You will, doubtless, wish to hear something more of his interesting daughter. After her marriage, she lived one or two years in Jamestown, during which time she became a convert to the Christian religion, and was baptized by the name of Rebecca. She afterwards, with her husband, made a voyage to England, where she was received by the queen, and other noble ladies, with all the attention due to her high rank and her charming character. But she soon became sick of the crowd, the noise, and the smoke of a large city, and longed for the fresh air and green forests of her own country, which, alas! she was never more to see. As she was about to embark, with her husband, for America, she was taken ill, and died, in the twenty-second year of her age. Her death caused the greatest sorrow among her friends on both sides of the Atlantic, who knew her rare virtues; and who hoped that through her means a lasting peace might be secured between her father’s subjects and her husband’s countrymen.
Powhattan was succeeded by his brother, Opitchipan, a weak and infirm old man. But the whole power was in the hands of a chief, named Opechancanough, who is said to have emigrated to Virginia from a country far to the south-east, perhaps Mexico. In his intercourse with the English he showed much art, lulling all suspicion by his open and friendly conduct, while all the time he was preparing for a sudden and deadly blow.
On the 22d of March, 1622, the savages were observed to enter the English plantations in rather unusual numbers. But as they came apparently unarmed, and merely for the purpose of trading, no suspicion was excited. They were allowed even to enter the houses, and lodge in the bedchambers. On a sudden, the signal was given, and the work of destruction began; hundreds of armed Indians, from the woods, rushed on to aid those who were already on the spot. Great numbers of the English were slain; neither age nor sex—man, woman, nor child, was spared; and, but for the information of a Christian Indian, who betrayed the plot to the English, every man in the colony would have perished. As it was, more than the hundred of the whites were slaughtered, and, of eighty plantations, six only were saved.
From the time of this massacre, a deadly war raged between the natives and the English, in which no mercy was shown on either side. It ended, as might be expected, in the destruction of the former. Opechancanough was taken prisoner, his subjects defeated, their villages plundered, and their cornfields burnt. The feeble remnants of this once powerful tribe lingered for awhile around the scenes of their former greatness, and were finally destroyed by pestilence and the sword, or went to join their more fortunate brethren of the north and west.
CHAPTER XX.
Account of the Delawares.—The Mingoes.—Unite and become the “Five Nations.”—Their bravery and cruelty.—The Five Nations, or Iroquois make war on the Delawares.—Craft of the Iroquois.—Subjection of the Delawares.—Arrival of William Penn.—His interview with the Indians.—Their love and respect for him.—Wars with the English colonists.—Destruction of the Indian nation in Pennsylvania.
When William Penn, the good Quaker, landed in the country called from him Pennsylvania, he found it inhabited by a great tribe of Indians, whom he called the Delawares. The name which they gave themselves was the Lenni Lenape, which means—“original people;” and they declared that their tribe was the main stock, or, as they called it, grandfather of all the other tribes in the United States, except the Mingoes or Six Nations, of New York. The account which they give of themselves, before the arrival of the English, as we find it in the history of the good missionary, Heckewelder, who lived among them more than forty years, seems very probable.
They say that many hundred years ago, their ancestors resided in a very distant country in the western part of the American continent. For some reason or other, they determined on migrating to the eastward, and accordingly set out together in a body. After a very long journey of several years, they at length arrived at the Mississippi, or “river of fish,” where they fell in with the Mingoes, who had likewise emigrated from a distant country, and had struck upon this river somewhere higher up. They were also proceeding to the eastward, in search of a better country.
They found the region on the other side of the Mississippi occupied by a powerful nation, the Alligewi, who dwelt in large towns, and had many extensive fortifications; some of these are yet to be seen in Ohio, and several of the other Western States. This people, seeing such a numerous body of strangers about to enter their country, resolved to oppose them. Accordingly, as the Lenni Lenape were crossing the river, they received from the Alligewi such a furious attack, they were in great doubt whether to force a passage by arms, or to return to their former country.
While they were thus hesitating, at a loss what to do, they received from the Mingoes a promise of assistance, provided they would share with them the land which they should attain. This was at once agreed to: and the two nations together, succeeded after many bloody contests, in utterly defeating their enemies, and driving them down the Mississippi. The conquerors then divided the land between them; the Mingoes[9] taking the country about and north of the great lakes, and the Lenape, that to the southward, lying on the Delaware and Susquehannah rivers.