USA > New York > New York City > Historic tales of olden time; concerning the early settlement and advancement of New York city and state. For the use of families and schools > Part 4
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Every king hath his council, and that consists of all
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HISTORIC TALES
the old and wise men of his nation ; which perhaps is two hundred people : nothing of moment is undertaken, be it war, peace, selling of land, or traffic, without ad- vising with them ; and, which is more, with the young men too. It is admirable to consider how powerful the · kings are, and yet how they move by the breath of their people. .
· For their original, I am ready to believe them of the Jewish race ; I mean, of the stock of the ten tribes, and that for the following reasons : first, they were to go to " a land not planted or known," which, to be sure, Asia and Africa were, if not Europe; and he that in- tended that extraordinary judgment upon them, might make the passage not uneasy to them, as it is not im- possible in itself, from the easternmost parts of Asia to the westernmost of America. In the next place, I find them of like countenance, and their children of so lively resemblance, that a man would think himself in Dukes- place or Berry-street in London when he seeth them. But this is not all ; they agree in rites ; they reckon by moons : they offer their first-fruits ; they have a kind of feast of tabernacles ; they are said to lay their altars upon twelve stones ; their mourning a year, customs of women, with many things that do not now occur.
The following observations concerning our Indians were made, in 1749, by Professor Kalm, then travelling among them ; to wit :-
« The hatchets of the Indians were made of stone, somewhat of the shape of a wedge. This was notched round the biggest end, and to this they affixed a split stick for a handle, bound round with a cord. These hatchets could not serve, however, to cut any thing like a tree ; their means therefore of getting trees for canoes,
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OF OLDEN TIME.
&c. was to put a great fire round the roots of a big tree to burn it off, and with a swab of rags on a pole to keep the tree constantly wet above until the fire below burnt it off. When the tree was down, they laid dry branches on the trunk and set fire to it, and kept swabbing that part of the tree which they did not want to burn ; thus the tree burnt a hollow in one place only ; when burnt enough, they chipt or scraped it smooth inside with their hatchets, or sharp flints, or sharp shells. Instead of knives, they used little sharp pieces of flints or quartz, or a piece of sharpened bone. At the end of their arrows they fastened narrow angulated pieces of stone ; these were commonly flints or quartz. Some made use of the claws of birds and beasts.
They had stone pestles, of about a foot long and five inches in thickness ; in these they pounded their maize. Many had only wooden pestles. The Indians were astonished beyond measure when they saw the first wind-milis to grind grain. They were, at first, of opi- nion that not the wind, but spirits within them gave them their momentum. They would come from a great dis- tance, and set down for days near them, to wonder and admire at them !
The old tobacco pipes were made of clay or pot stone, or serpentine stone ; the tube thick and short. Some were made better, of a very fine red pot stone, and were seen chiefly with the Sachems. Some of the old Dutchmen at New-York preserved the tradition that the first Indians seen by the Europeans made use of copper for their tobacco pipes, got from the second river near Elizabethtown.
There was hardly any district of country where the Indians so fully enjoyed an abundant and happy home
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HISTORIC TALES
as on Long Island. The tribes there were of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware race, bearing the designation of the Matouwar and Paumunake. They had there vast quan- tities of wild fowl and abundance of sea-fish ; oysters, ciams, crabs, muscles, &c. They had the art of catch- ing fish by torch-light, called wigwass by them, in the + way we call bobbing. It was their practice to set a fire of pine knots on a platform in the middle of their ca- noas. the light attracted numerous fish, which they struck with an eel spear. Their smoked faces and reddened eyes by the operation, often gave them a gro- tesque appearance. They would lay up great store of dried clams by stringing them, and sending them far into the country for distant tribes. Besides all this, they " were great merchants of wampum or seawant; they procuring and forming from the sea shells all the Indian money used for ornament and traffic. To this day, the soil of the island shows frequent traces of the numerous shells once drawn -out from the sea and scattered over its surface. The families while so engaged in fishing, had always near them their huts or wigwams by the water side, made close and warm with an entire cover- ing of sea weed. '
Respecting the frequent diet of the Indians in general, we may say, that besides their usual plantations of corn, pumpkins, squashes, &c. they often used wild roots and wild fruits ; among the latter were chesnuts, shellbarks, walnuts, persimons, huckleberries, &c .: of the roots, they had hopniss (glycine apios), katniss (sagittaria sagitti- folia), tawho (arum virginicum), tawkee (orantium aqua- ticum). These roots generally grew in low damp grounds, were a kind of potatoes to them, and were divested of their poisonous or injurious quality by roast-
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OF OLDEN TIME.
