USA > New York > The old New York frontier : its wars with Indians and Tories, its missionary schools, pioneers, and land titles, 1614-1800 > Part 21
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van led have been stationed permanently, and as early as September, 1777, in forts at Unadilla, Schoharie, and Cherry Valley, thus guarding the upper Susquehanna, Schoharie, and lower Mohawk valleys in the way that Fort Schuyler guarded the upper Mohawk, much that was destroyed might have been saved .*
We must hold the English first responsible for these frontier wars, in that it was they who coaxed the Indians into the fighting at Oriskany, whence proceeded the impelling force in the Indian breast for the invasions that followed. In Oriskany was aroused the strongest passion an Indian can know -- the desire for revenge. In Butler's and Sullivan's work that passion was intensified into the bitterest hatred possible to that deep and dark aboriginal nature. Just as the Susquehanna Valley became the victim after Oriskany, so was it the Mohawk, Schoharie, and Delaware valleys that paid the pen- alty after Butler and Sullivan came.
I am writing here of the Indians. As for the Tories, their work was connected in effect, and mainly in design, with the struggle for the Hudson Valley. That great highway never passed from the control of the American armies. Twice it was nearly lost-once through British valor, once through treason-but lost entirely it never was. For the maintenance of possession of it honor belongs to many-to Washington above all; to
* Governor Clinton had suggested to Washington in March, 1779, "the Propriety of erecting one or two small Posts on the nearest navi- gable Waters of the Susquehanah; they would serve as a security to the Settlements, & of Course induce the Militia to engage in the Service with greater alacrity. From the general Idea I have of the Country, I am led to believe that the Unida [Unadilla] & where the Susque- hanah empties out of the Lakes, West of Cherry Valley, would be the most elligible places."
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Philip Schuyler, to George Clinton, and to Benedict Arnold only in lesser degree (traitor though Arnold afterward became). But the full measure of obli- gation remains yet to be bestowed upon men, women, and children in the fertile valleys of four rivers, where their homes and crops were converted into conflagrations, and they themselves, as cattle and game might be, were slaughtered.
This chapter should not close without a repeti- tion of something already said-that, in so far as concerns property, the losses of the frontiersmen were more than equalled, if we have regard for pro- portions, by the appalling destruction done to Iro- quois villages. Of those losses and of Indian lives that were lost, let it always be remembered that no historian from the forest has ever chronicled the moving story-a story pervaded by the deepest pathos that comes into human lives.
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V
The Iroquois After the War
N OT alone had Iroquois civilization been overthrown. A still more pathetic fate awaited that proud people. One of the most touching results of the war, indeed, was the permanent exile that came to many of them-exile from streams and forests where for at least three hundred years their race had found a home. De- prived of British support, they saw themselves at the mercy of men whom they had fought as rebels, but who were now the victorious masters of an imperial domain. Nothing for them was exacted by the British in the treaty of peace. Not even their names were mentioned. They were simply abandoned to the mercies of the victors-these mis- guided children of the forest, who, in Morgan's words, went forth " not to peril their lives for them- selves, but to keep the 'covenant chain' with a transatlantic ally." The misfortunes of the Indians have awakened pity from other writers. Campbell, in closing his narrative of the darkest deeds in the war period, says:
When I look over this land, the domain of the once proud Iroquois, and remember how, in the days of their glory, they defended this infant colony from the ravages of the French, and contrast their former state-numerous, powerful, and respected-with their present condition, I feel almost disposed to blot out the record which I have made of their subsequent cruelties.
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It was not strictly true of all the Iroquois that their alliance with the English had been unshaken. At various times the French, as we have seen, made serious inroads upon the English. When Sir Will- iam Johnson appeared upon the scene, Joncaire had intrigued with the four western nations to very real purpose. The Mohawks alone remained al- ways loyal. Early in the eighteenth century, the Jesuit missionaries had ceased to be purely religious zealots. They were then as much the agents of the King of France as agents of the Church of Rome. The Canadian Jesuits having originally been " be- fore all things, an apostle," his successor, says Parkman, " was before all things a political agent." At Onondaga, in 1709, sentiment had become much divided as between the English and the French. Although Abraham Schuyler won back the waver- ing red men, their sympathies a generation later gave signs of flowing back once more to France. Had not Johnson appeared at this critical period, Parkman thinks the intrigues of the French would have succeeded. In that case the after history of the Province of New York must have been greatly changed. Morgan's opinion is that France must chiefly ascribe to the Iroquois " The final over- throw of her magnificent schemes of colonization in the northern part of America."
