Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume One, Part 1

Author: Jenkins, Howard Malcolm, 1842-1902; Pennsylvania Historical Publishing Association. 4n
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Pennsylvania Historical Pub. Association
Number of Pages: 658


USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume One > Part 1


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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43


Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal


Gc 974.8 J41p v.1 1135743


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GENEALOGY COLLECTION


ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01144 8708


Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal


Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015


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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal


A HISTORY : : : 1608-1903 Editor HOWARD M. JENKINS


Dolume Dne


NOLPEND


Pennsylvania Historical Publishing Association One hundred and forty North Fifteenth Street Philadelphia . Pennsylvania : : : : MCMIII


Copyright, 1903 By The Pennsylvania Historical Publishing Association


Mendoza- 8:50


PENNSYLVANIA COLONIAL AND FEDERAL · A HISTORY


1135743


Editor in Chief HOWARD M. JENKINS


Authors


HOWARD M. JENKINS, CHARLES P. KEITH, LEWIS R. HARLEY, PH. D., WILLIAM J. HOLLAND, LL. D., JOHN D. SHAFER, NATHAN C. SCHAEFFER, PH. D., LL. D., CHARLES W. DULLES, M. D., ALEXANDER K. MCCLURE, LL. D., LEWIS CASS ALDRICH, JAMES M. SWANK, DOLPH B. ATHERTON, H. PERRY SMITH, J. T. ROTHROCK, M. D., B. S. : : .. : ..


Associate Editors


GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER, LL. D., STANLEY WOODWARD, B. A., LOUIS ARTHUR WATRES, GEORGE EDWARD REED, S. T. D., LL. D., WILLIAM PERRINE, HENRY GRAHAM ASHMEAD, JOHN P. VINCENT. : : : : :


: ..


: ..


Preface


T HE HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA, it will be con- ceded by all familiar with the subject, has not heretofore been presented in any work with the fullness or the breadth of treatment to which it has been entitled. There have been numerous essays toward it, from the time of Robert Proud down to a more recent day, some of them worthy of much appre- ciation and deserving of high praise, yet it still remained true that at the end of three centuries our Commonwealth and its people were without an adequate and a completely satisfactory history. It was to supply such a history that Howard M. Jenkins, several years since, undertook the preparation and supervision of the volumes which are now submitted to the public. The subject is itself one of unusual complexity. To the making of Pennsylvania, in the early time, many streams of life contributed, and the mingling and fusion of these, not without friction and even conflict, is a theme which called for an open mind and a just discrimination. So, too, since the Colony became the State, its career has been directed and illustrated by men of varying char- acters, qualities and opinions. To the development of its vast material interests and the upbuilding of its industries, energy and capital have been applied in a degree practically unequalled in the world's experience. To attain the high standard of excellence necessary to properly cover this varied subject, well known authorities on special periods and topics have made con-


vii


Preface


tributions to the narrative that have materially enhanced its scope and value. Of the portions of this work so contributed may be especially mentioned the Educational System by Nathan C. Schaeffer; Pennsylvania Journalism by Alexander K. McClure ; the Iron Industry by James M. Swank ; the Coal Fields by Dolph B. Atherton ; Forestry by Joseph T. Rothrock; chapters eight to eighteen of volume one and chapters one to four of volume two by Charles P. Keith ; a portion of the chapter on the Medical Profession by Charles W. Dulles. Other most valuable material has been contributed or assistance rendered by public spirited citizens in various parts of the Commonwealth, among whom are Stanley Woodward, Lewis Arthur Watres, William J. Holland, James T. Mitchell, Hampden L. Carson, Samuel W. Pennypacker, John D. Shafer, George Wharton Pepper, Lewis R. Harley, C. LaRue Munson, John P. Vincent, John W. Simonton, Robert Snodgrass, Martin Bell, Joshua Douglass, John Dalzell, William Perrine, William M. Brown, Benjamin Whitman, George Morris Philips, Albert S. Bolles, George Edward Reed, Horace E. Hayden, William A. Kelker, Samuel B. Shearer, Mrs. William M. Darlington, Mrs. Louise Welles Murray, Henry Graham Ashmead, Julius F. Sachse, Albert Rosenthal, Robert W. Leslie, Frank Reeder, E. W. Spangler, C. D. Clark, Lewis Cass Aldrich, and H. Perry Smith. Valuable help extended by the officers and assistants in the public libraries throughout the State, The His- torical Society of Pennsylvania. The American Philosophical Society, The Historical Society of Dauphin County, The Wy- oming Historical and Geological Society, The Tioga Point Historical Society and other similar organizations, deserves particular mention and gratitude.


