Idea of phus. CHAPTER VII. SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS. LAST of all to claim a share as a nation in our territory were the Swedes. Their far-sighted and vus Adol- large-hearted king, Gustavus Adolphus, the champion of the Protestant cause in Europe, caught up the idea of supporting the same cause in America. "It is the jewel of my kingdom," he wrote just before he died, concerning the settlement that was yet to be, (1632.) The jewel of Gustavus received its setting from Oxen- the regent of his infant daughter Christina, the stiern calls in Germany. Chancellor Oxenstiern. With the same loftiness of view,-preparing a state that was to be of benefit to "all Christendom,” — Oxenstiern invited and obtained the coöperation of Protestant Germany, (1634.) The Swedish West India Company was to be the instrument by which the north of Europe, as well as Sweden, was to be linked to America. It was a design of greater ends and of broader motives than had as yet been formed for the new world. Results. But the results bore no proportion to the plans. It was not to be expected that such colonists as could be found in Sweden would embrace the same wide objects as their regent or their king. They would enlist only in an enterprise that promised personal as well as national returns. Some years passed before any settlement was attempted, and then a colony of only twenty-four, and these chiefly transported convicts, was established at Fort Christina, near the present Wilmington in Delaware, (1638.) The territory, which was purchased of the Indians, extended on either side of the fort, along the western shore of Delaware Bay, and up the Delaware River as far as Trenton, under the name of New Sweden. Opposing To this the Swedes had been guided by Peter claims. Minuit, lately of New Netherland. His recommendation of lands previously purchased and occupied, though just at this time unoccupied, by his countrymen, involved the Swedish colony in immediate difficulties. A remonstrance from the governor of New Netherland against the invasion of his province was supported in Holland by the seizure of a Swedish vessel touching at a Dutch port on its way home. The English had their pretensions likewise to the lands appropriated by the new colony. On each side were conflicting claims. With feeble numbers and with scanty supplies, the Swedes would find it difficult to keep their New Sweden. European races. CHAPTER VIII. INDIAN RACES. THE roll of European races establishing themselves independently upon our soil was filled up by Spain, France, England, Holland, Sweden, and, with Sweden, Germany. After the Swedish colony of 1638, no national settlement was made by any nation not already upon the scene. Indian races. It is time, therefore, to take an account of the races that occupied the country before any of those from Europe entered upon their possessions. The share of the Indians in our history endures, though their share in our territory wastes away. Names bers. The idea of Columbus that he had merely redisand num- covered India gave the name of Indians to the existing inhabitants of the continent. Within the limits of our country they were divided into four grand divisions, as the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Mobilians, and the Dahcotas. The last name includes the tribes west of the Mississippi, of which, in the early period, the number could not have been at all considerable. Neither were the three divisions lying east of the Mississippi by any means numerous. The entire number is estimated to have been under three hundred thousand, and perhaps not above two hundred thousand, at the time of the first European settlements. Take from the whole the large part which had little or no connection with any of the European races, and the Indian population dwindles to small proportions. It seems strange that so few, and these few savages, should have exercised so great an influence upon so many, and these many civilized. But it will be accounted for by a rapid survey of the Indian divisions and the Indian resources. Algon- First of the Algonquins. The central tribe of quins. this vast race was the Lenni-Lenape, which, occupying the shores of the Delaware, went by the name of Delawares amongst the English. The name of LenniLenape, meaning Aborigines, is supposed to mark them as the parent stock of the Algonquins. The shoots of the race were enormously spread. Starting far up in the north, they stretch through New England, as the Abenakis, the Pawtuckets, the Massachusetts, the Pokanokets, the Narragansets, the Pequots, and the Mohegans. Thence they may be traced as the Manhattans of New York, the Susquehannas and the Nanticokes of Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Powhatans of Virginia, and the Pamlicos of South Carolina. Towards the west they appear as the Ottawas of Michigan, the Miamis of Ohio and Indiana, the Illinois of Illinois, and the Shawanoes of Kentucky. Long as this list is, it embraces but a portion of the names to be found in any full record of the Algonquins. Next of the Iroquois. The centre of this divisIroquois. ion was among the lakes of Western New York, where the Five Nations of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas established their confederacy. To the west and north-west of the Five Nations lay their conquests of after years, the lands of the Eries, of the Hurons, and of other tribes. The prowess or the intrigue of the Iroquois had already subdued the great tribe of the Algonquins, the Lenni-Lenape. Far to the south, partly in Virginia and partly in Carolina, were the Tuscaroras, who, at a later period, migrated to unite with their brethren in the north, making six nations of the five. Lastly, of the Mobilian division. It was broken Mobilians. up amongst the Yamassees of Georgia; the Musk hogees or Creeks of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida; the Seminoles of Florida, with the inland tribes of Catawbas in South Carolina, Cherokees in Georgia and Alabama, Choctaws, Natchez, and Chickasaws in Alabama and Mississippi. Customs The There was but one line of wide distinction and insti- amongst these various tribes. It separated those tutions. who lived by the chase alone from those who lived not only by the chase, but by agriculture. The former class, of course, was the ruder of the two; yet the customs and the institutions of both were much the same. Indian was every where a hunter, every where a warrior. If he was any thing else, if he attempted agriculture or trade, he seemed to be out of his element. The habits of civilized life were a burden, sometimes a destruction to him. This is true of all the tribes upon our soil; the only customs to which they took, and by which they held, were those of the wilderness, or, at the best, of the field. Their institutions were comparatively advanced. Gathered with his kinsmen in a totem or clan, then with other clans in a tribe, then perhaps with other tribes in a confederacy, the Indian was as much a member of a nation as the European. Above him were his chiefs, the hereditary sachems of peace, and the chosen leaders of war. Their sway and his rights rested together on laws, unwritten, but not undetermined. The devotion shown to these relations and to these institutions was that of true patriots, as well as true savages. It sustained the Indians through trials under which more civilized nations have much sooner succumbed. Had it |