nd heavier limbs than the loftiest and largest man in the
confederate nations. They were called the Allegewi, and were men
delighting in red and black paint, and the shrill war-whoop, and the
strife of the spear. Such was the relation made by the spies to their
countrymen.

This report of the spies increased the fears and dissatisfaction of
the Lenapes to such a height, that part agreed to remain in the lands
in which they then were, and not to attempt to cross the river
occupied by so many hostile warriors. But the greater part declared
that they were men, and rather than turn back from a foe, however
strong, or leave a battle-field without a blow or a war-whoop, they
would march to certain death, and leave their bones in a hostile camp.
So one band, the strongest of the Lenapes, remained beyond the
Mississippi, while the others prepared to encounter the nations who
were the present lords of the soil. But, ere they committed their
fortunes to battle, they fasted, and mortified their flesh, to gain
the favour of the being who presides over war, and their priests were
consulted to learn whether he would be propitious to them. "Shall we
conquer?" "Shall we overcome?" was eagerly asked. The priests replied,
"The Lenapes shall overcome, when they have obtained the great war
medicine." They asked what it was; the priests replied, "It shall be
made known to you on the morrow." The morrow came, and the priests
made known the great war medicine, whose properties brought certain
victory to those possessed of it. In old times, the wild cat had
devoured their people; they set a trap for him and caught him in it,
burned his bones, and preserved the ashes. These ashes had been
carefully kept by the priests, and they now brought them forth. The
great old snake, the father of strife, was in the water; the old men
gathered together and sang, and he shewed himself; they sang again,
and he showed himself a little further out of the water; the third
time he showed his horns. They were enabled to cut off one of the
horns. He showed himself a fourth time, and they cut off the other
horn. A piece of these horns, and the ashes of the bones of the wild
cat compounded, was the great war medicine of our nation. Prepared
with a medicine of such potency, the confederated nations moved
towards the land of reported giants. When they had arrived on the
banks of the Mississippi, they sent a message to the Allegewi, to
request permission to settle the