When Hendrik Hudson anchored his ship, the IHalf Moon, off New York Island in 1609, the Delawares stood in grcat numbers on the shore to receive him, exclaiming, in their innocence, "Behold ! the gods have come to visit us

More than a hundred years later, the traditions of this event were still current in the tribe. The aged Moravian missionary, Heckewelder, writing in 1818, says

"I at one time, in April, 1787, was astonished when I heard one of their orators, a great chief of the Delawares, Pachgants chilias by namnc, go over this ground, recapitulating the most extraordinary events which had before happened, and conclud- ing in thesc words: I admit that there are good white mcn proportion to the bad; the bad must be the They do what they plcase. Thoy en but they bear no strongest, for they rule slave those who are not of their color, although ereated by the same Great Spirit who created them of us if they could; bnt as There is no faith to be placed in their words. They like the Indians, who are friends in peace. They will say to an Indian, "My friend; my brother" They will take him by the hand, and, at the same moment, destroy him. And so you' (he was addressing himself to the Christian Indians at Gnadenhütten, Pennsylva nia) 'will also be treated by them before long. Remember that They would make slaves they cannot do it, they kill us. are not only enemies while at war, and are