along the Iroquois border, from whence their domain
extended southward to the Musconetcong* Mountains,
about the northern boundary of the present county of
Hunterdon. The Unamis and Unalachtgo branches
of the Lenape or Delaware nation (comprising the
tribes of Assanpinks, Matas, Shackamaxons, Chiche-
quaas, Raritans, Nanticokes, Tuteloes, and many
others) inhabited the country between that of the
Minsi and the sea-coast, embracing the present coun-
ties of Hunterdon and Somerset and all that part of
the State of New Jersey south of their northern
boundaries. The tribes who occupied and roamed
over these counties, then, were those of the Turtle
and Turkey branches of the Lenni Lenape nations,
but the possessions and boundaries of each cannot be
clearly defined.
The Indian name of the Delaware nation, Lenni
Lenape, signifies, in their tongue, " the original peo-
ple," — a title which they had adopted under the
claim that they were descended from the most ancient
of all Indian ancestry. This claim was admitted by
the Wyandots, Miamis, and more than twenty other
aboriginal nations, who accorded to the Lenape the
title of grandfathers, or a people whose ancestry ante-
dated their own. The Rev. John Heckewelder, in his
* " The Wolf, commonly called the Minsi, which we have corrupted into
3£onsoyS, had chosen to live back of the other two tribes, and formed a
kind of bulwark fur their protection, watching the motions of the Meng-
weand beingal hand toaffordaid in case of a rupture with them. The
Minsi were considered the oiosl warlike and active branch of the Lenape.
They extended their settlements from the Mini-ink, a place named after
them, where they bad their council-seat and lire, quite up to the Hudson
on the east, and to Ho- west and south far beyond tin; Susquehanna,
Their northern boundaries were supposed originally to be the heads of
the great livers Susquehanna and Delaware, and their southern thai
ridge of bills known in New Jersey by the name of Muskanucuin, and
in Pennsylvania by those of Lehigh, Conowago, etc Within this
boundary were their principal settlements ; and even as late as the year
1742 Hoy bad a (own with a peach-orchard on the tract of laud whore
BTozoretb, in Pennsylvania, has since been built, another on the Lehigh,
and others beyond the Blue Bidge, besides many family settlements horo
and there scattered."- WMory, Manners, and OvsUmi of Hie Indian Nu-
timlKlvlitJ "ikc inlinlnh;! I'numijlmnia" Ly Hf.r. Jahn Ih ,/.,,,, 1,1, , h
" History of the Manners and Customs of the Indian
Nations," says of the Delaware nation, —
" They will not admit that the whites are superior beings. They say
that the hair of their heads, their features, and the various colors of
their eyes evince that they are not, like themselves, Lenni Lenape, — an
original people, — a race of men that has existed unchanged from the be-
ginning of time ; but that they are a mixed race, aud therefore a trouble-
some one. Wherever they may be, the Great Spirit, knowing the wick-
edness of their disposition, found it necessary to give them a Great
Book, and taught them how to read it that they might know and ob-
serve what He wished them to do and what to abstain from. But they — â–
the Indians — have uo need of any such book to let them know the will
of their Maker : they find it engraved on their own hearts;. they have
had sufficient discernment given to them to distinguish good from evil,
and by following that guido they are sure not to err."
Concerning the origin of the LenapS, numerous
and essentially differing traditions were current among
the various tribes. One of these traditions is men-
tioned by Loskiel in his " History of the Mission of
the United Brethren among the North American In-
dians," as follows :
" Among the Delawares, those of the Minsi or "Wolf tribe say that in
the beginning they dwelt in the earth under a lake, and were fortu-
nately extricated from this unpleasant abode by the discovery which one
of their men made of a hole, through which he ascended to the surface;
on which, as lie was walking, he found a deer, which he carried back
with him into his subterraneous habitation ; that the deer was eaten,
and he aud his companions found the meat so good that they unani-
mously determined to leave their dark abode aud remove to a place
where they could enjoy the light of heaven aud have such excellent
game in abundance.
" The two other tribes, the Unamis or Tortoise, and the Unalachtgos
or Turkey jf have much similar notions, but reject the story of the lake,
which seems peculiar to the Minsi tribe."
