10 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



tomac, making the Delaware, to wliich they gave the name of Lenaiv- 

 ■loihitiucJc, (the river or stream of the Lenape,)^the centre of their posses- 

 sions.^ 



" Thev say, however, that all of their nation who crossed the Mississippi 

 did not reach this country; a part remaining behind to assist that portion 

 of their people who, frightened by the reception which the Alligewi had 

 o-iven to their countrymen, fled far to the west of the Namaesi Sipv. 

 They were finally divided into three great bodies ; the larger, one-half 

 of the whole, settled on the Atlantic ; the other half was separated into 

 two parts, the stronger continued l)eyond the Mississippi, the other 

 remained on its eastern bank. 



"Those on the Atlantic were subdivided into three tribes; the Turtle 

 or Unamls^ the Turkey or Uualachtgo, and the Wolf or Mmsi. The two 

 lormer hdiabited the coast from the Hudson to the Potomac, settling in 

 small bodies in towns and villages upon the larger streams, under chiefs 

 subordinate to the great council of the nation. The Minsi, called by the 

 English, Moncej's, the most warlike of the three tribes, dwelt in the in- 

 terior, forming a barrier between their nation and the Mengwe. They 

 extended themselves from the Minisink, on the Delaware, where they 

 held their council seat, to the Hudson on the east, to the Susquehannah 

 on the southwest, to the head waters of the Delaware and Susquehannah 

 rivers on the north, and to that range of hills now known in New Jersey 

 by the name of the Muskenecun, and by those of Lehigh and Coghne- 

 wago in Pennsylvania. 



" Man}- subordinate tribes proceeded from these, who received names 

 from their places of residence, or from some accidental circumstance, at 

 the time of its occurrence remarkable, but now forgotten. Such were the 

 Shawanese, the Nanticokes, the Susquehannas, the Shackamaxons, the 

 Neshamines, the Mantas, and other tribes, resident in or near the pro- 

 vince of Pennsylvania at the time of its settlement. 



"The Mengwe hovered for some time on the borders of the lakes, with 

 their canoes in readiness to fl\^ should the Alligewi return. Having 

 grown bolder, and their numbers increasing, they stretched themselves 

 along the St. Lawrence, and became, on the north, near neighbors to the 

 I-»enape tribes. 



"The Mengwe and the Lenape, in the progress of time, became enemies. 

 The latter represent the former as treacherous and cruel, pursuing per- 

 tinaciously an insidious and destructive policy towards their more gen- 

 erous neighbors. Dreading the power of the Lenape, the Mengwe 

 resolved, by involving them in war with their distant tribes, to reduce 

 their strength. They committed murders upon the members of one tribe, 

 and induced the injured party to believe they were perpetrated by 

 1 Hecke welder's account of the Indians. 



