to the task the same zeal, spirit, and intelligence, which they have already displayed, with more favorable opportunities for their exertion, and with at least a moderate portion of skepticism.

But we must conclude these remarks, which have already extended to an unreasonable length, and proceed to an examination of other works, especially Mr Heckewelder's, and those whose titles are prefixed to this article. From the subjects of which they respectively treat, we shall be naturally led to a consideration of the three great interesting topics, which relate to our Indians; namely, their past and present condition; their languages; and the efforts, which have been and should be made, for their moral and physical melioration.

The American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, animated by a very laudable desire to place upon record all the information, within their reach, on topics connected with the Indians, instituted certain inquiries, the result of which is contained in the first volume of their Historical and Literary Transactions. This information is derived from Mr. Heckewelder, and consists of his general account of the Delaware tribe, contained in a series of chapters, and a partial analysis of the Delaware language, principally given in an epistolary form, in a correspondence between himself and Mr Duponceau, a distinguished member of the Society, in which correspondence the former is the teacher, and the latter presents himself as the scholar. This kind of written dialogue is liable to serious objections, in grave discussions, where the efforts of the writer, and the attention of the reader should remain unbroken. And notwithstanding the example of Horne Tooke, in the Diversions of Purley, we are prone to the belief, that a little more effort on the part of Mr Duponceau would have enabled him to remodel the correspondence, and combine his questions with the answers of Mr Heckewelder, in such a manner as sensibly to reduce the size of the book, and make a stronger impression on the reader.

Mr Heckewelder was a worthy, zealous Moravian Missionary, who devoted his life, and it was not a short one, to the great cause of Indian missions, and that with more zeal than effect, if we can judge from the character and conduct of the Indians, who belonged to his mission, and who are now under the superintendence of a Moravian clergyman, on La Rivière

à la Tranche, in Upper Canada. He was a man of moderate intellect, and of still more moderate attainments; of great credulity, and with strong personal attachments to the Indians. His entire life was passed among the Delawares, and his knowledge of the Indian history and character was derived wholly from them. The Delaware tribe was the first and the last object of his hopes. Every legendary story of their former power, and of their subsequent fall, such as the old men repeat to the boys, in the long winter evenings, was received by him in perfect good faith, and has been recorded with all the gravity of history. It appears never to have occurred to him, that these traditionary stories, orally repeated from generation to generation, may have finally borne very little resemblance to the events they commemorate, nor that a Delaware could sacrifice the love of truth to the love of his tribe. To those, who know something about Indian traditions, nothing can be more unsatisfactory, than these details, unless they are corroborated by the accounts of the early travellers, or by concurrent circumstances. Mr Heckewelder's/ naïveté is really amusing; and we now look back, with the soberness of experience, to the time, when, in his own house, upon the Tuscarawas, we were as anxious to hear as he was to relate, the marvellous events of his intercourse with the Indians; and when both narrator and hearer believed all that was told, and frequently in an inverse proportion to its probabity. We esteemed the man when living, and we cherish his memory now he is dead.

And yet with much valuable information, which his book. contains, and notwithstanding the purest intentions with which it was written, perhaps no work, that has appeared for half a century, has produced more erroneous impressions on this subject. Mr Heckewelder thought, and reasoned, like an Indian and a Delaware. In all the contests between the whites and their neighbors, he adopted the train of feeling of the latter. He looked solely at their wrongs, and surely they have been enough, without recollecting the horrible atrocities, which from time to time excited the frontier settlers to deeds of revenge, and, we may add, of vengeance. He looks back to some golden age, when all was peace, and plenty, and innocence; and when the Delawares, the Grandfathers, as he styles them, of all the Indians, exercised a paternal control over

them. All this may have been so, but there is not the slightest reason to believe it. At the time of the arrival of the Europeans, and, in all probability, long before, the golden and the brazen ages of Indian history had passed away, and had been succeeded, as in other countries, by an age of iron. The various petty tribes were in a state of constant war; of bloody, exterminating war; of war, as in all after times, which knew no distinction of age, sex, or condition. And their own situation and traditions, the offensive and defensive armor which was used, and the numberless fortifications scattered through the country, prove, that this last and worst curse, which could befal them, had been operating for ages.

The bounties of Providence, offered to these deluded people for their comfort and subsistence, on the land and in the water, were wilfully rejected for pursuits, which rendered it. unsafe to traverse their forests, or to resort to their rivers and lakes. By Mr Heckewelder's own account, the Delawares were intruders in the Ohio and Atlantic countries, and obtained possession by the extermination of their predecessors.

