OF THE POLAR SEA. 



119 



with a vast number of other tribes, are 

 sprung our Crees. Mr. Heckewelder, a 

 missionary, who resided long amongst these 

 people, and from whose paper (published in 

 the Transactions of the American Philoso- 

 phical Society) the above classification is 

 taken, states that the Lenape have a tradi- 

 tion amongst them, of their ancestors having 

 come from the westward, and taken posses- 

 sion of the whole country from the Mis- 

 souri to the Atlantic, after driving away or 

 destroying the original inhabitants of the 

 land, whom they termed Alligewi. In this 

 migration and contest, which endured for a 

 series of years, the Mengwe, or Iroquois, 

 kept pace with them, moving in a parallel 

 but more northerly line, and finally settling 

 on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and the 

 great lakes from whence it flows. The 

 Lenape, being more numerous, peopled not 

 only the greater part of the country at pre- 

 sent occupied by the United States, but also 

 sent detachments to the northward as far as 

 the banks of the River Mississippi and the 

 shores of Hudson's Bay. The principal of 



