USA > New York > Madison County > History of Madison County, state of New York > Part 2
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" They are great observers of the movements of the sun, moon, and planets, and the women are most experienced star- gazers. There is scarcely one of them but can name all the stars ; describe the time of their rising and setting, and are as familiar with the position of the constellations in the heavens, as are the Europeans, the difference being, they give them differ- ent names. By the different moons they calculate the seasons, and regulate their harvests. The first moon following that of the end of February, is honored with great devotion, and as it rises, they compliment it with a great festival. They are col- lected together from all quarters, and revel after their fashion, feast with wild game and fish, drink clear river water to their fill, without being intoxicated. This moon, being the harbinger of spring, is the beginning of the year. In Virginia they then prepare for the planting. As the harvest approaches, at the August new moon, they again celebrate with another festival.
"The names of their months are these :- Cuerano, the first with them, February ; 2 Weer-hemska ; 3 Heemskan ; 4 Onera- tacka ; 5 Oneratack, then they begin to sow and plant ; 6 Haga- rert ; 7 Jakouvaratta ; 8 Hatterhonagat ; 9 Genhendasta, then
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grain and everything is ripe ; 10 Digojenjattha, then is the seed housed. Of January and December they take no note, being of no use to them.
"Their numerals run no higher than ours, twenty being twice ten. When they ask for twenty, they stick the ten fingers up and with them turn to the ten toes of the feet. They count, Honslot, Tegeni, Hasse, Kajeri, Wisk, Fajack, Satach, Siattege, Tiochte, Ojeri.
"When a youth courts a girl, he buys her generally in a neigh- boring village, and this done, the damsel is then delivered to him by two or three other women, who come carrying on their heads, meal, roots, corn and other articles, to the young man's hut, and he receives her. It is common for a man to buy and have several wives, but not in one place. When he journeys five or six miles he finds another wife, who takes care of him as his first does ; five or ten miles further he again finds another wife who keeps house, and so on to several.
"Chastity is held in considerable esteem among the women, and as they are living without law, they are restrained through fear of the husband. It excites little attention if any one of the Indians abandons his wife. In case she have children they fol- low her. Whilst rearing their offspring the mother exhibits great tenderness. Each highly esteem their own children, who grow up very lively. The men scarcely ever labor, except to provide game for cooking ; the women must attend to the remainder, such as tilling the soil, gathering the crops, &c., as well as cook- ing.
"What is very strange among this almost barbarous people, there are few or none cross-eyed, blind, crippled, lame or hunch- backed ; all are well fashioned people ; strong in constitution of body, well proportioned, without blemish. In some places they have abundant means, with herbs, leaves and roots, to ad- minister to their sick ; there is scarcely an ailment they have not a remedy for."
The above was written in 1624, by the Germans, who had seen the Indians of New York State, at New York Bay and on the Hudson. They carried back to Europe
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the impressions they received of this wonderful country and its natives. But as they had then seen nothing of the interior of the Indian country, their opinions of the great Terra Incognita were vague and extravagant. Referring to the numerous lakes of New York and Michigan, they make this statement : The Indians " who come from the interior, yea thirty days' journey, declare there is considerable water everywhere, and that the upper country (Michigan) is marshy ; they make mention of great freshets which lay waste their lands, so that what many say may be true, that Hudson's Bay runs through to the South Sea, and is navi- gable, except when obstructed by ice to the northward. It were desirable that this were once proved. Those who made the voyage are of the same opinion, as they found an open sea, a rapid current, and whales [?]."
The Dutch found that among the Maikins (a tribe living near Fort Orange, or Albany, which were probably of the Mohawks) there was a belief that the soul on separating from the body, went up westward, where it was met with great rejoicing, by those who had died previously; that they wore black otter or bear skin, which to them is a sign of gladness. The captain of the Maikins who was named Cat, believed that death was the offspring of the Devil who is evil. A skipper denied this, saying that God had control over death. The Maikin captain asked if God being good, had the power to give and take away life, and he was answered "yea." This the Indian could not understand, how this good God should inflict evil, that is, death.