ing them, in the fire. They used to dry and keep their huckleberries like raisins. They would pound hickory and walnut nuts to a fine pulp, and mixing water with it formed a pleasant drink, not unlike milk in sight and taste. They made yoekeg, a mush, liked also by the whites, formed of pounded parched corn and cider mix- ed. Suckatash they made from corn and beans mixed together and boiled. Their pumpkins they preserved long, by cutting them into slices and drying them. On the rivers they had an art of forming pinfolds for taking fish ; and when they took sturgeons, they cut them into strips and preserved them by drying. Fish hooks they sometimes made of fish bones and bird claws ; and fish lines they formed from a species of wild grass, or from the sinews of animals. All these were indeed but in- stances of clumsy invention and rude fare, but their education and hearts were formed to it, and they loved it and were happy; having every where their table spread by nature to their entire wants and satisfaction. In those days they were hunters more for clothing and amusement than for necessary food.
The Indians whom we usually call Delawares, be- cause first found about the regions of the Delaware river, never used that name among themselves ; they called themselves Lenni Lenape, which means " the original people,"-Lenni meaning original,-whereby they expressed they were an unmixed race, who had never changed their character since the creation ;- in effect they were primitive sons of Adam, and others were sons of the curse, as of Ham, or of the outcast Ishmael, &c.
They, as well as the Mengue (called by us Iroquois), agreed in saying they came from westward of the
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Mississippi-called by them Namesi Sipu, or river of fish ; and that when they came over to the eastern side of that river, they there encountered, and finally drove off, all the former inhabitants, called the Alligewi-(and of course the primitives of all our country !) who, pro- . . bably, such as survived, sought refuge in Mexico.
From these facts we may learn, that however unjus -. tifiable, in a moral sense, may be the aggressions of our border men, yet on the rule of the ler talionis we may take refuge and say, we only drive off or dispossess those who were themselves encroachers, even as all our Indians, as above stated, were !
The Indians called the Quakers Quekels, and " the English," by inability of pronouncing it, they sounded Yengees-from whence probably, we have now our name of Yankees. In their own language they called the English Saggenah.
Men whose thoughts are engrossed in the affairs of the world, or in the immediate concerns of self-preserva- tion, may be unmindful of others ; but youth, who are free from such cares, can indulge their natural propensi- ty of looking abroad and into the state of others, by an attention to the actual state of the poor Indian. They have repeatedly heard that all the lands of our western interior were not long since the property of the abori- gines ; and as they now witness their entire exclusion from all those regions, they naturally enquire where are they, and what has become of those who once welcomed to their wigwams and to their hospitality our pilgrim forefathers ? It was once their greatest gratification to be accounted the white man's friend and benefactor ; for truly they could say, " none ever entered the cabin
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OF OLDEN TIME.
of Logan hungry, and he gave him no meat ; or cold or naked, and he gave him no clothes."
As the race is receding from the civilization and en- croachments of white men, and becoming more and more scarce among men, it will become still more the duty and proper kindness of the coming generation to cherish a regard and a veneration for the few scattered frag- ments of a once mighty people. Already the last feeble remnants are preparing to go into remote exile in the far distant west. We see them leaving reluctantly their long cherished homes, " few and faint, yet fearless still." They turn to take a last look at their deserted towns-a last glance at the graves of their fathers. They shed no tears ; they utter no cries ; they heave no groans. There is something in their hearts which surpasses speech ; there is something in their looks, not of vengeance or submission, but of hard! necessity, which stifles both ; which chokes all utterance ; which has no aim or method. It is courage absorbed in de- spair.
