occasion; but the circumstance of his having appeared before the British
fort in the manner he did operated strongly in his favour in respect to
his proceedings against the Indians. These people had been taught to
believe by the young Canadians that were amongst them, that if any part
of the American army appeared before the fort, it would certainly be
fired upon; for they had no idea that the Americans would have come in
sight of it without taking offensive measures, in which case resistance
would certainly have been made. When, therefore, it was heard that
General Wayne had not been fired upon, the Indians complained grievously
of their having been deceived, and were greatly disheartened on finding
that they were to receive no assistance from the British. Their native
courage, however, did not altogether forsake them; they resolved
speedily to make a stand, and accordingly having chosen their ground,
awaited the arrival of General Wayne, who followed them closely.
[Sidenote: PREPARATORY FAST.]
Preparatory to the day on which they expected a general engagement, the
Indians, contrary to the usages of most nations, observe a strict fast;
nor does this abstinence from all sorts of food diminish their exertions
in the field, as from their early infancy they accustom themselves to
fasting for long periods together. The day before General Wayne was
expected, this ceremony was strictly attended to, and afterwards, having
placed themselves in ambush in the woods, they waited for his arrival.
He did not, however, come to the ground on the day that they had
imagined, from the reports given them by their scouts of his motions, he
would have done; but having reason to think he would come on the
subsequent day, they did not move from their ambush. The second day
passed over without his drawing nearer to them; but fully persuaded that
he would come up with them on the next, they still lay concealed in the
same place. The third day proved to be extremely rainy and tempestuous;
and the scouts having brought word, that from the movements General
Wayne had made there was no likelihood of his marching towards them that
day, the Indians, now hungry after having fasted for three entire days,
determined to rise from their ambush in order to take some refreshment.
They accordingly did so, and having no suspicion of an attack, began to
eat their food in security.
Before they began to eat, the Indians had divided themselves, I must
observe, into three divisions, in order to march to another quarter,
where they hoped to surprise the army of the States. In this situation,
however, they were themselves surprised by General Wayne. He had
received intelligence from his scouts, now equally cunning with those of
the Indians, of their proceedings, and having made some motions as if he
intended to move to another part of the country, in order to put them
off their guard, he suddenly turned, and sent his light horse pouring
down on them when they least expected it. The Indians were thrown into
confusion, a circumstance which with them never fails to occasion a
defeat; they made but a faint resistance, and then fled with
precipitancy.
[Sidenote: AMERICAN GENERAL.]
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.]