There was another leading tradition current among
the nations of the Lenape, which was to the effect
that, ages before, their ancestors had lived in a far-off
country to the west, beyond great rivers and moun-
tains, and that, in the belief that there existed, away
towards the rising sun, a red man's paradise, — a land
of deer and beaver and salmon, — they had left their
western home and traveled eastward for many moons,
until they stood on the western shore of the Namisi
Sipu (Mississippi), and there they met a numerous
nation, migrating like themselves. They were a stran-
ger tribe, of whose very existence the Lenape had
been ignorant. They were none other than the Meng-
we; and this was the first meeting of those two peo-
ples, who afterwards became rivals and enemies, and
continued such for centuries. Both were now trav-
elers and bound on the same errand. But they found
a lion in their path, for beyond the great river lay (he
domain of a nation called Allegewi, who were not
only strong in numbers and brave, but more skilled
than themselves in the art of war, who had reared
great defenses of earth inclosing their villages and
strongholds. In the true spirit of military strategy,
they permitted a part of the emigrants to cross the
river, ami then, having divided their antagonists, fell
upon them with great fury to annihilate them. But
when flic Lenape saw this they at once formed an al-
t The tribes to which belonged the bands which inhabited the counties
of Somerset arid Hunterdon.
[NDIAN OCCUPATION.— THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE.
13
liance, offensive and defensive, with the Mengwe.
II iin body crossed the river and attacked the Al-
i h iih such desperate eni rgj thai they defeated
mill afterwards drove them into the interior, where
the] fought from stronghold to stronghold, til] finally,
aftei a long and bloody war, the AHegewi were not
only humiliated, but exterminated, and their country
was occupied by the victors. After this both cations
ranged eastward, the Mengwe taking the northern
a nc I the Lenape still keeping the 'i southern route,
until, after long journeyings, the former reached the
Mohicanittuck (Hudson River and the latter rested
ii | >• >n the banks of the la-nap.'- Wihittuck, — the beau-
tiful river now known as the Delaware, — and here
they iiminl that Indian elysium of which they had
dreamed before they left their old homes in the land
hi' the setting sun.
These, ami other similar Indian traditions may or
may nut have some degree of foundation in fact.
There are to-day many enthusiastic searchers through
the realms of aboriginal lore who accepl them as au-
thentic, ami who believe that the combined Lenapfi
ami Mengwe did destroy a great ami comparatively
civilized people, ami that the unfortunate Allegewi
who wen- thus extinguished were uo thers than
the mysterious Mound-Builders of tie- Mississippi
valley. This, however, is hut one of tin' many profit-
less conjectures which have been indulged in with
refi :e to thai unknown | pie, ami is in noway
pertinent t<> this history. All Indian tribes were fond
of narrating the long journeys ami great di
their forefathers, and of tracing their ancestry back
i mries, s of them claiming descent from the
great Manitou himself. Missionaries and travelers
imong them \\ lu> were, or professed to be, familiar
with their language and customs have spoken with
appan m sincerity of Indian chronology running back
tu a period before the < Ihristian era, and aome of the
olil enthusiasts claimed thai these aborigines were
descendants of the hist tribes of Israel. But all the
traditions of the Indians wen so clouded and involved
in improbability and so interwoven with superstition,
and the speculations of antiquarian writers have a] si
uniformly heen so ha-ile - ami ehi ri.nl. that the
• In a small, quaint, and now very rarovoluroo entltlod*' V H
hi .-I ilir 1'im\ ln< o anil ' 'ounl i v i v.
node Publtck mi now, b.\ Qabriol II a-. I Ion, 1008," and
i i ii. I., lit ii
Knights and aldormon .-t the Citj M I to tin- real of tho
Worth] Uoinboi ol thi WostJ I I I tho following,
this : " Tho Ural lull il
3 wore tin- Indtans, being aupp «©d to be part -.1 lh<
i â– ol I ' â– in their
md - thing In their Pi id Worship; foi tl
â–
Reverence Villi tb IFrull they oflbr, with their Corn and limit-
it in the whole year, to n False D
whom tlioy must please, el many misfortunes will be-
fall thom, and grant Injurlos will i- •! Uiem. Whon they bury their
Dead, thoy put Into tho Qround wlUi them nslls and
tome Mouoj it tokens ol Iholr l.ovo am! Affection), with otti
thoy sliall have Oc< islou ful tbem In Uio other World."
whole subject of Indian origin may he dismissed aa
profitless.
