434 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



While David Zeisberger was at the Monsey town of Gosch- 

 goschilnk in 1768, a mysterious message came from the Senecas,^ 

 opposing him. It was accompanied by "a string of wampum, a 

 stick painted red, with several prongs, and a leaden bullet." An- 

 other followed with "a bunch of wampum, or as many strings as a 

 man can hold in one hand." — De Schzveinitz, p. 342 



R. C. Adams, a Delaware of the Indian territory, relates a story 



of an early belt, in the Report on Indians taxed and not taxed, p. 298. 



Though apocryphal, it is none the less striking. 



Many hundred years before the white man came to what is now 

 the United States, a treaty of friendship was made with other In- 

 dian nations, and in memory of that event a wampum belt was 

 presented to the Delaware chief, with a copper heart in the center 

 of it. That belt was seen and acknowledged by William Penn,. 

 afterwards by British generals, later by Gen. George Washington, 

 and from that down to about 45 years ago, 1841, by every Indian 

 tribe in the north and east. In presenting the belt at a grand 

 council the Delaware chief would always hold it out, and ask if any 

 one could detect any change in the heart, whereupon it would be 

 passed from one chief to another, and from one brave to another, 

 and returned, and each chief would respond that the heart had 

 remained unchangeable and true, although the sinews that held the 

 wampum may have become rotten with age, and had to be replaced 

 with new ones. Although a wampum may have fallen off and 

 thereby a figure in it been changed, yet the heart was always just 

 the same. After exhorting for a time on the subject they would 

 renew their bonds of friendship, smoke the pipe of peace and de- 

 part. From what I can learn. Captain Ketcham had this wonder- 

 ful belt when he died in 1858. My informant thinks it is in the 

 possession of the Delawares who are now with the Kiowas and 

 Wichitas. 



It is a pity that this pretty story has no historic foundation, and 

 could not have been true as far as age is concerned. 



In his History of Jefferson county, p. 39, F. B. Hough says that 

 the Oneidas, "by a definite treaty held in September 1788 conveyed 

 the greater part of their lands to the state by the following instru- 

 ment, the original of which is preserved in the secretary's office; it 

 is on a sheet of parchment about 2 feet square, with 35 seals of the 

 parties; appended to it is a string of wampum, made of six rows of 

 cylindrical white and blue beads, strung upon deerskin cords. This 



