They were no doubt more or less mixed by association and marriage with their eastern as well as their western neig'hbors, but were primarily of Lenape or Delaware origin, and related to the Minsi, Monsey or Minisink clans on the west side of the river, though not associated with thcm in tribal government.- Their tribal jurisdiction, aside from that which was immediately local, extended on the east side of the river from Roelof Jansen's Kill (south of opposite to the Catskill) to the sea. At their northern bound they met the tribe known to the Dutch as the Mahicans, a people of eastern origin and dialect, whose eastern limit included the valley of the Housatonic at least, and with them in alliance formed the "Mahican nation" of Dutch history, as stated by King Ninham of the

^ The familiar historic name IVuppiugcrs seems to have been introduced by the Dutch from their word IVapendragers, " Armed men." The tribe is first met of record in 1643, when they attacked boats coming down from Fort Orange. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 12-) A map of 1690 gives them a large settlement on the south side of the creek. There is no Opossum in the name, as some writers read it, aUhough some blundering clerk wrote Oping for W a ping.

° The relations between the Esopus Indians and the Wappingers were always intimate and friendly, so much so that when the Mohawks made peace with the Esopus Indians, in 1669, and refused to include the Wappingers, itwas feared by the government that further trouble would ensue from the "great correspondence and affinity between them." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 427.) "Affinity," relationship by marriage, kinship generally. Gov- Tryon, in his report in 1774, no doubt stated the facts correctly when he wrote that the " Montauks and others of Long Island, Wappingers of Duchess County, Esopus, Papagoncks, &c., of Ulster County, generally denominated River Indians, spoke a language radically the same," and were "understood Hist.