" The river tribes have become so scattered and so addicted to wandering, that no certain account of their numbers can be the Montauks and others of Long These tribes

obtained. island,

Wappingers of Dutchess county, and the Esopus, Papacounty^- have generally been denomi

goncks, etc., of Ulster

nated River Indians and consist of about three hundred fighting

men.

Most of these people at present profess Christianity, and

power adopt our customs. The greater part of them attended the army during the late war, but not with the same reputation of those who are still deemed hunters." 2 as far as in their

Manuscripts xxin, 4.

of

Sir

Wm.

a

Johnson,

Colonial History y vni, 451.

THE INDIAN TRIBES

THE INDIANS AND THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION THE THE LAST OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE Six NATIONS MAHICANS.

>HE hostility of the Indian tribes of the west to the colonists, in the

war of the Revolution, had its

origin mainly in the long catalogue of aggressive

acts which the colonists themselves had committed,

and against which the

tribes had adopted a settled and well understood policy, involving resistance to further encroachments

upon territory which they regarded as their especial domain. In their controversies in regard to these encroachments the Indians had learned to distinguish between the king of England and those whom they regarded as their oppressors, and to assume that while the latter

judge to

Wyoming

were

trespassers, the former

was a just

whom

The revision of the they could appeal. deeds, and the establishment of the treaty line of