USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Settlement in the West : sketches of Rochester with incidental notices of western New-York > Part 41
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When the subject is viewed in this interesting light, we think we may be pardoned for the space devoted to consid- erations on the former occupants and the existing antiquities of Western New-York. Well might the American Quar- terly Review exclaim (in 1828) with reference to such re- searches-" There is a strange and mysterious interest awakened whenever we inquire into the history of bygone ages. Darkness and doubt enveloping their annals, serve only to render our curiosity muro intense ; and we eagerly catch at the most insignificant monuments or remains of peo- ple that have passed from the face of the earth, in the hopes of being by them enabled to pierce the opaque medium which obscures their annals. As the interval of time that separates our epoch from theirs increases, so also increases the ardour of inquiry ; and thus we find ourselves more and more powerfully attracted, as we proceed step by step to consider the mouldering tombs of the fathers of our own na- tion ; the remains of rude art and of savage tribes that pre- ceded them in their occupation of this country ; the mounds, the pyramids, and other traces of a more civilized race of yet earlier date ; and the more perfect relics of the power, the arts, and, we may almost venture to say, the science of the Aztecs."
But we will no longer detain the reader from that which will interest him far more than any speculations which we could offer. The theory is particularly worthy of note which
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seizes the geological aspect of the Ridge Road as illustra- tive of the antiquities of western New-York.
A Discourse on the History of the Six Nations, delivered by De Witt Clinton, in 1811.
There is a strong propensity in the human mind to trace up our ancestry to as high and as remote a source as possi- ble ; and if our pride and our ambition cannot be gratified by a real statement of facts, fable is substituted for truth, and the imagination is taxed to supply the deficiency. This principle of our nature, although liable to great perversion, and frequently the source of well-founded ridicule, may, if rightly directed, become the parent of great actions.
The origin and progress of individuals, of families, and of nations, constitute Biography and History, two of the most interesting departments of human knowledge.
Allied to this principle, springing from the same causes and producing the same benign effects, is that curiosity which we feel in tracing the history of the nations that have oc- cupied the same territory before us, although not connected with us in any other respect. "To abstract the mind from all local emotion," says an eminent moralist, " would be im- possible if it were endeavoured, and it would be foolish if it were possible." The places where great events have been performed-where great virtues have been exhibited-where great crimes have been perpetrated-will always excite kindred emotions of admiration or horror. And if "that man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plains of Marathon, or wliose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona," we may with equal confidence assert that morbid must be his sensibility and small must be his capacity for improvement who does not advance in wisdom and in virtue from contemplating the state and the history of the people who occupied this country be- fore the man of Europe.
As it is therefore not uninteresting, and is entirely suitable to this occasion, I shall present a general geographical, po- litical, and historical view of the red men who inhabited this state before us ; and this I do the more willingly, from a conviction that no part of America contained a people which will furnish more interesting information and more useful in- struction-which will display the energies of the human
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character in a more conspicuous manner, whether in light or in shade-in the exhibition of great virtues and talents, or of great vices and defects.
In 1774* the government of Connecticut, in an official statement to the British secretary of state, represented the original title to the lands of Connecticut as in the Pequot nation of Indians, who were numerous and warlike; that their great sachem, Sassacus, had under him twenty-six sachems ; and that their territory extended from Narraganset to Hud- son's River and over all Long Island. The Long Island In- dians, who are represented as very savage and ferocious, were called Meilowacks or Meitowacks, and the island itself Meitowacks.t The Mohucoris, Mahatons, or Manhattans, occupied New-York Island and Staten Island. The Mohe- gans, whose original name was Muhhekanew, were settled on that part of the state east of Hudson's River and below Albany ; and those Indians on the west bank, from its mouth to the Kaatskill Mountains, were sometimes denominated Wabingie and sometimes Sankikani ; and they and the Mo- heganst went by the general appellation of River Indians ; or, according to the Dutch, Mohickanders. Whether the Mohegans were a distinct nation from the Pequotsó has been recently doubted, although they were formerly so con- sidered. One of the early historians asserts that the Nar- ragansets, a powerful nation in New-England, held domin- ion over part of Long Island. PP
The generic name adopted by the French for all the In- dians of New-England was Abenaquis ; and the country, from the head of Chesapeake Bay to the Kittatinney Mount- ains, as far eastward as the Abenaquis, and as far north- ward and westward as the Iroquois, was occupied by a na- tion denominated by themselves the Lenni-lenapi-by the French, Loups-and by the English, Delawares.| Mr. Charles Thompson, formerly Secretary of Congress, sup- posed that this nation extended east of Hudson's River to
* 7 vol. Collections of Massachusetts Hist. Society, p. 231.
t Smith's History of New-York, p. 262.
# Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, p. 310. 1 vol. Collections of the New-York Historical Society, p. 33, 34. Barton's Views of the Origin of the Indians, p. 31. Trumbull's History of the United States, p. 42. § Trumbull's History of Connecticut, p. 28.
T 1 vol. Massachusetts Historical Society, p. 144, &c.
Il Barton's Views, p. 25. Jefferson's Notes, p. 310, &c.
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Connecticut River, and over Long Island, New-York Island, and Staten Island ; and Mr. Smith, in his History of New- York, says, that when the Dutch commenced the settlement of the country, all the Indians on Long Island and the nor- thern shore of the Sound, and on the banks of the Connecti- cut and Hudson River, were in subjection to and paid an annual tribute to the Five Nations .* Mr. Smith's statement, therefore, does not accord with this fact, nor with the al- leged dominion of the Pequots and Narragansets over Long Island. New-York was settled before Connecticut, and the supremacy of the Iroquois was never disturbed ; and it probably prevailed at one time over Long Island, over the territory as far east as Connecticut River, and over the In- dians on the west banks of the Hudson. The confusion on this subject has probably arisen from the same language be- ing used by the Delawares and Abenaquis ; but, indeed, it is not very important to ascertain to which of these nations the red inhabitants of that portion of the state may be prop- erly referred. They, in process of time, became subject to the Iroquois, and paid a tribute in wampum and shells.t Their general character and conduct to the first Europeans they probably had ever seen have been described in Hud- son's Voyoge up the North River. And it is not a little remarkable that the natives below the Highlands were offen- sive and predatory, while those above rendered him every assistance and hospitality in their power. Of all these tribes, about nine or ten families remain on Long Island ; their principal settlement is on a tract of 1000 acres on Montauk Point. The Stockbridge Indians migrated from Hudson's River in 1734 to Stockbridge, in Massachusetts : from whence they removed about the year 1785 to lands as- signed them by the Oneidas in their territory.§ The Broth- ertown Indians formerly resided in Narraganset, in Rhode Island, and in Farmington, Stonington, Mohegan, and some
* It is certain that the Montacket Sachem, so called in former times, on the east end of Long Island, paid tribute in wampum to the con- federated colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New- Haven, for at least ten years previous to 1656. (2 Hazard's Collec- tions of State Papers, p. 361.)
t Smith's History of New-York. Colden's History of the Five Nations.
# Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. iii., p. 58. 1 vol. New-York Historical Collections, p. 102.
§ 4 vol. Massachusetts Historical Society, p. 67, &c.
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other towns in Connecticut, and are a remnant of the Muh- hekanew Indians, formerly called the Seven Tribes on the seacoast. They also inhabit lands presented to them by the Oneidas. These Indians and the Stockbridge In- dians, augmented in a small degree by migrations from the Long Island Indians, have formed two settlements, which, by an accurate census taken in 1794, contained 450 souls. But the greater part of the Indians below Albany retreated at an early period from the approach of civilized man, and became merged in the nations of the north and the west. As far back as 1687, just after the destruction of the Mohawk castles by the French, Gov. Dongan* advised the Five Na- tions to open a path for all the North Indians and Mohickan- ders that were among the Ottawas and other nations, and to use every endeavour to bring them home.
The remaining and much the greatest part of the state was occupied by the ROMANS OF THIS WESTERN WORLD, ; who composed a federal republic, and were denominated by the English the Five Nations, the Six Nations, the Confed- erates-by the French, the Iroquois-by the Dutch, the Maquas or Mahaknase-by the southern Indians, the Mas- sawomacs-by themselves, the Ivfingos or Mingoians-and sometimes the Aganuschione or United People, and their confederacy they styled the Renunctioni.t
The dwelling-lands of this confederacy were admirably adapted for convenience, for subsistence, and for conquest. They comprise the greatest body of the most fertile lands in North America ; and they are the most elevated grounds in the United States, from whence the waters run in every direc- tion. The Ohio, the Delaware, the Susquehannah, the Hudson, and the St. Lawrence-almost all the great rivers, besides a very considerable number of secondary ones, ori- ginate here, and are discharged into the Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi River, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the St. Lawrence River, or into the Atlantic Ocean by various channels. Five great inland seas reach upward of 2000
* Colden's Hist. Five Nations, vol. i., p. 85, &c.
t Volney's View of the United States, p. 470-476. 1 Colden's Five Nations, p. 4, 5.
