96 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



and widely separated travelers, occupied the same region of 

 country, viz. : 



1st. The " Massawomekes " of Smith. 



2d. The " Eries," or " Chats," of the Jesuit relations, and 



3d. The "Satanas" of Colden, and " Chaouanons" of 

 Perot. 



By all accounts given of these people they were numer- 

 ous and powerful. Each occupied and controlled a large 

 region of territory in the same general locality ; each had 

 so far as known long been the occupant thereof. Neither of 

 the authorities cited speaks of more than one nation occu- 

 pying this region ; neither seems to have had any knowl- 

 edge or tradition of any other nation having done so. It 

 is improbable that three numerous and warlike nations 

 should within the historic period have occupied so limited 

 a region without any account or tradition having survived 

 of their intercourse and conflicts with each other. These 

 facts constitute strong evidence that three such distinct 

 nations never had a contemporaneous existence, and that 

 the Mass worn ekes, Eries, and Satanas or Chaouanons, were 

 one and the same people. 



This identity having been assumed, and the Eries having 

 by all accounts been conquered and dispersed about 1655, 

 it remains to trace the remnant in their wanderings, which 

 is a most difficult and unsatisfactory task. 



It may be remarked at this point that a manuscript map 

 still exists in Holland of the date of 1614 or 1616, whereon 

 a nation of Indians called " Sawwoaneu " is marked as liv- 

 ing on the east bank of Delaware River. De Laet, also, in 

 his history (edition of 1640) enumerates the " Sawanoos " as 

 one of the tribes then inhabiting the Delaware River. Van- 

 derdonck's map of New Netherlands, dated 1656, assigns 

 the " Sauwanoos' " position on the west bank of the Zuydt 

 (now Delaware) River, between the present sites of Phila- 

 delphia and Trenton. 



It is not impossible that, during the conflicts between the 

 Satanas and Five Nations, a body of the former may have 



