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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Sir William Johnson and the Six Nations - -Author: William Elliot Griffis - -Release Date: May 7, 2016 [EBook #52014] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON AND SIX NATIONS *** - - - - -Produced by Larry Harrison, Cindy Beyer and the online -Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at -http://www.pgdpcanada.net with images provided by The -Internet Archives-US - - - - - - SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON - AND - The Six Nations - - - - - “MAKERS OF AMERICA” - - SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON - - AND - - The Six Nations - - - - BY - - WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS - - AUTHOR OF “THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE,” “COREA THE HERMIT - NATION,” “MATTHEW CALBRAITH PERRY,” ETC. - - - NEW YORK - DODD, MEAD, AND COMPANY - PUBLISHERS - - - - - Copyright, 1891 - By Dodd, Mead, and Co. - All rights reserved. - - - University Press: - John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. - - - - - Dedication. - - Like my friend, the late Judge John Sanders, of Scotia, - Schenectady County, N. Y., who took off his hat when meeting - descendants of the heroes of Oriskany, the bloodiest, the most - stubbornly contested, and perhaps the decisive battle in the War - of the American Revolution, the writer makes his bow to the - people of the Mohawk Valley, and to them, and to the memory - of their brave ancestors, dedicates this sketch of one of the Makers - of America. - - - - - P R E F A C E. - -THE Mohawk Valley in which Sir William Johnson spent his adult life -(1738–1774) was the fairest portion of the domain of the Six Nations of -the Iroquois Confederacy. In this valley I lived nine years, seeing on -every side traces or monuments of the industry, humanity, and powerful -personality of its most famous resident in colonial days. From the -quaint stone church in Schenectady which he built, and in whose canopied -pews he sat, daily before my eyes, to the autograph papers in possession -of my neighbours; from sites close at hand and traditionally associated -with the lord of Johnson Hall, to the historical relics which multiply -at Johnstown, Canajoharie, and westward,—mementos of the baronet were -never lacking. His two baronial halls still stand near the Mohawk. I -found that local tradition, while in the main generous to his memory, -was sometimes unfair and even cruel. The hatreds engendered by the -partisan features of the Revolution, and the just detestation of the -savage atrocities of Tories and red allies led by Johnson’s son and -son-in-law, had done injustice to the great man himself. Yet base and -baseless tradition was in no whit more unjust than the sectional -opinions and hostile gossip of the New England militia which historians -have so freely transferred to their pages. - -In the following pages no attempt at either laudation or depreciation -has been made. My purpose has been simply to set forth the actions, -influence, and personality of Sir William Johnson, to show the character -of the people by whom he was surrounded, and to describe and analyze the -political movements of his time. I confess I have not depicted New York -people in the sectional spirit and subjective manner in which they are -so often treated by New England writers. The narrow and purely local -view of some of these who have written what is called the history of the -United States, greatly vitiates their work in the eyes of those who do -not inherit their prejudices. Having no royal charter, the composite -people of New York, gathered from many nations, but instinct with the -principles of the free republic of Holland, were obliged to study -carefully the foundations of government and jurisprudence. It is true -that in the evolution of this Commonwealth the people were led by the -lawyers rather than by the clergy. Constantly resisting the invasions of -royal prerogative, they formed on an immutable basis of law and right -that Empire State which in its construction and general features is, of -all those in the Union, the most typically American. Its historical -precedents are not found in a monarchy, but in a republic. It is less -the fruit of English than of Teutonic civilization. - -Living also but a few yards away from the home of Arendt Van Curler, the -“Brother Corlaer” of Indian tradition, and immediately alongside the -site of the old gate opening from the palisades into the Mohawk country, -I could from my study windows look daily upon the domain of the -Mohawks,—the places of treaties, ceremonies, and battles, of the -torture and burning of captives, and upon the old maize-lands, even yet -rich after the husbandry of centuries. Besides visiting many of the -sites of the Iroquois castles, I have again and again traversed the -scenes of Johnson’s exploits in Central New York, at Lake George, in -Eastern Pennsylvania, and other places mentioned in the text. With my -task is associated the remembrance of many pleasant outings as well as -meetings with local historians, antiquarians, and students of Indian -lore. I have treated more fully the earlier part of Johnson’s life which -is less known, and more briefly the events of the latter part which is -comparatively familiar to all. I trust I have not been unfair to the red -men while endeavouring to show the tremendous influence exerted over -them by Johnson; who, for this alone, deserves to be enrolled among the -Makers of America. - -My chief sources of information have been the Johnson manuscripts, which -have been carefully mounted, bound, and are preserved in the State -Library at Albany. They were indexed by my friends, the late Rev. Dr. H. -A. Homes, and Mr. George R. Howell, the accomplished secretary of the -Albany Institute. To the former I am especially indebted. The printed -book to which I owe special obligations is Mr. William L. Stone’s “Life -and Times of Sir William Johnson, Bart.” These two superbly written -octavo volumes, richly annotated and indexed, make any detailed life of -Johnson unnecessary, and form a noble and enduring monument of patient -scholarship. - -For generous assistance at various points and in details, I have to -thank, and hereby do so most heartily, Mr. Edward F. De Lancey, of New -York; Mr. William L. Stone, of Jersey City; Prof. A. L. Perry, of -Williams College; Mr. Berthold Fernow, keeper of the State Archives, -Albany; Rev. J. A. De Baun, D. D., of Fonda; Rev. J. H. Hubbs, of Grand -Rapids, Mich.; Rev. Henry R. Swinnerton, of Cherry Valley; Mr. R. A. -Grider, the chief American specialist and collector of powder-horns and -their art and literature; Mr. A. G. Richmond, archæologist in Indian -relics, of Canajoharie, N. Y.; Mrs. I. E. Wells of Johnson Hall at -Johnstown; Mr. Ethan Akin, of Fort Johnson at Akin near Fonda; James -Fuller, Esq., of Schenectady, N. Y.; and Major J. W. MacMurray, U. S. -N.; besides various descendants of the militiamen who served under the -illustrious Irishman who is the subject of the following pages. - - W. E. G. -Boston, Mass., - May 21, 1891. - - - - - CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE. - - - - =1400–1600 A. D.= Occupation of the region between - the Niagara and the Hudson - River by the Indian tribes - of the Long House. - { July 29. Defeat of the Iroquois near - { Ticonderoga, N. Y., by - { Champlain. - =1609=, { Sept. 1-23. Hendrick Hudson explores the - { river as far as the Mohawk. - - =1613.= Hollanders build on Manhattan and Nassau - Islands. - =1617.= Iroquois form an alliance with the Dutch. - =1623.= Jesse De Forest and the Walloons settle and - found New York City.—Fort Orange - built.—Settlement at Albany. - =1630.= Patroon Kilian Van Rensselaer.—Arrival of - Arendt Van Curler. - =1642.= Van Curler enters the Mohawk Valley and - ransoms Isaac Jogues. - =1661.= Van Curler founds the city of Schenectady. - =1664.= English Conquest of New Netherlands. - =1667.= Kryn leads the Caughnawaga Indians to Canada. - =1690.= Massacre at Schenectady. - =1710.= Palatine Germans in New York. - =1713.= The Tuscaroras join the Iroquois Confederacy. - =1715.= Sir William Johnson born. - =1722.= Palatines settle in Mohawk Valley.—Oswego - founded. - =1738.= Johnson settled at Warrensburgh, N. Y. - =1740.= Johnson made head of the Indian Department. - =1754.= The Congress and Council at Albany. - =1755.= Battle of Lake George. - =1757.= Massacre at German Flats. - =1759.= Surrender of Niagara to Johnson.—Fall of - Quebec and the French power in America. - =1763.= Conspiracy of Pontiac.—Johnstown founded, and - Johnson Hall built. - =1768.= Treaty at Fort Stanwix. - =1770.= January 18, First bloodshed of the - Revolution. - =1771.= First battle of the Revolution at Alamance, - N. C. - =1772.= Division of Albany County.—Johnstown made the - county-seat of Tryon County. - =1774.= Death of Sir William Johnson. - =1777.= Battle of Oriskany. - =1778.= Massacre at Cherry Valley. - =1779.= Brant at Minnisink.—General Sullivan’s - Expedition against the Six Nations. - =1782.= New York’s Western lands transferred to the - nation. - =1783.= Tories banished from the Mohawk Valley. - - - - - TABLE OF CONTENTS. - - PREFACE vii - CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE xi - I. THE FIRST SETTLERS OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY 1 - II. JOHNSON AS AN INDIAN TRADER 11 - III. THE SIX NATIONS AND THE LONG HOUSE 35 - IV. THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 61 - V. A CHAPTER IN THE STORY OF LIBERTY 80 - VI. A TYPICAL FRONTIER FIGHT WITH INDIANS 92 - VII. AT THE ANCIENT PLACE OF TREATIES 109 - VIII. THE BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE 132 - IX. BRITISH FAILURES PREPARING FOR AMERICAN 146 - INDEPENDENCE - X. THE “HEAVEN-BORN GENERAL” 167 - XI. DECLINE OF THE INDIAN AS A POLITICAL FACTOR 178 - XII. LIFE AT JOHNSON HALL 194 - XIII. JOHNSON’S FAMILY; LAST DAYS; EUTHANASIA 206 - INDEX 223 - - - - - CHAPTER I. - THE FIRST SETTLERS OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY. - - -THE MOHAWK VALLEY was first settled by men escaping from feudalism. The -manor-system, a surviving relic of the old days of lordship and -villeinage, had long cursed England, Germany, and Holland, though first -outgrown and thrown off in the latter country. It was from this system, -almost as much as from Church laws, that the Pilgrim Fathers were glad -to escape and find free labour as well as liberty of conscience in -Holland,—the land where they “heard,” and found by experience, “that -all men were free.” - -The Netherlands was the political training-school of the Pilgrims, and -of most of the leaders of the Puritans, who before 1640 settled New -England. In America they were more fortunate than their more southern -neighbours, in that they were freed from the semi-feudalism of the Dutch -Patroons and the manor-lords of Maryland and Virginia. The Hollanders, -on coming to New Netherland and settling under the Patroons, enjoyed far -less liberty than when in their own country. They were practically under -a new sort of feudalism unknown in their “Patria.” Their Teutonic -instincts and love of freedom soon, however, drove them to relinquish -their temporary advantages as manor-tenants, and to purchase land from -the Indians and settle in the “Woestina,” or wilderness. These Dutch -farmers cheerfully braved the dangers and inconveniences of “the bush,” -in order to hold land in fee simple and be their own masters. - -It was this spirit of independence that led a little company of worthy -sons or grandsons of men who had fought under William the Silent, to -settle in the “Great Flat,” or Mohawk Valley. They were led by Arendt -Van Curler, who, though first-cousin of the absentee Patroon Van -Rensselaer, of Rensselaerwyck, had educated himself out of the silken -meshes of semi-feudalism. Finding men like-minded with himself, who -believed that the patroon or manor-system was a bad reversion in -political evolution, he led out the Dutch freemen, and founded the city -of Schenectady. On the land made sacred to the Mohawks for centuries, by -reason of council-fires and immemorial graves, this free settlement -began. Here, not indeed for the first time in New Netherlands, and yet -at a period when the proceeding was a novelty, the settlers held land in -fee simple, and demanded the rights of trade. - -It was before 1660 that these men, who would rather have gone back to -Patria, or Holland, than become semi-serfs under a manor-lord, came to -Van Curler, or “Brother Corlaer” as the Iroquois called him, and asked -him to lead them westward. In Fort Orange, July 21, 1661, in due legal -form, by purchase from and satisfaction to the Mohawk Indian chiefs, the -Indian title was extinguished. Thus, by a procedure as honourable and -generous as William Penn’s agreement with the Lenni Lenapes under the -great elm at Shackamaxon, was signalized the entrance of Germanic -civilization in the Mohawk Valley. - -Early in the spring of 1662 Van Curler led his fourteen freemen and -their families into their new possession. Travelling westward, up what -is now Clinton Avenue in Albany, until they reached Norman’s Kill, they -struck northward, following the Indian trail of blazed trees, until -after a circuit of twenty miles they reached their future home, on a low -plateau on the banks of the Mohawk. On this old site of an Indian -village they began the erection of their houses, mill, church, and -palisades. The aboriginal name of the village, from which the Mohawks -had removed, pointed to the vast piles of driftwood deposited on the -river-flats after the spring floods; but not till after the English -conquest did any one apply the old Indian name of the site of -Albany—that is, “Schenectady”—to Van Curler’s new settlement. Both -French and Indians called the village “Corlaer,” even as they also -called the Mohawk River “the river of Corlaer,” and the sheet of water -in which he was drowned, not after its discoverer, Champlain, but -“Corlaer’s Lake.” Nevertheless, since the Mohawks had already retired -from the Hudson River, and “the place outside the door of the Long -House” was no longer Albany, but “Corlaer,” they and the Europeans, soon -after 1664, began to speak of the new settlement as “Schenectady;” -especially, as by their farther retirement up the valley, “Corlaer” was -now the true “Schenectady;” that is, outside the door of the Iroquois -confederacy or Long House. Schenectady enjoys the honour of being more -variously spelled than any other place in the United States; and its -name has been derived from Iroquois, German, and Japanese, in which -languages it is possible to locate the word as a compound. It is a -softened form of a long and very guttural Indian word. - -Then was begun, by these Dutch freeholders, the long fight of fifty -years for freedom of trade with the Indians. Their contest was against -the restrictive jealousy of Albany, including both Colony and Manor. -With Dutch tenacity they held on, until victory at last crowned their -persistence in 1727. - -In a word, in its initiation and completion, the opening of the Mohawk -Valley to civilization forms a noble episode in the story of American -freedom. One of the first places in New York on which the forces -representing feudalism and opposed to freeholding of land, and on which -mediæval European notions arrayed against the ideas which had made -America were beaten back, was at Schenectady, in the throat of the -Mohawk Valley. Here was struck by liberty-loving Hollanders a key-note, -of which the long strain has not yet ceased. - -The immigrants who next followed the Dutch pioneers,—like them, as real -settlers, and not as land-speculators and manor-builders,—and who -penetrated still farther westward up the valley, were not English, but -German. These people, who, as unarmed peasants in the Rhine Valley, had -been unable to resist the invasion of Louis XIV. or to face the rigours -of poverty in their desolated homeland, made the best sort of colonists -in America. Brought by the British Government to settle on remote -frontiers, to bear the brunt of contact with Indians, Spaniards, and -Frenchmen, these sturdy Protestants soon proved their ability, not only -to stand their ground, but to be lively thorns in the sides of despotic -landlords, crown-agents, and governors. - -The “first American rebel” Leisler, born at Mannheim in Germany, was a -people’s man. In his own rude way he acted with the intent of making -ideas dominant then, which are commonplace now. His “rebellion” grew out -of a boast made by the British Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson, that the -Dutch colonists were a conquered people, and not entitled to the right -of English citizenship. Hanged, by order of a drunken English governor, -near the site of the Tribune Building, May 16, 1691, it is more than -probable that he will yet have his statue in the metropolitan city of -America. He belongs to the list of haters of what is falsely named -aristocracy, the un-American state-church combination, and other relics -of feudalism which survive in England, but which had been cast off by -the Dutch Republic, in whose service as a soldier he had come to -America. His place in the list of the winners of American liberty is -sure.[1] - -Under Governor Hunter’s auspices, in 1710, nearly three thousand Germans -from the Palatinate settled along the Hudson and in New York. By a third -immigration, in 1722, ten per cent was added to the population by the -Palatines, who settled all along the Mohawk Valley, advancing farther -westward into the “Woestina.” At German Flats and at Palatine Bridge -their “concentration” was greatest. So jealous were the money-loving -English of their wool-monopoly, that these Germans were forbidden under -extreme penalties to engage in the woollen manufacture. The same intense -jealousy and love of lucre which, until the Revolution, kept at home all -army contracts that could possibly be fulfilled in Great Britain, -prescribed the ban which was laid on the Mohawk Valley Palatines. With -chains thus forged upon the Germans, who were expected to furnish “naval -stores,” there was no encouragement for them to raise sheep or improved -stock. In this way it happened that Sir William Johnson was later -enabled to boast that he was the first who introduced fine sheep and -other live-stock in the Mohawk Valley. - -The characteristics of these Germans were an intense love of liberty, -and a deep-seated hatred against feudalism and the encroachments of -monarchy in every form. The great land-owners, both Dutch and English, -who wished to use these people as serfs, found that they possessed -strange notions of liberty. Poor as they were, they were more like -hornets to sting than blue-bottles to be trapped with molasses. The -Hessian fly had a barb in his tail. Loyal to the Crown, they refused to -submit to the tyranny of the great landlords. It was one of these -Germans, a poor immigrant, that first fought and won the battle of the -freedom of speech and of the press. Now, intrenched in the Constitution -of the United States, it is to us almost like one of the numerous -“glittering generalities” of the Declaration of Independence, at which -Englishmen smile, but which Americans, including the emancipated -negroes, find so real. Then the freedom of the press was a dream. In -1734 John Peter Zenger, who incarnated the spirit and conscience of -these Palatine Germans, was editor of the “New York Weekly Journal.” He -was reproached as a foreigner and immigrant, for daring to criticise the -royal representatives, or ever to touch upon the prerogatives of -Governor Cosby, the king’s foolish representative. Zenger was -imprisoned, but managed to edit his paper while in jail. At his trial he -was defended by Hamilton, a lawyer from a colony whose constitution had -been written by the son of a Dutch mother, in Holland, where printing -had been free a century or more before it was even partially free in -England. James Alexander Hamilton was the Scottish lawyer who had left -his European home, to the detriment of his fortune, in order to enjoy -richer liberty in Pennsylvania. He it was who first purchased -Independence Square in Philadelphia, for the erection thereon of the -State House, in which the Liberty Bell was to hang, and “proclaim -liberty to all the land, and to all the inhabitants thereof.” Going to -New York at his own expense, he, without fee, defended Zenger and -secured his acquittal. This event marks an important point in the making -of America and in the story of American freedom. It was in its effects -as significant as the skirmish at Lexington. The doctrine, novel at that -time in England but not in Holland, was advanced, that the truth of the -facts in the alleged libel could be set up as defence, and that in this -proceeding the jury were judges both of the law and the facts. - -Though hundreds of Germans left New York for the greater advantage of -land and the liberty of Pennsylvania, which had been settled under -republican influences, yet those Palatines who rooted themselves in the -Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys proved one of the best stocks which have -made the American people. They were never popular with the men or women -who wanted to make America a new London or a new England, with courts -and castles, aristocracy and nobles, so called, entail and -primogeniture, the landlords of feudal domain, and other old-world -burdens. Honest, industrious, brave, God-fearing, truthful, and clean, -they soon dotted the virgin forest with clearings, farms, and churches. -Whatever else in their wanderings they lost or were robbed of, they -usually managed to hold to their hymn-books and Bibles, and, in the case -of the Reformed Churchmen, their Heidelberg Catechism. Their brethren in -Pennsylvania—the holy land of German-Americans—published the first -Bible in America, printed in a European tongue; and many early copies -found their way northward. They lived on terms of peace with the -Indians, treating these sons of the soil with kindness, and helping them -in generous measure to the benefits of Christianity. The most honest and -influential of Johnson’s Indian interpreters were of Dutch or German -stock. - -Though other nationalities—Scottish, Irish, English—afterward helped -to make the Mohawk Valley at first polyglot, and then cosmopolitan, it -was by people of two of the strongest branches of the Teutonic race that -this fertile region was first settled. The dominant idea of these people -was freedom under law, reinforced by hearty contempt for the injustice -which masquerades under the forms of prerogative and of “majesty.” For -all the self-styled, insolent vicegerents of God, in both Church and -State, they felt a detestation, and were glad to find in America none of -these. If found, they felt bound to resist them unto the end. Theirs was -the democratic idea in Church and State, and they expressed it strongly. - -It was this spirit which explains the rude and rough treatment, by -Germans of both sexes, of arrogant royal agents and landlords in the -Schoharie Valley, and which at the erection of churches built by public -money, in which only a liturgical sect could worship, led to turbulence -and riot. Certain historic old edifices now standing were once finished -only after the king’s bayonets had been summoned to protect masons and -carpenters from people who hated the very sight of an established or -government church, built even partly by taxation, but shut to those of -the sects not officially patronized. - -Among such a people, strong in the virtues of unspoiled manhood; -exhilarant with the atmosphere and splendid possibilities of the New -World; trained in the school of Luther’s Bible and the Heidelberg -Catechism; taught by Dutch laws commanding purchase of land from the -aborigines, and by the powerful example of Van Curler and their domines -or pastors, to be kind to the Indians,—Sir William Johnson, one of the -greatest of the makers of our America, came in 1738. It was the daughter -of one of the people of this heroic stock that he married. At a -susceptible age he learned their ideas and way of looking at things, -especially at their method of justly treating the Indians of the Six -Nations, who were looked upon as the rightful owners of the soil. Among -these people Johnson lived all his adult life. He was ever in kindly -sympathy with them, never sharing the supercilious contempt of those who -were and who are ignorant alike of their language, abilities, and -virtues. - ------ - -[1] See “The Leisler Troubles of 1689,” by Rev. A. G. Vermilye, D.D. New -York. 1891. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - JOHNSON AS AN INDIAN TRADER. - - -THERE is probably no good foundation for the local tradition, mentioned -by Gen. J. Watts De Peyster, in his Life of Gen. John Johnson (Preface, -p. ii, note), that the family name of William Johnson was originally -“Jansen, and that the first who bore it and settled in Ireland was a -Hollander, who, like many of his countrymen, went over afterward with -William III. in 1690, won lands and established themselves in Ireland.” -The subject is not mentioned in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and but -slightly treated in English works of reference, while he has been -unjustly slighted by American writers of history. According to his own -account, William Johnson was born in Smithtown, County Meath, near -Dublin, Ireland, in 1715.[2] His mother was Anne Warren, sister of the -brothers Oliver and Peter, who became famous officers in the British -Navy; and his father, Christopher Johnson, Esq. Writers and biographers -enlarge upon the ancient and honourable lineage of his mother’s family, -but say little about his father’s. To an American this matters less than -to those who must have a long line of known ancestry, real, reputed, or -manufactured. - -After some schooling at a classical academy, William was trained to a -mercantile career. When about twenty-two years old, he fell in love with -a lass whom his parents refused to permit him to marry. This obstacle, -like a pebble that turns the course of the rivulet that is to become a -great river, shaped anew his life. The new channel for his energies was -soon discovered. - -His uncle, Capt. Peter Warren, R. N., who had just returned from a -cruise, heard of his nephew’s unhappy experience, and made him the offer -of a position promising both wealth and adventure. Land speculation was -then rife; and Captain Warren, like many other naval officers, had -joined in the rush for lucre by buying land in the fertile Mohawk -Valley. This was in addition to land which was part of his wife’s dowry, -so that his estate was large, amounting, it is said, to fifteen thousand -acres. He appointed young Johnson his agent, to work his farm and sell -his building-lots. The young Irishman at once responded to the -proposition. He crossed the Atlantic, and promptly reported in New York. - -Captain Warren, then about thirty years old, had married Susan, the -oldest daughter of Stephen De Lancey; and it was probably to the old -house, then thirty-eight years old, which still stands (in which -Washington took farewell of his generals in 1783), that the young -Irishman came. He was possessed of a fine figure, tall and strong, was -full of ambition and energy, with a jovial temper, and a power of quick -adaptation to his surroundings. In short, he was a typical specimen of -that race in which generous impulses are usually uppermost, and one of -the mighty army of Celtic immigrants who have helped to make of the -American people that composite which so puzzles the insular Englishman -to understand. - -New York and Albany people were already getting rich by inland as well -as foreign trade, and the naval officer wished to invest what cash he -could spare from his salary or prize money in a mercantile venture, to -be begun at first on a modest scale in a frontier store. “Dear Billy,” -as his uncle addressed him in his letters, was not long in discovering -that the ambition of nearly every young man was to get rich, either in -the inland fur or West India trade, so as to own a manor, work it with -negro slaves, and join in the pomp and social splendour for which the -colony was already noted. It is more than probable that the ambition to -be rich and influential was strongly reinforced during his stay on -Manhattan Island. - -The journey north, made according to the regular custom, was by sloop up -the Hudson, past the Palisades, the Highlands, the Catskills, and the -Flats, to Albany. After a few days in the only municipality north of New -York,—a log city with a few smart brick houses,—spent in laying in -supplies, the young immigrant would pass through the pine-barrens, and -after a day’s journey reach the State Street gate of palisaded -Schenectady. - -In the house of the tapster, or innkeeper, he would probably stay all -night. He would find the Street of the Martyrs (so named after the -massacre of 1690), and of the Traders, together with Front, Ferry, -Church, and Niskayuna Streets, lined with comfortable, one-storied, -many-gabled dwellings, with here and there neat houses, all or partly of -brick. Each house stood with its cosey bivalve door, shut at the bottom -to keep out pigs and chickens and to keep in the babes, and open at the -top to admit light and air. The scrupulously neat floors spoke of the -hereditary Dutch virtue of cleanliness. On the table could be seen a -wealth of plain but wholesome food, such as few farmer-folk in the old -countries of Europe could boast of. The bill of fare would include the -well-cured hams for which “the Dorp” was famous, all kinds of savoury -products of the hog, besides every sort of bread, pie, cake, and plain -pastry, baked to a shining brown in the ample ovens of stone or brick, -which swelled like domes outside of the houses, at the rear of the -kitchens. Savoury and toothsome were the rich “crullers” which Captain -Croll, the good church-elder and garrison-commander of Rensselaerwyck, -had invented during a winter-season of meat-famine. On many a house -veered iron weathercocks, especially on the few brick fronts monogrammed -with dates in anchors of iron; while on the new church, only four years -old, but the third in the history of the growing town, glittered the -cock of Saint Nicholas in gilt. It rested over a belfry which held a -most melodious bell, cast at Amsterdam, in dear old “Patria,” in the rim -of which, as well-founded tradition insisted, many a silver guilder, -spoon, and trinket had been melted. Perhaps Johnson, like many a -European and even New England militiaman, did not understand why the -Dutch built their stone fortress-like churches at the intersection of -two streets. Some even hinted at stupidity; but the Dutchmen, for the -same reason that they loop-holed the walls, so located their chief -public buildings at the centre of the village as to be able to sweep the -cross streets with their gun-fire in case of an attack by French or -Indians, or both. - -In Schenectady, Johnson would find that many of the men were away in the -Indian country, with their canoes and currency of strouds, duffels, and -trinkets, trading for furs. He would soon learn that many could speak -the Indian tongue, some of the younger men and girls being excellent -interpreters; while he would notice that wampum-making, or “seewant,” -for money, made by drilling and filing shells, was a regular and -legitimate industry. Possibly the young churchman may have stayed over a -Sunday, and in the large stone edifice, capable of seating over six -hundred persons, heard, if he did not understand, the learned Domine -Reinhart Erichzon preach. After the liturgy and psalms, read by the -clerk or fore-reader, the domine, in gown and bands, ascended the -wineglass-shaped pulpit to deliver his discourse. - -In any event, whether Johnson’s stay was long or short in the Dorp, we -should see him making exit through the north gate, and either going -landward along the Mohawk, which is hardly possible, or, as is more -probable, loading his goods and outfit on one of the numerous canoes -always ready, and rowing or being rowed up the river. The twenty-four -miles or so of distance could be easily covered, despite the rifts and -possible portages, in a single day. Evening would find him, either in -camp on the new estate or hospitably lodged in some log-house of the -Dutch or German settlers. He was now in the heart of what the Dutch have -been wont to call the Woestina, or wilderness, but which was now too -much settled to be any longer so spoken of,—the term beginning to be -then, as it is now, restricted to a locality near Schenectady. - -Warren’s Bush, or Warren’s Burg, was the name of the farm which the -young Irishman was to cultivate. Warrensburg was the written name, but -almost any new settlement was usually spoken of as “bush.” It lay on the -south side of the Mohawk, some distance east of the point where the -creek, fed by the western slopes of the Catskills, empties into the -river, and was named Schoharie, from the great mass of driftwood borne -down. No more fertile valleys than these, watered by the rain or melted -snows of the Catskills and Adirondacks, exist. Besides the river-flats -that were kept perennially fertile by nearly annual overflows and a top -dressing of rich silt, the old maize-lands of the Mohawk were vast in -extent, and all ready for the plough. The region west of Albany was then -spoken of by the colonists as “the Mohawk country,” from the chief tribe -of the Iroquois who inhabited it. Let us glance at the human environment -of the new settler. - -Besides a few small houses of white men, standing singly along the -river, there were villages and fortified large towns of the Mohawks, -called, in the common English term of the period, “castles.” The -scattered lodges of the Indians were found near most of the settlements, -such as Schenectady, Caughnawaga, Stone Arabia, or Fort Plain, and often -their cabins were found inside the white men’s fortifications, as in -Fort Hunter; but in the palisaded Indian towns, hundreds and even -thousands were gathered together. All the white settlements along the -Mohawk or Hudson were near the river, the uplands or clearings beyond -the flats not being considered of much value. On the Hudson, besides -Albany, were Half Moon and Saratoga, which latter stood, not over the -wonderful ravine from which gushes the healing water of the mineral -springs, but several miles to the eastward. Along the Mohawk were -Schenectady, Crane’s Village, Fort Hunter, Warrensburg, a hamlet, -Caughnawaga (or Fonda), Canajoharie, Palatine, German Flats, and -Burnet’s Field, now called Herkimer. Over in Cherry Valley were, later -on, Scottish settlers, and in Schoharie more Germans. - -Besides Jellis Fonda at Caughnawaga (now Fonda), who was a great Indian -trader, and afterward major of militia, Johnson’s most congenial -neighbour was a fellow Irishman, John Butler. He had come out from the -old country as a lieutenant of infantry in the ill-fated expedition for -the reduction of Canada in 1711; when, through stormy weather and the -ignorance of the pilots, the greater part of the fleet under Sir -Hovenden Walker was destroyed in the St. Lawrence, and over a thousand -men drowned. As one of the purchasers, with Governor Cosby and others, -of a tract of sixty thousand acres of land, seven miles from the site, -later called Johnstown, in which stood Johnson Hall, Lieutenant Butler -cultivated and improved his portion. To each of his two sons, Walter and -John, he gave a large farm, and both he and his sons were very -influential among the Indians. The father served as lieutenant, holding -the same rank for seventy years; and the two sons were afterward -captains in the Indian corps, under Johnson, in the Lake George -campaign. To this family the new settler, Johnson, became warmly -attached; and the friendship remained unbroken until the coming of -death, which the Arabs call the Severer of Friendships. - -This line of settlements formed the frontier or line of outposts of -civilization. On every side their frontagers were the Iroquois, or -Indians of Five Nations, while right among them were the Mohawks. Only -one English outpost faced Lake Ontario. This was the trading-station of -Oswego. Here in 1722, the daring governor, William Burnet, aiming at the -monopoly of the fur-trade, in defiance of the French, and in the face of -the Seneca Indians’ protest, unfurled the British flag for the first -time in the region of the Great Lakes. He built the timber lodge at his -own expense, and encouraged bold young men, mostly from Albany and the -valley settlements, to penetrate to Niagara and beyond. These commercial -travellers—prototypes of the smart, well-dressed, and brainy drummers -of to-day, and in no whit their inferiors in courage, address, and -fertility of resource—went among the western Indians. They learned -their language, and so opened the new routes of trade that within a -twelvemonth from the unfurling of the British flag at Oswego there were -seen at Albany the far-off lake tribes and even the Sioux of Dakota. -Trade received such a tremendous stimulus that in 1727 Governor Burnet -erected a regular fort at Oswego, where, in 1757, a French traveller -found sixty or seventy cabins in which fur-traders lived. A promising -settlement, begun by the Palatine Germans at Herkimer, was called -Burnet’s Field, or, on the later powder-horn maps, Fort Harkiman. - -The fur-trade in our day calls for the slaughter annually of two hundred -million land quadrupeds; drives men to ravage land and ocean, and even -to rob the water animals of their skins; sends forty million peltries -annually to London alone, and is still one of the great commercial -activities of the world. It was relatively much greater in Johnson’s -day; and to gain a master’s hand in it was already his ambition. It was -the year 1738, the date of the birth of George III. of England, whom -later he was to serve as his sovereign. Arriving in the nick of time, -Johnson began at once the triple activities of settling his uncle’s -acres with farmers, of opening a country store, and of clearing new land -for himself. This latter was rapidly accomplished, Indian fashion, by -girdling the trunks one year, thus quickly turning them into leafless -timber, and planting either corn or potatoes the next season, in the now -sunlighted and warm ground. Or the standing timber was cut down and by -fire converted into potash, two tons to the acre, which was easily -leached out, and was quickly salable in Europe. - -Corn or maize was the crop which above all others enabled the makers of -America to hold their own and live; and corn was the grain most -plentifully raised in the Mohawk Valley, though wheat was an early and -steady crop. Corn meal is still sold in England as “Oswego flour,”—a -name possibly invented by Johnson, who became a large exporter of grain -and meal. - -To be landlord’s agent, pioneer settler, farmer, and storekeeper all in -one, Johnson needed assistance in various ways and resolved to have it. -He had from the first come to stay for life and grow up with the -country. He was probably in America less than a year before he took as -his companion, Catharine, the daughter of a German Palatine settler -named Weissenburg, or Wisenberg.[3] Kate was the only wife Johnson ever -had, and the only woman with whom he lived in wedlock. She is described -as a sweet-tempered maiden, robust in health, fairly dowered with mental -abilities, and with a good influence over her husband. No record of the -marriage ceremony has yet been found; but the couple, if not joined in -wedlock by some one of the Dutch or German clergymen of the Valley, as -is most likely, had their wedding before the Rev. Thomas Barclay, an -English Episcopal missionary. Mr. Barclay laboured at Fort Hunter, and -in the little English church officiated for years, as well as at Albany -and Schenectady; but the records of Fort Hunter have not survived the -accidents of time. When in 1862 the dust of this maker of America was -disturbed, and his bones sealed up in granite for more honourable -burial, a plain gold ring was found, inscribed on the inside, “June. -1739. 