Indians only to be attached by being converted—The abortive expedition
of Mons. Barre—Ironical sketch of an Indian.
UPON the attachment the Indians had to our religion, was grafted the
strongest regard to our government, and the greatest fidelity to the
treaties made with us. I shall insert a specimen of Indian eloquence,
illustrative of this last; not that I consider it by any means so rich,
impressive, or sublime as many others that I could quote, but as
containing a figure of speech rarely to be met with among savage people;
and supposed, by us, incompatible with the state of intellectual
advancement to which they have attained. I mean a fine and well
supported irony. About the year 1686, Mons. Barre, the commander of the
French forces in Canada, made a kind of inroad, with a warlike design,
into the precincts claimed by our Mohawk allies; the march was tedious,
the French fell sick, and many of their Indians deserted them. The wily
commander, finding himself unequal to the meditated attack, and that it
would be unsafe to return through the lakes and woods, while in hourly
danger of meeting enemies so justly provoked, sent to invite the sachems
to a friendly conference; and when they met, asserted in an artful
speech that he and his troops had come with the sole intention of
settling old grievances, and smoking the calumet of peace with them. The
Indians, not imposed on by such pretences, listened patiently to his
speech, and then made the answer which the reader will find in the
notes.[13] It is to be observed, that whoever they considered as the
ruling person for the time being in Canada, they styled Onnonthio; while
the governor of New-York they always called Corlaer.
Footnote 13:
“Onnonthio, I honour you; and all the warriors who are with me
likewise honour you. Your interpreter has finished his speech, I begin
mine. My words make haste to reach your ears; hearken to them,
Yonnondio. You must have believed, when you left Quebec, that the sun
had burnt up all the forests which made our country so inaccessible to
the French; or that the lakes had so far overflowed their banks, that
they had surrounded our castles, and that it was impossible for us to
get out of them. Yes, Yonnondio, surely you have dreamt so: and the
curiosity of seeing so great a wonder has brought you so far. Now you
are undeceived, since I and the warriors here present, are come to
assure you that the Hurons, Onondagoes, and Mohawks are yet alive. I
thank you, in their name, for bringing back into their country the
calumet, which your predecessor received from their hands. It was
happy for you that you left underground that murdering hatchet, which
has been so dyed with the blood of the French. Hear, Onnondio, I do
not sleep; I have my eyes open: and the sun which enlightens me,
discovers to me a great captain, at the head of his soldiers, who
speaks as if he were dreaming. He says that he only came to the lake
to smoke out the great calumet with the Five Nations; but Connaratego
says that he sees the contrary: that it was to knock them on the head,
if sickness had not weakened the arms of the French. I see Onnonthio
raving in a camp of sick men, whose lives the Great Spirit has saved
by inflicting this sickness upon them. Hear, Onnonthio, our women had
taken their clubs; our children and old men had carried their bows and
arrows into the heart of your camp, if our warriors had not disarmed
them, and kept them back, when your messenger came to our castles. It
is done, and I have said it. Hear, Yonnondio, we plundered none of the
French, but those who carried guns, powder, and ball to the wolf and
elk tribes, because those arms might have cost us our lives. Herein we
follow the example of the Jesuits, who stave all the kegs of rum
brought to the castles where they are, lest the drunken Indians should
knock them on the head. Our warriors have not beavers enough to pay
for all those arms that they have taken—and our old men are not afraid
of the war. This belt preserves my words. We carried the English into
our lakes, to trade with the wolf and elk tribes, as the praying
Indians brought the French to our castles, to carry on a trade, which
the English say is theirs. We are born free. We neither depend upon
Onnonthio nor Corlaer; we may go where we please. If your allies be
your slaves, use them as such; command them to receive no other but
your people. This belt preserves my words. We knocked the Connecticut
Indians and their confederates on the head, because they had cut down
the trees of peace, which were the limits of our country. They have
hunted beavers on our lands, contrary to the customs of all Indians,
for they have left none alive; they have killed both male and female.
They brought the Sathanas into our country to take part with them,
after they had formed ill designs against us; we have done less than
they merited.
