them along. I well remember having seen them between the years 1750 and 1760, loaded with such bones, which, being fresh, caused a disagreeable stench, as they passed through the town of Bethlehem. They are also said to have been the inventors of a poisonous substance, by which they could destroy a whole settlement of people, and they are accused of being skilled in the arts of witchcraft; it is certain that they are very much dreaded on this account. I have known Indians who firmly believed that they had people among them who could, if they pleased, destroy a whole army, by merely blowing their breath towards them. Those of the Lenape* and other tribes, who pretend to witchcraft, say that they learned the science from the Nanticokes; they are not unwilling to be taxed with being wizzards, as it makes them feared by their neighbours. Their national name, according to the report of their chief, White, is Nentégo. The Delawares call them Unéchtgo, and the Iroquois Sganiateratieh-rohne. These three names have the same meaning, and signify tidewater people, or the sea shore settlers. They have besides other names, by-names, as it were, given them with reference to their occupation. The Mohicans, for instance, call them Otayáchgo, and the Delawares Tawachguáno, both which words in their respective languages, signify a "bridge," a "dry passage over a stream;" which alludes to their being noted for felling great numbers of trees across streams, to set their traps on. They are also often called the Trappers. In the year 1785, this tribe had so dwindled away, that their whole body, who came together to see their old chief White, then residing with the Christian Indians on the Huron river, north of Detroit, did not amount to 50 men. They were then going through Canada, to the Miami country, to settle beside the Shawanos, in consequence of an invitation they had received from them. * Loskiel, part I. ch. 9. THE MAHICANNI, OR MOHICANS. THIS once great and renowned nation has also almost entirely disappeared, as well as the numerous tribes who had descended from them; they have been destroyed by wars, and carried off by the small pox and other disorders, and great numbers have died in consequence of the introduction of spirituous liquors among them. The remainder have fled and removed in separate bodies to different parts, where they now are dispersed or mingled with other nations. So early as the year 1762, a number of them had emigrated to the Ohio, where I became acquainted with their chief who was called by the whites. "Mohican John." Others have fled to the shores of the St. Lawrence, where numbers of them incorporated themselves with the Iroquois, and where their descendants live at the present time, a mixed race, known by the name of the Cochnewago Indians. Upwards of one hundred of them, who lived in the colonies of Connecticut and New York, having through the labours of the United Brethren embraced Christianity, emigrated to Pennsylvania, some time between 1742 and 1760, where they afterwards became incorporated with the Delawares. considerable number migrated from Hudson's river about the year 1734, and settled at Stockbridge, in Massachusetts; between the year 1785 and 1787, they removed to Oneida, in the country of the Six Nations, and gave to their settlement the name of New Stockbridge. Before their removal their numbers had gradually diminished. In 1791, they were reduced to 191 persons.* They were once very numerous in Connecticut, and in the year 1799, there still were 84 individuals of them, in the county of New London,t the remains of A ⚫ Collections Massach. Histor. Soc. vol. I. p. 195. vol. IV. p. 67. vol. IX. p. 92. + Ibid. vol. IX. p. 76. a once large and flourishing settlement. It is probable that by this time they are nearly if not entirely extinct. It is believed that the Mahicanni are the same nation who are so celebrated in the History of New England, under the name of Pequods or Pequots. The Rev. Jonathan Edwards, late President of Union College at Schenectady, in the State of New York, published in the year 1788 in a pamphlet form, some observations on their language, which were republished at New York in 1801. This small tract, as well as the translation of the Bible into the Natick, by the venerable Eliott, and his grammar of that language, put it beyond a doubt that the idiom of the Mohicans and those of the other New England Indians proceeded from the same source with that of the Lenni Lenape. CHAPTER V. THE IROQUOIS. THE most intelligent and credible Indians of the Lenape stock, including the Mohicans, have ever asserted, that in the whole country bounded on the north by the river St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, (including what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick,) on the west by the Mississippi, on the east by the Great Saltwater Lake, and on the south by the country of the Creeks, Cherokees, and other Florida Indians, there Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. vol. IX. p. 77. Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. I. p. 28. The Atlantic ocean. were but two nations, the Mengwe, and themselves. Theirs was by far the most numerous and the most extensively settled, for their tribes extended even beyond the Mississippi. On the other side of the St. Lawrence, the Algonquins, the Killistenos or Knisteneaux, and others, speaking dialects of their language, prove their origin from the same stock. The Mengwe, on the contra ry, were comparatively few, and occupied a much less portion of territory, being almost confined to the vicinity of the great lakes. But few tribes are known to be connected with them by descent and language; the principal ones are the Wyandots, otherwise called Hurons and the Naudowessies. Almost every other nation within the boundaries described, is of the Lenape family. Each of these two great nations, say the Delawares, had an ancient national name, and a tradition of their respective origin, handed down to them by their ancestors, and diffused among all the kindred tribes. By whatsoever names those tribes might be called, and whatever their numbers were, still they considered themselves, and were considered by others, as the offspring of the same original stock. All the tribes who had sprung from the Lenape called the mother nation grandfather, and received, in return, the appellation of grandchildren. They were all united by the strongest ties of friendship and alliance ; in their own expressive language, they made but one house, one fire, and one canoe, that is to say, that they constituted together one people, one family. The same thing took place between the Mengwe and the tribes descended from them. They and the Lenape had no relationship with each other, though they came over the Mississippi together at the same time. They considered each other as nations entirely distinct. The Mengwe or Iroquois were always considered by the Lenape as only one nation, consisting of several confederated tribes. The name of Five and afterwards Six Nations, was given to them by the English, whose allies they were, probably to raise their consequence, and magnify the idea of their strength; but the Indian nations never did flatter them with that high sounding appellation, and considered them merely as confederated tribes. The late Rev. Mr. Pyrlæus, in a large volume of MS. notes which he wrote between the years 1740 and 1750, (upwards of 70 years ago) has taken down on this subject the account given by the Iroquois themselves, as he had it from the mouth of an intelligent Mohawk chief,* whose veracity might be depended upon. After giving some details respecting the origin of their confederation, the time about which it took place, the names of the delegates from each of the confederated tribes &c, he proceeds thus: "They then gave themselves the name Aquanoshioni, which means one house, one family, and consisted of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas. This alliance having been first proposed by a Mohawk chief, the Mohawks rank in the family as the eldest brother, the Oneidas, as the eldest son ; the Senecas, who were the last who at that time had con⚫sented to the alliance, were called the youngest son; but the Tuscaroras, who joined the confederacy probably one hundred years afterwards, assumed that name, and the Senecas ranked in precedence before them, as being the next youngest son, or as we would say, the youngest son but one. The Rev. David Zeisberger also says: "That the "Iroquois call themselves Aquanoshioni, which means "united people, having united for the purpose of always ❝reminding each other that their safety and power consist "in a mutual and strict adherence to their alliance." He adds, that Onondago is the chief town of the Iroquois. Thus, in the different translations of the name which these people gave themselves, we find nothing that con P. 235. This MS is in the library of the Society of the United Brethren at Bethlehem. |