History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 4

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780

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The principal nations of the Iroquois family were grouped around the lower lakes. The Five Nations of central New York-the Iroquois proper-were the leading people of this family. To the south of the Five Nations, on the banks of the Susquehanna, were the Andustes, and to the westward, along the southern shore of Lake Erie, were the Eries. To the north of . Lake Erie lay the Neutral Nation and the Tobacco Nation, while the Hurons dwelt along the eastern shore of the lake that still bears their name. There was also a branch of the Iroquois family in the Carolinas,-the Tuscaroras,-who united with the Five Nations in 1715, after which the confederacy was known as the Six Na- tions.+

Surrounding these few hands of Iroquois were the much more numerous tribes of the great Algonquin family. To the people of Algonquin speech and lineage belonged the Horicons and the Mohicans and other tribes of river In- dians who dwelt along the Hudson, and the l'equots, Ham-

panoags, Narragansetts, and all the other New England - tribes.}

Northward of the Iroquois were the Nipissings, La Pe- tite Nation, and La Nation de l'Isle, and the other tribes of the Ottawa. Along the valley of the St. Lawrence were the Algonquins proper,-called Adirondacks by the Iro- quois,-the Abenaquis, the Montagnais, and other roving bands around and beyond the Saguenay.

Thus were the Indian nations situated with respect to each other when Samuel de Champlain, in the early sum- mer of 1609, entered the territory of northern New York from the north, and Henry Hudson, in the beginning of the coming autumn, approached it from the south.

VI .- THE "PEOPLE OF THE LONG HOUSE."

Among all the Indians of the New World, there were none so politie and intelligent, none so fierce and brave, none with so many germs of heroic virtues mingled with their savage vices, as the true Iroquois,-the people of the Five Nations. They were a terror to all the surrounding tribes, whether of their own or of .Algonquin speech. In 1650 they overran the country of the Hurons; in 1651 they destroyed the Neutral Nation ; in 1652 they extermi- nated the Eries ; in 1672 they conquered the Andastes and reduced them to the most abject submission. They fol- lowed the war-path, and their war-ery was heard westward to the Mississippi and southward to the great gulf. The New England nations, as well as the river tribes along the Hudson, whose warriors trembled at the name of Mohawk, all paid them tribute. The poor Montagnais on the far-off Saguenay would start from their midnight sleep and run terror-stricken from their wigwams into the forest when dreaming of the dreadful Iroquois. They were truly the conquerors of the New World, and were justly styled the " Romans of the West." "My pen," wrote the Jesuit Father Ragueneau, in 1650, in his Relations des Hurons,- " My pen has no ink black enough to describe the fury of the Iroquois."

They dwelt in palisaded villages upon the fertile banks of the lakes and streams that watered their conntry. Their villages were surrounded with rudely-cultivated fields, in which they raised an abundance of corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco. Their houses were built within the protect- ing circle of palisades, and, like all the tribes of the Iroquois family, were made long and narrow. They were not more than twelve or fifteen feet in width, but often exceeded a hundred and fifty feet in length. They were made of two parallel rows of poles stuck upright in the ground, suffi- ciently wide apart at the bottom to form the floor, and bent together at the top to form the roof, the whole being nicely covered with strips of peeled bark. At each end of the wigwam was a strip of bark, or a bear-skin, hung loosely for a door. Within they built their fires at intervals along the centre of the floor, the smoke passing out through openings in the top, which served as well to let in the

į After the defeat of King Philip, of Pocanokett, in 1675-76, a part of the Wampanoags and Narragansetts fled from their ancient hunting-grounds and settled at Schaghticoke, on the Hudson, and were afterwards known as the Schaghticoke Indians. See paper by John Fitch, in " Historical Magazine" for June, 1870.

# See Morgan's League of the Iroquois, and Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World.

t See Colden's Five Nations.

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

light. In every house were many fires and many families, every family having its own fire within the space allotted to it.

From this custom of having many fires and many fam- ilies strung through a long and narrow house comes the signification of their name for the league, " the people of the long house." They likened their confederacy of Five Nations, stretched along a narrow valley for more than two hundred miles through central New York, to one of their long wigwams. The Mohawks guarded the eastern door of this long house, while the Senecas kept watch at the western door. Between these doors of their country dwelt the Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cuyugas, each nation around its own fire, while the great central council fire was always kept brightly burning in the country of the Onondagas. Thus they were in fact, as well as in name, the people of the long house.

