USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 3
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The population of the State in 1880 was 5,082,871, or 799,980 more inhabitants than any other State of the Republic, and embracing abont one tenth of the entire population of the thirty-eight United States and the Territories. It also carries on its bosom seventeen cities, each having a population of 20,000 and upward. Five of these eities have each a population of over 100,000. Its system of publie instruction is un- rivalled.
These are a few of the many faets that might be presented in justiti- cation of giving to New York the title of " The Empire State."
This mighty fraction of the Great Republic of the West-this popu- lous, wealthy, and powerful State-had its birth two centuries and three quarters ago on the little island of Mannahatta, or Manhattan, lying where the fresh waters of the Hudson River lovingly commingle with the brine of the Atlantic Ocean. AAround the cradle in which the infant empire was rocked stood in wonder and awe representatives of an ancient race, dusky and barbarous in aspect, whose early history is involved in the hopeless obscurity of myth and fable.
At the same time there was a barbaric republic in the wilderness, simple, pure, and powerful, its capital seated a hundred leagues from the sea, among the beautiful hills and shadowy forests, glittering lakes. and sunny savannas, within the present domain of the State of New York. Its western boundary was the mighty Niagara River, a swift- flowing strait between two great inland seas, broken midway by a cata- ract which has no equal on the earth in power, grandeur, and sublimity."
* Perhaps the first European who actually saw the Niagara Falls was Father Henne- pin, a missionary, who in his Voyages gives a description and a rude drawing of the great wonder. He estimated their height much greater than it really was. He also shows in the pictures a portion of the stream spouting from below a roek on the (present) Canada shore, far athwart the great Horse-shoe Fall. There have been many changes within a comparatively few years in the aspect of the Falls, owing to undermining and
3
A BARBARIAN REPUBLIC.
The existence of this republic was unknown to the nations beyond the Atlantic, and unsuspected by them until Cartier sailed up the St. Law- renee River ; until Champlain penetrated the wilderness of Northern New York, and Hudson voyaged up the beautiful river that bears his name, and touched the eastern border of this marvellous amphictyonie league known in history as " The Iroquois Confederacy." The later history of this league is interwoven with the earlier history of the State of New York, and forms an essential part of it.
The Indian tribes to whom the French gave the name of Iroquois in- habited the State of New York north and west of the Catskill Moun- tains (the Kaatsbergs) and sonthi of the Adirondack group, a part of Northern Pennsylvania, and a por- tion of Ohio some distance along the southern shore of Lake Erie. The Hurons or Wyandots, who occupied nearly the whole of Can- ada south-west of the Ottawa River between Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron, seemed by their language to have been a part of the Iroquois family, and these, with the tribes south of the lakes, constituted the Huron-Iroquois nation. They were completely surrounded by the Algonquins, the most exten- sive and powerful of the aborigi- nal nations discovered within the present boundaries of the United States by the first European ad- venturer. AN IROQUOIS CHIEFTAIN.
The Iroquois Confederacy was originally composed of five related families or nations, called, respectively, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. According to their traditions, they had, in a far-back period, been confined under a mountain at the falls of the Oswego River. They were released by Ta-reng-a-wa-gon, the Holder of the Heavens, and were led by him to the Mohawk Valley. Wandering eastward, they came to the Hudson River, and descended it to the sea.
abrasion by the water. Huge masses of rock have, from time to time, fallen into the gulf below. Table Rock, from the side of which Hennepin's third stream was pro- jected, fell only a few years ago. The writer was upon the rock less than twenty-four hours before it fell.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Returning to the mouth of the Mohawk River, they travelled westward, separated, and seated themselves at various points in the country between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, in the order in which they are above named. At that time there were six families. One of them, the Tuscaroras, soon wandered to the South, and seated themselves on the Neuse River in North Carolina. The five families who remained, though of the same blood, continually waged eruel wars against each other.
The Holder of the Heavens had never ceased his guardianship of these five nations after their release from their subterranean prison. On account of the excellence of his character, his wisdom, and his sagacity, Ta-reng-a-wa-gon was called by the people Hi-a-wat-ha-" the very wise man." They regarded him with profound veneration, and in all things followed his advice. At length a fierce and powerful tribe of barbarians came from the country north of the lakes, fell upon the Onondagas-the dwellers among the hills-laid waste their country, slaughtered their women and children, and plunged the whole nation into the depths of despair. In their distress they hastened to Hi-u-wat-ha for counsel. He advised them to call together all the tribes in a general council to devise means for mutual defence. They agreed to the proposal. He appointed a place for the assembling of the convention on the bank of Onondaga Lake, and promised to meet with them there.
