History of the State of Ohio ...

incidental, into their habits and history, is likely to become an enthusiasm. The geography of the State is likewise suggestive of the aboriginal dwellers. The streams, more than the political subdivisions, illustrate their vanished dialects, as has been beautifully expressed in some lines by WILLIAM J. SPERRY, formerly of the Cincinnati Globe, entitled "A Lament for the Ancient People," and which, although a digression and not historically exact, are here inserted, as well for their intrinsic merit as from a personal regard to the writer:

"Sad are fair Muskingum's waters,

Sadly, blue Mahoning raves;
Tuscarawas' plains are lonely,
Lonely are Hockhocking's waves.

From where headlong Cuyahoga
Thunders down its rocky way,

And the billows of blue Erie
Whiten in Sandusky's bay,

Unto where Potomac rushes,
Arrowy from the mountain side,
And Kanawha's gloomy waters
Mingle with Ohio's tide;

From the valley of Scioto,

And the Huron sisters three,
To the foaming Susquehanna,
And the leaping Genesee;

Over hill and plain and valley-
Over river, lake and bay-

On the water-in the forest,

Ruled and reigned the Seneca.

But sad are fair Muskingum's waters,
Sadly, blue Mahoning raves;
Tuscarawas' plains are lonely,
Lonely are Hockhocking's waves.

By Kanawha dwells the stranger,
Cuyahoga feels the chain,
Stranger ships vex Erie's billows,
Strangers plow Scioto's plain.

And the Iroquois have wasted,
From the hill and plain away;
On the waters-in the valley,
Reigns no more the Seneca.

Only by the Cattaraugus,

Or by Lake Chautauque's side,
Or among the scanty woodlands,
By the Alleghany's tide-

There, in spots, like sad oases,
Lone amid the sandy plains,

There the Seneca, still wasting,

Amid desolation reigns.”

Even more total than the disappearance of the Senecas, is the migration of the remnants of the Ohio Tribes, who succeeded the New York confederates upon the Muskingum, the Scioto and the Sandusky, and of whom not even a "sad oasis" is visible, except upon the distant waters of the Kanzas or Nebraska. This volume leaves the indomitable

Wyandot, the sagacious Delaware, the fierce Shawnee, and the cunning Ottawa as yet unconquered, although slowly and sternly retreating before the insolent column of white emigration. Another epoch witnessed the downfall of their savage pride, before the battalions of Wayne: while thenceforth, wholly unchecked by Indian resistance, swelled within our borders the rising tide of population, civil structure and material development. Upon these scenes the curtain is here unlifted. The task, delicate and responsible in manifold aspects, extends immediately over the threshold laid by these pages. He will be fortunate to whom its proper execution shall be allotted in the contingencies of the future.

To the writings of the late JAMES H. PERKINS, and for valuable suggestions personally communicated to the author by Hon. EBENEZER LANE, Hon. ELIJAH HAYWARD, Col. JOHN JOHNSTON, THOMAS MEANS, Esq., and other citizens of the State, an expression of acknowledgment is due, and is gratefully tendered.

J. W. T.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE FATE OF THE ANCIENT ERIES,

CHAPTER II.

THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF IROQUOIS CONQUEST IN THE MISSIS-

SIPPI VALLEY,