THE PUBLISHERS.


PHILADELPHIA, May 1, 1903.


viii


Contents


CHAPTER I THE INDIANS OF PENNSYLVANIA I


CHAPTER II


PIONEER WHITE MEN IN PENNSYLVANIA-1608-1638 .... 30


CHAPTER III


THE SWEDES : THE FIRST SETTLEMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA -1638-1655 67


CHAPTER IV


THE DUTCH SETTLEMENT-1655-1664. III


CHAPTER V


UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK-1664-1681 I35


CHAPTER VI


THE FOUNDER OF PENNSYLVANIA 188


CHAPTER VII


THE BEGINNING OF PENN'S COLONY-1681-1700 236


CHAPTER VIII


THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT 307


ix


Contents


CHAPTER IX


THE SUSPENSION AND RESTORATION OF PENN'S GOVERN- MENT AND HIS SECOND VISIT 325


CHAPTER X


PENN'S LIEUTENANT-GOVERNORS 346


CHAPTER XI


THE CLAIM OF THE HEIR-AT-LAW 363


CHAPTER XII


THE TIME OF JOHN PENN "THE AMERICAN" 374


CHAPTER XIII


THOMAS PENN AND RICHARD PENN 402


CHAPTER XIV


THE FRENCH INVASION 415


CHAPTER XV


THE REVOLT OF THE DELAWARES.


445


CHAPTER XVI


THE EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH . 479


CHAPTER XVII


THE MEN OF THE FRONTIER 510


CHAPTER XVIII


THE ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE GOVERNMENT 540


X


Etchings


WILLIAM PENN. .Frontispiece


HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Opposite page 80


BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Opposite page 192


DAVID RITTENHOUSE. Opposite page 320


ROBERT MORRIS. Opposite page 400


BENJAMIN WEST Opposite page 464


ANTHONY WAYNE.


Opposite page 528


Illustrations


INDIAN ROCK CARVING. 4, 8, 13. 20


SPANISH HILL.


25


AXEL OXENSTIERN-Portrait. 29


JOHN SMITH-Portrait. 37


GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS-Portrait. 4I


JAMES I -- Portrait ..


45


PETER STUYVESANT-Portrait.


51


HENRY HUDSON-Portrait. 57


CHARLES II-Portrait. 60


PENN'S AUTOGRAPH AND SEAL ON THE CHARTER OF 1683. 61


ARMS OF PENN.


64


LORD BALTIMORE-Portrait. 68


CALVERT ARMS. 73


DAVID PIETERSEN DE VRIES-Portrait.


77


AUGUSTINE HERMAN-Portrait. 84


SIGNATURE OF DAVID LLOYD.


85


X1


Illustrations


TITLE PAGE OF ENGLISH BOOK USED TO INFLUENCE IMMIGRATION TO PENN- SYLVANIA 89


ORIGINAL SEAL OF CHESTER COUNTY. 92


REPRODUCTION OF WEST'S "PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS" 95 BELT OF WAMPUM. IOI


THE TREATY ELM. 100


SIGNATURE OF WILLIAM PENN 116


PROCLAMATION OF THE CHARTER TO WILLIAM PENN. 125


SIGNATURE OF THOMAS LLOYD. 128


SIGNATURE OF EDWARD SHIPPEN


129


SEAL OF DAVID LLOYD. 132


OLD PENN MANSION, LETITIA COURT


I37


SIGNATURE OF THOMAS WYNNE.


140


CALEB PUSEY HOUSE. I4I


SIGNATURE OF TAMANEN


144


SIGNATURE OF NICHOLAS MORE. 1.45


TITLE PAGE OF DUTCH BOOK TO INFLUENCE IMMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA


I.49


JAMES II-Portrait.


153


SIGNATURE OF WILLIAM MARKHAM


156


GEORGE Fox-Portrait.


