The Delawares are the grandfather of nations, the parent stock from
which have proceeded the many tribes who roam over the woods of this
vast island. From them are descended the red men of the east and the
west, of the shores of the Great Sea and of the northern lakes. Among
these the Mengwe was a favoured grandchild. In the days that are gone,
the Delawares fought his battles, his war was theirs; and the hostile
shout that woke in his woods was answered by the defiance of the sons of
the Leni Lenape.
But the Mengwe was ungrateful, and forgot these benefits; he was
treacherous, and raised his hand against his benefactors and former
friends. His hostile bands invaded the lands of his grandfather, but
they were defeated, and fled howling to their wilderness. The Mengwe, by
their cunning and duplicity, had brought all the tribes of the land upon
the Lenape, whose sons nevertheless continued in possession of their
hunting-grounds, for they were very brave. Still their enemy continued
his arts. He first sought to raise quarrels and disturbances, which in
the end might lead to wars between the Lenape and the distant tribes
who were friendly to them, for which purpose they privately murdered
people on one or the other side, seeking to make the injured party
believe that some particular nation or individual had been the
aggressor. They left a war-club painted as the Lenape paints his[A] in
the country of the Cherokees, where they purposely committed a murder,
and that people, deceived by appearances, fell suddenly on the Lenape,
and a bloody and devastating war ensued between the two nations. They
frequently stole into the country of the Lenape and their associates,
committing murders and making off with plunder. Their treachery having
at length been discovered, the Lenape marched with a powerful force into
their country to destroy them. Finding that they were no match for the
brave Delawares, Thannawage, an aged and wise Mohawk, called the
different tribes of the Mengwe to the great council-fire. "You see,"
said he, "how easily the sons of our grandfather overcome us in battle.
Their pole is strung full of the scalps of our nation, while ours has
but here one and there one. This must not be; the last man of the Mengwe
is not yet prepared to die. We must become united, the Mohawks, the
Oneidas, the Onondagos, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, must become one
people; they must move together in the conflict, they must smoke in one
pipe, and eat their meat in one lodge." The people listened to the words
of Thannawage, and the five nations became one people.
[Footnote A: The different tribes are known by their manner of painting
their war-clubs.]
Still, though united they did not prevail over the Lenape and their
connexions; the latter were most usually victorious. While these wars
were at their greatest height, and when neither could decidedly
pronounce themselves conquerors, the Big-knives arrived in Canada, and a
war commenced between them and the confederated Iroquois. Thus placed
between two fires, and in danger of being exterminated, they resorted to
their old cunning and knavery. They sent a deputation of their principal
warriors, with the sacred calumet (1) and the belt of peace, to the sons
of their grandfather. But they appeared not to wish for peace, but to be
guided by wisdom and compassion alone, and to be fearful only of being
considered as cowards. "A warrior," said they, "with the bloody weapon
in his hand should never intimate, a desire for peace, or hold pacific
language to his enemies. He should shew throughout a determined courage,
and appear as ready and willing to fight as at the beginning of the
contest. Will a man who would not be thought a liar threaten and sue in
the same breath; will he hold the peace-belt in one hand, and smoke the
unpainted calumet, while his other hand grasps a tomahawk? Will he
strike his breast, and say 'I am brave and fearless,' yet shew that he
is a mocking-bird? No, men's actions should be of a piece with their
words, whether good or bad; good cannot come out of evil, neither can
the brave man feel faint-hearted, or the fawn become a tiger. The Mengwe
were brave: they would not abase themselves in the eyes of the Lenape by
admitting that they were vanquished, or proposing peace. They made use
of their women to soften the hearts of our nation. They said to their
wives and the wives of the Lenape, Are you tired of the fathers of your
children?--to the mothers, Does the Lenape hate her sons?--to our young
women, Do the eyes of the maidens turn with aversion from the youths of
your nation? if the wife is tired of her husband, if the mother hate her
sons, if the dark-eyed maiden feels no grief when the Lenape youth goes
forth to battle and certain death, nor sheds a tear when he paints his
face, and dresses his hair, and fills his quiver with arrows, then let
them remain silent, and the messengers of the Mengwe will return to
their nation."
