanus Alricks, of the city of
Philadelphia, gentleman", and his brother Peter, both grandsons of the first
Peter, "confirm" in 1734, the signature of their grandfather.  Some of this
family are now resident at Harrisburg, where two of the Alrickses are
lawyers -- one also a post-master in Wilmington.

  We begin with several articles found recorded under their marginal dates,
in the Minutes of Council, viz.
  21st of 5 mo., 1685, several Indians made complaint, that the servants of
Jasper Farman's plantation [probably in Bucks county] made them drunk and
laid with their wives, and then quarrelled with them all.  A warrant was
issued for their appearance, but the messenger returned, having lost his way
in the woods !  Trial was put off, and when the time arrived, the servants
being present found no accusers, for all the Indians had been made drunk at
home, [perhaps at the charge of the defendants themselves !]
  12th of 3 mo., 1690, Lacy Cock, designing up the Schuylkill, is charged to
ascertain when there, whether the French settlers there, (probably about
French creek) have not too much ammunition, about which he is to inquire of
the chief sachem of our Indians, and if so to see that the same is removed
to Barnabus Willcox's store.
  1706, the Minutes say -- "William Penn, when last in this country in 1700,
visited those of that place", to wit : the chiefs of the Conestoga,
Shawanese, and Ganawense Indians on the Susquehanna -- as also his son,
after him, in order to friendship.
  21st of September, 1710, the queen of the Conestoga Indians, Ojuncho, and
two chiefs more, and some of the Connois Indians, visit Philadelphia, and
lay down before the council five bundles of skins and furs, making at the
gift of each a speech.
  The belt from the Conestoga Indians prayed, thus  -- "sent from their
children born and those yet in the womb, that room might be yet allowed them
to sport and play, without danger of slavery !"
  There is also messages received from several of the chiefs along the
Susquehanna about preparing for the war in Canada, FOR US, &c.
  20th May, 1723, the three nations of Indians upon the Susquehanna, viz.:
the Conestoga, Delawares and Shawnese, met Governor Keith at Philadelphia,
to renew treaties, &c.  The answer says, "by this chain, Philadelphia is
joined to Conestoga and all the Indian towns upon the Susquehanna".  Notices
of the Indian visits to Philadelphia are very frequent.
  July 4, 1727, the Indians at Philadelphia pray that no settlements may be
allowed up Susquehanna higher than Paxton, [the creek now comes out at the
lower part of Harrisburg] and that none of the settlers thereabout be
suffered to sell or keep any rum; because that being the road by which their
people go out to war, they are apprehensive of mischief in these parts.  The
same remark they also apply to their country (Allegheny) where James le Tort
trades, [in 1840, a young Oneida chief, living at the old Castle New York,
is named Abram le Tort.]
  The answer is, that we have not allowed any settlements to be made above
Paxton, yet the young people will spread and scatter; but to avoid
collision, it is recommended that the Indians should thereafter cross above
the mountains [meaning above those now in sight of Harrisburg].
  May 26th, 1728, Governor Gordon, and his council, in treaty at Conestoga,
met at the house of Andrew Cornish, about a mile from town.  The chief of
the Conestogoes (Mingoes) was Captain Civility, i.e. Taquatarensaly.  They
(the governor and council) refer to Penn's first treaty in nine items, one
of which is, that "the doors of the Christian houses should be open to the
Indians, and the houses of the Indians should be open to the Christians, as
welcome friends on both sides", and finally this mutual amity was to exist
between them for ever, or "as long as the creeks and rivers run, and while
the sun, moon, and stars endure".  The consideration articles given in that
first treaty, [as I understand it] said, "we bind them with the several
parcels of goods, to wit : twenty stroud match coats; twenty duffells;
twenty blankets; twenty shirts; one hundred weight of powder; two hundred
weight of lead; five hundred flints, and fifty knives".  At the time of the
meeting in 1728, the Indians upon Susquehanna are called Shawanese.
  June 1728.  James Logan, in his speech in council to the Indian chiefs
then present, says to King Sassoonan, king of the Delawares, that ten years
before (in 1718) to quiet claims, the former treaties were confirmed with
him and others by gifts, &c., and that they then signed a treaty, (then
shown) whereby they granted that all the lands between Delaware and
Susquehanna were conceded from Duck creek to the mountains on this side
Leckay, stretching away from the forks of Delaware (below Leckay, Easton
now) to those hills on Susquehanna which lie ten miles above Paxton.  {King
Tamanend and Metamequan make a treaty with William Penn on 23d 4mo., 1683,
for lands near Neshamineh creek, and thence to Pemapecka. I could find no
trace of a treaty at Philadelphia, at the Treaty-tree.  The Five Nations by
treaty deeded the lands up Susquehanna in 1736.]
  In 1727, John Wright, an Indian trader, was killed at Snake town, forty
miles above Conestoga, by an Indian broil, in a case of his own provocation.
It is said in the proceedings, that this was the first accident of the kind
ever heard of in the province in that settlement.  It was further said, that
Indian traders acted by license, well considered before the granting, and
that the said John Wright's was deemed good when granted by Chester court.
Wright and Burt had before been all in harmony, dancing with the Indians,
and then Wright struck one of them in anger, and so lost his life by being
pursued into the hen-coop.

  All the foregoing are embraced in eight books of demi MS. A to M., and
come down to the year 1734.  I examined and extracted them pretty fully;
after this the books begin and continue of large size in medium paper.
  In the record of charters and treaties, I found the following concerning
the two chiefs, of whom we have a present of their portraits, made in 1737,
supposed by a Swede of good talent, to wit :
  A treaty at Philadelphia, in 1737, made to confirm one before made "about
three years ago at Durham", by two Delaware chiefs or sachems, to wit :
Teeshakomer, i.e., Tishcokenk, and Nortames, i.e., Nutemus, to which were
present Lappawinsse, and several other Delawares, "concerning lands more
than fifty years before sold by their fathers unto William Penn"; beginning
at a spruce tree by the river Delaware about Makerish Kitton, and thence
west-north-west by the mountain to a corner white-oak, and thence westward
to Nashamini creek, &c.  The foregoing relates to Tisheohan and Lapowinsa.
  I saw the original charter from the king to William Penn, it is composed
of several sheets of parchment, each ornamented with wide marginal heraldic
ornaments in black ink.  It looks imposing and venerable.
  ALLENTOWN -- This is one of the oldest settlements on the Lehigh river,
and in the different wars of America, was the scene of many a brave and
bloody deed.  It was there that Colonel James Burd displayed such heroism in
the early wars with the aborigines.  It was there that, during the
revolutionary war, the bells of Christ church in Philadelphia were
concealed, and it was there that John Fries, the insurgent, fomented the
"Northampton insurrection", once so exciting in our annals at the time.


End Part I