His report was as follows, to wit : ' When I was a a boy, my grandfather used to speak much of old times : how it had been before the white people came into this country, (that is the State of New York, in which the relator was born,) and what changes took place since, from time to time. The western bounding line of the Mahicanni was the river Ma'hicamittuck, which the white people now call the ' North River.' Our towns and settlements extended on the east side of this river from Thuphane or Tuphanne, (a Delaware word for cold stream, from which the whites have derived the name Tappan,) to the extent of tide water up this river; here was the uppermost town. From thence our towns were scattered throughout the country on the smaller rivers and creeks. Our nearest neighbors on the east were the Watnpano.'"b
" The country between the banks of the Connecticut Riverc and the Hudson, (says Mr. Bancroft,) was possessed by independent villages of the Mohegans, kindred with the Manhattans ; whose few smokes once arose amidst the forests on New York Island.""1 Mr. Schoolcraft informs us that " The Mohegans and the Minci were two tribes, of Algonquin
a Moulton's Hist, of Xew York, 226.
b Moulton's Hist, of New York, part i. 227.
c Connecticuota, meaning Long River, was the Indian name, says Judge Benson, d Braucroffs Hist. U. S. A., vol., vol. lii. 239.
vi
INTRODUCTION.
lineage, who inhabited the valley of the Hudson between New York and Albany." Mohegan, (continues the same authority.) is a word, the meaning of which is not explained by the early writers j but if we may trust the deductions of philology, it needs create little uncertainty. In the Mohegan, as spoken at the present time by their lineal descendants, the Stockbridges of Wisconsin, Maitshow, is the name of the common wolf.