157


SIGNATURE OF ARTHUR COOKE


160


WILLIAM PENN'S CHAIR


164


SIGNATURE OF JOHN BLACKWELL. 165


SIGNATURE OF JOSEPH GROWDON I68


TITLE PAGE OF ENGLISH BOOK TO INDUCE IMMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. 169


SIGNATURE OF WILLIAM CLARKE 172


SIGNATURE OF BENJAMIN FLETCHER. 173


GREAT MEETING HOUSE. 176


SIGNATURE OF SAMUEL CARPENTER 177


SIGNATURE OF JOHN GOODSONN. 182


SEAL OF BUCKS COUNTY INROLMENT OFFICE. 184


SIGNATURE OF JOHN SIMCOCKS. 85


SIGNATURE OF JOIIN BLUNSTON 186


OLD SWEDES' CHURCH. r90


TITLE PAGE OF GERMAN BOOK TO INDUCE IMMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA. .


197


GREAT SEAL OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA-1712:


OBVERSE 200


REVERSE 201


QUEEN ANNE-Portrait. 205


SEAL OF REGISTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE. 200


xii


Illustrations


HOME OF JOHN HARRIS 212


GEORGE I-Portrait. 213


GRAEME PARK. 219


HEADING OF FIRST PAPER PUBLISHED IN PENNSYLVANIA


WILLIAM KEITH-Portrait. 22I


229


COURT HOUSE OR CITY HALL, CHESTER.


232


ANCESTRAL HOME OF THE LINCOLNS. 237


ISAAC NORRIS-Portrait and Signature.


240


LOGAN ARMS.


244


STENTON


245


LESSER SEAL OF PROVINCE.


248


ORIGINAL LOG COLLEGE BUILDING.


252


THE BARTRAM HOUSE


256


KELSO FERRY HOUSE.


260


BIRTHPLACE OF BENJAMIN WEST.


264


SEAL OF BUCKS COUNTY IN 1738.


268


OLD HAMMER AND TROWEL INN


272


BOEHM'S REFORMED CHURCH. 276


PAXTON CHURCH. 280


SISTERS' HOUSE AND SAAL, EPHRATA 284


INTERIOR OF SAAL, EPHRATA CLOISTER.


288


OLD TRAPPE CHURCH. 292


THOMAS PENN -- Portrait. 297


NICHOLAS LOUIS ZINZENDORF-Portrait.


303


GEORGE WHITEFIELD-Portrait and Signature.


309


WHITEFIELD HOUSE OR NAZARETH STOCKADE.


312


TITLE PAGE OF SAUR BIBLE. 317


OLD FRANKLIN PRESS. 32I


SPECIMEN OF EPHRATA CLOISTER PEN WORK. 329


SPECIMENS OF EPHRATA COMMUNITY WOOD CUTS. 333


THOMAS CADWALADER-Portrait. 336


COPY OF CELERON'S LEADEN PLATES 34I


WASHINGTON'S HILL. 344


SPECIMEN OF EPHRATA CLOISTER MUSIC. 3-49


FRANKLIN'S DEVICE. 353


JAMES HAMILTON-Portrait. 3,56


OLD SHAWANEE CHURCH. 360


RICHARD PENN-Portrait.


365


RELICS FROM DUNBAR'S CAMP 369


RALSTON, OR BROWN FORT. 377


xiii


Illustrations


GEORGE CROGHAN-Portrait. 380


MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF FORT SHIRLEY. 384


BRIETENBACK BLOCK HOUSE. 389


E. BRADDOCK-Portrait and Signature. 393


BRADDOCK'S FIELD. 397


ROCKING FAMILY MEAT-CUTTER. 403


MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA ISSUED IN 1750. 409


TIMOTHY HORSFIELD-Portrait. 417


PLAN OF FORT AUGUSTA. 121


REMAINS OF OLD MAGAZINE AT FORT AUGUSTA 429


HOUSE OF CONRAD WEISER, READING. 433


GEORGE II-Portrait 437


CHIMNEY ROCKS. 441


MORAVIAN BAKE OVEN 448


FIRST AMERICAN HOME OF JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 453


HENRY BOUQUET-Portrait and Signature. 456


OLD BLOCK HOUSE AT PITTSBURGH . . 461


467


FORT PITT, 1766. 472


OLD SUN DIAL FROM FORT PITT


476


BIRTHPLACE OF ROBERT FULTON


481


JOHN HARRIS MANSION 485


WILLIAM ALLEN-Portrait. 489


PENNSYLVANIA-MARYLAND FIVE MILE STONE, MARYLAND SIDE. 493


PENNSYLVANIA-MARYLAND FIVE MILE STONE, PENNSYLVANIA SIDE. 497


HECKEWELDER HOUSE, BRADFORD COUNTY 501


JOHN PENN-Portrait.


