USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
44
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
far in the western wilds of the American continent, but emi- grating eastwardly, arrived after many years on the Namæsi Sipu (the Mississippi), or river of fish, where they fell in with the Mengwe, who had also emigrated from a distant country, and approached this river somewhat nearer its source. The spies of the Lenape reported the country on the east of the Mississippi to be inhabited by a powerful nation, dwelling in large towns, erected upon their principal rivers.
This people, tall and stout, some of whom, as tradition reports, were of gigantic mould, bore the name of Allligewi, and from them were derived the names of the Alleghany river and mountains. Their towns were defended by regular fortifications or intrenchments of earth, vestiges of which are yet shown in greater or less preservation. The Lenape requested permission to establish themselves in their vi- cinity. This was refused, but leave was given them to pass the river, and seek a country farther to the eastward. But, whilst the Lenape were crossing the river, the Alligewi, becoming alarmed at their number, assailed and destroyed many of those who had reached the eastern shore, and threat- ened a like fate to the others should they attempt the stream. Fired at the loss they had sustained, the Lenape eagerly ac- cepted a proposition from the Mengwe, who had hitherto been spectators only of their enterprise, to conquer and divide the country. A war of many years duration was waged by the united nations, marked by great havoc on both sides, which eventuated in the conquest and expulsion of the Alligewi, who fled by the way of the Mississippi, never to return. Their devastated country was apportioned among the con- querors; the Mengwe choosing their residence in the neigh- bourhood of the great lakes, and the Lenape possessing themselves of the lands to the south.
After many ages, during which the conquerors lived to- gether in great harmony, the enterprising hunters of the Le- nape crossed the Alleghany mountains, and discovered the great rivers Susquehannah and Delaware, and their respec- tive bays. Exploring the Sheyichbi country, (New Jersey,) they arrived on the Hudson, to which they subsequently gave
45
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
the name of the Mohicannittuck river. Returning to their nation, after a long absence, they reported their discoveries; describing the country they had visited as abounding in game and fruits, fish and fowl, and destitute of inhabitants. Con- cluding this to be the country destined for them by the Great Spirit, the Lenape proceeded to establish themselves upon the four great rivers, the Hudson, Delaware, Susque- hannah and Potomac, making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of Lenape-wihittuck, (the river or stream of the Lenape,) the centre of their possessions .*
They say, however, that all of their nation who crossed the Mississippi, did not reach this country; a part remaining be- hind to assist that portion of their people who, frightened by the reception which the Alligewi had given to their country- men, fled far to the west of the Namesi Sipu. They were finally divided into three great bodies; the larger, one-half of the whole, settled on the Atlantic; the other half was sepa- rated into two parts, the stronger continued beyond the Mis- sissippi, the other remained on its eastern bank.
Those on the Atlantic were subdivided into three tribes; the Turtle or Unamis, the Turkey or Unalachtgo, and the Wolf or Minsi. The two former inhabited the coast from the Hudson to the Potomac, settling in small bodies in towns and villages upon the larger streams, under chiefs subordi- nate to the great council of the nation. The Minsi, called by the English, Monceys, the most warlike of the three tribes, dwelt in the interior, forming a barrier between their nation and the Mengwe. They extended themselves from the Mi- nisink, on the Delaware, where they held their council seat, to the Hudson on the east, to the Susquehannah on the south- west, to the head waters of the Delaware and Susquehannah rivers on the north, and to that range of hills now known in New Jersey by the name of the Muskenecun, and by those of Lehigh and Coghnewago in Pennsylvania.
Many subordinate tribes procceded from these, who re- ceived names cither from their places of residence, or from some
* Heckewelder's account of the Indians.
4.6
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
accidental circumstance, at the time of its occurrence remark. - able, but now forgotten. Such were the Shawanese, the Nanticokes, the Susquehannas, the Shackamaxons, the Ne- shamines, the Mantas, and other tribes, resident in or near the province of Pennsylvania at the time of its settlement.
