of the American Indians. 337 



and may liave been brought upon ice by a sudden thaw.) They 

 distinguish thennselves by the name Lenee Lenaup^. Lenee 

 signifies man, or, properly, male. Mr. Heckewelder (whose 

 entire life was passed among the Delawares) says, that Lenape 

 means original. — (Remarks on Ind. of JY. Amer. 18.) The 

 Indians on Hudson's River called the Europeans Woapsid 

 Lennappe^ which means white people {Yates and Moulton^ 

 |Ji*^265.')' Morse says Lennilenape signifies Indian men, (title 

 Delawares.) 



The Lenni Lenape, say they, resided many hundred years 

 ago in a distant part of America West, and after a long jour- 

 ney they arrived at the Mississippi, and fell in with the Mengwe, 

 (Iroquois or Five Nations,) who had emigrated from a distant 

 covintry. East of the Mississippi, the powerful nation called 

 Alligewi resided in towns ; from them the Alleghany river and 

 mountains derive that name. These famous people were very 

 tiill arid stout, and there is one tradition that there were giants 

 among them much larger than the tallest Lenape. They built 

 regular fortifications and entrenchments, whence they would 

 sally, but were generally repulsed. One of them is at the mouth 

 of the Huron, flowing into Lake St. Clair; the other on the 

 Huron, east of Sandusky, six or eight miles from Lake Erie. 

 The Lenape requested permission to settle ; the Alligewi refused, 

 but ^ave them leave to pass through and go eastward. When 

 the Alligewi saw their vast numbers, they attacked the Lenape, 

 wlio, fired at this treachery, joined with the Mengwe. Great 

 battles, for several years, were fought; many fell, fortifications 

 were erected, no quarter was given, and the Alligewi fled down 

 the Mississippi, and never returned. The Mengwe settled by 

 the great lakes, and the Lenape to the south. They rapidly 

 increased, and at last settled on the rivers Delaware, Hudson, 

 Susquehannah, and Potomac. It is su})posed that more than 

 half of these nations remained west of the Mississippi. The 

 Delawares, on the shores of the Atlantic, divided themselves 

 iWtf rfe'6 'ttibes, the' Turtle, Tiirfcnj, Wolf* : the Turtle call 



•• Ji-tJ ;i -J :j;ir u - '.', . 



* The wolf was the Turkish banner in Asia, A. D. 545. The Grand Khan's 

 throne was supported by peacocks, and large stone turtles were found at Caracorum, 

 the Turkish capital, conquered by the Moguls. 