The women to whom they spoke were moved by the eloquence of the
treacherous Iroquois, and they persuaded the enraged combatants to bury
their hatchets, and make the tree of peace grow tall and firm-rooted.
They lamented, with great feeling and many tears, the loss which their
country had sustained in these wars: there was not a woman among them
who had not lost a son, or a brother, or a father, or a husband. They
described the sorrows of bereaved mothers and widowed wives; the pains
mothers endured ere they were permitted to behold their offspring; the
anxieties attending the progress of their sons from infancy to manhood,
from the cradle to the hour when they chewed the bitter root, and put on
new mocassins; these unavoidable evils they had borne: but, after all
these trials, how cruel it was, they said, to see those promising youths
reared with so much care, and so tenderly beloved, fall victims to the
insatiable rage of war, and a prey to the relentless cruelty of their
enemies. "See them slaughtered," cried they, with tears and groans, "on
the field of battle. See them put to death as prisoners by a protracted
torture, and in the midst of lingering torments. Hark, the death-cries!
'Tis the Iroquois, 'tis the Delawares, 'tis the Delawares returning from
battle! I see the beautiful young warriors among them, crowned with
flowers, their faces painted black, and their arms tied with cords.
Hark! they are singing their death-song. 'I am brave and intrepid, I do
not fear death, I care not for tortures. Those who fear them are less
than women. I was bred a warrior; my father never knew fear, and I am
his son.' Then we behold them surrounded with flames, their flesh torn
from their bones, the skin of their head peeled off, coals heaped
thereon, and sharp thorns driven into their flesh. The thought of such
scenes makes us curse our own existence, and shudder at the thought of
bringing children into the world."
Again they gave utterance to loud lamentation and wailing for the
unavoidable separation they were doomed to experience from their
husbands. The men they had selected for their partners, who were to
protect and feed them, to cherish and make them happy, left them exposed
to hunger and a thousand enemies, while they courted dangers in distant
regions. Or, if they followed their husbands, they were exposed in a
greater degree than those husbands themselves to the risks attending the
perilous warfare.
Then the young maidens took up the song, and painted the share of
sorrows which fell to them. Often, when beloved by a youthful hunter,
their hearts were doomed to wither in the pang of an eternal separation.
The eyes they so loved to look upon were soon to be deprived of their
lustre--the step so noble, fearless, and commanding led them but to
death. They called passionately upon their countrymen and upon the
Iroquois to put a stop to war. They conjured them, by every thing that
was dear to them, to take pity on the sufferings of their wives and
helpless infants, their weeping mothers, and beloved maidens; to turn
their faces once more towards their homes, families, and friends; to
forgive the wrongs each nation had suffered from the other, lay aside
their weapons, and smoke together in the pipe of peace and amity. They
had each given sufficient proofs of courage; the contending nations were
alike high-minded and brave: why should they not embrace as friends who
had been respected as enemies?
Thus spoke the women, at the prompting of the artful Mengwe; it is not
necessary to say that they were listened to. The Delawares at length
came to believe that it would be an honour to a powerful nation, who
could not be suspected of wanting either courage or strength, with arms
in their hands and recent victory perched on the staff of their nation,
to assume that station by which they would be the means, and the only
means, of saving the Indian race from utter extirpation.
To the voice of the women the artful Mengwe added many arguments, which
were of weight with the unsuspecting Delawares, and many pleas
addressed to their generosity. There remained, they said, no resource
for them but that some magnanimous nation should assume the part and
situation of _the woman_(2).
It could not be given to a weak and contemptible tribe; such would not
be listened to: it must be given to a valiant and honoured tribe, and
such were the Delawares--one who should command influence and respect.