505


FORTY FORT 512


STEWART'S BLOCK HOUSE 517


JOHN WILKES-Portrait. 521


ISAAC BARRE-Portrait. 525


INTERIOR OF FORT BROWN 520


MAP OF FRONTIER FORTS BETWEEN THE DELAWARE AND SUSQUEHANNA RIVERS 533


JOHN MORGAN-Portrait. 537


FAMILY FLAX HACKELS. 545


OLD FOOT WARMER 552


FAMILY BREAD BASKET USED BY GERMAN SETTLERS. 557


UPRIGHT SPINNING WHEEL. 561


OLD-FASHIONED GERMAN SHAVING DISH 568


xiv


PLAN OF LOTS IN PITTSBURGH, 1764.


Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal


CHAPTER I


THE INDIANS OF PENNSYLVANIA


T HE stream of American history flows from a source com- paratively near-the arrival here of white men from Europe. In the year when Elizabeth of England died, 1603, no white man, it is safe to say, had ever seen the region which we call PENNSYLVANIA. Its vast woods, its great rivers, its unique mineral treasures, were then as unknown to the wisest geographer of the Old World as were the deepest jungles of Africa, or the farthest ice-floes of the polar seas.


The opening years of the Seventeenth Century become thus the initial period for our narrative. The arrival of the white men, and the human experiences growing out of that epochal event, form the story which we have to tell.


Yet Pennsylvania had its own inhabitants, a people who pos- sessed no doubt a long and romantic history, when the ships of the white men came. They were tribes of that red race whom, since the voyages of Columbus, and because of his geographical error, we have called Indians. Their presence and influence form the background to all American history, and we must pause to consider them before we can intelligently proceed. We have some sources of knowledge concerning them as they appeared when the white men came: their own traditions, legends, and folk-lore ; evidence afforded by their arms, implements, and uten- sils ; descriptions of them by the white people who saw them early : and finally study of them under the light which we have gained


I-I


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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal


concerning the life of similar primitive peoples throughout the world. Yet with the best efforts to utilize all these sources our knowledge of the Indians remains meagre and unsatisfying.


It may be said, in brief, that the whole of Pennsylvania, in the year 1600, was the Indians' land. While they did not occupy it, in a strict sense of the word, they enjoyed its complete possession in the manner suited to their way of life; they hunted in the forests, fished in the streams, planted their little crops in the open spaces, and appropriated to their use whatever it might yield them of air to breathe, water to drink, food and shelter, enjoyment and pleasure, warfare and spoil. How many there were of them is wholly left to conjecture. It is agreed that they were few. A century later, an estimate attributed to William Penn supposed there were "ten Indian Nations" in the province, with "about six thousand" souls belonging to them. But this estimate seems too low for the end of the Seventeenth Century, and much too low for its beginning. The original printing of the estimate is in Oldmixon's "British Empire in America," published in 1701.


Who then were these Indians of Pennsylvania? What was their origin? Whence did they come? These are questions most suitable for the archæologist and philologist. If we judge by the evidence of language, the Indians of Eastern Pennsylvania would seem to have come from a parent stock in the far northeast, beyond the St. Lawrence river. Yet they themselves preserved a tradi- tion, which Heckewelder, the pious Moravian missionary, who labored amongst them in the Eighteenth Century, has handed down to us, that they came from the distant west, a region far beyond the Mississippi, and had reached the Delaware after a migration occupying many years, or even centuries, in the course of which, as they passed through what are now the States of the Ohio Valley, they fought with and overcame tribes of that region. though these had desperately defended themselves in fortified places. This tradition is worthy of attention, but it is not a chapter of history.


2


The Indians


In the concise review that must be here given we shall consider first the Indians of Eastern Pennsylvania, describing them as they probably were when the white men settled on the Delaware, in the first half of the Seventeenth Century. These Indians were a simple and primitive people, not "savage" as to disposition, nor in the stage of development properly designated by that word. They had long possessed and used fire. They subsisted only in part by the chase and the fishery ; they depended in part for their food on a systematic tillage of the soil. They had developed some arts of manufacture. Their arms and imple- ments were mostly of the Stone Age, but they had begun to emerge from it. They had a political system well settled and effective. Their social usages were in many particulars well developed and strictly observed. They comprehended and in a degree regarded moral obligations, and their ideas of religion exhibited a glimmering of the highest truth.


