Part 12

To this reasoning it was not easy to oppose any thing that could carry conviction to untutored people, who spoke from observation and the evidence of the senses; to which could only be opposed scripture texts, which avail not till they are believed; and abstract reasoning, extremely difficult to bring to the level of an unlearned understanding. Great labour and perseverance wrought on the minds of a few, who felt conviction, as far as it is to be ascribed to human agency, flowing from the affectionate persuasion of those whom they visibly beheld earnest for their eternal welfare: and when a few had thus yielded,[12] the peace and purity of their lives, and the sublime enjoyment they seemed to derive from the prospects their faith opened into futurity, was an inducement to others to follow the same path. This abstractedly from religious considerations of endless futurity, is the true and only way to civilization; and to the blending together the old and new inhabitants of these regions. National pride, rooted prejudices, ferocity, and vindictive hatred, all yield before a change that new moulds the whole soul, and furnishes man with new fears and hopes, and new motives for action.

Footnote 12:

Some of them made such a proficiency in practical religion, as ought to shame many of us who boast the illuminating aids of our native christianity. Not one of these Indians have been concerned in those barbarous irruptions which deluged the frontiers of our south-western provinces with the blood of so many innocents of every age and sex. At the commencement of these ravages, they flew into the settlements, and put themselves under the protection of government. The Indians no sooner became christians, than they openly professed their loyalty to King George; and therefore, to contribute to their conversion, was as truly politic as nobly christian.

CHAP. XXVII.

Indians only to be attached by being converted—The abortive expedition of Mons. Barre—Ironical sketch of an Indian.

UPON the attachment the Indians had to our religion, was grafted the strongest regard to our government, and the greatest fidelity to the treaties made with us. I shall insert a specimen of Indian eloquence, illustrative of this last; not that I consider it by any means so rich, impressive, or sublime as many others that I could quote, but as containing a figure of speech rarely to be met with among savage people; and supposed, by us, incompatible with the state of intellectual advancement to which they have attained. I mean a fine and well supported irony. About the year 1686, Mons. Barre, the commander of the French forces in Canada, made a kind of inroad, with a warlike design, into the precincts claimed by our Mohawk allies; the march was tedious, the French fell sick, and many of their Indians deserted them. The wily commander, finding himself unequal to the meditated attack, and that it would be unsafe to return through the lakes and woods, while in hourly danger of meeting enemies so justly provoked, sent to invite the sachems to a friendly conference; and when they met, asserted in an artful speech that he and his troops had come with the sole intention of settling old grievances, and smoking the calumet of peace with them. The Indians, not imposed on by such pretences, listened patiently to his speech, and then made the answer which the reader will find in the notes.[13] It is to be observed, that whoever they considered as the ruling person for the time being in Canada, they styled Onnonthio; while the governor of New-York they always called Corlaer.

Footnote 13:

“Onnonthio, I honour you; and all the warriors who are with me likewise honour you. Your interpreter has finished his speech, I begin mine. My words make haste to reach your ears; hearken to them, Yonnondio. You must have believed, when you left Quebec, that the sun had burnt up all the forests which made our country so inaccessible to the French; or that the lakes had so far overflowed their banks, that they had surrounded our castles, and that it was impossible for us to get out of them. Yes, Yonnondio, surely you have dreamt so: and the curiosity of seeing so great a wonder has brought you so far. Now you are undeceived, since I and the warriors here present, are come to assure you that the Hurons, Onondagoes, and Mohawks are yet alive. I thank you, in their name, for bringing back into their country the calumet, which your predecessor received from their hands. It was happy for you that you left underground that murdering hatchet, which has been so dyed with the blood of the French. Hear, Onnondio, I do not sleep; I have my eyes open: and the sun which enlightens me, discovers to me a great captain, at the head of his soldiers, who speaks as if he were dreaming. He says that he only came to the lake to smoke out the great calumet with the Five Nations; but Connaratego says that he sees the contrary: that it was to knock them on the head, if sickness had not weakened the arms of the French. I see Onnonthio raving in a camp of sick men, whose lives the Great Spirit has saved by inflicting this sickness upon them. Hear, Onnonthio, our women had taken their clubs; our children and old men had carried their bows and arrows into the heart of your camp, if our warriors had not disarmed them, and kept them back, when your messenger came to our castles. It is done, and I have said it. Hear, Yonnondio, we plundered none of the French, but those who carried guns, powder, and ball to the wolf and elk tribes, because those arms might have cost us our lives. Herein we follow the example of the Jesuits, who stave all the kegs of rum brought to the castles where they are, lest the drunken Indians should knock them on the head. Our warriors have not beavers enough to pay for all those arms that they have taken—and our old men are not afraid of the war. This belt preserves my words. We carried the English into our lakes, to trade with the wolf and elk tribes, as the praying Indians brought the French to our castles, to carry on a trade, which the English say is theirs. We are born free. We neither depend upon Onnonthio nor Corlaer; we may go where we please. If your allies be your slaves, use them as such; command them to receive no other but your people. This belt preserves my words. We knocked the Connecticut Indians and their confederates on the head, because they had cut down the trees of peace, which were the limits of our country. They have hunted beavers on our lands, contrary to the customs of all Indians, for they have left none alive; they have killed both male and female. They brought the Sathanas into our country to take part with them, after they had formed ill designs against us; we have done less than they merited.

