Christians--at least so called; second, Indians. Of the Christians I
shall say nothing; my design is to speak of the Indians only. These
among us are again of two kinds: first, the Mahakinbas, or, as they
call themselves, Kajingahaga; second, the Mahakans, otherwise called
Agotzagena. These two nations have different languages, which have no
affinity with each other, like Dutch and Latin. These people formerly
carried on a great war against each other, but since the Mahakanders
were subdued by the Mahakobaas, peace has subsisted between them, and
the conquered are obliged to bring a yearly contribution to the others.
We live among both these kinds of Indians; and when they come to us
from their country, or we go to them, they do us every act of
friendship. The principal nation of all the savages and Indians
hereabouts with which we have the most intercourse, is the Mahakuaas,
who have laid all the other Indians near us under contribution. This
nation has a very difficult language, and it costs me great pains to
learn it, so as to be able to speak and preach in it fluently. There is
no Christian here who understands the language thoroughly; those who
have lived here long can use a kind of jargon just sufficient to carry
on trade with it, but they do not understand the fundamentals of the
language. I am making a vocabulary of the Mahakuaas' language, and
when I am among them I ask them how things are called; but as they are
very stupid, I sometimes cannot make them understand what I want.
Moreover when they tell me, one tells me the word in the infinitive
mood, another in the indicative; one in the first, another in the
second person; one in the present, another in the preterit. So I stand
oftentimes and look, but do not know how to put it down. And as they
have declensions and conjugations also, and have their augments like
the Greeks, I am like one distracted, and frequently cannot tell what
to do, and there is no one to set me right. I shall have to speculate
in this alone, in order to become in time an Indian grammarian. When I
first observed that they pronounced their words so differently, I asked
the commissary of the company what it meant. He answered me that he
did not know, but imagined they changed their language every two or
three years; I argued against this that it could never be that a whole
nation should change its language with one consent;--and, although he
has been connected with them here these twenty years, he can afford me
no assistance.
The people and Indians here in this country are like us Dutchmen in
body and stature; some of them have well formed features, bodies and
limbs; they all have black hair and eyes, but their skin is yellow. In
summer they go naked, having only their private parts covered with a
patch. The children and young folks to ten, twelve and fourteen years
of age go stark naked. In winter, they hang about them simply an
undressed deer or bear or panther skin; or they take some beaver and
otter skins, wild cat, raccoon, martin, otter, mink, squirrel or such
like skins, which are plenty in this country, and sew some of them to
others, until it is a square piece, and that is then a garments for
them; or they buy of us Dutchmen two and a half ells of duffel, and
that they hang simply about them, just as it was torn off, without
sewing it, and walk away with it. They look at themselves constantly,
and think they are very fine. They make themselves stockings and also
shoes of deer skin, or they take leaves of their corn, and plait them
together and use them for shoes. The women, as well as the men, go
with their heads bare. The women let their hair grow very long, and
tie it together a little, and let it hang down their backs. The men
have a long lock of hair hanging down, some on one side of the head,
and some on both sides. On the top of their heads they have a streak
of hair from the forehead to the neck, about the breadth of three
fingers, and this they shorten until it is about two or three fingers
long, and it stands right on end like a rock's comb or hog's bristles;
on both sides of this cock's comb they cut all the hair short, except
the aforesaid locks, and they also leave on the bare places here and
there small locks, such as are in sweeping-brushes, and then they are
in fine array.
They likewise paint their faces red, blue, etc., and then they look
like the Devil himself. They smear their heads with bear's-grease,
which they all carry with them for this purpose in a small basket; they
say they do it to make their hair grow better and to prevent their
having lice. When they travel, they take with them some of their
maize, a wooden bowl, and a spoon; these they pack up and hang on their
backs. Whenever they are hungry, they forthwith make a fire and cook;
they can get fire by rubbing pieces of wood against one another, and
that very quickly.
They generally live without marriage; and if any of them have wives,
the marriage continues no longer than seems good to one of the parties,
and then they separate, and each takes another partner. I have seen
those who had parted, and afterwards lived a long time with others,
leave these again, seek their former partners, and again be one pair.
