Part 14

On his arrival at Philadelphia, in the beginning of the year 1796, I was introduced to General Wayne, and I had then an opportunity of seeing the plan of all his Indian campaigns. A most pompous account was given of this victory, and the plan of it excited, as indeed it well might, the wonder and admiration of all the old officers who saw it. The Indians were represented as drawn up in three lines, one behind the other, and after receiving with firmness the charge of the American army, as endeavouring with great skill and adroitness to turn its flanks, when, by the hidden appearance of the Kentucky riflemen and the light cavalry, they were put to flight. From the regularity with which the Indians fought on this occasion, it was argued that they must doubtless have been conducted by British officers of skill and experience. How absurd this whole plan was, however, was plainly to be deduced from the following circumstance, allowed both by the general and his aides de camp, namely, that during the whole action the American army did not see fifty Indians; and indeed every person who has read an account of the Indians must know that they never come into the field in such regular array, but always fight under covert, behind trees or bushes, in the most irregular manner. Notwithstanding the great pains that were taken formerly, both by the French and English, they never could be brought to fight in any other manner. It was in this manner, and no other, as I heard from several men who were in the action with them, that they fought against General Wayne; each one, as soon as the American troops were descried, instantly sheltered himself, and in retreating they still kept under covert. It was by fighting them also in their own way, and by sending parties of his light troops and cavalry to rout them from their lurking places, that General Wayne defeated them; had he attempted to have drawn up his army in the regular order described in the plan, he could not but have met with the same fate as St. Clair, and general Braddock did on a former occasion.

Between thirty and forty Indians, who had been shot or bayoneted as they attempted to run from one tree to another, were found dead on the field by the American army. It is supposed that many more were killed, but the fact of the matter could never be ascertained by them: a profound silence was observed on the subject by the Indians, so that I never could learn accurately how many of them had fallen; that however is an immaterial circumstance; suffice it to say that the engagement soon induced the Indians to sue for a peace. Commissioners were deputed by the government of the United States to meet their chiefs; the preliminaries were soon arranged, and a treaty was concluded, by which the Indians relinquished a very considerable part of their territory, bordering upon that of the United States.

[Sidenote: INDIAN PEACE.]

The last and principal ceremony observed by the Indians in concluding a peace, is that of burying the hatchet. When this ceremony came to be performed, one of the chiefs arose, and lamenting that the last peace concluded between them and the people of the States had remained unbroken for so short a time, and expressing his desire that this one should be more lasting, he proposed the tearing up of a large oak that grew before them, and the burying of the hatchet under it, where it would for ever remain at rest. Another chief said, that trees were liable to be levelled by the storms; that at any rate they would decay; and that as they were desirous that a perpetual peace should be established between them and their late enemies, he conceived it would be better to bury the hatchet under the tall mountain which arose behind the wood. A third chief in turn addressed the assembly: “As for me,” said he, “I am but a man, and I have not the strength of the great spirit to tear up the trees of the forest by the roots, or to remove mountains, under which to bury the hatchet; but I propose that the hatchet may be thrown into the deep lake, where no mortal can ever find it, and where it will remain buried for ever.” This proposal was joyfully accepted by the assembly, and the hatchet was in consequence cast with great solemnity into the water. The Indians now tell you, in their figurative language, that there must be peace for ever. “On former times,” say they, “when the hatchet was buried, it was only slightly covered with a little earth and a few leaves, and being always a very troublesome restless creature, it soon contrived to find its way aboveground, where it never failed to occasion great confusion between us and our white brethren, and to knock a great many good people on the head; but now that it has been thrown into the deep lake, it can never do any more mischief amongst us; for it cannot rise of itself to the surface of the lake, and no one can go to the bottom to look for it.” And that there would be a permanent peace between them I have no doubt, provided that the people of the States would observe the articles of the treaty as punctually as the Indians; but it requires little sagacity to predict that this will not be the case, and that ere long the hatchet will be again resumed. Indeed, a little time before we reached Malden, messengers from the southern Indians had arrived to sound the disposition of those who lived near the lake, and try if they were ready and willing to enter into a fresh war. Nor is this eagerness for war to be wondered at, when from the report of the commissioners, who were sent down by the federal government to the new state of Tenassee, in order to put the treaty into effect, and to mark out the boundaries of that state in particular, it appeared that upwards of five thousand people, contrary to the stipulation of the treaty lately entered into with the Indians, had encroached upon, and settled themselves down in Indian territory, which people, the commissioners said, could not be persuaded to return, and in their opinion could not be forced back again into the States without very great difficulty[15].

