60 AUTHENTIC HISTORY OF LANCASTER COUNTY, 



before One hundred years Our ancestors came out of this very Grround, 

 and their Children have remained here ever since. You came out of the 

 Ground in a Country that lyes beyond Seas, there you may have a just 

 Claim, but here you must allow Us to be your elder Brethren, and the 

 Lands to belong to us long before you know anj^thing of them. It is 

 true that above One hundred years ago the Dutch came here in a Ship 

 and brought with them several Goods, such as Awls, Knives, Hatchets, 

 Guns, and many other particulars, which they gave us, and when they 

 had taught us how to use their things, and we saw what sort of People 

 they were, we were so well pleased with them that we tyed their Ship to 

 the Bushes on the Shoar, and afterwards liking them still better the 

 longer they stayed with us, and thinking the Bushes too slender, we re- 

 moved the Eope and tyed it to the trees, and as the Trees were lyable to 

 be blown down by high Winds, or to decay of themselves. We, from the 

 affection We bore them, again removed the Rope, and tyed it to a Strong 

 and big Rock [Here the Interpreter said they mean the Oneida Country,] 

 and not content with this, for its further security We removed the Rope 

 to the Big-Mountain [Here the Interpreter says they mean the Onondaga 

 Country,] and there we tyed it very fast and rowled Wampum about it, 

 and to make it still more Secure we stood upon the Wampum, and sat 

 down upon it to defend it, and did our Best endeavours that it might 

 remain uninjured, for ever during all this Time; the Newcomers, the 

 Dutch, acknowledged Our Rights to the Lands, and solicited us from 

 time to time to grant them Parts of Our Country, and to enter into 

 League and Covenant with us, and to become one People with us. 



"After this the English came into the Country, and, as we were told, 

 became one People with the Dutch ; about two years after the Arrival of 

 the English, an English Governor came to Albany, and finding what 

 great friendship subsisted between us and the Dutch, he approved it 

 juightily, and desired to make as Strong a league and to be upon as good 

 Terms with us as the Dutch were, with whom he was united, and to 

 become one People with Us, and by his further care in looking what had 

 passed between us he found that the Rope which tyed the Ship to the 

 Great mountain Avas only fastened with Wampum, which was liable to 

 break and rot, and to perish in a course of years, he therefore told us 

 that he would give us a silver Chain, which would be much stronger and 

 last for Ever. This Ave accepted, and fastened the Ship with it, and it 

 has lasted ever since. Indeed, we have had some small Differences Avith 

 the English, and during these misunderstandings some of their young 

 men Avould, by way of Reproach, be every noAv and then be telling us 

 that Ave should have perished if they had not come into the Country and 

 furnished us Avith Strowds and Hatchets and Guns and other things 

 necessary for the Support of Life. But Ave ahvays gave them to under- 