From the English the Mohawks, before leaving their native valley in 1776, had received a pledge that when the war was ended their condition would be made as good as it had been before, and this pledge had been renewed in 1779. It was only through the persistent exertions of Brant that the Mohawks at last secured fulfilment of the pledge. Brant asked for lands in Canada on the northern
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shore of Lake Ontario, but was induced to accept another tract on Grand River, a Canadian stream flowing into Lake Erie near its eastern end. He stipulated for " six miles on each side of the river from the mouth to its source," the length of the stream being about 100 miles. It was a fair and fertile territory, and here still live many Mohawks, possessed of 50,000 acres-all that are left of the original 300,000.
In the legislature of New York, meanwhile, there had been some disposition to expel the Iroquois from all the territory of the State, where by the laws of war their lands had been forfeited. It was largely due to Washington that these severe measures were not undertaken. He advocated a liberal and hu- mane policy, and received from the Indians a singu- lar reward. At his death they mourned him as a benefactor, admitting him to a place in their own Heaven, an honor conferred on him alone among white men, and including a special residence as pre- pared for him by the Great Spirit. Here Wash- ington was supposed to dwell in a spacious mansion surrounded by attractive gardens and securely forti- fied. Clad in a military uniform he was believed to enjoy perfect felicity.
In 1785 the Oneidas and Tuscaroras were con- firmed in possession of certain New York lands in- cluding those bounded by the Unadilla, Chenango, and Susquehanna rivers, but in 1788 the State of New York acquired that territory from them by pur- chase. Descendants of some of the other Iroquois still live on reservation in Central and Western New York. Besides the Mohawks who settled in the Grand River valley some others live in Canada at Caughnawaga, near Montreal, the total number of
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the Iroquois living in Canada reaching 30,000; * while on land granted in Michigan and the Indian Territory others have found homes.
Brant, in the interest of the Mohawks, made his second visit to London at the close of the year 1785, and there renewed his acquaintance with many Eng- lish officers with whom he had been associated in the Revolution. He was cordially received. One of the officers was General Stewart, son of the Earl of Bute, with whom in America Brant had slept under the same tent. Another was Lord Percy, afterward Duke of Northumberland, with whom he corre- sponded until his death, and for whom his portrait
was painted. He dined at famous houses and showed himself quite at home in London drawing- rooms, clad sometimes in the dress of an English gentleman, sometimes in a half military and half sav- age costume. At dinner-tables he sat where were assembled Fox, Burke, and Sheridan. From Fox he received the gift of a silver snuff-box. Ladies remarked upon his mild disposition and the manly intelligence of his face. He paid a formal visit to George III. and the royal hand, in the usual way, was extended for a kiss. Brant declined this oscu- latory opportunity, holding that his Indian rank technically made him as good a man as the English sovereign. Brant had the grace, however, to kiss the hand of the English queen.
During this visit, a grand ball was given in Brant's honor. The foreign ambassadors and many lights of the great social world were present, Brant attend- ing with his war-paint on. Mistaking the painted face for a visor, and wishing to examine the visor,
* So stated in London in 1901 by J. O. Brant-Sero, a descendant of Joseph Brant.
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BRANT IN LONDON AGAIN
the Turkish minister ventured to touch Brant's nose. Brant saw his opportunity for sport, and instantly sprang away from the Turk. Giving a loud war- whoop, he flashed his shining tomahawk in the air, to the consternation of everyone who took his con- duct seriously. Brant was entertained by that dis- solute Prince of Wales, afterward George IV., whose chief ambition was to be known as the first gentle- man of Europe. With the prince Brant was taken to places which he afterward described as "very queer for a Prince to go to." Stone narrates these incidents with obvious pride in his hero.
