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E sum stºl ſihram,
É. W TET' O. O. H. .
º these Rules
ººf Strictly.
1. o ºr son shall take more than one
book at a time and must return the same be-
fore taking another.
2. Keep no book longer than two weeks
at one time.
3. The person taking a book out shall be
held responsible for its loss, or for any damage
done to it.
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T H E H IS TO R. Y
of THE
MIDD L E STATES,
illustrated by
TALES, SKETCHES AND ANECDOTES
WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGs.
By LAMBERT LILLY, school waster."
Bos to N:
T I C K N OR A N D F I E L D S.
M. D. CCC LIV.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by
S. tº. Good Rich,
in the Uleik's Uffice of the Instrict Court of Massachusetts.


HISTORY
of THE
MIDD L E STATES,
NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA,
DELAWARE, AND MARYLAND.


PR EFA C E.
This work being one of a series, it may be proper
to insert here the preface to the first of them, en-
titled The Story of the American Revolution, which
explains the plan and design of the author.
“In this little work, the author has attempted to relate the story
of our glorious Revolution, in a simple manner, so that it may be
interesting and instructive to children and youth. He has not
adopted a very regular method of treating the subject, but has
attempted to keep the interest of the pupil constantly alive, by a
variety of tales, anecdotes and sketches, illustrative of the events
with which they are connected.
“It is remarkable, that very few books of history are read º
children, except as a task; while works of fiction are perused wit
the greatest avidity. Now, if fiction borrows its chief interest from
its resemblance to truth, how is this fact to be accounted for I
think it may be explained by two considerations. In the first
place, fiction, being the offspring of the imagination, is generally
written with a warmth of language which makes the reader realize
every part of the story, and cheats him, against his better knowl-
edge, into the persuasion that the narrative is true. On the con-
trary, the writing of history is a task calculated to repress all vi-
vacity of feeling; research, must take the place of invention, and
fancy must act in humble subserviency to facts, dates and records.
Under such circumstances, dulness creeps into the mind of the
writer, and is thus imparted to the book.
“For these reasons, in most books, fiction wears the aspect of
truth, and truth the aspect of fiction. Children are excellent judges
of manner, and are very much affected by it. They will listen
with much more interest to an indifferent story, happily told, than
to a good one stupidly related. They, as well as people of mature
e, are more attracted by a novel, or romance, written in a lively
and natural style, than by the most important history, if composed
in a dull and heavy manner.
“A second consideration, which will account for the preference
given to tales * is this:–They are generally much more

6 PREFACE.
minute in their details than books of history. The latter tell us of
armies and nations, while the former present to us individuals
and acquaint us with their thoughts d feelings, their hopes and
fears, their joys and sorrows, and thus make us sympathize with
them in all the vicissitudes to which they are exposed. It is this
minuteness of detail which forms one of the º charms in
books of fiction; it is the comprehensiveness of books of history,
which makes them repulsive to juvenile readers, who are always
seeking for amusement.
“Such being the views of the writer of the present volume, he
has adopted a method in some respects new. If he has occasion
to state that a battle occurred, he states it in few words, and then
relates anecdotes, individual adventures, and other minute circum-
stances, calculated to fix the attention of the pupil, to excite his
interest, and thus make him realize the whole scene, as if he were
himself an actor in it.
“By this means, and by adopting a familiar style, the author
hopes he has succeeded in imparting to this little work some of the
attractive qualities which belong to tales of fiction. Nothing, cer-
tainly, is more desirable, than that truth should be the basis of early
education; and whoever shall succeed in rendering history inter-
esting and greeable to youth, will perform a task for which he
will deserve the thanks of the age. +. the author has fully suc-
ceeded in this attempt, he cannot pretend to hope; but, deeply
convinced of the importance of the object he has in view, he has
made the present experiment, and leaves the result to the decision
of the public.
“If this volume is favorably received, it will be followed by a
series of works on American history, executed in a similar man-
ner. The subjects proposed are the following —the Early His-
tory of New England; the Early History of the Middle States;
the Early History of the Southern States; the History of the West-
ern States; the History of the West Indies; the History of Mexi-
co; the Early History of South America; and the History of Dis-
coveries in America. These volumes, if published, will be abun-
dantly illustrated by engravings, and will appear at intervals of
two or three months.
“The materials for these works are abundant, and in the high-
est degree interesting. The º of the author will be to em-
brace the entire history of the Western Continent in the series,
and thus furnish a set of books, which may be put into the hands
of youth, as works of amusement, but which will instruct them
fully in the history of their own country, and in that also of other
countries in the same hemisphere.”
The four first works above mentioned, as well as
the History of the American Revolution, are already
published, and the others will soon appear.

CON TENTS.
CHAPTER. I.-Plan of the following Volume—The Middle States, First
Patent of New Jersey, First Settlement of it. History of its early.99v-
ernment. Account of several Expeditions of Settlers...Anecdote of King
Charles I. Interviews and Treaties of the Settlers with the New Jerse
ndians. Speech of a Sachem about the Small-pox. . . . . . . .
CHAPTER II.-Another Conference of the New Jersey Settlers with the
Indians. Speech of a Sachem about. Whiskey. Extracts from the Set-
tlers’ Letters to their Friends in England. Account of the Fruits, Fowl,
Fish and other Productions of the Country. Anecdotes of the Indians.
Another large. Expedition, comes over from England. Growth of New
Jersey. Condition of the Province in 1765. Stories about Fishing. . 16
CHAPTER III.-Pennsylvania named for William Penn., Acçount of his
Family. His Father, Admiral Penn, Early Education of William. Goes
to Oxford º: Hears Quaker, Preaching... Becomes a Quaker.
Is expelled from College. Meets with Trouble at Home, and in London-
Is tried and imprisoned. Anecdotes showing his Character. Receives a
harter of Pennsylvania. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.
CHAPTER IV.-Account of the first Settlement of Pennsylvania. Mr.
Penn comes over and stays some Time in America. More Fº Ina
1682 and 1683. Account of the German Settlers. Of the Welsh. Ho
they at first contrived to live in the Wilderness. How the Indians treated
them, and how they treated the Indians, Story about John Chapman.
About his Daughter. About a Wolfchasing a Deer. Letter of Mr. Penn
to the Indians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
CHAPTER V-Great Treaty between William Penn and the Indians, in
June, 1682. They call him their ‘Elder Brother. How the Treaty was
made, and where...and, how long it was kept. Another Treaty in 1715.
Speech of the Indian Chief Sassooman. Story about an Indian Queen
and some Quaker Preachers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38.
CHAPTER VI-Account of the Founding of Philadelphia City in the Year
1682. How the Ground was laid out. Story of the first Discovery of this
Spot. How the first Settlers in Philadelphia were accommodated with
Lºdgings. The first House built. The first Child born...Penny-Pot.
The Blue-Anchor Tavern. Letter of Mr. Penn about the City, in 1683
to a Friend in England. . . . . . . . . . . " *33
CHAPTER VII-Anecdotes of the early, Pennsylvania Settlers in the
ack Woods. . How they carried on their Farming. How they sometimes
procured Food: Story, about killing Pigeons. Letter of Richard Towns-
end to a Friend in England. The first Meeting-House erected. The first
Çorn-Mill. A. Bull used for a Beast of Burden. Story about catching a
eer. Remarks on the Character of the early Settlers. . . . . . 48
CHAPTER VIII.-Some other Anecdotes of the Pennsylvania Indians.
How they were unjustly suspected of Hostility by the º hites, in 1688;
and how the Whites were º frightened about Nothing... Story about
the lame Indian King... War at last breaks out, in 1754. The Occasion
ºf it., Some of the Tribes continue peaceable. Injustice done to these
friendly Tribes. Horrible Massacre at Lancaster. End of the Pennsyl-
vanian History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
CHAPTER IX.-Commencement of the º of New York. The
River Hudson discovered. Some Account of Henry Hudson: The Dutch
form Settlements in New York. Dispute between them and the English.
War with the English. War with the Indians. Quarrels with the Con-
necticut Settlers. Governor Van Twiller. Kieft, the second Governor
comes pretty near having his Brains blown out. Anecdotes. . . . §
CHAPTER X-Story about an English Criminal, harbored by the Dutch.
Other Disturbances between them and the English. Great Battle be-
tween the Indians and Dutch. Peter Stuyvesant, the third Governor of
New York. He meets with many Vexations, in his Gºvernment. His
Letter sent to Holland in 1660. War with the English. º: *;
anning.
quer and take Possession of New York. Story about Captain

8 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER.XI.-Some, Account of the New York, Indians. The Five
Natiºns. The Pºlicy observed towards them by the English of New York
and the French of Canada. Anecdotes of their Wars with the French.
Battle between the Senegas and French. The Five Nations invade Can-
a. . Occasion of this Movement. Story of the Dinondadie Sachem
Alirio.”.”.” “...”.” ". . . . . . ." . .”.”.”3
CHAP TER XII.-How Governor Frontenac treats the Indian Prisoners
Sends some of them Home: , Treaty between New York and the Five
Nations in 1689. Treaty with the New England, Colonies, made at Al-
bany. Speech of Tahºjadoris, Indian. Mode of doing. Business at a
Council...Result of the Council. Fiye Nations refuse to fight the eastern
Tribes. They encourage the New York People to fight the French.
CHAPTER, XIII.-Some of the Fiye Nations send Messengers to Albany,
to invite the English to attend an Indian Council with the French. Mes:
sengers are sent by the English... Council opens on the 22d of January,
90. Speeches of Sadekanaghtie, and other Sachems. The French
Messengers go back to Canada disappointed. The Council breaks ";
Anecdotes. Indian Customs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.
CHAPTER XIV:-The French send an Expedition against the New York
eople. How they º and sacked Schenectady in the Night-time.
Terrible Hayqe made of the English. Story, about Captain Glen.
Indians condole with the English for this, Loss. Speech of a Sachem:
ar-parties are sent out in Pursuit of the French. . . . . . . . 104
CHAPTER XV.-The Five Nations invade Canada. The English also fit
out an Expedition against Montreal.., Defence of that Place by the
French, Battle between the English, French and Indians. Second Bat-
tle. Other Anecdotes of the War. Hunting Beaver. Another French
Invasion of New York. Result of it. The Indians invade Canada again,
under Black Kettle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.
CHAPTER XVI.-How Governor Frontenac º: himself against the
Five Nations, by burning twº Indian Prisoners, Distress ºf the Canadi-
ans. Another French Expedition against the Mohawks. They surprise
ºne of the Mohawk Forts. . Take Possession of another after a Battle.
e Mohawks enraged, against the º: The English pursue the
French. Anecdotes of this Expedition. Result of it. . . . . . . . .118
CHAPTER XVII-Account of the Indian Mode of Travelling and En-
camping in the Winter, Indian Council, at Albany in, 1693. Presents
iven to the Mohawks by the English. Another French Expedition in
696. How the Troops travelled through the Wilderness. A. Seneca
deserts from, their. Army. How Governor. Frontenac was carried in a
Chair. An old Indian burned and tortured. Result of the Expeditiº
Anecdotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
CHAPTER XVIII.-The early Settlement of Delaware by the Swedes.
How this Settlement came to be made. Where it was made, and when.
Account of the first Expeditions of Fº About the Delaware. In-
dians, and their Dealings with the Swedes. About the natural Produc-
Hº of the Country. Other Anecdotes of the first Settlement. End of
the Delaware History. . . . . . . . . . . - -
CHAPTER XIX.-The first Settlement of *º owing to the Exer-
tions of Sir ºº:: Calvert. Some Account of Calvert. Anecdotes, . He
commences a Colony at Newfoundland, in 1621... Progress of it. Aban-
donment of it. He visits Virginia. How the Virginians treated him.
isits Newfoundland again. Gets, a Charter of Maryland. Why the
Province was so named. Death of Sir George. The Settlement come
menced by his Sons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.
CHAPTER YX.—First Expedition of Emigrants to Maryland, in 1633.
Arrive at Point Comfort. Asgend the River. Potomac. Meet with In-
sºns. Anecdote of Captain Fleet., Indian Chief goes on board the Ves-
sºls. Settlement made at St. Mary’s. Stories abºut the Indians. About
Governor Harvey, of Virginia. About the King of Patuxent. º
of the Colony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
CHAPTER XXI.-How the Land bought of the Indians was divided
amºng the Settlers of Maryland. Trouble which, Governor Calvert had
with Captain Clayborne. Occasion of it. The Captain’s Vessel seized
overnor. He and º,Lieutenant tried and condemned for Piracy.
s
The Lieutenant hanged. The Captain runs away. Anecdotes. Close
#º ºw: *, *, *,

HISTORY
or THE
MIDD L E STATES.
CHAPTER I.
Plan of the following Volume.—The MIDDLE STATEs.
First Patent of New Jersey. First Settlement of it.
History of its early Government. Account of several
Expeditions of Settlers. Anecdote of King Charles I.
Interviews and Treaties of the Settlers with the New
Jersey Indians. Speech of a Sachem about the Small-
por.
Having heretofore given my young readers
some account of the early settlement of New Eng-
land, and also of the Southern States, together with
some other particulars in the early annals of those
sections of the country in which we live, I now pro-
pose to furnish them with the means of becoming
equally well acquainted with the history of what are
called the MIDDLE STATEs.
Under this title are commonly included New
York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and
Maryland. Some of these are now among the most
important states of the Union. The two first,

10 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATEs.
indeed, stand at the head of them all, in respect to
population, wealth and resources. No young Amer-
ican ought to be ignorant of the early history of so
important a part of the American nation.
What is now NEw JERSEY, was originally includ-
ed with New York, in a patent or charter, granted
by the reigning king of England, about the middle
of the seventeenth century, to the English Duke of
York. On the 22d of June, 1664, the duke granted
the former territory (New Jersey) to two English
gentlemen of high rank, Lord Berkeley and Sir
George Carteret. It was called New Jersey in
honor of the latter, some of whose family came from
the island of Jersey, near England. Philip Carteret,
of the same family, was appointed the first governor
of the province, in 1665. Under his administration,
the eastern part of it was rapidly settled. In 1675,
Lord Berkeley sold his share of the province to John
Fenwicke; and this gentleman visited his new
purchase the same season. He brought over with
him a ship-load of passengers, from London, and
landed at a small settlement which he found already
commenced by stragglers from various directions, on
an inconsiderable river or creek, which runs into the
Delaware river. He called both the place and the
river Salem,-- name which they retain to this day.
This was the first English ship which came to West
Jersey; and it was nearly two years before it was
followed by any more. This long interval was
occasioned by some misunderstanding between the

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 11
proprietors, which was, however, atlast composed by
the good offices of William Penn. This latter per-
sonage (whom we shall speak of at some length
hereafter) was soon after induced to become in-
terested with Carteret and Fenwicke in the manage-
ment of the new province. In 1676, it was divided
into East and West New Jersey; and it continued to
be governed by two governors until 1702. The two
governments were then surrendered to Queen Anne,
reigning monarch of England. Ever since that time,
they have formed but one. This was, for a long time,
directly under the care of the crown, like the colo-
nies of New England, instead of being absolutely
governed by the proprietors, as was the case with
several of the American colonies. The first settlers,
especially of West Jersey, were chiefly Quakers, a
sect which I shall tell you more about by and by.
They were a singularly steady and frugal people.
William Penn, and the other proprietors, were men
of such a character, indeed, that settlers of bad
habits would have found but very ill favor with them.
They would not even use those means which were
in those days commonly resorted to, and in similar
cases, to induce settlers to emigrate from England.
Instead of this, they sent a letter of caution to the
Quakers in England, warning them to weigh the
matter well before they thought of emigrating to
this country. The last paragraph of this letter is
so characteristic of the writer, William Penn, that 1
shall annex it at length —

12 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
“This am I, William Penn, moved of the Lord
to write unto you, lest any bring a temptation on
themselves or others, and, in offending the Lord,
slay their own peace. Blessed are they that can see
and behold him, their Leader, their Orderer, their
Conductor and Preserver, in staying and going;
whose is the earth and the fulness thereof, and the
cattle upon a thousand hills.
“We cannot but repeat our request unto you, that
ºn whomsoever a desire is to be concerned in this
intended plantation, such should weigh the thing
before the Lord, and not headily or rashly conclude
on any such resolve. Let them solely endeavor to
obtain the good will and consent of their kindred
and friends. This we have thought good to write,
for the preventing all misunderstandings, and to de-
clare the real truth of the matter; and so we
recommend you all to the Lord, who is the watch-
man of his Israel. I am your real friend and
brother,
“WILLIAM PENN.”
Settlements, commenced in this prudent manner,
could not but prosper. On the 16th day of Au-
gust, 1677, the ship Kent, Gregory Marlow, master,
arrived at New Castle from London, with a new
supply of Quaker colonists. There were two hundred
and thirty of them, and many of the number had
owned good estates in England. They landed near
Raccoon creek, on the Delaware river, where a
small colony of Swedes had already a few buildings

History of THE MIDDLE states. 13
erected, but quite insufficient to accommodate the
new comers.
This was the second arrival of an English ship
in West Jersey. It is said of the ‘Rent,’ that when
she lay in the river Thames, in England, with the
passengers on board, ready to sail, King Charles II.
came along-side of her in his pleasure-barge. The
monarch was taking his favorite amusement in
rambling about on the water of a sunny day, with a
few of his favorite courtiers. He observed a crowd
of people on board the Kent, and his curiosity was
excited a little. Having ascertained that they were
Quakers, bound for America, he gave them his
blessing, paid the sect a compliment for their well-
known good qualities, and rowed off, leaving them.
much pleased with his complaisance.
Soon after their arrival in this country, a treaty
was made for land with the Indians. This was at
a place in the Delaware, then called Chygoe’s
island, from the name of an Indian sachem who
lived there. It is now Burlington. The land was
in this instance procured for little more than a ‘song,'
as indeed it generally was, of the natives. A
blanket was much more to them than a thousand
a CreS.
A wide tract of good land on the river, extending
from Oldman's creek to Timber creek, was barter-
ed to the English for thirty coats, twenty guns,
thirty small kettles and one great one, thirty pairs
of hose, thirty petticoats, thirty hoes, thirty bars of
2

14 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
lead, fifteen kegs of powder, seventy knives, thirty
Indian axes, seventy combs, sixty pairs of tobacco-
tongs, sixty pairs of scissors, sixty looking-glasses,
one hundred and twenty awl-blades, as many fish-
hooks, two handfuls of red paint, one hundred and
twenty needles, sixty tobacco-boxes, two hundred
small bells, one hundred jews-harps, and sixty an-
chors of rum. I give you the details, that you may
judge of the taste of the Indians.
Burlington was laid out in October. A straight
line was drawn from the Delaware river, at right
angles, for the main street. A space was marked
out for a market-place, about midway in this line.
Ten London settlers agreed to build on one side of
it, and ten Yorkshire men on the other. Another
street was marked out along the river-side, in small
lots, by itself. The town lots were generally ten
or eleven acres. This was considered enough for
a house, orchard, garden and yard. Several more
settlers came in, within a month, from Wickaco, a
small Swedish plantation on the Delaware. The
season was then so far spent, that the latter had
only time to erect a kind of wigwam for their ac-
commodation during the winter.
The New Jersey Indians were remarkably kind
to the new settlers, notwithstanding the attempts of
the Swedes, or some other persons, to prejudice
them. They were afflicted with the small-pox, it
seems; and a story was maliciously circulated
among them, that the English had brought the

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 15
disease over with them, and sold it to the Indians
in the coats and petticoats. The English had a
conference with them at Burlington, in consequence
of this slander; and the Indians were, without much
difficulty, convinced of its falsehood.
“In my grandfather's time,” said one of the
sachems, on this occasion, “the small-pox came.
In my father's time, the small-pox came. And now,
in my time, the small-pox is come.” Then, stretch-
ing his hands towards the skies, he added—“It
came from thence.” To this sentiment all the In-
dians at the conference expressed their assent.
Their idea seemed to be, that this terrible disease
was a judgment of the Great Spirit, as they called
the Deity, upon them; and that therefore the English
were not to be blamed for it.
Another speaker expressed himself as follows:–
“Our young men may speak such words as we do
not like; and we cannot help it. And some of your
young men may speak such words as you do not
like; and you cannot help that. But we intend to live
like brothers with you. We do not desire war: for
in war-time we get to be only skin and bones; and
the meat we then eat does us no good. We hide
ourselves in holes and corners. The sun does us
no good. We would have a broad path for us and
you to walkin. If an Indian lies asleep in this path,
the Englishman shall pass by him, and do him no
harm. If an Englishman be asleep in this path, the
Indian shall pass by him, and say, ‘He is an Eng-

16 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
-
lishman. He is asleep. Let him alone; he loves
sleep.” It shall be a plain path. There must not be
a stump in it to hurt our feet.”
CHAPTER H.
Another Conference of the New Jersey Settlers with the
Indians. Speech of a Sachem about Whiskey. Extracts
from the Settlers' Letters to their Friends in England.
.Account of the Fruits, Fowl, Fish and other Produc-
tions of the Country. Anecdotes of the Indians. An-
other large Expedition comes over from England.
Growth of New Jersey. Condition of the Province in
1765. Stories about Fishing.
Even after the conference we have just mentioned,
the natives were very kind to the settlers. They
frequently sold them venison, Indian corn, peas
and beans, fish and fowl. A second conference
was soon held with them, for the purpose of putting
a. stop to the sale of rum, brandy, and other strong
liquors to them,--which they themselves knew and
acknowledged to be injurious. Eight sachems,
and many other Indians, were present. They had
prepared four belts of wampum, as presents to con-
firm whatever should be agreed upon. The wann-
pum was like that of the New England savages,
black and white beads, made of fish-shells, and used
as a current money among them.