The Mengwe hovered for some time on the borders of the lakes, with their canoes in readiness to fly should the Al- ligewi return. Having grown bolder, and their numbers increasing, they stretched themselves along the St. Lawrence, and became, on the north, near neighbours to the Lenape tribes.
The Mengwe and the Lenape, in the progress of time, be- came enemies. The latter represent the former as treacherous and cruel, pursuing pertinaciously an insidious and destruc- tive policy towards their more generous neighbours. Dread- ing the power of the Lenape, the Mengwe resolved, by involving them in war with their distant tribes, to reduce their strength. They committed murders upon the mem- bers of one tribe, and induced the injured party to believe they were perpetrated by another. They stole into the coun- try of the Delawares, surprised them in their hunting par- ties, slaughtered the hunters, and escaped with the plunder.
Each nation or tribe had a particular mark upon its war clubs, which, left beside a murdered person, denoted the ag- gressor. The Mengwe perpetrated a murder in the Cherokee country, and left with the dead body a war club bearing the insignia of the Lenape. The Cherokees, in revenge, fell suddenly upon the latter, and commenced a long and bloody war. The treachery of the Mengwe was at length disco- vered, and the Delawares turned upon them with the deter- mination utterly to extirpate them. They were the more strongly induced to take this resolution, as the cannibal pro- pensities of the Mengwe had reduced them, in the estimation of the Delawares, below the rank of human beings .*
Hitherto each tribe of the Mengwe had acted under the direction of its particular chiefs; and, although the nation could
* The Iroquois or Mengwe sometimes ate the bodies of their prisoners. Heckewelder, 2 N. Y. Hist. Col. 55.
1
47
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
not control the conduct of its members, it was made responsi- ble for their outrages. Pressed by the Lenape, they resolved to form a confederation which might enable them better to concentrate their force in war, and to regulate their affairs in peace. Thannawage, an aged Mohawk, was the projector of this alliance. Under his auspices, five nations, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas, formed a species of republic, governed by the united counsels of their aged and experienced chiefs. To these a sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, was added in 1712. This last originally dwelt in the western parts of. North Carolina, but having formed a deep and general con- spiracy to exterminate the whites, were driven from their country, and adopted by the Iroquois confederacy .* The beneficial effects of this system early displayed themselves. The Lenape were checked, and the Mengwe, whose warlike disposition soon familiarized them with fire arms, procured from the Dutch, were enabled, at the same time, to contend with them and to resist the French, who now attempted the set- tlement of Canada, and to extend their conquests over a large portion of the country between the Atlantic and the Missis- sippi.
But, being pressed hard by their new, they became de- sirous of reconciliation with their old enemies; and, for this purpose, if the tradition of the Delawares be credited, they effected one of the most extraordinary strokes of policy which history has recorded.
The mediators between the Indian nations at war are the women. The men, however weary of the contest, hold it cowardly and disgraceful to seek reconciliation. They deem it inconsistent in a warrior to speak of peace with bloody weapons in his hands. He must maintain a determined cou- rage, and appear at all times as ready and willing to fight as at the commencement of hostilities. With such dispositions, Indian wars would be interminable, if the women did not - interfere, and persuade the combatants to bury the hatchet and make peace with each other. On these occasions, the
* Smith's New York, Dougl. Summ.
48
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
· women pleaded their cause with much eloquence. " Not a warrior," they would say, "but laments the loss of a son, a brother, or a friend. And mothers, who have borne with cheerfulness the pangs of child-birth, and the anxieties that wait upon the infancy and adolescence of their sons, behold their promised blessings crushed in the field of battle, or pe- rishing at the stake in unutterable torments. In the depth of their grief, they curse their wretched existence, and shud- der at the idea of bearing children." They conjured the warriors, therefore, by their suffering wives, their helpless children, their homes, and their friends, to interchange for- giveness, to cast away their arms, and, smoking together the pipe of amity and peace, to embrace as friends those whom they had learned to esteem as enemies.
