THE FIVE NATIONS, &c.
This noted confederacy consisted of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. The name given them, by the French writers, is the Iroquois. Each nation was divided into three tribes or families, distinguished by their ensigns, as the Tortoise, the Bear, and the Wolf. Their original seat was the island of Montreal and its vicinity. Many years before the French discovered Canada, they employed themselves in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. The Adirondacks, who then dwelt about 300 miles from Trois Rivières, where the Ottawas afterwards lived, pursued hunting, and exchanged their venison for the corn raised by the Five Nations.
The Adirondacks, or, as they are more frequently called by the French, the Algonquins, despised the Five Nations, as a weak people, occupied with business fit only for women. But on a certain occasion, their game failed, and they employed some of the young men of the Five Nations to assist them in hunting. These soon became expert and capable of enduring fatigue beyond the Adirondacks themselves. The latter consequently became jealous of them, and, fearing that they would throw off the yoke to which they were subjected, murdered them in cold blood. Not having any serious fears of the resentment of so unwarlike a people, they ordered a small compensation to be paid to the Five Nations, whom they looked upon as incapable of avenging the atrocity which had been perpetrated. These were, however, greatly exasperated, and resolved to be revenged. The Adirondacks, when informed of this, deemed it a good occasion to subject them to their sway, and accordingly attacked them. The Five Nations at first defended themselves faintly against their fierce and warlike assailants, and were forced to leave their own country, and fly to the shores of the Lakes. This occurred about the beginning of the seventeenth century. Here they applied themselves to the exercise of arms, and became daily more and more expert in the use of them. Their sachems, to remove the dread of the Adirondacks, entertained by their people, and to inspire them with some degree of confidence, first led them against the Satanas, who then occupied what are now the central parts of the State of New York. They subdued these, and drove them out of the country, to the banks of the Mississippi.
Having thus proved their courage, the Five Nations next successfully withstood the whole force of the Adirondacks. They then carried the war into the heart of their country, and forced them to leave it, and fly towards Quebec. The Adirondacks were now joined by the French, who had just commenced their settlements in Canada. The combatants met at Corlaer’s Lake, since called, after the French commander, Lake Champlain. The Five Nations had never seen fire-arms, and the French, keeping themselves concealed till the Indians were engaged, rose suddenly up and poured a deadly volley upon them. Panic-struck at the fearful character and deadly effect of the attack, they fled, with great loss, from the field.
By the influence of the French, the Hurons and other neighbouring nations now joined in the war against the Five Nations. The Adirondacks, thus reinforced, and having been furnished with fire-arms, proposed utterly to destroy their enemies. But their young men, fond of adventure, and refusing obedience to their captains, often attacked the foe rashly; and the latter, observing this, soon began to profit by it. They sent out small parties, who, meeting greater numbers of the enemy, retreated, while the Adirondacks pursued with fury, and carelessly suffered themselves to be drawn into ambuscades. Thus many of them were cut off with little loss to the victors. In this manner the Adirondacks were wasted away, while the practice of the Five Nations, of adopting into their tribes the prisoners taken from the Satanas, increased their strength and numbers.
The Five Nations appear to have delighted in stratagem, and amused the Adirondacks, and the Hurons, their allies, by messages to the French, pretending to wish for peace, and to have some priests come among them. When, accordingly, some Jesuits came, they kept them as hostages, in order to force the French to remain neutral in their wars with the Adirondacks. They then attacked and defeated the latter within two leagues of Quebec, and, had they known its weakness, might have destroyed even the French colony.
The allies of the Adirondacks, now struck with terror, fled in different directions. Soon after, the Five Nations collected 1,000 or 1,200 men, and set out to pay a visit to the governor of Canada. On their way, they met Piskaret, captured him, and, learning from him that the Adirondacks were divided into two bodies, they fell upon them and cut them to pieces. When the French first settled in Canada, the Adirondacks had 1,500 warriors within a league of Quebec, but, after this last battle, they never possessed any consequence as a nation.
