USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. I > Part 2
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The females were not permitted to approach the strangers ;
. The costumes which are given by De Bry, and may be seen in the National Library. at Washington, are those of the natives of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Mex- ICO. Copper was found by Verrazzano to be common among the savages he saw.
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A PEOPLE OF PEACE.
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but their features and forms, as far as they could be discerned, . were no less admirable in the eyes of the mariners. "Like the men, they were in part naked, and in part attired in highly orna- mented skins ; their hair was studiously decked with ornamental braids, which were left free to fall upon the breast." This des- cription corresponds with Guido's picture of " Venus adorned by the Graces." It may be remarked of the paintings by the old masters, and statues by the Grecian sculptors, that the hair of the females is either braided, or, if flowing, loose and dishevelled, it has the crisped appearance, or wavings, which is given by pre- vious confinement in braids.
The natives seen by Verrazzano more to. the south, wore head dresses of feathers. Many of the tribes to the south-west at this time decorate their heads with crowns of feathers, which are singularly graceful and eminently beautiful, imposing and be- coming, combined with their robes, decorations and arms. The embroidered and decorated robes prepared from the skins of the buffalo and mountain goat, which are brought from the yet free tribes of the west and south, correspond to the description of the dresses seen by Verrazzano, on the yet uncontaminated na- tives, both male and female, thronging the shores of New Jersey. Nor is the similarity of that careful attention which they paid to the long and flowing, or braided hair, less remarkable, as we see it in the paintings recently made by artists, who have visited the south western Indians.
Such, and so gentle, kind and hospitable were the natives of the seagirt islands we now inhabit, and the neighbouring banks of our continental shores, when first visited by Europeans in the sixteenth century. The description of the same people in the seventeenth century is somewhat different. Between the two periods the mar- tial Iroquois may have extended their conquests from the inland · seas to the banks of the Hudson and the shores of the Atlantic, and left the barbarous traits of deteriorating war upon the inhabi- tants. Even at the time of Verrazzano's visit, he found in his progress north and east, that the natives and their soil were more repulsive. Unfortunately, the description left by the navigator is not sufficiently minute or accurate, to leave no doubt with his rea- ders that the bay he visited was a part of New Netherland.
We gain little knowledge from the slight view Verrazzano gives us, of that which ought to be the object of history, men, manners, customs and opinions ; but the little he saw and has described, must impress us with the conviction that the inhabitants of the coast, whether of New Jersey, New York or elsewhere, in our neigh- bourhood, were an amiable people, and had made some progress in the arts, which tend to ameliorate the savage. The natives of our shores were not hostile to visiters ; they had some knowledge
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' THE IROQUOIS.
of agriculture ; were strangers to the debasing practices of war ; and to the preparations for defence against those whom war, or the thirst for dominion, had rendered barbarous ; but when Champlain penetrated into New York from the St. Lawrence, he found a people of warriors, fierce and cruel; somewhat advanced in policy, arts, and agriculture, but placing their delight in conquest and the extension of power. Such were the Iroquois. These warlike savages, known to the English by the appellation of the five nations, had, long before they encountered Champlain on the lake which bears his name, or on Lake George, and saw in him the forerunner of those who were destined to destroy them-i. c. Europeans- long before they knew the power or the art of the white man- formed a confederacy of five independent nations, and instituted a congress and federal government, which enabled them to attain a degree of perfection in policy and the arts, both of civilized life and warlike achievements, that had rendered them terrible to all the nations around them.
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After the transient glance which Verrazzano gives us of that part of the American coast he visited, we must look for our next information from Champlain and his countrymen, who penetrated the northern boundaries of what the Dutch subsequently claimed. Champlain mnet the Iroquois about the time that the Half-moon en- tered Hudson's river. It therefore becomes my duty to examine by what steps the French adventurers advanced from the Atlantic and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the beautiful lake now dividing the state of New York from her sister state of Vermont : a lovely sheet of water, which, after being the scene of hostile strife be- tween Indians with Indians, and Europeans with Europeans, for centuries, is now the peaceful and pleasurable pathway from the United States of America to the English provinces of Canada.