Footnote 15:

The substance of this report appeared in an extract of a letter from Lexington, in Kentucky, which I myself saw, and which was published in many of the newspapers in the United States.

[Sidenote: REMARKS.]

A large portion of the back settlers, living upon the Indian frontiers, are, according to the best of my information, far greater savages than the Indians themselves. It is nothing uncommon, I am told, to see hung up in their chimney corners, or nailed against the door of their habitations, similarly to the ears or brush of a fox, the scalps which they have themselves torn from the heads of the Indians whom they have shot; and in numberless publications in the United States I have read accounts of their having flayed the Indians, and employed their skins as they would have done those of a wild beast, for whatever purpose they could be applied to. An Indian is considered by them as nothing better than a destructive ravenous wild beast, without reason, without a soul, that ought to be hunted down like a wolf wherever it makes its appearance; and indeed, even amongst the bettermost sort of the inhabitants of the western country, the most illiberal notions are entertained respecting these unfortunate people, and arguments for their banishment, or rather extirpation, are adopted, equally contrary to justice and to humanity. “The Indian,” say they, “who has no idea, or at least is unwilling to apply himself to agriculture, requires a thousand acres of land for the support of his family; an hundred acres will be enough for one of us and our children; why then should these heathens, who have no notion of arts and manufactures, who never have made any improvement in science, and have never been the inventors of any thing new or useful to the human species, be suffered to encumber the soil?” “The settlements making in the upper parts of Georgia, upon the fine lands of the Oconec and Okemulgee rivers, will,” says Mr. Imlay, speaking of the probable destination of the Indians of the south western territory, “bid defiance to them in that quarter. The settlements of French Broad, aided by Holston, have nothing to fear from them; and the Cumberland is too puissant to apprehend any danger. The Spaniards are in possession of the Floridas (how long they will remain so must depend upon their moderation and good manners) and of the settlements at the Natchez and above, which will soon extend to the southern boundaries of Cumberland, so that they (the Indians) will be completely enveloped in a few years. Our people (alluding to those of the United States) will continue to _encroach_ upon them on three sides, and _compel_ them to live more domestic lives, and assimilate them to our mode of living, or cross to the western side of the Mississippi.”

[Sidenote: REMARKS.]

O Americans! shall we praise your justice and your love of liberty, when thus you talk of encroachments and compulsion? Shall we commend your moderation, when we see ye eager to gain fresh possessions, whilst ye have yet millions of acres within your own territories unoccupied? Shall we reverence your regard for the rights of human nature, when we see ye bent upon banishing the poor Indian from the land where rest the bones of his ancestors, to him more precious than your cold hearts can imagine, and when we see ye tyrannizing over the hapless African, because nature has stamped upon him a complexion different from your own?

The conduct of the people of the States towards the Indians appears the more unreasonable and the more iniquitous, when it is considered that they are dwindling fast away of themselves; and that in the natural order of things there will not probably be a single tribe of them found in existence in the western territory by the time that the numbers of the white inhabitants of the country become so numerous as to render land one half as valuable there as it is at present within ten miles of Philadelphia or New York. Even in Canada, where the Indians are treated with so much kindness, they are disappearing faster, perhaps, than any people were ever known to do before them, and are making room every year for the whites; and it is by no means improbable, but that at the end of fifty years there will not be a single Indian to be met with between Quebec and Detroit, except the few perhaps that may be induced to lead quiet domestic lives, as a small number now does in the village of Lorette near Quebec, and at some other places in the lower province.

[Sidenote: REMARKS.]

It is well known, that before Europeans got any footing in North America, the increase of population amongst the Indian nations was very slow, as it is at this day amongst those who remain still unconnected with the whites. Various reasons have been assigned for this. It has been asserted, in the first place, that the Indian is of a much cooler temperament than the white man, has less ardour in pursuit of the female, and is furnished with less noble organs of generation. This assertion is perhaps true in part: they are chaste to a proverb when they come to Philadelphia, or any other of the large towns, though they have a predilection in general for white women, and might there readily indulge their inclination; and there has never been an instance that I can recollect, of their offering violence to a female prisoner, though oftentimes they have carried off from the settlements very beautiful women; that, however, they should not have been gifted by the Creator with ample powers to propagate their species would be contrary to every thing we see either in the animal or the vegetable world; it seems to be with more justice that their slow increase is ascribed to the conduct of the women. The dreadful practice amongst them, of prostituting themselves at a very early age, cannot fail, I should imagine, to vitiate the humours, and must have a tendency to occasion sterility. Added to this, they suckle the few children they have for several years, during which time, at least amongst many of the tribes, they avoid all connection with their husbands; moreover, finding great inconveniency attendant upon a state of pregnancy, when they are following their husbands, in the hunting season, from one camp to another, they have been accused of making use of certain herbs, the specific virtues of which they are well acquainted with, in order to procure abortion.