Piskaret, whom we have just mentioned, was a great warrior, and famous for his exploits and stratagems. On one occasion, he set out for the country of the Five Nations, about the time of the spring thaws. He put the back part of his snow-shoes forward, and went along the ridges and high grounds, where the snow was melted, so that he might leave no track. Coming near a village of the Five Nations, he hid himself till night. Then stealing into a wigwam, he murdered the whole family while asleep, scalped them, and again hid himself. The next day, the murderer was sought for in vain. At midnight, he came out and repeated his bloody deed. The third night, a watch was kept. Piskaret bundled up his scalps, and then stole on till he discovered an Indian asleep. Him he despatched at a blow, but, being discovered, he was obliged to flee. As he was the swiftest of all the Indians, he suffered his pursuers to approach him, and then darted away. In the evening, he hid himself and lay down; his pursuers also stopped and went to sleep. Piskaret turned about, knocked them on the head, scalped them, and returned home. Such were the bloody feats which secured renown among the Indians.
The Five Nations having thus established their ascendency over the adjacent tribes, rapidly advanced in power. Though checked by the French, they still extended their sway in every direction, and especially towards the south. They conquered the whole territory of the Delawares, or Lenapes, and obliged them to put themselves under their protection. They spread their victorious bands over all the remote parts of Virginia, and down as far as the mouth of the Ohio, while they subdued the nations eastward to Connecticut River. They often travelled singly, or in small parties, three or four hundred miles, and lurked about the villages of their enemies to shed blood, and revenge the real or imputed wrongs of their friends. Their sway at length extended to South Carolina on the south, and on the west to the Mississippi, a tract of territory 1,200 miles in length, and 600 in breadth. In 1667, they formed a treaty with the governor of Maryland, which was afterwards broken, and troubles, both with that colony and Virginia, ensued. At last, Lord Howard, as agent of the latter, met the chiefs of the tribes at Albany, and, after a long conference, a peace, which was well observed on both sides, was entered into by the contracting parties.
In 1684, the French made great efforts to detach the Five Nations from the English. They invited them to a conference at an appointed place. The Onondagas complied, and sent one of their sachems and thirty warriors; the Senecas and others refused. The French commander, after reproaching the Indians, threatened them with vengeance, if they did not conform to his views; but the sachem replied boldly, and avowed his determination to preserve peace, and the Frenchman went home disappointed and enraged.
The Five Nations, soon after this, subdued the tribe of the Illinois, who had fought against them, and then prepared to go against the Miamis. The French determined to support their allies, and sent an order to all the Indians around Michilimackinac to assemble at Niagara and join them in an attack on the Senecas. The Potawatomies and others assembled at the place of rendezvous; but here the Ottawas sought to divert them from the enterprise, not being willing to lose a gainful trade they now enjoyed with the English. After various preparations, the French, with their Indian allies, marched toward the Seneca towns. The warriors of the latter tribe were, however, on the alert. Five hundred or more of them lay in ambush, while the French scouts passed within pistol-shot, and, not seeing them, reported that they could not find the enemy. The French pressed boldly forward, but, when they were about a quarter of a league from their village, the Senecas suddenly rose upon them with a discharge of their fire-arms, attended by the appalling war-whoop. This threw the militia, as well as the regular troops, into a fright, and such was the confusion, that they fired on one another. The Senecas, perceiving their disorder, fell upon them, till the French Indians, at last, rallied and repulsed them. This action so dispirited the French commander, that he could not be induced immediately to pursue his object; he halted till the next day, when he marched forward to burn the village. But he now found that the Senecas had already laid it in ashes and disappeared. After destroying two other villages, and the corn he found there, he returned home to Canada.
