Death of Captain Dalziel—Sudden Decease of an Indian Chief—Madame—Her
protégées.
MEANTIME an express arrived with the afflicting news of the loss of a
captain and twenty men of the 55th regiment. The name of this lamented
officer was Dalziel, of the Carnwath family. Colonel Beckwith had sent
for a reinforcement. This Major Duncan hesitated to send, till better
informed as to the mode of conveyance. Captain Dalziel volunteered
going. I cannot exactly say how they proceeded; but, after having
penetrated through the woods till they were in sight of Detroit, they
were discovered and attacked by a party of Indians, and made their way
with the utmost difficulty, after the loss of their commander and the
third part of their number.
Major Duncan’s comprehensive mind took in every thing that had any
tendency to advance the general good, and cement old alliances. He saw
none of the Hurons, whose territories lay far above Ontario, but those
tribes whose course of hunting or fishing led them to his boundaries,
were always kindly treated. He often made them presents of ammunition or
provision, and did every thing in his power to conciliate them. Upon
hearing of the outrage which the Hurons[21] had been guilty of, the
heads of the tribe, with whom the major had cultivated the greatest
intimacy, came to assure him of their good wishes, and hearty
co-operation. He invited them to come with their tribe to celebrate the
birth-day of their new king (his present majesty) which occurred a few
days after, and there solemnly renew, with the usual ceremonies, the
league offensive and defensive made between their fathers and the late
king. They came accordingly in their best arms and dresses, and assisted
at a review, and at a kind of feast given on the occasion, on the
outside of the fort. The chief and his brother, who were two fine noble
looking men, were invited to dine with the major and officers. When they
arrived, and were seated, the major called for a glass of wine to drink
his sovereign’s health; this was no sooner done, than the sachem’s
brother fell lifeless on the floor. They thought it was a fainting fit,
and made use of the usual applications to recover him, which, to their
extreme surprise, proved ineffectual. His brother looked steadily on
while all those means were using; but when convinced of their
inefficacy, sat down, drew his mantle over his face, sobbed aloud, and
burst into tears. This was an additional wonder. Through the traces of
Indian recollection no person had been known to fall suddenly dead
without any visible cause, nor any warrior to shed tears. After a pause
of deep silence, which no one felt inclined to break, the sachem rose
with a collected and dignified air, and thus addressed the witnesses of
this affecting incident: “Generous English, misjudge me not; though you
have seen me for once a child, in the day of battle you will see a man,
who will make the Hurons weep blood. I was never thus before. But to me
my brother was all. Had he died in battle, no look of mine would change.
His nation would honour him, but his foes should lament him. I see
sorrow in your countenances; and I know you were not the cause of my
brother’s death. Why, indeed, should you take away a life that was
devoted to you? Generous English, ye mourn for my brother, and I will
fight your battles.” This assurance of his confidence was very necessary
to quiet the minds of his friends; and the concern of the officers was
much aggravated by the suspicious circumstances attending his death so
immediately after the drinking of the wine they had given him. The major
ordered this lamented warrior to be interred with great ceremony. A
solemn procession, mournful music, the firing of cannon, and all other
military honours, evinced his sympathy for the living, and his respect
for the dead; and the result of this sad event, in the end, rather
tended to strengthen the attachment of those Indians to the British
cause.
Footnote 21:
The author, perhaps, uses the term Huron, where that of Algonquin
would have been more correct. She does not recollect the distinctive
terms exactly, but applies the epithet, in general, to the Indians who
then occupied the banks of the Huron Lake, and the adjacent country.
I have given this singular occurrence a place in these memoirs, as it
serves to illustrate the calm good sense and steady confidence which
made a part of the Indian character, and added value to their
friendship, when once it was fairly attained.
The fifty-fifth, which had been under orders to return home, felt a
severe disappointment in being, for two years more, confined to their
sylvan fortresses. These, however, they embellished, and rendered
comfortable, with gardens and farm grounds, that, to reside in them,
could no longer be accounted a penance. Yet, during the Indian war, they
were, from motives of necessary caution, confined to very narrow limits;
which, to those accustomed to pursue their sports with all that wild
liberty and wide excursion peculiar to savage hunters, was a hardship of
which we can have no idea. Restrained from this unbounded license,
fishing became their next favourite pursuit, to which the lakes and
rivers on which these forts were built, afforded great facility. Tempted
by the abundance and excellence of the productions of these copious
waters, they were led to endanger their health by their assiduity in
this amusement. Agues, the disease of all new establishments, became
frequent among them, and were aggravated by the home sickness. To this
they were more peculiarly liable, as the regiment, just newly raised
before they embarked for America, had quitted the bosom of their
families, without passing through the gradation of boarding-schools and
academies, as is usual in other countries.