# 1 vol. Mass. Hist. Coll. p. 144, &c. 1 vol. Pownall on the Col- onies, p. 235. Smith's History of New-Jersey, p. 136. Morse's Gaz- eteer, title Six Nations. Jefferson's Virginia, p. 140. Smith's Hist. New-York, p. 4, 5.
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miles through a considerable part of this territory, and af- ford an almost uninterrupted navigation to that extent. By these lakes and rivers the Confederates were enabled at all times and in all directions to carry war and destruc- tion among the surrounding and the most distant nations. And their country also abounds with other lakes, some of great size-Lake Champlain, formerly called the Sea of the Iroquois; Lake George, the Saratoga, the One- ida, the Canadesaga or Seneca, the Cayuga, the Otsego, the Skaneatelas, the Canandaigua, the Cross, the Onondaga, the Otisco, the Owasco, the Crooked, the Conesus, the Hemlock, the Honeoye, the Chatauque, the Caniaderaga, and the Canasoraga-composing, in number and extent, with the five great lakes, the greatest mass of fresh water to be found in the world.
In addition to the fertility of the soil, we may mention the mildness of the climate to the west of the Onondaga hills- the salubrity and the magnificent scenery of the country. The numerous waters were stored with the salmon, the trout, the muscalunge, the white fish, the shad, the rock-fish, the sturgeon, the perch, and other fish of various kinds ; and the forests abounded with an incredible number and variety of game. The situation of the inhabitants was rendered very eligible from these sources of subsistence, connected with a very productive soil ; for they had passed over the pastoral state, and followed agriculture as well as fishing and hunting. The selection of this country for a habitation was the wisest expedient that could have been adopted by a military nation to satiate their thirst for glory, and to extend their conquests over the continent ; and if they preferred the arts of peace, there was none better calculated for this im- portant purpose. In a few days their forces could be seen -their power could be felt, at the mouth of the Ohio or the Missouri, on the waters of the Hudson or the St. Lawrence, or in the bays of Delaware or Chesapeake.
It is not a little difficult to define the territorial limits of this extraordinary people,* for on this subject there are the most repugnant representations by the French and English writers, arising from interest, friendship, prejudice, and en-
* Rogers's concise Account of North America, p. 6. 1 Colden, 37. 1 Pownall on the Colonies, 235, &c. Smith's New-York, 58-179, &c. Douglass's Summary, 11, &c. Pownall's Geographical Description, &c. Charlevoix, Historie Générale de la Nouvelle France, &c.
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mity. While the French, on the one hand, were involved in continual hostility with them, the English, on the other hand, were connected by alliance and by commerce. By the 15th article of the treaty of Utrecht, concluded in 1713, it was stipulated " that the subjects of France inhabiting Canada and others shall hereafter give no hinderance or mo- lestation to the Five Nations or cantons subject to the do- minion of Great Britain."* As between France and Eng- land the Confederates were therefore to be considered as the subjects of the latter, and of course the British dominion was coextensive with the rightful territory of the Five Can- tons, it then became the policy of France to diminish and that of England to enlarge this territory. But, notwith- standing the confusion which has grown out of these clashing interests and contradictory representations, it is not perhaps very far from the truth to pronounce that the Five Na- tions were entitled by patrimony or conquest to all the ter- ritory in the United States and in Canada not occupied by the Creeks, the Cherokees, and the other southern Indians, by the Sioux, the Killisteneaux, and the Chippewas-and by the English and French, as far west as the Mississippi and Lake Winnipeg, as far northwest as the waters which unite this lake and Hudson's Bay, and as far north as Hud- son's Bay and Labrador. The Five Nations claim, says Smith, " all the land not sold to the English, from the mouth of Sorrel River, on the south side of Lakes Erie and Onta- rio, on both sides of the Ohio, till it falls into the Mississip- pi ; and on the north side of these lakes, that whole territory between the Ottawas River and Lake Huron, and even be- yond the straits between that and Lake Erie." The prin- cipal point of dispute between the English and French was, whether the dominion of the Confederates extended north of the great lakes : but I think it is evident that it did. It is admitted by several French writers that the Iroquois had several villages on the north side of Lake Ontario, and they are even laid down on the maps attached to Charlevoix ; and it cannot be denied but that they subdued the Hurons and Algonkins, who lived on that side of the great lakes, and, consequently, were entitled to their country by the rights of conquest. 'The true original name of the great river now called St. Lawrence was the River of the Iroquois-thereby
* Chalmer's Collection of Treaties, vol. i., p. 382.
