driven by a north-wester, bearing down the small craft in her course, come upon us by surprise, and if we attempt to proceed by raising our voices a little, we are sure to be drowned by a much greater elevation on their part. It is a want of good breeding, which, it is hoped, every young person whose eye this may meet, will not be guilty of through life. There is great opportunity for many of mature years to profit by it. Lost Confidence.-An Indian runner, arriving in a village of his countrymen, requested the immediate attendance of its inhabitants in council, as he wanted their answer to important information. The people accordingly assembled, but when the messenger had with great anxiety delivered his message, and waited for an answer, none was given, and he soon observed that he was likely to be left alone in his place. A stranger present asked a principal chief the meaning of this strange proceeding, who gave this answer, "He once told us a lie." Comic.-An Indian having been found frozen to death, an inquest of his countrymen was convened to determine by what means he came to such a death. Their verdict was, "Death from the freezing of a great quantity of water inside of him, which they were of opinion he had drunken for rum." A serious Question.—About 1794, an officer presented a western chief with a medal, on one side of which President Washington was represented as armed with a sword, and on the other an Indian was seen in the act of burying the hatchet. The chief at once saw the wrong done his countrymen, and very wisely asked, "Why does not the President bury his sword too?"* Self-esteem.-A white man, meeting an Indian, accosted him as brother. The red man, with a great expression of meaning in his countenance, inquired how they came to be brothers; the white man replied, O, by way of Adam, I suppose. The Indian added, “Me thank him Great Spirit we no nearer brothers." 66 A Preacher taken at his Word.—A certain clergyman had for his text on a time, "Vow and pay unto the Lord thy vows." An Indian happened to be present, who stepped up to the priest as soon as he had finished, and said to him, "Now me vow me go home with you, Mr. Minister." The priest, having no language of evasion at command, said, "You must go then." When he had arrived at the home of the minister, the Indian vowed again, saying, "Now me vow me have supper." When this was finished he said, "Me vow me stay all night." The priest, by this time, thinking himself sufficiently taxed, replied, "It may be so, but I vow you shall go in the morning." The Indian, judging from the tone of his host, that more vows would be useless, departed in the morning sans cérémonie. A case of signal Barbarity.—It is related by BLACK HAWK, in his life, that some time before the war of 1812, one of the Indians had killed a Frenchman at Prairie des Chiens. "The British soon after took him prisoner, and said they would shoot him next day! His family were encamped a short distance below the mouth of the Ouisconsin. He begged permission to go and see them that night, as he was to die the next day! They permitted him to go, after promising to return the next morning by sunrise. He visited his family, which consisted of a wife and six children. I cannot describe their meeting and parting, to be understood by the whites; as it appears that their feelings are acted upon by certain rules laid down by their preachers!—whilst ours are governed only by the monitor within us. He parted from his wife and children, hurried through the prairie to the fort, and arrived in time! The soldiers were ready, and immediately marched out and shot him down !!”—If this were not cold-blooded, deliberate murder, on the part of the whites, I have no conception of what constitutes that crime. What were the circumstances of the murder we are not informed; but whatever they may have been, they cannot excuse a still greater barbarity. I would not by any means be understood to advocate the cause of a murderer; but I will ask, whether crime is to be prevented by crime: murder for murder is only a brutal retaliation, except where the safety of a community requires the sacrifice. * Elliot's Works, 178. 44 NARRATIVES, &c., ILLUSTRATIVE [Book L. Mourning much in a short Time." A young widow, whose husband had been dead about eight days, was hastening to finish her grief, in order that she might be married to a young warrior: she was determined, therefore, to grieve much in a short time; to this end she tore her hair, drank spirits, and beat her breast, to make the tears flow abundantly, by which means, on the evening of the eighth day, she was ready again to marry, having grieved sufficiently." How to evade a hard Question.-" When Mr. Gist went over the Alleganies, in Feb. 1751, on a tour of discovery for the Ohio Company, 'an Indian, who spoke good English, came to him, and said that their great man, the Beaver, and Captain Oppamyluah, (two chiefs of the Delawares,) desired to know where the Indians' land lay; for the French claimed all the land on one side of the Ohio River, and the English on the other.' This question Mr. Gist found it hard to answer, and he evaded it by saying, that the Indians and white men were all subjects to the same king, and all had an equal privilege of taking up and possessing the land in conformity with the conditions prescribed by the king."