For three days the council fire had blazed before Hi-a-wat-ha arrived. He had been devoutly praying in silence to the Great Spirit for guid- ance. At length he approached in a white canoe, gliding over the waters of the lake, accompanied by his darling daughter, twelve years of age. They were received with joy, and as they landed and walked toward the council fire a sound like a rushing wind was heard, and a dark spot, ever increasing in size, was seen descending from the sky. It was an immense bird swooping down toward the spot where Ii-a-wat-ha and his child stood. He was unmoved. The bird fell upon his sweet daughter, erushed her into the earth, and perished itself. For three days Hi-a- wat-ha mourned his child. Then he took his seat in the great council, listened to the debates, and said : " Meet me to-morrow, and I will unfold to you my plan." They did so, when the venerated counsellor arose and said :
"Friends and Brothers : You are members of many tribes and nations. You have come here, many of you, a great distance from your homes. We have met for one common purpose-to provide for our common in- terest-and that is to provide for our mutual safety, and how it shall best be done. To oppose thesc foes from the north by tribes, singly
5
THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY.
and alone, would prove our certain destrnetion. We can make no prog- ress in that way. We must unite ourselves into one common band of brothers. Thus united we may drive the invaders back. This must be done, and we shall be safe.
" You, the Mohawks, sitting under the shadow of the 'Great Tree,' whose roots sink deep into the earth, and whose branches spread over a vast country, shall be the first nation, because you are warlike and mighty.
" And you, Oneidas, a people who recline your bodies against the ' Everlasting Stone,' that cannot be moved, shall be the second nation, because you give wise counsel.
" And you, Onondagas, who have your habitation at the ‘Great Mountain,' and are overshadowed by its crags, shall be the third nation, because you are greatly gifted in speech, and are mighty in war.
" And you, Cayugas, whose habitation is the 'Dark Forest,' and whose home is everywhere, shall be the fourth nation, because of your superior cunning in hunting.
" And you, Senecas, a people who live in the 'Open Country,' and possess much wisdom, shall be the fifth nation, because you understand better the art of raising corn and beans, and making cabins.
" You, five great and powerful nations, must unite and have but one common interest, and no foe shall be able to disturb or subdue you. If we unite, the Great Spirit will smile upon us. Brothers, these are the words of Hi-a-wat-ha ; let them sink deep into your hearts."
After reflecting upon the subject for a day, the five nations formed a league. Before the council was dispersed Hi-a-wat-ha urged the people to preserve the union they had formed. "Preserve this," he said ; " admit no foreign element of power by the admission of other nations, and you will always be free, numerous, and happy. If other tribes and nations are admitted to your councils they will sow the seeds of jealousy and discord, and you will become few, feeble, and enslaved. Remember these words ; they are the last you will hear from Hi-a-wat-ha. The Great Master of Breath calls me to go. I have patiently waited his summons. I am ready to go. Farewell !"
At that moment myriads of singing voices burst upon the ears of the multitude, and the whole air seemed filled with music. Hi-a-wat-ha, seated in his white canoe, rose majestically above the throng, and as all eyes gazed in rapture upon the ascending wise man, he disappeared for- ever in the blue vault of heaven. The music melted into low whispers, like a soft summer breeze. There were pleasant dreams that night in every cabin and wigwam occupied by the members of the Great Council,
6
THE EMPIRE STATE.
and all the Five Nations were made happy by the announcement of the glad tidings among theni.
This confederacy was called Ko-no-shi-oni-the " cabin-builders" -- the " Long House," which extended from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The Mohawks kept the eastern door and the Senecas the western door. The Great Conneil Fire, or Federal Capital, was with the Onondagas. This metropolis was a few miles south of (present) Syraeuse.
Such is the traditionary history of the formation of the great Iroquois Confederaey. It is, of course, embellished by fancy, but it is un- doubtedly correct in every essential particular. At what time this leagne was formed cannot be accurately determined. It was probably not earlier than the year 1540. Jacques Cartier, who aseended the St. Lawrence to
hendery Por 2.