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 17
One of the sachems made the following speech.
“The strong liquor,” said he, “was first sold us
by the Dutch; and they are blind. They had no
eyes (meaning no prudence). They did not see
that it hurt us. The next who came among us
were the Swedes, who continued the sale of the
strong liquors to us. They also were blind. They
had no eyes. They did not see it to be hurtful for
us to drink it. But we know it to be hurtful, al-
though, if people will sell it to us, we are so in love
with it, that we cannot forbear.”
“When we drink it,” he continued, “it makes
us mad. We do not know what to do. We then
abuse one another, and throw each other into the
fire. Seven scores of our people have been killed
by reason of their drinking it, since the time it was
sold us. But the people who have come among us
now, have eyes. The cask must be sealed up. It
shall be made fast. It shall not leak by day or by
night, in light nor in the darkness. And we give you
these four belts of wampum to be witnesses of this
agreement.”
In November, another ship arrived from London,
with sixty or seventy passengers. After this came
the ‘I'lyboat, Captain Martha, of Burlington, in
Yorkshire (England). This vessel had sailed from
Hull, in the latter end of summer, with one hundred
and fourteen passengers.
The settlers seemed now to be universally satis-
fied with their situation. One of them wrote to his
2 º: -
---

18 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
friend in England, in the following terms:– “It is a
country that produceth all things for the support and
subsistence of man, in the most plentiful manner.
“I have travelled through most of the places that
are settled, and some that are not. I find the
country every where apt to answer the expectation
of the diligent. I have seen orchards laden with
fruit to admiration,-their very limbs torn to pieces
with the weight, and most delicious to the taste,
and lovely to behold. I have seen an apple-tree,
raised from a pippin kernel, yield a barrel of ex-
cellent cider.
“Peaches are in such plenty, that some people
take their carts a peach-gathering : I could not but
smile at the conceit of it. They are a very delicate
fruit, and hang almost like our onions, that are tied
On ropes.
“I have seen and known, this summer, forty
bushels of bold (sound) wheat raised from a bushel
sown. From the time called May, until Michaelmas,
we have a great store of very good wild fruits, straw-
berries, cranberries, and whortleberries. These last
are like our bilberries in England, but far sweeter,
and are a wholesome fruit.
“The cranberries are much like cherries, for
color and bigness. They may be kept the year
round. An excellent sauce is made of them for
venison, turkeys and other great fowl; and they are
better to make tarts than either gooseberries or
cherries. We have them brought to our houses in

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 19
great plenty by the Indians. My brother Robert
raised as many cherries, this year, as would have
loaded several carts. It is my judgment, by what
I have observed, that fruit-trees, in this country,
destroy themselves by the very weight of their
fruits.
“As for venison and fowls, we have great plenty.
We have brought to our houses, by the Indians,
seven or eight fat bucks in a day; and sometimes we
refuse as many more, having no occasion for them.
Fish, too, in their season, are very plenteous. We
have almost all sorts that are seen in England, be-
side several sorts that are not known there : such
are rocks [perhaps he means what we call rock-cod].
Such also are cat-fish, shad, “sheep's-heads' and stur-
geons. Then we have plenty of fowls; as ducks,
geese, turkeys, pheasants, partridges, and many
other sorts, that I cannot remember, and would be
too tedious to mention. -
“Indeed the country, take it as a wilderness, is a
brave country, though no place will please all. But
perhaps some of you in England will say—‘He
writes of conveniences, and not of inconveniences:
In answer to which I honestly declare, there is
some barren land, and more woods than some like
to have on their lands. Neither will the country
produce corn without labor; nor cattle be got with-
out something to buy them; nor bread with idleness.
In that case, it would be a brave country, indeed;
and you would all give it a good word, I dare say

20 HISTORY OF 'I'HE MIDIDLE STATES.
For my part, I like it so well, that I have no thought
of returning to you in England, unless it may be
to trade with you. So good bye.
“ MAHON STAcy.”
After this time, large numbers of fresh settlers,
chiefly Quakers, continued coming to the province
In 1682, a ship of five hundred and fifty tons' bur-
then arrived in West Jersey, with three hundred
and sixty passengers. They landed between Bur-
lington and the place where Philadelphia now stands,
on the Jersey shore of the Delaware. In 1765,
that is, about one hundred years from the first settle-
ment, New Jersey contained 100,000 inhabitants.
The proportion of the Quakers among them may
be conjectured from the number of meeting-houses
at that time. The Quakers had thirty-two; the
Presbyterians, precisely as many ; the Baptists,
thirteen ; the Episcopalians, ten : there were also
one of the German Moravians, and ten of the Low
Dutch, German, Swedish Lutherans and Presby-
terians.
The settlers about this time still continued to be
pleased with the country; and they had good reason
for it. If the following account is true, and there
is no reason for doubting it, it would seem that they
might all have lived by fishing alone. One of the
settlers wrote to a friend in England, that he and
his cousin, with a few other men, undertook to
catch herrings in the Delaware. They came into
the shallows in great shoals, he says. The fishing

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 21
party were ill provided, for they had neither rod nor
line. But, after the Indian fashion, they made a
round pinfold in the flats of the river, about two
yards over, and a foot high. A gap was left at one
end for the fish to go in at, and bushes laid over or
near this gap, so contrived as to keep them in after
they had entered.
When all this was done, the fishermen took two
long, slim birches, tied their tops together, and went
away from the pinfold, about a stone's throw, up
the river. Here they found the herrings again in
vast multitudes. They now plunged in their birches,
and hauled them down the stream, driving the fish
before them by the thousand. The pinfold was
soon full of them. They then began to haul and
drive them ashore in the same manner, as fast as
four of them could work; two pulling and hauling,
and the other two stopping to breathe and rest.
Thus, in half an hour, they filled a three-bushel
sack with as good herrings as were ever broiled.
We are told, about this same time, that beef and
pork continued to be as cheap and plenty as ever.
The green pastures began to be spotted with sheep,
too; and of course the farmer's table was now and
then spotted with fine mutton. The common grass of
the country made beef very fat. “I have killed two
cows this season,” writes one of the settlers; “and-
I have good reason to know and believe that the
beef is good. Besides, I have seen killed, in Bur-

22 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
lington, eight or nine fat oxen and cows on a market
day, and all very fat.”
In 1683, Mr. Gamen Lawrie, deputy-governor
of East Jersey, wrote in the following terms to the
proprietors in London: “There is not a poor man
in all the province, nor one that wants.” He adds,
that there was abundance of provision. Pork and
beef sold at two-pence a pound. Fish and fowl,
and all manner of creeping things from sea and
land, were at every man's door, as it were. The
oysters would have served the whole continent.
Wheat went for four shillings a bushel.
Indian wheat, as the settlers called it (meaning
Indian corn, I suppose), sold for two slallings. It
was considered exceedingly good food both for man
and beast, and gave two or three hundred fold
increase. Good cider could be drunk in any quan
tity, by man, woman or child, for a penny a quart;
a drink, made chiefly of molasses and water, sold
for two shillings a barrel; venison, at one shilling
and six-pence the quarter; eggs, at three-pence per
dozen; vines, walnuts, peaches and strawberries
were still plenty in the woods. On the whole,
these good people seem to have had a comfortable
time of it.
The Quakers of New Jersey were always among
the most religious as well as most industrious and
sober of the population. Before even a house was
built in Burlington, they constantly held their re-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 23
ligious meetings under a sail-cloth tent. From
this tent they moved next into John Woolston's
house, which was the first erected in Burlington.
The next was one Thomas Gardiner's. It was
several years before the first meeting-house was
erected.
CHAPTER III.
Pennsylvania named for William Penn. Account of his
Family. His Father, ſidmiral Penn. Early Educa-
tion of William. Goes to Oxford University. Hears
Quaker Preaching. Becomes a Quaker. Is expelled
from College. Meets with Trouble at Home, and in
London. Is tried and imprisoned. Anecdotes showing
his Character. Receives a Charter of Pennsylvania.
THE state of Pennsylvania was so named for
William Penn, whom we have already mentioned,
but whose history now becomes more important.
He was a chief promoter of the first settlement, and
may justly be called the father of the province.
William Penn was born in London, October 14th,
1644. He was the son of Sir William Penn. This
gentleman was remarkably fond of maritime and
military affairs from his childhood up. He was
made captain at the age of twenty-one ; rear-
admiral of Ireland at twenty-three, and vice-admiral
at twenty-five; rear-admiral of England at thirty-
one; and general in the first Dutch war at thirty-
two.

ºf HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
-
He was afterwards elected a member of parlia-
ment for the town of Weymouth; and in 1660
he was governor of the town and fort at Kingsail.
Four years after, he was appointed great captain-
commander, under the Duke of York, in which
capacity he distinguished himself very honorably
on the occasion of a famous naval victory over
the Dutch. King Charles II. knighted him, after
his own restoration to the throne. He became
also a peculiar favorite of James, Duke of York,
who, on his death-bed, warmly recommended
the admiral to the kind remembrance of his son.
Mr. Penn died in 1670, leaving, with his blessing, a
large estate to his son William. He had been
greatly offended with him for joining the Quakers,
but became reconciled in the last years of his
life.
The young man was endowed with good talents,
and he made such proficiency at school, that, at
fifteen years of age, he was entered a student at
Christ's Church in the university of Oxford. Here,
or a little before this time, he was more strongly
affected by the preaching of a celebrated Quaker,
Thomas Loe. He withdrew from the worship of
the Church of England, with a few other students.
They held private meetings in the college, where
they prayed and preached among themselves. This
conduct gave great offence to the college-govern-
ment. They began with fining Penn, who was
then but sixteen years old, for non-conformity; and

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 25
finding him still incorrigible in his own faith and
practices, they expelled him from the college.
He then returned home. There he continued to
prefer the religious society of his newly-adopted
sect. His father considered this disposition a mis-
fortune, if not a fault. The admiral knew but
little, perhaps, of the particular doctrines of the
Quakers, and cared less about them; but he thought
that his son's manner of life would be a great
obstacle in the way of his preferment at court.
He set himself, therefore, to persuade the young
man of his errors, as he called them. Finding all
his arguments ineffectual, he had recourse to the
infliction of stripes. His son was still unconvinced
and unrepentant; the old gentleman was become
much incensed against him, and he turned him out
of his house, soon afterwards, in a violent passion.
The young Quaker behaved very well, however,
under this displeasure of his father, whom he respect-
ed highly, though he could not in all things obey
him. He was at length received again to the family
mansion. He was then sent into France, in com-
pany with several young Englishmen of quality,
who were setting out on their travels over that
country. There he resided long enough, it seems,
to forget his Quaker instructions and impressions in
a great degree. He returned with a perfect knowl-
edge of the French language, as gallant and ac-
complished a young gentleman as any in the king-
dom. His father was delighted with what he con-
3

26 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
sidered his reformation. But, at about the age of
twenty, his religious impressions were revived by
the preaching of the Quakers, and, perhaps, returned
with new strength. He became more zealous in
that faith than ever. In Ireland, where his father
sent him, two years afterwards, to manage one of
his estates, he met again with his old acquaintance,
Mr. Loe. This gentleman was preaching to a
congregation of Quakers at the city of Cork; and
young Penn now found himself accommodated with
religious services to his heart's content.
At one of these religious meetings in Cork, in
the year 1667, he, with several other young men,
was apprehended and carried before a magistrate,
the Quakers being much persecuted at that time.
The magistrate observed that Penn was handsomely
dressed. He, at this date, wore neither the hat nor
the coat of his sect, and had nothing of the Quaker
about him, but perhaps in his countenance. The
magistrate offered to set him at liberty, on his giving
bonds for his good behavior. This he refused to
do, and, with eighteen of his associates, he was
thrown into prison.
He had contracted an acquaintance with the
Irish nobility, during his residence in the country,
which now proved of service to him. He wrote to
the Earl of Orrery. He informed that gentleman,
in warm terms, of his punishment and his innocence,
and the earl immediately procured his discharge.
But his imprisonment was far enough from con-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 27
vincing him that his religion was wrong. He
embraced it, and associated with his fellow Quakers,
more ardently than ever. This term was at that
time a word of reproach; and Penn, accordingly,
became the butt of the ridicule and wit of his old
acquaintances. A nobleman, who knew both him
and his father, now wrote an account of his situa-
tion to the latter. He was sent for to return home,
and obeyed the request.
The admiral found him more inveterate than
ever in his ... principles. He had at this
period, it seems, assumed the Quaker habit of
keeping his head covered on all occasions. The
admiral felt as if he could have borne any thing
but this. He said as much to the young man; and
promised to give him his own way in every thing
else, if he would uncover his head only in the
presence of the King, the Duke of York, and
himself.
He wished him to think seriously of this proposal,
without consulting about it with his Quaker friends.
His son assured him he would weigh the matter,
alone, as he wished. He retired to his own chamber,
and there fasted and prayed till he had made up
his mind for the worst. He then returned to his
father, and assured him, firmly but respectfully,
that his conscience would not suffer him to comply
with his wishes in regard to the matter of taking
off his hat.
The admiral was terribly enraged with him.

28 HISTORY OF THE MIDIDLE STATES.
He turned him from his doors again, and compelled
him for some time to depend for subsistence on the
private relief of his mother, and the charity of his
convinced, after a while, that his son's conduct was
governed by principle, whether right or wrong, and
not by mere passion, he suffered his return to the
family. He did not countenance his practices
openly; but, whenever his son was imprisoned for
attending meetings, as he often was, he procured
his discharge privately, and said ºthing about it.
The young man was all this time preparing him-
self for the ministry. In 1664, in his twenty-fourth
year, he began to preach, and to write for the press.
He soon entered into a warm dispute with one Vin-
cent, of London, a Presbyterian, and attacked him in
a pamphlet; the consequence was his own imprison-
ment in the Tower of London, for his severe stric-
tures on the doctrines of the Church of England.
Here, even his relations were not permitted to visit
him.
But his enemies gained very little by confining
him, for he continued to write in the Tower, as be-
fore. His servant was at last sent to him, with
information that the bishop of London was resolved
he should either recant publicly, or die a prisoner.
His reply illustrates his character better than any
thing which could be said of him : “All is well,”
he observed ; “thou mayst tell my ". who,
I know, will ask thee my words, that my prison
other relations. But the old gentleman being
HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 29
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30 HISTORY OF THE MI1901, E STATES.
shall be my grave, before I will budge one Jot.
I owe my conscience to no mortal man, and I have
no need to fear. God will make amends for all.”
He was liberated in the year 1669. In the fall
of that season, he visited Ireland again, to manage
his father's estate. Here he met with his old friends,
the Quakers, once more, and preached to them at
Dublin and Cork. Some of them were confined in
prison; and he used his influence with the chancel-
lor and lord-lieutenant of Ireland to procure their
release.
In 1670, the Quakers were forbidden to meet,
by law, under severe penalties. They were kept
out of their meeting-house in Grace-Church street,
in London, by main force. They then met in the
street as near the church as possible, and Mr. Penn,
who had returned to England, took occasion to
preach to them. He was apprehended by the police,
and committed to Newgate prison. At the next
session of the court, called the Old Bailey, he was
tried for getting up a ‘seditious and riotous assembly,
as the Quaker meeting was termed. Mr. Penn
defended himself, and with such eloquence and such
a noble and fearless confidence in himself and his
cause, that, in spite of the frowns of the judges, the
jury acquitted him, and he was again set free.
In December of the same year, he was once
more seized by a party of soldiers, while he was
peaceably preaching at a meeting in London. He
was brought before the lieutenant of the Tower,

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 31
to be tried or questioned. His answers, and his
defence of himself and his sect, were so spirited
as almost to alarm and confound the lieutenant.
The latter charged him with being as bad as other
people. “I make this bold challenge to all men upon
earth,” answered Penn, “to testify that they ever
saw me drunk, or heard me swear, utter a curse, or
use a profane word. Your words are your own
shame, sir. I trample your slander, as dirt, under
my feet.”
The lieutenant only replied by sending him to
Newgate again for six months. After this he trav-
elied over Holland and Germany. He married in
1672; still continuing to preach and write. In 1676,
he became concerned, as we have seen, in the New
Jersey colony. After travelling again on the con-
tinent, he returned to England; and, in 1680, pe.
titioned King Charles II, for a grant of land in
America. It seems there was a large sum of money
due to Admiral Penn, at his death, from the gov-
ernment.
Penn was in favor at court, too, as his father had
been before him. His petition was received gra-
ciously; and the next year, on the 4th of March, a
royal charter was granted him, which made him
absolute proprietor of all that tract of land now
called Pennsylvania, and containing twenty-six mil-
lions of acres.

32 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
CHAPTER IV.
Account of the first Settlement of Pennsylvania. Mr.
Penn comes over and stays some Time in America.
More Emigrants in 1682 and 1683. Account of the
German Settlers. Of the Welsh. How they at first
contrived to live in the Wilderness. How the Indians
treated them, and how they treated the Indians. Story
about John Chapman. About his Daughter. About a
Wolf chasing a Deer. Letter of Mr. Penn to the
Indians.
THREE ships sailed for Pennsylvania during the
year 1681. The John and Sarah, from London,
was the first which arrived there. The Amity, from
the same port, was blown off to the West Indies, and
did not arrive until the next spring. The Bristol
Factor anchored at the place where Chester now
stands, on the 11th of December. There the pas-
sengers, seeing some houses, went on shore, at
Robert Wade's Landing, near the lower side of
Chester creek. The river freezing up the same
night, they remained there over winter.
Mr. Penn himself came over the next year, in
the ship Welcome. A hundred Quakers came with
him, many of whom were taken sick with the small-
pox on their passage. They had a voyage of six
weeks, and the first land they approached was Egg
Harbor in New Jersey. In passing up the Dela-
ware, Mr. Penn was welcomed by all classes of

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 33
people, English, Dutch and Swedes, with demon-
strations of great joy. He landed at Newcastle on
the 24th of October.
Twenty-three vessels arrived, within the space
of the first year, with English colonists. The banks
of the Delaware, from Trenton falls down to Ches-
ter, were very rapidly peopled. In 1682, and the
year after, over fifty sail more came over, with set-
tlers from various parts of England, Ireland, Wales,
Holland and Germany. Those who came from
Germany, like a majority of the others, indeed,
were Quakers. They had been converted to this
faith by the preaching of one Ames, an Englishman,
and were among the first Quakers in Germany.
They settled seven miles from what is now Phila-
delphia, at a place still called Germantown.
The Welsh colonists had bought 40,000 acres
of land of Mr. Penn, before leaving England.
They now selected it on the west side of the
Schuylkill, where they at once settled three town-
ships, and afterwards three more. Most of them
were men of excellent character, and, accordingly,
no colonists in the whole province met with better
Success. -
The settlers of Pennsylvania were hardly so for-
tunate as their countrymen in New Jersey, in all
respects. They were several times alarmed by a
scarcity of provisions, the natural consequence of
peopling a perfect wilderness so rapidly. The
whole province, with the exception of a tract two

34 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
miles from the Delaware, was a desert covered with
woods, and producing nothing but wild fruits and
wild animals.
The lodgings of some of the settlers were, at first,
in the woods. The trunk of a hollow tree was fie-
quently all the shelter they had, for weeks, against
the inclemency of the weather. This sometimes
happened late in the fall, and even in the winter
season. The next coverings of many of them were
either caves in the earth, or such huts erected upon
it as could be most expeditiously procured, until better
houses were built. This, indeed, might be soon
done, for there was no want of timber.
But there were many favorable circumstances in
their situation, after all. They had to labor some
years to procure themselves a comfortable settlement.
But then the soil, once cleared of its heavy growth
of forest, proved to be fertile. The air was clear
and healthy; the streams of water good and plenti-
ful; wood for fire and building in abundance. There
were no roads or paths in the woods more than two
miles from the water side. As to the Indians, they
seldom travelled so regularly as to be traced and
followed by footsteps, excepting, perhaps, from one
of their towns to another.
The Indians were friendly to the settlers of this
province, as to those of New Jersey. For a long
time, the house of one John Chapman was farther
back in the woods than any other English settle-
ment. The Indians were then in the habit of fre-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 35
quenting his house in large companies, and were
very kind to him and his family, and to those who
came after him. They brought in corn, too, and
other provisions.
In one of the scarce times I have mentioned, Mr.
Chapman's oldest daughter, Mary, supplied his fam-
ily by an unexpected good fortune. She had some
occasion to go into the woods, as the settlers' daugh-
ters often had, in those days. Being near Kesha-
ming creek, which runs into the Delaware, she
heard an unusual noise, like that of something in
distress. Upon search, she found a large buck (or
male deer). He was standing under the high bank
of the creek, whither he had fled for safety from a
wolf. The animal stood still. She took the hal-
ter from the horse she was riding, and raised it over
the deer's horns with a stick. Thus she secured
him, till assistance came. The wolf had followed
the buck within a few rods; but he now retired
peaceably, and the poor frightened animal was
carried off in triumph.
This same Chapman had two twin sons, named
Abraham and Joseph. When about nine or ten
years old, they went out, one evening, to look for their
father's cattle in the woods. They met an Indian,
who told them by all means to turn back; it was
growing dark, he said, and they would be lost.
They went on a little farther, but soon concluded
to take the Indian's advice. It was quite late in the
evening when they reached home, and there they
HISTORY OF THE MIDDI.E STATES.
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HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 37
found the Indian before them. He had felt so
anxious about their safety, it seemed, that he could
not forbear going to the cottage of Chapman, to
inquire for them. He expressed a great deal of
satisfaction in seeing them safe home.
Such, generally, was the interest which these
simple natives took in the welfare of the settlers.
Notlong after the time just spoken of Chapman and
his wife attended a yearly meeting of the Quakers
at Philadelphia (of the building of which place we
shall soon speak). They left a young and rather
large family at home; and the Indians came every
day, during their absence, to see that every thing
went right with the young people, and to bring them
provisions enough to support them comfortably till
their parents returned. -
You may wonder at this kindness of the Indians,
especially when you remember, as I dare say you
will, how differently they were disposed towards the
settlers in some other provinces. I may as well tell
you now, that we shall find it to be true of the other
Middle States, generally, as well as of Pennsylvania,
that the Indians were treated more prudently than
in the southern or northern colonies. One reason
might be, that several of those states were settled at
a later period, when the Indian character was better
understood, and the English had the benefit of some
experience in treating and trading with them. In
New York, which was settled first, the savages
were, as we shall find, somewhat troublesome. The
4.

3S HISTORY OF THE MIDIOLE STATES.
Dutch, who settled that province, took no pains, if
they had known how, to conciliate the good will of
the Indians. But much credit is also due, both in
Pennsylvania and Jersey, to the care and peaceable
good conduct of the Quakers. Hence the Quakers
were ever afterwards great favorites with the Indians.
Still more particularly is credit due, in the history
of the former province, to Mr. Penn, its proprietor.
He treated the Indians, from the beginning, with
entire good faith, and sincere and most honorable
friendship. This will appear from his letter to them,
which he sent from London, in 1681, by the first of
his settlers. You will find it worth reading, for its
simplicity and kindness, as well as for its quaintness
of expression —
“My Friends:
“THERE is a great God, that hath made
the world, and all things therein; to whom you and
I, and all people, owe their being, and well-being;
and to whom you and I must one day give an ac-
count for all that we do in the world.
“This great God hath written his law in our
hearts, by which we are commanded and taught to
love, and help, and do good to one another. Now,
this good Being hath been pleased to make me con-
cerned in your part of the world; and the great
king of the country where I live hath given me a
province among you. But I desire to enjoy it with
your love, and that we always live together as neigh-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 39
bors and friends, as the great God has intended for
all men.
“I would have you know, moreover, that I am
aware you have not always been treated as you should
have been by the people of these parts of the world;
and so you have been angry; and blood has been
shed, which kindled the anger of the Great Spirit
also. But I am not such a man, as is well known
in my own country. I love and regard you; and
I desire to gain your love by a kind, just and peace-
able life. The people I send to you shall be of the
same mind. If in any thing they offend or injure
any of you, you shall have speedy satisfaction.
“I shall come shortly to you myself, to confer
with you on these matters. Meanwhile, I have sent
my commissioners, to treat with you aboutland, and
about a firm league of peace. Let me desire you
to be kind to them, and to all my people. Receive
these presents and tokens, which I have sent you
as a testimony of my good-will to you, and my reso-
lution to live justly, friendly and peaceably with you.
“I am your loving friend,
* WILLIAM PENN.”

