Return of Colonel Schuyler and the Sachems to the interior—Literary
Acquisitions—Distinguishes and instructs his favourite Niece—Manners
of the Settlers.
THIS sagacious and intelligent patriot thus brought to the foot of the
British throne the high-spirited rulers of the boundless wild, who,
alike heedless of the power and splendour of distant monarchs, were
accustomed to say with Fingal, “sufficient for me is the desert, with
all deer and woods.” It may easily be supposed that such a mind as
Philip’s was equally fitted to acquire and communicate intelligence. He
who had conversed with Addison, Marlborough, and Godolphin, who had
gratified the curiosity of Oxford and Bolingbroke, of Arbuthnot and of
Gay, with accounts of nature in her pristine garb, and of her children
in their primitive simplicity; he who could do all this, no doubt
received ample returns of various information from those best qualified
to give it, and was besides a diligent observer. Here he improved a
taste for literature, native to him, for it had not yet taken root in
this uncultivated soil. He brought home the Spectator and the tragedy of
Cato, Windsor Forest, Young’s poem on the Last Day, and in short all the
works then published of that constellation of wits which distinguished
the last female reign. Nay more, and better, he brought Paradise Lost;
which in after-times afforded such delight to some branches of his
family, that to them
“Paradise (indeed) seemed opened in the wild.”
But to return to our Sachems, from whom we have too long digressed; when
they arrived at Albany, they did not, as might be expected, hasten home
to communicate their discoveries, or display their acquisitions. They
summoned a congress there, not only of the elders of their own nation,
but the chiefs of all those with whom they were in alliance. This solemn
meeting was held in the Dutch church. In the present depressed and
diminished state of these once powerful tribes, so few traces of their
wonted energy remain, that it could scarce be credited, were I able to
relate with what bold and flowing eloquence they clothed their
conceptions; powerful reasoning, emphatic language, and graceful action,
added force to their arguments; while they persuaded their adherents to
renounce all connexion with the tribes under the French influence; and
form a lasting league, offensive and defensive, with that great queen,
whose mild majesty had so deeply impressed them; and the mighty people
whose kindness had gratified, and whose power had astonished them, whose
populous cities swarmed with arts and commerce, and in whose floating
castles they had rode safely over the ocean. I have seen a volume of the
speeches of these Mohawks preserved by Colonel Schuyler; they were
literally translated, so that the native idiom was preserved; which,
instead of appearing uncouth, seemed to add to their strength and
sublimity.
When Mr. Schuyler returned from England, about the year 1709, his niece
Catalina, the subject of this narrative, was about seven years old; he
had a daughter and sons, yet this child was early distinguished above
the rest for docility, a great desire of knowledge, and an even and
pleasing temper; this her uncle early observed. It was at that time very
difficult to procure the means of instruction in those inland districts;
female education of consequence was conducted on a very limited scale;
girls learnt needle-work (in which they were indeed both skilful and
ingenious) from their mothers and aunts; they were taught too at that
period to read, in Dutch, the Bible and a few Calvinistic tracts of the
devotional kind. But in the infancy of the settlement few girls read
English; when they did, they were thought accomplished; they generally
spoke it, however imperfectly, and few were taught writing. This
confined education precluded elegance; yet, though there was no polish,
there was no vulgarity. The dregs of the people, who subside to the
bottom of the mass, are not only degraded by abject poverty, but so
utterly shut out from intercourse with the more enlightened, and so
rankling with envy at feeling themselves so, that a sense of their
condition gradually debases their minds; and this degradation
communicates to their manners, the vulgarity of which we complain. This
more particularly applies to the lower class in towns; for mere
simplicity, or even a rustic bluntness, I would by no means call
vulgarity. At the same time these unembellished females had more
comprehension of mind, more variety of ideas, more in short of what may
be called original thinking, than could easily be imagined. Their
thoughts were not like those of other illiterate women, occupied by the
ordinary details of the day, and the gossiping tattle of the
neighbourhood. The life of new settlers, in a situation like this, where
the very foundations of society were to be laid, was a life of
exigencies. Every individual took an interest in the general welfare,
and contributed their respective shares of intelligence and sagacity to
aid plans that embraced important objects relative to the common good.
Every day called forth some new expedient, in which the _comfort_ or
_advantage_ of the whole was implicated; for there were no degrees but
those assigned to worth and intellect. This singular community seemed to
have a common stock, not only of sufferings and enjoyments, but of
information and ideas; some pre-eminence, in point of knowledge and
abilities, there certainly was, yet those who possessed it seemed
scarcely conscious of their superiority; the daily occasions which
called forth the exertions of mind, sharpened sagacity and strengthened
character; avarice and vanity were there confined to very narrow limits;
of money there was little; and dress was, though in some instances
valuable, very plain, and not subject to the caprice of fashion. The
wolves, the bears, and the enraged or intoxicated savages, that always
hung threatening on their boundaries, made them more and more endeared
to each other. In this calm infancy of society, the rigour of the law
slept, because the fury of turbulent passions had not awakened it.
Fashion, that capricious tyrant over adult communities, had not erected
her standard; that standard, to which the looks, the language, the very
opinions of her subjects must be adjusted. Yet no person appeared
uncouth, or ill bred, because there was no accomplished standard of
comparison. They viewed no superior with fear or envy; and treated no
inferior with contempt or cruelty; servility and insolence were thus
equally unknown; perhaps they were less solicitous either to please or
to shine than the members of more polished societies; because, in the
first place, they had no motive either to dazzle or deceive; and in the
next, had they attempted it, they felt there was no assuming a character
with success, where their native one was so well known. Their manners,
if not elegant and polished, were at least easy and independent; the
constant efforts necessary to extend their commercial and agricultural
possessions, prevented indolence; and industry was the certain path to
plenty. Surrounded on all sides by those whom the least instance of
fraud, insolence, or grasping meanness, would have rendered
irreconcilable enemies, they were at first obliged to “assume a virtue
if they had it not;” and every circumstance that renders virtue
habitual, may be accounted a happy one. I may be told that the virtues I
describe were chiefly those of situation. I acknowledge it. It is no
more to be expected that this equality, simplicity, and moderation,
should continue in a more advanced state of society, than that the
sublime tranquillity and dewy freshness which add a nameless charm to
the face of nature, in the dawn of a summer morning, should continue all
day. Before increased wealth and extended territory, these “wassel days”
quickly receded; yet it is pleasing to indulge the remembrance of a
spot, where peace and felicity, the result of moral excellence, dwelt
undisturbed, alas! hardly for a century.
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