USA > Ohio > History of the state of Ohio > Part 7
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" We kept moving and hunting up this river until we came to the falls : here we remained some weeks, and killed a number of deer, several bears, and a great many raccoons. They then buried their large canoe in the ground, which is the way they took to preserve this sort of a canoe in the winter season.
" As we had at this time no horses, every one got a pack on his back, and we steered an east course about twelve miles and encamped. The next morning we proceeded on the same course about ten miles to a large creek that empties into Lake Erie betwixt Canesadooharie and Cayahaga. Here
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they made their winter cabin in the following form : they cut logs about fifteen feet long, and laid these logs upon each other, and drove posts in the ground at each end to keep them together ; the posts they tied together at the top with bark, and by this means raised a wall fifteen feet long, and about four feet high, and in the same manner they raised another wall opposite to this, at about twelve feet distance ; they then drove forks in the ground in the centre of each end, and laid a strong pole from end to end on these forks ; and from these walls to the poles, they set up poles instead of rafters, and on these they tied small poles in place of laths ; and a cover was made of linn bark, which will run even in the winter season.
" As every tree will not run, they examine the tree first, by trying it near the ground, and when they find it will do, they fell the tree and raise the bark with the tomahawk, near the top of the tree, about five or six inches broad, then put the tomahawk handle under this bark, and pull it along down to the butt of the tree; so that sometimes one piece of bark will be thirty feet long. This bark they cut at suitable lengths in order to cover the hut.
"At the end of these walls they set up split timber, so that they had timber all around, excepting a door at each end. At the top, in place of a chimney, they left an open place, and for bedding they laid down the aforesaid kind of bark, on which they spread bear skins. From end to end of this hut, along the middle, there were fires, which the squaws made of dry split wood, and the holes or open places that appeared, the squaws stopped with moss, which they collected from old logs ; and at the door they hung a bear skin ; and notwithstanding the winters are hard here, our lodging was much better than I expected."
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It appears that this Wyandot encampment consisted of eight hunters and thirteen squaws, boys and children. Soon afterwards, four of the hunters started upon an expedition against the English settlements, leaving Tontileaugo, three other Indians, and Smith, to supply the camp with food. The winter months passed in hunting excursions-the bear, even more than the deer, being an object of active and suc- cessful pursuit. The months of February and March, 1756, seem to have been occupied as follows :
" In February we began to make sugar. As some of the elm bark will strip at this season, the squaws, after finding a tree that would do, cut it down, and with a crooked stick, broad and sharp at the end, took the bark off the tree, and of this bark made vessels in a curious manner, that would hold about two gallons each ; they made above one hundred of these kind of vessels. In the sugar-tree they cut a notch, sloping down, and at the end stuck in a tomahawk; in the place where they stuck the tomahawk, they drove a long chip, in order to carry the water out from the tree, and under this they set their vessel to receive it. As sugar-trees were plenty and large here, they seldom or never notched a tree that was not two or three feet over. They also made bark vessels for carrying the water that would hold about four gallons each. They had two brass kettles that held about fifteen gallons each, and other smaller kettles in which they boiled the water. But as they could not at times boil away the water as fast as it was collected, they made vessels of bark that would hold about one hundred gallons each for re- taining the water ; and though the sugar-trees did not run every day, they had always a sufficient quantity of water to keep them boiling during the whole sugar season.
"The way we commonly used our sugar while encamped
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was by putting it in bear's fat until the fat was almost as sweet as the sugar itself, and in this we dipped our roasted venison. About this time, some of the Indian lads and my- self were employed in making and attending traps for catch- ing raccoons, foxes, wild-cats, &c.
" As the raccoon is a kind of water animal, that frequents the runs, or small water courses, almost the whole night, we made our traps on the runs, by laying one small sapling on another, and driving in posts to keep them from rolling. The under sapling we raised about eighteen inches, and set so that on the raccoon's touching a string, or a small piece of bark, the sapling would fall and kill it; and lest the raccoon should pass by, we laid brush on both sides of the run, only leaving the channel open.