“Hear, once more, the words of the Five Nations. They say that when they buried the hatchet at Cardaragui, (in the presence of your predecessor,) in the middle of the fort, [Detroit] they planted the tree of peace in the same place, to be there carefully preserved; that instead of an abode for soldiers, that fort might be a rendezvous for merchants; that in place of arms and ammunition, only peltry and goods should enter there.

“Hear, Yonnondio, take care for the future that so great a number of soldiers as appear there do not choke the tree of peace, planted in so small a fort. It will be a great loss, after having so easily taken root, if you should stop its growth, and prevent its covering your country and ours with its branches. I assure you, in the name of the Five Nations that our warriors shall dance to the calumet of peace under its leaves, and shall remain quiet on their mats; and that they shall never dig up the hatchet till Corlaer or Onnonthio, either jointly or separately, attack the country, which the Great Spirit hath given to our ancestors. This belt preserves my words; and this other, the authority which the Five Nations have given me.” Then Garangula, addressing himself to Mons. de Maine, who understood his language, and interpreted, spoke thus: “take courage, friend, you have spirits, speak, explain my words, omit nothing. Tell all that your brethren and friends say to Onnonthio, your governor, by the mouth of Garangula, who loves you, and desires you to accept of this present of beaver, and take part with me in my feast, to which I invite you. This present of beaver is sent to Yonnondio on the part of the Five Nations.”

Mons. Barré returned to his fort much enraged at what he had heard. Garangula feasted the French officers, and then went home; and Mons. Barré set out on his way towards Montreal; and as soon as the general, with the few soldiers who remained in health, had embarked, the militia made their way to their own habitations without order or discipline. Thus a chargeable and fatiguing expedition, meant to strike terror of the French name into the stubborn hearts of the Five Nations, ended in a scold between a French general and an old Indian.—_Colden’s History of the Five Nations, p. 68._

Twice in the year, the new converts came to Albany to partake of the sacrament, before a place of worship was erected for themselves. They always spent the night, or oftener two nights, before their joining in this holy rite, at the Flats, which was their general rendezvous from different quarters. There they were cordially received by the three brothers, who always met together at this time to have a conference with them, on subjects the most important to their present and future welfare. These devout Indians seemed all impressed with the same feelings, and moved by the same spirit. They were received with affectionate cordiality, and accommodated in a manner quite conformable to their habits, in the passage, porch, and offices; and so deeply impressed were they with a sense of the awful duty that brought them there, and the rights of friendship and hospitality, and at this period, become so much acquainted with our customs, that though two hundred communicants, followed by many of their children, were used to assemble on those occasions, the smallest instance of riot or impropriety was not known amongst them. They brought little presents of game, or of their curious handicrafts, and were liberally and kindly entertained by their good brother Philip, as they familiarly called him. In the evening they all went apart to secret prayer, and in the morning, by dawn of day, they assembled before the portico; and their entertainers, who rose early, to enjoy, unobserved, a view of their social devotion, beheld them with their mantles drawn over their heads, prostrate on the earth, offering praises and fervent supplications to their Maker. After some time spent in this manner, they arose, and seated in a circle on the ground, with their heads veiled as formerly, they sang a hymn, which it was delightful to hear, from the strength, richness, and sweet accord of their uncommonly fine voices; which every one that ever heard this sacred chorus, however indifferent to the purport of it, praised as incomparable. The voices of the female Indians are particularly sweet and powerful. I have often heard my friend dwell with singular pleasure on the recollection of those scenes, and of the conversations she and the colonel used to hold with the Indians, whom she described as possessed of very superior powers of understanding; and in their religious views and conversations, uniting the ardour of proselytes with the firm decision and inflexible steadiness of their national character. It was on the return of those new christians to the Flats, after they had thus solemnly sealed their profession, that these wise regulations for preserving peace and good will between the settlers (now become confident and careless from their numbers) and the Indians, jealous, with reason, of their ancient rights, were concluded.

