A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 9

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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The Sachem, on being introduced, con- gratulated Governor Sloughter in an eloquent manner on his arrival, and solicited his friendship and protection for himself and his people, observing that he had in his own mind fancied his Excellency was a mighty tall tree, with wide-spreading branches, and therefore he prayed leave to stoop under the shadow thereof. Of old, said he, the Indians were a great and mighty people, but now they were reduced to a mere handful. He concluded his visit by presenting the Governor with thirty fathoms of wampum, which he graciously ac- cepted, and desired the Sachem to visit him again in the afternoon. On taking their leave the youngest son of the Sachem handed a bundle of brooms to the officer in attendance, saying at the same time that "as Leisler and his party had left the house very foul, he brought the brooms with him for the purpose of making it clean again." In the afternoon the Sachem and his party again visited the Governor, who made a speech to them, and on receiving a few presents they departed.

The main weapon which led to the de- struction of the aborigines, more deadly, more certain, more widespread than the ruin caused by musket, by disease or by persecution, was rum. In 1788, long after the power of the white man was established, an Indian chief at Fort Stanwix put the whole matter in a most comprehensive yet succinct form when he said: "The avidity of the white people for land and the thirst of the Indians for

THE DECADENCE OF THE ABORIGINES.

spirituous liquors were equally insatiable ; the white men had seen and fixed their eyes upon the Indian's good land, and the Indians had seen and fixed their eyes upon the white men's keg of rum; and nothing could divert either of them from their desired object, and there- fore there was no remedy; but the white man must have the land and the Indians the keg of rum."

So far as can be learned the Dutch au- thorities did nothing to curtail the appetite for rum or to inculcate any notion of tem- perance among the Indians. The very op- posite seems to have been the case, for the sturdy Hollander found a measure of rum one of the most convenient and most promptly prized objects with which he could trade with the Indian for land or pelt. Knowing nothing of the havoc of drunkenness himself, he had no conception of visiting any wrong upon the red men by placing it before him. He only saw a means to an end-the means and the end so graphically sketched by the Fort Stan- wix Indian-and he made full use of it. The English, however, even in that early day were fully aware, by their own natural experience, of the evils of intemperance and attempted to prevent its spread. They rightly traced the source of many of the Indian cruelties and uprisings and treacheries to the use of "fire- water," and took the best means they could, if not to stop its traffic, to minimize its extent and render it less of a disturbing factor. In 1656 the inhabitants of Gravesend passed a law dealing with this matter, as follows:

"Att an assemblie of ye Inhabitants uppon a lawful warning being given, it is inacted, or- dered and agreed that hee, she, or they what- soever that should tapp, draw out, sell or lett any Indian or Indians in this corporation have any brandie, wine, strong liquor or strong drink should, if so detected, pay the sum of fifty gilders, and for the next default the sum of one hundred gilders according to the law of the country."

In "The Duke's Laws" (1665) selling liquor to Indians was expressly forbidden un- 3

der a penalty of "forty shillings for one pint and in proportion for any greater or lesser .quality." In cases of "sudden extremity," however, it was declared permissible to pre- scribe liquor, but even in the worst of cases this remedy was not to exceed two drams."

Such laws against selling liquor to these hapless tribes were adopted directly or in- directly by almost every community and ef- fort apparently was made to honestly enforce them. But the craze for rum was strong, and as the white population increased it became easy for the laws to be successfully evaded, especially in Kings and Queens counties, where the settlements were closest and where the population, in Kings especially, was of a- more mixed character than in the eastern, or Suffolk, end of the island; and there seems little doubt that the Indian who wanted fire- water was able to supply his want so long as he had something-land, pelts, movable prop- erty or service-to give in exchange.

The passing of the Indian was rapid, espe- cially after he gave up his primeval occupa- tion of a hunter and tried to settle down as a trader or to follow one of the simple trades he learned from the white man. In 1761 there were left only one hundred and ninety-two souls belonging to the Montauks; in 1827 they had dwindled down to five families, possibly twenty persons, and in 1843 the number was reduced to three families, about ten individ- uals, and even these it was asserted were not of pure Montauk blood. Now all are gone and the royal race of Wyandanch is but a memory. The Indian population of the island at the present day is estimated at something like two hundred, and of even these few, if any, are of pure blood. They are at best but a melancholy survival, although they have forsaken nearly the whole of their ancestral ways, adopted the white man's religion, and most of his manners and customs. The time is not far distant when the race will have en- tirely disappeared.