Prayers thus urged seldom failed of their desired effect. The function of the peace maker was honourable and digni- fied, and its assumption by a courageous and powerful nation could not be inglorious. This station the Mengwe urged upon the Lenape. "They had reflected," they said, "upon the state of the Indian race, and were convinced that no means remained to preserve it unless some magnanimous na- tion would assume the character of the WOMAN. It could not be given to a weak and contemptible tribe; such would not be listened to: but the Lenape and their allies would at once possess influence and command respect."
The facts upon which these arguments were founded, were known to the Delawares, and, in a moment of blind confi- dence in the sincerity of the Iroquois, they acceded to the proposition, and assumed the petticoat. The ceremony of the metamorphosis was performed with great rejoicings at Albany, in 1617, in the presence of the Dutch, whom the Lenape charge with having conspired with the Mengwe for their de- struction.
Having thus disarmed the Delawares, the Iroquois assumed over them the rights of protection and command. But still dreading their strength, they artfully involved them again in war with the Cherokees, promised to fight their battles, led them into an ambush of their foes, and deserted then).
49
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The Delawares, at length, comprehended the treachery of their arch enemy, and resolved to resume their arms, and, being still superior in numbers, to crush them. But it was too late. The Europeans were now making their way into the country in every direction, and gave ample employment to the astonished Lenape:
The Mengwe deny these machinations. They aver, that they conquered the Delawares by force of arms, and made them a subject people. And, though it be said they are un- able to detail the circumstances of this conquest, it is more rational to suppose it true, than that a brave, numerous, and warlike nation should have voluntarily suffered them- selves to be disarmed and enslaved by a shallow artifice; or that, discovering the fraud practised upon them, they should unresistingly have submitted to its consequences. This con- quest was not an empty acquisition to the Mengwe. They claimed dominion over all the lands occupied by the Dela- wares, and, in many instances, their claims were distinctly acknowledged .* Parties of the Five Nations occasionally occupied the Lenape country, and wandered over it at all times at their pleasure.
There is no data upon which a correct estimate may be made of the numbers of the Indians inhabiting the present state of Pennsylvania, at the time of which we now treat. But, when Virginia was discovered, it was supposed to have a population of one soul for every square mile. Upon this ratio, probably much too great, Pennsylvania must have con- tained forty-seven thousand.
Whatever credit may be due to the traditions of the Lenape, relative to their migration from the west, there is strong evi- dence in support of their pretensions to be considered as the source whence a great portion of the Indians of North America was derived. They are acknowledged as the "grandfathers," or the parent stock, of the tribes that inhabited the extensive regions of Canada, from the coast of Labrador to the mouth of the Albany river, which empties into the southernmost part
* See Note H, Appendix.
7
50
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
of Hudson's bay, and from thence to the Lake of the Woods, the northernmost boundary of the United States; and also by those who dwelt in that immense country, stretching from Nova Scotia to the Roanoke, on the sea-coast, and bounded by the Mississippi on the west. All these nations spoke dia- lects of the Lenape language, affording the strongest pre- sumption of their derivation from that stock. The tribes of the Mengwe interspersed throughout this vast region are, of course, excepted. They were, however, comparatively few in number.
Their language is said to be rich, sonorous, plastie, and comprehensive in the highest degree. It varies from the European idioms chiefly in the conjugation of the verbs, with which not only the agent and patient may be compounded, in every possible case, but the adverbs are also blended; and one word is made to express the agent, the action, with its accidents of time, place, and quantity, and the object effected by them. And, though greatly pliant, it is subjected to rules, from which there are few exceptions. It has the power of expressing every idea, even the most abstract. The Old and New Testaments have been translated into it, and the Chris- tian missionaries have no difficulty, as they assert, of making themselves understood on all subjects by the Indians.
A cultivated language usually denotes great civilization. But our aborigines seem to have confined their efforts to the improvement of their speech. This was a consequence na- turally flowing from their form of government and political institutions, in which the most absolute liberty prevailed. The public welfare was confided to the aged and experienced chiefs, whose resolutions were obeyed in full conviction of their wisdom. They have no law but public opinion, and the redress of injuries belongs to the injured. Among such a people, particularly, eloquence is the handmaid of ambi- tion, and all power must depend upon the talent of persua- sion. To this cause, we may ascribe the cultivation, and the many beauties, which are said to mark the Indian tongues of North America.
