The very sound of this name has carried terror wherever it has been
heard in the Indian wilderness; and it has travelled and been known, as
well as the people, over a very great part of the Continent. This tribe
originally occupied a great part of the Eastern border of Pennsylvania,
and great part of the states of New Jersey and Delaware. No other
tribe on the Continent has been so much moved and jostled about by
civilized invasions; and none have retreated so far, or fought their
way so desperately, as they have honourably and bravely contended for
every foot of the ground they have passed over. From the banks of the
Delaware to the lovely Susquehana, and _my native valley_, and to the
base of and over, the Alleghany mountains, to the Ohio river—to the
Illinois and the Mississippi, and at last to the West of the Missouri,
they have been moved by Treaties after Treaties with the Government,
who have now assigned to the mere handful of them that are left, a
tract of land, as has been done a dozen times before, in _fee simple,
for ever_! In every move the poor fellows have made, they have been
thrust against their wills from the graves of their fathers and their
children; and planted as they now are, on the borders of new enemies,
where their first occupation has been to take up their weapons in
self-defence, and fight for the ground they have been planted on.
There is no tribe, perhaps, amongst which greater and more continued
exertions have been made for their conversion to Christianity; and that
ever since the zealous efforts of the Moravian missionaries, who first
began with them; nor any, amongst whom those pious and zealous efforts
have been squandered more in vain; which has, probably, been owing to
the bad faith with which they have so often and so continually been
treated by white people, which has excited prejudices that have stood
in the way of their mental improvement.
This scattered and reduced tribe, which once contained some 10 or
15,000, numbers at this time but 800; and the greater part of them have
been for the fifty or sixty years past, residing in Ohio and Indiana.
In these states, their reservations became surrounded by white people,
whom they dislike for neighbours, and their lands too valuable for
Indians—and the certain consequence has been, that they have sold out
and taken lands West of the Mississippi; on to which they have moved,
and on which it is, and always will be, almost impossible to find them,
owing to their desperate disposition for roaming about, indulging in
the chase, and in wars with their enemies.
The wild frontier on which they are now placed, affords them so fine
an opportunity to indulge both of these propensities, that they will
be continually wandering in little and desperate parties over the vast
buffalo plains, and exposed to their enemies, till at last the new
country, which is given to them, in “fee simple, for ever,” and which
is destitute of game, will be deserted, and they, like the most of the
removed remnants of tribes, will be destroyed; and the faith of the
Government well preserved, which has offered _this_ as their _last
move_, and these lands as _theirs in fee simple, for ever_.
In my travels on the Upper Missouri, and in the Rocky Mountains,
I learned to my utter astonishment, that little parties of these
adventurous myrmidons, of only six or eight in numbers, had visited
those remote tribes, at 2000 miles distance; and in several
instances, after having cajoled a whole tribe—having been feasted in
their villages—having solemnized the articles of everlasting peace
with them, and received many presents at their hands, and taken
affectionate leave, have brought away six or eight scalps with them;
and nevertheless, braved their way, and defended themselves as they
retreated in safety out of their enemies’ country, and through the
regions of other hostile tribes, where they managed to receive the same
honours, and come off with similar trophies.
Amongst this tribe there are some renowned chiefs, whose lives, if
correctly written, would be matter of the most extraordinary kind for
the reading world; and of which, it may be in my power at some future
time, to give a more detailed account. In +plate+ 197 will be seen
the portrait of one of the leading chiefs of the tribe, whose name
is _Ni-co-man_ (the answer), with his bow and arrows in his hand.
_Non-on-da-gon_ (+plate+ 198), with a silver ring in his nose, is
another of the chiefs of distinction, whose history I admired very
much, and whom, from his very gentlemanly attentions to me, I became
much attached to. In both of these instances, their dresses were
principally of stuffs of civilized manufacture; and their heads were
bound with vari-coloured handkerchiefs or shawls, which were tastefully
put on like a Turkish turban.
[Illustration: 197 198]
[Illustration: 199 200]
+MO-HEE-CON-NEUHS, or MOHEGANS (the good canoemen).+
There are 400 of this once powerful and still famous tribe, residing
near Green Bay, on a rich tract of land given to them by the
Government, in the territory of Wisconsin, near Winnebago lake—on
which they are living very comfortably; having brought with them from
their former country, in the state of Massachusetts, a knowledge of
agriculture, which they had there effectually learned and practiced.
This tribe are the remains, and all that are left, of the once powerful
and celebrated tribe of Pequots of Massachusetts. History tells us,
that in their wars and dissensions with the whites, a considerable
portion of the tribe moved off under the command of a rival chief,
and established a separate tribe or band, and took the name of
Mo-hee-con-neuhs, which they have preserved until the present day; the
rest of the tribe having long since been extinct.
The chief of this tribe, _Ee-tow-o-kaum_ (both sides of the river,
+plate+ 199), which I have painted at full length, with a psalm-book
in one hand, and a cane in the other, is a very shrewd and intelligent
man, and a professed, and I think, sincere Christian. _Waun-naw-con_
(the dish), John W. Quinney (+plate+ 200), in civilized dress, is a
civilized Indian, well-educated—speaking good English—is a Baptist
missionary preacher, and a very plausible and eloquent speaker.