Instigated by new causes of dissatisfaction, the Five Nations invaded Canada with a large force, and pushed the war with such vigor as to take Montreal and lay it in ashes. One thousand of the French are said to have been killed, and twenty-six taken prisoners, with the loss of only three men on the part of the Indians, who got drunk and remained behind. Had they understood the feeble condition of the French, and been relieved from the influence of the priests that were among them, especially the Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas, the French settlements in Canada would probably have been totally ruined.
Influenced by the advice of an English officer, Colonel Dogan, in whom they confided, the Five Nations, so far as they could, formed treaties with the Western Indians. At this period, war between the English and the French again broke out, and Count Frontenac, the new governor of Canada, sent a message to the tribes by a sachem who had been a prisoner and had been carried to France, but who had just returned with the Count. The object of this mission was to invite the Five Nations to a conference, for the purpose of making peace. After holding a general council, consisting of eighty sachems, at Onondaga, on the 27th of December, 1689, at which they requested the mayor of Albany to be present, in order to advise them, they sent to Count Frontenac their answer. This was quite characteristic. Its conclusion ran thus:—
“Yonondio,” (the name they always gave the French governor,) “you desire to speak with us at Cadarackui. Don’t you know that your fire there is extinguished? It is extinguished with blood. You must send home the prisoners in the first place.
“We let you know that we have made peace with the Wagunhas [probably the Ottawas]. You are not to think that we have laid down the axe because we return no answer; we intend no such thing. Our far-fighters shall continue the war till our countrymen return. When our brother is returned, then we will speak to you of peace.”
The Five Nations were now engaged in frequent skirmishes with the French, whom they annoyed greatly by their war-parties, killing some, and carrying off others as prisoners, sometimes even from the vicinity of Montreal. The Mohawks, however, not finding the English earnest in furnishing them aid, as they had promised, began to incline to make peace with the French. They accordingly despatched some of their sachems to Count Frontenac for this purpose, and entered into a treaty with him. The English, being made aware of this, renewed their covenant with the other nations, and gave them presents. The Mohawks also renewed their alliance with the English colonies, saying, “Though an angry dog has endeavoured to bite the chain in pieces, we are resolved to keep it firm, both in peace and in war. We now renew the old chain, that so the tree of peace and prosperity may flourish and spread its roots through all the country.”
During the whole of this war, the Five Nations remained faithful to the English colonies, notwithstanding the intrigues of the French to lure them over to their side. They contributed essentially to the protection of our frontiers, and greatly harassed the enemy along the whole Canadian border. The contest drew forth many acts of extraordinary skill and bravery, on both sides, as well as others of shocking atrocity. The French seemed often to forget their civilization in their fury against their savage foe. At last, the treaty of Ryswick, between England and France, which terminated the war in other quarters, brought peace also to the Indian tribes.
During Queen Anne’s War, the Five Nations were prevailed on by the French, as they refused their alliance, to stand neutral, for they could not be induced to make war against the English. They were, however, more or less engaged in incursions into Virginia, and harassing the friendly Indians there. In 1712, they received into their confederacy the Tuscaroras, who fled from North Carolina, as we have related; so that, afterwards, they bore the title of the Six Nations. The peace of Utrecht, in 1713, put an end to the hostilities between the English and French. The Indians were now, for a number of years, engaged in trade, both at Montreal and Albany.
In 1743, several chiefs of the Six Nations met the English commissioners at Philadelphia. They there made a cession of their lands on both sides of the Susquehannah, in Pennsylvania, and, in view of the expected war with the French, renewed their bond of alliance with them. Similar meetings and treaties occurred in 1744, between the Six Nations and the governors of Maryland and Virginia. The Delawares were required by the Six Nations to remove to the west side of the River Delaware, and not to sell lands hereafter, “as they were no better than women.” A peace was made with the Cherokees, with whom they were at war, but not with the Catawbas, whom they threatened with their vengeance, because they did not come and join them at the council. In the year 1746, they met the governor of New York and renewed their alliances; and, from time to time, they sent out parties to harass the French, in which they were joined by the Susquehannah Indians.
