History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 10

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844

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Rondouť

The name of the Minnisinck tribe was derived from the island, or " Minnis," in the upper waters of the Delaware, where the self-denying missionary Brainerd afterward en- dured so many trials. Their wigwams, with those of the other clans of Esopus Indians, extended over the area of the present counties of Ulster and Greene, along the banks of the river, and through the valley of the Catskill,§ to Coxackie, or Kuxakee. This word, in their dialect, sig- nified " the place of the cut banks," where the current, deflected against the western shore, had gradually worn away the land. Beyond the Minnisincks and Esopus In- dians, the west side of the river, near Castle Island, was

however (p. 108), seems to derive their name from their position to the south, or "Shaw- anong" of the Catskills.

* Visscher's and Van der Donck's Maps.

t Schoolcraft, 108.

# Hol. Doc., xi., 86 ; see Appendix, note H.

§ This kill or creek, and the majestic mountain chain inland, were so named from the catamount or panther, which formerly abounded, and is now frequently found, in this wild and picturesque region .- Schoolcraft, 109, 110

THE MOHAWKS AND MAHICANS.

inhabited by the fierce Maquaas, or Mohawks, whose hunt- CHAP. III. ing-grounds extended northward to the " Lake of the Ir- 1616.

oquois," or Lake Champlain, westward through the val- The Mo- ley of the Mohawk, and southward to the sources of the hawks. Susquehanna.

Above the Wappingers, on the east side of the river, the lodges of the Mahicans, or Mohegans, extended northward The Maht- and eastward from Roelof Jansen's Kill, and occupied the cans. whole area of the present counties of Columbia and Rens- selaer. The ancient seat of their council-fire was near Schodac ; and opposite to the present city of Albany, they had early fortified a village against the dreaded attacks of their hereditary enemies, the Mohawks .* Beyond the Mahicans dwelt the tribe of Horikans, whose hunting- The Horl- grounds appear to have extended from the waters of the kans. Connecticut, across the Green Mountains, to the borders of that beautiful lake which might now well bear their sonorous name.t

From the time that Hudson first passed the Mahican The Dutch villages at Schodac and Castleton, and Block visited the terms with on friendly upper waters of the Connecticut, a friendly intercourse had dians. the In- been maintained between the Dutch and the native tribes on the east side of the North River. With the fierce Mo- hawks on the west side, upon whose territory they had built Fort Nassau, they were careful to keep on the best terms; and from them the Dutch learned that the Canadian French were in the habit of coming in boats from Quebec, to trade in the upper part of their territories, adjoining the Lake of the Iroquois, or Lake Champlain.# But the inland tribes, toward the south and west, had as yet been unvisited by Europeans ; though Champlain had just carried death and

* Wassenaar, xii., 38 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 43.

t De Laet, viii., ante, p. 56 ; Visscher's Map ; Van der Donck's Map ; Map in Montanus. This charming lake-the Como of America-and which the French, in 1646, first called "Saint Sacrement," because they visited it on the festival of Corpus Christi, was named Dy General (afterward Sir William) Johnson, in September, 1755, " LAKE GEORGE, not on'y in honor of his majesty, but to ascertain his undoubted dominim here." -London Documents, xxxii., 169. The reasons which, in 1755, prompted the British general to give a new name to the lake, should certainly not prevail at the present day ; nor should they prevent the revival of the aboriginal term suggested by our own Cooper, " HORIKAN."

# De Laet, ix. ; Parchment Mar. See also note G, Appendix.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. III. the terror of the French arms to the Iroquois castle at Onondaga ..

1616.

Exploring party from Fort Nas- sau.

Anxious to explore the unknown regions, of which only a vague idea had been gathered from the imperfect expla- nations of the Mohawks, three traders in the service of the New Netherland Company seem to have adventurously set out from Fort Nassau, on an expedition "into the interior, and downward, along the New River, to the Ogehage," or the Minquas, "the enemies of the northern tribes."* The route of the party is not accurately defined; but they, per- haps, followed the trail of the Esopus Indians to the sources of the Delaware, the waters of which they descended to the Schuylkill. At this point of their progress, they ap- pear to have been taken prisoners by the Minquas ; and the news reaching the Dutch on the Mauritius River, ar- rangements were promptly made to ransom the captives, as well as undertake a more thorough examination of the country where they were detained.