+ Credulity its own Punishment.—The traveller Wansey, according to his own account, would not enter into conversation with an eminent chief, because he had heard that it had been said of him, that he had, in his time, "shed blood enough to swim in." He had a great desire to become acquainted with the Indian character, but his credulity debarred him effectually from the gratification. The chief was a Creek, named FLAMINGO, who, in company with another called Double-head, visited Philadelphia as ambassadors, in the summer of 1794. Few travellers discover such scrupulousness, especially those who come to America. That Flamingo was more bloody than other Indian warriors, is in no wise probable; but a mere report of his being a great shedder of blood kept Mr. Wansey from saying any more about him. Just Indignation.-HATUAY, a powerful chief of Hispaniola, having fled from thence to avoid slavery or death when that island was ravaged by the Spaniards, was taken in 1511, when they conquered Cuba, and burnt at the stake. After being bound to the stake, a Franciscan friar labored to convert him to the Catholic faith, by promises of immediate and eternal bliss in the world to come if he would believe; and that, if he would not, eternal torments were his only portion. The cazique, with seeming composure, asked if there were any Spaniards in those regions of bliss. On being answered that there were, he replied, "Then I will not go to a place where I may meet with one of that accursed race." Harmless Deception. In a time of Indian troubles, an Indian visited the house of Governor Jenks, of Rhode Island, when the governor took occasion to request him, that, if any strange Indian should come to his wigwam, to let him know it, which the Indian promised to do; but to secure his fidelity, the governor told him that when he should give him such information, he would give him a mug of flip. Some time after the Indian came again: "Well, Mr. Gubenor, strange Indian come my house last night!" "Ah," says the governor," and what did he say?" "He no speak," replied the Indian. What, no speak at all?" added the governor. "No, he no speak at all." "That certainly looks suspicious," said his excellency, and inquired if he were still there, and being told that he was, ordered the promised mug of flip. When this was disposed of, and the Indian was about to depart, he mildly said, “Mr. Gubenor, my squaw have child last night;" and thus the governor's alarm was suddenly changed into disappointment, and the strange Indian into a newborn pappoose. Mammoth Bones.-The following very interesting tradition concerning these bones, among the Indians, will always be read with interest. The ani mal to which they once belonged, they called the Big Buffalo; and on the * Account of the United States by Mr. Isage Holmes, 36. early maps of the country of the Ohio, we see marked, "Elephants' bones said to be found here." They were, for some time, by many supposed to have been the bones of that animal; but they are pretty generally now believed to have belonged to a species of animal long since extinct. They have been found in various parts of the country; but in the greatest abundance about the salt licks or springs in Kentucky and Ohio. There has never been an entire skeleton found, although the one in Peale's museum, in Philadelphia, was so near perfect, that, by a little ingenuity in supplying its defects with woodwork, it passes extremely well for such. The tradition of the Indians concerning this animal is, that he was carnivorous, and existed, as late as 1780, in the northern parts of America. Some Delawares, in the time of the revolutionary war, visited the governor of Virginia on business, which having been finished, some questions were put to them concerning their country, and especially what they knew or had heard respecting the animals whose bones had been found about the salt licks on the Ohio River. "The chief speaker," continues our author, Mr. Jefferson, "immediately put himself into an attitude of oratory, and, with a pomp suited to what he conceived the elevation of his subject," began and repeated as follows:-" In ancient times, a herd of these tremendous animals came to the Big-bone Licks, and began an universal destruction of the bear, deer, elks, buffaloes, and other animals, which had been created for the use of the Indians: the great man above, looking down and seeing this, was so enraged, that he seized his lightning, descended to the earth, and seated himself on a neighboring mountain, on a rock of which his seat and the print of his feet are still to be seen, and hurled his bolts among them till the whole were slaughtered, except the big bull, who, presenting his forehead to the shafts, shook them off as they fell; but missing one at length, it wounded him in the side; whereon, springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, over the Wabash, the Illinois, and, finally, over the great lakes, where he is living at this day." Such, say the Indians, is the account handed down to them from their ancestors, and they could furnish no other information. Narrative of the Captivity and bold Exploit of Hannah Duston. The relation of this affair forms the XXV. article in the Decennium Luctuosum of the Magnalia Christi Americana, by Dr. Cotton Mather, and is one of the bestwritten articles of all we have read