History of Greene County, Pennsylvania, Part 3

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : Nelson, Rishforth
Number of Pages: 908

USA > Pennsylvania > Greene County > History of Greene County, Pennsylvania > Part 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The Indian, as he was found upon this continent when first vis- ited by the European, was very different in form, features, mental constitution, and habits from the latter, and apparently unalterably different from any other race. But while they were thus unlike other races, there was found to be a strong resemblance in all essen- tial elements in all the various tribes and nationalities of their own race. The color of the skin was of a reddish brown, their hair was black, straight, stiff, not plentiful, and the males had scarcely any beard; the jaw-bone was large, the cheek-bone high and prominent, and the forehead high, square and prominent above the eyes, show- ing a large development of the perceptive faculties; but narrow, and sloping backward at the top, showing defective reasoning powers. The person, unincumbered with the clothing common to a fashionable age in civilized countries, was erect, well developed, and in movement quick, lithe, and graceful.

Dr. Spencer, in his chapter on the characteristics of the Indians, has given the following graphic account of them: "Their intellect- nal faculties were more limited, and their moral sensibilities, from want of cultivation, less lively. They seemed to be characterized by an inflexibility of organization, which rendered them almost incapa- ble of receiving foreign ideas, or amalgamating with more civilized nations-constituting them, in short, a people that might be broken. but could not be bent. This peculiar organization, too, together with the circumstances in which they were placed, moulded the character of their domestic and social condition. Their dwellings were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the banks of a river or near a sweet spring, they raised their

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

groups of wigwams, constructed of the barks of trees, and easily taken down and removed to another spot. The abodes of the chiefs were sometimes more spacious, and constructed with care, but of the same materials. Their villages were sometimes surrounded by de- fensive palisades. Skins taken in the chase, served them for repose. Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, its uncer- tain supply had led them to cultivate around their dwellings some patches of maize; but their exertions were desultory, and they were often exposed to the severity of famine. Every family did every- thing necessary within itself: and interchange of articles of commerce was hardly at all known among them.'

The Indian is by nature and habit indolent-as " lazy as he can be." To take up a tract of land, build himself a house with the conveniencies and privacies of civilized home life, clear away the heavy forests which incumber it, plough and cultivate the sodden acres, fence in the many fields, dig for himself a well, get and care for flocks and herds, and lay up for himself and family abundant sup- plies of the products of the soil, would have been to entail upon him insufferable misery, and rather than undertake the first stroke of such a life of toil, he would rather end it at once. He believed that the fish of the stream, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the land where he should stretch his wigwam. were as free and open to appropriation as the air we breathe, or the waters that run sparkling in abundance to the sea. They ridiculed the idea of fencing a field, and depriving any who desired the use of it. The strong dominated over the weak. The male assumed superiority over the female, and made her in reality his slave. His grunt was law to her, and if he started upon a journey she must trot after, bearing the infant, if she have one, and the burdens. If crops were to be planted, and cultivated, and gathered, it was by the sweat of her brow that it must be done. She must gather the fuel for the fire, weave the mat on which to set and sleep, fashion the basket and decorate it with fanciful colors. She was in short little less than the abject and degraded slave.

Of the more special occupations of the men Dr. Spencer has given the following interesting picture: " In cases of dispute and dissension, each Indian held to the right of retaliation, and relied on himself almost always to effect his revenge for injuries received. Blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, and wars of extermination, where that was possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, and the arts of peace, was the Indian's glory and delight; war, not conducted on the scale of more civilized, if not more Christian- like people; but war where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

cruelty were prime requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian was capable of making vast sacrifices, and displayed a patience and perseverance truly heroic; but when the excitement was over, he sunk back into a listless, unoccupied, well-nigh useless savage. The intervals of his more exciting pursuits the Indian filled up in the decoration of his person with all the refinements of paints and feath- ers, with the manufacture of his arms --- the club, the bow and ar- rows- and of canoes of bark, so light that they could easily be car- ried on the shoulder from stream to stream. His amusements were the war dance and song, and athletic games, the narration of his ex- ploits, and listening to the oratory of the chiefs. But, during long periods of his existence, he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forest, and the clouds that sailed far above his head; and this vacancy imprinted an habitual gravity and even melancholy upon his aspect and general deportment."

