Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/31

 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES enjoined upon them our splendid Christian code o f m orals, but the busy traffickers robbed, swindled and debauched and m urdered them without hindrance or rebuke. W illiam Penn and Lord Baltim ore were more than a century ahead of their age. T heir treatment of the Indians is the fairest page in the histor)’ o f Am erican settlement. In their ilealings with the savages they leaned to the side o f charity and paid them their own price fo r the lands purchased, respecting their rights and keeping the compacts made with them. In this respect they earned the unfaltering regard and trust of the natives, the only injuries ever done to the members of the Society o f Friend s being perpetrated by the renegade allies of the French. ORIGIN OF T H E IN D IA N S

It is probable that the aboriginal inhabitants of the territory within the limits o f this county belonged mainly to the I.enni I.cnapc, who held that they were the original people and of W estern origin. T he Delaw ares claimed that their ancestors lived, many hundred years ago, in the fa r distant wilds of the W est, and were the progenitors o f forty other tribes; that after many years o f emigration tow ards the rising sun, they reached the M ississippi river, where they met the M engwe, who came from a very distant region and had reached that river high­ e r up tow ards its so u rce; tltat they found a pow erful nation east of the M ississippi, who w ere called A lligew i, and from whom origi­ nated the name of the Allegheny mountains; that the Lenape wished to settle near the AUigew i, which the latter refused, but allowed them to cross the river and proceed farther to the E a s t : that when the A lligew i discovered how multitudinous the Lenape were, they feared their numerical strength and slew the portion that had crossed the river, and threat­ ened to destroy the rest i f they should attempt to c ro ss; that the I ^ a p c and Meng^ve united their forces against the A llegew i, and con­ quered and drove them out o f that part of the countr)'; that the Lenape and M engwe lived together in peace and harmony fo r many years. T h eir tradition relates further that some of the LenaiJC hunters crossed the Allegheny mountains, the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, and advanced lo the Hudson, which they called the M ohicanniluck r iv e r; that on their return to their jwoplc they represented

the country which they had discovered so fa r tow ards the rising sun to be without people, but abounding in fish, gam e, fow ls and fru its; that thus the Lenape were induced to em igrate eastw ard along the Lettape-whittuck, the river of the Lcnapcs, also called M ack-er-isk-iskan, which the English named the Delaw are, in hon­ or o f I^>rd de la W are, who cntcrcclawarc bay in 16 10 and w as governor of the Colony o f V irginia from about that time until 16 18. T h e Dutch and Sw edes called it the South river to distinguish it from the N orth river, which bears the name o f Hudson. 'I'hat such was the tradition preserved by the Delaw ares is truthfully stated by R ev. Jo h n Heckewelder, a M oravian m issionary, in his “ Account of the H istory, M anners and C u s­ toms of the Indian Nations who once Inhab­ ited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring S la te s," published, in 18 19, under the auspices of the historical and literary committee of the A m e ri­ can Philosophical ^ i c t y . T he passing re­ m ark m ay here be made Uiat Indian law s and historical events were not preserved on parch­ ment. paper or in books, but were handed down by tradition from one generation to an ­ other. DIFFERENT TRIBES

T h e Iroquois have a tradition that the v al­ ley of the Susquehanna w as first inhabited by the Andastcs, a branch of the Lenni Lenape, whose local tribal name w as Susquehannocks. These the Iroquois drove out and possessed themselves of the lands. T h e Shaw nees were driven out o f G eorgia and South Carolina, and cam e to the mouth of the Conestoga, within the present limits o f I-ancastcr county. P a., about 1677, and spread thence over what w as afterw ard s Cumberland county, along the west branch of the Su squ e­ hanna, in the W yom ing valley, and thence to the Ohio. A s early as ( i f not earlier th an ) 17 19 I>ctaware and Shaw nee Indians w ere settled on the Allegheny, .^bout 1724, sa y s B an croft, the D elaw are Indians, fo r the con­ venience o f game, emigrated from the D ela­ w are and Susquehanna rivers to the branches of the O h io; in 17 2 8 the Shaw nees grad u ally followed them, and they w ere soon met by Canadian traders, and loncaire, an adopted citizen of the .Seneca tribe, used his eloquence to win them to the side of the French. 0%'cr the whole country watered by the