Delaware Bible History (3)

**List: Delaware Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Delaware... DELAWARE. "THE Delaware, another language of the great Algonquin stock, was spoken, at the time of the discovery of America, between the Hudson and the Susquehannah rivers, by the Delaware and Minsi tribes, who then constituted one nation.   The Delawares call themselves Lenni Lenape, Indian men: it was with them that Penn concluded his celebrated treaty.   They are now, with their kindred tribes, the Monsees, Shawanese, Kickapoos, Kaskaskias, Miamis, and Chippewas, dispersed along the frontier of the United States, from Canada to Georgia.   The tribes who have not yet been brought under Christian civilisation wander about the country without any settled habitation, or regular means of subsistence.   Fishing and the chase, says Gallatin, are the only pursuits which the men do not regard as beneath their dignity: when not engaged in these, they sink into a state of mental and physical torpor, from which strong outward stimulants are requisite to arouse them; and hence their passion for gambling and ardent spirits. The women are the slaves and the beasts of burden, the labours of the household and of the field devolving solely upon them.   The government of these tribes is in the hands of hereditary chiefs, who, however, can preserve their authority only by the exercise of personal energy and courage.   The religion of these people consists partly in the recognition of a Great Spirit; but all their rites and ceremonies have reference to an Evil Spirit, the supposed author of all calamities.    The first version of the Scriptures executed under the patronage of the American Bible Society was the Delaware.   In 1818 the Rev. Christian Frederick Dencke, a Moravian my. stationed at New Fairfield, in Upper Canada, forwarded a translation of the Epistles of St. John to the Board of that Society.   He afterwards furnished a version of the Gospels of St. John and St. Matthew, and an edition of these portions, printed in parallel columns with the English version, was issued by the Society.   The edition consisted of 1000 copies, 300 of which were sent to the translator for distribution among the aborigines around his station, and 100 were consigned to Mr. Leuchenbach, for the use of the Delawares located in Ohio.   No other scripture translation, except a harmony of the Gospels, printed in 1821, appears to exist in Delaware.   The Moravian mies., during the earlier period of their labours in America, are reported to have translated parts of the Scriptures into the Delaware and Mohegan language; but none of their versions are extant, for, in 1781, all the books and writings which the zealous mies. had prepared for the objects of the mission were destroyed by the savages."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] DELAWARE.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. I John 1:1-10 unknown.]

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