'tin- Indians, from tin- earliest times, considered
themselves in a manner connected with certain ani-
mals, as i- evident from various eustoins preserved
among them, and from tin- fact that, both collectively
aiel individually, they assumed tin- names of such
animal-. Loskiel says, —
i besnppoeed thai those animals 1 namos which they
I
i II tn tho
i iii..-.- denominations, Uie
Plio —or, as they aro
commonly called, the 7"...-v,'. tribe, among the Lcnape, claim
elation, Uio great
i fabled monsl tcoording
i.i their tradition , on li is back,-f mil
amphlbion ithon land ami in the water, which ueittier
. which
gives its name to the second tribe,are thai hi 1 always
ui Mi. in. As to it"- li ••'/, after which tin- third trilio
i- inn I. he Is a rambler by nature, ninning A toanother
as it WBS
I;. bis in. -mi- 1 1 1. 1 1 the Indiana i; - t out <-i the Intorlor -i the earth, it
they believe, who by tho appointment Spirit killed
iln- deer which tin- ttonsey found win. l'n-i discoveri
i 'I artli, and which allured thorn to como out of tbeh damp
and dark nil- Vox thai reason the woll i- i" be honored and his
them.
"These It is true, they all use as nati i In
ler at li and â–
iiii- j-iini ..t view Mi. I'viin.-ii- wit- right i"
..i-niiii-.- The Turtit ilium dnra lOithei wiUi a coal or with paint,
along the war-path, the wholo animal, car-
rylng agon with th* ird; and if he leavi - a murk
nt in.- i-i ma. I.- a atroke on In- enemy, ii will be ilio
/..r/.-y ii lbs paint
turkey, and tl'<- a / tribe sometimes a v
band, in which the animal also can
wiili iln- mn//i.- forward. They, however,do nol generally uw the word
• w.ilf w bei ii tribe, bul call themselves f -ini. - u. which
I '. thai animal having a round lb
It does m.t appear that the Indians inhabiting the
interior portion - ..t' New Jeraej were very numerous.
In an old publication entitled "A Description of New
Albion," ami dated \.n. L648, it i- found stated that
the native people in thi- section were governed by
about twenty kings; bul the Insignificance of the
power of those " kings" may he inferred by tin- accom-
panying statement that there were " twelve hundred
[Indians; under the two Karitan kings on the north
side, next to Hudson's River, and those cat town
t.. the ocean about little Egg-bay and Sandy Bame-
gatte; and about the South Cape two small kings of
forty men apiece, ami a third, reduced to fourteen
in. -n. at i;..\ m. ml." Prom which it appears evident
that the SO-Called " kings" Were no more than ordi-
nary chiefs, and that sou f these scarcely had a
following. Whitehead, in hi- " East Jersey under
the Proprietary Governments," concludes, from the
above-quoted statement, "that there were probably
t Ami they belli - tortoise br-c-ama
Luakea.
14
HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.
not more than two thousand [Indians] within the
province while it was under the domination of the
Dutch." And in a publication* bearing date fifty
years later (1698) the statement is made that "the
Dutch and Swedes inform us that they [the Indians]
are greatly decreased in numbers to what they were
when they came first into this country. And the In-
dians themselves say that two of them die to every one
Christian that comes in here."
There is found, however, in the ancient workf be-
fore extracted from, an extravagant account of the
(imaginary) state of "the Raritan king," J whose seat
is represented to have been at a place called by the
English Mount Ployden, "twenty miles from Sandhay
Sea, and ninety from the ocean, next to Amara hill,
the retired paradise of the children of the Ethiopian
emperor, — a wonder, for it is a square rock, two miles'
compass, one hundred and fifty feet high ; a wall-like
precipice, a strait entrance, easily made invincible,
where he keeps two hundred for his guards, and under
is a flat valley, all plain to plant and sow." But there
is no place known answering the above description,
though the Rev. G. C. Schenck, in a paper read be-
fore the New Jersey Historical Society, suggests that
what is known as the Round Valley (north of Round
Mountain, in the township of Clinton, in Hunterdon
County) corresponds in general with Plantagenet's
topographical description^ of the kingly seat. To con-
cede this, however, requires a considerable stretch of
imagination ; and it is hard to resist the conviction
that it was in the author's imagination, and there
alone, that the impregnable " mount," the " retired
paradise of the children of the Ethiopian emperor,"
and the royal guard of two hundred men had their
existence.