16.” This date may have been that of his marriage with “Lady” -Johnson, his own lawful wife, who probably needed no title to adorn the -beautiful character which tradition bestows upon her. Johnson, when a -baronet with laurelled brow, and a fame established on two continents; -the head of a family in which were two baronetcies, father and son,—an -honour unparalleled in American colonial history,—made a will, -preserved in Albany, in which he desired the remains of his “beloved -wife Catharine” interred beside him. Of Molly Brant, his later mistress, -he spoke and wrote as his housekeeper; of the Palatine German lawfully -wedded to him, as his beloved wife. - -Doubtless, also, for the first years of married life, through her -exemption from family cares, though these weighed lightly in early -colonial days, in the absence of the artificial life of the cities, she -was enabled to attend to the store, while her husband worked in the -field, rode with grist to the mill, or traded with the Indians in their -villages. Their first child, John, was not born until they had crossed -the Mohawk River, and occupied Mount Johnson, in 1742. - -We can easily sum up the inventory of a country store on the frontier -over one hundred and fifty years ago, whose chief customers were -farmers, trappers, _bos-lopers_ or wood-runners, hunters, and Indians. -On the shelves would be arranged the thick, warm, woollen cloth called -“duffel,” which made “as warm a coat as man can sell,” and the coarse -shoddy-like stuff named “strouds;” in the bins, powder, shot, bullets, -lead, gun-flints, steel traps, powder-horns, rum, brandy, beads, -mirrors, and trinkets for the Indians, fish-hooks and lines, rackets or -snow-shoes, groceries, hardware, some of the commonest drugs, and -building articles. - -In trading, a coin was rare. The money used was seewant, or wampum, but -most of the business done was by barter; peltries, corn, venison, -ginseng, roots, herbs, brooms, etc., being the red man’s stock in trade. -The white settlers paid for their groceries and necessities of -civilization in seewant, or wampum, potash, and cereals. One of the -earliest in the collection of Johnson’s papers at Albany is a letter to -“Dear Billy” from Captain Warren at Boston, suggesting a shipment in the -spring, from the farm at Warrensburg, of grain and other produce to -Boston by way of Albany. - -Being of robust health, with a strong frame and commanding figure, -jovial in disposition and easy in manners, Johnson was not only able to -show habitual industry, but in the field-sports and athletic games to -take part and make himself popular alike with the muscular young Dutch -and Germans and with the more lithe red men. The famous castle or -palisaded village of the Mohawks on the hill-slopes back of Auriesville, -now visible to all passengers by railway, and marked by the shrine of -Our Lady of Martyrs, was but a short distance to the westward. Here -Johnson soon became known as a friend as well as an honest trader. His -simple and masterly plan was, never to lie, cheat, or deceive, and never -to grant what he had once refused. To the red men much of a white man’s -thinking was a mystery; but truth was always simple, and as heartily -appreciated as it was easily understood. - -As early as May 10, 1739, we find this man of restless activity planning -to locate a branch trading-house on the Susquehanna, two hundred miles -to the south. Already he had seen the advantages and prospect of speedy -wealth in the fur-trade, a privilege won years before by his Schenectady -neighbours. He now entered diligently into it, employing a number of -runners or bos-lopers, who scoured the woods and valleys populated with -Indians, in his interest, diverting the trade from Albany to his own -post. This was the beginning of jealous quarrels between him and the -Albanians. That his eye was keenly open to every new advantage or -possibility of progress, was seen in his buying as early as 1739, after -one year’s residence in the valley, a lot of land across the Mohawk, on -which ran a stream of water, the Chucktununda Creek, with abundance of -potential mill-power. To ride horseback with bags fifteen miles to -Caughnawaga every time meal was needed, was too much loss of time and -energy. The German women had long carried bags of wheat and maize from -Schoharie to Schenectady, traversing the distance on foot, bearing corn -in coming and grist in returning, on their backs. There was a mill at -Caughnawaga, and one owned by the Dutch Church at Schenectady, both -sufficiently distant. Johnson saw at once in a mill ease and revenue. -The Indian name of the stream, Chucktununda, is said to mean “stone -roofs or houses,” and was applied to other watercourses with banks of -overhanging rocks which formed shelter during rain. This coveted spot -became later the famous “Mount” Johnson, on which the stone -fortress-mansion still stands, at Akin, three miles west of Amsterdam -and visible to all railway travellers as they fly between the great Lake -City and New York. - -The appearance of the Mohawk Valley, though still unchanged in its great -cosmic features of sky, mountain, and main watercourses, was vastly -different a century and a half ago. On its surface were many minor -features quite different from those which to-day greet the eye of -traveller, denizen, or palace-car inmate. Then the primeval forest, rich -in game, covered hill and dale, except along the river-flats, where were -great expanses of meadow in the wide level of the valley. Here were -maize-fields surrounding the Indian villages for miles. - -Owing, however, to the largeness of forest area, the streams were of -greater proportions and much more numerous than at present. Fish were -vastly abundant, and so tame as to be easily caught, even with the hand -of Indian or white skilled in wood and water craft. Animal life was rich -and varied to a degree not now easily imaginable or even credible, did -not the records of geology, of contemporary chronicles, and the voices -of tradition all agree on this point. Then the “wild cow” or bison, -though rapidly diminishing, owing to the introduction of fire-arms, was -still a source of fur and food. Besides the elk, deer were plentiful on -the hills, often seen drinking at night and early in the morning at the -river’s brink, and occasionally were killed inside of the new -settlements. A splendid specimen of elk horns from a buck shot by -Johnson on his own grounds, was presented by him to Chief Justice Thomas -Jones, who wrote a loyalist history of New York during the Revolutionary -War, and long adorned the hall of Fort Neck mansion on Long Island. -Smaller fur-bearing animals were beyond the power of arithmetic. Wolves -were uncomfortably numerous, active, and noisy. To their ceaseless -nocturnal music there were slight pauses of silence, except when some -gory battle-field or scalping-party’s raid or unusual spoil of hunters -became the storm-centre, and gathered them together from a radius of -many miles. Most notable of all the animals, in physical geography, in -commerce, and for clothing, was the beaver. This amphibious creature of -architectural instincts was the great modifier of the earth’s surface, -damming up tens of thousands of the hill streams which fed the great -rivers, and thus causing a vast surface of the land, otherwise dry, to -be covered with water, while it greatly changed the appearance of the -landscape. There are to-day thousands of grassy and mossy dells which -even the inexperienced eye sees were once the homes of the beavers, -while thousands of others have long since, under the open sun, become -fertile meadows. The beaver, by yielding the most valuable of the furs, -furnished also the standard of value in trade. The beaver as seen on the -seal of the city of York, like the prehistoric _pecus_, or cattle, which -made _pecu_niary value, or the salt of the ancient _sal_ary or rice in -old Japan, was quoted oftener than coin. - -The Indian trails of New York were first obliterated by wagon-roads or -metaled turnpikes, and then covered by iron rails and wooden ties. The -flanged iron wheels have taken the place of the moccasin, as loco-motor -and freight-carrier; but in Johnson’s time the valleys, passes, and -portages or “carries” were all definitely marked, and generally easily -visible, on account of the long tramping of inturned feet. There are -places to-day on the flinty rock polished by long attrition of -deer-leather soles; and wherever the natural features of the landscape -point to the probable saving of linear space, there skilled search -usually reveals the old trail. One of the first proofs of the genius of -Johnson and the entrance in his mind of continental ideas was his -thorough study of the natural highways, trails, and watercourses of the -Iroquois empire, and the times and methods of their punctual migrations. -He soon found that while late autumn, winter, and spring was their -season for trapping and shooting their game, June, July, and August -formed the period when the peltries were brought in for sale. In early -autumn they went fishing, or their travelling-parties were on peaceful -errands, such as attending those council-fires which filled all the -atmosphere with blue haze. As a rule, the Indians avoided the mountains, -and dwelt in the valleys and well-watered regions, where fish and game -for food, osiers and wood fibres for their baskets, clay for their rude -pottery abounded, and where pebbles of every degree of hardness were at -hand, to be split, clipped, drilled, grooved, or polished for their -implements of war, ceremony, and religion. In savage life, vast areas of -the earth’s surface are necessary for his hunting and nomad habits. -Agriculture and civilization, which mean the tilling and dressing of the -earth, enable a tribe to make a few acres of fertile soil suffice, where -one lone hunter could scarcely exist. The constant trenching upon the -land of the wild hunter and fisherman, by the farmer and manufacturer, -who utilize the forces of Nature, and the resistance of the savage to -this process, make the story of the “Indian question.” - -Apart from the pretext of religion, equally common to all, the main -object of French, Dutch, and English traders was fur, as that of the New -England coast men was fish. The tremendous demand of Europe and China -kept the prices of peltries high, and it was in this line of commercial -effort that fortunes were most quickly made, most of the early profits -being reckoned at twenty times the amount of outlay. Until 1630 a strict -monopoly of two trading-companies shut out all interlopers from the -Indian country. - -In 1639, at the foundation of Rensselaerwyck, trade was nominally thrown -open to all. What was formerly done covertly by interlopers and servants -of the company, became the privileges of every burgher. Though still -rigidly denied to outsiders, traders’ shops soon sprung up along the -muddy streets of the colony, and an immense business was done over the -greasy counters. The gallon kegs of brandy, called ankers; a puncheon of -beer; a pile of shaggy woollen stuffs, then called duffles, and now -represented most nearly by Ulster or overcoat cloth; a still coarser -fabric called strouds, for breech clouts and squaws’ clothes, with axes -and beads, formed the staple of the cheaper order of shopkeepers. In the -better class of dealers in “Indian haberdashery,” and in peltries, -potash, and ginseng, the storehouses would have an immense array of all -sorts of clothes, hats and shoes, guns, knives, axes, powder, lead, -glass beads, bar and hoop iron for arrow-heads, and files to make them, -red lead, molasses, sugar, oil, pottery, pans, kettles, hollow ware, -pipes, and knick-knacks of all sorts. It was not long before the desire -to forestall the markets entered the hearts of the Dutch as well as the -French; and soon, matching the _courier du bois_, or hardy rangers of -the Canadian forests, emerged the corresponding figure of the -bos-lopers, or commercial drummers. This prototype of the present natty -and wide-awake metropolitan, in finest clothes, hat, and gloves, with -most engaging manners and invincible tongue, was a hardy athlete in his -prime, able to move swiftly and to be ever alert. He was well versed in -the human nature of his customers. Skilled in woodcraft, he knew the -trails, the position of the Indian villages, the state of the tides, -currents, the news of war and peace, could read the weather signs, the -probabilities of the hair and skin crops, the fluctuations of the -market, and was usually ready to advance himself by fair advantage, or -otherwise, over his white employer or Indian producer. Rarely was he an -outlaw, though usually impatient of restraint, and when in the towns, -apt to patronize too liberally the liquor-seller. - -In this way the market was forestalled, and the choicest skins secured -by the Albany men, who knew how to select and employ the best drummers. -So fascinating and profitable was this life in the woods, that -agriculture was at first neglected, and breadstuffs were imported. The -evil of the abandonment of industry, however, never reached the -proportions notorious in Canada, where it sometimes happened that ten -per cent of the whole population would disappear in the woods, and the -crops be neglected. When, too, Schenectady, Esopus, and the Palatine -settlements in the Mohawk Valley were fully established, the farmers -multiplied, the acreage increased, and grain was no longer imported. It -was, from the first, the hope and desire of the Schenectady settlers to -break the Albany monopoly, and obtain a share of the lucrative trade. -This was bitterly opposed for half a century, and many were the -inquisitorial visits of the Albany sheriffs to Schenectady and the -Valley settlements, to seize contraband goods; but usually, on account -of the steady resistance of both magistrates and citizens, they who came -for wool went home shorn. The foolish Governor Andros went so far as to -lay upon the little village an embargo,—one of the silly precedents of -the “Boston Port Bill,”—by a most extraordinary proclamation forbidding -any wagons and carts to ply between the city of Albany and the Dorp of -Schenectady, except upon extraordinary occasions; and only with the -consent of the Albany magistrates could passengers or goods be carried -to the defiant little Dutch town. All such official nonsense ultimately -proved vain, and its silliness became patent even to the Albany -monopolists; and Schenectady won the victory of free trade with the -Indians. - -This point of time was shortly after the coming of Johnson, who thus -arrived at a lucky moment; and at once entering to reap where others had -sown, he became a man of the new era. He found the situation free for -his enterprise, which soon became apparently boundless. He cultivated -the friendship not only of the Indians, but of the white wood-runners, -trappers, and frontiersmen generally; and by his easy manners, -generosity, and strict integrity, bound both the red and the white men -to himself. He was a “hail-fellow-well-met” to this intelligent class of -men, and all through his wonderful career found in them a tremendous and -unfailing resource of power. Johnson laid the foundations of permanent -success, deep and broad, by the simple virtues of truth and honesty. He -disdained the meanness of the petty trader. His word was kept, whether -promise or threat. He refused to gain a temporary advantage by a -sacrifice of principle, and soon the poorest and humblest learned to -trust him. His word, even as a young man, soon became bond and law. The -Indians, who were never able to fathom diplomacy, could understand -simple truth. Two of the most significant gestures in the sign language -of the Indians are, when the index finger is laid upon the mouth and -moved straight forward, as the symbol of verity; and the same initial -gesture expresses with sinuosities, as of a writhing serpent, symbolical -of double dealing, prevarication or falsehood. The tongue of the -truth-speaker was thus shown to be as straight as an arrow, while that -of the liar was like a worm, or the crooked slime-line of a serpent. In -this simple, effective way Johnson’s business enlarged like his land -domains from year to year, while on knowledge of the Indians and their -language, and of the physical features of the Mohawks’ empire, he soon -became an authority. As early as 1743 he succeeded in opening a direct -avenue of trade with Oswego, doing a good business not only in furs, but -in supplying with provisions and other necessaries both the white -trappers and petty traders who made rendezvous at the fort. He was now -well known in Albany and New York, and soon opened correspondence with -the wealthy house of Sir William Baker & Co., of London, as well as with -firms in Atlantic seaports and the West Indies. - -He prepared for a wider sphere of influence by improving his land north -of the Mohawk River. He began the erection on it of a strong and roomy -stone house,—one of the very few edifices made of cut stone then in the -State, and probably the only one west of the Hudson River. This house is -still standing, and kept in excellent repair by its owner and occupant, -Mr. Ethan Akin. It is two and a half stories high; its dimensions are 64 -by 34 feet; the walls, from foundation to garret, are two feet thick. -There is not to-day a flaw in them, nor has there ever been a crack. The -roof, now of slate and previously of shingles, was at first of lead, -which was used for bullets during the Revolutionary War. Part of the -house seems to have been sufficiently finished for occupancy by the -summer of 1742, for here, on the 5th of November, his son John was born. -Around the house he planted a circle of locust-trees, two or three of -which still remain. His grist-mill stood on Chucktununda Creek, which -flowed through his grounds; and near it was the miller’s house. This -branch of his business—flour manufacture—was so soon developed that -cooperage was stimulated, and shipments of Johnson’s Mohawk Valley flour -were made to the West Indies and to Nova Scotia. Grand as his stone -dwelling was, a very patroon’s mansion,—and it is probable that one of -Johnson’s purposes in rearing what was then so splendid a mansion was to -impress favourably the Indians,—he became none the less, but even more, -their familiar and friend. He joined in their sports, attended their -councils, entertained the chiefs at his board, feasted the warriors and -people in his fields, and on occasions put on Indian costume. In summer -this would mean plenty of dress and liberal painting, but in winter, -abundance of buckskin, a war-bonnet of vast proportions, and a duffel -blanket. Yet all this was done as a private individual and a merchant, -having an eye to the main chance. He as yet occupied no official -position. His domestic life in these early days at the Mohawk Valley -must have been very happy; and here were born, evidently in quick -succession and probably before the year 1745, by which time the stone -house was finished, his two daughters, Mary and Nancy. About sixty yards -north of the mansion was a hill on which a guard-house stood, with a -lookout ever on the watch. On account of this hill the place was often -spoken of as “Mount” Johnson. In time of danger a garrison of twenty or -thirty men occupied this point of wide view. - -Despite his many cares, Johnson enjoyed reading and the study of -science. He ordered books and periodical literature regularly from -London. His scientific taste was especially strong in astronomy. To the -glorious canopy of stars, which on winter nights make the -mountain-walled valley a roofed palace of celestial wonders, Johnson’s -eyes were directed whenever fair weather made their splendours visible. -In autumn the brilliant tints of the sumach, dogwood, swamp-maple, -sassafras, red and white oak, and the various trees of the order of -_Sapindaceæ_ filled the hills and lowlands with a glory never seen in -Europe. His botanical tastes could be enjoyably cultivated, for in -orchids, ferns, flowering plants, and wonders of the vegetable world, -few parts of North America are richer than the Mohawk Valley. - ------ - -[2] The young and charming Lord James Radcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater, -the idol of the Jacobites, was beheaded 24th of February, 1716; that is, -on the very day, it is claimed by Col. T. Bailey Myers, that Sir William -Johnson was born, and the wild fervour of a Jacobite loyalty was still -alive when Sir John was a boy.—DE PEYSTER’S _Life of Gen. John -Johnson_, Introd., p. xvi. - -[3] Mr. E. F. De Lancey, the well-known writer on American history and -genealogy, knew personally the grandchildren of Sir William Johnson, and -has embodied valuable information about him and them in his notes to -Jones’s “History of New York during the Revolutionary War.” In his -letter to the writer, dated March 28, 1891, he kindly sent a transcript -from a letter in Mrs. Bowes’s own handwriting—“Information my father -gave me when with him. Catharine Wisenberg, a native of Germany, married -to Sir W. Johnson, Bart. in the U. States of America, died in 1759.” -Mrs. Bowes was a daughter of Sir John Johnson, who was a son of Sir -William Johnson. It is probable that the spelling Wisenberg is only the -phonetic form of Weissenburg. The local gossip and groundless -traditions, like those set down by J. R. Simms, are in all probability -worthless. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - THE SIX NATIONS AND THE LONG HOUSE. - - -THE military nerves of the continent of North America lie in the -water-ways bounding, traversing, or issuing from the State of New York. -Its heart is the region between the Hudson and the Niagara. In these -days of steam-traction, when transit is made at right angles to the -rivers, and thus directly across the great natural channels of -transportation, New York may be less the Empire State than in the days -of canoes and bateaux. Yet even now its strategic importance is at once -apparent. In the old days of conflict, first between the forces of Latin -and Teutonic civilization, and later between British king-craft and -American democracy, it was the ground chosen for struggle and decision. - -Before the European set foot on the American continent, the leading body -of native savages had discovered the main features of this great natural -fortress and place of eminent domain. Inventors of the birch-bark canoe, -the red man saw that from this centre all waters of the inland ocean -made by the great lakes, the warm gulf, and the salt sea, could be -easily reached. With short land-portages, during which the canoe, which -served as shelter and roof at night and house and vehicle by day, could -be carried on the shoulders, the Indian could paddle his way to Dakota, -to Newfoundland, or to Hudson’s Bay on the north, or the Chesapeake and -the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. In his moccasins he -could travel as far. From New York State the pedestrian can go into -twenty States and into two thirds of the territory of the United States -without leaving the courses of valleys. No other State can so -communicate between the east and the west without overcoming one or more -mountain ridges. The T-shaped Hudson-Mohawk groove in the earth’s crust -unites the valleys east of Massachusetts. With such geographical -advantages, added to native abilities, the Iroquois were able to make -themselves the virtual masters of the continent of North America. - -Here, accordingly, was built the Long House; that is, was organized the -federation of the Five Nations. Like the Pharaohs, Sultans, Mikados, and -European princes of the world which we call old, because of its long -written history, these forest sovereigns named their government after -their house. The common edifice of the Iroquois was a bark structure -fifty or more feet long, and from twelve to twenty feet wide, with doors -at either end. In each dwelling lived several families. - -So also, in the Great Long House, stretching from the Hudson to the -Niagara, dwelt at first five families. The Mohawks occupied the room at -the eastern end of the house, in the throat of the Mohawk Valley, the -_schenectady_, or “place just outside the door,” being on the -“mountain-dividing” or Hudson River. More exactly, the place of “Ye -treaties of Schenectady” was at the mouth of Norman’s Kill, a little -south of Albany. Here was the place of many ancestral graves, where -multitudes of the dead lay, and where Hiawatha, their great civilizer, -dwelt. - -Of all the tribes the Mohawks were, or at least in England and the -colonies were believed to be, the fiercest warriors. It was after them -that the roughs in London in the early part of the eighteenth century -were named, and the term was long used as a synonym with ferocious men. -The tea-destroyers in Boston Harbor in 1774 also took this name. Next -westward were the Oneidas, inhabiting the region from Little Falls to -Oneida Lake. The Onondagas at the centre of the Long House, in the -region between the Susquehanna and the eastern end of Lake Ontario, had -the fireplace or centre of the confederacy. The Cayugas lived between -the lake named after them and the Genesee Valley. The Senecas occupied -the country between Rochester and Niagara. The evidence left by the -chips on the floors of their workshops, show that their most ancient -habitations were on the river-flats and at the edges of streams. Later, -as game became scarcer, they occupied the hills and ledges farther back. -On these points of vantage their still later elaborate fortifications of -wood were built. As the rocks of New York make the Old Testament of -geology, so the river-strands and the quarries are the most ancient -chronicles of unwritten history, in times of war and peace. - -How long the tribes of the Long House lived together under the forms of -a federated republic, experts are unable to tell. It is believed that -they were originally one large Dakota tribe, which became separated by -overgrowth and dissensions, and later united, not as a unity, but as a -confederation. The work of Dr. Cadwallader Colden, who in 1727 published -his “History of the Five Nations,” has been too much relied upon by -American and English writers. It was one of the very first works in -English on local history published in the province of New York. Utterly -ignoring the excellent writing of the Dutch scholars, Domine -Megapolensis, De Vries, and the lawyer, Van der Donck, who wrote as men -familiar with their subject at first hand; ignoring also the personal -work of Arendt Van Curler,—Colden compiled most of his historic matter -from French authors. - -According to the tradition of the Algonkin Indians of Canada, which -Colden gives at length, the Iroquois were at first mainly occupied in -agriculture, and the Algonkins in hunting. The various wars had -developed in the Iroquois the spirit of war and great powers of -resistance, so that they held their own against their enemies. Another -of the many bloody campaigns was to open on the shores of the lake named -after Champlain, when Europeans appeared on the scene, and trustworthy -history begins. Champlain, it seems, did not desire to join in the -Indian feuds, but was compelled to do so in order to retain the -friendship of the Hurons. This first use of fire-arms in Indian warfare -meant nothing less than revolution in politics, in methods of war, in -the influence of chiefs, and in other elements of Indian civilization. -What gunpowder began, alcohol completed. - -This much seems certain, that at the opening of the seventeenth century -the whole continent was a dark and bloody ground, in which war was the -rule and peace the exception; in which man hunted man as the beasts and -fishes destroy and devour one another. The Iroquois, speaking -substantially one language, were as an island in a great Algonkin ocean. -Unlike mere fishermen and hunters they were agriculturists, and many -hundred square miles were planted with their maize, squashes, pumpkins, -beans, tobacco, and other vegetables, edible or useful. They were able -to store up corn for long campaigns and to brave a season of famine. The -streams furnished them with fish, and they hunted the deer, elk, bison, -and smaller animals for flesh or furs; but their noblest game was man. -To kill, to scalp, to save alive for torture, to burn his villages and -houses, to wreak vengeance on his enemies, was rapture to the savage. - -Before they knew gunpowder, the Iroquois, equipped with flint weapons -and clothed in bark armour, often fought in the open field and with -comparative personal exposure. Their battles were by masses of men who -were led by chiefs, and their tactics and strategy resembled those of -white men before the introduction of fire-arms. One famous field in the -open ground near Schenectady was long pointed out in Indian tradition as -the place where the great battle between the Iroquois and the Algonkins -had been fought before the coming of the whites. For the defence of -their villages they built palisades with galleries for the defenders to -stand on, and with appliances at hand to put out fires, or to repel -assaults and drive off besiegers. Theirs was the age of stone and wood; -but their civilization was based on agriculture, which made them -superior to that of their neighbours, whom they had compelled to be -tributary vassals. - -The apparition of the white man and the flash of Champlain’s arquebus, -vomiting fire and dealing death by invisible balls, changed all Indian -warfare and civilization. Gunpowder wrought as profound a revolution in -the forests of America as in Europe. Bark or hide shields and armour -were discarded; bows and arrows were soon left to children; the line and -order of battle changed; fighting in masses ceased; the personal -influence of the chiefs decreased, and each warrior became his own -general. Individual valour and physical strength and bravery in battle -counted for much less, and the dwarf was now equal to the giant. - -An equally great revolution in industry took place when the stone age -was suddenly brought to a close and the age of metals ushered in. The -iron pot and kettle, the steel knife, hoe, hatchet, and the various -appliances of daily life made more effective and durable, almost at once -destroyed the manufacture of stone and bone utensils. The old men lost -their occupation, and the young men ceased to be pupils. This loss of -skill and power was tremendous and far-reaching in its consequences; and -its very suddenness transformed independent savages into dependents upon -the white man. In time of famine or loss of trade, or interruption of -their relations with the traders caused by political complications, the -sufferings of the Indians were pitiable. - -Champlain’s shot dictated the reconstruction of Indian warfare; but the -Iroquois took to heart so promptly the lesson, that the Algonkins north -of the St. Lawrence were able to profit little by their temporary -victory. Full of hate to the French for interfering to their -disadvantage, the Mohawks at once made friends with the Dutch. - -Both Hudson and Champlain had visited Mount Desert Island, and thence -separating had penetrated the continent by the great water-ways, both -reaching the heart of New York within a few miles of each other. While -the French founded Quebec, and settled at Montreal, the Dutch made a -trading settlement on the Hudson at Norman’s Kill, Tawasentha. This -“place of many graves” and immemorial tradition was the seat of their -great civilizer and teacher, Hiawatha, who had introduced one phase of -progress. It was now destined to be the gateway to a new era of change -and development. As in Japan, at the other side of the globe, at nearly -the same time white men, gunpowder, and Christianity had come all -together. - -It was not out of disinterested benevolence that the confederate savages -sought the friendship of the Hollanders. They came to buy powder and -ball, to arm themselves with equal weapons of vengeance, and to protect -themselves against the French. - -But if Champlain was a mighty figure in the imagination of the red man -of the Mohawk Valley, there was coming a greater than he. This new man -was to impress more deeply the imagination of all the Iroquois, and his -name was to live in their language as long as their speech was heard on -the earth. Champlain was a bringer of war; “Corlaer” was an apostle of -peace. - -Arendt Van Curler is a perfectly clear figure in the Indian tradition, -and in the history and documentary archives of the Empire State. Having -no descendants to embalm his name in art or literature, he has not had -his monument. Yet he deserves to have his name enrolled high among the -makers of America. The ignorance, errors—and there is a long list of -them—of writers on American and local history concerning Arendt Van -Curler, have been gross and inexcusable. It were surely worth while to -know the original of that “Corlaer” after whom the Indians named, first -the governors of New York, and later the governors of English Canada, -and finally Queen Victoria, the Empress of India. To the Iroquois mind, -Corlaer was the representative of Teutonic civilization. Other governors -of colonies and prominent figures among the pale-faces, they called by -names coined by themselves, just as they named their own warriors from -trivial incidents or temporary associations. Even the King of Great -Britain was only their unnamed “Father;” but as our ablest American -historian, Francis Parkman, has said: “His [Van Curler’s] importance in -the eyes of the Iroquois, and their attachment to him are shown by the -fact that they always used his name (in the form of Corlaer) as the -official designation of the governor of New York, just as they called -the governors of Canada, Onontio, and those of Pennsylvania, Onas. I -know of no other instance in which Iroquois used the name of an -individual to designate the holder of an office. Onontio means ‘a great -mountain;’ Onas means ‘a quill or pen;’ Kinshon, the governor of -Massachusetts, ‘a fish.’”[4] - -Rev. I. A. Cuoq, in his “Lexique de la Langue Iroquoise,” also remarks -that the title Kora, the present form of [Van] Curler, given even yet to -the kings and queens of England and to the English governors of Canada, -is a purely Iroquois creation; while that of Onontio, used of the French -king and governors, was given for the first time to Montmagny, the -successor of Champlain. Quite differently from their method in the case -of Van Curler, they translated, with the aid of the French missionaries, -Montmagny’s name, rendering it freely by Onontio, which means, strictly -speaking, “the beautiful mountain,” rather than “the great mountain.” -The term Onontio was used until the end of the French dominion in -America, whereas Kora [or Corlaer] is still in vogue; Queen Victoria -being to the Canadian Indians Kora-Kowa, or the great Van Curler. - -As first-cousin of Kilian Van Rensselaer, Arendt Van Curler, a native of -the country near Amsterdam, but probably of Huguenot descent, reached -America in 1630, and became superintendent and justice of the colony at -Rensselaerwyck. From the very first he dealt with the Indians in all -honour, truth, and justice. He was a man of sterling integrity, a Dutch -patriot, and a Christian of the Reformed faith, but also a man of -continental ideas, a lover of all good men, and a Catholic in the true -sense of the term. He rescued from death and torture the Christian -prisoners in Mohawk villages; and his first visit into, or “discovery” -of the Valley as far as Fonda in September, 1642, was to ransom Father -Jogues. His description of “the most beautiful land on the Mohawk River -that eye ever saw,” and the journal of his journey, probably sent with -his letter of June 16, 1643, to the Patroon, form the first written -description of the Valley. He mastered the vernacular of the savages, -visited them at their council-fires, heard their complaints, dealt -honestly with them, and compelled others to do the same. The first -covenant of friendship, made in 1617, between the Dutch and the -Iroquois, and its various later renewals, he developed into a policy of -lasting peace and amity. The scattered links of friendship between the -Dutch and the confederacy of Indians he forged into an irrefragable -chain, which, until the English-speaking white men went to war in 1775, -was never broken. In 1663 he saved the army of Courcelles from -starvation and probably destruction. Winning alike the respect of the -French in Canada, and of their enemies, the Mohawks, he was invited to -visit the governor, Tracy, in Quebec. On his journey thither in 1667, he -was drowned in Lake Champlain near Rock Regis, the boundary-mark between -the Iroquois and Algonkin Indians. This lake, like the Mohawk River, and -the town of Schenectady which he founded, the Indians and Canadians -called Corlaer. - -Rarely, if ever, was a council held in Albany or at Johnson’s house or -at the Onondaga fireplace, that Corlaer’s name was not mentioned, and -their “covenant chain” with him referred to under the varied figures of -rhetoric. - -Van Curler’s policy was continued and expanded by Peter Schuyler, a son -of Van Curler’s warm personal friend, Philip Schuyler. As the Iroquois -in speaking never closed the lips, but used the orotund with abundance -of gutturals, they were unable to pronounce properly names in which -labial consonants occurred. They could not say Peter; so they called -their friend “Quider.” The policy of Johnson was simply a continuation -and expansion of that of these two Hollanders, Van Curler and Schuyler. -There was no name of any white man that Johnson heard oftener in the -mouths of the Indians than that of Corlaer; and yet, in the index of -seventy thousand references to the Johnson manuscripts in Albany there -is no reference to this founder of the Dutch policy of peace with the -Indians. - -In their political and social procedures, in public discourse, and in -the etiquette of councils, no denizens of European courts were more -truly bond-slaves to etiquette and custom than these forest senators. In -certain outward phases of life—especially noticed by the man of hats, -boots, and clean underclothing—the Indian seems to be a child of -freedom, untutored and unsophisticated. In reality he is a slave -compared to the enlightened and civilized man. He is by heredity, -training, and environment fettered almost beyond hope. His mind can move -out of predestined grooves only after long education, when a new God, -new conceptions, induced power of abstract reasoning, and an entirely -new mental outlook are given him. First of all, the savage needs a right -idea of the Maker of the universe and of the laws by which the creation -is governed; and then only does his mental freedom begin. So far from -being free from prescribed form, he is less at liberty than a Chinese or -Hindu. His adherence to ceremonial runs into bigotry. The calumet must -be smoked. The opening speech must be on approved models. The wampum -belts are as indispensable in a treaty as are seals and signatures in a -Berlin conference or a Paris treaty. To challenge tradition, to step out -of routine, to think for himself, and to act according to conviction, is -more dangerous and costly to him than to one who has lived under the -codes of civilization. - -To gain his almost invincible influence over these red republicans of -the woods, Johnson, like his previous exemplars, had to let patience -have her perfect work. He had to stoop to them in order to lift them up. -He even learned to outdo them in ostentation of etiquette, in rigid -adherence to form, in close attention to long speeches without -interruption, in convincing eloquence, in prolixity when it was -necessary to subdue the red man’s brain and flesh by the power of the -tongue, and in shine and glitter of outward display. Like a shrewd -strategist, this typical Irishman knew when to exercise his native gift -of garrulity in talking against time, and when also to condense into -fiery sentences the message of the hour. - -One chief reason, however, why the Iroquois preferred to talk with him -more than with the average colonial grandee, was because they were not -when before him at the mercy of interpreters. Despite the fact that time -was of little value to the savage, it was rather trying to an Indian -orator, after dilating for an hour or two in all the gorgeous eloquence -of figurative language, to the manifest acceptance of his own kinsmen at -least, to have an interpreter render the substance of his oration in a -few sentences. Unaccustomed to abstract reasoning, the Indian was -perforce obliged to draw the images of thought entirely from the -environment of his life on land and water. Hence his speech -superabounded with metaphors. He thoroughly enjoyed the discourse of one -of his pale-faced brothers whose flowery language, while insufferably -prolix to his fellow-whites, ran on in exuberant verbosity. In such a -case, as Johnson soon learned to know, the sons of the forest felt -complimented and flattered. Rarely was a speaker interrupted. Extreme -rigidity of decorum was the rule at their councils. On great and solemn -occasions the women were called as witnesses and listeners to hold in -their memory words spoken or promises given. - -There were other resources of human intercourse besides words. The -wampum strings that reminded one of rosaries, or the belts made of -hundreds and thousands of black and white shells, served as telegrams, -letters missive, credentials, contracts, treaties, currency, and most of -the purposes in diplomacy and business. The principal chief of a tribe -had the custody of these archives of State. A definite value was placed -upon these drilled, polished, and strung disks or oval cylinders of -shell. The Dutch soon learned to make a better fabric than the Indian -original, and they taught the art to the other colonists. Weeden, in his -“Economic History of New England,” has shown how great an aid to -commerce this, the ancient money of nearly all nations, proved in the -early days when coined money was so scarce. The belts used as -newsletters, as tokens of peace or war, as records of the past, or as -confirmations of treaties, were often generous in width and length, -beautifully made, and fringed with coloured strings. Schenectady was a -famous place of wampum or seewant manufacture; and Hille Van Olinda, an -interpreter, received in 1692 two pounds eight shillings for two great -belts. Two others of like proportions cost three pounds twelve -shillings. A large quantity of this sort of currency was always carried -by the French to win over the Indians to their side. The same commercial -and diplomatic tactics were also followed by the English, and especially -by Johnson. - -The Iroquois had also a rude system of heraldry. A traveller over the -great trails or highways, or along the shores of the great water-ways -most often traversed, would have seen many tokens of aboriginal art. The -annals of the Jesuit missionaries and of travellers show that besides -the hideously painted or carved manitou or idols found at certain -well-known places, the trees and rocks were decorated with the totem -signs. The wolf, the bear, the tortoise, were the living creatures most -frequently seen in effigy on tent, robes, or arms. Or they were set as -their seal and sign-manual on the title-deeds of lands bartered away, -which the white man required as proofs of sale and absolute alienation, -though often the red man intended only joint occupancy. In the Iroquois -Confederacy there were eight totem-clans, which formed an eight-fold -bond of union in the great commonwealth. Less important symbols were the -deer, serpent, beaver, stone pipe, etc. In their drawings on trees or -rocks there were certain canons of art well understood and easily read. -A canoe meant a journey by water; human figures without heads, so many -scalps; the same holding a chain, as being in alliance and friendship; -an axe, an emblem of war, etc. A rude fraternity, with secrets, signs, -and ceremonies,—the freemasonry of the forest,—was also known and was -powerful in its influence. In family life, inheritance was on the female -side; and on many subjects the advice of the women was sought and taken, -and as witness-auditors they were a necessity at solemn councils, as -well as made the repository of tradition. - -Exactly what the religion of the Indians was it would be hard to say. To -arrange their fluctuating and hazy ideas into a system would be -impossible. Whatever the real mental value of their words “manitou” and -“wakan,” or other terms implying deity, or simply used to cover -ignorance or express mystery, it is evident that the blind worship of -force was the essence of their faith. Living much nearer to the animal -creation than the civilized man, they were prone to recognize in the -brute either a close kinship or an incarnation of divine power. Extremes -meet. The current if not the final philosophy of the scientific mind in -our century, and that of the savage, have many points in common. All -animated life was linked together, but the red man saw the presence of -the deity of his conception in every mysterious movement of animate or -inanimate things. Even the rattlesnake was the bearer of bane or -blessing according as it was treated. Alexander Henry, the traveller -from Philadelphia, relates that on meeting a snake four or five feet -long, which he would have killed, the Iroquois reverently called it -“grandfather,” blew their tobacco smoke in puffs toward it to please the -reptile, and prayed to it to influence Colonel Johnson “to take care of -their families during their absence, to show them charity, and to fill -their canoes with rum.” When, afterward, they were on the lake and a -storm arose, Henry came very near being made a Jonah to appease the -wrath of the rattlesnake-manitou, but fortunately the tempest passed and -it cleared off. - -The Indians invented the birch or elm bark canoe, the racket or -snow-shoe, the moccasin, all of which the white frontiersmen were quick -to utilize when they saw their value. They also taught the settlers the -use of new kinds of food, and how to get it from the soil or the water. -To tread out eels from the mud, catch fish with the hand or with -fish-hooks of bone, and to till the ground, even in the forest, for -maize, squashes and pumpkins, were lessons learned from the red man. -Frontier and savage life had many points in common, and not a little -Indian blood entered into the veins of Americans. There were hundreds of -instances of women as well as men rescued from their supposed low estate -as captives who preferred to remain with the Indians in savage life. -Often white settlers were saved from death by starvation by friendly red -men or half-breeds; while half the plots of the savages failed because -of the warnings given by friendly squaws, or boys who were usually not -full-blooded. - -Great changes took place within the Iroquois Confederacy after the -advent of the white man. His fire-arms, liquor, fences, and ideas at -once began to modify Indian politics, hunting, social life, and -religion. The unity of interests was broken, and division and secession -set in, as steady currents, to weaken the forest republic. Large numbers -of the Iroquois emigrated westward to live and hunt in Ohio and beyond, -and joined the Ottawa confederacy. Others left in bands or groups, and -made their homes in Pennsylvania, Virginia, or the Southwest, to get -away, if possible, from the white man’s fences and fire-water. Others -followed their religious teachers into Canada, and made settlements -there. These losses were only in a measure made good by the addition to -the Long House of a whole tribe from the South, the Tuscaroras, whose -ancestral seats had been in the Carolinas. - -North Carolina was one of the majority of the original thirteen States -first settled by a variety of colonists,—French, German, Swiss, -Scottish, and Irish, as well as English. At first red and white men -lived at peace; but soon the inevitable “question” came, and the Indians -imagined that they could show themselves superior to the pale-faces. -Making what white historians call a “conspiracy,” but striking what they -believed to be a blow for home and freedom, they rose, and in one night -massacred in or near Roanoke alone one hundred and thirty-seven of the -white settlers. Their murderous act at once drew out the vengeance of -Governor Craven of South Carolina, who sent Col. John Barnwell, an -Irishman, who marched with a regiment of six hundred whites and several -hundred Indian allies. Without provision trains, but subsisting as -Indians do in a wilderness unbroken by villages, farms, or