“Hear, once more, the words of the Five Nations. They say that when
they buried the hatchet at Cardaragui, (in the presence of your
predecessor,) in the middle of the fort, [Detroit] they planted the
tree of peace in the same place, to be there carefully preserved; that
instead of an abode for soldiers, that fort might be a rendezvous for
merchants; that in place of arms and ammunition, only peltry and goods
should enter there.
“Hear, Yonnondio, take care for the future that so great a number of
soldiers as appear there do not choke the tree of peace, planted in so
small a fort. It will be a great loss, after having so easily taken
root, if you should stop its growth, and prevent its covering your
country and ours with its branches. I assure you, in the name of the
Five Nations that our warriors shall dance to the calumet of peace
under its leaves, and shall remain quiet on their mats; and that they
shall never dig up the hatchet till Corlaer or Onnonthio, either
jointly or separately, attack the country, which the Great Spirit hath
given to our ancestors. This belt preserves my words; and this other,
the authority which the Five Nations have given me.” Then Garangula,
addressing himself to Mons. de Maine, who understood his language, and
interpreted, spoke thus: “take courage, friend, you have spirits,
speak, explain my words, omit nothing. Tell all that your brethren and
friends say to Onnonthio, your governor, by the mouth of Garangula,
who loves you, and desires you to accept of this present of beaver,
and take part with me in my feast, to which I invite you. This present
of beaver is sent to Yonnondio on the part of the Five Nations.”
Mons. Barré returned to his fort much enraged at what he had heard.
Garangula feasted the French officers, and then went home; and Mons.
Barré set out on his way towards Montreal; and as soon as the general,
with the few soldiers who remained in health, had embarked, the
militia made their way to their own habitations without order or
discipline. Thus a chargeable and fatiguing expedition, meant to
strike terror of the French name into the stubborn hearts of the Five
Nations, ended in a scold between a French general and an old
Indian.—_Colden’s History of the Five Nations, p. 68._
Twice in the year, the new converts came to Albany to partake of the
sacrament, before a place of worship was erected for themselves. They
always spent the night, or oftener two nights, before their joining in
this holy rite, at the Flats, which was their general rendezvous from
different quarters. There they were cordially received by the three
brothers, who always met together at this time to have a conference with
them, on subjects the most important to their present and future
welfare. These devout Indians seemed all impressed with the same
feelings, and moved by the same spirit. They were received with
affectionate cordiality, and accommodated in a manner quite conformable
to their habits, in the passage, porch, and offices; and so deeply
impressed were they with a sense of the awful duty that brought them
there, and the rights of friendship and hospitality, and at this period,
become so much acquainted with our customs, that though two hundred
communicants, followed by many of their children, were used to assemble
on those occasions, the smallest instance of riot or impropriety was not
known amongst them. They brought little presents of game, or of their
curious handicrafts, and were liberally and kindly entertained by their
good brother Philip, as they familiarly called him. In the evening they
all went apart to secret prayer, and in the morning, by dawn of day,
they assembled before the portico; and their entertainers, who rose
early, to enjoy, unobserved, a view of their social devotion, beheld
them with their mantles drawn over their heads, prostrate on the earth,
offering praises and fervent supplications to their Maker. After some
time spent in this manner, they arose, and seated in a circle on the
ground, with their heads veiled as formerly, they sang a hymn, which it
was delightful to hear, from the strength, richness, and sweet accord of
their uncommonly fine voices; which every one that ever heard this
sacred chorus, however indifferent to the purport of it, praised as
incomparable. The voices of the female Indians are particularly sweet
and powerful. I have often heard my friend dwell with singular pleasure
on the recollection of those scenes, and of the conversations she and
the colonel used to hold with the Indians, whom she described as
possessed of very superior powers of understanding; and in their
religious views and conversations, uniting the ardour of proselytes with
the firm decision and inflexible steadiness of their national character.
It was on the return of those new christians to the Flats, after they
had thus solemnly sealed their profession, that these wise regulations
for preserving peace and good will between the settlers (now become
confident and careless from their numbers) and the Indians, jealous,
with reason, of their ancient rights, were concluded.
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