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 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. 10 The Huron, or as Mr Heckewelder terms it, the Iroquois, is certainly one of the original languages spoken by the Indians of the United States. It is confined to the Wyandots, the Iroquois, and their kindred tribes. The attempt to reduce the Sioux language, under the same general head, could have originated only in the very defective materials, which Mr Heckewelder possessed. The languages comprehended in that class, and spoken by the Sioux, the Winebagoes, the Joways, the Ottos, the Missouries, are radically different from the Huron. And what reason is given, for this dismission of one of the general divisions of the received classification, and for ranging the Hurons and Sioux as branches of the same family? No vocabulary is inserted or referred to; nothing but the sic volo to satisfy the inquirer. In page 390, indeed, the facts are given by Mr Heckewelder, in support of this hypothesis, and most strange they are. It is there suggested, that the Naudowessies or Sioux, and the Hurons or Wyandots, are the same people, because there are three rivers, which we call Huron, and which the Chippewas call Naduwewi, or Naudowessie Sipi, in the vicinity of Detroit. Nautowa is the Chippewa name for the Wyandots, and Assigona for the Iroquois. In the plural Nautowake and Assigonake. Their true name for the Sioux is Bwoinuk; but Naudowessie is the Chippewa word for enemy, and as the Sioux have for generations carried on war against them, this appellation is sometimes emphatically given to them by the Chippewas. The name of the rivers referred to by Mr Heckewelder is Nautowa Sepe, or River of the Wyandots, and probably took its rise from some local occurrence connected with them. The Sioux and the Wyandots, as we can testify from our own observation, are different from each other in appearance, local residence, many important traits of character and manners, languages, and in everything, which, in the present state of our knowledge, constitutes Indian national identity. Mr Duponceau's opinion of the harmony and music of the Wyandot language struck us as remarkable. Of all the languages spoken by man, since the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, it least deserves this character. It is harsh, guttural, and undistinguishable; filled with intonations, that seem to start from the speaker with great pain and effort. It is a well known fact, that no man ever became master of it, after he had arrived at years of maturity; and its acquisition is universally considered upon the frontier as a hopeless task. We cannot but suspect our friends, Armstrong and Walker,' of playing old soldiers, and giving a mellifluous twang to their speech, to which it had no legitimate pretensions. Mr Duponceau displays much philological acuteness, and an entire knowledge of the principles of universal grammar; and he deserves great credit for the ardor, with which he has devoted himself to these tedious and laborious investigations, many of which are ably and successfully conducted. But he is evidently much given to classification; he began these inquiries apparently with a strong predisposition for admiration, and with high expectations, that new and important principles would be developed. What,' says he, would Tibullus or Sappho have given, to have had at their command a word at once so tender and so expressive! And what is the word, which has such power to kindle his enthusiasm? It is one, which, in its true orthography, if it sounds to the Muses as it does to our dull ears, would put to flight every poetical effusion; Wulamalessohalian, Thou who makest me happy.' The word should be written and pronounced, Walemulsoohauleun, or Walemulsoo hauleun, for we are strongly inclined to think, that liberties have been taken in these combinations, not wholly justified by the Delaware language. The infinitive of the verb is said, by Mr Duponceau, as quoted from Zeisberger, to be Wulamalessohen, 'to make happy.' Hence, Wulamalessohalid, Wulamalessohalian, He who makes me happy. As the only variations, by which the pronouns are expressed in these cases, are alid, alquon, alat, alian, these must respectively mean, he who me,' he who thee,' 'he who him, thou who me.' There are no pronominal affixes, nor do either of these syllables indicate the separable, or inseparable pronominal suffixes. There is no word for who, in the whole range of the Indian languages, as far as we are acquainted with them, and there is certainly none in the Delaware. Into whatever elements these terminations may be resolved, the meaning, rendered necessary by the subjoined |