12 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



mined courage, and appear at all times as ready and willing to fight as 

 at the commencement of hostilities. With such dispositions, Indian 

 wars would be interminable, if the women did not interfere and persuade 

 the combatants to bury' the hatchet and make peace with each other. 

 On these occasions, the women pleaded their cause with much eloquence. 

 'Not a warrior,' they would say, 'but laments the loss of a son, a 

 brother, or a friend. And mothers, who have l)orne with cheerfulness 

 the pangs of child-birth, and the anxieties that Avait upon the infancy and 

 adolescence of their sons, behold their promised blessings crushed in the 

 field of battle, or perishing at the stake in unutterable torments. In the 

 depth of their grief, they curse their wretched existence, and shudder at 

 the idea of bearing children.' They conjured the warriors, therefore, by 

 their sujQfering wives, their helpless children, their homes, and their 

 friends, to interchange forgiveness, to cast away their arms, and, smoking 

 together the pipe of amity and peace, to eml^race as friends those Avhom 

 they had learned to esteem as enemies. 



" Prayers thus urged seldom failed of their desired effect. 'I'Ikj function 

 of the peace-maker was honorable and dignified, and its assumption by 

 a courageous and powerful nation could not be inglorious, l^his station 

 the Mengwe urged upon the Lenape. 'They had reflected,' they said, 

 'upon the state of the Indian race, and were convinced that no means 

 remained to preserve it unless some magnanimous nation -would assume 

 the character of the tvoman. It could not be given to a weak and con- 

 temptible tribe; such would not be listened to: but the Lenape and their 

 allies would at once possess influence and command respect.' 



"The facts upon which these arguments were founded, were known to 

 the Delawares, and, in a moment of blind confidence in the sincerity of 

 the Iroquois, they acceded to the proposition, and assumed the petticoat. 

 The ceremony of the metamorphosis was performed with great rejoicings 

 at Albany, in 1617, in the })resence of the Dutch, whom the Lenape 

 charge with having conspired with the Mengwe for their destruction. 



"Having thus disarmed the Delawares, the Iroquois assumed over them 

 the rights of protection and command. But still dreading their strength, 

 they artfully involved them again in Avar Avith the Cherokees, promised 

 to fight their battles, led them into an ambush of their foes, and deserted 

 ■ them. The DelaAvares, at length, comprehended the treachery of their 

 arch enem}'-, and resolved to resume their arms, and, l^eing still superior 

 in numbers, to crush them. But it was too late. The Europeans were 

 now making their Avay into the country in every direction, and gave 

 ample employment to the astonished Lenape. 



" The MengAve deny these machinations. They aver that they conqiiei'ed 

 the DelaAvares by force of arms, and made them a subject people. And, 

 though it be said they are unable to detail the circumstances of this 