Before the European explorers had penetrated to
the territories of the Lenape" the power and prowess
of the Iroquois had reduced the former nation to the
condition of vassals. The attitude of the Iroquois,
however, was not wholly that of conquerors over the
Delawares, for they mingled, to some extent, the
character of protectors with that of masters. It has
been said of them that " the humiliation of tributary
nations was to them [the Iroquois] tempered with a
paternal regard for their interests in all negotiations
* Gabriel Thomas' " Historical Description of the Province and Coun-
try of West New Jersey in America."
f Plantagenet's Description of Now Albion.
% " The Indians of New Jersey were divided among about twenty petty
kings, of whom the king of the Raritans was the greatest." — Riker, p. 37.
g "The seat of the Raritan kings was upon an inland mountain (prob-
ably the Neshiinic Mountain, which answers approximately to tho de-
scription)." — Rev. E. T. CwvAiCi Mxtoricul Dwvourne, 18G6, p. 9.
The Rev. Abraham Messier, D.D., in his " Centennial History of Som-
erset County," says: "If wo wore inclined to favor Biich romance, wo
should claim that no placo so well answers the description [of tho "seat
of the Raritan king"] as the bluff in tho gorge of Chimney Rock, north
of the little bridge, on tho west and east sides of which tho two rivulets
flow and meet a few yards southward in tho main gorgo. Rut wo are
not disposed to practice on the credulity of our readers, as tho Indiana
evidently did on Beauchamp Plantagenet, Esq."
with the whites, and care was taken that no tres-
passes should be committed on their rights, and that
they should be justly dealt with." This means,
simply, that the Mengwe would, so far as lay in their
power, see that none others than themselves should
be permitted to despoil the Lenape. They exacted
from them an annual tribute, an acknowledgment of
their state of vassalage, and on this condition they
were permitted to occupy their former hunting-
grounds. Bands of the Five Nations, however, were
interspersed among the Delawares|| probably more
as a sort of police, and for the purpose of keeping a
watchful eye upon them, than for any other purpose.
The Delawares regarded their conquerors with feel-
ings of inextinguishable hatred (though these were
held in abeyance by fear), and they also pretended to
a feeling of superiority on account of their more an-
cient lineage and their further removal from original
barbarism, which latter claim was perhaps well
grounded. On the part of the Iroquois, they main-
tained a feeling of haughty superiority towards their
vassals, whom they spoke of as no longer men and
warriors, but as women. There is no recorded instance
in which unmeasured insult and stinging contempt
were more wantonly and publicly heaped on a cowed
and humiliated people than on the occasion of a
treaty held in Philadelphia in 1742, when Connossa-
tego, an old Iroquois chief, having been requested by
the Governor to attend (really for the purpose of
forcing the Delawares to yield up the rich lands of
the Minisink), arose in the council, where whites and
Delawares and Iroquois were convened, and in the
name of all the deputies of his confederacy said to
the Governor that the Delawares had been an unruly
people and were altogether in the wrong, and that
they should be removed from their lands ; and then,
turning superciliously towards the abashed Delawares,
said to them, " You deserve to be taken by the hair
of your heads and shaken until you recover your
senses and become sober. We have seen a deed,
signed by nine of your chiefs over fifty years ago, for
this very land. But how came you to take it upon
yourselves to sell lands at all ? We conquered you ;
we made women of you ! You know you are women
and can no more sell lands than women. Nor is it fit
that you should have power to sell lands, since you
would abuse it. You have had clothes, meat, and
drink, by the goods paid you for it, and now you
want it again, like children, as you are. What makes
you sell lands in the dark? Did you ever tell us
you had sold this land ? Did we ever receive any
part, even to the value of a pipe-shank, from you for
it ? This is acting in the dark, — very differently from
the conduct which our Six Nations observe in the
|| The same policy was pursued by the Five Nations towards the Sha-
waneso, who had boen expelled from the far Southwest by stronger
tribes, and a portion ofwhom, traveling eastward as far as the country
adjoining the Delawares, had been permitted to erect their lodges there,
but were, like the Lenape, held in a state of subjection by the Iroquois.
LNDIAN OCCUPATION.— THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE
15
sales of land. But we find you are none of our
blood; yon act a dishonest part in this as in other
matters. Your ears are ever open to slanderous reports
about your brethren. For all these reasons we charge
yov to remove instantly/ Wis do not givt you liberty to
think about it. You are women! Take the advice of
a wise man, ami rcmnrr iiuhntllij ! You may ri'tuni
to the other side of the river, where you came from,
bul we do not know whether, considering how you
have demeaned yourselves, you will be permitted to
live there, or whether you have not already swallowed
that land down your throats, as well as the land .m
this side. You maj go either to Wyoming or Shamo-
kin, and then we shall have you under our eye and
can gee how you behave. Don't deliberate, bul go,
and lake this bell « » I" wampum." He then forbade
them ever again to interfere in anj matters between
White man and Indian, or ever, under any pretext, to
pretend to sell lands; and as they (the [roquois), he
said, had some business of importance to transact with
the Englishmen, he commanded them to immediately
leave the council, like children and women, as they
were.