40 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
CHAPTER. W.
Great Treaty between William Penn and the Indians, in
June, 1682. They call him their ‘Elder Brother.” How
the Treaty was made, and where, and how long it was
kept. Another Treaty in 1715. Speech of the Indian
Chief Sassoonan. Story about an Indian Queen and
some Quaker Preachers.
A Few months after this letter was written, Mr.
Penn himself, in June, 1682, held his first personal
conference with the Indians, not many miles from the
place where Philadelphia now stands. As many of
them as possible, with their sachems and kings,
were invited and assembled together, from all parts
of the province. A treaty of peace was concluded
at this time, which was kept inviolate on both sides
for seventy years. This treaty was confirmed by
presents; the Indian orators expressed their grati-
tude, as usual; the conference was broken up after
a day or two, and the savages went home, not only
satisfied with the honesty, but gratified by the kind-
ness, of Mr. Penn, whom they now began to call
their Elder Brother.” -
This famous treaty was made in the open fields,
under the shade of an old wide-spread elm. This
venerable tree was still standing at the beginning
of the revolutionary war. Even the British troops
revered and spared it, when they cut up everything
around it. It was at last blown down, I believe, by
HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 41
-



42 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
a violent gale; but the wood of it is preserved, to the
present time, in the shape of boxes, bowls, cups, and
other articles of the kind. --
In 1701, after Mr. Penn had been to England
and returned again to America, he made a new
treaty with the Susquehannah or Conestogoe Indians.
These savages, like the rest of their countrymen, had
a high respect and a strong affection for Penn.
They came to Philadelphia this same season, in
great numbers, for the purpose of bidding him fare-
well, and receiving his last advice previous to his
final departure from the province for England.
He addressed them at that time in a long speech.
He advised them, above all things, to abandon the
use of strong liquors; which they promised to do.
He desired them in his absence to cultivate friend-
ship with his people. He had charged the latter,
he said, to be kind to the Indians, as he had always
been himself. This, he added, was, or might be,
his last interview with them; and he hoped they
would show their sense of his friendship for them
by remembering his good advice. He then made
them generous and useful presents. They retired
satisfied, as usual, but really affected; some of them.
to tears, it is said, by the idea of parting with their
protector and Elder Brother.’ Since I am telling
about the Indians, I will finish altogether what I
have to say of them.
Four years after the departure of Mr. Penn, one
Thomas Chelkley, a Quaker preacher, with a few
-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 43
other members of that sect, visited the Conestogoe
and Shawanese Indians, on the Susquehannah.
Their object was, to teach them the truths of the
Christian religion. The Indians received them
with great kindness. A woman of some authority
among them, a kind of queen, seemed to be particu-
larly affected by the visit. This woman spoke
so much in the councils of the tribe, that Chelkley
took the liberty to inquire of some of the Indians
the occasion of it. “It is because,” answered they,
“some women are wiser than some men.”
She told Chelkley that she looked upon his
coming to be more than natural; for “he did not
come to buy, nor sell, nor to get gain.” She then
told him a dream which she had three days before.
“She was in London,” she said, “and London was
the finest place she ever saw. There she went up
and down six streets, and in the seventh she saw
William Penn preaching to the people, who crowded
about in a vast multitude. After he had done,
she went to him. He was glad to see her, and
promised by and by to go over to Pennsylvania,
and preach to the poor Indians. Now,” added
she, “my dream is fulfilled. For his friends, if not
himself, have come to us.” I tell you this simple
anecdote, to show you how long and how affection-
ately Penn was remembered by the Indians. It
was very natural that the good woman should dream
about what she thought of most when awake.
A treaty was made between Governor Gookin and

44 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
the Delaware Indians, in 1715, at Philadelphia.
They assembled at the court-house, with the sa-
chem Sassoonan at their head. The council was
opened by the Indian's taking out the calumet, or
pipe of peace, with a good deal of ceremony, and a
noise of songs and rattles. Sassoonan handed it
to the governor. From him it passed round among
all the English in the house, each one puffing a few
whiffs of tobacco-smoke. It was then returned to
Sassoonan, who handed it to the Indians one after
another. When every one of them had smoked,
it was put away with the same ceremonies and
songs as before.
Sassoonan was the Indian speaker. He said,
among other things, “They had come to renew the
old bond of friendship. William Penn,” he added,
“ had made a clear and open road for them to walk
in. He desired that this road might be kept open.
The Indians should make themselves half English,
and the English half Indians.” This shows you
again how the Indians remembered Mr. Penn.
He then discoursed of matters of trade. “Hither-
to this had been like a house with two doors; one
for them, and another for the English. But the
goods were placed in the dark.” They were igno-
rant, he meant to say, how they were dealt with, or
how they ought to trade.
He then desired that the whites and the red men
might be as people eating all of the same dish.
Formerly his tribe knew the prices of their own

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 45
and of the English goods. But now, they varied
so much, he said, that there was no understanding
them. “On this account,” he added very solemnly,
“I am obliged to wear such ragged breeches, that
I am ashamed to be seen. I pray that this incon-
venience may be remedied.” All these, and other
suggestions, were confirmed in the Indian manner,
by presents of wampum and skins; in return for
which the governor gave his savage friend a variety
of handsome articles. I shall give you a list of them
all, with the prices in the old currency, that you
may know how they were valued in those times,
and how liberal the Indians were :- -
45 raw fall deer-skins....wt. 138 lbs. at 9d........ £5 3s. 6d.
8 summer … .... “ 16 “ at 13%d....... 0 13 0
53 dressed … - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ... 7 2 6
84 whole fox-skins................. at 18d........ 6 6. 0
12 “ raccoons ................. at 12d. . . . . . . . 0 12 0.
Other furs...................................... O 9 0
£21 11s. 0d.
And here you have a list of the English presents
in return : –
16 coats ......... - - - - - - - at 19s. . . . . . . . . . - - - - - - £15 4s. 0d.
10 duffil garments .......... 10s. 6d.............. 5 5 0
6 blankets ........... ... ... 13s. 4d.............. 4 0 0
6 shirts................... 8s. 6d... . . . . . . . . . . . 2 11 0
50 lbs. powder................... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4 10 0
100 lbs. lead........... ------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2 10 0
12 dozen pipes................................. 0 4 6
£32 4s. 6d.

46 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
CHAPTER VI.
Account of the Founding of Philadelphia City in the
Year 1682. How the Ground was laid out. Story of
the first Discovery of this Spot. How the first Settlers
in Philadelphia were accommodated with Lodgings.
The first House built. The first Child born. Penny-
Pot. The Blue-Anchor Tavern. Letter of Mr. Penn
about the City, in 1683, to a Friend in England.
HAVING given you some history of the Pennsyl-
vanian Indians from the time of Mr. Penn’s first
treaty with them, chiefly with the view of showing
you how long they remembered him, I shall now
go back to the time of the early settlements once
more, for the purpose of telling you about the found-
ing of Philadelphia, and the proceedings of the set-
tlers in the neighborhood of that place. In the
latter part of 1682, Mr. Penn, having finished his
first business with the Indians, undertook to lay out
a place for a city. In this he was assisted by his
surveyor-general, Mr. Thomas Holme. The ground
chosen for the purpose being claimed by some
Swedish settlers, who said they had occupied it
before the English came, Mr. Penn bought it of
them, giving them in exchange a large quantity of
land at a few miles distance. My young readers are
familiar enough with the geography of their own
country, I dare say, to know that Philadelphia stands
on the west bank of the Delaware river, where
that beautiful stream is something like a mile wide.

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 47
It is one hundred and twenty miles, or nearly that
distance, from the sea, as the Delaware runs.
The Schuylkill, a branch of the Delaware, runs
nearly parallel to it at this place, at the distance
of two miles westward. It pours into the Delaware
four miles below the city. Here its navigation for
large vessels is obstructed by a sand-bar; but in
boats and small craft, iron, wheat, flour, coal, and
other articles, are floated down to the city to a great
amount, from the interior country.
The situation of the ground, when Mr. Penn
commenced his survey for a city, exhibited a de-
lightful prospect. There was a fine, high and
dry bank next the water, spotted with large lofty
pines. Many of the adventurers who came before Mr.
Penn, had their caves and holes in this same bank
for a residence. This was before houses were built,
or any other accommodations prepared for them.
The first house erected on this plot of ground
was built by a man named George Guest, and was
still unfinished at the time of Mr. Penn’s arrival.
Several small houses were put up soon afterwards.
Mr. Penn's own house, however, was built on his
estate called Pennsburg, near the bank of the Del-
aware, a few miles below the falls of Trenton, and
about twenty-six above the city. This was under-
taken before his arrival, and intended for his recep-
tion. He afterwards held his conferences with the
Indians at this house, and resided there occasion-
ally, but not all the time.

48 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
I might have told you, that Mr. Guest's house
was situated in what I believe is still called Budd’s
row. He kept a tavern there long afterwards,
called the Blue Anchor, from his sign. I have told
you that the first settlers lived in caves. One of the
number was John Key, who was the first child born
of English parents in Philadelphia. His birth took
place in a cave near Sassafras street, known many
years after by the odd name of Penny-Pot.’
In the latter part of his life, Key went generally,
in the city, by the name of the ‘First-Born. Mr.
Penn, as a compliment, gave him, when quite young,
a lot of ground. He died at Kennet, in Chester
county, in July, 1767, aged eighty-four. This vil-
lage was thirty miles from the city; but the hardy
old gentleman walked that distance with ease in
one day, only six years before his death.
The ground of Philadelphia, according to the
original plan, extended about two miles in length,
between the Delaware and the Schuylkill, and in
breadth nearly a mile on each river. Nine streets
were marked out in right lines, and parallel to each
other, from stream to stream. These were inter-
sected by twenty-three others, at right angles, run-
ning nearly parallel with the rivers, north and
south. None of them were less than fifty nor
more than one hundred feet broad.
Five squares were assigned in this original plan
for the public use of the city. The largest, in the
centre, was to contain ten acres; and was reserved

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 49
for a state-house, market-house, school-house, and
the chief meeting-house of the Quakers. Four
other squares were meant to be reserved in the four
quarters of the city, containing eight acres each.
Except in the direction of the streets, the plan of
Mr. Penn has been very strictly adhered to in latter
times.
The Indian name of the place where the city
stands was Coaquamock. The first we hear of it in
history, is in 1678. In December of that year, the
ship Shield, from Hull in England, arrived in the
Delaware river, with a colony of settlers for West
Jersey. This vessel ascended as far as Coaquanock.
She passed by the high and bold shore I have spoken
of, so near to it, that, in turning about, part of her
tackling caught in the pine boughs. One of the
passengers cried out, “Here is a fine situation,
indeed, for a town.” The crew went ashore, next
morning, upon the ice; so hard and so suddenly
had it frozen in the space of one night.
The building up of Philadelphia was always a
very favorite project with Mr. Penn. It was the
city of his own choice and charge. This is clear
enough from his letters to his English friends.
Here is an extract from one written in 1683, only
one year after the founding of the city –
“I say little of the town, because the plan of it
will be shown you by my agent. But this I will say,
for the good providence of God, that of all the many
places I have seen in the world, I remember not
5.

50 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
one better seated. It seems to have been appointed
for a town, whether we regard the rivers, or the
conveniency of the coves, docks and springs, or the
loſtiness and soundness of the land. And the air,
too, is held by the people of these parts to be very
good.
“It is advanced, within less than a year, to about
eighty houses and cottages, such as they are. Mer-
chants and handicrafts are following their vocations
as fast as they can. The countrymen are close at
their farms. Some of them got a little winter corn
in the ground last season. The generality have
had a handsome summer crop, and are preparing
for their winter corn. They reaped their barley in
May, this year, and the wheat in June; so that
there is time, in these parts, for another crop of
divers things, before the winter season.
“We are daily in hopes of shipping from England,
to add to our number. Blessed be God, there is
both room and accommodation for them. The
stories told of our necessities are either the false fears
of our friends, or the scare-crows of our enemies.
For the greatest hardship we have suffered bath
been salt meat. And this has been made quite
passable by the aid of fowl in winter, and fish in
summer, together with poultry, lamb, veal, mutton
and plenty of venison, the best part of the year.”
Mr. Penn adds, in this letter, that he had already
set up the first saw-mill and the first tannery in the
city. He had marked out a place also for a dock,

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 51
a glass-house, and a fishing-stand. In a word, he
omitted nothing which could add to the comfort of
his settlers. One would suppose, from his descrip-
tion above quoted, that they never lacked good fare
and enough of it.
CHAPTER VII.
Anecdotes of the early Pennsylvania Settlers in the back
Woods. How they carried on their Farming. How
they sometimes procured Food. Story about killing
Pigeons. Letter of Richard Townsend to a Friend in
England. The first Meeting-House erected. The first
Corn-Mill. A Bull used for a Beast of Burden.
Story about catching a Deer. Remarks on the Character
of the early Settlers.
However much Mr. Penn was delighted with
his own situation, and the growth of his favorite
city, and however much reason he had for being
so, the case was by no means altogether the same
with the settlers in the back country in the same
province.
Some of these poor fellows were often sorely per-
plexed to find food for their large families. But for
the kindness of the savages, they would have suffered
still more. For a year or two after their first settle-
ment in any remote and desert place, these good
people, simple and ignorant as they were, always

52 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
supplied them, as they did John Chapman's family,
of which I have told you, with corn, venison, wild
fruits, and other things of the kind, until the set-
tlers were able to clear up their farms so as to
raise good crops by the labor of their own hands.
I say hands, because it was some time, generally,
before a settler could afford to buy or keep a horse
or a plough. They used hoes almost altogether,
instead of ploughs.
They were occasionally relieved in another man-
ner, which seemed to them singularly providential.
At certain seasons of the year (the berry and grain
months, I presume), the wild pigeons came in such
numbers among them, that the air was sometimes
really darkened by their flight. These birds flew
quite low, and they were actually knocked down
as they flew, with sticks and stones, in great quan-
tities, by those who had no better ammunition with
which to destroy them. This supplied the poor
settlers with fresh meat for some days; and the
residue, which they could not immediately use, was
salted down, like beef or pork, for some other time.
I shall close my sketches of the Pennsylvanian
history with a brief description of the manner of
an early settler's life, for the first few years after his
arrival. It will give you a better idea of the sub-
ject, if I take my information from some of their
own letters. I will therefore give you the account
of Richard Townsend, an honest old Quaker. The
letters were written about the year 1727. They

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 53
will be found none the less amusing, I think, for
showing you the quaint style of the sect and the age.
“Whereas,” solemnly begins Mr. Townsend,
“King Charles II., in 1681, was pleased to grant this
province to William Penn and his heirs forever;
and, this William Penn being one of the people
called Quakers, and in good esteem among them
and others, many were inclined to embark along
with him for the settlement of this place:
“To that end, several ships being provided
in 1682, I found a concern on my mind to em-
bark with them, with my wife and child. So,
about the latter end of the sixth month (June),
having settled my affairs in London, where I dwelt,
I went on board the ship Welcome, Robert Green-
away, commander, in company with my worthy
friend William Penn, whose good conversation
was very advantageous to all the company. His
care was especially manifested in contributing to the
necessities of many who were sick of the small-pox.
“After a prosperous voyage of about two months,
having had in that time many good meetings on
board, we arrived here. At our arrival, we found it
a wilderness. The chief inhabitants were Indians
and some Swedes, who received us in a friendly
manner. Although there was a great number of
us, the good providence of God was seen in a par-
ticular manner, in that provisions were found for us,
by the Swedes and the Indians, at a very reason-
able rate. 5*

54 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
-
“Our first concern was to keep up our religious
worship; and in order thereunto, we had several
meetings in the houses of the inhabitants. One
boarded meeting-house was set up, where the city
was to be, near the Delaware. There, as we had
nothing but love and good-will in our hearts, one
to another, we had very comfortable meetings from
time to time. After our meeting was over, we
assisted each other in building little houses, for our
first shelter.
“After some time, I set up a mill on Chester
creek, which I had brought ready framed from
London. It served for grinding of corn and sawing
of boards, and was of great use to us. Besides, I,
with Joshua Tittery, made a net, and caught great
quantities of fish. These supplied ourselves and
others; so that, notwithstanding it was thought that
near three thousand persons came over the first
year, we were providentially provided for. We
could buy a deer for about two shillings, a large
turkey for about one shilling, and corn for about
two shillings and six-pence a bushel. The Indians
brought in plenty of venison.
“About a year after our arrival, there came in
about twenty families, from High and Low Germany,
of religious, good people. They settled at a place
which they called Germantown. The country con-
tinually increasing, people began to spread them-
selves farther back. A place called North Wales
also was settled by a colony of Welshmen, an

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 55
honest sort of people, though not professors
of the truth as held by us Quakers. Yet, in a
little time, a large convincement took place among
them, in consequence of good preaching, and
divers meeting-houses were built.”
* About the time when Germantown was laid out,
I settled upon my tract of land which I had pur-
chased of the proprietor in England. I set up a
house and a corn-mill upon it, which was very useful
to the country for several miles round. There not
being plenty of horses, people generally brought
their corn to mill, many miles, on their backs. I
remember one man had a bull so gentle, that he used
to carry his corn on him, instead of a horse.
“Being now settled about six miles from Phila-
delphia, where were most of my friends, and the
chief place of provisions, fresh meat was very scarce.”
Here Mr. Townsend makes some further remarks
upon the means by which they obtained a subsist-
ence, and then relates the following anecdote as an
illustration of the kindness with which Providence
watched over their welfare:–
“As I was in my meadow, mowing grass, during
the haying season, a young deer came out of the
bushes near by, and stood still and looked at me. I
continued mowing, and the deer continued looking.
After a while, Ilaid down my scythe, and went gently
towards him. Upon this he ran off, but not far. I
went to work again, and the deer began to look at
me again; so that I left my work several times to
56 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
-
-






HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 57
go towards him; but he still kept himself at a dis-
tance. At last, as I was stepping slowly and softly
towards him, he, looking me full in the face and re-
treating, did not mind his steps, but stumbled vio-
lently against the trunk of a tree. The shock stunned
him so much that he fell. I now ran forward, and,
getting upon him, held him by the legs. After a
great struggle, in which I had almost tired him out,
I threw him on my shoulders, holding him fast by
the legs, and carried him about a quarter of a mile,
home, though not without difficulty, from his fresh
strugglings. A neighbor of mine, who happened
to be there, helped me butcher the deer very hand-
somely, and he proved serviceable to my family.”
It must be obvious enough to my young readers,
I think, after all I have said of the first settlers of
Pennsylvania, that they were hardy, persevering,
industrious and honest men. They were, in fact,
just the men most likely to succeed in their situa-
tions; and it was to their excellent character and
habits that the province, for a long time, owed the
greater part of its prosperity.

5S HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
CHAPTER VIII.
Some other ºnecdotes of the Pennsylvanian Indians. How
they were unjustly suspected of Hostility by the Whites,
in 1688; and how the Whites were horribly frightened
about Nothing. Story about the lame Indian King.
War at last breaks out, in 1754. The Occasion of it.
Some of the Tribes continue peaceable. Injustice done
to these friendly Tribes. Horrible Massacre at Lan-
caster. End of the Pennsylvanian History.
I HAVE told you that the Pennsylvania Indians
never violated their first treaty with Mr. Penn, for
about seventy years. There were sometimes fears,
however, that they would do so, especially as the
French, in Canada, made great exertions to per-
suade them to desert the English interest. In 1688,
the people of Philadelphia were alarmed with the
report of a conspiracy of the savages, to cut off all
the English on a certain day. The report was first
brought by two women, of West Jersey, to an old
Dutch settler at Chester. The appointed day, they
said, was Wednesday of the week following.
On Wednesday, accordingly, about 10 o'clock in
the night, a messenger came riding into Chester vil-
lage in breathless haste. He had come across the
woods. He told the people that three families, which
he named, about nine miles distant, were all cut off
by the Indians. Luckily, the Chester Quakers were
not easily alarmed before they were hurt. They

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 59
knew that they had treated the Indians too well to
have made enemies of them.
Three of them, however, started off on horseback,
about midnight, to examine into the truth of the re-
port. They found the three houses referred to, but no
persons in them. Still, there were no signs of mur-
der. The inhabitants had heard the same alarm, it
seems, with the Chester people, and had fled for
refuge about a mile, to a small settlement at Ridley's
creek. One of them had even been told that five
hundred Indians were actually collected at a place
called Naaman's creek, ready to fall upon the
English. This man had immediately fled for his
house, to give the alarm. As he was hastening on,
he imagined that he heard one of his own children
crying out, “What shall I do 2 My poor mother is
killed ! my mother is killed ! What shall I do ’’’
This frightened him more than ever. He now
supposed that his house and family were gone for it.
He dared not even proceed any farther, to learn the
correctness of his fears. He turned about instantly,
and fled across the woods for Philadelphia, with all
possible speed, and imagining every stump and bush
on his way to be an Indian. The people of that
place were much alarmed by his story. A messen-
ger was despatched to Naaman's creek, who soon
returned and confirmed the report.
He said, however, that it was at Brandywine, and
not Naaman's creek, where the Indians were as-
sembled. He added, that they had carried away or

60 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE, STATES.
concealed their women and children, and also their
king, who was lame and sick; in a word, they were
thoroughly prepared for the massacre. A Chester
Quaker, named Caleb Pusey, now offered to go again
to this very place without arms even, provided only
that five other persons from Philadelphia would ac-
company him. He suspected that there might be
some mistake in the business.
He set off, accordingly, with five attendants, and
proceeded to the Indian village at Brandywine
creek. Here, instead of finding five hundred sav-
ages in arms, they found the old king quietly lying
on the ground before his wigwam, in the sunshine.
His lame leg lay at length on a pile of straw, and
his head on a kind of pillow. The Indian children
were playing around him: the women were at work
in their cornfields as usual.
The English approached the royal wigwam. The
old king raised his head a little, and inquired, very
politely, what they had come for. They told him
the report which the Jersey women had first raised,
and asked him whether the Indians had any com-
plaint to make against the English. He appeared
both provoked and amused at the report. He said
that they had never the least misunderstanding with
the English. “'Tis true,” added he, “you owe us
still about fifteen pounds, for the land Mr. Penn
bought; but we are in no particular haste for
our pay.”
The English replied to him, that the Great Spirit
HISTORY OF THE, MIDDLE STATES.



62 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
loved the English and the Indians alike, and so they
ought to love each other. “Very true,” said the
king, “ and as the Great Spirit has given you corn,
as well as ourselves, I advise you to go home and
gather it in peace. [It was now harvest time.] We
intend you no harm.” They parted amicably, and
the messengers returned to Philadelphia, to quiet
the vain fears of the settlers. This story illustrates
the suspicion which they still could not help harbor-
ing, however unjustly, against the inoffensive and
friendly natives.
It was not until the year 1754, that a really hos-
tile spirit began to be seen among the Pennsylvanian
tribes. They were provoked, probably, by some
incursions or trespasses of the straggling whites on
their lands or other property. They were spurred
on, too, by the French in Canada. Hostilities
commenced; and the frontier inhabitants, on the
skirts of the province, suffered all the horrors of a
violent Indian war.
But the savages were not all concerned in this
misunderstanding. The Conestogoe Indians, among
others, continued friendly. They did not get much
credit, however, for their good conduct. Public
suspicion was excited against the Indians general-
ly; and this feeling became so violent in Lancaster
county, as to give rise to the most atrocious massacres
recorded in the annals of America.
An attack was made upon the Conestogoe set-
tlement by fifty-seven Lancaster settlers, who had

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 63
armed themselves with muskets, hangers and hatch-
ets, and were all mounted on horseback. It was
about day-break when they surrounded the wig-
wam village of the poor, innocent, but suspected
Indians.
The signal was given for assault, and the wig-
wams were all broken in at the same moment.
Only three men, two women and one boy were
found at home. The rest were among the neigh-
boring white people, in Lancaster and other places;
some to sell their baskets, brooms and bowls, and
others for other occasions. The six just mention-
ed were immediately fired upon, stabbed, and
hatcheted to death. All of them were scalped, and -
horribly mangled. Their huts were then set on
fire, and the whole Indian village consumed. -
The magistrates of Lancaster had by this time
heard the alarm. Determined to defend the Cones- -
togoes against their outrageous persecutors, they
sent out to collect all the straggling Indians about
that place, and secure them. But the murderers
were not yet satisfied. Hearing that fourteen In-
dians were collected together in the Lancaster
work-house, they marched for that town with their
whole force. Fifty of them soon made their ap-
pearance before the gates of the work-house.
They then dismounted, and broke in the doors
with the utmost violence. The poor Indians now
perceived that their last hour had arrived. The
Lancaster people would have protected them; but

64 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
-
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lº
ji.
|
ºSN
ºšº
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Massacre of the Indians in Lancaster.







HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 65
they were surprised, and knew not what to do.
The Indians had no weapons, and no other de-
fence whatever. Their cruel enemies had now
broken in the inner doors. They stood before
them, breathless, and with fury in their counte-
nances.
The Indian children began to cling to their par
rents' knees. The latter fell on their faces before
the English. They professed their innocence, and
protested, that, in their whole lives, they had done
the English no injury. In this posture they were
all murdered, man, woman and child The bar-
barous ruffians who committed the deed retreated
hastily from the work-house, mounted their horses,
huzzaed at the door for their victory, and galloped
out of town at full speed
CHAPTER IX.
Commencement of the early History of New York. The
River Hudson discovered. Some Account of Henry
Hudson. The Dutch form Settlements in Nºw York.
Dispute between them and the English. War with the
English. War with the Indians. Quarrels with the
Connecticut Settlers. Governor Van Twiller. Kieft,
the second Governor, comes pretty near having his
Brains blown out, Anecdotes.
Having done with the early Pennsylvanian his-
tory, I shall give you, now, some sketches of the
6*
66 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES
history of the great state of New York. Populous
and powerful as that state is at the present time, it was
long among the most insignificant of the colonies;
and, even at the end of a hundred years from its
first settlement, it did not contain one hundred
thousand inhabitants. You will recollect that it
now contains more than two millions.
The principal river of New York, the Hudson,
was first discovered and ascended, in 1609, two
years after the settlement at Jamestown, by Henry
Hudson, for whom it was named.
Hudson was an Englishman, employed, as some
writers say, by the English king, James, but as the
Dutch historians generally state, employed by the
Dutch East India Company. Chiefly in Conse-
quence of this uncertainty, affecting the rights of
the English and the Dutch, as first discoverers and
owners of the same disputed country, there were
frequent quarrels and wars between the Dutch in
New York and the neighboring English colonies,
for a number of years. The former were finally
conquered in 1664, during a long war in which the
mother countries, England and Holland, were en-
gaged with each other.
The English writers say, further, that Hudson
sold his right of discovery to the Dutch, which he
had no right to do, being subject to King James.
But the Dutch deny t is. He was employed, they
say, by themselves, as a servant of the company.
This company desired, as almost all Europe did, at


HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. -67
that time, to find some nearer passage to the East
Indies, than by the usual roundabout circuit of the
Cape of Good Hope. They sent Hudson, there-
fore, to search for a north-west, American passage,
not knowing, at that period, how far this continent
extended, uninterruptedly, from north to south.
Hudson sailed early in 1609,-or, as others say,
in 1608,-with a small vessel, well supplied, and
twenty Englishmen and Dutchmen for a crew. He
pursued a westward course from the Texel, in Hol-
land, and fell in with the coast of Newfoundland, so
named by himself. He then shaped his course for
Cape Cod ; looked into the Chesapeake, near
where the Virginian colony had settled in 1607; an-
chored off the Delaware; and ascended the river,
named, after himself, the Hudson, more than a hun-
dred miles. When he returned to Holland, the
Dutch gave him something for his map of discove-
ries, and sent several ships, the next year, to found
a small settlement on Manhattan Island, upon which
the great city of New York now stands.
In 1614, they granted a patent to a company of
merchants, for trading with the savages on the
Hudson. They called their American territory
the New Netherlands, and laid claim to all that is
now Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, be-
sides New York. Being determined to make the
best of this claim, too, they built a fort on the
western side of the Hudson, near Albany, the
-

68 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
first commander of which was Hendrick or Henry
Christiaens.
This good man had enjoyed his authority but a
few months, before Captain Argall, who had been
sent out by the English against the Dutch settle-
ments on the Bay of Fundy, and had sailed up the
Hudson on his return, by way of amusement, sudden-
ly appeared before the fort, and called upon Chris-
tiaens to surrender. The captain was obliged to
make a grace of necessity. He was unprepared for
defence; and so, without the least ceremony, or
show of fighting, he instantly submitted himself,
and his garrison or colony, to the crown of Eng-
land. In consequence of this good behavior, Ar-
gall suffered them to stay there, although it is said
their fort was demolished. But the English were
hardly gone, before they built another, on Manhattan
Island, which they called Fort Amsterdam.
In 1623, they erected two more ; one called
Nassau, on the east side of Delaware Bay; and
another, called Good Hope, on Connecticut River.
The Dutch writers say, that the land was bought of
the Indians on both sides of this last-named river,
long before the English settled there. In 1621,
the New Netherlands were granted to the Dutch
West Indian Company.
Wouter Van Twiller was the first Dutch gov-
ernor. He arrived at Fort Amsterdam, where New
York now is, in June, 1629. His style and title, in
the grant, were as follows:– “We, director and
-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 69
council, residing in the New Netherlands, on the
Island Manhattans, under the government of their
High Mightinesses, the Lords States General of
the United Netherlands, and the privileged West
Indian Company.” It is certainly to be hoped that
the worthy governor did not oblige every one of his
subjects to address him, on all occasions, by his
long title.
William Kieft was the second governor. By the
year 1638, the quarrelling with their English and
other neighbors had become quite brisk; and it
embarrassed Kieft not a little. He issued a proc-
lamation, among other things, forbidding the Con-
necticut people to trade at Fort Good Hope, on the
Connecticut river. Shortly after, the English not
being so much terrified by this proclamation as the
governor expected, he sent a Dutch force to Good
Hope, to maintain what he considered his Dutch
territories. The English had already settled on
the Connecticut two years before. In 1640,
notwithstanding the proclamation and the power
of Governor Kieft, they seized upon the Dutch
garrison, and drove them *ay from the banks
of the river.
In the course of the same year, the English also
overspread the eastern part of Long Island, and
settled even as far as Oyster Bay. In 1642. Kieft
sent a force to break up these settlements, notwith-
standing that the English had bought up the land of
the Indians. Some of the English planters were

70 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES
imprisoned, and others driven off. The governor
treated the New Haven colonists with no more cer-
emony. He sent two armed sloops against them,
without so much as a warning; burned the English
trading-houses; seized upon their boat and their
goods; and did other damage, to the amount of one
thousand pounds sterling.
The Dutch agent at New Haven made an at-
tempt on the life of Mr. Lamberton, a principal
merchant of the English colony, during the same
year. He accused that gentleman of a plot with
the Indians, to cut off the Dutch ; and tried to in-
duce his servants to swear all this falsehood against
him in court, by giving them strong drink, and by
other bribes. Lamberton was tried and acquitted;
but when he afterwards visited Manhattoes' to
trade, Kieft treated him very harshly, and obliged
him to pay an inordinate tax upon the beaver-skins
which he had there purchased from the Indians.
The English further complained of the Dutch,
that the latter harbored all fugitives from Con-
necticut; helped them, when confined for crimes,
to file off their chains: persuaded servants to run
away from their masters; and purchased goods
which had been stolen from the English, and would
not return them. Yet the Dutch governor wrote
to Governor Winthrop at Boston, the very next
wear, complaining of the intolerable insolence and
insults of the *" They were pulling each
other by the ea s, he said, in Connecticut, for a

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 71
little piece of land not worth speaking of; and he
desired Governor Winthrop to see justice done to the
Dutch. It is hard to find out, on the whole, upon
which side the blame lay most, or which party made
the most disturbance. It is clear, however, that
they were all ready enough to quarrel; and in such
cases, it is seldom difficult to find something to quar-
rel about.
The Indians were, at this period, beginning to
acquire the use of fire-arms. These were sold
them, in the way of trade, by the Canadian French,
the Dutch, and perhaps the English also, and they
soon showed a more hostile spirit, in consequence
of these supplies. In 1643, they quarrelled openly
with the Dutch. It seems that a drunken Indian,
in his intoxication, killed a Dutchman. The Dutch
demanded the murderer; but he was not to be
found. They then instigated the Mohawk tribe of
Indians, as it was said, to fall upon their Indian
neighbors, which they did, and killed thirty of
them.
One Marine, a Dutch sea-captain, soon after ob-
tained a commission from Kieft, to kill as many of
the savages as he could. So, collecting a company of
armed men, he fell suddenly upon the Indians in the
vicinity of Manhattoes, and made an indiscriminate
slaughter of men, women and children, to the num-
ber of seventy or eighty. This outrage roused the
Indians of all that section to a bloody and obstinate
war. During the spring and summer, they burnt

72 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
the out-houses about the Dutch settlements, and,
driving their cattle into their barns, burnt cattle,
barns and hay all together.
They also killed several of the Dutch themselves,
and pressed so hard upon their settlements, that
they were obliged to take refuge in their fort, and
send for help to their old enemies, the English of
New Haven. The Long Island Indians united
with the others against them. Kieſt now invited
Captain Underhill, from Stamford in Connecticut,
to assist him, Underhill being pretty well known
as a soldier. But, unluckily, Marine, the captain
of Kieft's own troops, thought his dignity offended
by this proceeding. He was mightily enraged, and
even presented his pistol at the governor, threaten-
ing to blow his brains out forthwith.
This was fortunately prevented by some of the
governor's attendants. Upon this, one of the cap-
tain's soldiers discharged his musket at the governor,
and the ball but just missed him. The governor's
guardshot the soldier dead on the spot. The Dutchof.
New York were generally so irritated by the Indian
war, at last, that the governor scarcely dared to ap-
pear among them at all. He was obliged to keep a
uard of fifty Englishmen about him for some time.
And yet, but a few months before, the Dutch had
been very eager, as we have seen, for the war. In
the fall of this year, the Indians killed fifteen more
Dutchmen, and drove in all the English and Dutch
settlers west of Stamford in Connecticut.
They continued to kill their cattle, and burn
HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
73
-
-
-
-
-
-
" º L




74 HISTORY OF THE MIDI) LE STATES.
their houses and barns. They also did all possible
mischief on Long Island. Those of the Dutch
there, who escaped from their ravaged plantations,
were confined to their fort for weeks, and obliged
to kill and eat the last of their cattle. The English
in Connecticut did not make common cause with
the Dutch, but they sent them provisions on sev-
eral occasions; and Captain Underhill, who joined
them privately, according to the governor's invita-
tion, had the chief command and management of
the war. He collected more than one hundred
English and Dutch soldiers under him, and by this
force probably preserved the Dutch settlements from
total destruction. He is supposed to have killed
more than four hundred Indians on Long Island and
upon the main land. -
CHAPTER X.
- -
Story about an English Criminal, harbored by the Dutch.
Other Disturbances between them and the English.
Great Battle between the Indians and Dutch. Peter
Stuyvesant, the third Governor of New York. He meets
with many Verations in his Government. His Letter
sent to Holland, in 1660. War with the English. The
English conquer and take Possession of New York.
Story about Captain Manning.
WHILE the Dutch were having all this trouble
with the savages, some of their own settlers, who

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 75
still remained in Connecticut, were giving nearly
as much trouble to their English neighbors in that
province.
During the year 1646, the Dutch at Hartford
induced an Indian servant girl to take shelter among
them, who had lefther English master for some crime.
The latter now demanded her, as his property; and
the magistrates demanded her also, as a criminal.
But the Dutch would not restore her to either of the
claimants. The Dutch agent even resisted the
guard who came for her. He drew his rapier upon
the soldiers, and broke it over their muskets, in the
violence of his passion. He then escaped to the
Dutch fort, which was still standing at Hartford,
and there defended and sheltered himself with im-
punity.
Some of the Dutch also assaulted an Englishman
who had recovered damages against one or more of
them, in court, for some injury, and had attempted
to collect them by process of law. They struck
him, and took his team and loading from him. The
English magistrates wrote letters to Governor Kieſt
at Manhattoes (commonly so called), complaining of
all these things; but Kieſt gave them little satisfac-
tion. He was a passionate man, addicted to th
use of hard words; and he wrote to the English noth-
ing but unconscionably abusive letters in reply to
their complaints. He denied that the Indian woman
was a servant; and passed over the other matter
without the least notice whatsoever.

76 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATEs.
He now threatened, moreover, to make war upon
the English in Connecticut, who had settled on lands,
as he said, to which they had no right. He then
compared the magistrates, who wrote to him, to
eagles, “which soar aloft, and always despise the
little fly;” but the Dutch, he added, would soon
pring them down. He finished his letters with this
sentence: “We protest against all your commis-
sioners met at the Red Mount. [Thus the Dutch
called New Haven, from the reddish appearance of
the rocks west and north of the town.] We protest
against you as infringers of the rights of the Lords,
the States, our superior [meaning the Netherlands],
in that you have dared, without our express and
special consent, to hold your court within the limits
of New Netherlands.” -
The Connecticut magistrates, or commissioners,
as they were called, answered the governor very
coolly. They observed to him, that he had forgot-
ten, in his rage, the most important part of their
former complaints, and again requested him to put
some check on the intolerable insolence of the Dutch
in Connecticut.
The war still continued, meanwhile, between the
Dutch and the Indians. A great battle was fought,
about this time, at that part of Horseneck, in Con-
necticut, commonly called Strickland's Plains. It
was long and bloody. The Dutch, with much diffi-
culty, kept the field, and the Indians withdrew.
Great numbers were slain on both sides, so that the

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 77
graves of the dead, for a century after, as the old
historians relate, appeared like a cluster of small
hills.
Peter Stuyvesant was the last Dutch governor
of New York. He began his administration in
1647, and never did any governor find himself in
more trouble. All nations seemed to him to have
united against him, for the express purpose of keep-
ing him uneasy. The Connecticut people addressed
him a letter of compliments, in which they hinted
the propriety of his giving them the satisfaction
which Kieft had refused. But notwithstanding their
compliments, the governor was but very little more
civil than his predecessor had been, though rather
less passionate. He even encouraged new insults
upon the English, by his own people. At least the
English thought so, and they now quarrelled more
sharply than ever. These differences were finally
settled by the governor's going to Hartford for that
purpose, in September, 1650. On the same occa-
son, a boundary was agreed upon, which remains
to this day the dividing line between New York and
Connecticut.
But Stuyvesant had vexations enough on other
sides, to counterbalance this agreeable settlement
of his affairs with Connecticut. He quarrelled
with the English colony in Maryland, about the
Maryland boundary; the Indians molested him
from the back country; and, not far from the same
time, one Forrester, a Scotchman, set up a claim to
7+
78 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
land upon Long Island. Moreover, as if to keep
the good governor active, a Swedish colony was
encroaching on his limits in Delaware. -
By some mistake, one Deswyck, a Swedish cap-
tain, had arrived in Raritan river. The ship was
seized, and Deswyck carried captive to New Am-
sterdam (New York). It seems that, a few years
before, the Dutch had built Fort Casimir (where
Newcastle now is), on the Delaware river. The
Swedish colony then claimed that section of country,
and protested against their building of the fort.
But the Dutch not noticing their threats, Risingh,
the Swedish governor, determined to try another
method of persuasion. So, with thirty men, he one
day visited the fort under pretence of making them
a civil call. He fired two salutes, and was then ad-
mitted and entertained. Within an hour or two, he
availed himself of this occasion to overpower the
garrison, seize on all their ammunition and stores,
and compel them to swear allegiance to Christiana,
queen of Sweden.
But the Dutch were not to be so easily outwitted.
They sailed against Fort Casimir, in 1655, Stuyvesant
heading his own force in person. He ascended the
Delaware in September of that year, anchored op-
posite the garrison, landed his troops, and demanded
the surrender of the fort, as Dutch property. Suen
Scutz, the Swedish captain, desired time to advise
with Governor Risingh. But Stuyvesant would
suffer no such thing. “They must surrender with-











HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 79
out the least hesitation, or ceremony,” he said, “or
the old fort should be blown about their ears, like
a mere martin-house, by his cannon '''
Scutz was horribly terrified, and surrendered.
The whole strength of the fort—four cannon, four-
teen pounders, five swivels, and a parcel of small
arms—was given up, with the fort itself. Stuyve-
sant now marched against Fort Christiana, com-
manded by Risingh. This surrendered on the
25th of the month, and thus the country was en-
tirely subdued. About thirty Swedes were suffered
to remain there, on swearing a long oath of “fidelity
and obedience to the States General, the Lords
Directors of the West India Company, their subal-
terms of the province of New Netherlands, and the
Director General, then or thereafter to be establish-
ed.” Risingh was ordered off to France or England;
and the other Swedes, who refused to swear the long
oath, were sent home to Sweden, by way of Holland.
But the troubles of Stuyvesant were not yet
ended, as appears from a long letter which he wrote
to the West India Company in Holland, dated
April 20th, 1660 –“Your honors imagine,” he
writes, “that the troubles in England will prevent
any attempt on these parts. Alas! they are ten to
one in number to us; and, without any assistance,
can deprive us of this country whenever they
please.” This was a hard case, truly, for the
governor, and it soon appeared that he was right in
his idea of the English power.
80


HISTORY OF THE MID+31, E, STATES. 81
In March, 1664, King Charles of England granted
a patent of the state of New York to his brother, the
Duke of York, for whom it was named. The patent
included also what is now New Jersey. This the
duke afterwards gave up to several other English
noblemen. But the province of New York he was
determined to keep to himself; and, with this view,
an expedition was fitted out against the New
Netherlands. It sailed from Boston, in New Eng-
land, in August, commanded by Colonel Nichols.
The colonel arrived before New Amsterdam on the
20th of the same month, and immediately called
upon the Dutch governor to surrender all the forts
and towns on the island of Manhattoes.
Stuyvesant was a soldier, as we have seen, and a
man not easily frightened. But he had no knowl-
edge of the expedition until late in July, and was,
therefore, almost wholly unprepared for defence. To
gain time, however, he drew up a tremendously
long statement of the Dutch right to the country,
which ended with assuring Nichols, that he would
hold out to the last. “We offer unto you,” added
he, “a treaty, by our deputies, Mr. Cornelius Van
Ruyner, secretary, Cornelius Steenwick, burgo-
master, Mr. Samuel Megapolensis, doctor of physic,
and Mr. James Cousseau, heretofore sheriff.”
The conclusion, which follows, is a queer specimen
of the style of those days:– “As touching the threats
in your summons, we only say that we fear nothing
but what God shall lay upon us, all being in his

82 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
gracious disposal; and we may as well be preserved
by him with small forces, as by a great army—which
makes us wish you all happiness and prosperity, and
recommend you to his protection. My lords, your
thrice humble and affectionate servant and friend,
(Signed) P. Stuyves ANT.
At the Fort at Amsterdam, the 2d of September, New Style,
1664.”
But Nichols was too shrewd a man to be coaxed
or terrified in this manner. He issued a proclama-
tion inviting the Dutch to submit, and promising
them easy terms. He then made violent prepara-
tions for an assault upon the fort. The governor
now sent John de Decker, his counsellor of state,
and three other men, with long names and titles, to
agree upon a truce.
Nichols answered, that nothing but a surrender
would answer his purpose; and so, two days after,
the whole Dutch government and country submitted
to the English crown. The Dutch were suffered to
remain there, however, as most of them did; and their
descendants, to this day, are well known to be among
the most industrious and worthy inhabitants of the
great state of New York. From this time the
province was ruled, like most of the other provinces,
by governors appointed by the English king.
It was at this period that New Amsterdam was
first named New York. It consisted of several
small streets, laid out in 1656, and contained a
considerable population, chiefly of Dutch. In a few

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 83
-
weeks after the surrender of this place, the Dutch
fort on the river Hudson, above, was reduced, and
named “Albany,” from one of the titles of the Duke
of York.
A new war broke out two years after this, be-
tween England and Holland, during which a Dutch
fleet anchored at Staten Island, near the mouth of
the Hudson, and captured the English fort there
without giving or receiving a shot. From that time
till the close of the war, the Dutch were once more
masters of the country. It was then returned to the
possession of the English. John Manning, who had
given up the fort, was tried for permitting the Dutch
to land on the island without suffering his men to
fire a gun, and for striking his flag even before the
enemy were within sight of the garrison.
Manning pleaded guilty to these scandalous
charges, but was only condemned to have his sword
broken over his head in public, and himself rendered
incapable of wearing one, or holding an office ever
after. It is said he was suffered to go to England,
to see the Duke of York and King Charles; and
that the latter had a partiality for him, from the cir-
cumstance that, when that monarch was in exile,
Manning had befriended him, and foretold his resto-
ration to the English throne.

S4 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
CHAPTER XI.
Some Account of the New York Indians. The Five Na-
tions. The Policy observed towards them by the Eng-
lish of New York and the French of Canada. Anecdotes
of their Wars with the French. Battle between the Sen-
ecas and French. The Five .Nations invade Canada.
Occasion of this Movement. Story of the Dinondadie
Sachem, Adario. -
HAVING given you some account of the Dutch
and English who first settled and took possession of
New York, I shall now tell you about the Indians
of that state. The chief of these were the Five
NATIONs, a very powerful and famous confederacy,
consisting of the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Onon-
dagas, the Mohawks and the Oneidas.
For a long time after they had taken possession of
the province, it was the great object of the English
governors of New York to keep these Indians friend-
ly to themselves, and hostile to the French in Canada.
In this they were generally successful. The French
and these Indians were continually quarrelling, and
often at war with each other.
In 1687, the French governor collected a strong
force at Montreal, with the view of marching against
the Senecas, who were particularly troublesome to
the French. Monsieur Campanie was sent forward
with two hundred Canadians, as an advanced party.
He surprised two Indian villages, which had been

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 85
built about twenty miles from Lake Cadaracqui (as
the Indians called Ontario), at the invitation of the
French themselves. All but thirteen of the Indians
who were taken here were tortured at the stake.
The thirteen survivors were sent captive to France,
to work in the French galleys.
All the Five Nations soon heard of this massacre,
and they made terrible preparations for vengeance.
The French army, meanwhile, left Fort Cada-
racqui on the 23d of June, half marching down
on the north, and half on the south side of the
lake. Both detachments arrived at Tyrondequait
the same day, and thence immediately marched for
the chief village of the Senecas, which was twenty
miles distant. The main body was composed of
regular troops, the front and rear consisting of friend-
ly Indians and traders. The scouts advanced, on
the second day of the march, as far as the cornfields
belonging to the village.
Here lay five hundred Senecas, upon their arms.
The scouts came up within pistol-shot: but seeing
no living being, and hearing no noise whatever, they
returned to the army, and reported that the enemy
had all fled; and that the French must quicken their
march, to overtake even the old men and women.
They pressed on, therefore, in great haste, until they
reached the foot of a hill, about a mile from the
village, where the Senecas lay ready for them. They
rushed out from their ambuscade, with a tremen-
8
86 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
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- N2.
º sº º: - WN
Sº
º/º
º
Pages 85, 87.
Battle between the Senecas and the Indians.









HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 87
dous shout, and fell at the same instant on the front
and the rear of the army.
the French battalions were embarrassed and
thrown into great disorder. They fired upon ea
other as much as upon the enemy, and soon fled to
the woods. The Senecas followed them until they
were checked by the French Indians. The number
of killed on either side is not certainly known; but
the French chief commander, De Nonville, was so
much dispirited by his loss, that he could not be
persuaded to continue his march that day. The
Senecas, therefore, had time to burn their village
and retire. Two of their children only courageously
remained to receive De Nonville, and to be tortured
for the amusement of his Indian allies.
After destroying the corn in this and several other
villages, the French army retired to the banks of
the lake, and erected a fort on the south-east side
of the straits of Niagara. Here they left one
hundred men, under the command of one De la
Troye, with eight months' provisions. They were
soon after closely besieged by their Indian enemies,
and all perished but seven or eight. -
In August of the year 1637, Colonel Dongan, the
New York governor, met the sachemsofthe Five Na-
tions at Albany, and confirmed the English alliance
with them by presents and speeches. In the spring of
the next year, a party of Onondaga Indians (one of
these five tribes) surprised a few French soldiers near
Fort Frontenac. Instead of murdering them, how-

88 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
ever, they confined them to hard labor (as a return for
the fate of those thirteen Indians whom the French had
sent to labor in old France). Lamberville, a French
riest, used his utmost skill to regain them; but find-
ing his efforts fruitless, he gave the Onondagas two
wampum-belts, to secure their kindness to the
prisoners, and prevent their joining the Senecas in
Open War.
A treaty was formally made, this season, between
the French and the Five Nations; but it was soon
interrupted by a singular event. The Dinondadie
Indians, who lived on the river St. Lawrence, had
lately begun to trade with the English, and their
friendship was, therefore, suspected by the French.
Adario, their chief sachem, now undertook to regain
the confidence of the latter nation, by performing
some notable exploit against their old enemies, the
Five Nations. He wished also to prevent a peace
between these two parties; for, in that case, the
French would have leisure to punish the Dinonda-
dies, and would stand no longer in awe of the Five
Nations. He determined, therefore, to make a diffi-
culty between the two parties.
He put himself at the head of one hundred
Dinondadies, and lay in ambush for the ambassadors
of the Five Nations, at the fall in Cadaracqui river,
as they were returning from Canada home. He
killed some, and took the rest prisoners. He told
the latter, that the French governor had informed
him that fifty warriors of the Five Nations were com-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. S9.
ing that way, and advised him to fall upon them
without mercy. The ambassadors were amazed at
the perfidy of the governor, and frankly informed
Adario of the truce they had just settled with him.
Adario now counterfeited the utmost rage an
shame, at having been made the tool, as he said, of
the French governor. He liberated the ambassadors
at once. “Go, my brethren,” said the crafty sav-
age; “I untie your bonds, and send you home
again. The French governor has made me commit
so black an action, that I shall never be easy after it,
till the Five Nations shall have taken their revenge.”
The ambassadors went home with this story in
their mouths, not doubting a word of what Adario
had said. The Five Nations were terribly enraged
against the French. By the 26th of July, they landed
1200 of their warriors, panting for revenge, on the
south side of the island of Montreal. The French
in the city were in perfect security. The savages
came upon them like a whirlwind. Every building
near the walls was burned; the neighboring planta-
tions ravaged ; and 1000 men, women and children
put to the sword. Twenty-six more were carried
into captivity, and burned alive. The Five Nations.
during all this time, lost only three of their number.
Never did Canada sustain such a blow. The
news of the massacre no sooner reached the garri-
son at Lake Ontario, than they set fire to two ves-
sels they had built there, and abandoned the fort,
leaving a slow match to twenty-eight barrels of gun-
8*

90 HISTORY OF THE MIDIDLE STATES.
powder, designed to blow up the works. This match
happened to fail, however, and the Indians soon
after seized upon the fort, powder and all. The
. fled down the river so precipitately, that one
of their batteaux and her whole crew were dashed
into pieces by shooting over a fall. Canada was
horribly harassed by the savages, on all sides, for a
long time.
Canada was at this time in the most distressed
condition; and it continued to be so for a long
period. The whole country was ravaged, day and
night, by the warriors of the Five Nations. The
plantations of the settlers, in all quarters, were burnt
and destroyed; trade was entirely at a stand; great
numbers of the people were slain; and the remain-
der were in danger of perishing by famine, as well
as by the tomahawks of their inveterate and ferocious
enemies. Matters came to such a pitch, in fine,
that, although no fault could be found with the ad-
ministration of the Canadian governor, De Non-
ville, it was deemed necessary by the Court of
France to remove him from his office.
It was supposed that this step, and the appoint-
ment of a new governor, who had the reputation
and the popularity of a more fortunate man, might
inspire the people of Canada with a gleam of hope
that all was not yet lost. For this reason, De Non-
ville was recalled to France, and rewarded with
an honorable employment in the king's household
The Count de Frontenac was appointed governor

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 91
of Canada in his place; and this gentleman arrived
at Quebec on the 2d of October, 1689. He had
been in Canada many years before, and was per-
fectly acquainted with the country and the people.
They were acquainted with him, too; and they
knew him for a brave and indefatigable man. He
was now in the sixty-eighth year of his age; but his
faculties seemed unimpaired by time, and his inter-
est in the welfare of the province entirely unabated.
Great expectations were excited among the Cana-
dians by his arrival, and care was artfully taken to
increase this impression by public rejoicings got up
with as much noise and parade as possible. He
was too active, however, to pay much attention to
matters of this kind. He left Quebec in four days
after his arrival there; and the winter being now so
far advanced that the ice of the St. Lawrence made
it unnavigable for larger vessels, he ascended the
river to Montreal in an Indian canoe. The Cana-
dians were greatly delighted with this new proof of
his energy.

92 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
CHAPTER XII.
How Governor Frontenac treats the Indian Prisoners.
Sends some of them Home. Treaty between New York
and the Five Nations in 1689. Treaty with the New
England Colonies, made at Albany. Speech of Taha-
jadoris. Indian Mode of doing Business at a Council.
Result of the Council. Five Nations refuse to fight the
eastern Tribes. They encourage the New York People
to fight the French.
ON the arrival of Frontenac at Montreal, he in-
creased the admiration which the French people
already felt for his vigor and zeal, by proposing to
go and visit a fort on Lake Erie, which he had built
when in Canada before, and which had been since
abandoned. The clergy and people generally of
Montreal came to him, with outstretched hands,
to represent the danger of such an attempt at
this season, and beseeching him not to expose a
life so necessary for their own defence and safety.
The shrewd old Frenchman suffered them to
exhaust all their arguments and tears; and at last,
with seeming reluctance, he consented to abandon
the enterprise. This, he observed, was merely to
oblige them; though the fact was, probably, that he
had no more idea of visiting or repairing the old
fort than of visiting the king of China, and repairing
the Chinese wall. This show of his offering to
go, however, had a good effect, as he undoubtedly"

Hiſs'TORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 93
expected it would. Several Montreal gentlemen
voluntarily set out, with one hundred Indian traders,
to examine the fort. They found it in better condi-
tion than they expected, although the Five Nations
had made some breaches in the walls. These they
now repaired, and then concluded to remain there
as a garrison.
Count de Frontenac had brought over with him from
France, Tawerahet, one of the thirteen Indian prison-
ers whom De Nonville, as I have told you, had taken
at Cadaracqui and sent captive to France. As the Five
Nations had an extraordinary opinion of Tawerahet as
a warrior, and of course desired his redemption, the
count hoped that he might be useful to the Canadians
in procuring a peace between them and their
Indian enemies. With this view, he took every
measure in his power to conciliate Tawerahet, and
his friends among the New York Indians, who, as
he knew very well, would be sure to hear how he
was treated.
He had shown him a great deal of kindness,
therefore, during the voyage from France to Cana-
da; and when they arrived at Quebec, he had given
him lodgings under his own roof. In a word, he
wheedled the Indian sachem so effectually, that the
latter forgot all the ill usage he had formerly re-
ceived. Four others of the thirteen captives, of less
note, had also been brought over. These four
were now sent to the Five Nations, in Tawerahet's
unme, to inform them of his return, and of the kind.

94 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
ness of the Count de Frontenac to him. They were
also instructed to press the Indian tribes to visit
“their old friend Frontenac,” at Montreal, inasmuch
as he had always retained an affection for them, and
would be delighted to see them.
But before I tell you the answer which the Five
Nations returned to this artful message of the count,
I must go back with you a month or two in my
history. War had been declared anew between
France and England, some time before Frontenac's
arrival; and four of the Five Nations had taken that
occasion to renew their old treaty of peace with the
people of New York. This was done upon the 27th
of June, 1689. This renewal of the treaty was, in
their language at the council, “sticking to the old
chain by which they had all been bound together as
brethren.” “Virginia, Maryland and New England,”
added they, “have been since taken into this silver
chain, with which our friendship is locked fast.
We are now come to make the chain clearer and
brighter than ever.”
About the beginning of September of the same
year, the New England colonies sent commissioners
to Albany, to meet the deputies of the Five Nations.
They wished to engage the assistance of these tribes
against the eastern Indians, with whom the colonies
were at this period engaged in war. These same
eastern Indians had also sent their deputies to the
Five Nations, just before the time we are speaking of,
to engage assistance against the colonies; the latter

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 95
were, consequently, the more anxious to effect their
purposes at the Albany meeting.
The council commenced on the 23d of Septem-
ber, with all the solemnities and parade usual on
similar occasions. One of the New England agents
opened it with a long speech, which he ended by
desiring the Indians to consider well the answer
they should give on the next day. On the 24th,
accordingly, Tahajadoris, a Mohawk sachem, and a
chief orator among them, made a long oration in
reply.
He repeated every thing the New England agent
had said the day preceding, and then desired the au-
dience to be very attentive to his answer. This re-
peating what is said to them, before replying to it,
was a common circumstance in these Indian coun-
cils. They repeated, too, with astonishing accuracy,
taking the following method of assisting their memo-
ries: The chief sachem, who presides at the con-
ference, held a bundle of small sticks in his hand.
As soon as the speaker had finished any one article
or paragraph in his speech, and stopped to get
breath, or make presents according to custom, the
chief sachem gave a stick to some other sachem at
his side.
This was as much as to say, “Be particular to
remember this last article. We all depend on your
memory for this.” When another article was fin-
ished, he gave another stick to another sachem,
whose charge it thereby became to remember the
96 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATEs.
º
Indian Council.



HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 97
second article. So he proceeded with every para-
graph in the speech. At the end of it, the council
was commonly adjourned to the afternoon, or the next
day. The Indians met together meanwhile, and
determined on their answer to each article of the
speaker, one by one. One of them was selected to
act as orator; and the sachems undertook, as before,
to remember each article of his speech. If he forgot
or misstated any thing, therefore, when he came to
speak, a sachem was always ready a his side to
prompt or correct him.
I will now resume my story, and give you a part
of the speech of Tahajadoris at the Albany council.
* Brothers,” he began, “you are welcome to
this house, which is appointed for our treaties with
the Christians. We thank you for renewing the
covenant chain. It is now no longer of iron, and
subject to rust, as formerly, but of pure silver, and
includes in it all the king's subjects, from the Sene-
cas eastward, as far as any of the great king's sub-
jects live (meaning King William, of England),
and southward from New England to Virginia.”
Here the speaker presented a beaver-skin to the
New England agents, to confirm what he had said.
This was another general Indian custom. He then
proceeded thus:—
“We are glad to hear of the good success which
our great king has had over the French by sea, in
taking and sinking so many of their ships. You tell
us, in your speech, that we are one people. Letus
9

98 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
then, go hand in hand together. Let us ruin and
destroy the French, our common enemy.” Here
another beaver was given.
“The covenant chain between us is ancient (as
you have told us), and of long standing. We have
kept it with true hearts. When you had wars
years ago with the Indians, you desired us to help
you. We did it readily, and to the purpose. We
pursued them closely, and so prevented the shedding
of much of your own blood. This was a certain
proof that we loved you from our hearts.” Here the
speaker gave a belt of wampum, the Indian money.
“You advise us to pursue our enemies the French,
with vigor. This, we assure you, we are determined
to do, to the utmost of our speed and strength. But
since they are your enemies likewise, we desire our
brothers of the colonies to send us a hundred men,
for the security of this place, which is ill-provided
against an attack from the French. The Christians
here have victuals enough for the entertainment of
a hundred men.” Here another belt was presented.
“We patiently suffered many injuries from the
French, from year to year, before we took up the
battle-axe against them. Our patience made the
sachem (governor) of Canada think that we were
afraid of him ; that we dared not resent the injuries
we had suffered. He is now undeceived. We are
resolved never to drop the axe. The French never
shall see our faces in peace. We shall never be recon-
ciled while a Frenchman lives. We will make no

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 99
peace, though every one of our nation should be cut
into slices by the French swords. Our brothers
may depend upon this.” And this, too, was con-
firmed by a beaver-skin.
* As to what you told us of the Owenagungas
and Magees.(New England Indians, at war with
the colonies), we answer thus: We were never so
proud and haughty as to begin a war without just
provocation. You say they are treacherous rogues.
This we cannot help. You say also that they will
undoubtedly help the French. Let them do this,
brothers; let them but join your enemies, either
French or Indians, and we will kill and destroy
them like wild-cats in the woods.” A fourth beaver
was given to confirm all this.
The Mohawks afterwards offered five of their men
to guard the agents home, against any of their Indian
enemies, who might waylay them; and a belt of
wampum was given to confirm this offer.
Tahajadoris then continued as follows: “We
have spoken what we had to say of the war. We
come now to the affairs of peace. We promise to
preserve the chain inviolably. We wish that the
sun may always shine in peace over all our heads.
We give two belts, one for the sun, and the other for
his beams.” And here two more belts were accord-
ingly given.
“We make fast the roots of the Tree of Peace
which is planted in this place. Its roots reach to the
utmost of your colonies. If the French should come

100 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
to shake this tree, we should know it by the motion
of its great roots, which reach also into our coun-
try. But we trust that the sachem of Canada will
not be able to shake this tree, which has been so
firmly and so long planted among us.” Here two
more belts were delivered.
Last of all, the speaker desired the magistrates of
Albany, who were present as spectators, to remember
what he had said, and then gave them a beaver. It
seems that they answered, in this case, the purpose
of witnesses to a deed or treaty; and the presents
answered the purpose of pledges or seals.
The New England agents could not help observ-
ing, after all this, that these sly savages had said
not a word about the messengers who had come to
them from the New England Indians. They now
desired the orator, therefore, to explain himself dis-
tinctly upon that point.
“We cannot declare war,” said he, in reply,
“against the eastern Indians; for they have done us
no harm. Nevertheless, our New England brothers
may be sure of our friendship. When we took up
the axe against the French, we did it to revenge
the injuries they had done us, and not merely to
please you. We did not so much as acquaint you
with our intention until fourteen days after our
army had begun its march towards Canada. But
the Owenagungas and Magees have done us no
harm. Brothers, we cannot fight against them.”
My young friends will perceive how very shrewd

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 101
these Indians were. One would think, too, that
they had excellent ideas of justice and fair play.
They knew it was not right to begin war unprovok-
ed, and merely to please the English. But they
were equally careful not to offend the latter by the
style of their refusal. After the council had sepa-
rated, therefore, some of the sachems sent a mes-
senger to the New England agents at their lodgings
in Albany, desiring to speak with them.
The agents met them soon after, as they wished.
The Indian speaker now told them that he had
something to say which was not proper to be spoken
publicly in the council. Some of their tribe, he
said, had an affection for the New England Indians;
and there was some danger lest they might discover
and hinder the designs of the rest in favor of the
English. He now assured the agents that they
should look upon the enemies of New England as
their own enemies. They would send five of their
young men home with the agents, to guard them,
and to examine the country of the New England
Indians. This they always did before making an
expedition into an enemy's country. “In a word,”
added the speaker, “your war is our war. We
will live and die with you.” It is very remarkable
that neither belt nor beaver was given to confirm
what was last said about these New England
Indians.
On the 25th of the month (September), the
magistrates of Albany had a private conference

102 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
with the sachems of the Five Nations, and desired
to know what measures the latter had resolved upon
in regard to the war with the French. The sa-
2hems were cunning enough to perceive that the
Albany people were terribly afraid of the French.
They had seen so much massacre and bloodshed,
that their spirits really sank under the dread of the
approaching war. The sachems, therefore, under-
took to encourage and cheer them.
“We have one hundred and forty men,” said
they, “out, skulking about Canada. The French
cannot attempt any thing without being seen and
harassed by these parties. If they do attempt any
thing, all the Five Nations will com your assist-
ance. Our brothers and ourselves are one. We
will live and die together. We have desired one
hundred men of our brothers at Boston to assist us
in this neighborhood.
“We have confidence in a good and just cause.
The Great Spirit [the name the Indians gave to the
Deity] knows how deceitfully the French have
dealt with us. He hath sent us signs in the sky to
confirm this. We have heard strange noises in the
heavens. We have seen heads falling down upon
earth. We are sure, therefore, of the ruin of the
French. Take courage, brothers! take courage l’’
Here the whole assembly of the Indians present
joined in a sort of chorus, singing, and crying out,
“Take courage, brothers! take courage ' What
they said about signs was made up, perhaps, merely

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 103
to encourage the Albany people; or it might be
that they had seen something which they were su-
perstitious enough to construe into signs. They
would be very ready, in this season of excitement
and expectation of war, to see and hear more than
at other times. Perhaps it was the “northern
lights,” or some meteor, or shooting stars, they
had seen, a little more brilliant than usual.
CHAPTER XIII.
Some of the Five Nations send Messengers to Albany, to
invite the English to attend an Indian Council with the
French. Messengers are sent by the English. Coun-
cil opens on the 22d of January, 1690. Speeches of
SADEKANAGHTIE, and other Sachems. The French
Messengers go back to Canada disappointed. The
Council breaks up. Anecdotes. Indian Customs.
I HAVE now given you, I think, a pretty good idea
of the mode of an Indian council, and also of an
Indian treaty, confirmed between New York and
the New England colonies on one hand, and the
Five Nations on the other, in June and September,
1689. We will return, then, to Count de Fronte-
nac, and the four Indian messengers whom he sent to
the Five Nations.
On the 27th of December, of the year just named,
two Indians came to Albany from the Onondaga
and Oneida tribes—two of the Five Nations. They

104 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
brought several feet of wampum-strings from each
tribe, by way of credentials, or letter of introduction:
and they now gave information, that four of their
thirteen Indian countrymen, who had been taken
prisoners to France, had just returned among them,
with a message from the governor of Canada.
They added, that in consequence of this message,
a council of the sachems was appointed to meet at
Onondaga. They therefore desired Peter Schuyler,
and some other of their English brethren, to come
thither, and be present at the council, and advise
them what to do. They would do nothing, they said,
but with the knowledge and consent of all who
were bound in the same chain (or treaty) with them.
This Mr. Schuyler was mayor of Albany, and a
major in the New York militia. He had long been
a very great favorite with the Five Nations. What-
ever “Quider” said, as they pronounced Peter, was
a kind of law among them. They thought nobody
equal to Quider.
The messengers said further, that the French
had sent letters to the Jesuit clergyman who lived
among the Indians at Oneida; and that they would
neither burn these letters, nor suffer the Jesuit,
or any body else, to open them, till their English
brothers should have first seen them.
The Albany people sent three friendly Indians
only to the council, with instructions, in their name,
to dissuade the Five Nations from making peace
with the French. But, a week after, one of the

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 105
principal Mohawk chiefs called at Albany, on his
way to the Onondaga council. He, too, desired
their advice of the English; and they now sent
their public Indian interpreter, and another person,
to assist at the general meeting.
When the English messengers had arrived as far
as Oneida, in the Indian country, they met one
of the four messengers whom the French had sent
to the Five Nations, and one who had been in
France, among the thirteen Indian captives. They
talked with him privately, and soon found out that
he had no more love or respect for the French, at
heart, than they had. He told them astonishing
stories about the grandeur of the French court, and
the splendor of the French troops, and many other
things he had seen in that country; but he also
complained bitterly of the ill-treatment he had suf-
fered himself.
I think my young friends will be enough interest-
ed in the singular customs and ceremonies of the
New York tribes, to wait patiently till I give them
some account of the Onondaga council. It will
teach them several new things, I hope; and, at all
events, it will enable them much better to understand
the sequel of the history. -
The council opened on the 22d of January, 1690
It consisted of eighty sachems of the Five Nations.
They assembled, and seated themselves, according
to rank, in one large room, the English messengers
having particular and honorable seats reserved for

106 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
them, and the French messengers other seats. The
first who spoke was Sadekanaghtie, an Onondaga
sachem. He rose, and addressed himself thus to
the messengers from Albany:—
“Brothers' here are four messengers from the
grand sachem of Canada [Frontenac). Three of
them have been prisoners in France. The fourth
comes from the Praying Indians, who live at Mon-
treal [referring to a tribe who had been half-
civilized and half-christianized, by the French
Jesuits]. The governor notifies his arrival to us.
He says he is the Count Frontenac who lived in
Canada many years ago; and that he has brought
back with him Tawerahet, the Cayuga sachem, and
others of the Indians who were carried to France.”
The speaker then took the belt of wampum in his
hand, which the French messenger had brought
from the governor, and holding it up by the middle,
proceeded thus –“What I have said, relates only
to one half of the belt. The other half is to let us
know, as the messenger says, that the governor
intends to kindle his fire again at Cadaracqui
Imeaning, to hold a council] next spring ; and he
invites his children to treat there with him about
the old chain.” -
Adarahta, the chief sachem and messenger of
the Praying Indians, now rose, with three belts in
his hand, and addressed himself, as, no doubt Count
Frontenac had instructed him, to the sachems of the
Five Nations: “I advise you to meet the governor

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 107
of Canada as he desires. Agree to this, brothers,
if you would live.” Here he gave them a warmpum-
belt. “Tawerahet sends you this other belt.”
added he, “to inform you of the miseries which he
and the rest of your countrymen have suffered in
their captivity. He advises you to hearken to Yo-
nondio, if you desire to live.”
Yonondio was the name, in their own language,
which the Indians of Canada gave to Count Fron-
tenac. As to Tawerahet, my young readers will
recollect that he was one of the thirteen Indian
captives in France, whom the count brought over
with him from that country, and treated with great
kindness after his return. “This third beſt” pro-
ceeded the sachem, “is from Thurensera, Ohguesse,
and Ertel, who say by it, to their brethren of the
Five Nations—‘We have interceded for you with
Yonondio, and, therefore, advise you to meet him at
Cadaracqui in the spring.’”
These three names were those by which three
French gentlemen of Montreal were well known
among the Indians. They were in the habit of
giving names, in this manner, especially to white
people for whom they conceived an attachment, or
in whose rank, adventures or character there was
something remarkable. Thurensera meant day-
break, and was the name they gave to a Jesuit clergy-
man who had once lived at Onondaga among them-
selves. Ohguesse was the Indian word for partridge;
and Ertel for rose.

