lands, which they had reserved in their various agreements with the whites, and the legislature promptly directed
the payment to them of two thousand dollars in full relinquishment of their claims. 1
The application was made by Sha<wuskukhkung or Wilted Grass, a chief of the Delawares, who had been educated at Princeton at the expense of the Scotch At the time of Missionary Society. making the application he was seventysix years of age. His address to the legislature, on the occasion, was as fol lows
:
* MY BRETHREN. I am old, and weak, and poor, and therefore a fit representa You are young, and tive of my people. strong, and rich, and therefore fit repre sentatives of your people. But let me '
beg you for a moment to lay aside the recollection of your strength and of our weakness, that your minds may be pre pared to examine with candor the subject of our claims.
" Our tradition informs
us, and I believe
it
corresponds with your records, that the
right of fishing in all the rivers and bays
south of the Raritan, and of hunting in all unenclosed lands, was never relin quished, but on the contrary was expressly reserved in our last treaty, held at Crosswicks, in 1758.
"
Having
myself
been
one
of the
the sale, I believe in 1801, I know that these rights were not sold or parted with.
parties
to
" We now offer to sell these
privileges
New Jersey. They were once of great value to us, and we appre hend that neither time nor distance, nor the non-use of our rights, has at all to the state of