clearings, -Barnwell struck the Tuscaroras in battle, and reduced their numbers by -the loss of three hundred warriors. Pursuing them to their fortified -castle, he laid siege and compelled surrender. By successive blows, this -“Tuscarora John,” by death or capture, destroyed one thousand fighting -men, and compelled the remainder of the tribe to leave the graves of -their fathers, and emigrate northward. Only a remnant reached New York. -The Tuscaroras joined the Iroquois Confederacy in 1713, and the -federated forest republic then took upon itself the style and title of -the Six Nations. - -Nearly a century afterward, when the Iroquois Confederacy was a dream, -and the Southern Confederacy beginning to be woven of the same stuff, -the descendant of “Tuscarora John,” who had added a new tribe to the -Long House, gave at Montgomery, Alabama, the casting vote that made -Jefferson Davis President of a new one in the many forms of federation -on the North American continent. About the same time the great English -historian, Freeman, neglecting for the nonce the distinction between -history and prophecy, began his work on the “History of Federal -Government, from the Achaian League to the Disruption of the United -States of America,” only one volume of which was published, the events -of 1863–1865 compelling the completion of the work to be indefinitely -postponed. - -How far the various attempts of the red man to combine in federal union -for common strength or defence, and especially those in the stable -political edifice in New York, were potent in aiding the formation of -the American Commonwealth, is an interesting question worthy of careful -study. That it was not without direct influence upon the minds of those -constructive statesmen like Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Monroe, who -came so numerously from States nearest the Long House, and most familiar -with Iroquois politics, cannot be denied. The men of the -English-speaking colonies which had been peopled from continental and -insular Europe, were inheritors of classic culture. They naturally read -the precedents furnished by Greece and Rome; but they were also -powerfully affected by the living realities of the federal republics of -Holland and Switzerland, as well as in the aristocratic republic of -Venice, while in the one nearest England many of them were educated. It -is not too much to affirm, however, that the power of this great example -at home, on the soil and under their eyes, was as great in moulding -opinion and consolidating thought in favour of a federal union of -States, as were the distant exemplars of the ancient world, or in modern -Europe. Though we give him no credit, and spurn the idea of political -indebtedness to the red man, with almost the same intolerant fierceness -that some of the latter-day New England Puritans deny obligations to the -Dutch Republic that sheltered and educated their fathers, yet our -government is in a measure copied from that of the forest republicans, -whose political edifice and conquests shaped the history and -civilization of this continent. In still retaining the sonorous names -given to our mountains, valleys, and rivers, and in transferring these -to our ships and men-of-war; in giving the effigy of the Indian a place -on our municipal coats of arms and seals of State, we are proving that -in our memory at least of the aboriginal dwellers on the soil they are -not wholly forgotten. These graphic symbols are, indeed, but shadows; -but beyond all shadow is substance. - -While the white man’s gunpowder and bullets, war, diseases, fire-water, -and trade wrought profound changes for better or worse, usually the -latter, the Indians were not stolid or unreceptive to his religion. Both -the Roman and the Reformed teachers won many disciples in the Long -House. Almost as soon as the learned Domine Megapolensis arrived at Fort -Orange, he began to learn the language of the Mohawks. He was soon able -to preach to them and to teach their children. This was three years -before John Eliot began his work in Massachusetts. The pastors at -Schenectady did the same, translating portions of the Bible and of the -liturgy of the Netherlands Reformed Church, and of the Book of Common -Prayer. The missionary efforts of the Dutch Christians soon bore -definite and practical results. The Reformed Church records show large -numbers of Indians baptized or married or buried according to Christian -rites. There are also frequent instances of adult communicant membership -in the Mohawk, Hudson, Raritan, and Hackensack Valleys. Hundreds of -Indian children were trained in the same catechetical instruction, and -in the same classes with those of the whites. As a general rule, the -Hollanders and other peoples from the Continent lived in kindness and -peace with their red brethren. The occasional outbreaks of the savages -in massacre, fire, and blood were not by those of New York, but from -Canada. The Indians were set on like dogs by the French, who stimulated -the thirst for blood by political and religious hatreds; and the English -repaid in kind. Rarely was the peace broken between the people of New -Netherlands and New York except by causes operative in, and coming from -Europe. - -The first Roman Catholic who entered the bounds of the State of New York -was Isaac Jogues, who was captured by the Mohawks while ascending the -St. Lawrence River. One of the sweetest spirits and noblest characters -that ever glorified the flesh he dwelt in, Isaac Jogues was brought -captive into the Mohawk Valley to be reserved for fiendish torture. -Ransomed by Arendt Van Curler, and assisted to France by Domine -Megapolensis, these three men of the Holy Catholic Church became ever -after true friends. The surface discords of church names were lost in -the deeper harmonies of their one faith and love to a common Saviour. -Bressani was later assisted in like manner. Returning willingly, by way -of Quebec, after his fingers, once chewed to shapeless lumps between the -teeth of the Mohawks, had been kissed by nobles and ladies in the court -at Versailles, Jogues reached, four years later (1647), the scene of his -martyrdom and nameless burial. His severed head, mounted upon one of the -palisades of the Indian castle, was set with its face to Canada, whence -he came, in insult and defiance. - -Nevertheless, the French Jesuit missionaries, with unquailing courage -and fervent faith, persevered; and Poncet, Le Moyne, Fremin, Bruyas, and -Pierron passed to and fro through Albany to continue the work in what -they had already named as the Mission of the Martyrs. In 1667 St. Mary’s -Chapel was established at the Indian village which stood on the site of -Spraker’s Basin. In 1669 St. Peter’s Chapel was built of logs on the -sand-flats at Caughnawaga near Fonda, by Boniface. Here in 1676 the -Iroquois maiden Tegawita—the White Lily of the Mohawks, the now -canonized saint—was baptized by James de Lamberville. From 1642 to 1684 -was the golden age of early missions of the Roman form of the Christian -faith in New York. Then it was abruptly brought to a close, not because -of Indian animosity or Protestant opposition, but by the Roman Catholic -Governor Dongan in the interests of British trade. - -Perhaps this interruption was not wholly dictated by greed, but was -strongly influenced by political interests. This fact must be noted. -When Catharine Ganneaktena, an Erie Indian woman adopted into the Oneida -tribe, was led to serious thought by Bruyas, to whom she taught the -language in 1668, and with her Christian husband was persecuted by the -pagans, the couple left for Montreal. Here she was baptized and -confirmed by Bishop Laval. Instructed by Raffeix, who was somewhat of a -statesman, Catharine invited several of her family in New York to -Canada, and early in 1670 they founded the Indian village of La Prairie, -where members of the Iroquois Confederacy might come to settle. -According to the code of laws established in this Christian community, -every one must renounce belief in dreams, polygamy, and drunkenness. -This settlement was destined to be a powerful influence, not only in the -Christianization of the Indians, but upon the politics of New York. In -1674, the wife of Kryn, “the great Mohawk,” who had conquered the -Mohegans, became a Christian, and her husband abandoned her. Happening -in his wanderings to visit the Christian village of La Prairie, Kryn was -impressed with the peace and order reigning in it, and after a time -became a Christian. - -Returning to his home on the Mohawk, Kryn told what he had seen, and -persuaded forty of his fellows from Caughnawaga (now Fonda, New York) to -follow him. They reached La Prairie on Easter Sunday, 1676. From this -time forth Kryn was an active missionary, on one occasion talking over a -whole party of sixty Mohawks sent by Dongan on a raid against the -French, and converting four of them to Christianity. He also persuaded -the Oneidas and Onondagas to keep peace with the French, and in this was -aided by the remarkable influence of Garakonthie, the Christian -protector of “the black coats.” It was Kryn who led, and it was these -“praying Indians” from Canada who with the French were sent by Frontenac -to destroy Schenectady in 1690; and it was he who just before the attack -harangued them to the highest pitch of fury. His especial pretext for -revenge was the murder of sixty Canadian Indians by the Iroquois about -six months previously. - -For many years La Prairie was the gathering-place of seceders from the -confederacy who had adopted the religion of their French teachers. In -1763 the village had three hundred fighting men; during the Revolution -the number increased, and at present the Indian reservation at -Caughnawaga, about twenty miles from Montreal, contains about thirteen -hundred Roman Catholic Indians. These facts explain why the Mohawks and -others of the confederacy had so many relatives fighting for the French, -and why the political situation in New York, until the fall of French -dominion, was so complex. As a rule, the Iroquois preferred the more -sensuous religion of the French, while eager also for the strouds, -duffels, guns, and blankets of the Dutch. Under Gallic and British -influences, their hearts were as often divided as their heads were -distracted. They were like tourists from Dover to Calais, when in the -choppy seas which seethe between the coasts of England, France, and -Holland. - -In 1684 Jean de Lamberville, the last Jesuit settler in New York among -the Iroquois, departed for Canada amid the lamentations of the Onondagas -who escorted him. In a few generations all traces of the work of the -French missionaries had vanished from the Mohawk Valley. In our days, -when under the farmer’s plough or labourer’s pickaxe, the earth casts -out her dead, the copper rings with the sign of the cross tell the -touching story of the Indian maiden’s faith. Under the eloquent pen of -John Gilmary Shea the thrilling story of labour and martyrdom glows. The -Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs at Auriesville shows that even modern -piety can find fresh stimulus in recalling the events which have made -the Mohawk Valley classic ground to devout pilgrims as well as to the -scholar and patriot. - -For over a century—from 1664 until 1783—the diplomatic, military, and -eleemosynary operations of British agents and armies among the Iroquois -were actively carried on. These were prolonged and costly, and had much -to do with making the enormous public debt of England, still unpaid. The -effect was to affect powerfully the imagination of the British public. -It was not merely the fiction of Cooper which created the tendency of -the Englishman just landed at Castle Garden to look for painted and -feathered Indians on Broadway. The author of “Leatherstocking” did but -stimulate the imagination already fed by the narratives of returned -veterans. Thousands of soldiers, who had heard the war-whoop in forest -battles, told their stories at British hearthstones until well into this -century. They, with Cooper, are responsible for the idea that forests -grow in Philadelphia. The fear still possessing English children that -American visitors, even of unmixed European blood, may turn red or -black, is one prompted by tradition as well as by literary fiction. - ------ - -[4] Letter to the writer, Feb. 7, 1890. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT. - - -FOR the possession of the North American continent two nations, France -and England, representing the two civilizations, Roman and Teutonic, -which dominate respectively Southern and Northern Europe, contended. -France, in America, embodied the Roman or more ancient type of -civilization, in which government and order were represented by the -priest and the soldier, while the people had little or nothing to do -with the government, except to obey. External authority was everything; -inward condition, little or nothing. The French system was not that of -real colonization, but of military possession; and the desired form of -social and political order was that based on monarchy and feudalism. In -the despotism of a Church subordinate to a ruler in Italy, and of a -State represented by a monarch, the individual was lost, and the -people’s function was simply to submit and pay taxes. They were taught -to look upon their privileges and enjoyments as the gifts of the -sovereign and of the Church. Authority emanated from the government, -which represented God, and represented Him infallibly. - -The English colonists, whose leaders had been largely trained in the -Dutch Republic, represented the best elements of Teutonic civilization, -those of English blood being more English than the Englishmen left -behind, and more Teutonic than the Germans. Most of the principles and -institutions wrought out in the experience of the colonists, especially -those now seen to be most peculiarly American, were not of British, but -of continental origin. New England was settled mostly by immigrants who -had left England before 1640; and nearly all their leaders had come by -way of Holland, receiving their political and military education in the -United States of Holland, and under its red, white, and blue flag. - -The strong hereditary instincts of Germanic freedom were best -represented in the seventeenth century by the Hollanders, who in the -little republic had long lived under democratic institutions. Nearly all -the leading men who settled New England had come to America after a -longer or shorter stay in Holland, where they imbibed the republican -ideas which they transported as good seed to America. The Pilgrims, who -were the first settlers of Massachusetts; many of the Puritans who came -later to Boston and Salem; the leaders of the Connecticut -Colony,—Hooker, Davenport, and many of their company,—had all been in -Holland. The military commanders—Miles Standish, John Smith, Samuel -Argall, Lyon Gardiner, Governor Dudley, and others—had been trained in -the Dutch armies. Thus it came to pass that while the makers of New -England were English in blood and language, their peculiar institutions -were not of England, but directly borrowed from the one republic of -Northern Europe. - -The Middle States were all settled under the Netherlands influences. -Even in New York, where through the patroon system semi-feudal -institutions very much like those of aristocratic England had begun, the -innate love of liberty in the people ultimately broke through these as a -seed through its shell. The full growth was the typical American State -of New York, whose constitution possessed more of the features of the -National Constitution of 1787 than any other of the original thirteen -States. Feudalism and its ideas were thus for the most part left behind -or soon outgrown. The Church, even when united with the State, as was -the case in some of the colonies, was of democratic form. The system of -landholding and registry, the town-meeting, and the written and secret -ballot,—all Germanic ideas,—with many customs and practical political -ideas brought from Holland, made the people free, developed the -individual man, and gave the colonies a reserve of strength and -endurance impossible in Canada. - -In their plan of strategy, the French idea was to limit the English -domain within and east of the Alleghany Mountains by a chain of forts -stretching from Quebec along the Great Lakes, down the Ohio and the -Mississippi to New Orleans. This was a scheme of magnificent distances, -involving enormous energy and expense, especially while the English held -the seacoast and bases of supplies. It was evident that for any hope of -success in their mighty territorial scheme the aborigines must be -secured as allies. In this work the priest could do more than the -soldier. Hence the zeal and energy of the spiritual orders were invoked, -and put under tribute to the grand design of Gallicizing America. - -On the other hand, to overcome the plans of the French, there must be -that which could neutralize the wiles of the Jesuit as well as the -ability of the soldier. In every war between France and England, -Americans must bear a part; and until the ultimate question should have -been decided, the Indian held, on this continent, the balance of power. -Neutrality to red or white man was impossible. The spring, the -dominating idea of diplomacy and war in Europe was this doctrine of the -balance of power; but in America it was less a speculative notion than a -practical reality. The American Indian would be the decisive element -until one or other of the two nations and civilizations became -paramount. - -A fresh disturbance of this doctrinal stability in European politics -occurring near the middle of the eighteenth century, at once caused the -scales to oscillate in America, gave the French the first advantage, and -compelled William Johnson to follow up Van Curler’s work, and to be the -most active agent and influence among the Mohawks which had been felt -since the death of “Brother Corlaer.” This series of episodes is called -in Europe “The War of the Austrian Succession.” It was begun by -Frederick the Great of Prussia, against Maria Theresa of Austria. In -America it is known in history as the “Old French War.” - -The “Old” French War (not that of 1753) was declared by Louis XV., March -15, 1744. The news was known all along the Canada borders by the end of -April. The tidings travelled more slowly in the English language; and it -was the middle of May, after the French had attacked the English -garrison at Canso and compelled it to surrender, before the startling -facts aroused the colonies. Already the Indian hatchets had been -sharpened, and the plan of raid and slaughter well made, when the -governor of New York, relying on the Indians as the great breakwater -against the waves of Canadian invasion, called a council of the chiefs -of the confederated Six Nations at Albany, which met June 18, 1744. - -The settlers soon found that, in this as in previous wars, the French -and Canadian Indians were the more aggressive party, while the military -authorities of New York relied on a defensive policy. The governor, -George Clinton,—not the ancestor of the Clintons in the United States, -but the sixth son of the Earl of Lincoln,—had arrived in September, -1743. He was an old sea-dog, an ex-admiral, who knew as much about civil -government as one of his powder-monkeys on shipboard. It seemed to be -the policy of the British Government to send over decayed functionaries -and politicians who were favourites at court, but in every way unfitted -for the great problems of state in the complex community whose borders -were on Canada, where French power was intrenched. Too many of these -nominees of the Crown considered it to be their first duty to build up -their private fortune. Nevertheless, it was Clinton—who had probably -been influenced by his fellow-sailor, Captain Warren—who summoned -William Johnson, the trader, into public life. - -Despite the superiority of the British fleet, the French moved more -quickly, and were first in America with reinforcements. The open -water-way from Canada into the heart of New York was the military nerve -of the continent. It made the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys the objective -point of the French invaders. The war, though not yet declared, was to -last five years, and, as we shall see, developed all the inherent -energies of Johnson, the young Irishman, who had already shown powers of -leadership. The military policy of the French was to keep the English -frontier in a state of ceaseless alarm, by small parties of stealthy -savages striking their blows unexpectedly all along the line from Oswego -to Hoosic. The story of the numberless petty raids is well told in -Drake’s “Particular History;” but in some cases the details are now -extant only in written accounts found in the Johnson papers, in church -records, in family Bibles, and on tombstones in Mohawk Valley and in New -England. - -Johnson soon found himself where the Robinson Crusoe of poetry wished to -be,—“in the midst of alarms;” but his temper rose into the heights of -unshakable calm as the dangers increased. Invited, with his wife and -three infant children, to come and live in Albany till the war was over, -he declined, and remained at Mount Johnson, losing no opportunity to -win, to keep, and to increase his influence over the Iroquois. His -abilities and power were, as we have seen, brought to the notice of the -new governor, indirectly through his uncle, but immediately through the -introduction of Chief Justice De Lancey, a brother of his uncle’s wife. -In the month of April, 1745, William Johnson received a commission as -one of the justices of the peace in the county of Albany, which then -extended from Coeymans to Herkimer. - -At this point the strictly private life of Johnson ended, and his -political career began. The situation of Mount Johnson was within easy -reach of all important places in the province which were likely to be -the seat of war. An easy day’s ride on horseback would bring him to -Albany, whence, by either land or water, the country was opened -northward to Crown Point, or southward to New York. Thence, over a cross -route by way of Saratoga Springs, a strong man well mounted could, by -hard riding, reach Mount Johnson from the foot of Lake George in a day -and part of a night. Westward also, by river or land route, there was -easy access to all the tribes of the Long House and to all the Mohawk -Valley settlements. - -Johnson’s uncle, Captain Warren, had by the capture of a privateer -distinguished himself at sea, and receiving promotion to the grade of -Commodore, was ordered to command the naval forces for the reduction of -Louisburg. By his energy and ability strict blockade was maintained -while the American citizen soldiery under Pepperell tightened the coils -of investment. When the “Vigilante,” a French frigate laden with -reinforcements in men and provisions, had been decoyed and captured, the -fortress was surrendered. Warren became an admiral; and Pepperell, a -merchant like Johnson, was made a baronet,—the former one day, the -latter one month, after receipt of the news in England. - -Chronology was in this case a key to English jealousy of the colonists, -whose growing strength and republicanism monarchical Britain feared. The -joy of the Americans was excessive. It culminated in Boston, where -“Louisburg Square” still preserves the name. The gladness on this side -of the Atlantic equalled the astonishment, flavoured with jealousy, -which fell upon Europe. One would have thought that it would salt -wholesomely the inborn contempt which the regular officers of the king’s -troops felt toward provincial fighters, but it did not; and Braddock, -Loudon, Abercrombie, and their foolish imitators were yet numerously to -come. Indeed, this success of provincial Americans induced a jealousy -that was to rankle for a generation or more in British breasts, to the -serious disadvantage of both Great Britain and the colonies, as we shall -soon see. - -Meanwhile, Indian affairs were in a critical condition, and the signs of -danger on the frontier were ominous. For reasons not here to be -analyzed, there were bad feelings between the Iroquois and the Albany -people. Rumours of the purpose of the English to destroy the Indians -were diligently kept in circulation by both lay and clerical Frenchmen. -Those who wore canonicals and those who wore regimentals were equally -industrious in fomenting dissatisfaction. The uneasiness of the Mohawks -was so great that they sent several chiefs to confer with their -brethren, the Caughnawaga Indians, in Canada. It was generally believed -that the French would attack Oswego. There is also evidence that -attempts were made to kidnap Johnson, against whom, as a relative of -Admiral Warren, as one of the captors of Louisburg, and as the man who -especially influenced the Iroquois in favour of the English, the French -had an especial grudge. It was known that from the fort at Crown Point -scalping parties issued at intervals; but mere rumours turned into -genuine history when Longmeadow, Massachusetts, was attacked and burned -by French Indians. On Nov. 17, 1745, the poorly fortified Dutch village -of Saratoga on the Hudson was attacked by an overwhelming force of over -six hundred French and Indians. After easy victory the place was given -over to the torch, and the sickening story of the massacre of -Schenectady was repeated. - -In French civilization the priest and the soldier always go together. -They are the two necessary figures, whether in Corea, Africa, Cochin -China, or Canada. The soldier, Marin, was in this case led by the -priest, Picquet. Besides the massacre, in which thirty persons were -killed and scalped, sixty were made prisoners; and the whole fertile -farming country, blooming with the flower and fruit of industry, was -desolated for many miles. Many of the captives were negroes, and a -majority of the whole number died of disease in the prisons of Quebec. -One of the best accounts of this massacre—meagre in details—is -contained in a letter to Mr. Johnson from Mr. Sanders, of Albany. It was -nine days after this event that Johnson received the urgent letter -inviting him to move for safety to Albany. - -A line of fire and blood, ashes and blackness, was now being drawn from -Springfield to Niagara. All men were under arms, and each was called to -watch every third night. No house was safe, except palisaded or built of -logs for defence. The forts were repaired and garrisoned. The bullet -moulds were kept hot, and extra flints, ramrods, and ammunition laid out -all ready, while weary sentinels strained ear and eye through each long, -dark night. - -Out from the gateway of Crown Point, like centrifugal whirlwinds of -fire, swept bands of savages, who swooped down on the settlements. -Almost under the shadow of the palisades of Albany, Schenectady, and the -villages along the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, men were shot and their -scalps taken to decorate Canadian wigwams. The little “God’s Acre” in -every settlement on the Mohawk began to fatten with victims who had died -out of their beds. Perhaps none of these ancient sleeping-places has -been reverently emptied in order to consign their memorials of once -active life to more enduring public honour in the modern cemeteries, but -the number of perforated skulls surprises the beholder. In these mute -witnesses to the disquiet of the past, he reads the story of ancestral -danger and suffering. The devout frontiersman made his way to church on -the Lord’s Day with his loaded gun on his shoulder, its flint well -picked and its pan well primed. He took his seat at the end of the pew, -only after sentinels had been posted and arms made ready for instant -use. Slight wonder was it that the effects of all-night vigils, and the -unusual posture of repose in a pew, rather than the length of the -Domine’s sermon, induced sleep even in meeting. - -Most of the churches were loop-holed for defence, and even in the few -old houses occasionally found with projecting second floor, we see an -interesting survival of the old days, when from both church and dwelling -a line of gun-barrels might at any hour decorate the eaves with -gargoyles spouting fire and death. Away from the villages, the farmers, -building a block-house on some commanding hill, and if possible over a -well or spring, kept a sentinel on the roof while they laboured in the -fields. Horn in hand, the watcher surveyed the wide stretches of valley, -or scrutinized the edges of the clearing, to give warning of the -approach of skulking red or white murderers. Yet human nerves would -weary, and after constant strain for months with no near sign of danger, -vigilance would often relax at the very moment when the enemy opened -fire and raised his yell. Men would laugh to-day at warnings, while, -perhaps, the boys in play would set up mock sentinels at the gateways, -who on the morrow would be scalped or be bound and on their way to -Canada. - -The twofold plan of campaign decided on in England was the old one first -formulated by Leisler in 1690, looking to the invasion and subjugation -of Canada, attempted again in 1711, when a German regiment in New York -was raised for the purpose, and which was frustrated by the disaster to -the British fleet. The land and naval forces of New and Old England were -now to make rendezvous at Louisburg, and move up the St. Lawrence to -Quebec, while the provincial militia of the middle and lower colonies, -combined with the Iroquois if possible, should capture the French fort, -St. Frederick, at Crown Point, and the city of Montreal. - -The disastrous inaction of King George and the London lords, arising -probably from jealousy of the provincials, and the rumours of a great -French fleet under D’Anville to be sent against New England, caused the -abandonment of the expedition to Quebec. This, however, was not known by -submarine electric cable; and meantime New York politics, at which we -must now glance, had become interesting. - -Two friends, the Chief-Justice De Lancey and Governor Clinton, -quarrelled over their cups at a convivial gathering, and this took place -just after the latter had renewed the former’s commission for life. -Happening, too, on the eve of the great council of the Six Nations, -which Clinton had summoned at Albany, just when that town was -pestiferous with small-pox and bilious fever, the outlook for successful -negotiations was not very promising. Messrs. Rutherford, Livingston, and -Dr. Cadwallader Colden were the only members of his council who came -with Clinton, while of the expected Indians only three had arrived. -These, for the two scalps with the blood hardly dried on the hair, were -rewarded with strouds and laced coats, and sent to drum up recruits, -while the governor waited a month for the tardy, suspicious, and sullen -savages to appear before him. - -Matters looked dark indeed. Yet when Mohawk runners, despatched by -Johnson on a scouting expedition to Crown Point, arrived, bringing news -of French preparations for a descent upon Schenectady and the Valley, -and possibly upon Albany, the governor was unable to see the imminent -danger. He still waited; he still believed wholly in the defensive -policy, and seemed satisfied, because for the fort on the Hudson at -Saratoga, now Easton, a sum equal to about eight hundred dollars had -been voted by the Assembly. This sum enabled the colonial engineers to -build a palisade one hundred and fifty feet long, with six redoubts for -barracks, all of timber, and to mount on platforms twelve cannon of six, -twelve, and eighteen pound calibre. In this way the summer was wasted in -waiting; for the Indians came not, and Clinton’s ambition to be a -powerful diplomatist with the Indians was for the present baffled. - -Believing this was a matter between French and English alone, strongly -inclining to neutrality, and diligently persuaded thereto by the French -Jesuits, the Iroquois sulked at home. Not only did they flatly refuse to -meet the governor, but some of the chiefs went openly over to the -French. - -Meanwhile the white settlers were, according to Johnson’s report, -abandoning their farms along the Mohawk, and concentrating in the -block-houses or palisaded towns. Besides having sent Indian scouts to -the Champlain country, Johnson wrote urgent letters to Clinton stating -the case, and asking him to open his eyes to the facts. To protect -Johnson’s stores of eleven thousand bushels of grain, while standing his -ground, the governor sent a lieutenant and thirty men. Another militia -company was despatched to the upper Mohawk Castle. Having done these -things, Clinton, who had as early as the 4th of August officially -notified Governor Shirley of Massachusetts that he would proceed against -Crown Point with the warriors of the Five Nations, was at his wits’ end. -He had alienated Colonel Schuyler and the members of the Board of Indian -Commissioners, mostly faithful and trusted men well known in the -provinces. In the quarrel of the governor with De Lancey, these ranged -themselves on the side of the chief justice. - -It is too clumsy an attempt at explanation of the difficulty between the -king’s agent, Clinton, and the Board of Indian Commissioners, to ascribe -the causes chiefly or entirely to the “rascality” of the commissioners, -who “abused their office for private peculation,” or to the ambition of -De Lancey. It is not necessary in one who appreciates the great -abilities of Johnson to describe him as a white lily of honesty and -purity. English authors, the Tory historians of the Revolution, and the -prejudiced writers of American history, who reflect their own narrowness -and sectional views, take delight in maligning the character of the men -of colonial New York simply because they were Dutch. As matter of -unsentimental fact, there is much to be said on both sides. The people -of New York were not anxious to send the Indians on the war-path, nor to -furnish white soldiers to guard their squaws and pappooses while they -were away from their villages. They were not at all persuaded of the -superior honesty either of the governor or his advisers and appointees. -The greater facts are also clear, that the New York Assembly was -vigilantly jealous of the people’s liberties, and was determined at all -hazards to limit the royal prerogative as far as possible. Since his -quarrel with De Lancey, the governor had shown excessive zeal in -maintaining the rights of the king. On the other hand, most of the steps -necessary to make New York an independent state had, as the British -Attorney-General Bradley declared, already been taken by his Assembly, -which of twenty-seven members had fourteen of Dutch descent. These men -were determined to teach the king’s agent that he must bow to the will -of the people, who were more important than king and court, and make no -advance in monarchical ideas. They saw that the governor was under the -close personal influence of Cadwallader Colden, a radical Tory, who they -suspected prepared most of Clinton’s State papers; and they set -themselves in array against this intermeddler on royalty’s behalf. Again -the petty jealousy which burned steadily in all the colonies made these -Dutchmen enjoy paying back the New Englanders in their own coin some of -the slights and insults of the past. The former had long looked down in -contempt on the settlers of New Amsterdam, and their sons now repaid -them in kind, and were on the whole rather glad to snub Shirley and to -annoy Clinton for so deferring to the wishes of the latter. Clinton -seemed lacking in tact, and was unable to conciliate the members of the -Board of Indian Commissioners, who one and all, led by Schuyler, -resigned. - -In a word, Clinton had begun his administration by trying to bully and -drive the Dutchmen. Now, those who know the men of this branch of the -Teutonic race have always found by experience that when their hearts are -won they are easily led. All attempts to drive them, however, usually -result as Alva’s and Philip’s plans resulted in the Netherlands, where -three hundred thousand Spaniards were buried; or as in South Africa, -where Dutch boers hold their own against British aggression. It took -Clinton some years to learn the lesson, but it was the same experience -of failure and retreat. - -At his wits’ end, Governor Clinton turned to the man for the hour. -William Johnson was offered the appointment of Superintendent of Indian -Affairs, and at once accepted. Thus, at thirty-one years, opened in full -promise the splendid career of the Irish adventurer. - -While no man in the province or continent comprehended more clearly the -gravity of the situation, no one better understood all the elements in -the case, the ground of faith in the immediate improvement of affairs, -and the ultimate supremacy of the British cause. Johnson was a man of -continental ideas. Without losing an instant of time he at once set -himself to the task of getting hold of the chief men of the Six Nations. -He first sent wampum belts to the Pennsylvanian Indians and the Esopus -tribe, asking their co-operation with the Albany Council. He put on -Indian dress, and for weeks gave himself up to their pastimes. Sparing -not paint, grease, ochre, feathers, games, or councils, he arrayed -himself as one of their own braves. He encouraged them to get up -war-dances, in order to excite their martial spirit. He was speedily -successful in turning the tide of opinion in one whole canton of the -Confederacy in favour of attending the Albany Convention. - -It was probably about this time that Johnson was formally adopted into -the Mohawk tribe, made a chief, and received that name which was ever -afterward his Indian title. This habit of the Iroquois, of especially -and significantly naming prominent personages, is still in vogue. When -some Dakota Indians visited Boston in 1889, after seeing Charlestown and -Bunker Hill Monument, they called on Governor Brackett, and named him -the “Great Rock in the Clouds.” - -The title which the Mohawks gave their new white chief and leader in -1746, was, according to the anarchic and unscientific spelling of the -time, War-ragh-i-yah-gey. The term may be translated “Chief Director of -Affairs.” It may with economy of vocables be spelled Wa-ra-i-ya-gé. - -Other matters contributed to this success, and utilized the work of -others. Conrad Weiser, the Pennsylvanian German interpreter, had been -recently among the tribes as far as Ohio, influencing them in favour of -the English. A happy accident—the coming of a delegation of Chickasaws -from the West and South to invade Canada, and to invite the Senecas to -take part and pilot them—awoke this most western division of the -Iroquois Confederacy to the importance of the accession. The -simultaneous offers of alliance and aid by other scattered tribes led to -a complete change of views. In a word, the Senecas resolved to sit at -the Albany caucus. With the tribes at each end, the west and the east of -the Long House, thus in substantial accord, Johnson directed the Mohawks -to send out runners to the whole confederation. Thus the work of winning -over the other few tribes, at least so far as attendance at Albany was -concerned, proved to be comparatively easy. - -Even the feuds and quarrels which at the time divided the Long House -seemed to work for Johnson’s fame and the English cause. For some reason -in Iroquois politics, occult to a white man, the house was divided -against itself: the Senecas, Onondagas, and Mohawks composed one great -faction; the Oneidas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras formed the other and -weaker. The latter tribe from the Carolinas, which had joined the -Confederacy a generation before, in 1712, were far from being won over -so as to take up arms for the English. When the fighting braves and -counselling old men came to pow-wow with the large faction, the first -thing done by them was to give the Mohawks, especially, a vigorous -scolding for having acted so presumptuously and independently without -taking council of the whole Confederacy. After lively debate and -rejoinder, it was agreed by all to go to Albany, but with the river -between the factions on their journey. So, along the banks of the Mohawk -the delegates of the Confederacy marched as far as Schenectady, when -quitting the river, the trail across country and to Norman’s Kill was -followed. All but three of the Mohawk chiefs had been won to the English -side. Of these, two of the Bear-totem clan lived at the upper castle at -Canajoharie, and the third of the Tortoise-totem clan at the lower -castle on the hill near Schoharie Creek. These dignitaries were finally -persuaded by Rev. Mr. Barclay, then living among the Mohawks, and the -famous Dr. Cadwallader Colden, who knew the Indians well, and later -became the historian of the Six Nations. - -It was a decisive moment in the history of America when on the 8th of -August, 1746, the two rival divisions marched down old Patroon Street, -the Clinton Avenue of to-day, and into State Street to Fort Frederick. -Leading the Mohawk band in all the paraphernalia of Indian dress and -decoration, with abundant ochre and plumes, was the pale-faced man, -Johnson, who could whoop, yell, leap, dance, run, wrestle, play racket, -and eat dog-hash—drawing the line at the cannibal feast,—with the best -champions in any of the six tribes. The double column moved past Fort -Frederick, where now stands the Episcopal Church, the Indians firing -their guns and the fort its ordnance. Then the gates of the sallyport -swung open, and in the largest room of the fort the red men squatted and -were served with food. - - - - - CHAPTER V. - A CHAPTER IN THE STORY OF LIBERTY. - - -WHEN the conference opened, August 19, Dr. Cadwallader took the place of -Governor Clinton, who was down with fever. The two delegates from -Massachusetts, Mr. Nelles and Colonel Wendell, were also present, but -none from Connecticut appeared. Colden’s speech was a bubble of -rhetoric, fairly dazzling with the prismatics of a lively imagination. -It rehearsed facts, fancies, and prophecies appropriate to the -situation. The colossal but purely mythical preparations supposed to be -made in Great Britain, in the reality of which the sailor-governor -himself heartily believed, were duly set forth. Then the wrongs suffered -by the Indians at the hands of the “perfidious” French were detailed, -until the braves were stirred in eye and nostril, and the chiefs grunted -out, “Yo-hay! yo-hay!” (“Do you hear! do you believe!”), and general -applause in Indian fashion followed as the interpreter finished each -sentence. The war spirit was further roused by flatteries which fell -like oil on the flames, kindling the fiercest enthusiasm. After the -usual promises of gifts and equipment, with assurance of reward and -booty in the future, the orator wound up by narrating the murder of some -white men, their brothers, even since their arrival in Albany, and -calling upon his hearers for immediate and permanent revenge. - -Taking it all in all, this speech of Clinton and Colden’s is a fair -sample of the lies, false promises, and irresponsible assertions on -which the red man has been fed, from the first coming of the whites, to -the battle with the Sioux, near Pine Ridge Agency, in January, 1891. The -proper peroration of the speech, according to Indian etiquette, was the -casting down of a wampum war-belt with verbal assurances and in symbolic -intent that the British would live and die with their brethren the -Iroquois. When this was done, a war-whoop was raised that must have been -heard in every cabin and iron-monogrammed brick-house in the colony and -manor. - -On that very day, as was soon afterward learned, the French were at Fort -Massachusetts,[5] which had been built by Col. Ephraim Williams. It -stood in the meadows east of Williamstown, under the shadow of old -Greylock, beyond the present town of North Adams. After two days’ siege -the brave garrison surrendered and were led away to Canada. The French -lost forty-seven men. The fort was afterward, in 1747, rebuilt, and was -the scene of more than one attack by the enemy. - -The council-fire was then raked up, so that the braves might have time -to sleep, smoke, and deliberate for reply. When the council re-opened on -the 24th, the governor was present, and the first orator at the -rekindled fire was an Onondaga chief. After the usual efflorescence of -forest