A short MS. vocabulary, in German and Delaware, is in the possession of his family, in Bethlehem, and some loose papers in the language.
One of the most recent students of the Delaware was Mr. Matthew G. Henry, of Philadelphia. In 1859 and 1860 he compiled, with no little labor, a "Delaware Indian Dictionary," the MS. of which, in the library of the American Philosophical Society, forms a thick quarto volume of 843 pages, with a number of maps. It is in three parts; 1, English and Delaware; 2, Delaware and English; 3, Delaware Proper Names and their Translations.
It includes, without analysis or correction, the words in Zeisberger's "Spelling Book," Roger William's "Key," Companius' Vocabulary, those in Smith's and Strachey's "Virginia" and various Nanticoke, Mohegan, Minsi and other vocabularies. The derivations of the proper names are chiefly from Heckewelder, and in other cases are venturesome. The compilation, therefore, while often useful, lacks the salutary check of a critical, grammatical erudition, and in its present form is of limited value.
Some of the later vocabularies collected by various travelers offer points for comparison, and may be mentioned here.
In 1786 Major Denny[154] at Fort McIntosh, Ohio, collected a number of Delaware words, principally from Shawnee Indians. A comparison shows many of them to be in a corrupt form, owing either to the ignorance of the Shawnee authority, or to the inaccuracy of Major Denny in catching the sounds.
While engaged on the Pacific Railroad survey, in 1853, Lieut. Whipple[155] collected a vocabulary of a little over 200 words from a Delaware chief, named Black Beaver, in the Indian Territory, which was edited, in 1856, by Prof. Turner. It is evidently a pure specimen, and, as the editor observes, "agrees remarkably" with earlier authentic vocabularies.
In the second volume of Schoolcraft's large work[156] is a vocabulary of about 350 words, obtained by Mr. Cummings, U. S. Indian Agent. The precise source, date and locality are not given, but it is evidently from some trustworthy native, and is quite correct.
Some small works for the schools of the Baptist missions among the Delawares in Kansas were prepared by the Rev. J. Meeker. They appear to be entirely elementary in character.
It will be observed that in this list not a single native writer is named. So far as I have ascertained, though many learned to write their native tongue, not one attempted any composition in it beyond the needs of daily life.
To make some amends for this, and as I wished to obtain an example of the Lenape of to-day, I asked Chief Gottlieb Tobias, an educated native on the Moravian Reservation in Canada, to give me in writing his opinion of the Delaware text of the Walum Olum, which I had sent him. This he obligingly did, and added a translation of his letter. The two are as follows, without alteration:—