[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1906)] At their northern bound they met the tribe known to the Dutch as the Mahicans, a people of eastern origin and dialect, whose eastern limit included the valley of the Housatonic at least, and with them in alliance formed the "Mahican nation" of Dutch history, as stated by King Ninham of the Wappingers, in an affidavit in 1757, and who also stated that the language of the Mahicans was _not the same_ as that of the Wappingers, although he understood the Mahicani. Reduced by early wars with the Dutch around New Amsterdam and by contact with European civilization, they melted away rapidly, many of them finding homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, others at Stockbridge, and a remnant living at Fishkill removing thence to Otsiningo, in 1737, as wards of the Senecas. (Col. Hist. N. Y., vii, 153, 158.) * * * * * [FN-1] "Highland Indians" was a designation employed by the Dutch as well as by the English. (Col. Hist. N. Y., viii, 440.) [FN-2] The familiar historic name _Wappingers_ seems to have been introduced by the Dutch from their word _Wapendragers,_ "Armed men."