Some writers see in this a certain historic fitness and completeness inasmuch as the In-

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

dians themselves are said to have wiped out a still earlier race who owned the soil. In 1879 a remarkable archæological discovery was made at Aquebogue. Many graves were found some three feet below the soil, and in a position, judging from the geological changes, which showed that the bodies, or remains, there resting, had been deposited thousands of years before. The remains indicated a more powerful race than the Indians. The frag- ments of a temple-or large structure of some kind-were also discovered near the bodies, and proved to be utterly unlike any specimens of Indian construction of which we know. The walls were of clay and it measured about ten feet in length, with a dividing wall in the centre, making two narrow chambers, each about four and one-half feet.

In the face of this discovery surmises and fancy must halt. Is this a trace of another race, or of a lost civilization? The evidence certainly points in that direction. But one thing is certain : the Indians must have been in possession for almost countless ages, and who can now tell what evolution took place during that time in the mind and brain and product and civilization of that wonderful people-wonderful even in their decay.

But important a factor as rum was in the later history of the Indian race on Long Island as elsewhere, we must not forget that outside of it the most notable feature of their story was the religious element which controlled it. The Indian, so far as we can trace his mental development, has always been a devout man, believing in a Supreme Being, a Creator of the World, a Great Spirit, and also in a future life. Whatever he worshipped, he worshipped with all his heart. Sometimes, in reading the stories of his domestic life, his wars, his cruelties and his superstitions, we are apt to think that his idea of theological relationship was like that of the old darkey who said, "I have been wallowing in sin, I have broken all the commandments; but, thank God, I have not lost my religion !"

Between the years 1653 and 1658 the Soci-

ety for Propagating the Gospel in New Eng- land voted small sums of money to the Rev. William Leverich for his service among the In- dians, and he was specially desired to devote as much attention as possible to the Montauks and the Corchaugs. Of the nature of what he accomplished nothing is known to us; but as he seems to have been a zealous minister of the Gospel it is but fair to assume that he did his full duty according to his opportunities. He was a native of England and settled at Salem in 1633, and for many years was en- gaged in missionary work throughout Massa- chusetts with quite a recognized measure of success. In 1653 he purchased some land at Oyster Bay and there a year or two later, pos- sibly in 1656 or 1657, he erected his home. In 1658 he was installed minister of Hunting- ton and so continued until 1670, when he re- moved to Newtown, of which he was the first minister, and there he remained until his death, in or about 1694. From 1741 until 1752 Azariah Horton was employed by the Pres- byterians of New York as a missionary among the Long Island Indians. He was a native of Southold and a zealous worker for the min- istry. His journals show how incessantly he labored from Montauk to Rockaway, in the fields, in the huts, and by the wayside, among the four hundred souls which were then com- puted to be that remained of the once owners of the soil. In 1752 he settled down as pastor of a church at South Hanover, New Jersey, in a settlement formed mainly by Long Island people, and there labored until his death, March 27, 1777.

One of the earliest and most influential of the real friends of the Indian in New York was Sir Willianı Johnston, who in 1738 set- tled on a tract of land on the south side of the Mohawk River. He won the confidence of the Indians around him to a greater extent, possibly, than any man of his day, studied their manners, customs, rites and beliefs, be- came an expert in their language; wore, at times, their dress ; was chosen a Sachem of the Mohawks, and given the chief-like title of

THE DECADENCE OF THE ABORIGINES.1254230

"Wariaghejaghe," -- one who is in charge. He took a deep interest in the educational and intellectual advancement of the aborigines, and perhaps was able to exert a greater influence over them in these directions because he was not too straight-laced in his own personal morals or made any pretentions to having deep religious convictions, or close denomina- tional affiliations, although he was not insensi- ble to the value of religious influence in mak- ing the Indians amenable to law and order.