rhetoric, he promised in the name of the Seven Nations—a small -army of eight hundred braves from Detroit and the Lake country, the -Missesagues, having temporarily joined the confederates for the common -purpose—to dig up the hatchet against the French and their allies. They -further agreed to roast alive any French priest who came among them. The -next day was devoted to distributing the presents sent from the king and -the governors of Virginia and Massachusetts; the new tribe, Missesagues, -receiving one fourth. On the 26th the kettle was hung over the fire, and -a great war-dance held, in which, after unusual smearings of paint, the -weird, wild, and guttural, but pathetic songs were sung. After a few -private interviews with the chiefs, and further tickling of their palms -with presents and their stomachs with fire-water, the council-fire was -put out by separation and scattering. Part of the Valley Indians -remained in Albany, in token of their loyalty to the English, while most -of them returned to their castles to organize war-parties. Unfortunately -an epidemic of the small-pox broke out at this time all along the -Valley, carrying off hundreds of the Indians, among whom were the two -delegates from the Missesagues. - -Other councils were held with lesser bodies of Indians; and Johnson, -despite the raging of the small-pox among the Valley Indians, -endeavoured to keep the savages on the war-path toward Canada; but -little was accomplished during the summer. While the coming French fleet -was destroyed by storm, Johnson increased his fortune by being appointed -government contractor for Oswego, and his fame by being commissioned by -Clinton as Colonel of militia. The only campaign in 1747 was one of -paper and ink, Shirley and Clinton being the chief combatants. There -were also raids and fights on the New England borders, but little took -place that needs to be chronicled here. Clinton and De Lancey kept up -their quarrels; the former warning Johnson of his illustrious relative, -venting his wrath on the Dutch legislators, and taking high-handed -vengeance on Judge Daniel Horsmanden. This champion of the Assembly and -people, and one of the ablest jurists in the province, was most -obnoxious, politically, to the king’s representatives. He was also -personally offensive as being the co-worker with Chief-Justice De -Lancey. - -On the 12th of September Horsmanden was suspended from service as a -member of the council. The fact was published in the journal; but no -reason was given for this, except that the governor announced that he -would explain his action to the king. Horsmanden was also removed from -his other positions,—as commissioner to meet the representatives of the -other colonies, and as judge and recorder of the city. This act of the -governor’s still further irritated the “stubborn Dutchmen,” whose -hostility now turned into a war to the knife. Even though savages were -ravaging the suburbs of New York, it is doubtful whether they would have -been turned from their determination to fight absolutism, in the person -of Clinton. When the governor announced the return of Johnson from his -fruitless search after the enemy at Crown Point, the temper of the -Assembly was not improved. They were tired of having the praises of -Johnson sounded in their ears. They still refused, in the face of -Johnson’s contract, while still in force, to furnish extra guards for -the fulfilment of his stipulation in provisioning Oswego. They also -adhered to their determination not to yield to the governor’s demands, -so long as he thwarted their purposes. In affirming their former -resolutions, they, nevertheless, offered to indemnify Johnson if through -accident he became a loser by fulfilling his contract. - -Meanwhile, the governor held counsel with the New England commissioners, -and despite the remonstrances of the members, bluffed off his little -Parliament until October 5. The frontier was still exposed. It was hard -to get volunteers for Oswego, largely owing to the abominable -drunkenness of the officers there, and the lack of good discipline. Two -companies from Colonel Schuyler’s regiment were therefore drafted for -the purpose. It being practically impossible to maintain the weak force -at Saratoga, this post, which had been named Fort Clinton, was burned by -order, and the ordnance and stores removed to Albany. In this unpleasant -state of affairs Colonel Johnson was summoned to New York, and on -October 9 was examined by the committee of the Executive Council. He -exposed the grave state of affairs, in that the Indians had been kept -from hunting for a whole year, and were now destitute. Unless something -were speedily done, he felt he must abandon Mount Johnson and his -interests in the Mohawk Valley. He even imagined that his leaving would -be the general signal for an exodus of all the white people from the -Mohawk basin. He recommended the erection of forts both in the Seneca -and the Oneida districts. He believed that these measures, with plenty -of presents, and the ferreting out of the miscellaneous rumsellers who -debauched the Indians, would make safe the northern frontier and save -the colony. - -Clinton’s message to the Assembly, October 6, was presented with high -praises of Johnson, a vindication of himself, and an exhortation to act -promptly and liberally, as the Iroquois sachems were waiting with -Johnson in the city to see what would be done in their behalf. The -conquest of Crown Point was still in view; and men, money, and supplies -were asked for. It was intimated that the Crown (the mother country) had -already done its full part, and that the colonies should now do theirs. - -Still the Assemblymen, who thought the Indians ought to have been -allowed to go on their hunting, ought to have been kept friendly, but -not stirred up to fight the French or be sent to Canada, and ought to -have stayed in New York to guard their own old men and squaws instead of -having white men drafted to do it, distrusted the servant of the king -and the tool of Colden, and doubted the fitness of the governor’s -appointees to office. They questioned the wisdom of the governor’s -general policy; and they intimated, with only too good reason, that the -money so freely distributed for the Indians was not properly and -publicly accounted for. They voted promptly all that was necessary for -the expedition against Canada. They fully realized the necessity of -holding firm the loyalty of the Six Nations; and to keep it, they -offered at once to vote the sum of eight hundred pounds, provided the -persons chosen to distribute the people’s money were such as they -approved of. In regard to the forts on the distant frontier, so near -Canada, they considered that the other colonies should share the expense -of permanently guarding the king’s dominions. - -In answer to these defiant resolutions, which practically impeached the -governor, Clinton sent a curt and insulting note of less than one -hundred words. The Dutchman’s ire now blazed fiercely. After the -significant ceremony of locking the door and laying the key on the -table, they proceeded to issue a manifesto, marshalling in review the -whole proceedings since June 6, 1746. They censured him for removing the -former commissioners of Indian affairs, and for practically making Dr. -Colden the real administrator of affairs in the cabinet, and Colonel -Johnson in the field. They sneered at the pretensions and vanity of the -governor in his constant boasting of what he claimed to have done. They -charged him with treating the people of the colony with contempt, and -with insulting them by vile epithets. They complained of the many brief -and inconvenient adjournments to which he had needlessly subjected them. -Especially were they enraged in their feelings at the deference paid, at -their expense, to the commissioners from Massachusetts and Connecticut. -They claimed that they ought to have been kept in session, in order that -they might have been advised with, and their opinions consulted from -time to time as to the matters under consideration. - -In this last point, especially, the Dutch blood was roused; for although -in monarchical England the power of making treaties is vested in the -sovereign, yet in the Dutch Republic, then a living reality before their -eyes, the States-General, like the United States Senate, shared with the -Stadtholder or President the right of treaty-making, and had the power -of veto upon all compacts. Even in Great Britain, the exercise of the -treaty-making power by the king was subject to parliamentary censure, -and ministers negotiating a disadvantageous treaty were liable to -impeachment. This right had been several times exercised in the -sixteenth and even in the fifteenth century. - -The address wound up by this declaration: “No treatment your Excellency -can use toward us, no inconveniences how great soever that we may suffer -in our own persons, shall ever prevail upon us to abandon, or deter us -from steadily preserving the interest of our country.” - -A committee waited upon the governor on the 9th of October, to present -the address; but the angry executive would not hear it, nor receive a -copy, and three days later replied with all the artillery of rhetoric -and abuse which he and his secretary were able to load into the -document. It was as full of vituperation as a carronade of later day was -of langrage shot. As to their complaint that the money intended for -Indian presents was not honestly distributed, he charged the House with -telling “as bold a falsehood as ever came from a body of men.” He was in -no way accountable to the Assembly for the manner in which he -distributed the money of the Crown. He charged them with violating both -the civil and military prerogatives of the king. “Nor will I,” he said, -“give up the least branch of it [the military prerogative] on any -consideration, however desirous you may be to have it, or to bear the -whole command.” He also asserted, with some attempt at humour, that -their farce of locking the door and placing the key upon the table—a -symbolic act charging breach of privilege upon the executive—was a high -insult to King George’s authority, and in so far, an act of disloyalty. -He charged that they were assuming the rights and privileges of the -House of Commons, and renouncing their subjection to the Crown and -Parliament. He had his Majesty’s express command not to suffer them to -bring some matters into the House, nor to debate upon them; and he -intimated that he had a right to stop proceedings when they seemed to -him improper or disorderly. After a tirade upon their insolence and -unbecoming conduct, his peroration was a warning not to infringe upon -the royal prerogative. - -Safety-valves having thus been opened through the ink-bottles, the war -of words ceased, and both governor and legislators proceeded to -diligence in business. In expectation that Massachusetts and Connecticut -would bear their quota of expense, the governor was requested, October -15, to carry out his plan of sending gunsmiths and other mechanics to -live among and assist the tribes of the Confederacy westward of the -Mohawks. Four days after, however, news came from England ordering the -disbanding of all the levies for the expedition to Canada. This was -disheartening alike to the governors and the people of the colonies; but -some compromise measures were amicably agreed upon between Clinton and -the Assembly. - -Peace, in New York City at least, seemed almost at hand, when Clinton -again attempted folly in trying to muzzle the press. The Assembly had -ordered Parker, the public printer, to publish the address and -remonstrance of the Assembly, in which they asserted the rights of the -people. The governor commanded him to desist. Parker stood by the people -and their Assembly, as against the king and his foolish governor. After -Cosby’s ignominious failure to restrain the liberty of the press by -imprisoning Zenger, this act of Clinton’s seemed like that of a madman -or a man who had no memory. The Assembly ordered Parker to print their -manifests, and to furnish each member with two copies, “that their -constituents might know it was their firm resolution to preserve the -liberty of the press.” - -In a word, all this wrangle between colonial governor and Assembly was -really the cause of popular liberty against monarchy, of ordered freedom -under law against despotism. It was part of the chequered story of -liberty, in which the people of New York were in no whit behind those of -any of the colonies, but rather led them. Clinton, by his blunders, and -Colden, by his toryism, helped grandly forward the American revolution, -while the names of Parker and Zenger belong with those of the promoters -of order and freedom. When on the 25th day of November, -1747,—significant date, for on that day, only thirty-six years later, -King George’s troops and mercenaries evacuated that very city of New -York, in which Clinton had illustrated the folly of monarchy,—after -addressing, or rather berating, the people’s representatives, he -concluded his address with the significant words:— - -“Your continued grasping for power, with an evident tendency to the -weakening of the dependency of the province on Great Britain, -accompanied by such notorious and public disrespect to the character of -your governor, and contempt of the king’s authority intrusted with him, -cannot longer be hid from your superiors, but must come under their -observation, and is of most dangerous example to your neighbours.” - -It was, indeed, true that New York was setting what was in the eyes of -the Tories a most dangerous example to her neighbours. Most of the -people of this colony were descendants of those who had come from the -Dutch Republic, where the taxation without consent had been resisted for -centuries, and where resistance to monarchy and feudal ideas had been -exalted into a principle. It was this determined spirit, reinforced by -the lovers of liberty, whether of Huguenot, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh -blood, or men from the mother country who believed that the rights of -Englishmen were still theirs, that made New York lead all the thirteen -original colonies in outgrowing the colonial spirit. New Yorkers first -took the steps which must logically and actually lead to separation from -the transatlantic country, whose language was indeed spoken in America, -but by colonists who had continued the institutions not of monarchical -England, but of republican Holland. - ------ - -[5] I visited the site of Fort Massachusetts, March 12, 1891. Though -long ago levelled by the plough, the spot has been marked by Prof. -Arthur Latham Perry, of Williams College, who planted the handsome -elm-tree which now flourishes there. The sword, watch, and many other -interesting relics of Colonel Williams, moulded or rusted, from Fort -Massachusetts, from the battle-grounds of Lake George, Bloody Pond, and -other places famous in colonial warfare, are carefully preserved in the -college cabinet. A monument with the names of the garrison should mark -the site of Fort Massachusetts. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - A TYPICAL FRONTIER FIGHT WITH INDIANS. - - -TO REORGANIZE the demoralized militia of the northern counties, Governor -Clinton in November offered the command of the entire frontier to -Johnson, who after due consideration accepted. Besides having the -confidence of the people, among whom he was personally popular, Johnson, -being backed by the Executive Council, was able to do the work expected -of him, and bring about much needed reform, especially in improving the -quality of the officers and the general discipline. The able-bodied men -of the Mohawk Valley, mostly Dutch and German, with a few English, -Irish, and Scots, were organized into nine companies of militia. Each -village or settlement had its company of one hundred men, the most -westward being at German Flats. Schenectady had two companies, and at -Albany there were several; while all the farmers living in the open -country, between forts or palisaded villages, were likewise enrolled. - -Johnson’s wealth as farmer, fur-trader, army-contractor, and salaried -officer was now steadily increasing. Even the victualling of Oswego -ceased to be a losing enterprise, since the Assembly, in February, 1748, -voted two hundred pounds to reimburse him for the extraordinary charges -to which he had been put. The same Assembly, however, voted one hundred -and fifty pounds to Mr. Horsmanden, whom Clinton had arbitrarily deposed -from the Council, and also appointed an agent to reside in London to -represent them and act with them and for the people against the -governor. In this the Dutch legislators were following a precedent which -their fathers had established, in having agents to represent them to the -States-General in Holland, and which they continued under English rule, -when they sent Peter Stuyvesant to the Court of King Charles II. in -1667. - -The expedition to Canada being wholly given up, it was necessary to -conciliate the Indians with presents. In April, Johnson set out to -Onondaga, the central council-fire of the Iroquois Confederacy, to meet -the delegates of all the tribes, in order to ascertain their temper and -invite them to a great council at Albany. His other purposes in going -were to circumvent the schemes of Joncaire the French Jesuit, and talk -the Indians into giving their permission to have forts erected in their -country. As usual, he was not too squeamish in the use of means to -accomplish his purpose. He wrote from Albany, April 9, 1748, to Captain -Catherwood: “I shall leave no stone unturned to accomplish what I go at, -either by fair or foul means; for if they are obstinate—I mean the -Onondagas—I shall certainly talk very harsh with them, and try what -that will do.” - -Leaving Mount Johnson with a guard of fifty men, with Captain Thomas -Butler and Lieutenant Laurie as officers, he set off, in bateaux heavily -laden with presents and provisions, up the Mohawk. To move these loaded -boats against the current, by punting, pushing, pulling, sailing, or -floating their way along, was slow work, but was safely accomplished. -Some of the Indians had come with pleasant remembrances of the courtesy -of Mount Johnson. They felt deeply that sort of gratitude which has been -defined as a “lively sense of favours to come.” Having arrived some days -before, and waited with attenuated rations, they were ravenous when -Johnson and his stores arrived on April 24. After a salute of fire-arms -and the unfurling of a British flag, three bark houses were assigned to -the company, while Johnson was escorted to a large new lodge in which -the mats were fresh and clean. That night a feast was given to the -Indians out of the stores brought, all business being deferred until -next day. - -With all formality of pipes and tobacco, splendour of Indian and -civilized costume, the council opened next morning. It was a contest of -tongues, and one garrulous Irishman was here to enter the lists and to -pit himself, with seemingly interminable prolixity of speech and the -fixed ammunition of Indian rhetoric, against a host of tireless tongues. -With plenty of talk to fill their ears and abundance of good things to -tickle their stomachs, Johnson succeeded in strengthening the covenant -of Corlaer; and the issue of the council was, on the whole, all that, -even to Johnson, could be expected. In reporting results, Johnson -suggested to the governor that proper regulation of the sale of rum -among the Indians was the first thing to be considered. - -Clinton, while happy in knowing that the Iroquois would come to the -Albany council, was brooding over the tendency everywhere manifest in -the colonies to assert their independence. Johnson’s full report of the -tongue-victory at the Onondaga council was laid before the Assembly, -June 21. The governor added, that to hold the Indians loyal to the -English it would be necessary to prosecute the expedition against Crown -Point, and at once make arrangements for exchange of prisoners. In this -latter suggestion, and with that recommending a severe enactment against -rumsellers, the Assembly at once concurred. A few days after came news -of the treaty of peace at Aix-la-Chapelle. - -Johnson, by unremitting exertion, had succeeded in securing the largest -attendance of Indians that had ever assembled in Albany. They came from -all the tribes of the Confederacy and from the lake region westward, -besides remnants of New England and Hudson River Indians. Many of these -Indians had never seen a civilized town, and greatly enjoyed the regular -meals and other comforts of civilization, while interested in studying -houses with chimneys, carpets, glass windows, and other things unknown -to forest life. Great preparations had been made to receive them and to -keep them in the best of humour. What with the clerks, quartermasters, -interpreters, and others of the official class, the militia and the -citizens, the farming folk who had flocked into the city to see the -sights, in addition to villagers from the region around, Albany had -never before beheld so large a population, nor shown such picturesque -activity in her streets. In the oldest city in any of the colonies north -of the municipality on Manhattan Island, these few days in the month of -July were long remembered. - -The eighteenth day of July had come; and all the Indians expected, -hundreds in number, had already arrived, and were beginning to think -“Brother Corlaer” was as dilatory as his war operations had all along -been. Governor Shirley and the Massachusetts commissioners, however, had -come; and all lay down at night expecting the great palaver would be but -a day or two off. But before Clinton was to arrive, they were to learn -how near the enemy was even at that moment. - -In the evening exciting news was brought them from Schenectady. A battle -had been fought between a party of Canadian Indians and the militia and -villagers just beyond Schenectady, in which twenty whites had been -killed and a number taken prisoners. The drums at once beat to quarters, -and Captain Chew with one hundred militiamen and two hundred of the -Indians, told off from those in convention, marched at once in pursuit. -The Indians from Albany expected to head off the raiders, and hence went -along the usual trails to Canada; but this time the Canada savages had -retreated along the Sacandaga road and creek, “by a different road from -what they used to go,” as Onnasdego, an Onondaga sachem, said to Clinton -in his oration a few days afterward. Johnson remained in Albany -attending to his horde of guests; while Captain Chew and his band made -vain pursuit. On the 22d, the day of the opening of the council, he -received a letter from Albert Van Slyck, dated “Schonaictaiday, July -21st, 1749,” giving a brief detail of the bloody affray. Van Slyck was -an honest Dutch farmer, whose defective powers in English composition -were in contrast with his courage; and his Dutch-English account is -difficult to make certain sense of, especially in its blotted, -time-stained, and torn condition in the Johnson manuscripts at Albany; -but, except some entries in the family Bibles of people in or near the -town, this is the only known contemporaneous writing by one who was in -the fight. It is not mentioned even in Parkman’s “Montcalm and Wolfe,” -nor in the colonial or more recent histories, except Drake’s, though -sometimes referred to inaccurately. - -Further, it was difficult, until 1752, for an intelligent Hollander or -American of Holland descent, whose ancestors since 1581 had adopted the -calendar of Christendom to keep the run of English chronology, which was -eleven days behind the rest of the world. For over a century and a half, -England was very much in the condition of Russia of the present day, as -compared with the rest of Europe. The English used “the old style,” or -the calendar of Julius Cæsar, while the continental nations made use of -the modern or Gregorian calendar. It may be that this explains why Van -Slyck dated his letter one year ahead, 1749, instead of 1748. - -Van Slyck’s letter describes an event which for a generation formed a -leading topic at the evening firesides of the people of Schenectady, and -of many in Connecticut. The tremendous loss in men, chiefly heads of -families, that fell upon this frontier town is almost unknown to -history; yet the fight at Beechdale was one of the most stubbornly -contested little battles of the Old French War. Instead of being “an -autumnal foray” upon a party of woodmen, it was a stand-up, hand-to-hand -fight by the Schenectady men against savages who were consummate -ambuscaders, and well versed in all the arts of woodcraft and the tricks -most likely to confound raw militiamen. - -The battle-field lies on the Toll Farm, three miles west of Schenectady, -and is visible from the car-windows to the right of a train on the New -York Central Railroad going westward. A company of Schenectady men were -at Maalwyck, a place not far from the town, on the north side of the -river. Messrs. Dirk Van Voast and Daniel Toll, with Toll’s negro slave, -Ryckert, left their comrades to find their horses which had strayed off. -A few minutes after they had left, firing was heard in the direction in -which they had gone, by the Van Slyck brothers, Adrian and Albert, one -of whom was afterward in the fight and wrote the meagre account which is -now among the Johnson papers. They at once sent a messenger, their negro -slave, to Schenectady to give the alarm, which was doubtless sounded out -from the belfry of the strong fortress-church by the Widow Margarita -Veeder, the _klok-luider_ or bell-ringer at that time. The summons came -first before noon. The negro delivered his message, bidding the men go -out to Abraham De Graaf’s house at Beukendal, where Van Slyck would meet -them. - -At this time there was a company of New England militia in the town -under the command of Captain Stoddard, who was then absent, his place -being filled by Lieut. John Darling. The militiamen were from -Connecticut, and were raw levies unused to Indian warfare. They started -off accompanied by five or six young men and Daniel Van Slyck, another -brother of the writer. The party numbered about seventy men in all. -Another company of armed men, whose number is not stated, left for the -scene of conflict a few minutes later, to see if they could find or see -Daniel Toll. - -Toll and Van Voast, after leaving the Van Slycks at Maalwyck, had -reached a place two miles away, near the house of De Graaf, and called -in Dutch, Poopendaal, or later, Beukendal or Beech Dale. Within or -beyond the dale, was a well-known place on hard clayey soil, full of -deer-licks at which the deer used to come to lick the salt. At this -_kleykuil_, or clay-pit, the two men imagined they heard, about ten -o’clock, the sound of horses’ hoofs stamping on the hard ground, but -with a regularity that seemed very suspicious. Approaching warily -nearer, they discovered that the noise came from a party of Indians -playing quoits. Almost as soon as the two white men came in sight, they -were fired on by the savages, who had seen their coming. Toll was -instantly killed, and Van Voast was wounded and made prisoner. The black -man, Ryckert, fled toward Schenectady. - -The wily savages now prepared to ambuscade the party which they knew -would soon appear from Schenectady. For this purpose they laid a -sensational trap in a field, somewhat off from the path and in a defile -near the creek, which was surrounded with forest and bush. Taking the -dead body of Mr. Toll, they set it up against a fence and tied a live -crow in front of the corpse. This curious sight of a wild crow flying up -and down before an apparently living man they knew would at once excite -the attention, especially of the impulsive and unwary young men who, as -they supposed, would be the first on the field. The sequel proves they -were not disappointed. - -Lieutenant Darling and his Connecticut men marched out, cautiously -searching for the enemy, but seeing no trace of any. At Mr. Simon -Groot’s unoccupied house they found Adrian Van Slyck, who with a few men -had arrived and learned from the negro boy Ryckert, that his master, Mr. -Toll, had been shot. Though nearly paralyzed with fear, he offered to -point out the place where he fell. The negro was furnished with a horse, -and acted as pilot to the advance party of about forty men. Soon after -they had gone, Ackes Van Slyck arrived and remained with his men near -the house. - -Pretty soon the strange phenomenon of a crow playing near a man arrested -their attention, and they at once marched into the trap to see the -curious sight. Very soon they discovered that the man was a corpse, and -the crow was tied to it with a string. At this moment when nearly all -were in the defile along the creek, and off their guard, the crash of -the enemy’s guns enlightened them as to the situation. They found -themselves in a ravine or hollow curved like a horseshoe, and nearly -surrounded on both sides by woods, from which puffs of white smoke and -flashes of fire were issuing from unseen enemies. Eight or ten of the -whites were at once stretched dead on the clay ground, and then the -yelling savages leaped out of cover with knife and hatchet. - -The militiamen soon broke and ran, but the Schenectady men bravely stood -their ground. It took a moment to deliver their fire, and then with -musket clubbed or thrown aside, the fighting became, for a few minutes, -a series of desperate encounters between white and red man, in which it -happened more than once that both buried their knives in each other. -After the battle the bodies of Glen, De Graaf, and other noted Indian -fighters were found alongside their dead enemies with whom they had -wrested in deadly struggle. In this hand-to-hand fight twelve of the -party of whites were killed, and five made prisoners; Lieutenant -Darling’s company losing seven men, who were shot dead, and six missing. - -Adrian Van Slyck and a company of New York militiamen now reached the -scene, where the little band of whites were found behind trees and -stumps holding the enemy at bay; Lieutenant Darling having been killed -at the first fire, Ackes Van Slyck was directing the fight. No sooner -had the New York reinforcements got into the line of Indian fire, than -they all fled in the most cowardly manner. Adrian Van Slyck and the two -or three Schenectady men who stood by him in this part of the field were -shot down. - -The rest of the original party of whites now retreated out through the -western entrance of the vale, and joined by Albert Van Slyck and a few -men from the village, reached the house of Abraham De Graaf near by. -This substantial edifice—still standing, but used as a dried-apple -bleacher when the writer visited it—was not then occupied, but was new -and strong, and stood on commanding ground. The fact of its being empty -shows the condition of affairs; the people who lived in isolated -farm-houses being at this time gathered almost wholly in palisaded -villages or other fortified places. - -Hastily entering, they barred the door, and reaching the second story, -tore off all the boards near the floor and eaves, and prepared for a -stubborn defence. With their keen marksmanship they kept the enemy at -bay, completely baffling the savages, who peppered the house in vain. -While this siege was going on, the two Indian lads left in charge of -Dirk Van Voast, eager to see the fight, tied their prisoner to a tree, -and climbing up the slope of the ravine, became absorbed in the firing. -Van Voast succeeded in reaching his knife, cut the thongs binding him, -and ran off to Schenectady, meeting another squad of armed men from the -village hastening to the scene. These were led by Jacob Glen, and Albert -Van Slyck, the writer describing the event. - -Van Slyck had hoped to gather enough men to get out and surround the -Indians so as to capture the whole band; but Garret Van Antwerp, fearing -lest the town would be left without a garrison in case of attack, would -suffer no more to leave the palisades. However, this last reinforcement -reached the battle-ground in time to drive off the savages, who were -fighting the previously sent party from behind trees, and to save the -bodies of Adrian Van Slyck and the dead men near him from being scalped -and stripped. Seeing this last party approaching, the savages drew off, -retreating up the Sacandaga road. All the whites, including the last -comers, the scattered out-door fighters behind trees, and the little -garrison in the house, now united. They proceeded at once to count up -their loss, and to gather up the dead men and load them on wagons for -burial in Schenectady. - -What the loss of the Indians was in this battle, as in most others, the -white men were never able to find out. Except at the scene of the first -firing and ambuscade, Indian corpses were not visible. The first purpose -of the redskins, as soon as the opening fury of battle slackened, was to -conceal their loss. To run out from cover, even in the face of the fire, -and draw away the corpses of their friends, was their usual habit, and -to this they were thoroughly trained. Exposure in such work was more -cheerfully borne than in regular combat, though usually the dead body -was reached by cautious approach, and with as much concealment as -possible in the undergrowth. A noose at the end of a rope was skilfully -thrown over the head of the corpse, and the end of the rope carried back -into cover. As skilfully as a band of medical students or -resurrectionists can put a hook under the chin of a corpse and hoist it -up from under the coffin-lid half sawed off, the savages in ambush would -draw the body of their fallen comrade out of sight, to be quickly -concealed or buried. Indian fighters often told stories of dead men -apparently turning into snakes and gliding out of sight. Owing to this -habit of the Indians, it was very difficult to arrive at the exact -execution done by the white man’s fire. As most of the Schenectady men -were trained Indian fighters, the loss of the savages was probably -great. - -This was a sad day for Schenectady. One third of the white force engaged -were dead or wounded. Twenty corpses—twelve of them Schenectady -fathers, sons, or brothers, and eight Connecticut men—were laid on the -floor of a barn, near the church, which is still standing. The sorrowing -wives, mothers, and sisters came to identify the scalped and maimed dear -ones. Thirteen or fourteen men were missing, while the number of wounded -was never accurately known. In the Green Street burying-ground, east of -the “Old Queen’s Fort,” the long funeral procession followed the -corpses, while Domine Van Santvoord committed dust to dust. - -Many are the touching traditions of sorrow connected with this -“Beukendal massacre.” So it, indeed, appeared to the people of -Schenectady, because of so many of their prominent men thus suddenly -slain. To them it was in some sense a repetition of the awful night of -Feb. 8, 1690. Yet, instead of its being a massacre, it was a stand-up, -hand-to-hand fight in Indian fashion, and a typical border-battle. In -the superb and storied edifice of “The First Reformed Protestant Dutch -Church of Schenectady, in the county of Albany,”—so called in the old -charter given by King George II., and so rich in the graphic symbols of -“the church in the Netherlands under the Cross,” as well as of local -history,—a tablet epitomizing the history of the church in its five -edifices was set in its niche after the two hundredth anniversary of the -founding of the church, celebrated June 21, 1880. It is “in pitiful -remembrance of the martyrs who perished in the massacres of February -9th, 1690, and July 18th, 1748.” From the rear church window one may -still look, in 1891, on the barn on the floor of which the bodies were -brought and laid for identification on the day when the sturdy -Dutch-American Albert Van Slyck signed his letter to “Coll. William -Johnson at Albany,” “your Sorrowfull and Revengfull friend on those -Barbarous Enemys, and am at all Times on your Command.” - -Clinton, accompanied by his satellite, Dr. Colden, and some other -members of his council, arrived in Albany, July 20. The next day, after -those necessary ceremonies to which the Indians are as great bond-slaves -as their civilized brethren, the council fairly opened. A great palaver -ensued, and talk flowed unceasingly for hour after hour, until many ears -needed rest even more than the few busy tongues. The governor wound up -his long address by referring to the battle of Beukendal, so recent and -so near by. - -After three days of smoke and thought, a wordy warrior from Onondaga -replied for the Confederacy in prolix detail. The day was closed with a -dance by the young braves, and the king’s health was drunk in five -barrels of beer. - -On the following day the River Indians spoke, expressing gratitude for -favours past, and asserting that if they had been present when news of -the Schenectady battle reached Albany, they would have cheerfully joined -in pursuit, even to the gate of Crown Point. - -By this time it was no longer possible to suppress the news of peace in -Europe, and the poor savages who had been goaded into digging up the -hatchet and neglecting their hunting, and who were thirsting for -revenge, were now left in the lurch, and told to go quietly home. -Nevertheless, most of the colonists were satisfied with the result of -the council, and Johnson’s popularity increased. The Iroquois were -pleased when they found that both Shirley and Clinton were about to send -back all the French prisoners to Canada, and to ask for the return of -both the white, red, and black captives, who had been carried away from -their homes south of the St. Lawrence. - -Lieutenant Stoddard and Captain Anthony Van Schaick went to Canada, and -into the Indian country; but their success was not gratifying. Only -twenty-four prisoners accompanied Lieutenant Stoddard when he left -Canada, June 28, 1750. The white boys and girls who had nearly or wholly -forgotten their old home and kin, and had been adopted into the tribes, -declined, or were forced to decline, going back. Occasionally white -women had abjured their religion, and in other cases the red squaws -threatened sure death to the adopted captives should they try to return, -even at the French governor’s orders. With the Indians, however, -exchange was more easy, though the savages were unable to understand the -delays of diplomacy between Clinton and Gallissonière; and to pacify -them, Johnson was often at his wits’ end. However, by his personal -influence, by visits of condolence, by social participation in their -games and feasts, by persistent patience, public eloquence, private -persuasion, and the frequent use of money and other material gifts, he -won fresh laurels of success. In spite of the diplomacy of La -Gallissonière, the ceaselessly active Jesuit priests, French cunning and -strategy on the one hand, and English and Dutch weakness and villany on -the other, he held the whole Iroquois Confederacy loyal to the British -Crown. The greatness of Johnson is nobly shown in thus foiling the -French and all their resources. - -This year, amid manifold commercial, military, and domestic cares, he -entertained the famous Swedish botanist, naturalist, and traveller, -Peter Kalm, with whose name the evergreen plant _Kalmia_ is associated. -He had come at the suggestion of Linnæus to investigate the botany and -natural history of North America. He arrived at Fort Johnson with a -letter from Dr. Colden, who was as fond of physical science as he was of -his Toryism. After dispensing courtly hospitality, Johnson furnished him -with a guide to Oswego and Niagara, and a letter to the commandant at -the former place. Kalm’s “Voyage to North America” was translated and -published in London in 1777, and the map accompanying it is of great -interest. After him was named that family of evergreens in which is -found the American laurel, _Kalmia latifolia_, which has been proposed -as the national flower of the United States. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - AT THE ANCIENT PLACE OF TREATIES. - - -THE OLD FRENCH WAR, or the War of the Austrian Succession, was foolishly -begun in Germany, and foolishly ended in Europe, Asia, and America. The -peace which came without honour settled nothing as regarded the -questions at issue in America. In reality this treaty guaranteed another -American war. Louisburg was again handed over to the French in exchange -for Madras. All prisoners in the three continents were to be released -without ransom, and a return of all conquered territory and property was -agreed to. The balance of power now rested level on its fulcrum, ready -for some fly’s weight to tilt it and cause the scale-pans to bounce. - -In what part of the world first? With unspeakable disgust the raw troops -and scarred veterans, and the people generally of the colonies, received -the news. Not a few thought it was time to think of not only fighting -their own battles, but of making their own treaties. The continental or -American spirit, already a spark, was fanned almost to a flame. - -Meanwhile, in home politics, New York was steadily advancing in the -pathway that was to merge into the highway of national independence. To -a New England writer, accustomed to the unbridled laudation of his own -State and ancestry as those who led the Teutonic-American colonies in -the struggle for liberty, the doings in the New York Assembly may seem -“teapot-tempest politics.” To those less prejudiced, it is a noble -chapter in the story of freedom, when they see an ultra-Tory British -governor fast relegated to a position of impotence, though backed by the -able Tory, Cadwallader Colden, while the people’s will is manifested in -persistent limitation of the royal prerogative. - -This was the state of affairs in May, 1750, when, on the death of Philip -Livingston, Col. William Johnson was appointed to a seat in the -governor’s Executive Council. The Livingstones were sturdy men of -Scottish descent, descended from a Presbyterian minister who had been -banished for non-conformity. Like so many of the founders of America, -the Pilgrim Fathers and most of the chief settlers of Connecticut, -Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and -Georgia, he reinforced his democratic ideas by some years’ residence in -the Dutch Republic, living gladly under the red, white, and blue flag of -the United States of Holland. The Livingstones in America married into -families of Dutch descent, and thereby were still further imbued with -Republican ideas. Robert and Philip had been secretaries of Indian -affairs, and had thus gained great favour and influence over the -Iroquois. Of their descendants, one was a signer of the Declaration of -Independence, and others were officers in the Revolutionary army, while -others are even yet adorning the annals of freedom, progress, and order. - -Clinton was, no doubt, very glad to have, in place of a Livingstone, one -who was so loyally devoted to the Crown, and so good a personal friend -as Johnson near him, Johnson, however, was not sworn in and seated until -1751. - -The state of affairs was growing worse and worse, and Clinton the -foolish had attempted to stay the tide of democracy by having no -Assembly called for two years. When, however, it met on Sept. 4, 1750, -Johnson’s bills for six hundred and eighty-six pounds, for provisions -sent to Oswego, were cheerfully paid; but the vote was so made that the -governor’s claims were, as he thought, invaded. However, for good -reasons, and fearing the loss of trade, he submitted. Could Johnson’s -invaluable services have been acknowledged without also making -recognition of Clinton’s pretensions, the Assembly would have been more -liberal. The remarks and strictures of the biographer and eulogist of -Johnson about the Dutch traders of Albany, and “the love of gain so -characteristic of that nation” (_sic_) seem strange when the same love -of gain was, and is, equally characteristic of Englishman, Yankee, -Scotsman, Huguenot, and Quaker. No one will justify the members of the -New York Colonial Assembly in all their acts, especially those which -were clearly contemptible; but we cannot see that Johnson, Clinton, or -the English loved either lucre or liquor any less than the Albany -Dutchmen. Indeed, it was the well-founded suspicion that Clinton was -using his office largely to recoup his broken fortunes that made the -representatives resist him at every point. Johnson, however, finding -that the Assembly and the governor could never be reconciled, and that -his first bill of two thousand pounds would be likely, under existing -circumstances, to remain unpaid, resigned his office of Superintendent -of Indian Affairs. To his Iroquois friends he announced this step by -sending wampum belts to all the chief fortified towns of the -Confederacy. - -Neither war nor peace had settled the question of the boundary lines -between the French and English possessions in America. The French -claimed the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys by right of prior discovery by -La Salle and others. The English based their ownership on occupation by -the Iroquois or their vassals, and because the Five Nations were allies -of Great Britain. Both parties now began anew to occupy the land. The -race was westward through the Ohio Valley to the Mississippi. The -starting-points were from tidewater Virginia and from Montreal. Not on -parallel lines, but toward the apex of a triangle, and straight toward -collision, the movement began. The Ohio Company was formed with a grant -of six hundred thousand acres by the English Government, chiefly to -speculators in Virginia. George Washington was one of the first to be -smitten with the fever of speculation, and to the end of his days he -made investments in the Western lands as eagerly as many do now in -Western farm mortgages. - -La Gallissonière instructed Celoron de Bienville, one of the four famous -brothers of a remarkable family, to occupy definitely the Ohio Valley in -the name of Louis XIV., King of France. Like a sower going forth to sow, -Bienville went in a canoe with a sack full of leaden plates, depositing -one in the soil at the mouth of every important tributary, so as to -publish to the world that from the source of the Ohio to its mouth, the -country watered by it belonged to France. Up to 1891 several of these -plates have been dug up,—coming thus to resurrection like faint -memories of vanished dreams. - -While thus the lines of empire were once more drawn between Celt and -Teuton, the same masters again held the key to the situation,—the -Iroquois. To win these over to French alliance or vassalage, all the -arts of peace were now to be employed by the ablest intellects employing -the strongest forces of religion, education, diplomacy, cunning, and -material gifts. France with her compact military and religious system in -America was a unity. Soldier, priest, and semi-feudal tenant were parts -of one machine moved by one head. With the unity of a phalanx and the -constrictive power of a dragon, she expected to crush to atoms, or at -least coop up between mountains and sea, the English colonies. The -heterogeneous collection of people from north continental and insular -Europe, of many languages and forms of religion, dwelling between the -Merrimac and the Everglades, were held together only by the one tie of -allegiance to the British Crown. - -Francis Picquet, priest, soldier, and statesman, saw the necessity of -securing the loyalty of the Six Nations; and receiving the French -Governor’s assent, established himself at La Presentation, on the St. -Lawrence River, between Oswego and Montreal, a fort and a chapel. -Ostensibly his mission was the conversion of the Iroquois. No more -strategic point could have been selected. Whether for peace, war, trade, -voyaging, or education and general influence, the site was supremely -appropriate. When Johnson heard of the man called, according to which -side of the border his name was spoken, “Apostle of the Iroquois” or -“Jesuit of the West,” he was alarmed, especially when he learned that -this lively hornet, Joncaire, was busy in fomenting trouble among the -tribes in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi. Before long, this -Jean Cœur had succeeded in reviving between the Iroquois and western -tribes and the Catawbas an old feud. Very soon Clinton received word -from Gov. James Glenn, of South Carolina, that the Senecas were on the -war-path and murdering the Catawbas. In this action the Senecas were -repeating one of the numerous southern raids to which their grandfathers -had been addicted, and one of which Col. John Washington, ancestor of -George, assisted to repel. At Johnson’s suggestion, Clinton now invited -all the tribes composing the Confederacy or in alliance with the -Iroquois to meet at the ancient place of treaties,—the ground on which -now stands the new Capitol at Albany,—while Clinton himself called upon -the governors of all the colonies to form a plan of union for uniting -the tribes and resisting French aggression. On the 28th of June, 1751, -the tribes met in Albany, again to renew the covenant first confirmed by -Arendt Van Curler. There were present delegates from Connecticut, -Massachusetts, and South Carolina, and Indians from the Great Lakes, -besides six Catawba chiefs and representatives of the Six Nations. - -The first point made by the Iroquois was that Colonel Johnson should be -reappointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs. They begged leave to try -to influence him by sending a string of wampum to him at Mount Johnson. -They despatched a swift footman to his house. A man is a finer animal -than a horse, and, in the long run, swifter and more enduring. They -chose two human soles rather than four horse’s hoofs for their -messenger. Johnson met the wampum-bearer at Schenectady; but when at -Albany, despite the eloquence of Clinton and the Indians, he firmly -declined serving again while his salary depended upon the Assembly. He -now took the oath of office and his seat in the governor’s Council. He -retained this dignity while he lived. - -The great council formally opened on the 6th of July, 1751. Besides the -usual eloquence there was much singing, with ceremonial dances and -enjoyment of that aboriginal custom and product,—the pipe and tobacco. -The sucking and actual whiffing of the calumet, the metaphorical burying -of the hatchet and planting of the tree of peace, signified that war was -over between the Southern and Northern Indians. The confederates living -above the not yet made Mason’s and Dixon’s line clasped hands across the -bloody chasm with the Southerners, and peace again reigned from Pilgrim -Land to the Salzburger Germans in Ogelthorpe’s country. The “late -unpleasantness” was past. After the usual drinking of fire-water and -distribution of presents, the council adjourned, and the Indians went -home. - -While the Pennsylvania traders were establishing posts on the Ohio, -under British authority, the French were also busy. Early in September, -from a French deserter, Johnson learned the startling news that a great -fleet of canoes manned by twelve hundred Frenchmen and two hundred -Adirondack Indians, had passed Oswego, bound for the Ohio. News also -arrived by a Cayuga chief that at Cadaracqui a large French man-of-war -was being built for the reduction of Oswego. This fort was then in -command of Lieutenant Lindsay, founder of the Scottish settlement at -Cherry Valley. - -Johnson was in New York attending to his duties as a member of the -Council, when the harassing news was received. In addition to the -anxiety this caused him, he was selected by Clinton to do what proved to -be a disagreeable task to himself, and in the eyes of the people’s -representative a repulsive one. Indeed it seemed to them to be doing the -governor’s dirty work. When the House sent to the Council an act for -paying several demands upon the colony, it pleased Clinton and the -Council to demand vouchers, and Johnson was sent to the Assembly to -request them. The offended and angry representatives of the people -declared that the demand was extraordinary and unprecedented, and -declined to consider the request until the first of May. The Council, -angry in turn, sent Johnson back with a bill of their own -originating,—in clear violation of right precedent and propriety, -“applying the sum of five hundred pounds for the management of Indian -affairs and for repairing the garrison at Oswego.” - -As might be expected, this bill was not allowed even a second reading, -but a motion was at once passed “that it was the great essential and -undoubted right of the representatives of the people of this colony to -begin all bills from raising and disbursing of money,” and that the bill -of the Council should be rejected. In an address to the governor it was -intimated that the one thousand pounds recently voted for entertaining -the Indians at the council at Albany had been used for other purposes -than the public good. After four days of foolish resistance, the -governor, knowing he was unable to make headway when so clearly in the -wrong, passed all the bills. Then, gratifying a personal spite at the -expense of the public, he dissolved the Assembly. - -All this was what those who think the story of American liberty was -fought out chiefly in New England would call the “teapot-tempest -politics of the New York Assembly.” Yet here was the great principle -upon which republican government is founded, and for which Holland -revolted against Spain, and the American colonies against England; “our -great example,” as Franklin declared, being the Dutch republic. - -The Dutch had, centuries before, beyond the dikes of Holland, developed -and fought for the doctrine of “no taxation without consent;” and -Clinton, Colden, and their coadjutors were clearly in the wrong. -Further, the representatives were right in hinting that Clinton and his -flatterers were too anxious to improve their own fortunes, and to make -the people pay for their needless junketings enjoyed in the name of -public service. Those who read the local history of the Hudson and -Mohawk Valleys know how burdensome to the people was the silly and -costly pageantry of royal governors on their travels. - -Johnson, probably with his eyes needfully opened, on reaching his home -after the dissolution of the Assembly, found the outlook for the -ultimate occupation of the mid-continent by the English rather gloomy. -The French held the frontier of New York on its three strategic -lines,—Crown Point, La Presentation, and Niagara. They were now -planning to plant a mission, which should mean a fort and a church, at -Onondaga Lake, near which had perhaps been—if we so interpret the -inscription on the Pompey stone—a Spanish settlement once destroyed by -the Senecas. Even if the stone, inscribed with the symbols and -chronology of Christendom, were that of a captive, it is a mournful but -interesting relic. - -When Johnson heard the news, the Jesuits had already succeeded in -winning the consent of the chiefs even at this ancient hearth of the -Iroquois Confederacy. Such a move must be checkmated at once. Despite -the raw and inclement weather of late autumn, and his desire for rest -and reading, Johnson determined on a journey with its attendant -exposure. He set out at once for Onondaga. Summoning the chief men, he -asked them, as a proof of their many professions of friendship, to give -and deed to him the land and water around Onondaga Lake, to the extent -of two miles in every direction from the shores, for which he promised a -handsome present. Unable to resist their friend, the sachems signed the -deed made out by Johnson, who handed over money amounting to three -hundred and fifty pounds, and left for home. Writing to Governor -Clinton, he offered the land to the Government of New York at the price -he had paid. Thus were the designs of the French again foiled. - -With the country at peace, and himself released from the responsibility -of Indian affairs, Johnson began to indulge himself more and more in -literary pursuits, the development of the Mohawk Valley, the moral and -intellectual improvement of the Indians, and the social advantage of the -white settlers. He had already a pretty large collection of books from -London in his mansion, but he sent an order, August 20, 1752, to a -London stationer for the “Gentlemen’s Magazine,” the “Monthly Review,” -the latest pamphlets, and “the newspapers regularly, and stitched up.” -He persuaded many of the Mohawks to send their children to the school at -Stockbridge, Mass., founded by John Sergeant in 1741, and served after -his death by America’s greatest intellect, Jonathan Edwards. His uncle, -the admiral, had already given seven hundred pounds to the support of -this school. Johnson’s correspondence was with the Hon. Joseph Dwight, -once Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, who had -married Mr. Sergeant’s widow, and was deeply interested in Indian -education. - -In 1753 Rev. Gideon Hawley, who had taught the children of the Mohawks, -Oneidas, and Tuscaroras at Stockbridge, was sent from Boston to -establish a mission school on the Susquehanna River, west of Albany. -Visiting Mount Johnson, the young missionary was received by the host in -person at the gate. He spent a night enjoying the hospitality, and left -with Johnson’s hearty godspeed. Hawley was able to pursue his work -quietly until the breaking out of the war in 1756. After serving as -chaplain to Col. Richard Gridley’s regiment, he spent from 1757 to 1807, -nearly a half-century of his long and useful life, among the Indians at -Mashpee, Mass. - -Johnson was also in warm sympathy with the efforts of Dr. Eleazar -Wheelock, who since 1743, when he began with Samson Occum, a Mohegan -Indian, had been steadily instructing Indian youths at Lebanon, Conn. -“Moor’s Indian Charity School,” as then called, was set upon a good -financial basis when in 1776 Occum and Rev. Nathaniel Whitten crossed -the ocean, and in England obtained an endowment of ten thousand pounds; -William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, being president of the Board of -Trustees. At this school, among the twenty or more Indian boys, Joseph -Brant, sent by Johnson, was educated under Dr. Wheelock. Later the -Wheelock school was transferred to Hanover, N. H., and named after Lord -Dartmouth. On the college seal only, the Indian lads are still seen -coming up to this school instead of attending Hampton in Virginia, or -Carlisle in Pennsylvania. However, ancient history and tradition, after -long abeyance, were revived when, in 1887, a full-blooded Sioux Indian, -Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, was graduated from Dartmouth’s classic -halls. - -Various other attempts were made by Johnson, especially during the last -decade of his life, to interest the British authorities in Church and -State in the spiritual improvement of the Indians. The evidences of his -good intentions and generous purposes are seen in his correspondence. -Interesting as they are, however, they bore little fruit, owing to the -outbreak of the Revolution which divided both the red and the white -tribes. The baronet built a church for the Canajoharie Indians, and -supported religious teachers for a while at his own expense. In 1767, -being a man above his sect, he would have had the Indian school, which -grew into Dartmouth College, removed, and established in the Mohawk -Valley. Sectarian influence and ecclesiastical jealousies at Albany -prevented his plan from being carried out. The Valley was thus without a -college, until Union, founded and endowed almost entirely by the -Dutchmen of Schenectady, was established in 1786, free from sectarian -control, as its name implies. Under Eliphalet Nott’s presidency of -sixty-two years, its fame became national, and within its walls have -been educated some of the most useful members of the aboriginal race -called, by accident, Indians. - -Admiral Warren died in Dublin, July 29, 1752, of fever; and Johnson -received the news shortly before setting out to attend the Executive -Council in New York, which met in October. - -Fortunately for the Commonwealth, Governor Clinton had taken other -advice than that so liberally furnished in the past by the particular -member so obnoxious to the Assembly; and his opening message was -commendably brief, being merely a salutation, which was as briefly and -courteously returned. Now that the Tory firebrand was “out of politics” -for a while, peace once more reigned. An era of good feeling set in, and -harmony was the rule until Clinton’s administration ended. A new Board -of Indian Commissioners was chosen, by a compromise between the governor -and his little parliament. Plans for paying the colonial debt, for -strengthening the frontier, and for establishing a college were all -carried out. - -Oswego was the watch-house on the frontier. In the early spring of 1753 -the advance guard of a French army left Montreal to take possession of -the Ohio Valley. Descried alike by Iroquois hunters at the rapids of the -St. Lawrence and by the officers at Oswego, the news was communicated to -Johnson by foot-runners with wampum and by horseback-riders with -letters. Thirty canoes with five hundred Indians under Marin were -leading the six thousand Frenchmen determined to hold the domain from -Ontario to the Gulf of Mexico. - -Whether troubled the more by the encroachments of the warlike French, or -by the English land-speculators and enterprising farmers who were now -clearing forests and settling on their old hunting-grounds, the Indians -could scarcely tell. Dissatisfied at having lost officially their friend -Johnson, disliking the commissioners, seeing what they considered as -their property, the Ohio, invaded by the French, while the New York -Government seemed to be inert or asleep, they sent a delegation to lay -their complaints before the governor and Council in New York. There they -roundly abused the whole government, and threatened to break the -covenant chain. As matter of fact, the trouble concerning land patents -arose out of transactions settled before Clinton’s time, which could not -at once be remedied in curt Indian fashion. All legal land alienations -in New York were, after the custom originating in Holland, and thence -borrowed by the American colonists and made a national procedure in all -the United States, duly registered; and into these examination must be -made. Both house and governor, however, agreed in choosing Johnson as -the man for the critical hour, and requested him to meet the tribes at -the ancient council-fire at Onondaga. Johnson, hearing that the Iroquois -had broken faith and again attacked the Catawbas in the Carolinas, -hastened matters by summoning one tribe, the Mohawks, to meet him at his -own home. - -Again the stone house by the Mohawk became the seat of an Indian -council, and was enveloped in clouds of tobacco smoke. Johnson, -compelling them to drink the cup mingled with upbraiding and kindness, -while bountifully filling their stomachs from his larder, sent them away -in good humour, and most of them burning with loyalty. Besides thus -manifesting his singular power over the Mohawk savages, he met the -representatives of the United Confederacy at Onondaga, September 9. The -result of the ceremonies, the eloquence, the smoke, and the eating was -that the confederates, though sorely puzzled to know what to do between -the French and the English, promised loyalty to the brethren of Corlaer. -They would, however, say nothing satisfactory concerning the Catawbas, -some of whose scalps, and living members reserved for torture, even then -adorned their villages. - -Governor Clinton had grown weary of the constant battle which he was, -probably with the stolid ignorance of many men of his time and class, -fighting against the increasing power of popular liberty. He saw it was -vain to resist the spirit which the Dutch, Scots, and French Huguenots -had brought into New York with them, or inherited from their sires, and -he longed for a rest and a sinecure post in England. He liked neither -the New York people nor the climate. When therefore his successor, Sir -Danvers Osborne, arrived on Sunday, October 7, Clinton hailed the day as -one of the happiest of his life. He shortly after sailed for home, to -spend the remainder of his years in a post for which he was better -fitted,—the governorship of Greenwich Hospital. He died in 1761, -fourteen years before the breaking out of the war which his own actions -had strongly tended to precipitate. His son, Sir Henry, led the British -regulars and mercenaries who were bluffed in North Carolina, driven off -at Fort Moultrie, and finally won victory at Long Island. He failed to -relieve Burgoyne, fought the drawn battle at Monmouth, captured -Charleston, dickered with Arnold, left Cornwallis in the lurch, and -returning baffled to England, shed much ink in defending himself against -his critics. Another family of Clintons shed high lustre on the American -name and the Empire State. One added another river parallel to the -Mohawk, flowing past Johnson’s old home, and joining the waters of the -Great Lakes to those of the Hudson and the Atlantic, making the city of -New York the metropolis of the continent. - -Sir Danvers Osborne’s career in America was a short tragedy in three -acts. It lasted five days. He came to be ground as powder between the -upper millstone of royal prerogative and the nether disk of popular -rights. He came from an aristocratic and monarchical country, whose -government believed that it was the source of power to the people, to -colonists whose fathers had been educated mostly under a republic, where -it was taught that the people were, under God, the originators of power. -Charged with instructions much more stringent than those given to his -predecessor, he was confronted in the town-hall by the city corporation, -whose spokesman’s opening sentence was that “they would not brook any -infringement of their liberties, civil or religious.” On meeting his -Council for the first time, he was informed that any attempt to enforce -the strict orders given him and to insist upon an indefinite support, -would be permanently resisted. That night the unfortunate servant of the -king took his own life. He committed suicide by hanging himself on his -own garden wall. - -De Lancey, the chief-justice, was now called to the difficult post of -governor, and to the personally delicate task of serving King George and -his former associates, whom he had so diligently prodded against -Clinton, Colden, and Johnson. This was especially difficult, when the -Assembly found, in the instructions to Sir Danvers Osborne, how -diligently the late governor and his advisers had slandered and -misrepresented them to the British Government. The good results of a -change in the executive were, however, at once visible, and the Assembly -promptly voted money for the defence of the frontier, for the governor’s -salary, for his arrears of pay as chief-justice, for Indian presents, -for his voyage to Albany, and indeed, for everything reasonable. They -added a complaint against Clinton, and a defence of their conduct to the -Crown and Lords of Trade, which De Lancey sent to London. - -The clouds of war which had gathered in the Ohio Valley now broke, and -M. Contrecœur occupied Fort Du Quesne. George Washington began his -career on the soil of the State of Pennsylvania, in which his longest -marches, deepest humiliations, fiercest battles, and most lasting civil -triumphs were won; and on the 4th of July, 1754, honourably surrendered -Fort Necessity. The French drum-beat was now heard from Quebec to -Louisiana. The English were banished behind the Alleghanies, and their -flag from the Ohio Valley. - -It was now vitally necessary that the colonies should form a closer -union for defence against French aggression and the inroads of hostile -savages. The Iroquois tribes had been able to unite themselves in a -stable form of federalism. Why could not the thirteen colonies become -confederate, and act with unity of purpose? Besides so great an example -on the soil before them, there was the New England Confederation of -1643, which had been made chiefly by men trained in a federal republic. -Both the Plymouth men and many of the leaders of New England had lived -in the United States of Holland, and under the red, white, and blue -flag. There they had seen in actual operation what strength is derived -from union. _Concordia res parvæ crescunt_ (“By concord little things -become grand”), was the motto of the Union of Utrecht, familiar to all; -but in New York the republican motto _Een-dracht maakt Macht_ (“Union -makes strength”) needed no translation, for its language was the daily -speech of a majority of the people. - -It seemed now, at least, eminently proper that the Congress of Colonies -should be in the state settled first by people from a republic, and at -Albany, the ancient place of treaties, and at the spot in English -America where red and white delegates from the north, east, west, and -south can even now assemble without climbing or tunnelling the -Appalachian chain of mountains. - -By direction of the Lords of Trade, the governments of all the colonies -were invited to meet at Albany, so that a solemn treaty could be at one -time made with all the Indian tribes, by all the colonies, in the name -of the king. - -For treaty-making with the Iroquois, the most powerful of all the Indian -tribes, there was only one place,—Albany. Dinwiddie, of Virginia, -vainly wanted it at Winchester, Va., while Shirley, of Massachusetts, -jealous of New York, and a genuine politician, wished to keep himself -before the voters, and to come after the elections were over. His party -was more than his province or the country. As the Indians had already, -according to orders from England, been notified, the New York Assembly -declined to postpone time or place. - -In Albany the streets were cleaned and repaired by order of the City -Council, and the delegates were given a public dinner at the municipal -expense. The Congress met in the City Hall on the 19th of June, 1754, -twenty-five delegates from nine colonies being present; and whether in -personal or in representative dignity formed the most august assembly -which up to this time had ever been held in the Western World. The -colonies were named in the minutes according to their situation from -north to south. All were represented, except New Jersey, the Carolinas, -and Georgia. - -The business proper began when Johnson read a paper, which was the -official report of the Board of Commissioners on Indian Affairs, in -which the political situation was exposed. In it propositions were made -to build forts in the Onondaga and Seneca countries, with a missionary -in each place; to forbid the sale of rum, and to expel and keep the -Frenchmen out of the Indian castles. The speech, prepared as the voice -of the Congress, was delivered June 28 to the Indians who were present, -and who had to be urged by the governor to attend. After various -conferences and much speech-making on either side, including an address -by Abraham, a scorching philippic by King Hendrick,—both Mohawk sachems -and brothers,—and the distribution of gifts, the Indians went home -apparently satisfied. To the edification of delegates from some of the -colonies, where Indians were deemed incapable of understanding truth and -honour, they found that Governor De Lancey and Colonel Johnson treated -them as honest men who understood the nature of covenants. Whereas the -laws of Joshua and Moses had been elsewhere applied only too freely to -Indian politics by the elect of Jehovah, the New York authorities really -believed that the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule had a place in -Indian politics. - -Other questions of vital interest to the colonies were discussed. On the -fifth day of the session of the Congress, while waiting for the Indians -to assemble, a motion was made and carried unanimously that “a union of -all the colonies” was absolutely necessary for their security and -defence. A committee of six was appointed to prepare plans of union, and -from the ninth day until the end of the session this important matter -was under debate. On the 9th of July the Congress voted “That there be a -union of his Majesty’s several governments on the continent, so that -their councils, treasure, and strength may be employed in due proportion -against their common enemy.” On the 10th of July the plan was adopted, -and ordered to be sent to London for the royal consideration. - -How far this Albany plan of union, which looked to a Great Council of -forty-eight members meeting at Philadelphia under a President-general, -resembled or foreshadowed the National Constitution of 1787, we need not -here discuss. Certain it is, that though the exact plan proposed was -rejected, both by the colonies and by Great Britain, the spirit of the -movement lived on. Between the year 1754 and that of 1776 was only the -space of the life of a young man. Between the “Congress”—the word in -this sense was a new coinage, dating from the meeting of colonial -delegates in Albany, after the burning of Schenectady in 1690—in the -State House at Albany and the one in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, -the time was even less. Certain it is that the assembly of -representatives of the colonies at Albany in 1690 was the first occasion -of the popular use of the word “Congress” as now used, and usually -written with a capital, while that in 1748 made it a word of general -acceptance in the English language. Before that time and meeting it had -other significations not so august; but while these have fallen away, -the other and chief signification in English remains. Further, from this -time forth the “Continental”—that is, the American as distinct from the -British, the independent as discriminated from the transatlantic—idea -grew. In common speech, the continental man was he who was more and more -interested in what all the colonies did in union, and less in what the -king’s ministers were pleased to dictate. More and more after the Albany -Congress Wycliffe’s idea prevailed,—that even King George’s “dominion -was founded in grace” and not on prerogative. More and more the legend -on the coins, “Georgius Rex Dei Gratia,” faded into the nature of a -fairy tale, while the idea grew that the governments derive their -authority from the consent of the governed. To those wedded to the idea -that religion can live only when buttressed by politics, that a church -owes its life to the state, this increase of democratic doctrines was -horrible heresy, portending frightful immorality and floods of vice. A -State without a King, a Church without politically appointed rulers and -the support of public taxation, a coin without the divine name stamped -on it, were, in the eyes of the servants of monarchy, as so many -expressions of atheism. Not so thought the one member of the Albany -Congress who lived to sign the Declaration of Independence and the -National Constitution of 1787,—Benjamin Franklin, who incarnated the -state founded politically by Penn; nor the Quaker, Stephen Hopkins, of -Rhode Island, who lived to put his sign-manual to Jefferson’s immortal -document, July 4, 1776. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - THE BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. - - -BY THE MOVEMENTS in Western Pennsylvania, the war had already broken -out, though the diplomatists on the transatlantic side had not yet said -so. By the first week in May, the raids on the northern border began by -the destruction of Hoosic, within ten miles of Fort Massachusetts. The -half-naked or starving refugees reaching Albany furnished a vivid -object-lesson of reality. Under Johnson’s vigilance and activity, the -people in the forts, block-houses, and palisaded villages were kept on -guard night and day. In this work he was ably seconded by Governor De -Lancey. Politics make strange bed-fellows; and the late critic and -opponent, now that he occupied the seat of the person whom he had, -largely out of party spirit, opposed, became a warm friend of his friend -Johnson, the untiring frontiersman. - -When in New York, Feb. 28, 1755, Johnson learned of the official -declaration of war, and the sailing from Cork, Ireland, of General -Braddock with one thousand regulars, bound for Alexandria, Va.; and to -this place Johnson with Governor De Lancey made a journey. At the -council held by the five royal governors, expeditions against Nova -Scotia, Crown Point, Niagara, and Fort Du Quesne were planned. Johnson -was again made Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and appointed as -major-general to command the forces for the reduction of Crown Point. - -The story of the success of one of these expeditions and the failure of -two of them under Braddock and Shirley, is known to all. We may now -glance at that under Johnson. After a great council held in June, -attended by eleven hundred of all ages and sexes, to the devastation of -Johnson’s larder, King Hendrick and many hundred fighting men promised -to be ready for war. After various delays, the motley army gathered from -the colonies left Albany August 8, 1755, and on the 28th Johnson reached -the Lake of the Holy Sacrament. A true courtier, he changed the name -given by Isaac Jogues, which had superseded the Indian term, -Andiatarocte; and in honour of his sovereign George, and “to ascertain -his undoubted right there,” called the beautiful water by the name it -still bears. The modern fanciful name “Horicon” seems to be nothing more -than a printer’s mistake, glorified by a romancer. - -Parkman’s magic pen has drawn the picture of the movements of Dieskau, -the German, and his French and Indian forces opposed to the provincial -army, and has brilliantly described the camp and forces at Lake George, -when, on the morning of Sept. 8, 1755, the Canadians, Indians, and -French, numbering fifteen hundred, being, unknown to the English, only -an hour’s march distant, one thousand men sallied out from the camp to -capture Dieskau and his forces. The spirit of Braddock seemed to be -still in the air; and the men—New England and New York militia—sallied -out jauntily, expecting easy victory, but in reality to what proved “the -bloody morning scout.” They were led by Col. Ephraim Williams—whose -will, creating what is now Williams College, had been made a few days -before at Albany—and by Lieutenant-Colonel Whiting. In three divisions -the little army marched out and soon disappeared from view in the -forest, just before nine o’clock A. M. The two columns, French and -English, were thus approaching each other in a narrow road, like trains -on a single track in a tunnel. - -Not knowing what the issue might be, Johnson made preparation for all -risks. He at once ordered trees felled and laid lengthwise. With these -and the wagons, bateaux, and camp equipage, he constructed a rough line -of defence, which faced all along the one side of the camp which an -assaulting party might be reasonably expected to attack,—that is, on -that side of the rough quadrangle which was parallel to the lake. At -that portion fronting the road, he planted three of his heaviest pieces -of cannon, one thirty-two and two eighteen-pounders. Another was posted -a little way round to the left, while five howitzers of smaller calibre, -with the mortars, one of thirteen-inch, and four of smaller calibre, -were stationed to throw shell in the morasses and woods on the flanks. -The superb artillerist, Major William Eyre, with a company of British -sailors, served the guns. - -The situation then was as follows: Colonel Williams’s party was marching -southward along the stump-embossed road cut by Johnson’s axemen a few -days before. After advancing two miles he halted for the other divisions -to come up, and then moved in a solid body. With what seems incredible -carelessness, neglecting to send out scouts, they moved on, -Braddock-like, unsuspicious of danger, imagining that the French were -miles away. - -On the contrary, Dieskau’s scouts had watched their departure from the -camp, and quickly reported the news to the German baron. He at once -ordered his regulars to halt, and sent the Canadians and Indians into -the forest, three hundred paces ahead, with orders to lie flat on the -ground behind trees, rocks, and bushes, and make no noise or sign until -the regulars had fired, when all were to rise and surround the English. - -Here, then, was a horseshoe ambuscade in a swampy spot. It was another -case of “the fatal defile.” The regulars were, to the party approaching -them, invisible, for they lay behind a swell of ground. All was as -silent as the grave when the head of Colonel Williams’s line entered the -trap. Had it not been for the treachery of the Indians, or the warning -signal of the French Iroquois to their kindred, given by the discharge -of a gun,—though it may be possible that this unexpected shot was an -accident,—the English would have been nearly annihilated. But before -the party had passed the calks of the horseshoe at the ends of the -ambuscade, the war-whoop and the countless puffs of smoke and whistling -bullets told the whole story. The silent wilderness at once became hell. - -Colonel Williams at once took in the situation, and mounting a rock to -direct his men, ordered them to spread out on the hill to the right. He -was soon shot through the head. Hendrick had fallen at the first fire. -The Americans were rallied by Nathan Whiting, and retreated stubbornly, -contesting the ground rod by rod, and firing from behind trees and rocks -at the Canadians and Indians, who followed the same tactics. Where they -met reinforcements sent out by Johnson, their firing was more steady and -destructive. - -It was near Bloody Pond that Lieutenant Cole and the three hundred men -sent out from camp by Johnson met them, and ably covered their retreat, -so that the wounded were brought in, and the main body reached the camp -in good order about ten o’clock. Le Gardeur, the officer to whom -Washington had surrendered a few months before, commanded the Canadian -Indians in this battle, and was slain. The savages, seeing the English -out of the way for the present, at once fell back to scalp and plunder -the slain Americans. Dieskau ordered them off, refusing to let them stop -and thus lose time. Though obeying, they were angry and insubordinate, -and later in the day sneaked out of the fight, to return like dogs to -their vomit of war. Dieskau ordered the bugles to sound the assembly, -and re-formed his forces, hoping by a rush on Johnson’s camp to capture -it at once. Unfortunately for him, he had to reckon with Indians and -bush-rangers instead of with trained soldiers. - -Once inside the camp, the Massachusetts men were ranged on the right, -the Connecticut men on the left, with the New York and New Hampshire men -between. Five hundred troops were posted on the flanks in reserve. Lying -down flat on their stomachs behind the hastily thrown up barricade, they -lay awaiting the enemy, whom they expected at a double-quick pace. - -Everything now depended on the steadiness of the militia. The officers -threatened death to all who flinched from the foe. All eyes were bent on -the woods in front, and especially down the road whence they expected to -see the regulars rush on them with levelled bayonets. Could raw -provincials, commanded by a fur-trader and a lawyer, face the veterans -of Europe? - -Three long, cold iron noses poked out at them were too much for -Dieskau’s Indians. The black-mouthed cannon, intercepting with their -round circles a charming view of the blue lake ahead, took away the -courage of the bush-rangers, and both reds and whites scattered and took -to the woods. To the exasperation of Dieskau, all his life used to -regular military formations, his great host melted away from his sight -in the undergrowth and behind trees; where, now creeping forward, now -squatting or lying, they began a dropping fire in the front and on the -flanks of the Americans. In traditional European style, the French -regulars, in white uniforms and with glittering bayonets, marched up and -delivered their volleys from double ranks. - -Platoon-firing was then the orthodox method of war. The long, thin lines -of battle which now obtain in the field, and which the Americans taught -to Europe, were not then known to men accustomed to the cleared land and -level fields of the Low Countries, and of Europe generally. Soon moving -forward into the clearing, and deploying to double width, the regulars -fired by platoons of three lines,—the first file of men kneeling down, -and the rear, or third file, delivering their volleys over the shoulders -of those of the second line in front. Aiming too high and being too far -off for the effective range of flint-lock smooth-bores, the result of -their general miss was to arouse the spirits of the Americans, even to -gayety. After the first hour their nerves became more steady, and they -aimed with deadly effect, while the irritated and excited veterans fired -too high to do much execution. When the cannon served by the sailors -under Major Eyre began to tear their ranks with round shot and canister, -the great gaps made among the white coats cheered the provincials still -more. Gallantly dressing up, they endeavoured for many minutes to -present an orderly front; but, finally, Dieskau had to break from the -road, and moving to the right in the face of a murderous fire, began the -attack on the three regiments of Colonels Williams, Ruggles, and -Whitcomb. Here for another hour they stood their ground manfully, in the -face of a fire whose rapidity and accuracy were the astonishment of -Dieskau, who bravely led his troops until struck down. - -The commanders on either side in this battle were wounded, and had to -retire in favour of others. Johnson, shortly after the first volley of -the French regulars, was struck by a ball in the thigh which made a -painful flesh wound. The ball broke no bones, but was never extracted, -and the lacerated nerves troubled him more or less all his life -thereafter. He retired to his tent, and Gen. Phineas Lyman took command, -cheering his men, and exposing himself with reckless bravery both behind -and outside the barricade. In fact, this battle of Lake George was -Lyman’s battle, and was largely Lyman’s victory. - -Dieskau had bravely led his men during several hours, but while giving -an order to his Indians to move farther to the left, he approached so -near the intrenchments that he received, from an American standing -behind a tree, his first wound. Ordering the Chevalier de Montreuil to -take command, and to order retreat if necessary, then to do his best, -and to send men to remove him, Dieskau crawled near a tree and sat with -his back against it. One Canadian sent to remove him was picked off by -an American, and fell across the baron’s wounded knee. The other went -off for assistance; but soon after his disappearance the retreat was -sounded. A renegade Frenchman, on the American side, then approached -within twelve paces of the German baron, and deliberately shot him, the -bullet traversing his hips. Dieskau had received, in all, five wounds. - -Blodget, a sutler in Johnson’s army, stood like a war-correspondent on -the hill near by, watching the fighting. He was thus enabled to make a -sketch of the battle, which he published as a cheap print, “with a full -though short history,” some weeks afterward, in Boston. Even the -wagoners, in the intervals between carrying to Surgeon Williams the -wounded who lay on the ground behind the log-house, took their part in -fighting; each probably doing as much execution as the average farmer’s -boy. For, despite the hot fire so long maintained, the number of killed -and wounded on the enemy’s side, except among the French regulars whose -white uniform made them easy targets, was not very great. It was not -easy to hit men ensconced behind trees or stumps, or occasionally rising -in the smoke above the underbrush, while the enemy could, during most of -the time, see only here and there a head. The Mohawks in the camp were -mostly useless, except to keep up yelling while their white brothers -fought beyond the breastworks; and they enjoyed seeing how the pale -faces fought. Nevertheless, about forty of their number lost their lives -during the day in ambuscade and battle. - -While this attack of the regulars on the right was progressing, the -French Canadians and the Abenaki Indians boldly attempted to flank the -left of the camp, many of them even going away round toward the lake, -and clustering in a morass where the musketry fire could not well reach -them. Fortunately, however, Johnson had posted a field-piece -advantageously on the extreme left of his front, which now harassed the -squatting Indians, while on those in the marsh the mortars and howitzers -were trained. Although the howitzers split and became useless, the -mortars did well; and some shells skilfully dropped drove the lurking -enemy away, and completely relieved this flank of danger. - -Brave as were the Americans behind the rude barricade, they did not -excel the French regulars, who fought until they were nearly -annihilated. It was well into the afternoon when they were deserted by -hundreds of French forest-rangers and Canadian Indians, who, seeing no -hope of winning the day, skulked away to the scene of the morning’s -ambuscade,—the one set to plunder, and the other to scalp the slain. -About four o’clock so many of the white-coated regulars were prone on -the ground and so few in action, all their officers being disabled, -while the fire of the others had slackened, that the Americans began to -get out of their breastworks, and to fight in the woods. This made the -French give way so visibly that the whole of Lyman’s force rushed out on -the enemy with their hatchets and clubbed muskets, pushing them out of -ambush into full retreat. This onset took place between four and five -o’clock P. M., and resulted in completely driving the enemy off the -field. - -The fighting was not yet over, for the third battle on this eventful day -was yet to take place. Hearing the distant firing, Colonel Blanchard, of -Fort Lyman, sent out a party of two hundred and fifty men under command -of the brave Captain McGinnis, who, with his Schenectady men, led the -van. Warily approaching the place of the morning’s ambuscade, with -scouts ahead, they succeeded in getting between the piled-up baggage of -the French army and a vidette of five or six men who were keeping a -lookout on a hill. Moving farther up the road, they found a party of -three hundred French and Indians, consisting of those who had plundered -the slain, and of other remnants of the beaten army, who were eating -cold rations out of their packs. They sat along Rocky Brook and the -marshy pond. McGinnis and his men approached stealthily until within -firing distance, and then, after a volley, charged like tigers upon -their prey. - -In the fight which ensued the Americans contested against heavy odds; -but although their brave captain was mortally wounded, he directed their -movements till the firing ceased, and the third battle of this eventful -day resulted in victory. Not till the next evening did the scattered -band of Dieskau’s army meet, exhausted and famished, at the place where -they had left their canoes. - -The next day the marshy pool, in places reddened with the blood of the -slain, thrown into it to save burial, was given the name—which it ever -afterward kept—of “Bloody Pond.” When the writer saw it, in 1877, the -sunbeams danced merrily on its dimpled face, as the snow-white and -golden pond-lilies were swayed by the morning’s breeze, rippling the -water’s surface, while yet held at anchor beneath. In this threefold -battle the Americans lost most heavily in the “bloody morning scout” at -the ambuscade,—their total being two hundred and twenty killed, and -ninety wounded. The well-plied tomahawks, after the surprise in the -woods, and the poisoned bullets of the French Canadians accounted for -the disproportionate number of the dead over the wounded. Among the -officers were Colonel Williams, Major Ashley, Captains Keys, Porter, -Ingersoll, and twelve others. Captain McGinnis died in the camp two days -afterward. Of the Indians, beside Hendrick, thirty-eight were slain. On -the French side the loss must have been fully four hundred, or probably -one third of those actually engaged. - -In this battle farmers and traders prevailed over European troops, -trained woodcraftsmen, and fierce savages. The honours of the command -belong equally to three men. The credit of the defences, and the -excellent disposition of marksmen, artillery, and reserves, belongs to -Johnson, who, unfortunately, was wounded in the hips in the first part -of the battle, and had to leave the field for shelter. The command then -devolved upon Gen. Phineas Lyman, who deserves equal honour with -Johnson. The Connecticut general, cool and alert, displayed the greatest -courage, and was largely influential in securing the final result. To -McGinnis belongs the credit of winning a victory,—the second of the -day, in what may be called the third battle of this eventful 8th of -September. Nevertheless, such are the peculiarities of the military -mind, that Johnson never mentioned Lyman’s name in his official -despatch. For this reason, and because they unjustly suspected cowardice -in Johnson during the battle, and because they saw comparatively little -of him before and after it, withal being sectional and clannish in their -opinions, Johnson was extremely unpopular with the New England soldiers. -Their judgments have mightily influenced the accounts of the threefold -battle of Lake George as found in the writings of New England annalists -and historians. - -Johnson was at once rewarded by being made a baronet, with the gift of -five thousand pounds, while Lyman received the ordinary stipend of his -rank,—another ingredient in Johnson’s unpopularity in the Eastern -colonies. - -Three days after, the Iroquois allies waited on Johnson and informed him -that, according to custom, after losing comrades in battle, they must -return home to cheer their people, and protect their castles against the -Abenaki Indians, from whom they feared an attack. It was in vain that -Johnson tried to show them that the campaign had hardly begun, and to -persuade them to alter their purpose. They insisted on going away, -promising, however, to come again soon with fresh zeal. - -Dissensions and jealousies between the troops of the various colonies -now broke out. Both the generals commanding, and the new governor, -Hardy, thought that a strong fort should be built to command the -water-way to Canada, by way of Lake George. Though as important for the -defence of New England as of New York, the Eastern officers and men -could not see the need of a fort here, and the work dragged. When -finished, it was called by the courtier, Johnson, Fort William Henry, -after the king’s grandson, and had a notable history. Meanwhile, owing -to remissness of contractors, the petty jealousies of the officers and -militia of five or more colonies, and the overcautiousness of Johnson, -nothing aggressive was done. Late in November, the fort being finished, -the unpopular duty of garrisoning it devolved upon a medley of six -hundred men from the various colonies. The army was disbanded, and the -levies marched home. Johnson resigned his commission, and returned to -Mount Johnson about the middle of December. About ten days later he was -in New York, enjoying, as well as his wound would allow, the parade and -illumination of the city in his honour; while Dieskau languished in the -Schuyler mansion in Albany, waiting for some of his many wounds to heal; -and Lyman received modest honours at home. The patent of Johnson’s -baronetcy was dated Nov. 27, 1755. He invested the four thousand nine -hundred and forty-five pounds eighteen shillings and sixpence which came -into his hands, in three per cent bank annuities. - -His coat-of-arms consisted of a heart-shaped shield held and flanked on -either side by an Indian equipped with feathers, medal, quiver, and bow. -On the shield are three fleurs-de-lis; and on the convex band across the -shield, two shells, and between them a smaller heart, on which lies an -open hand supine. Above the shield a hand grasps a dart. The motto is -_Deo Regique Debeo_. The full inscription of the blazon in the language -of heraldry is given in the standard books which treat of the British -peerage. - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - BRITISH FAILURES PREPARING FOR AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. - - -THE versatile Johnson, turning from military to civil duties, remained -in New York during the whole of the month of January, 1756. The men then -in control of the British government, with their usual obtuseness, sent -another sailor to do the work of a statesman. Sir Charles Hardy, after -appointing October 2 as a day of public thanksgiving for the victory at -Lake George, celebrated it himself by starting on a visit to Albany. He -proposed to effect such a resumption of active military operations as -would secure the main object of the great expedition,—the capture of -Crown Point. His presence, however, was fruitless, and he returned to -New York, November 26. Then, on the 2d of December, he met his little -Parliament, and told them all about the victory of General Johnson or -Baron Dieskau. The stolid Dutchmen and others were unable, as the Indian -orators would say, “to see it in that light.” They could not do other -than anticipate the verdict of the critical scholarship of this -generation, for they looked upon the whole affair as “a failure -disguised under an incidental success.” Further, instead of hearing that -the English flag waved over Crown Point, and that English cannon guarded -the narrows of Lake Champlain, they were asked to pay for Fort William -Henry and Fort George, both of which were but an ordinary day’s -horseback-ride from Albany. At the same time Sir Charles demanded in -King George’s name a permanent revenue, with which to pay governors, -judges, and the general expenses of the government. - -To the first proposition, to pay their share of expense for forts in -which all the colonies were interested, the Assembly at once responded -favourably. To the second they gave a flat refusal, declaring that the -idea of a permanent revenue was in direct opposition to the public -sentiment of the colony. - -On the same day on which the Assembly met, Governor Shirley arrived in -New York. Being, by the death of Braddock, the king’s chief military -representative in America, he summoned a congress of colonial governors -to meet in New York December 12. With his usual extraordinary mental -activity, he was full of schemes, one of which was a midwinter campaign -against Ticonderoga. The congress approved of it; but the hard-headed -members of the Assembly, the people generally, and Johnson, did not. -With all admiration for the fussy politician, who planned superbly on -paper, but somehow failed in the field, they had a sincere respect, -which was, however, tempered by excellent common-sense. - -As for Shirley and Johnson, they seemed always unable to work -harmoniously together, the latter resenting what he believed to be the -needless interference of the other. Shirley found Johnson more than a -match for him in the rather acrid correspondence conducted in New York -during January. Living but a few rods apart, the liveried coloured -servants of these colonial dignitaries kept their soles warm in carrying -despatches. In jealousy of each other, the two gentlemen were as -incompatible as Siamese twins, their only common ligament being loyalty -to the Crown. Johnson was determined to get and hold his commission from -the Crown, and not be subject to colonial governors or assemblies. He -laid the whole matter before the Lords of Trade, and aided by his -friends at Court, secured a flattering verdict in his favour. In July, -1756, there came to him from his Majesty’s Secretary, Fox, a commission -as Colonel, Agent, and sole Superintendent of all the affairs of the Six -Nations, and other Northern Indians, with an annual salary of six -hundred pounds. By orders from the same august source, the Northern -colonies were prohibited from transacting business with the Indians, so -that the whole matter was settled in Johnson’s hands. - -Being now well intrenched in his office and authority, Johnson, with his -usual versatility and vigour, turned from the duties of the desk and -council-room to the activities of the field. The frontiers of New -Hampshire had been harassed during the winter by prowling bands of -savages, but the French now attempted a more ambitious raid. Warned by -Indian runners, who had made the first part of their journey on -snow-shoes from Fort Bull at the Oneida “carry,” he at once sent -ammunition to the garrison of thirty men. On skates from Montreal to -Fort Presentation, and thence on snow-shoes to the Oneida portage, the -party of nearly three hundred Frenchmen, after ten days of gliding and -stepping, appeared before the wooden fort, March 27. Their demand for -surrender was met by a volley, which in return was answered by a charge, -a crushing in of the gate, and a massacre of all but five of the -garrison. Among the military stores destroyed were two tons of powder. -About the same time the ship-carpenters at Oswego became the prey of -raiding Indians from Niagara, who returned with three prisoners and -twelve scalps. Forays were made by Canadian savages, even into Ulster -and Orange Counties, within a day’s horse-ride of New York. - -The winter was unusually mild, which caused the utter abandonment of -Shirley’s expedition to Crown Point; while the numerous petty successes -of the French and Indians turned the faces of the vacillating members of -the Iroquois cantons toward Canada as the winning side. - -Yet strange as it may seem, the New York Assembly was slow in voting -supplies. The ultra-loyalists who supported Hardy, who was backed by the -king and his council, now vented their maledictions upon the -“foreigners” who made the cosmopolitan population of the province, and -their representatives in the Assembly. All this seems strange to the -average historiographer, especially to the copyist of loyalist or other -writers who rely on such men as Colden, Smith, Jones, Washington Irving, -and the like, for their ideas of Colonial New York and her people. There -was good reason for the stubbornness of the legislators. The fact is, -that the people of the province of New York were mostly descendants of -the sturdy Republicans who had fought under William the Silent. They -believed that the encroachments of monarchy—that is, one-man -power—were more dangerous than the raids of hostile Indians. The Dutch, -Germans, Scots, Irish, Huguenots, were almost a unit in their democratic -ideas. This province, unlike others of the original thirteen, was not -settled by people of aristocratic England, in which a republic, once -begun, had gone to pieces inside of twelve years, but by men long -trained in self-government and in a republic. Even their forms of church -life were as nurseries for the training of men in democratic principles. -To the loyalist historian, Jones, a Presbyterian seems to be a synonym -for rebel, of whatever name or strain of blood. Congregationalists, fed -on the rhetoric and oratory of Forefathers’ Day, find it hard to believe -that the democratic idea in Church and State flourished anywhere outside -of New England. The New York men were determined at all hazards—even -the hazards of savage desolation—to resist any further trenching upon -their rights by King George, or his subservient Parliament, or his -bullying governor. - -England had sent over, after Clinton, another illiterate sailor to -enforce a fresh demand,—even the passage of a law for settling a -permanent revenue on a solid foundation; said law to be indefinite and -without limitation of time. The descendants of the Hollanders who had -long ago, even against mighty Spain, settled the principle of no -taxation without consent, and had maintained it in a war of eighty -years, were resolved to fight again the same battle on American soil. -They now set themselves resolutely to resist the demands of the Crown, -and this whether Indians were in Orange County or at Niagara. Despite -the protests of such incorrigible Tories as Smith, Colden, and others in -the Executive Council, the people’s representatives persevered. - -It is needless to say that the Assembly gained their point, and that the -greatest and most lasting victory of the people in the long story of -American liberty was won. A few months after, at the autumn session, the -joyful news reached New York that the Crown had virtually repealed the -instructions to Sir Danvers Osborne, which had made the colonists of New -York set themselves in united array of resistance to “their most -gracious sovereign.” - -The war had thus far been carried on without profession or declaration. -The diplomatists of London and Versailles had been as polite and full of -smooth words as if profound peace reigned. The English were following -their old trade of piracy, and had captured hundreds of French vessels, -and imprisoned thousands of French sailors. The French, on the other -hand, were doing with England as they did with China in 1885, when they -bombarded cities, treacherously got behind forts in the Pearl River, and -killed thousands of Chinese, while all the time professing to be at -peace. At length the British went through the formality of declaring -war, May 17. On the French side, the necessary parchment, red tape, and -seals were prepared, and the official ink flowed two years after blood -had flowed like water. - -Now at last, in Pitt, England had a premier who knew something about the -geography of America; and “geography,” as Von Moltke teaches, “is half -of war.” William Pitt thought the time had come for intelligent and -active operations looking to the conquest of North America by the -English. His first selection of men, however, was not particularly wise -or evident of genius. Listening to the word of Johnson, and others in -New York, he removed Shirley from the chief command, and sent out, -successively, Colonel Webb, General Abercrombie, and Lord Loudon,—all -of them, as it proved, failures. - -The three men appointed were alike in their supercilious contempt for -American militia and officers, and were all destined, through their -ignorant pride, to disgust Americans with English ways, and steadily to -determine them toward independence. Abercrombie, on his arrival, at once -began to cast firebrands of discontent among the colonial troops by -nullifying the intelligent and well-laid plans of Shirley, and -promulgating the exasperating order that all regular officers were to be -over those in the colonial service of the same rank. General Winslow -fortunately succeeded in dissuading the Britisher from his madness, -before desertions and threatened resignations became too numerous; but -with the compromise that the imported soldiers should garrison the forts -while the Americans went to the front. In other words, the provincials -were to see and do the severest service. Abercrombie further showed his -obstinacy and ignorance of affairs by billeting ten thousand soldiers on -the citizens of Albany, instead of at once advancing to Oswego. He thus -unwittingly helped to create that sentiment against the outraging of -American homes by the forced presence of soldiers which, later, found -expression for all time in the amendment to the Constitution of the -United States. Abercrombie wasted the whole summer at Schenectady, which -now became the headquarters of the armies. It was determined to build -forts at all the portages between this town and Oswego, as well as at -South Bay, to protect Fort Edward. While the boat-yards along the Mohawk -River were in full activity, and stores were being collected, he -employed his men part of the time in teaching the people of Albany and -Schenectady how to build earthworks in European style, in digging -ditches, and in putting up heavier stockades around the two towns. - -One of the good things done by Parliament at this time was the formation -of the Royal American Regiment of four battalions, each a thousand -strong. Of the fifty officers commissioned, nearly one third were -Germans and Swiss. Most of the rank and file were Palatine and -Swiss-Germans in America, who enlisted for three years. None of the -officers could rise above the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and the Earl -of Loudon was appointed first colonel-in-chief. Loudon was succeeded in -1757 by Abercrombie, and in 1758 by Lord Amherst. Until the -Revolutionary War, this cosmopolitan regiment did noble service under -Stanwix, Bouquet, Forbes, Prideaux, Wolfe, and Johnson. From 1757 to -1760 we find one or more battalions of the regiment in active service in -the various parts of New York. The famous Rev. Michael Schlatter, the -organizer of the German Reformed Church in Pennsylvania, was the -regimental chaplain. On the 15th of June, 1756, the forty German -officers who were to raise the recruits arrived, one of the ablest being -Colonel Bouquet. This Swiss officer, with the Germans, at Bushy Run in -Pennsylvania largely retrieved the disasters caused by Braddock’s -defeat, and restored the frontiers of Pennsylvania to comparative safety -and comfort. - -While Abercrombie, who was one of those military men whose reliance is -less upon the sword than the spade, was digging ditches in Albany, -Johnson was arranging for a great Indian council at his house on the -Mohawk. He had in view the double purpose of winning the Delawares and -other Pennsylvania tribes from war against the English colonists, and of -inducing all the Northern Indians to join in the expedition against the -French posts on Lake Ontario. Braddock’s defeat had been the signal for -the Delawares, under the direct influence of the French, to break the -peace of more than seventy years, and to scatter fire and blood in -Pennsylvania, from the Monongahela to the Delaware. The solemn treaty of -Penn—which Voltaire, with more wit than truth, declared was “never -sworn to and never broken”—was now a thing of the past. The wampum was -unravelled, and the men with hats and the men with scalp-locks were in -deadly conflict. While the Friends remained at their Philadelphia -firesides, the German and Scotch settlers on the frontier bore the brunt -of savage fury. When public action was taken, it was in the double and -contradictory form of peace-belts of wampum sent by the Friends, and a -declaration of war by Governor Morris. In this mixed state of things it -was hard for Johnson to know what to do. Through his influence the -Iroquois, uncles and masters, had summoned by wampum belts their nephews -and vassals to the great conference which was opened at his house in -February, 1756. To prepare for this, Johnson had made a journey to the -council-fire of the Confederacy at Onondaga, arriving June 15. There he -succeeded in neutralizing in part the work done by the French, and -obtained an important concession. The Iroquois voted to allow a road to -be opened through the very heart of their empire to Oswego, and a fort -to be built at Oswego Falls. - -These severe exertions cost Johnson a fit of sickness; but on the 7th of -July he met the Iroquois, Delawares, and Shawanese at his house. After -the usual consumption, on both sides, of wampum, verbosity, and rum, all -the Indians were won over to the English cause. The covenant chain of -peace was renewed, the war-belts were accepted by the sachems, and -medals hung around their necks by Johnson himself. The Delawares had -“their petticoats taken off,”—or, in other words, they were no longer -squaws in the eyes of the Iroquois, but allies, friends, and men. -Without detracting from Johnson’s reputation, it is probable that the -possession by many of the Delawares of the rifles made by the -Pennsylvania Swiss and Germans, which gave them such an advantage over -Dutch and English smooth-bores, had much to do with winning the respect -of the Iroquois. - -Through Johnson’s influence two councils were held in Pennsylvania, at -Easton, when the Delawares under their great chief, Teedyuscung, met -delegations of the Iroquois and Governor Denny. Teedyuscung had for his -secretary “the Man of Truth,” Charles Thompson, master of the Friends’ -Free School in Philadelphia. The proceedings lasted nine days; Denny by -his tact being able “to put his hand in Teedyuscung’s bosom and draw out -the secret” of his uneasiness. The council was adjourned to Lancaster in -the spring of 1757, when, however, the Delaware chief failed to appear. -Nevertheless peace was obtained on the Pennsylvania borders, the credit -for which was claimed by the Senecas. - -To turn now to the field of war, we find that Governor Shirley had -organized a corps of armed boatmen, and had sent them under Colonel -Bradstreet to Oswego. Bradstreet was successful in thus provisioning the -forts with a six months’ store for five thousand men. After his -brilliant exploit he was attacked on his way back, three leagues from -the fort, by De Villiers with eleven hundred men. Despite the sudden -fury of the attack, Bradstreet beat off the enemy with loss, only a -heavy rain preventing his gaining a greater victory. Reaching Albany, he -urged General Abercrombie to march at once to the forts. A large -expedition under Montcalm was already on its way to remove these, the -chief obstacles to their plans of empire. Johnson in person seconded -Bradstreet’s appeal, urging that if Oswego fell, the Iroquois would be -sure to join the French. Abercrombie stupidly refused to move until Lord -Loudon’s arrival, and the golden opportunity was lost. - -This slow-minded personage, Lord Loudon, the Scotsman, reached Albany on -the 29th of July; but correct ideas as to the situation percolated into -his brain with difficulty. Indeed, as with Sydney Smith’s proverbial -joke about the Scotchman’s skull, it seemed necessary to perform a -surgical operation in order to show him how needful it was to march at -once to Oswego, notwithstanding that Montcalm with his host was daily -approaching. - -While Loudon was fooling away his time in jealousy of the provincial -militia, and sending a force in the wrong direction at Crown Point, -Montcalm with three thousand troops and plenty of cannon, part of which -had been captured from Braddock, settled himself before Oswego. Of the -three forts garrisoned by Shirley’s and Pepperell’s regiments of New -England men, only one was able to stand a protracted siege. All -assembled in this fort, Ontario, and fought gallantly until Colonel -Mercer was cut in half by a cannon-shot. Then a panic ensued. The one -hundred women in the fort begged that the place should be surrendered, -and the white flag was shortly afterward hoisted. The forts were burned, -and the place left a desolation, in which the priest, Picquet, set up a -lofty cross, and beside it the arms of France. The French were now -masters of Lake Ontario, and of the passages by land and water to the -Ohio, and free to attack the Lake George forts. They found themselves -enriched to the extent of sixteen hundred prisoners, one hundred and -twenty cannon, six ships of war, three hundred boats, three chests of -money, besides a great quantity of provisions and the stores of war. The -destruction instead of the occupation of the forts was a master stroke -of policy in favor of conciliating the Six Nations. - -In this affair Montcalm showed the nobility of his nature in protecting, -at the hazard of his life, the prisoners from massacre. When the -Indians, filled with rum, had turned into devils, and were sinking their -hatchets in the brains of the unarmed, Montcalm, as the eyewitness John -Viele of Schenectady on his return testified before Johnson, ordered out -his troops and fired on the brutes. Six of the drunken savages were shot -dead. The murdering ceased at once, and there was no massacre. - -Loudon the lazy had finally awaked to the situation, and sent General -Webb with twelve hundred men to reinforce Oswego. At the Oneida portage -Webb heard of the surrender, and hoping to delay the French who were -advancing, as he supposed, on Albany, he had some trees chopped down to -delay their boats. He then hastily retreated to the fort at German -Flats. Johnson, at Albany, heard the news August 20, and under Loudon’s -orders, with two battalions of the Valley militia and a corps of three -hundred Indians, hastened to reinforce Webb. Remaining in camp fifteen -days, until hearing of the removal of the French, he dismissed the -militia and returned home. - -So passed another year of failure. John Campbell, Scotsman, otherwise -called Earl of Loudon, had been sent out as the representative of Lord -Halifax and of the Lords of Trade. Having decided to unite all the -colonies under military rule, and force them to support a standing army, -they selected this man, who was strong in the idea of colonial -subordination, but was vacillating, incapable, vain, wasteful, and lazy. -His first winter campaign consisted chiefly in scolding Shirley, and -making the Massachusetts governor the scapegoat for his own -shortcomings; in disgusting the people of New York by billeting his -officers upon them; and in both New York and Boston diligently hastening -the separation of the colonies from Great Britain by making a fool of -himself generally. - -With the regulars in winter quarters, the militia dismissed to their -homes, the whole frontier, except in the Lake George region, open and -exposed, five of the Six Nations practically alienated from the English -and already making terms with the French, the outlook was dark. - -However, the Mohawks were faithful; and Johnson took heart, believing he -could yet win and hold the Iroquois. Sending his captains, the two -Butlers, and Jellis Fonda to the various castles, and to the fireplace -of the Confederacy at Onondaga, he appointed a great council to meet, -June 10, 1757. Meanwhile he sent the Mohawks out upon the war-path, and -had the satisfaction of hearing of the repulse of the French and the -safe defence of the Fort William Henry which he had built two years -before at Lake George. Major William Eyre, the ordnance officer who had -served the guns so efficiently at the battle of Lake George against -Dieskau’s regulars, was in command of the fort, with four hundred men. -The commander of the American rangers, with Eyre, was John Stark. The -long and dreary winter was nearly over, and Saint Patrick’s Day was at -hand. The French knew as well that the Irish soldiers would be drunk on -the 18th of March, as Washington knew that the Hessians would be unfit -for clear-headed fighting the day after Christmas. Fortunately, through -the thoughtfulness of the future hero of Bennington, his own rangers -were kept sober by enforced total abstinence, and the Irish had the rum -and drunkenness all to themselves. The French force of fifteen hundred -regulars, wood-rangers, and savages came down the lakes on the ice, -dragging, each man, his sledge containing provisions, arms, and various -equipments, among which were three hundred scaling-ladders. They began a -furious attack at sunrise on the 18th, expecting easy victory; but Eyre -used his artillery with such deadly effect that despite four separate -attacks within twenty-four hours, the expedition ended in total failure. -Seized with a panic, the besiegers fled, leaving their sledges and much -valuable property behind, besides their dead. - -Johnson first heard of this event in a letter from Colonel Gage,—him -who married an American wife, and afterward occupied Boston with the -redcoats, only to be compelled to leave it at the request of Washington, -his old comrade-in-arms on Braddock’s Field. It is a curious coincidence -that Colonel Gage has unwittingly furnished Yankee Boston with a public -holiday in honour of Ireland’s patron, Saint Patrick,—which the Irish -majority in the Boston City Council first inaugurated in 1890, under the -disguise of “Evacuation Day.” The date which the Frenchmen chose for -their approach to Fort William Henry was the date also on which Gage, in -1775, sailed away to the land whence the Canadians had come in 1757. - -Johnson’s tremendous energies now shone forth. He at once summoned the -Mohawk Valley militia, and sent his trusty interpreter, Arent Stevens, -to rouse the Mohawks. The meeting-place was at his house. The news came -on Sunday the 24th; and on Monday, at daylight, the column of twelve -hundred militia and the Indians were on the march which in less than -four days brought them to Fort William Henry. - -Finding the enemy gone, Johnson allowed his men two days’ rest, and was -about to start homeward, when hearing that the French meditated a blow -on the frontier village of German Flats, he kept in the saddle all -night, reaching home at four A. M. Fortunately the news was not -confirmed; but he nevertheless ordered the militia to Burnet’s Field, -and made his headquarters there. This energetic action had a good effect -upon the Iroquois who had been invited to the grand council at Fort -Johnson, as his house was now called, and on the 10th of June the -proceedings were duly opened. The result of the ten days’ conference was -that the neutrality of the Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas was secured; -while the three other tribes—the Oneidas, Tuscaroras, and Mohawks—were -heartily enlisted to fight for the English against the French. - -Summer passed away in Johnson’s despatching Indian parties to Canada; in -Governor Hardy’s returning to the more congenial quarter-deck, -exchanging civil for naval life; in Loudon’s making a grand failure at -Louisburg, as usual blaming the colonial officers and troops for his own -blunders; and in the shameful loss of Fort William Henry through the -cowardice of General Webb. - -Johnson had warned Webb of the coming of Montcalm with nearly eight -thousand men, including a body of Indians said to be gathered from -forty-one tribes. On the 1st of August, while holding a council with the -Cherokees at his house, he received news from General Webb that Montcalm -was moving down upon Colonel Monro, who with two thousand men occupied -the fort and adjoining camp. Johnson at once adjourned the council, and -summoning the militia and Mohawks, quickly reached Fort Edward, and -begged to be sent to reinforce Monro. The double-minded Webb at first -consented, and then ordered him back. Within sound of the cannon, Webb -held back his whole force, and sent Monro a note advising him to -surrender. Only when his ammunition was nearly exhausted, his heavy -cannon burst, three hundred of his men killed or wounded, many others -helpless with small-pox, and the outlook hopeless, did Monro surrender. -As usual, the Indians, many of them from tribes utterly unused to any -control, got at the rum-barrels, and were converted into devils, whom -Montcalm in vain endeavoured to control, until after they had butchered -scores of Monro’s unarmed people, including women and children. The fort -and barracks were burned, and on great heaps of the fuel thus obtained -the bodies of the slain were given cremation. - -Webb, almost scared out of his wits, would have moved southward to West -Point, but that Lord Howe, who had arrived with reinforcements, calmed -him. Almost as a matter of course, the blame was laid by the British -officers and regulars on the provincial troops. This military bigotry, -and the inveterate prejudice of the regulars against volunteers had a -tremendous effect in making the native-born militia suspect that they -could some day do without the supercilious and conceited king’s -servants. They saw that most of the hard fighting had been done by -militiamen at the front, who, notwithstanding the immense resources of -Great Britain, were not properly supported at the right time. They were -tired of being led to the slaughter by fussy, incompetent, and often -cowardly commanders. They noted, also, that the regulars were mostly -kept in garrison, while the militia were sent to the front, where, -usually in battle with the Indians, the Americans stood their ground, -fighting behind trees, while the handsomely uniformed regulars were -flying to the rear. Further yet, the regulars stationed in the forts in -the Mohawk Valley were so arrogant and conceited as to look—as the -average Englishman is so apt to do—upon the Dutchmen and Germans as a -sort of inferior cattle. The consequence was that they were practically -useless as defenders. - -Johnson was so heartily disgusted with the state of affairs that it is -probable that his sickness in October and November was a direct result -of exposure in camp, and distraction of mind. He knew that the French -would now at the first opportunity strike the western frontier. He -therefore wrote to Abercrombie in September, to reinforce the Valley -forts and send scouts and rangers to German Flats. All such warnings, -however, were like “an east wind in an ass’s ears.” Abercrombie and his -men drilled, drank, swore, gambled, dug ditches, and caricatured the -Dutch people in church, and otherwise amused themselves in Albany. At -German Flats the long strain of duty in watch and ward resulted in the -inevitable reaction; and when the danger was greatest and nearest, the -nerves relaxed, the midnight lantern went out, and the sentinel and -people alike slept. The friendly Oneidas informed the Germans, fifteen -days in advance, of the enemy’s movements. A week later, a chief came in -person to warn them; but the people took it as a joke, laughed in his -face, and sent no word to Johnson. Tired of hearing the cry of “wolf,” -they neglected to provide for their sheep. Despite the fort, the -block-houses, and the militia company of one hundred men, the blow fell. -Fortunately the minister and some of his people heeded the friendly -warning of the Oneidas, and the day before the attack, crossed the river -to a place of safety. Those left were infatuated until the last moment. - -It was on the morning of Nov. 13, 1757, that the Canadian, Belletre, and -his three hundred white and red savages surrounded the doomed village, -raised the yell, and began the attack. The people were dazed. After some -fitful musketry-firing, the Indians succeeded in setting the houses on -fire, and in tomahawking and scalping the people as they rushed out of -the flames. One of the block-houses was surrendered by the head man of -the village, who asked for quarter. Numbers of the people were killed as -they ran out to the fording-place of the river to escape to the opposite -side, or were shot while in the water. The settlement was totally -destroyed. Of the three hundred people, a sixth were killed and one half -taken prisoners; the remainder escaped, or had already fled to Fort -Herkimer. The abundant live-stock was destroyed or driven off, and the -place left in ashes. All this was done almost under the eyes of the -commander of Fort Herkimer, but a short distance off, across the Mohawk -River. Having a small garrison, he, though fully warned by Oneida -Indians of the coming blow, was unable to send assistance, and perhaps -anticipated an attack on his own post. - -The people of Stone Arabia and Cherry Valley were excited, and prepared -to leave these places when the escaped refugees brought the news. Lord -Howe, with his reinforcements, though too late for action, prevented the -depopulation of the settlements. - -The sage Lord Loudon heard of this latest disaster while in Albany, and -his conduct was characteristic. Eager to find a victim on whom to vent -his rage and to bear his own and his officers’ shortcomings, he blamed -the Iroquois, and even proposed to make war against them. It was, -probably, only by the active persuasion of Johnson that he was turned -from his madness. - -Imagination vainly seeks to picture the results had Loudon, the grand -master of Great Britain’s resources, even begun his folly, and broken -the peace league which Van Curler had made, Schuyler extended, and -Johnson perfected. Had he practically betrayed his country by turning -the whole Indian power of the continent over to the French, the history -of this country would have been vastly different from that we know. Had -Johnson done nothing else than prevent this, he would deserve a high -place among the Makers of America. - - - - - CHAPTER X. - THE HEAVEN-BORN GENERAL. - - -IT IS HARD for Americans to realize that the French and Indian War was -more costly to Great Britain than was the War of the American -Revolution. As matter of fact, the British Government sent a larger -total of soldiers and sailors, and spent more blood and treasure in -defending the colonies and in wresting North America from the French, -than in endeavouring to coerce the revolted colonies. Though in the -various attempts at the reduction of Canada, no large armies like those -of Burgoyne or Cornwallis were lost by surrender, yet the number of men -slaughtered in siege and battle was greater, and the expeditions being -in the wilderness were much more costly. To throw a bomb into the -Niagara fort was like dropping a globe of silver; to fire canister, like -scattering a Danæan shower of guineas; while every effective bullet -required an outlay of pounds, as well as of shillings and pence. - -Before the decision of the long controversy between Latin and Teutonic -civilization in America, at the fall of Quebec, another terrible -disaster, caused largely by British arrogance and contempt of American -experience, remains to be recorded. This time it was to be linked not -with the name of Braddock or Loudon, but with that of Abercrombie. - -Under the quickening touch of the master-hand of Pitt, who knew the -topography of America, and had appointed the “young madman” Wolfe to -supersede Loudon, Louisburg, Ticonderoga, and Fort Du Quesne were chosen -as points of attack. Of the three expeditions planned, Abercrombie was -chosen to lead that which was to move to Canada by the great water-way -of Eastern New York. - -We need not here repeat the oft-told story of the capture of Louisburg -by Amherst and Wolfe; or that of the fall of Fort Du Quesne, which -Washington named Pittsburg. Tremendous enthusiasm was kindled in the -colonies at the news of these successes. In England, when the stands of -French colours, after being carried through the streets of London and -laid at the feet of King George, were hung up in St. Paul’s Cathedral, -the whole nation took fresh courage, and believed final victory near. -The name of the dashing and spirited Wolfe was on every tongue; though -the other heroes were not forgotten. In New England the names of the -successful British leaders were made monumental in geography. Such -places as Wolfboro, Amherst, Boscawen, and many others on the map, -almost as numerous as the grains shaken from a pepper-box, testify to -popular gratitude and enthusiasm. - -A different story is that of Abercrombie’s expedition. For the reduction -of the French fortress on Lake Corlaer, or Champlain, the largest army -ever gathered on the continent was encamped on the shores of Lake -George. Of the sixteen thousand men about three fifths were brilliantly -uniformed British regulars. For the first time the pavonine dress of the -bare-legged Highlanders was seen on large bodies of men on this side of -the Atlantic. Among the American militia officers were Stark, Putnam, -Bradstreet, and Rogers. The following of Sir William Johnson was three -hundred Indians. In over one thousand boats, with banners and music, the -host moved down the lake, making a superb pageant. In the first skirmish -in the woods between Lake George and Ticonderoga, the gallant Lord Howe -was killed. With Howe, fell the real head and leading mind of the -expedition for the capture of Fort Carillon, or Ticonderoga. Without -waiting for his artillery, which, being loaded on rafts, came more -slowly, Abercrombie, on the morning of July 8, ordered an attack on the -French abattis which had been made by Montcalm, two hundred yards in -front of the fort itself. - -This movement was against the advice of John Stark, who saw in the -Frenchman’s line of defence a solid breastwork of logs. He knew, also, -that the trees, cut down and laid with their branches outward over the -space of three hundred feet in front of the breastwork, would throw the -attacking platoons and columns out of order. With Braddock-like contempt -for a provincial captain’s advice, Abercrombie, forgetting how the rude -brushwood defence at Lake George had enabled the militia to repulse -Dieskau’s regulars, ignored the hints given by Stark. Taking care to -remain safely at the saw-mills, some distance in the rear, Abercrombie -sent forward his men in four columns. - -It was but a few minutes before all formations were hopelessly lost in -the jungle of brushwood. When Highlanders, rangers, British, and Yankees -were well entangled, sheets of fire issued from a line of heads behind -the log breastwork, while the French artillery also played bloody havoc. -Abercrombie, hearing of the initial disaster, left the saw-mills and -made off with himself to the boat-landing; thence, issuing