150 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS. [1760-1763. 



were to be found among them. Guns and gun- 

 powder aided them in the chase. Knives, hatchets, 

 kettles, and hoes of iron, had supplanted their rude 

 household utensils and implements of tillage ; but 

 with all this, English whiskey had more than can- 

 celled every benefit which English civilization had 

 conferred. 



High up the Susquehanna were seated the Nanti- 

 cokes, Conoys, and Mohicans, with a portion of the 

 Delawares. Detached bands of the western Iro- 

 quois dwelt upon the head waters of the Alle- 

 ghany, mingled with their neighbors, the Delawares, 

 who had several villages upon this stream. The 

 great body of the latter nation, however, lived 

 upon the Beaver Creeks and the Muskingum, in 

 numerous scattered towns and hamlets, whose bar- 

 barous names it is useless to record. Squalid log 

 cabins and conical wigwams of bark were clustered 

 at random, or ranged to form rude streets and 

 squares. Starveling horses grazed on the neigh- 

 boring meadows ; girls and children bathed and 

 laughed in the adjacent river ; warriors smoked 

 their pipes in haughty indolence ; squaws labored 

 in the cornfields, or brought fagots from the forest, 

 and shrivelled hags screamed from lodge to lodge. 

 In each village one large building stood prominent 

 among the rest, devoted to purposes of public 

 meeting, dances, festivals, and the entertainment 

 of strangers. Thither the traveller would be con- 

 ducted, seated on a bear-skin, and plentifully 

 regaled with hominy and venison. 



The Shawanoes had sixteen small villages upon 



