DELAWARE COUNTY. 19 The Wyandot, next to the Algonquin, was the most com- mon language east of the Mississippi, It was spoken by many powerful tribes, • amongst which were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, in the north; and by the Ohawans, Nottaways and Tuscaroras in the south. The latter tribe having been unsuccessful in a contest with the Carolina Indians, were driven from their territory, and emi- grating northward, were kindly received by the Five Nations and incorporated into the Confederacy. The Cherokee language was principally confined to the southern tribes. The remaining dialects were the Uchee, the Natchez, the Mobillian and the Yamassee, which were spoken only among the southern Indians. The English settlements in 1664 reached as far north as Maryland on the south, and included Massachusetts and Con- necticut on the north. At this period, Charles the second con- ceived the bold idea of uniting these detached settlements by an offensive conquest. He accordingly made a grant to his brother, James, the Duke of York and Albany, of New York and New Jersey, reaching to the Connecticut river on the east, a part of which territory was then in the peaceable pos- session of the Dutch. In August of the same year three armed vessels appeared in the harbor of New York, and dematided the surrender of the town to the English crown. The demand of the English commander was clothed in persuasive and respectful language, offering the most favorable terms to all who were peaceably disposed. As the Dutch were in no condition to offer a suc- cessful resistance, and being withal peaceably inclined, they adopted the alternative, and Grovernor Stuyvesant was obliged to capitulate. Accordingly, Colonel Nichols, the English commander, immediately assumed the government of the colony, and raised for the first time, the colors of his native country upon the island of Manhattan.