Such was the condition, the habits and character of the Indians of New York State, before white men settled among them, and it is well for the European that the Indian had no historian of his own. There is sufficient in the statements of the early voyagers hither, from their own testimonies to condemn them, and palliate the indignities and crimes which the Indians have visited upon the Euro-
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pean settlers. The Indians have, however, treasured up the history of their wrongs in tradition, which has descended from father to son. It is a history full of injuries which bred hatred, growing stronger from century to century, and is the excuse for all the barbarities perpetrated upon innocent, unoffending white persons, and the parent of the hatred exhibited by the red men of the West. From a letter written by John De Verrazana to his king, Francis I, of France, in 1525, when he first discovered New York Bay, this position is justified. He landed first in North Caro- lina. He says :-
"Great store of people came to the sea-side and seeing us approach they fled away, and sometimes would stand and look back, beholding us with great admiration ; but afterwards, being animated and assured with signs that we made them, some of them came hard to the sea-side, seeming to rejoice very much at the sight of us, and marveling greatly at our apparel, shape, and whiteness ; showed us by sundry signs where we might most commodiously come to land with our boat, offering us also victuals to eat. Remaining there for a few days, and tak- ing note of the country he sailed northwardly, and viewed if he did not enter, the harbor of New York. In the haven of New- port he remained for fifteen days, where he found the natives the goodliest people he had seen in his voyage. At one period during his coasting along the shores of New England, he was compelled for the sake of fresh water, to send off his boat The shore was lined with savages, 'whose countenances betrayed at the same time, surprise, joy, and fear.' They made signs of friendship, and 'showed they were content we should come to land.' A boat with twenty-five men attempted to land with some presents, but on nearing the shore were intimidated by the frightful appearance of the natives, and halted to turn back. One, more resolute than the rest, seizing a few of the articles designed as presents, plunged into the water and advanced within three or four yards of the shore. Throwing them the presents, he attempted to regain the boat, but was caught by a wave and dashed upon the beach. The savages caught him,
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and sitting him down by a large fire, took off his clothes. His comrades supposed he was to be roasted and eat. Their fears subsided, however, when they saw them testify their kindness by caresses. It turned out that they were only gratifying their curiosity in an examination of his person, the whiteness of his skin, &c. They released him and after 'with great love clasp- ing him fast about' they allowed him to swim to his comrades. Verrazana found the natives of the more northern regions more hostile and jealous, from having, as has been inferred, been visited for the purpose of carrying them off as slaves. At another anchorage, after following the shore fifty leagues, an 'old woman with a young maid eighteen years old, seeing our company, hid themselves in the grass for fear ; the old woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and behind her neck a child of eight years old. The young woman was laden likewise with as many ; but when our men came unto them the woman cried out; the old woman made signs that the men were fled into the woods. As soon as they saw us, to quiet them, and to win their favor, our men gave them such victuals as they had with them to eat, which the old woman received thankfully, but the young woman threw them disdainfully on the ground. They took a child from the old woman to bring into France ; and going about to take the young woman, which was very beautiful and tall of stature, they could not possibly, for the great out- cries she made, bring her to the sea ; and especially having great woods to pass through, and being far from the ship, we proposed to leave her behind, bearing away the child only.' At another anchorage * 'there ran down into the sea an exceeding great stream of water, which at the mouth was very deep, and from the sea to the mouth of the same, with the tide which they found to raise eight foote, any great ship laden, might pass up. Sending up their boat the natives expressed their admiration, and showed them where they might safely come to land. They went up the river half a league where it made a 'most pleasant lake about three leagues in compass, on which the natives rode from one side to the other to the number of thirty of their small boats, wherein were many people which passed from one shore
* Off Sandy Hook, as has been inferred.