108 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATEs.
When Adarahta had done speaking, the Indian
messenger sent from Albany rose, and delivered his
message, word for word. He had committed it
perfectly to memory. Not a syllable was omitted.
While he was speaking, the Albany interpreter who
was sent with him, read over a paper, on which their
instructions had been written, lest any thing might
be forgotten.
After this, Canehoot, an Indian sachem, stood
up. He gave the assembly a particular account
of a treaty made, during the preceding summer,
between the Senecas and the Wahungas, a tribe
of Canadian Indians. To this treaty Canehoot
wished the other four of the Five Nations now to
agree. He went on to state the proposals of the
Wahunga messengers, with great accuracy, as fol-
low. The Seneca sachems had probably taken pains
to remember them, in the usual way, by the help of
their sticks, as I have told you was the custom.
1. “We are come to join two bodies in one.”
The Wahunga messengers had given up two Seneca
captives, to confirm this article. It seemed to be
as much as to say, “Our object is to unite the two
tribes in the bonds of friendship; and we give you
up these prisoners for nothing, to show you we are
in earnest.”
2. “We are come to learn wisdom of you Sen-
ecas, and of the other Five Nations, and of your
English brethren of New York.” A belt was given
to confirm this article. It seems to be nothing
History of THE MIDDLE states. 109
more than a sly compliment to the Indians and the
English, meant to wheedle them all into good hu-
mor, no doubt. I think it quite likely, the Wahun-
gas had been instructed by Count Frontenac, to
say all these pretty things.
3. “By this belt [another belt was here given],
we wipe away the tears from the eyes of those
among us whose relations have been killed in the
war. We wipe away, too, the paint from your
warriors' faces.” This was to soothe their grief for
those Senecas who had been slain in the wars with
the Canadian Indians. The last clause alludes to
the Indian custom of painting their faces when
they go to war, to make themselves look more
terrible to the enemy. They bought up a great
deal of vermilion, in particular, of the English, to
be used for this purpose.
4. “We now throw aside the axe, which Yonon-
dio put into our hands, by this third belt.” This
was very cunningly laying all the blame of the
war upon Frontenac's shoulders, as if, but for him,
they should never have thought of such a thing.
5. “Let the sun, so long as he shall endure,
shine upon us in friendship.” Here a red marble
plate was given, as large round as a peck measure.
6. “Let the rain of heaven wash away all ha-
tred, that we may again smoke in peace.” Here a
large pipe of red marble was given. Smoking to-
gether was the greatest mark of good-will which
the Indians could show each other. It was always

10

110. History of the Middle stamps.
done when treaties were made, as it also was when
they entertained a traveller in their wigwams.
7. “Yonondio is drunk; but we wash our hands
clean from all his actions.” This polite article was
confirmed by a fourth belt. The eighth article
was in pretty much the same mood:—“Now we
are clean washed by the waters of heaven. Neither
of us must defile ourselves by hearkening to Yo-
nondio.”—It is very likely that Frontenac himself
directed the Wahunga messengers to say these un-
civil things of him. He knew they would please
and perhaps deceive the Senecas.
The last articles were as follow : 9. “We have
twelve of your nation prisoners, who shall be
brought home in the spring.”
10. “We will bring you prisoners when the
strawberries shall be in blossom. At that time we
intend to visit Corlear, and see the place where the
wampum is made.” -
The Indians distinguish the seasons generally, as
in this case. They will speak of the time when
the corn is ripe, or the time of planting it, or when
the beech-trees are in blossom, or the oak-leaves
no bigger than a mouse's ear. Corlear meant the
governor of New York; and that city was the
place where, as the Indians thought, much of “the
wampum,” or money, of the English was made.
After the Seneca sachem had repeated all these
articles to the assembly, the Wahunga belts, marble,
and other presents, were hung up in the house, in

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 111
full view of all present. They were then taken
down again, and distributed among the various
tribes. Their acceptance was a ratification of the
treaty with the Wahungas. A large belt was given,
also, to the Albany messengers, as their share.
The belt of wampum sent from the Albany people
was hung up, and then divided in the same man-
ner. The New England colonies, whom the Five
Nations called Kinshon (a fish), had likewise sent
the wooden model of a fish to this council. This
was a token of their adhering to the general cove-
nant. The wooden fish was now handed round
among the sachems, and then put aside, to be put up.
After these ceremonies were over, Sadekanaghtie,
the Onondaga sachem, arose and said, “Brothers,
we must stick to our brother Quider [Schuyler].
We must look upon Yonondio [Frontenac) as our
enemy. He is a cheat.” The interpreter was now
desired to speak what he had to say from the people
of Albany.
He told them, that a new English governor
was lately arrived, who had brought over a great
many soldiers from England ; that France and
England were at war again; and that the New
England people were fitting out ships against Can-
ada. He desired them, finally, to make no treaty
with the French, or, at least, none but at Albany.
The French, he said, would not keep a treaty, un-
less it was made at Albany.
After this, the sachems of the Five Nations had

112 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE states.
a long consultation together. The conclusion they
came to is expressed in the speech of their orator,
the next day, in the council. He began with ad-
dressing the Canadian messengers: “ Brothers!
our fire burns at Albany. We will not go to Cada-
racqui. We will stick to our old silver chain with
Corlear. We will raise the axe against Yonondio
We are glad to hear good news of our countrymen,
the prisoners in Canada—but tell us no lies.”
“ Brother Kinshon " added the speaker, ad-
dressing the messenger who brought the fish from
New England, “we hear that you intend to send
soldiers to the eastward, against the Indians there.
But we advise you to join with us, and fall at once
upon the French. They are at the bottom of all
this mischief. Strike at the root. If the trunk is
cut down, the branches will fall of course. Cor-
lear and Kinshon, courage! courage! You will
take Quebec in the spring ; and your feet will be
on the necks of the French.”
After this, they agreed upon the following an-
swer, to be sent to the governor of Canada.
“Yonondio ! you desire us to meet you at Ca-
daracqui in the spring. But how can we trust you?
You have cheated us too often. Your council fire
at Cadaracqui is extinguished. It is put out with
blood. You must send home Tawerahet and all
the prisoners first, or we cannot treat with you.
And you must not think that we have laid down the
axe. We intend no such thing. Our far-fighters

History of THE MIDDEE states. 113
will continue the war, until the prisoners are all
returned.”
Such was the result of the council. The Cana-
dian messengers, finding they could effect nothing
with all their wheedling and presents, returned
home disappointed, while the Five Nations remain-
ed faithful to their treaties with the English. And
yet they were a jealous and proud people. At this
very council, the Mohawk messengers, who had
been sent from Albany, had taken English goods
with them, to trade away privately among the In-
dians. This was observed at the council; and it
lowered Quider (Schuyler) very much in their
eyes; for it is exceedingly scandalous among the
Indians to employ a trader in public affairs. They
look upon the traders, who come among themselves,
as liars and cheats.
Schuyler could not regain their favor without
clearing himself, by an oath, of having had any
thing to do with the goods. It seems that the
Mohawk messengers had refused to take the goods,
when the owners of them at Albany first pressed
them to do so. They were at last persuaded, by
being told that the goods were Schuyler's. This
was false; but they supposed it to be a fact, and
so reported it among the Indians at the council.
10%

114 History of THE Middle states.
CHAPTER XIV.
The French send an Expedition against the New York
People. How they surprised and sacked Schenectady in
the Night-time. Terrible Havoc made of the English.
Story about Captain Glen. The Indians condole with
the English for this Loss. Speech of a Sachem.
War-parties are sent out in Pursuit of the French.
THE French at length came to the conclusion
that the surest way of being rid of the Five Nations
would be to send expeditions against their allies,
the English. In the winter of 1690, therefore, not
long after the Oneida council, of which I have just
given some account, France and England being
now at war, a war-party was sent out against New
York. It consisted of one hundred and fifty French
bush-loppers, or Indian traders, guided by as many
savages of the half-civilized tribe called the Praying
Indians.
They were commanded by Monsieur De Herville.
This gentleman had proposed to make his first
attack upon Albany; but the Indians persuaded
him to march for Schenectady, something over fif-
teen miles to the north-west of that place, and about
as far from the villages of the Mohawk tribe. The
Praying Indians, who acted as guides, were familiar
with the situation of Schenectady, where they had
often visited; and they, therefore, felt more at home

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. II 5
in attacking this place, than in marching against
Albany.
The Schenectady people were at this time in
perfect security. They had received some hints,
in an indirect way, of the intended expedition from
Canada; but they considered it impossible for men
to march so many hundreds of miles through the
snow, without tents, and with no provisions but
such as they might carry in their knapsacks and
pockets.
The very evening before the assault upon Sche-
nectady, they received information that Indians, and
rather suspicious looking ones too, had been seen
skulking about the outskirts of the town. But this,
thought they, was no wonderful thing. There were
always many friendly Indians living and hunting in
that neighborhood. It was foolish to be frightened
before they were hurt. So careless were they, in
fine, that not a single man among them thought of
undertaking to keep watch over night.
Meanwhile, the French had arrived in the
immediate neighborhood of the town, where they
lay encamped and concealed in the woods. But
they had had a hard time of it. They had been
twenty-two days on their cold and hungry march
through the wilderness from Montreal. Indeed,
they were reduced to such extremities when they
reached the place just mentioned, that they had
thoughts of surrendering themselves prisoners of
war to the people of Schenectady. They held a

116. History of THE MIDDLE states.
council for the purpose of deciding this very ques-
tion. But, just at that time, their scouts, who had
straggled about near the village for some hours, un-
known and unsuspected by the English, returned
with such accounts of the carelessness of the people,
that the French determined immediately upon the
assault.
It was on Saturday night, at eleven o'clock, that
they entered the gates of the town, which were
found unshut. That every house might be attacked
at the same moment, they divided their force into
parties of six and seven. The inhabitants were in
profound sleep: not a sound was heard throughout
the unfortunate town, but now and then the crowing
of a cock, or the baying of a watch-dog.
The doors of every house were burst open at
almost the same instant, and the enemy rushed in.
The houses, barns and sheds were fired at the same
time, and the whole village was soon in flames.
No tongue can express the horrors of the scene.
Men, women and children were massacred in cold
blood, without mercy. Infants were taken by the
feet, and their brains dashed out upon the posts of
the doors.
Sixty persons were murdered in this ferocious
manner, and twenty-seven others were carried off
prisoners. The rest of the population fled, naked,
to Albany, through a deep snow, which fell that
night in a terrible storm. As many as twenty-five
of these poor fugitives lost some of their limbs in

History of THE MIDDLE states. 117
this flight through the woods, by the severity of the
frost. The French returned to Canada, but not
entirely unpunished. One hundred of the Mohawks
pursued them, fell upon their rear, and killed and
captured twenty-five of their number.
At the time of this horrible massacre, one Captain
Alexander Glen lived by himself, on the side of the
river opposite Schenectady. He was the most noted
man in that neighborhood. He had several times
treated the Canadians with kindness, especially
several of them taken captive by the Mohawks, and
by them condemned to be burned. These he had
ransomed and saved. Partly from gratitude, it may
be hoped, and partly, no doubt, from motives of
policy, the French determined to spare this man.
On the night of the massacre, therefore, as they
entered Schenectady, they passed Glen's house
without disturbing him. Observing, the next
morning, that he had fortified his dwelling, and
stood upon his defence, some of them went to the
river-side, and shouted to him, saying he should
fear nothing. They persuaded him even to visit
the French commander, De Herville, who after-
wards restored to him all his relations who were
still prisoners in Canada. -
Some Mohawks also were found in the village;
and these were dismissed in the same civil manner.
The French wished that nation, and the other Five
Nations, to believe that no war was intended
against them, but only against the English. But

118. History of THE MIDDLE states.
in this attempt to wheedle the Mohawks, they were
unsuccessful, as we have just seen. This appears
also from a speech which some of their sachems
made to the Albany people. They visited that
place immediately after the massacre. They found
the English settlers there so alarmed and disheart-
ened by the fate of Schenectady, and the dread of a
similar assault on themselves from Canada, that
they had resolved to leave Albany for ever, and re-
move to New York. The sachems found them
actually packing up their goods and furniture, with
this view. They then addressed them in the follow-
ing manner:—
* Brothers the murder of our friends at Sche-
nectady grieves us as much as if we ourselves had
suffered; for we are all bound together by one
chain. The French have not acted, on this occa-
sion, like brave men. They have acted like thieves
and robbers. Be not discouraged, therefore. We
give this belt to wipe away your tears.
* Brothers! we lament with you the death of our
brethren. But it cannot be called a victory of the
French. It is but a new proof of their deceit.
Yomondio sent us messengers to talk of peace; but
war, even them, was in his heart. He has now
broken open our house at both ends, formerly
in the country of the Senecas, and now here. But
we hope to be revenged of them. One hundred of
our bravest young men are in pursuit of them.
They are brisk fellows, and will follow the French

His TORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 119
to their very doors. Not a man in Canada shall
dare to step out of his house to cut a stick of wood.
But now we gather up our dead to bury them.”
Here a second belt was given.
* Brothers! be not discouraged. We are strong
enough. We find your house here [meaning the
council-house at Albany] polluted with blood. All
the Five Nations have heard of this; and we are
come to wipe away the blood, and to clean the
house. We come to invite Corlear and Quider, and
every one of you [naming over the chief men of
Albany, to be revenged of the enemy. The whole
house [all the country] have their eyes fixed upon
you at this time, to observe your behavior and follow
your example. Take heart, brothers; take heart.
Do not pack up and go away. The French would
laugh at you. As for ourselves, we are of the race
of the bear; and the bear, you know, fights to the
last breath. We must all be bears.”
Here another belt was given. Several other ar-
guments were used, and other presents delivered,
which I need not repeat. We cannot but admire
the firm and manly friendship of these savages.
They adhered more closely to the English, in their
present adversity, than they ever had done in better
days. It is worthy of remark, in this place, that
the Five Nations, in the whole course of their his
tory, have maintained this reputation of constancy
and good faith.
They adhered to their promise of harassing the
120 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
French. The latter, throughout Canada, were in
terrible fear of them all the summer. A party of the
Indians even dared to land upon the island of Mon-
treal itself. They were discovered by the sentinel
of a French corps of soldiery, which happened to
be encamped on the island; but they killed the
French commander and twelve of his men before
they retreated. Another party of Indians carried
off fifteen prisoners from a Canadian settlement
called Riviere Puante. This party was pursued,
and, finding they were likely to be overpowered,
they murdered their unfortunate prisoners, and
escaped.
CHAPTER XV.
The Five Nations invade Canada. The English also fit
out an Expedition against Montreal. Defence of that
Place by the French. Battle between the English,
French and Indians. Second Battle. Other-ºnecdotes
of the War. Hunting Beaver. Another French Inva-
sion of New York. Result of it. The Indians invade
Canada again, under BLAck KETTLE.
These continual incursions of the Indians at
length obliged Count Frontenac to station all his
troops on the south side of the river St. Lawrence,
as a defence against this restless and inveterate
enemy. Notwithstanding that movement, however,
five Canadians were carried away, in sight of Fort



History of THE MIDDLE states. 121
Sorel, by a small skulking party. These were
soon after recovered by the soldiers of the garrison.
About the same time, other parties were burning
the plantations about a Canadian town called St.
Ours. At another time, a French officer, with
thirty-eight men, surprised some Indians in a hut
which they had set up for a temporary shelter near
Lake St. Pierre. Some of them escaped, and gave
the alarm to their companions in two neighboring
huts, which the enemy had not discovered. The
French were now attacked in their turn; and the
captain, lieutenant and half the men were killed.
The Canadians dared not even plough or plant in
their open fields; and the consequence was a
famine. -
They were much alarmed, too, by an incursion
of the English into Canada, under Major Schuyler,
or Quider, as the savages still called him. He was
still so much a favorite with them, that half of the
three hundred men in his party were Mohawk and
other Indians, the rest being English. He set out
from Albany about midsummer (1690). On his
march, as he was busily preparing his canoes to
pass Corlear's Lake, on his route to Canada, he was
discovered by some French Indians, who immedi-
ately fled for Montreal, and gave the alarm there.
M. De Callieres was governor of that town at this
period. He at once set about preparing to give
Schuyler a warm reception, by drawing all the
militia and regular troops of the neighborhood to-
11

122 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE states.
gether, for the defence of the town. It was fortu-
nate for him that a great many Indians of the Utta-
was tribe were at this time trading at Montreal.
Callieres artfully undertook to engage them in his
service. He made a great feast for them, and
entertained them in person. Then, after the Indian
manner, while the eyes of all this grim and savage
assembly were turned upon him, he began the war-
song of the Uttawas.
He then led up the dance, with a battle-axe in
his hands, shouting and singing in the Indian style.
After these ceremonies were over, and the Indians
enlisted in his service, he crossed the river with his
own troops, amounting to 1200 men. The Uttawas,
the Praying, and other Indians, followed him.
Among the rest was the famous Tarawahet, who
had been, long before this, entirely gained over by
the caresses and kindness of Count Frontenac. The
whole party encamped on the south side of the river
St. Lawrence, at a place called Magdalen's Prairie,
and around a fort which stood on a rising ground,
between two meadows.
Meanwhile, Major Schuyler, having left forty
men behind him to guard the canoes in which he
had crossed Corlear's Lake, was now marching on
at a rapid pace. He at last arrived at a long and
narrow glen, or hollow, leading into the first mead-
ow mentioned above, without yet being discovered
by the French. Marching under cover of this
glen, silently as possible, in the night, he fell sud-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 123
denly, with his three hundred men, upon the French
militia. They were confused by his sudden attack,
and not less so by the horrible yells of the Indians
who were with him.
Many of the militia, and of the Uttawas, who were
near them, were slain on the spot. The rest fled to
the French fort. Schuyler pursued them, and as-
saulted the fort very briskly, but was obliged to
retire, by the approach of the regular troops, wh
marched up to relieve it. Schuyler now found th
the enemy were too many for him. He had ascer-
tained, too, that a considerable body of them had
marched southward. He began to apprehend that
his retreat might be cut off by his canoes being
found and destroyed. He resolved, therefore, im-
mediately to follow this party. He overtook them
by a few hours' march, when, they entrenching
themselves behind some large fallen trees, he
attacked them with great spirit, and forced a pas-
sage through their ranks, sword in hand, though
with considerable loss.
By their own account, the French lost, in these
two actions, more men than Schuyler's whole force
consisted of Among the killed were two captains,
six lieutenants and five ensigns. Schuyler's Mo-
hawks suffered much, having seventeen killed and
eleven wounded. These Indians signalized them-
selves by their bravery in all these skirmishes. They
yielded not an inch of ground upon any occasion

124 History of THE MIDDLE states.
until the English set the example of retreat. The
whole party reached Albany on the 11th of August.
During the following fall and winter, the war was
continued with various success. Two Indian pris-
oners taken at La Prairie, in Canada, by the French,
were given up to the Uttawas, and by them burnt
alive. It was generally supposed that this took
place at the instigation of the French. Their ob-
iect was to make still more inveterate the hatred
. existing between the Uttawas and the Five
Nations.
Forty Mohawks made an assault, soon afterwards,
upon Fort Wercheres, near the St. Lawrence, and
carried off twenty Canadians captive. The alarm
soon reached Montreal, and M. De Crizaei, with
a hundred men of the regular French troops, pur-
sued the Indians, and recovered most of the pris-
oners.
Soon after this, Count Frontenac was informed
that a considerable party of the Five Nations were
hunting beaver on a neck of land between Lake
Cadaracqui and Lake Erie. He resolved to show
them that war-time was no time for hunting. He
sent three hundred men to surprise them, under the
command of M. Beaucour, a young French gentle-
man. The Praying Indians of Montreal joined the
party. This expedition being during the winter,
they were obliged to undergo terrible sufferings.
They marched upon the snow with snow-shoes, a
very long, wide, flat article, made chiefly of light,

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 125
tough wood, which kept them from sinking and
plunging in the drifts.
Their provisions they carried on their backs.
Several of them had their feet frozen. This obliged
fifteen of them to return, with some old Indians
who could not bear the fatigue of the march. It
was with much difficulty that Beaucour could per-
suade the rest to proceed farther. Day after day,
and night after night, for hundreds of miles, they
kept on, over river, and mountain, and swamp, and
forest. They came up with the hunting Indians at
last, and completely surprised and overpowered
them; eighty of the latter being killed, after a very
brave defence; and three women were made pris-
oners. With these the French returned to Montreal.
A few of their straggling small parties marched,
soon afterwards, towards Albany. They did no
mischief but to kill two or three solitary English
settlers, and to alarm the neighboring country.
In the summer of 1692, the trade which the French
had carried on up the lakes with the French settle-
ment at Michilimackinac, was entirely broken up by
the war-parties of the Five Nations investing Cada-
racqui river, by which the Indian traders were in
the habit of passing to and fro. Captain La Noue,
with a detachment of regular troops, was sent from
Montreal early in the season, to guard the traders
through this passage. He found the enemy at the
Falls of Calumette, a little sooner and a little stronger
than he *Peº and so the valiant captain con-
11

126 History of THE MIDDLE states.
sulted his own disposition and the safety of his men,
by turning about as quickly as possible, and making
the best of his way back to Montreal.
The captain had, however, no sooner reached
that town, than he was ordered to march off again
in precisely the same direction, and with the same
purpose as before. He went, accordingly, as far as
the river Du Lievre, ninety miles from Montreal;
but there discovering several canoes of the Five Na-
tions, the captain's heart failed him again, and he
marched home once more with his men. The lat-
ter seemed to be perfectly willing to submit to his
orders: they were not much braver than himself.
The Quatoghie and other Indians now informed
the French of another and smaller river running
into Cadaracqui river, from the northward. By this
stream they said a passage might be made to the
lakes; and this it was resolved to attempt, although
it was farther round than the other, and dangerous,
on account of many more rapid falls. Three offi-
cers, with thirty soldiers, were sent with the traders
for this purpose; but a party of the Five Nations
meeting with them at a deep fall in the river, they
were all killed or taken but four, who escaped back
to Montreal.
A large party of the Five Nations, under the com-
mand of BLAck KETTLE, a famous warrior, continued
a long time at and about Cadaracqui river, in hopes
of meeting with other French parties, in their pas-
sage towards Michilimackinac; but finding that no

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 127
attempts were made that way, he resolved to make
an excursion into the country about Montreal. The
French writers say he had six hundred men with
him; but this is rather doubtful.
No doubt he had a large party; and he overran
Canada like a torrent from the mountains. Through-
out the country, the soldiers had orders to stand on
the defensive within their forts. After Black Kettle
had thus ravaged and burnt every thing before him
for some weeks, M. De Vaudreuil pursued them,
at the head of four hundred men, and overtook and
surprised them. The Five Nations fought desper-
ately, but were finally obliged to retreat, by forcing
themselves a passage through the ranks of the enemy
around them. They lost twenty men killed upon
the spot; and five men, nine women and five chil-
dren, prisoners. The French lost four officers and
several privates.
The Five Nations avenged themselves, in some
degree, for this defeat, by attacking a French vessel
on the river St. Lawrence. The captain of it had
been sent to guard vessels from Quebec to Montreal.
He was returning, when the Indians set upon him
with their canoes, boarded his vessel, and killed
himself and most of the crew and troops who were
with him.

