PARLEY TELLS OF THE ORIGINAL NATIVE AMERICANS.
I recollect when I was staying in America, an old Delaware Indian came
to Boston to sell some skins and furs, and he called at the house where
I was stopping. He had once been a chief among the Indians, but was now
poor.
I went to this Indian's home, which was a little hut near Mount Holyoke.
We found his wife and his three children; two boys and a girl. They came
out to meet us, and were very glad to see their father and me.
I was very hungry and tired when I arrived. The Indian's wife roasted
some bear's flesh, and gave us some bread made of pounded corn, for our
supper.
I then went to bed on some bear skins, and slept very well. Early in the
morning I was called to go hunting with the Indian and his two sons. It
was a fine bright morning in October. The sun was shining on the tops of
the mountains; we climbed Mount Holyoke, through the woods, and ascended
a high rock, from which we could see a beautiful valley far below us, in
the centre of which was the little town of Northampton, much smaller
than it is now.
[Illustration]
"Do you see those houses?" said the Indian to me, "When my grandfather
was a boy, there was not a house where you see so many: that valley
which now belongs to white men, belonged to red men."
"Then the red men were rich and happy; now they are poor and wretched.
Then that beautiful river which you see running through the valley, and
which is called the Connecticut, was theirs. They owned these fine
mountains too, they hunted in these woods, and fished in that river, and
were numerous and powerful,--now they are few and weak."
"But how has this change happened?" said I, "who has taken your lands
from you, and made you so miserable?"
"I will tell you all about that to-night," said he, "when we return
home."
We proceeded cautiously through the woods, and had not gone far when the
Indian beckoned us all to stop. "Look yonder," said he to me, "on that
high rock above us!" I did so, but could see nothing. "Look again," said
he; I did, and saw a young hind standing upon the point of a rock which
hung over the valley; she was a beautiful little animal, full of spirit,
with large black eyes, slender legs and of a reddish brown colour.
He now selected a choice arrow, placed it on the bow, and sent it
whizzing through the air. It struck directly through the heart. The
little animal sprang violently forward, over the rock, and fell dead
many feet below, where Whampum's sons soon found it; we now returned to
the wigwam, carrying the fawn with us.
[Illustration]
In the evening I reminded him of his promise to tell me how the Indians
had been robbed of their lands and reduced to poverty. He accordingly
began as follows:--
"A great many years ago," said he, "when men with white skins had never
been seen in this land, some Indians who were out fishing at a place
where the sea widens, espied at a great distance something very large,
floating on the water, and such as they had never seen before.
"These Indians immediately returning to the shore, apprized their
countrymen of what they had observed, and pressed them to go out with
them and discover what it might be. They hurried out together, and saw
with astonishment what the others had described, but could not agree
upon what it was; some believed it to be an uncommonly large fish or
animal, whilst others were of opinion that it must be a very large house
floating on the sea.
"They sent off messengers to carry the news to their scattered chiefs
and warriors that they should come together immediately.
"The chiefs were soon assembled and deliberating as to the manner in
which they should receive the Manitou or Supreme Being on his arrival.
Every measure was taken to be well provided with plenty of meat for a
sacrifice, the women were desired to prepare the best victuals, all the
idols were examined and put in order, and a grand dance was supposed not
only to be agreeable to the Great Being, but it was believed that it
might tend to appease him if he was angry with them.
"Distracted between hope and fear, they were at a loss what to do; a
dance, however, commenced in great confusion; fresh runners arrive,
declaring it to be a large house, of various colours, and crowded with
living creatures.
"Many are for running off into the woods, but are pressed by others to
stay, in order not to give offence to their visitors, who might find
them out and destroy them. The house at last stops, and a canoe of small
size comes on shore, with a man clothed in red, and some others in it;
some stay with his canoe to guard it. The chiefs and wise men assembled
in council, form themselves into a large circle, towards which the man
in red approaches, with two others; he salutes them with a friendly
countenance, and they return the salute in the same manner; they are
lost in admiration, the dress, the manner, the whole appearance of the
unknown strangers is to them a subject of wonder; but they are
particularly struck with him who wore the red coat, all glittering with
gold, which they could in no manner account for.
"He surely must be the great Manitou; but why should he have a white
skin? Meanwhile a large Hack-hack is brought by one of his servants,
from which an unknown liquid is poured out into a small cup, and handed
to the supposed Manitou; he drinks,--has the cup filled again, and hands
it to the chief standing next to him; the chief receives it, but only
smells the contents and passes it on to the next chief, who does the
same.
