OVER THE BORDER
Instead of proceeding to attack the strong loyalist fort
at Niagara, General Sullivan re-crossed the Genesee on
September 16. Lack of provisions, he asserted, was his
reason for turning back. Before this, Brant had frustrated
a plot which was afoot among the Indians to desert the
British cause. Red jacket, an influential chief of the
Senecas and a very persuasive orator, had suggested that
the Six Nations should negotiate a permanent peace with
the colonists. 'What have the English done for us,' he
exclaimed, as he pointed in the direction of the Mohawk
valley, 'that we should become homeless and helpless for
their sakes?' A considerable following embraced the view
of the Seneca chieftain, and it was agreed that a runner
should be sent to the camp of General Sullivan to acquaint
him with their desire to come to terms. If Sullivan was
prepared to negotiate with them, he was to be asked to
send his proposals under a flag of truce. These proceedings
came to Brant's knowledge and, whether his act may be
justified or not, he adopted probably the only means of
preventing a wholesale desertion to the enemy. He chose
two of his trustiest warriors and gave them instructions
to waylay the bearers of the flag of truce from Sullivan's
camp. The bearers were killed and the proposals of the
American commander fell into Brant's hands, and Red Jacket
and his party were left to imagine that Sullivan had not
been gracious enough even to send them an answer.
Not long after the rout of the Six Nations on the Chemung
river and the destruction of their villages the snow had
begun to fall. The winter of 1779-80 was an unusually
severe one, and the Indians suffered untold hardships
through famine and disease. They were driven to trek in
great numbers to the vicinity of the English fort at
Niagara. Brant was there at this time, and during his
sojourn he saw a wedding performed according to the sacred
rites of the Anglican Church. He had lost his first wife,
the mother of Isaac and Christiana, and had married her
half-sister, Susanna; but she also had died childless,
and Brant had taken to his tent the daughter of a Mohawk
chief, whom he now decided to wed after the manner of
the white people. His third bride, who was about twenty-one
years of age at the time of her marriage, is known in
history as Catherine Brant. She bore Brant three sons
and four daughters, and lived for some years after his
death. Her father was the leading sachem of the Tortoise
clan and consequently she was able to bestow high rank
within the Mohawk nation upon her son, Ahyouwaighs, or
John Brant.
The story of Brant's part in the War of the Revolution
from this time on can be related very briefly. Before
spring he was again on the war-path and helped to destroy
the villages of the Oneidas, because of their active
sympathy for the rebel cause. In the month of April he
closed in upon the settlement of Harpersfield and levelled
it to the ground. As he was making his way back from
the last adventure, he was seized with fever and forced
to move by slow stages. He allowed his warriors to travel
only every other day. There is an anecdote telling how
he cured himself of his malady in a very Indian-like
manner. Taking his position on the side of a hill, a
haunt of rattlesnakes, he waited till one should crawl
out to bask in the sun. When at length a snake showed
itself he seized it and bore it to his camp. This reptile
was cooked in a broth, and Brant supped eagerly of the
hot decoction. And after partaking of this wonderful
remedy, according to the story, he was well again in a
very short time.
In August of the same year, 1780, Brant again invaded
the Mohawk valley. On this occasion he gained his object
by an artful device. He learned that some stores were
being borne to Fort Schuyler and pretended that he was
going to seize them and attack the fort itself. The local
militia marched to the fort's defence and, while they
were intent on this, Brant doubled back to the rear.
Swooping down upon the white settlement at Canajoharie,
he laid everything low and carried away captive many
women and children. Later in the season he made a similar
descent into the Schoharie-kill, but here there is on
record to his credit at least one act of kindness. After
the raid, a group of settlers were gathered together,
telling of all the mishaps that had occurred to them.
One sad-eyed woman told of the loss of her husband and
several of her children. She had been bereft even of an
infant, which had been torn from its cradle. But that
morning, while the officers of the colonial camp were
seated at their breakfast, a painted redskin sprang into
their midst carrying in his arms a slender child and
handed a letter to the officer in command. It was the
woman's child that he bore, and the letter was from Joseph
Brant.
'Sir,' ran the epistle, 'I send you by one of my runners
the child which he will deliver, that you may know that
whatever others do, I do not make war upon women and
children. I am sorry to say that I have those engaged
with me in the service who are more savage than the
savages themselves.'
The year 1781 brought the war to its climax. On October
19 Lord Cornwallis, hard pressed at Yorktown by an army
of sixteen thousand men under Washington and a powerful
French fleet under Admiral de Grasse, was forced to
surrender. This was the last important episode before
peace was arranged. During the summer the War Chief had
still been fighting on the border and harassing the
country of those who sympathized with the Americans. In
August he was found in the west, having defeated a part
of Colonel Clark's forces near the Great Miami river,
which empties into Lake Erie.
The treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United
States of America was signed in November 1782. Canada,
Newfoundland, and what are now the Maritime Provinces of
the Dominion remained in the hands of the crown, but the
independence of the other English colonies in the New
World was recognized. In the whole text of the treaty
there was not a word about the Six Nations. But all their
lands south of Lake Ontario as far as the banks of the
Hudson came into the possession of the United States.