Sir William took a warm and direct in- terest in the life-long labors, on behalf of the Indian, of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, one of the most noteworthy of the early Protestant missionaries who engaged in such work; and the correspondence between them proves how heartily and · zealously Sir William entered into all the missionary's plans and hopes. Eleazar Wheelock does not seem to have ever visited Long Island, yet there is no doubt that he exerted a great influence for good over its latter Indian history, and his self-denying labors ought to keep his memory green among those of the real benefactors of the old king- dom of the Montauks. He was born at Wind- ham, Connecticut, April 22, 1711, the grand- son of a nonconformist minister who left Eng- land in 1637 and founded a church in Ded- ham, Massachusetts. Eleazar studied for the ministry, was ordained in 1735 as pastor of a church at New Lebanon, Connecticut, and there remained some thirty-five years. His salary being insufficient for his support, he augmented it by receiving pupils in his house, and this gradually developed in his mind the project of establishing an Indian missionary school. This was duly founded, under the designation of Moor's Indian Charity School, a farmer named Joshua Moor having given to it, in 1754, a house and two acres of land in New Lebanon. In 1766 some 10,000 pounds was obtained in Great Britain on behalf of the school, the money being placed in the hands of a board of trustees, of which the Earl of Dartmouth was president. Soon after it was determined to remove the institution to a new

location, and in 1770 Wheelock secured land at what is now Hanover, New Hampshire, re- moved there, and established the institution which has since become famous under its title of Dartmouth College, of which institution he was the first president. He died at Hanover, April 24, 1779.

In one way or another we learn a good deal about Wheelock's pupils. David Fowler, a Montauk Indian youth, entered the school at Lebanon about 1759, and early showed an aptitude for agricultural pursuits. He com- pleted his studies in a most satisfactory man- ner, and in March, 1765, he was licensed as an Indian teacher and was assigned to the Oneida Nation, for whose territory he at once set out. Early in June of the same year he opened a school and on the 15th of that month he wrote his old teacher from Canajoharie as follows :

This is the twelfth day since I begun my school, and eight of my scholars are now in the third page of their spelling book. I never saw children exceed these in learning. The number of my scholars is twenty-six, but it is difficult to keep them together; they are often roving from place to place to get some- thing to live upon. I am well contented to live here so long as I am in such great busi- ness. I believe I shall persuade the men in this castle, at least the most of them, to labour next year. They begin now to see that they could live better if they cultivated their lands than they do now by hunting and fishing.

I print this letter because it gives the key to the principle underlying Wheelock's method -that of civilizing the Indians by religion and work. Fowler's school was broken up in about a year by a famine in western New York, which drove the Indians for a time out of that quarter, and then the desolation and excite- ment of war probably stopped for several years any further effort. Of that, however, nothing is known ; but Fowler himself proved a living example of the benefit of education among the Indians; and in 1811, when he dis- appears from our view, he was an industrious

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

and prosperous farmer at Oneida, and held in esteem as a useful member of the community.

The most famous, however, of all Whee- lock's Indian pupils was the first he received, -Samson Occom. He was born at Mohegan, Norwich, Connecticut, in 1723, and when nine- teen years of age was received under Whee- lock's tuition. In the capacity of a pupil he remained in Wheelock's house for four years. In 1748 he became a teacher in New London. In 1755 he went to Montauk, where he opened a school among the Indians, and on August 29, 1759, he was ordained by the Suffolk Presbytery. For ten years he continued to teach and preach among the Mohawks and Shinnecocks, and then he went on a mission to the Oneidas. We next find him in Great Britain, engaged in raising the fund which led to the establishment of Dartmouth Col- lege, and he is said to have been the first In- dian preacher who ever visited England. His services there were invariably crowded, and there is no doubt he was the most important factor in bringing about the ultimate success of the mission. On his return he remained at his native place in Connecticut for a time, but in 1786 he went to Brotherton, Oneida county, where he died, in 1792.

