Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/153

 1868.] The Penn Treaty-Ground and a Monument to William Penn. 125 the Delaware Lenape-wihittuclc, or the rapid river of the Lenape, and extended themselves to the Potomac, Susquehanna and Hudson. In course of time they divided into three tribes, the Turtle, the Turkey, and the Wolf. The Turtle and the Turkey held between the seacoast and the mountains ; the Wolf, or Minsi, tribe lighted their council-fire at Minni- sink, about twenty-five miles west of Newburgh, on the Hudson. The 3Iohi- canni, or Mohegans, and all the tribes of the southern and eastern shores of New England, derived from, and were styled the grandchildren of, the Lenni Lem.pe, who were alwa}'s enterprising and replete with savage virtues. But, as just before the establishment of the English settlements there, a pestilence assimilated to the yellow fever, had swept off nine-tenths of the Indian inhabitants of New England, so a similar depopu- lating preparation for European enlight- enment had been made in the more western and southern regions. Sangui- nary wars between the Mengwe and the Lenni Lenape races had sorely wasted all the tribes alike ; and a peaceful mediatorship arose in the grand council of the Del a wares. However singular, this is authentic, that the latter, though greatly respected, and honored with the title of " grandfather" by many tribes, were yet, by their own admission, re- duced in making war, the only real business of Indian life, to the condition of women. The Iroquois, Mengwe, or Five Nations, boasted that their prowess and generalship had occasioned this, although, as the most noble are origin- ally the least suspecting, and never adequately on guard, save with open foes, it looks more like the result of guile. The Lenni Lenape, or Dela wares, explained it as the eflfect of an embassy from the Iroquois to this purpose : " It "is not profitable that all the nations "should be at war with one another, for " this will finally be the ruin of the "whole Indian race. There is only one " remedy. One nation shall be the "WOMAN. We will all defend the " woman. She shall not go to war, but " speak words of peace, and warn those " walking in foolish ways. The men " shall hear and obey the woman." The Delawares consented. A grand council followed, wherein the Iroquois declared in their figurative style : " We dress you "in a woman's long habit, we give you " oil and medicine, a plant of maize, and " a hoe ; to your care we commit the " great belt of peace and the chain of "friendship."* Now, it is obvious, that there being but one other great nation, of neither Mengwe or Lenni Lenape blood, in their whole region, namely, the Wya,ndots, Hurons, or Adirondacks, as they were indifferently called, and they far to the north, while the Troquois strictly kept this pledge, all the septs, together, were benefited ; but, if the Iroquois warred with the Wyandots, or even with the grandchildren of the Delawares, as long as they refrained from directly warring upon the Delawares, these having given up the power of war, and accepted the great belt of peace, could not interfere, but merely remonstrate and advise. Thus, much against their will, they fell into a secondary position, though always asserting their voluntary adoption of this mediatorial condition. They could the less escape from this state, because the Iroquois had really conquered the Adirondacks, and so acquired a boasting- confidence the Delawares could not very well withstand. This relation of the Delawares accoi'ds much better with the respect voluntarily paid them, and the weight of their counsels, than the ver- sion of the Five Nations. Still, we find, traditionally, from Judge Peters, that the Six Nations considered themselves the masters of all the nations with whom William Penn had dealings in his time. Norman's Kill, a mill-stream emptying into the Hudson, one and a half miles below Albany, N. Y., some time between 1609 and 1620.— Jam 3 N. Barker.
 * The Delawares say, that this compact was made at