Subsequently to this, the Six Nations, and especially the Mohawks, were brought peculiarly under the influence of an English officer, afterwards celebrated in history as Sir William Johnson. Hendrick, the renowned king of the Mohawks, and his warriors, accompanied their patron in his various military excursions against the French, which terminated in the surrender of Canada to the English. The chief himself sealed his fidelity with his blood, having fallen at the battle of Lake George. Many instances of his sagacity are related. A council of war having been called, on a certain occasion, and the proposition made to send out a detachment to meet the enemy, Hendrick, being consulted, said, “If they are to fight, they are too few; if they are to be killed, too many.” Another proposition being made to send out three parties, the old chief took three sticks and said, “Put these together, and you cannot break them; one by one, you can do it easily.” His sagacity was admitted, his advice followed, and the victory was won.
It appears that this famous chief received the title of King; the occasion is said to have been as follows. The Mohawks and the River Indians, called Mohegans, had a contest which should have the honor of naming their king. Both nations gathered in their strength, and met at a place called Woton Island, in the Hudson River, to decide the question. A pitched battle was fought, which lasted through the day. Towards night, the Mohawks, fearing that the Mohegans were likely to gain the victory, suddenly took to flight, and gained another island. In the evening, they kindled a great number of fires, and spread their blankets on some bushes, as though they had encamped beneath them. The Mohegans, pursuing, landed on the island in the night, and, imagining the Mohawks to be asleep, crept up as silently as possible, and poured a heavy fire on the spot; they then rushed forward with their knives and tomahawks, raising their yells, and cutting and slashing in every direction. At this moment, the Mohawks, who lay flat on the ground, rose from their ambush at a little distance, and poured in a murderous fire on their foes, whom they could distinguish by the light of the fires. Most of them were killed, or borne down and taken prisoners. A treaty was then made, by which the Mohawks were to appoint the king, and the Mohegans were to hold them in reverence, and call them “Uncle.” Hendrick was the monarch first named by the Mohawks. He lived to a great age, and was killed, as has been related, at the battle of Lake George.
The Six Nations were accustomed now to make temporary removals from place to place, paying visits to the Miamis, Hurons, and Wyandots. Some of them also resided on the Susquehannah, in Pennsylvania, and received instruction from Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians. To this party belonged the Cayuga chief, Shikellimus, the father of Logan, the Mingo chief, whose sorrows and whose eloquence have become so celebrated. The Mohawks accompanied Sir William Johnson in his expedition to Niagara, in 1759, and contributed to the victory gained over the French, when, after the death of General Prideaux, the command devolved on Sir William. In this battle, their afterwards celebrated chief, Brant, though but a youth, greatly distinguished himself.
The Mohawks received Protestant missionaries among them, as the Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas had received the French Catholics. They had churches built, and some of their young men were sent into Connecticut, to be educated there under the care of Dr. Wheelock.
In the fierce wars which broke out at the West, of which we have elsewhere given an account, the Six Nations, in general, took no active part, though some of the Cayugas, and the warriors on the banks of the Susquehannah and Shamokin, occasionally became parties to them. Still, the feelings of the Six Nations were considerably alienated from the English, as well as those of the whole Indian race, unless we may except the Oneidas. The reason of this probably was, that the English did not take equal pains with the French to win them with presents. Sir William Johnson’s influence with them, however, was very great, and, so long as he lived, they looked up to him as their protector and father. He died just before the commencement of the American War of Independence. His sons, Sir John Johnson and Colonel Guy Johnson,—the former of whom was the Indian agent for the British government,—succeeded to his influence, and their interference was the cause of many interruptions of the peace and happiness of the settlers in New York and Pennsylvania during the great struggle for freedom. But the account of these transactions, with the further history of the Six Nations, must be reserved for another chapter.