A mind fully alive to the facts which in the new countries of the west still environ him wherever he goes, can hardly ride along the highway, or traverse the fields and woods, without feeling the constant and wel- come intrusion of thoughts like these, to wit: Here lately prowled the beasts of prey* ; there crowded the deep interminable woodland shade ; through that crip- ple brow sed the deer ; in that rude cluster of rocks and roots were sheltered the deadly rattlesnake. These
* As late as the year 1815 to '20, the state treasury expended 35,200 dollars for killing wolres in 37 of the western counties ! Could any thing more strikingly exhibit its recent savage state, even where now " unwieldly wealth and cumbrous pomp repose !"
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· HISTORIC TALES
rich meadows were noxious swamps. On those sun- side hills of golden grain crackled the growing maize of the tawny aborigines. Where we stand, perchance to pause and consider, rest the ashes of a chief or of his family; and where we have chosen our favourite sites for towns or habitations, may have been the selected spots on which were hutted the now departed lineage of many generations. On yon path-way, seen in the distant view, climbing the remote hills, may have been the very path tracked from time immemorial by the roving In- dians themselves.
It is not possible for a considerate and feeling mind, even now, to stand upon the margin of such charming and picturesque lakes as the Skeneatteles, the Cayuga, and the Senecca, &c. without thinking how happily the Indians of primitive days were wont to pass their time in such enchanting regions ; but they are all gone, all wasted like a pestilence. A few diminished tribes still linger about our remote borders ; and others, more distant in the rude wilds, still gather a scanty subsist- ence from the diminished game. It would be to our honour and to their comfort and preservation, could we yet extend to them the blessings of civilization and re- ligion. We owe it to ourselves and to them to yet re- deem this wasting, injured, faded race.
" Crush'd race, so long condemned to moan
· Scorn'd, riflled, spiritless and lone, From heathen rites, from sorrow's maze, Turn to our temple gates with praise ! Yes, come and bless th' usurping band That rent away your father's land ;
Forgive the wrong, suppress the blame, And view your hope, your heaven, the same !"
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OF OLDEN TIME.
STEAM-BOATS.
Against the winds, against the tide, She breasts the wave with upright keel.
1
NEW-YORK is deservedly distinguished as being the first of our American cities which saw the successful use of steam-boat power upon its waters. Philadelphia had indeed beheld the efforts of Fitch's steam-boat as early as 1788 ; but as it was not brought into any effec- tive operation under his management, the invention slumbered until it was brought out successfully in the year 1807, under the direction and genius of the distin- guished Fulton. At that time he demonstrated the important fact, that the Hudson could be navigated by steam vessels ; having shewn to the astonished citizens, his companions in a voyage to Albany, that his first boat made her trip in 30 hours ; a time indeed nearly three times as long as now required, but triumphantly evidencing to the incredulous a new era in the creative powers of man.
Most amazing invention ! from a cause now so obvious and familiar. It is only by applying the principle seen in every house, which lifts the lid of the tea kettle and "boils over," that machines have been devised which can pick up a pin or rend an oak ; which combine the power of many giants with the plasticity that belongs to a lady's fair fingers ; which can spin cotton and then weave it into cloth ; and which, amidst a long list of other marvels, " engraves seals, forges anchors, and lifts
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HISTORIC TALES
a ship of war like a bawble in the air ;" presenting in fact to the imagination, the practicability of labour- saving inventions in endless variety ; so that in time, man through its aid shall half exempt himself from " the curse," and preachers, through steam-press print- ing, shall find an auxiliary effecting more than half their work. .
One whose genius has done so much for his country as Fulton's, deserves to be well known to her sons , we therefore take a mournful pleasure in repeating the facts as told to us by Judge Story, of the discouragements and incredulity against which it was at first the labour of Fulton to wend his way. I myself (says the Judge) have heard the illustrious inventor relate, in an animated and affecting manner, the history of his labours and discouragements :- " When (said he) I was building my first steam-boat at New-York, the project was viewed by the public either with indifference or with contempt as a visionary scheme. My friends indeed were civil, but they were shy. They listened with patience to my explanations, but with a settled cast of incredulity on their countenances. I felt the full force of the lamenta- tion of the poet, -
"Truths would you teach, to save a sinking land,
All shan, none aid you, and few understand."