As men, they had been justly dreaded; as women, they would be respected
and honoured; none would be so daring or base as to attack or insult
them; as women, they would have a right to interfere in all the quarrels
of other nations, and to stop or prevent the effusion of Indian blood.
They entreated them, therefore, to become _the woman_ in name and in
fact; to lay down their arms and all the insignia of warriors; to devote
themselves to planting corn and other pacific pursuits, and thus become
the means of preserving peace and harmony among the nations.
Unhappily, our nation listened to this croaking of a raven; and forgot
how many times it had been heard before disturbing their slumbers and
ringing its echoes in the hollow night. They knew it was true that the
Indian nations, excited by their own wild passions, were in the way of
total extirpation by each other's hand. And, foolish men! they believed,
notwithstanding all past experience, that the Mengwe were sincere, and
only wished the preservation of the Indian race. As if the panther could
forget its nature, or the rattlesnake cease to remember its means of
defence; as if the Mengwe had forgotten the blood of their race, which
had been shed by the sons of the Lenape, and could think of forgiveness
while their defeats were the subject of every dream.
In a luckless hour, the Delawares gave their consent, and agreed to
become women. Then the Iroquois appointed a great feast, and invited the
Delaware nation to it. They came at the bidding of their treacherous
foes, and were declared by them, in the following words, to be no longer
men and warriors, but women and peace-makers. "We dress you," said the
orator, "in a woman's long habit, reaching down to your feet, and we
adorn your ears with rings," meaning that they should no more take up
arms. "We hang a calabash, filled with oil and medicines, upon your arm.
With the oil you shall cleanse the ears of other nations, that they may
attend to good and not to bad words; and with the medicine you shall
heal those who are walking in foolish ways, that they may return to
their senses, and incline their hearts to peace. And we deliver into
your hands a plant of Indian corn and a hoe, which shall be the emblems
of your future calling and pursuits." So the great peace-belt, the chain
of friendship, was laid upon the shoulders of the new mediator, who
became a woman, buried the tomahawk, planted the corn, and forgot the
glories which Areskoui confers upon the successful and dauntless
warrior.
Before this, no Mengwe had been permitted, even when at peace, to visit
the country of the Delawares. Whenever such had appeared, whenever the
blue feather of an Iroquois was seen in a glade of the Lenape
wihittuck[A], its possessor was hunted down as one hunts a wolf or a
bear. But, now _the woman_ had voluntarily abandoned her bow and her
spear, what had she to do with weapons of war? The former warrior needed
now no paints, unless to attract the eye of a maiden; the Mengwe needed
not to fear the Lenape women. Then the pleasant glades of the Lenape
wihittuck became thronged with curious eyes and false hearts; hostile
feet threaded the mazes of her forest; hostile hands were laid upon the
most fertile spots of her territory. To-day, came a few Iroquois; they
wished for but a little piece of land--they had it. To-morrow, came
another band; they wanted permission to kill a very few deer--it was
granted them, and the cry of the hunter of the lakes was heard from the
sea to the mountains. One remained, that the seeds of peace might not
wither; another, to protect, oh changed times! _the woman_, who was the
peace-maker, from the tomahawks of hostile tribes. But, while they were
amusing the Lenape with flattering tales and the songs of mocking-birds,
they were concerting measures to destroy them. They left war-clubs, such
as the Delawares used, in the lands of the Cherokees, to incite them to
fall upon us. Why delays my tongue to finish its tale? The fatal
unmanning of our tribe wrought our ruin. The white people encroached
upon us, because we were women and could not resent; the men of our own
colour were not more just or generous. The Delawares stand abased by the
children of their grandchild, overthrown by men defeated in a hundred
battles. They are no longer warriors, but women.
[Footnote A: Lenape wihittuck, river of the Lenape.]
Brothers, I would weep, were I not a man, for the downfall of my nation.