Below are given, in the order of their rank therein, the Indian names of the several nations of the league :*

Mohawks-Ga-ne-a-ga-o-no. " People possessors of the flint."

Onondagas-O-nun-do-ga-o-no. " People on the hills." Senecus-Nun-da-wat-o-no. " Great hill people."

Oncidas-O-na-yote-ka-o-no. " Granite people."

Cayugas-Gie-u-gweh-o-no. " People at the mucky land."

Tuscaroras-Dus-ga-o-wch-o-no. " Shirt-wearing peo- ple."

VII .- THEIR GOVERNMENT.

It may of a truth be said that this wild Indian league of the old savage wilderness, if it did not suggest, in many respects it formed the mode after which was fashioned our more perfect union of many States in one republic. The government of this "league of the Iroquois" was vested in a general council composed of fifty hereditary sacliens, but the order of succession was always in the female and never in the male line; that is to say, when a sachem died, his successor was chosen from his mother's descendants, and never from his own children. The new sachem must be either the brother of the old one, or a son of his sister; so in all cases the status of the children followed the mother, and never the father. Each nation was divided into eight clans or tribes, which bore the following names: Wolf, Deer, Bear, Snipe, Beaver, Heron, Turtle, and Hawk. The spirit of the animal or bird after which the clan was named, called its totem, was the guardian spirit of the clan, and every member used its figure in his signature as his device.

It was the rule among them that no two of the same clan could intermarry. If the husband belonged to the clan of the Wolf, the wife must belong to the clan of the Bear, the Deer, and so on, while the children belonged to the clan of the mother, and never to the father's clan. In this manner their relationship always interlocked, and the people of the whole league were forever joined in the closest ties of con- sanguinity.

The name of each sachem was permanent. It was the name of the office, and descended with it to each successor. When a sachem died, the people of the league selected the

most competent brave from among those of his family, who by right inherited the title, and the one so chosen was raised in solemn council to the high honor, and, dropping his own, received the name of the sachemship. There were two sachemships, however, that, after the death of the first sachems of the name, forever remained vacant.

These sachemships were Da-ga-no-we-da of the Onon- dugas and IIa-yo-went-ha (Ii-a-wat-ha) of the Mohawks. Da-ga-no-we-da was the founder of the league. His head was represented as covered with tangled serpents, and Iti-a- wat-ha, meaning " he who combs," straightened them out, and assisted in forming the league. In honor of their great services their sachemships were afterwards held vacant.

There was another class of chiefs, of inferior rank to the sachems, among whom were the war chiefs, whose title was not hereditary, but who were chosen on account of their bravery or personal prowess, their achievements on the war- path, or their cloquence in council. Among this latter were found the most renowned warriors and orators of the league, such as King Hendrick and Red Jacket, but they could never rise to the rank of sachem.

The whole body of sachems formed the council league. Their authority was entirely civil, and confined to the affairs of peace. But, after all, the power of the sachems and chiefs was advisory rather than mandatory. Every savage, to a great extent, followed the dictates of his own wild will, controlled only by the customs of his people, and a public sentiment that ran through their whole system of affairs, which was as inflexible as iron.

VIII .- THEIR FESTIVALS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

The Indian was a believer in spirits. Every object in nature was spiritualized by him, while over all things, in dim and shadowy majesty, ruled the one great spirit, the supreme object of his fear and adoration, whom he called Ha-wen-ne-ya. There was likewise an evil spirit, born at the same time as the great spirit, which he called Ha-ne- go-ate-ga, "the evil minded." There was also He-no, " the thunderer," and Ga-oh, " the spirit of the winds." Every mountain, lake, stream, tree, shrub, flower, stone, and foun- tain had its own spirit.

Among his objects of worship were the three sister spirits,-the spirit of corn, the spirit of beans, and the spirit of squashes. This triad was called De-oha-ko, t mean- ing " our life," "our supporters." Upon the festal days sacred to the three sisters they were represented by three beautiful maidens, each one gayly dressed in the leaves of the plant whose spirit she represented.