The yacht Restless Delaware. Accordingly, the yacht " Restless," which Block, on his explores the return to Holland, had left in charge of Cornelis Hendrick- sen, was dispatched from Manhattan southward, along the coast of New Jersey, to explore the "New River" from its mouth to its upper waters. The voyage was entirely successful. Sailing into the bay which Hudson had first discovered seven years before, Hendricksen explored the adjoining coasts, and discovered " three rivers, situated be- tween the thirty-eighth and fortieth degrees of latitude."+ The fertile land was full of majestic forest trees, " which in some places were covered with grape-vines ;" and tur- keys, partridges, harts, and hinds abounded along the pleas- ant shores. The climate of the country, which was "the same as that of Holland," delighted the crew of the Rest- less, as they trafficked with the natives for seal-skins and sables. Proceeding up the channel of the main river, be- yond the confluence of the Schuylkill, Hendricksen opened

* Hol. Doc., i., 59 ; Paper Map. See Appendix, note I.

t These " three rivers" were probably the Delaware itself, the Schuylkill, and perhaps the Hoarkill, or Broadkill Creek, in the State of Delaware, upon which Lewiston now stands.

HENDRICKSEN EXPLORES THE SOUTH RIVER.

a friendly intercourse with the Minquas who inhabited its CHAP. III. banks ; and ransomed from these savages his three eap- tive countrymen, giving in exchange for them " kettles, 1616. beads, and other merchandise."*

To Cornelis Hendricksen unquestionably belongs the Hendrick- honor of having been the first to explore the bay and river explorer of sen the first which now unjustly bear the name of Lord Delawarr. The ware. the Dela- light draught of the Restless enabled her to penetrate very easily where Hudson did not venture to pilot the Half Moon, and where Argall made no explorations.t Hendricksen seems to have coasted up along the western shore of the bay, and to have been the first European navigator who set his foot on the soil of Delaware and Pennsylvania. He probably ransomed the Dutch eaptives near the very spot where Philadelphia was founded, just sixty-six years aft- 1682. erward.# The river above now received the name of the "New," or "South River," to distinguish it from the Mau- South Riv- ritius, which soon became better known as the North Riv-er cr. Before long, the southern cape of the bay was named " Cape Cornelius," after its "first discoverer ;" and anoth- Cape Cor- er point, about twelve miles to the southward, was called nelius. Cape Hinlopen, probably after Thymen Jacobsen Hinlo- Cape Hin- pen, of Amsterdam, and also Cape Inloopen, because it lopen. seemed to vanish on being approached.§

On the return of the Restless to Manhattan, Hendrick- Hendrick- sen proeceded to Holland, to assist his employers in ob- to Holland. sen returns taining a separate exelusive charter to trade to the newly- explored territory, which extended two degrees south of the limits assigned to New Netherland in the grant of Oc- tober, 1614. The associated merchants dispatched him immediately to the Hague, accompanied by an Amster- dam notary, to report his discoveries to the States General, and procure for them the desired special trading privilege. Taking with him a manuscript map, he explained, orally. 18 August.

* Hol. Doc., i., 59. t See ante, pages 27 and 51, and Appendix, note D.

# Samuel Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, 579, 594.

4 De Laet, book iii., cap. ix. ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 303, 315; Wassenaar, ix., 124 ; ante, p. 59 ; see also Visscher's and Montanus's Maps. The name of Hinlopen seems to have been first applied to False Cape, just south of Rehoboth Bay ; but it has since been transferred to the original Cape Cornelius. See Des Barre's chart ; Breviat, 56, 91, 98.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. III. to their High Mightinesses the situation and nature of the

1616. newly-explored regions. The States General, however, requiring a formal report in writing, Hendricksen submit- 9 August. ted, the next day, a short statement of his proceedings on the South River, and asked, on behalf of his employers, a special charter for trading there .*

New char- ter for the South Ri er refused.

But the Dutch government hesitated to comply with the application of the Amsterdam merchants for new special privileges. Their original trading charter of October, 1614, which specifically defined New Netherland as ".situated between New France and Virginia," had yet a year and a half to run. The grantees of that charter now desired a similar monopoly for the territory between the thirty-eighth and fortieth degrees. But this region seemed to be with- in the acknowledged limits of Virginia, according to the boundaries which, the States General had themselves as- signed to New Netherland. If, under these circumstances, they were now to pass the new special charter for which their subjects had applied, it might give rise to difficulties with James, which. in the present condition of public af- fairs, would be extremely embarrassing. The States Gen- eral, accordingly, after two more deliberations upon the subject, softened their adverse decision by adopting the mild form of an indefinite postponement.t

3 Nov

The Amsterdam " Directors of New Netherland," find- ing that the States General were unwilling to counten- ance their project of seeming encroachment upon Virginia, now confined their attention more particularly to the re- gions drained by the North River. Fort Nassau, which Christiaensen had originally built on Castle Island in 1614, having been several times overflowed by the waters from the upper country, was almost swept away by a freshet

Fort Nas- zau de- stroyed.