CHAP. XXVIII.

Management of the Mohawks, by the influence of the Christian Indians.

THE influence these converts had obtained over the minds of those most venerated for wisdom among their countrymen, was the medium through which this patriot family, in some degree, controlled the opinions of that community at large, and kept them faithful to the British interests. Every two or three years, there was a congress held, by deputies from New-York, who generally spoke to the Indians by an interpreter; went through the form of delivering presents from their brother, the great king, redressing petty grievances, smoking the calumet of peace, and delivering belts, the pledges of amity. But these were mere public forms; the real terms of this often renewed amity having been previously digested by those who far better understood the relations subsisting between the contracting parties, and the causes most likely to interrupt their union. Colonel Schuyler, though always ready to serve his country in exigencies, did not like to take upon himself any permanent responsibility, as a superintendent of Indian affairs, as it might have diminished that private influence which arose from the general veneration for his character, and from a conviction that the concern he took was voluntary and impartial; neither did he choose to sacrifice that domestic peace and leisure, which he so well knew how to turn to the best account, being convinced that by his example and influence as a private gentleman, he had it in his power to do much good of a peculiar kind, which was incompatible with the weight and bustle of public affairs, or with that hospitality, which, as they managed it, was productive of so many beneficial effects. I have already shown how, by prudent address and kind conciliation this patriotic pair soothed and attached the Indians to the British interest. As the country grew more populous, and property more abundant and more secure, the face of society in this inland region began to change. They whose quiet and orderly demeanor, devotion, and integrity, did not much require the enforcement of laws, began now to think themselves above them. To a deputed authority, the source of which lay beyond the Atlantic, they paid little deference; and from their neighbours of New Hampshire and Connecticut, who bordered on their frontiers, and served with them in the colonial wars, they had little to learn of loyalty or submission. These people they held in great contempt, both as soldiers and statesmen; and yet, from their frequent intercourse with those who talked of law and politics in their peculiar, uncouth dialect incessantly, they insensibly adopted many of their notions. There is a certain point of stable happiness at which our imperfect nature merely seems to arrive; for the very materials of which it is formed contain the seeds of its destruction: this was the case here. That peaceful and desirable equality of conditions, from which so many comforts resulted, in process of time occasioned an aversion to superiors, to whom they were not accustomed, and an exaggerated jealousy of the power which was exercised for their own safety and comfort. Their manners unsophisticated, and their morals, in a great measure, uncorrupted, led them to regard with unjustifiable scorn and aversion, those strangers who brought with them the manners of more polished, though less pure communities. Proud of their haughty bluntness, which daily increased with their wealth and security, they began to consider respectful and polite behaviour as a degree of servility and duplicity; while they revolted at the power exercised over themselves, and very reluctantly made the exertions necessary for their own protection. They showed every inclination to usurp the territories of their Indian allies; and use, to the very utmost, the power they had acquired over them, by supplying their wants.

At the liberal table of aunt Schuyler, where there were always intelligence, just notions, and good breeding to be met with, both among the owners and their guests, many had their prejudices softened down, their minds enlarged, and their manners improved. There they met British officers of rank and merit, and persons in authority; and learnt that the former were not artificial coxcombs, nor the latter petty tyrants, as they would otherwise be very apt to imagine. Here they were accustomed to find authority respected, on the one hand, and on the other, to see the natural rights of man vindicated, and the utmost abhorrence expressed of all the sophistry by which the credulous were misled by the crafty, to have a code of morality for their treatment of heathens, different from that which directed them in their dealing with christians. Here a selection of the best and worthiest, of the different characters and classes we have been describing, met—and were taught not only to tolerate, but to esteem each other: and it required the calm, temperate wisdom, and easy, versatile manners of my friend to bring this about. It is when they are called to act in a new scene, and among people different from any they had known or imagined, that the folly of the wise, and the weakness of the strong, become discernible.