"The glass or cup thus passes through the circle without the liquor
being tasted by any one, and is upon the point of being returned to the
red-clothed Manitou, when one of the Indians, a brave man and a great
warrior, suddenly jumps up and harangues the assembly, on the
impropriety of returning the cup with its content: It was handed to
them, said he, by the Manitou, that they should drink out of it as he
had done: to follow his example would be pleasing to him, but to return
what he had given to them, might provoke his wrath, and bring
destruction on them; and since the orator believed it for the good of
the nation, that the contents should be drunk, and as no one else would
do it, he would drink it himself, let the consequences be what they
might: it was better for one man to die, than that a whole nation should
be destroyed.
"He then took the cup, and bidding the assembly a solemn farewell, at
once drank up its whole contents. Every eye was fixed on the resolute
chief, to see what effect the unknown liquor would produce.
"He soon began to stagger, and at last fell prostrate on the ground;
his companions now bemoan his fate, he falls into a sound sleep, and
they think he is dead: he wakes again:--he asks for more, his wish is
granted; the whole assembly then imitate him, and all become
intoxicated.
[Illustration]
"After this general intoxication had ceased, the man with the red
clothes, who had remained in his great canoe while it lasted, returned
again and distributed presents among them, consisting of beads, axes,
shoes and stockings, such as white people wear.
"They soon became familiar with each other, and began to converse by
signs; the strangers made them understand that they would not stay here,
that they would return home again, but would pay them another visit next
year, when they would bring them more presents and stay with them
awhile.
"They went away, as they had said, and returned in the following season,
when both parties were much rejoiced to see each other; but the white
men laughed at the Indians, for they had the axes and hoes, which they
had given them the year before, hanging to their breasts, as ornaments,
and the stockings were made use of as tobacco pouches. The whites now
put handles to the axes for them, and cut down trees before their eyes,
hoed up the ground, and put the stockings on their legs: here, they say,
a general laughter ensued among the Indians, that they had remained
ignorant of the use of such valuable tools, and had borne the weight of
them hanging to their necks for such a length of time. They took every
white man they saw for an inferior attendant on the supreme Manitou in
the red laced clothes.
[Illustration]
"As they became daily more familiar with the Indians, the white men
proposed to stay with us, and we readily consented.
"It was we who so kindly received them in our country, we took them by
the hand and bade them welcome to sit down by our side and live with us
as brothers; but how did they requite our kindness? They first asked
only for a little land, on which to raise bread for themselves and their
families, and pasture for their cattle, which we freely gave them; they
soon wanted more, which we also gave them; they saw the game in the
woods, which the Great Spirit had given us for our subsistence, and they
wanted that too; they penetrated into the woods in quest of game; they
discovered spots of land which pleased them, that land they also wanted;
and because we were loath to part with it, as we saw they had already
more than they had need of, they took it from us by force, and drove us
to a great distance from our ancient homes; they looked everywhere for
good spots of land, and when they found one, they immediately, and
without ceremony, possessed themselves of it; but when at last they came
to our favourite spots, those which lay most convenient to our
fisheries, then bloody wars ensued. We would have been contented that
the white people and we should have lived quietly beside each other,
but these white men encroached so fast upon us, that we saw at once we
should lose all if we did not resist them. The wars that we carried on
against each other were long and cruel,--we were enraged when we saw the
white people put our friends and relatives, whom they had taken
prisoners, on board their ships, whether to drown or sell them as slaves
in the country from which they came, we know not; but certain it is,
that none of them have ever returned, or even been heard of.
"At last they got possession of the whole country, which the Great
Spirit had given us; one of our tribes was forced to wander far to the
north, others dispersed in small bodies, and sought refuge where they
could.
"How long we shall be permitted to remain in this asylum, the Great
Spirit only knows. The whites will not rest contented till they shall
have destroyed the last of us, and made us disappear entirely from the
face of the earth."
The old Indian said no more: he looked sad, and his two sons looked sad
also; and I shall never forget the impression his story made upon my
mind.
Thus, these good Indians, with a kind of melancholy pleasure, recite the
long history of their sufferings; and often have I listened to their
painful details, until I have felt ashamed of being a white man.
A few days after this we set out upon another hunting excursion, and
again climbed the mountains. We had proceeded some distance when we
heard the report of a gun, and coming round the point of a rock which
lay just before us, we saw a Delaware Indian hunter, who had just
discharged his carabine at a huge bear, and broken its backbone; the
animal fell, and set up a most plaintive cry; something like that of the
panther when he is hungry.
The Indian includes all savage beasts in the number of his enemies, and
when he has conquered one, he taunts him before he kills him, in the
same strain as he would a conquered enemy of a hostile tribe.
Instead of giving the bear another shot, the hunter stood close to him,
and addressed him in these words:--
[Illustration]
"Hark ye! bear; you are a coward, and no warrior, as you pretend to be.
Were you a warrior, you would show it by your firmness, and would not
cry and whimper, like an old woman. You know, bear, that our tribes are
at war with each other, and that yours were the aggressors." As you may
suppose, I was not a little surprised at the delivery of this curious
invective.