And, though they have wives, yet they will not leave off whoring; and
if they can sleep with another man's wife, they think it is a brave
thing. The women are exceedingly addicted to whoring; they will lie
with a man for the value of one, two, or three schillings, and our
Dutchmen run after them very much.
The women, when they have been delivered, go about immediately
afterwards, and be it ever so cold, they wash themselves and the young
child in the river or the snow. They will not lie down (for they say
that if they did they would soon die), but keep going about. They are
obliged to cut wood, to travel three or four leagues with the child; in
short, they walk, they stand, they work, as if they had not lain in,
and we cannot see that they suffer any injury by it; and we sometimes
try to persuade our wives to lie-in so, and that the way of lying-in in
Holland is a mere fiddle-faddle. The men have great authority over
their concubines, so that if they do anything which does not please and
raises their passion, they take an axe and knock them in the head, and
there is an end of it. The women are obliged to prepare the land, to
mow, to plant, and do everything; the men do nothing, but hunt, fish,
and make war upon their enemies. They are very cruel towards their
enemies in time of war; for they first bite off the nails of the
fingers of their captives, and cut off some joints, and sometimes even
whole fingers; after that, the captives are forced to sing and dance
before them stark naked; and finally, they roast their prisoners dead
before a slow fire for some days, and then eat them up. The common
people eat the arms, buttocks and trunk, but the chiefs eat the head
and the heart.
Our Mahakas carry on great wars against the Indians of Canada, on the
River Saint Lawrence, and take many captives, and sometimes there are
French Christians among them. Last year, our Indians got a great booty
from the French on the River Saint Lawrence, and took three Frenchmen,
one of whom was a Jesuit. They killed one, but the Jesuit (whose left
thumb was cut off, and all the nails and parts of his fingers were
bitten,) we released, and sent him to France by a yacht which was going
to our country. They spare all the children from ten to twelve years
old, and all the women whom they take in war, unless the women are very
old, and then they kill them too. Though they are so very cruel to
their enemies, they are very friendly to us, and we have no dread of
them. We go with them into the woods, we meet with each other,
sometimes at an hour or two's walk from any houses, and think no more
about it than as if we met with a Christian. They sleep by us, too, in
our chambers before our beds. I have had eight at once lying and
sleeping upon the floor near my bed, for it is their custom to sleep
simply on the bare ground, and to have only a stone or a bit of wood
under their heads. In the evening, they go to bed very soon after they
have supped; but early in the morning, before day begins to break, they
are up again. They are very slovenly and dirty; they wash neither
their face nor hands, but let all remain upon their yellow skin, and
look like hogs. Their bread is Indian corn beaten to pieces between
two stones, of which they make a cake, and bake it in the ashes: their
other victuals are venison, turkies, hares, bears, wild cats, their own
dogs, etc. The fish they cook just as they get them out of the water
without cleansing; also the entrails of deer with all their contents,
which they cook a little; and if the intestines are then too tough,
they take one end in their mouth, and the other in their hand, and
between hand and mouth they separate and eat them. So they do commonly
with the flesh, for they carve a little piece and lay it on the fire,
as long as one would need to walk from his house to church, and then it
is done; and then they bite into it so that the blood runs along their
mouths. They can also take a piece of bear's-fat as large as two fists,
and eat it clear without bread or anything else. It is natural to them
to have no bears; not one in an hundred has any hair about his mouth.