I cannot forbear to remark (before noticing the discovery and colonization of the Canadas,) upon the difference, not to say con- trast, between the conduct and success of the colonizers of Newt. York and New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Eng- land, on the one hand, and that of the French and Spaniards, , on the other, in South America, Mexico, Florida, Louisiana, Acadia, and Canada. Virginia forms, in some degree, an excep- tion to the prosperous commencements of the Dutch and English (or protestant) colonies. The whole subject is full of instruc- tion to the contemplative and philosophic mind.
We see the Dutch and the Swedes peaceably pursuing their commercial transactions, and purchasing soil from the natives on the Delaware, the Hudson, and the Connecticut rivers ; and ge- nerally with prudence cultivating the friendship of the savages, and guarding carefully against the effects of their passions ; or their apprehensions of the designs and power of the
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CANADA.
strangers. We see the Puritan exiles from their beloved home, pursuing a course of conscientious conduct towards the abori- gines, and when, in the natural course of events assailed by the natives (too late seeing that they must melt away in the presence of European power and civilization,) ready to repel force by force, and invariably holding their onward way to the establishment of a government, suited to their pre-conceived wishes and designs. We see the quakers in New Jersey laying the foundation of a re- public ; and P'enn creating an empire without strife, and proclaim- ing liberty, peace and good will, to the red man and the white.
But if we look to South America, Mexico, and Florida; or north to Acadia or Canada; we see only a succession of injustice, failures and disasters. Strife and bloodshed between Europeans -oppression, cruelty, and a war of extirpation against the natives in the south, and in the north a succession of abortive attempts at colonization, that seem one to be a copy from the other. The protestant and papistical mode of colonization stand in obvious contrast to each other. -
The vicinity of Canada to ourselves, and the frequent wars upon our frontiers, both before and after the French had gained a firm footing in that great country, make it necessary for the historian of New York to dwell upon the progress of adventure and coloni- zation under the French government, in connexion with the settle- ment and growth of this province and state, as well as of those of New Jersey and New England.
DISCOVERY OF CANADA.
150S
Claims have been made to the discovery of Newfound-
land, as early as the beginning of the eleventh century, and the voyages of the northimen to America appear now to be credited. In the year 150S and perhaps before, the French seut their fishing vessels to the Banks of Newfoundland. We have seen that Verrazzano in the employ of Francis of France, was on our coast in 1523. It is said that he was lost in a third voyage, when taking out a colony from France to the new world.
In 1534, Jaques Cartier, under the patronage of Philip - 1534 Chabot, admiral of France, coasted Newfoundland, and to the south entered the " Bay of the Spaniards," which he called " Baye des Chaleurs." He had passed the Gulf of St. Lawrence without noticing it. Already the Spaniards had given a name to the great country Cartier had passed by, and the ap- pellation bestowed upon it by them, has been adopted by the civilized world. The Spanish discoverers, disgusted with the appearance of the land forming the entrance of the gulf into
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THE ST. LAWRENCE
which the river St. Lawrence pours the waters of the inland weas of North America, exclaimed, as Charlevoix has it, "Aca nada," " Nothing there." or "Good for nothing ;" from which comes Canada. Thus "good for nothing" is the established appellation of a vast country, destined to become a great, inde- pendent, and flourishing empire.
Jacques Cartier returned home after a fruitless voyage ; and having received a more ample commission from the government, and the benediction of a bishop "dressed in his pontifical ha- bits," sailed on a second voyage, (1535) and found his way into the great Canadian Gulf on St. Lawrence's day ; to which cir- cumstance we owe the name, so sonorous, and now so familiar, which is attached to the bay and the river that for so many miles forms the boundary of the state of New York. This was seventy- , four years before Hudson entered our harbour, or Champlain the country of the Iroquois. The navigator sailed up the stream which he had called, for the first time, " St. Lawrence," as far as the island of Hochelaga, now Montreal. He named the place Mount Royal, after visiting the mountain or hill, which towers over the populous city and beautiful island, so famous in American history. Cartier passed the winter in this place, and at the Island of Orleans, The French were received with hospi- tality by the Indians, and the sailors communicated their vices and diseases to them in return. The commander suffered severely by the scurvy, and many of his followers died. Having lost most of his crew, he returned to France, after enticing away, and car- rying into a miserable captivity the chief who had received him as a friend and benefactor. This was a common return made by Europeans for the kindness of the natives of the American islands and continent.