* IFol. Dor., i., 53, 59. See also Appendix, note I.

+ Hol. Doc., i., 63, 64. The year 1616 will ever be memorable in the annals of the world, as that in which William Cornelis Schouten, a merchant of Hoorn, in North Hol- land, first sailed around the southern promontory of America, which, in honor of his na- tive city, he named " Cape Hoorn." Before Schouten's voyage, the only known passage to the Pacific was through the Straits of Magellan. Sellouten also discovered the Straits of Le Maire, which he so called after .Jacob le Maire, of Amsterdamn, one of his partners. Staten Land was thus named, in honor of the States of Holland. Few, probably, of those who nowadays talk of " the Horn," know the origin of the name

THE ROMANS OF THE WESTERN WORLD.

on the breaking up of the iee, in the spring of 1617 .* The CHAP. III. company's traders were, therefore, obliged to abandon it, and seek a more secure position on the west bank of the 1617. river, at the mouth of the " Tawasentha," or Norman's Kill.t The new situation was well chosen. The portage path of the Mohawks, coming from the west, terminated about two miles above, at Skanektadé, " beyond the pine plains," or " beyond the openings," on the North River- the site of the present eity of Albany.# It was important to keep the trading-house of the company as near as pos- sible to the eastern termination of this great Indian thor- oughfare ; and, on the commanding eminence which the Mohawks called Tawass-gunshee, overlooking the river at New post the mouth of the Tawasentha, a new fortified post was wasentha. on the Ta- erected by Eelkens. Here, tradition alleges, was soon aft- erward concluded, with the chiefs of the Five Confederated Nations of North American Indians, the first formal treaty of alliance between the red man and the Hollander ; and which, after its renewal by Kieft in 1645, was observed with general respect, until the surrender of Fort Orange to the English. A new league of friendship was then en- 1664. tered into between Colonel Cartwright and the sachems of 24 Sept. the Iroquois, which continued without violation on either side until the commencement of the Revolutionary war.§

At the time of the treaty of the Tawasentha, the fairest regions of North America were inhabited by " the Romans of the Western World."Il Around the elevated table-lands

. Wassenaar, vi., 144. Stuyvesant, in writing to the General Court of Massachusetts on 20th April, 1660, says that from the small fort which the Dutch originally built there, " an island near Fort Orange yet bears the name of Castle Island, and the monuments of which can yet be shown ; which small fort was three years afterward seriously injured by high water and ice, so that at length it decayed entirely."-Alb. Rec., xxiv., 167.

t Moulton, 346. The original and beautifully-expressive Mohawk name of this stream was " Tawasentha," meaning the place of the many dead. It was an ancient Mohawk village, and the burial-place of many of the tribe .- Schoolcraft and G. F. Yates. The Dutch appellative of the "Norman's Kill" is said to have been derived fromn Andries Bradt, a native of Denmark, and therefore surnamed " the Norman," who settled himself there in 1630 .- O'Call., i., 78, 433, 434.

* Schoolcraft, in Proc. N. Y. H. S., 1544, p. 91, 111 ; L. H. Morgan's " League of the Iro- quois," 415.

4 Colden, i., 34 ; De Witt Clinton's Address, in N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 62 ; Smith's Hist. N. Y., i., 33 ; Moulton, 346 ; Schoolcraft, 91 ; O'Call., i., 78 ; Lond. Doc., i., 188 ; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 67, 68 ; post, p. 744.

I Volney, 476 ; Clinton, 44.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. III. whence flow waters which discharge themselves through 1617. the Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and the Saint Lawrence into the Atlantic, and through the Alleghany, the Ohio, and the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, were then clustered five nations of warlike savages, whose forefathers, expelled from Canada by the Adirondacs, in early days, had penetrated into the centre of New York. There they multiplied ; were subdivided into tribes or na- tions ; and then formed themselves into a Federal Repub- The Iro- quois con- lic of independent cantons. Of the precise period of this federation. confederation history has no record. But modern research into conflicting tradition places the event about the year 1539 ; forty-seven years after Columbus's first voyage ; four years after Cartier ascended the Saint Lawrence to Hochelaga ; and seventy years before Hudson discovered the North River .*

The Iroquois, or Five Nations, preserving their several 'specific names of Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, when they formed their confederation, took the name of "KONOSHIONI,"t the "cabin makers," or " peo- ple of the long house." That long house reached from the banks of the North River to the shores of Lake Erie. The eastern door of the sky-canopied abode of the Iroquois was guarded by the Kayingehagas, or Maquaas or Mo- hawks ;# the western door by the Senecas. Poetical tra- dition, recorded by one of their own people,s deduces their origin, like that of the Athenian " Autochthones," from the "earth itself." In remote ages, they had been confined

Traditiona origin of the Iro- quois.