128 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE states.
CHAPTER XVI.
How Governor Frontenac revenged himself against the
Five Nations, by burning two Indian Prisoners. Dis-
tress of the Canadians. Another French Expedition
against the Mohawks. They surprise one of the
Mohawk Forts. Take Possession of another after a
Battle. The Mohawks enraged against the English.
The English pursue the French. Anecdotes of this
Expedition. Result of it.
Count Front ENAC had no better way to console
himself, it seems, than by condemning two prison-
ers of the Five Nations to be burnt alive in public.
The Jesuit clergymen of Montreal, and many
other persons, more humane or more politic than
himself, interceded for the poor Indians, but in vain.
“It has become necessary,” said the enraged and
mortified old governor, “to make such an example
as may frighten these horrible enemies of ours. We
have shown them but too much indulgence already.
They ravage our plantations under our very eyes,
and advance to the very gates of our towns. They
think that they run no risk but that of being made
prisoners; and this, say they, is no risk at all; for
they live better among us, as captives, than they do
in their own country, as freemen. They must be
burnt, and they shall be.”
And burnt they were, accordingly. The Jesuits
were humane enough to undertake to reason with

History of THE MIDDLE states. 129
the poor wretches about believing in the Christian
religion, as their only consolation in death. But the
Indians would hear nothing. They thought it im-
possible that anything good or true should be taught
them by a Frenchman; and they began to prepare
for death, in the manner of their own nation, by
singing their death-songs.
Some charitable person threw a knife into their
prison, through the iron grates of the windows.
With this one of them despatched himself. The
other was led out to the place of execution by the
Christian Indians of a place near Montreal, called
Loretto. He walked calmly and firmly, to all ap-
pearances, as ever martyr did to the stake. He
continued singing even while they were torturing
him. He was a warrior, brave and without fear,
he said; the most cruel death could not move him
to a groan; his comrade was a coward, and a scan-
dal to the Five Nations, for having killed himself
for fear of pain. And he had the comfort to re-
flect furthermore, he added, that he had made many
a Frenchman suffer as he did then. The French
Indians tried their utmost arts of torture upon him;
but he continued to sing, and laugh at them, until
his senses left him entirely from excess of suffering.
The Indians very generally endure sufferings of
every kind with astonishing fortitude.
But Frontenac soon found that he must do some.
thing more than this to raise the spirits of the people
of Canada. The torture of two miserable wretches

130 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
gave them but slight comfort, while the enemy in-
fested the country to such a degree, that no man
dared to go unarmed from his house to his well or
spring for a pail of water. He therefore planned
an expedition against the Mohawks; and, to sur-
prise them the better, he chose the winter-season
for the purpose.
The body of the French designed for this expe-
dition was put under three captains of the regular
troops, and thirty subalterns. It consisted of picked
men of the regular troops, the common militia of
Canada, the Praying Indians, the Quatoghies of
Loretto, and of other Indians who joined them from
the district of Maine. They amounted in all to
six or seven hundred men, well supplied with all
sorts of ammunition, provisions, snow-shoes, and
such conveniences for carriages as could be used in
deep snow and close forests. These were chiefly
a kind of light sledge, made of skins, and drawn by
large dogs on the frozen snow.
They set out from Magdalen's Prairie on the
15th of January, 1692. After having endured
what might have been thought insurmountable hard-
ships, they passed by Schenectady, at some dis-
tance from it, on the 8th of February. At this
time, an Englishman who had been taken captive
when that village was sacked, escaped from the
French party, and gave the people of Schenectady
warning of their numbers, and the direction in
which they were marching. An express was im-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 131
mediately despatched to Albany, with the same in-
telligence.
There the militia were mustered together as
fast as possible; and a lieutenant, with fifty-five
troopers, was sent to Schenectady to defend that
place. But no care was taken to give the Mohawks
notice, which might have been easily done by send-
ing a messenger up the south side of the Mohawk
river, while the French were continuing their
march down on the north. By dusk, on the night
of the 8th, the French reached the first Mohawk
castle or fort. In this, there were but five men as
a garrison, and a few women and children, all in
the utmost security. These were captured; and
this fort, and a second one, of about the same size,
readily taken possession of by the French.
They then marched on to the next Mohawk fort,
which was the largest. On reaching it about mid-
night, they heard some noise, which led them to
suspect they were discovered. It was occasioned,
however, by a war-dance of the Mohawks in the
fort, forty of them having determined to start off
upon some enterprise the next morning. The
French approached, and silently surrounded the
fort. Finding the Indians entirely off their guard,
they opened the gate, and entered without being
discovered.
But, notwithstanding the confusion which the In-
dians were thrown into by this sudden entrance,
they resisted bravely, and thirty of the French party

132 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE states.
were killed during the struggle. The French
would have put all the prisoners to the sword in cold
blood; but even their own Indians would not suffer
such an atrocious massacre, and they gave quarter.
Three hundred Mohawks were taken, of whom
one hundred were warriors.
Schenectady being the nearest English settle-
ment to the Mohawks, and but a short distance
from their nearest fort, many of the tribe were
always at that village. Some were there at this
time; and intelligence soon reached them of the
havoc the French were making in the Mohawk
country. They were exceedingly enraged, that
the Schenectady people had given them no warning
of the approach of the French. The English sent
scouts upon the rear of the invaders, to learn their
proposed route; but these scouts returned to Sche-
nectady without doing their duty, and the measure
only served to increase the resentment of the Mo-
hawks at that place. They were angry, too, be-
cause no assistance had been sent to the Mohawk
tribe.
The account soon came to Albany, how much
these Indians were enraged by the conduct of their
English allies. Their old friend “Quider” (Peter
Schuyler) immediately offered to set off with what-
ever force could be got ready for their assistance.
He marched to Schenectady in less than one day, and
sent out scouts from that place to discover the route
of the enemy. They brought him intelligence,

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 133
-
that the two first forts were taken ; then that they
heard a great noise in the direction of the third ;
and, finally, that the third was taken, garrison and all.
Schuyler had now mustered about two hundred
and fifty English soldiers. He waited a day or two
for the Mohawks to join him. This they did on
the 15th of the month, with about three hundred
men and boys, very poorly armed, and in fact a
mere rabble. He now began his pursuit of the
enemy. On the 16th, he was informed by a strag-
gling Indian, who pretended to be a deserter, that
the French had built a fort in a place where they
designed to wait for him, and fight him. Schuyler
now halted, and sent an express back to Albany, for
a reinforcement. He very soon found out, however,
that the Indian had deceived him. The French
had sent him, in the character of a deserter, mere-
ly to frighten and delay the English party.
Schuyler now pressed his pursuit of the ene-
my, and overtook them on the 17th. As soon as he
came in sight of them, he was saluted by three loud
shouts, which his own party answered with as much
noise. His Indians, however, were a little startled
by the force of the French; and they began to
intrench themselves by felling trees for a sort of
breastwork. The French perceived this, and
sallied out to prevent it; but they were beaten
back. The Indians then fell to work again, call-
ing loudly upon the English to assist them.
This request was complied with, but in such con-
12

134 History of THE MIDDLE states.
fusion and haste that the English themselves were
in danger from the falling trees. The French now
came upon them a second time, with their whole
force. “The English run" shouted they ; “the
Mohawks run Let us cut them off. Let us get
their provisions.” But they found themselves rath-
er mistaken in their calculation. The English and
Mohawks left their breastwork, leaped actively over
the fallen trees, and gave their assailants such a re-
ception, with their hatchets, axes, clubs, and what-
ever else was near them, that the enemy soon gave
up all thought of the “provisions,” and fled like a
pack of foxes.
Whether they grew more courageous, or only
more hungry, they soon came on a third time; but
they were now treated still worse than before, the
Mohawks soon bringing in many of their heads and
scalps. When the skirmishing was over, Schuyler
sent a second express to Albany, for a reinforce-
ment of troops and a supply of provisions, some of
his men having had nothing to eat for two days. He
then secured himself under the cover of fallen trees,
and kept out watches to observe the French.
On the 18th, a cold, stormy day, he was informed
by a deserter that the French were marching off.
It was no easy matter to pursue them, or to discover
their tracks on the snow, in such weather; but the
English officers were ordered to follow them, and re-
tard their march as much as possible until the rein-
forcement should arrive. All of the English sol-

History of THE MIDDLE states. 185
diers, however, refused to march without provisions,
excepting sixty. These, with a body of Indians, fol-
lowed the French till night, when they began to se-
cure themselves by fortifying their camp.
Forty of the English and a hundred Indians were
left to observe them; and the rest returned. On
the 19th, the provisions, with about eighty men, ar-
rived. Every man, as he was served with provis-
ions, now marched off towards the enemy. The
front-guard soon came up again with the French
rear, and would have attacked them, to retard their
march, but that the Mohawks were averse to fight-
ing. The French purposely dropped several of their
prisoners, who told the Mohawks that the French
were resolved to put all the prisoners to the sword
if they should be attacked.
The enemy passed the north branch of Hudson
river on a collection of broken ice, which lodged
there very opportunely, a recent thaw having opened
the stream both above and below. The weather
was now so cold, and the Indians so tired of the
pursuit, that Schuyler was obliged to abandon it on
the 20th. He had lost four of his English soldiers,
and as many of his Indians, besides wounded. The
French lost thirty-three killed, four of whom were
officers (as the deserters told him), and twenty-six
wounded. Fifty of the Mohawk prisoners, too
were recovered.
Schuyler might have gone farther, perhaps, but
his force was near famishing, their provisions having
>

136 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE states.
almost wholly failed them. The Mohawks fed upon
the bodies of the French who were killed. It is said
that Schuyler himself, in going the rounds of his
camp one night, was invited by some of the Mohawks
to eat broth with them. He accepted their invitation,
to please them. They gave him a plate of broth, and
he ate it. They then put the ladle into their kettle,
over the camp-fire, for more. The meat in it was a
man's hand! Schuyler immediately rose and walked
off, sick and shuddering with horror. The French
were reduced to the same extremities before they
reached Canada. They were obliged even to boil
and eat their shoes.
CHAPTER XVII.
Account of the Indian Mode of Travelling and Encamping
in the Winter. Indian Council at Albany in 1693.
Presents given to the Mohawks by the English.
Another French Expedition in 1696. How the Troops
travelled through the Wilderness. A Seneca deserts
from their Army. How Governor Frontenac was car-
ried in a Chair. An old Indian burned and tortured.
Result of the Expedition. Anecdotes
My young friends may wonder how it was possi-
ble for men to march hundreds of miles through the
wilderness, while the ground was every where covered
with snow, two or three feet deep, and perhaps

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. H37
more. The foremost of the party always marched
in the snow-shoes I have described to you, and so
beat a fine smooth track for those that followed.
At night, when they halted, they dug a hole in a deep
drift, throwing the snow up all round, but highest
on that side from which the wind blew. This hole
was dug large enough to contain as many men as
could lie about a large fire, which was made in the
middle. The frozen ground round it was covered with
small green branches: and here, it is said, a man
might lie much warmer than any one would imagine
who never tried it. The Indians of the present day
often accommodate themselves, on their winter jour-
neys, in much the same manner.
The Mohawks were exceedingly mortified and
depressed in spirits by the last successes of the
French. Indeed, the English were fearful that a
peace might now be effected between the Five Na-
tions and the French. They sent for the former,
therefore, in July, 1693, to meet them at Alba-
ny, for a council. Here Mr. Fletcher, who was
governor of New York at this time, did his utmost
to soothe and encourage them; but his most effectu-
al argument, and one which entirely persuaded them
of the propriety of adhering to the English, was a
present of ninety guns, eight hundred and ten pounds
of powder, eight hundred bars of lead, a thousand
flints, eighty-seven hatchets, four gross of knives,
and a great quantity of clothing and provisions.
All this, he told them, came from the king and
- 12*

138 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
queen of England (William and Mary), who desired
to renew the league with them. They were de-
lighted with the presents, and readily consented to
renew their old league. Their orators expressed
the gratitude of the tribe in the following strong
language: “ Brother Fletcher,” said they, “we roll
and wallow in joy, by reason of the great favor the
mighty king and queen have done us, in sending us
these things in our greatest need.”
The war was continued for two years between
the Indians and the French, with various success.
In September, 1695, Fletcher met them again, and
gave them new presents. Among the rest were a
thousand pounds of powder, two thousand pounds
of lead, fifty-seven fusees, a hundred hatchets, three
hundred and forty-eight knives, and two thousand
flints.
A year after this, the Count de Frontenac deter-
mined to make one more resolute and vigorous at-
tack upon the Mohawks. With this view, he as-
sembled all the regular troops of Canada, the militia,
and the warriors of eight or ten Indian tribes, from
Maine and various sections of Canada. This was
in June, 1696. He left La Chine, on the south side
of the Island of Montreal, on the 4th of July.
The only method of travelling, for such an army,
through the wilderness, and over lakes and rivers,
was in bark canoes, or very light batteaux. These
may be easily carried on men's shoulders, where
the stream of a river becomes too rapid to navigate

History OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 139
them. Such places are consequently called carry-
ing-places or portages. The count divided his five
hundred Indians in such a manner that the greatest
part of them should always be near the front-guard,
which consisted of two battalions of regular troops.
This body was commanded by Callieres, governor
of Montreal. He had with him two large batteaux,
which carried two large pieces of cannon, some
small mortars, grenadoes, and the utensils of the
artillery. Frontenac was at the head of the main
body, consisting of four battalions of militia.
The rear, which was composed of two battalions
of regular troops, and of the rest of the Indians, was
commanded by the French Chevalier de Vaudreuil.
All the Indians had French officers set over them.
In this order, the army marched on, day after day,
except that those who were in the van one day
were in the rear the next. A number of Indians
were kept always on the scout, to discover the tracks
of the enemy, for fear of ambuscade. Whenever
they were obliged to carry the canoes, and drag the
large, loaded batteaux, several parties were detach-
ed to cover the men engaged in this business. I
give you all these particulars, that you may entirely
understand the nature of these expeditions of which
I have told you so much.
After twelve days' march, the party I have just
described reached Cadaracqui fort, one hundred
and eighty miles from Montreal. They then crossed
over Cadaracqui lake to Onondaga river (now

140 111story of THE MIDDLE spamps.
Oswego). This river being rapid and narrow, they
ordered fifty men to march on each side of it, to
prevent their being surprised. The rest of the army
moved slowly along the river, according to the intel-
ligence they received from the scouts. They found
a tree, as they passed along, on which the Mohawks
had painted the French army, in their manner, and
had laid by it two bundles of cut rushes.
This was a defiance in the Indian style; and the
number of rushes gave them notice that 1434 men
would meet them. The French passed the little
lake between Oswego and Onondaga in order of
battle; and the two wings, to prevent their being
surprised, and to make the place of their landing
more secure, took a circuit around the two extrem-
ities of the lake by land. As soon as all had arrived
at the landing-place, they raised a fort. A Seneca,
who had been some time a prisoner in Canada, was
sent out as a scout. He deserted to the Onondagas,
whom he found waiting for the French, with a res-
olution to defend their castle, and to fight the
French. With this view, they had sent away their
women and children.
The Seneca told them that the French army was
as numerous as the leaves of the trees; and that
they had machines which threw balls up in the air,
and which, falling on their castle, burst to pieces,
and spread fire and death every where. Against
these, said the Seneca to the Onondagas, your fort
and your stockades can be of no defence whatever

History of the MIDDLE states. 141
All this was confirmed by another Seneca deserter.
They had confused but awful ideas, it seems, of the
bombs and grenadoes of the French. The horrible
story which they told the Onondagas about them
fightened the latter so much that they concluded
to retreat, leaving their fort and their bark cottages
all in flames.
After Frontenac had received an account of these
circumstances, he marched to their village in order
of battle. The army was divided into two lines.
The first was commanded by the Chevalier de Cal-
lieres, who placed himself on the left; the second
by Vaudreuil. The artillery went between these
lines. The old Count Frontenac, now in his seven-
ty-third year, was carried behind them in a large
easy chair. It was impossible, indeed, to preserve
this order exactly in crossing the brooks, and
wading through the deep swamps of the woods; but
nearly in this order, the French army marched up
to the smoking and desolate village of the Ononda-
gas. Here they were bitterly disappointed to find
no enemy and no spoils. Not a living being was
to be seen. There was nothing even to be de-
stroyed but a large field of Indian corn. The
militia, and the Indians in particular, made a val-
iant attack upon this, however, for want of better
business; and the corn was laid low in a short
time, a part of it being despatched on the spot, and
the rest taken captive.
An Indian sachem, about one hundred years old,
-

142 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
was at last found in the village. He alone, of all
his countrymen, had disdained to flee. “I will stay
here,” said he “I have lived long enough : I will
not save the short residue of my life by a base
flight. Leave me to teach these Frenchmen what
a man is, and how an Onondaga warrior can die.”
The French Indians now had the pleasure of tor-
menting him; but he bore every thing with the
most wonderful composure. He told histormentors
to remember his death well when his countrymen"
should come to take terrible vengeance upon them.
At this, one of them was so irritated as to stab him
several times with his knife. “I thank you,” said
the old sachem, with a sneer of contempt; “but
you had better make me die by fire. These French-
men might then learn how to suffer like men. You
Indians, their allies' you dogs of dogs! think of
me when you shall suffer the same tortures.” The
savages could not endure these taunts, as the old
sachem well knew ; and they soon despatched and
relieved him.
The Chevalier Vaudreuil was now sent to destroy
the corn of the Oneidas. This service was not
disagreeable to his troops; and they soon performed
it without meeting with the slightest resistance,
either from the corn or the owners of it. Thirty-
five of the Oneidas remained in their village, to
compromise and make friends with the French:
but they met with the success they deserved for de-
serting their countrymen. The French carried
HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
143
M - -
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-
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Indian Torture.
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-


144 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE states.
them all off captive to Canada. To the latter, the
Onondagas gave no little trouble on their return.
They followed them closely, and cut off every canoe
which happened at any time to be at a distance
from the main body. And thus ended this expen-
sive and laborious expedition of the French, the
last one undertaken during the war. Peace was
declared the same season.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The early Settlement of Delaware by the Swedes. How this
Settlement came to be made. Where it was made, and
when. Account of the first Expeditions of Emigrants.
About the Delaware Indians, and their Dealings with
the Swedes. About the natural Productions of the
Country. Other.Anecdotes of the first Settlement. End
of the Delaware History.
I DARE say my young friends are weary enough,
by this time, of the wars and treaties of the Five
Nations. I shall leave the history of New York,
therefore, and give you some anecdotes of the early
settlements of Delaware, to which, indeed, occa-
sional allusions have already been made.
The first colony planted in this state came over
from Sweden. The scheme of the enterprise was
first formed in that kingdom, in the year 1626, un-
der the reign of the celebrated Gustavus Adolphus.
It was much forwarded by the great commendation

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 145
which William Usselin, an eminent Swedish mer-
chant, gave of the country in the neighborhood of
what was then called, as we have seen, New
Netherlands, and of all the neighboring district.
He had been in America himself.
Considerable sums were raised by contribution in
Sweden; and, the next year, a number of Swedes
and Finlanders came over to America. They first
landed at Inlopen, the interior cape of Delaware
Bay, the outer cape of the same bay, in Fenwick's
Island, being called by the Swedes Henlopen, as it
is to this day. From the very pleasant appearance
of Inlopen to them, on their first landing. they named
it Paradise Point. They are said to have bought
of the Indians all the land from this point to the
falls of the Delaware river. To this river they gave
the name of New Swedeland Stream.
They lived many years in perfect amity with
the savages, making presents to the sachems, and
holding conferences and councils with them from
time to time. They met with some little trouble
now and then from the Dutch of New York, as I
have intimated in my sketches of the latter prov-
ince. In 1630, the Dutch were so bold as to
build a fort within the Capes of Delaware, at the
place now called Lewistown, but then, and for some
time after, Hoerkill. But they so far agreed with
the Swedes, notwithstanding this encroachment, as
the latter considered it, as to unite with them in
expelling all other trespassers or intruders. The
13 -

146 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
English, among the rest, had now begun to settle
near or upon the east side of the Delaware.
The Dutch were complained of by the English,
on the other hand, as, indeed, might have been
expected. “They endanger all his majesty's adjoin-
ing countries (said an English writer soon after the
time now in question), most wickedly, feloniously
and traitorously, contrary to the laws of all Chris-
tians, selling guns, powder, shot and ammunition to
the Indians, by wholesale; and instructing them,
moreover, in the use of arms.” It was said of the
Swedes, too, that they even hired out some of their
soldiers to the Susquehannock Indians, to teach
them the Swedish methods of fighting, and the man-
agement of fire-arms.
Delaware is described by the same ancient and
quaint writer just quoted. Having seen it himself,
he seemed to consider it one of the most perfect coun-
tries on the globe, the soil rich, the streams and
rivers abundant, numerous beautiful islands off the
coast, and the climate the healthiest in the world.
Then, we are told, the country was covered over
with fine woods. “It was replenished with excel-
lent timber for ships and masts. In all parts of it
grew mulberries, sweet cypress, cedars, pines and
fir trees, several sorts of grapes, excellent for wine
and raisins, and the greatest variety of choice fish,
fruit and fowl.”
Then the uplands were covered, many months of

History of THE MIDDLE stamps. 147
the year, with berries, roots, chestnuts, walnuts,
beech and oak mast (nuts and acorns). As might be
expected from such an abundance of good things,
we are told that turkeys and hogs ran wild in the
woods, hundreds together. The Indians within or
near the limits of Delaware were supposed to
amount to about eight hundred. They, however,
gave the settlers but little trouble. They went naked
and unarmed, for the most part, and were exceed-
ingly afraid of the guns and pikes of their civilized
neighbors.
The writer above referred to furthermore adds,
that he saw an infinite multitude of bustards,
swans, geese, and other fowl, covering the shores.
In the interior was “the like multitude of pidgeons
and store of turkeys.” Of the latter, he found one
which weighed forty-six pounds. This was a mon-
strous fellow, indeed, and must have furnished him
sufficient provisions, one would think, for a week.
Then there was plenty of excellent sea-fish, and
shell-fish, and whales and grampus. “The woods
were bestrewed many months with chestnuts, beech-
nuts, and other things to feed them; and hogs,
that would increase exceedingly.”
It was justly thought an additional privilege in
the situation of this territory, that twenty-four
hours' sail, with a fair wind, would carry a vessel
either to Virginia, or to the nearest parts of New
England. It was impossible, on the whole, but