.
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indicating that they occupied a considerable portion at least of its banks. Douglass estimates their territory as about 1200 miles in length from north to south, and from 700 to 800 miles in breadth. This was either hereditary or conquered. Their patrimonial and part of their conquered country were used for the purposes of habitation and hunting. Their hunting-grounds were very extensive, including a large tri- angle on the southeast side of the St. Lawrence River-the country lying on the south and east sides of Lake Erie- the country between the Lakes Erie and Michigan, and the country lying on the north of Lake Erie and northwest of Lake Ontario, and between the Lakes Ontario and Huron. All the remaining part of their territory was inhabited by the Abenaquis, Algonkins, Shawanese, Delawares, Illinois, Mi- amies, and other vassal nations.
The acquisition of supremacy over a country of such ama- zing extent and fertility, inhabited by warlike and numerous nations, must have been the result of unity of design and system of action, proceeding from a wise and energetic policy continued for a long course of time. To their social combinations, military talents, and exterior arrangements, we must look for this system, if such a system is to be found.
The Confederates had proceeded far beyond the first ele- ment of all associations, that of combination into families ; they had their villages, their tribes, their nations, and their Confederacy ; but they had not advanced beyond the first stage of government. They were destitute of an executive and judiciary to execute the determinations of their councils ; and their government was, therefore, merely advisory and without a coercive principle. The respect which was paid to their chiefs, and the general odium that attached to diso- bedience, rendered the decisions of their Legislatures for a long series of years of as much validity as if they had been enforced by an executive arm.
They were originally divided into five nations : the Mo- hawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas. In 1712 the Tuscaroras, who lived on the back parts of North Carolina, and who had formed a deep and general conspiracy to exterminate the whites, were driven from their country, were adopted by the Iroquois as a sixth nation, and lived on lands between the Oneidas and Ononda- gas, assigned to them by the former .*
Smith's New-York, 46. Douglass's Summary, 243.
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The Mohawks had four towns and one small village sit- uate on and near the fertile banks of the river of that name. The position of the first was at the confluence of the Scho- harie Creek and Mohawk River, and the others were farther to the west. This nation, from their propinquity to the set- tlements of the whites, from their martial renown and mili- tary spirit, have, like Holland, frequently given their name to the whole Confederacy, which is often denominated the Mo- hawks in the annals of those days; and it may be found employed in the pages of a celebrated periodical writer of Great Britain for the purpose of the most exquisite humour .* This nation was always held in the greatest veneration by its associates. At the important treaty of 1768 at Fort Stanwix, by Sir William Johnson, they were declared by the other nations " the true old heads of the Confederacy."t
The Oneidas had their principal seat on the south of the Oneida Lake, the Onondagas near the Onondaga, and the Cayugas near the Cayuga Lake. The principal village of the Senecas was near the Genesee River, about twenty miles from Irondequoit Bay.
Each nation was divided into three tribes ; the Tortoise, the Bear, and the Wolf; and each village was, like the cities of the United Netherlands, a distinct republic ; and its con- cerns were managed by its particular chiefs.§ Their exte- rior relations, general interests, and national affairs were conducted and superintended by a great council, assembled annually in Onondaga, the central canton, composed of the chiefs of each republic ; and eighty sachems were frequently convened at this national assembly. It took cognizance of the great questions of war and peace ; of affairs of the trib- utary nations, and of their negotiations with the French and English colonies. All their proceedings were conducted with great deliberation, and were distinguished for order, decorum, and solemnity. In eloquence, in dignity, and in all the characteristics of personal policy, they surpassed an assembly of feudal barons, and were, perhaps, not far inferior to the great Amphyctionic Council of Greece. Dr. Robert- son, who has evinced, in almost every instance, a strong propensity to degrade America below its just rank in the
* Spectator.
