Edwin Robert Walker

“ The missionaries were severe upon them. One said they were unspeakably indolent and slothful, had little or no ambition, not one in a thousand had the spirit of a man. Another spoke of their alleged bravery with the utmost contempt, and characterized them as the most ordinary and the vilest of savages. Yet, still another missionary wrote that he did not believe that there were any people on the earth more attached to their relatives and friends than were the Indians.
For more than forty years after the founding of Pennsylvania there was not a murder of a settler committed by an Indian. ”

“ Some of the whites trespassed on the Indians’ cornfields, and when resisted shot three of the savages dead. A war seemed imminent, and in alarm many of the Indians fled for protection to the neighborhood of the Fort on Manhattan Island. The Dutch took advantage of this opportunity, and on the night of February 25, 1643, one party slaughtered their unsuspecting guests on the Island, while another party came to Pavonia and attacked the Indian village there, when the women and children were all asleep. The ferocity displayed by the whites on this occasion was never exceeded by the Indians. ”

“ The earliest white travelers in this part of the country looked upon the natives as simply savages and little different from the wild beasts about them, and did not trouble themselves to study their institutions or traditions, and that has been done in comparatively recent times.
The Indians found here by the first explorers and travelers were splendid physical specimens, well built and strong, with broad shoulders and small waists, dark eyes, white teeth, coarse black hair, of which the men left but a single tuft on the top of the head to accommodate an enemy’s scalping knife. ”

“ The Indians never forgot and rarely forgave an injury. They imitated the wild beasts in their cruelty and ferocity in wreaking vengeance on a foe. Their crude idea of justice included an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and so on. ”

“ The cupidity of the early settlers led them to sell liquor to the Indians and countless evils ensued. One day in 1643, at Pavonia in this state, an Indian who had become intoxicated [Pg 10] through the Dutch plying him with liquor, was asked if he could make good use of his bow and arrow. For an answer he aimed at a Dutchman thatching a house and shot him dead. An Englishman had been killed a few days before by some Indians of the Achter Col village. The whites were exasperated and demanded the surrender of the murderers, which was refused, being contrary to Indian custom. ”

“ I know not who made Teedyescung so great a man; nor do I know that he is any greater than a chief of the Delaware Indians settled at Wyomink. The title of king could not be given him by an English governor; for we know very well that there is no such person among the Indians, as what we call a king. And if we call him so, we mean no more than sachem or chief. I observe in his treaties which he has held with the governor of Pennsylvania (which I have perused since our last meeting) that he says he was a woman, till you made him a man, by putting a tomahawk into his hand ”

“ A very important feature of conference with the Indians was an exchange of presents. The wily savages saw no sense in giving away valuables unless they received presents of equal value in return, and if their gifts were not reciprocated they quietly took them back, whence we get the phrase “Indian giver,” which we learn in childhood to call the playmate who gives us an apple or a stick of candy and later takes it back. ”

“ By 1757 the Delawares had become comparatively few and a conference was held at Crosswicks with the view of settling matters in difference between them and the inhabitants of the colony, and the legislature appointed commissioners with power to inquire into the matter. Another conference was held at Crosswicks in 1758, at which Teedyescung, King of the Delawares, was present with a large number of Indians, and progress was made. The Delawares asked that a tract of land in Burlington county be bought for their occupancy for which they agreed to release all their rights to lands in New Jersey. ”

“ The misadventure of Sir Walter Tyrrel was, that on August 2d, in the year 1100, William II, surnamed Rufus or the Red Rover (from the color of his hair) , was hunting in the New Forest accompanied by Sir Walter Tyrrel, a French gentleman. [Pg 15] A stag suddenly started up and Tyrrel let fly at him an arrow which struck a tree, and, glancing off, hit the King in the breast, killing him instantly. Sir Walter immediately put spurs to his horse, gained the channel coast and embarked for France, where he joined the Crusades as a voluntary penance for his involuntary crime. ”

“ The few glimpses we are afforded of this Indian chieftain clearly show him to have been a notable man among men in his day, and that he was recognized as such not only by the aborigines of New Jersey, but by the Dutch rulers with whom he came in contact. ”

