This conclusion is not only abundantly sustained by the records referred to, but by an analysis of the testimony which The has been relied upon as indicating an opposite result. latter is confined, first, to traditionary reverses sustained by the Mahicans on Wanton island, near Katskill, and at Red Hook, in Dutchess county, the bones of the slain at the latter place

Golden''s Six Nations, chap, ii, 35?

*

Gallatin*s Indian Tribes, u, 43, 44.

THE INDIAN TRIBES

being, it is said, in monumental record when the Dutch first set tled there ; and second, to the statements by Mfcchaelius and

Wassenaar.

The traditionary evidence is entirely worthless as

the results involved, and at best can only be accepted as proof of sanguinary conflicts ; while the statements by Michaelto

ius and Wassenaar, based as they were on information received from others, are almost wholly at variance with positive records. The former writer states that in the war of 1626, the Mohawks were successful and that the Mabicans fled and left their lands x " war broke out " unoccupied ; the latter affirms that again in " between the near Fort the Makand 1628, Maikens, Orange,

waes" and that the former were beaten and driven off. 2

Ad

mitting that both writers refer to the same occurrence, and that there is no conflict in date, the retirement spoken of could only

have included a single canton or chieftaincy.

That the Mahicans^ as a nation, did not leave their lands unoccupied nor sur