If one or more of these causes operated against the rapid increase of their numbers before the arrival of Europeans on the continent, the subsequent introduction of spirituous liquors amongst them, of which both men and women drink to the greatest excess whenever an opportunity offers, was sufficient in itself not only to retard this slow increase, but even to occasion a diminution of their numbers. Intermittent fevers and various other disorders, whether arising from an alteration in the climate, owing to the clearing of the woods, or from the use of the poisonous beverages introduced amongst them by the whites, it is hard to say, have likewise contributed much of late years to diminish their numbers. The Shawnese, one of the most warlike tribes, has been lessened nearly one half by sickness. Many other reasons could be adduced for their decrease, but it is needless to enumerate them. That their numbers have gradually lessened, as those of the whites have increased, for two centuries past, is incontrovertible; and they are too much attached to old habits to leave any room to imagine that they will vary their line of conduct, in any material degree, during years to come, so that they must of consequence still continue to decrease.

[Sidenote: REMARKS.]

In my next letter I intend to communicate to you a few observations that I have made upon the character, manners, customs, and personal and mental qualifications, &c. of the Indians. So much has already been written on these subjects, that I fear I shall have little to offer to your perusal but what you may have read before. I am induced to think, however, that it will not be wholly unpleasing to you to hear the observations of others confirmed by me, and if you should meet with any thing new in what I have to say, it will have the charm of novelty at least to recommend it to your notice. I am not going to give you a regular detail of Indian manners, &c.; it would be absurd in me, who have only been with them for a few weeks, to attempt to do so. If you wish to have an account of Indian affairs at large, you must read Le P. Charlevoix, Le P. Hennipin, Le Hontan, Carver, &c. &c. who have each written volumes on the subject.

_LETTER _ XXXV.

_A brief Account of the Persons, Manners, Character, Qualifications, mental and corporeal, of the Indians; interspersed with Anecdotes._

Malden.

[Sidenote: OF THE INDIANS.]

WHAT I shall first take notice of in the persons of the Indians, is the colour of their skins, which, in fact, constitutes the most striking distinction between their persons and ours. In general their skin is of a copper cast; but a most wonderful difference of colour is observable amongst them; some, in whose veins there is no reason to think that any other than Indian blood flows, not having darker complexions than natives of the south of France or of Spain, whilst others, on the contrary, are nearly as black as negroes. Many persons, and particularly some of the most respectable of the French missionaries, whose long residence amongst the Indians ought to have made them competent judges of the matter, have been of opinion, that their natural colour does not vary from ours; and that the darkness of their complexion arises wholly from their anointing themselves so frequently with unctuous substances, and from their exposing themselves so much to the smoke of wood fires, and to the burning rays of the sun. But although it is certain that they think a dark complexion very becoming; that they take great pains from their earliest age to acquire such an one; and that many of them do, in process of time, contrive to vary their original colour very considerably; although it is certain likewise, that when first born their colour differs but little from ours; yet it appears evident to me, that the greater part of them are indebted for their different hues to nature alone. I have been induced to form this opinion from the following consideration, namely; that those children which are born of parents of a dark colour are almost universally of the same dark cast as those from whom they sprang. Nekig, that is, The Little Otter, an Ottoway chief of great notoriety, whose village is on Detroit River, and with whom we have become intimately acquainted, has a complexion that differs but little from that of an African; and his little boys, who are the very image of the father, are just as black as himself. With regard to Indian children being white on their first coming into the world, it ought by no means to be concluded from thence, that they would remain so if their mothers did not bedaub them with grease, herbs, &c. as it is well known that negro children are not perfectly black when born, nor indeed for many months afterwards, but that they acquire their jetty hue gradually, on being exposed to the air and sun, just as in the vegetable world the tender blade, on first peeping above ground, turns from white to a pale greenish colour, and afterwards to a deeper green.