The Indian was thievish to the last degree, indeed this seems to have been as much a temper of his mind as indolence was of his body. The disposition to take that which did not belong to him may have in a measure resulted from his belief in the common prop- erty of water and air, and land, the beast and fowl that swarm upon its surface, and the fish that dart in its streams. It seems to him no sin to steal. Among the first colonies sent out from England to colonize the American coast an Indian was discovered to have stolen a silver cup. The punishment, inflicted by the inconsiderate colo- nists of burning their villages, and destroying their growing crops, provoked a revenge which resulted in the utter annihilation of the colony and engendered a hatred which many subsequent colonists felt the force of, and which inherited from generation to generation, seems never to have been worn out of the savage mind.

The Indians of North America, as they were found upon the arrival of Europeans, could not be said to have been under the gov- ernment of law. If an Indian had suffered an injury or an iusult, he took it upon himself to avenge without the forms of proof to fix the guilt, and if he was killed in the quarrel his nearest relatives felt themselves obliged to take up the avengement. Thus from the merest trifle the most deadly feuds arose by which the population

was visibly diminished. The warrior chiefs among them became such by superior skill or cunning, and not by any rule of hereditary decent, or majority of voices. Matters of public interest were dis- cussed in public assemblies of the whole people, in which all were free to join. Decisions were generally in favor of him who could work most powerfully upon the feelings of his audience, either by his native eloquence or by appeals to their superstition, by which they were easily moved. The man who pretended to be the repre- sentative of the Great Spirit, had a great influence over them, and

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

in cases of sickness he was appealed to as a last resort. It has been observed above that the Indian was naturally lazy. To that assertion one exception should be made. To carry out his purpose of re- venge the Indian was capable of making sacrifices, enduring hardships, and undergoing sufferings unsurpassed by the most daring of the human race. To gratify his thirst for revenge, he would make long and exhausting marches, with scant food, subsisting upon the bark of trees, the roots of the forest, and such random game as he might come upon, would lie in wait for his victims for hours and days enduring untold suffering.

It is curions to observe the impression which the natives made upon the first European visitants to these shores. Columbus in his report to Ferdinand and Isabella after his first voyage, said: “ I swear to your majesties, that there is not a better people in the world than these, more affectionate. affable, or mild. They love their neighbors as themselves; their language is the sweetest and the softest, and the most cheerful, for they always speak smiling, and although they go naked, let your majesties believe me, their customs are very becoming, and their king who is served with great majesty, has such engaging manners, that it gives great pleasure to see him, and also to consider the great retentive faculty of that people, and their desire of knowledge, which ineites them to ask the causes of things." If these were the real sentiments of Columbus, we are forced to believe that he had never seen an Indian in his war-paint and feathers, and that he had seen the Shylock who had money to lend, and not the Shylock who was exacting the penalty of the for- feited bond.

The adventurers whom Sir Walter Raleigh sent out for discovery and settlement, Amidas and Barlow, gave a graphie report of their impressions of the natives upon their return, which Hakluyt has preserved in his annals: "The soile is the most plentifull, sweete, fruitfull and wholesome, of all the worlde; there are above fourteene severall sweete smelling timber trees, and the most part of their underwoods are bayes and such like; they have such oakes that we have, but farre greater and better. After they had been divers times aboard our shippes myselfe, with seven more went twentie mile into the river that runneth towards the citie of Shicoak, which river they call Occam; and the evening following we came to an island, which they call Roanoke, distant from the harbor by which we entered seven leagues; and at the north end thereof was a village of nine houses, built of cedar, and fortified round about with sharpe trees to keep out their enimies, and the entrance into it made like a turnpike very artificially; when we came towards it, standing neere unto the waters' side, the wife of Granganimo, the king's brother, came run- ning out to meete us very cheerfully and friendly; her husband was

