illustration of men or times. If the freedom and fullness of citation from such unique publications as the Journal of Rogers, James Smith's story of Indian captivity, or the truthful and quaint narratives of the Moravians, Heckewelder and Loskiel, is irksome to the reader, the only apology here offered, or which the nature of the case admits, is, that the practice in question was adopted from a sentiment entirely opposite to the vanity of authorship. It was deliberately adopted for the sake of authenticity, although sacrificing, in a considerable degree, the unity of the volume.

In respect to Indian orthography, also, the indulgence of the reader is entreated. The names of places and personages are written with infinite variety, and I have preferred, especially when a quotation was in hand, to forbear any effort to conform the orthography in these instances to any other than the writers' own standard. The names of "Coshocton," still applied to the Forks of the Muskingum, and of "Bockengehelas," the noted war-chief of the Delawares, may be particularly mentioned, as illustrations of the confusion of tongues which pervade aboriginal nomenclature.

Indeed, these pages aim at little more than a compilation of memorials and traditions, hitherto dispersed and often inaccessible. The writer, perhaps from force of habit, has been indisposed to assume a

relation to their contents much different from that of an Editor. Hereafter, it may be, he may sustain with more confidence, the independent bearing of authorship. Meanwhile, the Press of Ohio are urged to verify or expand the suggestions of this volume, so far as connected with their respective localities. The book may thus constitute a nucleus of historical inquiry, and if so, notwithstanding in many particulars it may be convicted of mistake or omission, yet the aggregate of historical knowledge will probably be increased.

The Indian, during the period which bounds the present publication, is of course the central, almost the exclusive, figure in the scenes described. There has been no attempt to urge any hypothesis upon his antecedents-no disposition to dogmatize upon his character or destiny. So far as his personality has been inseparable from the progress of events, he has moved into view, but also been suffered to pass from view without special challenge. In Ohio, the Indian was a temporary sojourner,—not linked so inseparably to the soil as the Six Nations to their "Long House," between Niagara and the Hudson. But while the tribes who were found in occupation of Ohio, were comparatively strangers to that region -having moved thither between 1720 and 1750yet they are so far identified with its plains, forests and waters, that any inquiry, however cursory or

incidental, into their habits and history, is likely to become an enthusiasm. The geography of the State is likewise suggestive of the aboriginal dwellers. The streams, more than the political subdivisions, illustrate their vanished dialects, as has been beautifully expressed in some lines by WILLIAM J. SPERRY, formerly of the Cincinnati Globe, entitled "A Lament for the Ancient People," and which, although a digression and not historically exact, are here inserted, as well for their intrinsic merit as from a personal regard to the writer:

"Sad are fair Muskingum's waters,

Sadly, blue Mahoning raves;
Tuscarawas' plains are lonely,
Lonely are Hock hocking's waves.

From where headlong Cuyahoga
Thunders down its rocky way,

And the billows of blue Erie
Whiten in Sandusky's bay,

Unto where Potomac rushes,
Arrowy from the mountain side,
And Kanawha's gloomy waters
Mingle with Ohio's tide;

From the valley of Scioto,

And the Huron sisters three,
To the foaming Susquehanna,
And the leaping Genesee;

Over hill and plain and valley-
Over river, lake and bay-

On the water-in the forest,

Ruled and reigned the Seneca.

But sad are fair Muskingum's waters,
Sadly, blue Mahoning raves;
Tuscarawas' plains are lonely,
Lonely are Hockhocking's waves.

By Kanawha dwells the stranger,
Cuyahoga feels the chain,
Stranger ships vex Erie's billows,
Strangers plow Scioto's plain.

And the Iroquois have wasted,
From the hill and plain away;
On the waters-in the valley,
Reigns no more the Seneca.

Only by the Cattaraugus,

Or by Lake Chautauque's side,
Or among the scanty woodlands,
By the Alleghany's tide-

There, in spots, like sad oases,
Lone amid the sandy plains,
There the Seneca, still wasting,

Amid desolation reigns."

Even more total than the disappearance of the Senecas, is the migration of the remnants of the Ohio Tribes, who succeeded the New York confederates upon the Muskingum, the Scioto and the Sandusky, and of whom not even a "sad oasis" is visible, except upon the distant waters of the Kanzas or Nebraska. This volume leaves the indomitable

Wyandot, the sagacious Delaware, the fierce Shawnee, and the cunning Ottawa as yet unconquered, although slowly and sternly retreating before the insolent column of white emigration. Another epoch witnessed the downfall of their savage pride, before the battalions of Wayne: while thenceforth, wholly unchecked by Indian resistance, swelled within our borders the rising tide of population, civil structure and material development. Upon these scenes the curtain is here unlifted. The task, delicate and responsible in manifold aspects, extends immediately over the threshold laid by these pages. He will be fortunate to whom its proper execution shall be allotted in the contingencies of the future.

To the writings of the late JAMES H. PERKINS, and for valuable suggestions personally communicated to the author by Hon. EBENEZER LANE, Hon. ELIJAH HAYWARD, Col. JOHN JOHNSTON, THOMAS MEANS, Esq., and other citizens of the State, an expression of acknowledgment is due, and is gratefully tendered.

J. W. T.