Along the Delaware river, on both sides, from the New York line-and beyond-down to the sea, these Indians, after- wards called Delawares, called themselves Len-â-pe or Lenni Len-â-pé. By language, and presumably by blood, they were members of a great Indian family, the Algonkian, the most exten- sive in North America. Tribes of this widespread family "stretched from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Churchill river of Hudson Bay to Pamlico Sound in North Caro- lina." Though thus widely scattered, resemblances of language survived, and traditions of relationship were cherished among them all. Many of the Indian tribes with whom the history of the American people is most associated, many whose vigor and persistency of life have made them most familiar in our annals, are or were of this extensive group-Pequots and Narragansetts of New England, Mohegans of New York, Powhatans of Vir- ginia, Shawnees, Miamis, Chippewas, Ottawas of the interior, and Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Blackfeet, and others of the Mississippi Valley and Far West. It was the Algonkian Indians whom the


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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal


English-speaking explorers, landing on the Atlantic Coast in Caro- lina and northward, first encountered, and who received them almost uniformly in peace. Massasoit, the lifelong friend of the Plymouth Pilgrims; his son Philip, famous for his brave but


Rock Carving of the Turtle Clan of the Iroquois Indians


The rock is in the bed of the Ohio river at Smith's Ferry. Photographed especially for this work from a cast in Carnegie Muscum, Pittsburgh


ineffectual resistance to white encroachment; Powhatan, forever conspicuous in the Virginia chronicle ; and Pontiac and Tecumseh, who in the western country later struggled and failed like Philip to stem the white tide, were all Algonkian chiefs.


It is conceded that in this Algonkian family the Lenape of the Delaware region were representatives of a parent stock. In the traditions common to all the tribes special dignity and authority


4


The Indians


were assigned them. Forty tribes, it is said, looked up to them with respect, and in the Algonkian great councils-if such were ever held-they took first place as the "Grandfathers" of the race, while the others were called by them "children," "nephews," "grandchildren." That this precedence of the Lenape had any importance within the period of the white settlement can hardly be said. It seems true that the Algonkian tribes refrained from war with one another, and some writers speak of a "Lenape Con- federacy."


The Lenape of the Delaware region formed three sub-tribes. These were the Min-si, people of the stony lands, who lived in the mountain country, from about the Lehigh river northward into New York and New Jersey ; the U-na-mi, down-river people, whose habitat may be regarded as extending from the Lehigh to about the Delaware State line; and lastly the U-na-lach-tigo, tide- water people, or people living near the sea, who occupied the land on the lower reach of the river, and on the bay. How far each of these roamed and claimed it is hard to say ; the Minsi spread into New Jersey ; the Unami had an uncertain hold beyond the Schuyl- kill, toward the watershed of streams flowing to the Susque- hanna; and the Unalachtigo probably occupied most of the east shore of the Delaware river, within the present State of Dela- ware.


After the manner general if not uniform among the North American Indians, each of these sub-tribes of the Lenape had its animal type, its totem. That of the mountaineers was appro- priately the Wolf, the central sub-tribe had the Turtle, and the Bay dwellers the Turkey. With the creatures which they thus adopted as their symbols they imagined themselves in some way connected by a mystic but powerful tie, and each member of the totemic fraternity was closely bound to every other one. But to the Turtle, and consequently his sub-tribe, they ascribed the greatest dignity, for they shared with peoples of the Old World the myth that a great tortoise. first of all created beings, bore the


5


Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal


earth upon its back. Thus, by their totem, the Unami had pre- cedence, and in time of peace their sachem, or chief. wearing a diamond-marked wampum belt, was chief of the whole tribe. That the Minsi were the most vigorous and warlike of the Lenape is indicated by many evidences, and they were probably the strongest in numbers. From their holds in the mountains they reached northeastward to the banks of the Hudson and on that river joined hands with the Mohegans, another tribe of the Al- gonkian family; while they guarded, also, against the hostile approach of the tribes of Central New York, called by the English the Five Nations, and by the French the Iroquois. These tribes, five in number until 1712, we shall have to refer to many times and we pause here to speak more particularly of them. They were, at the time the white men came, the Caniengas, usually called Mo- hawks (or Maquas), Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. They belonged to a family distinct in language from the Algonkian tribes. By the genius of one of their own chiefs, an Onondaga, known in half-certain, half-dubious, traditions as Hiawatha, they had been united as a confederacy, at some time anterior to the period we now describe. They were a vigorous, energetic and aggressive people, but not more so than many of the Algonkian tribes. The accident of contact with the earliest white comers, the French and the Dutch, and consequently the earliest possession of firearms, started them on a career which influenced for two hundred years the course of history, not only as to Pennsylvania and New York, but as to the American Union itself. About 1712 they received from North Carolina the remnant of the Tuscarora tribe, which was of their lingual family, and became thereafter the Six Nations. In these pages we shall speak of them for the present as the Iroquois.


