(1) _The Yagesho._--p. 99.
I have not the means of judging whether this is an imaginary beast or
not, probably it was. The following is the Indian account: The
Tagisho, or Yagesho, was an animal much superior to the largest bear,
remarkably long-bodied, broad down by his shoulders, but thin or
narrow just at its hind legs. It had a large head and fearful look.
Its legs were short and thick; its paws (at the toes of which were
nails or claws, nearly as long as an Indian's finger), spread very
wide. It was almost bare of hair, except the hinder part of its legs,
in which places the hair was very long. For this reason, the Indians
gave it the name of "_Naked Bear_." Several of these animals had been
destroyed by the Indians, but the one of which the following account
is given, had escaped them, and for years had from time to time
destroyed many Indians, particularly women and children when they were
out in the woods gathering nuts, digging roots, or at work in the
fields. Hunters, when overtaken by this animal, had no way of
escaping, except where a river or lake was at hand, by plunging into
it, and swimming out or down the stream to a great distance; when this
was the case, and the beast was not able to pursue further, then he
would set up such a roaring noise, that every Indian hearing it would
tremble. This animal preyed on every beast he could lay hold of; he
would catch and kill the largest bears and devour them; while bears
were plenty, the Indians had not so much to dread from him; but, when
this was not the case, he would run about the woods, searching for the
track or scent of hunters, following them up, and making prey of them.
The women were so afraid of going out to work, that the men assembled
to deliberate on the manner or plan of killing him. At, or near a lake
(Hoosink), whence the water flowed two ways, one on the northern and
the other on the southern end, this beast had his residence, of which
the Indians were well informed. A resolute party, well provided with
bows, arrows, and spears, made towards the lake; on a high
perpendicular rock they stationed themselves, climbing up this rock by
means of Indian ladders, and then drawing these after them. After
being well fixed, and having taken up a number of stones, they began
to imitate the voices and cries of the various beasts of the woods,
and even that of children, to decoy him thither. Having spent some
days without success, a detached party took a stroll to some distance
from the rock. Before they had reached the rock again, this beast had
got scent, and was in full pursuit of them; yet they reached it before
he arrived. When he came to it, he was in great anger, and sprung
against it with his mouth wide open, grinning and seizing the flinty
substance as if he would tear it to pieces. He had several times
sprung nearly up. During all this time, numbers of arrows and stones
were discharged at him, until his death was finally effected, and he
dropped down and expired.
(2) _The Mammoth._--p. 99.
"An Indian chief of the Delaware tribe, who visited the governor of
Virginia, during the Revolution, informed him that it was a tradition
handed down from their fathers, that in ancient times a herd of these
tremendous animals came to the Big-bone Licks, and began a universal
destruction of the bear, deer, elk, buffalo, and other animals, which
had been created for the use of the Indians. The Great Man above,
looking down and seeing this, was so enraged that he seized his
lightning, descended on the earth, seated himself on a neighbouring
mountain, on a rock, (on which his seat and the prints of his feet are
to be seen to this day) and hurled his bolts among them, till the
whole were slaughtered, except a big bull, who, presenting his
forehead to the shafts, shook them off as they fell; but, missing one
at length, it wounded him on the side, whereon, springing round, he
bounded over the Ohio, the Wabash, and the Illinois, and finally over
the great lakes, where he is living at this day."--_Jefferson's Notes
on Virginia._
(3) _White People treated with great kindness._--p. 105.
In every instance the white people, on their first interview with the
Indians, were treated well. Varrazano (see _Hakluyt's Voyages_, vol.
ii, p. 295, 300, Lond. 1600.) upon his landing on the North American
coast, (which was near Wilmington, North Carolina), found the natives
very hospitable. "Great store of people," says he, "came to the sea
side, and, seeing us approach, they fled away, and sometimes would
stand still and look back, beholding us with great admiration; but
afterwards, being animated and assured with signs that we made them,
some of them came hard to the sea-side, seeming to rejoice much at the
sight of us, and marvelling greatly at our apparel, shape, and
whiteness; and shewed us, by sundry signs, where we might most
commodiously come to land with our boat; offering us also of their
victuals to eat." Again, at another place, one of the sailors who had
landed with a few articles designed as presents, found himself treated
in the kindest manner. "These guileless people conducted him to the
shore, and held him some time in a close embrace, with great love,
clapping him fast about, in order to evince their regret at
parting."--_See Varrazano's Letter in Hakluyt, and New York Hist.