The Ho-de-no-sau-nee observed six great feasts every year. There was the new year's festival, or the " sacrifice of the white dog," which was celebrated with great pomp for seven days carly in February. Then, as soon as the snow began to melt, and the sap to flow from the maple- trees, and the sugar-boiling began in carnest, came the maple-feast.

The next great festival was the A-yent-wa-ta, or " plant- ing festival," which came on as soon as the leaves on the butternut-trees were as big as squirrels' ears, indicating the

# See Morgan's League of the Iroquois.

t See Morgan's League of the Iroquois.

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

time for planting eorn. The fourth feast was Ha-nan-da-yo, the " feast of strawberries," which came in the moon of roses. The fifth was Ah-dake-wa-o, the "feast of the green corn moon," and the last was the " harvest festival," observed at the gathering of the erops in autumn.

Dwelling forever among the wildest scenes of nature,- himself nature's own wildest child,-believing in an unseen world of spirits in perpetual play around him on every haud, his soul was filled with unutterable awe. The flight or ery of a bird, the humming of a bee, the erawling of au inseet, the turning of a leaf, the whisper of a breeze, were to him mystic signals of good or evil import, by which he was guided in the most important affairs of life.

The mysterious about him he did not attempt to unravel, but bowed submissively before it with what erude ideas he had of religion and worship. To his mind everything, whether animate or inanimate, in the whole domain of nature is immortal. In the happy hunting-grounds of the dead the shades of hunters will follow the shades of ani- mals with the shades of bows and arrows, among the shades of trees and rocks, in the shades of immortal forests, or glide in the shades of bark canoes over shadowy lakes and streams, and carry them around the shades of dashing waterfalls .*

In dreams he placed the most implicit confidence. They were to him revelations from the spirit world, guiding him to the places where his game lurked and to the haunts of his enemies. He invoked their aid upon all occasions. They taught him how to cure the siek, and revealed to him his guardian spirit, as well as all the secrets of his good or evil destiny.

IX .- THEIR SOCIAL LIFE.

The Iroquois were extremely social in their daily inter- course. When not engaged in their almost continual public feasting and dancing, they spent the most of their time in their neighbors' wigwams, playing games of chance, of which they were extremely fond, or in chatting, joking, and rudely bantering each other. On such oceasions their wittieisms and jokes were often more sharp than delicate, as they were " echoed by the shrill laugh of young squaws untaught to blush."}

In times of distress and danger they were always prompt to aid each other. Were a family without shelter, the men of the village at once built them a wigwam. When a young squaw was married, the older ones, each gathering a load of sticks in the forest, carried her wood enough for a year. In their intercourse with each other, as well as with strangers, their code of courtesy was esaet and rigid to the last degree.

But the Indian is still the untamed child of nature. " IIe will not," says Parkman, "learn the arts of civilization, and he and his forest must perish together. The stern, unchanging features of his mind exeite our admiration from their very immutability, and we look with deep interest on the fate of this irreclaimable son of the wilderness, the child who will not be weaned from the breast of his rugged mother. . . . The imprisoned lion in the showman's cage

differs not more widely from the lord of the desert than the beggarly frequenter of frontier garrisons and dram- shops differs from the proud denizen of the woods. It is in his native wilds alone that the Indian must be seen and studied."±

CHAPTER VI.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS, 1535-1609.

I .- JACQUES CARTIER.

THE long series of hostile invasions from the north which, during the two hundred and seventy years of the colonial period, so often wore bloody pathways over the rugged surface of the county of Saratoga, all came from the valley of the St. Lawrence. The history of the river St. Law- rence is, therefore, so intimately connected with the bistory of Saratoga, that some account of its early discovery and explorations by Europeans seems necessary to an intelligible understanding of the subjeet.

The great river St. Lawrence, whose old Indian name was flo-che-la-ga, and which serves to drain the larger part of the waters of northern New York into the ocean, was discovered and first explored by Jacques Cartier, who was an eminent mariner of St. Malo.