The political system of the Lenâpé, while it implied an obedi- ence of the members of the tribe to its chief, was not far removed from a democracy. Chief and tribe were alike subject to long established custom, and while the chieftainship was considered


6


The Indians


hereditary in certain families, the individual assigned to it was subject to election by the tribe. That such a system should have been so well established, and should have served so fully to secure peace and order within a large tribe, is one of the marvels of the Indian. Throughout the country the wars of tribes with one another were common, perhaps almost incessant, but internal feuds and bloodshed were rare. The Indian's attachment to his own tribe was unqualified ; such enemies as he had must be of some other tribe. "There were times," says Parkman, describing In- dians of Canada, "when savages lived together in thousands with a harmony which civilization might envy." Penn, writing in 1683. his letter to the Free Society of Traders, said: "Every king hath his council; and that consists of all the old and wise men. . . Nothing of moment is undertaken, be it war, peace, sell- ing of land, or traffic, without advising with them, and which is more with the young men, too. It is admirable to consider how powerful the kings are, and yet how they move by the breath of their people."


The Lenape could not have been a large tribe. Within the limits of Pennsylvania they numbered perhaps two thousand peo- ple. It cannot now be said with confidence that they had any central and fixed "town." They had places to which they re- sorted, such as rivers or creeks in which they fished; moun- tains where they hunted; or cleared spaces where they planted ; but they had no buildings more substantial than the simple hut, or lodge, commonly known to the whites as the wigwam, in which they sheltered themselves. Its frame was formed of sapling trees, and was covered by the bark of larger ones. Each hut was for a single family, differing in this respect from the houses of the Iroquois, which were communal, each one accommodating several families. Sometimes the Lenâpé huts might be placed in groups, forming a village, and surrounded by a palisade of driven stakes, for defense against enemies, but all such frail structures decayed and disappeared almost as soon as their occupants quitted them.


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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal


The men were hunters and fishermen in times of peace, war- riors when peace failed. Wild animals abounded in the far- stretching woods, and in the streams there were swarms of fish. The reports of the white explorers, as they sailed up the Delaware, through the country of the Lenape, glow with descriptions of the


0


Algonkian Rock Pictures, Safe Harbor


Reproduced especially for this work from Unit- ed States government reports


abundant wild life to be seen on every hand. When the white men came the "fur trade" was their first object, and the Indians brought them skins of many sorts-bear, deer, sable, beaver, otter, fox, wild-cat, lynx, raccoon, mink, musk-rat, and others. These animals had been caught in traps, or shot with bow and arrow, or perhaps run down by dogs, or killed with a spear or a club. Fish were speared in shallow places, or driven into pounds formed of brush, or caught with a simple hook and line.


8


The Indians


Under the Indian system there was, of course, no private ownership of land. Its use, like its possession, was in common. A family had a right of temporary occupancy, but nothing more. Near their villages, in the alluvial bottom lands, or in spaces in the woods cleared by fire, the women raised the family crops, planting the maize, our "Indian corn," when "the oak leaf was the size of a squirrel's ear," and raising also beans, pumpkins, and a few other vegetables, including probably the sweet potato. In 1679, Dankers and Sluyter, the "Labadists," traveling through New Jersey, and fed by the Indians (probably Lenâpé), were re- galed upon boiled beans, served in a calabash, "cooked without salt or grease," and "pounded maize, kneaded. into bread, and baked under the ashes." Zeisberger describes the women as go- ing into the woods in February to boil the maple sap, and make sugar, and this process is declared by some writers to be an Indian discovery. The Indians quickly adopted the raising of fruit from the white settlers' example, and their "orchards" are often spoken of.




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