"The fox-traps we made nearly in the same manner, at the end of a hollow log, or opposite to a hole at the root of a hollow tree, and put venison on a stick for bait; we had it so set that when the fox took hold of the meat the trap fell. While the squaws were employed in making sugar, the boys and men were engaged in hunting and trapping.
"About the latter end of March, we began to prepare for moving into town, in order to plant corn. The squaws were then frying the last of their bear's fat, and making vessels to hold it; the vessels were made of deer skins, which were skinned by pulling the skin off the neck, without ripping. After they had taken off the hair, they gathered it in small plaits round the neck, and with a string drew it together like a purse; in the centre a pin was put, below which they tied a string, and while it was wet they blew it up like a bladder, and let it remain in this manner until it was dry, when it appeared nearly in the shape of a sugar loaf, but more rounding at the lower end. One of these vessels would
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hold about four or five gallons. In these vessels it was they carried their bear's oil."
When all things were ready, the party returned to the falls of Canesadooharie, and thence, after building another canoe of elm bark, to the town at the mouth of the river.
By this time, Smith was thoroughly domesticated among his Indian captors. He found himself treated as an equal and often with disinterested kindness. His Indian name, by which they habitually addressed him, was Scoouwa. At length, he and his adopted brother, Tontileaugo, started for a westward journey to Sandusky Lake-Smith on horseback along the strand of Lake Erie, and the Indian in a canoe near the shore. Here we resume our extracts :
"After some time, the wind arose, and we went into the mouth of a small creek, and encamped. Here we stayed sev- eral days on account of high wind, which raised the lake in great billows. While we were here, Tontileaugo went out to hunt, and when he was gone, a Wyandot came to our camp: I gave him a shoulder of venison which I had by the fire, well roasted, and he received it gladly, told me he was hungry and thanked me for my kindness. When Tontile- augo came home, I told him that a Wyandot had been at camp, and that I gave him a shoulder of venison; he said that was very well, and I suppose you gave him also sugar and bear's oil, to eat with his venison. I told him I did not ; as the sugar and bear's oil was down in the canoe, I did not go for it. He replied, you have behaved just like a Dutch- man.4 Do you not know that when strangers come to our
4) It is stated in a foot note that "the Dutch he called Skoharchaugo, which took its derivation from a Dutch settlement, Skoharey "-probably Scoharic. It will be remembered that these Caughnewagas were a mixed race of Mohicans and Iroquois-otherwise the name of a remote settlement in New York would be unknown to an Ohio Indian.
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camp, we ought always to give them the best we have. I acknowledged that I was wrong. He said that he could excuse this, as I was but young, but I must learn to behave like a warrior, and do great things, and never be found in any such little actions.
"The lake being age'a calm, we proceeded, and arrived safe at Sunyendeand, which was a Wyandot town, that lay upon a smail creek which empties into the little lake below the mouth of Sandusky.
" The town was about eighty rood above the mouth of the creek, on the south side of a large plain, on which timber grew, and nothing more but grass or nettles. In some pla- ces there were large flats, where nothing but grass grew, about three feet high when grown, and in other places noth- ing but nettles, very rank, where the soil is extremely rich and loose-here they planted corn. In this town, there were also French traders, who purchased our skins and fur, and we all got new clothes, paint, tobacco, &c.
"After I had got my new clothes, and my head done off like a redheaded woodpecker, I, in company with a number of young Indians, went down to the cornfield, to see the squaws at work. When we came there, they asked me to take a hoe, which I did, and hoed for some time. The squaws applauded me as a good hand at the business; but when I returned to the town, the old men hearing of what I had done, chid me, and said that I was adopted in the place of a great man, and must not hoe corn like a squaw. They never had occasion to reprove me for anything like this again ; as I never was extremely fond of work, I readily complied with their orders.
