,
numerous, and warlike. These were called the Alligewi, from which we
have derived the name Allegheny. At first the latter tribe was inclined
to allow the Lenape to pass the river; but after a time, finding that
the newcomers were so numerous, they fell upon them and drove them back.

But the Indians at that remote period must have been as doggedly
determined to move eastward as are our pioneers to move westward; and
they were not to be stopped by rivers, mountains, or savage enemies. The
Lenape were not strong enough to fight the Alligewi by themselves, and
so they formed an alliance with the Mengwe; and these two nations
together made war upon the Alligewi, and in the course of time overcame
them, and drove them entirely from their country.

After years, or perhaps centuries (for there are no definite statements
of time in these Indian traditions), the Mengwe and the Lenape, who had
been living together in the country of the Alligewi, separated; and the
Mengwe emigrated to the lands near the Great Lakes, while the Lenape
slowly continued their progress eastward.

They crossed the Alleghanies, and discovered a great river, which they
called Susquehanna, and then they moved on until they came to the
Delaware. This grand stream pleased them so much, that they gave it a
name of honor, and called it the Lenapewihittuck, or "The River of the
Lenape." Then they crossed the river and discovered New Jersey.

Here they found a pleasant climate, plenty of game, and no human
inhabitants whatever. They therefore appropriated it as their own, and
gave it the name of Scheyichbi; and any one who endeavors to pronounce
this name will be likely to feel glad that it was afterwards changed by
the white settlers.

Before this first discovery of New Jersey, the Lenni-Lenape had settled
themselves in the beautiful and fertile country about the Susquehanna
and the west shore of the Delaware, and here established their right to
their name, which signifies "original people;" and if their stories are
correct, they certainly are the original inhabitants of this region,
and they discovered New Jersey from the west, and took rightful
possession of it.

It is a law of nations, founded then upon the same principles of justice
as it stands upon now, that discovery by a nation, or the agent of a
nation, of unknown lands entirely uninhabited, gives the discoverers the
right to those lands; and, in accordance with that law, the Lenape
became the