They have also naturally a very high opinion of themselves; they say,
Ihy Othkon, ("I am the Devil") by which they mean that they are
superior folks. In order to praise themselves and their people,
whenever we tell them they are very expert at catching deer, or doing
this and that, they say, Tkoschs ko, aguweechon Kajingahaga kouaane
Jountuckcha Othkon; that is, "Really all the Mohawks are very cunning
devils." They make their houses of the bark of trees, very close and
warm, and kindle their fire in the middle of them. They also make of
the peeling and bark of trees, canoes or small boats, which will carry
four, five and six persons. In like manner they hollow out trees, and
use them for boats, some of which are very large. I have several times
sat and sailed with ten, twelve and fourteen persons in one of these
hollowed logs. We have in our colony a wooden canoe obtained from the
Indians, which will easily carry two hundred schepels of wheat. Their
weapons in war were formerly a bow and arrow, with a stone axe and
mallet; but now they get from our people guns, swords, iron axes and
mallets. Their money consists of certain little bones, made of shells
or cockles, which are found on the sea-beach; a hole is drilled through
the middle of the little bones, and these they string upon thread, or
they make of them belts as broad as a hand, or broader, and hang them
on their necks, or around their bodies. They have also several holes in
their ears, and there they likewise hang some. They value these little
bones as highly as many Christians do gold, silver and pearls; but they
do not like our money, and esteem it no better than iron. I once
showed one of their chiefs a rix-dollar; he asked how much it was worth
among the Christians; and when I told him, he laughed exceedingly at
us, saying we were fools to value a piece of iron so highly; and if he
had such money, he would throw it into the river. They place their
dead upright in holes, and do not lay them down, and then they throw
some trees and wood on the grave, or enclose it with palisades. They
have their set times for going to catch fish, bears, panthers, beavers
and eels. In the spring, they catch vast quantities of shad and
lampreys, which are exceedingly large here; they lay them on the bark
of trees in the sun, and dry them thoroughly hard, and then put them in
notasten, or bags, which they plait from hemp which grows wild here,
and keep the fish till winter. When their corn is ripe, they take it
from the ears, open deep pits, and preserve it in these the whole
winter. They can also make nets and seines in their fashion; and when
they want to fish with seines, ten or twelve men will go together and
help each other, all of whom own the seine in common.
They are entire strangers to all religion, but they have a
Tharonhijouaagon, (whom they also otherwise call Athzoockkuatoriaho,)
that is, a Genius, whom they esteem in the place of God; but they do
not serve him or make offerings to him. They worship and present
offerings to the Devil, whom they call Otskon, or Aireskuoni. If they
have any bad luck in war, they catch a bear, which they cut in pieces,
and roast, and that they offer up to their Aireskuoni, saying in
substance, they following words: "Oh! great and mighty Aireskuoni, we
confess that we have offended against thee, inasmuch as we have not
killed and eaten our captive enemies;--forgive us this. We promise that
we will kill and eat all the captives we shall hereafter take as
certainly as we have killed, and now eat this bear." Also when the
weather is very hot, and there comes a cooling breeze, they cry out
directly, Asorunusi, asorunusi, Otskon aworouhsi reinnuha; that is, "I
thank thee, I thank thee, devil, I thank thee, little uncle!" If they
are sick, or have a pain or soreness anywhere in their limbs, and I ask
them what ails them they say that the Devil sits in their body, or in
the sore places, and bites them there; so that they attribute to the
Devil at once the accidents which befall them; they have otherwise no
religion. When we pray they laugh at us. Some of them despise it
entirely; and some, when we tell them what we do when we pray, stand
astonished. When we deliver a sermon, sometimes ten or twelve of them,
more or less, will attend, each having a long tobacco pipe, made by
himself, in his mouth, and will stand awhile and look, and afterwards
ask me what I am doing and what I want, that I stand there alone and
make so many words, while none of the rest may speak. I tell them that
I am admonishing the Christians, that they must not steal, nor commit
lewdness, nor get drunk, nor commit murder, and that they too ought not
to do these things; and that I intend in process of time to preach the
same to them and come to them in their own country and castles (about
three days' journey from here, further inland), when I am acquainted
with their language. Then they say I do well to teach the Christians;
but immediately add, Diatennon jawij Assirioni, hagiouisk, that is,
"Why do so many Christians do these things?" They call us Assirioni,
that is, cloth-makers, or Charistooni, that is, iron-workers, because
our people first brought cloth and iron among them.
They will not come into a house where there is a menstruous woman, nor
eat with her. No woman may touch their snares with which they catch
deer, for they say the deer can scent it.
