WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 39;^ 



it, to the Indians settled upwards on Susquehanna, with orders ta- 

 stave all the Rum they met with." — Penn. Minutes, 3:154. This 

 vigorous order brought trouble. At Staunton in the same state, in 

 1736, a white belt of eleven rows had ''four black St George's 

 crosses in it." — Penn. Minutes, 4:83 



A supposed earlier emblematic belt, suggestive of a later date, was 

 seen by Conrad Weiser at Logstown in 1748. He was told that it 

 was given to the Wyandots by the governor of New York 50 years 

 before ; and if this could be proved^ it might sustain the antiquity of 

 the Penn belt,' which has a similar character. Of the one in ques- 

 tion Weiser said: 



The Belt was 25 Grains wide & 265 long, very Curiously wrought.. 

 There were seven Images of Men holding one another by the Hand,, 

 the 1st signifying the Governor of New York (or rather, as they 

 said^ the King of Great Britain) the 2d the Mohawks, the 3d the 

 Oneidas, the 4th the Cajugas^ the 5th the Onondagers, the 6th the 

 Senekas, the 7th the Owandaets, and two Rows of black Wampum- 

 under their feet, thro' the whole length of the Belt to signify the 

 Road from Albany thro' the 5 Nations to the Owendaets; That 6 

 years ago they had sent Deputies with the same Belt to Albany 

 to renew the Frienship. — Penn. Mimites, 5:351 



The writer finds no records of this later visit. Some Wyandots 



came to Albany in 1702 to trade, and in the same year a belt was 



sent to them, possibly this one, but there is no allusion to its charac-^ 



ter. Some were there in 1723, and received presents but no belts. 



Allowing the possible identity of the belt^ it is strange that the em^ 



blems had little use for half a century later. Even then its date 



would be 20 years later than Penn's first contact with the Indians^. 



It seems better to assign the Penn belt to his second visit at least. 



Mr Holmes said that **it has an extremely interesting, although a 



somewhat incomplete history attached to it. It is believed to be, 



the original belt delivered by the Leni-Lenape sachems to William 



Penn at the celebrated treaty under the elm tree at Shackamaxon 



in 1682. Although there is no documentary evidence to show that 



this identical belt was delivered on that occasion, it is conceded on 



all hands that it came into the possession of the great founder of 



Pennsylvania at some one of his treaties with the tribes that occu-- 



pied the province ceded to him. Up to the year 1857 this belt 



