to be entitled to much consideration. The traditions of almost all of them bear too evident marks of national partiality, to be received without due caution. The patronymic name, Grandfather, applied by most of the tribes to the Delawares, and so much relied upon by Mr Heckewelder, furnishes no ground for the conclusion which he draws. The family appellations, given by various tribes to one another, cannot be traced to any relations, which have subsisted between them, since their history has been known to us. This is a curious subject, and involved in much obscurity. Perhaps a full consideration of it might lead to important conclusions. They seem to have considered themselves members of one family, standing in different degrees of relation to one another. Of this family, the Wyandot tribe is the elder brother. All the other tribes, except the Delaware, acknowledge this claim of primogeniture, on the part of the Wyandots. The Delawares call them uncle, and this relation is acknowledged by the use of the corresponding term nephew. The terins, grandfather and grandchildren, are interchangeably used between the other tribes and the Delawares. those, some are brothers, and some younger brothers. And it is not a little remarkable, that these claims of kindred seem to have no connexion with the present languages spoken by the Indians. We should naturally expect, that the most remote relations would be found subsisting between tribes, whose languages are radically different; being probably descended from different stocks, or from the same stock at very different intervals.

We place no reliance on the traditionary narrative, given by the Delawares, of their early migrations. Of all sources of information these legendary tales are the most uncertain.* How many accounts have been given by the Indians, of the former existence of the mammoth, and of the period and circumstances of their extinction? Every reader will recollect the speech in the Notes on Virginia,' respecting the escape of the last of the species. And yet all these pretended traditions must have been mere fictions, probably in

*In the second volume of Major Long's first expedition, page 371, in a report from that officer to the War Department, are some sound and judicious observations, concerning the value of Indian traditions. They accord entirely with our observation, and we recommend their perusal to all, who are disposed to give much credit to these legends.

vented to satisfy the inquiries of the, white man. Geologists are now teaching us, that these remains are wrecks of the antediluvian world.

The account given by the Delawares, of the destruction of the Allegewi, is probably entitled to similar credit. The derivation of the present name of the Allegany river from that word may be correct. Our information does not enable us to form an opinion upon this point. But it adds little to the probability of the story, which it is introduced to support, if it be as erroneous as the derivation of the word Mississippi. Mr Heckewelder derives this from Namæs, a fish, and Sipu, river. A most unfortunate appellation for the Mississippi, unless it is intended to denote, that very few fish are found in it. The fact is, the name is derived from two Chippewa words, Meesee, great, and Seepee, river. This word Meesee, or Meechee, for it is differently pronounced in different places, is found in Michigan, Michilimackinac, Missouri, Mississaugau, and in many other names.

The ancient fortifications, scattered through the United States, and attributed by Mr Heckewelder to these Allegewi, have been the fruitful source of abundant speculation. We have no doubt, that they were erected by the forefathers of the present Indians, as places of refuge against the incursions of their enemies, and of security for their women and children, when they were compelled to leave them for the duties of the chase. And much of the mystery, in which this subject has been involved, owes its origin to a want of due consideration of the circumstances and condition of the Indians. We do not reflect on their almost infinite division into petty tribes, and on their hereditary and exterminating hostilities. Nor have we reflected, that the stone tomahawk is a very inefficient instrument for cutting timber into palisades; nor that, if fire be adopted as a substitute, the process is tedious and laborious. Their transportation, too, must have been a serious objection to their use, and in a few years they required renewal. Even when otherwise proper, they were always liable to be burned by the enemy. These circum

* Wherever the human race is placed, similar circumstances lead to similar customs. Dr Clarke remarks, that, a peculiar circumstance characterised the topography of ancient Greece. Every metropolis possessed its citadel and plain; the citadel as a place of refuge during war, the plain as a source of agriculture during peace.'

stances render it probable, that the erection of earthen parapets was the most economical and desirable mode, in which the Indians could provide for the security of themselves, and of those, who were most dear to them. And their migratory habits will sufficiently account for the number of these works, without resorting to the existence of a dense population, utterly irreconcilable with the habits of a people, who have not yet passed the hunter state of life. But a full consideration of this topic would carry us far beyond the limits of this article.

The history of the former power of the Delawares, and of the manner in which the sceptre departed from them, is almost too puerile for grave criticism. That an Indian tribe, while in the full career of victory, should be stopped, by a proposition from their rivals and enemies to become women, to put on a petticoat, or matchicoaté, the last degradation to which a warrior could submit, requires a degree of credulity greater than has fallen to our lot. This story is utterly irreconcilable with all previous accounts. The Delawares, two centuries ago, were a comparatively feeble tribe, occupying the eastern portion of Pennsylvania. They had yielded to the power of the Iroquois, the Romans of this part of the continent. These facts are stated by the Iroquois, and are corroborated by a thousand circumstances. It is not necessary to adduce the proofs here. Many of them will be found in the discourse of Governor Clinton, to which we have before referred. It will there be seen, that the powerful Iroquois confederacy had obtained a preponderating influence over all the Indians, who surrounded them, and that they carried dismay and death from the St Lawrence to the Mississippi.

