Gilij mentions the same thing in the languages of South America. After speaking of the extraordinary degree to which discrimination is carried in various instances, he says-" The same variety is found in words applied to different objects, but whose difference among us is disregarded; and these words are multiplied in proportion as the objects of them are multiplied. To express I wash my face, requires a different word from that which would express washing my feet, my hands, &c. ........the old age of a man, of a woman, and of a garment, the heat of the body, of a fire, of the sun and of the climate, are all different words."* Again" In our language, and in many others, there is but one word (mangiare) for to eat; but in the Tamanacan, there are several, according to the thing eaten: Jacurù is to eat bread, or the cassava; jemerì, to eat fruit, honey ; janeri, to eat meat, &c."+

NOTE 15.

On the Dialects mentioned by Dr. Edwards as being radically the same with the Mohegan.

Dr. Edwards, at the beginning of his Observations, has given seventeen different names of Indian languages, which were considered to be so many kindred dialects of the Mohegan; namely, the languages of

1. The Massachusetts Indians; used in Eliot's translation of the Bible;

2. Delawares, in Pennsylvania;

3. Penobscots, bordering on Nova Scotia ;

4. St. Francis Indians, in Canada;

5. Shawanese, on the Ohio;

6. Chippewaus, westward of Lake Huron ;

7. Ottowaus; more properly called W'tawas;

8. Nanticokes;

9. Munsees (Minsi :)

10. Menomonees (Menomenes or Folles Avoines ;)

11. Messisaugas;

12. Saukies (Sauks or Sacs ;)

* Saggio, &c. vol. iii. p. 338. See also Mr. Heckewelder's remarks on the words old and young, in the Delaware-Notes on Eliot's Gram. p. xvi.

+ Saggio, &c. vol. iii. p. 172.

A very small part of this list is given by Dr. Edwards upon his own authority; and we now find, by a more extensive acquaintance with the Indian languages than was attainable when he wrote, that the list needs some corrections. This will be seen in the course of the following remarks; which the Editor has subjoined, for the sake of presenting to the student a more clear and distinct view of the different languages contained in the annexed Comparative Vocabulary, as well as of the geographical situation of the Indian nations that speak them. The specimens themselves are given upon the authorities mentioned under each dialect; and some of them have never before been published.

To the several dialects of the Delaware stock, which are enumerated by Dr. Edwards under the general name of Mohegan, the Editor has added corresponding specimens of two others; namely, the Narraganset, collected from Roger Williams' " Key into the Language of America," and the Abnaki, from Father Râle's MS. Dictionary, belonging to the library of the University in Cambridge.*

The true name of the Mohegan Indians, as we are informed by Mr. Heckewelder, is Mahicanni; which, (according to the German pronunciation) is very nearly represented by

* Of this valuable MS. the Editor has given a brief account, in the Memoirs of the American Academy, vol. iv. p. 358. The work itself has lately attracted the notice of eminent foreign scholars, who take the liveliest interest in the expected publication of it In the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, or General Literary Intelligencer, published at Halle in Germany (in which it is understood that Professor Vater is a writer) particular mention has been' lately made of it, and its publication warmly approved of. That distinguished scholar, Baron William von Humboldt, also expresses himself in the following strong terms in a late letter upon this subject: "The publication of the Dictionary of Father Râle will be of still more importance [i. e. than the Cotton MS.] and I cannot but solicit you, as earnestly as possible, to do every thing which may depend upon you personally to effect it. For, as far as I recollect, but little is known of the Abnaki dialect; and this work would both enrich our present stock with one language more, and would preserve the language in question from that perpetual oblivion, to which, without the publication of this work, it is probably destined." Such decided opinions, coming from so high authority, it is to be hoped, will not be disregarded by those who are ambitious of maintaining the literary character of our country.

Dr. Edwards' English name, Muhhekaneew. Mr. Heckewelder observes, that the Dutch call them Mahikanders; the French, Mourigans and Mahingans; the English, Mohiccons, Mohuccans, Muhhekanew, Schaticooks, River-Indians.* Dr. Edwards informs us, that the particular dialect treated of in his work, is that of the tribe, which is familiarly known here by the name of the Stockbridge Indians, who take this English name from that of the town, which was for some time their principal residence. The Indian name of the territory, which now contains Stockbridge, Sheffield, and some other towns in the south-westerly corner of Massachusetts, was Housatunnuck, more commonly written Housatonic, and sometimes Ousatannock; a name by which the well-known river in that quarter is still called. These Indians, after living in dispersed situations about the Housatonic, were collected together in the year 1736, at Stockbridge, under the care of the Rev. John Sergeant, their former laborious and faithful missionary. Afterwards they removed to Oneida county, near Lake Ontario, in the state of New York, where they still reside, under the care of their worthy missionary, the present Mr. Sergeant. The place where they reside has been named New Stockbridge. In the year 1796 their number was about three hundred. They are destined, it seems, to a further removal; for Mr. Sergeant has informed the Editor (in a late letter) that "the Stockbridge tribe, with the Six Nations, have obtained a fine country in the vicinity of Green Bay; and eventually they will emigrate thither in the course of a few years. They will visit that country this summer; perhaps a few families will remove."