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to the other.' At another anchorage they 'met the goodliest people, and of the fairest conditions they had found in their voyage :- exceeding us in bigness- of the color of brasse, some inclining to whiteness, black and quick eyed, of sweet and pleasant countenance imitating much the old fashion.' Among them, they discovered pieces of wrought copper, which they 'esteemed more than gold.' 'They did not desire cloth of silk or of gold, or of other sort, neither did they care for things made of steel or iron, which we often showed them in our armour, which they made no wonder at; and in beholding them they only asked the art of making them ; the like they did at our glasses, which when they suddenly beheld, they laughed and gave us again.' The ship neared the land and finally cast anchor 'in the haven,' when, continues Verrazana, 'we bestowed fifteen days in providing ourselves with many neccessary things, whither every day the people repaired to see our ship, bringing their wives with them whereof they were very jelous ; and they themselves entering aboard the ship and staying there a good space, caused their wives to stay in their boats ; and for all the entreaty we could make, offering to give them divers things, we could never obtain that they should suffer to come aboard our ship. Oftentimes one of the two kings (of this people) com- ing with his queen, and many gentlemen, for their pleasure to see us, they all staid on shore two hundred paces from us till they sent a message they were coming. The queen and her maides staid in a very light boat at an island a quarter of a league off, while the king abode a long space in the ship, utter- ing divers conceits with gestures, viewing with great admiration the ship, demanding the property of everything particularly.' 'There were plaines twenty-five or thirty leagues in width, which were open and without any impediment.' They entered the woods and found them 'so great and thick, that an army were it ever so great might have hid itself therein ; the trees whereof are of oak, cipresse and other sorts unknown in Europe.' The natives fed on pulse that grew in the country with better hus- bandry than in the others. They observed in their sowing the course of the moone and the rising of certain starres, and divers other customs spoken of by antiquity. They dwell together in
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great numbers, some twenty-five or thirty persons in one house. They are very pitiful and charitable towards their neighbors, they make great lamentations in their adversitie, and in their miserie, the kindred reckone up all their felicitie. At their departure out of life they use mourning mixed with singing which continueth for a long space."
When Columbus with his crew of white men landed on American shores the Indians regarded them with awe and wonder, and, on account of the whiteness of their complexion, believing them to be supernatural beings, a veneration took possession of them, which knowledge of their earthly origin did not entirely eradicate for ages. Hence when Vespucius Americus landed he was treated as a superior being. When later voyagers, the Cabots and Cartier came, when the French settled in Florida, when Sir Walter Raleigh first settled in Virginia, when Hudson discovered and sailed his vessel up the river which bears his name, when the Pilgrims colonized New England, the Indians received them with demonstrations of reverence, affection and gen- erosity. In the first report of Sir Walter Raleigh's ex- pedition, in 1584, it is said that " they were entertained with as much bounty as they could possibly devise. They found the people most gentle, loving and faithful, void of all guile and treason, and such as live after the manner of the golden age." The first sermon preached in New Eng- land, date of Dec., 1621, has in it the following in reference to the Indians :- "To us they have been like lambs, so kind, so submissive and trusty, as a man may truly say many christians are not so kind and sincere. When we first came into this country, we were few, and many of us were sick, and many died by reason of the cold and wet, it being the depth of winter, and we having no houses or shelter ; yet when there were not six able persons among us, they came daily to us by hundreds with their sachems or kings, and might in one hour have made a dispatch of us, yet they never offered us the least injury. The greatest
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commander in the country called Massasoit cometh often to visit us, though he lives fifty miles from us, often sends us presents, &c."
Individuals with motives of cupidity, basely took advan- tage of their evident simplicity, which roused the latent brute qualities of the Indian nature. The Spaniards and Portugese immediately followed up their first intercourse with them by carrying them into captivity. The Indian's simple creed taught him revenge and hatred. The result of this unhappy intercourse with the Spaniards prompted the following remarks from Kotzebue :- "wherever they moved in anger, desolation tracked their progress, wherever they paused in amity, affliction mourned their friendship."
Close upon the footsteps of these injuries, instruments of revenge were given them,-fire-arms and fire-water. Henry Hudson in 1609, on his first visit to New York State, discovered to them the use of fire-arms. They had previously used the bow and arrow, in which they were well skilled, and taught them the greater evil, intemperance.