from his pen. At its head is this significant sentence-Dux Fæmina Facti. On the 15 March, 1697, a band of about 20 Indians came unexpectedly upon Haverhill, in Massachusetts; and, as their numbers were small, they made their attack with the swiftness of the whirlwind, and as suddenly disappeared. The war, of which this irruption was a part, had continued nearly ten years, and soon afterwards it came to a close. The house which this party of Indians had singled out as their object of attack, belonged to one Mr. Thomas Duston or Dunstan, † in the outskirts of the town. Mr. Duston was at work, at some distance from his house, at the time, and whether he was alarmed for the safety of his family by the shouts of the Indians, or other cause, we are not informed; but he seems to have arrived there time enough before the arrival of the Indians, to make some arrangements for the preservation of his children; but his wife, who, but about a week before, had been confined by a child, was unable to rise from her bed, to the distraction of her agonized husband. No time was to be lost; Mr. Duston had only time to direct his children's flight, (seven in number,) the extremes of whose ages were two and seventeen, and the Indians were upon them. With his gun, the distressed father mounted his horse, and rode away in the direction of the children, whom he overtook but about 40 rods from the house. His first intention was to take up one, if possible, and escape with it. He had no sooner overtaken them, than this resolution was destroyed; for to rescue either to the exclusion of the rest, was worse than death itself to him. He therefore faced about and met the enemy, who had closely pursued him; each fired + Hutchinson. Mr. Myrick's Hist. Haverhill, 86. Eight houses were destroyed at this time, 27 persons killed, and 13 carried away captive. In Mr. B. L. Myrick's History of Haverhill, are the names of the slain, &c. 46 EXPLOIT OF HANNAH DUSTON. [Book 1. upon the other, and it is almost a miracle that none of the little retreating party were hurt. The Indians did not pursue long, from fear of raising the neighboring English before they could complete their object, and hence this part of the family escaped to a place of safety. We are now to enter fully into the relation of this very tragedy. There was living in the house of Mr. Duston, as nurse, Mrs. Mary Neff,* a widow, whose heroic conduct in sharing the fate of her mistress, when escape was in her power, will always be viewed with admiration. The Indians were now in the undisturbed possession of the house, and having driven the sick woman from her bed, compelled her to sit quietly in the corner of the fire-place, while they completed the pillage of the house. This business being finished, it was set on fire, and Mrs. Duston, who before considered herself unable to walk, was, at the approach of night, obliged to march into the wilderness, and take her bed upon the cold ground. Mrs. Neff too late attempted to escape with the infant child, but was intercepted, the child taken from her, and its brains beat out against a neighboring apple-tree, while its nurse was compelled to accompany her new and frightful masters also. The captives amounted in all to 13, some of whom, as they became unable to travel, were murdered, and left exposed upon the way. Although it was near night when they quitted Haverhill, they travelled, as they judged, 12 miles before encamping; "and then," says Dr. Mather, "kept up with their new masters in a long travel of an hundred and fifty miles, more or less, within a few days ensuing." After journeying awhile, according to their custom, the Indians divided their prisoners. Mrs. Duston, Mrs. Neff, and a boy named Samuel Leonardson, who had been captivated at Worcester, about 18 months before, fell to the lot of an Indian family, consisting of twelve persons,-two men, three women, and seven children. These, so far as our accounts go, were very kind to their prisoners, but told them there was one ceremony which they could not avoid, and to which they would be subjected when they should arrive at their place of destination, which was to run the gantlet. The place where this was to be performed, was at an Indian village, 250 miles from Haverhill, according to the reckoning of the Indians. In their meandering course, they at length arrived at an island in the mouth of Contookook River, about six miles above Concord, in New Hampshire. Here one of the Indian men resided. It had been determined by the captives, before their arrival, that an effort should be made to free themselves from their wretched captivity; and not only to gain their liberty, but, as we shall presently see, something by way of remuneration from those who held them in bondage. The heroine, Duston, had resolved, upon the first opportunity that offered any chance of success, to kill her captors and scalp them, and to return home with such trophies as would clearly establish her reputation for heroism, as well as insure her a bounty from the public. She therefore communicated her design to Mrs. Neff and the English boy, who, it would seem, readily enough agreed to it. To the art of killing and scalping she was a stranger; and, that there should be no failure in the business, Mrs. Duston instructed the boy, who, from his long residence with them, had become as one of the Indians, to