The Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, as we shall hereafter call them, remained for a long time in peace and prosperity, increasing in number, and enlarging in territory. Their grand council-fire always remained on the banks of the Delaware; but they sent out colonies as far as Maine on the north, and the Potomac on the south. The tribes of New England, the Narragansetts, the Mohicans, and the Pequots, acknowledged their descent from them; the Shawanese and the Miamis of Ohio, and even the Sacs and Foxes of the far north-west, called them grandfather.
The Mingoes, on the other hand, remained still but an insignificant tribe on the banks of the St. Lawrence. They were more cruel and savage in their customs than the Delawares, but at the same time less warlike and civilized. In a war which they carried on against the powerful tribe of Adirondacks, they were completely worsted, and compelled to retreat over the St. Lawrence, to the land where is now the State of New York.
Till this time, the Mingo nation had consisted of five independent tribes, unconnected with each other, except by the bond of mutual danger. While suffering under defeat, it came to the minds of some of the chiefs, that if they should all be united, and always act in concert, they would be much more powerful, and less easily conquered, than while each tribe acted, as seemed best to itself, without reference to the others. Accordingly, they proposed to the tribes, a strict union, both in war and in peace. After a long debate, this proposal was assented to; and thus arose that celebrated Indian confederacy, the Five Nations, who so long carried on a triumphant and desolating contest, with the other tribes of the continent, and even the whites themselves, and spread the terror of their arms from Labrador to Florida.[10]
They first tried their united strength against the petty neighboring tribes. Some they exterminated, others they expelled from the country, and a few were taken into the union. They next turned their arms against their old enemy, the Adirondacks. Here, also, they were successful; this haughty and once powerful nation was defeated with great loss, and compelled to beg the aid of the French, who had just began to settle in Canada. But the numbers and courage of the conquering Iroquois, as the Six Nations were called by the French, prevailed even over civilized arms and discipline. The Adirondacks were exterminated, and Montreal, the chief colony in Canada, was taken and sacked by them.
The victorious Iroquois now turned their arms against their southern neighbors. But their conquests in this direction were speedily checked by a nation of warriors as haughty and brave as themselves. Their ancient allies, the Delawares, with their numerous dependent tribes, opposed their farther progress; and a war ensued between the two nations, in which the Mingoes, or Iroquois, were worsted.
They now, according to the Delaware traditions, determined to resort to stratagem. They represented to the Delawares, that the Indians of the continent were gradually destroying themselves by their continual wars, and that if a speedy end were not put to the desolating contests, they would soon be too much weakened to resist the encroachments of the whites; it became them, therefore, as members of the same great family, henceforth to bury the hatchet, and live as brothers in peace and contentment. But, in order to bring about this desirable end, it was necessary that some great nation, feared for its power, and respected for its wisdom and antiquity, should take upon itself the office of mediator, between the rest. Such a nation was the Delawares, whose warriors were like the leaves of the forest, and whose origin was lost in the darkness of ages.
By such flattering speeches, the Delawares were at length prevailed upon, in an evil hour, to lay aside the hatchet and act as mediators in the native wars; in the Indian phrase, they consented to become old women;—for among these nations wars are never brought to an end, except by the interference of females. For they think it unbecoming a warrior, however tired of the contest, while he holds the hatchet in one hand, to sue for peace with the other.
By consenting to become women, the Delawares gave up all right of fighting, even in their own defence. Henceforth, they were to devote themselves to the arts of peace, while the Six Nations were to protect them from their enemies. But the deluded Delawares soon found that the protection which they afforded, was worse than their open enmity. The treacherous Mingoes first secretly excited other nations to war against their defenceless grandfather, and then, instead of standing forth to protect him, they left him to the mercy of his enemies.
At the same time, say the Delawares, the English, landing in New England and Virginia, and forming alliances with the deceitful Mingoes, began to add their persecutions to those of their savage foes, and this once powerful and warlike nation, attacked from every quarter, knew not where to turn for relief. In this distressed situation they were, when the good Penn first landed in their country.
When they first saw him coming with his crowd of followers, they naturally expected only a renewal of the ill-treatment and oppressions which they had already suffered from his countrymen. But when they heard his mild and friendly words, and understood his kind offers of peace and brotherly alliance, their delight at this unexpected and happy fortune was unspeakable. It was under the wide-spreading branches of a lofty elm, near the place where now rises the great city of Philadelphia, that the good and the joyful Delawares made their famous treaty of peace and friendship, which was to last as long as the sun and moon should endure. On the part of the Indians, at least, it has never been broken; and to this day, when they see the broad-brimmed hat, and square coat of a Quaker, they say, with a mournful pleasure, “He is a son of our good father Miquon,[11] the friend of the Indians.”