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6
TOTEMIC SIGNATURES.
the site of Montreal in 1535, showed, by a vocabulary of Indian words which he made, that the Iroquois language was spoken there, probably by the Hurons ; but he makes no reference to any Indian confederacy.
The polity of the Iroquois League was as purely democratic as possible in spirit, but it took the representative or republican form for con- venience. It was a league for mutual defence, not a political union. There was a wide distribution of power and civil organization, which was a safeguard against tyranny. Each canton or nation was a distinct re- public, independent of all others in relation to its domestic affairs, but cach was bound to the others of the league by ties of honor and general interest. Each canton had eight principal sachems, or eivil magistrates, and several inferior sachems. The whole number of civil magistrates in the confederaey amounted to nearly two hundred. There were fifty hereditary sachems.
THIE TOTEMIC SYSTEM.
Each canton or nation was subdivided into clans or tribes, each clan having a heraldic insignia called totem. For this insignia one tribe would have the figure of a wolf ; another, of a bear ; another, of a deer ; another, of a tortoise, and so on. By this totem- ic system they maintained a perfect tribal union .* After the Europeans came the sachem of a tribe affixed his totem, in the form of a rude represen- tation of the animal that marked his tribe, to documents he was required to sign, like an ancient monarch affixing his seal.+
Office was the reward of merit alone ; malfeasance in office brought dismissal and public scorn. All public services were compensated only by public esteem. The league had a FEDERAL ARMS OF THE FIVE NATIONS. president clothed with powers sini- lar to those conferred on the Chief Magistrate of the United States. He had authority to assemble a congress of representatives of the league. He had a cabinet of six advisers, and in the Grand Council he was moderator. There was no coercive power lodged anywhere excepting public opinion.
# The chief totems of the Five Nations-the bear, the wolf, the deer, the tortoise, and the beaver-were, one of them, the distinguishing mark of the delegate of each nation at the Grand Council or Congress of the Confederation, and appeared on his person. These constituted the Federal arms of the Confederacy when combined.
t There were many totemic symbols besides those named, such as different birds-the eagle, the heron, the turkey, and the plover.
The signatures on page 6 were copied from the originals on documents. Fig. 1 is a tortoise ; Fig. 2 is the signature of King Hendrick, with his totem, a deer ; Fig. 3 is a potato totem ; Fig. 4, an eagle totem : Fig. 5. a wolf totem, and Fig. 6, a bearer totem. Many totemic signatures are rudely drawn, while some are quite artistic and correct.
The tortoise, the wolf, and the bear were the totems of the three families into which each nation was divided. In his stirring metrical romance, Frontenac, the late Alfred B. Street, describing the aggressions and the supremacy of the Iroquois, thus alludes to these totemic symbols of a fierce tribe :
" By the far Mississippi the Illini shrank When the trail of the tortoise was seen on its bank : Ou the hills of New England the Pequod turned pale When the howl of the wolf swelled at night on the gale ; And the Cherokee shook in his green smiling bowers When the foot of the bear stamp'd his carpet of flowers."
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
The first chosen president of the league was the venerable Ato-tar-ho, a famous Onondaga chief. The Indian traditions invest him with ex- traordinary attributes. IIe is represented as living, at the time he was chosen, in grim seclusion in a swamp, where his dishes and drinking-enps, like those of the old Scandinavian warriors, were made of the skulls of his enemies slain in battle. When a delegation of Mohawks went to offer him the symbol of supreme power, they found him sitting in calm repose, smoking his pipe, but was unapproachable because he was clothed with hissing snakes-the old story of Medusa's tresses. They finally invested him with a broad belt of wampum as the highest token of authority.
The military power dominated the civil power in the league. The military leaders were called chiefs. They derived their authority from the people, and they sometimes, like the Roman soldiers, deposed sachems or civil rulers. The army was composed wholly of volunteers. Conseription was impossible. Every able-bodied man was bound to do military duty, and he who shirked it in- cnrred everlasting disgrace. The ranks were always full. The war-dances were the recruiting stations. Whatever was done in civil conneils was subjected to review by the soldiery, who had the right to call councils when they pleased, and to approve . or disapprove publie measures. Every im- portant measure was undertaken only after ATO-TAR-NO. unanimous consent had been given.