The other day an old woman came to our house, and told my people that
her forefathers had told her "that Tharonhij-Jagon, that is, God, once
went out walking with his brother, and a dispute arose between them,
and God killed his brother." I suppose this fable took its rise from
Cain and Abel. They have a droll theory of the Creation, for they
think that a pregnant woman fell down from heaven, and that a tortoise,
(tortoises are plenty and large here, in this country, two, three and
four feet long, some with two heads, very mischievous and addicted to
biting) took this pregnant woman on its back, because every place was
covered with water; and that the woman sat upon the tortoise, groped
with her hands in the water, and scraped together some of the earth,
whence it finally happened that the earth was raised above the water.
They think that there are more worlds than one, and that we came from
another world.
The Mohawk Indians are divided into three tribes, which are called
Ochkari, Aanaware, Oknaho, that is, the Bear, the Tortoise and the
Wolf. Of these, the Tortoise is the greatest and most prominent; and
they boast that they are the oldest descendants of the woman before
mentioned. These have made a fort of palisades, and they call their
castle Asserue. Those of the Bear are the next to these, and their
castle is called by them Banagiro. The last are a progeny of these,
and their castle is called Thenondiogo. These Indian tribes each carry
the beast after which they are named (as the arms in their banner) when
they go to war against their enemies, as for a sign of their own
bravery. Lately one of their chiefs came to me and presented me with a
beaver, an otter, and some cloth he had stolen from the French, which I
must accept as a token of good fellowship. When he opened his budget
he had in it a dried head of a bear, with grinning teeth. I asked him
what that meant? He answered me that he fastened it upon his left
shoulder by the side of his head, and that then he was the devil, who
cared for nothing, and did not fear any thing.
The government among them consists of the oldest, the most intelligent,
the most eloquent and most warlike men. These commonly resolve, and
then the young and warlike men execute. But if the common people do not
approve of the resolution, it is left entirely to the judgment of the
mob. The chiefs are generally the poorest among them, for instead of
their receiving from the common people as among Christians, they are
obliged to give to the mob; especially when any one is deceased; and if
they take any prisoners they present them to that family of which one
has been killed, and the prisoner is then adopted by the family into
the place of the deceased person. There is no punishment here for
murder and other villainies, but every one is his own avenger. The
friends of the deceased revenge themselves upon the murderer until
peace is made by presents to the next of kin. But although they are so
cruel, and live without laws or any punishments for evil doers, yet
there are not half so many villainies or murders committed amongst them
as amongst Christians; so that I oftentimes think with astonishment
upon all the murders committed in the Fatherland, notwithstanding their
severe laws and heavy penalties. These Indians, though they live
without laws, or fear of punishment, do not (at least, they very
seldom) kill people, unless it may be in a great passion, or a
hand-to-hand fight. Wherefore we go wholly unconcerned along with the
Indians and meet each other an hour's walk off in the woods, without
doing any harm to one another.
JOHANNES MEGAPOLENSIS.
END OF "MEGAPOLENSIS ON THE MOHAWKS."
LETTER AND NARRATIVE OF FATHER ISAAC JOGUES
Letter and Narrative of Father Isaac Jogues, 1643, 1645. In J. Franklin
Jameson, ed., Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664 (Original
Narratives of Early American History). NY: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1909.
Letter of Father Isaac Jogues to His Superior in Canada, 1643.
I STARTED the very day of the Feast of Our Blessed Father Saint
Ignatius from the village where I was captive, in order to follow and
accompany some Iroquois who were going away, first for trade, then for
fishing. Having accomplished their little traffic, they stopped at a
place seven or eight leagues below a settlement of the Dutch, which is
located on a river where we carried on our fishing. While we were
setting snares for the fish, there came a rumor that a squad of
Iroquois, returned from pursuit of the Hurons, had killed five or six
on the spot, and taken four prisoners, two of whom had been already
burned in our village, with cruelties extraordinary. At this news, my
heart was pierced through with a most bitter and sharp pain, because I
had not seen, or consoled, or baptized those poor victims.
