1G43.] ursTORY of Delaware county. 35 



same use of -thera as they had heretofore enjoyed — not dreaming 

 that the enjoyment of these hinds by the wlilte man was event- 

 ually to result in the total exclusion of their race. Tiie time has 

 now arrived for dispelling this delusion. The traffic, that neces- 

 sarily made the savage a party, is gradually to give place to the 

 culture of the soil, that renders his presence a nuisance. 



Before resuming our narrative, it may not then be amiss, 

 brieily to advert to the Indian tribes that occupied the river 

 when first visited by Europeans. These tribes collectively, have 

 been designated Lcni Lennpe^ or Delaware Indians. They had 

 once been a more powerful and warlike nation, but had been con- 

 quered by those more northern and western assemblages of Red 

 Men known in history as the " Five Nations."' Not only were 

 they a conquered people, but, on the condition of still being per- 

 mitted to occupy their lands, they had subjected themselves to a 

 kind of vassalage that excluded them from engaging in war, and 

 according to Indian ideas of such matters, they were placed on 

 a footing with women. They remained in this degraded condi- 

 tion until the last remnant of the nation had left the shores of 

 the Delaware.^ 



The Leni Lenape were not exclusively confined to the shores 

 of the Delaware. They occupied most of New Jersey and the 

 whole valley of the Schuylkill. The northern portion of this 

 large district was occupied by a division of the nation called 

 3Imsi or Muncys. The Nantieokes, a rather 'warlike independ- 

 ent nation, occupied the eastern shore of the Chesapeake.'^ 



The Delaware Indians enjoyed the advantage of a general 

 exemption from the horrors of savage warfare, as a guarantied 

 protection was an incident to their vassalage ; but they were 

 frequently subjected to the intrusions of parties of the Five 

 Nations, who occupied portions of the Lenape country, as their 

 occasions required. The Minquas, whose name was borne by 

 the Christina river, was among the warlike tribes that most fre- 

 quently visited the Delaware for trade. Campanius located 

 them twelve (Swedish) miles^ from New Sweden, "on a mountain 

 very difficult to climb." He also describes them as a very war- 

 like tribe, who had forced the Delaware Indians, who were not 

 so warlike, to be afraid of them "and made them subjects and 



1 The Indian communities embraced in this confederacy, were the Jlohnwkx, Oneydas, 

 Onondaijox, CayHijaK and i>'eiiecas. Colden's Hist. Five Nations. 1st part. 1. In 

 1712, the Tiiacanjia»,a kindred nation from North Carolina, removed to western New 

 York and joined the CDiitederacy, after which it was known as the ''Six Xations." 

 By the French these Indians in the aggregate were known as the IroquoU. 



'^ At a treaty held at Philadelphia in July 1742, Canapatego, a chief of the Onondagon, 

 thus reprimanded and taunted the Delawares, who were present, for continuing- on 

 lands they had sold: •• We conquered you; we made women of you ; you know you are 

 women and ciin no more sell land than xcumen.'' Colden's Five Nations, part ii 79 



» Bancroft's Hist. U. S. iii. 238. 



♦ One Swedish mile is equal to six of our miles. 