In 1540 Francis the first commissioned M. de Roberval as his viceroy over Canada, Newfoundland, and all their depen- dencies, and the next year he sailed with Cartier as his pilot to take possession of his dominions. All Roberval accomplished was to build a fort at Cape Breton, which he victualled and gar- risoned. This done, the viceroy placed Cartier in the fort as commander, and returned home. The natives and owners of the soil, not being paid for the land occupied by the colonists, or even consulted in the disposition made by the French, gave after a time such indications of their displeasure, that Cartier, and the whole population embarked in a vessel left behind by Roberval, and were gladly leaving the country when they were met by the viceroy, with a reinforcement from France, and much to their chagrin were forced to return to the scene of their sufferings. After re-establishing the fort, the colony, and Cartier as command- ant, the king's lieutenant sailed to the St. Lawrence. Shortly after VOL. I. 3
18
FAILURES AND BARBARITIES.
the viceroy, the commandant, and such of the colony as survived, got back to France as they could, gladly abandoning the country.
During the reign of Henry the second of France, the 1555 enmity existing at home between the papists and protes- tants, was signalized by tragedies acted on the theatre of 1562 the new world. In 1562, Jean de Ribaut planted a colony. of French protestants in Florida. He returned to France -the colonists put their commander to death-and part of them found their way back after sufferings that made even religious persecution at home preferable to remaining. Several other at- tempts succeeded no better ; and one whole colony of protestants from France, were attacked by the papistical Spaniards, and all who were not put to the sword were hanged. The Spanish commander left the bodies suspended, affixing to a tree a placard with the words, " these men were not treated thus because they were French, but because they were heretics and enemies of God." The French government under the religious dominion of Rome, seemed to justify this act by not noticing it ; but an individual con- sidering it an affront put upon his nation, undertook to wipe off the stain. The Chevalier de Gourgues at his own expense fitted out an expedition to Florida, where the Spaniards had established themselves in the fort built by the French : he landed, attacked the Spaniards, and having carried the place sword in hand, hanged up the prisoners, and affixed to the place of execution " I do not this to Spaniards, but to traitors, robbers, and mur- derers."
To return to the North. Henry the fourth of France 1598 commissioned the Marquis de la Roche as his viceroy over Canada, and another attempt was made to colonize that country, with the same success. Forty men were left on the Isle de Sable, who died of starvation, except twelve, who after seven years suffering, were taken off and carried home.
1603
To La Roche succeeded Chauvin, and Pontgrave. The last brought with him from France a man who has left his name indelibly attached to part of the state of New York. He it was that first penetrated from the St. Law-
to
1609 rence, through the Sorel, to Lake Champlain. That beau- tiful lake, with its neighbour, which has lost its appellation of " Sacrament," and retained the English name of Lake George, were considered by the French as parts of Canada; as was all that country now belonging to New York and Pennsylvania, north- ward and westward of a line drawn from the south of Lake Champlain to the east of Pittsburg. And Colden, in his History of the five nations, says as late as 174S, that the Iroquois were inhabitants of Canada, though dependent on the government of New York ; and we all know that their country lay to the south of
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M. CHAMPLAIN.
St. Lawrence, of the Lakes Ontario and Erie, and even of Champlain and George.
It was in 1603 that M. Pontgrave sailed from France, and M. Champlain accompanying him on the voyage, they ascended the St. Lawrence together as high as Montreal ; but the voyage seems to have been without effect. The next year, M. de Monts, although a calvinist, was commissioned by the king to colonize Canada, with permission to exercise his religion, he engaging to settle the coun- try, and establish the Roman Catholic faith among the natives. Several merchants of Rochelle joined in this adventure, as if an- ticipating the necessity of a place of refuge in America. The armament, of four ships, was under the command of Messrs. de . Monts and Pontgrave, who were accompanied by Champlain and Biencourt ; the latter of whom became the lieutenant of De Monts ; who, leaving a colony at Port Royal, returned to France, where, probably in consequence of his religion, he was deprived of his commission. Biencourt sailed to France for suc- cour for his colonists, and just returned in time to prevent their abandoning Port Royal.