St. Malo is a quaint mediaval seaport town of the ancient province of Brittany, on the northern coast of Franee. The city is built on a huge rock that seems to rise like a wall out of the sea, it being separated from the mainland by a salt marsh, which is covered by the waters at high tide. In 1709 an earthquake turned it into an island. Many a superstition still flourishes among its simple people. Its quaint mediaval customs were carried into the New World by the old mariners, and onee started found an echo among the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, and along the mountain shores of Lake Champlain. Thus, too, in the wilds of the New World were introduced by these mariners the stories of the dwarfs and giants of the fairy mythology, which the Northmen of the tenth century brought from their aneient home when they invaded Brittany.

In the year 1535, Cartier was sent on a voyage to the New World by Francis 1., King of France, at the instigation of Philippe de Chabot, his grand admiral, in quest of gold and empire. The little fleet with which Cartier sailed con- sisted of three ships only, ranging from forty to one hundred and twenty tons burden. This fleet was under the command of Cartier, who was styled the " Captain and Pilot of the King." In his ship's company were several of the young nobility of France, among whom were Claudius de Ponte Briand, enp-bearer to the Lord Dauphin, Charles de Pome- rasces, John Powlet, and other gentlemen.

The daring but devout navigators of those days, before venturing upon their long and perilous voyages to the dreary, cheerless solitudes of an almost unknown and unex-

# See Charlevoix's Voyage to North America.

+ Francis Parkman.

# Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. i. p. 44. Consult, also, Schoolcraft's works, Clark's History of Onondaga, Heckewelder's History of Indian Nations, The Iroquois, by Anna C. Johnson, Documentary History of New York, Cusick's History of the Five Nations, Charlevoix's Letters to the Duchess de Lesdiguières, and Jesnit Relations of 1656-57 and 1659-60.

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

plored ocean, were accustomed to attend upon the solemn offices of religion, as if they were departing to

" The un discovered country, from whose bourno No traveler returns."

Therefore, just before setting sail on Whitsunday, this company of adventurers went in solemn procession to the cathedral church of the town, where each was absolved and received the sacrament. Then, all entering the choir of the church in a body, they were presented to the lord bishop and received his blessing.

They embarked from St. Malo on the 19th of May, and, after a stormy passage, arrived off the coast of Newfound- land on the 7th of July. On the 10th day of August, in that year, which day was the festival of Saint Lawrence, they discovered and entered the broad bay which forms the mouth of the great river, and named it in honor of the saint.

Proceeding on their voyage up the wild stream, they soon reached the dark gorge of the Saguenay, and arrived at the island of Orleans, which lies a short distance below the city of Quebec. On account of the abundance of wild grapes found upon this island, which hung in elusters from all the trees along its shores, Cartier named it the Isle of Bacchus. Continuing their voyage, they soon reached the narrows in the river opposite the rocky cliffs of Quebec. This strong- hold, on which is now situated the city of Quebec, was then occupied by a little cluster of Indian wigwams, and was called by the savages Stre-du-go-ne. The chief of this little Indian town, whose name was Don-na-co-na, met these strange mariners at the landing, and made a speech to them, and gave them bread and some wine pressed from the wild grapes that grew so abundantly upon the shores of the island and on the banks of the stream.

These Indians told Cartier that many days' journey up the river there was another Indian town, that gave its name to the river and to the country around it. Taking on board some Indian guides, the mariners proceeded up the river in quest of this wonderful city of the Great Forest State. In a few days the Indians led Cartier to the spot where now stands the beautiful city of Montreal, on the island now known as the Island of Montreal, and which, as has been stated in a previous chapter, lies at the head of the great northern valley on whose borders the county of Sara- toga is situated. Cartier found an old palisaded Indian town, containing many wigwams, built long and narrow after the fashion of the Iroquois. In this village at that time were more than a thousand savage inhabitants of Algonquin or Iroquois lineage. Cartier had discovered the famous Indian HIo-che-la-ga, which was the capital of the great forest State of the same name, that lay along on both sides of the St. Lawrence above the mouth of the Ottawa. Like Sta-da-co-ne, at rocky Quebec, this Indian town on the Island of Montreal was one of the centres of Indian population on the great river, Io-che-la-ga.

On the second day of October, Cartier landed at Ho-che- la-ga, amid the crimson and golden hues of the lovely Canadian autumn. So glorious, so fair, so wild, so savage a scene these wondering mariners of the old world had never seen before.

