[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1872)] standpoint of the success which had crowned their efforts. En tering upon the struggle as " poor women" striking their op pressors with " billets of wood," they emerged from it u increased in interest and respect," in the opinion of their enemies, " their conduct having restored them to the rank of 1 It is said that Johnson had not less 2 Johnson. — N. T. Colonial History, than one hundred children by squaws, vii, 957. 32 * 252 * THE INDIAN TRIBES men," and given to them an influence not only " very exten sive,"1 but destined in the future to embalm their names as the most formidable of the original Indian nations of Hudson's river. Their prowess vindicated in the field, their diplomacy triumphant in council, their manhood wrung from the unwilling hands of civilized and uncivilized foes, they gave to the conflicts of the west an impetus which made their name national, and grafted it forever upon the politics and history of their native land. Not lost to the records of this eventful period were the Ma-