Collect._
The treatment experienced by Columbus was equally kind. When Americus
Vesputius landed, he was treated as a superior Being; all the early
voyagers, the Cabots, Jacques Cartier, Sir Humphry Gilbert, Hudson,
speak of the unbounded kindness and hospitality they experienced from
the Indians. In the first report of Sir Walter Raleigh's Captain, it
is said that they were entertained with as much bounty as could
possibly be devised. They found the people most gentle, loving, and
faithful, void of all guile and treason, and such as live after the
manner of the golden age.--_See Hakluyt._
In the first sermon ever preached in New England, the preacher says of
the Indians: "They have been to us like lambs, so kind, so submissive
and trusty, as a man may truly say many Christians are not so kind and
sincere. When we first came into this country, we were few, and many
of us were sick, and many died by reason of the cold and wet, it
being the depth of winter, and we having no houses nor shelter; yet,
when there were not six able persons among us, and that they came
daily to us by hundreds, with their sachems or kings, and might, in
one hour, have made a dispatch of us, &c. yet they never offered us
the least injury."--_Sermon_ printed 1622, reprinted Bost. 1815.
(4) _Gave or sold them land._--p. 99.
At Stoke Pogis, Buckinghamshire, the seat of John Penn, Esq. the
grandson of the founder of Pennsylvania, is preserved a portion of
the trunk of a tree, supported on a marble base. On a brass plate
is this inscription:
"This part of the great elm, under which the treaty was held,
A. D. 1681, between Penn and the first inhabitants of America, in
the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, and which was blown down A. D.
1810, is a present from some of the Society of Friends or Quakers,
residing in Pennsylvania."
It is added: "The tree was in some danger during the American war,
while the British army was in possession of that city, it being often
necessary to cut down the trees in its vicinity for firing. But the
late General Simcoe, who had the command of the district in which it
grew, was induced, by his esteem for the character of William Penn,
and the history connected with it, to order a guard of British
soldiers to protect it from the axe."
By the side are some portraits of the Indian chiefs who signed the
following deed:
"This indenture witnesseth, that we, Packenah, Jaultham Jickals,
Partsequolt, Jerois Essepimank, Felktroy, Hekellappace, Eromas,
Macloah, Wissy Powy, Indian kings, sackmakers, right owners of all
lands from Quing Quingus, called Duck Creek, all along by the west
side of Delaware river, and so between the said creeks backwards as
far as a man can ride in two days with a horse, for and in
consideration of these following goods, and as paid in hand and
secured by William Penn, proprietary and governor of the province of
Pennsylvania and territories thereof; viz. 20 guns, 20 fathoms
matchcoat, 20 fathoms stroud-water, 20 blankets, 20 kettles, 20 lbs.
of powder, 100 bars of lead, 40 tomahawks, 100 knives, 40 pairs of
stockings, 1 barrel of beer, 20 lbs. of red lead, 100 fathoms of
wampum, 30 glass bottles, 30 pewter spoons, 100 awl-blades, 300
tobacco-pipes, 100 hands of tobacco, 20 tobacco-tongs, 20 steels, 300
flints, 30 pair of scissars, 30 combs, 60 looking-glasses, 200
needles, 1 skipple of salt, 30 lbs. of sugar, 8 gallons of molasses,
20 tobacco-boxes, 100 jews' harps, 20 hoes, 30 gimblets, 30 wooden
screw boxes, 100 strings of beads; do hereby acknowledge, &c. &c.
Given under our hand at Newcastle, 2d day of the 8th month, 1685."
The above is certified to be a true copy taken from the original, in
Dec. 1813, by Ephraim Morton, of Washington, Pennsylvania, formerly a
clerk in the land-office.