The matrons formed a third and most powerful party in the legislature of the league. They had a right to sit in the councils, and held and exercised the veto power on the subject of a declaration of war. They had authority to demand a cessation of hostilities, and they were emi- nently peace-makers. It was no reflection upon the courage of warriors if, at the call of the matrons, they withdrew from the war-path. These women wielded great influence in the councils of the league, but they modestly delegated the duties of speech-making to some masculine orator. With these barbarians woman was man's coworker in legislation -a thing yet unknown among eivilized people. Such was the polity of the Iroquois Confederacy when it was discovered by Europeans."
# " As I am forced to think," says Dr. Colden (History of the Fire Indian Nations), " that the present state of the Indian Nation exactly shows the Most Ancient and Original Condition of almost every Nation ; so I believe here we may, with more certainty. see
9
POWER OF THE FIVE NATIONS-CHAMPLAIN.
The " inalienable rights of man" were held in such reverence by the Iroquois that they never made slaves of their fellow-men, not even of captives taken in war. By unity they were made powerful ; and to pre- vent degeneraey, members of a tribe were not allowed to inter- marry with each other. Like the Romans, they caused the expan- sion of their commonwealth by conquests and annexation. Had the advent of Europeans in Am- erica been postponed a century, the Confederaey might have em- braced the whole continent, for the Five Nations had already ex- tended their conquests from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexi- eo, and were the terror of the other nations East and West.
For a long time the French in SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN. Canada, who taught the Indians the use of fire-arms, maintained a doubtful struggle against them. Cham- plain * found the Iroquois at war against the Canada Indians from Lake
the Original Forms of all Governments than in the most curious speculations of the Learned ; and that the Patriarchal and other Schemes in Politicks are no better than Hypotheses in Philosophy, and as prejudicial to real knowledge."
The total population of the Confederacy at the advent of the Europeans did not ex- ceed probably 13,000. The Senecas seemed to be the more numerous. They were found to possess many of the better features of civilization. They had framed cabins ; cultivated the soil ; manufactured stone implements and pottery ; made clothing and foot-gear of the skins of animals ; fashioned canoes of bark or of logs hollowed by fire and stone axes, and showed some military skill and acumen in the construction of fortifications.
* Samuel Champlain was an eminent French navigator, born at Brouage, France, in 1567 ; served in the Spanish navy ; was pensioned by his king, and was induced by M. de Chastes, Governor of Dieppe, to explore and prepare the way for a colony on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. He was commissioned Lieutenant-General of Canada. He ascended the St. Lawrence in May, 1603, and landed on the site of Quebec. In a subse- quent voyage he planted the banner of France at Quebec-the capital of the dominion. In order to gain the friendship of the Indians, he was induced to join them, with a few Frenchmen, in an expedition against their enemies the Iroquois. They went up the Sorel River from the St. Lawrence in twenty-four canoes, into the "Lake of the Iroquois," and on its lower western border (July 29th, 1609) had a sharp engagement with the foc. The arquebuses of the Europeans secured an easy victory. This was the first European invasion of the country of the Iroquois. The fight occurred between Crown Point and Lake George, not far from Schroon (Scarron) Lake. Champlain gave his name to the larger lake.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Huron to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Ile fought them on the borders of Lake Champlain in 1609, and from that time until the middle of the century their wars against the Canada Indians and their French allies were fierce and distressing.
The Tuscaroras, in North Carolina, entered into a conspiracy with other Indians in 1711 to exterminate the white people there. They fell like lightning upon the scattered German settlements along the Roanoke River and Pamlico Sound. In one night they slew one hun- dred and thirty persons. With knife and torch they desolated the settle- ments along the shores of Albemarle Sound. South Carolinians sped to the rescue of their smitten neighbors in 1712, and in the spring of 1713 the Tuscaroras were driven into their stronghold, where eight hundred of them were made prisoners. The remainder fled to their kindred- the Five Nations-in June, and remaining there, formed the sixth nation of the Iroquois League.
It was after this union that the most important events in the history of the league, as connected with the European inhabitants of the Province and State of New York, occurred. As the wars of the league with other barbarians, which occurred before the advent of the Euro- peans, have no bearing upon the early history of New York, I will for- bear alluding to them.