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

not then in the village; some of her people shee commanded to drawe our boate on shore, for the beating of the billoe, others she appointed to carry us on their backes to the dry ground, and others to bring our oares into the house for feare of stealing. When we were come into the utter room, having five rooms in her house, she cansed us to sit down by a great fire, and after tooke off our choathes, and washed them, and dried them againe; some of the women plucked off our stockings, and washed them, some washed our feete in warm water. and she herself tooke great paines to see all things ordered in the best manner she could, making greate haste to dresse some meate for us to eate. After we had thus dried ourselves she brought us into this inner roome, where shee set on the boord standing along the house, some wheate like fermentie; sodden venison and roasted; fish, sodden, boyled, and roasted; melons, rawe and sodden; rootes of divers kinds; and divers fruits. Their drink is commonly water, but while the grape lasteth, they drinke wine, and for want of caskes to keepe it, all the yere after they drink water, but it sodden with ginger in it, and black sinnamon, and sometimes sassaphras, and divers other wholesome, and medicinable hearbes and trees. We

were entertained with all love and kindnesse, and with as much bountie, after their manner as they could possibly devise. We found the people most gentle, loving, and faithfull, voide of all guile and treason, and such as live after the manner of the golden age. The people onely care to defend themselves from the cold in their short winter, and to feed themselves with such meat as the soile afforeth; their meat is very well sodden, and they make broth very sweet and savorie; their vessels are earthen pots, very large, white, and sweete; their dishes are wooden platters of sweet timber. With- in the place where they feede was their lodging, and within that their idoll, which they worship, of whom they speak incredible things. While we were at meate, there came in at the gates two or three men with their bowes and arrowes from hunting, whom, when we espied, we began to looke one towards another, and offered to reach our weapons; but as soone as she espied our mistrust, she was very much moved, and caused some of her men to runne out, and take away their bowes and arrowes and breake them, and withall beate the poore fellowes out of the gate againe.

When we departed in the evening, and would not tarry all night, she was very sory, and gave ns into our boate our supper half dressed pottes and all, and brought us to our boateside, in which we lay all night, removing the same a prettie distance from the shore; she perceiving our jelousie, was much grieved, and sent divers men and thirtie women, to sit all night on the bank-side by ns, and sent into our boates five mattes to cover us from the raine, using very many wordes to entreate us to rest in their houses; but because we were fewe men, and if we had

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

miscarried the voyage had beene in very great danger, we durst not adventure anything, although there was no canse of doubt, for a more kinde and loving people there cannot be found in the worlde, as far as we have hitherto had triall. "

Though given here at some length, this passage from the records of the faithful Hakluyt is very valuable as picturing the life of the simple Indians, and their temper towards the early European voy- agers, before their minds had been soured by injury and wrong which careless and brutal colonists subsequently visited upon them; and it may well be questioned whether, they would not have remained friend- ly and loving as here described had they received loving and Chris- tian treatment in return. It is possible that such relations might have been preserved with the natives, that the tales of blood and sav- agery which form a dark page in the early history of Greene County would never have had occasion to be recorded. Certain it is that the redmen have had great provocation, and have received most in- human and unchristian treatment at the hands of the pale face.

The relations of William Penn with the savages was different from those of any other European. He really believed them brethren in the true scripture sense, and treated them as such. Hence his view of the Indian character would naturally be more favorable to them than if regarded through prejudiced eyes. "For their persons," he says, "they are generally tall, straight, well built, and of singular proportion. They tread strong and elever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin. Their language is lofty, yet narrow; but. like the HIe- brew, in signification, full. If an European comes to see them. or calls for lodging at their house or wigwam, they give him the best place and first eut. If they come to visit us, they salute us with an "Itah! which is as much as to say 'Good be to you" and set them down, which is mostly on the ground, close to their heels, their legs upright. It may be they speak not a word, but observe all passages. If you give them anything to eat or drink. well, for they will not ask; and be it little or much, if it be with kindness, they are well pleased; else they go away sullen, but say nothing."

