Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/222

218 Fish," when they fell in with the Mengwe, who had likewise emigrated from a distant country, and had struck upon this river somewhat higher up. [The Mengwe were the Iroquois.] "Their object was the same with that of the Delawares: they were proceeding on to the eastward until they should find a country that pleased them. The spies which the Lenape had sent forward for the purpose of reconnoitering had long before their arrival discovered that the country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing through their land." These people called themselves Tallegewi or Allegewi. [According to later research this is the aboriginal rendering of the name "Tselaki" which De Soto gives to the Cherokee when he encountered them at a much later date farther south.]

Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said to have been remarkably tall and stout, and there is a tradition that there were giants among them, people of much larger size than the tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built for themselves regular fortifications or entrenchments, whence they would sally out, but were generally repulsed. I have seen many of the fortifications said to have been built by them.

When the Lenape arrived on the banks of the Mississippi, they sent a message to the Allegewi to request permission to settle themselves in their neighborhood. This was refused them, but they obtained leave to pass through the country and seek a settlement farther to the eastward. They accordingly began to cross the Namaesi-sipu, when the Allegewi, seeing that their numbers were so very great, and in fact consisted of many thousands, made a furious attack on those who had crossed, threatening them all with destruction if they dared to persist in coming over to their side of the river. Fired at the treachery of these people and the great loss of men they had sustained, and besides not being prepared for a conflict, the Lenape consulted on what was to be done, whether to retreat in the best manner they could, or try their strength and let the enemy see that they were not cowards, but men, and too highminded to suffer themselves to be driven off before they had made trial of their strength and were convinced that the enemy was too powerful for them. The Mengwe, who had hitherto been satisfied with being spectators from a distance, offered to join them on condition that after conquering the country they should be entitled to share it with them. Their proposal was accepted, and the resolution was taken by the two nations to conquer or die.

Having thus united their forces, the Lenape and the Mengwe declared war against the Allegewi, and great battles were fought in which many warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their larger towns, and erected fortifications, especially on large rivers and near lakes, where they were successively attacked and sometimes stormed by the allies. An engagement took place in which hundreds fell, who were afterward buried in holes, or laid together in heaps, and covered with earth. No quarter was given, so that the Allegewi at last finding that their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the country to their conquerors, and fled down the Mississippi River, whence they never returned. [Mr. Heckewelder gives some further details of the war, the result of which was that the Mengwe, or Iroquois, chose the country round the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, and the Lenape settled farther south. After a time the Lenape moved farther east, and even to the sea.]