"As the Indians, on their return from their winter hunt, bring in with them large quantities of bear's oil, sugar, dried
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venison, &c., at times they have plenty, and do not spare eating or giving-thus they make away with their provision as quick as possible. They have no such thing as regular meals, breakfast, dinner or supper ; but if any one, even the town folks, would go to the same house several times in one day, he would be invited to eat of the best-and with then it is bad manners to refuse to eat when it is offered. If the" will not eat, it is interpreted as a symptom of displeasure, or that the persons refusing to eat were angry with those who invited them.
"At this time, hominy, plentifully mixed with bear's oil and sugar, is what they offer to every one who comes in any time of the day ; and so they go on until their sugar, bear' oil and venison is all gone, and then they have to eat hominy by itself without bread, salt or any thing else; yet still they invite every one that comes in, to eat whilst they have any thing to give. It is thought a shame not to invite people to eat, while they have any thing; but if they can, in truth, only say we have got nothing to eat, this is accepted as an honorable apology. All the hunters and warriors continued in town about six weeks after we came in; they spent this time in painting, going from house to house, eating, smoking, and playing at a game resembling dice, or hustle cap. They put a number of plum stones in a small bowl; one side of each stone is black, and the other white; they then shake or hustle the bowl, calling hits, hits, hits, honesy, honesy, rego, rego; which signifies calling for white or black, or what they wish to turn up; they then turn the bowl, and count the whites and blacks. Some were beating their kind of drum [described elsewhere as " a short hollow gum, closed at one end, with water in it, and parchment stretched over the end thereof, which they beat with one stick"] and sing- 5
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ing; others were employed in playing on a sort of flute, made of hollow cane; and others playing on the jews harp. Some part of this time was also taken up in attending the council-house, where the chiefs, and as many others as chose, attended: and at night they were frequently employed in singing and dancing. Towards the last of this time, which was in June, 1756, they were all engaged in preparing to go to war against the frontiers of Virginia: when they were equipped, they went through their ceremonies, sung their war songs, &c. They all marched off, from fifteen to sixty years of age : and some boys, only twelve years old, were equipped with their bows and arrows, and went to war: so that none were left in town but squaws and children, except myself, one very old man, and another about fifty years of age, who was lame.
" The Indians were then in great hopes that they would drive all the Virginians over the lake, which is all the name they knew for the sea. They had some cause for this hope, because at this time the Americans were altogether unac- quainted with war of any kind, and consequently very unfit to stand their hand with such subtle enemies as the Indians were. The two old Indians asked me if I did not think that the Indians and French would subdue all America except New England, which they said they had tried in old times. I told them I thought not ; they said they had already drove them all out of the mountains, and had chiefly laid waste the great valley betwixt the North and South mountain, from Potomac to James River, which is a considerable part of the best land in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and that the white people appeared to them like fools : they could neither guard against surprise, run, nor fight. These, they said, were their reasons for saying that they would subdue
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the whites. They asked me to offer my reasons for my opin- ion, and told me to speak my mind freely. I told them that the white people to the east were very numerous, like the trees, and though they appeared to them to be fools, as they were not acquainted with their way of war, yet they were not fools ; therefore, after some time they will learn your mode of war, and turn upon you, or at least defend themselves. I found that the old men themselves did not believe they could conquer America, yet they were willing to propagate the idea in order to encourage the young men to go to war.
" When the warriors left this town we had neither meat, sugar or bear's oil left. All that we had then to live on was corn pounded into coarse meal or small hominy-this they boiled in water, which appeared like well thickened soup, without salt or anything else. For some time we had plenty of this kind of hominy ; at length we were brought to very short allowance, and as the warriors did not return as soon as they expected, we were in a starving condition, and but one gun in the town and very little ammunition. The old lame Wyandot concluded that he would go a hunting in the canoe and take me with him, and try to kill deer in the water, as it was then watering time. We went up Sandusky a few miles, then turned up a creek and encamped. We had lights prepared, as we were to hunt in the night, and also a piece of bark and some bushes set up in the canoe, in order to conceal ourselves from the deer. A little boy that was with us held the light, I worked the canoe, and the old man who had his gun loaded with large shot, when we came near the deer fired, and in this manner killed three deer in part of one night. We went to our fire, ate heartily, and in the morning returned to town, in order to relieve the hungry and distressed.