* Smith's Hist. N. Y., i., 64 ; Schoolcraft's Notes on the Iroquois, 118; Clark's Onon- daga, i., 20 ; L. H. Morgan's "League of the Iroquois," 5-8. G. F. Yates thinks that the period of the Iroquois confederacy was still more remote.

t Clinton's Address ; Schoolcraft's Notes. The common French orthography of this term is " Aquinoshioni," or Agonnonsionni, which, according to Charlevoix, i., 271, sig- nified Faiseurs de Cabannes ; see ante, p. 67, note. In their own language, the Five Na- tions also called themselves "Hotinnonchiendi"-that is, La Cabanne Achevée ; Relation, 1653-4, p. 54. Morgan, p. 51, however, says that the Iroquois, after their league, called themselves " Ho-de-no-sau-nee," which signifies " the people of the long house."

# " We commonly call them Maquaas, but they call themselves Kayingehaga." Letter of Domine Megapolensis to the Classis of Amsterdam, 28th September, 1658 ; Moulton, 338. Morgan, p. 52, writes the word " Ga-ne-ga-ha-ga," meaning "the possessor of the flint." According to M. de Joncaire, the device of the Mohawks, in 1736, was a steel and fint. Paris Doc., viii., 187 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., i., 22; Ibid., iii., 902, where the name is given as Ganingehage. ¿ Cusick.

THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERATION.

under a mountain, near the falls of the " Osh-wah-kee," CHAP. III. or Oswego River, whence they were released by THARON- HYJAGON, " the Holder of the Heavens." Bidding them go 1617. forth toward the east, he guided them to the valley of the Mohawk. Following its stream, they reached the Caho- hatatea, or North River, which some of them descended to the sea. Thence, retracing their path, toward the west, they originated, as they passed along, the tribes of Mo- hawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tus-

caroras .* But the Tuscaroras, wandering to the south, crossed the Alleghanies, and fixed their home on the banks of the Cautano, or Neuse River, in North Carolina ; where Tharonhyjagon, leaving them to hunt and prosper, re- turned northward, to direct the confederation of the re- maining Five Nations.t Such is one of the bold fables by which the traditions of the Konoshioni assert their aboriginal existence.

The several tribes or cantons were independent. AS The sever- al nations

they grew in numbers and in valor, they began to quarrel independ- among themselves; and, living in perpetual fear, they ent. built fortresses for defense, or else continually shifted their villages. Finding that they were gradually wasting away, the wise men of the Onondagas proposed that the kindred tribes should no longer war against each other, but should unite in a common league for offense and defense against all other nations. The advice was adopted, and each Iro- quois tribe or canton deputed representatives to a general council. By these plenipotentiaries the Confederation of the Five Nations was organized on the shores of the On- ondaga Lake, where the great central council-fire was originally kindled, and for centuries permanently remain- ed. When the league was formed, Atotarho, the dreaded

* In the Seneca dialect, the name of the Tuscaroras was Dusgaoweh-ono, "the shirt- wearing people ;" that of the Senecas, Nundawa-ono, or " the great hill people ;" that of the Cayugas, Gucugwch-ono, or " the people at the mucky land ;" that of the Onondagas, Onundaga-ono, or " people on the hills ;" and that of the Oneldas, Onayoteka-ono, or " the people of the granite stone."-Morgan, 51, 52. The name of the Mohawks has already been considered.

t Megapolensis, in Hazard, i., 525 ; Schoolcraft's Notes, 69-105 ; Clark's Onondaga, i., 21-30, 37-43 ; Morgan, 7.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. III. chief of the Onondagas, was anxiously sought by the Mo- 1617. hawk embassy, which was specially deputed for the pur- pose. Atotarho was found sitting in a swamp, calmly smoking a pipe, and rendered invulnerable by living ser- pents which hissed around his body. Approaching the chief in awe, the embassy invested him with a broad belt of wampum, and solemnly placed him at the head of their league. The dignity which popular veneration thus spon- taneously conferred on their great sachem always remain- ed in the Onondaga tribe ; and the name of " ATOTARHO," after his death, became the distinctive hereditary title of the most illustrious chief of the Iroquois Confederation .*

Atotarho.

Character and powers of the gra council.