As I had occasion to pass daily to and from the building yard while my boat was in progress, I have often loiter- ed unknown near the idle groups of strangers gathering in little circles, and heard various inquiries as to the object of this new vehicle. The language was uni- formly that of scorn, sneer, or ridicule. The loud laugh rose at my expense, the dry jest, the wise calculation of losses and expenditures ; the dull but endless repetition
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of the Fulton folly. Never did a single encouraging remark, a bright hope, or a warm wish, cross my path. Silence itself was but politeness veiling its doubts or hiding its reproaches. At length the day arrived when the experiment was to be got into operation. To me it was a most' trying and interesting occasion. I invited many friends to go on board to witness the first success- ful trip. Many of them did me the favour to attend as a matter of personal respect ; but it was manifest they did it with reluctance, fearing to be partners of my mor- tification and not of my triumph. I was well aware that in my case there were many reasons to doubt of my own success. The machinery (like Fitch's before him) was new and ill made ; and many parts of it were constructed by mechanics unacquainted with such work, and unexpected difficulties might reasonably be presumed to present themselves from other causes. The moment arrived in which the word was to be given for the vessel to move. My friends were in groups on the deck. There was anxiety mixed with fear among them. They were silent, sad, and weary. I read in their looks nothing but disaster, and almost repented of my efforts. The signal was given, and the boat moved on a short distance and then stopped, and became im- movable. To the silence of the preceding moment now succeeded murmurs of discontent, and agitations, and whispers, and shrugs. I could hear distinctly repeated, "I told you it was so; it is a foolish scheme; I wish we were well out of it." I elevated myself upon a plat- form and addressed the assembly. I stated that I knew not what was the matter ; but if they would be quiet, and indulge me for half an hour, I would either go on or abandon the voyage for that time. This short respite
6*
·
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HISTORIC TALES
was conceded without objection. I went below and examined the machinery, and discovered that the cause was a slight maladjustment of some of the work. In a short period it was obviated. The boat was again put in motion. . She continued to move on. All were still incredulous. None seemed willing to trust the evidence of their own senses. We left the fair city of New-York ; we passed through the romantic and ever- varying scenery of the Highlands; we descried the clustering houses of Albany ; we reached its shores ; .. and then, even then, when all seemed achieved, I was the victim of disappointment. Imagination superseded the influence of fact. It was then doubted if it could be done again, or if done, it was doubted if it could be made of any great value." Such is the graphic history of the first experiment ; a memorable and momentous epoch. How affecting and exciting to the inventor in that anxious and perilous moment of trial. We regret to add that he did not live to enjoy the full glory and reward of his invention. He saw his rights both as to merit and reward disputed ; but now the whole world awards the meed of praise to this noblest benefactor of the human race. From his struggles against impedi- ments, and his final triumph over incredulity and dis- couragement, let other great geniuses take lasting cou- rage, and make perseverance to the end their cheering and sustaining motto.
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OF OLDEN TIME.
INLAND SETTLERS AND PIONEERS.
" Thus the pavilioned waste of oak Has bow'd beneath the woodman's stroke."
THE pioneers, the primitive settlers of the inland wilds, are in general a race of men possessing little attention or renown, and yet. deserving our liveliest respect and gratitude. In this new land they have uniformly been the avant-couriers of all our enrichment and prosperity. They have gone forward into the depths of the forest, and by subduing and cultivating the soil have made it to bring forth abundantly. By sending the results of their harvests back to the parent cities, they have added to our wealth and commerce.
When we owe so much, on the score of gratitude, to the patient hardihood of first settlers, we should take some pains to preserve some memorial of their adventures and exposures. We have listened to some of their oral rela- tions with lively interest and emotion; and as they have no chronicler to preserve their little history, we shall here endeavour to preserve some traits.