Though I remarked to you in a former letter, that the Mississaguis, who live about Lake Ontario, were of a much darker cast than any other tribe of Indians I met with, yet I do not think that the different shades of complexion observable amongst the Indians are so much confined to particular tribes as to particular families; for even amongst the Mississaguis I saw several men that were comparatively of a very light colour. Judging of the Creeks, Cherokees, and other southern Indians, from what I have seen of them at Philadelphia, and at other towns in the States, whither they often come in large parties, led either by business or curiosity, it appears to me that their skin has a redder tinge, and more warmth of colouring in it, if I may use the expression, than that of the Indians in the neighbourhood of the lakes; it appears to me also, that there is less difference of colour amongst them than amongst those last mentioned.

[Sidenote: OF THE INDIANS.]

Amongst the female Indians also, in general, there is a much greater sameness of colour than amongst the men. I do not recollect to have seen any of a deeper complexion than what might be termed a dirty copper colour.

The Indians universally have long, straight, black, coarse hair, and black eyes, rather small than full sized; they have, in general, also, high prominent cheek bones, and sharp small noses, rather inclining to an aquiline shape; they have good teeth, and their breath, in general, is as sweet as that of a human being can be. The men are for the most part very well made; it is a most rare circumstance to meet with a deformed person amongst them: they are remarkably straight; have full open chests; their walk is firm and erect, and many amongst them have really a dignified deportment. Very few of them are under the middle stature, and none of them ever become very fat or corpulent. You may occasionally see amongst them stout robust men, closely put together, but in general they are but slightly made. Their legs, arms, and hands, are for the most part extremely well shaped; and very many amongst them would be deemed handsome men in any country in the world.

The women, on the contrary, are mostly under the middle size; and have higher cheek bones, and rounder faces than the men. They have very ungraceful carriages; walk with their toes turned considerably inwards, and with a shuffling gait; and as they advance in years they grow remarkably fat and coarse. I never saw an Indian woman of the age of thirty, but what her eyes were sunk, her forehead wrinkled, her skin loose and shrivelled, and her whole person, in short, forbidding; yet, when young, their faces and persons are really pleasing, not to say sometimes very captivating. One could hardly imagine, without witnessing it, that a few years could possibly make such an alteration as it does in their persons This sudden change is chiefly owing to the drudgery imposed on them by the men after a certain age; to their exposing themselves so much to the burning rays of the sun; sitting so continually in the smoke of wood fires; and, above all, to the general custom of prostituting themselves at a very early age.

[Sidenote: OF THE INDIANS.]

Though the Indians are profusely furnished with hair on their heads, yet on none of the other parts of the body, usually covered with it amongst us, is the smallest sign of hair visible, except, indeed, on the chins of old men, where a few slender straggling hairs are sometimes seen, not different from what may be occasionally seen on women of a certain age in Europe. Many persons have supposed that the Indians have been created without hair on those parts of the body where it appears wanting; others, on the contrary, are of opinion, that nature has not been less bountiful to them than to us; and that this apparent deficiency of hair is wholly owing to their plucking it out themselves by the roots, as soon as it appears above the skin. It is well known, indeed, that the Indians have a great dislike to hair, and that such of the men as are ambitious of appearing gayer than the rest, pluck it not only from their eye-brows and eye-lashes, but also from every part of the head, except one spot on the back part of the crown, where they leave a long lock. For my own part, from every thing I have seen and heard, I am fully persuaded, that if an Indian were to lay aside this custom of plucking out the hair, he would not only have a beard, but likewise hair on the same parts of the body as white people have; I think, however, at the same time, that this hair would be much finer, and not grow as thickly as upon our bodies, notwithstanding that the hair of their heads is so much thicker than ours. The few hairs that are seen on the faces of old men are to be attributed to the carelessness of old people about their external appearance.

To pluck out their hair, all such as have any connection with the traders make use of a pliable worm, formed of flattened brass wire. This instrument is closely applied, in its open state, to the surface of the body where the hair grows; it is then compressed by the finger and thumb; a great number of hairs are caught at once between the spiral evolutions of the wire, and by a sudden twitch they are all drawn out by the roots. An old squaw, with one of these instruments, would deprive you of your beard in a very few minutes, and a slight application of the worm two or three times in the year would be sufficient to keep your chin smooth ever afterwards. A very great number of the white people, in the neighbourhood of Malden and Detroit, from having submitted to this operation, appear at first sight as little indebted to nature for beards as the Indians. The operation is very painful, but it is soon over, and when one considers how much time and trouble is saved and ease gained by it in the end, it is only surprising that more people do not summon up resolution, and patiently submit to it.

[Sidenote: OF THE INDIANS.]