ank of the Hudson they ran down as far as Catskill,
and west to Schenectady; that they were met on the west by the
territory of the Mohawks, and on the south by tribes of the Lenni
Lenapes or Delawares, whose territory extended thence to the sea, and
west to and beyond the Delaware River. The Mahicans had a castle at
Catskill and at Cohoes Falls. The western side of the Hudson, above
Cohoes, belonged to the Mohawks, a branch of the Iroquois. Therefore,
as early as 1630, three great nations were represented on the Hudson--

=The Mahicans, the Delawares and the Iroquois.= The early French
missionaries refer to the "nine nations of Manhinyans, gathered
between Manhattan and the environs of Quebec." These several nations
have never been accurately designated, although certain general
divisions appear under the titles of Mohegan, Wappinger, Sequins,
etc. "The government of the Mahicans was a democracy. The office was
hereditary by the lineage of the wife; that is, the selection of a
successor on the death of the chief, was confined to the female branch
of the family." According to Ruttenber, the precise relation between
the Mahicans of the Hudson and the Mohegans under Uncas, the Pequot
chief, is not known. In a foot-note to this statement, he says: "The
identity of name between the Mahicans and Mohegans, induces the belief
that all these tribes belonged to the same stock,--although they
differed in dialect, in territory, and in their alliances." The two
words, therefore, must not be confounded.

* * *

Round about the Indian village
Spread the meadows and the cornfields,
Stood the groves of singing pine trees,
And beyond them stood the forest,

_Henry W. Longfellow._

* * *

It is also pleasant to remember that the Mahicans as a tribe were true
and faithful to us during the war of the Revolution, and when the six
nations met in council at Oswego, at the request of Guy Johnson and
other officers of the British army, "to eat the flesh and drink the
blood of a Bostonian," Hendrick, the Mahican, made the pledge for his
tribe at Albany, almost in the eloquent words of Ruth to Naomi, "Thy
people shall be our people, and whither thou goest we will be at your
side."

=The Mourdener's Kill=, with its sad story of a girl tied by Indians
to a horse and dragged through the valley, flows into the Hudson above
Castleton. Two miles above this near the steamer channel will be seen
Staats Island on the eas