inquire of one of the men how it was done. He did so, and the Indian showed him, without mistrusting the origin of the inquiry. It was now March the 31, and in the dead of the night following, this bloody tragedy was acted. When the Indians were in the most sound sleep, these three captives arose, and softly arming themselves with the tomahawks of their masters, allotted the number each should kill; and so truly did they direct their blows, that but one escaped that they designed to kill. This was a woman, whom they badly wounded, and one boy, for some reason they did not wish to harm, and accordingly he was allowed to escape unhurt. Mrs. Duston killed her master, and Leonardson killed the man who had so freely told him, but one day before, where to deal a deadly blow, and how to take off a scalp. *She was a daughter of George Corliss, and married William Neff, who went after the army, and died at Pemmaquid, Feb. 1688. Myrick, Hist. Havl. 87. + Their course was probably very indirect, to elude pursuit. Hist. Haverhill, 89 All was over before the dawn of day, and all things were got ready for leaving this place of blood. All the boats but one were scuttled, to prevent being pursued, and, with what provisions and arms the Indian camp afforded, they embarked on board the other, and slowly and silently took the course of the Merrimack River for their homes, where they all soon after arrived without accident. The whole country was astonished at the relation of the affair, the truth of which was never for a moment doubted. The ten scalps, and the arms of the Indians, were evidences not to be questioned; and the general court gave them fifty pounds as a reward, and numerous other gratuities were showered upon them. Colonel Nicholson, governor of Maryland, hearing of the transaction, sent them a generous present also. Eight other houses were attacked besides Duston's, the owners of which, says the historian of that town, Mr. Myrick, in every case, were slain while defending them, and the blood of each stained his own door-sill. Narrative of the Destruction of Schenectady."-This was an event of great distress to the whole country, at the time it happened, and we are able to give some new facts in relation to it from a manuscript, which, we believe, has never before been published. These facts are contained in a letter from Governor Bradstreet, of Massachusetts, to Governor Hinckley, of Plimouth, dated about a month after the affair. They are as follow:-"Tho' you cannot but have heard of the horrid massacre committed by the French and Indians at Senectada, a fortified and well compacted town 20 miles above Albany (which we had an account of by an express,) yet we think we have not discharged our duty till you hear of it from us. "Twas upon the Eighth of February, [1689-90] at midnight when those poor secure wretches were surprised by the enemy. Their gates were open, no watch kept, and hardly any order observed in giving and obeying commands. Sixty of them were butchered in the place; of whom Lieut. Talmage and four more were of Capt. Bull's company, besides five of said company carried captive. By this action the French have given us to understand what we may expect from them as to the frontier towns and seaports of New England. We are not so well acquainted what number of convenient Havens you have in your colony, besides those of Plimouth and Bristol. We hope your prudence and vigilance will lead you to take such measures as to prevent the landing of the enemy at either of those or any such like place." f We now proceed to give such other facts as can be gathered from the numerous printed accounts. It appears that the government of Canada had planned several expeditions, previous to the setting out of this, against various important points of the English frontier,-as much to gain the warriors of the Five Nations to their interest, as to distress the English. Governor De Nonville had sent over several chief sachems of the Iroquois to France, where, as usual upon such embassies, great pains were taken to cause them to entertain the highest opinions of the glory and greatness of the French nation. Among them was Taweraket, a renowned warrior, and two others. It appears that, during their absence in France, the great war between their countrymen and the French had ended in the destruction of Montreal, and other places, as will be seen detailed in our Fifth Book. Hence, when Count Frontenac arrived in Canada, in the fall of 1689, instead of finding the Iroquois ready to join him and his forces which he had brought from France for the conquest of New York, he found himself obliged to set about a reconciliation of them. He therefore wisely despatched Taweraket, and the two others, upon that design. The Five Nations, on being called upon by these chiefs, would take no step without first notifying the English at Albany that a council was to be called. The blows which had been so lately given the French of Canada, had lulled the English into a fatal security, and they let this council pass with too little attention to its proceedings. On the other hand, the French were This was the German name of a pine barren, such as stretches itself between Albany and Schenectady, over which is now a rail-road. + French ships, with land forces and munitions, had, but a short time before, hovered upon the coast. |