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" When we came to town the children were crying bitterly on account of pinching hunger. We delivered what we had taken, and though it was but little among so many, yet it was divided according to the strictest rules of justice. We immediately set out for another hunt, but before we returned a party of the warriors had come in, and brought with them on horseback a quantity of meat. These warriors had divi- ded into different parties, and all struck at different places in Augusta county. They brought in with them a considerable
number of scalps, prisoners, horses and other plunder. One of the parties brought in with them one Arthur Campbell. As the Wyandots at Sunyendeand and those at Detroit were con- nected, Mr. Campbell was taken to Detroit ; but he remained some time with me in this town; his company was very agreeable and I was sorry when he left me. During his stay at Sunyendeand he borrowed my Bible, and made some very pertinent remarks on what he read. One passage, where it is said, 'It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.' He said we ought to be resigned to the will of Providence, as we were now bearing the yoke in our youth. Mr. Campbell appeared to be about sixteen or seventeen years of age.
" There was a number of prisoners brought in by these parties, and when they were made to run the gauntlet, I went and told them how they were to act. One John Sav- age was brought in, and a middle aged man of about forty years old. He was to run the gauntlet. I told him what he had to do ; and after this I fell into one of the ranks with the Indians, shouting and yelling like them ; and as they were not very severe on him, as he passed me I hit him with a piece of a pumpkin, which pleased the Indians much, but hurt my feelings.
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" About the time that these warriors came in, the green corn was beginning to be of use, so that we had either green corn or venison, and sometimes both, which was comparatively high living. When we could have plenty of green corn, or roasting ears, the hunters became lazy, and spent their time, as already mentioned, in singing and dancing, &c. They appeared to be fulfilling the Scriptures beyond those who profess to believe them, in that of taking no thought of to- morrow ; and also in love, peace and friendship together, without dispute. In this respect they shame those who pro- fess Christianity.
" In this manner we lived until October ; then the geese, swans, ducks, cranes, &c., came from the north and alighted on this little lake without number or innumerable. Sun- yendeand is a remarkable place for fish in the spring, and fowl both in the fall and spring.
" As our hunters were now tired with indolence, and fond of their own kind of exercise, they all turned out to fowling, and in this could scarce miss of success ; so that we had now plenty of hominy and the best of fowls; and sometimes, as a rarity, we had a little bread made of Indian corn meal, pounded in a hominy block, mixed with boiled beans, and baked into cakes under the ashes.
" This with us was called good living, though not equal to our fat roasted and boiled venison, when we went to the woods in the fall ; or bear's meat and beaver in the winter ; or sugar, bear's oil and dry venison in the spring.
" Sometime in October, another adopted brother, older than Tontileaugo, came to pay us a visit at Sunyendeand, and asked me to take a hunt with him on Cayahaga. As they always used me as a freeman, and gave me the liberty of choosing, I told him that I was attached to Tontilcaugo-
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had never seen him before, and therefore asked some time to consider this. He told me that the party he was going with would not be along, or at the mouth of this little lake, in less than six days, and I could in this time be acquainted with him, and judge for myself. I consulted with Tontileaugo on this occasion, and he told me that our old brother Tecaughre- tanego, (which was his name,) was a chief, and a better man than he was; and if I went with him I might expect to be well used ; but he said I might do as I pleased, and if I stayed he would use me as he had done. I told him that he had acted in every respect as a brother to me ; yet I was much pleased with my old brother's conduct and conversation ; and as he was going to a part of the country I had never been in, I wished to go with him. He said that he was perfectly willing.