During Brant's stay in London the question arose of placing him on half pay, to which he seems to have had just claim because he had held a captain's commission. Some difficulty that ensued in regard to it led to a letter from Brant to one of the king's un- der secretaries that forcibly illustrates the native dig- nity and independence of this Mohawk leader :
SIR :
Since I had the pleasure of seeing you last I have been thinking a great deal about the half pay or pension which you and I have talked about.
I am really sorry that I ever mentioned such a thing to you. It was really owing to promises made to me by cer- tain persons several times during the late war that I should always be supported by the government at war or peace. At that time I never asked anybody to make me such a promise. It was of their own free will.
When I joined the English at the beginning of the war it was purely on account of my forefathers' engagements with the King. I always looked upon these engagements or covenants between the King and the Indian nations as a sacred thing. Therefore I was not to be frightened by the threats of the whites at that time. I assure you I had no
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other view in it and this was my real course from the be- ginning.
However, after this the English gave me pay and a com- mission from the Commander-in-Chief, which I gladly re- ceived as a mark of attention, though I never asked for it, and I believe my trouble and risques were of equal value to the marks of attention I received; I am sure not too much in the eyes of the Indians, or I should not have accepted them, as I should be sorry to raise jealousies. My mean- ing for mentioning those things to you is because I saw there was some difficulty on your part how to act on this head relative to half pay or pension ; and when it does not seem clear I should be sorry to accept it. Therefore I beg of you will say no more about it, for was I to get it when there were doubts about the propriety of it, I should not be happy. For which reason I think it is best to go without it.
I am now, sir, to beg you will return my best thanks to government for what they have done for me and am, sir, your most obedient humble servant, JOSEPH BRANT .*
On his return to Canada Brant established him- self in a comfortable home near the present town of Brantford. Here in 1798 he had between thirty
* These London visits of Brant and his grandfather have been recently recalled in an interesting manner by the presence in London in January, 1901, of a descendant of theirs whose home is in Ontario, Canada-Mr. J. O. Brant-Sero, a man of position, education, and character, who speaks our language with the fluency and accent of a cultivated Englishman. During the war between Great Britain and the Transvaal Republic, Mr. Brant-Sero, true to the loyalty of his race, offered to volunteer in the English service, the Six Nations by formal action having expressed their willingness to send out 300 warriors. The English declined to accept the service on the ground that only men of European descent were per- mitted to take part in the war. Mr. Brant-Sero then went to South Africa, hoping that, through a personal visit, he might get enrolled in one of the Colonial regiments. After making several attempts, he suc- ceeded only in obtaining an appointment on the civilian staff of the re- mount department. Finding it impossible to get into the fighting ranks, he afterward resigned. On returning to London, Mr. Brant-Sero, in narrating his South African experiences to a reporter of The Daily News, remarked that, although in Canada his people "live on a footing of per- fect equality," in South Africa "there were men who actually refused to shake hands with me because of my Indian blood."
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BRANT'S LIFE IN CANADA
and forty negroes cultivating his land and looking after his horses. He had reduced them to a state of complete subjection as slaves. Once more he turned his attention to translations from the Bible. His version of the Gospel of Mark was the first of the gospels ever translated entire into the Mohawk tongue. Under his supervision and with the patron- age of the King of England, it was published with the prayer-book and psalms in Mohawk as a hand- some volume.
Brant afterward made a journey to Philadelphia and had an audience with Washington, who was then president. He met many other distinguished per- sons, among whom were Aaron Burr, Volney, and Talleyrand. From Burr he received a letter of in- troduction to Burr's daughter, Theodosia, who, at her home in New York, gave a dinner in Brant's honor, at which were present Bishop Moore and other eminent men of the city.