For some time it seemed as though the Indians' sacrifices
on behalf of His Majesty the King were to be reckoned as
nothing, and the tribesmen who had been loyal were very
wroth. They had fought valiantly for the crown, and now
expected that the king should do something for them in
return. All that they had to fall back upon was the
promise that their rights would be respected when the
conflict ended.
'Now is the time for you to help the King,' General
Haldimand had said to the assembled redskins in 1775.
'The war has commenced. Assist the King now, and you will
find it to your advantage. Go now and fight for your
possessions, and, whatever you lose of your property
during the war, the King will make up to you when peace
returns.'
Sir Guy Carleton had also assured the Indians that money
would be spent to give them the same position after the
war that they had occupied before it, and that the
government would not be lax in dealing with their needs.
In 1779, when General Haldimand was already in command
of all the forces in Canada, he had reiterated his
promises, and said that he would do his best to fulfil
them, 'as soon as that happy time [the restoration of
peace] should come.'
When the war was ended most of the Mohawk nation were
dwelling on the west bank of the Niagara river. They had
pitched their wigwams close to the landing-place, now
Lewiston, which was some miles above the fort. Their old
territory was situated in the heart of the country of
their conquerors and to this they could not return with
safety. The Senecas, who lived near by, saw how sad was
their plight and offered them land upon which they might
reside. The Mohawks appreciated the kindness of this
proposal of the warlike nation which had fought by their
side in the long struggle, but they could not accept the
offer. In the words of Brant himself, they were resolved
to 'sink or swim' with the English.
To settle the matter the War Chief journeyed down the St
Lawrence to confer with the Canadian leaders. At Quebec
he met General Haldimand and was welcomed by this officer
with the sincerest friendship and given a chance to
discuss the unhappy lot of his homeless people. Haldimand
said that he would be quite ready to fulfil the promises
that he had made during the war. Brant replied that his
tribesmen would like to settle on English ground, and
named the region on the Bay of Quinte as a spot suited
to their needs. These lands were especially fertile and
beautiful, and Haldimand was quite willing that the grant
should be made in accordance with their wishes. He said
that a tract would soon be purchased and given to the
warriors of the Six Nations. Brant must have been well
accompanied on his journey to the east, since on his way
back twenty Indian families turned aside and pitched
their abodes in the territory allotted to them on the
Bay of Quinte. They were ruled by an Indian named Captain
John, and a thriving Mohawk settlement was thus begun.
Brant continued his journey along the south side of Lake
Ontario, and came once again to Niagara.
But when the War Chief told the waiting redskins of his
negotiations with General Haldimand there was a great
outcry of dissatisfaction. The Senecas, who were the
chief objectors, stated that they could not allow their
kinsmen and old comrades-in-arms to go so far away from
them as the Bay of Quinte. The Senecas were still afraid
that they might have difficulties with the people of the
United States, in whose country they were dwelling. The
Mohawks must be near at hand to come to their rescue
should the hatchet again be upraised.
Brant felt very keenly for the Senecas, who had done him
such yeoman service in the war. They could be cruel in
combat, but were very loyal to their friends, and he knew
that something must be done for them. Accordingly, he
repaired a second time to Quebec and again discussed the
situation with General Haldimand. The outcome was that
he obtained another grant of land, on the Grand river,
which runs with a southerly course into the waters of
Lake Erie. A tract six miles wide on each side of this
stream, extending from its source to its mouth, was
allotted to the Six Nations. This beautiful district,
bordering on the shore of Lake Erie, only forty miles
from the outer fringe of the Seneca villages, was in a
direct line of intercourse between the Six Nations and
the many tribes of the west and the upper lakes. Brant
obtained the title-deeds to this territory for the Indians
in the autumn of 1784, under the seal of royal authority.
It was a gift, as indicated by the terms of the award,
'which the Mohawks and others of the Six Nations... with
their posterity,' were to enjoy for ever.
Having been provided with a new home, the band of
copper-hued patriots now began to cross the Niagara. They
were loyalists of another than the white race, and, like
the other Loyalists, they had left their Long Houses
behind in the hands of the stranger. On their bodies were
the marks and scars of many a campaign; their limbs had
become suppler with the long march and swarthier in the
summer sun; they did not dare to cast a glance back at
the fair land that had been the hunting-ground of their
fathers. With them were their women, dark-eyed Amazons
of the north. Their little ones toddled by their side.
The journey was shortly over and they beheld the waters
of the Grand river, flowing between their narrow banks.
Here, in the flowering glades, they raised their tents
and lit anew their council fires. Then they toiled up
against the current, searching out the borders of their
country; down-stream they shot again, their glad eyes
beaming as they saw how wide and goodly was their heritage.
The nation of the Mohawks had come to Canada to stay.
Among them settled many from their kindred tribes, red
men who would not forsake their Great White Father the
King. By the sheltering boughs of the regal maple, the
silver-garbed beech, or the drooping willow they built
the rough huts of a forest people. Then they tilled the
soil, and learned to love their new abode. Although of
a ferocious stock, unrivalled in the arts of savage
warfare, the Mohawks and other Indians of the Six Nations
in Canada have rarely, if ever, been surpassed by any
other red men in the ways of peace.