OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 11 



another. They stole into the country of the Delawares, surprised them 

 i]i their hunting parties, slaughtered the hunters, and escaped with the 

 plundei". 



"Each nation or tribe had a })articular mark upon its war clubs, which, 

 left beside a murdered person, denoted the aggressor. The Mengwe 

 perpetrated a murder in the Cherokee country, and left with the dead 

 body a war club bearing the insignia of the Lenape. The Cherokees, in 

 revenge, fell suddenly upon the latter, and commenced a long and bloody 

 war. The treachery of the Mengwe was at length discovered, and the 

 Delawares turned upon them with the determination utterly to extirpate 

 them. They were the more strongly induced to take this resolution, as 

 the cannibal propensities of the Mengwe had reduced them, in the esti- 

 mation of the Delawares, below the rank of human beings.^ 



"Hitherto each tribe of the Mengwe had acted under the direction of 

 its particular chiefs; and, although the nation could not control the 

 conduct of its members, it was made responsible for their outrages. 

 Pressed by the Lenape, they resolved to form a confederation which 

 might enable them better to concentrate their force in war, and to regu- 

 late their affairs in peace. Thannawage, an aged Mohawk, was the 

 projector of this alliance. Under his auspices, five nations, the Mohawks, 

 Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas, formed a species of republic, 

 governed by the united counsels of their aged and experienced chiefs. 

 To these a sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, was added in 1712. This last 

 originall}^ dwelt in the western parts of North Carolina, but having 

 formed a deep and general conspiracy to exterminate the whites, were 

 driven from their countr}^, and adopted by the Iroquois confederacy.^ 

 The beneficial effects of this system early displayed themselves. The 

 Lenape were checked, and the Mengwe, Avhose warlike disposition soon 

 familiarized them with fire arms procured from the Dutch, were enabled, 

 at the same time, to contend with them and to resist the French, who now 

 attempted the settlement of Canada, and to extend their conquests over 

 a large portion of the country between the Atlantic and the Mississippi. 



"But, being pressed hard by their new, they became desirous of recon- 

 ciliation with their old enemies ; and, for this purpose, if the tradition of 

 the Delawares be credited, they effected one of the most extraordinary 

 strokes of policy which history has recorded. 



" The mediators between the Indian nations at war are the women. The 

 men, liowever weary of the contest, hold it cowardly and disgraceful to 

 seek reconciliation. They deem it inconsistent in a warrior to speak of 

 peace with bloody weai)ons in his hands. He must maintain a deter- 



1 The Iroquois or Mengwe sometimes ate the bodies of their prisoners. Ileckowelder, 

 2 N. Y. Hist. Col. 55. 



-Smith's New York. Doiial. Summ. 