Brotherton, located in what is now Mar- shall and Kirkland townships, Oneida coun- ty, was a purely Indian community, formed before the Revolution; Lat after it was over many returned and in 1783, under the direc- tion of Occom, founded a new commonwealth. They included many Montauks, Pequots, Nar- ragansetts and other Indians, numbering in all at one time, it is said, four hundred souls. . Coming from many different tribes, they were compelled to learn English as a common lan- guage, and tried to adapt themselves to a settled mode of living. For a time they re- ceived aid from the state, but their numbers steadily detreased, many having adopted all the vices of the white man with his tongue. Not a few developed into thrifty farmers, but it would seem succeeded only for a time. Bit by bit they sold their Brotherton lands to

white settlers, and in 1850 the last of them migrated to the west It is sad to think that even Occom once fell a victim, for a time, to the Indian passion for rum. On June 9, 1764, in a letter to the Presbytery, he confessed "to have been shamefully overtaken by strong drink, by which I have greatly wounded the cause of God, blemished the pure religion of Jesus Christ, blackened my own character and hurt my own soul." Over this weakness he finally completely triumphed, and was prob- ably a better man through having passed through that slough of despond.

As a preacher he seemed to possess many splendid qualifications, although possibly his eloquence was more of the sort to enthuse the Indian heart than to arouse the attention of his white brother. Dr. Samuel Buell said of him: "As a preacher of the Gospel he seems always to have in view the end of the min- istry, the glory of God and the salvation of men. His manner of expression when he preaches to the Indians is vastly more natural, free, clear and eloquent, quick and powerful, than when he preaches to others. He is the glory of the Indian nation."

Occom wrote considerable verse, some of it rather crude and unpolished, but full of graceful fancies and quaint conceits. It is mostly of a religious description and breathes throughout a simple, earnest piety, a profound belief in the wisdom and goodness of God, but at the same time a keen realization of the awful punishment prepared for those who wander from His footstool or who refuse to hearken to His voice. The following hymn, which is still printed in some of the church collections, will give an idea not alone of Oc- com's ability as a weaver of verse, but of his entire system of theology :

Awaked by Sinai's awful sound, My soul in bonds of guilt I found, And knew not where to go; One solemn truth increased my pain,- "The sinner must be born again" Or sink to endless woe.

THE DECADENCE OF THE ABORIGINES.

I heard the law its thunders roll, While guilt lay heavy on my soul- A vast oppressive load ; All creature's aid I saw was vain : "The sinner must be born again" Or drink the wrath of God.

But while I thus in anguish lay The bleeding Saviour passed that way, My bondage to remove ; The sinner once by Justice slain, Now by his grace is born again, And sings redeeming love.

The next Indian preacher who exerted much influence over his race was a member of the Shinnecock tribe, whose English cogno- men was Peter John. Prime says regarding him :

He was born at the Hay Ground, in the Parish of Bridgehampton, somewhere about the years 1712-15. He was hopefully con- verted in the great awakening of 1741-4 un- der the preaching of the Rev. Mr. Davenport .* By what ecclesiastical authority he was com- missioned is not known, though it is sup- posed he was ordained by the Separatists of Connecticut. He afterward took up his resi- dence at St. George's Manor, where he owned property, on which one of his descendants still lives. Though not learned and eloquent, yet by his zeal, piety and perseverance he gathered small churches at Wading River, Poosepatuck and Islip, to which, with that of Canoe Place, he ministered until after his grandson and successor was brought into the ministry. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-eight, and died near the commence- ment of the present century, though the pre- cise date has not been ascertained. His re- mains lie buried at Poosepatuck.

The grandson referred to above, Paul Cuf- fee, was the last, and in many respects the greatest, of the native preachers. He was