“ When the white settlers first came to New Jersey the Lenape had not reached the stage of progress where the office of priest had been separated from that of physician. Nor was the “profession” at all exclusive. Anyone was eligible to enter it. The Lenape were tolerant of the religious beliefs of others, although some of the medicine men tried to incite their dupes to massacre certain missionaries. The Grand Council of the Delawares in 1775 decreed religious liberty. ”

“ Where are the Lenni Lenape?
Teedyescung, Oraton, Mosilian and the other sachems and sagamores of old Schéjachbi (New Jersey) have long since gone to the happy hunting ground, and the remnant of their tribes is on a reservation in the far West, perishing as a type and destined to become extinct as a people.
The Indians have gone from New Jersey, never, never to return. But we shall not forget them! While pictures are painted; while books are printed ”

“ The Indians were never very numerous in New Jersey, at least not after the advent of the white settlers. It has been estimated that in 1648 there were in the various tribes about 2,000 warriors all told, which would make a total population of about 8,000. ”

“ Mr. Nelson says that the name of such a man is surely worthy of commemoration, even two centuries after his spirit has joined his kindred in the happy hunting ground of his race. He was unaware, or had forgotten, that there is a public hall in Newark called “Oraton Hall” in honor of the great chief.
The names, number and position of all the New Jersey tribes have not been ascertained, but it is known that about 1650 the tribe occupying the area around the Falls of the Delaware, quaintly written “ye ffalles of ye De La Ware,” where Trenton now stands, was named “Sanhican.” ”

“ Sir George Carteret, owner of East Jersey, pledged himself to purchase lands from the Indians from time to time as required by the settlers; and Penn, the dominant owner of West Jersey, found the practice of acquiring title from the Indians an old and established custom, and followed it. In 1682 the legislature passed an act in which it was provided that no person should buy lands from the Indians without a written authorization of the Province, the grant to be to the proprietors who would reimburse the purchasers. ”

“ The whites were constantly encroaching on the natives everywhere, and in the neighborhood of Pavonia a considerable settlement of Dutch had grown up. The Indians became restive as they saw their lands slipping away from them, and finally seem to have planned the extirpation of the invaders. ”

“ The chief was very old at this time and unable to travel from Hackensack to Newark to attend the conference between the whites and the natives. And so there passed from view that striking figure in the Indian history of New Jersey. It is said that he was prudent and sagacious in council, prompt, energetic and decisive in war, as the Dutch found to their cost when they recklessly provoked him to vengeance. ”

“ Toward evening they were joined by two hundred more Indians. Three Dutchmen and as many Indians were killed. The Indians then crossed over to Pavonia and to Staten Island, and in the course of three days destroyed buildings and cattle, killed about fifty whites and carried off eighty men, women and children into captivity. It was the last expiring effort of the natives near New York to check the resistless advance of the Swannekins, as they called the Dutch. ”

“ It will be remembered, I believe, by everyone, that intoxicating liquors were sold to the Indians by the whites even in defiance of colonial statutes forbidding it. The practice of violating excise laws, which we have every reason to believe still goes on, appears, therefore, to be of ancient origin and to be founded upon considerable historic precedent. ”

“ Their thirst was quenched by drinking the broth of boiled meat, or by drafts of pure water. They had no intoxicating liquors until the advent of the white man. Their only stimulant was tobacco, which they smoked in pipes manufactured by themselves. ”

“ When one killed another it was left to the dead Indian’s relatives to slay the offender, but unless this was done within twenty-four hours, it was usual to accept a pecuniary recompense, payable in wampum. ”

“ The idea of a bad spirit, a devil, appears to have been wholly unknown to the Indians until instilled into their minds by the whites, as already remarked. They had a general belief in the soul or spiritual part of man. ”

“ The way they kept account of this was by putting a black bead of wampum every year on a belt which they used for that purpose. Rafinesque gives a list of Lenape Kings and says their annals tell of Wolomenap (Hollow Man) , the 77th, and that he was king [Pg 7] at the falls of the Delaware (Trenton) ”

“ The simple savage, living in close contact with nature, sees only health as the normal condition of man. When the form, once animated and vigorous, lay still and cold, it was an unfathomable mystery to him, and, according to Dr. ”