We see two or three families, consisting severally of husbands, wives, and children, associating, in the year 1790, in one of the towns of New England, to form a little community to go into the wilds of the west. They had heard of fruitful soils and cheap ; and having grow- ing and sturdy working boys and girls about them, they resolve to go as far as the Indian town of Canandaigua;
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or, if not there suited, to go still further, to the country of the Genessee river. They sell out their little immovable property for the sake of the cash; then gather about them wagons, carts, farming utensils ; reserve some of their roughest furniture and of least weight of carriage ; lay in their store of salted and smoked meats ; procure baked biscuits ; get Indian meal for "journey cakes ;" gather around a whole stock of cows, pigs, sheep, and poultry, not forgetting their house dog and tabby cat. We skip over the intermediate space of travel, wherein they could find huts and cottages at which to stop along their route, to as far as the present Utica, then the place of Fort Schuyler ; from this point the united pioneers enter into the forest. The provisions, furniture, and . smallest children are placed in the wagons and set on- ward. The men, women, and boys and girls follow near by, driving in their wake their bull and cows, pigs and sheep. Hung to the wagons, severally, were the poultry coops, containing ducks, geese, and fowls, the intended parent stock of the future poultry yard.
In their onward march no road marks the direction of their way, but guided by the "blazing of the trees," (surveyor's marks cut on the sides of trees with a hatchet,) or, when at fault, by their pocket compass, they continue to go on their way westward. By and bye they halt to rest, and to feed their cattle and them- selves. Their table, once an ironing board, is set upon four upright stakes drove into the ground. Their seats are formed by two benches. Biscuits and cold meat form their food. At table, and in their mutual inter- course, they all aim to cheer and encourage each other with hopes and designs of the future. Soon all are again set onward ; water-courses and impediments in the way
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occasionally occur. Then the men and boys are the chief labourers; and to manage their cattle and get them over sloughs, &c. is their chief difficulty. By and bye they approach the Oneida settlement of Indians, of which they have some forethought by seeing a strag- gling hunter or two, and after a while hearing the shouts and noisy rejoicings of the tribe. At the sound fears and apprehensions steal upon the soul. The younger mem- bers of the family get closer to their parents; and the parents themselves are not insensible to the fact, that they have no other security for their safety than the general repori of peace and amity. They enter their settlement, are surrounded, mutual wonder exists, civili- ties are interchanged, and the settlers, not willing to abide for a right among them, go beyond them and en- camp for the first night. What a new epoch for a family accustomed to civilization to sit down in the gloom ofthe forest ! They again prepare to eat and to feed their . cattle. The fire is made for tea, and for fresh journey cake baked before the fire. The bedding and beds are prepared in the wagons. Watches are set to take turns through the night, to preserve the cattle from straying and the sheep from the prowling wolf. When all is pre- pared the whole company surround their homely table, eat heartily and talk cheerily. Some sing songs, some hymns ; several recount the incidents of the day ; all re- member home, and talk of left friends and kindred ; and some surmise the adventures before them. They all retire to rest in due time, save the watch and the dogs. The fatigues of the day make many sleep soundly and only now and then a wakeful ear hears the bark of the fox, the distant growl of the wolf, or the shriek of the owl. Soon as the ruddy morn peeps out from the orient
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east, the company is again all in action, preparing for , their morning meal and onward journey. In two days more of similar journey they reach the Indian settlement of the Onondagas-Indians which they feared more than the former only because they were still more in their power, by being still more remote from country and friends. They still, however, received civility and kind- ness in their rude but well-meant attentions. They brought them some of their game, and this, with suc- cessful shooting of their own among the partridges and pheasants seen in their rout, gave them the means of a - grand repast of sylvan food for their supper. They again spent their night much after the manner before-mention- ed, and not far from the ranges of those Indians. In a few days they all reach the Indian village of Canandai. gua, at which place the great purchaser, Phelps, had preceded them for the sale of hisland. In the intermediate space they had had some new adventures; they had seen and shot several wild turkies, and one or two of the · party had surprized some deer, and succeeded to kill a · couple. These were so many trophies of their woodman character, and gave new life and feelings to the whole. They had too been obliged to make many devious wan- . derings in search of their way. The rout became dubious, and it was only after going off at sundry diverging points that they could feel any assurance that they were near the tract they should take. To add to these em- barrassments they had encountered wider and deeper water-courses ; such as they could not venture to tra- verse without some means to float over some of their articles. Here therefore they were obliged to fell trees and construct rafts of timber on which to convey what was needed to the opposite bank. Once in a while they
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