Hudson's account gives the following :- " While his ves- sel lay in the river (near Albany it is inferred) ‘great multitudes flocked on board to survey the wonder.' In order to discover whether 'any of the chief men of the country had any treacherie in them, our master and mate took them into the cabin and gave them so much wine and aqua vitae, that they were all merrie ; and one of them had his wife with him, which sat so modestly as any of our counterey women, would doe in a strange plaice.' One of them became intoxicated, staggered and fell, at which the natives were astonished. It 'was strange to them, for they could not tell how to take it. They all hurried ashore in their canoes. The intoxicated Indian remaining and sleeping on board all night, the next day, others ven- tured on board and finding him recovered, and well, they were highly gratified. He was a chief. In the afternoon
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they repeated their visits, brought tobacco 'and beads and gave them to our master, and made an oration showing him all the country round about.' They took on board a platter of venison, dressed in their own style, and 'caused him to eate with them :- then they made him reverence, and de- parted all,' except the old chief, who having got a taste of the fatal beverage chose to remain longer on board. Thus were the aborigines first made acquainted with what they afterwards termed 'fire-water,' and aptly enough," says Turner, " for it has helped to consume them."
In the year 1614, Lambrecht Van Twenhuyzen, a skipper who came in to buy furs, thus speaks of the simplicity of the natives: "When they first beheld the large dogs on board ship, they were much surprized and afraid, calling it a Sachem of dogs. Their own dogs were all small. The dog tied on ship board was very furious against them sup- posing them, their being clad in skins, to be beasts, giving him an idea they were game; but when they gave him bread made of Indian corn, he learned to distinguish that they were men. The skipper presented the dog to them at which they were greatly pleased."
The history of the manner in which the Dutch establish- ed themselves among the Indians is the earliest and most minute history we have of the natives of New York. The abundance and cheapness of furs induced the Dutch East India Company to engage in this profitable trade. In 1610, a ship was sent by some merchants in Amsterdam to pur- chase furs, and soon several others followed. In 1613, two trading forts were erected on the river and four houses were built on Manhattan Island. In 1614 the States General of the United Netherlands passed an ordinance granting all original discoverers in North America the right of making four voyages to such land as they had discovered for pur- poses of trade. The discoverers formed a company called the United New Netherlands Company, and erected a trad-
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ing house on the Island near Albany and had it garrisoned with ten or twelve men. 'Another fort was erected at the southern point of Manhattan's Island, and men were sent in every direction to solicit trade from the Indians.
In 1618 a flood in the North River (Hudson) injured the Company's fort at Castle Island near Albany, and it was re- moved to Norman's Kill, a few miles below. Here they made a treaty with the Five Nations. This company in- creased in power, and in view of the immense profits accru- ing from the exports of the country, decided to plant a colony, and in 1623, a ship came over from Holland bring- ing emigrants, and eighteen families settled at a small fort which was called Fort Orange (Albany). It is stated by Catelyn Trico, the first white woman in Albany, that "as soon as they had built themselves some huts of bark, the river Indians, the Maques, Oneydes, Onondages, Cayugas, Sennekas, with the Mahawawas, or Otawawas, came and made covenants of friendship, bringing great presents of peltry, and desired to have a constant free trade with them, which was concluded upon, and during the three years she lived there, they came daily to trade with all the freedom imaginable, and were gentle and quiet as lambs."
The fur trade now flourished. The forests of central and western New York, abounding in bear, otter and beaver, furnished many canoe loads which were moved over Lake Oneida, and down the Mohawk river to Albany. In Dec., 1624, a cargo from America of five hundred otter skins, fifteen hundred beaver and some other freight to the value of about $ 12,000, was sold in Amsterdam. Vessels in re- turning to America brought with them cattle, horses, sheep and hogs, which were viewed by the natives with curiosity and surprise. In Sep., 1626, a ship sailed out to Amsterdam laden with 7246 beaver skins, 675 otter, 48 mink, 36 wild cat skins and various other sorts ; thus the fur trade grew to be an extensive commerce.
