being caused by debts which they had incurred and were unable to pay, or the payment of which they wished to escape. 1 this explanation was

While

not without some truth, the overtures made

by the French, and the entreaties of their relatives, were pro Houses, lands, pro bably the predominant impelling motives. tection, and a more complete recognition by the government,

were temptations that these wanderers, who, like Esau, had parted with their birthright for a mess of pottage, could not resist.

Nor were their MMcan neighbors fully satisfied with their condition.

A considerable number of the better classes among

them felt

keerrly the devouring curses to which they were exposed by their proximity to the established centre of trade,

and fled from their devouring touch to the friendly embrace of their " grandfathers," the Lenapes, and settled beside the Minsis and Sbawanoes in the valley of Wyoming at the forks of the Susquehanna. 2

Among the first of these emigrants was

Keeperdo, or Mohekin Abraham, who, in 1730, left his lands at the mouth of creek unoccupied. Whether he was the

Wood

founder of the Pennsylvania organization or not does not appear ; but the organization itself maintained a separate and recognized existence in all the changes of the Lenapes and their confede In those changes Keeperdo shared rates. accepted, with his

" associates, the reproach of women," joined in the ceremonies of its removal, and, in 1771, was found in the Ohio country. 3

(April 23, 1737), where a number of Indians live,