In Albany Brant met officers against whom he had fought in Tryon County, and talked with them of old and stormy times. During this visit he was informed that John Wells, son of the late Captain Wells, of Cherry Valley, had called to see him, determined to take his life. Brant calmly remarked, " Let him come in "; but the young man in the meantime had been induced to forego his purpose .*
Brant spent the remainder of his days at his home in Canada. When his sons had grown up they were sent to Dartmouth College. In a letter to James Wheelock he expressed a wish that they should be
* John Wells subsequently became an eminent lawyer in New York. He was associated with Hamilton in the publication of "The Federal- ist." On his death a beautiful memorial of him in marble, surmounted by a bust, was erected, and may still be seen inside of St. Paul's Church, in Broadway.
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" studiously attended to, not only as to their educa- tion, but likewise as to their morals in particular." Again he made reference to his own experience many years before at Dr. Wheelock's school in Lebanon, of which Dartmouth was now the large successor. " For my part," said he, "nothing can ever efface from my memory the persevering atten- tion your revered father paid to my education when I was in the place my sons now are. Though I was an unprofitable pupil in some respects, yet my worldly affairs have been much benefited by the instruction I there received." Brant was liberal with those sons of his, as is shown in a letter sending £100 for them as "pocket money."
Brant's acquaintance with John Harper continued long after the war. "You may depend on my in- fluence," he wrote him in 1804, " with the Ogh- wagas to do you justice, which I believe is their full determination whenever it is in their power." Col- onel Harper was still accustomed to do friendly acts for the Indians. Thus for thirty years were con- tinued those relations, begun at Oghwaga in 1777, when the Indians placed upon Harper's head that crown of leather wrought with beads.
Brant died in 1807, and lies buried in the Mo- hawk churchyard near Brantford. During his last illness he addressed to his adopted nephew these words : " Have pity on the poor Indians. If you can get any influence with the great, endeavor to do them all the good you can." Stone's splendid eulogy contains the following words : "In letters he was in advance of some of the generals against whom he fought ; and even of still greater military chieftains who have flourished before his day and since. True, he was ambitious, and so was Cæsar. He sought to
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combine many nations under his own dominion, and so did Napoleon. He ruled over barbarians, and so did Peter the Great." In the town named after him, an imposing monument perpetuates the memory of Brant. In that soil, therefore, sleeps in his last sleep the most interesting Indian who, in that eventful eighteenth century, forever linked his name with the history of Central New York.
Stone is not alone among Brant's eulogists. Will- iam C. Bryant, of Buffalo, had remarked that the evidence is incontestible that he was " a great man- in many respects the most extraordinary his race has produced since the advent of the white man on this continent "; and John Fiske, in one of his later books, declares that he "was the most remarkable Indian known to history." Schoolcraft calls him " the Jephtha of his tribe," and lauds his " firmness and energy of purpose " as qualities which few among the American aborigines have ever equalled.
But the best evidence of the man's personal worth lies in the high respect and friendship which he in- spired among educated and titled Englishmen, as shown in many ways and notably in his correspond- ence. Chesterfield remarked that a private letter discloses not only the character of the writer, but that of the person to whom the letter is addressed. Read in the light of this statement, no one can fail to see the regard in which Brant was held by the Duke of Northumberland, at that time the head of the British peerage, who wrote him the following letter :
NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE, Sept. 3rd, 1791.
MY DEAR JOSEPH :
Colonel Simcoe, who is going out Governor of Upper Canada, is kind enough to promise to deliver this to you,
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with a brace of pistols which I desire you will keep for my sake. I must particularly recommend the Colonel to you and the nation. He is a most intimate friend of mine, and is possessed of every good quality which can recommend him to your friendship. He is brave, humane, sensible, and honest. You may safely rely upon whatever he says, for he will not deceive you. He loves and honors the Indians, whose noble sentiments so perfectly correspond with his own. He wishes to live upon the best terms with them, and as Governor will have it in his power to be of much service to them. In short, he is worthy to be a Mohawk. Love him at first for my sake, and you will soon come to love him for his own.
I was very glad to hear that you had received the rifle safe which I sent you, and hope it has proved useful to you. I preserve with great care your picture, which is hung up in the Duchess's own room.
Continue to me your friendship and esteem, and believe me ever to be, with the greatest truth,
Your affectionate Friend and Brother, NORTHUMBERLAND.