When these bearded white men, clad in glittering armor and gorgeous attire, landed at the Indian village Ho-che- la-ga, on the wild Island of Montreal, the half-nude savages crowded around them in speechless wonder, regarding them more as gods than men. They even brought their chief, whose name was Ag-ou-han-na, who " was full of palsy," says an old narrative, " and his members shrunk together," and who was clad in rich furs, and wore upon his head a wreath or crown of red feathers, and laid him upon a mat before the captain that he might give the limbs a healing touch,-such was their simple faith in the powers of the pale-faces, who for the first time stood before them. " Then did Ag-ou-han-na," continues the old chronicler, " take the wreath or crown he had about his head and gave it unto our captain. That done, they brought be- fore divers diseased men, some blind, some crippled, some lame, and impotent, and some so old that the hair of their eyelids came down and covered their cheeks, and laid them all along before our captain, to the end that they might of him be touched, for it seemed unto them that God was descended and come down to heal them."*

Then the Indians led Cartier and his followers to the top of the mountain at whose foot their villages nestled. Car- tier planted a large eross of cedar wood upon the summit of the mountain, and solemnly took possession of the great forest state of Ho-che-la-ga in the name of the French king, and then named the mountain on which he stood Mount Royal, from which comes the modern Montreal.

On the 5th of October, Cartier left the Ho-che-la-ga, and regaining his ships passed a long and gloomy winter in that part of the river St. Lawrence since called Lake St. Peters.

In the spring, Cartier returned to France. In 1541 he made another voyage to Io-che-la-ga. After his return to his native city of St. Malo, from this last voyage to the new world, the name of Cartier passes out of history. It is supposed that he lived in retirement and died at a good old age.

When Champlain, upon his first voyage to New France in 1603, sixty-eight years after Cartier's visit, landed upon the still wild and savage Island of Montreal, scarcely a vestage of IIo-che-la-ga, the ancient Indian metropolis on the great river, remained to be seen. All its savage glory had departed forever. Its race of Iroquois house-builders had been driven to their new hunting-grounds in the rich valleys of central New York. Champlain found the site of the village occupied only by a few families of a roving tribe of Algonquin lineage, who lived in some temporary huts built of the decaying remnants of the ancient village. Such was the fate of the old forest state of Ho-che-la-ga.

II .- SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN.

Samuel de Champlain, the discoverer of the beautiful lake of northern New York that bears his name, was the founder of New France and its first governor-general. No name in Canadian annals is more illustrious than his. He was born in Brouage Saintonge, about the year 1570, of a noble family. In his youth he served in the French navy, and was pensioned and attached to the person of King Henry IV., of France.

# Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. xii. p. 653.

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

In 1603, M. de Chastes, governor of Dieppe, obtained permission from the king to found a new settlement in North America. De Chiastes appointed Champlain as his substitute, and the king gave him the title of general-lieu- tenant of Canada. On the 15th of March, Champlain set sail for America in a ship commanded by Pont-Grave, an enterprising mariner of St. Malo, like Cartier.

They sailed up the St. Lawrence and up the river as far as Jacques Cartier had proceeded with his ships in 1535, and, after carefully examining its banks, returned to France, having effected nothing by way of settlement. Upon his returu, Champlain published his first book, entitled " Des Sauvages." In the mean time, De Chastes had died, and his concessions had been transferred to Sieur de Monts. De Monts was made vice-admiral and lieutenant-general of his majesty in that part of Acadia called Norumbega. Armed with these plenary powers, De Monts and Champlain sailed for Acadia, and attempted a settlement at Port Royal, but returned to France in 1607.

Champlain's third voyage to America was undertaken at the solicitation of De Monts in the year 1608. In this year he founded his colony of Quebec, iu the heart of the old savage wilderness, upon the site of the old Indian ham- let Sta-da-co-ne, found by Jacques Cartier seventy years before. In the beginning of the summer of the year 1609, months before Henry IIndson sailed up the North river, and eleven years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Champlain discovered the lake which still bears his name, and planted on its shores the eross and the lilies of France.

While at Quebec, during his hunting excursions with the Indians, they told him marvelous stories of a great inland sea, filled with wonderful islands, lying far to the southward of the St. Lawrence, in the land of the terrible Iroquois. His curiosity was excited, and as soon as the melting snows of the next spring would permit, he set out upon a voyage for its discovery.

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History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 4

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894 Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 780

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780