Champlain, meantime, had chosen Quebec for his place of re- sidence with some followers, and in 1608 constructed a few huts on that commanding spot, now so celebrated. The trees were cut down and land prepared for cultivation. Leaving things in this state, he returned to France, and joining with De Monts and Pontgravé, they arrived again in the St. Lawrence in 1609, about the time that Henry Hudson explored the river which bears his name. The object of Pontgrave was to trade at Tadoussac, a place nearer the ocean, while Champlain carried succours to his colony at Quebec, who were thriving and on friendly terms with the Algonkins their neighbours. These people supplied the wants of the colonists, and in return were desirous of their assistance against the Iroquois, the five confederated nations, who by their union and prowess were the conquerors of a great extent of coun- try, and the terror of the surrounding nations. Champlain wish- ing to ingratiate himself with the Algonkins, and desirous of explo- ring the country south and west, in an evil hour for France agreed to accompany them on a hostile expedition against their redoubted enemies. Accompanied by a few Frenchmen, armed with match- locks, Champlain embarked with the Algonkins, and proceeding up the St. Lawrence and through the Sorel, entered the beautiful lake to which he gave his name, previously known as the Lake Iroquois. They proceeded south, and at the meeting of the waters, Ticonderoga, passed into Lake George, to which the French lead- er gave the appellation of St. Sacrament, from the pellucid clear- ness of the water, which he thought well suited to the holy offices
20
INDIANS OF NEW NETHERLAND.
of his religion. They were now in the country of the Iroquois, and approaching the castle of the Mohawks.
A war party of the confederated Iroquois were navigating this Jake on their way to the St. Lawrence, and the two armaments of ca- noes soon met. 'The hostile parties landed and prepared for battle ; the warriors of the Iroquois with shouts pressed on to certain victory, for who could stand before them ? But to their astonish- ment they saw the enemy advance with confidence-heard strange thunders-beheld the fire and smoke that issued from the ranks of the Algonkins, while the fatal bolts inflicted wounds and death, although the enemy was yet out of reach of the tomahawk or arrow. The Iroquois were astonished and fled. . This was the first time that fire-arms had been seen or heard, the first time their power had been felt by the Iroquois. The Algonkins retraced their way to the St. Lawrence with some captives, and Cham- , plain saw the mode in which his allies treated their enemies when prisoners. The scalps of the slain were exposed to their families, and the savage triumph of torture and cannibalism was for the first time witnessed by the French.
M. Champlain soon after returned to France, but left a feeling of hostility towards his nation which was never cradicated from the breasts of the Iroquois. The Dutch of New Netherland soon after taught them the use of fire-arms, and supplied them with the means of mischief; and when the colony was subjected to England, the five confederated nations were always the allies and the bulwark of New York against the French.
INDIANS OF NEW NETHERLAND WHEN FIRST KNOWN TO EUROPEANS.
It may appear necessary that a history of the New Netherlands or of New York, should commence with all that is known of the inhabitants found within its present, or former boundaries when discovered by Europeans. The natives were called Indians by the first discoverers, because when seeking a new passage to the East Indies, they found a new world, which they thought was part of the old world they sought, and the appellation has been continued to this day. Where these Indians came from has been a question occupying the minds of many men and the pages of many books, and it is as far from being decided now as when first started. No longer considered as aborigines, authors have brought them from various parts of the eastern hemisphere : they have been pronounced Tartars, Hindoos, Japanese, Philistines and Jews; but most agree that before their arrival, whether over the Pacific Ocean
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21
INDIAN LANGUAGE.
or by the way of Behrings Straits, another and a more civilized people occupied America. Indications are supposed to exist of such a people even in the western parts of New York, still more in Ohio and the valley of the Mississippi. We look with admi- ration at the wonders disclosed by the discovery of Palenque and other ruins in Mexico ; and our attention is drawn to the · anti- quities of more southern nations ; but my researches must be bound- ed as much as possible at this time, within lines drawn from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Delaware bay, on the Atlantic, to a moderate distance westward towards the Pacific Ocean, keeping (as much as possible) east of the Rocky Mountains. Indeed we shall find that the Algonkins, Delawares and Iroquois will occupy most of our attention.