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The Dutch rapidly increased in the province of New Netherlands, and grants of large tracts of land were ob- tained by individuals, extending far into the wilderness amidst the habitations of the Five Nations. The wealthy patrons of these vast estates made great efforts to colonize them. Killian Van Rensselaer, a pearl merchant of Amster- dam, secured a tract on the west side of the Hudson, em- bracing the site of the present city of Albany. His tract was twenty-four miles long and forty-eight broad, and was named Renssellaerwyck. Mr. Van Renssellaer did not re- side in his colony, but confided its management to a Com- missary General or Superintendent, which office was filled for many years by Arendt Van Curler or Corlear, a most worthy and excellent man, who gained the esteem and love of the Indians of all the nations about him, insomuch that the name of Corlear became as a household word among them,-a synonym of all that was noble,-and subsequently, to all governors of the State, for whom they entertained especial respect, they gave this endearing title. During the period from 1640 to '45, when the first Indian war was agitating the province, the colony of Renssellaerwyck, un- der Corlear's admirable administration in cultivating the friendship of the adjacent tribes, was undisturbed, the in- habitants peacefully pursuing their avocations.
The competition among fur traders wrought out a most mischievous train of events. The tricks practiced by these traders upon the Indians, were speedily learned by them and played back upon the white man. Misunderstandings arose, misconstruction added to ignorance, jealousies were engen- dered, and at length a hatred was kindled only to be eradi- cated by blood. In 1640, an expedition went out from Man- hattan against the Raritans, inhabiting the main land be- hind Staten Island, who were accused of having stolen some hogs, which allegation, however, proved to be a mistake. Arriving at the Indian village at an unexpected time, they
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plundered the village, slaughtered several of the inhabitants, burnt their crops and returned home without the loss of a single man (!) This act impelled the Indians to retaliate, and for the next two years acts of cruelty and revenge in which they indulged, are recorded.
In the meantime the Mohawks, who were at enmity to some of the River Indians, made a descent upon them. They fled to the protection of the Dutch at Manhattan, and by them were fed for a fortnight. While they were thus under the protecting wing of the city and the Mohawks encamped near by, two parties of Dutch sallied out, one to destroy the weak band of Indians who now lay at Corlear's Hook, the other to make a descent upon the Mohawks who lay at Pa- vonia, thus wreaking vengeance upon all tribes of Indians alike, whether friend or foe. Eighty Indians were killed at Pavonia, and thirty at Corlear's Hook. These were of all ages and both sexes, and no barbarity was too shocking to be inflicted upon them. Thirty prisoners, and the heads of several of those who had been killed were brought in by the returning parties.
This proceeding aroused to frenzy the indignation of all the neighboring nations and eleven different tribes pro- claimed war against the Dutch. This produced the first Indian war in New York, in 1642. A terrible state of af- fairs continued, till by mere force of arms the Dutch pre- vailed and peace was restored in April, 1644. In 1645, through the powerful intervention of the Mohawks, who were at that time called the "Kings of the forest," a treaty of peace was concluded with most of the Indian tribes, and during the subsequent years when animosities were increas- ing between the Dutch and English, the Indians took but little part in the disturbances.
The English were now fast populating New England and Virginia, and the province of New Netherlands had within its borders many English settlers. Disturbances, arising
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from rival claims of colonists of different nationalities, and opposite religions, were serving to weaken and lay New Netherlands powerless to the aggressions of the English, and final usurpation of this territory by Charles the II, King of England, in 1664. Throughout the course of this agitation, the Indians maintained their neutral position. Cognizant of the change in government, they wisely held their peace, and willingly submitted to the powers that were. As they had done to the Dutch, so now to the Eng- lish, they acknowledged their allegiance, and with many tokens cemented the chain of friendship.
This remarkable confederacy possessed the control of New York State when it was first discovered, and was com- posed of a race of men who it is said were distinguished above all the other aborigines of this continent for their in- telligence and prowess.
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