WESTERN INDIANS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
The Shawanese, who were joined with the Delawares and other nations in the Indian wars by which the western section of the United States was disturbed, about the close of the Revolution, seem to have been a Southern nation, and are said to have once resided on the River Suwaney, in Florida. They have a tradition that their ancestors crossed the sea. The Delawares were once numerous and powerful. Yet, as has been mentioned, they were conquered by the great confederacy of the Five Nations; so that, for a considerable period afterwards, they make no great figure in history.
At the grand council held at Philadelphia in 1742, by the chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations and the Delawares, on the one part, and the English, on the other, the governor of Pennsylvania alleged, that William Penn, in his purchases, had bought certain lands of the Delawares, which they still retained in their possession, while, at the same time, the Six Nations claimed the ownership. He reminded the chiefs of the Six Nations, that, as they required him to remove the whites who intruded on their lands, the Six Nations were under a similar obligation to remove the Indians from the lands of which the English had acquired the right by purchase.
The old chief, Canassatego, after rebuking the Delawares sharply for their dishonesty and duplicity, in selling land they did not own and still retaining it in their possession, taunted them for their degradation in being conquered and made women of by the Six Nations; and then pronounced it as the decision of the chiefs and warriors, that they should leave the disputed territory, and remove to Wyoming or Shamokin. The Delawares did not dare to disobey, and at once retired to Wyoming.
The Shawanese were already settled there; but, as they were in friendship with the Six Nations, they made no attempt to molest them. The Shawanese occupied, therefore, the west side of the river, while the Delawares planted themselves on the eastern side, and built their town. It was not long, however, before mutual jealousies arose, and, on the breaking out of the old French War, the Shawanese favored the French, while the Delawares, like the Six Nations, continued faithful to the English.
At first, there were no actual hostilities, but the following incident is said to have brought on a desperate fight between these rival neighbours. While the Delaware chiefs were one day engaged in the chase, on the mountains, their women and children were occupied in gathering fruit on the margin of the river below the town. Some Shawanese women and children, seeing them thus employed, paddled across the river, and joined them. They all engaged in sports; but, in the course of the morning, a Shawanese child having caught a large grasshopper, a quarrel arose as to the right of possession. The fight among the young ones brought up the squaws, who took part with their children respectively. From words they came to blows; the Delawares said, the Shawanese had no right to cross the river, and come upon their premises; and being the stronger party, after several had been killed on both sides, they drove off the Shawanese, and compelled them to recross the river to their homes.
On the return of the warriors, they also entered into the contest. The Shawanese invaded the territory of the Delawares, who met them on the river’s brink, and fought them as they landed from their canoes. Still, the Shawanese, after a smart struggle, were enabled to land, when a fierce and bloody battle took place, in which several hundreds were killed on both sides. The Shawanese were routed, and, after having lost half their number, were compelled to return. They, therefore, immediately left Wyoming, and joined the main body of their nation, already settled on the Ohio. The Delawares remained.
In 1761, a conference was held between several American governors and the Six Nations, at which the Delawares, also, were present. Here a warm dispute arose respecting some lands, of which the Delaware chief complained that the English had taken possession, in consequence of a fraudulent conveyance. The Indians being thus dissatisfied, the French took care, by emissaries, to foment disturbances. The resentment of the Shawanese and Delawares was further roused by the suspicion that the English had concerted a plan for their extirpation. They therefore united with the other tribes upon the Ohio, and the nations about Detroit and along the Mississippi, for the purpose of making a sudden and general attack on the frontiers, and at one blow to cut off the inhabitants and their means of subsistence. This plot, in which the celebrated Pontiac[12] was one of the master spirits, was matured with great art and secrecy.
In 1763, the storm, which had been long gathering, and of which the low muttering had been heard, burst forth in its fury. The savages broke in upon the settlements, massacred the inhabitants, and all the frontier country of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland, for twenty miles back, was abandoned. The travelling merchants, who were among the Indians, were murdered and plundered, and property to the amount of hundreds of thousands of pounds was lost. So fierce and unexpected was the onset, that several forts, as those of Le Bœuf, Venango, and Presque Isle, were captured by the enemy. They next attempted Fort Pitt, Detroit, and Niagara. The two former were invested at the same time, though about three hundred miles apart.