Many officers justly esteemed, possessed of capacity, learning, and much knowledge, both of the usages of the world, and the art of war, from the want of certain habitudes, which nothing but experience can teach, were disqualified for the warfare of the woods; and from a secret contempt with which they regarded the blunt simplicity and plain appearance of the settlers, were not attentive to their advice on these points. They were not aware how much they were to depend on them for the means of carrying on their operations; and by rude or negligent treatment so disgusted them, that they withheld the horses, oxen, waggons, &c. which were to be paid for, merely to show their independence; well knowing the dreaded and detested military power, even if coercive measures were resorted to, would have no chance for redress in their courts; and even the civil authority were cautious of doing any thing so unpopular as to decide in favour of the military. Thus, till properly instructed, those bewildered strangers were apt to do the thing of all others that annihilates a feeble authority; threaten where they could not strike, and forfeit respect where they could not enforce obedience. A failure of this kind, clogged and enfeebled all their measures; for without the hearty co-operation of the inhabitants in furnishing pre-requisites, nothing could go on in a country without roads, or public vehicles, for the conveyance of their warlike stores. Another rock they were apt to run upon was, a neglect of the Indians, whom they neither sufficiently feared as enemies, nor valued as friends, till taught to do so by maturer judgments. Of this, Braddock’s defeat was an instance; he was brave, experienced, and versed in all military science; his confidence in which, occasioned the destruction of himself and his army. He considered those counsels, that warned him how little, manœuvres or numbers would avail in the close prison of innumerable boughs, as the result of feeble caution; and marched his army to certain ruin, in the most brave and scientific manner imaginable. Upon certain occasions, there is no knowledge so valuable as that of our own ignorance.

At the Flats, the self-righted boor learned civilization and subordination: the high-bred and high-spirited field officer, gentleness, accommodation, and respect for unpolished worth and untaught valour. There, too, the shrewd and deeply-reflecting Indian learnt to respect the British character, and to confide in that of the settlers, by seeing the best specimens of both acting candidly towards each other, and generously to himself.

My friend was most particularly calculated to be the coadjutor of her excellent consort, in thus subduing the spirits of different classes of people, strongly disposed to entertain a repulsive dislike of each other; and by leading them to the chastened enjoyment of the same social pleasures, under the auspices of those whose good will they were all equally convinced of, she contrived to smooth down asperities, and assimilate those various characters, in a manner that could not be done by any other means.

Accustomed from childhood, both from the general state of society, and the enlarged minds of her particular associates, to take liberal views of every thing, and to look forward on all occasions to consequences, she steadily followed her wise and benevolent purposes, without being attracted by petty gratifications, or repelled by petty disgusts. Neither influenced by female vanity, nor female fastidiousness, she might very truly say of popularity, as Falstaff says of Worcester’s rebellion, “it lay in her way and she found it;” for no one ever took less pains to obtain it; and if the weight of solid usefulness and beneficence had not, as it never fails to do in the long run, forced approbation, her mode of conducting herself, though it might greatly endear her to her particular associates, was not conciliating to common minds. The fact was, that though her benevolence extended through the whole circle of those to whom she was known, she had too many objects of importance in view, to squander time upon imbecility and insignificance; nor could she find leisure for the routine of ordinary visits, or inclination for the insipidity of ordinary chit chat.

If people of the description here alluded to, could forward any plan advantageous to the public, or to any of those persons in whom she was particularly interested, she would treat them occasionally with much civility—for she had all the power of superior intellect without the pride of it, but could not submit to a perpetual sacrifice to forms and trifles. This, in her, was not only justifiable but laudable; yet it is not mentioned as an example, because a case can very rarely occur, where the benefit resulting to others, from making one’s own path, and forsaking the ordinary road, can be so essential:—few ever can have a sphere of action so peculiar or so important as hers; and very few, indeed, have so sound a judgment to direct them in choosing, or so much fortitude to support them in pursuing, a way of their own.

In ordinary matters, where neither religion nor morality is concerned, it is much safer to trust to the common sense of mankind in general, than to our own particular fancy. Singularity of conduct or opinion is so often the result of vanity or affectation, that whoever ventures upon it, ought to be a person whose example is looked up to by others. A person too great to follow, ought to be great enough to lead. But though her conversation was reserved for those she preferred, her advice, compassion, and good offices were always given where most needed.

CHAP. XXIX.

Madame’s adopted children—Anecdote of sister Susan.