The Confederation of the Five Iroquois Nations was sim- ply a league for common defense, not a perfect political union.t The general council of sachems, elected accord- ing to the laws of each nation, exercised only a delegated power, and expressed only the popular will of their con- stituents. What these senatorial sachems in the grand council deliberately pronounced to be proper, the venera- tion of the constituent cantons supported and maintained. Thus, besides the union of the Netherland Provinces, the league of the Iroquois nations was early set before the American colonies as an example for their consideration.

Govern- ment of the tions. Each nation or canton was a sovereign republic, divided several na- into clans ; and each continued, notwithstanding the con- federation, to be governed by its own political chiefs or sachems. The original clans, or families, into which each tribe was subdivided, were eight in number, and were dis- tinguished from each other by different and peculiar de- vices or " Totems." The most important of these were the Tortoise, the Bear, and the Wolf. These totems, or family symbols, denoting original consanguinity, were

* Schoolcraft, 91 ; Morgan, 67, 68, calls him " To-do-da-ho."

t " The term ' Five Nations,' used by Colden, and in popular use during the earlier pe- riod of the colony, ceased to be appropriate after the Tuscarora revolt in North Carolina, and the reunion of this tribe with the parent stock subsequent to 1712. From that period they were called the 'Six Nations,' and continued to acquire increased reputation as a confed- eracy under this name, until the termination of the American Revolution in 1783, and the flight of the Mohawks and Cayugas to Canada."-Schoolcraft, 46 ; Morgan, 24, 44; Ban- croft, iii., 245, 321, 322.

GOVERNMENT OF THE IROQUOIS.

universally respected. The wandering savage appealed CHAP. III. to his totem, and was entitled to the hospitality of the wigwam which bore the corresponding cmblem. The old- 1617. est, most sensible, best-speaking, and most warlike men of the tribe were generally chosen to be its chiefs or sa- Sachems. chems. "These commonly resolve, and the young and warlike men carry into execution ; but if the common people do not approve of the resolution, it is left entirely to the judgment of the mob. The chiefs are generally the poorest among them ; for instead of their receiving from the common people, as among Christians, they arc obliged to give to them." The war chiefs derived their authority from their approved courage. Military service Military was demanded only by custom and opinion. But the service. penalty of a coward's name kept the ranks of the Iroquois war-parties always full. All able-bodied males above the age of fourteen were judged capable of taking the field ; and no title was more honorable than that of warrior. To join in the war-dance was to enlist for an expedition. Each warrior furnished his own arms and provisions, and no cumbersome baggage impeded the rapid march of an Iroquois army .*

Oratory distinguished the Five Nations as much as Eloquence bravery and political wisdom. In all democracies, elo- Iroquois. quence is one of the surest roads to popular favor and pub- lic honors. Among the Iroquois, oratory was as sedulous- ly cultivated as at Athens or Rome. Their children were taken to the council-fires, where they listened to the words of the wise men as they talked of peace and war. The sublime scenery in which they lived constantly suggested rieh images ; and while the criticism of their sages re- strained the luxurianee of youthful rhetoric to the stand- ard of approved taste, their eloquence became a model which other Indian nations were proud to imitate. Thus peculiar and extraordinary by great attainments in gov- ernment, in negotiation, in oratory, and in war, "the su-

* Paris Doc., i., 152 ; Megapolensis, in Hazard, i., 525, 526 ; Schoolcraft, 128, 130; Mor- gan, 62-103 ; Clark, i., 31-34.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. III. perior qualities of the Iroquois may be ascribed as well to 1617. the superiority of their origin, as to the advantages of po- sition, the maxims of policy, and the principles of educa- tion which distinguished them from the other red inhab- itants of this Western World."*

The Mo- hawks pre- eminent.

Of all the confederated nations, the. Mohawks were the bravest and the fiercest. No hunter warriors on the North American continent ever filled a higher measure of hero- ism and military renown. Their very name was a syno- nym for blood.t From their propinquity to the Dutch set- tlements, and their superior martial exploits, the name of this nation was frequently applied, by way of eminence, to the whole Iroquois confederation ; among all the nations of which the Mohawks were held in the highest venera- tion. Standing at the eastern door of the "Long House," the Mohawk warriors were the chief agents in carrying to the sea the conquests of the Iroquois. Far across the hills of Massachusetts, and through the valley of the Con- necticut, the dreaded name of Mohawk enforced an abso- lute submission ; and their annual envoys collected tribute and dictated laws with all the arbitrary authority of Ro- man proconsuls. From their ancient fortresses, war par- ties of the Iroquois continually went forth to victory ; and the tribes on both banks of the North River quailed before

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History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 10

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n Publication date: 1871 Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers Number of Pages: 844

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844