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Mr. Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia, written in 1781, and pub- lished six years after, says, that the best proof of the affinity of nations is their language. Mr. Gallatin has recently, 1836, pub- lished a luminous essay on this subject, comprehending in his re- searches the American tribes, as known in the year 1492, as well as at the time of his writing ; nations spread from Patagonia to the Arctic sea, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. I know no better guide than this learned and sagacious author and statesman.
Although the language of the Indians of America is from one root, the branches appear to have no affinity, if we may believe travellers and agents who have been years among this people, and have at- tended to the subject. They have found that the attainment of the language of one nation is useless in the attempt at intercourse with another. Adair, and many who have wished to find the lost ten tribes of Israel in America, think that they have heard the word jehovah made use of by the Indians in their addresses to the Great Spirit. Other travellers have sought for it in vain. The nearest resemblance they could find, was that during the songs and dances of most of the western tribes, they uttered a sound or yell, in which was a continued repetition of " yeh, yah, yeh, yalı," ending in a shrill, short, yelping shout.
The North American Review, (No. 64) gives from the Chip- pewa dialect, a branch of the Algonkin, the words "jah," and " atta," as " indicating respectively 'to be' an animate and inani- mate nature." And these words are said to " run like two prin- cipal arteries, through the whole language." Jah is said to be part of the name of the supreme Being, and when used in the sacred or mystic songs of the Indians, " excites a strong feeling of fear and dread." The " yalı" above mentioned, as given by travellers, I take to be the same word, or sound, as is used in all their songs, and commonly accompanied by their dances. At the same
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DIVISIONS OF INDIANS.
time, it is said that the words used in their songs are not generally understood by those who repeat them.
The reviewers say, that " Monedo," which is frequently written Manito, is " the modern name for the supreme Being, or Great Spirit," and is " a personal form of the verb 'to take,' derived from the supposed abstraction of the food placed as an offering, to the supreme Spirit upon the rude altar-stone." Yah, is one of the Hebrew titles of Jehovah. They further say that when the Indians endeavour to recollect the name of a person, or of a for- gotten circumstance, they repeat the words "jah, jah," meaning " It is-it is." "They give examples of the use of "jah," thus, "jah-e-men." "He is there," "Monedo-jah.". " He is a spirit."
But to return to our history of the Indians within the bounds of New Netherland, and those immediately connected with them either by relationship, or friendship, or war, (much the most fertile source of intimacy or interchange of communion ;) these were the five great divisions or families, first, the Algonkins ; under which name we may include the Chippewas, (or according to modern or- thography, Ojibbawas,) the Ottowas, Knistanaux, Pottawattamies, and Mississagues. Second, The Iroquois, under which appellation I include the five great confederate nations of Senccas, Cayugas, Onandagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks,* (called likewise Manguas, Mingues, and Mingoes,) with, when called the six nations, the Tus- caroras. There were other nations of Iroquois origin, but they
were enemies of the confederates.
Thirdly, The Delawares ; including the Minsies, Nanticoks, Susquehannocks, Conoys and Pamlicoes. Fourthly, The Mohicans ; including probably the Pequods, certainly the Manhattans, Montauks and other Long Island tribes, with the River Indians under various names .; and fifthiy, the New England Indians, such as perhaps the Pequods, certainly the Narragansets, Wampanoags, Massachusetts, Paw- tuckets and some others.
The Delawares first received Verrazzano and his French crew, . as they did afterwards the Dutch under Henry Hudson, on the shores of New Jersey and within Sandy Hook. The Manhattan- Mohicans, were the second people who had intercourse with the crew of the Half-moon: and soon after the river Indians were as- tonished at the sight of the monster of the great deep, the float- ing Wigwam, bearing white-skinned manitoes. Before this visit from Europeans, the Mohicans and river Indians had been ren-
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