In other respects, these tribes had advanced little beyond
51
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
the rudest state of nature. They had no written language, unless rude drawings may be thus considered. Their inter- course with each other was regulated by a few simple rules of justice and courtesy. Their passions generally preserved an even and moderate tenor; but, occasionally, becoming in- tense, they produced enormous crimes, or deeds of heroism. In the commerce of the sexes, love, as a sentiment, was al- most unknown. Marriage was a physical convenience, con- tinued by the will of the parties, either sex having the power to dissolve it at pleasure. The treatment of the women, however, if not marked by tenderness, was not cruel. A full proportion of labour, it is true, was imposed upon them, but it was of that kind which necessarily falls to their lot, where the men are absent from their homes in search of sus- tenance for their families: it consisted of domestic and agri- cultural services. Children were educated with care in the knowledge of the duties and employments of their future life. Their lessons were taught in a kind and familiar manner, their attention awakened by the hope of distinction, and their ef- forts rewarded by general praise. Threats nor stripes were ever used. Lands and agricultural returns were common pro- perty; peltries and the other acquisitions of the chase, be- longed to individuals.
Their religion was simple, and, according to the disposi- tion of those who regard it, may be considered as evidence of their purity and strength of mind, or of the nakedness and barrenness of their genius. They believed in a Great Spirit, the creator and ruler of all things, who, by subordi- nate, dependent, and invisible agents, directed the conduct of men; who rewarded the good and punished the evil; and who had provided a future state, where the virtuous enjoyed a per- petuity of the pleasures which this life had afforded them, and of which the wicked are deprived. They worship this Great Spirit with prayers, and thanksgiving, and with sacri- fices.
The strongest passion of an Indian's soul is revenge. To gratify it, distance, danger, and toil are held as nothing. But there is no manliness in his vengeance. He loves to steal
52
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
upon his enemy, in the silence of the forest, or in his mid- night slumbers, and to glut himself, like a ravenous wolf, in undistinguished slaughter. In war, not even the captive was spared, unless he were adopted to supply the place of a de- ceased member of the capturing nation. If not thus preserved, he was destined to perish, in protracted torture, under the hands of women and children. On the other hand, hospi- tality and respect for the property of others, were their dis- tinguishing virtues. Strangers were treated with great atten- tion and kindness, their wants liberally supplied, and their persons considered sacred. To the needy and suffering of their own tribes they cheerfully gave; dividing with them their last morsel. Theft in their communities was rare, and is said to have been almost unknown before their acquaint- ance with the whites .*
· I have adopted Heckewelder and other Moravian missionaries for my guides in this account of the Indians. But it will be perceived that I have not given to them their favourable colouring.
1
CHAPTER III.
Claims of the duke of York .... William Penn .... His views in purchasing trans-Atlantic territory .... Purchase from the crown ··· Boundaries ···· Charter ···· Observations on the char- ter ... Declaration of the king ··· Measures of Penn to people his province ····· First adventurers .... Conduct of the pro- prietary towards the Indians ···· Frame of government ... Ter- ritories on the Delaware. .. Purchase from the duke of York.
THE claim of the Dutch extended to the river Delaware and the adjacent country. But the first grant of Charles II. to the duke of York, was bounded by the east side of that river only; yet the latter possessed himself of its western shores, and claimed, under his charter, all the territory now forming the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware. The claim to the latter, however, was covered by a second charter, granted in 1674. Under the dominion of princes absorbed, the one in acquiring and consolidating despotic power, the other in converting a nation to a religion it detested, these fruitful regions might have continued much longer only to yield subsistence to a handful of Europeans, and an inconsi- derable number of wild and untaught inhabitants, had not the genius and zeal of a private individual, prepared a speedy way for the reception of a dense and civilized population.
