Mohawk Indians—The superintendent.
BY this time matters had gradually assumed a new aspect on this great
continent. The settlement at Albany was no longer an insulated region,
ruled and defended by the wisdom and courage diffused through the
general mass of the inhabitants; but begun, in the ordinary course of
things, to incorporate with the general state. The Mohawk Indians were
so engaged by treaties to assist the army, in its now regular operations
to the westward, that they came less frequently to visit Albany. A line
of forts had, at a prodigious expense, been erected, leading from Albany
to Upper Canada, by the Mohawk river, and the lakes of Ontario, Niagara,
&c. Many respectable engineers were engaged constructing these; some of
them I remember were Swedes, persons of a graceful appearance, polished
manners, and very correct conduct.—These strangers conducted matters
better than our own countrymen; being more accommodating in their
manners, and better accustomed to a severe climate, and inconveniences
of every kind. They were frequent guests at the Flats, were a pleasing
accession to the society, and performed their duty to the public with a
degree of honour and fidelity that checked abuses in others, and rescued
the service they were engaged in, from the reproach which it had
incurred, in consequence of those fungi of society which had at first
intruded into it.
By the advice of the Schuylers, there was now on the Mohawk river a
superintendent of Indian affairs; the importance of which began to be
fully understood. He was regularly appointed, and paid by government.
This was the justly celebrated Sir William Johnson, who held an office
difficult both to execute and define. He might indeed be called the
tribune of the five nations; whose claims he asserted, whose rights he
protected, and over whose minds he possessed a greater sway than any
other individual had ever attained. He was indeed calculated to
conciliate and retain the affections of this brave people; possessing in
common with them many of those peculiarities of mind and manners, that
distinguished them from others. He was an uncommonly tall, well made
man: with a fine countenance; which, however, had rather an expression
of dignified sedateness, approaching to melancholy. He appeared to be
taciturn, never wasting words on matters of no importance: but highly
eloquent when the occasion called forth his powers. He possessed
intuitive sagacity, and the most entire command of temper, and of
countenance. He did by no means lose sight of his own interest, but on
the contrary raised himself to power and wealth, in an open and active
manner; not disdaining any honourable means of benefiting himself: but
at the same time the bad policy, as well as meanness of sacrificing
respectability to snatching at petty present advantages, were so obvious
to him, that he laid the foundation of his future prosperity on the
broad and deep basis of honourable dealing, accompanied by the most
vigilant attention to the objects he had in view; acting so as, without
the least departure from integrity on the one hand, or inattention to
his affairs on the other, to conduct himself in such a manner, as gave
an air of magnanimity to his character, that made him the object of
universal confidence. He purchased from the Indians (having the grant
confirmed by his sovereign) a large and fertile tract of land upon the
Mohawk river; where having cleared and cultivated the ground, he built
two spacious and convenient places of residence: known afterwards by the
names of Johnson castle, and Johnson hall. The first was on a fine
eminence, stockaded round, and slightly fortified; the last was built on
the side of the river, on a most fertile and delightful plain,
surrounded with an ample and well cultivated domain: and that again
encircled by European settlers; who had first come there as architects,
or workmen, and had been induced by Sir William’s liberality, and the
singular beauty of the district, to continue. His trade with the five
nations was very much for their advantage; he supplying them on more
equitable terms than any trader, and not indulging the excesses in
regard to strong liquors, which others were too easily induced to
do.—The castle contained the store in which all goods were laid up,
which were meant for the Indian traffic, and all the peltry received in
exchange. The hall was his summer residence, and the place round which
his greatest improvements were made. Here this singular man lived like a
little sovereign; kept an excellent table for strangers, and officers,
whom the course of their duty now frequently led into these wilds, and
by confiding entirely on the Indians, and treating them with unvaried
truth and justice, without ever yielding to solicitation what he had
once refused, he taught them to repose entire confidence in him: he, in
his turn, became attached to them, wore in winter almost entirely their
dress and ornaments, and contracted a kind of alliance with them; for
becoming a widower in the prime of life, he connected himself with an
Indian maiden, daughter to a sachem, who possessed an uncommonly
agreeable person, and good understanding; and whether ever formally
married to him according to our usage, or not, contrived to live with
him in great union and affection all his life. So perfect was his
dependence on those people, whom his fortitude and other manly virtues
had attached to him, that when they returned from their summer
excursions, and exchanged the last year’s furs for fire-arms, &c. they
used to pass a few days at the castle; when his family and most of his
domestics were down at the hall. There they were all liberally
entertained by their friend; and five hundred of them have been known,
for nights together, after drinking pretty freely, to lie around him on
the floor, while he was the only white person in a house containing
great quantities of every thing that was to them valuable, or desirable.
While Sir William thus united in his mode of life the calm urbanity of a
liberal and extensive trader, with the splendid hospitality, the
numerous attendance, and the plain though dignified manners of an
ancient baron, the female part of his family were educated in a manner
so entirely dissimilar from that of all other young people of their sex
and station, that as a matter of curiosity, it is worthy a recital.
These two young ladies inherited, in a great measure, the personal
advantages and strength of understanding for which their father was so
distinguished. Their mother dying when they were young, bequeathed the
care of them to a friend. This friend was the widow of an officer who
had fallen in battle. I am not sure whether she was devout, and shunned
the world for fear of its pollutions, or romantic, and despised its
selfish bustling spirit; but so it was, that she seemed utterly to
forget it, and devoted herself to her fair pupils. To these she taught
needle-work of the most elegant and ingenious kinds, reading and
writing. Thus quietly passed their childhood; their monitress not taking
the smallest concern in family management, nor, indeed, the least
interest in any worldly thing but themselves; far less did she inquire
about the fashions or diversions which prevailed in a world she had
renounced, and from which she seemed to wish her pupils to remain for
ever estranged. Never was any thing so uniform as their dress, their
occupations, and the general tenor of their lives. In the morning they
rose early, read their prayer-book, I believe, but certainly their
bible, fed their birds, tended their flowers, and breakfasted; then were
employed for some hours with unwearied perseverance, at fine
needle-work, for the ornamental parts of dress, which were the fashion
of the day, without knowing to what use they were to be put, as they
never wore them; and had not at the age of sixteen ever seen a lady,
excepting each other and their governess; they then read, as long as
they chose, the voluminous romances of the last century, of which their
friend had an ample collection, or Rollin’s Ancient History, the only
books they had ever seen; after dinner, they regularly in summer took a
long walk; or an excursion in the sleigh, in winter, with their friend,
and then returned and resumed their wonted occupations, with the sole
variation of a stroll in the garden in summer, and a game at chess or
shuttle-cock in winter. Their dress was full as simple and uniform as
every thing else; they wore wrappers of the finest chintz, and green
silk petticoats—and this the whole year round without variation. Their
hair, which was long and beautiful, was tied behind with a simple
ribbon; a large calash shaded each from the sun, and in winter they had
long scarlet mantles that covered them from head to foot. Their father
did not live with them, but visited them every day in their apartment.
This innocent and uniform life they led, till the death of their
monitress, which happened when the eldest was not quite seventeen. On
some future occasion I shall satisfy the curiosity which this short but
faithful account of these amiable recluses has possibly excited.[16]
Footnote 16:
These ladies married officers, who, in succession, lived as
aides-de-camp with their father. Their manners soon grew easy; they
readily acquired the habits of society, and made excellent wives.
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