+ The proceedings of this treaty were never published. I have seen them in manuscript in the possession of Governor George Clinton.
# See Charlevoix, Colden, &c.
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scale of creation, was compelled to qualify the generality of his censures in relation to its political institutions by saying, " If we except the celebrated league which united the Five Nations in Canada into a federal republic, we can discern few such traces of political wisdom among the rude Ameri- can tribes as discover any great degree of foresight or extent of intellectual abilities."*
A distinguished feature in the character of the Confederates Was AN EXALTED SPIRIT OF LIBERTY, which revolted with equal indignation at domestic or foreign control. " We are born free," said Garangula in his admirable speech to the governor-general of Canada ; " we neither depend on Onon- thio or Corlear"t-on France or on England. Baron La- hontan, who openly avowed his utter detestation and abhor- rence of them, is candid enough to acknowledge that " they laugh at the menaces of kings and governors, for they have no idea of dependance ; nay, the very word is to them in- supportable. They look upon themselves as sovereigns, accountable to none but God alone, whom they call the Great Spirit." 'They admitted of no hereditary distinctions. The office of sachem was the reward of personal merit ; of great wisdom or commanding eloquence ; of distinguished services in the cabinet or in the field. It was conferred by silent and general consent, as the spontaneous tribute due to eminent worth ; and it could only be maintained by the steady and faithful cultivation of the virtues and accomplishments which procured it. No personal slavery was permitted ;¿ their captives were either killed or adopted as a portion of the na- tion. The children of the chiefs were encouraged to emulate the virtues of their sires, and were frequently elevated to the dignities occupied by their progenitors. From this source has arisen an important error with respect to the establish- ment of privileged orders among the Confederates.
There is a striking similitude between the Romans and the Confederates, not only in their martial spirit and rage for con- quest, but in their treatment of the conquered. Like the Romans, they not only adopted individuals, but incorporated the remnant of their vanquished enemies into their nation,
* 1 Robertson's America, p. 435.
t See this speech in Appendix No. I. ; taken from "New Voyages to North America, by Baron Lahontan, Lord-lieutenant of the French colonies at Placentia, in Newfoundland, &c., 2 vols. London, 1703."
# 1 Colden, p. 11.
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APPENDIX.
by which they continually recruited their population, ex- hausted by endless and wasting wars, and were enabled to continue their career of victory and desolation : if their un- happy victims hesitated or refused, they were compelled to accept of the honours of adoption. The Hurons of the Island of Orleans, in 1656, knowing no other way to save themselves from destruction, solicited admission into the canton of the Mohawks, and were accepted ; but, at the in- stance of the French, they declined their own proposal. On this occasion the Mohawks continued their ravages and com- pelled acquiescence ; they sent thirty of their warriors to Quebec, who took them away with the consent of the gover- nor-general-he, in fact, not daring to refuse-after having addressed him in the following terms of proud defiance, which cannot but bring to our recollection similar instances of Roman spirit when Rome was free :* " Lift up thy arm, Ononthio, and allow thy children, whom thou holdest pres- sed to thy bosom, to depart ; for if they are guilty of any imprudence, have reason to dread, lest, in coming to chastise them, my blows fall on thy head." Like the Romans also, they treated their vassal nations with extreme rigour. If there were any delay in the rendering of the annual tribute, military execution followed, and the wretched delinquents frequently took refuge in the houses of the English to escape from destruction. On all public occasions they took care to demonstrate their superiority and dominion, and at all times they called their vassals to an awful account, if guilty of vi- olating the injunetions of the great council. At a treaty held on the forks of the Delaware, in 1758, by the Governors of Pennsylvania and New-Jersey, with the Six Nations, sev- eral claims of the Munsees, Wapings, and other Delaware Indians, for lands in the latter province, were adjudged and satisfied under the cognizance of the Confederates, who or- dered them to deliver up their prisoners and to be at peace with the English, and who assumed a dictatorial tone, and appeared to exercise absolute authority over the other In- dians.t At a former conference on this subject, a Munsee or Minisink Indian had spoken sitting, not being allowed to stand, until a Cayuga chief had spoken-when the latter thus expressed himself-" I, who am the Mingoian, am by
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