ad not seen the flowers bloom more
than fifteen times. A tear trembled in the dark eye of this lovely
maiden for a moment, at the thought of the strange and unequal match
she was about to contract. But she was dazzled, as all women are, by
the promised glory of becoming the bride of the great chief of a
nation, and she wiped away the tears of regret, as women have often
done before, with a leaf from the tree of consolation, and became
joyous and light-hearted. They set off the next morning for the Valley
of the Bright Old Inhabitants, and for greater speed she bore him on
her shoulders, being the first bride that ever, as far as my knowledge
goes, carried home her husband in a basket.

The confederates divided the lands they had conquered. The Mengwe took
the lands which lay on the shores of the lakes of the north; the
Lenapes chose those which received the beams of the warm suns of the
south. Many, many ages passed away, the two nations continued at
peace, the war-whoop was banished from the shades of either, and their
numbers waxed very great. At length, some of our young hunters and
warriors crossed the great glades[A], and travelled onward till they
came to the beautiful Lenape wihittuck, where they have remained ever
since. And this is the story which is told throughout the tribes of
the wilderness, of the emigration of our people, and their victory
over the original proprietors of the soil. I have done.

[Footnote A: The mountains.]

NOTES.

(1) _She became his without a wrestle._--p. 143.

Hearne, in his Journey to the Frozen Ocean, says:--"It has ever been
the custom, among those people, for the men to wrestle for any woman
to whom they are attached; and, of course, the strongest party always
carries off the prize. A weak man, unless he be a good hunter, and
well beloved, is seldom permitted to keep a wife that a stronger man
thinks worth his notice; for at any time when the wives of those
strong wrestlers are heavily laden either with furs or provisions,
they make no scruple of tearing any other man's wife from his bosom,
and making her bear a part of his luggage. This custom prevails
throughout all their tribes, and causes a great spirit of emulation
among their youth, who are, upon all occasions, from their childhood,
trying their strength and skill in wrestling ... The way in which they
tear their women and children from one another, though it has the
appearance of the greatest brutality, can scarcely