All these northwestern nations had at one time been conquered by the Iroquois, or at least they had been defeated, their lands overrun, and they themselves forced to acknowledge a vague over-lordship on the part of their foes.  But the power of the Iroquois was now passing away:  when our national history began, with the assembling of the first continental congress, they had ceased to be a menace to the western tribes, and the latter no longer feared or obeyed them, regarding them merely as allies or neutrals.  Yet not only the Iroquois, but their kindred folk, notably the Wyandots, still claimed, and received, for the sake of their ancient superiority, marks of formal respect from the surrounding Algonquins.  Thus, among the latter, the Leni-Lenappe possessed the titular headship, and were called “grandfathers” at all the solemn councils as well as in the ceremonious communications that passed among the tribes; yet in turn they had to use similar titles of respect in addressing not only their former oppressors, but also their Huron allies, who had suffered under the same galling yoke.[2]

The northwestern nations had gradually come to equal the Iroquois as warriors; but among themselves the palm was still held by the Wyandots, who, although no more formidable than the others as regards skill, hardihood, and endurance, nevertheless stood alone in being willing to suffer heavy punishment in order to win a victory.[3]

The Wyandots had been under the influence of the French Jesuits, and were nominally Christians;[4] and though the attempt to civilize them had not been very successful, and they remained in most respects precisely like the Indians around them, there had been at least one point gained, for they were not, as a rule, nearly so cruel to their prisoners.  Thus they surpassed their neighbors in mercifulness as well as valor.  All the Algonquin tribes stood, in this respect, much on the same plane.  The Delawares, whose fate it had been to be ever buffeted about by both the whites and the reds, had long cowered under the Iroquois terror, but they had at last shaken it off, had reasserted the superiority which tradition says they once before held, and had become a formidable and warlike race.  Indeed it is curious to study how the Delawares have changed in respect to their martial prowess since the days when the whites first came in contact with them.  They were then not accounted a formidable people, and were not feared by any of their neighbors.  By the time the Revolution broke out they had become better warriors, and during the twenty years’ Indian warfare that ensued were as formidable as most of the other redskins.  But when moved west of the Mississippi, instead of their spirit being broken, they became more warlike than ever, and throughout the present century they have been the most renowned fighters of all the Indian peoples, and, moreover, they have been celebrated for their roving, adventurous nature.  Their numbers have steadily dwindled, owing to their incessant wars and to the dangerous nature of their long roamings.[5]