Consequently, fearing lest some other like thing should happen in my
absence, I said to a good old woman--who, by reason of her age, and the
care that she had for me, and the compassion that she felt toward me,
called me her nephew, and I called her my aunt--I then said to her:
"My aunt, I would much like to return to our cabin; I grow very weary
here." It was not that I expected more ease and less pain in our
village, where I suffered a continual martyrdom, being constrained to
see with my eyes the horrible cruelties which are practised there; but
my heart could not endure the death of any man without my procuring him
holy baptism. That good woman said to me: "Go then, my nephew, since
thou art weary here; take something to eat on the way." I embarked in
the first canoe that was going up to the village, always conducted and
always accompanied by the Iroquois. Having arrived, as we did, in the
settlement of the Dutch, through which it was necessary for us to pass,
I learn that our whole village is excited against the French, and that
only my return is awaited, for them to burn us. Now for the cause of
such news. Among several bands of Iroquois, who had gone to war
against the French, the Algonquins and the Hurons, there was one which
took the resolution to go round about Richelieu, in order to spy on the
French and the savages, their allies. Certain Huron of this band,
taken by the Hiroquois, and settled among them, came to ask me for
letters, in order to carry them to the French, hoping, perhaps, to
surprise some one of them by this bait; but, as I doubted not that our
French would be on their guard, and as I saw, moreover, that it was
important that I should give them some warning of the designs, the arms
and the treachery of our enemies, I found means to secure a bit of
paper in order to write to them, the Dutch according me this charity.
I knew very well the dangers to which I was exposing myself; I was not
ignorant that, if any misfortune happened to those warriors, they would
make me responsible therefor, and would blame my letters for it. I
anticipated my death; but it seemed to me pleasant and agreeable,
employed for the public good, and for the consolation of our French and
of the poor savages who listen to the word of Our Lord. My heart was
seized with no dread at the sight of all that might happen therefrom,
since it was a matter of the glory of God; I accordingly gave my letter
to that young warrior, who did not return. The story which his
comrades have brought back says that he carried it to the fort of
Richelieu, and that, as soon as the French had seen it, they fired the
cannon upon them. This frightened them so that the greater part fled,
all naked, abandoning one of their canoes, in which there were three
arquebuses, powder and lead, and some other baggage. These tidings
being brought into the village, they clamor aloud that my letters have
caused them to be treated like that; the rumor of it spreads
everywhere; it comes even to my ears. They reproach me that I have done
this evil deed; they speak only of burning me; and, if I had chanced to
be in the village at the return of those warriors, fire, rage and
cruelty would have taken my life. For climax of misfortune, another
troop--coming back from Montreal, where they had set ambushes for the
French--said that one of their men had been killed, and two others
wounded. Each one held me guilty of these adverse encounters; they
were fairly mad with rage, awaiting me with impatience. I listened to
all these rumors, offering myself without reserve to our Lord, and
committing myself in all and through all to His most holy will. The
captain of the Dutch settlement where we were, not being ignorant of
the evil design of those barbarians, and knowing, moreover, that
Monsieur the Chevalier de Montmagny had prevented the savages of New
France from coming to kill some Dutch, disclosed to me means for
escape. "Yonder," said he to me, "is a vessel at anchor, which will
said in a few days; enter into it secretly. It is going first to
Virginia, and thence it will carry you to Bordeux or to La Rochelle,
where it is to land." Having thanked him, with much regard for his
courtesy, I tell him that the Iroquois, probably suspecting that some
one had favored my retreat, might cause some damages to his people.
"No, no," he answers, "fear nothing; this opportunity is favorable;
embark; you will never find a more certain way to escape." My heart
remained perplexed at these words, wondering if it were not expedient
for the greater glory of our Lord that I expose myself to the danger of
the fire and to the furty of those barbarians, in order to aid in the
salvation of some soul. I said to him then: "Monsieur, the affair
seems to me of such importance that I cannot answer you at once; give
me, if you please, the night to think of it. I will commend it to our
Lord; I will examine the arguments on both sides; and to-morrow morning
I will tell you my final resolution." He granted me my request with
astonishment; I spent the night in prayers, greatly beseeching our Lord
that he should not allow me to reach a conclusion by myself; that he
should give me light, in order to know His most holy will; that in all
and through all I wished to follow it, even to the extent of being
burned at a slow fire. The reasons which might keep me in the country
were consideration for the French and for the Savages; I felt love for
them, and a great desire to assist them, insomuch that I had resolved
to spend the remainder of my days in that captivity, for their
salvation; but I saw the face of affairs quite changed.