The Mohegans, it appears by a work already cited, have long recognized the Shawanese as the "younger brother;"> which accords with what Mr. Heckewelder states point, as will be seen hereafter.

on this

For further information respecting the tribes of the Mohegan nation, the reader is referred to the valuable Memoir of the Rev. Dr. Holmes. The Editor will now proceed to the other

* Historical Account and Introduction, p. 26.

Historical Memoirs relating to the Housatunnuk Indians; by the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, (Boston, 1753,) pp. 43, 50.

Histor. Collect. vol. v. p. 195, note.

Ibid. vol. iv. p. 67.

§ Hopkins' Histor. Mem. of the Housatunnuk Indians, p. 90.

¶ Histor. Collect. vol. ix. p. 75.

nations mentioned by Dr. Edwards; noticing them in the order in which they occur in his work.

1. The Massachusetts Indians. The name of this nation is familiar to every American reader. Gookin, who wrote in 1674, says that these Indians "inhabited principally about that place in Massachusetts Bay where the English now dwell. These were a numerous and great people. Their chief sachem held dominion over many other petty governours."* Of their language we have an invaluable treasure in Eliot's Grammar and his Translations of the Scriptures and of various Religious Tracts, which were enumerated in a former volume of these Collections. It may be here remarked, that this language has often been called the Natick; apparently from the accidental circumstance, that Eliot established his first Indian church in the town of that name which is near Boston, and which was once. the town of greatest note among the Indians in this quarter. But Eliot himself calls it the Massachusetts language.

2. Delawares. Of this people we have recently had the most ample information in the interesting work of the Rev. Mr. Heckewelder. According to the tradition handed down to them by their ancestors, this nation resided, many hundred years ago, in a very distant country in the western part of the American continent. They determined on migrating eastward, and accordingly set out together in a body, and after various adventures and conflicts with other nations, a part of them crossed the Mississippi, and about one half of the nation settled on the shores of the Atlantic. This portion was divided into three tribes, two of which were distinguished by the names of the Turtle and the Turkey, the former calling themselves in their own language Unâmis, and the other Unalachtgo; their settlements extended from the Mohicannittuck (River of the Mohicans, which we call the North, or Hudson's River) to beyond the Potomack. The third tribe, the Wolf, commonly called the Minsi, which we have corrupted into Monseys or Munsees, chose to live back of the other two. The proper national name of the Delawares is Lenni Lenape, which signifies "Original People," a race of human beings who are the same

Historical Collections, vol. i. p. 148.

Vol. ix. (Second Series) p. 242. To the list there given, should be added the following-Shepherd's Sincere Convert and Sound Believer. Eliot, in a letter to Sir Robert Boyle, dated July 7, 1688, mentions this tract as one which he had "translated into the Indian Language many years since." See Histor. Coll. vol. iii. p. 187.

that they were in the beginning, unchanged and unmixed. They are known and called, by all the western, northern, and some of the southern nations, by the name of Wapanachki, which the Europeans have corrupted into Apenaki, Openagi, Abenaquis and Abenakis.* All these names, as Mr. Hecke welder informs us, however differently written and improperly understood by authors, point to one and the same people, the Lenape, who are by this compound word called "People at the rising of the sun," or, as we should say, Eastlanders; and this people is acknowledged by near forty Indian tribes (whom we call nations) as being their "grandfathers." For further particulars of their history, as well as of their language, the reader is referred to Mr. Heckewelder's work.

Mr. Heckewelder says, it is not in his power to ascertain the whole number of the Delawares at the present day. They are very much scattered; a number of them, chiefly of the Monsey tribe, living in Upper Canada, others are in the state of Ohio, and some on the waters of the Wabash in the Indiana Territory. A considerable number of them has crossed the Mississippi.t In a late Account of the Indian Tribes of Ohio, by John Johnston, Esq. Indian. Agent of the United States, it is said that this nation is now reduced to a very small number; and that the greater part of them reside on White River, in Indiana. A small number, it appears, resides on Sandusky River.‡

In connexion with the tradition, that the Delawares emigrated from "the western" part of this continent, it may not be undeserving of notice, that a dialect of their language is extensively spoken in a very distant western region of the continent at the present time, by the Crees or Kuisteneaux, as was observed in the introduction to these Notes. The specimen of Delaware in the following Vocabulary was obligingly furnished by Mr. Heckewelder.

3. Penobscots. This is the well-known tribe, of which a remnant still resides in the state of Maine. The fullest vocabulary of their language, within the Editor's knowledge, is a small Manuscript of the French Missionaries, who have occasionally resided with this tribe; from which collection the

* Hecke welder's Account, chap. i. and Introduction, p. 29. It may be here remarked, that the name of the Abenakis is written, by Father Râle, as well as by some of the later French missionaries, in three syllables-Abnakis, or Abnaquis.

t Histor. Account, p. 68.

See Archæologia Amer. vol. i. pp. 270, 271.