Upon the walls of the Governor's Room, in the City Hall, New York, hangs a dingy portrait of a man apparently thirty-five or forty years of age. It was painted, probably, about three hundred years ago. Ilis hair is dark and short, and so is his full beard. ITis forehead is broad, and his eyes are expressive of intelligence and good-nature. His neck is encircled by an ample "ruff," such as men wore late in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is claimed that this is an original picture from life of HENRY HUDSON," a famous English navigator, who, in the service of some London merchants, attempted to make a voyage from Great Britain to China and Japan through the polar waters north of Europe and Asia carly in the seventeenth century. He failed, and was afterward employed for the same purpose by the Dutch East India Com-
* Henry Hudson was a native of England, born at about the middle of the sixteenth century. Of his early life nothing is known. He appears to have been an expert navi- gator, and employed, as we have observed in the text, by both English and Dutch merchants in searching for a north-east passage to the East Indies. Failing in this effort, he sailed westward to America, entered a spacious land-locked bay into which poured the waters of a mighty river, and up which he sailed one hundred and sixty miles. His name was given to it, as its discoverer and first explorer. After various tribulations he made a fourth voyage, in 1610, toward the Polar waters, descended the great bay that bears his name, and there perished.
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HUDSON'S VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES.
pany. He sailed from the Texel in a yacht of ninety tons named the Half Moon, with a select crew, in the spring of 1609. He steered for the coast of Nova Zembla. On the meridian of Spitzbergen he was con- fronted, as before. by impassable ice and fogs and tempest, and com- pelled to abandon the enterprise. Then he resolved to sail in search of a north-west passage " below Virgi- nia," spoken of by his friend Cap- tain Smith. He passed the southern capes of Greenland, and in July made soundings on the banks of Newfoundland. Sailing southward, he discovered Delaware Bay. He voyaged as far as the harbor of Charleston, when, disappointed, he turned his prow northward, and early L' in September sailed into the beanti- HENRY HUDSON. ful New York Bay # and anchored. Sending men ashore in a boat, they saw many ahnost naked, copper- colored inhabitants, some of whom followed them in their canoes on their return.
From his anchorage Hudson saw a broad stream stretching northward. In the purple distance appeared the forms of lofty hills, through and beyond which the dusky inhabitants who swarmed around his ship in canoes told him there was a mighty river which felt the pulsations of the tides of the sea. Believing this stream to be a strait flowing between oceans, he sailed on with joyous hope, not doubting he would be the
# A claim has been made that John Verazzano, a Florentine in the maritime service of King Francis I. of France, discovered New York Bay in 1524. It is asserted that he traversed the American coast from Cape Fear to latitude 50° N., when he returned to France. The sole authority upon which this claim rests is a letter alleged to have been written by the navigator to Francis I., in the summer of 1524. This letter was first pub- lished at Venice in 1556. No French original is known to exist, nor has there been found in the French archives of that period even an allusion to such a voyage. Verazzano was an adventurer. He was also a corsair, and was captured on the coast of Spain and hanged as a pirate at the village of Pieo, in November, 1527. There is good reason for believing that the alleged letter of Verazzano is a forgery. In it is given a most confused account of the " seven hundred leagues of coast " traversed. It is said in it that a bay was discovered, but no data to determine whether it was Delaware, New York, or Narra- gansett Bay. It is safe to relegate to the realm of pure fiction such a vague and untrust- worthy statement, even if the letter was genuine, as a foundation for a belief that Ver- azzano ever saw New York Bay.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
discoverer of the long-sought north-west passage to the Indies. Alas ! when he had passed the mountains the water freshened and the stream narrowed. Hope failed him ; but he voyaged on through a land of won- drous beauty and fertility-" as beautiful a land as the foot of man can tread upon," he said-a land peopled by vigorous men and beautiful women, who came to his vessel, and abounding with fur-bearing animals. Ile sailed on until he reached the head of tide-water, and some of his crew in a small boat passed by the foaming cataract of Cohoes at the mouth of the Mohawk River, and went several miles farther. Had Hudson penetrated the wilderness a few leagues farther northward he might have met Champlain, who was then exploring the lower borders of the " Lake of the Iroquois," which afterward bore his own name.
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