INTRODUCTION. 



T the period of the Dutch discovery the Mahicanni resided on the 

 east shore of the Hudson River. " These were the Mankikani and 

 Mahikans Of De Leat, the Mahicc cinders, Mohickanders and Nahikanders 

 of the Dutch, the Manhikanss Mahikans, or Mokegans, according to 

 Professor Ebeling, and the Mohegans or Muhhekanew, (the original name 

 of Mohegans.) According to the English the Mohiccans, Mahiccon, and 

 lastly Mahiccans, were all one people ; originally a branch of the Dela- 

 ware nation. The Mahiccans and Delawares both say they were once 

 one people. " a "The best information (says Mr. Heckewelder) which I 

 could procure of the extent of the country the Mahicanin inhabited, was 

 from an aged and intelligent man of this nation, whose grandfather had 

 been a noted chief. His report was as follows, to wit : ' When I was a 

 a boy, my grandfather used to speak much of old times : how it had 

 been before the white people came into this country, (that is the State 

 of New York, in which the relator was born,) and what changes took 

 place since, from time to time. The western bounding line of the Ma- 

 hicanni was the river Mahicamittuck, which the white people now call the 

 ' North River.' Our towns and settlements extended on the east side 

 of this river from Thuphane or Tuphanne, (a Delaware word for cold 

 stream, from which the whites have derived the name Tappan,) to the 

 extent of tide water up this river ; here was the uppermost town. From 

 thence our towns were scattered throughout the country on the smaller 

 rivers and creeks. Our nearest neighbors on the east were the Wam- 

 pano.'" b 



" The country between the banks of the Connecticut River" and 

 the Hudson, (says Mr. Bancroft,) was possessed by independent villages 

 of the Mohegans, kindred with the Manhattans ; whose few smokes once 

 arose amidst the forests on New York Island."'* Mr. Schoolcraft informs 

 us that " The Mohegans and the Minci were two tribes, of Algonquin 



a Moulton's Hist, of New York, 226. 



6 Moulton's Hist, of New York, part i. 227. 



c Conneeticoota, meaning Long River, was tne Indian name, says Judge Benson. 



d Brancroft's Hist. U. S. A., vol., vol. iii. 239. 