his orders -for attacks on the left, the right, and the centre. For five hours, -without flinching, the victims of military incompetence furnished food -for French powder, and then broke into disorderly retreat. The whole -army followed their commander, and, when at the boats, would have sunk -them in their mad rush, but for the coolness and firmness of Colonel -Bradstreet. It is said that the French found, stuck in the mud, five -hundred pairs of shoes. - -The Highlanders—old retainers of the Stuarts, but organized by Pitt to -fight for the Guelphs—lost in this battle one half of their number. The -total loss of the English was nearly two thousand men. Montcalm, the -skilful soldier, covered himself with glory. The Indians under Johnson, -being on the top of a hill, took no part in the fight, though active as -spectators. - -Abercrombie retreated to the site of Fort William Henry at the head of -Lake George. The wildest rumours of the advancing victorious French army -now prevailed at Albany and in the Valley; but Johnson did much to allay -fear and restore confidence by sending out the militia, doubling the -guards, and garrisoning the forts and block-houses. Largely through his -earnest appeals, in person, to Abercrombie, General Stanwix was sent -with a large force to build a spacious fort at the one place where -direct boat navigation between Schenectady and Oswego is interrupted. -This portage of four miles—reduced to one mile by ditching and clearing -out the streams—was between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek, and made a -point of highest strategic importance. The fort—which was built and -named Fort Stanwix—had afterward a notable military history. - -From this point Colonel Bradstreet, having obtained by a bare majority -in a council of war permission to attack Fort Frontenac, which for three -years he had longed to do, set out with twenty-seven hundred militia, -eleven hundred of whom were from New York. Johnson, who had sent Capt. -Thomas Butler with forty-two Indians, received from him, under date of -August 28, 1758, the joyful news of Bradstreet’s complete victory, -which, all considered, compensated for the disaster of Abercrombie. It -cleared Lake Ontario of all French shipping, and was in relative -influence and importance fully equal to Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, -over half a century later. None rejoiced more than the sons and -grandsons of the victims of the Schenectady massacre of 1690, which had -been instigated by Frontenac, after whom the fort had been named. - -During this year Johnson was unusually active with the Indians, in -holding their loyalty to the British side or in maintaining their -neutrality. Many gatherings were held at his own house. In the great -council held at Easton, Penn., in October, 1758, five hundred Indians -were present, including delegates from all the Six Nations, the -Shawanese, Miamis, and Moheganders. The principal figure was -Teedyuscung, who insisted on his people being treated with the same -dignities accorded to the Iroquois. Indeed, if the explanation of the -Delawares be accepted, they had, in times long before, and at the -earnest request of the Indians both north and south of them, voluntarily -and by solemn treaty assumed a subordinate position as warriors and -refrained from war, in order to preserve peace, trade, and the general -good of the whole community of red men. They claimed, however, that it -was Iroquois overreaching in diplomacy and even downright treachery, -that made them seem to “accept the petticoat” and become “squaws.” It is -certain that Teedyuscung made it the aim of his life to secure for his -people the respect of the Iroquois and their equality with the proudest -of the red men. The Easton council lasted nineteen days, and was -productive of harmony both between the Indians and the whites, and among -the varied tribes themselves. The one who contributed most to this -gratifying success was not Johnson, but the honest German and Moravian, -Christian Post, who from his home in the Wyoming Valley had made a -journey and mission of peace, alone, among the tribes in the Ohio -Valley. - -When Sir Jeffrey Amherst reached America as commander-in-chief of the -British forces, he came at once, with his four regiments at Albany, to -reinforce Abercrombie. He found at Lake George, by the end of May, -twelve thousand New York and New England militia. Johnson at once urged -upon him the importance of capturing Niagara, the port between the two -great lakes. Amherst agreed to the proposal, and warmly seconded it. In -place of the stockade which the French from the time of La Salle had -maintained, there was now a formidable fort. To Sir William Prideaux was -assigned the work of reducing this Western stronghold; and Johnson, in -order to assist him, called a council at Canajoharie to enlist the -Mohawks, Senecas, and other Indians in the expedition. After the usual -eloquence and expenditure of war-belts of wampum, Johnson led into the -field seven hundred warriors, whose painted faces showed they were on -the war-path. The Swegatchie braves also swelled this following, so that -on arriving at Niagara he wrote to William Pitt, Oct. 24, 1760, that his -Indian force numbered nine hundred and forty-three men. - -By the 7th of July Prideaux with thirty-two hundred men, including -Johnson’s Indians, began siege operations. On the twelfth day he was -killed in the trenches by the bursting of a shell from a coehorn mortar. -This left the command to Johnson, who renewed operations with greater -vigour, and by the 22d breached the wall sufficiently for assault. - -While active in the trenches with hot shot, bombs, and canister, Johnson -did not forget to keep out his scouts and rangers. From them he learned -that the French officer D’Aubrey was advancing to the relief of the -garrison with twelve hundred men whom he had gathered from all the four -French posts on the lakes. Leaving a force to continue the bombardment, -Johnson marched out with infantry and grenadiers, having the Indians on -his flanks, and attacked the advancing French with vigour. In this -battle the Indians fought like genuine soldiers, and threw the French -into disorder. Seeing this, the charge of the regulars and militia was -made with such force and fury that in less than an hour the fight was -over, and a splendid victory for the English was the result. - -Returning to camp and trench, Johnson sent Major Harvey to Captain -Pouchot, the French commander, to tell of the defeat of D’Aubrey, and to -advise capitulation, especially while it was possible to restrain the -Indians. Pouchot yielded; and the surrender of the whole force of over -six hundred took place the next morning. Johnson wisely had ready an -escort for the French prisoners, and not one of them lost his scalp or -was rudely treated by the Iroquois. While the women and children were -sent to Montreal, the men were marched by way of Oswego to New York, to -fill English prisons. The manner in which Johnson restrained the savages -was in marked contrast to the butcheries allowed, or only with great -difficulty prevented, by the French under similar circumstances. - -Johnson’s victory at Niagara broke the chain of French forts along the -great valleys and water-ways from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the -delta of the Mississippi. One after another the French deserted the -other forts, except Detroit; and General Stanwix at once occupied them -or their ruins. Leaving Colonel Farquar at Niagara with a garrison of -seven hundred men, Johnson came to Oswego, there meeting General Gage, -who had been appointed to succeed Prideaux. Gage, perhaps irritated that -the provincial fur-trader or “Heaven-born general” had, instead of -himself, won the most brilliant of victories, refused to allow Johnson -to advance and destroy the French forts at La Galette and Oswegatchie, -or Ogdensburg. Finding that Gage, despite his advice and that of -Amherst, meant to do nothing of importance until the next year, Johnson, -after meeting the chief men of the Ottawa and Mississagey Indian tribes, -returned home. He was now the most popular man in the province; while -his name in England was joined with that of his fellow-tradesman, Clive, -as a “Heaven-born general.” - -At his home Johnson learned that the French had at last abandoned -Ticonderoga and Crown Point, but by concentrating at the northern end of -Lake Champlain and fortifying their position, blocked the British -advance to Montreal. Amherst was therefore obliged to rest for the -winter; having first rebuilt the great fortresses, constructed Fort -George near the site of old Fort William Henry, and cut a road from the -New York lakes into the heart of New England. Critics of the -over-cautious Amherst say he should have pushed on and helped Wolfe to -conquer Quebec earlier. However, after so many mistakes and disasters -arising from rashness, such a man as Amherst was, perhaps, necessary. -Wolfe, however, succeeded, and on the Plains of Abraham won America for -Teutonic civilization, finding the path of glory a short one to the -grave. - -Montreal still remained to the French; and when, the winter over, it was -resolved to attack this last stronghold from three points, Amherst with -the main army assembled at Schenectady was to proceed by way of Oswego -down the “ocean river” of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, General -Murray was to ascend the river from Quebec, while Colonel Haviland was -to advance by way of Lake Champlain. The colonial militia came in -slowly; but by the 12th of June Amherst left Schenectady with twelve -thousand men; while Johnson, arriving at Oswego July 25, led the first -detachment of six hundred Iroquois fighting men. His influence was -however so great that before embarking on Lake Ontario he had, from the -tribes formerly neutral, won over seven hundred more warriors. He also -sent runners with wampum belts to nine tribes of Indians living near -Montreal. These, on his arrival at Fort Levi, at once declared their -neutrality. It was thus from the danger of eight hundred hostile -warriors, familiar with every square rod of land and water, that -Amherst’s army was saved. Passing through the dangerous Lachine Rapids -with the loss of but forty-six men out of his ten thousand, he reached -Montreal. So perfectly was the plan of campaign carried out, that -Amherst and Murray appeared on opposite sides of the city on the same -day. Haldiman soon appeared from the south, and thus the three English -columns became practically one army within twenty-four hours. The city -surrendered on the 8th of September, 1760, and the French power in -America fell. - -So fully were the Indians kept in hand by Johnson, that no atrocities -were committed by them, nor the enemy’s people or country in any way -harmed by their presence. In this campaign, in which the talents of -Johnson shone with conspicuous brilliancy, his military career -culminated. - -The only French post of importance now remaining was Detroit. To carry -out the terms of the capitulation, and to plant the red flag with the -double cross in the remote Western posts, Captain Rogers, the celebrated -ranger, was sent westward on the 12th of September. At Presque Isle, -about a month later, Johnson’s deputy, Croghan, and interpreter, -Montour, with a force of Iroquois to serve as scouts, joined him. -Passing safely through the country under the influence of Pontiac, -having an interview with the great sachem on the site of Cleveland, they -reached Detroit, November 29. There, in the presence of hundreds of -Indians, heretofore the allies of France, the garrison marched out and -laid down their arms; the great chief, Pontiac, being one of the -witnesses of the memorable sight. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - DECLINE OF THE INDIAN AS A POLITICAL FACTOR. - - -WITH the change of dominion in North America came a change in the ruler -of Great Britain. King George II. died October, 1760; but this made no -alteration in the relations of Sir William Johnson to the Crown. On the -contrary, his sphere of influence was enlarged by his having charge of -Indian affairs in Canada, and indeed in all the regions north of the St. -Lawrence, in what is now called British America. In October, 1760, a new -commission as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, valid during the king’s -pleasure, was issued and duly received. At the request of General -Amherst, Johnson now made a journey to Detroit to regulate matters, and -settle various questions which had arisen in consequence of a change of -masters. - -Now that the contest so long, equally or unequally, waged by the two -forces was over, and but one people were masters of the situation, there -was no more balance of power. The Indian had lost his place at the -fulcrum. As a political factor, he was suddenly reduced to an ally only, -with the strong probability of soon becoming first a vassal and then a -cipher. No son of the forest saw this more clearly than Pontiac, who, in -the long line of red men who have vainly fought against destiny, from -King Philip to Tecumseh and from Black Hawk to Sitting Bull, stands -pre-eminent in genius and power as well as in the tragedy of failure. - -Johnson made the western journey accompanied by Capt. John Butler, his -secretary and prospective son-in-law Lieut. Guy Johnson, and a -body-guard of Oneida Indians. A long line of boats carried the -provisions and the Indian goods intended for gifts. Johnson’s object was -to learn everything possible about the country recently held under -French dominion, and about the Indians living in it. At Fort Stanwix, -where the portage required several days to be spent in unloading and -reloading on account of land transit, Colonel Eyre reached him with a -letter from General Amherst communicating startling news. Apparently -under the instigation of the Senecas, behind whom was Pontiac, all the -tribes from Nova Scotia to the Illinois were being plied by wampum belts -and messages, and a plot to murder the English garrisons was being -hatched. Owing to the warnings given to the garrisons by Captain -Campbell, the plot was, for the time at least, postponed. Johnson -accordingly called a council at Onondaga, and directly charged the -Senecas with dissimulation. He gave them to understand that only by -their appearance in friendly council at Detroit would his suspicions be -allayed and their own safety secured. - -A change in Johnson’s domestic arrangements made about this time -probably still further increased the prestige which he had so long -enjoyed among the red men. His wife Catharine died in 1759, and for a -while he illustrated in his own life the injury to morals which war, -especially when successful, usually causes. He lived with various -mistresses, as tradition avers, but after a year or two of such life -dismissed them for a permanent housekeeper,—Mary Brant, the sister of -Joseph Brant. According to the local traditions of the Valley, Johnson -first met the pretty squaw, when about sixteen years old, at a militia -muster. In jest, she asked an officer to let her ride behind him. He -assented, returning fun for fun. To his surprise she leaped like a -wild-cat upon the space behind the saddle, holding on tightly, with hair -flying and garments flapping, while the excited horse dashed over the -parade-ground. The crowd enjoyed the sight; but the most interested -spectator was Johnson, who, admiring her spirit, resolved to make her -his paramour. - -From this time forth Mollie Brant, the handsome squaw, was Johnson’s -companion. Her Indian name was Deyonwadonti, which means “many opposed -to one.” She was a granddaughter of one of the Mohawk chiefs who had -visited London a generation or two before, when “Quider,” or Peter -Schuyler, had shown the King of Great Britain some of his American -allies. Mary Brant was undoubtedly a woman of ability, and with her -Johnson lived happily. She presided over Fort Johnson, and later at -Johnson Hall. She became the mother of a large brood of Johnson’s -“natural” children; and as “the brown Lady Johnson,” white guests and -visitors always treated her with respect. With this new link to bind the -Iroquois to him, the colonel’s influence was deepened far and wide -throughout the Indian Confederacy. To strengthen his ascendancy over the -minds of the Indians, Johnson seemed to hesitate at nothing. - -The dangerous journey to Detroit was duly made, and after being waited -on by friendly deputies of the Ottawa Confederacy, the great council was -held on the 19th of September. Here, before the representatives of many -Indian nations from the four points of the compass, he made a great -speech, smoked the pipe of peace in the name of their Great Father the -King, and distributed the presents. The ceremonies wound up with a grand -dinner and ball to the people of Detroit. The return was safely made, -and home was reached October 30. - -During the winter of 1761, spent by Johnson in New York in pursuance of -his civil duties, Dr. Cadwallader Colden, the incorrigible Tory, who was -now lieutenant-governor, distinguished himself in further encroaching -upon the liberties of the people, by trying to make the judiciary -dependent on the Crown. Instead of the judges being appointed to hold -office during good behaviour, Colden wanted them to serve at the -pleasure of the king. In other words, he would, by making the king’s -will the term of office, reduce the bench of judges to be the instrument -of the royal prerogative. A lively discussion in the press was carried -on by William Livingston, John Scott, and William Smith, as champions of -the people, who contended vigourously for the principle so long regnant -in the Dutch, and now prominent in the American republic,—the supremacy -of the judiciary. Remembering too well how servile were the English -judges who held office at the pleasure of the Plantagenets, the Stuarts, -and even of Cromwell, the people of New York fought stoutly for their -rights and the republican principle. When Colden desired an increase of -salary for the Boston lawyer who acted as chief-justice, the Assembly -flatly refused to grant it. The salary of the obnoxious Chief Justice -Benjamin Pratt was finally paid out of the royal quit-rents of the -province. Colden wrote to the Board of Trade prophesying the dire -results of the doctrine—embodied in the preamble to the Constitution of -the United States only twenty-six years later—that all authority is -derived from the people. This is the doctrine on which republics are -founded. - -Largely due to Johnson’s influence was the passing by the Assembly of an -act for the better survey and allotment of lands in the province. At the -English conquest of 1664 the excellent Dutch customs of land survey, -measurement, registry, and allotment had been changed for the tedious -forms of English common law. In consequence, there was much confusion in -regard to claims and boundaries. Large tracts of land had been granted -by the British Government, under letters patent, in which the exact -quantity of land given away was not stated, nor the correct boundaries -named. Further, the popular methods of measurement in vogue—such as by -counting off the steps made by a grown man, or by using horse-reins or -bridles in lieu of a surveyor’s chain—were not calculated to insure -accuracy. Not only were constant trespassings made, both with honest and -dishonest intent, upon the king’s domain,—that is, the lands of the -Indians,—but there were frequent troubles about the division of the -great patents. The lawyers held that when the boundaries were uncertain, -the title was void. The only way to settle the many disputes was to have -all the patents and tracts accurately surveyed by the king’s -surveyor-general, and done in so scientific a manner that his lines -should be final; while the names of the patentees, the size of the -patent, and the year when patented, should be matter of public -knowledge. The good fruits of this piece of legislation were the removal -of much of the irritation felt by the Indians, and the prevention of -further encroachments on the royal lands. - -In a word, close approximation was made to the methods followed in the -Republic of Holland for centuries, and established in the New -Netherlands by the first settlers from the Fatherland. After the -Revolution, under the Surveyor-General of the United States, Simeon De -Witt, a Hollander by descent, and familiar with the Dutch methods, this -system, enlarged and improved, became that of the whole nation from the -Atlantic to the Pacific. It is this system, lying at the basis of the -land laws of the United States, which so won the encomium of Daniel -Webster in his great address at Plymouth, when he said that our laws -relating to land had made the American Republic. - -Some time afterward, the Mohawks, who had forgotten the covenants of the -past, thereby showing the worthlessness of mere tradition or unsupported -assertions freshly fabricated, claimed that “the great flat,” or large -tract of fertile land near Schenectady, had not been purchased of them, -but had been lent to the Dutch settlers simply as pasture-land. On their -making complaint to Johnson, the documents were called for, and duly -produced by the magistrates of Schenectady. The deed of sale to Van -Curler and his fellow-settlers, made in Fort Orange, July 27, 1661 -(“Actum in de fort^{ss} Orangie den 27^{e} July A. 1661”), was first -produced. On it were the signatures or marks of the sachems Cantuquo, -Aiadne, and Sonareetsie, with the totem-signs of the Bear, Tortoise, and -Wolf. Other papers of later date were shown, which set more definite -boundaries to the patent of eighty thousand acres. Johnson declared the -Schenectady men in the right. The Indians, with perfect confidence in -Johnson as arbitrator, went to their bark houses satisfied. - -From this time forth until the end of his life, a large part of -Johnson’s time was occupied in the settlement of land disputes between -whites and Indians. Ceasing to be any longer a political factor in the -future development of the continent, the Indian’s course was steadily -downward. Having exhausted the benefit of his service, the British and -colonial governments were both only too ready to ignore the red man’s -real or supposed rights. Steadily the frontiers of civilization were -pushed forward upon the broad and ancient hunting-grounds of the West. -In the old and thickly settled domain of the Iroquois, it was now -scarcely possible for an Indian to chase deer without running into a -fence or coming unexpectedly upon a clearing where the white man stood, -gun in hand, to warn off intruders. The saw-mills of the pale-face -spoiled the primeval forests, choked the trout-streams with sawdust, and -killed the fish, even as his traps and ploughed land drove off the game. -Henceforth, though Johnson’s business with the Indians was greater than -ever before, it was largely matter of laborious detail and settled -routine. Important as was his work to the perfecting of the results -attained by the annulling of French pretensions, it would be monotonous -to tell the whole story. His toil was necessary to the uniformity -desirable in all the king’s dominions, yet it lacked the picturesque -element dominant in his early life, and need not here be set forth. We -may take notice only of the most important of his labours as examiner of -claims, as advocate for the right, and as judge and decider. - -After inviting the sachems of the Six Nations to assemble at his house -to hear his report of the Detroit Council, he examined into the famous -Kayaderosseras or Queensborough patent of several hundred thousand acres -granted in 1708. This patent was one of several which the Mohawks -claimed were fraudulently obtained. Johnson heard both sides fully, and -decided that the Indian claim was the correct one, and that the white -man was in the wrong. The result was that the alleged owner gave full -release. In the matter of the lands on the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, -but claimed by Connecticut, the Iroquois were so excited that they sent -a delegation of five chiefs to Hartford. These were led by Guy Johnson, -and bore a letter from Sir William. The Connecticut people held -tenaciously to their claim, and were about to settle, to the number of -three hundred families, in the Wyoming Valley. In the speech of the -Onondaga orator at Hartford, after rehearsing the story of the covenant -with Corlaer, and denouncing men like Lydius and Kloch, who fraudulently -obtained the Indians’ land, he declared the Six Nations would resist, -even unto blood, the loss of their Susquehanna lands. Governor Fitch -heartily agreed with the Iroquois, and so actively seconded the royal -order that the proposed settlement was, at least, postponed. - -Johnson predicted in a letter to Amherst, March 30, 1763, “the dangerous -consequences which must inevitably attend the settlement of these people -in the Wyoming Valley.” The Susquehanna Company persevered, however, and -at the council held at Fort Stanwix succeeded in getting from some of -the chiefs—after Johnson had been warily approached with bribes to take -the vice-presidency of the company—a title-deed to the lands. Into this -beautiful valley, twenty-one miles long, and now one of the richest and -most lovely in all Pennsylvania, forty families from Connecticut settled -in 1769. The unsleeping vengeance of the Senecas did not find its -opportunity until 1778. Then, led by Butler and his Tories, the awful -massacre was perpetrated which has furnished the poet Campbell with his -mournful theme. - -During the great conspiracy and war of Pontiac, Johnson was ceaselessly -active in measures tending to holding the loyalty of the Indians. The -Senecas, always the most wayward, because most easily influenced by the -French, and more susceptible to Indian arguments, at first espoused the -cause of Pontiac. The baronet had no sooner heard of this than he called -a council of all the Six Nations at German Flats, and secured a -tremendous advantage to the cause of civilization, by winning them over -to neutrality. He sent Captain Claus with the same end in view to -Caughnawaga, or the Sault St. Louis. At this place, formerly called La -Prairie, whence had so often issued in the old days, from 1690 and -onward, scalping-parties on the English and Dutch settlements, Claus met -the Caughnawaga, St. Francis, and other tribes of Indians, thus cutting -off another possible contingent for Pontiac. So successful was Claus, -that these Canadian tribes not only sent deputies to dissuade the -Western braves, but also warned them that in case of hostilities they -would fight for the king with their English brethren. - -Not knowing what roving bands of Western savages might make sudden -raids, Johnson ordered out the Valley militia, despatched Indian scouts -to Crown Point, built a stockade of palisades around Johnson Hall, and -armed his own tenants and the people of Johnstown. The two stone towers -or block-houses flanking the Hall were mounted with cannon,—the weapons -most objectionable to savages, one of them being a piece captured at -Louisburg, and presented by Admiral Warren. Seeing that the Mohawk -Valley was thus so guarded, the Western braves, though harrying the -frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, kept out of New York. Indeed it -seems not too much to assert that the influence of Johnson over the -Indians east of Detroit was the chief cause of the failure of Pontiac’s -great plot. Angry with this one man because of his power to thwart their -designs, the followers of Pontiac intended to penetrate to Johnstown and -take his life. Hearing of their purpose, the Mohawks, coming in a great -delegation to their Great Brother, offered to serve as his body-guard. - -Pontiac’s attempt to recover this continent to barbarism failed, but the -scattered war continued for years. Half of the warriors of the Seneca -castles were out on the war-path with the Delawares and Shawanese; and -against these Johnson sent out many a war-party from Johnson Hall, -selecting his men from among the most loyal of the Iroquois. These three -tribes were already in possession of a large number of rifles which -Swiss hunters of the chamois and German skilled artisans made at -Lancaster and other places in Pennsylvania. Being thus more effectively -armed and able to move with less ammunition, they were also less -dependent on the white man,—a condition of things which Johnson viewed -with alarm. We find him writing to the Lords of Trade, requesting that -traffic in such deadly weapons should be prohibited. Colonel Bouquet, -the gallant Swiss officer, avenged Braddock’s defeat by his brilliant -victory at Bushy Run; and the Moravian Indians in Pennsylvania were -ruthlessly slaughtered by wild beasts in white skins who wore the -clothes of civilization. All this was part of “Pontiac’s War.” - -“War is hell,” as Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman insisted in our own -days; and the barbarities in Johnson’s times seemed to have made devils -of both white and red men. We find Johnson again making himself a trader -in scalps by offering out of his own private pocket fifty dollars apiece -for the heads of the Delaware chieftains. In a word, he continued a -policy becoming obsolete in other colonies. He thus encouraged the -retention by the British Government, long after the Revolution had -broken out, of a custom worthy of Joshua and his Hebrews in Canaan, or -of the pagan Anglo-Saxons in Celtic Britain, but not of Christian -England or of modern America. Was he encouraged to do this by his squaw -wife, Mollie Brant? - -Teedyuscung was no more; but his son, Captain Bull, was an active -warrior. The famous Delaware chief had perished in the flames of a house -in which he was lying in a drunken stupor. An incendiary and hostile -savage had been bribed by enemies to do the vile deed. Captain Bull, -while on his way to surprise a white settlement, was himself surprised, -July 26, 1764, by the interpreter, Montour, now become a captain, who -led a band of two hundred Oneidas and Tuscaroras. The Delawares were all -captured and taken by way of Fort Stanwix to Johnson Hall. Those who -were not adopted into the Confederacy found their way into the jails of -New York. Joseph Brant, leading another party of Iroquois into the -country of the head-waters of the Susquehanna, surprised other Delaware -braves, killed their chief, and burned seven villages. - -The result of these successes was to cow and terrify the Senecas, who -came to Johnson Hall and made peace. General Gage vigourously pressed -operations against the hostile tribes, and sent Bradstreet westward. As -a reinforcement, Johnson persuaded over five hundred of the Confederate -Iroquois to join Bradstreet. He then went himself to Niagara, arriving -July 8, 1764, to hold a grand council with all the Indians favourable to -the English cause, from Dakota to Hudson Bay, and from Maine to -Kentucky. Besides a treaty of peace with the Hurons, the earth-hunger of -the pale-faces was temporarily satisfied by a cession of land along the -lakes, accompanied with the promise of protection to navigation. The -Senecas also ceded, not for private use, but to the Crown, a strip of -land eight miles wide between Lakes Erie and Ontario, bisected by the -Niagara River. They made a promise of the islands in the river to -Johnson himself, who immediately transferred them to the British -Government. A considerable number of white prisoners were delivered up. -In this policy of possibly mistaken kindness, in which the change of -life to those who had forgotten their old home and friends and had -become habituated to Indian life, was like a resurrection, there were -many incidents like those upon which Cooper has founded his romance of -“The Wept of the Wish-ton-wish.” Johnson’s advertisement to friends of -the captives is one of the pathetic curiosities in the American -journalism of the eighteenth century. - -After interviews between Johnson’s agent, Croghan, and Pontiac, -arrangements were made for the amicable dwelling together of the two -races. Johnson had proposed to the Lords of Trade in London that the -territory west of the Ohio River should be forever reserved to the Six -Nations as a hunting-ground. Another great council was held at his house -April 27, at which over nine hundred Indians, including one hundred and -twenty Senecas, the Delaware chiefs Squash-Cutter and Long-Coat, were -present. The various conferences lasted nearly a month, resulting in a -fresh treaty of peace with the Western Indians. They covenanted to allow -the boundary to be made, protect traders, allow the passage of troops, -deliver up murderers to the nearest garrison, and endeavour to win over -the Illinois tribes. Later, Croghan, the agent of Johnson, visited -Detroit, on the way collecting the white captives delivered up, and -meeting the penitent Pontiac, who of his own accord made overtures of -peace and accompanied Croghan. On the 17th of August, at Detroit, he met -the Ottawas, Pottawatamies, and Chippewas, and in one of several -conferences presented Johnson’s road-belt to “open the path of the -English from the rising to the setting sun.” Ten days later, on the -27th, with Pontiac and the tribes of the great Ottawa Confederacy, the -war-hatchet was buried, the tree of peace planted, and the calumet of -peace smoked. Pontiac even gave a promise to visit Johnson at Oswego to -ratify the peace thus made. The road being cleared for the passage of -the troops, Captain Sterling, with one hundred Highlanders from Fort -Pitt, received possession, October 10, of Fort Chartres, and the French -flag was hauled down. - -True to his promise, Pontiac met Johnson at Oswego July 23. Amid every -possible accessory of impressive display and ceremony, the sacramental -wampum, the sacred promises of peace and tokens of friendship were -exchanged. Then Pontiac and his braves moved out in their canoes over -Lake Ontario to the west and to obscurity. Henceforth the way of -Teutonic civilization was cleared, and the march to the Pacific began. -As we write in 1891, the centre of population is near Chicago. - -In October, 1768, the great council called for the purpose of making a -scientific frontier met at Fort Stanwix. This great concourse, not only -of Indians, but of the governors and other distinguished men of -Pennsylvania and New Jersey, makes one of the historical pictures in the -story of America well worth the artist’s interpretation on canvas. -Johnson, being at this time heartily interested in the welfare of St. -George’s Episcopal Church, built next to the British barracks in -Schenectady, in which he was a frequent worshipper, profited by the -presence and happy mood of so many prominent men. He took up a -collection, and secured sixty-one pounds and ten shillings for the -little stone church on whose spire in Ferry Street still veers the -gilded cock of St. Nicholas, the symbol of vigilance and of the -resurrection. - -Of the Six Nations and other tribes, thirty-two hundred individuals were -present to witness the bartering away of their birthright for such -pottage as the pale-faces had to tempt these Esaus of the wilderness. -For ten thousand pounds, unlimited rum, and after due exchange of -eloquence and wampum, they sold to the king the ground now occupied by -Kentucky, Western Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania. Fort Stanwix was -dismantled. The Indians moved out of Eastern New York, and the next year -Daniel Boone led that great emigration of white men from the Southern -Atlantic coast which resulted in the winning of the West. Boone’s was a -movement for the annihilation of savagery, the extinction of Latin, and -the supremacy of Teutonic civilization in North America, parallel to -that rolling westward from New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. - -This was the last of the most important meetings and negotiations of -Johnson with the men who claimed by hereditary right to occupy the -continent. Though afterward full of toilsome detail, and busy in -conference, in hearing complaints, and securing the performance of -stipulations, Johnson’s constructive career as Superintendent of Indian -Affairs virtually closed at Fort Stanwix. - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - LIFE AT JOHNSON HALL. - - -THE last ten years of Johnson’s life were among the busiest of his -career. War matters occupied but a portion of his time. His greater -works were those of peace, his chief idea being the development in -civilization of the region watered by the Mohawk and its tributaries. -The story of his life now concerns itself with the location of settlers; -the education of the Indians; the building of schools, churches, and -colleges; the improvement of land and live-stock; the promotion of -agriculture, and of the arts and comforts of life. In a word, none more -than he carried out the command to replenish the earth and possess it. - -Fortune seemed to have no frowns for this one of the chief Makers of -America. Popular with his neighbours, and appreciated on the other side -of the ocean, his rewards were many. Besides the gift of five thousand -pounds accompanying the title of baronet, the king, in June, 1769, made -over to him the famous “royal grant” of sixty-six thousand acres on the -north side of the river between the East and West Canada creeks, the -present town of Little Falls being in the southern centre. This large -piece of territory had been given him by the Mohawks in 1760, as a token -of their gratitude and appreciation, Johnson making return for the gift -in a sum amounting to over twelve thousand dollars. As no private person -could, under the proclamation of 1763, obtain in any way so large a -tract of land, the possession was made sure by being given under the -royal seal and approbation as a token of his services. - -It was, however, as early as 1763 that Johnson chose the site on which -to found the village of Johnstown, and to erect Johnson Hall,—as a -letter dated May 8, 1763, to Mr. Samuel Fuller, of Schenectady, the -architect and builder, shows. Like his former house on the Mohawk, this -edifice, so famed in romance and history, still stands, though outwardly -somewhat altered in appearance by the addition of modern roofs, -bay-windows, portico, and verandas. Only one of the two square towers or -houses which flanked the main edifice still remains. - -The writer visited the Hall in July, 1890, being pleasantly received by -the present owner and occupant, Mrs. John E. Wells, and allowed to see -the spacious rooms which, upstairs and down, flanked the superb, wide -hall-ways which extend from front to rear doors. The missing block-house -was burned by accident in May, 1866. Between the cellar of the mansion -and those of the block-houses an underground passage formerly existed, -in which my informant often played, until within a few years ago. A -circle of Lombardy poplars planted round the Hall, once formed a -striking feature of the landscape,—for these prim sentinels made a -strange cordon to the Indians and those accustomed only to the American -forest trees. Only four survivors on the east front of the house -remain,—the small arc of a grand circle. Of an old walnut-tree planted -by Johnson himself, and lovingly preserved as an historical relic, only -the vine-covered and flower-adorned trunk was left, in which a squirrel -was nimbly enjoying itself. The Hall faces the east, the ground sloping -to the left. The mansion has been in the possession and occupancy of the -Wells family for over a century. - -Passing to the village, a half-mile to the east, I visited the church -built by Johnson. Its walls are of the famous graywacke stone which -underlies the Mohawk Valley, and which is so widely utilized in -edifices. A fire in 1836 that emptied the building of nearly everything, -and left only the walls, was the occasion for rebuilding. When this was -done, in 1838, the site was so changed that the grave of Johnson under -the altar was left outside the new building, and the exact site of it -lost to memory. For several years it may be said that the very spot -where lay the dust of this Maker of America was forgotten. In 1862 the -rector, Rev. Charles H. Kellogg, took measurements, sunk a shaft, and -discovered the brick vault. Only a few fragments of the mahogany coffin -remained,—the leaden coffin enclosing it having been cut up during the -Revolutionary War for making bullets. The skull and a few bones left, -together filled but a quarter of a bushel. It is not stated whether the -bullet which remained in the wound in Johnson’s body when he died was -found; but the dated gold ring was, and is carefully kept. The relics of -once animated earth were enclosed in a hollowed granite block, and -re-deposited with solemn ceremonies by Bishop Horatio Potter, a few feet -east of the church, in a space of the churchyard which has no other -tombs in it. The unmarked mound, eight feet square and six inches high, -barely discoverable by a passerby, had no other decoration than the thin -grass which manages to live between the shade of two buildings. The -action of St. Patrick’s Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons which Johnson -founded—his son being the last Provincial Grand Master of the upper -district of the Province of New York—is still awaited. Either the -Masons, or others who honour Johnson’s memory, should set up a worthy -memorial of the great man who has stamped his name so ineffaceably on -the history of America. - -In the neat village itself are many things to remind one of its founder. -The chief hotel is named after the baronet. A number of autograph -letters and relics are in possession of private persons. Documents in -the handwriting of Johnson are in the Masonic Lodge which he founded in -the parlour of Johnson Hall in 1772. The gold ring found in 1836 with -his dust, and inscribed with the date of an important event, and -possibly with the age of his bride, is here. Nor far away, the cradle of -black walnut in which Mollie Brant rocked her children is preserved as a -relic. In an old innkeeper’s book the first entry is that of the great -man’s name, who ordered the first glass of grog. Besides the evidences -of ordinary human life and infirmity, one cannot go very far in the -Mohawk Valley, or in those of the lowlands which hold the tributaries to -the river flowing through it, or in the collateral ones on higher -levels, but the fruits of a rich and busy life abound. - -Johnson, though belonging to the Church of England, was willing to help -men who were of the Churches of Holland or of Germany. He assisted all -Christians to have houses of worship,—at Fort Hunter, Canajoharie, -Burnet’s Field, especially; but in other towns and villages tokens of -his presence are to be seen. He helped financially the Lutheran and -Reformed Germans, and the Dutch congregations, and provided the Indians -with missionaries and churches. With Domine Samuel Kirkland, who -laboured among the Iroquois for over forty years, and was the founder of -the town of Kirkland and of Hamilton College, Johnson was on friendly -and sympathetic terms. He greatly honoured the young man’s character, -and appreciated his labours; and the two frequently corresponded. During -one winter while secluded in Cherry Valley, Kirkland was saved from -starvation by the Indians, who gathered ginseng, for which they bought -provisions in Albany. The root having been just discovered on this -continent by a French Jesuit in Vermont, early in the century, already -formed one of the staples of American commerce with China. - -While it is absurd to say that Johnson first “discovered” the fertility -of the Mohawk Valley, it is unquestionably true that he greatly -stimulated advance in agriculture. Under his encouragement many of the -Mohawk Indians became happy and prosperous farmers. When the officers -and men under the leadership of Sullivan, the New Hampshire general of -Irish descent, invaded the country of the Six Nations in 1778, they were -amazed at the evidences of Indian thrift, and at the wide areas of -richly cultivated land. - -These being the piping times of peace, Johnson built a handsome -summer-house at Broadalbin, in Fulton County, where he entertained -lavishly. Having a healthy interest equal to that of the Englishman in -out-door sports, he also erected on the south bank of the Sacandaga -Creek a lodge, which has given the place the name it still holds,—the -Fish House. The building, which was of wood painted white, with the -doors and mouldings painted green, was comfortably furnished. It was -frequently occupied in summer, often with gay company from New York or -Albany. An orchard, vegetable-garden, well of spring water, sheds for -horses and cattle, with poultry and stock, enabled the lord of Johnson -Hall, with the assistance of his favourite negro slaves from the Manor, -to dispense lavish hospitality to his friends from Albany, Schenectady, -the Valley settlements, or even from Manhattan Island. Coming himself on -such occasions, in his later years, in a coach and six, it was no -infrequent sight to see the like equipages numerous in the grounds of -the Fish House. For days together, gayety and bustle filled the grounds, -while pleasure-parties of both sexes in the boats tempted to their hooks -the finny spoil. Excellent gunning was also provided in autumn for the -gentlemen in the sunken lands and low-lying coves along the Sacandaga, -wild ducks and geese being the chief game. Oftener, however, instead of -visiting Europeans or fashionable society nearer home, the baronet would -be accompanied by his cultured Irish friend and family physician, Dr. -Patrick Daly, and by his favourite musician, Billy. Nor is it likely -that tradition wrongs him in frequently furnishing him with other -room-mates, since chastity was not the shining virtue of Sir William -Johnson. - -Simms, the gossipy annalist of Schoharie, who seemed incapable of -writing history or holding himself to a narrative without meandering off -into theology, politics, or preaching, has much to say about Sir William -Johnson. Though gathering a valuable harvest, his sheaves need to be -well threshed out before using. He has set down in sober print much -tittle-tattle which New England historians, as usual when writing about -New York, have only too freely copied. - -We see that the household at the Hall and in the quarters was almost as -cosmopolitan as New York itself. Simms tells us that Johnson’s -bouw-master, or head farmer, was an Irishman named Flood. He looked -after the ten or fifteen negro slaves who lived with their families in -cabins on the other side of the Cayudutta Creek, opposite the Hall. They -dressed much like Indians, but wore coats. His private secretary, after -Wraxall, Croghan, and others, was a Mr. Lafferty,—a good lawyer withal, -who attended also to Johnson’s legal business. The family physician, -named Daly, was a companionable and cultivated gentleman. Billy, a dwarf -about thirty years of age, was a master of the violin, and the presiding -genius of the numerous balls given in the Hall when “persons of quality” -were guests, or at the village when the tenantry or other citizens had -their merry-makings. The gardener kept the grounds “as neat as a pin,” -and from May to November smiling with flowers. The butler, Frank, was an -active young German; and the chief body-guard was Pontiac, a sprightly, -well-disposed lad of part Indian blood. He was named after the great -conspirator, and was often with Johnson when away from home. Two of the -waiters,—probably brothers,—named Bartholomew, were short, thick-set -white men. Across the road from the Hall were the blacksmith and the -tailor, who did little work outside of the “royal” or “patroon’s” -household. The numerous progeny and employees of Johnson furnished them -with almost constant occupation. One of the most important characters -was the schoolmaster, Wall, an Irishman with a rich brogue. His -specialty was the teaching of manners and rudiments of English to the -children of the tenantry and Johnson’s half-breed bastards. It may be -well imagined that the training given by Wall was rather to fit his -pupils for proper subordination than to be self-reliant patriots. In -front of the schoolhouse stood the whipping-post and the stocks, for -which truant boys, drunken louts, wife-beaters, and other transgressors, -actual and potential, were supposed to have due respect. - -Holidays and out-door merry-makings were frequent. The many-sided lord -of the manor seemed most in his natural element when providing or -participating in the athletic sports, Irish games and frolics with which -he amused Indians and whites, old and young. Himself ever jovial and -fond of fun, he entered into the performances with an enthusiasm that -was magnetic. The greasy pole with a coin or other prize on the top was -set up for the nude Indian children to attempt to climb. The pig with -its tail likewise anointed was set free to be caught by him or her who -could. Tradition tells how, in one case, an old Indian squaw beat every -one in the race, and finally, having caught up a handful of sand, had -literally the grit to hold on and win the race. Sack, hurdle, and -three-legged races were also favourite amusements. - -Besides all this out-door activity and healthy occupation, there was -plenty of amusement indoors. The numerous guests who came from all -quarters and at all times made Johnson Hall more like a grand hotel than -the private house of a gentleman. From April, after the ice in the -Mohawk had burst, as it often did, with a sound like cannon, and floated -out to the Hudson and to the sea, and the spring floods were over, until -the autumnal splendours of crimson and gold filled the Valley, the house -rarely lacked guests. Indian chiefs and warriors came at all times; but -in summer the paint and feathers of forest fashions were replaced by -those from beyond sea. The rouge, powder, patches, wigs, perukes, silken -gowns and stockings, silver-buckled shoes, and ruffled cuffs and -shirt-fronts from London, or patterned after Piccadilly prints, filled -the Hall with brilliant colour. With musical instruments, a well-filled -library, and the last new novel on the drawing-room table, the guests -could easily amuse themselves on a rainy day; while in fair weather -saunterings over the grounds of their host, or drives or rides in the -beautiful country around, made the daylight hours fly pleasantly. Then, -in full dress for the evening dinner, the night soon passed in feasting, -drinking, and exchanging news, with chat, gossip, and smoke; and more -than one of the hours of morning arrived before the concourse broke up. - -Such a course of life was kept up for years, until the hospitality of -Johnson Hall became a proverb, and its revelry, we must add, passed into -a byword. Despite his constant out-door life and otherwise good habits, -it is more than probable that such luxurious living long persisted in -explains why the baronet never saw his sixtieth year. - -In practical farming and in horticulture Johnson took great delight, and -in his intervals of leisure did much, both by personal example and by -neighbourly conference with the farmers, to improve crops and -live-stock. He was a regular correspondent of the Society for the -Promotion of Arts in England, and of the American Philosophical Society -in Philadelphia. Agriculture was one of the themes most often discussed -in his letters. He sent frequently to London for choice varieties of -seeds, and delighted to see how they fared in our climate and soil. Of -horses and other fine stock he was very fond, and to him is due the -credit of the introduction of sheep and blooded stallions. He also -credits himself with first raising hay, and thus stimulating the -development of improved breeds of cattle. While thus on his table lay -the last reviews and best periodical literature of London; while in his -library the European scholars, professors from Harvard and Yale, and -English ladies from London drawing-rooms, would all find books to their -taste, the pursuit of science indoors and out was carried on with ardour -by the lord of the manor himself. - -In attendance upon the county fair at Fonda during the summer of 1890, -the writer was struck with the variety and excellence of the live-stock, -as well as with the richness of the agricultural products of Montgomery -County. This county, with Saratoga and others adjoining, has had marked -influence upon the development of the region westward. Not a few of the -fine specimens of horses and cattle are descendants of the denizens of -the Johnson farm of pre-Revolutionary days. Certainly Johnson was one of -the benefactors of the race, who made many blades of grass grow where -none grew before. Not the least of his good offices was in prevailing -upon the British Government to relax the illiberal laws which prevented -the agricultural development of the Mohawk Valley. Much of England’s -troubles with her colonies arose from her determination to keep the -American part of her domain as a close market for exclusively British -products, and thus to compel the Americans to buy only those goods which -were manufactured in England or came from British ports. In thus -attempting to nip in the bud all flowering of the native genius of the -people, she succeeded in hampering, but not wholly repressing, American -manufactures. Johnson, as we have seen, was able to get removed the -restriction against raising wool. Peter Hasenclever, a Palatine German, -who owned land next to Johnson’s royal patent, started an iron foundry, -and though himself failing after long and earnest efforts, unable to -surmount the numberless difficulties, gave a great stimulus to the -development of the iron industry in Northern and Eastern New York. -Philip Schuyler set up a flourishing flax-mill. - -Johnson lived to see the fearful results of the determination of the -lucre-loving British lords to force their products upon Americans at all -hazards. He regretted these violations not only of human rights in -general, but of Englishmen’s rights in particular; though not so -outspoken as he might have been. The Americans, while willing to be -customers to the greatest nation of shopkeepers, were resolved not to be -considered as buyers, and victims of monopoly only. Johnson fortunately -died before the covetousness, avarice, and arbitrary thick-headedness of -Great Britain, which had forced the slave-trade, hampered commerce, and -paralyzed foreign commerce and home manufactures, compelled the -colonists to rebuke her pretensions by an appeal to arms. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII. - JOHNSON’S FAMILY; LAST DAYS; EUTHANASIA. - - -WHILE the brown Lady Johnson, Mollie Brant, presided over the mansion, -and her dusky brood attended the manor school, the daughters of Johnson -and of Catharine Wisenberg were trained under the care of a governess -who made them familiar with the social graces of London and the polite -accomplishments and standard literature of England. Mary Brant, though -not only an Indian, but a Mohawk Indian in spirit, was to her dying day, -in the old English and Hebrew sense of the word, a virtuous woman. She -had the virile qualities of worth, excellence, and abilities, and not -only managed her household to the satisfaction of her lord, but kept -herself well informed and interested in the two worlds in which lived -the people of the Long House and those of Christendom. More than one -English lady visiting at the Hall was surprised to find this Iroquois -woman so cultivated, refined, and alert, not only with womanly -intuition, but equipped with information as to the life and thoughts in -which they and their husbands moved. - -Johnson was happy in the careers of his children born in wedlock, so far -as he lived to witness them. His first-born child, John, was the -especial pride of his father, though he never won the regard of his -neighbours. He had the misfortune to be the son of a great man, and to -be constantly compared with his father. He was educated under Domine -Vrooman and other clergymen of the Dutch Reformed and Anglican Churches. -He often accompanied his father on his journeys, notably the adventurous -one to Detroit in 1761. Later he was placed in command of three hundred -Iroquois; but these unfortunately deserted their commander, who had not -the power, like his father, to sweeten the rigours of discipline by -magnetic personality and system. He had considerable experience in the -field with the militia, but never won much personal popularity. Visiting -England to complete his education, he was presented at court, and -knighted at St. James’s, Nov. 22, 1765. He later became a member of the -Assembly, being pitted against Colonel Schuyler, who rightly or -wrongly—more probably the latter—imagined the father to be prodding -the son or using him for a cat’s-paw. - -On the 29th of June, 1773, Sir John was married to Miss Mary Watts, of -New York City, the wedding being at the bride’s house. The bridal tour -was a trip up the Hudson River when Nature was dressed in her glorious -summer robes. A stay at Albany marked by brilliant social attentions, -and the ride up the loveliest of valleys, completed the journey. Johnson -Hall was then embosomed in a wealth of foliage and flowers, and bright -with the pageantry which manor life could on special occasions display. -Sir John, on the death of his father, succeeded to an estate which, with -the exception of that of the founder of Pennsylvania, was probably the -largest ever held by a private individual in America. At the request of -the Indians to Johnson, and of the latter to the king, Col. Guy Johnson -was made Superintendent of Indian Affairs, assisted by Colonel Claus; -but Sir John succeeded to the office of major-general of the militia. To -tell the story of his Tory career in the Revolution is no part of our -plan. “The Life and Misfortunes and Military Career of Brig.-Gen. Sir -John Johnson, Baronet,” has been ably written by Gen. J. Watts De -Peyster. In this book a list of Sir William Johnson’s descendants are -given. - -Johnson usually called Anne, his first daughter, Nancy, and often wrote -to her while away from home. A son of one of the Palatine Germans, -Daniel Claus, a noted Indian fighter, captain of militia, and a man of -considerable culture in German, English, and the Iroquois languages, and -withal a favourite of Sir William, fell in love with Miss Nancy, and -married her in July, 1762. The nuptials were celebrated at Johnson Hall -with great rejoicing. Claus assisted his father-in-law and Joseph Brant -in translating and preparing the Book of Common Prayer in the Mohawk -language. In thus following up and completing the work of Domine -Barnhardus Freeman, of Schenectady, a manual of devotion was prepared -for the Mohawks which was in use until near the second half of the -present century. As colonel of militia, Claus saw long and varied -service in New York, Canada, and the West. - -Mary Johnson, the baronet’s second daughter, married in March, 1763, her -cousin Guy, a nephew of Sir William and his private secretary. Guy -Johnson was later an active member of the Assembly from Tryon County, -and was always a helpful assistant of his uncle. Their daughter Mary -became wife of Sir Colin Campbell, and mother of Gen. Sir Guy Campbell. -Guy Johnson’s career in devastating the valleys of New York during the -Revolution is too well known to need repetition here. - -The absorption of Johnson’s mind in his multifarious labours and in the -interests of the community in which he lived, scarcely gave him time to -study carefully the great political movements leading to the Revolution. -The time had now come when the continued folly of the king and -Parliament acting as irritant and stimulant upon people in whom a love -of freedom was inborn, was to result in independence. The long training -in the border wars had educated a generation of soldiers who did not -fear to meet either the mercenaries or the regulars of Great Britain, -while also well able to profit by the mistakes of the king’s agents, and -to organize government for themselves. On the civil side, the people of -New England, led and trained by Congregational clergymen rather than by -lawyers, were educated into the idea of resistance to the king and -Parliament on grounds of abstract right. In the Middle and Southern -States regularly educated publicists and lawyers trained in England were -much more numerous. The continued invasion by the king of their rights -as Englishmen was their theme; and resistance was made, and final -victory expected, not by revolution, but through the right application -of the law and tradition which had been so often violated. In many of -the colonies a well-grounded fear lest a politically organized church -should be forced upon them, as well as hatred of England’s avaricious -policy of holding the colonies as a close market, had also their -influence in bringing about separation. - -Johnson, too busily occupied to follow every step of the movements, yet -sympathized with the people, even while sincerely loyal to the Crown. As -member of the Council in New York City, he witnessed not only the -frequent turbulent expressions of the populace, but also saw from the -firm temper of the Assembly signs of the coming danger. While John -Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, and Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, were -discussing the political situation and the principles at stake, the -people of New York showed by their acts their constant determination to -resist all invasion of their rights by either the king or his agent. The -governor, Sir Henry Moore, who dissolved the Assembly in 1769, found out -quickly that the members were re-elected by overwhelming majorities. His -sudden death called to the office of acting governor, for the third -time, Dr. Cadwallader Colden. - -In the following March the political sky, already full of the portents -of a coming storm, gathered a deeper blackness when the fact became -known that the House of Commons in London had refused to receive the -representative of the New York Assembly. In spite of prophetic warnings -and wise cautions in Parliament, the determination to make merchandise -of the colonies stupefied and debauched the conscience of the average -lord and commoner of commercial England, as the opium question in China -stupefies and debauches it yet. The government was as much determined on -a war with the American colonies, and for much the same purpose, as so -many of Great Britain’s later wars have been waged,—for the sake of -maintaining trade. Of the twenty-five or thirty wars, even during -Victoria’s reign, the majority have been for the purpose of forcing -trade and making money. In a word, the war of King George and his -Parliament in 1775 against the colonies was a shopkeeper’s war for a -market. “British interests” then, as now, meant trade and profits. -Johnson felt the injustice of the British Government’s acts when he -wrote in 1769: “Whatever reason or justice there may be in the late -steps, there is a probability of their being carried farther than a good -man can wish.” Nevertheless, Sir William was wisely non-committal on the -burning question. - -The Sons of Liberty in New York became active and turbulent, and made -the lives of ultra-loyalists, like Colden, a burden. The royal troops -had been by his orders summoned to New York City, after he had been -driven to take refuge in the fort on the outbreak of violence when the -stamps arrived from England. These soldiers were now the targets of -scorn, especially after the Assembly had refused indemnity to Colden, -who kept on recommending them to supplicate the paternal tenderness of -their gracious sovereign George. After concurring in the spirited -resolutions of the Legislatures of Virginia and South Carolina, the -Assembly had also defeated a cunning scheme to win from them a vote of -money to support the king’s military forces. - -The hatred between the soldiers and the Sons of Liberty burst into flame -at the battle of Golden Hill, Jan. 18, 1770, in New York City, when the -first blood of the American Revolution was spilled. The Sons of Liberty -had erected an emblem of their freedom and hereditary rights. The -liberty-pole, and their meetings with speeches under it, were survivals -of the old custom of their Teutonic ancestors, who met in the folk moot -under the chosen oak-trees in the forests of Germany before Christendom -began. The liberty-pole with its spars was obnoxious to the redcoats, -who with saw and gunpowder tried to destroy it. The citizens resisted, -but the unarmed and unorganized mob broke before the charge of armed men -with bayonets. Having finally succeeded in sawing the pole into -kindling-wood, the military piled the fragments before the doors of the -tavern where the Sons of Liberty met. - -The citizens were now thoroughly roused, and on the 18th a riot broke -out, in which clubs and cutlasses were used, and in which the soldiers -were worsted; though several citizens were wounded, and one of them, a -sailor, died. When at Golden Hill, or John Street, between Cliff Street -and Burling Slip, the riot was stopped by the arrival of British -officers, who ordered their men back to camp. Conspicuous in the affrays -of next day were the sailors, who in revenge for the death of their -comrade clubbed the soldiers and drove them out of the streets into -their barracks. On the 5th of February a new liberty-pole was erected on -ground purchased for the purpose, and it remained until 1776. - -The Sons of Liberty succeeded in carrying out the non-importation act so -vigourously that the market became empty of goods used as presents to -the Indians. Johnson was in danger of becoming seriously embarrassed. -The Cherokees, who in January, 1770, intended to go to war with the -tribes in the West and Southwest, wanted the Six Nations to join them. -These at once resolved first to ask the advice of Johnson, who appointed -a council at German Flats, hoping to win the Cherokees away from their -purpose. Johnson was obliged to write to the chairman of the Sons of -Liberty to get permission to receive or purchase a package invoiced to -him which they held in bond, promising to use the goods only for the -Indians. The request was cheerfully granted, and the goods delivered. - -In company with Dr. Shuckburgh, who composed or introduced the tune of -“Yankee Doodle,” Johnson met the Indians, half famished as they were on -account of the failure of crops through caterpillars. The result of the -council was that the Cherokees gave up their proposed war, and the -treaty of Fort Stanwix was ratified in detail. - -Perhaps it was from this incident that the New Yorkers prepared to dress -themselves as Mohawk Indians, and tumble the tea into the waters of the -East River, when it should come. On the 9th of July, hearing that all -taxes, except upon tea, had been removed, the Committee of One Hundred -agreed to receive all imports except tea. Johnson’s storehouses were now -well stocked with imported Indian goods. Indian trade, which had come -almost to a standstill, was resumed, much to the joy of all the Six -Nations. The red men could not comprehend the white man’s politics, or -realize that the love of money was the root of the evil of war also. -They could not understand that titles of nobility, commissions in the -army, stars, garters, decorations, and things most noble were peddled by -government and purchased by money. - -So rebellious a spirit as that manifested in New York must be rebuked, -and so the king and his counsellors chose as the proper man to curb it, -the infamous William Tryon. This Irishman had been an army officer, but -through his wife’s influence obtained the post of lieutenant-governor of -North Carolina in 1764; becoming governor in 1765. He was the fit tool -of the kind of a king and parliament that ruled England at this time. -Living while at Newbern, N. C., in amazing luxury, at the cost of the -oppressively taxed colonists, he delighted in scorning their -remonstrances and in crushing out their liberties. Goaded to -desperation, the Sons of Liberty, after five years of vain petition for -redress, met to the number of nearly two thousand on the banks of the -Alamance River. Tryon marched out from his “palace” with an army of one -thousand regular British troops, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, to -suppress them. On the 15th of May, 1771, the Regulators, or Sons of -Liberty, sent Tryon a message offering to lay down their arms if he -would redress their grievances. Tryon advanced with the idea of -scattering the patriots before the reinforcements coming from all parts -of the province should encourage the Regulators. When within a hundred -yards of the patriot ranks, his officers read the riot act. It was met -by shouts of defiance. Tryon then ordered his men to fire. They -hesitated. Rising in his stirrups, Tryon in a rage cried out, “Fire—on -them, or on me,” at the same time discharging his pistol and felling a -victim. In the two hours’ musketry battle which ensued, the ammunition -of the poorly armed patriots being soon exhausted, the decisive victory -of Tryon was obtained when the artillery was ordered up, and the unequal -contest decided by rounds of grape and canister. Twenty of the Sons of -Liberty were left dead on the field, the wounded being carried off. Of -Tryon’s men, sixty were killed or wounded. - -Although practically unknown to popular American history, this was the -first battle of the American Revolution. For a few weeks Tryon held high -revel of execution and devastation in North Carolina, and was then, in -the height of his glory, transferred to New York; the Earl of Dunmore, -who from Oct. 18, 1770, had served for a few months on Manhattan Island, -being ordered to Virginia. - -Tryon, who reached New York July 8, 1772, soon became known among the -New York Sons of Liberty as “Bloody Billy.” Before the Assembly he made -a conciliatory speech attributing his butchery in North Carolina to the -special favour of a kind Providence. With consummate address and -flattery, and the adroit distribution of ministerial patronage, he -managed to hoodwink the Assembly. Backed by the order of the British -Government that his salary should be paid out of the revenue, and -becoming thus independent of the colony, he was well fitted to be the -king’s tool. To the amazement of the patriots like Schuyler, and of -other colonies, the Legislature of New York seemed to have reversed its -former record, and to have become hopelessly subservient. - -Local affairs were meanwhile well attended to. Early in January, 1772, -Sir William Johnson, who had long believed with Philip Schuyler that a -division of Albany County should be made, forwarded a petition from the -people in all parts of the county. After considerable discussion a bill -was passed by which the old county of Albany was divided into three -counties,—Albany, Tryon, and Charlotte. All the civil officers, except -one who had been nominated by Johnson, were appointed, and the -county-seat of Tryon County was fixed by the Government at Johnstown. At -Johnson’s suggestion, Tryon County was divided into the townships of -Mohawk, Stone Arabia, Canajoharie, Kingsland, and German Flats. - -Johnstown now became the centre of bustle and activity. New roads were -laid out, and a jail and county court-house built; while new settlers -came in by scores to select lots and build houses. In the midst of his -pressing local occupations, Johnson, who had been elected a -trustee,—his name standing first on the list of Queen’s, now Rutgers -College, chartered Nov. 10, 1766,—received an invitation to visit New -Brunswick, N. J. He was obliged to decline to attend. The college went -into operation in 1771; but its sessions were soon interrupted, both -professors and students entering the patriot army when the war broke -out. - -Remaining at home, he entertained at the Hall, in July, Governor Tryon -and his wife. Tryon, as avaricious as he was murderous, had come into -the Valley under pretence of holding a council with the Indians to -redress their grievances against Klock and others. In reality his -purpose was speculation in land; and the use of his office, like that of -so many royal governors of New York, was to swell his private purse, -while taking advantage of his high position. Although the Indians -rehearsed their troubles, and Tryon listened, they obtained from the -governor, who was too busy with his money-making schemes, no -satisfaction. After reviewing the militia at Johnstown, Burnet’s Field, -and German Flats, fourteen hundred men in all, and purchasing a large -tract of land north of the Mohawk, Tryon returned to New York. His name -was not suffered to remain on the map of New York; for Tryon County -before many years became one of the first of the nineteen counties in -the United States named after General Montgomery. Shortly afterward -Tryon appointed Johnson major-general of the Northern Department. - -At a council with the chief sachems of the Confederacy of the Six -Nations held at his house, at the order of Lord Dartmouth, Johnson -obtained from them their assent to the purchase of twenty-three thousand -acres north of the Ohio, by the Ohio Company. After telling the chiefs -that as a mark of the king’s friendship to them Fort Pitt was to be -demolished, the sachems agreed to the settlement of what grew to be the -State of Ohio. - -Just at the time when Sir William Johnson was in the midst of the most -varied activities, and was the most popular and influential man in the -whole province of New York, his physical strength failed. For several -years the inroads upon his constitution had warned him to seek the rest -from labours and from social indulgence which seemed impossible to him. -For the last ten years before his death he had suffered at intervals -from dysentery, which often kept him an invalid in bed for weeks. During -these periods of weakness the unextracted bullet received at Lake George -in 1755 irritated his nerves, and made his wound very painful. Even when -recovered from the attacks of the disease which threatened to be -chronic, active exercise was frequently impossible for a long time -afterward. This suffering, though so grievous to himself, was -providentially turned to the advantage of millions. It was the occasion -of the revelation to the world of the health-giving waters of Saratoga -Springs. With a touching solicitude for his personal good, the Mohawks -had called his attention to the remedial value of the High Rock Spring, -to which they always turned aside in their wanderings or hunts eastward. -On the 22d of August, 1767, Sir William left the Hall, and was borne to -these springs by his devoted Mohawks. He travelled in a boat to -Schenectady, and on their shoulders in a litter to Saratoga. A halt over -night was made at Ballston Lake in the cabin of an Irishman named -Michael McDonald. Reaching the springs by way of the Indian trail next -day, his faithful bearers built a bark hut, and tenderly cared for him -during the five days he was able to spend there,—for pressing letters -soon called him home. The Adirondack air charged with ozone, and the -cleansing and healing waters greatly benefited him. After his return, -when this fact was known, others followed his example. Known for ages to -the aborigines, its line of fame went out through all the earth; and -gradually the evolution of the most famous watering-place in America -followed. It is noteworthy that a camp of the red men is still found at -Saratoga Springs. - -Stone, in his biography of Johnson, calls attention to the coincidence -that while Johnson was recovering at Saratoga, Dieskau was dying at -Suresnes near Paris. Both had been leaders of the opposing forces, and -both had been wounded at Lake George twelve years before. Arriving on -the 4th of September, he was in time to hail his knighted son, John, -just home from Europe. Had the vital nerve of an electric cable thrilled -under the ocean, Johnson would have heard, four days later, of the -decease of his illustrious antagonist. - -Other trips for the sake of health were made to the sea-shore at New -London, Conn.; but owing to the fact of his being so often overworked, -he was frequently prostrated in summer by his old enemy. When Cresap’s -war broke out in 1774, he was almost discouraged. Chief Logan’s -relatives—the Delaware chief Bald Eagle, and the Shawanese sachem -Silver Heels—had been murdered by white men, who were too eager to -improve red men off the face of the earth. The treaty of Fort Stanwix -had not only been trampled under foot by the whites, but the murderers -of Silver Heels had, perhaps unwittingly, but certainly in accordance -with Indian interpretation, committed a symbolical act which was not -private, but national and declarative. It meant war. After the white -murderer had shot Bald Eagle, who was alone on the river, he scalped the -chief, and propping his body upright in his canoe, sent him adrift down -the stream. No note of a congress or decree of a royal court could be to -the red man more distinctly a declaration of war than was the bloody -freight which this boat bore to the Indians. - -To the Six Nations the murder of Logan, their kinsman, was a direct -insult and irritating challenge; yet instead of rushing to massacre, -they came to their friend Johnson to ask his counsel. For weeks before -the congress which he called to meet at his house, July 7, 1774, he was -in constant correspondence with his agents in the Ohio and Illinois -country. As fast as the chiefs arrived, he persuaded them privately to -refrain from war, and to trust in him to obtain justice. Six hundred -Indians, many of them from great distances, were impatiently waiting at -Johnson Hall while the war raged on the borders of Virginia. Though -Johnson was sick with dysentery, he took no thought of self. From a -sick-bed he rose to attend the council. After preliminaries, the meeting -on the 9th of July, 1774, was addressed by an eloquent Seneca chieftain. -Fortunately, God’s day of rest intervened; but on Monday—the last of -Johnson’s days on earth—his answer was given. For two hours, on a hot -day and in the glare of a July sun, with all his old-time fire of -eloquence, this friend of the red man spoke in grave discourse. His -diction was fiery, rhetorical, impassioned at times; but he spoke -judicially on the problem in hand, pleading that they should not rush -into war, but await the course of law. Six hundred dark faces, unrippled -with emotion, were fixed intently with burning but immovable eyes, and -with the gravity of statues, on the speaker during the long discourse. -Then after the peroration, pipes and tobacco were passed around, and the -conference broke up, that the auditors might prepare, through their -orator, a reply. - -Johnson never heard the Indians’ rejoinder. A few minutes after the -conclusion he was taken with relapse. Supported to his library, he soon -became unconscious, and before sunset was dead. - -It was euthanasia. Past all call to decide between Indian tribe and -tribe, between white murderers and red, between serving conscience and -king, between following the colonies for freedom under law or supporting -arbitrary despotism under the fiction of power by the grace of God, -Johnson rested from his labours. He was one of the Makers of America, -building grander than he knew. His place in history is sure. Had he -lived a decade later!—but here we enter the region of conjecture, the -ground forbidden to history. - - - - - I N D E X. - - -Abercrombie, General, 68, 152-155, 168-171. -Akin, N. Y., 24, 32. -Alamance, N. C., 214-216. -Albany, 13, 28-30, 68, 70, 79, 114, 127-131. -Albany County, 216. -Algonkin Indians, 38. -Amherst, Lord, 173-176, 178, 186. -Auriesville, N. Y., 23. - -Barclay, Rev. Thomas, 21, 79. -Barnwell, Col. John, 52. -Beavers, 26. -Beukendal, battle at, 97-108. -Bible, 9, 10. -Bloody Pond, 81, 136. -Book of Common Prayer, 55, 208. -Boone, Daniel, 193. -Boston, 30, 161. -Bouquet, Colonel, 154, 188. -Braddock, General, 68, 132, 135, 154. -Bradstreet, Colonel, 156, 169, 171, 190. -Brant, Joseph, 120, 189, 208. -Brant, Mary, 180, 206. -Broadalbin, N. Y., 199. -Butler, John, 18, 159. -Butler, Thomas, 171. -Butler, Walter, 18, 159. - -Calendars, 97. -Canajoharie, 17, 79, 173. -Captives, 51, 189-191. -Catawba Indians, 114, 123, 124. -Caughnawaga, 17, 24, 56. - _See_ Fonda. -Cayuga Indians, 37. -Champlain, 38, 40, 41. -Cherokee Indians, 213. -Cherry Valley, 17, 116, 198, 209. -Clinton, Gov. George, 65, 72, 83-92, 105, 109-117, 122, 124. -Clinton, Sir Henry, 124, 125. -Chucktununda creek, 24, 32. -Church edifices, 8-10, 15, 70, 71, 192, 196. -Claus, Captain, 187, 208. -Colden, Dr. Cadwallader, 37, 72, 75, 79, 80, 86, 105, 107, 182, 210, 211. -Confederacies, 51, 53, 54, 127, 191. -Congress, 127-131. -Connecticut, 80, 98, 100, 104. -Cooper, J. F., 59, 60, 190. -Corlaer, 3, 4, 45, 94. - _See also_ Van Curler, Arendt. -Courcelles, 44. -Cresap’s war, 220. -Crown Point, 69, 70, 85, 95, 118, 146, 147, 187. -Crullers, 14. -Cuoq, Rev. I. A., 43. - -Dartmouth College, 120, 121. -De Lancey, E. F., 21. -De Lancey, Gov. James, 72, 83, 126, 129, 132. -De Lancey, Stephen, 12. -De Lancey, Susan, 12. -Delaware Indians, 155, 156, 172, 188-191, 220. -De Peyster, Gen. J. W., 11, 208. -Detroit, 177-179, 181, 191. -De Witt, Simeon, 183. -Dieskau, Baron, 133, 137-141, 145, 219. -Domines in the Dutch Church, 15, 55, 71. -Dorp. _See_ Schenectady. -Drummers, 19, 29. -Dutch Republic. _See_ Holland. - -Eastman, Dr. C. A., 121. -Easton, Penn., 156, 172. -Edwards, Jonathan, 119. -Eliot, John, 55. -Eyre, Major William, 134, 160, 179. - -Fish House, 199. -Fonda, Major Jellis, 17, 159. -Fonda, N. Y., 17, 44, 58, 204. - _See_ Caughnawaga. -Fort Bull, 148, 149. -Fort Frontenac, 171. -Fort George, 147, 175. -Fort Hunter, 17, 21. -Fort Massachusetts, 81, 132. -Fort Plain, 17. -Fort Stanwix, 171, 179, 186. -Fort William Henry, 144, 160, 161, 175. -France, 61, 62. -Franklin Benjamin, 131. -Freeman, Domine, 208. -Freeman, E. A., 53. -French ideas, 61-64, 66, 69, 112, 113, 151. -Fur trade, 19, 24, 28-30. - -Gage, General, 161, 190. -German Flats, 6, 17, 161, 164-166. -Germans, 5-10, 20, 72, 153-155. -Ginseng, 23, 198. -Golden Hill, Battle of, 212. -Governors, 65: - Andros, 30; - Burnet, 18, 19; - Cosby, 7, 18, 89; - Craven, 51, 52; - Denny, 156; - Dinwiddie, 128; - Dongan, 57, 58; - Dunmore, Lord, 215; - Fitch, 186; - Glen, 114; - Hardy, 144, 146, 147, 162; - Hunter, 6; - Moore, 210; - Morris, 155; - Nicholson, 5; - Osborne, 124-126; - Shirley, 74, 83, 96, 128, 133, 147-149, 152, 156; - Tryon, 214-217. - -Hamilton, James Alexander, 7. -Hartford, 186. -Hasenclever, Peter, 205. -Hawley, Rev. Gideon, 120. -Heidelberg Catechism, 8, 10. -Hendrick, King, 129, 133, 136. -Herkimer, 17. -Holland, 1, 11, 53, 61-63, 87, 91, 93, 110, 123, 125, 127, 182, 183. -Horicon, 133. -Horsmanden, Judge, 83, 93. -Howe, Lord, 163, 169. - -Indians, antiquities, 59; - councils, 115; - dislike of artillery, 137, 187; - effect on British imagination, 59, 60; - etiquette, 45; - fire-arms, 51; - government, 36; - half-breeds, 51; - heraldry, 48, 49; - industry, 40, 41; - in executive council, 110, 116; - in politics, 64, 178, 179, 184; - inventions, 35, 50; - money, 48; - oratory, 47; - religion, 46, 49, 50, 55-60; - stratagems, 100; - sports and games, 99; - totems, 49, 184; - warfare, 38-40, 70, 71, 100-104, 135-137, 140, 144. -Interpreters, 47, 161, 189. -Iroquois, 38-41, 44, 51, 35-60, 68, 69, 72, 107, 112, 127, 135, 149, 186, - 193, 220. - -Johnson, Guy, 179, 186, 208. -Johnson Hall, 194-205. -Johnson, Mary, 209. -Johnson, Nancy, 208. -Johnson, Sir John, 22, 32, 206-208, 219. -Johnson, Sir William, adoption as chief, 77; - agriculture, 203, 204; - ancestry, 11; - arrival in America, 12; - baronet, 145; - birth, 11; - captures Niagara, 173-175; - character, 13, 23; - children, 33, 180, 206-208; - coat-of-arms, 145; - colonel, 83, 148; - councils, 65, 80-82; - disagrees with Shirley, 147, 148; - education, 12, 119; - education of the Indians, 119-121; - fortifies his house, 187; - freemason, 198; - his housekeeper, 22; - his wife, 20-23; - his houses, 22, 24, 32, 194-196; - in executive council, 110, 115, 117, 209; - introduces fine cattle, 6, 203, 204; - in Indian costume, 33; - journey to Mohawk Valley, 13-16; - journey to Detroit, 179, 181; - Lake George campaign, 18, 81, 133-145; - literary tastes, 119, 203, 204; - major-general, 133, 217; - manuscripts, 45, 97, 98; - marriage, 21; - money, 48; - Mount Johnson, 22, 24, 33, 67, 94; - offers reward for scalps, 189; - oratory, 46, 47, 221; - patience, 46; - pleasures, 199, 201-204; - protects Frenchmen, 174, 177; - public life, 66, 67; - shoots an elk, 25; - resignation of office, 112; - royal grant, 194, 195; - superintendent, 76-79, 112, 115, 133, 148; - tomb, 196; - trade, 31-34; - wampum, 48; - work, 64; - wounded, 139, 218. -Jogues, Isaac, 44, 55, 56, 133. -Johnstown, N. Y., 196, 197, 216, 217. -Joncaire, 93, 114. -Jones, Thomas, 26. -Judges, 182. - -Kalm, 107, 108. -Kings: - Charles II., 93; - George II., 105, 178; - George III., 211. -Kirkland, Domine, 198. -Kryn, 57, 58. - -Lake Champlain, 38, 40, 44. -Lake George, 67, 81, 133. -Land Patents, 123, 182-184. -La Prairie, 57, 58, 187. -La Presentation, 114, 118. -Leisler, 5, 6, 71. -Livingston, Philip, 110. -Livingston, William, 182. -Loudon, Lord, 68, 152, 153, 157, 159, 166. -Lyman, Col. Phineas, 139, 143. - -Maize, 20, 25. -Manor system, 1, 2. -McGinnis, Capt. William, 141-143. -Megapolensis, 38, 55, 56. -Middle States, 63, 209. -Mohawk Indians, 17, 37, 44, 77-79, 123, 140, 159, 184, 188, 214. -Mohawk Valley, 1-9, 16, 25, 30, 34, 36, 66, 70, 73, 92, 118, 119, 125, - 164, 187, 202, 204. -Montcalm, General, 157, 158, 162, 163, 169, 170. -Montgomery County, 217. -Montmagny, 43. - -New England, 1, 54, 62, 75, 150, 209. -New England militia, 15, 137-145. -New York Assembly, 83-91, 110, 111, 146, 149-151, 210. -New York Colony and State, 36, 63, 66, 74, 75, 90, 91, 150, 216. -Niagara, 118, 149, 173-175, 190. -Norman’s Kill, 37, 41. -North Carolina, 51, 52, 214-216. -Nott, Dr. Eliphalet, 121. - -Ogdensburg, 175. -Ohio Company, 112, 218. -Ohio Valley, 112, 113, 122, 127. -Oneida Indians, 37, 58. -Onondaga Indians, 37, 58, 59, 93, 94, 96, 118, 119, 124, 155. -Onontio, 43. -Osborne, Sir Danvers, 124-126. -Oswego, 19, 20, 32, 84, 92, 116, 122, 149, 155-158, 175, 192. -Ottawa Indians, 51, 181, 191. - -Palatines. _See_ Germans. -Parker, the printer, 89-91. -Parkman, 42, 43, 97. -Pennsylvania, 9, 154, 156, 172. -Picquet, Francis, 113, 158. -Pitt, William, 168. -Pompey Stone, 118. -Pontiac, 177, 187, 188, 191, 192, 201. - -Quebec, 69, 175, 176. - -Rifles, 156, 188. -Royal American Regiment, 153, 154. -Rutgers College, 217. - -Sacandaga, 96-103. -Saratoga, 17, 73. -Saratoga Springs, 67, 218, 219. -Schenectady, 2-4, 14-16, 30, 36, 37, 39, 48, 58, 70, 92-108, 115, 171, - 176, 184, 192. -Schoharie, 8, 9, 16, 17. -Schuyler, Peter (Quider), 45, 180. -Schuyler (2d), 74, 76, 84. -Schuyler, Philip, 205, 207, 216. -Seneca Indians, 18, 37, 114, 188, 190. -Sergeant, John, 119, 120. -Shea, J. G., 59. -Simms, J. R., 21, 200. -Sioux Indians, 81. -Six Nations. _See_ Iroquois. -South Carolina, 52. -Spraker’s Basin, 56. -Stevens, Arent, 161. -Stuyvesant, Peter, 93. - -Taxation, 117, 118, 209-216. -Teedyuscung, 155, 156, 172, 189. -Ticonderoga, 147. -Toll farm, 97-108. -Trade, 28-32. -Tuscarora Indians, 37, 51-53. - -Union College, 121. - -Van Curler, Arendt, 2; - education, 2; - first visits Mohawk Valley, 56; - founds Schenectady, 2, 3, 184; - name given by Indians, 42, 43; - ransoms Jogues, 56; - work, 38, 166. -Van Slyck, Albert, 97-108. -Victoria, Queen, 43. -Vrooman, Domine, 207. - -Wampum, 15, 22, 26, 47-49, 112. -Warren, Admiral Peter, 12, 13, 43, 66, 67, 119, 122, 188. -Warrensburg, N. Y., 16. -Washington, George, 114, 126, 136, 160, 168. -Webb, General, 152, 158, 159, 162, 163. -Webster, Daniel, 183. -Wheelock, Dr. Eleazar, 120. -Whiting, Gen. Nathan, 136. -Williams, Col. William, 81, 134-136, 138. -Winslow, General, 152. -Wisenburg, Catharine, wife of Sir William Johnson, 20-22, 180. -Wolfe, General, 168. -Wyoming Valley, 186. - -Zenger, John Peter, 7, 8, 89, 90. - - - - - MAKERS OF AMERICA. - - -_The following is a list of the subjects and authors so far arranged for -in this series. The volumes will be published at the uniform price of -$1.00, and will appear in rapid succession_:— - -=Christopher Columbus= (1436–1506), and the Discovery of the New World. -By =Charles Kendall Adams=, President of Cornell University. - -=John Winthrop= (1588–1649), First Governor of the Massachusetts Colony. -By Rev. =Joseph H. Twichell=. - -=Robert Morris= (1734–1806), Superintendent of Finance under the -Continental Congress. By Prof. =William G. Sumner=, of Yale -University. - -=James Edward Oglethorpe= (1689–1785), and the Founding of the Georgia -Colony. 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