32 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. L 



prairie traveller may sometimes meet the Delaware 

 warrior returning from a successful foray, a gaudy 

 handkerchief bound about his brows, his snake 

 locks fluttering in the wind, and his rifle resting 

 across his saddle-bow, while the tarnished and 

 begrimed equipments of his half-wild horse bear 

 witness that the rider has waylaid and plundered 

 some Mexican cavalier. 



Adjacent to the Lenape, and associated with them 

 in some of the most notable passages of their his- 

 tory, dwelt the Shawanoes, the Chaouanons of the 

 French, a tribe of bold, roving, and adventurous 

 spirit. Their eccentric wanderings, their sudden 

 appearances and disappearances, perplex the anti- 

 quary, and defy research ; but from various scat- 

 tered notices, we may gather that at an early 

 period they occupied the valley of the Ohio ; that, 

 becoming embroiled with the Five Nations, they 

 shared the defeat of the Andastes, and about the 

 year 1672 fled to escape destruction. Some found 

 an asylum in the country of the Lenape, where 

 they lived tenants at will of the Five Nations ; 

 others sought refuge in the Carolinas and Florida, 

 where, true to their native instincts, they soon came 

 to blows with the owners of the soil. Agam, turn- 

 ing northwards, they formed new settlements in the 

 valley of the Ohio, where they were now suffered 

 to dwell in peace, and where, at a later period, they 

 were joined by such of their brethren as had found 

 refuge among the Lenape.^ 



1 The evidence concerning the movements of the Shawanoes is well 

 Bummed up by Gallatin, Synopsis, 65. See also Drake, Life of Tecumseh, 10 