William Penn, son and heir of sir William Penn, as one of the trustees of Byllinge, had been actively engaged in colo- nizing west New Jersey, and subsequently, as a purchaser, in the improvement of the eastern division of that province. He thus obtained a knowledge of the country on the western side of the river Delaware. From this accidental introduc- tion to the new world, sprang his design of founding a com- monwealth, on principles of perfect equality, and of universal
54
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1681
toleration of religious faith .* To establish for the persecuted Quakers a secure asylum, to form a people whose morals should correspond with the purity of the faith they professed, and to demonstrate that the use of arms was unnecessary for the protection of civil society, were Penn's favourite objects in becoming an American proprietary. t Though an enthu- siastic sectary, the propagation of his religious opinions was a secondary consideration. He had formed a plan of civil government, which he desired to submit to the test of expe- rience. He anticipated, perhaps, greater moral and political · perfection for his colony, than a just estimate of human na- ture would warrant; yet he succeeded in laying the founda- tions of a state, whose wise institutions and extraordinary pros- perity have secured him an honourable and perpetual fame.
Sir William Penn was justly a favourite with the king and the duke of York; more especially with the latter, under whom he had greatly distinguished himself, in the naval en- gagement with the Dutch, on the third of June, 1664. On his death-bed he obtained from the duke his promise to sup- port and protect his son; which the latter redeemed, by the assistance he gave to William Penn's American enterprise, and by his constant and zealous friendship during life. Under such auspices, the future proprietary found no difficulty to obtain a grant of a large tract of land in America, in consi- deration of a debt of sixteen thousand pounds, due to him in
" In a letter from Penn to R. Turner, written about the time he obtained his patent, there is the following passage: "This I can say, that I had an opening of joy as to these parts in the year 1661, at Oxford, twenty years since; and as my understanding and inclinations have been much directed to ob- serve and reprove mischiefs in government, so it is now put into my power to settle one. For the matters of liberty and privilege, I purpose that which is extraordinary, and leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder the good of the whole country." It would seem, from this quotation, that he had early in life some fugitive ideas of a trans-Atlantic settlement. I nevertheless am of the opinion, that his views were determined by his New Jersey associations, as stated in the text.
+ Oldmixon Am. Emp. Anderson's Origin of Commerce. 1 Clarkson's Life of Penn. 1 Proud, 5. Letter of Penn. 1 Proud, 169.
55
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1681]
right of his father, from the government. Before the patent issued, due care was taken that it should not affect the rights of the duke, or of lord Baltimore, both of whom were inte- rested in territories adjacent to those about to be granted to Penn .* The charter bore date March 4th, 1681. The in- ducements to the grant were therein declared to be, the me- rits of Admiral Penn, the extension of the British empire, and the conversion of the savage nations to civilized life and the Christian religion. The king himself named the pro- vince Pennsylvania, against the wishes of the proprietary, who desired that it might be called New Wales. t
The following boundaries were given by the charter. "On the east by Delaware river, from twelve miles distance north- wards of Newcastle town, unto the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, if the said river doth extend so far northward, but if the said river shall not extend so far north- ward, then by the said river so far as it doth extend; and from the head of the said river the eastern bounds are to be de- termined by a meridian line, to be drawn from the head of the said river unto the said forty-third degree. The said land to extend westward five degrees in longitude, to be com- puted from the eastern bounds; and the said lands to be bounded on the north by the three-and-fortieth degree of northern latitude, and on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from Newcastle, northward and westward, unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned."
The free use of all ports, bays, rivers, and waters of the province, and of their produce, and of all mines, and the fee of the soil, were granted to William Penn, to be holden in soccage tenure, yielding ten beaver skins annually, and one- fifth of the gold and silver discovered, to the king. The pro- prietor was empowered to enact laws with the assent of the freemen of the province; to appoint judges and other officers;
* Clarkson's Life of Penn. Minutes of Council of Pennsylvania.
t Clarkson. Penn's Letter to R. Turner, 5th March, 1681. Mem. His. Soc. Penn. 1 vol. 201.
-
56
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.