148 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
that the first settlers should have lived like princes,
at least in regard to both the quality and quantity
of their provisions.
In this respect, like the settlers of Pennsylvania,
they had a great advantage over the settlers of
New England and Virginia. The Delaware In-
dians, moreover, brought them large quantities of
“Indian corn,” at a shilling a bushel “in truck.”
In truck means in barter. The Indians took their
pay, generally, in knives, needles, beads, blankets,
paint, old coats, old kettles, and other things of the
same kind. Our writer's glowing description of
Delaware, and the neighboring country, concludes
with the following address to a nobleman in Eng-
land, for whose information, particularly, it was
written: “If my lord will come over here with
three hundred men, he may do very well, and grow
rich. It is a most clear, delightful air; and such
pure, wholesome springs, rivers and waters; with
so many varieties of several flowers, trees and for-
ests for swine; so many fair risings and prospects,
all green and verdant ; and Maryland, a good
friend and neighbor, within four-and-twenty hours,
ready to comfort and supply.”
Perhaps I may give you some anecdotes of the
subsequent settlements in Delaware. They were
less interesting, however, than the first, and less is
known of them. As Delaware is a small state, I
shall not be expected to dwell so much upon it as
upon the others. You will remember I have

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 149
already mentioned, in the history of New York,
how the Dutch conquered the Delaware Swedes in
1656, and how, eight years afterwards, the English
conquered the Dutch.
CHAPTER, XIX.
The first Settlement of Maryland owing to the Evertions
of Sir George Calvert. Some Account of Calvert.
Anecdotes. He commences a Colony at Newfoundland,
in 1621. Progress of it. Abandonment of it. He
visits Virginia. How the Virginians treated him.
Visits.Newfoundland again. Gets a Charter of Mary-
land. Why the Province was so named. Death of Sir
George. The Settlement commenced by his Sons.
THE first settlement of Maryland was owing to
he exertions of Sir George Calvert, an English-
man and a papist. Under King James, he was
one of the principal English secretaries of state;
and, either by that monarch, or his successor,
Charles I., he was created “lord baron of Balti-
more,” in Ireland, as some reward for his loyal ser-
vices to the crown. One of these services, it is
said by some writers, consisted in his efforts, on a
certain occasion, to bring about a match between
Prince Charles and a royal princess of Spain.
It may not be true, but he is also said to have been
one of those whom Count Gondemar, the Spanish
ambassador, engaged, by means of presents and
13
º:

150 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
pensions, to make King James favorable to the
marriage of his son just mentioned. This is not
unlikely; and it shows, if true, that Sir George was
among the most influential of the courtiers.
I will mention the well-known fact here, that the
count bribed the ladies of the court, or, at least, all
the leading characters among them, excepting Lady
Jacobs. She, upon his passing by her windows,
in his chaise, instead of answering his salutations
as usual, only gaped. She did the same again the
next day; and the count then had the curiosity to
ask the reason: “I have a mouth to stop,” said
she, “as well as other ladies.” He took the hint,
and made her a handsome present. Owing to the
general unpopularity of their tenets, the Catholics
were as uncomfortably situated in England, during
this reign, as the Puritans, whom I have given
some account of in my History of New England.
Calvert availed himself, therefore, of his remaining
favor, to procure a grant of land, and a permission
to colonize it, in America. His first attempt was
made in 1621, at a place called Ferryland, a harbor
on the eastern coast of Newfoundland. Here,
under Calvert's direction, one Captain Wynne
commenced a Catholic settlement, erected granaries
and store-houses, and built several dwelling-houses
of considerable size.
In the following year, he set up a salt-work, and
received fresh supplies of stores from England, with
an additional number of colonists. Such accounts

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 151
of the soil and the climate were now sent over to
the mother country, that Calvert himself had
thoughts of removing to Newfoundland, with his
family. He visited the colony alone, as it was, and
resided there some years. On the whole, however,
he considered it a spot unfit for colonization; and
he now began to turn his thoughts towards Virginia,
where a colony had settled at Jamestown, in 1607.
Of this country a great deal was said about this
time; and, in 1628, Calvert determined to visit it.
He landed at Jamestown. The good people of
this place, and especially the civil authorities, seem
to have been rather more jealous of him as a Catho-
lic than they chose to be hospitable towards him as
a stranger. Immediately on his landing, the latter
ordered the oaths of “supremacy and allegiance” to
be tendered to him and his followers, as a condition
of his remaining in the colony. But, like stanch
Catholics, they all refused to take the oaths; and the
Jamestown people could do nothing but refer the
matter to the privy council of the king, in England.
It was quite doubtful if they had a right to tender
them as they did.
At all events, a good and sincere Catholic, like
Lord Baltimore (as he was now called), could not
conscientiously submit to them. He considered the
pope to be the supreme head of the Christian church;
but the oath of supremacy required him to acknowl-
edge the king of England to be supreme governor
of all his dominions, in all “ecclesiastical things or

152 History of THE MIDDLE states.
causes,” as well as temporal, or civil and political,
Indeed, Pope Urban VIII. had issued a “bulle” or
proclamation, only two years before, to the Irish
Catholics, exhorting them “rather to lose their lives
than to take that wicked and pestilent oath of su-
premacy, whereby,” he said, “the sceptre of the
Catholic church was wrested from the hand of the
vicar of God.” Thus that worthy pope had the
modesty to style himself. Pope Paul, in 1606, had
also forbidden the Catholics to take the oath of
allegiance (to the king as sovereign).
Whether Lord Baltimore visited Maryland at this
time, I do not find that historians determine. It
seems likely, however, that he made the tour, by
water, of the principal parts of the Chesapeake Bay.
The English had made no settlements yet, or, at
least, no permanent ones, in that region. The Vir-
ginians had only traded with the Indians at the head
of the bay, though possibly they had built trading
houses on some of the islands. The Swedes and
Fins, as I have told you in the last chapter, had set-
tled at Paradise Point, and afterwards at Wilming-
ton, in Delaware, about the same time when Lord
Baltimore visited Virginia.
He is also said to have visited his colony at New-
foundland twice after this, within a year or two.
During the second visit, which was in 1629, France
and England being then at war, he was so fortunate
as to perform some considerable services, in recov-
ering twenty sail of English ships, which had been

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 153
taken by a French squadron. He captured also
several of the enemy's fishing ships, on the New-
foundland coast. In 1630, he returned to England
to procure a grant of territory upon the Chesapeake,
where he now determined to plant a new settlement.
He was still in favor with King Charles, on ac-
count of his ancient services to his father, King
James. It was not difficult, therefore, to procure
almost any grant which he chose to ask for. But
before a patent could be adjusted, his lordship died,
April 15, 1632. Of several of his sons, the patent
was made out for the eldest, Cecilius, who now as-
sumed his father's title. It was intended that the
country granted by this charter should have been
called Crescentia; but when it was presented to the
king for his signature, he desired that the province
might be called Maryland. This was in compli-
ment to his queen, Henrietta Maria, a daughter of
the great King Henry IV., of France.

154 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
CHAPTER XX.
First Expedition of Emigrants to Maryland, in 1633.
Arrive at Point Comfort. Ascend the River Potomac.
Meet with Indians. Anecdote of Captain Fleet.
Indian Chief goes on board the Vessels. Settlement
made at St. Mary's. Stories about the Indians. About
Governor Harvey, of Virginia. About the King of
Patuxent. Prosperity of the Colony.
THE young Baron of Baltimore immediately set
about preparing for the establishment of the pro-
posed colony; but, instead of going to America
himself, he employed his brother, Leonard Calvert,
to go in his stead, as governor of the colony. The
number of colonists was about two hundred. Some
of the principal men among them were gentlemen
of fortune. Most of them were Roman Catholics.
They sailed from Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, on
the 22d of November, 1633. -
Taking the old route, by the Azores and West
Indies, they touched at St. Christopher's and the
Barbadoes. Here they staid for some months,
probably for the purpose of timing their arrival
in the Chesapeake, at the most favorable sea-
son of the year for colonizing in that climate.
It was as late, therefore, as February, 1634,
when they arrived off Point Comfort, in Virginia.
Here, in consequence of recommendatory letters

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE, STATES. 155
from the king, which he had with him, Calvert was
treated much more hospitably by the Virginians
than his father had been before him.
On the 3d of March, he proceeded as far as the
river Potomac. Sailing up forty miles, they came
to an island called Heron Island, and anchored un-
der another neighboring isle, to which they gave
the name of St. Clement's. Here the governor
landed; and, setting up a cross in the Roman
Catholic manner, took formal possession of the
country, “for our Saviour, and for our sovereign
lord, the King of England.” For the purpose of
making discoveries, the governor left his ships here,
and taking two pinnaces, proceeded about four
leagues, and landed on the south, or Virginia side
of the river. The Indians every where fled from
him in great fear.
He ascended the river as far as an Indian town
called Potomac Town. This was probably near
what is now called Cedar Point, or Pickawaxen
creek, in Charles county, Maryland. The chief,
called in their language, the werowance, being an in-
fant, the territory of this tribe was governed, in his
minority, by his uncle; and this old sachem, named
Archihan, received the strangers in a very friendly
manner. From this place they ascended the river
more than fifty miles to Piscataway. There they
found many Indians assembled, and among them
an Englishman, Captain Henry Fleet, who had lived

156 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE states.
there several years, in great esteem with the saw-
ages, and perfectly satisfied with his situation.
Through Fleet's influence, the chief of this tribe
was prevailed upon to go on board the governor's
pinnace. The latter asked him if he was willing
that he and his people should settle in the Indian
country, in case they found a place convenient for
them. “I will not bid you go,” answered the chief;
“neither will I bid you stay; but you may use your
own discretion.” The Indians on shore, finding
that the chief staid on board longer than they ex-
pected, anxiously crowded down to the water side to
look after his safety. They were afraid the English
had killed him; and they were not satisfied till he
showed himself, to appease them.
The governor inferred, from the cautious answer
of the old chief, that it might not be advisable for
him to settle so high up the river. He wished,
also, to be nearer the sea-coast, and more accessi-
ble, of course, to ships arriving from England. He
returned down the Potomac, therefore, as far as
Clement's Isle, taking Fleet with him. He soon
afterwards sailed up a small river, some dozen
miles or more from the mouth of the Potomac.
This he named St. George's river. He found an
Indian town on its banks, called by the savages
Yoamaco. The tribe at this place is supposed to
have been one of the confederacy subject to King
Powhatan (the greatest chieftain of all the Vir-
ginian Indians), and afterwards to his successors.

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 157
The governor landed here, entered into a con-
ference or treaty with the werowance, and ac-
quainted him with the cause of his coming. The
Indian answered quite briefly and shrewdly, not
wishing to encourage a settlement among them.
But he hospitably invited the governor to his cabin,
entertained him as kindly as he could, and at night
gave him his own bed to lie upon. The next day
he showed him the country.
The governor now determined to make the first
settlement at this point. He sent orders to his ship
and boats to come to him. In order to a peaceable
admission into the country, he presented the we-
rowance, and other chief men of the town, with
some English cloth, axes, hoes and knives. These
they accepted with pleasure, and freely consented
that he and his company should dwell in one part
of their town, reserving the village alone for them-
selves. Those Indians who inhabited that part
which was assigned to the English, readily aban-
doned their huts to them.
The natives further agreed to leave the whole
place to the English, as soon as they could gather
their corn. This promise they faithfully performed.
It was further stipulated, that, until that time, the
two people should live in a friendly manner togeth-
er. If any injury was done on either side, the party
offending was to make satisfaction, upon demand
of it. -
On the 27th of March, 1634, the governor caused
14

158 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
his settlers to land, according to the agreement
with the natives. He took possession of the town,
and named it St. Mary's. A circumstance is said
to have occurred at this time, which very much
facilitated the treaty with the Indians. The Sus-
quehannocks, savages who lived about the head of
the bay, were in the practice of making incursions
on their neighbors, chiefly for the sake of plunder.
The Yoamacoes, through fear of these fierce ene-
mies, had, a year before Calvert's colony arrived,
resolved to desert their habitations, and remove
higher into the country.
Many of them were actually gone; the rest were
preparing to follow them, about the time when the
English arrived. The latter came in good season,
therefore, to encourage and defend them. The
first thing the governor caused to be done, after
landing, was to erect two buildings; one for a
guard-house, and the other for a store-house.
Others of the colonists were set to work in making
preparations for the planting of corn. A few days
afterwards, he received a friendly visit from Sir
John Harvey, then governor of Virginia.
While the latter remained at St. Mary’s, Governor
Calvert was visited by several Indian sachems from
the interior of the country. To please them, Gov-
ernor Harvey made an entertainment on board his
ship, then at anchor in the river. The Indian king
of Patuxent was placed at the table with a good
deal of parade, between the governors of Virginia

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. I 5
and Maryland. This gratified him much; but an
accident occurred, which threatened to destroy the
pleasure of the feast: a Patuxent Indian, coming
on board, and seeing his king thus seated, started
back, and refused to enter the cabin.
He imagined, it seems, that the king was con-
fined by the governors as a captive. He would
even have leaped overboard in his terror, had not
the king himself come to him. The old Indian
soon convinced him that none of the party were in
much danger from the good cheer of the English.
The store-house being finished, it became neces-
sary to unload the ship, and bring the stores on
shore for the use of the colony. This the governor
ordered to be done with as much solemnity as pos-
sible. He thought that doing it with pomp and state
would impress the simple natives with a respect for
the English. The colors were brought on shore,
and the colonists all paraded under arms. Volleys
of musketry were fired; and these were answered
by discharges of cannon from on board the ship.
The two kings, of Patuxent and Yoamaco, being
present at this exhibition, with a multitude of other
Indians about them, the former took occasion to
advise the Yoamaco Indians to be careful in keep-
ing their treaty with the English. They heard him
with attention; and no doubt the scene and the ad-
vice together had a salutary effect upon their feel-
ings and conduct.
The king of Patuxent remained at St. Mary's

160 History of THE MIDDLE states.
several days after this. It is related that, when he
took his leave, he made a somewhat remarkable
speech to the governor —“I love the English so
well, that though they should go about to kill me, if
I had so much breath as to speak, I would com-
mand my people not to revenge my death; for I am
certain the English would not do such a thing, if
it were not for some fault or crime of my own.” It
seems that the hospitality of the governor, together
with what the old sachem had seen and heard among
the settlers, had made him their firm friend and de-
termined ally.
And such he continued. The English and Indians
lived together at St. Mary's, according to their stip-
ulation at the first conference. And they lived in
the utmost harmony. The natives went every day
to hunt with the new-comers, for deer and wild tur-
keys. Whenever they caught or killed one, as they
did much more frequently and easily than the Eng-
lish, they either gave it to them, or sold it for some
such trifle as a knife or a string of beads. They also
brought in abundance of fine fish. As a still more
certain mark of the entire confidence they reposed
in the colonists, their wives and children became,
in many cases, quite domesticated and at home in
the English families.
This colony, on the whole, seems to have pros-
pered remarkably well; and they owed much of
their success, undoubtedly, to their own prudence.
They took care to make their first landing, we have

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 16.
seen, so early in the year as to allow them abundant
time for raising corn and erecting habitations against
the succeeding winter. They had also taken the
precaution to bring along with them from Barbadoes,
an additional supply of good Indian corn, beyond
the flour and bread of their English stores.
They availed themselves of the friendship of the
Indians, too, so completely as to obtain the use of
their cleared and rich corn grounds. The conse-
quence was such a luxuriant crop, that they are said
to have exported 10,000 bushels more than they
wanted to use, during the second season, to New
England. This was mostly exchanged for salt fish
and other provisions of the New England colonies.
CHAPTER XXI.
How the Land bought of the Indians was divided among
the Settlers of Maryland. Trouble which Governor
Calvert had with Captain Clayborne. Occasion of it.
The Captain's Wessel seized by the Governor. He and
his Lieutenant tried and condemned for Piracy. The
Lieutenant hanged. The Captain runs away. Anec-
dotes. Close of the Maryland History. End of the Work.
It may be entertaining, as well as useful, for you
to learn how the lands obtained, as I have told you,
of the Indians, were afterwards divided among the
colonists themselves. You must know that what-
ever was purchased by the governor was purchased
14*

#62 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
for the use and benefit of his brother, Lord Balti-
more, for whom he acted on all occasions. He had
obtained a grant of all Maryland, you recollect,
from the king, and this gave him a title, it was
thought, against all the world, excepting the Indian
occupiers of the land. When their right or claim
to it was bought up, therefore, it was bought for the
benefit of Lord Baltimore.
The purchased lands were to be divided among
the settlers there, just as he thought proper; and he
had made regulations on the subject in England, by
which his brother, the governor, was now guided.
Every one of the first adventurers, who should induce
five other colonists, between sixteen and fifty years of
age, to settle in the province, during the year 1633,
was to have a grant of two thousand acres of land,
“to him and his heirs forever,” for the yearly rent
of four hundred pounds of good wheat. A bushel of
good sound wheat weighing about sixty pounds, you
can soon calculate how much the rent amounted to.
Furthermore, every adventurer who should bring in
fewer than five settlers, as above, was to have a hun-
dred acres for himself, a hundred more for his wife
(if he had a wife), one hundred for every servant, and
fifty acres for every child under the age of sixteen
years, for the rent of ten pounds of wheat yearly
for every fifty acres. All this was to encourage the
colonists to make efforts for increasing the popula-
tion of the province.
With the same view, whoever should transport ten
settlers from England, or any other country, into the

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 163
province, during the years 1634 and 1635, was to
have two thousand acres of land, for the yearly rent
of six hundred pounds of wheat, or about ten bushels.
Whoever should transport fewer than ten, as above,
was to have one hundred acres for himself, and such
other allotments for wife and family as I have just
mentioned.
If any settler, after the year 1635, should send
or bring over any other settlers besides himself, for
every five he was to have one thousand acres at the
yearly rent of twenty shillings, payable in the com-
modities of the country. For less than five, he was
to receive for himself and family as mentioned be-
fore, with the addition of fifty acres for every maid-
servant under forty years of age, at the yearly
rent of a shilling each fifty acres. Lord Baltimore
thought that some of his young settlers would want
wives, I suppose, which is not at all unlikely, in my
opinion. It was proposed, moreover, to give each
of the settlers who brought or sent over, as above,
a small lot of land for his own maintenance.
In consequence of these liberal regulations, the
St. Mary’s colony increased rapidly. Nothing oc-
curred, for some time, to interrupt their prosperity in
any considerable degree, excepting a disturbance
made by one Captain Clayborne. This gentleman
belonged to the Virginian colony. He had long
been in the habit of trafficking with the Maryland
and other Indians on the Chesapeake, even before
Calvert came over. That business had been lucra-
tive to him, no doubt, and Clayborne was not very

164 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
well pleased, that the Catholic settlement at St. Ma-
ry's deprived him of the better part of his trade.
It appears that he and a few of his companions
had made a settlement upon the island of Kent, in the
Chesapeake, above St. Mary's, and within the limits
of Lord Baltimore's charter. This he had done
before Calvert’s arrival, and by virtue of a license
granted him by King James to trade with the In-
dians. He now laid claim to the soil of the island
itself, and also to a territory occupied by a small
colony which he had fixed at the mouth of the Sus-
quehannah. Lord Baltimore had received some
hints, even in England, of Clayborne's probable dis-
position to make trouble. He had, therefore, direct-
ed his brother, the governor, that if Clayborne did
not submit to his government, he should be seized
and punished.
He had not yet been taken, but, being incensed
because Lord Baltimore had obtained a grant includ-
ing his own unauthorized settlements, he used every
means in his power to injure the young colony at
St. Mary's. Among other things, he maliciously
undertook to create a belief among the neighboring
Indians, comprising the St. Mary Yoamacoes, that
the new colonists were Spaniards, and enemies of the
English in Virginia. It was the easier for him to
do this, because the settlers being Catholics, their
religious ceremonies much resembled those of the
Spaniards.
The simple natives, at first, gave credit to these
ridiculous falsehoods. The Yoamacoes even with-

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 165
drew suddenly and all together from St. Mary's
The colonists were then engaged in erecting com-
fortable habitations for themselves, in and about the
town. But, alarmed at this unaccountable change
in the behavior of the Indians, they ceased working
on their buildings, and betook themselves to the
erection of a fort for security. They accomplished
the work in six weeks. They then returned to
their several employments, as before. By this time,
or soon after, the Indians had become sensible of
the deception practised upon them, and they came
again, as formerly, to the houses of the colonists.
Clayborne now resorted to open military force
in his opposition to Lord Baltimore's government.
Early in the year 1635, he granted a special com-
mission, written and signed by himself, to a cer-
tain Ratcliffe Warren, commonly known as Lieu-
tenant Warren, to seize and capture any of the
vessels or pinnaces belonging to the people of St.
Mary's. In pursuance of this authority, an armed
pinnace belonging to Clayborne was fitted out, and
manned by fourteen men. Among them was one
Thomas Smith, a sort of highwayman-gentleman,
who appears to have been equal to Warren in audaci-
ty, though second to him in command.
Governor Calvert was apprized of this formidable
expedition. But not yet despairing of the salvation
of the colony, he immediately equipped two boats in
much the same manner with Warren's. They sailed
under the command of a certain Esquire Cornwallis.
The two hostile armaments met, some time in Arrº

166 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES.
or May, 1635, in the Pocomoke river, on the eastern
shore of the province. A battle was commenced
between them, by Warren's men first, on Cornwal-
lis's boats, as was afterwards said by the latter. He
returned the fire without much ceremony or delay.
The result was, that one of his own men was killed,
and two of Warren's men, with Warren himself.
Clayborne's boat and crew were taken into custody.
At the first courts of justice established at St. Ma-
ry's, a year or two after the event, a grand jury was
impannelled and sworn, and two bills of indictment
sent up to them, against Clayborne and Smith, for
“piracy and murder.” The former was charged as
accessary or accomplice in the business, and the
latter as the principal actor in it. Both were found
true bills by the jury.
In consequence, at the next meeting of the Mary-
land assembly, a “bill of attainder” was passed
against Clayborne, by which his property within the
province became forfeited to the lord proprietor.
He had himself fled, before this, to Virginia. Sen-
tence was pronounced against Smith, in the follow-
ing words, by the president of the assembly, sitting
as a court of justice:—
“Thomas Smith, you have been indicted for
felony and piracy. To your indictment you have
pleaded not guilty; and you have been tried by the
freemen in this general assembly, who have found
you guilty. They now pronounce this sentence upon
you: That you shall be carried from hence to the
place whence you came ; and from thence to the

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 167
place"..." and shall there be hanged by
the neck till you be dead. And all your lands, goods
and chattels shall be forfeited to the lord proprietor.
May God have mercy on your soul!” The unfortu-
nate ruffian was executed according to his sentence.
I have observed that Clayborne fled the country.
But notwithstanding this and the fate of Smith, the
inhabitants of the Isle of Kent, settled by the former,
were far from submitting quietly to the new govern-
ment. Its authority, indeed, was so openly resisted,
that the governor was finally obliged to visit the
island with an armed force, to quell and punish the
refractory inhabitants. From this time they gave
ino more trouble.
I have now told you, my young friends, all that
will interest you much in the early history of Mary-
land. The government went on very smoothly from
the time of Clayborne's defeat. In 1638, the first gen-
eral assembly met together, and this was composed
of representatives chosen from quite a number of
hundreds and towns in different parts of the prov-
ince, so rapidly had it already increased.
I have no more to say at present about the Middle
States; but you will permit me, in my particular
regard for your welfare and good-will, to observe,
that I shall rely quite confidently on your hearing
my stories, hereafter, about the STATES AND TER-
Ritonies of THE WEST.


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