But independently of these more general views, which led Mr Heckewelder, in all the wars between the whites and the Indians, to see nothing but a contest of strength and avarice on one side, and of weakness and poverty on the other; his personal predilections for the Delawares, and, we may add, his opportunities of intercourse, which were confined to them, gave a strong bias to his judgment on all questions affecting them. Many of his assertions and conclusions are utterly irreconcilable, not only with the most authentic accounts, which have reached us, but with the traditions of other tribes, and with well known circumstances, in which the Delawares have been placed. In fact, his history, if true, would unhinge all our knowledge upon these subjects, and would destroy every vestige of confidence in the early French authors, who wrote almost two centuries ago, under favorable circumstances for observation; and whose knowledge of the Indians extended to every tribe east of the Mississippi, and west of the Allegany mountains. It is not probable, that Mr Heckewelder had the means of comparing these statements with the traditions of the Delawares. He quotes but two or three of them, and these for other purposes. One he designates Father La Hontan, doubtless by an oversight.

La Hontan was a soldier by profession, a skeptic in principle, and a very Münchausen in the narrative of his adventures. His whole account of the Long River is an impudent fiction, utterly irreconcilable with the known geography of the country; and his character is well drawn by Charlevoix. This author says, that the great liberty, which La Hontan gave to his pen, contributed much to make his book read and sought after by those, who could not tell to what a degree truth and falsehood were confounded in it; and adds, that an intimate knowledge of the history of Canada is necessary to enable a reader to separate one from the other. 'In short,' continues Charlevoix, almost all his proper names are mangled, the greater portion of his facts are disfigured, and entire episodes are inserted, which are pure fictions, such as the voyage on the Long River, not less fabulous than the isle of Barataria, of which Sancho Panza was made governor.' 'En effet presque tous les noms propres y sont estropiés, la plupart des faits y sont défigûres, et l'on y trouve des épisodes entiers, qui sont des pures fictions, tel qu'est le voyage sur la Riviére Longue, aussi fabuleuse, que l'Isle Barataria, dont Sancho Pansa fut fait le gouverneur.

The effect of Mr Heckewelder's work, upon the prevailing notions respecting Indian history, is every day more and more visible. It has furnished materials for the writers of periodical works, and even of history; and in one of those beautiful delineations of American scenery, incidents, and manners, for which we are indebted to the taste and talent of our eminent novelist, 'the last of the Mohegans' is an Indian of the school of Mr Heckewelder, and not of the school of nature.* To counteract these erroneous opinions, we shall enumerate some of the more prominent errors, into which

* An anecdote has just gone the round of the papers, which admirably illustrates this misapplication of the feelings and sentiments of civilised life to the Indians. In the account of the introduction of Red Jacket to Lafayette, it is said, that Lafayette asked him, where was the young Seneca, who, in 1784, at Fort Schuyler, so eloquently opposed the burying of the tomahawk. 'The old warrior replied, with all his native peculiarity, "He has the honor to stand before you." Native peculiarity indeed! This might suit a Parisian dancing master. If such a question were ever put to Red Jacket, we venture to say, he struck his breast, elevated himself, and exclaimed, Eeh! It is not a month since we saw, in a respectable paper, an account of a society among the Menomonies, to which persons were admitted by ballot, and where all the ballots must be unanimous to authorise admission!

the author has fallen; contenting ourselves with the tribute we have already paid to the memory of Mr Heckewelder, and to the merits of the work.

The orthography adopted for the name, by which the Delawares distinguished themselves, Lenni Lenape, is not correct, and conveys a very erroneous idea of the sound. It should be written Lenee Lenaupé, with the accent on the last syllable, and a strong expiration of the breath; conveying a sound, which has no exact representative in the English alphabet. Mr Heckewelder indulges himself in much speculation, concerning the meaning of these words. Lenno, he says, is man, and Lenape, original. Lenee is undoubtedly used by the Delawares, in a restricted sense, to signify man. But its more general and proper meaning, is male. Our word original conveys an improper idea of the Delaware word Lenaupé. Its true meaning is common; and it is applied to such objects, either of nature or of art, as are of common occurrence. Thus, Aughkweeyun is cloth, and Lenee Aughkweeyun, is common cloth, such as the Indians ordinarily use. Piyaughkeekun is a gun, and Lenee Piyaughkeekun, is a fusil, or common gun, as contradistinguished from a rifle. The signification of original, given by Mr Heckewelder to the word Lenaupé, furnishes him with an argument to support his favorite theory, that the Delawares are the stock from which all the other Indians descended.* Even if this application were well established, it would only evince a little national vanity, too common and too harmless for serious examination. A similar instance is found in a remote tribe under the arctic circle, who, according to Captain Franklin, designate themselves, the People.+

No inconsiderable portion of this work is devoted to a description of the claims, advanced by the Delawares to a superiority over the other Indians, and to a recapitulation, of their traditions upon this subject. Had the author's acquaintance with the various tribes been more general, he would have known, that these claims were too frequent among them

* There seems to be much confusion in Mr Heckewelder's own ideas of the name in question, as may be seen by comparing the passages in which he speaks of it. See pp. 25, 368, 412.

+Franklin's Narrative, p. 142.