"The Talamatan (not-of-themselves) and the Nitilowan [allied north-people] go united (to the war).
"Kinnepehend (Sharp-Looking) was the leader, and they went over the river. And they took all that was there and despoiled and slew the Tallegwi.
"Pimokhasuwi (Stirring-about) was next chief, and then the
Tallegwi were much too strong.
"Tenchekensit (Open-path) followed, and many towns were given up to him.
"Paganchihiella was chief, and the Tallegwi all went southward.
"South of the Lakes they (the Lenape) settled their council-fire, and north of the Lakes were their friends the Talamatan (Hurons!)."
There can he no reasonable doubt that the Alleghewi or Tallegwi, who have given their name to the Allegheny River and Mountains, were the mound-builders.
This supposition brings the pressing hordes to the northwest of the Ohio mound-builders, which is the direction, Colonel Force concludes, from the geographical position of the defensive works, they must have come.
The number of defensive works erected during the contest shows it must have been long and obstinate, and that the nation which could thus resist the attack of the northern hordes must have been strong in numbers and fertile in resources. But resistance proved in vain; they were compelled at last, according to the tradition, to leave the graves of their ancestors and flee southward in search of a place of safety.
Here the Delaware tradition drops them, but the echo comes up from the hills of East Tennessee and North Carolina in the form of the Cherokee tradition already mentioned, telling us where they found a resting place, and the mound testimony furnishes the intermediate link.