CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE ILLINOIS           179
Captain White Eyes and his followers were always friendly to the Americans. The Reverend John Heckewel-der, a Moravian Missionary, long among the Leni-lenape or Delaware Indians, gives the aboriginal name of White Eyes as "Ko-gue-tha-gecht-on." This good and learned man [Heckewelder] was of German descent, and his alphabet and spelling when rendering Indian or geographical names does not have the same sound or power as when used by our tongue.* However be this, there is no doubt at all as to the identity of Captain White Eyes in both instances.
The Missionary and this chief for many years were bosom friends and comrades of the forest. Heckewelder made a journey through the wilds from the Mission on the MusMngum to Pittsburgh when the "tribes" on the British side during the Revolutionary war spread murder and devastation over our unprotected frontier. White Eyes would not allow him to go without an escort and went "himself at his [Heckewelder's] side." Seeing some suspicious signs on the way White Eyes, riding in front, asked the Missionary "if he felt afraid?" "No, while you are with me I have no fears." White Eyes replied, "You are right, for until I am laid at your feet no one shall hurt you." "And not even then," added young Captain Wingenund, who was riding at the rear; "before this happens I must be also overcome and laid by the side of our friend Koguethu-gechton."—H. W. B.
At the treaty of Fort Mclntosh, referred to, it was agreed in a separate article that "Captain White Eyes" and his followers who took up the hatchet for the United States and their families, should be received into the Delaware
• He says po himself The name of White Eye# given in the text as "Wt-co-ca-lins," Is as it was spelled at the treaty of Fort Mclntosh, where Joseph Nicholas, using the King's English, was the interpreter. The name as written by Heckewelder may more nearly present the aboriginal sound, did we bult know how he would have pronounced it. -H. W. B.