"In liberality," he says, "they excel; nothing is too good for their friend; give them a fine gun, coat or other thing, it may pass twenty hands before it stieks; light of heart, strong affections, but soon spent. The most merry creatures that live, feast and dance per- petually; they never have much nor want much; wealth circulateth like the blood; all parts partake; and though none shall want what another hath, yet exact observers of property. Some kings have sold, others presented me with several parcels of land; the pay, or presents I made them were not hoarded by their particular owners; but the neighboring kings and their clans being present when the goods were brought ont, the parties chiefly concerned consulted what, 2

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

and to whom, they would give them. To every king then, by the hands of a person for that work appointed, is a proportion sent, so sorted and folded, and with that gravity that is admirable. Then the king subdivideth it, in like manner, among his dependants, they hardly leaving themselves an equal share with one of their subjects; and be it on sneh occasions as festivals, or at their common meals, the king's distribute and to themselves last. They care for little be- cause they want little, and the reason is a little contents them. We sweat and toil to live; their pleasure feeds them; I mean their hunting, fishing and fowling, and their table is spread everywhere. They eat twice a day, morning and evening; their seats and table are the ground. Since the Europeans came into these parts, they are grown great lovers of strong liquors, rum especially, and for it ex- change the richest of their skins and furs. If they are heated with liquors, they are restless till they have enough to sleep; that is their cry, 'Some more and I will go to sleep;' but when drunk, one of the most wretched spectacles in the world."

Bancroft, in his elaborate chapter on the habits and customs of the Indians, says: "During the mild season there may have been little suffering. But thrift was wanting; the stores collected by the industry of the women was squandered in festivities. The hospitality of the Indian has rarely been questioned. The stranger enters his cabin, by day or by night, without asking leave, and is entertained as freely as a thrush or a black-bird that regales himself on the luxuries of the fruitful grove. He will take his own rest abroad, that he may give up his own skin, or mat of sedge, to his guest. . Nor is the traveler questioned as to the purpose of his visit; he chooses his own time freely to deliver his message."

We may gather from the testimony of those who earliest encountered them, what were some of the most marked of the charae- teristics. Of the stealth of the Indian in creeping upon his victim unawares, and the laying in wait for him in some well-chosen am- buscade, we may look for the canse in the necessity he was under of practicing these qualities in the pursuit of his game. From child- hood he was taught to move noiselessly through the forest lest by the breaking of a twig he put to flight the coveted game for lack of which he was perhaps starving. The same noiseless tread with which he approached the pool where sported the finny tribe, and came un- noticed upon the wild fowl, was practiced in seeking ont the vietims of his revenge, or putting to the torture his prisoners of war. Of the barbarity practiced upon the latter, in no part of the human race is it equalled. Brebeuf has described it in all its horrors, as recorded by Bancroft: "On the way to the cabins of his conquerors, the hands of au Iroquois prisoner were ernshed between stones, his fingers torn off or mutilated, the joints of his arms scorched and

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

gashed, while he himself preserved his tranquility, and sang the songs of his nation. Arriving at the homes of his conquerors, all the cabins regaled him, and a young girl was bestowed upon him, to be the wife of his captivity and the companion of his last loves. * * To the crowd of his guests he declared: . My brothers, I am going to die; make merry around me with good heart; I am a man; I fear neither death nor your torments;' and he sang alond. The feast being ended, he was conducted to the cabin of blood. They place him on a mat, and bind his hands; he rises and dances around the cabin, chanting his death song. At eight in the evening eleven fires had been kindled, and these are hedged in by files of spectators. The young men selected to be the actors are exhorted to do well, for their deeds would be grateful to Areskoui, the powerful war god. A war chief strips the prisoner, shows him naked to the people, and assigns their office to the tormentors. Then ensued a scene the most horrible; torments lasted till after sunrise, when the wretched victim. bruised, gashed, mutilated, half roasted and scalped, was carried out of the village and hacked in pieces."

From the venerable sachem to the infant in arms, the aged mother to the tender maiden, by all the tribe was this torture of the captive beheld. It was an occasion of feasting and rejoicing. The greater the power of endurance of the victim and the more fierce and ter- rible the torture invented the more exquisite the enjoyment of the spectators. To add a pang to the sufferer was a subject of congratu- lation to the one who inflicted it. Often the greatest refinement of cruelty was devised and inflicted by the women. And when the last pang had been endured and all was over they feasted upon the victim's flesh.