Colonel Daniel Claus wrote to Brant in 1781 from Montreal, a letter containing these words: "We shall be very happy to see you here. Mrs. Claus
* Hugh Percy, Duke of Northumberland, had opposed the war, but when it actually began he offered his services and was in this country in 1775 and 1776 with the rank of Brigadier-General. He led the rein- forcements which General Gage sent to Lexington in April, 1775, but was prevented by illness from commanding his regiment at Bunker Hill. He came to New York with the English army in 1776 and at the action which reduced Fort Washington, led the column making the first en- trance into the American lines. Fort George, in that neighborhood, was named by him. In the same year he succeeded to the barony of Percy and returned to England. It will be remembered that Brant, on coming home from England early in 1776, joined the English army on Long Isl- and, and afterward made his way across the country to the Indians already assembled at Oghwaga. It was in this period that he seems to have made the acquaintance of the Duke, who was then known as Lord Percy.
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and all friends are well here and salute you heartily ; also your sisters and daughters ; the others here are well, and desire their love and duty. God bless and prosper you."
Brant has deserved no large part of that load of obloquy which on this frontier for many years rested upon his name. He was better than the Tories under whose guidance he served, and far better than most Indian chiefs of his time. There was much in the man that was kindly and humane. If he loved war, this was because he loved his friends and his home still more. He fought in battle with the vigor and skill of a savage, but we are to remember that he fought where honor called him. To the story of his life peculiar fascination must long be attached, a large part of which springs from the potent charm of an open personality. In Brant's character were joined strength and humanity, genius for war and that unfamiliar quality in a Mohawk savage, bon- hommie.
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PART VIII
The Restoration of the Frontier 1782-1800
I
Return of the Former Settlers
1782-1788
W ITH the close of the war, the way lay open for repeopling these valleys. On the Mohawk and Schoharie, some signs of civilization had survived. Those valleys had never been entirely depopulated. War had de- spoiled them much later than the Susquehanna. Their crowning misfortunes were among the last incidents of the conflict and they had never been actually abandoned. The return of peace saw their surviving male adults returning to their former homes from disbanded regiments, or removing to the Susquehanna, and their old men, women, and children emerging from block-houses. As Stone remarks, those valleys "soon smiled through their tears." New and substantial courage must have come to these people, as, on the one hand, they looked into the future, with its splendid promises, and, on the other, recalled the past with its
old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago.
But on the Susquehanna was found a region entirely desolate. It virtually contained no inhabi- tants. Nature once more was in full possession of it. Something perhaps of what had been still remained, since clearings existed which the forest
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had not entirely reclaimed. Here and there stood the remains of log dwellings that might be recon- structed and made habitable. On the upper waters, lay one of the fairest portions of a fair valley, with fertile lands bordering the Great Island River. Over these lands and along the surface of this river it was certain that the warlike Iroquois would roam no more.
The valley had continued to be a resort of Ind- ians more or less hostile until the treaty of peace was signed. Brant is known to have been at Ogh- waga and Unadilla, and it is also true that wander- ing companies of Indians were there until a period long subsequent to the peace; but these survivals were few in numbers, and were often Oneidas friendly to the settlers. Cooper delayed the fare- well of Leather Stocking to Otsego Lake until 1794, when he put these words into his hero's mouth:
When I look about me at these hills where I used to could count sometimes twenty smokes, curling over the tree tops from the Delaware camps, it raises mournful thoughts to think that not a red skin is left of them all, unless it be a drunken vagabond from the Oneidas, or them Yankee Indians who, they say, be moving up from the sea shore. Well, well! The time has come at last and I must go.
Men born to toil and veterans of war took up these new tasks in the wilderness. The first to enter the Susquehanna, came from the Mohawk and Schoharie. A number arrived between the surrender of Cornwallis and the conclusion of the treaty of peace, including Isaac Collier, who entered by Otsego Lake as early as 1782. Mr. Collier was of German descent and before the war had been a
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taxpayer in the Mohawk Valley. He was the father of Peter Collier. On the Susquehanna he opened a hotel, at the settlement since called after him, where pioneers long found food and shel- ter.
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