born in Brookhaven township, March 4, 1747. His mother, a daughter of Peter John, was a woman of eminent piety, and for many years was one of the most active workers in the little church at Wading River. Her son, Paul, started in life as a servant on the farm at Wading River belonging to Major Fred. Hud- son, where he continued until he was twenty- one years of age. He was a wild, thoughtless youth, fond of pleasure and revelry, but about the time he attained his twenty-first year he became converted at one of the "seasons of refreshing" so influential and frequent in the religious story of Long Island, and the result was that after a time of wrestling with the Evil One to throw off the burden of his own sins, he consecrated his own life to showing those of his own race the way of salvation and the lightening of the load. After a brief period of preparation he seems to have been licensed as a preacher, by what authority has never been discovered: possibly he was just sent out with the good wishes and approba- tion of the people at Wading River. He then went to Moriclies, where he labored among his own race for two years, and thence to Poosepatuck, where he was formally ordained by a delegation of ministers from the Con- necticut Convention. Two years later he be- came a member of the "Strict Congregational Convention on Long Island," a development of the body of the same name as renowned in Connecticut religious story. In 1798 he was employed by the New York Missionary So- ciety to work among the Indians, and in that employment he faithfully and patiently and fruitfully continued until his death, March 7, 1812. He worked mainly at Montauk and Canoe Place, but visited at intervals Poose- patuck, Islip and other spots, where the rem- nants of his people still lingered. The Rev. Dr. Prime, who knew him, speaks of him in the following kindly manner in his "History of Long Island :"

Having enjoyed a personal acquaintance with Paul for a few years, and had the priv-

*The Rev. James Davenport, minister of Southold, whom Whitefield described as "a sweet, pious soul." Soon after his installation at Southold the great awaken- ing occured which is memorable in the religious annals of New England. His zeal for religion seems to have unbalanced his mind and in 1742 his pastoral relations with Southold were severed by the Presbytery. He con- tinued active in the ministry, however, until his death, at Hopewell, N. J., in 1757. In 1754 he was moderator of the Synod of New York.

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

ilege, in two or three instances, of hearing his public performances, he (Prime) can bear witness that he was an interesting and affec- tionate preacher. Though he aimed at no elegance of diction and frequently committed grammatical inaccuracies, these were soon lost sight of in the ardor of his piety and the pathos of his appeals. But the most amiable and distinguishing trait of Paul's character both in the pulpit and out of it was the un- affected humility of his heart. Not only was his spirit imbued with it but he appeared at all times clothed therewith, as with a gar- ment. Naturally modest and graciously lowly in heart, he never aspired to high things, but always condescended to men of low estate, contented, nay gratified, to be the humble in- strument of promoting the glory of God and the salvation of his fellow men. He died, as he lived, under the smiles of his Saviour. Gradually, though rapidly, wasted away by consumption, he enjoyed his reason and the light of God's countenance to the end. Hav- ing given direction about the manner and place of his interment, he selected a text (II Tim- othy, IV, 7, 8) for his funeral discourse, and having taken a fond adieu of his family and friends, exhorting them all to "make Christ their friend," he calmly fell asleep.

Cuffee was buried in a little God's-acre near Canoe Place, where an Indian church still stands, in which he once preached. His grave is still pointed out and is distinguished by a plain stone erected by the society whose agent he was during the last thirteen years of his useful life.

When Cuffee passed away the religious re- generation of the Indians seems to have been left to the local preachers of Long Island, and doubtless they all did their duty. But the In- dian gradually "weded" away, as we have al- ready pointed out. Possibly to-day there is not a full-blooded Indian to be found on Long Island, even those who pass for such at Shin- necock having, like Paul Cuffee himself, a dash of African blood in their veins. Still, some of the old customs are kept up and many of the people display on occasion the inherent fervor of the Indian and African for matters of religion. In the New York World of Mon- day, June 1I, 1900, appeared the following

account of a celebration at the old church at Poosepatuck, so often referred to :

The annual June meeting on the Poose- patuck Indian Reservation was held yesterday in the little church on the hill overlooking Ford's River, two miles from Mastic, Long Island. It was in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the deed by Colonel William Tangier Smith, a British subject, of the reservation to the survivors of Sachem Tobaguss, of the Uncachogue tribe. This deed was given on July 2, 1700, and ever since then the Indians have lived on the land.

. For many years the June meeting has been the greatest event of the year with the In- dians of the eastern end of Long Island. The celebration to-day was not without its pathos, for the statement was made that during the last year three leaders of the little band had crossed over to the "happy hunting grounds," leaving but one full-blooded Indian in the tribe.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 9

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188