What an unspeakable blessing to the inhabitants were the parish schools
of the north, and how much humble worth and laborious diligence has been
found among their teachers. In those lowly seminaries, boys not only
attained the rudiments of learning, but the principles of loyalty and
genuine religion, with the abatement of a small tincture of idolatry, of
which their household gods were the only objects. Never, surely, was a
mode of education so calculated to cherish attachment to those tutelar
deities. Even the laird’s son had often a mile or two to walk to his day
school; a neighbouring tenant’s son carried the basket which contained
his simple dinner; and still as they went along they were joined by
other fellow travellers in the paths of learning. How cordial were those
intimacies, formed in the early period of life, and of the day while
nature smiled around in dewy freshness! How gladdening to the kind and
artless heart were these early walks through the wild varieties of a
romantic country, and among the peaceful cottages of simple peasants,
from whence the incense of praise, “in sounds by distance made more
sweet,” rose on the morning breeze![22] How cheering was the mid-day
sport, amid their native burns and braes, without the confinement of a
formal play-ground! How delightful the evening walk homeward, animated
by the consciousness of being about to meet all that was dearest to the
artless and affectionate mind! Thus the constitution was improved with
the understanding; and they carried abroad into active life, the rigid
fibre of the robust and hardy frame, and the warm and fond affections of
the heart, uncorrupted and true to its first attachments. Never sure
were youth’s first glowing feelings more alive than in the minds of
those young soldiers. From school they were hurried into the greatest
fatigues and hardships, and the horrors of the most sanguinary war; and
from thence transported to the depth of those central forests, where
they formed to themselves a little world, whose greatest charm was the
cherished recollection of the simple and endeared scenes of their
childhood, and of the beloved relations whom they had left behind, and
to whom they languished to return. They had not gone through the ordeal
of the world, and could not cheer their exile by retracing its ways, its
fashions, or its amusements. It is this domestic education, that
unbroken series of home joys and tender remembrances, that render the
natives of the north so faithful to their filial and fraternal duties
and so attached to a bleak and rugged region, excelled in genial warmth
of climate and fertility of soil, in every country to which the spirit
of adventure leads them.
Footnote 22:
The Scottish peasants, when they return to breakfast from their early
labours, read a portion of scripture, sing some part of a psalm, and
pray. This practice is too general, either to diminish cheerfulness,
or convey the idea of superior sanctity; while the effect of vocal
music, rising at once from so many separate dwellings, is very
impressive.
I was now restored to my niche at Aunt Schuyler’s and not a little
delighted with the importance which, in this eventful crisis, seemed to
attach to her opinions. The times were too agitated to admit of her
paying much attention to me; but I, who took the deepest interest in
what was going on, and heard of nothing, abroad or at home, but Indians,
and sieges, and campaigns, was doubly awake to all the conversation I
heard at home.
The expedition proceeded under General Bradstreet, while my father,
recommended to his attention by madame, held some temporary employment
about mustering the troops. My friend had now the satisfaction of seeing
her plans succeed in different instances.
Philip, since known by the title of General Schuyler, whom I have
repeatedly mentioned, had now, in pursuance of the mode she pointed out
to him, attained to wealth and power, both of which were rapidly
increasing. His brother Cortlandt, (the handsome savage,) who had, by
her advice, gone into the army, had returned from Ireland, the commander
of a company, and married to a very pleasing and estimable woman, whose
perpetual vivacity and good humour threw a ray of light over the
habitual reserve of her husband, who was amiable in domestic life,
though cold and distant in his manner. They settled near the general,
and paid a degree of attention to madame, that showed the filial tie
remained in full force.
The colonel, as he was then called, had built a house near Albany, in
the English taste, comparatively magnificent, where his family resided,
and where he carried on the business of his department. Thirty miles or
more above Albany, in the direction of the Flats, and near the far-famed
Saratoga, which was to be the scene of his future triumph, he had
another establishment. It was here that the colonel’s political and
economical genius had full scope. He had always the command of a great
number of those workmen who were employed in public buildings, &c. Those
were always in constant pay—it being necessary to engage them in that
manner; and were, from the change of seasons, the shutting of the ice,
and other circumstances, months unemployed. All these seasons, when
public business was interrupted, the workmen were employed in
constructing squares of buildings in the nature of barracks, for the
purpose of lodging artisans and labourers of all kinds. Having
previously obtained a large tract of very fertile lands from the crown,
on which he built a spacious and convenient house; he constructed those
barracks at a distance, not only as a nursery for the arts which he
meant to encourage, but as the materials of a future colony, which he
meant to plant out around him. He had here a number of negroes well
acquainted with felling of trees and managing saw-mills, of which he
erected several. And while these were employed in carrying on a very
advantageous trade of deals and lumber, which were floated down on rafts
to New-York, they were at the same time clearing the ground for the
colony the colonel was preparing to establish.
This new settlement was an asylum for every one who wanted bread and a
home: from the variety of employments regularly distributed, every
artisan and every labourer found here lodging and occupation; some
hundreds of people, indeed, were employed at once. Those who were in
winter engaged at the saw-mills, were in summer equally busied at a
large and productive fishery. The artisans got lodging and firing for
two or three years, at first, besides being well paid for every thing
they did. Flax was raised and dressed, and finally spun and made into
linen there; and as artisans were very scarce in the country, every one
sent linen to weave, flax to dress, &c. to the colonel’s colony. He paid
them liberally; and having always abundance of money in his hands, could
afford to be the loser at first, to be amply repaid in the end. It is
inconceivable what dexterity, address, and deep policy were exhibited in
the management of this new settlement; the growth of which was rapid
beyond belief. Every mechanic ended in being a farmer, that is, a
profitable tenant to the owner of the soil; and new recruits of artisans
from the north of Ireland chiefly supplied their place, nourished with
the golden dews which this sagacious projector could so easily command.
The rapid increase and advantageous result of this establishment were
astonishing. It is impossible for my imperfect recollection to do
justice to the capacity displayed in these regulations. But I have thus
endeavoured to trace to its original source that wealth and power which
became, afterwards, the means of supporting an aggression so formidable.
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