" I then went with Tecaughretanego to the mouth of the little lake, where he met with the company he intended going with, which was composed of Caughnewagas and Ottawas. Here I was introduced to a Caughnewaga sister, and others I had never before seen. My sister's name was Mary, which they pronounced Maully. I asked Tecaughretanego how it came that she had an English name. He said he did not know that it was an English name ; but it was the name the priest gave her when she was baptized, and which he said was the name of the mother of Jesus. He said there were a great many of the Caughnewagas and Wyandots that were a kind of half Roman Catholics; but as for himself, he said, that the priest and him could not agree, as they held notions that contradicted both sense and reason, and had the assu- rance to tell him that the book of God taught them these foolish absurdities ; but he could not believe that the great and good Spirit cver taught them any such nonsense ; and
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therefore he concluded that the Indians' old religion was better than this new way of worshipping God.
" The Ottawas have a very useful kind of tents which they carry with them, made of flags, plaited and stitched together in a very artful manner, so as to turn the rain and wind well -each mat is made fifteen feet long and about five feet broad. In order to erect this kind of tent, they cut a number of long straight poles, which they drive in the ground, in the form of a circle, leaning inwards ; then they spread the mats on these poles, beginning at the bottom and extending up, leaving only a hole in the top uncovered-and this hole answers the place of a chimncy. They make fire of dry split wood in the middle, and spread down bark mats and skins for bedding, on which they sleep in a crooked posture, all round the fire, as the length of their beds will not admit of stretch- ing themselves. In place of a door they lift up onc end of a mat and creep in, and let the mat fall down behind them.
" These tents are warm and dry, and tolerably clear of smoke. Their lumber they keep under birch-bark canoes, which they carry out and turn up for a shelter, where they keep everything from the rain. Nothing is in the tents but themselves and their bedding.
" This company had four birch canoes and four tents. We were kindly received, and they gave us plenty of hominy and wild fowl boiled and roasted. As the geese, ducks, swans, &c., here are well grain fed, they were remarkably fat, espe- cially the green necked ducks. The wild fowl here feed upon a kind of wild rice that grows spontaneously in the shallow wa- ter, or wet places along the sides or in the corners of the lakes.
" As the wind was high, and we could not proceed on our voyage, we remained here several days, and killed abundance of wild fowl, and a number of raccoons.
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" When a company of Indians are moving together on the lake, as it is at this time of the year often dangerous sailing, the old men hold a council ; and when they agree to embark, every one is engaged immediately in making ready, without offering one word against the measure, though the lake may be boisterous and horrid. One morning, though the wind appeared to me to be as high as in days past, the billows raging, yet the call was given yohohyohoh, which was quickly answered by all-ooh-ooh, which signifies agreed. We were all instantly engaged in preparing to start, and had consider- able difficulties in embarking.
" As soon as we got into our canoes we fell to paddling with all our might, making out from the shore. Though these sort of canoes ride waves beyond what could be ex- pected, yet the water several times dashed into them. When we got out about half a mile from shore, we hoisted sail, and as it was nearly a west wind, we then seemed to ride the waves with ease, and went on at a rapid rate. We then all laid down our paddles, excepting one that steered, and there was no water dashed into our canoes until we came near the shore again. We sailed about sixty miles that day and en- camped some time before night.
" The next day we again embarked and went on very well 'or some time ; but the lake being boisterous and the wind not fair, we were obliged to make to shore, which we accom- lished with hard work and some difficulty in landing. The next morning a council was held by the old men.
" As we had this day to pass by a long precipice of rocks n the shore about nine miles, which rendered it impossible for us to land, though the wind was high and the lake rough, yet, as it was fair, we were all ordered to embark. We wrought ourselves out from the shore and hoisted sail (what
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we used in place of sail cloth were our tent-mats, which answered the purpose very well) and went on for some time with a fair wind, until we were opposite to the precipice, and then it turned towards the shore, and we began to fear we should be cast upon the rocks. Two of the canoes were considerably farther out from the rocks than the canoe I was in. Those who were farthest out in the lake did not let down their sails until they had passed the precipice ; but as we were nearer the rock, we were obliged to lower our sails and paddle with all our might. With much difficulty we cleared ourselves of the rock and landed. As the other canoes had landed before us, there were immediately runners sent off to see if we were all safely landed.
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