Heciewelder, however, attempts to rescue the '.rood
name of the humbled Delawares by giving some of
their explanations, intended to show that the epithet
" women," as applied to them by the Iroquois, was
originally a term of distinction rather than reproach,
and "that the making women of the Delawares was
boI . ; " act of compulsion, but the result of their own
free will and consent." He gives the story, as it was
narrated hv the I >elawares, substantially in this way :
The Delawares were always too powerful for the
[roquois, so that the latter were at lengtb convinced
that if wars between them should continue, their own
extirpation would become inevitable. Thej accord-
ingly sent b message to the Delawares, representing
that if continual wars were to be carried on between
the nations, this would eventual!) work the ruin of
the whole Indian race ; thai in order to prevent this
ii was necessar; that one nation should lay down
their arms ami be called the woman, or mediator, with
power to command the peace between the other na-
tions who might be disposed to persist in hostilities
against each other, and finally recommending that
the part of the woman should be assumed by the
Delawares, as the most powerful of all the nations.
The Delawares, upon receiving this message, and
not perceiving the treacherous intention- of the [ro-
quois, consented to the proposition. The [roquois
then appointed a council and feast, and invited the
Delawares to it, when, in pursuance of the authority
given, they made a solemn speech, containing three
capital points. The first was thai the Delawares be
land they were) declared women, in the following
words :
" \\ e dies- you iii (i woman's long habit, reaching
down to your feet, and adorn you with ear-rings,"
meaning that they should no more take up arms.
The second point was thin expressed: "We hang a
Calabash filled with Oil and medicine upon your arm.
With the oil you shall cleanse the ears of other na-
tions, that they may attend to good ami not to bad
words; and with the medicine you shall heal those
walking in foolish ways, that they may return
to their senses and incline their hearts to peace." The
third point, by which the Delawares were exhorted to
make agriculture their future employment and means
of subsistence, was thus worded: "We deliver into
your hand- a plan! of Indian coin and a hoc." Each
of these points was confirmed by delivering a belt of
Wampum, and these belts were can-fully laid away,
ami their meaning frequently repeated.
"The [roquois, on the contrary, assert that they
conquered the Delawares, and that the latter were
forced to adopt the defenseless state and appellation
oi a woman to avoid total ruin. Whether these differ-
ent account- be true or false, certain it is that the
I Delaware nation has ever since been looked to for the
preservation of peace and intrusted with the charge
of the great belt of peace and chain of friendship,
which they must take care to preserve inviolate. Ac-
cording to the figurative explanation of the Indians,
the mi Idle of the chain ci tri: ndshir. is placed upon
the shoulder of the Delawares, the rest of the Indian
nations bidding one end and the Europeans the
other."
h is evident that the clumsy and transparent tale
of the Delawares in reference to their investiture as
women was implicitly believed bj Heckewelder and
other Indian missionaries, who apparently did not
realize that which no reader can fail to perceive, —
that if their championship and explanation were to
have any influence at all on the world's estimate of
their Indian friends, it could hardly be a favorable
one, for it would onl\ tend to show that they had suf-
fered themselves to be most ridiculously imposed upon
bj the [roquois, and that they were willing tO ac-
knowledge themselves a nation of imbecile- rather
than admit a defeat which in itself brought no dis-
grace on them, ami was no impeachment of their
courage or warlike -kill.
( leu. William Henry Harrison, afterward- Presi-
dent of the United States, in his " Notes on the
Aborigines," said, in reference to the old missionary's
account of the Delawares' humiliation,—
" tint oTen If Hi U' kev tdci bad tdn
believe thai the Delaware*, whon thej knbmlttod to the degradation pro-
i Uiem by their enomloe, wore inflnon but by the
â–
the world hai erei mm a. Thle i- notoften thi
>.t< I j-. Thai are rareli oowarde, bat -nil more rarely are they deflct-
llacernmont to dotoct any attempt I
i unite «iili the worthy Gorman In
It was not a lack Of bravery or military enterprise
le
HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.