Further on in this work some account will be given of deeds of blood perpetrated by the savages in this county. From the evidence which has now been addneed some conception of the primary char- acter of the natives can be formed, and an idea entertained of those qualities of mind and heart which could prompt them to the mid- night murdering and deeds of savagery which were to them a favorite trade.

40)

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

CHAPTER III.

ORIGINAL SETTLEMENT UPON THE CONTINENT BY EUROPEANS -- PONCE DE LEON IN FLORIDA-VASQUEZ DE AYLLON SEIZING NATIVES FOR SLAVES-DE SOTO DISCOVERS THE MISSISSIPPI-VOYAGES OF VER- . RAZZANI-JAQUES CARTER-CHAMPLAIN IN CANADA-HIS EX- PEDITION AGAINST THE IROQUOIS - MARQUETTE AND JOLIET VOYAGE TO THE MISSISSIPPI - MAP OF COUNTRY -- DEATH OF MARQUETTE-REMARKS OF HILDRETH AND CHARLEVOIX-LA SALLE PUSHES EXPLORATIONS ON THE MISSISSIPPI -- TAKES FORMAL POS- SESSION OF THE RIVER AND LANDS IT DRAINS-POSSIBILITIES OF GREENE COUNTY -- ENGLAND COLONIZES -- EARLY ATTEMPTS ABOR- TIVE-GRANTS OF JAMES I-SETTLEMENT OF JJAMESTOWN AND PLY- MOUTH-THE DUTCH ON THE DELAWARE -- BY WHAT RIGHT HAD EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS ON THIS CONTINENT -- A FRUITFUL COUNTRY UNUSED -- A SAVAGE AND BARBARIC PEOPLE ENCUMBER IT --- OBSERVATIONS OF JUSTICE STORY -- DECISION OF CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL -- THE INJUSTICE RANKLED IN THE BREASTS OF THE SAVAGES.

roused by the roseate accounts given by Columbus and the com-

A panions of his voyage of discovery in 1492, which was spread broadcast over Europe by the art of printing just then brought into use, the Sovereigns of three European nations, at that time most puissant, encouraged their subjects to make voyages of discovery and issued patents empowering them to take possession of such portions of the main land in the New World, and the contiguous islands of the sea, as they might visit and explore. Spain, having through Ferdinand and Isabella, patronized the great discoverer, took the lead, assuming a préemption right to the continent, by virtue of discovery, and Cortes and Pizzaro did their work of slaughter and extermination upon weaker and inoffensive peoples, innocent of any crimes against their oppressors.

Juan Ponce de Leon, who had been a companion of Columbus, having heard of a miraculous fountain upon the mainland whose waters could impart life and perpetual youth, eager to bathe in the healing stream, sailed on the 3d of March, 1512, in quest of it. It was the season, when, in that far southern elime, the whole land was bursting into blossom, and, as he coasted along a great country pre- senting one mass of bloom. he thought indeed, he had found the land of perpetual life, and, accordingly, named it Florida. But the

HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

weather was tempestuous, and returning to the West Indies, he sought, and obtained from Charles V., of Spain, authority to take and govern the country; but upon his second expedition he found the natives hostile, and upon giving battle was mortally wounded and re- turned to the Islands to die.

Vasquez de Ayllon, in quest of slaves to work in the mines of Mexico, came upon this coast, and having enticed numbers of natives on board his vessels, perfidiously sailed away: but one of his ships was lost in a storm, and the natives, who survived, disdaining to work, refused to eat, and died miserably of starvation. Not satis- fied with his experience, de Ayllon obtained authority from Charles V. to conquer and govern the country, and in 1525 again set sail with his colonists. But now he found his tactics reversed; for the natives were the enticers, and having invited the body of the visitants to a feast gave them to slaughter and destruction. Again in 1528, Pamphilo de Narvaez with Alvar de Vacca and four hundred colon- ists sailed for Tampa Bay: but after fruitless wanderings by sea and land in which the leader was lost, de Vaeca made his escape with but four of his companions alive, having spent ten years in fruitless

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Greene County, Pennsylvania, Part 3

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Chicago : Nelson, Rishforth Number of Pages: 908

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : Nelson, Rishforth
Number of Pages: 908