Mr Heckewelder expresses his wonder, that the French historians took no notice of the Delawares. This tribe, however, is sometimes mentioned by them under the name of Loups, and not of Lenape, as he was informed by a French gentleman. This term, Loups, like the Chat sauvage, applied to the Shawnese, was, at first, probably a mere sobriquet, accidentally given, and continued, because it enabled the French to converse about the Indians, in their own presence, and without their knowledge. These names had no relation, as Mr Heckewelder supposes, to the name of any particular

tribe. In like manner, and with similar views, the Dahcotah were called Sioux; the Hochunkerah, Puans; the Wyandots, Hurons; the Menomonies, Folles Avoines; the Chippewas, Sauteurs; and all the others had similar masked appellations. But a sufficient reason for the little figure made by the Delawares, in the early histories, will be found in the total loss of their power and influence, and in the disgraceful necessity of passing sub jugo before their enemies. Their own account of this transaction is a nursery tale, by which a fallen people endeavor to conceal from others, and perhaps from themselves, the story of their defeat and disgrace.

We did intend to advert to other important errors, into which Mr Heckewelder has been led by his partial knowledge of the Indian tribes, and by the unbounded confidence he placed in the stories of his Delaware friends. Not certainly, on our part, in any captious temper, but merely to guard the reader against too implicit confidence in general results, when important details are thus obviously erroneous. Among these is his brief account of the Wyandots, formerly, we are inclined to believe, at the head of all the Indians, and holding the great Council Fire; and yet claiming the first seat and signature at all treaties. Of a similar nature is his account of Tecumthé, whom he confounds with the Prophet. They were brothers, but as different in their characters, as they have been in their fate. The conversation between Colonel Crawford and Wingenund, is, we have reason to believe, wholly apocryphal. It accords as little with our notions of Indian sentiments, as it does with the account we have received of this melancholy catastrophe from other quarters.† But we are admonished, by the task yet before us, to bring these observations to a close, and to submit to our readers a few brief remarks, on the philological discussions contained in this work.

* The name of this celebrated chief has usually been written in this country, Tecumseh, but the true orthography is Tecumthé, as in the text, and as it is correctly written by the Canadian and English writers.

The dialogue between Crawford and Wingenund, occupies three pages of the book. No white man was, or could be, present to hear or to record it. It contains quite a logical argument between the Indian Chief, and the victim at the stake, respecting the justice of the approaching execution. Had you,' says Wingenund, attended to the Indian principle, that as good and evil cannot dwell together in the same heart,' &c. This Indian principle is new to us,

Mr Heckewelder divides the languages, spoken by our Indian tribes, into four great classes, which he denominates the Karalit, the Iroquois, the Lenape, and the Floridian.* With the first class we have no concern. It is spoken only by the Eskimaux. The others are intended to comprehend all the dialects, which are found in this part of the continent.

The great division of the French writers was into the Huron, the Algonquin, and the Sioux languages; and the first reflection, which strikes us, is, whether anything is gained by this new classification. Of the dialects spoken in the south, and which Mr Heckewelder denominates Floridian, such as the Creek, the Choctaw, Cherokee, and Chickasaw, we know too little to hazard an opinion; and far too little presumptuously to determine, whether they are primitive or derivative. Ignorance is preferable to error, and as Mr Heckewelder furnishes no authority for this branch of his general synopsis, and acknowledges (p. 113) 'that we know very little about the southern Indians,' we may safely dismiss, for some future opportunity, all considerations connected with them. They may, or they may not, be radically different from the other languages.

and it would be difficult to find it, either speculatively or practically, in any other place, than this Delaware school of ethics. Crawford asks Wingenund if their former friendship still continued; to which the latter very stoically replies, 'It would be the same, were you in your proper place and not here.'

In page 311, in another dialogue, an Indian is made to say, 'I am a kind of Chief; and p. 313,How much meat would my wife have dried, how much tallow saved and sold, or exchanged for salt, flour, tea, and chocolate!' He, who can believe that such conversations actually took place, must be left to correct his opinions in the school of experience.

Tarhé, or the Crane, the late principal Chief of the Wyandots, and one of the most respectable Indians whom we ever knew, has more than once related to us all the incidents attending the death of Colonel Crawford. Wingenund and the Delawares, in the circumstances preceding that transaction, did not occupy the stations assigned them in Mr Heckewelder's history. The Wyandots fought the battle and gained the victory. They, however, relinquished the murder of Crawford to the Delawares, because the latter were importunate in their demands for his surrender to them.

Tarhé, or the Crane, is the Chief, who is stated by Mr Heckewelder to have murdered Leather Lips, in obedience to the orders of the Prophet. No order was ever issued by the Prophet to Tarhé. The rank, character, and authority of the Wyandot Chief forbade such an interposition, and his feelings and principles would have prevented his interference, had the attempt been made to influence him. Leather Lips was killed during the delusion, which prevailed among the Indians, after their general convocation at Greenville, to hear the doctrines of the Prophet.

* See Heckewelder's Historical Account, Chap. IX.

VOL. XXII.-No. 50.

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