76 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. of these, and that of their enemies taken in the aggregate, is often adverted to by the contemporary writers. And we are astonished to find that, at no time, the numbers of their war- riors could have amounted to five, and that about the year 1670, they were less than four thousand.* The intercourse with the Europeans, in its beginning, in- creased the relative superiority of the Five Nations and gave them a decided advantage over their enemies. The western Indians were, for a long while after, altogether destitute of fire- arm^. The lower Algonkins were indeed partially supplied by the French ; hut in New England every precaution was taken to prevent the Indians in their vicinity from being armed ; and the Delawares could not have been supplied before the arrival of the Swedes.f In the mean while, the Dutch, princi- pally intent on trade, and who had a post at Albany as early as the year 1614, furnished the Mohawks and gradually the other Five Nations with ample supplies of firearms and am- munition. The Five Nations, without discontinuing their warfare with the Mohicans and Delawares, soon turned their principal efforts against those nations of their own stock which were their most formidable enemies. The destruction of the greater part of the Hurons (Wyan- dots) took place in 1649 ; the dispersion of the residue and of the Algonkins of the Ottawa River, in the ensuing year. It is probable, that the general terror inspired by those events was the immediate cause of the final submission of the Delawares, already hard pressed ; and that, being no longer in need of the fort near Christina, for the purpose of keeping them in check, the Five Nations evacuated it in 1651, and sold the adjacent land to the Dutch. The capture of the principal village of the neutral nation, the incorporation of a portion of that tribe, and the dispersion of the rest, are stated as having also hap-
- Relations, passim. That of the year 1660 estimates them at only
two thousand two hundred ; but the letters of the Missionaries for that year are not given. The Relation was written in France, and there was a motive for underrating them. The Mohawks are uniformly stated as having seven hundred warriors. And in 1654-5, the three western nations had eighteen hundred engaged against the Eries alone. f Mr. Heckewelder informs us, that the name of Sankhicans was given by the Delawares to the Mohawks, because they were armed with muskets.
