[27] The Iroquois traditions on this subject, as related to the writer by a chief of the Cayugas, do not agree with the narratives of the Jesuits. It is not certain that the Eries were of the Iroquois family. There is some reason to believe them Algonquins, and possibly identical with the Shawanoes.
[28] Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, I. 443.
[29] Gallatin places the final subjection of the Lenape at about the year 1750—a printer’s error for 1650.—Synopsis, 48.
[30] Nouvelle France, I. 196.
[31] William Henry Harrison, Discourse on the Aborigines of the Ohio. See Ohio Hist. Trans. Part Second, I. 257.
[32] “Here ye Indyans were very desirous to see us ride our horses, wch wee did: they made great feasts and dancing, and invited us yt when all ye maides were together, both wee and our Indyans might choose such as lyked us to ly with.”—Greenhalgh, Journal.
[33] The Lenape, on their part, call the other Algonquin tribes Children, Grandchildren, Nephews, or Younger Brothers; but they confess the superiority of the Wyandots and the Five Nations, by yielding them the title of Uncles. They, in return, call the Lenape Nephews, or more frequently Cousins.
[34] Loskiel, Part I. 130.
[35] The story told by the Lenape themselves, and recorded with the utmost good faith by Loskiel and Heckewelder, that the Five Nations had not conquered them, but, by a cunning artifice, had cheated them into subjection, is wholly unworthy of credit. It is not to be believed that a people so acute and suspicious could be the dupes of so palpable a trick; and it is equally incredible that a high-spirited tribe could be induced, by the most persuasive rhetoric, to assume the name of Women, which in Indian eyes is the last confession of abject abasement.
[36] Heckewelder, Hist. Ind. Nat. 53.